WATT, Robert, author of the well known Bibliotheca Britannica, was born of humble parents in the parish of Stewarton, Ayrshire, in the month of May 1774. After gathering what stray scraps of knowledge came within his reach as ploughboy to a neighbouring farmer, and as an attendant on "stone-dykers" in Dumfriesshire, he subsequently at the age of eighteen entered Glasgow College in 1793. Supporting himself by teaching both publicly and privately, he got through his medical studies, which he completed at Edinburgh in 1799. He commenced practice in Paisley, where he published his Cases of Diabetes and Consumption, &c., 8vo, 1808. Removing to Glasgow in 1810, he there began his lectures on the theory and practice of medicine, and in 1812 published "An Address to Medical Students on the best method of prosecuting their Studies," which he appended to a Catalogue of Medical Books. In 1813, he published a Treatise on the History, Nature, and Treatment of Chincough; and in 1814, his Rules of Life, with Reflections on the Manners and Dispositions of Mankind. He was chosen president to the faculty of Physicians and Surgeons in Glasgow, and was, in 1817, induced partly by the annoyance to which a lingering disease subjected him, and partly also by the extent to which he had already carried out his original design of the Bibliotheca Britannica, to give up his professional pursuits, and devote his whole attention to the elaboration of his great work. Watt died on the 12th of March 1819, at the premature age of forty-five years. The Bibliotheca Britannica, or General Index to British and Foreign Literature, was published after his death in 4 vols. 4to, 1819–1824, a remarkable performance, despite all its imperfections, and one on which Watt's name will live for centuries to come.