BLACK. 327 



to the press, often while their speculations are crude, 

 and their inquiries not finished. Nor could the reason 

 often urged in defence of this find much favour with 

 one who seemed never to regard the being anticipated 

 by his fellow-labourers as any very serious evil, so the 

 progress of science was secured. Except two papers, 

 one in the 'London Philosophical Transactions' for 

 1775 on the freezing of boiled water ; the other, in the 

 second volume of the ' Edinburgh Transactions,' on 

 the Iceland hot springs ; he never published any work 

 after that of which we are now to speak, in 1755, 

 and which, but for the accidental occasion that gave 

 rise to it, would possibly, like his other original 

 speculations, never have been given by himself to the 

 press. 



Upon taking his degree at Edinburgh College he 

 wrote and published a Latin Thesis, after the manner 

 of that as well as the foreign universities. The subject 

 was 'Magnesia, and the Acid produced by Food in the 

 Stomach' (De Acldo e Cibis orto ; et de Magnesia), and 

 it contained the outline of his discoveries already made. 

 Having sent some copies of this Thesis to his father 

 at Bordeaux, one was given to Montesquieu, who at 

 once saw the vast importance of the truths which it 

 unfolded. He called a few days after and said to Mr. 

 Black, " I rejoice with you, my very good friend : your 

 son will be the honour of your name and of your 

 family." But though the discoveries were sketched 

 distinctly enough in this writing, they were only 

 given at large the following year in his celebrated 

 work, 'Experiments on Magnesia, Quicklime, and 

 other Alkaline Substances,' incontestably the most 



