Francis White (surgeon)

[3] Francis White was indentured to Abraham Colles on 17 March 1807, and for some time was a resident pupil in Steevens' Hospital and a student in the RCSI School.

He established a Hospital for Diseases of the Eye on Lower Ormond Quay and subsequently added to it a small anatomical school.

[2] White had initiated a campaign to secure medical participation in the treatment of the mentally ill years before the 1845 Act.

As Inspector-General of Prisons, White had seen this as a step towards a medical professional being appointed to a similar role for asylums.

White believed that if mentally ill patients were treated with kindness, comfort, and understanding it would most likely give good results.