THE 



EDINBURGH NEW 

 PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL, 



Sketch of the Geological Investigations and Writings of Baron 

 Leopold von Bach. By the late Professor Frederick Hoff- 

 mann of Berlin. 



Leopold von Bucii and Alexander von Humboldt, the two 

 most distinguished men who issued from the celebrated school 

 of Freiberg at its most flourishing period, have acquired for 

 themselves the reputation not only of extending the Wer- 

 nerian System in all directions, but also of surpassing their 

 master in this respect, that, proceeding from the principles 

 which he had introduced into the science of geognosy, they 

 first saw the inapplicability of his geogenetic views, and, by 

 abandoning these, communicated to our science an entirely 

 new, or, in other words, its present very promising aspect. 



Of all Werner's scholars. Von Buch is unquestionably the 

 one who has contributed the most to the advancement of the 

 special branch of our science, and to whom we owe the most 

 numerous and the most important explanations of the subjects 

 upon which our present knowledge and conclusions respecting 

 the formation of the crust of our globe are founded. Among 

 the distinguished men who preceded him, H. B. Saussure is 

 the only one with whom he can be compared ; for he not 

 only equals him in his vast mineralogical and physical know- 

 ledge, in acuteness, in power of observation, and in indefati- 

 gable zeal, but he also resembles him in this respect, that, in 

 possession of external advantages, he has devoted himself en- 

 tirely to science, without regard to the common affairs of 

 life ; and it is such men, who, from pure enthusiasm, follow 

 their own internal impulse, and dedicate themselves entirely 



VOL. XXXI. NO. LXU. — OCTOBER 1841. 



