OF 



JOSEPH BLACK: HIS LIFE AND WORK 73 



Robison tells us that, ' while he scorned the quackery of 

 a showman, the simplicity, neatness, and elegance with 

 which they were performed were truly admirable/ And 

 Brougham also praises his manipulation. 'I have seen 

 him/ he writes, 'pour boiling water or boiling acid from 

 one vessel to another, from a vessel that had no spout 

 into a tube, holding it at such a distance as made the 

 stream's diameter small, and so vertical that not a drop 

 was spilt. The long table on which the different pro- 

 cesses had been carried on was as clean at the end of the 

 lecture as it had been before the apparatus was planted 

 upon it. Not a drop of liquid, not a grain of dust 

 remained/ 



Black had a profound influence on the attitude of the 

 Edinburgh public towards science. The reputation which 

 he established as a lecturer induced many to attend his 

 lectures without any particular wish to learn chemistry, 

 but merely to enjoy an intellectual treat ; and it became 

 the fashion to hear him. 



The study of the chemistry of gases, after Black's dis- 

 covery of carbonic acid, made rapid progress; but Black 

 did not take part in its advance. His health had never 

 been good; he was very subject to dyspepsia; and on 

 several occasions his lungs or his bronchise appear to have 

 narrowly escaped being affected, for he was troubled with 

 spitting of blood. But he had learned the lesson yva>0e 

 o-eavrov know thyself; and he regulated his exercise and 

 his diet with the result that he lived a quiet, and a fairly 

 long life. 'Happy is the nation that has no history'; 

 and Dr. Black's uneventful life was passed in happiness. 

 He held his chair for more than thirty years, and grew 

 old gracefully, living amongst many intimate friends. 

 He at one time acquired a reputation for parsimony ; but 

 Brougham, while suggesting a reason for this report, 

 namely that he kept a pair of scales on his study table 



