Circulation and Civility: Mid-Victorian Botany and Microscopical Method

This chapter examines important work on method by two German botanists, Matthias Jakob Schleiden and Hermann Schacht, and how this work was (or was not) recirculated in British books on microscopical method during the 1850s. Schleiden, concerned with scientific error, argued that microscopists must train themselves in a methodical practice. He laid out an inductively grounded system of practice in an essay that was translated into English in 1849 and widely reviewed. His student Schacht published a book on microscopical method, translated for British readers in 1853, that followed Schleiden’s precepts. These texts were amongst the earliest to instruct English-speaking readers on Continental approaches to microscopy. In the 1850s, British microscopists were concerned about German and French supremacy in microscopical research and sought to establish a more methodical microscopical practice amongst their readers. Although these British writers largely echo Schleiden’s precepts, they all ignore Schleiden’s essay, citing similar work by his student Schacht or other writers instead. This is unexpected given that Schleiden was a figure of great repute for his earlier work on cell theory; he was one of the first to write intensively about method; and few other Continental microscopists had published on method in English at this time. Given British expectations of scientific civility and concerns about fostering a larger microscopical community in Britain, Schleiden’s combativeness in print, which was widely censured as ungentlemanly, may have contributed to the poor uptake in Britain of his work on method.