Charles James Blasius Williams

He was there a resident pupil of Dr. John Thomson (1765–1846), and was influenced in his reading by Dr. Robert Herbert Brabant of Devizes, then living in Edinburgh.

He attended René Laennec's clinic at the Hôpital de la Charité, and acquired the new methods of physical examination of the chest.

[1] While he was not the first British physician to use the stethoscope, which was used earlier by Thomas Davies, Williams became an important pioneer in auscultation, and was led to research heart and lung sounds, going further than Laennec.

[1] Having received the license of the College of Physicians of London, Williams began practice in Half Moon Street.

In 1839 he succeeded John Elliotson as professor of medicine and physician to University College London, and moved to Holles Street, Cavendish Square.

He published in 1828 Rational Exposition of the Physical Signs of the Diseases of the Lungs and Pleura, dedicated to Sir Henry Halford, of which a third edition appeared in 1835.

When in 1869 the Duchess of Somerset, disturbed by the death of her son Ferdinand Seymour, Earl St. Maur from aneurysm of the aorta, printed for private circulation an account of the illness, suggesting malpractice by Williams, he brought an action for libel.

A complete list of his works was in the Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon-general's Office, United States Army, vol.