THE 



GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE, 



NEW SERIES. DECADE V. VOL. V. 



No. v. — MAY, 1908. 



OK,IGrIIT.A.IL. ^^E,TICLES. 



I. — Henkt Clifton Sokbt, and the Bieth of Microscopical 



Petkology. 



(WITH A PORTEAIT, PLATE VIII.) 



JUST half a century ago, the Geological Society was engaged in 

 passing through the press a very remarkable memoir — a memoir 

 that was destined to revolutionize one of the branches of the science 

 which the Society had been founded to promote. Yet on its appearance 

 this memoir, "On the Microscopical Structure of Crystals," was met 

 with ridicule on the part of some, with scepticism by others, and 

 by a neglect that was almost universal. IN^evertheless, its author, 

 Mr. Sorby, lived to find Microscopical Petrography recognised all the 

 world over as one of the most important branches of geological 

 science, to see appearing year by year an enormous mass of literature 

 devoted to this branch of science, and to be himself hailed by the 

 geologists of all lands as the pioneer in this new and fruitful field of 

 scientific research. 



It is an interesting task to trace the movements of the master mind 

 in the various stages of the evolution of this new scientific method • 

 and this task has become a duty inasmuch as very misleading state- 

 ments on the subject have obtained a somewhat wide currency. It 

 is a fortunate circumstance that Sorby has himself left us a number of 

 autobiographical reminiscences ^ which enable us to trace tbe gradual 

 development of new methods and fruitful ideas, and at the same time 

 to remove prevalent misconceptions on the subject. 



The family of Sorby (or Sowerby) is one having many offshoots in 

 Yorkshire, and the particular branch to which the geologist belonged 

 is said to have been established in Shefiield ever since the time of 

 Henry VIII. Sorby's father was a partner in a firm of edged-tool 

 manufacturers and a colliery proprietor, who resided at Woodbourne, 

 then an outlying country house, but now enclosed in the busy district 



1 "Unencumbered Research: A Personal Experience," by H. C. Sorby; one 

 of a volume of "Essays on tbe Endowment of Research," published in 1876 

 (pp. 149-175). " Fifty Years of Scientific Research " : an address delivered before 

 the Members of the Sheffield Literary and Philosophical Society, at Firth College, on 

 Tuesday, February 2nd, 1897. 



DECADE V. — VOL. V. — NO. V. 13 



