Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/564

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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

highly of his scheme." This note seems to have been given to Prof. Youmans to present to Mr. Croll. Mr. Croll wrote to Mr. Darwin in reply to it that "the gentleman wished me to write a small treatise on Geological Time; but I explained to him that, in the present state of the question, nothing satisfactory could be written on it which would be of any service to general readers. I believe he felt satisfied that the better plan was to let this subject lie over for some time to come." In February, 1872, on motion of Prof. Ramsay, the Geological Society of England awarded the balance of the proceeds of the Wollaston Donation Fund to Mr. Croll "for his many valuable researches on the glacial phenomena of Scotland and to aid in prosecuting the same." In communicating the award to Prof. Ramsay, Prof. Prestwich, President of the society, added, "Mr. Croll is also well known to all of us by his investigation of oceanic currents and their bearings on geological questions, and of many questions of great theoretical interest connected with some of the large problems in geology."

The book embodying the results of Mr. Croll's glacial studies of twenty years—Climate and Time in their Geological Relations; a Theory of Secular Changes of the Earth's Climate—was published early in 1875. It was accepted at once by scientific men everywhere as a work of great importance and of equal merit and interest; and it has not fallen from the position it took then and has held since. Men might controvert some of the author's arguments or dispute his conclusions, but no one was found to deny that it was an honest and able book and a real contribution to knowledge. Honors came to him after its publication from various directions; in the form of personal acknowledgments from the most distinguished men of science in their letters to him, and in the recognition of learned institutions and societies. The University of St. Andrews gave him the degree of LL. D.; the Royal Society of London elected him a fellow; the New York Academy of Science made him an honorary member; and he was chosen an honorary member of the Bristol Natural Society, of the Psychological Society of Great Britain, of the Glasgow Geological Society, of the Literary and Antiquarian Society of Perth, and of the Perthshire Society of Natural Science. He received also the award of the Murchison Fund in 1876 and of the Badow-Jamieson Fund in 1884. His reply to the proffer of the St. Andrews degree reveals the character of the man. He said, "I hope you will not deem it affectation when I say that I do not consider that I have done anything deserving of such an honor, and that I must look upon it more as a reward to a self-taught man for a long and persevering struggle against difficulties than for any possible results which he has as yet been able to achieve."