James Hutton Biography - Scottish Geologist, Agriculturalist, Naturalist and Physician

James Hutton James Hutton, born on June 3rd, 1726, died on 26th of March, 1797, was a Scottish geologist, physician, chemical manufacturer, naturalist, and experimental agriculturalist. He originated the fundamental theories in geology, including uniform materialism. Hutton's work established geology as a proper science and he is often referred to as the father of modern geology. James Hutton was born in Edinburgh and was one of the five children born to the merchant William Hutton. He was educated at the High School of Edinburgh where he learnt mathematics and chemistry. He entered the University of Edinburgh in 1740. He was apprenticed to a lawyer but was more interested in medicine and in 1744 he became a physician's assistant. In 1749 he received his MD at the Leiden University with a thesis on the circulatory system. He returned to London in the mid-1750s and with his friend James Davy started a profitable company manufacturing crystalline salt for dyeing and metal works. In the 1750s he moved to the farm he had inherited from his father and began to make improvements to the practice of the agriculture and animal husbandry. While working and clearing his land, he noticed that much of the rocks were composed of fossilized plant and animal material. Between 1767 and 1774 Hutton shared his knowledge of geology with the company constructing the Fort and Glide Canal. He shared his theory that the earth was a product of decay of previous organisms. In his theory of the earth or an investigation of the laws observable in the composition, dissolution and restoration of the land upon the globe which was presented to the Royal Society on July 4th 1785. He also studied atmospheric changes and wrote the theory of rain in which he stated that the amount of moisture which can be contained in air increases with the temperature and that rainfall is regulated by humidity and air currents. He suggested that natural selection is a mechanism for evolution in living organisms. He wrote that dogs survived by swiftness and good eyesight and the slowest would be the most likely not to survive to reproduce. Charles Darwin arrived at the same idea separately in 1859.