William Birmingham Costello

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

Life 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.

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.

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

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).