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WILLIAMSON, WILLIAM CRAWFORD (18r6–1895)

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 685 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WILLIAMSON, See also:WILLIAM See also:CRAWFORD (18r6–1895) , See also:English naturalist, was See also:born at See also:Scarborough on the 24th of See also:November 1816. His See also:father, See also:John Williamson, after beginning See also:life as a gardener, became a well-known See also:local naturalist, who, in See also:con-junction with William See also:Bean, first explored the See also:rich fossiliferous beds of the See also:Yorkshire See also:coast. He was for many years See also:curator of the Scarborough natural See also:history museum, and the younger Williamson was thus from the first brought up among scientific surroundings and in association with scientific See also:people. William See also:Smith, the " father of English See also:geology," lived for two years in the Williamsons' See also:house. See also:Young Williamson's maternal grandfather was a See also:lapidary, and from him he learnt the See also:art of cutting stones, an accomplishment which he found of See also:great use in later years, when he undertook his See also:work on the structure of fossil See also:plants. Williamson very See also:early made a beginning as an See also:original contributor to See also:science. When little more than sixteen he published a See also:paper on the rare birds of Yorkshire, and a little later (in 1834) presented to the See also:Geological Society of See also:London his first memoir on the Mesozoic fossils of his native See also:district. In the meantime he had assisted See also:Lindley and See also:Hutton in the preparation of their well-known Fossil See also:Flora of Great See also:Britain. On entering the medical profession he still found See also:time to carry on his scientific work during his student days, and for three years acted as curator of the Natural History Society's museum at See also:Manchester. After completing his medical studies at University See also:College, London, in 1841, he returned to Manchester to practise his profession, in which he met with much success. When See also:Owens College at Manchester was founded in 1851 he became See also:professor of natural history there, with the See also:duty of teaching geology, See also:zoology and See also:botany. A very necessary See also:division of labour took See also:place as additional professors were appointed, but he retained the See also:chair of botany down to 1892.

Shortly afterwards he removed to Clapham, where he died on the 23rd of See also:

June 1895. Williamson's teaching work was not confined to his university classes, for he was also a successful popular lecturer, especially for the Gilchrist Trustees. His scientific work, pursued with remarkable See also:energy throughout life, in the midst of See also:official and professional duties, had a wide See also:scope. In geology, his early work on the zones of See also:distribution of Mesozoic fossils (begun in 1834), and on the See also:part played by microscopic organisms in the formation of marine deposits (1845), was of fundamental importance. In zoology, his investigations of the development of the See also:teeth and bones of fishes (1842-1851), and on See also:recent See also:Foraminifera, a See also:group on which he wrote a monograph for the See also:Ray Society in 18J7, were no less valuable. In botany, in addition to a remarkable memoir on the See also:minute structure of Volvox (1852), his work on the structure of fossil plants established See also:British See also:palaeobotany on a scientific basis; on the ground of these researches Williamson may See also:rank with A. T. See also:Brongniart as one of the founders of this See also:branch of science. His contributions to fossil botany began in the earliest days of his career, and he returned to the subject from time to time during the See also:period of his geological and zoological activity. His investigation of the Mesozoic cycadioid fossil Zamia (now Williamsonia) gigas was the See also:chief palaeobotanical work of this intermediate period. His See also:long course of researches on the structure of Carboniferous plants belongs mainly to the latter part of his life, and his results are chiefly, though not wholly, embodied in a See also:series of nineteen See also:memoirs, ranging in date from 1871 to 1893, in the Philosophical Transactions. In this series, and in some See also:works (notably the monograph on Stigmaria ficoides, Palaeontographical Society, 1886), published elsewhere, Williamson elucidated the structure of every group of Palaeozoic vascular plants.

Among the chief results of his researches may be mentioned the See also:

discovery of plants intermediate between ferns and'cycads, the description of the true structure of the fructification in the See also:extinct cryptogamic See also:family Sphenophylleae, and the demonstration of the cryptogamic nature of the dominant Palaeozoic orders Calamarieae, Lepidodendreae and Sigillarieae, plants which on See also:account of the growth of their stems in thickness, after the manner of gymnospermous trees, were regarded as phanerogams by Brongniart and his followers. After a long controversy the truth of Williamson's views has been fully established, and it is now known that the mode of growth, characteristic in See also:present times, of See also:dicotyledons and See also:gymnosperms prevailed in Palaeozoic 'ages in every family of vascular cryptogams. Thus, as See also:Count Solms-Laubach has pointed out, palaeobotany for the first time spoke the decisive word in an important question of See also:general botany. Williamson's work in fossil botany was scarcely appreciated at the time as it deserved, for its great merits were somewhat obscured by the author's want of familiarity with the See also:modern technicalities of the science. Since, however, the subject has been seriously taken up by botanists of a newer school, the soundness of the See also:foundation he laid has become fully recognized. It may be added that he was a skilled draughtsman, illustrating all his works by his own drawings, and practising See also:water-See also:colour See also:painting as his favourite recreation. A full account of Williamson's career will be found in his auto-See also:biography, entitled Reminiscences of a Yorkshire Naturalist, edited by his wife (London, 1896). Among obituary notices may be mentioned that by Count Solms-Laubach, Nature (5th See also:September 1895), and one by D. H. See also:Scott in Proc. R.S. vol. Ix.

(1897). (D. H.

End of Article: WILLIAMSON, WILLIAM CRAWFORD (18r6–1895)

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