Humanity and Natural History

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2093, 5 December 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

Humanity and Natural History

Author of the Garrchrepsr at Home. Natural history in natural hi»tory no longer. Evrn the very phra^p is passing out of u->c, having ceaspd to convey the meaning, which baa grown too great for the worda. By it was understood a catalogue of plants, a list of animalti, a description of foHails. Tho annual kingdom and the vegetable kingdom were terms in constant mo ; they Rccm as antiquated now ftq the language of Chaucer. I will «o no farther back thau my graudfatber'a booUoasp. There woro the little thick volumes of Buffon, aomo broad fragments of Cuiver in folio, the same of LiunmiiH in fim&llpr blockp, Bakowell's " Geology," Kirby and Spence, a hundredweight and a hundred yeara of the " Philonophieal Transactions," and certain books of botany strictly iv Latin, who=;e author's are still honoured, but I shall not name them, for I detested those particular bookfl beyond mea°ure. Tin's was a very rcspectablo body of such learning for tbo?c days, and could Dot hare greatly been improved upon. There in a solid ma«H of facts — a Silurian BjRtPm — buried in tboae bsoks to thia hour. Button, as twre on all^ subjects a« a gamecock, quick, v.itty, and pointed, writing in laco rufilna, aqd bringing crooked refractory nature into trim order and easy sentences, waß tho father of popularisers. Cuvipr'n bones were gigantic, and there are superhi maters at tho prpsent day that re^t on them Linnmus worshipped our golden gorae, and wan thenceforth as dear to our hearts as a fr.iry talc. Bftkpwoll made a tossclatpd pavement with a goometricftl design of whit was then sprawling gpolo;;y ; ri«ht or wrong, at, leat^t you could /cc tho piecfa. Kirby and Spence are at thia hour capital story-bonks for children, so interesting *rj their insects. I n^vor Rmoked out a wasp's neat with Btraw or gunpowder after I read that book. The 1 " Philosophical Transactions" are a queer jumble, but tho variety and ecoentricity of tho topica excite the mind to look 4 about for original ideas. Tho strictly Latin botanies are sawduat. From the^e Authors, however, who, let it ba observed, were for the moat part primeval and original in some manner, tho book-making naturalists of the ltnt forty yeara have copied their work. My grandfather's booka were genuine, and went to the full ntrcngth of the knowledge then exiptPiifc. They formed a kind of dietioniry in which you could find particulars of any creatnro or thing. Turning to the antelope, its food, locality, and mode of life were accurately described, with its genua and Latin label. Turning to the sparrow, itfl habits, number and time of eggs were dearly recorded. Insects, fishes, plants, mouses - there wftH nothing known to be existent that that, was not described or clasfiified. Few now understand the immense labour Ltnnreua'a system of botany repronents. Though another system is now in use, the materials of it are practically Linnrcan. What Linnreus effected in botany was carried out by various workers in other departments. Here, then, was a vast Btorphonee of facts — tho accumulations of the ancients down from the days of Alexander the Great's preceptor. Looking at them broadly, the whole might be summed up as definition: The definition of an antplope, of an iosect, or a plant. Itwasanencyclopiodh of living creatures— a dictionary. Thia was natural history as originally intended by the phrase. There was no idea in it. If you read and read steadily through the entomology, and the oonchology, and the ichthychology, all the tomes from end to end, most likely you would recollect something of the camo.l or the rhinocerous — a series of pictures might be formed in the mind ; but you would not be tho richer by one single idea. A ploughman may walk through a menagarie, and see tho lions, and tigers, and the elephant, and will henceforward the better understand tho infinity of life on the earth; but he will not poß«pss a "ingle now idea. Ro with those endless record* in my grandfather^ tomes . they conveyrd nothing. I think the word " idea" carries my meaning better than theory or hypothesis. For my part, I consider that ideas arc more valuable than fads, being, indeed, the greatest of all facts. Without an idea, facts are aa dead as Btones, on which no one oan feed. Any one may stumble on a fact as a rabbit may turn upon a ooin. Only tho wisest — or Hhall we rather say the •ectilarly innpired ?— can come, by long penance of thought, on the infarpretaf ion called an idea. When ideas came into natural history, it coased to ba natural history, and became philosophy. Instead of endeavouring to traco tho oourse of events from yeur to year and from thinker to thinker, till it crew to iti present estate, it will florva better in way of contrast to sum in outline what that estate now is. At the oontral education eslablinbrnents there are now three principal Hubjeota placed before ptudentH. There are no precise terms by which these subject* can be accurately desoribod, becauae they include so many branches. In effect, they are classic*, the utilitarian cycle, and natural philosophy. Of old, classics took the first place, arid Laiin and Greek distinguished the gentleman and scholar. With reoent year 3 and the growing desire to profit by education, what I hivvo called tho utilitarian cycle has come so much to the front ap to threaten the extinction of the classic?. Students* go to learn things that will actually bo useful to them in life, by which they may seonre an income. But yet something more is needed. A student may acquire n knowledge of three or more modern languages, be profioient in the higher arithmetic and so forth— able, in short, to oooupy any position in the official or mercantile world — and yet, if ho stopped there, would be q>iite outside tho living thought of the age. Without a knowledge of physical science, and that in a very extended form, ho would be, however hit hly educated in other respect?, still a mere clerk. In order, therefore, that the pcholar may be üblo to mingle freely \£ the learned tons of the time, he is instructed in the elements at least of almost all the sciences. From physiology to botany, from electricity to astronomy, hn is supposed to be grounded in everything, Unlpgq he were so, half the allusions, in tho bonks and leading publications of the day would have no meaning to him. Again, very many of the best paid and most progressive employments aro only open' to physioi^ta of some ability— as, for instance, the numerous developments of electricity. To indioato the various causes which have led up to the present aspoot is not necessary here. The point is that natural philosophy, physical eoienco, physics, whatovor name may be given to tho higher form of natural history, is now considered so important as to overshadow the rest. The whole aim of modern education is to make a man think natural soience — that is, in other word*, to fit him to comprehend the spirit of the timo. For the ago thinks natural history in its higher or ideal form, just an former ages have thought metaphysics, or have been sceptical, or full of a rovived classicism. It enters into every phrase and movement. Physiology, for instance, which is the natural history of the human body, is taught— and rightly taught — to women, and even to ohildren. If any one should objeot that physiology is not natural history, then his natural history is exactly that understood by the phrano in the books on my grandfather's shelves. Sanitation is one of the most powerful movements in our time, and seems likely to gather strength. /Sanitation would be impossible without an insight into natural history. Its main object is to dispose of certain deleterious organisms, and if these organisms were not studied, it would be tho merest rule of thumb. The germ theory, all the researches of Pastour, and his experiments in mioroßoopio vaccination, these are the purest natural history. Bo in surgery, the antiseptic treat-

