Robert Willan: Pioneer in morphology

Robert Willan (1757-1812), a 1780 graduate in medicine from the University of Edinburgh, spent most of his professional life in London. He worked at the Carey Street Public Dispensary, which was also staffed mainly by such graduates from Edinburgh as Thomas Bateman, Richard Bright, and Thomas Addison. Willan's major dermatology works can be categorized into two groups: an introduction of the first classification of skin diseases, and the correct clinical descriptions of many diseases. Both were based predominantly on morphologic features rather than on the etiologic or pathophysiologic characteristics of a disease. Between 1798 and 1808, Willan published a four-part work, Cutaneous Diseases, in which he developed a classification of skin diseases according to the form of their pathologic products. Willan was also the first to recognize the importance of illustrations in the description of skin disorders and to create the first atlas of skin diseases containing color pictures.