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Amos Eaton
(17 May 1776 - 10 May 1842)
American botanist, geologist and lawyer.
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Science Quotes by Amos Eaton (1 quote)
Geology has its peculiar difficulties, from which all other sciences are exempt. Questions in chemistry may be settled in the laboratory by experiment. Mathematical and philosophical questions may be discussed, while the materials for discussion are ready furnished by our own intellectual reflections. Plants, animals and minerals, may be arranged in the museum, and all questions relating to their intrinsic principles may be discussed with facility. But the relative positions, the shades of difference, the peculiar complexions, whether continuous or in subordinate beds, are subjects of enquiry in settling the character of rocks, which can be judged of while they are in situ only.
— Amos Eaton
A Geological and Agricultural Survey of the District Adjoining the Erie Canal (1824), 8.
See also:
- 17 May - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Eaton's birth.
- Education for a Technological Society: A Sesquicentennial History of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, by Samuel Rezneck. - book suggestion.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
