HUMANITY IN GEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE 



By Herbert L. Hawkins, D. Sc, F. R. S., F. G. S. 



It is a curious corollary to our system of education that a large part 

 of the population should be almost completely ignorant of geological 

 science. This ignorance is common to all classes, not least among 

 those who have suffered intensive mental cultivation. Without un- 

 duly stressing the sentimental consideration that ordinary people 

 might be expected to take an interest in the nature and history of 

 their mother, we must marvel at the lack of curiosity of those who 

 use and enjoy the material amenities of civilization. In an age of 

 petrol engines and ferroconcrete, an intelligent interest in the nature 

 and origin of essential raw materials would be expected to extend 

 beyond the few whose business it is to locate and exploit them. 



A bare catalog of the necessities of life today or at any time in 

 the past, under any form of civilization or none, is but a list of 

 materials that are directly or indirectly the concern of geological 

 research. For geology is the science of the earth and all that it 

 contains, inanimate or animate, past and present. Fuel, metal, stone, 

 water, and soil are necessary to our various activities and for our 

 very lives; so that the practicing geologist (whether called by that 

 name or not) is and must always be at the back of every enterprise. 



No intelligent person can fail to realize the inimense importance 

 of applied geology in such matters as mining or civil engineering; 

 but the uninitiated may be forgiven for doubting the utility of some 

 branches of geological research. The character and evolution of 

 extinct micro-organisms seems a topic that can serve little useful 

 purpose save to keep some crank out of worse mischief; while the 

 molecular and atomic readjustments of minerals subjected to violent 

 treatment far underground appear suitable to be dismissed as "aca- 

 demic," a word often considered synonymous with "useless." Never- 

 theless, petroleum companies find it advantageous to employ experts 

 on the evolution of the f oraminif era ; and the discovery and exploita- 

 tion of mineral wealth depends on knowledge of the processes involved 



1 The eighth Alexander Pedler lecture, delivered under the auspices of the South- 

 Eastern Union of Scientific Societies at Worthing, June 24, 1938. Reprinted by per- 

 mission from report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1938. 



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