Rco. John Gibson Macvicar. 97 



In his native town of Dundee he promoted the founding 

 of" the Watt Institution, where he was a most popuhir 

 lecturer. We have before us a Eeport of that Institution 

 for 1838-39, containing a list of twenty-one lectures 

 delivered by him to an average attendance of 500. They 

 include not only (1) Vegetable Anatomy and Physiology, 

 (2) Systematic Botany, (3) Geographical Distribution and 

 Economic Uses of Plants, but also MoUusca, the Solar 

 System, the Steam-Engine, the Chemical Constitution of 

 the Atmosphere, and many other subjects. 



In regard to Dr Macvicar's original investigations in 

 chemistry, to which he himself attached considerable 

 importance, the present compiler does not feel competent 

 to form an opinion. But Dr Macvicar's old friend 

 Sir Lyon Playfair has written to his widow a letter 

 which we are permitted to quote. In this letter, after 

 speaking of the Doctor as one of those who first turned his 

 tliougiits to science, Sir Lyon remarks that his views on 

 Chemistry, published many years ago, are now much 

 more in accordance with what is commonly received than 

 they were when first promulgated. 



It may here be added, that so early as 1828 he edited 

 the Quarlerly Journal of Agriculture, and in 18G6 he re- 

 ceived a silver medal from the Scottish Arboricultural 

 Society for an essay on the " Philosophy of Arboriculture." 



A complete list of Dr Macvicar's publications, and con- 

 tributions to Journals and the Transactions of Societies, 

 would be long, and would display unusual variety as to 

 subjects. The Edinburgh Medical Journal, for which he 

 often wrote, has in its number for March 1884 the titles 

 of his principal papers. Among his larger publications are 

 All Inquiry into Human Nature, and a treatise on the 

 Philosophy of the Beautiful, which was first delivered as 

 a lecture to the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution. 



We have before us a paper on Vegetable Morphology, 

 which was communicated to our Society on 12th July 

 1860, and appears in the Transactions for that year. In 

 this paper he argues that the hollow sphere is the form 

 towards which vegetable growth tends. In a large work 

 published by him in parts (Part IV., was published in 

 1874) and which under the title A Sketch of a Fhilo- 



TKANS. BOT. SOC. VOL. XVI. G 



