Essay Review: William Whewell: Rough Diamond,Defining Science: William Whewell,Natural Knowledge,and Public Debate in Early Victorian Britain

Desmond A. and Moore J. , Darwin (London, 1992), 236.

Schaffer S. , “The history and geography of the intellectual world: Whewell's politics of language”, in Fisch M. and Schaffer S. (eds), William Whewell: A composite portrait (Oxford, 1991), 201–31.

Brock W. H. , “The spectrum of science patronage”, in Turner G. L'E. (ed.), The patronage of science in the nineteenth century (Leyden, 1976), 173–206.

Huxley L. (ed.), Life and letters of Thomas Henry Huxley (2 vols, London, 1900), i, 100.

Phillips J. , Illustrations of the geology of Yorkshire. Part II: The mountain limestone district (London, 1836), p. xvi.

Herschel J. F. W. , “Memoir of Francis Baily”, in Herschel , Essays from the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews, with addresses and other pieces (London, 1857), 552–619; for Baily's importance, see Miller D. P. , “The revival of the physical sciences in Britain, 1815–1840”, Osiris , n.s., ii (1986), 107–34. Herschel J. F. W. , Results of astronomical observations made during the years 1834, 5, 6, 7, 8 at the Cape of Good Hope; being the completion of a telescopic survey of the whole surface of the visible heavens, commenced in 1825 (London, 1847).

Porter R. S. , “Gentlemen and geology: The emergence of a scientific career, 1660–1920”, The historical journal, xxi (1978), 809–36.

Rudwick M. J. S. , “Charles Darwin in London: The integration of public and private science”, Isis, lxxiii (1982), 186–206; Desmond and Moore , Darwin (ref. 1), 207–8, 234–6; Secord J. A. , “The discovery of a vocation: Darwin's early geology”, The British journal for the history of science, xxiv (1991), 133–57.

Brock, “Spectrum of patronage” (ref. 3), 191.

Morrell J. B. , “London institutions and Lyell's career: 1820–41”, The British journal for the history of science, ix (1976), 132–46, p. 137.

Geikie A. , Life of Sir Roderick I. Murchison (2 vols, London, 1875), i, 94.

Murchison Roderick I. Sir de Verneuil É. and von Keyserling A. , The geology of Russia in Europe and the Ural mountains (London, 1845).

The key works on Murchison are: Secord J. A. , “King of Siluria: Roderick Murchison and the imperial theme in nineteenth-century British geology”, Victorian studies, xxv (1982), 413–42; idem, Controversy in Victorian geology: The Cambrian–Silurian dispute (Princeton, 1986); Rudwick M. J. S. , The great Devonian controversy: The shaping of scientific knowledge among gentlemanly specialists (Chicago, 1985); and for the later Murchison, Stafford R. A. , Scientist of empire: Sir Roderick Murchison, scientific exploration and Victorian imperialism (Cambridge, 1989), and Oldroyd D. R. , The Highlands controversy: Constructing geological knowledge through fieldwork in nineteenth-century Britain (Chicago, 1990).

Wentworth C. W. Fitzwilliam Earl , and Bourke R. (eds), Correspondence of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke; between the year 1744, and the period of his decease in 1797 (4 vols, London, 1844). The books he read were: Whewell W. , Astronomy and general physics considered with reference to natural theology (London, 1833); Kidd J. , On the adaptation of external nature to the physical condition of man (London, 1833); Prout W. , Chemistry, meteorology, and the function of digestion considered with reference to natural theology (London, 1834); Chalmers T. , On the power, wisdom, and goodness of God as manifested in the adaptation of external nature to the moral and intellectual constitution of man (London, 1833); Paley W. , A view of the evidences of Christianity (London, 1794); Turton T. , Natural theology considered with reference to Lord Brougham's Discourse on that subject (Cambridge and London, 1836); Herschel J. F. W. , A preliminary discourse on the study of natural philosophy (London, 1830); Sedgwick A. , A discourse on the studies of the University (Cambridge, 1833); Brinkley J. , Elements of astronomy (Dublin, 1813); de Candolle A. P. , Physiologie végétale, ou exposition des forces et des fonctions vitales des végétaux, pour servir de suite à l'organographie végétale, et d'introduction à la botanique géographique et agricole (3 vols, Paris, 1832); Gregory O. , Mathematics for practical men: Being a commonplace book of principles, theorems, rules, and tables, in various departments of pure and mixed mathematics, with their most useful applications (London, 1825); Lyell C. , Principles of geology, ii (London, 1832). The information about Earl Fitzwilliam's reading has been gleaned from a private diary in the possession of the family, who kindly allowed me to read it.

