purpose at Ashley Down, near Bristol. The money required for the carrying on of this work was voluntarily contributed, mainly as a result of the wide circulation of Müller’s narrative The Lord’s Dealings with George Müller. When he was over seventy he started on a preaching mission, which lasted nearly seventeen years and included Europe, America, India, Australia and China. He died at Bristol on the 10th of March 1898.
See A. T. Pierson, George Müller of Bristol (1899).
MÜLLER, JOHANNES PETER (1801–1858), German physiologist
and comparative anatomist, was born at Coblenz on
the 14th of July 1801. In 1819 he entered Bonn University,
where he became privatdocent in 1824, extraordinary professor
of physiology in 1826, and ordinary professor in 1830. In
1883 he removed to the university of Berlin, where he filled
the chair of anatomy and physiology with great distinction
until his death on the 28th of April 1858. Müller made numerous
researches in various departments of physiology, and in particular
he extended knowledge as to the mechanism of voice, speech
and hearing, and as to the chemical and physical properties
of lymph, chyle and blood. The appearance of his Handbuch der
Physiologie des Menschen between 1833 and 1840 (translated
into English by Dr William Baly, and published in London
in 1842) marked the beginning of a new period in the study
of physiology. In it, for the first time, the results of human
and comparative anatomy, as well as of chemistry and other
departments of physical science, were brought to bear on the
investigation of physiological problems. The most important
portion of the work was that dealing with nervous action and
the mechanism of the senses. Here he stated the principle,
not before recognized, that the kind of sensation following
stimulation of a sensory nerve does not depend on the mode of
stimulation but upon the nature of the sense-organ. Thus light,
pressure, or mechanical stimulation acting on the retina and
optic nerve invariably produces luminous impressions. This he
termed the law of the specific energy of sense substances. In the
later part of his life he chiefly devoted himself to comparative
anatomy. Fishes and marine invertebrata were his favourite
subjects. Müller numbered such distinguished physiologists as
H. von Helmholtz, E. Du Bois Reymond and K. F. W. Ludwig
among his pupils.
In addition to his Handbuch der Physiologie, his publications include Zur vergleichenden Physiologie des Gesichtssinns (1826); Über die phantastischen Gesichtserscheinungen (1826); Bildungsgeschichte der Genitalien (1830), in which he traced the development of the Müllerian duct; De glandularum secernentium structura (1830); Vergleichende Anatomie der Myxinoiden (1834–1843); Systematische Beschreibung der Plagiostomen (1841) with F. G. J. Henle; System der Asteriden (1842) with F. H. Troschel; and Horae ichthyologicae (1845–1849) with the same. After the death of J. F. Meckel (1781–1833) he edited the Archiv für Anatomie und Physiologie.
MÜLLER, JOHANNES VON (1752–1809), Swiss historian,
was born on the 3rd of January 1752 at Neunkirch, near
Schaffhausen, where his father was pastor. In 1760 the family
removed to Schaffhausen. In his youth his maternal grandfather,
Schoop (d. 1757), roused in him an interest in the
history of his country. At the age of eight he is said to have
written a history of Schaffhausen, and at eleven he knew the
names and dates of all the kings of the four great monarchies.
His ardour for historical studies was further stimulated by
Schlözer, when Müller went (1769) to the university of Göttingen,
nominally to study theology. In July 1771 he undertook a
sketch of Swiss history (no detailed history of Switzerland having
so far been written) for a publisher of Halle, but his theological
studies and the preparation of a Latin dissertation on the Bellum
cimbricum (publ. in 1772) prevented much progress. In April
1772 he passed his theological examination, and soon after
became professor of Greek at the Collegium Humanitatis.
Early in 1774, on the advice of his friend Charles Victor de
Bonstetten, he gave up this post and became tutor in the Tronchin
family at Geneva. But in 1775 he resigned this position also,
and passed his time with various friends in Geneva and Vaud,
engaged in carrying his historical scheme into effect. Having
accumulated much material, he began the actual composition
of his work in the spring of 1776, and the printing in the summer
of 1777. But difficulties arose with the censor, and matters
came to a standstill. In 1778–1779 Müller delivered a brilliant
set of lectures on general history, which were not published
till 1839 under the title of Vierundzwanzig Bücher allgemeiner
Geschichte. In 1780 the first volume (extending to 1388) of
his Geschichten der Schweizer appeared, nominally at Boston
(to avoid the censor), though really at Bern; and it was well
received. In 1781 he published at Berlin, in French, his Essais
historiques. He was on his way back to Switzerland when the
landgrave of Hesse Cassel named him professor of history. He
stayed at Cassel till 1783, publishing in 1782 his Reisen der Päpste,
a book wherein certain leanings towards Romanism are visible.
