Hutton vs Werner
From The British Review and London Critical
Journal,
Volume V (1813), Issue X, 400-413
Full
text of the review
An anonymous review of Georges
Cuvier's 1812 essay contained the following summary of Hutton's
theory, called the Plutonian theory, and compared it to the Wernerian
or Neptunian theory which is also summarized.
Two rival systems have of late divided the attention of geologists,
both of which profess to appeal to facts as the foundation of their
deductions.
[Plutonian theory]
One of these, finding the causes which are at present in action upon
the surface of the globe sufficient for the operation of all the
changes which are visibly stamped upon its form, compensates the
imbecility of these ordinary means by an arbitrary extension of time,
and carries back the commencement of their operation to millions of
ages; or, rather, it supposes an indefinite power of renovation, which
scorns the idea of a beginning, as it precludes the expectation of an
end. According to this hypothesis, the continents of the present world
have been formed from the detritus of pre-existing lands; the causes
which destroyed the preceding mass are now in full action upon the
present, and the slow disintegration of rocks by weather and storms,
and
the gradual abrasion of their surfaces by water, are preparing the
birth of new lands, as they ensure the destruction of the old. the
hollows of the valleys have been worn to their present depths by the
action of the rivers, which originally ran at the level of the highest
mountains, and the incessant attacks of the ocean perpetually encroach
upon the barriers of the earth, the materials of which it washes away
and buries in the depths of its waters. But these depths are the grand
laboratory where new combinations are forming from the fragments of a
former world, which, being deposited in quiet succession, are modified
by the action of an internal fire, which, having melted the lower
deposits by the help of the compression of the incumbent weight of
waters, will finally raise its new creation into light by its expansive
powers. The same causes are again to act upon this new earth, the
waters of the atmosphere are again to commence their course from the
summits of the mountains, and the sea attacking its new barrier with
undiminished force will again precipitate its spoils into the furnaces
of the deep.
Such is the geological theory of Dr. Hutton. Its chief support has been
derived from the ingenious illustrations of Professor Playfair. Under
his auspices the igneous origin of the present order of things, and the
doctrine of their incalculable and unimaginable antiquity, have derived
an importance which has saved them from the merited oblivion which
involves many other speculations at least as worthy of being preserved.
[Neptunian theory]
The writings of the disciples of the rival school most triumphantly
point out the absurdities of the Plutonian theory. Although it is
impossible to deny the traces of the agency of fire upon the surface of
our planet, proofs of which are even now visible in the dreadful
effects of volcanoes and earthquakes, yet the facts relied upon to shew
the universality of this agent are completely disproved. The
experimental form which the idea seemed to assume from the well
conducted experiments of Sir James Hall vanishes before the very data
necessary to their success. The pressure of a resisting solid may
prevent the escape of carbonic acid gas when limestone is acted upon by
heat, but it would necessarily permeate every part of an incumbent
fluid, and escape unchanged. Moreover, the now established
stratification of granite, and the proofs of the newer construction of
granite veins, which run into upper formations, are destructive of
another of its essential arguments. But had not this been the case, we
must confess that we are such old fashioned folks, and so bigoted to
certain superstitions which we have imbibed in our youth, that the
incompatibility of Dr. Hutton's hypothesis with our faith in the sacred
volumes would have been alone conclusive against his arguments, and we
should have still been content to have remained in unphilosophical
ignorance of the solution of an intricate problem, rather than adopt
conclusions so glaringly inconsistent with the concurrent testimony of
recorded facts and traditional history.
The theory of Werner not only boasts the best connected series of facts
for its illustration, but the greatest number of able supporters. The
talents and sagacity of the founder himself are the of the first class;
and it will ever be matter of regret that no account of his labours
from his own pen enrich the records of science. Professor Jameson has
ably filled the place of expositor and annotator; but it is to the
labours of the indefatigable De Luc that we are chiefly indebted not
only for illustrations but judicious modifications. This acute
philosopher has spent the greater part of a long life in geological
pursuits; and the volumes of his travels, with the theoretical
application of his observations to the support of the Wernerian, and
the refutation of the Huttonian hypotheses, are monuments of logical
exactness, and of unwearied assiduity of research.
