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DECLINE OF SCIENCE IN ENGLAND
DECLINE OF SCIENCE IN ENGLAND CHARLES BABBAGE DEDICATION.
HAD I INTENDED TO DEDICATE THIS VOLUME I SHOULD HAVE INSCRIBED
IT TO A NOBLEMAN WHOSE EXERTIONS IN PROMOTING EVERY OBJECT THAT
CAN ADVANCE SCIENCE REFLECT LUSTRE UPON HIS RANK. BUT THE
KINDNESS OF HIS NATURE MIGHT HAVE BEEN PAINED AT HAVING HIS NAME
CONNECTED WITH STRICTURES PERHAPS TOO SEVERELY JUST. I SHALL
THEREFORE ABSTAIN FROM MENTIONING THE NAME OF ONE WHO WILL FEEL
THAT HE HAS COMMANDED MY ESTEEM AND RESPECT.
C. BABBAGE.
DORSET STREET
MANCHESTER SQUARE
29th April 1830.
PREFACE.
Of the causes which have induced me to print this volume I have
little to say; my own opinion is that it will ultimately do some
service to science and without that belief I would not have
undertaken so thankless a task. That it is too true not to make
enemies is an opinion in which I concur with several of my
friends although I should hope that what I have written will not
give just reason for the permanence of such feelings. On one
point I shall speak decidedly it is not connected in any degree
with the calculating machine on which I have been engaged; the
causes which have led to it have been long operating and would
have produced this result whether I had ever speculated on that
subject and whatever might have been the fate of my
speculations.
If any one shall endeavour to account for the opinions stated in
these pages by ascribing them to any imagined circumstance
peculiar to myself I think he will be mistaken. That science
has long been neglected and declining in England is not an
opinion originating with me but is shared by many and has been
expressed by higher authority than mine. I shall offer a few
notices on this subject which from their scattered position
are unlikely to have met the reader's attention and which when
combined with the facts I have detailed in subsequent pages will
be admitted to deserve considerable attention. The following
extract from the article Chemistry in the Encyclopaedia
Metropolitana is from the pen of a gentleman equally qualified
by his extensive reading and from his acquaintance with foreign
nations to form an opinion entitled to respect. Differing from
him widely as to the cause I may be permitted to cite him as
high authority for the fact.
"In concluding this most circumscribed outline of the History of
Chemistry we may perhaps be allowed to express a faint shade of
regret which nevertheless has frequently passed over our minds
within the space of the last five or six years. Admiring as we
most sincerely do the electro-magnetic discoveries of Professor
Oersted and his followers we still as chemists fear that our
science has suffered some degree of neglect in consequence of
them. At least we remark that during this period good
chemical analyses and researches have been rare in England; and
yet it must be confessed there is an ample field for chemical
discovery. How scanty is our knowledge of the suspected
fluorine! Are we sure that we understand the nature of nitrogen?
And yet these are amongst our elements. Much has been done by
Wollaston Berzelius Guy-Lussac Thenard Thomson Prout and
others with regard to the doctrine of definite proportions; but
there yet remains the Atomic Theory. Is it a representation of
the laws of nature or is it not?"---CHEMISTRY ENCYC. METROP.
p.596.
When the present volume was considerably advanced the public
were informed that the late Sir Humphry Davy had commenced a
work having the same title as the present and that his
sentiments were expressed in the language of feeling and of
eloquence. It is to be hoped that it may be allowed by his
friends to convey his opinions to posterity and that the
writings of the philosopher may enable his contemporaries to
forget some of the deeds of the President of the Royal Society.
Whatever may be the fate of that highly interesting document we
may infer his opinions upon this subject from a sentiment
expressed in his last work:--
"--But we may in vain search the aristocracy now for
philosophers."----"There are very few persons who pursue science
with true dignity; it is followed more as connected with objects
of profit than those of fame."--SIR H. DAVY'S CONSOLATIONS IN
TRAVEL.
The last authority which I shall adduce is more valuable from
the varied acquirements of its author and from the greater
detail into which he enters. "We have drawn largely both in the
present Essay and in our article on LIGHT from the ANNALES DE
CHEMIE and we take this ONLY opportunity distinctly to
acknowledge our obligations to that most admirably conducted
work. Unlike the crude and undigested scientific matter which
suffices (we are ashamed to say it) for the monthly and
quarterly amusement of our own countrymen whatever is admitted
into ITS pages has at least been taken pains with and with few
exceptions has sterling merit. Indeed among the original
communications which abound in it there are few which would
misbecome the first academical collections; and if any thing
could diminish our regret at the long suppression of those noble
memoirs which are destined to adorn future volumes of that of
the Institute it would be the masterly abstracts of them which
from time to time appear in the ANNALES either from the hands of
the authors or from the reports rendered by the committees
appointed to examine them; which latter indeed are universally
models of their kind and have contributed perhaps more than any
thing to the high scientific tone of the French SAVANS. What
author indeed but will write his best when he knows that his
work if it have merit will immediately be reported on by a
committee who will enter into all its meaning; understand it
however profound: and not content with MERELY understanding it
pursue the trains of thought to which it leads; place its
discoveries and principles in new and unexpected lights; and
bring the whole of their knowledge of collateral subjects to bear
upon it. Nor ought we to omit our acknowledgement to the very
valuable Journals of Poggendorff and Schweigger. Less
exclusively national than their Gallic compeer they present a
picture of the actual progress of physical science throughout
Europe. Indeed we have been often astonished to see with what
celerity every thing even moderately valuable in the scientific
publications of this country finds its way into their pages.
