ABSTRACT
Werner and his more famous contemporary James Hutton brought forth their ideas at a moment of history when the intellectual atmosphere was most favourable to science, for this was the eve of the French Revolution and a period when the cult of liberty of the mind was freeing itself from the religious dogmatism characteristic of the Middle Ages. Also at this time the needs of the Industrial Revolution were providing great encouragement to the pursuit of scientific knowledge. As the Industrial Revolution regenerated existing sciences, so, also, industry gave birth to new sciences and spread the influence of the older ones. William ‘Strata’ Smith was a canal engineer, and Werner a mining expert. By the late eighteenth century the English Church was beginning to feel the effects of Methodism and, as a consequence, was torn between deciding whether to close its ranks or to revitalize its doctrines. The country suffered from lack of public education, as we know it today, and even at the universities the natural sciences were almost totally neglected. Oxford and Cambridge were largely training grounds for young gentlemen and politicians most of whom were given a knowledge of the classics and little more; London University did not then exist, and does not appear until 1827 in the form of what is now University College. Consequently, most advances in science stemmed from men engaged in industry and were made as a direct result of the practical necessities of their work. But industry, though rapidly gathering strength, was still socially unacceptable and young men dissatisfied with the sedentary way of life of the country gentleman chose to enter either the army or politics. Science as the hand-maiden of the machine largely suffered the same fate as industry. If a gentleman were fortunate enough to possess a scientific bent he generally directed his energies to archaeological or botanical researches, and if he were not a gentleman he joined the medical school!
