Lind was generally acknowledged to have a sweet disposition,[12] and Fanny Burney cast doubt whether he obtained much of a private medical practice: "his taste for trickes, conundrums and queer things makes people fearful of his trying experiments on their constitutions, and think of him a better conjuror than a physician; though I don't know why the same man should not be both".

Free, calm-spirited, full of benevolence, and even of youthful ardor: his eye seemed to burn with supernatural spirit beneath his brow, shaded by his venerable white locks, he was tall, vigorous, and healthy in his body; tempered, as it had ever been, by his amiable mind.

far more than I owe to my father: he loved me, and I shall never forget our long talks, where he breathed the spirit of the kindest tolerance and the purest wisdom,"[8] In A Sketch of My Life, Lind's son Alexander Frances Lind wrote: "Would that my feeble pen could render better justice to my father's memory; and would that I had been older to have profited by the instructions he was so peculiarly fitted to afford.

I have been told, and I believe it, that few men existed of more universal knowledge; and that very few could be met, whose conversation was do instructive, and whose life and manners were more gently, and unassuming.

Synonymous variations include Lynne, Linn and Lind used by free Barons from the earliest of recorded history.

King John Balliol mentions William de Lynne of that Ilk in a donation, who is a direct forefather in the Lind lineage.

Percy alluded to Lind in two poems from 1817, the old man who rescues Laon in The Revolt of Islam, and Prince Athanase, where he appears as the wise old teacher magus Zonoras.

[43] Lind is also thought to be the source for the character of the blind old man, De Lacey,[44] as well as Doctor M. Waldman[7] in the novel Frankenstein.

[1][2] In addition to medicine, Lind was interested in a variety of sciences (botany, astronomy, meteorology, geology, chemistry, etc.

[51] As a member of the Society, Lind was closely acquainted with many prominent scientists of his era exemplified by James Watt.

"[53] In astronomy, Lind utilized a telescope[41][54] to observe the transit of Venus from Hawkhill and reported his account to the Royal Society in 1769, and printed with remarks from Nevil Maskelyne.

[59] Like William Herschel, Lind believed in cosmic pluralism[10] and recently has been suggested to have observed a UFO at Windsor.

Consistent with the misidentification of the James Lind cousins, some sources credit the cousin James Lind (1716-1794) as the astronomer candidate for Cook's second voyage,[69][70] however there is no doubt regarding the identity of James Lind (1736-1812) as noted in his son's memoirs A Sketch of My Life[13], and supported with the following excerpts from the Society minutes: Dr James Lind is recommended to the Board of Longitude ‘as a person who will be extremely useful in the intended voyage for discoveries in remote parts; on account of his skill and experience in his profession, and from his great Knowledge in Mineralogy, Chemistry, Mechanics, and various branches of Natural Philosophy; and also from his having spent several years in different climates, in the Indies'.-R.S.,[71] It was not really Cook but Joseph Banks who wanted Lind as part of his large entourage, and after Banks had failed to get his will with regards to the expedition ships of Cook's second voyage and decided not to go, they went to Iceland, the Hebrides and the Orkney Islands together instead in 1772.

[18][12] In reference to intellectual curiosity and government funding opportunities, Lind said, " [...] I am turned Longitude mad and I have go a most novel Sextant made by my friend Ramsden, which altho only Six inches Radius it is divided to half seconds.

[12] Lind also designed a rain gauge[3] as well as a barometer[76] which he took to the summit of Arthur's Seat in collaboration with William Roy.

A dark brown colour, which was rendered very dense by a quantity of matter, principally consisting of very small particles of a woody substance [...] It was inodorous and tasteless, excepting a small degree of roughness or astringency; just like water which has remains some time in a rotten wooden vessel".

[40] In one correspondence, Lind reported successful treatment of a condition similar to postpartum femoral neuropathy (leg paralysis after birth) using 'medical electricity'.

[42] Lind had also invented the "Thunder House"[95] which repeated and verified Benjamin Franklin's lightning rod experiments, and he also attached a long rod to his chimney with a long chain connected to the ground, with a wire connected to the chain entering him room to charge electric Leyden jars and also to make to bells ring.

[3] In a letter written in 1796 to Cavallo (originating from Windsor) and published in Cavallo's An Essay on the Medicinal Properties of Factitious Airs (1798), Lind recognized the therapeutic potential of carbon monoxide as hydrocarbonate for treating lung inflammation, the mechanism of which was recently elucidated in 2000 via the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway and remains a focus of pharmaceutical development efforts.

[103][104] Lind's discovery for the beneficial effects of carbon monoxide to treat inflammation is regarded as a piece of historical irony since Lind is considered to be the inspiration of Dr. Frankenstein, yet, throughout the 1920s (due to widespread cases of carbon monoxide poisoning from civilization's expanding industrial activities, illuminating gas leaks, automobile exhaust exposure, etc.)

[106] Along these lines, in 1783 George III also sent Lind with Jean-André Deluc to Barnet to inspect a "Machine in the shape of a Bird, which was supposed to be capable of carrying a weight of 800 lbs.

[3] Lind was a peripatetic natural philosophy tutor associated with Eton College while in semi-retirement in the early 1800s where he was acquainted with Shelley and introduced him to science and the writings of Plato, Voltaire, Franklin, Condorcet, Albertus Magnus, Paracelsus, William Godwin, and others.