Dr. Bucknal, most probably the first practicing dermatologist in San Francisco, was born in New York City on August 11, 1836. He was 19 years old and a student of Columbia College in New York City when his half-brother, William H. Grattan invited him to came to San Francisco in 1855.  He enrolled in the first class of the medical school organized by Elias S. Cooper in 1858.  (The population of San  Francisco was 56,800, and that of California was 380,000.)  In the following year, he left for  Europe and entered L'Ecole de Medicine in Paris.  By the Civil War he was brought back  to the United States in 1861 and served in the Medical Corps of the Union Army. He returned to New York because of typhoid, and resumed medical studies at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University.  After graduation  in 1864, Dr. Buchnal married Ms. Mary Eliza Davis from San Francisco, California, in Frankfurt-am-Main, and continued his study of dermatology in Frankfurt and then in Paris.

Late in 1870 Dr. Buchnal returned to San Francisco, and practiced until his last illness in 1907. Although he was well prepared to practice dermatology, the citizens of this new community were not yet ready  for any fine division of labor in medicine, and his practice was in general medicine.  The earthquake and fire of 1906 destroyed instruments, diploma, licenses, and books in Dr. Bucknal's office.

Dr. Bucknal served one year on the Board of Health, being chiefly delegated to inspection of the milk supply of the city.   During Governor Booth's term of office, Dr. Bucknal held the position of Surgeon-General on the Governor's staff.  Besides these public appointments, Dr. Bucknal was a member of the staff of St. Luke's Hospital, and also interested himself in work among the blind, and was identified with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.