Bright began his medical studies at Edinburgh, before moving to London, where he studied under Sir Astley Cooper and James Currie. He received his M.D. from Edinburgh in 1813. In 1820 he was appointed to Guy's Hospital in London, where he helped make the hospital into a great medical educational institution. His remarkable powers of observation enabled him to make many original pathological descriptions, including the symptomology of glomorulonephritis (or, 'Bright's disease'). He was also the first to distinguish renal from cardiac edema. Bright's detailed case reports are models of clarity and precision. Vol. 1 contains descriptions of thirty-three cases of kidney disease, as well as morbid conditions of other organs, and is illustrated with sixteen plates, drawn, under Bright's supervision, mainly by Frederick Richard Say, C.J. Canton, F.F. Giraud, and engraved in mezzotint by the artist's father, William Say, and by C.J. Canton and William Thomas Fry. Vol. 2 includes descriptions of diseases of the brain and spinal cord, illustrated with seventeen hand-coloured engraved plates, and seven uncoloured lithographs.