brooks: applied geology 31 



laments the almost universal ignorance of this subject, which he 

 accounts for as follows : 



That the way and means to discover the nature of minerals, is not 

 onely difficult and dangerous, but in itself is so sordid, base and trouble- 

 some, that the most men of parts, will hardly adventure themselves into 

 the pits or shafts where ores are usually gotten; nor can indure to stay 

 so long, that they can rightly inform themselves of anything that may be 

 satisfactory to their inquiries. And the Miners or Workmen (for the 

 most part) being but people of the most indigent sort, and such as whose 

 knowledge and aims reach no higher than to get a poor living by that 

 slavish labour, regard to inform themselves of no more then what may 

 conduce to such a poor and servile land of living; by which means they 

 are little able to give any learned man satisfaction to those necessary 

 inquiries that might tend to enable him to judge rightly of the nature of 

 the things in that subterraneous kingdom. 



The prejudice of the scholar against learning from the miner, 

 so quaintly described by Webster, gradually died out in the eight- 

 eenth century. Thereby the science profited much, through 

 acquiring a better ground-work of fact, while, on the other hand, 

 technology derived assistance from applied science. Even before 

 Werner's day a number of mining officials discussed in print the 

 occurrence of mineral deposits. As a result of this better under- 

 standing between the scientist and the practical man geology 

 developed from a condition of pure speculation into a science 

 which approached the rational and concrete. It need hardly be 

 added that the advances made in chemistry, physics, and biology, 

 were essential to this progress. 



By the latter part of the eighteenth century conceptions of 

 stratigraphy began to take definite form. In this field, again, the 

 miner to a certain extent forestalled the scholar, for he had recog- 

 nized that locally, at least, the earth crust was built up of super- 

 imposed strata having a definite order. He had also noted that 

 this order was sometimes interrrupted by breaks and in the under- 

 ground workmgs had opportunity to grasp some details of tectonic 

 geology. 



The advancement of science and arts toward the end of the 

 eighteenth century had been such as to create a demand for trained 

 engineers. In the field of technical education mining was given 

 the first recognition, for the school at Freiberg was established in 





