The Emergence of Geology as a Scientific Discipline

Cf. for example Stoerig H.-J. , Kleine Weltgeschichte der Wissenschaft (Stuttgart, 1954), 381–2; Tikhomirov V. V. , “Opyt analiza protsessa razvitiya geologii kak nauka”, Izvestiya akademii nauk SSSR, Seriya geologicheskaya, iv (1970), 31.

In English-speaking countries James Hutton is frequently named as the founder of geology (see Bailey E. B. , James Hutton, the founder of modern geology (Amsterdam, London and New York, 1967)). Some Soviet authors on the other hand hold the view that Lomonosov M. V. founded geology ( Gordeev D. I. , Af. V. Lomonosov—osnovopolozhnik geologicheskoi nauki (Moscow, 1961)). Werner A. G. is also widely regarded as the founder of geology ( Mueller H.-U. , Aus dem Leben alter Freiberger Bergstudenten (Essen, 1971), 9; Stoerig H.-J. , op. cit. (ref. 1), 382).

Cf. Ashton T. S. , Iron and steel in the Industrial Revolution (Manchester, 1934), 98, 236.

In Cornwall the output of copper ore rose from 195,000 tons in the ten years from 1760 to 1769, to 760,000 tons in the period from 1810 to 1819. Hunt R. , British mining (London, 1884), 891–2.

Cf. Soetbeer A. , Edelmetallproduktion und Wertverhältnis zwischen Gold und Silber seit der Entdeckung Amerikas bis zur Gegenwart (Gotha, 1879), 21.

Cf. Henderson W. O. , Der englische Bergbau während der industriellen Revolution, Freiberger Forschungsheft, D 52 (Leipzig, 1966), 23.

Ferber J. J. , Beytraege zu der Mineral-Geschichte Boehmens (Berlin, 1774), xiii.

Report of 2 March, 1771, of the Haupt-Revisions-Kommission of the Saxon Mining Industry established on 8 November, 1766. In: Freiberger Forschungsheft, D 44 (Leipzig, 1963), 132.

Charpentier J. F. W. , Mineralogische Geographie der Chursächsischen Lande (Leipzig, 1778).

Cf. Steiner W. , “Zur Geschichte der geologischen Karte”, Zeitschrift für angewandte Geologie, iii (1957), 417–24; Rudwick M. J. S. , “The emergence of a visual language for geological science 1760–1840”, History of science, xiv (1976), 149–95, p. 159.

Cf. Porter R. , “The industrial revolution and the rise of the science of geology”, in Young R. M. Teich M. (eds), Changing perspectives in the history of science (London, 1973), 320–43, pp. 338f.

Cf. Buffon G. L. , Allgemeine Historie nach allen ihren besonderen Theilen abgehandelt (Hamburg and Leipzig, 1750), pt I, 97, 103, 105.

Cf. Lomonosov M. V. , “Erste Grundlagen der Metallurgie oder des Hüttenswesens. Second annex: Ueber die Erdschichten”, in Ausgewählte Schriften (Berlin, 1961), pt I, 492.

Mühlfriedel W. Guntau M. , “Abraham Gottlob Werners Wirken für die Wissenschaft und sein Verhältnis zu den geistigen Strömungen des 18. Jahrhunderts”, in Freiberger Forschungsheft, C 223 (Leipzig, 1967), 22.

Forster J. R. , Bemerkungen über Gegenstände der physischen Erdbeschreibung, Naturgeschichte und sittlichen Philosophie auf seiner Reise um die Welt gesammelt (Berlin, 1785), iv.

Marx K. , Grundrisse der politischen Oekonomie (draft, 1857–58) (Berlin, 1974), 313.

Cf. Kraemer W. , Die Entdeckung und Erforschung der Erde (Leipzig, 1974), 38.

Cf. Taton R. (ed.), History of science: Science in the nineteenth century (New York, 1965), 324.

Cf. Eyles V. A. , “The extent of geological knowledge in the eighteenth century and the methods by which it was diffused”, in Schneer C. J. (ed.), Toward a history of geology (Cambridge, Mass., 1969), 159–83.

