Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 38.djvu/351

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
Moore
345
Moore

pursuit, geology, and to municipal affairs. He was elected a councillor for the Syncombe and Widcombe ward on 1 Sept. 1868, and alderman on 11 Nov. 1874. He died at Bath on 8 Dec. 1881. His wife Eliza, whom he married in 1853, was only daughter of Mr. Deare of Widcombe.

Moore's attention was first directed to geology by the accidental discovery, when a boy, of a fossil fish in a nodule; from that time he became an ardent collector, and before his second removal to Bath had laid the foundation of the collection which, arranged by his own hands, now forms the 'Geological Museum' of the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institute. He was elected a fellow of the Geological Society in 1854. In 1864 he announced at the meeting of the British Association in Bath his important discovery of the existence in England of the Rhætic Beds, which had previously been overlooked. From these beds Moore obtained at the same time twenty-nine teeth of one of the oldest known mammals (Microlestes Moorei, Owen).

Moore was the author of some thirty papers on geological subjects contributed to the 'Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society,' the 'Geological Magazine,' the 'Reports of the British Association,' the 'Transactions of the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Association,' &c.

[Charles Moore, by the Rev. H. H. Winwood, in Proc. Bath Nat. Hist. Soc. (1892) vii. 232-269; information kindly supplied by the same authority; Geol. Mag. 1882, p. 94.]

B. B. W.


MOORE, DAVID (1807–1879), botanist, born at Dundee in 1807, was brought up as a gardener. In 1828 he migrated to Ireland and became assistant to Dr. James Townsend Mackay [q. v.] in the Dublin University botanic garden. He thenceforward spelt his name Moore instead of Muir, thinking that his Scottish origin might thus be less noticed in Dublin, where Moore is a common native surname. All his publications appear under this name, and his original designation is only known from his own verbal statement. He worked hard at botany, and in 1838 was appointed director of the botanic garden at Glasnevin, co. Dublin, a post which he held till his death. He kept the garden in a high state of efficiency and gave all the help in his power to students. He published numerous papers in the 'Phytologist' (1845, 1852, 1854, 1857), in the 'Natural History Review' (vols. vi. and vii.), in the 'Dublin University Zoological and Botanical Proceedings' (1863), in 'Leeman's Journal of Botany' (1864, 1865), in the 'Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy,' and in other scientific periodical publications. He worked chiefly at mosses and hepaticæ, and published in 1873 a ' Synopsis of Mosses,' and in 1876 a 'Report on Hepaticæ' (Proceedings of Royal Irish Academy). In 1866 he published, with Mr. Alexander Goodman More, an English botanist settled in Ireland, 'Contributions towards a Cybele Hibernica, being Outlines of the Geographical Distribution of Plants in Ireland,' a laborious work of great value, which was begun in 1836, when he thoroughly investigated in the field the flora of the counties of Derry and Antrim for the ordnance survey. His last work was a description of a new species of Isoetes, which he called after his friend More (Journal of Botany, 1878, p. 353). He died at Glasnevin 9 June 1879.

[Memoir in Journal of Botany, 1879; Ordnance Survey of the County of Londonderry, vol. i. 1837; information supplied in 1867 by Mr. A. G. More; personal knowledge.]

N. M.


MOORE, DUGALD (1805–1841), Scottish poet, son of a private soldier who died young, was born in Stockwell Street, Glasgow, 12 Aug. 1805. After receiving some rudimentary education from his mother he was apprenticed to a tobacco manufacturer, and then entered the copper-printing branch in the business of Messrs. James Lumsden & Sons, booksellers, &c., Glasgow. He had early begun to write verses, and Lumsden helped him to secure subscribers for his first volume, 'The African, a Tale, and other Poems,' 1829. A second edition appeared in 1830. Two years later, on the strength of profits accruing from this and subsequent publications, Moore started business in Glasgow as a bookseller, and was largely patronised. In the midst of his success he died, after a short illness, 2 Jan. 1841, leaving a competence to his mother. A stately monument marks his burial-place in the Glasgow necropolis.

Moore's other publications were: 1 . 'Scenes from the Flood, the Tenth Plague, and other Poems,' 1830. 2. 'The Bridal Night and other Poems,' 1831. 3. 'The Bard of the North, a series of Poetical Tales, illustrative of Highland Scenery and Character,' 1833. 4. 'The Hour of Retribution and other Poems,' 1835. 5. 'The Devoted One and other Poems,' 1839. Moore has a genuine gift of lyrical expression. Professor Wilson considered his 'African' and 'Bard of the North' 'full of uncommon power.'

[Rogers's Modern Scottish Minstrel; Grant Wilson's Poets and Poetry of Scotland; Men of the Reign, p. 640.]

T. B.