HORNER, LEONARD (1785-1864)

This article appears in Volume V13, Page 711 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: HIG-HOR

HORNER, LEONARD (1785-1864) , Scottish geologist, brother of Francis Horner (above), was born in Edinburgh on the 17th of January 1785. His father, John Horner, was a linen merchant in Edinburgh, and Leonard, the third and youngest son, entered the university of Edinburgh in 1799. There in the course of the next four years he studied

chemistry

and

mineralogy

MINERALOGY

, and gained a love of geology from

Playfair

PLAYFAIR, JOHN (1748-1819)
PLAYFAIR, LYON PLAYFAIR

's Illustrations of the Kuttonian Theory. At the age of nineteen he became a partner in a branch of his father's business, and went to London. In i 8o8 he joined the newly formed Geological Society and two years later was elected one of the secretaries. Throughout his long life he was ardently devoted to the welfare of the society; he was elected president in 1846 and again in 186o. In 1811 he read his first

paper

PAPER
PAPER (Fr. papier, from Lat. papyrus)

" On the

Mineralogy

MINERALOGY

of the Malvern Hills " (Trans. Geol. Soc. vol. i.) and subsequently communicated other papers on the " Brine-springs at

Droitwich

DROITWICH

," and the " Geology of the S.W. part of Somersetshire." He was elected F.R.S. in 1813. In 1815 he returned to Edinburgh to take personal superintendence of his business, and while there (1821) he was instrumental in

founding

FOUNDING (from Lat. fundere, to pour)

the Edinburgh School of Arts for the instruction of

mechanics

MECHANICS

, and he was one of the founders of the Edinburgh

Academy

ACADEMY, GREEK
ACADEMY, ROYAL

. In 1827 he was invited to London to become warden of the London University, an office which he held for four years; he then resided at

Bonn

BONN

for two years and pursued the study of minerals and rocks, communicating to the Geological Society on his return a

paper

PAPER
PAPER (Fr. papier, from Lat. papyrus)

on the " Geology of the Environs of

Bonn

BONN

," and another " On the Quantity of Solid Matter suspended in the Water of the Rhine." In 1833 he was appointed one of the commissioners to inquire into the employment of children in the factories of

Great

GREAT

Britain, and he was subsequently selected as one of the inspectors. In later years he devoted much attention to the geological history of the
sillimanite, but kyanite appears also in hornfelses, especially in evidence of this. While this "felspathization" may have occurred in a few localities, it seems conspicuously absent from others. Most authorities at the present time regard the changes as being purely of a physical and not of a chemical nature. (J. S. F.)

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