LEWIS, Timothy Richards (1841-1886)

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0809 Lewis
Held at	: London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/library/archives/ ›
Full title	: LEWIS, Timothy Richards (1841-1886)
Date(s)	: 1869-1886
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 2 boxes
Name of creator(s)	: Lewis | Timothy Richards | 1841-1886 | surgeon and pathologist
Detailed catalogue	: Click here to view repository detailed catalogue

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Born 1841, Hafod, Wales, and brought up on the family farm in Pembrokeshire; apprenticed to a local apothecary; aged nineteen moved to London, worked at a chemist in Streatham and then as dispenser to the German Hospital; attended German lectures at University College London; moved to Aberdeen where he qualified in 1867; Army Medical School at Netley, Hampshire, 1868, where at the end of the four-month course passed out first on the list; posted to India in 1869, where he investigated cholera; while studying chyluria (the presence of lymphatic fluid in urine), he discovered minute worms in the urine of one particular patient - subsequently they were identified as Filariidae; in 1872 Lewis found similar worms in a blood sample and when this work was written up Lewis was amazed to discover the original patient setting up the type for its publication by the Government Printing Office in Calcutta. Later he found the mature worm but it had already been discovered independently of him by Joseph Bancroft in Australia. However he discovered and described the first trypanosome, which was named Trypanosoma lewisei after him, in the blood of a mammal; appointed, 1883, Assistant Professor of Pathology at Netley where he introduced practical bacteriology to the curriculum; died of pneumonia, 1886, allegedly as a consequence of a laboratory accident.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Twelve scientific notebooks, 1869-1886, relating to Lewis' research work while in India and as Assistant Professor in Pathology at the Army Medical School, Netley including information on patient observations, dissections of parasites and drawings.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

12 notebooks

Conditions governing access:

This collection is open for consultation. Please contact the Archivist to arrange an appointment. All researchers must complete and sign a user registration form which signifies their agreement to abide by the archive rules. All researchers are required to provide proof of identity bearing your signature (for example, a passport or debit card) when registering. Please see website for further information at www.lshtm.ac.uk/library/archives

Conditions governing reproduction:

Photocopies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied for research use only. Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Archivist.

Finding aids:

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Presented to the School by Sir Patrick Manson c.1908 for the benefit of medical historians. Information from letter from Manson to Ross, 21/10/1908 (Ross/24/04)

Allied Materials

Related material:

National Register of Archives: Click here to view NRA record

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Compiled by Victoria Killick, Archivist. Sources: Behind the Frieze, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 1995; World Who's Who in Science, edited Allen G Debus, 1968.

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
August 2004