BOOK REVIEWS SHORT CLASSIFICATION AND DESCRIPTION OF THE VARIOUS ROCKS. By A. B. Wemer. Translated from German and facsimile of original text (1786) with an introduction and notes by A. M. Ospovat. Hafner Publish-

Everybody writes about Abraham Gottlob Werner (1749-1817) but hardlv anyone rea.ds him. Werner, after whom Cuvier wrote and whole societies named themselves, has passed into modem textbooks (thanks to Lyell) as a stra,w man whose fallacious views were finally and irrevocably refuted by Ilutton and Playfair. Wer:rer was not particularly original in emphasizing the sedimentary process (neptunism) or even in extending it to a primitive granite crust and interbedded columnar basalt. Yet he seems, more than anyone else, to have grasped the idea which we a.re even now barely beginning to accept-that there are lithological characterizations of the periods of earth history, and that the earth has undergone an evolutionary process of chemical (mineralogical) differentiation. Out of this historical rather than uniformitarian view carne our geological time scale still bearing the stamp of Werner's hand (in our contemporary designation of the "Tertiary" for example). The "Kurze Klassifikation" is the principle work in which Werner expressed the first of his two major ideas-on the concept of the geological time scale. Ilis second maior influence on the classification of minerals was developed in a youthful work "On the External Characters of Minerals" happily available since 1962 in an English translation by Albert Carozzi. Barely 28 pages. the "Kvrze Klassifikation" was possibly the first work to generalize local descriptions of strata into a single world-wide system complete from the beginning to the present. It was a step toward rendering the system of Buffon into a practical method. Its timing is of some importance. In 1774 at the age of 25 Werner returned to the Bergakademie Freiberg to find the vulcanist position in full command. Desmarest's classic work establishing the volcanic origin of the basalts of the Auverp.e had been written in the 60's. In 1786 Werner published the "Kurze Klassifikation." Hutton published in 1788. Historical geology took form through the first, physical geolog5r through the second. Alexander Ospovat is a hi,storian of science who has spent many years studying Werner manuscripts and published works here and at Freiberg. His translation abundantly reflects his employment of three separate original printings as well as the Werner manuscript materials. His introduction and extensive notes are invaluable in correcting the Werner sterotype. For example, Werner neVer rigidly defined the sequence within the Floetz, and never thought that each species of Floetz rock was a simultaneous world wide deposit. These were excesses partly added by his followers but mostly attributed to him by his opponents. Two appendices, one a glossary of Werner's petrological terminology, the other of his geographical terminolgy, and a thorough bibliography, complete the work. This book should be regarded as a first edition in English of a crucial volume as well as a historical souree and even a collector's item.