SIR JOHN MURRAY. 853 



notable helper, and we, his acquaintances and admirers, a loyal friend 

 and the best of men." 



Acknowledgement is made of the use of P. Walden's biography, 

 Ber. d. deutsch. chem. Ges., 4U 4719 (1908) and of W. A. Tilden's 

 Memorial Lecture, Jour. Chcm. Soc, dcr, 2077 (1909). These papers 

 contained material otherwise inaccessible. 



George Shannon Forbes. 



SIR JOHN MURRAY (1841-1914) 



Foreign Honorary Member in Class II, Section 1, 1900. 



Sir John Murray, the son of Scotch settlers in Canada, was born 

 at Coburg, Ontario, on March 3d, 1S41. There he passed the first 

 seventeen years of his life. In the primitive conditions of a new 

 community the natural robustness of his nature found a free develop- 

 ment in congenial soil. 



In 1858 he came to Edinburgh where he prepared for its University 

 at the Stirling High School. His career at the University appears 

 to have been stamped by some of the qualities that distinguished him 

 in after life. Impatient of dogmatic authority, he was somewhat 

 scornful of inherited tradition, and treated his prescribed studies with 

 a cheerful sans gene. For even in those days he desired to find out 

 things for himself, and delve for knowledge independently. The 

 capacity of clear and original thought, with a genius of disentangling 

 the heart of a subject from its enveloping details, was as characteristic 

 of the youth as of the man. From the small circle of scientific men 

 who then made Edinburgh famous, he gathered, during his student 

 days, what was most worth having, and went his way. That one of 

 the facets of his personality drew him into a friendship with Louis 

 Stevenson, offers a suggestive glimpse into a by-way of his character. 



After continuing his scientific training for a period of several years 

 at Bridge of Allen; he undertook a hazardous voyage to Spitz- 

 burgen, in a Peterhead whaler in 1868, to study the Arctic Sea. 

 This was the initial exploit that marked him as a pioneer in Ocean- 

 ography. ^Yith the history of the development of this science his 



