Robert James Graves
Encyclopedia
Robert James Graves, M.D., F.R.C.S. (1796 – 20 March 1853) was an eminent Irish
surgeon
after whom Graves' disease
takes its name. He was President of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland
, Fellow of the Royal Society of London and the founder of the Dublin Journal of Medical Science
. He is also the uncredited inventor of the second hand on watches.
, where Graves too entered under his brother-in-law, Thomas Meredith
. After a brilliant undergraduate career, from 1818 he went abroad for the next three years travelling the continent between stints as an observer at the medical schools of Edinburgh
, London
, Berlin
, Vienna
, Göttingen
, Hamburg
, Copenhagen
and those of France
and Italy
.
Graves had an exceptional talent for languages and while on the continent was imprisoned for ten days in Austria
when travelling on foot without a passport
as the authorities thought him to be a German spy
. None of them believed that an Irishman could speak German so well. On his way from Genoa
to Sicily
, he saved a ship and its mutinous crew by assuming command during a storm in the Mediterranean. During a gale
the vessel sprang a leak, the pumps failed and the crew attempted to abandon ship, but Graves holed the one lifeboat with an axe, declaring to the crew, "Let us all be drowned together. It is a pity to part good company". He then proceeded to repair the pumps with leather from his own shoes, so saving the ship and all aboard. When travelling in the Swiss Alps
he became acquainted with the painter Joseph Mallord William Turner. They travelled and painted together for several months, eventually parting company in Rome
. Graves was described as,
Tall, dark, with expressive features, a good talker, with the power of converting others to his way of thinking. His kindness, his total want of arrogance and his love of truth made this really great man popular
and the Park Street school of medicine which he helped found. This included, among other things, bedside teaching, of which William Hale White said 'this is real clinical teaching', and went on in his book, 'Great Doctors of the Nineteenth Century', to say that Graves held the honour of introducing this system to Ireland,
(Graves) insists that... mere walking the hospital must go. The Edinburgh
system, in which the teacher interrogates the patient in a loud voice, the clerk repeats the patients' answer in a similar voice, the crowd of students round the bed, most of whom cannot see the patient, hears all this and makes notes, is of no use. Students must examine patients for themselves under the guidance of their teachers, they must make suggestions as to diagnosis, morbid anatomy and treatment to their teacher who will discuss the cases with them.
In this technique one of his students, William Stokes (1804–1878), soon became his collaborator. Together they made the Dublin School of Medicine famous throughout the world.
Graves was possessed of the qualities that would ensure a great teacher. He was tall, somewhat swarthy with a vivacious manner, and like other avant-garde professors of his time, he gave his lectures in English rather than in Latin, or Dog Latin as was still the case in most classes in the 1830s. In his introductory lecture he said: "From the very commencement the student should set out to witness the progress and effects of sickness and ought to persevere in the daily observation of disease during the whole period of his studies".
He was appointed Professor to the Institutes of medicine in the Irish College of Physicians and wrote essays and gave lectures on physiological topics. His "Clinical Lectures" were published in 1843 (and again in 1848), giving fame to his name throughout Europe. He was president of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland
in 1843 and 1844 and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of London
in 1849. He received honorary membership of the medical societies in Berlin, Vienna, Hamburg
, Tübingen
, Bruges
and Montreal
.
Among the innovations introduced in the lectures were the timing of the pulse by watch and the practicing of giving food and liquids to patients with fever instead of withholding nourishment. It was on a ward round that Graves light-heartedly suggested to William Stokes, 'Lest when I am gone you may be at a loss for an epitaph for me, let me give you one - He Fed Fevers.'
As well as the practical importance of bedside learning to ensure that a graduate was not "a practitioner who has never practised" he emphasised the importance of research, "learn the duty as well as taste the pleasure of original work". He corresponded with old pupils all over the world and continued as an inspired teacher until his death in 1853.
Graves was sometimes sarcastic. In dealing with a colleague's attack on the use of the stethoscope
(the instrument was advocated by himself and Stokes having been invented in France in 1816), he wrote: "We suspect Dr Clutterbuck's sense of hearing must be injured: for him the 'ear trumpet' magnifies but distorts sound, rendering it less distinct than before". Dr. Clutterbuck was Henry Clutterbuck
, 1770-1856.
