Chronicles in cartoon : a record of our own times. XI. Science and medicine.

  • Robinson, Bertram Fletcher.
Date:
[1906]
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Chronicles in cartoon : a record of our own times. XI. Science and medicine. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    CHRONICLES IN CARTOON A RECORD OF OUR OWN TIMES. XI.—SCIENCE AND MEDICINE npHIS month I have to deal with men covery which revolutionises the settled I who during the last half-century opinions of mankind. Yet, even in the have made their reputation in science mid-Victorian period we did not burn our and medicine. Amongst the subjects of distinguished savants; though I do not say these cartoons are many who not only were that at the Universities they were never honoured by their contemporaries, but who without danger of lynching on the part of genera- will inspire tions yet to come with feelings of respect, gratitude, and ad- miration. During its history of close upon forty years, the artists of Vanity Fair have been sufficiently for- tunate to obtain sittings from such pioneers in the appli- cation of science to the practical needs of humanity as Lord Kelvin and Lord Rayleigh, such master minds of research as Charles Darwin, Herbert Spencer, and Professor Huxley, in addition to men whose discoveries have light- ened the sufferings of mankind, such as Jenner and Pasteur. Indeed, when we remember how brief is the period—as time goes in the world’s his- tory — during which the paper has existed, we must of necessity be astonished at this constellation of names, which has not its equal in any similar period. Freedom of inquiry and the greater facilities for education and investigation have contributed to this end. I do not say that all their victories were peacefully achieved. Many found arrayed against them the odium t/ieoloyicum, and that spirit of rancour which must attend any great dis- CHARLES DARWIN. 18 “ Natural Selection. the more orthodox authorities. In addition to the theological opposition, they encountered the distaste of the elder school of biologists, who founded their system of inquiry on the accepted English tradition, which may be exemplified by the work of White of Selborne. To this school there seemed something almost pre- sumptuous in the broad and complete inquiries which were first carried out in Fiance, afterwards in Germany, and still later in o u r o w n country, by such men as Darwin and Huxley. It was at a time when this opposition to which I have referred was |till un- diluted by common sense that the cartoon of Darwin appeared. It is curious to note how the writer of Mr. Darwin’s biography sat rather1 ungrace- iully upon the fence when he ’ came to discuss the discoveries of his subject. It is interesting to quote his words: “ For huu- dieds of years, as we know, and, as we may infer, for thousands, the few were fain to content themselves with the'conclusion that they knew nothing whatever aborft the earth ami its inhabitants. In modern times, how-