XVll 



was named one o£ the Ph3^sicians Extraordinary to Her Majesty, and in 

 the foJ lowing year he was elected a Tellow of the Eoyal Society. In 1854 

 he was requested by the President of the General Board of Health to 

 become one of the Medical Council ; and it was at this period that he 

 devoted a large portion of his time to education and public works. 



As the inventor of the " Arnott Stove," the " Arnott Ventilator," 

 and the Water-bed, it is not likely that his name will soon be forgotten ; 

 but it deserves to be recorded in his honour that he refused to patent 

 any of his inventions. His great object through life was to benefit 

 others, and not to obtain pecuniary profit. Sir Arthur Helps, in one of 

 his later works, saj^s truly of Dr. Arnott, " His whole life v\'as given to 

 the service of his fellow men. A truer refor]ner in the best sense of the 

 word never existed." One great secret of Dr. Arnott's success as a writer 

 on natural philosophy was, that from his earliest days he was an acute 

 observer of all that went on around him. Nothing bearing upon physics 

 escaped his notice. In addition to this faculty of observation he pos- 

 sessed happy powers of description. The reader was not only instructed, 

 but made to feel a deep interest in the subject. Instruction was thus 

 rendered a pleasing recreation. His earnest wish was to make the path 

 of learning easy to all ; and the reception of his ' Elements of Physics,' 

 the first edition of which appeared in 1827, is a proof of his success in 

 this respect. There are few educated men of the past generation who 

 will not remember the interest with which they read the first volume 

 of this excellent work ; and it is not too much to say that the learned 

 and the unlearned, the student and the philosopher, have benefited by 

 its perusal . This work did more for the encouragement of the study of 

 Natural Philosophy than all the works on the subject which had preceded 

 it. Within five years of its publication five large editions were called 

 for, and, although not then complete, it was reprinted in America and 

 translated into several foreign languages. In November 1829 appeared 

 the first part of the second volume. The work underwent six editions 

 during the life of the author, and a posthumous seventh edition has lately 

 appeared. 



In 1861 he pubKshed his ' Survey of Human Progress,' and this was 

 followed by various monographs on educational subjects. 



In 1856 Dr. Arnott married the widow of one of his oldest friends, 

 Mr. Knight. This ladyVas the daughter of James Hunt HoUey, Esq., of 

 Bleckling, in Norfolk. She was an accomplished woman, and the match 

 was in every way suitable. She survived her husband upwards of two 

 years. She had the same philanthropic and educational views, and lived 

 to carry out his intentions in reference to the endowment of the Scotch 

 Universities. The desire of both was to encourage the study of Natural 

 Philosophy. In 1869 Dr. Arnott granted to the University of London 

 ^2000, and to each of the four Universities of Scotland (Aberdeen, 

 Edinburgh, Glasgow, and St. Andrews) ^1000, while, subsequently to his 



