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Memory Loss, Alzheimer’s
Disease, and Dementia

A Practical Guide for Clinicians

THIRD EDITION

Andrew E. Budson, MD
Neurology Service, Section of Cognitive & Behavioral Neurology, Veterans
Affairs Boston Healthcare System, Boston, MA
Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center & Department of Neurology, Boston
University School of Medicine, Boston, MA
Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
The Boston Center for Memory, Newton, MA

Paul R. Solomon, PhD

Department of Psychology, Program in Neuroscience, Williams College,
Williamstown, MA
The Boston Center for Memory, Newton, MA
Table of Contents

Title page

Any screen, Any time, Anywhere

Copyright

Praise for the First Edition

Praise for the Second Edition

Preface to the Third Edition

How To Use This Book

Acknowledgments

Disclosures

About the Authors

Video Table of Contents

Section I: Evaluating the Patient With Memory Loss or
Dementia

1. Why Diagnose and Treat Memory Loss, Alzheimer’s Disease, and

Dementia?

Helping the Patient

Helping the Family or Other Caregiver

Saving Money

Planning for the Future

Quality Versus Quantity

References

2. Evaluating the Patient With Memory Loss or Dementia

Talking With The Family

In the Clinic

At the Bedside

History

Review of Systems

Medical History

Allergies to Medications

Social History
 Family History

Physical Examination

Cognitive Tests and Questionnaires

Screening in the Clinic

Laboratory Studies

Structural Imaging Studies

Functional Imaging Studies

Tests that Suggest Alzheimer’s Disease

Summary

References

3. Subjective Cognitive Decline, Mild Cognitive Impairment, and

Dementia

A Three-Step Approach

The Spectrum of Cognitive Changes

Is Dementia Present?

Is Mild Cognitive Impairment Present?

Is Subjective Cognitive Decline Present?

Which Clinical Syndrome is Present?

What is the Underlying Pathology?

References
Section II: Differential Diagnosis of Memory Loss and
Dementia

4. Alzheimer’s Disease

Prevalence, Prognosis, and Definition

Alzheimer’s Pathology

Neurochemistry

Diagnostic Criteria

Risk Factors, Pathology, and Pathophysiology

Common Signs, Symptoms, and Stages

Things to Look for in the History

Things to Look for on the Physical and Neurological Examination

Pattern of Impairment on Cognitive Tests

Laboratory Studies

Structural Imaging Studies

Molecular and Functional Imaging Studies

Differential Diagnosis

Treatments

References

5. Primary Age-Related Tauopathy

 Prevalence, Pathology, Genetics, and Definition

Clinical Features, History, and Pattern of Impairment on Cognitive

Tests

Things to Look for on the Physical and Neurological Examination

Laboratory Studies

Structural Imaging Studies

Functional and Molecular Imaging Studies

Differential Diagnosis

Treatments

References

6. Limbic-predominant Age-related TDP-43 Encephalopathy

Prevalence, Prognosis, and Definition

Clinical Diagnosis

Pathology, Pathophysiology, and Genetics

Common Signs, Symptoms, and Stages

Things to Look for in the History

Things to Look for on the Physical and Neurological Examination

Pattern of Impairment on Cognitive Tests

Laboratory Studies

Structural Imaging Studies

 Functional and Molecular Imaging Studies

Differential Diagnosis

Treatments

References

7. Vascular Cognitive Impairment and Vascular Dementia

Prevalence, Prognosis, and Definition

Criteria

Risk Factors, Pathology, and Pathophysiology

Common Signs, Symptoms, and Stages

Things to Look for in the History

Things to Look for on the Physical and Neurological Examination

Pattern of Impairment on Cognitive Tests

Laboratory Studies

Structural Imaging Studies

Functional and Molecular Imaging Studies

Differential Diagnosis

Treatments (see also Table 7.1)

References

8. Dementia With Lewy Bodies

 Prevalence, Prognosis, and Definition

Criteria and Diagnosis

Risk Factors, Pathology, and Pathophysiology

Common Signs, Symptoms, and Stages

Things to Look for in the History

Things to Look for on the Physical and Neurological Examination

Pattern of Impairment on Cognitive Tests

Laboratory, Sleep, and Electroencephalography Studies

Structural Imaging Studies

Functional Imaging Studies

Differential Diagnosis

Treatments (Table 8.2)

References

9. Primary Progressive Aphasia and Apraxia of Speech

Prevalence, Definition, and Pathology

Criteria

Common Signs, Symptoms, and Stages (Table 9.2)

Things to Look for in the History

Things to Look for on the Physical and Neurological Examination

 Pattern of Impairment on Cognitive Tests

Structural and Functional Imaging Studies

Differential Diagnosis

Treatments

References

10. Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia

Prevalence, Prognosis, and Definition

Criteria

Risk Factors, Pathology, and Pathophysiology

Common Signs, Symptoms, and Stages (Video 10.1)

Things to Look for in the History

Things to Look for on the Physical and Neurological Examination

Pattern of Impairment on Cognitive Tests

Laboratory Studies

Structural and Functional Imaging Studies

Differential Diagnosis

Treatments

References

11. Posterior Cortical Atrophy

 Prevalence, Definition, and Pathology

Criteria

Common Signs, Symptoms, and Stages

Things to Look for in the History

Things to Look for on the Physical and Neurological Examination

Pattern of Impairment on Cognitive Tests

Structural and Functional Imaging Studies

Differential Diagnosis

Treatments

References

12. Progressive Supranuclear Palsy

Prevalence, Prognosis, and Definition

Terminology

Criteria and Diagnosis

Risk Factors, Pathology, and Pathophysiology

Common Signs, Symptoms, and Stages

Things to Look for in The History

Things to Look for on The Physical and Neurological Examination

Pattern of Impairment on Cognitive Tests (Videos 12.6–12.8Video

12.6Video 12.7Video 12.8)
 Laboratory Studies

Structural Imaging Studies

Functional Imaging Studies

Differential Diagnosis

Treatments

References

13. Corticobasal Degeneration and Corticobasal Syndrome

Prevalence, Prognosis, and Definition

Criteria

Risk Factors, Pathology, and Pathophysiology

Common Signs, Symptoms, and Stages

Things to Look for in the History

Things to Look for on the Physical and Neurological Examination

(Videos 13.6 and 13.7)

Pattern of Impairment on Cognitive Tests

Laboratory Studies

Structural Imaging Studies

Functional and Molecular Imaging Studies

Differential Diagnosis

Treatments
 References

14. Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus

Prevalence, Prognosis, and Definition

Criteria

Risk Factors, Pathology, and Pathophysiology

Common Signs, Symptoms, and Stages

Things to Look for in the History

Things to Look for on the Physical and Neurological Examination

Pattern of Impairment on Cognitive Tests

Structural Imaging Studies

Lumbar Puncture

Other Studies

Differential Diagnosis and Comorbid Disorders

Treatments

References

15. Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy

Prevalence, Definition, Pathology, and Pathophysiology

Criteria

Common Signs, Symptoms, and Stages

 Things to Look for in the History

Things to Look for on the Physical and Neurological Examination

Pattern of Impairment on Cognitive Tests

Structural and Functional Imaging Studies

Differential Diagnosis

Treatments

References

16. Creutzfeldt–Jakob Disease

Prevalence, Prognosis, and Definition

Criteria

Risk Factors, Pathology, and Pathophysiology

Clinical Presentation

Laboratory Studies and Electroencephalography

Structural Imaging Studies

Differential Diagnosis

Treatments

References

17. Other Disorders That Cause Memory Loss or Dementia

Depression and Anxiety

 Medication Side Effects

Disrupted Sleep

Hormones?

Metabolic Disorders

Diabetes

Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholic Korsakoff’s Syndrome

Lyme Disease

Subdural and Epidural Hematomas

Vitamin B12 Deficiency

Seizures

Human Immunodeficiency Virus–associated Neurocognitive

Disorder

Brain Sagging Syndrome

Hashimoto’s Encephalopathy (Steroid-Responsive

Encephalopathy Associated with Autoimmune Thyroiditis)

References

Section III: Treatment of Memory Loss, Alzheimer’s

Disease, and Dementia

18. Goals for the Treatment of Memory Loss, Alzheimer’s Disease, and
Dementia
 Talking About Treatments for Alzheimer’s Disease

Strategies to Treat the Symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease

Treating Cognition and Treating Behavior

References

19. Cholinesterase Inhibitors

Cholinesterase Inhibitors In Alzheimer’s Disease

Should I Prescribe A Cholinesterase Inhibitor?

