278 MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON. CHAP. X. 



comparatively little importance to the community generally, 

 had not this appointment [that of the new Chair] been 

 made ; and had the Government sought through the length 

 and breadth of the land for a person fitted for carrying out 

 the objects contemplated by it, they would not readily have 

 found one so well qualified as Dr. George Wilson." A 

 writer in the "North British Review" believed to be Sir 

 David Brewster attributes it in great part to his labours in 

 reference to Colour-Blindness. "We have no doubt," he 

 says, "the researches which it [the work on Colour-Blind- 

 ness] contains, and their practical relation to the safety of 

 ships and railway trains, which he was the first to point out, 

 were among the grounds of his appointment to the Chair 

 of Technology, or Industrial Art, which has recently been 

 founded by the Crown in the University of Edinburgh." 1 



It was no small puzzle to the public at first, what Tech- 

 nology meant. In December, 1855, he reports, " Technology 

 prospers, and people are learning how to spell it." A defi- 

 nition given before leaving Melrose, to his married sister, 

 1 was probably the first explanation of the word from him. 



" DEAR JEAN, The Professor salutes you, and grieves 

 over the absence of Technology from your dictionary. 



" Let us see what it means, by analyzing it into syllables, 

 beginning with the final ones. Nology, or knowledge of, must 

 mean 'the acquaintance with;' so far good; but what is 

 'Tech?' A pre-Adamic word, I take it, signifying, as well 

 as I can make out, ' things in general.' Altogether, then, we 

 reach the full idea of the Knowledge of Things in General. 



" You will find the word in no dictionary. They had to 

 wait till a knowledgeable man like me was born, before they 

 could coin the word. A stupid Greek scholar, if you met 



i " North British Review," February, 1856 ; Article "Colour-Blind- 

 ness." 



