查爾斯·萊爾

生平

查爾斯·萊爾出生于蘇格蘭，是家里十個(gè)小孩中的老大。萊爾的父親也叫做查爾斯，是個(gè)略有一點(diǎn)名氣的植物學(xué)家，他也是第一個(gè)讓小查爾斯接觸到自然博物學(xué)的人。萊爾在牛津大學(xué)的?？巳貙W(xué)院的學(xué)業(yè)結(jié)束于1816年，接著跟隨地質(zhì)學(xué)家William Buckland 鉆研地質(zhì)學(xué)。畢業(yè)以后他改行法律，但依舊沉浸余地質(zhì)學(xué)。他的第一篇論文，"On a Recent Formation of Freshwater Limestone in Forfarshire"，發(fā)表于1822年。在1827年之前他就放棄法律，專心成為職業(yè)地質(zhì)學(xué)家，他的地質(zhì)學(xué)上的成就包括讓詹姆士?賀登在幾十年前提出的理論廣為大眾接受。在1840年代，他到美國(guó)和加拿大旅行，因此寫了兩本很受歡迎的旅行與地質(zhì)學(xué)書(shū)籍，一本是1845年出版的《北美之旅》（Travels in North America）和1849年出版的《再訪美國(guó)》（A Second Visit to the United States）。他在1858年獲得科普利獎(jiǎng)?wù)?Copley Medal)，1866年獲得沃拉斯頓獎(jiǎng)(Wollaston Medal)。當(dāng)他死于1875年，他被安葬于西敏寺。

著作

查爾斯·萊爾爵士最有名的作品是《地質(zhì)學(xué)原理》 (Principles ofGeology)。達(dá)爾文的演化論便是受到這本書(shū)的啟發(fā)。

地質(zhì)學(xué)原理

《地質(zhì)學(xué)原理》萊爾的主要著作，又名《可以作為地質(zhì)學(xué)例證的地球與它的生物的近代變化》 (Modern Changes　of　the　Earth　and　its　Inhabitants Considered as Illustrative of Geoloay),初版共3卷，分別于1830年1月、1832年1月和1833年 5月出版。第四版分為4卷，1834年5月出版。其中第一卷論述地質(zhì)學(xué)發(fā)展史和地質(zhì)現(xiàn)象古今變化的原理；第二卷論述無(wú)機(jī)界現(xiàn)時(shí)正在進(jìn)行的各種地質(zhì)變化；第三卷論述有機(jī)界在自然選擇、地理分布和移徙，以及在人工馴養(yǎng)、培植等條件下所引起的變化；第四卷為地質(zhì)學(xué)的基本內(nèi)容。從1838年開(kāi)始，萊爾把第四卷即地質(zhì)學(xué)的基本內(nèi)容抽出來(lái)并加以擴(kuò)充，以《地質(zhì)學(xué)綱要》 (Elements of Geology)的書(shū)名出版單行本。這本書(shū)在1851年又經(jīng)過(guò)重編，定名為《普通地質(zhì)學(xué)教科書(shū)》（Manual　of　Elementary Geology），1865年又改為《地質(zhì)學(xué)綱要》。到 1872年，《地質(zhì)學(xué)原理》共出版十一版。在書(shū)中，萊爾提出地球的變化是古今一致的，地質(zhì)作用的過(guò)程是緩慢的、漸進(jìn)的。地球的過(guò)去,只能通過(guò)現(xiàn)今的地質(zhì)作用來(lái)認(rèn)識(shí)。他的這種觀點(diǎn)被稱為“均變論”。《地質(zhì)學(xué)原理》對(duì)當(dāng)時(shí)和以后的地質(zhì)科學(xué)發(fā)展都有很大的影響。《地質(zhì)學(xué)原理》被譯成多種文字出版?！兜刭|(zhì)學(xué)綱要》在1872年由中國(guó)數(shù)學(xué)家華蘅芳和美國(guó)醫(yī)生瑪高溫合譯成中文出版，書(shū)名為《地學(xué)淺釋》。徐韋曼譯的《地質(zhì)學(xué)原理》中譯本于1959年由北京大學(xué)出版社出版。

