Early life

William Bird Herapath was the eldest son of Sophia Bird Herapath and William Herapath, Professor of Chemistry at Bristol Medical School. Like his father he became a distinguished medical scientist, though they specialised in different fields.

Education and career

WB Herapath was educated at London University and returned to Bristol to serve as a surgeon at Queen Elizabeth’s Hospital. He was awarded the MD (Doctor of Medicine) in 1851. He published many articles in medical, chemical and other scientific journals, reporting several significant discoveries.

Discoveries

The most important discovery occurred in 1852, when one of Herapath’s pupils found that adding iodine to the urine of a dog that had been fed quinine produced unusual green crystals. While studying the crystals under a microscope, Herapath noticed that they appeared to polarise light. He patented the crystals for optical use under the name herapathite, though he also referred to the compound as artificial tourmaline. The embedding of herapathite crystals in a clear film was later patented by Edwin Land as a polarising filter under the name of Polaroid.

Herapath also designed a new combustion blowpipe for organic analyses, devised new methods for detecting arsenic and developed spectroscopic techniques for detecting traces of blood.

Family life and death

Obituary from The Sydney Morning Herald 1828

Herapath married Lucy Kynaston of Penally, Pembrokeshire in 1846. They had six children, two boys (the eldest of whom died in infancy) and four girls.

William’s health deteriorated from 1864 and he died, possibly from jaundice, in 1868, only a few months after his father’s death. Lucy lived a further 19 years, dying in 1887. William, Lucy and two of their daughters Florence and Blanche are buried together in a brick grave separate from but quite near that of William’s parents on Ceremonial Way.