INTRODUCTION. 149 



sities ; there are many of the smaller universities and poly- 

 technic schools whose professors have won fame both in 

 scientific research and as teachers. 



In Austria and in Switzerland the majority of the more 

 distinguished geologists and palaeontologists since the year 

 1820 have belonged to academic circles. The famous names 

 of Eduard Suess, Ferdinand von Hochstetter, and Melchior 

 Neumayr are associated with Vienna. Bernhard Studer in 

 Bern and Arnold Escher von der Li nth in Zurich must be 

 regarded as founders of geological science, while Louis Agassiz 

 and Eduard Desor in Neuchatel and Alphonse Favre in 

 Geneva are names of world-wide fame. 



In comparison with Germany the teaching element is less 

 equally distributed in France and England. The huge metro- 

 polis in each of these countries has always been the leading 

 centre of mental activities, and has dwarfed the minor centres 

 throughout the country. More especially is this the case in 

 France, where Paris has been the centre of all geological and 

 palaeontological efforts since the days of Buffon, Cuvier, 

 Lamarck, and Brongniart. The great French represen- 

 tatives of these studies are connected with the Botanical 

 Gardens, the Sorbonne, or the School of Mines. In the 

 provincial towns geological teaching is given partly by Univer- 

 sity professors, partly by private teachers, and partly by mining 

 engineers. In 1830, Constant Prevost, together with Ami Boue, 

 Deshayes, and Desnoyers, founded the Geological Society of 

 France, which has become, by means of its publications and its 

 Congresses, the most influential French organisation in geology 

 and palaeontology. 



In Great Britain, a no less important position is held by the 

 Geological Society of London, founded in 1807. Its publica- 

 tions present a true mirror of the whole historical development 

 of geology and palaeontology in Great Britain during the last 

 century, and the list of the Presidents of this Society, as well 

 as of the Wollaston medallists, includes the most deserving 

 geologists of the country. The old universities, Oxford, Cam- 

 bridge, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and Dublin, which in the heroic 

 period of geology gave some of the great founders to science, 

 still maintain their reputation in geology under able professors, 

 and some younger colleges, such as Birmingham, now rival the 

 older schools as seats of scientific learning. In Edinburgh, 

 a number of enthusiastic adherents of Hutton founded the 



