January 5, 1900.] 



SCIEIWE 



a narrow field, is almost necessarily a some- 

 what narrow man, and while his concentra- 

 tion of eifort may lead to important results 

 altogether unattainable by the general stu- 

 dent, he is subject to great danger from 

 lack of balance. The teacher of geology is 

 compelled by his vocation to acquaint him- 

 self with all branches of the science, so that 

 his view is necessarily broad, and if he is 

 also an investigator in a special field he is 

 comparatively exempt from the recognized 

 dangers of specialization. Orton's early 

 work as teacher and observer gave hiin the 

 broad view. When he first became known 

 to the scientific world as an investigator he 

 was recognized at once as a general prac- 

 titioner or all-around geologist, and when, 

 in later years, his field was somewhat re- 

 stricted and he became an expert in a spe- 

 cial department, there was no danger that 

 his narrow view would blind him to the 

 recognition of the broader relations. 



In somewhat similar way the method and 

 phraseology of his scientific writings were 

 determined by the compound character of 

 his career. As a teacher he was called 

 upon to present the principles of his science 

 to beginners in scientific study ; as a lec- 

 turer to popular audiences he was accus- 

 tomed to the communication of scientific 

 ideas in untechnical language ; and as ex- 

 ecutive oflBcer of academy, college and uni- 

 versity he had constantly to deal with men 

 of affairs untrained in the technicalities of 

 science. Thus ev«r in touch with the lay 

 mind he was in no danger from the literary 

 pitfalls which beset the recluse and the 

 specialist. He wrote for the people in lan- 

 guage which they could understand, and 

 even when presenting his scientific conclu- 

 sions to brother geologists he found little 

 need for those technical terms which are 

 so apt to render science unintelligible to 

 the general reader. 



The manner of his introduction to the 

 work of scientific investigation had its in- 



fluence also on the quality of his work. 

 As most of my audience are well aware, 

 scientific investigation, or the endeavor to 

 understand nature, consists of two parts, 

 observation and theory. We open our eyes 

 to the facts, or phenomena, as they are 

 called, of nature, and make record of what 

 we see, and then we endeavor to explain 

 the phenomena by discovering how they 

 have come to be. We observe and we the- 

 orize. But while observation and theory 

 may logically be distinguished, in practice 

 they must be intimately combined or the 

 best results are not secured. There are, 

 indeed, observers who take little cogni- 

 zance of theory ; but the best observers 

 have theory constantly in mind, and through 

 consideration of the relation of their facts 

 to theory have their vision sharpened and 

 their attention guided to those things which 

 are most important. And there are theo- 

 rists, too, who are indifferent to facts, soar- 

 ing untrammeled in the realms of imagina- 

 tion and speculation. But the successful 

 theorist tests every hypothesis by scrupu- 

 lously comparing it with the phenomena to 

 which it pertains, and modifies or rejects it 

 when he discovers a discordance. It is by 

 the observer who is also a theorist, and the 

 theorist who is also an observer, that real 

 progress is achieved. 



As a teacher Orton derived from the 

 literature of geology a body of theory which 

 be complemented, so far as practicable, by 

 personal observation of the rocks, minerals 

 and fossils that lay within his reach. Thus 

 he trained himself early to habits of obser- 

 vation, and in all his later work kept in 

 close touch with the phenomena of nature. 

 As an investigator he generalized freely 

 and did not shrink from the propounding 

 of theories, but all his theories were so 

 broadly founded upon, and so faithfully 

 verified by, the phenomena of observation 

 that they came to the world as demonstra- 

 tions which could not be gainsaid. 



