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We should do our utmost to encourage the...
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COMTEK POSITIVE PHILOSOPHY. By G. H. Lew...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Natural History Of Animals, The Natural ...
All Ehrenberg ' s researches are here epitomized , and some pf his rash statements corrected , Apropos of corrections , we are doubtless carrying superfluous coals to Newcastle in directing Mr . Eymer Jones s attention to the statement at p . 148 , with respect to the niouth pf the Tamaj but although he is in all probability aware thai the result of M . BlancAard ; s researches is , that no oral orifice is to be found in the Ttenid , yet his readers may not be acquainted therewith . The first volume of this History ofAnimals was published in 1845 , and at that date there was no
suspicion of this fact . . _ _ . - , . . Mr . % mer Jones indulges , as we remarked , last ¦ week , in . a strain of rhetoric ' which , while it will certainly captivate many , must make all philosophers shake their heads ; he indulges also in that sort of inverse anthropomorphism which consists in interpreting all the phenomena of animal life by the human standard , and speculates as to whether insects have scent or taste , although deficient in the organs of scent and taste . All these portions of his work we object to ; but were they ten tipes as numerous , they could not prevent our high enjoyment of his delightful volumes , which we most cordially recommend . The illustrations ( upwards of two hundred ) are executed witli that finish , and beauty which distinguishes aU that Mr . Van Voorst publishes .
Natural History Of Animals, The Natural ...
world iH but an atom , and none know bottor than microscopical observers that ovory atom is a world . If tho natronomor bo led from tho contemplation of tho countless orba that traverse boundless ppiice , to tho adoration of tho Creator in His almightinosfl ; Bo tho observation of tho perfections of Kin minutest works , which , though invisuuo to ordinary Icon , unfold now porfoctionn with ovory increased powor of observing thom , ought to improHS uh with a livel y hotiho of that all-earing-for and all-Booing I ' roy idonco , without whom not a sparrow falls to tho ground and by whom every hair of fcno head ia numbered . "
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We should do our utmost to encourage the Beautiful , for the Useful encourage itself . —Goethe .
Comtek Positive Philosophy. By G. H. Lew...
COMTEK POSITIVE PHILOSOPHY . By G . H . Lewes . Part XII .--Position and Method of Chemistry . We have still to occupy ourselves with the general considerations forming the prolegomena to Chemistry , and notably with its position in the hierarchy of the sciences and its Method . I " am sometimes disposed to make this capital distinction between Physics and Chemistry : — -In Physics ( celestial and terrestrial ) we study the laws of motion communicated ; in Chemistry ( inorganic and organic ) the laws of motion excited . In purely physical phenomena we see-a force communicated from one body to another ; but in chemical phenomena we see a force combining with another force to excite a change in both , the result of which is unlike either . '
I content myself with indicating this distinction , and turn to Comte for further light as to the position of Chemistry in the scientific hierarchy . The position he assigns to it seems to him a good illustration of the fact that his classification does not rest on arbitrary assumptions , but is in truth the faithful resurrti of the points of harmony inherent in the sciences , and manifested naturally by their common development . No one , indeed , of the positions in the encyclopedical scale /' seems so naturally and so appropriately occupied as that of Chemistry between Physics and Physiology . Who could now fail to see that , in several essential parts , and , above all , in
the important series of electrp-chemical phenomena , Chemistry is m immediate contact with the ensemble of Physics , of which , in appearance , it constitutes a simple prolongation ; and , again , that at its other extremity it is in some sort connected , by the no less fundamental study of organic combinations , with general Physiology , of which it establishes , so to speak , the pr imary foundations ? These relations are so very close that , in more than one particular case , Chemists who had not mastered the true philosophy of the sciences , could not venture to decide whether the . subject really fell within their province , or whether it belonged to Physics or Physiology .
Chemical phenomena are more complex than physical and less general . We have physical effects without chemical , but no chemical effects unaccompanied with co-existent physical . Hence , too , Chemistry is indirectly subordinated to Astronomy , and even to Mathematics . As far as respects doctrine , the connexion is indeed small . Chemical questions cannot be treated among mathematical doctrines ;* and in abstract Chemistry there is little reference to Astronomy . In concrete Chemistry , i . e : in the application of chemical knowledge to the natural history of the globe , the connexion between Astronomy and Chemistry is much more apparent . As respects Method , Mathematics and Astronomy have had a great influence
on the cultivation of Chemistry . From tho study of mathematical phenomena , of rationality , precision , and consistency , have been obtained habits . Although mathematics are less needful to the chemist than to the natural philosopher , the evil effects of the want of those habits , owing to a defective mathematical education , may be seen in most chemical speculations . Astronomy being tho great typo of scientific perfection , its influence is the more needed in Chemistry , because the phenomena arc increased in complexity . Astronomy is calculated , much more than Physics , to show Chemists the radical inanity of all metaphysical explanations , and to make manifest tine true characteristics of their science . Comte also shows hero , but more fully in his lecturp . on Physiology , how that science must be based upon and follow in the wake of Chemistry . Ho next proceeds to
* This wi » 8 true in 1838 , when Comto wrote ; but now ouoHUOtu quoauana aro Doguuung 4 a bo BUflcoptjble of purely mathematical treatment .
