Part 13

The breaking down of the Wernerian doctrines began with two of Werner’s most distinguished pupils, D’Aubuisson de Voisins (1769–1819) and Von Buch. The former in 1803 had accepted Werner’s aqueous origin of basalt, but after studying the celebrated and quite recent volcanic area of Auvergne he recanted in 1804. Here he saw the basaltic rocks lying upon and cutting through granite, and in places more than 1200 feet thick. “If these basaltic rocks were lavas,” says Geikie, “they must, according to the Wernerian doctrine, have resulted from the combustion of beds of coal. But how could coal be supposed to exist under granite, which was the first chemical precipitate of a primeval ocean?”

Leopold von Buch (1774–1853), “the most illustrious geologist that Germany has produced,” after two years spent in Norway was satisfied “that the rocks in the Christiania district could not be arranged according to the Wernerian plan, which there completely broke down. Von Buch found a mass of granite lying among fossiliferous limestones which were manifestly metamorphosed, and were pierced by veins of granite, porphyry, and syenite.” Even so, he was not ready to abandon the teachings of his master. After a study of the mountain systems of Germany, however, “he declared that the more elevated mountains had never been covered by the sea, as Werner had taught, but were produced by successive ruptures and uplifts of the terrestrial crust” (Geikie).

Rise of Geology and Conformism.—Modern geology has its rise in James Hutton (1726–1797) of Edinburgh, Scotland. In 1785 and 1795, Hutton published his Theory of the Earth, with Proofs and Illustrations. His “immortal theory” is his only work on geology. “Fortunately for Hutton’s fame and for the onward march of geology, the philosopher numbered among his friends the illustrious mathematician and natural philosopher, John Playfair (1748–1819), who had been closely associated with him in his later years, and was intimately conversant with his geological opinions.” In 1802, Playfair published his Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth, of which Geikie says, “Of this great classic it is impossible to speak too highly,” as it is at the basis of all modern geology.

One of Hutton’s fundamental doctrines is that the earth is internally hot and that in the past large masses of molten material, the granites, have been intruded into the crust. It was these igneous views that led to his followers being called the Plutonists. Another of his great doctrines was that “the ruins of an earlier world lie beneath the secondary strata,” and that they are separated by what is now known as unconformity. He clearly recognized a lost interval in the broken relation of the structures, and that the ruins, the detrital materials, of one world after another are superposed in the structure of the earth.

Hutton also held that the deformation of once horizontally deposited strata was probably brought about at different periods by great convulsions that shook the very foundations of the earth. After a convulsion, there was a long time of erosion, represented by the unconformity. Geikie says, “The whole of the modern doctrine of earth sculpture is to be found in the Huttonian theory.”

The Lyellian doctrine of metamorphism had its origin in Hutton, for he showed that invading igneous granite had altered, through its heat and expanding power, the originally waterlaid sediments, and that the schists of the Alps had been born of the sea like other stratified rocks.

Hutton is the father of the Uniformitarian principle, for he “started with the grand conception that the past history of our globe must be explained by what can be seen to be happening now, or to have happened only recently. The dominant idea in his philosophy is that the present is the key to the past.” This principle has been impressed on all later geologists by Sir Charles Lyell, and is the chief cornerstone of modern geology.

The principle of uniformitarianism has underlain geologic interpretation since the days of Hutton, Playfair, and Lyell. However, it is often applied too rigidly in interpretations based upon the present conditions, because in the past there were long times when the topographic features of the earth were very different from those of to-day. Throughout the Paleozoic, and, less markedly, the Mesozoic, the oceans flooded the lands widely (at times over 60 per cent of the total area), highlands were inconspicuous, sediments far scarcer, and climates warm and equable throughout the world. Highland conditions, and especially the broadly emergent continents of the present, were only periodically present in the Paleozoic and then for comparatively short intervals between the periods. Therefore rates of denudation, solution, sedimentation, and evolution have varied greatly throughout the geological ages. These differences, however, relate to degrees of operation, and not to kinds of processes; but the differences in degree of operation react mightily on our views as to the age of the earth.

Geologic time had, for Hutton, no “vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end.” In other words, geologic time is infinite. He did not, however, discover a method by which the chronology of the earth could be determined.

