124 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



in the case of the lower metamorphic limestone shales, the 

 sand of the original sea-bottom prior to its infiltration with 

 calcareous matter. The details of this highly interesting field 

 of inquiry are contained in a report to the British Associa- 

 tion for 1859, on the " Kesults obtained by the mechanico- 

 chemical examination of Kocks and Minerals," by Alphonse 

 Gages, Curator of the Museum of Irish Industry. 



The Huttonian theory, so far as it is founded upon the 

 old hypothesis of a central heat, can only be accepted as a 

 bold speculation. Simple and grand in its outlines, and 

 affording easy and plausible explanations of many remark- 

 able and mysterious phenomena in connection with the 

 physical arrangement of the earth, it was readily adopted 

 by scientific votaries, and became a formidable rival to the 

 Wernerian system. Whatever objections may be urged 

 against philosophical speculation in the abstract, it cannot 

 be denied that it supplies a stimulus and gives a direct aim 

 to inquiry and investigation on the science it bears upon. 

 And the progress and present position which geological 

 science has attained is doubtless due in a great measure to 

 the rival schools of Hutton and Werner. So rapid, indeed, 

 has been the progress of geology, that it may be safely 

 affirmed that there are few, if any, attached to the study of 

 this department of science, who are at present either Wer- 

 nerian or Huttonian in the sense which, in the early period 

 of this century, was comprehended under these designa- 

 tions. The necessity of restraining speculation and disre- 

 garding premature theories of the earth has been fully 

 recognised. £< The geologist has discovered the importance 

 of attending to the geological relations of the modern strata, 

 and the laws which influence the physical and geographical 

 distribution of the present races of organised beings ; in 

 order that, by proceeding from the distinct to the obscure, he 

 may qualify himself for illustrating, with a greater chance of 

 success, the various changes which the crust of this globe 

 has undergone." By this method, the discovery of facts 

 that are accessible to observation, and that can be tested by 

 experiment, has gone on with a rapidity which the advance 

 of theory has been unable to overtake. This need not dis- 



