Bøger i Cambridge Library Collection - Earth Science serien

Arguably the first celebrity scientist, and the epitome of the 'Romantic' natural philosopher, Sir Humphry Davy (1778-1829) was a brilliant lecturer whose popularising of science made him famous. He pioneered electrochemistry, befriended the Romantic poets, invented a safety lamp for miners and even wrote on angling (see On the Safety Lamp and Salmonia, also reissued in this series). Described as 'the last words of a dying Plato', Consolations in Travel was published posthumously in 1830. It is an intriguing mixture of poetry, autobiographical sketches, descriptions of dreams, philosophical musings on the afterlife and, in the view of one contemporary review, 'some [matter] which sober reason must dissent as extravagant, and almost bordering on the absurd'. Here, in his final months, Davy turns to the eternal, believing that through science all the questions of the universe could be answered. It remains a poignant and controversial postscript to an illustrious life.

Inhabited by Polynesians since the thirteenth century and discovered by Europeans in the seventeenth, New Zealand is a geologically diverse island group where active volcanoes and frequent earthquakes have resulted in a rich variety of rock formations and geothermal activity. In 1859-60, the geologist Ferdinand von Hochstetter (1829-84) was employed by Auckland's government to undertake the first systematic geological survey of the islands, the results of which were first published in German in 1863 and translated into this English version in 1867. Hochstetter describes his travels across New Zealand, his encounters with native people and his scientific observations. He analyses plants, wildlife and fossils, describes mountains, rocks and boiling springs, and evaluates evidence of glaciers and tectonic activity. As a result of Hochstetter's work, several species in New Zealand were named after him. This book remains a valuable resource in the history of Australasian natural science.

This book brings together works published between 1846 and 1859 by the Scot James D. Forbes (1809-68) and Irishman John Tyndall (1820-93), both of whom were experienced alpinists as well as glaciologists. However, their views on the motion of glaciers were disparate, and a scientific quarrel over primacy and credit for discoveries continued even after their respective deaths. These papers include Forbes' articles on experiments on the flow of plastic bodies and analogies between lava and glacier flows, and on the plasticity of glacier ice, as well as Tyndall's observations on the physical phenomena of various Alpine glaciers, including the famous 'Mer de Glace', and a piece on the structure and motion of glaciers, co-written with Thomas Huxley. Several works by and about all three scientists (including works on Alpine travel) have also been reissued in this series.

Between 1830 and 1833, Charles Lyell (1797-1875) published his three-volume Principles of Geology, which has also been reissued in this series. The work's renown stems partly from the fact that the young Charles Darwin, on his voyage around the world aboard the Beagle, became influenced by Lyell's ideas relating to gradual change across large spans of time. Shaping the development of scientific enquiry in Britain and beyond, Lyell was determined to disconnect geology from religion. He originally intended some of the present work, first published in 1838, to be a supplement to the Principles, but later expanded it to serve as a general introduction to geology. The topics covered include the formation of various rock types, matters of field geology, and how the presence of marine fossils above sea level could be explained by the land rising, rather than the sea retreating. Many salient points are illustrated with woodcuts.

In the early nineteenth century, the gifted stratigrapher and amateur geologist William Phillips (1773-1828) gave several lectures to interested young people in Tottenham on the subject of geology. These lectures were later collected into a book, which Phillips expanded in later versions. This reached its peak in 1822 when the clergyman William Daniel Conybeare (1787-1857) collaborated with Phillips to produce this rigorous and improved assessment of the geological composition of England and Wales. Although no second volume was ever published, the book had a tremendous impact on geologists throughout the United Kingdom and Europe, inspiring foreign scholars to produce equivalent volumes about their own countries. Conybeare's concern for the stratigraphy of fossils is especially remarkable for the time. William Fitton, later president of the Geological Society of London, praised the book highly, remarking that 'no equal portion of the earth's surface has ever been more ably illustrated'.

First published in 1826, at a time when the earth sciences were in a state of confusion and controversy, this pioneering study of volcanic action by Charles Daubeny (1795-1867) was significant in promoting the scientific method and the science of geology, at the same time establishing the author's international reputation. Having studied medicine, Daubeny increasingly turned his attention to chemistry, volcanos and earthquakes. Elected a fellow of the Royal Society, he also sought to elevate the status of science in Britain. He presents evidence here, gathered from his travels across Europe, in a methodical fashion, developing contemporary ideas regarding the processes at work beneath the surface of the earth. This reissued first edition provides an opportunity to examine Daubeny's reasoning prior to the revisions of the 1848 edition (also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection), which was updated to take account of the work of Charles Darwin.

