Transcript 

of

Henry James Johnston-Lavis. M.D., M.R.C.S., B.ès Sc., F.G.S. [Obituary]

Trans. Devon Assoc., 1886, Vol XVIII, pp. 55-56.

by

Maxwell Adams (Ed.)

Prepared by Michael Steer

The obituary was read at the Association’s July 1915 Exeter meeting. An extensive obituary for Dr Johnston-Lavis may be accessed on the Cambridge.org website. Although born in London, he was essentially a Devonian of Huguenot ancestry; a skilled medical practitioner with a passionate interest in Geology and Vulcanology. The obituary, from a copy of a rare and much sought-after journal can be downloaded from the Internet Archive. Google has sponsored the digitisation of books from several libraries. These books, on which copyright has expired, are available for free educational and research use, both as individual books and as full collections to aid researchers.

Henry James Lavis, who was descended from a Huguenot family, settled in Devonshire, and added his mother's name to his own, was born on 19 July, 1856. After receiving his early education in a private school, Mr. Johnston-Lavis commenced his medical education at University College, London, and here came under the influence of Prof. John Morris, from whose teaching he acquired a passion for geological studies.
Joining the Geological Society when only nineteen years of age, he had written several geological papers, one of which was published in the Journal of the Geological Society, before he was twenty-one. After becoming a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons in London, and holding some minor medical posts in this country, he proceeded in 1880 to Naples, where he established himself as a consulting physician, taking the degree of M.D. in the University of Naples in 1884, and acting as medical officer to Sir Wm. Armstrong's works at Puzzuoli from 1892 to 1897.
While at Naples, besides keeping a diary with photographic records of the action of Vesuvius, he prepared a valuable geological map illustrating the past history of the volcano, with penological studies of its ejected material, and in addition to his studies of Vesuvius, he did much useful work in connection with the vulcanology and seismology of the whole South Italian region. Between the years 1892 and 1897 Dr. Johnston-Lavis was in the habit of spending his summers at Harrogate, where he acted as a consulting physician. In 1895 he left Naples and, having taken a degree of M.D. at Lyons, established a practice on the Riviera at Beaulieu, while in 1909 he added to this a summer practice at Vittel in the Vosges.
He was a contributor to many scientific societies, and issued more than 160 papers on volcanoes, earthquakes, mineral waters, and medical subjects. He joined the Devonshire Association in 1901; and when the Society instituted the popular lectures, which are now given at its annual meetings, he delivered the first of the series, at the meeting held at Sidmouth in 1903, the subject being "Vesuvius : the type volcano."
He was unfortunately killed in a motor accident near Bourges, France, on 10 September, 1914, at the age of 58