Early Life
He was born on 7 November in Edinburgh. His father was a writer to the signet and a landowner in Fife and Kinross, who lost most of his fortune in attempting to develop the mineral resources of his property. James was sent to the Royal High School at the age of nine, and remained until he was fifteen, when he entered the University of Edinburgh. For two years he frequented the arts classes (including botany), and in 1817 began the medical curriculum, devoting himself with particular keenness to chemistry. His chemical experiments led him to the discovery that a valuable substance is obtainable from coal tar which has the property of dissolving india-rubber, and could be used for waterproofing silk and other textile fabrics; an idea which was patented a few months afterwards by Charles Macintosh, of Glasgow (see also Mackintosh).
Syme married the sister of his former colleague, Robert Willis.
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