Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 1.djvu/121

 110 BLACK At iength, in 1788, De Luc published hig Tdées sur la Metéorologie;" and it was indeed with astonishment that Black and his friends perceived the doctrine claimed by De Ltc as his own discovery; coolly informing the reader that he had great satisfaction in understanding that Dr. Black coincided with his opinions! od ano 1766, his friend Dr. Cullen being appointed professer of medicine in the university of Edinburgh, a vacancy occurred in the chemical chair, and Dr. Black was ägain appointed his successor with general appróbation. The great concoturse of pupils which the deservedly high repu- tation of that celebrated school of medicine brought to his lectures, was highly gratifying to a mind like Dr. Black's, which delighted in attracting attention to his favourite science. As the demands on his talents increased, they became more conspicnous and more extensively useful. Impressed with a strong sense of the importance of his duties as a professor, he directed his whole attention to lhis lectures, and his object was to make them so plain, that they should be comprehended by the meanest and most illiterate capacity among his hearers. Never did any man succeed more completely. His pupils were not only instructed, but delighited, and many became his pupils merely to be amused. This pleasing style, and the numerous and well-eonducted experiments by wbich he illustrated every poiut of the science, contributed greatly to extend the knowledge of chemistry, and it became in Edinburgh a necessary and fashionable part of the accom- In plishment of a gentleman. This "attention, however, to simplifying his lectures had an effect, which perhäps was, on the whole, rather unfortunate. The improvement of the science appears to have been entirely laid aside by him. Perhaps also the delicacy of his constitution precluded his exertions. The slightest cold, the most trifling approach to repletion, oceasioned feverishness, affected his breath, and, if not speedily removed by relaxation of thought and gentle