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BUCH, LEOPOLD VON. 



BUCHANAN, GEORGE. 



In 1797 Von Buch and Humboldt met in Styria, and spent some 

 time in geological excursions among the Alps, and passed the winter 

 together in Salzburg in observation and verification of natural pheno- 

 mena. In the following year Von Buch travelled alone, on foot, to 

 Italy, and furnished to scientific periodicals descriptions of the geology 

 of the countries he traversed, in which, besides the clearness of percep- 

 tion, there began to appear doubts as to whether the Wernerian 

 doctrine were tenable in its integrity. He grew mistrustful of his 

 former views. Writing from Rome to his friend Von Moll, he says : 

 " Make the finest and surest observations, and then go a few miles 

 farther on, and you will find occasion, upon grounds just as certain, to 

 maintain the very opposite of your former conclusion." 



In February 1799, Von Buch arrived at Naples, and betaking himself 

 to the study of Vesuvius, described the phenomena in that picturesque 

 and eloquent style which among other qualities characterised his 

 writings. In 1802 he visited the volcanic region of Auvergne. He 

 revisited Italy, and was present at the eruption of Vesuvius in 1805. 

 The results of these five years of observation were published in two 

 volumes, ' Geognostischen Beobachtungen auf Reisen durch Deutsch- 

 land und Italien,' 1802-9, in which, though reluctant to throw doubt 

 on Werner's conclusions, he abandons his view as to the action of 

 water, and declares basalt to be a rock of volcanic origin. 



For the next two years, from 180S to 1808, Von Buch travelled into 

 Scandinavia, and made some of his most important geological disco- 

 veries. He was the first to establish the fact of the slow and continuous 

 upheaval of the Swedish coast above the sea-level ; and he made 

 valuable observations in climatology and the geography of plauts, as 

 my be seen in his narrative ' Rrise durch Norwegen und Lappland,' 

 two vols. 1810 : of which an English translation was published with 

 notn by Professor Jameson in 1813. 



Tb more interest attaches to these journeys as they were performed 

 on foot Few who met Von Buch walking with unsteady gait, his head 

 bent forward, wearing even in summer a great coat with numerous 

 pockets to contain maps, specimens, his hammer and notebook, would 

 have believed they beheld one whom Humboldt describes as " the 

 greatest geologis* of our age ; the first to recognise the intimate con- 

 nection of volcanic phenomena and their mutual interdependence in 

 regard to their effects and relations in space." Possessed of sufficient 

 means, Von Buch could gratify his inclination for travel, and for the 

 encouragement of others, especially youthful students, less fortunate 

 than himself. 



In 1815 he sailed from England (accompanied by the Norwegian 

 botanist Christian Smith, who afterwards met with an untimely death 

 in Tuckey's expedition to the Congo), for a geological exploration of the 

 Canary Islands. In 1824 appeared the first geological map of Germany 

 in forty sheets, of which Von Buch, though anonymous, was the com- 

 piler and author. He had visted the basaltic islets of the Hebrides 

 and the Giant's Causeway on his return from the Canaries, and in 1825 

 he published ' PhysikalUche Beschreibung der Canarischen Inselu,' 

 with an atlas, of which the subsequent works, ' Ueber den Zusammen- 

 hang der basaltischen Inseln und Ueber Erhebunga-Krater,' and 

 ' Ueber die Natur der vulkanischen Erscheinungen auf den Canai iselieu 

 Inselu und ihre Verbindung mit audern Vulkanen der Erdober- 

 fliiche ' may be regarded as supplementary. These volcanic researches 

 alono would suffice to establish his reputation. The science of volcanoes, 

 the fruitful source of many later advances is therein developed and 

 placed on a sure basis. He shows how the phenomena of upheavals 

 are traceable to craters of elevation, and demonstrates the action of 

 fire ; and states his conviction that " the aucieut seas have not rolled 

 away over the mountain chains, but that the mountain chains have 

 been upheaved into the atmosphere, bursting through the series of 

 strati in long lines fissures and that these upheavals have taken 

 place at different geological epochs." 



Von Buch's life is strikingly manifest by his labours. His papers in 

 the 'Abhandlungen' of the Berlin Academy of Sciences, would alone 

 form several. largo volumes. They exhibit the development of his 

 tcientific view* from first to last. In 1806 he had suggested certain 

 ideas in his paper ' Ueber das Fortschrciten der Bildungen in der 

 Natur,' as to the progress of forms in nature, and when past the age 

 of fifty, he showed how the ideas had ripened in his mind by his papers 

 on the Ammonita, Cyttida, Terebratula;, Orthii, Productut, and others, 

 accomplishing for the geological branch of palaeontology what Cuvier 

 had accomplished for the physiological branch. In the words of the 

 late Edward Forbes, it was Von Buch " who first developed the idea 

 of the chronomorphosis of genera, the great leading principle of natural 

 history applied to geology." He pointed the way moreover to a new 

 field of fossil botany in the important conclusions which ho shows to 

 be deducible from the nervation of the leaves of fossil plants. And 

 in his writings on climate, on hail, the temperature of springs, and the 

 geography of plants guiding principles apparent iu all he proves 

 himself an able physicist as well as geologist. 



In his many journeys Von Buch visited Sweden and Norway, and 

 Auvergne a second time, and any excuse sufficed to draw him to 

 Switzerland. He would leave his house in Berliu without telling any 

 one of his intentions, remain away for weeks or months, and return as 

 unexpectedly. Ho liked to find out and make the acquaintance of 

 geologists of eminence, and for this purpose he attended the meetings 

 of naturalists on the continent and of the British Association in England. 



