H06: The lesser-known William Wallace (1791–1837)

Claire Doyle

Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, Ireland

William Wallace (1791–1837) is credited as being the first ‘true dermatologist’ in Dublin. He was born in Downpatrick, County Down in 1791, the son of a solicitor. Wallace wrote in 1820, ‘It is many years since my attention was forcibly attracted by observing the extreme frequency of diseases of the skin, the great distress they occasion, the inefficacy of the remedies in general use for their relief and the little attention paid to the improvement of this branch of Pathology’. His medical career began on graduation from the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland. Wallace initially trained in surgery and during this time developed his lifelong passion for dermatology. He subsequently spent three postgraduate years studying under the esteemed Thomas Bateman at the Carey Street Clinic in London, returning to Dublin in 1817. In 1818 Wallace founded ‘The Dublin Infirmary for Diseases of the Skin’. The running costs of the hospital were partly funded by Wallace and the rest by contributions from various benefactors. All patients were seen without charge. Treatments provided included medicated baths on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays patients were treated in the ‘fumigation apparatus’. This involved saturating the skin with a vapour of sulfur. This was one of the most effective treatments for skin disease at the time. In its first year of operation 1775 patients attended the hospital with multiple skin diseases, including scabies, leprosy, measles, scarlet fever, smallpox, ringworm, lupus vulgaris and impetigo. Over 25 000 patients were treated in the hospital during its 17 years of existence. Wallace’s publications include ‘Observations on sulphurious fumigations as a remedy in rheumatism and diseases of the skin’ (1820), ‘An account of the apparatus for the treatment of diseases of the skin’ (1825) and ‘A treatise on the venereal disease and its varieties’ (1833). His ‘Lectures on cutaneous and venereal diseases’ were published in The Lancet in the 1830s. In addition, Wallace made two original contributions to medical science. He introduced potassium iodide as a useful therapy for cutaneous disease and proved the infectivity of secondary syphilis, albeit unethically, by inoculating healthy persons with matter from active lesions. Unfortunately, his pioneering advances and the activity of the Dublin Infirmary for Diseases of the Skin were brought to an abrupt end by his sudden death from typhus on 8 December 1837 aged 46 years. Wallace’s short obituary was published in The Lancet early the following year. The hospital never reopened as he had no colleagues and had no time to train a successor.