Not man, but man-like : a reply to Not like man of the Professor of Anatomy in the University of Melbourne / by Wil. Thomson.

  • William Thomson
Date:
[1863]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Not man, but man-like : a reply to Not like man of the Professor of Anatomy in the University of Melbourne / by Wil. Thomson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    essentially connected with the functious of the brain, are visible molecules. How, then, can metaphysical speculations alone determine the functions of structure, human or com- parative, in an inquiry scarcely yet entered upon? To work it out, the comparative study of mind and brain becomes of the highest consequence, if in the least degree it can aid it. If it can aid it by proving the negation of moral and mental characteristics from the absence of structui-e, or, still negsr tively, by affording no illustration of the mental and moral difference of races which, as between the European and the African, are even greater than the physical. But this study, as an aid to anthropology, or for itself alone, cannot surely be pi-omoted by raising the finger in obloquy at every one who attempts it, or to taboo it as a task only fitted for the irreligious. Consistently enough, truly, may this be done by a university, which, in craven deference to the blind dominance of sectaries, interdicts the reading of a moral philosophy within its halls. Under such tutelaries, is it to be wondered at that there is no physiologist of tbe advanc- ing school who dare annoimce himself in high places? Not being able to raise tbe brutes to man, they degi'ade man to the level of the brutes, exclaims the reviewer. The ancients were fond of making brutes to be men: on the contrary now, most unphilosophically, the humour is to make men but mere brutes and matter ; so likewise ex- claimed Tyson, adding, however, whereas, in truth, man is pait a. brute, part an angel, and is that link in the creation that joins them both together. How far the necessity for propitiating persons and pre- judices is answerable for these opinions is very apparent; and, just as the older anatomist has throughout had priority, so had he the gi'eatest plausibility in these matters. Moderns must conciliate public opinion—he hud only his patron. They bend the neck of science to the yoke of
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