SCIENTISTS OF THE NORTH-EAST OF SCOTLAND 107 
present at the meeting of the British Association in Aberdeen, the guest 
of Lord Provost Webster—afterwards M.P. for the city—at whose 
instance the Association visited Aberdeen. Neil Arnott became a wealthy 
man, and made endowments in all the four Scottish Universities. 
Forses, Prof. James Davip.—He was born in Edinburgh, 1809, his 
father being Sir William Forbes, Bart., of Pitsligo, Aberdeenshire, friend 
and trustee of Sir Walter Scott. His mother was Williamina Belches, 
known as Scott’s first love. Forbes, who became Principal of the United 
College of St. Andrews in 1859, acquired eminence from his remarkable 
studies on climate, glaciation, etc. In 1831 he co-operated with his 
friend Sir David Brewster in the foundation of the British Association. 
He was offered the Presidency of the Association in 1864, but owing to 
the state of his health he was obliged to decline. 
ForsyTH, Rev. ALEXANDER JoHN, LL.D.—Rev. Dr. Forsyth is now 
well remembered as the inventor of the percussion lock, and as having 
been the first to substitute fulminate for flint as a means of igniting the 
charge of gunpowder. He was the son of Rev. James Forsyth, Manse 
of Belhelvie near Aberdeen, and was born at the Manse of Belhelvie in 
December 1768. He succeeded his father in the charge of Belhelvie, 
1791. His invention of the percussion lock has been acknowledged as 
of the highest national importance, and a remarkable commemoration of 
his work was the unveiling, five years ago, of a tablet to his memory in 
the ‘Tower of London, where Dr. Forsyth carried out experiments on his 
invention in 1806, and the unveiling of a replica of the Tower of London 
tablet in King’s College, Aberdeen, in 1931. 
Hamitton, Prof. RoBert.—Hamilton, who was a son of Gavin 
Hamilton, a well-known bookseller and publisher in Edinburgh, was 
appointed to the chair of Natural Philosophy in Marischal College, 
Aberdeen, 1779, but in 1817 was appointed to the chair of Mathematics. 
His most distinctive public service was his exposure of the unsoundness 
of the management of the British National Debt, published in his 
Inquiry, 1813, second edition 1818, which led to a revolution in the 
national financial system. 
Tuomson, Prof. Daviv.—David Thomson, born in Leghorn, 1817, 
the son of a Scottish merchant, was a graduate of Glasgow and Cambridge. 
He was Professor of Natural Philosophy in the reconstituted University 
of Aberdeen, 1860, and although his published work is limited to the 
article ‘ Acoustics’ in the Encyclopedia Britannica, he was of great 
practical use in connection with the movement for university extension 
and reform. 
Watt, JAMes.—The interest of Aberdeen in this illustrious mechanical 
genius rests on the probability that his grandfather, Thomas Watt, was 
for a time a farmer in Aberdeenshire, and that Watt’s earlier forbears 
sprang from the Aberdeenshire soil. It is pointed out that Thomas Watt, 
farmer at Kintore, Aberdeenshire, is the Thomas Watt who appears as 
a teacher of mathematics and navigation in Greenock, whose younger 
son, James Watt, dealer in nautical instruments and stores, was the father 
of the inventor. 
