Volume 1

A history of the earth, and animated nature / By Oliver Goldsmith. With an introductory view of the animal kingdom, tr. from the French by Baron Cuvier. And copious notes embracing accounts of new discoveries in natural history: And a life of the author by Washington Irving. And a carefully prepared index to the whole work.

  • Oliver Goldsmith
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A history of the earth, and animated nature / By Oliver Goldsmith. With an introductory view of the animal kingdom, tr. from the French by Baron Cuvier. And copious notes embracing accounts of new discoveries in natural history: And a life of the author by Washington Irving. And a carefully prepared index to the whole work. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and the various kinds of living beings [called Animals and Plants], almost all of which are under the influence of laws, more or less unconnected with those of motion, of chemical affinity, and of various others, analyzed in the several departments of General Physics. We ought, in treating of Natural History, to employ precisely the same methods as in the General Sciences; and, therefore, we endeavour to adopt them, whenever the subjects under examination become sufficiently simple to permit that mode of investigation. But as this is seldom practicable, there arises, hence, an essential difference between the General Sciences and Natural History. For, in the former, the phenomena are examined under circumstances completely within the reach of the inquirer, who arrives, by analysis, at general laws; while, in the latter, they are removed, by unalterable conditions, beyond his control. In vain he attempts to disengage them from the influence of general laws, already ascertained. He cannot reduce the problem to its elements, and, like the experimental philosopher, withdraw successively each condition; but he must reason upon all its conditions at once, and only arrive, by conjecture, at the probable result of such an analysis. Let him seek to ascertain, by direct experiment, any one of the numerous phenomena essential to the life of an animal, though but slightly elevated in the scale of being, “And ere he touch the vital spark—’tis fled.” Thus, it appears that, while Mechanics has become a science chiefly of calculation, and Chemistry of experiment. Natural History will long remain, in most of its de- partments, a science wholly of observation. The latter part of this remark must, however, be restricted to the early stages of Natural His- tory ; because, in its more matured condition, it becomes a science of demonstration. Every branch of physics has one leading object in view, and that is, the discovery of the ultimate laws of Nature. Philosophy regards this as of primary importance ; while utility is held only as of secondary rank. Science, in its most comprehensive sense, is a superstructure founded on facts, or acquired by ex- perience ; and hence, in its early stages, we consider it as entirely limited to observation : but when we have learned to generalize, and find that truths agree in their several relations, we have arrived at the demonstrative part of the science. It is not, therefore, from a mere knowledge of correct nomenclature, or from a capacity to recognise at sight a natural object, that we are entitled to apply the name of scientific knowledge to Natural History; but only when we have succeeded, by observation, in deducing the laws which regulate these objects, in their relations to surrounding beings. These three terms. Calculation, Observation, and Experiment, express, with suffi- cient accuracy, the manner of cultivating the several branches of Physical Science ; but, by exhibiting among them very different degrees of certainty, they indicate at the same time, the ultimate point to which Chemistry and Natural History ought to tend, in order to rise nearer to perfection. Calculation, in a manner, sways Nature: it determines the phenomena more exactly than can be done by observation alone; Experiment obliges Nature to unveil: Observation watches when she is refractory, and seeks to surprise her. Natural History employs with advantage, on many occasions, a principle of reason- ing peculiar to itself, termed the conditions of existence, or, more commonly, final causes. As nothing can exist except it contains within itself all the conditions which render existence possible, it is evident, that there ought to be such a mutual adaptation of the various parts of each being among themselves, and such an accommodation of their structure to the circumstances of surrounding beings, as to render possible the exist- ence of the whole. The analysis of these conditions often leads to the discovery of general laws, with a clearness of demonstration, surpassed only by the evidence of direct experiment or calculation. It was by the knowledge of this principle, that the celebrated Dr. William Harvey was enabled to discover the circulation of the blood in man. The Honourable Robert Boyle relates his conversation with Dr. Harvey on this subject, in the following words:—“I remember, that when I asked our famous Harvey, in the only discourse I had with him (which was but a little while before he died), what were the things which induced him to think of a circulation of the blood 1 he answered me, that when he took notice that the valves in the veins of so many parts of the body were so placed, that they gave free passage to the blood towards the heart, but opposed the passage of the venal blood