Lyell, Sir Charles, Baronet

Lyell, Sir Charles, Baronet

▪ Scottish geologist
Introduction
born Nov. 14, 1797, Kinnordy, Forfarshire, Scot.
died Feb. 22, 1875, London
 Scottish geologist largely responsible for the general acceptance of the view that all features of the Earth's (Earth) surface are produced by physical, chemical, and biological processes through long periods of geological time. The concept was called uniformitarianism (initially set forth by James Hutton). Lyell's achievements laid the foundations for evolutionary biology as well as for an understanding of the Earth's development. He was knighted in 1848 and made a baronet in 1864.

Life
      Lyell was born at Kinnordy, the stately family home at the foot of the Grampian Mountains in eastern Scotland. His principal childhood associations, however, were with the New Forest near Southampton, Eng., where his parents moved before he was two years old. His father, a naturalist who later turned to more literary pursuits, kept the study well stocked with books on every subject, including geology. The eldest of 10 children, Charles attended a series of private schools, where he was not a particularly diligent student; he much preferred rambles in the New Forest and his father's instruction at home to those places, with their schoolboy pranks and pecking orders whose spirit he never really shared. His first scientific hobby was collecting butterflies and aquatic insects, an activity pursued intensively for some years, even though labelled unmanly by local residents. His observations went far beyond those of any ordinary boy, and later this instinct for collecting and comparing led to important discoveries.

      At 19 Lyell entered Oxford University, where his interest in classics, mathematics, and geology was stimulated, the latter by the enthusiastic lectures of William Buckland (Buckland, William), later widely known for his attempt to prove Noah's Flood by studies of fossils from cave deposits. Lyell spent the long vacations between terms travelling and conducting geological studies. Notes made in 1817 on the origin of the Yarmouth lowlands clearly foreshadow his later work. The penetrating geological and cultural observations Lyell made while on a continental tour with his family in 1818 were as remarkable as the number of miles he walked in a day. In December 1819 he earned a B.A. with honours and moved to London to study law.

Career
      Lyell's eyes were weakened by hard law study, and he sought and found relief by spending much time on geological work outdoors. Among these holidays was a visit to Sussex in 1822 to see evidence of vertical movements of the Earth's crust. In 1823, on a visit to Paris, he met the renowned naturalists Alexander von Humboldt and Georges Cuvier and examined the Paris Basin with the French geologist Louis-Constant Prévost. In 1824 Lyell studied sediments forming in freshwater lakes near Kinnordy. When in London, Lyell participated in its vigorous intellectual life, meeting such literati as Sir Walter Scott and taking active part in several scientific societies.

New approach to geology.
      Prodded to finish his law studies, Lyell was admitted to the bar in 1825, but with his father's financial support he practiced geology more than law, publishing his first scientific papers that year. Lyell was rapidly developing new principles of reasoning in geology and began to plan a book which would stress that there are natural (as opposed to supernatural) explanations for all geologic phenomena, that the ordinary natural processes of today and their products do not differ in kind or magnitude from those of the past, and that the Earth must therefore be very ancient because these everyday processes work so slowly. With the ambitious young geologist Roderick Murchison, he explored districts in France and Italy where proof of his principles could be sought. From northern Italy Lyell went south alone to Sicily. Poor roads and accommodations made travel difficult, but in the region around Mt. Etna (Etna, Mount) he found striking confirmation of his belief in the adequacy of natural causes to explain the features of the Earth and in the great antiquity even of such a recent feature as Etna itself.

      The results of this trip, which lasted from May 1828 until February 1829, far exceeded Lyell's expectations. Returning to London, he set to work immediately on his book, Principles of Geology, the first volume of which was published in July 1830. A reader today may wonder why this book filled with facts purports to deal with principles. Lyell had to teach his principles through masses of facts and examples because in 1830 his method of scientific inquiry was novel and even mildly heretical. A remark of Charles Darwin shows how brilliantly Lyell succeeded: “The very first place which I examined . . . showed me clearly the wonderful superiority of Lyell's manner of treating geology, compared with that of any other author, whose work I had with me or ever afterwards read.”

