chofen one of the phyficians to the Foundling Hofpital, which office he held during the remainder of his life. In 1784 he was chofen a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, and made one of the Elects.

In 1786 Dr Watfon had the honour of knighthood conferred upon him, being one of the body deputed by the College, to congratulate his Ma jefty on his escape from affaffination. As Sir William Watfon lived in intimacy with the most learned and illuftrious Fellows of the Royal Society, so he himself was one of its meft active members, and ever zealous in promoting the ends of that inftitution. For many years he was a frequent member of the council; and during the life-time of Sir John Pringle was elected one of the VicePresidents, which honourable office he continued to fill during the remainder of his life. He was a moft conftant attendant on the public meetings of the Society, and on the private affociations of its members, efpecially on that formerly held every Thursday, at the Mitre, and now at the Crown and Anchor Tavern, in the Strand.

Notwithstanding the great fatigue to which Sir William Watfon was fubjected in his profeffional duty, and his laborious exertions in profecuting his favourite objects, which were equally beneficial to mankind, and honourable to himself, he in general enjoyed a firm and found ftate of health. It was fometimes interrupted by fits of the gout, but these feldom confined him to his houfe. In the year 1786 the decline of his health was very visible to his friends; his ftrength was greatly diminished, and he had loft much of that vivacity, which fo ftrongly marked his character. He, however, continued his utility to the very verge of the grave, and died on the 10th of May 1787, in the perfect exercise of his fenfes, and the full poffeffion of that VOL. XI. No. 61.

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esteem and regard of his furviving friends, which were the natural refult of his shining abilities, added to the uniform propriety of his conduct.

Few men have inherited from nature more extensive talents than Sir William Watson, and few have made a better ufe of them. The wonderful ftrength and accuracy of his recollection, his intimate acquaintance with men, manners, and the objects of fcience, and the penetrating attention which he bestowed on the fcientific topics of the day, always enabled him in a fuperior degree to communicate entertaining information; while the eafy, free, and engaging manner, in which he converfed, rendered him a defirable affociate in every fociety, and occafioned his company to be courted and frequented, by all contemporary philofophers.

In the younger part of his life he was noticed by thofe refpectable cha→ racters Sir Hans Sloane, Dr Mead, Martin Folkes, and others of the fame rank and eminence, who very early introduced him into the Royal Society; and in the latter part of his time he enjoyed the friendship of Lord Charles Cavendish, the honourable Mr Cavendish, Doctors Heberden and Pitcairn, Sir John Pringle, Sir Jofeph Banks, and Sir George Baker, all peculiarly diftinguished in the philofophical world, and for their ardent zeal in promoting the cause of fcience and literature.

On the continent his connexions were alfo extenfive and refpectable. He lived in the freeft habits of communication with the most celebrated foreign Literati, and maintained a regular correfpondence with the ingenious philofophers and naturalifts of every country, where the iciences were cultivated and held in estima- ' tion. Were proofs of this affertion neceffary, there could be produced to the world, by his worthy fon and reprefentative,

representative, a very copious collection of letters, written to him by the greatest philofophers of his time, which are known to contain much matter of curious information; and which, if communicated, would be infinitely more interefting, than many of thofe infipid collections with which the time and pockets of the public are continually taxed.

As a phyfician, his humanity, affiduity, and caution, were eminently confpicuous; and his exact obfer vance of the duties of focial politenefs must ever be remembered with pleasure by all those who enjoyed the happpiness of his acquaintance. The fmile of benignity was always difplayed on his countenance; he invariably continued the general, the ready, and the obliging friend of mankind; he was refpectful to the elder and fuperior, encouraging to the younger, and pleafant and eafy to all with whom he had any intercourfe. The fame affability and good humour, which adorned his character in public life, were preferved alfo in the bofom of his family, and endear ed him to those who were more im mediately around him: He was fcarcely ever out of temper; was a ways benignant and kind to his friends and relations, whilft he lived, and equally fo when he died, as he difpofed by will, of his large fortune, with that justice, judgment, and propriety, which gave univerfal fatisfaction to all who were concerned.

Sir William Watson had a natural activity, both of mind and body that never allowed him to be indolent in the flighteft degree. He was a most exact economift of his time, and throughout life a very early rifer, being up ufually in fummer at fix o'clock, and frequently fooner; thus fecuring to himself daily two or three

uninterrupted hours for ftudy. In his younger days these early hours were frequently given up to the pur pofes of fimpling; but in riper years they were devoted to study. He read much and carefully; and his ardent and unremitting defire to be acquainted with the progress of all thofe fciences, which were his objects, joined to a vigorous and retentive memory, enabled him to treasure up a vaft flock of knowledge. What he thus acquired he freely difperfed. His mode of conveying information' was clear, forcible, and energetic, and juftified the encomium bestowed upon him by a learned foreigner in a letter to a correfpondentt. His liberal and communicative difpofition, and his courteous behaviour, encouraged enquiry; and those who wifhed for information from him feldom departed without it. In his epiftolary correfpondence he was remarkably copious and precife, and fuch as enjoyed the privilege and pleasure of it, experienced in his punctuality another qualification which greatly enhanced its value." We fhall conclude our account of the life and writings of this great and good man, with the following anecdote, which it would be injurious to his memory not to mention, and which equally difplays his humanity, and the warmth with which he interefted himfelf in the cafes of his patients: Not many years before his death he was waked fuddenly one morning very early by his fervant, who came to inform him, that his house had been broken open, and that his plate (which was of confiderable value) was stolen. • Is that

