one of the Western Isles of Scotland, Argyllshire, bounded W. by the Atlantic; N. by the same and Loch Sunart; N.E. by the Sound of Mull, a narrow strait which divides it from the mainland; and S.E. by the Atlantic; N. Lat. (of centre) 56° 30', and W. Long. 6° 4'. It is of an irregular shape, deeply indented on the west by Lochs Na Keal and Seriden, as well as by numerous smaller inlets round its entire coast-line, and measures 29 miles in length, by from 24 miles of maximum breadth to 3½ miles at the head of Loch na Keal. The coast is rocky, and the surface rugged and covered in some parts by extensive tracks of moorland. With the exception of a narrow belt of limestone on the S., the entire rock of Mull belongs to the igneous system of rocks, especially of trap, which on the western coast presents numerous horizontal terraces; while at its S.W. extremity a fine whitish granite occurs, used in the construction of the Skerryvore lighthouse. A Tertiary stratum, however, has been lately found between the newer trap deposit and that of an earlier date. Many caverns occur round the shores of the island, varied here and there by castles and columns of basalt. The interior, however, presents no aspect of interest, excepting Ben More, which rises to 3097 feet. The soil is almost wholly devoted to pasturage, only spots where grain is grown being in the more sheltered spots near the coast. Excellent sheep and small hardy cattle are reared here for the lowland markets. The farms have recently been much enlarged at the expense of the small holders, who have since 1841 left the island in considerable numbers. In its climate Mull resembles the neighbouring islands, being mild and humid, and subject to severe storms from the S.W. A considerable number of the inhabitants are employed in the herring fishery; while abundance of white fish is to be had round the coast. The island is divided into the three parishes of Torosay, Kilninian and Kilmore, and Killinichen and Kilvickeon. The amount of poor rates collected here in the year ending May 14, 1856, amounted to £2,269, against £2,049 expended; and there were in the same year 432 persons who received relief. Pop. of island (1841), 10,064; (1851), 8,669, of whom 4,243 were females. (For the history of Mull, see HEBRIDES.)

MÜLLER, GERHARD FRIEDRICH, a German traveller and author, was born at Herford in Westphalia in 1705. By Professor Mencke, under whom he studied at Leipzig, he was recommended to the government of Russia. Having been admitted into the newly-founded Academy of St Petersburg, he taught Latin, history, and geography, and was afterwards promoted, to the chair of history. His unwearied devotion to his duties, and his elegant scholarship, soon recommended him to higher appointments. Employed in 1740 to accompany De Lisle into Siberia, he spent ten toilsome years in studying the geography and antiquities of that barbarous and desert country. Soon after his return he was nominated historiographer to the Russian empire. The office of keeper of the archives was added in 1766. He was next appointed to draw up a collection of the diplomatic treaties of Russia, on the model of the Corps Diplomatique de Dumont. In the discharge of all these duties he acquired a knowledge of the history of the empire equally minute and extensive. His unflagging industry embodied that information in a number of works which have proved an inexhaustible source of information to succeeding annalists, and which entitle their author to the appellation of the "father of Russian history." Müller died in October 1783. His principal work is a Collection for the History of Russia, in 9 vols. 8vo, St Petersburgh, 1722-64.

