JOHN

See also:

• JOHN KIDD (1775-1851)
• KIDD, THOMAS (1770-185o)
• KIDD, WILLIAM

KIDD (1775-1851)  , English physician, chemist and geologist, born at Westminster on the loth of September 1775, was the son of a naval officer, Captain, John Kidd . He was educated at Bury St Edmunds and Westminster, and after-wards at Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in 1797 (M.D. in 1804) . He also studied at Guy's Hospital, London (1797-1801), where he was a pupil of Sir Astley Cooper . He became reader in chemistry at Oxford in 18o1, and in 1803 was elected the first Aldrichian professor of chemistry . He then voluntarily gave courses of lectures on mineralogy and geology: these were delivered in the dark chambers under the Ashmelean Museum, and there J . J. and W . D . Conybeare, W . Buckland, C . G . B . Daubeny and others gained their first lessons in geology .

Kidd was a popular and instructive lecturer, and through his efforts the

geological chair, first held by Buckland, was established . In 1818 he became a F . R . C . P.; in 1822 regius professor of medicine in succession to Sir Christopher Pegge; and in 1834 he was appointed keeper of the Radcliffe Library . He delivered the Harveian oration before the Royal College of Physicians in 1834 . He died at Oxford on the 7th of September 1851 .