Origins & Early Life

Nial O'Glacan (Irish: Niall Ó Glacáin; c. 1563 – 1653) was an Irish physician and plague doctor who worked to treat victims of bubonic plague outbreaks throughout continental Europe. He was a physician to Hugh Roe O'Donnell and King Louis XIII. Working as a physician to the prominent O'Donnell clan during the Nine Years' War, he may have followed their chief to Spain after the Siege of Kinsale, where he spent two decades practicing medicine.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

He moved to France in the 1620s, settling in Toulouse to publish his work Tractatus de Peste, a treatise on plague treatment. Later in life he took up a post at the University of Bologna as Professor of Medicine. O'Glacan was a pioneer in pathological anatomy, with his work predating that of anatomist Giovanni Battista Morgagni by several decades. Nial O'Glacan was born in Tyrconnell, a Gaelic kingdom in Ireland, in the latter half of the sixteenth century. Some historians give him a birth date of around 1563, owing to a 1653 engraving that gives his age as 90.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

Professor Giorgio Scharpes estimated O'Glacan to be about 48 when recommending him to the University of Bologna in the 1630s, which would mean he was born in...

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