UC-NRLF fl?D CM C\J CvJ vO r- o LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. Class OF THE UNIVERSITY OF c,, Cranial Dome of Pithecanthropus erectus from river gravel in Java. Skull of a Greek from an ancient Cemetery. THE KINGDOM OF MAN BY E. RAY LANKESTER \v M.A. D.Sc. LL.D. F.R.S. HONORARY FELLOW OF EXETER COLLEGE, OXFORD; CORRESPONDENT OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE ; EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON ; PRESIDENT OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE DIRECTOR OF THE NATURAL HISTORY DEPARTMENTS OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM LONDON ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE 6- CO LTD 10 ORANGE STREET, LEICESTER SQUARE 1907 :;ws EXTINCT ANIMALS Prof. E. RAY LANKESTER, F.R.S. h a Portrait of the Author, and 218 ot Illustrations Demy 8vo. Price 7s. 6d. net DESCRIPTIVE NOTE. THE author gives us here a reep at the wonderful history of the kinds of animals which no longer exist on the surface of the globe in a living state, though once they flourished and held their own. Young and old readers will alike enjoy Prof. Lan- kester's interesting narrative of these strange creatures, some of which became extinct millions of years ago, others within our own memory. The author's account of the finding of their extant remains, their probable habits and functions of life, and their places in the world's long history, is illustrated profusely from point to point, adding greatly to the entertainment of the story. Nnttire: "... We give the book a hearty welcome, feel- ing sure that its perusal will draw many young recruits to the army of naturalists, and many readers to its pages." The Times: " There has been published no book on this subject combining so successfully the virtues of accuracy and attractiveness . . . Dr. Lankester's methods as an expositor are well known, but ihey have never been more pleasantly exemplified than in the present book." The Atlienceutn: "Examples of Extinct Animals and their living representatives Professor Lankester has described with a masterly hand in these present pages." LONDON ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE £ CO LTD 10 ORANGE STREET, LEICESTER SQUARE EYRE & SPOTTISWOODE, H.M. PRINTERS, LONDON DESCRIPTION OF THE FRONTISPIECE The upper figure is from a cast of the celebrated specimen found in a river gravel in Java, probably of as great age as the palaeolithic gravels of Europe. Though rightly to be regarded as a ' man '—the creature which possessed this skull has been given the name 'Pithecan- thropus.' The shape of the cranial dome differs from that of a well- developed European human skull (shewn in the lower photograph, that of a Greek skull) in the same features as do the very ancient prehistoric skulls from the Belgian caves of Spey, and from the Neanderthal of the Rhineland. These differences are, however, measurably greater in the Javanese skull. The three great features of difference are: (i) the great size of the eye-brow ridges (the part below and in front of A in the figures) in the Java skull ; (2) the much greater relative height of the middle and back part of the cranial dome (lines e and /) in the Greek skull ; (3) the much greater prominence in the Greek skull of the front part of the cranial dome — the prefrontal area or frontal ' boss ' (the part in front of the line A C, the depth ^Df which is shewn by the line d). The parts of the cranial cavity thus obviously more capacious in the Greek skull are precisely those which are small in the Apes and overlie those convolutions of the brain which have been specially developed in Man as compared with the highest Apes. The line AB in both the figures is the ophryo-tentorial line. It is drawn from the ophryon (the mid-point in the line drawn across the narrowest part of the frontal bone just above the eye-brow ridges), which corresponds externally to the most anterior limit of the brain, to the extra- tentorial point (between the occipital ridges) and is practically the base line of the cerebrum. The lines e and /are perpendiculars on this base line, the first half-way between A and B, the second half-way between the first and the extra-tentorial point. C is the point known to craniologists as ' bregma,' the meeting point of the frontal and the two parietal bones. The line A C is drawn as a straight line joining A and C— but if the skull is accurately posed it corresponds to the edge of the plane at right angles to the sagittal plane of the skull— which traverses both bregma (C) and ophryon (A) — and where it ' cuts ' the skull marks off the prefrontal area or boss. (See for the full-face view of this area in the two skulls — Figs, i and 2.) The line d is a perpendicular let fall from the point of greatest prominence of the prefrontal area on to the prefrontal plane. It indicates the depth of the prefrontal cerebral region. Drawn on both sides on the surface of the bone and looked at from in front (the white dotted line in Figs, i and 2) it gives the maximum breadth of the prefrontal area. By dividing the ophryo-tentorial line into 100 units, and using those units as measures, the depths of the brain cavity in the regions plumbed by the lines d, e, and /, can be expressed numerically and their differences in a series of skulls stated in percentage of the ophryo-tentorial length. 210003 CONTENTS CHAPTER I.— NATURE'S INSURGENT SON CHAPTER H.—THE ADVANCE OF SCIENCE, 1881-1906 66 CHAPTER III.— NATURE'S REVENGES: THE SLEEP- ING SICKNESS .... 159 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FRONTISPIECE :— Profile views of the Cranial Dome of Pithe- canthropus erectus, the ape-like man from an ancient river gravel in Java, and of a Greek skull. FIG. i.— Frontal view of the Cranial Dome of Pithecanthropus 16 FIG. 2. — Frontal view of the same Greek skull as that shown in the frontispiece ... x6 FIG. 3.— Eoliths, of 'borer' shape, from Ightham, Kent ... 18 FIG. 4.— Eoliths of trinacrial shape, from Ightham, Kent ... 20 FIG. 5.— Brain casts of four large Mammals 23 FIG. 6. — Spironema pallidum, the microbe of Syphilis discovered by Fritz Schaudinn 37 FIG. 7.— The Canals in Mars 43 FIG. 8. — The Canals in Mars 44 FIG. 9. — Becquerel's shadow-print obtained by rays from Uranium Salt 73 FIG. 10. — Diagrams of the visible lines of the Spectrum given by incandescent Helium and Radium 76 FIG. ii. — The transformation of Radium Emanation into Helium (spectra) ... 83 FIG. 12. — Dry-plate photograph of a Nebula and surrounding stars 90 vii viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE FlG. 13. — The Freshwater Jelly fish, ' Limnocodium ... ... 97 FlG. 14. — Polyp of Limnocodium ... ... ... ... ... 97 FIG. 15. — Sense-organ of Limnocodium 97 FlG. 16. — The Freshwater Jelly-fish of Lake Tanganyika ... 98 FlG. 17. — Sir Harry Johnston's specimen of the Okapi 99 FlG. 1 8. — Bandoliers cut from the striped skin of the Okapi ... 99 FlG. 19. — Skull of the horned male of the Okapi 100 FlG. 20. — The metamorphosis of the young of the common Eel... 101 FlG. 21. — A unicellular parasite of the common Octopus, pro- ducing spermatozoa 102 FlG. 22. — The Coccidium, a microscopic parasite of the Rabbit, producing spermatozoa ... ... ... ... ... 102 FlG. 23. — Spermatozoa of a unicellular parasite inhabiting a Centipede 103 FlG. 24. — The motile fertilizing elements (antherozoids or sper- matozoa) of a peculiar cone-bearing tree, the Cycas revoluta ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 104 FlG. 25. — The gigantic extinct Reptile, Triceratops 106 FlG. 26. — A large carnivorous Reptile from the Triassic rocks of North Russia 107 FlG. 27. — The curious fish Drepanaspis, from the Old Red Sand- stone of Germany 107 FlG. 28. — The oldest Fossil Fish known 108 FlG. 29. — The skull and lower jaw of the ancestral Elephant, Palceomastodon, from Egypt ... ... ... ... 109 FlG. 30. — The latest discovered skull of Palceomastodon ... 110 FlG. 31. — Skulls of Meritherium, an Elephant ancestor, from the Upper Eocene of Egypt in FlG. 32. — The nodules on the roots of bean-plants and the nitro- gen-fixing microbe, Bacillus radicola, which produces them 114 FIG. 33. — The continuity of the protoplasm of vegetable cells ... 116 FlG. 34. — Diagram of the structures present in a typical organic 'cell' 117 FIG. 35. — The Number of the Chromosomes 119 FIG. 36. — The Number of the Chromosomes ... ... ... 120 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ix PAGE FlGS. 37 to 42. — Phagocytes engulphing disease germs — drawn by Metschmkoff ... ... ... ... ... ^6-7 P'lG. 43. — A Phagocyte containing three Spirilla, the germs of relapsing fever, whichjt has engulphed 137 FlG. 44. — The life-history of the Malaria Parasite... ... ... 142 FlG. 45. — The first blood-cell parasite described, the Lankesterella of Frog's blood ... ... ... ... ... ... 144 FlG. 46. — Various kinds of Trypanosomes 145 FlG. 47. — The Laboratory of the Marine Biological Association on the Citadel Hill, Plymouth 155 FIG. 48. — The Tsetze fly, Glossina morsitans ... ... ... 172 FIG. 49. — The Trypanosome of Frog's blood 173 FlG. 50 — The Trypanosome which causes the Sleeping Sickness 176 FIG. 5 1.— The Trypanosome of the disease called " Dourine " ... 1 77 FlGS. 52 to 56. — Stages in the growth and multiplication of a Trypanosome which lives for part of its life in the blood of the little owl, Athene noctua, and for the other part in the gut of the common Gnat (Culex) 180-3 PREFACE THIS little volume is founded on three discourses which I have slightly modified for the present purpose, and have endeavoured to render interesting by the introduction of illustrative process blocks, which are described sufficiently fully to form a large extension of the original text. The first, entitled * Natiire's Insurgent Son,' formed, under another title, the Romanes lecture at Oxford in 1905. Its object is to exhibit in brief the ' Kingdom of Man,' to shew that there is undue neglect in the taking over of that possession by mankind, and to urge upon our Universities the duty of acting the leading part in removing that neglect. The second is an account, which served as the presidential address to the British Association at York in 1906, of the progress made in the last quarter of a century towards the assumption of his kingship by slowly-moving Man. The third, reprinted from the Quarterly Review, is a more detailed account of recent attempts to deal with a terrible disease — the Sleeping Sickness of tropical Africa — and furnishes an example of one of the innumerable directions in which Man brings down disaster on his head by resisting the old rule of selection of the fit and destruction of the unfit, and is painfully forced to the conclusion that knowledge of Nature must be sought and control of her processes eventually obtained. I am glad to be able to state that as a result of the representations of the Tropical Diseases Committee of the Royal Society, and, as I am told, in some measure in consequence of the explanation of the state of things given in this essay, funds have been provided by the Colonial Office for the support of a professorship of xi xii PREFACE Protozoology in the University of London, to which Mr. E. A. Minchin has been appointed. It is recognized that the only way in which we can hope to deal effectually with s^tch diseases as the Sleeping Sickness is by a greatly increased knowledge of the nature and life-history of the parasitic Protozoa which produce those diseases. I have to thank Mr. John Murray for permission to reprint the article on Sleeping Sickness, and I am also greatly indebted to scientific colleagues for assistance in the survey of progress given in the second discourse. Amongst these I desire especially to mention Mr. Frederick Soddy, F.R.S., Prof. H. H. Turner, F.R.S., Prof. Sydney Vines, F.R.S., Mr. MacDougal of Oxford, and Prof. Sherrington, F.R.S. To Mr. Perceval Lowell I owe my thanks for permission to copy two of his drawings of Mars, and to the Royal Astronomical Society for the loan of the star- picture on p. 90. E. RAY LANKESTER, January, 1907. THE KINGDOM OF MAN CHAPTER I NATURE'S INSURGENT SON i. THE OUTLOOK. IT has become more and more a matter of conviction to me — and I believe that I share that conviction with a large body of fellow students both in this country and other civilized states — that the time has arrived when the true relation of Nature to Man has been so clearly ascertained that it should be more generally known than is at present the case, and that this know- ledge should form far more largely than it does at this moment, the object of human activity and endeavour, — that it should be, in fact, the guide of state- government, the trusted basis of the development of human communities. That it is not so already, that men should still allow their energies to run in other directions, appears to some of us a thing so monstrous, so injurious to the prosperity of our fellow men, that we must do what lies within our power to draw attention to the conditions and circumstances which attend this neglect, the evils arising from it, and the benefits which must follow from its abatement. 2. THE WORD * NATURE.' The signification attached to the word ' Nature ' is by no means the same at the present day as it has been in the past: as commonly used it is a word of B 2 THE KINGDOM OF MAN varied meanings and limitations, so that misconception and confusion is liable to be associated with it. By the professed student of modern sciences it is usually understood as a name for the entire mechanism of the universe, the kosmos in all its parts; and it is in this sense that I use it. But many still identify ' Nature ' with a limited portion of that great system, and even retain for it a special application to the animals and plants of this earth and their immediate surroundings. Thus we have the term ' natural history ' and the French term ' les sciences naturelles ' limited to the study of the more immediate and concrete forms of animals, plants, and crystals. There is some justifica- tion for separating the conception of Nature as specially concerned in the production and maintenance of living things from that larger Nature which embraces, together with this small but deeply significant area, the whole expanse of the heavens in the one direction and Man himself in the other. Giordano Bruno, who a little more than 300 years ago visited Oxford and expounded his views, was perhaps the first to perceive and teach the unity of this greater Nature, anticipating thus in his prophetic vision the conclusion which we now accept as the result of an accumulated mass of evidence. Shakespeare came into touch with Bruno's conception, and has contrasted the more limited and a larger (though not the largest) view of Nature in the words of Perdita and Polyxenes. Says Perdita: — ' . . . the fairest flowers o' the season Are our carnations, and streak'd gillyvors, Which some call Nature's bastards ; of that kind Our rustic garden's barren ; and 1 care not To get slips of them. . . . For I have heard it said, There is an art which, in their piedness, shaies With great creating nature.' NATURE'S INSURGENT SON 3 To which Polyxenes replies : — * Say there be— Yet nature is made better by no mean, But nature makes that mean : so, over that art, Which, you say, adds to nature, is an art That nature makes. You see, sweet maid, we marry A gentle scion to the wildest stock ; And make conceive a bark of baser kind By bud of nobler race ; this is an art Which does mend nature, — change it, rather : but The art itself is nature.' The larger proportion of so-called educated people even at the present day have not got beyond Perdita's view of Nature. They regard the territory of Nature as a limited one, the play-ground or sport of all sorts of non-natural demons and fairies, spirits and occult agencies. Apart from any definite scheme or concep- tion of these operations, they personify Nature and attribute a variety of virtues and tendencies to her for which there is no justification. We are told, according to the fancy of the speaker, that such a course is in accordance with Nature ; that another course is con- trary to Nature; we are urged to return to Nature and we are also urged to resist Nature. We hear that Nature will find a remedy for every ill, that Nature is just, that Nature is cruel, that Nature is sweet and our loving mother. On the one hand Man is regarded as outside of and opposed to Nature, and his dealings are contrasted favourably or unfavourably with those of Nature. On the other hand we are informed that Man must after all submit to Nature and that it is useless to oppose her. These contradictory views are in fact fragments of various systems of philosophy of various ages in which the word ' Nature ' has been assigned equally various limitations and extensions. Without attempting to discuss the history and justification of B 2 4 THE KINGDOM OF MAN these different uses of the word Nature, I think that I may here use the word Nature as indicating the entire kosmos of which this cooling globe with all upon it is a portion. 3. NATURE-SEARCHERS. The discovery of regular processes, of expected effects following upon specified antecedents, of constant properties and qualities in the material around him, has from the earliest recorded times been a chief occupation of Man and has led to the attainment by Man of an extraordinarily complex control of the con- ditions in which his life is carried on. But it was not until Bruno's conception of the unity of terrestrial nature with that of the kosmos had commended itself that a deliberate and determined investigation of natural processes, with a view to their more complete appre- hension, was instituted. One of the earliest and most active steps in this direction was the foundation, less than 250 years ago, of the Royal Society of London for the Promotion of Natural Knowledge, by a body of students who had organized their conferences and inquiries whilst resident in Oxford.1 1 The foundation of the Royal Society of London is most intimately connected with the University of Oxford. Dr. Wallis, an original member, writes : — ' I take its first ground and foundation to have been in London about the year 1645, when Dr. Wilkins and others met weekly at a certain day and hour. . . . About the year 1648-9 some of our company were removed to Oxford ; first Dr. Wilkins, then I, and soon after Dr. Goddard. Those in London continued to meet there as before (and we with them, when we had occasion to be there), and those of us at Oxford ; with Dr. Ward (since Bishop of Salisbury), Dr. Ralph Bathurst (now President of Trinity College in Oxford), Dr. Petty (since Sir William Petty), Dr. Willis (then an eminent phy- sician in Oxford), and divers others, continued such meetings in Oxford NATURE'S INSURGENT SON 5 All over Western Europe such associations or aca- demies for the building up of the New Philosophy (as it was called here) came into existence. It is a fact which is strangely overlooked at the present day, when the assumption is made that the acquirement of a know- ledge of Greek grammar is the traditional and imme- morial occupation of Oxford students — that until the modern days of the eighteenth century ( ' modern ' in the history of Oxford) Greek was less known in Oxford than Hebrew is at present, and that the study of Nature — Nature-knowledge and Nature-control — was the appro- priate occupation of her learned men. It is indeed a fact that the very peculiar classical education at present insisted on in Oxford, and imposed by her on the public schools of the country, is a modern innova- tion, an unintentional and, in a biological sense, * morbid ' outgrowth of that 'Humanism' to which a familiarity with the dead languages was, but is no longer, the pathway. 