Stokes, William (1804-1878)

Irish physician who, with John Cheyne, gave his name to Cheyne-Stokes breathing, or periodic respiration.

Stokes studied clinical medicine at the Meath Hospital, Dublin, and at Edinburgh. He returned to Dublin and held a post at the Meath Hospital.

When Stokes referred to Cheyne's paper on periodic respiration in his book The Diseases of the Heart and Aorta, the phenomenon became known by both their names.

Stokes's name was also applied to Stokes-Adams attacks after his paper ‘Observations on Some Cases of Permanently Slow Pulse’ 1846.