COBISS: 1.01
BALTAZAR HACqUET (1739/40-1815), THE PIONEER OF KARST
GEOMORPHOLOGISTS
BALTAZAR HACqUET (1739/40-1815), PIONIR V GEOMORFOLOGIJI KRASA
Andrej KRANJC1
Abstract                                  UDC   551.44 : 929 Hacquet B.
Andrej Kranjc: Baltazar Hacquet (1739/40-1815), the Pioneer of Karst Geomorphologists
Besides other sciences, B. Hacquet dedicated his research to geology and geomorphology (as we call them now). His most im-portant work “Oryctographia carniolica or Physical (= geological) description of Carniola...” (1778-1789) contains descriptions of rocks, ores, fossils, as well as surface and underground features. In Carniola, karst is prevailing and therefore there is a lengthy description of karst geology and geomorphology included. His classifcation of mountains specially mentions montes se-cundarii formed by grey limestone. Of surface features dolines, glacio-karstic dolines on high plateaus (with temperature and vegetation inversion), and karst poljes are mentioned. Hacquet presumed the evolution from fooded polje (seasonal lake) to a dry one. To explain the weathering and dissolution of limestone Hacquet took into account the diferences between the rock, the exposition and its element content. Tat is the reason why Gams regarded him as a precursor of a climatic geomorphology and the “father” of corrosion theory Hacquet has also found the diference between limestone and dolomite. His description of dolomite as lapis suillus preceded the one of D. Dolomieu for 13 years. Hacquets statements were not based on observation only, but on the experiment too. when looking upon Hacquets explanations and results we must not forget that Hacquet s time was still time of parapathetic logic, of four elements and of the principle of burning - the fogiston.
key words: history of geomorphology, karstology, Hacquet B., Carniola, Slovenia.
Izvleček                                  UDK   551.44 : 929 Hacquet B.
Andrej Kranjc: Baltazar Hacquet (1739/40-1815), pionir v geomorfologiji krasa
Poleg drugih znanosti se je B. Hacquet posvečal tudi geologiji in geomorfologiji, kot ju imenujemo danes. Njegovo najpomembnejše delo “Oryctographia carniolica ali fizični (= geološki) opis Kranjske...” (1778-1789) vsebuje opise kamnin, rudnin, fosilov kot tudi površinskih in podzemeljskih oblik. Na Kranjskem prevladuje kras in v svoje delo je vključil tudi dolg opis geologije in geomorfologije krasa. V razvrstitvi gora je posebej pozoren na montes secundarii iz sivega apnenca. Od površinskih oblik omenja vrtače, na visokih planotah konte (z rastlinskim obratom) in kraška polja. Domneva, da so se kraška polja razvijala od poplavljenih (presihajočih jezer) do suhih polj. Da bi razložil preperevanje apnenca je Hacquet upošteval razlike v kamnini, osončenost in vsebnost elementov. Zaradi tega ga Gams šteje za začetnika klimatske geomorfologije in za »očeta« teorije korozije. Hacquet je odkril tudi razliko med apnencem in dolomitom. Njegov opis dolomita pod imenom lapis suillus je izšel 13 let preden je objavil svojega D. Dolo-mieu. Hacquet ni sklepal le na podlagi opazovanj, ampak tudi na podlagi poizkusov. Ko gledamo na Hacquetove razlage in izsledke, ne smemo pozabiti, da je bila čas, v katerem je živel, še čas parapatetične logike, štirih elementov in principa gorenja - fogistona.
ključne besede: zgodovina geomorfologije, krasoslovje, Hac-quet B., Kranjska, Slovenija.
1Karst Research Institute ZRC SAZU, , Titov trg 2, Si-6230 Postojna, Slovenia, e-mail: kranjc@zrc-sazu.si Received / Prejeto: 01.09.2006
ACTA CARSOLOGICA 35/2, 163–168, LJUBLJANA 2006
ANDREJ KRANJC
INTRODUCTION
Baltazar (Balthazar, Belsazar) Hacquet was born in France 1739 or 1740 and died at Vienna in 1815. He spent the period from 1766 to 1787 in Carniola. During the frst years he was a surgeon at Idrija mercury mine. During later years he hold diferent positions at Ljubljana, such as the secretary of the Agricultural Society and the professor of chemistry and obstetrics. Finally he lef “bigoted and un-cultured” Carniolians and took the ofer of the University at Lvov (Lviv) to become professor of natural history and medicine there (Gauchon 1999) (Fig. 1).
fig. 1. Baltazar hacquet (ilustrirani Slovenec 1927).
