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JJlttrilUlfL , '. ' - '"' .
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Jjlttrilulfl , '. ' - '"' .
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lK ; tb . einew number of the Westminster Review there is a notice of my work era Qomtb ^ v rhi ch , for various reasons , I cannot pass in silence . Appearing in pages-where it is well known I am also a writer ( the very same number contftin infjf ail article by me on philosophic anatomy ) , this attack will have more j ^ kan usual significance ; and being founded on the natural but false assump-. fion that , because Literature is my profession , therefore in Science I can only have ^ b ook knowledge , " it will fall in with the all but universal tendency of not allowing any man to be heard ~ on more than one subject . Once for all
-Ifil-tPW Jf ^ Ji that it is eighteen years since I first began to occupy myself'practically and theoretically—with Biology , and that it is only within the ^ te 8 ** -fow 7 < saTS I" have ventured to publish any opinions on that subject . - ^^ PPg li pursuing the study with no professional views , and consequently ^• SpSwngjCifther subjects to wean me from it , and occupy a larger share of my ^ fifej yet ^ have I at times worked hard enough to consider it not altogether un-~ becoming if now , as occasion offers , some results are put forth . .. Whftt value any . such opinions may hare is another matter . The
Re-.. ytewjer contemptuously treating me as a "bookman , " and not even as a rejpec table "bookman , " proceeds underneath a thin disguise of praise te , ^^ ff y the blunders he has discovered . Blunders , I am sure , there must be ^« p . tfc ^ book , for as Haijjbb says , it is only in novels that heroes are always ^^ rictofious , and as MabtiAl notes of his own book : — ' . " .. > . . " f gnn ^ jjjjq ^ pjnr ^ ' , ; . , Qua legis : aliter noa fit , Avite , liber . . ¦ %$ ! ££ J ?* * compliment the sagacity nor the knowledge of the Reviewer exhibited in iis selection . The first cited—that , namely , of sulphuric acid
ficial knowledge he has of the subject . He asks what provisional organ precedes the permanent heart ? Why , the heart , as Wagneb truly says , presents such diversities that it may be said to be in a state of ceaseless metamorphosis , both as regards form and position . "A knowledge of the different stages , " says Dr . Cabpbntjsb , " enables us to explain many of the malformations Svhich they present in man , these being for the most part due to arrest of development , whereby the circulating apparatus is permanently fixed in conditions characteristic of coldblooded animals . " Every tyro knows that the development of the human heart is through forms which
are permanent in lower animals , transitory in man . The Reviewer asks also about the liver . Is he not aware that , besides its transformations , it changes its place : the mass of hepatic cells being gradually removed to a distance from its original position on the wall of the intestinal canal , •* the . coecum being narrowed and lengthened so as to become a mere connecting pedicle , forming in fact the main trunk of the hepatic duet" ( Caj&pknteb ) . Indeed ^! can only repeat what Fjx ) Uebn 8 sa ^ -s , that " the organs of vegeta tive life are all doubled in the foetus , oae taking the place of the other . * If the Reviewer means that the Heart is always a Heart , and the Liver a
Liver , he is only playing with words . I fear tnis enumeration is becoming tedious , and will not pursue it further than to notice the disingenuousness of this , passage :- — " Mr . Lewes has stated his proposition with regard to the existence of three successive and distinct sets of circulatory organs in such a manner , that we are not sure pf his mean'fng , and therefore prefer not to advert to it farther than to remark , that the putting together as contemporaneous , events so widely separated in the order of development as' the formation cf the blastoderma and of the umbilical vesicle ? or again , that of ' the lungs .
