linsonia. Mr. Collinson died, highly respected, in August, 1768, whilst he was on a visit to Lord Petre, in Essex. DEERING, (CHARLES,) was born in Saxony, about 1695; and, after having taken his degrees in physic, at Leyden, came to England in the train of a foreign ambassador, some time in the year 1720, and commenced practice, as an accoucheur. Being skilled in botany, he soon after became a member of the society established by Dillenuis and Mr. Martyn. In 1736, he married, and, on the recommendation of Sir Hans Sloane, removed to Nottingham, where, by his successful treatment of the small-pox, he brought himself into some reputation; "but incurred," says Dr. Pulteney, "the censure of the faculty, by his pretensions to a nostrum." In the year after his arrival in the town, he published, in a letter to Sir Thomas Parkyns, Bart., An Account of an improved Method of treating the Smallpox; by which it appeared that his success was owing to his use of antiphlogistic medicines, and prescriptions of cool regimen, which, at that time, few ventured to recommend. His reputation, as a physician, suddenly declining, he turned his attention to botany; and, in 1738, published a work, entitled A Catalogue of Plants naturally growing and commonly cultivated in divers parts of England, more especially about Nottingham, &c. The number of plants arranged by him is about eight hundred and fifty, of which he treats twenty-seven as nondescripts, and mentions ten not to be met with in the third edition of Ray's Synopsis. Some of his discoveries were considered as new, by that celebrated botanist, who corresponded with him from Oxford, and had a high opinion of his knowledge and assiduity. Dillenius, also, in his history of Musci, mentions him with honour. "After his failure in physic," says the authority before quoted, "his friends attempted several schemes to alleviate his necessities." He first became an officer in the regiment raised at Nottingham on account of the rebellion; but this bringing him more honour than profit, he commenced writing A History of Nottingham, from materials furnished him by John Plumtree, Esq., and others; and which, on its completion, he dedicated to the Duke of Newcastle. He had scarcely finished it when he was attacked by an asthma, which, in conjunction with his poverty and dependence, brought on a complicated state of distress and disease, and put an end to his existence on the 12th of April, 1749. He was buried at the expense of two of his principal creditors, who administered to his effects, and published, in 1751, his posthumous work, entitled Nottinghamia Vetus et Nova. He left, in manuscript, An hortus siccus, consisting of upwards of six hundred species of plants, in eight quarto volumes; and a Latin treatise on midwifery. He seems to have been a man born to misfortune, and used himself often to speak of the adverse fatality which always attended him. By some means, however, he made many friends; and, but for the violence of his temper and want of prudence in his conduct, would probably have risen to high eminence and esteem in his profession. STILLINGFLEET, (BENJAMIN,) was born in the county of Norfolk, in 1702, and received his education at the grammar-school of Norwich, and at Trinity College, Cambridge; on leaving which, with the degree of B. A., he became tutor to the son of Ashe Windham, Esq., and, in 1737, accompanied his pupil on a tour to the continent. In 1743, he returned to England, and, being allowed a pension of £100 per annum, by Mr. Windham, he devoted his time to literary pursuits, and to the study of natural history, of which he was passionately fond. In 1760, he was appointed, through the influence of Lord Barrington, then secretary at war, barrack-master at Kensington; and, in the following year, he appears to have received a visit from Gray, the poet, who thus speaks of him in a letter of that date:"I have lately made acquaintance with this philosopher, who lives in a garret in the winter, that he may support some near relations who depend upon him. He is always employed, consequently, according to my old maxim, always happy, always cheerful, and seems to me a worthy honest man. His present scheme is to send some persons, properly qualified, to reside a year or two in Attica, to make themselves acquainted with the climate, productions, and natural history of the country, that we may understand Aristotle, Theophrastus, &c., who have been heathen Greek to us so many ages; and this he has got proposed to Lord Bute, no unlikely person to put it into execution, as he himself is a botanist." He died on the 15th of December, in this year, at his lodgings in Piccadilly, and was buried in St. James's Church. He appears to have been a man of the most virtuous habits, extensive acquirements, and great and varied talents. His proficiency, both in classics and mathematics, as well as in the art of music, is acknowledged to have been very considerable; whilst his few productions in verse, justly, it is said, entitle him to a place beside some of the most admired of our poets. It is, however, as a naturalist and a botanist that he is chiefly distinguished. Besides an octavo volume of travels, and some poetical pieces, he published The Calendar of Flora; Miscellaneous Tracts on Natural History; and On the Principles and Power of Harmony. His life has been