Besides medicine as his professional occupation, he was very interested in other sciences, mainly in chemis-try palaeontology with mineralogy hydrology and spe-leology not to mention medicine, ethnography etc. In his works he ofen presented himself as being a chemist. He initiated new chemistry theories and introduced the methods of quantitative and qualitative chemical analy-ses to Carniola (Tišler 2003). He dedicated a great part of his free time to study and work in science. But travels attracted him the most, either walking around Idrija on a nice Sunday afernoon or travelling across Dinaric or Carpathians Mountains. Long distance travels, mostly through the mountains of Central, Southern and East-ern Europe took him two months per year in average. Not sport but scientifc motives forced him to climb the mountains thus becoming very important person in the
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history of mountaineering. I must mention that he was a member of the second team who succeeded to reach Triglav (2864 m), the highest peak of Julian Alps. It is due to a bad weather that prevented him to be the frst one (Lovšin 1946).
Hacquet published a lot, his bibliography contains 110 articles in scientifc journals and about 30 books and extensive treatises as well (Valjo 1997). He wrote about the results of his observations and experimental work (even about an ice frost on his window panel) (Južnič 2003) as well as detailed accounts of his travels. To illustrate them he added maps drawn by himself. He published the frst geological map of Carniola (a great part of present Slove -nia). His principle to put on maps the names used by lo-cal population (in “local” language) is important for Slo-venia - on his geological map there are Slovene names of places and not German ones as was the habit in Hacquet s time. It seems that Hacquet was the frst to use the name “Dinaric Alps” roughly in the sense of nowadays Dinaric Mountains (Hacquet 1778 - 1789) (Fig. 2).
From the point of view of karstology his the most important work was “Oryctographia carniolica oder Physi-kalische Erdbeschreibung...” that is the “Physical Descrip-tion of the Duchy of Carniola, Istria and part of neigh-bour countries”, written in German language (Hacquet 1778 - 1789). It was published in four volumes, printed in Leipzig by J. G. I. Breitkopf between 1778 and 1789. Te work has over 700 pages in total. In Hacquets time physical description meant primarily geology and geo-morphology, but a lot of work is dedicated to economy, mines and specially mining industry
fig. 2. Cutting out of the legend to hacquet’s mappa litho hydrographica Nationis slavicae (hacquet 1778 - 1789).
BALTAZAR HACqUET (1739/40-1815), THE PIONEER OF KARST GEOMORPHOLOGISTS
GEOMORPHOLOGY IN HACqUET’S TIME
“So little progress (in the feld of geomorphology, note by the author) was made in Europe from the days of the frst century A.D. until the opening of the sixteenth century that little need to be said about it “ (Fenneman 1939). During the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries land forms were explained largely in terms of the then-prevailing philoso-phy of catastrophism, according to which the features of the Earth were either specially created or were the result of violent cataclysms which produced sudden and marked changes on the surface of the Earth. As long as the Earths age was measured in a few thousands years, there was not much chance for the importance of slow geologic processes to be appreciated (Tornbury 1969). Some of the Hacquets ideas on geomorphology correspond to the general knowledge prevailing in the 18th century
Hacquets contemporaries were so called “pre-Hut-tonian” geomorphologists. Te most important among them were Jean étienne Guettard (1715 - 1786), Nicolas Desmarest (1725 - 1815) and Horace Benedict De Sau-ssure (1740 - 1799). Tey perhaps more than any oth-ers paved the way for Hutton (1726-1797) (Tornbury 1969). James Hutton himself lived at the same time as Hacquet. But his Te Teory of the Earth was published too late (1785) to be possible for Hacquet to use it. Be-ing a dense and borderline unreadable work it was not perceived by the science circles before the simplifed ver-sion by Playfair (1802). Modern geomorphology started by Huttons ideas and developed in the second part of the 19th century It appears that the term “geomorphology” was used in its present sense by Keith as long ago as in 1894 (Tornbury 1969), while others stated that the term was frst mentioned by Naumann in 1858 already (Herak & Stringfeld).
