Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T06:16:05.393Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Science and Scottish University Reform: Edinburgh in 1826

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

J. B. Morrell
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In the late eighteenth century, which was for Scotland in many ways an ‘Age of Improvement’, the University of Edinburgh enjoyed a golden age. Under the enlightened principalship of the Reverend William Robertson, the University offered wide, flexible, and mainly secular courses of study which were taught by conspicuously able professors. If we restrict ourselves to scientific chairs, a roll-call of their occupants is distinctly impressive: John Robison (natural philosophy, 1774–1805); John Playfair (mathematics, 1785–1805); John Walker (natural history, 1779–1804); Daniel Rutherford (botany, 1786–1819); James Gregory (theory of medicine, 1776–89); William Cullen (practice of medicine, 1773–90); Alexander Monro secundus (anatomy, 1758–98); and their doyen Joseph Black (chemistry and medicine, 1766–99), ‘so pale, so gentle, so elegant, and so illustrious’. The scientific eminence of the University at that time is, of course, widely acknowledged.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal for the History of Science , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , June 1972 , pp. 39 - 56
Copyright
Copyright © British Society for the History of Science 1972

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Smout, T. C., A History of the Scottish People, 1560–1830 (London, 1969)Google Scholar; Phillipson, N. T. and Mitchison, R. (eds.), Scotland in the Age of Improvement (Edinburgh, 1970)Google Scholar; McElroy, D. D., Scotland's Age of Improvement: A Survey of Eighteenth-Century Literary Clubs and Societies (Pullman, Washington, U.S.A., 1969).Google Scholar

2 Horn, D. B., A Short History of the University of Edinburgh, 1556–1889 (Edinburgh, 1967), pp. 36–94.Google Scholar

3 Cockburn, H., Memorials of his Time, 1779–1830 (Edinburgh and London, 1910), p. 46.Google Scholar

4 Morrell, J. B., ‘Individualism and the structure of British science in 1830’, Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences, iii (1971) 183–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 Evidence, Oral and Documentary, taken and received by the Commissioners for visiting the Universities of Scotland: the University of Edinburgh (Parliamentary Papers, xxxv, 1837), pp. 128–9.Google Scholar In future references this indispensable volume will be called Edinburgh Evidence. See also Lord Provost of Edinburgh to Lord Liverpool, 1 July 1814, British Museum Add. MSS. 38258, f. 124.

6 Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the State of the Universities of Scotland (Parliamentary Papers, xii, 1831).Google Scholar In future references this volume will be called Report. It consists of a general report and separate reports on the five Scottish Universities. When I have used the Report I have always checked its findings against Edinburgh Evidence.

7 Davie, G. E., The Democratic Intellect. Scotland and her Universities in the Nineteenth Century (2nd edn., Edinburgh, 1964), pp. 26–40 (26).Google Scholar

8 Peel to Lord Advocate of Scotland (SirRae, William), 5 12 1825Google Scholar, British Museum Add. MSS. 40339, ff. 258–62.

9 George Husband Baird, Principal of the University, raised these matters with Peel in a letter of 16 April 1825, British Museum Add. MSS. 40339, f. 221.

10 Peel's views on testimonials and qualifications were given on 26 October 1822 to the second Viscount Melville, British Museum Add. MSS. 40317, f. 5.

11 Letter of 28 October 1824 from Melville to Lord Elgin reproduced in Hanna, W., Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Thomas Chalmers (Edinburgh, 1851), iii. 497–8.Google Scholar

12 Saunders, L. J., Scottish Democracy, 1815–1840: the Social and Intellectual Background (Edinburgh, 1950), 317–19Google Scholar; Senate Minutes, 1 November 1825. The University of Edinburgh traditionally dated its foundation as 1582 when royal sanction was granted by.James VI to the Town Council to found a College.

13 Peel to Lord Advocate, 5 December 1825, British Museum Add. MSS. 40339, ff. 258–62

14 The Life of Sir Robert Christison, Bart., edited by his Sons (Edinburgh and London, 1885–1886), i. 279.Google Scholar

15 Report, p. 1.

16 Musgrove, F., Patterns of Power and Authority in English Education (London, 1971), p. 88.Google Scholar

17 Youngson, A. J., The Making of Classical Edinburgh, 1750–1840 (Edinburgh, 1966). pp. 46–50.Google Scholar

18 Cockburn, , Memorials, p. 87.Google Scholar

19 This point was strongly made by anon, to Mrs Ricketts [1812], British Museum Add. MSS. 30009, f. 165.

20 Early nineteenth-century Scottish politics are covered in Ferguson, W., Scotland 1689 to the Present (Edinburgh, 1968), pp. 266–90.Google Scholar

