See also: Hutton

James Hutton (June 3rd 1726, Edinburgh - March 26th 1797) is a Scottish geologist known for its formulation of the Uniformitarisme and the school of the Plutonisme. He is regarded as one of the fathers of modern geology.

He studied medicine and the right then felt attracted by science incipient from geology. While he works in the Berwickshire during the Années 1750, 1760 he discovers a whole variety of ideas to explain the rock formations which he sees around him. It settles with Edinburgh or it meets brilliant spirits such as John Playfair and Joseph Black.

Its new theories put it in opposition with the Neptunisme of Abraham Gottlob Werner, then very popular, according to which the rocks were formed starting from the Cristallisation minerals in the oceans of passed of the Ground. It notes for example that many layers of sedimentary rocks meets other layers with unusual angles, which suggests that the first layer settled then deformed and that another layer settled over. He also proposes that the interior of the Earth is hot and that this heat is the engine of the creation of new rocks: erosion by the wind and water produces sediments which settle in layers in the sea then heat consolidates these sediments. This theory is called the Neptunisme. Hutton, with the school plutonist, establishes the intrusive origin of the Granite.

At the same time he proposes as the scale of time used to describe the past of the Earth is changed. He is opposed to the Catastrophisme which considers that the Earth is old of to more the few thousands of years in agreement with certain religious beliefs by proposing the Uniformitarisme, its point of view is however too distinct by putting forth the assumption of an infinitely old Ground. Its line of principal thought is that the Ground was formed gradually by forces which exist still nowadays. As these processes are very slow the Earth must be much older than than preaches the catastrophism. In the following decades research which follows this idea increases the age of the Earth by several million by years, not yet enough compared to knowledge of our century, but an significant improvement. Hutton also has, quite front Charles Darwin, proposed uniformitarianism for the alive species -- evolution in a certain direction -- suggesting even the natural selection like one of the possible mechanisms.

“… if an organization is not placed in the situation and the circumstances best adapted for its subsistence and its propagation then, by conceiving an infinite variety between the individuals of this species, we are assured that, on the one hand the individuals which are furthest away from the constitution best adapted are most probable to perish while on the other hand the organizations with the constitution best adapted for the circumstances present will continue has to be best adapted while preserving and by multiplying” -- The theory off the Earth, volume 2.

Alas, the theory of Hutton published in The Theory off the Earth was written in a not very clear style and in extreme cases of readable what prevented the acceptance of its ideas. It is thus Charles Darwin, influenced by the disciple of Hutton, Charles Lyell, who will popularize this novel idea and which will bring sufficient new facts to overcome the resistance of the scientific community to this theory.

The writing of The Theory off the Earth is so obscure that it also delayed the acceptance of the geological theories of Hutton. Clarification of his/her friend John Playfair in Illustrations off the Huttonian Theory off the Earth . in 1802 then the support of Charles Lyell in the Années 1830 removed this obstacle. In fact the theory of Hutton becomes so prominent that it is partly responsible for initial resistance to certain more recent theories such as the Plate tectonics or the massive extinctions caused by meteoric impacts.