| AIMS AND INSTRUMENTS OF SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. |
By Professor W. KINGDON CLIFFORD,
OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON.
II.
I WANT, in the next place, to consider what we mean when we say that the uniformity which we have observed in the course of events is reasonable as well as exact.
No doubt the first form of this idea was suggested by the marvellous adaptation of certain natural structures to special functions. The first impression of those who studied comparative anatomy was, that every part of the animal frame was fitted with extraordinary completeness for the work that it had to do. I say extraordinary, because at the time the most familiar examples of this adaptation were manufactures produced by human ingenuity; and the completeness and minuteness of natural adaptations were seen to be far in advance of these. The mechanism of limbs and joints was seen to be adapted, far better than any existing iron-work, to those motions and combinations of motion which were most useful to the particular organism. The beautiful and complicated apparatus of sensation caught up indications from the surrounding medium, sorted them, analyzed them, and transmitted the results to the brain in a manner with which, at the time I am speaking of, no artificial contrivance could compete. Hence the belief grew among physiologists that every structure which they found must have its function and subserve some useful purpose; a belief which was not without its foundation in fact, and which certainly (as Dr. Whewell remarks) has done admirable service in promoting the growth of physiology. Like all beliefs, found successful in one subject, it was carried over into another, of which a notable example is given in the speculations of Count Rumford about the physical properties of water, to which the President has already called your attention. Pure water attains its greatest density at a temperature of about 39½° Fahr.; it expands and becomes lighter whether it is cooled or heated, so as to alter that temperature. Hence it was concluded that water in this state must be at the bottom of the sea, and that by such means the sea was kept from freezing all through; as it was supposed must happen if the greatest density had been that of ice. Here, then, was a substance whose properties were eminently adapted to secure an end essential to the maintenance of life upon the earth. In short, men came to the conclusion that the order of Nature was reasonable in the sense that every thing was adapted to some good end.
Further consideration, however, has led men out of that conclusion in two different ways: First, it was seen that the facts of the case
