Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

liam Brice, Sept. 21, '88, 1; State Univ., Athens, Ga., Prof. J. W. Spencer, Nov. 12, 1888, 1; Lowry, Thos., Minneapolis, Minn., Nov. 13, 1888 (N. H. Winchell), Nov. 13, 1.—Total, 100.

Dr. Eugenio Dugès died in Morelia, Mex., Jany. 13th. 1895. He was born in Montpellier, France, but had resided in Mexico since 1865. He was a special student of Coleoptera, and had furnished students in the United States with many specimens.

Dr. Adolf Gerstäcker, Professor of Zoology in the University of Griefswald, died June 20th, 1895. He was born Aug. 30th, 1828, and is widest known from his share in the Zoologie of Carus and Gerstäcker and his contributions to Bronns' Thierleben.

Dr. Th. Ebert has been called as Professor of Paleontology to the Prussian Geological Institute, and Dr. Müller as Professor of Regional Geology in the same institute.

Henry John Carter, well known for his researches on Protozoa, Sponges, etc., died at Rudleigh Salterton, England, May 4th, 1895. Dr. Wm. H. Flower, of the British Museum, has been elected corresponding member for anatomy of the Paris Academy of Sciences. Dr. W. I. Nickerson, of the University of Colorado, has been appointed Instructor in Biology in the University of Evanston, Ill. Prof. A. Sabatier, of Montpellier, has been elected corresponding member for Zoology of the Paris Academy of Sciences.

Dr. F. Schütt, of Kiel, has been appointed Professor of Botany and Director of the Botanical Gardens at Griefswald.

Dr. Joseph G. Norwood, the well-known geologist and paleontologist, died at Columbia, Mo., May 6th, 1895.

Dr. E. Hering, of Prague, becomes Professor of Physiology at Leipzig, as successor to the late Prof. Ludwig.

Dr. René duBois Raymond is assistant in the experimental division of the Physiological Institute in Berlin.

Dr. W. A. Setchell, of Yale College, has been appointed Professor of Botany in the University of California.

Dr. F. Sansoni, Professor of Mineralogy in Pavia, and editor of the Italian Journal of Mineralogy, is dead.

Mr. Charles D. Aldright has been appointed Instructor in Biology at the University of Cincinnati.

C. C. Babington, Professor of Botany in the University of Cambridge, died July 22d, aged 86.

James Mortimer Adye, an entomologist, died at Bournemouth, England, May 30th, 1895, aged 34.

Dr. Jas. E. Humphrey has been appointed Lecturer in Botany in Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. A. Kowalevsky has been elected a foreign associate of the Academy of Sciences of Paris.

Prof. J. G. Agardh has given his magnificent collection of Algæ to the University of Lund.

Pietro Doderlein, Professor of Zoology and Geology in Palermo, died March 28, aged 84.

Dr. Pellegrino Strobel, geologist and Conchologist, died at Parma, Italy, June 9th, 1895.

Dr. R. Hanitsch has gone as Director to the Raffles Museum and Library at Singapore.

The Linnean Society of London has awarded a gold medal to Prof. F. Cohn, of Breslau.

Dr. Gustav von Nordenskiold, ethnographer and crystallographer, of Stockholm, is dead.

Dr. A. D. Mead has been appointed Instructor in Neurology in Brown University.

Dr. Reinitzer, of Prag, has been called as Extraordinarius Professor of Botany to Graz.

Dr. E. Schöbl succeeded Dr. Schiemenz as Librarian of the Naples Zoological Station.

Prof. E. D. Cope has been elected associate member of the Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters of Belgium.

Dr. R. Bonnet, of Giessen, goes as Professor Ordinarius of Anatomy to Griefswald.

Dr. W. Roux, of Innspruck, has gone as Ordinary Professor of Anatomy to Halle.

Dr. Hans Schinz is appointed Ordinary Professor of Botany in Zürich.

Julien Deby, of London, microscopist and student of diatoms, is dead.

Dr. F. C. Kenyon has gone to Clark University as Fellow in Biology.

Dr. H. Lenk, of Leipzig, has made Extraordinarius of Geology.

THE

AMERICAN NATURALIST

VOL. XXX.

March, 1896.

351

THE HISTORY AND PRINCIPLES OF GEOLOGY, AND ITS AIM.

