34" 



MURCIA 



MURDOCK 



and of the Royal Geographical Society in 1844-43, 

 was re-elected in 1857, and continued to huM that 

 post till 1870, when lie wiis eoapdM to resign it 

 by paralysis. Perhaps no contemporary <li<l more 

 t<> promote geographical science at home, and kindle 

 the spirit of ailvcnture among those engaged in 

 Arctic exploration on the one luuid and African dis- 

 covery on the other. In 1855 he was mode director- 

 general of the Geological Survey and director of the 

 Itoyal School of Mines. His investigations into the 

 rr\talline schist* of the Highlands established a 

 sinking instance of regional metamorphism on a 

 large scale. He was a vice-president of the Royal 

 Society, and a foreign member of the French 

 Academy, was knighted in 1846, and mode a 

 Uaronet in 1863. In 1870 he founded the chair of 

 Ceology in Edinburgh University. He died 22d 

 Octoher 1871. Mot of his contributions to_ science 

 appeared in the Transactions of the Geological and 

 other Societies. His principal works were The 

 Silurian System (1839); The Geology of Russia in 

 Eitrotx and the Ural Maintains ( 1845 ; 2d ed. 1853). 

 See Life by Professor Arch. Geikie (1875). 



Mlirria. an ancient town of Spain, on the left 

 Iwnk of the Segura, l>y rail 46 miles S\V. of Alicante 

 and 50 N. by \V. of Cartagena. It stands in the 

 productive vale of Mnrcia, an old-fashioned Moorish 

 town, embosomed in gardens of mulberry, orange, 

 fig, palm, ami other fruit trees. Almost the only 

 notable buildings are the bishop's palace and the 

 cathedral, this lost begun in 1353, but reconstructed 

 in 1521, and surmounted by a line l>ell-tower. Silks, 

 saltpetre, soda, gunpowder, musical instruments, 

 and glass are manufactured ; fruit-growing, the 

 preparation of olive-oil, and the weaving of esparto 

 also flourish. Pop. (1877) 91,805; (1887) 98,538. 

 Alfonso X. of Castile took the city from the 

 Moors in 126:) ; an earthquake almost destroyed it 

 in 1829; and it was captured by the insurgents in 

 1843. The province of Murcia has an area of 4478 

 sq. m. and pop. ( 1887) of 491,438. Along with the 

 present province of Albacete it was nn independent 

 Arab kingdom for 27 years in the 13th century. 



Murder is the unlawful and intentional killing 

 of a human being by a human being. The most 

 compfiidioii- stateme'nt of the distinctions drawn 

 by tin- law of England between murder and man- 

 slaughter is given by Sir James Fitzjames Stephen 

 in article 223 of his Diyat of the Criminal Laic. 

 He says: ' .Manslaughter is unlawful homicide 

 without malice aforethought. Murder is unlawful 

 homicide with malice aforethought. Malice afore- 

 thought means any one or more of the following 

 status of mini! preceding or co-existing with the 

 act or omission by which death is caused, and it 

 may exist when that act is unpremeditated: (it) 

 an intention to cause the death of, or grievous 

 Imdily harm to, any |>crson, whether such person 

 i- the person actually Killed or not ; (6) knowledge 

 that the act which causes death will probably cau-e 

 the death of, or grievous bodily barm to, some 

 iiernon, whether such person is tne jicrson actually 

 killed or not, although such knowledge is accom- 



Giril by indifference whether death or grie\oiis 

 ily harm is caused or not, or by a wish that it 

 may not lie caused; (<) an intent to commit any 

 felony whatever; or (rf) an intent to oppose by 

 force any officer of justice on his way to, in, or 

 returning from the execution of the duty of arrest- 

 ing, keeping in en-tody, or imprisoning any person 

 whom he is lawfully entitled to arrest, "keep in 

 custody or imprison, or the duty of keening the 

 peace, or dispersing an unlawful assembly, pro- 

 vided that the offender has notice that the person 

 killed is such an officer so employed.' If the act of 

 killing is done in the heat of passion caused by 

 provocation, it is not murder, but manslaughter. 



