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WOODWARD, JOHN

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 804 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WOODWARD, See also:JOHN f 1665-1728), See also:English naturalist and geologist, was See also:born in See also:Derbyshire on the 1st of May 1665. At the See also:age of sixteen he went to See also:London, where he studied with Dr See also:Peter Barwick, physician to See also:Charles II. In 1692 he was appointed See also:professor of physic in See also:Gresham See also:college. In 1693 he was elected F.R.S., in 1695 was made M.D. by See also:Archbishop See also:Tenison and also by See also:Cambridge, and in 1702 became F.R.C.P. While still a student he became interested in See also:botany and natural See also:history, and during visits to See also:Gloucestershire his See also:attention was attracted by the fossils that are abundant in many parts of that See also:county; and he began to See also:form the See also:great collection with which his name is associated. His views were set forth in An See also:Essay toward a Natural History of the See also:Earth and Terrestrial Bodies, especially Minerals, &°c. (1695; and ed. 1702, 3rd ed. 1723). This was followed by Brief Instructions for making Observations in all Parts of the See also:World (1696). He was author also of An See also:Attempt towards a Natural History of the Fossils of See also:England (2 vols., 1728 and 1729). In these See also:works he showed that the stony See also:surface of the earth was divided into strata, and that the enclosed shells were originally generated at See also:sea; but his views of the method of formation of the rocks were entirely erroneous.

In his elaborate See also:

Catalogue he described his rocks, minerals and fossils in a manner far in advance of the age. He died on the 25th of See also:April 1728, and was buried in See also:Westminster See also:Abbey. By his will he directed that his See also:personal See also:estate and effects were to be sold, and that See also:land of the yearly value of one See also:hundred and fifty pounds was to be puchased and conveyed to the University of Cambridge. A lecturer was to be chosen, and paid See also:ioo a See also:year to read at least four lectures every year, on some one or other of the subjects treated of in his Natural History of the Earth. Hence arose the Woodwardian professorship of See also:geology. To the same university he bequeathed his collection of English fossils, to be under the care of the lecturer, and these formed the See also:nucleus of the Woodwardian museum at Cambridge. The specimens have since been removed to the new See also:Sedgwick museum. A full See also:account of Woodward's See also:life and views and a portrait of him are given in the Life and Letters of the Rev. See also:Adam Sedgwick, by J. W. See also:Clark and T. McK.

See also:

Hughes, where it is mentioned that his See also:paper, read before the Royal Society in 1699, entitled Some Thoughts and Experiments concerning Vegetation, ' shows that the author should be ranked as a founder of experimental plant-See also:physiology, for he was one of the first to employ the method of See also:water-culture, and to make refined experiments for the investigation of plant-life." See also The Lives of the Professors of Gresham College, by Jo.'-n See also:Ward (1740).

End of Article: WOODWARD, JOHN

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