James Croll left school at the age of 13 years, yet while a janitor in Glasgow he published a landmark paper on astronomically-related climate change, claimed as ‘the most important discovery in paleoclimatology’, and which brought him to the attention of Charles Darwin, William Thomson and John Tyndall, amongst others. By 1867 he was persuaded to become Secretary and Accountant of the newly established Geological Survey of Scotland in Edinburgh, and a year after the appearance of his keynote volume Climate and time in 1875, he was lauded with an honorary doctorate from Scotland's oldest university, Fellowship of the Royal Society of London and Honorary Membership of the New York Academy of Sciences. Using a range of archival and published sources, this paper explores aspects of his ‘journey’ and the background to the award of these major accolades. It also discusses why he never became a Fellow of his national academy, the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In the world of 19th-Century science, Croll was not unusual in being both an autodidact and of humble origins, nor was he lacking in support for his endeavours. It is possible that a combination of Croll's modesty and innovative genius fostered advancement, though this did not hinder a willingness to engage in vigorous argument.

中文翻译：

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詹姆斯·克罗尔和 1876 年：对于一个“非常谦虚的人”来说是非凡的一年

詹姆斯·克罗尔 13 岁离开学校，但在格拉斯哥担任看门人时，他发表了一篇关于与天文相关的气候变化的具有里程碑意义的论文，被称为“古气候学中最重要的发现”，并引起了查尔斯·达尔文的注意，威廉汤姆森和约翰廷德尔，等等。到 1867 年，他被说服成为新成立的位于爱丁堡的苏格兰地质调查局的秘书和会计师，并在他的主旨卷出版一年后气候和时间1875 年，他获得了苏格兰最古老的大学的荣誉博士学位、伦敦皇家学会会员和纽约科学院的荣誉会员。本文利用一系列档案和出版资料，探讨了他的“旅程”的各个方面以及获得这些主要荣誉的背景。它还讨论了为什么他从未成为他的国家科学院爱丁堡皇家学会的研究员。在 19 世纪的科学界，克罗尔既是自学者又出身卑微，这并不罕见，他的努力也不缺乏支持。克罗尔的谦虚和创新天才的结合可能促进了进步，尽管这并不妨碍参与激烈争论的意愿。