Abstract
While travellers in unknown territories hasten over rough mountain tracks towards a city on a mountain top, it often happens that they judge the city, at first sight, to be close to them; constantly, numerous twists and turnings along the route delay their hope of arrival to the point of weariness, for they see only the nearest peaks; in fact, those things hidden by the said peaks, the heights of hills, the depths of valleys, or the levels of plains, whatever they may be, far exceed their conjectures, and they, deceiving themselves, estimate the intervening distances from their own desires.
OPH XXVII, DE SOLIDO INTRA SOLIDUM NATURALITER CONTENTO DISSERTATIONIS PRODROMUS was published in Florence in 1669. The Prodromus was translated into English by Henry Oldenburg in 1671 and by John Garrett Winter in 1916. It was translated into Danish by August Krogh and Vilhelm Maar in 1902. Scherz’s English edition in Steno—Geological Papers, 133 ff., was translated by Alex J. Pollock, partly assisted by James G. Gordon.
The editors of the present edition have changed “solids … within solids” in the book title of Scherz’ English edition into “a solid … within a solid”, which is similar to the translation by John Garret Winter (Wi), since De solido intra solidum is singular case. Meanwhile, the “Prodromus on solids” remains a valid expression concerning two items, the containing and the contained solid.
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Notes
- 1.
Cf. Diogenes Laertius, Pyrrhon (IX p. 72): “We know nothing, as a matter of fact, the truth lives in the depths”. In the age of Niels Stensen the bottom of the sea, was often interpreted as a well or a cistern, Wi: [John Garret Winter 1916].
- 2.
This shark, of about 3.500 lbs. was at the time called Lamia or Carcharodon Rondeletii owing to the description in G. Rondeletii. Libri de Piscibus Marinis. (Lugduni 1554) lib. XIII pp. 390-393 (OPH 2, p. 115 ff. EP p. 922 f.). Stensen dissected its head in Florence and wrote the preceding treatise on it: Canis Carchariae dissectum caput.
- 3.
As to the numerous occurrences of marine sediments from the latter and earlier Tertiary period and petrifacts of those ages in Tuscany, compare the detailed descriptions in T. T. Viaggi, in the Elsa-valley 1, p. 201 f. 222; near Livorno 2, p. 461; Volterra 3, p. 11 ff., 5 p. 257 ff.; Valdarno 8 p. 53 ff.; 10 p. 237 ff., and also of Rodolico, Toscana p. 60 ff. 79 ff.
- 4.
Grand Duke Ferdinando II in person took part in the works of the Platonic Academy of 1628 and its successor, the Accademia del Cimento. He invented and constructed instruments and had the first large map of the moon drawn by means of the Galilean telescope (Alfr. v. Reumont, Geschichte Toscanas seit dem Ende des florentinischen Freistaats, 1-2 Gotha 1876/77, 1. p. 557.
- 5.
An invitation for his return to Denmark, however, had not yet been issued officially on Apr. 20th 1669, in Venice, or after his return from Hungary on Oct. 27th (EP 1 p. 27, 194, 207 ff.).
- 6.
When at the beginning of 1662, in the Observationes anatomicae, Stensen published his discoveries about the glandular system, he wrote to Thomas Bartholin on January 9th, 1662: “… if my straitened circumstances at home had not prevented me, I should have continued my investigations of the glands. I wanted, you know, to investigate all their vessels and trace the tracts of the Lymph which is apparent in the various cavities of our body (OPH 1 p. 101 ff.).
- 7.
On August 26th, 1662 Stensen writes enthusiastically about his observation of a chicken’s heart. Soon follows a series of similar observations, and on April 30th, 1663 the aims and methods of his investigation of the heart were clear to him (OPH I p. 118, 123 ff. 158).
- 8.
Stensen's stepfather Johan Stichman was buried in St. Nicolaj on October 29th, 1663 and in June, 1664 Stensen was to bury his mother there too. Soon after, he left Copenhagen (EP 2 p. 901 ff. OPH I p. 168).
- 9.
At the time of the huge shark’s capture preceding Stensen’s geological period he was on the point of editing his Elements of Myology and commencing a debate about it with his contemporaries (OPH 2 p. 61 ff.).
- 10.
The court was regularly supplied by the jeweller Sten Pedersen and Johan Stichman. Stensen’s brother in law, Jørgen Carstensen, was clerk of the royal treasury and his family must have felt deeply obliged to the Royal family (EP 2 p. 900 ff. - Scherz, Vom Wege, p. 20 f., 36 ff.).
- 11.
The following utterance reveals, how strongly N. St.’s faith in Divine Providence determined even his research work (cf. his well-known prayer: Sine cujus nutu nec de capite capillus… OTH 2, 542): “Various incidents forced me, when on the advice of my friends I considered everything well prepared and easily discharged, and quite unexpected obstacles suddenly upset the plan I had conceived, whereas other things, which neither I nor anybody else would have expected, suddenly at the same time offered a possibility so that I could not have any reasonable doubts that God was behind (OTH I p. 393).
- 12.
Mark that Stensen here, even before the words geognosy and geology were common at the end of the 18th century, as shortly and precisely as possible characterises the science and history of the earth by the two principal subjects of enclosing and enclosed bodies.
- 13.
There are no enhancement of Stensen’s division in four parts in the original edition; cf. the table of contents in the Introduction.
- 14.
Cf. with this the Introduction p. 21 and the notes on Italian authors in Rodolico, L' Esplorazione 43 ff.
- 15.
Here the method of actualism which, through v. Hoff and Lyell, prevailed a century later was first hinted as a principle of geological research. About occasional earlier references in antiquity, as well as at the dawn of our age, to the importance of the forces still at work for an understanding of the past, Kurd v. Bülow says: “All this fades before the effort of N. Stensen. He was the first to proceed really geologically i. e. historically in an inductive way, and besides, conscious of his method and therefore “actualistically” (Der Weg der Aktualismus in England, Frankreich und Deutschland. In: Berichte der Geologischen Gesellschaft 1960, p. 160 ff. - cf. also Oedum, p. 53 ff., and Hölder, Geologie, p. 481 ff. - See on the principle of actualism also H. Murawski, Geolog. Wörterbuch. 5. Aufl. Stuttg. 1963. p. 4 and A. A. G. Schieferdecker, Geological Nomenclature (Goringham 1959) Nr. 2664).
- 16.
In the text we find the usual Latin term: diluvium universale, the universal flood as it is described in Gen. 2, 17-20.
- 17.
The Accademia della Crusca founded in 1582 for the cultivation of the Italian Language and the publication of a Comprehensive Italian Dictionary. Stensen officially became a member on July 16th 1668 (EP I p. 19).
