The Ideas of A.G. Werner and J. Hutton in America
American geologists of the early 19th century became proficient in field and laboratory work. They read widely and were in contact with other American geologists as well as those in Europe. In the first 20 years of the century lectures in mineralogy and geology were begun, study collections formed, and laboratories and equipment became available. The ideas of James Hutton on igneous origin for rocks, and those of Abraham Gottlob Werner on rock deposition from water solution or suspension, were part of the reasoning of geologists working in America. Those geologists, as exemplified by T. Cooper, Wm. Maclure, S.L. Mitchill, A. Bruce, B. Silliman, and P. Cleaveland, added to the descriptive literature in geology, and evaluated theory from their experience.