BULLETIN OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 

 Vol. 29, pp. 167-186 MaRCH 31, 1918 



EXPERIMENT IN GEOLOGY ^ 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS BY FRANK DAWSON ADAMS 



{Read hefore the Society December 27, 1917) 



CONTENTS 



Page 



Early geological literature 167 



Modern experimental methods 169 



The growth of experimental science 171 



The future of experimental geology 185 



Early geological Literature 



One of the most fascinating studies which can engage the attention of 

 a geologist is the literature of his science of a century or so ago. Some 

 of the .problems then discussed have long since received their answers and 

 been laid aside ; others, like ghosts, refuse to be laid and are still with us. 

 But in all cases the point of view is so different from that of the present 

 time, and in many cases the arguments adduced are so quaint and curious, 

 that the picture of the geological science of those early days is one of 

 peculiar interest. The theological influence of the cosmogonist permeates 

 much of the writings of this early time, and there are scores of treatises 

 on the constitution and history of the earth, in which the authors have 

 drawn their material in part from a nodding acquaintance with certain 

 of the salient phenomena of nature, but chiefly from an extended study 

 of Holy Writ and the works of the church fathers, rounded out by con- 

 siderations as to the manner in which they themselves would have created 

 the world had they been called on to bend their energies to this important 

 task. Among the works of this class, one of the best known is by Burnet, 

 which appeared in 1697 and is entitled ^The Sacred Theory of the 

 Earth, containing an account of the Origin of the Earth and of all the 

 general changes which it hath already undergone or is to undergo till the 

 Consummation of all Things.'^ 



1 Manuscript received by the Secretary of the Society December 27, 1017, 



XIII— Bull, Geol. See. Am., Vol. 29, 1917 (167) 



