43 



SHARPE, DANIEL, F.R.S. 



SHAW, GEORGE. 



464 



strata, like the British, conbist of two great divisions, namely, upper 

 and lower. 



While engaged in these investigations, Mr. Sharpe a attention was 

 drawn to the subject of the slaty cleavage and foliation, which 

 affects the more ancient rocks of Devonshire, Wales, the North of 

 England, the Highlands of Scotland, and Mont Blanc. In 1846, 

 1848, 1852, and 1854, he produced four memoirs on these subjects, the 

 two first and the last of which are published in the Quarterly Jour- 

 nal ' of the Geological Society, and the third in the ' Philosophical 

 Transactions ' of the Royal Society. These questions had previously 

 been made the subject of special investigation by Professor Sedgwick, 

 Mr. Darwin, and Professor Phillips, [PHILLIPS, JOHN]. It has been 

 said, that from imperfect data Mr. Sharpe generalised too largely ; 

 and though this may be the case, an attentive perusal of the memoir 

 of 1846 proves that in some important points be materially advanced 

 the subject at that date in the direction to which the labours of Mr. 

 H. C. Sorby, F.G.S., have since tended. He attributes the cleavage 

 of rocks, and consequent distortion of fossils, to pressure perpendicu- 

 lar to the planes of cleavage, and asserts that rocks are expanded 

 along the cleavage planes in the direction of the dip of the cleavage. 

 In the communication of 1848, the doctrine that pressure is the cause 

 of cleavage is still more distinctly insisted on, and remarkable in- 

 stances are given, in which pebbles were observed which appeared 

 to have been compressed and elongated in the planes of cleavage. 

 He also recognises the fact, since so beautifully explained by 

 Mr. Sorby, in the 'New Edinburgh Philosophical Journal,' that 

 the fine particles composing the slaty rocks are arranged length- 

 wise in the direction of the cleavage planes, and he attributes bends 

 in the cleavage in its passage from one bed to another, to beds 

 of different lithological character offering different degrees of re- 

 sistence to pressure. The idea that cleavage may be due to crystal- 

 line action he altogether repudiates. It must be admitted how- 

 ever that no adequate investigation has yet been instituted, of the 

 relations of crystallisation to the greater structures of rocks. We are 

 as yet uninformed whether there are or are not jointed structures on 

 the great scale, resulting from the coincidence of crystalline planes 

 over comparatively large areas, as some of the phenomena exhibited 

 by the sub-crystalline limestones and by certain serpentines, tend to 

 indicate. The two last of the series of Mr. Sharpe's papers on these 

 subjects, published in 1852 and 1854, describe respectively the cleaved 

 and foliated rocks of Scotland and Mont Blanc, and are chiefly devoted 

 to the development of his theory of the great ' cylinders ' or arches, 

 in which he asserted that the laminae of cleaved and foliated rocks 

 lie. In these memoirs he made no advance beyond his previous ideas, 

 for he attributed the formation of cleavage and foliation to the same 

 cause ; and though he indicated the fact, he gave no explanation of 

 the reason of the occurrence of planes of cleavage and foliation in 

 arched lines, a subject that has since in part been acutely treated of 

 by Mr. Sorby, and of which the full explanation seems not far distant. 

 In the paper on Mont Blanc however Mr. Sharpe explains and corrects 

 for the first time, we believe, the remarkable error of Sauasure, in 

 representing the cleavage of slates, wherever they occur in the Alps, 

 almost invariably as stratification ; having mistaken the planes of 

 cleavage for those of bedding, and regarded the latter as a series of 

 parallel joints. But while showing that this systematic error runs 

 throughout the whole of Sauesure's volumes, he shows also that 

 Saussure's observations, even when his conclusions are erroneous, are 

 always accurate and instructive. He was led into the error from 

 observing the analogy between the foliation of the schists and 

 the cleavage of the slates, an analogy on which Mr. C. Darwin after- 

 wards founded the correct conclusion that the foliation has no 

 reference to stratification; other English geologists however as Mr. 

 Sharpe points out " after correctly distinguishing cleavage planes from 

 stratification, still continued to class the foliation of crystalline rocks 

 with the latter instead of the former ; thus proposing to unite two 

 phenomena of totally different origin, while they separated those which 

 are really analogous, and probably due to one and the same cause." 



Besides these memoirs Mr. Sharpe contributed to the Geological 

 Society various papers on special subjects, ' On the Quartz Hocks of 

 Macculloch's Map of Scotland,' ' On the Southern Borders of the High- 

 lands of Scotland,' and various palaeontological communications ; 'On 

 the genus Trematis,' ' On Tylostoma, a new genus of Gasteropods 

 from the Cretaceous beds of Portugal,' ' On the genus Nerinea,' and a 

 note on the fossils of Boulonnais, appended to a paper by Mr. Godwin 

 Austen on that district. He also furnished several parts of a mono- 

 graph to the splendid publications of the Palaeontographical Society, 

 ' On the Fossil Remains of the Mollusca found in the Chalk Formation of 

 England,' and on this important work he was still engaged when he 

 met with the accident that caused his untimely death. 



