240 Linnean Society. [May 24, 



pidoptera ; and acquired the means of fixing the nomenclature of 

 numerous doubtful species by comparison with the authentic speci- 

 mens of those authors. His collection was opened once in every 

 week to all students, who were thus enabled not only to name their 

 specimens by actual comparison with the best authorities, but to 

 avail themselves of his extensive information, which he was always 

 ready to communicate in the most liberal manner. His works on 

 British insects will long continue to be regarded as essential to the 

 entomological student, and are remarkable for the conscientious 

 minuteness of their elaboration. 



Thomas Thomson, M.D., F.R.S. Lond. and Edinh., Regius Pro- 

 fessor of Chemistry in the University of Glasgow, and President of 

 the Glasgow Philosophical Society, was born at CriefF on the 12th 

 of April 1773. He was first educated at the parish school of CriefF; 

 but in 1785 was sent to the borough school of Stirling, where he 

 continued for two years and acquired a thoroughly classical educa- 

 tion. In 1 787 he obtained a bursary at St. Andrew's, which entitled 

 him to board and lodging in the University for three years. In 1790 

 he became tutor in the family of Mr. Kerr of Blackshields ; and in 

 1 795 (having abandoned his original destination for the church) he 

 proceeded to Edinburgh for the purpose of studying medicine, and 

 took up his residence with his elder brother, the Rev. James Thom- 

 son, D.D., then one of the editors of the ' Encyclopaedia Britannica.' 

 The lectures of Dr. Black, which he attended in the session of 1 795-6, 

 first awoke his latent taste for chemistry ; he contributed the article 

 " Sea" to the ' Encyclop£edia,' and in November 1796 he succeeded 

 his brother in the editorship to the ' Supplement ' to the third edition 

 of that work ; which post he continued to occupy till 1800, and con- 

 tributed various articles, forming as it were the outlines of his sub- 

 sequent * System of Chemistry.' About this period he also com- 

 menced lecturing on chemistry. In 1799 Dr. Thomson took his 

 degree : he continued to lecture in Edinburgh till 1811, and during 

 that time opened a laboratory for pupils which is believed to have 

 been the first of its kind in Britain. His ' System of Chemistry,' in 

 4 vols. 8vo, was published at Edinburgh in 1 802 ; and so great was 

 its success that no fewer than six large editions were called for in 

 less than twenty years. In 1812 he published his 'History of the 

 Royal Society,' an important work, containing a brief but clear 

 abstract of the history and progress not only of the Society itself, 

 but also of every department of science, as connected with it. In 

 the autumn of the same year he made a tour in Sweden, and in the 



