Munro, Rolland J. B.

James Hutton was most well known for achievements in geology. He was born in Edinburgh on 3 June 1726. He was educated at the city's Royal High School and he studied at Edinburgh University first matriculating there in 1740. His most important contribution to science was the Theory of the Earth (1785) which earned him the accolade of 'founder of modern geology'. In his work, he noted: "with respect to Human observation, this world has neither a beginning nor an end" - a principle now accepted as axiomatic. Hutton also had interests in the physical sciences, in particular, chemistry, physics and meteorology. Toward the end of his life he published a three-part book entitled Dissertations on Different Subjects in Natural Philosophy (1792) where he discussed mostly meteorology, phlogiston, and the theory of matter. Hutton also engaged in more philosophical concerns of the time. He published a three volume treatise on metaphysics and moral philosophy entitled An Investigation of the Principles of Knowledge and of the Progress of Reason, From Sense to Science and Philosophy ( 1794). James Hutton died on 26 March 1797.

On his death, Hutton's sister Isabella gave his collection of fossils to Dr. Joseph Black (1728-1799), Professor of Chemistry at Edinburgh University, and he in turn presented them to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Trace of the fossil collection was then lost, and this became a research interest of Rolland J. B. Munro working in the 1930s and 1940s.

From the guide to the Papers of Rolland J. B. Munro relating to James Hutton (1726-1797), 1939-1947, (Edinburgh University Library)