The lal<'. Dr. Thomas Thomson. 255 



been said, was, I am persuaded, misunderstood in most of those cases 

 where be left an unfavourable impression; for although little attentive to 

 conventional usages, and decidedly sparing of complimentary language, 

 he was well known to be remarkably sensitive to the feelings of others. 



In ecclesiastical matters Dr. Thomson adhered to the Church of Scot- 

 land, and was, if I am not mistaken, a licentiate of that body. He took 

 no part, however, in church politics, and although in articles of faith, as 

 indeed on every other subject, he had fixed and well-considered opinions, 

 he has never given them to the world ; nor, so far as I know, has he 

 made them known to friends out of his own family I was favoured some 

 years ago, without Dr. Thomson's knowledge, with permission to copy 

 out a Catechism of his composition, written in his own hand, for the use 

 of his infant family. It proves the religious feeling, which none who 

 knew Dr. Thomson doubted him the possession of, and it touches upon so 

 many points in the Christian faith, on which the opinions of its author 

 have scarcely been made known, as to call from a friend of mine in 

 another church an expression of satisfaction at finding in the Catechism so 

 much of which he could approve, and so little to 'condenm. The work is 

 not certainly a " body of divinity," but, so far as it goes, it must be ad- 

 mitted to be excellent. 



As a collector and compiler, I believe it will be generally granted that 

 Dr. Thomson, particularly in the earlier part of his career, was unequalled. 

 His System of Chemistry was looked upon for many years as the most 

 complete and well arranged collection of facts, and it abundantly proved 

 the prodigious industry and perseverance, as well as the extensive know- 

 ledge of its author. As a systematist he may have adhered too long to 

 the arrangement which he founded on the combustibility of bodies, excel- 

 lent as it was, and consistent with what was known at the time of its 

 introduction, but in our earlier days Thomson's system was deservedly 

 esteemed the standard work on chemistry, and was always referred to for 

 the state of the science on any particular subject. 



Of Dr. Thomson as a journalist, there can be no doubt that he did essen- 

 tial service to the progress of science, in commencing the " Annals of Phi- 

 losophy." Nicholson's Journal, as well as the Philosophical Magazine, had 

 then lost much of its interest for the student of chemistry. Dr. Thomson 

 introduced many new features into his journal. Besides original papers 

 contributed by his friends, he gave abstracts of the most important 

 researches of the Continental as well as the British chemists, and accom- 

 panied them with remarks which, if themselves sometimes open to 

 criticism, gave all the life and interest to the subject, which open discus- 

 sion gives to the papers read at the meetings of a scientific society. He 

 was the first, as his nephew has remarked, to introduce annual lleports of 

 the progress of improvement in the natural sciences. These were com- 

 menced in 1814, and continued till 1820. In the collecting and arrang- 

 ing of materials for such a contribution, we can understand how an 

 actively conducted journal keeps its editor ait couraid of the subjects of 



