Alexander Crum Brown

ALEXANDER CRUM BROWN (1838-1922)

gave his name to the Chair of Chemistry at Edinburgh University [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Crum_Brown ].

He was born in Edinburgh on 26 March 1838. He is the only son of the Reverend Doctor John Brown Minister of the Gospel, and his wife, Margaret Crum. His father was twice married; his son by the first marriage was John Brown, M.D.,a well known Edinburgh physician who earned a wider fame as the author of 'Rab and his Friends' [ Doctor John Brown ]. His mother's brother, Walter Crum, F.R.S., was a chemist of note and may have influenced Crum Brown's choice of chemistry as a career [ Walter ]. As a chemist, Alexander Crum Brown gained prominence by developing a system of representing chemical compounds in diagrammatical form. He also discovered the carbon dioxide bond in ethylene, which was to have important implications for the modern plastics industry [ http://www.windsorscottish.com/pl-inventors-acbrown.php ]. He became a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians during 1865 and was appointed as Professor of Chemistry at Edinburgh University in 1869, where he held the Chair of Chemistry until his retirement during 1908. The Chair of Chemistry at Edinburgh University still has his name [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Crum_Brown ]

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More comprehensive biographical accounts can be found at (1) http://www.chem.ed.ac.uk/about/professors/crum-brown.html (2) http://homepages.ed.ac.uk/aa01/crum/crum_index.html

Alexander Crum Brown was born in Edinburgh, the son of John Brown and Margaret Fisher Crum and half brother of the physician and essayist John Brown; he studied for five years at the Royal High School, succeeded by one year at Mill Hill School in London. In 1854 he entered the University of Edinburgh where he first studied Arts and then of Medicine.

He was gold medallist in Chemistry and Natural Philosophy and graduated as M.A. in 1858. Continuing his medical studies, he received the degree of M.D. in 1861. During the same time he read for the science degree of University of London, and in 1862 became the first Doctor of Science at the University of London.

http://www.chem.ed.ac.uk/about/professors/crum-brown.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Crum_Brown#cite_note-1

Baptism -

Scotland's People http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/welcome.aspx *Baptism 06/05/1838 BROWN ALEXANDER CRUM

• Parents JOHN BROWN/MARGARET FISHER CRUM *FR4534 (FR4534) M EDINBURGH EDINBURGH CITY CITY/MIDLOTHIAN 685/01 0610 0266
• Biographical index of former fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1783-2002, pt. 1. A-J, page 119