ARNOTT, NEIL (1788-1874), Scottish physician, was born at Arbroath on the 15th of May 1788. He studied medicine first at Aberdeen, and subsequently in London under Sir Everard Home (1756-1832), through whom he obtained, while yet in his nineteenth year, the appointment of full surgeon to an East Indiaman. After making two voyages to China he settled in 1811 to practise in London, and speedily acquired high reputation in his profession. Within a few years he was made physician to the French and Spanish embassies, and in 1837 he became a physician extraordinary to the queen. From his earliest youth Arnott had an intense love of natural philosophy, and to this was added an inventiveness which served him in good stead in his profession and yielded the "Arnott water-bed," the "Arnott ventilator," the "Arnott stove," &c. He was the author of several works bearing on physical science or its applications, the most important being his _Elements of Physics_ (1827), which went through six editions in his lifetime. In 1838 he published a treatise on _Warming and Ventilating_, and, in 1855, one on the _Smokeless Fireplace_. He was a strong advocate of scientific, as opposed to purely classical, education; and he manifested his interest in natural philosophy by the gift of L2000 to each of the four universities of Scotland and to the university of London, to promote its study in the experimental and practical form. He died in London on the 2nd of March 1874. ARNOULD-PLESSY, JEANNE SYLVANIE (1819-1897), French actress, was born in Metz on the 7th of September 1819, the daughter of a local actor named Plessy. She was a pupil of Samson at the Conservatoire in 1829, and made her _debut_ as Emma at the Comedie Francaise in 1834 in Alexandre Duval's _La Fille d'honneur_. She had an immense success, and Mlle Mars, to whom the public already compared her, took her up. Until 1845 she had prominent parts in all the plays, new and old, at the Theatre Francais, when suddenly at the height of her success, she left Paris and went to London, marrying the dramatic author, J.F. Arnould (d. 1854), a man much older than herself. The Comedie Francaise, after having tried in vain to bring her back, brought a suit against her, and obtained heavy damages. In the meantime Madame Arnould-Plessy accepted an engagement at the French theatre at St Petersburg, where she played for nine years. In 1855 she returned to Paris and was re-admitted to the Comedie Francaise, as _pensionnaire_ with an engagement for eight years. This second part of her career was even more brilliant than the first. She revived some of her old roles, but began to abandon the _jeunes premieres_ for the "lead," in which she had a success unequalled since the retirement of Mlle Mars. Her later triumphs were especially associated with new plays by Emile Augier, _Le Fils de Giboyer_ and _Maitre Guerin_. Her last appearance was in Edouard Cadol's _La Grand-maman_; she retired in 1876, and died in 1897.