Edgar Saunders (b. 1856), a barrister and author.
He was author of: 1. ‘The Law of Assault and Battery,’ 1841. 2. ‘A Collection of all the Statutes in force relating to Gaols and Houses of Correction in England and Wales,’ 1843. 3. ‘The Practice of Summary Convictions before Justices of the Peace,’ 1846. 4. ‘The Administration of Justice Acts and the Act to protect Justices from Vexatious Actions,’ 2nd ed. 1848. 5. ‘Supplements to Burn's Justice of the Peace,’ 1848, 1849, 1851, 3 vols. 6. ‘The Nuisance Removal and Disease Prevention Acts,’ 2nd ed. 1849; 3rd ed. 1854. 7. ‘The Law and Practice of Orders of Affiliation and Proceedings in Bastardy,’ 2nd ed. 1850; 7th ed. 1878; and the 8th and 9th ed. with his son W. E. Saunders, 1884 and 1888. 8. ‘The Militia Act, with Notes and Index,’ 1852; 3rd ed. 1855. 9. ‘The Duties and Liabilities of Justices of the Peace,’ 1852. 10. ‘The Law and Practice of Municipal Registration and Election,’ 1854; 2nd ed. 1873. 11. ‘The Practice of Magistrates' Courts,’ 1st ed. 1855 (forming vol. i. of ‘The Complete Practice of the Laws of England’); 2nd ed. 1858; 4th ed. 1873. 12. ‘The Counties Police Acts,’ 1856; 2nd ed. 1859. 13. ‘The Rise and Progress of Criminal Jurisprudence in England,’ 1858. 14. ‘The Refreshment Houses and Wine Licenses Act,’ 1860. 15. ‘The Union Assessment Committee Act,’ 1862. 16. ‘Quarter and Petty Sessions: a Letter to Sir George Grey,’ 1863. 17. ‘Statistics of Crime and Criminals in England,’ 1864. 18. ‘The Prison Act of 1865,’ 1865. 19. ‘A Treatise upon the Law applicable to Negligence,’ London, 1871; Cincinnati, 1872. 20. ‘Precedents of Indictments,’ 1872; 2nd ed., with W. E. Saunders, 1889. 21. ‘A Treatise on the Law of Warranties,’ 1874. 22. ‘The Summary Jurisdiction Act,’ 1879. 23. ‘The Public Health Act,’ 1875. 24. ‘Municipal Corporations Act,’ 1882.
With R. G. Welford, Saunders compiled ‘Reports of Cases in the Law of Real Property,’ 1846; with Henry Thomas Cole, ‘Bail Court Reports,’ 1847–1849, 2 vols.; with E. W. Cox, ‘Reports of County Court Cases,’ 1852, ‘The Criminal Law Consolidation Acts,’ 1861 (2nd edit. 1862, 3rd edit. 1870); and with his son W. E. Saunders, ‘The Law as applicable to the Criminal Offences of Children and Young Persons,’ 1887.
He edited Chitty's ‘Summary of the Offices and Duties of Constables,’ 3rd edit. 1844; ‘The Magistrate's Year Book,’ 1860; Oke's ‘Magisterial Formulist,’ 5th ed. 1876 (6th ed. 1881); and Oke's ‘Magisterial Synopsis,’ 12th ed. 1876 (13th ed. 1881).
[Times, 3 March 1890 p. 7, 4 March p. 3; Graphic, 8 March 1890, p. 275, with portrait; Debrett's House of Commons (ed. Mair), 1886, p. 338; Foster's Men at the Bar, 1885, p. 413.]
SAUNDERS, WILLIAM, M.D. (1743–1817), physician, son of James Saunders, M.D., was born in Banff in 1743. He was educated at the university of Edinburgh, where he graduated M.D. on 28 Oct. 1765, reading a thesis ‘De Antimonio,’ which he dedicated to his patron James, earl of Findlater and Seafield. He began practice in London, and was admitted a licentiate of the College of Physicians on 26 June 1769. He gave lectures on chemistry and pharmacy, which were largely attended, and of which he published a detailed syllabus in 1766; and on medicine, the scope of which is set forth in his ‘Compendium Medicinæ practicum,’ published in 1767 in English. In the same year and in 1768 he supported the views of Sir George Baker [q. v.] in ‘A Letter to Dr. Baker on the Endemial Colic of Devonshire,’ and ‘An Answer to Geach and Alcock on the Endemial Colic of Devonshire.’ On 6 May 1770 he was elected physician to Guy's Hospital, and soon after his election he began to lecture there on the theory and practice of medicine, delivering three courses of four months each during the year (Syllabus of Medical Lectures at Guy's Hospital, 1782). He was elected a fellow of the College of Physicians on 5 June 1790, and was a censor in 1791, 1798, 1805, and 1813. In 1792 he delivered the Gulstonian lectures, which he afterwards published as ‘A Treatise on the Structure, Economy, and Diseases of the Liver.’ He was probably the first English physician to observe that in some forms of cirrhosis, then called scirrhosity, the liver became enlarged and afterwards contracted (p. 281). A third edition appeared in 1803, and a fourth in 1809. He delivered the Harveian oration in 1796, in which he praises the recent discovery of the cause of Devonshire colic by Sir George Baker. On 9 May 1793 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and attained a large practice as a physician. In 1807 he was appointed physician to the prince regent. Besides the books above mentioned, he published separate volumes on mercury (1768), antimony (1773), mephitic acid (1777), red Peruvian bark (1782), and mineral waters (1800). On 22 May 1805 he was chairman of a meeting which led to the formation of the existing Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society, and he was its first president. He