21 Grant, A., The Story of the University of Edinburgh during its first three hundred years (London, 1884), ii. 347.Google Scholar The battle for the moral philosophy chair in 1820 is described in detail in Swann, E., Christopher North: John Wilson (Edinburgh and London, 1934), pp. 127–46Google Scholar, and Gordon, M., Christopher North: A Memoir of John Wilson (Edinburgh, 1862), i. 301–18.Google Scholar

22 Gordon, , Wilson, i. 308.Google Scholar

23 Mrs Wilson to Mary(?), 27 July 1820, quoted in Gordon, , Wilson, i. 317.Google Scholar

24 Grant, University of Edinburgh, ii. 413.Google Scholar

25 Mudie, R., The Modern Athens (Edinburgh, 1825), p. 220.Google Scholar

26 Grant, University of Edinburgh, ii. 304.Google Scholar

27 Ivory was so disturbed, perplexed, and saddened by what he regarded as persecution of himself by the colonel in charge of the Royal Military College that he ultimately resigned in 1819. See Ivory to Napier, 8 April 1816, British Museum Add. MSS., 34611, f. 382; 29 August 1817, B.M. Add. MSS. 34611, f. 439; 29 July 1819, B.M. Add. MSS. 34612, f. 272.

28 Fletcher, H. R. and Brown, W. H., The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 1670–1970 (Edinburgh, 1970), pp. 99–102.Google Scholar

29 Fletcher, and Brown, , Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, p. 100.Google Scholar

30 Smith, to Napier, , 6 01 1820Google Scholar, British Museum Add. MSS. 34612, ff. 319–20, asked Napier to vet his letter of application for the chair.

31 Smith, to Napier, , 13 10 1820Google Scholar, British Museum Add. MSS. 34612, f. 389. Smith was referring to the election of Alexander Monro tertius to the chair of anatomy in 1798. This was perhaps the most obvious example of the nepotism and inbreeding shown in some appointments to medical chairs in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

32 Omond, G. W. T., The Lord Advocates of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1883), ii. 256–98Google Scholar, describes the period 1819–30 when Sir William Rae held the office.

33 Hanna, , Chalmers, ii. 395–400; iii. 19–21.Google Scholar

34 Hanna, , Chalmers, iii. 105–9, 494–8.Google Scholar

35 This system, which by 1826 was virtually unchanged, is described in Morrell, J. B., ‘The University of Edinburgh in the late eighteenth century: its scientific eminence and academic structure’, Isis, lxii (1971), 158–71.Google Scholar

36 Letter of Leslie, to Baird, , 28 10 1823Google Scholar, quoted in Senate Minutes for 31 October 1823.

37 This constitutional formlessness is well shown by the ignorance of Baird concerning the post of Rector of the University. On 10 November 1825 the Lord Provost as Rector of the University and the Town Council as its patron physically and formally visited the University. As late as 4 November 1825, Baird wrote to Napier, asking about the origin, object, powers, and duties of the Rectorship and wondering whether the Lord Provost was eligible (British Museum Add. MSS. 34613, f. 324).

38 Grant, , University of Edinburgh, i. 325Google Scholar; Horn, Short History, p. 96.Google Scholar The affair of the proposed chair of political economy is described from different points of view by Gordon, , North, ii. 83–9Google Scholar; Swann, , North, pp. 173–6Google Scholar; and O'Brien, D. P., J. R. McCulloch: A Study in Classical Economics (London, 1970), 57–60.Google Scholar

39 Halévy, É., The Liberal Awakening, 1815–1830 (London, 1961), p. 193.Google Scholar Huskisson, Canning, Peel, and Lord Liverpool all attended these lectures.

40 McCulloch, to Napier, , 17 05 1825Google Scholar, British Museum Add. MSS. 34613, f. 304. The italics were McCulloch's.

41 Memorial of the undersigned Inhabitants of the City of Edinburgh to Lord Liverpool, dated 23 May 1825, British Museum Add. MSS. 38746, ff. 219–22; Wilson to Huskisson, 8 June 1825, British Museum Add. MSS. 38746, ff. 233–4.

