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HUTTON, JAMES (1726-1797)

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Originally appearing in Volume V14, Page 16 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HUTTON, See also:JAMES (1726-1797) , Scottish geologist, was See also:born in See also:Edinburgh on the 3rd of See also:June 1726. Educated at the high school and university of his native See also:city, he acquired while a student a passionate love of scientific inquiry. He was apprenticed to a lawyer, but his employer advised that a more congenial profession should be chosen for him. The See also:young apprentice See also:chose See also:medicine as being nearest akin to his favourite pursuit of See also:chemistry. He studied for three years at Edinburgh, and completed his medical See also:education in See also:Paris, returning by the See also:Low Countries, and taking his degree of See also:doctor of medicine at See also:Leiden in 1949. Finding, however, that there seemed hardly any opening for him, he abandoned the medical piofession, and, having inherited a small See also:property in See also:Berwickshire from his See also:father, resolved to devote himself to See also:agriculture. He then went to See also:Norfolk to learn the See also:practical See also:work of farming, and subsequently travelled in See also:Holland, See also:Belgium and the See also:north of See also:France. During these years he began to study the See also:surface of the See also:earth, gradually shaping in his mind the problem to which he afterwards devoted his energies. In the summer of 1754 he established himself on his own See also:farm in Berwickshire, where he resided for fourteen years, and where he introduced the most improved forms of husbandry. As the farm was brought into excellent See also:order, and as its management, becoming more easy, See also:grew less interesting, he was induced to let it, and establish himself for the See also:rest of his See also:life in Edinburgh. This took See also:place about the See also:year 1768. He was unmarried, and from this See also:period until his See also:death in 1797 he lived with his three sisters.

Surrounded by congenial See also:

literary and scientific See also:friends he devoted himself to See also:research. At that See also:time See also:geology in any proper sense of the See also:term did not exist. See also:Mineralogy, however, had made considerable progress. But Hutton had conceived larger ideas than were entertained by the mineralogists of his See also:day. He desired to trace back the origin of the various minerals and rocks, and thus to arrive at some clear understanding of the See also:history of the earth. For many years he continued to study the subject. At last, in the See also:spring of the year 1785, he communicated his views to the recently established Royal Society of Edinburgh in a See also:paper entitled Theory of the Earth, or an Investigation of the See also:Laws Observable in the See also:Composition, See also:Dissolution and Restoration of See also:Land upon the Globe. In this remarkable work the See also:doctrine is expounded that geology is not See also:cosmogony, but must confine itself to the study of the materials of the earth; that everywhere See also:evidence may be seen that the See also:present rocks of the earth's surface have been in See also:great See also:part formed out of the See also:waste of older rocks; that these materials having been laid down under the See also:sea were there consolidated under great pressure, and were subsequently disrupted and upheaved by the expansive See also:power of subterranean See also:heat; that during these See also:convulsions See also:veins and masses of molten See also:rock were injected into the rents of the dislocated strata; that every portion of the upraised land, as soon as exposed to the See also:atmosphere, is subject to decay; and that this decay must tend to advance until the whole of the land has been worn away and laid down on the sea-See also:floor, whence future upheavals will once more raise the consolidated sediments into new land. In some of these broad and bold generalizations Hutton was anticipated by the See also:Italian geologists; but to him belongs the See also:credit of having first perceived their mutual relations, and combined them in a luminous coherent theory based upon observation. It was not merely the earth to which Hutton directed his See also:attention. He had See also:long studied the changes of the atmosphere. The same See also:volume in which his Theory of the Earth appeared contained also a Theory of See also:Rain, which was read to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1784.

He contended that the amount of moisture which the See also:

air can retain in See also:solution increases with See also:augmentation of temperature, and, therefore, that on the mixture of two masses of air of different temperatures a portion of the moisture must be condensed and appear in visible See also:form. He investigated the available data regarding rainfall and See also:climate in different regions of the globe, and came to the conclusion that the rainfall is everywhere regulated by the humidity of theair on the one See also:hand, and the causes which promote mixtures of different aerial currents in the higher atmosphere on the other. The vigour and versatility of his See also:genius may be understood from the variety of See also:works which, during his See also:thirty years' See also:residence in Edinburgh, he gave to the See also:world. In 1792 he published a . See also:quarto volume entitled See also:Dissertations on different Subjects in Natural See also:Philosophy, in which he discussed the nature of See also:matter, fluidity, cohesion, See also:light, heat and See also:electricity. Some of these subjects were further illustrated by him in papers read before the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He did not restrain himself within the domain of physics, but boldly marched into that of See also:metaphysics, See also:publishing three quarto volumes with the See also:title An Investigation of the Principles of Knowledge, and of the Progress of See also:Reason from Sense to See also:Science and Philosophy. In this work he See also:developed the See also:idea that the See also:external world, as conceived by us, is the creation of our own minds influenced by impressions from without, that there is no resemblance between our picture of the See also:outer world and the reality, yet that the impressions produced upon our minds, being See also:constant and consistent, become as much realities to us as if they precisely resembled things actually existing, and, therefore, that our moral conduct. must remain the same as if our ideas perfectly corresponded to the causes producing them. His closing years were devoted to the See also:extension and republication of his Theory of the Earth, of which two volumes appeared in 1795. A third volume, necessary to See also:complete the work, was See also:left by him in See also:manuscript, and is referred to by his biographer See also:John See also:Playfair. A portion of the MS. of this volume, which had been given to the See also:Geological Society of See also:London by Leonard See also:Horner, was published by the Society in 1899, under the editorship of See also:Sir A. See also:Geikie. The rest of the manuscript appears to be lost.

Soon afterwards Hutton set to work to collect and systematize his numerous writings on husbandry, which he proposed to publish under the title of Elements of Agriculture. He had nearly completed this labour when an incurable disease brought his active career to a See also:

close on the 26th of See also:March 1797. It is by his Theory of the Earth that Hutton will be remembered with reverence while geology continues to be cultivated. The author's See also:style, however, being somewhat heavy and obscure, the See also:book did not attract during his lifetime so much attention as it de-served. Happily for science Hutton numbered among his friends John Playfair (q.v.), See also:professor of See also:mathematics in the university of Edinburgh, whose See also:enthusiasm for the spread of Hutton's doctrine was combined with a rare See also:gift of graceful and luminous exposition. Five years after Hutton's death he published a volume, Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth, in which he gave an admirable See also:summary of that theory, with numerous additional illustrations and arguments. This work is justly regarded as one of the classical contributions to geological literature. To its See also:influence much of the See also:sound progress of See also:British geology must be ascribed. In the year 18o5 a See also:biographical See also:account of Hutton, written by Playfair, was published in vol. v. of the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. (A.

End of Article: HUTTON, JAMES (1726-1797)

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