Alice Johnson (7 July 1860 – 13 January 1940) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

zoologist. She also edited the proceedings of the

Society for Psychical Research The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) is a nonprofit organisation in the United Kingdom. Its stated purpose is to understand events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal. It describes itself as the "first society to condu ...

from 1899 to 1916.

Life

The daughter of William Henry Farthing Johnson, a private school master, and Harriet Brimsley, she was born in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

. Her brother was the logician

William Ernest Johnson William Ernest Johnson, Fellow of the British Academy, FBA (23 June 1858 – 14 January 1931), usually cited as W. E. Johnson, was a British philosopher, logician and economic theorist.Zabell, S.L. (2008"Johnson, William Ernest (1858–1931)"I ...

. She was educated in Cambridge and

Dover Dover ( ) is a town and major ferry port in Kent, southeast England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies southeast of Canterbury and east of Maidstone. ...

, entering

Newnham College Newnham College is a women's constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sidgwick and suffragist campaigner Millicen ...

in 1878. In 1881, she was placed in the equivalent of the First Class of the Natural Sciences

Tripos TRIPOS (''TRIvial Portable Operating System'') is a computer operating system. Development started in 1976 at the Computer Laboratory of Cambridge University and it was headed by Dr. Martin Richards. The first version appeared in January 1978 a ...

(at that time, as a woman, she was not permitted to earn a degree). She was the first director of the

Balfour Biological Laboratory for Women The Balfour Biological Laboratory for Women was a laboratory attached to the University of Cambridge from 1884 to 1914. Established to expand the laboratory capacity and provide a separate space for women's practical work, it served as an importan ...

. From 1884 to 1890 Johnson was also a demonstrator in

animal morphology Comparative anatomy is the study of similarities and differences in the anatomy of different species. It is closely related to evolutionary biology and phylogeny (the evolution of species). The science began in the classical era, continuing in t ...

at the laboratory. She continued her studies with Francis Balfour and, after Balfour's death in 1882, with

Adam Sedgwick Adam Sedgwick FRS (; 22 March 1785 – 27 January 1873) was a British geologist and Anglican priest, one of the founders of modern geology. He proposed the Cambrian and Devonian period of the geological timescale. Based on work which he did ...

. Her research included studies of the early development of the

newt A newt is a salamander in the subfamily Pleurodelinae. The terrestrial juvenile phase is called an eft. Unlike other members of the family Salamandridae, newts are semiaquatic, alternating between aquatic and terrestrial habitats. Not all aqua ...

. In 1884, she published the first paper by a woman to appear in the Proceedings of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

. She also published a study on the development of cranial nerves in the newt embryo with

Lilian Sheldon Lilian Sheldon (May 1862 – 6 May 1942) was an English zoologist. Life Sheldon was born in Handsworth in 1862 where her father was the vicar (one source says 1860). She had two brothers who survived and four sisters. Her parents Ann (born ...

, then a student at Newnham College. In 1890, she became private secretary to

Eleanor Mildred Sidgwick Eleanor Mildred Sidgwick (née Balfour; 11 March 1845 – 10 February 1936) was a physics researcher assisting Lord Rayleigh, an activist for the higher education of women, Principal of Newnham College of the University of Cambridge, and a le ...

, a leading figure in the Society for Psychical Research. Johnson was secretary for the Society from 1903 to 1907 and was its research officer from 1907 to 1916. She assisted in the so-called "Brighton experiments" in thought transference. Johnson also worked for the Society on the Census of Hallucinations. She prepared the work ''Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death'' by Frederic W. H. Myers for publication; it had been left uncompleted after Myers' death. Johnson resigned from the SPR in 1917.Anonymous. (1923)
''Annual Report of the Council''
Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 21: 30-31. "It will be remembered that since the resignation of Miss Alice Johnson in 1917 the Society had had no salaried Research Officer. It was decided, therefore, to fill this post, and Mr. E. J. Dingwall was appointed, and entered upon his duties in February immediately upon his return from America, where he had been working with Dr. Walter Prince." Eleanor Sidgwick became principal for Newnham College in 1892 and Johnson served as her secretary until 1903. From 1893 to 1902, Johnson was also an associate of the college. She died in Cambridge at the age of 79.

Publications

* * *Johnson, Alice. (1908)
''Report on Some Recent Sittings for Physical Phenomena in America''
Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 21: 94-135. *Johnson, Alice. (1908)
''On the Automatic Writing of Mrs. Holland''
Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 21: 166-391. *Johnson, Alice. (1909)
''The Education of the Sitter''
Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 21: 483-511.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Alice 1860 births 1940 deaths British women zoologists British parapsychologists Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge 19th-century British zoologists 20th-century English zoologists 19th-century English women scientists 20th-century English women scientists

Life

Publications

See also

References