MÜLLER, JOHANN, surnamed, from the Latinized name of his native place, Regiomontanus, the greatest mathematician of the fifteenth century, was born in 1436 at Königsberg, but whether at the town of that name in Franconia or in Prussia is disputed. At the age of twelve he was sent for his education to Leipzig, and at the end of four years he rivalled his teachers in arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy. His studies were next prosecuted under Peuerbach, the astronomical professor in Vienna. Here his talents and acquirements recommended him to the notice of his teacher and the celebrated Cardinal Bessarion. On the death of the former in 1461, he was appointed to the vacant chair, and was charged with the completion of a new translation of Ptolemy's Almagest which had been begun by the deceased professor. But before entering on these arduous tasks he repaired to Italy, to acquire a thorough knowledge of the Greek language. While studying philology at Rome, Ferrara, and Padua, he was also engaged in writing his De Triangulis, a treatise which proved an important acquisition to trigonometrical science. Shortly after 1464 he returned to Venice. Before, however, his stay in that city had been prolonged over many years, an invitation from the King of Hungary drew him to Budin. There his time was employed in constructing his Tabula Directionum Projectionumque, &c., a work which was afterwards printed in 1475, and which contained the first table of tangents ever published in Europe. A great stimulus was given to his studies by his removal to Nuremberg in 1471. By a wealthy inhabitant of that town named Bernard Walter he was supplied with astronomical instruments and with a printing-press. He was thus enabled to carry on that important series of observations which were continued after his death by Walter, and which were long afterwards, in 1544, published under the title of Observationes Triginta Annorum, 4to, Nuremberg. Another important work which he produced about this time was the Kalendarium Novum for the three years 1475, 1494, and 1513. It passed into Hungary, Italy, France, and England, was speedily sold off, and increased the fame of its author. In 1475 he was appointed archbishop of Ratisbon, and was invited to Rome by Pope Sixtus IV. He had only lived a year in that city when he was cut off, at the age of forty. His remains were interred with great honour in the Pantheon. Gassendi appended a Life of Müller to his Life of Tycho Brahe, 4to, Paris, 1654. (For an account of the services of Regiomontanus to the cause of science, see Dissertation IV., § i.)

MÜLLER, JOHANN, an eminent Swiss historian, was the son of a clergyman, and was born at Schaffhausen in Switzerland in 1732. He received his elementary education at the gymnasium of his native town, and was early intended for the church. But chancing to be sent to the university of Göttingen, he acquired, under the tuition of Schloesser, an irresistible bias towards historical studies, and published at the age of twenty a History of the Cimbrian War. His classical acquirements were also considerable, and procured for him the appointment to the Greek chair at Schaffhausen. This position, however, his desire for a society more learned than that of his native town soon induced him to abandon. He repaired to Geneva in 1774, and there he lived for six years, writing a course of lectures on universal history, meditating his great historical work on the Swiss confederation, and enjoying the society of his bosom friend Bonstetten. In 1780 he set out for Germany. His fame had gone before him. Frederick the Great tried in vain to attach him to the Academy of Berlin; and the landgrave of Hesse placed him in the chair of history at Cassel in 1781. Meanwhile, in the previous year the first volume of his Geschichte der Schweizerischer Eidgenossenschaft had appeared at Berne. It was characterized by dignity of style, depth of research, and liberality of sentiment, and it speedily came to be considered the masterpiece of its author. In 1783 the shifting propensity of Müller led him to abandon his professorship, and he returned to Switzerland to live in the house of Bonstetten. He was nominated in 1786 a counsellor to the elector of Mentz, and continued in this capacity to occupy himself with politics till the occupation of that city by the French in 1792. The next twelve years were spent at Vienna under the patronage of the emperors Leopold II. and Francis II. Then he repaired to Berlin, and accepted a place in the Academy of that city. His mind had now thrown off these political engagements which had so long detained it from its proper province, and began to be occupied with a projected Life of Frederick the Great. But before he could accomplish anything more than the plan, the subjugation of Prussia by the French in 1806 diverted him once more from his literary studies. Müller, during his stay at Berlin took notice of him, and in 1807 appointed him secretary of state to the new kingdom of Westphalia. This office was soon exchanged for that of director-general of public instruction. Müller applied himself to his new duties with all his wonted ardour, but success did not seem likely to follow. His health sank under anxiety and intense exertion, and he died at Cassel in May 1809. His complete History of the Swiss Confederation, bringing the narrative down to the end of the fifteenth century, had been published at Leipzig in 1786, and had been translated into French by Labaume, in 12 vols. 8vo, Lausanne, 1793-1803. A collection of his works was published in 27 vols. 8vo, Tübingen, 1810-19.

