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AN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 LIFE AND WOEKS 
 
 OF 
 
 DE BOBEET WATT 
 
 AUTHOR OF THE ' BIBLIOTHECA BBITANNICA' 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES FINLAYSON, M.D. 
 
 FHTSICIAN TO THE GLASGOW WESTEBN INFraMABY AND THE BOYAL HOSPITAL 
 
 FOR SICK CHILDBEN : HON. LIBBABIAN TO THE FACULTY OF 
 
 PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS, GLASGOW: ETC. 
 
 WITH A POBTBAIT 
 
 LONDON 
 SMITH, ELDEK, & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE 
 
 1897 
 
 [All rights reserved] 
 
txr 
 
 
 ^^^ 
 
 y 1/3 G3 
 
LIFE AND WOEKS 
 
 OF 
 
 DE. ROBEET WATT 
 
 Watt's * Bibliotheca Britannica ' is known wher- 
 ever English bibHography is cultivated, whether 
 in this country or abroad ; but there is often a 
 singular absence of any knowledge of its author. 
 Even in Glasgow, and within his own profession, 
 he is but little known, while some of those familiar 
 with his book are scarcely aware that he was a 
 Doctor of Medicine, and still less that he was a 
 practising physician in Glasgow. The final title 
 page and preface alike fail, to reveal his place of 
 residence and work, or even that he had been en- 
 gaged in actual medical practice. A short memoir 
 submitted by Mr. Mason to the Conference of 
 Librarians in Glasgow in 1888 gave information 
 which led, no doubt, to his being better known both 
 to the Glasgow public and to the Hbrarians of the 
 country. 
 
 When a man obtains a world-wide celebrity in 
 one direction, there is a natural curiosity as to his 
 
 B 
 
2 LIFE AND WORKS OF DR. ROBERT WATT 
 
 work in other departments and as to his general 
 character. Watt's death at the age of forty-five 
 was no doubt hastened by his stupendous labours 
 at the * Bibliotheca/ and this early death and the 
 previous bad health necessarily lessened his chance 
 of distinction in the medical profession, in which 
 time is generally needed for acquiring any wide 
 reputation. There is some difficulty in obtain- 
 ing accurate information about his life and his 
 professional work, but enough is known to show 
 that he was a man who made his mark even 
 apart from the four monumental volumes of the 
 * Bibliotheca.' 
 
 The best account of Dr. Eobert Watt appeared 
 in Chambers' * Biographical Dictionary of Eminent 
 Scotsmen.' The last edition of this work was 
 edited by Thomson, in three volumes, and published 
 by Blackie & Son, Glasgow and London, in 1870 ; 
 the first edition of the * Dictionary,' however, pub- 
 lished in Glasgow in 1835, contains an interesting 
 autobiographical letter, omitted in the later edition, 
 which describes Watt's early days ; in the index 
 to the volume we find that the writer had * family 
 information.' In preparing this present notice 
 every effort has been made to get data from 
 original sources, but in some details the authority 
 of Chambers — as indicated from time to time — has 
 been accepted ; as he states that he had ' family 
 
LIFE AND WORKS OF DR. ROBERT WATT 3 
 
 information,' this may be regarded as sufficient on 
 these matters.^ 
 
 The bibHographer's father, John Watt, was a 
 small farmer in the parish of Stewarton, in Ayrshire, 
 about eighteen miles south-west of Glasgow, and 
 Kobert was the youngest of three sons ; he was 
 born there on May 1, 1774. 
 
 The autobiographical letter which follows is 
 stated to have been written a short time before his 
 death. Watt gave these details in response to the 
 request of a friend for some information regarding 
 his early days. The indomitable perseverance 
 there indicated, throws some light on his subsequent 
 achievements. The meeting at Dumfries of the 
 Scottish bibliographer and the great Scottish poet, 
 both from Ayrshire, is interesting as a fact, although 
 the reminiscence is too shadowy to be of much 
 value. It shows, however, the poet's kindness in 
 encouraging a youth in his eager desire for literary 
 improvement. 
 
 The following is the letter in full : — 
 
 * Among the first things I remember very dis- 
 tinctly was being sent to school, about the age, I 
 
 ^ In a newspaper notice of Mr. Alexander Whitelaw's death (cutting 
 dated Glasgow, 1846) it is stated that besides editing the Literary 
 Casket, he worked at many books issued by the Messrs. Blackie, and, 
 amongst them, at Chambers' Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen. As 
 Whitelaw was associated with Watt in preparing the Bibliotheca 
 Britannica, as explained later on, we may presume that he supervised 
 the notice of his friend's life in Chambers' Dictionary. 
 
 B 2 
 
4 LIFE AND WORKS OF DR. ROBERT WATT 
 
 suppose, of five or six. I was only a short time 
 with my first teacher, and remember little of what 
 was done. With two or three masters, I learned 
 to read English, write, and count. At this time I 
 recollect being rather a favourite with the teacher, 
 and suffering from the envy of my school-fellows 
 on that account. From the difficulties I had to 
 encounter in every branch of learning afterwards, 
 I think my proficiency at that time must have been 
 very small. 
 
 * About the age of thirteen, I became a plough- 
 boy to a farmer in a neighbouring parish. After 
 this, I was sometimes at home, and sometimes in 
 the service of other people, till the age of seven- 
 teen. Before this age, I had begun to acquire a 
 taste for reading, and spent a good deal of my time 
 in that way. The books I read were such as I 
 found about my father's house ; among which I 
 remember the " Pilgrim's Progress," " The Lives of 
 Scotch Worthies," &c. A spirit for extending my 
 knowledge of the country, and other things, had 
 manifested itself early, in various forms. When 
 very young, my great ambition was to be a chap- 
 man ; and it was long before the sneers of my 
 friends could drive me from this favourite project. 
 It was the same spirit, and a wish of doing 
 something for myself, that made me go into the 
 service of other farmers. I saw more than I did 
 
LIFE AND WORKS OF DR. ROBERT WATT 6 
 
 at home, and I got money which I could call my 
 own. My father's circumstances were very limited ; 
 but they were equal, with his own industry, to 
 the bringing up of his family, and putting them 
 to trades. This was his great wish. I remember 
 he preferred a trade greatly to being farmers' 
 servants. 
 
 * With a view to extend my knowledge of the 
 country, I went with a party into Galloway, to 
 build stone dykes. On getting there, however, the 
 job which we had expected was abandoned, on 
 account of some difference taking place between 
 the proprietor of the land and the cultivator ; and 
 we went to the neighbourhood of Dumfries, where 
 our employer had a contract for making part of the 
 line of road from Sanquhar to Dumfries. During 
 my short stay in Galloway, which was at Loch 
 Fergus, in the vicinity of Kirkcudbright, I lodged 
 in a house where I had an opportunity of reading 
 some books, and saw occasionally a newspaper. 
 This enlarged my views, increased the desire to see 
 and learn more, and made me regret exceedingly 
 my short stay in the place. 
 
 ^ On our arrival at Dumfries, we were boarded 
 on the farm of Ellisland, in the possession of 
 Eobert Burns. The old house which he and his 
 family had recently occupied became our tempo- 
 rary abode. This was only for a few days. I was 
 
6 LIFE AND WORKS OF DR. ROBERT WATT 
 
 lodged, for the rest of the summer, in a sort of old 
 castle, called the Isle^ from its having been at one 
 time surrounded by the Nith. While at EUisland, 
 I formed the project of going up to England. This 
 was to be accomplished by engaging as a drover 
 of some of the droves of cattle that continually 
 pass that way from Ireland and Scotland. My 
 companions, however, disapproved of the project, 
 and I gave it up. 
 
 ' During the summer I spent in Dumfriesshire, I 
 hadfrequent opportunities of seeing Burns ; but can- 
 not recollect of having formed any opinion of him, 
 except a confused idea that he was an extra- 
 ordinary character. While here I read Burns's 
 poems ; and, from an acquaintance with some of 
 his relations, I occasionally got from his library a 
 reading of other works of the same kind. With 
 these I used to retire into some of the concealed 
 places on the banks of the Nith, and pass my 
 leisure hours in reading, and occasionally tried my 
 hand in writing rhymes myself. My business at 
 this time consisted chiefly in driving stones, from 
 a distance of two or three miles, to build bridges 
 and sewers. This occupation gave me a further 
 opportunity of perusing books, and although, from 
 the desultory nature of my reading, I made no 
 proficiency in any one thing, I acquired a sort of 
 smattering knowledge of many, and a desire to 
 
LIFE AND WORKS OF DR. ROBERT WATT 7 
 
 learn more. From this period, indeed, I date the 
 commencement of my Hterary pursuits. 
 
