Cuvier and Brongniart, William Smith, and the reconstruction of geohistory

Earth Sciences History

Volumn 15, Issue 1, 1996, Pages 25-36

  Rudwick, Martin ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0041377844     PISSN: 0736623X     EISSN: 19446187     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.17704/eshi.15.1.h25k254u61374h00     Document Type: Article

References (59)

1. Francois Ellenberger, Histoire de la geologie, Tome 2, La gran-de eclosion et ses premices 1660-1810 (Paris: Technique et Documentation [Lavoisier], 1994).
2. Karl Alfred von Zittel, Geschichte der Geologie und Paldon-tologie bis Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts. (Miinchen and Leipzig: R. Oldenbourg, 1899), p. 76.
3. Zittel, Geschichte, p. 76.
4. Fossils had of course been treated as historical relics ever since the time of Robert Hooke a century earlier: see for example the classic paper by Cecil Schneer, "The rise of historical geology in the seventeenth century," Isis, 1954, 45:256-268;
5. Paolo Rossi,/segni del tempo: storia della terra e storia delle nazioni da Hooke a Vico, (Milano: Giangia-como Feltrinelli, 1979) [translated as The Dark Abyss of Time, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984)].
6. Martin Rudwick, "Minerals, strata and fossils," In Nicholas Jar-dine, James Secord and Emma Spary (eds.), Cultures of natural history, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), [in press].
7. Mark Hineline, The visual culture of the earth sciences, 1863-1970. Ph.D thesis.(San Diego: University of California San Diego, 1993).
8. J.C. Emmanuel [sic] Walch, Sammlung der Merkwurdigkeiten der Natur und Naturgeschichte der Versteinerungen zur Erlau-terung der Knorr'scher Sammlung, 4 vols., (Niirnberg, 1755-75).
9. Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck, "Memoires sur les fossiles des environs de Paris, comprenant la determination des especes qui appartiennent aux animaux marins sans vertebres, et dont la plupart sont figures dans la collection des velins du Museum," Annales du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, 1802-09, 1-14 [39 short papers, the later ones with plates].
10. Ellenberger, Histoire de la geologie, vol. 2, p. 247.
11. Abraham Gottlob Werner, Kurze Klassifikation und Beschrei-bung der verschiedenen Gebirgsarten, (Dresden, 1787),
12. Alexander M. Ospovat [trans, and ed.], Abraham Gottlob Werner. Short classification and description of the various rocks, (New York: Harper, 1971).
13. Ezio Vaccari, Giovanni Arduino (1714-1795): il contributo di uno scienziato veneto al dibattito settecentesco suite scienze del-la terra, (Firenze: Olschki, 1993).
14. This fine monograph supersedes most earlier research on Arduino, but an excellent summary of his work is in Ellenberger, Histoire de la geologie, vol. 2, pp. 258-265.
15. Jean Claude de Lametherie, "Idees de Werner sur quelques points de la geognosie: extraits de ses conversations," Journal de physique, de chimie, de I 'histoire naturelle et des arts, An 11 [1802], 55:443-450.
16. Rachel Laudan, From mineralogy to geology: the foundations of a science, 1650-1830, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987), pp. 146-7.
17. Jean-Andre du Luc [later, Deluc], Lett res physiques et morales sur les montagnes et sur Vhistoire de la terre et de I'homme: addressees a la Reine de la Grande-Bretagne, (La Haye, 1778), pp. vii-viii.
18. Dennis R. Dean, "The word 'geology'," Annales of Science, 1979, 56:35-43,
19. Jacques Roger, "La theorie de la terre au XVIIe siecle," Revue d'histoire des sciences, 1973, 26:23-48;
20. Roger, "The Cartesian model and its role in eighteenth-century 'theory of the earth'," in Thomas M. Lennon, John M. Nicholas and John W. Davis (eds.), Problems of Cartesianism, (Montreal and Quebec: Mc-Gill-Queen's University Press, 1982), pp. 95-125;
21. David R. Oldroyd, "Historicism and the rise of historical geology," History of Science, 1979, 77:191-213, 227-57.
22. George Louis Leclerc, count de Buffon, "Des epoques de la nature," in Buffon, Histoire naturelle [20], Supplement (1778) 5:1-254;
23. Jacques Roger, "Buffon: Les Epoques de la Nature; edition critique," Memoires du Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, 1962, ser. C, 10 [clii + 343 pp.].
24. James Hutton, "Theory of the earth; or an investigation of the laws observable in the composition, dissolution and restoration of the land upon the globe," Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1788) 1 (2):209-304, on p. 304.
25. Hutton, the book-length version of his work, Theory of the earth, with proofs and illustrations in four parts, 2 vols., (Edinburgh, 1795) [facsimile reprint, Codicote: Wheldon and Wesley, 1959].
26. Georges Cuvier [et al.], "Rapport de l'lnstitut National (classe des sciences physiques et mathematiques), sur l'ouvrage de M. Andre\ ayant pour titre: Theorie de la surface actuelle de la terre," Journal des Mines 1807, 27:413-30, on p. 417.
27. Rhoda Rappaport, "Borrowed words: problems of vocabulary in eighteenth-century geology," British Journal of the History of Science, 1982, 75:27-44;
28. Gabriel Gohau, Les sciences de la terre aux XVIIe et XVIIle siecles: naissance de la geologie, (Paris: Albin Michel, 1990).
29. Nicholas Desmarest, "Extrait d'un memoire sur la determination de quelques 6poques de la nature par les produits des vol-cans, et sur l'usage qu'on peut faire de ces epoques dans l'dtude des volcans," Observations sur la physique, sur I'histoire naturelle, et sur les arts, 1779, 75:115-126.
