Alexander Crum Brown
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Alexander Crum Brown
FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and Literature, letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". ...
FRS (26 March 1838 – 28 October 1922) was a Scottish
organic chemist Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the science, scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic matter, organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain ...
. Alexander Crum Brown Road in Edinburgh's
King's Buildings The King's Buildings (colloquially known as just King's or KB) is a campus of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Located in the suburb of Blackford, Edinburgh, Blackford, the site contains most of the schools within the University of Edin ...
complex is named after him.


Early life and education

Alexander Crum Brown was born at 4 Bellevue Terrace 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 ...
. His mother, Margaret Fisher Crum (d. 1841), was the sister of the chemist Walter Crum, and his father, Rev Dr John Brown (1784-1858), was minister of Broughton Place Church in the east end of Edinburgh's New Town. Crum Brown was baptised on 6 May 1838. His half brother was the physician and essayist John Brown. For five years, he studied at the Royal High School, then for one year at
Mill Hill School Mill Hill School is a 13–18 co-educational Private schools in the United Kingdom, private, Day school, day and boarding school in Mill Hill, London, England that was established in 1807. It is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' ...
in London. In 1854, he entered 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 ...
where he first studied Arts and then Medicine. He was gold medallist in Chemistry and Natural Philosophy and graduated with an MA in 1858. Continuing his medical studies, he received his MD in 1861. At this time he was also studying for a science degree at the
University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...
, and in 1862 became the first Doctor of Science at the University of London. After his graduation as from the University of Edinburgh he continued studying chemistry in Germany, first under
Robert Bunsen Robert Wilhelm Eberhard Bunsen (; 30 March 1811 – 16 August 1899) was a German chemist. He investigated emission spectra of heated elements, and discovered caesium (in 1860) and rubidium (in 1861) with the physicist Gustav Kirchhoff. The Bu ...
at the
University of Heidelberg Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (; ), is a public university, public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386 on instruction of Pope Urban VI, Heidelberg is List ...
, and then at the
University of Marburg The Philipps University of Marburg () is a public research university located in Marburg, Germany. It was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Prote ...
under Adolph Wilhelm Hermann Kolbe.


Academic career

In 1863, he returned to the University of Edinburgh as an extra-academical lecturer in chemistry. In 1869, he was appointed the Professor of Chemistry holding the chair until his retirement in 1908. In his application for this position he was supported by famous chemists such as
Baeyer Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von Baeyer (; 31 October 1835 – 20 August 1917) was a German chemist who synthesised indigo and developed a nomenclature for cyclic compounds (that was subsequently extended and adopted as part of the IUPAC org ...
, Beilstein, Bunsen, Butlerov, Erlenmeyer, Hofmann, Kolbe, Volhard and Wöhler. One of his students was
Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Hol ...
. The Crum Brown Chair of Chemistry 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 ...
was established in 1967 in his honour. 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 1863, was awarded its Keith Medal for 1873–75. He served as the Society's vice president from 1905 to 1911. His address at the time of joining the Society was given as 8 Belgrave Crescent in the west end of
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 ...
. In 1867, he was elected a member of the Harveian Society of Edinburgh and served as one of its secretaries from 1881 to 1903. He was president of the Society in 1899. In 1883 he was elected a member of the Aesculapian Club.


Hope Scholarship controversy of 1870

Each year, the Hope Scholarship was awarded to the four students 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 ...
who achieved the highest marks (at first sitting) in the first-term examinations in Chemistry. The Hope Scholars were entitled to free use of the laboratory facilities during the following term. In 1870, Edith Pechey, one of the Edinburgh Seven, came third in the class, beaten by two male students sitting the exam for the ''second'' time, so under the terms of the Hope Scholarship, she had first claim on a scholarship. Fearing that awarding the prize to a woman would be both an affront to many of his esteemed colleagues in the Medical Faculty and a provocation to the male students, Crum Brown chose to award the Hope Scholarship to men whose names appeared lower on the list. This had important consequences. It made national headlines in
The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
and drew attention to the difficulties being encountered by a small group of women studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh.
''" iss Pecheyhas done her sex a service, not only by vindicating their intellectual ability in an open competition with men, but still more by the temper and courtesy with which she meets her disappointment"''


