Online Encyclopedia
Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.
DICK, ROBERT
Online EncyclopediaEncyclopedia Home :: DEM-DIO
del.icio.us it!
|
See also:DICK, See also:ROBERT {1811-1866), Scottish geologist and botanist' was See also:born at Tullibody, in See also:Clackmannanshire, in See also:January 1811. His See also:father was an officer of See also:excise. At the See also:age of thirteen, after receiving a See also:good elementary See also:education at the See also:parish school, Robert Dick was apprenticed to a See also:baker, and served for three years. In these See also:early days he became interested in See also:wild See also:flowers —he made a collection of See also:plants and gradually acquired some knowledge of their names from an old See also:encyclopaedia. When his See also:time was out he See also:left Tullibody and gained employment as a journeyman baker at See also:Leith, See also:Glasgow and See also:Greenock. Meanwhile his father, who in 1826 had been removed to See also:Thurso, as super-See also:visor of excise, advised his son to set up a baker's See also:shop in that See also:town. Thither Robert Dick went in 1830, he started in business as a baker and worked laboriously until he died on the 24th of See also:December 1866. Throughout this See also:period he zealously devoted himself to studying and See also:collecting the plants, See also:mollusca and See also:insects of a wide See also:area of See also:Caithness, and his See also:attention was directed soon after he settled in Thurso to the rocks and fossils. In 1835 he first found remains of fossil fishes; but it was not till some years later that his See also:interest became greatly stirred. Then he obtained a copy of See also:Hugh See also:Miller's Old Red See also:Sandstone (published in 1841), and he began systematically to collect with See also:hammer and See also:chisel the fossils from the Caithness flags. In 1845 he found remains of Holoptychius and forwarded specimens to Hugh Miller, and he continued to send the best of his fossil fishes to that geologist, and to others after the See also:death of Miller. In this way he largely contributed to the progress of See also:geological knowledge, although he him-self published nothing and was ever averse from publicity. His See also:herbarium, which consisted of about 20o folios of mosses, ferns and flowering plants " almost unique in its completeness," is now stored, with many of his fossils, in the museum at Thurso. Dick had a hard struggle for existence, especially through competition during his See also:late years, when he was reduced almost to beggary: but of this few, if any, of his See also:friends were aware until it was too late. A See also:monument erected in the new See also:cemetery at Thurso testifies to the respect which his See also:life-See also:work created, when the merits of this enthusiastic naturalist came to be appreciated. See Robert Dick, Baker of Thurso, Geologist and Botanist, by See also:Samuel See also:Smiles (1878). Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML. Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide. |
|
|
[back] DICHOTOMY (Gr. bLya, apart, TEµvew, to cut) |
[next] DICK, THOMAS (1774-1857) |