HISTORY OF GEOLOGY SUBJECT OF LECTURE TO SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18785, 14 June 1929, Page 7

HISTORY OF GEOLOGY SUBJECT OF LECTURE TO SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY.

A brief history of the development of science, and a tracing of the rise an# progress of the principles of geology, was given by Mr J. IT. S. Sylvester, lecturer in geology at Canterbury College, to the College Scientific Society last evening in an address entitled “ Founders of Geology.” “ Few more interesting records of human endeavour and achievement can be found than that presented by the advance of this science,” said Mr tury ago, geology had no generally acknowledged name and place in the circle of human studies. At the present day it can boast a voluminous literature, hundreds of associations all over the world dedicated to its cultivation, and a state of organisation in almost every civilised country for its systematic prosecution. * . “ , a U history is only an amplification of biography, the history of science may be most instructively read in the life and work of the men by whom the realms of nature have been successively won. “ In all ages there have been men who have given serious thought to the historical aspect of our terrestrial home, to its origin and its development; but any clear conception of the beginning of the earth—based, that is, upon scientific facts—was as remote from the most cultured nations of antiquity as it is at the present day from the barbarous races of mankind. The polymorphous myths of the Creation represent the varying ideas which were formed regarding natural phenomena Amongst the ancient stories of the Creation, the Babylonian and Jewish accounts are pre-eminent for their intuitive skill and for the excellence and con ciseness of their language. The Mosaic account was incorporated in the Bible of the Christian Church, and, unfortunatel*, became invested with a scien tific value by the Church. This retarded the development of geology for many centuries, inasmuch as theologians regarded the Mosaic account as a divine revelation, and an essential dogma of the Christian Church, and sought to suppress any investigators and writings of scientific interest which did not harmonise with it. The Greeks were less inclined than the Oriental nations to interweave the ideas of mythology, religion and science; they viewed natural events from a more

critical standpoint, and treated them as subjects of philosophical speculation. Various hypotheses were formed to explain the beginning of the earth. Mr Sylvester then traced the history of Geology from the early ages to the beginning of the nineteenth century. “ Without dealing with the details of the controversies between the Vulcanist and Neptunist schools that had ben raging in Europe," said the lecturer. *’ I might perhaps mention to you one important result that aro. e from their existence, which •is to be found in the appeal that was neessitated to Nature herself for a solution of the disputed problems. The days of mere theorising in the cabinet or the study had now passed awa”. Everywhere there was aroused a spirit of inquiry into the evidence furnished by the earth itself as to its history. The main theoretical principles of the science had been established so far as related to geological processes and their influence in the structure of the terrestrial crust. But the palaeontological side of Geology had still to be opened up. TJie fruitful doctrine of stratigraphy remained to be developed and applied to the elucidation of the grand record of geological history.” Mr Sylvester was accorded a vote of thanks.