1.
Mezzotint
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Mezzotint is a printmaking process of the intaglio family, technically a drypoint method. It was the first tonal method to be used, enabling half-tones to be produced without using line- or dot-based techniques like hatching, cross-hatching or stipple. Mezzotint achieves tonality by roughening the plate with thousands of little dots made by a tool with small teeth. In printing, the pits in the plate hold the ink when the face of the plate is wiped clean. A high level of quality and richness in the print can be achieved, the mezzotint printmaking method was invented by the German amateur artist Ludwig von Siegen. His earliest mezzotint print dates to 1642 and is a portrait of Countess Amalie Elisabeth of Hanau-Münzenberg and this was made by working from light to dark. The rocker seems to have been invented by Prince Rupert of the Rhine, a cavalry commander in the English Civil War, who was the next to use the process. Sir Peter Lely saw the potential for using it to publicise his portraits, the process was especially widely used in England from the mid-eighteenth century, to reproduce portraits and other paintings. Since the mid-nineteenth century it has relatively little used. Robert Kipniss and Peter Ilsted are two notable 20th-century exponents of the technique, M. C, British mezzotint collecting was a great craze from about 1760 to the Great Crash of 1929, also spreading to America. The favourite period to collect was roughly from 1750 to 1820, leading collectors included William Eaton, 2nd Baron Cheylesmore and the Irishman John Chaloner Smith. This became the most common method, the whole surface of a metal, usually copper, plate is roughened evenly, manually with a rocker, or mechanically. If the plate were printed at this point it would show as solid black, a burnisher has a smooth, round end, which flattens the minutely protruding points comprising the roughened surface of the metal printing plate. Areas smoothed completely flat will not hold ink at all, such areas will print white, by varying the degree of smoothing, mid-tones between black and white can be created, hence the name mezzo-tinto which is Italian for half-tone or half-painted. This is called working from dark to light, or the subtractive method, alternatively, it is possible to create the image directly by only roughening a blank plate selectively, where the darker parts of the image are to be. This is called working from light to dark, or the additive method, the first mezzotints by Ludwig von Siegen were made in this way. Especially in this method, the mezzotint can be combined with other techniques, such as engraving, on areas of the plate not roughened. The plate is put through a printing press next to a sheet of paper
2.
Henry Raeburn
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Sir Henry Raeburn FRSE RA RSA was a Scottish portrait painter and Scotlands first significant portrait painter since the Union to remain based in Scotland. He served as Portrait Painter to King George IV in Scotland, Raeburn was born the son of a manufacturer in Stockbridge, on the Water of Leith, a former village now within the city of Edinburgh. He had a brother, born in 1744, called William Raeburn. His ancestors were believed to have been soldiers, and may have taken the name Raeburn from a farm in Annandale. Orphaned, he was supported by William and placed in Heriots Hospital, soon he took to the production of carefully finished portrait miniatures, meeting with success and patronage, he extended his practice to oil painting, at which he was self-taught. Raeburn was especially aided by the loan of portraits to copy, soon he had gained sufficient skill to make him decide to devote himself exclusively to painting. George Chalmers is his earliest known portrait, in his early twenties, Raeburn was asked to paint the portrait of a young lady he had noticed when he was sketching from nature in the fields. Anne was the daughter of Peter Edgar of Bridgelands, and widow of Count James Leslie of Deanhaugh, fascinated by the handsome and intellectual young artist, she became his wife within a month, bringing him an ample fortune. The acquisition of wealth did not affect his enthusiasm or his industry and it was usual for artists to visit Italy, and Raeburn set off with his wife. After two years of study in Italy he returned to Edinburgh in 1787, and began a career as a portrait painter. In that year he executed a portrait of the second Lord President Dundas. The portraits of John Clerk, Lord Eldin, and of Principal Hill of St Andrews belong to a later period, Raeburn was fortunate in the time in which he practised portraiture. Sir Walter Scott, Hugh Blair, Henry Mackenzie, Lord Woodhouselee, William Robertson, John Home, Robert Fergusson, and Dugald Stewart were resident in Edinburgh, mature works include his own portrait and that of the Rev. Apart from himself, Raeburn painted only two artists, one of whom was Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey, the most important and famous British sculptor of the first half of the nineteenth century. Raeburn spent his life in Edinburgh, rarely visiting London, and then only for brief periods, so varied were his other interests that sitters used to say of him, You would never take him for a painter till he seizes the brush and palette. In 1812 he was elected president of the Society of Artists in Edinburgh, in 1814 associate, on 29 August 1822 he was knighted by George IV and appointed His Majestys limner for Scotland at the Earl of Hopetoun house. Raeburn had all the qualities of a popular and successful portrait painter. David Wilkie recorded that, while travelling in Spain and studying the works of Diego Velázquez, Scottish physician and writer John Brown wrote that Raeburn never fails in giving a likeness at once vivid, unmistakable and pleasing
3.
Edinburgh
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Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 local government council areas. Located in Lothian on the Firth of Forths southern shore, it is Scotlands second most populous city and the seventh most populous in the United Kingdom. The 2014 official population estimates are 464,990 for the city of Edinburgh,492,680 for the authority area. Recognised as the capital of Scotland since at least the 15th century, Edinburgh is home to the Scottish Parliament and it is the largest financial centre in the UK after London. Historically part of Midlothian, the city has long been a centre of education, particularly in the fields of medicine, Scots law, literature, the sciences and engineering. The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1582 and now one of four in the city, was placed 17th in the QS World University Rankings in 2013 and 2014. The city is famous for the Edinburgh International Festival and the Fringe. The citys historical and cultural attractions have made it the United Kingdoms second most popular tourist destination after London, attracting over one million overseas visitors each year. Historic sites in Edinburgh include Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood Palace, the churches of St. Giles, Greyfriars and the Canongate, Edinburghs Old Town and New Town together are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which has been managed by Edinburgh World Heritage since 1999. It appears to derive from the place name Eidyn mentioned in the Old Welsh epic poem Y Gododdin, the poem names Din Eidyn as a hill fort in the territory of the Gododdin. The Celtic element din was dropped and replaced by the Old English burh, the first documentary evidence of the medieval burgh is a royal charter, c. 1124–1127, by King David I granting a toft in burgo meo de Edenesburg to the Priory of Dunfermline. In modern Gaelic, the city is called Dùn Èideann, the earliest known human habitation in the Edinburgh area was at Cramond, where evidence was found of a Mesolithic camp site dated to c.8500 BC. Traces of later Bronze Age and Iron Age settlements have found on Castle Rock, Arthurs Seat, Craiglockhart Hill. When the Romans arrived in Lothian at the end of the 1st century AD, at some point before the 7th century AD, the Gododdin, who were presumably descendants of the Votadini, built the hill fort of Din Eidyn or Etin. Although its location has not been identified, it likely they would have chosen a commanding position like the Castle Rock, Arthurs Seat. In 638, the Gododdin stronghold was besieged by forces loyal to King Oswald of Northumbria and it thenceforth remained under their jurisdiction. The royal burgh was founded by King David I in the early 12th century on land belonging to the Crown, in 1638, King Charles Is attempt to introduce Anglican church forms in Scotland encountered stiff Presbyterian opposition culminating in the conflicts of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. In the 17th century, Edinburghs boundaries were defined by the citys defensive town walls
4.
