Dawson, Sir John William

C.M.G.(i.e, Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George, 1881), M.A. (Edinburgh, 1856), LL.D. (McGill 1857, and Edinburgh 1884), F.R.S. (1862), F.G.S. (1854), etc., Presbyterian layman; b. at Pictou, Nova Scotia, Oct. 13, 1820; studied at the College of Pictou, and at the University of Edinburgh, finishing in 1846; became superintendent of education for Nova Scotia, 1851 principal, and profe or of geology, McGill University, 1855. In 1881 he received the Lyell medal of the Geological Society of London for eminent geological discoveries; in 1882 was the first president of the Royal Society of Canada in 1883, president of the American A ociation; in 1883 travelled in Egypt and Syria; in 1884 was knighted; in 1885 was president-elect of the British A ociation for 1886. He became correspondent of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, 1846; fellow of Boston Academy Arts and Sciences 1860, of Philadelphia American Philosophical Society 1862; honorary member Boston Natural History Society 1867, and of the New-York Academy of Sciences 1876. He is the author of Acadian Geology, London, 1855, 3d ed. 1868; Archaia, or Studies of Creation in the Bible, 1860; Story of the Earth and Man, 1873; Nature and the Bible (Morse lectures before Union Theological Seminary, New-York City), 1875; Dawn of Life, 1875; Origin of the World, 1877, 4th ed. 1886; Fo il Man, 1880; Chain of Life in Geological Time, 1883; Egypt and Syria, Physical Features in Relation to the Bible, 1885; besides many scientific memoirs in proceedings of societies, etc.