Is The Medication Working?

Which Cholinesterase Inhibitor Should I Prescribe?

What Is The Best Dose?

When Should the Medications be Taken?

Does it Help to Switch Medications?

How do i Discuss with the Patient Whether the Cholinesterase

Inhibitor is Working?

Cholinesterase Inhibitors in Late-Stage Disease

Huperzine A

Cholinesterase Inhibitors in Other Disorders

References

20. Memantine
 Mechanism of Action

Which Patients Should Take Memantine?

Efficacy of Memantine

Safety and Tolerability of Memantine

Should I Prescribe Generic Memantine or Namenda XR?

Titrating Memantine

Combining Memantine with Cholinesterase Inhibitors

Memantine in the Mild Stage of Alzheimer’s Disease

Memantine in Other Dementias

References

21. Vitamins, Herbs, Supplements, and Antiinflammatories

Vitamin D

Vitamin E

B Complex Vitamins: Folic Acid, B6, B12

Ginkgo Biloba

DHA (Fish Oil)

Antiinflammatories

Prevagen

References
22. Nonpharmacological Treatment of Memory Loss, Alzheimer’s
Disease, and Dementia

Helpful Habits

External Memory Aids

Power of Pictures

Magic of Music

Mediterranean-Style Diets

Social and Cognitively Stimulating Activities

Aerobic Exercise

References

23. Future Treatments of Memory Loss, Alzheimer’s Disease, and

Dementia

Strategies to Treat the Symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease

Disease-Modifying Treatments

The Future of Alzheimer’s Disease Therapy

References

Section IV: Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of

Dementia

24. Evaluating the Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of

Dementia
 What Constitutes Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of
Dementia?

The Benefits of Treating Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms

of Dementia

Measuring Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia

Evaluating Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia:

Pragmatic Guidelines for the Clinician

Formulating a Treatment Plan for Behavioral and Psychological

Symptoms: Pragmatic Guidelines for the Clinician

References

25. Caring for and Educating the Caregiver

Caring for the Caregiver

Three Predictable Transition Points Where the Caregiver Needs

Help

References

26. Nonpharmacological Treatment of the Behavioral and

Psychological Symptoms of Dementia

Some General Principles For Treating Behavioral And

Psychological Symptoms In Dementia: The 3RS

Dealing With Specific Behavioral And Psychological Symptoms

Of Dementia: Behavioral Techniques

References
27. Pharmacological Treatment of the Behavioral and Psychological
Symptoms of Dementia

General Principles of Pharmacotherapy for the Behavioral and

Psychological Symptoms of Dementia

Pharmacotherapy for Depression

Pharmacotherapy for Anxiety

Pharmacotherapy for Pseudobulbar Affect (Pathologic Laughter

and Crying)

Pharmacotherapy for Insomnia

Pharmacotherapy for Psychosis

Pharmacotherapy for Agitation

Behavioral and Psychiatric Crises

References

Section V: Additional Issues

28. Life Adjustments for Memory Loss, Alzheimer’s Disease, and

Dementia

Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s Disease Dementia In

the Very Mild and Mild Stages

Alzheimer’s Disease Dementia in the Moderate to Severe Stages

References
29. Legal and Financial Issues in Memory Loss, Alzheimer’s Disease,
and Dementia

Legal Planning

Financial Planning

30. Special Issues in Memory Loss, Alzheimer’s Disease, and

Dementia

The Patient Who Does Not Want to Come to the Appointment

The Patient Who Does Not Want You to Talk to Their Family

Talking to Adult Children of Patients about Their Risk of

Alzheimer’s Disease And What they can do About it

References

Appendix A. Cognitive Test and Questionnaire Forms, Instructions,

and Normative Data for Evaluating Memory Loss, Alzheimer’s
Disease, and Dementia

Mental Status Tests

Screening Instruments that Combine Single Tests

Informant (Caregiver)-Completed Screening Questionnaires

Appendix B. Screening for Memory Loss, Alzheimer’s Disease, and

Dementia

To Screen or Not to Screen?

Screening in Primary Care Practice

Appendix C. Memory Dysfunction in Alzheimer’s Disease and Other
Causes of Mild Cognitive Impairment and Dementia

Episodic Memory

Semantic Memory

Procedural Memory

Working Memory

Concluding Comment

Index
Any screen, Any time, Anywhere
Copyright
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Philadelphia, PA 19103-2899

MEMORY LOSS, ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE, AND DEMENTIA,

THIRD EDITION ISBN: 978-0-323795449
Copyright © 2022 by Elsevier, Inc. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any

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Notice

Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own

experience and knowledge in evaluating and using any information,
methods, compounds or experiments described herein. Because of
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An essential distinction between underground propulsions of molten
rock and superficial outflows of the same material lies in the fact
that while the latter are free to take any shape which the form and
slope of the ground may permit, the subterranean injections, like
metal poured into a mould, are always bounded by the walls of the
aperture into which they are thrust. According, therefore, to the
shape of this aperture a convenient classification of such intrusions
may be made. Where the molten material has risen up vertical
fissures or irregular cracks, it has solidified as Dykes and Veins.
Where it has been thrust between the divisional planes either of
stratified or unstratified rocks, so as to form beds, these are
conveniently known as Sills, Laccolites or Intrusive Sheets. Where it
has taken the form of large cylindrical masses, which, ascending
through the crust, appear at the surface in rounded, elliptical or
irregularly-shaped eminences, these are called Bosses (Stocks,
Culots).
Further contrasts between the superficial and subterranean
consolidation of molten material are to be found in the respective
textures and minute structures of the rocks. The deep-seated
intrusions are commonly characterized by a general and markedly
greater coarseness of crystallization than is possessed by lavas
poured out at the surface. This difference of texture, obviously in
great measure the result of slower cooling, shows itself in acid,
intermediate, and basic magmas. A lava which at the surface has
cooled as a fine-grained, compact black basalt, in which neither with
the naked eye nor with the lens can the constituent minerals be
distinctly determined, may conceivably be represented at the roots
of its parent volcano by a coarse-textured gabbro, in which the
felspars and pyroxenes may have grown into crystals or crystalline
aggregates an inch or more in length. Mr. Iddings has pointed out
that the various porphyrites which form the dykes and sills of Electric
Peak are connected with a central boss of coarsely crystalline diorite.
[29]
Examples of the same relation from different volcanic centres in
Britain will be cited in later chapters.
[29] 12th Ann. Rep. U.S. Geol. Survey (1890-91), p. 595.
This greater coarseness of texture is shown by microscopic
examination to be accompanied by other notable differences. In
particular, the glassy residuum, or its devitrified representatives,
which may be so frequently detected among the crystals of
outflowing lavas, is less often traceable in the body of subterranean
intrusive rocks, though it may sometimes be noticed at their outer
margins where they have been rapidly chilled by contact with the
cool upper part of the crust into which they have been impelled.
Various minerals, the constituents of which exist in the original
magma, but which may be hardly or not all recognisable in the
superficial lavas, have had leisure to crystallize out in the deep-
seated intrusions and appear sometimes among the components of
the general body of the rock, or as well-terminated crystals in its
drusy cavities.
Considerable though the variations may be between the
petrographical characters of the intrusive and extrusive rocks of a
given district and of the same eruptive period, they appear generally
to lie within such limits as to suggest a genetic relation between the
whole series. Conditions of temperature and pressure, and the
retention or escape of the absorbed vapours which play so large a
part in volcanic activity, must exercise great influence on the
crystallization of constituent minerals, and on the consolidation and
ultimate texture of the rocks. Slow cooling under great pressure and
with the mineralizing vapours still largely retained seems to be pre-
eminently favourable for the production of a holocrystalline texture
in deep-seated portions of the magma, while rapid cooling under
merely atmospheric pressure and with a continuous disengagement
of vapours, appears to be required for the finer grain, more glassy
structure, and more vesicular character of lavas poured out at the
surface.
Besides these differences, however, there is evidence of a migration
of the constituent minerals in the body of large intrusive masses
before consolidation. In particular, the heavier and more basic
constituents travel towards the cooling margin, leaving the central
portions more acid. This subject will be more fully considered in
connection with the internal constitution of Bosses, and some British
examples will then be cited.
Reference, however, may here be made to one of the most
exhaustive and instructive studies of the relations of the
subterranean and superficial erupted rocks of an old volcano, which
will be found in the monograph by Mr. Iddings on Electric Peak and
Sepulchre Mountain in the Yellowstone Park of Western America.
From the data there obtainable he draws the deduction that one
parent magma, retaining the same chemical composition, may result
in the ultimate production of rocks strikingly different from each
other in structure and mineralogical constitution, yet chemically
identical. Electric Peak includes the central funnel filled up with
coarsely crystalline diorite, and having a connected series of sills and
dykes of various porphyrites. Sepulchre Mountain, separated from its
neighbouring eminence by a fault of 4000 feet, displays some of the
superficial discharges from the vent—coarse breccias with andesite-
lavas. These rocks are not chemically distinguishable from the
intrusive series, but the lavas are, on the whole, more glassy, while
the materials of the bosses, sills and dykes are more crystalline. The
latter display much more visible quartz and biotite.[30]
[30]12th Ann. Rep. U.S. Geol. Survey, 1890-91. As already stated,
the eruptions of this volcanic centre became progressively more acid,
and this change appears to be exhibited by the extrusive lavas as
well as by the intrusive rocks.
By practice in the field, supplemented by investigation with the aid
of the microscope, a geologist acquires a power of discriminating
with fair accuracy, even in hand specimens, the superficial from the
subterranean igneous rocks of an old volcanic district.
Denudation, while laying bare the underground mechanism of an
ancient volcano, has not always revealed the evidence of the actual
structural relations of the rocks, or has first exposed and then
destroyed it. Sometimes a mass of eruptive rock has been worn
down and left in such an isolated condition that its connection with
the rest of the volcanic network cannot be determined. So far as its
position goes, it might perhaps be either a remnant of a lava-stream
or the projecting part of some deeper-seated protrusion. But its
texture and internal structure will often enable a confident opinion to
be expressed regarding the true relations of such a solitary mass.