BY J. C. HARTZELL, JR., M. S.

From the earliest times the structure of the earth has been an object of interest to man, not merely on account of the useful materials he obtained from its rocky formation, but also for the curiosity awakened by strange objects it presented to his notice. The south and west of Asia, and much of the country bordering the Mediterranean, were particularly favorable for directing attention to geological phenomena. Earthquakes were of frequent occurrence, changing the relative positions of sea and land. Volcanoes were seen in eruption, adding layers of molten rock to those of sand and mud filled with the shells of the ocean. The strata in the hills abounded in evidences of similar collections of vegetable and marine life far removed from access of the sea.

The structure of the earth, however, received but little attention previous to the 7th century, B. C. The extent of the surface known was limited, and the changes upon it were not so rapid as to excite special attention. The ancient Hebrews, in the time of Solomon (1015 B. C.), prosecuted their voyages

through the Straits of Babelmandeb into the Indian Ocean, bringing home the produce of the tropical regions; while the ships sent westward to the Atlantic returned with tin, silver, lead and other metalic products of Spain and Great Britian.

The earliest idea formed of the earth seems to have been that it was a flat circular disk, surrounded on all sides by water, and covered with the heavens as with a canopy, even philosophers looked upon the earth as a disk swimming upon the water. Homer (800 B. C.) regarded the earth as a flat circle surrounded by mysterious waters. The nations that were upon its border were called Cimmerians, and were supposed to live in perpetual darkness.

As the ancients slowly gained a knowledge of the country surrounding their provinces through commercial intercourse, wars, and the search for knowledge, they were undoubtedly struck with the differences of the topography and formations. Thus geology is undoubtedly the outgrowth of geographical knowledge.

The 7th and 6th centuries B. C. were remarkable for great advance in the knowledge of the form and extent of the earth.

Their first discoveries were probably made by the Phoenicians. Their investigations were along the shores of the Mediterranean, and passing through the Straits of Gibraltar, they extended their researches into Spain and Africa and the Canaries.

Pythagoras (583 B. C.) observed the phenomena that were then attending the surface of the earth, and proposed theories for explaining the changes that had taken place in geological time. He held that in addition to volcanic action, the changes in the level of the sea and land were due to the retiring of the

sea.

Aristotle (384 B. C.) recognized the interchange constantly taking place between land and sea by the action of running water and of earthquakes, and remarked "how little man can perceive in the short space of his life of operations extending through eternity of time."

Geographical knowledge was greatly advanced by the conquest of Alexander the Great (356 B. C.), in making known

Persia, and science was advanced by sending out expeditions to explore and survey the various provinces he had conquered. The Greeks he sent out, and also those who accompanied him, were critical observers and carefully described the products and aspects of the country, and made collections of all that was interesting in regard to the organic and inorganic products.

Ptolemy (323 B. C.) discovered Abyssinia and navigated the Arabian Sea, and Silineus (306 B. C.) ascended the Ganges to Batna and extended his expedition to the Indus.

It was the military genius of the Romans which led to the survey of nearly all Europe, and large tracts of Asia and Africa. In the height of their power they had surveyed and explored all the coast of the Mediterranean, Italy, the Balkan peninsula, Spain, Gaul, West Germany and Britain, and their practical genius led them to the study of the natural resources of every province and state brought under their sway. Eratosthenes (276 B. C.) considered the world to be a sphere revolving with its surrounding atmosphere on one and the same axis and having one center. fected by Hipparchas (160 B. C.). He attempted to catalogue the stars and to fix their relative position, and he applied to the determining of every point on the surface the same rule he introduced in the arrangement of the constellation.

His theories were per

Strabo (60 B. C.) noticed the rise and fall of the tide, and maintained that the land changed its level and not the sea, and that such changes happened more easily to the land beneath the sea on account of its humidity.

Ptolemy (150 A. D.) was the first scientific geographer. He followed the principles of Hipparchas, which had been neglected during the two centuries and a half since his time, even by Strabo and Pliny. In Ptolemy's work is found for the first time the mathematical principle of the construction of maps, as well as several projections of the earth's surface.

After the great achievements of Ptolemy to the 13th century, the cultivation of the physical sciences was neglected. In the 10th century Avicenna, Almar, and other Arabian writers commented on the works of the Romans, but added little of their own.

« AnteriorContinuar »