Scrope
NAME: Scrope, George Julius Poulett.
ACHIEVEMENTS: Advances in vulcanology.
NICKNAME/ALIAS: “Pamphlet” Scrope.
DATE/PLACE OF BIRTH: 10th March 1797, London, England.
DATE/PLACE OF DEATH/AGE AT DEATH: 19th January 1876, near Cobham, Surrey, England. Aged 79.
DISCIPLINE: Vulcanology.
FIELD: Geology
LANGUAGE: English.
PARENTS: John Poulett Thomson and Charlotte Jacob.
SIBLINGS: Charles Edward Poulett, Baron Sydenham.
SPOUSE: Emma Phipps Scrope (second wife name not known).
CHILDREN: None.
EDUCATION: Harrow School and St John's College, Cambridge.
MAJOR WORK: "Geology and Extinct Volcanoes of Central France" (1826).
LIFE AND TIMES: During his time as an undergraduate at St John's College, Scrope became interested in geology.
His interest was fuelled by his teacher, <taught by> Sedgwick* and by a winter vacation with his parents, in 1817, when they visited Naples, Italy. At this time, Vesuvius was active. Scope returned to Naples the following winter, to study in the volcanic districts of the Campagna. A trip to Sicily and the Lipari Islands followed in 1819, to see Etna and Stromboli.
In 1821, he married Emma Phipps Scrope, the heiress of William Scrope of Castle Combe in Wiltshire, England and took his wife's name as his own. Returning to Italy in 1822, he arrived in Naples in time to see the dramatic eruption of Vesuvius, when six hundred feet of its cone was destroyed.
He studied the volcanic areas of Italy and travelled back to England, taking the opportunity to look at volcanic sites near the Rhine and in northern Germany. By now, his vulcanological work was well-known and in 1824 he became a member of the Geological Society, and was elected as secretary of the Society, together with <a pal of> Lyell*, in 1825.
At this time he published "Considerations on Volcanoes", setting out the observations from his travels, and the conclusions he had drawn, refuted the theories of <disproved theories of> Werner*, the leader of the so-called Plutonists or Neptunists, who maintained that rocks were formed by deposits from the oceans.
The publication was poorly received, partly because his theory of how the Earth had developed was new. Scrope believed that the Earth was cooling down, which meant that its geological forces would be declining. He did, however, agree that on rare occasions there could still be major volcanic eruptions, even encompassing whole mountain ranges or continents, and these eruptions would cause destructive waves.
Scrope's theory of gradual and unchanging geological processes, was later developed by Lyell, and became known as “Uniformitarianism”.
In 1826, he published "Geology and Extinct Volcanoes of Central France" in which he recognised the action of lava flows and rivers in the formation of valleys. The evidence he quoted helped to disprove the popular theory held by <disproved theories of> Buckland* that major valleys had been cared out by a deluge like the Biblical flood, which had also deposited debris.
Scrope himself never committed to either the Uniformitarian view, or that of the catastrophists. Soon after publication, Lyell verified Scrope's observations in France and Italy and in the same year, Scrope was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
In 1830 he assisted Lyell with the first volume of Lyell’s book, "Principles of Geology", written mainly to combat the influence of theology on geological hypothesis. However Scrope disagreed with Lyell's ideas: that geological forces of the past would have acted in the same way as the present day, and that there was a source of chemical heat within the earth.
At this time, Scrope became more interested in politics than geology and took the post of magistrate in Castle Combe, Wiltshire, where he had settled. He contested the Parliamentary seat for Stroud and failed to be elected, but, in 1833, he succeeded and became the Liberal Member for Stroud.
He wrote tracts that gave rise to his nickname (in the House of Commons): "Pamphlet" Scrope. In all, he wrote about seventy such pamphlets and, as an advocate of free trade, was interested in the poor law and became a social reformer, publishing "The Principles of Political Economy".
In 1856, he became involved in fresh controversy over the volcanic theories of continental geologists including <work related to> Alexander von Humboldt*. These argued that volcanic cones could be made by a "single explosive upheaval of strata". Scrope and Lyell correctly maintained that cones were made up of gradual deposits of volcanic materials erupting from a vent.
In 1857 he went to the Auvergne region of France to study the extinct volcanoes for the revised edition of his work, re-issued in 1858 and dedicated to Lyell. In 1862, he enlarged and revised his original book on volcanoes, and was given the Wollaston Medal by the Geological Society five years later.
In 1868 Scrope retired from Parliament at the age of seventy-one and by 1872, he had modified his views on a cooling earth. He rejected <rejected theory of> T.H. Huxley*'s new, evolutionary view of Earth history, but never argued against the evidence for biological evolution.
ASSESSMENT: Scrope's early work influenced Lyell, and by so doing helped to promote the uniformitarian view of geology and prepare the ground for the theory of evolution..
EXTRA CONNECTIONS: His brother was <brother was> CEP Thomson*
He influenced the work of <influenced> Dana*
ONELINER: GP Scrope, early vulcanologist
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
DSB, DNB.