ABSTRACT
SETTING aside Lubbock and Whewell's work on tides, the 1830s was not an auspicious decade for marine science. In spite of the existence of specialized works on the physics of the sea, notably by Marcet, Lenz and Parrot, the general standard of writing on the subject did not improve, in fact it declined. No one did for the new oceanography what Lyell had done for the new geology and without the cohesiveness provided by such a recognizable authority past achievements survived only fragmentarily. Scientific effort throughout the middle years of the century was focused on the physical sciences and on biology. With a few exceptions physical oceanography was left to the Victorian scientific sub-culture and the effect was stultifying.
