158 Ufc of the lute Dr. Jofiph Black. 



putation, indeed, was now raiTed fo high, that a vacancy 

 having taken place in the chemical chair of Edinburgh, by 

 the removal or Dr. Culler), in 1765, to another department* 

 Dr. Black was looked up to as the only man capable of fuf- 

 taining, in this branch of fcience, the fuperiority which that 

 celebrated fchool of medicine had acquired in all others. He 

 was therefore elected to fucceed Cullen, and for many years 

 difcharged the duties of the office with univerfal approbation, 

 being much admired for the care, perfpicuity, and elegance, 

 with which he communicated inftru&ion in his lectures, and 

 his neatnefs and accuracy in performing experiments. Very 

 complete manufcript copies of his lectures were taken by 

 many of his fludents, particularly in the early part of his 

 teaching, when they contained a great deal of matter then 

 little known to the chemical world ; and thefe copies, react 

 with avidity by the lovers of this fcience, have greatly con- 

 tributed to fecure to him the honour of thofe difcoveries, and 

 that original mode of reafoning, which he fcarcely ever made 

 public in any other form. 



After his election to the chemical chair, he publifhed no- 

 thing but a paper on the Effecl: of Boiling upon Water, in 

 difpofing it to freeze more readily, printed in the fixty-fifth 

 volume of the Philofophical Tranfactions for 1774; and An 

 Analyfis of the Water of fome Hot Springs in Iceland, in the 

 Philofophical TranfacYions of Edinburgh for 1791. The latter 

 contains fome obfervations, highly interefting to the chemift, 

 on the formation of the filiceous ftone depoflted by thefe 

 wonderful fprings ; and has long been oonfidered as a model 

 of neatnefs and accuracy in the analyfis of mineral waters. 

 Two of his letters on chemical fubje£ts have been publifhed 

 by Crell and Lavoifier. 



Dr. Black was long a ftrenuous oppofer of the new theories 

 in chemiftry ; but he at length became an avowed convert to 

 the principles of the French chemifts, and did not hefitate 

 to make amends by his applaufe for his former oppofition. 

 He never diitinguifhed himfelf as a practical phyfician. His 

 manners were fimple, his temper cold and referved, and his 

 habits of life adapted to his own convenience. He wfcfl 

 never married ; and died fuddenly, in his fixty-feeond year, 

 on the 6th of December 1799, his health having been in a 

 declining ftate for fome time before. He was a member of the 

 Philofophical Societies of London and Edinburgh, and, by 

 the folicitation of Lavoifier, had the diitinguifhed honour of 

 being chofen one of the eight foreign members of the Aca- 

 demy of Sciences of Paris. 



XXV. On 



