(76) HISrORT of the SOCIETY. 



Accoumof and without the fmalleft advantage from the extraordinary ex- 



ertions and meritorious induftry of her hufband. 



Dr Roebuck had, fome years before his death, been attack- 

 ed by a complaint that required a dangerous chirurgical opera- 

 tion. That operation he fupported with his ufual fpirit and re- 

 fohition. In a fliort time he was reitored to a confiderable 

 flaare of his former health and adivity. But the effects of it 

 never entirely left him, and feveral ilighter returns of the com- 

 plaint gradually impaired his conftitvuion. He ftill, however, 

 continued, till within a few weeks of his death, to vifit his 

 works, and to give diredlion to his clerks and overfeers. He 

 was confined to his bed only a few days, and died on the 

 17th July 1794, retaining to the laft all his faculties, his fpirit 

 and good humour, as well as the great intereft which he took, 

 as a man of fcience and reflexion, in the uncommon events 

 which the prefent age has exhibited. 



From a man fo deeply and fo conftantly engaged in the de- 

 tail of adlive bufinefs, many literary compofitions were not to 

 be expecfted. Dr Roebuck left behind him many ivorks, but 

 few writings. The great objedl which he kept invariably in 

 view was to promote arts and manufa6lures, rather than to efta- 

 blilh theories or hypothefes. The few elTays which he lefr^ 

 enable us to judge of what might have been expedted from his 

 tale ts, knowledge, and boldnefs of invention, had not the ac- 

 tive undertakings in which, from an early period of life, he was 

 engaged, and the fatiguing details of bufinefs, occupied the time 

 for fludy and inveftigation. A comparifon of the heat of London 

 and Edinburgh, read in the Royal Society of London June 29. 



1 775, Experiments on ignited bodies, read there 1 6th February 



1776, Obfervations on the ripening and filling of corn, read in 

 the Royal Society of Edinburgh 5th June 1784, are all the wri- 

 tings of his, two political pamphlets excepted, which have been 

 pubhlhed. The publication of the effay on ignited bodies was 



occafioned 



