COLLINS

collins, william wilkie (1824-1889), english novelist, elder son of william collins, r.a., the landscape painter, was born in london on the 8th of january 1824. he was educated at a private school in highbury, and when only a small boy of twelve was taken by his parents to italy, where the family lived for three years. on their return to england wilkie collins was articled to a firm in the tea trade, but four years later he abandoned that business for the law, and was entered at lincoln's inn in 1846, being called to the bar three years later. he found little pleasure in his new career, however; though what he learned in it was exceedingly valuable to him later. on his father's death in 1847 young collins made his first essay in literature, publishing the _life of william collins_, in two volumes, in the following year. in 1850 he put forth his first work of fiction, _antonina, or the fall of rome_, which was clearly inspired by his life in italy. _basil_ appeared in 1852, and _hide and seek_ in 1854. about this time he made the acquaintance of charles dickens, and began to contribute to _household words_, where _after dark_ (1856) and _the dead secret_ (1857) ran serially. his great success was achieved in 1860 with the publication of _the woman in white_, which was first printed in _all the year round_. from that time he enjoyed as much popularity as any novelist of his day, _no name_ (1862), _armadale_ (1866), and _the moonstone_, a capital detective story (1868), being among his most successful books. after _the new magdalen_ (1873) his ingenuity became gradually exhausted, and his later stories were little more than faint echoes of earlier successes. he died in wimpole street, london, on the 23rd of september 1889. collins's gift was of the melodramatic order, and while many of his stories made excellent plays, several of them were actually reconstructed from pieces designed originally for stage production. but if his colours were occasionally crude and his methods violent, he was at least a master of situation and effect. his trick of telling a story through the mouths of different characters is sometimes irritatingly disconnected; but it had the merit of giving an air of actual evidence and reality to the elucidation of a mystery. he possessed in the highest degree the gift of absorbing interest; the turns and complexities of his plots are surprisingly ingenious, and many of his characters are not only real, but uncommon. count fosco in _the woman in white_ is perhaps his masterpiece; the character has been imitated again and again, but no imitation has ever attained to the subtlety and humour of the original. collodion (from the gr. [greek: kolla], glue), a colourless, viscid fluid, made by dissolving gun-cotton and the other varieties of pyroxylin in a mixture of alcohol and ether. it was discovered in 1846 by louis nicolas menard in paris, and independently in 1848 by dr j. parkers maynard in boston. the quality of collodion differs according to the proportions of alcohol and ether and the nature of the pyroxylin it contains. collodion in which there is a great excess of ether gives by its evaporation a very tough film; the film left by collodion containing a large quantity of alcohol is soft and easily torn; but in hot climates the presence of an excess of alcohol is an advantage, as it prevents the rapid evaporation of the ether. under the microscope, the film produced by collodion of good quality appears translucent and colourless. to preserve collodion it should be kept cool and out of the action of the light; iodized collodion that has been discoloured by the development of free iodine may be purified by the immersion in it of a strip of silver foil. for the iodizing of collodion, ammonium bromide and iodide, and the iodides of calcium and cadmium are the agents employed (see photography). collodion is used in surgery since, when painted on the skin, it rapidly dries and covers the skin with a thin film which contracts as it dries and therefore affords both pressure and protection. flexible collodion, containing canada balsam and castor oil, does not crack, but, on the other hand, does not contract. it is therefore of less value. collodion is applied to small aseptic wounds, to small-pox pustules, and occasionally to the end of the urethra in boys in order to prevent nocturnal incontinence. collodion and crystals of carbolic acid, taken in equal parts, are useful in relieving toothache due to the presence of a carious cavity. _vesicating_ or _blistering collodion_ contains cantharidin as one of its constituents. the styptic colloid of richardson is a strong solution of tannin in gun-cotton collodion. similarly collodion may be impregnated with salicylic acid, carbolic acid, iodine and other substances. small balloons are manufactured from collodion by coating the interior of glass globes with the liquid; the film when dry is removed from the glass by applying suction to the mouth of the vessel. m. e. gripon found (_compt. rend._, 1875) that collodion membranes, like glass, reflect light and polarize it both by refraction and reflection; they also transmit a very much larger proportion of radiant heat, for the study of which they are preferable to mica.