Arthur Leared, M.D. was an Irish physician and traveller of the world.
Life
Born at Wexford, he was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated B.A. in 1845, M.B. in 1847, and M.D. in 1860, being admitted M.D. ad eundem at Oxford on 7 February 1861. He first practised medicine in County Wexford. In 1851 Leared went to India, but had poor health, and only made a short stay there. In 1852 he established himself as physician in London, and in 1854 was admitted a member of the Royal College of Physicians, becoming a fellow in 1871. During the Crimean War he acted as physician to the British Civil Hospital at Smyrna, and subsequently visited Palestine. On his return to London he was connected with the Great Northern Hospital, the Royal Infirmary for Diseases of the Chest, the Metropolitan Dispensary, and St. Mark's Hospital for Fistula. He also lectured on the practice of medicine at the Grosvenor Place School of Medicine. In 1862 Leared paid the first of four visits to Iceland, the last being in 1874. He published a book in Icelandic on the "'Fatal Cystic Disease of Iceland". In the autumn of 1870 he visited America. In 1872 he journeyed to Morocco, and he revisited that country on two other occasions; in 1877 as physician to the Portuguese embassy, and in the summer of 1879. Armed with a free pass from the sultan he was enabled to visit the cities of Morocco, Fez, and Mequinez. He likewise explored unfrequented parts of the country, and among other minor discoveries succeeded in identifying the site of the Roman station of Volubilis, an account of which he communicated to The Academy of 29 June 1878. On a breezy upland, north of Tangier, Leared secured a piece of land for an intended sanatorium for consumptive patients, as he believed the climate to be suitable. He died at 12 Old Burlington Street, London, on 16 October 1879. He belonged to learned societies and contributed to professional journals, mostly on subjects connected with the sounds of the heart and the disorders of digestion. He laid claim to the invention of the double stethoscope.
Works
Leared wrote travel and medical books. His major writings are:
'The Causes and Treatment of Imperfect Digestion,' London, 1860; 7th edit. 1882, with portrait.
'On the Sounds caused by the Circulation of the Blood,' London, 1861, his thesis for the M.D. degree at Dublin.
'Morocco and the Moors.' London, 1876; 2nd edit, revised by Sir Richard F. Burton, 1891.
'A Visit to the Court of Morocco.' London, 1879.
He also edited Amariah Brigham's 'Mental Exertion in relation to Health', 1864 and 1866.
