Brunton, Thomas Lauder (1844-1916)

Scottish physician and pharmacologist. He made a special study of the action of drugs and their application in disease; he made important observations on the action of the drug digitalis. Brunton's best-known clinical contribution was the introduction of amyl nitrite in the treatment of angina. His principal works include The Bible and Science (1881), Disorders of Digestion (1886), A Textbook of Pharmacology and Therapeutics (1888), and Collected Papers on the Circulation and Respiration (1906).

Brunton was born in Hiltonshill, Roxburghshire, Scotland. He was educated at Edinburgh University. Based in England, in 1870 he became lecturer in materia medica and pharmacology at Middlesex Hospital. In 1871 he moved to a similar post at St Bartholomew's Hospital, becoming physician in 1895. In 1905 he was appointed consulting physician. In 1886 he joined a commission to report on the treatment of hydrophobia, and he went to Paris, France, to study Louis Pasteur's system. He was knighted in 1900 and made a baronet in 1908.