Volume 1

Life of Sir Roderick I. Murchison, bart.; K.C.B., F.R.S.; sometime director-general of the Geological survey of the United kingdom / based on his journals and letters ; with notices of his scientific contemporaries and a sketch of the rise and growth of palaeozoic geology in Britain, by Archibald Geikie.

  • Archibald Geikie
Date:
1875
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Life of Sir Roderick I. Murchison, bart.; K.C.B., F.R.S.; sometime director-general of the Geological survey of the United kingdom / based on his journals and letters ; with notices of his scientific contemporaries and a sketch of the rise and growth of palaeozoic geology in Britain, by Archibald Geikie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    value of science. For many years he was in the habit of keeping a record of the events which he witnessed, or in which he took part. In the belief that the story of his life might have some interest and usefulness for those who should succeed him, he used now and then during his later years to de- vote his spare hours to the task of reading over his early journals, and superintending their transcrip- tion in whole or in abstract under his own eye. In the course of time a goodly series of closely- written volumes grew under the hand of the amanu- ensis, but their author at length perceived that their details could hardly possess sufficient interest for general readers. In the spring of 1871 he pro- posed to me that I should undertake the task of reducing his memoranda, into a connected narrative. Having accepted the office of biographer, I found that, in addition to the journals, there existed a vast mass of miscellaneous letters and papers going back even into last century. It appeared that Sir Roderick for many years of his life never destroyed any piece of writing addressed to him,—notes of invitation to dinner, and acceptances of imvitations given by himself, beg abundant among the papers. To these materials, through the kindness of his friends and correspondents, to all of whom sincere
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