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INTRODUCTION.

a combination between the progress of Geology in England andon the continent, by a distinct and masterly survey of theircomparative structure; and has first treated the action of thediluvial currents with fulness and precision.

To Dr. Mac Culloch we owe our best information on thestructure and phcenomena of the interesting class of trap rocksand of granite, and the substitution of a rigorous determinationof their mineratogical character for the vague nomenclature anddescriptions so commonly applied to many of the older forma-tions. 'While he has been elucidating the geological history ofScotland, that of Ireland has received similar contributionsof the highest merit from Messrs. Weaver and Griffith

The Edinburgh school has to boast of several distinguishedgeological names; it is impossible to mention that of Playfairwithout the admiration demanded by a genius of a very highphilosophical order, or that of Jameson without the respectdue to a long and meritorious career of labours devoted to theadvancement of this science; but we cannot but feel the inju-liaus effects which have in this instance been produced by thatexcessive addiction to theoretical speculations, w hich has con-verted the members of that school into the zealous partisans ofrival hypotheses, and led them to contribute far less than theyotherwise must have done, to the real progress of inductivegeology. To this cause we must ascribe it, that it has fallen sofar behind the schools of London and Oxford ;* in the lattercase a striking and satisfactory proof has been afforded in oppo-sition to the misrepresentations of shallow sciolists, that the in-stitutions of academical education are far from unfavorable tothe cultivation of the physical sciences, and that an ignoranceof the rules of classical composition, and of the languages, andphilosophy of polished antiquity, are by no means essential ad-vantages in researches of this nature : it has been rather seenquid mens rite, quid indolesnutrita faustis sub penetralibuspossit.

Cambridge has yielded a similar evidence in the valuablememoirs of Messrs. Sedgewick and Henslow.

* It will be readily permitted to the present writer at once to dischargea debt of justice and enter a gratifying memorial of private friendship, byhere recording the fact that we owe the introduction of these pursuits intothe University above mentioned, to lectures delivered between 1805 and1810 by the present Professor of Chemistry Dr. Kidd. His more privateexertions in encouraging the rising talents of others, and promoting theirco-operation, were as successful in effect as liberal in design. The Oxfordschool may claim the important observations of Mr. Strangeways on theRussian Empire as among its fruiti.