707 



WILKINSON, SIR JOHN GARDNER. 



WILLAN, ROBERT. 



708 



Vitruvius, containing those books relating to the Public and Private 

 Edifices of the Ancients,' imp. 4to, 1812. 



WILKINSON, Sill JOHN GARDNER,, Knight, was born in 

 1798. He is the son of the Rev. John Wilkinson by the daughter of 

 the Rev. Richard Gardner. He was educated at Harrow School and 

 at Exeter College, Oxford. He afterwards went to Egypt, where he 

 remained twelve years, devoting himself to the study of tho antiquities 

 of the country, and making himself acquainted with the languages, 

 manners, and customs of the modern inhabitants. He resided a con- 

 siderable time iu a tomb at Thebes, and employed himself in making 

 accurate surveys of the district, and drawings of the stupendous 

 architectural monuments, and in copying with minute fidelity the sculp- 

 tures, paintings, hieroglyphics, and other objects of interest then 

 existing. The works which he has since published afford abundant 

 evidence, not only of his assiduity, but of the care and skill with which 

 his investigations were conducted. 



In 1828 Mr. Wilkinson published at Malta ' Materia Hieroglyphica,' 

 in four parts; and in London, in 1835, ' Topography of Thebes, and 

 General View of Egypt,' 8vo. In 1836 he published the First Series 

 of his great work on the Ancient Egyptians, ' The Manners and Cus- 

 toms of the Ancient Egyptians, including their Private Life, Govern- 

 ment, Laws, Arts, Manufactures, Religion, Agriculture, and Early 

 History, derived from a Comparison of the Paintings, Sculptures, and 

 Monuments, still existing, with the Accounts of Ancient Authors,' 

 3 vols. 8vo. The Second Series, in 2 vols. 8vo, was published in 1840, 

 in which year he received the honour of knighthood for his labours in 

 literature and archaeology. 



In 1843, Sir Gardner Wilkinson, having previously bepn elected 

 F.R.S., M.R.C.L., F.R.G.S., &c., published ' Modern Egypt and Thebes, 

 being a Description of Egypt, including the Information required for 

 Travellers in that Country,' 2 vols. 8vo. The third edition of his 

 ' Ancient Egyptians,' including both series, and illustrated with 600 

 plates and wood-cuts, was published in 1847, in 5 vols. 8vo. In the 

 same year Mr. Murray published as one of his series of ' Hand-Books,' a 

 'Hand-Book for Travellers in Egypt, including Descriptions of the 

 Course of the Nile, of the Second Cataract, Alexandria, Cairo, the 

 Pyramids, and Thebes, the Overland Transit to India, the Peninsula 

 of Mount Sinai, the Oases, &c., being a new edition corrected and con- 

 densed of ' Modern Egypt and Thebes,' by Sir Gardner Wilkinson,' 

 12mo. In 1844 Sir Gardner Wilkinson travelled in Dalmatia and 

 Montenegro, and in 1848 published ' Dalmatia and Montsnegro ; with 

 a Journey to Mostar in Herzegovina, and Remarks on the Slavonic 

 Nations, the History of Dalmatia and Ragusa, the Useocs, &c.' 2 vols. 

 Svo. In 1850, he published ' The Architecture of Ancient Egypt, in 

 which tho Columns are arranged in Orders, and the Temples clas- 

 sified ; with Remarks on the Early Progress of Architecture, &c., Svo, 

 with a large Volume of Plates illustrative of the Subject, and in- 

 cluding the various Columns and Details from actual Measurement.' 

 In 1851 he published ' The Fragments of the Hieratic Papyrus at 

 Turin, containing the names of Egyptian Kings, with the Hieratic 

 Inscription at the Back, Svo, with a folio volume of plates. In 1854 

 he published ' A Popular Account of the Ancient Egyptians,' revise.d 

 and abridged from his larger work, with the addition of other matter 

 in consequence of his having revisited Egypt, and of other discoveries 

 having been made since the publication of his larger work. 



Lord Ripon, in an address to the Royal Society of literature, makes 

 the following remarks on the great work, ' The Ancient Egyptians:' 

 " Indefatigable in research, full of learning, accurate in facts, Sir 

 Gardner Wilkinson has at the same time treated his subject with the 

 enthusiasm of genius and the liveliness of poetry. He opens to you 

 the temple of their deities, the palace of their sovereign, the field of 

 battle, and the repositories of the dead. He traces for you their early 

 history, he exhibits to you their knowledge of the arts and sciences, 

 the course of their husbandry, and the process of their manufactures; 

 and he introduces you to their private life with a graphic vivacity 

 which makes you at once a judge of the virtues and vices of the 

 Egyptian character, and a partaker as it were of the intimacies of their 

 domestic society." 



W1LLAERT, ADRIA'NO, a composer much celebrated when musi- 

 cal learning was more cultivated than musical genius, was born at 

 Bruges, in the Netherlands, in the latter part of the 15th century. 

 He first studied the law in the university of Paris, but, as often has 

 happened, the most winning of the muses seduced him from so dry a 

 pursuit, and thenceforward devoting himself to harmony, he soon 

 became famous for his motets. These procured him the high situa- 

 tion of Maestro di Capella of St. Mark's, Venice, which he held till his 

 decease at an advanced age. He was the master of Costanza Porta, of 

 Cipriano Hose, and also of the famous Zarlino, who, in his 'Institu- 

 tion! Harmoniche,' mentions him in the most eulogistic terms. 