intestines , and organ * t ofrelation , ' is not excusable even on the plea , of mere book knowledge . " Any one who reads the passage here adverted to will see that I do not place the two events as contemporaneous , but as coincident with the first form of circulation . Sacking and forming mud pies are not contemporaneous events in infancy , but they both belong to that interesting epoch . Finally , to show how apposite the concluding sneer , I may mention that the passage in question is taken from Lokgjet , one of the best physiologists of our day . G . H . Lrwbs *
^ b * sulphurott * acid—w a blonder . Not a doubt of it . But of the rest you KBtii ^ •¦ •¦; :. - ^¦ v&m sJG ' -i ^ F ^ JJPf y * k ° to . wmaik ^ that a writer who claims to present us with the ' very ^ ft ^^^^^* W | 3 w of 1 S 58 * in ; organic chemistry , should have Known , when setting up ~* $ &&ty $£ ^ t * & ^ Mjjfatiacjtive character of inorganic principles , that Beichert discovered ^^ WS ^| -- ^ yP ^^ L * 4 wlinr . for 1 ) 849 , ' a crystalline albuminous substance . We are wnpnrlA ^^^^ g Dtitta ^ although those already cited would suffice to ^ l ^ ff ^ f ^^^^ Mt i . ^ needed , how impossible it is for even so acute a thinker as Mr . *** e * rM 4 occc « d in sdentiHc speculations , without the discipline and knowledge which i «^ tir 6 miKang » worker also . " ^ * F ° ^^ B ^ iV ^ a ^^^ ist ^ The « discovery , " which I onght to have known , ^ W ^^^^ : ^^ - : ^^ ^ © work " of Robin and Vbkdbh . ( TraUe de
Chiznit Anatomique , 1853 ) , which I principally followed ; but it was also ^ idiownJtojbe + cri « s discovery at all , according to these great authorities ! J ^ d ^ pbe ^ iMe I'iras giving the " latest facts and ideas of 1853 " I did not J ^ aui—as the Reviewerdoes—in the error of 1849 . 'Heis referred to Robin m& ? $ 1 ^ psxj ? -&v , vi referred , also , to Lkhmakn ' s Lehrbuch der Physiclo-^ g ^ Keif ^ lSw ^ : 1853—where Reichebt ' s mistake is explained . These cliemistfl hot enly set aside tie " discovery of 1849 , " but jiistinctly declare -0 iat noncrystallizability is the most obvious property of these organic prin-K 3 plet ;> . Thus it appears that book knowledge , however contemptible , is on tie whole safer than book ignorance . 8 iefion
V-j : ^^^^ jMS ^ is , that a statement he finds in my book cannot . be rpMsed ' Over without an affirmation of its being " unworthy of a place in any work claiming to be on a level with the science of the present day . " Perhaps . ^^»; i D ^ t ^ j ^ c statement is a simple translation from one of the acknowledged great men of the day—Alumna ( In his Physialogische Chemie , i ., p . 93 )— -I prefer his authority to that of my random Reviewer . Saving quashed Mvidbb with a sarcasm , he adds : — . ** , Nor ia hia < o-called general laws does Mr . Lewes display less inaccuracy than iii his particular propositions . At pp . 33 , 34 , for instance , we meet with certain ' Laws of Embryology'thus stated . — %
I ' j t&ittverjftmtng which is primitive is only provisional , at least in the higher animals , tmd everything titat is permanent has only been established secondarily , and sometimes tmHmrify . i *' < Il ! v * - S 1 *^ ctmsequently , the embryo of the higher animals successively renews its organs ( tM ^ ito ^ characteristics through a series of metamorphoses which give it permanent con-^ "JSSffJ ** 6 * W : 4 ip hrmt , but even directly contrary to those which it had primitively . ' ,: . , ^ ° W T " ? '" authority upon which Mr . Lewes makes these statements , we arc con-Vgjioea ^ lMifl ^ thflv are in direc t contradi ction to the mos t fundamental and best-established JWf J « ^» wJWOi gy . What provisional organ precedes the permanent heart , the liver , or the intestine *? And yet these Would surely be somewhat momentous exceptions to Mr . Lewes s * General Embrrological Laws . ' "
Here lie affiecta to ignore , and is simply ignorant . He speaks of these laws as if they were figments of mine ; but I ask him whether he has ever heard of Isidore GsoratOT St . Hiiaire , and of a certain work , called Histoire des Anomalies de TOrganisation ? In vol . i ., pp . 272 sq . of that work , he will find theae laws first enunciated as the-result of embryological investigations . Has he ever heard of Fixjubens , and of h ' lB ^ Memoires d * Anatomic et de Physiol gie € omparde f At pp . 23 sq . heVill see the first law restated , with the promise of detailed development in a special memoir . Has he ~ ever heard of Coubt * ? % n a special Memoire { Gazette Medicale , 1847 , pp . 880 sq . ) he will see the «> ame law once more treated . Has he ever heard of Lonoep ? In his Trait *!
