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December 1, 1855.] THE LEADER.' 1155
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3PttT*mft1 ^ 2LUttUlUi£.
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.Critics are not the legislators, but th...
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It is an old remark, that men professing...
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Among the minor dialogues of Pi-ato none...
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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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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
December 1, 1855.] The Leader.' 1155
December 1 , 1855 . ] THE LEADER . ' 1155
3pttt*Mft1 ^ 2luttului£.
literature .
.Critics Are Not The Legislators, But Th...
. Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . — JZdmburgh Review .
It Is An Old Remark, That Men Professing...
It is an old remark , that men professing the most ardent desire for the moral reformation of others are singularly unscrupulous in their employment of izwmoral means- " To lie for God " they do not think unworthy ; it is a pleasant nay of indulging malevolence , and at the same time forwarding their own views . The weapons of fanaticism are wielded with a fury which , by calling itself Virtue , shuts out all remorse . The weapons of fanatical polemics are such that the combatants would blush to wield if unsanctified by a " purpose . " Religion , however , is by no means the only instigator of fanaticism . Political rancour is almost as unscrupulous . Any opinion which aims at bettering the moral condition of the race may become a cruel watchword . Even a theory so far removed from theological doctrine as Teetotalism becomes , in some fanatics who accept it , and in many quacks who live by it , a crusade against all opponents as rancorous as Methodism : the same foolishness is envenomed with the same unscrupulousness ; in both
the exercise of reason is imputed to bad motives . life- Teetotalism has advocates and followers to whom these observations in no sense apply ; men as sincere as they are benevolent , as charitable as they are sincere . But the paid advocates , the ranting lecturers and pamphleteers are as reckless and intemperate as they are absurd . In America the doctrine has become an instrument of tyranny . In England , if we judge from the writings we have seen , the same spirit is at work . The Teetotal doctrine was examined in the Westminster Review for July , in an article entitled " The Physiological Errors of Teetotalism , " which , to judge from the uproar it created among Teetotalers , must have made them very
uncomfortable . When a man howls , we presume he is hurt . When public meetings are convened in the country , and Exeter-hall is hired in London for the express purpose of answering an article , we may suppose the article to have some importance in the eyes of Teetotalers ; yet , if we are to judge from the Exeter-hall Manifesto ( sent to us , we presume , for notice ) , all this hubbub has been about a very weak and ignorant production . The principal speakers at Exeter-hall appear to have been Dr . Carpenter , whose arguments the article exposed , and Dr . Lees , a Teetotal lecturer . We have read the speeches with surprise find pain : surprise that so poor a defence was all they could make , pain at the thoroughly unscrupulous tone . Dr . Lees is altogether beneath notice .
Dr . Carpenter came forward , and boldly told the meeting that the "Reviewer , whoever lie may be , is certainly no scientific physiologist . " Such an assertion , publicly made , and by a man claiming to be " a representative of physiological science , " demanded some evidence . All the evidence he thought proper to adduce was confined to two illustrations , which , on examination , turn out to be blunders of his own . , Here is the first : — " The Reviewer alleges that hia ( Dr . Carpenter's ) argument , that alcohol carbonises the blood , would be unanswerable but for one little oversight—that the supply of oxygen to remove the carbon is really unlimited . Truly the supply of oxygen in the coir is unlimited , but the sxipply in the blood is limited , as the Reviewer will learn when he shall study the ABCof physiology . "
Had Dr . Carpentisr , in his other writings , manifested less inaccuracy and confusion of thought , we should wonder at such a misconception of the Revievyer's argument as is implied in the foregoing criticism . The Review lies open before us , ami , if we understand the English language , the meaning of the passage does not point to the blood , which is never mentioned , and which , indeed , ' could wot have been alluded to in that argument : indeed , that a limited quantity of blood could not contain an unlimited quantity of oxj'gcn , we suppose must be patent even to a logician of Dr . Carpenter ' s calibre , who nevertheless actually undertakes to prove this self-evident proposition ! He adds :
" Tho quantity taken in through the lungs i « aa strictly roguliitod by the degree in which tho external temperature is below that of tho body , an tho draught of Dr . Arnott'e utovo i .-i restricted by its regulating thermometer . Thin is how it comon to puss that—as tho general experience of fouudryrnon , glnnsblowex-s , and othor men working in vory hot plucos fully proves—if they drink of alcoholic liquors while ( he . ii arc at work they soon pay tho penalty in a Io . sm of xnuaoulnr energy ; their mipply of oxygon , already curtailed by tho high temperaturo , being further reduced by tho amount taken away by tho alcohol fur its own combustion . "
It is singularly unfortunate for Dr . Caupknteu that , in trying to prove u self-evident proposition , he has committed himself to a statement inaccurate in respect of f ' uet , nml to a deduction from thnt statement lit which physiologists will smile . It is inaccurate to say that the quantity of oxygen absorbed by the blood depends solely on a simple relation of temperature ; every physiologist knows that it depends on the state o £ the organism ( its temperature being one stute ) : for example , less oxygen is absorbed during the hours of digestion than during hunger , less oxygen is absorbed if an extra quantity of sugar be present in tho blood , and so on . Moreover , the question of temperature has no place in the dispute between him and hia Reviewer ns to whether alcohol carbonises the blood ; nnd to cite , glassblowers in illustration of the normal effects of ' alcohol , is as logical ns to cite the Black Hole of Calcutta to prove that breathing carbonises the blood .
