138 Royal Society, 



bers ; among whom were Sir Henry Halford, who long presided over 

 the College of Physicians ; and Dr. Hope, who for many years was 

 Professor of Chemistry in the University of Edinburgh. " We have 

 still more immediate reason," his Lordship added, "to lament the 

 decease of one of our ablest and most zealous colleagues, the late 

 Mr. Baily, who had always taken an active share in the business 

 as well as in the scientific pursuits of the Royal Society *. We have 

 also to deplore the death, at a venerable age, of Dr. Dalton of Man- 

 chester, whose eminent discoveries have so largely contributed to 

 our chemical knowledge and to the scientific reputation of En- 

 gland." 



The Address contains obituary notices of deceased Fellow's of the 

 Society, from which we select the following: — i- 



Dr. Thomas Charles Hope was the son of Dr. John Hope, 

 Professor of Botany in the University of Edinburgh, and was born 

 at Edinburgh on the 21st of July 1766. 



His devotion to chemical science and his recognition as a chemist 

 date from an early period of his life ; for he was, on the death of Dr. 

 Irvine, appointed Lecturer on Chemistry at Glasgow on the 10th of 

 October 1787, while yet in his twenty-first year. He was further, 

 in 1789, appointed Professor of Medicine in the same university, 

 conjointly with his uncle Dr. Stevenson. It does not appear, how- 

 ever, that he had actually delivered lectures on either subject in 

 Glasgow until 1793; he most probably passed the interval in study- 

 ing at home and abroad, for we are informed that he returned from 

 France in 1791, and he thereafter continued to lecture at Glasgow 

 until 1795. At this period, he received the distinguished compliment 

 of being recommended by Dr. Black as his assistant and successor 

 in the chemical chair at Edinburgh. Accordinglj^, in 1795, Dr. Hope 

 entered on his new duties by delivering a course conjointly with 

 Dr. Black, whose decaying powers permitted him only to deliver the 

 lectures on Caloric. In this, as well as in the courses of chemistry 

 which he delivered in Glasgow, Dr. Hope taught the then recent 

 doctrines of Lavoisier, which had not yet entirely overthrown the 

 doctrine of phlogiston, and had not previously been publicly taught 

 by any professor in Britain. ,: : 



Dr. Hope's exertions during his residence at Glasgow had not 

 been limited to writing and improving his lectures. On the 4th of 

 November 1793, he read to the Royal Society of Edinburgh his 

 well-known paper, " On a mineral from Strontian," in which he 

 pointed out the existence of an undescribed earth, distinct from 

 barytes, with which it had been confounded, and to which he gave 

 the name of Strontites. 



In 1803, in the 6th volume of Nicholson's Journal, a brief notice 

 was published of the instrument with which Dr. Hope employed a 

 solution of sulphuret of potassium for eudiometrical purposes ; and 



* The admirable memoir of our much-valued friend and correspondent 

 the late Mr. Francis Baily, from the pen of Sir J. Herschel, and read by 

 him at a special meeting of the Astronomical Society, is printed entire in 

 our 26th volume, p. 38. — En. 