Secord , Controversy in Victorian geology (ref. 13), 3.

Owen R. , The life of Richard Owen by his grandson (2 vols, London, 1894), i, 340.

Yeo , Defining science (work under review), 145, quoting Bury J. P. T. (ed.), Romilly's Cambridge diary, 1832–42: Selected passages from the diary of the Rev. Joseph Romilly, fellow of Trinity College and Registrar of the University of Cambridge (Cambridge, 1967), 137.

Desmond and Moore , Darwin (ref. 1), 347; Desmond A. , The politics of evolution: Morphology, medicine, and reform in radical London (Chicago and London, 1989), 296–7.

Rudwick , Devonian controversy (ref. 13), 201.

Hall M. B. , All scientists now: The Royal Society in the nineteenth century (Cambridge, 1984), 73–88.

Marquis of Northampton (ed.), The tribute: A collection of miscellaneous unpublished poems, by various authors (London, 1837).

On Northampton generally see: The Times, 18 and 25 January 1851; Gentlemen's magazine , 1851, 425–9; Proceedings of the Royal Society of London , vi (1850–54), 117–20; Illustrated London news, 25 January 1851, 59–60; Athenaeum, 1851, 110–11; Morrell J. B. and Thackray A. W. , Gentlemen of science: Early years of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (Oxford, 1981), 434–9.

Fisch and Schaffer (eds), Whewell (ref. 2); Fisch M. , William Whewell: Philosopher of science (Oxford, 1991).

Morrell J. B. , “The judge and purifier of all” [review of Fisch Schaffer (eds), Whewell and Fisch, Whewell], History of science, xxx (1992), 97–114.

Schaffer S. in Fisch and Schaffer (eds), Whewell, 210, 222, 230.

Becher H. W. , ibid., 8; for present-day reflections on the big picture, see The British journal for the history of science, xxvi/4 (December 1993).

Whewell to Hare, 13 December 1840, in Douglas J. Stair , The life and selections from the correspondence of William Whewell (London, 1881), 206–9, p. 208.

Yeo R. R. , “William Whewell's philosophy of knowledge and its reception”, in Fisch and Schaffer (eds), Whewell (ref. 2), 175–99.

Whewell W. , History of the inductive sciences, from the earliest to the present time, 3rd edn (3 vols, London, 1857), i, pp. xi–xii, 2, reprints the tribute to Bacon paid in the first edition (1837).

Clark J. W. and Hughes T. M. , The life and letters of the Reverend Adam Sedgwick (2 vols, Cambridge, 1890), ii, 99–101.

Brooke J. H. , “Joseph Priestley (1733–1804) and William Whewell (1794–1866): Apologists and historians of science. A tale of two stereotypes”, in Anderson R. G. W. and Lawrence C. J. (eds), Science, medicine and dissent: Joseph Priestley (1733–1804) (London, 1987), 11–27.

Smith A. , The principles which lead and direct philosophical enquiries; illustrated by: The history of astronomy, in Black J. and Hutton J. (eds), Essays on philosophical subjects. By the late Adam Smith (London, 1795), reprinted in Lindgren J. R. (ed.), The early writings of Adam Smith (New York, 1967), 30–109; Christie J. R. R. , “The development of the historiography of science”, in Olby R. C. (eds), Companion to the history of modern science (London and New York, 1990), 5–22, esp. pp. 8–9 on Smith, 9–10 on Priestley, and 12–14 on Whewell.

For Brooke's most recent statement on the fortunes and functions of natural theology, see his Science and religion: Some historical perspectives (Cambridge, 1991), 192–225, 380–6; see also Morrell and Thackray , Gentlemen of science (ref. 22), 224–45.

Yeo , Defining science (work under review), 129–34, 139–44; Baily F. , An account of the Reverend John Flamsteed, the first Astronomer Royal (London, 1835); Rigaud S. P. (ed.), Miscellaneous works and correspondence of the Reverend James Bradley (Oxford, 1832); idem, Historical essay on the first publication of Sir Isaac Newton's Principia (Oxford, 1838); idem (ed.), Correspondence of scientific men of the seventeenth century (2 vols, Oxford, 1841, 1862).

Crowther J. G. , Scientific types (London, 1968), 189–223.

