The Progress of the Century

Transcriber’s Note


In the Plain Text version of this eBook, molecular structures in the
Chemistry chapter will display correctly only when a fixed-width font
is used. Other special situations in that chapter are discussed in the
Transcriber’s Notes at the end of this eBook.




  THE PROGRESS
  OF THE
  CENTURY

  BY ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE; PROF. WILLIAM RAMSAY; PROF. WILLIAM MATTHEW
  FLINDERS-PETRIE; SIR JOSEPH NORMAN LOCKYER; EDWARD CAIRD; WILLIAM
  OSLER; W. W. KEEN; PROF. ELIHU THOMSON; PRESIDENT THOMAS CORWIN
  MENDENHALL; SIR CHARLES WENTWORTH DILKE; CAPTAIN ALFRED T. MAHAN;
  ANDREW LANG; THOMAS C. CLARKE; CARDINAL JAMES GIBBONS; REV. ALEXANDER
  V. G. ALLEN; PROF. RICHARD J. H. GOTTHEIL; PROF. GOLDWIN SMITH

  [Illustration]

  NEW YORK AND LONDON
  HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
  1901




  Copyright, 1901, by HARPER & BROTHERS.

  Copyright, 1901, by THE SUN PRINTING AND PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION.

  _All rights reserved._




CONTENTS


                                                                    PAGE
  EVOLUTION. BY ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE, LL.D., D.C.L., F.R.S            3

  CHEMISTRY. BY PROF. WILLIAM RAMSAY, PH.D., F.R.S., F.C.S.,
    OFFICER OF THE LEGION OF HONOR                                    33

  ARCHÆOLOGY. BY PROF. WILLIAM MATTHEW FLINDERS-PETRIE, D.C.L.,
    LL.D., EDWARDS PROFESSOR OF EGYPTOLOGY, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE,
    LONDON                                                            73

  ASTRONOMY. BY SIR JOSEPH NORMAN LOCKYER, C.B., F.R.S.,
    DIRECTOR OF SOLAR PHYSICS OBSERVATORY, SOUTH KENSINGTON          105

  PHILOSOPHY. BY EDWARD CAIRD, LL.D., D.C.L., PROFESSOR OF
    MORAL PHILOSOPHY, GLASGOW                                        145

  MEDICINE. BY WILLIAM OSLER, LL.D., PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE AND
    PHYSICIAN TO HOSPITAL, JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICAL SCHOOL              173

  SURGERY. BY W. W. KEEN, M.D., LL.D., F.R.C.S. (HON.),
    PROFESSOR OF THE PRINCIPLES OF SURGERY AND OF CLINICAL
    SURGERY, JEFFERSON MEDICAL COLLEGE, PHILADELPHIA                 217

  ELECTRICITY. BY PROF. ELIHU THOMSON, A.M., PH.D., CHEVALIER
    AND OFFICER OF THE LEGION OF HONOR                               265

  PHYSICS. BY PRESIDENT THOMAS CORWIN MENDENHALL, PH.D., D.SC.,
    LL.D., MEMBER NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCE                        303

  WAR. BY THE RIGHT HON. SIR CHARLES WENTWORTH DILKE, LL.M.          333

  NAVAL SHIPS. BY CAPTAIN ALFRED T. MAHAN, LATE U.S.N., D.C.L.,
    LL.D.                                                            355

  LITERATURE. BY ANDREW LANG, HON. FELLOW MERTON COLLEGE,
    OXFORD                                                           389

  ENGINEERING. BY THOMAS C. CLARKE. PAST PRESIDENT OF THE
    AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS                              421

  RELIGION:

    CATHOLICISM. BY CARDINAL JAMES GIBBONS                           455

    PROTESTANTISM. BY REV. ALEXANDER V. G. ALLEN, PROFESSOR OF
      CHURCH HISTORY IN THE EPISCOPAL THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL AT
      CAMBRIDGE, MASS.                                               477

    THE JEWS AND JUDAISM. BY PROFESSOR RICHARD J. H. GOTTHEIL        498

    FREE-THOUGHT. BY PROFESSOR GOLDWIN SMITH                         539




EVOLUTION


Among the great and fertile scientific conceptions which have either
originated or become firmly established during the nineteenth century,
the theory of evolution, if not the greatest of them all, will
certainly take its place in the front rank. As a partial explanation
(for no complete explanation is possible to finite intelligence) of the
phenomena of nature, it illuminates every department of science, from
the study of the most remote cosmic phenomena accessible to us to that
of the minutest organisms revealed by the most powerful microscopes;
while upon the great problem of the mode of origin of the various
forms of life—long considered insoluble—it throws so clear a light
that to many biologists it seems to afford as complete a solution, in
principle, as we can expect to reach.


THE NATURE AND LIMITS OF EVOLUTION

So many of the objections which are still made to the theory of
evolution, and especially to that branch of it which deals with living
organisms, rest upon a misconception of what it professes to explain,
and even of what any theory can possibly explain, that a few words on
its nature and limits seem to be necessary.

Evolution, as a general principle, implies that all things in the
universe, as we see them, have arisen from other things which
preceded them by a process of modification, under the action of those
all-pervading but mysterious agencies known to us as “natural forces,”
or, more generally, “the laws of nature.” More particularly the term
evolution implies that the process is an “unrolling,” or “unfolding,”
derived probably from the way in which leaves and flowers are usually
rolled up or crumpled up in the bud and grow into their perfect form
by unrolling or unfolding.