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BIOGRAPHIES OF GREAT SCIENTISTS
Lyell Charles. Biography of a scientist
Directory / Biographies of great scientists
Charles Lyell was born November 14, 1797 in the county of Forfar, Scotland, on his father's estate of Kinnordy. He was the firstborn in a large family of three sons and seven daughters. Charles grew up in a wealthy family in enviable conditions in material contentment, in an atmosphere of science and literature. His father, an inquisitive man and a great esthete, was familiar with many writers and scientists, studied botany, not without success, translated Dante. Shortly after the birth of Charles, his father rented the Bartley Lodge estate in the New Forest, in southern England, where he moved with the whole family. In the fourth year of his life, Lyell learned to read, and in the eighth he entered the school of Dr. Davis in the city of Ringwood. School work was going fairly well, though not brilliantly. At Ringwood Lyell was educated in reading, writing, and grammar, and in his ninth year was transferred to Dr. Radcliffe's School in Salisbury, a fashionable school in those days, where the sons of local aces were taught Latin. After two years at Radcliffe School, Lyell was transferred to Dr. Bailey's School in Midhurst. This school was very different from the previous ones - it did not have such a family, home character. The cruel morals of schoolchildren oppressed Charles, since at home he saw only kindness and caring, his character was meek and peaceful and did not have hefty fists. What he had to experience at Bluebeard Radcliffe's was a toy compared to the Spartan customs of the new school. After parting with the school, Lyell entered the University of Oxford. At the university, Lyell did not aim at naturalists at all. He dreamed of a literary career, and for the sake of earning a living he chose the bar, deciding to study law at Oxford. But little by little, an instinctive love for nature begins to overwhelm him more and more, and in the end takes precedence over the artificially instilled love for the classics and literature. This happens outside of his consciousness, in spite of his efforts. He tries to focus his attention, his interests on Oxford science, and sees with surprise, even with chagrin, that this is not possible. At Oxford, natural science played a very subordinate role, but was not completely abandoned. Among other things, lectures on geology were given here, and not by anyone, but by Buckland himself, the head of English geologists of that time. Buckland belonged to the old school of "disasters". In the history of the earth's crust, he distinguished two main periods: before and after the flood. There is nothing in common between them: before the flood, some forces acted, after the flood, others. That was the past, and this is the present, and it is necessary to distinguish between these concepts in the strictest way. Gradually, geology took a dominant place in Lyell's studies. He began to undertake whole trips with a geological purpose. So, in 1817, he visited the island of Staffa, where he examined Fingal's cave, famous among aesthetes for the songs of Ossian, among geologists - for wonderful basalt pillars, a very curious geological phenomenon. The next year he traveled with his father, mother and two sisters to France, Switzerland and Italy. The five or six years following the completion of a course at Oxford may be considered Lyell's true academic years. There are few lucky people who managed to go through such a good school. Incessant trips around England and the mainland made it possible to verify and consolidate by own observation the information gleaned from books. Lyell also learned a lot from personal acquaintance with the most prominent geologists of Europe. Finally, the inspection of collections and museums served as a good addition to the material gleaned from books, in the field and in conversations with scientists. In 1820, an eye disease forced him to give up legal studies for a while and go with his father to Rome. In 1822, Lyell made a trip to Winchelsea, a place of great geological interest, since here he could observe a vast expanse of land, relatively recently freed from under the sea. In 1823, he was elected secretary of the Geological Society, and his first completely independent geological research dates back to the same year. He undertook an excursion to Sussex and the Isle of Wight, where he studied the relations of certain strata, which had hitherto remained obscure. His observations - purely special, devoid of general significance - he reported to Mantel, who published them later in the Geology of the Isle of Wight. The year 1824 was devoted to geological excursions in England with Constant Prevost and in Scotland with Buckland, and the following year, Lyell's first printed works appeared on the serpentine layers in Forfarshire and on freshwater marl: factual, descriptive works, the first experiments of a novice scientist. Some time later, his article appeared in one of the magazines, in which he sets out his credo, the main idea of his future work. But Lyell had not yet appreciated all the difficulties of the work ahead of him. He thought his role would be mainly that of a compiler. He decided to write a textbook on geology, an ordinary compiling textbook, a brief summary of the materials accumulated in science, of course, differently illuminated than those of previous researchers. It turned out, however, that it was impossible to write a compilation, but