William Lewis (scientist)

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An eighteenth-century chemical laboratory, from Commercium Philosophico-Technicum by William Lewis

William Lewis FRS (c. 1708 – 1781) was a British chemist and physician.[1] He is known for his writings related to pharmacy and medicine, and for his research into metals.[2]

Life and work

William Lewis, the son of John (William?) Lewis, a brewer, was born in

Kingston, Surrey
on 21 January 1781 and was buried in Richmond.

Honours

  • Fellow of the Royal Society (1745)
  • Copley Medal (1754) "For the Many Experiments made by him on Platina, which tend to the discovery of the sophistication of gold:—which he would have entirely completed, but was obliged to put a stop to his further enquiries for want of materials."[3]

Selected writings

Lewis also published translations of Caspar Neumann's chemical works in 1759 Digital edition and 1773 (Vol. I & Vol. II), and (posthumously) of Hoffman's System of the Practice of Medicine (1783). In 1754 and 1757 he published a series of original papers on platinum: Phil. Trans. R. Soc. 48 (1754) 638–689 (Papers I–IV), Phil. Trans. R. Soc. 50 (1757) 148–155 (Paper V) & Phil. Trans. R. Soc. 50 (1757) 156–166 (Paper VI). In 1767 the Society for the Improvement of Arts, Manufactures, &c., of which he was a founder, awarded him a gold medal for an essay upon 'potashes'.

References

  1. ^ Main reference: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1893). "Lewis, William (1714-1781)" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 33. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  2. ^ * Gibbs, F. W. (1963). "William Lewis and Platina: Bicentenary of the Commercium Philosophico-Technicum". Platinum Metals Review. 7 (2): 66–69.
  3. ^ Report on the Adjudication of the Copley, Rumford and Royal Medals (1834) compiled from the original documents in the archives of the Royal Society by James Hudson, p. 11.
  4. ^ Lewis, William; Quincy, John (1753). The new dispensatory ... : the whole interspersed with practical cautions and observations : intended as a correction, and improvement of Quincy. Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine. London : Printed for J. Nourse, opposite Catharine Street in the Strand.

Further reading

External links