Half Hours With Modern Scientists: Lectures and Essays

Half Hours With Modern Scientists: Lectures and Essays

The following remarkable discourse was originally delivered in Edinburgh, November 18th, 1868, as the first of a series of Sunday evening addresses, upon non-religious topics, instituted by the Rev. J. Cranbrook. It was subsequently published in London as the leading article in the Fortnightly Review, for February, 1869, and attracted so much attention that five editions of that number of the magazine have already been issued. It is now re-printed in this country, in permanent form, for the first time, and will doubtless prove of great interest to American readers. The author is Thomas Henry Huxley, of London, Professor of Natural History in the Royal School of Mines, and of Comparative Anatomy and Physiology in the Royal College of Surgeons. He is also President of the Geological Society of London. Although comparatively a young man, his numerous and valuable contributions to Natural Science entitle him to be considered one of the first of living Naturalists, especially in the departments of Zology and Paleontology, to which he has mainly devoted himself. He is undoubtedly the ablest English advocate of Darwins theory of the Origin of Species, particularly with reference to its application to the human race, which he believes to be nearly related to the higher apes. It is, indeed, through his discussion of this question that he is, perhaps, best known to the general public, as his late work entitled Mans Place in Nature, and other writings on similar topics, have been very widely read in this country and in Europe. In the present lecture Professor Huxley discusses a kindred subject of no less interest and importance, and should have an equally candid hearing. Yale College, March 30th, 1869. In order to make the title of this discourse generally intelligible, I have translated the term Protoplasm, which is the scientific name of the substance of which I am about to speak, by the words the physical basis of life. I suppose that, to many, the idea that there is such a thing as a physical basis, or matter, of life may be novelso widely spread is the conception of life as a something which works through matter, but is independent of it; and even those who are aware that matter and life are inseparably connected, may not be prepared for the conclusion plainly suggested by the phrase the physical basis or matter of life, that there is some one kind of matter which is common to all living beings, and that their endless diversities are bound together by a physical, as well as an ideal, unity. In fact, when first apprehended, such a doctrine as this appears almost shocking to common sense. What, truly, can seem to be more obviously different from one another in faculty, in form, and in substance, than the various kinds of living beings? What community of faculty can there be between the brightly-colored lichen, which so nearly resembles a mere mineral incrustation of the bare rock on 8which it grows, and the painter, to whom it is instinct with beauty, or the botanist, whom it feeds with knowledge? ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 66177
Author: Barker, George F. (George Frederick)
Release Date: Aug 30, 2021
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Contributor (Author): Cope, E. D. (Edward Drinker), 1840-1897, Huxley, Thomas Henry, 1825-1895, Stirling, James Hutchison, 1820-1909, Tyndall, John, 1820-1893