Johnston, JAMES F. W.

Johnston, JAMES F. W., a Scottish chemist, was born at Paisley in 1796. He was of humble parentage, and studied at Glasgow University. Having in 1830 married a lady of considerable fortune, he repaired to Stockholm, and became the pupil of Berzelius, the chemist. In 1833 he was invited to take the readership in chemistry and mineralogy in the newly-established university of Durham. But he resided chiefly in Edinburgh, and there carried on his investigations. It is as an agricultural chemist that he is chiefly known. His Catechism of Agricultural Chemistry and Geology has gone through more than fifty editions, and has been translated into almost every European language; and his Lectures on Agricultural Chemistry and Geology (1842; 17th ed. 1894) are held in high esteem. The last of his works, Chemistry of Common Life (1854), has passed through several editions (one edited by Church in 1879). He died at Durham, 18th September 1855.