RCSI people

ERIK PEARSON and GAVIN FALK

examine the life of one of RCSI’s
most distinguished alumni,
Abraham Colles.

THE COMPLETE DOCTOR:

Abraham Colles
“Be assured, that no man can know his profession perfectly, who the doors of RCSI, including William Dease, William Stokes, and
knows nothing else; and that he who aspires to eminence in any Abraham Colles.
particular science must first acquire the habit of philosophising on Professor Abraham Colles was born in Millmount, Co. Kilkenny on
matters of science in general.” July 23, 1773, and died in his St Stephen’s Green home in Dublin
Abraham Colles, A Treatise on Surgical Anatomy, 1811. on December 1, 1843. During his 70 years, he made significant
advances in surgery and medicine, published papers on anatomy,
The RCSI has been a leading institution in medical education orthopaedics and gynaecology, and became famous among
throughout the last two and a half centuries. Its humble beginnings students and doctors for his eponymous associations.
lie in the dissolution of the barber–surgeon relationship, the
formation of the Dublin Society of Surgeons, and the subsequent The young Colles
charter granted by King George III, giving the College the name by Referred to by his father at birth as “a fine little thing”, Abraham
which we know it today.1 Colles was born into a family of significant wealth and social
Many names that have echoed through the centuries of medical standing in an Ireland struggling for independence. Colles lost his
history belong to students or professors who have walked through father at the age of five, but grew up in close companionship with

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 RCSI people

Left: Colles etching.

Above: Letter from Colles
to his brother William.
Right: Colles as a young boy.
Opposite page: Colles’ Letters
Testimonial of the RCSI, which he
received in September 1795.

his brothers and devoted mother.2 Perhaps his first step towards Leaving Dublin
a career in medicine – a stark contrast from the Colles family After receiving his Letters Testimonial, Colles travelled to Edinburgh
marble estate – was his discovery of an anatomic text floating in to train under Alexander Monro (of the foramen) as a graduate
the River Nore. Inspired by this text, and following the path of student, a medical school appointment said to be unrivalled at that
his great grandfather William Colles of Kilcollen (a famous time. Living at Dorrell’s Land, Colles again immersed himself in
Kilkenny surgeon), Colles moved to Dublin in pursuit of a career study, keeping out of the public eye so often that his landlady
in surgery. Accompanied by his brother William, he matriculated would visit to prevent Colles from “reading himself into a coffin”.
to the School of Arts at Trinity College in 1790. In addition, He graduated from Edinburgh on June 24, 1797, and travelled to
within weeks of his arrival in Dublin, Colles became indentured London. Though rumoured to have walked the entire distance on
as an apprentice to Philip Woodroffe at Dr Steevens’ Hospital, foot – the reverse of the well-documented journey of his brother
and a student of the RCSI. Over the next five years Colles William one year earlier – the truth of this legend has been debated
continued his apprenticeship, sleeping in dark corners of the by authors over the decades. While in London, Colles befriended a
hospital when not carrying out duties demanded by his master young Astley Cooper and aided in dissections for Cooper’s famous
and patients. paper On Hernia; future generations of surgeons and students are
As a student, Colles had an insatiable appetite for learning, well acquainted with his named ligament.
attending five courses for instruction in anatomy, physiology
and surgery under William Dease, William Hartigan, William
Though Colles’ primary concentrations
Lawless, and Samuel Halahan. Though Colles’ primary
concentrations were his duties as an apprentice surgeon and were his duties as an apprentice surgeon
pursuit of a classical education, he was a familiar face in the and pursuit of a classical education,
debating halls of Trinity. In 1794 he became part of the ‘Extern’ he was a familiar face in the
Society, whose members abandoned their dormitories and took
up quarters in Dublin City to support the United Irishmen and
debating halls of Trinity.
Irish independence. After five years of study in the company of
his contemporaries Thomas Moore and Robert Emmet, Colles Colles the teacher
graduated from Trinity College in February 1795 with a A turning point for Colles was his appointment to replace his former
Bachelor of Arts degree. Later, in September 1795, Colles master, Philip Woodroffe, as resident surgeon at Dr Steevens’
received his Letters Testimonial of the RCSI, which survive to Hospital in 1799. This was a tumultuous time, both in Irish history
this day. and for Colles personally. After the collapse of the United Irishmen

