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Worlds Before Adam PDF

639 Pages·2010·8.02 MB·English
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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

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The quotation was from Bacon, Novum organum (1620):. “this unhealthy Oxford Francis Bacon 11 (2004): 103]); the context was a general nated by Gymnosperms such as cycads and conifers; it characterized the younger.
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