Meath Hospital

Coordinates: 53°20′09″N 6°16′11″W / 53.3359°N 6.2698°W / 53.3359; -6.2698
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Meath Hospital
Health Service Executive
Meath Hospital, now a respite home
Meath Hospital is located in Central Dublin
Meath Hospital
Shown in Dublin
Geography
LocationDublin, Ireland
Coordinates53°20′09″N 6°16′11″W / 53.3359°N 6.2698°W / 53.3359; -6.2698
Organisation
Care systemHSE
TypeGeneral
History
Opened1753
Closed1998

The Meath Hospital (Irish: Ospidéal na Mí) was a general hospital in the Earl of Meath's Liberty in Dublin, Ireland. It was absorbed into the Tallaght Hospital in June 1998.

History[edit]

The hospital was opened to serve the sick and poor in the crowded area of the Liberties in Dublin in 1753.[1] It then moved to larger premises in Heytesbury Street in 1822.[2]

In the nineteenth century the Meath Hospital achieved worldwide fame as a result of the revolutionary teaching methods and groundbreaking research carried out by Robert Graves and William Stokes, physicians of the hospital. One example was when during a typhus epidemic Robert Graves introduced the revolutionary idea of giving food during the illness ("he fed fevers" was what Graves requested be inscribed on his tombstone).[3]

It was absorbed into the Tallaght Hospital in June 1998.[4] The original building was subsequently converted for use as a respite home.[5]

Notable physicians[edit]

Notable physicians included:

  • John Cheyne (1777–1836), appointed a physician in the hospital in 1811.[6]
  • Sir Philip Crampton (1777–1858), appointed surgeon to the hospital in 1798 (though not fully qualified).[7]
  • Patrick Harkan, of Raheen, County Roscommon, appointed a physician in the hospital in 1817. He later went on to the Cork Street Fever Hospital, where he remained for forty years.[8]
  • Francis Rynd (1801-1861), physician and inventor of the hypodermic syringe.[9]
  • Thomas Hawkesworth Ledwich (1823–1858), appointed to take over from Philip Crampton in 1858.[10]
  • Rawdon Macnamara (1822–1893), appointed a surgeon in 1861 (a post his father had occupied).[11]
  • Arthur Wynne Foot, physician and curator to the hospital's pathological museum before leaving to become a lecturer in the Ledwich School.[12]
  • Sir Lambert Ormsby (1850-1923), appointed a surgeon to the hospital in 1872 and provided service for over fifty years.[13]

References[edit]

  1. ^ The Meath Foundation Archived 2011-06-27 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ "Meath Hospital". Age and Knowledge. Retrieved 5 May 2019.
  3. ^ Typhus in Ireland Archived 2009-12-04 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ "This day in 1998: Tallaght University Hospital opened its doors". The Echo. 21 June 2018. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  5. ^ "Meath Community Hospital". Irish Nursing Homes. Retrieved 5 May 2019.
  6. ^ Doyle, D (December 2006). "Eponymous doctors associated with Edinburgh, Part 2--David Bruce, John Cheyne, William Stokes, Alexander Monro Secundus, Joseph Gamgee". The Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. 36 (4): 374–81. PMID 17526135.
  7. ^ "The Late Sir Philip Crampton". British Medical Journal. 1 (78): 521–522. 1858. PMC 2251290. PMID 20743387.
  8. ^ Fitzpatrick, William J. (1900). History of the Dublin Catholic Cemeteries. Dublin: The Offices of the Catholic Cemeteries' Committee. pp. 86.
  9. ^ "Francis Rynd". Dublin Quarterly Journal of Medical Science. 33. Fannin and Company: 254. 1862.
  10. ^ Norman, Conolly (1892). "Ledwich, Thomas Hawkesworth" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 32. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  11. ^ "Dr Rawdon Macnamara's evidence at the trial of Florence Maybrick" (PDF). 5 August 1889. Retrieved 5 May 2019.
  12. ^ "Arthur Wynne Foot, M.D.Univ.Dubl., F.R.C.P.I". Br Med J. 2 (2072): 779–780. 15 September 1900. doi:10.1136/bmj.2.2072.779. ISSN 0007-1447. Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  13. ^ "Sir Lambert Ormsby". Dictionary of Ulster Biography. Retrieved 5 May 2019.

Further reading[edit]