William Birmingham Costello (1800–1867) was an Irish surgeon, alienist and medical author.

Costello was born near Dublin, and was educated there. He then spent the 1820s in Paris, a student of surgery under Jean Civiale, Guillaume Dupuytren and Charles Louis Stanislas Heurteloup.^[1]

In 1829 Costello set up himself in London as a surgeon, specialising in the stone and lithotrity. He wrote journal articles, and lectured in the transient Brewer Street medical school, with John Epps and Michael Ryan.^[1] Subsequently, he became medical superintendent of Wyke House Asylum, near Isleworth.^[2]

In later life Costello lived in Paris, working mostly as a writer. He died there on 15 August 1867.^[2]

Costello edited the Cyclopædia of Practical Surgery, including a copious bibliography; of which 12 parts were published in London, 1841–3. Contributors included Walter Hayle Walshe, and John Gay who wrote on "cleft palate".^[2][3][4] In his Paris years, Costello was able to complete the work in four volumes (1861), using his own English translations of articles by French surgeons.^[1]

Costello wrote also An Address to the Visiting Justices of the Hanwell Lunatic Asylum (1839), and A Letter to Lord Ashley on the Reform of Private Lunatic Asylums (1845).^[1]

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1887). "Costello, William Birmingham". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 12. London: Smith, Elder & Co.