66 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



The Government allowed Da\id Brewster an 

 annuity of ;^ioo, which was in 1836 increased 

 to /200, and two years later he was made Principal 

 of the College of St. Salvator and St. Leonard, in 

 the University of St. Andrew's, which was a 

 fortunate circumstance for the cause of science, as 

 it relieved him of certain financial embarrassments 

 which were sorely pressing on his attention. In 

 1 85 1 he was President of the 

 meeting of the British Association, 

 held at Edinburgh ; the text of 

 his address was for better scien- 

 tific education, which was greatly 

 needed in those days. In i860 

 he became Vice-Chancellor of the 

 University of Edinburgh. Besides 

 his more important literary works. 

 Sir David contributed upwards of 

 three hundred papers to various 

 scientific societies. 



In 1 83 1 William IV. sent Brew- 

 ster the Hanoverian Order of the 

 Guelph, and later conferred an 

 ordinary knighthood, at the same 

 time remitting the heavy fees of 

 j[iog, which would have been a 

 burthen greater than the honour. 

 In 1810, on July 31st, appears in his diary the 

 quaint entry, "Married, set off to the Trossachs." 

 This was to his first wife, who died in 1850 and was 

 buried at Melrose Abbey. He married again in 1857. 

 Eleven years later Sir David caught a severe cold, 

 which was more than an enfeebled constitution 

 could throw off, and he died peaceably, at Allerby, 

 near Melrose, on February loth, 1868. 



The portrait of Sir Da^dd in the National 

 Gallery is a handsome life-sized figure, dressed in 

 brown coat with black stock-tie. He is resting in 

 an arm-chair. It is by Sir John Watson Gordon, 

 R.A., painted in 1864, and v.-as presented to the 

 nation by the artist's brother. 



John Cantox (1718-1772). 

 The name of Canton is little known in these 

 times, even to the rising generation of students of 

 electricity — of which subject he was one of the 

 early masters — in these latter days of activity in 

 electrical science. He w-as born on July 31st, 1718, 

 at Stroud. Canton was always fond of scientific 

 investigation, even in his boyhood ; but, according 

 to the customs of the times, he was "put to 

 something useful," and apprenticed to a cloth- 

 weaver. In 1737 Canton came to London, and 

 articled himself to a schoolmaster in Spital Square, 

 eventually becoming his master's partner. His 

 investigations were still continued, and so success- 

 fully that in 1749 he became a Fellov,' of the 

 Royal Society. Those were the early days 

 of investigation into the mysteries of electricity 



John Canton, F.R.S 



when everything was new, and Canton was 

 the first Englishman to confirm Franklin's 

 discovery that lightning and electricity were 

 identical. To those interested in electrical 

 science, a course of reading on Canton's experi- 

 ments and discoveries will be found most edifying. 

 Though we now flippantly talk about matters 

 electrical, we doubt whether later discoveries are 

 so great as these early ones, for 

 even now no one knows what is 

 "electricity," and without the 

 starting-points of Franklin and 

 Canton it is doubtful whether we 

 should now know the luxury of 

 electric light. 



John Canton wrote several im- 

 portant papers for the learned 

 societies of his period, and was 

 among the first to write popularly 

 and correcth' on science. Articles 

 will be found from his pen in the 

 "Gentleman's Magazine," from 

 1739 to 1 76 1, and in the " Ladies' 

 Diarj'," in 1739-40. He died in 

 1772. 



John Canton superintended the 

 fixing of the first lightning-con- 

 ductor to St. Paul's Cathedral. He invented the 

 electrometer. His portrait, which is a bust, two- 

 thirds life size, is by an unknown artist. He is repre- 

 sented as wearing a coat of quaint cut and full wig. 



Joseph Grimaldi (1779-1837). 



Joseph Grimaldi was born in Stanhope Street, 

 Clare Market, London, on December i8th, 1779, 

 and was a descendant of an Italian family who had 

 been pantomimists and clowns for generations. 

 His father brought Joseph up to the family 

 profession, his first appearance being at Sadler's 

 Wells, as an infant dancer, on April i6th, 1781, and 

 he took a part in the pantomime at Drury Lane in 

 the following winter. Joseph was sent, during the 

 intervals of his engagements, to a boarding-school 

 at Putney. As a clown Grimaldi is said to have 

 had no equal. He died in Pentonville in 1837, ^'^'^ 

 was buried by the side of his friend, Charles 

 Dibden, at St. James's Chapel, Penton\-ille Hill. 



Joseph Grimaldi can haraly be considered to 

 have been a man of science. Still, his leisure time 

 was occupied in the pursuit of entomology. It is 

 stated that after acting in the afternoons at Sadler's 

 Wells Theatre, he would hurriedly run to Drury 

 Lane for the evening performance, after which, so 

 ardent was he in his love of the country, he used 

 frequently to walk down to Dartford Heath, so as 

 to be there by sun-rise, in time for the first flight 

 of the " Dartford-blues." We have not sketched 

 his portrait in the Gallery. 



(To be continued.) 