- 18.
In his Geographia Strabo argues about the discovery of shells in places far from the sea (C. 49, 50 I, 3, 4).
- 19.
Possibly Stensen thinks here of the then representatives of the Flood-theory (cf. Zimmermann p. 192 f., and Chapter II Geological Science in Classical Times, and Fr. D. Adams, The Birth and Development of the Geological Sciences’ New York 1954, p. 8 ff.).
- 20.
Cf. Aristotle’s theories on original procreation and its consequences, further Zimmermann 51 f., Hölder p. 359.
- 21.
Perhaps a reference to G. Agricola (1494-1553). Cf. W. Zimmermann, Evolution. Freiburg 1953, p. 187 f. or to B. Palissy († 1590), Discourses, p. 16 ff.
- 22.
Stensen’s professor Thomas Bartholin had visited Malta in 1644 and called the sediments of the Cretaceous and the Tertiary ages “a lump of fossils”. He does not want to say anything final about the glossopetrae, fossilised shark-teeth also called tonguestones, birds’ tongues, swallow tongues, Lamiodontes, and snakes’ tongues (OPH 2, 326): ”whether they are snakes’ tongues as the natives believe, through the curse of the Apostle (Paul) changed into hard stone, or if they were produced by creative nature as a stone concretion in the rock, which Gesner and Boethius tend to believe, or whether in accordance to what Plinius writes, we ought to consider them a kind of lightning-arrows, or on the other hand whether they are fish-teeth which they resemble and which were left behind on the continent after the universal or partial floods.” (Historiarum Anatomicarum et Medicarum rariorum Centuria V—VI Hafniae 1661, Cent. VI, Hist. I p. 193 ff.). Bartholin brought a collection of these tongue-stones with him, which N. St. must certainly have known. (A. Garboe, Thomas Bartholin 1, 59 ff.).
- 23.
It is obvious to think of Descartes in this connection. Yet Stensen as late as 1665 decisively rejected the purely speculative use of his method and his machine-theory of biology (N. Steno’s Lecture on the Anatomy of the Brain ed. by G. Scherz. Copenhagen 1965 p. 170 ff. further OTH 1, 389 f.).
- 24.
The MS. and the Ed. Florence 1669 have evitare.
- 25.
Particularly as an ethicist on a purely humanistic basis, Seneca influenced both the Christian Middle Ages and the Renaissance through his 124 Epistolae morales as well as through his Naturales quaestiones. In 117 he says: “Usually we pay much attention to the conviction of all mankind and with us the concordance of everybody is considered a proof of the truth”. This concordance is derived from human nature, but also from doctrines consecrated by pious faith (O. Willmann, Geschichte des Idealismus 1-3. Braunschweig 1907. 1, 575 f.). In his Epistolae (29.11) is a passage the beginning of which reminds us of N. St.’s: ex omni domo conciamabunt, Peripatetici, Academici, Stoici, Cynici…
- 26.
This paragraph on the particulae, which has a rather abrupt beginning was a necessary chapter in a treatise on the nature and the structure of bodies and the important part played by fluids in nature. In the 17th century the interest in atomic theories was encouraged above all by Pierre Gassendi (1592-1665) and his Animadversiones in decimum Librum Diogenis Laertii (1649), in which he revived the atomism of Democritos - though modified. N. St.’s notes in the Chaos-MS. contain many excerpts of this work. (fol. 70-74. Vgl. EP 2. p. 907 ff.). Later Descartes had advanced a corpuscuiar-theory in the 3rd part of his Principia Philosophiae of 1644, where he distinguished between three kinds of substances. The tendency of the age was to replace philosophical atomism by scientific one, to which Stensen evidently quite consciously confined himself (cf. A. G. M. van Melsen, Atom gestern und heute. Freiburg/München 1957. p. 115 ff. 138). Mark also that Stensen speaks about particulae, not about atoms (Democritos), not about minima (Aristotle), and not about corpuscula (Descartes).
- 27.
The Latin text: et debile argumentum est, quo nego esse aliud qvid in re quadam, quod ego aliud quid ibi non observo, both in the MS. and Ed. 1669.
- 28.
The interparticle passages, Stensen imagined, were filled with a fluid that was according to Mieleitner an imperceptible substance similar to the universal ether postulated by Mieleitner and others in the 19th century, the existence of which can only be indirectly inferred. Similarly, Caverni regrets that Fracassati and Guglielmini have not followed Stensen’s ideas concerning the power which makes the small particles crystallize. Stensen thought of an ethereal fluid and not like Willis of some vague “spirit”, which by magnetic power makes the substance crystallize. Stensen’s detailed and comprehensive statement is said to stand at the beginning of modern crystallography (R. Caverni, Storia del Metodo Sperimentale in Italia (Firenze 1893) 3. p. 612 f.).
- 29.
Here Mieleitner (Mi) translates determinatio as destination probably destination of essence or existence, with direction. Cf. 2. Ed., p. 47.
- 30.
The atoms of antiquity (essentially different from our chemical ones) were minute, similar, indivisible and unchangeable bodies which only differed in size and weight, could move and influence each other by pushing. As to details cf. Melsen, Atom gestern und heute, p. 30 ff.
- 31.
Probably the Aristotelian idea of minute parts - minima naturalia - which with each substance differ as to specific and substantial shape (Melsen p. 65 ff. Cf. also the opinions before Aristotle p. 24ff. and afterwards 313).
- 32.
The doctrine about the four elements dates as far back as Empedocles from Sicily (5th century B. C.), who regarded fire, air, water and earth as qualitatively different elements, and traces growth and change back to the blending or separating of the smallest parts of these substances. These four elements however are not so much the real substances as the qualities characteristic of them (Melsen p. 33 f.).
- 33.
Robert Boyle (1626-1691) in the Sceptical Chemist (1661) and Origin of Forms and qualities (1666) aimed at scientific explanation, and for principles seems to adopt substance, motion, and elements with invisible, smallest particles. The chemists of the 16th and 17th centuries (like Paracelsus, Glauber, van Helmont) tended to different explanations of the elements which, however, were not elements as we understand them to day: each element was a substance complex in itself, which had to be present at the construction of all other substances (Melsen p. 147, and M. Boas, Robert Boyle and Seventeenth Century Chemistry (Cambridge 1958 p. 75 ff.), and I. R. Partington, A History of Chemistry, Vol. 2, London1961).
- 34.
