Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Higgins, William
HIGGINS, WILLIAM (d. 1825), chemist, born in co. Sligo, was the nephew of Bryan Higgins, M.D. [q. v.] He entered Pembroke College, Oxford, but did not matriculate in the university. After working with his uncle for a while, he left him in consequence of some disagreement. In 1789 he published at London ‘A Comparative View of the Phlogistic and Antiphlogistic Theories, with Inductions’ (2nd edit. 1791), in which he was clearly the first to enunciate the law of multiple proportions. Dalton, about 1802, adopted independently a similar hypothesis. Higgins made an unworthy attack upon Dalton in a treatise entitled ‘Experiments and Observations on the Atomic Theory and Electrical Phenomena,’ 8vo, Dublin, 1814, in which he set forth his superior claims to be considered the author of the atomic theory. In 1791 Higgins was appointed chemist to the Apothecaries' Company of Ireland, a post which he vacated in 1795 to become chemist and librarian to the Royal Dublin Society. Under act of parliament his office was raised about 1800 to the dignity of a professorial chair. On 12 June 1806 he was elected F.R.S., but never presented himself for admission (Thomson, Hist. of Roy. Soc. App. iv. lxviii). Higgins died in 1825. He was a man of eccentric, indolent habits. His style of lecturing was very quaint, and many anecdotes are told about him. To vol. i. pt. i. of the ‘Transactions’ of the Dublin Society for 1800 he contributed ‘An Essay on the Sulphuret of Lime as a substitute for Potash; or a New Method of Bleaching.’ He published also ‘A Syllabus of a Course of Chemistry for the year 1802,’ 8vo, Dublin, 1801.
[W. K. Sullivan in Dublin Quarterly Journal of Medical Science, new ser. viii. 487–95.]