Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 5.djvu/116

176 mind might have checked, if not for ever destroyed, those seeds of genius which were as yet scarce called into life; but so strong was Mr Hutton's propensity for scientific study, that, instead of copying papers, and making himself acquainted with legal proceedings, he was oftener found amusing himself with his fellow apprentices in chemical experiments; so that Mr Chalmers was forced to acknowledge that the business of a writer was one in which he had little chance to succeed. With a fatherly kindness, he therefore advised young Button to embrace some other employment more suitable to his inclinations, and relieved him at once from the obligations he came under as his apprentice. How much is science indebted to that liberal-minded man ! Having now to fix upon another profession, he selected that of medicine, as being the most nearly allied to chemistry, and began to study under Dr George Young, and at the same time attended the lectures at the university from 1744 to 1747. The schools of medicine in Edinburgh at that time had not arrived at the high perfection for which they are now so justly celebrated, and it was thought indispensably necessary that a physician should finish his education on the continent. Mr Hutton accordingly proceeded to Paris, where he applied himself closely to anatomy arid chemistry. After remaining for two years in France, he returned home by the way of the Low Countries, and took the degree of doctor of medicine at Leyden in 1749.

On arriving in London, about the end of that year, he began seriously to reflect upon his prospects in life, and he soon saw, that however much he wished to establish himself in his native city as a physician, there were many obstacles which seemed insurmountable. He was a young man whose merit was unknown, and whose connexions, though respectable, had no power to assist him, the business being then in the hands of a few eminent practitioners who had been long known and established. All this seems to have made a deep impression on his mind, and he expressed himself with much anxiety on the subject in corresponding with his friends in Edinburgh. Amongst these there w:as one, a young man nearly of his own age, whose habits and pursuits were congenial with his own, and with whom he had tried many novel experiments in chemistry; amongst the best was one on the nature and properties of sal ammoniac. This friend, whose name was James Davie, had, in Mr Hutton's absence, pushed his inquiries on the subject to a considerable extent; the result of which afforded him a well-grounded hope of being able to establish a profitable manufactory of that salt from coal-soot. Mr Davie communicated the project to his friend in London, who, with a mind as yet undecided on any fixed pursuit, returned to Edinburgh in 1750, and abandoning entirely his views on the practice of medicine, resolved to apply himself to agriculture. What his motives were for taking this step it is difficult to ascertain. His father had left him a small property in Berwickshire, and being of an independent and unambitious mind, despising avarice and vanity alike, he most probably looked upon the business of a farmer as entitled to a preference above any other. But not being disposed to do any thing in a superficial way, he determined to gain a knowledge of rural economy in the best school of the day. For this purpose he went into Norfolk, and took up his residence in the house of a farmer, from whom he expected to receive sufficient instruction. He appears to have enjoyed his situation very much,—the natural simplicity of his disposition according well with the plain, blunt characters around him.

It has been remarked of Dr Hutton, that to men of an ordinary grade of mind, he appeared to be an ordinary man possessing little more spirit perhaps than is usually to be met with. This circumstance made his residence in Norfolk quite agreeable, as even there he could for a time forget his great acquire-