One of the most influential doctors in medical cannabis research, Dr. William Brooke O’Shaughnessy

Over the years of
Irish immigration, St. Patrick’s Day has become a holiday for the Irish around
the globe to reflect and reconnect to their home country. This holiday, at its
best, has become a day for the Irish to be proud of their culture.

For the Irish who
par take in the use of medicinal cannabis, we have a distinctly Irish reason to
be proud. One of the most influential nineteenth century Western doctors who
pioneered the research of medicinal cannabis use was Irish: Dr. William Brooke
O’Shaughnessy.

ver the course of
his life, which spanned 1809 to 1889, O’Shaughnessy showed himself to be a
resilient and inventive thinker, often reinventing himself and using his
immense knowledge and skills to help those around him in a variety of ways.
Interestingly, O’Shaughnessy’s career would be linked to another one of
England’s colonies at the time- India. He would spend many years of his life there,
first researching the medical use of cannabis and then inventing and installing
new telegraph technology across the Indian countryside.

Born in Limerick in
about 1809, O’Shaughnessy showed exceptional promise from an early age in his
schooling and at only eighteen he was accepted to what was considered the best
medical school in the Western world, the University of Edinburgh. While there,
he studied chemistry, medicine and forensic toxicology, studying with some of
the best experts of the day.

After graduating
from medical school in 1829, he began his medical career after moving to London
the following year. There, he found himself unable to get a license to practice
medicine, so instead he set up his own forensic toxicology lab, doing analysis
for doctors, hospitals and courts.

When there was an
outbreak of cholera in 1831, brought on by soldiers returning from being
stationed in India, O’Shaughnessy used his lab to analyze the blood of cholera
victims. During this era, the cause and cure for cholera was unknown, resulting
in huge amounts of deaths from the epidemic. O’Shaughnessy’s blood analysis led
to his discovery that the cause of death for victims was “dehydration,
electrolyte depletion, acidosis and nitrogen retention.” (O’Shaughnessy,
1831) When O’Shaughnessy published his findings, doctors began to apply his
suggestions of replenishing fluids intravenously, saving an immense amount of
lives from this deadly disease. This discovery has been called “the
19th-century equivalent to finding the cure for AIDs without knowing what HIV
was.” (Dr. Michael R. Aldrich, 2006)

O’Shaughnessy’s
immense, life-saving discovery garnered him notice in the medical world, and
secured him a position as an assistant surgeon for the East India Company,
which took him to Calcutta in 1833. While in India, O’Shaughnessy helped to
found the Calcutta Medical College where he taught as a professor. He
befriended local Ayurvedic and Islamic physicians and began to conduct
experiments on a variety of Indian medical plants, from opium to cannabis
indica. His work produced the first texts on Indian medicinal plants in
English, as seen in his Memoranda on India Materia Medica presented to the
Royal Society in 1838.

In 1839,
O’Shaughnessy wrote and presented a paper on the history of medical uses of
cannabis by Ayurvedic and Persian doctors in India and the Middle East to the
Medical and Physical Society of Calcutta. He then began to conduct the first
clinical trials of cannabis, first giving tinctures to mice, rabbits, dogs and
cats and then treating human patients. These human patients suffered a variety
of ailments from rheumatism, cholera, and tetanus. He even treated a 40-day-old
baby with convulsions whose heath remarkably turned around in a few days. While
he did warn of delirium caused by “continual hemp inebriation” and
recommended small doses, O’Shaughnessy wrote in his findings that cannabis was
an “anti-convulsive remedy of the greatest value.” He called it a
“powerful and valuable substance” which he anticipated to become an
important additional resource for the Western physician. (O’Shaughnessy, 1839)

O’Shaughnessy
brought quantities of Cannabis indica to England in 1841 and his articles were
reprinted there, spreading his ideas across the English medical community. Even
the physician to Queen Victoria, Sir J. Russell Reynolds, M.D., came to
recommend cannabis for the relief of menstrual cramps.

Ever reinventing
himself, O’Shaughnessy switched his research focus at this time in his life
and, upon returning to India in 1844, he delved into pioneering work in
telegraph technology. He developed telegraphs that could stand up to Indian
weather and terrain. Dr. Michael R. Aldrich wrote in his 2006 paper “The
Remarkable W.B. O’Shaughnessy” that “the introduction of the telegraph,
an advanced Western technology into a colonial environment, was in some sense
the opposite of his introduction of cannabis into Western medicine.
O’Shaughnessy was adept at relaying scientific information in both directions,
and therein lies his glory.”

Today
O’Shaughnessy’s research on medicinal cannabis use is perhaps how he is best
remembered. For example, when the “Marijuana: Medical Papers”
(1839-1972) was published in 1973 by Dr. Tod H. Mikuriya, M.D., O’Shaughnessy’s
pioneering findings influenced a great deal more research to be conducted on
the subject. So, if you celebrate St. Patricks Day, think fondly of the
Irishman O’Shaughnessy from Limerick and all the doctors who carry on his
important research work to this day.