AMERICAN GEOLOGY EATONTAN ER\, 1820-1829. 281 



out of the reach of our senses and can be accounted only as amuse- 

 ment" for the present. 



In 1820 there appeared a Manual of Mineralogy and Geology, 



designed for the use of schools and for persons attending lectures on 



these subjects, as also a convenient pocket companion for travelers in 



the United States of America, the same being from 



Emmons's Manual . , _ - _ 



of Mineralogy and the pen oi Dr. Ebenezer Emmons, destined later to 



Geology, 1826. * . -a • l • l U- 



act a very important part in American geological his- 

 tory, but at that time newly graduated from the Rensselaer Polytechnic 

 Institute at Troy, New York. 



Emmons at first studied, and later practiced, medicine, but in 1828 

 removed to Williamstown, where he had been appointed lecturer on 

 chemistry. During the years 1830-1837 he also served as junior pro- 

 fessor in the Rensselaer Institute, and in 1836 was appointed one of 

 the four geologists of the New York State survey. In 1812 he became 

 custodian of the State collections at Albany, and in 1843 engaged in 

 investigations relating to the agricultural resources of the State, the 

 results of which were published during the period'1846-1854. in the form 

 of five quarto volumes. In 1851 he was appointed State geologist of 

 North Carolina, a position which he retained until the time of his death. 



As noted elsewhere, Emmons, during his work on the New York 

 State survey, became involved in a discussion relative to the so-called 

 "'Taconic System, 1 ' which lasted for nearly half a century and which 

 undoubtedly seriously embittered the latter days of his life. The dis- 

 pute, indeed, became at times so harsh that Emmons was practically 

 ostracized by the scientific fraternity. 



In 1851 he published a pretentious volume on North American geol- 

 ogy, and, in connection with his work in North Carolina, two volumes 

 on the agriculture and geology of the State. He died during the period 

 of the civil war, and his papers and notes are said to have become 

 lost in the unsettled condition of the country which followed. 



It is impossible here to go into a discussion of the true merits of the 

 Taconic controversy, and the matter is reserved for a separate chap- 

 ter. Hundreds of pages of printed matter have been published, cov- 

 ering a period of nearly fifty years, but the name has now disappeared 

 from the maps and is only of historical interest. 



Emmons's Manual, to which reference is above made, and which, as 

 stated in the title page, was adopted as a text-book at the Rensselaer 

 school at Troy, was a small duodecimo volume of 230 pages. It had 

 the distinction, so far as the mineralogical part was concerned, of 

 being the second treatise of its kind written by an American and for 

 American students, being preceded only by Cleaveland's Mineralogy, 

 published in 1816. In geology it was preceded b} T the works of 

 Cleaveland in 1816 and Eaton in 1818. 



