The Ancient Volcanoes of Great Britain, Volume 1 (of 2)Geikie, Archibald
History
The Ancient Volcanoes of Great Britain, Volume 1 (of 2)
Geikie, Archibald
Volcanoes -- Great Britain
One of the most notable incidents in the campaign is to be found in
the way in which the tide of battle was at last turned against the
Wernerians. Cuvier tells us that when some of the ardent upholders of
the Freiberg faith came to consult Desmarest, the old man, who took
no part in the fray, would only answer, "Go and see." He felt that in
his memoir and maps he had demonstrated the truth of his conclusions,
and that an unprejudiced observer had only to visit Auvergne to be
convinced.
By a curious irony of fate it was from that very Auvergne that the
light broke which finally chased away the Wernerian darkness, and it
was by two of Werner's most distinguished disciples that the reaction
was begun.
Daubuisson, a favourite pupil of the Freiberg professor, had written
and published at Paris in 1803 a volume on the Basalts of Saxony,
conceived in the true Wernerian spirit, and treating these rocks, as he
had been taught to regard then, as chemical precipitates from a former
universal ocean. In the following year the young and accomplished
Frenchman went to Auvergne and the Vivarais that he might see with
his own eyes the alleged proofs of the volcanic origin of basalt.
Greatly no doubt to his own surprise, he found these proofs to be
irrefragable. With praiseworthy frankness he lost no time in publicly
announcing his recantation of the Wernerian doctrine on the subject,
and ever afterwards he did good service in making the cause of truth
and progress prevail.
Still more sensational was the conversion of a yet more illustrious
prophet of the Freiberg school--the great Leopold von Buch. He too had
been educated in the strictest Wernerian faith. But eventually, after
a journey to Italy, he made his way to Auvergne in 1802, and there, in
presence of the astonishing volcanic records of that region, the scales
seem to have fallen from his eyes also. With evident reluctance he
began to doubt his master's teaching in regard to basalt and volcanoes.
He went into raptures over the clear presentation of volcanic phenomena
to be found in Central France, traced each detail among the puys, as
in the examination of a series of vast models, and remarked that while
we may infer what takes place at Vesuvius, we can actually see what
has transpired at the Puy de Pariou. With the enthusiasm of a convert
he rushed into the discussion of the phenomena, but somehow omitted to
make any mention of Desmarest, who had taught the truth so many years
before.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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