Life of Sir Roderick I. Murchison, Bart., F.R.S. etc. Based on his Journals and Letters. With Notices of his Scientific Contemporaries and a Sketch of the Rise and Growth of Palæozoic Geology in Britain

Abstract

TO have before us in detail, and reflected as in a mirror of his own notes and correspondence, the story of the life of one who has taken a foremost place in the ranks of science, is a matter of no little interest. We want to know as much as we can of the kind of qualities that go to make a successful man of science, and of the circumstances which have enabled him to be useful to the world. Such information may be obtained either by categorical questions addressed to such men during life, after the manner of Mr. Francis Galton's work lately reviewed in these columns,^* in which we have the advantage of numbers for comparison; or by the more detailed story of the life of individuals, from which we can gather for ourselves the answers to our questions., with all the additional light thrown upon them by surrounding circumstances.

Life of Sir Roderick I. Murchison, Bart., F.R.S. etc. Based on his Journals and Letters. With Notices of his Scientific Contemporaries and a Sketch of the Rise and Growth of Palæozoic Geology in Britain.

By Archibald Geikie, Director of H.M. Geological Survey of Scotland, and Murchison Professor of Geology and Mineralogy in the University of Edinburgh. 2 vols. Illustrated with Portraits and Woodcuts. (London: John Murray, 1875.)