Life of Sir Roderick I. Murchison
Based on his Journals and Letters

A detailed biography of the influential Scottish geographer Sir Roderick Impey Murchison (1792–1871).

Archibald Geikie (Author)

9781108072342, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 2 June 2011

428 pages, 30 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 2.4 cm, 0.54 kg

Sir Roderick Impey Murchison (1792–1871) was an influential Scottish geologist best known for his classification of Palaeozoic rocks into the Silurian system. After early military experience in the Peninsular War, he resigned his commission; a chance meeting with Sir Humphrey Davy led him subsequently to pursue a scientific career. The Silurian System, published in 1839, was a highly influential study, which established the oldest contemporary classification of fossil-bearing strata. Murchison was appointed President of the Royal Geographical Society in 1843. These volumes, first published in 1875, use information taken from Murchison's private journals and correspondence. Archibald Geikie (1835–1924) provides a detailed account of his mentor's life and work in the context of geology as a developing science in the early nineteenth century, and provides a fascinating insight into the life and work of this eminent Victorian geologist. Volume 1 describes Murchison's early life and geological studies until 1842.

Preface
1. Ancestry. School-days
2. First years of a soldier's life
3. Six months of the Peninsular War
4. Military life at home
5. Italy and art
6. Five years of fox-hunting
7. Rise of geology in Britain
8. First years of scientific life at home
9. First geological raids into the continent
10. The invasion of Grauwacke
11. The Geological Society, and social life in London
12. The Silurian system
13. The Devonian system
14. A geological tour in northern Russia
15. Central and southern Russia, and the Ural Mountains
16. The chair of the Geological Society.

Subject Areas: History of science [PDX]