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 of Edinburgh, and of the Royal College of Physicians, He was, besides, first physician, to his majesty for Scotland. It is worth notice that he made, in 1767, the first attempt to inflate a balloon with hydrogen (Ed. Encycl. iii. (pt. ii.) 553). His lectures were published by Robison in 1803 from notes found after his death, eked out by those of his hearers, in two quarto volumes, entitled 'Lectures on the Elements of Chemistry, delivered in the University of Edinburgh.' A German translation by Crell appeared at Hamburg in 1804–5, and again in 1818, in four vols. 8vo. Black communicated to the Royal Society of London a paper 'On the supposed Effect of Boiling upon Water in disposing it to freeze more readily, ascertained by Experiment’ (Phil. Trans. lxv. 124) and to that of Edinburgh ‘An Analysis of the Waters of some Hot Springs in Iceland’ (Trans. R. Soc. Ed. iii. 95). Two letters by him on chemical subjects were published, one by Lavoisier in the ‘Annales de Chimie,' the other by Crell in his 'Collections' for 1783.

 BLACK, PATRICK, M.D. (1813–1879), physician, was son of Colonel Patrick Black, of the Bengal cavalry, and like his father was called after his ancestor, Sir Patrick Dun, president of the Irish College of Physicians in 1681. He was born at Aberdeen in 1813, was sent to Eton in 1828, matriculated at Christ Church in 1831, and graduated M.D. at Oxford in 1836. In 1842 he was elected assistant physician to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, in 1851 Warden of its college, in 1860 physician to the hospital, and somewhat later lecturer on medicine in the school. Black was a tall and handsome man, and the trust which his open countenance encouraged was never disappointed. He was a careful observer, a just reasoner, well read in medicine, a scholar who enjoyed literature, a physician who, as one of his patients remarked, hastened no one into the grave, yet he never attained a large practice. That he was a man of considerable property perhaps stood in his way, but another reason was that he had so little belief in treatment that both students and patients perceived that he regarded his own prescription as a ceremonial observance rather than as a practical measure. He even questioned the value of quinine as a remedy for ague. In 1855 Black wrote a short treatise: ‘Chloroform; how shall we ensure safety in its administration?’ In 1867 he revised the Latin part of the ‘Nomenclature of Diseases’ for the College of Physicians, of which he was a fellow and three times censor. In 1876 he published a popular lecture on ‘Respiration,’ a pamphlet on ‘Scurvy,’ and an ‘Essay on the Use of the Spleen.’ His sceptical turn of mind is noticeable in all: he doubts whether chloroform ever causes death except by simple suffocation, doubts whether lime juice prevents scurvy, and doubts whether the spleen does anything but regulate the current of the blood. His scepticism was an infirmity which prevented his accumulated observation from yielding its proper fruit, but it did not affect his personal relations with mankind. He was sound in his judgment of character, firm in his friendship, and universal in his kindness. He died on 12 Oct. 1879. His colleague, Dr. Reginald Southey, wrote his memoir in the St. Bartholomew's Hospital Reports, vol. xv., and his former house physician, Dr. R. Bridges, published in 1876 a Latin poem dedicated to Dr. Black. and describing in Ovidian verse his personal appearance, character, and manner of teaching.

 BLACK, ROBERT, D.D. (1752–1817), Irish presbyterian minister, was born in 1752, the eldest son of Valentine Black, a farmer at Mullabrack, co. Armagh. In 1770 he entered the class of ethics under Dr. Thomas Reid at Glasgow. He was licensed by the Armagh presbytery, declined in 1776 a call to Keady, co. Armagh, and in the following year, on the death of Alexander Colville, M.D., the non-subscribing minister of Dromore, co. Down, he accepted the call of this congregation, which returned to the jurisdiction of the general synod of Ulster. Black was ordained at Dromore by the Armagh presbytery on 18 June 1777. On 15 Feb. 1782 he attended the convention of Irish volunteers at Dungannon as Captain, Robert Black, and seconded the resolution adopted in favour of catholic emancipation. Like other ministers of that date, he sometimes preached in regimentals, and with drumhead for bookrest. He attended also the second great Dungannon convention on 8 Sept. 1783, when his eloquence attracted the attention of Frederick Augustus, earl of Bristol and bishop of Derry, and of Robert Moore of Molenan near Derry. Hence his call to First Derry, where he was installed