59 



TJie O'Mearas, physicians to the Butlers of Ormond, were 

 the' first to publish medical works in Latin. Dermot O'Meara 

 has left us a book entitled Pathologica Hereditaria Oeneralis; 

 which was printed in Dublin in 1619. A tract entitled 

 " Hippocraticam Febrium Etiologium et Prognosim " has 

 also been attributed to him. His son Edmond was the author 

 of " Examen diatribae, Thome Wilisii," London, 1665, a work 

 on fever written against the theories of Willis. 



The "Book of the O'Sheils," now in the Royal Irish 

 Academy, contains the aphorisms of Hippocrates, commen- 

 taries on Galen, Avicenna and Vesalius, besides a dissertation 

 on the therapeutics of our native flora. The date of the manu- 

 script is unknown, but so great was its repute that it was 

 transcribed in 1657. 



A reference to Murtough O'Sheil is found in the Annals of 

 the Four Masters. He was mortally wounded in the petty 

 revolution in the principality of the MacLoughlins. His death 

 took place in 1548 ; he is styled in the Annals as the best 

 physician of his age. The O'Sheils were physicians to the 

 Macmahons of Oriel, and held the estate of Ballysheil, on the 

 banks of Brosna, in King's County. 



We may rest assured that the wars with Elizabeth entailed 

 plenty of surgical work, but on the accession of James I. these 

 hereditary practitioners were stripped of their holdings and 

 followed their liege lords to foreign lands. 



Owen O'Sheil was the first of the Irish physicians who set 

 out for the Continent to acquire a more extensive knowledge 

 than could be obtained at home. With this object he went to 

 Paris in 1604. He studied there, but did not feel justified in 

 taking out his diploma because, as he observed, the Parisian 

 faculty was " somewhat lax at and favourable in the con- 

 ferring of graduation." He therefore proceeded to Louvain 

 to study under Vanderhayden, Vangaret and Vieringhen. 

 Here he took out his diploma after three years' study. Thence 

 he came to Padua, then "the nursery of Gallian Phisick, prime 

 angular stone of anatomy, the only phoenix in Europe of 

 medical science in speculative as well as theorick." He 

 remained there a year, and having passed his examination he 

 received the degree of doctor " to the high repute of all 

 present." O'Shiel then spent half a year in Rome, whence he 

 returned to Flanders, where he was appointed chirurgeon 



