John Robertson Henderson (1863–1925): Scotland, India and anomuran taxonomy

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-75
Author(s):  
P. G. Moore
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Christian College ◽  
Apparent Absence ◽  
University Of Edinburgh ◽  
Marine Station ◽  
The University ◽  
Crustacean Taxonomy

John Robertson Henderson was born in Scotland and educated at the University of Edinburgh, where he qualified as a doctor. His interest in marine natural history was fostered at the Scottish Marine Station for Scientific Research at Granton (near Edinburgh) where his focus on anomuran crustaceans emerged, to the extent that he was eventually invited to compile the anomuran volume of the Challenger expedition reports. He left Scotland for India in autumn 1885 to take up the Chair of Zoology at Madras Christian College, shortly after its establishment. He continued working on crustacean taxonomy, producing substantial contributions to the field; returning to Scotland in retirement in 1919. The apparent absence of communication with Alfred William Alcock, a surgeon-naturalist with overlapping interests in India, is highlighted but not resolved.

scholarly journals XXIII.—The Clyde Sea Area

1892 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 641-729 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugh Robert Mill
Keyword(s):  
The West ◽  
Experimental Physics ◽  
University Of Edinburgh ◽  
Marine Station ◽  
The Government ◽  
Government Grant ◽  
One Year ◽  
The University ◽  
Clyde Sea ◽  
Sea Area

The fjord-like inlets or sea-lochs which form so conspicuous a feature in the scenery of the west of Scotland stand in marked contrast to the shallow, low-shored firths of the east coast. When Dr John Murray decided to extend the physical and biological work of the Scottish Marine Station to the west coast he foresaw that many interesting conclusions were likely to be derived from the study of these isolated sea-basins. Various papers, published by him and other workers, contain preliminary discussions of many of the phenomena observed, fully justifying the anticipations which had been formed.For one year my work, as described in this paper, was carried out under the provisions of an Elective Fellowship in Experimental Physics of the University of Edinburgh, to which I had been elected in 1886; and subsequently by a personal grant from the Government Grant Committee for Scientific Research. The Committee also devoted several sums of money in payment of expenses in compiling this discussion. The Scottish Marine Station throughout gave the use of the steam-yacht “Medusa,” and the necessary apparatus.

scholarly journals 4. On some Congenital Deformities of the Human Skull

1866 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 444-449
Author(s):  
Wm. Turner
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Natural History Museum ◽  
The Other ◽  
History Museum ◽  
Human Skull ◽  
Congenital Deformities ◽  
Premature Closure ◽  
University Of Edinburgh ◽  
The University ◽  
Living Person

1st, Scaphocephalus.—After making reference to his previous papers, more especially to that in which he had described several specimens of the scaphocephalic skull, in which he had discussed the influence exercised on the production of deformities of the cranium, by a premature closure or obliteration of the sutures, and to the recent memoirs of Professor von Düben of Stockholm,† and Dr John Thurnam, the author proceeded to relate two additional cases of scaphocephalus to those he had already recorded. He had met with one of these in the head of a living person, the other in a skull in the Natural History Museum of the University of Edinburgh.

2. On the Natural History of Lewis

1866 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 615-625 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duns
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Good Deal ◽  
Indigenous Plants ◽  
Full Account ◽  
The People ◽  
Outer Hebrides ◽  
History Of ◽  
University Of Edinburgh ◽  
Moral Condition ◽  
The University

Comparatively little attention has been given to the natural history of Lewis. Stray notices of the geology, botany, and zoology of the Outer Hebrides are to be met with, but, with one or two exceptions, these are not of much value. Martin's “Description of the Western Islands (1703),” is chiefly interesting for its full account of the industrial and moral condition of the people. Little, however, can be made of his incidental references to the natural history of the islands. Two volumes on the “Economical History of the Hebrides,” by Rev. Dr Walker, Professor of Natural History in the University of Edinburgh, were published in 1808, after Dr Walker's death. This work contains a good deal of information on indigenous plants, but almost none on zoology. Dr Maculloch's “Description of the Western Islands of Scotland (3 vols., 1819)” is in every way an abler and better work than either of the two now named. Its notices of the geology and mineralogy of the Outer Hebrides are even still valuable.

II. Account of Sir George Clerk-Maxwell, Baronet

1788 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-56 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
University Of Edinburgh ◽  
Return Home ◽  
The University

Sir George Clerk-Maxwell of Pennycuik, Baronet, one of the Presidents of the Physical Class of this Society, was born at Edinburgh, on the last day of October 1715. He was the fourth son of Sir John Clerk of Pennycuik, one of the Barons of Exchequer in Scotland: His mother was a daughter of Sir James Inglis of Cramond.His more early studies were carried on at the University of Edinburgh, under the eye of his father, who was himself a man of letters, and from whom he appears very early to have caught a strong taste for Natural History, Antiquities and the Theory of Commerce, particularly in so far as these branches of knowledge related to his own country. He afterwards went to Leyden, where he finished his studies under the immediate inspection of the celebrated Boerhaave, who had been the friend of his father; and, before his return home, he visited several parts of France and Germany.

