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MARINE  BIOLOGICAL  LABORATORY. 


Received 
Accession  No. 
Given  by 
Place, 


***flo  book  op  pamphlet  is  to  be  removed    from    the  lab- 
oratory ujithout  the  permission  of  the  Trustees. 


51146 


ESTABLISHED    BY   EDWARD   L.  YOUMANS. 


THE 


POPULAE   SCIENCE 


MONTHLY. 


**AH°r 


EDITED    BY   WILLIAM  JAY   YOUMANS. 


3  300153 


VOL.    XXXVI. 


NOVEMBER,    1889,   TO    APRIL,    1890. 


NEW  YORK : 

D.    APPLETON    AND    COMPANY, 

1,  3,  and  5  BOND  STREET. 

1890. 


DONATED    DY    TW 
oLiawCANTILE  LIBRARY  A.t^ .>'.* 
IMJEW    VORK     CITV 


Copyright,  1890, 
By   D.    APPLETON   AND   COMPANY. 


JOHN    LE    CONTE. 


THE 

POPULAR    SCIENCE 
MONTHLY,     x 


NOVEMBER,   1889. 

|u. 

THE   ART  OF   COOKING.* 

By  EDWAED  ATKINSON,  LL.D. 

THE  cost  of  materials  which  are  used  for  food  comes  to  one 
half  or  more  of  the  average  income  of  at  least  ninety  per 
cent  of  the  people  of  this  country  ;  yet  our  product  of  food  mate- 
rial is  more  abundant  in  ratio  to  population  than  that  of  any  other 
country  which  holds  a  prominent  position  in  the  civilized  world. 
This  food  consists  in  greatest  measure  of  grain,  meat,  dairy  prod- 
ucts, and  roots  or  tubers ;  in  small  part  of  fish,  green  vegetables, 
and  fruit.  The  greater  part  of  this  food  must  be  converted  into 
a  digestible  and  appetizing  form  by  the  application  of  heat  to  it 
at  the  right  temperature,  the  degree  varying  with  different  kinds 
of  food ;  this  heat  must  be  applied  for  a  suitable  time,  also  varying 
with  the  kind  of  material  which  is  to  be  converted  into  a  nutri- 
tious form  by  its  action.  Yet  there  are  no  popular  treatises  or 
definite  instructions  on  the  scientific  application  of  heat  to  food. 

Good  health  depends  in  greater  measure  upon  adequate  nutri- 
tion and  upon  the  conversion  of  food  material  into  a  digestible 
form  than  upon  any  other  factor  in  life.  A  well-nourished  man 
can  bear  adverse  conditions  of  life  in  the  dwelling-house,  the 
factory,  the  mine,  and  the  furnace,  to  which  the  ill-nourished  man 
will  succumb  in  a  very  short  time.  On  the  other  hand,  the  ca- 
pacity of  the  man  to  perform  his  work  is  as  fully  dependent 
upon  the  quality  and  adequacy  of  his  food  as  the  capacity  of  the 
horse,  ox,  or  mule.  The  force  of  the  man  depends  on  his  food  as 
much  as  the  force  of  the  engine  upon  the  fuel  used  under  the 

*  This  essay  has  been  prepared  for  the  American  Public  Health  Association :  delivered 
at  their  meeting  in  Brooklyn,  October  23,  1889.     With  their  consent  it  is  published  in  this 
number  of  "  The  Popular  Science  Monthly." 
vol.  xxxvi. — 1 

31765 


2  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

boiler;  this  is  almost  as  true  as  to  mental  as  it  is  to  physical 
power. 

There  are  innumerable  treatises  upon  the  feeding  of  animals  ; 
upon  the  generation  of  steam ;  upon  the  construction  and  ventila- 
tion of  buildings ;  upon  the  arts  which  relate  to  clothing  the  hu- 
man body,  and  upon  keeping  the  dwelling  and  workshop  warm  ; 
and,  lastly,  yet  more  numerous  treatises  or  cookery-books  upon 
the  art  of  mixing  and  preparing  the  food  which  is  to  be  cooked  ; 
there  are  also  many  treatises,  chemical  and  physiological,  upon 
the  subject  of  nutrition,  and  there  are  one  or  two  treatises  on  the 
science  of  cooking,  notably  Dr.  Mattieu  Williams's  "  Chemistry  of 
Cookery  "  ;  yet,  so  far  as  the  writer  has  been  able  to  ascertain  the 
facts,  there  is  no  receipt-book  or  cookery-book  in  common  use 
which  deals  with  the  actual  art  of  cooking  by  directing  the  right 
application  of  heat  for  a  suitable  time  and  at  a  suitable  degree,  to 
the  specific  food  which  is  to  be  converted  into  a  nutritious  form 
by  the  conversion  of  its  elements  into  new  forms  or  conditions  by 
the  action  of  heat  upon  it. 

It  is  possible  that  greater  attention  has  been  given  to  this  mat- 
ter in  England  than  in  this  country.  After  trying  in  vain  to  find 
an  oven  thermometer  in  the  United  States,  I  lately  imported  one 
from  England,  made  by  Joseph  Davis  &  Co.,  Fitzroy  Works,  Lon- 
don, S.  E.,  and  purchased  at  an  agricultural  show  at  retail  for 
seven  shillings  sixpence,  gauged  at  200°  to  600°  Fahrenheit.  On 
this  thermometer  are  marked  the  respective  degrees  to  which  vari- 
ous kinds  of  food  should  be  subjected,  as  follows  : 


Pork 320°  Fahr. 

Veal 320      " 

Beef 310      " 

Mutton 300      " 


Puff  pastry 340°  Fahr. 

Bread 340      " 

Pastry 320      " 

Meat-pie 290      " 


These  figures  agree  substantially  with  my  own  experiments  as 
to  the  maximum  of  heat,  but  I  do  not  concur  with  the  inference 
that  less  than  200°  Fahr.  may  not  be  permitted,  if  time  be  given 
for  the  lower  degree  of  heat  to  do  its  work.  On  the  contrary,  any 
kinds  of  very  tough  meat  may  be  reduced  to  a  very  tender  condi- 
tion by  the  long  application  of  heat  at  180°  to  200°,  without  loss  of 
flavor  or  nutritious  property,  provided  the  food  be  put  into  sub- 
stantially air-tight  vessels.  The  testimony  of  Dr.  Mattieu  Will- 
iams is  conclusive  on  this  point,  as  well  as  the  special  knowledge 
of  the  few  good  cooks  of  the  method  of  simmering  as  distin- 
guished from  boiling.  Meats  and  grains  may  be  most  nutritiously 
cooked  at  less  than  a  boiling  heat,  and  eggs  should  always  be ; 
while  most  kinds  of  roots,  tubers,  and  vegetables  require  a  higher 
degree. 

I  venture  now  to  give  some  of  the  general  conclusions  which  I 
have  reached  by  the  application  of  somewhat  crude  methods  and 


THE  ART   OF   COOKING.  3 

inventions  on  "which  I  have  experimented  personally  in  such 
scraps  of  time  as  I  could  spare  from  my  regular  occupation,  and 
on  nearly  two  years'  use  of  my  apparatus  in  my  own  family. 

I  will  challenge  attention  and  discussion  by  first  submitting 
some  very  positive  and  dogmatic  statements,  subsequently  sus- 
taining them  by  such  proofs  as  I  have  to  offer  : 

1.  Special  apparatus  for  boiling  and  frying  has  been  adequate- 
ly and  suitably  developed  for  the  use  of  those  who  can  afford 
these  somewhat  wasteful  methods  of  preparing  food,  yet  excellent 
when  skillfully  practiced. 

2.  The  ordinary  methods  of  frying  are  utterly  bad  and  wasteful. 

3.  Bread  may  be  baked  suitably  in  a  brick  oven,  and  also  eco- 
nomically, when  the  work  is  done  upon  a  large  scale. 

4.  It  is  very  difficult  to  bake  bread  in  a  suitable  way  in  the 
common  iron  stove  or  range ;  for  this,  among  other  reasons,  most 
of  the  bread  consumed  in  this  country  is  very  bad,  although  we 
have  the  greatest  abundance  of  the  best  material. 

5.  Meats  may  be  well  roasted  in  a  costly  manner  before  an 
open  fire. 

6.  Aside  from  the  exceptional  apparatus  or  methods  named, 
substantially  all  the  modern  cooking  stoves  and  ranges  are  waste- 
ful and  more  or  less  unsuitable  for  use.  All  the  ordinary  meth- 
ods of  quick  baking,  roasting,  and  boiling  are  bad ;  and,  finally, 
almost  the  whole  of  the  coal  or  oil  used  in  cooking  is  wasted. 

7.  The  smell  of  cooking  in  the  ordinary  way  gives  evidence  of 
waste  of  flavor  as  well  as  a  waste  of  nutritious  properties ;  ana  in 
most  cases  the  unpleasant  smell  also  gives  evidence  that  the  food 
is  being  converted  into  an  unwholesome  condition,  conducive  to 
indigestion  and  dyspepsia. 

8.  Nine  tenths  of  the  time  devoted  to  watching  the  process  of 
cooking  is  wasted ;  and  the  heat  and  discomfort  of  the  room  in 
which  the  cooking  is  done  are  evidence  of  worse  than  waste. 

9.  The  warming  of  the  room  or  house  with  the  apparatus  used 
for  cooking  is  inconsistent  with  the  best  method  of  cooking,  and 
might  be  compassed  at  much  less  cost  if  the  process  of  cooking 
were  separated  from  the  process  of  warming  the  room  or  dwelling. 

10.  No  fuel  which  can  not  be  wholly  consumed  is  fit  to  use  in 
the  process  of  cooking,  and  any  chimney  which  creates  a  draught 
upon  the  fuel  when  in  the  process  of  combustion,  like  the  ordi- 
nary chimney  of  a  house,  is  worse  than  useless,  since  it  wastes  the 
greater  part  of  the  heat  generated  from  the  fuel. 

The  true  science  of  cooking  consists  in  the  regulated  and  con- 
trolled application  of  heat  by  which  flavors  are  developed  and  the 
work  of  conversion  is  accomplished.  For  this  purpose  a  quantity 
of  fuel  is  required  which  is  almost  absurdly  small  compared  to  the 
quantity  commonly  used. 


4  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

Compare  the  ordinary  method  of  using  fuel  for  cooking  with 
the  scientific  use  of  fuel  for  the  development  of  power  in  the 
steam-engine. 

The  sheet  of  lightly  sized  linen  paper  abstracted  from  the  un- 
used part  of  an  old  ledger,  on  which  I  am  now  writing  the  first 
draught  of  this  essay,  measures  13"  X  9"  =  117  square  inches,  and 
weighs  half  an  ounce.  In  solid  form  it  measures  half  a  cubic 
inch.  If  consumed  under  the  boiler  of  the  modern  marine  steam- 
engine  such  as  is  used  in  the  freight-steamers  that  carry  our  wheat 
to  England,  two  sheets  of  this  paper  in  a  solid  form  would  be  equal 
to  seventy-one  per  cent  of  the  calorific  value  of  a  cube  of  bituminous 
coal  of  the  same  size,  and  would  drive  a  ton  of  wheat  and  its  pro- 
portion of  the  steamship  1  fo  miles  on  the  way  from  the  producer 
to  the  consumer  at  the  present  standard  of  power  developed  from 
coal.  Yet  not  over  twelve  per  cent  of  the  actual  power  of  the 
heat  which  this  scrap  of  paper  will  yield  would  even  then  be  act- 
ually converted  into  work.  A  cube  of  pure  wood-pulp  of  the 
same  size  will  do  the  same  work.  On  the  other  hand,  wood-pulp 
until  ignited  is  the  best  available  non-conductor  of  heat ;  I  there- 
fore build  my  ovens  in  greater  part  of  wood-pulp  prepared  so  as 
not  to  ignite  at  any  degree  of  heat  which  is  necessary  for  cooking ; 
but  even  in  my  oven  it  requires  one  quart  of  oil,  measuring  a  frac- 
tion under  fifty-eight  cubic  inches,  to  cook  fifty  to  sixty  pounds  of 
bread,  meat,  and  vegetables  in  four  successive  charges  occupying 
two  hours  each.  Compared  with  the  application  of  heat  to  the 
development  of  power,  even  my  oven  must  be  utterly  condemned 
aswasteful  of  fuel ;  but  compare  my  quart  of  oil  with  the  hod- 
f uls  of  coal  that  would  be  required  to  cook  sixty  pounds  of  food  in 
the  common  range  or  stove,  and  then  what  is  the  verdict  ? 

I  now  venture  to  submit  the  data  of  a  dinner  prepared  by 
myself,  but  little  out  of  the  usual  course,  as  an  example  of  the 
common  practice  in  my  own  family,  and  of  what  may  be  done 
substantially  with  one  lamp.  The  dinner  was  provided  for  my 
own  family  of  seven  persons,  with  five  guests,  and  it  also  sufficed 
for  four  servants — sixteen  in  all — with  something  left  over.  My 
summer  kitchen  is  fitted  with  a  cooking-stove,  as  it  is  more  con- 
venient to  use  the  top  of  the  stove,  heated  with  hard-wood  chips, 
for  boiling  water,  heating  the  soup,  and  boiling  potatoes,  than  it  is 
to  use  a  kerosene-oil  stove  of  the  common  kind  ;  on  this  stove  the 
soup  made  the  day  before  in  the  Aladdin  cooker  was  reheated, 
the  potatoes  were  boiled,  and  the  hot  water  was  provided. 

The  dinner  cooked  in  the  Aladdin  oven  consisted  of  three  to 
four  pounds  of  fresh  blue-fish,  just  caught,  cooked  in  imitation  of 
broiling,  one  hour;  six  to  seven  pounds  leg  and  loin  of  lamb, 
roasted  one  and  three  fourths  hours  ;  three  tame  ducks,  weighing 
about  seven  pounds,  roasted  one  hour ;  squash  cooked  in  its  own 


THE  ART   OF   COOKING.  5 

juice,  with  but  very  little  water,  one  and  three  fourths  hours ; 
stuffed  tomatoes  cooked  three  quarters  of  an  hour ;  a  large  apple 
souffle  pudding  baked  one  hour. 

The  oven  having  been  previously  heated  one  hour,  the  lamb 
and  the  squash  were  first  put  in  ;  later  the  fish  was  added  ;  while 
these  were  being  served,  the  ducks  and  the  pudding  were  being 
cooked  ;  the  use  of  the  lamp  for  the  whole  service  was  four  hours  ; 
the  oil  consumed,  one  pint,  cost  less  than  two  cents  ;  the  cook's  es- 
timate of  the  coal  which  would  have  been  required  for  the  dinner 
had  it  been  cooked  in  the  large  stove  which  has  been  used  in  other 
years,  at  one  and  a  half  to  two  ordinary  hodfuls. 

This  was  an  every-day  dinner,  to  which  my  guests  had  been  in- 
vited in  order  that  they  might  test  our  common  practice. 

I  assume  that  the  effect  of  heat  upon  food  material  is  what  may 
be  called  chemical  conversion,  accompanied,  when  the  heat  is  ap- 
plied at  a  low  degree  only,  by  partial  evaporation  of  water,  but 
when  applied  at  a  high  degree,  by  partial  distillation  of  the  juices, 
by  the  cracking  or  dissociation  of  the  fats,  and  by  the  diffusion  of 
the  volatile  parts  of  the  food  in  bad  smells  with  loss  of  flavor  and 
waste  of  some  of  the  nutritious  properties  of  the  material.  If  the 
cracking  or  dissociation  of  the  fats  is  carried  to  a  point  which  is 
very  common  in  iron  stoves  and  ranges,  the  residuum  of  the  fat 
becomes  very  indigestible  and  positively  unwholesome.  When 
rightly  cooked  and  not  cracked  or  dissociated,  a  certain  portion  of 
fat  is  absolutely  necessary  to  adequate  nutrition.  Is  it  not  true 
that  we  take  into  our  stomachs  a  great  deal  too  much  fat,  and  that 
it  is  eaten  in  the  most  injurious  form  ? 

The  preparation  of  the  coffee-berry  is  the  most  familiar  exam- 
ple of  the  development  of  its  properties  by  the  right  application 
of  heat.  If  the  berry  is  dried,  ground,  and  made  into  an  infusion 
without  being  roasted,  no  true  or  drinkable  coffee  can  be  made 
from  it.  If  overheated  and  burned,  the  infusion  is  acrid  and  un- 
wholesome. But  when  the  berry  is  carefully  roasted  and  ground, 
the  infusion  makes  true  coffee.  The  flavor  and  other  properties 
are  the  actual  product  of  the  heat,  when  scientifically  applied. 
The  flavor  of  the  pea-nut  is  developed  in  the  same  way.  In  the 
treatment  of  grain,  none  yields  so  great  a  difference  in  flavor, 
according  to  the  method  of  cooking,  as  the  meal  of  maize  or  In- 
dian corn ;  but  I  find  the  wheaten  bread,  whether  made  of  whole 
or  of  bolted  flour,  yields  a  much  finer  flavor  when  baked  two  or 
three  hours  in  my  pulp  oven  at  250°  to  300°  Fahr.,  than  when 
quickly  baked  in  a  common  stove  or  range  in  one  hour  at  an 
unknown  but  admittedly  much  higher  degree  of  heat.  The  flavors 
of  the  white  kinds  of  fish,  such  as  cod,  haddock,  flounder,  scup, 
and  the  like,  which  are  much  impaired  by  the  ordinary  methods 
of  cooking,  are  very  finely  developed  when  slowly  cooked  in  my 


6  THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

oven;  and,  lastly,  all  kinds  of  meat  and  poultry  develop  their 
respective  flavors  in  the  most  appetizing  manner  when  roasted  in 
my  pulp  oven  at  such  low  degrees  of  heat  as  not  to  give  off  any 
smell  or  to  dissociate  any  of  the  volatile  elements  of  the  juices 
or  fats,  while  for  game  nothing  can.  equal  it.  Quail  and  partridge 
come  out  rich,  juicy,  and  of  almost  too  full  a  flavor. 

I  have  frequently  served  dinners  or  lunches  of  four  or  five 
courses — soup  made  the  day  before,  reheated ;  fish,  meat,  game, 
potatoes,  cauliflower,  asparagus,  onions,  tomatoes,  and  custard 
pudding — all  cooked  in  the  same  oven  at  the  same  time  in  the 
dining-room,  and  served  from  the  oven  to  the  table  in  the  china 
or  earthen  dishes  in  which  each  had  been  cooked ;  the  only  differ- 
ence between  one  dish  and  another  being  in  respect  to  the  time  in 
which  it  had  been  subjected  to  the  heat  of  the  lamp  or  lamps,  yet 
without  the  least  flavor  or  taint  being  carried  from  one  kind  of 
food  to  the  other. 

It  will  be  apparent  that,  if  cooking  can  be  done  in  this  way, 
the  whole  art  will  consist  in  preparing  the  food  according  to  writ- 
ten or  printed  receipts,  and  in  determining  the  degree  of  heat  and 
the  time  to  which  these  dishes  should  be  subjected.  No  watching 
is  needed,  and  indeed  none  is  possible  without  danger  of  cooling 
off  the  oven  by  opening  it  too  often.  Of  course,  it  is  better  to  use 
two  ovens  than  one,  devoting  one  to  meat  and  fish,  served  by  a 
lamp  of  moderate  power  for  the  right  period  of  time,  and  the 
other  served  by  a  lamp  of  higher  power  for  cooking  vegetables, 
puddings,  and  pastry. 

My  Aladdin  ovens,  so  called,  are  adapted  to  methods  of  cook- 
ing corresponding  to  broiling,  roasting,  baking,  and  braising ;  but 
they  can  also  be  used  for  boiling  and  simmering. 

My  Aladdin  cooker,  so  called,  in  which  the  heat  is  conveyed 
through  water,  is  devoted  wholly  to  boiling,  stewing,  and  simmer- 
ing, especially  the  latter.  I  neither  attempt  nor  desire  to  fry  any- 
thing in  either  kind  of  apparatus.  About  nine  tenths  of  all  the 
cooking  of  my  somewhat  large  family  has  been  done  with  this 
apparatus  for  nearly  two  years,  and  I  also  have  an  office  lunch- 
room for  the  use  of  about  twenty  employe's,  in  which  no  other 
apparatus  is  or  can  be  used.  My  summer  kitchen  at  my  sea-side 
house  is  fitted  with  a  grill  which  is  very  seldom  used ;  it  proves 
to  be  most  convenient  to  use  the  cooking-stove,  heated  with  hard- 
wood chips,  for  boiling  the  water  for  tea  and  for  occasional  frying. 

My  winter  kitchen  is  a  large  one,  and  it  depends  upon  the 
range  for  warming  it.  The  range,  therefore,  continues  to  be  used 
to  some  extent  for  cooking,  mainly  for  preparing  breakfast,  but  I 
contemplate  substituting  a  special  stove  without  any  oven,  which 
will  heat  the  room  with  much  less  coal,  the  top  of  the  stove  being 
fitted  for  cooking  in  the  ordinary  way.     Neither  the  oven  of  the 


THE  ART   OF   COOKING.  7 

stove  in  summer  nor  of  the  range  in  winter  are  now  used  for 
cooking ;  therefore,  the  kitchen  is  never  overheated  and  the  food 
is  never  spoiled.  We  have  occasionally  failed  to  cook  a  large 
joint  of  meat  for  a  sufficient  time,  but  we  have  never  spoiled  a 
dish  in  the  process  of  cooking  since  the  pulp  or  jacketed  oven 
was  adopted. 

What,  then,  are  the  simple  principles  of  the  science  of  cook- 
ing ?    I  think  they  may  be  stated  in  a  few  very  plain  terms  : 

1.  The  heat  should  be  derived  from  fuel  which  can  be  wholly 
consumed  or  wholly  converted  into  the  products  of  complete  com- 
bustion without  any  chimney  except  that  of  the  lamp  or  burner. 
The  fault  with  coal,  especially  anthracite,  is,  that  it  is  not  evenly 
or  fully  consumed  ;  hence  the  need  of  a  chimney  to  take  away  the 
gases  developed  and  not  wholly  consumed  ;  but  the  chimney  also 
carries  off  the  greater  part  of  the  heat.  It  is  very  evident  that  the 
crude  combustion  of  coal  and  the  direct  application  of  the  heat 
generated  will  ere  long  give  way  to  more  scientific  methods  of 
consuming  the  gaseous  products  and  of  deriving  the  heat  from 
the  final  combustion  of  the  gaseous  products  in  all  arts.  In  the 
matter  of  cooking,  kerosene-oil  burned  in  any  one  of  the  types  of 
lamp  which  have  a  central  duct  to  convey  oxygen  from  below  to 
the  inner  side  of  a  circular  wick,  when  properly  trimmed  and 
served  with  well  -  distilled  oil,  gives  substantially  perfect  com- 
bustion. 

The  same  may  be  said  of  illuminating  gas  when  used  in  one  of 
the  burners  of  the  Bunsen  type  which  supply  an  excess  of  oxygen 
and  yield  the  blue  flame. 

The  combustion  of  oil  and  of  gas  can  be  brought  under  abso 
lute  control  by  gauging  the  size  of  wick  or  burner  to  the  work  to 
be  done. 

2.  The  oven  in  which  the  food  is  to  be  subjected  to  this  meas- 
urable and  controllable  source  of  heat  must  be  so  constructed  that 
the  heat  imparted  to  it  may  be  entrapped  and  accumulated  up  to 
a  certain  measure  or  degree  and  then  maintained  at  that  tempera- 
ture without  substantial  variation  until  the  work  is  done.  This 
can  be  done  by  jacketing  the  oven  in  a  suitable  way  with  mate- 
rial which  is  incombustible  and  also  a  non-conductor  of  heat. 

3.  There  should  be  no  direct  communication  between  the  true 
oven  or  receptacle  in  which  the  food  is  placed  and  the  source  of 
heat,  lest  the  products  of  incomplete  combustion  should  some- 
times taint  the  food,  and  lest  the  food  should  be  exposed  to  being 
in  places  burned  or  scorched. 

