U6 PIONEERS OF SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 



Governor Seward said of this work, in the Introduction to the 

 Natural History of the State of New York, that it "marked an 

 era in the progress of geology in this country. It is in some 

 respects inaccurate, but it must be remembered that its talented 

 and indefatigable author was without a guide in exploring the 

 older formations, and that he described rocks which no geolo- 

 gist had at that time attempted to classify. Rocks were then 

 classified chiefly by their mineralogical characters, and the aid 

 which the science has since learned to derive from fossils in 

 determining the chronology and classification of rocks was 

 scarcely known here, and had only just begun to be appre- 

 ciated in Europe. We are indebted, nevertheless, to Prof. 

 Eaton for the commencement of that independence of Euro- 

 pean classification which has been found indispensable in de- 

 scribing the New York system. . . . Prof. Eaton enumerated 

 nearly all the rocks in western New York, in their order of 

 succession, and his enumeration has, with one or two excep- 

 tions, proved correct. It is a matter of surprise that he recog- 

 nised, at so early a period, the old red sandstone on the 

 Catskill Mountains, a discovery the reality of which has since 

 been proved by fossil tests." 



In 1824 Prof. Eaton was placed at the head, as " Senior 

 Professor," of the School of Science founded by the Hon. 

 Stephen Van Rensselaer at Troy, N. Y., then called the Rens- 

 selaer School, now the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He 

 spent the remainder of his life in this position. He introduced 

 and developed here a system of instruction in which the stu- 

 dents were made experimenters and workers, and, in place of 

 recitations, delivered lectures to one another. The success of 

 this method was such that some one or other of its features 

 were introduced into other schools. 



Summarizing his career in brief, Prof. Nason says, in his 

 biography : " In developing the botany and geology of the 

 Northern States, Prof. Eaton rightfully ranks among the pio- 

 neers of the new era of the natural sciences in this country. 

 His efforts in various departments of natural history were a 

 rich gift to New England, New York, and even to the whole 

 country, for which the country owes him a debt of gratitude. 

 Many of his pupils have been for years among the most justly 

 distinguished scientific men of the country. As an educator 

 and an active labourer in the general cause of natural history 