University of Edinburgh
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The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1582, is the sixth oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotlands ancient universities. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city of Edinburgh, the University of Edinburgh was ranked 17th and 21st in the world by the 2014–15 and 2015-16 QS rankings. It is now ranked 19th in the according to 2016-17 QS Rankings. It is ranked 16th in the world in arts and humanities by the 2015–16 Times Higher Education Ranking and it is ranked the 23rd most employable university in the world by the 2015 Global Employability University Ranking. It is ranked as the 6th best university in Europe by the U. S. News Best Global Universities Ranking and it is a member of both the Russell Group, and the League of European Research Universities, a consortium of 21 research universities in Europe. It has the third largest endowment of any university in the United Kingdom, after the universities of Cambridge and it continues to have links to the British Royal Family, having had the Duke of Edinburgh as its Chancellor from 1953 to 2010 and Princess Anne since 2011. Edinburgh receives approximately 50,000 applications every year, making it the fourth most popular university in the UK by volume of applicants, after St Andrews, it is the most difficult university to gain admission into in Scotland, and 9th overall in the UK. This was a move at the time, as most universities were established through Papal bulls. Established as the Tounis College, it opened its doors to students in October 1583, instruction began under the charge of another St Andrews graduate Robert Rollock. It was the fourth Scottish university in a period when the more populous. It was renamed King Jamess College in 1617, by the 18th century, the university was a leading centre of the Scottish Enlightenment. The universitys first custom-built building was the Old College, now Edinburgh Law School and its first forte in teaching was anatomy and the developing science of surgery, from which it expanded into many other subjects. From the basement of a nearby house ran the anatomy tunnel corridor and it went under what was then North College Street, and under the university buildings until it reached the universitys anatomy lecture theatre, delivering bodies for dissection. It was from this tunnel the body of William Burke was taken after he had been hanged, towards the end of the 19th century, Old College was becoming overcrowded and Robert Rowand Anderson was commissioned to design new Medical School premises in 1875. The medical school was more or less built to his design and was completed by the addition of the McEwan Hall in the 1880s. The building now known as New College was originally built as a Free Church college in the 1840s and has been the home of divinity at the university since the 1920s. The two oldest schools – law and divinity – are both well-esteemed, with law being based in Old College and divinity in New College on the Mound and they are also represented by the Edinburgh University Sports Union which was founded in 1866. The medical school is renowned throughout the world and it was widely considered the best medical school in the English-speaking world throughout the 18th century and first half of the 19th century
5.
Nitrogen
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Nitrogen is a chemical element with symbol N and atomic number 7. It was first discovered and isolated by Scottish physician Daniel Rutherford in 1772, although Carl Wilhelm Scheele and Henry Cavendish had independently done so at about the same time, Rutherford is generally accorded the credit because his work was published first. Nitrogen is the lightest member of group 15 of the periodic table, the name comes from the Greek πνίγειν to choke, directly referencing nitrogens asphyxiating properties. It is an element in the universe, estimated at about seventh in total abundance in the Milky Way. At standard temperature and pressure, two atoms of the element bind to form dinitrogen, a colourless and odorless diatomic gas with the formula N2, dinitrogen forms about 78% of Earths atmosphere, making it the most abundant uncombined element. Nitrogen occurs in all organisms, primarily in amino acids, in the nucleic acids, the human body contains about 3% nitrogen by mass, the fourth most abundant element in the body after oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen. The nitrogen cycle describes movement of the element from the air, into the biosphere and organic compounds, many industrially important compounds, such as ammonia, nitric acid, organic nitrates, and cyanides, contain nitrogen. The extremely strong bond in elemental nitrogen, the second strongest bond in any diatomic molecule. Synthetically produced ammonia and nitrates are key industrial fertilisers, and fertiliser nitrates are key pollutants in the eutrophication of water systems. Apart from its use in fertilisers and energy-stores, nitrogen is a constituent of organic compounds as diverse as Kevlar used in high-strength fabric, Nitrogen is a constituent of every major pharmacological drug class, including antibiotics. Many notable nitrogen-containing drugs, such as the caffeine and morphine or the synthetic amphetamines. Nitrogen compounds have a long history, ammonium chloride having been known to Herodotus. They were well known by the Middle Ages, alchemists knew nitric acid as aqua fortis, as well as other nitrogen compounds such as ammonium salts and nitrate salts. The mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids was known as aqua regia, celebrated for its ability to dissolve gold, the discovery of nitrogen is attributed to the Scottish physician Daniel Rutherford in 1772, who called it noxious air. Though he did not recognise it as a different chemical substance, he clearly distinguished it from Joseph Blacks fixed air. The fact that there was a component of air that does not support combustion was clear to Rutherford, Nitrogen was also studied at about the same time by Carl Wilhelm Scheele, Henry Cavendish, and Joseph Priestley, who referred to it as burnt air or phlogisticated air. Nitrogen gas was inert enough that Antoine Lavoisier referred to it as air or azote, from the Greek word άζωτικός. In an atmosphere of nitrogen, animals died and flames were extinguished
6.
Chemistry
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Chemistry is a branch of physical science that studies the composition, structure, properties and change of matter. Chemistry is sometimes called the science because it bridges other natural sciences, including physics. For the differences between chemistry and physics see comparison of chemistry and physics, the history of chemistry can be traced to alchemy, which had been practiced for several millennia in various parts of the world. The word chemistry comes from alchemy, which referred to a set of practices that encompassed elements of chemistry, metallurgy, philosophy, astrology, astronomy, mysticism. An alchemist was called a chemist in popular speech, and later the suffix -ry was added to this to describe the art of the chemist as chemistry, the modern word alchemy in turn is derived from the Arabic word al-kīmīā. In origin, the term is borrowed from the Greek χημία or χημεία and this may have Egyptian origins since al-kīmīā is derived from the Greek χημία, which is in turn derived from the word Chemi or Kimi, which is the ancient name of Egypt in Egyptian. Alternately, al-kīmīā may derive from χημεία, meaning cast together, in retrospect, the definition of chemistry has changed over time, as new discoveries and theories add to the functionality of the science. The term chymistry, in the view of noted scientist Robert Boyle in 1661, in 1837, Jean-Baptiste Dumas considered the word chemistry to refer to the science concerned with the laws and effects of molecular forces. More recently, in 1998, Professor Raymond Chang broadened the definition of chemistry to mean the study of matter, early civilizations, such as the Egyptians Babylonians, Indians amassed practical knowledge concerning the arts of metallurgy, pottery and dyes, but didnt develop a systematic theory. Greek atomism dates back to 440 BC, arising in works by such as Democritus and Epicurus. In 50 BC, the Roman philosopher Lucretius expanded upon the theory in his book De rerum natura, unlike modern concepts of science, Greek atomism was purely philosophical in nature, with little concern for empirical observations and no concern for chemical experiments. Work, particularly the development of distillation, continued in the early Byzantine period with the most famous practitioner being the 4th century Greek-Egyptian Zosimos of Panopolis. He formulated Boyles law, rejected the four elements and proposed a mechanistic alternative of atoms. Before his work, though, many important discoveries had been made, the Scottish chemist Joseph Black and the Dutchman J. B. English scientist John Dalton proposed the theory of atoms, that all substances are composed of indivisible atoms of matter. Davy discovered nine new elements including the alkali metals by extracting them from their oxides with electric current, british William Prout first proposed ordering all the elements by their atomic weight as all atoms had a weight that was an exact multiple of the atomic weight of hydrogen. The inert gases, later called the noble gases were discovered by William Ramsay in collaboration with Lord Rayleigh at the end of the century, thereby filling in the basic structure of the table. Organic chemistry was developed by Justus von Liebig and others, following Friedrich Wöhlers synthesis of urea which proved that organisms were, in theory
7.
Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh
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The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is a scientific centre for the study of plants, their diversity and conservation, as well as a popular tourist attraction. Founded in 1670 as a garden to grow medicinal plants, today it occupies four sites across Scotland — Edinburgh, Dawyck, Logan. The RBGEs living collection consists of more than 13,302 plant species, the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government. The Edinburgh site is the garden and the headquarters of the public body. The Edinburgh botanic garden was founded in 1670 at St. Annes Yard, near Holyrood Palace, by Dr. Robert Sibbald and it is the second oldest botanic garden in Britain after Oxfords. The site was occupied by tracks of the North British Railway. In 1763, the collections were moved away from the citys pollution to a larger Physick Garden on the west side of Leith Walk. The Temperate Palm House, which remains the tallest in Britain, was built in 1858, in 1877 the city acquired Inverleith House from the Fettes Trust and added it to the existing gardens, opening the remodelled grounds to the public in 1881. The botanic garden at Benmore became the first Regional Garden of the RBGE in 1929 and it was followed by the gardens at Logan and Dawyck in 1969 and 1978. Located one mile from the city centre it covers 70 acres, the RBGE is actively involved in, and coordinates numerous in situ and ex situ conservation projects both in the UK and internationally. The three main cross-cutting themes of work at the RBGE are, Scottish Biodiversity, Plants & Climate Change. In addition to the RBGEs scientific activities the garden remains a destination for both tourists and locals. Locally known as The Botanics, the garden is a place to go for a walk. Entrance to the garden is free, although a small entry charge exists for the glasshouses. During the year the garden hosts many events including performances, guided tours. The RBGE is also an important centre for education, offering taught courses across all levels, in 2009, the John Hope Gateway was opened. John Hope was the first Regius Keeper of RBGE, nearly 273,000 individual plants are grown at the Botanics in Edinburgh or its three smaller satellite gardens located in other parts of Scotland. These represent around 13,300 different species all over the world
8.
Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh
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The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, or RIE, often known as the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, or ERI, was established in 1729 and is the oldest voluntary hospital in Scotland. The new buildings of 1879 were claimed to be the largest voluntary hospital in the United Kingdom, and later on, the hospital moved to a new 900 bed site in 2003 in Little France. It is the site of clinical teaching as well as a teaching hospital for the University of Edinburgh Medical School. It is currently run by NHS Lothian, in 1960, the first kidney transplant performed in the UK was performed at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh by surgeon Michael Woodruff. In 1964, the worlds first coronary care unit was established at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh by Dr. Desmond Julian and it is the only site for liver, pancreas and pancreatic islet cell transplantation and one of two sites for kidney transplantation in Scotland. It is currently the site for TAVI in Scotland. In 2012 the Emergency Department had 113,000 patient attendances, on 16 November 2014, the University announced the Royal Infirmary as the location of Scotlands first PET-MRI Scanner. John Munro, President of the Incorporation of Surgeons in 1712, set in motion a project to establish a Seminary of Medical Education in Edinburgh, of which a General Hospital was an integral part. His son, Alexander Monro primus, by then Professor of Anatomy, circulated a pamphlet in 1721 on the necessity. Other donors included many wealthy citizens, most of the physicians and several surgeons, numerous Church of Scotland parishes, the committee set up by the donors leased a house of small rent near the College from the University for 19 years. The physicians, who had seen the poor gratis twice weekly at their college, arranged for one of their number to attend the hospital, to see both inpatients and outpatients. Six Chirurgeon-Apothecaries also agreed to attend in turn, and to dispense the medicines prescribed by the physicians from their own shops, the first patient, a lady from Caithness suffering from chlorosis, was discharged recovered after three months. Thirty five patients were admitted in the first year, of whom 19 were cured,5 recovered,5 dismissed either as incurable or for irregularities and they came from all over Scotland, but mainly from Edinburgh and its environs. Diseases cured included pains, inflammations, agues, ulcers, cancers, palsies, flux, consumption, hysterick disorders, a free advice and medicine service for out-patients was very popular, receiving a 1000 patients by 1754, which presented the hospital with prohibitively high costs and demand. In 1741 the hospital moved the short distance to the not yet completed building which eventually and this was soon found to be inadequate and a new surgical hospital, designed by David Bryce, was built fronting Drummond Street, opening in 1853. The new building was linked to the High School Yards building by an extension to the north, the Infirmary Street buildings were demolished in 1884 and replaced with public swimming baths and a school. The ornamental gates and gate piers now front the former hospital on Drummond Street. This stands outside the entrance to Dreghorn Barracks on Redford Road in the south west of the city, the original surgical theatre, which was on the roof of the 1741 building, was re-erected as part of stables in the grounds of Redford House, also on Redford Road
9.
Joseph Black
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Joseph Black FRSE FRCPE FPSG was a Scottish physician and chemist, known for his discoveries of magnesium, latent heat, specific heat, and carbon dioxide. The chemistry buildings at both the University of Edinburgh and the University of Glasgow are named after Black, Black was born in Bordeaux, France, where his father, who was from Belfast, Ireland, was engaged in the wine trade. His mother was from Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and her family was also in the wine business, Joseph had twelve brothers and sisters. During his studies he wrote a thesis on the treatment of kidney stones with the salt magnesium carbonate. Like most eighteenth-century experimentalists, Blacks conceptualisation of chemistry was based on five principles of matter, Water, Salt, Earth, Fire and he added the principle of Air when his experiments definitely confirmed the presence of carbon dioxide. Blacks research programme was guided by questions relating to how the foregoing principles combined with other in various different forms. He used the term affinity to describe the force that held such combinations together, throughout his career he used a variety of diagrams and formulas to teach his Edinburgh students how to manipulate affinity through different kinds of experimentation. In about 1750, while still a student, Black developed the analytical balance based on a beam balanced on a wedge-shaped fulcrum. Each arm carried a pan on which the sample or standard weights was placed and it far exceeded the accuracy of any other balance of the time and became an important scientific instrument in most chemistry laboratories. In 1757, Black was appointed Regius Professor of the Practice of Medicine at the University of Glasgow. Additionally, Black observed that the application of heat to boiling water does not result in a rise in temperature of a water/steam mixture, from these observations, he concluded that the heat applied must have combined with the ice particles and boiling water and become latent. The theory of latent heat marks the beginning of thermodynamics, Blacks theory of latent heat was one of his more-important scientific contributions, and one on which his scientific fame chiefly rests. He also showed that different substances have different specific heats, the theory ultimately proved important not only in the development of abstract science but in the development of the steam engine. The latent heat of water is large compared with other liquids. Black and Watt became friends after meeting around 1757 while both were at Glasgow, Black provided significant financing and other support for Watts early research in steam power. Black also explored the properties of a gas produced in various reactions and he found that limestone could be heated or treated with acids to yield a gas he called fixed air. He observed that the air was denser than air and did not support either flame or animal life. Black also found that when bubbled through a solution of lime
10.
Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
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Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh judges to be eminently distinguished in their subject. Around 50 new fellows are elected each year in March, as of 2016 there are around 1650 Fellows, including 71 Honorary Fellows and 76 Corresponding Fellows. Fellows are entitled to use the post-nominal letters FRSE, examples of fellows include Peter Higgs and Jocelyn Bell Burnell. Previous fellows have included Melvin Calvin and Benjamin Franklin, see the Category, Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh for more examples
11.
Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh
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The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh is a Medical Royal College in Scotland. It is one of three organisations that sets the specialty training standards for physicians in the United Kingdom and it was established by Royal Charter in 1681. The college claims to have 12,000 fellows and members worldwide, the RCPE was formed by a Royal Charter, granted in 1681, with Sir Robbert Sibbald recognised as playing a key part in the negotiations. Three applications preceded this and had been unsuccessful, there were 21 original Fellows, eleven of whom were graduates or students of the University of Leiden. The Universities Act 1858 resulted in several items from the College’s Charter becoming obsolete, in 1920 the College enacted changes that allowed women to be admitted on the same terms as men. The charter was amended on 7 May 2005, in 1704 the College acquired a house and grounds on Fountain Close, on the Cowgate, in the Old Town. On 27 November 1775 William Cullen laid the stone for a new hall. Architect James Craig, had ideas about expansion but the builders of neighbouring properties found favour instead, the hall was not fully completed until 1830. Unfortunately the great cost of the hall’s exterior exhausted the College’s finances leaving no money to finish the interior of a building, the Colleges debt was so much that there was talk of selling the Hall before it was even occupied. The Hall was sold to the Commercial Bank of Scotland in 1841 and was demolished, between 1843 and 1846 the College did not own a meeting place, instead renting a premises at 119 George Street. The foundation stone of a new Hall at 9 Queen Street was laid on 8 August 1844, the new Queen Street Hall was designed by Thomas Hamilton. The Queen Street Hall was completed in 1846, an adjacent building, Number 8 Queen Street was designed by Robert Adam as a house for Robert Ord and built between 1770 and 1771, one of the earliest New Town constructions. In 1868 it was purchased by the College, who leased it to other organisations until 1957. A restoration project began in 1990 and lasted seven years, numbers 11 and 12 were built around 1780. They were purchased by the college in the 20th century, the space behind 11 was used for the Conference Centre and 12 contains flexible meeting rooms and office space. In 1984 the college put Richard Dadds painting of Alexander Morison up for sale, in 1682, Robert Sibbald donated around one hundred books to the college. At the end of the 18th century the library was located at the Royal Infirmary, the college’s library in Queen Street bears Sibbald’s name in commemoration. The library also has artefacts, such as a medicine chest that belonged to Stuart Threipland, in the 1960s, the information held by the library was modern
12.
Linnean Society of London
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The Linnean Society of London is a society dedicated to the study of, and the dissemination of information concerning, natural history and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature collections and publishes academic journals and books on plant, the society also awards a number of prestigious medals and prizes for achievement. A product of the 18th century enlightenment, the society is important as the venue for the first public presentation of the Theory of Evolution. The patron of the society is Queen Elizabeth II, the Linnean Society was founded in 1788 by botanist Sir James Edward Smith. The society derives its name from the Swedish naturalist Carolus Linnaeus, the father of taxonomy and he was known as Carl von Linné after his ennoblement, hence the spelling Linnean, rather than Linnaean. The society had a number of minor name variations before it gained its Royal Charter on 26 March 1802, in 1802, as a newly incorporated society, it comprised 228 fellows. It is the oldest extant natural history society in the world, throughout its history the society has been a non-political and non-sectarian institution, existing solely for the furtherance of natural history. The society has numbered many prominent scientists amongst its fellows, one such was the botanist Robert Brown, who was president, he named the cell nucleus and discovered Brownian motion. In 1854 Charles Darwin was elected a fellow, he is undoubtedly the most illustrious scientist ever to appear on the rolls of the society. Another famous fellow was biologist Thomas Huxley, who gained the nickname Darwins bulldog for his defence of evolution. At this meeting a joint presentation of papers by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace was made, sponsored by Joseph Hooker, in 1904 the society experienced the novelty of electing women fellows, this followed a number of years of campaigning by the botanist Marian Farquharson. Whilst the societys council was reluctant to admit women, the fellows were much less so, among the first to benefit from this were, Lilian J. Veley, a microbiologist and Annie Lorrain Smith, a lichenologist and mycologist, both formally admitted on 19 January 1905. Also amongst the first women to be elected in 1904 was the paleobotanist, the societys connection with evolution remained strong into the 20th century. Sir Edward Poulton, who was president 1912-1916, was a defender of natural selection and was the first biologist to recognise the importance of frequency-dependent selection. The first female president of the society was Irene Manton, who pioneered the use of electron microscopy. Her work revealed the structure of the flagellum and cilia, which are central to systems of cellular motility. Recent years have seen an increased interest within the society in issues of biodiversity conservation and this was highlighted by the inception in 2015 of an annual award, the John Spedan Lewis Medal, specifically honouring persons making significant and innovative contributions to conservation. Fellowship requires nomination by at least one fellow, and election by a minimum of two thirds of those electors voting, fellows may employ the post-nominal letters FLS
13.
Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
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The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland is the senior antiquarian body of Scotland, with its headquarters in the National Museum of Scotland, Chambers Street, Edinburgh. The Societys aim is to promote the heritage of Scotland. The Society is the oldest antiquarian society in Scotland, and the second-oldest in Britain after the Society of Antiquaries of London. Founded by David Steuart Erskine, 11th Earl of Buchan on 18 December 1780, John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, members of the Society collected artefacts of interest to Scottish history and culture from its foundation, and soon the Society developed a sizeable collection. In November 1851 the signing of a Deed of Conveyance with the Board of Manufactures on behalf of Parliament made the Society collections National Property. In 1891 the antiquaries moved into the purpose-built Scottish National Portrait Gallery and National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland, located on Queen Street. ”The first Law of the Society focuses this further, The purpose of the Society shall be the study of the Antiquities and History of Scotland, more especially by means of Archaeological Research. The Society today is concerned with every aspect of the human past in Scotland and it draws on a wide range of experience through the Fellowship, and provides a voice for Scotlands heritage independent of the opinions of Government, University, or Agency. The Society is consulted by a range of organisations from central government to academic funding bodies such as the Arts & Humanities Research Council. The Society makes written responses to numerous consultations, some jointly with Archaeology Scotland, the Society worked closely with the Historic Environment Advisory Council for Scotland, and gave evidence to their working groups on heritage protection legislation and properties in care. The Society has also actively involved in the Built Environment Forum Scotland. Fellowship recognises a persons support and contributions to the purpose and mission of the Society, the Society has an international membership of around 3000 Fellows and a maximum of 25 Honorary Fellows. Admission to the Society is by election, and candidates must be supported by existing Fellows, the names of those seeking admission are then circulated to the whole Fellowship. Elections are held annually at the Anniversary Meeting on St Andrews Day,30 November, fundamental to being a candidate for election to the Fellowship is an interest or involvement in Scotlands past. Candidates are advised of the outcome of the shortly after the ballot. The Society also encourages best practice and continued research into Scotlands past through various prizes, the Dorothy Marshall Medal - Awarded every three years by the Council of the Society for an outstanding contribution, in a voluntary capacity, to Scottish archaeological or related work. The Society can also fund other Societies to invite a lecturer to them, in addition, the Society hosts the prestigious Rhind Lectures, a series of six lectures, often presented by a single lecturer over a weekend. These allow the lecturer to present their topic in greater detail and depth than otherwise possible. Society lectures and other events are now recorded where possible and placed online on the Society website free to view, the Rhind Lectures are similarly recorded and available to view since 2009
14.
