CLOSE OF A LETTER SIGNED BY SCOTTISH GEOLOGIST SIR RODERICK MURCHISON WHO FIRST DESCRIBED AND INVESTIGATED THE SILURIAN SYSTEM. by Murchison, Sir Roderick Impey, 1st Baronet. (1792-1871). Scottish geologist who first described and investigated the Silurian system - 1868.

25 January, 1868., 1868.. Very good. - Close of a letter on a 2-3/8 inch high by 4 inch wide slip of cream paper mounted on a piece of card of the same size. Signed "Yours faithfully / Roderick Murchison / 25 Jan 1868". Very good.

The Scottish geologist Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, 1st Baronet (1792-1871) was the first to describe and investigate the Silurian system. After attending military college, Murchison was with Wellesley in Galicia in 1808 and saw action at Rolica and Vimiero. He served under Sir John Moore during the retreat to and battle of Corunna. After leaving the army, he married Charlotte Hugonin and traveled in Europe for two years, mainly in Italy, before returning to England in 1818 where he met Sir Humphrey Davy. Inspired by Davy to turn his energy to the study of science, Murchison became fascinated by the new science of geology and joined the Geological Society of London. He was in good company among such luminaries as Adam Sedgwick, Charles Lyell and Charles Darwin. Studying the geology of the South of England with his wife, he wrote his first scientific paper in 1825. He and Lyell then went on to explore the volcanic region of the Auvergne, parts of Southern France, Northern Italy, Tyrol and Switzerland and, with Sedgwick, the geological structure of the Alps. In 1831, his study of the greywacke rocks of the border region of Wales and England resulted in the establishment of the Silurian system. This was soon followed by that of the Devonian system. During the last decade of his life he chiefly investigated the Highlands of Scotland. Murchison was one of the founders and a president of the Royal Geographical Society and served on the Royal Commission on the British Museum. In 1855, he was appointed director-general of the British Geological Survey and director of the Royal School of Mines and the Museum of Practical Geology in Jermyn Street, London.