GEOLOGY
Throughout his life, Glass was a keen and well respected amateur geologist, having been well acquainted with Sir Roderick Murchison and Richard Owen, the renowned anatomist who coined the term “Dinosauria.”
Silurian Rock
Glass is credited with the discovery of a patch of Silurian rock (Wenlock Limestone) rising up through the Old Eed Sandstone at Pen-y-lan, near Cardiff. Glass was recognised and credited for the discovery from Roderick Murchison, a leading scientific expert of the day. The Silurian system had only recently been formally defined by Murchison and this discovery of Silurian rock exposures in an unexpected location helped refine geological mapping of Wales.
Brachiopods
Perhaps the greatest contribution that Glass made to geology was his methodology whereby the delicate calcareous internal structures of many of the Palasozoic Brachiopod shells could be exposed for examination Davidson alludes to this "Prominent in this difficult study has been the Rev. Glass, to whose indefatigable perseverance and consummate skill I am indebted... I can find no words sufficiently expressive to convey the gratitude I feel towards him for the unrelaxing energy he has displayed during upwards of three years in this difficult kind of investigation" [Davidson's Monograph]
New Species
He was also fortunate in finding in the Upper Chalk of Charlton, Kent, a new genus of echinoid, which the late Dr. S. P. Woodward described and figured under the name of Echinothuria floris.
