an English physiologist noted for his reference work "Kirkes' Physiology" which first appeared in 1848. His most original work is a paper in the Transactions of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society of London (xxxv. 281 ) on "Embolism, or the carrying of blood-clots from the heart to remote parts of the body," a pathological process then just beginning to be recognised. Kirkes' main research field was cardiology and vascular disease, and he first described embolism from vegetations in infective endocarditis in 1852. In 1855, he published a paper on apoplexy in Bright's disease, in which he singled out the role played by increased intra-arterial tension in arterial disease.
