On Taking Someone to Task for Not Acknowledging Having Used Someone Else's Work (1875)

JF Ptak Science Books  Quick Post

The brilliant and versatile W. Stanley Jevons--logician, economist, computer pioneer--was a very busy man who packed a lot into his 46 years. Some of published output included numerous journal articles, and some of those contributions included book reviews, including this one, on Theo. Ribot's Heredity, a Psychological Study of it Phenomena, Laws, Causes, and Consequences, which was published in 1875, with the review appearing in the April 29, 1875 issue of Nature. This one popped into view not so much for its broad consideration, but for the zinger at the end, prodding Ribot for not having included an acknowledgment to Sir Francis Galton, whose work he quotes from and relies upon in his book--it is a fairly soft rebuke but not without its spikes: