Volume 2 > Half-Volume 4

407
JOHNSTON, GEORGE, M.D. This distinguished
naturalist, and attractive writer in natural science,
was born in 1798, but of what parentage we have
seen no record. He was destined for the medical
profession, and apprenticed to Dr. Abercrombie of
Edinburgh, who, in his day, was one of the most
eminent medical practitioners of Britain. Having
gone through the usual medical education and prac-
tical training, George Johnston graduated in Edin-
burgh in 1819, and afterwards settled down in the
general practice of his profession at Berwick-upon-
Tweed. Having acquired a taste at Edinburgh for
the study of natural history, it was so suited to his
inquiring mind and refined poetical temperament
that he continued to prosecute it till the end of his
life; and although occupied with a laborious profes-
sional practice, which leaves small leisure or inclina-
tion for other pursuits, the works which he published
in natural history have sufficed to establish his name
among the most distinguished writers in that depart-
ment.
At the time when Dr. Johnston first settled as a
medical practitioner in Berwick-upon-Tweed, little
was known of the lower forms of animal life, to
which he devoted his attention; and thus, although he
stood alone, he occupied a field in which his re-
searches might go on without a rival, and which, by
the right of pre-occupation, he could make his own
for the time being. And nobly did he justify the
advantages of such a starting-point. After he had
established himself in Berwick, he proceeded to
publish the results of his inquiries in the various
natural history journals and the transactions of natu-
ral history societies. Thus his principal papers, in-
dicating the wide range of his sympathy with natural
objects, his remarkable powers of observation, and
his sound and cautious judgment, appeared in the
Edinburgh Philosophical Jotirnal, the Magazine of
Natural History, the Annals of Natural History (of
which latterly he was one of the editors), the Transac-
tions of the Natural History Society of Newcastle, and
the Proceedings of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Chib,
of which he was one of the founders. But the work
by which he was best known to the scientific world
at large, and which perhaps will constitute the most
lasting monument of his fame, was his History of
British Zoophytes. Of this important work we see
the original elements in his "Descriptive Catalogue of
the Recent Zoophytes found on the Coast of Durham,"
which appeared in the second volume of the Trans-
actions of the Natural History Society of Newcastle-
upon- Tyne, and in his " Catalogue of the Zoophytes of
Berwickshire," published in the Proceedings of the Ber-
wickshire Naturalists' Club. His great original His-
tory of British Zoophytes was published first in Edin-
burgh in 1838, and afterwards a second edition of it
was issued from the London press in 1847. The
work was welcomed as by far the most complete and
accurate account of the British forms of these animals
we yet possessed; and to enhance its value, it was
beautifully illustrated by Mrs. Johnston. But while
employed upon the zoophytes, the sponges and coral-
lines did not escape his notice, and in 1842 he pub-
lished A History of British Sponges and Lithophytes.
This work, like the previous one, is still the best and
most complete in our language on the subject of
which it treats; and the effect of both was to raise
the reputation not only of the author, but the town in
which he dwelt, so that Berwick, only distinguished as
yet by its traditions of border warfare, had now be-
come so notable in science, as to be scarcely second to
Selborne. The subjects indeed which employed the
pen of Dr. Johnston had not the same attractive and
popular interest as those on which White of Selborne
had written; but his lively fancy and elegant pleas-
ing style could impart to them a charm which ele-
vated them from their dulness and apparent insig-
nificance into objects of popular importance. Having
devoted much of his attention to the mollusca, as
appears from many of his papers on the subject, Dr.
Johnston published in 1850 his Introduction to Con-
ckology, or Elements of the Natural History of Mol-
luscous Animals. This is a delightful literary per-
formance, and full of interesting illustrations of the
structure and habits of the shell-fishes of Great
Britain.
Hitherto we have viewed this excellent naturalist
ranging among zoophytes and lithophytes, Crustacea
and molluscs, and all the forms of invertebrate life.
Wherever he went he observed; his professional
visits were made with restless inquiring eye to what-
ever was interesting in the kingdom of nature; and
even while standing upon the sea-shore, every object
which the waves deposited upon the sand arrested
his attention, and became a subject of study. To
him the sea was a populous and living world, instead
of a picturesque mass of water. "It is very true,"
he said, "that I have been a scholar for many years
in the book of nature; and I have taught myself to
take note of, and pleasure in, those works with which
the Creator has crowded and adorned the paths I
daily walk; and sure I am that now I can see and
appreciate a beauty and excellence where otherwise
they would not have impressed me." Such was his
declaration in the preface to a new work entitled
Terra Lindisfarnensis, of the first volume of which,
The Natural History of the Eastern Borders, Dr.
Johnston was the author. The field over which it
ranged comprised the whole of Berwickshire, the
liberties of Berwick, North Durham, and the imme-
diately adjacent parts of Northumberland and Rox-
burghshire; and while the specific object of the
volume was to describe the "botany" of that dis-
trict, it was abundantly interspersed with anecdote
and folk-lore, legend, poetry, and biography, local
objects and scenery to interest every reader. To the
active mind of its author, however, such a produc-
tion was a recreation and relief from more severe
studies, to which he returned with redoubled ardour.
He had long been investigating the annelida, the
true worms of the naturalist, but a greatly neglected
branch of British zoology, and had written several
papers on British annelides and Irish annelides, which
were greatly admired, and had called the attention
of naturalists to the subject. Thus encouraged to
persevere, he had made preparations for writing a
complete work on British annelides, when he was
seized with paralysis, and died on the 3d of July,
1855-
The unexpected death of Dr. Johnston was la-
mented in the scientific world as no ordinary be-
reavement. To a mind untired in investigation, and
which phenomena, however minute, could not escape,
he added those powers of eloquence and charms of
imagination which adorned whatever he touched, and
invested the humblest objects of nature with new
interest and beauty. He resembled indeed the la-
mented Hugh Millar, although in a different field of
natural science. It was his observant eye that first
detected the new water-weed (Anackaris alsinastrum)
in the lake at Dunse Castle in 1838, and again in
the waters of the Whiteader in 1841. His interest
in science was also manifested not only in his writ-
ings, but the societies with which he was connected.
He was an active member, if not also the founder,
of the Berwickshire Natural History Club, and one
of the founders of the Ray Society for the publica-
tion of works on natural history, and was one of the