These  three  conditions  are  all  accomplished  in  the  two  some- 
what crude  and  probably  incomplete  inventions  which  I  have 
named  the  "  Aladdin  Cooker  "  and  the  "  Aladdin  Oven,"  in  both  of 
which  the  heat  derived  from  common  lamps,  such  as  are  used  for 


8  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

lighting,  may  be  stored  or  accumulated  so  as  to  do  the  work  of 
cooking  in  a  very  perfect  manner.  In  the  cooker  the  heat  is  im- 
parted to  water  in  an  attachment  to  a  metal-lined  wooden  box 
corresponding  to  the  water-back  of  the  common  range  or  stove, 
and  the  work  is  done  by  the  contact  of  the  hot  water  with  the 
outside  of  the  porcelain  vessels  in  which  the  food  is  placed,  or  by 
the  steam  generated  when  the  water  is  heated  to  the  boiling-point. 

In  the  oven  a  column  of  heated  air  is  carried  from  the  chim- 
ney of  the  lamp  to  the  inside  of  an  outer  oven  made  chiefly  of 
prepared  wood-pulp,  but  outside  of  the  inner  sheet-iron  or  metallic 
oven  in  which  the  food  is  placed,  which  inner  oven  is  separately 
ventilated. 

I  do  not  claim  any  originality  in  these  simple  principles  or  in 
the  idea  of  jacketing  an  oven  with  non-conductors  of  heat.  All 
these  matters  are  well  understood  by  every  intelligent  stove- 
manufacturer,  but  it  is  practically  impossible  for  any  one  to  apply 
them  in  making  stoves  such  as  will  meet  the  demand  of  the  mar- 
ket, for  two  reasons : 

1.  The  greatest  demand  for  stoves  is  that  of  people  of  very 
moderate  means,  who  are  too  much  controlled  by  the  price  in  mak- 
ing a  choice,  making  the  common  error  in  confounding  cheapness 
with  low  price,  an  error  which  leads  to  great  waste  not  only  in 
the  matter  of  stoves  but  in  many  other  ways. 

2.  The  absolute  and  imperative  preference  of  the  public  for  a 
stove  in  or  upon  which  the  work  can  be  done  very  quickly. 

The  custom  of  cooking  quickly  is  in  part  a  matter  of  choice, 
and  in  part  due  to  the  necessity  to  which  a  great  many  working 
people  are  subject  to  cook  their  meals  quickly  or  else  to  go  with- 
out hot  breakfasts  and  dinners. 

Another  great  obstruction  to  improvement  in  the  art  of  cook- 
ing is  the  almost  universal  misconception  that  the  finer  cuts  of 
meat  are  more  nutritious  than  the  coarser  portions,  coupled  with 
an  almost  universal  prejudice  among  working  people  against 
stewed  food.  This  prejudice  is  doubtless  due  to  the  tasteless 
quality  of  boiled  meat ;  boiling  toughens  each  of  the  fine  fibers, 
and  deprives  the  meat  almost  wholly  of  its  distinctive  flavor. 

All  these  blunders  and  misconceptions  must  evidently  be 
removed  before  any  true  art  of  cooking  can  become  common 
practice. 

The  more  necessary,  however,  does  it  become  to  invent  appa- 
ratus in  which  meat  can  only  be  simmered  and  can  not  boil,  as  in 
the  Aladdin  cooker,  and  also  to  invent  a  stove  or  oven  in  which 
neither  meat  nor  bread  can  be  overcooked,  dried  up,  or  rendered 
indigestible  by  too  much  heat,  as  in  the  Aladdin  oven. 

Next,  people  must  be  persuaded  that  a  better  and  more  nutri- 
tious breakfast  can  be  made  ready  to  eat,  as  soon  as  the  family 


THE  ART   OF   COOKING.  9 

are  out  of  bed,  by  putting  meat  stews,  oatmeal,  brown  bread,  and 
many  kinds  of  puddings,  into  the  cooker,  and  simmering  all  night 
by  the  use  of  a  single  safe  lamp,  than  in  any  other  way. 

People  must  be  taught  that  the  dinner  can  be  put  into  the  oven 
when  both  husband  and  wife  go  to  the  mill  to  work,  and  so  treated 
that  it  may  be  found  perfectly  cooked  at  noon,  without  requiring 
any  attention  in  the  interval. 

People  must  be  taught  that  the  best  of  bread,  raised  with  good 
yeast,  can  be  mixed  and  kneaded  between  12.30  and  1  p.  m.,  placed 
in  a  bread-raiser,  which  will  raise  it  ready  for  the  oven  at  6  or  7 
p.  m.,  and  that  this  bread  may  be  perfectly  baked  in  two  hours  by 
the  heat  of  the  evening  lamp,  which  at  the  same  time  serves  to 
give  light  for  reading  or  sewing. 

All  this  can  be  accomplished  with  my  crude  apparatus,  but, 
until  some  skillful  stove-makers  take  up  these  inventions  and 
make  the  ovens  in  large  numbers  at  low  cost,  my  own  efforts  must 
be  directed  mainly  toward  ameliorating  the  condition  of  the  rich, 
saving  the  houses  of  the  well-to-do  from  the  heat  and  smell  of  the 
present  bad  methods,  and  in  this  way  creating  a  demand  for  my 
ovens  which,  while  made  in  small  numbers  by  hand-work,  are  too 
costly  for  general  use,  although  in  an  ordinary  family  they  will 
pay  for  themselves  in  six  months. 

I  have  ventured  to  call  the  attention  of  the  Public  Health  As- 
sociation to  these  matters,  because  I  have  been  led,  by  the  study 
of  the  statistics  of  the  cost  of  subsistence,  to  certain  conclusions 
which  are  wholly  in  the  line  of  your  work. 

I  venture  to  ask  you  if  it  is  not  a  fact  that  bad  and  wasteful 
methods  of  consuming  food  are  not  a  most  potent  cost  of  inability 
to  work  to  the  best  advantage  ?  Are  they  not  more  promotive 
of  disease,  and,  in  fact,  a  more  subtle  cause  of  want  in  the  midst 
of  abundance,  than  even  the  waste  on  fermented  and  spirituous 
liquors  ? 

From  my  own  observations,  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  dyspepsia 
is  a  cause  of  more  disability  than  intemperance,  although  this 
proposition  is  not  capable  of  statistical  demonstration. 

Material  life  consists  in  the  conversion  of  forces,  or  in  the  ap- 
plication of  material  products,  to  the  supply  of  the  necessities  of 
life.  In  the  line  of  absolute  necessity  food  comes  first,  clothing 
next,  and  shelter  third.  The  supply  of  the  materials  for  meeting 
these  needs  of  the  body  is  superabundant ;  comfort  and  welfare 
depend  upon  the  relative  proportion  of  the  materials  used,  or  upon 
the  direction  which  may  be  given  to  the  conversion  of  these  forces. 
The  result  of  each  year's  work  is  a  given  product ;  whether  that 
product  shall  be  adequate  or  otherwise  depends  almost  wholly 
upon  individual  intelligence.  In  respect  to  the  great  majority  of 
all  who  perform  the  actual  manual  or  mechanical  wo^k  of  produc- 


io  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

tion,  if  the  expenditure  for  food  and  drink  is  unduly  large,  then 
either  clothing  or  shelter  must  be  restricted ;  a  small  part  of  the 
waste  of  food,  on  which  half  the  income  is  spent,  might,  if  saved, 
enable  the  family  to  double  the  expenditure  for  a  dwelling-place. 
It  follows  that  the  most  difficult  question  with  which  practical 
reformers  are  called  upon  to  deal,  viz.,  that  of  providing  more 
ample  and  comfortable  dwellings,  may  be  solved  by  altering  the 
conversion  of  the  present  product,  even  if  that  may  not  be  in- 
creased, so  that  what  is  now  in  part  wasted  on  food  and  drink 
may  be  spent  for  better  shelter,  and  yet  the  family  may  be  more 
fully  nourished  than  at  present.  I  do  not  claim  absolute  accuracy 
for  the  following  proportion  of  expenses  in  workingmen's  fami- 
lies, but  I  am  quite  sure  they  are  near  enough  to  the  mark  to  serve 
as  an  example. 

In  a  family  of  five  adults,  or  of  four  adults  and  two  children 
ten  or  under,  making  an  average  family  of  five  persons,  in  which 
one  half  the  income  is  spent  for  food  and  fuel,  twenty-five  cents 
a  day  per  adult  being  spent  for  food,  the  corresponding  average 
expenditure  per  adult : 

For  clothing  will  be • V  to     9  cents. 

For  liquor  it  may  be 2  to     4       " 

For  sundries  it  will  be  about 5       " 

And  the  remainder  for  rent  or  shelter,  if  no  liquor  is  used 9  to  1 1       " 

If  liquor  is  used 1  to     9       " 

Now,  I  think  it  is  very  safe  to  put  the  waste  of  food  material 
at  twenty  per  cent,  or  five  cents  a  day ;  if  this  misspent  force  and 
one  half  the  average  cost  of  liquor,  or  two  cents  a  day,  could  be 
converted  into  shelter — that  is  to  say,  to  providing  a  more  ample 
dwelling  by  either  buying  or  leasing — it  would  suffice  to  enlarge 
the  present  quarters  by  one  half  to  three  fourths.  Five  cents  a 
day  per  adult  comes  to  $1,000,000,000  or  more  a  year,  counting  two 
children  of  ten  or  under  as  equal  to  one  adult.  But  the  greater 
benefit  which  would  come  from  a  true  art  of  preparing  food  would 
consist  in  the  increase  of  the  productive  force  of  the  community, 
so  that  the  provision  for  dwelling  might  be  increased  both  abso- 
lutely and  relatively.  I  might  add  another  treatise  to  this,  on  the 
waste  of  force  in  bad  building  and  from  the  common  practice 
of  what  I  have  named  the  art  of  combustible  architecture ;  but 
time  will  not  serve.  Suffice  it  that  the  product  of  this  nation  is 
more  than  ample  for  the  abundant  subsistence,  the  adequate 
shelter,  and  the  complete  clothing  of  every  family  in  it ;  yet  we 
witness  want  in  the  midst  of  plenty,  .because  we  waste  enough  to 
support  another  nation  at  the  standard  of  French  economy  and 
thrift,  especially  in  the  matter  of  food. 

I  may  now  venture  to  call  your  attention  to  some  of  the  very 
subtile  points  which  are  brought  out  by  the  statistical  investiga- 


THE  ART   OF   COOKING.  n 

tion  of  the  food  question.  I  suppose  that  there  is  no  kind  of  meat 
which  is  consumed  so  generally  or  in  such  large  quantity  as  pork ; 
yet,  according  to  the  chemical  and  physiological  data,  the  conver- 
sion of  Indian  corn  into  pork,  at  the  rate  of  one  thousand  pounds 
of  corn  to  two  hundred  pounds  of  pork,  results  in  a  waste  of  prac- 
tically all  the  protein  and  nearly  all  the  starch,  and  gives  a  re- 
siduum of  fat  of  which  most  people  get  too  much  in  the  other 
kinds  of  food  which  they  consume.  Yet  it  would  be  useless  to  try 
to  abolish  pork  from  the  common  dietary.  I  sometimes  wonder  if 
the  Hebrew  lawgivers  were  not  good  economists  when  they  con- 
demned the  use  of  pork,  or  whether  they  were  guided  wholly  by 
sanitary  considerations. 

Again,  the  present  crop  of  wheat  calls  for  fifty  thousand  tons  of 
twine  for  binding  it  upon  the  self -binding  harvester ;  the  cost  of 
binding  wheat  by  hand  was  five  to  six  cents  per  bushel,  and  it 
required  a  small  army  of  agricultural  tramps  who  charged  almost 
any  price  when  needed  to  do  this  work.  The  self-binder  reduced 
this  charge  to  not  exceeding  one  cent  and  a  half  per  bushel. 
This  reduction,  which  finally  took  effect  two  or  three  years  before 
the  resumption  of  specie  payments  in  this  country  in  1879,  was 
one  of  the  principal  factors  in  enabling  us  to  export  wheat  profit- 
ably and  vastly  in  excess  of  anything  previously  known  ;  and  it 
was  upon  the  margin  of  exports  over  imports,  consisting  wholly 
of  wheat,  that  we  were  enabled  to  import  gold  in  sufficient  meas- 
ure to  resume  specie  payment.  Yet  this  all  turned  on  tying  a 
knot  by  the  machine  instead  of  by  hand. 

Again,  I  will  present  to  you  my  diagram  of  the  loaf  of  bread, 
which  I  have  frequently  used  in  other  ways.  You  will  observe 
that,  with  wheat  at  about  the  present  price,  bread  can  be  made  and 
can  be  sold  in  a  very  large  way  at  three  to  three  and  one  half  cents 
per  pound  ;  but  if  the  bread  is  distributed  in  the  customary  man- 
ner by  way  of  small  shops  or  by  delivery  on  the  part  of  the  bakers 
themselves,  you  will  find  that  the  price  of  bread  ranges  from  five 
to  eight  cents  a  pound,  according  to  the  quality. 

Now,  in  this  oven  made  of  paper,  any  person  of  ordinary  intel- 
ligence who  is  willing  to  devote  twenty  minutes  to  kneading  bread 
— which  requires  more  muscle  than  it  does  mind — then  placing  it 
in  the  bread-raiser,  following  a  certain  rule,  taking  it  out  at  a  given 
time  and  putting  it  in  this  oven  over  this  lamp,  can  make  better 
bread  at  three  to  three  and  one  half  cents  per  pound  than  any 
baker's  bread  which  can  be  purchased.  Here  are  samples  of  the 
bread  ;  you  can  taste  it  for  yourselves.  I  devoted  two  evenings  to 
learning  how  to  make  bread  ;  and  I  baked  these  loaves,  some  of 
which  I  made  myself,  by  the  heat  of  the  evening  lamp  which 
lighted  my  library  table  while  I  was  reading  my  evening  paper. 

I  have  said  that  a  saving  of  five  cents  per  day  per  capita  might 


12 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


Chariton,  Iowa 


October,  1883. 


Glyndon. 


No.  1. 


405  00  1 


do  oo(\ 


No.  2.       $117  5° 


No.  3. 

$50  00 

No.  4. 

$45  00 

No.  5. 

$30  00 

No.  6.       $200  00 


No. 


$210  00  1 


No.  8.    $1,057  5° 


$562  50 


No.  9.    $1,620  00 
8180  00 


No.  10.  $1,800  00 


No.  1,  $405,  is  the  price  which  the 
farmer  receives  in  Iowa,  at  90  cents 
per  bushel ;  $360,  in  Dakota,  at  80  cents 
per  bushel. 


No.  2,  $117.50  is  the  charge  made 
by  the  railway  for  moving  450  bushels 
of  wheat  from"  Chariton  to  Chicago,  and 
100  barrels  of  flour  thence  to  Boston, 
$197.50  ;  Glyndon  to  Minneapolis  and 
thence  to  Boston,  $82.25  ;  cost  of  rail- 
road service  at  70  per  cent.,  $138.25  of 
the  total  charges. 

$35.25  profit,  at  30  per  cent.,  $59,25. 

No.  3,  $50,  cost  of  milling. 
No.  4,  $45,  cost  of  barrels. 
No.   5,   $30,    merchant's    commissions 
and  cartage  in  Boston. 


No.  6,  $200,  cost  of  labor  in  making 
100  barrels  flour  into  bread  in  a  small 
bakery. 


No.  7,  $210,  cost  of  fuel,  yeast,  salt, 
etc.,  used  in  converting  100  barrels  flour 
into  bread. 


No.  8,  final  cost  of  bread  ready  for 
distribution,  average  3  J  cents  per 
pound  ;  varying  a  little  with  the  quality 
of  the  flour  and  the  quality  of  bread. 
Iowa  flour  yields  270  and  200  pounds  per 
barrel ;  Dakota  flour  yields  280  and  300 
pounds  per  barrel. 


OoDquoo 
0  rvO  Op1. 


SCO  OO  0<    O 

1 ;  1   o  ■  .1  C  J  O 


$360  00   No.  1. 


$197  50   No.  2. 


$50  00  No.  3. 
$45  00  No.  4. 
$30  00  No.  5. 


No.  6. 


$210  00  No.  7. 


No.  9,  the  price  which  the  poorer  peo- 
ple of  Boston  pay  for  poor  bread,  made 
from  a  medium  grade  known  as  "  baker's 
flour,"  averages  not  less  than  6  cents 
per  pound,  which  makes  the  cost  of 
distributing  100  barrels  of  Iowa  flour 
baked  into  bread,  No.  9,  $562.50,  and 
100  barrels  Dakota  flour,  $587.50  at  the 
minimum  yield  of  270  and  280  pounds 
bread  to  the  barrel.  When  either  kind 
of  flour  is  treated  so  as  to  yield  300 
pounds  bread  to  a  barrel  and  sold 
at  6  cents  per  pound,  $180,  or  $120,  is 
added,  and  the  final  cost  of  the  bread 
to  the  consumer  is  at  the  rate  of  $18 
per  barrel  of  flour,  No.  10. 


$1,092  50   No.  8. 


,      $587  So 


pi, 680  00   No.  9. 
$120  00 


$1,800  00  No.  10. 


The  foregoing  table  was  made  in  1883,  when  wheat  was  worth  ninety  cents  a  bushel  on 
the  far  Western  farms.  The  price  of  wheat,  and  the  charges  for  transportation  and  milling, 
are  now  lower.    The  cost  of  distributing  bread  is  now  greater  in  proportion  than  it  was  in  1883. 


THE  ART   OF   COOKING.  13 

readily  be  made  in  the  food-supply  of  an  average  family.  The 
customary  ration  is  from  three  fourths  of  a  pound  to  a  pound ;  in 
the  families  of  poor  people,  who  depend  very  much  upon  bread,  I 
suppose  it  is  one  pound.  Now,  wherever  such  a  family  is  paying 
six  cents  a  pound  for  wheat  bread,  not  an  uncommon  price  among 
the  poor  in  Boston,  a  saving  of  two  and  one  half  cents  a  day  can 
be  made  on  bread  only  by  making  it  in  the  family  and  baking  it 
in  this  oven. 

But,  again,  this  possibility  leads  to  another  consideration.  It 
is  conceivable  that  all  the  bread  may  by  and  by  be  made  in  this 
way.  Then  what  would  become  of  all  the  bakers  ?  They  would 
for  a  time  suffer  for  want  of  work  ;  but  you  will  observe  that  in 
this  as  in  most  of  the  actual  improvements  in  the  conditions  of  so- 
ciety, the  art  which  would  be  displaced  is  one  of  the  most  onerous 
kinds  of  labor,  requiring  long  hours  of  night-work ;  a  greater 
abundance  of  bread  would  be  furnished  at  less  cost ;  and  pres- 
ently the  bakers  would  be  absorbed  in  other  branches  of  work. 
How  that  happens,  and  how  such  adjustments  are  made,  I  suppose 
no  one  knows.  There  was  formerly  one  branch  of  cotton-spin- 
ning, viz.,  the  sizing  of  the  warps,  which  was  conducted  under 
very  uncomfortable  if  not  unwholesome  conditions.  The  old- 
fashioned  dressing-machine,  as  it  was  called,  on  which  all  the 
warps  of  cotton  goods  were  prepared  with  starch  for  weaving,  was 
worked  in  a  room  at  from  110°  to  120°  Fahr.,  the  atmosphere  be- 
ing impregnated  with  the  smell  of  sour  starch ;  and  in  a  given 
factory  the  work  of  eight  men  was  required.  In  the  year  1866  I 
was  myself  instrumental  in  importing  two  machines  of  a  new 
kind  from  Great  Britain ;  these  machines  were  operated  in  a  light, 
cool,  and  well-ventilated  room ;  a  man  and  a  boy  did  the  work  of 
the  eight  men.  What  became  of  the  other  seven  men  ?  I  never 
could  trace  them ;  they  were  merged  in  the  great  body  of  work- 
men. The  new  machine  has  wholly  displaced  the  old  one ;  and 
there  is  now  no  branch  of  work  in  the  cotton-mill  which  is  con- 
sidered injurious,  or  subject  to  any  great  discomfort.  In  fact, 
when  the  final  application  of  invention  is  made  to  the  cotton-fac- 
tory by  using  ice  or  other  methods  of  cooling  the  air  in  summer, 
as  we  use  fuel  to  heat  the  rooms  in  winter,  the  atmosphere  of  the 
cotton-mill  will  become  about  the  most  salubrious  that  can  be  ob- 
tained, for  the  reason  that  the  exact  degree  of  heat  and  humidity 
which  is  called  for  in  the  best  work  in  spinning  and  weaving  is 
consistent  with  the  exact  degree  required  for  the  health  of  the 
human  body ;  and  since  electric  lighting  has  displaced  the  nox- 
ious vapors  of  illuminating  gas,  it  may  soon  become  possible  to 
secure  workers  in  a  cotton-mill  on  the  ground  that  a  cotton-mill 
is  the  best  sanitarium. 

I  have  given  you  these  last  few  data,  which  are  not  immediately 


•S 


'-[' 


w 


7 

\ 

'Mr-. 

/ 

i 

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/". 


S: 


i  o   r 


G-  Copper-  \-,  vV\r\o 

Tt).  Copper  i«\%'\6&  oouerv 

jt>  T.  tvivciC^cA  copper  cone,   AlA(i    oon. 
..-  }e,^Ve<L*  \»   h«,PiU>  +Ke    limp,    ---^r 


© 


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■/////^ 


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I 

I 


:iyv;-^^ 


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7 


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I 


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S 


^~UY\ 


2o  Aee,*^, 


2 


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o 


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ee* 


*  n  S'  i  d  e   o v e vm  o 
Vne  V  w\       10  in.    >r 
12-in.  dztP,    \\\\\\M\o\\. 
«3n\ov*to\e  shelve*. 
OuVev  ovcim   oy  yion-7yie-: 
tftUc    Y\v\d  won-    ^e  wY 
Co  ndo  o-V\  y\  o    w\*\otmM 
lib  %\r\.  \\fi>o\L      Doer 
hvnc   on  finises',  tot\Hen- 
6cL   over  ^V\e  •oid.e-S'     ^o 
as"   to    lup    o\o£C. 
1+  >v\.  p  o  undi  hole   iy\ 

+  o  p    w  i  -VVj    s'l o  p  pe  if. 


•/•-:• 


rw, 


a: 


(.■•is 


ve  m 


iV\e   K^kw^ON    0 

\vOra\e  \e,^    \S\v\    V^oV\  ,  £o 

m^d.e   ^V\*v    wV\er\    reoftS'ed  ^he, 
oven    o^vm    toe    vD^oKed    b^Wseo 
tne-    \eoff. 
Jio  cross'    pieco  'm   Vronf   ^o 
Gome  m  +V\e.  wk-j     oV  He  Uw\^>. 
*^\i    VronV     ^f^     vn*}    tee    Vor<\coi 


16  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

connected  with  the  art  of  cooking,  to  show  you  how  "  far  afield  " 
the  figures  of  food  niay  follow  one  who  tries  to  find  out  their  full 
meaning.  I  will  now  present  to  you  the  diagrams  and  description 
of  the  cooker  and  of  the  oven,  and  will  presently  invite  you  to 
test  the  quality  of  the  food  which  has  been  prepared  while  I  have 
been  speaking.  These  two  diagrams  were  first  prepared  in  a  rough 
way  for  a  newspaj^er ;  the  form  of  the  heater  to  the  Aladdin 
cooker  has  been  changed,  and  some  cross-sections  have  been  in- 
troduced in  order  to  increase  the  heating  surface.  The  Aladdin 
oven  is  made  at  the  present  time  of  a  different  shape  and  in  a  dif- 
ferent way ;  but  the  two  diagrams  will  show  to  you  the  two  con- 
ceptions on  which  the  whole  matter  is  based. 

I  have  a  strong  suspicion,  or  I  may  even  say  a  growing  confi- 
dence, that  I  have  really  accomplished  what  Count  Rumford  un- 
dertook to  do,  but  which  he  failed  to  establish  permanently  for 
want  of  a  fuel  like  kerosene-oil  or  gas,  which  can  be  controlled, 
regulated,  and  thoroughly  consumed. 

