Demonstrating his 'sense of the value' of Ernst H P A Haeckel'sHaeckel, Ernst Heinrich Philipp August
(1834–1919)
DSB CloseView the register entry >> book (which is intended for 'an educated public') by noting 'down some of the more important criticisms which have been suggested to me by its perusal' (13), Huxley examines the concepts of phylogeny and dysteleology, as well as Haeckel's views on the influence of external and internal conditions on the tendency to vary in a given organism. He also suggests that neither the teleological nor the mechanical view of nature can afford an adequate explanation of the final causes of things, and instead advises an agnostic position: 'why trouble oneself about matters which are out of reach when the working of the mechanism itself, which is of infinite practical importance, affords scope for all our energies?' (14).
Academy, 1 (1869–70), 14–15.
[Review of Facts and Arguments for Darwin, by Fritz Müller]
Beginning with geology, the 'only one point upon which I fundamentally and entirely disagree with Professor HaeckelHaeckel, Ernst Heinrich Philipp August
(1834–1919)
DSB CloseView the register entry >>' (40), Huxley continues his examination of The Natural History of Creation. Rejecting Haeckel's conception of intervals between the various geological epochs of which no records exist, he points to the actual extent of the completeness of the geological record, as well as the fact that the crocodilian, lacertilian, and chelonian Reptilia 'form of terrestrial life persisted, throughout all these ages, with no important modification' (41). In addition, he also indicates numerous problems with the taxonomy based on Haeckel's concept of phylogeny. Nevertheless, Huxley finishes the second notice by stating 'I do not like to conclude without reminding the reader of my entire concurrence with the general tenor and spirit of the work, and of my high estimate of its value' (43).
Academy, 1 (1869–70), 43–44.
[Review of Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind, by James Mill]
Critical review of 'the foremost representatives of the psychology of association', contending that their attempt to 'apply scientific methods to mind' (43) in fact 'has many points in common with what is often supposed by its supporters to be its greatest adversary, the philosophy of KantKant, Immanuel
(1724–1804)
DSB CloseView the register entry >>' (44).
In dogmatic theology 'revelation is given in the forms of human thought' and 'if it ever seems to contradict the primary revelation of natural science, this is owing to an error of the fallible human intelligence which misapprehends it [...]. Reason may, accordingly, be used in a negative sense to verify revelation' (68).
Describes a story concerning 'a quadruped-Frankenstein, a supernatural tiger, destroying the Wagners who created him', and complains at the incongruity of a Jayasthalian guru being described as 'a physiologico-philosophico-psychologico-materialist' (94).
Section: Science and Philosophy
Academy, 1 (1869–70), 99–101.
[Review of First Book of Indian Botany, by Daniel Oliver, and Flora of Middlesex, by Henry Trimen and William T Thiselton-Dyer]
Reports that recent developments in 'Geographical Botany' reject the 'old assumption [...] that every species has been placed by nature in the region of the earth which is best adapted for its healthy growth and rapid propagation'. Rather, the experience of 'recent colonization', as well as the work of Joseph D HookerHooker, Sir Joseph Dalton
(1817–1911)
DSB
ODNB CloseView the register entry >> on insular floras and Alfred R WallaceWallace, Alfred Russel
(1823–1913)
DSB CloseView the register entry >> on the differing populations of islands in the Malayan Archipelago, have drawn attention to 'the facility or difficulty of the means of communication' between the floras of different continents. (99) Notes that 'The bearing of these facts on the theory of the origin of new species by isolation and gradually increased differentations from the parent type need not be pointed out'. Botany teachers have come to 'recognise the principle that "clinical" instruction, so to speak, is as necessary in acquiring a knowledge of vegetable as of animal anatomy' and 'the lecturer must have at his command abundance of fresh specimens of the orders he is describing'. It is an 'inconvenience' that this approach is impossible in text-books. (100)
Bell 1869Bell, William A
