Genre:

Novel, Serial

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Lecturing, Ethnography, Imperialism, Environmentalism, Agriculture, Utilitarianism, Politics, Statistics

    Mark Robart's father is a physician without 'private means', but whose 'lucrative practice' enables him to maintain and educate his children with 'all the advantages which money can give in this country' (1). The Conservative MP Harold Smith is to lecture on 'the Australian archipelago' at Barchester (7). The Chase of Chaldicotes, an ancient forest, is soon to be deforested. In 'these utilitarian days' the aged oaks and beeches 'are to give way to wheat and turnips' because 'a ruthless Chancellor of the Exchequer [...] requires money returns from the lands'. (16) Smith's forte is 'Well-docketed papers and statistical facts' (21).

Reprinted:

Trollope 1861 Trollope, Anthony 1861. Framley Parsonage, 3 vols, London: Smith Elder and Co.
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

Military Technology, Ethnology, Imperialism

    Claims that the advanced nature of Western military technology was pivotal to the success of Britain in the first Opium War (26, 42).

Genre:

Essay, Serial

Relevant illustrations:

wdct. [6]

Subjects:

Gender, Human Species, Nomenclature, Biology, Wonder, Transcendentalism, Microscopy, Microbiology, Popularization, Industry, Health, Taxonomy, Animal Development, Embryology, Anatomy, Utilitarianism, Analogy

People mentioned:

Charles P Robin, Robin, Charles-Phillipe (1821–85) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> William Sharpey, Sharpey, William (1802–80) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Claude Bernard, Bernard, Claude (1813–78) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> William Paley, Paley, William (1743–1805) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Jan Swammerdam, Swammerdam, Jan (1637–80) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Carl T E von Siebold, Siebold, Carl Theodor Ernst von (1804–85) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Francis Bacon (1st Viscount St Alban), Bacon, Francis, 1st Viscount St Alban (1561–1626) DSB ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> King James II James II and VII, King of England, Scotland and Ireland (1633–1701) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

Publications cited:

Wordsworth 1814, Wordsworth, William 1814. The Excursion: Being a Portion of The Recluse, a Poem, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown
Close   View the register entry >> Ehrenberg 1854, Ehrenberg, Christian Gottfried 1854. Mikrogeologie: Das Erden und Felsen schaffende Wirken des unsichtbar kleinen selbststandigen Lebens auf der Erde, 2 vols, Leipzig: Fortsetzung
Close   View the register entry >> Robin 1853, Robin, Charles 1853. Histoire naturelle des vegetaux parasites qui croissent sur l'homme et sur les animaux vivants, Paris: J. B. Balliere; Londres: H. Balliere
Close   View the register entry >> Sharpey and Ellis 1856, Sharpey, William and George Viner Ellis, eds 1856. The Elements of Anatomy, 6th edn, 2 vols, London: J. Walton
Close   View the register entry >> Goethe 1817–24, Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von 1817–24. Zur Naturwissenschaft überhaupt, besonders zur Morphologie, 2 vols, Stuttgart and Tübingen: J. G. Cotta
Close   View the register entry >> Baer 1828, Baer, Karl Ernst von 1828. Heber Entwickelungsgeschicte der Thiere: Beobachtung und Reflexion, Konigsberg: Bei den Gebruden Borntrager
Close   View the register entry >> Swammerdam 1752, Swammerdam, Jan 1752. Bibel der Natur, worinnen die Insecten in gewisse Classen vertheilt, sorgfältig beschreiben ... werden. Nebst H. Boerhaave vorrede von dem Leben des Verfassers. Aus dem Holländischen übersetzt, Leipzig: in J. F. Gleditschens buchhandlung
Close   View the register entry >> Siebold 1854, Siebold, Carl Theodor Ernst von 1854. Ueber die Band- und Blasenwürmer, nebst einer Einleitung über die Enstehung der Eingeweidewürmer, Leipzig: W. Engelmann
Close   View the register entry >> Lewes 1858 Lewes, George Henry 1858. Sea-Side Studies at Ilfracombe, Tenby, the Scilly Isles, and Jersey, Edinburgh and London: Blackwood
Close   View the register entry >>

    In his prospectus to the Cornhill in November 1859, William M Thackeray Thackeray, William Makepeace (1811–63) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> insisted that as well as novels and fiction, the new magazine should also have 'as much reality as possible' including 'familiar reports of scientific discovery' (Ray ed. 1946 Ray, Gordon N, ed. 1946. The Letters and Private Papers of William Makepeace Thackeray, 4 vols, Oxford University Press
Close   View the register entry >>: 4, 160). A month earlier, George Smith Smith, George (1824–1901) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> had commissioned Lewes to contribute a suitable series of articles on natural history at the generous rate of 25s. a page (Ashton 1991 Ashton, Rosemary 1991. G.H. Lewes: A Life, Oxford: Clarendon Press
Close   View the register entry >>: 203). Lewes's series of six articles (split into chapters and already planned as a book) attempts to present the leading arguments of mid-century natural history to a readership which Lewes self-consciously constructs as both male and 'popular'. They are written in a familiar, but nonetheless authoritative tone, with frequent references both to scientific authorities and Lewes's own experimental work. Some familiarity with the principal works of contemporary science is assumed.