 * On my return home, the first use I made of 
 the money I had saved was to purchase a copy of 
 Bailey's Dictionary and a copy of Burn's English 
 Grammar. With these. I began to instruct myself 
 in the principles of the English language in the 
 best way I could. 
 
 * At this time my brother John, who had been 
 in Glasgow for several years, following the business 
 of a joiner and cabinet-maker, came home, with 
 the design of beginning business for himself in the 
 country. It was proposed that I should join him. 
 This was very agreeable to me. I had, at that 
 time, no views of anything higher ; and it accorded 
 well with the first bent of my mind, which was 
 strongly inclined to mechanics. If of late all my 
 spare hours had been devoted to reading, at an 
 earlier period they had been equally devoted to 
 mechanics. When very young, I had erected a 
 turning lathe in my father's barn ; had procured 
 planes, chisels, and a variety of other imple- 
 ments, which I could use with no small degree of 
 dexterity. 
 
 * For some time my mind was wholly occupied 
 with my new trade. I acquired considerable know- 
 ledge and facility in constructing most of the 
 different implements used in husbandry, and could 
 
8 LIFE AND ^ORKS OF DR. ROBERT WATT 
 
 also do a little as a cabinet-maker. But I soon 
 began to feel less and less interest in my new 
 employment. My business came to be a repetition 
 of the same thing, and lost all its charms of novelty 
 and invention. The taste for reading which I had 
 brought from the south, though it had suffered some 
 abatement, had not left me. I was occasionally 
 poring over my dictionary and grammar, and other 
 volumes that came in my way. 
 
 * At this time, a circumstance occurred which 
 gave my mind an entirely new bent. My brother, 
 while at Glasgow, had formed a very close intimacy 
 with a student there. This young gentleman, 
 during the vacation, came out to see my brother, 
 and pass a few days in the country. From him I 
 received marvellous accounts of what mighty things 
 were to be learned, what wonders to be seen, about 
 a University ; and I imbibed an unquenchable desire 
 to follow his course.' 
 
 An interesting supplement to this narrative is 
 given by Mr. Duncan Macfarlane, schoolmaster in 
 Stewarton, who drew up the account of that parish 
 for * The New Statistical Account of Scotland,' vol. 
 v., Edinburgh, 1845. The notice is dated ^ April 
 1840, revised January 1842.' It would seem that 
 the writer was the man who prepared Watt for 
 beginning his University course. He says : — 
 
 * He was born on 1st May, 1774. The name of 
 
LIFE AND WORKS OF DR. ROBERT WATT 9 
 
 the farm in the parish record is Bonnyton/ not 
 Muirhead, now Girgenti, so named by its present 
 proprietor, John Cheape, representative of the 
 Cheapes of Sauchie, StirHngshire. The account of 
 him inserted in the "Life" above alluded to 
 [Chambers' " Dictionary "] closes when his studies 
 in the Latin and Greek languages commenced with 
 the writer of this account in October or November, 
 1792 ; and he was then about eighteen years old. 
 It was only one hour's private attendance in the 
 morning that he could spare, as he had his occupa- 
 tion of carpenter to attend to through the rest of 
 the day. Notwithstanding, such progress did he 
 make in both languages, that he entered the Latin 
 and Greek classes of Glasgow University in 1793, 
 and obtained a prize in the Greek class from Pro- 
 fessor Young. In 1794, he attended the Greek and 
 Logic classes also at Glasgow ; and in 1795-96, the 
 Moral and Natural Philosophy classes at Edinburgh. 
 During the summer, 1796, he taught a private school 
 in Kilmaurs parish, when he became an admirer 
 of the late Eev. Mr. John Kussell of Kilmarnock, 
 
 ^ Chambers, op. cit., gives the name as ' Muirhead.' An extract 
 from the Stewarton records, now in the Register House, Edinburgh, 
 bears : 
 
 ' 1774 May first 
 
 Robt a son to John Watt in Bonnyton 
 and Jatt Callderwood his Spouse baptised 2 ' 
 
 The termination of ' Bonnyton ' is a little indistinct in the register. 
 ' Jatt ' is a contraction for ' Janet.' 
 
10 LIFE AND WORKS OF DR. ROBERT WATT 
 
 the " Eumble John " of Burns. He then resolved 
 to study divinity, and, in order to have two strings 
 to his bow, also anatomy at Edinburgh, which he 
 did in 1796-97. An essay on " Kegeneration " was 
 prescribed, for which lOZ. were to be given, and 
 which he obtained. Professor Hunter, on delivery 
 of the prize, was pleased to remark " that it was 
 not only the best essay, but the first time, under 
 him, that a student of the first year's standing 
 attempted and succeeded so well and so deservedly." 
 In 1797-98, he spent one year in Symington^ as 
 parochial schoolmaster, and merely enrolled his 
 name as a student of divinity in Edinburgh, when 
 an essay on " Prayer " was announced by Professor 
 Hunter, for which a prize of SI. was to be given, and 
 which he also obtained. During his residence at 
 Symington, the Eev. Mr. Logan, minister of the 
 parish, induced him, for reasons unnecessary to 
 state here, to give up the study of divinity, and 
 finish his medical studies, which he did in Glasgow 
 in 1798-99. I have thought proper to be thus par- 
 ticular in the detail of the studies of one who was 
 an honour and ornament to his country, and cut off 
 early in life.' 
 
 This account differs slightly from that given in 
 Chambers' ' Dictionary,' but it is evidently stated 
 with accuracy and from personal knowledge. The 
 
 ^ A village in Ayrshire, six miles south-west of Kilmarnock. 
 
LIFE AND WORKS OF DR. ROBERT WATT 11 
 
 matriculation entry in the Glasgow University 
 Album for 1793-94 is as follows : — 
 
 * Eobertus Watt fil : n. 3*'''' Joannis Agricolae 
 in Par. de Stewartown (Ayr).' 
 
 There is, however, no degree entered for him, 
 either in arts or medicine, in the Glasgow records. 
 
 As mentioned above. Watt studied in the Uni- 
 versity of Edinburgh, and amongst the entries for 
 1795 there is :— 
 
 ' Eobertus Watt— Phys. Eth.' 
 
 This quite confirms Mr. Duncan Macfarlane's 
 statement that he attended the classes of ^ Moral 
 and Natural Philosophy ' (Ethics and Physics) that 
 year in Edinburgh. He did not, however, graduate 
 there. 
 
 In some authoritative works (Allibone's * Dic- 
 tionary of English Literature,' and the * Index- 
 Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon- General's 
 Office, U.S. Army'), we find under Watt's name 
 the entry of an inaugural dissertation, Edinburgh, 
 1803, * De Scarlatina Anginosa ' : but the index to 
 the Edinburgh Theses shows this to have been by 
 a different man — a native of Jamaica ; in point of 
 fact. Watt obtained his M.D. degree not from 
 Edinburgh, but from King's College, Aberdeen, on 
 March 20, 1810, as appears in the register of 
 graduates recently published by the New Spalding 
 Club. 
 
12 LIFE AND WORKS OF DR. ROBERT WATT 
 
 No record of his being apprenticed to a surgeon 
 can be traced in the minutes of the Glasgow Faculty. 
 Peter Mackenzie, in his * Eeminiscences,' says 
 that in 1793 Watt * got into the apothecary shop 
 of old Moses Gardner,' in Glasgow; but this 
 date was before he contemplated the study of 
 medicine, and in any case, even if true, the 
 fact can have no relationship to an apprentice- 
 ship, as Moses Gardner did not become a mem- 
 ber of the Faculty in Glasgow till 1798. Pro- 
 bably Watt w^s never apprenticed at all, as the 
 regulations in this respect were then in a state of 
 transition. 
 
 On April 6, 1799, he obtained the Licence of 
 the Glasgow Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons, 
 and at once began general practice in Paisley. 
 It was while there that he wrote his treatise on 
 ' Diabetes, &c.,' based upon cases he had observed. 
 This was pubhshed in Paisley in 1808, and was 
 dedicated to Mr. James Muir, surgeon in Paisley, 
 by his * partner and friend ' the author. Muir 
 was Hcensed by the Glasgow Faculty in 1802, and 
 subsequently admitted as a member in 1810 ; he 
 latterly practised in Glasgow, and was for a time a 
 partner with Professor John Burns, so well known 
 from his works on midwifery and otherwise. From 
 his association with two such men, Muir may be 
 presumed to have been himself an able practi- 
 
LIFE AND WORKS OF DR. ROBERT WATT IS 
 
 tioner ^ ; but his reputation seems to have been 
 considerable in connection with art also ; indeed, it 
 is supposed to be to him that we are indebted for 
 one of Watt's portraits, now in the Faculty Hall in 
 Glasgow, representing him when still a young 
 man. 
 
