Encyclopædia Britannica Second Edition

c. 12 expressly declares, that all his Majesty's colonies in America, have been, are, and of right ought to be, subordinate to and dependent upon the imperial crown and parliament of Great Britain; who have full power and authority to make laws and statutes of sufficient validity to bind the colonies and people of America, subjects to the crown of Great Britain in all cases whatsoever.

And the attempting to enforce this by other acts of Parliament, penalties, and at last by military power, gave rise, as is well known, to the present revolt of our colonies.

In volume 10, written at the end of the war, the article Virginia describes it as "Late one of the British colonies, now one of the United States of North America."

Macfarquhar took over the role himself, aided by pharmacist James Tytler, M.A.,[5] who was known as an able writer and willing to work for a very low wage.

[6] Macfarquhar and Bell rescued Tytler from Holyrood Palace, a debtors' prison, and employed him for seven years at 17 shillings per week.

Tytler was a polymath, educated by his father in classic languages and theology, and at Edinburgh in medicine, surgery, pharmacy, and chemistry.

[8] In compiling the many biographical articles, he borrowed heavily from Biographia Britannica and other sources, often copying word-for-word.

He was a gifted writer, being in charge of editing the copy and galleys himself, and helping typeset in the printing room.

For example, "Chemistry" goes into great detail on an obsolete system of what would now be called alchemy, in which earth, air, water and fire are named elements containing various amounts of phlogiston.

Tytler also describes the architecture of Noah's Ark in detail (illustrated with a copperplate engraving) and, following Bishop Ussher, includes a remarkably precise chronology for the Earth, beginning with its creation on 23 October 4004 B.C.

The 2nd edition also reports a cure for tuberculosis: He chose a spot of ground on which no plants had been sown, and there he made a hole large and deep enough to admit the patient up to the chin.

In this situation the patient suffered to remain till he began to shiver or felt himself uneasy...The patient was then taken out, and, after being wrapped in a linen cloth, was placed upon a mattress, and two hours afterwards his whole body was rubbed with the ointment composed of the leaves of the solanum nigrum and hog's lard.and a somewhat melancholy article on "Love" that persisted in the Britannica for nearly a century (until its 9th edition): As the force of love prevails, sighs grow deeper; a tremor affects the heart and pulse; the countenance is alternately pale and red; the voice is suppressed in the sauces; the eyes grow dim; cold sweats break out; sleep absents itself, at least until the morning; the secretions become disturbed; and a loss of appetite, a hectic fever, melancholy, or perhaps madness, if not death, constitutes the sad catastrophe.In the second edition, the article "History" was written by Adam Ferguson[10] and/or Tytler.

The supplement introduces articles on Entomology, Ichthyology, Weather, Hindus (spelled Gentoos), and others, and contains many new biographies, including one of Captain James Cook.

The first page of the supplement begins with the words "Appendix containing articles omitted and others further explained or improved, together with corrections of errors and of wrong references."