74 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



and inexpensive matter that it is now. There were then few 

 or no railways, steam-packets, or coaches ; and matters were 

 even worse as regards housing accommodation. It is also a 

 matter of common knowledge how that circumstances led to 

 I)r Heddle and some friends making an arrangement whereby 

 the Doctor's Collection of Scottish Minerals became the 

 property of the nation. They are now located in the G-allery 

 of Scottish Geology and Mineralogy in the Edinburgh Museum 

 of Science and Art, where their arrangement was commenced 

 by Dr Heddle and the writer of this notice, by whom the 

 work is now being carried on. 



Dr Heddle wrote a large number of papers, chiefly on 

 mineralogical subjects. The majority of one section of these 

 appeared in the Mineralogical Magazine, under the general 

 title of " The Cleognosy of Scotland." They include, as the 

 title suggests, contributions to the Geology, as well as to the 

 Mineralogy of the Doctor's native land. Another group of 

 contributions was published in the Transactions of the 

 Royal Society of Edinhurgh, under the general name of 

 " Chapters on the Mineralogy of Scotland." The Doctor's 

 style was somewhat high-flown and rhetorical; but those 

 who will take the trouble to peruse the above-mentioned 

 papers carefully, will find them full of terse statements, 

 charged with suggestive matter, and embodying many original 

 ideas. Not a few of these appeared before the time when 

 people in general were quite prepared to receive them, and 

 they have consequently (as is usual in such cases) been 

 somewhat extensively appropriated (generally without 

 acknowledgment) by writers whose stock of original ideas 

 has been more limited. For some of these researches the 

 Doctor was awarded the Keith Medal of the Eoyal Society 

 of Edinburgh in 1878. He brought out a new edition of 

 Greg and Lettsom's " British Mineralogy " in 1858, and 

 he contributed the article " Mineralogy " to the ninth 

 edition of the Encyclopmdia Britannica. He surveyed 

 and published a map of the Geology of Sutherland — as 

 difficult a piece of work as it was possible for any one 

 man to undertake. 



He was one of the founders of the Mineralogical Society 