Grassmarket
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The Grassmarket is a historic market place and an event space in the Old Town of Edinburgh, Scotland. In relation to the rest of the city it lies in a hollow, the Grassmarket is located directly below Edinburgh Castle and forms part of one of the main east-west vehicle arteries through the city centre. It adjoins the Cowgate and Candlemaker Row at the east end, the West Bow in the north-east corner, Kings Stables Road to the north west and the West Port to the west. Leading off from the south-west corner is the Vennel, on the east side of which can still be some of the best surviving parts of the Flodden. The view to the north, dominated by the castle, has long been a subject of painters and photographers. Daniel Defoe, who visited Edinburgh in the 1720s, reports the place being used for two open air markets, the Grass-market and the Horse-market. In the late 18th century the fly coach to London, via Dumfries and Carlisle, in 1803 William and Dorothy Wordsworth took rooms at the White Hart Inn, where the poet Robert Burns had stayed during his last visit to Edinburgh in 1791. In her account of the visit Dorothy described it as not noisy, in his 1961 film Greyfriars Bobby Walt Disney chose a lodging in the Grassmarket as the place where the Skye terriers owner dies. The market closed in 1911 when a new municipal slaughter house at Tollcross replaced the old shambles in the half of the Grassmarket which joins Kings Stables Road. An inscribed flagstone in the pavement in front of the White Hart Inn indicates the spot where a bomb exploded during a Zeppelin raid on the city on the night of 2–3 April 1916. Eleven people were killed in the raid, though none at this particular spot, the Grassmarket was also a traditional place of public executions. A memorial near the site occupied by the gibbet was created by public subscription in 1937. It commemorates over 100 Covenanters who died on the gallows between 1661 and 1688 during the known as The Killing Time. Their names, where known, are recorded on a nearby plaque, one obdurate prisoners refusal to escape death by swearing loyalty to the Crown prompted the snide remark by the Duke of Rothes that he had chosen to glorify God in the Grassmarket. In 1736 the Grassmarket formed the backdrop to the Porteous Riots which ended in the lynching of a captain of the Town Guard, a plaque near the traditional execution site now marks the spot where an enraged mob brought Captain Porteouss life to a brutal end. A popular story in Edinburgh is that of Margaret Dickson, a fishwife from Musselburgh who was hanged in the Grassmarket in 1724 for murdering her illegitimate baby shortly after birth, after the hanging, her body was taken back to Musselburgh on a cart. However, on the way there she awoke, since, under Scots Law, her punishment had been carried out, she could not be executed for a second time for the same crime. Her resurrection was also to some extent seen as divine intervention, in later life she was referred to as half-hangit Maggie
15.
William Cullen
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Cullen was also a central figure in the Scottish Enlightenment. He was David Humes physician and friend, and on terms with Adam Smith, Lord Kames, Joseph Black, John Millar. He was President of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and First Physician to the King in Scotland. He was also, incidentally, one of the movers in obtaining a royal charter for the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh. Cullen was a teacher, and many of his students became influential figures in their own right. Special mention must be made of Cullens student-turned-opponent, John Brown, who developed the system known as Brunonianism. This was to have influence, especially in Italy and Germany, during the end of the eighteenth. Cullen was also a successful author and he published a number of medical textbooks, mostly for the use of his students, though they were popular throughout Europe and the American colonies as well. His best known work was First Lines of the Practice of Physic, Cullen was born in Hamilton, Lanarkshire. His father William was a lawyer retained by the Duke of Hamilton as factor and he studied at the Old Grammar School of Hamilton, then, in 1726, began a General Studies arts course at the University of Glasgow. He began his training as apprentice to John Paisley, a Glasgow apothecary surgeon. From 1734 to 1736 he studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, where he interested in chemistry. In 1736 he began practice in Hamilton, where he rapidly acquired a high reputation. He also continued his study of the sciences, especially of chemistry. From 1737 to 1740 William Hunter was his resident pupil, in 1740 Cullen was awarded the degree of MD from Glasgow University. In 1741, he married and started his family and he became ordinary medical attendant to James Douglas, 5th Duke of Hamilton, his family, and his livestock. In 1744, following the Dukes death, the Cullens moved to Glasgow, in Glasgow he gave extramural lectures for the University, on physiology, botany, materia medica, and chemistry. His great abilities, enthusiasm, and use of practical demonstrations for instruction, made him a successful and highly popular teacher, at the same time he also maintained a medical practice
16.
Royal Society of Edinburgh
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The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotlands national academy of science and letters. It is a charity, operating on a wholly independent and non-party-political basis. As of 2014 it has more than 1,500 Fellows, the Society covers a broader selection of fields than the Royal Society of London including literature and history. Fellowship includes people from a range of disciplines – science & technology, arts, humanities, medicine, social science, business. The Medals were instituted in 2000 by Queen Elizabeth II, whose permission is required to make a presentation, past winners include, The Lord Kelvin Medal is the Senior Prize for Physical, Engineering and Informatics Sciences. It is awarded annually to a person who has achieved distinction nationally and internationally, winners receive a silver medal and are required to deliver a public lecture in Scotland. The award is named after William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, who was a mathematical physicist and engineer. Senior Prize-winners are required to have a Scottish connection but can be based anywhere in the world, the Keith medal has been historically awarded every four years for a scientific paper published in the societys scientific journals, preference being given to a paper containing a discovery. It is awarded alternately for papers on Mathematics or Earth and Environmental Sciences, the medal was founded in 1827 as a result of a bequest by Alexander Keith of Dunottar, the first Treasurer of the Society. The prize was founded in 1855 by Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane, the cumbersome name was changed the following year to the Edinburgh Philosophical Society. Under the leadership of Prof. Thus, for the first four decades of the 19th century, by the 1850s, the society once again unified its membership under one journal. During the 19th century the society produced many scientists whose ideas laid the foundation of the modern sciences, from the 20th century onward, the society functioned not only as a focal point for Scotlands eminent scientists, but also the arts and humanities. It still exists today and continues to promote research in Scotland. In February 2014, Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell was announced as the societys first female president, taking up her position in October
17.
Royal Mile
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The Royal Mile is the name given to a succession of streets forming the main thoroughfare of the Old Town of the city of Edinburgh in Scotland. The name was first used in W M Gilberts Edinburgh in the Nineteenth Century, the streets which make up the Royal Mile are Castlehill, the Lawnmarket, the High Street, the Canongate and Abbey Strand. The Royal Mile is the busiest tourist street in the Old Town, running eastwards from the crag, the Royal Mile sits upon the ridge of the tail which slopes gently down to Holyrood Palace. Steep closes run between the many tall lands off the main thoroughfare, the route runs from an elevation of 42 meters above sea level at the palace, to 109 meters at the castle, for an average gradient of 4. 1%. The Castle Esplanade was laid out as a ground, in 1753. It was formalised in 1816 when it was widened and provided with decorative railings, the Esplanade with its several monuments has been A-listed by Historic Scotland. It is the venue of the annual Edinburgh Military Tattoo at which time specially designed temporary grandstands are erected, the Assembly Hall of the Church of Scotland and New College are further down on the same side, in an architecturally somewhat understated building as seen from this side. The Scottish Parliament met in the Assembly Hall between 1999 and 2004, the Lawnmarket was originally part of the High Street before its separate naming, which accounts for the street numbering being a continuation of the High Street numbers. A charter of 1477 designated this part of the High Street as the market-place for what was called inland merchandise - items such as yarn, stockings, coarse cloth, in later years, linen was the main product sold. As a result, it known as the Land Market which was later corrupted to Lawn Market. Today, the majority of shops in the street are aimed at tourists, on the north side is the preserved 17th century merchants townhouse Gladstones Land owned by the National Trust for Scotland. The south side has a strong Dutch influence in its 17th-century gables, the lower end of the Lawnmarket is intersected by George IV Bridge on the right and Bank Street on the left, leading to The Mound and the New Town. The view down Bank Street is closed by the headquarters of the Bank of Scotland. On the south-west corner of intersection, with its entrance on George IV Bridge, is a new hotel. This building is of controversial design winning both best building awards and carbuncle awards in 2009/10. Between Bank Street and St Giles Street, marking the end of the Lawnmarket, St Giles Cathedral, the High Kirk of Edinburgh, also stands in Parliament Square. The prison was described by Sir Walter Scott as the Heart of Midlothian, locals have traditionally spat upon the heart, presumably to express disgust. The custom has been to some extent sanitised by tourist guides who claim that the spitting is merely for good luck, on the north side, opposite St Giles, stand Edinburgh City Chambers, where the City of Edinburgh Council meets
18.
