Genre:

Review

Publications reviewed:

About 1869 About, Edmond 1869. Le fellah: souvenirs d'Egypte, Paris: Hachette
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Subjects:

Imperialism, Agriculture

Genre:

Review, Serial

Publications reviewed:

Haeckel 1868 Haeckel, Ernst Heinrich Philipp August 1868. Natürliche Schöfungs-Geschichte: Gemeinverstandliche wissenschaftliche vortrage uber die entwickelungslehre im allgemeinen und diejenige von Darwin, Goethe und Lamarck im besonderen, Berlin: G.Reimer
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Subjects:

Biology, Evolution, Comparative Anatomy, Science Communication, Spontaneous Generation, Descent, Metaphysics, Agnosticism, Morphology, Philosophy

People mentioned:

Charles R Darwin, Darwin, Charles Robert (1809–82) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Carl Gegenbaur, Gegenbaur, Carl (1826–1903) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Immanuel Kant Kant, Immanuel (1724–1804) DSB
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Publications cited:

Haeckel 1866, Haeckel, Ernst Heinrich Philipp August 1866. Generelle Morphologie der Organismen. Allgemeine Grundzüge der organischen Formen-Wissenschaft, mechanisch begründet durch die von C. Darwin reformirte Descendenz-Theorie, Berlin: G. Reimer
Close   View the register entry >> Darwin 1859 Darwin, 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
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    Demonstrating his 'sense of the value' of Ernst H P A Haeckel's Haeckel, Ernst Heinrich Philipp August (1834–1919) DSB
Close   View 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).

Genre:

Review

Publications reviewed:

Müller 1869 Müller, Fritz 1869. Facts and Arguments for Darwin, trans. by W. S. Dallas, London: John Murray
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Subjects:

Evolution, Darwinism, Controversy, Creation, Biology

People mentioned:

William S Dallas, Dallas, William Sweetland (1824–90) WBI
Close   View the register entry >> Fritz Müller, Müller, Fritz (Johann Friedrich Theodor) (1822–97) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Louis Agassiz, Agassiz, Louis (Jean Louis Rodolphe) (1807–73) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Charles R Darwin Darwin, Charles Robert (1809–82) DSB
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Genre:

Review

Subjects:

Imperialism, Agriculture, Political Economy

Genre:

Review, Serial

Publications reviewed:

Haeckel 1868 Haeckel, Ernst Heinrich Philipp August 1868. Natürliche Schöfungs-Geschichte: Gemeinverstandliche wissenschaftliche vortrage uber die entwickelungslehre im allgemeinen und diejenige von Darwin, Goethe und Lamarck im besonderen, Berlin: G.Reimer
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Subjects:

Geology, Palaeontology, Taxonomy, Evolution, Comparative Anatomy, Descent

People mentioned:

Vladimir O Kovalevsky, Kovalevsky, Vladimir Onufrievich (1842–83) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> John Goodsir Goodsir, John (1814–67) DSB
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    Beginning with geology, the 'only one point upon which I fundamentally and entirely disagree with Professor Haeckel Haeckel, Ernst Heinrich Philipp August (1834–1919) DSB
Close   View 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).

Genre:

Review

Publications reviewed:

Mill 1869 Mill, James 1869. Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind: A New Edition, London: Longmans, Green
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Subjects:

Associationism, Physiological Psychology, Philosophy

People mentioned:

James Mill, Mill, James (1773–1836) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> John S Mill, Mill, John Stuart (1806–73) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> John Locke, Locke, John (1632–1704) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Alexander Bain, Bain, Alexander (1818–1903) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> George Berkeley Berkeley, George (1685–1753) DSB
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Publications cited:

Kant 1781 Kant, Immanuel 1781. Critik der reinen Vernunft, Riga: J. F. Hartnoch
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    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 Kant Kant, Immanuel (1724–1804) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>' (44).

Genre:

Obituary

Subjects:

Mathematics, History of Science

People mentioned:

Guglielmo Libri Libri, Guglielmo (1802–69) ODNB
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Genre:

Announcement

Subjects:

Exploration, Imperialism, Discovery, Physical Geography, Wonder, Ethnology

People mentioned:

David Livingstone Livingstone, David (1813–73) ODNB
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Institutions mentioned:

Royal Geographical Society Royal Geographical Society
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Genre:

Review

Publications reviewed:

Kuhn 1859 Kuhn, Johannes von 1859–62. Katholische Dogmatik, 2 vols, Tübingen: H. Laupp
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Subjects:

Religious Authority, Reasoning

Institutions mentioned:

University of Tübingen University of Tübingen
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    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).

