Nial O'Glacan
Niall Ó Glacáin | |
|---|---|
Engraving of Ó Glacáin, 1653 | |
| Born | c. 1563 |
| Died | 1653 (aged 90) |
| Occupation | Physician |
| Years active | 1602–1653 |
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. 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.