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September 27,1856.] THE LEADER. 929
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ON THE VARIATION" OF SPECIES. On the Var...
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NAPOLEON IN RUSSIA. " Histoire da Coiisu...
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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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Our Insa.Ne Forefathers. The Treatment O...
that the idea of mere security naturally predominates in the bystanders ; and this would seem to be most readily obtained by continuing the restraints , and superadding seclusion and darkness . These ready means were formerly wholly relied upon ; and starvation , dirt , and severities of many kinds as naturally followed in their train . But it is a part of the non-restraint system to remember , whatever the state and circumstances of a newly admitted patient may be , that he conies to the asylum to be cured , or , if incurable , to be protected and taken care of , and kept out of mischief , and tran-quillized ; and that tie strait-waistcoat effects none of these objects . Therefore , although the patients may arrive bound so securely as scarcely to be able to move , th « y are at once released from every ligature and bond and fetter that may have
been imposed upon them . They appear generally to be themselves surprised at this proceeding ; and for a time are tranquil , yet often distrustful , and uncertain in their movements . Now and then the tranquillizing effect of thus unexpected liberty is permanent : more frequently it is but temporary . But every newly admitted patient is as soon as possible visited by the medical officers of the asylum . They assure the stranger , by a few kind words , that no ill-treatment is any longer to "be feared . This assurance sometimes gains the confidence of the patient at once , and is ever afterward remembered : but in many cases tlie patient is too much confused to be able to comprehend it . Few or non « , however , are quite insensible to the measures immediately adopted in conformity to it .
The-wretched clothes are removed ; the patient is taken gently to the bath-room , and has , probably for the first time , the comfort of a warm bath ; which often occasions expressions of remarkable satisfaction . The refreshed patient is taken out of the bath , carefully dried , and has clean and comfortable clothing put on : he is then led to the day-room , and offered good and well prepared food . The very plates , and knife and fork , and all the simple furniture of the table , are cleaner by faT than what he has lately been accustomed to , or perhaps such as in his miserable struggling life he never knew before . A patient seen after these preliminary parts of treatment is scarcely to be recognized as the same patient who was admitted only an hour before . The non-restraint treatment has commenced ; and some of its effects already appear .
But the patient may bo too much absorbed in delusions , or too much occupied by anger , or by fear alone , to derive immediate benefit even from these parts of a kind reception , or to admit of being consoled by the tindest words , or , for a time , carefully medically examined . This state will not last very long , if no severity and no neglect are permitted . "Whilst it does last , th « efforts of the officers are limited to such measures as ensure the safety of the patient and of those surrounding him , and which also contribute to the return of calmness . The patients , however , are often merely restless and fidgety ; run about ; or are inclined to acts of harmless mischief : and in such cases much interference merel y irritates them . One of the things -which attendants are slowest to learn is not to interfere unnecessarily . If every movement of the patient is cheeked , and every impulse thwarted , the patient ., good-tempered before , becomes angry ; and strikes the attendant : and such , " where restraints are employed , is the frequent cause of the first imposition of a strait-waistcoat . I have known many patients brought to the asylum whose first day 3 there were passed in violence which would have been protracted by their being fastened by leather and iron , and yet who could not be at large during those few days -without dangers being incurred .- ' Two very erroneous representations of our method of management in such cases have been repeated very often ; and have neither yielded to the most positive contradiction , nor to -what the visitors to asylums might have learnt from tlieir own observation .
In spite of tlie " danger" of madness no one is stabbed * strangled , or otherwise injured by the insane at Hanwell , and other asylums where nonrestraint is absolute ; -watchfulness on the part of attendants , accompanied by gentleness , are found better securities than chains and floggings . Wehavebut indicated in a general way the nature of Dr . Conollv ' s volujixe , which is full of interesting details , and whicli is meant as an emphatic protest against , any attempt to revive under any form the old system of restraint . The principle is clear : If once you begin to use physical restraints you must go cm adding and . adding to them , as the violence of the patient you have irritated increases . On the contrary , if once you . disavow all and every physical restraint , you are forced , by your own desire for safety , to be kind and watchful . Only on these terms can you succeed ; they are more " troublesome" than restraint , but who will say they arc not more efficacious ?
