Background
Costello was born near Dublin, and was educated there.
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.
Subsequently he became medical superintendent of Wyke House Asylum, near Isleworth.
In later life Costello lived in Paris, working mostly as a writer He died there on 15 August 1867.