While in the passages above N. S. sums up old and rather new aspects of what substance is, here he mentions different hypotheses about influences on matter. He may think here of Plato’s doctrine of ideas and Aristotle’s morphology (Melsen p. 40 ff.). Descartes' corpuscular theory knows about a “minute substance” (Melsen p. 158). J. Kepler, in his Harmonice mundi is convinced of the idea of a spirit of the earth, which since the creation determines the image of the universe in mathematical proportions (Max Caspar, Johannes Kepler, 2. Auflage, Stuttgart 1950, p. 331 ff.).
- 35.
Mi [Karl Mieleitner] translates: Wenn ein fester Körper… weicher bei der gegenseitigen Berührung auf seiner Oberfläche die Eigenschaften der Oberfläche des andern Körpers ausdrückt. Here we follow the translations of Ma [Vilhelm Maar, 1910] and Mo [Gius. Montalenti], Stenone, Prodromo di una dissertazione …, Roma 1928] which not only facilitate a reasonable understanding of the sentence but also correspond more closely to the text (not in sua superficie, but sua superficie), so the word exprimit, expresses here might be better understood as “produces”. Mo continues: “Not only the shape of the body belongs to the quality of the surface, but also the accidental, physical characteristic of its surface such as smoothness, radiance, brilliance, mother-of-pearl-likeness, etc. It is obvious, however that on examining the surfaces of two bodies in contact with each other that both may equally be called the counter part of the other. If the criterion suggested by Stensen shall be of any value at least the characteristics of one of the bodies must be known. This criterion is very important; even in our time we are supported by it when we want to ascertain the succession of fossilization in the various parts of a rock”.
- 36.
By crystal Stensen almost always means rock crystal (quartz). Selenites are gypsum crystals or calcite crystals (calcspar). By marcasite, the ancients’ mostly mean pyrites, the most frequent compound of iron and sulphur (Scherz, Vom Wege 143, 157). Pyrites and marcasite are, by the way chemically identical, though structurally different.
- 37.
Mi confirms this succession of time in the origin of pyrites in the sediments about them. Whereas Mo adds: Evidently N. S. thinks of the Tuscan pyrite and calcite pyrite (Boccheggiano), which probably trace their origin back to the segregation of volcanic stones from magna. The chronological conception of the hardening of magma occupies rather an important part of modern rock science and these early hints of Stensen’s are very valuable.
- 38.
Of course Stensen did not know the chemical difference between quartz (SiO2 silicon dioxide) and salpetre (NaNO3 sodium nitrate) (Wi).
- 39.
On reading his treatise, we easily understand how Stensen came to this extremely penetrating view (Mi). But note also his previous biological research following his first discoveries about the glandular system.
- 40.
Mi translates prima lineamenta as circumference. K. v. Bülow suggests something like “first germ” or “first shape”.
- 41.
In the text angulata corpora. Here crystals are meant in the modern sense. (Mi and Wi.).
- 42.
The Arteria aspera (in the text) is now called the trachea, windpipe.
- 43.
Glandulae conglobatae are equal to the lymph vessels of to-day, contrary to the glandulae conglomeratae, the true and proper glands. The terms stem from Stensen’s professor Fr. Sylvius, his pupil however, clearly ascribes to them an anatomical-physiological conception (OPH 1. p. 20 XIII and p. 183 ff.).
- 44.
Here Stensen thinks of the succus nervosus, the delicate inner substance of the nerves, which his age saw as a juice, in continuation of the idea of spiritus animales, an inspiration which Descartes also accepted, but which Stensen fought against in his Myology. Cf. E. Bastholm, The History of Muscle Physiology (Copenhagen 1950, p. 135 ff. 144 f.).
- 45.
The name of parenchyma was used by Erasistratos about the special substance of the lung, liver, kidneys, and the spleen and this because of the view which Galen also shared, according to which the substance was different from that of the muscles and was formed by the blood, which coming from the veins, coagulated in the said organs (OPH 2, 335).
- 46.
As Stensen occupies himself with the fibra motrix in his Elementorum myologiae, he also deals with the ideas of egg, oviduct, and uterus, and he first recognised that the testes muliebres are equal to the ovaries of the viviparous (OPH 2, 69. 152. 330 f.).
- 47.
The view - derived in various forms from antiquity - on the importance of the blood for feeding and keeping warm. Cf. on Hippocrates and Erasistratos, K. E. Rothschuh, Geschichte der Physiologie (1953) p. 8, 12 f.
- 48.
Hippocrates’ book De Flatibus teaches that all diseases have the same cause, i. e. gas in the body, and that differences in the diseases originate from the place that has been attacked (Cf. OPH 2, 335).
- 49.
As early as 1661 - contrary to the opinion of the ancients - Stensen calls the blood the housekeeper of the whole body, which supplies everything for the nourishment and production of the special fluids, and he also deals with the objections against this idea. In De musculis et glandulis, 1664, he provides a summary of what he has determined about glands and the lymph, and their relation to the blood (OPH 1, p. 34 ff., 198 ff.). Here, Montalenti points out the extraordinary importance of this paragraph III for mineralogy as well as for physiology: “Modern physiology which has concentrated on this fact hinted at by N. Stensen, has not got much further than Stensen as to the problem: Why are different fluids segregated by the same blood in different places”.
- 50.
Cf. Stensen’s Disputation De glandulis oris etc. of 1661 (OPH 1, 18 ff., 50 f.) on the opinion of the ancients that the glands are fungi.
- 51.
The iatrochemists J. B. van Helmont (1577-1644) and Stensen’s teacher Fr. Sylvius saw chemical processes in the manifestations of life, which they called fermentation. They are begun by various ferments dispersed in the body (Francisci Delboe Sylvii Opera Medica (Amstel. 1680) p. 166 ff. 702 f.).
- 52.
Cf. note 33.
- 53.
Cf. note 50.
- 54.
Aetites, Eaglestones is the name given chiefly to clay and limonite concretions which enclose a body in their hollow insides and therefore rattle when shaken. It was believed that the eagle brought them to its nest to ease egg-laying, and miraculous power was ascribed to the stone particularly as an aid during pregnancy and birth (the big stone was “pregnant” with the small one). Plinius in his Natural History X 12 (3) XXX, 1230 (14) relates their miraculous powers (OPH 2, 335, Wi). Stensen’s collection contained several pieces (Vom Wege 162). They probably stem from the rich deposits at Levane in the Arno valley, described in T. T. Viaggi 8, 352 f.
- 55.
The Bezoarstone, probably a Persian word, was a round ash-grey stone, consisting of layers, in size between a hazelnut and an eyeball. Inside the stone, to which was often attributed magical power, is sometimes found a grain of sand, a shell or a piece of coal (Universel D'Histoire Naturelle… Par M. Valmont Bomare… III Ed., Lyon 1791, V, 222. Cf. OPH 2, 335).
