James William Cusack

James William Cusack (26 May 1788 – 25 September 1861)[2] was the president of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) in 1827, 1847, and 1858.

[3] Educated at Trinity College Dublin (TCD), Cusack graduated in arts in 1809, medicine in 1812 and he was later awarded MD and M.Ch.

A bold and dexterous operator, he could use the scalpel without hesitation, and overnight became famous for his speedy first-aid treatment of a patient who was bleeding to death from a severed artery due to a gunshot wound.

[4] In 1824 he was a founder of the Medico-Chirurgical School, Park St. (later Lincoln Place), which earned a high reputation, and was its professor (1824–49) of anatomy, physiology, and surgery.

Two portraits of Cusack and busts by J. R. Kirk (qv) and John Lawler (1820–1901) are held in the RCSI.