An Interactive Annotated World Bibliography of Printed and Digital Works in the History of Medicine and the Life Sciences from Circa 2000 BCE to 2022 by Fielding H. Garrison (1870-1935), Leslie T. Morton (1907-2004), and Jeremy M. Norman (1945- ) Traditionally Known as “Garrison-Morton”

15961 entries, 13944 authors and 1935 subjects. Updated: March 22, 2024

WILLAN, Robert

2 entries
  • 3985
  • 4018

On cutaneous diseases. Vol. 1 [All published].

London: J. Johnson, 17961808.

Modern dermatology may be said to start with Willan. His classification of skin diseases gained him the Fothergillian Medal of the Medical Society of London in 1790. He established a standard nomenclature which is still more or less in use today. He was also a clinician of great ability who made numerous original observations. His book was issued in four parts under the title “Description and treatment of cutaneous diseases”, from 1798 to 1808, and only vol. 1 had been completed when Willan died. The first three parts exist in revised versions. Copies of the book may contain varying states of the parts. See F. Sutherland, Willan’s Cutaneous diseases, J. Hist. Med., 1958, 13, 92-94, supplementing T. Beswick, Robert Willan, J. Hist. Med., 1957, 12, 349-65. The above work and that of Alibert (No. 3986) are the first dermatological works with colored plates. 

Includes (pp. 73-76) original description of prurigo mitis; under the name “ichthyosis cornea” Willan quoted Crusio’s case of scleroderma (see pp. 197-212); Willan also established psoriasis as a separate skin disease (pp. 152-88). 



Subjects: DERMATOLOGY, DERMATOLOGY › Specific Dermatoses
  • 4021.1

Practical treatise on porrigo, or scald head, and on impetigo, the humid or running teter. By Robert Willan. Edited by Ashby Smith.

London: E. Cox, 1814.

This treatise on infantile eczema is the only fascicule of the second volume of Willan’s On cutaneous diseases (No.4018) that ever appeared in print. It was edited for publication after Willan's death by his stepson-in-law Ashby Smith.



Subjects: DERMATOLOGY, DERMATOLOGY › Specific Dermatoses, PEDIATRICS