brooks: applied geology 



21 



While the present tendency of geologic science toward the inves- 

 tigation of problems of everyday life is patent to all, yet it is 

 desirable to express this tendency quantitatively. For this pur- 

 pose, I have determined the percentage of geologic publications 

 issued annually during the last quarter of a century devoted in 

 part or entirely to applied geology. The result of this analysis 

 is graphically presented in the diagram (Fig. 1) in which the one 

 curve represents the total number of publications; another, 

 those classed as bearing upon applied geology. This diagram is 

 based on an actual count, judging by the titles, of the publica- 

 tions included in the annual bibliography of North American 

 geology. It is conceded, of course, that a mere enumeration of 

 titles is, at best, but a crude method, which neither takes into 

 account the extent of the individual publications nor attempts to 



Percentage of Total Publication* of U. S. Geological Survey Relating to Applied Geology 



Fig. 2 



appraise their value to science. However, I trust it will serve as 

 a rough measure of the activities of North American geologists. 

 On this basis, the diagram clearly records a very rapid increase 

 during the past decade in the ratio of publications dealing with 

 applied geology to the total of geologic literature. 



The figures show that applied geology was at its lowest ebb in 

 1890, when only 12 per cent, and at its highest flood in 1909, when 

 47 per cent of the total publications related to this subject. To 

 consider the percentage of economic papers by decades: In 

 the ten years ending in 1895 the average was 22 per cent; for the 

 following decade, 30 per cent; and for the last five years, 44 per 

 cent. 



Another measure of this trend in geology has been obtained by a 

 similar classification of the publications of the United States 

 Geological Survey. The result of this enumeration is shown in a 



