112 
OBITUARY. 
are called upon to record the departure from among us of another of 
our most distinguished members. 
George Johnston was born on the 20th of July, 1797, at Simprin, in 
Berwickshire. About the year 1813 he commenced his medical studies in 
Edinburgh, and entered as a pupil of the well-known Dr. Abercrombie. 
He took out his degree of M.D. in 1819, and soon afterwards became a 
Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He then removed 
to Berwick, where he established himself as a physician, and was not long 
in becoming one of the leading medical men of that town. He devoted 
himself with the greatest assiduity to the duties of his profession; and we 
believe that he never completely recovered from a severe wetting to which 
he was exposed while visiting a patient in the country. He sought, in 
the retreat afforded by the Bridge of Allen, some slight relaxation from 
the harassing duties that devolved upon him, and it was here that he was 
attacked with a fit of paralysis. He was quickly removed to his resi¬ 
dence at Berwick, where he shortly afterwards fell into a state of un¬ 
consciousness, which lasted, with a few and brief intervals, until, on the 
morning of the 30th July, he calmly passed from the scene of his labours. 
Thus was finished the life of a great as well as a good man. Dr. John¬ 
ston was essentially a British naturalist—perhaps we had better said that 
Dr. Johnston was the naturalist of the Eastern Border; for, although 
the author of the “ British Zoophytes and Sponges,” yet he always felt, to 
quote Southey’s words, “ The better, as well as the happier, for local 
attachmentand one of the most charming productions in the English 
language is his “ Botany of the Eastern Borders.” Some months since, 
he informed us that the second volume of his u Terra Lindisfarnensis” was 
nearly ready. Let us hope that some one will be found to follow up the 
work that our lamented friend had begun. 
The driest details became interesting when they flowed from Dr. Johnston’s 
pen. Ever forward in the pursuit of the natural sciences, he lost no 
opportunity of advancing their interests, and to this we owe the formation, 
about two-and-twenty years since, of the Berwickshire Naturalists Club. 
Some of the excursions of this club will be found narrated by his poetical 
pen in the pages of his last work, just referred to. His favourite flower 
was the wood sorrel (Oxalis acetosella). Well may we say with Words¬ 
worth, that— 
“ A flower is not a flower alone— 
A thousand sanctities invest it; 
And as they form a radient zone, 
Around its simple beauty thrown, 
Their magic tints become its own, 
As if their spirit had possess’d it.” 
