page_title: James Hutton
hierarchical_section_title: James Hutton
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait of James Hutton, the founder of modern geology - He died in 1797, so the painting was done before then.
context_page_description: James Hutton MD was a Scottish geologist, physician, naturalist, chemist and experimental farmer.
  Hutton studied in medicine, but never practised it. Instead, he did scientific research, helped to start a chemical industry, and farmed his estate. He is one of the founders of modern geology. He saw the Earth as the product of natural forces. What could be seen happening today, over long periods of time, could produce what we see in the rocks.
  His book on the Theory of the Earth set out theories of geology and geologic time. These ideas supported the theories of plutonism and uniformitarianism.
context_section_description: James Hutton MD (Edinburgh, (14 June 1726 – 26 March 1797) was a Scottish geologist, physician, naturalist, chemist and experimental farmer.
  Hutton studied in medicine, but never practised it. Instead, he did scientific research, helped to start a chemical industry, and farmed his estate. He is one of the founders of modern geology. He saw the Earth as the product of natural forces. What could be seen happening today, over long periods of time, could produce what we see in the rocks.
  His book on the Theory of the Earth set out theories of geology and geologic time. These ideas supported the theories of plutonism and uniformitarianism.
caption: Hutton as painted by Sir Henry Raeburn
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