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I.—Henry Clifton Sorby, and the Birth of Microscopical Petrology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

John W. Judd
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Extract

Just half a century ago, the Geological Society was engaged in passing through the press a very remarkable memoir—a memoir that was destined to revolutionize one of the branches of the science which the Society had been founded to promote. Yet on its appearance this memoir, “On the Microscopical Structure of Crystals,” was met with ridicule on the part of some, with scepticism by others, and by a neglect that was almost universal. Nevertheless, its author, Mr. Sorby, lived to find Microscopical Petrography recognised all the world over as one of the most important branches of geological science, to see appearing year by year an enormous mass of literature devoted to this branch of science, and to be himself hailed by the geologists of all lands as the pioneer in this new and fruitful field of scientific research.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 5 , Issue 5 , May 1908 , pp. 193 - 204
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1908

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References

page 193 note 1 “Unencumbered Research: A Personal Experience,” by Sorby, H. C.; one of a volume of “Essays on the Endowment of Research,” published in 1876 (pp. 149–175)Google Scholar. “Fifty Years of Scientific Research”: an address delivered before the Members of the Sheffield Literary and Philosophical Society, at Firth College, on Tuesday, February 2nd, 1897.

page 194 note 1 I am indebted to my friend Mr. Hudleston for information upon which the above statements are based, and he also tells me that the Orgreave property is in the district rendered famous in Scott's “Ivanhoe.”

page 195 note 1 Chem. Soc., Mem. iii (1845–1948), pp. 281–284Google Scholar; Phil. Mag., xxx (1847), pp. 330–334.Google Scholar

page 195 note 2 Sorby's papers on these subjects will be found in Sheffield Lit. and Phil. Soc. Rep., 1847, Aug. 6, Dec. 3; 1848, March 3; 1850, p. 13. Proc. Yorks, W.. Geol. Soc., iii (1851), pp. 220–224; (1852), pp. 232–240Google Scholar; ibid., vii (1854), pp. 372 et seq. Proc. Yorks. Phil. Soc., i (1855), pp. 372–378Google Scholar. Brit. Assoc. Rep. (1855), pt. 2, pp. 97–98; (1856), p. 77. Sheffield Lit. and Phil. Soc. Rep. (1858), p. 9. Brit. Assoc. Rep. (1858), pt. 2, p. 108. Geologist, vol. ii (1859), pp. 137–147, etc.Google Scholar

page 196 note 1 We understand that these early sections and drawings are to be preserved in the City Museum at Sheffield.

page 197 note 1 “Fifty Years of Scientific Research,” pp. 5–6.

page 197 note 2 Edinb. New Phil. Journ., lv (1853), pp. 137–150Google Scholar; Proc. W. Yorks. Geol. Soc., iii (1853), pp. 300–311Google Scholar; Phil. Mag., xii (1856), pp. 127–129Google Scholar. In 1876 I induced Sorby to exhibit some of the artificial products and specimens on which he based his conclusions concerning slates and schists to the Loan Exhibition of Scientific Objects, and these are still to be seen in the Science division (Geological Section) of the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington.

page 197 note 3 Brit. Assoc. Rep. (1856), pt. 2, p. 78; Edinb. New. Phil. Journ., 2nd ed., iv, p. 339.Google Scholar

page 197 note 4 Brit. Assoc. Rep. (1856), pt. 2, p. 77.

page 197 note 5 “The Founders of Geology,” 1st ed. (1897), pp. 276–280, and 2nd ed. (1905), pp. 462, etc. “The History of the Geological Society of London” (1907), pp. 170–172.

page 198 note 1 Edinb. New Phil. Journ., iii (1856), pp. 297–308.Google Scholar

page 198 note 2 William Crawford Williamson had almost as versatile a genius as Sorby himself. At a very early age he originated, by his study of the Yorkshire cliff-sections, the zonal classification of strata by the aid of their fossils. At a subsequent date he led the way in this country to the study of the Foraminifera and the microscopical characters of their shells. All the later years of his life were devoted to the study of coal-balls, and to the important results of fossil botany that this study originated. Yorkshire may well be proud of having produced in a single generation two such men as Williamson and Sorby!

page 198 note 3 Edinb. New Phil. Journ., xv (1862), pp. 52–53.Google Scholar

page 198 note 4 The paper, which was published in November, 1858, and was illustrated with three plates of interesting drawings made by Sorby himself, appeared under the title “On the Microscopical Structure of Crystals, indicating the Origin of Minerals and Rocks”: Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xiv, pp. 453–500.Google Scholar

page 199 note 1 Revue des deux mondes, July 15th, 1879, p. 409.

page 199 note 2 “Mikroskopische Gesteinstudie”: Sitzungsb. d. k. Akad. d. W. math. naturw. Cl., Bd. xlvii, Abth. 1 (1863), pp. 228–290.

page 201 note 1 Geological Magazine, Vol. III (1866), pp. 23–27.Google Scholar

page 203 note 1 An almost complete list of these papers has been published in the Nauturalist for 1906; it was revised by Sorby himself.