Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
1999); Gary D. Rosenberg, 'An artistic perspective on the continuity of space and
the origin of modern geologic thought', Earth Sciences History 20, part 2 (2001),
127-155.
An account of the second International Geological Congress is given by Gian
Battista Vai, 'The second International Geological Congress, Bologna, 1881',
Episodes 4, part 1 (2004), 13-20.
In recent years four biographies of Robert Hooke have appeared on the book-
stands: Stephen Inwood, TheManWho KnewTooMuch: The Strange and Inventive
Life of Robert Hooke 1635-1703 (London: Macmillan, 2002); Lisa Jardine, The
Curious Life of Robert Hooke: The Man Who Measured London (London: Harper
Collins, 2003); Jim Bennett, Michael Cooper, Michael Hunter and Lisa Jardine,
London's Leonardo: The Life and Work of Robert Hooke (Oxford University
Press, 2003); and Michael Cooper, 'A More Beautiful City': Robert Hooke and the
Rebuilding of London After the Great Fire (Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 2005).
The most comprehensive account of Hooke's geological work is contained in
Ellen Tan Drake, Restless Genius: Robert Hooke and his Earthly Thoughts (Oxford
University Press, 1996). She compared Hooke's work with that of Steno in an earlier
paper: Ellen T. Drake and Paul D. Komar, 'A comparison of the geological contribu-
tions of Nicolaus Steno and Robert Hooke', Journal of Geological Education 29
(1981), 127-132 (from which I have taken Hooke's quotation on fossils); and
recently she has discussed the influence of his birthplace on his geological ideas:
E. T. Drake, 'The geological observations of Robert Hooke (1635-1703) on the Isle of
Wight', in Patrick N. Wyse Jackson (ed.), Geological Travellers: On Foot, Bicycle,
Sledge or Camel, the Search for Geological Knowledge (Staten Island, New York:
Pober Publications, 2006). Other papers on Hooke's geological thinking include
Gordon L. Davies, 'Robert Hooke and his conception of Earth history', Proceedings
of the Geologists' Association 75, part 4 (1964), 493-498; and David R. Oldroyd,
'Robert Hooke's methodology of science as exemplified in his Discourse on
Earthquakes', British Journal for the History of Science 6 (1972), 109-130.
The Michell quote is taken from Archibald Geikie, The Founders of Geology
(New York: Dover, 1962, reprint of the 1905 2nd edition); it is also reproduced in
Roy Porter, TheMaking of Geology: Earth Science in Britain 1660-1815 (Cambridge
University Press, 1977). A synopsis of the ideas of John Strachey regarding the
development of strata is contained in Barry D. Webby, 'Some early ideas attributing
easterly dipping strata to the rotation of the Earth', Proceedings of the Geologists'
Association 80, part 1 (1969), 91-97. Strachey's use of cross-sections is discussed
in J. G. C. M. Fuller, 'The invention and first use of stratigraphic cross-sections
by John Strachey, F.R.S. (1671-1743)', Archives of Natural History 19, part 1
(1992), 69-90.
