Online Encyclopedia

notice of the officials, who invited him to attend the mining school established two years previously. This was the turning point in Werner's career. He soon distinguished himself by his See also:

INDUSTRY (Lat. industria, from indu-, a form of the pre, position in, and either stare, to stand, or struere, to pile up)

industry and by the large amount of See also:

PRACTICAL

practical knowledge of See also:

MINERALOGY

mineralogy which he acquired. In 1771 he repaired to theuniversity of See also:

LEIPZIG

Leipzig and went through the usual curriculum of study, paying See also:

ATTENTION (from Lat. ad-tendo, await, expect; the condition of being " stretched " or " tense ")

attention at first chiefly to the subject of See also:

law, but continuing to devote himself with See also:

GREAT

great ardour to mineralogical pursuits. While still a student he wrote his first See also:

WORK

work on the See also:

EXTERNAL

external characters of minerals, Von den etusserlichen Kennzeichen der Fossilien (1774), which at once gave him a name among the mineralogists of the See also:

day. In 1775 he was appointed inspector in the mining school and teacher of mineralogy at Freiberg.

To the development of that school and to the cultivation of mineralogy and geognosy he thence-forth, for about See also:

FORTY

forty years, devoted the whole of his active and indefatigable industry. From a See also:

mere provincial institution the Freiberg See also:

academy under his care See also:

rose to be one of the great centres of scientific See also:

LIGHT

light in See also:

EUROPE

Europe, to which students from all parts of the See also:

WORLD

world flocked to listen to his eloquent teaching. He wrote but little, and though he elaborated a See also:

COMPLETE

complete See also:

SYSTEM

system of geognosy and mineralogy he never could be induced to publish it. From the notes of his pupils, however, the See also:

general purport of his teaching was well known, and it widely influenced the See also:

SCIENCE (Lat. scientia, from scire; to learn, know)

science of his See also:

time. He died at Freiberg on the 3oth of See also:

JUNE

June 1817. One of the distinguishing features of Werner's teaching was the care with which he taught lithology and the See also:

SUCCESSION (Lat. successio, from succedere, to follow after)

succession of See also:

GEOLOGICAL

geological formation; a subject to which he applied the name geognosy. His views on a definite geological succession were inspired by the works of J. G. See also:

Lehmann and G. C. Fuchsel (1722-1773). He showed that the rocks of the See also:

earth are not disposed at See also:

RANDOM (older forms randon, randrun; from the French, cf. randir, to run quickly, impetuously; generally taken to be of Teutonic origin and connected with Ger. Rand, edge, brim, the idea being possibly of a brimming river)

random, but follow each other in a certain definite See also:

order.

Unfortunately he had never enlarged his experience by travel, and the sequence of See also:

rock-masses which he had recognized in Saxony was believed by him to be of universal application (see his Kurze Klassifikation and Beschreibung der verschiedenen Gebirgsarten, 1787). He taught that the rocks were the precipitates of a primeval ocean, and followed each other in successive deposits of world-wide extent. Volcanoes were regarded by him as abnormal phenomena, probably due to the See also:

COMBUSTION (from the Lat. comburere, to burn up)

combustion of subterranean beds of See also:

COAL

coal. See also:

BASALT

Basalt and similar rocks, which even then were recognized by other observers as of igneous origin, were believed by him to be See also:

WATER

water-formed accumulations of the same See also:

ancient ocean. Hence arose one of the great See also:

HISTORICAL

historical controversies of geology. Werner's followers preached the See also:

DOCTRINE

doctrine of the aqueous origin of rocks, and were known as Neptunists; their opponents, who recognized the important See also:

PART

part taken in the construction of the earth's crust by subterranean See also:

HEAT (0. E. haktu, which like " hot," Old Eng. hat, is from the Teutonic type haita, hit, to be hot; cf. Ger. hitze, heiss; Dutch, hitte, heet, &c.)

heat, were styled Vulcanists. R. See also:

Jameson, the most distinguished of his See also:

BRITISH

British pupils, was for many years an ardent teacher of the Wernerian doctrines. Though much of Werner's theoretical work was erroneous, science is indebted to him for so clearly demonstrating the See also:

CHRONOLOGICAL

chronological succession of rocks, for the enthusiastic zeal which he infused into his pupils, and for the impulse which he thereby gave to the study of geology. See S. G. Frisch, Lebensbeschreibung A.

G. Werners (Leipzig, 1825) ; See also:

CUVIER, GEORGES LEOPOLD CHRETIEN FREDERIC DAGOBERT, BARON (1769-1832)

Cuvier, Eloge de Werner; See also:

LYELL, SIR CHARLES (1797-1875)

Lyell, Principles of Geology; and See also:

Sir A. See also:

Geikie, Founders of Geology (1897; 2nd ed., 1906).

End of Article: WERNER, ABRAHAM GOTTLOB (1750-1817)

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.

» Add information or comments to this article.

Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.

Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
WERMUND

[next]
WERNER, ANTON ALEXANDER VON (1843– )