TWO ANTAGONIST DOCTRINES OF GEOLOGY. 659 



to this doctrine ; for he asserted that Tuscany must 

 have changed its face at intervals, so as to acquire 

 six different configurations, by the successive break- 

 ing down of the older strata into inclined positions, 

 and the horizontal deposit of new ones upon them. 

 Strabo, indeed, at an earlier period had recourse to 

 earthquakes, to explain the occurrence of shells in 

 mountains ; and Hooke published the same opinion 

 later. But the Italian geologists prosecuted their 

 researches under the advantage of having, close at 

 hand, large collections of conspicuous and consistent 

 phenomena. Lazzaro Moro, in 1740, attempted to 

 apply the theory of earthquakes to the Italian 

 strata ; but both he and his expositor, Cirillo Gene- 

 relli, inclined rather to reduce the violence of these 

 operations within the ordinary course of nature 2 , 

 and thus leant to the doctrine of uniformity, of 

 which we have afterwards to speak. Moro was 

 encouraged in this line of speculation by the extra- 

 ordinary occurrence, as it was deemed by most 

 persons, of the rise of a new volcanic island from a 

 deep part of the Mediterranean, near Santorino, in 

 1707 3 . But in other countries, as the geological 

 facts were studied, the doctrine of catastrophes 

 appeared to gain ground. Thus in England, where, 

 through a large part of the country, the coal- 

 measures are extremely inclined and contorted, and 



the center, and what was the bottom of the sea is become the 

 top of the mountain." Venturi's Leonard da Vinci. 

 2 Lyell, i- 3. p. 64. (4th ed.) 3 Ib. p. CO. 



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