 Yery soon after settling in Paisley as a general 
 practitioner. Watt made some contributions to the 
 London * Medical and Physical Journal.' We find, 
 in March 1800, * A description of a new instrument 
 for operating for the stone ' (with an engraving to 
 illustrate it), and in August of the same year, 
 * Description of a new machine for curing distorted 
 limbs ' (also illustrated), a paper which gave rise to 
 a controversy in that journal with Mr. Sheldrake 
 of London. To the same journal Watt sent a 
 letter, which appeared in May 1801, on vaccine 
 inoculation taking effect in those who have had 
 small-pox, and on vaccinia and small-pox existing 
 simultaneously in the same subject. To the * Edin- 
 burgh Medical and Surgical Journal ' of July 1809, 
 he contributed a reply to criticisms made on his 
 views on ' Diabetes.' The publication of all these 
 papers, and of a considerable volume, so soon after 
 settling in Paisley, indicates his literary activity and 
 
 ^ There is a paper on Ophthalmia ' Communicated to Dr. Watt by 
 Mr. James Muir, Surgeon, Paisley,' in February 1811, after Watt had 
 removed to Glasgow. See Edin. Med. Surg. Journal, April 1811. 
 
14 LIFE AND WORKS OF DR. ROBERT WATT 
 
 his relationship with important periodicals in London 
 and Edinburgh. His treatise on ^ Diabetes ' was 
 at once recognised as the work of an able man, 
 and his views were discussed and accepted or 
 disputed, as already indicated; for example, in 
 * Craigie's Practice of Physic,' Edinburgh, 1840, 
 the book is quoted again and again. Subsequent 
 researches and discoveries in connection with this 
 disease have so completely altered our standpoint, 
 that it is scarcely worth while estimating his 
 views on this subject now. While in Paisley, he 
 seems to have occupied himself also with chemical 
 studies and inquiries (see MS. quoted in Appendix). 
 
 Finding his reputation increasing, Watt con- 
 templated a wider field for practice ; he had be- 
 come a member of the Glasgow Faculty in 1807, a 
 higher grade than a mere licentiate. Chambers 
 tells us that he made a tour in England in 1809, 
 on the outlook for some suitable sphere, but ap- 
 parently without success. He then determined to 
 settle in practice in Glasgow as a physician, and, 
 no doubt with this project in view, he obtained 
 the degree of Doctor of Medicine, from King's 
 College, Aberdeen, on March 20, 1810, as already 
 stated. His sponsors are given as * Drs. Eobert 
 Cleghorn and Thomas Brown, Glasgow,' both of 
 them very distinguished physicians at that time. 
 
 Dr. Watt began practice as a physician in 
 
LIFE AND WORKS OF DR. ROBERT WATT 15 
 
 Glasgow in the winter of 1810, and he Hkewise began 
 almost at once to lecture on * The Theory and 
 Practice of Medicine ' (1810 or 1811). He had a 
 large house in Queen Street, and it has been sup- 
 posed that he may have lectured there ; possibly, 
 however, he lectured in the College Street rooms, 
 where Allan Burns, Granville Sharp Pattison, and 
 Andrew Eussell taught anatomy and surgery.^ It 
 is a remarkable feature as regards this class that he 
 published a ' Catalogue of Medical Books for the Use 
 of Students attending Lectures on the Principles 
 and Practice of Medicine, with an Address to 
 Medical Students on the best Method of prosecuting 
 their Studies, Glasgow, 1812.' This entry has 
 been copied from the * Bibliotheca Britannica,' as 
 the present writer has been unable to find any copy 
 preserved, although he has inquired at various 
 Hbraries likely to have it, and it does not occur in 
 the Catalogues printed by the British Museum or 
 the Faculty of Advocates in Edinburgh. 
 
 The conception which Watt had of medical 
 teaching seems to have been very different from 
 that entertained by not a few subsequent lecturers 
 on medicine, who virtually aim at dictating 
 from their own lips the whole sum of human 
 
 ' Watt's class-ticket was different in appearance from those used 
 by two of the other lecturers named ; it does not indicate, in any way, 
 the locality of the lecture-room. 
 
16 LIFE AND WORKS OF DR. ROBERT WATT 
 
 knowledge required by their disciples. Watt 
 evidently hoped that his lectures would only 
 stimulate his pupils to further reading, which he 
 facilitated by an index-catalogue to his own 
 library.^ In utilising his library in this way for 
 the benefit of his pupils, Watt was following the 
 example of an older Glasgow surgeon, Mr. John 
 Paisley, who is said to have had an unusually good 
 collection of books, which were available for con- 
 sultation by his apprentices; amongst these was 
 the celebrated Cullen, who no doubt cultivated 
 there an acquaintance with medical literature ; 
 and when the old pupil became a lecturer in 
 Glasgow University, Mr. Paisley's library was 
 thrown open to Cullen 's students. 
 
 The catalogue by Watt of his own medical 
 library has, however, a further importance, as 
 explained in Chambers' * Dictionary ' : — 
 
 ' The " Bibliotheca Britannica " may be said to 
 have originated with the formation of this library. 
 Besides the catalogue of it which was printed 
 in the usual form, having the works arranged 
 under their respective authors, in alphabetical 
 order, he drew out an index of the various subjects 
 which the volumes embraced, making references 
 
 ^ Quite in accordance with this, we are told by Chambers that Watt 
 soon departed from reading lectures to his students, and delivered them 
 simply from notes to guide him. 
 
LIFE AND WOEKS OF DE. ROBEET WATT 17 
 
 to the place which each held upon the shelf ; and 
 thus brought before his eye at one view all the 
 books in his possession that treated on any 
 particular point. The utility of this index to 
 himself and his students soon turned his mind to 
 the consideration of one upon a more compre- 
 hensive scale, that would embrace all the medical 
 works which had been printed in the British 
 dominions. This he immediately set about draw- 
 ing out, and devoted much of his time to it. After 
 he had nearly completed his object, he extended 
 the original plan by introducing works on law, 
 and latterly works on divinity and miscellaneous 
 subjects. This more than tripled his labours, but 
 it proportionably made them more useful. The 
 extent of the design, however, was not yet com- 
 pleted. Hitherto all foreign publications had been 
 excluded from it ; and although a prospectus of the 
 work had been published, containing very copious 
 explanations and specimens, which might be sup- 
 posed to have determined its nature and bounds, he 
 resolved, when it was on the eve of going to press, 
 to make the work still further useful by introducing 
 the more popular and important foreign productions, 
 embracing at the same time the various continental 
 editions of the Classics.' ^ 
 
 ^ Even this, however, does not indicate all. As stated in the Pre- 
 face to the Bihliotheca, ' In addition to those titles of distinct or 
 separate publications which came properly under the scope of the work, 
 
 C 
 
18 LIFE AND ^ORKS OF DR. ROBERT WATT 
 
 This article is apparently so exact, that the above 
 may be regarded as in some sense correct, although 
 no doubt too sweeping in its statement. We must 
 remember that Watt himself states that the pro- 
 ject culminating in his great work had been kept 
 in view for ' nearly twenty- six years,' although he 
 admits that his views as to its plan had undergone 
 changes from time to time. This phrase occurs on 
 the back of the First Part of the * Bibliotheca,' 
 issued in Glasgow in 1819 : the preface, issued after 
 his death, to the completed work (1824) talks of 
 * unwearied care and indefatigable labour for nearly 
 twenty years.' In either case, this carries us much 
 farther back than his medical class in 1811 or the 
 catalogue of his library in 1812. Indeed, his own 
 phrase of ^ nearly twenty-six years,' takes us back 
 exactly to the time when he matriculated as a 
 student in 1793. Possibly the usefulness of his 
 Index to Subjects for this medical library suggested 
 the Subject portion of the ' Bibliotheca.' 
 
 all the more important periodical works on art and science have been 
 minutely analysed, and the various papers entered under their author's 
 name, with a reference to the volume and page of the publication where 
 they are to be found. This has been done with the Transactions of 
 the Royal Societies of London am,d Edinburgh^ the Transactions of 
 the Americam,, Linnean, Geological, Horticultural, dc. Societies, the 
 Transactions of the Irish Academy, the Archceologia, Hearn's Col- 
 lection, Duncan's Commentaries, Nicholson's Journal, Tilloch's 
 Philosophical Magazine, Thomson's Annals of Philosophy, Medical 
 and Physical Jou/rnal, and many other works of a similar kind.' And 
 further, the second part of the Bibliotheca ' includes a very complete 
 list of all the anonymous and pseudonymous works which have ap- 
 peared in this coimtry.' 
 