In recognition of his achievements in education, Graves was named Regius professor of the Institute of Medicine in Trinity College. With William Stokes he edited the Dublin Journal of Medical and Chemical Science from 1832 to 1842, a journal he had founded with Sir Robert Kane
(1809–1890). His lasting fame rests chiefly on his Clinical Lectures, which were a model for the day and recommended by none other than Armand Trousseau
(1801–1867), who suggested the term Graves' disease.
A Statue of Robert James Graves stands in the Royal College of Surgeons
in Dublin, erected in 1878.
, but she also died after giving birth to a daughter. He married his third wife in 1830, and had six children by her. She was Anna, the eldest daughter of Rev. William Grogan of Slaney Park, formerly known as Crosbie Park, Co. Wicklow, by his wife, Anne, daughter of Richard Saunders of Newtownsaunders, Co. Wicklow, a distant cousin of Graves' through the Dawson family of Dartrey, Co. Cavan. One of their daughters married the eldest son of Francis Blackburne
, Lord Chancellor of Ireland
, and another the only son of Thomas St. George Armstrong. Robert James Graves died at his home at Merrion Square Dublin, on 20 March 1853. The year before he died his wife persuaded him to buy Cloghan Castle, Co. Offaly, where members of his family continued to reside until 1908. He was buried in Mount Jerome Cemetery
, Dublin.
He left his library - worth £30,000 even at that time - to Trinity College, Dublin
, but failed to patent his invention of having the hand denoting seconds fixed on to a watch. Instead, a Dublin firm of watchmakers to whom he casually prescribed this device for his own personal assistance made a fortune out of selling watches with second hands all over the world. A collection of various of his papers, including a biography, was published by his friend and contemporary William Stokes as Studies in Physiology and Medicine. London, 1863.
William Stokes in Medical Times and Gazette, London, 1854, VIII, page 1.
J. F. Duncan in Dublin Quarterly Journal of Medical Science, 1878, LXV: 1.
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
surgeon
Surgeon
In medicine, a surgeon is a specialist in surgery. Surgery is a broad category of invasive medical treatment that involves the cutting of a body, whether human or animal, for a specific reason such as the removal of diseased tissue or to repair a tear or breakage...
after whom Graves' disease
Graves' disease
Graves' disease is an autoimmune disease where the thyroid is overactive, producing an excessive amount of thyroid hormones...
takes its name. He was President of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland
Royal College of Physicians of Ireland
The Royal College of Physicians of Ireland , was founded in 1654 and is a postgraduate medical organisation comprising Members and Fellows...
, Fellow of the Royal Society of London and the founder of the Dublin Journal of Medical Science
Dublin Journal of Medical Science
The Irish Journal of Medical Science is a peer-reviewed medical journal that was established in 1832 by Robert Kane as the Dublin Journal of Medical & Chemical Science. Besides Kane, it had distinguished editors like Robert James Graves and William Wilde...
. He is also the uncredited inventor of the second hand on watches.
Early life
Robert James Graves was born March 27, 1796 at Harcourt Street, Dublin. He was the eighth child of Dean Richard Graves and Elizabeth Mary (1767–1827), daughter of Rev. James Drought (1738–1820) D.D., of Dublin and Parkland, "a member of one of the principal families of the King's County (Offaly)". Both his father and grandfather were Senior Fellows of Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...
, where Graves too entered under his brother-in-law, Thomas Meredith
Thomas Meredith
The Rev. Dr Thomas Meredith D.D., F.T.C.D. was an Anglo-Irish clergyman and mathematician, best remembered for his association with the poet Charles Wolfe, and as the subject of a ghost story related in True Irish Ghost Stories and Memorials to the Dead-Background:Born at Templerany House, Co...
. After a brilliant undergraduate career, from 1818 he went abroad for the next three years travelling the continent between stints as an observer at the medical schools of Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Göttingen
Göttingen
Göttingen is a university town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Göttingen. The Leine river runs through the town. In 2006 the population was 129,686.-General information:...
, Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
and those of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
.
Graves had an exceptional talent for languages and while on the continent was imprisoned for ten days in Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
when travelling on foot without a passport
Passport
A passport is a document, issued by a national government, which certifies, for the purpose of international travel, the identity and nationality of its holder. The elements of identity are name, date of birth, sex, and place of birth....
as the authorities thought him to be a German spy
SPY
SPY is a three-letter acronym that may refer to:* SPY , ticker symbol for Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts* SPY , a satirical monthly, trademarked all-caps* SPY , airport code for San Pédro, Côte d'Ivoire...
