Barrel! — Growth of Knoivledge of Earth Structure. 138 



Art. IV. — Geology continued; The Growth of Knowledge 

 of Earth Structure; by Joseph Barrell. 



Introduction. 

 The Intellectual Viewpoint in 1818. 



In 1818, the year of the founding of this Journal, the 

 natural sciences were still in their infancy in Europe. 

 Geology was still subordinate to mineralogy, was hardly 

 recognized as a distinct science, and consisted in little 

 more than a description of the character and distribution 

 of minerals and rocks. America was remote from the 

 Old World centers of learning. The energy of the young 

 nation was absorbed in its own expansion, and but a few 

 of those who by aptitude were fitted to increase scientific 

 knowledge were even conscious of the existence of such a 

 field of endeavor. Under these circumstances the edu- 

 cative field open to a journal of science in the United 

 States was an almost virgin soil. Original contributions 

 could most readily be based upon the natural history of 

 the New World, and the founder of the Journal showed 

 insight appreciative of the situation in stating in the 

 "Plan of the Work" in the introduction to the first vol- 

 ume that "It will be a leading object to illustrate Ameri- 

 can Natural History, and especially our Mineralogy 

 and Geology. 



At this time educated people were still satisfied that 

 the whole knowledge of the origin and development of 

 the earth so far as man could or should know it was 

 embraced in the Book of Genesis. They were inclined to 

 look with misgiving at attempts to directly interrogate the 

 earth as to its history. Philosophers such as Descartes 

 and Liebnitz, the cosmogonists de Maillet and BufTon 

 had been less instrumental in developing science than in 

 fitting a few facts and many speculations to their systems 

 of philosophy. By the opening of the nineteenth cen- 

 tury, however, men of learning were coming to appre- 

 ciate that the way to advance science was to experiment 

 and observe, to collect facts and discourage unfounded 

 speculation. Silliman's insight into the needs of geologic 

 science is shown in the following quotation (1, pp. 6, 

 7, 1818) : 