Cotidal lines are lines on a map which connect points at which the same tidal level occurs simultaneously. Isaac Newton had explained the movement of the tides by the action of the moon and sun, and Daniel Bernoulli had used Newton's findings to create tide tables for specific locations, but William Whewell wanted to take research further by gathering and analysing information which would link cotidal points or lines across the world. Fellow and eventually Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, Whewell (1794-1866) published this work in 1833. In it he proposes various observations that would need to be undertaken to produce a cotidal map, with detailed descriptions of the factors to be taken into account in computing the results. In 1837, Whewell, several of whose other works are also reissued in this series, was awarded a royal prize medal by the Royal Society for his work on 'tidology'.

The cause of the ice ages was a puzzle to nineteenth-century climatologists. One of the most popular theories was that the affected continents must somehow have been hugely elevated and, like mountains, iced over. However, in this 1885 study of the problem, James Croll (1821-90) argues that such staggering movement would have been impossible. Instead, he puts forward a new theory: that the eccentricity of the earth's orbit changes at regular intervals over long periods, creating 'great secular summers and winters'. Adopting a meticulous approach to the facts, he disproves a host of well-established notions across several disciplines and makes some remarkable deductions, including the effect of ocean currents on climate, the temperature of space, and even the age of the sun. With a focus on logical argument and explanation rather than mathematics, his book remains fascinating and accessible to students in the history of science.

To the naturalist John Woodward (c.1665-1728), fossils were 'much neglected, and left wholly to the Care and Treatment of Miners and meer Mechanicks'. He had built up a large personal collection of these samples of the Earth's petrified remains and spent much of his life developing a system for their classification, the results of which were published in this important illustrated work of 1728. A distinguished physician and a fellow of the Royal Society, Woodward wrote extensively on scientific topics, and had developed a theory that fossils were creatures destroyed in the flood described in the Bible. These ideas attracted critics and supporters in equal measure, but his contribution to techniques of fossil collection and classification were influential. In the present work, he devotes the early chapters to questions of description and classification, while the later sections contain some of his letters to his scientific contemporaries, including Isaac Newton.

In Travels Through Norway and Lapland, Leopold von Buch (1774-1853), a German geologist and palaeontologist, recounts his expedition to Scandinavia in 1806-1808. This book, originally published in Berlin in 1810, and in this English translation in 1813, describes these large, sparsely populated regions at the turn of the nineteenth century. The translator's preface provides an important geo-political backdrop - the possibility of war in Norway and the machinations of Sweden, Russia and Great Britain over the future of this territory. Von Buch's observations, however, are firmly engaged with the scientific. He writes that his motivation for the expedition was to find out how the harsh climate influenced the land, and he records detailed information about the weather and the region's mineralogy and geological structure. He also describes the local population, providing a wide-ranging account of life in the remote reaches of Northern Europe.

G. F. Rodwell (1843-1905) was researching an entry about Mount Etna for the Encyclopaedia Britannica when he realised that no history of this Italian volcano existed in English. He therefore he began the present work, which was published in 1878. Rodwell starts by looking at classical and literary references before giving a detailed physical description of the volcano. One chapter is devoted to explaining how to climb the mountain - something Rodwell was qualified to do, as he had scaled it himself in 1877. He also gives a historical account of the most dramatic aspect of Etna - its many eruptions, which had first been recorded as early as 525 BCE, while the most recent activity had taken place in 1874, only a few years before Rodwell's ascent. With its focus on history and geology, and inclusion of illustrations and maps, Etna gives a detailed portrait of this famous volcano.

Mount Etna in Sicily is one of a small number of active volcanoes in the Mediterranean area, where written history survives from more than two millennia: its eruptions are therefore among the best documented in the world. This account of the eruption of 1819 was written by the chemist and vulcanologist Carmelo Maravigna, a professor at the University of Catania, who was commissioned by his colleagues to make scientific observations of the phenomena and to publish them in a clear and methodical format. Maravigna's book opens with the diary of his own observations from 27 May to 5 August 1819; it then describes the physical consequences of the eruption, including the spread and depth of lava flows, and discusses various theories of volcanic activity. The sixth chapter analyses the mineral deposits in the lava, and the last describes the volcano returned to its dormant state.

