gineer, F. R. S." This publication may be considered as containing an accurate history of four years of his life, in which the originality of his genius, with his great alacrity, industry, and perseverance, are fully displayed. It contains also an account of the former edifices constructed in that place, and is made, by the ingenuity of the writer, an entertaining, as well as an instructive work.

Indeed his building the Eddystone lighthouse, were there no other monument of his fame, would establish his character. The Eddystone rocks have obtained their name from the great variety of contrary sets of the tide or current in their vicinity. They are situated nearly S. S. W. from the middle of Plymouth Sound. Their distance from the port of Plymouth is about 14 miles. They are almost in the line which joins the Start and the Lizard points; and as they lie nearly in the direction of vessels coasting up and down the channel, they were unavoidably, before the establishment of a lighthouse there, very dangerous, and often fatal to ships. Their situation with regard to the Bay of Biscay and the Atlantic is such, that they lie open to the swells of the bay and ocean, from all the southwestern points of the compass; so that all the heavy seas from the south-west quarter come uncontrouled upon the Eddystone rocks, and break upon them with the utmost fury. Sometimes, when the sea is to all appearance smooth and even, and its surface unruffled by the slightest breeze, the ground swell meeting the slope of the rocks, the sea beats upon them in a frightful manner, so as not only to obstruct any work being done on the rock, or even landing upon it, when, figuratively speaking, you might go to sea in a walnut-shell. That circumstances fraught with danger surrounding it should lead mariners to wish for a lighthouse, is not wonderful; but the danger attending the erection leads us to wonder that any one could be found hardy enough to undertake it. Such a man was first found in the person of Mr. H. Winstanley, who, in 1696, was furnished by the Trinity-house with the necessary powers. In 1700 it was finished; but in the great storm of November 1703, it was destroyed, and the projector perished in the ruins. In 1709 another, upon a different construction, was erected by a Mr. Rudyerd, which, in 1755, was unfortunately consumed by fire. The next building was under the direction of Mr. Smeaton, who, having considered the errors of the former constructions,

has judiciously guarded against them, and erected a building, the demolition of which seems little to be dreaded, unless the rock on which it is erected should perish with it.

But although Mr. Smeaton completed the building of the Eddystone lighthouse in a manner that did him so much credit, it does not appear that he soon got into full business as a civil engineer; for in 1764, while he was in Yorkshire, he offered himself a candidate for the place of one of the receivers of the Derwentwater estate. This place was conferred upon him at a full board in Greenwich hospital, the last day of the same year, notwithstanding a powerful opposition. He was very serviceable in it, by improving the mills, and the estates belonging to the hospital; but in 1775 his private business was so much increased that he wished to resign, though he was prevailed upon to hold it two years longer. He was now concerned in many important public works. He made the river Calder navigable; a work that required great skill and judgment, on account of the very impetuous floods to which that river is liable. He planned and superintended the execution of the great canal in Scotland, which joins the two seas; and was supposed to prevent the falling of Londonbridge, when that event was apprehended, on the opening of the great arch. In 1771 he became joint proprietor, with his friend Mr. Holmes, of the works for supplying Greenwich and Deptford with water, an undertaking which they succeeded in making useful to the public and beneficial to the proprietors, which it had never been before. Mr. Smeaton, in the course of his employments, constructed a vast variety of mills, to the entire satisfaction and great advantage of the owners; and he improved whatever he took under his consideration, of the mechanical or philosophical kind. Among many instances of this, we may mention his improvements in the air-pump, the pyrometer, the hygrometer, and the steam engine. He was constantly consulted in parliament, and frequently in the courts of law on difficult questions of science; and his strength of judgment, perspicuity of expression, and strict integrity, always appeared on those occasions to the highest advantage. About 1785, finding his health begin to decline, Mr. Smeaton wished as much as possible to withdraw himself from business, and to employ his leisure in drawing up and publishing an account of his principal inventions and works. His narrative of the Eddystone light

house, already mentioned, was a part of this design, and the only part which he was able to complete. Notwithstanding his wish to retire from business, he could not resist the solicitation of his friend Mr. Aubert, then chairman of the trustees for Ramsgate harbour, to accept the place of engineer to that harbour; and the improvements actually made, as well as his report published by the trustees in 1791, evince the attention which he paid to that important business.

