Sir Almroth Edward Wright KBE CB FRCSI FRS (10 August 1861 – 30 April 1947) was an English bacteriologist and immunologist.
[2] He is notable for developing a system of anti-typhoid fever inoculation, recognizing early on that antibiotics would create resistant bacteria, and being a strong advocate for preventive medicine.
Wright was born at Middleton Tyas, near Richmond, North Yorkshire into a family of mixed Anglo-Irish and Swedish descent.
[3] He was the son of Reverend Charles Henry Hamilton Wright, deacon of Middleton Tyas, who later served in Belfast, Dublin, and Liverpool and managed the Protestant Reformation Society.
[1][6]: 3 In the late 19th century, Wright worked with the armed forces of Britain to develop vaccines and promote immunisation.
He developed a system of anti-typhoid fever inoculation and brought the humoral and cellular theories of immunity together by showing the cooperation of a substance (that he named opsonin) contained in the serum with the phagocytes against pathogens.
Among the many bacteriologists who followed in Wright's footsteps at St Mary's was Sir Alexander Fleming, who in turn later discovered lysozyme and penicillin.
In 1932, the true cause of the disease was determined to be the deficiency from the diet of a particular nutrient, now called Vitamin C (Ascorbic acid, Scorbic meaning Scurvy).
He was immortalised as Sir Colenso Ridgeon in the play The Doctor's Dilemma written in 1906, which arose from conversations between Shaw and Wright.
The two men met in 1905, and engaged in a long series of robust discussions, involving at one point a challenge from the medical audience that they had "too many patients on our hands already".