Whitley Stokes (physician)

This article is about the physician. For his grandson, the Celtic scholar, see Whitley Stokes (Celtic scholar).

Whitely Stokes
Born1763
Died1845
NationalityIrish
EducationTrinity College Dublin
Occupation(s)Physician, mathematician
Notable workObservations on Contagion (1818), Observations on the population and resources of Ireland (1821).
MovementSociety of United Irishmen

Whitley Stokes (1763–1845) was an Irish physician and polymath. A one-time United Irishman, in 1798 he was sanctioned by Trinity College Dublin for his alleged republicanism. In 1821, he published a rebuttal of Robert Malthus's thesis that, as spurs to population growth, in Ireland attempts to improve the general welfare are self-defeating. The country's problem, Stokes argued, was not her "numbers" but her indifferent government.