The law presumes that every one who has killed 

 another has murdered him, unless there are circum- 

 stances in the case to raise a contrary presumption. 

 Mmdi-r is punished by death, manslaughter by 

 penal servitude for life, or by a fine, according to 

 the degree of culpability involved in the crime. 

 The law of Scotland does not substantially differ 

 from that laid down by Sir James Stephen, the 

 chief distinction being that what in England is 

 called manslaughter is in Scotland called culpable 

 homicide. In the United States the only note- 

 worthy distinction from the law of England is the 

 recognition of different degrees of murder. An 

 early act of the legislature of Pennsylvania dis- 

 tinguishes murder by poison or waylaying, or any 

 other deliberate and premeditated killing, or 

 murder committed in the furtherance of any arson, 

 rape, robbery, or burglary, as murder of the first 

 degree, and 'murder of all other kinds as murder 

 of the second degree. The statute law of other 

 states has similar provisions. In England and 

 Wales during 1856-88 the maximum number of 

 murders (as returned by coroner's inq nests) in any 

 one year was 272 in 1866, the minimum 153 in 

 1879. During that same period the minimum 

 number of executions was 4 in 1871, the maximum 

 23 in 1875 and 1877. According to a paper in the 

 Journal of the Statistical Society for 1885, the pro- 

 portion of homicides of all kinds to population was 

 in England and Wales 1 to 63,000, and in the 

 United States 1 to 43,000. From differences in 

 legal classification and administration, it is notori- 

 ously difficult to compare the frequency of murder 

 in different countries. But an estimate has been 

 made that, whereas in England there are 7 - l 

 murders per 10,000 deaths, in Germany the pro- 

 portion is 6'4 murders to 10,000, in France 8, in 

 Austria 8'8, in Switzerland 13-8, in Spain 23 8, in 

 Italy as many as 29'4 per 10,000 deaths. The 

 arguments for and against the abolition of Capital 

 Punishment (q.v.) have been discussed in a separata 

 article; see also ExECfnoN, MIRTH (CONCEAL- 

 MENT OF), SUICIDE; and Holtzendorff, Die Psy- 

 chologic des Mordes ( 1875). 



Murdock. or MURDOCH, WILLIAM, inventor 

 of gas for illuminating purposes, was lx>rn 25th 

 August 1754, near Aucliimeck, Ayrshire. His 

 family traced their descent from some Flemish 

 architects or engineers ; and his father, a mill- 

 wright and miller near Old Cumnock, designed 

 the first iron-toothed gearing in Great Britain. 

 Murdock worked under his father till be was 

 twenty-three, then entered the employment of 

 Botilton & Watt, Birmingham, and showed such 

 marked ability that he was sent to Cornwall to 

 superintend the erection of mining engines there. 

 At Kedrnth he constructed in 1781 the model of 

 a high -pressure engine to nin on wheels. Watt 

 showed some jealousy at these efforts ; but Boulton 

 offered him a reward for an engine capable of 

 ran\ing two persons and the driver. His labours 

 in Cornwall wen- arduous, though he had not more 

 than fl per week up till his forty-fourth year; 

 and, a request for an increase of salary not being 

 promptly acceded to, he made up his mind to 

 change. The mining companies at last realising 

 the value of his services, offered him 1000 a year 

 as chief engineer at the mines. But he declined, 

 returning to Boulton & Watt, who gave him a like 

 salary as general manager of Soho Works. Mur- 

 dock s inventive brain was never idle ; be intro- 

 duced labour-saving machinery, a new method of 

 wheel rotation, and an oscillating engine (1785) of 

 a pattern still in use. He also improved Watt's 

 engine ; introduced a method of casting steam 

 cases for cylinders in one piece, instead of in seg- 

 ments; a rotatory and compressed-air engine; a 

 steam gun ; cast-iron cement ; a method of heating 



