Robert Jameson

Robert Jameson (* July 1774 in Leith, Scotland, † April 19, 1854 in Edinburgh) was Scottish natural historian, mineralogist and geologist.

Life

At the University of Edinburgh, he studied medicine, botany, chemistry and natural history, first as a medical assistant by John Cheyne. In 1793 he moved, influenced by the natural historian John Walker ( 1731-1803 ), to the field of mineralogy and geology. As assistant to Walker, he was entrusted with the care of the University Museum. He expanded the natural history collection of his university to finds of the Hebrides, the Orkneys and the Shetlands.

From 1800 to 1801 he spent a year at the Mining Academy of Freiberg in Saxony, where he (1749 or 1750-1817 ) worked under the geologist Abraham Gottlob Werner. In 1803 he succeeded Walker as Regius Professor of Natural History at the University of Edinburgh.

Jameson was the great- uncle of the British colonial politician Sir Leander Starr Jameson.

Services

Jameson became the first well-known representative of the so-called Neptunism or Wernismus in Scotland and served from 1804 until his death as president of the Wernerian Natural History Society. In 1819 he founded together with Sir David Brewster (1781 - 1868) The Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, and in 1824 the sole publisher. His private collection of minerals formed until today the main part of the collection of the Royal Scottish Museum.

Jameson is also the first to describe the mineral Olivenit and gave the Bournonite its final name. A process described by him as azurite mineral but later turned out to be Lazulith.

Writings

• Mineralogy of the Scottish Isles (1800)
• A System of Mineralogy (1804, 1808, 3 editions)
• Elements of Geognosy (1809 )
• Manual of Mineralogy (1821 )

Honors

• The 1825 discovered and described Jamesonite mineral was named after him.