Glasgow G12 8QQ, United Kingdom
Maclean received his early education in the Glasgow Grammar School and entered the University of Glasgow before he was thirteen years old. He was especially interested in chemistry, natural philosophy, medicine, and anatomy, for it was his purpose to become a surgeon.
Glasgow G12 8QQ, United Kingdom
Maclean received his early education in the Glasgow Grammar School and entered the University of Glasgow before he was thirteen years old. He was especially interested in chemistry, natural philosophy, medicine, and anatomy, for it was his purpose to become a surgeon.
Maclean was born on March 1, 1771, in Glasgow, Scotland. His father, John Maclean, a surgeon, and his mother, Agnes Lang Maclean, both died when he was young. He was raised by George Macintosh, the father of Charles Macintosh, the inventor of the waterproofed cloth named after him.
Maclean received his early education in the Glasgow Grammar School and entered the University of Glasgow before he was thirteen years old. He was especially interested in chemistry, natural philosophy, medicine, and anatomy, for it was his purpose to become a surgeon.
Under the influence of Charles Macintosh, who was four years his senior, while a student at the university he joined the Chemical Society, before which he read several papers. Leaving Glasgow about 1787, he spent two or three years in study at Edinburgh, London, and Paris, where he was greatly impressed by Lavoisier, Berthollet, and other French scholars.
Returning to Glasgow in 1790, he resumed his studies for another year, and then engaged in the practice of medicine and surgery. The diploma authorizing him to practise surgery and pharmacy was dated August 1, 1791, and on the same day he was admitted as a member of the faculty of physicians and surgeons of the university.
In 1797, the University of Aberdeen conferred the degree of Doctor of Medicine upon Maclean.
Being in sympathy with the political sentiments of the United States, Maclean left Scotland for America in April 1795. In Philadelphia, Dr. Benjamin Rush advised him to settle in Princeton, a seat of the College of New Jersey. In the summer of 1795, he delivered there a course of lectures on chemistry, and on October 1, he was chosen professor of chemistry and natural history in the College.
Two years later, he relinquished his medical and surgical practice to give his full time to his academic duties, which were increased in 1797 by his appointment as professor of mathematics and natural philosophy, with the provision that chemistry and natural history be taught as branches of natural philosophy.
In 1797, he prepared Two Lectures on Combustion: Supplementary to a Course of Lectures on Chemistry Read at Nassau Hall; Containing an Examination of Dr. Priestley's Considerations on the Doctrine of Phlogiston, and the Decomposition of Water, printed in that year by T. Dobson, at the Stone-House, No. 41 South Second Street, Philadelphia. The lectures displayed ability and learning and were helpful in the overthrow of the phlogistic theory.
The discussion was continued for a time by Maclean, Joseph Priestley, James Woodhouse, and Samuel Mitchill in the New York Medical Repository. In 1807 he became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Meanwhile, in 1802, he had given a reading list to Benjamin Silliman, who had been appointed a professor of chemistry at Yale College despite a scant knowledge of the subject.
In 1812, in consequence of certain contemplated changes in the Princeton faculty, Maclean resigned, and shortly thereafter accepted the chair of natural philosophy and chemistry in the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia.
After one year, his health being poor, Maclean returned to Princeton, where in February 1814 he died. He was buried in the old cemetery, in a grave adjoining those of the college presidents and professors.
While in Paris, Maclean had been won to the support of the antiphlogistic theory, as the "new chemistry" of Lavoisier was called.
Quotes from others about the person
Silliman (the elder of the name), who later came to be revered as one of the fathers of science in America, left in his diary the following note: "Dr. Maclean was a man of brilliant mind, with all the acumen of his native Scotland; and a sprinkling of wit gave variety to his conversation. I regard him as my earliest master in chemistry, and Princeton as my first starting point in that pursuit; although I had not an opportunity to attend any lectures there".
On November 7, 1798, Maclean married Phebe Bainbridge, sister of Commodore William Bainbridge, and to them were born two daughters and four sons. One son, John Maclean, became the tenth president of the College of New Jersey at Princeton.
