HISTORICAL GEOLOGY 67 



The Rise of Geology in North America. 



The Generating Centers. In America, geology had its 

 rise independently in three places : in the two scientific 

 societies of Boston and Philadelphia, and dominantly in 

 Benjamin Silliman of Yale College. Stated in another 

 way, we may say that geology in America had its origin 

 in the following pioneers and founders : first, in William 

 Maclure at Philadelphia, and next in Benjamin Silliman 

 at New Haven. Through the influence of the latter, 

 Amos Eaton, the botanist, became a geologist and taught 

 geology at Williams College and later at the Bensselaer 

 School in Troy, New York. Through the same influence 

 Rev. Edward Hitchcock also became a geologist and 

 taught the subject after 1825 at Amherst College. 



Silliman was the first to take up actively the teach- 

 ing of mineralogy and geology based on collections of 

 specimens. He spread the knowledge in popular lectures 

 throughout the Eastern States, graduated many a stu- 

 dent in the sciences, making of some of them professional 

 teachers and geologists, provided all with a journal 

 wherein they could publish their research, organized the 

 first geological society and through his students the first 

 official geological surveys, and by kind words and acts 

 stimulated, fostered, and held together American scien- 

 tific men for fifty years. Of him it has been truly said 

 that he was ' ' the guardian of American science from its 

 childhood. ' ' 



The American Academy in Boston. The second oldest 

 scientific society, but the first one to publish on geological 

 subjects, was the American Academy of Arts and 

 Sciences of Boston, instituted and publishing since 1780. 

 Up to the time of the founding of this Journal, there had 

 appeared in the publications of the American Academy 

 about a dozen papers of a geologic character, none of 

 which need to be mentioned here excepting one by S. L. 

 and J. F. Dana, entitled ' ' Outlines of the Mineralogy and 

 Geology of Boston," published in 1818. This is an early 

 and important step in the elucidation of one of the most 

 intricate geologic areas, and is further noteworthy for its 

 geologic map, the third one to appear, the older ones 

 being by Maclure and Hitchcock (Merrill). 



