Samuel Crumpe

Samuel Crumpe (1766–1796) was an Irish physician and a writer on medical and social issues.

Life

Samuel Crumpe was born at Rathkeale on 15 September 1766. He was the eldest son of Daniel Crumpe and his wife and cousin, Grace, daughter of Richard Orpen of Ardtully, High Sheriff of Kerry.

In 1788, at the age of 22, he was awarded the degree of MD at Edinburgh University, with a dissertation in which he argued that scurvy could be cured by good diet. The same year he set up in practice in Limerick, where he was notable for his active service to the poor through his work at St. John's Hospital.

In 1792 he married Susan Ingram, described as an accomplished lady with a large fortune, she was the second daughter of the Rev. Jaques Ingram by his wife, the granddaughter of Thomas Smyth, Bishop of Limerick, Ardfert and Aghadoe. The couple had two children, one of whom ( Mary Grace Susan Crumpe) wrote the historical novel ''Geraldine of Desmond: Or, Ireland in the Reign of Elizabeth. An Historical Romance in Three Volumes'' (1829).

Crumpe was an avid climatologist and kept a weather diary for each day of 1795.

Crumpe died in Limerick on 27 January 1796, aged 29. One obituary notice recorded that he was "a man whose rare virtues and accomplishments recommended him to the respect and esteem of a widely extended and diversified acquaintance".

Writings

In 1793 Crumpe's ''Essay on the Best Means of Providing Employment for the People'' won the prize offered by the Royal Irish Academy. It was translated into French and German, as was his book on opium which appeared the same year. The work was heavily indebted to Adam Smith in its assumptions about society and economy.

Crumpe’s work on opium provided an experimental basis for classifying the drug as a stimulant rather than a narcotic, and was the first to provide an extensive discussion of withdrawal effects.Jan Godderis, ''En mijn verrukking neemt geen end: Cultuurhistorische reflecties over drugs, roes, verbeelding en creativiteit'' (Antwerp & Apeldoorn: Garant, 2004), p. 78.

Bibliography

*''De Vitiis quibus Humores corrumpi dicuntur, eorumque Remediis'', doctoral dissertation, 1788.
*''An Essay on the Best Means of Providing Employment for the People'', 1793. Second edition 1795
Available on Google Books
*''An Inquiry into the Nature and Properties of Opium'', 1793
Available on Google Books
*''History of a Case in which very uncommon worms were discharged from the stomach'', 1797 (lecture read to the Royal Irish Academy on 6 December 1794, published posthumously). Als
available
in the ''Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy'', vol. 6 (Dublin, 1797).

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crumpe, Samuel
1766 births
1796 deaths
Medical doctors from County Limerick
Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
18th-century Irish medical doctors
Irish science writers
Royal Irish Academy