On this page

• Departments (1)
  • 
• Text (3)

  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.

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE—THE "ASSESSOR" PROPOSITION.

• Transcript

  • 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.

    Untitled Article

    LAST week Dr . Ancjus Smitji read a paper before the bociety ot Arts on " Science in our Courts of Law , " which , although very badly put tog-ether and exhibiting a want of comprehensive and accurate knowledge of the subject , served the purpose of raisin" - a discussion and eliciting-several opinions—arnoiig others , that of Vice-Chancolloi ' Wood , who occupied the chair . Some portions of Dr . . Smith ' s essay are scarcely intelligiblo . -and although he claims to bean " expert" in science we could not allow him to bo an " assessor " in English composition or logic , when wo find him indulging in such foggy platitudes as— " We see science moving' with irresistible force , gradually seising more and more of tho rights A and properties of every mwjcot and of every government . " If the learned doctor were

    to give evidence in this style concerning' a poisoning case or n water bill , we do not imagine that the jury or committee would bo more enlightened than if ho delivorod an oration in Patagonian or Ben * galee . Wo do not allude to this for the sake of quizzing a wellintentioned reformer , but because it is an illustration of that want of precision in thought and language which often makes so-called scientific ovidouco a source of perplexity and dilom , ma . Having represented science as feloniously appropriating our rights and properties , Dr . Smith furnishes us with two statements , which ho calls " principles , " to guide us in considering the question . Here are the worda of thorn : 1 st . That science is the ultimate- referee-in eases

    where it can , give a clear answer , and that suitable arrangements should bo made for obtaining- the unprejudiced , opinion of those who have studied it . 2 nd . That in nil difference of opinion , whether iu social or physical law , and in all difficult cases , the instincts of man , iu a free country , will take the load , right or wrong . " ' The first paragraph , wo suppose means that oasea should bo " decided according to the host knowledge that can bo obtained j what the pocond is about wu have not the remotest idea ; although it talks of 'instinct'' it exhibits none onto precision , and wo fail to detect any reason iu the coUoontion . of thy words . Tumbling through tt groat , deal rnoro singular and Boaroely nrticulato verbiage , the Doctor manages to amvq at his conclusion and . after elaborately deciding .

    Untitled Article

    S 6 The Leader and Saturday Analyst . [ Jan . 28 , I 860 .

    Untitled Article

    Westminster Review , treating of social organism , f concur m ascribin ^ to the influence of the material world the formation of different ¦¦ : , -species . The former adopts . -unreservedly Mr . Dakwin ' s view , that the competition of play ts and / animals- for food has . a great mfluence hi ' determining ' new varieties , and what species shall exist . The latter believes that " every species of organism has resulted from the average play of the external forces to which it is subjected during its ' evolution as a species . " These statements are identical with the principle of Mr . Buckle ' s theory of civilization , —that it begins in , and is continued by material circumstances . Men , animals , insects , plants , all thing's which live , are endowed with desires , appetites , appetences , &c , which goad them into activity , make each and all seek the food adapted to it , and in proportion as classes or individuals are successful in this melee , or battle of life , they increase or grow , ' sprout into varieties , and fill the places assigned them in the universe . The principle of population or life is , on this statement , as prolific , or , according to Malthus , as super-prolific in all animals , insects , and plants , as in man ; and their number is entirely dependent on the food they can , by the exertions of these appetences , procure . At the same time , they are all guided and instructed by the facts of the material world . This is a strange generalization . Is it correct and true ? . „ We are all sensible that our life depends on the sun . Its vivifying power gives food to our exertions . The life of plants , and . animals on which we subsist , depends on the same vivifying power . It is thesouree of all li <* ht . If the assertion be correct , that coal is sun-lig-hfc concentrated in extinct vegetable life , the sun is also for us the sole source of all heat . ; Cuvijge , Owen , and other comparative anatoM . ists , have successfully traced one type , or one form , through all animal life ; and all animals and plants , according to their life , are affected by the circumstances resulting from this common source of light and heat by which they are surrounded . The strange ¦ generalization is correct . The whole universe , and of course animal life of all kinds , is regulated by laws common to the whole . ... . ¦ To circumstances similar to those we every day witness—such as the w , e « rinff away of the banks of rivers , the passage of earthy materials from the laud into the ocean , &c ., &c . —geologists trace the growth and formation of the world through successive ages . ' According to the writer in the Westminster Review , society is a growth / not a manufacture , and is accordingly regulated by the same laws as regulate all growth , including- that of the minute animals and vegetables made individually visible only by the . microscope . That the moral and intellectual life of man should be reg-iilated Ivy the same laws . as the existence of fungi , is hard to conceive .- -But . there" can be no doubt that the growth , of society depends ; like that of the . meanest insect , on the food it oan command . It Ls equally certain that the moral and intellectual life of every individusil depends on the society in which he is born and lives . Only in Europe , and only in England , —not in America , jnnonyst the red men , —not in Australia , amongst the black men , could a SrTAK rspkahe , a Mii / ton , and a Newton exist . Now , as the inofal and intellectual life . of individuals depends on society , and as the growth of society depends on the food it can command , as this depends on sun and seasons , common to all creatures on the earth , ifc follows quite in accordance ' . with the common or vulgar opinion , that all creatures have one aad the same Cueatou , and that our intellectual and moral being is regulated by laws common to all living things . . . ¦ # The g " re ? it object of 'the writer in the Westminster Review is to trace by imalngies the operation of these common laws in forming society , in forming man , and in forming the very lowest living beings which the microscope has yet revealed to us . If in principle lie be right , he carries , out his analogies so minutely as to expose himself to ridicule . We regard the matter as much too important to subject it" to this kind of treatment . To illustrate the importance of sucli doctrines , wo may remark that overwhelming force is added to all tho arguments for abolishing Corn- Laws , » n'l all other iiiipedimonta to industry , b . Y the principle stated by Mr . Darwin , and assented to by'both Reviewers , " that all life depends on food , ' and ia for ever struggling to obtain it , and will bo great in proportion to tho I'imhI which can bo obtained . AH such laws and such impediuunts , therefore , are at variance with . the laws of man ' s existence , with the 1 laws of God , and are opposed to the welfare . of society . Believing , accordingly , that the analogies botweon tho growth of Hoi-ioty , the growth of animals and plants , and the moral life of man are highly instructive , wo shall not attempt to raise ft laugh ati tlio minuteness of the Reviewer . Wo must , however , state two objections to his mode of treating the-grout-subject . The whole analogy , and all ^ tho arguments founded on it , is between society as a natural growth , and all tho other parts of creation as n natural growth . In truth , tho antilogies are the results of natural Iftws supposed to ho tho same . The Reviewer , however , institutes his comparisons find his analogies between tho other parts of creation and society as it is politically manipulated . And bo curiously far does ho carry his views , that the analogies are l ) ptwoon tho other parts of -creation and society as it exists in England , not , wwioty as it exists in some common , featuros throughout ' tho globo . This mode of treating the subject is imperfect and ' erroneous . To us'English it is especially so , because wo have , continually wituosmul our political society driven in spite of thoso who have ' at tempted to direct it , in a direction adverse to thoir principles . Tho concentration of power in one hand , a principle of f Wvatmhwd'i' B « o (< na . Now So rice , No . XXXIII , Article , " The Social Ol'KIUilsiU , "

