June 26, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



935 



contains the germ of those later contributions to 

 science which have placed him on so conspicuous an 

 eminence among the geologists of the day. It 

 sketches the general principles of mountain-archi- 

 tecture, especially revealed by a study of the Al- 

 pine chain. But he did not confine his view to the 

 particular area with which he was himself per- 

 sonally familiar. Already his eye looked out on 

 the wider effects of the unequal contraction of the 

 terrestrial crust, and swept across the European 

 continent eastward into Asia, and westward across 

 the Atlantic into America. ... To thoughtful stu- 

 dents of the science this treatise, in his firm hold of 

 detail combined with singularly vivid powers of gen- 

 eralization, was full of suggestiveness. But the 

 interest and importance of its subject did not ob- 

 tain general recognition until it was followed ten 

 years afterwards (1885) by the first volume of 

 the great "Antlitz der Erde" — the work which 

 has chiefly given Suess his place among his contem- 

 poraries, and by which his name will be handed 

 down to future time. In its striking arrange- 

 ment of subjects, in its masterly grouping of de- 

 tails which, notwithstanding their almost bewild- 

 ering multiplicity, are all linked with each other 

 in leading to broad and impressive conclusions, 

 and in the measured cadence of its finer passages, 

 the "Antlitz" may be regarded as a noble philo- 

 sophical poem in which the story of the continents 

 and the oceans is told by a seer gifted with rare 

 powers of insight into the past. 



The writer had the great pleasure of meeting 

 Suess during the Ninth International Geolog- 

 ical Congress held at Vienna in AugTist, 1903. 

 Tall and powerful, decisive and yet kind, his 

 great head covered by the familiar soft felt 

 hat, the man left an indelible impress upon my 

 memory during the hour in which we talked 

 of paleogeography, seas and barriers. To me 

 the personal interview was memorable, but the 

 great mental power and vivid imagination of 

 the master mind naturally showed to better 

 advantage at the farewell banquet given by the 

 congi-ess at the Hotel Continental on the eve- 

 ning of August 27. Tietze, presiding as presi- 

 dent of the congress, gave the oificial farewell 

 in French. Following him, and speaking in 

 his own tongue, came Geikie, telling of his 

 first visit to Vienna forty years since, and say- 

 ing that of those he met at that time nearly all 

 were gone excepting Suess, then a young man 

 of great prominence, since known to all geolo- 



gists through his masterly work " Das Antlitz 

 der Erde." This reference to the time when 

 Geikie and Suess — both of whom later became 

 storm-centers in geology — were young, visibly 

 aifected the latter. Toward the end of the 

 speaking he arose and with bowed head and in 

 a low voice which increased to greater volume 

 as he went on, he made in German a most elo- 

 quent appeal to geologists to rise to ever 

 greater and better work. Unfortunately no 

 one was at hand to take dovm what he said, 

 and so after the dinner I asked him if he 

 would be so kind as to put his speech in writ- 

 ing. This he did a few days later and a trans- 

 lation of it appeared in the American Geolo- 

 gist for January, 1904. In part this is as fol- 

 lows: 



Returning to his earth the geologist perceives 

 that the sum total of life's phenomena not only 

 forms a single phenomenon, but that it is also lim- 

 ited by space and time. It occurs to him now that 

 the stone which his hammer strikes is but the near- 

 est lying piece of the planet, that the history of 

 this stone is a fragment of the history of the 

 planet, and that the history of the planet itself is 

 only a very small part of the history of the great, 

 wonderful, ever-changing Kosmos. 



His heart then thrills; he feels called as a co- 

 laborer on the most sublime problems in which 

 feeble mortal beings can take part. Then, too, he 

 sees that the fundamental lines of structure cours- 

 ing over the earth's surface have nothing to do 

 with the political lines separating the nations. 

 The vastness of the problem itself makes the con- 

 cord of civilized nations natural, and they remain 

 separated only through their emulation, all filled 

 with the idea that mankind in general will most 

 highly esteem that nation which is in the position 

 to offer the most and the best of noble example, of 

 new truth and of ideal worth. 



Charles Schuchert 

 Yale University 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 

 Surgeon General W. C. Gorgas has received 

 the degree of doctor of laws from Tale Uni- 

 versity and from Princeton University. 



The degree of LL.D. was bestowed by the 

 University of California on commencement 

 day on Eugene Woldemar Hilgard, from 1874 



