LIFE of Br BLACK, log 



appear in liquefaction and evaporation, we may fafely affume as 

 exifling alfo, though in a latent ftate, in every fluid of a fimilar 

 form. Even Black admitted, that in the atmofphere, under 

 all the manifeft changes of its temperature, there may be, and 

 probably is, a very great meafure of latent heat. 



Such were the fcientific difcoveries of Black, when refiding 

 as a ftudent at Glafgow or at Edinburgh, at leaft before his no- 

 mination to a profeflbrfhip at either place. When his friend Dr 

 Cullen was removed from Glafgow to Edinburgh, Black was 

 appointed to fucceed as ProfefTor of Medicine at the former 

 place ; and following his example as lecturer on Ghemiftry alfo, 

 was, from this time forward, more employed in detailing parti- 

 culars already known, for the information of his pupils, than in 

 purfuing any feries of inveftigation for himfelf. 



In entering upon this tafk, it became matter of courfe to de- 

 fine the fcience, and even in this our ProfefTor gave a fpecimen 

 of his character, and the modefty of his pretentions, in a matter 

 formerly enveloped in myftery, and the affectation of magical 

 power. 



The fcience of nature, indeed, is interfiling in all its branches, 

 whether they rife into the heavens, or fink into the bowels of 

 the earth. We are placed in a bufy fcene, and have our fafety 

 and accommodations at ftake, in the midft of operations and 

 changes that greatly affect them. The principles that operate' in 

 our fyftem are the objects of our fcience, and when known, be- 

 come the inftruments of our art, towards procuring what it has 

 pleafed Providence to make the conditions of our prefervation 

 and well-being. In refpect to thefe principles, fcience becomes 

 an accemon of fkill to every manufacturer, and to every labour- 

 er of the foil, as it is to the contemplative an opening into the 

 interior fprings, which are employed in the production of fo 

 much beauty and order in the fyftem of nature around us ; and 

 this is the rank of importance, which, without the pretentions of 



alchemy. 