written by the Rev. W. Coxe. MARTIN, (BENJAMIN,) said to have been the son of a farmer, was born at Worplesdon, Surrey, in 1704. After having acted as a schoolmaster, at Chichester, he commenced lectures in experimental philosophy, which he delivered in the metropolis and various parts of England. He finally settled, as an optician and globe-maker, in Fleet Street, but becoming bankrupt, made an ineffectual attempt to destroy himself, though his death shortly followed, in February, 1782. He distinguished himself by no remarkable inventions or discoveries, but wrote useful books on almost all of the mathematical and philosophical sciences. They are too numerous to be all particularized here, but among the principal are, The Philosophical Grammar; Description and Use of both the Globes, &c.; The Young Trigonometer's Guide; System of the Newtonian Philosophy; Natural History of England: Mathematical Institutions; Biographia Philosophica; The Young Gentleman and Lady's Philosophy, &c. &c. He also conducted, for several years, a scientific magazine, which was given up after fourteen volumes had been completed. HARRIS, (JAMES,) was born at Salisbury, in 1709, and received his education at the grammar-school of that city, and at Wadham College, Oxford. He came into an independent fortune, by the death of his father, in his twenty-fourth year, and thenceforth devoted himself to scientific and antiquarian studies. In 1744, he published a volume containing three treatises On Art, On Music and Painting, and On Happiness, which displayed great extent of reading and a closeness of thinking, well adapted to the illustration of abstract and speculative topics. The most celebrated of his works appeared in 1751, under the title of Hermes, or a Philosophical Inquiry concerning Universal Grammar, and at once placed the author, in general opinion, in the first rank of profound and erudite dialectitians. In 1761, he entered parliament as member for the borough of Christchurch; and, in the course of the next two years, was made, successively, one of the lords of the admiralty, and a lord of the treasury. He went out of office in 1765; but, in 1774, was appointed secretary and comptroller to the queen, a place which, together with his seat in parliament, he held till his death. In 1775, he published Philosophical Arrangements, part of a plan which he had formed for the illustration of the Peripatetic logic. His last work ap peared in 1780, entitled Philological Inquiries, a short time before his decease, which took place at the close of that year. His character, as a writer, says Dr. Aikin, is so identified with the credit of the Grecian learning and philosophy, that it must share the same fate. Those to whom the names of Aristotle, and the other ancient dialectitians, are still the highest authorities, will continue to prize the efforts of Harris, Monboddo, and others, to revive and elucidate their doctrines; while those who have formed themselves upon later models of thinking and reasoning, will probably consider such exertions as laborious trifling. Two quarto volumes of Mr. Harris's works were published in 1801, by his only son, the Earl of Malmesbury, who paints the private character of his father in the most pleasing colours. The reputation of Hermes has been much lessened by Horne Tooke's subsequent inquiries respecting language; and it must be confessed that the ignorance of Mr. Harris in the oriental and northern tongues, and his prejudices in favour of the Greeks, rendered his view of the subject partial and circumscribed. BLAIR, (PATRICK,) a medical practitioner at Dundee, in Scotland, became of note about the year 1710, by his account of the anatomy of an elephant, which appeared in the Philosophical Transactions. Having had an opportunity of dissecting that animal, he was enabled to give a most accurate description of its various parts, particularly of the proboscis and its muscles; and, according to Haller, he confirmed the opinion formerly held, that the elephant has no gall-bladder. In one of the volumes of the publication above-mentioned, he also gave a description of the ossicula auditus, accompanied with explanatory engravings. At the time of the rebellion in 1715, he was suspected of disaffection to government, and was, for a short time, confined in prison. On his release, he proceeded to London, where he published, in quarto, his Anatomy of the Elephant; and, in 1718, produced a volume of Miscellaneous Observations on the Practice of Physic, Anatomy, Surgery, and Botany. In 1720, he increased his reputation by the publication of a work, entitled Botanical Essays; in which, says one of his biographers, "he treats of the sexes of plants, confirming the arguments adduced in proof of them by sound reasoning, and some new experiments of the manner of fecundation, of the circulation of the sap," &c. About 1722, he removed to Boston, and, in the following year, published a part of his work, entitled Pharmacobotanologia, or an alphabetical and classical dissertation on all the British indigenous and garden plants of the London Dispensary, introducing some new plants discovered by himself. Another part appeared in 1728, but the work did not proceed beyond the letter H, its continuance being prevented by the death of the author. burgh, in 1710; and, in consequence of his indigence and loss