Downloaded from http://trned.lyellcollection.org/ at Purdue University Library on June 25, 2015 TRANSACTIONS OF THE EDINBURGH GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. SESSION 1897-98. XLVI.—Dr Heddle and Ms Geological Work. By J. G. GOOD- CHILD, H.M. Geol. Survey, F.G.S., F.Z.S., Curator of the Collections of Scottish Geology and Mineralogy in the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art. (Plate XX.) (Read 16th December 1897.) MATTHEW FORSTER HEDDLE was the younger son of Robert Heddle of Melsetter, Hoy, Orkney, where he was bom in 1828. His ancestors on both sides were of Scandinavian descent: it was therefore to be expected that some of the most prominent characteristics of the Norsemen should manifest themselves in his person sooner or later in life. It is to the antecedents of his forefathers, quite as much as to the nature of the surroundings amongst which he passed his earlier days, that we may attribute many of the characteristics which dis­ tinguished him in later life. From his boyhood he had been accustomed to wander amongst the dangerous precipices and lofty sea-cliffs of his native islands, of which it has been said that " there no man dies, for each one breaks his neck "; and he had, further, been early accustomed to trust himself alone in a small boat, in which he often traversed the wild seas of the Orkneys, or found his way from place to place along the dangerous coast-lines of those parts. Surroundings like these could not fail to leave a strong impress upon the character of any thoughtful and reflective youth; and those who knew Heddle in after-life had no difficulty in tracing the development of many of his characteristics to the influence of these sur­ roundings. It was to these early associations that he owed much of his very strong self-reliance; his readiness, when need VOL VII. PART IV. Y Downloaded from http://trned.lyellcollection.org/ at Purdue University Library on June 25, 2015 EDINBURGH GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. be, to face danger ; his fondness for things mysterious, vast, and impressive; and, lastly, the development of a powerful bodily frame and a strong constitution. From Orkney he went to school at the Edinburgh Academy. There he seems early to have distinguished himself by his readi­ ness to do battle on behalf of his weaker school-fellows. One or two stories told about him while there show him to have been possessed of considerable self-control, fortitude, and pluck. Some other stories connected with his life at the Academy are told in the well-known " Chronicles of the Canning Club," to which those interested in further details are referred. After leaving the Academy, Heddle went to Merchiston Castle, where we have records of him in 1842, '43, and '44. While there he stayed with the genial author of " Eab and his Friends," to whose influence Heddle was wont to attribute his tastes for natural science, and much else that was good in the later years of his life. - At Merchiston he helped to found a school Natural History Society, whose members energetically worked at the zoology and botany of the neighbourhood. Amongst those who were fellow-members with Heddle were Lauder Lindsay of Perth, Wyville Thomson, Lawson of Dal- housie College, Canada, Howden of Montrose, and others hardly less well known. It was at this stage of his career that he seems to have begun to develop that propensity for collecting which became his most dominant characteristic in after-life. He began, it is said, by collecting shells; and in the end he acquired, by this means, no inconsiderable knowledge of con- chology. He also got together the materials for a good herbarium. It was an incident connected with this latter which determined in what direction his collecting instincts should lead him in after-life. It is said that he had one day lent this herbarium to a friend, who, by an unfortunate acci­ dent while out driving, dropped the herbarium while he was crossing a stream, whereby the results of several years' work were utterly ruined. Heddle made up his mind, after this un­ toward accident, to collect no more things which could be so easily destroyed, and then straightway began to collect stones in their stead. The commencement of his geognostical work may be said to have dated from the period when that resolve was made. About this time he entered as a medical student at the University of Edinburgh, and underwent that course of training which has always constituted one of the very best possible foundations for scientific work of almost any kind. At the conclusion of his medical course, he went to Germany to study chemistry and mineralogy, going first to Clausthal and then to Downloaded from http://trned.lyellcollection.org/ at Purdue University Library on June 25, 2015 