LAWRENCE, Sir WILLIAM, a distinguished surgeon, was b. at Cirencester. in Glou cestershire, in July, 1788. In 1800 'he went to London, and was apprenticed to Mr. Aber nethy, by whom before the end of three years he was appointed demonstrator in anatomy to Bartholomew's hospital. In 1813 he was made surgeon to the hospital, and was chosen fellow of the royal society; and after holding various important surgical appoint ments, he became, in 1815, one of the professors of anatomy to the royal college of sur geons. In 1828-29 he succeeded his teacher, Mr. Abernethy, as lecturer on surgery to bt. Bartholomew's. From this period Lawrence took an active share in the great ques tions of reform, which divided the medical world as much as the political, and played the part alternately of an advocate and an opponent of innovation. He made many enemies, but continued to enhance his reputation as a surgeon and his position as a practitioner, and contributed many valuable woiks to the literature of his profession.
He succeeded sir Benjamin Brodie as sergeant-surgeon to the queen, on which occasion he received his baronetcy. He died of paralysis at the age of 83, in Whitehall, on July 5, 1867. His writings, which are very numerous, are chic* the following: A Description of the Arteries of the Human Body, Reduced into the form of Tables, translated from the Latin of Adolphus Murray, professor of anatomy at Upsal; The Treatment of Hernia; An Introduction to Comparative Anatomy and Physiology, being the Introductory Lecture delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons in 1819; A Treatise on the Venereal Diseases of the Eye; and A Treatise on the Diseases of the- Eye, in general, etc. Of these works, the most important for his reputation and for the profession are those on the venereal dis eases of the eye, and on hernia.