William R. Wilde (1815–1876) in Vienna

✍ Scribed by Frederick C. Blodi

• Book ID: 104646187
• Publisher: Springer-Verlag
• Year: 1992
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 756 KB
• Volume: 81
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0012-4486
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00155015

✦ Synopsis

William R. Wilde was born 1815 in a small hamlet in Connaught, the most western part of Ireland. His father was English and a practicing physician while his mother was Irish. Numerous biographies describe his life [1], and an extensive obituary summarizes his achievement [2].

He began his medical education 1832 in Dublin as an apprentice to the celebrated Abraham Colles. He then became a resident pupil in Dr. Steevens' hospital to which at that period the flourishing Park Street Medical School was attached. He remained there for four years and worked with James Graves and William Stokes. Corpses for autopsy were obtained from resurrectionists (body snatcher). In 1832 he weathered -like everyone else in Ireland-a cholera epidemic. In 1837 he obtained his diploma of licentiate from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (Fig. 1).

Shortly afterwards he was recommended by Sir Henry Marsh and Dr. Robert Graves (Fig. 2) to take charge of a patient who was sailing in his own yacht, the 'Crusades', to the Mediterranean. Wilde spent nine months Fig. 1. William R. Wilde in 1837.