i. Dykes and Veins

For the study of these manifestations of volcanic energy, the British

Isles may be regarded as a typical region. It was thence that the
word "dyke" passed into geological literature. Thousands of
examples of both dykes and veins may be seen from the Outer
Hebrides southwards across the length and breadth of the southern
half of Scotland, far into the north of England and towards the
centre of Ireland. They may be found cutting the crests of the
mountains and extending as reefs below the level of the sea. They
are thus exposed in every conceivable divergence of position and in
endless varieties of enclosing rock. Moreover, they can be shown to
represent a vast range of geological time. One system of them
belongs to some remote part of the Archæan periods, another is as
young as the older Tertiary ages.

Fig. 32.—Dyke, Vein and Sill. The dyke (d)

rises along a small fault among
sandstones, shales, and ironstones (sh),
and gives off a vein (v) and an intrusive
sheet or sill (b).
Full details regarding these interesting relics of volcanic activity will
be given in later chapters, especially in Chapters xxxiv. and xxxv. It
may suffice here to note that each of the three types of old
volcanoes above described has, in Britain, its accompaniment of
dykes and veins. The plateaux, however, present by far the most
abundant and varied development of them. The dykes of this series
are characterized not only by their prodigious numbers in and
around some of the plateaux, but by the long distances to which
they may be traced beyond these limits. They are chiefly found in
connection with the Tertiary basalt-plateaux, though the
Carboniferous andesite-plateaux present a feebler display of them.
The Tertiary dykes are pre-eminently distinguished by their
persistent rectilinear lines, sometimes for distances of many miles,
and their general north-westerly direction. They form a vast system
extending over an area of some 40,000 square miles. Throughout
that wide region their persistence of direction and of petrographical
characters point to the former existence of one or more reservoirs of
an andesitic and basaltic magma underneath the northern half of
Britain, and to the rupture of the crust overlying this subterranean
reservoir by thousands of parallel fissures. They thus constitute
perhaps the most astonishing feature in the volcanic history of
Tertiary time.
The dykes and veins connected with the puys are mainly to be found
at or close to the vents. Not infrequently they traverse the
agglomerates of the necks, and are sometimes to be traced to a
central pipe or core of basalt.
The larger cones are likewise intersected with similar vertical,
inclined or tortuously irregular walls of intruded lava. Occasionally a
radiate arrangement may be observed in such cases, like that
noticeable at some modern volcanoes, the dykes diverging from the
eruptive centre.
Many dykes exist regarding which there is no evidence to connect
them with any actual volcanic rocks. They have been injected into
fissures, but whether this took place during volcanic paroxysms, or
owing to some subterranean movements which never culminated in
any eruption, cannot be decided.
The question of the age of dykes, like that of intrusive masses of all
kinds, is often difficult or impossible to decide. A dyke must of
course be younger than the rocks which it traverses, and a limit to
its antiquity is thus easily fixed. But we cannot always affirm that
because a dyke stops short of a particular rock, or series of rocks, it
is older than these. The Hett Dyke, in the north of England, rises
through the Coal-measures, but stops at the Magnesian Limestone;
yet this cessation does not necessarily imply that the dyke was in
place before the deposition of that limestone. The structure may
have arisen from the dyke-fissure having ended at the bottom of the
limestone. Where dykes rise up to the base of an unconformable
formation without in any single case entering it, and where
fragments of them are enclosed in that formation, they must be of
higher antiquity, and must have been laid bare by extensive
denudation before the unconformable strata were deposited upon
them. The great system of dykes in the Lewisian Gneiss of the
north-west of Scotland is in this way proved to be much more
ancient than the Torridon Sandstones under which it passes (Figs.
35, 36).
Where two dykes cross each other, it is sometimes not difficult to
decide upon their relative antiquity. In intrusive rocks, the finest-
grained parts are those which lie nearest the outer margin, where
the molten material was rapidly chilled by coming in contact with
cool surfaces of rock. Such "chilled margins" of closer grain are
common characteristics of dykes. Wherever a dyke carries its chilled
margin across another dyke, it must be the younger of the two, and
wherever such a margin is interrupted by another dyke, it must
belong to the older.
As a rule, the uprise of molten material in a fissure has so effectually
sealed it up that in the subsequent disturbances of the terrestrial
crust the fissure has not been reopened, though others may have
been produced near it, or across it. Sometimes, however, the
enormous tension to which the crust was exposed opened the
fissure once more, sometimes even splitting a dyke along its centre,
and a new ascent of molten rock took place within the rent. Hence
double or treble or compound dykes have been produced. The
second or later infillings are generally somewhat different from the
original dyke. Occasionally, indeed, they present a strong contrast to
it. Thus, among the dykes of Skye examples occur where the centre
is occupied by an acid granophyre, while the sides are occupied by
dykes of basalt. Instances of this compound type of dyke will be
given in the account of the Tertiary volcanic rocks of Britain.
It is obvious that in a wide fissure the central portion may remain
molten for some time after the sides have consolidated. If the fissure
served as a channel for the ascent of lava to the surface, it is
conceivable that the central still fluid part might be driven out and
be replaced by other material from below, and that this later
material might differ considerably in composition from that which
first filled the opening. Such, according to Mr. Iddings, has been the
probable history of some of the dykes at the old volcano of Electric
Peak.[31] But we can hardly suppose that this explanation of
compound dykes can have any wide application. It could only hold
good of broad fissures having an outlet, and is probably inadmissible
in the case of the numerous compound dykes not more than 10 or
15 feet in diameter, where the several bands of rock are sharply
marked off from each other. The abrupt demarcation of the materials
in these dykes, their closer texture along their mutual boundaries,
the indications of solution of the older parts of the group by the
younger, and of injection of the latter into the former, show that they
belong to separate and unconnected intrusions. These questions will
be again referred to in the account of the British Tertiary dykes
(Chapter xxxv. vol. ii. p. 159).
[31] 12th Ann. Rep. U.S. Geol. Survey (1890-91), p. 587.
Another kind of compound dyke has arisen from the manner in
which the original fissure has been produced. While, in general, the
dislocation has taken the form of a single rectilinear rent, which on
opening has left two clean-cut walls, cases occur where the rupture
has followed several parallel lines, and the magma on rising into the
rents appears as two or more vertical sheets or dykes, separated by
intervening partitions of the surrounding rock. Examples of this
structure are not infrequent among the Tertiary dykes of Scotland.
One of these may be noticed rising through the cliffs of Lewisian
gneiss on the east coast of the island of Lewis, south of Stornoway.
One of the most extraordinary instances of the same structure yet
observed is that described by Professor A. C. Lawson from the
Laurentian rocks at the mouth of White Gravel River, on the N.E.
coast of Lake Superior. In a breadth of only about 14 feet no less
than 28 vertically intrusive sheets or dykes of diabase, from 1 inch to
6½ inches broad, rise through the granite, which is thus split into 27
thin sheets. The diabase undoubtedly cuts the granite, some of the
sheets actually anastomosing and sending veins into the older rock.
[32]