Research

Crum Brown's pioneering work concerned the development of a system of representing
chemical compound A chemical compound is a chemical substance composed of many identical molecules (or molecular entities) containing atoms from more than one chemical element held together by chemical bonds. A molecule consisting of atoms of only one element ...
s in diagrammatic form. In 1864 he began to draw pictures of
molecule A molecule is a group of two or more atoms that are held together by Force, attractive forces known as chemical bonds; depending on context, the term may or may not include ions that satisfy this criterion. In quantum physics, organic chemi ...
s, in which he enclosed the symbols for
atom Atoms are the basic particles of the chemical elements. An atom consists of a atomic nucleus, nucleus of protons and generally neutrons, surrounded by an electromagnetically bound swarm of electrons. The chemical elements are distinguished fr ...
s in circles, and used dashed lines to connect the atomic symbols together in a way that satisfied each atom's valence. The results of his influential work were published in 1864 and reprinted in 1865. Although Crum Brown apparently never contemplated the practice of medicine, his training as a medical student gave him an interest in physiology and pharmacology. This led him to collaborate during 1867–8 with T. R. Fraser, a distinguished medical graduate, in a pioneering investigation of fundamental importance into the connection between chemical constitution and physiological action. Their method "''consists in performing upon a substance a chemical operation which shall introduce a known change into its constitution, and then examining and comparing the physiological action of the substance before and after the change.''" The change considered was the addition of ethyl iodide to various
alkaloid Alkaloids are a broad class of natural product, naturally occurring organic compounds that contain at least one nitrogen atom. Some synthetic compounds of similar structure may also be termed alkaloids. Alkaloids are produced by a large varie ...
s and comparison of the iodides (and the corresponding
sulfate The sulfate or sulphate ion is a polyatomic anion with the empirical formula . Salts, acid derivatives, and peroxides of sulfate are widely used in industry. Sulfates occur widely in everyday life. Sulfates are salts of sulfuric acid and many ...
s) thus obtained with the hydrochlorides of the original alkaloids. Striking regularities were observed, amongst others "''that when a nitrile ertiarybase possesses a strychnialike action, the salts of the corresponding ammonium uaternarybases have an action identical with curare oison''" He discovered the carbon
double bond In chemistry, a double bond is a covalent bond between two atoms involving four bonding electrons as opposed to two in a single bond. Double bonds occur most commonly between two carbon atoms, for example in alkenes. Many double bonds exist betw ...
of
ethylene Ethylene (IUPAC name: ethene) is a hydrocarbon which has the formula or . It is a colourless, flammable gas with a faint "sweet and musky" odour when pure. It is the simplest alkene (a hydrocarbon with carbon–carbon bond, carbon–carbon doub ...
, which was to have important implications for the modern
plastics industry The plastics industry manufactures polymer materials—commonly called plastics—and offers services in plastics important to a range of industries, including packaging, building and construction, electronics, aerospace, manufacturing and transpo ...
. He also made significant contributions to
pharmacology Pharmacology is the science of drugs and medications, including a substance's origin, composition, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, therapeutic use, and toxicology. More specifically, it is the study of the interactions that occur betwee ...
, and worked with
physiology Physiology (; ) is the science, scientific study of function (biology), functions and mechanism (biology), mechanisms in a life, living system. As a branches of science, subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ syst ...
,
phonetics Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds or, in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians ...
, mathematics and
crystallography Crystallography is the branch of science devoted to the study of molecular and crystalline structure and properties. The word ''crystallography'' is derived from the Ancient Greek word (; "clear ice, rock-crystal"), and (; "to write"). In J ...
. During the 1880s, Crum Brown studied combinations of colours, inks, and designs which helped the
Bank of Scotland The Bank of Scotland plc (Scottish Gaelic: ''Banca na h-Alba'') is a commercial bank, commercial and clearing (finance), clearing bank based in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is part of the Lloyds Banking Group. The bank was established by the Par ...
manufacture bank notes that would be impossible to fabricate using photography. The forgery-proof bank notes were completed in 1885. In November 1888 however, forgeries of these bank notes were discovered in Glasgow and Edinburgh, in which the culprit was found in 1889 to be John Hamilton Gray Mitchell, who had made the fake noted using traditional artistic mediums. The Bank of Scotland amended the bank notes' design. In 1912, he introduced the name of
kerogen Kerogen is solid, insoluble organic matter in sedimentary rocks. It consists of a variety of organic materials, including dead plants, algae, and other microorganisms, that have been compressed and heated by geological processes. All the kero ...
to cover the insoluble
organic matter Organic matter, organic material or natural organic matter is the large source of carbon-based compounds found within natural and engineered, terrestrial, and aquatic environments. It is matter composed of organic compounds that have come fro ...
in
oil shale Oil shale is an organic-rich Granularity, fine-grained sedimentary rock containing kerogen (a solid mixture of Organic compound, organic chemical compounds) from which liquid hydrocarbons can be produced. In addition to kerogen, general compos ...
.