" Such is a brief outline of some of the scientific labours of Daniel 

 Sharpe a man whose mind alike powerful, active, and well culti- 

 vated, urged him successfully to grasp and make his own a wider 

 range of subjects than many geologists dare to attempt. Neither 

 should it be forgotten that all the while he was unceasingly engaged 

 in mercantile pursuits, and it was only during brief intervals of leisure 

 when more imperative labours were over, that he accomplished what 

 many would consider sufficient work for their lives. And it is not in 

 geology alone that he ia known and appreciated, philologists and 



ethnologists equally esteemed him. With marvellous versatility of 

 talent he grappled with the ancient Lycian inscriptions, brought 

 home by Fellows, Forbes, and Spratt, and revealed the secrets of an 

 unknown tongue written in an unknown character. In debate he was 

 clear, keen, severely critical, and at times somewhat sarcastic, occa- 

 sionally alarming to an opponent unaccustomed to his style; but 

 those who knew him best were well aware that an unvarying fund of 

 kindly good humour lay beneath, and that if he hit his adversary hard, 

 no man than himself more rejoiced in a harder blow in return." Hia 

 private life is stated to have been full of unostentatious benevolence. 



Mr. Sharpe became a Fellow of the Royal Society on June 6th, 1850.; 

 he was also a Fellow of the Linntcan, Zoological, and Geological 

 societies. In 1853 he became treasurer of the Geological Society ; 

 and on the retirement of Mr. W. J. Hamilton, in official course in 

 1856, was elected its president, being, as was remarked at the time, 

 the first person actually engaged in commercial pursuits in the city 

 of London, who had been selected for tha chair. This honourable 

 position in the world of science however he occupied three months 

 only ; for on the 20th of May in the same year, while riding near 

 Norwood, he was thrown from his horse, and sustained a fracture of 

 the skull. In a few days he so far recovered as to be able to recognise 

 the relations who were admitted to his chamber. He had actually 

 recommenced the study of his fossils, and his numerous friends 

 rejoiced in the prospect of his speedy restoration ; when a sudden 

 relapse succeeded, and he died on the 31st May. 



(Proceedings of the Royal Society, 1856 ,- Anniversary Address of the 

 President of the Geological Society, 1857 ; Anniversary Proceedings of 

 theLinncean Society, 1857.) 



* SHARPEY, WILLIAM, a distinguished British Physiologist, was 

 born at Arbroath in Scotland, and educated for tho medical profession. 

 He took his degree of M. D. in the University of Edinburgh, and 

 afterwards studied in Germany. On his return from the continent 

 he became one of the teachers in the extra-academical medical school 

 of Edinburgh, where he obtained considerable reputation for the 

 depth and extent of his anatomical and physiological knowledge. At 

 this time he contributed two articles to the ' Cyclopaedia of Anatomy 

 and Physiology.' The one on ' Cilia,' the other on the family 

 ' Echinodermata.' These articles displayed considerable knowledge of 

 comparative anatomy, and added to his reputation as a physiologist. 

 On the retirement of Dr. Jones Quain from the chair of Anatomy and 

 Physiology at University College, Dr. Sharpey was invited to fill the 

 chair. This appointment he accepted, and delivered his first course of 

 lectures in the session 1837-8. Dr. Sharpcy has never practised his 

 profession, nor has he published exclusively on physiological subjects, 

 so that his fame principally rests on his courses of lectures delivered 

 at University College. He has, however, written the histological 

 introduction to the last editions of Dr. Quain's Anatomy. [QUAIN.] 

 Dr. Sharpey is examiner in physiology at the University of London, 

 and secretary to the Royal Society of London. 



SHAW, CUTHBERT, was born in 1738 at Ravensworth in York- 

 shire. He was the son of a shoemaker, but received a good education, 

 and became usher in a school at Darlington in Yorkshire. He after- 

 wards came to London, and was for some time an actor, but abandoned 

 the profession for that of an author. He contributed to the periodical 

 literature of the day, and also wrote 'Liberty, a Poem,' 4to, 1756 ; 

 'Odes on the Four Seasons,' London, 4to, 1760; published under tho 

 name of W. Seymour ; the ' Four Farthing Candles,' 4to, 1762 ; ' The 

 Race,' 4to, 1766, (the two last are satires directed against contemporary 

 writers) ; 'A Monody to the Memory of a Young Lady who died in 

 Childbed, to which is added An Evening Address to a Nightingale, by 

 an Afflicted Husband,' London, 4to, 1768, 1772 ; ' Corruption, a Satire,' 

 4to, 1769. Shaw died at London in 1771, at the early age of thirty- 

 three, of a disease occasioned by his dissipated habits. The 'Monody' 

 and ' Address to the Nightingale ' are sometimes met with in collec- 

 tions of English poetry, and show that the author had some skill in 

 versification, but little else. 



SHAW, GEORGE, the younger son of the Rev. Timothy Shaw, was 

 born at his father's vicarage at Bierton, in Buckinghamshire, on the 

 10th of December, 1751. During his childhood he discovered much 

 fondness for the study of natural history ; in the cultivation of which 

 science he afterwards attained great distinction. So far however were 

 his energies ever from being engrossed by that subject, that when only 

 thirteen years old, he was fully qualified by his general attainments 

 to enter at the university. He was admitted at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, 

 in 1765, where he took his bachelor's degree in 1769, and that of master 

 of arts in 1772. In 1774 he took deacon's orders, and during a short time 

 discharged his clerical duties at two chapelries connected with Bierton. 



An increasing love for the cultivation of natural science induced him 

 to repair to Edinburgh, in order to pursue his favourite studies. He 

 continued at Edinburgh for three years, where he studied medicine 

 under Black and Cullen, and afterwards returning to Oxford, obtained 

 the appointment of deputy botanical lecturer. In the discharge of 

 the duties of that office he obtained a high reputation, and on the 

 death of Dr. Sibthorp, was chosen professor of botany in his stead. It 

 was discovered however that by an old statute of the university clergy- 

 men were declared ineligible for the office, and Dr. Shaw consequently 

 lost the appointment. 



In the autumn of 1787 he took the degree of Doctor of Medicine, 