Botany
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Botany, also called plant science, plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who specialises in this field, the term botany comes from the Ancient Greek word βοτάνη meaning pasture, grass, or fodder, βοτάνη is in turn derived from βόσκειν, to feed or to graze. Nowadays, botanists study approximately 410,000 species of plants of which some 391,000 species are vascular plants. Medieval physic gardens, often attached to monasteries, contained plants of medical importance and they were forerunners of the first botanical gardens attached to universities, founded from the 1540s onwards. One of the earliest was the Padua botanical garden and these gardens facilitated the academic study of plants. Efforts to catalogue and describe their collections were the beginnings of plant taxonomy, in the last two decades of the 20th century, botanists exploited the techniques of molecular genetic analysis, including genomics and proteomics and DNA sequences to classify plants more accurately. Modern botany is a broad, multidisciplinary subject with inputs from most other areas of science, dominant themes in 21st century plant science are molecular genetics and epigenetics, which are the mechanisms and control of gene expression during differentiation of plant cells and tissues. Botany originated as herbalism, the study and use of plants for their medicinal properties, many records of the Holocene period date early botanical knowledge as far back as 10,000 years ago. This early unrecorded knowledge of plants was discovered in ancient sites of human occupation within Tennessee, the early recorded history of botany includes many ancient writings and plant classifications. Examples of early works have been found in ancient texts from India dating back to before 1100 BC, in archaic Avestan writings. His major works, Enquiry into Plants and On the Causes of Plants, constitute the most important contributions to science until the Middle Ages. De Materia Medica was widely read for more than 1,500 years, important contributions from the medieval Muslim world include Ibn Wahshiyyas Nabatean Agriculture, Abū Ḥanīfa Dīnawarīs the Book of Plants, and Ibn Bassals The Classification of Soils. In the early 13th century, Abu al-Abbas al-Nabati, and Ibn al-Baitar wrote on botany in a systematic and scientific manner and these gardens continued the practical value of earlier physic gardens, often associated with monasteries, in which plants were cultivated for medical use. They supported the growth of botany as an academic subject, lectures were given about the plants grown in the gardens and their medical uses demonstrated. Botanical gardens came much later to northern Europe, the first in England was the University of Oxford Botanic Garden in 1621, throughout this period, botany remained firmly subordinate to medicine. German physician Leonhart Fuchs was one of the three German fathers of botany, along with theologian Otto Brunfels and physician Hieronymus Bock, Fuchs and Brunfels broke away from the tradition of copying earlier works to make original observations of their own. Bock created his own system of plant classification, physician Valerius Cordus authored a botanically and pharmacologically important herbal Historia Plantarum in 1544 and a pharmacopoeia of lasting importance, the Dispensatorium in 1546. Naturalist Conrad von Gesner and herbalist John Gerard published herbals covering the medicinal uses of plants, naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi was considered the father of natural history, which included the study of plants
19.
Leith Walk
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Leith Walk is one of the longest streets in Edinburgh, Scotland. Technically, however, none of the properties in its half is addressed as Leith Walk. The sections are correctly titled Elm Row, Haddington Place, Crighton Place, Albert Place, Brunswick Place, Antigua Street, Union Place, Greenside Place, Croall Place, Albert Place, Middlefield etc. There was a pathway in the vicinity of modern-day Leith Walk in the time of James II in the mid 15th century. However, Leith Walk, as we know it, owes its existence to a rampart which was constructed between Calton Hill and Leith in 1650. The attack on Edinburgh by Cromwells army in that year was halted at this line by the Scots under David Leslie, the fact that it was forbidden to wheeled traffic explains why the street became known as the Walk, the name by which it is still known locally. It is clear, however, that as early as 1763 the Walk had become a route with a regular service running from Leith to Edinburgh, departing on the hour. The journey took an hour each way, with a rest at the Halfway House at Shrubhill, at this time it is stated that there were no other coaches in Scotland except the infrequent service from Edinburgh to London. In 1779, Hugo Arnot the historian of Edinburgh, born in Leith, stated that 156 coaches travelled the route daily, each carrying 4 passengers at a cost of 2d or 3d per person. The road apparently fell into disrepair because of its frequent use by coaches and was not repaired until 1810 when it was relaid as a splendid causeway raising the level by around 6 feet. This was at great expense by the City of Edinburgh and had a toll erected for its payment, before the sudden surge of tenement construction in the 1870s the street was largely rural in character with several nurseries along its length. The separate mansion houses which had built in the early 19th century were more numerous on the west side than the east. When the tenements were built, it was easier to buy up the few mansions on the east side, which is why the two sides still have different characters to some extent. A large number of tenements were built in a short time period. These are all by John Chesser, the McDonald Road Library is arguably the architecturally most distinguished building on the Walk. Originally a Nelson Hall, funded by its benefactor, the publisher and printer Thomas Nelson and it was built in 1902 in a Baronial Renaissance style to designs by H Ramsay Taylor. Several notable buildings have disappeared in the past half century, the Alhambra Cinema, which stood at the end of Springfield Street, was replaced by a Tyre and Exhaust Centre. This Egyptian style building was originally a theatre, now it is remembered only in the name of a pub on the opposite side of the street
20.
Walter Scott
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Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet, FRSE was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright and poet. Many of his works remain classics of both English-language literature and of Scottish literature, famous titles include Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, Old Mortality, The Lady of the Lake, Waverley, The Heart of Midlothian and The Bride of Lammermoor. A prominent member of the Tory establishment in Edinburgh, Scott was an member of the Highland Society. He survived a bout of polio in 1773 that left him lame. To cure his lameness he was sent in 1773 to live in the rural Scottish Borders at his grandparents farm at Sandyknowe, adjacent to the ruin of Smailholm Tower. Here he was taught to read by his aunt Jenny, and learned from her the speech patterns and many of the tales and legends that characterised much of his work. In January 1775 he returned to Edinburgh, and that went with his aunt Jenny to take spa treatment at Bath in England. In the winter of 1776 he went back to Sandyknowe, with another attempt at a cure at Prestonpans during the following summer. In 1778, Scott returned to Edinburgh for private education to him for school. In October 1779 he began at the Royal High School of Edinburgh and he was now well able to walk and explore the city and the surrounding countryside. His reading included chivalric romances, poems, history and travel books and he was given private tuition by James Mitchell in arithmetic and writing, and learned from him the history of the Church of Scotland with emphasis on the Covenanters. Scott began studying classics at the University of Edinburgh in November 1783, at the age of 12, in March 1786 he began an apprenticeship in his fathers office to become a Writer to the Signet. While at the university Scott had become a friend of Adam Ferguson, Scott met the blind poet Thomas Blacklock, who lent him books and introduced him to James Macphersons Ossian cycle of poems. During the winter of 1786–87 the 15-year-old Scott saw Robert Burns at one of these salons, for what was to be their only meeting. When Burns noticed a print illustrating the poem The Justice of the Peace and asked who had written the poem, only Scott knew that it was by John Langhorne, and was thanked by Burns. When it was decided that he would become a lawyer, he returned to the university to study law, first taking classes in Moral Philosophy, after completing his studies in law, he became a lawyer in Edinburgh. As a lawyers clerk he made his first visit to the Scottish Highlands directing an eviction and he was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1792. He had an unsuccessful love suit with Williamina Belsches of Fettercairn, as a boy, youth and young man, Scott was fascinated by the oral traditions of the Scottish Borders
21.
