Abstract
PROF. HERMANN WAGNER, of Göttingen, one of the best-known geographers and statisticians of Germany, has recently published in Gerland's Beiträge zur Geophysik, a critical study1 of a somewhat exceptional kind. The moral of the criticism is that the agreement of the final results of a prolonged series of calculations is no proof of the correctness of the individual stages of the work, and the application is that no elaborate series of calculations should be built upon until every step has stood the test of independent verification. One is tempted to suppose that all scientific workers believed in these principles, and that the steam-hammer strokes of Prof. Wagner's ponderous criticism are really more valuable in forging a firmer structure of fact, than for the sparks of proverbial philosophy elicited by battering the work of pioneers. The solid outcome of the investigation is the most detailed calculation yet arrived at of the area and volume of the portions of the earth's crust above and below sea-level, leading to a new and interesting division of the surface of the lithosphere into regions of special morphological character. Although this comes last in the discussion, we prefer to place it first in the appreciation, because constructive work is always more pleasing to contemplate than destructive efforts, and because those who, like myself, have been somewhat severely handled by Prof. Wagner, will probably be most willing to acknowledge the superior accuracy of his results.
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MILL, H. The Relief of the Earth's Crust. Nature 54, 112–114 (1896). https://doi.org/10.1038/054112a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/054112a0