18 THE COMING [CH. 



'Vulcanism* or ' Plutonism,' in contradistinction to 

 the ' Neptunism ' of Werner. Hutton, while rejecting 

 the Wernerian notion of " the aqueous precipitation 

 of basalt," maintained the equally fanciful idea that 

 the consolidation of all strata clays, sandstones, 

 conglomerates, limestones and even rock-salt must 

 be ascribed to the action of heat, and that even the 

 formation of chalk-flints and the silicification of fossil 

 wood were due to the injection of molten silica ! 



What was still more unfortunate in Button's case 

 was that, in his enthusiasm, he used expressions which 

 led to his being charged with heresy and even with 

 being an enemy of religion. His writings were 

 further so obscure in style as often to lead to miscon- 

 ception as to their true meaning, while his great work 

 so far as the fragment which was published goes 

 contained few records of original observations on 

 which his theory was based. 



Dr Fitton has pointed out very striking coinci- 

 dences between the writings of Generelli and those of 

 Hutton, and has suggested that the latter may have 

 derived his views from the eloquent Italian friar 10 . 

 But for this suggestion, I think that there is no real 

 foundation. Darwin and Wallace, as we shall see 

 later, were quite unconscious of their having been 

 forestalled in the theory of Natural Selection by 

 Dr Wells and Patrick Matthew ; and Hutton, like 

 his successor Lyell, in all probability arrived, quite 



