View source for Samuel Wilks

{{Short description|British doctor (1824–1911)}}
{{about||the American mathematician and statistician|Samuel S. Wilks|the evangelical clergyman and journalist|Samuel Charles Wilks}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}
{{Infobox scientist
|name              = Sir Samuel Wilks, Bt
|image             =Samuel Wilks.jpeg
|image_size       =220px
|caption           = 
|birth_date        = 2 June 1824
|birth_place       =
|death_date        = 8 November 1911 (aged 87)
|death_place       =
|residence  = |citizenship =
|nationality       = British
|ethnicity         =
|field             = medicine
|work_institutions =
|alma_mater        = [[Guy's Hospital]]
|doctoral_advisor  =
|doctoral_students =
|known_for         =
|author_abbrev_bot =|author_abbrev_zoo =
|influences        =
|influenced        =
|prizes            =
|religion = |footnotes = |signature         =
}}'''Sir Samuel Wilks, 1st Baronet''', {{postnominals|country=GBR|sep=,|FRS|FRCP}}  (2 June 1824 – 8 November 1911) was a British physician and [[biographer]].

==Early life==
Samuel Wilks was born on 2 June 1824 in Camberwell, London, the second son of Joseph Barber Wilks, a cashier at the East India House. After attending [[Aldenham School]] and [[University College School]] he was apprenticed to Richard Prior, a doctor in Newington.<ref>[http://content.karger.com/ProdukteDB/produkte.asp?Aktion=ShowFulltext&ArtikelNr=180315&Ausgabe=243028&ProduktNr=223840 Sir Samuel Wilks (1824–1911): ‘The Most Philosophical of English Physicians’]. Content.karger.com. Retrieved 2012-05-21.</ref>

==Career==
In 1842 he entered [[Guy's Hospital]] to study medicine. After graduating MB in 1848 he was hired as a physician to the [[Surrey Infirmary]] (1853). In 1856 he returned to Guy's Hospital, first as assistant physician and [[curator]] of its museum (a post he held for nine years), then as physician and lecturer on medicine (1857). From 1866 to 1870 he was examiner in the practice of medicine at the [[University of London]] and from 1868 to 1875 examiner in medicine at the [[Royal College of Surgeons of England|Royal College of Surgeons]].

==Achievements==
[[File:Samuel Wilks NLM2.jpg|left|thumb|upright]]
Among his major discoveries, Wilks recognised [[ulcerative colitis]] in 1859, differentiating it from bacterial [[dysentery]]. His work was confirmed later (1931) by Sir [[Arthur Frederick Hurst|Arthur Hurst]].<ref>{{cite journal|author=Hurst, Arthur F.|title=A paper on ulcerative colitis|journal=British Medical Journal|volume=1|issue=3668|year=1931|pages=693–694|pmc=2314866|pmid=20776135|doi=10.1136/bmj.1.3668.693}}</ref> Wilks's [[autopsy]] of a 42-year-old woman who died after several months of [[diarrhoea]] and [[fever]] demonstrated a transmural ulcerative [[inflammation]] of the [[Colon (anatomy)|colon]] and terminal [[ileum]].

Wilks also firstly described [[trichorrhexis nodosa]] (the formation of nodes along the hair shaft), in 1852. The term was proposed in 1876 by [[Moritz Kaposi]] (1837–1902), a [[Hungary|Hungarian]] [[dermatologist]]. In 1957, he provided the first autopsy description of a condition of the upper airways, later known as [[tracheobronchopathia osteochondroplastica]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Wilks|first=Samuel|date=1857|title=Ossific deposits on larynx, trachea and bronchi|journal=Trans. Pathol. Soc. Lond.|volume=8|pages=88}}</ref> Subsequently, in 1868, he published the characteristic mental symptoms on alcoholic [[paraplegia]] (later to be named [[Korsakoff's syndrome]]). Wilks described the first case of [[myasthenia gravis]], in 1877 (it was named "bulbar paralysis" in ''Guy's Hospital Reports'' 22:7).