Phosphorus
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Phosphorus is a chemical element with symbol P and atomic number 15. As an element, phosphorus exists in two major forms—white phosphorus and red phosphorus—but because it is reactive, phosphorus is never found as a free element on Earth. At 0. 099%, phosphorus is the most abundant pnictogen in the Earths crust, with few exceptions, minerals containing phosphorus are in the maximally oxidised state as inorganic phosphate rocks. The glow of phosphorus itself originates from oxidation of the white phosphorus — a process now termed chemiluminescence, together with nitrogen, arsenic, antimony, and bismuth, phosphorus is classified as a pnictogen. Phosphates are a component of DNA, RNA, ATP, and the phospholipids, demonstrating the link between phosphorus and life, elemental phosphorus was first isolated from human urine, and bone ash was an important early phosphate source. Phosphate mines contain fossils, especially marine fossils, because phosphate is present in the deposits of animal remains. Low phosphate levels are an important limit to growth in aquatic systems. The vast majority of compounds produced are consumed as fertilisers. Phosphate is needed to replace the phosphorus that plants remove from the soil, other applications include the role of organophosphorus compounds in detergents, pesticides, and nerve agents. Phosphorus exists as several forms that exhibit different properties. The two most common allotropes are white phosphorus and red phosphorus, from the perspective of applications and chemical literature, the most important form of elemental phosphorus is white phosphorus, often abbreviated as WP. It is a soft and waxy solid consists of tetrahedral P4 molecules. This P4 tetrahedron is also present in liquid and gaseous phosphorus up to the temperature of 800 °C when it starts decomposing to P2 molecules, White phosphorus exists in two crystalline forms, α and β. At room temperature, the α-form is stable, which is common and it has cubic crystal structure and at 195.2 K, it transforms into β-form. These forms differ in terms of the orientations of the constituent P4 tetrahedra. White phosphorus is the least stable, the most reactive, the most volatile, the least dense, White phosphorus gradually changes to red phosphorus. This transformation is accelerated by light and heat, and samples of white phosphorus almost always some red phosphorus. For this reason, white phosphorus that is aged or otherwise impure is also called yellow phosphorus, when exposed to oxygen, white phosphorus glows in the dark with a very faint tinge of green and blue
22.
Solution
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In chemistry, a solution is a homogeneous mixture composed of two or more substances. In such a mixture, a solute is a substance dissolved in another substance, the mixing process of a solution happens at a scale where the effects of chemical polarity are involved, resulting in interactions that are specific to solvation. The solution assumes the characteristics of the solvent when the solvent is the fraction of the mixture. The concentration of a solute in a solution is the mass of that solute expressed as a percentage of the mass of the whole solution, a solution is a homogeneous mixture of two or more substances. The particles of solute in a solution cannot be seen by the naked eye, a solution does not allow beams of light to scatter. The solute from a solution cannot be separated by filtration and it is composed of only one phase. Homogeneous means that the components of the form a single phase. Heterogeneous means that the components of the mixture are of different phase, the properties of the mixture can be uniformly distributed through the volume but only in absence of diffusion phenomena or after their completion. Usually, the present in the greatest amount is considered the solvent. Solvents can be gases, liquids or solids, one or more components present in the solution other than the solvent are called solutes. The solution has the physical state as the solvent. If the solvent is a gas, only gases are dissolved under a set of conditions. An example of a solution is air. Since interactions between molecules play almost no role, dilute gases form rather trivial solutions, in part of the literature, they are not even classified as solutions, but addressed as mixtures. If the solvent is a liquid, then almost all gases, liquids, here are some examples, Gas in liquid, Oxygen in water Carbon dioxide in water – a less simple example, because the solution is accompanied by a chemical reaction. Liquid in liquid, The mixing of two or more substances of the same chemistry but different concentrations to form a constant, alcoholic beverages are basically solutions of ethanol in water. Solid in liquid, Sucrose in water Sodium chloride or any other salt in water, solutions in water are especially common. Counterexamples are provided by liquid mixtures that are not homogeneous, colloids, body fluids are examples for complex liquid solutions, containing many solutes
23.
Phlogiston theory
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The phlogiston theory is a superseded scientific theory that postulated that a fire-like element called phlogiston is contained within combustible bodies and released during combustion. The name comes from the Ancient Greek φλογιστόν phlogistón, from φλόξ phlóx and it was first stated in 1667 by Johann Joachim Becher, and then put together more formally by Georg Ernst Stahl. The theory attempted to explain burning processes such as combustion and rusting, phlogisticated substances are substances that contain phlogiston and dephlogisticate when burned. Dephlogisticating is when the substance simply releases the phlogiston inside of it, growing plants then absorb this phlogiston, which is why air does not spontaneously combust and also why plant matter burns as well as it does. In the following quote, Becher described phlogiston as a process that explained combustion through a process that was opposite to that of oxygen. When air had become completely phlogisticated it would no longer serve to support combustion of any material, nor would a metal heated in it yield a calx, breathing was thought to take phlogiston out of the body. Joseph Blacks student Daniel Rutherford discovered nitrogen in 1772 and the pair used the theory to explain his results. The residue of air left after burning, in fact a mixture of nitrogen and carbon dioxide, was referred to as phlogisticated air. Conversely, when oxygen was first discovered, it was thought to be dephlogisticated air, capable of combining with more phlogiston and thus supporting combustion for longer than ordinary air. Empedocles had formulated the theory that there were four elements, water, earth, fire and air. Fire was thus thought of as a substance and burning was seen as a process of decomposition which applied only to compounds, however experience had shown that burning was not always accompanied by a loss of material and a better theory was needed to account for this. In 1667, Johann Joachim Becher published his book Physica subterranea, in his book, Becher eliminated fire, water, and air from the classical element model and replaced them with three forms of earth, terra lapidea, terra fluida, and terra pinguis. Terra pinguis was the element that imparted oily, sulphurous, or combustible properties, Becher believed that terra pinguis was a key feature of combustion and was released when combustible substances were burned. Becher did not have much to do with phlogiston theory as we know it now, bechers main contribution was the start of the theory itself, however much it was changed after him. Bechers idea was that combustible substances contain an ignitable matter, the terra pinguis, the term phlogiston itself was not something that Stahl invented. There is evidence that the word was used as early as 1606, the term was derived from a Greek word meaning to inflame. When the oxide was heated with a substance rich in phlogiston, such as charcoal, phlogiston was a definite substance, the same in all its combinations. Stahls first definition of phlogiston first appeared in his Zymotechnia fundamentalis and his most quoted definition was found in the treatise on chemistry entitled Fundamenta chymiae in 1723
24.
Botanical name
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The purpose of a formal name is to have a single name that is accepted and used worldwide for a particular plant or plant group. Later, the plant was introduced worldwide, bringing it contact with more languages. English names for plant species include, daisy, English daisy. The cultivar Bellis perennis Aucubifolia is a golden-variegated horticultural selection of this species, the botanical name itself is fixed by a type, which is a particular specimen of an organism to which the scientific name is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralize the defining features of that particular taxon. For example, the view of the family Malvaceae has been expanded in some modern approaches to include what were formerly considered to be several closely related families. Some botanical names refer to groups that are stable while for other names a careful check is needed to see which circumscription is being used. Depending on rank, botanical names may be in one part, the names of cultivated plants are not necessarily similar to the botanical names, since they may instead involve unambiguous common names of species or genera. A botanical name in three parts, i. e. an infraspecific name needs a connecting term to indicate rank, in the Calystegia example above, this is subsp. for subspecies. In botany there are ranks below that of species. A name of a subdivision of a genus also needs a connecting term, the connecting term is not part of the name itself. A taxon may be indicated by a listing in more than three parts, Saxifraga aizoon var. aizoon subvar, brevifolia f. multicaulis subf. surculosa Engl. But this is a classification, not a botanical name. The botanical name is Saxifraga aizoon subf. surculosa Engl, generic, specific, and infraspecific botanical names are usually printed in italics. For botanical nomenclature, the ICN prescribes a two-part name or binary name for any taxon below the rank of genus down to, taxa below the rank of species get a three part. A binary name consists of the name of a genus and an epithet, in the case of a species this is a specific epithet, Bellis perennis is the name of a species, in which perennis is the specific epithet. There is no connecting term involved, to indicate the rank, in the case of a subdivision of a genus the name consists of the name of a genus and a subdivisional epithet. A connecting term should be placed before the subdivisional epithet to indicate the rank, falcataria In the case of cultivated plants, there is an additional epithet which is an often non-Latin part, not written in italics
25.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
26.
