biography
pronunciation:
[muhkloor]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1763–1840)
|
| biography:
| Geologist, born in Ayr, South Ayrshire, SW Scotland, UK. Educated privately, he travelled to New York City and made a considerable fortune as a merchant. He travelled widely, studying geology, and helped to found the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, becoming its president (1817–40). His Observations on the Geology of the United States (1817) gives the first full account of its subject. His later writing supported the ideas on evolution offered by Lamarck, and opposed Werner's theory of the exclusively sedimentary origin of primitive rock. |
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