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IFFERENT fubftances were formerly employed, instead of books, for preferving knowledge. The first characters, as we learn from fcripture, were traced out upon ftone; but, in process of time, the leaves of the palm-tree, the outer and inner rind of the lime-tree, and the Egyptian papyrus, were used for the fame purpofe. Thin pieces of board, covered with wax, were alfo employed, upon which letters were formed with a sharppointed inftrument of iron, called a tylus. Skins were afterwards subftituted in the room of these, and efpecially those of sheep and goats; which gave rife to the invention of parch ment. Lead, linen, filk, horn, and laftly, paper, were ufed in fucceffion for writing. Books were formed, alfo, of certain parts of vegetables. This custom still fubfifts among the Kalmouk Tartars, and fome other people of the North. When the ancients had occafion to treat of any fubject that required length, they ufed leaves, or fkins, ftitched one to the end of another, which they named rolls: a custom followed by the Jews, the Greeks, the Romans, the Perfians, and even by the Indians, and which continued several centuries after the birth of our Saviour. Thefe books, compofed of fheets stitched to one another, were rolled up on a piece of wood named umbilicus; the outfide of the leaves was called frons, and the extremities of the piece of wood cornua; they were ornamented with bits of ivory or filver, and even with gold and precious ftones. When the volume was unrolled, it might be about a yard and a half in breadth, and four or five in length. The prefent form of books is faid to have been invented by Attalus, King of Perga

to prevent them from being destroyed by infects. Before the invention of printing, books were more valuable and rare than precious ftones. The barbarous nations of Europe had fcarcely any till the time of Charlemagne; from the reign of that Prince to Charles V. and from Charles V. to Francis I. they were still very scarce. Grecia, Countefs of Anjou, purchased a Collection of Homilies, in 1067, under Philip I. for two hundred fheep, a measure of wheat, another of rye, a third of millet, and a certain quantity of martens kins. From the eighth century of our æra till the thirteenth, the Arabs alone were in poffeffion of books. China was filled with them at a time when the people of Europe, could not read. Henry II. of France, in 1555, published a declaration forbidding any book to be printed without the name of the author, and Louis XIII. publifhed one of the fame kind in 1626. The Romans condemned pernicious books to the flames, and the bufinefs of seeing this executed was entrusted to the Triumvirs, and fometimes to the Priefts and Ædiles. The fatirical Labienus was the firft whofe works were treated with this indignity. In Italy one must be an Inquifitor of the Faith to have permiflion to read forbidden books, according to the bull cum pro munere of Pope Pius V. and that of In Cana Domini.

The beard, amongst moft nations, has experienced all the caprices of fafhion. The Greeks preserved it until the reign of Alexander, and the Romans till towards the year of Rome 454. Scipio Africanus introduced the cuftom of fhaving every day, and a long series of Emperors conformed to it; but Adrian refumed it again, and his example was followed by his fucceffors till Conftantine. It appeared again under Heraclius, and all the

Greek

Greek Emperors wore beards. The Goths and the Franks had only whifkers. Clodion ordered his fubjects to let their beards grow, that they might be diftinguished from the Romans. The ancient philophers wore long beards. The ecclefiaftics of the Ealt always had beards, but the clergy of the Weft ufed a razor. There are fome countries where a long beard ferves to express grief, and there are others where the want of a beard is a mark of mourning. The trouble of fhaving is certainly difagreeable to most people, and it would be a subject worthy of fome academy to propofe a confiderable prize to the perfon who might difcover a method of eafing

them of it.

The art of explaining all forts of coats of arms is an invention of the French. It began to be in vogue in the eleventh century, and the technical terms which exprefs the different parts of coats of arms, are the names of different pieces which corapofed then the harness of the knights. It was neceffary for heralds at arms to be well verfed in this fcience, becaufe they characterifed the arms of thofe who wished to enter the lifts in tour

naments.

The Egyptians are faid to have been the inventors of beer, in the year 1212 before the Chiftian æra. They named it the Pelufian liquor, because it was first made at Pelufium, a city near the mouth of the Nile.

The brutality and favage fury of the Barbarians, who, after a battle, took from their graves fuch of their enemies as had perifhed, that they might infult and ftrip them, introduced among the ancients the cuftom of burning dead bodies. The Greeks adopted it long before the Trojan war; and Sylla, fearing that the Romans would treat him in the fame manner as he had treated Caius Marius, ordered, when dy ing, that his body fhould be placed on a funeral pile. From that epoch,

till the time of Theodofius, thefe people always burnt their dead.

The ufe of coffee was not known in Europe till the fixteent century, The tree which produces it grows in great abundance in the kingdom of Yemen. For the cultivation of it we are indebted to the Dutch, who carried it from Moka to Batavia, and thence to Holland. The properties of coffee were discovered, as is faid, by the Prior of an Arabian monaftery, who having obferved that cattle did not fleep when they ate certain fniall beans, tried the effects of them upon his monks, to prevent them from falling asleep in the choir during night.

Among the Romans, at the end of December, during the Saturnalia, children drew lots with beans to fee who would be King; and this custom was borrowed from that practised at Athens for the election of magiftrates, Hence, perhaps, is the origin of our drawing for King and Queen on Twelfth Night.

Cardinals were at firft only the principal priefts, or clergymen, of the different parishes in Rome: but this title was not confined to the church of Rome; it was used alfo in France, The Bishop of Paris, and several others, had their Cardinal Priefts. Thefe priefts alone had the right of adminiftering the facraments; and when they were promoted to be Bishops, their Cardinal hip was at an end. In this ftate things remained till the eleventh century, when the Sovereign Pontiff thought that his grandeur required him to have a council of Cardinals fuperior in dignity to the ancient priests.

But thefe Cardinals had no longer pre-eminence over the Bishops; they never claimed this privilege till they affumed to themfelves the right of electing the Pope. Other diftinctions followed. They obtained a red cap, and the purple. Urban the Eighth granted them the title of Eminence, en the 10th of January,

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