William StokesDied 10 Jan 1878 at age 73 (born 1 Oct 1804).Physician who was the leading representative of the Irish, or Dublin, school of anatomical diagnosis, which emphasized clinical examination of patients in forming a diagnosis. With colleague, John Cheyne, he described Cheyne-Stokes respiration associated with terminal illness; and with Robert Adams described Stokes-Adams attacks, an abnormality of the heart. Stokes is regarded as one of the founders of modern cardiology. In 1838, he co-founded the Dublin Pathological Society, the first society of its kind in the Western world. Every Saturday the member physicians and surgeons met to share knowledge about clinical cases. He was also the author of two important works in the emerging field of cardiac and pulmonary diseases.Statue of Stokes |