THE 



GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 



I 



No. XL.— OCTOBER, 1867. 



I. — On the Chemistry of the Pkimeval Eakth.^ 



By David Forbes, F.R.S., etc. 



T will, no doubt, be admitted by all, that it is highly conducive to 

 the advancement of any science, that some one of its votaries, 

 more courageous than his colleagues, and endowed with a more 

 generalizing turn of mind, shall, by the comprehensive and exact 

 study of accumulating observations, endeavour to elevate himself 

 above the level of the more plodding but invaluable collectors of 

 facts, by attempting the arrangement and organization of such data, 

 and the deduction therefrom of the laws which regulate their 

 existence and govern their movements. 



Without such generalization, science itself would be but a mere 

 accumulation, or, rather, chaos of unconnected observations. 



All honour is therefore due to such leaders in science, whose 

 success should be appreciated in proportion to the difficulties which 

 had to be overcome before it had ultimately been attained. It must 

 not be forgotten, however, that in this century of rapid progress, 

 science, in the pursuit of truth, becomes each day more and more 

 severe in insisting upon exactitude in research, and in demanding 

 that no hypothesis or theoretical deduction be accepted as correct 

 before it has run the gauntlet of stringent scientific scrutiny, in order 

 fully to test its soundness. 



In this present communication it is intended to take into con- 

 sideration the general views in chemical geology, recently expounded 

 by the well-known chemist, Dr. Sterry Hunt, during his late visit 

 to this country, and which have already appeared at length in this 

 Magazine, in a report of a Lecture on the Chemistry of the Primeval 

 Earth, delivered by that gentleman in the theatre of the Eoyal 

 Institution.^ 



Although but few of the opinions expressed in this lecture are 

 original, the manner in which Dr. Hunt has combined them as a 

 whole, in his argument, is sufficiently at variance with what has 



^ In order not to extend this communication to too great a length, and to avoid 

 going deeper into the more purely chemical points, these latter have been considered 

 in greater detail by the author in a paper " On some points in Geological Chemistry," 

 in the Chemical News of October 4th, 1867, to whicb the attention of the readers of 

 the Geological Magazine is herewith directed. 



2 Geol. Mag., Vol. IV. pp. 357-369. See also pp. 432 and 477.— Edit. 



VOL. IV. NO. XL. 28 



