Reader's Guide — 11th Edition

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Chapter LVIGeology

The Province Geology or Sermons in Stones

Contents

  1. Age of the Earth
  2. Geological Formations
  3. The Study of Life
  4. Structure
  5. Distribution
  6. Physiology
  7. Evolution

Shakespeare tells us that “there are sermons in stones.” No science, except possibly astronomy, appeals more to the imagination or carries one further away from our present workaday world than geology. While geology “claims as its peculiar territory the rocky framework of the globe,” its object is, says the Encyclopaedia Britannica (Vol. 11, p. 638) “to trace the structural progress of our planet from the earliest beginnings of its separate existence through its various stages of growth down to the present condition of things.” It goes back millions and hundreds of millions of years to the first beginnings of things and unravels complicated processes by which the earth and each of the continents on it has been built up.

“It follows, even into detail, the varied sculpture of mountain and valley, crag and ravine.” It shows “that the present races of plants and animals are the descendants of other and very different races which once peopled the earth. It teaches that there has been a progressive development of the inhabitants.” Dead and cold though the rocks seem, they are filled, to one who can read their secret, with the tragedy of past life. Parts of Florida are but the graves where millions of corals, now crushed into massive limestone, once lived and died; the coal of Pennsylvania tells of ferns and other terrestrial plants matted together into a bed whence they originally grew; “the snails and lizards which lived and died within a hollow tree, the insects which have been imprisoned within the exuding resin of old forests, the footprints of birds and quadrupeds, the trails of worms left upon former shores—these and innumerable other pieces of evidence” tell of the tragedies of former times and “enable the geologist to realize in some measure what the faunas and floras of successive periods have been.”

The foundation for the study of the whole subject in the Britannica is the article Geology (Vol. 11, p. 638), equivalent to 125 pages of this Guide. It is by the highest authority in the world, Sir Archibald Geikie, long director general of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom, and director of the Museum of Practical Geology, London. It deals with the general principles and gives an outline of the subject matter of the science. In particular it treats of,

The historical development of geological science;

  • The cosmical aspects of geology;
  • Geognosy;
  • Dynamical Geology;
  • Geotectonic or Structural Geology;
  • Palaeontological Geology;
  • Stratigraphical Geology;
  • Physiographical Geology.

Age of the EarthWhile the student will doubtless be interested equally in each of these departments, the general reader will be especially interested in the historical development which—it is worthy of note—is almost the only concise account of geological history hitherto published in English. Especially interesting is the question, fully discussed, of the age of the earth. Lord Kelvin (Vol. 11, p. 653) declared some few years ago that the time “was more than twenty and less than forty millions of years and probably much nearer twenty than forty.” But the trend of later investigations, and especially the study of radio-activity, has led to the belief that the period must have been much longer. Sir Archibald Geikie sums up the evidence as follows (Vol. 11, p. 653): “In the present state of science it is out of our power to state positively what must be the lowest limit of the age of the earth, but we cannot assume it to be less, and it may possibly have been much more than one hundred millions of years.”

Geological FormationsThe general reader will find of interest, too, the table (Vol. 11, p. 670) representing the geological record or order of succession of the formations of the earth’s crusts from the earliest Archean, through Cambrian, Silurian, Devonian and Carboniferous to the Post-glacial or Human of to-day. A separate article is to be found on each of these different formations, namely: Archean (Vol. 2, p. 360); Cambrian (Vol. 5, p. 86); Silurian (Vol. 25, p. 109); Devonian (Vol. 8, p. 124); Carboniferous (Vol. 5, p. 309); Permian (Vol. 21, p. 176); Triassic (Vol. 27, p. 258); Jurassic (Vol. 15, p. 567); Cretaceous (Vol. 7, p. 414); Eocene (Vol. 9, p. 661); Oligocene (Vol. 20, p. 81); Miocene (Vol. 18, p. 565); Pliocene (Vol. 21, p. 846); Pleistocene (Vol. 21, p. 835); Recent, Post-glacial or Human under article Quaternary (Vol. 22, p. 718).

Full local geological information is found in geographical articles. See, for instance, in the article United States, the section on Geology (Vol. 27, pp. 624–632), by Professors R. D. Salisbury and T. C. Chamberlin of the University of Chicago; the section Geology in the article England (Vol. 9, pp. 415–416), by H. R. Mill, editor of The International Geography; the section Geology in the article Africa (Vol. 1, pp. 323–325), by Walcot Gibson, author of Mineral Wealth of Africa, etc. These special treatments are accompanied by sketch maps. Similarly, the articles on each of the different states of the Union has a section giving information on the geology, the flora and fauna, the climate, and the geography of the state. And in such articles on geographic topics as Great Salt Lake, Niagara, by G. Karl Gilbert, and Grand Canyon, by R. S. Tarr, there is valuable geological information.

