Sir Francis Cruise

Sir Francis Cruise I Clongowes 1848-1851

Sir Francis Cruise (1834-1912), doctor and inventor of the endoscope, was a native of Dublin, who attended Clongowes in 1848-51. Graduating in medicine from TCD in 1858, he was subsequently admitted to the College of Physicians and the Royal College of Surgeons (London). He established himself in private practice in Dublin, before joining the newly opened Mater Misericordiae Hospital in 1861, first as a surgeon, although later confining himself to medicine. He was respected as a careful clinician and an inspiring teacher. He is famous for his construction of the first effective endoscope, enabling the examination of internal organs, including the bladder, rectum, uterus, pharynx and larynx. It was exhibited at the Dublin meeting of the British Medical Association in 1867 and subsequently used throughout Britain. He became interested in psychiatry and was one of the earliest to employ hypnotism in medical practice, although he subsequently abandoned its use. He published a variety of papers in professional journals, several books on St Thomas à Kempis and a biography of his fellow physician Sir Dominic Corrigan. He was a fine musician, a member of the Royal Irish Academy and an excellent shot. He was knighted in 1896, became deputy lieutenant of County Meath, where he was a landowner, and was appointed physician-in-ordinary to Edward VII and George V. In 1905 Pope Pius X created him a knight of St Gregory the Great.