David Bruce (microbiologist)

Major-General Sir David Bruce

David Bruce
Born 29 May 1855
Melbourne
Died 27 November 1931(1931-11-27) (aged 76)
London
Nationality Scottish
Fields microbiology
Alma mater University of Edinburgh
Known for trypanosome
Notable awards Royal Medal (1904)
Leeuwenhoek Medal (1915)
Buchanan Medal (1922)
Albert Medal (1923)
Manson Medal (1923)
David Bruce (centre), with members of the Mediterranean Fever Commission (Brucellosis).

Major-General Sir David Bruce KCB FRS FRCP FRSE[1] (29 May 1855 in Melbourne – 27 November 1931 in London) was a Scottish pathologist and microbiologist who investigated brucellosis (then called Malta fever) and trypanosomes, identifying the cause of sleeping sickness.

Life

He was born in Bendigo, Australia to Scottish parents, engineer David Bruce (from Airth) and his wife Jane Russell Hamilton (from Stirling), who had emigrated to Australia in the gold rush of 1850. He returned with his family to Scotland at the age of five. They lived at 1 Victoria Square in Stirling.

He was educated at Stirling High School[2] and in 1869 began an apprenticeship in Manchester. However a bout of pneumonia forced him to abandon this and re-assess his career.[3] He then decided to study zoology but later changed to medicine at the University of Edinburgh.[4] He graduated in 1881.

Medical career

After a brief period as a general practitioner in Reigate (1881–83), where he met and married his wife Mary, he joined the Army Medical Service (1883–1919) and in 1884 was stationed in Malta, where he identified Malta fever.[5]

In the Boer War, accompanied by his wife, he ran the field hospital during the Siege of Ladysmith (2 November 1899 until 28 February 1900).

In 1903, he identified the causative protozoa, and tsetse fly as the vector, of African trypanosomiasis ("sleeping sickness").[6] He was Surgeon-General for the duration of the First World War from 1914–19 at the Royal Army Medical College, Millbank, London.[7]

He won the Leeuwenhoek Medal in 1915. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1899, created a Companion of the Bath (CB) in the 1905 Birthday Honours, knighted in 1908 and upgraded to a Knight Commander of the Bath (KCB) in 1918.[1] He was president of the British Science Association during 1924–1925.[8]

Brucella is the genus and Brucellaceae is the family of the bacteria which was named after him, in recognition of his discoveries. Brucella melitensis is the cause of undulant fever in man and of abortion in goats. It is usually transmitted by goat's milk. Trypanosoma brucei,[9] the cause of sleeping sickness, is also named after him.

He died four days after his wife in 1931, during her memorial service. Both were cremated in London and their ashes are buried together in Valley Cemetery in Stirling, close to Stirling Castle, beneath a simple stone cross on the east side of the main north-south path, near the southern roundel. They had no children.[10]


References

  1. 1 2 b., J. R. (1932). "Sir David Bruce. 1855-1931". Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society. 1: 79. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1932.0017.
  2. ↑ "Bruce, Colonel David". Who's Who. Vol. 59. 1907. pp. 234–235.
  3. ↑ Stirling's Talking Stones ISBN 1-870-542-48-7
  4. ↑ "Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002" (PDF). Royal Society of Edinburgh. Retrieved 19 September 2010.
  5. ↑ SACHS A (October 1951). "A memorial to major-general Sir David Bruce, K.C.B., F.R.S". Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps. 97 (4): 293–5. PMID 14889518.
  6. ↑ Ellis H (March 2006). "Sir David Bruce, a pioneer of tropical medicine". British Journal of Hospital Medicine. 67 (3): 158. PMID 16562450.
  7. ↑ S R Christophers: 'Bruce, Sir David (1855–1931)' (rev. Helen J Power), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2008, accessed 23 May 2014
  8. ↑ Presidential Address to the British Association Meeting, held at Toronto in 1924
  9. ↑ Joubert JJ, Schutte CH, Irons DJ, Fripp PJ (1993). "Ubombo and the site of David Bruce's discovery of Trypanosoma brucei". Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. 87 (4): 494–5. doi:10.1016/0035-9203(93)90056-V. PMID 8249096.
  10. ↑ http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf

Bibliography

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