Chapter ID: CBB587753879

John Jeremiah Bigsby, MD: British Army Physician and Pioneer North American Geologist (2013)

unapi

Wilson, L. G. (Author)


Volume: 375
Pages: 375-394
Publication date: 2013
Language: English


In the years from 1817 to 1825 when Dr John Bigsby was stationed in Canada with the British Army, he studied the geology from the lower St Lawrence Valley to the centre of the continent. In sedimentary strata of the Great Lakes, he collected a wealth of fossils, many of unusual size. He described the mineralogy of the Canadian Shield, recognizing the igneous origin of the basalt precipices of the north shore of Lake Superior. In 1819 when the International Boundary Commission was surveying the western end of Lake Erie, the whole staff fell ill with malarial fevers and some died. Bigsby was appointed in 1820 as medical officer to the Commission. He accompanied the British survey team from 1820 to 1823 to provide medical care. In his leisure time he collected fossils from the shores of the Great Lakes. In 1823 Bigsby travelled by canoe with the surveyors completing the survey from Lake Superior to Lake of the Woods. During the journey he observed the great volcanic formations of that region. Bigsby returned to England in 1825, resigning from the British Army in 1830. He entered private medical practice but maintained a life-long interest in geology, particularly fossils.

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Book C. J. Duffin; R. T. J. Moody; C. Gardner-Thorpe (2013) A History of Geology and Medicine. unapi

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Authors & Contributors
McMillan, R. Bruce
Morey, G. B
Brandão, José Manuel
Buckland, Adelene
Ciancio, Luca
Faria, Frederico Felipe de Almeida
Journals
Earth Sciences History: Journal of the History of the Earth Sciences Society
História, Ciências, Saúde---Manguinhos
Schede Umanistiche
19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century
Journal of Historical Geography
Science in Context
Publishers
Geological Society of London
University of Missouri
Ashgate
Yale University Press
Concepts
Geology
Fossils
Collectors and collecting
Paleontology
Travel; exploration
Natural history
People
Bigsby, John Jeremiah
Hunter, William
Worm, Ole
Koch, Albert C.
Bayfield, Henry Wolsey
Custer, George Armstrong
Time Periods
19th century
18th century
17th century
20th century, early
Pleistocene
Places
Canada
United States
Great Britain
North America
England
India
Institutions
Università di Pavia
Copenhagen. Universitet
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