A Century of Service - Eoin O'Brien

fatal. This was a considerable setback to a promising career, but he was retained as
the royal physician. When he failed to diagnose typhoid fever as the cause of the
Prince Consort’s fatal illness, one would have thought his career was at an end.
However, Victoria had a deep affection for her physician, and believed that he was
more a victim of misfortune than actual incompetence. Whatever his professional
shortcomings he must be judged kindly and with some admiration for the
compassion and kindness he showed to the young poet Keats during his last days in
Rome. Here Clark found pleasant apartments for the dying poet and cared for him
without expecting or receiving reward. When we remember that there were few at
that time who recognised the genius of Keats, least of all the reviewers of the day, we
must respect Clark’s assessment: “After all, his expenses will be simple, and he is too
noble an animal to be allowed to sink without some sacrifice being made to save
him. I wish I were rich enough, his living here should cost him nothing … I fear
there is something operating on his mind … I feel very much interested in
him.” 94 Indeed, there was much troubling the young poet; his mental anguish was if
anything greater than his physical suffering – his unfulfilled poetical ambitions and
his love for Fanny Brawne.
From London Wilde went to Vienna where he
became friendly with the young Semmelweiss
who was later to discover the cure for puerperal
fever. Wilde was particularly impressed by the
maternity system in this city, whereby
pregnant ladies could have their infants in
absolute secrecy – a facility not without
appeal to him. From Vienna he went to
Germany, and then onwards to Brussels to
meet up with his old friend Charles Lever, who
on qualifying had deserted the scalpel for the
pen, and was at this time completing his famous
novel Charles O’Malley. The proofs of this he threw
at Wilde, who we are told rocked an enormous
four-poster bed with insuppressible laughter
as he read of O’Malley’s exploits. 96
The Voluntary Hospital Movement and the Dublin School
Charles Lever (1806–1872).
Engraving of portrait by Phiz,
Our Mess, Volume 1, 1843.
Returning to Dublin Wilde began practice at No.15 Westland Row and he converted
an old stable at number eleven Molesworth Street into a dispensary. In 1844 he
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