He organised extensive magnetical and meteorological observations, and in 1839 he started regular observations of the periodical phenomena of vegetation, especially the flowering of plants.
The development of sick-nursing, which has brought into existence a large, highly-skilled, and organised profession, is one of the most notable features of modern social life.
And though Spencer's general position - that it is absurd to suppose that organisms after being modified by their life should give birth to offspring showing no traces of such modifications - seems the more philosophic, yet it does not dispose of the facts which go to show that most of the evidence for the direct transmission of adaptations is illusory, and that beings are organised to minimize the effects of life on the reproductive tissues, so that the transmission of the effects of use and disuse, if it occurs, must be both difficult and rare - far more so than is convenient for Spencer's psychology.
