edition), London, 1834, 8vo. 4. ‘An Enquiry into the Action of Mercury on the Living Body,’ London, 1822, 8vo; 3rd edit. 1847. 5. ‘An Essay on Tetanus,’ London, 1825, 8vo. 6. ‘An Essay on the Connection between … the Heart … and … the Nervous System … particularly its Influence … on Respiration,’ London, 1828, 8vo; reprinted 1829. 7. ‘Illustrations of the Comparative Anatomy of the Nervous System,’ London, 1835, 4to, plates. 8. ‘The Principal Offices of the Brain and other Centres,’ London, 1844, 8vo. 9. ‘The Physiology of the Nerves of the Uterus and its Appendages,’ London, 1846, 8vo. 10. ‘The Nature and Faculties of the Sympathetic Nerve,’ London, 1847, 8vo. 11. ‘Plates of the Brain in Explanation of its Physical Faculties,’ &c., London, 1853, 4to. 12. ‘The Brain in its Relation to Mind,’ London, 1854, 8vo. 13. ‘On the Origin of the Visual Powers of the Optic Nerve,’ London, 1856, 4to. 14. ‘Papers on the Brain,’ London, 1862, 8vo. 15. ‘Delineation of the Brain in relation to Voluntary Motion,’ London, 1864, 4to.
[Obituary notices in the Medical Times and Gazette, 1874, ii. 460, and the Lancet, 1874, ii. 538; additional information kindly given by Dr. Mansel Sympson, surgeon to the Lincoln County Hospital, by Mr. W. B. Danby, secretary of the Lincoln County Hospital, and by Mr. A. Vessey Machin.]
SWAN, WILLIAM (1818–1894), professor of natural philosophy at St. Andrews, son of David Swan, engineer, and his wife, Janet Smith, was born in Edinburgh on 13 March 1818. His father having died in 1821, Swan became his mother's chief care. Carlyle, in quest of lodgings, found them in Mrs. Swan's house ‘at the north-east angle’ of Edinburgh, and admired her ‘fortitude and humble patience’ (Early Letters of Thomas Carlyle, ii. 7, ed. Norton). After school and college education in Edinburgh, Swan became a science tutor, and during 1850–2 was mathematical master in the free church normal school, Edinburgh. In 1855–9 he taught mathematics, natural philosophy, and navigation in the Scottish Naval and Military Academy, Edinburgh. In 1859 he was appointed professor of natural philosophy at St. Andrews, retiring in 1880 owing to failing health. Besides being a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Swan received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Edinburgh University in 1869, and from St. Andrews in 1886. He died at Shandon, Dumbartonshire, on 1 March 1894. On 1 June 1859 Swan married Georgina (d. 1882), daughter of John Cullen, a Glasgow manufacturer. There was no family.
Between 1843 and 1871 Swan contributed a score of papers on various subjects in physics—those on optics being specially important—to periodicals and the ‘Transactions’ of learned societies. Of these, two on the ‘Phenomena of Vision’ appeared in the Edinburgh Royal Society's ‘Transactions’ in 1849 and 1861; one in the ‘Transactions’ of the same society for 1856 described the ‘Prismatic Spectra of the Flames of Compounds of Carbon and Hydrogen;’ and one ‘On New Forms of Lighthouse Apparatus’ was contributed to the Edinburgh ‘Transactions’ of the Scottish Society of Arts. For the eighth edition of the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica’ Swan wrote the article ‘Mensuration.’ In ‘Nature’ (vol. iv.) he wrote on ‘Pendulum Autographs,’ and in vol. vii. he described the great meteoric shower of 27 Nov. 1872.
[Private information; J. L. Galbraith's Emeritus Professor; personal knowledge.]
SWANLEY, RICHARD (d. 1650), naval commander, is probably to be identified with the Richard Swanley, a commander in the East India Company's service, who in 1623 went out as master of the Great James with Captain John Weddell [q. v.], and was in her in the four days' fight with the Portuguese near Ormuz, on 1–4 Feb. 1625; but there was another captain of the name in the company's service at the same time, and the identification cannot be ascertained beyond doubt. In the summer of 1642 Swanley commanded the Charles in the Narrow Seas, and took a prominent part in the operations against Chichester, and in the reduction of the Isle of Wight for the parliament. He co-operated with Waller against Portsmouth, and after its fall on 7 Sept. 1642 summoned Southampton. In the fleet of 1643 Swanley commanded the Bonaventure of 34 guns as admiral of the Irish seas, and for good service in capturing the Fellowship of 28 guns in Milford Haven both he and William Smith, the vice-admiral, were granted by the parliament a chain of the value of 200l. In February 1644 he came off Milford Haven in the Leopard, and his squadron landed two hundred men to assist Colonel Laugharne against the royalists; and he was next ordered to cruise against an expected attempt from Brittany (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1 and 15 June 1644). He continued serving throughout the summer, co-operating with the army in Pembrokeshire, and taking care that reinforcements from Ireland should not reach the royalists. One vessel laden with troops he captured, offered the covenant to the English on board,
