EDITORIAL 665 



Lehigh University trained Barrell. He received three degrees, 

 Bachelor (1892), Engineer (1893), and Master (1897), from that 

 institution, took the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Yale in 

 1900, and was honored by that of Doctor of Science in 1916 by his 

 Alma Mater. Prior to his studies at Yale he had both taught 

 and practiced mining engineering, and he continued to be an 

 engineer when he became a geologist. His reasoning is stamped 

 with the precise habits of thought which distinguish the practical 

 from the theoretical. It is told that he would often draw a diagram 

 before he wrote a statement. 



Barrell pursued geology with ardent scientific interest from 

 1898 on, and thus gave a score of years of the prime of his life to it. 

 As assistant in field work of the United States Geological Survey 

 (1899-1901) and as a teacher of the natural sciences, especially of 

 zoology and geology at Lehigh (1900-1908), he prepared himself 

 for advanced research in its greater problems, and while occupying 

 the chair of structural geology at Yale (1908-19) he found the larger 

 opportunity to develop his especial abilities as an Engineer of Science. 



The phrase engineer of science is used with all regard and re- 

 spect to distinguish Barrell's activities from those of his great 

 associates, who are better known in the field of theoretical investiga- 

 tion. It is a prime function of the engineer to test assembled 

 materials, in this case facts, before proceeding to build with them 

 firm structures, in this case logical conclusions. His work is 

 kept by professional standards within limits which are fixed by 

 quantitative values. Excursions into the realm of theory beyond 

 those limits Barrell allowed himself only in his latest thought. In 

 so doing he gave evidence of a tendency to develop from the 

 engineer into the natural philosopher, whose thought transcends 

 analysis as imagination transcends mathematics. The great loss 

 to science in Barrell's death is that this evolution of mind from so 

 fertile a source was cut short when there was yet promise of a score 

 of years of productive growth. 



The engineer in geology is strikingly illustrated in Barrell's 

 first important contribution to the science, an article on the relative 

 importance of continental, littoral, and marine sediments. He set 

 forth his method of studying sedimentary structures and their 



