206 JOURNAL OF THE WASHINGTON ACADEMY OF SCIENCES VOL. 11, NO. 9 



ore deposits of the world have acquired the keenest understanding of 

 what standards are needed in geologic work, in both field and office. 

 This intensive study of the commercial side of geology should tend to 

 make our science more exact. 



In the course of a discussion at the Baltimore meeting of the Geo- 

 logical Society of America, Dr. Iddings hesitated to characterize pure 

 geology as unapplied geology, and my suggestion was that pure science 

 is simply not-yet-applied science. I believe this descriptive definition 

 stands the test of our experience, and a long list of economic by- 

 products of pure geology could be cited as proof. One such example 

 of the later application of the results of a purely scientific investiga- 

 tion to everyday use of large value may be mentioned here because it 

 illustrates the final point I wish to make. Alden's glacial studies in 

 Wisconsin, which were continued over a decade and covered about 

 10,000 square miles, resulted in two professional papers, one bulletin, 

 and one geologic folio, each a contribution of high scientific and edu- 

 cational value. Now, an extensive and intensive program of State 

 highway construction has given to this geologic study a value not 

 anticipated. Measured by the commercial standards of value, Alden's 

 glacial mapping is expected to save the State of Wisconsin in the loca- 

 tion of road material at least two and half times what the geologic 

 work cost the Federal Survey. The economic by-product thus more 

 than repays the production costs, and any economist can see a large 

 profit in the operation. 



The general trend in useful geology is to call for quantitative re- 

 sults, and indeed exactness is more truly scientific than vagueness. 

 Moreover, the testimony of experience is that whatever the purpose 

 of a geologic project, if its execution is thorough-going, its methods 

 exact, and its standards high, it will yield by-products of value. 

 It is therefore from the best of scientific research that economic by- 

 products are obtained and it is only from applied geology well applied 

 that scientific by-products may be expected. The incidental is not 

 accidental. 



The personal element in geologic by-product practice is not to be 

 overlooked in this brief resume of the subject. Geologists differ in 

 both their telescopic and their microscopic vision, and even more in 

 their catholicity of interest. The field observer whose eyes are open 

 to every type of geologic phenomena, is pre-eminently a by-product 

 man; and whether his primary object is the examination of a dam site 

 or the correlation of two interglacial formations, he returns with note 



