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Charles Lyell and the Geological Society Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on September 26, 2021 Charles Lyell and the Geological Society JOHN C. THACKRAY Department of Library and Information Services, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK Abstract: Charles Lyell was a loyal and committed Fellow of the Geological Society from 1819 until 1875, serving as Secretary, Foreign Secretary and President. He was principally a theorist, his uniformitarian outlook strongly influenced by the work of James Hutton. The Society on the other hand was devoted to the collection and dissemination of facts; on the whole, theorizing was unwelcome. In line with this tradition the papers Lyell read to the Society are largely factual, and do not add a great deal to the ideas put forward in the Principles of Geology. However, his theories were not ignored by the Society, being noticed in the annual presidential address and, more importantly, in the unscripted and largely spontaneous discussions that took place after many of the papers read at the Society's evening meetings. Charles Lyell was elected a Member of the Charles Darwin on 26 December 1836: Geological Society on 19 March 1819. His admis- Don't accept any official scientific place, if you sion certificate, which is number 498 in a series can avoid it, and tell no one I gave you this which had reached 18 000 by 1990, is signed by the advice, as they would all cry out against me as Revd William Buckland, the Revd William D the preacher of anti-patriotic principles. I fought Conybeare and the Revd William Hony. Lyell was against the calamity of being President as long as then 22 years old and a student at Exeter College, I could ... (Burkhardt & Smith 1985, p.532) Oxford. He remained a Member (converting to Fellow in 1826 after the granting of the Royal We have a pen picture by John Ruskin of Lyell at Charter) until his death 56 years later. Lyell served a Society meeting during his first presidency as Secretary, Foreign Secretary, Vice President and which, although distinctly unflattering, is well President. He attended Council Meetings in one worth reproducing: capacity or another for an astonishing 52 years. One finely made, gentlemanly-looking man was The Geological Society was not, of course, very busy among the fossils which lay on the Lyell's only society, for he belonged to the Royal, table, and shook hands with most of the members Linnean, Zoological and Geographical societies as they came in. His forehead was low and not and probably others (Morrell 1976). But there is very wide, and his eyes were small, sharp, and little doubt that Lyell loved the Geological Society rather ill-natured. He took the chair, however, above all others. This was partly of course because and Mr. Charlesworth, coming in after the geology was his favourite science, but also because business of the meeting had commenced, he subscribed to its ethos and way of doing things. stealing quietly into the room, and seating him- One sees his pride when he reports to his friends: 'a self beside me, informed me that it was Mr. splendid meeting', 'an excellent meeting' and 'all Lyell. I expected a finer countenance in the great the best men present'. Certainly in the 1820s and geologist. (Cook & Wedderburn 1909, vol. 1, p. 1830s most observers agreed that the Geological 9) was easily the brightest and liveliest of London's scientific societies, and even so critical a writer as Charles Lyell was a great theorist. His Principles Charles Babbage sang its praises (Babbage 1830, of Geology (12 edns, 1830-1875) offers his readers pp. 45-46). a world in equilibrium, where organic and Lyell was not however prepared to devote his inorganic processes interact and balance; where whole life to the Society, and occasionally resented things move slowly and steadily and naturally the amount of time that his offices took up. He within a long timescale. He had a deep and long managed to avoid being President for 1833-1835, term commitment to what became known as unifor- though he succumbed for 1835-1837. He wrote to mitarianism, and the presentation of observations THACKRAY, J. C. 1998. Charles Lyell and the Geological Society. In: BLUNDELL, D. J. & SCOTT, A. C. (eds) 17 Lyell: the Past is the Key to the Present. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 143, 17-20. Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on September 26, 2021 18 j.C. THACKRAY and field examples are part of Lyell's strategy for similarities between the world of today and the promoting this theory (Rudwick 1970). This world of the geological past. outlook owed a lot to James Hutton, or at least to The second paper was read in April 1839 and Playfair's interpretation of Hutton, and Hutton was concerned some fossil and recent shells collected in one of those geological system builders that the Canada by Captain Bayfield. Lyell used these to Geological Society deeply disapproved of. The deduce that the climate was colder in the recent past Geological Society had been founded in 1807 to and slightly less cold at a more distant period. Once facilitate the collection and communication of new again, the paper was published in the Proceedings facts, and not for the discussion of systems and (Lyell 1839). The shells are cited in the second theories (Rudwick 1963). G. B. Greenough (1778- edition of the Elements of Geology (Lyell 1841, vol. 1855), the first President, was still active through 1, p. 236), where they join the mass of evidence that the 1820s and 1830s and was fiercely sceptical of Lyell gathers to show that the climate of particular all attempts at theorizing. The typical paper locations has changed during the Earth's history, presented during the first 50 years of the Society's but that the overall temperature of the Earth has life was a piece of regional geology in which strata remained constant. were described and mapped, and their age deduced The third paper was read on Lyell's behalf in from a study of their fossil remains. The deduction January 1842 and deals with Niagara Falls, which of theories from facts was certainly acceptable, but he had visited the previous autumn. Lyell's anything that smacked of the all-inclusive theories enthusiasm for this great marvel of nature is clear of the previous century was deeply suspect. as he describes the strata of the district and then the Were the theoretical tenets to which Lyell was so phenomena of the falls themselves (Lyell 1842). committed simply ignored by the Society to which Niagara had featured in the Principles of Geology he gave his allegiance? from the very first edition to demonstrate the role of Lyell read 45 papers to the Geological Society running water in erosion, with a description based between 1824 and 1854. Twenty derive from his on the work of Robert Bakewell (Bakewell 1830) visits to North America, 15 relate to the Tertiary and Captain Basil Hall (Hall 1829). In the seventh and Quaternary strata of Britain and the Continent edition the account is rewritten on the basis of of Europe, five to other aspects of British geology, Lyell's own fieldwork and this paper, but in essence and five to overseas affairs. None relates explicitly it is unchanged (Lyell 1847). The importance of to Lyell's uniformitarian programme. They are all Lyell's visits to America in the context of his total papers based on geological fieldwork which lie field experience has recently been demonstrated quite easily alongside those of his less philo- (Dott 1997). sophical colleagues such as R. I. Murchison In sum then, Lyell's Geological Society papers (1792-1871), H. T. De la Beche (1796-1855) and add some depth and supporting detail to the the rest. On closer inspection, however, many of the argument set out in the Principles of Geology, but papers do relate to subsidiary themes covered in the their overall effect is quite small. Principles of Geology, and many contained obser- There was, however, another forum where vations that were added to the ever-developing text Lyell's ideas featured more prominently: the annual of the Principles and Elements of Geology (six presidential address. By tradition the President was edns, 1838-1865). Three papers will serve as given more latitude in dealing with speculative or examples of the ways in which this happened. theoretical issues than were speakers at the In April 1834 Lyell read a paper on the loamy Ordinary General Meetings. So, in his address of deposit called 'loess' in the valley of the Rhine, February 1831, the Revd Professor Adam which was based on fieldwork carried out the Sedgwick, having reviewed the papers read to the previous year. Among the distinctively Lyellian Society through the year, turned his attention to features of the paper are the use made of the Lyell's Principles (Sedgwick 1831, pp. 298-306). modern sediments of the Rhine to deduce the He first gave an account of his own views of the environment of deposition of the loess, and the origin of the Earth as a molten globe and the effects emphasis laid on the considerable geographic of its steadily decreasing temperature through changes that must have taken place since the geological time, before showing how Lyell had deposition of this geologically recent deposit, and misunderstood and 'sometimes violated' these yet with no sign of violence or catastrophe. The basic tenets of geological science. He expressed paper was published in the Society's Proceedings regret that 'in the language of the advocate' Lyell in 1834 (Lyell 1834), and the observations and sometimes forgot the character of the historian.
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