MURRAY, DR. ALEXANDER. 



MI'RRAY. DR. ALEXANDER. 



.., 



by hi* election to the examinership in Mathematics and Natural 

 Philosophy in the University of London; but burdened a* he wu 

 with debt, thi wu rather an addition to the instalment* of hi* 

 crvditon than an incrvase of hi* own moan* of comfort. He *ub- | 

 hud with resignation to th effect* of hi* own misconduct, and { 

 jhowait himeelf most willing to make every exertion, though well j 

 knowing tl t many jean mu*t elapse before he could, by any effort, 

 redeem the ground h* had lost. Uedied March 12, 1843, of a di*ei*e 

 of the lung*. 



Mr. Murphy* writing* were a* follow* : ' Cambridge Philosophical 

 Transaction* :' vol. hi. part 8, (Jenem! Propertie* of Definite Integral*; 

 rol. ir part 1, On the Resolution of Algebraic Equation* ; part 3, On 

 the Inverse Method of Definite Integral*, with Physical Applications ; 

 roL T. part 1, On Elimination between an Indefinite Number of 

 Unknown Quantitie* ; part 2, Second Memoir on the Inverse Method 

 of Lefinite Integral*; part 3, third memoir on the aame; vol. vi. 

 part 1, On the Ueaolulion of Equation* in Finite Differences. ' I'hilo- 

 opbioal Transaction* :' 1837, part 1, Analysis of the Root* of 

 Equation*; part \i, Kirt Memoir on the Theory of Analytical 

 Operation*. Separate wort.* : ' Elementary Principle) of the Theories 

 of Electricity, lint, and Molecular Actions, part 1, On Electricity,' 

 8vo. Cambridge, 1S33; 'A Treatise on the Theory of Algebraical 

 Equation*,' ivo, London, 1830 (' Library of Useful Knowledge ') : to 

 tlmo mutt be added aoui* brief communication* to the ' Philosophical 

 Ma.-asine,' and various article* on subjects of physic* in the ' Penny 

 Cyclopedia,' beginning with the letter 1 >. 



Mr. Murphy'* character a* a mathematician is too well known to 

 require any comment of our*, while the fact* of hi* lif, and in par- 

 ticular those of his removal to Cambridge, have not been recorded ; 

 we hare therefore | rxfme.l to derote our space to the insertion of the 

 UtUr. What be might hare been if tha promise of hU boyhood hod 

 not been destroyed by the unfortunate circumstances we haw described, 

 it is difficult to say, for he bad a true g> nius for mathematical invention. 

 Before however he had more than commenced his career, his departure 

 from Cambridge, and the necesuty of struggling for a livelihood, made 

 it impossible for him to give hi* undivided attention to researches 

 which, above all others, demand both peace of mind and undisturbed 



.... ... 



MURRAY, DR. ALEXANDER, wo* born at Duukitterick, in the 

 itewartry of Kircudbright, Scotland, on the 22nd of October 1775. 

 He was the eldest child of hi* father's second marriage. Hi* father 

 Robert Murray had by hi* former marriage, which had subsisted full 

 forty years, a numerous family ; and in coune of about four years 

 afU-r hi* wife'* death, himself now entering hi* seventieth year, h>- 

 married again, and had two children more. Robert was a healthy and 

 vigorous abepberd or pastoral farm servant in one of the mountain 

 district* of Galloway, and distinguished for his sagacity and habitual 

 good conduct: hi* whole property consisted of four muirland-cows 

 and come two or three score* of sheep, hi* reward for herding the 

 farm of Kitterick for Mr. Laidlaw in Clatteringshaw*. He had been 



shepherd all bit days, like bis father before him, and both bad con- 

 stantly remained in the same neighbourhood. Hi* wife was the 

 daughter of a neighbouring shepherd : all the son* of hi* first marriage 

 became shepherd* ; and to the same line of life he designed Alexander. 



