Davis Coakley has added to his considerable catalogue of books on the history of Irish medicine by writing a history of the Medical School at Trinity. Although there have been two earlier volumes on this subject (by Kirkpatrick in 1912 and Gatenby in 1994) and a book on the Federated Dublin Hospitals (by FitzPatrick in 2006), Professor Coakley’s account does much to add to these and is particularly welcome for the richness of its illustration. Early chapters emphasise the early role of the College of Physicians and the connections with Leiden and Edinburgh, and I was delighted to a brief account of ‘Goldsmith and his Medical Degree’ on page 59.
The third chapter provides an excellent account of medical education in continental Europe during the second half of the 18th century as well as explaining the developing relationships between School of Physic at Trinity, the College of Physicians in Dublin and the associated hospitals, including Sir Patrick Dun’s. This hospital’s importance is suitably stressed and the reader is reminded that it was quite different from all others in that it was established as a teaching hospital.
There is a full chapter centred on the tenure of the mercurial James Macartney as professor of anatomy and surgery, which includes his famous bust up with the architect Richard Morrison over the new medical school, whereas subsequent chapters focus on the golden era with Graves, Stokes and colleagues.
Naturally, psychiatry does not get much mention in the early chapters. John Cheyne’s Essays on Partial Derangement of the Mind (1843) is referenced in Chapter 3 and William Saunders Hallaran gets a mention on page 162 as the grandfather of Bennett. There is a section on introducing psychiatry to the curriculum in 1892. Women make their first appearance in 1869 but were not fully admitted for degrees until 1904.
I was particularly happy to see the account of World War I and 1916 and the photograph on page 209 (of the staff and students of Dun’s lost in the Great War) included. Indeed, Trinity’s role in the 1916 rebellion is worthy of a book in itself. The chapter entitled ‘The school of physic in the New Ireland’ begins to address topics with which the modern reader can identify and all beautifully illustrated. Many of the illustrations are published for the first time and the author has studiously avoided using hackneyed images. For instance, the photograph used of Trinity College Dublin graduate and psychiatrist Dr Noël Browne is not from his ministerial days but rather taken in the late 70s or early 80s. As is often the case with Browne, his career as a psychiatrist is omitted.
Other portraits are reproduced works by Edward McGuire, Sean Keating, Robert Ballagh, Conn O’Brien and Estella Solomons amongst others. These add greatly to the experience of the book and many of the works will be unknown to the general medical reader.
The development of academic psychiatry is addressed in Chapter 9 with mention of Moore, Beckett, Webb and Clare.
As would be expected with works by Davis Coakley, the references, bibliography and index are of a high order.
The author, perhaps sensibly, has chosen not to fill his book to the brim with graduation or class photographs, but there are a few from recent years, namely the final meds of 1966, 1978, 1988 and 1999.
Colleagues and friends will be pleased to see the recently deceased Angela Mohan standing amongst her contemporaries in the 1978 group. I am sure that this, along with Professor Coakley’s excellent and beautiful book, would have pleased her greatly.
