That doctrine in a remarkable manner. Thefe were occafioned by a letter from Mr Mylins, of Berlin, informing Mr Watfon, that a tree of the Palma major foliis flabelli-formibus, which, although it had borne fruit for thirty years paft, had never brought any to perfection, till the flowers of a male tree brought from Leipfick, twenty German miles diftant, had been fufpended over its branches. After this, the tree yield. ed the first year above an hundred, and thefecond,on repeating the experiment, above two thousand ripe fruit, from which fome young trees were raised. In the fame vol. page 196, are fome remarks on a cafe of two women in Brabant, who had been nearly poifoned by eating the leaves of what had been called White Henbane; but Mr Watfon proved that it must have been the Hyofciamus Niger, fince the white does not grow fpontaneoufly in that country.

In 1751 Mr Watfon paid the fame tribute to the memory of Dr Henry Compton, bishop of London, the friend and patron of Mr Ray, as he had done to that of the Tradefcants, and gave a lift of thirty-three exotic trees, which were then remaining in the garden at Fulham. This catalogue proves, in a ftriking manner, the facility with which trees of very different latitudes may become naturalized in England.

In the fame volume, page 301, are fome obfervations on the true cinnamon, occafioned by a large specimen of the tree, equal in fize to a walking cane, fent over by Mr Robins to Dr Letherland, and which was exhibited before the Royal Society.

In the year 1752 Mr Watfon laid before the Society two rare English plants, the Lathraa Squamaria, and the Dentaria Bulbifera; the latter unnoticed by Mr Ray or Dillenius. Both thefe were found near Hatfield by Mr Blackstone. He alfo defcribes,

in this volume, the Conferva Egagropila of Linnæus, then newly found in England, and fent to him from Yorkshire.

Mr Watfon, according to every appearance, was the first who communicated to the English reader, an account of a revolution which was about to take place among the learned in botany and zoology, refpecting the removal of a large body of marine productions, which had heretofore been ranked among vegetables, but which were now proved to be of animal origin, and ftand under the name of zoophytes in the prefent fystem of nature. It may be eafily feen, that this refpects the corals, corallines, escharæ, madrepores, fponges, &c. and although even Gefner, Imperatus, and Rumphius, had fome obfcure ideas relating to the dubious structure of this clafs, yet the full difcovery that these fubftances were the fabrications of Polypes, was owing to M. Peyfonnel, phyfician at Guadaloupe. This gentleman had imbibed this opinion first in 1723, at Marseilles, and confirmed it in 1725, on the coaft of Barbary. While in Guadaloupe, he wrote a treatife of 400 pages in quarto, in proof of this fubject, which he tranfmitted in manufcript to the Royal Society. This treatife, in which the author feemed to have put the matter out of doubt, as to the animal origin of these bodies, was tranflated, analized, and abridged in 1752, by Mr Watson, and publifhed in the Philof. Tranfactions, vol. XLVII. p. 445-469, at a time when the learned were wavering in their opinion on this matter. Mr Trembley's investigation refpecting the fresh water polypes, had paved the way for the reception of thofe truths, and Mr Watson himself, in company with Mr Trembley had an opportunity on the coaft of Suffex, in one of the annual excurfions which he feldom failed to make in the fummer feafon, of veri

fying Mr Peyfonnel's fyftem, on viewing the polypes of the corallines. Soon after this period Mr Ellis took up the subject, and profecuted it with a fuccefs which is now well known.

In vol. XLVIII. pag. 141-152, we find an account of the fecond volume of Gmelin's Flora Siberica, exhibiting some extracts relating to the cure of the venereal disease in Siberia, by the decoctions of a circium and an iris, and on the distillation of a spiri-, tuous liquor from the fphondylium, or cow parfnip. At page 615, are fome obfervations, additional to thofe of Mr Martyn, on the fex of the holly tree, which justified the removal of it to another clafs of the Linnæan fyf

tem.