    The first chapter begins with an invocation to study a feminized nature that reveals herself in myriad forms of life. In a strong narrative of wonder regarding the immanence of life, Lewes insists that although 'man is the noblest study', he can be known fully only through understanding 'the laws of universal life'. His 'Life forms but one grand illustration of Biology—the science of life, as he forms but the apex of the animal world'. A footnote adds that the term 'Biology' is both 'needful' and now being 'generally adopted' (61n.). The remainder of the article chiefly concerns the study of infusoria, and the rejection of Christian G Ehrenberg's Ehrenberg, Christian Gottfried (1795–1876) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> notion of their complex organization. In addition, self-conscious digressions offer practical advice on the study of microscopy, and an analogy between infusorial and human anatomy with regard to health and industrial working conditions. The extremely simple organization of infusoria is part of 'an ascending series of animal organisms' (67) that accords with the 'grand law [...] of animal life', enunciated by Johann W von Goethe Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von (1749–1832) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> and Karl E von Baer Baer, Karl Ernst von (1792–1876) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>, that 'Development is always from the general to the special, from the simple to the complex'. Lewes illustrates this law of development with a passage from 'the music of our deeply meditative' Alfred Tennyson Tennyson, Alfred, 1st Baron Tennyson (1809–92) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>. (68) The article closes with an apologia for the study of nature, and microscopy in particular. In an impassioned defence of more popular forms of research into the natural world, Lewes warns against 'the sneers or objections' of those who 'wish to close the temple against new comers' (74).

Reprinted:

Lewes 1862 Lewes, George Henry 1862. Studies in Animal Life, London: Smith, Elder and Co.
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

Military Technology, Political Economy, Professionalization, Machinery, Vitalism

    Notes the importance to the army of proficiency in the use of newly invented military technology. The pacific attitude of the English is linked to their 'industrial impulses and the principles of political economy'. 'Soldiership' has become 'a scientific profession' for which 'an apprenticeship [...] with skill and experience in every branch of it' is necessary to acquire the requisite skill and discipline (78). Compares an 'army advancing in solid masses' with 'some vast and complex machine animated by life and motion' (79).

See also:

Anon, 'Punch v. Burgoyne (in the Matter of 'Line v. Volunteers')', Punch, 38 (1860), 13

Genre:

Introduction; Diary, Travelogue

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.map

Subjects:

Heroism, Ethnography, Natural History, Natural Imperialism, Steamships, Meteorology, Astronomy, Oceanography, Climatology, Navigation, Magnetism, Exploration, Discovery

People mentioned:

Richard Collinson, Collinson, Sir Richard (1811–83) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Francis R M Crozier Crozier, Francis Rawdon Moira (1796–1848) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>

Institutions mentioned:

Hudson Bay Company, Hudson Bay Company
Close   View the register entry >> Admiralty, Admiralty
Close   View the register entry >> HMS Erebus, HMS Erebus
Close   View the register entry >> HMS Terror HMS Terror
Close   View the register entry >>

    Diary account of the 1857–59 expedition led by Francis L McClintock McClintock, Sir Francis Leopold (1819–1907) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> in search of the two ships which carried John Franklin's Arctic exploration in 1845–47, including many ethnographical, natural historical, and scientific observations. In a brief introduction to his private journal, Young valorises the heroism of Franklin and the 'gallant men' who 'had given up their lives' to 'give to the world the scientific results of the expedition' (97). He also refers to the eminent scientific men, such as Roderick I Murchison Murchison, Sir Roderick Impey, 1st Baronet (1792–1871) DSBODNB
Close   View the register entry >> and Edward Sabine Sabine, Edward (1788–1883) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>, who supported Jane Franklin's Franklin, Jane, Lady (1792–1875) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> plan for an expedition in search of her husband's ships. The diary narrative of the expedition records the use of astronomy and meteorology to fix the position of HMS Fox, and reflects upon the enormous advantages of steamships for Arctic exploration. It also details the frequent culling of seals, bears, and various species of birds, articulating the sailor's imperialist attitude towards the natural world of the Arctic. The narrative ends with the discovery of remnants of Franklin's lost expedition and the first account of their fate. Young gives their failure the heroic character of a hard won scientific discovery and reflects that 'in dying in the cause of their country, their dearest consolation must have been to feel that Englishmen would not rest until they had followed their footsteps, and had given to the world what they could not then give—the grand result of their dreadful voyage—their Discovery of the North-West Passage' (120).

See also:

Marlow 1982 Marlow, James E. 1982. 'The Fate of Sir John Franklin: Three Phases of Response in Victorian Periodicals', Victorian Periodicals Review, 15, 3–11
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Regular Feature, Editorial, Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Reading, Medical Practitioners, Mathematics

    Advocates moderation in novel reading, and asserts, 'All people love them—almost all women;—a vast number of clever, hard-headed men', including 'one of the most learned physicians in England'. Mathematicians, in particular, 'are notorious novel readers'. (127) Informs the reader, however, that 'our CORNHILL MAGAZINE owners strive to provide thee with facts as well as fiction', and takes Allen W Young's Young, Sir Allen William (1827–1915) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> scientific article on the voyage of HMS Fox HMS Fox
Close   View the register entry >> [[Allen W Young], 'The Search for Sir John Franklin. (From the Private Journal of an Officer of the "Fox").', Cornhill Magazine, 1 (1860), 96–121] as an example of this policy (128).

Reprinted:

Thackeray 1863 Thackeray, William Makepeace 1863. Roundabout Papers: Reprinted from 'The Cornhill Magazine', London: Smith, Elder and Co.
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Essay, Obituary

Subjects:

Exploration, Heroism

    Brief reference to the stone placed at Greenwich by the Americans in memory of the 'gallant young' naval explorer Joseph R Bellot Bellot, Joseph René (1826–53) CBD
Close   View the register entry >> (132).

Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

National Efficiency, War, Railways, Transport

    Proposes that England should feel secure from the threat of invasion as there is a natural 'abundance of coal, iron, timber, and almost all other munitions of war', and 'railways intersect and encircle her on all sides' (135). During the 1795–1805 invasion panics the British army was 'a costly and not very useful toy, chiefly maintained for the diversion of royalty', but after organizational and tactical improvements it has now become 'an important national engine' (148–49).

Genre:

Novel, Serial

Subjects:

Quackery, Medical Treatment, Patents, Lecturing, Ethnography, Imperialism, Mapping, Statistics

    Miss Dunstable, who identifies herself as a 'quack doctor', is the 'proprietress of the celebrated Oil of Lebanon, invented by her late respected father, and patented by him with such wonderful results in the way of accumulated fortune' (155). Harold Smith hopes to 'talk the British world into civilizing New Guinea', but his wife and ecclesiastical friends give him the sarcastic titles 'Viscount Papua and Baron Borneo' (168). He lectures on the Malay Archipelago at the Barchester Mechanics' Institute, making use of maps and 'a huge bundle of statistics' (174). However, his assertions that the genius of civilization will make 'every rood of earth subservient to his purposes' fail to engage the audience (173).

Reprinted:

Trollope 1861 Trollope, Anthony 1861. Framley Parsonage, 3 vols, London: Smith Elder and Co.
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Essay, Biography, Serial

Subjects:

Engineering, Analogy, History of Science

    Urges that the ideal biographer, who will combine strength with delicacy, must have 'a mind like a Nasmyth's Nasmyth, James (1808–90) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> steam hammer, that can roll out huge bars of iron, and anon knock a tin-tack into a deal board with gentle accurate taps' (179). In the 1690s Isaac Newton Newton, Sir Isaac (1642–1727) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> is one of those 'brave men hard at work for the nineteenth century' (188).

Reprinted:

Sala 1866 Sala, George Augustus Henry 1866. William Hogarth, Painter, Engraver, and Philosopher: Essays on the Man, the Works, and the Time, London: Smith, Elder and Co.
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Essay, Serial

Relevant illustrations:

wdct. [8]

Subjects:

Associationism, Microbiology, Invertebrate Zoology, Entomology, Gender, Nomenclature, Controversy, Taxonomy, Human Species, Animal Development, Dissection, Discovery, Textbooks, Wonder

People mentioned:

Léon Dufour, Dufour, Léon (1780–1865) RLIN
Close   View the register entry >> Theodor Hartig, Hartig, Theodor (1805–80) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Adolphe T Brongniart, Brongniart, Adolphe-Théodore (1801–76) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Louis Jurine, Jurine, Louis (1751–1819) WBI
Close   View the register entry >> Christian G Ehrenberg, Ehrenberg, Christian Gottfried (1795–1876) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Carl T E von Siebold, Siebold, Carl Theodor Ernst von (1804–85) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> George Busk, Busk, George (1807–86) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> William C Williamson, Williamson, William Crawford (1816–95) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Abraham Trembley, Trembley, Abraham (1701–84) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Francis Bacon (1st Viscount St Alban), Bacon, Francis, 1st Viscount St Alban (1561–1626) DSB ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Henry Gray Gray, Henry (1825/7–61) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>

Publications cited:

Wordsworth 1814, Wordsworth, William 1814. The Excursion: Being a Portion of The Recluse, a Poem, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown
Close   View the register entry >> Baird 1850, Baird, William 1850. The Natural History of the British Entomostraca, London: Ray Society
Close   View the register entry >> Stein 1859, Stein, Friedrich Ritter von 1859. Der Organismus der Infusionsthiere: nach eigenen Forschungen in systematischer Reihenfolge bearb, Leipzig: W Engelmann
Close   View the register entry >> Trembley 1744, Trembley, Abraham 1744. Mémoires, pour servir à l'histoire d'un genre de Polypes d'eau douce, à bras en forme de cornes, Leiden: Chez Jean & Herman Verbeek
Close   View the register entry >> Hoeven 1856-8 Hoeven, Jan Van Der 1856–8. Handbook of Zoology, trans. by William Clark, 2 vols, Cambridge: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans and Roberts
Close   View the register entry >>

    The second chapter begins with the narration of an imagined visit to the ponds of Wimbledon Common Wimbledon Common
Close   View the register entry >> which, while they are 'not so rich and lovely as rock-pools', nevertheless yield much to 'tempt us [...] to bring net and wide-mouthed jar' (198). Brief instructions are given concerning the equipment necessary for the examination of pond-life. The main part of the essay concerns the 'immense variety of tiny animals' that inhabit inland ponds, but the article is frequently punctuated by eclectic digressions. In an elegiac aside, for instance, Lewes discusses the childhood memories which the 'gaunt' windmill on the Common 'recalls [...] by the subtle laws of association' (199). Similarly, the consideration of sexual dimorphism in Entomostraca prompts a discussion of the inferiority of the male sex in 'some great families' such as the falcon and the bee. Explicitly identifying his readers as male, Lewes observes that 'It must be confessed that our sex cuts but a poor figure', and later adds 'this digression is becoming humiliating' (202). He goes on to explain the background of the scientific controversy over the animal or plant-like nature of Volvox, a dispute that, as he tells the lay reader, 'may perhaps excite your surprise'. In addition, Thomas H Huxley's Huxley, Thomas Henry (1825–95) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> coinage 'zöoids' is introduced as a new scientific term (203). The frequency of 'retrogression' in the metamorphosis of animal life is illustrated by 'human animals' who 'exhibit a somewhat similar metamorphosis, and make up for the fitful capriciousness of wandering youth, by the steady severity of their application to business, when width of waistcoat and smoothness of cranium suggest a sense of their responsibilities' (201–02). Discussing a 'blood-red' Polype, Lewes alerts the indifferent reader to the exciting 'discovery [...] of a species hitherto undescribed in text-books', but reflects that there 'must be a basis of knowledge before wonder can be felt' (206). The article concludes with an anecdote about a passing Irish labourer's initial contempt for Lewes's specimen collecting being soon transformed into a reverence both for divine creation and the practice of science.

