Editorial Coinnient. 3S5 
of the science of the past and analyze them, to point out the seed 
and the fruit it ma}' have produced. While the science of geol- 
og}' can claim hardly more than a century, though it doul)tless 
existed long in an embr^'onic state, it has witnessed some marked 
periods of progress. Epoch-marking men can be pointed out all 
through its history. Such were Hutton, Cuvier, Darwin and 
Louis Agassiz. Such were Amos Eaton, Ebenezer Emmons and 
Leo Lesquereux. Yet during their lives they were not known as 
such. They had their opponents and difficulties, and their fol- 
lowers onl}- could fairly appreciate their labors. 
The American (tEoi.ogist cannot distinctively lay claim to the 
credit of sowing seed, nor reaping fruit. It doubtless shares, 
however, in both. No such publication can l)e said to exist with- 
out some influence. The future only will reveal what may be the 
efl'ect of its influence on American geology. Inside of the cases 
of its ten tomes, which have been sent regularly to all parts of 
the world, are contained the thoughts of numerous American 
geologists, on man}- of the obtrusive problems of the science as 
they have come before students in America. Besides the ''Re- 
views," "Correspondence" and "Personal and Scientific News," 
those volumes contain 24G contributed articles, not written by its 
editors, 108 editorial articles, and 56 articles of "editorial com- 
ment." There have been described, within these ten volumes, 
23 new genera and ]17 new species of fossil forms. Microscopic 
petrography and general paleontology and stratigraphy have been 
fully represented in its pages. While necessarily questions of 
general geology have had a large share in the pages of the (Jeol- 
ooisT. yet the relations of geology to education and to ethical 
training, as well as to the operations of the miner and the sur- 
veyor have frecpiently been discussed. Astronomers, chemists 
and mineralogists have alike found infoi-mation and valuable re- 
search by perusing its monthl}' issues. 
Notwithstanding this, the (iEologist has not aecoini)lishe(l, in 
its full measure, as intended at the outset, and as foreshadowed 
in the "Introductory,'' at the opening of volume 1. nil that its 
editors have desired. It is natural for man to i)lan and adopt as 
nearly as possi1>le a model design: it is, alas, also natural that 
its accomplishments should fall short of the perfect model. The 
editors of the CiEOLociisT are no exception to that order of nature, 
and they admit thnt their cfloi-ts h;ive not been snificicnt as vet 
