Wright, Hamilton (1867–1917)
Hamilton Wright, American physician and pathologist, known chiefly for his campaign against narcotics, died in Washington, D. C., January 9, 1917, of pneumonia.
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1867, he graduated from the medical department of McGill University and spent a year in studying at first-hand tropical conditions of life in China and Japan. Then he became John Lucas Walker exhibitioner of Cambridge University, and was appointed assistant director of the London County laboratories. At this period he spent some time in Heidelberg and other continental universities. The British Government sent him, in 1899, to the Malay states to study beriberi and other tropical diseases and there he remained for four years, founding an institute for medical research. Several more years of research work in the United States as honorary fellow of Johns Hopkins University and in Europe were followed by appointment as American delegate to and acting chairman of, the International Opium Commission which met at Shanghai, China, in 1909.
Dr. Wright was also prominent in the second and third opium conferences at The Hague in 1913 and 1914. He worked successfully to have the Harrison Narcotic Law and three other similar acts passed suppressing the abuse of narcotics in this country, and forbidding citizens of the United States from engaging in trade in narcotics with China. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Senator Washburn, by whom he had five children.
From 1915 until he was injured in a motor accident he devoted himself to relief work in France. His writing are in the form of papers and monographs.