Joseph Black was born at Bordeaux, in 1728. His father, John Black, was a native of Belfast, a member of a Scottish family settled in Ireland. His mother belonged to the family of Gordon, of Halhead, in Aberdeenshire, and was a cousin of Dr. Adam Ferguson. In 1740 he was sent home and educated at the Grammar School of Belfast. In 1746 he matriculated at the University of Glasgow, where he remained till 1750, studying in the faculties of art and medicine. He then removed to Edinburgh, where he graduated as doctor of medicine in 1754. In 1756 he was appointed Professor of anatomy and Lecturer on Chemistry in the University of Glasgow. He soon exchanged with a colleague the duty of teaching anatomy for that of physiology, and continued to lecture on physiology and chemistry till 1766, when he was called to Edinburgh to succeed his friend and teacher, Dr. Cullen, in the Chair of Chemistry. He died November 26, 1799.

Personal

  His personal appearance and manner were those of a gentleman, and peculiarly pleasing. His voice in lecturing was low, but fine; and his articulation so distinct that he was perfectly well heard by an audience consisting of several hundreds. His discourse was so plain and perspicuous, his illustrations by experiment so apposite, that his sentiments on any subject never could be mistaken, even by the most illiterate; and his instructions were so clear of all hypothesis or conjecture, that the hearer rested on his conclusions with the confidence scarcely exceeded in matters of his own experience.

  The physical sciences have few more illustrious names to boast than that of Joseph Black. With all the habits and the disciplined faculties of a true philosopher, with the temper as well as the capacity of a sage, he possessed that happy union of strong but disciplined imagination, with powers of close undivided attention, and ample resources of reasoning, which forms original genius in scientific pursuits; and, as all these qualities may be combined in an individual without his happening to signalise his investigations of nature by any discovery, we must add that his life was crowned with the good fortune of opening to mankind new paths in which both himself and his followers successfully trod, enlarging to an incalculable extent the bounds of human knowledge…. The qualities which distinguished him as an inquirer and as a teacher followed him into all the ordinary affairs of life. He was a person whose opinions on every subject were marked by calmness and sagacity, wholly free from both passion and prejudice, while affectation was only known to him from the comedies he might have read. His temper in all the circumstances of life was unruffled.

  Black was a prominent member of the intellectual society by which Edinburgh was then distinguished. Amongst his intimates were his relative and colleague Adam Ferguson, Hume, Hutton, A. Carlyle, Dugald Stewart, and John Robison. Adam Smith with whom he knit a close friendship at Glasgow, used to say that “no man had less nonsense in his head than Dr. Black.” He was one of James Watt’s earliest patrons, and kept up a constant correspondence with him. Though grave and reserved, Black was gentle and sincere, and it is recorded of him that he never lost a friend. He was at the same time gifted with a keen judgment of character, and with the power of expressing that judgment in an “indelible phrase.” In person he is described as “rather above the middle size; he was of a slender make; his countenance was placid and exceedingly engaging” (Thomson). As he advanced in years, Robison tells us, he preserved a pleasing air of inward contentment. Graceful and unaffected in manner, “he was of most easy approach, affable, and readily entered into conversation, whether serious or trivial.” Nor did he distain elegant accomplishments.

General

  The modesty of his nature making him averse to publish his speculations, and the genuine devotion to the investigation of truth, for its own sake, rendering him most open in his communications with all who were engaged in the same pursuits, his incontestable claim to be regarded as the founder of modern chemistry has been oftentimes overlooked; and, while some have endeavoured more or less obscurely to mingle themselves with his discoveries, others have thought it becoming to postdate the new system, that it might seem the produce of a somewhat later age. The interests of truth and justice therefore require that we should minutely examine the facts of the case; and, happily, the evidence is so clear that it only requires an attentive consideration to remove all doubt from the subject. I feel it a duty imperatively cast upon me to undertake a task from which, did I not regard it as less difficult than sacred, I might shrink. But I had the great happiness of being taught by himself, having attended one of the last courses of lectures which he delivered; and the knowledge thus gained cannot be turned to a better use than in recording the glory and in vindicating the fame of my illustrious master.

  He struck out a theory which, being eminently original, was violently attacked, but is now generally admitted. With a boldness and reach of thought not often equalled, he arrived at the conclusion, that whenever a body loses some of its consistence, as in the case of ice becoming water, or water becoming steam, such body receives an amount of heat which our senses, though aided by the most delicate thermometer, can never detect…. The intellect of Black belonged to a class, which, in the eighteenth century, was almost universal in Scotland, but was hardly to be found in England, and which, for want of a better word, we are compelled to call deductive, though fully admitting that even the most deductive minds have in them a large amount of induction, since, indeed, without induction, the common business of life could not be carried on.