Abraham Gottlob Werner: History and folk‐history

Abstract

The Neptunist‐Vulcanist controversy has distorted the reputations of both James Hutton and Abraham Gottlob Werner. Among English‐speaking geologists, Hutton is often presented as the Father of Modern Geology, whereas Werner's views are seen as ‘palpably absurd’. Both men made major contributions to geology, but they were men of their age, the second half of the eighteenth century, and remote in their general ideas from those current since Lyell's day in the mid‐nineteenth. Werner was greatly admired by some of his ablest contemporaries, and their admiration becomes inexplicable if we regard his views as ‘palpably absurd’. Historical research in the last few years, reviewed here, is able to show how Werner's views arose and why they seemed persuasive at the time. Some examples of Neptunist observations in Australia in the 1820's are given to show the application and later modification of the theory.

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