First Important Text-books.—In 1822 appeared the ablest text-book so far published, and the pattern for most of the later ones, Outlines of the Geology of England and Wales, by W. D. Conybeare (1787–1857) and W. Phillips (1775–1828). “In this excellent volume all that was then known regarding the rocks of the country, from the youngest formations down to the Old Red Sandstone, was summarized in so clear and methodical a manner as to give a powerful impulse to the cultivation of geology in England” (Geikie). This book is reviewed at great length by Edward Hitchcock in the Journal (=7=, 203, 1824).

To indicate how far historical geology had progressed up to 1822 in England, a digest of the geological column as presented in this text-book is given in the following table, along with other information.

A text-book writer of yet greater influence was Charles Lyell (1797–1875), whose Principles of Geology appeared in three volumes between 1830 and 1833. This and his other books were kept up to date through many editions, and his Elements of Geology is, as Geikie says, “the hand book of every English geologist” working with the fossiliferous formations.

The Rise of Geology in North America.

The Generating Centers.—In America, geology had its rise independently in three places: in the two scientific societies of Boston and Philadelphia, and dominantly in Benjamin Silliman of Yale College. Stated in another way, we may say that geology in America had its origin in the following pioneers and founders: first, in William Maclure at Philadelphia, and next in Benjamin Silliman at New Haven. Through the influence of the latter, Amos Eaton, the botanist, became a geologist and taught geology at Williams College and later at the Rensselaer School in Troy, New York. Through the same influence Rev. Edward Hitchcock also became a geologist and taught the subject after 1825 at Amherst College.

Silliman was the first to take up actively the teaching of mineralogy and geology based on collections of specimens. He spread the knowledge in popular lectures throughout the Eastern States, graduated many a student in the sciences, making of some of them professional teachers and geologists, provided all with a journal wherein they could publish their research, organized the first geological society and through his students the first official geological surveys, and by kind words and acts stimulated, fostered, and held together American scientific men for fifty years. Of him it has been truly said that he was “the guardian of American science from its childhood.”

The American Academy in Boston.—The second oldest scientific society, but the first one to publish on geological subjects, was the American Academy of Arts and Sciences of Boston, instituted and publishing since 1780. Up to the time of the founding of this Journal, there had appeared in the publications of the American Academy about a dozen papers of a geologic character, none of which need to be mentioned here excepting one by S. L. and J. F. Dana, entitled “Outlines of the Mineralogy and Geology of Boston,” published in 1818. This is an early and important step in the elucidation of one of the most intricate geologic areas, and is further noteworthy for its geologic map, the third one to appear, the older ones being by Maclure and Hitchcock (Merrill).

THE GEOLOGICAL COLUMN IN 1822

═══════════════════════════════════╤═════════════╤═════════════ Present American classification │Conybeare and│ C. & P. │Phillips 1822│ orders ───────────────────────────────────┼─────────────┼───────────── │ │ Superior Psychozoic or Recent │Alluvial │ Order │ │ ───────────┬───────────────────────┼─────────────┼───────────── Cenozoic │Pleistocene │Diluvial │ „ │ │ │Upper Marine │ │ │ │ formation │ │ │ │ (Crag, │ „ │Pliocene │Neogene │ Bagshot │ „ │ │ │ sand, and │ │ │ │ Isle of │ │ │ │ Wight) │ „ │Miocene │ „ │ „ │ „ „ │ │Fresh-water │ „ │ │ formations │ „ │Oligocene │Paleogene │London Clay │ „ „ │Eocene │ „ │Plastic Clay │ „ ───────────┼────────────┴──────────┼─────────────┼───────────── │ │ │ │ │ │ Supermedial Mesozoic │Cretaceous │Chalk │ Order │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │Beds between │ │ │ Chalk and │ │ │ Oolite │ │ │ Series │ „ │Comanchian 1887 │ (Chalk │ „ │ │ Marle, │ │ │ Green Sand,│ │ │ Weald Clay,│ │ │ Iron Sand) │ ───────────┼───────────────────────┼─────────────┼───────────── │ │Upper Oolitic│ │ │ division │ │ │ (Purbeck │ „ │Jurassic 1829 │ beds, │ „ │ │ Portland │ │ │ Oolite, │ │ │ Kimmeridge │ │ │ Clay) │ │ │Middle │ │ │ Oolitic │ „ │ „ │ division │ „ │ │ (Coral Rag,│ │ │ Oxford │ │ │ Clay) │ │ │Lower Oolitic│ │ │ division │ │ │ (Cornbrash │ │ │ Stonesfield│ │ │ Slate, │ │ │ Forest │ │ │ Marble, │ „ │ „ │ Great │ „ │ │ Oolite, │ │ │ Fullers’ │ │ │ Earth, │ │ │ Inferior │ │ │ Oolite, │ │ │ Sand and │ │ │ Marlestone)│ „ │ „ │Lias │ „ ───────────┼───────────────────────┼─────────────┼───────────── „ │Triassic 1834 │New Red │ „ │ │ Sandstone │ ───────────┼───────────────────────┼─────────────┼───────────── Paleozoic │Permian 1841 │Magnesian │ „ │ │ Limestone │ ───────────┼───────────────────────┼─────────────┼───────────── │ │ │ Medial or „ │ │Coal Measures│Carboniferous │ │ │ Order „ │Pennsylvanian 1891 │ │ „ │ │Millstone │ „ │Mississippian 1869 │ Grit and │ „ │ │ Shale │ „ │ │Old Red │ „ │ │ Sandstone │ „ │Devonian 1839 │ │ „ ───────────┼───────────────────────┼─────────────┼───────────── │ │Unresolved │ │ │ Submedial │ „ │Silurian 1835 │ and │ │ │ Inferior │ │ │ Orders │ „ │Ordovician 1879 │ „ │ „ │(=Lower Silurian 1835) │ „ │ „ │Cambrian 1833 │ „ │ ───────────┼────────────┬──────────┼─────────────┼───────────── Proterozoic│Keweenawan │Huronian │ „ │ │ │ 1852 │ │ „ │Animikian │ „ │ „ │ „ │Huronian │ „ │ „ │ „ │Sudburian │ „ │ „ │ ───────────┼────────────┼──────────┼─────────────┼───────────── Archeozoic │Keewatin │Laurentian│ „ │ │ │ 1853 │ │ „ │Coutchiching│ „ │ „ │ ───────────┴────────────┴──────────┴─────────────┴─────────────