30. Jean Louis Giraud-Soulavie, Histoire naturelle de la France meridionale, ou re-cherches sur la mineralogie du Vivarais, du Viennois, du Val-entinois, du Forez, de I'Auvergne, du Velai, de I'Usegeois, du Comtat Venaissin, de la Provence, des Dioceses de Nismes, Montpellier, Agde, &c.....6 vols, (Nimes and Paris, 1780-84).
31. The quotations are from the review of Smith's work in Joan M. Eyles, "William Smith, Sir Joseph Banks and the French geologists," in Alwyne Wheeler and James H. Price (eds.). From Linnaeus to Darwin: commentaries on the history of biology and geology, (London: Society for the History of Natural History, 1985), 37-50.
32. William Smith, A delineation of the strata of England and Wales with part of Scotland .. ., (London, 1815); A memoir to the map and delineation of the strata of England and Wales, with part of Scotland, (London, 1815);
33. Strata identified by organized fossils, containing prints on coloured paper of the most characteristic specimens in each stratum (London, 1816-19).
34. The latter claim is clearly justified in the light of Francois Ellenberger, "Recherches et reflexions sur la naissance de la car-tographie geologique, en Europe et plus particulierement en France," Histoire et nature, 1985, no. 22/23:3-54. Fig. 1 is reproduced from Smith, Map and delineation (1815), by permission of the British Library, London.
35. Compare Rachel Laudan, "William Smith: stratigraphy without palaeontology," Centaurus, 1976, 20:210-226;
36. Joan M. Eyles, "William Smith: great discoverer or mere fossil collector?" Open Earth, 1979, 2:11-13.
37. Cuvier, "Extrait d'un ouvrage sur les especes de quadrupedes dont on a trouv6 les ossemens dans l'interieur de la terre, ad-dresse aux savants et aux amateurs des sciences. Imprime par ordre de la classe des sciences mathematiques et physiques de l'lnstitut National, du 26 brumaire an 9," Journal de physique, An 9 [1801], 52:253-67.
38. Martin Rudwick, "Recherches sur les ossemens fossiles: Georges Cuvier and the collecting of international allies," in Roger Chartier et al. (eds.), Le Museum au premier siecle de son histoire, (Paris: EHESS, 1996), [in press].
39. Contemporary translations etc. are listed in Jean Chandler Smith, Georges Cuvier: an annotated bibliography of his published works, (Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1993).
40. Cuvier, Recherches sur les ossemens fossiles de quadrupedes, ou Von retablit les caracteres de plusieurs especes d'animaux que les revolutions du globe paroissent avoir detruites, 4 vols, (Paris, 1812).
41. Dorinda Outram, Georges Cuvier: vocation, science and authority in post-revolutionary France, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1984), pp. 141-160.
42. A. Labaume [ed.], Recherches asiatiques, ou memoires de la Societe etablie au Bengale pour faire des recherches sur Vhistoire et les antiquites, les arts, les sciences et la litterature de I'Asie .... 2 vols., (Paris, 1805).
43. Cuvier, "Discours preliminaire," p. 1, in Ossemens fossiles (1812), vol. 1.
44. Fig. 3 is reproduced from Cuvier, Ossemens fossiles (1812), vol. 3, 7e memoire, unnumbered pi., by permission of the University Library, Cambridge. Cuvier's reconstructed skeletons later became the basis for the new genre of scenic reconstructions of the life of past periods: Martin Rudwick, Scenes from deep time: early pictorial representations of the prehistoric world, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992).
45. Cuvier, "Especes d'elephans" (1796), p. 444.
46. Louis de Launay, Une grande famille de savants: les Brong-niart, (Paris: G. Rapilly, 1940), remains the best biographical source.
47. Cuvier and Brongniart, "Essai sur la geographie mineralogique des environs de Paris," Annates du Museum d'Histoire Natu-relle, 1808,/7:293-326, on pp. 294, 299;
48. The article was also printed in Journal des Mines, 1808, 23:421-58.
49. Me-moires de la Classe des Sciences Mathematiques et Physiques de Vlnstitut Imperial de France, 1811, 7.370:1-278,
50. John Farey, "Geological remarks and queries on Messrs Cuvier and Brogniart's [sic] memoir on the mineral geography of the environs of Paris," Philosophical Magazine, 1810, 35:113-139.
51. Cuvier and Brongniart, "Environs de Paris" (1808), pp. 307-8.
52. Cuvier and Brongniart, "Environs de Paris" (1808), p. 457.
53. Cuvier, "L'ouvrage de M. Andre"' (1807), pp. 422-5.
54. Cuvier, "Discours preliminaire" (1812), pp. 111-6.
55. Giovanni Battista Brocchi, Conchiologia fossile subapennina con osservazione geologiche sugli Apennini e sul suolo adi-acente, 2 vols., (Milano, 1814).
56. Thomas Webster, "On the freshwater formations in the Isle of Wight, with some observations on the strata over the chalk in the south-east part of England," Transactions of the Geological Society of London, 1814 [sen 1] 2:161-254, pis. 9-11.
57. Constant PreVost, "Sur la constitution physique et geognostique du bassin a l'ouverture duquel est si-tuee la ville de Vienne en Autriche," Journal de physique, 1820, 97:347-67, 460-73.
58. Charles Lyell, Principles of geology, being an attempt to explain the former changes of the earth's surface, by reference to causes now in operation, 3 vols., (London, 1830-33).
59. Martin Rudwick, "Introduction" to the facsimile reprint of Principles, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990-91), vol. 1, pp. [vii]-[lviiij.