derived from the extensive province of Perm, to designate the youngest of the palæozoic systems. The report of the expedition was subsequently laid before the emperor, who honoured the travellers with special marks of appreciation and favour. In 1842 Murchison was again elected to the presidential chair of the Geological Society, and in the following year he was engaged in visiting many parts of Germany which he had not before explored, with the view of determining the relations of their palæozoic strata to the deposits of Russia and the British islands. On this occasion Poland and the edges of the Carpathians bordering the Russian empire, were examined. Whilst thus engaged, he was elected president of the Royal Geographical Society, an honour which he again enjoyed in 1852. The summer of 1844 was devoted to an examination of the rocks of Norway and Sweden; he also revisited St. Petersburg, and on this occasion was the bearer to the emperor of a medal struck in England in commemoration of the imperial visit to the queen of Great Britain. On his return to England, the fruit of the joint labours of his associates and himself was given to the world under the title of "The Geology of Russia in Europe and the Ural mountains." It was after leaving Russia in 1844, that Murchison drew the attention of the Royal Geographical Society to the remarkable coincidence in structure between the great eastern chain of Australia and that of the auriferous Ural mountains, and hinted the possibility of the existence of gold in Australia, remarking that "as yet no gold had been discovered in our Australian colonies." In consequence of that remark, he received in 1846 some specimens of quartz rock containing gold; and upon their receipt he at once urged the unemployed Cornish miners to emigrate to that colony. This exhortation which appeared in the Transactions of the Geographical Society and in the Cornish papers, attracted considerable notice in Sydney, and as a result several accounts reached Sir Roderick of gold discoveries. He addressed the government on the subject through Earl Grey in 1848; no steps, however, were taken in the matter, as it was feared that the discovery of gold might prove embarrassing in a wool-growing colony. To Sir R. Murchison, however, belongs the credit of anticipating by a process of scientific reasoning, and by the comparison of the rocks of two widely-separated countries, a discovery which has so largely augmented the national wealth. In 1855 Sir Roderick was appointed to succeed Sir H. De la Beche as director of the geological survey of the United Kingdom. This appointment he still holds. Besides his principal works above alluded to, he is the author of a large number of papers in the Transactions of the Geological and other societies. His services to science have been acknowledged by our own and foreign governments, and by most of the scientific bodies of Europe. He was created a knight bachelor in 1846. He has also received Russian, Swedish, and Danish orders of knighthood. He has had honorary degrees conferred on him by several universities, and is an honorary member of many scientific bodies on the continent. He has also filled the office of vice-president of the Royal Society. As president of the Geographical Society his name will be associated with many of the exploring expeditions, which in the present age have produced such fruit to science, commerce, and civilization; and he will be long remembered as the unflinching friend and supporter of Lady Franklin, in her noble efforts to rescue her husband or any of the survivors of his ill-fated expedition.—F. C. W.
MURDOCK, James, D.D., an American divine and scholar, was born at Westbrook, Connecticut, February 16, 1776. Having graduated at Yale college, he then studied theology under president Timothy Dwight and the Rev. A. S. Norton, D.D., and was licensed to preach in 1801. In the following year he was ordained to the pastoral charge of the congregational church, Princeton, Massachusetts, where he remained till 1815. He then became professor at the university at Vermont, and in 1819 was appointed professor of sacred rhetoric and ecclesiastical history at Andover. In 1829 he removed to New Haven, and there devoted himself to literary pursuits. His works consist of sermons and translations, among which is a literal translation of the New Testament from the Paschito Syriac version.
