ANNALS 



OF 



PHILOSOPHY. 



jMAY, 1815. 



Article I. 



Biographieal Account of Joseph Black, M. D. F. R. S. E. ^c, 

 Professor of Chemistry in the University of Edinburgh. 



By Thomas Thomson, M. D. F. R. S. 



The materials from which the following account was drawn were 

 first given to the public in the preface to Dr. Black's lectures, 

 edited by Professor Kobison. Mr. Robison informs us that he was 

 indebted for most of his facts " to a paper read to the Royal 

 Society of Edinburgh by the near relation of Dr. Black, Dr. Adam 

 Ferguson, Professor of Mathematics in the University, and well 

 known in the republic of letters by works of the very first rank." 



Dr. Joseph Black was born in France on the banks of the 

 Garonne in the year 17^28. His father, Mr. John Black, was a 

 native of Belfast, in Ireland, but of a Scotch family, which had 

 been some time settled there. Mr. Black resided for the most part 

 at Bourdeaux, where he carried on the wine trade. He married a 

 daughter of Mr. Robert Gordon, of Hilhead, in Aberdeenshire, 

 who was also engaged in the same trade at Bourdeaux. 



Tlie mother of Dr. Black, and the mother of Mr. James Russel, 

 Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh, 

 were sisters ; and the mother of Dr. Adam Ferguson was their 

 aunt, a cijxumstance which was the origin, thougii not the cement, 

 of a friendship subsisting between them through life. 



Ill the year IJIO youHg Black, thei\ in the l'2th year of his age, 

 was sent to Jk-Hii'-t, tliat he might have the education of a British 

 subject. After liiiibiruig his grammar school education, he went, in 

 I7>'', to the I iiiversity of Glasgow. Dr. CuUen liad commenced 

 his great literary career, and having made choice of philosophical 



Vol. V. N" V. X 



