Correspondence 525 



latter word smacks of the old " dry fusion" theory, though, as every 

 one knows, Professor Haughton's speculations are anything but dry. 



FOEBES.— CHEMISTEY OF THE PRIMEVAL EARTH. 

 To the Editor of the GEOLoaiCAL Magazine. 



Sir, — ^Under this heading, page 434 of your October number, are 

 these words, " Hutton, the propounder of the plutonic theory of the 

 world's origin, which assumed the world to have been at one time a 

 sphere of molten matter solidified by refrigeration." 



I think that there must be some great mistake here. I do not 

 think that Hutton would attempt to lift the veil of Isis, or to account 

 for the " ivorld's origin" at all, or for the " origin" of anything what- 

 ever, animate or inanimate ; not even for the '" origiyi" of the smallest 

 particle of matter. His word is " no sign of a beginning, no prospect 

 of an end." 



I have, indeed, never had access to Hutton's work ; but I have by 

 me Playfair's illustrations of it, Edinburgh, 1802, and he totally 

 repudiates the idea of the original fusion of the globe, either igneous 

 or aqueous, partial or entire. The igneous theory he imputes (while 

 he controverts it) to Buffon. Page 136, section 132, and note xxv. 

 Playfair accounts for the orange shape of the globe by a most beauti- 

 ful theory of his own, entirely dependent on Hutton's doctrines, and 

 therefore entirely dependent on rain and rivers. 



The principles which poise the universe are as simple as they are 

 sublime ; and it is not only, as Professor Jukes remarks in your last 

 number (p. 144), that "the form of the ground" depends on rain 

 and rivers, but, as Playfair says, the statical figure of the globe 

 itself, — ^the spheroid of equilibrium depends on rain and rivers, on 

 causes now in operation. Those who have not access to Playfair's 

 work may see his beautiful theory as to this clumsily explained by 

 me in the eleventh chapter of •' Eain and Eivers." 



I have the honour to be, Sir, your most obedient and most obliged 

 servant, 



George Greenwood, Colonel. 

 Brookwood Park, Alresford, 



ith October, 1867. 



THE CHEMISTRY OF THE PRIMEVAL EARTH. 

 To the Editor of the Geological Magazine. 



Sir, — I hope the space at your disposal will admit of the inser- 

 tion of a few remarks in reply to Dr. Sterry Hunt's letter, on page 

 478, and in defence of my report of his lecture " On the Chemistry 

 of the Primeval Earth :" (Geol. Mag., p. 357). 



Dr. Sterry Hunt's communication must not be allowed to mislead 

 you or your readers into the belief that I am responsible for the 

 twenty errata which have been tabulated in the two published lists, 

 (pages 432 and 478), for, in fact, only four of these mistakes have 

 originated with me. Of these four I am perfectly willing to bear 

 the blame. The first occurs in the passage (page 361) relating 



