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William Barker Prof. William Barker, RCSI Prof. of Chemistry from 1850 – 1873

Prof. William Barker was the second RCSI Prof. of Chemistry holding the position from 1850 – 1873. William Barker was born in Dublin in 1810 and was educated in Arts and Medicine in Trinity College Dublin, and in 1832 took the degree of B.A. in 1835 that of M.B. and in 1842 proceeded to the M.D. degree. He was a fellow of the College of Physicians, of which, in 1854, he became Vice-President but he never practiced as a physician. In 1836, he began to lecture on Chemistry in the Richmond School Dublin and in 1850 succeeded Prof. Apjohn as the Chair of Chemistry in the RCSI. While this would be unusual today, in the latter part of the 19th century and early part of the 20th century the cultivation of chemical sciences and the practice of medicine were frequently associated with the same person.