History of Medicine

Oscar Wilde’s Father:

A Noted, and Knighted Surgeon

     Oscar Wilde’s humorous one-liners had many targets, though seldom doctors. Perhaps that’s because his father was one, and a famous one at that.

Robert J Graves

     William Wilde was born in Roscommon, western Ireland. His father was a country doctor and William saw disease and trauma early in life. He was raised as a Protestant, was not too studious in school but befriended people easily, learned Gaelic, and took an interest in Irish history and folklore. His father decided on a medical career, and had William apprenticed for three years to Abraham Colles (known for Colles’ fracture, Colles fascia, etc) at Dr. Steeven’s Hospital in Dublin. He also studied medicine at the Park Street School, where teachers included Robert J Graves (of Graves’ disease) and William Stokes (Cheyne-Stokes breathing, Stokes-Adams attacks). The three professors were a formidable trio.

Abraham Colles

     Shortly after receiving his degree Wilde accompanied a wealthy, but sick man on a recuperative trip to the Holy Land. Stops on the way included Egypt where he encountered extensive trachoma, probably influencing him to take up eye surgery later. His extensive notes on climate, geography, customs, and medical matters became a two-volume work published after his return, selling well and giving him an entrée into Irish literary circles.

     William decided on eye and ear surgery as a specialty, going to London, Vienna, and Berlin for further training (he picked up languages quickly). At Vienna he spent several months at the famous Allgemeine Krankenhaus, studying eye disease under Anton von Rosas. 

Vienna General Hospital (Allgemeines Krankenhaus) 1784

He spent time too on the maternity wards where he befriended Ignatz Semmelweiss, several years before the latter instituted hand washing. This journey too resulted in a successful travel book.

     Back in Dublin Wilde opened an eye and ear hospital. He wrote a book on ear surgery that became a standard text for several years. Students came to him from great distances and over time he became the most famous eye and ear surgeon in Ireland, eventuallybeing appointed Surgeon Oculist to the Queen in Ireland.

      He accepted the position of medical consultant to the Irish Census of 1841, providing causes of death and other medical information. Of interest is that measles accounted for 30,739 deaths in 10 years, whooping cough for over 36,000, and homicide for 4,000 (1/4 were infanticide). Tbc, of course, was the biggest killer. Wilde included a history of major diseases in Ireland, and the work was such a success and generally ahead of its time that he was kept on for the following 10 year censuses through 1871, expanding the data each time. He was eventually knighted for this work. He lived through the terrible potato famine of 1845-9, causing thousands to escape to the U.S., and his statistics on the 1851 census reflected the deadly toll it took on the population.

     In 1851 he married Jane Francesca Elgee, a separatist poetess who took the name of Speranza. She was a good deal taller than William and possibly older. When married she curtailed her separatist tendencies, hosted numerous late night parties crowded with artistic and Bohemian types, wrote books, plays, and poetry, and was fond of irreverent witticisms, traits that Oscar surely got from her.

      Apart from medicine Wilde became one of the most important

Sir William Wilde

archeologists of old Gaelic ruins, publishing books and articles on the subject. He was a brilliant conversationalist, a public personality, and something of a philanderer, with at least three illegitimate children.

     In 1864 tragedy struck. An an-tagonistic young woman, Mary Travers, who had been a mistress of Wilde’s and had offended Speranza, sued for libel on the grounds of a bitter letter Speranza had written to the girl’s father. William was included, con-sidered responsible by law for his wife’s behavior. The suit dragged on for months and resulted in a win for Travers but an award of only a farthing.

     Nevertheless the trial took a lot out of Wilde. He retreated to the country and practiced less and less medicine and more archeology. An illegitimate son, Henry Wilson, had followed his father in ophthalmology and gradually took over his practice and modernized it (he was treated like a legitimate son and included in his father’s will). William completed work on the 1871 census in 1874, and died in 1876. His estate had been impoverished, however, and Speranza struggled on her own, with only desultory help from Oscar who had his own troubles.

     In his life Sir William made contributions to eye and especially ear surgery, epidemiology and vital statistics, Celtic archeology, and travel writing, a full life.

Some works consulted:

Wilson, T G. Victorian Doctor, Being a Life of Sir William Wilde. 
    1946

White, Terrence dV, The Parents of Oscar Wilde. 1967

Froggatt, P. “The Demographic Work of William Wilde”. Irish J   
    Med Sci.1965, May. pp231-8.

Froggatt, P. “Sir WilliamWilde and the 1851 Census of Ireland”. 
    Medical History 9(4), 1965,pp 302-27.

Story, JB. “Sir William Robert Wills Wilde (1815-1876)”. Brit J 
    Ophth 1918, Feb, pp 65-71.  

Review of Census Report of 1841. In Dublin J Med Sci, pp 142-59.