An outline using section titles with some comments and quotes

• Sections 1-2: Introductory sections
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Outline of the argument
• Sections 3-7: Revolutions: A key section that lays out the evidence for past revolutions. Cuvier uses a carefully constructed imaginary “tour” that successively discusses young flat-lying, late Secondary (“Tertiary”) strata, dipping Seconary strata, and Primary rocks.
  • 3. The Earth at first glance
  • 4. Initial evidence of revolutions: deformed rocks
  • 5. Proofs that these revolutions have been numerous: fossil record (Paris Basin)
  • 6. Proofs that these revolutions have been sudden: evidence is really frozen mammoths
  • 7. Proofs that there were revolutions before organisms exited: Primary strata deformed
• Sections 8-18: Modern terrestrial and astronomical processes are inadequate to cause revolutions, implying that past processes differed from present day.
  • 8. Examinations of the causes that today still operate at the Earth’s surface
    • “The thread of operations is broken; nature has changed course, and none of the agents she now employs today would have been sufficient to produce her former works.”
  • 9. Landslides
  • 10. Alluvia
  • 11. Dunes
  • 12. Cliffs
  • 13. Deposits under water
  • 14.Precipitates
  • 15. Corals
  • 16. Incrustations
  • 17. Volcanoes
    • “Thus it would be in vain to seek, among the forces that now act on the earth’s surface, causes adequate to produce the revolutions and catastrophes the traces of which are shown in its crust.”
  • 18. Astronomical causes
• Sections 19-21: Attack on geological “systems”
  • 19. Former systems of geologists
  • 20. More modern systems
  • 21. Divergences of geologists’ systems
• Sections 22-25: How to move forward – a research agenda (part 1)
  • 22. Causes of these divergences
  • 23. Nature and conditions of the problem
  • 24. Reason that the conditions have been neglected
  • 25. Progress of mineral geology: need to integrate study of rocks & minerals, fossils, and field work
• Sections 26-33: Fossils
  • 26. Importance of fossils in geology
    • Need to take the study of fossils to the field and place them in their stratigraphical position.
    • Evidence of environmental changes => revolutions
  • 27. Special importance of the fossil bones of quadrupeds
    • More reliable than shells (invertebrates)
      1. Clear evidence of revolutions
      2. Revolutions (marine incursions) had more effect on quadrupeds
      3. Modern quadrupeds are relatively well known
  • 28. There is little hope of discovering new species of large quadrupeds
  • 29. The fossil bones of quadrupeds are difficult to identify
  • 30. Principles of investigation: comparative anatomy (a bit long!)
  • 31. Tabulation of the results of the present work: 78 quadrupeds (admirably brief!)
  • 32. Relations between species and beds
    • Fossil progression suggested based on vertebrate fossils
      1. No fossils = Primary
      2. Fish = appear in earliest Secondary
      3. Reptiles and kin = appear in mid-Secondary
      4. Mammals = appear in late Secondary (above Chalk)
  • 33. The lost species are not varieties of living species (critique of Lamark)
• Sections 34-39: Humans and the most recent revolution
  • 34. There are no human fossil bones
  • 35. Physical proofs of the low antiquity of the continents in their present state
  • 36. All known traditions make the renewal of society reach back to a major catastrophe
  • 37. The astronomical monuments left by the ancients cannot bear the excessively remote dates that have been claimed
  • 38. False conclusions about mine workings
  • 39. General conclusion about the time of the last revolution
    • Last revolution predated appearance of humans
    • 4-6,000 years ago based on limited duration of human “histories”
• Section 40: A summing up – with more research ideas.
  • 40. Ideas for research still to be carried out in geology (research agenda part 2 – extends section 25)
    • Stratigraphic study of Secondary strata
      • Succession of formations
      • Fossil distributions
      • Comparisons of different basins
    • Poses possible topics
    • Analogy with studying French history

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