FOOTNOTES:
[17] In 1699 Newton was made master of the Mint and appointed Whiston his Deputy in the Lucasian Professorship, an office he finally resigned in 1703 (Brewster's Life of Newton, 1831, p. 249).
[18] "There, if anywhere, his dear shade must linger," Trevelyan, Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay, 1 volume edit. 1881, p. 55.
[19] Black's discovery of CO2, however, was published in 1754, seven years before Hales died, but Priestley's, Cavendish's and Lavoisier's work on O and H was later.
[20] 1837, III. p. 389.
[21] Vegetable Staticks, p. 346.
[22] Sachs, Geschichte, p. 502. Malpighi held similar views.
[23] Ibid., p. 499.
[24] Quoted by Caröe, in his paper read before the Cambridge Archaeological Society on King's Hostel etc., and "Printed for the Master and Fellows of Trinity Coll." in 1909.
[25] He also held the living of Farringdon in Hampshire where he occasionally resided.
[26] Dict. Nat. Biog.
[27] With a certain idleness Pope reduces him to plain Parson Hale, for the sake of a rhyme in the Epistle of Martha Blount, 1. 198.
[28] The original reads "deigned not," an obvious slip.
[29] This he does by means of a network of threads ¼ inch apart. Pfeffer, Pflanzenphysiologie, ed. 1, 1. p. 142, recommends the method and gives Hales as his authority.
[30] Pflanzenphysiologie, 1865 (Fr. Trans. 1868), p. 254.
[31] He gives it as 15·8 square inches, the only instance I have come across of his use of decimals.
[32] Arbeiten, ii. p. 182.
[33] See Sachs' Pflanzenphys. 1865 (Fr. Trans. 1868), p. 257, where the above correction is applied to Hales' work.
[34] Vegetable Staticks, p. 5.
[35] Vegetable Staticks, p. 14.
[36] Vegetable Staticks, p. 41.
[37] Janse in Pringsheinis Jahrb. xviii. p. 38. The later literature is given by Dixon in Progressus Rei Bot. iii., 1909, p. 58.
[38] Compare F. von Höhnel, Bot. Zeitung, 1879, p. 318.
[39] This is also shown by experiment xc, Vegetable Staticks, p. 123.
[40] The method by which Hales proposed to record the depth of the sea is a variant of this apparatus.
[41] Vegetable Staticks, p. 92.
[42] According to Sachs (Geschichte, p. 509) Ray employed this method.
[43] Other facts show that the "gapped" branches did not behave quite normally.
[44] He refers (p. 141) to what is in principle the same experiment (see Fig. 27) as due to Mr Brotherton, and published in the Abridgment of the Phil. Trans. ii. p. 708.
[45] He notices that the swelling of the bark is connected with the presence of buds. The only ring of bark which had no bud showed no swelling.
[46] It appears that Mayow made similar experiments. Dict. Nat. Biog. s.v. Mayow.
[47] History of Chemistry, 1909, i. p. 69.
[48] Hales made use of a rough pneumatic trough, the invention of which is usually ascribed to Priestley (Thorpe's History of Chemistry, i. p. 79).
[49] He speaks here merely of the apples used in a certain experiment, but it is clear that he applies the conclusion to other plants.
[50] Vegetable Staticks, p. 313. It should be noted that Hales speaks of organic as well as inorganic substances.
[51] Proc. R. Soc. lxxii., p. 30, 1903.
[52] The above account of Hales' connexion with the Royal Gardens at Kew is from the Kew Bulletin, 1891, p. 289.
[53] I am indebted to Sir E. Thorpe for a definition of statical. "Statical (Med.) noting the physical phenomena presented by organised bodies in contradiction to the organic or vital." (Worcester's Dictionary, 1889.)
[54] Arbeiten, I.
[55] Borelli, De Motu Animalium, Pt ii. Ch. xiii. According to Sachs, Ges. d. Botanik, p. 582, Mariotte (1679) had suggested the same idea.
[56] Nägeli, Stärkekorner, p. 279
[57] See his Philosophical Experiments, 1739.
[58] Geschichte d. Botanik, p. 515 (free translation).
[JOHN HILL]
1716-1775
By T. G. HILL
Narrative—chequered career—journalism—attack on the Royal Society—literary activities—Botanical works—structure of Timber—the sleep of Plants—Mimosa and Abrus—views on Pollen—Hill's Herbal—his admiration of Linnaeus—with qualifications—Hill's Vegetable System—an ambitious work—financial losses—estimate of Hill's character.
It has recently been remarked that the number of the biographies of eminent men is inversely proportional to the known facts concerning them. Although this generalisation is probably incorrect, it is, to a certain extent, true of John Hill; for, although he finds a place in biographical dictionaries, apparently no extended account of his life has appeared. This is a little surprising since, apart from his scientific work, he occupied a prominent position in the middle of the eighteenth century.
Plate X
JOHN HILL
John Hill was the second son of the Rev. Theophilous Hill, and was born either at Spalding or at Peterborough in the year 1716 or 1717. Nothing appears to be known regarding his early education; according to Hawkins[59] he did not receive an academical education, but there is no doubt that, as was usual for those who desired to practise medicine at that and at much later times, he served his apprenticeship to an apothecary, it is said, at Westminster; also he attended the lectures on Botany given under the auspices of the Apothecaries' Company at the Chelsea Physic Garden. He first practised in St Martin's Lane in a shop which, according to Woodward[60], was little more than a shed; from there he moved to Westminster, and it appears that at the age of twenty-one he had a practice in Covent Garden. He early experienced financial difficulties; indeed, it is stated that, at times, he was unable to provide himself with the bare necessities of life. His marriage with a dowerless maiden, Miss Travers, did not improve his prospects, and he sought to add to his income by the utilization of his botanical knowledge. He travelled over the country collecting plants, which he dried, put up into sets with descriptions and sold by subscription; also he arranged the collections and gardens of the Duke of Richmond and Lord Petrie. Hill soon found that Botany, from the monetary point of view, was unprofitable; he therefore decided to try his fortune on the stage, and appeared at the Haymarket and Covent Garden.
