Erinensis was the pseudonym used by Peter Hennis Green (1803–1870), an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

physician who edited medical journals and wrote many columns for ''

The Lancet ''The Lancet'' is a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal and one of the oldest of its kind. It is also the world's highest-impact academic journal. It was founded in England in 1823. The journal publishes original research articles, ...

'' from the 1820s to the 1840s.

Life

Green was born about 1803 in

County Cork County Cork ( ga, Contae Chorcaí) is the largest and the southernmost county of Ireland, named after the city of Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. Its largest market towns are ...

, Ireland, the son of a farmer. He entered

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

in 1820. He graduated M.D. in 1827. He specialized in childhood diseases. From about 1824 to 1836, under the pseudonym Erinensis, he was the Dublin correspondent of the ''Lancet''. As such, he was "the author of a brilliant series of sketches and letters" on the Irish medical scene.Medical journals and medical knowledge, p. 127 He had a sharp eye for the pompous or ridiculous and was encouraged by

Thomas Wakley Thomas Wakley (11 July 179516 May 1862) was an English surgeon. He gained fame as a social reformer who campaigned against incompetence, privilege and nepotism. He was the founding editor of ''The Lancet'', a radical Member of Parliament (MP) a ...

, who had founded the journal in 1823.

James Fernandez Clarke James Fernandez Clarke (1812–1876) was an English surgeon and medical writer. Life Clarke was born at Olney, Buckinghamshire; his father and grandfather were prosperous lace merchants. After one or two brief apprenticeships, in 1828 he was pl ...

, a medical journalist who worked on the ''Lancet'' in its early days, suggested in his autobiography that Erinensis was responsible for the power the ''Lancet'' wielded in the 1820s and 1830s.Clarke, p.11 At the end of the 1830s Green spent some time studying childhood diseases in Paris, after which he published articles on them in the ''Lancet'', under his own name. In 1840 Green founded the ''Provincial Medical and Surgical Journal'', a weekly, and worked as its responsible editor in London. He was then lecturer in diseases of childhood in the

Hunterian School of Medicine Great Windmill Street is a thoroughfare running north–south in Soho, London, crossed by Shaftesbury Avenue. The street has had a long association with music and entertainment, most notably the Windmill Theatre, and is now home to the Ripley ...

, Haymarket. At the time a rift had developed between the ''Lancet'' and the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, which no doubt Green wished to take advantage of. Shrewdly, he asked that a member of the Association's council join him as co-editor. However, during the 1840s disagreements arose between staff and the Association. Green left in 1849. Erinensis's identity remained a secret until the publication of Sir Charles Cameron's ''History of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland'', where he wrote that he obtained the information from James Wakley, proprietor of the ''Lancet''.

References and sources

;Notes ;Sources * *John Fleetwood, The Irish Body Snatchers, Tomar Publishing, Dublin, 1988. *Medical journals and medical knowledge: historical essays, by William F. Bynum, Stephen Lock, Roy Porter. *James F. Clarke, ''Autobiographical recollections of the medical profession'', London, J. & A. Churchill, 1874. {{DEFAULTSORT:Erinensis 1803 births 1870 deaths Alumni of Trinity College Dublin 19th-century Irish medical doctors Irish columnists Irish journalists Irish writers Irish magazine editors People from County Cork Place of death missing 19th-century journalists Male journalists 19th-century male writers Medical journal editors

Life

Further reading

See also

References and sources