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Show The Historical Background of Geology and Its Value Walter R. Buss! From the earliest times, man has been interested in his sur ... roundings, so it was only natural that part of his attention should be devoted to the earth upon which he dwells. Though we think of Geology as a distinctively modern science, it had its beginnings in the geography of past ages, long before its sister sciences, and were able to chemistry physics, help it very much. I Because it is so old a field, its historical background is rich, but little or no attention is given this gold mine of fact and fancy in the average college course in geology. Material is abundant, and easily available. Outstanding are two recent books, the Birth and Development of the Geoloqicel Sciences, by Adams, and Source Book in Geology by Mather .and Mason. The amount of time required is relatively short, but the students will gain an in sight into the field that is impossible to attain otherwise. ... Historically, Geology is divisible into four periods; (a) an ancient period, from before the sixth century B. C. to the first a medieval period from the first to the fif teenth centuries A. D., (c) the period of the Renaissance, from about 1450 to 1775, and (d) a modern period beginning in 1775. In each of these periods, there are some definite ideas, rather generally accepted, some outstanding piece of field or experimental work, or an outstanding man that merits study either because of their inaccuracy, or their influence on thought, or because they have become a part of the modern science. During the ancient period, commonly considered as a period without observation, the world was considered a sphere, geo graphers, the ancestors of geologists, held accurate conceptions of the work of rivers, they realized that geologic time was long, that most changes onfhe earth were slow, and that fossil shells in dicated a former inundation of the sea. Herodotus (B. C. 500), after studying the Nile delta, concluded is the gift of the "Egypt river." Aristotle (384 322 B. C.) states, "It is clear that, as time century A. D., (b) ... _ ... ... ... stops and the universe is eternal, the Tanais and the Nile, like all other rivers, have not always flowed; the ground which they now water was once dry. But if rivers are born and perish, and if the same parts of the land are not always covered with water, the sea must undergo similar changes, abandoning some places and returning to others, so that the same regions do not remain always sea or always land, but all change their con never ... lWeber College, Ogden, Utah. Volume 21, Proceedings of the Utah Academy of 'Sciences, Arts and Letters 87 I |