At page 811 remarks on the true fpecies of the Styptic Agaric, which had juft then excited the attention of the furgeons both in France and England, and which, in a fhort paper, afterwards printed in vol. XLIX. page 28. Mr Watson determined to be the Agaricus pedis equini facie of Tournefort, or the Boletus Igniarius of Linnæus. Thefe obfervations were in troductory to Mr Gooch's experiments on the flyptic power of this fubfiance.

In the fame volume, page 360, were published fome oblervations, tending to determine what was the By us of the ancients, occafioned by a fubflance fent over by Profeffor Bofe, which was proved by Mr Watfon to be nothing but the common Bus Velutina, in a bleached state; whereas the Bus of the ancients was thought by Mr Watfon to be, moft probably, a cotton, which is confirmed in a very elaborate and critical differtation, written by Dr Reinhold Forfter, and published in 1776.

In 1754, Mr Watson wrote an account of the first edition of the Species Plantarum of Linnæus, which was published in the Gentleman's Magazine for that year. It is not on

ly highly worthy of being read, for the curious matter it contains, but alfo on account of its having produced from that celebrated profeffor a handsome letter, written in Latin, in which he takes occafion to acknowledge the candor of the author, in high terms, and vindicates himself for having, in his work above-mentioned, given to the Meadea, a plant so called by Catesby, in honour of Dr Mead, a different name. Linnæus' letter was printed the fucceeding year in the fame publication.

Mr Watson had been taught to know plants by the system and nomenclature of Ray, when trivial names were unknown; and he was fo fingularly happy in a tenacious memory, as to be able to repeat, with great readinefs, the long names and fynonymes in ufe from the times of Bauhin, Gerard, and Parkinson; a task, from which he was relieved by the introduction of the Linnæan epithets. He lived to fee the fyftem of his much honoured countryman give way to that of the Swede, which began to take place in England about this period, and with which alfo he made himfelf acquainted. His knowledge of plants, and the hiftory of them in the various authors, was fo eminently extenfive, that his opinion was frequently appealed to as decifive on the fubject; and fome of his intimate friends fay, that he was ufually called The living Lexicon of Botany.'

Thefe talents, it may be easily imagined, rendered him a welcome vifitor to Sir Hans Sloane, who had retired to Chelsea in 1740. Mr Watson, indeed, enjoyed no small share of the favour and efteem of that veteran in fcience, and was honoured fo far, as to be nominated among the trustees of the British Mufeum by Sir Hans himfelf, who died January 12. 1753. N. S.

After its eftablishment in Montague - Houfe, Mr Watson was very affiduous, not only in the internal arrangement of the fubjects, but

alfo

alfo in getting the garden furnished with plants, infomuch that, in the first year of its establishment, in 1756, it contained no fewer than fix hundred fpecies, all in a flourishing ftate.

In 1759, Mr Miller paid Mr Watfon the tribute of calling a new gemus in the Triandrous clafs of plants by his name, two fpecies of which he has figured in the cuts adapted to the Gardener's Dictionary, tab. 276, et. tab. 297, fig. fecond. It proved that Dr Trew had given the name of Meriania to the plant figured in tab. 276, and Linnæus found himfelf obliged, by the rules of his fyftem, to reduce thefe two fpecies to his genus Antholyza, already established in the Species Plantarum, thus finking the generic term of Watfonia, and retaining Trew's, as a trivial name to the plant of tab. 276. It is to be regret ted, that, in justice to Mr Watfon, who had deferved fo eminently well of the fcience, he did not at least call the leffer fpecies, tab. 297, fig. 2, of Miller, Antholyza Watfonia, instead of A. Merianella.

We find alfo two curious zoological articles laid before the Royal Society by Mr Watfon; one on the infect called the vegetable fly, which had impofed on the credulity of many, under the idea of its being an infect #ying about with 2 vegetable growing on its back; but it was nothing more than a fungus of the Clavaria kind, growing from the dead nymph of a Cicada; the other, a defcription, accompanied by an engraving of the American Armadillo, Dafpus Novemcinctus of Linnæus.

