ART. IV.-1. The Life and Correspondence of William Buckland, D.D., F.R.S. By his Daughter, Mrs. Gordon. London, 1894. 2. The Life of Richard Owen. By his Grandson, the Rev. Richard Owen, M.A. London, 1894. THE HE century now drawing near its close can certainly be distinguished from all its predecessors by the great advance in the knowledge of living creatures-the science of biology-which it has witnessed. And not only is this scientific progress noteworthy, but hardly less so is the rapid diffusion of a taste for natural science which has taken place during the same period. The interest felt in some of the many problems which the contemplation of nature suggests to intelligent minds, has indeed spread far and wide with an unprecedented rapidity. In the year 1800 few men or women in England knew or cared anything about zoology or botany, and only a very small circle of savants paid any attention to the novel organic remains that geology was bringing to light, and to those extinct animals which the genius of Cuvier was reconstructing and causing to live again before their mental vision. It is true that other sciences have also made great progress during the nineteenth century. Astronomy has not only been greatly advanced, but illuminated beyond all possible expectation by spectrum analysis; chemistry has been transformed; and the knowledge of mankind gained through the development of philology, ethnology, and the successful prosecution of historical and critical studies, cannot easily be over-estimated. We do not therefore claim for biology an absolutely more rapid advance than that which her sister sciences have made. Nevertheless it seems to us indisputable that the interest excited by discussions concerning the laws which regulate the world of life, has, in our time, been more keen, more universal, and more important in its consequences than that which any other science has called forth amongst us. This outburst of knowledge and this awakened interest were, of course, the result of antecedent conditions which had alone made them possible—if not indeed inevitable. The advance of our own age was prepared by the eminent naturalists of the eighteenth century; while the speculations of its philosophers, such as Kant, Goethe, and Lamarck, laid the foundations of much of that vivid interest in biological problems which has arisen in our generation. Linnæus, in 1735 and 1758, supplied that feasible system of classification and convenient nomenclature without which it would be difficult to acquire, and impossible to retain in mind, a knowledge a knowledge of any very numerous set of objects. Buffon (1707-1788) not only promoted a taste for natural history by his brilliant writings and the admirable anatomical descriptions of his collaborator Daubenton, but, by his startling speculations and hypotheses, co-operated with Kant, Goethe, and Lamarck in creating a keen interest in the problems of biology. In 1789 Cuvier, as the outcome of indefatigable labour, published an outline of his subsequent Règne Animal,' and, availing himself of the work of Linnæus, promulgated a natural system of zoological classification. In England, John Hunter* accumulated that wonderful series of illustrations of comparative anatomy and physiology, collected with untiring industry and prepared with great skill, which constitutes the nucleus of the magnificent Museum now in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Botany was revolutionised by Antoine Laurent de Jussieu, who, in 1789, published his Natural System of Plants, which has since been accepted with few modifications. Finally, geology underwent a complete transformation. After Werner, Hutton, and others had shown the earth's crust to consist partly of stratified and partly of unstratified rocks, William Smith, in the last years of the eighteenth century, demonstrated the fact that definite and uniform relations existed between strata, by showing the distinctive nature of the fossils they severally contain. But with all this preparation, the state of natural science at the opening of this century was poor and mean indeed compared with the wealth which we find existing towards its termination. The increase in the number of known species has been enormous. Not only have many new kinds of creatures been discovered and described, but a multitude of previously unsuspected relations between them have also been detected. Among discoveries of this class are relations to past time (age as shown by fossils); relations to space (geographical and bathymetrical distributions); relations to each other (as rivals and, indirectly, as benefactors as well as enemies); individual development (embryology), and the successive appearance of different forms of life, directly suggesting afresh the problem as to the origin of species-a problem which occupied men's minds at least two centuries before Aristotle. For lack of knowledge of these various relations, the true value and significance of many zoological novelties were hidden from their discoverers. Thus, when Banks and Solander first became acquainted with the animal population of Australia, they might, had they understood the exceptional characteristics of the creatures there *He died in 1793. found, found, have imagined themselves visitors to some new planet. The real nature of the beasts of Australia did not reveal itself even to the mind of Cuvier, for he divided them amongst the previously known orders of mammals instead of recognizing that they form by themselves a very distinct yet most varied order-to which the opossums of America, alone of all previously known beasts, also pertain. The past history, as well as the existing condition, of the earth and its inhabitants were then greatly misunderstood. Although Maillet, Buffon, Lamarck, and a few others regarded the terrestrial phenomena of their day as explaining those of preceding ages, yet a belief that, in ancient times, cataclysms and convulsions, far exceeding anything known in the modern world, had taken place, was generally current amongst scientific men at the beginning of this century. It was indeed reserved for the late Sir Charles Lyell to obtain a general acceptance of the doctrine that vast changes in the structure and animal population of the world took place during the same slow and gradual transformations of its surface, which we experience today. Fossils, especially shells, had long been recognized as remains of creatures which had once lived, and were therefore so commonly regarded as evidences of the Noachian deluge, that Voltaire felt bound to assign