1869. New Tracks in North America. A Journal of Travel and Adventure Whilst
Engaged in the Survey for a Southern Railroad to the Pacific Ocean During
1867–8, London: Chapman and Hall
CloseView the register entry >>
In this Arabic cosmography 'man, with his intellectual and bodily properties' is included in the sub-kingdom of animals. Notes that 'By the side of much that is of scientific importance, there is much that is exaggerated and even grotesque', and warns that 'The reader who is unacquainted with Arabic should [...] be cautioned not to form an estimate of Arabic science from Kazwînîal-Qazwīnī, Zakariyā ibn
Muhammad ibn Mahmūd abu yahya
(c. 1203–1283)
DSB CloseView the register entry >>'. (111)
Helmholtz claims that the conflicting axioms of geometry 'may be made generally interesting to all who have studied even the elements of mathematics', and attempts 'to give here the general drift and the results of these investigations, as far as it is possible to do so, without entering into mathematical calculations or using formulæ' (128). After examining the non-Euclidean forms of geometry put forward by Georg F B RiemannRiemann, Georg Friedrich Bernhard
(1826–66)
DSB CloseView the register entry >>, Helmholtz concludes that 'the axioms on which our geometrical system is based, are no necessary truths, depending solely on irrefragible laws of our thinking. On the contrary, other systems of geometry may be developed with perfect logical consistency. Our axioms are, indeed, the scientific expression of a most general fact of experience, the fact, namely, that in our space bodies can move freely without altering their form. From this fact of experience it follows, that our space is a space of constant curvature, but the value of this curvature can be found only by actual measurements' (130).
Hooker 1855Hooker, Joseph
Dalton 1855. Flora Indica: Being a Systematic Account of the
Plants of British India, Together with Observations on the Structure and
Affinities of their Natural Orders and Genera, London: Reeve
CloseView the register entry >>
Section: Oriental and Comparative Philology
Academy, 1 (1869–70), 136–37.
[Review of On the Origin of Language, by Wilhelm H I Bleek]
Advises that 'However we may explain the origin of man (whether by tracing it to a species of ape, or in any other way,—we need not enter into this question, as it is still a moot point among naturalists)—man first properly became man' only when he acquired the related capacities to think and speak. The evolutionary study of thought and language 'can only form a subject of investigation for those who are convinced of the descent of man from some kind of animal, and they form for those a portion of the researches on the transformations, which brought about the transition of this animal into man'. (137)
Review of Carl G Semper'sSemper, Carl Gottfried
(1832–93)
DSB CloseView the register entry >> 'observations in several branches of knowledge of general interest' (152–53). Particular attention is paid to 'the author's attempt to invalidate the theory of Mr. DarwinDarwin, Charles Robert
(1809–82)
DSB CloseView the register entry >>, which, as is well known, accounts for the formation of atolls and barrier reefs [...] by the supposition that the submarine foundation from which the reefs have grown has been gradually sinking, the atolls representing cases where the last peak of encircled land has disappeared beneath the waters'. However, Semper's observation of the formation of atolls in regions which are gradually rising 'cannot be admitted as an important objection to a theory which explains the wonderful phenomenon of countless atolls, without a single peak of elevated land, spread over a tract of ocean in the Pacific 4000 miles in length'. (153)
Theological ethics afford a 'mediating sphere' for 'the old positive Christian piety' and the 'scientific conscience'. Richard Rothe'sRothe, Richard
(1799–1867)
WBI CloseView the register entry >> book does not accept 'as some do on both sides, that all such attempts at mediation are vain'. Rather, it aims to 'present a Christian theory of the world which the exact thinker and the devout Christian could alike accept'. In this view God exists in man's 'consciousness'. The 'logical examination of this thought of God [...] yields to the ethical speculator a true knowledge of God'. (178)
Section: Science and Philosophy
Academy, 1 (1869–70), 181–82.