Reprinted:

Lewes 1862 Lewes, George Henry 1862. Studies in Animal Life, London: Smith, Elder and Co.
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

National Efficiency, Engineering, Engineers, Heroism, Analogy, Mathematics, Gender, Machinery, Industrial Chemistry, Electricity, Discovery, Electromagnetism, Genius, Light, Humanism

Institutions mentioned:

Trinity House, Trinity House
Close   View the register entry >> Electric Power Light and Colour Company Electric Power Light and Colour Company
Close   View the register entry >>

    An historical account of the development of the lighthouse system in the United Kingdom. The article avows that private ownership of lighthouses has been injurious to the national interest, and that fortunately they have recently 'got back to what Queen Elizabeth I Elizabeth I, Queen of England and Ireland (1533–1603) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> meant them to be—public trusts in public hands for public uses' (221). It was nevertheless private enterprise that impelled the building and perpetual rebuilding of the Eddystone lighthouse Eddystone Lighthouse
Close   View the register entry >> during the eighteenth century, at great personal cost, as the narrative emphasises, to the 'heroic' engineers of the day. The present structure at Eddystone, completed by John Smeaton Smeaton, John (1724–92) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> in 1759, will 'remain the pattern lighthouse of the world for ever'. (222) The eighteenth-century engineering practices of Smeaton, who 'worked from analogy' and 'tells us of his desire to make his lighthouse resemble the trunk of a stately tree', are compared with those of Alan Stevenson Stevenson, Alan (1807–65) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>, who designed the Skerryvore lighthouse Skerryvore, lighthouse, Scotland
Close   View the register entry >> in the 1830s, and worked entirely 'from mathematical calculation' (224). In a discussion of the hardships endured by lighthouse keepers, observes that 'it is an occupation in which the modern claim for feminine participation has been forestalled', but also concedes that the only 'woman light-keeper' currently employed 'does her duty properly' (229). The article reports that oil has become 'the standard material for light in lighthouses', though it remains 'the object of a thousand and one nice adaptations in regard to its preparation and the machinery by which it is consumed' (229). Furthermore, scientific men have increasingly given their attention to finding other sources of illumination. Recent unsuccessful innovations have included the Bude lamp, various Lime lights, and the electric light. Finally, however, Michael Faraday Faraday, Michael (1791–1867) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> 'discovered' the principle of electromagnetic induction in 1831, and 'upon this hint' an apparatus has been constructed that can produce an artificial light that is powerful enough to penetrate even through some fogs. Declares that Faraday's 'genius' has produced an apparatus that is 'very glorious to the eye [...] a piece of sunlight poured out upon the night' (230). In discussing this new apparatus, notes that although there are 'divisions among scientific men as to the abstract nature and action of light', there is a general consensus as to its 'secondary laws', and the catoptric system of lighting by reflection, as well as the dioptric system, which works by refraction, are agreed upon as the best means of making use of the artificial light (230–31). The article concludes with the assertion that the erection of a lighthouse, even by an enemy during war, is 'a great holy good, to serve and save humanity' (232).

Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

Theology of Nature, Design, Wonder, Unbelief, Descent, Creation, Meteorology, Telegraphy, Astronomy, Instruments

Publications cited:

Williams 1859 Williams, William Mattieu 1859. Through Norway with a Knapsack, London: Smith, Elder and Co.
Close   View the register entry >>

    Despite the growth of urbanization, the natural world of Creation remains eternal, and even amongst the 'chimney stacks' of Holborn Hill, it is 'impossible to forget her, or to escape her religious gaze'. Only the heart of an 'atheist' cannot be moved by the eternal spectacle of nature, and, as is added in parentheses, this 'creature, and not the ape, as some have supposed, is the link between brutes and men'. (249) A footnote employs the recently published reflections of W Mattieu Williams Williams, William Mattieu (1820–92) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> on the atmospheric changes of the sun even when it is at the same altitude to confirm the 'fancy that every day dies a natural death' (252n.). The 'telegraphs that we make such a noise about' pale beside the eternity of nature. Man becomes smaller still in comparison with the 'tract of light called the Milky Way, which [...] astronomers tell us [...] is a universe, in which individual stars are so many that they are like the sands on the shore'. These separate stars, moreover, cannot be made out even 'with all our appliances'. (255)

Genre:

Essay, Obituary

Subjects:

Palaeontology, Comparative Anatomy, Historiography

People mentioned:

William Paley Paley, William (1743–1805) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>

    Compares the historical judgement of Thomas B Macaulay with the palaeontology of Georges Cuvier Cuvier, Georges (1769–1832) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>, who, if you gave him 'a tarsal bone, he constructed you, with unerring certainty, a humming-bird or an elephant'. Also notes that the recently deceased Macaulay was 'at once the most Paleyan and the most forensic of historical inquirers'. (259)

Genre:

Essay, Serial

Relevant illustrations:

wdct. [4]

Subjects:

