He was born at 4 Bank Street in
Edinburgh's Old Town the son of Charles Phin WS a lawyer and Session Clerk in the Edinburgh Law Courts. He appears to have remained in Edinburgh so presumably studied law at
Edinburgh University. In 1856 he won the
Edinburgh Arrow award, therefore must have been a member of the
Royal Company of Archers. In 1861 he was a successful lawyer in the Scottish Supreme Court, living at 13
Heriot Row in the
New Town in
Edinburgh. His best-known book today is
The evolution of the atmosphere as a proof of design and purpose in the creation, and of the existence of a personal God. The book was openly theistic; Phin's Intelligent Designer was the Creator
God of
Genesis: "...it must be equally obvious that if we find strong and unmistakable evidence of intelligent and controlling design in the earliest stages of the development of this planet, that evidence applies with equal force to the existence of a designer, or in other words, to the existence of a personal God." Professor Phin (he taught at People's College in New York and the University of Pennsylvania) organized and ran the "Industrial Publishing Company" in New York City for 25 years; he was a member of the New York Press Club. Some of his many publications are listed in the Bibliography (below). He was also the editor of the
American Journal of Microscopy. ==Bibliography==