The Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh was a learned society based in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

"for the cultivation of the physical sciences". The society was founded in 1771 as the Physico-Chirurgical Society but soon after changed its name to the Physical Society. After being granted a Royal Charter in 1778 it became the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh. It absorbed a number of other societies over the next fifty years, including the Edinburgh Medico-Chirurgical Society in 1782 (not to be confused with the extant Medico-Chirurgical Society of Edinburgh, founded in 1821), the American Physical Society in 1796 (not to be confused with the extant

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...

, founded in 1899), the Hibernian Medical Society in 1799, the Chemical Society in 1803, the Natural History Society in 1812 and the Didactic Society in 1813. The society occupied a lecture hall in Nicholson Street, Edinburgh, complete with library. From 1854 to 1965, it published the journal ''Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh'', devoted to articles on experimental biology and natural history. Members of the society were known as Fellows and permitted to use the post-nominal letters FRPSE. Presidents were elected at intervals, sometimes more than one for each year. Some of the records of the Society, for the period 1828–1884, are maintained by the

Royal Scottish Geographical Society The Royal Scottish Geographical Society (RSGS) is an educational charity based in Perth, Scotland founded in 1884. The purpose of the society is to advance the subject of geography worldwide, inspire people to learn more about the world around ...

Presidents of the SocietyIn 1880
''Proceedings'', p.16
John Duns identified the following former presidents: " Captain Thomas Brown,
Edward Forbes Edward Forbes FRS, FGS (12 February 1815 – 18 November 1854) was a Manx naturalist. In 1846, he proposed that the distributions of montane plants and animals had been compressed downslope, and some oceanic islands connected to the mainlan ...
,
Robert Kaye Greville Dr. Robert Kaye Greville FRSE FLS LLD (13 December 1794 – 4 June 1866) was an England, English mycologist, bryology, bryologist, and botanist. He was an accomplished artist and illustrator of natural history. In addition to art and scien ...
, James Y. Simpson, John Coldstream, George Wilson,
John Goodsir John Goodsir (20 March 1814 – 6 March 1867) was a Scottish anatomist and a pioneer in the formulation of cell theory. Early life Goodsir was born on 20 March 1814 in Anstruther, Fife, the son of Elizabeth Dunbar Taylor and John Goods ...
,
Hugh Miller Hugh Miller (10 October 1802 – 23/24 December 1856) was a self-taught Scottish geologist and writer, folklorist and an evangelical Christian. Life and work Miller was born in Cromarty, the first of three children of Harriet Wright ('' ...
, Sir John Grahame (sic) Dalyell, John Fleming, Thomas Strethill Wright, and others".

*1776–77 John Grieve *1813 John Roche *18nn Henry von Heydeloff *1828 Richard Tuite *c.1837 William B. Carpenter *1840

Edward Forbes Edward Forbes FRS, FGS (12 February 1815 – 18 November 1854) was a Manx naturalist. In 1846, he proposed that the distributions of montane plants and animals had been compressed downslope, and some oceanic islands connected to the mainlan ...

*1846–48

Robert Halliday Gunning Robert Halliday Gunning FRSE PRPSE FSA LLD (12 December 1818 – 22 March 1900) was a Scottish surgeon, entrepreneur and philanthropist. He did much to improve social conditions in Brazil and also became rich there. He endowed numerous prizes ...

*1851–54

Hugh Miller Hugh Miller (10 October 1802 – 23/24 December 1856) was a self-taught Scottish geologist and writer, folklorist and an evangelical Christian. Life and work Miller was born in Cromarty, the first of three children of Harriet Wright ('' ...

*1856 Robert Chambers *1858–59 Andrew Murray *1858–59 Professor Balfour *1861–64 James McBain *1861 William Rhind *1862 Thomas Strethill Wright *1863

Alexander Bryson Alexander Bryson FRSE FGS FRSSA FSAScot FRPSE (12 October 1816 – 7 December 1866) was a Scottish biologist, geologist and horologist who served as president of the Royal Scottish Society of Arts (1860–61) and as president of the Royal P ...

*1863–66 Sir William Turner *1864 David Page *1865–68

Stevenson Macadam Stevenson Macadam (27 April 1829 – 24 January 1901) was a Scottish scientist, analytical chemist, lecturer, and academic author. He was a founding member of the Institute of Chemistry of Great Britain (now the Royal Society of Chemistry) an ...

*1866–68 John Duns *1870–73 Robert Brown *1874–77 David Grieve *1876 John Alexander Smith *1876–79

Ramsay Heatley Traquair Ramsay Heatley Traquair FRSE FRS (30 July 1840 – 22 November 1912) was a Scottish naturalist and palaeontologist who became a leading expert on fossil fish. Traquair trained as a medical doctor, but his thesis was on aspects of fish anatom ...

*1880 John Duns *1881–84

*1885–88 Sir William Turner *1888–91

*1895 John Struthers *1906–09

John Graham Kerr Sir John Graham Kerr (18 September 1869 – 21 April 1957), known to his friends as Graham Kerr, was a British embryologist and Unionist Member of Parliament (MP). He is best known for his studies of the embryology of lungfishes. He was involv ...

*1909?–1912 J Arthur Thomson *1912–15

Orlando Charnock Bradley Orlando Charnock Bradley FRSE (8 May 1871 – 21 November 1937) was a British veterinarian and first President of the National Veterinary Medical Association. He is described as one of the foremost veterinarians of the 20th century. Life He was ...

*1916 Professor Arthur Robinson *1918–21

James Hartley Ashworth James Hartley Ashworth FRS FRSE DSc SZS (2 May 1874 – 4 February 1936) was a British marine zoologist. Life See He was born on 2, May 1874, in Accrington in Lancashire, the only son of James Ashworth. He spent most of his early life in Bu ...

*1921–24 Professor

D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson Sir D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson CB FRS FRSE (2 May 1860 – 21 June 1948) was a Scottish biologist, mathematician and classics scholar. He was a pioneer of mathematical and theoretical biology, travelled on expeditions to the Bering Strait an ...

*1933–36

Charles Henry O'Donoghue Charles Henry O'Donoghue FRSE FZS (23 September 1885 – 28 November 1961) was an English zoologist who studied molluscs, a malacologist. His publications mostly deal with sea slugs and he also named a number of Bryozoans. A collection of over 70 ...

References

Defunct learned societies of the United Kingdom Organisations based in Edinburgh Organisations based in Edinburgh with royal patronage History of science and technology in Scotland Defunct organisations based in Scotland 1771 establishments in Scotland Libraries in Edinburgh Biology organizations Organizations disestablished in 1965 1965 disestablishments in Scotland Physics societies Zoological societies {{science-org-stub