[Review of Recherches Historiques sur le Principe d'Archimède, by Charles Thurot]
In a history of the mixed fortunes of the hydrostatical theorem first advanced by ArchimedesArchimedes
(c. 287–212 BC)
DSB CloseView the register entry >>, Smith notes that 'even under existing circumstances, it may happen here and there that a scientific discovery is neglected, or remains fruitless for a time, from some obscurity in the mode of its presentation by the first discoverer, or from his own imperfect comprehension of his discovery' or 'from the smallness of the number of persons interested in the same inquiry, or from prejudice in favour of an established scientific creed' (182).
Celebrates Michael Faraday'sFaraday, Michael
(1791–1867)
DSB CloseView the register entry >> 'irresistible candour and truth of character' (206), his 'effective methods of scientific exposition', and his intellect which 'united flexibility with [...] strength', but remarks that 'In strong contrast with this intellectual expansiveness is his fixity in religion, but this is a subject which cannot be discussed here'. Also avers that there has never existed 'a manlier, purer, steadier love' than that which Faraday had for his wife: 'Like a burning diamond, it continued to shed, for six-and-forty years, its white and smokeless glow'. (205) Concludes that although Faraday and Humphry DavyDavy, Sir Humphry, Baronet
(1778–1829)
DSB
ODNB CloseView the register entry >> had very different characters, in 'one great particular they agreed. Each of them could have turned his science to immense commercial profit, but neither of them did so. The noble excitement of research, and the delight of discovery, constituted their reward. I commend them to the reverence which great gifts greatly exercised ought to inspire. They were both ours; and through the coming centuries England will be able to point with just pride to the possession of such men' (206).
Notes that John H NewmanNewman, John Henry
(1801–90)
ODNB CloseView the register entry >> identifies a 'special sense' in the mind dealing with 'extra-logical judgement'. He 'erects it into a mental faculty, and gives it the name of the Illative Sense'. In this view the 'laws of mind are the expression not of mere structure, but of the will of Him who made it. He who speaks through our conscience to distinguish right from wrong, speaks through our Illative sense to distinguish truth from falsehood. We are bound to seek truth and look for certainty by modes of proof, which, when reduced to the shape of formal propositions, fail to satisfy the requisitions of science'. (228) The book, however, fails to show convincingly 'how the human intellect can warrant to itself its passage from phenomena of sense to a belief in the existence of supersensual essences' (230).
Continues with an account of Michael Faraday'sFaraday, Michael
(1791–1867)
DSB CloseView the register entry >> later life and scientific work. Reflects on Faraday's Sandemanianism and his role as a philosophical experimenter opposed to the reduction of natural science to mathematical deduction. In considering Faraday's dealings with British and French politicians, Tyndall remarks 'Should the necessity arise, the French EmperorNapoleon III, Emperor of France (originally
Louis Napoléon (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte))
(1808–73)
CBD CloseView the register entry >> will not lack at the outset the best appliances of modern science; while we, I fear, shall have to learn the magnitude of the resources we are now neglecting amid the pangs of actual war'. He adds in a footnote, 'What we need in this country is a man in authority, competent to select from the vast, but in many particulars irrelevant mass of science, those portions which are of real and paramount importance, and determined to have them properly taught'. Concludes that even if he had not been a Sandemanian, 'Faraday would still have been a religious man'. (234)
Regrets that the usefulness of George Rolleston'sRolleston, George
(1829–81)
DSB CloseView the register entry >> book is 'limited in large measure to Oxford students' (234), and that it does not supply 'the great want of the present day [...] a book which will teach students how to dissect animals, how to study zoology practically' (235).
Criticises Ludwig Geiger'sGeiger, Ludwig
(1848–1919)
WBI CloseView the register entry >> contention that language began with an original 'cry of language' induced by the sight of a body or face, and instead favours a number of 'historical, stages in the primitive development of language' (243).
