MEMOIR OF THE LATE DR THOMAS CHARLES HOPE. 431 



his acknowledged skill in experiment, and the brilliant path then opening for im- 

 portant discoveries in chemistry, which have immortalized the contemporary 

 names of Black, Priestley, Davy, Wollaston, Dalton, and Faeaday among 

 ourselves — of Lavoisier, Beethollet, Vauquelin, Gx^y Ltjssac, Volta, Klaf- 

 EOTH, Berzelius, and Liebig on the Continent. That there is foimdation for 

 this criticism, I will not attempt to deny : and, indeed, Dr Hope seems to have 

 anticipated it, by some observations he once made verbally to myself, and has 

 stated in a paper now in my possession, as his apology. " Those," says he, " who 

 devote themselves to the science of chemistry, may be divided into two classes — 

 1st, Those whose labours are employed in original researches, to extend our 

 knowledge of the facts and principles of the science. 2dly, Of those whose busi- 

 ness it is, from university or other appointments, to collect the knowledge of all 

 that has been discovered, or is going forward in the science, to digest and arrange 

 that knowledge into lectures, to contrive appropriate and illustrative experiments, 

 and devise suitable apparatus for the purpose of communicating a knowledge of 

 chemistry to the rising generation, or others who may desire to obtain it. 

 From my professional situation, I consider myself, as Dr Black had done 

 before me, as belonging to the second class of chemists. I consider my vocation 

 to be the teaching the science." 



It is true that it is the paramount duty of one appointed to teach a science to 

 make that his principal object ; but this, I humbly conceive, is quite consistent 

 with most extensive original research. It may be that the regular recurrence of 

 the labour of teaching the elements of a science, requiring several hours of daily 

 personal exertion, may sometimes indispose a lecturer to experimental investiga- 

 tions of a similar kind ; but such has not been its effects on Davy, Thomson, 

 Berzelius, or Liebig ; all of whom have combined the business of teachers of 

 chemistry with the most valuable and laborious original researches. Dr Black had 

 certainly made all his great discoveries before he was Professor in the University 

 of Edinburgh ; but his health was always very delicate, and his example can 

 scarcely be pleaded for one who enjoyed such uninterrupted and vigorous health, 

 that he never was a single day prevented from lecturing by indisposition, for a 

 period of more than fifty years. 



Dr Hope undoubtedly fulfilled admirably the duty of a public teacher of 

 chemistry, as we have already stated. His mode of lecturing was methodical and 

 clear, though his style was occasionally too laboured ; he scarcely ever failed in 

 the performance of the nicest and most difficult experiments, which he introduced 

 to an extent pre^dously never attempted in chemical prelections ; and he possessed 

 the faculty of impressing his hearers with just notions of the importance and 

 interest of the science. Still it is to be regretted, that one so well qualified to 

 advance the boundaries of the study, had limited his ambition and his exertions 



VOL. XVI. part IV. 5 R 



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