SCIENCE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE CENTURY 



whither he had gone to live in 1794, he sent out the last 

 defy to the enemy in 1800, in a brochure entitled " The 

 Doctrine of Phlogiston Upheld," etc. In the mind of 

 its author this was little less than a paean of victory ; 

 but all the world besides knew that it was the swan- 

 song of the doctrine of phlogiston. Despite the defiance 

 of this single warrior the battle was really lost and won, 

 and as the century closed, "antiphlogistic" chemistry had 

 practical possession of the field. 



VI 



Several causes conspired to make exploration all the 

 fashion during the closing epoch of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury. New aid to the navigator had been furnished by 

 the perfected compass and quadrant, and by the invention 

 of the chronometer; medical science had banished scurvy, 

 which hitherto had been a perpetual menace to the voy- 

 ager; and, above all, the restless spirit of the age im- 

 pelled the venturesome to seek novelty in fields alto- 

 gether new. Some started for the pole, others tried for 

 a northeast or northwest passage to India, yet others 

 sought the great fictitious antarctic continent told of by 

 tradition. All these of course failed of their immediate 

 purpose, but they added much to the world's store of 

 knowledge and its fund of travellers' tales. 



Among all these tales none was more remarkable 

 than those which told of strange living creatures found 

 in antipodal lands. And here, as did not happen in 

 every field, the narratives were often substantiated by 

 the exhibition of specimens that admitted no question. 

 Many a company of explorers returned more or less 

 laden with such trophies from the animal and vegetable 



35 



