Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 6.djvu/521

 GEORGE

453

GEORGE

sionaries and the members of their orders in Europe it is not surprising that the latter also compiled volu- minous geographical summaries. Such are the works of the Jesuit Riccioli (1598-1671), the " Almagestum No- vum" and "Geographia et Hydrographia reformata" (1661). Riccioli was a worthy contemporary of the great Varenius, and was really entitled to rank as a reformer, especially in cartography. Father Atha- nasius Kircher (1G02-S0) among other things devoted himself to physics. His most original observations are set down in his "Magnes, sive de arte magnetica" (1641) and his "Mundus subterraneus" (1664). He made the ascent of Vesuvius, Etna, and Stromboli, at the risk of his life in order to measure their craters. On the basis of his observations he advanced a theory concerning the interior of the earth which was ac- cepted by Leibniz and, after him, by an entire school of geologists, the Neptunists. He also was the author of the first attempt at a physical map, to wit, the chart of ocean currents (1665).

The Jesuit Father HeinrichScherer( 1628-1704), pro- fessor at Dillingen, devoted his entire life to geographi- cal study. He incorporated in his works all that was then known of the earth. His "Geographica hierar- chica " contains the earliest mission atlas. The science of map-making owes much to him. His "Geographia naturalis" contains the first orographical and hydro- graphical sjTioptic charts. His "Geographia artifi- cialis ' ' recommends a system of cartographic projection which the geographer Bonne, in 1752, accepted and carried out as one of the best. Alongside of these mighty works, which, in imitation of the great encyclo- jiedic works of the Middle Ages, attempt to give a sur- vey of the whole geographical knowletlge of a period, we now meet in increasing numbers the equally im- jiortant treatises on special subjects which resemble the works of our modern .scientists. The name of the Dane Nicholas Steno is one of the foremost in the his- tory of geology. He was tutor to the sons of Grand Duke Cosimo III and later vicar-general of the North- ern Missions (1638-87). In the opinion of Zittel he was far in advance of his time. He was the first scientist to attempt the solution of geological prob- lems by induction. He was also the first scholar who clearly conceived the idea that the history of the earth could be inferred from its structure and its com- ponent parts. His little monograph " De solido intra solidum naturaliter contcnto" (1669) was the foun- dation of crystallography and stratigraphy, or the science of the earth's strata. One of the most pains- taking geologists of the eighteenth century was the .\bbate Lazzaro Spallanzani (1729-99). With him rank Fathers de la Torre (Storia e fenomeni del Vesu- vio, 1755), Fortis (1741-1803), Palassou (La miner- alogie des Monts Pyrenees, 1782), Torrubia (1754, in America and the Philippines), Canon Recupero, at Catania (d. 1787), and many others.

The history of meteorology tells the same story as that of mathematical geography. This science also depended on widely scattered observations which could only be obtained from the monasteries scattered over Europe. Raineri, a pupil of Galileo, made the first records of the fluctuations of the thermometer. The first meteorological .society, the "Societas Mete- orologica PaUitina" (1780-95), accomplished splendid results. Its founder was the former Jesuit and court chaplain Johann Jacob Ilemmer. Almost all of its cor- respondents belonged to the various religious orders of Germany, Austria-Hungary, France, and Italy. The rapid growth of ethnography and linguistics was ren- dered possible solely by the vast accumulation of ma- terials made by the missionaries in the course of the centuries. There was hardly a writer of travels who did not to some extent contribute to them, ^^"hile many of them occupied themselves with this science exclusively, we mention here only the "pioneers of comparative ethnography", Fathers Dobrizhoffer

(1718-91), in Paraguay, and Laliteux in Canada; the noted .Sanskrit scholars Fathers Ilaiixleden (1681- 1732), Cceurdeux (1767), and Paulinus a Santo Bar- tholomeo (1776-89, in India), and, finally, the able Father Hervas (1733-1809). The latter's chief work, the "Catalogo de las lenguas" (1800-03), was pub- lished in Rome, whither all the members of the sup- pressed Jesuit Order had flocked.

