Sir, – Brian Maye’s Irishman’s Diary of July 31st on Abraham Colles reminds us of another famous teaching surgeon, Peter Freyer, who died on September 9th 1921. Freyer was described as “the man who gave the world prostatectomy”.
He was born in Salerna, Cleggan, Co Galway, on July 2nd, 1851, to tenant farmer Samuel Freyer and his wife Celia Burke, a Roman Catholic. Baptised Protestant in Ballinakill Parish on July 26th that year he was educated in Moyard and Galway Grammar School by the Irish Church Missions. He won a scholarship to Queen’s College Galway (now the University of Galway), graduating in both chemistry 1872 and medicine 1874 with first-class class honours and gold medals.
After training in Dr Steevens’ Hospital in Dublin and in Paris, Freyer in 1875 sat the competitive examination for the Indian Medical Service (IMS). Another first here brought him to Bengal as a civil surgeon and surgeon major in 1887. He retired from the IMS in May 1896 as a colonel.
In India, Freyer became expert in cataract surgery and liholapaxy, the removal of bladder stones. In 1888, at Moradabad, he operated on the paralysed Bahadur Ali Khan, Nawab of Rampur, crushing his bladder stone with a lithorite. This effectively maintained the Nawab’s family dynasty. He gifted Freyer 100,000 rupees, a huge sum. This led to conflict with the British authorities in India who first ordered him to return the gift or resign. Freyer refused both, successfully arguing that as an officer of the IMS working as a civil surgeon he had broken no rule of service.
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In 1894 Freyer represented the Indian government at the International Medical and Surgical Congress in Rome. Here he presented his study of 597 cases of bladder stone removal by transurethral litholapaxy. At that time mortality for open litholapaxy was 12.5 per cent. Freyer demonstrated a mortality of 1.84 per cent. However his troubles with the government for what might be regarded as “profiting from private practice” continued.
After suffering an attack from a mentally unstable patient in a state hospital, he received an eye injury. He retired from the IMS and returned to London. Exempted from fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons, Freyer was elected to the staff of St Peter’s Hospital for Stone in 1897. In 1900 he performed a first enucleative prostatectomy on John Thomas (69) who lived at the Bird Keeper’s Lodge in St James’s Park. Thomas survived a further 12 years. In 20 further years Freyer performed another 1,000 prostatectomies. He clearly demonstrated his skills in vivo, teaching and lecturing to worldwide students in English, French and Hindustani. In 1904 he was awarded the Arnott Medal for Surgical Research by Irish medical schools. Rejoining the IMS in 1914, he worked in Queen Alexandra Military Hospital, was awarded a KCB in 1917 and an LLD from the NUI in 1919.
In 1919 Freyer was elected as first president of the urology section of the Royal Society of Medicine.
He reviewed the advances in surgery over the previous 45 years, concluding that “a great countryman of mine once stated that no man can place the bounds to the strides of a nation, I have had the good fortune of witnessing and taking a humble part in great advances here. Surely there can be no limits to the strides of surgery.”
Sir Peter Johnson Freyer died at Harley Street in London on September 9th, 1921. His wife Isabelle, from the Cavan/Dublin McVittie family, died in 1914. He was a strong supporter of Irish Home Rule, and a friend of TP O’Connor MP and John Redmond MP.
He had transformed the procedure which bears his name, demonstrated that prostatectomy could be done with few complications and a low mortality rate.
During turbulent times his remains were quietly interred beside his father in Clifden churchyard in Co Galway.
Memorabilia and diaries of this great surgeon and Irishman were donated to UCG by his grandson Patrick Pearse Freyer.
The 48th Sir Peter Freyer Memorial Lecture and Surgical Symposium will be held on Friday September 1st and Saturday September 2nd, 2023, in UCG. – Yours, etc,
JOE HOBAN,
Ballsbridge,
Dublin 4.