THE LATE PROFESSOR ROLLESTON.*
THERE are many ways of advancing knowledge, and Professor Rolleston's way was that of a teacher rather than that of an original investigator. Not that he was no investigator ; on the contrary, his restless mind never ceased to busy itself with investigation of one kind or another ; but he loved more to range over the wide field of human knowledge than to occupy himself with that profound, continuous, and con- centrated study of portions of it that, under the conditions of modern science, can alone furnish directly valuable results. His magnum opus, Forms of Animal Life, published in 1870, of which the new edition promised by Mr. Hatchett-Jackson is anxiously awaited, is the only considerable work he pro- duced ; his other writings, seventy or eighty in number, consist of reviews, monographs, notes of researches, and • Scientific Papers and Addresses, by George RoLleston, M.D., P.B..S , Linacre Professor. With Biographical Sketch by E. B. Tylor, F.R.S. Arranged and Edited by W. Turner, F.11.8. With Portrait, Plates, &c. 2 vols. Clarendon Press, physiological or anatomical essays, always interesting and often important, but rather as stimulants to research than
as examples of original investigation. He was too discursive, too fond of dwelling upon every point that incidentally pre- sented itself in the course of his work, to achieve results of solid and permanent value ; but the versatility of his mind, combined with his enthusiastic nature and his immense and singularly varied erudition, made him an admirable teacher. He imparted not merely knowledge, but the love of knowledge, and com. mnnicated to his pupils that intellectual morality which was one of his chief characteristics, and which impelled him, at a time when it was not quite easy to follow the impulse, to discard every prejudice and seek after truth with the earnestness of scientific faith. Mr. Savory, first his instructor and afterwards his friend, contributes the following judgment of him to Mr. Tylor's excellent biographical sketch :-
"What always struck me in Rolleston was his abounding energy, his profuse mental activity His mind was con- stantly striving at the solution of sqme question or other, either in argument or discussion or in a long monologue, delivered with extra- ordinary rapidity, to which he bad no difficulty in compelling his
friends to listen He started a subject or line of thought. Ideas and speculations from all quarters soon crowded in until at length we were watching a torrent of words on some ques- tion as remote as possible from the subject which originally pro- voked it He had splendid abilities, a marvellous memory abundantly laden, a singularly quick and clear apprehension
bat lacking somewhat, perhaps, the power of patient thought, of steady and sustained reflection."
Of such a man the work could not but be "abundant, clever, brilliant, but too diffuse and fragmentary "—a judgment the contents of the present volume amply bear out. Over the whole field of biology, in the widest sense of the word, these papers and addresses carry the reader. Anatomy, physiology, craniology, ethnology, medicine, zoology, botany, archaeology, education, and sanitary science, in turn invite his attention. Professor Rolleston's favourite studies were many ; but he had a decided preference for what may be termed either archaeological zoology or zoological archaeology. The opening essays of the second volume, " On the Domestic Cat, of Ancient and Modern Times," and "On the Cat of the Ancient Greeks," are interesting in themselves, and well exemplify his mode of treatment, while they abundantly display his immense erudition, both classical and scientific. Their object is to show that the white- breasted or stone marten, Mustela foina, was " functionally " the " cat " of the ancients ; and though the two papers occupy only seventeen pages, they bring together a mass of evidence that betokens an astounding width of reading in ancient and in mediaeval literature as well as in modern science. It may be doubted, however, whether more is proved than that -/xxii was some kind of Mustela which was kept as a house-pet. To the numerous quotations from Greek writers might have been added a somewhat Rabelaisian line from the Clouds. Catus and catta, the etymological ancestors of our "cat," are Low-Latin words, though the latter is found in Martial (XIII., 69),— " Pannonicas noble nunquam dedit -Umbria cattas ;"
denoting, however, not the cat, but some sort of weazel. Pro-
fessor Rolleston does not cite the passage, neither does he tell us that the cat is not mentioned in the Bible, a singular fact, seeing that it was domesticated in Egypt in very early times. In the apocryphal Boon of Baruch, however, the cat is once mentioned. Of =tut, the etymology is as uncertain as the origin of puss herself. The word may be connected with catulus, a puppy, diminutive of cans, the playfulness of the kitten and the puppy being similar in character; or possibly with the Sabine word atm', a form of acutus, having the signification of " sly " or " cunning." The Greek ciinoupo; is somewhere fancifully explained as meaning dwxus Tit/ 0 bp01P, "to wag the tail." The Arabic word is qitt or quit. In Chinese a cat is known as kia li,"hoase-fox," or perhaps, " house-marten ;" in Japanese as neko," rat-killer," showing that in both countries the cat was an importation. It was domesticated in Europe in the early centuries of the Christian era, but was certainly not common until after the Crusades.
