wrecked off the coast of Madagascar. He pursued literature as a profession till his death in 1800.—J. F. W.
JOHNSTON, George, an eminent Scottish naturalist, was born at Simprin in Berwickshire, on the 20th July, 1797, and died on the 30th July, 1855, at the age of fifty-eight. He was sent to school at Kelso, and then to Berwick. He afterwards went to the high school of Edinburgh, and he commenced his medical studies in that city about 1812, as an apprentice of the late Dr. Abercrombie. He passed as surgeon, and then went to London. He commenced practice at Belford. Subsequently he took the degree of M.D. at the university of Edinburgh, and became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. He then settled as a medical man in Berwick, where he remained till his death. While he was a successful and celebrated medical man, he was also distinguished as a naturalist, and he lost no opportunity of cultivating science. He was an able zoologist and botanist. He published a "Flora of Berwick-upon-Tweed;" "The Botany of the Eastern Borders;" "History of British Zoophytes," and of "British Sponges;" and he contributed various papers to Loudon's Magazine, and to the Magazine and Annals of Botany and Zoology, now continued under the name of Annals of Natural History. He was one of the editors of the last-named journal. He had a happy geniality of mind, and a kindliness of disposition which endeared him to all. Wherever he went he gained friends, and he was universally beloved. He was the founder and first president of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, which has published valuable Proceedings. He was three times elected mayor of Berwick, and twice served the office of sheriff.—J. H. B.
JOHNSTON, James T. Weir, a distinguished agricultural chemist and professor, was born at Paisley in 1796. His career offers an excellent example to youth of what may be accomplished by perseverance and study. His father does not appear to have been able to attend much to his education. He was so attentive, however, to his studies, and so successful in his efforts to obtain information, that he was soon enabled to gain his own livelihood by giving private instruction to pupils in the university of Glasgow. In 1825 he went to Durham, where he opened a school. In 1830 he married a lady with some private fortune, which enabled him to give up his school, and allowed him henceforward to devote his time to the study of chemistry—a plan which he had for some time conceived in his own mind. For the purpose of carrying out this plan he went to Sweden, and became a pupil of the celebrated Berzelius. He there made such rapid progress in his chemical studies, and achieved such a high reputation, that at the establishment of the university of Durham he was, while still abroad, invited to become reader in chemistry and mineralogy. Upon his return to England to take the chair, which was kept open for him, he took up his abode in Edinburgh, and there devoted himself to the study of agricultural chemistry, and was soon afterwards appointed chemist to the Agricultural Society of Scotland. When this society was dissolved, he left Edinburgh, and took up his future residence in Durham. He now occupied himself principally with writing works on the relation of chemistry to agriculture, and analyzing soils from all parts of the kingdom. His works have been eminently successful, as they have been extensively read and circulated, while his "Lectures on Agricultural Chemistry and Geology" formed a ready medium for propounding his principles on this subject. As an author, Johnston was eminently popular, and his writings exhibit an enthusiasm which renders them attractive even to the unscientific reader. His "Catechism of Agricultural Chemistry" had at the time of his death gone through no fewer than thirty-three editions, and has been translated into almost every European language. His writings and lectures have contributed very much to induce the farmers of Great Britain to pay more attention to the different soils of the farms which they occupy, and have in consequence helped to produce in many districts a more intelligent system of farming. Besides the works mentioned above, he is the author of several others that have been very popular, as well as many papers contributed to various scientific journals. Among the former we notice particularly his "Chemistry of Common Life," the circulation of which both in England and America was enormous. He became F.R.S. in 1837. He died of a rapid decline in 1853.—W. B—d.
