1 2 2 The Founders of Geology LECT. 



audacity of Werner in discarding these conclusions with- 

 out comment, and announcing an entirely opposite opinion, 

 rapidly formed on the slender evidence of one or two isolated 

 patches of basalt. It was not as if he claimed to apply his 

 explanation merely to those few cases which he had him- 

 self examined ; he swept all the basalts of the earth's 

 surface into his net. His view had not even the merit of 

 originality, for, as we have seen, Guettard, among others, 

 had held the opinion that basalt is of aqueous origin. But, 

 announced as a new discovery, with all the authority of 

 the great Freiberg professor, it commanded attention and 

 met with wide acceptance. Even from the time of its 

 promulgation, however, it awakened some opposition, and 

 it became the subject of bitter controversy for fully a 

 generation. Only a month after Werner proclaimed his 

 discovery he was answered by J. K. W. Voigt of Weimar, 

 who maintained the volcanic nature of the very examples 

 cited by the professor. 1 Werner replied, and was again 

 answered, but soon retired from the combat and devoted 

 his energies to strengthen his theory. As an instance of the 

 wide interest taken in the question, I may mention that 

 even at Berne, where there are no basalts, nor any other 

 traces of volcanic action, the Society of Naturalists of that 

 town offered a prize of twenty-five thalers for the best essay 

 in answer to the question, " What is Basalt : Is it volcanic 

 or is it not ? " The successful competitor, after elaborately 

 reviewing all the arguments brought forward by the 

 vulcanists, pronounced in favour of Werner's views. 2 



1 Bergmann. Journ. 1788, 1789, 1791, pp. 185, 347, etc. See also 

 Hoffmann's Geschichte der Geognosie (1838), p. 117. 



2 J. F. W. Widenmann, Hopfner's Magazin fur die Erdkundc, iv. 

 (1789), p. 135. 



