68 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. III. No. 54. 



SCIENTIFIC LITEEATURE. 



Charles Lyell and Modern Geology. By Peof. 



T. G. BONNEY, F.R.S. The Century Science 



Series. Macmillan & Co. , New York. 1895. 



Pp. 221, with index. $1.25. 



The life of Charles Lyell, its fi-uition in the 

 twelve editions of the Principles of Geologj', 

 and Lyell' s influence on modern geology, form 

 a subject worthy of the admirable treatment 

 given it by Prof Bonney. Brief as it is, this 

 biography adequately spans his seventy-eight 

 years, showing how he trained himself broadly 

 in liberal knowledge and in science ; how he 

 developed a single purpose — ' to put geology 

 on a more sound and philosophical basis' — 

 and how he pursued it so earnestly that 

 Darwin could say: 'The science of geology is 

 enormously indebted to Lyell — more so, as 

 I believe, than to any other man who ever 

 lived.' 



Charles Lyell, born in 1797, the oldest son of 

 Charles Lyell, sprang from a cultured family. 

 His father was a student of literature and a 

 lover of natural history, with a particular in- 

 terest in entomology and botany. Thus the 

 son inherited tastes which, developed by early 

 associations as well as by Oxford training, 

 fitted him for his life task as author and scien- 

 tist. In spite of near sightedness, he was an 

 accurate observer; he thought clearly; and his 

 thought was no less clearly stated. The power 

 of analysis and the power of expression, highly 

 developed in combination, ever place their 

 possessor among the leaders of men. 



Lyell's studies in geology began in 1817 with 

 lectures by Prof Buckland, who was only thir- 

 teen years his senior and had been but recently 

 appointed reader in geology at Oxford. Buck- 

 land roused enthusiasm for the science, but did 

 not establish in his student's mind the verity 

 of the diluvial theory. Ten years of study, 

 rest for his eyes' s sake, and travel on the Conti- 

 nent as, well as in England, led Lyell fiom the 

 profession of law, which he had entered upon, 

 to the pursuit of geology. In 1828 he spent 

 four months with Murchison in the ^•olcanic 

 district of central France, which Scrope had 

 just made known to scientists. "The great 

 flows of basalt — some ft-esh and intact, some 



only giant fragments of yet vaster masses — the 

 broken cones of scoria, and the rounded hills 

 of trachyte in Auvergne, supplied him with 

 links between existing volcanoes and the huge 

 masses of trap with which Scotland had made 

 him familiar ; while these basalt flows — modern 

 in a geological sense, but carved and furrowed 

 by the streams which still were flowing in their 

 gorges — showed that rain and rivers were most 

 potent, if not exclusive, agents in the excava- 

 tion of valleys. ' ' 



" The whole tour," wrote Lyell to his father, 

 ' ' has been rich, as I had anticipated (and in a 

 manner which Murchison had not), in those 

 analogies between existing nature and the 

 effects of causes in remote eras which it will be 

 the great object of my work to point out. . I 

 scarcely despair now, so much do these evi- 

 dences of modern action increase upon us as 

 we go south (towards the more recent volcanic 

 seat of action), of proving the positive identity 

 of the causes now operating with those of former 

 times." 



In 1829 the discussions were hot in the Geo- 

 logical Society between those who maintained 

 the hypothesis of a universal deluge, and those 

 who interpreted Nature through uniformity of 

 modern and ancient causes. In April Lyell 

 wrote to Dr. Mantell : 



"A splendid meeting (at the Geological So- 

 ciety) last night, Sedgwick in the chair. Cony- 

 beare's paper on Valley of the Thames, directed 

 against Messrs. Lyell and Murchison 's former 

 paper, was read in part. Buckland present 

 to defend the ' Diluvialists. ' * * * Green- 

 ough assisted us by making an ultra speech on 

 the importance of modern causes. * * * • 

 Murchison and I fought stoutly, and Buckland 

 was very piano. Conybeare's memoir is not 

 strong by any means. He admits three deluges 

 before the Noaohian ; and Buckland adds God 

 knows how many catastrophes besides; so we 

 have driven them out of the Mosaic record 

 fairly." 



How faintly, like blows of battle-axe on 

 medieval armor, rings the echo of that contro- 

 versy in this day ! Yet it was the first and not 

 the least of Lyell's services that he led the at- 

 tack which drove that hypothesis of the theolo- 

 gians from its intrenched position. 



