THE SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT IN GERMANY. 



201 



the second half of the century, the influence of French 

 thought on German science has been less marked, partly 

 owing to the independent course which the latter, since 

 the age of Johannes Miiller, has struck out for herself 

 in the biological sciences, partly through the more inti- 

 mate intercourse which has set in between English and 

 German thought. The three great scientific ideas which 

 the second half of the century has been establishing the 

 law of the conservation of energy, Darwin's theory of 

 descent, and Faraday's novel conception of electrical 

 phenomena have been elaborated mainly by the co- 

 operation of English and German research, though it 

 must be admitted that at least one of these developments 

 dates back to the beginnings laid by French science, 1 

 whilst the views of Faraday are subversive of some of 

 the fundamental notions to which the works of the great 

 French mathematicians had given very general currency. 

 Before we can enter more fully on a review of these more 

 modern ideas, I must, however, give a picture of the state 

 of scientific thought in England during the first half of 

 the century. This will be our subject in the last portion 

 of the present section. 



1 Darwin's theory of descent has 

 its forerunners in Lamarck and St- 

 Hilaire, whose merits in this re- 

 spect are supposed to have been 

 overlooked owing to the overwhelm- 

 ing authority of Cuvier. See Hux- 

 ley, ' ' Origin of Species " in ' Lay 

 Sermons,' 1891, p. 252; "Evolu- 

 tion in Biology " in ' Science and 

 Culture,' 1888, pp. 296, 313. But 

 whilst it is true that Lamarck and 

 St-Hilaire entertained doubts as to 

 the fixity of species, the explana- 

 tion of the particular manner in 

 which the change of species takes 



place is entirely due to Darwin, 

 and without this further step 

 speculations as to the origin of 

 species would have remained for a 

 long time in the vague. Lamarck's 

 speculations were of no real use to 

 Darwin, and had besides been anti- 

 cipated by Erasmus Darwin. On 

 the other hand, the researches of 

 Sadi Carnot were of great value in 

 the hands of Joule, Thomson, and 

 Helmholtz, who may be regarded 

 as the founders of the doctrine of 

 the conservation of energy. 



