168 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



Linncea to British Flora, E.B., 433. Life by Sir W. Forbes, 

 1806 ; Smith, Lett, i, 441-3 ; Diet. Nat. Biog. iv. 23." 



The greater part of this refers not to the correspondent 

 of Sir James Edward Smith but to the much better known 

 Professor James Beattie, the author of " An Essay on Truth " 

 and other philosophical works, which like his poems, especially 

 the " Minstrel," enjoyed a very high reputation about the 

 end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth 

 centuries. The Life by Sir W. Forbes and the notices in 

 the biographical collections, so far as I am aware, all refer 

 to the poet. He was born in 1735 in Laurencekirk, and 

 studied in Aberdeen in Marischal College and University, 

 then a keen rival of King's College and University, though 

 the two universities were only about a mile apart. (Since 

 1860 they have happily been united as parts of the 

 University of Aberdeen.) In 1753 he became M.A. of 

 Marischal College and University, where in 1760 he 

 received the chair of Moral Philosophy. In 1787 his eldest 

 son, James Hay Beattie, was appointed his colleague and 

 successor in the chair, but died in 1790. In 1797 Professor 

 Beattie ceased to lecture (a colleague and successor, George 

 Glennie, having been appointed in 1796); and he died in 

 1803. 



The botanist, James Beattie, junior, was a nephew of 

 the poet. He also was born in Laurencekirk, but the date 

 of his birth is uncertain, and little is known about his 

 private life. He studied in Marischal College and University ; 

 graduated M.A. in 1783, and became Professor of Civil and 

 Natural History in that university on 22nd October 1788. 

 He married in 1794, and had a family of four sons and two 

 daughters. He died on 5th October 1810. The scope of 

 the subjects taught in the class of Civil and Natural History 

 by his successor, Dr. James Davidson, is detailed somewhat 

 fully in existing documents, and ranged over astronomy, 

 light, electricity, galvanism, magnetism, gravitation, chemical 

 union, the atmosphere, meteorology, geology, mineralogy, 

 constituent principles of vegetables, physiology of plants, 

 outlines of the Linnean system, animal chemistry and 

 physiology, and the natural and civil history of man. Two 

 hours daily in a winter session were devoted to the above, 



