Decembbb 25, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



953 



He was a leader in founding the science of 

 anthropology, but his tour cle force, or micro- 

 cephaly, was generally felt to be a mistake. As 

 a promoter of marine zoological stations he 

 was most useful, and he was no closet and 

 museum naturalist, but was among the first to 

 work bj'^ the seaside on living animals. He will 

 be remembered as a leader in establishing the 

 doctrine of evolution, though in advocating it 

 he did not show the reserve as regards the sup- 

 posed theological and philosophical bearings, 

 nor cultivate the broad statesmanlike methods of 

 Darwin, Lyell and others. As a controversialist 

 his blows were less weighty and telling than 

 those of Huxley, with less of his refinement, 

 clearness and elegance of style, and knowledge 

 and wide reading in philosophical literature. 

 His life, however, was devoted to the good of 

 his race. Though his religious nature was never 

 cultivated, his moral nature was without a 

 stain. His turbulent Celtic blood asserted itself 

 at times, and his large patriotic heart led him 

 to sympathize with the down-trodden and op- 

 pressed, and unlike most students he could doflf 

 his gown and rush into political struggles and 

 wage effective warfare with voice and pen. 

 Vogt's materialism, as well as Spencer's ag- 

 nosticism, may answer a temporary purpose 

 for the scientist as such, but not for the 

 philosopher. We have to go outside the mate- 

 rial and phenomenal world for an explana- 

 tion of the universe. Vogt's position as a 

 philosopher of the materialistic school is amply 

 discussed by Lange in his History of Material- 

 ism, where he compares him with Moleschott. 

 ** Both men," he says, "though not without the 

 stimulus of original research, shine chiefly in 

 their talent for exposition. If Vogt is clearer 

 and sharper in detail, yet Moleschott had 

 given more thought to the rounding of the 

 whole. Vogt more frequently contradicts him- 

 self; Moleschott is richer in propositions to which 

 it is impossible to attach any definite meaning" 

 (11, p. 264). But, as Lange well remarks in 

 another place, "the whole cause of material- 

 ism is forever lost by the admission of the in- 

 explicableness of all natural occurrences." 

 Vogt's philosophical narrowness and opinion- 

 ativeness is shown in his never changing his 

 views in the later years of his life, when the 



occasion, if it ever occurred, for ultra material- 

 istic views had passed away, to be replaced by 

 agnosticism and by the monistic philosophy of 

 Haeckel and others. It is sufficiently obvious 

 that Vogt was unideal and unspiritual, prac- 

 tical and matter of fact, and quite unsuspicious 

 of his own lack of breadth and grasp. His 

 own studies must have constantly led him into 

 the region of insoluble problems, but his mod- 

 esty and humility was not of the order of New- 

 ton's, and he seemed utterly unconscious that 

 he could not with a few words or strokes of the 

 pen settle questions which have, and perhaps 

 always will, baffle the keenest intellects and 

 the most thoughtful minds. 



Vogt, with whatever limitations he had, was 

 a genuine man and true to his friends, with 

 no personal enemies. The two portraits well 

 delineate the man ; not particularly winning or 

 refined in features, but strong and true, reliable 

 and earnest. The full-length portrait admira- 

 bly depicts the man as we saw him one Sunday 

 afternoon in 1889 in his laboratory at Ville- 

 franche. His students were out for a holiday and 

 the old man was at work alone making a sketch 

 of a jelly fish or some such creature, to here- 

 produced in his Traite d' anatomic comparee, 

 on which he was then busily engaged. Affable 

 and courteous, he took pleasure in showing us 

 the simple apartments of the station, then under 

 the direction of Prof. Korotneff". 



The book is certainly not dull reading ; it is 

 enlivened by many characteristic anecdotes ; at 

 times it is a grain too eulogistic and uncritical, 

 and the author's extreme radical and material- 

 istic and anti-religious views in a degree warp 

 his judgment and affect the saneness of some 

 of his reflections. It would have been well 

 if the book could have been revised by some 

 scientific friend of the deceased. 



We would have liked to see more of Vogt's 

 own letters ; remarkably few are given, nor 

 are the summaries of his chief works suffi- 

 ciently full and complete, or the dates always 

 given, or the quotations accompanied by refer- 

 ences to the title and page. 



Had the book been written by an American, 

 it is safe to say in these days of bibliographies, 

 that a suitable one would have been added to 

 this life, since Vogt lived in a transition period, 



