iv Decay of Wernerianism 197 



pupils, who went farther afield, who came into contact 

 with the distinct current of opposition to some of the 

 doctrines of the Freiberg school that was now setting in 

 on the Continent, who set themselves seriously to study 

 the Huttonian theory, and who found at every turn facts 

 that could not be fitted into the system of Freiberg, 

 gradually, though often very reluctantly, went over to the 

 opposite camp. Men like Ami Boue would send him 

 notes of their travels full of what a devout Wernerian 

 could not but regard as the rankest heresy. 1 But Jameson 

 with great impartiality printed these in the Society's 

 publications. And so by degrees the Memoirs of the 

 Wernerian Society ceased to bear any trace of Wernerian- 

 ism, and contained papers of which any Huttonian might 

 have been proud to be the author. 2 



So long as Werner lived, however, his school remained 

 predominant. Loyalty to their master kept his pupils 

 from openly rejecting his doctrines, even when they could 

 no longer accept them. His death in 1817 was felt to 

 bring a relief from the despotism which he had so long 

 exercised. 3 And from that time his system began rapidly 

 to decline in favour even in Germany. 



But even while Werner was in the full meridian of his 

 influence, various observers in Europe, in addition to Von 

 Buch and D'Aubuisson, without definitely becoming con- 



1 See Mem. Wer. Soc. vol. iv. (1822), p. 91. 



2 See for example the excellent papers by Hay Cunningham in vols. 

 vii. and viii. 



3 One of Jameson's ablest pupils, Ami Boue", trained in the Wernerian 

 faith, confessed, but with evident reluctance, and "as a truth which 

 others may be unwilling to make public," that Werner's death had greatly 

 contributed to the progress of geology in Germany. Journ. Phys. xciv. 

 (1822), p. 298. 



