His lives of Matthew Stewart, Hutton, Robison, many of his reviews, and above all his "Dissertation" are of the utmost value.
He died in Edinburgh on the 6th of December 1799 (not on the 26th of November as stated in Robison's life).
After his death his lectures were written out from his own notes, supplemented by those of some of his pupils, and published with a biographical preface by his friend and colleague, Professor John Robison (1739-1805), in 1803, as Lectures on the Elements of Chemistry, delivered in the University of Edinburgh.
In 1805 he exchanged the chair of mathematics for that of natural philosophy in succession to Dr John Robison, whom also he succeeded as general secretary to the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Author John Elder Robison is famous for his best-selling memoir about living with Asperger's, Look Me in the Eye.