均變論

萊爾被譽(yù)為“現(xiàn)代地質(zhì)學(xué)之父”的萊爾對(duì)均變論的形成和確立做出了重要的貢獻(xiàn)。1830年1月，發(fā)表了《地質(zhì)學(xué)原理》第一卷（1831年出版第2卷，1833年5月出版第3卷）。他堅(jiān)持并證明地球表面的所有特征都是由難以覺(jué)察的、作用時(shí)間較長(zhǎng)的自然過(guò)程形成的。他指出地殼巖石記錄了億萬(wàn)年的歷史，可以客觀地解釋出來(lái)，而無(wú)需求助于《圣經(jīng)》或?yàn)?zāi)變論，同時(shí)，他承認(rèn)陸地的升降運(yùn)動(dòng)，把意大利塞拉比寺院的三根石柱（它們?cè)糠直缓Ｋ蜎](méi)）作為《地質(zhì)學(xué)原理》的刊頭畫(huà)，并指出斯德哥爾摩附近海面以上200尺的海生動(dòng)物的貝殼說(shuō)明陸地的上升。也就是說(shuō)，要認(rèn)識(shí)地球的歷史，用不著求助超自然的力和災(zāi)變，因?yàn)橥ǔ？磥?lái)是“微弱”的地質(zhì)作用力 （大氣圈降水、風(fēng)、河流、潮汐等），在漫長(zhǎng)的地質(zhì)歷史中慢慢起作用，就能夠使地球的面貌發(fā)生很大的變化。萊爾強(qiáng)調(diào)“現(xiàn)在是認(rèn)識(shí)過(guò)去的鑰匙”，這一思想被發(fā)展為“將今論古”的現(xiàn)實(shí)主義原理，這種“將今論古”的科學(xué)方法對(duì)達(dá)爾文的影響很大。在萊爾逐步取代了居維葉之后，均變論在長(zhǎng)達(dá)近一個(gè)世紀(jì)的時(shí)間里成為地質(zhì)學(xué)的信條，奠定了現(xiàn)代地質(zhì)學(xué)的科學(xué)基礎(chǔ)。本世紀(jì)60年代以前的地質(zhì)學(xué)教科書(shū)，幾乎異口同聲地說(shuō)“萊爾用均變論統(tǒng)一說(shuō)明了地質(zhì)現(xiàn)象，建立了科學(xué)的地質(zhì)學(xué)”。

成就榮譽(yù)