[32] American Geologist (1894), p. 293.

From the evidence supplied by the modern eruptions of Iceland, it is
evident that gaping fissures, which are filled by ascending lava and
thereby converted into dykes, in many instances serve as channels
by which molten rock escapes to the surface. It would be interesting
if any test could be discovered whereby those dykes could be
distinguished which had ever established a connection with the outer
air. If the lava continued to ascend in the fissures, and to pour out in
superficial streams for a long time, the rocks on either side would be
likely to undergo considerably more metamorphism than where there
was only one rapid injection of the magma, which would soon cool.
Possibly in the much greater alteration of the same rocks by some
dykes than by others, a sign of such a connection with the surface
may survive. This subject will be again referred to in the account of
the Tertiary dykes of Britain in Book VIII., where the whole of the
phenomena of this phase of volcanic action will be fully discussed
(see vol. ii. p. 163).
 ii. Sills and Laccolites

The word "sill," derived from a remarkable sheet of eruptive rock in

the north of England, known as the Great Whin Sill (Chapter xxix.),
is now applied as a convenient general term to masses of intrusive
material, which have been injected between such divisional planes
as those of stratification, and which now appear as sheets or beds
(Fig. 33). These masses are likewise called Intrusive Sheets, and
where the injected material has accumulated in large blister-like
expansions, these are known as Laccolites (Fig. 34).

Fig. 33.—Section of Sill or Intrusive Sheet.

Sills vary from only an inch or two up to 500 feet or more in
thickness. Lying, as they frequently do, parallel with strata above
and below them, they resemble in some respects true lava-sheets
erupted contemporaneously with the series of sediments among
which they are intercalated. And, indeed, cases occur in which it is
hardly possible to decide whether to regard a given mass as a sill or
as a superficial lava. In general, however, sills exhibit the coarser
texture above referred to as specially characteristic of subterranean
eruptive masses. Moreover they are usually, though not always, free
from the vesicular and amygdaloidal structures of true surface-lavas.
Their under and upper surfaces, unlike the more scoriaceous parts of
lavas, are commonly much closer in grain than the general body of
the mass; in other words, they possess chilled borders, the result of
more rapid consolidation by contact with cooler rock. Again, instead
of conforming to the stratification of the formations among which
they lie, as truly interstratified lavas do, they may be seen to break
across the bedding and pursue their course on a higher or lower
platform. The strata that overlie them, instead of enclosing pieces of
them and wrapping round irregularities on their surface, as in the
case of contemporaneously erupted lava-sheets, are usually
indurated, sometimes even considerably altered, while in many cases
they are invaded by veins from the eruptive sheet, or portions of
them are involved in it, and are then much hardened or
metamorphosed.
The petrographical character of the sills in a volcanic district depends
primarily on the constitution of the parent magma, whence both
they and the outflowing lavas have issued. Where the lavas are
rhyolites or felsites the sills are acid, where basalts have been
erupted the sills are basic, though there has often been a tendency
towards the appearance of more acid material, such as trachyte. As
we have seen, considerable differences in petrographical characters
may arise between the intrusive and extrusive offshoots from the
same parent magma during the course of a volcanic cycle. This
question will be more appropriately discussed together with the
leading characters of Bosses.
Between the upper and under surface of a thick sill considerable
petrographical variation may sometimes be observed, especially
where the rock is of basic constitution. Differences both of texture
and even to some extent of composition can be detected.
Sometimes what have been called "segregation veins" traverse the
mass, consisting of the same minerals as the general body of the
rock, but in larger crystals and in somewhat different proportions.
That these veins belong to the period of original consolidation
appears to be shown by the absence of fine-grained, chilled margins,
and by the way in which the component crystals of the veins are
interlocked with those of the body of the rock. Other veins of finer
grain and more acid composition probably belong to a later phase of
consolidation, when, after the separation and crystallization of the
more basic minerals, the more acid mother liquor that remained
was, in consequence of terrestrial movements, injected into cracks in
the now solidified, though still highly heated, rock. Examples of
these features will be cited from various geological formations in the
following chapters.
Reference has already been made to the difference occasionally
perceptible between the constitution of the upper and that of the
under portions of superficial lavas. A similar variation is sometimes
strongly marked among sills, especially those of a basic character,
the felspars remaining most abundant above, while the olivines and
augites preponderate below. Mr. Iddings has observed some
excellent illustrations of this character in the great series of sills
connected with the volcanic pipe of Electric Peak in the Yellowstone
country.[33] Some examples of the same structure will subsequently
be cited from the Carboniferous volcanic series of Central Scotland.
[33]"Electric Peak and Sepulchre Mountain," 12th Ann. Rep. U.S.
Geol. Survey (1890-91), p. 584.
The greatest extreme of difference which I have observed in the
petrographical characters of any group of sills is that displayed by
the Tertiary gabbros of Skye. These rocks occur as sheets interposed
among the bedded basalts, and injected between each other in such
a manner as to form thick piles of rudely stratified sills. They possess
a remarkable banded structure, due to the aggregation of their
component minerals in distinct layers, some of which are dark in
colour, from the abundance of their iron-ore, pyroxene and olivine;
while others are light-coloured, from the predominance of their
felspar. From the manner in which the component minerals of one
band interlace with those of the contiguous bands, it is quite certain
that the structure is not due to successive injections of material
among already consolidated rocks, but belongs to the original
conditions of expulsion of the gabbro as a whole. It seems to
indicate that the magma which supplied the sills was at the time of
its extrusion heterogeneous in composition, and that the banding
arises from the simultaneous or rapidly successive protrusion of
different portions of this variously-constituted magma. The details of
the structure will be described in the general account to be given of
the Tertiary volcanic rocks (Chapters xliii. and xliv.).
Besides such visible differences in the composition of sills, others
much less obtrusive may occasionally be detected with the aid of
microscopic or chemical research. The outer parts of some sills are
thus discovered to be more basic or more acid than the inner
portions. Or evidence may be obtained pointing to the probable
melting down of surrounding rocks by the erupted magma, with a
consequent local change in the chemical and mineralogical
constitution of the mass.
In regard to their position in the geological structure of an old
volcanic district I may here remark that sills, seldom entirely absent,
are more especially developed either among the rocks through which
the volcano has driven its vent, or about the base of the erupted
lavas and tuffs. Many illustrations of this distribution will be
described from the various volcanic areas of Britain belonging to
Palæozoic and Tertiary time. At the base of the great Cambrian and
Lower Silurian volcanic series of Merionethshire, sills are admirably
developed, while among the basaltic eruptions which closed the long
volcanic record in the north of Ireland and the Inner Hebrides, they
play a notable part.
From the frequent place which sills take at the base of a volcanic
series, it may be inferred that they generally belong to a late phase
in the history of an eruptive episode or cycle, when the orifices of
discharge had become choked up, and when the volcanic energy
found an easier passage laterally between the strata underneath the
volcanic pile or between the sheets of that pile itself, than upward
through the ever-increasing thickness of ejected material.
While there is an obvious relation between most sills and some
eruptive centre in their neighbourhood, cases occur in which no
trace of any contemporaneous volcano can be found, but where the
intrusive sheet remains as the sole evidence of the movements of
the subterranean magma. The Great Whin Sill, one of the most
extensive intrusive sheets in the British Isles, is an instance of this
kind. Though this large mass of injected material can be traced for a
distance of about 80 miles, and though the strata beneath and
above it are well exposed in innumerable sections, no evidence has
yet been detected to show that it was connected with any vent that
formed a volcano at the surface (see vol. ii. p. 2). The absence of
this evidence may, of course, arise from the failure of denudation to
uncover the site of the vent, which may possibly still remain buried
under the Carboniferous strata that overlie the sill towards the
south-east. But it may be due to the non-existence of any such vent.
We can quite conceive that volcanic energy should sometimes have
failed to complete the formation of an actual volcano. Aided by
subterranean movements, it might have been potent enough to
disrupt the lower parts of the terrestrial crust, to propel the molten
magma into fissures, even to inject it for many miles between the
planes of stratification, which would be lines of least resistance, and
yet in default of available rents, might have been unable to force its
way through the upper layers and so reach the surface. Examples of
such incompleted volcanoes are perhaps to be recognized among
solitary sills, which not infrequently present themselves in the
geological structure of Britain. But the positive decision of this
question is almost always frustrated by the imperfection of the
evidence, and the consequent possibility that a connected vent may
still lie concealed under overlying strata.
Besides the more usual intrusions of molten material in the form of
sheets of which the vertical thickness bears but a small proportion to
the horizontal extent, there occur also large and thick cakes of
intruded material in which the vertical thickness may approach, or
perhaps even surpass, the horizontal diameter. These dome-shaped
or irregular expansions form a connecting link between ordinary sills
and the bosses to be subsequently described. They have received
the name of Laccolites from Mr. G. K. Gilbert, who worked out this
peculiar type of structure in the case of the Henry Mountains in
southern Utah[34] (Fig. 34). The same type has since been found
distributed over Arizona and Colorado, and it has been recognized as
essentially that of many eruptive masses or bosses in all parts of the
world.
[34]"Geology of the Henry Mountains," U.S. Geog. and Geol. Survey
of the Rocky Mountain Region, 1877. For a review of the whole
subject of laccolites in Western America see a paper by Mr. Whitman
 Cross, in the 14th Annual Report of the Director of the U.S.
Geological Survey, 1892-93 (pub. 1895), p. 157.

