1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Arnott, Neil

ARNOTT, NEIL (1788–1874), Scottish physician, was born at Arbroath on the 15th of May 1788. He studied medicine first at Aberdeen, and subsequently in London under Sir Everard Home (1756–1832), through whom he obtained, while yet in his nineteenth year, the appointment of full surgeon to an East Indiaman. After making two voyages to China he settled in 1811 to practise in London, and speedily acquired high reputation in his profession. Within a few years he was made physician to the French and Spanish embassies, and in 1837 he became a physician extraordinary to the queen. From his earliest youth Arnott had an intense love of natural philosophy, and to this was added an inventiveness which served him in good stead in his profession and yielded the “Arnott water-bed,” the “Arnott ventilator,” the “Arnott stove,” &c. He was the author of several works bearing on physical science or its applications, the most important being his Elements of Physics (1827), which went through six editions in his lifetime. In 1838 he published a treatise on Warming and Ventilating, and, in 1855, one on the Smokeless Fireplace. He was a strong advocate of scientific, as opposed to purely classical, education; and he manifested his interest in natural philosophy by the gift of £2000 to each of the four universities of Scotland and to the university of London, to promote its study in the experimental and practical form. He died in London on the 2nd of March 1874.