Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Blagden, Charles
BLAGDEN, Sir CHARLES (1748–1820), physician, was born on 17 April 1748. In 1768 he graduated M.D. at the university of Edinburgh, selecting as the subject of his thesis for the occasion ‘De Causis Apoplexiæ.’ This treatise was afterwards published. Blagden then entered the army as a medical officer, and remained in the service till 1814, in which year he was present in Paris with the allied armies, as a physician of the British forces. During his military career he is said to have acquired a considerable fortune, and this was augmented by a legacy of 16,000l. bequeathed to him by the celebrated chemist, Cavendish, with whom he was on intimate terms. Blagden also enjoyed for fifty years the friendship of Sir Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society, and to this circumstance he owed his election us secretary of the society at a disturbed period in its history. Blagden was elected fellow on 25 June 1772, and was admitted 12 Nov. of the same year. In 1784 arose the quarrel between Banks and his opponents [see Banks, Sir Joseph], in consequence of which Mr. Maty resigned the secretaryship, and Sir Joseph Banks proposed Blagden for the vacant post. In the result he was elected on 5 May 1784 by a large majority in a crowded meeting. Blagden was a careful worker in physical research, and contributed many papers to the ‘Philosophical Transactions,’ besides publishing several papers on medical subjects. Perhaps the most noteworthy of his physical papers is that on the ‘Cooling of Water below its Freezing Point,’ read on 31 Jan. 1788.
He would seem also to have interested himself to some extent in antiquarian matters, as we find him mentioned in a letter of the Rev. Sam. Denne (1799) as inspecting, in company with Lord Palmerston, the ancient Clausentum at Southampton (Nichols's Illustrations of Literature, vol. vi.) Among the ‘Johnsoniana’ which Langton communicated to Boswell is the statement that, talking of Blagden’s copiousness and precision of communication, Dr. Johnson said: ‘Blagden, sir, is a delightful fellow’ (Boswell's Johnson, vii. 377). Hannah More describes him as so modest, so sensible, and so knowing, that he exemplifies Pope’s line: ‘Wil1ing to teach, and yet not proud to know’ (Life, ii. 98).
Blagden travelled a good deal abroad, and for the last six years of his life always passed six months of the year in France. He was elected in 1769 a correspondent of the Académie des Sciences of Paris. He died suddenly on 26 March 1820 at the house of his friend Berthollet, the renowned chemist, at Arcueil, near Paris.
Blagden was author of the following: 1. ‘Experiments and Observations in a Heated Room’ (Phil. Trans. 1775). 2. ‘On the Heat of the Water in the Gulf Stream’ (ib. 1781). 3. ‘History of the Congelation of Quicksilver’ (ib. 1783). 4. ‘An Account of some late Fiery Meteors’ (Phil. Trans. 1784). 5. ‘On the Cooling of Water below its Freezing Point’ (ib. 1788). 6. ‘On the Effect of various Substances in lowering the Point of Congelation of Water' (ib. 1788). 7. ‘Report on the best Method of proportioning the Excise on Spirituous Liquors’ (ib. 1790). 8. ‘On the Tides of Nap1es (ib. 1793). 9. 'On Vision’ (ib. 1813). 9. ‘Sur la chaleur des rayons solaires’ (Bullet. Soc. Philomat., Ann. viii.) 10. ‘Sur la. production de la lumiére solaire' (ib. x.) 11. ‘Letters to Crell,’ published in Crel1’s Annals, 1786, 1787, 1788.
[Weld's Hist. of Royal Society; Philosophical Transactions; Biographie Nouvelle Générale; Revue Eneyclopédique, tome 6, 1820; Poggendorff's Handworterbuch zur Geschichte der exacten Wissenschaften; Candolle’s Histoire des Sciences et des Savants; Army List, 1814.]