Robert James Graves

Graves, Robert James, M.D.,F.R.S., son of the preceding, was born in Dublin, 27th March 1797. Having passed through Trinity College with success, and taken out a medical degree, he spent several years in travelling on the Continent, visiting hospitals, and becoming acquainted with some of the leading continental physicians and physiologists. On his return in 1821 he was appointed physician to the Meath Hospital, and was one of the founders of the Park-street School of Medicine. He soon took a prominent position as a physician, and wrote several important works on the study of medicine, chief among which must be mentioned his Lectures on Clinical Medicine, edited for him by Dr. Neligan in 1848, besides numerous contributions to medical periodical literature. His colleague Dr. Stokes thus writes of him: "To the labours of Graves we must award the highest place, as combining in a philosophical eclecticism the lights of the past with those of the present. For his mind, while it mastered the discoveries of modern investigation, remained imbued with the old strength and breadth of view so characteristic of the fathers of British medicine. And thus he had the rare privilege of leading the advance of the present school of medicine, while he never ceased to venerate and to be guided by the wisdom, the mode of thinking, and the labours of the past."[39] Dr. Graves died 20th March 1853, aged 55.

Sources

39. Biographical Dictionary, Imperial: Edited by John F. Waller. 3 vols. London, N.D.

116. Dublin University Magazine (19). Dublin, 1833-'77.