    most political societies , and of ours as well as that of the French and the Chinese , though nominally maintained here , is in reality set aside . The governing power- is no longer the sovereign , it is the press ! There'is a ¦ ¦ perpetual ., desire and a perpetual attempt to reform political society , / because it is not in accordance with the natural form and growth Of society . To some extent society is every where ' manufactured or manipulated . We complain that it is so ; we struggle to throw off this manipulation , and we continually succeed . It is , therefore , not in accordance with the natural growth of society . But many of the analogies of the Reviewer are with the condemned manipulations , and not with the natural forms of society . This makes them frequently incorrect , and exposes the whole argument to ridicule . AH the analogies ought to be instituted between the rest of creation and society as it grows naturally , and not with society as it is politically and by human design manipulated in any country whatever . ' . . ¦ . . Our other objection to his mode of proceeding is , that it _ is fundamentally unphilosophical , and makes the subject , otherwise attractive , very repulsive to many readers . We do not need toreason about what we know , and all reasoning is from the known to the . unknown . Now society and human nature , however imperfect is our knowledge of them , are much better known to the whole of us than are the Protozea or the Hydra , or any classes of microscopic animalculao , to the most dilig-ent explorers . There is hardly any oneimportant point in their pursuits about which they do not disagree . The observation may be extended from the physiological phenomena of the presumed . , first formation of cells to the division of animals into species and genera . We have only recently begun to investigate natural history ; man and society are known to iis partially from the - beginning . It is to reverse philosophy , therefore , to reason from zoophytes to man , instead of from man to zoophytes . Tlie course pur-sued by the naturalists leads to the degradation of man . That the same laws which govern man and society may be traced in the organization of the lowest animals , is only wonderful ; but to tell man that he is made like the things he unwisely despises j that he is not different from a protozea , U also repulsive . If it be a fact that the same laws—another form of expression , for the same Geeatoe—regulate the whole organization of the universe , from the least living ¦ ' thing discovered by the microscope to tlie furthest star , the mode of getting : at the " fact in the direction either of minuteness or vastne . ss , is to proceed from man—from the known to the unknown . To begin ut the star or at the _ protozea , is unphilosophical , and the conclusiQiis appear in a form needlessly offensive . We regret this , for all parts of knowledge are intimately connected ¦; . and the analogies between man and tlie rest of creation throw a clear light on his duties ^ and on important political questions . The present study of the physical sciences does not , as supposed by some persons , impart certainty to other knowledge . On ( he contrary , the late researches into physical science have , above all things ,, demonstrated the uncertainty of its principles . About facts there may be no disputes ; but about forces and laws scientific men are just now more , uncertain than for ages . Their researches end rather in ignorance , in wonder , and reverence , than in certainty j and , to approximate to a solution of the phenomena of force , they are obliged to take refuge in the laws of the mind . Investigations into matter give no explanation of electricity , gravity , and kindred ofrces .

    Scientific Evidence—The "Assessor" Proposition.

    SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE—THE " ASSESSOR " PROPOSITION .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 28, 1860, page 86, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2331/page/10/