詹姆斯·赫顿James Hutton

詹姆斯·赫顿是一位化学家，但最为人所知的是作为地质学家。那么为什么把他收录进这个档案呢？有两个原因。首先，他关于地球年龄的卓越理论受到了艾萨克·牛顿世界观的启发，正如科林·麦克劳林的教学中所呈现的那样；其次，他在地质研究中的一位主要合作者是约翰·普莱费尔。

赫顿的母亲是Sarah Balfour，父亲是William Hutton。赫顿出生于一个富裕家庭，因为他的父亲William是一位商人，曾担任爱丁堡市财务主管一职。William在Slighhouses拥有一个140英亩的农场，并在附近拥有一个名为Nether Monynut的590英亩的山地农场。Slighhouses位于特威德河畔伯里克以西，距离邓斯和奇恩赛德以北约7公里。William Hutton在赫顿大约两岁时去世，Sarah Hutton独自抚养赫顿和他的三个姐妹（赫顿有一个早逝的哥哥）。Sarah没有再婚，而当时许多女性可能不得不这样做，她得以在没有任何经济困难的情况下抚养家庭。

1736年，他十岁时，赫顿进入爱丁堡中学。在那里他学习拉丁语、希腊语和数学，1740年11月，他十四岁时进入爱丁堡大学。这并不像现在听起来那么了不起，因为当时苏格兰的大学与中学竞争教育最聪明的学生。在爱丁堡大学，赫顿由科林·麦克劳林教授数学，由弗瑞兹·约翰 Stevenson教授逻辑学和形而上学。他于1743年春天毕业，当时还只有十七岁。

毕业后，赫顿当了一名律师的学徒，但正如约翰·普莱费尔所述，他的心思并不在工作上[7]：-

这个年轻人对学习的爱好持续不减，人们常常发现，在他本该抄写文书或研究法律程序形式的时候，他却用化学实验来娱乐自己和同伴们。

赫顿决定接受涉及化学最多的训练，于1744年11月回到爱丁堡大学攻读医学。然而，在他能够开始第二年的学习之前，1745年的叛乱爆发了，他以前的讲师科林·麦克劳林正在组织城市防御，以对抗詹姆斯党军队。一年后他才得以恢复学业，于1746年继续学习。

1747年，赫顿有了一个私生子。可能因为这个原因，他离开爱丁堡前往巴黎，在那里他继续在大学学习。在那里一年后，他再次搬家，这次是在莱顿完成他的医学研究。在向莱顿大学提交了一篇题为De sanguine et circulatione in microcosmo Ⓣ（论微观世界中的血液与循环）的论文后，他于1749年9月获得了医学学位。可能赫顿从未打算以医学为职业，或者他可能决定暂时避开爱丁堡，因为那是他的私生子居住的地方。无论出于何种原因，他从莱顿返回后选择住在伦敦而不是爱丁堡。

在伦敦期间，赫顿与赫顿 Davie通信，后者曾是他的中学朋友，仍住在爱丁堡。他们在爱丁堡当学生时做出了一项化学发现，发现了一种制造氯化铵的方法，这是一种用于焊接金属的化学品。1750年夏天，赫顿访问爱丁堡，在那里他和赫顿 Davie建立了一家化工厂。该厂立即获得成功，为赫顿提供了余生所需的收入。

赫顿继续住在伦敦，现在经常去特威德河畔伯里克以西的斯莱豪斯农场，那是他从父亲那里继承来的。他计划在那里务农，但决定先研究现代农业方法。1752年，赫顿搬到诺福克的一个农场，在那里度过了两年。正如约翰·普莱费尔回忆的那样，这是美好的岁月[7]：-