LIFE AND WORKS OF DR. ROBERT WATT 19 
 
 In 1813 Watt published a * Treatise ... on 
 the Chincough ' ; but the Appendix to this treatise, 
 * An Inquiry into the Eelative Mortality of the Prin- 
 cipal Diseases of Children,' ^ has attained much 
 more celebrity than the Treatise itself.^ The 
 research consisted in a . laborious investigation of 
 the registers of the various burial places in Glasgow. 
 Fifteen MS. folio volumes of these had to be 
 digested. The result of this investigation astonished 
 himself. He found, as he anticipated, that after 
 the introduction of vaccination, the deaths from 
 small-pox had greatly diminished, and so he expected 
 to find proof of a corresponding reduction in the 
 infantile mortahty as a whole. He says :— * To ascer- 
 tain the real amount of this saving of infantile life, 
 I turned up one of the later years, and by accident 
 that of 1808, when, to my utter astonishment, I 
 found that still a half, or more than a half, perished 
 before the tenth year of their age ! I could hardly 
 believe the testimony of my senses, and therefore 
 began to turn up other years, when I found that in 
 all of them the proportion was less than in 1808 ; 
 
 ^ It may be stated, in case of confusion, that another Dr. Watt, viz. 
 Alexander Watt, LL.D., published Vital Statistics for Glasgow, 30 
 years later (1841-46). 
 
 "^ On the title to the Appendix, Watt inserts an appropriate motto 
 from Lucretius : 
 
 ' — infans . . . 
 Cui tantum in vita restat transire malorum.' 
 
 c 2 
 
20 LIFE AXD WORKS OF DR. ROBERT WATT 
 
 but still on taking an average of several years, it 
 amounted to nearly the same thing as at any 
 former period during the last thirty years. This 
 was a discovery I by no means expected, and how 
 it could have come to pass appeared to me inex- 
 plicable.' (p. 335.) 
 
 Commenting on his tabulation of the deaths 
 for a series of years. Watt says : — 
 
 * The first thing which strikes the mind on 
 surveying the preceding table is the vast diminu- 
 tion in the proportion of deaths by small-pox : a 
 reduction from 19'55 to 3*90 ; but the increase in 
 the subsequent column (measles) is still more re- 
 markable, an increase from -95 to 10-76. In the 
 small-pox we have the deaths reduced to nearly a 
 fifth of what they were twenty-five years ago ; in 
 the same period, the deaths by measles have 
 increased more than eleven times.' (p. 376.) 
 
 * It must be admitted that while the small-pox 
 were in full force, they had the power of modifying 
 and rendering the measles mild, and now that they 
 are in great measure expelled, the measles are 
 gradually coming to occupy the same ground which 
 they formerly did.' (p. 378.) 
 
 The importance of the remarkable result thus 
 brought out by the statistical inquiry and of Watt's 
 induction founded on it, was at once recognised, 
 and Dr. Edward Jenner himself referred to it with 
 
LIFE AND WOEKS OF DR. ROBERT WATT 21 
 
 a feeling of irritation. Writing to Dr. James 
 Moore on December 6, 1813, he says : — 
 
 ' You probably may not have seen a pamphlet 
 lately published by Dr. Watt of Glasgow, as there 
 is nothing in its title that developes its purport or 
 
 evil tendencTj The measles, it seems, have 
 
 been extremely fatal in the city of Glasgow for 
 the last four or five years among children, and 
 during this period vaccination was practised almost 
 universally. Previously to this the measles was 
 considered a mild disease. Hence Dr. Watt infers 
 that the small-pox is a kind of prejjarative for the 
 measles, rendering the disease more mild. In short, 
 he says, or seems to say, that we have gained 
 nothing by the introduction of the cow-pox; for 
 that the measles and small-pox have now changed 
 places ^ with regard to their fatal tendency. Is not 
 this very shocking ? ' (Baron's ^ Life of Jenner,' 
 vol. ii., p. 392.) 
 
 Watt, who was himself an extremely strong 
 advocate of vaccination, had of course foreseen that 
 his figures might be used as an argument against 
 cow-pox, which he elsewhere calls an * inestimable 
 discovery.' In the preface to his * Treatise,' he 
 faces this nobly : — 
 
 * The Author has been told that the statements 
 
 ' Let the reader compare this phrase with the dictum of Dr. Farr 
 (subsequently quoted), ' The Zymotic diseases replace each other.' 
 
22 LIFE AND WORKS OF DR. ROBERT WATT 
 
 he has made are Hkely to produce injurious effects, 
 in strengthening the prejudice of the vulgar. To 
 this he would reply, that if prejudice is only to be 
 suppressed by concealing the most important facts, 
 he has no idea of purchasing its suppression at so 
 high a price.' 
 
 A controversy raged round these tables then, 
 and it may be said to rage still.^ In a letter to 
 * The Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal,' 
 April 1814, Dr. Watt repHes at length to criticisms 
 on the subject in that journal. He says : — 
 
 * The result of an investigation is often very 
 different from what was expected, but whatever be 
 the result, the inquiry itself, if conducted with 
 candour and perseverance, will seldom fail to pro- 
 mote the interests of science.' (p. 169.) 
 
 Again : — 
 
 ' Nothing would have induced me to embark in 
 support of an opinion so contrary to established 
 notions, but a conviction of its importance, and a 
 desire to discover the truth. If you, or any of your 
 readers, from the side I have taken, should think 
 me hostile to cow-pox, I can assure you that you 
 
 * For example, Watt's tables have been quite lately reproduced by 
 John Thomson, Glasgow, 1888, evidently in the interest of the anti- 
 vaccination agitation. They are discussed and their value maintained 
 by Dr. Creighton, History of Epidemics, vol. ii., 1894, pp. 652-660. 
 See also White (W.) The Story of a Great Delusion, London, 1885, 
 pp. 439-452; and McVail (John), Vaccination Vindicated, London, 
 1887, p. 161. 
 
LIFE AND WORKS OF DR. ROBERT WArr 23 
 
 are mistaken. Indeed, that inestimable discovery 
 has suffered much more from the forwardness of 
 its friends, than the strength of its enemies.' (p. 
 177.) 
 
 Watt has been disparaged for basing his views 
 on the proportions of deaths from special diseases to 
 the total deaths, instead of to the number Hving ; 
 but such figures, however desirable, were not avail- 
 able for him, and he had to work with the materials 
 which he had himself laboriously searched out. 
 The fairness of his method, so far as it goes, and so 
 far as it was applied, has been admitted by the 
 most competent authorities on Vital Statistics. 
 Sir Gilbert Blane, to whom Watt had dedicated his 
 ^ Treatise ' on the Chincough, which contains these 
 tables, referred to these statistics in a judicial 
 manner almost immediately after they appeared. 
 (See ^ Supplement ' to a paper in the ' Medico- 
 Chirurgical Transactions of London,' vol. iv., 1813, 
 p. 466.) 
 
 The discussion of such intricate subjects, how- 
 ever, is of little use unless carried on by experts, 
 and the best plan to follow in estimating the value 
 of Watt's communication is to see how it looks to 
 such an authority as Dr. Farr, more than fifty years 
 afterwards. We can see this in his * Letter to the 
 Kegistrar- General on the Cause of Death in 
 England ' in 1867, where he gives a pretty full 
 
LU LIFE AND WORKS OF DR. ROBERT WATT 
 
 account of Watt's inquiry. (See also his 'Vital 
 Statistics,' London, 1885, pp. 321, 322.) He 
 says : — 
 
 * It is, however, by no means proved that the 
 general mortality under unfavourable sanitary con- 
 ditions is much reduced by rendering a child insus- 
 ceptible of one type while he remains exposed to 
 all other types of zymotic disease. This was clearly 
 pointed out in a remarkable treatise of Dr. Robert 
 Watt, lecturer on the theory and practice of 
 medicine in Glasgow.' (p. 213 of the Eegistrar- 
 General's Report.) 
 
