219 



TYSSENS, PETER. 



TYTLER, PATRICK FRASER. 



220 



Tyson was one of the first comparative anatomists of his time. All 

 his works are distinguished by great accuracy and depth of research ; 

 they are to this day of unquestioned authority in matters of fact ; and 

 they prove that he thoroughly understood the scientific purpose of 

 comparative anatomy. The chief of them are as follows: 1, 'Pho- 

 cwua, or the Anatomy of a Porpesse dissected at Gresham College,' 

 4to, London, 1680; 2, ' Carigueya, ECU Mursupiale Americanum; or 

 the Anatomy of an Opossum dissected at Gresham College,' 4to, 

 London, 1698; 3, ' Orang-Outaug, eive Homo Sylvestris; or the 

 Anatomy of a Pygmie, compared with that of a Monkey, an Ape, and 

 a Man,' folio, London, 1699. This is Tyson's best and most valuable 

 work ; for though the others are not less accurate, this relates to an 

 animal for the dissection of which opportunities are exceedingly rare. 

 It was a chimpanzee, and the later labours of Professors Owen and 

 Vrolik, though they have added to what Tyson described, have proved 

 the complete accuracy of nearly all his observations ; an accuracy the 

 more meritorious, because, before his time, no dissection of the animal 

 had been recorded. Haller, with full justice, says, " We have nothing 

 in comparative anatomy that can be compared to this work, excepting 

 the works on insects ; " by which last he probably rneans'those of Swam- 

 merdam. 4, There was published with the last-mentioned work, ' A 

 Philological Essay concerning the Pygmies, the Cynocephali, the Satyrs, 

 and Sphinges of the Ancients, wherein it will appear that they were 

 all either Apes or Monkeys.' 5, And to a second edition of the two 

 preceding was added, ' Vipera Caudisona Americana, or the Anatomy 

 of a Rattle-Snake.' 6, 'Several Anatomical Observations,' folio, 

 London and Oxford, 1680-1705. 



Some of these works had before appeared in the ' Philosophical 

 Transactions,' which contain numerous other papers communicated 

 by Tyson between 1678 and 1704. The most important among them 

 relate to the renal capsules, the anal glands of the musk-animal and 

 others, the black excretion of the cuttle-fish, the anatomy of the ento- 

 zoa and of the Tajassu, and the growth of hair and teeth in ovarian 

 cysts. Tyson also contributed largely to Samuel Collins's ' System of 

 Anatomy," to Ray's 'Synopsis Methodica Quadrupedum,' and to 

 Willughby's ' Historia Piscium.' 



TYSSENS, PETER, a celebrated Flemish painter, born at Antwerp, 

 in 1625. Tyssens, after Rubens and Vandyck, was the first Flemish 

 painter of his time, in history and in portrait. He first practised as 

 an historical painter, and was highly patronised, but finding portrait- 

 painting a more profitable employment, he devoted his time exclu- 

 sively to that branch of the art, until, digusted with some uncandid 

 criticisms which were passed on some of them, he gave up portrait- 

 painting, and again applied himself with increased success to history. 

 There are few cities in Flanders without a specimen of the works of 

 Tyssens, but there are few of his paintings out of his own country. 

 The Assumption of the Virgin, over the great altar of the church of 

 St. James at Antwerp, is generally considered his masterpiece. His 

 drawing was vigorous and correct, his colouring good, and his compo 

 sitioii very spirited. He enriched his pictures by tasteful architectural 

 backgrounds. In 1661 Tyssens was made director of the Academy of 

 Antwerp. He died in 1692. 