Müller, Johann Friedrich Wilhelm, an eminent German engraver, son of Johann Gotthard von Müller, was born at Stuttgart in 1782. Under the able tuition of his father he made notable progress in his art, and at the age of twenty had executed several excellent engravings of portraits. He was then sent to Paris to prosecute his studies in the Academy, and to perfect his taste among the masterworks of art in the Louvre. With a devotion that endangered his health, he applied himself to his profession. His cunning hand soon acquired the auxiliary art of painting. He produced engravings of the statue of "Venus d'Arles," and of several portraits. At length, in 1808, his print of Domenichino's "St John" established his fame. Immediately afterwards he undertook to engrave for a printseller the "Madonna di San Sisto" of Raphael in the Dresden gallery. All his energies were forthwith summoned to the task. After visiting Italy for the purpose of becoming more intimate with the works of the great master whom he was about to copy, he settled down at Stuttgart to steady and long-continued labour. The professorship of engraving at Dresden was conferred upon him in 1814. But change of residence did not produce any change in his application. Day and night he was absorbed in studying and transcribing the great masterpiece of painting before him. At length the engraving was completed, and despatched to Paris to be printed. Müller soon after fell into a hopeless state of debility, and died on the 3rd May 1816, several days before his plate reached its destination. The engraving on which his life had been sacrificed is pre-eminently his masterpiece. His other works, chiefly portraits, include likenesses of William, King of Württemberg, Jerome Bonaparte, Jakobi the poet, Professor Hebel, Dr Hufeland, and Schiller. He also executed a medallion of Napoleon.

Müller, Johann Gotthard von, a German engraver, was born at Bernhausen in Württemberg in the year 1747, and was educated at the college of Stuttgart. He was intended at first for the church, but his own strong bias towards the study of design ultimately decided his profession. He became a pupil of the court painter, Guibal, in 1764. Yet his talents soon appeared to be more fitted for engraving than for painting; and therefore, by the advice of his master, he resorted to Paris in 1770 to study under the engraver Wille, a countryman of his own. He continued there until he had become a proficient in his art, had gained several prizes, and had been elected a member of the French Academy. Then an invitation from Duke Karl summoned him to Stuttgart in 1776 to teach engraving. After being settled here for more than nine years, he was recalled to Paris to engrave a portrait of Louis XVI. This work, and an engraving of Trumbull's "Battle of Bunker's Hill," were his chief productions during his second sojourn in Paris. On his return to Stuttgart in 1802, he was appointed professor of his art in that city, and experienced the gratification of seeing his own son Johann Friedrich far outstrip the rest of his pupils. His fame was now established, and honours flowed in upon him. He was elected a member of the several academies of Berlin, Vienna, Munich, and Copenhagen; and he received from the government of Württemberg the Order of Civil Merit in 1808, and a knighthood in 1818. Yet his industry in the prosecution of his art did not slack. He was engaged in engraving a series of portraits of celebrated contemporaries, when the debility of an advanced age forced him to retire from his profession. His death took place at Stuttgart in March 1830. His engravings are chiefly portraits, and include a likeness of Schiller after A. Graf.

