Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Chapman, Edward John
CHAPMAN, EDWARD JOHN (1821–1904), mineralogist, was born in London on 22 Feb. 1821, and educated in France and Germany, where he gave special attention to chemistry and mineralogy. He was professor of mineralogy in University College, London, from 1849 to 1853, and professor of mineralogy and geology at the University of Toronto from 1853 to 1895.
His earlier researches, dealing mostly with analyses of minerals, were published in the 'Philosophical Magazine,' 'Chemical Gazette,' &c. He also described some artesian wells near Silsoe, in Bedfordshire (Phil. Mag. 1852); and made experiments on the absorption of water by chalk (ibid. 1853), the mean results indicating that certain strata in that formation could absorb two and a half gallons of water per cubic foot.
After settling in Canada he acted as general editor (1856-66) of the 'Canadian Journal : a Repertory of Industry, Science, and Art,' published at Toronto. His researches now widened. He studied the minerals, rocks, and fossils of Canada, published analyses of coal and iron-ore, wrote on fossil brachiopods, on crinoids and their classification, on trilobites, and on certain fossil tracks termed 'Protichnites' and 'Climactichnites,' which he regarded as impressions of fucoids. In 1864 he issued 'A Popular and Practical Exposition of the Minerals and Geology of Canada' (2nd edit. 1871; 3rd edit. 1888, re-named 'The Minerals and Geology of Central Canada').
Chapman became Ph.D. in 1860, and the degree of LL.D. was subsequently conferred on him. He died at the Pines, Hampton Wick, Middlesex, on 28 Jan. 1904. His works include: 1. 'Practical Mineralogy,' 1843. 2. 'A Brief Description of the Characters of Minerals,' 1844. 3. 'An Outline of the Geology of Canada,' Toronto, 1870. 4. 'Blowpipe Practice,' Toronto, 1880. 5. 'Mineral-Systems: a Review, with Outline of an attempted Classification of Minerals in Natural Groups' (posthumous), 1904. He also published 'A Drama of Two Lives,' a volume of verse, in 1899.
[Mineralogical Mag. xiv. 1904, p. 65; Geol. Mag., 1904, p. 144.]