WHY 



Oxford ; as we find by a diftich at the end of a prayer, in 

 five parts, upon a plain fong : " Precamur Sanfte Domine." 



Maxima mufarum noftrarura gloria Whyte 

 Tu peris ; asternum fed tua mufa manet. 



Whyte preceded Tallis and Bird, and died before their 

 fame was well eftabliftied. His works feem never to have 

 been printed ; but in the library of Chrift-church, Oxford, a 

 fufficient number of them has been preferved in the Aldrich 

 colleftion, to excite not only wonder, but indignation, at 

 the little notice that has been taken of them by mufical 

 writers. Morley, indeed, has given him a place in the hll 

 of compofers at the end of his Introduftion, and ranks him, 

 with Orlando di Laflb, among excellent men, who had ven- 

 tured to begin a compofition with a fourth and fixth ; he 

 likewife places him with Fairfax, Taverner, Shepherd, 

 Mundy, Parfons, and Bird, " famous Enghfhmen who have 

 been nothing inferior to the beft compofers on the continent." 

 And no mufician had then appeared who better deferved to 

 be celebrated for knowledge of harmony, and clearnefs of 

 ftyle, than Robert Whyte, as is manifefted in Burney's 

 Hift. of Muf. vol. iii. by an anthem for five voices. 



But befides this mafterly compofition, and a great num- 

 ber of others, to Latin words, which we fcored from 

 the Chrill-church books, and which were probably pro- 

 duced at the latter end of Henry VIII. 's reign, or during 

 the time of queen Mary, when the Romifh religion was 

 ftill in ufe, we are in poiteflion of a fmall MS., which, by 

 the writing and orthography, feems of the l6th century, 

 entitled " Mr. Robert Whyte, his Bitts, of three Parte 

 Songes, in Partition : with Ditties, n ; withoute Ditties, 1 6." 

 Thefe are (hort fugues or intonations in moft of the eight 

 ecdefiaftical modes, in which the harmony is extremely 

 pure, and the anfwer to each fubjeft of fugue brought in 

 with great fcience and regularity. Burney. 



WHYTHORNE, Thomas, gentleman, in Mufical 

 Hijlory, author of a book of fongs, printed by John Daye, 

 in 1 57 1, under the following title : " Songes of three, 

 fower, and five voyces, compofed and made by Thomas 

 Whythorne, gentleman, the which fonges be of fundrie 

 fortes, that is to fay, fome long, fome (hort, fome hard, 

 fome eafie to be fonge, and fome between both ; alfo fome 

 folemne, and fome pleafaunt or mery : fo that according to 

 the (kil of the fingers (not being mufitians), and difpofition 

 or delite of the hearers, they may here find fonges to their 

 contentation and liking." 



Our fecular vocal mufic, during the firil years of Eliza- 

 beth's reign, feems to have been much inferior to that of 

 the church, if any judgment can be fairly formed of it 

 from this book, pubhfhed before the fongs of Bird had 

 appeared, and of which both the words and the mufic are 

 alike truly barbarous. But we have, in our own time, 

 mufic-books publifhed in England every day without genius 

 or fcience to recommend them. And it is not certain that 

 Whythorne's fongs were ever in much public favour. Now, 

 if it (hould happen that one of thefe, by efcaping the broom 

 of Time, fiiould reach pofterity, and fall into the hands of 

 fome future antiquary, critic, or hiftorian, who (hould con- 

 demn j//the compofitionsof the prefent age by one, that had, 

 perhaps, been never performed or heard of by contemporary 

 judges and lovers of good mufic, the fentence would furely 

 be very unjuft. 



WHYTT, RoBEiiT, F.R.S. in 5/V/"^J'> a diftinguifhcd 

 phyfician, was born at Edinburgh in 1714, educated at St. 

 Andrew's, and ftudicd phyfic firil at Edinburgh, and after- 

 wards at London, Paris, and Leyden. He fettled in his pro- 



voL. xxxvrii. 



