(1793-1859) Scientific writer, son of a solicitor in Dublin, and born there, was intended for the law, but having no taste for it, he entered Trinity College, Dublin, and took orders, but devoted himself to literary and scientific pursuits, and became a contributor to the Edinburgh Review, and various Encyclopædias. In 1827 he was appointed Professor of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy in the University of London (afterwards Univ. College), and in 1829 began his great work, The Cabinet Cyclopædia, which was finished in 133 volumes 20 years later. In his literary undertakings, which included various other schemes of somewhat similar character, he was eminently successful, financially and otherwise. He lived in Paris from 1845 until his death.