ioo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



that the mystery which is farthest removed from our knowledge I 

 mean the transmission of original sin should be that without which 

 we can have no true knowledge of ourselves. It is in this abyss that 

 the clew to our condition takes its turnings and windings, insomuch 

 that man is more incomprehensible without this mystery than this 

 mystery is incomprehensible to man." 



SKETCH OF DE. AENOTT. 



AMONG the agencies for the diffusion of the knowledge of phys- 

 ics and the taste for its study in the past generation, few were 

 more effective and successful than " The Elements of Physics," a 

 treatise for schools, by the author whose portrait will be found in the 

 present number of the Monthly. It was a work in many respects of 

 peculiar and remarkable excellence, from the felicitous treatment of 

 the subject, the fullness and aptness of illustration, the pleasant and 

 attractive style, and what may be called the practicalness of the 

 book, or the prominence it gave to the exposition of familiar phe- 

 nomena. Many students of both sexes in our higher schools received 

 a bent in the direction of scientific study from the use of this text- 

 book, which lasted through life; and, as a new edition of the volume 

 is about to appear, brought up to the time by judicious and able 

 editors, there are many who would like to know something about the 

 personal character and life of the author. 



Neil Arnott was born on the loth of May, 1788, at Arbroath, in 

 Scotland. On his father's side he was descended from a Lowland 

 family, and his mother was the daughter of a Highland clan. His 

 youth was passed at Dysart, near Montrose. At the age of ten he 

 became a pupil in the Aberdeen Grammar-School, where he remained 

 the next three years. 



In consequence of having been successful at the Bursary compe-. 

 tition at Marischal College, in 1801, he became a student there, and 

 completed the regular course, obtaining the degree of M. A. in his 

 seventeenth year. It was during his third year in college, under the 

 admirable instruction of Prof. Copland, that his mind was directed to 

 natural philosophy, which henceforth became his favorite study. He 

 chose medicine as his profession, and went through the medical course 

 at Aberdeen. For the purpose of completing his stirdies, he went to 

 London in 1806, and became a pupil in St. George's Hospital, under 

 Sir Everard Home. Through the influence of the latter, lie was ap- 

 pointed surgeon in the East India Company, where he gained valu- 

 able experience for his after-work. Having settled in London in 1811, 

 he not only obtained large success as a medical practitioner, but at the 

 same time was collecting materials for his future work on "Physics." 

 In 1815 he was appointed physician to the French embassy, and after- 



