Modern dermatology may be said to start with Willan. His classification of skin diseases gained him the Fothergillian Medal of the Medical Society of London in 1790. He established a standard nomenclature which is still more or less in use today. He was also a clinician of great ability who made numerous original observations. His book was issued in four parts under the title “Description and treatment of cutaneous diseases”, from 1798 to 1808, and only vol. 1 had been completed when Willan died. The first three parts exist in revised versions. Copies of the book may contain varying states of the parts. See F. Sutherland, Willan’s Cutaneous diseases, J. Hist. Med., 1958, 13, 92-94, supplementing T. Beswick, Robert Willan, J. Hist. Med., 1957, 12, 349-65. The above work and that of Alibert (No. 3986) are the first dermatological works with colored plates. 

Includes (pp. 73-76) original description of prurigo mitis; under the name “ichthyosis cornea” Willan quoted Crusio’s case of scleroderma (see pp. 197-212); Willan also established psoriasis as a separate skin disease (pp. 152-88). 

This treatise on infantile eczema is the only fascicule of the second volume of Willan’s On cutaneous diseases (No.4018) that ever appeared in print. It was edited for publication after Willan's death by his stepson-in-law Ashby Smith.