EDITOR'S TABLE. 



753 



the topics discussed. The presidency of 

 these bodies is held as an eminent honor 

 among men of science, to be filled but 

 once in a lifetime, and then by gen- 

 tlemen of the highest scientific ability. 

 These addresses are read with interest 

 throughout the scientific world, and 

 they naturally call forth the best exer- 

 tion that their authors are capable of 

 making. In the present case the 

 speakers have taken up the subjects 

 to which their lives have been devoted, 

 and upon which they are prepared to dis- 

 course with authority. This, however, 

 is more especially the case with Prof. 

 Gray. An accomplished botanist, who 

 is, moreover, much of a philosopher, and 

 can work at causes and effects in Na- 

 ture as well as at identifying and label- 

 ling specimens, he has grappled with 

 the profoundest question in his own 

 domain, the origin, descent, and modi- 

 fications of vegetable forms on this 

 continent, and has handled it with a 

 clearness, originality, and richness of 

 illustration, which cannot fail to in- 

 crease his already high reputation. 

 Dr. Carpenter has won his best fame in 

 the field of physiology, although culti- 

 vating successfully various branches of 

 natural history. As is shown in the 

 biographical notice which we publish, 

 he has paid special attention to the 

 physiology of the nervous system, and 

 has worked out a mental philosophy 

 on the basis of cerebral physiology. 

 One of the doctrines to winch he has 

 paid much attention, and which he 

 claims to have developed and extended 

 so as to make it his own, was set 

 forth by him in the lecture which 

 we published last month, on the " Un- 

 conscious Action of the Brain." But 

 while Dr. Carpenter has been an as- 

 siduous student of mind from this 

 point of view, and is entitled to speak 

 with authority upon the questions it 

 involves, in the present address he has 

 gone quite beyond this subject, and 

 plunged into the utmost intricacies of 

 metaphysics. His address contains 

 48 



much that is instructive in regard to 

 the methods of science in interpreting 

 Nature; and in addition to this he 

 makes a vigorous attack on the new 

 philosophical school that has lately 

 grown up into strength within the 

 circles of science. His argument is 

 generally regarded as a protest and a 

 reaction against recent and as many 

 think mischievous scientific tendencies. 



It is curious to note the course of 

 thought for the past few years, in these 

 two Associations, dedicated to the " ad- 

 vancement " of ideas, as that course is 

 evinced by the leanings of the presiden- 

 tial speeches. Those of the American 

 presidents have been cautious and 

 timid, and they seem to have hesitated 

 about committing themselves to " ad- 

 vanced " views. Prof. Gray is the first 

 who has ventured officially to avow 

 Darwinian doctrines. On the other 

 hand, the later presidents of the British 

 Association, Grove, Hooker, and Hux- 

 ley, have been representatives of these 

 doctrines. This year, however, the 

 tendencies in both bodies would seem 

 to be reversed the American presi- 

 dent breaking away from the conserva- 

 tism of his predecessors, and the Brit- 

 ish president putting on the breaks to 

 check the radical movement in his own 

 body. 



Yet Dr. Carpenter has neither ar- 

 rayed himself against the doctrine of 

 " Darwinism," nor is his scientific ortho- 

 doxy by any means above suspicion. 

 He was among the first to assert and 

 elaborate the great doctrine of the cor- 

 relation of physical and vital forces, 

 and, in the fifth edition of his "Princi- 

 ples of Physiology," he carried out the 

 argument by including the mental 

 forces in the correlated group. This 

 doctrine was denounced as heretical 

 and dangerous by Dr. Barnard, in his 

 address before the American Associa- 

 tion at Chicago, and, if we remember 

 rightly, so great was the scare in Eng- 

 land at the position taken by Carpen- 

 ter, which was reprobated as rank ma- 