……在他的一生中……没有哪个时期比这更频繁地被他与朋友交谈时提及；他常常以非凡的生动描述乡村运动和琐碎的冒险，这些在劳动间隙构成了他们社交的娱乐。

这些年对赫顿来说在另一方面也很重要，因为正是在这些年里，他对地质学的兴趣开始了。我们应该强调，此时地质学还不被视为一门独立的科学，赫顿会把自己看作自然哲学家。许多数学家对自然哲学感兴趣，尤其是地质学。大约在这个时候，赫顿开始阅读有关该主题的书籍；阅读罗伯特·胡克的Discourse on earthquakes（1705年）、威廉·惠斯顿的New theory of the Earth（1696年）、哥特弗里德·威廉·莱布尼茨的ProtogaeaⓉ（地球科学）（1749年）和布丰的Histoire naturelleⓉ（自然史），以及斯泰诺的论文Dissertation concerning a solid body enclosed by the process of nature within a solid。

1754年夏天，赫顿搬到斯莱豪斯，开始务农。这标志着一个长达十三年的时期的开始，在此期间他曾几次前往爱丁堡，但大部分时间都在务农和研究他的地质学理论。起初他在斯莱豪斯似乎不太快乐，但1755年他写给朋友乔治·克拉克·麦克斯韦（詹姆斯·克拉克·麦克斯韦的曾曾祖父）的一封信中的证据表明，原因很可能是一段失败的爱情。信中暗示这一点的其他旁白中，他写道（见[5]）：-

哦，如果女士们能像我对恰好由我照料和训导的牛犊那样，以一半的感情来爱我们男人，我们将会拥有一个多么幸福的世界。

赫顿于1767年回到爱丁堡居住，与他的三个姐妹住在家里。他回到的这座城市正在经历一场学术革命。在这里，他加入了遍及全城的智力活动。他最重要的朋友有发现二氧化碳的Joseph Black、制造出第一台实用蒸汽机的James Watt，以及经济学家Adam Smith。

赫顿在爱丁堡居住的房子现在既是他的家，也是他的实验室，他继续研究他的地球历史理论。一位到他家的访客写道（例如见[5]）：-

他的书房里满是化石和各种化学仪器，几乎没有坐下的地方。

他对地质学的兴趣也使他参与了其他项目，他是九人委员会的成员，该委员会组织了福斯-克莱德运河的修建。他在1767年加入该委员会，当时委员会设在爱丁堡，运河的修建也是在那里开始的；他一直留在委员会中直到1775年，那时由于修建接近克莱德，委员会已设在格拉斯哥。

地球的年龄是一个在当时欧洲无疑具有高度宗教性质的话题。尽管大多数人接受地球围绕太阳旋转，但《圣经》仍被视为字面真理。像艾萨克·牛顿这样的科学家曾投入大量精力，利用经文研究地球的年代学。公认的创世日期约为公元前4000年，普遍接受的信仰是基督在创世后4000年诞生，基督诞生后2000年将发生第二次降临，他将在世上统治1000年。这一年代学有两个主要原因。一是研究《圣经》中从亚当夏娃时代起给出的年龄。二是对《创世记》中描述的上帝用六天创造世界的字面解释，以及“对上帝而言，一日如千年”的引文。

赫顿观察周围的岩石来理解地球的历史，而不是从《圣经》中寻求答案。他意识到土壤是由岩石侵蚀造成的，也明白存在第二种机制，在地表下生成岩石，然后这些岩石被抬升形成新的陆地。他明白这是一个极其缓慢的循环过程，因此地球必定极其古老。然而，他没有看到任何机制能让他哪怕估算这个年龄。

1784年某个时候，Royal Society of Edinburgh邀请赫顿就其理论做两次讲座。第一次讲座安排在1785年3月7日，但不幸的是他生病了，无法亲自向会士们发表演讲。他的讲座Concerning the system of the Earth, its duration, and stability由他的朋友Joseph Black代为宣读。赫顿身体恢复得足够好，可以在四周后的4月4日发表第二次讲座。当然，许多人将他的结论视为对基督教会的攻击，一些人强烈反对他的观点。赫顿的反应是一位杰出科学家应有的反应——他前往各地考察岩层，试图获得进一步的证据来证明他的理论是正确的。其中一次考察是在1788年夏天，当时赫顿、约翰·普莱费尔和赫顿 Hall爵士沿着苏格兰北海海岸航行，考察悬崖中裸露的岩层。

