By CHARLES SCHUCHERT
Introduction.
The American Journal of Science, “one of the greatest influences in American geology,” founded in 1818, has published a little more than 92,000 pages of scientific matter. Of geology, including mineralogy, there appear to be upward of 20,000 pages. What a vast treasure house of geologic knowledge is stored in these 194 volumes, and how well the editors have lived up to their proposed “plan of work” as stated in the opening volume, where Silliman says: “It is designed as a deposit for original American communications” in “the physical sciences ... and especially our mineralogy and geology” (1, v, 1818)! Not only is it the oldest continuously published scientific journal of this country, but it has proved itself to be “perhaps the most important geological periodical in America” (Merrill). It is impossible to adequately present in this memorial volume of the Journal the contents of the articles on the geological sciences.
Editor Silliman was not only the founder of the Journal, but the generating center for the making of geologists and promoting geology during the rise of this science in America. For nearly three decades, the workers came to him for counsel and help, and he had a kind paternal word for them all. This influence is also shown in the many letters which were addressed to him, and which he published in the Journal. A similar influence, paternal care, and constructive criticism were continued by James D. Dana, and especially in his earlier career as editor.
Not including mineralogy, there are in the Journal upward of 1500 distinct articles on geology. Of these, over 400 are on vertebrate paleontology, about 325 on invertebrate paleontology, and 90 on paleobotany. Of articles bearing on historical geology there are about 160, and on stratigraphic geology more than 360. In addition to all this, there are more than 2000 pages of geologic matter relating to books and of letters communicated to the editors Silliman and Dana. We may summarize with Doctor Merrill’s statement in his well-known Contributions to the History of American Geology:
“From its earliest inception geological notes and papers occupied a prominent place in its pages, and a perusal of the numbers from the date of issue down to the present time will, alone, afford a fair idea of the gradual progress of American geology.”
Before presenting a synopsis of the more important steps in the progress of historical geology in America, it will be well to introduce a rapid survey of the rise of geology in Europe, for, after all, American geology grew out of that of England, France and Germany. This dependence was conspicuously true during the first four decades of the previous century. With the rise of the first New York State Survey (1836–1843) and that of Pennsylvania (1836–1844, 1858), American geology became more or less independent of Europe. Finally, this article will conclude with a survey of the rise of paleometeorology, paleogeography, evolution, and invertebrate paleontology.
The Rise of Geology in Europe.
Mineral Geology.—The geological sciences had their rise in the study of minerals as carried on by the German chemist and physician George Bauer (1494–1555), better known as Agricola. Bauer originated the critical study of minerals, but did not distinguish his “fossilia,” the remains of organisms, from the inorganic crystal forms. Mineral geology endured until the close of the eighteenth century.
Cosmogonists.—Then came the expounders of the earth’s origin, the cosmogonists of the sixteenth to the end of the eighteenth centuries. The fashion of this time was to write histories of the earth derived out of the imagination.