- 1 Neglect of Guettard and his Work 1 5 



It is astonishing that this man, who in his day was one 

 of the most distinguished members of the French Academy 

 of Sciences, and who undoubtedly is entitled to rank 

 among the few great pioneers of modern geology, should 

 have fallen into complete oblivion in English geological 

 literature. I shall have occasion to show that the process 

 of ignoring him began even in his lifetime, and that, 

 though free from the petty vanities of authorship, he was 

 compelled in the end to defend his claim to discoveries 

 that he had made. After his death he was the subject of 

 a kindly and appreciative doge by his friend Condorcet, 

 the perpetual Secretary of the Academy. 1 His work was 

 noticed at length in the great Encyclopedic Metlwdique of 

 Diderot and D'Alembert, published thirteen years after he 

 was laid in the grave. 2 Cuvier in his doge of Desmarest 

 gave to Guettard the credit of one of his discoveries. 3 But 

 his work seems to have been in large measure lost sight 

 of until in 1862, 4 and again in 1866, 5 the Comte d'Archiac 

 dwelt at some length on his services to the progress of 

 geology. More recently Guettard's labours have been the 



1 (Euvres de Condorcet, vol. iii. p. 220. 



2 Geographic Physique by Desmarest, forming vol. i. of the Encyclopedic, 

 and published An III (1794). The article on Guettard (by Desmarest) gives 

 a critical review of his work, especially of those parts of it which bear on 

 physical geography. The large number and value of his observations on 

 fossil organisms is admitted. But his method of constructing mineralogical 

 maps is severely handled, and his claim to the discovery of the extinct 

 volcanoes of Auvergne is contemptuously rejected. The whole tone of 

 the article is somewhat ungenerous. The imperfections of Guettard's work 

 are fully set forth, but little is said of its merits. 



3 Cuvier's filoges Historiques, vol. ii. p. 354 (1819) 



4 A. D'Archiac, Cours de Paleontologie Stratigraphique, pp. 284-304, 

 1862. 



5 A. D'Archiac, Geologic et Paleontologie, l re partie, pp. 112-118 

 (1866). The account of Guettard in this work is little more than a con- 



