WILSON, SIR William James Erasmus, English surgeon and philanthropist: h. London, 25 Nov. 1809; d. Westgate-on-Sea, Kent, 8 Aug. 1884. He went through a course of hospital practice in Paris, where he became known to Cuvier and Geoffroy de Saint Hilaire, later at tached himself to the Aldersgate School of Medicine, and was engaged in 1831 as assistant to Dr. Quain, professor of anatomy in Uni versity College. His first work, 'Practical and Surgical Anatomy,' was published in 1838, followed in 1840 by the 'Anatomist's Vade Mecum.' About this time he determined to devote himself to dermatology, and soon be came the acknowledged authority in that hitherto obscure branch of medical science. He became Fellow of the Royal College of Sur geons in 1843, and president in 1881. In 1845 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. By the time he had reached his 50th year he had amassed considerable wealth, and he then began a series of public and private acts of munificence, founding a professorship of der matology in the College of Surgeons, the chair of which he filled for nine years, contributing f7,000 to Epsom Medical College, restoring the ancient church of Swanscombe, Kent, founding a chair of pathology at Aberdeen, subscribing liberally to the Royal College of Music, and to the Margate Sea-bathing Infir mary. He devoted much attention to Egyp
tology, was president of the Egypt Exploration Fund, and furnished f10,000 for the transport of the obelisk known as "Cleopatra's Needle* from Alexandria to its present site on the Thames Embankment. In 1881 he was knighted. Besides many publications in his special science he published, 'Cleopatra's Needle, with Notes on Egypt and Egyptian Obelisks' ; and 'The Egypt of the Past.'