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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



into his own pursuits, and fond of experimenting before them, par- 

 ticularly with his electrical machine. She remembers the starts and 

 shocks she received, and also being occasionally left alone in the dark, 

 when Mr. Brewster would appear among them with his outstretched 

 hand and fingers all in an apparent blaze from phosphorus. Some 

 of his scientific practices greatly incensed Mrs. Dickson, the house- 

 keeper, who declared that he would never rest till he had set the house 

 on fire. 



His principal literaiy works, many of which have obtained a wide 

 popular circulation, are his " Life of Sir Isaac Newton," published in 

 Murray's " Family Library," and the larger memoirs embodying the 

 fruits of twenty years of investigation, published in 1855 ; his notes 

 and introduction to Legendre's " Geometry " (1824) ; his " Treatise on 

 Optics" (1831) ; "Letters on Natural Magic" (1831) ; " The Martyrs 

 of Science " (1841) ; and " More Worlds than One " (1854). The list 

 of his briefer scientific papers and miscellaneous writings includes, 

 besides the seventy-five articles contributed to the " North British 

 Review," three hundred and fifteen titles. 



A monition of the waning of his vital powers came to Sir David in 

 the spring of 1867, when he lost consciousness in a fainting-fit in his 

 class-room at the university. He attended the British Association at 

 Dundee, in September of the same year, and had another fainting-fit, 

 after enduring the crowd and heat of the public assembly. He returned 

 to his home, never to leave it again, but had to occupy himself with 

 the papers of the forged Pascal-Newton correspondence, and to ward 

 off from Newton's memory the blot which it was attempted to put 

 upon it. This was the last act of his scientific and literary career. 

 " He went straight from this controversy into the gathering silences," 

 and died, at Allerly, Meh-ose, February 10, 1868. 