On the 16th of September 1792, Mr. Smeaton was suddenly struck with paralysis, as he was walking in his garden at Austhorpe, and remaining in a very infirm state, though in full possession of his faculties, died on the 28th of the ensuing month. The character of this celebrated engineer may properly be given in the words of his friend Mr. Holmes. Mr. Smeaton had a warmth of expression, that might appear to those who did not know him to border on harshness, but those more intimately acquainted with him, knew it arose from the intense application of his mind, which was always in the pursuit of truth, or engaged in investigating difficult subjects. He would sometimes break out hastily, when any thing was said that did not tally with his ideas; and he would not give up any thing he argued for, till his mind was convinced by sound reasoning. In all the social duties of life, he was exemplary; he was a most affectionate husband, a good father, a warm, zealous, and sincere friend, always ready to assist those he respected, and often before it was pointed out to him in what way he could serve them. He was a lover and encourager of merit, wherever he found it; and many men are in a great measure indebted for their present situation to his assistance and advice. As a companion he was always entertaining and instructive; and none could spend their time in his company without improvement. "As a man," adds Mr. H. "I always admired and respected him, and his memory will ever be most dear to me." A second edition of his narrative of the Eddystone, was published in 1793, under the revisal of his friend Mr. Aubert: but without any addition. The papers of Mr. Smeaton were purchased of his executors by sir Joseph Banks, under the voluntary promise of accounting to them, for the profits of whatever should be published. Accordingly under the inspection of a society of civil engineers, founded originally by Mr. Smeaton, three 4to volumes of his reports have been published 1797, &c. with a life prefixed.

1

During many years of his life, Mr. Smeaton was a constant attendant on parliament, his opinion being continually called for. And here his natural strength of judgment and perspicuity of expression had their full display. It was his constant practice, when applied to, to plan or support any measure, to make himself fully acquainted with it, and be convinced of its merits, before he would be concerned in it. By this caution, joined to the clearness of his description, and the integrity of his heart, he seldom failed having the bill he supported carried into an act of parliament. No person was heard with more attention, nor had any one ever more confidence placed in his testimony. In the courts of law he had several compliments paid to him from the bench, by the late lord Mansfield and others, on account of the new light he threw upon difficult subjects.1

SMELLIE (WILLIAM), M. D. an eminent accoucheur, was a native of Scotland, and after some practice in his country, settled in the early part of the last century in London. He was principally celebrated as a teacher, having instructed, as he informs us in his practice, nearly a thousand pupils, who assisted, whilst attending his lectures, eleven hundred and fifty poor women. The women were supported, by a subscription among the pupils, during their lying-in. Dr. Smellie was the first writer who considered the shape and size of the female pelvis, as adapted to the head of the foetus, and who ascertained the position of the latter during the period of gestation; and his opinion has been confirmed by later writers, particularly by Dr. Hunter, who had several opportunities of dissecting women who died undelivered, at different periods of their pregnancy. He also introduced many improvements in delivery and in the use of instruments, and abolished many superstitious notions, and erroneous customs, that prevailed in the management of women in labour, and of the children; and he had the satisfaction to see the greater part of his maxims adopted, not only in this island, but by the most respectable practitioners in the greater part of Europe.

In 1752 he published his lectures; having spent, as he says, six years in digesting and improving them, under the title of a "Treatise of Midwifery," in one volume, 8vo.

1 Life prefixed to his Reports.-Hutton's Dict.

This was followed in 1754, by a volume of cases, intended to illustrate the method of practice recommended in the treatise. These were very soon translated into French by Mons. Preville, who assigns as a motive for the undertaking, the high character the author enjoyed on the continent. Smellie mentions, in the preface to his volume of cases, his intention of publishing a second volume, to contain a collection of cases in preternatural labours, which would complete his plan. This volume did not appear until about five years after his death, namely, in 1768. "Some years ago," the editor says, "the author retired from business in London, to his native country, where he employed his leisure hours in methodizing and revising his papers, and in finishing his collection of cases for this publication. The manuscript was transmitted to the person who prepared the two former volumes for the press, and even delivered to the printer, when the doctor died advanced in years, in 1763, at his own house near Lanerk in North Britain. This, with the two former volumes," the editor continues to say, 66 we may venture to call a complete system of midwifery. It is the fruit of forty years experience, enriched with an incredible variety of practice, and contains directions and rules of conduct to be observed in every case that can possibly occur in the exercise of the obstetric art; rules that have not been deduced from the theory of a heated imagination, but founded on solid observation, confirmed by mature reflection, and reiterated experience." This opinion of the merit of the author, and his work, has been confirmed by the general suffrage of the public.

In 1754, this author published a set of "Anatomical tables," with explanations, and an abridgment of his practice of midwifery, with a view to illustrate still farther his treatise on that subject. The plates are thirty-six in number, large folio. The figures are of the size of nature, and principally taken from subjects prepared for the purpose. Twenty-five of them were drawn and engraved by M. Rymsdyke. In forming the remaining eleven, the author acknowledges he received considerable assistance from the late professor Camper.

This author had the fate of almost all ingenious men, to excite the indignation of some of his contemporaries. The most formidable of these was Dr. William Burton, practitioner of midwifery at York, who attacked him with great