estimate the general perfection of chemical science , as respects method , and doctrine . . ¦ . ' .. . ; . . , ' / . ' ;¦ ¦ ¦' . ¦ ' / ' . . ; :. " . ; ¦/¦ ¦¦¦¦ \ v ' " \ , i * ¦ . '' ;¦ \ : / . ' \ - ¦ ¦ : ' ' - ' : As to Method , physical philosophy has approximated much nearer than chemical philosophy to the complete state of positivity . If the first still presents , with respect to the theory of hypotheses , a . quasi-metaphysical character ; there is no exaggeration in saying that the second con * tinues in sorhe respects essentially metaphysical in spirit , by rea son of its mqre difficult and more tardy development . The doctrine of affinities although nqw rapidly losing its hold , is even more ontblogical than that of the fluids arid imaginary ethers . If the electrical fluid and the luminous
ether are really nothing but materialized entities ; are these affinities anything else at bottom than perfectlypure entities , as vague and indetermined as those of the scholastic philosophy of the middle ages ? The pretended solutions which we have been in the habit of deducing from them , evidently possesses the essential characteristici of Metaphysical explanations— --the simple and nawe reproduction , in abstract te menon . The accelerated development of chemical observations during the * last fifty years , which will doubtless soon discredit for ever this false philosophy , has hitherto only modified it in * such a way as . to show its radical nullity with irresistible evidence . When affinities were regarded as
absolute and invariable , their employment in the explanation of phenomena , although of necessity always illusory , had at least a more imposing ^ appearance . But since facts have compelled us to conceive affinities as , on the contrary , eminently variable and dependent upon a multitude of different circumstances , their use could no longer be continued , without s peedily becoming , by this single change , more plainly futile and almost childish . Thus , for example , it was known for a long time that at a certain temperature iron decomposed water or protoxide of hydrogen ; and yet it was afterwards discovered that , under the mere influence of a higher temperature , hydrqgen in its turn decomposed oxide of iron . What , then , can signify the order of affinity which we believed we had established between iron
and hydrogen towards oxygen ? The state of education at the time explain how then of genius like Berthollet could entertain such notions as that of elective affinities . It is to those metaphysical habits that we owe the doctrine of predisposing affinity employed even by the great Berzelius . For example , when sulphuric apid determines the decomposition of water by iron , at ordinary temperatures , so as to disengage hydrogen , the metaphysical explanation of the process
is—That sulphuric acid has an affinity for oxide of iron which tends to form itself . Observe , the oxide of Iron does not as yet exist ; it exists only after the decomposition has taken place ; so that on this doctrine of affinity we have the sympathetic action of one substance upon another substance not yet in existence , but called into existence by this / sympathetic action Even Iiiebig , who repudiates the notion of affinity as expressive of anything like relationship , has not emancipated himself sufficiently from the metaphysical condition to give up the notion of an inherent tendency .
As another example of metaphysical Chemistry let me cite the favourite notion of a catalytic force . The following passage , from Cfregory ' s admirable Handbook of Organic Chemistry , expresses my views with authority :- — " The view adopted by Berzelius , according to which fermentatipn , and all the other phenomena of chemical change produced by cpntact , are the results of a peculiar unknown force , the catalytic force , coming into action when pertain bodies are placed in contact , appears unphilpsophical , as in the first place , assuming the factsand
existence of a new force where known forces would suffice to explain the ; , secondly , as furnishing no real explanation , but merely acknowledging , indirectly , our inability to offer any such explanation . When We ascribe an effect Jo catalysis , wo are only saying , in other words , that wo cannot account for it ; catalysis is thus merely a convenient term for all that we do not understand . And to the use of tho word in this sense , namely , as a name for tho agent which produces certain effects , the agent itself being unknown , there would bo no objection , were it not that catalysis has been employed to account for phenomena not only different from , each other , but actually of an opposite kind . For example , platinum , in causing
the combination of oxygen and hydrogen , is aaid to act catalytically , and tne acuow of oxide ofmanganose , or oxide of silver , in decomposing peroxide of hy drogen , that is , in aausing the separation of oxygen and hydrogen , is also called catalytic . This example proves hpw looBely tho word has been employed , and how vague are the views which have led to its introduction . " In accordance with the position of chemistry in the scientific hierarchy , the general plan of rational ^ education for a chemist requires a preliminary study of mathematical philosophy , next of astronomiqal philosophy * " last of physics . We should , remember , when speculating p hilosop hically onl
on this subject , that this doctrine of affinities is , in its original spin * , y an attempt ( necessarily a vain one ) to conceive the hidden nature chemical phenomena , which is as radically inaccessible as the analogou essences we sought in former times to discover , by similar processes , m tho case of more simple phenomena . And how can the chemist aid 11 ridding his science of these metaphysical ideas , " without first mastering * > P more simple and now more positive sciences ? How , if half-metaijhysic as regards them , can ho be positive in chemistry ? Must not the indivia . ua , like the species , in its gradual development , extract positive concep tions
from tho simpler sciences first ? . ¦ , In respect of doctrine , chemistry is also inferior t ° p hysic 8 « Chemi effects are still essentially incoherent , or at least feebly co-ordinated uy , small number of partial and insufficient relations , in place of those laws , certain as they are extensive and uniform , in which physics *® ^ ^ J , glories . As to prevision , tho true measure of the perfection ot ew >
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 19, 1852, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_19061852/page/20/
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