Golding Bird (9 December 1814 – 27 October 1854) was a medical doctor who researched the chemistry of urine and kidney stones. From 1836, he lectured at Guy's Hospital and published Elements of Natural Philosophy, a textbook on science for medical students. Bird was innovative in the medical use of electricity, designing his own equipment and bringing medical electrotherapy into the mainstream. He invented a variant of the Daniell cell in 1837, making key discoveries in electrometallurgy. Bird also designed a flexible stethoscope, and in 1840 published the first description of one. In 1842, he was the first to describe oxaluria, a condition which leads to the formation of a particular kind of stone, and published a comprehensive paper on urinary deposits in 1844. A devout Christian, Bird believed that Bible study and prayer were just as important to medical students as their studies. He founded the Christian Medical Association, although it did not become active until after his death.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golding_Bird> _______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries: 1897: French actress, journalist and leading suffragette Marguerite Durand founded the feminist newspaper La Fronde. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Fronde_%28newspaper%29> 1968: Douglas Engelbart gave what became known as "The Mother of All Demos", publicly debuting the computer mouse, hypertext, and the bit- mapped graphical user interface using the computer system NLS. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_of_All_Demos> 2008: Rod Blagojevich, the governor of Illinois, was arrested on corruption charges, including for attempting to sell the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by president-elect Barack Obama. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Blagojevich_corruption_charges> _____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day: ubicate: 1. (transitive) To find and specify the location of (someone or something); to locate. 2. (intransitive) To take up residence in a place; to lodge, to occupy. <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ubicate> ___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day: Dr J. O. Wisdom once observed to me that he knew people who thought there was no philosophy after Hegel, and others who thought there was none before Wittgenstein; and he saw no reason for excluding the possibility that both were right. --Ernest Gellner <https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ernest_Gellner> _______________________________________________ Wikipedia Daily Article mailing list. To unsubscribe write to: [email protected] Questions or comments? Contact [email protected]
