Progress of Science in the Century |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
acid analysis animals astronomy atomic weights biology blastomeres body brain Brit called cells changes characters chemical chemical affinity chemistry comparative complex compounds conception conclusion Darwin definite discovery doctrine earth electric elements energy enquiry especially ether evolution evolution-idea experiments expressed fact factors fertilised function gases generalisation geology germ-cells Grammar of Science gravitation heat human hydrogen hypothesis Ice Age idea illustration important influence inheritance interpretation Johannes Müller Joule Karl Pearson larvæ less light lines Lord Kelvin matter measure ment method modern molecules motion nature nerve-cell nineteenth century nitrogen observed organic origin ovum P. G. Tait particles period phenomena physical physiology plants practical problem Prof progress protoplasm psychology race recognised regard relation scientific mood seems showed social sociology spermatozoon stars step structure substances suggested temperature theory tion trans uniformitarian unity variations whole words
Popular passages
Page 7 - The scientific man has above all things to strive at self-elimination in his judgments, to provide an argument which is as true for each individual mind as for his own.
Page 7 - The world little knows how many of the thoughts and theories which have passed through the mind of a scientific investigator have been crushed in silence and secrecy by his own severe criticism and adverse examination ; that in the most successful instances not a tenth of the suggestions, the hopes, the wishes, the preliminary conclusions have been realized.
Page 139 - It is hardly necessary to add, that anything which any insulated body, or system of bodies, can continue to furnish without limitation, cannot possibly be a material substance ; and it appears to me to be extremely difficult, if not quite impossible, to form any distinct idea of anything capable of being excited and communicated in the manner the Heat was excited and communicated in these experiments, except it be MOTION.
Page 175 - that every particle of matter in the universe attracts every other particle, with a force whose direction is that of the line joining the two, and whose magnitude is directly as the product of their masses, and inversely as the square of their distances from each other.
Page 75 - Chemical analysis and synthesis go no farther than to the separation of particles one from another, and to their reunion. No new creation or destruction of matter is within the reach of chemical agency. We might as well attempt to introduce a new planet into the solar system, or to annihilate one already in existence, as to create or destroy a particle of hydrogen. All the changes we can produce, consist in separating particles that are in a state of cohesion or combination, and joining those that...
Page 47 - MAN, as the minister and interpreter of nature, does and understands as much as his observations on the order of nature, either with regard to things or the mind, permit him, and neither knows nor is capable of more.
Page 397 - I have attempted to explain heredity by supposing that in each ontogeny a part of the specific germ-plasm contained in the parent eggcell is not used up in the construction of the body of the offspring, but is reserved unchanged for the formation of the germ-cells of the following generation.
Page 7 - The philosopher should be a man willing to listen to every suggestion, but determined to judge for himself. He should not be biased by appearances ; have no favorite hypothesis ; be of no school ; and in doctrine have no master. He should not be a respecter of persons, but of things. Truth should be his primary object. If to these qualities be added industry, he may indeed hope to walk within the veil of the temple of nature.
Page 140 - The immediate cause of the phenomena of heat then is motion, and the laws of its communication are precisely the same, as the laws of the communication of motion.
Page 353 - DURING the half-century that has elapsed since the enunciation of the cell-theory by Schleiden and Schwann, in 1838-39, it has become ever more clearly apparent that the key to all ultimate biological problems must, in the last analysis, be sought in the cell.