赫顿在爱丁堡皇家学会所作两次演讲的印刷版直到1788年才出版，但由于赫顿在演讲后数年收集的进一步证据并未被提及，人们不得不认为延迟在于论文在Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh上的印刷。随后他撰写了一本书，更详细地阐述自己的理论。这部论著The theory of the earth于1795年问世，但遗憾的是，它远不如本来可能达到的那样好，因为赫顿是在健康状况恶化期间写成的。还必须补充的是，即使在严重的健康问题出现之前，赫顿在当面与同行科学家交谈时说服他们，似乎总比通过写作要成功得多。赫顿有一种相当奇特的书面表达风格，使他的理论更难理解，结果他得到的赞誉少于他应得的。他的风格导致了许多曲解，也招致了少数读过该著作的人的抨击。将其观点更成功地呈现出来，则留给了其他人，尤其是约翰·普莱费尔。

约翰·普莱费尔于1802年出版Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth。他以与The theory of the earth不同的风格呈现赫顿的理论。他简洁而雄辩的风格由一系列章节组成，清晰地陈述赫顿理论，给出支持它的事实，以及反对它的论据。约翰·普莱费尔呈现的成功可以从此后给予赫顿的声誉和赞誉来判断，赫顿现在被视为第一位伟大的英国地质学家。约翰·普莱费尔从赫顿1797年去世到1802年，花了将近五年时间撰写Illustrations。他的大部分业余时间都用于穿越不列颠旅行，寻找支持赫顿理论的证据，此前他在与赫顿一起的旅行中，例如上述1788年的旅行，学会了如何解读他所看到的岩层。

至于赫顿的性格，约翰·普莱费尔在[7]中给出了这样的描述：-

对他的朋友们来说，他的谈话是无价的；伟大的才能、最完美的坦率，以及性格和举止的极度纯朴，所有这些结合在一起，都印刻在他的谈话中。……这种纯朴贯穿了他的全部行为；而他的举止虽然独特，却极为令人愉悦，展现出一种在从事深奥抽象思辨的人中几乎见不到的活泼。他极大的生动性，加上那种忘我的倾向，有时会使他陷入一些小小的怪癖，这些怪癖与哲学生活中较为严肃的习惯形成了有趣的对比。……但是，用言语无法传达他的谈话所产生的效果，也无法传达如此多的哲学、欢快和幽默，伴随着既如此生动又如此纯朴的举止所留下的印象。

James Hutton was a chemist but is best known as a geologist. Why then include him in this archive? There are two reasons. First his remarkable theory of the age of the Earth was inspired by Newton's world view as presented in the teaching of Colin Maclaurin, and second that one of his main collaborators in his geological research was John Playfair.

James Hutton's mother was Sarah Balfour and his father was William Hutton. James was born into a wealthy family for his father William was a merchant who held the office of Edinburgh city treasurer. William owned a 140 acre farm at Slighhouses and a nearby hill farm of 590 acres named Nether Monynut. Slighhouses is west of Berwick-upon-Tweed, about 7 km north of Duns and Chirnside. William Hutton died when James was about two years old and Sarah Hutton was left to bring up James and his three sisters (James had an older brother who died young). Sarah did not marry again, as many women of this time would have had to do, and was able to bring up the family with no financial difficulties.

In 1736, when he was ten years old, James entered Edinburgh High School. There he studied Latin, Greek and mathematics, and in November 1740, at the age of fourteen, he entered the University of Edinburgh. This was not as remarkable as it now sounds, for at this time the Scottish universities competed with the schools to educate the brightest pupils. At the University of Edinburgh Hutton was taught mathematics by Maclaurin and logic and metaphysics by John Stevenson. He graduated in the spring of 1743, still only seventeen years old.

