326 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



country. It seems now to be incumbent upon me to make a 

 simple explanation of the facts. This I have done briefly, with 

 confidence that the editor of The Popular Science Monthly, find- 

 ing that he has been misled in the matter, will cheerfully correct 

 the impression that his editorial will naturally make upon those 

 unacquainted with the circumstances. 



For more than twenty years the writer of this article has 

 been engaged in conducting and supervising scientific research 

 in various portions of the United States. During the history of 

 this work there have been published under his auspices about 

 two hundred volumes, as annual reports, monographs, bulletins, 

 and other miscellaneous works. In all this body of literature 

 there is very little of controversy. The hundreds of men em- 

 ployed have worked together in practical harmony. They have 

 not always agreed, but agreement has been singularly common, 

 and when disagreements have arisen they have been stated 

 courteously and with little exhibition of temper. It is believed 

 that no other publications of the same magnitude can be found 

 in the world where so little controversy is shown and where dis- 

 agreement is so uniformly courteous. There have been some con- 

 troversies, but they have been confined to the journals, and have 

 not found their way into the official publications. And the jour- 

 nalistic controversies have been very few; and in only two in- 

 stances within my knowledge have they been bitter, the case of 

 this book being one of them. The controversy on this subject 

 has not appeared in the official publications, but only in the jour- 

 nals. It has been wholly unofficial. 



Prof. Wright stands almost alone in his advocacy of a sci- 

 entific doctrine. He has a few sympathizers, and some defenders 

 of portions of his theory, but the great body of his work is 

 repudiated by nearly every geologist in America, and especially 

 by the professorial corps. The controversy which broke out in 

 the journals was at the time unknown to the Director of the Geo- 

 logical Survey. He was away from home and an invalid. He 

 had never by word or circumstance directed or suggested it. and 

 knew nothing of it until after it had occurred. Most of the 

 gentlemen who engaged in it and expressed their indignation at 

 what they believed to be a pseudo-scientific work, were connected 

 with universities and colleges, and were wholly out of the juris- 

 diction of the Geological Survey. Nor are they men accustomed 

 to brook such dictation. Only one of the controversialists was 

 a permanent member of the Geological Survey. 



After the above statement, it only remains for the editor of 

 The Popular Science Monthly to render that judgment which the 

 facts demand. 