- 56.
The term of Amiant was used also for asbestos. Gf. Scherz, Vom Wege p. 168.
- 57.
Alumen plumosum, feathery alum; sometimes applied to a silky-fibrous, yellowish-white blending of sulphate alum, earth, iron-oxide and water, and besides to two different kinds of asbestos; cf. OPH 2, 336, and Scherz, Vom Wege 211.
- 58.
The original edition, as well as the manuscript has ubi instead of cubi marcasitae. As in earlier mineralogy, Stensen means Pyrites when speaking about marcasite cubes. Marcasite is of the same chemical composition as Pyrites (FeS), but is crystallized in orthorhombic shape, whereas pyrites-crystals follow the cubic system (Wi). Cf. the numerous marcasite pieces in Stensen’s collection. Vom Wege 165 ff., Rodolico, Toscana 344.
- 59.
Dendrites, Dentroitides is mainly the name for minerals which exist in nature in the shape of ramified bodies. The MS. has Dentiotides.
- 60.
Ref. metallic plants cf. A. Kircher’s “mercurial-tree” and other metallic trees in his Mundus subterraneus. II, lib. IX c. XXIV. Cf. Note 68, 69, 131.
- 61.
In the first case undoubtedly, secretions are referred to; in the second concretions (Wi).
- 62.
Descartes who is regarded as a supporter of Vulcanism, says in Principia philosophiae p. IV par XXXII, De Terra, that the solar like global mass of the earth gradually separated into shells of various kinds, a nucleus of glowing fire, a metal shell, a water shell and a stone shell, the latter of which, on bursting, created valleys and mountains. Here Stensen has in view the varieties of stones which compose the so-called fundamental rock of modern geologists, i. e. almost all gneiss and other crystalline slates; he, too, considers these forms “the oldest on earth”, says Mi. Hölder also adds (p. 24) “a partly subconscious distinction between primary and secondary rock”. Cf. here also Targioni Tozzetti's distinction of primitivi and secondari (Rodolico, Toscana 50 ff.). No doubt, Stensen’s dynamic geology knows both exogene powers, such as sedimentation, erosion, and crumbling, and endogene ones, namely changes in the layers, tectonic forms, and volcanic symptoms) though without drawing further conclusions from these observations than his methodical caution permits. He can neither be counted among the neptunists nor - even less - among the vulcanists of later ages, abounding with hypotheses.
- 63.
The place outside Rome is no doubt the Monte Mario with its layers of clay from the Pliocene Age. Stensen probably observed a contact between two unconnected groups of stones which are found in the Seven HilIs: the clay-layers mentioned and the vulcanic tuff with ashes, pumice, etc., so frequent in the neighbourhood of Rome. (We owe this note to prof. Fr. Rodolico).
- 64.
Here Stensen probably thinks of the hot springs producing calcareous sinter which he had been able to observe in Italy. (Mi). Cf. M. Messini - G. C. di Lollo, Acque minerali del mondo (Rome 1957), where the mineral springs of Italy and their mineral content are described, particularly in pp. 83 ff. and 145 ff.
- 65.
As to the importance of Stensen’s doctrine about strata, there shall be quoted, though abbreviated, the opinions of some modern geologists, W. H. Hobbs state: “In geology we owe to Stensen the first distinct establishment of some of those great principles which to-day we regard as axioms… that rocks stem from sediments… that the sediments of seawater can be distinguished from those of fresh water and of volcanic products… that the order of the strata piled on top of each other determines the age of the formation. The originally horizontal position of the sediment formations is to-day considered one of the great fundamental principles of geology.” (Wi. 172 ff.) Hölder says: “These observations (as to the material of the strata) were the first to give us information about the shifts of the stones and their causes., i. e. a Fazieskunde”. In connection with this, Stensen arrives at the law about sediments, consciously understanding and distinctly formulating that a lower layer will always be older than the following higher one. But the law about layers is at once expanded, the slanting positions of the layers being explained by the influence of water and fire. Here St. first mentions the “bowlike curvature” i. e. the folding of the layers which he could observe in the Apennines. This can hardly mean the recognition of fold mountains but N. S.’s treatise is the first to point at appearances which are later termed tectonic (p. 25 f.). Mark the difference in Stensen’s view, pointed out by Targioni Tozzetti, between monti and colline, mountains and hills. Hubert G. Schenk says:” The use of paleontology in industry was dependent on two fundamental principles: the law of layers and the law that fossils are different according to their geological ages. The former he ascribes to N. S., the latter to G. Soulavier (p. 1752 ff.).
- 66.
Willem Piso (1611-1676), to whom as a friend Stensen dedicated De anatome rajae epistola of 1664 (cf. OPH 1, p. 195, 248), had published an account of a journey to Brazil, where he was physician in ordinary to Count Jan Maurits of Nassau: namely De Medicina Brasiliensi Libri quatuor (Lugd. Bat. et Amstelodami 1648) and later De Indiae utriusque Re naturali et medica libri quatuordecim (Amst. 1658). W. H. Hobbs says that the shifts in the positions of layers are according to Stensen the main cause of the mountains. And he distinguishes rather clearly between three of the most important types of mountains, i. e. block- or fold mountains, vulcanic mountains and erosion-mountains. The importance of earthquakes for the origin of the mountains is close to contemporary views (Wi 173).
- 67.
Vegetative growth was frequently ascribed to minerals and mountains in the l7th century (cf. note 140). Fabroni writes about the journey of G. Montanari and Boni 1657, both of them friends of Stensen: “They also examined if metals grow like plants, i. e. by means of a fluid circulating in the ground”. (OPH 2, 338). As to a widely spread belief in the vegetative growth of minerals as late as in the 17th century, cf. Pazzini, Le Pietre 40 ff., who also points out the fact that many functions are common to the organic and inorganic world.
- 68.
Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680), often a clever observer and often a child of his own time too, in his treatises based on speculation, fancy and analogy, was of the opinion that the chains of mountains (by which he did not mean mountains ranges in our sense), followed a straight line from east to west, from south to north, that they continued at the bottom of the sea and formed the back bone of the globe (Mundus subterraneus in XII Libros digestus, Amstel, 1665 Tom I. c. IX). As an undergraduate in Copenhagen, Stensen wrote out excerpts from his work: Magnes sive de arte magnetica (1640) and Ars magna lucis (1646), and later he was in correspondence with him, but not about geological questions.
- 69.
In the Latin text of MS. and Ed. 1669: … ex uno latere in alterum per mediam viam publicam. Cf. on the agency of wind on mountains, Wi p. 232 f.