Fig. 34.—Ideal section of three Laccolites.

(After Mr. Gilbert.)
In Western America, owing in large measure to the previously
undisturbed condition of the sedimentary formations, the relations of
the injected igneous material to these formations can be
satisfactorily ascertained. The geological structure of the various
isolated laccolites thus clearly presented, helps to explain the
structure of other intrusive bodies which, having been injected
among plicated and dislocated rocks, do not so readily admit of
interpretation.
In Colorado, Utah and Arizona the eruptive magma, usually a
porphyrite, diorite or quartz-porphyry, has risen in one or more
pipes, and has then intruded itself laterally between the planes of
the sedimentary formations which, over the centre of intrusion, have
been pushed upward into a vast dome-shaped or blister-like
elevation. The horizon on which this lateral and vertical expansion of
the intruded material took place would seem to have lain several
thousand feet below the surface. It ranges from the Cambrian to the
Tertiary formations. Subsequent denudation has cut down the
upraised mantle of sedimentary layers, and has revealed more or
less of the igneous rock underneath, which is thus allowed to
protrude and to be affected by atmospheric erosion. In this way,
wide plains of horizontal or gently undulating Secondary and Tertiary
strata have been diversified by the appearance of cones, detached
or in groups, which have become more peaked and varied in outline
in proportion as their original sedimentary covering has been
removed from them. The largest of the laccolitic masses in the
Henry Mountains is about 7000 feet deep and about 4 miles in
diameter. Less than one-half of the cover of overarching strata has
been removed, and denudation has cut deeply into the remaining
part.
That the type of structure, so well exhibited among the Henry
Mountains, has not been more abundantly recognized elsewhere
probably arises from the fact not that it is rare, but that the
conditions for its development are seldom so favourable as in
Western America. Obviously where stratified rocks have been much
disturbed, they cease to furnish definite or regular platforms for the
reception of eruptive material, and to afford convenient datum-lines
for estimating what was probably the shape of the intruded magma.
We may believe that the effect of the propulsion of eruptive material
is usually to upheave the overlying crust, and thus to give rise to a
laccolitic form of intrusion. The upheaval relatively to the
surrounding country will be apt to be practically permanent, the
intruded body of rock being welded to the surrounding formations,
and forming in this way a solid and resisting core directly united by
pipes or funnels with the great magma-reservoir underneath. On the
other hand, where the molten rock, instead of consolidating
underground, has been copiously discharged at the surface, its
emission must tend towards the production of cavernous spaces
within the crust. The falling in of the roofs of such caverns will give
rise to shocks of earthquakes. Subsequent uprisings of the magma
may fill these spaces up, and when the rock has solidified in the
form of laccolites or bosses, it may effectually put an end there to
further eruptions.
Some contact metamorphism may be observed along the upper and
under surfaces of large sills. The rocks over the American laccolites
have sometimes been highly altered. But as the change is the same
in kind as that attendant upon Bosses, though generally less in
degree, it will be considered with these intrusive masses. The
problems in terrestrial physics suggested by the intrusion of such
thick and persistent masses of eruptive material as those which form
sills and laccolites will likewise be discussed in connection with the
mechanism of the remaining intrusive masses which have now to be
described.

iii. Bosses (Stocks, Culots)