 Dr. Farr, who describes Dr. Watt as ' evidently 
 a practitioner of great sagacity and a philosophical 
 professor of medicine,' says in summing up : — 
 
 ' It must be admitted that although there were 
 defects in his data. Dr. Watt succeeded in showing 
 (1) that small-pox was one of the greatest causes 
 of death in Glasgow down to the year 1800 ; (2) 
 that the deaths by small-pox were reduced to a 
 fifth of their original number by vaccination ; and 
 (3) that the children died in nearly the same 
 numbers as before, but of other forms of disease.' 
 (p. 214.) 
 
 He adds : — 
 
 * Glasgow was then rapidly increasing, and it is 
 possible that the births were then increasing, the 
 mortality is therefore less than it appears to be by 
 
LIFE AND WORKS OF DR. ROBERT WATT 25 
 
 Dr. Watt's method. But this does not invahdate 
 his induction.' (p. 214.) 
 
 On this deHverance we may fairly rest Watt's 
 reputation in this department. In a subsequent 
 report, on the year 1872, Dr. Farr repeats and 
 extends in aphoristic form the point made out by 
 Watt :— 
 
 * The Zymotic diseases replace each other : and 
 when one is rooted out it is apt to be replaced by 
 others.' (p. 224.) 
 
 It was about this time — the issue of his second 
 volume being in 1813 — that Watt's professional 
 reputation and activity seemed at their highest. 
 He could not complain that the views, announced 
 in his two books, had been neglected. Indeed, the 
 discussions on them were such as to lead him, 
 apparently unwillingly, to reply in controversial 
 communications, on both subjects, in the * Edin- 
 burgh Medical and Surgical Journal,' in 1809 and 
 1814 respectively. 
 
 Watt was a member of the Medical and Chirur- 
 gical Society of London, and a communication by 
 him was read on February 1, 1814. This dealt 
 with a remarkable series of chronometric nervous 
 attacks in a young girl, termed by him ^ Chorea.' 
 
 The case seems to have had a close resemblance 
 to some forms of the ^ Dancing Mania ' of the 
 middle ages, as described by Hecker, and it 
 
26 LIFE AND WORKS OF DR. ROBERT WATT 
 
 presented certain features of hystero-epilepsy, as 
 described by Charcot. In particular, there were 
 rotatory phenomena and frequent exploits in the 
 form of standing on her head (* Clownism ' of 
 Charcot). Into the medical details of this case we 
 need not enter further ; but Dr. Watt's remarks at 
 the close of his paper show his philosophical mind 
 in comparing these extraordinary outbursts of ner- 
 vous disturbance with those which led many 
 unhappy victims to be regarded as possessed of the 
 devil, or to be burned as witches. Such cruelties 
 had happened, as Watt points out, not far from 
 where he practised, so recently as June 10, 1697, 
 when three men and four women were burned at 
 Paisley in connection with the Bargarran witch- 
 craft case. 
 
 Although a member of a distinguished medical 
 society in London, Watt felt the importance of 
 such a means of professional improvement nearer 
 home. He was one of those who, at a preliminary 
 meeting, decided to form the ' Medical Society ' in 
 Glasgow, the first of its kind there, and we may 
 gather that he was the leading promoter of it by 
 his being called to the chair at this meeting, and 
 by his being elected the first president in 1814. 
 This society, although amalgamated with another 
 many years ago, continues to the present day 
 under a slightly different name. A paper by Watt 
 
LIFE AND WORKS OF DR. ROBERT WATT 17 
 
 appropriately opens volume i. of the MS. Transac- 
 tions still preserved in the Faculty Library in 
 Glasgow. As in the teaching of medical students 
 Watt saw that lectures should incite to reading, so 
 in the case of practitioners he saw that collision of 
 other opinions was required for their improvement. 
 His energy was such that he successfully carried 
 out both of these methods. 
 
 Of Watt's Lectures nothing definite has been 
 traced, but judging from the custom of the time it 
 is quite possible that some MS. reports, taken by 
 his students, may lie hidden in private houses or 
 libraries. 
 
 Further indications of the importance of Dr. 
 Watt's professional position at this time may be 
 gathered from his election as Physician to the 
 Eoyal Infirmary in Glasgow, and as President of 
 the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons, both in 
 1814. 
 
 That he might have made good Hterary use of 
 
 his position in the Infirmary, if life and health had 
 been granted to him, appears from his MS. essay 
 in the Transactions of the Medical Society, already 
 referred to, * On the Nature and Treatment of 
 Erysipelas ' (1815), in which he gives various cases 
 bearing on the question of the contagiousness of 
 this disease, from his experience in the wards of 
 the hospital. 
 
28 LIFE AIS'D WORKS OF DR. ROBERT WATT 
 
 In 1816 Dr. Watt was elected President of the 
 Glasgow Philosophical Society (1816-17). He 
 had joined this society on coming to Glasgow in 
 1810, and he made some communications to it ; 
 in particular, he read extracts from certain essays, 
 which he had written some time before, bearing 
 upon Flame ; this was in November and December 
 1816. It has been supposed that these extracts 
 were from the MS. on * Light, Heat and Cold,' 
 mentioned in the Appendix. On December 16, 
 1816, he read another essay to the society on the 
 * Natural History of Man.' So far as can be ascer- 
 tained, these papers were never published. 
 
 The additional work connected with these new 
 duties, and his continuous toil at the ^ Bibliotheca,' 
 proved too much for a delicate constitution. Soon 
 after the expiry of his term as President of the 
 Faculty, he retired from his duties at the Infir- 
 mary, and indeed shortly afterwards he withdrew 
 from practice altogether, hoping thus to be able to 
 finish his ^ Bibliotheca ' before he died. 
 
 About this period (1814) he brought out, anony- 
 mously, a little book entitled ^ Eules of Life, with 
 Eeflections on the Manners and Dispositions of 
 Mankind.' This consists of 1001 aphoristic say- 
 ings ; some new, some old, but most of them old 
 sentiments ' in new dresses,' as he says in the 
 preface. A book of this kind does not indicate 
 
LIFE AND WORKS OF DR. ROBERT WATT 29 
 
 much of the character of the author except as 
 regards industry in noting down these sayings in a 
 common-place book ; and the somewhat careful 
 index of subjects shows the instinct of the biblio- 
 grapher. The last aphorism may be quoted as a 
 specimen, and as affording the explanation of the 
 well-deserved continuance of Watt's reputation as 
 a bibliographer and a statistician. 
 
 * 1001. — The sincere performance of our duty is 
 the only sure foundation we can lay for future and 
 solid satisfaction.' 
 
 It was in the beginning of 1817 that Dr. Watt 
 
 withdrew from practice. He says, in a note on 
 
 the back of the cover of Parti, of the ^ Bibliotheca,' 
 
 in 1819, that ^ he saw himself verging towards the 
 
 afternoon of life in an impaired state of health,' 
 
 and his great work was still unfinished. He had 
 
 gone to Campvale, then about two miles south of 
 
 Glasgow, although now incorporated with it, and he 
 
 remained there till his death. There, with the 
 
 assistance of his sons, of Motherwell, the Glasgow 
 
 poet, and of Alexander Whitelaw, who edited the 
 
 * Literary Casket,' he urged on the work, often 
 
 directing the assistants from his sick bed.^ A 
 
 ^ Chambers op. cit. — In a newspaper notice of the death of Mr. 
 Alexander Whitelaw (Glasgow, 1846) it is stated that Whitelaw and 
 Motherwell offered their services in response to an advertisement by 
 Watt ; and that when Motherwell had to give this up, owing to 
 newspaper work in Paisley, Whitelaw continued the editing, with the 
 son, after Watt's death. 
 
 or THK 
 
 t U-NIVERSITY j 
 
30 LIFE AND WORKS OF DR. ROBERT WATT 
 
 voyage in a smack, from Leith to London, and a 
 tour in England in search of health, had resulted 
 in disappointment.^ An advertisement, dated 
 December 1, 1818,^ announced that the first 
 portion of his work would be issued in February 
 1819 ; but the usual delays occurred ; and, as the 
 preface states, the author ' died when only a few of 
 its sheets were printed off.' 
 
 The ^Glasgow Herald' of March 22, 1819, 
 simply announces amongst the deaths, ' On the 
 12th inst., at Campvale, near Glasgow, Dr. Eobert 
 Watt, in his 45th year.' 
 
 The cause of his death is put down by Chambers 
 to ^ a stomachic disorder ' which had begun in 
 youth ; according to the ' Eeminiscences ' of Peter 
 Mackenzie, he * died of consumption.' It is quite 
 possible that both statements are correct, the one 
 condition leading up to the other. 
 
