BISTORT of the SOCIETT. 5 



IN Edinburgh, a Society was inflituted in 1731, for the im- 

 provement of medical knowledge, by collecting and publifhing 

 EfTays and Obfervations on the various branches of Medicine 

 and Surgery, written by the members themfelves, or communi- 

 cated to them. The Secretary of this Society was the elder 

 Dr ALEXANDER MONRO, the firft profeflbr of Anatomy in the 

 Univerfity of Edinburgh, and the founder of the medical 

 fchool which has fince attained to fuch eminence and celebrity. 

 Under his care, the Tranfadlions of this Society were publifhed 

 at different periods, in five volumes 8vo, with the title of Me- 

 dical EJ/ays and Obfervations, &c. ; a work which has undergone 

 many editions, which has been tranflated into many foreign 

 languages, and is honoured with the encomium of HALLER, 

 as one of the mod ufeful books in the fciences of Medicine, 

 Anatomy and Surgery. 



SOON after the publication of the above mentioned volumes 

 of Medical Eflays, viz. in 1739, the celebrated Mr MACLAURIN, 

 profeffor of Mathematics in the Univerfity of Edinburgh, con- 

 ceived the idea of enlarging the plan of this fociety, by ex- 

 tending it to fubjecls of Philofophy and Literature. The infti- 

 tution was accordingly new-modelled, by a printed fet of laws 

 and regulations, the number of members was increafed, and 

 they were diftinguiih'ed, from that time, by the title of The 

 Society for improving Arts and Sciences , or, more generally, by the 

 title of The Philofopbical Society of Edinburgh. They chofe for 

 their Prefident JAMES Earl of Morton, afterwards Prefident of 

 the Royal Society of London : Sir JOHN CLERK of Pennycuik, 

 one of the Barons of Exchequer, and Dr JOHN CLERK, were 

 elected Vice-prefidents ; and Mr MACLAURIN and Dr PLUMMER 

 Secretaries of the inftitution. The ordinary members were 

 fome of the moft diftinguiihed men of letters in Scotland at 

 that time. 



A FEW years after the Society had received its new form, its 

 meetings were interrupted, for a confiderable fpace of time, by 



the 