Other important articles which the reader should consult are Petrology (Vol. 21, p 323), equivalent to 40 pages of this Guide, largely illustrated, by Dr. J. S. Fleet, petrographer to the Geological Survey of Great Britain; Mineralogy (Vol. 18, p. 509), equivalent to 25 pages of this Guide, by L. J. Spencer, editor of the Mineralogical Magazine; Mineral Deposits (Vol. 18, p. 504), equivalent to 15 pages of this Guide, by James F. Kemp, professor of geology of Columbia University, and geologist to the United States and New York Geological Surveys; Crystallography (Vol. 7, p. 569), equivalent to 60 pages of this Guide, also by L. J. Spencer; Mining (Vol. 18, p. 528), equivalent to 40 pages of this Guide, by Henry Smith Munroe, professor of mining, Columbia University, New York; Palaeontology (Vol. 20, p. 579), profusely illustrated, equivalent to 35 pages of this Guide, by Prof. Henry Fairfield Osborn of Columbia University, and president of the American Museum of Natural History of New York; Palaeobotany (Vol. 20, p. 524), profusely illustrated, equivalent to 100 pages of this Guide, written by three of the leading geological writers of the day: Dr. D. H. Scott, president of the Linnean Society, author of Studies in Fossil Botany; A. E. Steward, professor of botany of the University of Cambridge; and Clement Reid, author of Fossil Flora of Tegelen.

Of more popular interest are the three articles, Earthquake, Seismometer and Volcano. The article Earthquake is in two parts. The first (Vol. 8, p. 817) is an historical account telling of the extent and damage done by many earthquakes, including the terrible San Francisco earthquake of April 18, 1906, and that of Calabria and Sicily, December 28, 1908, by F. W. Rudler, president of the Geologists’ Association; the other part (Vol. 8, p. 820), by Dr. J. Milne, late professor of geology in the Imperial University of Tokio, deals with the physical theory of earthquakes. The article Volcano (Vol. 28, p. 178), equivalent to 45 pages of this Guide, is by F. W. Rudler, and gives us the reasons for and the history of volcanic disturbances. It is of interest both to the scholar and to the casual reader. Thus we learn that “while Herculaneum was buried beneath a flood of mud swept down from Vesuvius” in 79 A.D., Pompeii “was overwhelmed in great measure by loose ashes, capable of removal with comparative ease.” Nearly everyone of middle age remembers the famous eruption of Krakatoa in 1883 and the famous sunsets of that year. Concerning this the Britannica article tells us (p. 180):

Enormous quantities of dust ejected from Krakatoa in 1883 were carried to prodigious distances, samples having been collected at more than a thousand miles from the volcano; whilst the very fine material in ultramicroscopic grains which remained suspended for months in the higher regions of the atmosphere seems to have enjoyed an almost world-wide distribution, and to have been responsible for the remarkable sunsets at that period.

The article Dust (Vol. 8, p. 713), by John Aitken, inventor of the machine for counting particles of dust, explains the mechanical causes of this suspension. Besides there is much concrete information about volcanoes in articles on volcanic regions: for instance, on volcanoes in the possessions of the United States, see articles Hawaii, Alaska, Philippines.

The student should read also the articles on the different minerals, many of them long and important and all by well-known authorities. Thus the article Diamond (Vol. 8, p. 158), illustrated, equivalent to 20 pages of this Guide, is by Henry Alexander Miers, editor of the Mineralogical Magazine. Besides dealing with the general character of this stone, the article pays particular attention to diamond mining in South Africa, the text being illustrated by plates showing the Kimberley and DeBeers workings. The article Gem (Vol. 11, p. 560), is equivalent to 25 pages of this Guide. The article Gem, Artificial (Vol. 11, p. 569) is by the well-known chemist and physicist, Sir William Crookes. It tells of the changes induced by radioactive emanations and of the artificial production of the diamond, ruby, sapphire, Oriental emerald, amethyst and topaz. The reader will be interested, too, in the article Lapidary and Gem Cutting (Vol. 16, p. 195), by Dr. George F. Kunz, gem expert for Messrs. Tiffany & Co., New York.

There are special biographical articles in the Britannica on all the well-known geologists, and in these articles special stress has been laid on the part played by the subject of the memoirs in promoting the science. This is well shown, for instance, in the articles Agassiz (Vol. 1, p. 367); Hutton (Vol. 14, p. 16) and Lyell (Vol. 17, p. 158).

Geology, by its study of earth deposits, age of rocks, etc., and by its estimate of the date of certain extinct animals like the mammoth and hairy elephant, or of the time when certain animals, e.g., the elephant and reindeer, were found in parts of the world where they no longer occur, is an important adjunct to the science of anthropology, especially in the question of the antiquity of man. On this see the section of antiquity of man in the article Anthropology (Vol. 2, p. 114), and, in general, the chapter in this Guide on Anthropology and Ethnology.

