TRANSLATOR S INTRODUCTION XXI 



scientists, and gave a more prominent place to Kant's 

 scientific work. Ueberweg clearly saw its importance, 

 and outlined it with his usual literary accuracy ; and 

 Kuno Fischer gives a comparatively full and 

 attractive summary of it in his brilliant exposition 

 of Kant's philosophy. 



Of late years the respective merits of Kant and 

 Laplace in connection with the Nebular theory, have 

 become almost a subject of international controversy 

 between the German and the French scientists, and 

 they have respectively found eager and even im- 

 passioned advocates on either side of the Rhine. 



In 1880, A. Meydenbauer attempted to show up 

 1 the contradictions of Laplace's theory with facts 

 and rational principles,' and to press the issue of 

 the alternative, 'Kant or Laplace,' 1 entirely in favour 

 of the former. On the other hand, M. Wolf, 

 Astronomer of the Paris Observatory and Member 

 of the Institute, published in 1886 his valuable work 

 on the Cosmogonic Hypotheses, in which he attempts 

 to dispose of the accumulating objections to Laplace's 

 theory, defends it while sharply criticising Kant's 

 views, and, although rejecting them, he completes 

 his work with a French translation of Kant. 2 M. 



1 Kant oder Laplace. Kosmologische S indie, von A. Meydenbauer. 

 Marburg, 1880. Meydenbauer is unfavourably criticised by A. J. v. 

 Oettingen, Lc. p. 151. 



2 Les Hypotheses Costnogoniques : Examen des Theories Scientifiques 

 Modernes sur POrigine des Mondes, sttivi de la Tradttction de la 

 Thtorie du del de Kant, par C. Wolf, Membre de 1'Institut, 

 Astronome de 1'Observatoire. Paris, 1886. 