The term Boss has been applied to masses of intrusive rock which
form at the surface rounded, craggy or variously-shaped eminences,
having a circular, elliptical or irregular ground-plan, and descending
into the terrestrial crust with vertical or steeply-inclined sides (Fig.
28). Sometimes they can be seen to have pushed the surrounding
rocks aside. In other places they seem to occupy the place of these
rocks through which, as it were, an opening has been punched for
the reception of the intrusive material.
Occasionally, more especially in the case of large bosses, like those
in which granite so frequently appears, the eruptive mass may be
observed to rise here and there in detached knobs through the
surrounding rocks, or to enclose patches of these, in such a manner
as to indicate that the large body of eruptive material terminates
upward in a very irregular surface, of which only the more prominent
parts project through the cake of overlying rocks. In true bosses,
unlike sills or laccolites, we do not get to any bottom on which the
eruptive material rests. Laccolites, indeed, may be regarded as
intermediate between the typical sill and the typical boss. The
difference between a laccolite and a boss lies in the fact that the
body of the laccolite does not descend into an unknown depth in the
crust, but lies upon a platform on which it has accumulated, the
magma having ascended by one or more ducts, which generally bear
but a small proportion in area to the mass of the laccolite. The boss,
on the other hand, is not known to lie on any horizon, nor to
proceed from smaller ducts underneath, but plunges as a great pillar
or irregular mass, which may frequently be noticed to widen
downwards into the crust. There can be no doubt, however, that
many masses of eruptive rock, which, according to the definition
here given, should be called bosses, would be found to be truly
laccolites if their structure below ground could be ascertained. It is
obvious that our failure to find any platform on which the body of a
boss lies, may arise merely from denudation having been as yet
insufficient to lay such a platform bare. It is hardly probable that a
boss several miles in diameter should descend as a column of that
magnitude to the magma-reservoir from which its material came.
More probably it has been supplied through one or more smaller
ducts. The large boss now visible at the surface may thus be really a
laccolitic expansion on one or more horizons. M. Michel Lévy lays
stress on the general widening of granitic bosses as they descend
into the crust.[35] While his observations are supported by many
illustrations from all parts of the globe, and are probably true of the
deeper-seated masses of granite, it is no less true that numerous
examples have been met with where a granite boss is sharply
marked off from the rocks which it has invaded and on which it may
be seen to lie. Apart from the cases where granite seems to form
part of a vast internal, once molten mass, into which its encircling
gneisses seem to graduate, there are others in which this rock, as
now visible, has been injected into the crust as a boss or as a
laccolite. Instances will be described in later chapters where such
bosses have risen through Cambrian, Silurian, Devonian and
Carboniferous formations. It may be said that between such granitic
intrusions and volcanic operations no connection can be traced. But
reasons will be brought forward in later chapters to regard some of
the granitic bosses as parts of the mechanism of Palæozoic
volcanoes. It will also be shown that among the intrusive rocks of
the Tertiary volcanic series of Britain there occur bosses of truly
granophyric and granitic material. Hence, though mainly what is
called a "plutonic" rock, granite has made its appearance among the
subterranean protrusions of volcanoes.
[35]M. Michel Lévy, Bull. Carte Géol. France, No. 35, tome v. (1893),
p. 32. The view stated in the text is also that adopted by Prof.
Brögger with reference to the granite of the Christiania district. "Die
Eruptivgesteine des Kristianiagebietes."
It is no doubt true that many intrusive masses, which must be
included under the general name of bosses, have probably had no
connection whatever with volcanic action properly so called. They
are plutonic injections, that is, portions of the subterranean magma
which have been intruded into the terrestrial crust during its periods
of disturbance, and have not been accompanied with any superficial
discharges, which are essential in truly volcanic energy. It has been
proposed to draw a distinction between such deep-seated intrusions
and those which represent volcanic funnels.[36] If this were always
practicable it would certainly be desirable. But the distinction is not
one that can in every case be satisfactorily drawn. Even in regard to
granitic bosses, which may generally be assumed to be plutonic in
origin, the British examples just referred to have in all likelihood
been connected with undoubted volcanic outbursts. Without,
therefore, attempting here to separate the obviously volcanic necks
of eruptive material from the probably plutonic bosses, I propose to
describe briefly the general characters of bosses considered as a
group of intrusive rocks, together with the phenomena which
accompany them, and the conditions under which they may have
been injected.
[36] M. Michel Lévy, Bull. Carte Géol. France, No. 35, tome v. (1893).

Bosses, whether of plutonic or volcanic origin, are frequently not

merely single masses of eruptive rock, but are accompanied with a
system of dykes and veins, some of which can be traced directly into
the parent-mass, while others traverse it as well as the surrounding
rocks. Hence the history of a boss may be considerably more
complex than the external form of the mass might suggest.
The petrographical characters of bosses link them with the other
underground injections of igneous material, more especially with sills
and laccolites. Indeed, on mere lithological grounds no satisfactory
line could be drawn between these various forms of intrusive rocks.
The larger the mass the more coarsely crystalline it may be expected
to be. But the whole range of structure, texture and composition,
from those of the narrowest vein to those of the widest boss,
constitutes one connected series of gradations.
Acid, intermediate and basic rocks are abundantly displayed among
the bosses. Huge masses of granite, granophyre, quartz-porphyry,
felsite or rhyolite, represent the acid series. Intermediate varieties
consist of trachyte, phonolite, diorite, andesite or other rock. The
basic bosses include varieties of gabbro, dolerite, basalt, picrite, and
other compounds.
In a boss of large size, a considerable range of texture, composition
and structure may often be observed. The rock is generally much
coarser in grain than that of thin sills or dykes. Sometimes it exhibits
a finer texture along the margin than in the centre, though this
variation is not usually so marked as in sills and dykes. The rapidly-
chilled and therefore more close-textured selvage seems to have
been developed much more fully in small than in large masses of
eruptive material. The latter, cooling more slowly, allowed even their
marginal parts to retain their heat, and sometimes perhaps even
their molten condition, longer than small injections. Some influence
must also have been exercised by the temperature of the rocks into
which the eruptive material was intruded. Where this temperature
was high, as in deep-seated parts of the crust, it would allow the
intrusive magma to cool more slowly, and thus to assume a more
coarsely crystalline condition. The absence of a close grain round the
margins of granitic bosses may be due to this cause.
But a much more important distinction may be traced between the
central and marginal parts of some large bosses and thick sills. I
have already alluded to the fact that while the middle of a large
intrusive mass may be decidedly acid, taking even the form of
granite, the outer borders are sometimes found to be much more
basic, passing into such a rock as gabbro, or even into some ultra-
basic compound. Between these extremes of composition no sharp
division is sometimes discoverable, such as might have been
expected had the one rock been intruded into the other. The
differences graduate so insensibly into each other as to suggest that
originally the whole mass of the rock formed one continuous body of
eruptive material. It is possible that in some cases the magma itself
was heterogeneous at the time of intrusion.[37] But the frequency of
the distribution of the basic ingredients towards the outer margin,
and the acid towards the centre, points rather to a process of
differentiation among the constituents of the boss before
consolidation. In some instances the differentiation would appear to
have taken place before crystallization to any great extent had set
in, because the minerals ultimately developed in the central parts
differ from those at the sides. In other cases, the transference of
material would seem to have been in progress after the component
minerals had crystallized out of the magma, for they are the same
throughout the whole intrusive mass, but differ in relative
proportions from centre to circumference.[38]
[37] The Tertiary gabbros of the Inner Hebrides have already been
cited, and will be more fully described in a later chapter as exhibiting
the heterogeneousness of an eruptive magma.
[38] See Messrs. Dakyns and Teall, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. xlviii.
(1892), p. 104; Prof. Brögger, op. cit. 1. (1894), p. 15; Mr. A. Harker,
op. cit. p. 320; Prof. Iddings, Journ. Geol. Chicago, i. (1893), p. 833;
Bull. Phil. Soc. Washington, ii. (1890), p. 191; 1892, p. 89.
As illustrations of these features I may cite two good examples, one
from Scotland and one from England. The mass of Garabol Hill, in
the Loch Lomond district, consists mainly of granite, occupying an
area of about 12½ square miles. Messrs. Dakyns and Teall have
shown that while the central portions consist of granite, the south-
eastern margin affords a remarkable series of intermediate rocks,
such as hornblende-biotite-granite, tonalite (quartz-mica-diorite),
diorite and augite-diorite, which lead us outwards into highly basic
compounds, including wehrlites (olivine-diallage rocks), picrites
(olivine-augite rocks), serpentine (possibly representing dunites,
saxonites, and lherzolites), and a peculiar rock consisting essentially
of enstatite, diallage, brown hornblende and biotite. The authors
regard the whole of these widely different rocks as the products of
one original magma, the more basic marginal area having
consolidated first as peridotites, followed by diorites, tonalites and
granites in the order of increasing acidity. The most acid rock in the
whole series consists of felspar and quartz, is almost devoid of ferro-
magnesian minerals, and occurs in narrow veins in the granite and
tonalite. It indicates that after the segregation and consolidation of
the whole boss, ruptures occurred which were filled in by the ascent
of the very latest and most acid remaining portion of still fluid
magma.[39]
[39]Messrs. Dakyns and Teall, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. xlviii. (1892),
p. 104.

The case of Carrock Fell in Cumberland has been described by Mr. A.

Harker, who has ascertained that the gabbro of this boss has in its
central portions a specific gravity of less than 2·85 and a silica-
percentage sometimes as high as 59·46, whilst its marginal zone
gives a specific gravity above 2·95 and a silica-percentage as low as
32·50. The migration of the heavy iron ores towards the margin is
readily apparent to the naked eye, and is well established by
chemical analysis, the oxides of iron amounting in the centre to 6·24
(Fe2O3 3·60, FeO 2·64), and at the margin to 25·54 (Fe2O3 8·44, FeO
17·10).[40] Neither in this instance nor in that of Garabol Hill has any
evidence been noticed which would suggest that the basic and acid
rocks belong to different periods of intrusion. They pass so
insensibly into each other as to form in each case one graduated
mass.
[40] Mr. A. Harker, op. cit. p. 320.
From these and other examples which have been observed, it is
difficult to escape the conclusion that the differences between the
basic margin and the acid centre are due to some process of
segregation or differentiation while the mass was still in a liquid
condition, and its constituents could pass from one part of the boss
to another. According to Professor Brögger, it may be stated as a
general law that differentiation sets in during consolidation, and is
determined by, and dependent on, the laws of crystallization in a
magma, in so far as the compounds which, on given conditions,
would first crystallize out, diffuse themselves towards the cooling
margin so as to produce in the contact-stratum a peculiar chemical
composition in the still liquid material before crystallization takes
place.[41]
[41]This general conclusion is stated by Professor Brögger from his
investigation of the rocks of Gran, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. l. (1894),
p. 36.

