Delaware tribune, and the Delaware state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1877-18??, 1877-07-12
WILMINGTON, DEL.
THURSDAY, JULY n, l957.
A Noteworthy seien tiAe Address

tho forOetn pArnuol, WMcn nsS S0ooiNou ~
much oommeudation from scientific men. |
The subject of the address, which was
given in full in the New YqSk Tribune of
the following day, was ''Cstastrophism
And the Evolution of Envir6fAnsnt." 1t
MAS an outspoken attack upon what is
known as the authoritarian theory in
geology, which lie now held by the
greater part of the masters Of that
science. According to this theory the
present state Of the earth was brought
about by the long-continued operation of |
the forces which are at work to-day-that |
10, the great changes of level and position
in strata which have made the crust Of the
earth what it is to-day were not produced
by sudden commissions, but by gradual
movements through indefinite but vastly
great eras Of time. Opposed to this is the
doctrine Of catastrophism, which was held
by nearly all early biologists, and by most
men who gave such subjects any thought
before there was any such science as
geology, but which finds only few
defenders among the biologists of the
present day. This theory is that the great
changes in level, az well as tho great dis
ruptions, which together produced the
strata of the earth's crust as we now
find them, were caused by the sudden
action of long pent-up forces, and that
in this way the animals and plants which
covered the earth were from time to time
swept OF and new ones were created to
people and cover the new lands and waters
produced by such awful manifestations of
force. This latter doctrine is of
course particularly obnoxious to the
believers in evolution and the
development of new species of plants and
animals by natural selection and the sur
vival of the fittest. The evolutionists
generally believe in the uniformitarian
theory, and hold that as the distribution
OF land and water and as climate grad
uAlly changed, the life of the globe was
gradually modified and developed, until,
after the lapse of vast ages. its present
animal aud vegetable life was produced
from one or more original for,as.
Mr.. King does not accept either of these
theories. Indeed, lie expressly states that
the orthodox doctrine of catastrophism, as
we have explained it, is no longer tenable,
in the light of modern researches. Cuvier
was the last great naturalist who supported
it. But Mr.. King declares that his
extended explorations of the geology of
this country, embracing thirty thousand
miles of travel has forced him to the con-
clusion that the authoritarian theory will
not explain the facts in the geological
history of this continent He gives a
careful explanation of this history
40 far as It is yet known, and
within such limits as time
allowed him. He finds that the Old Con
tinent which at the beginning of the geo
logical record occupied part of the place
of the present American Continent wa
submerged, and land appeared where tn
Atlantic and the Pacific oceans now roll
Deposits were gradually made on this nev
ocean bed from the East and from til
West. Those on the East were forme'
gradually and may perhaps be explaine
by the mformitarian theory, but thoS
that we're formed at the West during tn
same period show tremendous subsistence
and uprisiRgs that canno. be understoo
to have taken place in accordance wit
this theory, which would not admit sue
astonishing variations between til
two sides during the same periot
At tho close of this ancient ae
the lands sunk, leaving the Atlantic All
Pacific oceans, and continent aro'
which, with many local changes, form
the present America. The wonderf
canons of the west, SO numerous and |
great, with theirdepths Of nsuy thousand
of feet, could not, Mr.. King declares. ha,
been carved by the rivers of this climat
to the end of infinite time, and there o
hundreds Of dry river beds within who
broad valleys there is not water enough
quench the thirst even of q uu,formitarial
Space does not permit US to give tho lisl
examples snd arguments adduced by NJ
King in supported his theory. This theor
as near a. we can gather, is in some desr.
q compromise between the two preyio,
ones, though not formed by combinin
them. Mr.. King admits the uniform
tartan theory, of course, 80 far e. IL
latest ages are concerned, but he beliey
that in the early ages there were vast
greater or more sudden manifestations
power which changed the relations
land and water or the climate, al
brought abou. rapid changes in lif
forms, destroying some and developer
new species from those that were plast
enough to adapt themselves to ne
conditions OF life. He believ
chat the error OF universal al
extreme catsstrophes swung inquirers pa
the golden mean of truth to the opposi
error Of extreme uniformitarianism,
developed by Hutton and Lyell. i
thinks that catastrophe changes have
times advanced the evolution of life,
times retarded it, and at times exterminat
life over great areas, and that the believe
in the modern doctrine of evolution 81
entirely too little attention to this poir
He thinks that great and sudden chang
In the surface Of the globe may be foul
70 be ths major cause of the evolution
life. instead Of the phenomena being d
20 4 moro struggle between various form
n With natural selection according to t
al the ~. 3i..isn theory. In IL
z >>as D" oatastroph