and, he adds, in reference to the undulatory theory, that, "up to the present time, it serves in all cases." In order that this theory, now so perfect, should be adopted, it had, of course, to be first propounded. The conception of an ethereal medium to explain the phenomena of light was suggested by Huyghens and Euler, but they did not experimentally demonstrate it, and their authority was overborne by that of Newton, who maintained the emission or corpuscular theory. The true founder of the undulatory hypothesis of light was Dr. Thomas Young, Professor of Natural Philosophy in the Royal Institution of Great Britain, and whom Prof. Tyndall regards as the greatest physicist who has appeared since Newton. Dr. Young is thus estimated by the German Helmholtz: "His was one of the most profound minds that the world has ever seen; but he had the misfortune to be in advance of his age. He excited the wonder of his contemporaries, who, however, were unable to follow him to the heights at which his daring intellect was accustomed to soar. His most important ideas lay, therefore, buried and forgotten in the folios of the Royal Society, until a new generation gradually and painfully made the same discoveries, and proved the exactness of his assertions, and the truth of his demonstrations."
Now, in this case, there was no monkey in the question, and no capital of public prejudice that could be made available in the discussion, to repress obnoxious opinions. The hypothesis was certainly innocent enough, and its truth or falsehood was a matter of simple determination by experiment. Dr. Young made the experiments which established it—the Royal Society recognized the value of the experiments, and, in 1801, assigned to their author the distinguished honor of delivering the Bakerian lecture, in which his experiments were described, and their conclusions demonstrated. Yet, with the Royal Society to back him, and with his views capable of proof before all men, Dr. Young was crushed, and that by outside influences appealing to the public, on the ground that his hypothesis was spurious science—mere wild absurdity of the imagination.
We ask attention to the similarity of the present ground of attack upon Darwin, and the ground of attack upon Dr. Young three-quarters of a century ago. Dr. Smith prefaces his strictures upon Darwinism with the following declaration: "It is a very common attempt nowadays for scientists to transcend the limits of their legitimate studies, and, in doing this, they run into speculations apparently the most unphilosophical, wild, and absurd; quitting the true basis of inductive philosophy, and building up the most curious theories on little else than assertion."
Henry Brougham, afterward Lord-Chancellor of England, writing in the second number of the Edinburgh Review concerning Young's Bakerian lecture, said: "We have of late observed in the physical world a most unaccountable predilection for vague hypotheses daily gaining ground; and we are mortified to see that the Royal Society, forgetful of those improvements in science to which it owes its origin, and neglecting the precepts of its most illustrious members, is now, by the publication of such papers, giving the countenance of its highest authority to dangerous relaxations in the principles of physical logic. We wish to raise our feeble voice against innovations that can have no other effect than to check the progress of science, and renew all those wild phantoms of the imagination which Bacon and Newton put to flight from her temple. . . . Has the Royal Society degraded its publications into bulletins of new and fashionable theories for the ladies of the Royal Institution? Proh pudor![1] Let the professor continue to amuse his audience with an endless variety of
- ↑ For shame!
