Biology / by Charles Letourneau ; translated by William Maccall.

  • Maccall William, 1812-1888.
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Biology / by Charles Letourneau ; translated by William Maccall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    observation and experiment, has such difficulty in diffusing itself. The object of our little book is to remedy this serious educational deficiency in those who are otherwise enlightened. It is therefore a work of vulgarisation. Certain scientific men, too strictly confined within their own circle, and whose horizon is bounded by the walls of their laboratories, pro- nounce, with disdain, though unjustly, this term vulgar- isation. To find the truth is surely a noble labour; but what is the value of the discovered truth, if care is not taken to propagate it, to introduce it into the patrimony of general knowledge ? On the other hand, it must be granted that the work of popularising has been brought somewhat into disrepute by a crowd of pseudo-scientific publications, the authors of which, trusting too little to the intelligence of the reader, either administer only an infinitesimal dose of science, or think themselves obliged to dilute the main idea with a deluge of light or pleasing words, sacrificing thus at once to the most amiable and most dangerous of our national peculiarities. Science only deserves its name upon condition of preserving a somewhat austere nobleness. For our part we have taken care not to rob science of that which constitutes its strength, and for this we trust the reader will give us credit. In our opinion there is not a person of moderate intelligence who will not be able, at the cost of a slight mental effort, to read and comprehend this book; and we think also that by such a perusal of it, sufficiently clear and complete ideas of Biology will have been imparted. This is not a polemical work, but rather an exposition