Science Writing in the Romantic Era 1770-1837 : Volume II: The Natural World (Nineteenth-century Science, Technology and Medicine: Sources and Documents)

This was the heroic period of plant collection: Europeans now had the means to collect and study flora and fauna from all over the world; they also developed classificatory systems that allowed them to create universal schema for plant reproduction and animal organization. This was also the period in which geology came of age (and acquired its name) as studies of strata enabled the earth to be understood as millions of years old – undermining Biblical authority (and again laying the basis of theories of evolution). The rocks revealed vast forces folding, faulting and eroding the land over eons; they also yielded fossils that were now used as keys to dating and that demonstrated that whole species had become extinct, again undermining biblical teaching.