JOHNSTON, JAMES T. W., late Professor of Chemistry in the University of Durham. He was born at Paisley, about the year 1796. His father subsequently removed to Manchester, and afterwards returned again to Scotland, residing at Kilmarnock. During this time the education of young Johnston depended chiefly on his own efforts; he was however so succeeeful that he was enabled to obtain his own livelihood by giving private instruction to pupils in the University of Glasgow. Ili 1825 he removed to Durham, where he opened a school. In 1830 he married the daughter of Thomas Ridley, Esq., of Park-end. By this marriage his circumstances were so much improved that he gave up his school, and determined to put in execution a plan he had long conceived of devoting himself to the study of chemistry. He accordingly repaired to Sweden, and became a pupil of the celebrated Berzelius. He made so much progress in his chemical studies, and became so well known as a chemist, that on the establishment of the University of Durham he was invited to take the readership in chemistry and mineralogy. This took place in 1833, whilst he was yet pursuing his studies on the Continent, and the chair was not occupied till he returned to fill it. On his return, he took up his residence at Edinburgh, and devoting himself to the department of agricultural chemistry he became appointed chemist to the Agricultural Society of Scotland. On the dissolution of this society, he left Edinburgh, and resided permanently in Durham. He now occupied himself principally with the production of works on the relation of chemistry to agriculture. In this he was very success ful, and few writers have been more extensively read in this depart ment of literature. His 'Lectures on Agricultural Chemistry and Geology' are an able exposition of the application of the principles of chemical and geological science to the art of agriculture. He also
published a Catechism' on the same subject, which at the time of his death, in 1855, had gone through thirty-three editions, and has been translated into almost every European language. He had travelled in America, and was well known as an agricultural chemist iu the New World ; and his works there have as large a circulation as in his own country. His experience of America he gave to the world in a work entitled Notes on North America,' in which he discusses many of the important agricultural questions connected with the resources of that great country. He was an eminently popular writer and teacher, and all his writings exhibit an enthusiasm which renders them attractive even to the unscientific reader. One of the most popular and the last of his works was his ' Chemistry of Common Life,' which has had a vast circulation, and done much for diffusing a knowledge of the principles of chemistry involved in the ordinary occupations of human beings. In some parts of this work he has unintentionally fallen into error; and it is perhaps only right to state here that the` remarkable statement made in that work with regard to arsenic-eating amongst the inhabitants of Styria and other parts of Europe, has been recently shown to be without foundation.
This work originally appeared as a series of magazine articles. Pro fessor Johnston contributed to the 'Edinburgh Review' and other journals. He has also published many papers in the Transactions and Proceedings of scientific societies. In the summer of 1S53 ho was travelling on the Continent in his usual health, when he was suddenly seized with spitting of blood, which terminated in a rapid decline, and he died at Durham on the 18th of September of that year. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1837, and was a member of other learned societies.