of Edinhurgli, Session 1883 - 84 . 
465 
need that we should do so. It is not in the least surprising that in 
those days the very fact of his renown should have induced one or 
two men in any assemblage to doubt whether, born for the universe or 
no, he was specially born for the Royal Society ; and had the event 
occurred ten years later, the discontented might have been as 
numerous, but it is possible they might not have been the same. 
The other name, although well entitled to remembrance on ac- 
count of its owner’s accomplishments and learning, owes its principal 
notoriety now to Goldsmith’s gibe. It was that of Caleb Whit- 
foord — the merry Whitefoord of the ‘‘ Retaliation” — -of whom the 
author says — ^ 
“For thy sake I’ll admits 
That a Scot may have hnmour, I had almost said wit.” ’ 
Now, Goldsmith had a very genuine vein of wit and humour him- 
self, as all the world knowsj and was a Very good judge of it in 
others. It must not be supposed that his knowledge of Scotsmen 
was confined to those he encountered south of the Tweed, for he 
spent one year at least, I rather think two, in 1752, as a medical 
student in Edinburgh, attended Dr Monro secundus, and was, as 
Mr Forster in his Life tell us, a friend of Joseph Black’s. If so, I 
cannot help thinking he must have neglected his opportunities, 
if he found no humour in the circle in which Black moved. I 
have not time to unravel the mystery of Goldsmith’s life in Edinburgh 
farther, for what he did while there, or when or why he quitted 
it, is left in great obscurity; but at least the Royal Society need 
not wince, for although wit and humour cannot be said to be the 
characteristic of our Transactions, there was one Scotsman who 
spread the fame of Scottish humour as widely as that of the Vicar 
of Wakefield — -he was President of the Royal Society, and his name 
was Walter Scott. 
There are many curious and interesting bypaths, both of science 
and literature, traversed in these earlier volumes. In 1787 Mr 
George Wallace read a paper, which he did not incline to have 
printed in the Transactions^ which I regret, for it related to a sub- 
ject the interest of which has not ceased by the lapse of nearly a 
century. Its title was “ On the Causes of the Disagreeableness 
and Coldness of the East Winds.” As I fear there is little reason 
