Obituary Notice of Br Heddle. 75 



of Great Britain and Ireland, and was one of their earliest 

 presidents. He was also at one time President of the 

 Geological Society of Edinburgh, and while holding that 

 office was chiefly instrumental in urging upon the Govern- 

 ment of the day the importance of instituting a Geological 

 Survey of Scotland. He was one of the oldest members of 

 the Eoyal Physical Society, and took an interest in its welfare 

 to the end of his life. 



Eeference has already been made elsewhere to the fact 

 also that, for many years, Dr Heddle had been engaged on a 

 comprehensive work on the ''Mineralogy of Scotland," of 

 which the greater part of the manuscript was completed by 

 the Doctor himself, and of which the illustrations, consisting 

 chiefly of most beautiful and delicately-drawn restorations 

 and diagrams of crystals of Scottish minerals, to the number 

 of over six hundred, were also nearly all completed by the 

 Doctor himself. This work is being edited and completed 

 by Dr Heddle's old friend, Mr Alexander Thoms, and the 

 writer of this notice, and it is hoped that the work may be 

 issued to the public within a comparatively short time from 

 the present date. 



Piegarding Dr Heddle's personal characteristics, one or two 

 other points call for remark. Allusion has already been 

 made to the Doctor's strong dramatic instincts and to his 

 histrionic talents, to his fondness for receiving mental 

 impression of things grand, mysterious, and vast, as well as 

 to his equally marked fondness for impressing others with 

 conceptions of the same kind. There must be very few of 

 Dr Heddle's acquaintances who have not been made aware 

 of this characteristic of his. It was his power of mimicry, 

 strong sense of the ludicrous, powerful dramatic instincts, 

 and fondness for impressing those around him, which com- 

 bined to make him one of the grandest story-tellers Scotland 

 has ever known. Give him a few striking facts and a second 

 or two to think over them, and he would found upon these a 

 story which would command the attention and interest of all 

 within hearing. Like Turner with the details of a landscape 

 in his mind, the Doctor would think over and rearrange his 

 facts, adding an artistic touch here, enlarging there, throwing 



