James Lumsdaine Bryden (1833 – 18 November 1880) was a Scottish medical officer who worked in India as a surgeon-major. He was among the first to study the

epidemiology Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution (who, when, and where), patterns and determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population. It is a cornerstone of public health, and shapes policy decisions and evidenc ...

cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...

in India and claimed that outbreaks could be predicted on the basis of various factors, most significantly the weather. Bryden was born in Edinburgh and went to Edinburgh high school before going to the University of Edinburgh from which he received an MD in 1855. He received a gold medal for a thesis on sugar in the liver, as glycogen had then been discovered by Claude Bernard. He joined the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

Service as an assistant surgeon and reached Calcutta in December 1856. He escaped the

1857 rebellion The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the fo ...

from Mundlaisir and returned to Calcutta. He was posted in Lucknow and later in northern Bengal. He then became a statistical officer under the sanitary commissioner J.M. Cuningham working on cholera epidemiology. He believed that cholera was spread by an airborne agent and became an epidemic under specific conditions which he believed he could predict based on the weather. After 1870, the cholera germ theory became more dominant and led to his airborne theory being entirely dismissed later. Bryden published ''Vital Statistics of the Bengal Presidency'' (1866–79), ''Epidemic Cholera in Bengal'' (1869), ''The Cholera History of 1875 and 1876'' (1878) and numerous government reports. He suffered from liver trouble and returned to England in September 1880 and died shortly after from kidney failure at Upper Norwood. He was married to Grace Edith, the daughter of Dr Brougham, Physician-General for Bengal Presidency, had two children. He was buried in Norwood cemetery.

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Reports bringing up the statistical history of the European Army in India and of the Native Army and jail population of Bengal to 1876 : and the cholera history of 1875 and 1876, in continuation of reports embracing the period from 1817 to 1872 (1878)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bryden, James L. British epidemiologists 1833 births 1880 deaths Alumni of the University of Edinburgh