April 5, 1918] 



SCIENCE 



333 



whole, and is interesting, if not instruc- 

 tive. Though some part of the meaning 

 of fossils was sensed by Xenophanes in 

 the sixth century B.C., his views were soon 

 lost, and did not reappear until the fif- 

 teenth century, when Leonardo da Vinci 

 reafiSrmed their genuineness, combating 

 both the idea that they were accidents in 

 the rocks, and the idea that they were 

 introduced for purposes of deception. It 

 is a curious fact tliat it was the defenders 

 of the faith, who by their professions might 

 appropriately have been the most valiant 

 defenders of the integrity of all that the 

 Creator had made, who, to prop up certain 

 beliefs which they feared were in danger, 

 asci'ibed to the Creator ignoble motives in 

 introducing the fossils into the rocks. 



Once the integrity of fossils was ac- 

 cepted, the conception that they were 

 proofs of the biblical deluge had still to 

 be reckoned with, and it was not until 

 recent times that paleontological knowl- 

 edge became so ample that speculation as 

 to the meaning of fossils gave place to the 

 noble conceptions which now obtain con- 

 cerning their interpretation. The history 

 of the subject is one of the best illustra- 

 tions in all the realm of knowledge, of the 

 potency of facts, and of the futility of 

 generalizations without facts, and at the 

 same time one of the best illustrations of 

 the folly of bolstering up a lost cause by 

 specious and ignoble arguments or afiSrm- 

 ations. 



The enlightening doctrine of organic 

 evolution, which has perhaps done more 

 than almost any other single doctrine to 

 put the progress of the world on a safe 

 track, would not have made the rapid prog- 

 ress it has in the last half century or 

 so, had not the facts of geology given their 

 powerful aid. Nowhere else can the gen- 

 eral principles of biological evolution find 

 more convincing support, and nowhere else 



can the wide application of the doctrine 

 through long successions of ages, find un- 

 equivocal illustration. Geology therefore 

 is one of the foundation stones of the doc- 

 trine which perhaps has done more than 

 any other to develop the modern spirit of 

 progress and research. 



Probably no subject did more than geol- 

 ogy to set intellectual attitudes to rights, 

 after the baneful sway of medieval scholas- 

 ticism. It became necessary in the end to 

 deny facts or to abandon cherished beliefs, 

 and in the long run there could be no 

 doubt of the outcome. There can be no 

 doubt that the temporary denial of facts 

 and their obvious meaning was due to the 

 fear of their consequences on current be- 

 liefs and doctrines which rested on feeble 

 foundations. Denial was the last resort 

 of the attitude of mind which found itself 

 cornered, and it ended, as this sort of de- 

 fense always ends, in making the defender 

 ridiculous. 



When Section E was organized under 

 the name Geology and Geography, the con- 

 ception of geography was somewhat differ- 

 ent from that of the present day. I take 

 it that the geography of that time was akin 

 to what is now called physical geography; 

 and to many, physical geography still is 

 geography. This science, especially under 

 the name of physiography, has attained an 

 important place in modern education, more 

 in colleges than in schools of lower rank, 

 chiefly because the subject is in more com- 

 petent hands in the former. Physiography 

 is the surface expression of geology, the 

 expression of the geology of our own times. 

 As such, it is the phase of geology which 

 most directly appeals to many men, the 

 phase which puts him most readily into 

 possession of the information which gives 

 a meaning to the landscape. It was alto- 

 gether fitting that this phase of geology 



