Editing Roderick Murchison (section)

==Scotland==
[[File:Roderick Impey Murchison, 1st Baronet.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|left|Murchison photographed by [[Camille Silvy]] in 1860]]
The chief geological investigation of the last decade of his life was devoted to the [[Scottish Highlands|Highlands]] of Scotland, where he wrongly believed he had succeeded in showing that the vast masses of crystalline [[schist]]s, previously supposed to be part of what used to be termed the Primitive formations, were really not older than the Silurian period, since underneath them lay beds of [[limestone]] and [[quartzite]] containing Lower Silurian ([[Cambrian]]) [[fossil]]s. This started off what became known as the [[Highlands Controversy]]. [[James Nicol (geologist)|James Nicol]] recognised the fallacy in Murchison's theory and propounded his own ideas; in the 1880s these were superseded by the correct theory of [[Charles Lapworth]], which was corroborated by [[Ben Peach|Benjamin Peach]] and [[John Horne]]. Their subsequent research showed that the infraposition of the fossiliferous rocks is not their original place, but had been brought about by a gigantic system of dislocations, whereby successive masses of the oldest [[gneiss]]es, have been exhumed from below and thrust over the younger formations.

In 1855 Murchison 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, in succession to Sir [[Henry De la Beche]], who had been the first to hold these offices. Official routine now occupied much of his time, but he found opportunity for the Highland researches just alluded to, and also for preparing successive editions of his work ''Siluria'' (1854, ed. 5, 1872), which was meant to present the main features of the original Silurian System together with a digest of subsequent discoveries, particularly of those that showed the extension of the Silurian classification into other countries.{{Clear}}