John MacCulloch is famous for his pioneering work on Scottish geology
producing the first geological map of the country.
Descended from the MacCullochs of Nether Ardwell in Galloway John MacCulloch
was born in Guernsey on 6th October 1773. In his early adult years he
studied medicine at Edinburgh where he qualified as M.D. in 1793 whereupon
he entered the army as assistant surgeon. Attaching himself to the Artillery
he became chemist to the Board of Ordnance. He still continued, however,
to practise for a time as a physician.
In 1811 he communicated his first papers to the Geological Society.
They were devoted to an elucidation of the geological structure of Guernsey
and of Heligoland. This work probably led to his being selected in the
same year to make some geological and mineralogical investigations in
Scotland. He was asked to report on the suitability of Scottish mountains
for a repetition of the pendulum experiments previously conducted by
Maskelyne at Schiehallion. the course of the explorations necessary
for the purposes of these reports he made extensive observations on
the geology and mineralogy of Scotland. He also produced a collection
of Scottish rocks and minerals which he presented to the Geological
Society in 1814. In that year he was appointed geologist to the Trigonometrical
Survey; and in 1816-1817 he was President of the Geological Society.
Although the fundamental principles of geology had been formulated and
published by James Hutton, little investigation had taken place on the
detailed geology of Scotland up until the time of MacCulloch. With passion
MacCulloch set about investigating Scotland's geology. One of his most
important labours was the examination of the islands along the west
coast at that time not easily visited, and presenting many obstacles
to a scientific explorer. The results of this survey appeared (1819)
in his two volume work Description of the Western Islands of Scotland,
including the Isle Man, which forms one of the classical treatises on
British geology. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1820. He continued to write papers, chiefly on the rocks and minerals of
Scotland, compiling such an amount of information that persuaded the
Government to employ him in 1826 to prepare a geological map of Scotland. From that date up to the time of his death he returned each summer
to Scotland and traversed every district inserting the geological features
upon the then state-of-the-art topographic base map of Samuel Arrowsmith.
He completed the field work in 1832, and in 1834 his map and an accompanying
memoir were ready for publication. However, he died on 21st August 1835
following an accident on his honeymoon, and both the map and memoir
were published posthumously in 1836.
Today John MacCulloch's geological map of Scotland hangs in the stairwell
of the Geological Society I London, a fitting reminder of his pioneering
work and place in the history of British geology. For most people MacCulloch's
name will forever be associated with a fossil tree he discovered at
Burgh on the west coast of Mull.
Some of MacCulloch's other works:
A Geological Classification of Rocks with Descriptive Synopses of
the Species and Varieties, comprising the Elements of Practical Geology
(1821)
The Highlands and Western Isles of Scotland, in a series of letters
to Sir Walter Scott (4 vols. 1824)
A System of Geology, with a Theory of the Earth and an Examination
of its Connection with the Sacred Records (2 vols. 1831)
