JAMESON, Robert, the late distinguished professor of natural history in the University of Edinburgh, was born in Leith on 11th of July 1774, and received the elements of his education in the public grammar school of his native town. It is stated that his schoolboy acquirements gave small promise of future distinction, and his residence in a seaport not unnaturally inclined him to become a sailor; but his father strenuously opposed the wishes of the boy, and he was bound apprentice to an eminent surgeon in Leith. In due time he commenced his medical studies in the University of Edinburgh; and among other branches, he became, in 1792-3, a student of natural history, under the Rev. Dr Walker, who may justly be considered as the reviver of a taste for that science in the capital of Scotland. Young Jameson soon became a favourite pupil of that master, accompanied him in some of his mineralogical excursions, and assisted him in the arrangement of a museum which Walker endeavoured to accumulate.
This predilection for the study of natural history was increased by a visit which Jameson paid to London in 1793, when he became acquainted with Sir Joseph Banks and with Dr Shaw, then employed in that department of the British Museum. On his return to Scotland, Jameson seems to have adopted natural history as his chief occupation; and he also attended the chemical lectures of the celebrated Dr Black.
In 1794 he commenced his explorations of the isles of Scotland by a visit to Shetland, from which his father's family had sprung. Among other mineralogical excursions in different parts of Scotland, he examined the interesting Isle of Arran in 1797. The first fruit of these researches appeared in his Mineralogy of Arran and Shetland, published in 1798. This work contains dissertations on kelp and peat, which present little interesting, except the author's remarks on the analogy between the acid found in peat bogs and the suberic acid of chemists, and the em-
ployment of charred peat, in some countries, for the manufacture of iron. In the year 1798, accompanied by a friend, afterwards Sir Charles Bell, he carefully explored the Hebrides; and in the following year he visited the Orkney Isles, and Arran for a second time, preparatory to his work termed The Mineralogy of the Scottish Isles, which appeared in 1800 in two thin 4to volumes, and contained his former account of Arran and Shetland.
Besides these publications, Jameson had read occasional papers to the Natural History Society of Edinburgh, and sent a few communications to some philosophical journals; but none of them seem to have been afterwards considered by their author as of much importance.
In 1800 he proceeded to Freyberg, for the avowed purpose of completing his mineralogical studies under the celebrated Werner. Freyberg was, at that period, considered the great mineralogical school of Europe. The impressive manner of Werner in communicating instruction, and the enthusiasm with which he contrived to impress his students, is well known; and Jameson became a devoted follower of all the dogmas of Wernerian geology. Among his fellow-students was Von Buch, and the illustrious Von Humboldt had preceded him in the same school. Both these great geologists commenced as supporters of the hypothesis of Werner, and, like Jameson, both afterwards saw reason to adopt very different geological theories.
During the two years succeeding his Freyberg studies, Jameson visited different parts of the continent, to increase his mineralogical knowledge; but in 1804 he returned to his native country, where he speedily obtained the chair of natural history, as successor to his old master, Dr Walker. The duties of this chair embraced a very wide range of subjects, which, in most continental schools, are assigned to different professors. Jameson adopted the arrangement of his predecessor, dividing natural history into—1st, Meteorology; 2d, Hydrology; 3d, Mineralogy, including geology; 4th, A slight sketch of phytology; and, 5th, Zoology. It was in the three first divisions of the subject, especially the third, that the prelections of Jameson were chiefly valuable; but his acquaintance with animated nature was more limited. He exhibited his anxiety to discharge his academic duties to the utmost, and his enthusiasm on his favourite subjects he failed not to impart to his students, by which a strong stimulus was given to mineralogy and geology in Scotland.
The Wernerian doctrines of Jameson were not universally received. A very different theory of the earth had been promulgated some years before by the celebrated Hutton; and it was most ably supported by the experiments and papers in the Transactions of the Edinburgh Royal Society, of Sir James Hall, and the admirable Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of Professor Playfair; while a good abstract of Hutton's views was annually given in his chemical course by Professor Hope. The principal supporters of the Wernerian or Neptunian theory were Jameson and Dr John Murray, in his well written Comparative View of the Neptunian and Huttonian Theories. The controversy was carried on with spirit at the meetings of the Royal and other societies, and it did not fail, from the ingenuity and earnestness of the supporters of each theory, to impart a high interest to geological speculations. It is not a little creditable, however, to the candour of Professor Jameson, that, after having long believed and zealously taught the Wernerian theory of the earth, he did not hesitate publicly to renounce his long-cherished geological speculations, and do justice to the extraordinary merits of Dr Hutton.
