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and Pennsylvanian, that equated to the Carboniferous, but recently
agreement has been reached by the members of the Sub-Commission
of Carboniferous Stratigraphy of the International Union of Geological
Societies, who have agreed that they become sub-series of the
Carboniferous. Application of this edict globally should allow for
greater clarity.
TheMississippian, which is the lower half, and which correlates
more or less with the Carboniferous limestone, was defined and intro-
duced in 1869 by Alexander Winchell (1824-1891). Winchell was a
polymath who was appointed Professor of Physics and Civil
Engineering at the University of Michigan in 1854, but switched
subjects a year later to become Professor of Geology, Zoology and
Botany. He also served as the State Geologist of Michigan during two
periods, 1859-1861 and 1869-1871, and was joined by his brother
Newton Horace in 1869 as his assistant. For his state geological sur-
veys, which were interrupted by the Civil War, Alexander received a
salary of $1,000 for six months' work, but his tenure was to end in
turmoil with the refusal of the authorities to publish the report of his
second survey, and his subsequent resignation. He later moved to
Vanderbilt University where his tenure ended when his lecturing
position was abolished. Winchell had been unwise enough to publish
an article that the authorities decided promoted the idea of evolution:
for this he had to go. He returned to the safer confines of Michigan.
The upper half of the Carboniferous in North America, which is
broadly equivalent to the Millstone Grit and the Coal Measures, is
known as the Pennsylvanian, a tag first used in 1891 by Henry Shaler
Williams (1847-1918) for the coal-rich successions of Pennsylvania.
Williams was born in New York State and received his geological
education at Yale. He subsequently became Professor of Palaeontology
at Cornell University. Not only did he publish on stratigraphy and
palaeontology, but he also published a celebrated treatise entitled
Bones, Ligaments, and Muscles of the Domestic Cat. One can
imagine the panic in the feline fauna as Williams walked the alley-
ways of Ithaca. At Cornell he became involved as third President
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