March 6, 1891.] 



SCIENCE. 



133 



verification. Instead of her true motto, " Prove all things," Sci- 

 ence thus adopts its very opposite, " Only believe." 



Now, the whole history of Science has been more or less blotted 

 by this baleful influence of authority, which, even in our own 

 days, is far from having been wholly expunged. But in no part 

 of her history has this influence been exerted in any degree at all 

 comparable with that which was thrown over her, like a shadow, 

 by Aristotle. Partly owing to the magnitude of his genius, but 

 still more, I think, to the predominance of the spirit in the dark 

 ages which regarded submission to authority as an intellectual 

 virtue, through all these ages stood to science the name of Aris- 

 totle in very (nuch the same relation as stood to religion the name 

 of God. His writings on purely scientific subjects were regarded 

 as well-nigh equivalent to a revelation, and therefore the study 

 of Nature became a mere study of Aristotle. There was almost a 

 total absence of any independent inquiry in any one department 

 of science; and even in cases where the utterances of Aristotle 

 were obscure, the men of intellect who disputed over his mean- 

 ings never thought of appealing to Nature herself for a solution. 

 They could only view Nature through the glasses which had been 

 given them by Aristotle, and therefore the only questions with 

 which they troubled themselves were those as to the exact mean- 

 ing of their oracle. 



It is, of course, only fair to add that Aristotle himself was in no 

 way responsible for this evil efi'ect of his work. The spirit in 

 which his work was thus received was quite alien to that in which 

 it had been accomplished, and alike by precept and example he 

 was himself the most noble opponent of the former that the world 

 has ever produced; and therefore I doubt not, that, if Aristotle 

 could have been brought back to life during the middle ages, he 

 would have made short work of the i\ristotelians by himself be- 

 coming their bitterest foe : for listen to his voice, which upon 

 this, as upon so many other matters, speaks with the spirit of 

 truest philosophy — speaks, moreover, with the honesty of a great 

 and beautiful nature — let us listen to what this master mind has 

 told us of its own labors, and with a veneration more worthy 

 than that of the Aristotelians let us bow before the man who said 

 these words : — 



" I found no basis pi-epared, no models to copy. . . . Mine is 

 the first step, and therefore a small one, though worked out with 

 much thought and hard labor. It must be looked at as a first 

 step, and judged with indulgence. You, my readers or hearers 

 of my lectures, if you think I have done as much as can fairly be 

 required for an initiatory start, as compared with more advanced 

 deoartments of theory, will acknowledge what I have achieved, 

 and pardon what I have left for others to accomplish." 



George J. Romanes. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



"It is my belief," said a representative of the Scott Stamp 

 and Coin Company of New York to The Illustrated American, 

 recently, " that there never was any 1804 dollar. That dies were 

 cut in that year, similar in all respects, save the date, to the dies 

 of 1803, is certain. It is also certain that these dies were destroyed 

 in 1869. But no dollars or half-dollars were issued in that year, 

 nor were they issued at any time by governmental authority. 



— The Bureau of ihe International Congress of Geologists has 

 decided that its fifth session shall be held at Washington, and the 

 date of the session has been fixed for the last Wednesday (36th) 

 of August, 1891. The annual meeting of the American Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Science and the summer meeting of 

 the Geological Society of America will be held in the same city 

 during the preceding week. The committee of organization will 

 endeavor to obtain from the ocean steamship lines the most favor- 

 able terms for the transportation of foreign members to and from 

 the United States, and to arrange with the respective railroad 

 companies for reduced rates for the geological excursions. To 

 accomplish this satisfactorily, it is important that they should 

 know beforehand the approximate number of members who pro- 

 pose to attend the meeting, and that they should have an expres- 

 sion of opinion from these members in order to arrange in advance 

 a series of excursions to places that will be of interest to the 

 greatest number. Owing to the great number of points of geo- 



logical interest, and to the great distances to be traversed, it would 

 be impossible for the committee to arrange these excursions so 

 that th'eir expense should fall within reasonable limits, without 

 some such previous information. Any geologist who may be 

 desirous of taking part in the congress, or of receiving its publi- 

 cations, which will probably include many valuable geological 

 papers, who will send his name to the secretary, S. ¥. Emmons, 

 1330 F Street, Washington, DC, will be put upon the list and 

 receive the invitation to become a member of the congress. The 

 small fee for membership (.|2.50) is for this congress only, and in- 

 tended to defray the cost of printing and other necessary expenses. 