Before Jameson became the professor of natural history, he seems to have resolved on producing a mineralogical survey of all Scotland; and in 1804 he published the first part of the first volume of such a work, comprehending the county of Dumfries; but the increasing duties of his chair, and his resolution of forming a museum worthy of the uni-
Jameson, Robert, suspended that work, which was never farther realized. We may here state that, by the inattention of some of his predecessors, and the ravages of time, the considerable collections bequeathed to the college by Sir Robert Sibbald and others had disappeared; and most of the acquisitions made by Dr Walker were, after his death, claimed by his relations as private property; so that, when Jameson began to teach, he was almost without any public museum for the illustration of his lectures. He had, however, made a fine collection of minerals in Germany and elsewhere, which he used in that part of his course; and the few and imperfect zoological specimens he found in the museum were soon augmented by his indefatigable exertions, and considerable sacrifices both of valuable time and money. In after years the purchase of the noble Dufresne collection at Paris by an anticipation of funds about to accrue to the university, a small annual grant by the government for the support of the museum, and the fees for admission, together with numerous contributions obtained at Jameson's request from former pupils, have rendered this one of the noblest museums in our islands devoted to the teaching of natural history.
These engrossing occupations did not prevent Jameson's cultivation of his favourite study. In 1804 appeared his System of Mineralogy, in two octavo volumes, with a separate dissertation on Werner's External Characters of Minerals. In the first he gave most accurate descriptions of individual minerals; in the latter, he introduced, for the first time to the British public, Werner's capital definitions and nomenclature of colours, as applicable to descriptions of minerals and animals. The third volume of his System was published in 1809, under the title of Elements of Geognosy, in which, with the phraseology, he adopted all the hypothetic views of Werner, which he there contrasted with the fiery theory of Hutton. This work never became popular, partly from the growing tendency of geologists to dispute the dogmas of the Neptunists, and no doubt also from the intermixture of German idiom in which it was delivered. A second edition of his System of Mineralogy, in three octavo volumes, was published in 1816; and at the same time, an enlarged edition of his External Characters. In both editions of his System the arrangement of Werner is scrupulously followed; but in his Manual of Minerals and Mountain Rocks, which appeared in 1821, Jameson adopted the arrangement and nomenclature, as well as the crystallography of Professor Mohs. This may be considered as his last separate publication.
Jameson, however, was otherwise engaged in the cause of science. We have already noticed his labours in the formation of the university museum, an object to which he devoted a large portion of the best years of his life; and he assured the writer of this memoir that to this he had sacrificed his intention of completing the mineralogical survey of Scotland. A knowledge of his exertions in this cause induced his friends, some years before his death, to place the fine bust of him by Steel in the principal saloon of the museum.
The Natural History Society of Edinburgh had languished for several years after the death of Smellie; but it was revived through the exertions of Jameson, Dr Neill, and some other naturalists, and, under the designation of the Wernerian Society, has published seven volumes of Transactions, containing valuable memoirs, some of which are by Professor Jameson.
In 1819 he established The Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, in which, for a time, he was ably assisted by Dr Brewster; but it was afterwards solely conducted by Professor Jameson.
Jameson continued to give two annual courses of lectures, until the few last years of his life. His lectures were well attended, and he had the art of inspiring his pupils
with his own love of a favourite science. This was much Jameson enhanced by those frequent instructive excursions, in which for many years he was accustomed to lead his students, among the interesting geological localities around Edinburgh, during which he explained the theories of the earth, and the succession of geological epochs.
At length his health gave way, and for five winter sessions the class of natural history was taught for him by his friend and colleague, the present professor of medical jurisprudence. Increasing debility came on, and Professor Jameson died with tranquillity on 17th April 1854, in the fiftieth year of his professorship, and the eightieth year of his age. (T. S. T.)