Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 62.djvu/16

. To his large general practice he thus added that of a specialist in this department. He continued professional medical work till about his seventieth year. He was present at that public demonstration of mesmerism which first attracted [q. v.] to the subject; was the first to show from the contracted pupils that the hypnotised patient was in a genuine and peculiar state; and utilised Braid's services as a hypnotist later on in the successful treatment of epilepsy; but finally abandoned the therapeutic use of hypnosis, regarding it as likely to undermine the will power of the patient. He devised the treatment of infantile convulsions by prolonged continuous chloroform anæsthesia, and wrote two papers on this subject, the first (not cited in the Reminiscences) in the ‘Lancet’ (1853, vol. i.). A clinical observation on the ‘Functions of the Chorda Tympani’ (also not cited; Assoc. Med. Journ. 1855) as a nerve of taste, a view which still has partisans, completes with the three cited papers (Brit. Med. Journ. 1857) his contributions to medical science.

In January 1851 he was appointed first professor of ‘natural history, anatomy, and physiology’ in the Owens College, Manchester. His duties comprised instruction in zoology and botany in the widest sense, besides the geological sciences. In 1854, with Mr. Richard Copley Christie, he initiated at the college evening classes for working men. At first he divided his subjects into two groups, on which he lectured in alternate sessions; but ultimately the demands of university students made this impossible. In 1870 a distinct lectureship had to be created in mineralogy. In 1872, on the fusion with the Royal School of Medicine, geology was also separated, and Williamson became professor of ‘Natural History.’ A demonstrator to assist in the then new laboratory work was appointed in 1877; and in 1880 zoology was split off, leaving him the chair of botany, which he resigned in 1892, after forty-one years' continuous tenure of office, with the title of emeritus professor, and a year's salary as gratuity. His lectures to students were well arranged and well delivered, interesting and fluent, but lacked minuteness of accurate detail; and from the ignorance of German which he deplored he never thoroughly assimilated the current language of the modern aspects of botany.

Williamson added largely to his income by popular scientific lectures; between 1874 and 1890 alone he gave, among others, at least three hundred in connection with the Gilchrist trust. For these, many of which dealt with his own discoveries, he drew and painted beautiful and effective diagrams. He was highly successful as a popular lecturer. Several of his popular lectures were printed. He wrote a number of articles for the ‘London Quarterly Review,’ published under Wesleyan auspices, and some for the ‘Popular Science Review.’ Those on ‘Primeval Vegetation in its relation to the Doctrines of Natural Selection and Evolution’ in the ‘Owens College Essays and Addresses,’ 1874, and on ‘Pyrrhonism in Science’ (Contemporary Rev. 1881), show his cautious attitude, by accepting the descent-theory generally, but resenting all attempts at scientific dogmatism and intolerance. He was inclined to demand something which escapes scientific analysis, in addition to the known natural factors of divergent evolution.

He was on friendly terms with the Wesleyans in Manchester, and was for a time a member of that body. He was medical attendant to the Wesleyan Theological College, Didsbury, 1864–83, and a member of the committee of management.

After an attack of ill-health in 1860, Williamson settled in 1861 in the then outlying hamlet of Fallowfield. There he built a home, with a garden and range of plant-houses, and became a successful grower especially of rare orchids, insectivorous plants, and higher cryptogams; these were utilised in the later development of laboratory teaching at the college, which contributed an annual grant towards the expense. In 1883 he suffered from diabetes, and had finally to resign his chair in 1891. He removed from Manchester to Clapham Common, where he continued in harness nearly to the last, working in collaboration with Professor R. D. Scott at his own house or at the Joddrell Laboratory, Kew. His last publication (in February 1895) was the obituary of his old friend, sometime opponent and recent convert, the Marquis de Saporta. He died at Clapham on 23 June 1895. He was spare and erect, with blue-grey eyes deep set in an oval face. He had an educated taste in music; and the watercolour sketches he brought back from his vacation trips were poetic in feeling and happy in composition.

He was married twice: first, in 1842, to Sophia (d. 1871), daughter of the Rev. Robert Wood, treasurer to the Wesleyan body, by whom he left a son, Robert Bateson, solicitor, and a daughter, Edith; secondly, in 1874, to Annie C. Heaton, niece of Sir Henry Mitchell of Bradford, who completed and edited his autobiography under the title of ‘Reminiscences of a Yorkshire Naturalist;’ by her he left one son, Herbert, painter.

Williamson's scientific work was immense