生于蘇格蘭法弗夏區(qū)的金諾鎮(zhèn)。1814年進(jìn)入牛津大學(xué)，學(xué)習(xí)數(shù)學(xué)和古典文學(xué)，1816年改學(xué)法律，1821年進(jìn)入林肯法學(xué)院。還在牛津大學(xué)時(shí)他選修了地質(zhì)課，并參加了地質(zhì)小組活動(dòng)，受到了地質(zhì)學(xué) 基礎(chǔ)知識(shí)的訓(xùn)練，奠定了他從事地質(zhì)學(xué)研究的基礎(chǔ)。萊伊爾法學(xué)院畢業(yè)后，放棄律師工作熱衷于地質(zhì)學(xué)的研究，并做出卓越的貢獻(xiàn)，享有崇高的聲譽(yù)。早在1822年就當(dāng)選為倫敦地質(zhì)學(xué)會(huì)秘書(shū)，1849年當(dāng)選為主席。1853年牛津大學(xué)授予名譽(yù)博士學(xué)位。1861年當(dāng)選為英國(guó)皇家學(xué)會(huì)主席。1874年劍橋大學(xué)授予名譽(yù)博士學(xué)位，相繼選為法國(guó)科學(xué)院通訊院士。1848年英國(guó)政府晉封他爵士稱號(hào)。1861年代表倫敦大學(xué)出席了國(guó)會(huì)。他的主要論著《地質(zhì)學(xué)原理》于1831-1833年共分三冊(cè)相繼出版。這是一部代表十九世紀(jì)進(jìn)化論地質(zhì)學(xué)的經(jīng)典性作品，反映十九世紀(jì)地質(zhì)學(xué)的理論發(fā)展水平，被譽(yù)為自然科學(xué)史上劃時(shí)代的名著。萊伊爾歷經(jīng)十余年的艱苦努力，足跡遍及歐洲各地。在掌握了大量豐富的第一手地質(zhì)資料的基礎(chǔ)上，綜合汲取各家之長(zhǎng)，建立起自己的地質(zhì)理論一現(xiàn)實(shí)主義原則和“將今論古”的方法，進(jìn)而提出了漸進(jìn)論，為地質(zhì)學(xué)理論的發(fā)展起了推動(dòng)作用。恩格斯在《自然辯證法》一書(shū)中，對(duì)萊伊爾的貢獻(xiàn)，做過(guò)高度的 評(píng)價(jià)，指出：“在自然科學(xué)史上，對(duì)保守思潮打穿了“缺口”的杰出科學(xué) 成就有：第一個(gè)缺口：康德和拉普拉斯。第二個(gè)：地質(zhì)學(xué)和古生物學(xué)(萊伊爾，緩慢進(jìn)化論)…”。同時(shí)還指出：“只是萊伊爾才第一次把理性帶進(jìn)地質(zhì)學(xué)中，因?yàn)樗缘厍虻木徛?變化這樣一種漸進(jìn)作用，代替了由于造物主的一時(shí)興發(fā)所起的突然革命”。萊伊爾的科學(xué)道路也不是一帆 風(fēng)順的，其發(fā)展和成長(zhǎng)過(guò)程更是曲折，甚至有過(guò)錯(cuò)誤。他最早受他的老師貝克蘭（Buckland）的影響，是一個(gè)水成論者，物種不變論者。對(duì)他的觀點(diǎn)上的錯(cuò)誤，恩格斯也給予了嚴(yán)厲的批判，指出“萊伊爾的觀點(diǎn)的缺陷——至少在其最初的形式上一在于：他認(rèn)為在地球 上起作用的各種力是不變的，無(wú)論在質(zhì)或量上都是不變的。地球的冷卻對(duì)他來(lái)說(shuō)是不存在的；地球不是按照一定方向發(fā)展著，它只是毫無(wú)聯(lián)系，偶然地變化著”。恩格斯的批判，主要針對(duì)他早期的論點(diǎn)，后來(lái)在達(dá)爾文的幫助下，放棄了物種不變論觀點(diǎn)，遺憾的是，他的學(xué)生們未能對(duì)地質(zhì)作用的發(fā)展演變，做根本的改正，甚至導(dǎo)致絕對(duì)化，盲目陷入了均變論和等速論。

