The illustrations of Brongniart and Cuvier illuminate paleontology in the early nineteenth century

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kennard B. Bork
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Decisive Role ◽  
Paris Basin ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Earth History ◽  
Georges Cuvier ◽  
Significant Step ◽  
Geologic Map

ABSTRACT The concept of biostratigraphy was a significant step in the evolution of geoscience. Alexandre Brongniart (1770–1847) and Georges Cuvier (1769–1832) were key contributors to developing the subdiscipline as they worked to decode the stratigraphy of the Paris Basin in the first decades of the nineteenth century. Their illustrations of fossils, local geologic columns, and a regional geologic map played a decisive role in furthering an understanding of the value of paleontology in the service of illuminating Earth history.

Darwin, Concepción, and the Geological Sublime

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul White
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Popular Science ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Earth History ◽  
The Sublime ◽  
The Earth ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Popular Audience

ArgumentDarwin's narrative of the earthquake at Concepción, set within the frameworks of Lyellian uniformitarianism, romantic aesthetics, and the emergence of geology as a popular science, is suggestive of the role of the sublime in geological enquiry and theory in the early nineteenth century. Darwin's Beagle diary and later notebooks and publications show that the aesthetic of the sublime was both a form of representing geology to a popular audience, and a crucial structure for the observation and recording of the event from the beginning. The awesome spectacle of the earthquake proved in turn the magnitude of the forces at stake in earth history, and helped to make geology an epic conjoining the history of civilization with the history of the earth.

John Fleming and the geological deluge

2007 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
JAMES BURNS
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Animal Kingdom ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Earth History ◽  
Scientific World ◽  
History Of ◽  
A Minor

John Fleming (1785–1857), later professor in Aberdeen and Edinburgh, made his combative contribution to natural history between 1812 and 1832. As an Edinburgh student he had followed Robert Jameson's ‘Wernerian’ lead. His earliest publications, from 1813, expressed what was to be a lifelong hostility to the work of James Hutton. Yet his own thinking moved increasingly towards a ‘uniformitarian’ as opposed to a ‘catastrophist’ view of earth history. His Philosophy of Zoology (1822) embodied criticism of Cuvier. More dramatically, he became embroiled in controversy with Buckland and later with Conybeare. By then the ‘uniformitarian’ hypothesis had been adopted by Lyell, with whom Fleming was in close touch from the mid-1820s. Fleming may have had some grounds for feeling that his priority in advocating uniformitarianism was later overlooked. His History of British Animals (1828) included a preface in which he elaborated his earlier hypothesis as to ‘revolutions … in the animal kingdom’ correlated with six geological epochs. Tension had then developed in Fleming's relationship with Jameson, and the early 1830s found him in a mood of increasing frustration. Reconciliation with Buckland and approval by Sedgwick still left ‘the Zoological Ishmael’ feeling that his advancement in the scientific world was blocked, perhaps permanently. In historical perspective Fleming may be seen as a minor but not insubstantial figure in the scientific landscape of the early nineteenth century.

Alexandre Brongniart (1770-1847) Shows that a ‘FActs First’ Scientific Approach Can Lead to Large-Scale Conclusions

2013 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-22
Author(s):  
Kennard Bork
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Geologic Mapping ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Georges Cuvier ◽  
Scientific Approach

The early nineteenth century has been described as a time of ‘Positive Geology’. The goal was to pursue fieldwork and build the edifice of science on ‘facts,’ thereby displacing the theorizing of previous centuries. French naturalists contributed prominently to the evolution of geoscience in that era. Georges Cuvier (1769-1832) and Alexandre Brongniart (1770-1847) were among the researchers who adhered to the ‘Facts First’ approach to understanding nature. Brongniart is an exemplar of the dedicated empiricist, careful observer, and cautious writer who was able to see ways to synthesize facts into conclusions of far-reaching consequence. The result is that collection and description of fossils, and observation of field relationships of rock units, led to an appreciation of the theoretical power of biotic succession, biostratigraphy, the geologic column, and geologic mapping.

A history of some fruit models in wax and other materials: scientific teaching aids and courtly table decorations

2003 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 299-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans-JüRgen Lechtreck
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Fruit Trees ◽  
Visual Aids ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Teaching Aids ◽  
Scientific Teaching ◽  
Glass Marble ◽  
History Of ◽  
By Products ◽  
Wax Models

Two early nineteenth century texts treating the production and use of wax models of fruit reveal the history of these objects in the context of courtly decoration. Both sources emphasise the models' decorative qualities and their suitability for display, properties which were not simply by-products of the realism that the use of wax allowed. Thus, such models were not regarded merely as visual aids for educational purposes. The artists who created them sought to entice collectors of art and natural history objects, as well as teachers and scientists. Wax models of fruits are known to have been collected and displayed as early as the seventeenth century, although only one such collection is extant. Before the early nineteenth century models of fruits made from wax or other materials (glass, marble, faience) were considered worthy of display because contemporaries attached great importance to mastery of the cultivation and grafting of fruit trees. This skill could only be demonstrated by actually showing the fruits themselves. Therefore, wax models made before the early nineteenth century may also be regarded as attempts to preserve natural products beyond the point of decay.

The development of natural history in early nineteenth century Ireland

1985 ◽  
Vol 1985 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helena C. G. Ross ◽  
Robert Nash
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century

Disease and Civilization: A Scottish Atlantic Network of Physicians in the Enlightenment

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-216
Author(s):  
Sarah Irving-Stonebraker
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Native Americans ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Historical Progress ◽  
Practice Of Medicine ◽  
Benjamin Rush ◽  
American Physician ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
A Current

Through an examination of the extensive papers, manuscripts and correspondence of American physician Benjamin Rush and his friends, this article argues that it is possible to map a network of Scottish-trained physicians in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century Atlantic world. These physicians, whose members included Benjamin Rush, John Redman, John Morgan, Adam Kuhn, and others, not only brought the Edinburgh model for medical pedagogy across the Atlantic, but also disseminated Scottish stadial theories of development, which they applied to their study of the natural history and medical practices of Native Americans and slaves. In doing so, these physicians developed theories about the relationship between civilization, historical progress and the practice of medicine. Exploring this network deepens our understanding of the transnational intellectual geography of the eighteenth and early nineteenth century British World. This article develops, in relation to Scotland, a current strand of scholarship that maps the colonial and global contexts of Enlightenment thought.

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