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The First Hundred Years of Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh

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The First Hundred Years of Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh Edinburgh 300: Cradle of Chemistry The First Hundred Years of Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh Thursday 24 October 2013 The Royal Society of Edinburgh 22–26 George Street, Edinburgh Report of Conference organised by The University of Edinburgh and The Royal Society of Edinburgh Conference Programme 09.15 RSE Welcome Sir John Arbuthnott FMedSci MRIA President, Royal Society of Edinburgh 09.25 Introduction/Overview Chair: Professor Eleanor Campbell FRS FRSC FInstP CorrFRSE Chair of Chemistry and Head of the School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh Session 1 09.30 Science in the Athens of the North: The Development of the Sciences in Enlightenment Edinburgh Professor John Henry Director Science Studies, School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh 10.10 Q&A 10.15 Leyden Chemistry in Edinburgh: Herman Boerhaave, James Crawford and Andrew Plummer Dr John C Powers Department of History, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, USA 10.55 Q&A 11.00 Tea / coffee Session 2 11.25 Chair: Professor Lesley Yellowlees MBE FInstP FRSC FRSE President, Royal Society of Chemistry; Professor of Inorganic Electrochemistry, Vice-Principal and Head of College of Science and Engineering, University of Edinburgh 11.30 From Plummer to Cullen: Novelty in Cullen’s Chemical Pedagogy Dr Georgette Taylor Department of Science and Technology Studies, University College London 12.10 Q&A 12.15 Professors and Students in the Age of the Chemical Revolution John R R Christie Faculty of History, University of Oxford; Associate Fellow, Centre for History of Medicine, University of Warwick; Research Affiliate, HPS Leeds 12.55 Q&A 13.00 Lunch 2 13.55 Overview of Afternoon Chair: Professor Ewan Cameron FRHistS FSAScot Sir William Fraser Professor of Scottish History and Paleography, University of Edinburgh Session 3 14.00 How to see a Diagram: Joseph Black and the Visual Anthropology of Chemistry Dr Matthew Daniel Eddy Department of Philosophy and Centre for Humanities Engaging Science and Society, Durham University 14.40 Q&A 14.45 The Life and Death of Black’s House (short contribution) Dr Peter Morris Keeper of Research Projects, London’s Science Museum 15.00 Thomas Charles Hope and the Legacy of Joseph Black Dr Robert G W Anderson FRSE Vice-President of Clare Hall, University of Cambridge 15.40 Q&A 15.45 Tea/coffee Session 4 16.05 Materia Chemica: Excavation of the Early Chemistry Stores at Old College, University of Edinburgh Mr Tom Addyman Simpson & Brown/Addyman Archaeology 16.45 Q&A 16.50 Surviving 18th Century chemical apparatus in the National Museums of Scotland (short contribution) Dr Alison Morrison-Low Principal Curator Science, NMS 17.05 ‘A Golden Cage, but will the Birds Sing?’: Alexander Crum Brown, William Gregory and Lyon Playfair (short contribution) Dr Andrew Alexander Senior Lecturer in Chemical Physics, University of Edinburgh 17.20 Panel Discussion and Afterword Chair: Professor Hasok Chang Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge 18.00 Close of meeting 3 In 1713, James Crawford was appointed first Professor of Chemistry at Edinburgh University and many distinguished Chair holders followed. This tercentenary conference considered the rise in the public’s curiosity for chemistry; how, exactly one century after Crawford’s appointment, the professor of chemistry was attracting 515 subscribers to his annual course of chemistry. The Scottish Enlightenment meant much more than philosophy, rhetoric and political economy; the reputation of Edinburgh medicine and chemistry teaching was to spread throughout Europe and North America. Large numbers of students travelled from afar to attend the innovative lectures of William Cullen and the brilliant lecture demonstrations of Joseph Black (discoverer of carbon dioxide) later in the century. Welcome President of the RSE, Sir John Arbuthnott, welcomed guests and emphasised the importance of Edinburgh in the development of the chemical and medical sciences and the contribution that these made to the Scottish Enlightenment. Introduction and Overview Professor Eleanor Campbell, the current holder of the Chair of Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh, added her welcome and spoke of the numerous other activities that had taken place to celebrate the tercentenary of Edinburgh Chemistry. Professor Campbell also pointed out that it was intended that the papers presented would be published. Session 1 Professor John Henry, Director Science Studies, School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh Science in the Athens of the North: the Development of the Sciences in Enlightenment Edinburgh Professor Henry’s paper provided a context for the contributions which followed through the day. It mainly concentrated on the influence of Sir Isaac Newton and proposed that Newton’s ideas were not so much absorbed passively by the Scottish intellectual world, but that some Scots were the first to be fired