iv Hutton on the Earth's Internal Heat 159 



of this Society lie communicated a concise account of his 

 Theory of the Earth, which appeared in the first volume of 

 the Transactions. This essay was afterwards expanded, 

 with much ampler details of observations and fuller 

 application of principles to the elucidation of the pheno- 

 mena, and the enlarged work appeared in two octavo 

 volumes in the year 1795 with the title of Theory of 

 the Earth, with Proofs and Illustrations. After Button's 

 death his friend Playfair published in 1802 his classical 

 Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory. We are thus in 

 possession of ample information of the theoretical views 

 adopted by Hutton, and of the facts on which he based 

 them. Before considering these, however, it may be 

 convenient to follow the recorded incidents of his quiet 

 and uneventful life, that we may the better understand 

 the manner in which he worked, and the nature of the 

 material by which he tested and supported his conclusions. 

 It was one of the fundamental doctrines of Hutton's 

 system that the internal heat of the globe has in past time 

 shown its vigour by the intrusion of large masses of 

 molten material into the crust. He found many examples 

 of these operations on a small scale in the neighbourhood 

 of Edinburgh and in the lowlands of Scotland. But he 

 conceived that the same effects had been produced in a far 

 more colossal manner by the protrusion of large bodies of 

 granite. This rock, which Werner had so dogmatically 



broke the ice, but in a delicate manner, as if to sound the opinion of his 

 messmate, 'Doctor, do you not think that they taste a little a very 



little queer ? ' ' D queer, d queer, indeed ; tak them awa', tak 



them awa' ! ' vociferated Dr. Hutton, starting up from table and 

 giving full vent to his feelings of abhorrence." A Series of Original 

 Portraits, by John Kay (commonly known as Kay's Edinburgh 

 Portraits], vol. i. p. 57. 



