Worlds Before Adam: The Reconstruction of Geohistory in the Age of Reform

639 Pages·2008·8.01 MB·English

by  Martin J. S. Rudwick

Worlds Before Adam

Martin J. S. Rudwick
worlds
Before
adam
The Reconstruction of Geohistory in the Age of Reform
The University of Chicago Press Chicago & London
martin j. s. rudwick is research associate in the Department of History and Philosophy
of Science at the University of Cambridge and professor emeritus of history at the University
of California, San Diego. He is the author of The Meaning of Fossils, The Great Devonian Con-
troversy, Scenes from Deep Time, Georges Cuvier, and Bursting the Limits of Time, all published
by the University of Chicago Press. He was awarded the Sarton Medal of the History of Science
Society in 2007.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2008 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2008
Printed in the United States of America
17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 1 2 3 4 5
isbn-13: 978-0-226-73128-5 (cloth)
isbn-10: 0-226-73128-6 (cloth)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rudwick, M. J. S.
Worlds before Adam : the reconstruction of geohistory in the age of reform / by Martin
J.S. Ruwick.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn-13: 978-0-226-73128-5 (cloth : alk. paper)
isbn-10: 0-226-73128-6 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Geology—Europe—History—19th century.
2. Science—Europe—History—19th century. I. Title.
QE13. E85R83 2008
551.7094'09034—dc22
2007041676
∞ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
As we explore this magnificent field of [geological] inquiry, the senti-
ment of a great historian of our times may continually be present to
our minds, that “he who calls what has vanished back again into being,
enjoys a bliss like that of creating”.
Charles Lyell, Principles of Geology, 1830,
quoting Barthold Georg Niebuhr,
Römische Geschichte [Roman History], 1811

contents
List of illustrations xiii
Acknowledgments xix
A note on footnotes, references, and quotations xxi
introduction 1
part one
1 cuvier's model for geohistory (1817–25) 11
1.1 Cuvier’s Fossil Bones 11
1.2 The Fossil Bones revised 16
1.3 Cuvier’s secular resurrection 20
1.4 Conclusion 22
2 monsters from deep time (1819–24) 25
2.1 The strange ichthyosaur 25
2.2 The Geological Society 28
2.3 Conybeare’s plesiosaur 30
2.4 Conclusion 34
3 the new stratigraphy (1817–25) 35
3.1 The practice of geognosy 35
3.2 “Conybeare and Phillips” 39
3.3 The stratigraphy of Europe 41
3.4 Conclusion 45
[  ]
[  ] contents
4 outlines of life's history (1818–27) 47
4.1 “Paleontology” defined 47
4.2 Life’s own history 48
4.3 The life of ancient seas 50
4.4 Ancient plant life 55
4.5 Conclusion 57
5 ancient monsters on land (1818–25) 59
5.1 Buckland’s megalosaur 59
5.2 Mantell’s giant herbivore 61
5.3 Wealden stratigraphy 64
5.4 Mantell’s iguanodon 65
5.5 The Stonesfield marsupials 69
5.6 Conclusion 72
6 geological deluge and biblical flood (1819–24) 73
6.1 Buckland’s “hyaena story” at Kirkdale 73
6.2 Buckland’s new “diluvial” evidence 75
6.3 “Relics of the deluge” 80
6.4 Critics of the deluge 82
6.5 Conclusion 86
7 the role of actual causes (1818–24) 89
7.1 The adequacy of actual causes 89
7.2 Von Hoff and Nature’s “statistics” 91
7.3 Etna: Europe’s greatest volcano 97
7.4 Actual causes and global exploration 99
7.5 Conclusion 102
8 the dynamic earth (1818–24) 105
8.1 Crustal elevation 105
8.2 The “Temple of Serapis” 106
8.3 Von Buch and the origin of mountain ranges 113
8.4 Conclusion 117
part two
9 the engine of geohistory (1824–29) 121
9.1 Brongniart’s global stratigraphy 121
9.2 Fourier’s physics of a cooling earth 124
9.3 Scrope’s directional geotheory 127
9.4 Élie de Beaumont’s sequence of revolutions 129
9.5 Conclusion 133
10 the tertiary gateway (1824–27) 135
10.1 The adequacy of actual causes 135
10.2 Interpreting the Tertiary world 137
10.3 Prévost’s reinterpretation of the Paris Basin 140
10.4 Conclusion 146
contents [  ]
11 the geologists' time-machine (1825–31) 147
11.1 Fossil land surfaces and soils 147
11.2 Buckland and the footprints of monsters 151
11.3 First scenes from deep time 153
11.4 Conclusion 158
12 a directional history of life (1825–31) 161
12.1 Tertiary geohistory 161
12.2 Adolphe Brongniart: plant life on a cooling earth 167
12.3 Tropics in the Arctic? 172
12.4 Conclusion 174
13 the last revolution (1824–30) 177
13.1 Alluvium and diluvium 177
13.2 Alpine erratic blocks 180
13.3 Erratic blocks in Scandinavia 185
13.4 Esmark’s glacial conjecture 189
13.5 Conclusion 190
14 the last mass extinction (1826–31) 193
14.1 Bone caves for Buckland 193
14.2 Buckland’s worldwide antediluvial fossils 196
14.3 Fleming and the course of extinction 199
14.4 Lyell the budding synthesizer 201
14.5 Conclusion 206
15 the centrality of central france (1826–28) 209
15.1 Scrope’s “Time!—Time!—Time!” 209
15.2 Faunas and volcanoes in Auvergne 216
15.3 Conclusion 223
16 men among the mammoths? (1825–30) 225
16.1 The question of contemporaneity 225
16.2 Human fossils in Languedoc 228
16.3 Province and metropolis 232
16.4 Conclusion 235
17 the specter of transmutation (1825–29) 237
17.1 Geoffroy’s new transformism 237
17.2 Lyell confronts Lamarck 244
17.3 Conclusion 248
part three
18 lyell and auvergne geology (1827–28) 253
18.1 Lyell on Scrope’s Auvergne 253
18.2 Lyell as geological reformer 257
18.3 Auvergne through Lyell’s eyes 260
18.4 Conclusion 265