Essay On the Theory of the Earth Robert Jameson Georges Cuvier Books
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Essay On the Theory of the Earth Robert Jameson Georges Cuvier Books
Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric Cuvier (1769-1832) was a French naturalist and zoologist, who was instrumental in establishing the fields of comparative anatomy and paleontology through his work in comparing living animals with fossils. He also became the most influential proponent of catastrophism in geology in the early nineteenth century. [NOTE: page numbers below refer to a 265-page paperback edition.]He explains in the first chapter of this 1813 book, "In this preliminary discourse I shall describe the whole of the results at which the theory of the earth seems to me to have arrived. I shall mention the relations which connect the history of the fossil bones of land animals with these results, and the considerations which render their history peculiarly important. I shall unfold the principles on which is founded the art of ascertaining these bones, or, in other words, of discovering a genus and of distinguishing a species by a single fragment of bone---an art on the certainly of which depends that of the whole work." (Pg. 5)
He strongly asserts of fossils, "The time is past for ignorance to assert that these remains of organized bodies are mere... productions generated in the womb of the earth by its own creative powers. A nice and scrupulous comparison of their forms... and frequently even of their composition, cannot detect the slightest difference between these shells and the shells which still inhabit the sea. They have therefore once lived in the sea, and been deposited by it: the sea consequently must have rested in the places where the deposition has taken place. Hence it is evident that the basin or reservoir containing the sea has undergone some change at least, either in extent, or in situation, or in both." (Pg. 8-9)
He asserts, "Thus we shall seek in vain among the various forces which still operate on the surface of our earth, for causes competent to the production of these revolutions and catastrophes of which its external crust exhibits so many traces: and if we have recourse to the constant external causes with which we have been hitherto acquainted, we shall have no greater success." (Pg. 36-37) He adds, "[the motions of the earth] are much too limited for the production of those effects which we have stated... they are altogether inadequate to account for catastrophes which must necessarily have been sudden... these assumed slow motions... explain nothing, since no cause acting slowly could possibly have produced sudden effects." (Pg. 37-38)
He observes, "The importance of investigating the relations of extraneous fossils with the strata in which they are contained is quite obvious. It is to them alone that we owe the commencement even of a Theory of the Earth; as, but for them, we could never have even suspected that there had existed any successive epochs in the formation of our earth, and a series of different and consecutive operations in reducing it to its present state. By them alone we are enabled to ascertain, with the utmost certainty, that our earth has not always been covered over by the same external crust... these fossil remains... must have lived upon the surface, before they came to be buried... at a great depth." (Pg. 54-55)
Less presciently, he contends, "animals have certain fixed and natural characters, which resist the effects of every kind of influence, whether proceeding from natural causes or human interference; and we have not the slightest reason to suspect that time has any more effect upon them than climate." (Pg. 122) He adds, "there does not seem to be the smallest foundation for supposing, that ... extraneous fossils ... have ever been the sources of any of our present animals..." (Pg. 125)
He also argues, "we have no reason to doubt of the book of Genesis having been composed by Moses... And, as Moses establishes the event of a universal catastrophe, occasioned by an irruption of the waters, and followed by an almost entire renewal of the human race, and as he has only referred it to an epoch fifteen or sixteen hundred years previous to his own time... it must necessarily have occurred rather less than five thousand years before the present day." (Pg. 147-148) He says of the Flood accounts of other cultures, "all that their books contain respecting the deluge is borrowed from Genesis, and does not contribute any support to its authority." (Pg. 159)
He concludes the book, “It appears to me, that a consecutive history of such singular deposits would be infinitely more valuable than so many contradictory conjectures respecting the first origin of the world and other planets, and respecting phenomena which have confessedly no resemblance whatever to those of the present physical state of the world… It would certainly be exceedingly satisfactory to have the fossil organic productions arranged in chronological order, in the same manner as we now have the principal mineral substances. By this, the science of organization itself would be improved; the developments of animal life; the succession of its forms; the precise determinations of those which have been first called into existence; the simultaneous production of certain species, and their gradual extinction; all these would perhaps instruct us fully as much in the essence of organization, as all the experiments that we shall ever be able to make upon living animals: And man, to whom only a short space of time is allotted upon the earth, would have the glory of restoring the history of thousands of ages which preceded the existence of the race, and of thousands of animals that never were contemporaneous with his species.” (Pg. 180-181)
Although obviously superseded by later knowledge in many respects, this book will still be of considerable interest to those studying the history and development of scientific theory.
