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Honnold Library Record: Hutton’s Theory of the Earth
From the Honnold Library Record, Volume 4, Number 2. Fall 1961:
Hutton’s Theory of the Earth
One of the most prized books in Claremont is the first edition of Hutton’s Theory of the Earth. Prior to the time of Hutton, although there were a number of quaint books on fossils and rocks and a few books which were much better, a science of geology did not exist. Hutton's work marks the beginning of scientific geology.
The author had been trained as a physician at the University of Leiden but never actually practiced medicine. Instead, for 13 years he cultivated a small farm which he had inherited from his father. He introduced new methods of agriculture and travelled in England and in the Low Countries investigating farming methods. Inevitably he became interested in soils and geologic formations. After his years as a practical farmer he moved to Edinburgh where his intimate friends were some of the brightest minds in Scotland. He was thus admirably equipped to be the first geologist. He had received scientific training; he had schooled himself to observe the fields, the soils, and geologic formations, and he was stimulated by highly competent scientific friends. All three factors are evident in his work on geology. A graduate in medicine from the best medical school of the age, he was familiar with Harvey’s theory of the circulation of the blood. From Harvey and from his predecessor, George Hoggart Toulmin, he derived the idea of perpetual circulation of matter, of a pulsation of life and death, of growth and decay.
“From the top of the mountains to the shores of the sea,” he wrote, “all of the soils are subject to be moved from their places, and to be deposited in a lower situation; thus gradually proceeding from the mountains to the rivers, and from the river step by step into the sea.” Elsewhere he wrote, “From the constitution of these materials which compose the present land, we have reason to conclude that during the time this land was forming, by the collection of its materials at the bottom of the sea, there had been a former land containing minerals similar to those we find at present in examining the earth . . . A habitable earth is made to rise out of the wreck of a former world . . .” The whole spirit of Hutton’s geology is contained in his statement: “The matter of this active world is perpetually moved, in that salutary circulation by which provision is so wisely made for the growth and prosperity of plants, and for the life and comfort of the various animals.”
The first appearance of Hutton’s famous book was in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and the Library has a copy of the Transactions as well as the first edition in book form. While there were streaks and snatches of scientific geology before Hutton, there was no really systematic science of the subject. Hutton’s work, his concepts and methods mark the beginning of the new science.
The materials mentioned here are physically located in Special Collections. For more information on those materials, contact Special Collections.
What is the Honnold Library Record?
The Honnold Library Record, published from 1958 until 1975, was the publication of the Honnold Library Society, the friends of the library group, founded in 1954. All the issues of the Honnold Library Record are available online in the CCDL in the Honnold Library Record Collection.
— michael | October 25, 2007 04:33 PM | The more you know
