Wilson, SIR ERASMUS

Wilson, SIR ERASMUS (1809-84), dermatologist, Egyptologist, and philanthropist, studied at Aberdeen and London, became known as a skilful operator and dissector at the College of Surgeons in London, but was best known as a specialist on skin diseases. He published an Anatomist's Vademecum, a student's Book of Diseases of the Skin, a Report on Leprosy, and, in a very different field, Egypt of the Past. The great wealth he acquired by his practice he bestowed largely in benefactions to the poor and to science, founding a chair of dermatology at the College of Surgeons and of pathology at Aberdeen, building new wings to hospitals, and promoting Egyptian research. He it was who brought, at a cost of £10,000, Cleopatra's Needle to England. He was F.R.S., LL.D., president of the College of Surgeons in 1881, and was knighted in the same year.