- 70.
Cf. regarding Stensen’s district of research in Tuscany, Preller, Italian Mountain Geology.
- 71.
Mi says “strangely enough Stensen does not think of the possibility that the water may percolate the stone but believes that the water of the stalactite caves is condensed vapour”.
- 72.
Stensen speaks about arena viva, living sand (Mi).
- 73.
This custom is mentioned by A. Kircher in China Illustrate (Amstelodami 1667); p. 135, refers to the book by the two Jesuit missionaries and explorers of China: P. Nik. Trigault and P. Matth. Ricci (OPH 2, 337). Stensen’s sceptical view on the value of the divining-rod is a typical demonstration of his methodical sobriety. The divining-rod, in antiquity confined to legends and myths, was in the Middle Ages sometimes surrounded with religious ceremonies, and sometimes considered to be superstition or piece of devilry; in the 17th century it was commonly used, and the diviner belonged to the staff of mines (though then also sceptical voices were heard such as those of A. Kircher, C. Schott and P. Borel), and Descartes’ and Gassendi’s atomic theories were used for explanation. In the 18th and 19th century the interest in rods almost disappeared; in our time some research was done as to the eventual chemical, physical or physiological background, yet the practical geologist does not seem interested in it (Cf., C v. Klinckowström und R. v. Maltzahn, Handbuch der Wünschelrute in Geschichte, Wissenschaft und Anwendung. München 1931, and H. Ødum, Ønskekvisten. København 1932).
- 74.
Mi: That is, in nuce, the lateral secretion theory of the 19th century. Mo: I think that this is an obvious reference to the pneumatolytic formation of minerals.
- 75.
Here Stensen probably thinks of a description of discovering gold and silver in the mountains of Peru in: Historia Natural Y Moral de Las Indias … Commuesta par el Padre Joseph de Acosta (Sevilla 1590) lib. IV, cc. IV—V. This description is found condensed in another book, which Stensen knew: Le Mercvre Indien, ou le Tresor des Indes (Paris 1667) by P. de Posnel. I, 1, cc. 1-111 (OPH 2, p. 337). Various short notes (Chaos MS. fol. 76r80r), by Stensen, probably, written down around October 1668, bear witness to several books of scientific interest which he must have studied at that time, e. g. East India, Bermuda, Guinea, Sumatra and Ethiopia.
- 76.
Cf. the Introduction p. 23 about N. St.’s visit to Elba. According to Simonin, La Toscana et la mer Tyrrhénienne (Paris 1868), p. 321, new valuable iron-layers were formed on Elba after they had been depleted in antiquity (OPH 2, 337). Wi: The belief that iron can grow out again and replace itself in time is explained by the limonite finds on the instruments mentioned in the text. About the wealth of the iron-ore layers on Elba cf. Ermenegildo Pini’s explanation of 1777 in Rodolico, Toscana, p. 95 ff. and Ida Valeton. Eisenglanz und Mohrenköpfe (Merian, Elba Heft IV/XIX p. 16 f.).
- 77.
Stensen says crystallus meaning rock-crystal; very rarely, he says crystallus montium. Crystal in our general sense he calls corpus angulatum; in the translation: angular body (Mi).
- 78.
The composition of crystals from very tiny particles similar to or like a crystal was accepted by Guglielmini later on and theoretically proved. H. Tertsch though, called him “less thorough and careful in the mere and sober observations of the facts than Stensen” (Der Schlüssel zum Aufbau der Materie, Wien 1947 p. 19 f.).
- 79.
There were different theories at the time about the origin of the rock crystal. Cf. Musaeum Septalianum Manfredi Septalae… Pauli Mariae Terzagi… Geniali Laconismo Descriptum (Dertonae 1664), Cento primus p. 241 ff. and Index p. 302: “Whether it originates from frozen water or condensed sugar or from humid slimy soil or from water and a crystal germ or like the stones by means of the heat of the sky condensed out of pure water” (OPH 2, p. 337 f.).
- 80.
Here Mi translates angulos solidos extremos with “outer solid angles” and angulos solidos intermedios with the “middle solid angles”; here too he sees a reference to Stensen’s recognition of the constancy of the crystal-angle. A. Johnsen, (Die Geschichte einer kristallmorphologischen Erkenntnis. In: Sitzungsberichte d. preuss. Akad. d. Wiss. 1932 (p. 404-415) made the correction that angulus solidus does not mean a solid or constant angle, but only an angle of a body, or a “spatial” angle i. e. a corner. H. Seifert (p. 32 ff.) shares this opinion. K. v. Bülow, Mi and Johnson in common with many others, think that Stensen’s quartz crystals with a double pyramid had come from the neighbourhood of Porretta. Mark here the strictly geometrical description.
- 81.
Stones which are not formed by sedimentation from water, in which group crystals are found, are called rock (saxum) by Stensen.
- 82.
Cf. note 61.
- 83.
What is meant by this breaking down is shown by diagram 6 of the plate. Cf. besides the detailed description by Seifert p. 34 ff.
- 84.
According to V. M. Goldschmidt, the structure of the crystals in question in this paragraph, depends on the number, the position and the size of the elements, i. e. the size of the ionic and molecular radii, the structure of the electron shells and the polarisation qualities i. e. the nuclear field of force. (Universitas Litterarum, Berlin 1955, p. 127). The numbers V—VII of the last three propositions are taken over from the first English translation by H. Oldenburg.
- 85.
The 1669 edition has poros (OPH 2, p. 338). The printer’s MS. had originally polos, which however, by the erasing of the upper part of the letter l was changed into poros.
- 86.
Maar thinks this to have been an experiment in the circle of the Accademia del Cimento (2, p. 338). Mi sees it as a text book example and points at a similar experiment by Robert Boyle: The Effects of Languid Motion Consider'd (edition of P. Shaw, London 1725, vol. I, p. 477 f.).
- 87.
Since olden times the opinion was widespread that quartz originates from ice during extreme frigidity. The name is identical with the Greek word for ice (Mi).
- 88.
Mi thinks that Stensen incorrectly regards glass and quartz to be identical or at least chemically very closely related substances. Hobbs on the other hand says: It cannot be expected of Stensen - great though he was in his day to have discovered the important fact of the orientation of the crystal-molecules, but actually he pointed out the strange peculiarity of refraction which distinguished the crystal from amorphous substances like glass.
- 89.
