SKETCHES OF DECEASED PRESIDENTS. PIERS. 



N. S. Historical Society in June, 1879. He was a corres- 

 ponding member of the Society of Americanists. (See Morn- 

 ing Chronicle, Halifax, 6th August, 1885; Regan, Sketches 

 and Traditions of North West Arm, 1908, p. 31; Stairs- 

 Morrow Family History, Halifax, 1906.)* 



PROF. GEORGE LAWSON, Ph. D., LL. D., F. I. C., F. R. S. 

 C., botanist and chemist. Born at Newport, Fifeshire, 

 Scotland, 12th October, 1827; died at Halifax, 10th November 

 1895. Educated at Edinburgh University, and for a time was 

 demonstrator of botany under Prof. J. H. Balfour and curator 

 of the university herbarium, and prepared a catalogue of 

 the Royal Society of Edinburgh's .library. In 1858 he was 

 appointed professor of chemistry and natural history in 

 Queen's University, Kingston, Ont., and thereupon came 

 to Canada. In 1863 left Queen's and took the professorship 

 of chemistry and mineralogy in Dalhousie College, Halifax, 

 a position which he held till his death. He added lectures on 

 botany to those on his other subjects. He had made a study of 

 agriculture before coming to Canada, and was secretary of 

 the Board of Agriculture of N. S. from 1864 to 1885 when the 

 government assumed the functions of the board, and was then 

 appointed secretary for agriculture, remaining such till his 

 decease. He conducted a Journal of Agriculture for twelve 

 years, and published official crop and other reports. Some of 

 the local exhibitions were under his management. He joined 

 this Institute on 7th March, 1864, and in October became a 

 member of council, served as second or first vice-president in 

 1869-73, 1878-82, and 1891-93, and filled the presidental chair 

 from November, 1893, till his death on 10th November, 1895, 

 being the second president to die in office. 



His favorite study was botany, and he was one of the most 

 accomplished students of that subject we have ever had in the 

 province. Of his contributions to scientific societies, etc., from 



*Since this paper was prepared, death has suddenly removed one of our most 

 distinguished and most energetic past-presidents, Prof. J. G MacGregor of Edinburgh 

 University, who at this period was the eighth president, serving as such from Oct., 1888, to 

 Nov. 1891. To no other man's endeavours does the society owe more. 



