552 HISTORY OF GEOLOGY. 



the fossil-shells of the chalk, the muschelkalk, the 

 Jura limestone, and the Alpine limestone, are all 

 different ? I think this would be pushing the induc- 

 tion much too far 12 ." In Prof. Jameson's Geognosy, 

 which may be taken as a representation of the 

 Wernerian doctrines, organic fossils are in no in- 

 stance referred to as characters of formations or 

 strata. After the curious and important evidence, 

 contained in organic fossils, which had been brought 

 into view by the labours of Italian, English, and 

 German writers, the promulgation of a system of 

 Descriptive Geology, in which all this evidence was 

 neglected, cannot be considered otherwise than as a 

 retrograde step in science. 



Werner maintained the aqueous deposition of 

 all strata above the primitive rocks ; even of those 

 trap rocks, to which, from their resemblance to lava 

 and other phenomena, Raspe, Arduino, and others, 

 had already assigned a volcanic origin. The fierce 

 and long controversy between the Vulcanists and 

 Neptunists, which this dogma excited, does not 

 belong to this part of our history; but the dis- 

 covery of veins of granite penetrating the superin- 

 cumbent slate, to which the controvery led, was an 

 important event in descriptive geology. Button, 

 the author of the theory of igneous causation which 

 was in this country opposed to that of Werner, 

 sought and found this phenomenon in the Grampian 

 hills, in 1785. This supposed verification of his 



12 Gissement des Roches, p. 41. 





