OBITUARY NOTICES OF FELLOWS DECEASED. 



Geoege Poulett Sceope. It is scarcely possible at the present day 

 to realize the conditions of that intellectual "reign of terror" which 

 prevailed at the commencement of the present century, as the consequence 

 of the unreasoning prejudice and wild alarm excited by the early progress 

 of geological inquiry. At that period, every attempt to explain the past 

 history of the earth by a reference to the causes still in operation upon 

 it was met, not by argument, but by charges of atheism against its pro- 

 pounder ; and thus Hutton's masterly fragment of a ' Theory of the 

 Earth,' Playf air's persuasive ' Illustratious,' and Hall's records of accurate 

 observation and ingenious experiment had come to be inscribed in a social 

 Index Expurgatorms, and for a while, indeed, might have seemed to be 

 consigned to total oblivion. Equally injurious suspicions were aroused 

 against the geologist who dared to make allusion to the important part 

 which igneous forces have undoubtedly played in the formation of certain 

 rocks ; for the authority of Werner had acquired an almost sacred cha- 

 racter; and "Yulcanists" and " Tluttonians " were equally objects of 

 aversion and contempt. 



To two men who have very recently — and within a few months of one 

 another — passed away from our midst, science is indebted for boldly en- 

 countering and successfully overcoming this storm of prejudice. Hutton 

 and his friends lived a generation too soon ; and thus it was reserved for 

 Lyell and Scrope to carry out the task which the great Scotch philosopher 

 had failed to accomplish, namely, the removal of geology from the domain 

 of speculation to that of inductive science. 



Born in the year 1797, and educated successively at Harrow and Cam- 

 bridge, G-eorge Poulett Thomson enjoyed the advantage of a considerable 

 amount of foreign travel during his earlier years. By the advice of his 

 university friends, Sedgwick and Dr. E. D. Clarke, he soon began to devote 

 much of his attention to the phenomena of volcanos, and between the 

 years 1818 and 1821 carefully studied the principal volcanic districts of 

 Italy. He married in 1822 the heiress of the Scrope family, and 

 having adopted her name, set out on a series of geological explorations in 

 Auvergne, Southern Italy, the Ponza Islands, the Euganean Hills, and 

 subsequently in the Siebengebirge and the Eifel, which occupied him till 

 the close of the year 1823. So marked an e:ffect would appear to have 

 been produced upon his mind by the great Yesuvian eruption of 1822 — 

 which he was so fortunate as to witness, and which, indeed, inspired his 

 first contribution to geological literature — that from this time f orw^ard he 

 seems to have been confirmed in his devotion to that branch of geological 



YOL. XXV. a 



