Ill 



John Allan Beoun was born on 21st September, 1817, at Dumfries, 

 where Ms fatlier held a school intended for young men about to enter 

 the Navy. 



On the death of his father, Mr. Broun, who was then about twenty 

 years of age, became a student at the University of Edinburgh, where 

 he speedily distinguished himself. Here his attachment towards 

 physical science more especially developed itself and procured for him 

 the friendship of the late James D. Forbes, who was then Professor of 

 Natural Philosophy at Edinburgh. 



About this time (1842) the scientific world became awake to the 

 importance of cultivating terrestrial magnetism as a branch of cos- 

 mical inquiry, and Sir Thomas MacDougal Brisbane in a very generous 

 manner agreed to establish and maintain a highly equipped observa- 

 tory at his house at Makerstoun, Dumfriesshire. 



Mr. Broun was appointed director of this observatory after a course 

 of preliminary training spent at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, 

 from which he derived much information. 



He continued for eight years to be director of this establishment, 

 and in addition to his other duties he discussed his observations at 

 great length in a series of volumes which were published in the " Trans- 

 actions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh," of which body Sir Thomas 

 Brisbane was the President. 



The production of these volumes must have cost Mr. Broun a 

 great amount of time and thought, inasmuch as while published at an 

 early stage of an important inquiry, they were conspicuous for the skill 

 employed in the development of new methods. 



John Allan Broun had now in virtue of what he had done acquired 

 a high reputation as one of the leaders in the science of terrestrial 

 magnetism, and was regarded as one peculiarly well adapted to fill a 

 prominent scientific position whether at home or abroad. About this 

 time two Professorships in Scotland became vacant, for either of which 

 he would have been a very desirable candidate ; but he had conscien- 

 tious scruples which prevented him from subscribing to certain 

 formulae which were then insisted on from the holders of all Scotch 

 Chairs. 



In 1850 Broun left Makerstoun and went to Paris, where he formed 

 the acquaintance of the leading men of science of that capital. 



There also he met with the lady who became his wife, Isaline 

 Vallony, the daughter of a clergyman in the Canton du Vaud, and 

 belonging to an old Protestant family of Dauphine (du Yal Louise), 

 who had fled from France at the Revolution. This lady and a family 

 of three sons and two daughters are now left to mourn his loss. 



In 1851, through the influence of Colonel Sykes, Broun was ap- 

 pointed Director of the Trevandrum Observatory, an institution 

 supported by His Highness the Rajah of Travancore, and he went to 