de Physiologic Le will find a reference to these views with fresh illustrations . Jfow even supposing ( e ' est wie Iris forte supposition /) that the Reviewer had ¦ knowledge of his own to overturn these authorities , I surely may he excused having quoted their laws as illustrations of the development of thought ? But , in truth , the Reviewer ' s objections only display tho super-
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Turning from the profitless task of polemics to the pleasanter task of rapidly indicating to our readers what is notable in the periodicals * , we have to draw attention to this number of the Westminster , as one quite equal to the reputation the Review has of late acquired . The opening article on Constitutional Reform has already been noticed in these columns . The concluding article on England ' s Foreign Pcrlicy is an eloquent application of the philosophy of history tb present polities , and will he much admired . An elegant scholarly paper on Properties—a very striking survey of the origin ahd present types of English Religion , the authorship of which none will fail to recognise—and an article on the great subject of Strikes mil attract various readers . The new feature in this ftumber is the treatment of
contemporary Literature , which is now divided into six sections : thus the Theology and Philosophy of Europe are treated by one writer in one article ; so of the Science , the History , Classics , Belles Lettres , and Art . To make this scheme quite successful , however , we should suggest that more space be devoted to the important works , and only the titles of the others' given . . The British Quarterly opens with an article of sixty gages on Niebdhb , narrating the biography of that writer , and adding some temperate yet telling criticisms . A delightful article on Scientific Ballooning follows , which we commend to our readers . Strikes of course are treated of ; as also the War—its seat and prospects . Coleridge as a Theologian ^ is an able paper and Dante ' s Beatrice will be a popular one .
We may once again call attention to the English Cyclopaedia , which also is a periodical now , this eighth part concluding the first volume of the Natural History division and the Geography division . It is worth remembering that , besides a profusion of woodcuts , some of the best English naturalists are to be met with in this volume of Natural History : in Botany , the names of Lutdley , Rotub , and Lautcester ; in Geology , those of De ia Beche , Hobneb , and Phiixtps ; iu Mineralogy , R . Phillips and W . Turueb ; in Zoology , Fobbes , Bbodeeip , Ogilvy , Watebhouse ; in Comparative Anatomy , Paget , Dat , and Southwood Smith . It is the cheapest us well a » the best work on the subject .
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The first number of Orr ' s Circle of the Sciences commences Th * Physi ological Scries . The Editor has , we think , committed a great mistake in making this compilation follow so closely the language of the works from which it is compiled . A treatise on Physiology , sold in twopenny parts , should be intelligible to all readers ; we suspect , however , that the technical terms , and the absence of popular exposition in this series , will repel the majority . There is still time for our hint to be taken . The success of the series depends on the writing being intelligible ns well as sound .
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Tho last Edinburgh Review is out of print ; but the demand for the article on Church Parties increasing ratlicr than diminishing , tho publishers havo reprinted it in a small shilling volume . No article has produced such a sensatiou since Macaulay ceased to write for the Jlaview . Apropos of Macaulat , we may mention , us falling in with the Reform literature of the moment , that his Speeches on ParUamenUtry Reform in 1831 and 1832 , have been reprinted in the Traveller ' s Library .
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0 Tii 3 CB . ste . n 6 t the legi sl ators , but the judges and police of literature . They do \^ 9 *^* ¥ © laws — -they interpret and try to enforc e them . —Edinburgh Review .
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* £ 6 / T H E LEADER . [ Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 14, 1854, page 40, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2021/page/16/
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