74 ESSAYS BIOGRAPHICAL AND CHEMICAL 



with which he used to weigh the guineas paid in as fees, 

 defends this perhaps somewhat curious practice, and 

 refutes the imputation ; and Robison, who also alludes to 

 it, states in a footnote that he could give more than one 

 or two instances in which a great part of Black's fortune 

 was at risk for a friend. 



As his strength decreased, the care of his health 

 occupied more and more of his attention; he became 

 more and more abstemious in his diet. One of his 

 intimate friends, Dr. Ferguson, gives the following account 

 of his death, one worthy of such a calm and placid philo- 

 sopher: 'On the 26th November 1799, and in the 

 seventy- first year of his age, he expired, without any 

 convulsion, shock, or stupor to announce or retard the 

 approach of death. Being at table, with his usual fare, 

 some bread, a few prunes, and a measured quantity of 

 milk, diluted with water, and having the cup in his hand 

 when the last stroke of his pulse was to be given, he had 

 set it down on his knees, which were joined together, and 

 kept it steady with his hand in the manner of a person 

 perfectly at ease, and in this attitude expired, without 

 spilling a drop, and without a writhe in his countenance, 

 as if an experiment had been required to show his friends 

 the facility with which he departed.' 



He left more money than any one thought he could 

 have acquired in the course of his career. His will was a 

 somewhat fantastic one ; he divided his property into ten 

 thousand shares ; and he distributed it among numerous 

 individuals in shares or in fractions of shares, according to 

 his conception of their needs or deserts. 



A tale is told in Kay's Edinburgh Portraits of Black and 

 Hutton, who were almost inseparable cronies. Having had 

 a disquisition as to the waste of food, it occurred to them 

 that while testaceous marine animals were much esteemed 

 as an article of diet, those of the land were neglected ; 



