BLACK, JAMES GOW (1835-1914) was born in Drumtochty, Scotland, and was believed to be the original of the Australian professor in Ian Maclaren's Days of Auld Lang Syne. Educated at Dunkeld and the Moray House training college and Edinburgh University, he graduated M.A. in 1864, B.Sc. in 1866 and D.Sc. in 1869, taking prizes in chemistry and experimental science. He established Scott and Black's collegiate classes in Edinburgh; inaugurated in 1871 the Field Naturalist Club, and became a fellow of the Royal Botanical Society of Edinburgh and of the Educational Institute of Scotland. He declined the chair of natural philosophy at the Andersonian College in Glasgow and in 1871 accepted that of natural science at Otago University, to which he came in the Christian McCausland. Black was selected to open the schools of mines in New Zealand (1884), conducting the inaugural classes at Thames and Reefton. He collaborated with Professor Etard, of Paris, in perfecting the permanganate system of gold extraction. His text book, Chemistry for the Goldfields, was published in 1885.

Thompson, Hist. Otago Univ.; Cycl. N.Z., iv (p); Who's Who N.Z., 1908

Reference: Volume 1, page 52

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