Alexander however was, in hi* father'* opinion, a lazy useless boy, 

 always committing some blunder or other when sent to herd or bring 

 in the cattle, lie was in fact a weakly child, not unhealthy, yet not 

 tout ; and he had neither the rapidity nor reach of vision which are 

 indispensable to form a good herd : he was also of a sedentary and 

 recluse turn; and thus quite unfitted for the vacant, indeed, but 

 vigilant life of a shepherd. It wa* not till be had reached his sixth 

 year that be was taught the alphabet of hi* mother-tongue. Hi father 

 in that year laid out a halfpenny in the purchase of a catechism, and 

 from the letters and syllables on the face of the book he began to 

 teach hi* son the elements of learning. It was however emphatically 

 ' a good book,' and only to be handled on Sunday* or other nuitable 

 nriasinni ; it was therefore commonly locked up, and, throughout the 

 winter, the old man, who had been himself taught reading and 

 writing in hi* youth, drew for hi* con the figure* of the letters in hi* 

 written hand on the board of an old wool-card with the black end of 



burned hutber stem. In this way young Murray was initiated into 

 literature ; and working continually with his board and brand, he 

 ooo became both a reader and writer. The catrohism wa* at length 

 ntnaeulud. and in a month or so he could read the ca-ier part* of it 

 In the cummer of 172 he got a Psalm-book, then a New Testament, 

 and at last a Bible, a book which be had heard read evtry night at 

 family worship, which he often longed to get hold of, but which he 

 was never allowed to open or even touch. He now read constantly, 

 and having a good memory, be remembered well and would repeat 

 BiiineriMi* p*alni*and large portion* of scripture. In 1783 hi* read- 

 Ing and memory were beoouie the wonder of the rustic circle in which 

 he lived ; and a wish began to be generally entertained that h* should 

 be sent to school The idea of school-wage* however frightened hit 

 father ; and in all likelihood nothing would have been done, had not 

 William Coohranr, a brother o( hi* mother's, paid a visit to the place 

 in the harvest of the above year. He had made a little money a* a 

 travelling merchant, and being informed of the genius, a* it wa* 

 called, of hi* young nephew, Le generuiwly undertook to place him 



next spring at the New Galloway school, which wa* about six miles 

 off, and to lodge him in the house of the boy's grandfuthor by the 

 mother's aide, who lived about a mile from New Galloway. A 

 ingly at the Whit Sunday term of 1781, young Murray, then in his 

 ninth year, was brought to the New Galloway school ; where, for a 

 month at least, hi* pronunciation and awkward gait were a source of 

 perp- tual merriment to the scholars. They loon however began to 

 regard him with other feelings. Being utterly neglected by his aged 

 grandfather, he learned to curse and swear, to lie and do all sort* of 

 l-i I tricks; but before the vacation in August be was also repeatedly 

 dux of the Bible class. He continued at school for about a fortnight 

 after the vacation had end-d ; but in the beginning of November he 

 was seized with an illness which obliged him to be Ukeu home. Here, 

 so soon a* hU health got a little better, be was put to his old employ- 

 ment of a herd, with the rent of the family ; and this course of life 

 now continued for about three year*. During all that time he spent 

 every penny which he procured from friend* or strangen in the pur- 

 chase of books and balla K carried bundlfs of these in his pocket*, and 

 road them in the glen or on the hill* when tending the cattle, .md 

 was ever puzzling and surprising his illiterate neighbours with 

 re it .h of what he bad learned. In 1787 he borrowed from a country- 

 man Salmon's ' Geographical Grammar,' which delighted him beyond 

 measure, particularly by the specimens it contained of the various 

 languages of the world. In the winter of that year, being able to 

 read and write, he wa* eneaged by the head* of two families in a 

 neighbouring parish to teach their children. He returned home in 

 March 1783, and with part of his fees, which were 15*. or 16i., he 

 bought books of history an.l arithmetic. The following year bin 

 father and the family left Kitterick, and went by engagement to her 1 

 at a place four miles above Miunigaff, the school of which place 

 Murray immediately resolved to attend. He entered himself accord- 

 ingly, and during the summer mouths walked three days every week 

 to Miunigaff school Here he read incessantly, not only his own 

 books, but, by coming an hour before the school met, the book* of 

 all the other scholars which were left in the school At Martinmas, 

 17S9, he was engaged by three families in the moors of Kells and 

 MinuigaiT to teach their children ; and during that winter he migrated 

 about, remaining six weeks in one family at a time, the families living 

 at considerable distance* from each other. He returned home a little 

 before Whit-Sunday, 17UO, and found that from that term hU father 

 was engaged as a shepherd on a farm within two miles of Miunigal!'. 

 To this farm the family accordingly removed, and Murray, having 

 now easy access to the school, went thither regularly, and also 

 mined on adding to his former acquisitions a little French, which he 

 found was necessary for a clerk intending to go to America or the W . i 

 Indies, a situation he had some thought* of obtaining. He immediately 

 borrowed a French grammar, and art to learning the language so haul 

 that in lets than a fortnight, his indulgent master giving him whole 

 page* of lessons at a time, he could rend portions of the ' Diiible 

 lioiteux.' He then found one of the boys in possession of a Latin 

 Rudiment* : he burrowed it too, and by incessant reading and a little 

 help from the master, before the vacation in August he beat a class 

 of scholar! who had been a considerable time at tho study. At 

 Martinmas he went to teach in a family reading, writing, arithmetic, 

 anil Latin. 



In this situation he applied to his books with his usual zeal ; and 

 having, among other works, bought an old and bulky edition of 

 Aina worth's ' Dictionary ' for eighteenpence, ho literally road it through 

 from A to Z, and again from Z to A. On Whit Sunday 1 791 ha returned 

 to school, and finding a schoolfellow in possession of a Greek grammar, 

 he commenced that language, after spending part of his winter's wages 

 in the purchase of a grammar and lexicon. He had also by this time 

 mastered the Hebrew alphabet, at first from an old Psalm-book, where 

 the letters were marked in succession in the 119th psalm ; ami after- 

 wards, together with some Hebrew vocables, from his Ainsworth. 11.- 

 now determined on learning that language also, and accordingly sent 

 to Kdiuburgh for a grammar by the man who rode with the post : the 

 man brought him the first edition of Robertson's ' Grammar,' which, 

 over and above the Hebrew, contained on the last leaf the Arabic 

 alphabet, to which without delay Murray next applied. At Martinmas 

 of the above year he was again engaged to teach, but at the increased 

 fee of 35. or 40. ; and in this situation he devoted every spare moment 

 to French, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. In summer ha was again at 

 school, and again, in the winter, teaching in a family ; but on this 

 occasion at a somewhat lower allowance than before, Murray having 

 chofe-u the place from it* convenience to a school which he wished to 

 attend in the winter evening*. In this school he got hold of Bailey's 

 'English Dictionary,' which introduced him to the Anglo-Saxon x 

 language. He proceeded in this way, taking advantage of every cir- 

 cumstance to increase his knowledge of language* ; and at length, in 

 November 1794, he came to Edinburgh, under the countenance and 

 protection of the rUv. Dr. Baird of that city. Murray wag at this time 

 in the nineteenth year of his age. 



His subsequent progress was comparatively easy. In the course of 

 two year* he obtained a bursary, or exhibition, in the University of 

 Edinburgh ; and never relaxing in his pursuit of knowledge, ho soon 

 male himself acquainted with all the European languages, and began 

 to form the design of tracing up all the languages of mankind to one 