      During the summer of 1830 Lyell travelled through the geologically complex Pyrenees to Spain, where the closed, repressed society both fascinated and repelled him. Returning to France, he was astonished to find King Charles X dethroned, the tricolour everywhere, and geologists able to talk only of politics. Back in London he set to work again on the Principles of Geology, finishing Volume II in December 1831 and the third and final volume in April 1833. His steady work was relieved by occasional social or scientific gatherings and a trip to a volcanic district in Germany close to the home of his sweetheart, Mary Horner, in Bonn, whom he married in July 1832, taking a long honeymoon and geological excursion in Switzerland and Italy. Mary, whose father had geological leanings, shared Charles's interests. For 40 years she was his closest companion; the happiness of their marriage increased because of her ability to participate in his work.

      During the next eight years the Lyells led a quiet life. Winters were devoted to study, scientific and social activities, and revision of Principles of Geology, which sold so well that new editions were frequently required. Data for the new editions were gathered during summer travels, including two visits to Scandinavia in 1834 and 1837. In 1832 and 1833 Lyell delivered well-received lectures at King's College, London, afterward resigning the professorship as too time-consuming.

Scientific eminence.
      Publication of the Principles of Geology placed him among the recognized leaders of his field, compelling him to devote more time to scientific affairs. During these years he gained the friendship of men like Darwin and the astronomer Sir John Herschel. In 1838 Lyell's Elements of Geology was published; it described European rocks and fossils from the most recent, Lyell's specialty, to the oldest then known. Like the Principles of Geology, this well-illustrated work was periodically enlarged and updated.

      In 1841 Lyell accepted an invitation to lecture and travel for a year in North America, returning again for nine months in 1845–46 and for two short visits in the 1850s. During their travels, the Lyells visited nearly every part of the United States east of the Mississippi River and much of eastern Canada, seeing almost all of the important geological “monuments” along the way, including Niagara Falls. Lyell was amazed at the comparative ease of travel, although they saw many places newly claimed from the wilderness. A veteran of coach and sail days, Lyell often praised the speed and comfort of the new railroads and steamships. Lyell's lectures at the Lowell Institute in Boston attracted thousands of people of both sexes and every social station. Lyell wrote enthusiastic and informative books, in 1845 and 1849, about each of his two long visits to the New World. Unlike the majority of well-off Victorians, Lyell was a vocal supporter of the Union cause in the American Civil War. Familiar with both North and South, he admired the bravery and military skill of the South but believed in the necessity and inevitability of a Northern victory.

      In the 1840s Lyell became more widely known outside the scientific community, socializing with Lord John Russell, a leading Whig; Sir Robert Peel, founder of Scotland Yard; and Thomas Macaulay, the historian of England. In 1848 Lyell was knighted for his scientific achievements, beginning a long and friendly acquaintance with the royal family. He studied the prevention of mine disasters with the English physicist Michael Faraday in 1844, served as a commissioner for the Great Exhibition in 1851–52, and in the same year helped to begin educational reform at Oxford University—he had long objected to church domination of British colleges. Lyell's professional reputation continued to grow; during his lifetime he received many awards and honorary degrees, including, in 1858, the Copley Medal, the highest award of the Royal Society of London; and he was many times president of various scientific societies or functions. Expanding reputation and responsibilities brought no letup in his geological explorations. With Mary, he travelled in Europe or Britain practically every summer, visiting Madeira in the winter of 1854 to study the origin of the island itself and of its curious fauna and flora. Lyell especially liked to visit young geologists, from whom he felt “old stagers” had much to learn. After exhaustive restudy carried out on muleback in 1858, he proved conclusively that Mt. Etna had been built up by repeated small eruptions rather than by a cataclysmic upheaval as some geologists still insisted. He wrote Mary that “a good mule is like presenting an old geologist with a young pair of legs.”

      In 1859 publication of Darwin's Origin of Species gave new impetus to Lyell's work. Although Darwin drew heavily on Lyell's Principles of Geology both for style and content, Lyell had never shared his protégé's belief in evolution. But reading the Origin of Species triggered studies that culminated in publication of The Geological Evidence of the Antiquity of Man in 1863, in which Lyell tentatively accepted evolution by natural selection. Only during completion of a major revision of the Principles of Geology in 1865 did he fully adopt Darwin's conclusions, however, adding powerful arguments of his own that won new adherents to Darwin's theory. Why Lyell was hesitant in accepting Darwinism is best explained by Darwin himself: “Considering his age, his former views, and position in society, I think his action has been heroic.”