Wonder, Light, Photography, Associationism, Microbiology, Invertebrate Zoology, Spontaneous Generation, Error, Experiment, Observation, Biology, Disciplinarity, Natural History, Taxonomy, Monstrosities, Morphology, Philosophy

People mentioned:

William Wordsworth, Wordsworth, William (1770–1850) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, Leeuwenhoek, Antoni van (1632–1723) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Christian G Ehrenberg, Ehrenberg, Christian Gottfried (1795–1876) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Louis M F Doyère, Doyère, Louis Michel François (1811–63) WBI
Close   View the register entry >> Casimir J Davaine, Davaine, Casimir Joseph (1812–88) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Lazzaro Spallanzani, Spallanzani, Lazzaro (1729–99) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Louis D J Gavarret Gavarret, Louis Denis Jules (1809–90) WBI
Close   View the register entry >>

Institutions mentioned:

Académie des sciences, Paris Académie des Sciences, Paris
Close   View the register entry >>

Publications cited:

Wordsworth 1814, Wordsworth, William 1814. The Excursion: Being a Portion of The Recluse, a Poem, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown
Close   View the register entry >> Draper 1856, Draper, John William 1856. Human Physiology, Statical and Dynamical; or, The Conditions and Course of the Life of Man, London: Sampson, Low
Close   View the register entry >> Leeuwenhoek 1798–1807, Leeuwenhoek, Antoni van 1798-1807. Select Works of Antony van Leeuwenhoek: Containing His Microscopical Discoveries in Many of the Works of Nature, trans. by Samuel Hoole, 2 vols, London: Samuel Hoole
Close   View the register entry >> Pouchet 1859, Pouchet, Félix Archimède 1859. Hétérogénie; ou, traité de la génération spontanée basé sur de nouvelles expériences, Paris: Corbeil
Close   View the register entry >> Spallanzani 1803 Spallanzani, Lazzaro 1803. Tracts on the Natural History of Animals and Vegetables, trans. by John Graham Dalyell, 2nd edn, 2 vols, Edinburgh: Creech
Close   View the register entry >>

    Reflecting on an old garden wall, Lewes begins the third chapter by asserting that in 'the wondrous metamorphosis momently going on everywhere in the world, there is change, but no loss'. In case the reader 'should imagine this to be poetry, and not science', he gives the example of the alterations affected by 'every beam of light'. (283) Even humans are 'involved in the universal metamorphosis', as is shown by the cases of uneducated women who suddenly begin using Greek and Hebrew phrases long stored in their unconscious minds. These 'vagabond thoughts' lead on to the main part of the article, which concerns Rotifera. The 'celebrity of these creatures' has been established by 'their power of resurrection' (286). Lewes, however, verifies experimentally that a Rotifer can be resurrected only from a state of 'suspended animation' in which the water in its tissues has not been evaporated (288). Once it becomes completely dry the Rotifer is dead and, contrary to the erroneous conclusions of earlier investigators, cannot be brought back to life. Apropos of the 'inherent love of the marvellous' which makes 'men greedily accept the idea of resuscitation' (289), Lewes proposes that 'the study of science is valuable as a means of culture' because 'in it the mind learns to submit to realities, instead of thrusting its figments in the place of realities'. In particular, biology, because of the complexity of the cases which it investigates and by cultivating caution, is both 'pre-eminent as a means of culture' and 'a mental tonic of inestimable worth'. Addressing the 'reader unfamiliar with the language of Natural History', Lewes concludes the article by listing the five plans of structure under which all animals are classed. (290) In a footnote concerning the position of organs in vertebrate monstrosities, he uses an example from Molière's Molière (Jean Baptiste Poquelin) (1622–73) CBD
Close   View the register entry >> play Le médecin malgré lui. Georges Cuvier's Cuvier, Georges (1769–1832) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> classification of the animal kingdom into four divisions, which is based upon 'an unphilosphical view of morphology', requires supplementing with a fifth division made up of the 'simplest of all animals [which] represent, as it were, the beginnings of life'. Furthermore, Cuvier's inadequate system, as Lewes notes, was 'secretly determined by the desire' to oppose the idea, held by Jean B P A de Monet, chevalier de Lamarck Lamarck, Jean Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, chevalier de (1744–1829) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> and Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, Étienne (1772–1844) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>, of the 'unity of composition throughout the animal kingdom;—in other words, that all varieties of animal forms were produced by successive modifications'. (294)

Reprinted:

Lewes 1862 Lewes, George Henry 1862. Studies in Animal Life, London: Smith, Elder and Co.
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Novel, Serial

Subjects:

Anti-Scientism, Supernaturalism, Theology of Nature, Environmentalism, Politics

    Lord Boanerges attempts to teach Miss Dunstable to 'blow soap-bubbles on scientific principles', to which she responds that those who have 'never asked the reason why [....] have the best of it'. 'What pleasure', she remarks, 'can one have in a ghost after one has seen the phosphorus rubbed on?' (310), and then she sings an excerpt from an oratorio by Georg F Handel Händel, Georg Friedrich (1685–1759) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> which states, 'Did I not own Jehovah's power / How vain were all I knew'. Boanerges, who does not know the oratorio but nevertheless gets the best of the argument over knowledge and spirituality, reasons that 'perhaps one might help the other'. (311) The ancient trees at Chaldicotes forest are not only to be cut down, but rooted up; 'a murderous shame', comments Frank Gresham, which only 'a whig government would do' (312).

