Reports a 'frightful colliery explosion in South Wales, which cost the lives of some 250 miners', although acknowledging that 'in coal mines there exist a certain number of explosive elements. Against these we must take such precautions as science and experience suggest, but it seems to be only too certain that what ever we do there are sure to be flaws now and then, and [...] colliery explosions, will occasionally take place'. Indeed, the actual 'miners regard the risk of explosion' with a creditably 'vigilant nonchalance' and 'cool-headedness'. (7) Following the murder of the French president Marie F S CarnotCarnot, Marie François Sadi
(1837–94)
CBD CloseView the register entry >> by an Italian anarchist, suggests that the 'risk that rulers run from the microbe of assassination is increasing, but it is still comparatively infinitesimal compared with the risk they face unconcernedly from the microbe bred in the sewers. If anyone doubt it, let him ask any insurance office the difference between the premium which they would charge for insuring M. Casimir-PérierCasmir-Périer, Jean Pierre Paul
(1847–1907)
CBD CloseView the register entry >> [the new president] against assassination and against zymotic disease. Assassination impresses the imagination more than typhoid fever, but it is not half so deadly' (9).
Complains that the article is 'illustrated by copyright photographs, which are the nakedest which have ever been published in a magazine, and the apologetic fig-leaf is much worse than nothing'.
Explains that Arabella Kenealy'sKenealy, Arabella Madonna
(1858–1938)
ODNB CloseView the register entry >> new novel argues 'with the maternal instincts of her sex, reinforced by the studies of a physiologist, that it [is] a grave mistake for women who hope some day to be mothers, to spend in study or labour the physical and nervous vitality which should be stored up as a kind of natural banking account to the credit of their children. Every woman [...] who uses up her natural vitality in a profession or business, or in study, will bear feeble, rickety children, and is in fact spending her infant's inheritance on herself. Mrs. Fawcett'sFawcett, Dame Millicent Garrett
(1847–1929)
ODNB CloseView the register entry >> portrait gallery of infants born by NewnhamNewnham College, Cambridge CloseView the register entry >> and GirtonGirton College, Cambridge
CloseView the register entry >> graduates may be quoted on the other side, but that does not prove Dr. Kenealy is wrong' (67). Another recent novel, written anonymously by Emma F BrookeBrooke, Emma Frances (pseud E Fairfax Byrrne)
(1844–1926)
ODNB CloseView the register entry >>, features a woman who is 'doomed to experience the horror of becoming a mother of a syphilitic child by a reprobate husband', allowing herself 'with her eyes open, to become particeps criminis in this mutual outrage on posterity' and 'the agent for the perpetuation of a scrofulous and degenerated stock' (68).
Reports that 'Scientific workers are complaining of the ever-increasing difficulty of keeping abreast of current scientific literature, even the literature of one particular science. As Dr. ArmstrongArmstrong, Henry Edward
(1848–1937)
DSB CloseView the register entry >> said, in a recent address to the Chemical SocietyChemical Society
CloseView the register entry >>, even the specialist can never be certain that some one whom he had never heard of had years before thought his thoughts, made his experiments, and arrived at his conclusions. Yet no one has invented a Scientific Review of Reviews, and those devoted to science are compelled to make shift as best they may with such Year-Books and "Transactions" of societies as are published from time to time'. Surveys the inadequate attempts that have been made to provide an index of scientific work, noting that the 'CatalogueRSCSP: Catalogue of Scientific Papers (1800-1900). Compiled
and published by the Royal Society of London, 19 vols, London: Royal
Society of London; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1867–1925
CloseView the register entry >> of the Royal SocietyRoyal Society of London
CloseView the register entry >>, too, must have turned out very incomplete and unsatisfactory, judging by the circular letter of March 22, 1894, on the question of an International Catalogue of Scientific Publications CloseView the register entry >>, stating that the Society had appointed a committee to inquire into and report upon its feasibility through international co-operation, and that the proposed new catalogue would not commence till January 1, 1900'.