JOHNSTON, John, a Scottish poet and classical scholar, who flourished at the close of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century. He was a member of a good family located at Crimond in Aberdeenshire; but the precise date of his birth has not been ascertained. He studied at King's college, Aberdeen, and subsequently at Helmstädt, Rostock, and other continental universities, and enjoyed the friendship of Justus Lipsius and other eminent scholars. At an early period Johnston embraced the doctrines of the presbyterian church. He was appointed, about 1593, professor of divinity in the new college, St. Andrews; probably through the influence of his friend, Andrew Melville, whom he strenuously supported in his resistance to the ecclesiastical innovations of James VI. Johnston died in 1612. He was the author of "Inscriptiones Historicæ; Regum Scotorum," &c., a series of epigrammatic addresses to the Scottish monarchs, published at Amsterdam in 1602; "Heroes ex omni historia Scotica Lectissimi," 4to, Leyden, 1603; "Consolatio Christiana sub Cruce," &c., 8vo, Leyden, 1609; "Iambi Sacri," 1611; "Tetrasticha et Lemmata Sacra," &c., 1612. His poems are distinguished by classical elegance and aptness of illustration rather than by poetic fire.—J. T.
JOHNSTON, John, a Polish naturalist, born at Sambter in Great Poland in 1603. His education, commenced in his native country, was prosecuted in England, and afterwards in Scotland at the university of St. Andrews. Soon after 1625 he undertook the education of some young noblemen, and accompanied two of them to Leyden, where he took his degree. He received the same honour a few years afterwards at the university of Cambridge. He is the author of several large compilations on natural history, which contain many curious as well as absurd tales and figures of nondescript animals. Died, 1675.—W. B—d.
JOHNSTON, Robert, LL.D., a Scottish historical writer of considerable reputation, was the son of a burgess of Edinburgh, and was born probably about the year 1567. He was educated at the university of his native city, and took his degree in 1587. Very little is known of the incidents of his life beyond the facts that he ultimately took up his residence in London, and that he inherited or acquired a considerable fortune, the greater part of which he bequeathed at his death in 1639, to charitable and benevolent purposes. He had prepared a history in Latin of his own time, intended as a continuation of Buchanan; but it was not until 1642 that the first two books of it were published, and four years later, those portions of the work which relate to Scotland were translated into English and published under the title of "The History of Scotland during the Minority of King James," &c. The entire history made its appearance at Amsterdam, in one vol. folio, in 1655.—J. T.
JOHNSTON, William, a British military officer, born in 1782. His father was proprietor of a small estate, and an extensive farmer in Dumfriesshire. Johnston obtained in 1805 his first commission in the 52nd light infantry. In 1806 he got his lieutenancy in the rifle brigade (then the 95th regiment), in which he remained throughout his military service. He served in the expedition to Copenhagen under Lord Cathcart, in the battles of Roliça and Vimiero under Sir Arthur Wellesley, in the battle of Corunna under Sir John Moore, and throughout the war in the peninsula, in the course of which his more remarkable exploits were the following:—On the 19th March, 1810, he commanded one of four companies of the rifle brigade under Sir Henry Beckwith, who repulsed about double their number of French who had attempted a midnight surprise at Barba del Puerco. On the 19th January, 1812, he volunteered to lead the forlorn hope in the assault of Ciudad Rodrigo. The command was given to Lieutenant Gurwood of the 52nd light infantry, who was temporarily disabled, and Johnston was the first man who entered the place by the little breach, and led the storming party of the light division against the flank of the French who were successfully defending the great breach, but were now forced to yield and to retreat to the castle, pressed by the stormers of both breaches and their supporting regiments. On the 6th April, 1812, Johnston commanded a party who advanced with ropes to pull down the chevaux de frise before the stormers of Badajos; his party were every one shot down, himself included; with his right arm shattered, he was found in the ditch by Lieutenant Shaw (General Sir James Shaw Kennedy) and a few of the stormers, who assisted him out of it. Johnston now obtained the rank of captain by seniority; he was obliged to go home to recover from his wound. The duke of Wellington recommended him for promotion: but this, like many more of the duke's recommendations, was neglected at