Whewell , History (ref. 29), i, p. x; Morrell J. B. , “The chemist breeders: The research schools of Liebig and Thomas Thomson”, Ambix, xix (1972), 1–46; and Thomson T. , The history of chemistry (London, 1830). For a good overview of histories of chemistry written in the nineteenth century, see Russell C. A. , “‘Rude and disgraceful beginnings’: A view of history of chemistry from the nineteenth century”, The British journal for the history of science, xxi (1988), 273–94.

Powell B. , The order of nature considered in reference to the claims of revelation (London, 1859); idem, An historical view of the progress of the physical and mathematical sciences from the earliest ages to the present times (London, 1834); idem, On necessary and contingent truth (Oxford, 1849); idem, Essays on inductive philosophy, the unity of worlds and the philosophy of creation (London, 1855); idem, The present state and future prospects of mathematical and physical studies in the University of Oxford considered in a public lecture, introductory to his usual course, in Easter term (Oxford, 1832); and Corsi P , Science and religion: Baden Powell and the Anglican debate 1800–1860 (Cambridge, 1988).

Sedgwick A. , A discourse on the studies of the University , 1st edn (Cambridge, 1833); idem, A discourse on the studies of the University of Cambridge, 5th edn (Cambridge, 1850); idem, “Natural history of creation”, Edinburgh review, lxxxii (1845), 1–85.

Brooke J. H. , “Natural theology and the plurality of worlds: Observations on the Brewster–Whewell debate”, Annals of science, xxxiv (1977), 221–86; Brewster David , The life of Sir Isaac Newton (London, 1831); idem, Memoirs of the life, writings, and discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton (2 vols, Edinburgh, 1855); idem, Martyrs of science, or the lives of Galileo, Tycho Brahe and Kepler (Edinburgh, 1841); Westfall R. S. , Never at rest: A biography of Isaac Newton (Cambridge, 1980), p. x; and generally Morrison-Low A. D. and Christie J. R. R. (eds), ‘Martyr of science’: Sir David Brewster 1781–1868 (Edinburgh, 1984).

Herschel J. F. W. , A preliminary discourse on the study of natural philosophy (London, 1830); Whewell William , “Modern science: Inductive philosophy”, Quarterly review, xlv (1831), 374–407; idem, History (ref. 29), i, pp. v–vi(v); Herschel J. F. W. , “Whewell on inductive sciences”, Quarterly review, lxviii (1841), 177–238, reprinted in Essays (ref. 6), 142–256; idem, “Physical astronomy”, in Encyclopaedia metropolitana (London, 1845), iii, 647–729; “Light”, ibid., iv, 341–586; “Sound”, ibid., iv, 763–824; and idem, Familiar lectures on scientific subjects (London, 1867).

Fisch and Schaffer (eds), Whewell (ref. 2), 22–24, 231; Todhunter I. , William Whewell: An account of his writings with selections from his literary and scientific correspondence (2 vols, London, 1876), i, 283–301, 367–75, devoted whole chapters to Whewell's English hexameters and poetical pieces.

Yeo , Defining science (work under review), 65–71.

ibid., 102–6, 193–8.

ibid., 16 (my italics), 20 (quotation).

Douglas Stair , Whewell (ref. 27), 217 (quotations), 207.

Fisch and Schaffer (eds), Whewell (ref. 2), 19.

Clark and Hughes , Sedgwick (ref. 30), i, 4; Yeo , Defining science (work under review), 18–19; Douglas Stair , Whewell (ref. 27), 552–5.

Abir-Am P. G. and Outram D. (eds), Uneasy careers and intimate lives: Women in science, 1789–1979 (New Brunswick and London, 1987), Introduction, 1–16, esp. pp. 1–6.

Desmond and Moore , Darwin (ref. 1), 271, 396, 619.

Geikie , Murchison (ref. 11), i, 68, 90, 133–4, 163; ii, 2, 288 (quotations), 332–9, 334 (quotations), 339 (quotations); Secord , Controversy in Victorian geology (ref. 13), 44, 50, 123.

Whewell to Herschel, 24 October 1841, in Todhunter , Whewell (ref. 41), ii, 302; Whewell to his sister Ann, 22 June 1841, and Whewell , “The first Sabbath after the burial”, in Douglas Stair , Whewell (ref. 27), 222, 557–61.

Winstanley D. A. , Early Victorian Cambridge (Cambridge, 1955), 396–8, 404–6.