HUTTON, (DR) JAMES, an eminent philosophical
character, was born in Edinburgh on the 3rd June, 1726. His
father was a respectable merchant, who for many years held the office of
city treasurer, and was admired by all who knew him, for his sound
judgment and strict integrity. He died while James was very young; the
care, therefore, of her son’s education devolved upon Mrs Hutton, whose
great maternal kindness was only exceeded by her desire to give her son
a liberal education. She sent him first to the High school of Edinburgh,
and afterwards to the university, where he entered as a student of
humanity in 1740. Professor M’Laurin was then the most celebrated
teacher in that seminary, but though Dr Hutton admired his lectures, he
did not seem much disposed towards the science which he taught. To
professor Stevenson’s prelections on logic may be attributed the first
direction given to young Hutton’s genius, not so much for having made
him a logician, but for having accidentally directed his mind towards
the science of chemistry. The professor having casually mentioned in one
of his lectures, in illustration of some general doctrine, the fact,
that gold is dissolved in aqua regia, and that two acids, which
can each of them singly dissolve any baser metals, must unite their
strength before they can attack the most precious; the phenomenon struck
so forcibly on the mind of Hutton, that he began to search with avidity
after books which might explain its cause, and afford him an opportunity
of pursing a study altogether new. He at first found some embarrassments
in his pursuit from the superficial works that came to his hands, and it
was from Harris’s Lexicon Techni that he first derived his knowledge of
chemistry, and which by a sort of elective attraction drew his mind all
at once to a favourite study, that decided his prospects in life.
Though he pursued his
academical studies with closeness and regularity, and evinced a taste
and capacity for instruction, his friends did not see much profit likely
to arise from scientific pursuits, and accordingly persuaded him to
adopt some profession, which, though much against his inclination, he
agreed to, and was accordingly placed as an apprentice with Mr George
Chalmers, writer to the signet, in 1743. The dry routine of a laborious
profession in a less ardent mind might have checked, if not for ever
destroyed, those seeds of genius which were as yet scarce called into
life; but so strong was Mr Hutton’s propensity for scientific study,
that, instead of copying papers, and making himself acquainted with
legal proceedings, he was oftener found amusing himself with his fellow
apprentices in chemical experiments; so that Mr Chalmers was forced to
acknowledge that the business of a writer was one in which he had little
chance to succeed. With a fatherly kindness, he therefore advised young
Hutton to embrace some other employment more suitable to his
inclinations, and relieved him at once from the obligations he came
under as his apprentice. How much is science indebted to that
liberal-minded man! Having now to fix upon another profession, he
selected that of medicine,, as being the most nearly allied to
chemistry, and began to study under Dr George Young, and at the same
time attended the lectures at the university from 1744 to 1747. The
schools of medicine in Edinburgh at that time had not arrived at the
high perfection for which they are now so justly celebrated, and it was
thought indispensably necessary that a physician should finish his
education on the continent. Mr Hutton accordingly proceeded to
Paris, where he applied himself closely to anatomy and chemistry. After
remaining for two years in France, he returned home by the way of the
Low Countries, and took the degree of doctor of medicine at Leyden in
1749.
On arriving in London,
about the end of that year, he began seriously to reflect upon his
prospects in life, and he soon saw, that however much he wished to
establish himself in his native city as a physician, there were many
obstacles which seemed insurmountable. He was a young man whose merit
was unknown, and whose connexions, though respectable, had no power to
assist him, the business being then in the hands of a few eminent
practitioners who had been long known and established. All this seems to
have made a deep impression on his mind, and he expressed himself with
much anxiety on the subject in corresponding with his friends in
Edinburgh. Amongst these there was one, a young man nearly of his own
age, whose habits and pursuits were congenial with his own, and with
whom he had tried many novel experiments in chemistry; amongst the best
was one on the nature and properties of sal ammoniac. This friend, whose
name was James Davie, had, in Mr Hutton’s absence, pushed his inquiries
on the subject to a considerable extent; the result of which afforded
him a well-grounded hope of being able to establish a profitable
manufactory of that salt from coal-soot. Mr Davie communicated the
project to his friend in London, who, with a mind as yet undecided on
any fixed pursuit, returned to Edinburgh in 1750, and abandoning
entirely his views on the practice of medicine, resolved to apply
himself to agriculture. What his motives were for taking this step it is
difficult to ascertain. His father had left him a small property in
Berwickshire, and being of an independent and unambitious mind,
despising avarice and vanity alike, he most probably looked upon the
business of a farmer as entitled to a preference above any other. But
not being disposed to do any thing in a superficial way, he determined
to gain a knowledge of rural economy in the best school of the day. For
this purpose he went into Norfolk, and took up his residence in the
house of a farmer, from whom he expected to receive sufficient
instruction. He appears to have enjoyed his situation very much,—the
natural simplicity of his disposition according well with the plain,
blunt characters around him.