W I B 



fellion at Edinburgh, where he became a fellow, then prefident 

 of the college of phyficians, and in 1746 chairman of the infti- 

 tutionsof medicme m theuniverfity. Asamedical praditioner 

 and teacher, and alfo as a writer, he acquired celebrity. The 

 firft of his pubhcations was an " Effay on the Vital and 

 other Involuntary Motions of Animals," 1 751, in which he 

 advances a theory diff"erent from that of Stahl, as he attri- 

 butes thefe motions not to the foul, afting to a forefeen end, 

 but to the power of ftimulus. In 1755 he pubUihed " Phy- 

 fiological EfTays, containing an Inquiry into the Caufcs 

 which promote the Circulation of the Fluids in the very 

 fmall Veflels of Animals ; with Obfervations on the Senfi- 

 bihty and IrritabiHty of the Parts of Man and other 

 Animals." Here he fuppofes that the aaion of the heart 

 IS not fufficient to propel the blood through the minuted 

 veflels, but that it is alfifted by an ofcillatory motion of 

 the veflTels themfelves. Of this work, an enlarged edition 

 appeared in 1761. His other works are, " An Effay on 

 the Virtues of Lime-water in the Cure of the Stone," 1752 ; 

 " Obfervations on the Nature, Caufe, and Cure of thofe 

 Diforders which are commonly called Nervous, Hypochon- 

 driac, and Hyfteric," 1764 ; and fome papers in the Edin- 

 burgh " Effays and Obfervations, Phyfical and Literary." 

 A pofthumous work appeared, entitled " Obfervations on 

 the Dropfy of the Brain." Having long laboured under 

 a complication of chronic complaints, he died in 1766. 

 His fon pubhihed an edition of all his works in 1768, 4to. 

 under the infpedion of fir John Pringle. Haller Bib. 

 Anat. Gen. Biog. 



WIA, in Geography, one of the fmall weftern iflands of 

 Scotland, a little to the fouth of Benbecula. N. lat. 57° 22'. 

 W. long. 7° 11'.— Alfo, one of the fmall Weftern iflands, 

 near the eaft coaft of Barray. N. lat. 56° 58'. W. long. 

 7° 22' — Alfo, a fmall ifland near the weft coaft of Skye. 

 N. lat. 57° 21'. W. long. 6^ 27'. 



WIAMPA, or WiNlTA, or Sinpa, a town of Africa, 

 on the Gold Coaft, in the diftrift of Agonna. 



WIANDOTS. See Wyandots. 



WIAPOCO, or Little Wia, one of the navigable 

 mouths of the Oroonoko. 



WIBALDUS, in Biography, a perfon of note in the 

 1 2th century, defcended from a noble family in the bifliopric 

 of Liege, completed his ftudies at Liege, and became a 

 teacher firft at Vaflb, and afterwards at Stablo. In 1130 

 he was elefted abbot; and in 1136 he accompanied the 

 emperor Lotharius on his expedition to Italy, by whom he 

 was employed in feveral important departments, and fixed 

 as abbot in the monaftery of mount Caflino. But he 

 quitted this monaftery in the following year, and returned 

 to Germany. In 11 46 he became abbot of the monaftery 

 of Corvei on the Wefer, in which he was confirmed by king 

 Conrad, to whom he was no lefs an objeft of confidence 

 than he had been to Lotharius. He was no Icfs a favourite 

 with Frederic I., who had fent him twice as ambaflador to 

 Conftantinople ; but on his return from his laft miflion 

 thither, he terminated his hfe at Buleltia, in Paphlagonia, 

 in confequence, as it is faid, of poifon, which had been 

 given to him in the month of July, 1158. His Letters, 

 mixed with fome other works, one volume of which only 

 remains, throw confiderable fight on the ftate of fociety at 

 that time, and on the ecdefiaftical hirtory of Germany. 

 Gen. Biog. 



WIBLINGEN, in Geography, a town of Bavaria, with 

 a Benedittine abbey, near the conflux of the Her with the 

 Danube ; 3 miles S.S.W. of Ulm. 



WIBORGIA, in Botany. See Viborgia. 



3 H WIBURG, 



