Murray was Born at Culnady, Co Londonderry.
Educated in Edinburgh, at the age of nineteen he was appointed apothecary at Belfast’s Dispensary and Fever Hospital (later the General Hospital and then Royal Victoria Hospital) but left after a year to set up on his own as surgeon and apothecary in High Street, Belfast.
In 1829 he used a fluid magnesia preparation of his own design to treat the lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the Marquis of Anglesey. This was so successful that he was appointed resident physician to Anglesey and two subsequent Lords Lieutenants, and knighted.
This was marketed as Milk of Magnesia and was a white suspension of hydrated magnesium carbonate in water, used as an antacid or laxative.
He also became Inspector of Anatomy in the Dublin College of Surgeons and published pioneering works on matters varying from chemical fertilizers to the effects of climatic conditions on health, by way of electricity as a cause of epidemics. He died in Dublin in 1871.
Murray’s name is perpetuated in Murray Street, off Fisherwick Place, Belfast.
Learn more about James Murray and others on my Doctors and Disease Tour. Check out my other tours here.