Müller, Karl Ottfried, an eminent writer on the mythology and history of Greece, was the son of a chaplain in the Prussian army, and was born at Brieg in Silesia in 1797. After attending the gymnasium of his native town, he entered the university of Breslau in 1813, and began to study at Berlin in 1815. In 1817 a little treatise, entitled Alginetorum Liber, betrayed the depth of his mythological knowledge, and laid the foundation of his fame and fortune. Two years afterwards, when scarcely twenty-one, he was promoted to a chair in the university of Göttingen. Here he continued for more than twenty years to lecture on archaeology and art, and to produce works with a rapidity which sometimes entailed carelessness and false generalizing. In 1820 his Orchomenos and the Minyans appeared, and communicated to philological studies in Germany an impulse which was felt in the course of time throughout the rest of Europe. By his method of analyzing the mythical cycles, and thus detecting the historical elements around which these had grown, he had fair to evolve a history of Greece of the same satisfactory nature as Niebuhr's History of Rome. He continued to follow out this plan in his Dorians, published at Breslau, in 2 vols. 8vo, 1824. The new and striking feature in this work was the attempt to show that the natives of Doris were the happiest, the wisest, the bravest, and the best of all the Greek races. Such a view, so directly opposed to the received opinions, contributed in no small degree to secure for the book a European reputation. It was hailed, even by those who dissented from its novel opinions, as a cheering improvement on the dull round of those compilations that had hitherto been palmed off upon the world as histories of Greece. An English translation by H. Tuffnell and G. C. Lewis, with emendations and additions by the author himself, appeared at Oxford in 1830. Prevented by certain scruples from advancing any further in the path of investigation which he had hitherto pursued so successfully, he had published a great work, entitled The Etruscans, in 2 vols. 8vo, 1828. His Manual of the History of Ancient Art appeared at Breslau two years afterwards. This work, characterized in an especial degree by his usual keen thinking, curious research, and forcible style, was considered one of his finest productions, and passed through a second edition in 1835. All this time his restless and rapid intellect was producing numerous articles for periodicals and encyclopedias, and was planning a History of Greek Literature. The first volume of this work appeared at Göttingen in 1839, and was translated into English soon afterwards. Müller now laid aside his pen. He had long desired to visit that land whose poetry and mythology had been his life-long study, and whose rich scenery and glorious sky had so often passed before the eye of his imagination. Accordingly he set out for Greece in 1839. On his arrival his bodily activity was as enthusiastically exercised as his intellectual in searching for the remnants of antiquity. During the heat of a July day, while conducting an excavation among the ruins of Delphi, he was seized with a fever. He was conducted to Athens, and died there on the 1st August 1840. An appropriate resting-place was found for this great Hellenistic scholar in the precincts of the old academy. His merits were celebrated by Lücke in a work entitled Erinnerungen an Karl Ottfried Müller, 8vo, Göttingen, 1841. Among the works of Müller which have not been mentioned above are—Minereae Poliadis Sacer et Adem in Arcis Athenorum illustravit M., 4to, Göttingen, 1820; On the Abode, the Descent, and the Ancient History of the People of Macedon, 8vo, Berlin, 1825; De Phidias Vita et Operibus, 4to, Göttingen, 1827; and editions of the Eumenides of Eschylus, 4to, Göttingen, 1833, the De Lingua Latina of Varro, 8vo, Leipzig, 1833, and the De Verborum Significatione of Festus, 8vo, Leipzig, 1839. His History of the Literature of Greece, composed of the volume which had appeared in his lifetime and the volume which he had left unfinished, was edited by his brother, in 8vo, Breslau, 1841. The Dorians and the Orkomenos and the Minyans were published together by F. W. Schneidevin, under the title of the History of Hellenic Races and Cities, in 3 vols., Breslau, 1844.

Müller, Othon Frederik, an eminent Danish naturalist, was the son of poor parents, and was born at Copenhagen in March 1730. He commenced to study for the church, and supported himself by the exercise of his musical talents. His learning, and the strength of his moral character, soon raised him to notice. He was appointed tutor to the young Count Schulin in 1753. It was the advice of his pupil's mother, a woman of great penetration, that induced him to turn his attention to natural history. With all the determination and concentric power of his character, he commenced his new studies. He examined patiently both animals and plants, executed exact sketches of them, and wrote a Danish treatise on Fungi, and two Latin works respectively entitled Fauna Insectorum Friedrichsdalians, and Flora Friedrichsdalians. At the same time his travels through different countries with his pupil were affording him an excellent opportunity for extending his scientific observations, and for becoming intimate with other naturalists. After his return to Copenhagen in 1767, a high rank in the general estimation was assigned to him. He was honoured with several titles, he was installed in several important offices, and he was appointed to continue the Flora of Denmark, a great work which had been begun by Oeder in 1761 by the command of Frederic V. An advantageous marriage soon afterwards enabled him to resign his official appointments, and to consecrate all his efforts to his favourite study. He first turned his observation upon those annulose animals which are called by Linnæus "Aphrodites and Nereides." His numerous and interesting discoveries on the structures and habits of these creatures were given to the world in a work entitled On Certain Worms found in Fresh and Salt Water, 4to, Copenhagen, 1771. Even more successful were his studies on the Infusoria. By the patient employment of powerful microscopes he discovered many new species, and was the first among naturalists to attempt the extremely delicate task of arranging these animalcules into distinctive genera. His observations in this field of inquiry were published in his Vernium Terrestrium et Fluviatilium seu Animalium Infusorium Helminthocorum et Testaceorum non Marinorum succincta Historia, 2 vols., 4to, Copenhagen and Leipzig, 1773-74. The attention of Müller was next occupied with the Hydrachnae or water-spiders. He was the first who discovered that these animalcules swarm by millions in all our fresh-water streams. His treatise on them was carefully written in lucid and elegant Latin, was copiously illustrated with faithfully-executed plates, and was published at Leipzig in 1781, under the title of Hydrachnae in Aquis Daniae Palustribus detectae et descriptae. He was in the midst of his favourite investigations when he was cut off by death on the 26th December 1784. Two posthumous works, the one on the Entomostrocha, small crustaceans belonging to Linnæus' genus of the Monoculi, and the other on the Infusoria, were published in 1785 and 1786 respectively. Müller had commenced in 1779 the Zoologia Danica, a gigantic work which was continued first by Ablildgaard, and afterwards by Rathke. The two parts which he wrote were reprinted in 1788.

