44 brooks: applied geology 



Nowhere was this national trait better shown than in the mineral 

 industry, where the era of the " practical man" cost the nation 

 untold millions. His distrust of applied science was deep-rooted. 

 For a generation every mining community swarmed with these 

 self-styled experts, whose technical and scientific limitations 

 were only exceeded by their blatant self-assertion. 



Unfortunately, at this time there also developed between the 

 geologist and the mining engineer an antagonism, which was detri- 

 mental to the advance of the science. A school of geology arose 

 which revived to a certain extent the ancient practice of specula- 

 tion without observation and regarded itself as moving in a higher 

 intellectual sphere than that of the engineer, w T ho dealt with 

 practical problems. On the other hand, many engineers came 

 to regard all work of the geologist as either visionary or purely 

 speculative. 



Since the rise of the modern school of applied geology, which 

 may be said to have begun in the eighties, this antagonism be- 

 tween the engineer and the geologist has gradually disappeared. 

 The geologist has made his results of more value by adopting some 

 of the methods of the engineer, while the engineer no longer hesi- 

 tates to use geology in his own field. Both professions have been 

 improved by this mutual help, and the geologist has by no means 

 gained the least. The modern mining engineer now recognizes 

 that, even in his own special field, scientific investigations are 

 essential. This is evidenced by the general hearty support given 

 by engineers to the new federal Bureau of Mines. 



It is not necessary to describe in detail the recent progress in 

 applied geology. While most of the countries of the world have 

 taken part, it is a field that the American geologist has made 

 peculiarly his own. Among our important contributions in this 

 field is the geology of mineral oils, presented by Mr. Campbell to 

 this Society last year. In this, as in the survey of coal deposits, 

 stratigraphic and structural geology have almost come to be 

 exact sciences. Equally important to the nation are the results 

 achieved in underground water investigations. The tectonics 

 of mineral veins now also approaches an exact science; while 

 many of the conclusions on the genesis of ore bodies, notably that 



