:' 1 -2 MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON. CHAP. VIIT. 



public commendation in the address delivered to the British 

 Association in 1855, by its President, the Duke of Argyll, mid 

 is repeatedly quoted and referred to by Professor J. D. Forbes, 

 in his ' Dissertation on the Progress of Mathematical and Physi- 

 cal Science since 1775 to 1850.' He speaks of it as " a valuable 

 biography, which has been printed in the series of publications 

 of the ' Cavendish Society/ and thus unfortunately has had but 

 a limited circulation." 1 For further notice of this work, the 

 reader is referred to the periodicals whose names are given below. 2 



The work which next proceeded from the pen of " the much- 

 loved biographer," as George Wilson has been called, was as 

 different from its predecessor as two books could well be. This 

 difference, however, existed only in the subjects of memoir, not 

 in the method of treating them. Approaching the man in both 

 cases without preconceived notions of what he ought to be, and 

 discovering with fine instinct the springs of action in each, he, 

 with reverential faithfulness and exquisite delicacy, portrayed 

 him as he existed. 



Dr. John Eeid, of whose ' Life' we now speak, was little known 

 beyond the professional circles in which his physiological 

 researches were highly valued, until the later years of his life, 

 " comprising more tragical incidents, and exhibiting finer efforts 

 of heroism, than are often to be found in real or invented 

 tragedies," revealed to the world the qualities of heart and 

 mind that made him a wonder to many. Though not an inti- 

 mate friend, George Wilson enjoyed the pleasure of John Eeid's 

 acquaintance, and on his funeral day, when visiting the pictur- 

 esque churchyard which surrounds the venerable ruins of St. 

 Andrews Cathedral, tender reminiscences shaped themselves into 

 the following lines : 



THE LATE DR. JOHN REID. 



DEATH lias at length released thce, 



Thou brave and patient one ! 

 The unutterable pangs are past, 



And all thy work is done. 



1 Only members of the Society named arc entitled to its publications. 



2 'British and Foreign Medico-Chirnrgical Review,' April 1852, p. 533. 'North 

 British Review/ Feb. 1856. In Littell's 'Living Age,' No. 384, a Boston, U. S. 

 publication, a notice of some length is reprinted from the 'Spectator.' 