42 Canning to Huskisson, 11 June 1825, British Museum Add. MSS. 38746, f. 236; draft of Huskisson's reply to [Canning] [no date], B.M. Add. MSS. 38746, f. 239; Huskisson, to Wilson, , 15 06 1825Google Scholar, quoted in Cordon, North, ii. 85–6.Google Scholar

43 Gordon, , Wilson, ii. 87, 89–90.Google Scholar

44 Smith, R. A., The Life and Works of Thomas Graham (Glasgow, 1884), p. 9.Google Scholar

45 Gillispie, C. C., Genesis and Geology (New York, 1959), pp. 66–9.Google Scholar

46 This has been conclusively shown in Chitnis, A. C., ‘The Edinburgh professoriate 1790–1826, and the University's contribution to nineteenth century British society’, University of Edinburgh Ph.D. thesis, 1968Google Scholar, Chapter IV; and Jameson, L., ‘Biographical memoir of the late Professor Jameson’, Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, lvii (1854), 1–49 (2–3, 31–2).Google Scholar

47 My account of Jameson as professor draws on Report, pp. 137–8; Edinburgh Evidence, pp. 141–8.Google Scholar

48 Evidence, p. 142.Google Scholar

49 My account of the Museum draws on Report, pp. 78–81, 176–9Google Scholar; and Edinburgh Evidence, pp. 142–6, 167–9, 178–84, 491–4, 558–9, 571, 619–23, 626–9.Google Scholar

50 Report, p. 78.Google Scholar

51 Chitnis, A. C., ‘The University of Edinburgh's Natural History Museum and the Huttonian-Wernerian debate’, Annals of Science, xxvi (1970), 85–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

52 Edinburgh Evidence, p. 619.Google Scholar

53 M. Napier, ‘Memoir of John Leslie’, in Leslie, J., Treatises on Various Subjects of Natural and Chemical Philosophy (Edinburgh, 1838), pp. 1–46 (45).Google Scholar

54 Leslie to Napier, August 1814, British Museum Add. MSS. 34611, ff. 99–100.

55 Edinburgh Evidence, p. 159.Google Scholar

56 Report, pp. 133–4.Google Scholar

57 Report, p. 134Google Scholar; Edinburgh Evidence, pp. 126, 158.Google Scholar Leslie joyfully wrote to James Brown, 19 January 1823, Edinburgh University Library MS. Dc.2.57, item 207, about his new lecture-room: ‘I have now a large splendid class room with many conveniences—with gas lights, water fountains, etc. and I have access thro' another large adjoining room containing the cases and apparatus by a stair to a platform on the roof’.

58 Leslie, to Young, , 13 09 1819Google Scholar, British Museum Add. MSS. 34612, ff. 291–2.

59 Leslie to Sir Walter Scott [summer 1822], transmitted to Peel, British Museum Add. MSS. 40350, f. 250. Leslie also offered to furnish the King every day with 6–8 lb. of ice made with his famous congelation apparatus.

60 Report, p. 134.Google Scholar In Edinburgh Evidence, pp. 556 and 561Google Scholar, Brewster mercilessly exposed the mathematical weakness of most students in the natural philosophy class since about 1800.

61 Report, p. 134.Google Scholar

62 Napier, , Leslie, p. 34.Google Scholar

63 Leslie, to Baird, , 31 05 1823Google Scholar, quoted in Senate Minutes, 16 June 1823.

64 Grant, University of Edinburgh, ii. 354Google Scholar; Senate Minutes, 22 November 1823.

65 ibid., ii. 354; Senate Minutes, 16 December 1826, and 14 February 1829.

66 Edinburgh Evidence, pp. 125, 159.Google Scholar

67 Horn, Short History, pp. 106–7Google Scholar; Leslie, to Brown, , 4 12 1820Google Scholar, Edinburgh University Library MSS. Dc.2.57, item 205.

68 My account of Hope draws heavily on Morrell, J. B., ‘Practical chemistry in the University of Edinburgh 1799–1843’, Ambix, xvi (1969), 66–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

69 Brewster, D., ‘Decline of science in England’, The Quarterly Review, xliii (1830), 305–42 (326).Google Scholar

70 Horner, L. to Marcet, Alexander, 8 11 1820Google Scholar, in Lyell, K. M. (ed.), Memoir of Leonard Horner (London, 1890), i. 179.Google Scholar

71 Czartoryski, A. C. to Czartoryski, A. G., 27 01 1823Google Scholar, Edinburgh University Library MSS. Dc.2.78.

72 Hope apparently gave 22 lectures in all. His introductory lecture was described as ‘more amusing than instructive—he showed very brilliant experiments but did not explain them at all’ by Helen Mackenzie, wife of Lord Joshua Henry Mackenzie, in the note for 15 February 1826 in her diary, National Library of Scotland, MS. 6374, f. 2.

73 Letters chiefly connected with the Affairs of Scotland, from Henry Cockburn to Thomas Francis Kennedy (London, 1874), pp. 137–8.Google Scholar