Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/81

COLLINS venturer. Having no fixed purpose, little perse- verance, and withal great impatience for dis- tinction, he was for several years engaged in drawing up proposals for works which were never written, and destroying what little he wrote. He was much annoyed also by duns, and was at one time in the hands of bailiffs. He borrowed some money from a bookseller as an advance on a projected translation of Aristo- tle's Poetics ; but having inherited about 2,000 from his uncle, Col. Martin, he repaid the publisher and thought no more of the transla- tion. In 1746 he published his" odes. He was much disappointed in the reception of his pro- ductions, and died probably with little idea of the celebrity they were to attain. The latter part of his life was passed in a state of insanity, with only occasional lucid periods, and for some time he was confined in a lunatic asylum. COLLINS, William, an English painter, born in London, Sept. 18, 1787, died Feb. 17, 1847. His earliest ideas in painting were derived from watching the process by which Morland exe- cuted his animal pieces. In 1807 he studied at the royal academy, and from that time until his death, with the exception of two years spent in Italy, never omitted to send pictures to the annual exhibitions. In 1820 he was elected an academician. In 1836 he went to Italy, and on his return made an unsuccessful appear- ance at the academy exhibitions as a historical painter. Many of his pictures have been en- graved, as "Prawn Fishers at Hastings," "Happy as a King," the "Shrimpers Even- ing," the " Fisherman's Widow," &c. COLLINS, William Wilkie, an English novelist, son of the preceding, born in London in Janu- ary, 1824. After being educated at a private school, and spending two years with his parents in Italy, he was articled for four years to a firm in the tea trade. Exchanging commerce for law, he was a student in Lincoln's Inn at the time of his father's death ; and his first literary performance was an admirable biography of him, with selections from his journals and cor- respondence (1848). He devoted himself from this time entirely to literature, and published iccessively, between 1850 and 1854, " Antoni- la, or the Fall of Rome," "Rambles beyond ~ lil ways, or Notes in Cornwall," "Basil," "Mr. Wray's Cash Box," and "Hide and 3k." He soon after became a contributor Household Words." All his later novels Anally appeared as serials in periodicals, principal of them are : " After Dark " L856), "The Dead Secret" (1857), "The leen of Hearts" (1859), "The Woman in r hite" (1860), "No Name" (1862), "Arma- ile" (1866), "The Moonstone "(1868), "Man id Wife" (1870), "Poor Miss Finch" (1872), id "The New Magdalen" (1873). In 1863 jpeared "My Miscellanies" (2 vols.), made ip of contributions to journals. He has also written three dramas, "The Frozen Deep," "The Lighthouse," and "Black and White." At the end of 1873 he visited the United COLLODION 77 States, where he gave public readings from his works in the principal cities. COLLINSON, Peter, an English botanist, born at Hugall Hall, Westmoreland, Jan. 14, 1693, died Aug. 11, 1768. He was a member of the society of Friends, and a merchant in London. His studies in natural history gained him the ac- quaintance and correspondence of the most eminent naturalists of his time. He corre- sponded with Cadwallader Golden and Frank- lin, and is said to have made known to the lat- ter (1743) the first experiments in electricity, and sent to him the first electrical machine that went to the colonies. He gave special atten- tion to botany, and to the naturalization of plants and trees in regions remote from their original habitats. He sent to Maryland, Penn- sylvania, and other Atlantic colonies, many foreign ornamental shrubs, which found in America a congenial soil and climate ; and he introduced into England many American forest trees. He was one of the first to suggest the cul- ture of the grape in Virginia. A genus of labiate plants is named Collinsonia after him. He was also familiar with the antiquities of England, and read many interesting papers be- fore the society of antiquaries. COLLN, Georg Friedrieh Wilibald Ferdinand von, a German author, born at Oerlinghausen, Lippe-Detmold, in 1766, died in Berlin, Jan. 13, 1820. He held various offices in different places, and was for a time editor of the Sta'ats- Ameiger in Berlin, but in 1808 was imprisoned in the fortress of Glatz on account of damaging disclosures of maladministration made in some of his books. In 1810 he was permitted to visit a watering place, whereupon he fled to Austria. The king of Prussia subsequently pardoned him, and he was even pensioned and employed in the public service. His works were chiefly anonymous. Among them are: Neue Feuerbrdnde (6 vols., Leipsic, 1807-'8) ; Wien und Berlin in Parallele (5 vols., 1808); Vertraute Briefe uber die innern VerMlt- nisse am preussischen Hofe (3 vols., Amster- dam and Cologne, 1807-'9) ; Die neue Staats- wissenschaft (2d ed., Berlin, 1816); and His- torisches Archw der preussischen Provinzial- (1819-'20). COLLODION, or Coilodinm (Gr. *6Ua, glue, and eUoe, form), an adhesive substance pro- duced by dissolving gun cotton in ether and alcohol. The proportions recommended are, prepared cotton 8 parts by weight, rectified ether 125 parts, and rectified alcohol 8 parts. The presence of water in the alcohol and ether should be carefully avoided. The cotton is to be agitated in a bottle with the ether a few minutes, when the alcohol may be added, and the shaking continued. The product, a cle.ar, colorless liquid, of the consistency of sirup, is next strained through a cloth, and the liquid kept in a tight bottle. It is very volatile, and on evaporating leaves a film which adheres with extraordinary tenacity to the surface of bodies. This property makes it a convenient