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MURAVIEV, MICHAEL NIKOLAIEVICH, COUNT...

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Originally appearing in Volume V19, Page 32 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MURAVIEV, See also:MICHAEL NIKOLAIEVICH, See also:COUNT (1845-1900) , See also:Russian statesman, was See also:born on the 19th of See also:April 1845. He was the son of See also:General Count See also:Nicholas Muraviev (See also:governor of See also:Grodno), and See also:grandson of the Count Michael Muraviev, who became notorious for his drastic See also:measures in stamping out the See also:Polish insurrection of 1863 in the Lithuanian provinces. He was educated at a secondary school at See also:Poltava, and was for a See also:short See also:time at See also:Heidelberg University. In 1864 he entered the chancellery of the See also:minister for See also:foreign affairs at St See also:Petersburg, and was soon afterwards attached to the Russian See also:legation at See also:Stuttgart, where he attracted the See also:notice of See also:Queen See also:Olga of See also:Wurttemberg. He was transferred to See also:Berlin, then to See also:Stockholm, and back again to Berlin. In 1877 he was second secretary at the See also:Hague. During the Russo-See also:Turkish See also:War of 1878 he was a delegate of the Red See also:Cross Society in See also:charge of an See also:ambulance See also:train provided I See also:taste and increased his knowledge so rapidly that in the first three years of his scientific career he had explored large parts of See also:England and See also:Scotland, had obtained materials for three important See also:memoirs, as well as for two more written in See also:conjunction with See also:Sedgwick, and had risen to be a prominent member of the See also:Geological Society and one of its two secretaries. Turning his See also:attention for a little to See also:Continental See also:geology, he explored with See also:Lyell the volcanic region of See also:Auvergne, parts of See also:southern See also:France, See also:northern See also:Italy, See also:Tirol and See also:Switzerland. A little later, with Sedgwick as his See also:companion, he attacked the difficult problem of the geological structure of the See also:Alps, and their See also:joint See also:paper giving the results of their study will always be regarded as one of the See also:classics in the literature of Alpine geology. It was in the See also:year 1831 that See also:Murchison found the See also:field in which the See also:chief See also:work of his See also:life was to be accomplished. Acting on a See also:suggestion made to him by See also:Buckland he betook himself to the See also:borders of See also:Wales, with the view of endeavouring to discover whether the See also:greywacke rocks underlying the Old Red See also:Sandstone could be grouped into a definite See also:order of See also:succession, as the Secondary rocks of England had been made to tell their See also:story by See also:William See also:Smith. For several years he continued to work vigorously in that region.

The result was the See also:

establishment of the See also:Silurian See also:system—under which were grouped for the first time a remarkable See also:series of formations, each replete with distinctive organic remains old.ar than and very different from those of the other rocks of England. These researches, together with descriptions of the See also:coal-See also:fields and overlying formations in See also:south Wales and the Engli,li border counties, were embodied in The Silurian System (See also:London, 1839), a massive See also:quarto in two parts, admirably illustrated with See also:map, sections, pictorial views and plates of fossils. The full import of his discoveries was not at first perceived; but as years passed on the types of exie:cnce brought to See also:light by him from the rocks of the border counties of England and Wales were ascertained to belong to a geological See also:period of which there are recognizable traces in almost all parts of the globe. Thus the See also:term " Silurian," derived from the name of the old See also:British tribe See also:Silures, soon passed into the vocabulary of geologists in every See also:country. The establishment of the Silurian system was followed by that of the Devonian system, an investigation in which, aided by the palaeontological assistance of W. See also:Lonsdale, Sedgwick and Murchison were See also:fellow-labourers, both in the south-See also:west of England and in the Rhineland. Soon afterwards Murchison projected an important geological See also:campaign in See also:Russia with the view of extending to' that See also:part of the See also:Continent the See also:classification he had succeeded in elaborating for the older rocks of western See also:Europe. He was accompanied by P. E. P. de See also:Verneuil (18o5–1873) and Count A. F. M.

