Phil nattered on
d:

Sounds rather like Soyer's "Pantropheon". What is it about the
nineteenth century that led to such spotty (I was gonna say feeble, but
I suppose it's not really pandemic) scholarship? Maybe it's just that
what we would recognize as the sciences of logic, critical thinking,
and forensics have evolved over the years

Not in the least. The difference is the matter of focus forced by a "full
field" and standing on the shoulders of giants in the present day. The
19th-century works you scoff at are the foundations of the modern social
sciences.