Robert William Smith (surgeon)

Robert William Smith (1807 to 1873) was an Irish surgeon and pathologist born in Dublin. He trained in the city under Richard Carmichael and at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Trinity College and several Dublin hospital schools, became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in 1844, and in 1847 became the first Professor of Surgery at Trinity College. In 1838 he helped found the Dublin Pathological Society with Abraham Colles, Dominic Corrigan and William Stokes. He is remembered for his 1847 book on fractures near joints and on accidental and congenital dislocations, the first important book on fractures by an Irish author, in which he corrected Colles description of the wrist fracture and described the fracture that now carries his name. He also wrote on neuroma and described what is now called neurofibromatosis decades before von Recklinghausen. At his death he was Vice-President of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.