Hutchins was employed as
Hudson's Bay Company surgeon at
York Factory (
Manitoba) 1766–1773 then Governor of
Albany fort (
Ontario) 1774–1782. By all accounts, he was a conscientious and hard-working physician but found time for research including a study of local edible plants useful for prevention of
scurvy. He was visited 1768–1769 by astronomer
William Wales, who had been sent by the
Royal Society to observe the 1769
transit of Venus, and was left equipment and instructions for recording meteorological data. Encouraged by his acting chief
Andrew Graham 1771–1772, he kept notes on wildlife, including descriptions of species not previously recorded. At the behest of the
Royal Society, he made useful observations on
magnetic declination at Albany 1775–1776. He performed preliminary experiments on the congelation (
freezing point) of
mercury in 1775, identifying the problem with previous attempts as being due to the abrupt change of volume of the mercury in the thermometer as it changed state. Apparatus for an improved method was devised and after a series of careful experiments 1779–1782, its freezing point was determined at −39 °F. For this work, highly praised by
Cavendish, he was awarded the Royal Society's
Copley Medal in 1783, jointly with
John Goodricke (for unrelated work). He served the Hudson's Bay Company for the rest of his life in London as corresponding secretary. It is probable that much of the nature notes for which he was also highly praised was actually the work of
Andrew Graham, either generously given or plagiarised, an action not considered so reprehensible in those days. In 1784 he was elected a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were
John McGowan,
John Robison and
Very Rev John Walker. He died on 7 July 1790.
Hutchins' goose (Branta hutchinsii) was named for him ==References==