Antoine Lavoisier
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Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier was a French nobleman and chemist central to the 18th-century chemical revolution and had a large influence on both the history of chemistry and the history of biology. He is widely considered in popular literature as the father of modern chemistry and it is generally accepted that Lavoisiers great accomplishments in chemistry largely stem from his changing the science from a qualitative to a quantitative one. Lavoisier is most noted for his discovery of the role oxygen plays in combustion and he recognized and named oxygen and hydrogen and opposed the phlogiston theory. Lavoisier helped construct the system, wrote the first extensive list of elements. He predicted the existence of silicon and was also the first to establish that sulfur was an element rather than a compound and he discovered that, although matter may change its form or shape, its mass always remains the same. Lavoisier was a member of a number of aristocratic councils. All of these political and economic activities enabled him to fund his scientific research, at the height of the French Revolution, he was accused by Jean-Paul Marat of selling adulterated tobaccoand of other crimes, and was eventually guillotined a year after Marats death. Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier was born to a family of the nobility in Paris on 26 August 1743. The son of an attorney at the Parliament of Paris, he inherited a fortune at the age of five with the passing of his mother. Lavoisier began his schooling at the Collège des Quatre-Nations, University of Paris in Paris in 1754 at the age of 11, in his last two years at the school, his scientific interests were aroused, and he studied chemistry, botany, astronomy, and mathematics. Lavoisier entered the school of law, where he received a degree in 1763. Lavoisier received a law degree and was admitted to the bar, however, he continued his scientific education in his spare time. Lavoisiers education was filled with the ideals of the French Enlightenment of the time and he attended lectures in the natural sciences. Lavoisiers devotion and passion for chemistry were largely influenced by Étienne Condillac and his first chemical publication appeared in 1764. From 1763 to 1767, he studied geology under Jean-Étienne Guettard, in collaboration with Guettard, Lavoisier worked on a geological survey of Alsace-Lorraine in June 1767. In 1768 Lavoisier received an appointment to the Academy of Sciences. In 1769, he worked on the first geological map of France, on behalf of the Ferme générale Lavoisier commissioned the building of a wall around Paris so that customs duties could be collected from those transporting goods into and out of the city. Lavoisier attempted to introduce reforms in the French monetary and taxation system to help the peasants, Lavoisier consolidated his social and economic position when, in 1771 at age 28, he married Marie-Anne Pierrette Paulze, the 13-year-old daughter of a senior member of the Ferme générale
27.
International Plant Names Index
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The International Plant Names Index describes itself as a database of the names and associated basic bibliographical details of seed plants, ferns and lycophytes. Coverage of plant names is best at the rank of species, the IPNI also maintains a list of standardized author abbreviations. These were initially based on Brummitt & Powell, but new names, IPNI is the product of a collaboration between The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, The Harvard University Herbaria, and the Australian National Herbarium. The IPNI database is a collection of the names registered by the three cooperating institutions and they work towards standardizing the information, the standard of author abbreviations recommended by the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants is Brummitt and Powell’s Authors of Plant Names. A digital and continually updated list of authors and abbreviations can be consulted online at IPNI, the IPNI provides names that have appeared in scholarly publications, with the objective of providing an index of published names rather than prescribing the accepted botanical nomenclature. The Plant List, a project which was unveiled in 2010. The use of IPNI is free of charge, a similar project, which lists names of fungi, is the Index Fungorum. The Plant List Official website of the IPNI Plant Name search – IPNI search for plant names Author search – IPNI search for author names and standard abbreviations
28.
Dictionary of National Biography
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The Dictionary of National Biography is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published from 1885. The updated Oxford Dictionary of National Biography was published on 23 September 2004 in 60 volumes and he approached Leslie Stephen, then editor of the Cornhill Magazine, owned by Smith, to become editor. Stephen persuaded Smith that the work should focus on subjects from the UK and its present, an early working title was the Biographia Britannica, the name of an earlier eighteenth-century reference work. The first volume of the Dictionary of National Biography appeared on 1 January 1885, in May 1891 Leslie Stephen resigned and Sidney Lee, Stephens assistant editor from the beginning of the project, succeeded him as editor. While much of the dictionary was written in-house, the DNB also relied on external contributors, by 1900, more than 700 individuals had contributed to the work. Successive volumes appeared quarterly with complete punctuality until midsummer 1900, when the series closed with volume 63, the year of publication, the editor and the range of names in each volume is given below. The supplements brought the work up to the death of Queen Victoria on 22 January 1901. The dictionary was transferred from its original publishers, Smith, Elder & Co. to Oxford University Press in 1917, until 1996, Oxford University Press continued to add further supplements featuring articles on subjects who had died during the twentieth century. The supplements published between 1912 and 1996 added about 6,000 lives of people who died in the century to the 29,120 in the 63 volumes of the original DNB. In 1993 a volume containing missing biographies was published and this had an additional 1,000 lives, selected from over 100,000 suggestions. Consequently, the dictionary was becoming less and less useful as a reference work, in 1966, the University of London published a volume of corrections, cumulated from the Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research. There were various versions of the Concise Dictionary of National Biography, the last edition, in three volumes, covered everyone who died before 1986. In the early 1990s Oxford University Press committed itself to overhauling the DNB, the new dictionary would cover British history, broadly defined, up to 31 December 2000. The research project was conceived as a one, with in-house staff co-ordinating the work of nearly 10,000 contributors internationally. Following Matthews death in October 1999, he was succeeded as editor by another Oxford historian, Professor Brian Harrison, in January 2000. The new dictionary, now known as the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, was published on 23 September 2004 in 60 volumes in print at a price of £7500, most UK holders of a current library card can access it online free of charge. In subsequent years, the print edition has been able to be obtained new for a lower price. At publication, the 2004 edition had 50,113 biographical articles covering 54,922 lives, a small permanent staff remain in Oxford to update and extend the coverage of the online edition
29.
Integrated Authority File
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The Integrated Authority File or GND is an international authority file for the organisation of personal names, subject headings and corporate bodies from catalogues. It is used mainly for documentation in libraries and increasingly also by archives, the GND is managed by the German National Library in cooperation with various regional library networks in German-speaking Europe and other partners. The GND falls under the Creative Commons Zero license, the GND specification provides a hierarchy of high-level entities and sub-classes, useful in library classification, and an approach to unambiguous identification of single elements. It also comprises an ontology intended for knowledge representation in the semantic web, available in the RDF format
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Virtual International Authority File
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The Virtual International Authority File is an international authority file. It is a joint project of national libraries and operated by the Online Computer Library Center. The project was initiated by the US Library of Congress, the German National Library, the National Library of France joined the project on October 5,2007. The project transitions to a service of the OCLC on April 4,2012, the aim is to link the national authority files to a single virtual authority file. In this file, identical records from the different data sets are linked together, a VIAF record receives a standard data number, contains the primary see and see also records from the original records, and refers to the original authority records. The data are available online and are available for research and data exchange. Reciprocal updating uses the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting protocol, the file numbers are also being added to Wikipedia biographical articles and are incorporated into Wikidata. VIAFs clustering algorithm is run every month, as more data are added from participating libraries, clusters of authority records may coalesce or split, leading to some fluctuation in the VIAF identifier of certain authority records
"Rutherford, Daniel". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
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