448 



NATURE 



[_Sept. 8, 1887 



time, recognize in a suitable manner — whether by corresponding 

 meinbership, or honorary fellowship, or by medals and awards — 

 as Prof. Huxley has suggested, the good scientific work being 

 done by members of the many Societies in our distant colonies of 

 Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and elsewhere, 

 that would indeed be a step in the right direction, and would 

 doubtless prove most helpful and encouraging to all our fellow 

 geologists abroad. 



The Geological Society of London, no doubt, to some extent 

 covers this ground ; but it should be noticed that in the view of 

 this Society, our colonies and other dependencies are not, and I 

 think rightly, recognized as foreigners, that designation being 

 employed for those who are not in any sense subjects of the 

 Queen. 



As a consequence, the geologists of our colonies are not looked 

 upon as eligible for honorary connexion with the Geological 

 Society, and though in the distribution of the medals and awards 

 their work is no doubt noticed, yet that is now so important and 

 extensive that it might be desirable to secure for it a more specific 

 and extensive recognition than has hitherto perhaps been 

 possible. 



Might we not also through the home influence we could bring 

 to bear by means of this great Section of the British Association 

 succeed in inducing our jDractical colonial Governments to see the 

 enormous commercial as well as scientific gain that must eventu- 

 ally accrue to themselves if they would, with wise liberality, 

 continue to completion their much-needed geological surveys, 

 instead of (as has too often happened) abandoning the work be- 

 fore its end has been attained, or making its maintenance from 

 year to year contingent on the chance discovery of gold, or the 

 successful boring for coal or water — results not always to be 

 attained within twelve months by a geologist in a new country, 

 however good he may be, unless he have a fairy godmother or a 

 divining-rod at his command ? 



If by means of our confederation such useful and helpful 

 works can be inaugurated, we shall have fulfilled an object well 

 worthy the initiation of Sir William Dawson, and of all those 

 whose names may be connected with so laudable an under- 

 taking. 



Nor need such a development of the work of this Section 

 interfere in any way with the labours of the " International 

 Geological Congress," which occupies a distinct field of its own ; 

 for whatever we might accomplish in carrying out the suggestions 

 put forward by Sir William Dawson would really be in effect to 

 second and support — not to hinder — the work of that most useful 

 body of geologists. 



Our next topic relates to foreign affairs. 



The International Geological Congress, which met in Bologna 

 in 1881, and in Berlin in 1885, will hold its next meeting in 

 London in 1888. This year the Committee of the Congress on 

 Geological Nomenclature will meet during the Association week 

 at Manchester, Prof Capellini, of Bologna, is the President of 

 this Committee, and Prof. Dewalque, of Liege, is the Secretary. 

 Its object is to discuss various questions respecting the classifica- 

 tion and nomenclature of European rocks, and to report thereon 

 to the Congress in I>ondon. 



It is quite certain that a large number of Continental and 

 American geologists will be present in London next year, and it 

 rests with English geologists to determine whether the meeting 

 shall be as successful as those which have preceded it. The 

 Berlin Congress left the arrangement in the hands of a small 

 Committee of English members (Messrs. Blanford, Geikie, 

 Hughes, and Topley), and advantage will probably be taken of 

 the presence of so many geologists in Manchester to further the 

 organization of the English meeting. 



The occasion of the Congress visiting London next year should 

 also be a sufficient reason to enlist new members here, and it is 

 to be hoped that a very cordial reception will be accorded to all 

 those who come from abroad to attend the meetmg. It ought 

 to be a great success, and deserves our warmest sympathies and 

 co-operation. 



Geology seems, at present, to be passing through what may 

 not inaptly be termed a transitional or metamorphic period in its 

 history, when old-established ideas are rapidly melting away, 

 and under fresh influences are crystallizing out into quite other 

 forms. 



" New lights for old " is the popular cry both in science and 

 politics, and, like the Athenians, nothing delights us more than 

 to hear tell of some new thing. 



