Between 1823 and 1825 Baden Powell published in the British Critic ten papers on scientific subjects. Books on zoology, astronomy, scientific biography, transactions of learned societies, magnetism, geology, chemistry, hydrostatics and animal behaviour were in turn scrutinized in his contributions to the magazine. The great majority of Baden Powell's scientific contributions to the British Critic were generally concerned with summarizing the contents of the books under review. More relevant to the purpose of the present study were his observations on science, its methods and place in contemporary culture and academic education. The frequent remarks on the epistemological bearing of the scientific research under discussion, or introductory paragraphs of a philosophical drift, revealed interesting elements in his early reflections on science.

Baden Powell's campaign on behalf of the introduction of scientific subjects into the university curriculum is also of great historical interest. As it will be shown in chapter 9, the Oxford debate on the reform of the statutes in which Baden Powell participated during the 1820s was characterized by an insistence on the speculative and philosophical dimensions of scientific pursuits. As is well known, the concept of a liberal, non-professional education dominated the educational policies of both English universities. Scientific pursuits, with the exception of the ‘liberal’ mathematical disciplines at Cambridge, were thought to be unfitted for undergraduate studies, although it was acknowledged that the gentleman scholar could find it instructive and amusing to take some interest in chemistry or mineralogy.

Baden Powell certainly felt he had to convince reluctant academic authorities that modern natural investigation required high levels of intellectual and philosophical sophistication.