Genre:

Letter, Introduction / Letter / Editorial

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Subjects:

History of Science, Sound, Physics, Mathematics, Light

People mentioned:

Isaac Newton, Newton, Sir Isaac (1642–1727) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> John North, North, John (1645–83) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> David Brewster, Brewster, Sir David (1781–1868) DSB ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Edward Sabine Sabine, Edward (1788–1883) DSB
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Institutions mentioned:

University of Cambridge, University of Cambridge
Close   View the register entry >> Royal Society Royal Society of London
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Publications cited:

Brewster 1831 Brewster, David 1831. The Life of Sir Isaac Newton, London: John Murray
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Genre:

Review

Publications reviewed:

Brown 1869 Brown, Alexander Crum 1869. The Development of the Idea of Chemical Composition: Inaugural Lecture Delivered on Third November 1869, Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas
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Subjects:

History of Science, Alchemy, Chemistry, Theory, Error

People mentioned:

Robert Boyle, Boyle, Hon Robert (1627–91) DSB ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Johann J Becher, Becher, Johann Joachim (1635–82) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Georg E Stahl, Stahl, Georg Ernst (1660–1734) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Joseph Black, Black, Joseph (1728–99) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, Lavoisier, Antoine-Laurent (1743–94) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Joseph Priestley Priestley, Joseph (1733–1804) DSB
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Genre:

Review

Publications reviewed:

Burton 1870 Burton, Richard F 1870. Vikram and the Vampire; or, Tales of Hindu Devilry, London: Longmans, Green and Co.
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Subjects:

Supernaturalism, Materialism, Science Fiction, Anti-Scientism, Imperialism

    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).

Genre:

Review

Publications reviewed:

Oliver 1869, Oliver, Daniel 1869. First Book of Indian Botany, London: Macmillan & Co
Close   View the register entry >> Trimen and Dyer 1869 Trimen, Henry and Thiselton-Dyer, William 1869. Flora of Middlesex: A Topographical and Historical Account of the Plants Found in the County, London: Robert Hardwicke
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Subjects:

Botany, Biogeography, Philosophy, Imperialism, Mapping, Biological Diversity, Evolution, Geology, Lecturing, Anatomy, Education, Science Communication, Taxonomy, Textbooks

People mentioned:

George Bentham, Bentham, George (1800–84) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Daniel Oliver Oliver, Daniel (1830–1916) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

Institutions mentioned:

British Association, British Association for the Advancement of Science
Close   View the register entry >> Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew
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Publications cited:

Hooker 1853, Hooker, Joseph Dalton 1853. Introductory Essay to the Flora of New Zealand, London: Reeve
Close   View the register entry >> Oliver 1864 Oliver, Daniel 1864. Lessons in Elementary Botany, London and Cambridge: Macmillan & Co
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    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 Hooker Hooker, Sir Joseph Dalton (1817–1911) DSB ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> on insular floras and Alfred R Wallace Wallace, Alfred Russel (1823–1913) DSB
Close   View 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)

Genre:

Letter

Subjects:

Ancient Authorities, Error

People mentioned:

William Whewell, Whewell, William (1794–1866) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Aristotle Aristotle (384–322 BC) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Review

Publications reviewed:

Bell 1869 Bell, 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
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Subjects:

Physical Geography, Railways, Photography, Climatology, Geology, Ethnology, Mineralogy

Genre:

Review

Publications reviewed:

Bursian 1862 Bursian, Conrad 1862. Geographie von Griechenland, Leipzig: Teubner
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Subjects:

Physical Geography, Mapping, Comparative Philology

Genre:

Review

Publications reviewed:

Ethé 1868 Ethé, Hermann 1868. El-Kazwîni's Kosmographie, Leipzig
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Subjects:

Creation, Natural History, Ancient Authorities

    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 Kazwînî al-Qazwīnī, Zakariyā ibn Muhammad ibn Mahmūd abu yahya (c. 1203–1283) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>'. (111)

Genre:

Review

Publications reviewed:

Riemann 1867 Riemann, Georg Friedrich Bernhard 1867. Abhandlungen der Königlichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, Göttingen: in der Dieterichschen Buchhandlung
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Subjects:

Mathematics, Metaphysics, Popularization, Ancient Authorities, Hypothesis, Truth, Astronomy

People mentioned:

Euclid, Euclid (fl. 295 BC) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Carl F Gauss, Gauss, Carl Friedrich (1777–1855) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Eugenio Beltrami, Beltrami, Eugenio (1835–1900) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Nikolai I Lobachevsky, Lobachevsky, Nikolai Ivanovich (1792–1856) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Thomas Young, Young, Thomas (1773–1829) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> James C Maxwell Maxwell, James Clerk (1831–79) DSB
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    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 Riemann Riemann, Georg Friedrich Bernhard (1826–66) DSB
Close   View 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).

