284 A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CHAIR OF 



and afterwards that of Colinton. Of a somewhat different 

 type was Robert Jameson, the next occupant of the Chair. 

 Before his appointment in 1804 he had learned a little medicine, 

 had been a student of Walker's, and had specially studied 

 mineralogy and geology under Werner at Freiberg. Though 

 he was mainly an original inquirer in the two subjects just 

 mentioned, and enriched the museum of the University 

 greatly in these departments, yet he lost no opportunity of 

 adding to the zoological collections. Thus many of the large 

 quadrupeds were procured by his friends in India and Africa, 

 while he was successful in securing the Dufresne collection 

 of birds for the University. All this time, and, indeed, for 

 fifty years, his lectures traversed nearly the same ground as 

 his predecessors. His gifted successor, Edward Forbes, 

 lectured only one summer, and thus had no time to develop 

 the features of a new system, which undoubtedly would have 

 been mainly zoological the result of unique experience 

 gathered in many seas and portrayed with the skill of an artist 

 and a facile and persuasive eloquence all his own. Professor 

 Allman, again, who followed Forbes in 1855, devoted the 

 main part of his course to the study of zoology, a few conclud- 

 ing lectures only being allotted to physical geography, while 

 the Thomsonian lectures on mineralogy were delivered in 

 winter. For the first time the Chair became prominently one 

 of zoology, and ever since it has almost exclusively dealt 

 with that subject, for in 1871 the appointment of a Professor 

 of Geology removed both this subject and mineralogy, as 

 well as palaeontology, from the Commission. Sir Wyville 

 Thomson and Professor Ewart have lectured as zoologists 

 only. 1 



Before leaving this important Chair, a brief remark may be 

 made about the Edinburgh University museum. Though the 



1 For information concerning the various Chairs I am indebted to Professor Ewart, 

 Professor Graham Kerr, Professor Arthur Thomson, the late Professor Allman, the late 

 Professor Newton, the late Professor Alleyne Nicholson, and the late Professor Young. 



