The British Association Picnic at Swansea
Art. X. :Author: J. M. WINN, M.D., &c.
The following was part of the programme for the last meet- ing of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, as mentioned in the Times:?”The more eager will journey to the magnificent haven of Milford, where lie just now the Great Eastern and a small fleet of war ships; others will cross the Bristol Channel to Ilfracombe, and rouse the sea- birds on Lundy Island, or, satisfied with a shorter sea trip, make for the Mumbles, with its light-house and ships’ tele- graph, its weedy rocks and tide-races, &c.” This is all very enjoyable and commendable for those who have wealth and leisure at command, but it has nothing to do with the ad- vancement of science, and what will it avail the impecunious votary, consuming the midnight oil in a lonely garret ? The Association at its outset was expected by its enthusiastic sup- porters to lead to scientific discoveries, but it has failed in its object, and has lapsed into little more than a gigantic pic-nic, enlivened occasionally by sensational addresses on Materialistic Philosophy. All great discoveries have been made by single individuals, and not by associations or companies. Judging from many of the addresses delivered during the last five years, it might be not inaptly termed an associa- tion for the advancement of infidelity. The public have been amused and mystified with crude hypotheses about the omnipotence of atomic force, evolution, bathybrics, primitive man, and the mental and intellectual faculties of the ant, which, from Sir John Lubbock’s reasoning, it might be inferred, is the original primitive Christian. The study of Natural History is a pleasing pastime for those who have leisure and taste for it, but it has been unduly exalted as one of the noblest pursuits of man, as if the study of butterflies and cow- slips was to take rank with that of the human mind.
The last meeting, at Swansea, is generally admitted to have been a failure. Professor Eamsay attempted to revive the uniformitarian theory of Lyell, which ignores a superintending providence. Dawkins’s address was a reiteration of old argu- ments respecting primitive man. Spurrel’s paper inferred the existence of primitive man, from flint flakes only, a notion which Mr. Whitley long since scattered to the winds. The most laughable event of the evening was the announcement that Professor Schaafenhausen had arrived from Bonn, bringing with him the famous Neander skull. This, of course, drew immensely. Eespecting this precious relic, Lyell, in his Antiquity of Man, said it was ” in regard to capacity by no means contemptible.” Its capacity is twice as capacious as that of a gorilla; and Professor Kolleston said it belonged to a man, and not to the missing link.
After the expenditure of grants from the Association to the amount of more than ?2,000 for the exploration of Kent’s cavern, it does not appear that Mr. Pengelly has yet discovered any traces of primitive man, and this useless pursuit is abandoned by the Association. Why does not Mr. Pengelly study the character and habits of the living Devon savages, near Lapord ? It might prove more profitable than hunting for the imaginary extinct wild Orson of Kent’s cavern. Mr. Pengelly’s search reminds us of the philosopher of Laputa, who spent his life in the endeavour to extract sunbeams from cucumbers.
Mr. Galton’s address on Mental imagery threw no light on the nature of this mysterious phenomenon. In the fifth volume of the Journal of Psychological Medicine* we drew attention to the fact, that on geniuses especially is bestowed the faculty of most vividly seeing, as if in a picture, the scenes which they describe.
Vide Charles Lever, part ii. vol. v., new series.
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