Robert Perceval (444)

Robert Perceval (30 September 1756 – 3 March 1839) was a chemist, physician, and professor elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1785. Born in Dublin, he attended Trinity College and later studied medicine in Edinburgh. Perceval returned to Dublin 1782; that same year he was appointed a lecturer of chemistry at Trinity College and elected a licentiate by the King and Queen's College of Physicians. From 1785 to 1805 he served as the first professor of chemistry at the University of Dublin. Perceval helped establish a teaching hospital at Trinity, named Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital, by advocating for the passage of the School of Physic Act of August 1800. In 1799, he was elected president of the President of the College of Physicians but forced to resign due to a provision in the Physic Act. In 1819, he spent a year as Physician-General to the Irish Defense Forces before resigning due to illness. Perceval was also a founding member of the Royal Irish Academy and the Dublin General Dispensary. He served as secretary of the Academy for a number of years. Later in life, Perceval took an interest in prison reform and joined the Prison Discipline Society, which later merged with the Howard Society. Perceval died from illness in 1839 at 83-years-old. (DNB)