Correspondence. 321 
counted for the ease with which his work could be misunderstood 
and misinterpreted. He described the conflict to which the memoir 
led and emphasized the bitterness of those who opposed the doctrine 
on theological grounds. The preparation of Playfair’s work was due 
as much to a desire to defend Hutton as to support his theory. Play- 
fair appealed to those opponents whose knowledge of the theory 
was derived chiefly from attacks made upon it: for them he showed 
that the theory is beautiful, symmetrical and in no sense inconsist- 
ent with the scripture. In dealing with the other class of opponents, 
led by Kirwan and De Luc, he used vigorous language, exposing their 
ignorance and insincerity and denouncing the virulence with which 
they had given a theological turn to the controversy. In defending 
the theory, Playfair brought his own great resources to bear, now cor- 
recting errors, now elaborating the doctrine and in some places broadly 
anticipating some of the great writers of later days. 
The inviting style gained many readers for the book, among them 
Greenough and his associates who founded the Geological Society of 
London, that theory might be replaced by observation. Hutton’s 
theory attained final triumph in 1830 when Lyell published his ‘Prin 
ciples.” Playfair’s work hastened the birth of geology, as now un- 
derstood, by a full quarter of a century and finally divorced our sci- 
ence from cosmagony. 
Professor Kemp devoted his memorial more to the personal his- 
tory of Hutton, saying in brief: James Hutton was born in 1726 
and after his course at school and university, first studied law, but 
being too much interested in chemistry, gave it up after a year and 
studied medicine three years in Edinburgh and two years on the Con- 
tinent at Paris and elsewhere, taking his M.D. degree at Leyden 
in 1749. The career of a physician did not attract him much, how- 
ever, after all, and he turned his attention to agriculture. In 1752 he 
went to a farm in Norfolk, where his mind first definitely turned to 
mineralogy and geology. In 1754 he settled down on his ancestral 
estate in Berwickshire, where he remained fourteen years, with oc- 
casional visits to Edinburgh and more distant parts of the kingdom. 
In 1768 he gave up country life and removed to Edinburgh to devote 
himself entirely to the study of geology and kindred sciences. His 
untiring industry enabled him to accomplish a marvelous amount of 
work in chemistry and finally to elaborate the essays in geology which 
revolutionized that science and, with the elucidation given his work 
by Playfair’s “Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth,” 
raised it to the high plane which it has occupied ever since. Modern 
geology dates from the publication in 1802 of Johr Playfair’s explan- 
ation, elaboration and defense of Hutton’s theories. 
Professor Dodge said in part: To James Hutton we owe many 
fundamental truths now recognized in psysiography, and to John Play- 
fair we owe the elucidation of these ideas, and their application. 
The doctrine that rivers are the cause of their valleys, and the 
proof thereof is perhaps the most important foundational idea that 
