Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
pp. 339-356. G. H. Toulmin and his ideas have been treated by Gordon L. Davies,
'George Hoggart Toulmin and the Huttonian theory of the Earth', Geological
Society of America Bulletin 78, part 1 (1967), 121-123; by Roy S. Porter,
'Philosophy and politics of a geologist: G. H. Toulmin (1754-1817)', Journal of the
History of Ideas 39, part 3 (1978), 435-450; and by Dean in James Hutton and the
History of Geology (1992), pp. 272-275.
A biographical account of the life and work of J. H. Balfour by R. D. Bellon
appears in the Dictionary of Nineteenth Century British Scientists, vol. 1 (Bristol:
Thoemmes Continuum, 2004), pp. 102-105.
Chapter 7. The cooling Earth
The most comprehensive biography of Buffon is that by Jacques Roger [translated
by Sarah Lucille Bonnefoi], Buffon: A Life in Natural History (Ithaca & London:
Cornell University Press, 1997) which first appeared in French as Buffon, un
philosophe au Jardin du Roi (Paris: Librairie Arth` me Fayard, 1989). Earlier bio-
graphies in English include Otis E. Fellows and Stephen F. Milliken, Buffon (New
York: Twayne's World Authors Series 243, Twayne Publishers Inc., 1972). A good
synopsis of his life is given in the Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Buffon's
determinations of the age of the Earth are discussed by Lawrence Badash, 'The age-
of-the-Earth debate', Scientific American 261 (1989), 90-96, and this and other
aspects of his work are outlined in Chapter 7 of Albritton, The Abyss of Time
(1986), pp. 78-88.
The quotation from Newton is taken from Dalrymple, The Age of the Earth
(1991), p. 28. The tabulated heating and cooling times of Buffon's 'bullets' are
embedded in the text found on pages 111 and 112 of volume 10 of the 1792
English edition of his work: Barr's Buffon. Buffon's Natural History. Containing a
Theory of the Earth, a general History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of
Vegetables, Minerals&c. From the French. With notes by the Translator. In ten
volumes. (London: J. S. Barr, 1792). Arthur Stinner in 'Calculating the age of the
Earth and the Sun', Physics Education 37, part 4 (2002), 296-305 checked Newton's
cooling estimate of 50,000 using Stefan's law of radiation and derived a close match
of 45,000 years.
An English translation of the part of E
´
poques that describes in detail the
characteristics of each of Buffon's seven epochs can be found in Mather and Mason
A Source Book in Geology (1970) pp. 65-73. Useful information on Buffon's
E
´
poques de la Nature is given on a website produced by the Academy of Natural
Sciences in Washington entitled 'Thomas Jefferson Fossil Collection' which also
discusses Buffon's ideas on degeneracy of animal species and the reaction in
