BOOK XVIII.. Geology.

GEOLOGY.

WITH regard to Geology, as a Palætiological Science, I do not know that any new light of an important kind has been thrown upon the general doctrines of the science. Surveys and examinations of special phenomena and special districts have been carried on with activity and intelligence; and the animals of which the remains people the strata, have been reconstructed by the skill and knowledge of zoologists:--of such reconstructions we have, for instance, a fine assemblage in the publications of the Palæontological Society. But the great questions of the manner of the creation and succession of animal and vegetable species upon the earth remain, I think, at the point at which they were when I published the last edition of the History.

I may notice the views propounded by some chemists of certain bearings of Mineralogy upon Geology. As we have, in mineral masses, organic remains of former organized beings, so have we crystalline remains of former crystals; namely, what are commonly called pseudomorphoses--the shape of one crystal in the substance of another. M. G. Bischoff[48\B] considers the study of pseudomorphs as important in geology, and as frequently the only means of tracing processes which have taken place and are still going on in the mineral kingdom.

I may notice also Professor Breithaupt's researches on the order of succession of different minerals, by observing the mode in which they occur and the order in which different crystals have been deposited, promise to be of great use in following out the geological changes which the crust of the globe has undergone. (Die Paragenesis der Mineralien. Freiberg. 1849.)

In conjunction with these may be taken M. de Senarmont's experiments on the formation of minerals in veins; and besides Bischoff's {647} Chemical Geology, Sartorius von Walterhausen's Observations on the occurrence of minerals in Amygdaloid.

As a recent example of speculations concerning Botanical Palætiology, I may give Dr. Hooker's views of the probable history of the Flora of the Pacific.

In speculating upon this question, Dr. Hooker is led to the discussion of geological doctrines concerning the former continuity of tracts of land which are now separate, the elevation of low lands into mountain ranges in the course of ages, and the like. We have already seen, in the speculations of the late lamented Edward Forbes, (see Book xviii. chap. vi. of this History,) an example of a hypothesis propounded to account for the existing Flora of England: a hypothesis, namely, of a former Connexion of the West of the British Isles with Portugal, of the Alps of Scotland with those of Scandinavia, and of the plains of East Anglia with those of Holland. In like manner Dr. Hooker says (p. xxi.) that he was led to speculate on the possibility of the plants of the Southern Ocean being the remains of a Flora that had once spread over a larger and more continuous tract of land than now exists in the ocean; and that the peculiar Antarctic genera and species may be the vestiges of a Flora characterized by the predominance of plants which are now scattered throughout the Southern islands. He conceives this hypothesis to be greatly supported by the observations and reasonings of Mr. Darwin, tending to show that such risings and sinkings are in active progress over large portions of the continents and islands of the Southern hemisphere: and by the speculations of Sir C. Lyell respecting the influence of climate on the migrations of plants and animals, and the influence of geological changes upon climate.

In Zoology I may notice (following Mr. Owen)[49\B] recent discoveries of the remains of the animals which come nearest to man in their structure. At the time of Cuvier's death, in 1832, no evidence had been obtained of fossil Quadrumana; and he supposed that these, as well as Bimana, were of very recent introduction. Soon after, in the oldest (eocene) tertiary deposits of Suffolk, remains were found proving the existence of a monkey of the genus Macacus. In the Himalayan tertiaries were found petrified bones of a Semnopithecus; in Brazil, remains of an extinct platyrhine monkey of great size; and lastly, in the middle tertiary series of the South of France, was discovered a fragment of the jaw of the long-armed ape (Hylobates). But no fossil human {648} remains have been discovered in the regularly deposited layers of any divisions (not even the pleiocene) of the tertiary series; and thus we have evidence that the placing of man on the earth was the last and peculiar act of Creation.

THE END.

Transcriber's Notes

Three items have been added to the Contents of the First Volume; they are marked off by ~ ~, as are any other additions to the text.

Printed page numbers have been transcribed in { }; pages without a printed number have been indicated by {{ }}. Where words were hyphenated across pages, the number has been placed before the word.

