606 
WELLS. 
Having pursued his studies for three winters, and passed 
his preparatory trials in the summer of 1778, he left Edin¬ 
burgh without graduating, and returned to London, where 
he attended a course of Dr. William Hunter’s lectures, and 
became a surgeon’s pupil at Bartholomew’s hospital. In 
1779 he went to Holland as surgeon to a Scotch regi¬ 
ment, in the service of the United Provinces; but receiving 
offensive treatment from the commanding officer, he resigned 
his commission, and challenged the aggressor, under the 
unjust charge of military insubordination, for which an 
attempt was made to punish him ; but without receiving the 
satisfaction which he demanded, he went to Leyden in the 
beginning of the year 1780, and there prepared an inaugural 
thesis on the subject of “ Cold,” which was published at 
Edinburgh in the close of that year, on occasion of his 
taking the degree of doctor in medicine. 
In the beginning of the year 1782, Dr. Wells visited Ca¬ 
rolina, then in the possession of the king’s troops, for the 
purpose of arranging the affairs of his family ; and whilst he 
was there, he sustained a variety of offices, seemingly very 
incompatible with each other, and which no person desti¬ 
tute of his versatile talents and peculiar activity could have 
satisfactorily performed. He was an officer in a corps of vo¬ 
lunteers, a printer, a bookseller, and a merchant, a trustee 
for the management of the affairs of some of his father’s 
friends in England, and on one occasion a judge-advocate. 
In December, 1782, when the king’s troops were obliged to 
evacuate Charlestown, he removed to St. Augustine, in East 
Florida, and there edited the first weekly newspaper that had 
been published in that country, having brought with him a 
printing-press, which had been taken to pieces for the conve¬ 
nience of carriage, and which he contrived, with the assist¬ 
ance only of a negro-carpenter, to refit for use. During his 
residence in Florida, he became captain of a corps of volun¬ 
teers, and manager of a company of officers, who had agreed 
to act plays for the relief of the poorest of the loyal refugees 
from Carolina and Georgia, and occasionally an actor him¬ 
self. In 1784, he removed from St. Augustine to London, 
and becoming acquainted with Dr. Baillie, commenced an 
intimate, steady, and affectionate friendship, the benefits of 
which he experienced till his death. Having spent three 
months at Paris in the year 1785, he returned to London in 
the autumn of that year, and settled as a physician in this 
city. His father had resided in London from the com¬ 
mencement of the American war, and had amassed a fortune 
of 20,000/-; but by misfortunes in trade his circumstances 
were now embarrassed, so that Dr. Wells, at the outset of his 
profession, was obliged to raise money by loans, amounting 
to 600/. For the first few years after settling in London, 
he scarcely took a fee, and after having been engaged for 
ten years in the exercise of his profession, his receipts from 
every source 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 satisfaction of having paid 
the whole of it, both principal and interest; and it should 
be mentioned to his honour, that when his income was very 
limited, he allowed an annuity of 20/. to a poor relation. 
In 1788 he was admitted a licentiate of the Royal College 
of Physicians in London ; and he took part with those who 
asserted their eligibility and right of admission to the class of 
fellows. After the decision of this claim in the court of 
king’s bench, he applied, in 1797, for examination, so 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 president of the college sent him 
a message, expressing a wish to know if he had any desire to 
become a fellow ; to which he replied in the negative. In 
1790, he was appointed a physician to the Finsbury Dispen¬ 
sary, in which connection he remained till the year 1798. 
In 1793, he was chosen a fellow of the Royal Society ; and 
in 1800, he became physician of St. Thomas’s hospital, 
having been assistant physician from the year 1798. In the 
year 1800 he was seized with a slight fit of apoplexy; but 
by adopting a very abstemious mode of livifig, he escaped 
any subsequent attack. From this time, however, his health 
declined. 