Christianity, Military Technology, War, Aeronautics, Anti-Scientism, Sociology, Institutions
Reflects that it is 'Christendom that is perfecting its instruments of slaughter, building pneumatic guns which will hurl heavy charges of dynamite a couple of miles, and that is perfecting the MaximMaxim, Sir Hiram Stevens
(1840–1916)
ODNB CloseView the register entry >> flying machine, which is to extend the area of slaughter, already coterminous with earth and sea, to the air above' (212). Records that Oxford has 'welcomed the British AssociationBritish Association for the Advancement of Science
CloseView the register entry >> to its ancient halls. Lord SalisburyCecil, Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-, 3rd
Marquess of Salisbury
(1830–1903)
ODNB CloseView the register entry >>, as Chancellor of the UniversityUniversity of Oxford
CloseView the register entry >> and President for the year, delivered the inaugural, which, as is usual with him, had as its sub note the old refrain of the vanity of all things human [....] what do we know?—next to nothing, and we do not even know that;—is no doubt a good doctrine to preach to those wiseacres who are puffed up with their own conceit as with the east wind' (220). Comments that 'talking of Holiday Parliaments, has the time not fully come for reviving the Social Science CongressSocial Science Congress
CloseView the register entry >> on a new, extended, and more practical scale? It was odd that it should have expired just when public interest in sociology began to be so widespread and intense' (220–21).
Comments that 'Mr. A. E. T. Watson'sWatson, Alfred Edward Thomas
(1849–1922)
WBI CloseView the register entry >> Fur and Feather series [...] is by no means purely scientific. The programme of his series embraces not only the natural history, but the shooting and cooking of the animals described [....] This series is an odd idea, but it is well carried out, and the volumes should be useful' (285).
Disease, Discovery, Medical Treatment, Vaccination
Reports that at 'the International Health CongressInternational Health Congress (1894), Budapest CloseView the register entry >>, which has been sitting at Buda-Pesth, considerable excitement was occasioned by the announcement of a cure for diphtheria, which is at present one of the most unmanageable of diseases. By this method it is brought under control by inoculating the patient with serum'. Adds that 'the announcement of the discovery created no small excitement, which was not confined to the medical faculty alone'. (326)
Notes that Frances P Cobbe'sCobbe, Frances Power
(1822–1904)
ODNB CloseView the register entry >> 'campaign against vivisection has lasted many times the duration of the siege of Troy', and portrays her as 'the paladin and knight-errant of dumb creatures' (329). The campaign began in 1863 when 'her attention was drawn to the diabolical tortures inflicted by the vivisectionists of the Continent upon helpless animals, not for purposes of research, but solely for purposes of demonstration and experiment' (334). Suggests that 'Some idea may be formed of the activity with which Miss Cobbe has prosecuted this campaign from the fact that in the six years ending November, 1892, no fewer than 320 books, pamphlets and leaflets were issued by the Victoria Street SocietyVictoria Street Society for the Protection of Animals from Vivisection
CloseView the register entry >>, of which 271,351 copies were printed. Miss Cobbe wrote 173 of these papers herself' (335). Also observes that 'Darwin'sDarwin, Charles Robert
(1809–82)
DSB CloseView the register entry >>"Descent of Man"Darwin, Charles
Robert 1871a. The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to
Sex, London: John Murray
CloseView the register entry >>, with its theory of the nature and origin of Sense, seems to her of absolutely fateful import, but she did not quarrel with him until he became a chief priest of the vivisectors' (337).
Section: Leading Articles in the Reviews
Review of Reviews, 10 (1894), 350–51.
Scientific Religion and Its Basis. The Significance of Telepathy. By Mr. Myers
William T SteadStead, William Thomas
(1849–1912)
ODNB CloseView the register entry >> complains of 'my friends who lament over what they regard as my deplorable devotion to the study of spooks' (350).