Having given ample fpecimens of Mr Watfon's genius and taste as a naturalift, we must now confider his talents in fome other branches of knowledge. Among thefe, nothing, perhaps, contributed fo much to extend his fame, and enlarge his connections with men of fcience, as his difcove ries in Electricity. He became early enamoured with the phenomena of

this wonderful agent in nature, an attention to which had been fome time before excited among the philofophers of Europe, and particularly in England, by Mr Stephen Grey, Mr Wheeler, Dr Defaguliers, and others.

About the year 1744, Mr Watson took it up, and made feveral important difcoveries in it. At this time it was no fmall advancement in the progrefs of electricity to be able to fire fpirit of wine. He was the first in England who effected this, and he performed it both by the direct and the repulfive power of electricity. He afterwards fired inflammable air, gunpowder, and inflammable oils by the fame means.

Mr Watfon tried feve

ral other experiments, which helped to enlarge the power of the electrician; but the most important of his discoveries was, proving that the electric power was not created by the globe, or tube, but only collected by them. Dr Fraklin and Mr Wilfon made a like difcovery, about the fame time. It is eafy to fee the extreme utility of this discovery in conducting all future experiments. It foon led to what he called the circulation of the electric matter.

Befides these valuable difcoveries, the hiftorian of electricity informs us, that Mr Watfon first obferved the dif ferent colour of the fpark drawn from different bodies: that electricity fuffered no refraction in paffing through glafs; that the power of electricity was not affected by the prefence or abfence of fire, fince the fparks were equally ftrong from a freezing mixture as from red hot iron; that flame and fmoke were conductors of electricity; and that the stroke was as the points of contact of the non-electrics on the outfide of the glafs. This difcovery led to the coating of phials, to increafe the power of accumulation, and qualified him eminently to be the principal actor in those famous experiments which were made on the Thames, and at Shooter's Hill, in the

year

years 1747 and 1748; in one of which the electrical circuit extended four miles, in order to prove the velocity of electricity, the refult of which convinced the attendants that it was inftantaneous.

Thefe, and other experiments, were made in fo great a ftyle, and with fuch fuccefs, as to draw the approbation and applause of almost all fucceeding philofophers in that branch. Among others, the celebrated Volta has given him teftimony of the excellence and greatness of his experiments, in a paper published within thefe few years. In that paper, he thews how fimple electrical conductors might be fo conftructed, as not only to give fhocks like the Leyden phial, but even fuch as are fufficiently powerful to kill large animals, and to equal the effets of lightning. He, however, expreffes his defpair of ever feeing fuch put into execution; but adds, A Watson, perhaps, might be tempted to make the experiment; he, who, for another purpose, (which was, that he might fhew the extreme velocity with which the electrical power communicated itfelf * from one extremity of a conductor to the other, however great might 'be its length,) extended infulared iron wires to more than two miles in length, and to whom, on account of these very experiments, Muf'chenbrock took occafion to addrefs ' himself as follows: Magnificentifi * mis, &c:'

4

lifhment,' in conducting the experiments, a procedure totally incompatible with the true spirit of a philofopher.

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Mr Watson's first papers on the fubject of electricity, entitled, Experiments and Obfervations tending to illuftrate the Nature and Properties of Electricity,' were printed in the XLIII. vol. of the Philofophical Tranfactions, and were afterwards feparately published in octavo, and reached to a third or fourth edition. They were of fo interefting a nature, that they gave him the lead, as it were, in this branch of fcience; and were not only the means of raifing him to a high degree of eftimation at home, but of extending his fame throughout all Europe. His houfe became the refort of the most ingenious and illuf tricus experimental philofophers that England could boaft of. Several of the nobility attended on these occa fions, and his prefent Majefty George III. when Prince of Wales, honoured him with his prefence. In fhort, there needs no greater confirmation of his merit as an electrician, than the pub lic teftimony conferred upon him by the Royal Society, which in 1745 honoured him with Sir Godfrey Copley's medal, for his discoveries in electricity.

