Sir Henry Thomas De la Beche (February 10, 1796 –
April 13, 1855) was an English
geologist.
Biography
His father, an officer in the army, possessed landed property in Jamaica, but died while his
son was still young. De la Beche spent his early life living with his mother in Lyme Regis,
where he acquired a love for geology. At the age of fourteen he entered the military college at Great Marlow.
The peace of 1815, however, changed his career. At the age of twenty-one he joined the Geological Society of London, continuing throughout life to be one of its most active,
useful and honoured members. He was president in 1848 -1849. He visited many localities of geological interest, not only in
Britain, but also on the continent, in France and Switzerland. Returning to the south-west of England he began the detailed investigation of the rocks of
Cornwall and Devon. Contact with the mining community of that
part of the country gave him the idea that the nation ought to compile a geological map of the United Kingdom, and collect and
preserve specimens to illustrate, and aid in further developing, its mineral industries.
The government then appointed him in connection with the Ordnance Survey. This formed
the starting point of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, which was
officially recognized in 1835, when De la Beche was appointed director. Increasing stores of valuable specimens began to arrive
in London; and the building at Craigs Court, where the young Museum of
Economic Geology was placed, became too small. De la Beche appealed to the authorities to provide a larger structure and
to widen the whole scope of the scientific establishment of which he was the head. Parliament sanctioned the erection of a museum in Jermyn Street, London, and the organization of a staff of professors with laboratories and other
appliances. The establishment, in which were combined the offices of the Geological Survey, the Museum
of Practical Geology, The Royal School of Mines and the Mining Record Office, was opened in 1851.
In 1830, de la Beche published Sections and views, illustrative of geological phaenomena, a series of line drawings to
encourage more accurate depictions of geological formations. De la Beche published numerous memoirs on English geology in the
Transactions of the Geological Society of London, as well as in the Memoirs of the Geological Survey, notably the Report on
the Geology of Cornwall, Devon and West Somerset (1839). He likewise wrote A Geological Manual (1831; 3rd ed., 1833);
and Researches in Theoretical Geology (1834), in which he enunciated a philosophical treatment of geological questions
much in advance of his time. An early volume, How to Observe Geology (1835 and 1836), was rewritten and enlarged by him
late in life, and published under the title of The Geological Observer (1851; 2nd ed., 1853).
De la Beche was the principal antagonist of Roderick Murchison and
Adam Sedgwick in what has been labeled The Great Devonian Controversy. He frequently used cartoons as a tactful way to express
his frustrations on this and other issues.
He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1819. He was knighted in 1848 and, near
the close of his life he was awarded the Wollaston medal.
Cartoons
A great supporter of the work and importance of Mary Anning, of Lyme Regis, De la Beche
drew a sketch, in 1830, entitled "Duria Antiquior - A More Ancient Dorset", which showed Mary Anning's finds:
(three types of Ichthyosaur, a Plesiosaur and
Dimorphodon. It even appears to show the production of coproliths, from a terrified plesiosaur.
He was a great and objective scientist and poked fun at some of the more outlandish theories of the time, such as that put
forward by Charles Lyell, proposing that geological and biological history were cyclical
and that ancient life forms would again walk the earth. His cartoon, also drawn in 1830, was entitled "Awful
Changes" and depicted an ichthyosaur professor lecturing on a fossilised human skull: "You will at once perceive,"
continued Professor Ichthyosaurus, "that the skull before us belonged to some of the lower order of animals; the teeth are
very insignificant, the power of the jaws trifling, and altogether it seems wonderful how the creature could have procured
food."
External links
References
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