Thus, the anonymous report in a contemporary paper: “It has been said that in the last decade but one of this century more was written about minerals than about theology, philosophy and jurisprudence together in half a century”, Die Mineralogen gegen das Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts (Frankfurt und Leipzig, 1792), 1. Stelzner A. G. arrives at the same view, emphasizing that at that time no subjects were more written about than mining, mineralogy and chemistry: “Ueber die unsicheren Kennzeichen beim Aufsuchen der Gänge”, in Beobachtungen und Entdeckungen aus der Naturkunde, ii (Berlin, 1788), 23.

Guntau M. , “Zu einigen Gesichtspunkten für die Analyse des Herausbildungsprozesses naturwissenschaftlicher Disziplinen in der Geschichte der Wissenschaft”, in Wessel K.-F. (ed.), Struktur und Prozess (Berlin, 1977), 334–51.

Wagenbreth O. , “Abraham Gottlob Werners System der Geologie, Petrographie und Lagerstättenlehre”, Freiberger Forschungsheft, C 223 (Leipzig, 1967), 83–148; idem, “Die Paläontologie in Abraham Gottlob Werners geologischen System”, Bergakademie, xx (1968), 32–36.

Cf. Fischer W. , Gesteins- und Lagerstättenbildung im Wandel der wissenschaftlichen Anschauung (Stuttgart, 1961), 26.

Cf. Guntau M. , “Zwei Fragmente zum Neptunismus aus dem handschriftlichen Nachlass von A. G. Werner”, Bergakademie, xix (1967), 112–15.

Thus (for example) P. S. Pallas had successfully developed the earliest conceptions concerning the geological structure of the Urals basing his work on Neptunism. Cf. Pallas P. S. , Reise durch verschiedene Provinzen des Russlichen Reichs (St Petersburg, 1774), bk I, pt 2, p. 78; idem, Betrachtungen über die Beschaffenheit der Gebirge und Veränderungen der Erdkugel (Leipzig, 1778), 9, 44, 58.

Hutton J. , Theory of the earth, with proofs and illustrations, ii (Edinburgh, 1795), 16.

Williams J. , Naturgeschichte der Steinkohlengebirge (Dresden and Leipzig, 1798: A translation of The natural history of the mineral kingdom (1789)), cx.

In recent years numerous studies have been published on the world-wide influence and diffusion of the geological-mineralogical teachings of Werner A. G. , Wojcik Z. , “Uczniowie Abrahama Gottloba Wernera v Polsce”, Studia i Materialy z Dziejow Nauki Polskiej, Seria C (Warsaw, 1972), 77–121; Matousek O. , “A. G. Werners Einfluss in Böhmen”, Geologie, xx (1971), 792–801; Tikhomirov V. V. , Geologiya v Rossiyti pervoj poloviny XIX veka (Moscow, 1963), ii, 36; Sweet J. M. , “The Wernerian Natural History Society in Edinburgh”, Freiberger Forschungsheft, C 223 (Leipzig, 1967), 205–30; Ospovat A. M. , “Wernerian influence in the geological literature of Western Europe”, ibid., 219–30; Amoros J. L. , “The introduction of Werner's mineralogical ideas in Spain and the Spanish colonies of America”, ibid., 237–44.

Cf. Laitko H. , “Zur Auffassung der Wissenschaft als System von Erkenntnistätigkeiten”, Beiträge zum XIII Internationalen Kongress für Wissenschaftsgeschichte (Moscow, 1974), Sektion I A, 84–91.

At this time (1778), the French naturalist Jean André de Luc also introduced the concept of geology, approximately in the present sense of the word, into the language of science. Before this, the field of knowledge had often been referred to as underground geography (geographia subterranea), as mineralogy, or as geognosy.

Jahresbericht des Oberbergamtes Freiberg (OBAJ) 7762, vol. vi (1778), fol. 309b; Jahresbericht des Oberbergamtes Freiberg (OBAJ) 8709 (1786/87), fols 141b and 325 (Archiv Bergakademie Freiberg).

Hummel K. , Geschichte der Geologie (Berlin, 1925), 112.

Rudwick M. J. S. , “The founding of the Geological Society of London”, The British journal for the history of science, i (1963), 325–55.

From this as well comes the difficulty in ascribing to any single scholar the merit of making geology a science (or of “founding geology”). The essential processes in connexion even with the immediate formation of geology as a discipline were too manifold and numerous to have been governed by one personality. Obviously the formation of geology as a science was the achievement of a group of bourgeois European scholars, which included Buffon G. Lomonosov M. V. Hutton J. Werner A. G. and others.