It has been remarked of
Dr Hutton, that to men of an ordinary grade of mind, he appeared to be
an ordinary man possessing little more spirit perhaps than is usually to
be met with. This circumstance made his residence in Norfolk quite
agreeable, as even there he could for a time forget his great
acquirements, and mingle with the simple characters around him, in
so cordial a manner, as to make them see nothing in the stranger to
set them at a distance from him, or induce them to treat him with
reserve. In years after, when surrounded by his literary friends, the
philosopher loved to describe the happy hours he spent while under the
humble roof of honest John Dybold, from whom he had learned so many good
practical lessons in husbandry. From his residence in Norfolk, he made
many journeys on foot through other parts of England to obtain
information in agriculture, and it was in the course of these rambles
that, to amuse himself on the road, he first began to study mineralogy
and geology. In a letter to Sir John Hall of Douglas, a gentleman
possessed of much taste for science, he says, while on his
perambulations, "that he was become very fond of studying the surface of
the earth, and was looking with anxious curiosity, into every pit, or
ditch, or bed of a river, that fell in his way, and that if he did not
always avoid the fate of Thales, his misfortune was certainly not
owing to the same cause." This letter was written from Yarmouth in 1753.
With the view of still further increasing his knowledge of agriculture,
he set out for Flanders, where good husbandry was well understood, long
before it was introduced into Britain, and travelling through Holland,
Brabant, Flanders, and Picardy, he returned about the middle of summer,
1754. Notwithstanding all he had seen to admire in the garden culture
that prevailed in Holland, and the husbandry in Flanders, he says, in a
letter to his friend Sir John Hall, from London, "Had I a doubt of it
before I set out, I should have returned fully convinced that they are
good husbandmen in Norfolk." Many observations made on that journey,
particularly on mineralogy, are to be found in his Theory of the Earth.
As he was now sufficiently initiated in a knowledge of agriculture, he
wished to apply himself to the practice in his own country; and for that
purpose, returned to Scotland at the end of summer. He at first
hesitated on the choice of a situation where he might best carry his
improved plans of farming into effect, and at last fixed upon his own
patrimony in Berwickshire. From Norfolk he brought with him a plough and
ploughman, who set the first example of good tillage. It was a novel
sight for the surrounding farmers to see the plough drawn by two horses,
without an accompanying driver. The new system was, however, found to
succeed in all its parts, and was quickly adopted, so that Dr Hutton has
the credit of introducing the new husbandry into a country where it has,
since his time, made more rapid improvements than in any other in
Europe. He resided on his farm until the year 1768, occasionally making
a tour into the Highlands, with his friend Sir George Clerk, upon
gealogical inquiries, as he was now studying that branch of science with
unceasing attention.
While residing on his
farm for the last fourteen years, he was also engaged in the sal
ammoniac work, which had been actually established on the foundation of
the experiments already made by his friend and himself, but the business
remained in Mr Davie’s name only till 1765, when a copartnership was
regularly entered into, and the manufactory carried on in the name of
both.
As his farm, from
excellent management, progressively improved, it became a more easy
task, and to a mind like his, less interesting; so that finding a good
opportunity of letting it to advantage, he did so, and became a resident
in Edinburgh in the year 1768, from which time he devoted his whole life
to scientific pursuits. This change of residence was accompanied with
many advantages he seldom enjoyed before; --having the entire command of
his own time, he was enabled to mix in a society of friends whose minds
were congenial with his own; among whom were Sir George Clerk, his
brother Mr Clerk of Eldin, Dr Black, Mr Russel, professor of natural
philosophy, professor Adam Ferguson, Dr James Lind, and others.
Surrounded by so many eminent characters, by all of whom he was beloved
and respected, from the vast fund of information he possessed, he
employed his time in maturing his views and searching into the secrets
of nature with unwearied zeal. In one of these experiments he discovered
that mineral alkali is contained in zeolite. On boiling the gelatinous
substance obtained from combining that fossil with muriatic acid, he
found that, after evaporation, the salt was formed. Dr Playfair thinks
this to be the first instance of an alkali being discovered in a stony
body. The experiments of M. Klaprath and Dr Kennedy have confirmed the
conclusion, and led to others of the same kind. With a view of
completing his Theory of the Earth, he made many journeys into different
parts of England and Wales, and on visiting the salt mines of Cheshire,
he made the curious observations of the concentric circles marked on the
roofs of these mines, to which he has referred in his Theory, as
affording a proof that the salt rock was not formed from mere aqueous
deposition.
