Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 06.djvu/349

 Tetanus successfully treated;' 'Account of a Remarkable Displacement of the Stomach;' 'Observations on Jaundice;' 'Observations on the Situation and Structure of Malignant Diseases of the Liver.' Vol. ii.: 'Cases illustrative of Diagnosis where Tumours are situated at the Base of the Brain.' In 'Transactions of the Geological Society:' 'On the Strata in the Neighbourhood of Bristol,' 1811, and 'On the Hills of Badaeson, Szigliget, &c., in Hungary,' 1818.

 BRIGHT, TIMOTHY, M.D. (1551?–1615), the inventor of modern shorthand, was born in or about 1551, probably in the neighbourhood of Sheffield. He matriculated as a sizar at Trinity College, Cambridge, 'impubes, æt. 11,' on 21 May 1561, and graduated B.A. in 1567-8. In 1572 he was at Paris, probably pursuing his medical studies, when he narrowly escaped the St. Bartholomew massacre by taking refuge in the house of Sir Francis Walsingham, together with many other Englishmen who were 'free from the papistical superstition.' Bright refers to this memorable occasion in several of his writings. In dedicating to Sir Francis Walsingham his 'Abridgment of Fox' (1589) he mentions among the favours he had received from him 'that especiall protection from the bloudy massacre of Paris, nowe sixteene yeeres passed; yet (as euer it will bee) fresh with mee in memory.' He adds that Walsingham's house was at that time 'a very sanctuarie, not only for all of our nation, but euen to many strangers, then in perill, and vertuously disposed;' and he further says, 'As then you were the very hande of God to preserue my life, so haue you (ioyning constancie with kindnes) beene a principall means, whereby the same hath beene since the better sustained.' Again, in his dedication of his 'Animadversions on Scribonius' to Sir Philip Sidney (1584), Bright remarks that he had only seen him once, 'idque ilia Gallicis Ecclesiis funesta tempestate (cujus pars fui, et animus meminisse horret, luctuque refugit) matutinibus Parisiensibus.'

He graduated M.B. at Cambridge in 1574, received a license to practise medicine in the following year, and was created M.D. in 1579. For some years after this he appears to have resided at Cambridge, but in 1584 he was living at Ipswich. He was one of those who were present on 1 Oct. 1585 when the statutes of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, were confirmed and signed by Sir Walter Mildmay, and delivered to Dr. Laurence Chaderton, the first master of the college (Documents relating to the Univ. and Colleges of Camb. iii. 523). The dedication to Peter Osborne of his 'Treatise on Melancholy' is dated from 'litle S. Bartlemewes by Smithfield,' 23 May 1586. He occupied the house then appropriated to the physician to the hospital. He succeeded Dr. Turner in that office about 1586, and must have resigned in 1590, as his successor was elected on 19 Sept. in that year (MS. Journals of St. Bartholomew's Hospital). His first medical work (dated 1584) seems to have been written at Cambridge, and is in two parts: 'Hygieina, on preserving health,' and 'Therapeutica, on restoring health.' The worth of the book is fairly exhibited in the part on poisons, where the flesh of the chameleon, that of the newt, and that of the crocodile are treated as three several varieties of poison, each requiring a peculiar remedy. Bright's preface implies that he lectured at Cambridge, for he asserts that he had been asked to publish the notes from which he taught. He dedicates both parts to Cecil, as chancellor of the university, and speaks as if he knew him and his family. He praises the learning of Lady Burghley, and says the 'domus Cæciliana' may be compared to a university. 'Cecil himself has paid,' he says, 'so much attention to medicine that in the knowledge of the faculty he may almost be compared to the professors of the art itself.' His 'Treatise of Melancholie' is as much metaphysical as medical. One of the best passages in it is a chapter in which he discusses the question 'how the soule by one simple faculty performeth so many and diverse actions,' and illustrates his argument by a description of the way in which the complicated movements of a watch proceed from 'one right and straight motion' (St. Bartholomew's Hospital Reports, xviii. 340).

Bright afterwards abandoned the medical profession and took holy orders. His famous treatise entitled 'Characterie' he dedicated in 1588 to Queen Elizabeth, who on 5 July 1591 presented him to the rectory of Methley in Yorkshire, then void by the death of Otho Hunt, and on 30 Dec. 1594 to the rectory of Berwick-in-Elmet, in the same county. He held both these livings till his death; the latter seems to have been his usual place of abode; there, at least, he made his will, on 9 Aug. 1615, in which he leaves his body to be buried where God pleases. It was proved at York on 13 Nov. 1615. No memorial is to be found of Bright in either of his churches.