. Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Institution; Smithsonian Institution. Archives; Discoveries in science. 428 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, Tyson's Work in Maryland. During the session of 1847-48 the legislature of Maryland passed an act providing for the appointment and commission of a "person of ability, integrity, and suitable practical and scientific attainments," who should act as agricultural chemist for the State. Higgins's Work in . Maryland, Ihese requirements seem to have been met in the per- I 848=18 58 son of Dr. James
. Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Institution; Smithsonian Institution. Archives; Discoveries in science. 428 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, Tyson's Work in Maryland. During the session of 1847-48 the legislature of Maryland passed an act providing for the appointment and commission of a "person of ability, integrity, and suitable practical and scientific attainments," who should act as agricultural chemist for the State. Higgins's Work in . Maryland, Ihese requirements seem to have been met in the per- I 848=18 58 son of Dr. James Higgins, who received the appoint- ment and held the office until 1858, during which time he issued live reports. The office was not really a geological one, and the matter is mentioned here as bearing upon the subject only indirectly. During the session of 1858 bills were brought before the legislature to have the title of the office changed to geologist and, again, to chemist and geologist. Both, however, failed. Higgins was suc- ceeded in 1859 by the Philip Tyson above noted, whose first report of 145 octavo pages and appendix of 20 pages was issued February 14, I860. Like the reports of his predecessor, this was given up very largely to a discussion of agricultural ques- tions, but contained chapters on the Min- erals Comprising the Rocks of the State; The Mineral Character of Rocks; The Con- sideration of the Rocks as Grouped into Geological Formations, and also their Geo- graphic Distribution in Maryland; and on Chemical and Physical Geology, in which the question of the origin of soils through rock weathering was discussed. The main interest in the work, from our present standpoint, lies in the colored geological map (and sections) which accompanied it, and which had the merit of being the first special map of the State, the area having, of course, been included in the general maps of Maclure and others. The various formations were classified according to the scheme of
Size: 1371px × 1822px
Photo credit: © Library Book Collection / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthorsmithsonianinstitutio, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1840