WILLAN, ROBERT, was born on the 12th of November 1757, at 

 the Hill, near Sedbergh in Yorkshire, where his father had an exten- 

 sive practice as a medical man. His parents belonging to the Society 

 of Friends, he was brought up in the principles of this body, and re- 

 ceived his early education in the grammar-school of his native place. 

 His progress as a boy in his classical and mathematical studies was 

 very remarkable, and iu 1777 he went to Edinburgh well prepared to 

 commence his medical studies. After the usual residence of three 

 years, he graduated in 1780, on which occasion he presented an in- 



augural dissertation on inflammation of the liver. It was published 

 under the title ' De Jecinoris Inflammatione.' He subsequently came 

 to London for the purpose of further improvement, and was about to 

 settle there, when a relative in a good practice at Darlington died, and 

 Willan became his successor. He remained at Darlington about a 

 year, and returned to London in 1782. During the time he was at 

 Darlington he analysed the sulphureous mineral-spring of Croft, and 

 published the result in an octavo volume, with the title ' Observations 

 on the Sulphur Water at Croft near Darlington.' A second edition of 

 this work was published in 1786. In this work is one of the earliest 

 notices of the peculiar forms of vegetation that inhabit various mineral- 

 spriugs. He recommends these waters particularly in skin diseases, 

 and perhaps here may be found the germs of inquiry that led to his 

 future labours. 



In 1783 the Public Dispensary in Carey-street was opened, and 

 Willan was made physician. In 1785 he was admitted a licentiate of 

 the College of Physician?, on which occasion he addressed to that 

 body some congratulatory Greek verses. In 1786 he commenced a 

 course of lectures at the Dispensary on the principles and practice of 

 medicine ; but his success appears to have been small He was sub- 

 sequently appointed physician to the Finsbury Dispensary. He was 

 remarkable for the punctuality with which he attended to hia public 

 duties, and it said he never sought relaxation by absence from London 

 for thirty years. 



From an early period of his professional career Willan seems to have 

 been dissatisfied with the existing nomenclature and classification of 

 cutaneous diseases. He sought by an accurate distinction of external 

 forms to render their classification more simple, and their recognition 

 more certain. In 1789 he had succeeded so far iu this object, that 

 a paper which he read before the Medical Society of London obtained 

 for him the Fothergill gold medal of .that year. This laid the foun- 

 dation for the publication of his great work, the ' Description and 

 Treatment of Cutaneous Diseases.' This work was illustrated with 

 coloured plates of the various diseases which were described in the 

 letter-press. The first part was published in London in 1798, and con- 

 tained the first order into which he had divided cutaneous diseases, 

 the papulous eruptions of the skin. The second order, scaly diseases 

 of the skin, was published in 1801. He did not live to complete this 

 work. Two more volumes appeared in 1805-7, containing a part of 

 his third order, the rashes, iu which the varieties of scarlet fever and 

 measles were treated. A fourth part, containing the remainder of the 

 rashes and the Bullse, or large vesicatious, was published in 1808. The 

 subject of vaccination having excited great interest, Willan was induced 

 to publish a volume on this subject out of the regular order of his 

 work, and this appeared in 1806, with the title 'On Vaccine Inocula- 

 tion.' In this work he gave a full account of Jenner's disease the cow- 

 pox, also of the chicken-pox, and of other cutaneous diseases which 

 might be confounded with the vaccine disease. The remaining portions 

 of the work, including the pustular, vesicular, tubercular, and ina- 

 cular orders, were not published as a completion of Dr. Willan's work ; 

 but all the materials having been committed by him to the care of 

 Dr. Bateinan, were 'afterwards published by him in a work entitled 

 'Delineations of Cutaneous Diseases, exhibiting the characteristic 

 appearances of the principal genera and species comprised in the clas- 

 sification of the late Dr. Willan, and completing the series of engravings 

 begun by that author,' London, 1817. By the simple classification 

 which he adopted, and its application to a large number of cases, 

 Willan did more for the advancement of the knowledge of diseases of 

 the skin than any previous writer, and laid the foundation for the 

 successful labours of Bateman, Rayer, and subsequent writers on this 

 subject. 



Besides this great work, Willan published several papers in Journals 

 and Transactions, upon various professional subjects. During some 

 part of the time that he was connected with the Dispensary in Carey- 

 street, he published monthly reports of the cases, with observations. 

 These reports contained much valuable information, and those from 

 1796 to 1800 were published in a separate volume, with the title 

 'Reports on the Diseases of London,' London, 12mo, 1801. In the 

 early part of his life he published a little volume entitled ' History of 

 the Ministry of Jesus Christ, combined from the Narrative of it in the 

 four Evangelists.' This was published in 1782, and a second edition, 

 with notes and observations, appeared in 1786. Willan was fond of 

 antiquarian pursuits, and read several papers before the Antiquarian 

 Society, of which body he was elected a fellow in 1791. One of the 

 most elaborate of his papers was an essay on the practice of lustration 

 by need-fire, a practice which still continues in some of the northern 

 counties of England. He was elected in 1809 a fellow of the Royal 

 Society. 



During the latter part of hia life he resigned his public situations. 

 He took an active interest in the establishment of the Fever Hospital, 

 and was made one of its first physicians extraordinary. His health, 

 which was never strong, began to decline in 1810, and his friends 

 persuaded him to embark for Madeira, where he died on tho 7th of 

 April 1812. 



At the time of his death he was engaged in investigating several points 

 connected with the antiquities of medicine. Among other questions 

 which occupied him was the nature of the ignis sacer ; the evidences of 

 tho prevalence of small-pox, measles, scarlet-fever, and other epidemic 



