Very brief note can be taken of the many shining lights in Irish
medical science. Robert James Graves (1796-1853), F.R.S., after whom
is named "Graves's Disease", was one of the greatest of clinical
physicians. His _System of Clinical Medicine_ was a standard work and
was extolled by Trousseau, the greatest physician that France has
ever had, in the highest terms of appreciation.
William Stokes (1804-1878), Regius Professor of Medicine in Trinity
College, and the author of a _Theory and Practice of Medicine_, known
all over the civilized world, was equally celebrated.
To these must be added Sir Dominic Corrigan (1802-1880), the first
Catholic to occupy the position of President of the College of
Physicians in Dublin, an authority on heart disease, and the first
adequate describer of aortic patency, a form of ailment long called
"Corrigan's Disease". "Colles's Fracture" is a familiar term in the
mouths of surgeons. It derives its name from Abraham Colles
(1773-1843), the first surgeon in the world to tie the innominate
artery, as "Butcher's Saw", a well-known implement, does from another
eminent surgeon; Richard Butcher, Regius Professor in Trinity College
in the seventies of the last century.
Sir Rupert Boyce (1863-1911), F.R.S., though born in London, had an
Irish father and mother. Entering the medical profession, he was
assistant professor of pathology at University College, London, and
subsequently professor of pathology in University College, Liverpool,
which he was largely instrumental in turning into the University of
Liverpool. He was foremost in launching and directing the Liverpool
School of Tropical Medicine, which has had such widespread results
all over the world in elucidating the problems and checking the
ravages of the diseases peculiar to hot countries. It was for his
services in this direction that he was knighted in 1906.
Sir Richard Quain (b. Mallow 1816, d. 1898), F.R.S., spent most of
his life in London, where he was for years the most prominent
physician. He wrote on many subjects, but the _Dictionary of
Medicine_, which he edited and which bears his name, has made itself
and its editor known all over the world.
Sir Almroth Wright (b. 1861), F.R.S., is the greatest living
authority on the important subject of vaccino-therapy, which, indeed,
may be said to owe its origin to his researches, as do the methods
for measuring the protective substances in the human blood. He was
the discoverer of the anti-typhoid injection which has done so much
to stay the ravages of that disease.