THE 



GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 



No. LXXXII.— APRIL, 1871. 



EMINENT LIVING GEOLOGISTS. 



Sketch of the Scientific Life of Thomas Davidson, F.E.S. 

 (With a Portrait.) 



THEEE are but few men who, having passed many of the best 

 years of their lives in almost constant retirement, have achieved 

 so vast an amount of solid and lasting work, have attained to so 

 high a position amongst their fellow-workers, and the award of 

 whose numerous and well-merited honours has caused greater satis- 

 faction among his scientific brethren than Thomas Davidson, Esq., of 

 Muirhouse, F.E.S., E.G.S., Vice-President of the PalEeontograjDhical 

 Society; Member of the Geological Societies of France, Edinburgh, 

 and Glasgow ; Member etranger de ITnstitut des Provinces, France, 

 and Linnean Society of Normandy ; Imperial Mineralogical Society 

 of St. Petersburg and of the Imperial Society of Naturalists of 

 Moscow ; Eoyal Academies of Belgium and of Bavaria ; Societe 

 Eoyale Hollandaise des Sciences, Haarlem ; Eoyal Society of Liege ; 

 Academy of St. Louis ; American Philosophical Society, Philadel- 

 phia; Zoological Society of Vienna; Palaeontological Society of 

 Belgium; Hon. Member of the Geologists' Association, the Dudley 

 and Midland Geological and Scientific Society, etc. 



He was born in Edinburgh 17th of May, 1817, and his parents pos- 

 sessed considerable landed property in the county of Midlothian. 



At six years of age he was taken to the Continent, and with the 

 exception of occasional visits to Scotland was entirely educated in 

 France, Switzerland, and Italy, under the direction of French and 

 Italian tutors. 



At eleven years of age (it would appear) he had already evinced 

 a marked predilection for the study of Natural History, as well as 

 for that of the fine arts, and consequently every effort was made by 

 his parents in order to secure for him the great advantages which 

 Paris affords to the scientific and artistic student. During five or 

 six years young Davidson followed the classes of Cordier, Elie de 

 Beaumont, Constant Prevost, Dufrenoy, Geoffrey Saint Hilaire, 

 Dumeril, Valenciennes, de Blainville, Milne Edwards, Audouin, 

 Brongniart, Pouillet, Baron Thenard, and other great masters in 

 science ; these admirable lectures being delivered free of charge to 

 those who attend them, at the Sorbonne, Jardin des Plantes, E'cole 



VOL. VIII.— NO. LXXXII. 



