William Senhouse Kirkes

William Senhouse Kirkes, an English physician, born about 1820, died in December, 1864. He was physician to St. Bartholomew's hospital in London, and lecturer to the medical college attached to that institution. He is best known as the author of a "Handbook of Physiology," first published in 1848, which passed through several editions in England and was republished in the United States. Among his other most important contributions to medical literature were a series of papers on the " Detachment of Fibrinous Deposits from the Interior of the Heart." His name is in this way closely connected with the subject of embolism, one of the most remarkable and important features of recent pathological science. (See Brain, Diseases of toe, vol. iii., p. 198.)

William Shenstone

William Shenstone, an English poet, born at the Leasowes in Hales-Owen, Shropshire, in November, 1714, died there, Feb. 11, 1763. He passed several years at Pembroke college, Oxford, but never took a degree. About 1745 he retired to his hereditary estate of the Leasowes, which it thenceforth became the business of his life to beautify. He wrote elegies, odes, ballads, and miscellaneous pieces, but is best known by the "Schoolmistress," a poem published in 1742. Dodsley published his works and letters (3 vols. 8vo, 1764-'9). An edition of his poems, with a memoir by the Rev. George Gilfillan, appeared at Edinburgh in 1854, and a new edition of his "Essays on Men and Manners," etc, at London in 1868.

William Somerville

William Somerville, an English poet, born at Edstone, Warwickshire, in 1692, died July 19, 1742. He was educated at Winchester school and New college, Oxford, and settled on a paternal estate in Warwickshire. He lived beyond his means, and finally became intemperate. His " Chase," in blank verse, has often been reprinted. He wrote "Field Sports," describing hawking, and " Hobbinol, or Rural Games," a mock heroic poem.

William Spence

William Spence, an English entomologist, born in 1783, died in London, Jan. 6, 1860. In 1805, while engaged in business at Hull, he presented a few specimens of insects to the Rev. William Kirby, with whom he afterward wrote "Introduction to Entomology, or Elements of the Natural History of Insects" (4 vols., 1815-'26; 7th ed., 1 vol., 1858). It consists of 51 letters, of which 9 were written by Mr. Spence, 20 by Mr. Kirby, and 22 by them conjointly. He was for a time a member of parliament. He removed in 1826 to the continent, and visited the principal European capitals during the next eight years, returned to England and settled in London.

William Starbnck Mayo

William Starbnck Mayo, an American author, born in Ogdensburgh, N. Y., April 20, 1812. He studied medicine, and after practising for several years made a tour through the Barbary States and Spain. After his return he took up his residence in New York. His principal works are: "Flood and Field, or Tales of Battles on Sea and Land" (1844); " Kaloolah," purporting to be the autobiography of Jonathan Romer, describing his adventures in Africa (1849); "The Berber, or the Mountaineer of the Atlas," a romance of adventure similar to " Kaloolah " (1850); " Romance Dust from the Historic Placer," a collection of stories chiefly founded on historical incidents (1851); and "Never Again," a novel (1873).