Fractions have been transcribed as numerator/denominator, occasionally using parentheses to disambiguate. The original sometimes has numerator over a line with denominator below, at other times numerator hyphen denominator. Superscripted characters are marked by a ^ before the character.

Footnotes in the original text were numbered by chapter; here they have been numbered by Book (the number of which is given after a \, for the two appendices to the 3rd edition A has been used for volume 1, B for volume 2). They are placed after the paragraph in which they occur, and are transcribed [Note m\n: ...]. Footnote anchors are transcribed [m\n]. All other square brackets are in the original text.

One difficult item is the use of numbers within a ring as names of asteroids; here the numbers are in ( ).

Corrections to the text have been marked with **. They are listed below, and were usually confirmed by reference to English printings of the text. Inconsistencies, especially with respect to accents and formatting, are numerous and have in general not been adjusted, though Greek quotations have been checked against other versions where available. Nor have Whewell's unbalanced quotation marks been modernised. The English versions have been used to restore Whewell's "gesperrt" emphases in some Greek passages.

Location 1875 Text Correction Vol. 1 p. 25 Cruikshanks Cruickshank p. 30 19 65 p. 30 : ; p. 33 (thrice) 184 182 p. 36 184 182 p. 71 Arisotelians Aristotelians p. 75 " p. 79 σερματικοὶ σπερματικοὶ p. 101 " note 1\2 6 7 p. 175 ecliptical elliptical note 1\4 iv. vi. note 75\4 Summæ Summa note 10\5 iii. iv. p. 271 (twice) Mastlin Mæstlin p. 282 Dialogo "Dialogo p. 284 semil semel p. 287 endeaver endeavor note 7\6 1. i. note 8\6 Dial. i. p. 40. p. 141. note 9\6 Speculutionum Speculationum p. 325 Gualtier Gualter p. 341 and 342 Marsenne Mersenne p. 374 of p. 377 prependicularity perpendicularity p. 403 " note 30\7 Cosmotheros Cosmotheoros p. 415 casual causal p. 416 ) p. 419 ] p. 431 a a note 69\7 1453 1753 note 84\7 Ast. Ass. p. 463 Philosphical Philosophical p. 471 ] p. 564 prevalance prevalence Vol. 2 p. 50 Ὑφιφάνη Ὑψιφάνη ἄρισπον ἄριστον οὔδιον εὔδιον p. 84 ] p. 85 viii. vii. p. 115 1853 1823 p. 149 , . p. 162 Footnote number missing in text p. 201 stream steam p. 213 and note 39\11 same number as the preceding note p. 240 Cruikshanks Cruickshank note 18\13 Mass-bestimmengen Mass-bestimmungen p. 264 in is note 11\14 Stahl Stahl p. 295 the the note 78\14 the entire text of this note is missing p. 301 lecture lectures note 87\14 96. 963. note 92\14 153 853 p. 330 Angels Angles p. 336 given giving p. 343 " p. 394 Surien Surian p. 411 Couérs Elmentaire Cours Elémentaire note 136\16 Εἴδην Εἴδη p. 450 dependance dependence p. 457 sucking-beasts suckling-beasts note 80\17 ählich ähnlich note 89\17 229 129 p. 477 osseuze osseuse note 119\17 229 299* p. 508 Lythophylaccii Lythophylacii p. 511 Stukely Stukeley note 18\18 Géognastique Géognostique p. 513 Sabapennine Sub-Apennine p. 514 Schlotheim Schlottheim p. 530 , ( ,) p. 556 Poissons Poisson's p. 620 iv. vii. p. 624 [ ( p. 628 in (not italicised in text) p. 630 Nordenskiold's Nordenskiöld's p. 638 390 474 p. 640 then than p. 641 1828 (1828)

* This is the page number given in the English edition. In the only version of the text referred to that I have found, the quotation is in a footnote on page 352 of the second edition (1805); the note was not in the first edition.