MURDOCK, William, who first practically applied gas to purposes of illumination, was born in 1754 at Bellow Mill, near Old Cumnock, in Ayrshire. His father was an ingenious millwright and miller, who also held a farm on the estate of the Boswells of Auchinleck. Of Murdock's early life little more seems to be known than that, before he left Scotland for England, he had built a handsome bridge, still extant, over the Nith in Dumfriesshire. In 1777 he joined Boulton and Watt at their infant establishment at Soho, where his skill was at once appreciated. After two years he was sent by the firm to superintend their engines in Cornwall. It was in 1772 that he first employed coal-gas to light his house and offices at Redruth, being the earliest application of it to that purpose. Returning permanently to Soho in 1798 he perfected his apparatus, and astonished the district by lighting up the front of the Soho manufactory with gas at the illumination for the peace of Amiens in 1802. It was not, we may add, till 1807 that Pall Mall was lighted with gas, being the first street in London so honoured. After a long and useful career Murdock died in November, 1839.—F. E.
MURE, Sir William, of Rowallan, a Scottish poet, descended from a very ancient family which gave a queen to Scotland in the person of Elizabeth Mure, the wife of Robert II. He was born in 1594. His mother was a sister of Alexander Montgomery, author of the Cherry and the Slae. He joined the popular party in the great civil war, was a member of the parliament of 1643 which ratified the Solemn League and Covenant with England, and fought at the battle of Marston Moor and the storming of Newcastle. He died in 1657. Sir William began to write verses at an early age. One of his pieces bears the date of 1611, and another, written in 1617, is embodied in the Muse's Welcome. He published in 1628 a translation in English sapphics of Boyd of Trochrig's Latin poem, "Hecatombe Christiana," and in the following year he produced his "Trve Crucifixe for Trve Catholickes," Edinburgh, 12mo. He is said also to have composed a version of the Psalms. Many of his pieces still remain in manuscript.—J. T.
MURE, William, of Caldwell, in Renfrewshire, an eminent scholar and historian, was born in 1799. He was the head of the Mures of Rowellan, an ancient Scottish family descended from Sir Reginald Mure, who in 1329 was lord high chamberlain. Colonel Mure's grandfather. Baron Mure, the intimate friend of David Hume, was a man of great wisdom and learning, and wielded the patronage of the crown in Scotland for a number of years about the middle of last century. Young Mure received his early education at Westminster, was transferred thence to the university of Edinburgh, and completed his course of studies in Germany, "where he imbibed that taste for criticism which inspired him in after years, and has made his name known far and wide amongst the scholars of modern Europe." His first publication, which appeared in 1829, was entitled "Remarks on the Chronology of the Egyptian Dynasties." It was followed in 1832 by a learned and elaborate dissertation on the "Calendar of the Zodiac of Ancient Egypt." In 1842 he published "A Journal of a Tour made in Greece in 1838." But his principal work is a "Critical History of the Language and Literature of Ancient Greece," the first portion of which was published in 1850, and was unfortunately left unfinished at the time of his death. This truly admirable work displays vast research and learning, and is written throughout in a most searching, liberal, and genial spirit. The first three volumes are devoted to the mythical period of ancient Greece, including sketches of the epic, cyclic, and lyric poets. The fourth and fifth treat of the Greek historians from the earliest period until the times of Xenophon. In 1854 Colonel Mure prepared for the press, and presented to the Maitland Club "Selections from the Family Papers preserved at Caldwell," illustrated with valuable notes from his own pen. Meanwhile he had been elected in 1846 M.P. for his native county, which he continued to represent until 1855, when he retired from public life in consequence of feeble health. In 1847 he was invested with what has been termed the "blue ribbon" of Scottish literature as lord rector of the university of Glasgow. This amiable and accomplished man died in 1860, deeply regretted. He married in 1825 a granddaughter of Dr. Markham, archbishop of York, by whom he left issue. He took a deep interest in every charitable and patriotic movement. He held for many years the post of colonel of the Renfrewshire militia.—J. T.
MURENA, A. Terentius Varro, probably the son of the consul, adopted by A. Terentius Varro, whose name he took in consequence. In 25 b.c. he was employed by Augustus to reduce to subjection the Salasci, an Alpine tribe whose predatory habits interfered with safe communication between Italy and Gaul. These he entirely extirpated, and sold forty-four thousand for slaves. In 23 b.c. he was named consul suffectus, but
