308 Linnean Society. [May 24, 



there for nearly two years, studying Mineralogy and Geology under 

 the famous Werner, not merely in the lecture-room, but in the mines 

 themselves ; where, clothed in the miners' dress, and going through 

 the same routine duty with them, he acquired much practical know- 

 ledge. The state of his father's health recalled him to Scotland, 

 although it appears to have been his full intention to have again re- 

 turned to Freyberg; but on the death of Dr. Walker, in 1804, he 

 was appointed Professor of Natural History, and his residence became 

 thenceforth fixed in Edinburgh. In the same year he published the 

 first part of a ' Mineralogical Description of Scotland,' which, how- 

 ever, was not extended beyond the county of Dumfries. In 1808 

 he founded the Wemerian Natural History Society, of which he was 

 elected Perpetual President; and to its "Memoirs" he became a 

 frequent contributor. His ' Elements of Geognosy' were published 

 in the following year, and first introduced into England in their full 

 extent a knowledge of the doctrines of the Wernerian school. The 

 first edition of his ' System of Mineralogy, comprehending Oryc- 

 tognosy. Geognosy, Mineralogical Chemistry, Mineralogical Geo- 

 graphy, and CEconomical Mineralogy,' appeared in 1808; and a 

 second edition, much enlarged and improved, in 3 vols. 8vo, was 

 issued in 1816. 



Such are some of the principal sepsirate contributions of Professor 

 Jameson to Natural History, and especially to Mineralogy and Geo- 

 logy. But these give only a faint idea of the extent of his multi- 

 farious labours. ' The Edinburgh Philosophical Journal,' commenced 

 in 1819, and for the first six years conducted by him in conjunction 

 with Dr. (now Sir David) Brewster, but afterwards continued under 

 his sole editorship, constitutes an invaluable repository of scientific 

 information, and contains numerous original articles as well as a 

 multitude of translations and notices furnished by himself. In the 

 ' Memoirs of the Wernerian Society,' in ' Nicholson's Journal,' in 

 Thomson's ' Annals of Philosophy,' and in Napier's, edition of the 

 ' Encyclopaedia Britannica,' are many papers contributed by him, 

 and not confined to his more immediate subject, but embracing also 

 Meteorology, Mechanics, and Zoology, both recent and fossil. A 

 translation of Cuvier's celebrated ' Discourse on the Theory of the 

 Earth,' which in a short time ran through five impressions of six 

 thousand copies ; some excellent articles on the Pliysical Geography 

 of Africa and India, in the ' Edinburgh Cabinet Library,' and an 

 edition of Wilson's ' American Ornithology,' revised and scientific- 

 ally arranged to serve as a text-book in schools and universities, 

 gave vaiiety and relief to his more important labours. And these 



