March 22, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



329 



are to be congratulated on tlieir good work 

 in this respect. R. H. Thukston. 



Tlie Life and Correspondence of WiUiam Buck- 

 land, D. D., F. E. S. Some time Dean of 

 Westminster, twice President of the Geo- 

 logical Society, and First President of the 

 British Association. By his daughter, 

 Mrs. Gordon. With portraits and illus- 

 trations. New York, D. Appleton & Co. 

 1894. Post 8°. Pp.288. S3.50. 

 To those who were 'brought up,' geologi- 

 callj' speaking, on perhaps the most weighty 

 and j'et brilliant of the Bridgewater 

 Treatises, ' Geology and Mineralogy con- 

 sidered with reference to Natural Theology,' 

 and are famiUar with the prolonged strug- 

 gle for existence undergone by the ' noble 

 subterranean science ' in the first half of 

 our centurj-, this life of the English partici- 

 pant in the contest will show what a force 

 he must have been in the intellectual and 

 scientific life of his time. 



Dean Buckland was one of the creators 

 of the science. Himself inspired by the 

 teachings, though at second-hand, of Wil- 

 liam Smith, ' the father of English Geology,' 

 he became the teacher of Lyell, of Murchi- 

 son, of Etheridge, Daubeny, Egerton and 

 Lord Enniskillen. As early as 1809, when 

 a Fellow at Oxford, he had by his energj' 

 in collecting, his contagious enthusiasm, 

 and his bold and effective advocacy of the 

 infant science, produced a sort of panic 

 in the minds of those who would have 

 gladly strangled this newly born science. 



The philosophic calm and classical se- 

 renity of the Oxford dons was sorely vexed 

 and disturbed bj' the 3'oung savant. " Some 

 dreaded lest his examjile should drive the 

 amcenitaten academicc: out of fashion." When 

 his shorter journeys on British soil finally 

 led to a longer excui-sion to the Alps and to 

 Italy, one of the elders is said to have ex- 

 claimed : " Well, Buckland is gone to Italy ; 

 80, thank God, we sliall hear no more of 



this geologj-.*' But young Buckland's zeal, 

 energj-, overflowing humor and eloquence, 

 led to his appointment in 1813 to the Read- 

 ership of Mineralogj^, and in 1819 a Pro- 

 fessorship of Geologj^ was created for him. 



He went on triumphantly in his career 

 of advancing and popularizing his favorite 

 science, overcoming objections and theo- 

 logical narrowness either by a joke, a 

 hearty laugh, a strain of lofty elo- 

 quence, or by earnestlj- insisting that the 

 study of geology, so far fi"om being irre- 

 ligious or atheistic in its consequences, had 

 a tendency to confirm the evidences of 

 Natural Religion, and that there could be 

 no opposition between the works and the 

 word of God. 



His humor, quick wit and overflowing 

 jollity or plaj'ful fancy in the lecture room 

 were contagious. His field lectures were 

 largely attended, and many are the stories 

 told of his apt illustrations on these occa- 

 sions, as well as of some of his adventures 

 on his geological excursions. They are il- 

 lustrated by rhymes and bj' comic pictures 

 from the pen and pencil of liis fellow geol- 

 ogists. As an example of his graphic mode 

 of explaining the earth as understood in his 

 day, it is said " He compared the world to an 

 apple-dumpling, the fiery fi-oth of which 

 fills the interior, and we have just a crust 

 to stand upon; the hot stufi' in the centre 

 often generates gas, and its necessary ex- 

 plosions are called on earth, volcanoes." 

 When riding towards London with a friend 

 on a very dark night, they lost their way. 

 " Buckland therefore dismounted, and tak- 

 ing up a handful of earth, smelt it. ' Ux- 

 bridge,' he exclaimed, his geological nose 

 telling him the precise locality." Mr. 

 Etheridge tells the story of Buckland when 

 travelling in Scotland, " in order not to 

 shock the feelings of the Scotchmen on Sun- 

 daj', carrying his hammer up his sleeve." 

 Ruskin, who was an undergi-aduate of 

 Christ Church when Buckland was not only 