Personal life

Although physically not particularly robust, he was rarely ill. He spent much of his holiday time walking in the
Scottish Highlands The Highlands (; , ) is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Scottish Lowlands, Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Scots language, Lowland Scots language replaced Scottish Gae ...
and in Europe. In 1866, he married Jane Bailie Porter (d.1910). Porter was the sister of William Archer Porter, James Porter and Margaret Archer Porter, who married physicist Peter Tait. He remained intellectually active until his death in Edinburgh in 1922.


Death

Crum Brown died 28 October 1922, aged 84, and is buried on the obscured southern terrace of
Dean Cemetery The Dean Cemetery is a historically important Victorian cemetery north of the Dean Village, west of Edinburgh city centre, in Scotland. It lies between Queensferry Road and the Water of Leith, bounded on its east side by Dean Path and o ...
.


Artistic recognition

William Brassey Hole's sketch of Crum Brown in a laboratory in 1884, is held by the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.


Other recognition

In 2015, the City of Edinburgh Council agreed a request by 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 ...
to name a street within the
King's Buildings The King's Buildings (colloquially known as just King's or KB) is a campus of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Located in the suburb of Blackford, Edinburgh, Blackford, the site contains most of the schools within the University of Edin ...
complex after Crum Brown.


References


Further reading

*Testimonials in favour of Alexander Crum Brown (Muir and Paterson, Edinburgh,1869). *Brown, A.C., Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 23,707–720 (1864). *Brown, A.C., Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 24, 331–9 (1867). *Brown, A.C., Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 17, 181–5 (1891). *Brown, A.C. and Walker, J., Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 36,211–224 (1892); Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 37, 361–379 (1895). *Brown, A.C. and Gibson, J., Chemical Society Transactions, 61, 367–9 (1892). *Horn, D.B., A Short History of the University of Edinburgh (University Press, Edinburgh, 1967), p. 194. *National Library of Scotland MS 2636, f. 182. *Rorie, D., University of Edinburgh Journal, 6,8–15 (1933–34). *Flett, J.S., University of Edinburgh Journal, 15,160–182 (1949–1951 ). *Bell, F.G., University of Edinburgh Journal, 20,215–230 (1961–1962). *Edinburgh University Library MS Gen. 47D. *Kendall, J., Journal of Chemical Education, 4,565–9 (1927). *Report of the Royal Commissioners on the Universities of Scotland, vol. II (Evidence-Part I) (H.M.S.O., Edinburgh, 1878), pp. 184–5. *Quasi Cursores (Constable, Edinburgh, 1884), pp. 229–232. *Kendall, J., Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society, 1,537–549 (1932–35): *Edinburgh University Library MS Gen. 178/3,4.


External links


Biography of Crum Brown
School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Alexander Crum British organic chemists 1838 births 1922 deaths Scottish mathematicians Scottish physiologists Scottish pharmacologists British crystallographers Phoneticians Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Alumni of the University of London Heidelberg University alumni University of Marburg alumni Leipzig University alumni Scientists from Edinburgh People educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh People educated at Mill Hill School 19th-century Scottish chemists 20th-century Scottish chemists 19th-century Scottish people 20th-century Scottish people British expatriates in Germany Burials at the Dean Cemetery Office bearers of the Harveian Society of Edinburgh Members of the Harveian Society of Edinburgh