This week marks the 300th anniversary of the birth of Charles Lucas, a
politician, physician and writer.
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Charles Lucas was born on 16th
September 1713. Left penniless on the death of his father, Lucas was
apprenticed to a Dublin apothecary. Apothecaries, at that time, were the least
respectable branch of the rapidly expanding medical profession, but the only
one a man in Lucas’ position could hope to access. The apothecaries’ trade was
notorious at the time for fraud, malpractice, adulteration of medicines and the
use of poison. Lucas actively campaigned for legislation to control the
profession, and was partly responsible for the 1735 act which gave this College
the power to regulate the Apothecaries trade. .jpg)
Rising in his profession, in 1741 Lucas
was chosen by the barber-surgeons’ guild to represent them on Dublin
Corporation. Lucas campaigned against the usurpation of the rights of the
common citizens by the Lord Mayor and Alderman, and was instrumental in getting
the matter examined by committee. However, his outspoken views created enemies
and in 1744 he lost his seat on the Corporation.
Lucas’ appetite for politics had been
whetted and in 1749 he decided to contest the vacant parliamentary seat for
Dublin. He expanded the arguments he had used on the Corporation, to argue
against the deliberate erosion of the citizens’ rights of the entire population
of Ireland. His denial of the right of the English parliament to make laws for
Ireland raised some eyebrows, but he really overstepped the mark when he stated
that there was ‘no general rebellion in
Ireland since the first British invasion, that was not raised or fomented by
the oppression, instigation, evil influence or connivance of the English’. Parliament condemned Lucas’ ‘rebellious doctrines’ and ordered his
arrest, forcing Lucas to flee to the Isle of Man.
Lucas used his 11 years of exile to
great advantage; he studied medicine in Paris and Lieden, before establishing a
practice in London and publishing many political and medical works. In 1760,
after the accession of George III, Lucas was pardoned and allowed to return to
Ireland. On his return he immediately and successfully contested the Dublin
parliamentary seat, and was active in pressing for parliamentary and medical
reform. For the medical profession his most lasting legacy was Lucas’ Act,
passed in 1761. This greatly extended the powers of the College of Physicians,
re-establishing their right of inspection over Apothecaries, and giving them
the right to compile a Pharmacopoeia, cataloguing and detailing the mixture of
all drugs which could be prescribed. Lucas died on 4th November
1771, at the age of 58.
To mark the tercentenary of Lucas’
birth, the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland will be holding an evening
symposium of Lucas on 23rd September in Dublin City Hall, starting at 5pm. The programme is as follows:
Professor James Kelly, St
Patrick’s College/DCU; The Life and
Significance of Charles Lucas: An Overview
Professor Jacqueline Hill, NUI
Maynooth; Dublin and Irish Politics in
the Age of Charles Lucas
Dr Eoin Magennis, President of
the Eighteenth Century Ireland Society; Charles
Lucas and Patriot Politics in mid-18th Century Ireland
Professor Marian Lyons, NUI Maynooth; The Professionalisation of Medical Practice
in Dublin during the Early-17th Century: the Case of Thomas Arthur, M.D.
Dr Susan Mullaney, RAMI/UCC; Charles Lucas and Medical Regulation in 18th
Century Ireland
Sean J. Murphy, M.A., Genealogy
Teacher, UCD Adult Education; The ‘Essay
on Waters’ and other Medical Writings of Charles Lucas
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