"The three works on the Infusoria, Monoculi, and Hydrachnae," says Cuvier in the Biographie Universelle, "have procured for Müller a place in the front ranks of those who have enriched science with original observations."

Müller, Wilhelm, a German poet, was the son of a mechanic, and was born at Dessau in 1795. After studying philology and ancient German literature at the university of Berlin, and serving in the Prussian army in the campaign of 1813, he devoted himself to the cultivation of his literary tastes. He produced his Blumenlese aus den Minnesinger in 1816, and a translation of Marlowe's Faustus in 1818. About this time a sojourn which he made in Vienna afforded him an opportunity of acquiring modern Greek. Soon after his return he was appointed classical teacher in the newly-established school of Dessau, and keeper of the ducal library. His undivided attention was now given to the composition and study of poetry, and his works appeared in quick succession. He published his Gedichte aus den hinterlassenen Papieren eines reisenden Waldhornisten und Homerische Vorzüge in 1824, his Lieder der Griechen in 1825, and his Bibliothek Deutscher Dichter des 17 Jahrhunderts in 1822-27. He was also a contributor to several periodicals and encyclopedias. Müller died in 1827. A collection of his works, accompanied with a Life, was published by the poet Schwab, in 5 vols., Leipzig, 1830.

Müller, William John, an eminent English landscape and costume painter, was the son of a German, and was born at Bristol in 1812. He was instructed in landscape-painting by J. B. Pyne, and was greatly assisted in the study of his art by a knowledge of natural history, which he acquired from his father, the curator of the Bristol Museum. His most valuable lessons, however, were received in the great school of nature. Setting out in 1833, he travelled with unwearied enthusiasm through Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, studying devotedly every feature of the striking landscapes through which he passed, and enriching his portfolio with numerous valuable sketches. On his return to his native place in 1834, the progress he had made in his art was not great enough to satisfy himself. He therefore spent 1838 and 1839 in wandering amid the colossal remains of Egyptian architecture and the classic scenes of Greece. His pictures of "Athens" and "The Memnon," completed after his return, and exhibited in the Academy in 1840, proved that he had now attained the skill of a master-artist. They brought him into notice, and were the means of procuring for him employment in London. Two years afterwards, his "Picturesque Sketches of the Age of Francis I." carried his fame beyond his own country. Yet his ardent striving after perfection did not flag. He accompanied the Lycian expedition of Sir C. Fellows in 1843. The results of this tour, consisting of five pictures, were sent to the Royal Academy's exhibition of 1845; but happening to be hung in a disadvantageous position, they failed in a great measure to strike the spectators. This misfortune deeply wounded his sensitive and sanguine temperament, and prostrated his previously impaired constitution. He died of heart disease at Bristol in September 1845.