The term menstruum which Stensen uses, means a dissolving liquid. Cf. a. o. R. Boyle, Experiments and Observations upon colours 2, p. 96: That gold dissolved in Aqua regis transfers its colour to the menstruum, is a general observation. The solution of mercury in Aqua fortis, does not usually seem to transfer a special colouring to the menstruum. (Wi). Aqua fortis (nitric acid) and Aqua regia (a mixture of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid) were also produced by van Helmont, and the goldsmith of the time used such acids practically as tests for gold and silver (M. Boas, Robert Boyle, p. 128).
- 90.
Steno says ferri corpus - an iron-body or only ferrum - iron; one translation thinks that by iron body or iron is meant haematite (Mi), and he translates the headlines angulata ferri corpora with iron crystals. Maar explains this: Haematite crystals from Elba, this haematite is a fibrous deviation of common haematite.
- 91.
Now Steno says genera, now species, which is always literally translated, actually only different types of formation are meant.
- 92.
The sentence ut unius basis …. latera bifarian secent is put in the Ms. over the erased: Ut in planis piramidum unius piramidis latera alterius piramidis bases medias secent, fol. 17v.
- 93.
Mo says: Haematite or iron oxide (Fe2O3) is found in nature, actually either as segments in which the prevailing development of the base (111) makes the surface of the rhombohedron (the first type) almost indistinguishable, or a combination of two rhombohedra, the straight fundamental (100) and the straight obtuse one (211) (the second type), or, from a third aspect as a result of the combination of the shape mentioned with the hexagonal pyramid of second order (311). The six-sided shape of the second type double is the single rhombohedron (100). The two latter types are more frequent in the haematite of Elba, the former in the Alps and in volcanic areas.
- 94.
Here the substance of rock-crystal, is explicitly called materia crystalli, and the substance of haematite, matenia ferri, (Mi).
- 95.
They are the surfaces of another rhombohedron (M).
- 96.
While Mi and Mo call the comparison not very felicitous, Wi explains it: The polyhedric angles. Evidently Stensen thinks of the relation of the rhombohedron to the cube.
- 97.
Obviously Stensen imagines that the different modifications of haematite are the results of the respective developments of new crystalline shapes (Wi). Here Mi speaks about corners.
- 98.
[void]
- 99.
In the Latin text congeries, i. e. mass, pile; no doubt the Elba groups of crystals are meant (Mi).
- 100.
As to the copper - and silver - ores in the Grand Duke’s collections, which stemmed from the Tyrol, Saxony, Norway etc., and which Stensen completed during his travels, cf. Scherz, Indice (List of natural specimen), especially p. 266 where Targioni-Tozzetti’s report on a list of more than 22 silver ores from Saxony is mentioned.
- 101.
Indian diamonds are often found embedded in limestone. When the diamonds, visible on the surface have been won and the limestone is left, it will crumble in the course of the year, and thus new diamonds will be visible, therefore the Indians believe that the diamond grows out again. The famous writer may be Garcias ab Horto: Anomatum et simplicium aliquot medicamentorum apud Indos nascentium historia (Antverpiae 1574) 1, 177. Cf. Garboe, Ædelstene 23 f.
- 102.
No regular diamond-shape but probably caused by the disappearance of certain planes.
- 103.
In the text De marcasitis which mostly means Pyrites, Steno uses the plural, as the translation does.
- 104.
In the Discorso: Al Serenissimo Don Cosimo Gran Duca di Toscana Intorno alle cose, che stanno in su l'acqua, o che in quella si muovono. Di Galileo Galilei. (Firenze 1612. Le Opere di G. G. Ed. Nat. 1V (1894) pp. 63-141), Galileo examines the floating of specifically heavier bodies on a specifically lighter fluid. Today these phenomena are explained by surface tension which appears to produce an elastic film on the surface, a thought which Galileo approached when he reached the conclusion that a solid body can float on a lighter fluid, if one of the surfaces of the bodies touches a liquid above it, which is lighter than the first. Stensen’s remark about “great Galileo” was at the time a courageous acknowledgment of the physicist and probably of his own friendship with Viviani as well.
- 105.
The triglyphic striae of the surfaces of the Pyrites cubes which are signs of the low degree of physical symmetry which a pyrites-cube possesses, compared with the regular cube. The surface striae of the prism of the quartz crystals which Stensen found on them are actually produced by the rhombohedral surfaces which touch the prism (Mo). Wi: Stensen was probably the first to observe that the striae on the surfaces of Pyrites cubes are usually arranged in parallel in accordance with the three edges that cross each other.
- 106.
This probably means calcite or either its cleavage particles, as well as dolomite (Mi).
- 107.
Mi says it is gypsum. Steno considers its water to be mechanically enclosed. But by tale he probably means the snow-white or yellowish leafy and soft magnesium silicate which is often used as a means of smoothing or as a cosmetic powder. Even Agricola and Boëtius de Boot in Gemmarum et Lapidum Historia connect our conception of tale with this, i. e. magnesium-silicate (Hinze II, 1, p. 815 ff. ef. Scherz, Vom Wege, 148 f.) R. Boyle says in The Usefulness of Philosophy (Ed. P. Shaw, London 1725, vol. I., p. 67): “A trustworthy person, a pupil of Cornelius Drebel, however, assured me that he could build a kind of furnace in which by the sheer power of fire he would be able to make Venetian tale fluid, which, I must admit, I cannot bring about by means of fire in a glass-flask. The tale generally used for cosmetics is so difficult of combustion that outstanding chemists consider all the products of combustion from tale to be false.” According to Wi, K. v. Bülow says: “Tale was not to be smelted by the means at the disposal of the age”.
- 108.
* Winter translates “testulae” as “subdivisions”, Krogh and Maar in note 10 as “scales” of the shell.
[keep this foot-note]
- 109.
The shells of most molluscs that are provided with them consist of an outer skin of organic substance, a prismatic layer consisting of polygonal small prisms, standing vertically on the surface of the shell, one placed on the top of the other, and of a layer of mother-of-pearl consisting of many lamellae, which are parallel with the surface. The two latter layers mainly consist of calcium carbonate, mixed with a little organic substance. All of them are secretions of the coating. In § 3 Stensen thinks of the two last layers and in § 4 he assumes the existence of this thin skin (Mo). Cf. with this paragraph of the Prodromus Spärck in Indice, 87 ff.
- 110.
The spontaneous generation of Aristotle (De Animalibus Historia, lib. V. c. 15 and De generatione animalium 23, III, 9, 10 and 11) was conquered in this very age through thorough investigations by Harvey as well as by Stensen’s friends, Johannis Swammerdam's Historia insectorum generalis (Utrecht 1669), and principally Francesco Redi, Esperienze intorno alla generazione degli insetti. Da Lui scritto in una lettera all Ill. mo Signor Carlo Dati (Firenze 1668. cf. the edition by A. Pazzini, Roma 1945, and EP 1, 21ff.). One of these friends was Malpighi, to whom we owe the doctrine: Omne vivum ex ovo.
