WELLS. 



the autumn of that year, and fettled as a phyfician in this 

 city. His father had refided in London from the com- 

 mencement of the American war, and had amafled a fortune 

 of 20,000/. ; but by misfortunes in trade his circumftances 

 were now embarrafled, fo that Dr. Wells, at the outfet of his 

 profeflion, was obliged to raife money by loans, amounting 

 to 600/. For the firft few years after fettling in London he 

 fcarcelytook afee,and after having been engaged for ten years 

 in the exercife of his profeflion, his receipts from every fource 

 did not amount to 250/. per annum. However in the next 

 five years he was able to pay part of his debt, and before his 

 death he had the fatisfaftion of having paid the whole of it, 

 both principal and intereft ; and it fliould be mentioned to 

 his honour, that when his income was very limited, he al- 

 lowed an annuity of 20/. to a poor relation. 



In 1788 he was admitted a licentiate of the Royal College 

 of Phyficians in London ; and he took part with thofe who 

 aflerted their eligibility and right of admiffion to the clafs of 

 fellows. After the decifion of this claim in the court of 

 king's bench, he applied in 1797 for examination, fo that if 

 he were found to be fit, he might be returned a fellow. But 

 this application was unavailing ; and yet about four years 

 before his death the prefident of the college fent him a mef- 

 fage, exprefling a wi(h to know if he had any defire to be- 

 come a fellow ; to which he replied in the negative. In 

 1790 he was appointed a phyfician to the Finfbury Difpen- 

 fary, in which conneftion he remained till the year 1798. 

 In 1793 he was chofen a fellow of the Royal Society ; and 

 in 1800 he became phyfician of St. Thomas's hofpital, 

 having been affiftant phyfician from the year 1798. In the 

 year 1800 he was feized with a flight fit of apoplexy ; but 

 by adopting a very abftemious mode of living, he efcaped 

 any fubfequent attack. From this time, however, his health 

 declined. 



In 181 2 he commenced fome experiments on dew, and 

 after he had an opportunity of purfuing them, he wrote 

 an " Eflay" on the fubjeft, which was publifhed in Auguft 

 1814, the year in which he was admitted into the Royal So- 

 ciety of Edinburgh; and in l8i6 the Royal Society of 

 London adjudged to him the honour of the gold and filver 

 medals of count Rumford's donation for this eflay. Al- 

 though from the year 1814 to the commencement of his lall 

 illnefs his health was in fome refpefts improved, he was af- 

 fliAed with painful and threatening fymptoms. Thefe fymp- 

 toms became gradually more alarming ; and though in his laft 

 illnefs fome hopes were entertained by his medical friends, 

 Dr. Bailhe and Dr. Lifter, of his recovery, yet on the 8th 

 of Augult he was fuddenly feized, while he was fitting up, 

 with the fenfation of a tremulous motion in the cheft, which 

 he referred to the heat, from which time his illnefs inter- 

 mitted. " After this," fays his biographer, _" an expecta- 

 tion was entertained of his recovery. His life was continued 

 until the evening of the i8th of September 1817 ; and until 

 the near approach of its termination, his mind was clear and 

 aftive, and his fpirits calm and cheerful." 



Our limits will merely allow our enumerating his principal 

 publications. Of his political papers we Ihall only mention 

 one, which was written in 1781, by the defire of the com- 

 mandant of the garrifon of Charlettown, general Neft)it Bal- 

 four. The objeft of this paper was to fhew, by military 

 ufage, and the nature of the cafe, that perfons in the Ame- 

 rican fervice who, after having been taken prifoners and 

 fent to their homes under their military paroles, and who 

 appeared again in arms againft the Britifh government, fub- 

 jeAed themfelves to the punifliment of death. This paper 

 was frequently publiflied in the newfpapers, and it is pro. 



Vol. XXXVIII. 



bable that it was owing to this publication that general Bal- 

 four and lord Moira thought themfelves juftified in putting to 

 death a colonel Haynes, the propriety of which aft was 

 afterwards a fubjeft of debate in the Britifh parliament. 

