William Smellie

William Smellie (1740 – June 24, 1795) was a Scottish printer who edited the first edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. He was also a naturalist and antiquary. He was a joint founder of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, co-founder of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, and a friend of Robert Burns.

Early life

He was born in The Pleasance, in south-east Edinburgh in 1740, the son of Jean Robertson and Alexander Smellie, architect and master builder. He was educated at Duddingston School then Edinburgh High School.

Smellie left school at the age of 12 to become an apprentice as a printer with Hamilton, Balfour & Neill in 1752. During this time he was promoted to the subeditorial position corrector of the press, and won his employers the Edinburgh Philosophical Society's prize for the most accurately printed edition of a Latin text.

On completion of his apprenticeship he joined the firm of Murray & Cochran as a corrector for the Scots Magazine.

On 27 March 1763 he married Jean Robertson in London.

In 1765 he was awarded a gold medal for his dissertation on the sexes of plants, which contradicted the theories of the Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus. Nevertheless, the first edition of the Britannica contained gross inaccuracies and fanciful speculations; for example, it states that excess use of tobacco could cause neurodegeneration, "drying up the brain to a little black lump consisting of mere membranes".

Smellie strove to make Britannica as usable as possible, saying that "utility ought to be the principal intention of every publication. Wherever this intention does not plainly appear, neither the books nor their authors have the smallest claim to the approbation of mankind".

Smellie entertained strong opinions; for example, he defines farriery as "the art of curing the diseases of horses. The practice of this useful art has been hitherto almost entirely confined to a set of men who are totally ignorant of anatomy, and the general principles of medicine."

Although possessed of wide knowledge, Smellie was not an expert in all matters; for example, his article on "Woman" has but four words: "the female of man." some prurient engravings by Andrew Bell (later censored by King George III) may also have contributed to the success of the first edition. He went on to print and edit the Edinburgh Weekly Journal as joint owner with William Auld, and was co-owner, editor, and contributor to the Edinburgh Magazine and Review. He printed and edited Domestic Medicine: or, a Treatise on the Prevention and Cure of Diseases by Regimen and Simple Medicines by William Buchan in 1769. He also edited the first transactions of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, which were published in 1792.

Smellie is also noted for his English translation of the famous Histoire Naturelle of the French naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon.

In 1779, Smellie was nominated to be the University of Edinburgh's professor of natural history; however, the post was awarded to Dr John Walker, allegedly due to politics.

In 1781 Smellie was made keeper and superintendent of the Edinburgh Museum of Natural History.

His printing office stood at the foot of Anchor Close off the Royal Mile (on a site now on East Market Street) and his house was on Gosford's Close nearby. Gosford's Close was pulled down when the city built George IV Bridge in 1830.

He died in Edinburgh on 24 June 1795 and is buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard just north of the Adam Mausoleum, south-west of the church.

He was well-acquainted with Robert Burns. Burns' assessment is engraved on Smellie's tombstone: "Here lies a man who did honour to human nature". Burns also described him fondly in a letter as "that old Veteran in Genius, Wit and Bawdry".

Papers from Smellie's archive, including his correspondence and manuscripts, are held by the Library of the National Museum of Scotland.