This theory sets out with a distinction between the effects of causes
obviously now in operation, and of others which have ceased to act.
Carried back to the formation of granite as the first discernible
effect which can be traced, it supposes that all the elements of the
globe were held together in one chaotic mass. This mass became fluid by
the extrication of the matter of heat, whereby the reciprocal power of
the affinities of the different substances was brought into action. the
granite strata were the first deposits from this disordered fluid, and
the rest of the primitive rocks in the order of their succession. While
this operation was in progress, the new-formed strata were fractured by
the power of the expansive fluids which were produced by the different
actions of affinity, and sinking into the caverns which were thus
formed beneath them, rested in an inclined position. Other formations
were again deposited upon these from the remaining fluid, influenced
possibly by new affinities brought into action by the extrication of
the gaseous matters. Such catastrophes occurred at different intervals,
fracturing the rocks by the violence of the commotion. Their fragments
were rounded by the tumultuous action of the waters, and gave birth to
those immense deposits of water-worn stones which are so often met with
in the newer formations. The organic remains which occur in these
latter testify the different periods at which the earth was clothed
with vegetation, and furnished with its various kinds of animated
beings.
There is something more than beautiful in the correspondence of this
explanation of the appearances of nature with the inspired account of
the creation of the world by the great historian of the Jews. In the
emphatic command of "Let there be light," we indistinctly trace a part
of that comprehensive design which embraced at once all the beneficial
consequences of its fulfilment--"There was light:" heat the
concomitant, and possibly only a modification of light, loosed at once
the bands of nature. The spirit of God, indeed, moved upon the face of
the waters; the powers of affinity, which we are never tired of
admiring in our closets in a small scale, were let loose in the great
deep, and dry land appeared, the product of the new combinations. But
further still, in the relics of a former world, preserved to us in the
bosoms of the rocks, we may trace the order and succession of the
creation of organic forms, as recorded in the same history. The older
classes of secondary rocks contain remnants of vegetable forms alone; a
second and a newer division are rich in the remains of all that the
waters brought forth abundantly, while the skeletons and impressions of
cattle, creeping things, and beasts of the earth, are discovered only
in the newest alluvial formations.
The succession of catastrophes which dislocated the strata in the
striking manner which we now trace, wherever their sections are exposed
to view, was closed by that last subsidence which brought the waters of
the ocean upon the habitations of men. The fountains of the deep were
opened, the bed of the sea was changed, and our present continents rose
above the retiring flood.
It is not the least ingenious and interesting part of the theory which
we are contemplating, that it helps us to infer from the effects of
causes which are now in action, and which commenced their course from
the period of the last catastrophe of the surface of the earth, the
time which has elapsed from that period. The bold outline of the
boundaries of the seas in most places broken down by the perpetual
agitation of the waves. After every storm fragments of the broken
strata fall down upon the gradually accumulating beach, and being
rounded by the action of the water, are deposited in heaps at the feet
of the rocky cliffs. These heaps increase gradually, and modifying the
action of the waves, repel their attacks, and in the lapse of time
become covered with the earthy deposits of the land waters, and
overspread with vegetation. Thus a kind of chronometer is formed, which
with little observation and calculation will give us the probably
length of time since first the waves began to act upon the rugged
outline of the rock.
The accumulation of sand upon different coasts, the gradually
increasing deposits of mud at the mouths of rivers, the progress of new
lands, the filling up of lakes, and the raising of marshes by the slow
depositions of the sediments of water, together with the formation of
stalactitical incrustations, are similar measures of the like period.
All these concurrent testimonies prove that the time from the formation
of our present continents cannot have exceeded a very few thousand
years, affording another proof of the authenticity of that history
which relates the stupendous story of the universal deluge.
Such is the outline of the Wernerian theory. It must be allowed to be
consistent with the known laws of chemical and mechanical philosophy;
and although in many instances it may be thought to have ventured too
far into the regions of fancy, yet its speculations have imported from
thence no arts to disguise inconsistency, or arms to assist
presumption.