588 
French Reactionism in Science . 
[October, 
All authorities, from Julius Caesar downwards to our own 
days, agree that in their private lives, as well as in public 
affairs, the French can by no-means be charged with a blind 
and obstinate adherence to existing institutions : on the con- 
trary, a fondness for novelty merely as such, a love of change, 
and a hope that such change will prove a remedy for incon- 
veniences and evils in general, are generally considered to be 
with them ruling and deeply-rooted principles. 
Hence it is a matter worthy of inquiry if we find this 
fickle and volatile people, commonly so called, resisting 
changes which their graver and more sedate neighbours 
across the Rhine and the Channel have seen fit to accept. 
This exceptional adherence to the past is shown by the 
French in Science, and it has been recognisable from time 
to time for about two centuries. It was first distinctly ma- 
nifested in the opposition shown to Harvey’s discovery of 
the circulation of the blood. The announcement of this fact 
— although, as the anti-vivisectionists tell us, it was no 
novelty — was obstinately rejected by Riolan, probably at 
that time the most learned and influential physician in 
France, and by not a few of his colleagues and countrymen. 
A far clearer and more striking case is the reception ac- 
corded to the Newtonian reforms in astronomy and physics. 
Bernouilli and d’Alembert repudiated the theory of universal 
gravitation. 
In short, France may be said to have remained at heart 
Cartesian almost to the end of the last century, the new 
system — as Mr. J. B. Stallo well expresses it — finding ad- 
herents “ slowly and reluctantly.” 
Turning to another science, it is well known that the 
greatest change in modern physics has been the rejection of 
the theory which regarded heat, light, electricity, and mag- 
netism as so many kinds of imponderable matter, and the 
acceptance in the stead of the mechanical doCtrine which 
views these great natural agencies as modes of motion. Now 
we do not mean to deny that the modern doCtrine is accepted 
and taught in French seats of learning. But for all this the 
ghosts of the “ imponderables ” still haunt French leCture- 
halls and works on popular science. “ Caloric ” especially 
seems hard to exorcise. 
Perhaps it may be suspeCted that the opposition to the 
above-mentioned innovations is the outcome of a mistaken 
patriotism.* Harvey was of course an Englishman ; so 
* Pure Science is cosmopolitan. But we doubt whether an inventor in 
technical chemistry, and a nominally scientific traveller whose real functions 
are those of a military spy, should be honoured by the nation which they are 
seeking to injure. 
