Neptunistn.adj.

1593 G. Harvey Pierces Supererogation 190 Let..fine Dædalist, skilfull Neptunist, maruelous Vulcanist..be respected [etc.].

1598 A. M. tr. J. Guillemeau Frenche Chirurg. *iv The Neptunist, of windes, of stormes, and of tempest,..can talke best.

1802 Edinb. Rev. Oct. 201 Its author cannot be considered either as a Vulcanist purely, or a Neptunist.

1830 C. Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 346 The confidence with which the contending Neptunists and Vulcanists in the last century dogmatized on the igneous or aqueous origin of certain rocks.

1897 A. Geikie Founders of Geol. iii. 117 Werner's followers, from the prominence they gave to the sea in their geognosy, were styled Neptunists.

1965 M. Smith Essent. Mod. Geol. vi. 101 Considerable controversy existed in the eighteenth century until the Vulcanists, led by Nicholas Desmarest, finally overcame the opposition of the Neptunists.

1992 A. Korzweil Case of Curiosities xi. 81 The Abbé, in regular correspondence with the precocious geologist Abraham Gottlob Werner, was a committed Neptunist.

1863 H. Spencer Ess. 2nd Ser. 60 This Neptunist hypothesis..was quite untenable if analyzed.

1905 A. Geikie Founders of Geol. (ed. 2) viii. 262 He would have run some risk of being regarded as having gone over to the Neptunist camp.

1951 C. C. Gillispie Genesis & Geol. ii. 44 The Neptunist synthesis explained stratification by postulating that all rock formations had been precipitated from an aqueous solution and suspension.

1997 Amer. Jrnl. Sci. 297 312 At the onset of the Exploring Expedition,..the Wernerian neptunist view of the aqueous origin of basalt had only just been laid to rest.