84 J. J. STEVENSON OUR SOCIETY 



Godon, Mitcliell, Silliman, and others; it did mucli to nurse the scien- 

 tific tendency which led to founding the New York liyceum of Natural 

 History in 1817, and some have thought that it aided in like manner 

 the founding of the Philadelphia Academy in 1812. Bruce's Journal 

 was succeeded in 1818 by Silliman's American Journal of Science, which 

 from the beginning exerted a notable influence on the development of 

 geological thought and work in our country. 



By 1820 students of geology had become so numerous that the Amer- 

 ican Geological Society was organized in New Haven, Connecticut, where 

 meetings were held certainly until the end of 1828.* The last survivor 

 of this society died in New Haven only a few weeks before the formal 

 organization of our Society, in 1888. The prominent men in 1820 were 

 Ackerly, Bruce, Cornelius, Cleaveland, the two Danas, Dewey, Eaton? 

 Gibbs, Godon, Hitchcock, Maclure, Mitchell, Bafinesque, Schoolcraft, 

 Silliman, and Steinhauer, but there were some young men who began 

 to publish within two or three years afterwards and who were destined 

 to occupy prominent places in geological literature ; of these Emmons, 

 Harlan, Lea, Morton, Troost, and Vanuxem were already engaged in 

 investigation. 



Before another decade had passed, there were groups of geologists 

 in New England, New York, and Pennsylvania; while Olmstead and 

 Vanuxem had made preliminary surveys in North Carolina and South 

 Carolina, Troost had begun the surve}^ of Tennessee, and Hitchcock that 

 of Massachusetts. 



In 1832 the Penns3dvania geologists, feeling much in need of an offi- 

 cial survey of their state, organized the Geological Society of Pennsyl- 

 vania to arouse public interest, and so to bring about the surve^^ The 

 volume of publications contains papers which attack geologic and eco- 

 nomic problems of the first order. The investigations were not confined 

 to Pennsjdvania, but committees were appointed to examine important 

 matters in other states that the worth of geological work might be made 

 obvious. Beyond doubt, the efforts of this societ}^ had much to do with 

 securing the first geological survey of Pennsylvania, though no member 

 of the society was appointed on the staff'. 



It is the fashion now and then to laugh at these old papers. True 

 enough, in the light of our present knowledge, many of the statements 

 respecting Appalachian structure are absurd, but they were made by men 

 who Avithout state aid, without instruments, and without maps laid a 

 foundation upon which the keen-eyed men of the first Pennsylvania 

 survey built that superstructure Avhich endured close reexamination b}'' 



*I am indebted to Professor H. S. Williams for iuformation respectiug this society. 