 The philofophical pieces of Dr. Wells were the following : 

 ■viz, " An Eflay upon fingle Vifion with Two Eyes," 1702J 

 (fee Vision, in the Addenda) ; " Two Letters, in'reply to 

 Dr. Darwin's Remarks in his Zoonomia upon what Dr. 

 Wells had written in his Eflay upon Vifion, on the apparent 

 Rotation of Bodies which takes place during the Giddinefa 

 occafioned by turning ourfelves quickly and frequently 

 round," 1 794, contained in the Gentleman's Magazine for 

 September and Oftober ; " A Paper upon the Influence 

 which incites the Mufcles to contraft in Mr. Galvani's Ex- 

 periments," 1795 ; " Experiments upon the Colour of the 

 BIjod," 1797 ; " Some Experiments and Obfervations on 

 Vifion," 181 1 ; all publiflied in the Philofophical Tranfac- 

 tions. "An Eflay upon Dew," 181 1. In this eflay the au- 

 thor has introduced new fadis and ingenious obfervations, of 

 which we fliall give fome account in our additions to the 

 article Dew. " An Anfwer to Remarks in the Quarterly 

 Review upon the ElTay on Dew," and " An Anfwer to Mr. 

 Prevoft's Queries refpefting the Explanation of Mr. B. Pre- 

 voft's Experiments on Dew," 1815 ; "A Letter to Lord 

 Kenyon relative to the Conduft of the Royal College of 

 Phyficians of London, pofterior to the Decifion of the 

 Court of King's Bench, in the Cafe of Dr. Stanger ;" "A 

 fliort Letter on the Condenfation of Water upon Glafs," 

 1 8 16; which three laft; appeared in Dr. Thomfon's AnnaTs 

 of Philofophy. " Some Biographical Sketches by Dr. 

 Wells" appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine. 



Almoft all his writings upon medical fubjefts are con- 

 tained in the fecond and third volumes of the TranfaSiong 

 of a Society for the Promotion of medical and chirurgical 

 Knowledge : and their fubjefts are, — eryfipelas ; the entire 

 want of hair in the human body ; the dropfy, which fuc- 

 ceeds fcarlet fever ; aneurifm of the aorta attended with 

 ulceration of the oefophagus and wind-pipe ; epilepfy and 

 hemiplegia, apparently produced by a ftiarp projeftion from 

 the inner table of the flcuU ; tetanus ; aneurifm of the aorta, 

 communicating with the pulmonary artery ; enlargement of 

 the caecum and colon ; gangrene of the cellular membrane 

 between the mufcles and Ma of the neck and chefl: ; rheu- 

 matifm of the heart ; red matter and ferum of the blood in 

 the urine of dropfy, which has not originated in fcarfct 

 fever ; and obfervations on pulmonary confumption and in- 

 termittent fever, chiefly as difeafes oppofed to each other, 

 &c. ; to which may be added, a cafe of aphonia fpafmodica, 

 in the fecond volume of Medical Communications. His 

 manufcript papers were direfted to be deftroyed, with the 

 exception of one, relating to the difference of colour and 

 form between the white and negro races of men, which will 

 be pubhflied. 



The literary produftions of Dr. Wells have fufSciently 

 eftabhflied his reputation as a learned and (kilful phyfician, 

 as an acute and inventive philofopher, and as a perfpicuous, 

 vigorous, and elegant writer ; and it is faid, that thofe who 

 knew him perfonally eftimated him much more highly than 

 perfons who were acquainted only with his writings. His 

 mental powers were ftrong, acute, comprehenfive, and ver- 

 fatile ; and he was capable of the mofl; clofe and long-con- 

 tinned attention, and of direfting this attention at pleafure. 

 Although he was not eminently diftinguifhed as a claflical 

 fcholar, or as a deep mathematician, he had read fome of the 

 Greek and moft of the Latin claflics with great attention ; 

 wrote Latin with facility and corredtnefs ; and made himfelf 

 P p mailer 



