William Stokes (physician)

William Stokes (1804–1878) was an Irish physician.

1838 – Co-founded the Pathological Society of Dublin along with Smith, Colles, Graves, and Corrigan

Born in Dublin on 1 October 1804. Father of of Sir William Stokes (1838-1900)
1825 – MD, University of Edinburgh Medical School
1845 – Appointed by the Queen as Regius Professor of Medicine at the University of Dublin
1861 – Physician to the Queen in Ireland
1867 – President of the British Medical Association
1874 – President of the Irish Academy
1875 – On commendation by the English ambassador, decorated by Emperor Wilhelm I with the Prussian Order Pour le Mérite for contributions to medicine
Died 10 January 1878 in Howth, Ireland

1825 – Produced one of the first treatises on the use of the stethoscope in clinical medicine
1846 – Re-described the pattern of breathing previously described by John Cheyne (1818) now known as Cheyne-Stokes breathing

“My father left me but one legacy, the blessed gift of rising early” – Stokes often woke at four or five o’clock in the morning to write

William Stokes recorded and published the autopsy of Abraham Colles (1773 – 1843) performed by Robert William Smith (of Smith fracture fame) as ‘Observations on the Case of the Late Abraham Colles‘. Colles requested that Smith be called upon to perform his own autopsy.

Note: William Stokes (physician)(1804–1878) – not to be confused with Sir William Stokes (surgeon) (1838-1900)…his son

Stokes W. An introduction to the use of the stethoscope: with its application to the diagnosis in diseases of the thoracic viscera; including the pathology of these various affections. Dublin: Hodges and McArthur. 1825
Graves R, Stokes W. Clinical reports, of the medical cases in the Meath Hospital and County of Dublin Infirmary. 1826-1827.
Stokes W. A Treatise on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Diseases of the Chest: Part I – Disease of the lung and windpipe. Dublin: Hodges and Smith. 1837
Stokes W. Lectures on the theory and practice of physic. Volume I; Volume II. Philadelphia. 1840
Stokes W. Researches on the state of the heart, and the use of wine in typhus fever. 1840
Stokes W. Observations of some cases of permanently slow pulse. Dublin Quarterly Journal of Medical Science. 1846;2(1):73–85. [Stokes-Adams syndrome]
Stokes W. Fatty degeneration of the heart. In: The Diseases of the heart and the aorta. 1854:302-340 [Cheyne–Stokes respiration]
Stokes W. The Diseases of the heart and the aorta. Lindsay and Blakiston. 1854
Stokes W. Medicine in modern times. Macmillan. 1869
Stokes W. Some requirements in clinical teaching in Dublin. Dublin. 1871
Stokes W. State medicine: a discourse delivered before the University of Dublin. 1872
Stokes W. Lectures on fever: Delivered in the Theatre of the Meath Hospital and County of Dublin Infirmary. Henry C. Lea. 1876

Fletcher A, Moor D. The lives and works of John Cheyne (1777-1836) and William Stokes (1804-1878). J Intensive Care Soc. 2017 Nov;18(4):323-325. [PMC5661788]
Stokes W. William Stokes, his life and work (1804-1878). London: Unwin. 1898