In 1812, he commenced some experiments on dew, and 
after he had an opportunity of pursuing them, he wrote an 
“ Essay” on the subject, which was published in August, 
1814, the year in which he was admitted into the Royal So¬ 
ciety of Edinburgh; and in 1816, the Royal Society of 
London adjudged to him the honour of the gold and silver 
medals of Count Rumford’s donation for this essay. Al¬ 
though from the year 1814 to the commencement of his last 
illness his health was in some respects improved, he was af¬ 
flicted with painful and threatening symptoms. These symp¬ 
toms became gradually more alarming; and though in his 
last illness some hopes were entertained by his medical 
friends, Dr. Baillie and Dr. Lister, of his recovery, yet on 
the 8th of August he was suddenly seized, whilst he was 
sitting up, with the sensation of a tremulous motion in the 
chest, which he referred to the heart, from which time his 
illness intermitted. “ After this,” says his biographer, “ no 
expectation was entertained of his recovery. His life was 
continued until the evening of the 18th of September, 1817; 
and until the near approach of its termination, his mind was 
clear and active, and his spirits calm and cheerful.” 
Our limits will merely allow our enumerating his princi¬ 
pal publications. Of his political papers we shall only men¬ 
tion one, which was written in 1781, by the desire of the 
commandant of the garrison of Charlestown, general Nesbit 
Balfour. The object of this paper was to shew, by military 
usage, and the nature of the case, that persons in the Ame¬ 
rican service who, after having been taken prisoners and 
sent to their homes under their military paroles, and who 
appeared again in arms against the British government, sub¬ 
jected themselves to the punishment of death. This paper 
was frequently published in the newspapers, and it is pro¬ 
bable that it was owing to this publication that general Bal¬ 
four and lord Moira thought themselves justified in putting 
to death a colonel Haynes, the propriety of which act was 
afterwards a subject of debate in the British parliament. The 
philosophical pieces of Doctor Wells were the following: 
viz. “ An Essay upon single Vision with Two Eyes,” 1792; 
“ Two Letters, in reply to Dr. Darwin’s Remarks in his 
Zoonomia upon what Dr. Wells had written in his Essay 
upon VisioD, on the apparent Rotation of Bodies which takes 
place during the Giddiness occasioned by turning ourselves 
quickly and frequently round,” 1794, contained in the Gentle¬ 
man’s Magazine for September and October; “ A Paper 
upon the Influence which incites the Muscles to contract in 
Mr. Galvani’s Experiments,” 1795; “ Experiments upon 
the Colour of the Blood,” 1797; “Some Experiments and 
Observations on Vision,” 1811; all published in the Philoso¬ 
phical Transactions. “An Essay upon Dew,” 1811; “ An 
Answer to Remarks in the Quarterly Review upon the Essay 
on Dew,” and “ An Answer - to Mr. Prevost’s Queries re¬ 
specting the Explanation of Mr. B. Prevost’s Experiments on 
Dew,” 1815; “ A Letter to Lord Kenyon relative to the 
Conduct of the Royal College of Physicians of London, pos¬ 
terior to the Decision of the Court of King’s Bench, in the 
Case of Dr. Stanger;” “ A short Letter on the Condensation 
of Water upon Glass,” 1816; which three last appeared in 
Dr. Thomson’s Annals of Philosophy. Some “ Biographical 
Sketches by Dr. Wells,” appeared in the Gentleman’s Maga¬ 
zine. Almost all his writings upon medical subjects are con¬ 
tained in the second and third volumes of the Transactions 
of a Society for the Promotion of Medical and Chirurgical 
Knowledge. 
WELLS, a city of England, in the county of Somerset, 
situated at the southern base of the Mendip hills, which 
shelter it on the north, while fertile and extensive meadows 
range to the south, the east, and west. The country is very 
diversified and picturesque. Several hills rise abruptly from 
the low grounds, and form insulated conical mounts. Some of 
these are covered with woods; others are inclosed and culti¬ 
vated to the tops; and some are terminated by bare crags. 
Its noble cathedral, and St. Cuthbert’s church, with their 
rising 