I  may  have  spent  a  thousand  dollars  more  or  less  in  develop- 
ing this  subject.  The  present  very  simple  forms  of  apparatus 
have  been  adopted  after  considerable  money  had  been  wasted 
in  more  complex  methods  of  reaching  the  same  results.  I  believe 
this  is  the  course  in  almost  all  inventions.  I  do  not  intend  to  be- 
come a  manufacturer  of  ovens.  I  have  made  an  arrangement  with 
Messrs.  Kenrick  Brothers,  of  Brookline,  who  now  make  them  on 
orders  by  hand- work,  crediting  me  with  a  moderate  commission 
from  which  I  may  ultimately  recover  what  I  have  spent,  although 
I  have  no  great  expectation  of  doing  so.  The  ovens  cost  too  much 
while  they  are  made  by  hand ;  it  is  my  hope  that  some  regular 
stove-manufacturer  may  take  up  the  subject  at  the  point  to  which 
I  have  brought  it,  and  make  a  business  of  introducing  my  appa- 
ratus on  strictly  commercial  methods. 

The  price  of  the  standard  Aladdin  oven  like  these  which  are 
before  you,  at  the  present  time,  is  twenty-five  dollars  without  the 
lamp,  boxed  and  ready  for  delivery  to  express  or  railway.  I  hope 
they  may  ultimately  be  furnished,  when  made  in  a  large  way,  for 
a  considerably  lower  price ;  but  even  at  the  present  price  they  will 
pay  for  themselves  in  economy  of  fuel,  in  economy  of  food,  and 
in  the  comfort  of  those  who  do  the  work,  in  a  very  short  term  of 
weeks  rather  than  of  months. 

I  began  the  study  of  cooking  apparatus  many  years  ago,  when 
endeavoring  to  aid  factory  operatives,  during  the  period  of  very 
high-priced  cotton,  in  supporting  themselves  on  the  wages  which 
they  could  earn  while  the  mills  were  running  short  time ;  and  I 
had  substantially  conceived  the  "  Aladdin  Cooker,"  but  I  did  not 
then  follow  up  the  subject  so  as  to  enable  me  to  boil  water  in  this 
apparatus  by  means  of  a  lamp,  kerosene-oil  not  then  having  been 


THE  ART   OF   COOKING.  i7 

introduced  for  such  purpose.  Moreover,  I  was  under  the  old  su- 
perstition that  it  was  necessary  to  have  a  heat  at  or  above  the  boil- 
ing-point in  order  to  cook  at  all.  Even  Count  Rumford  found 
out  by  accident  that  meats  could  be  cooked  at  a  lower  degree ; 
and  it  was  not  until  I  happened  to  read  Dr.  Mattieu  Williams's 
"  Chemistry  of  Cookery  "  that  I  was  led  to  develop  the  Norwegian 
cooking-box  into  the  cooker  with  the  heating  attachment. 

Perhaps  I  unwisely  gave  way  this  idea  or  conception  which  I 
might  have  patented :  I  had  the  impression  that  it  would  be  adopted 
more  rapidly ;  but  the  public  have  become  so  accustomed  to  the 
patent  system  in  this  country  as  to  make  it  almost  impossible  to 
give  away  even  an  idea.  I  doubt  if  this  is  altogether  a  whole- 
some condition,  when  manufacturers  wait  so  long  for  the  protec- 
tion of  a  patent  before  undertaking  to  make  a  good  thing  on  a 
commercial  scale.  Nevertheless,  one  must  accept  the  fact,  and  the 
cooker  has  not  been  taken  up  by  any  manufacturer.  Warned  by 
this  lesson,  I  applied  for  a  patent  on  my  first  "  Aladdin  Ovens," 
which  were  made  wholly  of  metal,  the  outer  oven  being  packed 
with  non-heat-conducting  material ;  but  on  this  application  I 
failed ;  this  identical  apparatus  had  been  invented  fifty  years  ago, 
the  heat  being  derived  from  a  pan  of  charcoal,  and  the  patent  had 
expired  ;  of  course,  the  charcoal  did  not  meet  the  necessary  condi- 
tions. I  found,  however,  that  the  oven  made  wholly  of  metal  packed 
with  carbonate  of  magnesia  or  fossil  meal  would  be  very  expensive ; 
moreover,  the  outer  metal  skin  wastes  a  great  deal  of  heat.  I  then 
experimented  with  various  compounds,  and  finally  adopted  the 
material  of  which  these  ovens  are  made,  known  as  "  indurated 
fiber,"  or  paper  pulp,  prepared  in  a  certain  way  under  a  patent 
and  baked  at  a  high  heat.  I  applied  for  a  patent  on  an  oven 
made  in  this  way,  but  the  mere  substitution  of  the  pulp  for  the 
metal  did  not  suffice  to  give  me  the  patent  asked  for.  There  is 
therefore  no  patent  on  the  construction  of  either  of  these  devices. 
The  names  "  Aladdin  Cooker "  and  "  Aladdin  Oven "  are  my 
trade-marks,  on  which  I  may  hope  to  hold  a  certain  control,  so  that 
the  ovens  shall  be  made  of  safe  material,  incombustible  at  any  de- 
gree of  heat  required  for  the  work,  and  from  which  control  I  may 
possibly  recover  the  money  which  I  have  spent  on  my  experi- 
ments ;  if  I  do  not,  it  will  be  my  contribution  to  the  public  service ; 
and  if  by  this  contribution  I  can  do  away  with  even  a  small  part 
of  the  waste  of  good  food  material  and  with  a  small  part  of  the 
indigestion  caused  by  bad  cooking,  I  shall  consider  myself  fully 
compensated. 

Under  such  conditions  I  may  perhaps  venture  upon  the  ordi- 
nary method  of  citing  the  testimony  of  some  of  the  few  persons 
who  have  bought  these  ovens  and  who  have  made  use  of  them. 
I  will  first  give  a  copy  of  a  letter  from  an  elderly  lady  who  visited 

VOL.  XXXVI. — 2 


18  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

my  office  with,  her  daughter ;  the  latter  was  very  skeptical  as  to 
success  in  working  my  apparatus ;  the  oven  was,  however,  bought, 
and  has  been  in  use  during  the  past  summer  ;  her  testimony  in  re- 
gard to  it  is  as  follows  : 

I  am  glad  to  tell  you  that  I  like  the  Aladdin  oven  very  much  indeed.  My  din- 
ners for  the  last  three  months  have  been  cooked  in  it  with  success  and  economy, 
and  the  kitchen  never  overheated.  It  saves  material,  fuel,  and  labor,  as  well  as 
heat.  It  is  an  immense  comfort  as  well  as  economy.  It  bakes  bread  and  cake 
nicely,  and  we  have  only  used  coal  for  laundry  purposes.  I  wish  it  could  be  pro- 
duced at  a  cheaper  rate,  though  I  would  not  lose  mine  for  twice  its  price. 

Another  certificate  I  may  venture  to  give  from  another  lady 
who  has  tried  the  apparatus,  as  follows  : 

1.  In  respect  to  economy  in  the  use  of  material  for  food :  All  remnants  of 
food  can  be  served  again  without  drying  or  losing  any  of  the  fresh  flavor.  With 
any  skill,  therefore,  "made  dishes"  can  be  produced  until  the  first  material  is 
used  up. 

2.  In  respect  to  comfort  of  the  kitchen  :  It  goes  without  saying  that  a  room  in 
which  only  a  lamp  is  burning  is  cooler  than  one  with  a  fire  in  an  iron  stove. 

3.  The  cook  says  it  is  much  less  work  ;  but  I  find  they  sometimes  from  force  of 
habit  throw  the  fuel  into  the  stove  and  cook  there  rather  than  take  the  trouble  to 
use  the  oven. 

Lastly,  general  conclusions :  It  is  of  inestimable  value  in  warm  weather,  and 
saves  two  hods  of  coal  a  day  when  it  is  used  half  the  day.  For  an  apartment- 
house  or  in  small  kitchens  it  will  be  a  great  boon.  With  an  intelligent,  care-loving 
woman  it  will  go  much  further  aud  do  better  work,  of  course,  than  with  the  ordi- 
nary cook,  though  it  is  so  simple  that  any  one  can  use  it. 

In  a  third  letter,  the  testimony  is  as  follows : 

My  general  conclusions  in  regard  to  health  and  appetizing  conditions  are : 
Bread  from  the  oven  is  much  more  wholesome  than  from  the  range,  because  of 
the  slow,  even,  and  thorough  baking.  Meats  are  more  wholesome,  because  the 
juices  are  entirely  preserved  and  the  fats  not  overdone.  The  greatest  advantage, 
perhaps,  is  the  possibility  of  so  regulating  the  temperature  as  to  preserve  fine  and 
delicate  flavors  at  the  same  time  that  the  most  wholesome  results  are  secured. 

Finally,  I  am  permitted  to  give  the  following  extract  from  a 
note  from  Mrs.  Ellen  H.  Richards,  whose  excellent  work  in  indus- 
trial and  household  chemistry  is  doubtless  well  known  to  you. 

I  submitted  the  early  types  of  my  oven  to  an  investigation 
which  was  conducted  under  her  direction  by  Miss  Marion  Talbot, 
whose  thoroughly  scientific  report  upon  the  diffusion  of  heat  and 
other  matters  encouraged  me  to  go  on,  and  was  wholly  consistent 
with  my  own  experiments  and  with  all  the  evidence  which  I  have 
since  obtained.  This  latter  report  is  too  long  for  inclusion  in  the 
present  address.    Mrs.  Richards's  present  statement  is  as  follows : 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  mission  of  the  Oven  and  Cooker  is  in  the  ideal  life  of 
the  twentieth  century,  as  shown  by  Bellamy.  That  is,  wben  the  people  of  the 
middle  classes,  as  we  know  them  now,  shall  pay  attention  to  the  question  of  food, 


OLD   AND   NEW  METHODS  IN  ZOOLOGY.  i9 

and  when  the  present  kitchen  and  cook  shall  be  abolished  ;  when  in  each  section 
we  can  buy  a  chicken  ready  dressed  for  the  oven,  a  fish  all  washed  and  stuffed ; 
when  we  can  get  bread  and  pastry  such  as  we  like;  in  short,  when  we  have  places 
like  the  Women's  Exchange  on  Boylston  Street,  in  each  ward  or  village — then  we 
shall  use  the  Aladdin  Oven,  to  dispense  with  kitchen  and  cook,  but  until  then  it 
will  come  into  use  only  as  an  accessory,  and  especially  in  summer. 

Unskilled  hands  can  get  much  better  work  out  of  it  than  out  of  an  ordinary 
range,  chiefly  because  it  can  not  be  overheated,  and  things  can  not  be  burned  to  a 
crisp. 

Our  people  need  to  learn  what  is  to  them  a  new  art,  the  delicate  flavoring 
which  is  brought  out  only  by  time — that  is,  by  slow  cooking. 

When  a  stew  deliciously  flavored  is  to  people  better  than  crisp  beef,  then  the 
oven  will  go;  but  the  majority  of  our  people  are  still  barbarians  in  taste,  and  it 
will  not  do  to  claim  too  much. 

I  am  sure  that  the  conditions  of  slow  cooking  are  very  favorable  to  ease  of 
digestion,  and  that  the  digestibility  of  many  things  is  very  much  increased. 

I  am  sure  that  economy  lies  in  the  use  of  material  which  is  much  less  expen- 
sive, but  here  again  we  must  learn  to  like  the  result. 

In  summer  the  saving  of  fuel  is  very  great;  in  winter  most  people  need  the 
fire — often  the  kitchen  is  the  only  fire. 

Educated  housekeepers  with  their  own  hands  must  work  it  up.  Servants  will 
not  learn  anything  new  unless  working  with  the  mistress. 

I  believe  the  idea  is  destined  to  give  a  much-needed  relief  to  multitudes  of  over- 
worked women,  just  as  soon  as  they  can  be  convinced  of  the  possibility  of  relief. 

I  may  venture  to  subscribe  myself,  especially  in  this  presence, 
by  the  use  of  the  same  words  which  I  once  adopted  as  a  motto  in 
my  treatise  on  the  "  Missing  Science  of  Cooking."    I  am — 

Coctor  non  Doctor. 


-+•+- 


OLD   AND   NEW  METHODS   IN  ZOOLOGY. 

By  M.   H.  de  LACAZE  DUTHIERS.* 

PERMIT  me  to  begin  my  address  by  a  reminiscence  of  the 
origin  of  this  Association,  which  has  haunted  me  from  the 
moment  when  you  did  me  the  honor  to  make  me  your  president. 
It  was  in  July,  1871,  when,  as  we  were  leaving  the  Academy  of 
Sciences,  Wurtz,  taking  me  by  the  arm,  in  his  friendly  way,  said : 
"  Come  to  my  house  to-morrow  evening ;  I  wish  to  talk  with  a  few 
of  my  friends  concerning  a  scheme  which  I  should  be  very  glad 
to  see  carried  out."  MM.  Delaunay,  Claude  Bernard,  Decaisne, 
and  I  met  at  Wurtz's  house  in  the  rue  Saint-Guillaume  on  Tues- 
day evening,  and  held  what  we  may  call  the  first  meeting  of  the 
Association.  As  the  last  survivor  of  the  company  I  can  not  re- 
frain from  recalling  that  intimate  interview  at  which  our  Associa- 

*  From  the  presidential  address  at  the  French  Association  for  the  Advancement  of 
Science. 


2o  TEE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

tion  was  born.  I  can  still  see  Wurtz,  with,  captivating  animation 
and  almost  feverish  activity,  pacing  the  floor  with  precipitate 
steps  and  picturing  to  lis  what  he  thought  our  society  ought  to 
be — and  what  it  has  become.  He  pointed  out  the  priceless  advan- 
tage to  be  derived  from  these  meetings,  to  be  held  in  all  parts  of 
France.  "We  shall,"  he  said,  "seek  out  modest  local  students 
living  far  from  the  center  to  meet  us  and  make  known  the  results 
of  their  investigations ;  we  shall  draw  the  most  timid  of  them 
into  the  scientific  current,  and  shall  thus  be  able  to  exalt  our  be- 
loved country  in  the  eyes  of  the  scientific  world."  Now,  the  only 
witness  of  that  first  and  modest  meeting,  I  believe  that  I  am  the 
interpreter  of  the  feeling  of  you  all  in  paying  one  more  tribute  to 
the  memory  of  these  our  first  and  illustrious  co-laborers. 

In  addressing  you  I  purpose  to  inquire  what  zoology  was, 
what  it  is  with  some,  and  what  it  should  be.  The  science  of  ani- 
mals of  a  hundred  years  ago  and  that  of  to-day  resemble  each 
other  but  little.  Comparing  them  and  seeking  the  cause  of  the 
great  differences,  we  recognize  a  few  leading  facts  which  I  have 
selected,  and  of  which  I  will  speak.  In  the  former  time,  when 
so  many  reforms  were  in  preparation,  and  when  excited  minds 
were  looking  for  other  objects  on  which  to  utilize  their  activ- 
ity than  our  sciences,  always  calm  and  independent  of  revolu- 
tions as  they  ought  also  to  be  of  politics,  natural  history  held  but 
a  small  place  in  men's  thoughts.  In  1789  Linnaeus  and  Buffon 
had  only  recently  died,  and  their  names  were  still  radiant  with 
the  splendor  of  their  living  brilliancy ;  they  dominated  as  abso- 
lute masters,  and  summarized  in  themselves  all  of  zoology.  Yet 
in  their  minds  and  works  they  resembled  each  other  but  little. 
Linnaeus,  precise,  methodical,  a  classifier  first  of  all,  brought  order 
and  clearness  into  the  minutest  details  of  the  things  of  nature, 
and,  as  he  proposed  a  concise  and  easy  language,  his  influence  be- 
came so  preponderant  that  Haller  complained  of  his  tyranny.  If 
the  reform  of  the  scientific  language  which  Linnaeus  worked  out 
imposed  itself  with  such  force,  it  was  because  it  answered  to  one 
of  the  needs  of  the  moment.  The  simplicity,  facility,  and  espe- 
cially the  opportuneness  of  his  nomenclature  were  the  cause  of  its 
great  success ;  and  it  should  be  added  that  its  value  was  so  great 
that  we  have  not  yet  sensibly  departed  from  the  rules  on  which  it 
was  founded. 

The  opposite  of  Linnaeus,  Buffon  took  pleasure  in  broadly 
drawn  descriptions  and  pictures ;  and,  when  he  treated  of  general 
considerations,  he  animated  them  with  a  powerful  inspiration. 
A  profound  thinker,  regarding  science  from  an  elevated  point  of 
view,  he  engrosses  and  subjects  us.  Who  among  us  does  not  rec- 
ollect the  enthusiasm  with  which  he  has  read  some  of  the  passages 
in  the  "  Epochs  of  -Nature  "  ?    By  his  reasoning  and  in  the  conse- 


OLD   AND   NEW  METHODS  IN  ZOOLOGY.  21 

quences  of  the  observations  which,  he  interpreted,  Bnffon  sought 
rather  to  foresee  what  should  be  or  ought  to  be,  than  to  fix  what 
he  ascertained.  He  was  thus  often  in  advance  of  his  tirne,  and 
the  elevated  considerations  to  which  he  gave  himself  were  within 
the  grasp  of  only  a  small  number.  Linnaeus,  on  the  contrary, 
described,  simply  and  clearly,  what  was.  With  such  qualities 
these  two  men  would  often  be  far  from  agreeing ;  and  we  might 
apply  to  them  the  distinction,  which  had  not  yet  been  expressed, 
between  the  school  of  facts  and  the  school  of  reasoning.  While 
Linnaeus  and  Buff  on  thus  summarized  in  themselves  all  of  zoology, 
although  from  different  points  of  view,  their  labors  lacked  a  basis 
the  imperious  need  of  which  was  universally  felt.  It  was  already 
beginning  to  be  understood  that  the  study  of  the  habits,  geograph- 
ical origin,  and  external  characteristics  of  animals  was  not  enough. 
At  that  moment  Cuvier  appeared.  The  reform  which  he  intro- 
duced in  zoology  was  very  important,  and  his  work,  on  the  "  Ani- 
mal Kingdom  distributed  according  to  its  Organization/'  produced 
a  momentous  impression.  His  great  fame,  like  that  of  Linnaeus, 
is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  modification  he  made  in  zoological 
studies  corresponded  to  a  certain  want,  and  was  a  necessary  re- 
form that  came  at  the  time  when  it  was  most  needed.  Zoologists 
of  the  classifying  kind,  who  occupy  themselves  only  with  the  ex- 
ternals of  animals,  have  been  compared  to  librarians  who  arrange 
their  libraries  according  to  the  backs  or  covers  of  the  books,  with- 
out regard  to  what  is  within  them.  It  was  Cuvier's  great  merit 
that  he  saw  clearly  that  to  reach  a  truer  knowledge  of  things  we 
must  not  only  be  acquainted  with  the  names  and  external  feat- 
ures, but  with  the  internal  characteristics  as  well.  To  that  end  he 
introduced  the  anatomical  idea  into  the  history  of  animals.  In 
doing  it  he  rendered  the  greatest  service  to  zoology ;  and  to  this, 
too,  must  be  attributed  his  great  success,  which  was  equaled  only 
by  that  of  Linnaeus,  and  also  the  great  reputation  in  which  French 
zoology  shone  at  the  beginning  of  the  century.  To-day,  even 
those  zoologists  who  criticise  Cuvier  the  most,  nevertheless  follow 
his  precepts.  We  can  not  apply  the  same  standards  of  criticism  to 
his  work  that  we  would  insist  upon  in  judging  a  work  of  to-day. 
To  make  an  equitable  estimate,  we  should  put  ourselves  back  to 
his  time,  and  take  account  of  the  gaps  in  the  knowledge  of  that 
period,  and  of  the  insufficiency  of  the  means  which  observers  could 
control.  It  will  soon  have  been  a  hundred  years  since  Cuvier's 
work  was  performed.  In  that  time  a  great  many  discoveries  have 
been  made,  and  many  conquests  have  been  achieved  to  cast  a  new 
light  on  questions  which  were  insoluble  then. 

Zoology  remained  for  a  long  time  at  the  point  to  which  Cuvier 
led  it ;  and  we  have  to  come  to  the  middle  of  our  century  to  see 
new  ideas  brooding  and  bringing  about  great  modifications  in  the 


22  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

direction  of  studies  or  in  some  of  the  branches  of  the  biological 
sciences.  I  purpose  to  supply  only  a  few  examples  of  them.  I 
recollect  that  in  1855,  when  I  was  a  professor  at  Lille,  Mr.  Huxley 
wrote  to  me  that  "  we  in  England  are  all  stirred  up  and  much  per- 
plexed by  the  discoveries  of  M.  Boucher  de  Perthes."  The  refer- 
ence is,  of  course,  to  the  interest  that  was  aroused  about  the  cut 
flints  of  Saint-Acheul  and  the  famous  jaw-bone  of  Moulin-Quignon. 
English  men  of  science  and  geologists  came  to  Amiens,  lively  dis- 
cussions took  place,  a  committee  of  Frenchmen  and  foreigners  was 
formed  and  proceeded  to  the  spot  to  make  official  investigations. 
Some  fraud  and  incredulity  were  mingled  in  the  affair.  A  work- 
man confessed  to  me,  for  a  money  consideration  and  a  promise  of 
silence,  that  he  had  himself  fabricated  one  of  the  two  specimens 
which  I  procured,  and  that  it  had  not  lain  long  enough  in  the  bed 
to  acquire  the  patina  of  the  other.  The  point  I  desire  to  emphasize 
is,  that  the  real  thing  that  was  discovered  then,  especially  after  the 
visit  of  the  British  investigators,  was  the  books,  the  researches,  and 
the  new  ideas  of  M.  Boucher  de  Perthes,  which  had  till  then  passed 
unnoticed.  The  beginning  of  the  prehistoric  studies,  which  have 
since  attained  so  considerable  development,  may  be  dated  from 
this  time.  Since  the  discoveries  of  Boucher  de  Perthes  at  Saint- 
Acheul,  and  those  of  Lartet  and  Christy  in  Pe'rigord,  a  part  of  the 
history  of  man  has  been  completely  transformed ;  and  geology,  so 
far  as  concerns  the  most  modern  formations,  has  been  subjected 
to  the  salutary  influence  of  the  new  knowledge.  What  has  become 
of  the  superannuated  ideas  that  conceived  fossil  man  impossible  ? 
What  new  problems,  full  of  interest,  have  been  presented  since 
the  remains  were  found  in  Pe'rigord  and  other  places  of  animals 
that  no  longer  live  where  their  bones  are  lying !  How  many  in- 
teresting questions  have  resulted  from  the  simple  discovery  of  a 
reindeer-horn  in  a  grotto  of  Eyzies ;  and  what  a  long  road  we 
have  gone  over  since  then !  Is  it  strange  that  the  number  of 
explorers  has  become  great,  and  that  liberal  and  often  magnifi- 
cent encouragement  is  given  them  ?  It  would  be  ungrateful  in 
this  connection  not  to  repeat  the  acknowledgment  of  our  obliga- 
tions to  one  of  our  members — M.  Girard,  of  Lyon — who  has  be- 
queathed to  our  Association  one  hundred  and  seventy-two  thou- 
sand francs  to  be  applied  exclusively  to  researches  in  prehistoric 
anthropology ;  the  proceeds  of  which  your  committee  is  able  to 
use  this  year  for  the  first  time. 

The  lively  emotion  produced  by  the  discoveries  of  M.  Boucher 
de  Perthes  had  begun  to  subside,  and  researches  were  going  on 
everywhere,  when  Darwin's  first  studies  appeared  in  1858  and  1859. 
These  dates  must  always  be  memorable  in  the  history  of  natural 
science,  for  they  mark  an  epoch  from  which  zoological  studies 
entered  upon  a  new  course.    The  learned  world,  we  might  say, 


OLD   AND  NEW  METHODS  IN  ZOOLOGY.  23 

revolted  when  Darwin's  book  appeared.  Then  enthusiasm,  with 
all  its  exaggerations,  succeeded  the  first  astonishment ;  and  in  a 
little  while,  a  reaction  taking  place,  innumerable  investigations 
were  begun  with  an  activity  and  a  curiosity  which  the  previously 
received  ideas  were  no  longer  capable  of  determining.  In  the  first 
spasm  of  enthusiasm  the  great  naturalist's  theory  was  called  Dar- 
winism ;  at  a  later  period,  dealing  less  in  details  and  generalizing 
more,  it  was  called  Transformism. 

