Sir David Bruce
Sir David Bruce - A Famous Scottish Physician
Sir David Bruce (1855 - 1931) The first five years of Bruce's life were spent in Melbourne in Australia, after which his parents returned to Scotland. Bruce studied medicine at Edinburgh University, then went into private practice. Joining the Army Medical Corps in 1883, he was sent to Malta. Bacteriology was then in its infancy, but after two years' work he discovered the cause of Malta or undulant fever. From 1889 to 1894 he was professor of pathology at the Army Medical School at Netley, then went to South Africa to investigate illnesses of cattle and domestic animals. Intensive work in the bush in Zululand led to the exposure of the Tsetse Fly as the carrier of Trypanosomiasis in animals. He carried on this research in Uganda in 1902, proving again that the Tsetse Fly caused Sleeping Sickness.
During the First World War he was Commandant of the Royal Army Medical College in London, where he investigated the causes of trench fever and tetanus. For his work in bacteriology he was made a Fellow od the Royal Society in 1899, and was knighted in 1908.
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