JAunAEY 1, 1896] 



KNOWLEDGE 



LONDON: JANUABY 1, 1896. 



CONTENTS. 



-^ PAGE 



Geography as a Science in England. By Hr&H Robbei 



Mill, D.Sc " 1 



The Great Red Spot on Jupiter. By E. Walteb 



M.irxDER, F.R.A.S. (Plale) 4 



Jupiter. By Xath. E. Geeen 5 



Periodical Comets due in 1896. Bt W T. Ltx.v, B.A., 



F.R.A.S ' 6 



Waves.— I. The Waves of the Ocean. By VAr&HAj; 



Cornish, M.Se. (Illustrated) " 6 



The Banana. By Kichaed Beyson ... 9 



Our Fur-Producers.— I. Otters, Skunl<s, Badgers, and 

 Gluttons. By E. Ltdekkee, B.A Cantah., F.R.S. 



(Illustrated) .'. 10 



Science Notes 13 



Letters ; — D.wid FLAyBRT ; Alfeed J. Johnsok 14 



Notices of Books. {Hlmfrated) ... ._ 1.5 



Italian Medals. By G. F. Hill. (Plate) ... 17 



Parasitic Flow/ering Plants. — The Mistletoe arfd 

 Dodder. By J. Pextlaxd-Siiiih. M.A., B So. {Illus- 

 trated) ... ' 19 



The Face of the Sky for January. By Heebeet 



Sadlee, F.R.A.S 22 



Chess Column. By C. D. Locock, BA.Oion 23 



GEOGRAPHY AS A SCIENCE IN ENGLAND. 



By Hugh Egbert Mill, D.Sc. 



GEOGRAPHY, as a science, has not flourished in 

 Great Britain. Men may be found in our Univer- 

 sities and learned Societies who sneer at the 

 pretensions of geography to scientific ranli ; and, 

 when the phrase " Principles of Geography " has 

 been employed, cultured professors have smiled at it as at 

 a paradox. " Geography," remarked a classical scholar to 

 me not long ago, " if a science, is of no educational value ; 

 there is only one science which is possibly more barren 

 and profitless to the student — the science of heraldry.' 

 The claims of geography as an element in education 

 are, however, being ably urged by powerful voices, and, 

 if not yet fully realised, they are likely to be widely 

 conceded before many years go by. With geography in 

 education I propose to have nothing here to do, except, 

 it may be, incidentally ; for in proportion as geography 

 attains recognition in University education will the special 

 subject of this article gain importance and compel attention. 

 Geography as a science is not respected because it 

 is not imderstood ; and the ground of the misunder- 

 standing, in some cases at least, is that " a science " 

 is not uncommonly looked upon as a department of 

 specialised knowledge. Starting with this idea, it is 

 perfectly logical for an objector to say that the ground 

 claimed for geography is covered by the sciences of 

 astronomy, geodesy, geology, oceanography, meteorology, 

 botany, zoology, history, and anthropology — if, as is not 

 likely, he allows that the last-named are sciences — and 

 to declare that there is no room for the '• science of 

 geography." I contend that the departments of natural 

 knowledge cannot be so "clean cut from out and olf the 

 illimitable " as to admit of their being arranged side by 

 side to cover the field of nature like a tesselated pavement. 



Each one is, to a greater or less extent, permeated by 

 those surroimding, and permeates them in turn : the 

 astronomer is not independent of the chemist nor the 

 meteorologist of the astronomer. If sciences are to be 

 viewed as tesserce, the " sciences " as at present familiarly 

 classified must be analysed into units of profound special- 

 ism, each of which may be a single and independent 

 study, and may be utilised, differently combined, in neigh- 

 bouring " sciences." 



We may, then, view " a science " as composed of a group 

 of specialisations, a molecule compounded of atoms, so that 

 the same atoms of ultimate specialisation may be combined 

 successively in different molecular generalisations. Another 

 step carries us to the recognition of sciences of higher 

 generalisation, in which the units are the "molecular" 

 sciences themselves, combined and subordinated to a new 

 yet special purpose. It is easy enough to recognise physics 

 as capable of analysis into mathematics and the sciences 

 of matter and energy — heat, light, electricity, and so on ; 

 yet he would be accounted a student of little perception 

 who should deny the claim of physics to be a science 

 because the ground is already covered with heat, light, and 

 the rest. It is only in unfamiliar paths that scientific men 

 " cannot see the wood for trees." 



My claim is that geography as a science is so far akin 

 to physics that it is a generalisation of the second order, a 

 natural grouping of units which are individually distinct. 

 The physicist looks on nature in the universal aspects of 

 matter and energy ; the geographer looks on nature in the 

 limited, but still general, aspect of the surface of the earth. 



Geography as a science is the exact and organised know- 

 ledge of the distribution of phenomena on the surface of 

 the earth. This involves the human race ; and because the 

 human race represents the culmination of organic evolution, 

 the true understanding of the interaction of man with his 

 terrestrial environment is the final object of geography. 

 The materials for building up the final generalising science 

 fit to fulfil such an aim are yet far from complete ; but 

 they are already outlined with sufficient clearness to allow 

 of progress being made in the general study. Incomplete- 

 ness of data is the best incentive to progress and the 

 surest guarantee of substantial advance. 



Chemistry was a science even in the days when the 

 professor spoke profoundly of cakes and phlogiston ; and 

 it was precisely because he generalised his scanty data, 

 and strove to verify his generaUsations by renewed obser- 

 vations, that the era of oxygen ushered in the atomic 

 theory with a brilliance that has shrined the fame of 

 chemistry as science p<ir iwcellfnci- in many a humble mind 

 to-day. Yet, before the atomic theory and the periodic 

 law existed to unify the early facts, these had been studied 

 and the principles connecting them groped for. In the 

 time of this groping, chemistry was not the educational 

 machine it has since become, and the products of its study 

 were, for many years, rather amusing experiments than 

 industrial advances. That incomplete data do not retard 

 the growth of theory is proved by modern chemistry, which 

 started from a knowledge of the elements of air ; but 

 although argon eluded Cavendish the growth of chemistry 

 was unchecked, and the advancing theory ultimately 

 suggested elements the discovery of which could hardly 

 have been imagmed otherwise. In other words, the facts 

 and the theory of a science assist each other, and are best 

 developed simultaneously. 



Geography, if properly studied and allowed its natural 

 growth as a science, is now, in the opinion of geographers, 

 as sure to grow and to lead to theoretical generalisations 

 and applications of economic values as chemistiy was in 

 the days of Davy. 