 The work had been prepared on the basis of a 
 list of subscribers. This list was issued with the 
 second part of the * Bibliotheca ' ; and in some 
 copies of the bound volume it has been preserved, 
 although omitted in others. It contains over 400 
 names ; amongst these we find many merchants 
 and lawyers in Glasgow, with several members of 
 
 ^ Chambers op. cit. 
 
 ^ There is a copy of this preserved in the Mitchell Library in 
 Glasgow in Maidment's scrap-books. It is this which is mentioned in 
 The Edinhurgh Medical and Surgical Journal, January 1819, p. 157. 
 
LIFE AND WORKS OF DR. ROBERT WATT 31 
 
 the University, and not a few of his own profes- 
 sion ; some libraries in the city are also in the list. 
 
 In the * Bibliotheca ' itself, under Watt's name, 
 it is stated that Parts I. to IV., 1819-20, were 
 issued in Glasgow ; Part Y. and onward in Edin- 
 burgh, 1821-24. 
 
 For the Mitchell Library in Glasgow, Mr. 
 Barrett, the librarian, secured by a lucky accident 
 the first two parts in their original boards num- 
 bered Part I., No. I., and Yol. I., Part II., 
 respectively; the title on the boards is different 
 from the title page of the completed work; it 
 agrees with the title in Dr. Watt's MS. As 
 already stated, there is a kind of preface on the 
 paper back of the cover, with an account of the 
 plan of the work a-nd of Watt's reason for issuing 
 it in parts to subscribers. He explains that he 
 had hoped thus to secure some benefit to his 
 family from the work which had occupied so much 
 of his life. It bears, * Printed for the author at 
 the University Press, and published by Archibald 
 Constable & Co., Edinburgh ; Longman, Hurst, 
 Eees, Orme, & Brown, London ; and Andrew & 
 John M. Duncan, Glasgow, 1819.' It also con- 
 tained a specimen of the Subject-Index, which was 
 ta follow. 
 
 With the death of the author it was feared the 
 subscribers might take alarm and drop their sub- 
 
32 LIFE AND WORKS OF DR. ROBERT WATT 
 
 scriptions, thinking that his death might lead to 
 the failure of the work. In view of this, there was 
 issued with the First Part a printed circular to the 
 subscribers, dated April 14, 1819, assuring them of 
 the preparations being sufficient to carry the 
 work through. This circular is bound up with 
 some of the copies of the ' Bibliotheca,' but, like 
 the list of subscribers, it is absent in others. For 
 this reason, it may be worth while reproducing 
 it. The reporters were Dr. Chalmers and Dr. 
 Wardlaw, the well-known divines ; Prof. Jardine 
 of the Chair of Logic in the University, and James 
 Ewing, Esq. 
 
 *T0 THE SUBSCKIBEES 
 
 ' Glasgow : April 14, 1819. 
 
 * In consequence of the lamented death of the 
 late Dr. Eobert Watt of this city, we have been 
 requested by his family and his publisher to 
 examine the manuscripts of the " Bibliotheca 
 Britannica," left by him in the possession of his 
 son, and now in course of publication. In compli- 
 ance with this request, we have this day inspected 
 the numerous written volumes of this laborious 
 work, going through the contents of each letter 
 seriatim and comparing their relative proportions. 
 
 ^ It was not, of course, within our commission to 
 form any judgment of the execution and merits of 
 
LIFE AND WORKS OF DR. ROBERT WATT 33 
 
 the work itself, but we are happy to have it in our 
 power to assure the subscribers, that, as far as our 
 examination could enable us to Judge, it has been 
 left by the author throughout in a state of readi- 
 ness for publication. Nor can we forbear adding 
 our attestation to the striking evidence afforded by 
 it of indefatigable industry and unwearied per- 
 severance, in a department of labour too, which, 
 however useful in its results, must appear to most 
 minds to possess few allurements in the execution. 
 The author, we understand, devoted the greater 
 part of the last twenty years of his life to the 
 collection and arrangement of the necessary 
 materials ; and of these the whole has been 
 copied thrice, and some parts of them even six and 
 seven times. During the last four years his son 
 has been engaged, under the direction of his 
 father, in forwarding and completing the work ; 
 and from the experience he has thus had, as well 
 as in other respects, we have no doubt of his 
 qualifications for perfecting what yet remains to 
 be done, in adding the new publications which 
 may make their appearance during the progress of 
 the work through the press. 
 
 * It is with sincere satisfaction we thus state 
 our conviction, that this important work is not 
 likely to suffer from the decease of its author — and 
 it is, at the same time, our earnest desire and 
 
84 LIFE AND WORKS OF DR. ROBERT WATT 
 
 hope, that his bereaved family may reap, both in 
 credit and emolument, the fruits of the courage 
 which projected, and the industry which com- 
 pleted a publication which, we are satisfied, will, 
 on several accounts, form a very valuable acquisi- 
 tion to the Literary World. 
 
 ' George Jaedine, Professor of Logic in the University 
 of Glasgow. 
 
 ' Ralph Wardlaw, Minister of the Gospel. 
 
 'James Ewing, late Dean of Guild, in the City of 
 Glasgow. 
 
 * Thomas Chalmers, Minister of the Tron Chureh, 
 Glasgow.' 
 
 The financial arrangements made were that the 
 publishers should pay Mrs. Watt 2,000Z. for the 
 work ; but Constable's failure before any payments 
 were made wrecked the hopes of the family.^ One 
 disaster after another occurred. The house of Mrs. 
 Watt was broken into by burglars in December 
 1819, and it is said that even her rings were stripped 
 oS her fingers. Four men were executed in Glasgow 
 next year for the crime. The name of this lady 
 was Marion Burns, and Dr. Watt had married her 
 while he practised in Paisley. On his death, she 
 became entitled to a pension, from the Widows' 
 Fund of the Faculty, amounting to 45/. a year ; 
 this she continued to draw for thirty-seven and a 
 
 ^ Chambers ojp. cit. 
 
LIFE AND WORKS OF DR. ROBERT WATT 36 
 
 half years, till her own death on September 7, 1856. 
 There was a large family, but one son died soon 
 after his father, and the other son, who had assisted 
 in the editing, died a few years after the completion 
 of the work. Very soon, one after another, the 
 family died off, leaving only the youngest daughter ; 
 and then the widow herself died. With her death, 
 of course, the pension lapsed, and the youngest 
 daughter only was left ; she soon became insane, and 
 died in the poor-house, in 1864, just at the time 
 when the Government authorities were making up 
 their mind to give a pension of 50L a year instead 
 of the 1001. which had been asked for by some of 
 the leading authors in the country, who thought 
 her father's labours deserved recognition in this 
 way. 
 
 After her death, the parochial authorities sold 
 a few articles which were in her possession when 
 she was taken in charge. Amongst these were two 
 large sacks full of slips of paper, bundled up, ap- 
 parently without any order. This proved to be the 
 MS. of the * Bibliotheca.' It was purchased on 
 behalf of Paisley by the late Dr. Kichmond, of that 
 town, empowered to do so by Thomas Coats, Esq., 
 who is stated to be the donor of it to the Free 
 Library in Paisley; this is appropriate enough, 
 as it was in this town that Watt first began his 
 practice. The MS. has now been arranged in due 
 
 D 2 
 
36 LIFE AND WORKS OF DE. ROBERT WATT 
 
 alphabetical order, in a series of volumes, fifteen 
 for the Authors, and fifty-four for the Subjects. 
 
 An examination of this MS. shows that the 
 Subjects were indexed by using the sheets of the 
 * Bibliotheca ' itself from the list of Authors. By 
 the use of headings and copious deletions, the 
 entries for many of the Subjects were obtained. 
 This accounts for the relatively great number of 
 volumes in the Subject department, the volumes 
 of which are larger, as well as more numerous than 
 in the other section. The MS. title page differs 
 from the one finally printed. It agrees with that 
 printed on Part I. up to the name of the author ; it 
 is as follows : — 
 
 THE 
 BIBLIOTHECA BRITANNICA 
 
 OR 
 
 A GENERAL INDEX 
 
 TO THE 
 
 LITERATURE OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND 
 
 ANCIENT & MODERN 
 
 INCLUDING 
 
 SUCH FOREIGN WORKS 
 
 AS HAVE BEEN TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH OR PRINTED 
 
 IN THE BRITISH DOMINIONS 
 
 AS ALSO A COPIOUS SELECTION FROM THE WRITINGS OF THE MOST 
 DISTINGUISHED AUTHORS OF ALL AGES AND NATIONS 
 
 IN TWO DIVISIONS 
 
 VOL. I PART I FROM AA TO BALL INCL. 
 
 BY ROBERT WATT, M.D. 
 
