WILLIAM SMITH 169 



enclosed organic remains. It is nearly a hundred 

 years since he made known his views, so that by a 

 curious coincidence we may fitly celebrate on this 

 occasion the centenary of William Smith as well as 

 that of James Hutton. No single discovery has ever 

 had a more momentous and far-reaching influence on 

 the progress of a science than that law of organic 

 succession which Smith established. At first it served 

 merely to determine the order of the stratified rocks 

 of England. But it soon proved to possess a world- 

 wide value, for it was found to furnish the key to the 

 structure of the whole stratified crust of the earth. It 

 showed that within that crust lie the chronicles of a 

 long history of plant and animal life upon this planet, 

 it supplied the means of arranging the materials for 

 this history in true chronological sequence, and it thus 

 opened out a magnificent vista through a vast series 

 of ages, each marked by its own distinctive types of 

 organic life, which, in proportion to their antiquity, 

 departed more and more from the aspect of the living 

 world. 



Thus a hundred years ago, by the brilliant theory 

 of Hutton and the fruitful generalisation of Smith, 

 the study of the earth received in our country the 

 impetus which has given birth to the modern science 

 of geology. 



To review the marvellous progress which this science 

 has made during the first century of its existence would 

 require not one but many hours for adequate treat- 

 ment. The march of discovery has advanced along 

 a multitude of different paths, and the domains of 

 Nature which have been included within the growing 