After graduating, Hutton took a job as an apprentice to a solicitor, but his mind was not on the work as Playfair recounts [7]:-

... the young man's propensity to study continued, and he was often found amusing himself and his fellow apprentices with chemical experiments when he should have been copying papers, or studying the forms of legal proceedings.

Hutton, deciding to take the training which involved the most chemistry, returned to the University of Edinburgh in November 1744 to undertake medical studies. However before he could begin his second year of studies the 1745 rebellion had broken out and his former lecturer Maclaurin was organising the defence of the city against the Jacobite armies. It was a year before he could resume his studies, which he did in 1746.

In 1747 Hutton fathered an illegitimate child. Probably for that reason he left Edinburgh and went to Paris where he continued his studies at the University. After a year there he moved again, this time to complete his medical studies in Leiden. After submitting a thesis entitled De sanguine et circulatione in microcosmo Ⓣ to the University of Leiden he graduated with his medical degree in September 1749. It may have been that Hutton never intended to practise medicine as a career, or he may have decided to avoid Edinburgh for a while since that was where his illegitimate son was living. For whatever reason he returned from Leiden to live in London rather than Edinburgh.

While in London, Hutton corresponded with James Davie who had been a school friend and was still living in Edinburgh. They had made a chemical discovery while students in Edinburgh, discovering a way to make sal ammoniac, a chemical used in welding metal. In the summer of 1750 Hutton visited Edinburgh, where he and James Davie set up a chemical works. The works was an immediate success and provided Hutton with an income for the rest of his life.

Continuing to live in London, Hutton now made frequent visits to the farm at Slighhouses, west of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which he had inherited from his father. He planned to farm there but decided that first he would make a study of modern farming methods. In 1752 Hutton moved to a farm in Norfolk where he spent two years. These were good years as Playfair recalled [7]:-

... there was ... no period of his life to which he more frequently alluded, in conversation with his friends; often describing, with singular vivacity, the rural sports and little adventures, which, in the intervals of labour, formed the amusements of their society.

These were important years for Hutton in another way, for it was during these years that his interest in geology began. We should stress that at this time geology would not have been considered as a science in its own right and Hutton would consider himself as a natural philosopher. Many mathematicians were interested in natural philosophy, and geology in particular. It was around this time that Hutton began to read books on the topic; reading the works Discourse on earthquakes (1705) by Hooke, New theory of the Earth (1696) by Whiston, Protogaea Ⓣ (1749) by Leibniz and Histoire naturelle Ⓣ by Buffon, as well as Steno's treatise Dissertation concerning a solid body enclosed by the process of nature within a solid.

In the summer of 1754 Hutton moved to Slighhouses where he began farming. It was the beginning of a period spanning thirteen years during which he made some trips to Edinburgh but spent most of his time farming and working on his theories of geology. At first he did not seem very happy at Slighhouses but evidence from a letter he wrote to his friend George Clerk Maxwell (the great great grandfather of James Clerk Maxwell) in 1755 suggests that the cause might well have been a love affair which went wrong. Among other asides in the letter which suggest this, he writes (see [5]):-

O if the ladies were but capable of loving us men with half the affection that I have towards the cows and calves that happen to be under my nurture and admonition, what a happy world we would have.

Hutton returned to live in Edinburgh in 1767, living in the family home with his three sisters. He came back to a city which was undergoing a revolution in scholarship. Here he joined in the intellectual activity which was bursting out throughout the city. The most important of his friends were Joseph Black who discovered carbon dioxide, James Watt who made the first practical steam engine, and Adam Smith the economist.

The house in which Hutton lived in Edinburgh now became his laboratory as well as his home and he continued to pursue his theories of the history of the Earth. A visitor to his home wrote (see for example [5]):-

His study is so full of fossils and chemical apparatus of various kinds that there is barely room to sit down.

His interest in geology led him to other projects too, and he was a member of the committee of nine who organised the construction of the Forth and Clyde Canal. He joined the committee in 1767 when it was based in Edinburgh where construction of the canal began, and remained on it until 1775 by which time the committee were based in Glasgow as the construction neared the Clyde.

