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In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, scientists reconstructed the immensely long history of the earth—and the relatively recent arrival of human life. The geologists of the period, many of whom were devout believers, agreed about this vast timescale. But despite this apparent harmony between geology and Genesis, these scientists still debated a great many questions: Had the earth cooled from its origin as a fiery ball in space, or had it always been the same kind of place as it is now? Was prehuman life marked by mass extinctions, or had fauna and flora changed slowly over time?The first detailed account of the reconstruction of prehuman geohistory, Martin J. S. Rudwick’s Worlds Before Adam picks up where his celebrated Bursting the Limits of Time leaves off. Here, Rudwick takes readers from the post-Napoleonic Restoration in Europe to the early years of Britain’s Victorian age, chronicling the staggering discoveries geologists made during the period: the unearthing of the first dinosaur fossils, the glacial theory of the last ice age, and the meaning of igneous rocks, among others. Ultimately, Rudwick reveals geology to be the first of the sciences to investigate the historical dimension of nature, a model that Charles Darwin used in developing his evolutionary theory.Featuring an international cast of colorful characters, with Georges Cuvier and Charles Lyell playing major roles and Darwin appearing as a young geologist, Worlds Before Adam is a worthy successor to Rudwick’s magisterial first volume. Completing the highly readable narrative of one of the most momentous changes in human understanding of our place in the natural world, Worlds Before Adam is a capstone to the career of one of the world’s leading historians of science. (20080724)
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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 Pressâ•…â•… Chicago & London
m a rt i n j . s . ru dw i c k 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 Controversy, 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╇ 08â•…â•… 1╇ 2╇ 3╇ 4╇ 5 isbn-13: 978-0-226-73128-5 isbn-10: 0-226-73128-6
(cloth) (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 sentiment 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 [Rom