URE, ANDREW, 31.D., a distinguished chemist, was born at Glasgow in 1778, educated at Glasgow university, subsequently prosecuted his Medical studies at Edinburgh and returned to Glasgow, where he received the decree of M.D. in 1801. In 1802 he became professor of chemistry and natural philosophy in the Andersonian institution (q v.), took an active part in the establishment (1809) of an observatory at Glasgow, and was appointed its first astronomer. In 1813 he made his appearance in the literary world as the author of a Systematic 2'able of the Materia Medica, which was followed in 1818 by New Ezperimental Researches on Some of the Leading Doctrines of Calorie, a memoir which, read before the royal society and printed in the Philosophical Transactions, brought Ure prominently into notice as a natural philosopher. Several papers on chemi cal subjects, the fruits of his accurate and extensive researches, followed. In 1821 appeared his Dictionary of Chemistry; in 1822 a paper On the Ultimate Analysis of Animal and Vegetable Substances, one of the earliest contributions to organic analysis, and a transla tion of- Berthollet on Dyeing; and in 1829 a System of Geology, in which the hypothesis of a general flood was maintained. In 1830 Ure removed to London, and in 1834 was •
appointed analytical chemist to the board of customs. The products of his pen from this time assume more of a technological character, as the Philosophy of _Manufactures (1835), The Cotton _Manufacture of Great Britain Compared with that of other Countries (1836), and Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and _Mines (1839). A seventh edition of this last work was edited by Robert Hunt in 3 vols. (1875), and a supplementary volume was added in 1878. Ure was chosen a fellow of the royal society iu 1822, as well as of the geological, astronomical, and other societies. He died in London, Jan. 2, '1857.