Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

ADAM SEDGWICK (1785-1873)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 578 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

ADAM See also:SEDGWICK (1785-1873)  , See also:English geologist, was See also:born on the 22nd of See also:March 1785 at Dent in See also:Yorkshire, the second son of See also:Richard See also:Sedgwick, See also:vicar of the See also:parish . He was educated at the See also:Grammar See also:Schools of Dent and See also:Sedbergh, and at Trinity See also:College, See also:Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. as fifth wrangler in 18o8, and two years later was elected a See also:Fellow of his college . For several years he was occupied as private See also:tutor and afterwards as assistant mathematical tutor at Trinity College . In 1818 he was admitted to priests' orders . He had at this See also:time paid no serious See also:attention to See also:geology . As a lad he had collected fossils from the See also:Mountain See also:Limestone near Dent, and in 1813 he had visited the mines near See also:Furness and Coniston . Nevertheless, when the Rev . See also:John Hailstone retired in 1818 from the See also:post of Woodwardian See also:professor of geology, Sedgwick applied for the vacancy, and was so strongly supported by his college as a See also:man of See also:talent that he was elected by a large See also:majority .. He now took up the study of geology with intense zeal, traversed large areas in the See also:south of See also:England, and, becoming acquainted with W . D . See also:Conybeare, regarded him as his See also:master in geology . It is astonishing with what rapidity he grasped the principles of stratigraphical geology and the relationships of rocks in the See also:field .

In papers read before the Cambridge Philosophical Society, 182o-1821, on the structure of parts of See also:

Devonshire and See also:Cornwall, he made observations of exceptional See also:interest and value . Of this society in 1819 he had been one of the founders with J . S . See also:Henslow . Every See also:year for a See also:long See also:period now brought its See also:season of field-See also:work . Sedgwick dealt with the geology of the Isle of See also:Wight, and with the strata of the Yorkshire See also:coast (in papers published in the See also:Annals of See also:Philosophy, 1822, 1826); and he examined the rocks of the See also:north of See also:Scotland with See also:Murchison in 1827 . He contributed an important See also:essay On the See also:Geological Relations and See also:Internal Structure of the .nlagnesian Limestone to the Geological Society of See also:London (1828) . As See also:early as 1822 he had begun to make a detailed geological See also:map of the older rocks of the See also:Lake See also:District; he continued these researches whereby the See also:main structure of this mountain region was first unravelled, in succeeding years; and the See also:principal results were brought before the Geological Society (1831-1836) . Meanwhile he was elected See also:president of the Geological Society in 1829-183o, and in 1831 he commenced field-work in North See also:Wales . His See also:chief attention was now concentrated on the older rocks of England and Wales . Murchison began the task of unravelling the structure of the older rocks on the Welsh See also:borders in the same year . They had intended to start together, but the arrangement: See also:fell through, and thus they began their labours independently 1I and from opposite sides of the principality .

Eventually Sedgwick founded the See also:

Cambrian See also:system for the See also:oldest See also:group of fossiliferous strata, and Murchison the See also:Silurian system for the See also:great group immediately below the Old Red See also:Sandstone . Their systems were found to overlap—Sedgwick's Upper Cambrian and Murchison's See also:Lower Silurian being practically See also:equivalent . Hence arose a painful controversy that has only of See also:late years been terminated by the See also:adoption of Professor C . See also:Lapworth's See also:term Ordovician in See also:place of the Upper Cambrian of Sedgwick and the Lower Silurian of Murchison . Sedgwick was ever actively interested in the work of his university . His famous Discourse on the Studies of the University of Cambridge, delivered in 1832,was published in See also:expanded See also:form in 1833; it reached a fifth edition in 1850 . The studies were reviewed under the headings of (I) The See also:laws of nature, (2) See also:Ancient literature and See also:language, and (3) See also:Ethics and See also:metaphysics; and the See also:volume had so grown that it ultimately consisted of 442 pages of See also:preface, or preliminary dissertation on the See also:history of creation, with arguments against the transmutation of See also:species, and an essay on the evidences of See also:Christianity; the discourse occupied 94 pages; and there was an appendix of notes, &c., that filled 228 pages . In 1833 Sedgwick was president of the See also:British Association at the first Cambridge See also:meeting, and in 1834 he was appointed a See also:canon of See also:Norwich . In 1836 with Murchison he made a See also:special study of the See also:Culm-See also:measures of Devonshire, which until that time had been grouped with the See also:greywacke, and together they demonstrated that the main See also:mass of the strata belonged to the See also:age of the true See also:Coal Measures . Continuing their researches into the bordering strata they were able to show in 1839, from the determinations of See also:William See also:Lonsdale, that the fossils of the South See also:Devon limestones and those of See also:Ilfracombe and other parts of North Devon were of an intermediate type between those of the Silurian and Carboniferous systems . They therefore introduced the term Devonian for the great group of slates, grits and See also:lime-stones, now known under that name in See also:West See also:Somerset, Devon and Cornwall . These results were published in the great memoir by Sedgwick and Murchison, " On the See also:Physical Structure of Devon-See also:shire " (Trans .

Geol . See also:

Soc., 1839) . Of later published See also:works it will be sufficient to mention A Synopsis of the See also:Classification of the British Palaeozoic Rocks (1855), which contained a systematic description of the fossils by F . McCoy . Also the preface by Sedgwick to A See also:Catalogue of the collection of Cambrian and Silurian Fossils contained in the Geological Museum of the University of Cambridge, by J . W . See also:Salter (1873) . The See also:Wollaston See also:Medal of the Geological Society was awarded to Sedgwick in 1851, and the See also:Copley Medal of the Royal Society in 1863 . He continued to lecture until 1872, when See also:ill-See also:health rendered necessary the See also:appointment of a See also:deputy (Professor J . See also:Morris) . He died at Cambridge on the 27th of See also:January 1873 . In 1865 the See also:senate of the university received from A .

A . See also:

Van Sittart the sum of 500 " for the purpose of encouraging the study of geology among the See also:resident members of the university, and in See also:honour of the Rev . See also:Adam Sedgwick." Thus was founded the Sedgwick See also:prize to be given every third year for the best essay on some geological subject . The first Sedgwick prize was awarded in 1873 . On the See also:death of Sedgwick it was decided that his memorial should take the form of a new and larger museum . Hitherto the geological collections had been placed in the Woodwardian Museum In See also:Cockerell's See also:Building . Through the See also:energy of Professor T . McK . See also:Hughes (successor to Sedgwick) the new building termed the Sedgwick Museum was completed and opened in 1903 . See the See also:Life and Letters,by John See also:Willis See also:Clark and See also:Thomas McKenny Hughes (189o) .

End of Article: ADAM SEDGWICK (1785-1873)
[back]
SEDGLEY
[next]
JOHN SEDGWICK (1813–1864)

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click and select "copy." Paste it into a website, email, or other HTML document.