英文介紹

For other people named Charles Lyell, seeCharles Lyell (disambiguation).Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet,KtFRS(14 November 1797 – 22 February 1875) was a Britishlawyerand the foremostgeologistof his day. He is best known as the author ofPrinciples of Geology, which popularisedJames Hutton's concepts ofuniformitarianism– the idea that the earth was shaped by the same processes still in operation today. Lyell was also one of the first to believe that the world is older than 300 million years, on the basis of its geological anomalies. Lyell was a close and influential friend ofCharles Darwin.Lyell was born inScotlandabout 15 miles north ofDundeein Kinnordy, nearKirriemuirinForfarshire(now inAngus). He was the eldest of ten children. Lyell's father, also named Charles, was a lawyer andbotanistof minor repute: it was he who first exposed his son to the study of nature.The house/place of his birth is located in the north-west of theCentral Lowlandsin the valley of theHighland Boundary Fault. Round the house, in therift valley, is farmland, but within a short distance to the north-west, on the other side of the fault, are theGrampian Mountainsin theHighlands.His family's second home was in a completely different geological and ecological area: he spent much of his childhood atBartley Lodgein theNew Forest, England.Lyell enteredExeter College, Oxfordin 1816, and attendedWilliam Buckland's lectures. He graduatedB.A.second class in classics, December 1819, andM.A.1821.After graduation he took up law as a profession, enteringLincoln's Innin 1820. He completed a circuit through rural England, where he could observe geological phenomena. In 1821 he attendedRobert Jameson's lectures in Edinburgh, and visitedGideon MantellatLewes, inSussex. In 1823 he was elected to join secretary of theGeological Society. As his eyesight began to deteriorate, he turned to geology as a full-time profession.His first paper, "On a recent formation of freshwater limestone in Forfarshire", was presented in 1822.By 1827, he had abandoned law and embarked on a geological career that would result in fame and the general acceptance of uniformitarianism, a working out of the ideas proposed byJames Huttona few decades earlier.In 1832, Lyell marriedMary Hornerof Bonn, daughter ofLeonard Horner(1785–1864), also associated with theGeological Society of London. The new couple spent their honeymoon in Switzerland and Italy on a geological tour of the area.During the 1840s, Lyell traveled to theUnited StatesandCanada, and wrote two popular travel-and-geology books:Travels in North America(1845) andA Second Visit to the United States(1849). After theGreat Chicago Fire, Lyell was one of the first to donate books to help found theChicago Public Library. In 1866, he was elected a foreign member of theRoyal Swedish Academy of Sciences.Lyell's wife died in 1873, and two years later (in 1875) Lyell himself died as he was revising the twelfth edition ofPrinciples. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.Lyell was knighted (Kt), and later made a baronet (Bt), which is a hereditary honour. He was awarded the Copley Medal of the Royal Society in 1858 and the Wollaston Medal of the Geological Society in 1866. Mount Lyell, the highest peak in Yosemite National Park, is named after him; the crater Lyell on the Moon and a crater on Mars were named in his honour; Mount Lyell in western Tasmania, Australia, located in a profitable mining area, bears Lyell’s name; and the Lyell Range in north-west Western Australia is named for him as well. The jawless fishCephalaspis lyelli, from the Old Red Sandstone of southern Scotland, was named by Louis Agassiz in honour of Lyell.Career and major writingsLyell had private means, and earned further income as an author. He came from a prosperous family, worked briefly as a lawyer in the 1820s, and held the post of Professor of Geology atKing's College Londonin the 1830s. From 1830 onward his books provided both income and fame. Each of his three major books was a work continually in progress. All three went through multiple editions during his lifetime, although many of his friends (such as Darwin) thought the first edition of thePrincipleswas the best written.Lyell used each edition to incorporate additional material, rearrange existing material, and revisit old conclusions in light of new evidence.Principles of Geology, Lyell's first book, was also his most famous, most influential, and most important book. First published in three volumes in 1830–33, it established Lyell's credentials as an important geological theorist and propounded the doctrine. It was a work of synthesis, backed by his own personal observations on his travels.The central argument inPrincipleswas thatthe present is the key to the past– a concept of theScottish EnlightenmentwhichDavid