8o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



TWO SCIENTIFIC WORTHIES.* 



Bt HARKISON ALLEN, M. D. 



WE can estimate the popularity of any branch of knowledge 

 by the interest taken by the public in the lives of the men 

 who are identified with it. We read with avidity the lightest 

 details in the careers of military leaders for the glamour which 

 is attached to war ; but the victories and defeats of students of 

 Nature pass unregarded. 



The mediaeval naturalist was artist and naturalist, or priest 

 and naturalist. Permit me to quote a passage from Edward 

 Forbes's Naked-Eyed Medusa : " The genus Sarsia was instituted 

 by Lesson for a very remarkable Medusa discovered by the emi- 

 nent naturalist of Norway, whose name it bears ; a philosopher 

 who, pursuing his researches far away from the world, buried 

 among the grand solitudes of his magnificent country, where the 

 pursuit of science is his recreation, and the holy offices of religion 

 his sacred duty, has nevertheless gained name and fame wher- 

 ever the study of Nature is followed. The unpretending writings 

 of this parish priest have become models for the essays of learned 

 professors in foreign lands, and his discoveries the texts of long 

 commentaries by experienced physiologists." Father Sars, a 

 priest and naturalist, appears to have been a representative of the 

 mediaeval type projected into the nineteenth century. While the 

 conflict between science and religion is going on, the amenities of 

 science and religion as exemplified by such a career should be 

 acknowledged. 



I shall sketch briefly the careers of two scientific worthies, one 

 standing on the threshold of modern times, and the other well 

 within. I allude to the naturalist and physician in the person of 

 Sir Thomas Browne, and the naturalist and administrator in that 

 of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles. I shall present their claims as 

 scientists, for these have been largely ignored. 



Sir Thomas Browne was an English provincial physician of the 

 time of Charles II. He was born in 1605 and died in 1682. We 

 are informed that modern readers without special preparation can 

 understand the spirit of this time. But we must acknowledge 

 Browne is something of a puzzle. It is true we can dip into his 

 mental life as we can read of an Owen. He is one of us. He 

 thought and worked as we do. At other times he appears as a 

 Rosicrucian in his physics an Aldrovandus in his natural 

 history. 



* An address delivered before the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, De- 

 cember 7, 1894. 