It  must  be  recognized  that  whatever  measure  of  confidence  we 
put  in  transformism,  whether  we  accept  it  in  its  whole  extent 
and  with  all  its  consequences,  exaggerate  it,  modify  it,  accept  it 
with  amendment,  or  reject  it,  no  one  can  doubt  that  it  has  pro- 
voked a  truly  extraordinary  scientific  movement.  Both  partisans 
and  detractors,  in  seeking  for  proofs  in  support  of  their  opinion, 
whether  demanding  its  secrets  from  embryogeny,  or  digging  into 
the  strata  of  the  earth  in  order  to  interpret  the  remains  of  organ- 
ized beings  which  they  inclose ;  all,  whatever  may  have  been  their 
method,  ideas,  opinions,  or  even  hostility,  have  contributed  greatly 
to  the  progress  of  zoology.  Thus  we  are  far  from  the  period  of 
Linnaeus,  when  the  external  character  was  everything;  and  from 
the  period  of  Cuvier,  when  the  anatomical  idea  and  the  study  of 
the  exterior  were  the  only  guides  of  the  classifier.  Now  we  inves- 
tigate the  connections  of  beings  by  going  back  from  the  existing 
to  the  primitive  forms,  or  vice  versa.  We  try  to  explain  the 
varied  forms  under  our  eyes  by  the  aid  of  the  laws  so  happily 
formulated  by  Darwin.  Evolution  is  encountered  everywhere. 
Whether  one  be  a  transformist  or  not,  he  must  bow  and  acknowl- 
edge the  force  of  the  tremendous  bound  which  the  impulse  given 
by  Darwin  has  caused. 

There  are,  however,  as  Claparede  has  said,  "  terrible  children  " 
of  transformism  who  are  more  anxious  to  make  a  noise  around 
their  name  than  to  discover  the  truth.  We  must  prudently  dis- 
tinguish from  them  the  conscientious  students  who  seek  long, 
scrupulously,  and  painfully  for  precise  facts  in  order  to  deduce 
from  them  consequences  that  will  support  their  theories.  These 
surely  advance  science,  while  the  others  often  compromise  it.  The 
one  thing  to  oppose  to  exaggeration,  assumption,  and  enthusiasm 
is  experiment.  It  is  as  mandatory  to-day  as  in  the  preceding 
period  were  the  reforms  which  I  have  mentioned. 

While  Darwin  had  an  immense  and  legitimate  success,  the 
ideas  of  Lamarck,  who  more  than  half  a  century  before  him 
taught  and  published  the  same  views  on  the  mutability  of  species, 
were  long  forgotten.  Our  illustrious  compatriot  has  been  treated 
rather  unjustly  and  severely.  There  are  whole  pages  in  the  works 
of  Lamarck  containing  the  theory  of  transformation  completely 
developed,  to  which  Darwin  has  added  nothing  except  to  confirm 


24  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

tliem.  The  minds  of  zoologists  were  not  prepared  in  his  time  to 
receive  his  ideas,  and  he  had  not  the  happy  faculty  of  hitting 
upon  that  clear  and  precise  method  of  statement  that  imposes 
itself  and  makes  itself  accepted  by  all.  For  a  reformer  to  secure 
a  following,  his  idea  should  be  defined  with  dazzling  clearness 
and  precision,  and  achieve  mastery  by  virtue  of  its  seductive 
force.  Darwin's  exposition  of  the  universal  and  constant  strug- 
gle for  existence,  ending  in  the  selection  and  survival  of  the  vic- 
tor, was  so  true  and  clear  as  to  lead  all  readers  into  accord  with 
it.  Cuvier,  they  said,  could  reconstruct  the  whole  of  an  extinct 
animal  from  a  single  bone.  The  thought  spoke  to  the  imagination 
of  the  masses ;  and  when  he  laid  down  the  principle  that  in  an 
organism,  as  in  an  equation,  the  known  terms  may  be  made  to  give 
an  unknown  one,  he  commanded  the  admiration  of  a  whole  gen- 
eration. Linnseus,  who  at  a  stroke  reached  the  reform  science 
was  aspiring  after,  to  rid  itself  of  nonsense  in  nomenclature,  and 
who  found  names  to  fit  the  occasion,  became  the  tyrant  of  natural 
history.  It  was  not  possible  for  Lamarck  to  realize  a  similar 
success ;  and  a  comparison  of  his  arguments  with  those  which 
Darwin  brings  in  support  of  the  doctrine  of  changes  in  the  forms 
of  animals,  and  a  reference  to  the  epoch  in  which  he  wrote,  will 
show  why  his  ideas  had  to  wait  for  the  revelations  of  the  English 
naturalist  before  they  could  be  recovered  from  oblivion. 

In  view  of  the  surprising  discoveries  to  which  the  continuous 
study  of  the  evolution  of  the  lower  animals  has  led,  and  of  the 
direction  of  zoology  under  the  influence  of  transf  ormism  into  new 
ways,  it  is  impossible  not  to  recognize  that  experiment  alone  ful- 
fills the  requirements  of  the  moment.  It  is  only  through  experi- 
ment that  the  great  questions  of  natural  philosophy  can  be  an- 
swered ;  that  the  discussions  raised  by  clashing  convictions,  haz- 
ardous assertions,  so-called  philosophical  doctrines,  and  venture- 
some syntheses  too  often  lacking  substantial  bases,  can  be  justly 
appreciated  or  solidly  established. 

The  citation  of  a  few  instances  will  illustrate  this  assertion. 
Every  one  has  noticed  the  gall-nuts  on  oak-trees,  excrescent  tumors 
produced  by  parasitical  insects — the  Cynips — which  lay  their  eggs 
in  the  mother  plant  by  the  aid  of  a  gimlet  -  shaped  ovipositor. 
The  young  insect  finds  within  this  swelling  all  that  it  needs  to  sup- 
port life,  and  quietly  in  it  reaches  complete  development ;  and  it 
can  easily  be  caught  as  it  issues  from  its  prison.  Entomologists 
have  catalogued  a  large  number  of  species  and  genera  belonging 
to  the  family.  In  doing  thus,  they  have  followed  pure  and  de- 
scriptive zoology,  as  it  was  in  the  times  of  Linnaeus  and  Cuvier. 
Now,  it  has  been  found,  after  watching  the  evolution  of  these 
parasites,  that  all  the  genera  and  species  have  to  be  revised.  Thus, 
for  example,  we  find  on  the  superficial  roots  of  an  oak-tree  galls 


OLD   AND   NEW  METHODS  IN  ZOOLOGY.  25 

of  varied  colors  and  sizes,  the  insects  issuing  from  which  are  wing- 
less. When  the  trial  is  made,  they  will  be  found  incapable  of 
reproducing  the  warts  they  came  from  ;  they  are,  besides,  all  fe- 
males. Again,  we  may  see,  in  the  spring,  the  ends  of  the  limbs  of 
the  same  oak  bearing  greenish-red  tumors,  which  naturalists  have 
long  called  oak-apples.  They  are  also  galls  from  which  Cynips 
issue;  these  too,  like  the  others,  are  incapable  of  reproducing 
the  swellings  from  which  they  came ;  but  they  have  wings,  and 
are  both  male  and  female.  Here,  then,  are  beings  totally  different, 
if  we  study  them  separately  as  they  come  out  from  their  nests. 
Now  let  us  follow  the  experimenter,  first  observing  that  the  insect 
of  the  root  has  been  called  Biorhiza,  and  that  of  the  apple  Texas. 
The  Biorhizas  escape  from  the  roots  on  which  they  are  hatched, 
and  raise  themselves  up  slowly  and  painfully,  having  no  wings, 
to  the  ends  of  the  branches  of  the  tree.  There  they  lay  unfer- 
tilized eggs,  and  cause,  by  piercing  the  twigs,  the  oak-apples  from 
which  the  Teras  issue.  On  the  other  side,  the  Teras,  escaping 
from  their  apjjle,  copulate,  and  the  fertilized  female  descends  to 
deposit  her  eggs  in  the  roots.  The  Biorhizas,  therefore,  are 
hatched  from  the  eggs  of  the  Teras,  and  the  Teras  from  the  eggs 
of  the  Biorhizas.  Here,  then,  are  two  genera  wholly  distinct  in 
habits,  organization,  and  external  characters,  which  are  neverthe- 
less derived  each  from  the  other,  and  which  zoologically  ought  to 
form  only  one.  How  could  M.  Adler  have  discovered  these  facts, 
except  by  experiment  ?  When  we  remark  that  the  Cynips  are 
relatively  high  in  the  animal  scale,  we  are  justified  in  believing 
that  a  very  great  number  of  similar  surprising  facts  may  yet  be 
found  among  lower  forms. 

I  can  not  refrain  from  relating  another  life-history  which  is 
almost  a  romance.  There  is  a  hard  sandstone  in  Provence,  inter- 
spersed with  friable  strata,  in  which  burrowing  insects  construct 
their  chambers.  A  kind  of  bee,  the  Anthophorus,  makes  nests 
there  and  fills  them  with  honey,  on  which  it  leaves  its  egg  to  float ; 
then,  finally,  plasters  up  its  chamber.  Instead  of  Anthophores, 
entirely  different  insects  come  out  from  these  nests — Sitaris,  be- 
longing to  a  group  very  remote  from  the  bees.  Let  us  see  how 
they  manage  to  substitute  themselves  for  the  legitimate  proprietor 
of  the  nest.  In  the  autumn  the  impregnated  female  of  the  Sitaris 
deposits  her  eggs  in  front  of  the  sealed  galleries  of  the  Anthopho- 
rus. The  young  are  hatched  from  these  eggs,  and  lie  in  front 
of  the  closed  doors,  and  thus  remain  in  a  mass,  mingled  with  the 
dust  and  rubbish  of  the  place,  through  the  winter.  In  the  spring, 
such  of  the  bees  as  have  reached  their  term  come  out  from  their 
prison.  These  earliest  insects  are  all  males ;  but,  though  preco- 
cious in  being  hatched,  they  are  still  tender  to  the  changes  of  the 
weather,  and  remain  half  frozen  and  torpid  in  the  dust  along  with 


26  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

the  young  of  the  Sitaris.  The  time  has  come  for  the  last  to  be- 
gin to  act.  They  have  been  called  Triongulins  by  Ldon  Pufour, 
from  the  claws  with  which  they  are  armed,  and  by  which  they  at- 
tach themselves  to  the  bodies  of  the  Anthophores  waiting  for  the 
next  stage  in  the  conditions  that  favor  their  development.  With 
fine  weather  the  female  Anthophores  come  out  and  carry  on  their 
work  of  burrowing  and  storing  up  honey  till  the  time  of  fecunda- 
tion arrives.  Then  the  Triongulin  changes  its  quarters  from  the 
body  of  the  male  to  that  of  the  female,  where  it  remains  on  the 
watch  for  the  laying  of  the  egg,  when  it  transfers  itself  to  that, 
and  with  it  enters  the  honey-chamber.  With  it  it  is  shut  up 
when  the  Anthophorus  closes  the  door  of  the  chamber  for  another 
season.  The  Triongulin  will  not  eat  the  honey,  for  it  is  sure  death 
to  it  by  drowning  if  it  touches  it.  It  floats  on  the  egg  and  feeds 
upon  it ;  when  it  has  used  up  its  ration,  it  changes  its  shape,  as 
well  as  its  habits  and  taste.  It  is  as  eager  now  for  the  honey  as 
it  was  to  keep  away  from  it,  and  grows  upon  it  till  it  goes  through 
another  change  and  becomes  the  Sitaris  which  we  observe  coming 
out  from  the  chambers  of  the  Anthophorus.  Three  years  of  assid- 
uous studies  and  investigation  were  required  to  obtain  this  curi- 
ous life-history.  Contrast  now  the  results  obtained  by  Leon  Du- 
four,  an  entomologist  and  naturalist  of  the  school  of  Cuvier,  with 
those  which  M.  Fabre  has  reached  by  experiment. 

I  could  also  show  you  examples  of  an  excessive  socialism  in  so- 
cieties of  animals,  even  passing  the  limits  of  what  has  been  con- 
ceived for  men ;  comprising  individuals  whose  parts  are  assigned 
with  the  greatest  precision,  some  working  to  feed  the  collectivity, 
eating  and  digesting  for  all,  others  possessing  the  single  function 
of  reproduction  of  the  species ;  and  still  others  serving  as  beasts  of 
burden  for  the  rest ;  and  looking  a  little  further,  we  might  occa- 
sionally discover  idlers  at  rest  while  their  fellows  are  working  to 
feed  them.  Take  the  lobster  which  we  fish  from  among  the  rocks 
and  on  the  sea-coast.  In  the  earlier  part  of  its  life,  it  swims  at 
large  on  the  surface  of  the  fresh  water.  Its  plump  and  fleshy 
body,  so  sought  for  as  a  food,  is  represented  then  by  a  broad  and 
extremely  thin  plate,  so  peculiar  that  the  zoologists  of  the  old 
schools  made  it  not  only  a  genus,  but  one  of  the  types  of  a  group 
very  remote  from  its  fellows.  What  would  be  the  difference  be- 
tween these  zoologists  and  one  who  should  regard  the  child  and 
the  adult  of  a  savage  man  seen  for  the  first  time  on  some  un- 
known island  as  forming  two  genera  ?  Is  it  not  evident  that  in 
the  times  of  Linnaeus  and  Cuvier,  when  they  examined  animals  at 
only  one  moment  of  their  existence,  naturalists  could  not  follow 
the  filiation  of  facts  which  evolution  alone  reveals  to  us  ?  The 
discovery  of  the  Triongulin  and  the  Biorhiza,  made  when  species 
were  defined  only  according  to  characteristics  falling  under  the 


THE  DECADENCE   OF  FARMING.  27 

senses,  the  surprising  transformations  of  which  had  not  been  shown 
us  by  their  evolution,  could  not  possibly  have  informed  us  of 
the  true  significance  of  those  beings. 

I  know  very  well  that  the  quality  of  an  experimental  science 
which  I  claim  for  zoology  is  not  accorded  to  us  by  all  students. 
Those  who  withhold  this  recognition  are  specialists  who  judge  of 
our  science  by  what  they  learned  of  it  when  they  were  pursuing 
their  general  studies,  and  when  it  consisted  chiefly  of  learning 
names  and  registering  characteristics.  They  still  think  it  a  sci- 
ence of  words  and  memorizing.  But  we  are  happily  able  to  re- 
flect that  while  they  have  followed  and  pushed  on  the  science  in 
which  they  have  become  masters,  they  have  concerned  themselves 
but  little  with  the  advance  of  the  other  branches  which  they  have 
not  cultivated ;  and  their  present  judgment  is  based  on  the  con- 
dition of  the  science  a  half-century  ago.  I  think  it  can  be  estab- 
lished without  contradiction  that  there  is  not  a  zoologist  of  the 
present  day,  unless  he  be  over-rash  or  ambitious  to  enjoy  the  dis- 
covery of  a  new  species,  who  will  venture  to  affirm  that  he  is  ac- 
quainted with  any  being  before  he  has  followed  its  evolution.  To 
follow  the  evolution,  experiments  must  be  instituted,  and  that  con- 
stitutes experimental  zoology.  Because  our  science  is  now  in  a 
critical  condition,  it  is  most  positively  affirmed  by  the  partisans  of 
the  transformist  theories  that  it  should  modify  its  methods  of  in- 
vestigation, and  besides  registering  species  should  submit  unre- 
servedly to  experimental  control.  Such  is  the  conclusion  which 
we  logically  reach,  and  which  imposes  itself  upon  us  to-day. — 
Translated  and  abridged  for  the  Popular  Science  Monthly  from 
the  Revue  Scientifique. 

♦*« • 

THE  DECADENCE  OF  FARMING. 

By  JOEL  BENTON. 

SOME  years  ago  the  editor  of  a  prominent  journal  sent  me  a 
slip  containing  a  column  and  a  half  of  advertisements  of 
farms  for  sale,  cut  from  a  Boston  daily  paper.  The  farms  offered 
were  located  in  New  England,  where  the  supposed  benign  effect 
of  the  national  Government's  attempt  to  "  diversify  industry,"  so 
that  farming  need  not  be  overdone,  has  had  its  supreme  chance. 
These  farms  were  not  poor  or  worn  out.  They  were  in  the  midst 
of  our  best  social  culture,  as  developed  by  our  most  intelligent 
rural  communities.  Upon  them  were  improvements  and,  in  the 
main,  good  buildings.  Railroads  ran  over  or  near  every  one  of 
them ;  large  factories  and  populous  towns  were  near,  to  buy  their 
products ;  schools  and  churches  were  visible,  almost  from  their 
door-steps  and  gateways  ;  beauty  was  in  the  landscape,  and  health 


28  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

in  the  very  air.  Whatever  the  best  civilization  has  to  offer,  out- 
side of  great  cities  or  large  towns,  was  accessible  to  the  homes 
they  represented.  If  anywhere  on  the  planet  human  beings  could 
be  happy  and  prosperous,  in  beautiful  homes,  it  should  have  been 
there. 

But  the  farms  were  for  sale,  nevertheless ;  and,  though  this 
was  fifteen  years  and  more  ago,  some  of  them  are  for  sale  still. 
The  column  and  a  half  of  advertisements  was  only  a  sample  of  a 
hundred  other  columns  of  advertisements  of  a  similar  sort  pub- 
lished in  other  New  England  papers  ;  and  the  offers  to  sell  still 
go  on.  The  clipping  sent  to  me,  as  symptomatic  of  a  great  move- 
ment, came  from  the  office  of  a  famous  protectionist  daily,  and 
was  sent  in  order  that  I  might  make  some  appropriate  comment 
upon  the  situation,  or  give  some  advice  which  should  be  apt  or 
remedial  in  relation  to  it. 

This  was  done  at  a  period,  however,  when  there  was  no  ques- 
tion of  taxation  or  political  economy  uppermost  in  the  public 
mind.  No  suspicion,  even,  was  entertained  that  legislation  of  any 
sort  was  involved  in  the  problem  presented,  or  that  any  other 
than  a  hortative  appeal  to  boys  to  stick  to  the  farm,  or  some  sug- 
gestion as  to  better  modes  of  farming,  was  needed. 

It  is  now  twenty  years,  at  least,  that  farming  has  been  going 
rapidly  downward.  Farms  bought  in  the  war  era  have  been  sell- 
ing almost  everywhere  in  the  East  for  from  one  half  to  one  third 
of  their  cost.  Farms  in  New  England,  and  some  in  the  Middle 
States,  are  frequently  sold  for  less  than  the  buildings  cost  which 
are  upon  them.  This  is  really  no  exaggeration.  Sales  of  this 
sort,  and  where  the  depreciation  in  value  has  wiped  out  the  own- 
er's equity  in  them,  have  been  for  years  a  matter  of  notorious 
knowledge  in  almost  every  Eastern  community.  Within  a  year, 
in  a  healthy  and  fertile  county  not  sixty  miles  from  New  York 
city,  a  farm  having  on  it  two  mortgages — a  first  mortgage  of 
three  thousand  dollars  and  a  second  mortgage  of  two  thousand — 
was  sold,  under  foreclosure,  for  the  sum  represented  by  the  first 
mortgage  only.  The  holder  of  the  second  one  did  not  think  it 
worth  while  to  be  present,  or  to  have  a  representative  present,  at 
the  sale,  to  bid  the  single  dollar  which  would  have  saved  or  made 
a  show  of  saving  his  investment. 

Very  recently  the  New  York  State  assessors  have  issued  a 
report  containing  some  results  of  what  they  have  discovered  so 
far  as  they  have  gone,  in  respect  to  the  assessed  valuations  of 
farm  lands  in  the  various  counties.  And  this  is  their  story  :  "  In 
fourteen  counties  visited  they  found  that  farming  lands  had  de- 
preciated in  value,  while  city  property  had  increased  in  value." 
State  Assessor  Wood  is  of  the  opinion  that  "  in  a  few  decades 
there  will  be  few  or  none  but  tenant  farmers  in  this  State.    Year 


THE  DECADENCE   OF  FARMING.  29 

by  year  the  value  of  farm,  lands  depreciates."  There  is  not  the 
slightest  reason  to  believe  that  there  is  a  county  in  this  State  of 
which  a  better  report  can  be  made.  The  fourteen  examined  may 
well  stand  for  all. 

Following  closely  on  this  report  for  New  York  comes  the 
report  of  the  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  for  Illinois,  in  reference 
to  farm-mortgage  indebtedness.  This  gives  a  summary  of  this 
indebtedness  at  the  following  periods,  viz.,  in  1870, 1880,  and  1887  ; 
and  evidence  is  also  given  as  to  the  actual  value  of  farming  lands 
in  the  State.  By  leaving  out  town  and  city  lots,  and  the  suburban 
district  of  Chicago,  the  purely  agricultural  part  of  this  debt  is 
seen.     And  it  is  given  as  follows  : 

Tear.  Debt. 

1870 $95,721,003 

1SS0 103,525,237 

1887 123,733,098 

The  report  tells  its  own  story ;  for  farms  are  a  constant  quan- 
tity and  do  not  increase.  It  is  only  the  wave  of  debt  that  increases 
over  them.  As  this  report  separates,  with  such  accuracy  as  it 
can  command,  "  mortgages  representing  deferred  payments  of 
purchase  money  from  loans,"  the  deduction  of  the  commissioners 
is,  that  "  the  mortgage  indebtedness  cf  farmers  for  borrowed 
money  has  increased  twenty-three  per  cent  since  1880  in  Illinois, 
and  that  this  is  more  than  twice  the  increase  in  the  value  of  the 
farm  lands.  An  increase  in  land  values  is  reported  in  twenty- 
five  counties,  a  decrease  in  twenty  counties,  while  in  sixteen  coun- 
ties the  values  have  remained  unchanged." 

This  is  far  from  a  pleasant  showing  for  a  State  so  naturally 
good  as  Illinois,  and  one  which  was  so  recently  a  new  and  almost 
a  frontier  Commonwealth.  But  you  may  go  farther  West  and  find 
figures  of  the  same  solemn  sort.  In  the  Western  States  the  farm 
mortgages  amount  to  three  billion  four  hundred  and  twenty-two 
million  dollars.  This  is  equivalent  to  a  debt  of  two  hundred  dol- 
lars per  capita  for  each  person,  or  one  thousand  dollars  to  each 
head  of  a  family.  The  interest  which  these  mortgages  pay  runs 
from  seven  to  nine  per  cent,  while  the  profit  on  the  farm  capital, 
to  put  it  large,  is  only  from  four  to  five  per  cent. 

But,  take  up  any  newspaper  or  magazine,  and  read  its  adver- 
tising columns  in  respect  to  loans.  What  are  they  which  are 
most  popular  and  extensively  advertised  ?  Why,  they  are  "  farm 
investment  loans."  "  Sixteen  years'  experience  without  loss  of  a 
dollar."  And  the  interest  is  delivered  at  your  door  almost.  These 
siphons  are  now  extending  far  beyond  the  Mississippi  and  Mis- 
souri, on  the  virgin  soil  of  the  continent.  For  a  while  they  can  be 
borne  there,  where  the  capitalization  in  a  farm  is  either  slight  or 
nothing,  and  where  the  money  borrowed  is  mainly  for  buildings 


3o  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

and  improvements.  But  it  can  not  be  long,  without  a  change  of 
proprietors,  the  original  ones  dropping  their  title,  and  giving  up 
the  struggle  to  other  lists  of  unfortunates. 

There  is  no  doubt  but  that  the  investments  in  these  vampiric 
mortgages  are  good — that  is,  good  for  those  who  loan  the  money, 
and  good  also  for  those  roving  or  stationary  agents  who  make 
their  commissions  out  of  them,  and  who  scour  every  Eastern 
town  where  money  is  to  be  had  to  put  into  this  form  of  security. 
I  am  not  blaming  these  negotiators.  The  money  must  be  bor- 
rowed, and  somebody  must  furnish  it.  But  is  it  not  pitiful  that 
the  one  business  in  this  world  which  seems  nearest  to  man's  primi- 
tive nature,  without  which  no  other  could  exist,  and  into  which 
the  moralist  and  the  well-wisher  of  his  species  is  ever  ready  to 
advise  young  men  to  go,  should  be  the  selected  prey  of  the  most 
destructive  and  cruel  legislation  that  can  be  invented  by  the  wit 
of  man  ? 

