Abstract
THE appearance of a fifth edition of von Cotta's well-known work is a sufficient proof of its popularity—a popularity which, in spite of some unfortunate drawbacks to its usefulness, we cannot but regard as being well deserved. Since the first appearance of the volume in 1866 it has been steadily growing in bulk, and in the present edition the author has brought his work up to date by noticing the principal contributions which have recently been made to geological science. Among such additions we may point to his notices of the method of study of rocks by the means of the microscope, of the new classification and nomenclature of the stratified rocks suggested by Carl Mayer, of the results of the Challenger expedition, of the latest speculations on the causes of volcanic activity and the nature of meteorites, and of Croll's theory of the recurrence of glacial periods. The coloured frontispiece now added to the work, we can scarcely regard as an improvement, seeing that it tends to perpetuate those views of the restriction of certain classes of volcanic products to distinct geological periods, which, though so frequently insisted upon by German petrographers, do not appear to be sustained by extended observation in the field.
Die Geologie der Gegenwart.
Dargestellt und beleuchtet von Bernhard von Cotta. Fünfte umgearbeitete Auflage. (Leipzic: J. J. Weber, 1878.)
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Die Geologie der Gegenwart . Nature 18, 380 (1878). https://doi.org/10.1038/018380b0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/018380b0