Professor Thomas Thomson. 89 



alumina, and glucina, including the emerald or beryl ; and 

 thus he proceeds throughout. In the editions of his " Sys- 

 tem," the first of which (a development of the original article 

 in the Encyclopedia) was published in 1802, he continued 

 the same arrangement and symbols, and was thus not only 

 the originator of symbolic nomenclature in modern chemistry, 

 but was the first chemist to bring mineralogy systematically 

 within the domain of that science. In the third edition of 

 his " System,' 1 published in 1807, in illustrating the atomic 

 theory of Dalton, and in his article on oxalic acid, in the 

 Philosophical Transactions for 1808, he freely uses symbols. 

 Berzelius, who appeared some years later on the chemical 

 stage, being Dr Thomson's junior by five years, published a 

 work in 1814, in Swedish, in which he adopted the system 

 of symbols used by Dr Thomson, with some modifications, 

 (the introduction of Latin initials in certain cases,) but 

 he strictly " followed the rules for this purpose given by 

 Thornton in his ' System of Chemistry,'' " (och skall dervid 

 fblga en enledning som Thomson gifvit i sin kemiska hand- 

 bok.) The work in which this passage occurs, entitled " For- 

 sok att genom anvandandet af den elecktrokemiska theorien, 

 <fcc, grundlagga for mineralogier," af J. Jacob Berzelius, 

 Stockholm, 1814, p. 18, was sent by Berzelius to Dr Thom- 

 son, in the same year, with a request, in a letter which is 

 still extant, that he would endeavour to procure a translator 

 for it. Dr Thomson applied to Dr Marcet and others with- 

 out success ; but at last prevailed on his learned friend, John 

 Black, Esq., who so ably conducted the " Morning Chronicle" 

 for many years, to undertake the task. Dr Thomson gradu- 

 ated in 1799. 2. He continued to lecture in Edinburgh till 

 about 1811, and during that time opened a laboratory for 

 pupils, the first of the kind it is believed in Great Britain. 

 Among those who worked in his laboratory were Dr Henry 

 of Manchester, a chemist for whom he had always the 

 greatest regard, who had visited Edinburgh for the purpose 

 of graduation, and who there made many of his experiments 

 on the analysis of the constituents of coal gas. 3. During 

 this period, likewise, Dr Thomson made his important inves- 

 tigations for Government on the malt and distillation ques- 