All  over  the  statute-book,  if  there  is  a  law  made  having  any 
effect  at  all  upon  the  farmer,  it  is  with  an  almost  malicious  cer- 
tainty— one  might  think,  if  he  judged  by  its  effects — made  to 
operate  against  him.  Is  it  a  half -holiday,  or  several  whole  ones, 
that  are  enacted  ?  The  operation  of  them  is  not  a  help  to,  but  is 
a  draught  against,  the  farmer.  His  cows  and  his  crops,  and  Nature 
itself,  to  whose  laws  he  is  more  than  anybody  else  tied  down, 
will  not  and  can  not  accept  their  supposed  advantage.  His  work 
must  still  go  on ;  and  these  are  only  new  stumbling-blocks  in  his 
way,  which  leave  him  shorn  of  his  hired  help,  to  pursue  his  tasks 
without  the  customary  assistance.  If  an  eight-hour  law  is  enact- 
ed, its  maleficence,  not  its  advantage,  falls  on  him.  The  milking- 
hour  and  the  harvest  will  not  be  postponed  in  obedience  to  any 
legislature.  So  far  as  it  makes  the  day's  labor  brief,  so  certainly 
it  extends  his  own  labor  from  twelve  hours  to  fourteen. 

Notice,  too,  how  every  tax  system  now  uppermost  puts  the 
heavy  end  of  its  incidence  on  the  farmer.  In  the  State,  county, 
and  township  allotment  of  fiscal  burdens  the  tax  is  direct.  It 
falls  upon  what  can  be  seen  and  discovered  with  greatest  weight. 
But  it  never  fails  to  discover  the  farmer.  His  broad  acres  can 
not  be  hidden  or  sworn  away ;  while  his  neighbor,  rich  in  per- 
sonal holdings,  can  cunningly  suspend  his  own  tax  by  evasion — 
and  sometimes  by  an  artful  change  or  confusion  of  residence — so 
as  to  add  his  tax,  too,  to  the  tax  of  the  beridden  farmer. 

But  worse  than  all  this  is  his  relation  to  the  national  tax 
system,  which  exploits  away  his  hard-earned  profits,  small  in 
percentage,  almost  invisibly,  and  then  adds  abuse  to  injury  by 
successfully  persuading  him  that  it  exists  for  his  supreme  advan- 
tage. He  pays  for  a  paper,  as  likely  as  not,  which  tells  him,  and  has 
been  telling  him  for  a  generation  or  more,  that  the  beneficent  sys- 


THE  DECADENCE   OF  FARMING.  31 

tern  which  prevents  him  from,  buying  forty-five  hundred  articles 
as  cheaply  as  he  might,  and  compels  him  to  sell  his  own  products, 
minute  in  number,  at  the  lowest  price  which  ingenious  legal  arti- 
fice can  dictate,  is  a  measure  for  his  particular  benefit.  If  he  has 
read  a  paper  which  denies  this,  the  doctrine  is  so  new  to  this 
generation  that  he  has  not  yet  mastered  it ;  and  he  is  apt  to  treat 
it  with  conservative  inattention,  or  as  a  delusive  suggestion,  an 
investment  in  which  must  be  set  down  for  the  present  as  one  to  be 
treated  with  as  much  caution  as  he  would  exercise  in  accepting  an 
unheard-of  and  revolutionary  scheme  for  working  his  farm. 

The  siren  charm  with  which  the  word  "  protection  "  asphyx- 
iates him  has  only  casually,  as  yet,  lost  for  him  its  sorcery.  He 
is  apt  to  have  confidence  in  some  regular  order  of  things,  such  as 
the  seasons,  the  sunrise,  and  the  sunset ;  and  to  him  "  protection  " 
is,  and  has  been,  through  long  experience,  as  stable  a  factor  in 
affairs  as  the  precession  of  the  equinoxes  or  the  laws  of  the  solar 
system. 

But,  if  he  is  ever  to  rescue  his  business  and  make  it  decently 
profitable,  he  must  awaken  from  this  long  swoon.  He  must  see 
and  know  that  taxation  of  this  sort  is  death  to  him ;  and  is  fast 
making  it  impossible  for  an  intelligent  American  to  live  and  raise 
a  family  with  the  decent  comforts  of  life  on  the  best  farm  in  the 
New  England  and  Middle  States.  Very  rapidly,  in  New  England, 
the  farms  are  passing  into  the  hands  of  the  foreigner,  or  distinctly 
peasant  element,  a  class  which  reduces  the  necessities  of  life  to 
the  simplest  scale,  and  which  is  able  to  do  farming  within  the  fam- 
ily, and  so  can  eliminate  the  costly  feature  of  hired  labor.  The 
question  has  been  asked  for  years,  "  How  shall  we  keep  our  boys 
on  the  farm  ?  "  But  it  has  never  been  answered  successfully,  and 
never  can  be.  We  ought  to  be  profoundly  thankful,  considering 
what  the  farm  now  is  as  a  business,  that  we  can  not  keep  them 
there.  It  is  the  best  possible  evidence  attainable  of  the  bright 
wit  and  level-headedness  of  the  boys  that  they  wish  to  work 
where  gain  is  assured  at  the  end  of  their  toil. 

I  may  be  told,  very  likely,  that  I  have  skipped  one  feature  of 
the  tariff,  the  one  on  wool,  which  was  devised  especially  for  the 
farmer's  profit.  But  it  was  not ;  and,  if  it  had  been,  it  has  hurt 
him  instead  of  helping  him.  It  was  devised  by  men  who  are  either 
commercial  men,  or  whose  predominant  interest  is  commercial 
rather  than  agricultural.  These  men  constitute  what  is  known 
as  the  Wool-Growers'  Association.  I  think  its  important  factor 
is  made  up  of  middle-men,  or  salesmen  who  traffic  in  the  wool 
product.  But,  be  that  as  it  may,  the  duty  on  avooI  has  simply 
handicapped  the  manufacturers  of  woolen  fabrics ;  and  by  shut- 
ting out  kinds  of  wool  which  we  can  not  raise  here,  and  which  the 
woolen  manufacturers  must  have  to  mix  with  native  wools,  has 


32  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

actually  lessened  the  demand  for  native  wool,  with  the  effect  to 
lower  its  price.  Apart  from  this,  it  is  a  notorious  fact  that  the 
price  of  wool  does  not  ever  bear  the  relation  it  ought  to,  on  pro- 
tection theories,  to  the  rate  of  the  duty.  I  once  traveled  with  a 
wool-buyer,  years  ago,  when  a  lower  tariff  than  the  present  one 
prevailed,  when  he  bought  wool  of  the  farmers,  to  speculate  on, 
and  gave  one  dollar  a  pound  for  it,  which  was  the  market  price. 
Does  any  wool-farmer  expect  to  get  over  half  that  now  ?  A  very 
intelligent  farmer,  on  whose  hundreds  of  acres  the  wool  product 
has  been  a  feature  for  sixty  or  seventy  years — a  man  who  holds 
general  "  protective "  opinions — told  me  frankly  that  the  tariff, 
touching  wool,  gave  no  enhancement  of  price.  He  confessed  that 
he  had  got  very  high  prices  for  wool  under  a  low  tariff,  and  very 
low  prices  under  a  high  one. 

As  this  wool-bribe  is  a  menace  to  direct  and  equal  laws,  and 
is  the  price  offered  the  farmers  for  support  of  legislation  abso- 
lutely hostile  to  them,  suppose  we  look  a  little  further  on  its  effects. 
Here  are  some  facts  for  farmers  to  think  over.  Twenty-one  years 
ago  there  were  thirty-eight  million  sheep  in  this  country  east  of 
the  Mississippi  River.  "We  have  "  protected  "  them  all  this  time, 
and  there  ought  fairly  to  be  now,  under  a  decent  ratio  of  growth, 
at  least  fifty  million.  Are  there  this  number  ?  On  the  contrary, 
there  are  now  only  eighteen  million  one  hundred  thousand.  And 
they  and  the  wool  itself  have  greatly  declined  in  price.  It  is  said 
that,  since  1875,  there  has  been  an  increase  in  the  number  of  sheep 
of  about  thirty  per  cent.  But  this  is  accounted  for  by  the  exten- 
sion of  farms  in  our  new  Territories.  The  large  flocks  there  are 
chiefly  owned  by  aliens  or  absentees,  and  even  these  flocks,  with 
their  peculiar  local  advantages,  are  declining  in  value.  Not  a 
fraction  of  this  increase  in  number  can  be  due  to  the  tariff,  and  no 
benefit  comes  from  it  to  the  growers  of  wool  in  the  older  States. 

To  supplement  these  facts  properly,  read  the  following  answers 
to  questions  propounded  by  the  "  Massachusetts  United  Questions 
Club,"  given  by  ex-Congressman  John  E.  Russell : 

Question  4  is  as  follows:  "Does  the  tax  on  foreign  wool  imported  put  the 
price  of  that  up  so  much  that,  although  the  price  of  American  wool  is  lower  than 
it  ever  was  hefore,  yet  our  domestic  woolen  manufacturers  are  put  at  a  great  dis- 
advantage with  foreign  manufacturers,  so  that  we  can  not  make  goods  at  so  low  a 
cost  or  of  so  good  a  quality,  except  such  kinds  of  goods  as  can  he  made  wholly  of 
domestic  wool?"  Mr.  Eussell  replies  that  the  specific  duties  on  woolen  cloths 
and  flannels  put  the  American  manufacturer  of  fine  goods  at  a  sad  disadvantage, 
confining  him  to  the  home  market,  and  that  the  high  price  he  is  compelled 
to  charge  for  goods  narrows  and  restricts  his  market.  Mr.  Russell  continues: 
"Makers  of  the  fine  flannels  that  are  sold  in  competition  with  the  best  English  and 
French  goods  import  South  American  wool  that  has  been  sent  to  France  and  there 
cleansed  of  dirt  and  burs,  and  scoured.  The  duty  on  this  wool  is  thirty  cents  a 
pound.     There  is  no  wool  raised  in  this  country  that  will  answer  the  same  pur- 


THE  DECADENCE   OF  FARMING.  33 

pose.  It  is  the  result  of  a  soil  and  climate  different  from  ours.  It  goes  to  France 
because,  though  France  is  a  protected  country,  they  do  not  think  it  economy  to 
tax  the  raw  material  of  manufacturing,  and  they  consider  it  wise  to  so  draw  the 
line  of  protection  as  to  preserve  commerce  with  nations  producing  raw  material. 
They  exchange  goods  for  wool,  they  make  the  freights,  commissions,  and  profits 
of  shipping,  and  we  pay  them  for  manipulation  of  the  wool." 

"  Question  5. — If  the  effect  of  the  tax  on  foreign  wool  has  been  to  put  down 
the  price  of  domestic  wool  and  to  put  up  the  cost  of  woolen  goods,  who  gets  any 
benefit  from  it?  Is  it  the  farmer,  who  gets  less  for  his  wool  and  pays  more  for 
his  clothing?" 

"  Answer. — The  benefit  of  this  tax  accrues  to  the  politicians  and  to  other  enor- 
mously protected  interests.  The  tariff  on  wool  is  the  key-stone  of  the  wide  arch 
of  protection,  because  it  binds  the  farmer  to  the  support  of  the  whole  system. 
Without  his  support  the  tariff  would  be  reduced  to  a  tax  that  would  raise  only 
what  is  required  by  the  Government  economically  administered,  with  incidental 
protection.  How  the  farmer  is  deceived  may  be  further  explained  by  a  calcula- 
tion of  what  he  gets  even  if  he  makes  all  that  is  promised  him.  The  duty  upon 
unwashed  wool  that  comes  in  competition  with  ours  is  ten  cents  a  pound,  the 
average  number  of  sheep  in  a  flock  upon  the  older  Western  farms  is  not  over 
thirty,  and  the  average  product  of  wool  on  such  a  farm  would  be  about  one  hun- 
dred and  eighty  pounds.  If  the  duty  increased  the  price  of  this  wool  ten  cents  a 
pound,  it  would  be  but  eighteen  dollars  to  each  flock,  or  less  than  the  enhanced 
cost  of  the  clothes  of  his  family.  It  gives  him  nothing  to  pay  the  increased  cost 
of  lumber,  salt,  tin,  crockery,  implements,  fence-wire,  etc.  The  fact  is,  that  his 
protection  fails  to  protect,  and  he  gets  nothing  but  the  privilege  of  carrying  the 
load.  He  is  a  victim  of  those  who  cut  straps  out  of  the  hides  of  the  poor  to  make 
stirrup-leathers  for  the  rich." 

The  next  question  of  importance  is  number  9.  It  is  as  follows :  "  Is  not  the 
farmer  misled  when,  under  pretense  of  protection  to  wool,  the  price  of  his  wool 
is  reduced  and  the  export  of  his  wheat  and  cotton  is  partly  stopped,  because  by 
way  of  a  tax  on  foreign  wool  we  prevent  in  part  an  exchange  of  wheat,  cotton, 
and  flour  for  wool?  Answer:  'Misled'  is  a  weak  term  to  use  under  the  circum- 
stances. We  might  say  he  is  in  the  same  position  as  the  man  who  votes  for  high 
taxes  to  keep  up  his  wages  !  " 

If  there  is  any  farmer  in  the  land  who  can  read  these  undeni- 
able facts,  and,  after  doing  so,  is  still  willing  the  "  wool "  shall  be 
"  pulled  over  his  eyes,"  he,  at  least,  deserves  little  pity  for  his  fate. 
Sheep  ought  really  to  be  a  profit  to  the  farmer,  as  they  are  an  im- 
portant factor  in  soil  enrichment.  They  ought  not  to  be  unprofit- 
able if  they  grew  hair  in  place  of  wool.  But  our  law-makers  have 
doomed  them.  The  only  "  protection  "  they  ever  were  in  need  of 
is  protection  from  dogs  and  tariff -mongers. 

There  is  really  no  probability  that  we  can  ever  have  a  "  farm- 
protecting"  tariff,  for  obvious  reasons.  One  is,  the  farmers  are 
too  numerous  to  organize  efficiently.  They  lack  the  massed  capi- 
tal and  commercial  skill  necessary  to  maintain  a  lobby  at  Wash- 
ington. They  are  too  vast  and  minutely  divided  a  body  to  be 
thrown  into  any  efficient  cohesion.  To  move  Congress  and  com- 
pel politicians,  you  want  just  the  sort  of  conspiracy  that  exists  and 

VOL.  XXXVI. 3 


34  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

V 

is  upheld  by  the  tariff  barons  and  beneficiaries — a  comparatively 
few  very  wealthy  corporations,  each  one  "  log-rolling  "  with  the 
other  for  mutual  benefits.  By  their  employment  of  large  bodies 
of  workmen,  and  their  power  to  contribute  money  and  to  bull- 
doze morally  through  the  "  pay-envelope,"  congressional  districts, 
States,  and  the  nation  are  in  their  clutch. 

Of  course,  the  farmer  vote  is  great  enough  to  have  its  way,  but 
it  can  not  apply  itself  with  the  force  and  ease  of  a  well-regulated 
machine,  as  its  almost  feudal  masters  can  theirs.  Our  farmers 
lack  also,  as  I  have  already  said,  the  clear  perception  that  they 
and  their  interests  are  exploited.  The  system  which  robs  them, 
under  cover  of  law,  large  numbers  of  them  still  believe  is  for 
their  own  benefit. 

It  is  a  matter  for  amazement,  though,  that  some  leaders  among 
them  do  not,  at  least,  plead  through  their  granges  and  societies,  for 
direct  protection,  since  they  are  so  sure  the  complex  taxation  of 
themselves  tends  to  their  prosperity,  by  some  indirect  hocus  pocus 
which  nobody  can  explain.  If  protection  is  good  for  agriculture, 
it  would  certainly  help  it  more  to  put  it  in  the  line  of  direct  bene- 
fit, and  let  other  industries,  so  long  pampered,  have  for  a  change 
the  indirect  blessings  of  the  tariff  for  a  term  of  years. 

As  the  farmers  are  by  far  the  most  numerous  single  part  of 
our  population,  and  represent  well  toward  one  third  of  the  people 
in  numbers,  why  not  give  to  them  directly,  lavish  bounties  from 
the  national  treasury  ?  Let  an  act,  for  instance,  be  passed  to  give 
them  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  per  cent  more  for  all 
they  raise  than  they  now  receive.  This  would  somewhere  near 
double  their  income.  "With  this  great  enlargement  of  their  means 
they  could  pay  more  for  labor,  and  they  could  buy  two  or  three 
times  as  large  a  quantity  of  manufactured  goods.  Of  course, 
"  could  "  invariably  means  "  would  "  in  the  protectionist's  diction- 
ary ;  and  so  we  should  see  a  tremendous  impetus  given  to  all  other 
industries,  and  to  manufactures  particularly,  by  the  very  greatly 
increased  purchases  of  the  farmers  and  their  doubly  paid  help. 
As  it  has  been  for  two  or  more  generations,  "  the  few  "  have  been 
protected  on  purpose  to  help  "  the  many  "  by  the  tremendous  over- 
flow which  the  benevolence  of  "  the  few  "  precipitates.  But  just 
think  how  much  more  overflow  would  be  sure  to  run  from  "  the 
many  "  to  "  the  few  "  than  is  possible  in  the  other  direction ! 

Could  there  be  any  finer  or  fairer  scheme  than  this  ?  Having 
lived  in  the  moonlight  of  protection  so  long,  is  it  not  the  farmer's 
turn  now  to  have  its  sunlight  ?  And,  inasmuch  as  the  manufact- 
urers and  protected  interests  say  that  this  moonlight,  or  indirect 
incidence  of  their  tax  system,  is  a  great  good  to  the  farmer,  it  will, 
of  course,  be  of  great  good  to  the  manufacturer.  And  there  will 
be  vastly  more  of  it,  since  large  bodies  reflect  immensely  more  to 


THE  DECADENCE   OF  FARMING. 


35 


small  ones  than  small  ones  do  to  large  ones.  Or  are  the  protected 
interests  really  afraid  to  take  their  own  prescription  ?  We  suspect 
they  would  be,  and,  in  fact,  could  not  be  hired  to  take  it. 

But  it  is  the  impending  truth — which  will  some  day,  and  I  think 
very  soon,  filter  into  the  farmer's  mind — that  alone  can  save  him. 
When  he  sees  that  he,  and  he  most  of  all,  is  bled  for  others,  and 
for  their  private  gain,  he  will  cease  to  believe  in  enforced  phle- 
botomy. When  he  finds  out  that  the  word  "  protective,"  so  far  as 
he  is  concerned,  is  an  abominable  misnomer,  and  should  be  trans- 
lated "  destructive,"  there  will  be  heard  a  voice  from  the  farms 
that  will  give  the  system  so  long  delusively  described  its  death- 
blow. Years  ago  the  farmer's  boy,  when  he  went  to  school,  was 
taught  that  the  business  of  the  United  States  consisted  of  "  agri- 
culture, manufactures,  and  commerce."  It  has  long  since  ceased 
to  be  an  equal  tri-division.  Agriculture  and  commerce,  as  they 
once  were,  are  things  of  the  past.  The  one  has  been  made  un- 
profitable beyond  description ;  the  other  is  now  impossible,  except 
in  a  reduced  way,  under  an  alien  flag.  Ship-building  is  "  protected  " 
to  death,  and  the  American  money  that  goes  toward  having  it 
done  abroad  simply  builds  ships  that,  in  case  of  a  war,  can  be 
turned  against  our  own  shores  and  our  depleted  navy.  But  we 
have — as  trophies  of  our  absurd  Chinese  system — manufactures 
(none  too  flourishing,  if  the  men  engaged  in  them  know)  and  a 
"  protective  "  tariff. 

The  long  endurance  of  the  superstition  on  which  "  protection  " 
is  based  has  had  two  bulwarks — the  necessity  for  revenues  ex- 
traordinary, and  the  power  of  money,  contributed  by  directly  in- 
terested parties.  An  economically  administered  government 
should  break  down  the  first,  and  the  force  of  facts  the  second. 

As  we  hold  in  derision  now  the  discovery  of  the  philosopher's 
stone  and  perpetual  motion,  so  future  generations  will  look  upon 
this  fetich  of  our  time,  and  not  without  unspeakable  amazement. 
They  will  see  a  generation  here  and  now  that  is  trying  to  lift  itself 
over  the  fence  by  standing  in  a  corn-basket  and  pulling  upward 
on  the  handles.  The  wonder  will  not  be  so  much  that  they  tried, 
as  it  will  be  that  for  so  long  a  time  they  supposed  they  were  suc- 
cessfully performing  this  impossible  feat. 


The  history  of  the  genus  Platanus,  which  includes  the  Oriental  plane-tree  and 
our  sycamore,  has  been  traced  by  Lester  F.  Ward  back  to  the  Tertiary  period, 
when  there  were  at  least  twenty  species,  mostly  American  or  arctic.  The  genus 
and  the  entire  type  to  which  it  belongs  seem  therefore  to  have  been  American  ; 
and  its  numerous  and  strange  archaic  forms  "not  only  formed  the  umbrageous 
forests  on  the  shores  of  the  great  inland  Laramie  Sea  where  the  Rocky  Mountains 
now  stand,  but  also  those  of  the  ocean  at  a  time  when  it  still  pushed  its  arms 
northward  across  what  are  now  the  great  plains  of  Texas,  Colorado,  and  Wyoming.'1" 


36  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


SENSITIVE   FLAMES  AND   SOUND-SHADOWS. 

By  W.  LE  CONTE  STEVENS, 

PROFESSOR   OF  PHYSICS   IN  THE  PACKER   COLLEGIATE   INSTITUTE. 

THE  conception  that  sound  is  due  to  wave-motion  in  an  elastic 
material  medium  was  first  distinctly  expressed  in  the  six- 
teenth century  by  Lord  Bacon.  He  distinguished  between  local 
motion  in  a  medium  and  the  propagation  of  this  motion  through 
it,  referring  to  the  transmission  of  sound  through  both  air  and 
water  by  way  of  illustration.  For  measuring  the  velocity  of 
sound  in  air  he  proposed  a  plan  which  has  been  repeatedly  applied 
since  his  time,  that  of  firing  a  cannon  and  noting  the  interval  be- 
tween the  flash  and  the  report  as  heard  at  a  measured  distance. 

It  is  impossible  now  to  determine  how  far  these  observations 
may  have  been  original  with  Bacon,  or  to  what  extent  they  may 
have  expressed  the  current  knowledge  of  his  time.  They  were 
clearly  apprehended  by  Galileo,  who  discovered  the  law  of  simple 
harmonic  motion  and  made  the  first  well-authenticated  experi- 
ments on  the  relation  between  vibration  frequency  and  musical 
pitch.  But  it  is  to  Sir  Isaac  Newton  that  we  must  give  the  credit 
of  first  applying  the  wave  theory  rigorously  to  the  phenomena  of 
sound.  Assuming  this  theory,  he  showed  the  possibility  of  calcu- 
lating what  ought  to  be  the  velocity  of  propagation  through  any 
medium  of  known  elasticity.  He  deduced  a  formula  which  has  been 
found  applicable  to  most  media.  In  the  case  of  atmospheric  air  it 
failed,  but  because  it  required  a  correction  dependent  on  certain 
laws  of  heat  which  had  not  then  become  known.  The  correction 
was  made  by  Laplace,  and  the  formula,  as  thus  completed,  is  now 
found  to  be  applicable  to  all  known  gases.  This  was  only  one  of 
the  many  important  principles  established  on  a  mathematical  basis 
in  the  "  Principia,"  and  published  in  1687. 

