Later Life
He returned to Edinburgh in 1857 to pursue his own novel physical ideas but met with unyielding neglect and discouragement from the scientific establishment. Neglect was exacerbated by his own increasing reclusiveness and hostility to the learned societies. He worked on acoustics, astronomy, fluid mechanics and thermodynamics.
He left his Edinburgh home on 18 June and drowned in a nearby canal, possibly falling into the canal due to heat stress from his astronomical observation activities.
Read more about this topic: John James Waterston
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