Humehad stated as "all inferences from experience suppose ... that the future will resemble the past", andJames Huttonhad described when he wrote in 1788 that "from what has actually been, we have data for concluding with regard to that which is to happen thereafter."Geological remains from the distant past can, and should, be explained by reference to geological processes now in operation and thus directly observable. Lyell's interpretation of geologic change as the steady accumulation of minute changes over enormously long spans of time was a powerful influence on the youngCharles Darwin. Lyell askedRobert FitzRoy, captain ofHMSBeagle, to search for erratic boulders on thesurvey voyage of theBeagle, and just before it set out FitzRoy gave Darwin Volume 1 of the first edition of Lyell'sPrinciples. When theBeaglemade its first stop ashore atSt Jago, Darwin found rock formations which seen "through Lyell's eyes" gave him a revolutionary insight into the geological history of the island, an insight he applied throughout his travels.While inSouth AmericaDarwin received Volume 2 which considered the ideas ofLamarckin some detail. Lyell rejected Lamarck's idea of organicevolution, proposing instead "Centres of Creation" to explain diversity and territory of species. However, as discussedbelow, many of his letters show he was fairly open to the idea of evolution. In geology Darwin was very much Lyell's disciple, and brought back observations and his own original theorising, including ideas about the formation ofatolls, which supported Lyell's uniformitarianism. On the return of theBeagle(October 1836) Lyell invited Darwin to dinner and from then on they were close friends. Although Darwin discussed evolutionary ideas with him from 1842, Lyell continued to reject evolution in each of the first nine editions of thePrinciples. He encouraged Darwin to publish, and following the 1859 publication ofOn the Origin of Species, Lyell finally offered a tepid endorsement of evolution in the tenth edition ofPrinciples.The frontispiece fromElements of GeologyElements of Geologybegan as the fourth volume of the third edition ofPrinciples: Lyell intended the book to act as a suitable field guide for students of geology.The systematic, factual description of geological formations of different ages contained inPrinciplesgrew so unwieldy, however, that Lyell split it off as theElementsin 1838. The book went through six editions, eventually growing to two volumes and ceasing to be the inexpensive, portable handbook that Lyell had originally envisioned. Late in his career, therefore, Lyell produced a condensed version titledStudent's Elements of Geologythat fulfilled the original purpose.Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Manbrought together Lyell's views on three key themes from the geology of theQuaternary Periodof Earth history: glaciers, evolution, and theage of the human race. First published in 1863, it went through three editions that year, with a fourth and final edition appearing in 1873. The book was widely regarded as a disappointment because of Lyell's equivocal treatment ofevolution. Lyell, a devout Christian, had great difficulty reconciling his beliefs withnatural selection.Scientific contributionsLyell's geological interests ranged fromvolcanoesand geological dynamics throughstratigraphy,paleontology, andglaciologyto topics that would now be classified asprehistoric archaeologyandpaleoanthropology. He is best known, however, for his role in popularising the doctrine ofuniformitarianism.An aerial photo of VesuviusBefore the work of Lyell, phenomena such as earthquakes were understood by the destruction that they brought. One of the contributions that Lyell made inPrincipleswas to explain the cause of earthquakes.Lyell, in contrast focused on recent earthquakes (150 yrs), evidenced by surface irregularities such as faults, fissures, stratigraphic displacements and depressions.Lyell's work on volcanoes focused largely onVesuviusandEtna, both of which he had earlier studied. His conclusions supported gradual building of volcanoes, so-called "backed up-building",as opposed to the upheaval argument supported by other geologists.StratigraphyLyell's most important specific work was in the field ofstratigraphy. From May 1828, until February 1829, he traveled withRoderick Impey Murchison(1792–1871) to the south ofFrance(Auvergne volcanic district) and toItaly.In these areas he concluded that the recent strata (rock layers) could be categorized according to the number and proportion of marine shells encased within. Based on this he proposed dividing theTertiaryperiod into three parts, which he named thePliocene,Miocene, andEocene. He also renamed the traditionalPrimary,SecondaryandTertiaryperiods (now callederas) toPaleozoic,MesozoicandCenozoic, which nomenclature