      After 1865 Lyell's activities became more restricted as his strength waned, although he never entirely gave up outdoor geology. His wife, 12 years his junior, died unexpectedly in 1873 after a short illness, leaving Lyell to write, “I endeavour by daily work at my favourite science, to forget as far as possible the dreadful change which this has made in my existence.” He died in 1875, while revising his Principles of Geology for its 12th edition, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Assessment
      Lyell typified his times in beginning as an amateur geologist and becoming a professional by study and experience. Unlike most geologists then and now, however, he never considered observations and collections as ends in themselves but used them to build and test theories. The Principles of Geology opened up new vistas of time and change for the younger group of scientists around Darwin. Only after they were gone did Lyell's reputation begin to diminish, largely at the hands of critics who had not read the Principles of Geology as carefully as had Darwin and attributed to Darwin things he had learned from Lyell. Lyell is still underestimated by some geologists who fail to see that the methods and principles they use every day actually originated with Lyell and were revolutionary in his era. The lasting value of Lyell's work and its importance for the modern reader are clear in Darwin's assessment:

The great merit of the Principles was that it altered the whole tone of one's mind, and therefore that, when seeing a thing never seen by Lyell, one yet saw it partially through his eyes.

Richard W. Macomber

Additional Reading
Katherine M. Lyell (ed.), Life, Letters, and Journals of Sir Charles Lyell, Bart., 2 vol. (1881), is the best source of Lyell's own observations. Charles Lyell, Principles of Geology, Being an Attempt to Explain the Former Changes of the Earth's Surface by Reference to Causes Now in Operation, 3 vol. (1830–33, reprinted 1969), and Principles of Geology, or The Modern Changes of the Earth and Its Inhabitants, 11th ed., 2 vol. (1872), are the two best editions to consult and compare. T.G. Bonney, Charles Lyell and Modern Geology (1895), is a perceptive 19th-century view. See also M.J.S. Rudwick, “Lyell on Etna, and the Antiquity of the Earth,” in C.J. Schneer (ed.), Toward a History of Geology (1969); and Sir Charles Lyell's Scientific Journals on the Species Question (1970), written by the leading student of Lyell's life and work, L.G. Wilson, who also provided the definitive biography Charles Lyell. The Years to 1841: The Revolution in Geology (1972). E.B. Bailey, Charles Lyell (1962), is also a highly readable account.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Lyell, Sir Charles — (1797 1875)    Geologist and writer, s. of Charles L., of Kinnordy, Forfarshire (a distinguished botanist and student of Dante), was brought up near the New Forest. After going to school at various places in England, he was sent to Oxf., where… …   Short biographical dictionary of English literature

  • Charles Lyell — For other people named Charles Lyell, see Charles Lyell (disambiguation). Sir Charles Lyell, Bt Born …   Wikipedia

  • Charles Lyell — Sir Charles Lyell (* 14. November 1797 zu Kinnordy in Forfarshire; † 22. Februar 1875 in London) war ein britischer Geologe. Inhaltsverzeichnis …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Charles — Charles, Ray * * * (as used in expressions) Adams, Charles Francis Addams, Charles (Samuel) Atlas, Charles Babbage, Charles Barkley, Charles (Wade) Charles Daly Barnet Bartlett, Sir Frederic C(harles) Baudelaire, Charles (Pierre) Charles Edward… …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • sir — /serr/, n. 1. a respectful or formal term of address used to a man: No, sir. 2. (cap.) the distinctive title of a knight or baronet: Sir Walter Scott. 3. (cap.) a title of respect for some notable personage of ancient times: Sir Pandarus of Troy …   Universalium

  • Charles — /chahrlz/, n. 1. (Prince of Edinburgh and of Wales) born 1948, heir apparent to the throne of Great Britain (son of Elizabeth II). 2. Ray (Ray Charles Robinson), born 1930, U.S. blues singer and pianist. 3. Cape, a cape in E Virginia, N of the… …   Universalium

  • Darwin, Charles — ▪ British naturalist Introduction in full  Charles Robert Darwin  born February 12, 1809, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England died April 19, 1882, Downe, Kent  English naturalist whose theory of evolution by natural selection became the foundation of …   Universalium

  • Baronet — (Verkleinerungsform zu Baron) ist ein erblicher Titel innerhalb des britischen Adels. Die Baronets gehören nicht zur Peerage, sondern bilden zusammen mit den Knights die sogenannte Gentry. Die Anrede für einen Baronet lautet Sir, für seine… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Baronet — For the brush footed butterfly species, see Euthalia nais. Royal and noble ranks Emperor Empress King Queen …   Wikipedia

  • Lyell Baronets — There have been two Baronetcies created for members of the Lyell family, both in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. The first creation became extinct on the death of its first holder while the second creation is still extant.The Lyell… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”