William Buckland, F. R. S. (1784-1856) and an Oxford geological lecture, 1823

Abstract

DURING the early part of the nineteenth century, the University of Oxford came under severe attack from its critics both on the grounds of its religious exclusiveness based on the imposition of subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles, and also because of its adherence to a constrained and outmoded curriculum. Science found no place in the scheme of studies for the first degree and the Oxford graduate who aspired to medical or chemical qualification had of necessity to go to a London hospital or Edinburgh University, or somewhere abroad to supplement the courses of instruction provided by the Oxford scientific professors. The general acceptance of this state of affairs by the great majority of senior residents of the University, who were with only few exceptions themselves ordained members of the Established Church, has led to the assumption that they were in the main irreconcilably antagonistic to science and particularly to the new and controversial subject of geology. There were so many aspects of geology which did not accord with the long accepted tenets of religious doctrine, that an overwhelming prejudice and denunciation might have been expected. It is all the more remarkable therefore that the annual courses of lectures by the Rev. William Buckland, F. R. S. , Reader in Mineralogy and Geology, were in fact given to large audiences predominantly of senior members who were motivated by a sincere interest and the wish to keep abreast of current thought.