Born in the north of Ireland and received a classical education at the Redemon Academy. In 1825 he qualified as a medical student by passing an examination in Greek and Latin at Apothecaries' Hall. He was apprenticed in 1826 to Dr Murray of Belfast, and later to Sir James Murray of Dublin, and underwent the usual drudgery of the pestle and mortar system of education for four or five years. From 1833-1835 he attended the classes at the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland and at Trinity College, gaining the prize for the practice of medicine and a certificate in chemistry. Sir James Murray, being then Physician to the Lord-Lieutenant, was at this period made Inspector of Anatomy under the newly-passed Anatomy Act. Clark was appointed his Assistant Inspector, and nearly all the practical duties of the Act devolved on him. Few are aware of the caution and prudence required, and the difficulty and even danger he encountered, in introducing this Act for the first time amongst such an excitable population as that of Dublin and one proverbial for its veneration of the dead. Under the able management, however, of Sir James Murray and the Anatomical Committee formed from the chief teachers of Dublin, all was carried out pretty smoothly; the schools continued to be supplied with anatomical subjects. In the days of the resurrectionists graves were watched by armed friends of the deceased, and two of the resurrection men were shot whilst rifling a grave just before the Act came into operation. As Assistant Inspector, Clark had great opportunities for anatomical study, availed himself of them to the full, and acquired a high reputation in Dublin for his practical knowledge of the subject. Soon after qualifying in London, he made a voyage to the Cape and India. In 1837 he settled in practice in the Hampstead Road. Ill health, however, drove him to sea again, and he was appointed Surgeon in the West India Steam Packet Service. After passing an examination at the Navy Board he joined the *Actoeon* at Barbados in February, 1842. He steamed about a thousand miles a week in this little vessel and visited all the West Indies, as well as Surinam, Berbice and Demerara, Vera Cruz, and Tampico, becoming familiar with all the beautiful scenes from South America to the Gulf of Mexico. At Paramaribo, the chief town of Surinam, the *Actoeon*, being the first steamer ever seen, was a source of great wonder and delight. Clark lectured at Bridgetown in November, 1842, on "The Pleasures and Advantages of Scientific Knowledge" in aid of the funds of the Barbados Literary Association, and was publicly thanked and elected an honorary member. At the close of the lecture nitrous oxide or laughing gas was administered for the first time in Barbados. At St Thomas, the Danish island, Clark felt the shock of the earthquake which shook the whole range of the West Indies on the morning of Feb 8th, 1843. He gave a graphic account of this earthquake in *The Times* (March 9th, 1843). Transferred to the *Severn*, he made several voyages with Captain Vincent, a fine captain, son of a Falmouth pilot. In 1843 Clark retired from the service quite recovered in health. The love of travel was still upon him, and he subsequently emigrated to Australia, where he practised at Brighton, a watering-place in County Adelaide: he died there on December 23rd, 1873. He was a member of the Medical Society of Australia. Publications:- "On Cholera." - *Lancet*, 1846, i, 651. "Extraordinary Bodies passed in the Urine."" - *Ibid.*, 1853, i, 187.