M. B. Studer on the Origin of Granite, 307 



a concluding chapter on primitive rocks. What, however, shall 

 we say if, sooner or later, this science, which at present is 

 regarded as so important, and which disputes the palm even 

 with sublime astronomy, — if geology or geognosy should cease 

 to be enumerated among the natural sciences ? However grie- 

 vous the prospect must be for the geological courses of my 

 learned colleagues and myself, still I fear that the mournful 

 consummation cannot, in the long run, be prevented. 



If we more narrowly examine the right and title which geo- 

 logy possesses to the field which has hitherto been assigned to 

 it, we find in the enumeration, first of all, a constantly increas- 

 ing succession of formations, enumerated like so many differ- 

 ent portions of the earth's surface. According to the unani- 

 mous opinion, the species of rocks are of very^inferior import- 

 ance among the characteristics of these formations ; and those 

 rocks of the Wernerian school, which are still taken into con- 

 sideration, must continue to decrease in proportion as the for- 

 mations lose their local character, by more extensive research. 

 On the other hand, the doctrine of the earth's formation ap- 

 pears more clearly distinct, in proportion as it is divested of all 

 extrinsic considerations, among which I reckon whatever re- 

 lates partly to the rock itself; that is to say, in so far as is not 

 closely connected with the organic characters, and partly to all 

 the changes and transformations to which it has been subject- 

 ed ; and in proportion to our endeavours to comprehend and 

 exhibit the formations as they may have been originally consti- 

 tuted. But, thus regarded, the doctrine of the earth's forma- 

 tion comes necessarily to be included in the province of orga- 

 nic natural history, and becomes organic geography, whose pro- 

 vince is the consideration, not only of the present world as now 

 constituted, but also of the previous and the earliest develop- 

 ments of the organism. Whatever occurs in these inquiries 

 regarding kinds of rocks, reduces itself to the sandy and clayey 

 formations which we see originating in our moors, lakes, and 

 seas, and which neither require great mineralogical knowledge 

 nor expensive collections. A work like the Lethaea, but giving 

 somewhat more prominence to the organic formations of a more 

 general kind, such as coral-reefs, infusoria, peat, and so forth, 