September 27,1856.] The Leader. 929
September 27 , 1856 . ] THE LEADER . 929
On The Variation" Of Species. On The Var...
ON THE VARIATION" OF SPECIES . On the Variation of Species with esiieciul reference to Tnsectu ; followed by an Inquiry into . the Nature of Genera , By T . Vernon Wollaston , M . A ., F . L . S . Tan Voorst . It is popularly supposed that the Scholastic Philosophy has long vanished from Europe , and that , in scientific inquiries at least , we treat all metaphysical methods with contempt . That popular supposition is an error-. Formally , Scholasticism may be dead , but practicably it still exists , still flourishes amongst us . The Reformation destroyed the supremacy of the Papal Church in England ; but very many of the papal principles subsist to tliis day ; and in a similar manner modern philosophy has destroyed Scholasticism , but cherishes scholastic principles . It is not enough to have got rid of lt Substantial Forms" while we retain the methods out of which they arose .
The render has doubtless often assisted at the numerous debates raised on the questions of Sppcies , Varieties , and Genera . Many discussions of great moment have turned upon the definition of a species-. Here is one eminent school maintaining the " fixity oi species , " and here another maintaining the * ' mutability of species ; " one brings forward proofs that the species have never altered during thousands nnd thousands of years ; the other brings forward proofs that species are daily altering before our eyes . All this while \\\ e . thing species has no existence , it cannot be fixed , it cannot vary , for it never was more than a figment of the human brain . Nature knows not species ; only scholastic philosophy knows it ; when men use the term with philosophic accuracy they use it as they use the term whiteness , or the term strength , or tho term beauty—namely , ns a particular mark whereby to denote certain qualities in the object , not as a particular object itself .
In Nature individuals exist , but no species . When these individunls closely resemble each other we class them as belonging to the ssimc category , wo say they arc of the same species ; -when they differ on certain minute points we call them varieties ; when they diner , still more widely , wo no longer consider them of the same species , but say they belong to the same genus ; when the diil ' erenco is still greater , we say tliey belong- to the same jamity ; when etill greater to the same order ; and finally to the same class
All these terms are used to mark the differences existing between individuals . Hemember that all individuals differ ; no two leaves on the same twi g are precisely alike ; and all in some respects agree . That zoologists and botanists should quarrel over the characters which rightly constitute a species or a genus is not surprising ; man is a quarrelsome animal , and verbal disputes are always angry disputes . Inasmuch as the terms are arbitrary marks , and not representative signs , it is difficult to come to an agreement about them . If all men agree to make the spots on a "butterfly's wing the characters which shall determine species ; if in one case size be sufficient , in another , color ; whatever is agreed on ought to be final , since the whole nomenclature is ai-bitrary . But when from such agreement
arguments are deduced , as if this matter of naming carried with it more than a name , and in ^ virtue thereof we are told to accept the dogma that species ( meaning animals ) have not changed since the creation of the world , then it is time to recal philosophers to the fact that they are dupes of phrases , and that they argue in the spirit of that very scholasticism , they despise . Mr . Vernon AVolraston , in the volume before us , has brought together with great care a mass of evidence on the variation of species in reference to climate , temperature , & c .: he lias classified the organs and characters of variation , and has a few remarks on the generic theory . For its facts and arrangement the student "will prize this volume . It is doubtful to us whether the theoretic portion will be equally admired . Mr . Vernon is a scholastic . He says :
Genera are not mere phantoms of the brain , ( as most naturalists will ' readily admit ); but they are , likewise , by no means abrupt , or well-marked , on tlieir outer limits ( except , indeed , by accident , —of which hereafter ) , but merge . into each other by gradations , more or less slow and perceptible . If they are not phantoms , they are entities ; they have been' seen , dissected , preserved in museums , described in catalogues . Where ? When ? Again he says : It will consequently be seen , from what has been said , that the terms " genus" and " species" not only differ very considerably in importance , but in signification also . Whilst the former is merely suggestive of a particular position which a creature occupies in . a systematic scale ( a position , however , which depends upon the various structural peculiarities which it possesses in : common -with other beings , —which , thus more or less resemble it ); the latter expresses the actual creature itself : so that while one applies to several animals ( of distinct natures and origins , though , bound ,
