George Fordyce (1736-1802)
Created | Updated Oct 24, 2011
Scottish MD and one of the earliest lecturers in chemistry in London. Started teaching from his home in London from 1760ish, and eventually became lecturer at St. Thomas's Hospital. Overall, he taught the subject in London for almost 30 years, on a positively heroic schedule.
Fordyce came from Aberdeen and learned his chemistry at the foot of the master, William Cullen, in Glasgow. But he took what he learned and added to it, taking his unique and advanced ideas to London which was, generally speaking, still in the dark ages as far as the teaching of chemistry was concerned.
Fordyce was an exciting speculative thinker about the forces of affinity and how they acted between the ultimate particles of matter. He was, in fact, teaching students an early, and somewhat unformed, version of atomic theory some thirty years before Dalton formulated his own theory. He speculated about the numbers of particles that combined together and how the weights of substances that combined might give the chemist insight into the combinations of particles of elements together. Given that he was teaching these ideas for several decades, and that thousands of students must have passed through his hands, it would seem that his ideas must have been widely circulated amongst chemists and medics. His 'Elements of Agriculture', first published in 1765, even contains images showing how he believed particles combined together to form compound particles and how these compound particles in turn could combine to form more complex compounds.
He was also very interested in heat and fire, and is known for an experiment carried out at the Royal Society with Sir Charles Blagden to investigate the maximum heat that a human could stand. He also provided the inflammable air (hydrogen) for Lunardi's balloon flight in 1784. Much to the amusement of those who knew him.
Fordyce was very much a social animal, in spite of widely voiced criticisms of his bedside manner, and indeed his social abilities. It seems that he turned up to and joined everything,but then couldn't be guaranteed to actually speak much. Nevertheless, he taught Jeremy Bentham chemistry (Bentham's notes are held in the British Library) and was a friend of a surprising number of literary and philosophical luminaries including Johnson, Reynolds, Garrick and Sheridan amongst others. He was Mary Wollstonecraft's preferred medic, being called in at her request when she was dying in childbirth. Sadly he was unable to save her.
He was also apparently a heroic eater and drinker. Although he believed it was best to only eat one meal a day, that meal was humungous.
Should mention he was very fat with no chin.
Fordyce came from Aberdeen and learned his chemistry at the foot of the master, William Cullen, in Glasgow. But he took what he learned and added to it, taking his unique and advanced ideas to London which was, generally speaking, still in the dark ages as far as the teaching of chemistry was concerned.
Fordyce was an exciting speculative thinker about the forces of affinity and how they acted between the ultimate particles of matter. He was, in fact, teaching students an early, and somewhat unformed, version of atomic theory some thirty years before Dalton formulated his own theory. He speculated about the numbers of particles that combined together and how the weights of substances that combined might give the chemist insight into the combinations of particles of elements together. Given that he was teaching these ideas for several decades, and that thousands of students must have passed through his hands, it would seem that his ideas must have been widely circulated amongst chemists and medics. His 'Elements of Agriculture', first published in 1765, even contains images showing how he believed particles combined together to form compound particles and how these compound particles in turn could combine to form more complex compounds.
He was also very interested in heat and fire, and is known for an experiment carried out at the Royal Society with Sir Charles Blagden to investigate the maximum heat that a human could stand. He also provided the inflammable air (hydrogen) for Lunardi's balloon flight in 1784. Much to the amusement of those who knew him.
Fordyce was very much a social animal, in spite of widely voiced criticisms of his bedside manner, and indeed his social abilities. It seems that he turned up to and joined everything,but then couldn't be guaranteed to actually speak much. Nevertheless, he taught Jeremy Bentham chemistry (Bentham's notes are held in the British Library) and was a friend of a surprising number of literary and philosophical luminaries including Johnson, Reynolds, Garrick and Sheridan amongst others. He was Mary Wollstonecraft's preferred medic, being called in at her request when she was dying in childbirth. Sadly he was unable to save her.
He was also apparently a heroic eater and drinker. Although he believed it was best to only eat one meal a day, that meal was humungous.
Should mention he was very fat with no chin.
