BORN: 1849 | DIED: 1914
Christopher Nixon was born in Dublin on 29 June 1849.
He was educated at Terenure College, and subsequently studied at the Catholic University School of Medicine, Cecilia Street. He was conferred with the Licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons (RCSI) in Ireland in 1868 and the Licentiate of the College of Physicians of Ireland in 1869, when he was just 20 years of age.
At that time, he was appointed to the post of Assistant Physician to the Mater Misericordia Hospital, Dublin where he subsequently gained the position of Physician in 1872.
In addition to pursuing a busy clinical practice, Christopher devoted much effort to the development of medical education at the Cecilia Street School of Medicine. His first role was in 1873 as an Anatomy Demonstrator, then proceeding to Professor of Anatomy and Physiology in 1881 to 1886, and later to the posts of Professor of Medicine (1887-1914) and Dean of the Faculty (1900).
In 1889, he published a textbook for medical students titled ‘Handbook of Hospital Practice and Physical Diagnosis’ which proved to be highly successful.
When Nixon became Professor of Medicine, the privately funded Cecilia Street Medical School was the second smallest of the nine medical schools in Ireland, and the examination results of its graduates fared poorly when compared with those of most of the other Schools.
However, by the mid-1890s, the School was attracting more students and its graduates were outperforming the other Schools. These achievements were largely attributable to the influence of Christopher and were instrumental in gaining the long-term objective of incorporation with the government-funded UCD in 1908 for the Catholic University School of Medicine. He was then appointed Professor of Medicine at UCD and Vice-Chancellor of the NUI.