- 111.
The paragraph Elegans hujus rei… sphaerae formabantur is not found in the MS. but a sign seems to point to a note, fol. 20r, now probably lost.
- 112.
Cf. OPH 2,339: The shell of the mussel is made up of three layers, the outer or “epidermic layer”, the “prism” layer, consisting of short rods or fibres, and the inner layer of mother-of-pearl, consisting of thin plates or scales. In the pearl which Steno has examined, the layer of mother-of-pearl has probably only been very imperfectly developed while the “prism” layer has been uncommonly thick, so that he has chiefly noticed the fibres or rods of the latter, which all conveyed toward the centre. See cf. K. Möbius, Die echten Perlen (Hamburg 1858).
- 113.
This refers to a fable by Aesop (6th century B. C) who relates the following: A man bought an Ethiopian regarding the latter’s genuine colour as the consequences of the neglect of his former owner. The new owner took him into his house and applied all kinds of soaps, trying to scrub him white by means of many different baths. However, he was not able to change the colour and nearly fell ill through his toil. What is characteristic, remains what is was. (Halm, Fabulae Aesopicae. Leipzig 1875, XIII. - OPH 2, 339 and Wi).
- 114.
About these fishponds Pliny says in Natural history VIII, 211(52) a, ix, 170 (54), that Lucullus had them built near Naples at heavy expense. A mountain was removed and a villa built, in whose pond the saltwater could hold an abundance of saltwater fish (OPH 2, 339 and Wi.).
- 115.
In the MS. the following after difficillimum has been erased: Ne dicam supra vires humanas judicaverim: I do not say that I could judge it beyond the power of man.
- 116.
The first kind of fossil shellfish are those which have gone through a proper fossilization, i. e. have been preserved in the layers of the earth. In the process of petrification others replaced the organic parts by mineral substances. Conches belong to a third kind which were first enclosed in a layer, then dissolved and only left their shapes behind which either remained empty or were filled with mineral substances. Modern paleontology also keeps to these distinctions of Stensen’s. (Mo). Cf. also Rome, in Indice 93 ff.
- 117.
The text has testas aereas, which probably means “porous shells” (Wi).
- 118.
The term nephiri (also in the printer’s MS.) is unknown and is declared to be a misprint by Maar, Mi and Mo (which it is not). Maar suggests nephritic thinking of nephritic marble now called breccia (OPH 2, 339 f.). Targioni-Tozzetti knows of a Pietra Nefritica on buildings in Pisa. Nephrite (jade), a feltspar like actinolite, from the hornblende group known by Aldrovandi as Lapis Indicus could certainly not contain conches (Indice 218).
- 119.
Byssus, the exquisite and expensive fabrics of the Phoenicians of the Mediterranean were manufactured from the same fluid secretion (musselbeard, musselsilk), which many mussels produce in order to fasten themselves to their substratum (Scherz, Indice 218). Cf. also note 17 of the Ornaments.
- 120.
The MS. as well as the Ed. Florence 1669 has qvos.
- 121.
These oblong cavities are evidently produced by the Lithophagus (Lithodomus). These bivalves of the Mytilidae family perforate shells of the lamellibranches Melina, Ostrea and Pectin and form a bottle shaped cavity. Cf. K. A. v. Zittel, Grundzüge der Paläontologie, 3. Aufl., 1. Abt. (München 1910, p. 322 and Fig. 632 c) (Wi).
- 122.
They are cavities indeed, perforated by Phoiades, molluscs with a reddish shell and rough as a file, which serves to gnaw the stones. (Mo).
- 123.
Shellfish (Cirripedes), provided with a chalk shell shaped like a little flowerbud, which lives fastened to conches and rocks (Mo).
- 124.
In the text: piscis aquilae, refers to a shark-family, whose scientific name is Myliobatidae, popularly known as eagle shark, devilfish or sea devil. Their teeth are flat grinding teeth for crushing hard material. (Wi).
- 125.
Contrast his cautious way of presenting the problem in Canis Carchariae (OPH 2, 127 ff.) with the zoological and palaeontological reasons for the right view as we have put them here.
- 126.
Wi says: The belief in the existence of giants was supported by the finds of fossil animal bones and was widespread, cf. E. B. Tylor, Researches into the Early History of Mankind (London 1856), p. 314-317; Primitive Culture, 4th edition (London 1903), 1, 387.
- 127.
According to O. H. Schindewolf, Stensen with his law of stratification created one of the most important bases for chronological order in palaeontology, but at the time, the background for an absolute dating was missing (Grundlagen und Methoden der paläontologischen Chronologie. (Berlin 1950). 3. Auflage p. 41). Hölder says: “During the 17th and 18th centuries the doctrine about the flood included in the first outlines of the history of our world was in the foreground for some time because the biblical account of it and the geological finds seemed to overlap”. (Geologie etc. p. 130, Leibniz and John Woodward thought so too).
- 128.
The stretches of massive walls inside the Porta all’ Arco of Volterra consist of yellow limestone mixed with conches called panchinae (Cf. Dennis, Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria, London 1878, 2, 144). (Wi). As to the huge masses of fossil mussels in and around Volterra cf. TT. Viaggi 3, 11ff.
- 129.
According to Eutropius (III, 8) and Polybius (III, 42), Hannibal had 37 elephants when he entered Italy. Polybius on the other hand states that all except one perished on account of the great cold immediately after the battle of Trebia (218 B. C.) in the Po valley, and Livius (XXI, 36) also remarks that almost all of them suffered this fate. In the Chiana valley Grand Duke Ferdinand II had a whole skeleton unearthed in 1663, bones of which were kept in Florence. On the rich stores of fossils of elephants in the Arno-valley cf. TT. Viaggi 8, 415 ff. In the museum of Montevarchi, Valdarno, fossils are still found to-day, which Stensen may have seen. Cf. also Forsyth Major, Considerazioni sulla Fauna del Mammiferi pitocenici e postpliocenici della Toscana in: Atti di Società Toscana di Scienze Naturali in Pisa (1865) 1, 7–40, 223–245, (1877) p. 207–227. Mammalian Fauna of the Val d’Arno in: The Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. XLI (1885)1-8. Ch. Depéret, Evolution of Tertiary Mammals, and the Importance of their Migrations in: The American Naturalist, vol. XLII (1908) 109–114, 160–170, 303–307 (Wi). Cf. also I. Cocchi’s and F. Nesti's books in: Indice 197–246.