Medical Practitioners, Education, Gender, Endeavour
Observes that in 'Scotland women have won another victory in connection with medical training. Dr. Jex-BlakeJex-Blake, Sophia Louisa
(1840–1912)
ODNB CloseView the register entry >> for many years has fought in the van of the campaign to secure for women equal rights and privileges with men in the acquisition of medical training and degrees. Dr. Jex-Blake began the campaign as far back as 1869, when she and others matriculated as medical students at the UniversityUniversity of Edinburgh
CloseView the register entry >>, but were subsequently not allowed to complete their curriculum and to take the usual degrees. It has been a long uphill fight, and more than once it seemed as if Dr. Jex-Blake would be vanquished. But she kept on fighting with a grim perseverance, and has proved the truth of the saying, "It's dogged as does it"' (435).
Mental Illness, Medical Practitioners, Status, Hospitals
Complains that the 'ample honour paid to doctors and nurses of the distressed body contrasts strangely with the public indifference towards those who wait on the deranged mind'.
Astronomy, Imagination, Religion, Extra-Terrestrial Life
Review of Reviews, 10 (1894), 475.
Matteism, Its Successes and Its Failures
Anon
Genre:
Editorial, Reportage
Subjects:
Medical Treatment, Heterodoxy, Homeopathy, Quackery, Experiment, Controversy, Boundary Formation
Declares that those 'who may be disposed to jeer' at the remedies of Cesare MatteiMattei, Cesare
(1809–96)
WBI CloseView the register entry >> 'have never seen a cancer patient die', and insists that, despite the overall failure of the experimental test of the medicines, it is 'indisputable, that in every one of the five test cases the excruciating pain of this fatal disease was alleviated and the general health of the patients improved'. Reports the successful application of the Mattei cures to ailments other than cancer in Samoa by the 'well-known missionary' the 'Rev. S. J. Whitmee, F.R.G.S.Whitmee, Samuel James
(1838–1925)
DNBS CloseView the register entry >>', and announces that 'Mr. Robert Louis StevensonStevenson, Robert Louis
(1850–94)
ODNB CloseView the register entry >>, who suffered much from some ailment and was treated by Mr. Whitmee, said that he had seldom or never received such sudden relief from any medicine'.
Examines the new system 'known as the Decimal Classification, invented by Mr. Melvil DeweyDewey, Melvil
(1851–1931)
CBD CloseView the register entry >>', pointing out the many inconsistencies that it cannot resolve. With books on 'geography, topography, voyages, [and] travel', for example, 'it is almost impossible to define what they cover. Much geology, natural history, with other important subjects, might well be hidden away under any one of these kindred terms'. Suggests that most 'tedious of all are the subjects included under the general term "Sociology"', and notes that 'there was a curious classification of science and sociology by Dr. Boleslas [i.e. Boleslaw] LimanowskiLimanowski, Boleslaw
(1835–1935)
WBI CloseView the register entry >> in the Revue Internationale de SociologieRevue Internationale de Sociologie
(1893–1900+)
BUCOP CloseView the register entry >>, July–August. It was called the philosophical classification; and it would certainly require some careful study on the part of those who would master its philosophy'. (505)
Pronounces Arthur C Doyle'sDoyle, Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan
(1859–1930)
ODNB CloseView the register entry >> new collection of medical stories 'a daring book; for more than one of the stories have motives which but a year or two back would have been held taboo in English fiction'. Indeed, Doyle 'greatly daring, essays to treat the theme of a man who almost on the eve of his wedding finds that he has from his grandfather [...] much the same heritage [i.e. syphilis] as fell to the lot of Oswald in "Ghosts"Ibsen, Henrik
1890. Ghosts; An Enemy of the People; The Wild Duck, Ibsen's Prose
Dramas [2], Authorised English edn, London: W. Scott
CloseView the register entry >>. (599)