Samuel Franklin Emmons 



In 1890, Brown University con- 

 ferred upon him the honorary degree 

 of LL. D. That he received no pub- 

 lic recognition of his later scientific 

 work may perhaps be ascribed to 

 its peculiarly unobtrusive character 

 which gave rise to the erroneous im- 

 pression that he had abandoned sci- 

 ence altogether. 



It is difficult to fairly judge King's 

 scientific publications in the light of 

 the present day, for they were writ- 

 ten just before the opening of an 

 era of great change in the methods 

 of geological investigation, a change 

 which has thus far proved destructive 

 rather than constructive in its re- 

 sults. Many of the fundamental theo- 

 ries of geology which prevailed at 

 that time have been disproved or 

 abandoned, while as yet there is 

 no general acceptance of those which 

 have been put forward to replace 

 them. 



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