Golding Bird

Golding Bird was a British medical doctor and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. He became a great authority on kidney diseases and published a comprehensive paper on urinary deposits in 1844. In 1842, he was the first to describe oxaluria, a condition which leads to the formation of a particular kind of stone. He invented a new variant of the Daniell cell in 1837 and made important discoveries in electrometallurgy with it.

About Golding Bird in brief

Golding Bird was a British medical doctor and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. He became a great authority on kidney diseases and published a comprehensive paper on urinary deposits in 1844. He was also notable for his work in related sciences, especially the medical uses of electricity and electrochemistry. In 1842, he was the first to describe oxaluria, a condition which leads to the formation of a particular kind of stone. A devout Christian, Bird believed Bible study and prayer were just as important to medical students as their academic studies. Bird had lifelong poor health and died at the age of 39 in London in 1842. He is buried at St Andrew’s Cemetery, London, alongside his brother Frederic, who also became a physician and published on botany. Bird was responsible for the founding of the Christian Medical Association, although it did not become active until after his death. He also designed a flexible stethoscope, and in 1840 published the first description of such an instrument. He invented a new variant of the Daniell cell in 1837 and made important discoveries in electrometallurgy with it. He had four younger siblings, of whom his brother Fredric also become a physician. Bird left school to serve an apprenticeship with the apothecary William Pretty in Burton Crescent, London. He received prizes for medicine, obstetrics, and ophthalmic surgery at Guy’s and the silver medal for botany at Apothecaries’ Hall in 1836.

Bird obtained his MD in 1838 and an MA in 1840 and continued to work in London while in practice at the University of St Andrews. He died at St Andrews in 1843, aged 39, and was buried in St Andrews with his wife and two children. He wrote a popular textbook on science for medical students called Elements of Natural Philosophy. Bird also wrote a book on the chemistry of urine and of kidney stones, which was published in 1845. He worked on breast disease from 1839 to 1840 as an assistant to Sir Astley Cooper in London. In his youth, Bird was unsuccessful at first because of his first post at Finsbury Dispensary, but was unsuccessful because of inflation. In the same year, however, he became physician to the first post for five years, a post he held for five months. Bird died in London at age 39 in 1841, and is buried with his family at St. Andrew’s cemetery, in London, in front of a large crowd of friends and family. He leaves behind a wife and four children, including a son who became a doctor himself and a daughter who went on to become a doctor herself. Bird is survived by his wife, Mary Bird, and a son, Frederic Bird, who was also a physician, and two step-grandchildren. Bird’s great-great-grandson, David Bird, was born in Downham, Norfolk, England, on 9 December 1814, and died in 1846.

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