John Milne (1850-1913) was a professor of mining and geology at the Imperial College of Engineering, Tokyo. While living in Japan, Milne became very interested in seismology, prompted by a strong seismic shock he experienced in Tokyo in 1880. Sixteen years later Milne and two colleagues completed work on the first seismograph capable of recording major earthquakes. This book, originally published in London in 1886, explains why earthquakes happen and what effects they have on land and in the oceans. As Milne points out, Japan provided him with 'the opportunity of recording an earthquake every week'. Starting with an introduction examining the relationship of seismology to the arts and sciences, the book includes chapters on seismometry, earthquake motion, the causes of earthquakes, and their relation to volcanic activity, providing a thorough account of the state of knowledge about these phenomena towards the end of the nineteenth century.

Few men were better placed to produce an authoritative study of Continental geology than Roderick Impey Murchison (1792-1871), President of the Geological Society and the Royal Geographical Society of London. Having conducted extensive fieldwork alongside Adam Sedgwick, in 1847 Murchison set out on a study tour that would change the manner in which geology was understood and debated. Delivered before the Geological Society and published in their Quarterly Journal in 1849, this paper challenged received wisdom as to the age and formation of the most impressive of geological phenomena. Covering crystalline and palaeozoic rocks, the Trias, iron mines, nummulitic rocks and fish slates, this landmark study and its numerous diagrams that illustrate it not only explain a geological subject, but also reveal the nature of nineteenth-century scientific scholarship. The book also contains a short supplementary paper on the distribution of surface detritus in the Alps.

While a student, George Poulett Scrope (1797-1876) visited Vesuvius and Etna and developed a passionate enthusiasm for volcanos. He did pioneering fieldwork in France in 1821, witnessed the eruption of Vesuvius in 1822, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1826. Scrope became increasingly involved in economics and politics, but later in his career published revised versions of two pioneering books on volcanism he had originally published in the 1820s. Volcanos (1862), reissued here, was based on his Considerations on Volcanos (1825, also reissued in this series) and dedicated to his life-long friend and colleague Charles Lyell. This influential work on volcanic phenomena includes a substantial catalogue of 'all known volcanos and volcanic formations' as well as a dramatic illustration of Vesuvius. It was translated into French and German, went into a second English edition in 1872, and was one of the foundational texts of volcanology.

The German geologist Leopold von Buch (1774-1853) was a fellow-student of Alexander von Humboldt, with whom he later did fieldwork that led to important advances in the understanding of the Jurassic system and the origins of basalt. In 1815 Buch and the Norwegian botanist Christian Smith spent several months in the Canary Isles, and the resulting book, which appeared in 1825, is one of Buch's most important publications. It contains three papers Buch had previously published in journals, on flora (1816), the 1730 eruption on Lanzarote (1818) and temperature (1820), with additional chapters on population, land area and economics, the measurement of altitude, mineralogy, and detailed comparative data on volcanoes around the world. The substantial introduction includes a journal that records Buch's enthusiasm for the islands' scenery, natural history and people, and an obituary of Smith, who died in 1816 on a research trip to the Congo.

James Hutton (1726-1797) was an eminent Scottish scientist known chiefly for his work in geology. Educated at Edinburgh University, Hutton then travelled to Europe to study medicine before going into industry. He spent over a decade farming his family property in Scotland before returning to academic and commercial life. Hutton became an established geologist who also published on chemistry, meteorology and philosophy as an active member of the Edinburgh Royal Society. This volume, first published in 1805, is a detailed and affectionate chronicle of Hutton's life by his close friend, geologist and mathematician John Playfair. The author recounts Hutton's academic career, speculates on the motivation behind his foray into farming and includes a detailed discussion of his main geological theories. With little of Hutton's correspondence and papers surviving, this account by an intimate contemporary is the key resource for studying the life of an intriguing figure in scientific history.

The geologist and explorer Angelo Heilprin (1853-1907) was one of the first scientists to climb the erupting volcano Mont Pelee in 1902. This study, published the following year, records his on-the-spot observations and the scientific data he collected. The erupting volcano tragically destroyed the city of St Pierre, transforming the tropical paradise of Martinique into disastrous chaos. Heilprin's account includes close-range photographs of the erupting volcano taken by the author himself, illustrating the various phases of its activity. These famous photographs are still widely used today. Heilprin pays tribute to the people of the island, describing the courteous assistance he received during his visits. He compares the Pelee eruptions with Mount Vesuvius and its effects on Pompeii, providing important historical context. The book is recognised as being the most thorough study of the eruption sequence and its consequences - one of the greatest natural disasters of the twentieth century.

