6 LOEWENFELD, Contributions to the History of ScientC. 



by yourself and by my other friends at Glasgow, to 

 fulfil the duties of a station of such importance and 

 usefulness as the one which has lately become vacant 

 in your university, is of itself a distinction which I 

 little expected and which (whatever might have been 

 the result of m\- becoming a candidate) impresses me 

 with the most lively sense of obligation. As a source 

 of emolument, the office (could I have succeeded to 

 the extent of my own wishes in performing its duties) 

 would have been an object of great consequence to me. 

 But though I estimate most highly its value in this 

 way, as well as in conferring scientific rank, yet I am 

 compelled, by a variety of circumstances which for 

 some )'ears to come must bind me to this spot, to 

 forego all intentions of proposing myself for a situa- 

 tion which, in almost every respect, would have been 

 more agreeable to my taste and habits than the 

 sphere in which I am now moving. For some time 

 past, I have been induced, by habitual delicacy of 

 health, to decline rather than to seek an extension 

 of medical practice, and as my family is a 

 pretty large and increasing one, I have made, 

 whenever I have been tolerabl}^ well, great exer- 

 tions to extend my chemical manufacture. These 

 exertions have been attended with all the success 

 I could have expected, and from time to time I 

 have been induced to la\- out sums of money in 

 buildings and utensils, the aggregate of which is to 

 me of serious moment. I am of opinion, therefore, 

 that it will be more consistent with my interest and 

 happiness to persevere steadily in the course I am 

 now pursuing than to yield even to so strong a 

 temptation as that which j'ou hold out. Added to 

 this, the vcr}' disqualification which unfits me for 

 medical practice, would be a serious bar to my 

 performing the duties of the proposed situation with 

 that regularity which would be absolutely necessary. 