The most important and valuable of the papers in these volumes is the one upon the series of prehistoric crania from British barrows, collected chiefly from the North of England, and especially from the East Riding of Yorkshire, and pre- sented to the Oxford University Museum by the Rev. W. Green. well, F.S.A. Taken in connection with the other craniological and archaeological essays here brought together, they form an introduction to the study of British archa3o-biology of the highest merit. It is true no very definite conclusions are pre- sented; but this is, and until research shall have been greatly extended must remain, a defect inherent in the subject. Pro- fessor Rolleston did, however, feel himself justified in asserting that the elongated (dolichocephalic) and fairly " well-filled " (convex and not flattened externally, and with greatest width between the parietals low down) oval Anglo-Saxon cranium was the prevalent form in England. But the great question whether the dolichocephalic (long-headed) or the brachycephalic (broad- headed) race possess the higher mental power is not decided. Virchow and Broca both assert brachycephaly to be a higher form of skull than dolichocephaly ; but neither appear to have duly considered the effect of high-headedness combined with broad or long-headedness, and high-headedness (above the parietal bones) is almost confined to the dolichocephalic race, while it will hardly be said that the " germanische Typus " (in its best form high and long-headed) is other than at least one of the highest types known. Probably it will event- ually turn out that dolichocephaly and brachycephaly have but little significance of a specially mental character, beyond, possibly, what present knowledge appears to indicate, some connection between dolichocephaly and the intellect rather than with the emotions, while the reverse is the case with brachycephaly. A much more important mark is the position of the parietal prominences ; the more posterior the situation of these, the more space they point to for the anterior and nobler portions of the encephalon. And their situation is, as a role, nearer the back of the head in brachycephalic than in dolichocephalic crania.
Here we must stop. There are many divisions of that study of man which has been declared the highest of all that can engage the attention of mankind, and few are more interesting than the one Professor Rolleston took his chief delight in. But the reader, biologist or archaeologist, must be referred to the volumes themselves ; if both a biologist and an archaeologist, he will the better enjoy their suggestiveness and profitby theirvaried learning. Of the personality of Professor Rolleston but little need be said. An admirable biographical sketch, by his friend and colleague Mr. Tylor, is prefixed to the work ; and the portrait in the first volume well recalls, says his biographer, the face and bearing of the late Linacre Professor. Born in 1829, he died in 1882, after a quarter of a century's strenuous and incessant labour at Oxford. 'He took a delight in his work, and was an enthusiastic as well as a most able teacher,—fluent, pleasant voiced, clear, full of knowledge, sympathetic, accurate, in- defatigable ; in a word, an ideal professor of the kind whose work lives long after them, less in their books than in the hearts, minds, and intellects of their pupils. The simple religion of his youth he preserved through the Sturm and Drang of Newmanite and Puseyite Oxford, to maintain it unchanged throughout his scientific career. In politics he was a moderate Liberal, an earnest advocate of the Permissive Bill, and an opponent of unrestricted vivisection. But he was only incidentally a politician, he was above all things a teacher of the science of Biology, and as such his example will long be fruitful at the great University which, himself a classical scholar, he was among the first to force from the anachronism of mediaeval classicism.
Previous page
