The Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger

The Bridgewater Treatises
on the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of God,
As Manifested in the Creation.

___________

Treatise VII.

ON THE HISTORY, HABITS, AND INSTINCTS OF ANIMALS

BY

THE REV. WILLIAM KIRBY, M.A., F.R.S., &c.

NEW EDITION, EDITED, WITH NOTES,

BY

THOMAS RYMER JONES, F.R.S.,

Professor of Comparative Anatomy, in the King's College, London

In Two Volumes

VOLUME I

[001] The Works of God and the Word of God may be called the two doors which open into the temple of Truth; and, as both proceed from the same Almighty and Omniscient Author, they cannot, if rightly interpreted, contradict each other, but must mutually illustrate and confirm "though each in different sort and manner," the same truths. ...It has always been the habit of the author of the present treatise to unite the study of the word of God with that of his works. ... Those who are disposed to unite the study of scripture with that of nature, should always bear in mind the caution, that all depends upon the right interpretation, either of the written word or created substance. They, who study the word of God, and they who study his works, are equally liable to error; nor will talents, even of the highest order, always secure a man from falling into it. The love of truth, and of its Almighty Author, is the only sure guide that will conduct the aspirant to its purest fountains.

[002] It is much to be lamented that many bright lights in science, some from leaning too much to their own understanding, ...without further inquiry and without consulting her genuine records have rejected her and fallen into grievous errors. To them might be applied our Saviour's words, Ye do err not knowing the Scriptures. These observations apply, particularly, to two of the most eminent philosophers of the present age, one for the depth of his knowledge in astronomy and general physics; and the other in zoology. It will be easily seen that I allude to La Place and Lamarck....

[172] When Creative Wisdom covered the earth with plants, and peopled it with animals, he laid the foundations of the vegetable and animal kingdoms with such as were most easily convertible into nutriment for the tribes immediately above them. The first plants and. the first animals are scarcely more than animated molecules.

[189- Concerning Coral polypes]. The seemingly insignificant creatures here described, and which seem as little animalized as any animal can be to retain a right to the name, all whose means of action are confined to their tentacles, and whose sole employment appears to be the collection and absorption of the beings that form their food, are employed by their Creator, to construct and rear mighty fabrics in the bosom of the deep.

[366, Note 21 -- Note on Brownian Motion discovered by Robert Brown in 1827] A discovery may here be noticed of one of the most scientific botanists of the present age, and whose keen eye and philosophic spirit have penetrated into depths and mysteries before unexplored, belonging to the science of which he is so great an ornament. In the investigation of some of these, he discovered that not only vegetable, but even mineral molecules, when placed in a fluid medium, would move about in various directions, but by what cause these motions were generated he offers no conjecture. He very kindly showed me this singular phenomenon, if my memory does not deceive me, with respect to some mineral substances. Mr. Brown has observed that the motions in question, he was satisfied, arose neither from currents in the fluid, nor from its gradual evaporation, but belonged to the particle itself. [It was later shown in a 1905 paper of Albert Einstein, that Brownian motion is the result of random collisions between molecules - dcb]