Comparative Anatomy, Darwinism, Biology, Morphology, History of Science, Historiography, Naturphilosophie, Animal Development, Microscopy, Nomenclature, Spontaneous Generation, Controversy
In comparing this second edition of Carl Gegenbaur'sGegenbaur, Carl
(1826–1903)
DSB CloseView the register entry >> book with the first edition published in 1859, Rolleston remarks on 'the influence which our great English writer on Biology [Charles R DarwinDarwin, Charles Robert
(1809–82)
DSB CloseView the register entry >>] has exercised in the course of the decennium just ended'. Notes the 'increasing hold which the study of morphology is obtaining on the minds, not only of experts and specialists, but of thinkers generally', and then surveys the 'varying fortunes of the study of Comparative Anatomy' from before AristotleAristotle
(384–322 BC)
DSB CloseView the register entry >> to the present day. (258) The theory of development of Jean-Baptiste P A de Monet, chevalier de LamarckLamarck, Jean Baptiste Pierre
Antoine de Monet, chevalier de
(1744–1829)
DSB CloseView the register entry >>, is 'much better based than any of the similar theories' adumbrated by the German school of Naturphilosophie, and since the publication of Darwin 1859Darwin, Charles
Robert 1859. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural
Selection; or, The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life,
London: John Murray
CloseView the register entry >> there has been a 'rehabilitation of the doctrine of the mutability of species after a half century of exile and ignominy'. Also welcomes 'the convenient nomenclature of HaeckelHaeckel, Ernst Heinrich Philipp August
(1834–1919)
DSB CloseView the register entry >> [...] with which the English ear has at last been made so familiar', but complains that in Gegenbaur's book there is 'no reference to the works of Mr. Herbert SpencerSpencer, Herbert
(1820–1903)
DSB CloseView the register entry >>'. Gegenbaur's admission that spontaneous generation cannot be disproved is 'not without importance at the present juncture of the controversy between the Panspermists as represented by PasteurPasteur, Louis
(1822–95)
DSB CloseView the register entry >>, and their opponents just reinforced by the accession to their ranks of Dr. Charlton BastianBastian, Henry Charlton
(1837–1915)
DSB CloseView the register entry >>'. (259)
Sceptical of Ernst H Hallier'sHallier, Ernst Hans
(1831–1904)
DSB CloseView the register entry >> contention that each epidemic disease 'owes its origin to the development of a specific fungus', a conclusion 'which referred the origin of Cholera to the occurrence of Urocystis occulta, on the rice plant'. Observes that 'Few matters are more interesting, and I may add more important, than the real nature of the minute bodies about which so much has been said in connection with the subject of spontaneous generation', and notes 'the interest [...] raised by the promised work of Dr. BastianBastian, Henry Charlton
(1837–1915)
DSB CloseView the register entry >>, who believes that he has arrived at something definite on the subject'. (260)
Academy, 1 (1869–70), 260–61.
[Review of The Elements of Inductive Logic, by Thomas Fowler]
Opposes Thomas Fowler'sFowler, Thomas
(1832–1904)
ODNB CloseView the register entry >> insistence on an entirely inductive standard of proof, and avers 'In reality there is but one way of demonstrating truth. A proposition can only be proved by showing that it necessarily results from certain other propositions, resting either on intuitive or sensible evidence' (260). Concludes by questioning why the hypothesis of design by an intelligent creator is 'illegitimate [...] in scientific research, if it be so difficult to exclude it? If we have to inquire how the structure of an organ is adapted to its function, will not this hypothesis serve as a guide? And, in like manner, it will surely not be useless when we seek to know how organisation in general is adapted to the preservation of the individual and the continuation of the species' (261).
Details the omissions and errors of Carl Gegenbaur'sGegenbaur, Carl
(1826–1903)
DSB CloseView the register entry >> book (i.e. the 'most seductively plausible of Phylogenies' which ultimately do not 'admit to verification' (287)), consistently noting the differences between German and English practices of comparative anatomy.
Academy, 1 (1869–70), 289–90.
[Review of Researches on Diamagnetism and Magne-Crystallic Action, by John Tyndall]
[Review of The Origin and History of Irish Names of Places, by Patrick W Joyce, and The Gaelic Topography of Scotland, and What it Proves, by James A Robertson]