1913 - 14 .] 
Obituary Notices. 
285 
Professor John Gibson. By Principal A. P. Laurie, D.Sc. 
(MS. received October 26, 1914. Read December 7, 1914.) 
John Gibson was born in Edinburgh on May 13, 1855, and was educated 
at Edinburgh Academy. He afterwards studied chemistry at Heidelberg 
under Bunsen, Kirchhoff, Kopp, and others, working for five consecutive 
sessions in Bunsen’s laboratory, and graduating in 1876 as Doctor of 
Philosophy. 
On returning to Edinburgh, he became assistant under Professor Crum 
Brown; later on, in 1881, being appointed chief assistant in the laboratory, 
where he taught for eleven years. In 1892 he was appointed Professor of 
Chemistry in the Pleriot-Watt College, a post which he held up to the day 
of his death. 
Gibson was, above all things, an analyst. He seems to have developed 
his original interest in chemical analysis under Bunsen, and to the end of 
his life he remained in the very first rank of analysts, and always regarded 
that part of the teaching in the department as of the utmost importance. 
As an example of his capacity for analytical research, we cannot do 
better than take his report on “ An Analytical Examination of Manganese 
Nodules, with special reference to the Presence or Absence of the Rarer 
Elements,” which was published in the Challenger Reports — “ Deep Sea 
Deposits,” in 1891, and involved an original research in analytical methods. 
All those who had the good fortune to be students under him have benefited 
by his enthusiastic appreciation for, and exact knowledge of, analytical 
methods. 
While in Edinburgh University, Gibson carried out a large number of 
observations for the Fishery Board on the composition of sea waters, more 
especially in the North Sea, and he also made an investigation into some 
of the rare earths. Years of investigation were devoted to the study of 
these rare earths, and the separation of pure salts from them. Unfor- 
tunately, all that ever was published on this subject was a short paper on 
“ Glucinum ” in the Transactions of the Chemical Society, 1893. 
Gibson always approached the problem of publication with great un- 
willingness. When once he completed a research, his interest carried him 
on to fresh investigations, and it was with great difficulty that he could be 
persuaded to put pen to paper with a view to publication. As a conse- 
quence of this, many valuable researches have been lost to science, and this 
