Andrew Murray (naturalist)
Andrew D. Murray | |
---|---|
President of the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh | |
Scientific career | |
Author abbrev. (botany) | A.Murray bis |
Author abbrev. (zoology) | Murray |
Andrew Dickson Murray
He served as president of the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh during 1858–59.
Life
He was born at 17 Forth Street[1] in Edinburgh, on 19 February 1812, and was son of William Murray WS of Conland (now part of Glenrothes) and Duncrivie (near Kinross), and his wife Mary Thompson (d.1871).[2]
Murray was apprenticed in law under his father, and became a
His earliest scientific papers were entomological, and did not appear until he was forty. On the death of the Rev. John Fleming, professor of natural science in New College, Edinburgh, in 1857, Murray took up his work for one session, and in the same year he became a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.[3]
On the foundation of the Oregon Exploration Society, he became its secretary, and this apparently first aroused his interest in Western North America and in the Coniferae. In 1858–9, Murray acted as president of the
In 1869, he went to
His chief contributions to entomology deal with Coleoptera, the unfinished monograph of the Nitidulariae, in the Linnean Transactions (vol. xxiv. 1863–4), undertaken at the suggestion of Dr. J. E. Gray, being perhaps the most important. His chief work on the Coniferae was to have been published by the Ray Society, but was never completed.[3]
Murray has been described as a forgotten pioneer in cave biology.[4]
Opposition to natural selection
Murray was a prominent opponent of the
In 1860, Murray reviewed Darwin's On the Origin of Species in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He had sent proof-sheets of his review to Darwin before it was published. Darwin in a letter to Murray wrote "I thank you from my heart for your most kind letter. I never knew or heard of a hostile Reviewer doing so kind & generous an action."[8]
Some later biographers have described Murray as holding
Selected publications
- 1853 Catalogue of the Coleoptera of Scotland Edinburgh, London, W. Blackwood and sons.
- 1860 On Mr Darwin's theory of the origin of species. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 4: 274–291.
- 1860 On the Disguises of Nature; Being An Inquiry into the Laws which regulate External Form and Colour in Plants and Animals. Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal 11: 66–90.
- 1861 On the pediculi infesting the different races of man Trans. Roy. Soc. Edinb. 22: 567
- 1866 The Geographical Distribution of Mammals
- 1867 List of Coleoptera received from Old Calabar. Annals and Magazine of Natural History(3rd series) 19: 167–179.
- 1868 The Journal of Travel and Natural History. London: Williams & Norgate.
- 1870 Mimicry and Hybridisation. Nature 3: 54–56.
- 1870 On the geographical relations of the chief coleopterous faunae. J. Linn. Soc. 11: 1–89.
- 1871 Mimicry versus Hybridisation. Nature 3: 186–187.
- 1877 Economic entomology Chapman and Hall, London.
References
- ^ Edinburgh Post Office Directory 1812
- ISBN 0-902-198-84-X. Archived from the original(PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
- ^ a b c d Boulger 1894.
- ^ Cave and Karst Science42 (2): 60–62.
- ^ ISBN 0-226-29977-5
- ^ ISBN 978-0-300-15091-9
- ISBN 0-521-44241-9
- ^ "To Andrew Murray 28 April [1860]". Darwin Correspondence Project.
- ^ Murray, Andrew. (1866). The Geographical Distribution of Mammals. London: Day & Son, Limited. p. 4
- ^ International Plant Names Index. A.Murray bis.
- Attribution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Boulger, George Simonds (1894). "Murray, Andrew (1812-1878)". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 39. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
Sources
- Anonym 1878 [Murray, A.] Entomologist's Monthly Magazine (3) 14 1877-78 215-216
- Anonym 1879 [Murray, A.] Petites Nouv. Ent. 2 (Nr. 190) 207.
- Kraatz, G. 1878 [Murray, A.] Dtsch. ent. Ztschr. 22 229.
- Marseul, S. A. de 1883 Les Entomologistes et leurs Écrits (Entomologists and their writings) L'Abeille (4) 21(=3) 61-120 106–107.,
- Musgrave, A. 1932 Bibliography of Australian Entomology 1775–1930. Sydney 233.
- Westwood, J. O.1877 [Murray, A.] Trans. Ent. Soc. London, London [1877] XXXIX.
External links
- Internet Archive Digitised Catalogue of the Coleoptera of Scotland
- http://www.wku.edu/~smithch/chronob/MURR1812.htm