Geoscience Reference
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Figure 6.2 Title page of
Hutton's 1785 abstract.
Hutton was not in the chamber, and the paper was read by Joseph
Black. Quite why Hutton was absent at this critical time is not
known, but perhaps he could not face any hostility that his ideas
might have engendered in the assembly. On 4 April following,
Hutton was present, and he read the second half of his paper. The
anonymous thirty-page abstract (Figure
6.2
) of this paper was pub-
lished later that year and an expanded version was published by the
society three years later in 1788. Copies of Hutton's 1788 abstract are
exceedingly rare; it was only recognised as being Hutton's work in
1947, when this was proved by the historian of geology Victor Eyles.
Gordon Craig, a noted scholar of Huttoniana, in his introduction to a
facsimile edition of the abstract produced in 1997 to mark the bicen-
tenary celebrations of Hutton's death, remarked that he knew of only
seven copies in public circulation.