Since the beginning of the nineteenth century the progress of geographical science, as was to be expected, is due chiefly to laymen, who, without religious aims, have continued the work on the foundations already provided. The co-operation of the clergy was of sec- ondary importance, but it never entirely ceased, and, true to its great traditions, it has won a place of hon- our even amid the stupendous achievements of modern research. By way of proof, we close with the names of the theologian Moigno (1804-84), the founder and publisher of the natural science periodicals " Le Cos- mos" (1852 ) and "Les Mondes" (186.3 ); of

the astronomer Secchi (1818-78), who, among other things, invented the meteorograph in 1858; also of the Lazarist Fathers Hue (18.39-60), Gabet, and Armand David (d. 1900). The last-named made themselves famous by their explorations in China, Manchuria, and Tibet. Finally, we should remember the astro- nomical, meteorological, seismological, and magnetic observatories established by the Society of Jesus all over the world (Rome, Stonyhurst, Kalocsa, Gra- nada, Tortosa, Georgetown near \^'ashington, Manila, Belen in Cuba, Ambohidempona in Madagascar, Cal- cutta, Zi-ka-wei, BominM, .iml Hulawayo on the Zam- besi, etc.) and their ]» rii^lh il ■. ports.

DeBacker, BiV,/!n//i..(,. - ./rfirr. rfr J. (I.i^geand

Paris, 1.S76): BE\'irY, /' /'■ >r '.--n ^■.-, .7'-'--''ii/ (vols.

I-III, London, 1-": \-««- . I; . . II '.,„kt die

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7 (Frankfort. ISiili, L\.Hi>it,H, li,in,,.lin, .i ,\,i,„,i. 1. U (Paris, 1904-06); Fischer, Die Entdeckuiifim der Nvrmunnmi in Amcrika in Stimmen ans Maria Laach, Suppl., XXI (Freiburg, 190:j); Gi'NTHER, Shidien zur Ge»ehiehlc drr mnlhcmalisehen t/nd phj/f^ikalischen Geographic (Halle. 1^77 7!t': Hartig, Arlfrre Entdrrkitngsgesehiehte und Knrlo'n'' ' ' ' ■ in Mil- l,d,nin, u ,l,r k. k. geograph. Geseltschafl. \l \ 1 1 I \ i. ', ,, 190.5).

L's.S-ivS.i; HiMBOLDT, Kritische UntersutI ,■ - histor,

Kri'i'i, I '■:■■<,■ I'l r geogr. Kentnisse von der luu'.ii U ....', i-lll (Ber- lin 1^ ' 1 KM, Kosmos, I-IV (Stuttgart, ISGU); Huondeh, />' ■ V '■ rjmissionare des 17. u, is, Jahrhunderls in Slim- in, :;; ,1 LaacA, Suppl., XIX (Freiburg, 1S99); Heim- m 1 iiKu. yv.. I hdcn und Kongreoationen der katholischen Kirche, I-III U'aderborn, 1907-08); Kbetschmer, Die physische Erd- ktaide im christlichen Mitielalter (Vienna, 1889); Idem, Die Enfdeekung Amerikas (Berlin, 1892); Lebzelter, Kalholische Mussmnare ats Naturforscher und Arr:le (Vienna, 1902); Miv- I.EB (ed.), Mappa mundi: Die nil. i. n 11. /// .i,/mv. I-VI (Stutt- gart, 1,S9.')-9S); Marinelli, Du I >•'! ;u,l, !•■ i den Kirehenva- tem, Oerm. tr. by Nehm^nn (l.,>-r\\n 1SS1 l-Sr HREIBER, Dl, .r. ,i,l,„ .1. n. ,1. l^ .J,lh:lu,,nl,.l ,.• ■ 1 ■ hi^SZUT

.\l,.„.,„,, III \.i( /r i;.i'/ "%.''. M .'-;. \l 1 ■- \l 1.1903).

l."i ll;. JOS JJl, i.K >MM-Mu.ii-,. // Knphie

ir.ir]-, 1S7.;', /luh, /'ti ru/i/.i.;i;n(i//.i ' I . ■ I, i.onede-

rivali daila Gtografia (\'cnice, lS2j). Q. HaKTIG.

George, Saint, martyr, patron of England, suffered at or near Lydda, also known as Dinspolis, in Pales- tine, probably before the iiiuc of Cnnstantine. Ac- cording to the very careful invest i^atinn of the whole question recently instituted by Father Delehaye, the Bollandist, in the light of modern sources of informa- tion, the above statement sums up all that can safely be affirmed about St. George, despite his early cultus and pre-eminent renown both in East and West (see Dele- haye, "Saints Militaires", 1909, pp. 45-76). Earlier studies of the subject have generally been based upon an attempt to determine which of the various sets of legendary "Acts" was most likely to preserve traces of a primitive and authentic record. Delehaye rightly