Charles Darwin (1809-1882) published Observations on the Volcanic Islands in 1844. It is one of three major geological works resulting from the voyage of the Beagle, and contains detailed geological descriptions of locations visited by Darwin including the Cape Verde archipelago, Mauritius, Ascension Island, St Helena, the Galapagos, and parts of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Chapter 6 discusses the types of lava found on different oceanic islands. There is an appendix of short contributions by two other scholars: descriptions of fossil shells from Cape Verde, St Helena and Tasmania by G. B. Sowerby and of fossil corals from Tasmania by W. Lonsdale. The book is illustrated with woodcuts, maps and sketches of specimens. It provides valuable insights into one of the most important scientific voyages ever made, and the development of Darwin's ideas on geology.

John Playfair (1748-1819) was a Scottish mathematician and geologist best known for his defence of James Hutton's geological theories. He attended the University of St Andrews, completing his theological studies in 1770. In 1785 he was appointed joint Professor of Mathematics at the University of Edinburgh, and in 1805 he was elected Professor of Natural Philosophy. This highly influential book, first published in 1802, contains Playfair's clarification and summary of Hutton's geological concepts. Playfair concisely explains Hutton's theories on erosion and geothermal heat in rock formation and the concept of uniformitarianism in geology, illustrating these theories with his own precise observations on different types of rock strata. The clarity of Playfair's explanations was instrumental in popularising Hutton's geological theories, many of which are now recognised as key principles of modern geology. Playfair's strident defence of Hutton's ideas formed part of a controversial debate between Hutton's supporters and his detractors.

George Julius Poulett Scrope (1797-1876) published Considerations on Volcanos in 1825. The work contains the results of his observations of volcanos in the volcanic regions of central France, Italy and Germany. It includes scientific descriptions of all volcanos in these areas, with each categorised according to its level of activity, main characteristics and geological history. Scope's work was one of the first attempts at a comprehensive theory of volcanic action and an understanding of the significance of volcanos as evidence for the earth's history. Scrope argued that volcanos should be studied in terms of known geological processes, and that 'non-catastrophic' causes should be considered to explain their formation. He argued that a gradual cooling of the earth was key to the formation of volcanos. This is a major work of nineteenth-century geology that sets out many of the principles still followed in vulcanology.

First published in 1846, Darwin's Geological Observations made up the third part of his memoir of his voyage on the Beagle during the years 1832-1836. While the first part (1842) focused on the structure and distribution of coral reefs and the second (1844) described the volcanic islands visited during the voyage, this third instalment is devoted exclusively to South America, where Darwin spent the longest period of the expedition. It discusses South America's geological and seismic history, the mineral content of lava and granite, and the deformation of metamorphic rock. Separate chapters cover different geographical areas, and topics include the formation of the East and West Coasts and the pampas, the plains and valleys of Chile, and the structure of the Cordillera. Geological Observations also includes detailed maps of South America and sketches of the terrain.

The collections of fossils housed in this museum, now known as the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, are of international importance. The original collection was begun in 1728, and grew rapidly. This catalogue by Henry Woods (1868-1952), a graduate of the University of Cambridge who undertook curatorial work in the museum between his graduation in 1890 and his appointment as a Demonstrator in Paleobotany in 1892, was first published in 1891. It contains the specific names, classes and orders of 558 specimens in the museum which are 'type specimens' for particular species, and was primarily intended for scholars searching for the location of those specimens. Woods also included the names of individuals who had described each specimen, the name of the collection it was in and references for the specimen. His book provides a valuable record of important fossils in the collection at the time of publication.

Published in 1931 to complement Seward's magisterial four-volume textbook Fossil Plants, this book is a digest of his earlier detailed study, written for a non-specialist audience as an introduction to the field of palaeobotany. Seward begins by describing the basics of geology and palaeobotany in order to explain how the interpretation of fossilised plant remains found in rocks can shed light on the natural world of prehistoric times. He then covers geological periods in chronological sequence, from the Pre-Cambrian to the Quaternary. Throughout, he emphasises the fragmentary nature of the evidence and the difficulties in extrapolating from the surviving fossil record, but he also explains the great discoveries made in the field and how they came about. The accompanying drawings give an impression of the likely combinations of plants found in each period, allowing the reader to visualise the different landscapes evoked in Seward's engaging prose.

