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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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The Works of Plato . A new and Hteral version . Vol . V ., containing ^ Jgws C&geBurges , M ^ . ( Boh ^ s Classical Idbrar # ) H . GvBohn This the fifth volume of the translation ofI * lato , which Mr . » ohn , with commendable daring , has ventured on publishing , contains the important treat jse ^ on The Laws , which the student should take up after carefully going through 4 fce Mepublic . It was obviously composed many years subsequent to the composition of the Republic , and is interesting as containing Plato ' s more matured opinion * on politics . In form it is the least ornate and least interesting of all his works . If it be possible for a translator to drive away the student , Mr . George Burges is the man . He is more repulsive than Taylor ; for while quite as obscure , he is a worse writer , and his notes are perpetual offences . How to see the British Museum in Four Visits . By W . Blanchard Jerrold . * Bradbury and Evans
Me . Blanchabd Jerboud ' s useful little book , How to see the Great Exhibition in Four Visits , obviously suggested a similar work on the more permanent subject of the British Museum . As a guide-book through that vast collection , it will be prized for the simplicity of its arrangement and the clearness of its style . A practical Treatise on the Diseases qf the Icings and Heart , including the Prin ciples of Physical Diagnosis . By Walter Hayle Walshe , MJ > . ¦ . ¦ Taylor , Walton , and Maberlj .
We have been tempted to give an extended notice of this excellent work , but the fear of its being top exclusively professional has restrained us . To students we address this note . Dr . Walshe here describes the facts and principles of physical diagnosis in their applications to lungs , heart , and the larger vessels ; the principles of inspection , mensuration , auscultation , and percussion . Having illustrated these wijh great minuteoess and lucidity , he proceeds to an elaborate investigation of the pymptoms , physical signs , diagnosis , and treatment , of the chief diseases of lunga , heart , and aorta . The book is a very valuable addition to pathological literature . Homeopath y in 1851 . Edited by J . Butiierford Kussell , M . B . ,., , _ ¦ ^ ¦ J Groombridge and Sons . Those interested in the squabbles of Old and Young Physic—of homoeopathy and aUopathy- ~ wilI thank Dr . Bussell for this amusing volume of papers illustrative of the position maintained by Young Physic . We have already , on more than one occasion , indicated pur neutral position "in the dispute , anxious as we are for free discussion of all matters . Horses : their Varieties , Breeding , and Management , in Health and Disease . By D . H . Richardson . { Richardson ' s Bural Handbooks . ) W . S . Orr and Co . Me . MiiatTBN has revised Richardson ' s compact and very readable handbook on the breeding and management of horses . _ Harrison Weir has illustrated it ; and Messrs . 6 rr offer it among their Mural Handbooks for one shilling ! - The Vpper Ten Thousand t Sketches of American Society . By a New Yorker . John W . Parker and Son .
These sketches , which originally appeared in the pleasant pages of Fraser ' s Magazine , deserved gathering into a volume , for they present a picture of American aristocratismus more vivid and acceptable than any other work we have Been . We noticed them on their first appearance , and need only mention the fact of their separate publication .
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Itfe Assurance : its Scheme * , its Difficulties , and its Abuses . W . R D . Bateman JParaBeUum . Brief Suggestions on the subject of War and Invasion . John Chapman JBohn ' s Illustrated Library . —Battle * of the British Navy . By Joeqph Allen , Vol . H .. _ ' ¦ H . G-. Boon Bahnt * Standard Library . r-The Principal Works and Remains of the JZw . Andrew Fuller . By his Son , Bev . A . G . Fuller . . H . « . Bohn Bohn ' s Scientific Library . —Cosmos : a Sketch Of the Physical Description qfthe Traverse , By A . vonHumboldt ? ¦ g . G . Bobn Bohn ' s C lassical Library . —Orations of Marcus TuUius Cicero . By C . D . Yonge . H . G . Bohn Canada , as it was , it , and may be . By Sir B , H . Bonnycaatle . 2 vola . Colbum and Co Use and Abuse ; or . Bight avid Wrong in relation to Labour , Capital , Machinery , and Land . By William M'Oombie . - ' Ward and Co L' $ oo , di Savonarola Foglio Memile . Nos . I ., II ., and III . Partridge and Oakey Lena ; or , the Silent Woman . By the Author of " King ' s Cope , " &c . 3 volfl . Smith , Elder , and Co
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THE HAYTHOENJJ PAPERS , No . II .- ^ Thb Dhvbw ) pmiint Hypothesis . In a debate upon the development hypothesis , latel y narrated to me by a friend , one of the disputants was described as arguing tha $ , as in all our experience we know of no such phenomenon as the transmutation qf specie * , it is unpbilosopbical to assume that transmutation of species ever takes place . Had I been present , I think that , passing over his assertion , which is open to criticism , I should have replied that , as in all $ ur experience we have never known a species created , it was , by his own showing , unphilosophical to assume that any species ever had been created . Those who cavalierly reject the theory of Lamarck and hip followers , as npt adequately supported by facts , seem quite to forget that their own
theory is supported by no facts at all . Like the majority of men who are born to a given belief , they demand the most rigorous proof of any adverse doctrine , l * ut assume that their own doctrine needs none . Here we find scattered over the gfabe vegetable and animal organisms numbering , of the one kind ( according to Humboldt ) , some 320 , 000 species , and of the other , if we include insects , some two millions of species ( see Carpenter ) ? and if ? b these we add the numbers of animal and vegetable specjef that have become extinct ( bearing in mind how geological record * prpye tljat , nova the earliest appearance of life down to the present time , different species Juivc ? been ¦ ucce # » ivejy replacing each other , w > that the world * Flora and Vmm liavfi completely changed many timed over ) , we ma ^ safely estimate the number of peci «« that have existed , and are existing on the earth , at