Even  before  this  date,  the  conception  that  light,  as  well  as 
sound,  might  be  due  to  wave-motion  seems  to  have  been  grasped 
by  a  few  thinkers.  In  1665  a  book  on  "  Light  and  Color  "  was  pub- 
lished at  Bologna,  two  years  after  the  death  of  its  author,  Fran- 
cesca  Maria  Grimaldi,  a  Jesuit  priest  and  astronomer.  In  this  he 
recounts  some  interesting  experiments,  which  did  not,  it  is  true, 
lead  him  to  the  wave  theory  of  light,  but  served  as  the  basis  on 
which  this  theory  was  subsequently  established.  Similar  experi- 
ments were  made  soon  afterward  by  Robert  Hooke,  the  ever- 
jealous  rival  of  Newton,  and  by  Christian  Huygens,  their  distin- 
guished Dutch  contemporary.  Huygens  demonstrated  that,  if  an 
impulse  be  given  to  any  single  particle  in  a  uniformly  elastic  ma- 
terial medium,  it  must  be    propagated  thence  as  wave-motion 


SENSITIVE  FLAMES  AND   SOUND-SHADOWS.        37 

equally  in  all  directions ;  and  that  the  propagation  of  a  wave  front 
in  any  given  direction  is  the  result  of  a  multitude  of  interferences 
among  the  elementary  waves  started  from  the  particles  which  are 
successively  disturbed.  Accepting  this  principle,  the  laws  of 
reflection  and  refraction,  whether  of  light  or  sound,  follow  imme- 
diately ;  and  they  were  worked  out  with  great  skill  by  Huygens. 
Another  consequence  is,  that  if  an  obstacle  be  interposed  in  the 
path  of  a  wave,  its  edges  must  serve  as  new  centers  around  which 
secondary  waves  will  be  propagated,  while  the  main  wave  con- 
tinues to  advance.     This  is  familiar  in  the  case  of  water-waves. 

If,  therefore,  light  be  due  to  wave-motion,  no  perfect  geo- 
metric shadow  is  possible,  for  the  shadow  must  suffer  encroach- 
ment from  these  secondary  waves  thus  diffracted.  Such  phenom- 
ena were  actually  observed  in  the  case  of  light  by  Grimaldi, 
Hooke,  and  Huygens,  but  no  satisfactory  explanation  was  then 
given.  It  is  surprising  that  Huygens  did  not  think  of  applying 
the  theory  which  had  been  so  satisfactory  in  its  application  to 
other  optical  phenomena.  He  had  not  attempted  to  measure  the 
length  of  waves  of  light,  and  had  no  conception  of  their  exceeding 
minuteness.  If  any  diffraction  phenomena  were  to  be  observed, 
the  encroachment  for  which  he  naturally  looked  was  far  greater 
than  what  had  been  noticed  as  inexplicable  and  almost  impercept- 
ibly narrow  fringes.  The  absence  of  the  diffraction  phenomena 
such  as  he  may  have  expected  did  not  cause  him  to  abandon  his 
wave  theory,  though  he  could  not  but  perceive  that  it  constituted 
a  stumbling-block.  To  the  mind  of  Newton  this  obstacle  was  in- 
superable ;  it  determined  his  rejection  of  Huygens's  theory. 

If  Newton  was  not  the  inventor  of  the  emission  theory  of  light, 
he  was  certainly  its  most  ardent  advocate.  It  came  into  promi- 
nence along  with  the  wave  theory,  or  indeed  a  little  after  this ; 
and  by  means  of  it  very  satisfactory  explanations  could  be  given 
of  most  optical  phenomena.  Newton's  reasoning,  and  the  author- 
ity of  his  great  name,  caused  its  acceptance  by  all  contemporary 
physicists,  except  Hooke,  Huygens,  and  Euler,  and  by  all  his  suc- 
cessors for  a  century.  Whichever  of  the  two  theories  is  accepted, 
assumptions  are  involved  which  are  open  to  attack  and  incapable 
of  being  substantiated  on  any  antecedent  grounds.  Its  value  has 
to  be  measured  alone  by  its  consistency  with  observed  facts.  It 
was  not  until  about  the  beginning  of  the  present  century  that  Dr. 
Thomas  Young  revived  the  long-discarded  wave  theory,  explained 
the  diffraction  of  light  by  its  aid,  and  showed  the  incompetency 
of  the  emission  theory.  His  views  were  at  first  generally  rejected, 
but  in  time  they  attracted  the  attention  of  Arago  and  Fresnel.  The 
latter  especially  entered  into  the  investigation  with  enthusiasm^ 
and  completed  the  establishment  of  the  wave  theory  upon  founda- 
tions that  have  never  since  been  successfully  assailed.    The  elastic 


3 8  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

medium  required  for  the  propagation  of  light-waves,  whether 
through  interplanetary  space  or  terrestrial  bodies,  is  the  universal 
ether,  of  whose  existence  we  have  no  evidence  except  that,  by  as- 
suming it  and  applying  mathematics,  the  results  of  computation 
are  exactly  corroborated  by  observation  and  experiment.  The 
elastic  medium  required  for  sound-waves  may  be  solid,  liquid,  or 
gaseous.     In  any  case  it  must  be  material. 

Assuming,  then,  an  obstacle  in  the  path  of  a  wave  of  sound 
or  light,  a  shadow  should  be  produced ;  but  since  the  edges  are 
sources  of  secondary  waves,  according  to  Huygens's  principle, 
these  should  encroach  upon  the  shadow.  The  degree  of  encroach- 
ment can  be  expressed  in  a  mathematical  formula,  and  is  thus 
shown  to  be  proportional  to  the  wave-length.  The  average  length 
of  a  wave  of  green  light  is  now  known  to  be  about  s  0 1 0  0  of  an 
inch.  The  encroachment  on  the  geometric  shadow  is  hence  so 
small  that  refined  methods  are  needed  to  make  it  perceptible.  In 
the  case  of  audible  sound,  on  the  contrary,  when  propagated 
through  air,  the  wave-length  is  ordinarily  so  great  that  the  en- 
croachment almost  wholly  masks  the  presence  of  any  shadow 
whatever.  For  the  pitch  C,  132  vibrations  per  second,  such  as  is 
often  used  by  men  in  conversation,  the  wave-length  is  readily  cal- 
culated, if  we  know  the  velocity  of  sound  in  air.  Taking  this  as 
1,120  feet  per  second,  there  will  be  132  waves  strung  out  over  this 
distance  in  each  second.  The  length  of  each  is  hence  eight  feet 
and  six  inches,  or  more  than  five  million  times  as  great  as  that 
of  the  average  wave  of  light.  For  such  waves  it  is  hopeless  to 
attempt  producing  any  well-defined  shadows. 

One  of  the  most  familiar  facts  in  physics  is  that  the  pitch  of  a 
note  becomes  higher,  and  hence  its  wave  shorter,  in  proportion  to 
the  increase  of  vibration  frequency.  If  well-defined  sound-shad- 
ows are  possible,  we  must  resort  to  sounds  of  very  short  wave- 
length. If  the  sound  is  continuous  instead  of  explosive,  this  short- 
ness implies  very  high  pitch.  There  are  mechanical  difficulties 
to  contend  with  which  make  it  hard  to  give  much  intensity  to 
very  acute  sounds.  The  range  of  audition,  moreover,  is  limited. 
For  persons  of  good  ear  the  range  may  be  roughly  stated  as  from 
25  to  25,000  vibrations  per  second  for  sounds  of  small  intensity ; 
indeed,  many  fail  to  perceive  any  pitch  exceeding  15,000.  To 
exhibit  sound-shadows,  therefore,  it  becomes  necessary  either  to 
employ  a  source  that  sends  forth  sounds  of  such  high  pitch  as  to 
be  inaudible  to  most  of  those  who  are  expected  to  perceive  the 
shadow,  or  to  resort  to  a  momentary  sound  of  great  intensity  and 
short  wave-length. 

Every  one  has  noticed  the  decrease  in  intensity  of  the  sound  of 
a  distant  railway-train  as  it  passes  into  a  cutting.  The  observer 
is  in  a  shadow  which  is  incomplete  but  nevertheless  noticeable. 


SENSITIVE  FLAMES  AND   SOUND-SHADOWS.        39 

The  secondary  waves,  which  are  started  at  the  upper  edges  of  the 
cutting,  reach  the  ear  and  give  still  a  good  idea  of  the  character 
of  the  noise  and  position  of  the  train.  The  range  of  the  ear  greatly 
exceeds  that  of  the  eye,  not  only  in  relation  to  the  variety  of  wave- 
lengths by  which  it  may  be  impressed,  but  yet  more  as  to  varia- 
tions of  intensity.  Just  as  sunshine  and  shadow  during  the  day 
indicate  merely  variations  in  illumination  without  the  complete 
extinction  of  light,  so  noise  and  sound-shadow  are  merely  relative 
terms,  the  latter  not  necessarily  implying  the  complete  extinction 
of  sound ;  for  in  air  diffraction  usually  plays  so  important  a  part 
as  to  forbid  complete  extinction,  and  to  prevent  all  sharpness  of 
definition  at  the  edges  of  the  shadow. 

When  the  medium  is  water  instead  of  air,  some  new  phenomena 
are  noticeable.  In  1826  Daniel  Colladon's  classic  experiments  on 
the  velocity  of  sound  in  water  were  performed  on  the  Lake  of  Ge- 
neva. The  source  of  sound  was  a  large  bell,  from  which  vibra- 
tions were  conducted  through  the  water  several  miles  away  to  an 
elastic  membrane  stretched  across  the  expanded  opening  of  a  par- 
tially submerged  hearing-trumpet.  They  were  thus  given  to  the 
air  within  the  trumpet  and  conveyed  to  an  ear  applied  at  its  smaller 
end  above  the  water.  A  bell  when  struck  sends  forth  a  vari- 
ety of  tones,  and  it  is  often  hard  to  determine  which  of  these  is 
most  prominent.  Usually  that  of  deepest  pitch  is  the  slowest  to 
die  away  in  air,  and  often  it  penetrates  to  the  greatest  distance. 
Colladon  made  the  remarkable  observation  that  in  water  the  low- 
er tones  are  conducted  off  to  but  a  short  distance  before  their 
energy  ceases  to  produce  the  sensation  of  sound ;  while  the  initial 
stroke  is  propagated  much  further,  and  is  then  perceived  as  a 
short,  sharp,  almost  clicking  sound,  without  definite  musical  char- 
acter. Placing  the  hearing-trumpet  behind  a  wall  which  project- 
ed out  into  the  water,  the  decrease  of  intensity  was  much  greater 
than  under  similar  conditions  in  air,  and  the  demarkation  of  the 
region  of  shadow  was  decidedly  more  noticeable. 

Still  more  interesting  than  the  experiments  of  Colladon  were 
those  made  in  the  Bay  of  San  Francisco  in  1874  by  Prof.  John 
Le  Conte  and  his  son,  Mr.  Julian  Le  Conte.  The  source  of  sound 
was  not  such  as  would  give  a  definite  pitch,  like  a  bell,  but  the 
quick,  violent,  single  impulse  due  to  the  explosion  of  dynamite 
employed  in  the  blasting  of  rocks  which  obstructed  the  channels. 
The  intensity  of  the  shock  thus  propagated  was  such  as  to  be  felt 
as  a  blow  on  the  feet  of  a  person  seated  in  a  boat  three  hundred 
feet  or  more  from  the  detonating  cartridge,  and  to  kill  hundreds 
of  fish.  Several  vertical  posts  or  piles,  each  about  a  foot  in  diame- 
ter, projected  from  the  ground  out  of  the  water  in  the  neighbor- 
hood. A  stout  glass  bottle  was  suspended  in  the  water  about  a 
foot  in  the  rear  of  one  of  these  piles  (Fig.  1),  within  the  geomet- 


40 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


ric  shadow  determined  by  lines  supposed  to  be  drawn  from  the 
cartridge  forty  feet  horizontally  away.  The  bottle  was  perfectly 
protected  from  the  shock  of  the  explosion.  It  was  then  put  in 
front  of  the  pile.  The  first  shock  shivered  it  into  hundreds  of 
fragments.     Other  bottles,  some  filled  with  air  and   some  with 


SA/VO  STONE  REEF  ' 


M 


Fig.  1. 

water,  were  similarly  exposed  in  various  directions  around  the 
pile,  and  with  the  same  result — destruction,  except  when  within 
the  protecting  shadow.  The  experiments  were  varied  by  immers- 
ing stout  glass  tubes  (Fig.  1),  incased  in  thick  paper,  horizontally 
across  the  direction  of  the  sound-rays  in  water,  between  two  piles 
which  were  aligned  with  the  dynamite  cartridge.    These  piles  were 

twelve  feet  apart,  the 
nearer  one  being  forty 
feet  from  the  cartridge. 
Its  shadow,  therefore, 
just  covered  the  second 
pile,  and  included  the  in- 
termediate water,  with 
the  middle  part  of  each 
tube.  After  an  explosion 
these  protected  parts 
were  found  to  be  un- 
broken, while  the  ends 
which  projected  on  the  two  sides  beyond  the  shadow  were  com- 
pletely shattered  (Fig.  2).  The  boundary  between  the  regions  of 
shadow  and  noise  was  sharply  defined  on  the  tubes,  even  at  a  dis- 
tance of  twelve  feet  behind  the  protecting  pile. 

To  account  for  the  shortness  of  the  sound-waves  which  were 


Fig.  2. 


SENSITIVE  FLAMES  AND   SOUND-SHADOWS.       41 

capable  of  producing  such  sharp  shadows,  Dr.  Le  Conte  advances 
what  seems  to  be  the  only  tenable  theory,  and  one  which  equally 
explains  the  observations  of  Colladon  on  the  clicking  sound  of  a 
distant  bell  as  heard  in  water.  In  the  absence  of  any  recogniz- 
able pitch — for  pitch  implies  a  series  of  impulses  recurring  in 
regular  order — there  is  no  means  of  determining  wave-length  in 
these  cases.  But  whatever  this  may  be,  the  wave-length  is  equal 
to  the  product  of  the  time  consumed  in  generating  the  wave  and 
the  velocity  of  propagation.  Thus,  assume  the  initial  pitch  of  a 
bell  to  be  220  vibrations  per  second.  We  may  compute  the  wave- 
length either  by  considering  that  220  waves  are  strung  out  over  a 
distance  of  1,120  feet,  making  each  a  trifle  more  than  five  feet 
long,  or  we  may  say  that  the  time  consumed  in  generating  each 
wave  is  ?fo  of  a  second,  and  that  this  impulse  is  propagated  at 
the  rate  of  1,120  feet  per  second,  which  would  be  a  little  over  five 
feet  in  -^  of  a  second.  The  blow  of  the  hammer  on  Colladon's 
bell  was  almost  instantaneous,  and  the  intensity  of  the  first  shock 
thus  given  to  the  water  was  far  greater  than  that  of  any  subse- 
quent shock  due  to  the  succession  of  vibrations  set  up  in  the  elas- 
tic bell-metal.  The  distance  through  which  this  intense  sound 
would  be  propagated  might  be  expected  greatly  to  exceed  that 
traversed  by  the  subsequent  weaker  vibrations.  The  generating 
blow  was  so  brief  that  the  wave-length  could  only  be  short ;  and 
hence  comparatively  well-defined  sound-shadows  were  produced 
at  a  distance.  In  the  case  of  the  dynamite  explosions  under  water 
this  reasoning  holds  with  yet  greater  force.  If  the  duration  of 
the  generating  impulse  be  only  a  millionth  of  a  second,  and  the 
velocity  of  propagation  in  water  be  4,700  feet  per  second,  the 
resulting  wave-length  would  be  only  about  -^  of  an  inch.  The 
quickness  of  action  manifested  in  the  explosion  of  dynamite  ex- 
ceeds that  of  any  other  known  agent  that  has  ever  been  similarly 
employed.  The  duration  of  the  generating  impulse  may  be  con- 
sidered indefinitely  small,  certainly  immeasurably  small.  The 
sharpness  of  the  sound-shadows  it  produces  in  water  indicates  a 
wave-length  that  can  not  exceed  a  small  fraction  of  an  inch. 

The  production  of  sharp  sound-shadows  in  air  is  of  more 
recent  date  than  the  experiments  in  water.  In  1880  a  dynamite- 
factory  near  San  Francisco  was  destroyed  by  the  explosion  of  its 
contents.  On  a  large  building  three  miles  away  many  panes  of 
window  glass  on  the  side  toward  the  explosion  were  broken,  and 
two  shocks  were  felt,  one  conducted  by  the  air  and  the  other  by 
the  ground.  In  the  acoustic  shadow  cast  by  this  building,  nearly 
nine  hundred  feet  away  on  the  side  remote  from  the  explosion,  no 
aerial  shock  was  experienced,  though  that  from  the  ground  was 
distinctly  felt.  The  shortness  of  the  air-wave  due  to  exploding 
dynamite  sufficiently  accounts  for  the  sharpness  of  the  shadow. 


42 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


But  there  is  now  no  longer  any  necessity  to  resort  to  such 
dangerous  sources  of  sound  as  dynamite.  Whistles  may  be  made 
which  yield  tones  exceeding  twenty  thousand  vibrations  per  sec- 
ond. The  wave-length  corresponding  to  such  a  pitch  is  less  than 
an  inch.  The  advantage  presented  is  that  the  sound  is  continu- 
ous, and  it  may  be  made  as  constant  as  we  please  by  supplying 
the  whistle  from  a  cylinder  full  of  compressed  air,  regulating  the 
pressure  by  means  of  an  appropriate  gauge.  The  disadvantage  is 
that  the  intensity  is  but  slight,  and  the  pitch  is  too  high  to  be 
perceived  as  sound  by  most  persons  unless  the  ear  is  closely  ap- 
plied. An  artificial  indicator  must  hence  be  used,  whose  motion 
under  the  disturbances  due  to  sound  can  be  seen  at  a  distance. 

In  1857  Prof.  John  Le  Conte  discovered  that  an  ordinary  naked 
gas-flame,  from  a  fish-tail  or  bat-wing  burner,  becomes  an  indicator 
of  sound  by  vibrating  in  unison  with  an  external  source,  provided 
the  pressure  be  such  that  the  flame  is  just  ready  to  flare.  This 
can  be  easily  shown  by  blowing  a  shrill  whistle  or  bowing  a 
tuning-fork  of  high  pitch  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  the 
flame,  which  at  once  becomes  forked  (Fig.  3)  into  several  long, 

vibrating  tongues.  The 
effect  soon  ceases  if  the 
pressure  be  gradually  di- 
minished. This  result  is 
due  to  the  disturbance 
produced  by  sound  - 
waves  on  the  outflowing 
jet  of  gas  at  the  nozzle. 
The  high  temperature  of 
flame  is  therefore  not 
necessary  for  the  pro- 
duction of  such  co- vibra- 
tion, but  serves  to  make 
it  more  easily  manifest. 
Nine  years  elapsed  after  Dr.  Le  Conte's  discovery  before  the 
subject  was  taken  up  again  and  independently  by  Mr.  W.  F. 
Barrett,  in  London,  who  used  small  cylindrical  jets,  which  were 
found  to  flare  under  similar  conditions,  and  could  be  ren- 
dered far  more  sensitive.  A  "  pin-hole  lava-tip  "  may  be  fitted 
into  the  end  of  a  metal  tube  and  connected  by  means  of  India- 
rubber  tubing  to  a  cylinder  of  compressed  illuminating  gas.  In 
connection  with  this,  also,  there  should  be  a  water  manometer 
gauge  for  regulating  the  pressure  of  the  outflowing  gas.  If  the 
pin-hole  is  very  smoothly  cylindrical,  the  flame  mounts  up  to  the 
height  of  nearly  eighteen  inches  (Fig.  4,  x),  with  an  apparent 
thickness  scarcely  more  than  that  of  the  little  finger,  and  burn- 
ing quietly.     When  the  pressure  approaches  ten  inches,  as  indi- 


Fia.  3.— Sensitive  Batwing  Flames. 


SENSITIVE  FLAMES  AND    SOUND-SHADOWS.       43 


cated  by  the  water-gauge,  the  flame  flares,  becoming  much  shorter 
and  broader,  like  a  little  Indian  club  (Fig.  4,  y),  and  producing  a 
low  roaring  sound,  due  to  the  escape  of  unburned  gas.  Let  the 
pressure  now  be  diminished  until  this  flaring  barely  ceases.  The 
flame  is  now  in  its  most  sensitive  condition.  Sounds  1  b 
of  low  or  even  medium  pitch  have  no  effect  upon  it ; 
but  on  blowing  a  shrill  whistle,  or  rattling  a  bunch 
of  keys  anywhere  within  thirty  or  forty  feet,  it  flares. 
Perhaps  the  most  beautiful  illustration  of  its  sensi- 
tiveness is  given  by  placing  an  open  watch  near  the 
nozzle  but  not  touching  it ;  every  tick  causes  a  mo- 
mentary sinking  and  spreading  of  the  flame,  so  that 
the  effect  may  be  seen  across  an  audience-room.  If 
the  audience  applauds  with  clapping  of  hands,  the 
flame  shrinks  in  acknowledgment. 

A  very  sensitive  flame,  but  not  so  convenient  as 
that  of  Prof.  Barrett,  and  not  visible  at  so  great  a 
distance,  may  be  obtained  with  no  pressure  greater 
than  that  of  the  street  mains,  by  causing  the  gas  to 
issue  from  a  small  tube,  over  the  orifice  of  which,  at 
a  height  of  an  inch  or  two,  is  placed  a  piece  of  wire 
gauze  (Fig.  5).  The  mixture  of  coal-gas  and  air  is 
ignited  above  the  gauze,  and  a  glass  tube  may  be  used 
to  protect  the  flame  from  currents  of  air,  though  this 
is  not  usually  necessary.  Very  little  adjustment  is 
needed  to  find  the  distance  between  nozzle  and  gauze 
at  which  the  flame  is  most  sensitive.  This  arrange- 
ment was  devised  independently  by  Prof.  Govi,  of 
Turin,  and  Mr.  Barry,  of  Ireland.  The  flame  is  de- 
ficient in  brightness,  and  is  only  a  few  inches  high  at 
its  best,  but  has  the  advantage  of  not  requiring  any 
appliances  that  may  not  be  easily  supplied  in  any 
town.  If  Barrett's  flame  is  available,  however,  it  is 
decidedly  preferable  to  anything  else. 

With  such  a  flame  as  Barrett's  it  becomes  possible 
to  explore  the  air  and  detect  regions  of  relative  noise  and  silence' 
just  as  a  delicate  thermometer  enables  us  to  determine  variations  of 
temperature  in  different  layers  of  air  or  water.  If  the  pitch  be  too 
high  for  the  ear  to  estimate  or  even  detect  it,  the  sensitive  flame 
is  more  delicate  than  the  ear.  Armed  with  a  whistle  yielding  a 
pitch  of  twelve  or  fifteen  thousand  vibrations  per  second,  and  with 
a  good  flame,  many  beautiful  analogies  between  sound  and  light 
may  be  exhibited  with  entire  satisfaction  to  an  audience  of  deaf- 
mutes,  if  the  lecturer's  fingers  are  fairly  nimble,  since  there  is  no 
necessity  for  the  sounds  to  be  heard.  Most  of  the  experiments 
about  to  be  described  were  devised  by  Lord  Rayleigh,  the  suc- 


Fig.  4. 


44 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


cessor  of  Prof.  Tyndall  in  the  chair  of  Natural  Philosophy  at  the 
Royal  Institution  in  London. 

Let  the  whistle  be  supplied  with  a  continuous  blast  of  air,  or 
any  compressed  gas,  at  steady  pressure.  Four  or  five  feet  away 
from  it  is  placed  the  nozzle  of  the  burner  from  which  the  flame 
issues.  Its  sensitiveness  may  be  regulated  at  will  by  means  of  the 
stop-cock  and  the  water  manometer  gauge.  Turning  on  the  blast 
through  the  whistle,  the  flame  flares.  Let  the  open  hand  be  held 
up  between  the  two ;  the  flaring  ceases.  The  nozzle  of  the  burner 
is  in  the  acoustic  shadow  cast  by  the  hand.  If  this  result  is  not 
successfully  attained  at  the  first  trial,  the  sensitiveness  of  the 
flame  may  be  slightly  modified  to  suit  the  conditions.  The  case 
is  entirely  analogous  to  that  of  the  glass  bottles  in  the  experi- 
ments in  San  Francisco  Bay. 

