College of Surgeons in 1809, and then entered the royal navy. At the end of the was he retired on half-pay and began practice at Newton Stewart, but shortly afterwards removed to Bolton, where he resided until 1839. From that date to 1848 he practised at Manchester, and again at Bolton until 1856. He eventually removed to Edinburgh, where he died on 30 April 1867, aged 79. Dr. Black was an M.D. of Glasgow, 1820; a licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons, 1823; and F.R.C.P., 1860. He was for some time physician to the Bolton Infirmary and Dispensary, and to the Manchester Union Hospital; president of the British Medical Association, 1842; and of the Manchester Geological Society. His contributions to medical literature include: 1. ‘An Inquiry into the Capillary Circulation of the Blood and the intimate Nature of Inflammation,’ London, 1825, 8vo. 2. ‘A Comparative View of the more intimate Nature of Fever,’ London, 1926, 8vo. 3. ‘A Manual of the Bowels and the Treatment of their principal Disorder of London, 18l0, 12mo. 4. ‘Retrospective Address in Medicine,’ 1812. 5. ‘Observations and Instructions on Cold and Warm Bathing,’ Manchester, 1846, 8vo. Dr. Black published several papers on geological subjects, and communicated to the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester ‘Some Remarks on the Seteïa and Belisama of Ptolemy, and on the Roman Garrison of Mancunium (2nd edition, Edinburgh, 1856, 8vo). In 1837 he published a paper of 100 pages in the ‘Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association,' entitled ‘A Medico-Topographical, Geological, and Statistical Sketch of Bolton and its Neighbourhood.’ On the establishment of a free library in Bolton, Dr. Black was chosen as a member of the committee, and he published ‘A few Words in aid of Literature and Science, on the occasion of opening the Public Library, Bolton,’ 1853.
[Munk's Roll of the Royal College of Physicians, 1873, iii. 277; Brit. Med. Journal, 25 May 1867, p. 623; Whittle's Bolton-le-Moors, p. 372; Royal Society’s Cat. of Scientific Papers, 1867, i. 401; Proceedings of the Geological Society, 1868, p. xxxviii]
BLACK, JOHN (1783–1855), journalist, editor of the ‘Morning Chronicle,’ was born in a poor cottage on the farm called Burnhouses, four miles north of Dunse in Berwickshire. His father, Ebenezer Black, had been a pedlar in Perthshire, of the stamp of Wordsworth’s hero in the ‘Excursion.' In the decline of life he accepted employment at Burnhouses, and married Janet Gray, another worker on the farm. Four years afterwards Janet was left a widow with one daughter and a son, John, and before the latter had reached his twelfth year mother and sister died. The orphan was sheltered and fed by his mother's brother, John Gray, a labourer on the same farm, who sent him to the parish school at Dunse, four miles off. Black gained at Dunse a knowledge of English, Latin, and Greek. He became the friend of James Gray, scholar, met, and missionary, of Adam Dickenson, of James Cleghorn, of Jock M'Crie, brother of the biographer of Knox, and others. At the age of thirteen Black was articled by his uncle to Mr. Turnbull, a Writer of Dunse, with whom he remained four years. During this time he read all the books of the subscription library in the town, and formed a very creditable collection of his own. He accepted a well-paid clerkship in the branch bank of the British Linen Company, but was obliged to leave the town on account of a practical joke played upon one of the ‘respectabilities.'
Black found a situation in Edinburgh in the office of Mr. Selkrig, an accountant, who, in addition to an adequate salary, allowed his clerk time to attend classes at the university. His official duties were strictly performed, his attendance in the lecture-rooms never failed, and he undertook any remunerative work that offered, notably some translations from the German for Sir David Brewster's ‘Edinburgh Cyclopædia.' He met with an intellectual companion in William Mudford, the son of a London shopkeeper. ‘Cobbett's Political Register' was then a popular serial, and there Black and Mudford engaged in another ‘battle of the books,' the former defending ancient classical study, the latter insisting on the acquisition of modern learning as better. ‘Doctor Black, the feel-osopher,’ seemed to be at a rather later time Cobbett's favourite aversion.
In Edinburgh Black is reported to have delivered a dozen challenges before he was thirty years old. His schoolfellow James Gray was now classical master at Edinburgh High School, and exercised a moderating influence upon him. ln 1809 he was in the way of making a happy marriage with a lady from Carlisle, but the engagement, was broken off by him because he was disappointed of an expected increase of income. The failure of this engagement seems to have had a demoralising effect upon Black. He fell into the coarse indulgences of low dissipation, quarrelled with his employer, from whom he was receiving a salary of 150l. a year, and distressed his best friends. His friend
