Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Colquhoun, John Campbell (1785-1854)
COLQUHOUN, JOHN CAMPBELL (1785–1854), writer on psychical research, fifth son of Sir James Colquhoun of Luss, second (brother of the third) baronet, by Jane, daughter of James Falconer of Monkstown in the county of Edinburgh, and Miltonhaven and Lauriston, Kincardineshire, was born at Edinburgh on 31 Jan. 1785. Having studied law and philosophy at Göttingen, where he made the acquaintance of Herbart and Ludwig crown prince of Bavaria, he returned to Scotland in 1806, and was called to the Scottish bar. While in Germany he had acquired a taste for the investigation of the phenomena then grouped under the category of 'animal magnetism,' which were just beginning to attract the attention of scientific men. In 1831 a report on the subject was read before the Académie des Sciences, in which it was pronounced worthy of systematic investigation. This report Colquhoun translated and published with an historical introduction and an appendix embodying the results of his own research in 1833, Edinburgh, 8vo, and it became the basis of a work entitled 'Isis Revelata,' published in 1836, Edinburgh, 8vo. Colquhoun was an intimate friend of Sir William Hamilton and Sir David Brewster. In 1815 he was appointed sheriff-depute of Dumbartonshire. He held this office until a few months of his death, which took place on 21 Aug. 1854. He was buried at Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh. He never married. Besides the above-mentioned work, Colquhoun contributed to the third volume of Sir J. Sinclair's 'Code of Health and Longevity,' Edinburgh, 1806, 8vo, a translation of Kant's treatise on the power of the mind in overcoming unpleasant sensations by mere resolution. He also published a translation of Wienholt's 'Seven Lectures on Somnambulism,' with a preface, introduction, and notes, Edinburgh, 1845, 8vo.
[Fraser's Chiefs of Colquhoun; Brit. Mus. Cat]