The Plato of Praed Street: The Life And Times of Almroth Wright

Almroth Wright was a colourful and controversial doctor who contributed significantly to medicine at the turn of the last century. Although he was a pathologist of some distinction, many of his efforts and achievements were consistently underplayed as a result of his contentious views and insistence on expressing them, usually in inappropriate circumstances. His contempt for the Harley Street ethos and his eccentric views on women were subject to derision and even violence at times, but now they make for entertaining reading. However idiosyncratic his opinions, he had an untold effect on those around him. Distinguished men received their training in his laboratory (it was there that his assistant, Alexander Fleming, discovered penicillin) and his belief in the importance of public funding of medical research helped to bring about the foundation of the Medical Research Council. He also fought doggedly, but eventually successfully, to overcome the intransigent attitude of the military and medical hierarchies towards the prevention of typhoid fever and irrational treatment of war wounds. In many ways, he was a man ahead of his time.This biography of a remarkable man will prove of great interest not only to historians of science, medicine and militaria and those who trained or worked at St. Mary's Hospital, but to anyone with a taste for an entertaining tale.