LIFE of Dr BLACK. log 



appear in liquefadion and evaporation, we may fafely affume as 

 exifting alfo, though in a latent ftate, in every fluid of a fimilar 

 form. Even Black admitted, that in the atmofphere, under 

 all the manifeft changes of its temperature, there may be, and 

 probably is, a very great meafure of latent heat. 



Such were the fcientific difcoveries of Black, when refiding 

 as a ftudent at Glafgow or at Edinburgh, at leaft before his no- 

 mination to a profeflbrfhip at either place. When his friend Dr 

 CuLLEN was removed from Glafgow to Edinburgh, Black was 

 appointed to fucceed as ProfefTor of Medicine at the former 

 place ; and following his example as ledurer on Chemiftry alfo, 

 was, from this time forward, more employed in detailing parti- 

 culars already known, for the information of his pupils, than in 

 purfuing any feries of inveftigation for himfelf. 



In entering upon this taflc, it became matter of courfe to de- 

 fine the feience, and even in this our Profeflbr g-ave a fpecinleii 

 of his charader, and the modefty of his pretenfions, in a matter 

 formerly enveloped ia myftery, and the affedatioii of magical 

 power. 



The feience of nature, indeed, is interefting in all its branches^ 

 whether they rife into the heavens, or fink into the bowels of 

 the earth. "We are placed in a bufy fcene, and have our fafety 

 and accommodations at ftake, iii the midft of operations and 

 changes that greatly aiFea theift. The principles that operate'in 

 our fyftem are the objeds of our feience, and when known, be^ 

 come the inftruments of our arty towards procuring what it has 

 pleafed Providence to make th« conditions of ont prefervatiojl 

 and well-being. In refpecl to thefe principles, feience becomes 

 an acceflion of Ikill to every manufadurer, and to every labour- 

 er of the foil, as it is to the contemplativ^e an opening into the 

 interior fprings, which are employed' in the produdtion of fo 

 much beauty and order in the fyftem of nature around us ; and 

 this is the rank of importance, which, without the pretenfions of 



alchemy; 



