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Robert Willan

For the officer in the British Army, see Robert Hugh Willan. For the British surgeon and academic, see Robert Joseph Willan.

Robert Willan FRS (12 November 1757 near Sedbergh, Yorkshire, England – 7 April 1812 in Madeira, Portugal) was an English physician, and the founder of dermatology as a medical specialty.

Robert Willan
Photograph of Robert Willan
Born12 November 1757
Sedbergh, Yorkshire, England
Died7 April 1812
Madeira, Portugal
OccupationDermatologist

Life

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Willan was born on 12 November 1757 in Sedbergh, Yorkshire. He was educated at Sedbergh School, and received his medical degree at the University of Edinburgh in 1780. After completing his medical studies, William worked in Darlington until 1783, when he moved to London to serve as physician at the Carey Street Public Dispensary until 1803. While working alongside Thomas Bateman, Willan was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1809. He died on 7 April 1812, in Madeira, Portugal.[1]

Works

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Following the example of Carl Linnaeus, Willan attempted a taxonomic classification of skin diseases, describing impetigo, lupus, psoriasis, scleroderma, ichthyosis, sycosis, and pemphigus. Willan's portrait was reproduced on the cover of the British Journal of Dermatology for many years.[2] Willan and Bateman working together provided the world's first attempt to classify skin diseases from an anatomical standpoint.[3]

In 1790, Willan received the Fothergill Gold Medal from the Medical Society of London for his classification of skin diseases. In the same year, he published an account entitled "A Remarkable Case of Abstinence", which detailed the case of a young Englishman with an eating disorder who died in 1786 after fasting for 78 days.[4][5]

A copy of one of his works was translated into German and published in Breslau in 1799. The English version has been lost.[6]

In 1798, Willan described the occupational disease psoriasis diffusa, which affects the hands and arms of bakers, and in 1799, he first described the exanthematous rash of childhood known as erythema infectiosum.[7]

Willan's 1808 book, On Cutaneous Diseases is a landmark in the history of dermatology and in medical illustration and contains the first use of the word "lupus" to describe cutaneous tuberculosis.[8]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Sebastian, Anton, ed. (2000). Dates in medicine: a chronological record of medical progress over three millennia. New York: Parthenon Publ. Group. ISBN 978-1-85070-095-1.
  2. ^ "Robert Willan". www.nndb.com. Retrieved 25 May 2023.
  3. ^ Evans, Alfred Spring; Kaslow, Richard A. (1997). Viral infections of humans: epidemiology and control (4th ed.). New York: Plenum medical book company. ISBN 978-0-306-44856-0.
  4. ^ Levere, Trevor Harvey; Turner, Gerard L'Estrange (2002). Discussing chemistry and steam: the minutes of a coffe house philosophical society, 1780-1787. Oxford: Oxford university press. ISBN 978-0-19-851530-2.
  5. ^ Silverman, Joseph A. (1990). "Anorexia Nervosa in the Male: Early Historic Cases". In Andersen, Arnold E. (ed.). Males with Eating Disorders. Eating disorders monograph series no. 4. New York: Brunner/Mazel. pp. 3–8. ISBN 978-0-87630-556-0.
  6. ^ Fagge, C. Hilton. On Disease of the Skin by Ferdinand Hebra, N.D. The New Sydenham Society, London.
  7. ^ Lee, Helen S. J., ed. (2002). Dates in infectious diseases. Landmarks in medicine series. Boca Raton: Parthenon. ISBN 978-1-84214-150-2.
  8. ^ Bateman, Thomas (1817). Delineations of Cutaneous Diseases: exhibiting the characteristic appearances of the principal genera and species comprised in the classification of the late Dr. Willan; and completing the series of engravings begun by that author. L.L. Sailliar (engraver). London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green.
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