Physician, b. 1802, in Dublin, Ireland ; d. there, 1880; distinguished for his original observations in heart disease, a special type of pulse being named after him. The son of a poor shopkeeper, his early education was obtained at Maynooth, which then had a department for secular students apart from the ecclesiastical seminary. He was attracted to the study of medicine by the physician in attendance. After several years of medical study in Dublin he followed the prevailing custom of the time and went to Edinburgh where he received his degree as M.D. in 1825. After his return to Dublin he was appointed physician to the Jervis Street Hospital, which had but six medical beds. During the next four years he studied certain forms of heart disease to such good purpose that he recast the teaching of diseases of the aortic valves. His article on "Permanent Patency of the Aortic Valves" appeared in the Edinburgh "Medical and Surgical Journal" for April, 1832. He was eminently successful as a teacher of medicine. In 1842 the London College of Surgeons conferred on him its diploma. In 1849 he received from the University of Dublin the honorary degree of M. D. He was known as a very hard-working physician, and his self-sacrificing devotion during the famine fever years made him famous. His "Lectures on Fevers" (Dublin, 1853) are a valuable contribution to our knowledge of this subject. He was created a baronet partly as a reward for his services as Commissioner of Education for many years. He was a member of Parliament in the Liberal interest for five years after 1869. He was defeated for re-election in 1874 by the liquor interest which he had antagonized by supporting the Sunday Closing Bill. He was President of the Royal Zoological Society of Dublin, of the Dublin Pathological Society, of the Dublin Pharmaceutical Society, and was five times elected President of the College of Physicians in Dublin, an unprecedented honour. His work on heart disease stamps him as a great original investigator in medicine. Trousseau, the French clinician, proposed that aortic heart disease should be called Corrigan's disease.

The Catholic Encyclopedia is the most comprehensive resource on Catholic teaching, history, and information ever gathered in all of human history. This easy-to-search online version was originally printed in fifteen hardcopy volumes.

Designed to present its readers with the full body of Catholic teaching, the Encyclopedia contains not only precise statements of what the Church has defined, but also an impartial record of different views of acknowledged authority on all disputed questions, national, political or factional. In the determination of the truth the most recent and acknowledged scientific methods are employed, and the results of the latest research in theology, philosophy, history, apologetics, archaeology, and other sciences are given careful consideration.

No one who is interested in human history, past and present, can ignore the Catholic Church, either as an institution which has been the central figure in the civilized world for nearly two thousand years, decisively affecting its destinies, religious, literary, scientific, social and political, or as an existing power whose influence and activity extend to every part of the globe. In the past century the Church has grown both extensively and intensively among English-speaking peoples. Their living interests demand that they should have the means of informing themselves about this vast institution, which, whether they are Catholics or not, affects their fortunes and their destiny.

Copyright © Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company New York, NY. Volume 1: 1907; Volume 2: 1907; Volume 3: 1908; Volume 4: 1908; Volume 5: 1909; Volume 6: 1909; Volume 7: 1910; Volume 8: 1910; Volume 9: 1910; Volume 10: 1911; Volume 11: - 1911; Volume 12: - 1911; Volume 13: - 1912; Volume 14: 1912; Volume 15: 1912

Catholic Online Catholic Encyclopedia Digital version Compiled and Copyright © Catholic Online