The modifications of the external aspects of organic nature produced by man's interference / by George Rolleston.

  • George Rolleston
Date:
1880
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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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    Beddome, to each of whom, though unknown to me personally, I feel myself personally indebted. And extensive as is his bibliography, it admits of being supjdemented by the specifica- tion not only of works whicli have appeared later, and in India, but of some of considerable importance which appeared earlier, and some of them in Europe of earlier date.* * For the Memoirs of the Imlinn authorities named above see:—(1) Keveiiue Department, No. 981, 1848 ; (2) Catalogue Bombay Products, 1882, and Journal Society of Arts, Feb. 7, 1879; (3) Sind Forest Reports, 1858-1860; (4) Journal Society of Arts, May 24, 1878; (5) Ocean Highways, Oct. 1872, and Systematic Works, p. 204; (8) Report on Forest Departments of India, 1872. As regards other memoirs 1 find no mention of v. Baer's papers upon this very same (xuestion of tlie relation of woods to rainfall already referred to miira, in the ‘Beitr'age zur Kenntniss dcs Russisclien Reiches,’ iv. 1841, ]>. 190, xviii. p. Ill, 1858. From the former of these two papers the following senteuees may with some advantage bo quoted, pp. 190-191:—“Noch viel weiiiger darf man glauben, dass nach dem VerhiLltnisse der Waldahnahme eines Landes aucli die Wasser- mengen in seinen Fliissen abnehmen miisse. Es ist niclit unser Absicht den Einfluss gauz laugnou zu wolleu; allein wir wollen nachdriicklich darauf auf- merksiun maehen, dass die Niedertcld'age aus der Luft nicht von den kleiuern uuter ihnen liegenden Localifatcn abliangen, sondern von grossen ausgedehnten Verhiiltuissen, von vorherrschenden Luftzugen von dor Quautitat Feuchtigkeit welche diese Luftzuge mitbiingen, von der Difl'erenz zweier eiuander beriihrender Luftmassen, dass diese Niederschlage es sind, die uiisern Fliissen Nahrung geben, dass in unsern Breiten sie in Form des Schnees mehrere Monate hindurch aufge- speichert werden uud endlich, dass in einem so flachen Lande wie Russland die Feuchtigkeit welche in Form von Regen und Schnee niederfallt, aus sehr welter Feme kommen kann. Dass unsere Fliisse und besonders das Gebiet der oberii Wolga in trockenen Sommern wenig Wasser habon, hat seinen Grand vorziiglich darin, dass bier kein Gebirge ist, an wolchem Niederschlage das gauze Jahr hindurch nothwendig erfolgen und eben deshalb hat es ohne Zweifel von jeher einzelne Sommer gegeben, in denen das Wasser uugewohnlich uiedrig stand. Wir kennen Zeugnisse hieriiber aus der Zeit Peters des Grossen, und ohue Zweifel wird man sie aus noch friiherer Zeit finden wenn man darnach suclit.” And to supplement a second time the bibliography of Herr Loft'elholz-Colberg, I will say that the following quotation from the well-known and accomplishetl writer of the sixteenth century, Bernard Palissy, may fairly take its place with the foregoing more strietly scientific opinion of von Baer. Mr. Marsh shall intro- duce it for us (1. c., p. 303):—“ In an imaginary dialogue in the ‘ Recepte Ve'ritablc,’ the author, Palissy, having expressed his indignation at the folly of men in destroying the woods, his interlocutor defends the policy of felling them by citing the example of divers bishops, cardinals, priors, abbots, monkeries and chapters, who by cutting their woods have made three profits, the sale of the timber, the rent of the ground, and the ‘good portion ’ they received of the grain grown by the peasants upon it. To this argument Palissy replies: ‘ I cannot enough detest this thing, and I call it not an error, but ,a curse and a calamity to all France: for when forests shall be cut, all arts shall cease, and they who prac- tise them shall bo driven out to eat grass with Nebuchadnezzar and the beasts of the field. I have divers times thought to set down in writing the arts which shall perish when there shall be no more wood ; but when I had written down a great number, I did perceive that there could be no end of my writing, and having diligently considered, I found there was not any which could be followed without wood .... And truly I could well allege to thee a thousand reasons, but it is so cheap a philosophy, that the very chamber-wenches, if they do but think, may see that without wood it is not possible to exercise any manner of