═══════════════════════════════════╤══════════╤════════════ Present American classification │Wernerian │ Other │ orders │ writers ───────────────────────────────────┼──────────┼──────────── │ Newest │ Tertiary Psychozoic or Recent │ Floetz │ Class │ Class │ ───────────┬───────────────────────┼──────────┼──────────── Cenozoic │Pleistocene │ „ │ „ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ „ │Pliocene │Neogene │ „ │ „ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ „ │Miocene │ „ │ „ │ „ „ │ │ „ │ „ │ │ │ „ │Oligocene │Paleogene │ „ │ „ „ │Eocene │ „ │ „ │ „ ───────────┼────────────┴──────────┼──────────┼──────────── │ │Primitive │ Primitive │ │Transition│Intermediate Mesozoic │Cretaceous │and Floetz│ and │ │ Classes │ Secondary │ │ │ classes │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ „ │Comanchian 1887 │ „ │ „ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ ───────────┼───────────────────────┼──────────┼──────────── │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ „ │Jurassic 1829 │ „ │ „ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ „ │ „ │ „ │ „ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ „ │ „ │ „ │ „ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ „ │ „ │ „ │ „ ───────────┼───────────────────────┼──────────┼──────────── „ │Triassic 1834 │ „ │ „ │ │ │ ───────────┼───────────────────────┼──────────┼──────────── Paleozoic │Permian 1841 │ „ │ „ │ │ │ ───────────┼───────────────────────┼──────────┼──────────── │ │ │ „ │ │ „ │ „ │ │ │ „ │Pennsylvanian 1891 │ „ │ „ │ │ │ „ │Mississippian 1869 │ „ │ „ │ │ │ „ │ │ „ │ „ │ │ │ „ │Devonian 1839 │ „ │ „ ───────────┼───────────────────────┼──────────┼──────────── │ │ │ │ │ │ „ │Silurian 1835 │ „ │ „ │ │ │ │ │ │ „ │Ordovician 1879 │ „ │ „ „ │(=Lower Silurian 1835) │ „ │ „ „ │Cambrian 1833 │ „ │ „ ───────────┼────────────┬──────────┼──────────┼──────────── Proterozoic│Keweenawan │Huronian │ „ │ „ │ │ 1852 │ │ „ │Animikian │ „ │ „ │ „ „ │Huronian │ „ │ „ │ „ „ │Sudburian │ „ │ „ │ „ ───────────┼────────────┼──────────┼──────────┼──────────── Archeozoic │Keewatin │Laurentian│ „ │ „ │ │ 1853 │ │ „ │Coutchiching│ „ │ „ │ „ ───────────┴────────────┴──────────┴──────────┴────────────

