230 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



world. It is noteworthy, however, that the most illustrious 

 of them, after loyally striving to uphold their master's teach- 

 ing about universal formations and the aqueous origin of the 

 crystalline rocks, were compelled by the evidence of nature 

 herself to abandon it. L. von Buch, Humboldt, and Daubuis- 

 son are memorable examples of this conversion. 



The first Wernerian propagandist who appeared in this 

 country was Eobert Jameson. Having devoted himself more 

 especially to mineralogy, he made a series of journeys through 

 the Shetland, Orkney, and Western Islands, and published 

 the results in two works. He adopted the system of Werner, 

 and in his " Mineralogy of the Scottish Isles," published in 

 the year 1800, gave the first account of that system which 

 had yet appeared in England. In this essay he declares 

 emphatically his dissent from the views of those who would 

 maintain the volcanic origin of basalt. " I do not hesitate a 

 moment in saying," he remarks, " that in my opinion there is 

 not in all Scotland a vestige of a volcano."* 



Attracted by the fame of the Freiberg school, Jameson 

 went thither in the year 1800 and studied under Werner. 

 In his absence, the " Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory" 

 appeared in 1802. But that the leaven of Wernerianism 

 introduced by him was already at work was shown a few 

 months after the issue of Play fair's volume by the appearance 

 of an anonymous answer to it, in which the respective merits 

 of the Plutonist and Neptunist systems were contrasted greatly 

 to the detriment of the former.-I* 



In 1804, Jameson, fresh from Freiberg, was appointed to 

 the Chair of Natural History in the Edinburgh University, 

 vacant by the death of Dr Walker. Never did a more un- 

 compromising disciple leave the Saxon school. Not only was 



* Mineralogy of the Scottish Isles, vol. 1., p. 5. This assertion was made in 

 reference to the observations of Fanjas St Fond, who, visiting Scotland in 1784, 

 had been struck with the abundant traces of volcanic rocks, and had stated 

 his views in his interesting "Voyage en Angleterre et en Ecosse, et aux lies 

 Hebrides," 2 vols, small 4to, Paris, 1797. 



+ This work, first published anonymously, but forming the fourth volume of 

 Murray's "System of Chemistry, " was afterwards translated into French by 

 C. A. Basset, and published at Paris, together with a French edition of the 

 "Illustrations" in 1815. 



