2 Biographical Account of Dr Wilson^ 



tioned drawing, modelling of figures, and engraving upon cop- 

 perplate. Even when a boy, he often devoted his leisure to 

 such employments, and though in all of them he was almost 

 entirely self-directed and self-taught, yet, from time to time, 

 he produced specimens of ingenuity which drew upon him a 

 general attention, and which, by real judges, were considered 

 as indications of uncommon natural talents. 



Upon his leaving the college, he was put as an apprentice to 

 a surgeon and apothecary in his native city, with a view of fol- 

 lowing that profession. At this period he became more parti- 

 cularly known to Dr Thomas Simson, professor of medicine in 

 the university, who ever after treated him with much kindness 

 and friendship. About the same time he had also the good 

 fortune to find a patron in Dr George Martine, a physician in 

 the town. In those days the construction and graduation of 

 thermometers was little attended to or understood in Britain, 

 and Dr Martine, from a just conception of the importance of 

 this instrument in many philosophical pursuits, was then em- 

 ployed in composing those essays on the subject of heat which 

 have rendered his name so justly celebrated. The author, be- 

 sides illustrating so well the theory of the thermometer, was 

 farther very desirous of bringing accurate thermometers into 

 general use ; and, with this view, he turned the attention of his 

 friend Mr Wilson to the art of working in glass. Though this 

 was to him entirely a new attempt, depending upon many trials, 

 and much mechanical address, yet he very soon acquired an 

 admirable dexterity in forming the different parts of the in- 

 strument by the lamp and blowpipe, and in constructing and 

 graduating the scales with accuracy and elegance ; an employ- 

 ment which, for a long time, Mr Wilson continued to be fond 

 of at convenient seasons, and in which it is well known he 

 greatly excelled. 



Possessing naturally much activity of mind, and employing 

 most of his leisure in some ingenious attempt or other, it was 

 about this time that, in making certain optical experiments, he 

 discovered the principles of the solar microscope, so far as to 

 exhibit to several of his friends in a dark chamber the images 

 of small objects enormously magnified, by the sun''s rays en- 

 tering at a hole in the window-shutter, and after several refrac- 



