9S Defence of certain French Naturalists. 



public. It appears to us, therefore, that an editor who pub- 

 lishes such effusions, neither consults the reputation of the 

 writer, nor the taste of the reader ; still less does he regard 

 the character of his own journal, or act in accordance with 

 his own recorded professions. * 



There are other papers, however, which have not this ex- 

 cuse for their authors ; and which, as being avowedly written 

 for the public eye, are much more calculated to foment bitter 

 feeling among individuals, and to bring national reproach 

 uponusall. The zoological school of Britainis, indeed, "strong 

 in its first advances," but it is yet in its infancy : mildness 

 and conciliation will insure to it respect, and its voice will 

 then be listened to. We have caught a glimpse of some 

 mighty truths, which are not thought perceptible by our neigh- 

 bours. Yet, seeing but the shadow, we must not fancy we 

 have caught the substance ; or, to drop metaphor, because we 

 have discovered a part of the natural system, we must not 

 arrogantly imagine we have grasped the whole ; that all fur- 

 ther enquiry, discussion, or opposition is to cease ; and that 

 there exists a conspiracy among the naturalists of France 

 against those of England, merely, forsooth, because they 

 choose to study nature in their own way. That such senti- 

 ments, however, are implied, no one can doubt who has 

 perused the repeated attacks that have been made upon some of 

 the French naturalists individually, and upon the whole col- 

 lectively. When personal and national invective is thus sub- 

 stituted for fair and temperate discussion, it is really time to 

 be serious. We are certainly carrying matters too far; and 

 our " infant school " may probably be compared to the boys 

 in the story, who got possession of a little puddle, from which 

 they bespattered every passenger who refused to take a sup. 



The individuals that have been more particularly selected 

 by Mr. Vigors f , as fit subjects for this discourteous treatment, 



* We would gladly have refrained, on this occasion, from all personal 

 allusions ; but the name of Mr. Vigors, the editor of the journal in ques- 

 tion, is conspicuously prominent in this species of scientific warfare : not 

 only does this gentleman occupy himself a distinguished station as a com- 

 batant, but his name stands foremost upon every occasion as " aiding and 

 abetting " the efforts of others. He has thus placed it out of our power 

 to treat the subject in a general way. 



f M. Lesson, in a short but temperate and dignified reply (^Bulletin des 

 Sc. Nat.y April 1830) to the " Notice " in the Zool Journal, tacitly exo- 

 nerates Dr. Horsfield from all participation in that offensive production ; 

 and this he has fully and pointedly confirmed to us in a private letter. Dr. 

 Horsfield, indeed, is as well known for the temperate mode in which his 

 opinions are always expressed, as he is by being one of our very few veterans 

 in science. How his name, therefore, came to be associated in this memor- 

 able article, we cannot possibly divine. 