From one point of view geology is only a branch of geography and the student of geology should consult the elaborate article on Geography in the Britannica, especially all parts dealing with physical geography or physiography. For a clue to this part of the book see the chapter in this Guide on Geography.

The following is a list of the more important articles on Geology in the Encyclopaedia Britannica:

LIST OF ARTICLES IN THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA OF SPECIAL INTEREST TO STUDENTS OF GEOLOGY (742 articles)

CHAPTER LVII
BIOLOGY
GENERAL AND INTRODUCTORY

The Britannica tells us that Sir Thomas Browne, the famous 17th century physician and author, once ventured to doubt “whether mice may be bred by putrefaction,” and Alexander Ross, the poet scientist of 200 years ago, commenting on his scepticism wrote, “So may he doubt whether in cheese and timber worms are generated; or if beetles and wasps in cows’ dung; or if butterflies, locusts, grasshoppers, shell-fish, snails, eels, and such like, be procreated of putrefied matter, which is apt to receive the form of that creature to which it is by formative power disposed. To question this is to question reason, sense and experience. If he doubts of this let him go to Egypt, and there he will find the fields swarming with mice, begot of the mud of Nylus, to the great calamity of the inhabitants” (Vol. 1, p. 64). To-day science gives no offhand answer to the question of the origin of life. Abiogenesis, or “spontaneous generation,” so-called, finds a far less simple definition and research still in vain bends its best energies to solving this problem of problems.

The subject is so vast, dealing as it does with all the phenomena manifested by living matter, that in this Guide that branch of the subject which studies the human organism is separately dealt with in the chapter Health and Disease. This chapter, therefore, is confined to the still enormous subject of biology considered as dealing with the general problem of life; botany and zoology are treated in the following chapters. The student of either of the two last subjects should preface, or at least supplement, his studies, by reading the main general articles included below.

The Study of LifeThe guiding article Biology (Vol. 3, p. 954), which should be read first, serves as a key to the discussion of the biological sciences. It is not long, for the main divisions of the subject are treated more conveniently and logically under their own appropriate headings. P. Chalmers Mitchell, secretary of the Zoological Society of London, who organized the whole subject for the new Britannica, is the contributor. Supplementing this, the article Life (Vol. 16, p. 600), also by Chalmers Mitchell, should be read, with those on Protoplasm (Vol. 22, p. 476), Species (Vol. 25, p. 616), Abiogenesis (Vol. 1, p. 64), Biogenesis (Vol. 3, p. 952). In the two articles last named the theory of spontaneous generation is examined and found wanting, or at best unproved.

StructureLiving matter may be regarded under four aspects: structure, distribution, physiology, evolution. For the first, the article Morphology (Vol. 18, p. 863) leads the discussion, followed by Cytology (Vol. 7, p. 710), and Embryology (Vol. 9, p. 314), in which the growth of cell structures is discussed. These articles are introductory to the whole subject. Supplementing them reference may be made to the Morphology sections of the articles Plant (Vol. 21, p. 728) and Zoology (Vol. 28, p. 1022).

DistributionA most fascinating branch is that which is concerned with the where and when of the existence of organisms. The articles in the Britannica are worthy of the interest of the subject. Under Palaeontology (Vol. 20, p. 579) H. F. Osborn, Columbia University, New York, president of the American Museum of Natural History, New York, treats of the archaeology of the biological sciences, of the extinct species which once inhabited the earth; while Clement Reid, of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, A. C. Seward, professor of botany, Cambridge University, and Dr. D. H. Scott, president of the Linnean Society, perform the same service for plant life in the article Palaeobotany (Vol. 20, p. 524). The distribution of present types is discussed under Zoological Distribution (Vol. 28, p. 1002), Plants, Distribution (Vol. 21, p. 777), and Plankton (Vol. 21, p. 720), in which Prof. G. H. Fowler of University College, London, describes a science which is still young—that of tracing the drift and distribution of deep sea life. See also Acclimatization (Vol. 1, p. 114), by Alfred Russel Wallace and Frank Finn, of the Indian Museum of Calcutta.

PhysiologyThe properties, processes, and functions of living things fall in the province of Physiology (Vol. 21, p. 554), and kindred articles; among the latter the following may profitably be consulted: Animal Heat (Vol. 2, p. 48), and Plants, Physiology (Vol. 21, p. 744).

EvolutionThe gradual development of species is considered in a number of valuable articles such as Evolution (Vol. 10, p. 22), Heredity (Vol. 13, p. 350), Reproduction (Vol. 23, p. 116), Mendelism (Vol. 18, p. 115), Telegony (Vol. 25, p. 509), Variation and Selection (Vol. 27, p. 906).

Following is an alphabetical list of the general biological articles (those not dealing directly with either Botany or Zoology), which are to be found in the Britannica:

BIOGRAPHIES OF BIOLOGISTS

The life and work of the world’s great biologists may be studied in the Britannica, and an alphabetical list of the principal articles follows.