In 1777, Dr Hutton’s
first publication was given to the world in the shape of a
pamphlet, on the "Nature, Quality, and Distinctions of Coal and Culm."
This was occasioned by a question which the board of customs and privy
council wished to have settled, in order to fix on the proportion of
duty the one should bear with the other when carried coastwise. Dr
Hutton’s pamphlet was considered so ingenious and satisfactory, that an
exemption of the small coal of Scotland from paying duty on such short
voyages was the consequence He took a lively interest in promoting the
arts of his native country, and devoted much of his time and attention
to the project of an internal navigation between the Firths of Forth and
Clyde. He read several papers in the Philosophical Society, before its
incorporation with the Royal Society, (none of which were then
published, with the exception of one in the second volume of the
Transactions of the Royal Society,) "on certain natural appearances of
the ground on the hill of Arthur’s Seat." His zeal for the support of
science in Edinburgh induced him to come forward and communicate to the
Royal Society a Sketch of a Theory of the Earth, the perfecting of which
had occupied his constant attention for a period of thirty years, during
which time he had never ceased to study the natural history of the
globe, with a view of ascertaining all the changes that have taken place
on its surface, and discovering the causes by which they have been
produced; and from his great skill as a mineralogist, and having
examined the great leading facts of geology with his own eyes, and
carefully studied every learned work on the natural history of the
earth, it must be acknowledged that few men could enter better prepared
on so arduous a task. As this Theory is so well known, and has been the
subject of so much controversy, our limits will not permit us to enter
upon it here; we therefore refer our readers to the book itself.
Dr Kirwan of Dublin, and
others, considered Dr Hutton’s Theory both eccentric and paradoxical,
and charged him with presumption in speculating on subjects to which the
mere human understanding is incompetent to reach, while some gave a
preference to the system of Berkeley, as more simple and philosophical;
but notwithstanding all the attacks which the new doctrines of Hutton
were subjected to, he had the proud satisfaction of being fortified in
his opinions by many great and good men, who were bound to him by the
closest ties of friendship. Dr Black, Mr Clerk of Eldin, and professor
Playfair, as occasion required, were willing and ready to vindicate his
hypothesis. But setting aside all these considerations, there existed in
the work itself many faults, which contributed not a little to prevent
Dr Hutton’s system from making a due impression on the world. In the
opinion of his greatest defender, professor Playfair, "It was proposed
too briefly, and with too little detail of facts for a system which
involved so much that was new and opposite to the opinions generally
received. The description which it contains of the phenomena of geology,
suppose in the reader too great a knowledge of the things described. The
reasoning is sometimes embarrassed by the care taken to render it
strictly logical, and the transitions, from the author’s peculiar
notions of arrangement, are often unexpected and abrupt. These defects,
run more or less through all Dr Hutton’s writings, and produce a degree
of obscurity astonishing to all who knew him, and who heard him every
day converse, with no less clearness and precision than animation and
force." In the same volume of the Transactions appeared a paper by him,
"A Theory of Rain," which he afterwards published in his "Physical
Dissertations." Having long studied meteorology with great attention,
this ingenious theory attracted almost immediate notice, and was valued
for affording a distinct notion of the manner in which cold acts in
causing a precipitation of humidity. It met, however, from M. De Luc
with a vigorous and determined opposition; Dr Hutton defended it with
some warmth, and the controversy was carried on with much sharpness on
both sides.
In his observations in
meteorology, he is said to be the first who thought of ascertaining the
medium temperature of any climate by the temperature of its springs.
With this view he made a great number of observations in different parts
of Great Britain, and found, by a singular enough coincidence between
two arbitrary measures quite independent of each other, that the
temperature of springs along the east coast of this island varies a
degree of Fahrenheit’s thermometer for a degree of latitude. This rate
of change, though it cannot be general over the whole globe, is probably
not far from the truth for all the northern parts of the temperate zone.
In explaining the diminution of temperature as we ascend in the
atmosphere, Dr Hutton was much more fortunate than any other of the
philosophers who have considered the same subject. It is well known that
the condensation of air converts part of the latent into sensible heat,
and that the rarefaction of air converts part of the sensible into
latent heat; this is evident from the experiment of the air gun, and
from many others. If, therefore, we suppose a given quantity of air to
be suddenly transported from the surface to any height above, it will
expand on account of the diminution of pressure, and a part of its heat
becoming latent it will be rendered colder than before. Thus, also, when
a quantity of heat ascends by any means whatever from one stratum of air
to a superior stratum, a part of it becomes latent, so that an
equilibrium of heat can never be established among the strata; but those
which are less, must always remain colder than those which are more
compressed. This was Dr Hutton’s explanation, and it contains no
hypothetical principle whatsoever. After those publications already
mentioned had appeared, he resolved to undertake journeys into different
parts of Scotland, in order to ascertain whether that conjunction of
granite and schistus, which his theory supposed, actually took place.