See also:

Richards 1988 Richards, Joan L. 1988. Mathematical Visions: The Pursuit of Geometry in Victorian England, San Diego: Academic Press
Close   View the register entry >>, 78–85

Genre:

Review

Publications reviewed:

Bleek 1869 Bleek, Wilhelm H I 1869. On the Origin of Language, ed. by Ernst H P A Haeckel, trans. Thomas Davidson, London: Williams and Norgate
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Subjects:

Human Species, Descent, Human Development, Comparative Philology

People mentioned:

Wilhelm H I Bleek Bleek, Wilhelm Heinrich Immanuel (1827–75) ODNB
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    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)

Genre:

Review

Publications reviewed:

Semper 1869 Semper, Carl Gottfried 1869. Die Philippinen und ihre Bewohner, Würzburg: A Stuber
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Subjects:

Disciplinarity, Physical Geography, Geology, Oceanography, Biogeography, Darwinism, Theory, Ethnology

    Review of Carl G Semper's Semper, Carl Gottfried (1832–93) DSB
Close   View 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. Darwin Darwin, Charles Robert (1809–82) DSB
Close   View 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)

Genre:

Review

Publications reviewed:

Johnson 1869 Johnson, Samuel William 1869. How Crops Grow: A Treatise on the Chemical Composition, Structure, and Life of the Plant for Agricultural Students, London: Macmillan & Co
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Subjects:

Chemistry, Natural Philosophy, Agriculture, Education, Science Communication

Genre:

Review

Publications reviewed:

Marquard 1868 Marquard, Paul, ed. 1868. Die harmonischen Fragmente des Aristoxenus, Berlin: Weidmann
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Subjects:

Music, Mathematics, Ancient Authorities, Sound

People mentioned:

Aristotle, Aristotle (384–322 BC) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Hermann von Helmholtz Helmholtz, Hermann von (1821–94) DSB
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Genre:

Review

Publications reviewed:

Rothe 1867–71 Rothe, Richard 1867–71. Theologische Ethik, 5 vols,Wittenberg: Zimmermann
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Subjects:

Morality, Christianity, Piety, Reasoning, Theosophy

    Theological ethics afford a 'mediating sphere' for 'the old positive Christian piety' and the 'scientific conscience'. Richard Rothe's Rothe, Richard (1799–1867) WBI
Close   View 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)

Genre:

Review

Publications reviewed:

Thurot 1869 Thurot, Charles 1869. Recherches Historiques sur le Principe d'Archimède, Paris: Didier
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Subjects:

History of Science, Mathematics, Theory, Ancient Authorities, Metaphysics, Error, Observation, Experiment, Physics, Discovery

People mentioned:

Aristotle, Aristotle (384–322 BC) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Blaise Pascal, Pascal, Blaise (1623–62) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Simon Stevin, Stevin, Simon (1548–c. 1620) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Isaac Newton Newton, Sir Isaac (1642–1727) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>

    In a history of the mixed fortunes of the hydrostatical theorem first advanced by Archimedes Archimedes (c. 287–212 BC) DSB
Close   View 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).

Genre:

Review, Serial

Publications reviewed:

Jones 1869 Jones, Henry Bence 1869. Life and Letters of Faraday, 2 vols, London: Longmans, Green
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Subjects:

History of Science, Physics, Experiment, Science Communication, Lecturing, Class, Laboratories, Theory, Religion, Electromagnetism, Discovery, Commerce, Heroism, Nationalism

People mentioned:

Auguste A De La Rive De la Rive, Auguste Arthur (1801–73) WBI
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Institutions mentioned:

Royal Institution Royal Institution of Great Britain
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    Celebrates Michael Faraday's Faraday, Michael (1791–1867) DSB
Close   View 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 Davy Davy, Sir Humphry, Baronet (1778–1829) DSB ODNB
Close   View 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).

Reprinted:

Tyndall 1871a Tyndall, John 1871a. Fragments of Science: A Series of Detached Essays, Lectures, and Reviews, 3rd edn, London: Longmans, Green, and Co.
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Genre:

Obituary

Subjects:

Physics, Heat, Instruments

People mentioned:

Heinrich G Magnus Magnus, Heinrich Gustav (1802–70) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Review

Subjects:

Religion, Philosophy, Hypothesis, Psychology

    Notes that John H Newman Newman, John Henry (1801–90) ODNB
Close   View 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).

