M. M. Pattison Muir

Matthew Moncrieff Pattison Muir, FRSE, FCS (1848–1931) was a British chemist and author. He taught chemistry at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge and was head of the Caius Laboratory there. Although he published some research on bismuth compounds, he became known through his textbooks and history of science works.

Life He was born on 1 April 1848 in Glasgow, the son of William Muir and his wealthy wife, Margaret Moncrieff Pattison.

Muir was educated at Glasgow High School then studied Sciences at the University of Glasgow and University of Tübingen. For a short period after his studies, he was a Demonstrator at Anderson's College, Glasgow in Sir Edward Thorpe's laboratory, and also at Owens College, Manchester under Sir Henry Roscoe.

In 1873 he married Florence Haslam. In the same year he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were William Thomson. Lord Kelvin, James Thomson Bottomley, Sir Thomas Edward Thorpe and James Young. He resigned from the Society in 1889.

In 1877 he was appointed Praelector at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and in 1881 elected a Fellow of the college. He then became head of the Caius Laboratory here, a position he held until 1908, when he retired. In a 1993 book, historian of science Mary Jo Nye described Muir's chapter on affinity from his History of Chemical Theories and Laws as "still valuable treatment of the topic".

He died on 2 September 1931.

Publications

Works on chemistry A History of Chemical Theories and Laws, 1907 The Story of Wanderings of Atoms, especially those of Carbon, 1899 (publisher George Newnes Ltd) The Story of the Chemical Elements, 1897 The Chemistry of Fire, 1893 The Elements of Thermal Chemistry, 1885 A Treatise on the Principles of Chemistry, 1884, 2nd edition in 1889 Heroes of Science: Chemists, 1883

Works on alchemy The Story of Alchemy and the Beginnings of Chemistry, 1902 The Alchemical Essence and the Chemical Element, 1894

Other Watts' Dictionary of Chemistry: Revised and Entirely Rewritten (with H. Forster Morley), 1906