The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-10-28 00:00:00

DEATH of SIR RODERICK MURCHISON.

Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, the distinguished
geologist, died at half-past eight on Sunday evening at
Ids residence in Belgrave.square, London. Two months
ago Sir Roderick was seized with loss of speech, ac-
companied with difficulty in swallowing. These
symptoms gradaally, however, abated, and his general
health continued good until Thursday in last week,
when he caught cold in taking a drive. This brought
on a slight attack of bronchitis, and under it he gra-
dually and quietly sank.
Sir Roderick was the eldest son of Mr. Kenneth
Murchison, of Taradale, Rieshire, where he was born
in the 19th of February, 1792. Ile was educated at
Durham Grammar School and the Military College
of Marlow. He entered the army in 1807, and
served with the 36th Foot in Spain and Portugal until
the year 1816. Subsequently he was attached to the
staff of his uncle, General Sir Alexander Mackenzie,
and afterwards became Captain in the 6th Dragoons.
, Ai. the end of the war he began to apply himself to
a systematic examination of the older sedimentary de-
posits in England and Wales, and after seven
years' labour, he succeeded in establishing what he
termed the Silurian system. He next traced the ex-
tension of the Silurian system. and all the other
Paheozoic rocks to Norway and Sweden. and in 1810
he commenced a geological survey of the Russian
Empire. l'pon the presentation, in 1841, of the
first report 111,M) this survey he was presented by the
Emperor Nicholas with the orderof St. Anne and several
other tokens .1 regard. After three years additional la-
bour Mr. 'Murchison completed his survey of Russia,
when the Emperor conferred upon him the Grand(roes
of the order of St. Stanislaus, and appointed him an effec-
tive member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, and
upon his return to England in 1846, he received the
honour of k nighth. aid. In adili tion to the Silurian system,
Sir Roderick Mimed& in, in connection with Professor
Sedgwick, established the next overlying, or Devonian
system. In 1853 he succeeded Sir 11. de la Beebe in
the office of Director-General of the Geological Survey
of the British isles; and his latest labours have been
repeated examinations of the rocks of his native High-
lands, for which the Royal Society of Edinburgh have
conferred upon him their first Brisbane Gold McdaL
Sir 'Roderick has served four times as President of
the Geological Society, and eleven years President of
the Royal Geographical Soeiety. He was a Fellow of
the Royal Society, and also of the Loom-an Society.
He was also a member iif the Academies of St. Peters- ,
burg, Berlin, Copenhagen, Benasels, Stockholm, Turin,
and a correspondent of the French Institute. He was
for a long time a trustee of the British Museum, the
Hunterian Museum, and the British Association for
the Advancement of Science, of which he was one of
the founders.

Sir Boderick was made K.C.B. in 18413, and was
created a Baronet on Jan. 22, 1601 The present Em-
peror of Russia conferred upon him the Grand (*rose of
St. Anne, and lie wa,; also Knight Commander of
several other foreign ..rulers,

Sir Roderick Murchison married, in ISIS, Charlotte,
only daughter of the late (leneral Francis Hug.,nin,
I,ut was left a widower early in the year PM. As ha
had no issue by his marriaze, his title becomes extinct
by his death.