k was strongest in
the scientific department, and many of its most valuable articles were from
the pen of the editor. At a later period he was one of the leading
contributors to the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_ (seventh and eighth
editions), the articles on Electricity, Hydrodynamics, Magnetism,
Microscope, Optics, Stereoscope, Voltaic Electricity, &c., being from his
pen. In 1819 Brewster undertook further editorial work by establishing, in
conjunction with Robert Jameson (1774-1854), the _Edinburgh Philosophical
Journal_, which took the place of the _Edinburgh Magazine_. The first ten
volumes (1819-1824) were published under the joint editorship of Brewster
and Jameson, the remaining four volumes (1825-1826) being edited by Jameson
alone. After parting company with Jameson, Brewster started the _Edinburgh
Journal of Science_ in 1824, sixteen volumes of which appeared under his
editorship during the years 1824-1832, with very many articles from his own
pen. To the transactions of various learned societies he contributed from
first to last between three and four hundred papers, and few of his
contemporaries wrote so much for the various reviews. In the _North British
Review_ alone seventy-five articles of his appeared. A list of his larger
separate works will be found below. Special mention, however, must be made
of the most important of them all--his biography of Sir Isaac Newton. In
1831 he published a short popular account of the philosopher's life in
Murray's _Family Library_; but it was not until 1855 that he was able to
issue the much fuller _Memoirs of the Life, Writings and Discoveries of Sir
Isaac Newton_, a work which embodied the results of more than twenty years'
patient investigation of original manuscripts and all other available
sources.

Brewster's relations as editor brought him into frequent communication with
the most eminent scientific men, and he was naturally among the first to
recognize the benefit that would accrue from regular intercourse among
workers in the field of science. In an article in the _Quarterly Review_ he
threw out a suggestion for "an association of our nobility, clergy, gentry
and philosophers," which was taken up by others and found speedy
realization in the British Association for the Advancement of [v.04 p.0514]
Science. Its first meeting was held at York in 1831; and Brewster, along
with Charles Babbage and Sir John F. W. Herschel, had the chief part in
shaping its constitution.