something more could and should be done. “I felt,” Lyell wrote, “that a subject in which so many reforms and alterations need to be made, in which you yourself acquire new ideas and develop new theories as you complete your task, in which you have to constantly refute and find arguments — that such a subject should be developed in a book that has nothing to do with a textbook. We had to not present ready-made truths to students, but to conduct a dialogue with our peers. " In 1828, he undertook with his friend Murchison a long geological excursion to France, Italy and Sicily. The main goal of this expedition was the closest acquaintance with the sediments of the Tertiary era. According to the available theory, there was a gap between the Tertiary and the modern era, a break. "The course of events has changed", the old world perished, destroyed by some catastrophe, and a new one was erected. Lyell's earlier excursions made him doubt the validity of these conclusions; now he ventured to test his doubts by studying the Tertiary deposits all the way from France to Sicily. His research completely destroyed the old views. Comparing Tertiary fossils with modern ones, he concluded that they represent one inseparable whole: Tertiary precipitation, climate, population imperceptibly pass into modern ones. Nothing speaks in favor of huge general catastrophes breaking the chain of phenomena; on the contrary, everything points to a slow, continuous and uniform process of development. It is clear what enormous significance these conclusions had for the theory of uniformitarianism. The catastrophists were losing their main pillar: proof of the existence of a sharp break between the present and the past. The first volume of Lyell's Fundamentals of Geology was published in 1830, the second in 1832, and the third in 1833. It is difficult to define in a few words the meaning of this book. It does not fit into a short formula, is not expressed in bright discoveries that could be counted on the fingers. His whole book as a whole represents a discovery. In Lyell's book, the activity of the modern forces of nature for the first time appeared in its true light. He showed that, firstly, the work of these "weak" agents actually leads to colossal results, continuing for an indefinite time, and, secondly, that it really continues for an indefinite time, imperceptibly merging with the past. The first and second volumes of the Basic Principles are devoted to the study of modern forces. Let us list the main categories of phenomena that are treated here. Lyell proved that great fluctuations in climate can be due to changes in the contours of continents and seas, that such changes have actually taken place in the course of geological history and are consistent with the upheavals in climate that the same history testifies. The activity of water as a geological agent was first elucidated by Lyell in its present scope and significance. He established the concept of the destructive and creative work of rivers, sea currents, ebbs and flows; showed the enormous dimensions of these two parallel and correlative processes. Studying the products of the activity of modern volcanoes and comparing them with ancient volcanic rocks, he showed that both of them are essentially homogeneous in nature and testify to the same process - local volcanic actions that took place with large interruptions over long periods. On the contrary, nowhere, neither in the most ancient nor in the new formations, are there signs of an action that surpasses modern phenomena in energy and speed. Finally, Lyell studied the question of the role of organic agents in the history of the earth's crust no less completely and thoroughly. He debunked the previous opinion about breaks in the history of the organic world, accompanied by the destruction and emergence of entire faunas and floras, proving (for the Tertiary era) that with a more thorough study, we discover here, too, a gradual development, in harmony with the gradual transformation of the inorganic environment. Climatic theory, the laws of action of water and volcanic agents, the origin of volcanoes, a sketch of a more correct theory of mountain building, the role of organisms in the history of the earth's crust and the connection between the development of the organic and inorganic world - these are the main points in Lyell's work. On this foundation, Lyell built historical geology - an outline of the changes experienced by the earth's crust from ancient times to the present. Subsequently published as a separate work, this essay represents the first outline of historical geology as we study it today. Personally, he owns the study of the tertiary system in this area. This was the first detailed study and division of a huge department in the history of our planet: the scheme established by Lyell (Eocene, Miocene and Pliocene) has survived to this day with changes only in details. Later, other researchers followed in the footsteps of Lyell - Sedgwick, Murchison, McCulloch and others - they did for the most ancient systems, secondary and primary, the same thing that he did for the tertiary. Regardless of this, his study of the tertiary system was of great philosophical significance, showing that the "modern order of things" has been going on for God knows how long and has led to a complete transformation of the earth's surface in relation to its structure, climate, flora and fauna. Lyell's book was a huge success. The first and second volumes went out in two editions before the