23 Biographical Memoir of Sir John Leslie. 



Arithmetic, palpable and figurate ; Atmometer ; Barometer ; 

 Barometrical Measurements; Climate; Cold and Congelation; 

 Dew ; Interpolation ; Meteorology.* 



Another work which at intervals enjoyed the benefit of his 

 co-operation, was the Edinburgh Reviexc. But his contribu- 

 tions, though commencing in the year 1809, were not numer- 

 ous. They helped, however, and that in an eminent degree, 

 to sti'engthen and diversify the Scientific department of that 

 Journal; whilst those respecting Voyages and Travels combined 

 scientific observation with powers of writing of no ordinary 

 description. Among his principal articles may be mentioned 

 those on the Physical and Chemical Memoirs of the Society of 

 Arcueil ; on the history of the Bai'ometer ; on Delambre's 

 Arithmetic of the Greeks ; on Von Buch's Travels ; on Hum- 

 boldt's Physical View of the Equatorial Regions, and Travels ; 

 and on the attempts to discover a North-West Passage to 

 Asia. The picture in the last, of the revolving year, as ob- 

 served within the arctic circle, is executed with a force of con- 

 ception, as well as of colouring, that have not often been sur- 

 passed. 



In the year 1819, a new field of professorial labour was 

 opened to Mr Leslie, by the vacancy in the Chair of Natural 

 Philosophy, occasioned by the death of one of the greatest or- 

 naments of the University, Mr Playfair. Mr Leslie was on 

 his return from one of his summer trips to the Continent when 

 this lamented occurrence took place. The news met him on 

 being put ashore at Largo, and is thus mentioned in a letter 

 from that place, written on the first of August ; in which he 

 also describes an accident that had nearly, as he says, deprived 

 the University of another Professor : " After having been de- 

 tained for about a week in Holland, and after a tedious but 

 agreeable passage of near ten days, I was at last put ashore 

 here, from a sloop bound from Rotterdam to Grangemouth. 

 Every thing lookf^d joyous ; but I had soon the tidings of poor 



'■ The present edition is enriched with the whole of these articles. That 

 part of the article Arithmetic, which i-elates to palpable notation, has been 

 omitted, with the exception of the curious disquisition on the Abacus, which 

 is printed separately in this edition. The article Interjwiation is, in it, annex- 

 ed to that on Logaritlims. 