Woodward[61] gives a very amusing account of him in his new profession. After giving examples to shew Hill's limitations, he remarks: "There was a time at the celebrated Theatre of May Fair he [Marr] represented Altamont, and the Great Inspector [Hill] attempted Lothario; and the polite Audience of that Place all choruss'd and agreed with you, when you dying, said, 'O Altamont! thy Genius is the stronger.'... Can I forget, great Sir, your acting Constant, in the Provok'd Wife, and your innocent Rape of Mrs Woffington; when, in a certain Passage, where, at least, a seeming Manliness was necessary, you handled her so awkwardly, that she joined the Audience in laughing at you."
Woodward's account may be accepted as being substantially correct, for in many ways Hill shewed that he lacked the qualities requisite for a successful career on the stage in those days.
Having thus failed as an actor, Hill returned to the practice of medicine and seemingly with more success, for in 1746 he was serving as a regimental surgeon, a position doubtless not very remunerative but helping to keep the wolf from the door. This same year saw the publication of Theophrastus's treatise on gems. In its new guise the value of the work was much enhanced since Hill intercalated much information that was lacking in the original; further, the work was so well executed that it gained him the attention and good-will of eminent Fellows of the Royal Society.
The publication of this work was probably the turning point in Hill's career, and its success must have influenced him not a little in the determination of following a literary career. In 1846 he edited the British Magazine, a periodical which lived but four years. His activities in this direction were phenomenal, and it is hard to realize how he managed to find time for so much work, for in addition to his botanical publications, which will be considered hereafter, he wrote on such diverse subjects as the art of acting, the conduct of married life, theology, naval history, astronomy, entomology, human anatomy and other medical subjects. Also he wrote an opera, two farces, and certain novels. Much of this output represents mere hack work, but it shews that Hill had an enormous capacity for work, indeed on one occasion when he was sick, he confessed to a friend that he had overtaxed his strength in writing seven works at the same time.
The Dictionary of National Biography gives 76 titles of his publications, exclusive of eight which are generally attributed to him. Hill's output was probably even more extensive, for towards the latter part of his career he sometimes used to publish under a pseudonym. It is the more remarkable since he found time to enjoy the good things of the world, without which indulgence, according to his biographer[62], "he could not have undergone the fatigue and study inseparable from the execution of his vast designs." Again, according to Fitzgerald[63], he was "invariably in the front row at the theatres, exciting attention by his splendid dress and singular behaviour. When there was loud applause for the King, the doctor was seen to rise, and bow gravely to his Majesty."
The next few years were eventful ones for Hill. In 1751 he contributed a daily letter, called the Inspector, to the London Advertiser and Literary Gazette; although they came to an end in 1753, the Inspectors were highly remunerative, thus it is stated that in one year Hill profited to the extent of £1500 by their sale, a very large sum for journalistic work in those days. They thus brought him very prominently before the public, and incidentally proved a source of some trouble to him.
In connexion with the Inspector justice has not been altogether done to Hill: no doubt, as Isaac Disraeli[64] states, that in them he retailed all the great matters relating to himself and all the little matters relating to others, but they were not all concerned in retailing the tales of scandal heard in the Coffee Houses and other places of public resort; nor were they always rendered palatable by these means as is stated in Rose's Biographical Dictionary[65]. They, in addition to comments and criticisms on current affairs, treated of many subjects. For instance, one considers the proposal for uniting the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, another is a very sympathetic and laudatory review of Gray's Elegy, whilst a third treats of the art of embalming. Many are concerned with Natural History, and these are important as they shew Hill in another and very important character, namely that of a popular writer on Natural History, especially Botany. In one number he described the structure of a common flower, including an account of the movements of a bee in collecting pollen; and in another he described the appearance of microscopic organisms paying marked attention to their activities. These particular Inspectors are very pleasing and are well and clearly written; one especially is of outstanding importance, as it shews that Hill was in some respects far in advance of his times. He put forward a suggestion that Botany would be much improved by the delivery of public lectures in the museum with the living plants before the lecturer and the members of the audience. This scheme has yet to be carried out; as they are, museums are a means of education for the few, but a source of confusion to the many. For the latter their educative value would be enormously increased by the delivery of lectures illustrated by the exhibits, for the spoken word is more abiding than the printed label.
The methods of criticism pursued by Hill in the Inspector soon involved him in controversy with various people. It is a difficult matter to appraise him in these respects; possibly his success had turned his head for, according to Baker[66], he shewed "an unbounded store of vanity and self-sufficiency, which had for years lain dormant behind the mask of their direct opposite qualities of humility and diffidence; a pride which was perpetually laying claim to homage by no means his due, and a vindictiveness which never could forgive the refusal of it to him." Baker then goes on to remark that as a consequence of this, every affront however slight was revenged by Hill by a public attack on the morals etc. of the maker.
On the other hand his criticisms may have been honest, at any rate in part; and the fact that they landed him into difficulties does not necessarily indicate that he was a dishonest fellow; most people are impatient of adverse criticism, and in those days such impatience found a vent in a pamphlet war or in personal violence. Nowadays the aggrieved manager, for instance, can shut his theatre doors against the distasteful critic; or, in other cases, an action for libel appears to be not altogether unfashionable.