The Journal of the Royal institution of Great Britain. Notices of the proceedings [afterw.] Proceedings of the Royal institution of Great Britain, Volume 9

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Page 335 - Comparing the length of this coloured Spectrum with its breadth, I found it about five times greater; a disproportion so extravagant that it excited me to a more than ordinary curiosity of examining from whence it might proceed.
Page 347 - History warns us, however, that it is the customary fate of new truths to begin as heresies and to end as superstitions ; and, as matters now stand, it is hardly rash to anticipate that, in another twenty years, the new generation, educated under the influences of the present day, will be in danger of accepting the main doctrines of the Origin of Species...
Page 347 - The struggle for existence holds as much in the intellectual as in the physical world. A theory is a species of thinking, and its right to exist is coextensive with its power of resisting extinction by its rivals.
Page 377 - Their principal ornament is the bone which they thrust through the cartilage that divides the nostrils from each other : What perversion of taste could make them think this a decoration, or what could prompt them, before they had worn it or seen it worn, to suffer the pain and inconvenience that must of necessity attend it, is perhaps beyond the power of human sagacity to determine : As this bone is as thick as a man's finger, and between five and six inches long, it reaches quite across the face,...
Page 381 - It seems, indeed, a strange phenomenon that in such different races, so far removed in locality, customs so singular — to our ideas so revolting and unnatural, and certainly so painful and inconvenient — should either have been perpetuated for an enormous lapse of time, if the supposition of a common origin be entertained, or else have developed themselves independently.
Page 379 - Thlinkeet belle ; for larger lip-blocks are introduced as years advance, and each enlargement adds to the lady's social status, if not to her facial charms. When the block is withdrawn, the lip drops down upon the chin like a piece of leather, displaying the teeth, and presenting altogether a ghastly spectacle. The privilege of wearing this ornament is not extended to female slaves.
Page 28 - ... of all sorts, of the erroneous expression applied science. The abandonment of scientific careers by men capable of pursuing them with distinction, was recently...
Page 351 - ... opinion which has taken place among naturalists, I count the astonishing progress which has been made in the study of embryology. Twenty years ago, not only were we devoid of any accurate knowledge of the mode of development of many groups of animals and plants, but the methods of investigation were rude and imperfect. At the present time there is no important group of organic beings the development of which has not been carefully studied, and the modern methods of hardening and section-making...
Page 347 - ... following of ardent disciples who are occupied in spreading and developing its doctrines. Mere insanities and inanities have before now swollen to portentous size in the course of twenty years. Let us rather ask this prodigious change in opinion to justify itself: let us inquire whether anything has happened since 1859, which will explain, on rational grounds, why so many are worshipping that which they burned, and burning that which they worshipped. It is only in this way that we shall acquire...
Page 640 - Therefore, when popular opinion is of a matter-of-fact kind, the seers of visions keep quiet ; they do not like to be thought fanciful or mad...

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