Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Mapother, Edward Dillon
MAPOTHER, EDWARD DILLON (1835–1908), surgeon, born at Fairview, near Dublin, on 14 Oct. 1835, was son of Henry Mapother, an official of the Bank of Ireland, and of Mary Lyons, both of co. Roscommon. Richard Mapother (son of Sir Thomas Mapother of Mappowder, Dorsetshire) came to Ireland during Queen Elizabeth's reign, and was granted land in co. Roscommon. Mapother was apprenticed to John Hatch Power (1806-1863), professor of surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland in Dublin. He received his professional education in the college, at the Carmichael school of medicine, at the Jervis Street, the Richmond, and allied hospitals. He obtained letters testimonial of the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland on 21 April 1854, and passed as a fellow on 30 Aug. 1862. In 1857 he graduated M.D. with first honours and gold medal at the Queen's University, Dublin. Before he was nineteen he began to teach anatomy, and with John Morgan (1829-1876) conducted large classes with great success at the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland. On 30 May 1864 he was elected to the chair of 'Hygiene or political medicine' in the college, which had been vacant since the resignation of Henry Maunsell (1806-1879) in 1846. On 21 February 1867 he succeeded Arthur Jacob [q. v.] as professor of anatomy and physiology. In 1879 he was elected president of the college, and it was largely due to his exertions during his year of office that the dental diploma was instituted, whilst later he took a leading part in the movement which ended in the amalgamation of the Carmichael and Ledwich schools of medicine with that of the college.
Mapother was elected surgeon to St. Vincent's Hospital, Dublin, in 1869, and he was also surgeon to St. Joseph's Hospital for Children. He was the first medical officer of health for Dublin, was surgeon in ordinary to the lord-lieutenant of Ireland from 1880 to 1886, and was also president of the statistical society of Ireland.
Mapother left Dublin in 1886, and after spending some time in studying syphilis and diseases of the skin at various schools in Europe, he settled in London in 1888 as a specialist, at first in the house, 32 Cavendish Square, which had been occupied by the surgeon Richard Quain [q. v.]. He died at 16 Wellington Street on 3 March 1908.
He married in 1870 Ellen, daughter of the Hon. John Tobin, M.P., of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and by her had one son and six daughters.
Mapother was author of: 1. 'Physiology and its Aids to the Study and Treatment of Disease,' Dublin, 12mo, 1862; 2nd edit. 1864; 3rd edit., edited by John Knott, M.D., 1882. 2. 'Lectures on Public Health delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons,' Dublin, 1864; 2nd edit. 1867. 3. 'The Medical Profession and its Educational and Licensing Bodies,' Dublin, 1868. (This essay won the first Carmichael prize of 200l. for 1868, the bequest coming from Richard Carmichael (1776-1849), who left 3000l. in trust to the College of Surgeons for the purpose of a first prize of 200l. and a second of 100l. every fourth year for two essays on medical education.) 4. 'Animal Physiology' (Gleig's school series), 1871; 2nd edit. 1891. 5. 'The Dublin Hospitals, their Grants and Governing Bodies,' Dublin, 1869. 6. 'The Body and its Health, a Book for Primary Schools,' Dublin, 16mo, 1870; 4th edit., Dublin, 8vo, 1870; the work had a wide circulation and was designed for children in the Irish national schools. 7. 'Lisdoonvarna Spa and Seaside Places of Clare,' Dublin, 1871, 16mo; 3rd edit., London, 8vo, 1878. 8. 'Treatment of Chronic Skin Diseases,' three lectures delivered at St. Vincent's Hospital, London and Dublin, 1872; 2nd edit. 1875. 9. 'Papers on Dermatology and Allied Subjects,' 1889; 2nd edit. 1899.
[History of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, by Sir C. A. Cameron, Dublin, 1886, p. 435; Lancet, 1908, i. 823; British Med. Journal, 1908, i. 661; Men and Women of the Time, 1899; information from Sir Lambert H. Ormesby and Dr. John Knott.]