third appeared, so that in 1834 a third edition of the entire work was required. In England, however, the views of Lyell were most rapidly spread and recognized. For young, novice scientists, his book was a real revelation. “When I set off on the Beagle,” Darwin said, “Professor Henslow, who, like all geologists of that era, believed in successive catastrophes, advised me to get and study the first volume of the Fundamentals, just published, but not in no way to accept his theories. How the opinions of geologists have changed! I am proud that the very first place where I made geological research, Santiago on the island of Cape Verde, convinced me of the infinite superiority of the views of Lyell in comparison with those that were defended until then by the geologists known to me. By the forties, the victory could be considered complete, and Lyell became a "prophet in his own country": the new generation of geologists saw him as their leader and mentor, while the theories of the old authors were finally put into the archive. In 1832, the scientist married Mary Horner, who had long been considered Lyell's bride - the daughter of Lyell's acquaintance, the famous scientist Leonard Horner. Miss Horner was well-read, knew foreign languages, studied geology and subsequently helped her husband in his research, identified fossils for him, and so on. She was a calm, reasonable woman, the same balanced nature as Lyell himself; they converged in character as well as possible and lived for forty years in perfect harmony. The publication of the "Basics" was the most important event in the life of Lyell. Until then, a little-known geologist, not quite well-behaved, although a "promising" student of Buckland, he immediately became the head of science. True, the founding fathers were indignant at such a violation of subordination, but they could not help but see that they were dealing with the head of the school. In London, he was offered to lecture on geology at the Royal College. He agreed - not quite willingly, however, because he was afraid that his professorship would interfere with independent research. Shortly after his marriage, Lyell abandoned his professorship to devote himself entirely and exclusively to independent research. He said goodbye to the bar a long time ago; now the last doubts about a career have disappeared. His entire life was devoted to science. She passed in geological excursions and in the processing of data collected during the excursions. Lyell traveled extensively in Europe and America: a good third of his life was spent "in the field," as geologists say. With the flourishing of the new geology, the fame of its founder also expanded, and with it came awards, honors, distinctions from scientific institutions and governments. In 1834, Lyell received from the Royal Society of London - the oldest and most famous of the learned societies in England - a gold medal for "The Fundamental Principles of Geology", and 24 years later it honored him with its highest award. In 1848 he was knighted, and from that moment on he became not just Charles Lyell, but "Sir" Charles Lyell; in 1864 he received the title of baronet. He seems to have taken these titles rather indifferently; at least, in his letters these events are mentioned only in passing and without any enthusiasm, which, however, is felt when he speaks of his scientific significance, which, apparently, was very, very flattering to him. In 1854 the University of Oxford made him an honorary Doctor of Laws, and in 1862 the Paris Academy, which had voted Lyell five years before as a heretic and wicked, changed its anger to mercy and received the reformer of geology into its sanctuary as a corresponding member. Around this time, his studies took a somewhat different direction, focusing on the new science of prehistoric man, barely emerging at that time, to which he devoted his last years. At the end of his life, Lyell, who did not lose his ability to work, was carried away by a completely new question for geologists - about the appearance of man on Earth. It has long been known that together with the bones of mammoths there were some strange, as if artificially beaten, pieces of flint. It has been suggested that these pieces of stone represent the stone axes of prehistoric people. But learned professors and members of academies laughed at these "ridiculous" assumptions. Some geologists, Lyell among them, took note of these finds. Lyell traveled to France, Germany, Italy in search of traces of ancient man and wrote the sensational book Geological Evidence of the Antiquity of Man about the results of his research. Love for nature pushed Lyell on the path of a geologist, pride drove him along this path. Self-esteem generally played an important role in his life. In childhood, awards and distinctions forced him to cram Latin grammar; in adulthood, the thirst for fame strengthened and incited his natural inclination for natural science. But he did not have the vanity of small great people who need to be approached with a censer and signs of allegiance ... Equally, vanity never made him belittle other people's merits or be afraid of rivalry. “Of all scientists,” says Darwin, “no one can compare with Lyell in friendliness and benevolence. I saw him many times and am inclined to love him very much. You cannot imagine how interested he was in my plans.” On February 22, 1875, Lyell died at the age of XNUMX. He was buried in Westminster Abbey with honors. Author: Samin D.K.
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