432 MEMOIR OF THE LATE DR THOMAS CHARLES HOPE. 



almost so exclusively to the business of methodizing and detailing the discoveries 

 of others. 



We may here remark, that besides the eminent philosophers already men- 

 tioned as his friends, Hope was on terms of very friendly intercourse with Watt, 

 Dalton, Wollaston, and Davy. His acquaintance with the latter began in 1799, 

 ere that illustrious man had yet risen to celebrity. In passing through Bristol, 

 Hope visited the Pneumatic Institution of Dr Beddoes, and was much struck with 

 the originality and inventive genius of young Davy. Soon afterwards, a lecturer 

 of talent was wanted to fill the Chemical Chair in the Eoyal Institution esta- 

 blished in London, under the management of Count Rumford. Dr Hope was 

 consulted ; he strongly recommended Davy to the notice of the Count ; and in 

 1801, the young chemist was established in the Royal Institution. This anec- 

 dote, which I have extracted from the original correspondence, once in my hands, 

 is honourable to the discernment of Hope, who thus early recognised that energetic 

 genius, which was destined to win the proudest laurels in the career of physical 

 discovery. 



Among Dr Hope's most intimate friends in Scotland, were Dr Hutton, the 

 geologist, and Sir James Hall. From the intercourse with these eminent men, 

 he had early imbibed their geological tenets ; and for many years he was the only 

 public teacher of science in this country, who inculcatedthe doctrines of the 

 Flutunic theory of the earth. During the many years of my studies in this Uni- 

 versity, Hope regularly gave several interesting lectures on geology in his chemical 

 course, and was a strenuous assertor of the truth of the Iluttonian theory, which 

 he continued annually to teach in many subsequent years ; while the rival Wer- 

 nerian doctrines were most ably, and no less strenuously maintained, by my 

 friends, Professor Jameson, and the late most eminent and eloquent lecturer Dr 

 John Mueray. At that time the chemical history of mineral bodies formed no 

 inconsiderable part of a course of chemistry ; and it was in introducing the 

 mineral kingdom to the notice of his pupils, that Dr Hope exhibited many of the 

 proofs of the igneous formation of stony bodies ; which was also illustrated by a 

 well-selected series of rocks, chiefly collected by himself in different excursions 

 in the Highlands and AVestern Isles, and in various other parts of the United 

 Kingdom. 



For many years Dr Hoi'e enjoyed uncommon health, and continued to 

 discharge the duties of the Chemical Chair with his usual success, until within a 

 year of his death. 



A few years before that event, he complained to me of inability to read by 

 candlelight, and of suffering severe pain in his eyes on making the attempt. On 

 examining his eyes, I discovered on each cornea those minute depressions like the 

 marks of the point of a pin, which have been described by some authors as abrasion, 



