unable to lecture, the town council appointed Dr Cullen joint professor of chemistry during the life of his colleague, with the succession in the event of his death; at the same time reserving to Dr Plummer all the rights and privileges of a professor, and particularly that of teaching whenever his state of health would permit of it. Dr Cullen, on receiving this intelligence, addressed a letter to Dr Black, from which, in reply to the generous offer made by Dr Black, we find the following passage:—"While you could expect to be elected a professor, I approved of every step you would take, though in direct opposition to myself; but now that I fancy your hopes of that kind are over, I do not expect opposition; I do expect your favour and concurrence."
Dr Cullen was thus appointed professor of chemistry in the university of Edinburgh ; but the medical professors objected to his election, urging, "that it was made without the consent or demission of Dr Plummer, who, upon this ground, had resolved to protest against Dr Cullen's admission into the university," and they stated, " that the Senatus Academicus would therefore decline receiving Dr Cullen into their body, until he should either obtain Dr Plummer's demission and purchase his laboratory, or until the point at issue should be determined in a court of law, by a declaration of privileges." Notwithstanding this opposition, Dr Cullen entered on his duties as professor of chemistry, by beginning a course of lectures in the university, in the January of 1756. It does not appear that he took any step to obtain a formal admission into the university; but he consulted his friend, the celebrated George Drummond, who was then the provost of Edinburgh, who recommended the adoption of a measure, proposed by Dr Monro, primus, by which the difficulty was obviated. This consisted in Dr Cullen's giving up his appointment as sole professor, and being re-elected as the joint professor with Dr Plummer; a commission to which effect was signed on the 10th of March, 1756. Dr Plummer, however, did not survive long; he died in the July following, and then Dr Cullen was elected sole professor of chemistry in the university of Edinburgh.
The admission of Dr Cullen into that university, constitutes a memorable era in its history. Hitherto, chemistry had been reckoned of little importance, and the chemical class attended only by a very few students; but he soon rendered it a favourite study, and his class became more numerous every session. From the list of names kept by Dr Cullen, it appears that during his first course of lectures the number amounted only to seventeen ; during the second course it rose to fifty-nine; and it went on gradually increasing so long as he continued to lecture. The greatest number that attended during any one session, was one hundred and forty-five; and it is curious to observe, says Dr Thomson, that several of those pupils, who afterwards distinguished themselves by their acquirements or writings, had attended three, four, five, or even six, courses of these lectures on chemistry. Dr Cullen's fame rests so much on his exertions in the field of medical science, that few are aware how much the progress of chemical science has been indebted to him. In the History of Chemistry, written by the late celebrated Dr Thomson, professor of that science in Glasgow, we find the following just tribute to his memory. "Dr William Cullen, to whom medicine lies under deep obligations, and who afterwards raised the medical celebrity of the college of Edinburgh to so high a pitch, had the merit of first perceiving the importance of scientific chemistry, and the reputation which that man was likely to earn, who should devote himself to the cultivation of it. Hitherto, chemistry in Great Britain, and on the continent also, was considered as a mere appendage to medicine, and useful only so far as it contributed to the formation of new and useful remedies. This was the reason why it came to constitute an essential part of the education of every medical man, and why a physician was considered as
