Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 39.djvu/326

 received the degree of D.C.L. from Oxford, that of LL.D. from Cambridge and from Dublin, and was an honorary member of numerous societies in all parts of the world, including the Academy of Sciences in the French Institute. He was president of the geographical and the geological sections of the British Association more than once, and of the association itself (which he helped to found) in 1846. He was for fifteen years president of the Geographical Society, and twice president of the Geological Society, for which he received the Wollaston medal. He was also awarded the Copley medal of the Royal Society, the Brisbane medal of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and the Prix Cuvier.

In person Murchison was tall, wiry, muscular, of a commanding presence and dignified manner. A portrait was painted by Pickersgill, which has been engraved, and there are marble busts at the Geological Society and in the Museum of Economic Geology.

Murchison was fortunate not only in the society of a wife who saved him from becoming a mere idler, but also in the possession of means which from the first placed him above want, and in later life were very ample. He was not insensible to the advantages of aristocratic friends and royal favour. His social influence was considerable, and it was exercised for the benefit of science and its workers. One of his last acts was to contribute half the endowment to a chair of geology at Edinburgh. He was a hospitable host, a firm and generous friend, though perhaps, especially in his later years, somewhat too self-appreciative and intolerant of opposition. He was a man of indomitable energy and great powers of work, blessed with an excellent constitution, very methodical and punctual in his habits. His contributions to scientific literature were very numerous, for, in addition to the books already mentioned, a list of above 180 papers (several of them written in conjunction with others), notes, and addresses is appended to the memoir of his life, nearly all on geographical or geological subjects. Of the value of his work it is still difficult to speak, for the dispute as to the limits of the Cambrian and Silurian systems which arose between him and Sedgwick unfortunately created some bitterness which extended beyond the principals. Into its details we need not enter, but we must admit that in the 'Silurian System' Murchison made at least two grave mistakes, that of confusing the Llandovery rocks with the Caradoc sandstone, and of mistaking the position of the Llandilo beds in the typical area near that town. Murchison's strength lay in rapidly apprehending the dominant features in the geology of a district. His knowledge of palaeontology was limited, but here generally he was able to avail himself of the assistance of others; of petrology he knew less, and his errors on the subject of metamorphism, particularly in regard to the Scottish highlands, most seriously impeded, both directly and indirectly, the progress of that branch of geology in Britain. In short, as his biographer candidly states, 'he was not gifted with the philosophic spirit which evolves broad laws and principles in science. He had hardly any imaginative power. He wanted, therefore, the genius for dealing with questions of theory, even when they had reference to branches of science the detailed facts of which were familiar to him. . . . But he will ever hold a high place among the pioneers by whose patient and sagacious power of gathering new facts new kingdoms of knowledge are added to the intellectual domain of man. He was not a profound thinker, but his contemporaries could hardly find a clearer, more keen-eyed and careful observer.'

 MURCOT, JOHN (1625–1654), puritan divine, born at Warwick in 1625, son of Job Murcot and his wife Joan Townshend, was educated at the King's school, Warwick, and in 1641 entered Merton College, Oxford, his tutor being Ralph Button [q. v.], a strict presbyterian. He temporarily quitted Oxford when it was garrisoned for the king, and went to 'table' with John Ley [q. v.], presbyterian minister of Budworth in Cheshire. On the permanent defeat of Charles, after graduating B.A. at Oxford 30 March 1647, he again retired to Cheshire; while there he received a 'call' to the church of Astbury in the hundred of Northwich, and received ordination from the Manchester classis on 9 Feb. 1647-1648. No trace of his name appears in the register at Astbury, and he appears very shortly after to have removed to Eastham, in the hundred of Wirral, Cheshire (there is a gap in the Eastham registers from 1644-54). But before 30 June 1648 he was succeeded at Eastham by Richard Banner, and was himself presented to the rectory of West Kirby by the Committee for Plundered Ministers in place of his deceased father-in-law, Ralph Marsden. From West Kirby he was 'motioned' to Chester, but without any result. He did not 'remove' thither, the cause of his refusal being doubtless his growing leaning towards independency. In 1651 he crossexl 