was gradually accepted worldwide.GlaciersLateral moraine on a glacier joining the Gorner Glacier, Zermatt, Switzerland.InPrinciples of Geology(first edition, vol. 3, Ch. 2, 1833)Lyell proposed thaticebergscould be the means of transport forerratics. During periods of global warming, ice breaks off the poles and floats across submerged continents, carrying debris with it, he conjectured. When the iceberg melts, it rains down sediments upon the land. Because this theory could account for the presence of diluvium, the worddriftbecame the preferred term for the loose, unsorted material, today calledtill. Furthermore, Lyell believed that the accumulation of fine angular particles covering much of the world (today calledloess) was a deposit settled from mountain flood water. Today some of Lyell's mechanisms for geologic processes have been disproven, though many have stood the test of time.His observational methods and general analytical framework remain in use today as foundational principles in geology.EvolutionLyell first received a copy of one ofLamarck's books fromMantellin 1827, when he was on circuit. He thanked Mantell in a letter which includes this enthusiastic passage:"I devoured Lamark... his theories delighted me... I am glad that he has been courageous enough and logical enough to admit that his argument, if pushed as far as it must go, if worth anything, would prove that men may have come from theOurang-Outang. But after all, what changes species may really undergo!... That the Earth is quite as old as he supposes, has long been my creed..."Charles DarwinIn the second volume of the first edition ofPrinciplesLyell explicitly rejected themechanismof Lamark on thetransmutation of species, and was doubtful whether species were mutable.However, privately, in letters, he was more open to the possibility ofevolution:"If I had stated... the possibility of the introduction or origination of fresh species being a natural, in contradistinction to a miraculous process, I should have raised a host of prejudices against me, which are unfortunately opposed at every step to any philosopher who attempts to address the public on these mysterious subjects".This letter makes it clear that his equivocation on evolution was, at least at first, a deliberate tactic. As a result of his letters and, no doubt, personal conversations,HuxleyandHaeckelwere convinced that, at the time he wrotePrinciples, he believed new species had arisen by natural methods. BothWhewellandSedgwickwrote worried letters to him about this.Later,Darwinbecame a close personal friend, and Lyell was one of the first scientists to supportOn the Origin of Species, though he did not subscribe to all its contents. Lyell was also a friend of Darwin's closest colleagues,HookerandHuxley, but unlike them he struggled to square his religious beliefs with evolution. This inner struggle has been much commented on. He had particular difficulty in believing innatural selectionas the main motive force in evolution.Alfred Russel Wallacein 1862.Lyell and Hooker were instrumental in arranging the peaceful co-publication of the theory of natural selection by Darwin andAlfred Russel Wallacein 1858: each had arrived at the theory independently. Lyell's data onstratigraphywere important because Darwin thought that populations of an organism changed slowly, requiring "geologic time".Although Lyell did not publicly accept evolution (descent with modification) at the time of writing thePrinciples,after the Darwin–Wallace papers and theOriginLyell wrote in his notebook:May 3, 1860: "Mr. Darwin has written a work which will constitute an era in geology & natural history to show that... the descendants of common parents may become in the course of ages so unlike each other as to be entitled to rank as a distinct species, from each other or from some of their progenitors".Lyell's acceptance of natural selection, Darwin's proposed mechanism for evolution, was equivocal, and came in the tenth edition ofPrinciples.The Antiquity of Man(published in early February 1863, just before Huxley'sMan's place in nature) drew these comments from Darwin to Huxley:"I am fearfully disappointed at Lyell's excessive caution" and "The book is a mere 'digest' ".Quite strong remarks: no doubt Darwin resented Lyell's repeated suggestion that he owed a lot toLamarck, whom he (Darwin) had always specifically rejected. Darwin's daughter Henrietta (Etty) wrote to her father: "Is it fair that Lyell always calls your theory a modification of Lamarck's?"In other respectsAntiquitywas a success. It sold well, and it "shattered the tacit agreement that mankind should be the sole preserve oftheologiansandhistorians".But when Lyell wrote that it remained a profound mystery how the huge gulf between man and beast could be bridged, Darwin wrote "Oh!" in the margin of his copy.