Natural sciences

“ Indeed, even when we confine attention to natural science, no special science ever is grounded upon the conciliation of presuppositions belonging to all the various sciences of Nature. Each science confines itself to a fragment of the evidence and weaves its theories in terms of notions suggested by that fragment. ”

“ From the group of the natural sciences there emerges into prominent place the princely science of zoology. As was said before, it is the central subject in all that advance in the knowledge of organic nature to which reference has been made. It is best fitted, it seems to me, to give to the students in our colleges and universities an idea of the results of the activity of the nature seekers. Its sister science, botany, which runs parallel to it, deals with similar phenomena in plants. Still, it is only among animals that we find nervous responses tolerably well developed. ”

“ But many still identify 'Nature' with a limited portion of that great system, and even retain for it a special application to the animals and plants of this earth and their immediate surroundings. Thus we have the term 'natural history' and the French term 'les sciences naturelles' limited to the study of the more immediate and concrete forms of animals, plants, and crystals. ”

“ The natural sciences are commonly understood to include all inquiries into the history of the inorganic and vital phenomena which take place on and about the surface of the globe, and the relation of these to general terrestrial, and cosmical conditions. The problems thus proposed for discussion are sufficiently ample and diversified to employ a very large number of observers and reasoners ”

“ Even when the natural sciences are taught, the mode of teaching them is generally ineffectual. The knowledge which the mass of pupils in our higher schools gain of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, Botany, and Physiology, is very deficient. ”

“ They deal, each of them, with realms of Nature. Geology is, literally, the natural history of soils and lands; chemistry the natural history of compounds, organic and inorganic; meteorology the natural history of climates; astronomy the natural history of planetary and solar bodies. And more, you cannot now study deeply any branch of what is popularly called Natural History—that is, plants and animals—without finding it necessary to learn something, and more and more as you go deeper, of those very sciences. ”

“ A child might learn a myriad of things in the woods and gain much insight into nature's ways without making any clear distinction between botany, zoology, and geology. Herein is also the proof that text-books are needed as a guide in nature's labyrinth. If the frequency and intimacy of mutual relations are any proof of unity, the natural sciences are a unit and have a right to be called by one name, nature study. ”

“ Indeed, if at the present moment we run over the names distinguished in the several sciences into which Natural Knowledge may be divided—in Physics, in Chemistry, in Botany, in Zoology—we find but few investigators who can be said to have thoroughly mastered the whole range of any one of them. ”

“ However slight may be our familiarity with the language of zoology and botany or their applications, it is evident that the question before us is a purely scientific one, and entirely within the province of the natural sciences. ”

“ It may be a task, not hopeless, to extract from the past progress of science the elements of an effectual and substantial method of Scientific Discovery. The advances which have, during the last three centuries, been made in the physical sciences;—in Astronomy, in Physics, in Chemistry, in Natural History, in Physiology;—these are allowed by all to be real, to be great, to be striking ”

“ Physics and Chemistry progress with giant strides in the study of the properties of matter and of the combinations of its elements. Geology and Astronomy reconstruct the history of the origin and formation of our planet. Biology and the natural sciences study the minute structure of living organisms, their distribution in space and succession in time ”

“ It might even be said that it embraces all human knowledge. Thus, the constitution of the human mind, and the structure of the human body, as well as its healthy [Pg 30] and morbid phenomena, together with the means of regulating the former and of counteracting the latter, may certainly be included in it.
Natural history, however, in its more limited acceptation, may be considered as comprehending the three great kingdoms of Nature,—the mineral, the vegetable, and the animal,—the sciences treating of which are named Mineralogy, Botany, and Zoology. ”

“ Did water first surround the glowing orb as a heated vapour? Did clouds first descend upon it like a fiery rain-storm? Suppose some sentient creature floating through ether to look upon the unformed world,—how wild, how weird must have been the spectacle! How different from what earth and ocean may appear to any similar Intelligence now.
Science discoursing upon such topics is more poetical than the most sublime poetry. And the science that does speak of [Pg 358] them is the widest of all sciences, After certain cycles of ages, the Biologist hands us over to the Mineralogist and the Chemist. ”

“ and, as in this respect, Geology has shared the fate of other infant sciences, in being for a while considered hostile to revealed religion; so like them, when fully understood, it will be found a potent and consistent auxiliary to it, exalting our conviction of the Power, and Wisdom, and Goodness of the Creators. ”

“ For the marvelous success which zoology has attained has been possible only by the skillful use of scalpel, microscope, microtome and other mechanical devices and by the refined methods of the chemist and physicist.
The central truth to which all these discoveries consistently point is the unity and harmony of all biological phenomena, and indeed of all nature. No longer does the zoologist find any demarcated line separating his field of 438research from that of the botanist or the chemist or even of the physicist, for all the natural sciences obviously deal with closely associated phenomena. ”

“ Lastly, the three remaining members of the enumeration are three natural history sciences; geology being coupled with mineralogy—which is a secondary consideration. Now I think it is quite right that these three sciences should have a place in the competition. What is objectionable is, that Biology is represented solely by its two classificatory components or adjuncts, botany and zoology; there is no mother science of Physiology: and consequently the knowledge of the vast region of the Laws of Life goes for nothing. Nor can it be said that physiology is given with the others. ”