But this inaccuracy and confusion lead him to the assertion that glassblowers lose their muscular energy if they drink alcoholic liquors while a 1 work , because they thereby curtail their supply of oxygen . Anyone but a Teetotaler would suspect that the loss of muscular energy was owing to quite other causes . The glass-blowers , already oner-heated , add more heal in the shape of alcohol ; already o » er-stimulated , they add extra stimulus ^ and pay the penalty , just as a man who has already sat up one night will pay the penalty for sitting up the night following , or one who having fatigued himself with a twenty-mile walk adds ten miles to it . But the idea of the
glass-blower " limiting his supply of oxygen" l ) y drinking alcohol is absurd The oxygen is supplied from the air , where it is in ¦ unlimited quantity ; for , although the temperature of the air being raised , each cubic foot will be less dense , and therefore contain less oxygen , still there is a constant rush of fresh oxygen to fill up the place of what is abstracted . From the } air this oxygen is absorbed by the blood , in exchange for carbonic acid . This exchange is incessant , as long as the oxygen in the air is present in sufficient amount . Nothing that the alcohol burns in the organism affects this exchange . The oxygen taken up may burn alcohol , or fat , or enter into any other combination , but it cannot affect the supply constantly renewed from the air ; and although when it burns alcohol , the Teetotaler may say it spends on alcohol an amount which might have been spent on other substances , the physiologist will reply that these other substances are thereby saved , and are ready for the next rush of oxygen , precisely as oil cast on the fire in burning ' saves the coal , -which is burned
immediately after the oil is consumed . Thus the first of the two instances upon which Dr . C . founds his assertion respecting the incompetence of his Reviewer turns out to be a misconception of his own , illustrated by inaccurate physiology and bad reasoning . It is , doubtless , very convenient and consolatory when we are refuted , to tell the public our antagonist is an ignoramus , but Dr . C would have acted more prudently if he had confined himself to the assertion , and not betrayed his weakness by citing proofs . He has rested the assertion on two cases the first we have just seen ; the second is simply a definition of food which Dr . Carpenter opposes by a very confused statement of his own , ending with a point-blank assumption of the matter in dispute . We need waste no space on it , being attracted by another example of Dr . C . ' s power
of—misstatement . After referring to the luminous distinction which has been established by the researches of Mulder and Liebig ( and which we observe the Reviewer insists on ) namely , that food is of . two kind , Plastic , or tissuemaking , and Respiratory , or heat-making , Dr . C . adds , " Now , in the progress of physiological science it had become apparent that alcohol had no claim to be regarded as belonging to the nutritive class , since it was destitute of nitrogenous matter : and as regards the other (» . e . the Respiratory ) experience had shown that alcoholic liquors diminished the power of the body to endure cold . " This statement can have had but one object—to prove that alcohol had no claim to rank ns food ; because if alcohol will neither nourish nor warmit has no quality of food . Exeter-hall , doubtless , cheered
, the demonstration . And yet Dr . Carpenter knows very well that alcohol is one of the heat-making substances ; knows very well that it is food , and that he has classed it as such in his Human Physiology ; knows very well that the body requires about five times ns much of respiratory as of plastic matter , and nlso knows that alcohol , to use the words of Liebig , " stands high as a respiratory material . " But of all this he said no word in Exeter-hall . He was there as the " representative of physiological science , " declaring that the writer who had exposed his logic was an ignoramus , and not , therefore worth attention . He was there to triumph over his antagonist , and he did sons we have seen . »
, . .. . , ^ _ It will be acceptable news to fill renders when they learn thnt Mrs . Gasket has undertaken to write the " Life of Charlotte Bronte , " that fervent genius too soon snatehed from us . . Tank Eyhb deserved to full into the hands of a woman , and what woman was better fitted for the task than Mary Barton ? We understand tliut both father and husband have desired Mrs . Gaskkli . to execute this work , and have placed all materials at her disposal .
Among The Minor Dialogues Of Pi-Ato None...
Among the minor dialogues of Pi-ato none surpass the " Philebus mm tcrest , and scholars will be thankful to Dr . Badmam for the edition he ha just published : a careful nnd well-printed text , —notes brief , and to the pur pose , unencumbered by the tliwt of erudition , the dreariness of erudite display ,-and a brief explanatory introduction make this edition very accept able . This is hardly the place for critical discussion ; the rapid ncwB | mpor i l . i i .. „ ,. * . „ .,, ! * i . « . / . i « , r . r » lAnnnn nt . thincfl so remote from tUC render would pastand throw no lance at thing * so remote iron . u . «
hurry , g noisy interests of the day . Yet one point we may touch m imssnig . Badham , referring to Plato ' b argument , that what is made cannot l > e U , c same as that which makes , but must always be Hul ^ uent o t , thinks this passage and the one at the commencement of tho 1 »« « elusive against the pretence that Plato was « F «» th ™ t . £ U •«« £ s 0 well-read a Platonist as Dr . Ua » ham , n « Ht , cm re licet , « » ^ d 'S vi i - ,., > i . / . luniv (! atramst wliut nmy i > l n « um _» u passage in any dialogue can be com 1 »"" V « . ki (> u iu Plato , other dialogues ; for , indeed here , ^ u JJlict < : d iu ^ , n 0 0 no except , perhaps , Ins view of Method , \ mucu »» of his unquestioned dialogues .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 1, 1855, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_01121855/page/15/
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