Gardiner on "Coral Reefs and Atolls": A Discussion

Abstract

Coral reefs, being the product of lime-secreting organisms, have been studied by a number of British biologists, who have attempted to solve the geological problem of reef origins without using geological methods of investigation. Various erroneous conclusions have therefore been announced. The latest of these is by Gardiner of Cambridge University. The geological inadequacy of his discussion is shown: first, by his failure to generalize his facts properly; second, by his adoption of an unwarranted assumption at the beginning of his argument; third, by his precipitate rejection of a theory against which he has a strong prejudice; fourth, by his failure to deduce the essential consequences of the theories that he examines; and fifth, by the lack of an impartial confrontation of such consequences with appropriate facts as a means of making choice between successful and unsuccessful theories.