SIR William MacCormac, Bart., K.C.B., K.C.V.O

Abstract

SIR WILLIAM MACCORMAC, whose death occurred suddenly and unexpectedly on the morning of December 4 at Bath, where he had gone for treatment of an illness which his intimate friends, although feeling considerable anxiety on his behalf, little thought would end so tragically, was one of the most prominent figures in the medical profession in London. He was the son of a well-known Belfast physician, Dr. Henry MacCormac, the author of such philosophical works as “The Philosophy of Human Nature,” published in 1837, and “Aspirations from the Inner Life,” in 1860, as well as of works on the nature, treatment and prevention of consumption, which attracted much attention at the time and have come again into notice recently as having anticipated the modern doctrine of the open-air treatment of tubercular disease. Sir William MacCormac was born in Belfast on January 17, 1836; he was educated in his native city and graduated as M.A. of the Queen's University of Ireland in 1858. He subsequently studied medicine in Dublin and Paris and became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland, in 1864, entering at the same time into the active work of his profession as surgeon to the Royal Belfast Hospital, a post which he held until 1870.