As a graduate student at Columbia University, I remember the a priori derision of my distinguished stratigraphy professor toward a visiting Australian drifter [a supporter of the theory of continental drift]. Today my own students would dismiss with even more derision anyone who denied the evident truth of continental drift - a prophetic madman is at least amusing; a superannuated fuddy-duddy is merely pitiful.
"Ever Since Darwin: Reflections in Natural History". Book by Stephen Jay Gould. "The Validation of Continental Drift", pp. 160-161, 1977.
![As a graduate student at Columbia University, I remember the a priori derision of my distinguished stratigraphy professor toward a visiting Australian drifter [a supporter of the theory of continental drift]. Today my](http://cdn.quoteddaily.com/images/stephen-jay-gould/as-a-graduate-student-at-columbia-university-i-remember-the-a-priori-derision-of-my-distinguished-stratigraphy-professor-toward-a.jpg)