The American Midland Naturalist 
PUBLISHED BI-MONTHLY BY THE UNIVERSITY 
OF NOTRE DAME, NOTRE DAME, INDIANA 
VOL Vik J ULY-SEPTEMBER, to21. NOS. 4, 5- 
The Origin and Development of the Earth. 
BY CARROLL LANE FENTON 
Geology is the science which treats. of the materials, the 
constitution, and the development of the earth. The history 
of the events which have brought this planet and its inhabi- 
tants to their present state of being forms one of the principal 
divisions of the science. Of necessity such a history had a be- 
ginning, and concerning this. beginning men have ever been 
prone to speculate. At first these speculations were the mere 
superstitions contrived in the minds of untutored savages, and 
we may find many of them in the mythology of the Indians of 
our own country. Later, in the beginnings of civilization, the 
philosophers of their time advanced ideas—less erratic and 
superstitious, perhaps, but hardly less impossible of truth 
than those of their savage ancestors. But gradually things 
changed. The invention of the telescope and the study of 
physics taught man much. Speculation and guesswork slowly 
gave way before scientific investigation, and within the last 
few decades there has been a more or less organized effort on 
the part of the world’s greatest scientists to put to use the 
combined resources of chemistry, astronomy, physics, and 
geology in order to find a solution for the problem before 
them. That their efforts have not been without success may 
be seen when the various hypotheses in which they have re- 
sulted are considered. 
Some suggestions as to the birth of our planet may be 
found in a study of its relations to the other bodies of the 
solar system, and in its characteristics as a member of that 
system. We may feel quite certain in saying that no such 
