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Dawson returned to Nova Scotia in 1842, accompanied by Sir Charles Lyell on his first visit to that territory. Dawson was subsequently appointed to the post of superintendent of education (1850-1853); at the same time he entered zealously into the geology of Canada, making a special study of the fossil forests of the coal-measures. From these strata, in company with Lyell (during his second visit) in 1852, he obtained the first remains of an air-breathing reptile named Dendrerpeton . He also described the fossil plants of the Silurian, Devonian and CarboniferousThe Carboniferous is a major division of the geologic timescale that extends from the end of the Devonian period (about 280 million years before the present (BP)) to the beginning of the Permian period (about 340 million Years BP). As with most older geol rocks of Canada for the Geological Survey of Camada (1871-1873).
From 1855 to 1893 he was professor of geology and principal of McGill UniversityMcGill University Grandescunt aucta labore By work, all things increase and grow Established 1821 School type Public Principal Heather Monroe-Blum Location Montreal, Quebec Enrollment 22,915 undergraduate, 6,895 graduate Faculty 1,436 Campus Urban, 80 acr in Montreal, an institution which under his influence attained a high reputation. He was elected F.R.S. in 1862. When the Royal Society of CanadaThe Royal Society of Canada The Canadian Academy of the Sciences and Humanities is the senior national body of distinguished Canadian scientists and scholars. Its primary objective is to promote learning and research in the natural and social sciences and was created he was the first to occupy the presidential chair, and he also acted as president of the British Association at its meeting at Birmingham in 1886, and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Sir William Dawsons name is especially associated with the Eozoon canadense, which in 1864 he described as an organism having the structure of a foraminifer . It was found in the Laurentian rocks, regarded as the oldest known geological system. His views on the subject were contested at the time, and have since been disproven, the so-called organism being now regarded as a mineral structure. He was created C.M.G. in 1881, and was knighted in 18841884 is a leap year starting on Tuesday (click on link to calendar). Events January 4 The Fabian Society is founded in London. February 1 Edition one of the Oxford English Dictionary is published. March 13 The siege of Khartoum, Sudan begins (ends on Janu. In his books on geological subjects he maintained a distinctly theological attitude, declining to admit the descent or evolution of man from brute ancestors, and holding that the human species only made its appearance on this earth within quite recent times.
Besides many memoirs in the Transactions of learned societies, he published AcadianAcadians are the original French settlers of parts of the northeastern region of North America comprising what is now the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. Acadians Total population: 1997: 300,000 Significant popul geology:
John's son, George Mercer DawsonGeorge Mercer Dawson ( August 1 1849- March 2 1901) was a Canadian scientist and surveyor. Dawson was born in Pictou, Nova Scotia, the son of Sir John William Dawson. By age eleven George was inflicted with tuberculosis of the spine (Pott's Disease) that (1849-1901), became a well known and respected scientist and geologist in his own right.
He is interred in the Mount Royal Cemetery in Montreal, Quebec and is the namesake for Dawson College.
This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. 1911 Britannica
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