INTERACTION OF THE SCIENCES 133 



surface of the land and water-courses ; later he pur- 

 sued these studies in Flanders, Daring years of highly 



successful farming, during which llutton introduced 

 new methods in Berwickshire, he was interested in 

 meteorology, and in geology as related to soils. In 

 1768, financially independent, Dr. Hutton retired 

 to reside in Edinburgh. 



He was very genial and sociable and was in close 

 association with Adam Smith, the economist, and 

 with Black, known in the history of chemistry in con- 

 nection with carbonic acid, latent heat, and experi- 

 ments in magnesia, quicklime, and other alkaline sub- 

 stances (1777). Playfair, professor of mathematics, 

 and later of natural philosophy, was Button's disciple 

 and intimate friend. In the distinguished company 

 of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, established in 

 1782, the founder of dynamic geology was stimulated 

 by these and other distinguished men like William 

 Robertson, Lord Kames, and Watt. The first volume 

 of the Transactions contains his Theory of Rains, 

 and the first statement of his famous Theory of the 

 Earth. He was very broad-minded and enthusiastic 

 and would rejoice in Watt's improvements of the 

 steam engine or Cook's discoveries in the South 

 Pacific. Without emphasizing his indebtedness to 

 Horace -Benedict de Saussure, physicist, geologist, 

 meteorologist, botanist, who gave to Europeans an 

 appreciation of the sublime in nature, nor dwelling 

 further on the range of Hutton's studies in language, 

 general physics, etc., it is already made evident that 

 his mind was such as to afford comprehensiveness 

 of view. 



He expressed the wish to induce men who had 



