Genre:

Extract, Poetry, Drollery

Publications extracted:

Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine

Subjects:

Geology, Controversy, Scientific Practitioners

    An introduction directs the reader to 'Frances, Lord Verulam, a celebrated Philosopher, who has been lately be-scoped and tendencied by Macvey Napier, Esq.' (88). 'Geologers all, great, middling, and small, / Whether fiery Plutonian or wet Neptunist, / Most gladly, it seems, seek proofs for their schemes, / In the water, or spirit, of a jug of gin-twist' (90). These 'grubbers of ground' forget all other rocks, thinking only of 'quartz / I mean of the quarts in a jug of gin-twist' (90).