The age of the Earth was a topic which, certainly in Europe at that time, was highly religious in nature. The Bible was taken as literal truth, despite the acceptance by most that the Earth revolved around the sun. Scientists such as Newton had expounded much energy working on a chronology of the Earth using the scriptures. The standard date taken for the creation was around 4000 BC and the accepted belief was that Christ was born 4000 years after the creation, the second coming would occur 2000 years after the birth of Christ, and he would reign on Earth for 1000 years. There were two major reasons for this chronology. One was a study of ages given in the Bible of those from the time of Adam and Eve onwards. The second was a literal interpretation of the six days God took to create the world as described in the Book of Genesis together with the quotation that to God one day is like a thousand years.

Hutton looked at the rocks around him to understand the history of the Earth rather than seeking answers from the Bible. Realising that soil is caused by erosion of rocks, he also understood that there is a second mechanism creating rocks beneath the surface which are then elevated to form new land. He understood that this was an extremely slow cyclic process and that the Earth therefore had to be extremely ancient. However he did not see any mechanism which would allow him to give even an estimate for this age.

Some time during 1784 the Royal Society of Edinburgh invited Hutton to give two lectures on his theory. The first of these was arranged to be given on 7 March 1785 but unfortunately he was ill and unable to address the Fellows himself. His lecture Concerning the system of the Earth, its duration, and stability was delivered by his friend Joseph Black. Hutton was well enough to deliver the second of his lectures four weeks later on 4 April. Of course many saw his conclusions as an attack on the Christian Church and some opposed his views vigorously. Hutton's reaction was what one would expect of an outstanding scientist - he undertook trips to view rock formations to try to gain further evidence to prove that his theory was correct. One such expedition was in the summer of 1788 when Hutton, Playfair, and Sir James Hall sailed down the North Sea coast of Scotland viewing the exposed rock formations in the cliffs.

A printed version of Hutton's two lectures to the Royal Society of Edinburgh did not appear in print until 1788, but since the further evidence which Hutton had gathered in the years following his lectures is not mentioned one has to assume that the delay was in the printing of the paper in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He then worked on a book which would explain his theory in more detail. This treatise The theory of the earth appeared in 1795 but sadly it was not nearly such a good book as it might have been since Hutton wrote it during a time of deteriorating health. One also has to add that, even before the severe health problems, Hutton always seemed much more successful in convincing his fellow scientists when he spoke to them than when he wrote. Hutton had a rather peculiar written style of presentation which made his theory less intelligible and, as a result, he received less acclaim than he deserved. His style led to many misrepresentations and to attacks from the few who had read the work. It remained to others, particularly Playfair, to present his views more successfully.

Playfair's published Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth in 1802. He presented Hutton's theories in a different style from that of The theory of the earth. His simple and eloquent style consisted of a series of chapters clearly stating the Huttonian theory, giving the facts to support it, and the arguments given against it. The success of Playfair's presentation can be judged by the fame and credit which have since been given to Hutton, who is now regarded as the first great British geologist. Playfair spent almost five years, from Hutton's death in 1797 until 1802, writing the Illustrations. The majority of his spare time was spent travelling through Britain searching for evidence to support Hutton's theories, having learned on trips made with Hutton, such as the 1788 trip mentioned above, how to interpret the rock formations he saw.

As to Hutton's character, Playfair in [7] gives this account:-

To his friends his conversation was inestimable; as great talents, the most perfect candour, and the utmost simplicity of character and manners, all united to stamp upon it. ... The simplicity pervaded his whole conduct; while his manner, which was peculiar, but highly pleasing, displayed a vivacity, hardly ever to be found among men of profound and abstract speculation. His great liveliness, added to the aptness to lose sight of himself, would sometimes lead him into little eccentricities, that formed an amusing contrast with the graver habits of philosophic life. ... But it is impossible by words to convey any idea of the effect of his conversation, and of the impression made by so much philosophy, gaiety nd humour, accompanied by a manner at once so animated and simple.