by Newtonianism and it was they who were largely responsible for its wider diffusion. Scotland occupied a central place in European culture in the 18th Century. It did not pass unrecognised at the time; the Scottish author Tobias Smollett would write that “Edinburgh is a Hot-bed of Genius,” and the King’s Chemist, John Amyat, report “Here I stand at what is called the Cross of Edinburgh and can in a few minutes take 50 men of genius and learning by the hand”. Newtonianism in Scotland became the cause of the rise of the natural sciences, following on from the Scientific Revolution. It was David Gregory, Professor of Mathematics at Edinburgh, who sent Newton a copy of his paper on infinite series, and thereafter Newton became his patron, supporting him for the Savilian Chair of Astronomy at Oxford. A pupil of Gregory’s in Edinburgh, John Keill, followed a similar trajectory: he went on to Balliol College and ultimately succeeded to the Savilian professorship. He too was a vociferous supporter of Newton, especially in his priority issue with Leibniz concerning the calculus. Another mathematician and Edinburgh professor of great European influence, Colin Maclaurin, was the leading Newtonian in Britain and his career provides further proof that Scotland was anything but a backwater in 18th-Century intellectual terms. Another important figure in the developing academic world of Scottish science was the contentious Archibald Pitcairne, an iatromechanician who developed medical ideas on 4 Newtonian principles. Pitcairne spent only a short time teaching at Leiden University in the Netherlands, but it was long enough for him to influence the young physician Hermann Boerhaave (who in turn would be a key figure in the education of the young men sent to study in Leiden who had been hand-picked as those who would form the first medical faculty in Edinburgh in 1726). Professor Henry then turned to David Hume and showed that Hume’s Science of Man was part of a wider movement to apply Newtonian methods to the moral sciences. Moral Newtonianism became a major feature of the Scottish Enlightenment and subsequently became influential throughout Europe. Further scientific figures were then discussed. Professor Henry suggested that James Hutton developed his geology on Newtonian principles, and Hutton’s influence on the new science, with the theory of the origins of the Earth, was immense. Lavoisier, another Newtonian, had his new chemistry adopted by Scotland; the Traité Eleméntaire de Chimie was first translated into English and published in Edinburgh just one year after its original appearance in 1789. It became widely diffused because of the magnetic draw of the Edinburgh Medical School, giving it a central role in European and American chemistry teaching. Though Priestley would never adopt Lavoisier’s new chemistry, both men were committed Newtonians. Newton was without doubt a major force in Scotland. It was the authoritative Sir Isaiah Berlin who made the claim that it was Newton who was the strongest single influence on the European Enlightenment and, by showing that Newtonianism was first disseminated from Scotland, and Edinburgh in particular, Professor Henry brought out the importance of Edinbugh in 18th-Century intellectual history. Dr John C Powers, Department of History, Virginia Commonwealth University Leyden Chemistry in Edinburgh: Hermann Boerhaave, James Crawford and Andrew Plummer Dr Powers first pointed out the extremely important fact that all five members of the newly- established Edinburgh medical faculty of 1726 had studied under Hermann Boerhaave in Leiden in the 1710s and 1720s. They were the first students in Europe to come under his influence. Even earlier, from 1690 to 1693, the Scotsman Archibald Pitcairne had taught at Leiden and it is presumed that the two men must have known each other (though there is no evidence). This leads to an obvious question: how much did Boerhaave subsequently shape the teaching of chemistry in Edinburgh? Leiden itself was well set-up to develop the science; there was a botanic garden, and a laboratory was provided from as early as 1667 for Carel De Maets. English and Scottish chemists went to its University to study medicine and science, in part for the subjects’ utility. One of them, Peter Shaw, declared “Chemistry, by appropriate experience, produces useful effects”. However, Leiden did not simply teach practical subjects; natural philosophy also thrived. One of Boerhaave’s achievements was to integrate chemistry into the medical course from1702, when he was first allowed to teach (but not yet as professor). Prior to this, chemistry was seen simply as an apothecary’s tool. He developed his innovative syllabus, starting with the history of chemistry, then going on to deal with the theory of chemistry, followed by chemical practice. This was in sharp contrast to earlier courses. Nicholas Lemery’s textbook of 950 pages, Cours de Chymie, includes 60–70 pages on theory and 20– 30pages on practice. The other 850–870pages deal with the operations of chemistry, that is, preparations of drugs. It was not Lemery, then, who was the major influence on Boerhaave, but Johannes Bohn of Leipzig.
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