Genre:

Review, Serial

Publications reviewed:

Jones 1869 Jones, Henry Bence 1869. Life and Letters of Faraday, 2 vols, London: Longmans, Green
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

History of Science, Religion, Discovery, Experiment, Physics, Mathematics, Natural Law, Electromagnetism, Chemistry, Patronage, Politics, War, Government, Scientific Naturalism, Heroism, Genius

People mentioned:

Macedonio Melloni, Melloni, Macedonio (1798–1854) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> William Lamb (2nd Viscount Melbourne) Lamb, William, 2nd Viscount Melbourne (1779–1848) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

    Continues with an account of Michael Faraday's Faraday, Michael (1791–1867) DSB
Close   View 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 Emperor Napoleon III, Emperor of France (originally Louis Napoléon (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte)) (1808–73) CBD
Close   View 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)

Reprinted:

Tyndall 1871a Tyndall, John 1871a. Fragments of Science: A Series of Detached Essays, Lectures, and Reviews, 3rd edn, London: Longmans, Green, and Co.
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Review

Publications reviewed:

Rolleston 1870a Rolleston, George 1870a. Forms of Animal Life, Being Outlines of Zoological Classification, Oxford: Clarendon Press
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Subjects:

Education, Universities, Textbooks, Science Communication, Zoology, Dissection, Comparative Anatomy, Taxonomy

People mentioned:

Carl Gegenbaur, Gegenbaur, Carl (1826–1903) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Thomas H Huxley Huxley, Thomas Henry (1825–95) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>

Institutions mentioned:

University of Oxford University of Oxford
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    Regrets that the usefulness of George Rolleston's Rolleston, George (1829–81) DSB
Close   View 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).

Genre:

Review

Publications reviewed:

Galton 1869 Galton, Francis 1869. Hereditary Genius: An Inquiry into its Laws and Consequences, London: Macmillan & Co
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Evolution, Human Species, Heredity, Eugenics, Statistics, Genius, Hypothesis

People mentioned:

Francis Galton, Galton, Sir Francis (1822–1911) DSB ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Charles R Darwin, Darwin, Charles Robert (1809–82) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Jane Austen Austen, Jane (1775–1817) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Review

Publications reviewed:

Geiger 1869 Geiger, Ludwig 1869. Der Ursprung der Sprache, Stuttgart: Z. G. Cotta
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Subjects:

Human Species, Comparative Philology

    Criticises Ludwig Geiger's Geiger, Ludwig (1848–1919) WBI
Close   View 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).

Genre:

Review

Publications reviewed:

Michelet 1870, Michelet, Jules 1870. Nos fils, Paris: Librairie Internationale
Close   View the register entry >>Esquiros 1869 Esquiros, Henri A 1869. L'Émile du dix-neuvième siècle, Paris: Librairie Internationale
Close   View the register entry >>

Subjects:

Education, Schools, Universities, Gender

People mentioned:

Jules Michelet, Michelet, Jules (1798–1874) CBD
Close   View the register entry >> Matthew Arnold Arnold, Matthew (1822–88) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Review, Serial

Publications reviewed:

Gegenbaur 1870 Gegenbaur, Carl 1870. Grundzüge der vergleichenden Anatomie, Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann
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Subjects:

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's Gegenbaur, Carl (1826–1903) DSB
Close   View 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 Darwin Darwin, Charles Robert (1809–82) DSB
Close   View 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 Aristotle Aristotle (384–322 BC) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> to the present day. (258) The theory of development of Jean-Baptiste P A de Monet, chevalier de Lamarck Lamarck, Jean Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, chevalier de (1744–1829) DSB
Close   View 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 1859 Darwin, 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
Close   View 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 Haeckel Haeckel, Ernst Heinrich Philipp August (1834–1919) DSB
Close   View 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 Spencer Spencer, Herbert (1820–1903) DSB
Close   View 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 Pasteur Pasteur, Louis (1822–95) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>, and their opponents just reinforced by the accession to their ranks of Dr. Charlton Bastian Bastian, Henry Charlton (1837–1915) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>'. (259)

Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

Theory, Disease, Science Communication, Microscopy, Error, Spontaneous Generation

Publications cited:

Zeitschrift für Parasitenkunde Zeitschrift für Parasitenkunde (1869–75) BUCOP
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    Sceptical of Ernst H Hallier's Hallier, Ernst Hans (1831–1904) DSB
Close   View 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. Bastian Bastian, Henry Charlton (1837–1915) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>, who believes that he has arrived at something definite on the subject'. (260)

Genre:

Review

Publications reviewed:

Fowler 1870 Fowler, Thomas 1870. The Elements of Inductive Logic: Designed Mainly for the Use of Students in the Universities, London: Macmillan & Co
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Subjects:

Induction, Deduction, Methodology, Truth, Natural Law, Nomenclature, Hypothesis, Truth, Design, Creation

People mentioned:

William Whewell, Whewell, William (1794–1866) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> John S Mill, Mill, John Stuart (1806–73) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Galileo Galilei, Galilei, Galileo (1564–1642) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> David Hume Hume, David (1711–76) DSB
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    Opposes Thomas Fowler's Fowler, Thomas (1832–1904) ODNB
Close   View 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).