JOURNAL OF
CHEMICAL EDUCATION
MEMORIAL TABLET TO JOSEPH BLACK Jmephus Black, &.D. in sinibw Galliac md c parmfibur
A very free rendition of this inscription would read about as follows: This tablet stands in the Greyfriars Churchyard, Edinburgh; the burial place belonged to the Ferguson family to whom Black, who never married, was related. His mother was a cousin of Dr. Adam Ferguson, Black's intimate friend and obituarist ( T r a n s . Royal Soc. Edinburgh, vol. V , part 3, p. 106). In October, 1893, the town council of Edinburgh, after considering a report on certain of the old tombstones in the historic cemetery, resolved "to put in a slab of Craigleath stone, letter and restore the monument of Dr. Joseph Black." The original inscription was reproduced on the new stone and a short statement was added recording the change, and the date, 1894, a t which the work was completed. The inscription reads:
Joseph Black, M.D., though born in France, was'a British citizen, as his father was Irish and his mother Scotch. An alumnus first of the University of Glasgow and then of Edinburgh, he taught chemidryin both of these institutions with the greatest distinction. An apt interpreter of nature, an alert observer, he had a well endowed intellect and wan an eloquent lecturer. He was the real discoverer of fixed air and the first to prove the existence and significance of latent heat. He died in 1799, aged 71. Friends wishing to commemorate these abilities and talents have resolved that this place shall he fittingly marked as long as his remains rest here. The City of Edinburgh has caused this slab to be erected in place of the original marble tombstone.
The photograph is by courtesy of Dr. Sigmund Waldbott, Cincinnati; the information relative to the legislation by the Edinburgh Town Council was secured for me by Professor Andrew N. Meldrum, Edinburgh. Contributed by Ralph E. Oupcr, Uniuersity of Cincinnati
