310 



SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



little was the foremost champion of inductive though 

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

 those who attempt to recognise the aims of contemporar 

 thought.^ j 



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

 apply in order to trace the leading directions of scientific 



definitions of hoise- 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). 



OnWhewell'sjJOsition 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 

 the Law which has regulated 

 Introduction of New Species ' 

 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. 



^ " It is a remarkable evidence of 



On 

 the 

 was 



the greatness of the progress whic 

 has been effected in our time, tha 

 even the second edition of th 

 ' History of the Inductive Scieii 

 ces,' which was published in 184( 

 contains no allusion to the publi 

 cation in 1843 of the first of th 

 series of experiments Vjy which th 

 mechanical equivalent of heat wa 

 correctly ascertained. Such a faii 

 ure on the part of a contemporary 

 of great acquirements and remark 

 able intellectual powers, to reai 

 the signs of the times, is a lesso: 

 and a warning worthy of bein^ 

 deeply pondered by any one wh 

 attempts to prognosticate th 

 course of scientific progress " (Hux 

 ley in Ward's ' Reign of Queen Vic 

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

 writer has pointed out how Au 

 guste Comte was still more un 

 fortunate in his opinions on con 

 temporary science. " What struc 

 me was his want of apprehensio: 

 of the great features of science 

 his strange mistakes as to th 

 merits of his scientific contempoi 

 aries; and his ludicrously erroneou 

 notions about the part which som 

 of the scientific doctrines curren 

 in his time were destined to play ii 

 the future" ("Scientific Aspects i 

 Positivism," 'Lay Sermons,' 1891 

 p. 130). He then goes on to sho^ 

 how Comte treated the undulator 

 theory with contempt, extolle' 

 Gall, depreciated Cuvier, and spok 

 of the " abuse of microscopic in 

 vestigations " (ibid., p. 134). - 



