THE 



EDINBURGH 

 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



Art. I. — Biographical Account of Alexander Wilson, M.D* 

 late Professor of Practical Astronomy in Glasgow. By the 

 late Patrick Wilson, A. M. Professor of Practical Astro- 

 nomy in the University of Glasgow, * 



Alexander Wilson, M. D. late Professor of Practical As- 

 tronomy in Glasgow College, was a younger son of Patrick 

 Wilson, town-clerk of St Andrews, and was born there in 

 1714. He was very young when his father died, and was af- 

 terwards brought up by the care of his mother, Clara Fairfoul, 

 a person much respected for her prudence, virtue, and piety. 



Having received the usual education at the different schools, 

 he entered to the College of St Andrews, where he made great 

 proficiency in literature and the sciences, and, after completing 

 a regular course of studies, was admitted to the degree of Mas- 

 ter of Arts in his nineteenth year. 



Before the expiration of his academical course, his inclina- 

 tion led him to prefer the study of natural philosophy, and 

 particularly those branches of it which relate to optics and 

 astronomy. From his earliest years he discovered a strong 

 propensity to several ingenious arts, among which may be men- 



* This Memoir of Dr Wilson, after being read at the Royal Society of 

 Edinburgh on the 2d February 1789, was withdrawn by its author, for 

 the purpose of making some alterations upon it ; and was never returned 

 for publication. It was found, however, among the papers of Mr Patrick 

 Wilson, and is now printed with the consent of his family. Its connection 

 with the history of science, and of the progress of the useful arts in Scot- 

 land, gives it a very high degree of interest, and induces us to reprint it 

 from the Edin. Trans, vol. x.— Ed. 



VOL. X. NO. I. JAN. 1829. A 



