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C.—GEOLOGY. 69 
Ill, Grotocy in EpucatTion. 
The progress of geology in most branches of its work contrasts with 
the decline in its educational status. The clamour at the end of the 
war for more scientific education might have been expected to revive 
the educational service of geology ; but it has not shared the extra time 
given to science in general education, and there has been a drop in the 
number of students at some schools of geology. This fall has been in 
part due to the increased attention to geography in English schools, a 
development geologists heartily welcome. The decline in the educational 
use of geology is the more remarkable since it has continued to lose many 
active workers by their absorption in administration. The value of 
geology as general training in affairs is widely recognised in practice, and 
is doubtless due to the insight gained by research on problems as varied 
and complex as those of daily life. The geologists’ ordinary task is the 
interpretation of a tangle of uncertain factors. 
During the conferences on the position of science in Education held by 
the Conjoint Board of Scientific Societies one of the champions of classics 
remarked that natural science provided magnificent educational material, 
but it was useless as its teachers had no idea how to use it. When pressed 
for an explanation of this opinion he referred to the confused and illogical 
- nomenclature of natural science; he added that when someone with a 
better trained or more orderly mind introduced a consistent nomenclature 
it was soon muddled or abandoned. 
Geology affords illustrations of the basis for this criticism. After 
Phillips had provided the logical sequence—Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and 
Kainozoic—the first term was soon adopted; Secondary slowly gave 
place to Mesozoic and was long retained by some Surveys; but Tertiary 
is still generally used in this country, though it is being steadily abandoned 
by English-speaking countries overseas. 
So long as geologists prefer to use such combinations as Paleozoic, 
Mesozoic, and Tertiary ; deny that coal and slate are minerals ; call sand 
clay to support a theory of its origin ; speak of mud as rock, and use terms 
_ that distress those with literary instincts, such as peneplains instead of 
_ peneplanes, geology is likely to be regarded as of less value in secondary 
education than classics, mathematics and physics. 
An illogical nomenclature may be preferred by those who are so 
interested in results that they are indifferent to their expression ; but the 
price paid is the lowered value of the subject as a medium of education. 
TV. THe GreoLocicaL LEADERS OF THE FOUR QUARTER-CENTURIES. 
The scope of geology is so vast and varied that few geologists view it 
from the same standpoint or would select the same men as the most 
influential leaders in the quarter-centuries since the Association began 
its work. My own impression is that from 1830 to 1855 the true prophet of 
geology was Lyell, with his establishment of the mobility of the land and 
the uniformity of geological processes. From 1855 to 1880 the main advance 
was, I think, due to Darwin—who established the fact of evolution and 
enabled fossils to be interpreted more intelligently and reliably. In the 
_ third quarter-century, 1880 to 1905, the influences were more complex. 
