William Stokes (physician)
William Stokes ( born October 1, 1804 in Dublin, † January 10, 1878 in Dublin) was an Irish physician.
Family
William Stokes was born the fifth child ( second son of nine children ) of the physician Whitley Stokes ( 1763-1845 ) and Mary Anne (daughter of Hugh Picknell of Lough ). In 1828 he married Mary Black.
Education and work
William Stokes had no schooling in the usual sense, since he had been suspended on the first day of school of the school. As a young man he was shy by nature, shunned work and read better. Finally, he started on Meath Hospital with Robert James Graves, whose friendship he valued life long to work in the medical clinic. In addition, he accompanied his father on visits to the patient in the hinterland of Dublin, practical botanical, geological and mineralogical studies resulted in passing. The neglected basic education (classical languages, mathematics ) received Stokes was the mathematician John Walker, who had written several well-known mathematical textbooks and teacher at Trinity College was.
After a stay of several months in Glasgow, where he was primarily concerned with the study of chemistry, to Stokes decided in 1823 to study medicine in Edinburgh. Here he was a student of William Alison and while still studying, he wrote, impressed with Laennec's invention of the stethoscope, a treatise of 269 pages on the clinical use of this diagnostic instrument ( auscultation ). After receiving his doctorate in 1825 (MD), he returned to Dublin, where he took his father's place at the Meath Hospital. A short time later, he began work as a clinical instructor.
In autumn and winter 1826 Dublin was hit by a severe typhoid epidemic. In the spring of the following year, he infected himself with the disease and it would be nearly died. In addition to his work at the hospital Stokes also led a highly successful private practice in Dublin.
In 1842 he succeeded as Regius Professor of Medicine at the University of Dublin after his father. For health reasons, had to give up his academic activity Stokes 1876.
Performance
Stokes was concerned with the application of the stethoscope and published in 1837 a book about breast disease. Together with Graves he gave in 1836 ( until 1842 ), the Dublin Journal of Medical Science and acted out in 1838 as co-founder of the Pathological Society of Dublin ( with RW Smith and Graves).
A major concern Stokes was the improvement of medical education ( scientific observation, bedside teaching ), in addition he made sure that in 1871 at Trinity College, the training and examination in State Medicine ( Public Health ) was established as an integral part of medical studies, a step towards preventive medicine.
From Stokes originate 144 publications (medical education, medical issues ). He works on the pathology of the chest ( pleura, lung, heart ), about typhus, vascular aneurysms, diseases of the liver and bile, diphtheria, fever, meningitis as well as medical ethics and public health.
Two of the most famous Irish ( patriotic ) poet, James Clarence Mangan and Thomas Davis were friends with Stokes, he both supervised by a doctor. With George Petrie, archaeologist, artists and collectors of Irish music, he led a lively correspondence.
Stokes received several honorary doctorates ( LL.D. Edinburgh 1861, DCL Oxford 1865, Dublin MD), a member of medical societies (Vienna, Berlin, Leipzig, Edinburgh, Gent, Baden, Philadelphia ), was appointed in 1874 was elected President of the Royal Irish Academy and received in the year of his retirement ( 1876), the Prussian Order Pour le Merite by Kaiser Wilhelm I.
According to him and Robert Adams, the Adams -Stokes syndrome (also Morgagni -Adams -Stokes syndrome) is named. He described also with John Cheyne Cheyne -Stokes respiration and the increase in thickness of the neck ( edema) in upper caval ( Stokes collar).
Works
- A treatise on the diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the chest. 1837
- Observations on some cases of permanently slow pulse. Dublin Q J Med Sci 2 (1846 ) 73
- Diseases of the heart and the aorta. 1854
- The life and labors in art and archeology of George Petrie.