Robert ADAMS
1791–1875
Robert Adams was a member of the great school of surgeon pathologists, which flourished in Dublin in the nineteenth century and included Abraham Colles and Robert William Smith.
Although he was a distinguished surgeon, Adams is remembered for his description of medical dis- eases; that is the Stokes–Adams syndrome, brady- cardia and transient vertigo as a sign of fatty or fibrous myocarditis, and rheumatoid arthritis, which he defined as a specific disease separate from gout.
Adams was born and educated in Dublin. He began his medical training as an apprentice to William Hartigan and George Stewart, who were leading Dublin surgeons. After receiving a medical degree from the University of Dublin in 1832, Adams joined the staff of the important hospitals in Dublin where he became well known as a practitioner and teacher. He had a role in the formation of two proprietary medical schools in Dublin. He served as president of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and the Dublin Pathological Society. At the age of 70 he became Regius Professor of Surgery in Dublin and surgeon to Queen Victoria.
In 1857, Adams published his most important contribution “A Treatise on Rheumatic Gout, or Chronic Rheumatic Arthritis of All of the Joints.”
This was accompanied by a separate collection of illustrations of the pathologic anatomy of the disease. These publications established rheuma- toid arthritis as a disease entity separate from
gout. With unlimited cadavers available, and no limits on the extent of their dissections, these surgeon pathologists produced some of the most interesting illustrations of gross pathology ever published.
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