. None of them believed that an Irishman could speak German so well. On his way from Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
to Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
, he saved a ship and its mutinous crew by assuming command during a storm in the Mediterranean. During a gale
Gale
A gale is a very strong wind. There are conflicting definitions of how strong a wind must be to be considered a gale. The U.S. government's National Weather Service defines a gale as 34–47 knots of sustained surface winds. Forecasters typically issue gale warnings when winds of this strength are...
the vessel sprang a leak, the pumps failed and the crew attempted to abandon ship, but Graves holed the one lifeboat with an axe, declaring to the crew, "Let us all be drowned together. It is a pity to part good company". He then proceeded to repair the pumps with leather from his own shoes, so saving the ship and all aboard. When travelling in the Swiss Alps
Swiss Alps
The Swiss Alps are the portion of the Alps mountain range that lies within Switzerland. Because of their central position within the entire Alpine range, they are also known as the Central Alps....
he became acquainted with the painter Joseph Mallord William Turner. They travelled and painted together for several months, eventually parting company in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
. Graves was described as,
Tall, dark, with expressive features, a good talker, with the power of converting others to his way of thinking. His kindness, his total want of arrogance and his love of truth made this really great man popular
Medical career
Graves returned to Dublin in 1821, setting up his own medical practice and introducing new clinical methods that he had witnessed on his travels to the Meath HospitalMeath 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....
and the Park Street school of medicine which he helped found. This included, among other things, bedside teaching, of which William Hale White said 'this is real clinical teaching', and went on in his book, 'Great Doctors of the Nineteenth Century', to say that Graves held the honour of introducing this system to Ireland,
(Graves) insists that... mere walking the hospital must go. The Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
system, in which the teacher interrogates the patient in a loud voice, the clerk repeats the patients' answer in a similar voice, the crowd of students round the bed, most of whom cannot see the patient, hears all this and makes notes, is of no use. Students must examine patients for themselves under the guidance of their teachers, they must make suggestions as to diagnosis, morbid anatomy and treatment to their teacher who will discuss the cases with them.
In this technique one of his students, William Stokes (1804–1878), soon became his collaborator. Together they made the Dublin School of Medicine famous throughout the world.
Graves was possessed of the qualities that would ensure a great teacher. He was tall, somewhat swarthy with a vivacious manner, and like other avant-garde professors of his time, he gave his lectures in English rather than in Latin, or Dog Latin as was still the case in most classes in the 1830s. In his introductory lecture he said: "From the very commencement the student should set out to witness the progress and effects of sickness and ought to persevere in the daily observation of disease during the whole period of his studies".
He was appointed Professor to the Institutes of medicine in the Irish College of Physicians and wrote essays and gave lectures on physiological topics. His "Clinical Lectures" were published in 1843 (and again in 1848), giving fame to his name throughout Europe. He was president of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland
Royal College of Physicians of Ireland
The Royal College of Physicians of Ireland , was founded in 1654 and is a postgraduate medical organisation comprising Members and Fellows...
in 1843 and 1844 and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1849. He received honorary membership of the medical societies in Berlin, Vienna, Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, Tübingen
Tübingen
Tübingen is a traditional university town in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, on a ridge between the Neckar and Ammer rivers.-Geography:...
, Bruges
Bruges
Bruges is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located in the northwest of the country....
and Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
.
Among the innovations introduced in the lectures were the timing of the pulse by watch and the practicing of giving food and liquids to patients with fever instead of withholding nourishment. It was on a ward round that Graves light-heartedly suggested to William Stokes, 'Lest when I am gone you may be at a loss for an epitaph for me, let me give you one - He Fed Fevers.'
As well as the practical importance of bedside learning to ensure that a graduate was not "a practitioner who has never practised" he emphasised the importance of research, "learn the duty as well as taste the pleasure of original work". He corresponded with old pupils all over the world and continued as an inspired teacher until his death in 1853.
Graves was sometimes sarcastic. In dealing with a colleague's attack on the use of the stethoscope
Stethoscope
The stethoscope is an acoustic medical device for auscultation, or listening to the internal sounds of an animal body. It is often used to listen to lung and heart sounds. It is also used to listen to intestines and blood flow in arteries and veins...