Reprinted:

Trollope 1861 Trollope, Anthony 1861. Framley Parsonage, 3 vols, London: Smith Elder and Co.
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Novel, Serial

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Class

    Mr Drencher, a 'neat and trim general practitioner' who attends the workhouse as well as rich private patients, is jealous and suspicious of the aristocratic and dandified Charles Batchelor, who reports that the 'serpents of that miserable Æsculapius unwound themselves from his rod, and were gnawing at his swollen heart!' (343).

Reprinted:

Thackeray 1860 Thackeray, William Makepeace 1860. Lovel the Widower, London: Smith, Elder and Co.
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

Universities, Education, Mathematics, Dissection, Class, Metaphysics, Psychology, Lecturing

Institutions mentioned:

University of Cambridge, University of Cambridge
Close   View the register entry >> University of Oxford University of Oxford
Close   View the register entry >>

    Asks, 'Are mathematics confined to the reeds of Cam [...]?' (366), and suggests instead that 'learning may be obtained elsewhere than at college. For that matter, indeed, most men are self-educated' (366–67). In arguing that the principal purpose of a university is to provide society, proposes that the great defect of Scottish universities is the lack of the 'society of equal minds' (377), and notes that University College London University College London
Close   View the register entry >> is 'in this respect a type of the Scottish university system'. In this system, the 'student who has all the morning been dissecting dead bodies [...] returns to dine with his sisters'. (368) The Scottish system, however, has the advantage that 'university education is open to the peasant not less than to the peer' (374–75). Also remarks that 'the study of the human mind [...] is pursued with great ardour in the Scottish universities', and observes that it is 'simply psychology—that is to say, the natural history of the human mind' which is taught there, rather than metaphysics. This 'knowledge of men obtained in the scientific analysis of the class-room' is 'not to be found in the English universities'. (376) Dallas also discusses the lecturing style of William Hamilton Hamilton, Sir William Sterling (1788–1856) DSB ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> at the University of Edinburgh University of Edinburgh
Close   View the register entry >> (under whom he studied philosophy in the 1840s), who encouraged the student to enter into a 'regular tussle with his master about the action of the mind in sleep, and in a state of semi-consciousness' (377).

Genre:

Essay, News-Commentary, Travelogue

Subjects:

Telegraphy, Imperialism, Error

    Advises that if 'telegraphic communication' within China be 'deemed a desirable object' it is imperative that 'batteries be sent out as well as wire'. When a 'similar attempt was made in China, it was not until the after the wire was laid down [...] that the discovery was made that the most essential item had been forgotten' (538).

Genre:

Essay, Biography, Serial

Subjects:

Induction

    Claims that the philosophy of satirists is 'properly of the inductive order'. They 'owe but little to inspiration. They can move the world with the lever of wit, but they must have a fulcrum of fact. [...] Without facts, facts to reason upon, their arguments would be tedious and pointless' (567).

Reprinted:

Sala 1866 Sala, George Augustus Henry 1866. William Hogarth, Painter, Engraver, and Philosopher: Essays on the Man, the Works, and the Time, London: Smith, Elder and Co.
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Essay, Serial

Subjects:

Entomology, Descent, Evolution, Species, Taxonomy, Metaphysics, Heredity, Zoology, Analogy, Philosophy, Embryology, Science Communication, Animal Development, Hypothesis, Breeding, Commerce, Proof, Natural History, History of Science, Error, Ancient Authorities, Microscopy, Controversy

People mentioned:

George L Leclerc, comte de Buffon, Buffon, Georges-Louis Leclerc, comte de (1707–88) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Plato, Plato (428–348/7 BC) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Marie J P Flourens, Flourens, Marie-Jean-Pierre (1794–1867) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Carl Linnaeus Linnaeus (or von Linné), Carl (1707–78) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>

Publications cited:

Wordsworth 1814, Wordsworth, William 1814. The Excursion: Being a Portion of The Recluse, a Poem, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown
Close   View the register entry >> Flourens 1856, Flourens, Marie Jean Pierre 1856. Cours de physiologie comparée. De l'ontologie ou étude des êtres, Paris: J.-B. Bailliere [et.al.]
Close   View the register entry >> Burdach 1832–40 Burdach, Carl Friedrich 1832-40. Die Physiologie als Erfahrungswissenschaft, Leipzig: Leopold Voss
Close   View the register entry >>

    Beginning with a humorous anecdote concerning the representation of beetles in ancient Egyptian art, Lewes goes on to refute the favourite argument of Georges Cuvier Cuvier, Georges (1769–1832) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> and his followers that 'Species are unchangeable' because 'the testimony of paintings and sculptures' shows that 'during four thousand years Species and Races have not changed' (598). This argument, which assumes that 'there is something above all individuals—the species—and that cannot vary' (599), does not accord with the known 'law of hereditary transmission' which involves constant 'accidental variations' in animal forms (601). When it is also remembered that 'Species have no existence' except as a certain assemblage of specific characters shared by a group of animals, it becomes clear that the fixity of species is no longer a tenable idea (603). Lewes then quotes a substantial passage from On the Origin of Species 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 >> in which Charles R Darwin Darwin, Charles Robert (1809–82) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> accounts for the hierarchical relation which all plants and all animals have with each other by 'inheritance, and the complex action of natural selection'. 'Mr. Darwin's book', he reports, 'is in everybody's hands, and my object has been to facilitate, if possible, the comprehension of his book, and the adoption of a more philosophical hypothesis, by pointing out the chief weakness of the argument on the other side'. (603) Once more, however, Lewes insists that evolution is only a 'hypothesis [...] still very far from demonstration [...] when we come to seek for the evidence of the development hypothesis, that evidence fails us. It may be true, but we cannot say that it is true'. Furthermore, the 'history of any science' affords numerous examples of erroneous hypotheses that were 'formed and accepted' and now provide only 'a laugh at credulity'. (605) Lewes concludes by detailing the mistaken ideas concerning the shells of oysters held by Pliny Pliny (Gaius Plinius Secundus) (c. 23–79) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> and others, and inquires of the reader, 'I presume you know that shells are formed by a secretion from the mantle?'. This observation is based on the kind of 'microscopic examination' demonstrated in earlier chapters. (606)

