HUI"PON, JAMES, M D. well known as the author of an ingenious Theory of the Earth, was the son of a respec table merchant in Edinburgh, and was born on the 3d of June 1726. He received at the high school and the uni versity the rudiments of a liberal education, during which his curiosity was powerfully excited by various facts in chemistry which came under his knowledge, and he ac quired a taste for chemical pursuits, which distinguished him through life. Ii is friends, however, placed him as an apprentice with Mr Chalmers, 'Writer to the Signet. But this gentleman soon perceiving that he disliked his em ployment, and occupied much of his time with chemical experiments, liberally released him from his engagements, and advised him to turn his attention to more congenial pursuits. He now entered on a course of medical studies, which he prosecuted first in Edinburgh, from the year 1744 to 1747. He next studied at Paris ; and in 1749, he took the degree of M. D. at Leyden. Having thus completed his education, however, lie perceived serious difficulties opposed to his views of success in obtaining practice. He also appre hended that the labours of a professional life might inter fere with the gratification of his taste for chemistry ; and in 1750 he resolved to apply himself to agriculture. For the purpose of learning that art, he went to Norfolk, where he resided two years in the house of an intelligent farmer. During this residence, he made pedestrian excursions to different parts of England for his improvement in agricul tural knowledge; in the course of which he contracted an attachment to mineralogy and the kindred speculations of geology.
In 1754, he extended his agricultural knowledge, by making a tour in Holland and Flanders. During all these peregrinations, he made a collection of facts, which were afterwards made to contribute to his theory of the earth. He returned to Scotland, and reduced his agricultural knowledge to practice, by improving his patrimonial pro perty in Berwickshire. In this occupation he was engag ed for 14 years. He had the honour of being among the first who introduced good husbandry into our country, -where it has since been so successfully cultivated. In 1768 he let his farm, which he had now brought to a high state of improvement. He had been for several years con cerned in a manufactory of sal ammoniac, conducted in Edinburgh under the name of Mr James Davie, who was one of his early and constant friends; and in 1765, a regu.
lay partnership had been formed, after which the work was conducted in the name of both. When he gave up his farm, he took Up his residence in Edinburgh, and devoted his attention to the pursuits of science, in which lie was assisted and animated by his learned friends, whose com pany he enjoyed in this metropolis. In the course of his chemical pursuits, he discovered that soda was contained in zeolitc ; the first time an alkali had been found in a stony mineral. Ile continued to make tours to various parts of the island, in prosecution of his geological enqui ries, which assumed greater and greater consistency. In 1777, Dr Hutton published a pamphlet, entitled Consider ations on the Nature, Qualities, and Distinctions of Coal and Calm, with a view to throw light on a disputed point, whether the small coal of Scotland was liable to the duty on English coal, or to that on English culm. On this subject he displayed great accuracy of observation, and his dis cussion led to a satisfactory decision of the question. From the time of fixing his residence in Edinburgh, Dr Hutton had been a member of the Philosophical Society, known by the three volumes of literary and physical essays which it published. In that Society he read several papers, none of which have been published, with the exception of one which appeared in the second volume of the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, " On certain natural appearances of the ground on the hill of Arthur's Scat."
The institution of the Royal Society, which happened in 1783, called forth from Dr Hutton the first sketch of his Theory of the Earth, which he had matured in his own wind, but communicated only to his friends Dr Black and Mr Clerk of Eldin, both of whom approved of it. For an account of this theory, see the article MINERALOGY. The distinguishing feature of it was, the universal agency of heat in consolidating the rocky strata, after the materials of which they were formed had been collected by the sub siding of louse earthy materials at the bottom of the sea. This heat he conceived to be seated•in the central parts of the earth. To the expansive power of this agent, acting on water or other bodies, he ascribed the elevation of the strata from the bottom of the sea to the higher situations which they have since occupied. He thus accounted for the present appearances. He supposes the earth to have undergone many revolutions at very distant intervals of time, and to be subjected to a law, which produces a gene ral and sudden convulsion as a stage in certain cycles of changes, which at all other times are slowly yet incessant ly advancing. This theory has been defended by the au thor and his followers with much learning and ingenuity ; and in a particular manner by 'his zealous and enlightened admirer Professor Playfair. It has, however, met with a formidable competitor in that of \Verner ; the leading fea ture of which is, to account for consolidation by crystalliza tion from a state of aqueous solution, rejecting the hypo thesis of a central heat, whether as concerned in the fusion of the rocks, or in the elevation of the strata. It supposes the materials of the strata to have subsided at their present elevation ; and its chief embarrassment consists in the dif ficulty of accounting for the retiring of the waters. The illustration of these opposite general views includes a vast variety of discussion on the constitution of the rocky strata. The controversy has eminently promoted the investigation of the mineral kingdom. A great part of the world con tent themselves with a smile bordering on contempt, when they casually listen to these speculations; and a superficial observer is generally struck with the character of extrava gance, which appears so prominent in the hypotheses as sumed No hypothesis, however, within the limits of pos sibility, is too extravagant for the subject. The disposition of the strata is itself an extravagant fact, if we may be al lowest to apply this epithet to any thing in nature. It points to causes so different in their general character from any that we see in actual operation, that rto hypothe sis is to be rejected for its strangeness; and hypotheses of this kind are unavoidable to those who attempt to explain the phenomena before them. A wish ol'this sort cannot be reasonably condemned. There can scarcely be a more su blime speculation in physics, than to attempt the resolu tion of problems which nature suggests on so magnificent a scale. \Ve may indeed sometimes wonder to see a parti cular theory so tenaciously adhered to ; and it may be re garded as a curious fact, that in the present age the one or the other of the theories now mentioned should be adopted by all geologists. It might lie supposed, that the subject would afford several others equally plausible ; but it is probably not so much a satisfaction with their own the ory as a simple preference of it to its opponent, that is indulged in by the greater part of geologists. The un explained phenomena of magnetism, particularly the fluctuating variations of the needle, and the supposition of interchanges of materials among the different planets, (countenanced in some measure by the well authenti cated instances of stones which have fallen from the at mosphere,) will perhaps at some future period lead to a modification of our geological theories, or to the formation of others.