Alphonse DeCandolle. 237 



thought he had well in hand has failed him, and from that time 

 on there is hint after hint of some new way out of the difficulty 

 of accounting for apparent caprice in the distribution of plants. 

 Now that one can read his work in the light which has come 

 from the luminous suggestions of Darwin and of Wallace, we 

 can easily understand how gladly the author accepted the 

 hypothesis of derivation through Natural Selection. From our 

 point of view we can now see how near he came to making this 

 fertile suggestion himself; one can almost believe that at times 

 he had the very clue in hand. His acceptance of Darwinism, as 

 he understood it, was unreserved, but it was not always the Dar- 

 winism of Darwin. In regard to the two important matters, of 

 inheritance of acquired characters, and of vagueness or direct- 

 ness in development, he entertained views which are not accepted 

 by some of Mr. Darwin's followers ; but he claims that his inter- 

 pretation is justified not only by the facts, but by Mr. Darwin's 

 own words. These views are presented with remarkable per- 

 spicuity in a work on the History of two Centuries of Science 

 and of Scientific Men. This treatise is preceded and followed by 

 studies on other subjects, particularly in regard to Natural Selec- 

 tion as applied to man. This work was first issned in 1873 : a 

 revised edition followed after the lapse of twelve years. During 

 that time he had not changed his opinions to any great extent, 

 but he had the satisfaction of withdrawing from the second edi- 

 tion, as unnecessary, a defence of Darwinism which he had made 

 in the first, because in 1885 among his French contemporaries he 

 stood no longer alone as a Darwinian. He accomplished in 

 France what Dr. Gray effected here, and Bentham and Hooker in 

 England, namely the conversion of botanists to the belief that in 

 Darwinism is found a safe working hypothesis by which one can 

 account for the anomalies in distribution. 



A word respecting some of the other subjects discussed in the 

 volume devoted to the History of Science may be given con- 

 veniently at this point. These titles are, (1) Concerning observa- 

 tion of facts in schools and later. (2) On observation of social 

 facts. (3) On statistics. (4) On the influence of heredity, varia- 

 bility, and selection in the human species, and on the probable 

 future of this species. (5) On alternations in the intensity of 

 epidemics, and in the value of prophylactic measures against 

 them. (G) Which of the modern languages will be the dominant 

 one in the 20th century? (His answer is, English.) (7) On the 

 different meanings of the word " nature " and its derivatives. 

 The chief essay, which gives its name to the volume, On the His- 

 tory of Science and Scientific Men for two Centuries, is devoted to 

 a discussion of the influences exerted by surroundings, such as 

 country, climate and social conditions, on the production of sci- 

 entific men. It is, in short, a social study, somewhat after the 

 type of Mr. Galton's English Men of Science, their Nature and 

 Nurture. He makes a broad distinction between the faculties of 

 a high order which are attributable to heredity and those which 



