The Theories of the Origin of Coral Reefs and Islands

Abstract

I WAS pleased to see Prof. Bonney's article on the Duke of Argyll's strictures on scientific men (“A Conspiracy of Silence,” NATURE, November 10, p. 25). It is to be hoped that the rhetoric and methods of Parliamentary debate will not become common in scientific controversy. The Duke is, however, not the first who has tried to show “that if Darwin had lived he would with his well-known candour have been the first to admit the truth of Murray's theory,” &c., &c. This I submit is a species of rhetoric which is out of place in scientific discussion.