of both parents, was admitted, at the age of ten, into Heriot's Hospital, where he shewed proofs of a mechanical genius, in the unassisted construction of various articles. On his removal to the high school, he made such proficiency in the classics, that he was destined for the church; but after having attended a few theological lectures, he gave up divinity for mathematical pursuits, and became a pupil of the celebrated Maclaurin. In 1732, he improved the Gregorian telescope, by giving larger apertures to the specula; and, in 1736, his fame procured him an invitation from the queen, to become the mathematical instructor of William, Duke of Cumberland. He was, at the same time, elected a fellow of the Royal Society; and, shortly afterwards, accompanied the Earl of Morton, in a survey of the Orkney Islands. Having established himself as an optician, in London, he was, in 1743, commissioned, by Lord Spencer, to make a reflector of twelve feet focus, for which he received six hundred guineas. He made several others of the same focal distance, with higher magnifiers; that for the King of Spain, completed in 1732, and for which he received £1,200, has only been surpassed by the reflectors of Herschel. Mr. Short, who was equally eminent as an artist and amiable as a man, died at Newington Butts, in 1766. ELLIS, (JOHN,) was born in London, in 1710, and brought up to commercial pursuits, which, however, a taste for natural history soon induced him to abandon. His principal discoveries relate to the nature of corallines, which he suspected to belong to the animal kingdom, as had been suggested by Jussieu. To ascertain this fact, he visited the isle of Sheppy, in 1752, and afterwards Brighton, assisted by the celebrated artist, Ehret. published the result of his observations, in 1755, under the title of An Essay towards a Natural History of the Corallines, &c., a very exact and curious work, which was received with great applause, and translated into several foreign languages. Mr. Ellis made several communications on the same SHORT, (JAMES,) was born at Edin- subject to the Royal Society, of which He body he was a member; besides a variety of papers relative to the barnacle, the cochineal, the polypes, &c. His botanical inquiries were also extensive; and, in a letter to Linnæus, he printed accounts of two new American genera of plants, and other discoveries. In 1768, he received the Royal Society's gold medal for two papers, one On the Animal Nature of the Genus of Zoophytes, called Corallina; the other, on the Actinia Sociata. As a compensation for his renunciation of trade, he was made agent for West Florida and Dominica, some time before his death, which occurred in 1776. A posthumous work, published by his daughter, in 1786, entitled Natural History of many curious and uncommon Zoophytes, is esteemed the best systematic account of that class which has appeared. of, by Haller, as a valuable contributor to physiological science. STANHOPE, (PHILIP, Earl of,) son of James, Earl of Stanhope, was born on the 15th of August, 1714, and succeeded to his title, on his father's death, in 1721. He was educated by his guardian, the celebrated Earl of Chesterfield, who prohibited him from the pursuit of mathematical studies, to which, from his infancy almost, he had manifested a strong partiality. These, however, he continued to pursue with such indefatigable ardour, that he is said to have become one of the first mathematicians of the age. At the same time, he made such progress in the classics, that he could, without the smallest hesitation, repeat the whole of the Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer in the original language; whilst his proficiency in the modern languages en NEEDHAM, (JOHN TURBERVILLE,) was born in London, in 1713, and edu-abled him to maintain a conversation cated in the Roman catholic religion, at Douay. After having taken priest's orders, he travelled about for several years, in the capacity of tutor. He is said to have been the first catholic priest who was admitted a member of the Royal Society, to which his philosophical reputation procured his admission, as well as to the French Academy of Sciences. He died at Brussels, in 1781, at which time he was rector of the Academy of Sciences and Belles Lettres of that city. He is principally celebrated for his experimental labours and speculations concerning the formation of organized bodies. His papers containing an account of these, have been published, both in French and English. He supports Buffon's notion of spontaneous generation by organical particles, in opposition to the doctrine of evolution; and is said to have assisted that philosopher in the composition of his Natural History. Mr. Needham also published a tract, entitled De Inscriptione quondam Egyptiaca Taurini inventa, in which he attempted to prove that the Chinese were descended from the Egyptians. Voltaire having represented his opinions as favourable to materialism, the subject of our memoir published a declaration of his orthodoxy; indeed, he appears to have been almost superstitious in his religious opinions. He is spoken in many of them with as much fluency as if they had been his vernacular tongue. His attention, however, continued to be principally occupied by his investigation of theorems in the higher and more sublime branches of