He was a collaborator and biographer of the "Three Great", contemporary physicians who worked at Guy's Hospital, Dr. [[Thomas Addison]], the discoverer of [[Addison's disease]], Dr. [[Richard Bright (physician)|Richard Bright]], discoverer of [[Bright's disease]] and Dr. [[Thomas Hodgkin]], discoverer of [[Hodgkin's lymphoma]]. After the death of Addison in 1860, he carried out the job of examining specimens from all over the country in order to confirm the diagnosis of Addison's disease and thus was able to amass a large case archive. He also rediscovered and confirmed the existence of Hodgkin's lymphoma, at the same time recognizing Hodgkin's priority and proposing the [[eponym]].

==Honours and awards==
[[File:Samuel Wilks Vanity Fair 1 October 1892.jpg|thumb|200px|Samuel Wilks depicted by [[Leslie Ward|Spy]] in [[Vanity Fair (British magazine)|Vanity Fair]], October 1892 ]]
Among his many services and honors, Wilks was elected a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]] in June 1870;<ref>{{cite web | url= http://www2.royalsociety.org/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Persons&dsqPos=1&dsqSearch=%28Surname%3D%27wilks%27%29 | title= Library and Archive Catalogue | publisher= The Royal Society | access-date= 30 October 2010 }}{{dead link|date=May 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> was president of the [[Pathological Society of London|Pathological Society]] (1881–1882); president of the Neurological Society (1887); member of the Senate of the University of London (1887–1900); member of the General Medicine Council (1887–1896) and president of the [[Royal College of Physicians]] (1896–1899). He was named Physician Extraordinary to [[Victoria of the United Kingdom|Queen Victoria]] in 1897. The following year he was created a baronet, of Grosvenor Street in the Parish of [[St George Hanover Square|Saint George Hanover Square]] in the County of London.

==Later life==
In later life he suffered a stroke and was terminally paraplegic. He died aged 87 at his home in Hampstead on 8 November 1911. After his death the baronetcy became extinct. He had married Mrs. Elizabeth Anne Prior, widow of previous employer Richard Prior; they had no children.

==Publications==
* ''Lectures on Pathological Anatomy'', 1869
* ''Lectures on the Specific Fevers and on Diseases of the Chest'', 1874
* ''Lectures on Diseases of the Nervous System'', 1878
* ''Lectures on Pathology Delivered at the London Hospital''. J & A Churchill, London, 1891.
* ''A Biographical History of Guy's Hospital'', 1892 (with [[George Thomas Bettany|G. T. Bettany]])
* [https://archive.org/details/b24976477/page/n7/mode/2up ''The Relation of Man to the Animal World''] (1907)

==References==
{{Commons category}}
{{wikisource|works=or}}
{{Reflist}}
{{Rayment-bt|date=March 2012}}
* Kauntze R.: Samuel Wilks. ''Guy's Hosp Rep.'' 1970; 119(4):353-5.
*{{cite journal
|last=Eadie
|first=Mervyn J
|year=2008
|title=Samuel Wilks (1824–1911): neurologist and generalist of the Mid-Victorian Era
|journal=[[Journal of Medical Biography]]
|volume=16
|issue=4
|pages=215–20
| pmid = 18952992
|doi = 10.1258/jmb.2007.007042 |s2cid=22797053
}}

==External links==
* {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20041024201533/http://wehner.org/addison/wilks/ The Wilks Report on Addison's Disease (1862) complete]}}

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{{s-ttl|title=[[Baronet]]<br />'''(of Grosvenor Street)''' | years=1898–1911}}
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{{Authority control}}
{{Presidents of the Royal College of Physicians}}
{{Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilks, Samuel}}
[[Category:1824 births]]
[[Category:1911 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Camberwell]]
[[Category:19th-century English medical doctors]]
[[Category:Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Physicians of Guy's Hospital]]
[[Category:Ulcerative colitis]]
[[Category:People educated at University College School]]