His two sons, Nicholas and Agustine, were also distinguished painters 

 in their respective lines. NICHOLAS TYSSENS was born at Antwerp in 

 1660 ; spent several years in Italy, and on his return entered the 

 service of John William, the elector-palatine at Diisseldorf, who sent 

 him to the principal cities of the Netherlands to purchase pictures for 

 the gallery which he was about to form there. Tyssens executed his 

 commission to the utmost satisfaction of the elector, but the pictures 

 which he purchased, with others of the Diisseldorf gallery, now form 

 part of the collection of the Pinakothek at Munich. Tyssens first 

 painted armour, implements of war, and trophies : he afterwards tried 

 flower-painting ; but he painted latterly birds, in which he was very 

 excellent, and his pictures of this class are little inferior to those of 

 Bocl or Hondekoeter. He visited London, where he is said to have 

 died in 1719. 



AUGUSTINE TYSSENS was born at Antwerp in 1662, and was a land- 

 scape-painter, and executed many clever pictures in the style of 

 Berghem, which he enriched in a similar way, with ruins, figures, and 

 cattle. In 1691 he was made director of the Academy of Antwerp. 

 He died in 1722. 



(Descamps, La Vie des Peintres Flamands, &c. ; Pilkington, Die 

 tionary of Painters, ed. 1829.) 



TYTLEK, WILLIAM, was born at Edinburgh on the 12th of 

 October 1711. His father was Mr. Alexander Tytler, writer (or 

 attorney) in Edinburgh ; his mother, Jane, daughter of Mr. William 

 Leslie, merchant in Aberdeen. He himself, after an education at the 

 High School and University of Edinburgh, was admitted a writer to 

 the signet in 1742, and he practised that branch of the legal profession 

 till his death, on the 12th of September 1792. Mr. Tytler, besides 

 being an accomplished musician, and distinguished for his taste in all 

 the fine arts, was the author of several literary works, the chief oi 

 which, his ' Inquiry, Historical and Critical, into the Evidence against 

 Mary Queen of Scots,' first printed in an 8vo vol. in 1759, and aftei 

 several editions extended to 2 vols. 8vo in 1790, acquired him consider- 

 able reputation. It is a defence of Mary, principally against Robertson 

 and Hume. His other publications are ' A Dissertation on the 

 Marriage of Queen Mary to the Earl of Bothwell,' in the ' Transactions 



of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland,' vol. i., 4to, 1791 ; ' The 

 ?oetical Remains of James I. of Scotland,' 8vo, Edin., 1783 ; ' A 

 Dissertation on Scottish Music,' subjoined to Arnott's ' History of 

 Edinburgh;' 'Observations on the Vision,' a poem, first printed in 

 Elamsay's ' Evergreen ;' and an essay ' On the Fashionable Amuse- 

 ments of Edinburgh during the last Century,' both published in the 

 Scottish 'Antiquarian Transactions ;' and one paper in the ' Lounger.' 

 Vlr. William Tytler was the father of Alexander F. Tytler, Lord 

 Woodhouselee. 



TYTLER, ALEXANDER FRASER, styled LOUD WOODHOUSELEE, 

 ihe eldest son of the preceding, was born at Edinburgh on the 15th 

 of October 1747. Ho attended the High School of his native town 

 from 1755 to 1763, when he was sent to an academy kept at Kensing- 

 ton, near London, by James Elphinstone, the author of many works 

 on English grammar and pronunciation. Here he studied drawing, 

 natural history, and Italian, as well as the classics. Returning home 

 in 1765, he entered the University of Edinburgh with a view of 

 studying for the bar. He was admitted an advocate in 1770, and in 

 1776 married Anne, eldest daughter of William Eraser, Esq., of Bal- 

 nain, which property, as well as his paternal estate, he eventually 

 inherited. His practice, like that of most young advocates, left him 

 leisure enough for some years ; the first fruits of which he gave to 

 the world, in 1778, by the publication of a supplementary (folio) 

 volume to Lord Kames's ' Dictionary of Decisions,' bringing down tho 

 work to that date. This compilation was undertaken on the suggestion 

 of Kames, who showed the author much friendship, and aided his 

 labours by his counsel and revision. In 1780 Tytler was conjoined 

 with John Pringle, Esq., who had occupied the chair for some years, 

 in the professorship of universal history and Roman antiquities in the 

 University of Edinburgh ; and in 1786 he became sole professor, on 

 the resignation, we believe, of his colleague. This appointment led to 

 the publication, in 1782, of his ' Outlines of a Course of Lectures,' 

