Bücher von Charles Daubeny

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.

This short but distinctive paper was published in 1835 by Charles Daubeny (1795-1867), who began his career as a physician but soon found his passion to be volcanos. At this time, Daubeny held chairs in chemistry and botany at Oxford. He had made many field trips to European volcanic regions between 1819 and 1825, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1822, and in 1826 published the first edition of his famous Description of Active and Extinct Volcanos, of which a later version also appears in this series. Here Daubeny describes a winter trip to the Apulia (Puglia) region in the south-east of Italy, rarely described by travel writers of his time, to visit Lake Amsanctus, famously mentioned by Virgil, and the extinct volcano Mount Vultur. Although Daubeny's overall focus is scientific, his account also includes lively descriptions of classical remains and rural society in southern Italy.

Charles Daubeny (1795-1867) first published Active and Extinct Volcanos in 1826. This reissue is of the second, augmented edition of 1848, which the author explains was significantly updated in the light of the work of Charles Darwin. Part I contains geological descriptions of most of the world's known volcanos, arranged by region, many of them based on Daubeny's own observations. Part II contains descriptions of earthquake-prone regions, thermal springs, and thermal waters. In Part III Daubeny introduces his influential theory of the causes of volcanic action, proposing that it results from contact between water and metals beneath the earth's surface. He also discusses the factors that give volcanos particular characteristics, and the impact of volcanos on their environments. This pioneering work of Victorian geology provided the scientific community with some of the first descriptions and data sets on previously unstudied volcanic regions, and is still referred to today.