Notice of the death of Lady Murchison

Abstract

Before the commencement of the ordinary business of the meeting, The President called the attention of the Society to the death of Lady Murchison, which took place on 9th February last. This, he said, is an event which can hardly be allowed to pass unnoticed by students of geology in Scotland. Along with her husband, Lady Murchison made some early journeys in this country, France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. She exercised great influence upon Sir Roderick Murchison in leading him into the paths of science, and encouraging him by her assistance. It was she who induced him to forsake the ordinary amusements of a retired cavalry officer, and devote himself to that branch of science in which he has so distinguished himself. For many years, and while her strength enabled her, she was his frequent companion by sea-shore, mountain, and glen, aiding him in his observations, and making for him those remarkable geological sketches of landscape for which the ‶Silurian system″ and ‶Siluria″ are so well known to geologists. It ought to be remembered, that many of the fossils from which the true age of the secondary rocks of Sutherland and the Western Isles was made out were collected by her. Throughout her long life she maintained a warm interest in all that related to the progress of science, and in all that might promote the happiness of those by whom science is cultivated. To Sir Roderick Murchison himself this Society, like all other geologists in this country, owes a