Trans. Eclinb. Geol. Soc, Vol. VII., PI. XX. Downloaded from http://trned.lyellcollection.org/ at Purdue University Library on June 25, 2015 DR HBDDLE AND HIS GEOLOGICAL WORK. 319 Freiburg. Eegarding Heddle in after-life as a geognoser, one cannot fail to perceive how the influence of the particular kind of teaching imparted to him at these seats of learning pervades much of what he thought and wrote. He returned to Edin­ burgh, and graduated as M.D. in 1851, taking as his graduation thesis " The Ores of the Metals." Soon after taking his medical degree, he commenced practice in Edinburgh, somewhere in the neighbourhood of the Grass- market. His reminiscences of this part of his life do not appear to have been altogether pleasant, and who that knows the neighbourhood and the people can wonder at that? The dismal and squalid nature of his surroundings, the low in­ tellectual grade of the people amongst whom his lot, for the time being, was cast; the absence of any prospect of obtaining more than the very smallest remuneration for the hard work he had to undergo, all seemed to combine to make him look forward to the time when he might escape from the duties of a profession which was evidently so uncongenial to his natural tastes and inclination. If I may judge from what I saw of Dr Heddle during a few years' fairly close acquaintance with him in the field, in the museum, in the study, and by his bed-side, I should say that Nature may have intended him for any one of many professions. He was pre-eminently adapted to become a first-rate actor; he would have made a clever lawyer; as a mechanician his talents showed themselves equally well; he was, as we all know, eminent as a mineralogist; he proved an excellent geognoser; but, assuredly, he did not possess that particular combination of special gifts and acquire­ ments which leads to success in the medical profession. So Dr Heddle eventually turned his attention from medicine, and for the remainder of his life devoted it to chemistry and geognosy. It is well for the scientific world that he did so, for the line of work that he then elected to adopt eventually led to his becoming one of the foremost mineralogists of his day. In 1856, soon after the date of this resolve, he chartered a boat and went to Faroe, where he succeeded in obtaining an extensive collection of zeolites from the Tertiary volcanic rocks. By means of the numerous duplicates so obtained, he was enabled to effect advantageous exchanges with other miner­ alogists, and by this means he formed the nucleus around which gathered his large general collection of minerals. For several years he acted as assistant to Professor Connell, who held the Chair of Chemistry at the University of St Andrews; and all through Connellys long illness and absence from the Lecture-Eoom there, Heddle filled his place. When Downloaded from http://trned.lyellcollection.org/ at Purdue University Library on June 25, 2015 320 EDINBURGH GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. the professorship at last became vacant, which was the case in 1862, Dr Heddle succeeded to the post. Dr Heddle filled the Chair of Chemistry at St Andrews for twenty years. He was very popular with the students for many reasons, but chiefly because he was an admirable lecturer, good at experiments and practical work, and possessing the gift—unfortunately so rare in those who hold such appoint­ ments—of inspiring his students with enthusiasm. In 1880 he was invited by a well-known financier to act as consulting-mineralogist in connection with some gold-mines in South Africa. After taking due precautions as regards possibilities in the future, in which part of the transactions Dr Heddle's turn for matters pertaining to law came into useful prominence, he vacated the Chair at St Andrews, and went to South Africa. But after making a full and proper inspection of the evidence on the ground, he felt himself unable to endorse some of the statements that had been made regarding the enterprise referred to. This step led to his return to Britain, and to some legal proceedings, in which he won his case. It may be mentioned that it was from the annuity which his foresight and legal acumen enabled him to secure from this undertaking, that he drew part of his income in the later years of his life. Mineralogy formed the chief of Dr Heddle's many pursuits. It was upon this, his favourite science, that nearly all his energy, his time, his thought, and also large sums of money were expended. It is a matter of common knowledge how, in the course of a long and active life, he acquired one of the finest general collections of minerals ever amassed by any one man, and also how, during the same time, he diligently 'explored nearly every mountain and glen, and almost every part of the coast of Scotland, in search of minerals.