William Smith (1769-1839) was best known as the author of the Map of the Strata of England and Wales - indeed, he was known as 'Strata' Smith. His Memoirs, edited by his nephew John Phillips and published in 1844, tell the story of his life from his beginnings as a blacksmith's son in Oxfordshire to his geological work. Smith began as an assistant to a land surveyor and moved into mine-related projects, including excavations for canal-building. During the course of one such project he realised the significance of strata within layers of rock, and in subsequent surveys he could locate deposits of coal, iron and other minerals. Smith suffered throughout his life from financial problems which frustrated publication of his works; his map was published in 1815, but further works were never completed. Towards the end of his life, however, he finally received the scientific recognition that was his due.

This book, published in 1881, was the result of many years of experimentation and observation by Darwin in the open-air laboratory of his garden at Down House in Kent. As he wrote in his introduction, the subject of soil disturbance by worms 'may appear an insignificant one, but we shall see that it possesses some interest'. He goes on to demonstrate the immensity - in size and over time - of the accumulated tiny movements of soil by earthworms, and their vital role in aerating the soil and breaking down vegetable material to keep the topsoil, the growing medium for all plant life and thus vital to human existence, fertile and healthy. At a time when there is huge interest in growing food organically and without using artificial fertilisers, Darwin's insights are as important, and his descriptions of his experiments as fascinating, as they were in the late nineteenth century.

During his famous Beagle voyage, Darwin collected rocks, fossils and other geological specimens. No previous geologist had amassed such a detailed set of data. He identified raised beaches and remains of marine organisms high above the sea, understanding their significance as evidence of the uprising of landmasses. He also witnessed an earthquake and volcanic eruptions, concluding that both are related to movements of molten rock deep in the Earth. In this 1909 lecture, Sir Archibald Geikie, then President of the Royal Society, outlines Darwin's geological findings and explains how these underpinned his developing ideas. We learn of Darwin's theory of coral reef formation, and his fascination with the activities of earthworms. Finally the lecture considers the importance of Darwin's geological studies in formulating his theory of evolution by natural selection, leading to his masterpiece On the Origin of Species.

John Stevens Henslow (1796-1861), a student of Adam Sedgwick, became Professor of Mineralogy at Cambridge in 1822. He soon moved to a chair in Botany, and became a teacher and mentor to Charles Darwin. This book on mineralogy was first published in 1823. It was intended to save time in class by providing an easily accessible reference to the composition of various minerals according to the principles of atomic theory, which was then entering the scientific mainstream. In that paradigm, analysis and examination of any mineral's composition involved first ascertaining the mineral's elementary molecules, both 'essential' and 'accidental', and second, determining the proportions in which the essential ingredients combined to form the integrant molecule of the mineral. Henslow's book will interest historians of science tracing the development of atomic theory, and those working more broadly in the history of university education and the intellectual climate of the nineteenth century.

William Buckland (1784-1856), Dean of Westminster, was an English geologist best known for his contributions to palaeontology. He became the first Reader in Geology at the University of Oxford in 1818. Buckland spent 1819-1822 investigating fossil remains in caves, in order to refine his concept of catastrophism. His research led him to the realisation that hyena remains in Kirkland Cave, Yorkshire, were the remains of an ancient ecosystem and were not relics of the Flood; this led to his being awarded the Copley Medal by the Royal Society of London in 1822. This volume, first published in 1823, contains a full account of Buckland's influential research in Kirkland Cave, which demonstrated for the first time the ability of scientific analysis to reconstruct events from deep time. Buckland's support for and influential revision of the concept of catastrophism is also illustrated in this volume.

The Sedgwick Prize for the best essay on a geological subject was instituted in memory of Adam Sedgwick, the geologist who introduced Darwin to geology in walking tours of north Wales, but later opposed his theories. One of its most eminent winners was A. C. Seward (1863-1941), then a young lecturer in botany at Cambridge. He combined the study of botany with geology in his research on what the age and location of fossilised flora can reveal about the climates of different geological periods. The author of the standard early twentieth-century textbook in the field, Fossil Plants for Students of Botany and Geology (1898-1919), he served as Professor of Botany at Cambridge, Master of Downing College and Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University. This Sedgwick Prize essay sets out the state of knowledge in the field in 1892 and was the foundation of a lifetime's work in palaeobotany.