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Murchison patronymic, but the genitive case with aspirated initial sound of the name of the saint's abbey of Fathan. The identity of the founder of Fahan with the founder of Banagher has not been determined before. The abbot of Fahan is always spoken of in Irish writings as 'comharba Mura,' successor of Mura.

[Annala Rioghachta Eireann, ed. O'Donovan, ii. 906; Colgan's Acta Sanct. Hiberniæ, i. 587; Bollandists' Acta Sanctorum, March 12; W. Reeves's Adamnan's Life of St. Columba; W. Reeves's Acts of Archbishop Colton, 1850, note, p. 106; Martyrology of Donegal, p 74; J. O'Donovan's Three Fragments of Irish Annals, 1860, p. 10; J. H. Todd's Irish Version of the Historia Britonum, 1848; Petrie's Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland, 1845, p. 454, and Dunraven's Notes on Irish Architecture, for Drawings of the saint's tomb and church of Banagher; Ulster Journal of Archæology, i. 270, and Proc. of Royal Irish Academy, v. 206, as to bell and staff; local inquiries by the writer at Banagher and Inishowen.]

 MURCHISON, CHARLES (1830–1879), physician, born in Jamaica on 26 July 1830, was younger son of the Hon. Alexander Murchison, M.D., cousin of Sir Roderick Impey Murchison [q. v.]. When Murchison was three years old the family returned to Scotland and settled at Elgin, where he received his first education. At the age of fifteen he entered the university of Aberdeen as a student of arts, and two years later commenced the study of medicine in the university of Edinburgh. Here he distinguished himself in natural history, botany, and chemistry, and later in more distinctly professional subjects, obtaining a large number of medals and prizes. He especially excelled in surgery, and passed the examination of the College of Surgeons of Edinburgh when little over twenty years of age, in 1850, and in the same year became house surgeon to James Syme [q. v.] In 1851 he graduated M.D. with a dissertation on the 'Structure of Tumours' (Edinburgh, 1852, 8vo), based on his own experience, which obtained the honour of a gold medal. He then spent a short time as physician to the British embassy at Turin, and, returning to Edinburgh, was for a short time resident physician in the Royal Infirmary.

After further study at Dublin and Paris Murchison entered the Bengal army of the East India Company on 17 Jan. 1853. On reaching India he was almost immediately made professor of chemistry at the Medical College, Calcutta. Later on he served with the expedition to Burmah in 1854, and his experience there furnished the materials for two papers in the 'Edinburgh Medical Journal' for January and April 1855 on the 'Climate and Diseases of Burmah.' But in October 1855 Murchison left the service and settled in London as a physician, commencing the long series of his medical appointments by becoming physician to the Westminster General Dispensary. Shortly afterwards he was connected with St. Mary's Hospital as lecturer on botany and curator of the museum, of which he prepared in a remarkably short time an excellent catalogue. In 1856 he was appointed assistant physician to King's College Hospital, but had to resign, in conformity with the rules of the hospital, in 1860. Murchison had no difficulty in obtaining a like position (combined with that of lecturer on pathology) at the Middlesex Hospital in the same year, and, being promoted to the post of full physician in 1866, retained his connection with that hospital till 1871. He also acted as assistant physician to the London Fever Hospital from 1856; and was promoted to be physician in 1861, an appointment which gave a definite bias to his medical researches. On his retirement in 1870 a testimonial was presented to him by public subscription. In 1871, when the staff of St. Thomas's Hospital was enlarged, consequent on the opening of its new buildings, Murchison accepted the posts of physician and lecturer on medicine, which he held till his death, with increase of reputation to himself and his school. In the autumn of 1873 he traced the origin of an epidemic of typhoid fever to polluted milk supply, and the residents in West London presented him with a testimonial. In 1866 he was elected fellow of the Royal Society. He became member of the Royal College of Physicians in 1855, was elected fellow in 1859, and gave the Croonian lectures in 1873. In 1870 he received the honorary degree of LL.D from the university of Edinburgh. In 1875 he was examiner in medicine to the university of London. His only court appointment was that of physician to the Duke and Duchess of Connaught. As a clinical teacher Murchison acquired a high reputation; his method was chiefly catechetical, and was impressive through his earnest and forcible manner. In exposition he was clear and positive, stating the subject in broad outlines, and inclining to be rather dogmatic, so that the attentive student carried away valuable and precise rules for practice. He was a man of high character and resolute integrity. With an unpretentious manner he possessed great kindness of heart and warm family affections.

Murchison's consulting practice was based at first on his special knowledge of fevers, but extended to other branches of medicine,