In his Oryctographia Hacquet cited about 190 au-thors. Among them are well known old authors as Aristoteles, Democritus, Herodotus, Posidonius, Tales, and Plinius. He cited some works of his well known contemporaries, Beckmann (1776), Collini (1774), Gruber
(1781), and Leroy (1776), just to mention some exam-ples. Among the cited authors are well known authorities previous to Hacquet as Agricola, Bufon, Kircher, Leib-nitz, and Linné. From the science of chemistry, mineral-ogy and geology Hacquet used the works of Boerhave, Born, Boyle, Delisle, Lavoisier, Sage, Scheele, and wal-lerius among others less known nowadays. He was ac-quainted with the theories of his time about the Earth by the authors Bertrand, Burnet, whiston and woodwart. It is self-understanding that he knew the works treating the nature of Carniola and other nearby countries, for ex-ample Brown, Cluverus, Fortis, Gruber, Kircher, Schön-leben, Scopoli, Steinberg and Valvasor.
Although Hacquet knew and used the works of his contemporaries, the scientists who founded a modern science, like Boyle and Lavoisier, his scientifc knowledge corresponds to the knowledge of his time. Agricolas clas-sifcation of minerals from 1556 was still in use. For ex-ample: mineral bodies were divided into inhomogeneous and homogenous bodies; the last containing simple minerals. And simple minerals were: earths, solifed juices, stones, and metals. To explain diferent rates of solution of limestone and dolomite Hacquet helped himself by fo-giston - the principle of burning.
In Oryctographia Hacquet cited and discussed Guettards paper in “Mémoires de lAcademie Royale des Sciences” (1746-1764) on the types of “Tropfsteine” (speleothems). He appreciated very much DE Saussures “Voyage dans les Alpes” (1777-1796). Regarding the fact that Hacquet only had the frst two volumes of De Saussures book and that the manuscript of the last volume of Oryctographia was completed in 1787, he could not be acquainted with De Saussures views upon limestone Alps, which interested Hacquet the most: “...so hofe ich auch, Herr von Saussure wird ... die grosse Kalkalpkette der Schweiz nicht übergehen...” (...so I hope that Mr. Von Saussure will not omit the great Alpine limestone range in Switzerland...).
HACqUET’S VIEw ON KARST MORPHOLOGY
Not only in “Oryctographia carniolica” the karst was mentioned but also in other Hacquets books about his travels through Austrian and Turkish Illyrien, through Eastern Alps (from Triglav to Grossglockner), through Southern Alps (from Dinaric to Noric Alps) and through Carpathi-
In accordance with some other authors Hacquet classifed the mountains into three types: Montes pri-marii - Hauptgebirge (the main range) of primary rocks; Montes secundarii - Mittelgebirge (middle mountains) of Lapis calcarius, the grey limestone; Montes tertiarii -Vorgebirge (fore mountains), product of weathering. But
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Hacquet stressed that also limestone mountains can be of the same importance as the Montes primarii and that some middle mountains of limestone have the scree of limestone debris only, without marl (Fig. 3).
fig. 3. hacquet’s illustration to montes secundarii - mittelgebirge of lapis calcarius (Grey limestone). A - Grauer Kalkfels (Grey limestone rock), B - Schieferanlage (Shale complex), C -Kalktrümmeranlage (limestone debris complex) (hacquet 1778 - 1789).
Huttons (1785) book on the evolution of the Earth and his famous statement “No vestige of a beginning - no prospect of an end” were not known by Hacquet as this book was published much later than “Oryctographia”. In contrast to most of Hacquets contemporaries, Hacquet clearly was not a “catastrophist”. In nature, in landscape Hacquet saw a demonstration of slow relief evolution. For the illustration just few examples from “Oryctographia”:
- Plateau Kras (Karst, Carso) was once a big lake or part of a sea, a bay of the Adriatic Sea. Te ridges and summits of Dinaric Alps were a chain of islands, as are nowadays the islands along the coast, from Istria to Ra-gusa (Dubrovnik).
- Te bottom (its features and the sediments) of the polje Dobrepolje proves that the polje was once a lake closed by limestone mountains, which drained and f-nally became dry
-  Levelled surfaces in the mountains, for example around the Snežnik Mountain, are due to the efect of rain.
-  Terraces of the valley of žejane (Istria) are the proof that once the valley bottom was higher than nowa-days.