4. THE DOCTRINE OF EVOLUTION. What is sometimes called the scientific movement, but may be more appropriately described as the Nature- searching movement, rapidly attained an immense and brought those studies into fashion there ; meetings first at Dr. Petty's lodgings (in an apothecarie's house) because of the con- venience of inspecting drugs and the like, as there was occasion ; and after his remove to Ireland (though not so constantly) at the lodgings of Dr. Wilkins, then Warden of Wadham College, and after his removal to Trinity College in Cambridge, at the lodgings of the Honourable Mr. Robert Boyle, then resident for divers years in Oxford. ... In the meanwhile our company at Gresham College being much again increased by the accession of divers eminent and noble persons, upcn his Majesty's return, we were (about the beginning of the year 1662) by his Majesty's grace and favour incorporated by the name of the Royal Society.' 6 THE KINGDOM OF MAN development. In the latter half of the last century this culminated in so complete a knowledge of the movements of the heavenly bodies, their chemical nature and physical condition — so detailed a determina- tion of the history of the crust of this earth and of the living things upon it, of the chemical and physical processes which go on in Man and other living things, and of the structure of Man as compared with the animals most like him, and of the enormous length of time during which Man has existed on the earth — that it became possible to establish a general doctrine of the evolution of the kosmos, with more special detail in regard to the history of this earth and the develop- ment of Man from a lower animal ancestry. Animals were, in their turn, shown to have developed from simplest living matter, and this from less highly elaborated compounds of chemical * elements ' differen- tiated at a still earlier stage of evolution. There is, it may be said without exaggeration, no school or body of thinkers at the present day who are acquainted with the facts now ascertained, which denies the orderly evolution of the kosmos by the regular opera- tion of a more or less completely ascertained series of properties resident in the material of which it consists.1 The process of evolution — the interaction of these ascertainable, if not fully ascertained properties — has led (it is held), in the case of the cooling cinder which we call the earth — by an inevitable and predestined course — to the formation of that which we call living matter and eventually of Man himself. From this process all disorderly or arbitrary interferences must, it seems, be excluded. The old fancies as to presid- ing demons or fairies — which it was imagined had for 1 See, however, the letter from the Times, reprinted on p. 62. NATURE'S INSURGENT SON 7 their business to interrupt the supposed feeble and limited efforts of Nature, as yet unexplored and un- appreciated— have passed out of mind. The consensus is complete : Man is held to be a part of Nature, a product of the definite and orderly evolution which is universal ; a being resulting from and driven by the one great nexus of mechanism which we call Nature. He stands alone, face to face with that relentless mechanism. It is his destiny to understand and to control it. 5. UNWARRANTED INFERENCES FROM THE EVOLUTION OF MAN. There are not wanting those who, accepting this conclusion, seek to belittle Man and endeavour to represent that the veil is lifted, that all is ' explained ' obvious, commonplace, and mean in regard to the significance of life and of Man, because it has become clear that the kosmic process has brought them forth in due order. There are others who rightly perceive that life is no common property of our cooling matter, but unique and exceptional, and that Man stands apart from and above all natural products, whether animate or inanimate. Some of these thinkers appear to accept the conclusion that if life and Man are regarded as products of the kosmic process — that is, of Nature — ' life ' and ' Man ' lose so much in importance and significance that dire consequences must follow to Man's conception of his dignity and to the essential features of his systems of conduct and social organiza- tion. Accordingly they cling to the belief that living matter and Man have not proceeded from an orderly evolution of Nature, but are ' super ' natural. It is 8 THE KINGDOM OF MAN found on the other hand, by many who have considered these speculations, and hold no less explicitly than do the * supernaturalists ' that life is a momentous and peculiar feature of our earth's surface and Man the isolated and unparalleled 'piece of work,' ' the beauty of the world,' ' the paragon of animals ' — it is found by many such, I say, that nothing is gained in regard to our conception of Man's nobility and significance by supposing that he and the living matter which has given rise to him, are not the outcome of that system of orderly process which we call Nature. There is one consideration in regard to this matter which, it seems, is often overlooked and should be emphasized. It is sometimes — and perhaps with a sufficient excuse in a want of acquaintance with Nature —held by those who oppose the conclusion that Man has been evolved by natural processes, that the pro- ducts of Nature are arbitrary, haphazard, and due to chance, and that Man cannot be conceived of as originating by chance. This notion of ' chance ' is a misleading figment inherited by the modern world from days of blank ignorance. The ' Nature-searchers ' of to-day admit no such possibility as { chance.' It will be in the recollection of many here, that a lead- ing writer and investigator of the Victorian Era, the physicist John Tyndall, pointed out in a celebrated address delivered at Belfast that according to the con- ceptions of the mechanism of Nature arrived at by modern science — the structure of that mechanism is such that it would have been possible for a being of adequate intelligence inspecting the gaseous nebula from which our planetary system has evolved to have fore- seen in that luminous vapour the Belfast audience and the professor addressing it ! NATURE'S INSURGENT SON 9 The fallacy that in given but unknown circum- stances anything whatever may occur in spite of the fact that some one thing has been irrevocably arranged to occur, is a common one. 1 It is correct to assume in the absence of any pertinent knowledge (if we are compelled to estimate the probabilities) that one event is as likely as another to occur ; but nevertheless there is no ' chance ' in the matter since the event has been already determined, and might be predicted by those possessing the knowledge which we lack. Thus then it appears that the conclusion that Man is a part of Nature is by no means equivalent to asserting that he has originated by ' blind chance ' ; it is in fact a specific assertion that he is the predestined out- come of an orderly — and to a large extent ' perceptible ' — mechanism.2 1 There is a tendency among writers on Variation, as affording the opportunity for the operation of Natural Selection, to assume that the variations presented by organisms are minute variations in every direction around a central point. Those observers who have done useful work in showing the definite and limited character of organic variations have very generally assumed that they are opposing a com- monly held opinion that variation is of this equally distributed character. I cannot find that Mr. Darwin made any such assumption ; and it is certain, and must on reflection have been recognized by all naturalists, that the variations by the selection and intensification of which natural selection has produced distinct forms or species, and in the course of time altogether new groups of plants and animals, are strictly limited to definite lines rendered possible, and alone possible, by the constitution of the living matter of the parental organism. We have no reason to suppose that the offspring of a beetle could in the course of any number of generations present variations on which selection could operate so as to eventually produce a mammalian vertebrate ; or that, in fact, the general result of the process of selection of favourable variations in the past has not been ab initio limited by the definite and restricted possi- bilities characteristic of the living substance of the parental organisms of each divergent line or branch of the pedigree. io THE KINGDOM OF MAN 6. NATURE'S MODE OF PRODUCING ORGANIC FORMS. The general process by which the higher and more elaborate forms of life, and eventually man himself, have been produced has been shown by Darwin to depend upon two important properties of living matter mani- fested in connexion with the multiplication of individuals. Living matter has a special property of adding to its bulk by taking up the chemical elements which it re- quires and building up the food so taken as additional living matter. It further has the power of separating from itself minute particles or germs which feed and grow independently, and thus multiply their kind. It is a fundamental character of this process of reproduction that the detached or pullulated germ inherits or carries with it from its parents the peculiarities of form and structure of its parent. This is the property known as Heredity. It is most essentially modified by another property — namely, that though eventually growing to be closely like the parent, the germ (especially when it is formed, as is usual, by the fusion of two germs from two separate parents) is never identical in all respects with the parent. It shows Variation. In virtue of Heredity, the new congenital variations shown by a new generation are transmitted to their offspring when in due time they pullulate or produce germs. Man has long been aware of this ; and, by selecting variations of beasts, birds, or plants agreeable or useful to him, has intensified such variations and produced animals and plants in many features very unlike those with which he started. It was Darwin's merit to show that a process of selec- tion which he called ' Natural Selection ' must take place NATURE'S INSURGENT SON n in the free untouched conditions under which animals and plants exist, and have existed for ages, on this globe. Both animals and plants produce germs, or young, in excess — usually in vast excess. The world, the earth's surface, is practically full, that is to say, fully occupied. Only one pair of young can grow up to take the place of the pair — male and female — which have launched a dozen, or it may be as many as a hundred thousand, young individuals on the world. The property of Varia- tion ensures that amongst this excess of young there are many differences. Eventually those survive which are most fitted to the special conditions under which this particular organism has to live. The conditions may, and indeed in long lapses of time must, change, and thus some variation not previously favoured will gain the day and survive. The ' struggle for existence ' of Darwin is the struggle amongst all the superabundant young of a given species, in a given area, to gain the necessary food, to escape voracious enemies, and gain protection from excesses of heat, cold, moisture, and dryness. One pair in the new generation — only one pair — survive for every parental pair. Animal popula- tion does not increase : ' Increase and multiply ' has never been said by Nature to her lower creatures. Locally, and from time to time, owing to exceptional changes, a species may multiply here and decrease there; but it is important to realize that the * struggle for existence' in Nature — that is to say, among the animals and plants of this earth untouched by man — is a desperate one, however tranquil and peaceful the battle- field may appear to us. The struggle for existence takes place, not as a clever French writer l glibly informs 1 M. Paul Bourget of the Academic Franchise, is not only a charming writer of modern ' novels,' but claims to be a ' psychologist,' a title 12 THE KINGDOM OF MAN his readers, between different species, but between indi- viduals of the same species, brothers and sisters and cousins. The struggle between a beast of prey which seeks to nourish itself and the buffalo which defends its life with its horns is not * the struggle for existence ' so named by Darwin. Moreover, the struggle among the members of a species in natural conditions differs totally from the mere struggle for advancement or wealth which perhaps may be conceded to every author who writes of human character. His works are so deservedly esteemed, and his erudition is as a rule, so unassailable, that in selecting him as an example of the frequent misrepresentation, among literary men, of Darwin's doctrine, I trust that my choice may be regarded as a testimony of my admiration for his art. In his novel Un Divorce, published in 1904, M. Bourget, says : ' La lutte entre les especes, cette inflexible loi de 1'univers animal, a sa correspondance exacte dans le monde des idees. Certaines men- talites constituent de veritables especes intellectuelles qui ne peuvent pas durer a cote les unes des autres ' (Edition Plon, p. 317). This in- flexible law of the animal universe, the struggle between species, is one which is quite unknown to zoologists. The ' struggle for existence,' to which Darwin assigned importance, is not a struggle between different species, but one between closely similar members of the same species. The struggle between species is by no means universal, but in fact very rare. The preying of one species on another is a moderated affair of balance and adjustment which may be described rather as an accommo- dation than as a struggle. A more objectionable misinterpretation of the naturalists' doctrine of the survival of the fittest in the struggle for existence is that made by journalists and literary politicians, who declare, according to their political bias, either that science rightly teaches that the gross quality measured by wealth and strength alone can survive and should there- fore alone be cultivated, or that science (and especially Darwinism) has done serious injury to the progress of mankind by authorizing this teaching. Both are wrong, and owe their error to self-satisfied flippancy and traditional ignorance in regard to nature-knowledge and the teach- ing of Darwin. The 'fittest' does not mean the 'strongest.' The causes of survival under Natural Selection are very far indeed from being rightly described as mere strength, nor are they baldly similar to the power of accumulating wealth. Frequently in Nature the more obscure and feeble survive in the struggle because of their modesty and suitability to given conditions, whilst the rich are sent empty away and the mighty perish by hunger. NATURE'S INSURGENT SON 13 with which uneducated writers so frequently compare it. It differs essentially in this — that in Nature's struggle for existence, death, immediate obliteration, is the fate of the vanquished, whilst the only reward to the victors — few, very few, but rare and beautiful in the fitness which has carried them to victory — is the permission to reproduce their kind — to carry on by heredity to another generation the specific qualities by which they triumphed. It is not generally realized how severe is the pres- sure and competition in Nature — not between different species, but between the immature population of one and the same species, precisely because they are of the same species and have exactly the same needs. From a human point of view the pressure under which many wild things live is awful in its severity and relentless tenacity. Not only are new forms established by natural selection, but the old forms, when they exactly fit the mould presented as it were for competitive filling, are maintained by the same unremitting process. A dis- tinctive quality in the beauty of natural productions (in which man delights) is due to the unobtrusive yet tremendous slaughter of the unfit which is incessantly going on, and the absolute restriction of the privilege of parentage to the happy few who attain to the standard described as ' the fittest.' 7. THE LIMITED VARIETY OF NATURE'S PRODUCTS. The process of development of an immense variety of animal and vegetable forms has proceeded in this way through countless ages of geologic time, but it must not be supposed that any and every conceivable form and variety has been produced. There are only 14 THE KINGDOM OF MAN two great diverging lines of descent from original living matter — only the animals and the plants. And in each of these there are and have been only a limited number of branches to the pedigree — some coming off at a lower level, others at higher points when more elaborate struc- ture has been attained. It is easy to imagine groups of both plants and animals with characters and structures which have never existed and never will exist. The limitation of the whole process in spite of its enormous duration in time, its gigantic output and variety, is a striking and important fact. Linnaeus said, ' There are just as many species as in the beginning the Infinite Being created ' ; and the modern naturalist can go no further than the paraphrase of this, and must say, * There are and have been just so many and just so few varieties of animal and vegetable structure on this earth as it was possible for the physical and chemical contents of the still molten globe to form up to the hour now reached.' 