Three presidential addresses to the Chemical Section of the Philosophical Society of Glasgow : on the study of the history of chemistry, recent inquiries into the early history of chemistry, eleven centuries of chemistry / by John Ferguson.

  • John Ferguson
Date:
1879
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Three presidential addresses to the Chemical Section of the Philosophical Society of Glasgow : on the study of the history of chemistry, recent inquiries into the early history of chemistry, eleven centuries of chemistry / by John Ferguson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    Eleven Centuries of C/teviistry. Address on resigning the Presidency of the Chemical Section of the Philosophical Society. By John Ferguson, Esq., M.A., Professor of Chemistry in the University of Glasgow. [Read before the Chemical Section, 11th November, 1878.] In accordance with a promise I made at the close of last Session, and seeing that I shall not have again an opportunity of addressing the Section officially, I am now desirous of presenting to your notice a few reflections on the science more especially cultivated here, in continuation and conclusion of those which I have already bi'ought before you.* I have been reminded by a look cast on chronological tables that this year, 1878, is the centenary of the birth of two of the most eminent discoverers of modern times, as well as that the year '78 has been more or less notable in the byegone annals of Chemistry. The title or idea of my present Address is, therefore, Eleven Centuries of Chemistry. Eleven hundred from eighteen hundred and seventy-eight leaves us with 778. I begin with that date, and ask what was known of Chemistry, and who were the chemists 1 778. If chronology is to be depended on, a couple of years earlier, that is, in 776-7, the first and greatest of the mediaeval chemists had died. He was the first—because, although he him- self speaks of the ancients, meaning thereby his forerunners, nothing is known of those older chemists. He was the greatest— because his works have completely eclipsed or superseded those of his predecessors; because he had the greatest reputation among his contemporaries; because his works were numerous and important, his knowledge extensive and accurate, his theoretical views far-reaching, his practice, based on bis facts and theories, logical and successful. His renown has come to us at the present unabated, he is quoted in every period until now, and he is referred to in the most recent text-books on pure and applied Chemistry. His science is safe to be known to all future genera- * Proceeding of (he Philosophical Society of Glasgow, vol. x., p. 27 and p. 368.