His views were first turned towards the Grampians, which the duke of
Athol learning, invited him to accompany him during the shooting season
into Glentilt, a tract of country situated under these mountains. On
arriving there, he discovered in the bed of the river Tilt, which runs
through that glen, many veins of red granite traversing the black
micaceous schistus, and producing by a contrast of colour an effect that
might be striking even to an unskilful observer. So vivid were the
emotions he displayed at this spectacle, that his conductors never
doubted his having discovered a vein of gold or silver. Dr Hutton has
described the appearances at that spot, in the third volume of the
Edinburgh Transactions, p. 79, and some excellent drawings of the glen
were made by Mr Clerk, whose pencil was not less valuable in the
sciences than in the arts.
He pursued his
observations with unabated ardour, and in the two next years, with his
friend Mr Clerk, made several excursions into Galloway, the island of
Arran, and the neighbourhood of Jedburgh. In all of these he discovered
the same conjunction, though not in so complete a manner, as among the
Grampians. In 1788, he made some other valuable observations of the same
kind. The ridge of the Lammermoor hills in the south of Scotland
consists of the Silurian or graywacke formation (then named primary by
Hutton, but afterwards found to belong to the transition series), which
extends from St Abb’s head south-westward to Portpatrick, and into the
north of Ireland. The seacoast at Eyemouth and St Abb’s-head exhibits
striking sections of these rocks, which there appear contorted and
dislocated in a remarkable manner. The junction of the graywacke with
the secondary strata was an object of instructive interest to Hutton. In
the same year he accompanied the Duke of Athol to the Isle of Man, with
the view of making a survey of that island. He found the main body of
the island to consist of what he termed primitive schistus (graywacke),
much inclined, and more intersected with quartzose veins than the
corresponding rocks in the south and south-east of Scotlaud. The
direction of these strata corresponded with that of the greywacke rocks
in Galloway, running nearly from east to west. This is all the general
information he obtained from that excursion. It was reserved for later
geological researches to determine the true nature and relations of the
Silurian or graywacke series, by means of the fossils which they have
been found to contain. It was not till after Hutton’s day that
geologists became palaeontological.
Notwithstanding his
assiduous attention to geology, Dr Hutton found leisure to speculate on
subjects of a different nature. A voluminous work from his pen made its
appearance soon after the Physical Dissertations;—"An Investigation of
the Principles of Knowledge, and the Progress of Reason, from Sense to
Science and Philosophy;" in three volumes quarto. In this treatise he
formed a general system of physics and metaphysics. His opinions on the
former subjects were very singular. He deprives matter of those
qualities which are usually deemed most essential,
solidity, impenetrability, and the vis inertiae. He conceived it to be
merely an assemblage of powers acting variously upon each other, and
that external things are no more like the perceptions they give, than
wine is similar to intoxication, or opium to the delirium it produces.
It would be vain in us to attempt to analyse this singular work, which
cannot fail to recall to the mind the opinions of the ingenious Dr
Berkeley; the two systems agree in many material points, but differ
essentially in others.