He was present at the Werner festival, celebrated with jo much pomp 

 at Freiberg in 1850. He never married, was somewhat eccentric in 

 his habits, but always serious as regards science. When asked for his 

 titles he was accustomed to reply, ' Royal Prussian Student of Mines." 

 He was created a baron, a knight of the Order of Merit (Berlin), and 

 of the Red Eagle, and held the appointment of royal chamberlain in 

 the court of Prussia. He was a member of the Academy of Sciences 

 of Berlin, and of the chief scientific societies on the continent and 

 elsewhere. In 1828 he was elected a foreign member of the Royal 

 Society of London, and in 1840 was chosen one of the eight foreign 

 associates of the French Academy of Sciences. He died at Berlin, after 

 a few days' illness, on the 4th of March 1853. 



" Von Buch was a sower," says E. Forbes, in his anniversary address 

 to the Geological Society. " He went about the world casting the seeds 

 of new researches and fresh ideas, wherever his prophetic spirit per- 

 ceived a soil adapted for their germination. The world of science has 

 gathered a rich harvest through his foresight. He is the only geologist 

 who has attained an equal fame iu the physical, the descriptive, and 

 the natural history departments of his science. In all these he has 

 been an originator and a discoverer. In every subdivision of all three 

 he has been a suggester a high merit iu itself." 



The ' Abhandlungeu' of the Berlin Academy of Sciences, Leonhard's 

 ' Taschenbuch fur Mineralogie,' and other German scientific periodicals, 

 contain most of Von Buch's papers. Among his other works are ' On 

 the Petrifactions collected by Humboldt in America' 'Die Baren 

 Insel . . geognostisch beschrieben,' 4to, 1847; 'Ueber Ceratiteu 

 besonders von denen die in Kreidebildungen sich finden," 8vo; besides 

 those above-mentioned. A French translation of his ' Canary Islands' 

 was published at Paris in 1836. 



(Hoffmann, Geschichte der Geognosie; Monatsberickt, Acad. Berlin; 

 Edin. New Phil. Journ. ; Journ. Oeol. Soc.) 



BUCHANAN, REV. CLAUDIUS, D.D., vice-provost of the College 

 of Fort William in Bengal, and well known for his exertions in pro- 

 moting an ecclesiastical establishment iu India, and for his active 

 support of missionary and philanthropic labours, was born on the 1 2th 

 of March 1766 at Cutnbuslang, a village near Glasgow. When a young 

 and almost friendless man of the age of twenty-one he made his way 

 to London, where he succeeded iu attracting the attention of the Rev. 

 John Newton, the well-known rector of St. Mary's Wooluoth. By Mr. 

 Newton's influence he was sent to Cambridge, where he was educated 

 at the expense of Henry Thornton, Esq., whom he afterwards repaid. 



Buchanan went out to India in 1796 as one of the East India 

 Company's chaplains, and on the institution of the college of Fort 

 William in Bengal in 1800 he was made professor of the Greek, Latin, 

 and English classics, and vice-provost During his residence in India 

 lie published his ' Christian Researches in Asia,' a book which attracted 

 considerable attention at the time, and which his gone through a 

 number of editions. In 1804 and 1805 he gave various sums of money 

 to the universities of England and Scotland, to be awarded as prizes 

 for essays on the diffusion of Christianity iu India. He returned to 

 England in 1808, and during the remainder of his life continued, 

 through the medium of the pulpit and the press, to enforce his views. 

 His reply to the statements of Charles Buller, Esq., M.P., on the worship 

 of the idol Juggernaut, which was addressed to the East India Company, 

 was laid on the table of the House of Commous in 1813, and printed. 

 He died at Broxbourne, Herts, February 9, 1815, being at the period 

 of his death engaged in superintending an edition of the Scriptures for 

 the use of the Syrian Christians who inhabit the coast of Malabar. 



(Rev. Hugh Pearson, Life and Writings,) 



BUCHANAN, GEORGE, was born of poor parents, in the parish 

 of Killearn, and county of Stirling, about the beginning of February 

 1506. He was the third of eight children, who were early left to the 

 care of their widowed mother. By James Heriot, his maternal uncle, 

 Buchanan was sent at the age of fourteen to the University of Paris, 

 where however he had not been two years, when his uncle dying, he 

 was left in a state of such utter destitution that in order to return to 

 his native country he was fain to join the corps then being raised as 

 auxiliaries to the Duke of Albany in Scotland. After a twelvemonth 

 spent at home iu the recovery of his impaired health, he again joined 

 the troop of French auxiliaries, and proceeded with them to the siege 

 of We.-k ; but the hardships which he suffered ou this occasion 

 reduced his youthful frame to its former state of debility, and he was 

 confined to his bed the remainder of the winter. 



In the ensuing spring, he and Patrick, his eldest brother, were 

 entered students in the ' pedagogium,' afterwards St. Mary's College, 

 of the University of St. Andrews. George passed as Bachelor of Arts 

 on the 3rd of October 1525 ; and in the following summer he became 

 a student in the Scots' college at Paris, where, as he had obtained the 

 degree of B.A. at St. Andrew's, he was immediately incorporated of 

 the same degree. This was on the 10th of October 1527. The next 

 year he proceeded Master of Arts, and the year following he was 

 chosen procurator of the German nation a division of the students 

 which comprehended those from Scotland. After a struggle of two 

 years with " the iniquity of fortune," as he expresses it, he obtained 

 the situation of a regent, or professor in the college of St. Barbe, where 

 he taught grammar nearly three years. He then became tutor to 

 Gilbert, earl of Cassilis, a young Scotch nobleman, who resided at 

 that time in the neighbourhood of the college, his previous tutor, 