them another origin, however absurd. Nevertheless, a declaration that hyænas and tigers, elephants and rhinoceroses had, in former times, swarmed in England, would, as the event proved, have been met with incredulity, while an assertion that such animals had been gazed on by human inhabitants of Britain thousands of years ago would have been received with grave disapprobation. The assertion that crocodiles and large serpents, tortoises and turtles had abounded in the valley of the Thames, was hardly less startling than a statement that huge reptilian monsters, like the Iguanodon, had, at an earlier period, ranged over the Weald of Kent, or that, at a much later one, laurels, magnolias, and vines had flourished near the North Pole! * None, even amongst the learned, then suspected that the transitory stages of the development of the embryo of a higher animal, such as an ape, could show any resemblance to those of an inferior animal, such as a fish, or to more ancient forms of life now extinct. The embryological discoveries of Baer were not made till our own age. Speculations as to the natural production of new species, though they had been from time to time made public ever since Bacon, never produced * As that they had fallen from the hats of pilgrims to Rome, or that they were relics of such pilgrims' repasts. much much impression till Lamarck in 1802 startled Europe with his hypotheses. But even then such views came into the world almost still-born, and more than forty years elapsed before any wide-spread interest could be excited on this subject in England, such as was produced by the publication of the once famous 'Vestiges of Creation.' The lives of Dean Buckland and Sir Richard Owen (1784– 1892) embrace more than the whole of this scientifically progressive period. In aiding that progress, they both-though in diverse ways and different degrees-effectively and harmoniously co-operated. It is well therefore that the histories of their lives should appear simultaneously towards the end of the century they illustrated. The volume containing the Life of Buckland is due to the filial piety of his daughter, Mrs. Gordon. It graphically depicts the main and many minor facts of the career of a learned, enthusiastic, and very industrious man, whose character was marked by a quaint and striking individuality. It is copiously illustrated, and contains a great variety of anecdotes, some of which, however, as well as several of the more or less humorous sketches, it would, we venture to think, have been better to omit. The other work, in two volumes,-the biography of Owen,is a very excellent one. It is full of interesting details, due to the vast accumulation of letters and diaries the aged anatomist left behind him, and which must have caused his biographer a very embarras de richesses. The work contains many admirable illustrations, including two remarkably life-like portraits of Sir Richard Owen. His grandson has performed with excellent taste the task he undertook, though it may be regretted that he was not an eye-witness of, or actor in, the more important matters which he records. The successful careers of both Dean Buckland and Sir Richard Owen were much facilitated by exceptional advantages which came early within their reach. Buckland was born in the vicinity of a geological paradise-the picturesque valley of the Axe. From this rich treasury of fossils his father, the Rector of Templeton, who had himself a taste for geology, encouraged him to collect specimens almost from his infancy. One of his earliest and most intimate companions, W. D. Cony beare (afterwards Dean of Llandaff), tells us: 'Young Buckland could not take a stroll in the neighbouring fields without stumbling on lias quarries, and finding, on ascending every hill, that its summit consisted of an entirely dissimilar formationchertsand.' At At Lyme Regis, also, Ammonites and Belemnites were forced on his attention by urchins of the place who traded in them. Such scientific seed was sown on no barren soil. At Oxford, again, where he had the opportunity of learning from Townsend (the friend and fellow-labourer of William Smith, the father of English geologists), he at once availed himself of his good fortune, and the fruit of his very first lesson in field geology was the nucleus of what is now the Oxford Geological Museum. In childhood Owen had no similar advantages; but he had hardly obtained his medical diploma, at the age of 22, when he was led by Abernethy to undertake the arrangement of the Hunterian Collection, then recently acquired by the College of Surgeons. At the age of 26, another enormous advantage came in his way. He became a Fellow of the newly established Zoological Society, and very soon a member of its Council. Thus he was enabled to study and dissect a great variety of rare animals. He eagerly and most indefatigably availed himself of this opportunity, and the results of his labours-which in 1831 amounted to eight important papers on the anatomy of various mammals, birds, and reptiles-are to be read in that Society's Proceedings and Transactions. On the incidents of the lives of Dean Buckland and Sir Richard Owen we do not propose to dwell. For details of the kind we must refer our readers to their recently published biographies, which should find a place in the library of every one interested in natural science. It is rather our object to call attention to the parts they severally played in helping forward that great scientific progress which, as we have said, has characterised the present century. We must, however, add that to know Owen as a scientific man only, was to know him very imperfectly. He was fond of society, a good conversationalist, an eager reader of literature, devoted to music, and a frequent visitor to the theatre. Such characteristics are well portrayed in his grandson's interesting volumes, but we have no space to cite the passages here, though to the fidelity with which they represent the social and artistic sides of his personality the present writer can, from his own experience, testify. Buckland, when only twenty-five years old, journeyed through the centre and north of England for the purpose of determining the then unknown extent of various strata, illustrating the results of his explorations by a large coloured map. One of his memorable discoveries, later on, was that of the remains of hyænas in Kirkdale Cave. This cavern he explored in the belief that its contents had been washed into it by the Deluge; but he soon became convinced that it had been an Vol. 180.-No. 360. abode 2 c |