94 Memoir of the late Mr William Blackie. 



tithonidty are capable of causing the union of mineral particles, 

 light appears to be the only radiant body which rules pre- 

 eminent in the organic world. To the animating beams of the 

 sun, we owe whatever products are necessary to our very exist- 

 ence. (The American Journal of Science and Arts, vol. xlvi., 

 No. I, January 1844, p. 1.) 



Memoir of the late Mr William Blackie^ Optician, By John 

 Coldstream, M.D., Leith. Communicated by the Royal 

 Scottish Society of Arts.* 



William Blackie was born at Bainfield, near Edinburgh, 

 24th May 1808. He was brought up by his maternal grand- 

 father, Mr George Blackie, gardener, whose name he assumed 

 in after life, in preference to that of his father, in consequence 

 of the latter having basely deserted his mother. 



After having received the elements of education in various 

 suburban schools, he began, at the age of twelve years, to 

 work in his grandfather's garden at Upper Hermitage, South 

 Leith. Nothing remarkable appeared in his character or dis- 

 positions during his boyhood ; but, when he had reached the 

 age of seventeen years, he became impatient of the monotony 

 of a gardener's life ; and, along with a cousin, suddenly left 

 his home and went to sea. He was received on board of a 

 coal-brig trading between North Shields and London, in 

 which he met with treatment so harsh as to lead him speedily 

 to repent of the rash step he had taken. While at London, 

 he sought long and anxiously for employment in some of the 

 large gardens near the metropolis, but in vain ; and, at last, 

 he was compelled by hunger to return to the vessel. Having 

 completed the homeward-voyage, he felt that he had had 

 enough of a sailor's life, and penitently returned to his friends 

 within two months after absconding. He then resumed work 

 in the garden. 



It was about two years after this that an incident occurred 

 which gave a decided turn to his occupations, and influenced 



♦ Read before the Royal Society of Arts on 8th April 1844r 



