632 



(1833). In this last work he not only gave a great number of his 

 own barometrical measurements, but discussed all extant measures 

 of the heights of points in Thuringia, to the amount of above 1100. 

 He also employed himself in meteorological observations. 



Karl Ernest Adolph Von Hoff, Knight of the order of the White 

 Falcon, and invested with several offices of honour and dignity at 

 the Ducal Court of Gotha, died at Gotha the 24th of May last. 

 He was 66 years of age, having been born in the same city Nov. 1, 

 1771. 



Besides the history I have mentioned, which must always continue 

 to be a classical work on the subject of which it treats, he was at 

 the time of his death employed in compiling a continuation of his 

 Notices of Earthquakes and Volcanic Eruptions ; and also a new 

 work, which was considered to be an important one, and was to be 

 entitled " Germany according to its Natural Conditions and Political 

 Relations." 



In attempting a rapid survey of the contributions to geological 

 knowledge which have come under our notice during the past year, 

 I may perhaps be allowed to advert to a distinction of the subject into 

 Descriptive Geology and Geological Dynamics ; the former science 

 having for its object the description of the strata and other features 

 of the earth's surface as they now exist ; and the latter science 

 being employed in examining and reducing to law the causes which 

 may have produced such phsenomena. "We appear to be directed to 

 such a separation of our subject by the present condition of our 

 geological studies, in which we and our predecessors have accumu- 

 lated a vast store of facts of observation, and have laboured with in- 

 tense curiosity, but hitherto with ve^y imperfect success, to extract 

 from these facts a clear and connected knowledge of the history of the 

 earth's changes. Nearly the same was the condition of astronomy at 

 the time of Kepler, when the accumulated observations of twenty cen- 

 turies resisted all the attempts of that ingenious man and his contem- 

 poraries to construct a science of physical astronomy. But though 

 checkedby such failures, they were not far from success ; and when for 

 the next succeeding century philosophers had employed themselves 

 in creating a distinct science of Dynamics, the science of physical 

 astronomy, full and complete, made its appearance, as if it were a 



