Born at Northampton, where his father lived to within two or three years of his son's death. He was for a time an employee in a bank, but disliked the work and decided to enter the medical profession. He entered Guy's Hospital as a student at the age of 22. Walter Moxon entered with him in the year 1855, and continued his strong competitor till they both joined the staff of the hospital. As the favourite pupil of John Hilton, Durham did many elaborate dissections to illustrate the nerve-supply of joints referred to in *Rest and Pain*, and Hilton alludes to these painstaking labours in a preface to the first edition of the book. In an early research on the physiology of sleep, Durham trephined the skulls of dogs and inserted glass into the opening so as to observe as far as possible the cortical circulation during life. Observations made after this procedure convinced him that the cortex of the brain was anaemic during sleep, and not congested, as had been generally supposed. He published the result of these researches in the *Guy's Hospital Reports* (1860), and also an excellent paper on "Movable Kidneys". As a surgeon Durham showed a keenly artistic sense. He was bold, prudent, and skilful; he particularly excelled in operations for rectovaginal fistula, harelip, lithotomy, and abdominal surgery. His remarkably long fingers, that seemed to have eyes in their tips, his flexible wrist and sinuous movements of the hand made him powerful, searching, and graceful in all his manipulations, while his invention of the lobster-tail tracheotomy tube has proved of great value. Durham held the following appointments and offices: Demonstrator of Anatomy at Guy's Hospital, and unrivalled as a teacher; Assistant Surgeon in 1861, full Surgeon in 1872, and Consulting Surgeon in 1894. At the Royal College of Surgeons he was elected to the Council in 1884 and continued in this office till the time of his death in 1895, having been Vice-President in 1892-1893, but never an examiner. He has been described as a painstaking practitioner, quick in diagnosis, prompt in treatment, an artist in the neat adjustment of dressings. He early adopted what was then the new Listerism, and was rewarded by the success of his cases. "I think he was the kindest man I ever knew", said Dr Hilton Fagge, who visited Durham shortly before his death and was co-editor with him of the *Guy's Hospital Reports*. Durham was never a strong man, and for many years suffered from attacks of vomiting, the cause of which was not traced. He was very deaf, but in his private practice was greatly assisted by his brother, Frederic Durham (qv), who acted presumably as his 'hearer'. He died on May 7th, 1895, and the body was cremated at Woking. He left a widow, and of his two surviving sons, one was already distinguished in the profession. His surviving brothers were Frederic (qv) and Francis Durham. His portrait appears in the Council Group by Jamyn Brooks, and near it, in the hall of the College, hangs a wax medallion of him by his daughter, Miss Durham, the Albanian traveller. There is an admirable likeness of him inset in his biography in the *British Medical Journal*. A copy of the photograph from which it is taken is in the Council Album. A number of instruments used by Arthur Durham are preserved in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons (see Conservator's Report in the *Calendar*, 1919). Publications: From 1867-1874 Durham was editor of *Guy's Hospital Reports*, and there published: "Physiology of Sleep." - *Guy's Hosp. Rep.*, 1860, 3rd ser., vi, 149. "Mobility and Displacement of the Kidneys." - *Ibid.*, 404. "Hermaphroditism." - *Ibid.*, 421. "On Certain Abnormal Conditions of the Bones: Mollities Ossium and Osteoporosis." -*Ibid.*, 1864, 3rd ser., x, 350. "Cases of Operations on the Larynx." - *Ibid.*, 1866, 3rd ser., xii, 540. "Case of Popliteal Aneurysm." - *Trans. Med.-Chir. Soc.*, 1864, xlvii, 25. "Case of Cyst of Epiglottis." - *Ibid.*, 7. "On Section of Laryngeal Cartilages for Removal of Morbid Growths." - *Ibid.*, 1872, lv, 17. "Case of Abdominal Aneurysm cured by Compression of the Aorta" (with WALTER Moxon). - *Ibid.*, 213. Articles on "Injuries of the Neck," "Diseases of the Nose," and "Diseases of the Larynx, and the Laryngoscope" in Holmes's *System of Surgery*, 2nd ed. Articles in Quain's *Dictionary of Medicine*, including "Intestinal Obstruction." "Dangers and Difficulties of Tracheotomy." - *Practitioner*, 1869, ii, 212.