L. A. von Keyserling (1815-1891), in conjunction with whom he produced a magnificent work on Russia and the Ural Mountains. The publication of this mono-graph in 1845 completes the first and most active See also:

half of Murchison's scientific career. In 1846 he was knighted, and in the same year he presided over the See also:meeting of the British Association at See also:Southampton. During the later years of his life a large part of his time was devoted to the affairs of the Royal See also:Geographical Society, of which he was in 183o one of the founders, and he was See also:president 1843-1845, 1851–1853,1856-1859 and 1862-1871. So See also:constant and active were his exertions on behalf of geographical exploration that to a large See also:section of the contemporary public he was known rather as a geographer than a geologist. He particularly identified himself with the fortunes of See also:David See also:Livingstone in See also:Africa, and did much to raise and keep alive the sympathy of his fellow-countrymen in the See also:fate of that See also:great explorer. The chief geological investigation of the last See also:decade of his life was devoted to the See also:Highlands of Scotland, where he believed he had succeeded in showing that the vast masses of crystalline See also:schists, previously supposed to be part of what used to be termed the See also:Primitive formations, were really not older than the Silurian period, for that underneath them See also:lay beds of See also:limestone and See also:quartzite containing See also:Lower Silurian (See also:Cambrian) fossils. Subsequent See also:research, however, has shown that this infraposition of the fossiliferous rocks is not their See also:original See also:place, but has been brought about by a gigantic system of dislocations, wherebysuccessive masses of the See also:oldest gneisses,have been torn up from below and thrust bodily over the younger formations. In 1855 Murchison was appointed director-general of the geological survey and director of the Royal School of Mines and the Museum of See also:Practical Geology in Jermyn See also:Street, London, in succession'to See also:Sir See also:Henry De la Beche, who had been the first to hold these offices. See also:Official routine now occupied much of his time, but he found opportunity for the Highland researches just alluded to, and also for preparing successive See also:editions of his work Siluria (1854, ed. 5, 1872), which was meant to See also:present the See also:main features of the original Silurian System together with a See also:digest of subsequent discoveries, particularly of those which showed the See also:extension of the Silurian classification into other countries.

His official position gave him further opportunity for the exercise of those social functions for which he had always been distinguished, and which a considerable See also:

fortune inherited from near relatives on his See also:mother's See also:side enabled him to display on a greater See also:scale. His See also:house in Belgrave Square was one of the great centres where See also:science, See also:art, literature, politics and social See also:eminence were brought together in friendly intercourse. In 1863 he was made a K.C.B., and three years later was raised to the dignity of a See also:baronet. The learned See also:societies of his own country bestowed their highest rewards upon him: the Royal Society gave him the See also:Copley See also:medal, the Geological Society its See also:Wollaston medal, and the Royal Society of See also:Edinburgh its See also:Brisbane medal. There was hardly a foreign scientific society of See also:note which had not his name enrolled among its honorary members. The See also:French See also:Academy of Sciences awarded him the prix See also:Cuvier, and elected him one of its eight foreign members in succession to See also:Faraday. One of the closing public acts of Murchison's life was the See also:founding of a See also:chair of geology and See also:mineralogy in the university of Edinburgh, for which he gave the sum of £6000, an See also:annual sum of £200 being likewise provided by a See also:vote in See also:parliament for the endowment of the professorship. While the negotiations with the See also:Government in regard to this subject were still in progress, Murchison was seized with a paralytic See also:affection on 21st of See also:November 187o. He rallied and was able to take See also:interest in current affairs until the See also:early autumn of the following year. After a brief attack of See also:bronchitis he died on the 22nd of See also:October 1871. Under his will there was established the Murchison Medal and geological fund to be awarded. annually by the See also:council of the Geological Society in London. See the Life of Sir See also:Roderick I.

Murchison, by Sir A. See also:

Geikie (2 vols., 1875). (A.

End of Article: MURAVIEV, MICHAEL NIKOLAIEVICH, COUNT (1845-1900)

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