The Outline of Science: A Plain Story Simply Told Volume 2

by John Arthur Thomson

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

396 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Sir John Arthur Thomson FRSE LLD was a Scottish naturalist who authored several notable books and was an expert on soft corals. He was the second son of Isabella Landsborough (1828 - 1905) and the Rev. Arthur Thomson (1823 - 1881), a minister in the Free Church of Scotland, originally from Muckhart.

He studied natural history at the University of Edinburgh graduating with an MA in 1880. He had already established a reputation as a worthy scientist within his first years and in 1887, aged 25, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Patrick Geddes, J. T. Cunningham, Sir John Murray and Robert McNair Ferguson.

He taught at the Royal (Dick) Veterinary College from 1893 until 1899 then University of Aberdeen from 1899 until 1930 as Regius Professor of Natural History (Aberdeen), the year he was knighted. His popular works sought to reconcile science and religion. Thomson's Outline of Science, published in 1922, sold more than one hundred thousand copies in five years.