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Essay On the Theory of the Earth Robert Jameson Georges Cuvier Books Reviews
Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric Cuvier (1769-1832) was a French naturalist and zoologist, who was instrumental in establishing the fields of comparative anatomy and paleontology through his work in comparing living animals with fossils. He also became the most influential proponent of catastrophism in geology in the early nineteenth century. [NOTE page numbers below refer to a 265-page paperback edition.]
He explains in the first chapter of this 1813 book, "In this preliminary discourse I shall describe the whole of the results at which the theory of the earth seems to me to have arrived. I shall mention the relations which connect the history of the fossil bones of land animals with these results, and the considerations which render their history peculiarly important. I shall unfold the principles on which is founded the art of ascertaining these bones, or, in other words, of discovering a genus and of distinguishing a species by a single fragment of bone---an art on the certainly of which depends that of the whole work." (Pg. 5)
He strongly asserts of fossils, "The time is past for ignorance to assert that these remains of organized bodies are mere... productions generated in the womb of the earth by its own creative powers. A nice and scrupulous comparison of their forms... and frequently even of their composition, cannot detect the slightest difference between these shells and the shells which still inhabit the sea. They have therefore once lived in the sea, and been deposited by it the sea consequently must have rested in the places where the deposition has taken place. Hence it is evident that the basin or reservoir containing the sea has undergone some change at least, either in extent, or in situation, or in both." (Pg. 8-9)
He asserts, "Thus we shall seek in vain among the various forces which still operate on the surface of our earth, for causes competent to the production of these revolutions and catastrophes of which its external crust exhibits so many traces and if we have recourse to the constant external causes with which we have been hitherto acquainted, we shall have no greater success." (Pg. 36-37) He adds, "[the motions of the earth] are much too limited for the production of those effects which we have stated... they are altogether inadequate to account for catastrophes which must necessarily have been sudden... these assumed slow motions... explain nothing, since no cause acting slowly could possibly have produced sudden effects." (Pg. 37-38)
He observes, "The importance of investigating the relations of extraneous fossils with the strata in which they are contained is quite obvious. It is to them alone that we owe the commencement even of a Theory of the Earth; as, but for them, we could never have even suspected that there had existed any successive epochs in the formation of our earth, and a series of different and consecutive operations in reducing it to its present state. By them alone we are enabled to ascertain, with the utmost certainty, that our earth has not always been covered over by the same external crust... these fossil remains... must have lived upon the surface, before they came to be buried... at a great depth." (Pg. 54-55)
Less presciently, he contends, "animals have certain fixed and natural characters, which resist the effects of every kind of influence, whether proceeding from natural causes or human interference; and we have not the slightest reason to suspect that time has any more effect upon them than climate." (Pg. 122) He adds, "there does not seem to be the smallest foundation for supposing, that ... extraneous fossils ... have ever been the sources of any of our present animals..." (Pg. 125)
He also argues, "we have no reason to doubt of the book of Genesis having been composed by Moses... And, as Moses establishes the event of a universal catastrophe, occasioned by an irruption of the waters, and followed by an almost entire renewal of the human race, and as he has only referred it to an epoch fifteen or sixteen hundred years previous to his own time... it must necessarily have occurred rather less than five thousand years before the present day." (Pg. 147-148) He says of the Flood accounts of other cultures, "all that their books contain respecting the deluge is borrowed from Genesis, and does not contribute any support to its authority." (Pg. 159)
He concludes the book, “It appears to me, that a consecutive history of such singular deposits would be infinitely more valuable than so many contradictory conjectures respecting the first origin of the world and other planets, and respecting phenomena which have confessedly no resemblance whatever to those of the present physical state of the world… It would certainly be exceedingly satisfactory to have the fossil organic productions arranged in chronological order, in the same manner as we now have the principal mineral substances. By this, the science of organization itself would be improved; the developments of animal life; the succession of its forms; the precise determinations of those which have been first called into existence; the simultaneous production of certain species, and their gradual extinction; all these would perhaps instruct us fully as much in the essence of organization, as all the experiments that we shall ever be able to make upon living animals And man, to whom only a short space of time is allotted upon the earth, would have the glory of restoring the history of thousands of ages which preceded the existence of the race, and of thousands of animals that never were contemporaneous with his species.” (Pg. 180-181)
Although obviously superseded by later knowledge in many respects, this book will still be of considerable interest to those studying the history and development of scientific theory.
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