If during the process of differentiation, and before consolidation,

injections of the magma occur, they may be expected to differ in
character according to the portion of the magma from which they
are derived. Professor Brögger believes that among the basic
eruptive rocks of Gran in the Christiania district, one and the same
magma has in the bosses solidified as olivine-gabbro-diabases, and
in the dykes as camptonites, bostonites, pyroxenites, hornblendites,
and more acid augite-diorites.[42]
[42] Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. l. (1894), p. 35.
Various opinions have been propounded as to the cause or causes of
this so-called differentiation, but none of them are entirely
satisfactory. We must await the results of further exploration in the
field and of continued research in the laboratory.
What appears to have taken place within a subterranean molten
magma which has been propelled into the earth's crust as a boss or
laccolite, with or without a connected system of dykes, may possibly
be made to throw some light on the remarkable changes in the
characters of lavas successively erupted from the same vent during
the continuance of a volcanic cycle. Whether or not any such
process of differentiation can be proved to take place within a
subterranean volcanic reservoir, the sequence of erupted lavas bears
a curious resemblance to the order in which the constituents of
some large bosses succeed each other from margin to centre. The
earliest lavas may be of an intermediate or even basic character, but
they generally tend to become more acid. Nevertheless alternations
of basic and acid lavas which have been noted in various districts
would seem to show that if there be a process of differentiation in
the magma-basins, it is not regular and continuous, but liable to
interruption and renewal. The return to basic eruptions, which so
often marks the close of a volcanic cycle, is likewise not easily
explicable on the supposition of continuous differentiation.
Where no sensible evidence of differentiation is traceable in the
general body of a large intrusive mass, indications that some such
process has there been in progress are perhaps supplied by the
more acid dykes or veins, and the so-called "segregation veins,"
which have been already alluded to as traversing large intrusive
masses. Though these portions differ to a greater or less extent in
texture and composition from the main substance of the boss, the
differences are not such as to prevent us from regarding them as
really parts of the same parent magma. The veins, which are more
acid than the rock that they traverse, may be regarded as having
emanated from some central or deeper-seated part of a boss, which
still remained fluid after the marginal or upper portion had
consolidated sufficiently far to be capable of being rent open during
subterranean disturbance. But that the mass, though coherent
enough to be fissured, still remained at a high temperature, may be
inferred from the general absence of chilled edges to these veins.
The evidence of differentiation supplied by "segregation veins" has
been referred to in the case of Sills.
The study of the petrographical variations in the constitution of large
eruptive bosses has a twofold interest for the geologist. In the first
place, it affords him material for an investigation of the changes
which a volcanic magma undergoes during its eruption and
consolidation, and thereby provides him with some data for an
elucidation of the cause of the sequence of erupted products during
a volcanic cycle. In the second place, it yields to him some
interesting analogies with the structures of ancient gneisses, and
thus helps towards the comprehension of the origin and history of
these profoundly difficult but deeply fascinating rocks.
Bosses, like sills, occur in the midst of volcanic sheets, and also as
solitary protrusions. Where they rise amidst interstratified lavas and
tuffs they may often be recognized as occupying the position of
volcanic vents. They are then necks, and their characters in this
connection have already been given. Where, however, as so
frequently happens, they appear among rocks in which no trace of
any contemporaneous volcanic material is to be detected, their
relation to former volcanic activity remains uncertain.
Of this doubtful nature some of the most notable examples are
supplied by the great granitic bosses which occur so frequently
among the older Palæozoic rocks of Britain. The age of these can
sometimes be approximately fixed, and is then found to correspond
more or less closely with some volcanic episode. Thus the granite-
bosses of Galloway, in the south of Scotland, disrupt Upper Silurian
strata, but are older than the Upper Old Sandstone. Hence they
probably belong to the period of the Lower Old Red Sandstone,
which was eminently characterized by the vigour and long
continuance of its volcanoes. The granite of Arran and of the Mourne
Mountains can be shown by one line of reasoning to be younger
than surrounding Carboniferous formations, by other arguments to
be probably later than the Permian period, and by a review of the
whole evidence to form almost certainly part of the volcanic history
of Tertiary time.
But even where it can be shown that the uprise of a huge boss of
eruptive material was geologically contemporaneous with energetic
volcanic action, this coincidence may not warrant the conclusion that
the boss therefore marks one of the volcanic centres of activity. Each
example must be judged by itself. There have, doubtless, been many
cases of the intrusion of molten material in bosses, as well as in sills,
without the establishment of any connection with the surface. Such
incompleted volcanoes have been revealed by denudation after the
removal of a great thickness of superincumbent rock. The evidence
which would have decided the question to what extent any of them
became true volcanic vents has thus been destroyed. We can only
reason tentatively from a careful collation of all the facts that are
now recoverable. Illustrations of this kind of reasoning will be fully
given in subsequent chapters.
It has been supposed that a test for the discrimination of a
subterranean protrusion from a true volcanic chimney may be found
in the condition of the surrounding rocks, which in the case of the
prolonged flow of molten matter up a vent would be likely to
undergo far more metamorphism than would be the case in the
injection of a single eruptive mass.[43] But, as has been already
pointed out, no special or excessive metamorphism of the encircling
rocks is noticeable around many vents. There is certainly no more
alteration contiguous to numerous true necks than around bosses,
which there is no reason to suppose ever communicated directly
with the surface, and which were probably the result of a single
intrusion. We must always remember that the denudation which has
revealed these bosses has generally removed the evidence of their
upward termination and of their possible connection with any
volcanic ejections. Many of them may mark the sites of true vents
from which only single eruptions took place. The opening of a
volcanic vent does not necessarily imply a prolonged ascent of
volcanic material. In a vast number of cases the original eruption
was the first and last effort of the volcano, so that in such
circumstances there seems no more reason for much alteration of
the walls of the chimney than for the metamorphism of the rocks
round a boss, laccolite, sill or dyke.
[43]See, for example, Mr. Harker, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. l. (1894),
p. 329.

The metamorphism produced by intrusions of molten material upon

the rocks with which they have come in contact has long been
studied. Its amount varies so greatly in different cases that the
conditions on which it has specially depended are not easily
determined. Three factors have obviously been of great importance
—first, the bulk of the intruded material; secondly, the chemical
composition and lithological texture and structure of the rocks
affected; and thirdly, the constitution and temperature of the
invading magma.
1. It is clear that a huge boss of eruptive material will be likely to
effect much more alteration of the surrounding rocks than a small
boss, sill or dyke. Its initial temperature will probably be higher at
the time of its assuming its final place than that of the same material
after it has found its way into the narrower space of a thin sill or
dyke. It will likewise take much longer to cool. Hence the influence
of its heat and its vapours will continue to act long after those of the
dyke or sill have ceased to manifest themselves.
2. It is equally evident that much of the resultant metamorphism will
depend on the susceptibility of the rocks to change. An obdurate
material such as pure quartz-sand, for example, will resist further
alteration than mere hardening into quartzite. Shales and mudstones
may be indurated into cherty substances of various textures.
Limestones and dolomites, on the other hand, may become entirely
crystalline, and may even have new minerals, such as garnet,
tremolite, pyroxene, etc., developed in them. Hence in comparing
the amount of metamorphism attendant on two separate bosses we
must always take into account the nature of the rocks in which it has
been induced.
3. But perhaps the most effective cause of variation in the nature
and amount of contact metamorphism has been the constitution of
the eruptive magma. A broad distinction may be drawn between the
alteration produced by basic and by acid rocks. The intrusion of
basic material has often produced singularly little change, even when
the eruptive mass has been of considerable size. The greatest
amount of alteration is to be found where the basic boss has caught
up and enveloped portions of the surrounding rocks. Thus where the
gabbro of Carrock Fell has invaded the basic Lower Silurian lavas of
the Lake District, the enveloped portions of the latter show
considerable modification. Their groundmass becomes darker and
more lustrous, the felspars assume a clearer appearance and lose
some of their conspicuous inclusions, the pyroxenic constituents are
converted into pale amphibole, and the glassy base disappears. At
the actual line of contact the felspars of the lavas have become
disengaged from their original matrix, which seems to have been
dissolved and absorbed in the gabbro-magma. Brown mica has been
exceptionally developed in the altered lava. At the same time, a
change is noticeable in the character of the gabbro itself near the
contact. Brown mica is there to be seen, though not a constituent of
the rock elsewhere. The eruptive material has incorporated the basic
groundmass of the lavas, leaving the felspars undissolved.[44]
[44] Mr. Harker, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. l. (1894), p. 331.