On his return to Geneva (1783) he accepted the post of reader
to the brother of his old patron, Tronchin, and occupied himself
with remodelling his published work of 1780. In order to improve
his financial position, he accepted early in 1786 the post
of librarian to the elector-archbishop of Mainz, who bestowed
many important offices upon him and obtained his elevation
to nobility from the emperor in 1791. In June 1786 he issued
vol. i. (reaching to 1412) and two years later vol. ii. (to 1436) of
the definitive form of his Swiss history, which was received with
great praise. In 1787 he issued, an important political tract,
Zur Darstellung des Fürstenbundes. But in October 1792 Mainz
was taken by the French, so that Müller had to seek for another
post. In February 1793 he entered the service of the emperor
as an imperial aulic councillor. At Vienna he spent many
years, becoming chief librarian of the imperial library in 1800,
and in 1795 he issued vol. iii. (to 1443) of his Swiss history. In
1804 he became historiographer, war councillor, and member
of the Academy at Berlin. In 1805 vol. iv. (to 1475) appeared.
But in 1806 he became strongly inclined towards Napoleon, by
whom he was received in audience (Nov. 1806), and from whom
he accepted (end of 1807) the office of secretary of state for the
kingdom of Westphalia, exchanging this position early in 1808
for the posts of privy councillor and general director of public
instruction. At the end of 1808 he published vol. v. (to 1489)
of his great work. He died at Cassel on the 29th of May 1809.
His Swiss History now possesses a literary value only, but it
was an excellent work in every way for the 18th century.
Müller’s works were published under the care of his brother at Tubingen, in 27 vols. (1810–1819), and re-issued, in 40 vols., at Stuttgart (1831–1835). The Swiss History was re-issued at Leipzig and Zürich, in 15 vols. (1824–1853), with continuations by Glutz-Blozheim (to 1517), Hottinger (to 1531), Vulliemin (to 1712), and Monnard (to 1815). A French translation of the German edition (as above) appeared, in 18 vols., at Paris and Geneva (1837–1851).
See the biographies by Heeren (1809), Döring (1835) and Monnard (1839); also in G. v. Wyss’s Geschichte der Historiographie in der Schweiz (Zürich, 1895), pp. 305–311, and in the Festschrift der Stadt Schaffhausen (Schaffhausen, 1891), pt. v. pp. 83–99. F. Schwarz’s pamphlet, J. von Müller und seine Schweizergeschichte (Bâle, 1884), traces the genesis of the History. Müller’s letters to Füsslin (1771–1807) were issued at Zürich (1812), and those to Ch. Bonnet, &c., at Stuttgart (1835). Those addressed to him by various friends were published by Maurer-Constant, in 6 vols. (Schaffhausen, 1839–1840); and those written to him (1789–1809) by his brother, J. G. Müller, appeared, under the editorship of E. Haug, at Frauenfeld, in 2 vols. (1891—1892). (W. A. B. C.)
MÜLLER, JULIUS (1801–1878), German Protestant theologian,
was born at Brieg on the 10th of April 1801. He studied
at Breslau, Göttingen and Berlin, first law, then theology;
and in 1839 became professor ordinarius of theology at Halle
(1839). In 1848 he helped to found the Deutsch-evang. Kirchentag,
and two years later founded and edited (1850–1861), with
Neander and K. I. Nitzsch, the Deutsche Zeitschrift für christliche
Wissenschaft und christliches Leben. He died at Halle on the
27th of September 1878. A disciple of Neander and friend
of Richard Rothe, Müller bitterly opposed the philosophy of
Hegel and the criticism of F. C. Baur. His book, Über den
Gegensatz des Protestantismus und des Catholicismus (1833),
called forth a reply from Baur, and he was one of those who
attacked D. Strauss’s Life of Jesus. In 1846 he had been deputed
to attend the General Evangelical Synod at Berlin. Here he
supported the Consensus-Union, and afterwards defended
