322 Biographical Account of Dr, Wilson, [Nov. 



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 particu- 

 larly known to Dr. Thomas Simson, Professor of Medicine in 

 the University, who ever after treated him with much kindness 

 and friendship. About the same tim.e 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 httle 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 employed 

 in composing those Essays on the subject of Heat which have 

 rendered his name so justly celebrated. The author, besides 

 illustrating so well the theory of the thermometer, was further 

 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 admi- 

 rable dexterity in forming the different parts of the instrument 

 by the lamp and blowpipe, and in constructing and graduating 

 the scales with accuracy and elegance ; an employment which, 

 for a long time, Mr. Wilson continued to be fond of at conve- 

 nient 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 enter- 

 ing at a hole in the window-shutter, and after several refractions 

 falling upon a white ground within. But Mr. Wilson as yet 

 "was too far separated from the great world, and had too little 

 ^experience, for brihging forward to the notice of the public any 

 hovelty of this kind ; and, soon after, a similar combination of 

 glasses, with additional improvements, occurred to Mr. Lieber- 

 kuhn, and was at length received as a very curious enlargement 

 of the optical apparatus. 



It was also, whilst employing himself in such researches, that 

 Mr. Wilson proposed to many of his philosophical friends the 

 idea of burning at a great distance, by means of plane mirrors, so 

 situated as to throw the rays of the sun upon the same area, 

 without the smallest knowledge of such a thing ever having beeii 

 imagined by any person before him. But wanting the means of 

 providing himself with any costly apparatus, the matter was 

 pursued no further; and it is well known that M. de Buffon> 

 some years afterwards, when equally uninformed of whatKircher 

 had thought of, hit upon the same conception. In 1747, by a 

 magnificent construction far beyond the reach of Mr. Wilson's 