If the proposition lately made by Prof. Judd, the President of 



the Geological Society in London, in his recently delivered Anni- 

 versary Address, holds good, that mineralogy is the father of 

 geology, it seems not improbable that, like Saturn's offspring, 

 our science is in danger of being devoured by its reputed parent ; 

 for certainly mineralogy, in the form of petrology, has of late 

 years most largely occupied the geological field, whilst palaeonto- 

 logy, once the favourite child of geology, is in its turn threatened 

 with imminent extinction, as a separate study, by biology, which, 

 without any substantial gain, now replaces, in name only, the 

 hitherto better known sciences of botany and zoology. 



Indeed, could the views so eloquently put forward by Prof. 

 Judd be maintained, mineralogy itself would have to be added to 

 the list of sciences included under biology. But notwithstanding 

 the well-known aphorism of Linnaeus — 



" Lapides crescunt ; Vegetabilia crescunt et vivunt ; 

 Animalia crescunt, vivunt, et sentiunt " — 



the growth of the first is of a totally different nature from that 

 which takes place in the last. 



Minerals, or more properly crystals, increase or grow in size 

 by additions to their external surfaces of molecules of matter 

 identical with themselves. They are therefore as a rule homo- 

 geneous throughout, almost rigid, and remain under ordinary 

 circumstances unchanged irrespective of time. 



Plants and animals, on the contrary, increase by intussusception, 

 or the taking of matter within their tissues. Their bodies are 

 not homogeneous, and they exhibit all the various phenomena of 

 growth and decay. 



We stand, then, still like "watchers on the threshold," not 

 yet admitted beyond the veil. We are not pi-epared to include 

 minerals in the study of living beings, nor are we, I submit, any 

 nearer the solution of the problem, What is life ? whether we call 

 it " vitality'" or " vital force," nor can we produce it like " elec- 

 tricity" or " electrical force " by the aid of mechanics. That it 

 has existed ever since our planet became habitable by living 

 organisms is beyond doubt ; and since life first dawned it seems 

 equally certain that this "vital force" was never at any time ex- 

 tinguished, but, like the sacred flame of Iran, its light has always 

 gladdened our earth with its presence. 



I have already referred to the vastness and diversity of the 

 domain which Geology claims as her own ; indeed, we might, if 

 so disposed, pursue our subject in its cosmical aspect, and, 

 inviting the astronomer and the physicist to our aid, proceed to 

 consider the evolution of our earth and its subsequent history 

 as a part of the solar system. 



Or, taking up geognosy, we might inquire into the materials of 

 the earth's substance and the chief rocks and minerals of which 

 its crust is built up. 



Should dynamics charm us, then we may study the. various 

 agencies by which rocks have been formed and altered, and the 

 frequent changes in relation to sea and land which the terrestrial 

 surface has undergone in former times. 



Does rock-architecture attract us ? It is ours to inquire how 

 the various materials of the earth came to be arranged as we find 

 them — whether wrought by living agents, or ejected by volcanic 

 forces, or laid down quietly by water. 



Or is chronology the object of our study ? Then our task will 

 be to investigate the well-marked succession of the stratified 

 rocks and the sequence of events which they record. 



Again, we might prefer the physiographical aspect of geology, 

 embracing the history of the features of the earth and the causes 

 which have brought about its varied conditions of continent 

 and ocean, of mountain and valley, hill and plain, making up 

 that grand diversity of surface which constitutes its scenery. 



Yet more, it is within our domain as geologists to investigatej 

 the past life of the globe through all its successive changes and toj 

 trace it from its earliest dawn in pre-Cambrian times down to its J 

 grand development at the present day. 



One result of the very vastness of this kingdom is that there| 

 is a tendency amongst its subjects to form into separate con- 

 stituencies, and these in an incredibly short time evolve languages! 

 of their own, so that, unless this fissiparity can be successfullyj 

 arrested, we shall speedily repeat the story of " the confusion oF 

 tongues," and our geological tower, which once promised by 

 our combined labours to reach grandly heavenwards, may soon 

 cease from building altogether. 



This incoherence in our body politic may, I think, be traced! 

 to that great development by the microscope in mineral ogicalj 

 geology and petrology, which has no doubt been necessitated by 

 the investigation of those remote pre-Cambrian or Archaean rock -J 

 masses in the north-west Highlands, Shropshire, the Malvems^ 