(the instrument was advocated by himself and Stokes having been invented in France in 1816), he wrote: "We suspect Dr Clutterbuck's sense of hearing must be injured: for him the 'ear trumpet' magnifies but distorts sound, rendering it less distinct than before". Dr. Clutterbuck was Henry Clutterbuck
Henry Clutterbuck
Henry Clutterbuck M.D. was a medical writer.Clutterbuck was the fifth child of Thomas Clutterbuck, attorney, who died at Marazion in Cornwall 6 November 1781, by his wife, Mary, a daughter of Christopher Masterman, merchant, Truro...
, 1770-1856.
In recognition of his achievements in education, Graves was named Regius professor of the Institute of Medicine in Trinity College. With William Stokes he edited the Dublin Journal of Medical and Chemical Science from 1832 to 1842, a journal he had founded with Sir Robert Kane
Robert Kane (chemist)
Sir Robert John Kane was an Irish chemist.-Youth:His father, John Kean, was involved in the Irish Rebellion of 1798 and fled for a time to France where he studied chemistry...
(1809–1890). His lasting fame rests chiefly on his Clinical Lectures, which were a model for the day and recommended by none other than Armand Trousseau
Armand Trousseau
Armand Trousseau was a French internist. His contributions to medicine include Trousseau sign of malignancy, Trousseau sign of latent tetany, Trousseau-Lallemand bodies , and the truism, "use new drugs quickly, while they still work."-Biography:A native of Tours, Indre-et-Loire, Armand Trousseau...
(1801–1867), who suggested the term Graves' disease.
A Statue of Robert James Graves stands in the Royal College of Surgeons
Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland , is a Dublin-based medical institution, situated on St. Stephen's Green. The college is one of the five Recognised Colleges of the National University of Ireland...
in Dublin, erected in 1878.
Family and Death
His first wife (and first cousin) was Matilda Jane Eustace (1806–1825), daughter of Richard and Catherine (Drought) Eustace of Valetta, Kingstown, Co. Dublin who died in child birth. His second wife was Sarah Jane Brinkley (1801–1827), daughter of Bishop John BrinkleyJohn Brinkley (astronomer)
The Rt. Rev. John Mortimer Brinkley D.D. was the first Royal Astronomer of Ireland and later Bishop of Cloyne.-Early years:...
, but she also died after giving birth to a daughter. He married his third wife in 1830, and had six children by her. She was Anna, the eldest daughter of Rev. William Grogan of Slaney Park, formerly known as Crosbie Park, Co. Wicklow, by his wife, Anne, daughter of Richard Saunders of Newtownsaunders, Co. Wicklow, a distant cousin of Graves' through the Dawson family of Dartrey, Co. Cavan. One of their daughters married the eldest son of Francis Blackburne
Francis Blackburne
Francis Blackburne PC KS was an Irish judge and eventually became Lord Chancellor of Ireland.-Background:...
, Lord Chancellor of Ireland
Lord Chancellor of Ireland
The office of Lord Chancellor of Ireland was the highest judicial office in Ireland until the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. From 1721 to 1801 it was also the highest political office of the Irish Parliament.-13th century:...
, and another the only son of Thomas St. George Armstrong. Robert James Graves died at his home at Merrion Square Dublin, on 20 March 1853. The year before he died his wife persuaded him to buy Cloghan Castle, Co. Offaly, where members of his family continued to reside until 1908. He was buried in Mount Jerome Cemetery
Mount Jerome Cemetery
Mount Jerome Cemetery is situated in Harold's Cross on the south side of Dublin, Ireland. Since its foundation in 1836, it has witnessed over 300,000 burials...
, Dublin.
He left his library - worth £30,000 even at that time - to Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...
, but failed to patent his invention of having the hand denoting seconds fixed on to a watch. Instead, a Dublin firm of watchmakers to whom he casually prescribed this device for his own personal assistance made a fortune out of selling watches with second hands all over the world. A collection of various of his papers, including a biography, was published by his friend and contemporary William Stokes as Studies in Physiology and Medicine. London, 1863.
External links
- Biography and Portrait of Robert James Graves - Dublin University Magazine, 1842
- Dublin Masters of Clinical Expression - Robert Graves (1796-1853)
- Robert James Graves - Milestones in Thyroidology
Obituaries
Medical Times and Gazette, London, 1853, VI, page 351.William Stokes in Medical Times and Gazette, London, 1854, VIII, page 1.
J. F. Duncan in Dublin Quarterly Journal of Medical Science, 1878, LXV: 1.