\n..\ioii: OF DB WRIGHT. 49 



L.50 an object of some consideration, he judged it 

 prudent to postpone at least the acceptance of the 

 honour proposed to him. He did not hesitate, how- 

 ever, to avail himself of the opportunity which was 

 afforded him by the politeness of the profession, of 

 profiting by the lectures of Black, Monro, and 

 Cullen, whose reputation at that time shed a lustre 

 around this northern seat of science. 



About this period, also, he writes to his brother, 

 that a number of literary gentlemen, consisting chief- 

 ly of physicians, lawyers, and divines, had formed 

 themselves into a Philosophical Society a few months 

 before * " While last at Crieff," he says, " I was elect- 

 ed a member. They mean to publish periodical vo- 

 lumes of literary and philosophical essays, and as my 

 stock of observation is considerable, I shall be at no 

 loss in furnishing my quota." 



On the death of his friend Dr Ramsay, the Pro- 

 fessor of Natural History in the University of Edin- 

 burgh, in the month of December 1778, a proposal 

 was made to Dr Wright to become his successor ; 

 but although it was never doubted by the patrons of 

 the University that Dr Wright was peculiarly fitted 

 to conduct the study of a science in which his mind 

 had been so deeply engaged for the greater part of his 

 life, yet he thought it right to discourage, and at 

 length definitively to decline, the proposal, in conse- 

 quence, as it appears from his letters to his brother, of 

 certain scrupulous misgivings as to his own qualifica- 

 tions in some subordinate departments of the science. 



* This Institution gave rise to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 



D 



