Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/786

* WRIGHT. 670 WRIT. 1874), Hammond (Syracuse, 1848), and Jenkins (Auburn, 1847). WRIGHT, Thomas (1809-84). A Scotch physician and geologist, born at Paisley, Ren- frewshire. He was educated at the Koyal Col- lege of Surgeons, Dublin, and at the University of Saint Andrews. It was as a geologist, how- ever, that he became chiefly distinguished. His collection of Jurassic Echinodermata and Ceph- alopoda was unsurpassed. In 1878 he won the Wollaston medal. He wrote: Briiish Fossil Echinodermata of the OtiJitic Formations (1860- 61) ; The Cretaceous Echinodermata (1864) ; and Lias Ammonites (1878-84). WRIGHT, TnoM.s (1810-77). An English antiquary, born at Tenbury in Shropshire and educated at Trinity College. Cambridge. In 1836 he went to London and in 1837 he was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. He was one of the founders of the Camden So- ciety (1838), of the Percy Society (1841), of the Shakespeare Society (1841), and of the Brit- lish Archseological Association (1843). Wright published nearh" a hundred works, including translations and books edited for various learned societies. He was careless and inaccurate to an astonishing degree, and yet he deserves much •credit for opening the way to better equipped scholars. Jlost of Wright's principal publica- tions are included in the following list : Early Enylish I'oelri/. an anthologs' in black letter (4 vols. 1836): The Latin Poems Commonly At- tributed to Walter Mapes (1841) : Specimens of Old Christ mas Carols (IS-il) : an edition of the C'are- terbury Tales (1847-51); Popular Treatises on Science. Written During the Middle Ages (1841); The Chester Plays (1843-47); ifeli- quice Antiques: Scraps from Aneieiit Manu- scripts, Illustrating Early English Literature and the Enqlish Lantiuaqe (1839-43): Queen Elizabeth and Her Times (1838); Saint Pat- rick's Purgatory (1844); Wanderings of an Antiquary, Chiefly upon the Traces of the Romans in Britain (1854); Essays on ArchcF- ological Subjects (1861) ; A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages (1862) ; Political Poems and Songs Relating to English History (1859-61) ; and Feudal Manuals of English History (1872). Wright collaborated with J. O. Halliwell on a Dictionary of Archaic and Prorincial Words (1846) and on Nares's Glossary. WRIGHT. Thomas (1859—). An English author, ]iriiici[)a! of the Cowper School at Olney. He was born at Olney. in iiutkinghanishirc. ;ind educated at Buxton College, Forest (iate, and in the library of tlie British iluseum. His writings comprise: The Toicn of Coirper (1886); the standard lAfe of William Conper (1892); and The Corresi>ondence of William Coirpcr (1902). Ho is also the author of biographies of Defoe (1894) and of Dickens (1901) : of several novels, as The Blue Firedrake (1892) and The Mystery of Saint Dunstan's (1892) ; of a volume of verse called The Acid Sisters (1897); and of Bind Head, or the English Switzerland (1898). WRIGHT, Wir.UAM (1.830-89). An English Orientalist, born at Mullye or Mallai on the Nepal frontier, India. He studied at .Siint. - drcws, l'>(linl)urgh. at Halle, and at Leyden. gain- ing a widi- ktinwifdge of Syriac and Arabic under such teachers as Rodiger and Dozy, and adding an acquaintance with Sanskrit. He was ))ro- fessor at University College, London (1855-;j0), and at Trinity College, Dublin (1856-61). From 1861 to 1870 he was engaged in cataloguing the Syriac manuscripts in the British JIuseum (iniblished 1871). In 1870 he became profes- sor of Arabic at Cambridge. He assisted in preparing the Syriac lexicon of Payne Smith and the Arabic lexicon of Dozy, and published: in Arabic, the Travels of Ibn Jubair (1852) ; Optis- culu Arabica (1859); Kamil of Al-Mubarrad (1864-82) ; and an Arabic grammar, based on Caspari. liut in the later editions practically an independent work (1859-62; 3d ed, by de Goeje, 1896-98) ; in Syriac the Homilies of Aphraates (1869); Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles (1871) ; Chronicle of Joshua the Stylite (1882) ; and Book of Kalilah and Dimnah (1883). His Lectures on the Comparative Grammar of the Semitic Languages was published posthmuously (1890). edited by his successor at Cambridge, Robertson Smith. WRIGHT, William Aldi.s (1836—). An English scliolar. He was educated at Trinity College. Cambridge. After serving for many years as lil)rarian. he became vice-master of Trin- ity (1888). With William George Clark (q.v.) he collaborated on the Cambridge Shakespeare (9 vols. 1863-66), the Globe Shakespeare, and the Clarendon Press series of single plavs. With J, Eastwood he edited The Bible Word'Book (1866; rev. ed. 1884). He also contributed largely to Smith's Dictionary of the Bible (1860-66). Among the works edited independently are Ba- con's Advancement of Learning (1869); the Chronicle of Robert of Gloucester (1887) ; Let- ters and Literary Remains of Edward Fitzgerald (1889) ; Letters of Fitzgerald to Fanny Kemblr (1S95); Facsimile of the Mil/on MS. in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge (1899); iiiiil Fitzgerald's Miscellanies (1900). WRIGHTIA (Xeo-Lat., named in honor of William Wright, a .Tamaica physician and bot- anist of the eighteenth century). A genus of plants of the natural order Apocynaceae. contain- ing some of the greatest twining shrubs of the East Indies. Attaching themselves to trees for support, they finally attain a tree-like thickness and height, and kill the supporting trees by their choking embrace. The timber of some species, as Wrightia tonientosa and Wrightia cnccinca. is v:iliable. The latter species is a large tree, the other tree-like species being comparatively small. Wrightia zeyhimea, a native of Ceylon, yields Conessi bark, which was formerly a popu- lar medicine. Wrightia tinetoria. common in many parts of India, yields an inferior indigo. WRIST-DROP. See Lead-Poisoning ; Neu- ritis. WRIT (from AS. vrUan, to write. OIIG. rizan, Ger. reissen, to tear). A mandatory pre- cept issued by a court in the name of the State for the purpose of compelling a designated per- .son to do some act specified therein. Under the common-law system of practice all actions were begun by original jrrits or liy bill. This practice arose from the fact that in early times in Eng- biiid no wrong could l>e redressed except liv spe- <'i;il luitborily from (he sovereign. The dates of the origin of the older writs are not certain, but