not less than ten millions . Well , which is the most rational theory about these ten millions of specie >»?; Is it most likely that there have been tea millions of special creations ? or is it most lLkely that by continual modifications , due to change o £ circumstances , ten millions of varieties may have been produced , as varieties are being produced still ? One of the two theories must be adopted . Which Doubtless many-w ^ easily conceiveten millions of special creations to nave taken place , than they can conceive that ten millions of varieties have been produced by the process of perpetual modification . All such , however , will find , on candid inquiry , that thev is of the in
are under an illusion . This one many cases which men do not really beheve , . birt rather believe they believe . It is not that they can truly conceive ten millions of special creations to have taken place , but that they ih 4 rik they can do so . A little careful introspection will show them that they have never yet realized to themselves the creation of even one species . If they have formed a definite conception of the process , they will be ^ ible to answer such questions as- ^ -How is a neyr species constructed ? and How does , it make its appearance ? Is it thrown down from the clouds ? or must we hold to the notioji that it struggles up out of the ground ? Do its limbs and viscera rush together from all I ^ e x » omtsV of tlie CQmpass ? or must we receive some such old Hebrew nptiqn as , that Jjiod goes into a
forest-cavern , and thete takes clay and moulds a new creature ? If they say that a new creature is produced in none of these modeB , which are too absurd to be believed , then they are required to describe the mode jn which a new creature may be produced—a mode which-does not seem absurd ; and such a mode they wUl fijid that they neither have conceived jior cjan oonceive . ; , ..-. ¦ ...:. Should ^ thei > e | ievers iio . special ^ creations consider it unfair thus to call upon them to describe how special creationsi take place , I reply , that
this is far less than they demand from the supporters of the development hypothesis . They are merely asked to point out a cdticeivabje mode j oil the otheriiand , they ask , not simply for a conceivable mode , but for the actvatrxiQde * They do n < rt sa >^^ but t ^ ey sayr—Show us $ ow this doe * take place , go far ^ ponx its being unreal sonable to ask so much pf themi it would be reasoJaable tP ask not only for a possible mode of special creation , but for an ascertained mode ; seeing that t £ is is no greater a demand than they make upon theiropponents .
And here we may perceive how much more defensiblei the new ^ doctrine is than the old one . Even could the supporters of the development hypothesis merely show that the production of species by the process of modification is conceivable , they would be in a ^ better position than their opponents . But they can do much more than this . They can bIiotv that the process of modification has effected and is effecting great change * in all organisms subject to modifying influences . Though , from the impossibility of getting at a sufficiency of facts , they are unable to trace the many phases through form t
which any existing species has passed in arriving at its present , or o identify the influences which caused the successive modifications , yet they can show that any existing specjes—animal or vegetable-rwhen placed under conditions different from its previous ones , immediately begins to undergo certain changes of structure fating it for the new conditions . They can show that in successive generations these changes continue until ultimately the new conditions become the natural ones . They can show that in cultivated plants , in domesticated animals , and in the several races of men , these changes have uniformly taken p lace . They can show that the degrees ot difference so produced are often , as in dogs , greater than those on wnicn distinctions of species are in other cases foundedThey can show that re
, is a matter of dispute whether ' some of theae modified forms are varieties or separate species . They can show , too , that the changes daily taking place in ourselves—the facility that attends long practice , and the loss aptitude that begins when practice ceases—the strengthening of passion habitually gratified , and the weakening of those habitually curbed- * the development of every faculty , 'bodily , moral , or intellectual , accordI ™ | to the use made of it— . are all explicable on this same princip le , aw thus they can show that throughout all organic nature there w at wor of these «
modifying influence of the kind they assign , as the cause spec ; aifrerences—an influence which ; though slow in its action , does , »\^ if the circumstances demand it , produce marked changes—an mn which , to all appfiarance , would produce in the millions of years , anau the great varieties of condition which geological records imply , any am Which , then , is the most rational hypothesis ; that of special creJ ^ which has neither a fact to support it nor is even definitely c £ T { 8 or that of modification , which is not only definitely conceivable , puv
countenanced by the habitudes of every existing organism ? mMiftl > ... That by dny series of changes a zoophyte should ever become a m » ^ seems to those who are not familiar with zoology , ' and who have no ^ how clear becomes the relationship between the simplest and the moa ot ' plex forms , when all intermediate forms are examined , a very g * ^ notion . Habitually looking at things rather in their statical *^* of dynamical aspect , they never realize the fact that , by small increm ^ ^ modificfttion , nny amount of modification may in time be generate ^ . n surprise which they feel on finding one whom they last saw as * V y Vj : ter . into a man , becomes incredulity when the degree of change is F w 0 Nevertheless , abundant instance * are at han , d of the mode 'VJLjpgihe may pass to the most diverse fbftna by insensible gradations . WB
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We should do ovir utmost to encourage the Beautiful , for the Useful encourages itself . — Gohthe .
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Leader (1850-1860), March 20, 1852, page 280, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1927/page/20/
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