Early Geology in Philadelphia.—The oldest scientific society is the American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, started by the many-sided Benjamin Franklin in 1769, and which has published since 1771. Up to the time of the founding of the Journal in 1818, there had appeared in the publications of this society thirteen papers of a geologic nature, nearly all small building stones in the rising geologic story of North America. The only fundamental ones were Maclure’s Observations of 1809 and 1817. Later, in this same city, there was organized another scientific society that came to be for a long time the most active one in America. This was the Academy of Natural Sciences, started in 1812 with seven members, but it was not until 1817 and the election of William Maclure as its first president that the work of the Academy was of a far-reaching character. Here was built up not only a society for the advancement of the natural sciences and publications for the dissemination of such knowledge, but, what is equally important, the first large library and general museum.

William Maclure (1763–1840), correctly named by Silliman the “father of American geology,” was born and educated in Scotland, and died near Mexico City. A merchant of London until 1796, when he had already amassed “a considerable fortune,” he made a first short visit to New York City in 1782. In 1796 he again came to America, this time to become a citizen of this country and a liberal patron of science.

About 1803, single-handed and unsustained by government patronage, Maclure interested himself most zealously and efficiently in American geology. In 1809 he published his Observations on the Geology of the United States, Explanatory of a Geological Map. This work he revised “on a yet more extended scale,” issuing it in 1817 with 130 pages of text, accompanied by a large colored geological map.

Silliman, the Pioneer Promoter of Geology.—In 1806 when Benjamin Silliman (1779–1864) began actively to teach chemistry and mineralogy, all the sciences in America were in a very backward state, and the earth sciences were not recognized as such in the curricula of any of our colleges. Silliman gave his first lecture in chemistry on April 4, 1804. In the summer of that year, Yale College asked him to go to England to purchase material for the College, and great possibilities for broadening his knowledge now loomed before him. As Silliman himself (=43=, 225, 1842) has told the interesting story of his sojourn in England and Scotland, it is worth while to restate a part of it here.

“Passing over to England in the spring of 1805, and fixing my residence for six months in London, I found there no school, public or private, for geological instruction, and no association for the cultivation of the science, which was not even named in the English universities.” In geology “Edinburgh was then far in advance of London.... Prof. Jameson having recently returned from the school of Werner, fully instructed in the doctrines of his illustrious teacher, was ardently engaged to maintain them, and his eloquent and acute friend, the late Dr. John Murray, was a powerful auxiliary in the same cause; both of these philosophers strenuously maintaining the ascendancy of the aqueous over the igneous agencies, in the geological phenomena of our planet.

On the other hand, the disciples and friends of Dr. Hutton were not less active. He died in 1797, and his mantle fell upon Sir James Hall, who, with Prof. Playfair and Prof. Thomas Hope, maintained with signal ability, the igneous theory of Hutton. It did not become one who was still a youth and a novice, to enter the arena of the geological tournament where such powerful champions waged war; but it was very interesting to view the combat, well sustained as it was on both sides, and protracted, without a decisive issue, into a drawn battle....

The conflicts of the rival schools of Edinburgh—the Neptunists and the Vulcanists, the Wernerians and the Huttonians, were sustained with great zeal, energy, talent, and science; they were indeed marked too decidedly by a partisan spirit, but this very spirit excited untiring activity in discovering, arranging, and criticising the facts of geology. It was a transition period between the epoch of geological hypotheses and dreams, which had passed by, and the era of strict philosophical induction, in which the geologists of the present day are trained....

I was a diligent and delighted listener to the discussions of both schools. Still the igneous philosophers appeared to me to assume more than had been proved regarding internal heat. In imagination we were plunged into a fiery Phlegethon, and I was glad to find relief in the cold bath of the Wernerian ocean, where my predilections inclined me to linger.”

Silliman’s Students and Their Publications.—Silliman’s first student to take up geology as a profession was Denison Olmstead (1791–1859), educator, chemist, and geologist, who was graduated from Yale in 1813. Four years later he was under special preparation with Silliman in mineralogy and geology, and in that year was appointed professor of chemistry in the University of North Carolina. In 1824–1825 Olmstead issued a Report on the Geology of North Carolina, which is the first official geological report issued by any state in America, “a conspicuous and solitary instance,” according to Hitchcock’s review of it (=14=, 230, 1828), “in which any of our state governments have undertaken thoroughly to develop their mineral resources.”