- 130.
Mi: that is how Steno imagined the origin of the fossilized coal.
- 131.
A. Kircher wrote in Mundus Subterraneus (tom. II, lib. IX, c. XXIV, p. 431: “On metallic trees and their artificial production. 1. experiment: The tree of the philosophers grows before our eyes: Take half an ounce of purest or barrel-cleaned silver and 2 ounces of Aqua fortis and mercury, in which the mentioned silver is dissolved. Blend the two substances in a pan, pour a pound of common water on top and pat it down, and you will see it grow daily, both the trunk and the branches” (OPH 2, p. 340). About the various views on the petrified juice of R. Boyle and van Helmont, cf. Pazzini, Pietre 24 ff.
- 132.
Ammonium chloride, Sal-Ammoniac (Wi).
- 133.
Regarding this paragraph Becksmann points out (N. Steno p. 329 f.) Stensen’s “great scientific achievement”, in contrast to “other occasional clever utterances”. Before the Prodromus there had not existed any real geological thinking. “For his work does not amount to just a small section of the history of the earth or the interpretation of a single geological document, but to the first account planned on generous lines of the surprising results of the geological development of a landscape up to the present configuration its surface has built up, and the first to be planned for this purpose only, on authentic doctrine and criticism of sources”. Stensen is a tremendous “Autochthoner” (original thinker). The more admirable is his achievement, amounting to genius, since he was in no way inspired or encouraged by intellectual currents of his age, but, became the founder of geological thinking completely on his own, by means of clear, logical thinking and by following up problems which arose out of a comparison of recent living beings with fossils.
- 134.
Cf. diagrams 20-25.
- 135.
By facies Stensen evidently understands a geological phase of development. Our contemporary conception of facies stems from Gressly the Swiss geologist, and expresses the whole of the characteristics of a stratographical unity. (C. Chr. Beringer, Geolog. Wörterbuch, Stuttgart 1951, p. 30) As A. A. G. Schifferdecker, Geological Nomenclature (Goringhem 1959) says: “the same of the lithological and palaeontological characters exhibited by a deposit at a particular point” (No 2539).
- 136.
Genesis 2, 10-14 (from the Vulgate): “A river arose in the place of joy and watered Paradise and then divided into four main rivers: One is called the Phison and it flows around the land of Hevilath, where gold arises. The gold of the country is very good and both bellim and lapis onychinus are found. The second river is called the Gehon; it flows around the whole of Ethiopia. The third river is called the Tigris; it flows east toward the Assyrians. But the fourth river is the Euphrates”.
- 137.
The MS. here has clearly motori.
- 138.
Cf. Scherz, Das Feste im Festen, p. 29 ff. Through his conception of the historical development of the sediments and mountains, Stensen broke through the rigid conception of a single finished act of creation. - And as a matter of fact the chronology of the 17th century hesitated between 3700 and 7000 years as to the length of time from the days of the creation till the birth of Christ. - On account of his own short period of research and with regard to the limited astronomical, chemical and paleontological knowledge of his time, he preferred, on one hand to stick to his own scientific perceptions, sober and fearless, and on the other hand to include the historical picture of sacred as well as the secular history, which his age offered him, an attitude which our contemporary geologists declare to be fully and scientifically justified.
- 139.
Cf. Kircher, Mundus Subterraneus 1, p. 70-71 and 230 ff.
- 140.
Herodotus (II, 5) calls Egypt a gift of the Nile, and Plato (Timaeus 22 D) knows about an Egyptian priest who says to Solon: “and from this disaster (i. e. temporary ruin) the Nile rescues and frees us, he who is our saviour who will never be dry”. (Cf. Strabon, Geography, C. 36, I, 2, 29) (Wi).
- 141.
The Greek traditions on flood disaster are found in Plato: “None but the shepherds on the mountains were left, who finally descended into the valleys, founding new cultures, as Troy was founded by people descending from Mount Ida.” (Cf. Plato, Timaeus 22 c. ss. Critias 111 d, The Laros III, 677 a—b. OPH 2, p. 340.— Wi 268 f.).
- 142.
To explain the evolution of the surface of the earth within the limits of the time which was accepted by the 17th century, Stensen is forced to accept the theory of violent catastrophes in nature (Wi).
- 143.
As to the connection with the Mediterranean cf. Plato, Timaeus p. 24 c. Ss., and Plinius, Naturalis Historiae Libri, XXXVII. lib. II, c. 85 ss. (OPH 2, 340).
- 144.
Plato says in Timaeus, p. 25. c—d: “But later when the violent earthquakes and flood disasters occurred all your military power collapsed; in a single disastrous night it sank and disappeared like the island of Atlantis. That is why in this area the sea is impassable and pathless even to-day, because a muddy bar obstructs the passage, caused by the immersed island”. Cf. K. E. A. v. Hoff, Geschichte der durch Überlieferung nachgewiesenen natürlichen Veränderungen der Erdoberfläche. 1-5. (Gotha 1822-1841). Especially 1, 102 ff.
- 145.
Here, at the end of his Prodromus, Steno declares that he would prove his statements in his Dissertatio by mentioning the individual items and places. Since he never wrote this Dissertation such a work as Fr. Rodolico, L'Esplorazione naturalistica dell'Appennino (Firenze 1963) may act as a compensation. The book not only describes these places by the help of photos and maps, but also tells of the geologists of the 18th century, describing them, cf. p. 49 ff., 151 ff. His Indice dei toponimi Appenninici (417) together with Steno’s Indice may be a great help for everyone who wants to investigate the latter’s research during his visits to Amiata and Radicofani, Valdarno and the environs of Firenze, l'Alpi Apuane, Carrara, Lucca, Pisa, Livorno etc. Cf. also Rodolico, Toscana etc.
- 146.
This final remark must always be kept in mind, when judging the Prodromus.
- 147.
A distinct reference to the law of constancy of crystal angles (Mo).
- 148.
A second reference to the constancy of crystal angles. Hobbs calls Stensen the discoverer of the fundamental law of crystallography known as the law of constancy of interfacial angles (171).
- 149.
It is the combination of Rhombohedron (100) and striated pentagon with (211) smooth triangular bodies.
- 150.
The pentagons are the planes of (100), the striated triangles those of (211), the twelve smooth triangles belong to the pyramid (311), and the small quadrangles are the planes of the (211) obtuse rhombohedron (332). (Mi).
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Kardel, T., Maquet, P. (2018). 2.27 The Prodromus to a Dissertation on a Solid Naturally Contained Within a Solid. In: Nicolaus Steno. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-55047-2_38
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