In 1848, the year of revolution in Europe, Murchison enjoyed foreign politics and Alpine geology, and made the acquaintance of most of the young Swiss geologists, whose names are now so celebrated. An essay on the geology of the Alps was written, and our hero received the Copley Medal of the Royal Society. But the many years of close and hard work had told even on Murchison’s iron frame; and his wife was an invalid. So they spent the summer of 1849 at Buxton, much to the disgust of the geologist, however. He attended the meeting of the British Association at Birmingham, however, and relapsed into a state of perpetual “liver,” suppressed gout and “stomach attacks.” After awhile the invalid went abroad and enjoyed rambling over the extinct volcanoes of Auvergne, and had his trip over the same ground twenty-two years before, brought before his mind. But he did not accept the theories of Lyell about the formation of the valleys and the denudation of the district. He stuck, unfortunately, to the violent in nature, and dismissed the truth of the former uniform and slow action of the same forces as now prevail, from his mind. In the next year Murchison was happy again with his old friend Sedgwick, and they geologized in the highlands, and enjoyed the hospitality of the young Duke and Duchess of Argyll. Then the southern uplands of Scotland were examined; and Murchison, stimulated by the great progress of the writings of Lyell, came out in strong opposition to the Huttonian philosophy. Murchison contended in favour of great oscillations and ruptures of the earth’s crust leading to the sudden breaking up and submergence of tracts of land; but he did not explain how all this took place or could take place. He believed in many superficial deposits, such as drift, being the product of violent convulsions and floods. His frame of mind was not difficult to account for. He had found, in investigating the Alps, that movements amongst the strata had occurred on a vast scale, and that whole series of them, hundreds of feet thick, had not only been bent, but positively turned upside down. In 1851 Murchison visited Ireland, and geologized there, and gradually began to complete his great work, entitled “Siluria; or a Description of the Geology of the Silurian Rocks of the World and of their Fossils.” This was published in 1854. The next great act of Murchison’s was the assisting and promoting the success of the geological survey of the United Kingdom, and the establishment of the museum in Jermyn Street. This led to the establishment of the Royal School of Mines. Murchison became the director of the survey, and went into the subject with heart and soul, and found himself surrounded by the most distinguished teachers in England.