Reviews — ZitteVs Century of Geology, etc. 73 



II. — Gkschiohte der Geologie und Palaontologie bis Ende 

 DE8 19 Jahrhunderts. Voii Karl Alfred von Zittel. 

 (R. Oldenbourg : Miinchen u. Leipzig, 1899.) 



History of Geology and PALiEONxoLOGY up to the end of the 

 Nineteenth Century. By Karl Alfred von Zittel. Demy 

 8vo ; pp. vii and 868. 

 ri'^HIS volume forms one of a series of histories of science in 

 X Germany in recent times, issued, under the patronage of the 

 King of Bavaria, by the lioyal Academy of Sciences at Munich. 

 Its preparation had at first been entrusted to the late Professor Ewald 

 of Berlin, but it remained unfinished at the time of his death, and, 

 in accordance with the terms of his will, the incomplete MS., with 

 his other papers, was destroyed. The task was then undertaken 

 by Px'ofessor von Zittel, and the contents of this volume prove that 

 it could not have been allotted to abler hands. The work was 

 intended originally to be limited to a history of geology in Germany 

 only, but the author enlarged the plan so that it should include 

 a history of the science generally, and present a faithful picture of 

 the successive stages in its development wherever they may have 

 occurred. Whilst it may be true that the German literature on the 

 subject has been, in some parts, referred to with greater fulness than 

 that from other countries, no important contribution from other 

 sources has been overlooked, and the author's comments and 

 criticisms on the writings and achievements of past and present 

 geologists are marked by the strictest judicial impartiality. With 

 respect to subjects which are still matters of controversy, the author 

 takes a neutral position, and contents himself with a plain statement 

 of facts and opinions relating to the particular questions in dispute. 



The History is treated under four periods of very inequal length 

 and interest : 1st, the geological knowledge of the ancients ; 2nd, 

 the early stages of palasontology and geology ; 3rd, the heroic age of 

 geology, from 1790 to 1820; and 4th, the later development of 

 geology and palseontology. 



With respect to the first period, that of the geological knowledge 

 of the ancients, the author shows that whilst facts relating to the 

 science were of a limited character, hypotheses on the origin and 

 development of the earth were plentiful enough. If any of these 

 latter have perchance been found conformable to modern views, it is 

 due to their being lucky speculations rather than theories based ou 

 observation. At the same time, some of the observations made at 

 this period on earthquakes, volcanoes, changes of level of the earth's 

 surface, and on the action of water, are not without importance. 



Neither does the second period, which includes from about 800 a.d. 

 to the close of Bufifon's career in 1788, present us with any solid or 

 striking advance in geological science. We find that fossils aroused 

 the attention and curiosity of many of the learned in different parts 

 of Europe during the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries, and 

 many were figured with remarkable fidelity in the works of Lister, 

 Lang, and Knorr and Walch ; but their real characters were 



