Robert Willis
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| Born | 1799 |
| Died | 21 September 1878(1878-09-21) (aged 78–79) |
| Nationality | Scottish |
| Education | University of Edinburgh |
| Occupation(s) | Librarian Medical historian |
| Medical career | |
| Field | Physician |
Robert Willis (1799 – 21 September 1878) was a Scottish physician, librarian, and medical historian.
Willis was born at Leith of a good Edinburgh family. His father was Robert Willis, a merchant at Leith. He was educated at the High School of Edinburgh where he formed a lifelong friendship with his contemporary James Syme who became one of the greatest surgeons (LeFanu, 1974); Willis's sister married Syme, and their daughter, Agnes, married the pioneer of antiseptic surgery Joseph Lister. He graduated at Edinburgh (1819), went to the College of Surgeons (1823), the College of Physicians (1837), and was the first librarian of the College of Surgeons in London (1828–45).
Willis compiled a catalogue of the books of the College of Surgeons which was published in 1831 (Cope, 1959)
Willis lived and practised at The Homestead, Barnes, in succession to Dr. John Scott, from 1846 till his death.
Willis's son, Robert Watson Willis, served as secretary of the Football Association, and built Hinxton House, East Sheen, in 1877.[1]
Willis is remembered for his scholarly translation from Latin of the complete works of William Harvey, published by the Sydenham Society in 1847 (Sykes, 2001).
The acoustic work of another man with the same name, Robert Willis (1800–1875), is often mistakenly attributed to Willis. This is for instance the case in Robert Beyer's Sounds of Our Times: Two Hundred Years of Acoustics (1998). Sometimes, it is the other way round: Thierry Mandoul's Entre raison et utopie: l'Histoire de l'architecture d'Auguste Choisy (2008) erroneously gives the dates 1799–1878 for the Willis who worked in architecture.
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