Edinburgh and Paris

2019 ◽  
pp. 107-155
Author(s):  
Bill Jenkins
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Medical School ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Two Cities ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
University Of Edinburgh ◽  
The University ◽  
The Impact

Paris was the most important centre for evolutionary speculations in Europe in the early nineteenth century. Two of its most influential evolutionary thinkers, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire both worked there in the city’s Museum of Natural History. This chapter explores the impact of these French thinkers’ theories in Edinburgh and the close connections that existed between natural history circles in the two cities. It was common for students and graduates of the medical school of the University of Edinburgh to spend time studying in Paris, where they imbibed many of the exciting new ideas being discussed there. Two of the key figures discussed in this book, Robert Grant and Robert Knox, had both spent time in Paris and were deeply influenced by the theories they encountered there. The chapter also examines the impact of the key writings of Lamarck and Geoffroy in Edinburgh.

On some Type-specimens of Lepidoptera and Coleoptera in the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art

1897 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 326-327 ◽  
Author(s):  
Percy Hall Grimshaw
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
New Genus ◽  
British Museum ◽  
Type Specimens ◽  
Histoire Naturelle ◽  
Science And Art ◽  
Natural History Collections ◽  
University Of Edinburgh ◽  
The University

The paper dealt with fifty-two species of butterflies and nineteen of beetles, the type-specimens of which had been discovered by the author in a collection purchased by the University of Edinburgh from M. Dufresne of Paris in the year 1819, and afterwards transferred to the Museum of Science and Art. In the case of the butterflies, the species referred to were described by Godart in the Encyclopédie Méthodique, while the beetles belonged to species described by Olivier in the same work, and also in his Histoire Naturelle des Insectes—Coléoptères, published about the same time. By the comparison of these original specimens with others in the Natural History Collections at the British Museum the author has been enabled to clear up many points in synonymy, etc., which have for nearly eighty years remained doubtful and obscure. The most important results of the investigations may be summarised as follows:—One of the beetles has been found by Mr Gahan, of the British Museum, to be the type of a new genus, which is characterised in the present paper, while the specimen upon which it is founded is probably unique; it has been found necessary to rename one species of butterfly and one beetle; errors in synonymy have been corrected in the case of nineteen species; and eight species hitherto wrongly placed have been referred to their proper genera.

scholarly journals William Wright Smith, 1875-1956

1957 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 192-202
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Royal Botanic Garden ◽  
Botanic Garden ◽  
Living Things ◽  
University Of Edinburgh ◽  
Second Year ◽  
The University ◽  
Regius Professor

Sir William Wright Smith, the eminent botanist, who was President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh from 1944 to 1949, died on 15 December 1956, in his eighty-second year. For thirty-four years he held the dual appointment of Regius Professor of Botany in the University of Edinburgh and Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh; he was also Queen’s Botanist in Scotland. Born at Parkend near Lochmaben on 2 February 1875, the son of a Dumfries-shire farmer, he early acquired the interest in living things and a love for the country, which (though he was to spend the greater part of his life in Edinburgh) remained predominantly with him all his days. His school was the Dumfries Academy where he went till the age of sixteen, when he left for Edinburgh as first University Bursar. Every day he had to travel to school by train, yet he found time to explore his native countryside, and his regard for natural history was by no means confined to plants. For example, he enjoyed watching birds and fishing, or, with one or two companions, guddling for trout or, again, in a leisure hour lying on some sunny bank by a convenient rabbit warren with book and gun. Though not robust he played conventional games, and he was fond of cycling, sometimes covering long distances, once at least more than a hundred miles in one day.

scholarly journals The University of Edinburgh natural history class lists 1782–1800

2003 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. D. Eddy
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Geographic Origin ◽  
Profound Impact ◽  
Special Collections ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
University Of Edinburgh ◽  
The University ◽  
John Walker ◽  
Reference Tool

In 1779 Revd Dr John Walker was appointed to be the University of Edinburgh's Professor of Natural History. Because of the institutional structure of the university, he took care to keep detailed class lists from 1782 to 1800. These are extant in the University of Edinburgh's Special Collections Department. As many of the students on the lists would go on to have a profound impact on the practice of nineteenth century natural history, I have compiled them into a table so that they can be used as a reference tool for those interested in the study of natural history in Edinburgh during the late eighteenth century. The table is arranged into columns that state the student's name, degree, year of attendance and geographic origin. To help the reader better understand the table, I have written a brief introductory essay that addresses Walker's organisation of the course and the types of students who attended the lectures. It also identifies the prominent role played by chemistry in Edinburgh's natural history community and discusses the foundation of the Student Natural History Society of Edinburgh.

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