Welsh Journals

classes at University College Hospital, as suggested by Mr. Borchert, the Head Dispenser. In March 1866, he won the Fellowes Medal of the College in a competition awarded annually since 1837 to students who had most distinguished themselves. A Certificate of Honour signed by the Provost and Vice Provost of the College, the Professor of Clinical Medicine and two Examiners was also supplied. Instead of continuing the medical course at University College, London, he went to Aberdeen, where he graduated M.B. CM. with honours in 1867. He entered his place of birth as Llanboidy.9 After qualifying he joined the Army Medical Service, obtaining first place in the entrance examination for the Army Medical School at Netley. Here he had further training particularly in pathology, hygiene and tropical medicine. His progress was outstanding and in the final examination in August 1868 he was first of 38 candidates.10 His commission as assistant surgeon is dated 31 March 1868; surgeon 1 March 1873 and surgeon-major 31 March 1880. At the time Cholera was ravaging India in epidemic form and the professors at Netley and the Secretaries of State for War and for India decided to send their two brightest doctors to investigate the cause of the disease. Lewis and D.D.Cunningham (1843 1914) were those honoured. There were two or three German scientists with specific views on the matter and the two went to study their findings as groundwork for their own research. As a result Lewis formed a life-long friendship with Professor PettenKoffer (1818 -1901) of Munich and visited his laboratory on at least two other occasions. They reached India in January 1869 and, after learning Hindustani, pursued their research. The scope of their work was enlarged in 1874 to include Leprosy and other diseases. At the end of 1878 Lewis obtained fifteen months leave, six months of which he spent in Europe working in the laboratories of Berlin, Dresden, Prague, Munich and Strasburg, where friendship was renewed with Professors PettenKoffer, Recklinghausen and Virchow, among others. He then returned to London and on 8 October 1879 married Miss Emily Frances Brown, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James Brown of Morden Cliff, Lewisham, at the local Congregational Church, although he himself was a member of the Church of England. A month or so later he resumed his work in India and it can be assumed that his wife accompanied him because there are no letters addressed to her from India in existence.1 I The partnership with Cunningham ceased in 1879 when the latter became Professor of Physiology in Calcutta Medical College. Thereafter Lewis worked alone for the Sanitary Department investigating such problems as Enteric Fevers and the diet of prisoners and criminals in gaol.12 By now he was a leading medical scientist with an international reputation and it is not surprising that in July 1882, the Director General of the Army Medical Staff, Dr. Thomas Crawford (1824 1895) pressed him to become Assistant Professor of Pathology at Netley. He accepted the post and left India in January 1883. When he arrived at the Army Medical School he was distressed to find that his old chief, Professor W. Aitkin F.R.S. Professor of Pathology, was seriously ill with renal disease. He later recovered but during the illness, which lasted a session, Lewis