OF ARTS AND SCIENCES : JUNE 4, 1872. 449 



and he is said to have been first led to study by his wife's fondness for 

 natural history. Meeting in 1818 with Sir Humphry Davy, he was 

 induced, by his advice, to follow the lectures of the Royal Institution in 

 London : and shortly afterwards placed himself under the tuition of 

 Professor Richard Phillips, the well-known mineralogist. The atten- 

 tion of Murchison was soon drawn to the study of geology, then taking 

 shape from the labors of Cuvier, Buckland, and Conybeare ; but it was 

 not until 1825 that he made his first contribution to the science, in a 

 paper on the geology of parts of Sussex and the adjoining counties. 

 Already he had formed an accmaintance with William Smith, who, by 

 his careful studies of organic fossils and their stratigraphical relations, 

 had laid the foundations of British geology. It was also his great 

 good fortune to know Sedgwick, then commencing his laborious 

 career, who became for many years his friend and companion in 

 the field, and with whom, in 1827, he visited the Highlands of Scotland. 

 In 1828, Murchison accompanied Lyell in a journey to the volcanic dis- 

 tricts of central France, to northern Italy and the eastern Alps ; and to 

 the latter region he returned and labored with Sedgwick in 1829 and 

 1830. In 1831, he and Sedgwick began simultaneously, in different 

 districts, the task of discovering the geological succession of the older 

 fossiliferous rocks of Wales, of which they first gave the definite results 

 to the world in 1834 and 1835. The fruits of Murchison's labors in this 

 field were published in 1838-39, in two magnificent volumes, entitled 

 " The Silurian System," and dedicated to his friend Sedgwick. Mean- 

 while, in 1836 and 1837, the two friends labored together in the investi- 

 gation of the geology of Cornwall and Devonshire, and in 1839 extended 

 their studies to the Rhenish country and to the Hartz Mountains, 

 publishing conjointly their results. 



In 1840, Murchison was invited to Russia by the Czar, and there 

 spent two or three years with De Verneuil and Von Keyserling in 

 investigating the geology of that country. The results of these labors, 

 extending over the greater part of European Russia, appeared in 1845, 

 as the joint production of Murchison and his fellow-workers. He sub- 

 sequently made repeated visits for the purpose of geological investiga- 

 tion to Scandinavia, Germany, and the Alps ; and in 1856, in conjunction 

 with Professor Nicoll, published a valuable geological map of Europe. 

 In 1854 appeared the first edition of his well-known book, Siluria ; 

 which, besides a revision of his work done twenty years before, in the 

 Silurian region of Great Britain, contained an excellent summary of 

 vol. viii. 57 



