Sir John William Dawson

Dawson, Sir John William
Dawson, Sir John William, geologist, principal of McGill (b at Pictou, NS 13 Oct 1820; d at Montréal 19 Nov 1899). The first Canadian-born scientist of worldwide reputation, Dawson personally created most of the 19th-century foundations of the 20th-century Canadian scientific community. Educated in Pictou, Nova Scotia, and Edinburgh, Scotland, as a geologist, then the most advanced branch of applied science, Dawson became superintendent of education for NS in 1850 and principal of McGill in 1855. Over the next 38 years, he built McGill into one of the world's leading universities; he taught 20 hours a week, published 20 books, formed the ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA, became the only individual ever to preside over both the American and the British Associations for the Advancement of Science, and was knighted in 1884 for his public services. His son, G.M. DAWSON, was director of the GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA.

Principal Dawson's career spanned the transformation of science from a fixed curriculum of "natural philosophy" to an array of professional disciplines focused on research. Like his predecessors, he wrote on subjects from farming to philanthropy, but he also earned a solid reputation as a geologist, equally at home on a cliff, chipping out samples, or in his study, synthesizing and interpreting the processes of geological time. He was the leading expert of his day on early FOSSIL PLANTS and took special pride in his identification as a coral of Eozoon canadense, thought to be the oldest nonplant fossil known: always controversial, it was not for another 50 years that Eozoon was shown to be a rare crystal formation rather than a living animal.

As well as a modernist in science and education (eg, admitting women to McGill), Dawson was a devout Christian and the leading anti-Darwinist of the late Victorian period. As a geologist, he knew the Earth was very old (100 million years and perhaps older); but he could not see, from his direct knowledge of the fossil evidence, that new species had actually evolved out of earlier ones. Many of his books were technical criticisms of Darwinism and attempts to reconcile up-to-date science with the Christian scriptural tradition. Since the theory of EVOLUTION lacked any mechanical explanation until the science of GENETICS appeared in the 20th century, Dawson's being wrong does not diminish his historical importance. The remoteness of Canada and McGill's newness did not prevent Dawson's leading one faction in the greatest scientific controversy of his day. His international reputation added strength to his mission to establish in Canada the institutions of up-to-date science: higher degrees, lifelong research and publication of research results.

Author DONALD J.C. PHILLIPSON

Suggested Reading
W.R. Shea, "Introduction" to J.W. Dawson, Modern Ideas of Evolution (repr 1977).

Links to Other Sites
Sir John William Dawson
A profile of the 19th century Canadian scientist J W Dawson. From Library and Archives Canada.