biography
pronunciation:
[liyl]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1797–1875)
|
| biography:
| Geologist, born in Kinnordy, Angus, E Scotland, UK. He studied law at Oxford, but turned to geology, becoming professor of geology at King's College, London (1832–3). His Principles of Geology (1830–3) taught that the greatest geological changes might have been produced by forces still at work, and The Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man (1863) startled the public in its unbiased attitude towards Charles Darwin. He discredited the catastrophic view of geology, and finally established the doctrine of uniformitarianism, first propounded by Hutton. He was knighted in 1848, and made a baronet in 1864. |
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