IV 



A CENTURY OF GEOLOGY THE GROWTH OF 

 KNOWLEDGE OF EARTH STRUCTURE 



By JOSEPH BARRELL, 



Introduction 

 The Intellectual Viewpoint in 1818. 



IN 1818, the year of the founding of the Journal, the 

 natural sciences were still in their infancy in Europe. 

 Geology was still subordinate to mineralogy, was 

 hardly recognized as a distinct science, and consisted in 

 little more than a description of the character and distri- 

 bution of minerals and rocks. America was remote from 

 the Old World centers of learning. The energy of the 

 young nation was absorbed in its own expansion, and but 

 a few of those who by aptitude were fitted to increase 

 scientific knowledge were even conscious of the existence 

 of such a field of endeavor. Under these circumstances 

 the educative field open to a journal of science in the 

 United States was an almost virgin soil. Original con- 

 tributions could most readily be based upon the natural 

 history of the New World, and the founder of the Journal 

 showed insight appreciative of the situation in stating in 

 the "Plan of the Work" in the introduction to the first 

 volume that "It will be a leading object to illustrate 

 AMERICAN NATURAL HISTORY, and especially our MIN- 

 ERALOGY and GEOLOGY. 



At this time educated people were still satisfied that 

 the whole knowledge of the origin and development of 

 the earth so far as man could or should know it was 

 embraced in the Book of Genesis. They were inclined to 

 look with misgiving at attempts to directly interrogate the 

 earth as to its history. Philosophers such as Descartes 



