CH. xxvr. WERNER ON GEOLOGY. 217 



under their feet. By facts such as these he opened men's 

 eyes to see the wonders of the earth's crust, so that people 

 began to talk everywhere of the geological lectures of Werner, 



if 



FIG. 38. 



Diagrahi of rocks which have been rent apart at the point/, and tilted up. J, I, 2, 2, 

 etc., Beds which before the disturbance were continuous. 1 



and numbers flocked from distant countries, and even learnt 

 the German language, that they might come and hear him. 



In this way he spread the love of geology all over 

 Europe. He was so eager and earnest himself that his pupils 

 could not fail to catch some of his enthusiasm, and to try to 

 follow out his ideas. But, unfortunately, this very enthu- 

 siasm led him to insist upon a theory which kept back his 

 favourite science for many years. 



Neptunists and Vulcanists. Werner had only studied 

 a small part of Germany, and there were then very few de- 

 scriptions of other parts of the world which he could read ; 

 and so, from want of knowledge, he formed the mistaken 

 idea that in olden times, after the globe had cooled down 

 and become fit for living beings, there were no volcanoes 

 for long ages, but that basalt and other rocks, which we 

 now know were made by volcanic heat, were all laid down 

 by water. There were men living in Werner's time who 

 knew that this was a wrong theory, but he would not listen 

 to their arguments, and the two parties became so violent 

 that many years were lost in angry disputes between the 

 Neptunists^ or those who thought all rocks were laid down 

 by water, and the Vulcanists, who contended that many rocks, 

 such as basalt, were made by volcanic heat. 



1 Kindly drawn for me by Professor Ramsay. 



