APPENDIX. 515 



the finite divisibility of matter j" 1 and on the probability of the 

 nitric acid sometimes found in the air being one source of the 

 nitrogen found in plants. 2 As to chloroform, at one time he 

 took its specific gravity/ at another he observed the strange 

 phenomena of capillary attraction which it exhibits ; 4 and yet 

 again he wrote on " Chloroform as an anaesthetic from a pa- 

 tient's point of view." He once published an analysis of a sup- 

 posed meteoric stone ; and then he turned to discover in which 

 organs lead accumulated, when some horses were slowly poi- 

 soned by that metal ; he observed the crystallization of bi-car- 

 bonate of ammonia in spherical masses, or speculated on the 

 origin of the diamond. 5 Most varied, too, were the subjects on 

 which he gave practical suggestions, the electro -magnetic bell, 

 for experiments on the conduction of sound ; 6 oxygen, for the 

 restoration of our half-drowned fellow-creatures ; 7 and artificial 

 sea- water for our actiniae. 8 



AS A TECHNOLOGIST. 



Long before Dr. Wilson's appointment as Eegius Director of 

 the Industrial Museum of Scotland, he had, in his laboratory 

 practice, been led to investigate several of the chemical arts. He 

 had even published papers bearing more or less on some of them, 

 as, for instance, that already referred to, which elucidated the 

 theory of bleaching. But when his mind was specially turned 

 to the subject of Technology, he put all his heart into it. It 

 appealed at once to his intellectual and his moral nature : there 

 was a vast range of inquiry, not too profound ; and what was 

 better still, that inquiry had a direct bearing on the happiness 

 of his fellow-men. In the formation of the Industrial Museum 

 he worked hard ; and those who have enjoyed the advantage, as 

 I have, of being conducted by him through the rich stores in 



1 ' Trans. R.S.E.,' vol. xvi. part i.' 



2 'Trans. R.S.E./ vol. xx. part iv. 



3 ' Monthly Journal of Medical Science.' 1848. 



4 ' Quarterly Journal of Chemical Society.' Vol. i. 



5 ' Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal.' 1850. * Ibid. 1846. 



7 'Trans. R.S.S.A.' 1845. 



8 ' Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal.' 1855. 



