The Granite Controversy

Abstract

This year, the 150th anniversary of Hutton's death, we are particularly reminded of the lively struggle of the eighteenth century between Vulcanists and Neptunists; the more so since that struggle finds its counterpart to-day in the divergence of opinion between two schools of petrology whose respective members might aptly be called Magmatists and Transformists. Much of the disagreement between the modern opponents arises from a belief on the part of the Magmatists that Hutton proved the magmatic origin of granite, and, in addition, the disagreement is probably strengthened by a misunderstanding of the views held by Transformists, and by lack of knowledge or experience of the evidence on which they base their conclusions. Indeed, Transformists might be tempted to preface their writings with the following very apposite quotation from Werner (1781):—“I must here present a request to all who would judge of this theory, or communicate their sentiments on it to the public, viz. to begin by reading through the whole treatise, and then to peruse it a second time, with attention. Such a request will not only appear strange to many persons, but even superfluous ; I find myself, however, under the necessity of making it from the manner followed by some individuals with my book on the external characters of fossils. They have often represented me as saying quite the contrary of what I have expressly written. This may have been done by some, through design, but in by far the greater number of instances, it has happened from that work not having been read through ; and in this manner the public has frequently been led into an error, at least for some time.”