The present status of the theory of the earth's magnetism

It is characteristic of Gauss's method of working that he published no investigation until it was either finally completed or had been developed to the highest stage attainable at the time with the material at hand. Were there any weak points, no opportunity to point these out was neglected by him. Herein lies the classic value of his works, and so, naturally, it came to pass that for many years the principal endeavor of his successors was to fill in the missing links, and that only recently attempts have been made to farther develop his methods. In the field of terrestrial magnetism, especially, did further development of method take place but recently—hardly more than a decade ago. Since then, however, a wonderful zeal, enthusiasm, and singleness of purpose, as probably in no other branch of geophysics, have been displayed. This activity has disclosed a great number of new ideas and points of view, and has revealed a more intimate connection between terrestrial magnetism, meteorology, and atmospheric electricity than was at first suspected. This discovery, though but very recent, is leading future investigation into totally different paths from those of the earlier days.