A Description of Active and Extinct Volcanos
With Remarks on their Origin, their Chemical Phaenomena, and the Character of their Products

This influential 1826 work on volcanic action pioneered the scientific study of volcanos and earthquakes, establishing the author's international reputation.

Charles Daubeny (Author)

9781108075114, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 21 August 2014

500 pages, 16 b/w illus. 2 maps
21.6 x 14 x 2.8 cm, 0.63 kg

First published in 1826, at a time when the earth sciences were in a state of confusion and controversy, this pioneering study of volcanic action by Charles Daubeny (1795–1867) was significant in promoting the scientific method and the science of geology, at the same time establishing the author's international reputation. Having studied medicine, Daubeny increasingly turned his attention to chemistry, volcanos and earthquakes. Elected a fellow of the Royal Society, he also sought to elevate the status of science in Britain. He presents evidence here, gathered from his travels across Europe, in a methodical fashion, developing contemporary ideas regarding the processes at work beneath the surface of the earth. This reissued first edition provides an opportunity to examine Daubeny's reasoning prior to the revisions of the 1848 edition (also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection), which was updated to take account of the work of Charles Darwin.

1. On the volcanos of France and Germany
2. On the volcanic countries visited by the author, in 1823–4
3. Description of volcanos in countries not visited by the author
4. General inferences respecting volcanic phaenomena
Additional notes
List of books on volcanos.

Subject Areas: Earth sciences [RB]