420 MEMOIR OF THE LATE DR THOMAS CHARLES HOPE. 



the 10th of October of the same year; and thus a new field was opened to his 

 ambition. 



It was no easy task with which young Hope had to grapple. The Glasgow 

 Lectureship had been successively held by men of consummate abilities, and 

 high chemical acquirements. The immediate predecessors of Dr Irvine, had 

 been Dr Robison, Dr Black, and Dr Cullen ; men Avhose names will ever stand 

 conspicuous in the science of Scotland. Instead of acting as a discouragement, 

 this consideration only stimulated Dr Hope to make every effort to prove himself 

 no unworthy successor of these eminent teachers of chemical science. With 

 the general doctrines of chemistry he was well acquainted ; he possessed 

 ingenuity in devising illustrative experiments, and a rare delicacy in chemical 

 manipulation. Yet, as he has confessed to the writer of this memoir, from the 

 shortness of the period for preparation, the scantiness of his apparatus, and the 

 utter want of assistance in his laboratory, he regarded his first course of chemistry 

 as very imperfect. But the novelty of his mode of teaching, and the neatness 

 of his experiments, seem to have Avon the approbation of his auditory. 



He Avas, at that period, a strenuous supporter of the then generally received 

 doctrines of Staht. — that inflammable bodies owed that quality to the presence of a 

 principle Avhich Avas termed phhK/iston, and of course taught that doctrine in 

 this his first course of lectures. But his conversion to the Lavoiserian or French 

 theory of chemistry Avas at hand. 



It is generally known, that from 1777, Lavoisiek had doubted the existence 

 of such a principle as j.>hhi<j!stoii, and in 1785 proposed the antiphlogistic theory, 

 supported by such facts and decisive experiments, that his vicAvs Aven- speedily 

 adopted by his own countrymen ; though for a considerable time afterAvards, they 

 AA-ere not received in Britain. 



The late Sir James Hall happened to pass the Avinter of 1787 in Paris, and 

 was much in the society of Laa^oisieb, who showed great anxiety to make a con- 

 vert of Sir James, and, through him, to spread his doctrines among British 

 chemists. For this purpose he not only gave Sir James free access to his papers, 

 but exhibited to him several very important experiments, even before they had 

 been communicated to the Academy of Sciences, or made known to the chemical 

 Avorld in general. Sir James Hall returned to Scotland in the autumn of 1 787, Avell 

 versed in the neAV doctrines, of Avhich he became an able and zealous propagator. 

 . He had many long discussions on this subject Avith Dr Hope, Avho Avas then a 

 keen supporter of the phlogistic hypothesis, but Avas soon convinced by the argu- 

 ments and facts communicated by his friend ; and next Avinter he taught them 

 to his class, the first occasion on Avhich the Lavoiserian doctrines were introduced 

 in a public course of lectures in Great Britain. 



In the beginning of 1783 Dr Hope Avas admitted as a Fellow of this Society ; 

 and soon after he resolved to pass the summer vacation in Paris. 



