80 J. J. STEVENSON OUJl SOCIETY 



had provided him witli a generous stock of well set opinions. Though 

 wholly self-taught, working in a country sparsely settled, without ba- 

 rometers, without railroad cuts, oil borings, mine shafts, or an}'- of the 

 helps so necessary for us, those men had elaborated systems, had made 

 broad generalizations, had learned much respecting the succession of life, 

 and had discovered the keys which in later j^ears were to open mys- 

 terious recesses in European geology. 



The American Association for the Advancement of Science 



But the geologists were not permitted to flock by themselves. The 

 advantages of contact were so manifest that the naturalists asserted 

 their claims to relationship with sufficient energy to secure admission 

 in 1841, and the name Association of American Geologists and Natural- 

 ists appeared in the constitution adopted at the 1842 meeting. The 

 number of scientific men was still comparatively small, and in most of the 

 colleges the several branches of natural science were embraced in one 

 chair, so that there were many professors who could lay claim to the 

 title of geologist, physicist, naturalist, or chemist, as they pleased. Men 

 of this type, as well as physicists, chemists, and mathematicians, con- 

 stantly urged the propriety of broadening the scope of the association 

 so as to admit workers in all branches of science. 



In 1842 the first series of surveys practically came to an end, and the 

 geologists were scattered, many of the younger men being compelled to 

 enter other callings. The Association held its meetings regularly, but 

 its strength diminished, and in 1848 it yielded to the outside pressure, 

 becoming merged into the American Association for the Advancement 

 of Science, which threw its doors wide open to all entertaining an in- 

 terest in any branch of science. The first meeting of the new organiza- ■ 

 tion had a roll of 4G1 members. 



Comparatively little was done in geological work between 1842 and 

 the close of the civil war. Professor Hall maintained the New York 

 survey, after a fashion, but at ver}' considerable pecuniary cost to him- 

 self; surveys were carried on in a number of states, but except in Illi- 

 nois and California the}^ were mostly reconnaissances b}' small corps; 

 the annual appropriations in several instances were little more than 

 enough to pay traveling expenses, so that the work and the reports were 

 practically gifts to the states; the federal government sent topographic 

 expeditions into the western countrj^, most of them accompanied b}' a 

 surgeon who had more or less knowledge of geology. Under such con- 

 ditions the number of geologists did not increase, and when the Ameri- 