After this mark of distinction, Mr Watfon continued to profecute electrical ftudies and experiments, and to write on the fubject for many years. Between the year 1745, the date of his first paper, and the year 1764, that of the laft, we find no less than twenty papers written by him, and printed in the Philofophical Tranfactions, relating to electricity. The fubject of the laft was the apparatus for preferving buildings from the effects of lightning. He was afterwards one of the committee appointed by the fociety in 1772 to examine into the ftate of the powder magazines, at Purfleet; and, with the Honourable

Hon. Mr Canvendish, Dr Franklin, and Mr Robertfon, fixed on pointed conductors, as preferable to blunt ones; and, again, of the committee, in 1778, after the experiments of Mr Wilfon, in the Pantheon.

As Mr Watson had conftantly lived in London, he had been a curious obferver of the wonderful increase and improvement of that vaft city. He was acquainted, in no ordinary degree, with its hiftory, and its police in general, and had particularly attended to thofe circumftances that were more immediately the objects of the philofopher and the phyfician. This knowledge enabled him frequently to fuggeft ufeful hints, one of which highly deferves to be mentioned. In the hard winter of 1756, he laid before the public fome observations on preventing the freezing of water in the leaden pipes of the city of London, occafioned by the injudicious and ineffectual method practifed frequently of ftrewing dung in the ftreets, over the pipes. Thefe were printed in the Gentleman's Magazine for January 1757, page 6, and pointed out a fuccefsful method of effecting the purpose, which had been employed by Mr Watfon himself, in the fevere winter of 1739-40. He had besides, fo early as the year 1742, made fome obfervations on Mr Sut ton's ventilators, which were printed in the XLII. vol. of the Philofphical Tranfactions, recommending fome improvements in that useful inven

tion.

In 1753, he laid before the Royal Society, Mr Appleby's procefs for rendering fea water fresh, which was printed in vol. XLVIII. page 69.

In 1768, an account of Mr Charles Miller's experiments in the fowing of wheat, and dividing the root, by which means were produced in one year, from one grain 21,109 ears; yielding three pecks and three quarters of clean corn. It is to be feared that this method cannot be rendered

practicable on a large and agricult ral plan.

In vol. LIX. fome account of the oil extracted from the ground peafe Arachis Hypogaa, an oil so mild and well tafted, as to bid fair to fuperfede that of olives, or even that of almonds, in the places of its growth. The plant is cultivated in North Carolina, and may be advantageously raised in the fugar islands.

All who were acquainted with the extent of Mr Watfon's knowledge in the practice of phyfic, in natural hiftory, and experimental philofophy, were not surprised to fee him rife to the higher line of his profeffion. This event took place in 1757, previous to which he had been chofen a member of the Royal Academy of Madrid; and he was created Doctor of Phyfic by the University of Halle, under a diploma bearing date September the 6th. The fame honour was conferred upon him by that of Wirtemberg about the fame time. Soon after he was disfranchifed from the company of apothecaries, and became a licen ate of the college of phyficians in 1759.

This alteration in his circumftances and profpects, hazardous as it might be confidered by fome, occa fioned no diminution in his emoluments, but far the contrary. He had before this time removed from Alderfgate-treet, to Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, where he lived the remainder of his

days, and now found himfeif at greater liberty to purfue his ftudies, and carry on at more leifure the extensive correfpondence in which he was engaged both at home and abroad. He kept up a correfpondence with Dr Huxham for many years; abroad we find among his correfpondents, the names of Peyfonnel, Clairaut, Bofe, the Abbe Nollet, and Allamand; and feveral additional names may be feen by the letters communicated by him to the Royal Society.

In October, 1762, Dr Watson was chofen