View source for William Smellie (encyclopedist)

[[File:William Smellie00.jpg|thumb|350px|<center>William Smellie<br>by [[Henry Bryan Hall]]]]
'''William Smellie''' (born 1740 in [[Edinburgh]], died 24 June 1795 in Edinburgh) was a [[Scotland|Scottish]] [[encyclopedist]], master [[Printer (publisher)|printer]], Fellow of the [[Royal Society]], the [[Society of Antiquaries of Scotland]] and [[natural history|naturalist]].  He was friends with [[Robert Burns]], whose assessment is engraved on Smellie's tombstone: "Here lies a man who did honour to human nature".<ref name="EB_bicentennial" >{{cite book | year = 1968 | title = Banquet at Guildhall in the City of London, Tuesday 15 October 1968: Celebrating the 200th Anniversary of the Encyclopædia Britannica and the 25th Anniversary of the Honorable William Benton as its Chairman and Publisher | publisher = [[Encyclopædia Britannica Inc.|Encyclopædia Britannica International, Ltd.]] | location = [[United Kingdom]]}}</ref>  Burns also described him fondly in a letter as "that old Veteran in Genius, Wit and Bawdry".<ref name="BurnsLetters_1985" >{{cite book | year = 1985 | title = ''The Letters of Robert Burns'' | Editors = J. De Lancey Fergusson and G. Ross Roy | Volume = Volume II of II | Publisher = Clarendon Press | location = Oxford | page = 10 | isbn = 0-19-812321-3}}</ref> 

At the age of 28, Smellie was hired by [[Colin Macfarquhar]] and [[Andrew Bell]] to edit the first edition of the ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'', which appeared in 100 weekly instalments ("numbers") from December 1768 to 1771.  It was a masterful composition although, by his own admission,<ref name="EB_bicentennial" /> Smellie borrowed liberally from many authors of his day, such as [[Voltaire]], [[Benjamin Franklin]], [[Alexander Pope]] and [[Samuel Johnson]].<ref name="kister_1994">{{cite book | last = Kister | first = KF | authorlink = Kenneth Kister | year = 1994 | title = Kister's Best Encyclopedias: A Comparative Guide to General and Specialized Encyclopedias | edition = 2nd ed. | publisher = Oryx Press | location = Phoenix, AZ | isbn = 0-89774-744-5}}</ref>  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".<ref>{{cite encyclopedia| last = Krapp | first = Philip | coauthors = Balou, Patricia K. | year = 1992 | title = Collier's Encyclopedia | volume = 9 | pages = p. 135 | publisher = Macmillan Educational Company | location = [[New York City|New York]] | id = Library of Congress catalog number 91-61165}}</ref>  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."<ref name="EB_1771">{{cite encyclopedia | year = 1771 | title = Encyclopedias | encyclopedia = Encyclopædia Britannica | edition= 1<sup>st</sup> edition}}</ref>  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."<ref name="EB_1771" />  Despite its incompleteness and inaccuracies, Smellie's vivid prose and the easy navigation of the first edition led to strong demand for a second;<ref name="EB_1954">{{cite encyclopedia | year = 1954 | title = Encyclopedias | encyclopedia = Encyclopædia Britannica | edition= 14<sup>th</sup> edition}}</ref> some prurient engravings by [[Andrew Bell]] (later [[censorship|censored]] by [[George III of the United Kingdom|King George III]]) may also have contributed to the success of the first edition.<ref name="EB_bicentennial" />  Smellie did not participate in the second edition of the ''Britannica'', because he objected to the inclusion of biographical articles in an [[encyclopedia]] dedicated to the arts and sciences.

At the time of his hiring, Smellie edited a weekly called the ''Scot's Journal'', which made him familiar with the editing and publication of a work in parts.<ref>{{cite book | last = Wells | first = James M. | year = 1968 | title = The Circle of Knowledge: Encyclopaedias Past and Present | publisher = The Newberry Library | location = Chicago | id = Library of Congress catalog number 68-21708}}</ref>  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|University of Edinburgh's]] Professor of Natural History; however,  the post was awarded to [[John Walker (naturalist)|Dr. John Walker]], allegedly due to politics. Smellie continued to publish a wide variety of works, including his two-volume ''Philosophy of Natural History'', which became a set text at [[Harvard University]] in the nineteenth century, and at least two of the four-volume set of ''Thesaurus medicus : sive, disputationum, in Academia Edinensi, ad rem medicam pertinentium, a collegio instituto ad hoc usque tempus, delectu'' which reprinted Edinburgh medical theses of the 18th century.

Smellie was the son of a master builder and stonemason. He was educated at the [[Royal High School (Edinburgh)|Royal High School, Edinburgh]]. At the age of 12, he was apprenticed to a printer and rose to the rank of master printer. 
==References==
{{wikisource-author|William Smellie}}
{{reflist}}

{{Scotland-scientist-stub}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smellie, William}}
[[Category:Encyclopædia Britannica|Smellie, William]]
[[Category:1740 births|Smellie, William]]
[[Category:1795 deaths|Smellie, William]]
[[Category: Encyclopedists|Smellie, William]]
[[Category:Royal High School alumni]]
[[Category:Scottish naturalists|Smellie]]

[[de:William Smellie]]
[[ru:Смелли, Уильям (энциклопедист)]]
[[pt:William Smellie]]
[[Category:2Fix]]