Item 127 - Letter from Joseph Dalton Hooker

Kew - alludes 'to your History [The History of the Inductive Sciences, from the Earliest to the Present Time, 1837] not being appreciated by Naturalists, this is in part due to their defective early education in all that regards science. Really highly educated men have told me, that they supposed from its title 'that it was all about physics and mathematics; - and I know several eminent cultivators of the physical and mathematical sciences who regard Nat. Hist. as an accumulation of details of observation, and not an Inductive Science at all'. A scientific classification and nomenclature is required for general society: 'At present the terms Natural Science, Natural History, Physics, Physical Science etc, are entangled. You, and the Royal Society, use the term Phys. Science as equivalent to if not synonymous with Natural Knowledge; but most people regard it as pure physics'. JDH gives an analysis of the perception of Botany and its place in the classification of science. 'At present the student is rarely taught that Botany has a history as a science, that it is a member of the inductive sciences and that it is based upon observation and reflection - nothing can be more unphilosophical than much of the present mode of teaching, nothing comes from it, and nothing is to be expected, - or perhaps hoped for'.