 afterwards expanded into ' Elements of General History,' 2 vols. 8vo, 

 Edinburgh, 1801, a work which has been repeatedly reprinted, the 

 latest edition being that revised and continued to the death of 

 William IV. by the Rev. Edward Nares, D.D., regius professor of 

 modern history in the University of Oxford, in 1 vol. 8vo, London, 

 1840. The lectures, of which this work is an abstract, were left ready 

 for the press by the author, but have never been published. In 1790 

 Mr. Tytler was promoted to the office of judge-admiral of Scotland; 

 and the same year he read before the Royal Society of Edinburgh, of 

 which he had been a member and one of the secretaries since its 

 institution in 1783, a series of papers, which he soon after published 

 anonymously, under the title of 'An Essay on the Principles of 

 Translation.' This performance met with a very welcome reception 

 from the public, and has gone through many editions. A memoir of 

 Dr. John Gregory, prefixed to a collected edition of his works pub- 

 lished by his son, the late Dr. James Gregory, in 1784 ; four papers 

 contributed to the Edinburgh periodical publication entitled the 

 'Mirror,' in 1779; seven contributed to its successor, the 'Lounger,' 

 in 1 785 ; various essays in the ' Transactions ' of the Edinburgh Royal 

 Society ; a ' Treatise upon Martial Law ; ' a new edition of Derham's 

 ' Physico-Theology,' with notes, &c., and a Life of the author, pub- 

 lished in 1799 ; and a letter published the same year at Dublin, under 

 the title of ' Ireland profiting by Example, or the Question considered 

 whether Scotland has gained or lost by the Union,' are the other prin- 

 cipal literary productions of this period of his life. In 1802 he was 

 raised to the bench of the Court of Session, when he took the title of 

 Lord Woodhouselee, from the property of which he had come into 

 possession on the death of his father ten years before. In 1807 he 

 published his last work, ' Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Henry 

 Homes, Lord Kames,' 2 vols. 4to, Edinb. This work (of which there 

 is also an edition in 4 vols. 8vo) has never excited much attention. In 

 1811 Lord Woodhouselee was appointed a lord of justiciary; but hirf 

 health, which had some years before been broken by a severe illness 

 from which he never perfectly recovered, soon after this gave way, and 

 his death took place on the 4th of January 1813. A memoir of this 

 respectable writer and excellent man (from which these facts have 

 been taken) was read by his friend, the late Rev. Archibald Alison, 

 before the Royal Society of Edinburgh, on the 3rd of June 1816, and 

 6th of January 1817, and is printed in the Society's 'Transactions,' 

 vol. viii., 4to, Edinburgh, 1818, pp. 515-564. 



TYTLER, PATRICK FRASER, was born at Edinburgh on the 

 30th of August 1791, the fourth son of Alexander Eraser Tytler, Lord 

 Woodhouselee. He was destined to increase the literary reputation 

 of a family in which liter.iry taste and talent seemed hereditary. After 

 having been educated at the High School and the University of Edin- 

 burgh, he became a member of the Scottish Faculty of Advocates in 

 1813, but he soon abandoned practice for authorship. Ou the peace 

 of 1814 he accompanied Mr. (now Sir Archibald) Alison and the 

 present Lord-Justice Clerk of Scotland on a visit to the Continent. Hia 

 first literary efforts were as a contributor to ' Black wood's Magazine ; ' 

 but in 1819 he published in Edinburgh an independent work entitled 

 ' Life of James Crichton of Cluny, commonly called Admirable 

 Crichton.' The work reached a second edition in 1823, when an 

 Appendix of Original Papers' was added to it. In 1823 he pub- 

 lished also at Edinburgh, ' An Account of the Life and Writings of 

 Sir Thomas Craig of Riccarton; including biographical sketches of 