geometry; but it is to be regretted that he never found time to publish the result of his researches. Earl Stanhope resided, for many years, at Geneva, whence he came to London to give his vote, on important occasions, in the house of lords. He always advocated liberal measures, and was considered one of the most patriotic and independent noblemen in parliament. He died on the 7th of March, 1786, leaving behind him one son and a widow, to whom he had been united forty-one years. This lady died at the advanced age of ninety-six ; and it is recorded of her, that a year or two previous to her death, she cut a set of new teeth, and had her hair renewed. Earl Stanhope was a most munificent patron of learning and science; and though he published no works himself, we are indebted to him for the most complete and magnificent edition of the works of Archimedes, the posthumous works of Dr. Simson, &c. Among other works dedicated to him were Dodson's Logarithms, and the third volume of Priestley's Experiments on Air. The following anecdote is told of him by his biographer :-His lordship, APPENDIX. whose dress always corresponded to the simplicity of his manners, was once BISSETT, (CHARLES,) was born in rather rudely prevented from going into after having completed his medical eduPerthshire, in Scotland, in 1717; and, the house of peers by a door-keeper cation at Edinburgh, went out, in 1740, who was unacquainted with his person. Lord Stanhope persisted in endeavour-pital at Jamaica. Here he acquired a as second surgeon to the military hosing to get into the house, without stopping to explain who he was, and the door-keeper, determined also on his part, made use of these words, "Honest man, you have no business here:honest man, you can have no business in this place." LEWIS, (WILLIAM,) was born some time after the commencement of the last century; and, after having taken his medical degree, practised at Kingston, in Surrey. He became a fellow of the Royal Society, and a member of the Royal Academy of Stockholm, and distinguished himself by several valuable works on pharmacy and chemistry. His celebrity in the latter science occasioned his being engaged to read a course of lectures, before the Prince of Wales, at Kew, and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, at Kingston; the manuscripts of which were sold after his death, which occurred in January, 1781. He was the first who communicated to the English reader, the chemical knowledge of the German chemists and metallurgists, in his Translation of the Chemical Works of Gasper Neuman, with large additions, containing the latter discoveries and improvements made in chemistry and the arts depending thereon. He was also one of the first promoters of the Society for the Improvement of Arts; from which, in 1767, he obtained the gold medal, for An Essay on Pot-ashes. In addition to the work before-mentioned, he published A Course of Practical Chemistry; Experimental History of the Materia Medica, a work of a comprehensive scientific knowledge, and of great utility, and of which a third edition was published by Dr. Aikin, and a translation appeared in German. He also wrote Commercium Philosophico-technicum, or the Philosophical Commerce of the Arts; A System of the Practice of Medicine, from the Latin of Frederic Hoffman, besides a few others; and was the author of two papers published in the Philosophical Transactions. knowledge of the different diseases prevalent in the torrid zone, and remained till 1745, when ill health compelled him England. In the following year, his to resign his situation and return to enterprising spirit induced him to purchase an ensigncy in the army, which distinguished himself as an officer in the he accompanied to Flanders, and there engineer brigade, till the termination of the war, in 1748. The skill he had evinced in that capacity, during different sieges, encouraged him to cultivate the study of fortification; the result of 1751, entitled An Essay on the Theory which was a work published by him in and Construction of Fortifications. In 1752, he resumed the medical profession, and commenced practice at Skelton, in Yorkshire; obtained, in 1765, sity of St. Andrews; and, after distinhis diploma of M. D. from the Univerguishing himself by a few medical publications, died at Knayton, near Thirsk, on the 14th of June, 1791. In addition to the work already mentioned, he wrote A Treatise on the Scurvy; An Great Britain; and a volume of MediEssay on the Medical Constitution of cal Essays and Observations, a second script, a few years before his death, at volume of which he deposited, in manuthe infirmary in Leeds. He also published a few political papers; a small tract on the naval art of war; and presented to the Prince of Wales, a treatise on fortification. Sheffield, in 1718, and engaged in the ROEBUCK, (JOHN,) was born at practice of a physician at Birmingham, after having taken his degree of M. D., at Leyden. Chemical researches, however, occupied more of his time than at length relinquished for the exclusive the practice of his profession, which he sulphuric acid, which he established at pursuit of science. A manufactory of Preston Pans, proved very profitable to himself and his partner, a Mr. Garbet, in conjunction with whom he also instituted the iron foundry of Carron. The property he acquired by these spe |