310 



SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



little was the foremost champion of inductive thought 

 able to discern the tendencies of his age : a warning to 

 those who attempt to recognise the aims of contemporary 

 thought. 1 



It is not, then, to the philosophical writers that I shall 

 apply in order to trace the leading directions of scientific 



definitions of horse- power and work 

 (1826), which Whewell does not 

 mention. 



The mechanical theory of gases 

 not to mention the older specula- 

 tions of Daniel Bernoulli dates 

 from Avogadro's and Ampere's 

 hypothesis, published in 1811, 

 " that all gaseous bodies, under the 

 same physical conditions, contain 

 the same number of units," from 

 Herapath (1821) and Joule (1851). 

 On Whewell's position with regard 

 to the question of the origin and 

 variation of species, then already 

 ventilated by Lyell, see ' History of 

 Induct. Sci.,' vol. iii. p. 489, &c. 

 (3rd ed. ), and Huxley's remarks in 

 the ' Life of Charles Darwin,' vol. 

 ii. p. 192, &c. Wallace's essay ' On 

 the Law which has regulated the 

 Introduction of New Species ' was 

 published in 1858 along with Dar- 

 win's preliminary statement of his 

 views. 



We might form a whole catalogue 

 of scientific terms, some of them 

 by no means of recent origin, 

 which are wanting in Whewell's 

 books, but which now govern scien- 

 tific progress : such are energy, 

 work, action and efficiency, absol- 

 ute measurement, to mention only 

 physical terms. The general ideas 

 upon which he himself lays some 

 stress, such as those of polarity and 

 symmetry, appear on the other 

 hand to be vague generalisations, 

 which have frequently led people 

 astray. 

 1 " It is a remarkable evidence of 



the greatness of the progress which 

 has been effected in our time, that 

 even the second edition of the 

 ' History of the Inductive Scien- 

 ces,' which was published in 1846, 

 contains no allusion to the publi- 

 cation in 1843 of the first of the 

 series of experiments by which the 

 mechanical equivalent of heat was 

 correctly ascertained. Such a fail- 

 ure on the part of a contemporary, 

 of great acquirements and remark- 

 able intellectual powers, to read 

 the signs of the times, is a lesson 

 and a warning worthy of being 

 deeply pondered by any one who 

 attempts to prognosticate the 

 course of scientific progress " (Hux- 

 ley in Ward's ' Reign of Queen Vic- 

 toria,' vol. ii. p. 355). The same 

 writer has pointed out how Au- 

 guste Comte was still more un- 

 fortunate in his opinions on con- 

 temporary science. " What struck 

 me was his want of apprehension 

 of the great features of science ; 

 his strange mistakes as to the 

 merits of his scientific contempor- 

 aries ; and his ludicrously erroneous 

 notions about the part which some 

 of the scientific doctrines current 

 in his time were destined to play in 

 the future" ("Scientific Aspects of 

 Positivism," 'Lay Sermons,' 1891, 

 p. 130). He then goes on to show 

 how Comte treated the undulatory 

 theory with contempt, extolled 

 Gall, depreciated Cuvier, and spoke 

 of the "abuse of microscopic in- 

 vestigations" (ibid., p. 134). 



