Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 35.djvu/118

Macintosh but entertaining 'Memoirs of John Abernethy,' 2 vols. 8vo, London, a second edition being called for during the same year. In this compilation he was assisted by Abernethy's family. The third edition (1 vol. 8vo, 1866) contains important additions.

Macilwain's chief medical writings are: 1. 'A Treatise on Stricture of the Urethra,' 8vo, London, 1824; 2nd edition, entitled 'Surgical Observations on. . . Diseases of the Mucous Canals of the Body,' 1830. 2. 'Clinical Observations on the Constitutional Origin of the various Forms of Porrigo,' 8vo, London, 1833. 3. 'Remarks on the Unity of the Body,' 8vo, London, 1836. 4. 'Medicine and Surgery one Inductive Science,' 8vo, London, 1838. 5. 'The General Nature and Treatment of Tumours,' 8vo, London, 1845. 6. 'Remarks on Vivisection,' 8vo, London, 1847. 7. 'A Clinical Memoir on Strangulated Hernia,' 8vo, London, 1858. 8. 'On the Inutility of Cruel Experiments on Living Animals in the Prosecution of Physiological Researches,' 8vo, London, 1860, a reply to the report of the Paris commission on vivisection. 9. 'Remarks on Ovariotomy,' 8vo, London, 1863. 10. 'Surgical Commentaries, first series,' 8vo, London, 1868 ; no more was published. 11. 'Vivisection : being Short Comments on. . . the Evidence given before the Royal Commission,' 8vo, London, 1877.

He also published in the American 'Transylvanian Journal' and the London 'Medical Times' an 'Analysis of Fever, in Lectures.'  MACINTOSH. [See also .]  MACINTOSH, CHARLES (1766–1843), chemist and inventor of waterproof fabrics, son of George Macintosh of Glasgow, merchant, and of Mary Moore, was born at Glasgow on 29 Dec. 1766. His maternal uncle was Dr. John Moore [q. v.], the father of General Sir John Moore [q. v.] He was educated at the grammar school at Glasgow, and afterwards at a school at Catterick Bridge, Yorkshire. As a youth he was placed in the counting-house of Mr. Glasford, a Glasgow merchant, but all his spare hours were devoted to science, especially to chemistry, and he attended the lectures of Dr. William Irvine [q. v.] at Glasgow, and later those of Dr. Joseph Black at Edinburgh. Tired of the life of a clerk, he embarked before he was twenty years of age in the manufacture of sal ammoniac. In 1786 he introduced from Holland the manufacture of sugar of lead, and about the same time he commenced making acetate of alumina. He also made important improvements in the manufacture of Prussian blue, and invented various processes for dyeing fabrics. In 1797 he started the first alum works in Scotland, the material employed being the aluminous schists of the exhausted coal mines at Hurlet, near Paisley. He subsequently became connected with Charles Tennant of St. Rollox chemical works, near Glasgow, and it seems that he was the actual inventor of the method of making chloride of lime, or bleaching powder, patented in Tennant's name in 1799, the manufacture of which was the source of great wealth to the proprietors of the St. Rollox works. Macintosh retired from the concern in 1814. He established in 1809 a yeast manufactory in the Borough, but it failed in consequence of the opposition of the London brewers.

In 1825 Macintosh obtained a patent (No, 5173) for converting malleable iron into steel, by exposing it at a white heat to the action of gases charged with carbon, such, for instance, as common coal gas. The conversion was completed in a few hours, while the process of 'cementation,' as it is called, requires several days, but the method did not answer commercially, on account of the practical difficulty of keeping the furnace gas-tight at the high temperature required. The specification of the patent was drawn up with the assistance of Dr. Wollaston, and the theory of the process was the subject of an exhaustive paper by Dr. Hugh Colquhoun (Annals of Philosophy, 1826, xii. 2), who carried out the early experiments in connection with the invention. The method was not altogether new when Macintosh took out his patent, for Professor Vismara had presented a paper on the subject to the Royal Institute of Milan in 1824, which was published in 'Giornale di Fisica,' 1825, viii. 190. Macintosh took great interest in the manufacture of iron, and he rendered much assistance to James Beaumont Neilson [q. v.] in 1828 in bringing his ' hot-blast 'process into use. Neilson assigned to him a share in the patent, and Macintosh thus became a party to the tedious and costly litigation which ensued, and which was only brought to a close in May 1843, a few months before his death.

Among the operations carried on by Macintosh was the treatment of the refuse of gas-works for obtaining various useful products, and it was his endeavour to utilise the coal naphtha obtained as a by-product in the distillation of tar that led to the invention of the waterproof fabrics with which his name is associated. Taking advantage of the known 