In deference to the
opinions of so great a man as Dr Hutton, we shall inform our readers of
the view taken of the moral tendency of his work by his friend professor
Playfair, who no doubt scrutinized very deeply its metaphysical
speculations, as he in part, if not altogether, became a convert of the
Huttonian system. "Indeed," says he, "Mr Hutton has taken great pains to
deduce from his system, in a singular manner, the leading doctrines of
morality and natural religion, having dedicated the third volume of his
book almost wholly to that object. It is worthy to remark, that while he
is thus employed his style assumes a better tone, and a much greater
degree of perspicuity than it usually possesses. Many instances might be
pointed out, where the warmth of its benevolent and moral feelings,
bursts through the clouds that so often veil from us the clearest ideas
of his understanding. One, in particular, deserves notice, in which he
treats of the importance of the female character to society in a
state of high civilization. A felicity of expression, and a flow of
natural eloquence, inspired by so interesting a subject, make us regret
that his pen did not more frequently do justice to his thoughts." Dr
Hutton was seized with a severe and dangerous, illness in the summer of
1793, and, although before this time he had enjoyed a long continuance
of good health, such was the painful nature of his complaint that he was
reduced to great weakness, and confined to his room for many months,
where, on his regaining some degree of strength, he amused himself in
superintending the publication of the work just mentioned. During his
recovery he was roused from his quiet into further exertion by a severe
attack made on his Theory of the Earth, by Dr Kirwan, in the
Memoirs of the Irish Academy, rendered formidable by the celebrity of
the author. Before this period, Dr Hutton had often been urged to
publish the entire work on the Theory of the Earth, which he had
constantly put off—so much so, that there seemed some danger of its not
appearing in his life-time. The very day, however, after Kirwan’s paper
was put in his hands, he began the revisal of his manuscript and
resolved immediately to send it to press. The work was accordingly
published in two volumes octavo, in 1795. He next turned his attention
to a work on husbandry, on which he had written a great deal, the fruit
both of his vast reading and practical experience. He proposed to reduce
the whole into a systematic form under the title "Elements of
Agriculture." The time, however, was fast approaching which was to
terminate the exertions of a mind of such singular activity and ardour
in the pursuit of knowledge. In the course of the winter, 1796, he
became gradually weaker, and extremely emaciated from the pain he
suffered from a recurrence of his former complaint, though he still
retained the full activity and acuteness of his mind. "Saussure’s
Voyages aux Alps," which had just reached him that winter, was the last
study of one eminent geologist, as they were the last work of another.
On Saturday the 26th March, 1797, although in great pain, he employed
himself in writing and noting down his remarks on some attempts which
were then making towards a new mineralogical nomenclature. In the
evening he was seized with shivering fits, and as these continued to
increase, he sent for his friend Dr Russel. Before he could arrive, all
assistance was in vain. Dr Hutton had just strength left to stretch out
his hand to the physician, and immediately expired.
Dr Hutton was possessed
of an uncommon activity and ardour of mind, upheld in science by
whatever was new, beautiful, or sublime; and that those feelings
operated with more intense power in early life, may account for the want
of stability he displayed, and the difficulty he felt in settling down
to any one fixed pursuit. Geology and mineralogy were to him two of the
most sublime branches of physical science. The novelty and grandeur
offered by the study to the imagination, the simple and uniform order
given to the whole natural history of the earth, and above all, the
views opened of the wisdom that governs the universe, are things to
which hardly any mind could be insensible, but to him they were matters,
not of transient delight, but of solid and permanent happiness.
He studied with an
indefatigable perseverance, and allowed no professional, and rarely any
domestic arrangement, to interrupt his uniform course. He dined early,
almost always at home, ate sparingly, and drank no wine. The evening he
spent in the society of friends, who were always delighted and
instructed by his animated conversation, which, whether serious or gay,
was replete with ingenious and original observation. When he sought
relaxation from the studies of the day, and joined the evening party, a
bright glow of cheerfulness spread itself over every countenance; and
the philosopher who had just descended from the sublimest speculations
in metaphysics, or risen from the deepest research in geology, seated
himself at the tea-table, as much disengaged from thought, and as
cheerful and joyous, as the youngest of the company.
Professor Stewart, in his
life of Mr Smith, has alluded to a little society that then flourished
in Edinburgh, called the Oyster Club. Of this, Dr Black, Dr Hutton, and
Mr Smith were the founders. When time and opportunity admitted, these
distinguished men could unbend one to the other, and on such occasions
Dr Hutton delighted in blending the witty and ludicrous in his
conversation. Round them soon formed a circle of choice spirits, who
knew how to value their familiar and social converse; and it would be
vain to look for a company more sincerely united, where every thing
favourable to good society was more perfectly cultivated, and every
thing opposite more strictly excluded.
Dr Hutton was never
married, but lived with his sisters, three amiable women, who managed
his domestic affairs. Though he cared little for money, he had
accumulated considerable wealth, owing to his moderation and unassuming
manner of life, as well as from the great ability with which his
long-tried friend, Mr David, conducted their joint concerns. Miss
Isabella Hutton remained to lament her brother’s loss, and by her his
collection of fossils were given to Dr Black, who presented them to the
Royal Society of Edinburgh, under the condition that they should be
completely arranged, and kept for ever apart, for the purpose of
illustrating the Huttonian Theory of the Earth.
The man who discovered the 'abyss of time'
In the 1700s, the geologist James Hutton identified a
formation of rocks that would transform how we think about time.
In the first of three films about "deep time", journalist and author
Richard Fisher traces Hutton's steps to one of geology's most important
locations in Scotland. He set out to find a richer view of the past, but
in doing so discovers a coastline that harbours signatures of the deep
future. |