ment; [though, indeed, all surgery which deponds on growth is natural history. Aq for the physician of the nineteenth century, he is puroly ii naturalist. Theories have disappeared : the one lending idea in to get at what nature needs. Nature, naturo I thß word is on every lip. Men's lives are saved by natural history. AUiletion cue bawd on the icsult 1 ! of minute r< n< archcb into the absorption of food, the re pnu of li^auc^, all the processon ot life, training being adapted to JacihUte it. Except Iho'c who return conquerors from war there are none bo highly honored as rxplorerß of unknown rpgionfl, anch an the interior of Africa, or the Palrcocrystic ten at the other extreme, whose work is certainly natural history. Aatronomy reaches, indeed, above our earth, but uses (he forces with which the earth acquaints us as keys to open the stellar spheres. Tnen, returning to the earth, astronomy ventures theonVn as to it? origin Despite the . attacks raado upon it, the Lyell theory, that exiating cauHes are sufficient to explain existing things and the means by which th-iy become ai tlipy are, this great idea still influences the mind of every investigator. Bach causes may bo seen at work in any pond, or even on tne window-pane ; the whole idea muafc have been gathered from an intel'eetual study of natural history, since natural history presents ' those causes at every etep. An exhaustive account of the multitudinous wayß in which natural ecience influpnev the mind of the age would bo of unwieldly length. Everywhere throughout the Anglo-Saxon world, e»"er minds are seeking new discoveries in RUch science literally night and day. Therefore, it h strictly accurate to say that the age thinks natural philosophy, looking to it for guidanoe, help, tnd future increase. To gather the views of all these worker* into a focua and express it in a formuh, may pnfc be without its use. The one centinl ideu which inwpirefl their efforts is this : that tvyry single atom of matter should bo employed for tho good of the human race. While thiß motive animates the inquirer, the search in conarci'ated and the seeker dignified. The reward is cprtain — it ia in the inward con- ► Hciousnona of a great aim, which lilts tho spirit, and, like a talisman, transmutes coarse things to prociousnppa. Jn our age nothing is holy but humanity. The human being in the oni 1 shrine towards whioh all pilyrirna of our latter-day faith toil ; the humau being of itself, irreppective of raco, sex, ago, or difltine'ion of good or bad. These are the ethicg of natural history. The thing is plain enough to nny one who stays a moment to oonsider; but in the hurry of life and the necenHities of business, it is not so obvious perh»pn to the many. I want to see it recognised as a truth so great a3 fo bo thefirat lesson of youth, the law of manhood, tho chief dogma of the world.