Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/528

Rh 502 W E K W E S WERNER, ABRAHAM GOTTLOB (1750-1817), the father of German geology, was born in Oberlausitz, Saxony, 25th September 1750. The family to which he belonged had been engaged for several hundred years in mining pursuits. His father was inspector of Count Solm s iron-works at Mehrau and Lorzendorf, and from young Werner s infancy cultivated in him a taste for minerals and rocks. The boy showed early promise of distinction. In his fourth year he had learnt to read; in his fifth he could write and cipher; and by the time he was six or seven years old he had grown to be a great reader. Already, when only three years of age, he had begun to collect specimens of stones, and, when he could read, one of his favourite employments was to pore over the pages of a dictionary of mining. At the age of nine he was sent to school at Bunzlau in Silesia, where he remained until 1764, when he joined his father, with the idea of ultimately succeeding him in the post which the latter held there. In his eighteenth year ill- health compelled him to seek the mineral waters of Carlsbad. In journeying thither by way of Freiberg he showed such enthusiasm and knowledge in an excursion in that neighbourhood as to attract the notice of the officials there, who invited him to attend their mining school which had been established two years previously. This was the turning point in Werner s career. He came to Freiberg in 1769 when he was nineteen years of age, and found the school in its merest infancy. He soon dis tinguished himself by his industry and by the large amount of practical knowledge of mineralogy which he acquired. In 1771 he repaired to the university of Leipsic and went through the usual curriculum of study, but continued to devote himself with the greatest ardour to mineralogical pursuits. While still a student he wrote his first work on the external characters of minerals (Ueber die dussern Kennzeichen der Fossilien, Leipsic, 1764), which at once gave him a name among the mineralogists of the day. His friends in Freiberg, who had watched his pro gress with much gratification, called him at the close of his college life to be inspector in the mining school and teacher of mineralogy there. To the development of that school and to the cultivation of mineralogy and geognosy he thenceforth devoted the whole of his active and inde fatigable industry. From a mere provincial institution the Freiberg academy under his care rose to be one of the great centres of scientific light in Europe, to which students from all parts of the world nocked to listen to his eloquent teaching. He wrote but little, and though he elaborated a complete system of geognosy and mineralogy he never could be induced to publish it. From the notes of his pupils, however, the general purport of his teaching was well known, and it widely influenced the science of his time. He had the art of infusing into those who listened to him some of his own ardent enthusiasm. His disciples accordingly left his rooms with the determination to preach his doctrine everywhere. They became ardent partisans, and carried on an active propaganda in most countries of Europe. He died at Freiberg on June 30, 1817. One of the distinguishing features of Werner s teaching was the care with which he taught the succession of geological formations. He showed that the rocks of the earth are not disposed at random, but follow each other in a certain definite order. Unfortunately he had never enlarged his experience by travel, and the sequence of rock-masses which he had recognized in Saxony was believed by him to be of universal application all over the globe. He taught that the rocks were the precipitates of a primeval ocean, and followed each other in successive deposits of world-wide extent. Volcanoes were regarded by him as abnormal phenomena, probably due to the combustion of subterranean beds of eoal. Basalt and similar rocks, which even then were recognized by other observers as of igneous origin, were believed by him to be water-formed accumulations of the same ancient ocean. Hence arose one of the great historical controversies of geology. Werner s followers preached the doctrine of the aqueous origin of rocks, and were known as Neptunists ; their opponents, who recognized the import ant part taken iu the construction of the earth s crust by subter ranean heat, were styled Vulcanists. Though much of Werner s theoretical work was erroneous, science is indebted to him for so clearly demonstrating the chronological succession of rocks, for the enthusiastic zeal which he infused into his pupils, and for the im pulse which he thereby gave to the study of geology. See S. G. Friscli, Lebensbeschreibung A. G. Werners, Leipsic, 1825 ; Cuvier, loge de Werner; and Lyell, Principles of Geology. WERNER, FRIEDRICH LUDWIG ZACHARIAS, German poet, was born at Konigsberg on November 18, 1768, and died at Vienna on January 17, 1823. After an irregular life he joined the Church of Rome in 1809, was consecrated priest in 1814, and in his later years was well known as a preacher. As a dramatist he is remembered as the originator of the so-called &quot; fate tragedies &quot;; see GERMANY, vol. x. p. 543. WERNIGERODE, a town of Prussian Saxony, about 12 miles to the south-west of Halberstadt, is picturesquely situated on the Holzemme, on the north slopes of the Harz Mountains. It contains several interesting Gothic buildings, including the fine town-house dating from the 14th century. Some of the quaint old houses which have escaped the numerous fires that have visited the town are elaborately adorned with wood -carving. The gymnasium, occupying a modern Gothic building, is the successor of an ancient grammar-school, which existed until 1825. Wooden articles, cigars, and dye-stuffs are among the manufactures of the place. Above the town rises the chateau of the count of Stolberg-Wernigerode. A pavilion in the park contains the library of 96.000 volumes, the chief feature in which is the collection of over 3000 Bibles and over 3600 volumes on hynmology. The population of Wernigerode in 1885 was 9083 ; including the imme diately adjoining villages of Noscherode and Hasserode, it was 13,804. Wernigerode is the chief town of the county (grafschaft) of Stol berg-Wernigerode, which still retains a few shreds of nominal in dependence, though really an integral part of Prussia since the congress of Vienna. It was originally a free and independent im perial fief, and retains its peculiar national colours. The county has an extent of 107 square miles, with 26,484 inhabitants, and includes the Ikoeken within its limits. WESEL, a strongly fortified industrial town in West phalia, Prussia, is situated at the confluence of the Rhine and the Lippe, 46 miles south-west of Miinster, and 35 miles south-east of Nimeguen in Holland. The Rhine is here crossed by a large railway bridge and by a bridge of boats. The island of Bliderich in mid-stream is fortified, and the town is further protected by detached forts, one of which serves as a tete-de-pont on the left bank of the Rhine. Wesel contains some quaint old houses with high- pitched roofs, and a town-house, dating from 1396, with an elaborate fagade. The large church of St Willibrord, a handsome late-Gothic edifice, was consecrated in 1181, though its present form dates from 1521. Since 1883 it has been undergoing a much-needed restoration. St Matthew s church dates from 1472-77. The two Roman Catholic churches, the commandant s house (built in 1417), the Berlin gateway (1722), and the modern gymnasium and military hospital are among the other chief buildings. Wesel carries on a considerable trade both by railway and its two rivers ; wood and fish are perhaps the main exports. It has manufactures of wire, leaden pipes, and other metal goods, pianofortes, sugar, &c. The population, more than half Roman Catholic, was 20,677 in 1885. Wesel, formerly known as Lippemiinde, was one of the points from which Charlemagne directed his operations against the heathen Saxons. The present name is said to be derived from the numerous weasels (Germ., Wiescl) at one time found in the neighbourhood. In the Middle Ages it was a nourishing commercial town, and a member of the Hanseatie League, and as late as 1495 a free im perial city. A monument outside the town commemorates eleven of Schill s officers who were shot here in 1809 after their uiisuc-