216 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XX. No. 502. 



history of natural science, particularly those of 

 geology and paleontology. 



A few eases invite attention. One fresh at 

 hand is furnished by Dr. S. F. Emmons's inter- 

 esting address on ' Theories of Ore Deposition 

 historically considered.'* It is remarked in one 

 place that ' as early as Origines, 600 B. C, the 

 observed occurrence in the rocks of casts of 

 shells and plants was attributed to periodical 

 floodings of the land.' Now there was one 

 Origen, an illustrious Alexandrian theologian 

 and founder of the science of the church; but 

 of an Origines who lived in the fifth century 

 B. C, history is silent. Froni the date as- 

 signed by Dr. Emmons it is probable that he 

 intended to indicate Xenophanes, who com- 

 mented on Sicilian fossils; or if he really had 

 in mind one of the early Christian writers 

 who mention them, the names of Pomponius 

 Mela and Tertullian suggest themselves. But 

 to make of Origen a plagiarist of Greek phi- 

 losophy malgre lui is uncharitable, consider- 

 ing his defense of its study. Dr. Emmons 

 also credits de Saussure with being the orig- 

 inator of the term geology. It was, however, 

 proposed much earlier, Richard de Bury hav- 

 ing introduced it as a special term, ' geologia, 

 or the earthly science,' in chapter xi. of his 

 Pliilohiblon,\ written one year before his 

 death in 1345. 



For another example one may refer to Dr. O. 

 P. Hay's recent paper on Cretaceous fishes 

 frozn Mt. Lebanon,:j: in which he quotes an 

 English authority (Mr. J. W. Davis) as saying 

 that these remains were first mentioned by 

 Herodotus. But inquiry is made of the father 

 of geography in vain for confirmation of this 

 statement, though a passage indeed occurs in 

 Book ii. relating to fossil shells of Africa. 

 Apropos of Lebanon fishes, we notice that Dr. 

 Hay's authority extracts an article from a 

 Parisian newspaper relating to their discovery 



''Bull. Geol. 8oc. America, Vol. XV. (1904), pp. 

 1-2S. 



I ilr. E. C. Thomas' translation is now acces- 

 sible in the initial volume of the King's Classics 

 (1903). 



j; Amer. Nat., Vol. XXXVII. (1903), pp. 685- 

 695; also Bull. Amer. Museum Nat. Hist., Vol. 

 XIX. (1903),. pp. 395-452. 



by the last of the Crusaders; but no mention 

 is made of the famous chronicles of Saint- 

 Louis, by Sire de Joinville, in which this nar- 

 rative occurs.* That Voltaire was familiar 

 with the latter can scarcely be doubted, and 

 who knows whether it may not have been 

 father to his sarcastic suggestion that fossils 

 were probably nothing but the disjectamenta 

 of pilgrims returning from the Holy Land? 



But for the context, we might not be able 

 to recognize under Professor Marsh's appella- 

 tion of ' Albert the Great 'f a celebrated schol- 

 astic philosopher of the thirteenth century, 

 whose proper name was Albert von BoUstadt. 

 Admirers of his learning accorded him the 

 title of Doctor Universalis, envious ones 

 called him the ' Ape of Aristotle,' though such 

 contempt was unmerited. The name by which 

 he is best known, Albertus Magnus, has been 

 supposed to mean simply Albert the German. 

 Dante refers to him, for instance (Conv. iii., 

 V. 113), as 'Alberto della Magna,' la Magna — 

 or I'Amagna — being Germany, whence also the 

 modern Gallic equivalent. The patronymic of 

 a well-known sixteenth century writer, George 

 Bauer, or, in its more usual Latinized form, 

 Agricola, has also been a source of some con- 

 fusion. Even so careful a writer as L. F. 

 Ward, for example, refers to him in his 

 ' Sketch of Paleobotany ' as Georgius Bauer 

 Agricola. 



An anachronism occurs in the statements of 

 the last-named author, and also in those made 

 by Marsh, Lyell and other historians of geol- 

 ogy, regarding theories of continental subsi- 

 dence attributed by them to Alexander ab 

 Alexandre. A pre-Copernican writer, he was 

 naturally a stranger to the heliocentric cos- 

 mogony, and it is not surprising that his 

 ' Dies Geniales ' is barren of speculations such 

 as have been claimed for it, especially by Broc- 

 chi. It is also impossible to verify the latter's 

 assertion that fossils are mentioned in Boccac- 

 cio's Filocopo, and the allusion to fossil plants 



*'Sayette' of'de Joinville, the scene of King 

 Louis' discovery, and where news of liis mother's 

 death reached him, is the old French name for 

 Sid on. 



t ' History and Methods of Paleontological Dis- 

 covery' (1879), p. 7. 