8. THE EMERGENCE OF MAN. As to how and when man emerged from the terres- trial animal population so strictly controlled and moulded by natural selection is a matter upon which we gain further information year by year. There must be many here who remember, as I do, the astounding and almost sudden discovery some forty-five years ago of abundant and overwhelming evidence that man had existed in Western Europe as a contemporary of the mammoth and rhinoceros, the hyaena and the lion. The dispute over the facts submitted to the scientific world by Boucher de Perthes was violent and of short duration. The immense antiquity of man was established and accepted on all sides just before Mr. Darwin published NATURE'S INSURGENT SON 15 his book on The Origin of Species. The palaeolithic implements, though not improbably made 150,000 years ago, do not, any more than do the imperfect skulls occasionally found in association with them, indicate a condition of the human race much more monkey-like than is presented by existing savage races (see Figs, i and 2 and Frontispiece, and their explanations). The imple- ments themselves are manufactured with great skill and artistic feeling. Within the last ten years much rougher flint implements, of peculiar types, have been discovered in gravels which are 500 feet above the level of the existing rivers (see Figs. 3 and 4). These " Eoliths" of the South of England indicate a race of men of less-developed skill than the makers of the Palaeoliths, and carry the antiquity of man at least as far back beyond the Palaeoliths as these are from the present day. We have as yet found no remains giving the direct basis for conclusions on the subject ; but judging by the analogy (not by any means a conclusive method) furnished by the history of other large animals now living alongside of man — such as the horse, the rhinoceros, the tapir, the wolf, the hyaena, and the bear — it is not improbable that it was in the remote period known as the lower Miocene — remote even as compared with the gravels in which Eoliths occur — that Natural Selection began to favour that increase in the size of the brain of a large and not very powerful semi-erect ape which eventuated, after some hundreds of thousands of years, in the breeding-out of a being with a relatively enormous brain-case, a skilful hand, and an inveterate tendency to throw stones, flourish sticks, protect himself in caves, and in general to defeat aggression and satisfy his natural appetites by the use of his wits rather than by strength alone — in which, i6 FlGS. I AND 2. Photographs of a front view of the two skulls shewn in profile in the frontispiece, taken so as to shew the breadth of the ' forehead ' or pre- frontal area, which is seen to be very much greater in the Greek skull (Fig. 2) than in the Javanese Pithecanthropus (Fig. i). The prefrontal area is marked out by a black dotted line, the outline of a plane (the pre- frontal plane) which is at right angles to the sagittal plane and passes through the meeting point of the frontal with the two parietal bones above ; whilst below it passes through the median point called 'ophryon.' The plane of the picture is parallel with this prefrontal plane. The white dotted line gives the breadth of the boss-like prefrontal area. It is identical in position with the line d in the side view of the same skulls given in the frontispiece. The black dotted line is identical in position with the line A C in those figures. The two specimens are equally reduced in the photograph. (Original). i8 FIG. 3. FIG. 3. Photographs of eight Eoliths of one and the same shape, namely, with a chipped or worked tooth-like prominence, rendering the flint fit for use as a ' borer ' — photographed of half the actual size (linear measurement) from specimens found near Ightham, Kent, in the high-level gravel— which form part of the Prestwich collection in the Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London. Many others of the same shape have been found in the same locality. These and the trinacrial implements photographed in Fig. 4 are far older than the oval and leaf-shaped ' palaeo- liths ' of the low-lying gravels of the valleys of the Thames, Somme, and other rivers. (Original). C 2 20 FIG. 4. FIG. 4 Photographs of six Eoliths of the ' shoulder-of-mutton ' or ' trinacrial type — from the same locality and collection as those shewn in Fig. 3. The photographs are of half the length of the actual specimens. A con- siderable number of worked flints of this peculiar shape have been found in the same locality. Possibly their shape enabled the primitive men who 'chipped' and used them to attach them by thongs to a stick or club. The descriptive term ' trinacrial ' is suggested by me for these flints in allusion to the form of the island of Sicily which they resemble. (Original) 22 THE KINGDOM OF MAN however, he was not deficient. Probably this creature had nearly the full size of brain and every other physical character of modern man, although he had not as yet stumbled upon the art of making fire by friction, nor converted his conventional grunts and groans, his screams, laughter, and interjections into a language corresponding to (and thenceforth developing) his power of thought. 9. THE ENLARGED BRAIN. The leading feature in the development and separa- tion of man from amongst other animals is undoubtedly the relatively enormous size of the brain in man, and the corresponding increase in its activities and capacity. It is a very striking fact that it was not in the ances- tors of man alone that this increase in the size of the brain took place at this same period, viz. the Miocene. The great mammals such as the titanotherium, which represented the rhinoceros in early Tertiary times, had a brain which was in proportion to the bulk of the body, not more than one-eighth the volume of the brain of the modern rhinoceros (see Fig. 5). Other great mammals of the earlier Tertiary period were in the same case ; and the ancestors of the horse, which are better known than those of any other modern animal, certainly had very much smaller brains in proportion to the size of their bodies than has their descendant. We may well ask to what this sudden and marked increase in the size of the brain in several lines of the animal pedigree is due. It seems that the inborn hereditary nervous mechanism by which many simple and necessary movements of the body are controlled and brought into relation with the outer world acting upon the sense-organs, can be carried in a relatively NATURE'S INSURGENT SON 23 small bulk of brain-substance. Fish, lizards, and croco- diles with their small brains carry on a complex and effective life of relation with their surroundings. It appears that the increased bulk of cerebral substance means increased ' educability ' — an increased power of storing up individual experience — which tends to take the place of the inherited mechanism with which it is often in antagonism. The power of profiting by indi- vidual experience, in fact educability, must in conditions of close competition be, when other conditions are equal, an immense advantage to its possessor. It seems that we have to imagine that the adaptation of mammalian form to the various conditions of life had in Miocene FIG. 5. Four casts of the brain-cavities of a series of large Ungulate Mammals in order to shew the relatively small size of the cerebral hemispheres of the extinct creature from which A is taken. A is that of Dinoceras, a huge extinct Eocene mammal which was as large as a Rhinoceros ; B is that of Hippopotamus ; C of Horse ; and D of Rhinoceros. times reached a point when further alteration and elaboration of the various types, which we know then existed, could lead to no advantage. The variations presented for selection in the struggle for existence presented no advantage— the ' fittest ' had practically been reached, and was destined to survive with little 24 THE KINGDOM OF MAN change. Assuming such a relative lull in the develop- ment of mere mechanical form, it is obvious that the opportunity for those individuals with the most ' edu- cable ' brains to defeat their competitors would arise. No marked improvement in the instrument being possible, the reward, the triumph, the survival would fall to those who possessed most skill in the use of the instrument. And in successive generations the bigger and more educable brains would survive and mate, and thus bigger and bigger brains be produced. It would not be difficult (though not, perhaps, profit- able) to imagine the conditions which have favoured the continuation of this process to a far greater length in the Simian line of the pedigree than in other mamma- lian groups. The result is that the creature called Man emerged with an educable brain of some five or six times the bulk (in proportion to his size and weight) of that of any other surviving Simian. ' Great as is this difference, it is one of the most curious facts in the history of man's development that the bulk of his brain does not appear to have continued to increase in any very marked degree since early Palaeolithic times. The cranial capacity of many savage races and of some of the most ancient human skulls is only a little less than that of the average man of highly-civilised race. The value of the mental activities in which primitive man differs from the highest apes may be measured in some degree by the difference in the size of the man's and the ape's brain; but the difference in the size of the brain of Isaac Newton and an Australian black-fellow is not in the remotest degree proportionate to the difference in their mental qualities. Man, it would seem, at a very remote period attained the extraordinary development of brain which marked him off from the rest of the NATURE'S INSURGENT SON 25 animal world, but has ever since been developing the powers and qualities of this organ without increasing its size, or materially altering in other bodily features.1 10. THE PROGRESS OF MAN. The origin of Man by the process of Natural Selection is one chapter in man's history ; another one begins with the consideration of his further development and his diffusion over the surface of the globe. The mental qualities which have developed in Man, though traceable in a vague and rudimentary condition in some of his animal associates, are of such an unpre- cedented power and so far dominate everything else in his activities as a living organism, that they have to a very large extent, if not entirely, cut him off from the general operation of that process of Natural Selection and sur- vival of the fittest which up to their appearance had been the law of the living world. They justify the view that Man forms a new departure in the gradual unfolding of Nature's predestined scheme. Knowledge, reason, self-consciousness, will, are the attributes of Man. It is not my purpose to attempt to trace their development from lower phases of mental activity in man's animal ancestors, nor even to suggest the steps by which that 1 A short discussion of this subject and the introduction of the term ' educability ' was published in a paper by me entitled ' The Significance of the Increased Size of the Cerebrum in recent as compared with extinct Mammalia,' Cinquantenaire de la Societe de Biologic, Paris, 1899, pp. 48-51. It has been pointed out to me by my friend Dr. Andrews, of the Geological Department of the British Museum, that the brain cavity of the elephants was already of relatively large size in the Eocene members of that group, which may be connected with the persistence of these animals through subsequent geological periods. 26 THE KINGDOM OF MAN development has proceeded. What we call the will or volition of Man — a discussion of the nature and limita- tion of which would be impossible in these pages and is happily not necessary for my present purpose — has become a power in Nature, an imperium in imperio, which has profoundly modified not only man's own history but that of the whole living world and the face of the planet on which he exists. Nature's inexorable discipline of death to those who do not rise to her standard — survival and parentage for those alone who do — has been from the earliest times more and more definitely resisted by the will of Man. If we may for the purpose of analysis, as it were, extract Man from the rest of Nature of which he is truly a product and part, then we may say that Man is Nature's rebel. Where Nature says ' Die ! ' Man says ' I will live.' According to the law previously in universal operation, Man should have been limited in geographical area, killed by extremes of cold or of heat, subject to starvation if one kind of diet were unob- tainable, and should have been unable to increase and multiply, just as are his animal relatives, without losing his specific structure and acquiring new physical charac- ters according to the requirements of the new conditions into which he strayed — should have perished except on the condition of becoming a new morphological * species.' But Man's wits and his will have enabled him to cross rivers and oceans by rafts and boats, to clothe himself against cold, to shelter himself from heat and rain, to prepare an endless variety of food by fire, and to ' increase and multiply ' as no other animal without change of form, without submitting to the terrible axe of selection wielded by ruthless Nature over all other living things on this globe. And as he has more and more obtained this control over his surroundings, he has NATURE'S INSURGENT SON 27 expanded that unconscious protective attitude towards his immature offspring which natural selection had already favoured and established in the animal race, into a conscious and larger love for his tribe, his race, his nationality, and his kind. He has developed speech, the power of communicating, and above all of record- ing and handing on from generation to generation his thought and knowledge. He has formed communi- ties, built cities, and set up empires. At every step of his progress Man has receded further and further from the ancient rule exercised by Nature/ He has advanced so far and become so unfitted to the earlier rule, that to suppose that Man can * return to Nature' is as un- reasonable as to suppose that an adult animal can return to its mother's womb. In early tribal times natural selection still imposed the death penalty on failure. The stronger, the more cunning, the better armed, the more courageous tribe or family group, exterminated by actual slaughter or starva- tion the neighbouring tribes less gifted in one or all of these qualities. But from what we know of the history of warlike exterminating savage tribes at the present day — as, for instance, the Masai of East Africa — it seems unlikely that the method of extermination — that is, of true natural selection — had much effect in man's develop- ment after the very earliest period. Union and absorption were more usual results of the contact of primitive tribes than struggles to the death. The expulsion of one group by another from a desired territory was more usual than the destruction of the conquered. In spite of the fre- quent assertions to the contrary, it seems that neither the more ancient wars of mankind for conquest and migration nor the present and future wars for commercial privilege have any real equivalence to the simple removal 28 THE KINGDOM OF MAN by death of the unfit and the survival and reproduction of the fit, which we know as Natural Selection.1 The standard raised by the rebel man is not that of ' fitness ' to the conditions proffered by extra-human nature, but is one of an ideal comfort, prosperity, and conscious joy in life — imposed by the will of man and involving a control and in important respects a subversion of what were Nature's methods of dealing with life before she had produced her insurgent son. The progress of man in the acquirement of this control of Nature has been one of enormous rapidity within the historical period, and within the last two centuries has led on the one hand to immensely increased facilities in the appli- cation of mechanical power, in locomotion, in agriculture, and in endless arts and industries ; and on the other hand to the mitigation of disease and pain. The men whom we may designate as ' the Nature-searchers ' — those who founded the New Philosophy of the Invisible College at Oxford and the Royal Society in London — have placed boundless power in the hands of mankind. ii. THE ATTAINMENT BY MAN OF THE KNOW- LEDGE OF HIS RELATIONS TO NATURE. But to many the greatest result achieved by the pro- gress of Natural Knowledge seems not to have been so 1 It would be an error to maintain that the process of Natural Selec- tion is entirely in abeyance in regard to Man. In an interesting book, The Present Evolution of Man, Dr. Archdall Reid has shown that in regard to zymotic diseases, and also in regard to the use of dangerous drugs such as alcohol and opium, there is first of all the acquirement of immunity by powerful races of men through the survival among them of those strains tolerant of the disease or of the drug, and secondly, the introduction of those diseases and drugs by the powerful immune race, NATURE'S INSURGENT SON 29 much in its practical applications and its material gifts to humanity as in the fact that Man has arrived through it at spiritual emancipation and freedom of thought. In the latter part of the last century man's place in Nature became clearly marked out by the accumulation of definite evidence. The significance and the im- measurable importance of the knowledge of Nature to philosophy and the highest regions of speculative thought are expressed in the lines of one who most truly and with keenest insight embodied in his imperishable verse the wisdom and the aspirations of the Victorian age:— ' Flower in the crannied wall, I pluck you out of the crannies : I hold you here, root and all, in my hand Little flower — but if I could understand What you are, root and all, and all in all, I should know what God and man is.' To many the nearer approach to that ' understanding ' has seemed the greatest and a sufficient result of scientific researches. The recognition that such an understanding leads to such vast knowledge would seem to ensure further and combined effort to bring it nearer and nearer to the complete form, even if the perfect understanding of the ' all in all ' be for ever unattainable. Nevertheless, the clearer apprehension, so recently attained, of man's origin and destiny, and of the enormous powers of which he has actually the control, has not led to any very obvious change in the attitude of responsible leaders of human activity in the great civilized communities of the world. They still attach little or no importance to the acquire- ment of a knowledge of Nature : they remain fixed in the in its migrations, to races not previously exposed either to the diseases or the drugs, and a consequent destruction of the invaded race. The survival of the fittest is, in these cases, a survival of the tolerant and eventually of the immune. 