422 MEMOIR OF THE LATE DR THOMAS CHARLES HOPE. 



carbonic acid, 1 of calcareous earth, and a little of phosphate of u-on and man- 

 ganese, which probably gives it colour." This would lead the unsuspicious 

 reader to infer that Schmeisser had been the discoverer of the new earth, which 

 is certainly not the case ; but this is only one of the many plagiarisms of this 

 writer. The only chemist who has the slightest claim to the merit of an original 

 detecter of Strontian earth, besides Dr Hope, is M. Klaproth ; who, in the 

 Chemische Annalen for 1793-94, compared Strontianite with Witherite. In his 

 first paper, Klaproth conjectured that the two minerals differed in composition, 

 because the salts of Strontian colour the flame of combustibles red, while those 

 of Barj'tes do not ; and this conclusion was afterwards confirmed by some expe- 

 riments of SuLZER and Blumenbach. Neither Klaproth nor Hope seem to 

 have been aware of what the other had discovered, and both may therefore be 

 considered as original discoverers, but the first full investigation of the subject is 

 undoubtedly due to Dr Hope. 



The success of these investigations, and the popularity of Dr Hope's Chemical 

 Lectures at Glasgow, suggested to the celebrated Dr Black, then in declining 

 health, the idea of having his promising pupil Dr Hope associated with him, as 

 his assistant and successsor in the Chemical Chair. He accordingly made the 

 proposal to Dr Hope in 1795, obtained the concurrence of the Patrons, and on 

 the 4th of November of that year, the latter body chose Dr Hope in that capacity. 

 In that session but a few of the lectm-es were delivered by Dr Hope : But in the 

 session of 1796-97, after Dr Black had concluded his admirable Lectures on 

 Heat (as I find from M.S. notes of a friend who attended that course), the 

 venerable Professor introduced Dr Hope to the class in the following terms : — 

 " After having, for between 30 and 40 years, believed and taught the chemical 

 doctrines of Stahl, I have become a convert to the new views of chemical 

 action ; I subscribe to almost all M. Lavoisier's doctrines ; and scruple not to 

 teach them. But they will be fully explained to you by my colleague and friend 

 Dr Hope, who has had the advantage of hearing them from the mouth of their 

 ingenious author." Accordingly, Dr Hope delivered a considerable portion of that 

 wintercourse to a large audience; and in the summer of the year 1797, he also 

 gave a three months' course of Chemistry. 



The eminent men who were at that time the ornaments of our University, 

 were Professors Monro secumJus, Black, Gregory, Robison, Dugald Steavart, 

 and Playfair — and Hope always remembered with much satisfaction his earlier 

 intercourse with Principal Robertson, Adam Smith, and especially with 

 HuTTON the geologist — a constellation of names that shed a lustre on the society 

 of Edinburgh at hat period. 



It would seem that the subject of our memou- still intended to conjoin the 

 practice of medicine with his academical duties. For this purpose, he became a 

 Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in November 1796; and, until some 



