Robert William Smith MD FRCSI MRIA (12 October 1807 in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

– 28 October 1873) was an Irish surgeon and

pathologist Pathology is the study of the causes and effects of disease or injury. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in t ...

who described

Smith's fracture A Smith's fracture, is a fracture of the distal radius. Although it can also be caused by a direct blow to the dorsal forearm or by a fall with the wrist flexed, the most common mechanism of injury for Smith's fracture occurs in a palmar fall w ...

in his 1847 book, the first important book on fractures by an Irish author.

Biography

Smith studied medicine in his native Dublin and he was apprenticed to Richard Carmichael, and he studied professionally in the RCSI Medical School, Trinity College, the Richmond Hospital Schools, and in the House of Industry Hospitals. Smith received his Licentiate of the

Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) is a not-for-profit medical professional and educational institution, which is also known as RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences. It was established in 1784 as the national body ...

in 1832. He was awarded his MD from Trinity College, Dublin in 1842, and became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) in 1844. He became the first Professor of Surgery at Trinity College in 1847, and a member of the Royal Irish Academy in 1849. He worked as surgeon to the Hospital for the Mentally Ill, Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital and he taught surgery and forensic medicine at the Richmond Hospital. He co-founded the Dublin Pathological Society in 1838 with Abraham Colles, Sir Dominic Corrigan and William Stokes. Robert Smith published on a wide variety of subjects, particularly the

pathology Pathology is the study of the causes and effects of disease or injury. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in ...

of surgical diseases, congenital joint dislocations and

neuroma A neuroma (; plural: neuromata or neuromas) is a growth or tumor of nerve tissue. Neuromas tend to be benign (i.e. not cancerous); many nerve tumors, including those that are commonly malignant, are nowadays referred to by other terms. Neuroma ...

. Cameron in his History of the RCSI claims that Smith was one of the most distinguished anatomists and surgeons of his time. In his 1847 book '' A Treatise on Fractures in the Vicinity of Joints and on Certain Forms of Accidental and Congenital Dislocations'' he corrected Colles's description of the Colles' fracture, stating that :"The situation of the fracture is not so high as Mr. Colles states it to be; I have never seen it more than an inch above the carpal end of the bone; in the majority of cases it is not so much". Smith also described his own eponymous fracture in the same chapter. In his ''Treatise on the Pathology, Diagnosis and Treatment of Neuroma'' he described

neurofibromatosis Neurofibromatosis (NF) is a group of three conditions in which tumors grow in the nervous system. The three types are neurofibromatosis type I (NF1), neurofibromatosis type II (NF2), and schwannomatosis. In NF1 symptoms include light brown sp ...

33 years before von Recklinghausen. Robert William Smith died on 28 October 1873. He was Vice-President of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) at the time.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Robert William 1807 births 1873 deaths Irish surgeons Irish pathologists Medical doctors from Dublin (city) Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Members of the Royal Irish Academy