Meath Hospital

The Meath Hospital in Dublin, Ireland was founded in 1753. Situated in the Earl of Meath's Liberty, the hospital was opened to serve the sick and poor in the crowded area of the Liberties in Dublin.^[1]

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).^[2]

In more recent times the hospital developed specialised services in the fields of urology, psychiatry, orthopaedics, haematology, endocrinology and nephrology.

The hospital was incorporated in 1998 into Tallaght Hospital and moved to Tallaght, although the original building continues to serve as a respite home.^[1]

Notable physicians

• John Cheyne (1777–1836) began work in this hospital in 1811.^[3]
• Sir Philip Crampton (1777–1858) was first appointed surgeon to the hospital in 1798 (though not fully qualified).
• Patrick Harkan, of Raheen, County Roscommon, was appointed in 1817. He later went on to the Cork Street Fever Hospital, where he remained for forty years.^[4]
• Thomas Hawkesworth Ledwich (1823–1858) took over from Philip Crampton in 1858.
• Rawdon Macnamara (1822–1893) became surgeon in 1861 (a post his father had occupied).

References

1. ^ ^{a b} The Meath Foundation
2. ^ Typhus in Ireland
3. ^ 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. 
4. ^ Dublin Cemeteries