William Hillary M.D. (1697–1763) was an English physician, known as an author on tropical diseases.

Life

Hillary's background was a

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

family in Wensleydale, Yorkshire. He was a pupil of

Hermann Boerhaave Herman Boerhaave (, 31 December 1668 – 23 September 1738Underwood, E. Ashworth. "Boerhaave After Three Hundred Years." ''The British Medical Journal'' 4, no. 5634 (1968): 820–25. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20395297.) was a Dutch botanist ...

at Leyden University, where he graduated M.D. in 1722, writing a dissertation on intermittent fevers. He began in medical practice at Ripon, moving to

Bath, Somerset Bath () is a city in the Bath and North East Somerset unitary area in the county of Somerset, England, known for and named after its Roman-built baths. At the 2021 Census, the population was 101,557. Bath is in the valley of the River Avon, ...

in 1734, and to Barbados in 1752. He returned to London in 1758, where he died 22 April 1763.

Works

Hillary was an observer of the weather and prevalent diseases. His records began at Ripon in 1726, a year in advance of the corresponding work by

Clifton Wintringham senior Clifton Wintringham senior (baptized 1689 – 1748) was an English medical practitioner, appointed Physician at York County Hospital in March 1746. Life Wintringham was educated at Jesus College, Cambridge, and was admitted on 3 July 1711 as an ...

at York. They resumed in Barbados, and continued until he left the colony, 30 May 1758. The first series was published in the appendix to his second edition of ''Rational and Mechanical Essay on the Small-pox'', London, 1740; 1st edition, London, 1735. The Barbados records are given in his major work ''Observations on the Changes of the Air, and the Concomitant Epidemical Diseases in the Island of Barbados, to which is added a Treatise on the Bilious Remittent Fever …'' ( yellow fever), London, 1759.Hillary, William, ''Observations on the Changes of the Air and Concomitant Epidemical Diseases in the Island of Barbados …'' (London, England: C. Hitch & L. Hawes, 1759), pp. 277–281. Available at:
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/ref> It contains the first description of tropical sprue. Other writings were: * ''An Enquiry into the … Medicinal Virtues of Lincomb Spaw Water, near Bath'', London, 1743. * ''The Nature, Properties, and Laws of Motion of Fire'', London, 1759. * ''The Means of Improving Medical Knowledge'', London, 1761.

Notes

Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Hillary, William 1697 births 1763 deaths 18th-century English medical doctors English medical writers People from Ripon Medical doctors from Yorkshire