Much more serious are the changes produced by intrusions of acid

material, though here again the metamorphism varies within wide
limits, being sometimes hardly perceptible, and in other cases
advancing so far as to convert mere sedimentary material into
thoroughly crystalline rocks. Small sills and dykes of felsite and
granophyre may produce very slight change even upon shales and
limestones, as may be seen among the eruptive rocks of Skye and
Raasay. Large bosses of granophyre, and still more of granite, have
been accompanied with the most extensive metamorphism. Round
these eruptive masses every gradation may be traced among sandy
and argillaceous sediments, until they pass into crystalline mica-
schists, which do not appear to be distinguishable from rocks of
Archæan age. Admirable examples of this extreme alteration may be
observed around the great granite bosses of Galloway.[45] Again,
among calcareous rocks a transition may be traced from dull grey
ordinary fossiliferous limestones and dolomites into pure white
crystalline marbles, full of crystals of tremolite, zoisite, garnet and
other minerals. The alteration of the fossiliferous Cambrian
limestones of Strath in Skye by the intrusive bosses of Tertiary
granite well illustrates this change.[46]
[45]See Explanation to Sheet 9 of the Geological Survey of Scotland,
p. 22; Prof. Bonney and Mr. Allport, Proc. Roy. Soc. xvi. (1889); Miss
Gardiner, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xlvi. (1890), p. 569.
[46] Macculloch, Trans. Geol. Soc. vol. iii. (1816), p. 1; Description of
the Western Isles, vol. i. p. 322. See also Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc.
vol. xiv. (1857), p. 1; and vol. xliv. (1888), p. 62.
Without entering further here into the wide subject of contact
metamorphism, to which a large literature has now been devoted,
we may note the effects which have been produced in the eruptive
material itself by its contact with the surrounding rocks. Not only
have these rocks been altered, but very considerable modifications
have likewise taken place in the active agent of the change.
Sometimes the alteration of the invading material has been effected
without any sensible absorption of the mineral constituents of the
rocks invaded. This appears to be the case in those instances where
sheets of basalt, intruded among coals or highly carbonaceous
shales, have lost their compact crystalline character and have
become mere clays. In the coal-fields of Britain, where many
examples of this change have been noted, the igneous material is
known as "white trap." The iron oxides have been in great part
removed, or, together with the lime of the component minerals, have
been converted into carbonates. Traces of the original felspar
crystals may still be detected, but the groundmass has been
changed into a dull, earthy, friable and decomposed substance.
Nearly always, however, the alteration of the intrusive magma has
resulted from the incorporation of portions of the surrounding rocks.
Reference has been made above to the alteration of the Carrock Fell
gabbro by the absorption of some of the basic lavas around it. But
still more remarkable is the change produced in some acid rocks by
the incorporation of basic material into their substance. Professor
Sollas has described in great detail a remarkable instance of this
effect in the probably Tertiary eruptive rocks of the Carlingford
district in the north-east of Ireland. He has ascertained that the
eruptive gabbro of that district is older than the granite, for it is
traversed by granophyre dykes which enclose pieces of it. The
granophyre dykes, on the other hand, often show a lithoidal or
chilled margin, which is not visible in the gabbro. He believes that
the gabbro is not only older than the acid protrusions, but was
already completely solid, traversed by contraction-joints, and
probably fractured by earth-movements, before the injection of the
granophyric material, which at the time of its intrusion was in a state
of extreme fluidity, for it has found its way into the minutest cracks
and crevices. He has especially studied the alteration produced by
the granophyre upon the enclosed pieces of basic rock. The diallage,
isolated from the other constituents of the gabbro, may commonly
be seen to have broken up into numerous granules, like the augite
grains of basalt, while in some cases biotite and hornblende have
been developed with the concomitant excretion of magnetite. The
acid rock itself has undergone considerable modification owing to
the incorporation of basic material into its substance. Professor
Sollas distinguishes the following varieties of the rock:—Biotite-
granophyre, biotite-amphibole-granophyre, augite-granophyre,
diallage-amphibole-augite-granophyre.[47]
[47] Trans. Roy. Irish Acad. xxx. (1894), part xii. p. 477.
Similar phenomena have been described by Mr. Harker as occurring
where granophyre has invaded the gabbro of Carrock Fell.[48] The
same observer has more recently detected some interesting
examples furnished by injections of Tertiary granophyre in the
agglomerates of Skye. The acid rock is roughly estimated by him to
have taken up about one-fourth of its bulk of gabbro fragments. He
has investigated the minute structure of the rock thus constituted,
and has been able to recognize the augite of the original gabbro, in
various stages of alteration and completely isolated, the other
minerals having been dissolved in the acid magma.[49]
[48] Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. li. (1895), p. 183.
[49] Op. cit. lii. The metamorphism produced upon fragments of
different kinds of foreign material enclosed within various igneous
rocks has in recent years been studied in great detail by Professor
Lacroix—Les Enclaves des Roches Volcaniques, Macon, 1893.
It is not easy to comprehend the conditions under which large
masses of molten material have been injected into the crust of the
earth. The two main factors in volcanic action—terrestrial contraction
and the energy of the vapours in the magma—have no doubt played
the chief part in the process. But the relative share of each and the
way in which the enormous load of overlying rock has been
overcome are not readily intelligible.
Let us first consider for a moment the pressure of the
superincumbent crust under which the injection in many cases took
place. The Whin Sill of England may serve as a good illustration of
the difficulties of the problem. This notable mass of intrusive rock
has been forced between the stratification planes of the
Carboniferous Limestone series in one, or sometimes more than one,
sheet. It stretches for a horizontal distance of not less than 80 miles
with an average thickness of between 80 and 100 feet. From the
area over which it can be traced its total extent underground must
be at least 400 square miles (see Chapter xxix.).
In any single section the Whin Sill might be supposed to be a truly
interstratified sheet, so evenly does it seem to be intercalated
between the sedimentary strata. But here and there it diverges
upward or downward in such a way as to prove it to be really a vast
injected sheet. The age of the injection cannot be precisely fixed. It
must be later than the Carboniferous Limestone. There is no trace of
any stratigraphical break in the Carboniferous system of the region
traversed by the sill. If the injection took place during the
Carboniferous period, it does not appear to have been attended with
any local disturbance, such as we might suppose would have been
likely to accompany the extravasation of so enormous a mass of
igneous material. If the date of injection be assigned to the next
volcanic episode in the geological history of Britain—that of the
Permian period—it will follow that the Whin Sill was intruded into its
present position under the superincumbent weight of the whole of
the Carboniferous system higher than the platform followed by the
injected rock. The overlying body of strata would thus exceed 5000
feet in thickness, or in round numbers would amount at least to an
English mile. The pressure of this mass of superincumbent material,
at the depth at which the injected magma was forced between the
strata, must have been so gigantic that it is difficult to believe that
the energy of the magma would have been able to achieve of itself
so stupendous a task as the formation of the Great Whin Sill.