Foreign Laterature and Science. 305 
number of drawings, &c. &c. which have been purchased 
by the French government. M. C. has again set out for 
Egypt.” 
Dr. John Murray. 
{From Tilloch’s Philosophical Magazine, July, 1820.} 
“¢ It gives us much regret to have to announce this month 
the death of that eminent chemist Dr. John Murray, of 
Edinburgh. He died at his house in Nicolson’s street on 
Thursday, 22d July. The death of this distinguished phi- 
losopher, snatched from us in the prime of life, and full 
vigour of his faculties, will long be felt as a national loss. 
His works, now of standard celebrity at home and abroad, 
have, from the spirit of profound and accurate analysis, 
which they every where display, and from the force, clear- 
ness, and precision of their statements, most essentially con- 
tributed to advance chemistry to the high rank which it now 
holds among the liberal sciences. His very acute, vigour- 
ous, and comprehensive mind, has been most successfully 
exerted in arranging its numerous and daily multiplying 
details, defining its laws, and, above all, in attaching to it 
a spirit of philosophical investigation, which, while it lays 
the best foundation for extending its practical application, 
tends at the same time to exalt its character, and dignify its 
pursuit. As a lecturer on chemistry, it is impossible to 
praise too highly the superior talents of Dr. Murray : al- 
ways perfectly master of his subject, and very successful in 
the performance of his experiments, which were selected 
with great judgment, his manner had a natural ease and 
animation, which showed evidently that his mind went 
along with every thing he uttered, and gave his lectures 
great freedom and spirit. But his peculiar excellence as a 
teacher was an uncommon faculty, arising from the great 
perspicuity and distinctness of his conceptions, of leading 
his hearers step by step through the whole process of the 
most complete investigation, with such admirable clearness, 
that they were induced to think that he was following out 
a natural order which could not be avoided, at the very 
time when he was exhibiting a specimen of the most refin- 
ed and subtle analysis. With him the student did not 
merely accumulate facts, note down dry results, or stare at 