As for karst morphology Hacquet ofen mentioned bare rocky karst surface and its ability to absorb imme-diately all the meteoric water. He compared the region Kras (Karst) with the rocky Arabia petrea. Karst (closed) depressions specially attracted his attention, such as deep dolines and poljes. Te frst he calls Kessel (kettle)
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or Vertiefungen (deepening) and the second Kesselthal (kettle valley) or geschlossene Fläche (closed plain). He was specially impressed by great “Kessel” on high karst plateaus. In them Hacquet observed vegetation inver-sion. Today we call this form “konta” - a glacio-karstic doline. It is clear that he devoted a special attention to the polje of Cerknica or Cerkniško Jezero (lake) (Fig. 4).
fig. 4. hacquet’s panorama of Cerkniško Polje (hacquet 1778 -1789).
Hacquet paid a special attention to the weathering of limestone. He found out that the irregular weathering is due to unhomogeneity of limestone. He established this by a test by “mineral acid”. He observed diferent inten-sity of weathering regarding the side of the slope: on the sunny side rocks are more weathered than on the shady side. He explained this by diferent intensity of calcina-tion. In the heat the limestone calcinates stronger and the product, the calx is washed away by rain. Hacquet also knew that the limestone weathered frst into clay-shale and fnally into clay Te idea and the terms calx and cal-cination go back to Agricola. In modern terms they mean oxide and oxidation.
Maybe more than by the features which are a result of dissolution of limestone, Hacquet was interested in the process itself, in solution of limestone. By the general knowledge of the time the minerals and rocks contain the following components:
fxe Luf (fxed air) or Lufsäure (much later J. Black found out that “fxed air” is in fact CO2), Elementarerde (elementary earth), and fxe Feuer or Flogiston. Accord-ing to Hacquets ideas all bodies contain fxe Luf and fxe Feuer (Flogiston). Elementarerde which is never in pure form, is also in limestone. Regarding Flogiston, it was Lavoisier who proved that it does not exist.
Hacquets views upon the dissolution of limestone can be resumed as follows:
BALTAZAR HACqUET (1739/40-1815), THE PIONEER OF KARST GEOMORPHOLOGISTS
- water dissolves limestone with the help of acid,
- dissolved limestone remains in water to be depos-ited later,
- water cannot dissolve dolomite because of the Flo-giston.
Te acid, which helps to dissolve limestone, is only one, Acidum universale, but it can exist in diferent forms. In the air there can be also other acids and alkalines, such as saline rain. Also calx may contain Acidum universale. And essential for the dissolution is Lufsäure/Elementa-rerde ratio. Te process of dissolution has the following course: acid dissolves limestone by taking away essential parts of calx (fxe Luf  or Lufsäure) and clay remains.
Opposite of dissolution is deposition, in this case deposition of calcite: water dissolves limestone, takes it into the cave and deposits it in the form of Tropfsteine (speleothems) or vielfältige Steinrinden or incrustationes (crust) (Kranjc 2003).
Hacquet is also important for geomorphology and geology because of his study of dolomite. In 1778 he de-scribed the dolomite for the frst time as a rock diferent
from limestone. It was 13 years before D. De Dolomieu (1791) published his basic paper “Sur un genre de pierre calcaires tres peu efervescentes...” on the rock, which was later named afer him. It has to be mentioned that Dolomieu visited Hacquet while travelling through Ljubljana. It was before the publication of the mentioned paper. Hacquet called dolomite Stinkstein (Lapis suillus), this is “stinking stone”. He found out that water cannot dissolve a lot of dolomite - because of Flogiston. And therefore such water does not deposit fowstone or speleothems in caves. He observed such a situation in Podpeška Jama cave at the polje of Dobrepolje. Te plan of this cave was already published by Valvasor in 1687.
Te essential problem which has to be solved to ex-plain the dissolution of limestone, or the process of cor-rosion as we say today, was according to Hacquets opin-ion the following: where does the acid which dissolves limestone come from? Does it come from the air (Vitri-olsäure) or does it form from the Lufsäure which is one of substantial components of limestone itself?
CONCLUSION
For the conclusion I have to repeat the most important observations, ideas and revelations achieved by Baltazar Hacquet in the feld of geomorfology and karstology:
-  he explained the evolution of the relief by slow and continuous action of exogene forces instead of ca-tastrophes;
-  he tried to explain weathering of limestone;
-  he discussed and tried to explain diferential dissolution of limestone;
-  he described the most important karst features (dolines, poljes, caves);
-  he described the dolomite and drew the distinc-tion between it and limestone (before De Dolomieu);
-  he stressed the importance of limestone moun-tains.
ACKNOwLEDGMENT
Te research was carried out in the frame of the pro-gramme “Karst research” funded by the Slovenian Re-
search Agency and supported by the Slovene Science Foundation.
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