Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 3: Prominent polymath passes

Arthur Aikin was born into a family of noted writers and scholars, including a father who was a doctor, historian, and biographer. He followed his father's footsteps into science, studying chemistry under Joseph Priestly and becoming a lecturer in the subject at Guy's Hospital in London for 32 years. He would be the first treasurer of the Chemical Society (now the Royal Society of Chemistry) and its second president.

Outside of chemistry, he was also a president of the British Mineralogical Society, a founder of the Geological Society of London, and was a member of the Society of the Arts, the Linnean Society, and the Institution of Civil Engineers. He also supported himself writing, translating, and lecturing to the public, and his writing often introduced foreign scientific news to the British public. He was even a Unitarian minister for a short time.

Aikin passed away on Holy Saturday, April 15, 1854.