The modifications of the external aspects of organic nature produced by man's interference / by George Rolleston.
- Rolleston, George, 1829-1881.
- Date:
- 1880
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The modifications of the external aspects of organic nature produced by man's interference / by George Rolleston. 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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![mastery of the dry land as to supersede on that portion of the world’s surface the agency of natural selection; but he cannot even there effect cosmical clianges in the climate, and as regards the sea, it is possible enough, as Mr. Moseley has sug- gested on the two concluding pages of his ‘Notes by a Naturalist on the Challenger,' that when the present races of animals, plants, and men shall have perished, the deep-sea animals, at least, if not those of higher levels, “ will very possibly remain unchanged from their present condition.”* * Having been compelled to express dissent from Mr. Marsh’s suggestion as to the phosphorescence of the Mediterranean having bei n a less striking phenomenon in ancient than it is in modern times, I cannot forbear to pay my poor meed of thanks to this writer for the pleasure and instruction which his works have afforded me. The ‘ Kultnrpflanzen und Hausthiere,’ of Herr Victor Helm resembles Mr. Marsh’s work in dealing with the subject of man’s action on organic nature in a way wliich attracts the attention and stimulates the thought at once of the politician, of the literary man, and of the man of science. I expressed my opinion upon the merits of the first edition of this work in the ‘Academy’of August 15, 1872. A tlrird edition of it appeared in 1877, con- sideraldy enlargeil and improved. And it may be observed that for dealing at all adequately with this subject, and indeed for avoiding very gross blundering in so dealing with it, a man must have some knowledge not only of purely scientific subjects, of the facts of hi.story on the large scale, aud of the results at least of philological inquiry, but also of the power which commercial legislation and com- mercial enterprise have for altering the distribution of the various vegetable and animal articles of trade; otherwise he may fall, as some have fallen, into the error of supposing commercial results to have been produced by changes in the laws, not of man, but of climate. I make this remark for, among other purposes, the purpose of introducing another remark to the efiect that it is much to be regretted a fresh edition of Bureau de la Malle’s ‘ Economie Politique des Komains ’ should not be brought out in these days; it is a work of permanent value, though it bears the date of 1840. As works of a more exclusively scientific character, but still intelligible easily to persons posses.sed of a mastery of the rudiments of botany and zoology, and of cardinal importance in researches such as these, I will specify:— De Candolle, ‘Ge'ographie Botanique raisonnee,’ 1855. Unger’s ‘‘ Botanische Streifziige,’ in the ‘ Sitzungsberichte ’ of the Vienna Academy from 1857 to 1859 inclusively. Isidore Geoffroy St. Hilaire, ‘ Histoire Naturello Gene'rale des Eegnes Orga- niques,’ tom. iii., 1862. K. E. Baer, ‘ Keden und Studien aus dem Gebiete der Naturwissenschaften,’ four octavo volumes which appeared in the years 1864, 1878, and 1876, and contain much of geographical as well as of other interest. This illustrious scientist was for some years from 1839 onwarils concerned, together with v. Helmersen, in bringing ont at the co.st of the St. Petersburg Academy, a periodical, ‘ Bcitrage zur Kenntniss des Eussischen Eeiches.’ In one of the volumes (xviii. 1856, pp. 111-115) of this periodical, a short paper by v. Baer appears, the purport of which is shown by its title, “Die Uralte Waldlosigkeit der Siid-russischen Steppe,” “ The Aboriginal want of Wood on the South Eussian Steppe.’’ This paper was written in supplementation of a paper which had appeared in the foiu-th volume of the same periodical, 1841, pp. 163-198, witli the same object of deprecating a useless and essentially nugatory attempt to make these steppes tiraber-beariug. From it I will give an extract, ]>artly because it is so characteristic of the manner of the great biologist, and partly or mainly because it shows how pure natural](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2244032x_0012.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
