APPLIED GEOLOGY BROOKS. 341 



ascertain the thickness, quality, and situation of each stratum of coal that may l)0 

 judged worth attention ; and to make out a full and substantial report of all the material 

 circimistances rclatmg to each coal, for the information and use of Government, and 

 of such gentlemen and companies as may wish to look into this interesting subject. 



These recommendations for governmental surveys of mineral 

 resources were made a generation before they were followed and 

 fully half a century before the nations of the world were generally 

 to accept the principle. Williams also touches on some of the prob- 

 lems which absorb us to-day. After advocating the investigation 

 of the colonial coal fields, he says, in words which have a familiar ring: 



When this report is made and considered by Government, suitable encouragement 

 should be offered to gentlemen and to companies of character, stock, and abilities for 

 such undertakings, to open and work some of these coals. . . . 



The first undertakers should be allowed a sufficiently extensive coal field, and every 

 reasonable privilege and indulgence; but they should not have a monopoly. Other 

 adventurers should have room to employ their skill and capitals in this line of business 

 in the west as well as in Britain. Monopolies seldom do much good. The views of 

 monopolists are always too selfish and confixied to be of extensive utility and public 

 benefit. 



While Williams was among the first to recommend governmental 

 mineral surveys, the idea of showing mineral deposits on maps 

 appears to have been a part of a plan for soil maps conceived by 

 Martin Lister a century before, and put into practice by Guettard in 

 1746. Sir Archibald Geikie has credited the first geologic map to 

 this eminent French naturalist, but has not sufficiently emphasized 

 the fact that Guettard's map also showed the distribution of mines 

 and mineral deposits. Others followed his example, and before the 

 close of the eighteenth century the cartographic representation of 

 geology and mineral deposits had become well established. 



The nineteenth century opened during the epoch of mtellectual 

 freedom which followed the turmoil of the French Revolution. The 

 time was favorable to the progress of science. The scholar felt free 

 to follow scientific in(|uiries to their logical conclusions untrammeled 

 by the interdict of authority. Nowhere was this more true than in 

 the field of geology, for, notmthstandmg the efforts of dogmatic 

 theology for upward of half a century to dominate geologic thought, 

 its edicts could hamper the growth of the science but fittle. 



Further incentive sprang from the development of new political 

 ideals. As the Nation began to concern itself with the needs of the 

 individual citizen the application of science to human needs was 

 encouraged. TTnder the old regime, so long as the wants of the ruling 

 classes were su[)plied no thought was given to the wants of the 

 masses. When this attitude was changed it was natural to seek the 

 aid of the scientist in ameliorating conditions. Therefore the dawn 

 of the new century was pro])itious not only to the advancement of 

 pure science, but also to a general appreciation of applied science. 

 85360°— SM 1912 23 



