11. Minutes of the Life and Character of Joseph Black,. 

 M. D. Addreffed to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 



\_Read Aug. 3. 1801.] 



THE merits of fludious men are to be eftimated by the aids 

 they have given to the advancement of fcience, or the Hte- 

 rary monuments they have left with pofterity ; but if the public 

 be gratified by their labours in thefe refpedls, readers are gene- 

 rally willing alfo to be told, who and whence they were. 



Joseph Black, the perfon to whom thefe minutes relate, 

 fucceflively ProfelTor in the Univerfities of Glafgow and of 

 Edinburgh, Member of this Society, and of other royal and 

 public inftitutions in Europe ; having made important diC- 

 coveries, and having laid the foundations of many others, to- 

 wards eredting a fabric of fcience, which has fince been raifed to 

 a confiderable height ; and having been himfelf diflinguifhed for 

 modefty and felicity of manners, as well as corredlnefs of under- 

 ftanding, and ingenuity of refearch, — will, it is hoped, be thought 

 worthy of notice on thefe accounts. He was born on the banks 

 of the Garrone, in France, in the year 1728. His parents were 

 Irifh and Scots. His father, John Black., a native of Belfaft in. 

 Ireland, was fettled in the wine-trade at Bourdeaux. His mo- 

 ther was a daughter of Robert Gordon, of the family of Hal- 

 head in Aberdeenfhire, who was likewife fettled in the fame 

 trade, and at the fame place, and in confequence of his fuccefs,, 

 ■was enabled to purchafe, with additions, the eftate of his elder" 



brother^. 