30 THE KINGDOM OF MAN old ruts of traditional ignorance, and obstinately turn their faces towards the past, still believing that the teachings and sayings of antiquity and the contemplation, not to say the detailed enumeration, of the blunders and crimes of its ancestors, can furnish mankind with the knowledge necessary for its future progress. The compara- tive failure of what may be called the speculative triumph of the New Philosophy to produce immediate practical consequences has even led some among those prejudiced by custom and education in favour of the exclusive employment of Man's thought and ingenuity in the delineation and imaginative resurrection of the youthful follies and excesses of his race, to declare that the knowledge of Nature is a failure, the New Philosophy of the Nature-searchers a fraud. Thus the well-known French publicist M. Brunetiere has taken upon himself to declare what he calls the Bankruptcy of Science. 12. THE REGNUM HOMINIS. As a matter of fact the new knowledge of Nature — the newly-ascertained capacity of Man for a control of Nature so thorough as to be almost unlimited — has not as yet had an opportunity for showing what it can do. A lull after victory, a lethargic contentment, has to some extent followed on the crowning triumphs of the great Nature-searchers whose days were numbered with the closing years of that nineteenth century which through them marks an epoch. No power has called on Man to arise and enter upon the possession of his kingdom — the ' Regnum Hominis ' foreseen by Francis Bacon and pictured by him to an admiring but incredulous age with all the fervour and picturesque detail of which he was capable. And yet at this moment the mechanical din> NATURE'S INSURGENT SON 31 culties, the want of assurance and of exact knowledge, which necessarily prevented Bacon's schemes from taking practical shape, have been removed. The will to possess and administer this vast territory alone is wanting. 13. MAN'S DESTINY. Within the last few years an attempt to spur the will of Englishmen in this direction has been made by some who have represented that this way lie great fortunes, national ascendancy, imperial domination. The effort has not met with much success. On the other hand, I speak for those who would urge the conscious and deliberate assumption of his kingdom by Man — not as a matter of markets and of increased opportunity for the cosmopolitan dealers in finance — but as an absolute duty, the fulfilment of Man's destiny,1 a necessity the incidence of which can only be deferred and not avoided. This, is indeed, the definite purpose of my discourse ; to point out that civilized man has proceeded so far in his interference with extra-human nature, has produced for himself and the living organisms associated with him such a special state of things by his rebellion against natural selection and his defiance of Nature's pre-human dis- positions, that he must either go on and acquire firmer control of the conditions or perish miserably by the vengeance certain to fall on the half-hearted meddler in great affairs. We may indeed compare civilized man to a successful rebel against Nature who by every step for- ward renders himself liable to greater and greater penal- ties, and so cannot afford to pause or fail in one single 1 ' Religion means the knowledge of our destiny and of the means of fulfilling it.' — Life and Letters of Mandell Creighton sometime Bishop of London, vol. ii. p. 195. 32 THE KINGDOM OF MAN step. Or again we may think of him as the heir to a vast and magnificent kingdom who has been finally educated so as to fit him to take possession of his property, and is at length left alone to do his best ; he has wilfully abro- gated, in many important respects, the laws of his mother Nature by which the kingdom was hitherto governed ; he has gained some power and advantage by so doing, but is threatened on every hand by dangers and disasters hitherto restrained : no retreat is possible — his only hope is to control, as he knows that he can, the sources of these dangers and disasters. They already make him wince : how long will he sit listening to the fairy-tales of his boyhood and shrink from manhood's task ? A brief consideration of well-ascertained facts is sufficient to show that Man, whilst emancipating him- self from the destructive methods of natural selection, has accumulated a new series of dangers and difficul- ties with which he must incessantly contend. 14. MAN AND DISEASE. In the extra-human system of Nature there is no disease and there is no conjunction of incompatible forms of life, such as Man has brought about on the surface of the globe. In extra-human Nature the selection of the fittest necessarily eliminates those diseased or liable to disease. Disease both of parasitic and congenital origin occurs as a minor phenomenon. The congenitally diseased are destroyed before they can reproduce : the attacks of parasites great and small either serve only to carry off the congenitally weak, and thus strengthen the race, or become harmless by the survival of those individuals which, owing to peculiar qualities in their tissues, can tolerate such attacks with- NATURE'S INSURGENT SON 33 out injury, resulting in the establishment of immune races. It is a remarkable thing — which possibly may be less generally true than our present knowledge seems to suggest — that the adjustment of organisms to their surroundings is so severely complete in Nature apart from Man, that diseases are unknown as constant and normal phenomena under those conditions. It is no doubt difficult to investigate this matter, since the pre- sence of Man as an observer itself implies human inter- vention. But it seems to be a legitimate view that every disease to which animals (and probably plants also) are liable, excepting as a transient and very exceptional occurrence, is due to Man's interference. The diseases of cattle, sheep, pigs, and horses, are not known except in domesticated herds and those wild creatures to which Man's domesticated productions have communicated them. The trypanosome lives in the blood of wild game and of rats without producing mischief. The hosts have become tolerant of the parasite. It is only when man brings his unselected, humanly-nurtured races of cattle and horses into con- tact with the parasite, that it is found to have deadly properties.1 The various cattle-diseases which in Africa have done so much harm to native cattle, and have in 1 This has been established in the case of the Trypanosoma Brucei a minute parasite living in the blood of big game in south-east Africa, amongst which it is disseminated by a blood-sucking fly, the Glossina morsitans or Tsetze fly. The parasite appears to do little or no harm to the native big game, but causes a deadly disease both in the horses and cattle introduced by Europeans and in the more anciently intro- duced native cattle (of Indian origin). Similar cases are found where a disease germ (such as that of measles) produces but a small degree of sickness and mortality in a population long associated with it, but is deadly to a human community to which it is a new-comer. Thus Europeans have introduced measles with deadly results in the South Sea Islands. A similar kind of difficulty, of which many might be D 34 THE KINGDOM OF MAN some regions exterminated big game, have per contra been introduced by man through his importation of diseased animals of his own breeding from Europe. Most, if not all, animals in extra-human conditions, in- cluding the minuter things such as insects, shell-fish, and invisible aquatic organisms, have been brought into a condition of 'adjustment' to their parasites as well as to the other conditions in which they live : it is this most delicate and efficient balance of Nature which Man everywhere upsets. A solitary case of a ravaging epidemic constantly recurring amongst animals living in extra-human conditions, one of a strangely interesting character, is the phosphorescent disease of the sand-shrimps or sand-hoppers. This is due to a microscopic parasite, a bacterium, which infests the blood and is phosphorescent, so that the infected sand- hopper has at night the brilliancy of a glow-worm. The disease is deadly, and is common among the sand- hoppers dwelling in the sandy flats of the north coast of France, where it may readily be studied.1 It has cited, is brought about by man's importations and exportations of useful plants. He thus brought the Phylloxera to Europe, not realizing before hand that this little parasitic bug, though harmless to the American vine, which puts out new shoots on its roots when the insect injures the old ones, is absolutely deadly to the European vine, which has not acquired the simple but all-important mode of growth by which the American vine is rendered safe. Thus, too, he took the coffee-plant to Ceylon, and found his plantations suddenly devastated by a minute mould, the Himileia vastatrix^ which had lived very innocently before that in the Cingalese forests, but was ready to burst into rapacious and destructive activity when the new unadjusted coffee-trees were imported by man and presented in carefully crowded plantations to its unre- strained infection. 1 The phosphorescent disease of the sand-hopper (Talitrus) is de- scribed by Giard and Billet in a paper entitled * Observations sur la maladie phosphorescente des Talitres et autres Crustaces,' in the memoirs of the Societe de Biologic, Oct. 19, 1889. Billet subsequently NATURE'S INSURGENT SON 35 not been recorded as occurring in this country. It is not at all improbable that this disease is also in truth one which only occurs in the trail of Man. It is quite likely that the artificial conditions of sewage and gar- bage set up by Man on the sea-coast are responsible for the prevalence of this parasite, and the weakly recep- tivity of the too numerous sand-hoppers. It is probable enough that, from time to time, under the influence of certain changes of climate and asso- ciated fauna and flora — due to meteoric or geologic movements— parasitic disease has for a time ravaged this or that species newly exposed to it ; but the final result is one of the alternatives, extinction or adjust- ment, death or toleration. The disease does not estab- lish itself as a scourge against which the diseased organism incessantly contends. It either obliterates its victim or settles down with it into relations of reciprocal toleration. Man does not admit this alternative either for him- self or for the domesticated and cultivated organisms which he protects. He ' treats ' disease, he staves off 'the adjustment by death,' and thus accumulates vast gave a further account of this organism, and named it Bacillus Giardi — after Professor Giard of Paris. (Bulletins scientifiques de la France et de la Belgique, xxi. 1898, p. 144). It appears that the parasite is transmitted from one individual to another in coition. The specimens studied by Giard and Billet were obtained at Wimereux near Boulogne. I found the disease very abund- ant at Ouistreham near Caen in the summer of 1900. I have not observed it nor heard of its occurrence on the English coast. Sea- water commonly contains a free-living phosphorescent bacterium which can be cultivated in flasks of liquid food so as to give rich growths which glow like a lamp when the flask is agitated so as to expose the contents to oxidation. This bacterium is not, however, the cause of the ' phos- phorescence ' of the sea often seen on our coasts. That is due in most cases to a much larger organism, as big iis a small pin's head, and known as Noctiluca miliafis. D 2 36 THE KINGDOM OF MAN populations of unadjusted human beings, animals and plants, which from time to time are ravaged by disease — producing uncertainty and dismay in human society. Within the past few years the knowledge of the causes of disease has become so far advanced that it is a mat- ter of practical certainty that, by the unstinted applica- tion of known methods of investigation and consequent controlling action, all epidemic disease could be abolished within a period so short as fifty years. It is merely a question of the employment of the means at our command. Where there is one man of first-rate intelligence employed in detecting the disease-producing parasites, their special conditions of life and the way to bring them to an end, there should be a thousand. It should be as much the purpose of civilized govern- ments to protect their citizens in this respect as it is to provide defence against human aggression. Yet it is the fact that this immensely important control of a great and constant danger and injury to mankind is left to the unorganized inquiries of a few enthusiasts. So little is this matter understood or appreciated, that those who are responsible for the welfare of States, with the rarest exceptions, do not even know that such protection is possible, and others again are so far from an intelligent view as to its importance, that they actually entertain the opinion that it would be a good thing were there more disease in order to get rid of the weakly surplus population ! In the spring of 1905 I was enabled to examine in the Pasteur Institute in Paris, the minute spiral thread (see Fig. 6) which has just been discovered and shown to be the cause of the most terrible and widely spread of human diseases, destroying the health and strength of those whom it does not kill and damaging the lives of their NATURE'S INSURGENT SON 37 children, so that it has been justly said that this malady and the use of alcohol as a beverage are together responsible for more than half the disease and early death of the mature population of Europe. For more than thirty years, a few workers, here and there, have been searching for this parasite, and the means of sup- pressing the awful curse of which it is the instrument. b. \ FIG. 6. The minute vibratile organism discovered by Fritz Schaudinn in 1905 in the eruptive formations and other diseased growths of syphilis — and called by him Spirochceta pallida (since altered to Spironema pallidum] : a, common phase ; b, shortened and thickened form leading on to e the Try panosoma- like form ; c, d, stages of division by fission ; /, elongated multi-nuclear form; g, segments into which it breaks up; h, supposed conjugation of male and female units (after Krystallovitch and Siedlevski). This organism, though resembling the spirillar forms of Bacteria, is probably not one of that group of vegetable parasites, but allied to the minute animal parasites known as Trypanosomes (see pp. 145 and 181 and figures.) It is regarded as the ' germ ' or active cause of the terrible disease known as Syphilis. It would have been discovered many years ago had greater value been set on the inquiries which lead to such discoveries by those who direct the public ex- penditure of civilized States. And now the complete suppression of this dire enemy of humanity is as plain 38 THE KINGDOM OF MAN and certain a piece of work to be at once accomplished as is the building of an ironclad. But it will not be done for many years because of the ignorance and unbelief of those who alone can act for the community in such matters. The discovery — the presentation to the eye and to exploring manipulation — of that well- nigh ultra-microscopic germ of death, seemed to me, as I gazed at its delicate shape, a thing of greater signi- ficance to mankind than the emendation of a Greek text or the determination of the exact degree of turpitude of a statesman of a bygone age. The knowledge of the causation of disease by bac- terial and protozoic parasites is a thing which has come into existence, under our very eyes and hands, within the last fifty years. The parasite, and much of its nature and history, has been discovered in the case of splenic fever, leprosy, phthisis, diphtheria, typhoid fever, glanders, cholera, plague, lock-jaw, gangrene, septic poisoning (of wounds), puerperal fever, malaria, sleeping sickness, and some other diseases which are fatal to man. In some cases the knowledge obtained has led to a control of the attack or of the poisonous action of the parasite. Antiseptic surgery, by defeating the poisonous parasite, has saved not only thousands upon thousands of lives, but has removed an incalculable amount of pain. Control is slowly being obtained in regard to several others among these deadly microbes in various ways, most wonderful of which is the develop- ment, under man's control, of serums containing anti- toxins appropriate to each disease, which have to be injected into the blood as the means of either cure or protection. But why should we be content to wait long years, even centuries, for this control, when we can have it in a few years ? If more men and abler NATURE'S INSURGENT SON 39 men were employed to study and experiment on this matter, we should soon make an end of all infectious disease. Is there any one, man or woman, who would not wish to contribute to the removal from human life of the suffering and uncertainty due to disease, the anguish and misery caused by premature death ? Yet nothing is done by those who determine the expendi- ture of the revenues of great States towards dealing adequately with this matter.1 1 As little is the question of the use and abuse of food and drink dealt with, as yet, by civilized man. As in many other matters man has carried into his later crowded, artificial, nature-controlling life habits and tendencies derived from savage prehistoric days, so has he perpetu- ated ways of feeding which are mere traditions from his early ' animal ' days, and have never been seriously called in question and put to proof. The persistence under new conditions of either habit or structure which belonged to old conditions may be attended with great danger and diffi- culty to an organism which changes, as man does, with great rapidity important features in its general surroundings and mode of life. This is in effect MetschnikofPs doctrine of * desharmonies.' It is probable that in very early days when a tribe of primitive men killed a mammoth, they all rushed on to the dead monster and gorged as much of its flesh as they could swallow (cooked or possibly uncooked). They had to take in enough to last for another week or two — that is to say, until another large animal should be trapped and slain. Accordingly he who could eat most would be strongest and best able to seize a good share when the next opportunity arrived, and it naturally became considered an indication of strength, vigour, and future prosperity to be capable of gorging large quantities of food. By means of the phrases ' enjoying a good appetite,' or ' a good trencherman,' or other such approving terms, civilized society still encourages the heavy feeder. The lower classes always consider a ravenous appetite to be an indication of strength and future prosperity in a child. Most healthy men, and even many women, in Western Europe, attack their food and swallow it without sufficient mastication, and as though they did not hope to get another chance of feeding for a week or two to come. Medical men have never ventured to investigate seriously