By  using  a  small  mirror  to  reflect  the  sound-waves,  their 
lengths  may  easily  be  measured  in  mid-air.  Let  the  mirror  be 
put  a  few  inches  behind  the  flame  and  moved  slowly  toward  this 
or  away  from  it.  At  certain  distances  the  flame  is  observed  to 
flare  violently,  and  at  certain  other  points  it  becomes  quiet, 
though  the  sound  has  not  been  varied.  Reflected  waves  are 
meeting  advancing  waves.  Where  they  meet  in  like  phases,  their 
effect  on  the  flame  is  intensified.  But  if  the  position  of  the  mirror 
is  so  adjusted  that  the  flame  is  at  a  point  where  the  opposing 

waves  meet  in  unlike  phase,  these 
neutralize  each  other  and  the  flame 
ceases  to  be  agitated.  The  case  is  like 
that  of  producing  loops  and  nodes  on 
a  string  attached  at  one  end  to  a  vi- 
brating body  and  fixed  at  the  other 
end.  A  series  of  sinusoidal  curves 
travel  over  its  length,  and  are  re- 
flected from  the  fixed  end,  producing 
the  so-called  stationary  waves  (Fig. 
6).  A  returning  sinusoid  is  super- 
imposed on  an  advancing  sinusoid, 
producing  two  loops,  with  an  inter- 
mediate nodal  point  of  rest  and  a 
node  at  the  end.  The  whole  sinusoid 
represents  a  wave-length,  and  the 
distance  from  node  to  node  a  half 
wave  -  length.  The  distance  through 
which  the  mirror  is  moved  from  one  point  of  flame  quiescence 
to  the  next  is  a  half  wave-length  for  the  pitch  yielded  by  the 
whistle.  In  some  experiments  thus  conducted  by  the  writer, 
this  distance  was  found  to  be  a  trifle  over  half  an  inch.  The 
whole  wave-length  was  r05   inch.     Assuming   the  velocity  of 


Fig.  5. 


SENSITIVE  FLAMES  AND   SOUND-SHADOWS. 


45 


Fig.  6.— a,  advancing  sinusoid  ;  b,  returning  sinusoid ; 
c,  advancing  and  returning  sinusoids,  forming  two 
loops  and  a  node  ;  c  e  is  a  whole  wave-length ;  c  d,  a 
half  wave-length. 


sound  to  be  1,120  feet,  reducing  this  to  inches,  and  dividing  by 
1*05  inch,  the  pitch  of  the  whistle  was  thus  found  to  be  in  the 
neighborhood  of  thirteen  thousand  complete  vibrations  per  sec- 
ond. In  no  other  way  could  this  pitch  be  determined,  for  the 
most  accomplished  musician  loses  his  power  of  discriminating 
pitch  when  either  the  upper  or  the  lower  limit  of  audition  is  ap- 
proached. The  pitch  of  the 
highest  tone  employed  in 
music  does  not  exceed  five 
thousand  vibrations  per 
second. 

In  performing  this  ex- 
periment Lord  Rayleigh 
discovered  an  interesting 
peculiarity  of  the  human 
ear  in  contrast  with  the 
sensitive  flame.  By  using 
a  tube,  whose  opening  was 
placed  alternately  in  the 
aerial  loops  and  nodes,  and 

conveying  the  sound  thus  to  the  ear  at  the  same  time  that  the  flame 
was  alternately  agitated  and  quiescent,  he  found  that  the  ear  was 
most  affected  where  the  flame  was  least  affected,  and  vice  versa. 

The  flame,  moreover,  is  unequally  sensitive  in  two  directions 
at  right  angles  with  each  other.  In  drilling  the  small  cylindrical 
hole  of  the  burner  no  amount  of  care  is  sufficient  to  prevent 
minute  irregularities.  The  current  of  issuing  gas  is  not  abso- 
lutely cylindrical.  It  is  disturbed  slightly  by  interior  currents 
from  side  to  side,  and  these  affect  the  sensitiveness  of  the  jet  to 
external  disturbances.  To  test  this,  let  the  nozzle  be  rotated  on  its 
own  axis  while  the  whistle  is  sounding,  until  the  maximum  effect 
is  noticed ;  and  let  the  sensitiveness  of  the  flame  be  slightly  re- 
duced without  causing  it  to  cease  to  flare.  On  rotating  the 
nozzle  now  through  a  right  angle  the  flame  is  found  to  become 
quiet.  Let  a  mirror  be  put  on  one  side  of  the  flame,  a  short  dis- 
tance off,  so  as  to  face  the  sensitive  side.  Adjusting  it  until  it  is 
equally  inclined  to  the  directions  of  flame  and  whistle,  the  flaring 
is  started  anew.  This  ceases  when  the  mirror  is  rotated  toward 
either  side  through  a  very  small  angle.  Indeed,  no  more  beautiful 
and  exact  illustration  could  be  devised  for  showing  the  law  of 
reflection  of  sound-waves.  The  sound-ray,  taking  a  longer  and 
broken  path,  disturbs  the  flame  on  its  sensitive  side,  while  the 
direct  rays  are  at  the  same  time  beating  in  vain  against  what  by 
analogy  we  may  call  its  deaf  side. 

Probably  the  most  interesting  acoustic  phenomena  to  be  in- 
vestigated by  the  aid  of  the  sensitive  flame  are  those  of  diff  rac- 


46 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


tion,  or  the  measurable  encroachment  upon  sound-shadows.  In  the 
accompanying  diagram  (Fig.  7)  suppose  the  arrows  to  represent 
the  direction  of  a  group  of  parallel  rays  of  either  sound  or  light, 
the  wave  fronts  being  indicated  by  lines  across  the  direction  of 
the  arrows.  Waves  in  one  phase  are  indicated  by  the  continuous 
lines,  and  those  in  opposite  phase  by  the  dotted  lines.  At  each 
edge  of  the  obstacle  are  the  centers  of  the  secondary  waves,  whose 
fronts  are  represented  by  parts  of  circles.  Behind  the  obstacle 
and  on  each  side  are  points  of  interference  represented  by  crosses 


u 


--—--"¥• -v 


Pig.  7.— Exterior  and  Interior  Diffraction. 

and  zeros.  Behind  it  the  secondary  waves  from  opposite  edges 
meet  each  other.  At  the  sides,  secondary  waves  interfere  with 
the  advancing  main  wave.  Where  like  phases  meet,  the  crosses 
represent  points  of  increased  disturbance.  Where  opposite  phases 
meet,  the  zeros  represent  points  of  quiescence.  If  the  waves  are 
those  of  light,  the  crosses  are  points  of  increased  brightness  ;  the 
zeros,  of  comparative  darkness.  If  the  waves  are  those  of  sound, 
the  crosses  are  points  of  noise  ;  the  zeros,  of  silence.  Behind  the 
obstacle  there  is  a  middle  line  of  crosses ;  on  each  side  of  this  a 
line  of  zeros;  and  outside  of  these  are  lines  of  crosses  again. 
These  lines  are  parts  of  hyperbolas,  whose  foci  are  the  centers 
from  which  the  secondary  waves  are  started.  This  is  readily  seen 
by  reference  to  the  next  illustration  (Fig.  8).  A  necessary  conse- 
quence is,  that  if  light  radiating  from  a  point  or  a  small  aperture 
be  interrupted  by  interposing  a  small  disk  in  its  path,  there  should 
be  a  line  along  the  middle  of  the  shadow  behind  it,  at  certain 
points  of  which  brightness  appears  if  a  translucent  screen  is  placed 
across  the  shadow.  This  fact  was  noticed  by  a  Frenchman,  De- 
lisle,  before  the  birth  of  either  Newton  or  Huygens,  but  was  of 
course  not  understood  and  was  soon  forgotten.  Dr.  Young  seems 
not  to  have  thought  of  it,  or  certainly  never  put  this  consequence 


SENSITIVE  FLAMES   AND   SOUND-SHADOWS.       47 


of  theory  to  any  test.  The  first  physicist  to  recognize  the  value 
of  Young's  optical  papers  was  Arago,  who  at  once  adopted  the 
wave  theory  and  started  his  friend  Fresnel  on  a  series  of  optical 
researches  that  are  now  classic.  In  1819  Fresnel  gained  a  prize 
from  the  French  Academy  for  his  work  on  diffraction  of  light. 
Before  the  report  was  made  to  the  Academy  it  was  examined  by 
the  mathematician  Poisson,  who  criticised  it  by  showing  that,  if 
the  wave  theory  were  ac- 
cepted, the  shadow  of  a 
small  disk  should  have  a 
bright  spot  in  the  middle, 
due  to  diffraction,  the  illu- 
mination of  which  should 
be  the  same  as  if  no  disk 
had  been  interposed.  Ara- 
go at  once  tried  the  ex- 
periment ;  and  what  Pois- 
son  had  urged  to  prove  the 
impossibility  of  Fresnel's 
views  was  found  to  be  a 
startling  proof  of  their 
correctness.  The  experi- 
ment is  easily  tested,  re- 
quiring no  more  expensive 
apparatus  than  a  mirror 
outside  of  an  opening  in 
a  window,  a  small  bullet 
suspended  by  a  thin  wire, 
and  a  piece  of  rough- 
ened glass  to  receive  the 

shadow.  A  pin-hole  through  a  sheet  of  tin  foil  covering  the  win- 
dow opening  yields  the  required  light  from  the  mirror.  The 
acoustic  analogue  of  this  celebrated  experiment  was  first  accom- 
plished a  few  years  ago  by  Lord  Rayleigh;  it  has  been  lately 
often  repeated  by  the  writer  and  perhaps  others.  A  disk  of  card- 
board about  a  foot  in  diameter  is  put  between  a  whistle  and  sensi- 
tive flame,  with  careful  adjustment  of  distance  and  sensitiveness. 
In  certain  positions  the  flame  is  protected  within  the  shadow  of 
the  disk ;  but,  by  moving  the  latter  to  and  fro,  one  position  is 
found  where  it  causes  the  flame  to  be  violently  agitated  by  the 
meeting  of  waves  diffracted  at  the  edge  of  the  circle.  The  diffract- 
ive  effect  is  the  same  as  if  the  impervious  disk  were  a  lens  con- 
verging the  sound-waves  to  a  focus. 

The  effect  just  described  may  be  much  intensified  by  construct- 
ing an  acoustic  diffraction  grating  and  using  it  in  place  of  the 
simple  disk.     The  explanation  of  the  principle  on  which  such  a 


T'      ?     3?     %<    f     0       1       5     T       *•       6 
Piq.  8.— Hyperbolas  produced  by  Interference  op 

Waves. 


48  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

grating  is  made  is  beyond  the  scope  of  the  present  paper.*  As- 
suming its  use,  the  sensitive  flame  enables  us  to  detect  a  focal 
area  of  noise,  at  which  the  flame  is  violently  agitated,  and  around 
this  are  alternate  rings  of  silence  and  fainter  noise  diminishing 
in  strength  with  increase  of  distance  from  the  central  focus. 

By  admitting  light  through  two  small  openings  close  together, 
the  waves  coming  from  a  distant  bright  point  and  hence  reaching 
the  two  openings  in  the  same  phase,  hyperbolic  lines  of  interfer- 
ence like  those  shown  in  Fig.  8  were  traced  in  space  by  Fresnel. 
The  writer  has  recently  done  the  same  with  sound-waves,  using 
the  sensitive  flame  as  an  explorer.  Bands  of  alternate  noise 
and  silence  have  in  like  manner  been  traced  by  him  in  air,  pro- 
duced by  interference  between  the  waves  proceeding  directly 
from  the  whistle  and  those  reflected  from  a  smooth  surface  placed 
horizontally  on  the  table. 

The  wave  theory  of  sound  has  long  been  impregnable;  but 
these  beautiful  analogies  between  light  and  sound,  though  pro- 
vided for  by  theory,  have  been  experimentally  demonstrated  only 
recently.  Such  new  and  unexpected  confirmations,  new  points  of 
contact,  are  always  welcome,  even  though  they  be  not  needed  for 
the  establishment  of  a  theory.  They  are  the  results  of  prevision 
based  on  the  assumption  that  an  elastic  material  medium  is 
needed  for  the  propagation  of  sound,  and  are  wholly  inexplicable 
on  any  theory  of  emanation  analogous  to  Newton's  emission  the- 
ory of  light. 


■»»» 


CONDITION'S   AFFECTING    THE    REPRODUCTIVE 
POWER   IN  ANIMALS. 

By  JAMES  H.  STOLLER, 

ADJUNCT  PBOFE9SOR   OF   NATURAL   HISTORY  IN  UNION  COLLEGE. 

MODERN  biology  has  made  familiar  the  idea  that  animals 
are  not  fixed  and  unalterable  in  their  bodily  structure  and 
functions,  but,  within  a  certain  range,  respond  by  changes  in 
themselves  to  changes  in  their  physical  surroundings.  This  has 
always  been  observed  to  be  true  for  the  individual  animal,  as  in 
the  changes  undergone  in  adaptation  to  the  seasons  of  the  year ; 
mammals,  for  instance,  acquiring  a  thicker  coat  of  hair  at  the 
approach  of  winter,  and  reptiles  and  other  classes  passing  into  a 
low  state  of  functional  activity  called  hibernation  or  winter  sleep. 
But  it  has  now  been  well  shown  that  this  principle  of  modification 
by  environment  applies  to  species  as  well  as  to  individuals.     That 

*  For  this  explanation  the  reader  is  referred  to  an  article  on  "  Diffraction  of  Sound,"  in 
the  "  Journal  of  the  Franklin  Institute,"  for  June,  1889. 


THE  REPRODUCTIVE  POWER  IN  ANIMALS.         49 

is  to  say,  in  long  periods  of  time  species  of  animals  are  affected 
by  changes  in  external  conditions  according  to  the  same  principle 
of  natural  law  by  which  individual  animals  are  affected  in  short 
periods.  It  is  to  be  understood,  of  course,  that  species  are  affected 
by  other  causes  than  a  changed  environment — causes  such  as  are 
included  in  Darwin's  phrase  of  natural  selection — but  the  fact  of 
the  modification  of  species  becomes  evident  when  it  is  seen  that 
familiar  observations  made  upon  individual  animals  have  an 
application  to  species  also. 

It  is  clear  that  the  modifications  thus  undergone  are  primarily 
functional  rather  than  structural,  since  no  part  of  the  animal  body 
can  be  altered  in  its  anatomical  characters  except  through  phys- 
iological action.  But  it  is  also  true  that  functional  modifications 
occur  not  merely  as  subordinate  to  structural  changes  but  as 
ends  in  themselves.  That  is  to  say,  functional  activity  may  be 
increased  or  diminished  in  response  to  changes  in  external  con- 
ditions without  any  necessary  sequence  in  changes  in  the  struct- 
ure of  the  organs  exercising  the  function.  An  illustration  of  this 
is  found  in  the  well-known  fact  that  warm-blooded  animals  (ex- 
cepting those  that  hibernate)  need  more  food  in  winter  than  in 
summer  to  keep  up  their  normal  temperature,  occasioning  a  con- 
siderably increased  activity  of  the  nutritive  functions,  but  without 
any  attendant  structural  changes  whatever  in  the  organs  of  ali- 
mentation. The  same  holds  true  with  hibernating  animals,  which, 
on  the  other  hand,  take  no  food  for  a  long  period,  the  nutritive 
function  being  greatly  reduced  in  activity,  yet  the  organs  exer- 
cising this  function  undergoing  no  structural  changes.  In  respect 
to  species  of  animals,  we  should  not  expect  to  find  the  principle 
hold  true  so  strictly  as  in  individual  animals,  since  increased  or 
diminished  functional  activity  extending  through  many  succes- 
sive generations  could  scarcely  fail  to  have  some  effect  on  organic 
structure.  But  the  point  to  which  special  attention  is  here  direct- 
ed is  that  function  as  well  as  structure  responds  to  changes  of 
environment,  and  that  variations  in  functional  activity  occur 
without  any  closely  correlated  changes  in  structure. 

The  present  object  is  to  show  that  the  reproductive  function  in 
animals  is  profoundly  affected  by  conditions  of  environment.  It 
will  be  sufficient  to  state  the  law  or  principle  according  to  which 
the  activity  of  the  reproductive  power  appears  to  be  regulated, 
and  then  to  adduce  instances  exemplifying  the  law. 

When  circumstances  are  such  that  most  of  the  ova  produced 
are  likely  to  develop,  and  the  young  to  reach  maturity,  then  the 
reproductive  function  is  least  active ;  on  the  other  hand,  when  by 
reason  of  lack  of  food-supply  or  danger  of  destruction  by  adverse 
physical  conditions,  or  by  natural  enemies,  it  is  probable  that  only 
a  small  proportion  of  the  ova  will  give  rise  to  mature  animals, 

VOL.   XXXTI. 4 


5o  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

then  the  reproductive  function  is  most  active.  The  law  may, 
therefore,  be  stated  thus  :  The  activity  of  the  reproductive  func- 
tion is  in  proportion  to  the  unfavorableness  of  the  embryonic 
environment.     The  following  instances  are  adduced  : 

Tape- Worm. — The  common  tape- worm,  Tcenia  solium,  para- 
sitic in  the  human  intestine,  consists  in  structure  of  a  series,  of 
flat,  oblong  segments,  sometimes  eight  hundred  in  number.  Each 
of  these  segments  is  sexually  perfect,  containing  both  the  male 
and  female  reproductive  organs.  The  number  of  ova  capable  of 
development  in  each  sexually  mature  segment  is  probably  not  less 
than  five  thousand.  At  this  time  the  segment  detaches  itself  from 
the  others  and  is  discharged  from  the  body.  In  order  that  the 
ova  shall  develop,  it  is  then  necessary  that  they  should  gain  access 
to  the  alimentary  canal  of  the  hog.  If  by  chance  they  are  swal- 
lowed by  this  animal,  they  quickly  pass  into  the  larval  or  cystic 
stage,  burying  themselves  in  the  flesh  or  liver  of  their  host, 
whence  they  may  be  transferred  to  the  alimentary  canal  of  man, 
where  development  is  completed. 

Now,  it  is  obvious  that  this  complex  and  fortuitous  round  of 
life  renders  the  chances  of  the  development  of  any  single  ovum 
exceedingly  small.  It  is  not  probable,  indeed,  that  one  in  ten 
thousand  of  the  ova  discharged  from  the  alimentary  canal  of  the 
host  of  the  mature  worm  will  ever  reach  the  alimentary  canal  of 
the  host  of  the  larval  worm.  The  embryonic  environment  is, 
therefore,  in  this  case,  exceedingly  unfavorable  by  reason  of  its 
extreme  narrowness.  There  is  but  one  situation  in  which  the  de- 
velopment of  the  ovum  can  occur,  and  it  is  altogether  accidental 
whether  it  reaches  this  situation.  The  explanation  of  the  enor- 
mous capacity  of  the  reproductive  power  in  this  animal  is  thus 
at  once  apparent.  To  compensate  for  the  exceedingly  narrow 
chances  that  the  reproductive  cell  shall  survive  to  complete  issue, 
these  cells  are  generated  in  excessive  numbers. 

Aphides. — The  aphides  are  commonly  called  plant-lice,  and 
are  very  abundant  in  summer  upon  the  leaves  of  most  plants. 
They  mature  quickly,  at  least  eight  or  nine  generations  following 
one  another  in  a  single  summer.  So  prolific  are  they  that  it  is 
entirely  within  bounds  to  say  that  a  single  insect  may  give  rise 
to  several  millions  of  progeny,  counting  the  successive  genera- 
tions, within  a  few  months.  This  astonishing  fertility  is  depend- 
ent upon  a  peculiar  modification  of  the  reproductive  process  in 
these  insects.  During  the  summer  there  are  strictly  no  males  nor 
females,  but  all  are  sexually  alike,  and  are  able  to  produce  ova 
which  develop  without  fecundation,  this  exceptional  method  of 
reproduction  being  termed  parthenogenesis.  Here,  then,  we  have 
a  remarkable  variation  of  the  reproductive  function  resulting  in 
an  enormous  increase  of  prolificness.     And  here  again  we  find  an 


THE  REPRODUCTIVE  POWER  IN  ANIMALS.         51 

explanation  of  this  yariation  in  the  conditions  under  which  the 
young  develop.  These  insects  are  a  common  prey  for  other  ani- 
mals, especially  birds,  which  devour  them  in  great  numbers,  their 
exposed  condition  upon  the  surface  of  leaves  rendering  them  easily 
obtainable.  Hence  it  is  that  of  the  total  number  of  ova  produced 
only  a  very  small  proportion  result  in  an  increase  of  their  kind, 
the  young  insect  being  devoured  before  completing  maturation. 
This  extraordinary  and  anomalous  increase  of  the  reproductive 
power  thus  furnishes  an  extreme  instance  of  the  operation  of  the 
law  under  consideration. 

The  Oyster. — It  is  well  known  that  the  oyster  is  very  pro- 
lific. A  single  individual  may  produce  over  a  million  young.  It 
is  generally  known,  too,  that  this  animal  has  many  natural  ene- 
mies, the  most  destructive  being  the  star-fish.  It  is  obvious  that 
the  reproductive  power  is  here  in  relation  to  the  unfavorableness 
of  the  natural  environment,  and  especially  during  the  embryonic 
period,  when  the  body  is  small  and  less  adequately  protected,  being 
destitute  of  a  shell  in  the  earliest  stages. 

The  Codfish.  —  While  most  fishes  produce  eggs  in  great 
numbers,  the  cod  is  especially  remarkable  in  this  respect,  a  single 
female  depositing  annually  eight  or  nine  millions.  The  liability 
of  destruction  of  the  ova  and  young  is  perhaps  at  its  maximum 
here,  there  being  many  natural  enemies  and  very  slight  means  of 
defense.     The  application  of  the  law  is  obvious. 

It  seems  unnecessary  to  bring  forward  other  instances  to  show 
that  the  law  holds  good  when  the  conditions  of  embryonic  life  are 
unfavorable.  While  it  can  not  be  so  strikingly  shown  when  the 
opposite  conditions  prevail — when  the  circumstances  of  embry- 
onic life  are  favorable — it  scarcely  seems  doubtful  that  it  is  less 
applicable  here.  When  animals  have  abundant  food-supply  and 
ample  protection  against  their  foes  and  against  exposure  to  weath- 
er, etc.,  the  reproductive  function  is  generally  only  moderately 
active.  Without  citing  particular  instances,  it  may  be  sufficient 
to  point  out  that  the  largest  and  most  intelligent  animals — those 
that  are  strongest  in  body  and  quickest  in  instincts,  and  thus 
best  able  to  defend  themselves  and  their  young  against  their  ene- 
mies and  to  secure  food  and  shelter — are  the  least  prolific,  bring- 
ing forth  young  at  longer  intervals  and  in  fewer  numbers. 

It  may  have  occurred  to  the  reader  that  while  there  thus  seems 
to  be  a  law  governing  the  procreative  power  in  animals,  this  law 
is  yet  subordinate  to  another  more  general,  more  fundamental 
law — the  law  of  the  preservation  of  the  species.  Nature  guards 
against  the  destruction  of  her  works,  and  the  instances  of  excessive 
activity  of  the  reproductive  function  we  have  noted  are  to  be  in- 
terpreted as  efforts  made  in  the  economy  of  nature  to  save  the 
species  from  extinction. 


5z  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

ISRAELITE  AND   INDIAN:   A  PARAELEL   IN   PLANES 

OF  CULTURE.* 

Br  GAERICK  MALLERY. 
I. 

AXIOMS  and  postulates  long  limited  man's  study  of  man. 
This  hampering  has  been  peculiarly  marked  in  reference 
to  America,  the  assumption  being  that  it  must  have  been  peopled 
from  the  eastern  hemisphere,  and  that  its  languages,  religions, 
and  customs  must  have  been  inherited  from  nations  registered  in 
Eurasian  records.  Whatever  was  found  here  was  assumed  to 
have  come  through  descent  or  derivation.  The  conceptions  of 
autogeny  and  of  independent  growth,  by  which  men  in  the  same 
plane  of  culture  act  and  think  alike,  with  only  the  modifications 
of  environment,  had  not  arisen  to  explain  observed  facts. 

Many  authors  have  contended  that  the  North  American  Indians 
were  descendants  of  the  "  ten  lost  tribes  of  Israel."  Prominent 
among  them  was  James  Adair,  whose  work,  highly  useful  with 
regard  to  the  customs  of  the  southeastern  Indians,  among  whom 
he  spent  many  years,  was  mainly  devoted  to  proof  of  the  proposi- 
tion. The  Rev.  Ethan  Smith  is  also  conspicuous.  Even  the  latest 
general  treatise  on  the  Indians,  published  last  year,  and  bearing 
the  comprehensive  title,  "  The  American  Indian,"  favors  the  same 
theory. 

The  authors  of  the  school  mentioned  rest  their  case  on  the 
fact,  which  I  freely  admit  with  greater  emphasis,  that  an  astound- 
ing number  of  customs  of  the  North  American  Indians  are  the 
same  as  those  recorded  of  the  ancient  Israelites.  The  lesson  to 
be  derived  from  this  parallel  is,  however,  very  different  from  that 
drawn  by  those  who  have  advocated  the  descent  in  question. 

