Smithson tennant biography books

​TENNANT, SMITHSON (1761–1815), chemist, born on 30 Nov. 1761 at Selby, Yorkshire, was son of Calvert Tennant, vicar of Selby, by his wife Mary Daunt. After receiving his early education in the grammar schools at Tadcaster and Beverley, he studied medicine in 1781 at Edinburgh, where he attended the lectures of Joseph Black [q. v.] In 1782 he became pensioner and then fellow commoner at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he studied chemistry and botany, and satisfied himself of the truth of the antiphlogistic theory of combustion, which was not at that time generally accepted in England. In 1784 he travelled in Denmark and Sweden, and visited the Swedish chemist Scheele. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1785, and in 1786 he removed from Christ's College to Emmanuel. He graduated M.B. in 1788. During the following years he travelled in Europe, and on his return took up his residence in London in t Biography books for 4th graders!