Dawson

Dawson, Sir John William, a geologist and naturalist, born in 1820 at Picton, Nova Scotia. He studied at Edinburgh, and then devoted himself to the natural history and geology of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. In 1842 and 1852 he aided Sir Charles Lyell in his researches in Nova Scotia. He became Vice-Chancellor of the McGill University, Montreal, and in 1882 received the medal of the London Geological Society. He was knighted in 1884. Besides discovering the Eozoon Canadense, said to be the lowest form of organic life, he wrote The Story of the Earth and Man, Fossil Man, The Origin of the World, and many other subjects.