578 



NA TURE 



\_Apri/ 17, 1884 



scholar, a man of great social qualities, and lastly, 

 that he tried to organise a defence of the town of 

 Edinburgh against the Pretender in 1745, and caught 

 thereby the maUdy that ended his life. Other occupmts 

 of the chair were Matthew Stewart, still remembered 

 for his " Propositiones Geometricas " ; John Playfair, dis- 

 tinguished as a critic and historian of science, introducer 

 of the Continental methods into the mathematical studies 

 of Edinburgh ; John Leslie, an excellent geometer, but 

 now better remembered for his contribution^ to the 

 science of heat ; and William Wallace, inventor of the 

 eidograph. 



At fir=t, natural philosophy, in so far as it was distinct 

 from Aristotelian physics, seems to have been ia the 

 province of the Professor of Mathematics. It was so in 

 Maclaurin's time, although a separate professorship for it 

 had been founded in 170S. The first professor that need 

 be mentioned here is John Robinson, whose articles in 

 the third edition of the Eiicyclopaiiia Biitannica are still 

 worth consulting, and whose " Elements of Mechanical 

 Philosophy " was for a time a standard work on the sub- 

 ject. The original close connection between mathematics 

 and natural philosophy probably led to what at first sight 

 seems a curious succession of professors. It more than 

 once happened— notably in the cases of Playfair and 

 Leslie— that the holder of the Chair of Mathematics was 

 transferred to that of Natural Philosophy ; in fact, it was 

 in the latter subject that both these professors attained 

 their greatest distinction, the former by his account of the 

 Huttonian Theory of the Earth, the latter by his well- 

 known researches on heat. But the greatest of all the 

 past Professors of Natural Philosophy was undoubtedly 

 James David Forbes ; he, along with David Brewster, at 

 first his patron, and for a long time his rival, are to be 

 reckoned among the greatest ornaments of the Uni- 

 versity of Edinburgh during the generation that has 

 passed away. Both were students of the University and 

 both were candidates for the Natural Philosophy Chair ; 

 Brewster, failing probably for political reasons, was re- 

 served for the higher honour of the principalship. The 

 works of these two great men are so fresh in the recollec- 

 tion of our readers that no words need be wasted here in 

 emphasising them. It is worthy of mention, however, 

 that the late James Clerk Maxwell and Prof Balfour 

 Stewart, whose fame sheds undying lustre on their 

 Scottish alma inalcr, were trained in practical physics 

 under Forbes. 



The Chair of Chemistry, founded in 1713, was at first 

 essentially a medical chair; its first occupant, James 

 Crawford, was a remarkable man in every way, a pupil of 

 Boerhaave, and w^ell versed in what little chemical know- 

 ledge then e.xisted. It is noteworthy, as showing the small 

 e.xtent of medical and chemical knowledge at that time, 

 that he was also Professor of Hebrew ! His immediate 

 successors call for no remark until we reach Cullen (1755), 

 who, though better known as a great physician, was also 

 distinguished as a great teacher of chemistry ; he was, in 

 fact, the first to establish that science as a study separate 

 and distinct from medicine. His two immediate successors, 

 Black and Hope, followed his lead, and were very success- 

 ful teachers ; in fact, in Hope's time the class reached the 

 astonishing number of 500. Besides being a good teacher, 

 Black was a man of genius. His results regarding car- 

 bonic acid, embodied in his graduation thesis " De humore 

 acido a cibis orto, et magnesia alba," and his discovery 

 of latent heat form cornerstones in the structure of modern 

 chemical and physical science. Perhaps the greatest 

 praise is that Lavoisier regarded him as his master. 

 Hope will be remembered for his experiments on the 

 maximum density point of water, and for his discovery 

 of strontia as a separate alkaline earth. In 1844 the 

 chair became a chair of pure chemistry. Among the 

 past professors since then we may mention Sir Lyon 

 Playfair, whose scientific reputation is now overshadowed 



by his fame as an educational organiser, and an able 

 political champion of the interests of science. 



The Chair of Natural History was a later foundation 

 (1770?), and at first was a sinecure. Since the beginning 

 of the century, however, it has not wanted for distinguished 

 occupants. Jameson (1804) was an excellent mineralogist ; 

 he founded the splendid museum now absorbed in the 

 Museum of Science and Art, and must have been a 

 great teacher to judge by the number of distinguished 

 ]3upils that he trained, among whom w'ere Edward Forbes, 

 John and Harry Goodsir, Macgillivray, Nicol, and Darwin. 

 The first of these succeeded him, but was cut off after a 

 brief but brilliant career too well known to need descrip- 

 tion. The last of the past occupants of this chair, Wyville 

 Thomson, has done the University of Edinburgh en- 

 during honour by connecting it with that most fascinating 

 of all the walks of modern natural science — the e.xplora- 

 tion of the deep sea. 

 I The history of the Chair of Astronomy has been little 

 but a record of misfortune, as far as the University is con- 

 cerned. The first'professor, Robert Blair, was-endowed with 

 a fair salary, but no Observatory was given him, and he 

 never lectured or took any part in the work of the Univer- 

 sity. He is remembered chiefly for his researches on 

 achromatic telescopes, which he brought to great perfection 

 by means of fluid lenses of his own invention. The second 

 professor, Thomas Henderson, was invested with the 

 dignity and duties of Astronomer Royal for Scotland, and 

 was provided with the present Observatory on the Calton 

 Hill. He devoted himself ardently to his duties as an 

 observer, and will be remembered as the first to determine 

 the parallax- of a fixed star (o Centauri). He never lec- 

 tured. Where the blame of the unsatisfactory position of 

 the Astronomy Chair and of the Edinburgh Observatory 

 rests, and how the matter is to be remedied, is one of the 

 vexed questions to be settled by the coming University 

 Commission for Scotland. 



The Chair of Technology was inaugurated with great 

 promise of success by (jeorge Wilson, whose briUiant 

 lectures and important services in connection with what 

 is now the Museum of Science and Art showed how im- 

 portant such a chair might under favourable circumstances 

 become. The chair was, however, abolished in 1S59, 

 under circumstances that do not appear to reflect much 

 credit either on those who then acted for the Senatus, or 

 on the Government department which was concerned in 

 the transaction. It may be hoped that, now the im- 

 portance of technical education is being recognised, the 

 mistake then committed will be remedied. This is all the 

 more to be desired because Edinburgh already possesses 

 the rudiinents of a technical faculty in the Chairs of 

 Engineering and Agriculture. 



There remains but one more Chair of Natural Science to 

 be mentioned, viz. Geology. It numbers but one past 

 professor, Archibald Geikie, concerning whom we need 

 only express the wish that his followers may be worthy 

 of him. 



-Although the subject scarcely belongs to these pages, 

 yet no notice of the scientific side of the University of 

 Edinburgh would be complete without at least an allusion to 

 the glories of its medical school, which ha\e attracted the 

 admiration, if not occasionally the envy, of similar institu- 

 tions. It may seem curious, but it began by the institution 

 of a botanical, or, as it was properly then called, a physic 

 garden. The keeper of this garden (originally it is 

 believed a member of the characteristically Scotch Guild 

 of Gardeners), was after a time constituted (1676) the 

 first Professor of Botany, and in fact the first medical 

 professor. 



If it were needful to insist farther upon the important 

 place which the L'niversity of Edinburgh occupies among 

 the educational bodies of Great Britain, we might point 

 to the number of her students that now hold professorial 

 chairs all over the United Kingdom, and indeed through- 



