Abstract
IT happens sometimes in the history of science that a few striking facts lead to the building up of a far-reaching theory, which at first satisfies us, and with which, without being rigorously critical, we endeavour to bring the further results of experience into conformity. But contradictions and difficulties gradually manifest themselves, and go on accumulating, until at last we are convinced that we have built on an unsure foundation, and that the edifice that we have raised upon it must be utterly pulled down. Then follows a period of discussion and collection of further evidence, during which we abstain from any attempt to substitute new and more correct explanation for that which we have abandoned, until by assiduous labour we shall have prepared a broader and more stable basis for the superstructure.
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B., H. The Climates of Past Ages1. Nature 42, 148–151 (1890). https://doi.org/10.1038/042148c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/042148c0