whether civilized man is doing best for his health in behaving like a savage about his food. It is their business to attend to the patient with a disordered digestion, but not to experiment upon the amount of food of various kinds which the modern man should swallow in order to avoid indigestion and yet supply his 40 THE KINGDOM OF MAN 15. THE INCREASE OF HUMAN POPULATION. Whilst there is a certainty of Man's power to remove all disease from his life, a difficulty which he has already created for himself will be thereby increased. That difficulty is the increase of human population beyond the capacity of the earth's surface to provide food and the other necessities of life. By rebelling against Nature's method, Man has made himself the only animal which constantly increases in numbers. Whenever disease is controlled his increase will be still more rapid than at alimentary needs. No individual can possibly pay medical men to make these observations. It is the business of the State to do so, because such knowledge is not only needed by the private citizen, but is of enormous importance in the management of armies and navies, in the victualling of hospitals, asylums, and prisons. Thousands of tons of preserved meat have been wasted in recent wars because the reckless and ignorant persons who purchased the preserved meat to feed soldiers had never taken the trouble to ascertain whether preserved meat can be eaten by a body of men as a regular and chief article of diet. It appears that certain methods of preserving meat render it innutritious and impossible as a diet. It is probable from recent experiment that we all, except those un- fortunate few who do not get enough, eat about twice as much as we require, and that the superfluous quantity swallowed not only is wasted, but is actually a cause of serious illness and suffering. It surely is an urgent matter that these questions about food should be thoroughly investigated and settled. In the opinion of the most eminent physiolo- gist of the United States (Professor Bowditch), we shall never establish a rational and healthy mode of feeding ourselves until we give up the barbarous but to some persons pleasant custom of converting the meal into a social function ; we are thus tempted into excess. Only long and extensive experiment can provide us with definite and conclusive information on this matter, which is far more important than, at first sight, it seems to be. And similarly with regard to the admittedly serious question of alcohol — only very extensive and authoritative experiment will suffice to show mankind whether it is a wise and healthy thing to take it in small quantities, the exact limits of which must be stated, or to reject it altogether. NATURE'S INSURGENT SON 41 present. At the same time no attempt at present has been made by the more advanced communities of civi- lized men to prevent the multiplication of the weakly or of those liable to congenital disease. Already something like a panic on this subject has appeared in this country. Inquiries have been conducted by public authorities. But the only possible method of dealing with this matter, and in the first place of estimating its importance as immediate or remote, has not been applied. Man can only deal with this difficulty created by his own departure from Nature — to which he can never return — by thoroughly investigating the laws of breeding and heredity, and proceeding to apply a control to human multiplication based upon certain and indisputable knowledge. It may be a century, or it may be more than five centuries, before the matter would, if let alone, force itself upon a desperate humanity, brutalized by over-crowding, and the struggle for food. A return to Nature's terrible selection of the fittest may, it is conceivable, be in this way in store for us. But it is more probable that humanity will submit, before that condition occurs, to a restriction by the community in respect of the right to multiply, with as good a grace as it has given up the right to murder and to steal. In view of this Man must, in entering on his kingdom, at once proceed to perfect those studies as to the transmission of qualities by heredity which have as yet been only roughly carried out by breeders of animals and horti- culturists. There is absolutely no provision for this study in any civilized community, and no conception among the people or their leaders that it is a matter which concerns any one but farmers. 42 THE KINGDOM OF MAN 16. AN UNTOUCHED SOURCE OF ENERGY. The applications of steam and electricity have so far astonished and gratified the rebel Man, that he is some- times disposed to conclude that he has come to the end of his power of relieving himself from the use of his own muscles for anything but refined movements and well-considered health-giving exercises. One of the greatest of chemical discoverers at this time living, M. Berthelot, has, however, recently pressed on our attention the question of the possibility of tapping the central heat of the earth and making use of it as a perennial source of energy. Many competent physicists have expressed the opinion that the mechanical diffi- culties of such a boring, as would be necessary, are insuperable. No one, however, would venture to pro- phesy, in such a matter as this, that what is prevented by insuperable obstacles to-day may not be within our powers in the course of a few years. 17. SPECULATIONS AS TO THE MARTIANS. Such audacious control of the resources of our planet is suggested as a possibility, a legitimate hope and aim, by recent observations and speculations as to our neigh- bour, the planet Mars. I do not venture to express any opinion as to the interpretation of the appearances revealed by the telescope on the surface of the planet Mars, and indeed would take the most sceptical attitude until further information is obtained. But the influence of these statements about Mars on the imagination and hopes of Man seems to me to possess considerable interest. The markings on the surface of the planet Mars, which have been interpreted as a system of canals, NATURE'S INSURGENT SON 43 have been known and discussed for many years (see Figs. 7 and 8). It has recently been observed that these canals undergo a recurrent seasonal change of appearance con- sistent with the hypothesis that they are periodically filled with water, which is derived from the polar snow-caps of the planet at the season of greatest polar heat. It is sug- gested that Mars is inhabited by an intelligent population, not necessarily closely similar to mankind, but, on the FIG. 7. Drawing of Mars in November with Long. 156° on the meridian, shew- ing the ' Mare Sirenum ' (the shaded sickle-shaped area), connected with a network of ' canals ' shewing ' spots ' or ' oases ' at the intersections of the canals and a system of spherical triangles as the form of the mesh- work. — From ' Mars,' by Perceval Lowell. contrary unlike mankind in proportion as the conditions of Mars are unlike those of the Earth, and that these inhabitants have constructed by their own efforts the enormous irrigation works upon which the fertility and habitability of their planet, at the present time, depend. 44 THE KINGDOM OF MAN These speculations lead M. Faguet of the French Academy to further reflections. The Martians who have carried out this vast manipulation of a planet must be not only far in advance of the inhabitants of the Earth in intelligence and mechanical power, as a result of the greater age of their planet and the longer continuance there of the evolution of an intelligent race, but such a vast work and its maintenance would seem to imply a complete FIG. 8. Drawing of Mars as seen on November i8th, 1894 (Long. 325° on the meridian) by Mr. Perceval Lowell at the Flagstaff Observatory, Arizona, U.S.A., shewing 'twin* or 'double' canals, connected northwards with the ' Mare Icarium.' The two figures here reproduced only give a small portion of the system of canals, oases and seas of the planet Mars, mapped by Mr. Lowell. unanimity among the Martians, a world-wide peace and common government. Since we can imagine such a result of the prolonged play of forces in Mars, similar to those at work in our own Earth, and even obtain some NATURE'S INSURGENT SON 45 slight confirmation of the supposition, may we not indulge in the surmise that some such future is in store for Man, that he may be able hereafter to deal with great planetary factors to his own advantage, and not only draw heat from the bowels of the earth for such purposes as are at present within his scope, but even so as to regulate, at some distant day, the climates of the earth's surface, and the winds and the rain which seem now for ever beyond his control ? 18. THE INVESTIGATION OF THE HUMAN MIND. In such a desultory survey as that on which I have ventured, of Man's kingdom and its dangers, it occurs to me to mention another area upon which it seems urgent that the activities of nature-searchers should be imme- diately turned with increased power and number. The experimental study of his body and of that of animals has been carried far and with valuable results by inquiring Man. But a singularly small amount of attention has as yet been given to the investigation of Man's mind as a natural phenomenon and one which can be better under- stood to the immense advantage of the race. The mind of Man — it matters not for my immediate argument whether it be regarded as having arisen normally or abnormally from the mind of animals — is obviously the one and all-powerful instrument with which he has contended, and is destined hereafter to contend, against extra-human Nature. It is no less important for him to know the quality, the capacity, the mode of operation of this instrument, its beginnings and its limitations, than it is for him to know the minutest details of the workings of Nature. Just as much in the 46 THE KINGDOM OF MAN one case as in the other, it is impossible for him to trust to the imperfect analysis made by ancient races of men and the traditions and fancies handed down in old writings — produced by generations who had not arrived at the method of investigation which we now can apply. Experiment upon the mental processes of animals and of Man is greatly needed. Only here and there has anything been done in this direction. Most promising results have been obtained by such observations as those on hypnotism and on various diseased and abnormal states of the brain. But the subject is so little explored that wild and un- tested assertions as to the powers of the mind are current and have given rise to strange beliefs, accepted by many seriously-intentioned men and women. We boldly operate upon the minds of children in our systems of education without really knowing what we are doing. We blindly assume that the owners of certain minds, traditionally trained in amusing elegancies, are fit to govern their fellow-men and administer vast provinces ; we assume that the discovery and comprehension of Nature's pro- cesses must be the work of very few and peculiar minds ; that if we take care of the body the mind will take care of itself. We know really nothing of the heredity of mental qualities, nor how to estimate their presence or absence in the young so as to develop the mind to greatest advantage. We know the pain and the penalty of muscular fatigue, but we play with the brains of young and old as though they were indestructible machinery. What is called experimental psychology is only in its infancy, but it is of urgent necessity that it should be systematically pursued by the application of public funds in order that Man may know how to make the best use of his only weapon in his struggle to control Nature. NATURE'S INSURGENT SON 47 ig. MAN'S DELAY : ITS CAUSE AND REMEDY. Even the slight and rapid review just given of Man's position, face to face with Nature, enables us to see what a tremendous step he has taken, what desperate conditions he has created by the wonderful exercise of his will; how much he has done and can do to control the order of Nature, and how urgent it is, beyond all that words can say, for him to apply his whole strength and capacity to gaining further control, so that he may accomplish his destiny and escape from misery. It is obvious enough that Man is, at present, doing very little in this direction ; so little that one seeks for an explanation of his apathy, his seeming paralysis. The explanation is that the masses of the people, in civilized as well as uncivilized countries, are not yet aware of the situation. When knowledge on this matter reaches, as it inevitably will in time, to the general population, it is certain that the democracy will demand that those who expend the resources of the community, and as government officials undertake the organization of the national defence and other great public services for the common good, shall put into practice the power of Nature-control which has been gained by mankind, and shall exert every sinew to obtain more. To effect this, the democracy will demand that those who carry on public affairs shall not be persons solely acquainted with the elegant fancies and stories of past ages, but shall be trained in the acquisition of natural knowledge and keenly active in the skilful application of Nature-control to the development of the well-being of the community. It would not be necessary to wait for this pressure from below were the well-to-do class — which in most 48 THE KINGDOM OF MAN modern States exercises so large an influence both in the actual administration of Governments and by example — so situated as to be in any way aware of the responsibilities which rest upon it. Traditional educa- tion has, owing to causes which are not far to seek, deprived "the well-to-do class of a knowledge of, and interest in, Man's relation to Nature, and of his power to control natural processes. During the whole period of the growth of man's knowledge of Nature — that is to say, ever since the days of Bruno — the education of the well-to-do has been directed to the acquirement of entertaining information and elegant accomplishments, whilst ' useful knowledge ' has been despised and ob- tained, when considered necessary, from lower-class ' workmen ' at workmen's wages. It is of course not to be overlooked that there have been notable exceptions to this, but they have been exceptions. Even at the present day, in some civilized States, a body of clerks, without any pretence to an education in the knowledge of Nature, headed by gentlemen of title, equally ignorant, are entrusted with, and handsomely paid and rewarded for, the superintendence of the armies, the navies, the agriculture, the public works, the fisheries, and even the public education of the State. When compelled to seek the assistance of those who have been trained in the knowledge of Nature (for even in these States there are a few such eccentric persons to be found), the officials demand that such assistance shall be freely given to them without pay, or else offer to buy the knowledge required at the rate paid to a copying clerk. This state of things is not one for which it is possible to blame those who, in blissful ignorance, contentedly perform what they consider to be their duty to their country. There are, however, in many States, institu- NATURE'S INSURGENT SON 49 tions, of vast influence in the education of the whole community, known as Universities. In many countries they as well as the schools are directly controlled by the State. In England, however, we are happy in having free Universities, the older of which, though in some important respects tied down by law, yet have the power to determine almost absolutely, not only what shall be studied within their own walls, but what shall be studied in all the schools of the country frequented by the children of the well-to-do. It is the pride of our ancient Universities that they are largely, if not exclusively, frequented by young men of the class who are going to take an active part in the public affairs of the country— either as politicians and statesmen, as governors of remote colonies, or as leaders of the great professions of the Church, the Law, and Medicine. It would seem, then, that if these Universities attached a greater, even a predominant, importance to the studies which lead to the knowledge and control of Nature, the schools would follow their example, and that the governing class of the country would become acquainted with the urgent need for more knowledge of the kind, and for the immediate application in public affairs of that knowledge which exists. It would seem that in Great Britain, at any rate, it would not be necessary, were the Universities alive to the situation, to await the pressure of democracy, but that a better and more rapid mode of development would obtain ; the influential and trusted leaders of the community would set the example in seeking and using for the good of the State the new knowledge of Nature. The world has seen with admiration and astonishment the entire people of Japan follow the example of its E 50 THE KINGDOM OF MAN governing class in the almost sudden adoption of the knowledge and control of Nature as the purpose of national education and the guide of State administration. It is possible that in a less rapid and startling manner our old Universities may, at no distant date, influence the intellectual life of the more fortunate of our fellow citizens, and consequently of the entire community. The weariness which is so largely expressed at the present day in regard to human effort — whether it be in the field of politics, of literature, or of other art, or in relation to the improvement of social organization and the individual life — is possibly due to the fact that we have exhausted the old sources of inspiration, and have not yet learnt to believe in the new. The ' return to Nature,' which is sometimes vaguely put forward as a cure for the all-pervading * taedium ' of this age, is perhaps an imperfect expression of the truth that it is time for civilized man not to return to the ' state of Nature,' but to abandon his retrospective attitude and to take up whole-heartedly the Kingdom of Nature which it is his destiny to rule. New hope, new life will, when he does this, be infused into every line of human activity : Art will acquire a new impulse, and politics become real and interesting. To a community which believes in the destiny of Man as the controller of Nature, and has consciously entered upon its fulfil- ment, there can be none of the weariness and even despair which comes from an exclusive worship of the past. There can only be encouragement in every victory gained, hope and the realization of hope. Even in the face of the overwhelming opposition and incredulity which now unhappily have the upper hand, the believer in the predestined triumph of Man over Nature can exert himself to place a contribution, however small, in NATURE'S INSURGENT SON 51 the great edifice of Nature-knowledge, happy in the conviction that his life has been worth living, has counted to the good in the imperishable result. 