(1789–1858), British physician, born in Gloucestershire, England; first to establish primary clinical symptoms of serious kidney disorder known as Bright's disease, or nephritis; studied medicine Univ. of Edinburgh; physician at Guy's Hospital, London, 1820–43; meticulous clinical observations correlated with postmortem exams; results of research first appeared in ‘Reports of Medical Cases' (1827), in which clinical manifestations of Bright's disease (edema, or swelling, and proteinuria, or presence of albumin in urine) were first described; wrote papers on renal disease.