Chairs of Chemistry in Great Britain

Abstract

IN the book, “An Eighteenth Century Lectureship in Chemistry”, published in 1950, the statement is made that the regius chair of chemistry founded in the University of Glasgow in 1818 is “the earliest Chair of chemistry, tout simple, in the country”; and the statement is also quoted in the review of the book in Nature of December 8, 1951. This statement must not be allowed to pass unchallenged. As I have pointed out in “The Teaching of Chemistry in the Universities of Aberdeen” (1935), a chair of chemistry was founded in Marischal College and University, Aberdeen, in 1793, the first occupant of the chair being a Dr. George French. This chair, therefore, must take rank as the earliest chair of chemistry in Great Britain.