20. THE INFLUENCE OF OXFORD. If I venture now to consider more specifically the influence exercised by the University of Oxford upon the welfare of the State and of the human community in general, in view of the conclusions which have been set forth in what has preceded, I beg to say that I do so with the greatest respect to the opinions of others who differ from me. When I say this I am not using an empty .formula. I mean that I believe that there must be many University men who are fair-minded and dis- interested, and have given special attention to the matter of which I wish to speak, and" who are yet very far from agreeing with me. I ask them to consider what I have said, and what I have further to say, in the same spirit as that in which I approach them. It seems to me — and when I speak of myself I would point out that I am presenting the opinions of a large number of educated men, and that it will be better for me to avoid an egotistical attitude — it seems to us (I prefer to say) that the University of Oxford by its present action in regard to the choice and direction of subjects of study is exercising an injurious influence upon the education of the country, and especially upon the education of those who will hereafter occupy positions of influence, and will largely determine both the action of the State and the education and opinions of those who will in turn succeed them. The question has been recently raised as to whether the acquirement of a certain elementary knowledge of the Greek language E 2 52 THE KINGDOM OF MAN should be required of all those who desire to pursue their studies in this University, and accordingly whether the teaching of the elements of this language should form a prominent feature in the great schools of this country. It seems to us that this is only part of a much larger question ; namely, whether it is desirable to continue to make the study of two dead languages — and of the story of the deeds of great men in the past— the main if not the exclusive matter to which the minds of the youth of the well-to-do class are directed by our schools and universities. We have come to the con- clusion that this form of education is a mistaken and injurious one. We desire to make the chief subject of education both in school and in college a knowledge of Nature as set forth in the sciences which are spoken of as physics, chemistry, geology, and biology. We think that all education l should consist in the first place of this kind of knowledge, on account of its com- manding importance both to the individual and to the community. We think that every man of even a moderate amount of education should have acquired a sufficient knowledge of these subjects to enable him at any rate to appreciate their value, and to take an interest in their progress and application to human life. And we think further that the ablest youths of the country should be encouraged to proceed to the extreme limit 1 It is, perhaps, needful to point out that what is aimed at is that the education of all the youth of the country, both of pass-men and of class-men, of girls as well as of boys, of the rich as well as of the poor, should be primarily directed to imparting an acquaintance with what we already possess in respect of knowledge of Nature, and the training of the pupil so as to enable him or her (a) to make use of that know- ledge, and (b] to take part in gaining new knowledge of Nature, at this moment needed but non-existent. This does not involve the complete exclusion of other subjects of instruction, to which about one-third of the time and effort of school and college life might be devoted. NATURE'S INSURGENT SON 53 of present knowledge in one or other branch of this knowledge of Nature so as to become makers of new knowledge, and the possible discoverers of enduring im- provements in man's control of Nature. No one should be educated so as to be ignorant of the importance of these things ; and it should not be possible for the greatest talent and mental power to be diverted to other fields of activity through the fact that the necessary education and opportunity in the pursuit of the know- ledge of Nature are withheld. The strongest induce- ments in the way of reward and consideration ought, we believe, to be placed before a young man in the direction of Nature-knowledge rather than in the direc- tion of other and far less important subjects of study. In fact, we should wish to see the classical and historical scheme of education entirely abandoned, and its place taken by a scheme of education in the know- ledge of Nature. At the same time let me hasten to say that few, if any of us — and certainly not he who writes these lines — would wish to remove the acquirement of the use of languages, the training in the knowledge and perception of beauty in literary art, and the feeding of the mind with the great stories of the past, from a high and necessary position in every grade of education. It is a sad and apparently inevitable accompaniment of all discussion of this matter that those who advocate a great and leading position for the knowledge of Nature in education are accused of desiring to abolish all study of literature, history, and philosophy. This is, in reality, so far from being the case that we should most of us wish to see a serviceable knowledge of foreign languages, and a real acquaintance with the beauties of English and other literature, substituted for the present 54 THE KINGDOM OF MAN unsuccessful efforts to teach effectively either the language or literature of the Greeks and Romans. It should not be for one moment supposed that those who attach the vast importance which we do to the knowledge of Nature imagine that Man's spirit can be satisfied by exclusive occupation with that knowledge. We know, as well as any, that Man does not live by bread alone. Though the study of Nature is fitted to develop great mental qualities — perseverance, honesty, judgement, and initiative — we do not suppose that it completes Man's mental equipment. Though the know- ledge of Nature calls upon, excites, and gratifies the imagination to a degree and in a way which is peculiar . to itself, we do not suppose that it furnishes the oppor- tunity for all forms of mental activity. The great joys of Art, the delights and entertainment to be derived from the romance and history of human character, are not parts of it. They must never be neglected. But are we not justified in asserting that, for some two hundred years or more, these ' entertainments ' have been pursued in the name of the highest education and study to the exclusion of the far weightier and more necessary know- ledge of Nature ? ' This should ye have done, and yet not left the other undone,' may justly be said to those who have conducted the education of our higher schools and universities along the pleasant lines of literature and history, to the neglect of the urgently-needed * improve- ment of Natural Knowledge.' Nero was probably a musician of taste and training, and it was artistic and high-class music which he played while Rome was burning : so too the studies of the past carried on at Oxford have been charming and full of beauty, whilst England has lain, and lies, in mortal peril for lack of knowledge of Nature. NATURE'S INSURGENT SON 55 It seems to be beyond dispute that the study, firstly of Latin, and much more recently of Greek, were followed in our Universities and in grammar schools, not as educational exercises in the use of language, but as keys to unlock the store-rooms — the books — in which the knowledge of the ancients was contained. So long as these keys were needed, it was reasonable enough that every well-educated man should spend such time as was necessary in providing himself with the key. But now that the store-rooms are empty — now that their contents have been appropriated and scattered far and wide — in all languages of civilization, it seems to be merely an unreasoning continuation of superannuated custom to go on with the provision of these keys. Such, however, is the force of habit that it continues : new and ingenious reasons for the practice are put forward, whilst its original object is entirely forgotten. In the first place, it has come to be regarded as a mark of good breeding, and thus an end in itself, for a man to have some first-hand acquaintance with Latin and Greek authors, even when he knows no other literature. It is a fashion, like the wearing of a court dress. This cannot be held to justify the employment of most of the time and energy of youth in its acquirement. A second reason which is now put forward for the practice is that the effort and labour expended on the provision of these keys — even though it is admitted that they are useless — are a wonderful and incompar- ably fine exercise of the mind, fitting it for all sorts of work. A theory of education has been enunciated which fits in with this defence of the continued attempt to compel young men to acquire a knowledge, however imperfect, of the Latin and Greek languages. It is 56 THE KINGDOM OF MAN held that what is called ' training the mind ' is the chief, if not the only proper, aim of education ; and it is declared that the continuation of the study of those once useful, but now useless, keys — Latin and Greek — is an all-sufficient training. If this theory were in accordance with the facts, the conclusion in favour of giving a very high place to the study so recommended would be inevitable. But the facts do not support this theory. Clever youths are taken and pressed into the study of Greek and Latin, and we are asked to conclude that their cleverness is due to these studies. On the other hand, we maintain that though the study of grammar may be, when properly carried out, a valuable exercise, yet that it is easily converted into a worthless one, and can never in any case take the place of various other forms of mental training, such as the observation of natural objects, the following out of experimental demonstration of the qualities and relations of natural bodies, and the devising and execu- tion of experiment as the test of hypothesis. Apart from ' training ' there is the need for providing the mind with information as well as method. The know- ledge of Nature is eagerly assimilated by young people, and no training in mental gymnastics can be a sub- stitute for it or an excuse for depriving the young of what is of inestimable value and instinctively desired. The prominence which is assigned to a familiarity with the details of history, more especially of what may be called biographical history, in the educational system favoured by Oxford, seems to depend on the same causes as those which have led to the maintenance of the study of Greek and Latin. To read history is a pleasant occupation which has become a habit UNIVERSITY OF NATURE'S INSURGENT SON 57 and tradition. At one time men believed that history repeats itself, and it was thought to be a proper and useful training for one who would take part in public affairs to store his mind with precedents and picturesque narratives of prominent statesmen and rulers in far-off days and distant lands. As a matter of fact it cannot be shown that any statesman, or even the humblest politician, has ever been guided to useful action by such knowledge. History does not repeat itself, and the man who thinks that it does will be led by his fragmentary knowledge of stories of the past into serious blunders. To the fashionable journalist such biographical history furnishes the seasoning for his essays on political questions of the day. But this does not seem to be a sufficient reason for assigning so prominent a place in University studies to this kind of history as is at present the case. The reason, perhaps, of the favour which it receives, is that it is one of the few subjects which a man of purely classical education can pursue without commencing his education in elementary matters afresh. It would be a serious mistake x to suppose that those who would give a complete supremacy to the study of Nature, in our educational system, do not value and enjoy biographical history for what it is worth as an entertainment ; or further, that they do not set great value upon the scientific study of the history of the struggles of the races and nations of mankind, as a portion of the knowledge of the evolution of Man, capable of giving conclusions of great value when it has been further and more thoroughly treated as a 1 I desire especially to draw the attention of those who have mis- understood and misrepresented my estimate of the importance of the study of History, to this paragraph. — E.R.L. 58 THE KINGDOM OF MAN department of Anthropology. What seems to us un- desirable is, that mere stories and bald records of certain peoples should be put forward as matter with which the minds of children and young men are to be occupied, to the exclusion of the all-important matters comprised in the knowledge of Nature. There are, it is well known, not a few who regard the present institution of Latin and Greek and so-called History, in the pre-eminent place which they occupy in Oxford and the great schools of the country, as something of so ancient and fundamental a character that to question the wisdom of that institution seems an odious proceeding, partaking of the nature of blasphemy. This state of mind takes its origin in a common error, due to the fact that a straightforward account of the studies pursued in the University during the last five hundred years has never been written. Our present curriculum is a mere mushroom growth of the last century, and has no claim whatever to veneration. Greek was studied by but a dozen or two specialists in Oxford two hundred and fifty years ago. In those days, in proportion to what had been ascer- tained in that subject and could be taught, there was a great and general interest in the University in the knowledge of Nature, such as we should gladly see revived at the present day. As a matter of fact, it is only within the last hundred years that the dogma of compulsory Greek, and the value of what is now called a classical education, has been promulgated. These things are not historically of ancient date ; they are not essentials of Oxford. We are therefore well within our right in questioning the wisdom of their continuance in so favoured a position, and we are warranted in expressing the hope that those who can change the NATURE'S INSURGENT SON 59 policy of the University and Colleges in this matter will, at no distant day, do so. It is sometimes urged that Oxford should contentedly resign herself to the overwhelming predominance given to the study of ancient elegance and historic wisdom within her walls. It is said that she may well be reserved for these delightful pursuits, whilst newer institutions should do the hard work of aiding man in his conquest of Nature. At first sight such a proposal has a tempting character : we are charmed with the suggestion that our beautiful Oxford should be enclosed by a ring fence and cut off for ever from the contamina- tion of the world. But a few moments' reflection must convince most of us that such a treatment of Oxford is an insult to her and an impossibility. Oxford is not dead. Only a few decades have passed — a mere fraction of her lifetime — since she was free from the oppression of grammar-school studies, and sent forth Robert Boyle and Christopher Wren to establish the New Philosophy of the Invisible College in London. She seems, to some of us, to have been used not quite wisely, perhaps not quite fairly, in the brief period which has elapsed since that time. Why should she not shake herself free again, and give, hereafter, most, if not the whole, of her wealth and strength to the urgent work which is actually pursued in every other University of the world as a chief aim and duty ? The fact that Oxford attracts the youth of the country to her, and so determines the education offered in the great schools, is a sufficient answer to those who wish to perpetuate the present employment of her resources in the subvention and encouragement of comparatively unimportant, though fascinating (even too fascinating), studies, to the neglect of the pressing 60 THE KINGDOM OF MAN necessary knowledge of Nature. Those who enjoy great influence in the affairs of the University tell us with pride that Oxford not only determines what our best schools shall teach, but has, as a main pre-occupation, the education of statesmen, pro-consuls, leaders of the learned professions, and members of parliament ! Undoubtedly this claim is well-founded, and its truth is the reason why we cannot be content with the maintenance by the University of the compulsory study of Greek and Latin, and the neglect to make the study of Nature an integral and predominant part of every man's education. To return to my original contention — the knowledge and control of Nature is Man's destiny and his greatest need. To enable future leaders of the community to comprehend this, to perceive what the knowledge and control of Nature are, and what are the steps by which they are gained and increased, is the duty of a great University. To neglect this is to retard the approach of well-being and happiness, and to injure humanity. I beg, finally, for toleration from those who do not share my opinions. I am well aware that they are open to the objection that they partake more of the nature of dreams of the future than of practical proposals.1 That, 1 The practical steps which would correspond to the views enunciated in this discourse are two. First, the formation of an educational association to establish one or more schools and colleges in which nature-knowledge and training in nature-searching should be the chief masters to which attention would be given, whilst reasonable methods would also be employed for implanting in the minds of the students a love and understanding of literature and other forms or art. Those who desired such an education for their children would support these schools and colleges, just as in the days of Anglican exclusiveness the Nonconformists and Roman Catholics supported independent educa- tional institutions. The second practical step would be the formation of a political union which would make due respect to efficiency, that is NATURE'S INSURGENT SON 61 perhaps, may be accepted as my excuse for indulging in them. There are, and always have been, dreamers in Oxford, and beautiful dreams they have dreamed — some of the past, and some of the future. The most fascinat- ing dreams are not, unfortunately, always realized ; but it is sometimes worth while to tell one's dream, for that may bring it a step nearer to ' coming true.' to say, to a knowledge of Nature, a test question in all political contests. No candidate for Parliament would receive the votes of the union unless he were either himself educated in a knowledge of Nature or promised his support exclusively to ministers who would insist on the utilization of nature-knowledge in the administration of the great departments of State, and would take active measures of a financial character to develop with far greater rapidity and certainly than is at present the case, that inquiry into and control of Nature which is the indispensable factor in human welfare and progress. Such a programme will, I hope, at no distant date obtain the support of a sufficient number of parlia- mentary voters to raise political questions of a more genuine and interesting character than those which many find so tedious at the present moment. 