NATURE 
285 
THURSDAY, JANUARY 25, 1883 
THE THIRST FOR SCIENTIFIC RENOWN 
EW students of science can fail to feel at times 
appalled by the ever-increasing flood of literature 
devoted to science and the difficulty of keeping abreast of 
it even in one special and comparatively limited branch 
of inquiry. Were merely the old societies and long 
established journals to continue to supply their contribu- 
tions, these, as they arrive from all parts of the country, 
and from all quarters of the globe, would be more than 
enough to tax the energy of even the most ardent 
enthusiast. But new societies, new journals, new inde- 
pendent works start up at every turn, till one feels inclined 
to abandon in despair the attempt to keep pace with the 
advance of science in more than one limited department. 
One of the most striking and dispiriting features of 
this rapidly growing literature is the poverty or worth- 
lessness of a very large part of it. The really earnest 
student who honestly tries to keep himself acquainted 
with what is being done, in at least his own branch of 
science, acquires by degrees a knack of distinguishing, as 
it were by instinct, the papers that he ought to read from 
those which have no claim on his attention. But how 
often may he be heard asking if no means can be devised 
for preventing the current of scientific literature from 
becoming swollen and turbid by the constant inpouring 
of what he can call by no better name than rubbish ! 
Some sciences seem to be specially exposed to inunda- 
tion of this kind. Geology lies exposed to it in an 
unusual degree. Popular in its subject, and capable of 
ready apprehension as to its general principles, this 
department of science allures the outsider into its pre- 
cincts, where he too frequently soon arrives at the belief 
that to have read a geological book or two is to become a 
geologist. This belief would be harmless enough, did it 
not speedily bear fruit in “ papers’? communicated to 
scientific journals, and stamped with all the enthusiasm 
and crudity of a beginner. On no account should any 
check be placed on the legitimate ambition of the 
youngest aspirant after scientific renown. But we venture 
to think that the common precipitate publication of his 
earlier efforts is not a legitimate ambition ; but on the 
contrary is really an injury to himself and a positive 
hindrance to the progress of the science which he no 
doubt loyally desires to serve. It too frequently happens, 
moreover, that his first efforts are directed to the pleasant 
task of discovering flaws in the work of those who have 
preceded him. And of course the more eminent these 
predecessors, the greater his credit in setting them right. 
Let him take to heart the old maxim, Festina /ente. The 
longer he delays his appearance as an author, and the 
wider he meanwhile extends his practical experience of 
nature, the more tolerant will he become of the work of 
others and the less overweeningly confident of his own. 
In no department of natural knowledge can a real ac- 
quaintance with the subject be gained save as the result 
of prolonged study. 
These reflections have been suggested on the present 
occasion by the perusal of a pamphlet which exhibits in 
the most glaring way the tendency on which we have 
VOL. XxviI:—No. 691 
animadverted. It is devoted to the announcement of a 
brand-new theory of the origin of Fingal’s Cave. 
Curiously enough this is not the first time that the 
basaltic colonnades of Antrim and the Scottish Isles have 
furnished the text for teaching the most arrant non- 
sense. Nearly forty years ago a sailor, familiar with 
tropical bamboo jungles, started the idea that columnar 
beds of basalt are neither more nor less than petrified 
growths of bamboos. After vainly trying by occasional 
newspaper letters to find supporters, he seems to have 
given up the struggle against the blind prejudices of 
geologists. In 1864, however, his views were taken up by 
another writer yet more outrageous, who published a 
pamphlet of nearly 109 pages, entitled “The Giant’s 
Causeway once Bamboos,” and in supporting his dogma 
ran a tilt at religion, science, tradition, history, in short 
at everything that happened to suggest itself in the 
course of his incoherent and erratic pages. 
The author of the pamphlet cited below, Mr. F. Cope 
Whitehouse, M.A., &c., is obviously a man of original 
genius, and is resolved that the world shall knowit. In the 
summer of 1381 he seems to have come with the mob of 
tourists that annually makes a pilgrimage to the coast of 
Antrim. But instead of merely submitting to be led through 
the usual route by the inevitable and inexorable guide, 
he boldly separated himself from the gaping crowd, and 
proceeded to meditate. To his rapid mental vision it 
was soon apparent that the caves of that coast-line, 
instead of being the work of the sea, as ignorant mankind 
has hitherto believed, have been hollowed out by human 
hands. At once he could perceive the intimate relation- 
ship of Gothic doorways, ancient civilisation, medizval 
castles, Irish manuscripts, and the “ Kelto-Iberian, Wend 
or Pheenician” race. The narrow sea-worn gullies of 
Antrim being thus shown to have been ancient harbours, 
his eye looked northwards to the dim blue Scottish Isles, 
and his venturous imagination at once demanded whether 
that world’s wonder, Fingal’s Cave, might not after all be 
merely a piece of man’s handiwork. To state the question 
was in effect to answer it affirmatively. Nevertheless that 
no unsympathetic geological Philistine might blaspheme, 
our courageous hero sailed for those far islands of the 
west, saw Staffa with his mortal eyes, and found how well 
his prophetic intuition had divined the secret of that 
weird place. We almost envy the thrill of satisfaction 
that must have vibrated within him as he proudly felt 
that scientific observers for a century past, from the days 
of Sir Joseph Banks down to our own time, had one and 
all missed the true meaning and history of the Caves of 
Staffa, and that it was reserved for him, casual visitor as 
he was, to lift the veil and reveal the mystery to our 
astonished gaze. 
Knowing well the type of which Mr. Whitehouse 
is a fresh and most characteristic example, we hardly 
require his assurance that as soon as his eye lighted on 
Staffa his “conjecture received strong and unexpected 
confirmation. It was subjected to rigid examination ; it 
Was strengthened by opposition.” Of course it was. 
Then, like all similar enthusiasts, his soul could find no 
rest until he had proclaimed the truth to the nations. Re- 
turning to America, he found an opportunity of enlighten- 
t “Ts Fingal’s Cave Artificial?’’ A paper by F. Cope Whitehouse, M.A. 
(New York: Appleton and Co., 1882.) 
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