76 Natural History in London, 



exist at present, — are subjects which give rise to some of the most im- 

 portant general questions connected with the history of the globe, — 

 and that require for their due consideration such an acquaintance with the 

 characters of fossil vegetable remains, as none but the most skilful and 

 experienced* botanists can be expected to possess." Notice is taken of 

 several valuable papers on the geology of foreign countries, of the donation 

 of various specimens to the museum, and of some valuable publications to 

 the library. 



" In the speculative department of geology, nothing has been of late 

 more remarkable, with reference to its history in this country, than the 

 universal adoption of a modified volcanic theory, and the complete subsi- 

 dence or almost oblivion of the Wernerian and Neptunean hypothesis, -— 

 so that what, but a few years since, it was by some considered as hardihood 

 to propose in the form of conjecture, seems now to be established nearly 

 with the evidence of fact. It is no longer denied, that volcanic power has 

 been active during all the revolutions which the surface of the globe has 

 undergone, and has probably been itself the cause of many of them ; — 

 and that our continents have not merely been shaken by some mighty 

 subterraneous force, but that strata, originally horizontal, have thus been 

 raised, shattered, contorted, and traversed, perhaps repeatedly, by veins 

 of fluid matter j — operations which have produced phenomena, so nearly 

 resembling those of recent volcanic agency, that to have so long disputed 

 the identity of their cause, is one of the most remarkable proofs in the 

 annals of philosophic history, of the power of hypothesis in distorting 

 or concealing truth. Whatever, therefore, be the fate of the Hut- 

 tonian theory in general, it must be admitted, that many of its leading 

 propositions have been confirmed in a manner which the inventor could 

 not have foreseen. The most striking modern support of these correcter 

 views, is due to Von Buch and Humboldt, and to the facts and inferences 

 derived by Dr. Macculloch from the country which gave birth to Hutton, 

 and to his illustrator Mr. Playfair, and in which were made the experi- 

 ments of Sir James Hall. More recently, a seiies of facts observed by 

 Professor Henslow, in the Isle of Anglesea, has proved, in the most satis- 

 factory manner, the connection of veins of trap with very high tempe- 

 rature; since the change produced upon the strata, through which the 

 substances now occupying the veins were injected, has approached so 

 nearly to fluidity, as to admit of their crystallisation, in forms different 

 from any which the components of the rocks, if they had not been thus 

 acted on, would have afforded. Sir Humphrey Davy's experiments on the 

 fluids contained within cavities in crystals, are another striking and unex- 

 pected confirmation of Hutton's views : and our own Transactions y besides 

 various incidental pieces of evidence derived from this country, supply the 

 testimony of an unprejudiced witness to an earthquake on the coast of 

 Chili, which brings almost before the eyes of the reader, the movement 

 and permanent elevation of the land.'* 



Tne good effects produced at both our universities by the geological 

 instructions delivered there, have " given to the subject an impulse perhaps 

 without example in the history of those institutions, and gone far to render 

 natural science a permanent department of general education." Among 

 the more recent causes which have accelerated the progress of geology in 

 England, is stated to be the publication of the Outlines of England and 

 Wales by Mr. Conybeare and Mr. Phillips, which is said to have " had 

 an effect, to which nothing, since the institution of this Society, and the 

 diffusion of the geological maps of England, can be compared. Regard- 

 ing the Outlines of England and Wales, as the first general sketch of a 

 country so complex as our own, it may be said, without fear of contradic- 

 tion, that no equal portion of the earth's surface has ever been more ably 

 illustrated; — nor any geological w^ork produced, which bears more strongly 



