476 MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON. CHAP. XT. 



friends from England forming with George Wilson and his sister 

 a most pleasant family party, of which many happy memories 

 remain. A pretty full account of the doings of the week, so far 

 as George was concerned, is given in writing to his brother. 



" September 23, 1859. 



" Jessie and I got home last night from Aberdeen, where we 

 have spent ten delightful days, and before going in to the galley 

 oar again, I send you some account of our doings. . . . My 

 paper 1 [to the Chemical Section] will not at present be published 

 even in abstract ; but I believe it to contain some curious, novel, 

 and important observations on the ancient history of the Air- 

 Pump. I had the pleasure of seeing Faraday, Graham, Christi- 

 son, Gassiot, Eobinson, William Thomson, De La Rue, besides 

 others, listening with interest, and we had profitable talk about 

 it after. To dispose of myself : I read to the Natural History 

 Section a brief paper on the Gymnotus, 2 as used by the Indians 

 at the present day to give shocks. Two of the Gymnoti are 

 coming alive to ine next summer. 



" In the Statistical I gave them a blast about Colour- Blind- 

 ness, 3 preliminary to moving for a committee to inquire into the 

 statistics of the question on a large scale. I have got the com- 

 mittee, and 10 to carry out the scheme. In the Chemical 

 Section I also read a paper for Walter Crum, and one for James 

 Young. Altogether I was more than satisfied with my share in 

 Association work, and fulfilled every personal project that took 

 me there. . . . 



" My lungs warned me, by some ugly bleeding early in the 

 week, to be careful, so that I did not go to Sir R Murchison's 

 Lecture, or to the first Conversazione. The second lecture by 

 Eobinson of Armagh was a great treat, or rather, I should say, 

 the experiments were. They were exhibitions of the electric 

 spark on the largest scale, including all the kinds of electric 

 light, the apparatus being brought from London, and of the 



1 ' On some of the Stages which led to the Invention of the Modern Air-Pump.' 

 ' Report of Brit. Assoc. 1859,' p. 89. 



2 ' On the Employment of the Electrical Eel, (jymnotus Electricus, as a medical 

 shock machine by the natives of Surinam.' Ibid. p. 581. 



3 ' On the Statistics of Colour-Blindness.'- - Ibid, p. 228. 



