Commentaries on the Huttonian theory of the Earth from Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1805-1815

Articles published from 1805 to 1815 in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh reflect a rapidly emerging and meticulous empiricism in the study of earth history; an empiricism directed principally toward an understanding of James Hutton's notions about cyclical, igneous-based, earth processes. One obvious focus for this detailed testing was Hutton's disagreement with Werner over the origin of basalt, which was most carefully explored in the laboratory studies of Sir James Hall and Robert Kennedy. However the geological field observations of Sir George Mackenzie, Lord Webb Seymour, John Playfair and other Society members seemed also to play a most important role in deciphering the Huttonian logic.