This ought to encourage our men of science. They have a larger
audience and a wider sympathy than they are perhaps aware of;
and however disheartening the general diffusion of smatterings of
a number of subjects and the almost equally general indifference
to profound knowledge in any among their own countrymen may be
they may rest assured that not a fact they may discover nor a
good experiment they may make but is instantly repeated
verified and commented upon in Germany and we may add too in
Italy. We wish the obligation were mutual. Here whole branches
of continental discovery are unstudied and indeed almost
unknown even by name. It is in vain to conceal the melancholy
truth. We are fast dropping behind. In mathematics we have long
since drawn the rein and given over a hopeless race. In
chemistry the case is not much letter. Who can tell us any thing
of the Sulfo-salts? Who will explain to us the laws of
Isomorphism? Nay who among us has even verified Thenard's
experiments on the oxygenated acids--Oersted's and Berzelius's
on the radicals of the earths--Balard's and Serrulas's on the
combinations of Brome--and a hundred other splendid trains of
research in that fascinating science? Nor need we stop here.
There are indeed few sciences which would not furnish matter
for similar remark. The causes are at once obvious and
deep-seated; but this is not the place to discuss them."-- MR.
HERSCHEL'S TREATISE ON SOUND printed in the ENCYCLOPAEDIA
METROPOLITANA.
With such authorities I need not apprehend much doubt as to the
fact of the decline of science in England: how far I may have
pointed out some of its causes must be left to others to decide.
Many attacks have lately been made on the conduct of various
scientific bodies and of their officers and severe criticism
has been lavished upon some of their productions. Newspapers
Magazines Reviews and Pamphlets have all been put in
requisition for the purpose. Odium has been cast upon some of
these for being anonymous. If a fact is to be established by
testimony anonymous assertion is of no value; if it can be
proved by evidence to which the public have access it is of no
consequence (for the cause of truth) who produces it. A matter
of opinion derives weight from the name which is attached to it;
but a chain of reasoning is equally conclusive whoever may be
its author.
Perhaps it would be better for science that all criticism should
be avowed. It would certainly have the effect of rendering it
more matured and less severe; but on the other hand it would
have the evil of frequently repressing it altogether because
there exists amongst the lower ranks of science a "GENUS
IRRITABILE" who are disposed to argue that every criticism is
personal. It is clearly the interest of all who fear inquiries
to push this principle as far as possible whilst those whose
sole object is truth can have no apprehensions from the severest
scrutiny. There are few circumstances which so strongly
distinguish the philosopher as the calmness with which he can
reply to criticisms he may think undeservedly severe. I have
been led into these reflections from the circumstance of its
having been stated publicly that I was the author of several of
those anonymous writings which were considered amongst the most
severe; and the assertion was the more likely to be credited
from the fact of my having spoken a few words connected with one
of those subjects at the last anniversary of the Royal Society.
[I merely observed that the agreement made with the British
Museum for exchanging the Arundel MSS. for their duplicates
(which had just been stated by the President) was UNWISE;
--because it was not to be expected that many duplicates should
be found in a library like that of the Museum weak in the
physical and mathematical sciences: that it was IMPROVIDENT and
UNBUSINESSLIKE;--because it neither fixed the TIME when the
difference was to be paid in case their duplicates should be
insufficient; nor did it appear that there were any FUNDS out of
which the money could be procured: and I added that it would be
more advantageous to sell the MSS. and purchase the books we
wanted with the produce.] I had hoped in that diminutive world
the world of science my character had been sufficiently known to
have escaped being the subject of such a mistake; and in taking
this opportunity of correcting it I will add that in the
present volume I have thought it more candid to mention
distinctly those whose line of conduct I have disapproved or
whose works I have criticised than to leave to the reader
inferences which he might make far more extensive than I have
intended. I hope therefore that where I have depicted species
no person will be so unkind to others and unjust to me as to
suppose I have described individuals.
With respect to the cry against personality which has been
lately set up to prevent all inquiry into matters of scientific
misgovernment a few words will suffice.
I feel as strongly as any one not merely the impropriety but
the injustice of introducing private character into such
discussions. There is however a maxim too well established to
need any comment of mine. The public character of every public
servant is legitimate subject of discussion and his fitness or
unfitness for office may be fairly canvassed by any person. Those
whose too sensitive feelings shrink from such an ordeal have no
right to accept the emoluments of office for they know that it
is the condition to which all must submit who are paid from the
public purse.
The same principle is equally applicable to Companies to
Societies and to Academies. Those from whose pocket the salary
is drawn and by whose appointment the officer was made have
always a right to discuss the merits of their officers and their
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