Robert Kerr (20 October 1757 – 11 October 1813) was a Scottish surgeon, writer on scientific and other subjects, and translator.

Life

Kerr was born in 1757 in Bughtridge,

Roxburghshire Roxburghshire or the County of Roxburgh () is a historic county and registration county in the Southern Uplands of Scotland. It borders Dumfriesshire to the west, Selkirkshire and Midlothian to the northwest, and Berwickshire to the north. T ...

, the son of James Kerr, a jeweller, who served as MP for Edinburgh 1747–1754, and his wife Elizabeth. He was sent to the High School in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

. He studied medicine at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

and practised at the Edinburgh Foundling Hospital as a

surgeon In medicine, a surgeon is a medical doctor who performs surgery. Even though there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon is a licensed physician and received the same medical training as physicians before spec ...

. He was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was establis ...

in 1788. His proposers were Alexander Fraser Tytler, James Russell and Andrew Dalzell. At this time, he lived at Foresters Wynd off the

Royal Mile The Royal Mile () is the nickname of a series of streets forming the main thoroughfare of the Old Town, Edinburgh, Old Town of Edinburgh, Scotland. The term originated in the early 20th century and has since entered popular usage. The Royal ...

in Edinburgh. He translated several scientific works into English, such as

Antoine Lavoisier Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier ( ; ; 26 August 17438 May 1794), When reduced without charcoal, it gave off an air which supported respiration and combustion in an enhanced way. He concluded that this was just a pure form of common air and that i ...

's work of 1789, '' Traité Élémentaire de Chimie'', published under the title ''Elements of Chemistry in a New Systematic Order containing All the Modern Discoveries'', in 1790. In 1792, he published ''The Animal Kingdom'', the first two volumes of a four-tome translation of Linnaeus' ''

Systema Naturae ' (originally in Latin written ' with the Orthographic ligature, ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Sweden, Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the syste ...

'', which is often cited as the taxonomic authority for a great many

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

. (He never translated the remaining two volumes.) In 1794, he left his post as a surgeon to manage a paper mill at Ayton in

Berwickshire Berwickshire (; ) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area in south-eastern Scotland, on the English border. The county takes its name from Berwick-upon-Tweed, its original county town, which was part of Scotland at the ...

which he had purchased. He lost much of his fortune with this enterprise. Out of economical necessity he began writing again in 1809, publishing a variety of minor works, for instance a ''General View of the Agriculture of Berwickshire''. His last work was a translation of Cuvier's ''Recherches sur les ossements fossiles de quadrupedes'', which was published after Kerr's death under the title "Essays on the Theory of the Earth". His other works included a massive historical study entitled ''A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels'' in eighteen volumes. Kerr began the series in 1811, dedicating it to Sir Alexander Cochrane, K.B.,

Vice-Admiral of the White Vice-Admiral of the White was a senior rank of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom, immediately outranked by the rank Vice-Admiral of the Red (see order of precedence below). Royal Navy officers holding the ranks of commodore, rear admiral, v ...

. Publication did not cease following Kerr's death in 1813; the latter volumes were published into the 1820s. He died at home, Hope Park House,Edinburgh Post Office Directory 1813 east of the Meadows in Edinburgh, where he had lived since 1810, and is buried in

Greyfriars Kirkyard Greyfriars Kirkyard is the graveyard surrounding Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is located at the southern edge of the Old Town, Edinburgh, Old Town, adjacent to George Heriot's School. Burials have been taking place since the late 1 ...

in central

against the eastern wall. His stone is added to a much earlier (1610) ornate stone monument. His son, David Wardrobe Kerr (1796–1815) lies with him.

Selected writings

Notes

References

External links

* *
Contemporary review
of the "Essays on the Theory of the Earth"

from ElectricScotland.com. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kerr, Robert 1757 births 1813 deaths Scottish science writers Scottish zoologists Scottish agronomists 19th-century Scottish historians Scottish surgeons Scottish travel writers Scottish male writers British mammalogists Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Translators from French Writers from the Scottish Borders Burials at Greyfriars Kirkyard 18th-century Scottish scientists 18th-century British zoologists 19th-century British zoologists 19th-century Scottish non-fiction writers 19th-century Scottish male writers 19th-century Scottish writers 19th-century Scottish scientists 18th-century Scottish male writers 19th-century Scottish translators 18th-century Scottish translators Scottish taxonomists

Life

Selected writings

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

External links