Sitpplcnioit to "Nature," Ulay 3, 1906 



Part ii. takes into consideration tlie function and 

 liwinologues of the areas which can be defined by the 

 <JilT< rence in cell and fibre characters. There is a vast 

 amount of information and patient, careful work in 

 this book, and it is impossible in a review to do more 

 than indicate some of the principal points ; but all 

 men of science who are interested in the subject of 

 brain structure in man and animals will be well repaid 

 by a careful study of the work, aided by the admirably 

 executed twenty-nine plates illustrating the cell and 

 fibre structure of the brain and the topography of the 

 histologically defined areas. F. W. M. 



PIONEERS OF GEOLOGY. 



The Founders of Geology. Second edition. By Sir 



.Archibald Geikie, F.R.S. Pp. xi + 486. (London: 



Mncmillan and Co., Ltd., 1905.) Price 10s. net. 



A FOUNDATION should be laid on a sound 



-^ *- bottom, and should be itself constructed so as 



to hold together in one solid mass. For this, each 



man engaged upon it must carry out thoroughly the 



work entrusted to him, one in an obscure corner 



mixing the mortar, another, more in evidence, laying 



the bricks. 



So in the building up of systems of knowledge we 

 must take care that our theories are based upon those 

 ascertained facts which we call the laws of nature, 

 and, further, that each stage in the superstructure is 

 consistent It is difficult to appraise exactly the value 

 of the work of each. Many a modest and retiring 

 worker has suggested good things which have after- 

 wards been followed up by others ; many a thoughtful 

 student has pointed out faulty reasoning upon which 

 vast theories were being erected. 



Sir Archibald Geikie, on a former occasion, came 

 round and selected for commendation or for criticism 

 some of those who have been most prominent in build- 

 ing up the science of geology, and pointed out what 

 was good and what might have been better done. 

 He now inspects more in detail the work of those 

 who laid the very foundations or prepared the ground 

 for their reception, and gives us, first of all, a sketch 

 of what, as we gather from very scattered notices, 

 were the views held by the Greeks and Romans on 

 geological questions. Then he carries us through 

 the dark ages, in which only a small spark of intelli- 

 gent observation gleamed here and there. 



In order to present the speculations of the earliest 

 writers who have referred to the subject in some 

 definite order, our author considers them under three 

 heads. In the Mediterranean area underground pro- 

 cesses forced themselves upon the attention of all 

 thoughtful and observant men, and, when we re- 

 member the story of Graham Island, which was 

 rapidly thrown up, had the British flag hoisted upon 

 it by Admiral Smythe, and then disappeared, it is 

 interesting to note that Strabo and Pliny confirm the 

 sudden appearance of islands due to ejected material. 

 These and other ancient writers, however, could not 

 get very far in the exploration of earthquakes and 

 volcanoes, but referred them to wind pent up in vast 

 cavities in the bowels of the earth. 

 NO. 1905, VOL. 74] 



With regard to the processes at work upon the 

 surface of the earth, we learn that the ancient philo- 

 sophers inferred that the sea now covers areas that 

 were once dry land, and that land will appear where 

 we now find sea, but that these phenomena escape 

 our notice because they lake place successively during 

 periods of time, which, in comparison with our brief 

 existence, are immensely protracted. 



Herodotus calls Egypt " the gift of the Nile," while 

 Strabo points out that deltas are prevented from 

 advancing seawards indefinitely by the wash of the 

 waves. 



Then followed the dark ages, so far as concerned 

 investigations into the operations of nature, until 

 the Arabs took up the work and the learned Avicenna 

 translated .Aristotle, and expressed, even more clearly 

 than did his Greek master, opinions regarding the 

 origin of mountains and valleys, which show a 

 singular forecast of modern geology. 



Sir Archibald Geikie leads us on in his happy style 

 through the later middle ages, pointing out the pre- 

 judices that hindered free inquiry, and bringing in 

 great names, like that of Leonardo da Vinci, which 

 we would hardly e.xpect to find among the pioneers of 

 geology. 



Many were the shifts to which men were driven in 

 those days in order to avoid collision with ecclesi- 

 astical authority. Some said that what looked like 

 bones, shells, and plants in the rocks were introduced 

 during Noah's flood; some refused to admit that they 

 were anything but earthy concretions ; and one writer 

 went so far as to suggest that even the potsherds o) 

 Monte Testaccio at Rome were only natural produc- 

 tions of the earth. Some clear-headed writers tried 

 from time to time to place scientific inquiry upon a 

 better and more independent footing. Steno, for 

 instance, in the seventeenth century, broke awaj' from 

 all preconceived ideas and prejudices, and his treatise 

 " De Solido intra solidum naturaliter contento " 

 marks an epoch in the history of geological investi- 

 gation. 



The next phase was characterised by the appear- 

 ance of a number of cosmogonies, or historical 

 sketches of the manner in which it was supposed 

 that the cru. : of the earth had been built up and 

 reached its pr^^ent condition. Men's judgment was 

 often wrested, and facts and logic strained, in the 

 attempt to make these " theories of the earth," as 

 they were called, consistent with orthodox ideas and 

 with themselves, but, though they did little to advance 

 scientific truth, they at any rate forced people to think 

 about such things. 



Buffon recognised that the earth was only part of 

 a great planetary system, and suggested that many 

 of the changes produced upon its surface were such 

 as would be evolved in a mass gradually cooling 

 down. He worked long and carefully, appealing to 

 observation and experiment, and often getting very 

 near a good theory, but never quite achieving it. 



Sir Archibald Geikie could not, of course, in the 

 case of the ancient writers, tell us much of their 

 personality, their bringing up, and early associations. 

 The description of these gives a human interest to 



