420 



NATURE 



\March 28, 1878 



to play in biology, the " Exercitationes de Generatione," 

 though second to the " Exercitatio Anatomica," can 

 hardly be said to have another rival in the contemporary 

 literature of biological science. 



Modern morphology, no less than physiology, has its root 

 in the work of William Harvey. T. H. Huxley 



ZOLLNER'S SCIENTIFIC PAPERS 

 Wissenschaftliche Abhatidhmgen (Erster Band). Von F. 

 ZoUner. (Leipzig : L. Staackmann, 1878.) 



IF we take a somewhat different course in reviewing 

 this work from that which we should naturally adopt 

 with works professedly scientific, we hope at least to 

 justify our conduct to the reader before we finish. For, 

 alas, all is not scientific that professes to be science, and 

 even celestial minds can harbour very curious feelings 

 and express them with most unmistakeable vigour, while 

 not always striking above the belt. 



The key-note of this work, as well as of a great deal of 

 the other somewhat voluminous writings of Prof. ZoUner, 

 is struck by himself in a foot-note to p. 129, where he 

 tells us that " the aim of all his scientific efforts has been 

 to contribute, as far as the ability given him permits, to 

 the realisation " of a certain " hopeful project " : — viz., 

 the explanation of all molecular actions by means of that 

 Law of Electric Attraction (due to W. Weber) which 

 " has already been so fruitful in coordinating under one 

 principle all electric and magnetic phenomena." 



Very good and laudable : — though we may permit our- 

 selves to say, in passing, probably very unpromising. 

 But it is quite impossible to say what hints a competent 

 mathematician may not obtain while he is attempting to 

 prosecute the applications of any theory — however remote 

 its principles may be from those which the experimental 

 facts themselves suggest to the physical investigator in 

 his laboratory. Unfoitunately even this concession is 

 thrown away upon Prof. Zollner : — for he not only does 

 • not claim to be considered as a mathematician, but has 

 on a former occasion (in his work on Comets) expressly 

 denounced those who attempt " by differentiating and 

 integrating " to get at natural laws. He is, as Helmholtz 

 long ago said, a genuine Metaphysician, and (as such) is 

 a curiosity really worthy of study : — not of course merely 

 because he is a Metaphysician, but because in this nine- 

 teenth century he attempts to bring his metaphjsics into 

 pure physical science. 



To a man whose whole object in scientific life is the 

 establishment of Weber's Law as the fundamental fact of 

 the Kosmos, of course all works are an Abomination in 

 which even an attempt is madejo show that action at a 

 distance can be (and therefore ought to be) dispensed 

 with. Hence Clerk- Max well's Theory, which, even its 

 opponents must allow, has succeeded at least as well as 

 Weber's in connecting and explaining the phenomena of 

 electricity^ magnetism, and light, must be demolished at 

 all hazards. But the reader of Maxwell's great work on 

 Electricity, who has seen in its very Preface that the main 

 object of that work was to carry out to their legitimate 

 mathematical developments the physical ideas of Faraday, 

 will scarcely be prepared to find that Prof. Zollner accepts 

 Faraday and denounces Maxwell ! 

 This tour deforce is worthy of so accomplished a meta- 



physician. It is absolutely refreshing in its coobiess ! 

 According to Prof. Zollner, both Clerk-Maxwell and Sir 

 W. Thomson (to whose advice the former owns his 

 indebtedness) quote Faraday correctly, and yet altogether 

 misapprehend his meaning ! In fact we are now told, 

 though not in so many words, that Faraday, whom we 

 had all looked on as an opponent of action at a distance, 

 was really a firm believer in it, and a strenuous advocate 

 of it ! Not only Faraday, but even Newton himself: — in 

 spite of the celebrated Letters to Bentley, in which all of 

 us have hitherto read the inconceivability of distance- 

 action to any mind which " has in philosophic matters a 

 competent faculty of thinking" — even Newton himself, it 

 seems, believed in action at a distance ! 



On this no farther comment is necessary than one I 

 made some time ago, when Prof. Zollner, to his own satis- 

 faction at least, prov^ed me to be ignorant alike of Latin 

 and of the very First Law of Motion j — viz , that " Prof. 

 Zollner should not attempt to criticise . . , until he 

 acquires sufficient knowledge of British technical 

 terms ..." 



That a good deal of Prof ZoUner's censure is due to his 

 imperfect apprehension of English, will, I think, be 

 allowed by every candid reader. I say nothing of nume- 

 rous misspellings — sometimes ludicrous, such as " in his 

 sobber {sic) senses" — which occurs twice at least (pp. 142, 

 711), because there are quite as many misspellings in the 

 German, and all are, therefore, probably due to the 

 printer. But it is a wonderful piece of information for us 

 benighted islanders to be told that our foremost scientific 

 men, while quoting Newton accurately, entirely miss, or 

 rather misrepresent, his meaning. So wonderful that I 

 certainly shall not be believed, unless I refer definitely to 

 some of the inculpatory passages : — 



[The passage (pp. 141-152) is too long for translation, 

 so I give a small part only ; restricting myself to the tone 

 in which British authors are spoken of, for the substance 

 of the accusation, such as it .is, has been already indi- 

 cated.] I 



" One's impaired power of discovering contradictions 

 prevents his recognising them as such even when the 

 effect of the contrast is heightened by juxtaposition. 

 Hence we must ascribe the non-retractation of such by 

 their authors not to moral weakness but to incapacity. 

 Hence also the surprising naivete with which such men 

 {i.e., Sir W. Thomson, Ci^tk-MaxweWjet hoc genus omne) 

 hand over to their critic the weapons with which to exter- 

 minate them, &c., &c. He who thinks it superfluous to 

 bother himself with the thoughts of his predecessors and 

 contemporaries loses ipso facto all right to consideration 

 for himself and his writings. Such an author will in after 

 time be forgotten, just as he has forgotten his prede- 

 cessors, and this in the name of Eternal Right. For, 

 only in the continuity of the mental work of succes- 

 sive generations is there security for the progress of 

 Humanity ! " 



The reader of this will perhaps think that he has seen 

 enough of Prof. Zollner and his work :— enough at least 

 to enable him to form a pretty shrewd guess as to the 

 scientific value of the whole. But I must be excused if I 

 trouble him with a few additional remarks on another 

 aspect of the book. 



Some years ago Prof. Helmholtz kindly undertook to 



revise the German translation of Thotnson and Taifs 



1 A' atiiral Philosophy, and -vfdiS in consequence somewhat 