62 THE KINGDOM OF MAN APPENDIX. / add here a brief statement published by me in the TIMES, May ijth, 1903, which touches on the question of the origin of life, and certain theories of creation. " It seems to me that, were the discussion excited by Lord Kelvin's statements to the Christian Association at University College allowed to close in its present phase, the public would be misled and injustice done both to Lord Kelvin and his critics. I therefore beg you to allow me to point out what appear to me to be the significant features of the matter under discussion. " Lord Kelvin, whose eminence as a physicist gives a special interest to his opinion upon any subject, made at University College, or in his subsequent letter to you, the following state- ments : — " i. That ' fortuitous concourse of atoms ' is not an inappro- priate description of the formation of a crystal. " 2. That 'fortuitous concourse of atoms ' is utterly absurd in respect to the coming into existence, or the growth, or the continuation of the molecular combinations presented in the bodies of living things. *' 3. That, though inorganic phenomena do not do so, yet the phenomena of such living things as a sprig of moss, a microbe, a living animal — looked at and considered as matters of scien- tific investigation — compel us to conclude that there is scientific reason for believing in the existence of a creative and directive power. " 4. That modern biologists are coming once more to a firm acceptance of something, and that is — a vital principle. " In your article on the discussion which has followed these statements you declare that this (the opinions I have quoted above) is 'a momentous conclusion,' and that it is a vital point in the relation of science to religion. NATURE'S INSURGENT SON 63 " I do not agree with that view of the matter, although I find Lord Kelvin's statements full of interest. So far as I have been able to ascertain, after many years in which these matters have engaged my attention, there is no relation, in the sense of a connection or influence, between science and religion. There is, it is true, often an antagonistic relation between exponents of science and exponents of religion when the latter illegiti- mately misrepresent or deny the conclusions of scientific re- search or try to prevent its being carried on, or, again, when the former presume, by magnifying the extremely limited con- clusions of science, to deal in a destructive spirit with the very existence of those beliefs and hopes which are called 1 religion.' Setting aside such excusable and purely personal collisions between rival claimants for authority and power, it appears to me that science proceeds on its path without any contact with religion, and that religion has not, in its essential qualities, anything to hope for, or to fear from, science. 11 The whole order of nature, including living and lifeless matter — from man to gas — is a network of mechanism the main features and many details of which have been made more or less obvious to the wondering intelligence of mankind by the labour and ingenuity of scientific investigators. But no sane man has ever pretended, since science became a defi- nite body of doctrine, that we know or ever can hope to know or conceive of the possibility of knowing, whence this mechanism has come, why it is there, whither it is going, and what there may or may not be beyond and beside it which our senses are incapable of appreciating. These things are not ' explained ' by science, and never can be. " Lord Kelvin speaks of a ' fortuitous concourse of atoms,' but I must confess that I am quite unable to apprehend what he means by that phrase in the connection in which he uses it. It seems to me impossible that by 'fortuitous' he can mean something which is not determined by natural cause and there- fore is not part of the order of nature. When an ordinary man speaks of a concourse having arisen ' by chance ' or ' fortuit- ously,' he means merely that the determining conditions which have led by natural causation to its occurrence were not known to him beforehand ; he does not mean to assert that it has 64 THE KINGDOM OF MAN arisen without the operation of such determining conditions ; and I am quite unable to understand how it can be maintained that ' the concourse of atoms ' forming a crystal, or even a lump of mud, is in any philosophic sense more correctly de- scribed as ' fortuitous ' than is the concourse of atoms which has given rise to a sprig of moss or an animal. It would be a matter of real interest to many of your readers if Lord Kelvin would explain more precisely what he means by the distinction which he has, somewhat dogmatically, laid down between the formation of a crystal as * fortuitous ' and the formation of an organism as due to 'creative and directive purpose.' " I am not misrepresenting what Lord Kelvin has said on this subject when I say that he seems to have formed the concep- tion of a creator who, first of all, without care or foresight, has produced what we call 'matter,' with its necessary pro- perties, and allowed it to aggregate and crystallise as a painter might allow his pigments to run and intermingle on his palette ; and then, as a second effort, has brought some of these elements together with ' creative and directive purpose,' mix- ing them, as it were, with « a vital principle ' so as to form living things, just as the painter might pick out certain colours from his confused palette and paint a picture. " This conception of the intermittent action of creative power and purpose does not, I confess, commend itself to me. That, however, is not so surprising as that it should be thought that this curious conception of the action of creative power is of value to religion. Whether the intermittent theory is a true or an erroneous conception seems to me to have nothing to do with ' religion ' in the large sense of that word so often mis- used. It seems to me to be a kind of mythology, and I should have thought could be of no special assistance to teachers of Christianity. Such theories of divided creative operations are traceable historically to polytheism. " Lastly, with reference to Lord Kelvin's statement that ' modern biologists are coming once more to a firm acceptance of something — and that is " a vital principle." I will not ven- ture to doubt that Lord Kelvin has such persons among his acquaintance. On the other hand, I feel some confidence in stating that a more extensive acquaintance with modern biolo- NATURE'S INSURGENT SON 65 gists would have led Lord Kelvin to perceive that those whom he cites are but a trifling percentage of the whole. I do not myself know of any one of admitted leadership among modern biologists who is showing signs of ' coming to a belief in the existence of a vital principle.' " Biologists were, not many years ago, so terribly hampered by these hypothetical entities — 'vitality,' 'vital spirits,' 'anima animans,' 'archetypes,' 'vis medicatrix,' 'providential arti- fice,' and others which I cannot now enumerate — that they are very shy of setting any of them up again. Physicists, on the other hand, seem to have got on very well with their proble- matic entities, their ' atoms ! and ' ether,' and ' the sorting demon of Maxwell.' Hence, perhaps, Lord Kelvin offers to us, with a light heart, the hypothesis of a ' a vital principle ' to smooth over some of our admitted difficulties. On the other hand, we biologists, knowing the paralysing influence of such hypotheses in the past, are as unwilling to have anything to do with ' a vital principle,' even though Lord Kelvin erroneously thinks we are coming to it, as we are to accept other strange ' entities ' pressed upon us by other physicists of a modern and singularly adventurous type. Modern biologists (I am glad to be able to affirm) do not accept the hypothesis of * tele- pathy ' advocated by Sir Oliver Lodge, nor that of the intru- sions of disembodied spirits pressed upon them by others of the same school. " We biologists take no stock in these mysterious entities. We think it a more helpful method to be patient and to seek by observation of, and experiment with, the phenomena of growth and development to trace the evolution of life and of living things without the facile and sterile hypothesis of 'a vital principle.' Similarly, we seek by the study of cerebral •disease to trace the genesis of the phenomena which are sup- posed by some physicists who have strayed into biological fields to justify them in announcing the 'discovery' of 'tele- pathy' and a belief in ghosts." 66 CHAPTER II THE ADVANCE OF SCIENCE, 1881-2906 I PROPOSE to give in the following pages an outline of the advance of science in the past twenty-five years. It is necessary to distinguish two main kinds of advancement, both of which are important. Francis Bacon gave the title * Advancement of Learning ' to that book in which he explained not merely the methods by which the increase of knowledge was possible, but advocated the promotion of knowledge to a new and influential position in the organization of human society. His purpose, says Dean Church, was ' to make knowledge really and intelligently the interest, not of the school or the study or the laboratory only, but of society at large.' So that in surveying the advancement of science in the past quarter of a century we should ask not only what are the new facts discovered, the new ideas and conceptions which have come into activity, but what progress has science made in becoming really and intelligently the interest of society at large. Is there evidence that there is an increase in the influence of science on the lives of our fellow-citizens and in the great affairs of the State ? Is there an increased provision for securing the progress of scientific investigation in proportion to the urgency of its need or an increased disposition to secure the employment of really competent men trained in scientific investigation for the public service ? THE ADVANCE OF SCIENCE 67 i. THE INCREASE OF KNOWLEDGE IN THE SEVERAL BRANCHES OF SCIENCE. The boundaries of my own understanding and the practical consideration of what is appropriate to a brief essay must limit my attempt to give to the general reader some presentation of what has been going on in the workshops of science in this last quarter of a century. My point of view is essentially that of the naturalist, and in my endeavour to speak of some of the new things and new properties of things discovered in recent years I find it is impossible to give any systematic or detailed account of what has been done in each division of science. All that I shall attempt is to mention some of the discoveries which have aroused my own interest and admiration. I feel, indeed, that it is necessary to ask forbearance for my presumption in daring to treat of so many subjects in which I cannot claim to speak as an authority, but only as a younger brother full of fraternal pride and sympathy in the glorious achievements of the great experimentalists and discoverers of our day. As one might expect, the progress of the Knowledge of Nature (for it is to that rather than to the historical, moral and mental sciences that English-speaking people refer when they use the word ' science ') has consisted, in the last twenty-five years, in the amplification and fuller verification of principles and theories already accepted, and in the discovery of hitherto unknown things which either have fallen into place in the existing scheme of each science or have necessitated new views, some not very disturbing to existing general conceptions, others of a more startling and, at first sight, disconcerting character. Nevertheless I think I am justified in saying F 2 68 THE KINGDOM OF MAN that, exciting and of entrancing interest as have been some of the discoveries of the past few years, there has been nothing to lead us to conclude that we have been on the wrong path — nothing which is really revolu- tionary ; that is to say, nothing which cannot be accepted by an intelligible modification of previous conceptions. There is, in fact, continuity and healthy evolution in the realm of science. Whilst some onlookers have declared to the public that science is at an end, its possibilities exhausted, and but little of the hopes it raised realised, others have asserted on the contrary, that the new discoveries — such as those relating to the X-rays and to radium — are so inconsistent with previous knowledge as to shake the foundations of science, and to justify a belief in any and every absurdity of an unrestrained fancy. These two reciprocally de- structive accusations are due to a class of persons who must be described as the enemies of science. Whether their attitude is due to ignorance or traditions of self- interest, such persons exist. It is one of the objects of our scientific associations and societies to combat those assertions and to demonstrate, by the discoveries an- nounced at their meetings and the consequent orderly building up of the great fabric of 'natural knowledge,' that Science has not come to the end of her work — has, indeed, only as yet given mankind a foretaste of what she has in store for it — that her methods and her accomplished results are sound and trustworthy, serving with perfect adaptability for the increase of true discovery and the expansion and development of those general conceptions of the processes of nature at which she aims. New Chemical Elements. — There can be no doubt that the past quarter of a century will stand out for THE ADVANCE OF SCIENCE 69 ever in human history as that in which new chemical elements, not of an ordinary type, but possessed of truly astounding properties, were made known with extraordinary rapidity and sureness of demonstration. Interesting as the others are, it is the discovery of radio- activity and of the element radium which so far exceeds all others in importance that we may well account it a supreme privilege that it has fallen to our lot to live in the days of this discovery. No single discovery ever made by the searchers of nature even approaches that of radio-activity in respect of the novelty of the properties of matter suddenly revealed by it. A new conception of the structure of matter is necessitated and demonstrated by it, and yet, so far from being destructive and disconcerting, the new conception fits in with, grows out of, and justifies the older schemes which our previous knowledge has formulated. Before saying more of radio-activity, which is apt to eclipse in interest every other topic of discourse, I must recall to you the discovery of the five inert gaseous elements by Rayleigh and Ramsay, which belongs to the period on which we are looking back. It was found that nitrogen obtained from the atmosphere invariably differed in weight from nitrogen obtained from one of its chemical combinations ; and thus the conclusion was arrived at by Rayleigh that a distinct gas is present in the atmosphere, to the extent of i per cent., which had hitherto passed for nitrogen. This gas was separated, and to it the name argon (the lazy one) was given, on account of its incapacity to combine with any other element. Subsequently this argon was found by Ramsay to be itself impure, and from it he obtained three other gaseous elements equally inert : namely neon, krypton, and xenon. These were all distinguished 70 THE KINGDOM OF MAN from one another by the spectrum, the sign-manual of an element given by the light emitted in each case by the gas when in an incandescent condition. A fifth inert gaseous element was discovered by Ramsay as a constituent of certain minerals which was proved by its spectrum to be identical with an element discovered twenty-five years ago by Sir Norman Lockyer in the atmosphere of the sun, where it exists in enormous quantities. Lockyer had given the name ' helium ' to this new solar element, and Ramsay thus found it locked up in certain rare minerals in the crust of the earth. But by helium we are led back to radium, for it has been found only two years ago by Ramsay and Soddy that helium is actually formed by a gaseous emanation from radium. Astounding as the statement seems, yet that is one of the many unprecedented facts which recent study has brought to light. The alchemist's dream is, if not realised, at any rate justified. One element is actually under our eyes converted into another; the element radium decays into a gas which changes into another element, namely helium. Radium, this wonder of wonders, was discovered owing to the study of the remarkable phosphorescence, as it is called — the glowing without heat — of glass vacuum-tubes through which electric currents are made to pass. Crookes, Lenard, and Rontgen each played an important part in this study, showing that peculiar rays or linear streams of at least three distinct kinds are set up in such tubes — rays which are themselves in- visible, but have the property of making glass or other bodies which they strike glow with phosphorescent light. The celebrated Rontgen rays make ordinary glass give out a bright green light ; but they pass through it, and THE ADVANCE OF SCIENCE 71 cause phosphorescence outside in various substances, such as barium platino-cyanide, calcium tungstate, and many other such salts ; they also act on a photographic plate and discharge an electrified body such as an elec- troscope. But the most remarkable feature about them is their power of penetrating substances opaque to ordi- nary light. They will pass through thin metal plates or black paper or wood, but are stopped by more or less dense material. Hence it has been possible to obtain * shadow pictures ' or skiagraphs by allowing the invisible Rontgen rays to pass through a limb or even a whole animal, the denser bone stopping the rays, whilst the skin, flesh, and blood let them through. They are allowed to fall (still invisible) on to a photographic plate, when a picture like an ordinary permanent photograph is obtained by