12 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



theory was more rampant ; theory, too, unsupported 

 by observation, and, as we now know, utterly 

 erroneous." Werner thought it a highly probable 

 conjecture that most, if not all, volcanoes arise 

 from the combustion of underground seams of 

 coal. His pupils consequently did all in their 

 power to prove that his conjecture was fact : 

 "what was true in doctrine," we are told, " was 

 borrowed from his predecessors ; what was his 

 own consisted largely of unwarranted assump- 

 tions." This is severe criticism ; yet none too 

 severe for the man who by his wonderful in- 

 fluence put back the geological clock for half- 

 a-century. 



The greatest service that Werner did to the 

 cause of geology was the enthusiasm he inspired 

 for that science in so many capable men. The 

 greatest check which his system received came, 

 strangely enough, from his own pupils, D'Aubuisson 

 (1769-1819) and Von Buch (1774 -1853), who 

 both abruptly exchanged, in turn, their opinion of 

 the aqueous for the igneous origin of basalt. 

 Whilst Wernerism was rampant throughout 

 Europe, James Hutton (1726 -1797) was quietly 

 accumulating the material upon which was based 

 his "Theory of the Earth." This was published 

 in book form in 1795. "To its early inspiration 

 I owe a debt which I can never fully repay," says 

 Sir A. Geikie, of Playfair's "Illustrations of the 

 Huttonian Theory of the Earth" (1802). The 

 dominant idea of Hutton was that the present is 

 the key to the past, and this constitutes the essence 

 of uniformitarianism pure and simple. Two 

 volumes only were published, of which a third 

 remained in manuscript. Chapters iv. to ix. of 

 the third volume remain still in the possession of 

 the Geological Society of London, but the rest 

 seems to have disappeared. Sir James Hall's 

 (1761-1832) experiments in furtherance of Hutton's 

 theory showed very important results. He found 

 that thoroughly molten glass could, by slow cooling, 

 be converted into a crystalline condition, thus dis- 

 . covering the importance of the - rate of cooling in 

 determining the resulting mineral. He selected 

 samples of whinstones, i.e. intrusive dolerites, and 

 basalts from Carboniferous dykes and sills round 

 Edinburgh. These were reduced to the condition 

 of perfect glass. Being re-fused, they were allowed 

 to cool very slowly, when a substance was obtained 

 " differing in all respects from glass, and in texture 

 completely resembling whinstone." The estab- 

 lishment of stratigraphy in England was the work 

 of William Smith, the Father of English geology. 

 He was born in 1769. He was an engineer and 

 surveyor, and every journey he took was made 

 subservient to the great work of mapping the 

 country. In 1815 his geological map of England 

 was published. " What the most distinguished 

 mineralogists during a period of half-a-century 



had done for a little part of Germany," said 

 D'Aubuisson, " had been undertaken and accom- 

 plished for the whole of England by one man." 

 Smith received the first Wollaston Medal in 1S31 ; 

 he died in 1839. Murchison (1792-1871) and 

 Sedgwick (1785-1S73) carried the principles of 

 William Smith into the chaos of the old 

 Greywaeke, adding to the geological record 

 the Devonian, Silurian and Cambrian systems 

 of strata. Then came the opening up of the 

 Laurentian and Huronian chapters, as well as 

 the rise of glacial geology, in the reform of which 

 Agassiz (1807- 1873) took the leading part. In the 

 forefront of modern geology stand enshrined the 

 names of Lyell (1797-1875) and Darwin (1809- 

 1882), the former thegreat High Priest of Uniformi- 

 tarianism, and the latter to be remembered as 

 bringing vividly to the minds of geologists the 

 imperfection of the geological record and the great 

 lapse of time necessary for the deposition of the 

 sedimentary formations. 



Sir Archibald in his concluding chapter admits 

 how increasingly difficult it is to keep pace with 

 the ever-rising tide of geological literature. " One 

 is almost driven in despair to become a specialist. 



But this narrowing of our range has a 



markedly prejudicial effect on the character of 



our work One important lesson to be 



learnt is the absolute necessity of avoiding dog- 

 matism." 



69, Bensham Manor Road, Thornton Heath. 



Dr. Lewis Swift. — This veteran observer was 

 born on February 29th, 1820, and so has now 

 reached his seventy-ninth year. He had long 

 done good work, when, in 1882, Mr. Warner and 

 others at Rochester, U.S.A., built an observatory 

 and placed it under his direction, presenting him 

 with a 16-inch equatoreal. Mr. Warner, however, 

 unfortunately failed, and the observatory was 

 closed. Then Professor T. S. C. Lowe arranged 

 that Dr. Swift and his instruments be installed in 

 an observatory at Echo Mountain in California, 

 the surrounding place being a health resort. This 

 resort and the observatory has now passed into the 

 hands of a company which will not maintain the 

 observatory ; so the doctor is left with his telescope 

 and library, and that is all, his means being very 

 limited. These instruments and books cost ^2,917, 

 and he is trying to sell them. He discovered 

 several comets and about 1,100 new nebula. He 

 was the first to receive the Jackson-Gwilt gift from 

 our Royal Astronomical Society. It is hoped that 

 someone may come forward who can enable 

 Dr. Lewis Swift to keep his treasures until his 

 life's work is done. There must be many wealthy 

 American gentlemen who would find pleasure in 

 assisting one who has worked willingly and well, 

 but without much reward. 



