Biography

Jacob, second son of John Jacob, M.D.

Doctor of Medicine

Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians. The degree is granted by medical schools...

 (1754–1827), surgeon to the Queen's County (now Laois

County Laois

County Laois is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Midlands Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It was formerly known as Queen's County until the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. The county's name was formerly spelt as Laoighis and Leix. Laois County Council...

) infirmary, Maryborough (now Portlaoise), Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

, by his wife Grace (1765–1835), only child of Jerome Alley of Donoughmore

Donoughmore

Donoughmore is a parish in County Cork which lies 25 km west north west of Cork city in Ireland.-Amenities:Donoughmore has two primary schools. Scoil Iósaif and St. Lachteen's...

, was born at Knockfin, Maryborough, on 13 or 30 June 1790. He studied medicine with his father and at Steevens's Hospital

Dr Steevens' Hospital

Dr Steevens' Hospital in Dublin was one of Ireland's most distinguished eighteenth-century medical establishments...

, Dublin, under Abraham Colles

Abraham Colles

Abraham Colles was professor of Anatomy, Surgery and Physiology at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Descended from a Worcestershire family, some of whom had sat in Parliament, he was born to William Colles and Mary Anne Bates of Woodbroak, Co. Wexford...

. Having graduated M.D. at the University of Edinburgh

University of Edinburgh

The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...

 in 1814, he set out on a walking tour through the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, crossing the Channel

English Channel

The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...

 at Dover

Dover

Dover is a town and major ferry port in the home county of Kent, in South East England. It faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel, and lies south-east of Canterbury; east of Kent's administrative capital Maidstone; and north-east along the coastline from Dungeness and Hastings...

, and continuing his walk from Calais

Calais

Calais is a town in Northern France in the department of Pas-de-Calais, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's capital is its third-largest city of Arras....

 to Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

.

He studied at Paris until Napoleon's

Napoleon I of France

Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...

 return from Elba

Elba

Elba is a Mediterranean island in Tuscany, Italy, from the coastal town of Piombino. The largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago, Elba is also part of the National Park of the Tuscan Archipelago and the third largest island in Italy after Sicily and Sardinia...

. He subsequently pursued his studies in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 under Sir B. Brodie, Sir A. Cooper

Astley Cooper

Sir Astley Paston Cooper, 1st Baronet was an English surgeon and anatomist, who made historical contributions to otology, vascular surgery, the anatomy and pathology of the mammary glands and testicles, and the pathology and surgery of hernia.-Life:Cooper was born at Brooke Hall in Brooke, Norfolk...

, and Sir W. Lawrence. In 1819 he returned to Dublin, and became demonstrator of anatomy

Anatomy

Anatomy is a branch of biology and medicine that is the consideration of the structure of living things. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy , and plant anatomy...

 under Dr. James Macartney at Trinity College

Trinity College, Dublin

Trinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...

. Here his anatomical researches gained for him a high reputation, and he collected a valuable museum, which Macartney afterwards sold to the university of Cambridge

University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...

. In 1819 he announced the discovery, which he had made in 1816, of a previously unknown membrane of the eye, in a paper in the Philosophical Transactions (pt. i. pp. 300–7). The membrane has been known since as membrana Jacobi and forms the retina

Retina

The vertebrate retina is a light-sensitive tissue lining the inner surface of the eye. The optics of the eye create an image of the visual world on the retina, which serves much the same function as the film in a camera. Light striking the retina initiates a cascade of chemical and electrical...

. On leaving Macartney, Jacob joined with Graves and others in founding the Park Street School of Medicine. In 1826 he was elected professor of anatomy in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland

Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland

The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland , is a Dublin-based medical institution, situated on St. Stephen's Green. The college is one of the five Recognised Colleges of the National University of Ireland...

, and held the chair until 1869. He was three times chosen president of the college. In 1832, in conjunction with Charles Benson and others, he established the City of Dublin Hospital

Royal City of Dublin Hospital, Baggot Street

The Royal City of Dublin Hospital on Upper Baggot Street, Dublin, Ireland, was built in 1832. Its facade is of red brick and terracotta tiles, set back from the street.-History:The hospital was built to the designs of the architect Albert E...

. With Dr. Henry Maunsell in 1839 he started the Dublin Medical Press, a weekly journal of medical science, and edited forty-two volumes (1839 to 1859). He also contributed to the Dublin Journal of Medical Science

Dublin Journal of Medical Science

The Irish Journal of Medical Science is a peer-reviewed medical journal that was established in 1832 by Robert Kane as the Dublin Journal of Medical & Chemical Science. Besides Kane, it had distinguished editors like Robert James Graves and William Wilde...

. He took an active part in founding the Royal Medical Benevolent Fund Society of Ireland and the Irish Medical Association

Irish Medical Organisation

The Irish Medical Organisation is a Professional association for Doctors in the Republic of Ireland which also acts as a Trade Union representing doctors in negotiations with the Irish government....

. At the age of seventy-five he retired from the active pursuit of his profession. His fame rests upon his anatomical and ophthalmological discoveries.

Apart from his discovery of the membrana Jacobi, he described Jacob's ulcer

Basal cell carcinoma

Basal-cell carcinoma is the most common type of skin cancer. It rarely metastasizes or kills. However, because it can cause significant destruction and disfigurement by invading surrounding tissues, it is still considered malignant. Statistically, approximately 3 out of 10 Caucasians may develop a...

, and revived Cataract surgery

Cataract surgery

Cataract surgery is the removal of the natural lens of the eye that has developed an opacification, which is referred to as a cataract. Metabolic changes of the crystalline lens fibers over time lead to the development of the cataract and loss of transparency, causing impairment or loss of vision...

 through the cornea

Cornea

The cornea is the transparent front part of the eye that covers the iris, pupil, and anterior chamber. Together with the lens, the cornea refracts light, with the cornea accounting for approximately two-thirds of the eye's total optical power. In humans, the refractive power of the cornea is...

 with a curved needle. To the Cyclopædia of Anatomy he contributed an article on the eye, and to the Cyclopædia of Practical Medicine treatises on Ophthalmia and Amaurosis. In December 1860 a medal bearing his likeness was struck and presented to him, and his portrait, bust, and library were afterwards placed in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He died at Newbarnes, Barrow-in-Furness

Barrow-in-Furness

Barrow-in-Furness is an industrial town and seaport which forms about half the territory of the wider Borough of Barrow-in-Furness in the county of Cumbria, England. It lies north of Liverpool, northwest of Manchester and southwest from the county town of Carlisle...

, on September 21, 1874.

In 1824 he married Sarah, daughter of Coote Carroll, of Ballymote, County Sligo. She died on January 6, 1839. By her he had five sons.

Works

His chief publications were:

1. A Treatise on the Inflammation of the Eyeball, 1849.
2. On Cataract and the Operation for its Removal by Absorption, 1851.