Reprinted:

Lewes 1862 Lewes, George Henry 1862. Studies in Animal Life, London: Smith, Elder and Co.
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Letter

Subjects:

Education, Schools, Mathematics, Status

    Reports that at Harchester College, 'one of our most celebrated public schools' (609), the 'regular business of the school consisted solely in the study of Latin and Greek', whilst of 'arithmetic, or mathematics, we learnt nothing'. In addition, the 'Harchester boys were never required to touch their hats to the [...] mathematical masters; whilst to the classical masters [...] they were required to be always hat in hand'. (610) Suggests that along with modern languages, 'arithmetic, and mathematics, should be made part of the "regular business"' of public schools, and commends the plan to 'the attention of H. R. H. Prince Albert Albert [Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha], prince consort, consort of Queen Victoria (1819–61) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >>' (615).

Reprinted:

Higgins 1861 Higgins, Matthew James 1861. Three Letters to the Editor of "The Cornhill Magazine" on Public School Education By Paterfamilias, London: Smith, Elder and Co
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Novel, Serial

Subjects:

Supernaturalism, Superstition, Rationalism, Mathematics, Universities

    In a narrative written at 'the request of Dr. —' in order to help 'account for some of the anomalies which he confesses have perplexed him in the treatment' of the patient's case (617), the narrator tells of 'the prophetic power manifest in the gift of second sight' which belonged to several of his ancestors as well as to his elderly nurse maid. He, however, has 'completed the usual curriculum' of 'mathematics and physics' at 'one of the Scottish universities' (621), and this 'book-learning' at first makes him sceptical of 'the fancies of a foolish old woman' (628). His initially rational view concurs with 'the assertion that we see around us only what is within us: marvellous things enough will show themselves to the marvellous mood' (625). Nevertheless, the chapter closes with an assurance that 'Before many years had elapsed, my foster-mother's prevision [...] was fulfilled' (630).

Reprinted:

Macdonald 1864 Macdonald, George 1864. The Portent: A Story of the Inner Vision of the Highlanders, Commonly Called the Second Sight, London: Smith, Elder and Co
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Regular Feature, Editorial, Essay, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct. [1]

Subjects:

Patronage, Status, Engineers, Chemistry, Medical Practitioners, Zoological Gardens, Navigation, Steamships, Expertise, Heroism

    In showing the absurdity of trying to reward all forms of ingenuity with national honours, lists deserving recipients such as a 'great historian' and a 'great engineer', but then comments, 'A chemist puts in his claim for having invented a new colour; an apothecary for a new pill; the cook for a new sauce; the tailor for a new cut of trousers. We have brought the star of Minerva down from the breast to the pantaloons. Stars and garters! can we go any further [...] ?' (634). After bemoaning the ostentation of ornamental honours, remarks, 'Have you seen the new magnificent Pavo Spicifer at the Zoological Gardens Zoological Society of London —Gardens
Close   View the register entry >>, and do you grudge him his jewelled coronet and the azure splendour of his waistcoat?' (635). Insists that it is the skill and heroism of merchant seamen which truly deserve national recognition, and recounts how on a recent trip to America on a ship of 'the noble Cunard Company Cunard Company
Close   View the register entry >>', the 'officers who sailed her knew her place within a minute or two, and guided us with a wonderful providence safe on our way' (636). At sea, moreover, there 'occur almost daily instances and occasions for the display of science, skill, bravery, fortitude in trying circumstances, resources in danger' (640).

Reprinted:

Thackeray 1863 Thackeray, William Makepeace 1863. Roundabout Papers: Reprinted from 'The Cornhill Magazine', London: Smith, Elder and Co.
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Essay

Relevant illustrations:

map [1]

Subjects:

Military Technology, Steamships, Engineering, Education, Societies

    Urges that to defend London from military attack 'the science we must call to our aid is Fortification' (645). This plan should be undertaken by volunteers whose 'superior intelligence' not only makes them the best riflemen, but 'fit[s] them in a still higher degree for engineers'. Military engineering is 'a science which above all others distinguishes the educated from the uneducated, the man of intellect from the mere fighting machine'. (647) Suggests that the School of Military Engineers School of Military Engineers
Close   View the register entry >> should be relocated from Chatham to Wimbledon, where the engineers 'however learned or scientific they may be, would be none the worse for being placed within nearer reach of the various meetings of learned and scientific societies which are always taking place in the metropolis' (650). Also observes that 'steam has rendered necessary the reconstruction of our navy' (647).

Genre:

Novel, Serial

Subjects:

Supernaturalism, Mental Illness, Soul, Psychology, Mesmerism

    During a somnambulistic trance, the body of Lady Alice Hilton is merely 'the present symbol of an absent life', and when she begins to recover the narrator observes 'the dawn of a soul on the horizon of the material'. Falling in love with Alice, the narrator expresses the wish 'that will were power!', and soon discovers 'a new power which sprang into being within me'. This 'operative volition (if I may be allowed the phrase)' allows him to impel the sleep-walking Alice to enter his room. (680) Only in a somnambulistic trance, he remarks, 'did she enter that state of existence in which my will could exercise authority over her' (681).