their chemical action, or they may be made to exert their phosphorescence-producing power on a glass plate covered with a thin coating of a phos- phorescent salt such as barium platino-cyanide, when a temporary picture in light and shade is seen. The rays discovered by Rontgen were known as the X-rays, because their exact nature was unknown. Other rays studied in the electrified vacuum-tubes are known as cathode rays or radiant corpuscles, and others, again, as the Lenard rays. It occurred to M. Henri Becquerel, as he himself tells us, to inquire whether other phosphorescent bodies be- sides the glowing vacuum-tubes of the electricians' labo- ratory can emit penetrating rays like the X-rays. I say 'other phosphorescent bodies,' for this power of glowing without heat — of giving out, so to speak, cold light — is known to be possessed by many mineral substances. It has become familiar to the public in the form of ' phos- phorescent paint,' which contains sulphide of calcium, a 72 THE KINGDOM OF MAN substance which shines in the dark after exposure to sun- light— that is to say, is phosphorescent. Other sulphides and the minerals fluor-spar, apatite, some gems, and, in fact, a whole list of substances have, under different con- ditions of treatment, this power of phosphorescence or shining in the dark without combustion or chemical change. All, however, require some special treatment, such as exposure to sunlight or heat or pressure, to elicit the phosphorescence, which is of short duration only. Many of the compounds of a somewhat uncommon metallic element, called uranium, used for giving a fine green colour to glass, are phosphorescent substances, and it was, fortunately, one of them which Henri Bec- querel chose for experiment. Henri Becquerel is pro- fessor in the Jardin des Plantes of Paris ; his laboratory is a delightful old-fashioned building, which had for me a special interest and sanctity when, a few years ago, I visited him there, for, a hundred years before, it was the dwelling-house of the great Cuvier. Here Henri Bec- querel's father and grandfather — men renowned throughout the world for their discoveries in mineralogy, electricity, and light — had worked, and here he had himself gone almost daily from his earliest childhood. Many an ex- periment bringing new knowledge on the relations of light and electricity had Henri Becquerel carried out in that quiet old-world place before the day on which, about twelve years ago, he made the experimental inquiry, ' Does uranium give off penetrating rays like Rontgen rays ? ' He wrapped a photographic plate in black paper, and on it placed and left lying there for twenty-four hours some uranium salt. He had placed a cross, cut out in thin metallic copper, under the uranium powder, so as to give some shape to the photographic print should one be produced. It was produced. Penetrating rays THE ADVANCE OF SCIENCE 73 were given off by the uranium : the black paper was penetrated, and the form of the copper cross was printed on a dark ground (fig. 9). The copper was also penetrated to some extent by the rays from the uranium, so that its image was not left actually white. Only one step more remained before Becquerel made his great discovery. It was known, as I stated just now, that sulphide of calcium and similar substances become phosphorescent when ex- posed to sunlight, and lose this phosphorescence after a few hours. Becquerel thought at first that perhaps the uranium salt acquired its power similarly by exposure to light ; but very soon, by experimenting with uranium FIG. 9.— HENRI BECQUEREL'S DISCOVERY OF RADIO ACTIVITY. Photographic print or skiagraph of a copper Maltese Cross'produced by uranium salt placed as a heap of powder on the surface of black .paper wrapped round a sensitive plate. Between the paper and the uranium powder the flat copper cross was interposed. The rays from theruranium salt have penetrated the black paper, but have been intercepted to a large extent by the copper cross — so that the sensitive silver plate is darkened all about the cross — over an area corresponding to that of the heap of uranium salt, but is left pale where the copper figure blocked the path of the active rays given off by the uranium, partially but not wholly. It was thus proved that the rays from the uranium salt can pass through blackened paper and also though to a less extent through a plate of copper. salt long kept in the dark, he found that the emission of penetrating rays, giving photographic effects, was pro- duced spontaneously. The emission of rays by this 74 THE KINGDOM OF MAN particular sample of uranium salt has shown no sign of diminution since this discovery. The emission of pene- trating rays by uranium was soon found to be independent of its phosphorescence. Phosphorescent bodies, as such, do not emit penetrating rays. Uranium compounds, whether phosphorescent or not, emit and continue to emit, these penetrating rays, capable of passing through black paper and in a less degree through metallic copper. They do not derive this property from the action of light or any other treatment. The emission of these rays discovered by Becquerel is a new property of matter. It is called ' radio-activity,' and the rays are called Becquerel rays. From this discovery by Becquerel to the detection and separation of the new element radium is an easy step in thought, though one of enormous labour and difficulty in practice. Professor Pierre Curie (whose name I can- not mention without expressing the grief caused to all men of science by the sad accident by which his life was taken) and his wife, Madame Sklodowski Curie, in- cited by Becquerel's discovery, examined the ore called pitch-blende which is worked in mines in Bohemia and is found also in Cornwall. It is the ore from which all commercial uranium is extracted. The Curies found that pitch-blende has a radio-activity four times more powerful than that of metallic uranium itself. They at once conceived the idea that the radio-activity of the uranium salts examined by Becquerel is due not to the uranium itself, but to another element present with it in variable quantities. This proved to be in part true. The refuse of the first processes by which in the manu- facturer's works the uranium is extracted from its ore, pitch-blende, was found to contain four times more of the radio-active matter than does the pure uranium. THE ADVANCE OF SCIENCE 75 By a long series of fusions, solutions, and crystallizations the Curies succeeded in 'hunting down,' as it were, the radio-active element. The first step gave them a powder mixed with barium chloride, and having 2,000 times the activity of the uranium in which Becquerel first proved the existence of the new property — radio-activity. Then step by step they purified it to a condition 10,000 times, then to 100,000 times, and finally to the condition of a crystalline salt having 1,800,000 times the activity of Becquerel's sample of uranium. The purification could go no further, but the extraordinary minuteness of the quantity of the pure radio-active substance obtained and the amount of labour and time expended in pre- paring it may be judged of from the fact that of one ton of the pitch-blende ore submitted to the process of purification only the hundredth of a gram — the one- seventh of a grain — remained. The amount of radium in pitch-blende is one ten- millionth per cent. ; rarer than gold in sea- water. The marvel of this story and of all that follows consists largely in the skill and accuracy with which our chemists and physicists have learnt to deal with such infinitesimal quantities, and the gigantic theoretical results which are securely posed on this pin-point of substantial matter. The Curies at once determined that the minute quantity of colourless crystals they had obtained was the chloride of a new metallic element with the atomic weight 225, to which they gave the name radium. The proof that radium is an element is given by its ' sign- manual ' — the spectrum which it shows to the observer when in the incandescent state. It consists of six bright lines and three fainter lines in the visible part of the spectrum, and of three very intense lines in the ultra- violet (invisible) part (fig. 10). A very minute quantity is 76 77 FIG. 10. A diagram of the visible lines of the spectrum of the elements Radium and Helium — when rendered incandescent by electric ' sparking ' in a glass tube : kindly prepared for this book by Mr. Frederick Soddy of the University of Glasgow. The position of the chief great lines of the solar spectrum are marked on the lowest horizontal line. On the upper line the wave-lengths of the rays occupying the position indicated, are given. The figure 72 means that the wave-length of the ray occupying this position when refracted by the prism of the spectroscope is, as measured from crest to crest of the undulation, seven hundred and twenty millionths of a millimetre. It is generally written 720-0 pp. Lines exist at the ultra-violet end of the spectrum which can be photographed but do not affect the eye — that is to say are invisible. On the other hand the lines of the red end of the spectrum do not produce a photographic effect. Consequently a 'photographed' spectrum such as that given in the next figure (fig. n) differs in the lines presented both at the red and the violet ends from the visible series of lines. The two (visible and photographed spectra) agree only from wave-length 587-6 /*/* to wave-length 447-2 pp. The two spectra given in fig. 10 show how great is the difference in the position and number of the bands of Radium and Helium — yet as shown in the next figure (fig. u) the 'emanation' from Radium actually is transformed into Helium. 78 THE KINGDOM OF MAN enough for this observation ; the lines given by radium are caused by no other known element in heaven or earth. They prove its title to be entered on the roll-call of elements. The atomic weight was determined in the usual way by precipitating the chlorine in a solution of radium chloride by means of silver. None of the precious ele- ment was lost in the process, but the Curies never had enough of it to venture on any attempt to prepare pure metallic radium. This is a piece of extravagance no one has yet dared to undertake. Altogether the Curies did not have more than some four or five grains of chloride of radium to experiment with, and the total amount prepared and now in the hands of scientific men in various parts of the world probably does not amount to more than sixty grains at most. When Professor Curie lectured on radium four years ago at the Royal Institution in London he made use of a small tube an inch long and of one-eighth bore, containing nearly the whole of his precious store, wrenched by such determined labour and consummate skill from tons of black shapeless pitch-blende. On his return to Paris he was one day demonstrating in his lecture room with this precious tube the properties of radium when it slipped from his hands, broke, and scattered far and wide the most precious and magical powder ever dreamed of by alchemist or artist of romance. Every scrap of dust was immediately and carefully collected, dissolved, and re-crystallized, and the disaster averted with a loss of but a minute fraction of the invaluable product. Thus, then, we have arrived at the discovery of radium — the new element endowed in an intense form with the new property ' radio-activity ' discovered by Becquerel. The wonder of this powder, incessantly and THE ADVANCE OF SCIENCE 79 without loss, under any and all conditions pouring forth by virtue of its own intrinsic property powerful rays capable of penetrating opaque bodies and of exciting phosphorescence and acting on photographic plates, can perhaps be realized when we reflect that it is as mar- vellous as though we should dig up a stone which without external influence or change, continually poured forth light or heat, manufacturing both in itself, and not only continuing to do so without appreciable loss or change, but necessarily having always done so for count- less ages whilst sunk beyond the ken of man in the bowels of the earth. Wonderful as the story is, so far it is really simple and commonplace compared with what yet remains to be told. I will only barely and abruptly state the fact that radio-activity has been discovered in other elements, some very rare, such as actinium and polonium ; others more abundant and already known, such as thorium and uranium, though their radio-activity was not known until Becquerel's pioneer-discovery. It is a little strange and no doubt significant that, after all, pure uranium is found to have a radio-activity of its own and not to have been altogether usurping the rights of its infinitesimal associate. The winders connected with radium really begin when the experimental examination of the properties of a few grains is made. What I am saying here is not a systematic, technical account of radium ; so I shall venture to relate some of the story as it impresses me. Leaving aside for a moment what has been done in regard to the more precise examination of the rays emitted by radium, the following astonishing facts have been found out in regard to it : (i) If a glass tube con- taining radium is much handled or kept in the waistcoat 8o THE KINGDOM OF MAN pocket, it produces a destruction of the skin and flesh over a small area — in fact, a sore place. (2) The smallest trace of radium brought into a room where a charged electroscope is present, causes the discharge of the electroscope. So powerful is this electrical action of radium that a very sensitive electrometer can detect the presence of a quantity of radium five hundred thousand times more minute than that which can be detected by the spectroscope (that is to say, by the spectroscopic examination of a flame in which minute traces of radium are present). (3) Radium actually realizes one of the properties of the hypothetical stone to which I compared it, giving out light and heat. For it does give out heat which it makes itself incessantly and without appreciable loss of substance or energy (' appreciable ' is here an im- portant qualifying term). It is also faintly self-luminous. Fairly sensitive thermometers show that a few granules of radium salt have always a higher temperature than that of surrounding bodies. Radium has been proved to give out enough heat to melt rather more than its own weight of ice every hour; enough heat in one hour to raise its own weight of water from the freezing-point to the boiling-point. After a year and six weeks a gram of radium has emitted enough heat to raise the temperature of a thousand kilograms of water one degree. And this is always going on. Even a small quantity of radium diffused through the earth will suffice to keep up its temperature against all loss by radiation ! If the sun consists of a fraction of one per cent, of radium this will account for and make good the heat that is annually iost by it. This is a tremendous fact, upsetting all the calcula- tions of physicists as to the duration in past and future of the sun's heat and the temperature of the earth's THE ADVANCE OF SCIENCE 81 surface. The geologists and the biologists have long contended that some thousand million years must have passed during which the earth's surface has presented approximately the same conditions of temperature as at present, in order to allow time for the evolution of living things and the formation of the aqueous deposits of the earth's crust. The physicists, notably Professor Tait and Lord Kelvin, refused to allow more than ten million years (which they subsequently increased to a hundred million) — basing this estimate on the rate of cooling of a sphere of the size and composition of the earth. They have assumed that its material is self-cooling. But, as Huxley pointed out, mathematics will not give a true result when applied to erroneous data. It has now, within these last five years, become evident that the earth's material is not self-cooling, but on the contrary self-heating. And away go the restrictions imposed by physicists on geological time. They now are willing to give us not merely a thousand million years, but as many more as we want. And now I have to mention the strangest of all the proceedings of radium — a proceeding in which the other radio-active bodies, actinium and thorium, resemble it. This proceeding has been entirely Rutherford's discovery in Canada, and his name must be, always associated with it. Radium (he discovered) is continually giving off, apart from and in addition to the rectilinear darting rays of Becquerel — an ' emanation ' — a gaseous ' emana- tion.' This ' emanation ' is radio-active — that is, gives off Becquerel rays — and deposits 'something' upon bodies brought near the radium so that they become radio- active, and remain so for a time after the radium is itself removed. This emanation is always being formed by a radium salt, and may be most easily collected by G 82 THE KINGDOM OF MAN dissolving the salt in water, when it comes away with a rush, as a gas. Sixty milligrams of bromide of radium yielded to Ramsay and Soddy "124 (or about one-eighth) of a cubic millimetre of this gaseous emanation. What is it ? It cannot be destroyed or altered by heat or by chemical agents; it is a heavy gas, having a molecular density of 100, and it can be condensed to a liquid by exposing it to the great cold of liquid air. It gives a peculiar spectrum of its own, and is probably a hitherto unknown inert gas — a new element similar to argon. But this by no means completes its history, even so far as experiments have as yet gone. The radium emanation decays, changes its character altogether, and loses half its radio-activity every four days. Precisely at the same rate as it decays the specimen of radium salt from which it was removed forms a new quantity of emanation, having just the amount of radio-activity which has been lost by the old emanation. All is not known about the decay of the emanation, but one thing is absolutely certain, having first been discovered by Ramsay and Soddy and subsequently confirmed by independent ex- periment by Madame Curie. It is this : After being kept three or four days the emanation becomes, in part at least, converted into helium — the light gas (second only in the list of elements to hydrogen), the gas found twenty-five years ago by Lock} er in the sun, and since obtained in some quantities from rare radio-active mine- rals by Ramsay! The proof of the formation of helium from the radium emanation is, of course, obtained by the spectroscope, and its evidence is beyond assail (see fig. n). Here, then, is the partial conversion or decay of one element, radium, through an intermediate stage into another. And not only that, but if, as seems probable, the presence of helium indicates the previous presence CO in N n '• 210003