 At the present day it is waste of time to discuss 
 the value of Watt's work. That there are errors 
 
LIFE AND WORKS OF DR. ROBERT WATT 37 
 
 and omissions may be taken for granted. Any one 
 who has tried to make a catalogue of 100 books 
 knows how difficult it is to secure accuracy, even 
 with the volumes at hand. It is admitted, however, 
 that Watt's plan is admirable ; the method adopted 
 of having a separate list for Authors and Subjects 
 has enormous advantages ; on the back of Part I., 
 Watt discusses the advantages and disadvantages 
 of single or double alphabetical lists, and gives sound 
 reasons for preferring the latter plan in his work. 
 The conception of the *Bibliotheca' is also admitted 
 to have been bold even to the verge of audacity ; 
 indeed the question is whether such a labour should 
 have been undertaken by any individual without a 
 set of fellow- workers being secured. The work was 
 published, but the author's life was lost ; and pro- 
 bably his two sons were also sacrificed. The best 
 estimate of Watt's work may be had in the way we 
 followed in the case of his Mortality Statistics; 
 let them both be judged by experts, and by the 
 standard of to-day. The enormous additions to our 
 literature since 1820, and the publication of the 
 magnificent catalogue of printed books an the 
 British Museum lessen, to some extent, the practi- 
 cal value of Watt's work at the present day, but in 
 every library, with any pretensions to bibliographi- 
 cal apparatus, his * Bibliotheca ' is at hand and in 
 regular use, a remarkable testimony of approval, 
 
88 LIFE AND WORKS OF DR. ROBERT WATT 
 
 nearly eighty years after his death, which must 
 silence all cavilling. That he died when only a 
 few sheets were printed off may surely be 
 admitted in extenuation of any defects in the 
 execution. 
 
 Some curiosity has been felt as to how Watt 
 could obtain the materials for making his list of 
 Authors, living as he did in Glasgow, before com- 
 munication with London or even Edinburgh was 
 easy or rapid. 
 
 In Lowndes' ^ Bibliographer's Manual' (1871) it 
 is stated that he obtained his materials *from 
 Ames' Typ. Antiq. by Herbert and Dibdin, the 
 Monthly, Edinburgh, and Quarterly Eeviews, the 
 Catalogues of the British Museum, Bodleian and 
 Advocates' Libraries, Clarke's Bibliographical Dic- 
 tionary and Supplement, &c.' This statement, 
 however, seems a most inadequate explanation. 
 Watt, no doubt, in his preface states that * all the 
 early British printers noticed by Ames, Herbert 
 and Dibdin have been inserted : ' but the British 
 Museum Catalogue then was very different from 
 what it is now : the Bodleian Catalogue was even 
 less serviceable for such a purpose. No doubt in 
 the Glasgow University Library itself and in the 
 rarities of the Hunterian collection there, he had 
 important means for bibliographical study, as the 
 Hunterian Museum was opened in 1808. May 
 
LIFE AND WOKKS OF DK. EGBERT WATT 39 
 
 not his tour in England, before he settled in Glas- 
 gow, have been one chance he took for extending 
 his bibHographical lists, as he tells us that he had 
 been keeping the work in view for more than 
 twenty years ? Possibly, also, he made visits to 
 London of which we have no knowledge. His 
 membership of the Medical and Chirurgical Society 
 in London would seem to suggest such visits, and 
 his acquaintanceship with Sir Gilbert Blane, to 
 whom he dedicated his ^ Treatise on Chincough,* 
 would also suggest a London connection. The 
 difficulties, however, at that time, of his visiting 
 London and the University towns were so great, 
 and the difficulty of finding time in the case of one 
 engaged in the practice and teaching of medicine 
 must also have been such, that astonishment is 
 felt at his even contemplating such a task, and still 
 more at his carrying it through. 
 
 Amongst Miss Watt's effects, disposed of after 
 her death, were the two portraits of her father 
 which are now in the possession of the Faculty of 
 Physicians and Surgeons, Glasgow, and preserved 
 in their Hall. One represents him as a young 
 man ; this is the one which is supposed to have 
 been painted by Mr. James Muir, his partner in 
 practice in Paisley, who, as already stated, had 
 artistic accomplishments. The other represents 
 him when he must have been in his maturity ; it 
 
40 LIFE AND WORKS OF DR. ROBERT WATT 
 
 has been supposed by good judges to be by Sir 
 Henry Eaeburn, the celebrated Scottish portrait 
 painter. This has been reproduced as a photo- 
 gravure for the present memoir. A third portrait, 
 apparently intermediate in point of age, was in the 
 possession of the late Alexander Whitelaw, Esq. : it 
 was lent by his widow, Mrs. Whitelaw, Eowmore, 
 Eow, for the 'Old Glasgow' Exhibition held in 
 1894, and it is entered in the * Memorial Catalogue 
 of the Old Glasgow Exhibition, 1894,' Glasgow, 
 1896, under the number 138. The painter is 
 unknown. This Mr. Whitelaw was a nephew of 
 Alexander Whitelaw of the ' Literary Casket.' A 
 pair of miniatures, representing Dr. and Mrs. Watt, 
 are also preserved at Eowmore. In this miniature 
 Dr. Watt is evidently younger than in the portrait 
 given in the present memoir. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 Dates in Dr. Eobeet Watt's Life 
 
 May 1, 1774. Born near Stewarton, in Ayrshire. 
 1793-1795. A matriculated student in the Arts classes, 
 
 Glasgow University. 
 1795-1796. Attended Moral Philosophy and Natural 
 Philosophy classes, in Edinburgh Univer- 
 sity. 
 Summer 1796. Taught in a private school in Kilmaurs. 
 1796-1797. Attended classes in Divinity and Anatomy 
 
 in Edinburgh University. 
 1797-1798. Parochial Schoolmaster in Symington, Ayr- 
 shire. 
 1798-1799. Medical Studies in Glasgow. (His name 
 occurs in the roll of the Anatomy class.) 
 April 6, 1799. Licentiate pf the Faculty of Physicians and 
 Surgeons, Glasgow. 
 1799-1810. In general practice in Paisley. 
 January 5, 1807. Member of the Faculty of Physicians and 
 
 Surgeons, Glasgow. 
 March 20, 1810. M.D. King's College, Aberdeen. 
 
 1810-1817. In practice in Glasgow as a Physician. 
 October 1, 1810. Admitted a member of the Glasgow Philo- 
 sophical Society. 
 About 1811. Member of the Medical and Chirurgical 
 Society of London. (Not an original 
 member, but in the list contained in vol ii. 
 of the Transactions.) 
 
42 LIFE AND WORKS OF DR. ROBERT WATT 
 
 1811-1816. Lecturer on the Theory and Practice of 
 
 Medicine in Glasgow. 
 1814-1815. First President of Glasgow Medical Society. 
 1814-1816. President of the Faculty of Physicians and 
 
 Surgeons, Glasgow. 
 1814-15-16. Physician to the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. 
 1816-1817. President of the Glasgow Philosophical 
 
 Society. 
 1817-1819. Retired from practice to finish * Bibliotheca.' 
 March 12, 1819. Died at Campvale, near Glasgow. 
 
 II 
 
 Dr. Egbert Watt's Published Works and Papers 
 
 Boohs 
 
 1. ' Cases of Diabetes, Consumption, &c. with Observations 
 on the History and Treatment of Disease in general.' By 
 Robert Watt, Member of the Faculty of Physicians and Sur- 
 geons, Glasgow. Paisley : Printed for Archibald Constable & 
 Co., Edinburgh, &c., 1808, 8vo. pp. 327. 
 
 2. * Catalogue of Medical Books for the Use of Students 
 attending Lectures on the Principles and Practice of Medicine ; 
 with an Address to Medical Students on the best method of 
 prosecuting their Studies.' Glasgow, 1812, 8vo. 
 
 3. * Treatise on the History, Nature, and Treatment of 
 Chincough : including a variety of Cases and Dissections. To 
 which is subjoined An Inquiry into the relative mortahty of the 
 principal Diseases of Children, and the numbers who have died 
 under ten years of age in Glasgow, during the last thirty years.' 
 By Robert Watt, M.D., Member of the Faculty of Physicians 
 and Surgeons of Glasgow, Member of the London Medical and 
 Chirurgical Society, &c., and Lecturer on the Theory and on 
 the Practice of Medicine in Glasgow. 
 
 * — quaeque ipse miserrima vidi 
 Et quorum pars magna fui.' — Virg. 
 
 Glasgow : Printed for John Smith & Son, &c., 1813, 8vo. pp. 
 392. 
 