together by a certain bond of imitation ) , the other belongs to a single race alone , which it therefore exclusively indicates . But if such be the case , it will perhaps lie asked , —Why , then , insist upon a generic name at all , if the specific one be sufficient to denote all that is required , namely , the animal itself' ? To which , however , we mayreply , that the binomial nomenclature is demanded for two elemeatary reasons , — first , because it is founded upon a natural truth , which ( to say the least ) it would bo unwise to violate ;; and , secondly , because it is convenient , both for simplification and analysis . We should assuredly be surprised were a man to object to his surname , as unnecessary , because he has a Christian ( or specific ) one which , is the exponent of him alone . True it is that his family ( or generic ) title applies to \ the rest of his kin also , but , since there are other people ( of other families ) who" may have the same ;
individual appellation as himself , it is clearly desirable , even as a matter of expediency alone , that patronymic and clmstian name should be alike retained . We are afraid to interpret this passage . Mr . Vernon probably means that the species " expresses the actual creature" no more than the name of the Smiths expresses the family ( a large one ) actually so named ? But if so , why discuss variations of Smith ? Smythe is no longer Smith' ; Schmidt is almost a new genus . By an explicit statement at the outset that all such terms as species , variety , genus , were simple marks of convenience designating the resemblances and differences which were noticeable amony animals , Mr . Vernon would have saved himself the trouble of thinling and writing many passages in this volume , and saved his leaders from some perplexity .
Napoleon In Russia. " Histoire Da Coiisu...
NAPOLEON IN RUSSIA . " Histoire da Coiisulat et de VUmpire . By Thiers . D . Nutt . Second Notice . Narrators addicted to the marvellous , have fixed tlie passage of the Nicmcn as the date of an ominous storm that threw a cloud across the path of Napoleon . M . Thiers , analyzing the chronology of the . expedition , linds no such portent heralding the disasters of the army , which was cheered for several days by the glow of the Lithuanian summer . The forests of Poland wero brightening under "the June sun . It was not until the close of the month that the remarkable change occurred which seemed to transport the invaders into a climate of rain and shadow . On the 28 th , the sky was suddenly overcast ; the entire country was swept by aftexce wind ; the roads were broken up by torrents : the atmosphere became chilly and damp , and
for three days tine soldiers marched and bivouacked in tlie midst of swamps . They were attacked by sickness ; thousands of their hoises died ; and , even at this early stage , vast trail ns of waggons were left in the rear of the army . To rifle these of their contents , us well as to pillage the chateaux of tlio Lithuanian nobility , not fewer than from twenty-five to thirty thousand men escaped the ranks , and spread themselves over the country . Nearly eight thousand horses and thirty thousand men were lost in four days , Ifapoleon , however , was not disquieted . He hud calculated upon great obstacles , and had made great preparations , lie had never hoped to subdue Russia without a prodigious sacrifice of human life and of treasures . Wha . t troubled
him chiefly was the dif acuity of keeping his vast forced together , the line of troops , artillery , and convoys extending across whole district .- * , and requiring periodical halts to preserve it unbroken . . From time to time , some incident of victory satisfied him w ith the hard conditions of his enterprize , and when the sixty thousand soldiers of Bagration were repulsed by the twenty-eight thousand of Duvoust , Bonaparte rose , in imagination , above all tlie perils of his undertaking , and dreamed of winning o « u battle after another , until the Russian Empire should sue for peace . The councils of tho Russians were divided . Some were for meeting the invader directly in . tho field ; others for luring him on by a false retreat ; others for hoveringj like Tartars upon his line of march ; and their dissensions continued until tho Cssar , finding himself a supernumerary in his own camp , conferred full power on l ) o Tolly |
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 27, 1856, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_27091856/page/17/
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