 It is customary for geologists of the country where the congress 

 is held to subscribe, even if they cannot be present at the congress. 



— The Audubon Monument Committee of the New York 

 Academy of Sciences acknowledge the following subscriptions to 

 the Audubon Monument fund : previously acknowledged, $1,298.- 

 50; Morris K. Jesup, A. R. Eno, Andrew 6. Carnegie, Thomas 

 A. Edison, James Constable, William E. Dodge, William Scher- 

 merhorn, Charles Stewart Smith, C. G. Gunther's Sons, W. W. 

 Astor, J. Pierpont Morgan, C. P. Huntington, Robert Hoe, and 

 Charles Lanier, each $100; Parke Godwin, $35; Coleman Drayton, 

 $5; R. H. Derby, 5, — total $3,733.50. It thus appears that the 

 result of four years of hard labor on the part of the committee 

 has not been quite $3,000. There is certainly a lack of interest 

 in raising money for this object which calls for an explanation. 



— At a meeting of the Royal Meteorological Society, London, on 

 Feb. 18, Mr. C. Harding read a paper entitled " The Great Frost 

 of 1890-91." This paper dealt with the whole period of the frost 

 from Nov. 35 to Jan. 33; and it was shown that over nearly the 

 whole of the south-east of England the mean temperature for the 

 fifty-nine days was more than 3° below the freezing-point, while 

 at seaside stations on the coast of Kent, Sussex, and Hampshire, 

 the mean was only 33". In theextreme north of Scotland, as well 

 as in the west of Ireland, the mean was 10° warmer than in the 

 south-east of England. In the southern midlands and in parts 

 of the south of England the mean temperature for the fifty-nine 

 days was more than 10" below the average; but in the north 

 of England the deficiency did not amount to 5°, and in 

 the extreme north of Scotland it was less than 1°. The lowest 

 authentic reading in the screen was 0.6° at Stokesay, in Shrop- 

 shire, but almost equally low temperatures occurred at other 

 periods of the frost. At many places in the south and south-west 

 of England, as well as in parts of Scotland and Ireland, the great- 

 est cold throughout the period occurred at the end of November ; 

 and at Waddon, in Surrey, the thermometer in the screen fell to 

 1°, — a reading quite unprecedented at the close of the autumn. 

 At Addington Hills, near Croydon, the shade thermometer was 

 below the freezing-point each night, with one exception, and 

 there were only two exceptions at Cambridge and Reading; while 

 in the Shetlands there were only nine nights with frost, although 

 at Biarritz frost occurred on thirty-one nights, and at Rome on 

 six nights. At many places in England the frost was continuous 

 night and day for twenty-five days, but at coast stations in the 

 north of Scotland it in no case lasted throughout the twenty-four 

 hours. On the coast of Sussex the temperature of the sea was 

 14° warmer than the air throughout December, but on the York- 

 shire coast it was only 6° warmer, and in the Shetlands and on 

 parts of the Irish coast it was only 3" warmer. The Thames 

 water ofE Deptford, at two feet below the surface, was continu- 

 ously below 34° from Dec. 33 to Jan. 33, — a period of thirty-two 

 days, — while the river was blocked with ice during the greater 

 part of this time. In Regent's Park, where skating continued 

 uninterruptedly for forty-three days, the ice attained the thick- 

 ness of over nine inches. The frost did not penetrate to the 

 depth of two feet below the surface of the ground in any part of 

 England ; but in many places, especially in the south and east, the 

 ground was frozen for several days at the depth of one foot, and 

 at six inches it was frozen for upwards of a month. In the 

 neighborhood of London the cold was more prolonged than io 

 any previous frost during the last hundred years, the next longest 

 spell being fifty-two days in the winter of 1794-95, while in 1838 

 frost lasted for fifty days, and in 1788-89 for forty-nine days. 