LIFE AND WORKS OF DR. ROBERT WATT 43 
 
 4. * Rules of Life ; with Reflections on the Manners and 
 Dispositions of Mankind.' Edinburgh : Printed by James 
 Ballantyne & Co. For Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, 
 1814, small 8vo. pp. 278. (Published anonymously, but adver- 
 tised as by the same author, on the cover of the first part of the 
 ' Bibliotheca Britannica.') 
 
 5. * Bibliotheca Britannica ; or a General Index to British 
 and Foreign Literature. By Robert Watt, M.D. In Two Parts. 
 Authors and Subjects.' 4 volumes 4to. Edinburgh : Constable 
 & Co. 1824. (Parts 1 to 4, Glasgow, 1819-20 ; Parts 5 to 9, 
 Edinburgh, 1821-24.) 
 
 Contributions to Periodical Literature 
 
 1. ' Description of a new Instrument for operating for the 
 Stone (with plate). Communicated by Mr. Robert Watt, 
 Surgeon, in Paisley.' 'The Medical and Physical Journal,' 
 London, March 1800, vol. iii. pp. 195-198. 
 
 2. * Description of a new Machine for curing distorted Limbs 
 (with an engraving). Communicated by Mr. Robert Watt, 
 Surgeon, in Paisley.' * The Medical and Physical Journal,' 
 London, August 1800, vol. iv. pp. 93-97. 
 
 3. * Letter to the Editors ' [On Vaccine Inoculation and 
 Small- pox, showing that a previous attack of small-pox does 
 not prevent vaccine inoculation from taking effect ; and on the 
 two diseases existing at the same time, and yet continuing per- 
 fectly distinct.] * The Medical and Physical Journal,' London, 
 May 1801, vol. v. pp. 430-432. 
 
 4. ' Observations on the Treatment of Diabetes. By Mr. 
 Robert Watt, Surgeon, Paisley.' * The Edinburgh Medical and 
 Surgical Journal,' July 1809, vol. v. pp. 287-298. 
 
 5. * On the Treatment of Diarrhoea and Dysentery.* * The 
 Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal,' April 1811, vol. vii. 
 pp. 241-243. (In letters dated from Glasgow, February 6 and 
 9, 1811.) 
 
 6. ' Cases of Periodical Jactitation or Chorea. By Robert 
 Watt, M.D., President of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons 
 at Glasgow, Physician to the Royal Infirmary, and Lecturer on 
 the Theory and Practice of Physic at Glasgow.' (Read February 
 1, 1814.) ' Medico-Chirurgical Transactions Published by the 
 
44 LIFE AND WORKS OF DR. ROBERT WATT 
 
 Medical and Chirurgical Society of London,' vol. v. London, 
 1814, pp. 1-23. 
 
 7. * Observations on the Influence of Vaccination on other 
 Diseases and on Population in general. By Robert Watt, M.D., 
 Lecturer on the Theory and on the Practice of Medicine, Glas- 
 gow.' * The Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal,' April 1, 
 1814, vol. X. pp. 168-178. 
 
 8. * On the Formation of the Rainbow.' By Robert Watt, 
 M.D. (Letter to the Editor, Professor Thomas Thomson, 
 November 4, 1818.) * Annals of Philosophy,' London, February 
 1819, pp. 131-133. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Dr. Robert Watt's Manuscripts 
 
 * Observations on the Nature and Treatment of Erysipelas.' 
 ' Essays of Glasgow Medical Society,' vol. i. No. 1. Read 
 January 17, 1815. MS. Volume in the Library of the Faculty 
 of Physicians and Surgeons, Glasgow. 
 
 ' Observations on Cancer.' Ibid. vol. ii. No. 1, Read January 
 16, 1816. 
 
 MS. of Treatise on Chincough, with Tables of Mortality. 
 (See full Title under published works.) This MS. volume was 
 presented to the Glasgow Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons 
 by Dr. A. D. Anderson, and is now in their Hbrary. 
 
 MS. of ' Bibliotheca Britannica.' This has been carefully 
 arranged and bound in sixty-nine volumes (fifteen of Authors 
 and fifty-four of Subjects) and preserved in the Paisley Free 
 Library — Reference Department. 
 
 In addition to the above, the following title of a MS. is given 
 by Chambers, written in 1805, while in Paisley, but nothing is 
 known as to where it is now, * An Abstract of Philosophical 
 Conjectures ; or an Attempt to Explain the Principal Phenomena 
 of Light, Heat, and Cold, by a few simple and obvious Laws.' 
 4to. 
 
J.-* J- V Xjjnox. 
 
 LIFE AND WORKS OF DE. ROBERT WATT 45 
 
 IV 
 
 Sources of Information for this Memoir 
 
 Chambers (Robert), * Lives of Illustrious and Distinguished 
 Scotsmen from the earliest period to the present time, arranged 
 in alphabetical order, and forming a complete Scottish Bio- 
 graphical Dictionary.' 4 vols. Glasgow, 1835. (This edition is 
 of special importance.) 
 
 Macfarlane (Duncan), ' Parish of Stewarton.' ' The New 
 Statistical Account of Scotland.' Vol. v. Edinburgh, 1845, pp. 
 730-731. 
 
 Duncan (Alexander), ' Memorials of the Faculty of Physicians 
 and Surgeons of Glasgow 1599-1850.' Glasgow, 1896. (Consult 
 Index, under Robert Watt and James Muir.) 
 
 Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons, Glasgow. Minutes 
 and Lists of Licentiates and Members : Records of Widows' 
 Fund : Library Catalogue, for Watt's MSS., and the original 
 volumes in the Library. Portraits in the Faculty Hall. Mr. 
 Duncan, the Secretary, gave personal recollections as to the sale 
 of Miss Watt's effects. 
 
 AUibone (S. A.) * A Critical Dictionary of English Literature 
 and British and American Authors.' 3 vols. London, 1871. 
 (See entry under Watt's name.) 
 
 Mackenzie (Peter), * Old Reminiscences of Glasgow and the 
 West of Scotland.' 3 vols. London, 1865-68. (See vol. iii. 
 the two last papers, pp. 633-640.) 
 
 Mason (Thomas), * A Bibliographical Martyr. — Dr. Robert 
 Watt, Author of the Bibliotheca Britannica.' (Reprint of paper 
 pubhshed in ' The Library,' vol. i. 1889, pp. 56-63.) 
 
 Addison (W. Innes), Assistant Clerk to the Senate, Univer- 
 sity of Glasgow, supplied Watt's matriculation entry, and 
 searched the List of Graduates of Glasgow University. 
 
 Dowie (James), Assistant Clerk, Edinburgh University, 
 searched the Lists, and supplied the entry of Watt's name in 
 the University there. 
 
 Anderson (P. J.), * Officers and Graduates of the University 
 and King's College, Aberdeen, MVD-MDCCCLX.' Printed for 
 the New Spalding Club. Aberdeen, 1893. 
 
46 LIFE AND WOEKS OF DR. ROBERT WATT 
 
 ' Index to the Proceedings of the Philosophical Society of 
 Glasgow. Vols. i. to xx. 1841-89,' Glasgow, 1892. (This con- 
 tains a List of the Presidents.) 
 
 Keddie (William), ' Early History and Proceedings of the 
 Society.' * Proceedings of the Philosophical Society of Glas- 
 gow.' Vol. iv. pp. 101, 117, Glasgow, 1860. (The MS. minutes 
 have also been examined, and extracts supplied to the writer.) 
 
 * Memorial Catalogue of the Old Glasgow Exhibition, 1894.' 
 Glasgow, 1896. 
 
 Watt's * Bibliotheca Britannica.' Statements on back of 
 Parts 1 and 2 in the Glasgow Mitchell Library. Notice to sub- 
 scribers. Preface to completed work. Entry under Watt's 
 name. 
 
 Watt's published Books and Papers : also his MSS. (See 
 List in this memoir, with dates and titles in the originals.) 
 
 Catalogue of Paisley Free Library, Reference Department, 
 and Watt's MS. preserved there. 
 
 Class ticket for Watt's Lectures on ' The Practice of Medi- 
 cine,' in the possession of the writer, whose grandfather 
 attended the Class in the Summer of 1813. This has Watt's 
 signature which is reproduced on the portrait. 
 
 Newspaper cutting (June 1846), with a notice of Mr. 
 Alexander Whitelaw's death ; and various letters relating to 
 Mr. Alexander Whitelaw and Miss Watt, in the possession of 
 Mrs. Whitelaw, Rowmore, Row. 
 
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