“ Natural History, in its three great departments of Mineralogy, Botany and Zoology:–
Chemistry and Natural Philosophy, in their various branches; and Mathematics, pure and mixed.
It will be a leading object to illustrate American Natural History, and especially our Mineralogy and Geology.
The Applications of these sciences are obviously as numerous as physical arts and physical wants; for no one of these arts or wants can be named which is not connected with them.
While Science will be cherished for its own sake, and with a due respect for its own inherent dignity ”

“ Besides the direct utility of a knowledge of zoology, botany, geology, and chemistry, and of the kindred branches grouped under the designation of natural science, the pleasure to be derived from them is not amongst the least of the advantages of their study. ”

“ Can it be maintained of a science, which requires for its successful prosecution an intimate acquaintance with Chemistry, Natural Philosophy and Astronomy,—with the details and views of Zoology, Botany, and Mineralogy, and which connects these different departments of knowledge in a most interesting and striking manner,—that it is of no value? ”

“ Let us now turn to the biological sciences. The two fundamental divisions, zoology and botany, dealing with animals and plants, seem to run continuously one into the other, like chemistry and physics. ”

“ It is of course advantageous in some ways to have agreement as to the limitations of ecology, or any science, but even the more exact sciences seem to fare little better, as is shown by the following statement: “It is not long since I heard a university professor begin a lecture on physics somewhat in this way: ‘Physics is the science of matter and energy. ”

“ It is one of the broadest of the sciences, and brings under consideration certain phases of nearly all the other sciences, particularly those of astronomy, physics, chemistry, zoology, and botany. It also embraces the earlier expressions of mental development and of life-relationships, chiefly as found in the lower animals. ”

“ Biology,—the abstract science of Life,—embracing the whole organic world, includes Vegetality, Animality, and Humanity; the biological sciences are Phytology, Zoölogy, and Anthropology. Each of the sciences has its cardinal divisions, statical and dynamical, namely, Morphology—the science of form,—and Physiology—the science of function. ”

“ These researches have developed the science of physiology, or the laws of bodily action, on many accounts the most modern and extensive of our new acquisitions of natural learning. Through these studies we have come to know something of the laws or principles by which life is handed on from generation to generation, and by which the gradations of structure have been advanced from the simple creatures which appear like bits of animated jelly to the body and mind of man.
The greatest contribution which modern naturalists have made to knowledge concerns the origin of organic species. ”

“ Mental Phenomena. Material objects are all either not living, that is to say, mineral bodies, or they are living bodies. Everything which occupies space, offers resistance, has weight and transfers motion, belongs to one or 93other of these two great provinces of nature. The sciences of Astronomy, Mineralogy, Physics, and Chemistry deal with the former, while Biology, with its two divisions of Zoology and Botany, treats of the latter. ”

“ Such sciences there must be, not only having reference to the bodies with which chemistry deals, but also to all things respecting which we aspire to obtain any general knowledge, as, for instance, plants and animals. ”

“ With this method of study in the organic kingdoms we are familiar under the names of physiological botany and physiological zoölogy, which concern themselves with anatomy, organography, and morphology, and with the processes of growth, nutrition, and decay in organized existences. The natural philosophy of the inorganic world investigates the motions and the energies of the heavenly bodies, and then, coming down to our planet, considers all the phenomena which come under the head of dynamic or physic, as well as those of chemistry. ”

“ Man being the most complicated of all organised beings, not only are the laws of his vitality the most numerous, and the most practically interesting, but they go far to include all that is to be said of the workings of animal life in general. Thus, then, the mother science of Biology, as a general or fundamental science, comprises Vegetable, Animal, and Human physiology. The classificatory adjunct sciences are Botany and Zoology. It is in the various aspects of the mother science that we look for the account of all vital phenomena, and all practical applications to the preservation of life. ”

“ Some of the greatest scientists, Linnaeus, for example, looked upon scientific classification as the chief aim of nature study. It has had a great influence upon schools and teachers. The attempt to compress everything into a system has led to many text-books which are but brief summaries of sciences like zoology, botany, and physics. ”

“ Geology and botany would call him into the healthful fields, or fill up his time by his fireside, in studying the many excellent works on those subjects: the still higher utility of chemistry, as being made of practical use in almost every business, and demonstrating the else unintelligible phenomena of a multitude of natural processes and changes, may be held up as another inducement to call forth his best energies. ”

“ Now, in any science scheme, I would provide for the general sciences first, and take the others, so far as expedient, in a new grouping, where those of a kind shall appear together, and stand in their proper character, not as law-giving, but as arranging and describing sciences. There is no more reason for coupling Zoology with Physiology, than for tacking on Mineralogy to Chemistry. In point of outward form, Mineralogy and Zoology are kindred subjects. ”

“ Here again we are impressed and even daunted by the immense Universe to be explored. "What we know, is a point to what we do not know." Open any recent journal of science, and weigh the problems suggested concerning Light, Heat, Electricity, Magnetism, Physiology, Geology, and judge whether the interest of natural science is likely to be soon exhausted.
Passing by many particulars of the discipline of nature, we must not omit to specify two.
The exercise of the Will or the lesson of power is taught in every event. ”

“ It is what one may speak of as the Biological Course. Just as the conception of Energy will be the central idea of the Natural Philosophy course, so the conception of Organic Evolution will be the central idea of the Biological Course. ”

“ Geology at first seems inconsistent with the authority of the Mosaic record. A storm of unreasoning indignation rises against its teachers. In time, its truths, being found quite irresistible, are admitted, and mankind continue to regard the Scriptures with the same respect as before. So also with several other sciences. ”