The Correspondence of Joseph Black (2 vols.) ed. by Robert G.W. Anderson and J. Jones (review)

Joseph Black was an important figure in the late 18^th-century worlds of Western medicine and chemistry, not only in his home in Scotland but also throughout Britain and beyond. He remains one of the greats of the period. Yet, as co-editor Robert Anderson notes in the preface of this massive work, “[h]e published little … His life can be charted by the content of his surviving correspondence, even though much of it is missing” (ix). The editors have gathered those remaining letters “now scattered among libraries through the Western hemisphere” (ix) and made them easily available to any who would study Black, his correspondents, and his times. We should all be thankful.

These two volumes include a lot of material beyond the letters and their footnotes. There are 355 letters by Black, 408 to him, and 101 other items such as duplicate drafts, reports, notes, and so on. In addition to the preface, volume 1 contains lists of illustrations and abbreviations, a note on transcription, a chronological index of the letters indicating who wrote to whom, and the first 399 letters and items. There are introductory chapters that cover appropriate historical background, Black’s life and work, a history of the manuscripts, and the nature and significance of the letters. Volume 2 has Items 400-835, various appendices that include brief biographies of people, a Black family tree, and the extracts from his income book, household accounts, a will, property valuation, and more. The volume ends with a bibliography and index.

Glancing at the chronological index of letters, one quickly uncovers two of Black’s correspondents with numerous surviving letters: William Cullen and James Watt. Black was the fifth of nine sons, and his father, a successful businessman, urged him to take up a profession after finishing at Glasgow University. Black chose medicine at Glasgow, and there he encountered William Cullen, who had become the first chemistry professor at the university in 1747. Black was one of Cullen’s few pupils who took up the professor’s invitation to use his laboratory for experimental work. In 1752, presumably with Cullen’s blessing, Black transferred to the larger and more prestigious school at Edinburgh University to finish his medical degree. His interest in causticity at Glasgow led to experimental work for his dissertation at Edinburgh, and, in the process, he discovered the role of “fixed air” as he called carbon dioxide.

Cullen followed Black to Edinburgh in 1755, becoming professor of chemistry there. Black succeeded his former teacher in the post in 1766. He had spent the previous decade in Cullen’s former post at Glasgow University. By the time he arrived back in Edinburgh, Black had identified carbon dioxide, developed the analytical balance, and discovered magnesium and latent and specific heat. He annually gave a long series of courses at the two places from 1757 until 1796. In addition, he practised medicine part-time until 1795.

Cullen died in February 1790, and their correspondence as documented here continued until the middle of 1789. The first such letter is number 6 in the index and dated 10 February 1753. Black describes his activities and impressions at the Edinburgh medical school and declared: “I think there is no branch should be more cultivated in a medical college” than chemistry, which was at that time a part of the medical curriculum (104). Yet Black also notes: “[m]edicine has put on quite a new face to me since I came here, and I can now see an operation with as great ease as before I did a dissection. I go among patients groaning or gasping without any uneasiness, so that objection is quite vanished” (105). The final letter between them was sent around July 1789 and concerns a medical consultation. Much of their surviving correspondence falls from 1753 to 1764.

Black and Watt became acquainted at Glasgow University. Watt...