102 DPt seller's memoir of the 



University of St Andrews spontaneously conferred on Whytt the same medical 

 honour. In the end of that year he was admitted a licentiate of the Royal Col- 

 lege of Physicians of Edinburgh, presenting both his degrees, and a year after he 

 was elected to the Fellowship. He immediately commenced practice as a physi- 

 cian, and is said to have been very successful even at so early an age. Soon after 

 he settled in practice, he married Miss Helen Robertson, who is described as 

 sister to General Robertson, governor of New York. By this lady he had two 

 children, both of whom died in infancy. The death of his Avife followed, in 

 the beginning of the year 1741. Two years after her death he married, in the 

 year 1743, Miss Louisa Balfour, a daughter of Mr Balfour of Pilrig. Her brother 

 afterwards became a professor in the University of Edinburgh. 



By his second wife, Whytt had fourteen children, only six of whom survived 

 him. Mrs Whytt died in 1764, two years before her husband. His eldest son, 

 Robert Whytt, came into his father's estate of Bennochy, but died young, without 

 family, at Naples, and was succeeded in the estate by his next brother. He, on 

 the death of General Robert Melville of Strathkinness, became heir to his en- 

 tailed estates, and took the name of Melville in addition to Whytt. The ortho- 

 graphy of the name is now slightly changed from the form which Whytt 

 retained down to the end of his life. His grandson is a well-known gentleman 

 of the county of Fife, Mr Whyte Melville, living at Mount Melville, near St 

 Andrews. His great-grandson, Mr J. G. \\'hyte Melville, younger of Bennochy 

 and Strathkinness, is known to the public as the author of several popular 

 works of fiction — " Digby Grand," " Guy Livingstone," " Good for Nothing." 



In 1 743, Whytt published a paper in " The Edinburgh Medical Essays," " On 

 the Virtues of Lime- Water in the Cure of Stone." For some years previously, 

 public attention had been fixed on this subject by the grant of five thousand 

 pounds by Parliament to Mrs Stephens, for her secret in the cure of this disease. 

 The remedy was beyond doubt of some service in particular cases ; but its dis- 

 agreeable nature and great bulk gave rise to many attempts to throw out what- 

 ever in it was superfluous. Dr Hartley, the well-known author of the " Theory 

 of Vibrations," who then practised at Bath, had already reduced the original far- 

 rago to two ounces and a half of soap, and seven scruples and a half of egg-shell 

 powder, for the mean daily dose. Amidst the discussions on this subject, it 

 occurred to Whytt that lime-water might be sufficient to dissolve the stone. He 

 accordingly prescribed lime-water as early as 1741, usually Avith the addition of 

 soap, and obtained great success, while, in the paper just referred to, he gave an 

 account of his cases. This paper attracted much attention. It was published 

 with additions, separately, in 1 752, and finally ran through several editions, in 

 the later of which printed during his life, he expunged some of the ideas 

 contained in the paper as originally given to the world. A French transla- 

 tion afterwards came out by Roux, along with a translation of Butter's 



