68 ^"--^^ 



The Geology of Russia in Europe and the Ural Mountains. By 

 Roderick Impey Murchison, Edouard de Verneuil, and Count 

 Alexander von Keyserling. 2 vols. 4to. — By the Authors. 



The American Journal of Arts and Science, conducted by Professor 

 Silliman, for January 1846. — By the Editor. 



Monday, \&th February 1846. 

 Dr CHRISTISON, Vice-President, in the Chair. 

 The following Communications were read : — 



\. Biographical Notice of the late Sir John Robison, K.H., 

 Sec. R. S. Ed. By Professor Forbes. 



" A laudable usage was formerly more px'evalent in this Society 

 than it is at present, of recording the merits and services of persons 

 who have conferred honour upon it by the one, or rendered them- 

 selves its benefactors by the other. Some very elaborate biogra- 

 phies have thus been communicated ; but, in the old " History of 

 the Society" (to which our published " Proceedings" are in some 

 degree parallel), numerous short notices are to be found of a kind 

 imposing less labour on the biographer, and admitting of more ex- 

 tensive application than the larger memoii's just alluded to. In 

 the hope that soch notices may be more frequently contributed, I 

 beg now to offer, within the short compass in which the very limited 

 materials now at my disposal enable me to condense my task, a 

 brief notice of the Life of the late Sir John Robison, whose most 

 enei'getic efforts were, for many years, constantly directed to the 

 promotion of the welfare of this Society ; a circumstance which 

 seems to call for more specific notice than was comprised in the 

 thanks and acknowledgment voted by the Society during his life- 

 time,* and which naturally devolves upon me the duty of drawing 

 it up, not only as his successor in office, but as having enjoyed his 

 friendship, and having been, on several occasions, indebted to him, 

 in no common degree, for personal kindness. 



" Sir John Robison was born on the 11th June 1778. His father 

 was the late eminent Dr Robison, Professor of Natural Philosophy 

 in our own University, and Secretary of this Society, who died in 

 1804 ; and his mother, formerly Miss Wright, still survives him, at 

 an advanced, but robust old age. 



Transactions of the Ro^al Society of Edinburgh, vol. XV., p. 680. 



