Hamilton Kemp Wright

Hamilton Kemp Wright (2 August 1867 9 January 1917) was an American physician and pathologist who served as the United States Opium Commissioner. Biography Early life Hamilton Wright was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on August 2, 1867. He graduated with a degree in medicine (MD CM) from McGill University in Montreal, in 1895. He served at a McGill-affiliated hospital in Montreal for one year, then spent two years in China and Japan, studying scientific, social, and economic conditions. In 1897, he received the British Medical Association Studentship for research on the nervous system. In 1900–1903, he served upon a special mission in India, studying tropical diseases. In 1900 he was appointed as the first director of the Pathological Institute located in Kuala Lumpur in the Federated Malay States (now the Institute for Medical Research). He returned to the United States in 1903. Career He made his name by supposedly finding a pathogen that "caused" beri-beri (before it was discovered to be a vitamin deficiency). He authored many articles and monographs on the nervous system, as well as on the social and economic problems in the tropics.