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and the failed rebellion, Colles witnessed the sudden death of his deformity occurring after a fall on an outstretched hand. Several
mentor William Dease, the ‘father of Irish surgery’. Colles took his other lesser known but significant papers were to follow. In 1818,
appointment at £60 per annum and was subsequently elected as a Colles published A Disease of the Lymphatic Glands of the Groin
member of the Royal College of Surgeons. In 1800 he received his attended with Peculiar Symptoms, for which he is credited with the
first apprentices. discovery and description of lymphogranuloma inguinale (now
As a professional, Colles’ career had firm beginnings: a Bachelor of known to be caused by Chlamydia Trachomatis). During his research
Arts from Trinity College, Letters from a young and ambitious RCSI, on venereal disease, Colles followed and advanced John Hunter’s
and a graduate degree from the University of Edinburgh, one of the practice of utilising mercury for its wonderful therapeutic properties.
most prestigious medical schools in Europe. He was now to Throughout his papers and books, Colles identifies and describes
accelerate his standing as an academic surgeon. Elected in 1802 as novel anatomical structures and diseases. The eponyms associated
President of the RCSI at just 29 years of age, Colles was appointed with Colles range from Colles’ fracture to Colles’ fascia (“at the
surgeon to Cork Street Fever Hospital, and many others, before point where the saphena dips deep to gain the femoral vein”),
being elected Professor of Anatomy, Physiology, and Surgery in Colles’ Law (on the mode of syphilitic infection), and Colles’
1804. Colles was said to be a zealous and painstaking teacher, a pustules, cinnebar candles and ‘copper’ retractors. It was later said
lecturer indulging in puns and witticisms who attracted crowds of of Colles in the February 15, 1824, issue of the Lancet that “without
more than 300 people. The education of surgeons during this time many books, and paying less attention to their contents, he is still
focused on classical dissection, an art that depended on a fresh the laborious, shrewd, observing, matter-of-fact and practical
supply of bodies to dissect. With only a few bodies of executed surgeon. As an operator he has many equals and some superiors;
murderers being granted to the College for dissection, there was but in advice, from long experience and a peculiar tact of
but one way of obtaining cadavers – grave robbing. Though he discovering the hidden causes of disease, he has scarcely a rival”.
advised students to use caution, Colles did not prevent the theft of Professor Abraham Colles revolutionised the medical world of the
1,500 bodies from Kilmainham’s Bully’s Acre cemetery, and their early 19th century. Advancing in experience and wisdom, he was
subsequent storage by the ‘resurrectionists’ at the College. Dublin’s again elected President of the RCSI in 1830, prior to receiving a
medical students were well supplied. master’s degree from the University of Dublin. After 23 years, Colles
resigned his chair of anatomy at RCSI in 1827, but held the chair in
surgery until 1836, when he was succeeded by William Henry
Colles was said to be a zealous and
Porter. He continued to research and publish through his later years,
painstaking teacher, a lecturer indulging and his final, posthumous publication was 1845’s Lectures on the
in puns and witticisms who attracted Theory and Practice of Surgery.
Suffering from chronic respiratory disease, gout and heart trouble,
crowds of more than 300 people.
and sensing his death, Colles wrote to Robert Smith, of Smith’s
fracture, requesting his expertise in Colles’ own post-mortem
Colles the academic examination: “My Dear Robert, I think it may be of some benefit,
During his years as Professor, Colles published three books and over not only to my own family, but to society at large, to ascertain by
a dozen surgical papers. His first paper, A Treatise on Surgical examination the exact seat and nature of my last disease”. An
Anatomy (1811), signalled a paradigm shift in surgical knowledge, investigator until the end, this is described by Dr Martin Fallon as
from the systemic anatomy of the Hunterian era to the topographic the “last great act of Colles’ medical career, the last evidence of
anatomy encountered at the operating table. In this paper, Colles unchanging devotion”.3
sought to change the teaching of anatomy from “a catalogue of
barbarous and unmeaning terms” towards showing the student “the Acknowledgements
connection between anatomical structures of each part and the We would like to sincerely thank Mary O’Doherty, RCSI Assistant
surgical diseases and operations to which it is subject”, such as to fix Librarian: Special Collections and Archives, for invaluable help in the
“in his memory the indelible impression of the structure of the preparation of this article.
parts”. Colles stressed to his pupils the importance of a classical
education, and of intellectual inquiry, remarking that “it requires but
little to prove that to form a good surgeon, a good education is the Bibliography
first and most essential requisite…it enables the student to take 1. Cameron SCA. History of the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland.
more clear and comprehensive views of the facts which occur to his Dublin: John Falconer, 1886.
observation”. 2. Fallon M. Abraham Colles. Chichester, Sussex: William
In 1814, Colles published the paper for which he is known Heinemann Medical Books LTD, 1972.
worldwide in the minds of every first-year medical student: On the 3. Pearson E. Faces of RCSI – Abraham Colles.
Fracture of the Carpal Extremity of the Radius, a manuscript describing The Scalpel: The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland Surgical
the infamous Colles’ fracture. Many will never forget the dinner-fork Society 2007; 1 (1): 3-4.

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