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One of the main concerns of the geologist has always been to interpret the history of the Earth. Prior to the nineteenth century, earth scientists generally believed that such a history would go back to the creation of the planet. By the early nineteenth century, however, most geologists admitted that the nature of their science did not allow for considerations of planetary origin. The topic, as a scientific problem, passed into the realms of physics and astronomy. Consequently, it would seem, the influences which theories of planetary origin might exert on geological thought appears to have also passed from the concern of historians of geology. The result has been some serious misunderstandings with regard to the geology of the nineteenth century. Even though most geologists did not hypothesize on the origins of the Earth, their work was, nevertheless, significantly affected by such considerations; a misunderstanding of this point leads to a distorted view of nineteenth-century geological theory. Though the geologist himself could not treat of the origin of the Earth, he was free to utilize what the physicist and the astronomer believed could be proven, just as he always accepted from the physicist and chemist his knowledge of the immanent properties of matter. In point of fact, the character of much of nineteenth-century geological thought was determined by two factors: (1) the explanation of the Earth's origin accepted by most astronomers, and (2) the geophysical processes most physicists believed had to follow from such an origin. An understanding of nineteenth-century geology is not possible without a comprehension of this relation to physics and astronomy.

DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4615-8780-4_17

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