R. MURCHISON - THE SILURIAN SYSTEM 2 VOLS 1839 GEOLOGY

Book Description: John Murray, London, 1839. Half Morocco. Book Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. First Edition. 4to - 13 Inches. A very sound two volume set bound in 20th century dark brown half morocco with marbled paper boards. Raised bands to spine. Gilt spine titles on burgundy spine labels. Some minor scuffing and shelfwear but overall very tidy. Missing the large detached map as usual. Original wraps bound in (somewhat soiled). Vol I internally very tidy with maps and plates clean and intact without tears and loss. Largely unopened. Vol II also partially unopened but with some of the plates a little thumbed to the fore edge with tiny nicks. The folding plates are in good order with some strengthened with clear tape down the gutter. A couple with short handling tears to the fore margin and one with a chunk of loss to the fore margin, but not affecting the image. All plates, maps and panoramas checked and present, complete as list. xxxii, 576 ; (4), 579-768 pages + errata slip. Overall a very presentable set missing only the loose large geological map which is very rarely present. We can send images of these books on request. Due to the weight a postage surcharge will apply. Murchison was born at Tarradale, Ross and Cromarty, Scotland, the son of Kenneth Murchison (died 1796). He attended Durham School , and then the military college at Great Marlow to be trained for the army. In 1808 he landed with Wellesley in Galicia, and was present at the actions of Roliça and Vimeiro. Subsequently under Sir John Moore, he took part in the retreat to Corunna and the final battle there. After eight years of service Murchison left the army, and married Charlotte Hugonin (8 April 1788 - 9 February 1869), the only daughter of General Hugonin, of Nursted House, Hampshire. Murchison and his wife spent two years in mainland Europe, particularly in Italy. They then settled in Barnard Castle, County Durham, England in 1818 where Murchison made the acquaintance of Sir Humphry Davy. Davy who urged Murchison to turn his energy to science, after hearing that he wasted his time riding to hounds and shooting. Murchison became fascinated by the young science of geology and joined the Geological Society of London, soon becoming one of its most active members. His colleagues there included Adam Sedgwick, William Conybeare, William Buckland, William Fitton, Charles Lyell and Charles Darwin. Exploring with his wife, Murchison studied the geology of the south of England, devoting special attention to the rocks of the north-west of Sussex and the adjoining parts of Hampshire and Surrey, on which, aided by Fitton, he wrote his first scientific paper, read to the Geological Society of London in 1825. Turning his attention to Continental geology, he and Lyell explored the volcanic region of Auvergne, parts of southern France, northern Italy, Tyrol and Switzerland. A little later, with Sedgwick as his companion, Murchison attacked the difficult problem of the geological structure of the Alps. Their joint paper giving the results of their study is a classic in the literature of Alpine geology. In 1831 he went to the border of England and Wales, to attempt to discover whether the greywacke rocks underlying the Old Red Sandstone could be grouped into a definite order of succession. The result was the establishment of the Silurian system under which were grouped for the first time a remarkable series of formations, each replete with distinctive organic remains other than and very different from those of the other rocks of England. These researches, together with descriptions of the coal-fields and overlying formations in south Wales and the English border counties, were embodied in The Silurian System (1839). The establishment of the Silurian system was followed by that of the Devonian system, an investigation in which Murchison assisted, both in the south-west of England and in the Rhineland. Soon afterwards Murchison projected an important geological campaign in Russia with the view of extending to that part of the Continent the classification he had succeeded in elaborating for the older rocks of western Europe. He was accompanied by Edouard de Verneuil (1805 - 1873) and Count Alexander von Keyserling (1815 - 1891), in conjunction with whom he produced a work on Russia and the Ural Mountains. The publication of this monograph in 1845 completes the first and most active half of Murchison’s scientific career. In 1846 he was knighted, and in the same year he presided over the meeting of the British Association at Southampton. During the later years of his life a large part of his time was devoted to the affairs of the Royal Geographical Society, of which he was in 1830 one of the founders, and he was president 1843-1845, 1851-1853, 1856-1859 and 1862-1871.

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