48 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IX. No. 211. 



The assertion of lost intellectual refine- 

 ment and of depraved aesthetic taste is but 

 the wail for an abandoned cult. It is but 

 a variation of the familiar song which has 

 sounded down the generations. The world 

 was going to destruction when copper ceased 

 to be legal tender, as well as when Latin 

 ceased to be the language of university 

 lectures ; art disappeared when men ceased 

 idealizing and began to paint nature as it 

 is ; religion was doomed to contempt when 

 the Bible was translated into the vulgar 

 tongue ; and the pillars of the earth were 

 removed when the American Republic was 

 established. 



But in a proper sense this is a utilitarian 

 age. Everywhere the feeling grows that 

 the earth is for man, for the rich and for the 

 poor alike ; that those things only are good 

 which benefit mankind by elevating the 

 mental or physical conditions. Until the 

 present century the importance of the 

 purely intellectual side of man was overes- 

 timated by scholars, and matters connected 

 with his material side were contemned. 

 With our century the reaction was too 

 great, for even educated men sneered at ab- 

 stract studies as absurdities, while they 

 thought material things alone worthy of in- 

 vestigation. But the balance is steadying 

 itself, and at each oscillation the index 

 approaches more closely to the mean be- 

 tween the so-called intellectual and material 

 sides. Devotees of pure science no longer 

 regard devotees of applied science as rather 

 distant relations who have taken up w'ith 

 low-born associates. 



There appears, at first glance, to be very 

 little connection between great manufactu- 

 ring interests, on one hand, and stone peek- 

 ing at the roadsideor the counting of strise on 

 a fossil, on the other. Yet a geologist rarely 

 publishes the results of a vacation study 

 without enabling somebody else to improve 

 his condition. About twenty years ago one 

 of our Fellows began to give the results of 



reconnaissance studies made during vaca- 

 tions. These concerned certain fault lines, 

 and the notes included studies upon coal 

 beds and other matters of economic interest 

 involved in the faults. The coal beds were 

 all bought up ; railroads were constructed ; 

 mines were operated ; towns were built ; a 

 great population was supplied with work at 

 good wages, and manj^ men were enriched. 

 But according to the latest information no 

 one has offered to re-imburse the geologist 

 his expenses, nor ' has any paper in the 

 whole region suggested that the geologist 

 had anything to do with bringing about 

 the development. 



Geological work in this as in other lands 

 was originally vacation work, but eventu- 

 ally the investigations became too extensive 

 and the problems too broad for the usually' 

 limited means of the students. Meanwhile, 

 it became manifest, as in the case just re- 

 ferred to, that important economic results 

 were almost certain to follow publication 

 of matters discovered by geologists, so that 

 men interested in economics were ready to 

 assist in securing State aid to advance geo- 

 logical work. As one of our Fellows re- 

 marked the other day, economic geology 

 has been the breastwerk behind which 

 scientific geology has been developed by 

 State aid. 



Ducatel's reconnaissance proved the im- 

 portance of Maryland's coal field and the 

 survey was ordered ; the Pennsylvania 

 Geological Society discussed coal fields until 

 the Legislature gave the State a survey ; 

 the geologists of New York promised to 

 settle, finally, the question of the occur- 

 rence of coal within the State ; and so in 

 many other States. 



The United States Geological Survey had 

 a somewhat different origin, for the eco- 

 nomic side did not attain importance until 

 a late period. Soon after the annexation 

 of California the necessity for railroad com- 

 munication with the Pacific became appar- 



