Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Schaw, William (1714?-1757)
SCHAW, WILLIAM M.D. (1714?–1757), physician, born in Scotland about 1714, was educated at Edinburgh, and graduated M.D. there, 27 June 1735, reading a thesis on diseases due to mental emotion. He was a friend of Swift's physician, Dr. William Cockburn [q. v.], to whom he dedicated ‘A Dissertation on the Stone in the Bladder,’ which was published during the discussions in the House of Commons on granting money for the purchase of a solvent for stone in the bladder. A second edition appeared in 1739. The dissertation states the method of formation of such stones, the qualities which a solvent must have, and shows that the proposed solvents probably do not possess these qualities. He became a licentiate of the College of Physicians of London, 23 March 1752, and was created M.D. at Cambridge by royal mandate in 1753. He was elected a fellow of the College of Physicians, 8 April 1754. His only other work was ‘A Scheme of Lectures on the Animal Œconomy,’ also published in London in 1739. He died in 1757.
[Munk's Coll. of Phys. ii. 194; Works.]