At the beginning of the
century it was supposed that there were some sixty recognisable species
of willows in the British Isles: now they are cut down to about sixteen,
and all the rest are resolved into hybrids.--Ever sincerely,
W.T. THISELTON-DYER.
* * * * *
Wallace was a seeker after Truth who was never shy of his august
mistress, whatever robes she wore. "I feel within me," wrote Darwin to
Henslow, "an instinct for truth, or knowledge, or discovery, of
something of the same nature as the instinct of virtue." This was
equally true of Wallace. He had a fine reverence for truth, beauty and
love, and he feared not to expose error. He paid no respect to
time-honoured practices and opinions if he believed them to be false.
Vaccination came under his searching criticism, and in the face of
nearly the whole medical faculty he denounced it as quackery condemned
by the very evidence used to defend it. He very carefully examined the
claims of phrenology, which had been laughed out of court by scientific
men, and he came to the conclusion that "in the present (twentieth)
century phrenology will assuredly attain general acceptance. It will
prove itself to be the true science of the mind. Its practical uses in
education, in self-discipline, in the reformatory treatment of
criminals, and in the remedial treatment of the insane, will gain it
one of the highest places in the hierarchy of the sciences; and its
persistent neglect and obloquy during the last sixty years of the
nineteenth century will be referred to as an example of the almost
incredible narrowness and prejudice which prevailed among men of science
at the very time they were making such splendid advances in other fields
of thought and discovery.
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