Ocean currents as agents of geological change: Buffon to Lamarck, 1749--1802 (Georges Louis Leclerc, comte du Buffon, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck)

In the second half of the eighteenth century in France natural philosophers frequently discussed the idea that ocean currents had shaped the surface of the Earth. This paper investigates beliefs of ocean currents as agents of geological change in francophone writings during the second half of the eighteenth century, between 1749, when Buffon's Histoire Naturelle began to appear, and 1802, when Lamarck published Hydrogeologie. In this period natural philosophers enthusiastically discussed and debated the causes and effects of waves, currents, and tides. They argued the degree to which the ocean had acted as a dynamic causal agent of change. This thesis not only analyzes the developing ideas of ocean currents, but it also further enables historians to comprehend the dynamic intellectual system of the eighteenth century. My study shows that Buffon searched for regularities in nature, and that this was an important part of his argument for ocean currents as agents of geological change, and indeed a significant factor in the development of geological thought in the latter half of the eighteenth century. Later natural philosophers continued the search for regularities in their attempt to understand nature's geological processes.