Reprinted:

Macdonald 1864 Macdonald, George 1864. The Portent: A Story of the Inner Vision of the Highlanders, Commonly Called the Second Sight, London: Smith, Elder and Co
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Essay, Biography, Serial

Relevant illustrations:

wdct. [1]

Subjects:

Natural History, Philosophy, Organicism, Dissection, Microbiology, Socialism, Utilitarianism, Anthropomorphism, Entomology, Morality, History of Science, Genius, Observation, Comparative Anatomy, Taxonomy

People mentioned:

Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, Étienne (1772–1844) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Thomas Carlyle, Carlyle, Thomas (1795–1881) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> Carl Linnaeus, Linnaeus (or von Linné), Carl (1707–78) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Johann W von Goethe, Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von (1749–1832) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> George L Leclerc, comte de Buffon, Buffon, Georges-Louis Leclerc, comte de (1707–88) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Louis-J-M Daubenton, Daubenton, Louis-Jean-Marie (1716–1800) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, Lavoisier, Antoine-Laurent (1743–94) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Carl F Kielmeyer, Kielmeyer, Carl Friedrich (1765–1844) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Aristotle Aristotle (384–322 BC) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>

Institutions mentioned:

Academia Carolina, Stuttgart, Academia Carolina, Stuttgart
Close   View the register entry >> Jardin des Plantes, Paris Jardin des Plantes, Paris
Close   View the register entry >>

Publications cited:

Wordsworth 1814, Wordsworth, William 1814. The Excursion: Being a Portion of The Recluse, a Poem, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown
Close   View the register entry >> Lewes 1860a Lewes, George Henry 1860a. Sea-Side Studies at Ilfracombe, Tenby, the Scilly Isles, and Jersey, 2nd edn, Edinburgh and London: Blackwood
Close   View the register entry >>

    Warning that 'Natural History is full of paradoxes', Lewes asserts that the 'several distinct organs' that make up 'an animal Organism' (682) are at the same time both independent and entirely dependent upon the rest of the organism: 'a very dependent independence' (683). This can be seen most clearly in polype colonies, where each is an individual but all rely on a common nutritive fluid. Applying a provocative metaphor from human society, Lewes observes of them, 'the labours of each enrich all. It is animal Socialism of the purest kind—there are no rich and no poor, neither are there any idlers' (683). Later he adds, 'no bee or ant could exist if separated from its colony. So great is "the physiological division of labour", which has taken place among these insects' (684). In the following paragraph, however, Lewes adopts the language of natural history to describe humans in society. We, he enjoins, are equally dependent upon 'all created things, directly or indirectly', 'Nor is the moral dependence less than the physical'. We cannot, after all, 'isolate ourselves if we would. The thoughts of others, the sympathies of others, the needs of others,—these too make up our life; without these we should quickly perish'. (685) Curtailing this line of argument with an abrupt announcement that 'at this present moment there is nothing under our Microscope which can seduce us from the pleasant volume' of youthful letters by Georges Cuvier Cuvier, Georges (1769–1832) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>, Lewes proposes 'we let our "Studies" take a biographical direction' (686). In these biographical reflections he observes that a talent for drawing is invaluable in natural history as 'it not only enables a man to preserve observations of fugitive appearances, but sharpens his faculty of observation by the exercise it gives' (687). He also notes that 'In science, incessant and enlightened labour is necessary, even to the smallest success. Labour is not all; but without it, genius is nothing' (690). Lewes closes the article, and the series, with the 'hope' that it might be 'resumed hereafter [...] with as much willingness' on the part of the reader 'as desire to interest you on mine' (690). George Smith Smith, George (1824–1901) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> asked Lewes to continue the series in January 1862, but he declined, perhaps in protest at the publisher's complaints about his heterodoxy and cautious support for Charles R Darwin Darwin, Charles Robert (1809–82) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> (Ashton 1991 Ashton, Rosemary 1991. G.H. Lewes: A Life, Oxford: Clarendon Press
Close   View the register entry >>, 215).

Reprinted:

Lewes 1862 Lewes, George Henry 1862. Studies in Animal Life, London: Smith, Elder and Co.
Close   View the register entry >>

Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

Nutrition, Statistics, Utilitarianism, Error, Communism, Darwinism, Natural Law

    Compares the nutritious diets of prisoners with the meagre victuals endured by working men. Bemoaning the Utilitarian emphasis on calculating statistical averages for the requisite level of nutrition, Dallas declaims, 'granting that, scientifically, the weighing machine is a fair test of what a man ought to eat [...] practically, it is not a standard to which the common sense of mankind can submit. There is a fallacy in these measurements' (746). In order to alleviate the suffering of labourers, Dallas suggests they eat brown bread ('the most wholesome, nourishing, and palatable form of the staff of life') and oat meal (747). He also advises the establishment of communal kitchens based on the 'system of the division of labour', but has to concede that the 'wild theories of communists have unfortunately brought discredit on the principle of combination as applied to the domestic life' (751). Applying an explicitly Darwinian language to human society, Dallas remarks, 'It is a very humiliating reflection that eating and drinking occupy more of our thoughts than anything else in heaven above or in the earth beneath. [...] Man is like the lower animals in this respect that with the vast majority of our race, the struggle for existence is a struggle for dinner'. 'Who can count', he asks, 'all the wars, murders and quarrels that have arisen out of this one question of dinner—the question of questions?', and the article concludes by considering the 'natural law which makes man chiefly dependent on his food'. (754)