The  argument,  strongly  urged,  derived  from  an  alleged  simi- 
larity between  Hebrew  and  some  Indian  languages,  especially  in 
identity  of  certain  vocables,  may  be  dismissed  forthwith.  Per- 
haps the  most  absurd  of  all  the  coincidences  insisted  upon  by 
Adair  was  the  religious  use  of  sounds  represented  by  him  to  be 
the  same  as  the  word  Jehovah.  The  "  lost "  Israelites  when  de- 
ported did  not  use  orally  the  name  given  in  the  English  version 
as  "  Jehovah,"  and  the  mode  of  its  spelling  and  pronunciation  is 
at  this  moment  in  dispute,  though  generally  accepted  as  Jahveh ; 
therefore,  it  would  be  most  extraordinary  if  the  tribes  of  Indians 
supposed  to  be  descendants  of  the  lost  ten  tribes  of  Israel  should 
at  this  time  know  how  to  pronounce  a  name  which  their  alleged 
ancestors  practically  did  not  possess. 

*  Address  of  the  Vice-President  of  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of 
Science,  Section  H,  Anthropology,  delivered  at  the  Toronto  meeting,  August,  1889. 


ISRAELITE  AND   INDIAN.  53 

Father  Lafiteau  was  so  much  excited  by  coincidence  in  sound 
of  some  of  the  Iroquoian  names  and  expressions  with  the  language 
of  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  Thrace  and  Lycia  that  he  based 
thereon  a  theory  of  descent.  On  similar  grounds  ancestors  of  the 
Indians  have  been  found  among  the  Phoenicians,  Scandinavians, 
Welsh,  Irish,  Carthaginians,  Egyptians,  Tartars,  Hindus,  Malays, 
Chinese,  Japanese,  and  all  the  islanders  of  Polynesia.  It  is  not 
wonderful  that,  with  the  choice  of  three  hundred  Indian  lan- 
guages, besides  their  dialects,  from  which  to  make  selections  of 
sounds,  some  one  should  be  likened  to  some  other  language,  for 
all  spoken  languages  can  in  that  manner — i.  e.,  by  a  comparison  of 
vocables — show  identity  of  sound  and  a  percentage  of  coincidences 
of  significance.  Philology  now  applies  more  discriminating  rules 
of  comparison. 

But  all  arguments  that  the  Indians  are  descended  from  the 
"  lost  tribes  "  are  demolished  by  the  fact,  now  generally  accepted, 
that  those  tribes  were  not  lost,  but  that  most  of  their  members 
were  deported  and  absorbed,  their  traces  remaining  during  centu- 
ries, and  that  others  fled  to  Jerusalem  and  Egypt.  If  any  large 
number  of  them  had  remained  in  a  body,  and  had  migrated  at  a 
time  long  before  the  Columbian  discovery,  but  later  than  the 
capture  of  Samaria  in  the  seventh  century  b.  c,  their  journey 
from  Mesopotamia  to  North  America  would  have  required  the 
assistance  of  miracles  that  have  not  been  suggested  except  in  the 
Book  of  Mormon. 

For  brevity,  the  term  "Indians"  may  be  used — leaving  the 
blunder  of  Columbus  where  it  belongs — without  iterating  their 
designation  as  North  American,  though  I  shall  not  treat  of  the 
aboriginal  inhabitants  south  of  the  United  States.  This  neglect 
of  Mexico  and  Central  and  South  America  is  not  only  to  observe 
my  own  limits,  but  because  some  of  the  peoples  of  those  regions 
had  reached  a  culture  stage  in  advance  of  the  northern  tribes. 
To  avoid  confusion,  the  term  "  Israelites  "  may  designate  all  the 
nation.  Although  the  tribes  became  divided  into  the  kingdoms 
of  Israel  and  of  Judah,  when  it  is  necessary  to  speak  of  the  north- 
ern tribes  they  may  be  designated  as  the  kingdom  of  Samaria. 
The  shortest  term,  Jews,  would  be  incorrect,  as  the  people  now 
scattered  over  the  world  and  called  "  Jews "  are  chiefly  the  de- 
scendants of  the  southern  branch  or  fractional  part  of  the  chil- 
dren of  Israel,  and  have  a  special  history  beyond  that  common  to 
them  and  their  congeners. 

The  parallel  presented  is  not  selected  because  its  two  counter- 
parts are  more  similar  to  each  other  than  either  of  them  is  to  other 
bodies  of  people  among  the  races  of  the  earth.  A  similar  parallel 
can  be  drawn  between  both  the  Indians  and  the  Israelites  and  the 
Aryan  peoples,  from  which  I  and  most  of  my  hearers  are  supposed 


54  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

to  have  descended.  The  selection  is  made  for  convenience,  because 
this  audience  is  assumed  to  be  familiar  with  the  Old  Testament, 
so  that  quotations  and  citations  from  it  are  less  necessary ;  and 
also  because  many  of  them  in  this,  the  Anthropologic  Section,  are 
familiar  with  the  Indians,  so  that  the  collocation  of  facts  without 
a  prolix  statement  is  sufficient  for  comparison. 

Although  the  Indians  are  divided  into  fifty-eight  linguistic 
stocks  and  three  hundred  languages,  and  although  there  is  great 
variety  in  their  manners,  customs,  and  traditions,  yet  there  is  suf- 
ficient generic  resemblance  between  all  of  them  to  afford  typical 
instances,  where  European  civilization  and  missionary  influence 
have  not  effected  serious  change,  or  where  the  early  authorities  are 
reliable.  It  is  essential  to  examine  the  other  side  of  the  parallel 
— the  Israelites — at  a  period  coincident  in  development  with  that 
of  the  Indians.  That  part  of  the  history  and  records  of  the  Israel- 
ites must  be  chiefly  considered  which  relates  to  the  times  before 
they  had  formed  a  nationality  and  had  become  sedentary.  The 
general  use  of  writing  was  nearly  contemporaneous  with  that 
nationality,  and  the  era  of  King  David  is  a  proper  deniarkating 
line.  The  Indians  never  having  arrived  at  the  stage  of  nation- 
ality, though  some  of  them  (as  the  Iroquois  and  the  Muskoki) 
were  far  on  the  road  to  it,  and  never  having  acquired  a  written 
language,  their  silage  of  culture  at  the  Columbian  discovery  shows 
a  degree  of  development  comparable  with  that  of  the  Israelite 
patriarchal  period  and  the  early  Canaanite  occupation  before  the 
rule  of  kings. 

It  is  important  to  establish  the  time  when  writing  was  first 
known  among  the  Israelites,  because  then  their  traditions  would 
first  become  fixed.  No  reliable  history  can  exist  before  writing. 
An  illiterate  people  remembers  only  fables  and  myths ;  from  these 
the  history  of  the  years  before  writing  was  used  must  be  win- 
nowed. There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  the  Hebrew  language 
was  written  at  the  time  of  the  exodus,  though  some  such  mnemon- 
ic system  might  have  been  invented  as  was  used  by  several  of  the 
Indian  tribes.  If  Moses  had  all  the  knowledge  of  the  Egyptians, 
but  no  more,  he  could  not  have  used  any  better  mode  of  writing 
than  their  hieratic,  in  which  it  was  not  possible  to  write  intelligibly 
any  long  document  in  the  Hebrew  language,  simply  because  the 
advance  made  by  the  hieratic,  in  which  the  use  of  phonetics  be- 
gan, was  not  sufficient  to  express  all  the  Hebrew  vocables. 

There  has  been  an  attempt  to  show  that  the  old  Hebrew  alpha- 
bet, which  has  been  classed  as  partly  Phoenician  and  partly  Baby- 
lonian, was  obtained  from  Assyria  at  a  time  before  the  exodus, 
but  the  proposition  is  not  yet  established.  Even  if  Assyrian 
characters  adaptable  to  the  Hebrew  language  did  then  exist,  it  is 
not  probable  that  the  Israelite  herdsmen  and  bondmen  did  so 


ISRAELITE  AND   INDIAN.  55 

adapt  them.  If  any  one  of  them — e.  g.,  Moses — had  done  so  as  an 
individual  act,  the  feat  would  have  had  but  one  historic  parallel, 
which  would  have  furnished  another  coincidence  between  Israel- 
ite and  Indian.  It  was  performed  by  the  Cheroki,  Sequoia,  who 
in  less  prosaic  days  would  have  become  the  hero  of  a  Kadmos 
myth.  But  Sequoia  left  very  distinct  marks  of  his  invention, 
while  there  is  no  evidence  that  the  Israelites  possessed  an  alpha- 
bet before  they  settled  in  Canaan,  and  there  are  strong  inferences 
against  that  supposition. 

The  compilers  of  the  Old  Testament  felt  no  doubt  that  the  law 
could  have  been  written  on  Sinai  at  the  time  of  the  exodus.  They 
knew  how  to  write  and  knew  that  their  predecessors  for  several 
generations  had  written,  so  it  did  not  occur  to  them  that  there 
had  ever  been  a  time  in  which  persons  of  the  higher  classes  were 
ignorant  of  writing. 

It  is  probable  that  in  the  days  of  Samuel  the  Israelites  had 
made  some  progress  in  the  art  of  writing.  An  alphabet  had  been 
known  to  some  of  them  before ;  but  its  common  use  is  of  greater 
consequence,  and  that  depends  much  upon  the  substances  used  for 
writing,  their  cost,  and  the  convenience  of  procuring  them.  The 
use,  not  the  mere  invention,  of  writing,  not  only  divides  the  mythi- 
cal and  the  historical  periods,  but  reacts  upon  the  character  of  the 
people  in  all  their  institutions,  forming  a  new  epoch  in  culture. 
The  people  did,  perhaps,  write  under  David  at  about  1100  b.  c. 

Moses  flourished  about  fifteen  centuries  before  Christ,  and  the 
oldest  legends  relating  to  him  are,  in  their  present  shape,  four  or 
five  centuries  later  than  his  death.  He  did  not  practically  organ- 
ize a  new  formal  state  of  society,  or  if  he  did,  temporarily,  by  his 
personal  power,  it  had  no  direct  consequence  or  historical  continu- 
ity. The  old  system  of  clans  and  religions  continued  as  before.  If 
the  legislative  portion  of  the  Pentateuch  was  the  work  of  Moses, 
it  remained  a  dead  letter  for  centuries,  and  not  until  the  reign  of 
Josiah  did  it  become  operative  in  the  national  history. 

The  historical  account  undoubtedly  states  that  Moses  was,  by 
inspiration,  the  founder  of  the  Torah  ;  but  the  question  is,  What 
was  that  Torah  ?  It  was  not  the  finished  legislative  code.  Long 
after  the  exodus  a  dramatic  account  was  furnished  of  the  pro- 
mulgation of  the  whole  law  at  Sinai  to  produce  a  solemn  impres- 
sion, and  thus  the  code,  which  had  slowly  and  imperceptibly 
grown  during  centuries,  was  represented  as  having  been  pro- 
nounced on  one  occasion  celebrated  by  tradition  as  momentous. 

The  code  now  ascribed  to  Moses  was  a  revised  code,  and  in  an 
unusual  sense  a  mosaic  work.  When  the  Israelites  attained  the 
use  of  writing  they  did  as  all  people  in  the  world  have  done  when 
they  began  to  use  writing — i.  e.,  they  wrote  out  their  own  myths, 
traditions,  and  legends  as  they  knew  them  at  the  time  of  writing. 


56  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

But  during  the  long  time  in  which  the  traditions  were  transmitted 
orally,  the  growth  of  the  nation's  ideas  produced  a  change  in 
them  without  any  fabrication  or  design,  and  it  is  probable  that 
the  traditions  affected  only  to  this  extent  were  set  forth  in  the 
earlier  documents,  long  since  lost,  namely,  the  "  Book  of  the  Wars 
of  Jahveh  "  and  the  "  Jasar."  There  were,  however,  special  temp- 
tations in  the  later  history  of  Israel,  in  the  contests  between  the 
Elohists  and  the  Jahvists,  to  manipulate  the  earlier  documents. 
When  the  compilers  belonging  to  the  two  schools  produced  the 
two  versions,  intermixed  and  confused  in  the  books  we  now  have, 
they  differed  from  all  people  in  history  if  the  contestants,  for  po- 
litical and  personal  power,  did  not  color  the  records  to  suit  their 
own  views. 

Students  who  have  devoted  their  lives  to  the  study  of  the  last 
compilation  have  been  able  to  identify,  by  linguistic  and  historical 
exegesis,  the  fragments  of  the  original  traditions,  the  epic  tales  of 
the  first  documents,  the  theocratic  deductions  and  the  later  sacer- 
dotal visions,  though  the  two  versions  appear  on  the  same  page 
and  sometimes  in  the  same  paragraph.  The  results  of  this  im- 
mense labor  by  the  Hebraists  of  this  generation  have  lately  been 
presented  by  Renan  in  a  popular  form.  His  works,  as  well  as 
those  of  other  authors  whose  names  will  be  mentioned  in  this  ad- 
dress, I  have  used  freely,  though  generally  without  exact  quotation. 

In  addition  to  the  linguistic  and  historical  tests,  other  internal 
evidences,  especially  the  antedating  of  conceptions  several  centu- 
ries (some  instances  of  which  will  be  mentioned),  show  that  the 
books,  as  now  presented,  were  written  long  after  the  periods  re- 
ferred to  in  them. 

The  main  document  on  the  primitive  age  is  the  Book  of  Gene- 
sis, regarded  for  the  reasons  mentioned,  not  as  literally  historical, 
but  as  the  tradition,  written  at  a  respectable  antiquity,  of  an  age 
that  really  existed.  In  examining  it  the  historical  part  is  discov- 
ered, not  by  belief  in  the  miraculous,  but  by  the  proper  compre- 
hension of  the  mythical. 

Much  can  be  learned  from  myths  and  legends  of  the  times  an- 
terior to  strict  history.  The  Homeric  epics  are  not  history,  yet 
they  throw  a  flood  of  light  upon  Greek  life  a  millennium  before 
the  Christian  era.  The  ante-Islam  tales  and  the  Arthurian  and 
Niebelungen  romances  of  the  middle  ages  are  not  true  in  fact,  yet 
they  are  storehouses,  preserving  the  social  life  of  the  days  when 
they  were  composed  and  to  a  less  though  still  useful  degree  of  the 
time  embraced  by  the  still  earlier  traditions.  The  generalizations 
derived  from  the  details  of  ancient  texts  are  truths  obtained  by 
induction. 

It  is  expedient  to  make  a  disclaimer  before  entering  upon  the 
necessary  comparisons  of  religions.     I  absolutely  repudiate  any 


ISRAELITE  AND   INDIAN. 


57 


attack  upon  any  religion.  Let  us  learn  a  lesson  from  the  Indians, 
not  only  in  tolerance  but  in  politeness.  One  of  the  early  Jesuit 
missionaries  in  Canada  recounts  how  he  pleased  a  Huron  chief  by 
his  discourse  upon  the  cosmology  set  forth  in  the  Scriptures,  and 
felt  that  he  had  secured  a  convert  until  the  chief,  thanking  him 
for  his  information,  added,  "  Now  you  have  told  me  how  your 
world  was  made,  I  will  tell  you  how  my  world  was  made  " ;  and 
proceeded  to  give  the  now  familiar  story  of  the  woman  falling 
from  the  sky,  and  the  turtle.  He  was  willing  that  the  priest  should 
retain  his  belief,  with  which  his  own,  in  his  opinion,  did  not  con- 
flict. Dr.  Franklin  tells  of  a  Susquehannock  who,  after  a  similar 
lecture  from  a  Swedish  missionary,  was  answered  in  the  same 
manner ;  but  this  missionary  became  angry  and  interrupted  the 
Indian,  whereupon  the  latter  solemnly  rebuked  him  with  pity :  "  I 
have  listened  politely  to  what  you  told  me  ;  if  you  had  been  prop- 
erly brought  up,  you  would  have  believed  me  as  I  believed  you." 

Religion,  as  accurately  denned,  embraces  only  the  perficient 
relations  between  divinity  and  man,  and  the  mode  in  which  such 
relations  operate.  Popularly  it  includes  cosmology  and  theology. 
For  present  convenience  the  broad  subject  may  be  divided  into 
Religious  Opinions  and  Religious  Practices. 

In  this  comparison,  all  religious  views  personally  entertained 
must  be  laid  aside  and  the  study  conducted  strictly  within  the 
scope  of  anthropology.  Modern  thinkers  adopt  the  rule  not  to 
use  a  miraculous  factor  when  unnecessary.  Nee  deus  intersit, 
nisi  dignus  vindice  nodus.  It  is  now  regarded  as  puerile  to  ex- 
plain all  puzzling  phenomena,  as  was  done  for  ages — 

"  When  solved  complete  was  any  portent  odd 
By  one  more  story  or  another  god." 

This  attitude,  however,  is  still  not  universal.  When  experi- 
ence of  observed  facts  and  of  the  orderly  working  of  the  forces  of 
nature  are  not  sufficient  for  explanation,  some  minds  yet  resort  to 
the  miraculous.  Others  humbly  confess  ignorance  and  work  for 
light.  This  light  when  gained  is  real  and  lasting,  not  the  delusive 
hues  of  cloud-region,  varying  with  each  instant  and  to  each  ob- 
server's eye,  and  soon  resolving  into  the  same  old  mists  and  fogs 
from  which  escape  was  sought. 

In  their  explanation  of  phenomena,  all  the  peoples  of  the  world 
have  resorted  to  revelations.  Every  myth  or  early  teaching  is 
directly  or  indirectly  through  revelation  ;  but  as  the  revelation  is 
on  both  sides  of  the  equation,  it  can  be  eliminated  from  any  paral- 
lel such  as  is  now  presented. 

A  cardinal  of  more  than  titular  eminence  was  rash  when,  ad- 
mitting that  the  doctrine  of  the  devil  and  his  command  of  demons 
was  first  learned  by  the  Israelites  during  the  Babylonian  captiv- 


5 8  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

ity,  lie  insisted  that  it  might  "be  divine  revelation,  notwithstanding 
its  immediate  source.  He  said  that  if  God  made  Balaam's  ass 
speak,  it  would  also  be  easy  for  him  to  provide  that  the  heathen 
should  give  correct  instruction.  The  non-existence  of  Satan  is 
not  demonstrable ;  so  it  may  be  well  to  examine  into  subjects  on 
which  we  have  knowledge,  such  as  geology  and  astronomy.  It 
appears  from  bricks  in  palaces  at  Nineveh  that  the  Mosaic  cosmol- 
ogy was  also  obtained  from  the  same  source  as  the  Satanic  doctrine. 
Any  revelation  on  the  subject  would  in  order  of  time  have  been 
given  to,  and  according  to  all  evidence  was  promulgated  by,  the 
cultured  Assyrians,  not  the  ignorant  captives.  The  priority, 
however,  is  of  little  moment,  as  the  revolving  dish-cover  theory, 
whether  as  originally  noted  on  clay  or  on  rolls  of  sheep-skin,  is 
now  obsolete.  All  dependence  on  revelations  practically  means  that 
those  suiting  us  are  true  and  all  others  false.  When  judgment 
upon  the  truth  or  falsehood  of  an  alleged  revelation  can  be  made 
in  accordance  with  the  prejudices  of  the  judge,  the  subject  be- 
comes too  eclectic  and  elastic  to  be  considered  by  science,  or  indeed 
by  common  sense. 

The  scope  of  anthropology  is  to  study  within  the  category  of 
humanity.  If  theology  comes  from  man's  conceptions,  it  is  em- 
braced in  anthropology.  If  theology  is  of  divine  origin,  anthro- 
pology may  discuss  what  men  think  and  do  about  it.  But  the 
truth  or  falsity  of  revelation  can  not  be  dealt  with  in  this  ad- 
dress.    To  raise  that  point  acts  as  a  cloture,  cutting  off  all  debate. 

Religious  Opinions. — Religious  writers  have  often  explained 
the  differences  in  beliefs  among  the  various  peoples  of  the  world 
on  the  hypothesis  that  true  religious  knowledge  was  implanted  at 
one  time  in  the  ancestors  of  all  those  peoples,  and  that  the  diver- 
gence now  found  is  through  decay  of  that  supernatural  informa- 
tion. The  early  missionaries  to  America,  of  all  denominations, 
were  imbued  with  this  dogma  and  sought,  and  therefore  found, 
evidences  of  the  one  primeval  faith.  Sometimes  they  limited  them- 
selves to  the  similar  beliefs  of  the  Indians  and  the  Israelites,  but 
often  they  passed  beyond  that  stage  to  locate  the  vestiges  of  Chris- 
tianity. These  they  said  came  by  the  hands  of  Christian  pre- 
Columbian  visitors,  and  one  explanation  was  by  the  importation 
of  the  apostle  Thomas.  The  coincidences  found  were  exagger- 
ated, but  when  facts  were  opposed  they  were  not  less  satisfactory, 
as  the  adverse  power  of  Satan  then  appeared.  Such  mental  prede- 
termination nearly  destroys  the  value  of  those  missionary  accounts. 

The  most  generally  entertained  parallel  between  the  Indians 
and  the  Israelites,  repeated  by  hundreds  of  writers,  was  that  they 
both  believed  in  one  overruling  God.  This  consensus,  if  true, 
would  at  once  establish  a  beatific  bridge  of  union  between  the  two 
peoples,  but  its  iris  arch  vanishes  as  it  is  viewed  closely. 


ISRAELITE  AND   INDIAN.  59 

After  careful  examination,  with  the  assistance  of  explorers  and 
linguists,  I  reassert  my  statement,  published  twelve  years  ago,  that 
no  tribe  or  body  of  Indians,  before  missionary  influence,  enter- 
tained any  formulated  or  distinct  belief  in  a  single,  overruling 
"  Great  Spirit/'  or  any  being  corresponding  to  the  later  Israelite 
or  the  Christian  conception  of  God.  All  the  statements  of  the 
missionaries  and  early  travelers  to  the  opposite  effect  are  errone- 
ous. Even  some  of  the  earliest  writers  discovered  this  truth. 
Lafiteau  says  that  the  names  "  Oki  "  and  "  Manito  "  were  given  to 
various  spirits  and  genii.  Champlain  said  that  Oki  was  a  name 
given  to  a  man  more  valiant  and  skillful  than  common.  Manito 
signifies  "  something  beyond  comprehension."  A  snake  was  often 
a  manito,  and  seldom  were  snakes  molested.  "Hawaneu,"  re- 
duced to  correct  vocables,  only  means  loud-voiced — i.  e.,  thunder. 
"  Kitchi  Manito  "  is  not  a  proper  name  for  one  god,  but  an  appella- 
tion of  an  entire  class  of  great  spirits.  So  with  the  Dakota  term 
"  Wakan,"  which  means  only  the  mysterious  unknown.  A  watch 
is  a  wakan.  The  Chahta  word  presented  as  "  God  "  for  two  centu- 
ries is  now  found  to  mean  a  "  high  hill." 

Some  Indians,  perhaps,  had  a  vague  idea  of  some  good  spirit  or 
being  whom  they  did  not  worship  and  to  whom  they  did  not  pray. 
They  prayed  and  sacrificed  to  the  active  daimons,  concerning 
whom  they  had  many  myths.  In  their  various  cosmologic  myths 
there  was  sometimes  a  vague  and  unformulated  being  who  started 
the  machinery  by  which  the  myth  proceeded;  but  when  once 
started  no  further  attention  was  paid  to  such  originator.  Per- 
haps some  modern  advanced  thinkers  have  no  clearer  definition 
of  a  great  first  cause. 

Praise  has  been  lavished  upon  the  Indians  because  they  did 
not  take  the  name  of  God  in  vain.  The  true  statement,  however, 
has  a  different  significance.  They  did  not,  according  to  the  best 
linguistic  scholars,  have  any  word  corresponding  with  the  English 
"  God  "  either  to  use  or  misuse,  and  they  deserve  no  more  praise 
for  avoidance  of  profanity  than  for  their  total  abstinence  from 
alcoholic  drinks  before  such  had  been  invented  or  imported.  The 
terms  too  liberally  translated  as  "  Master  of  Life  "  and  "  Maker  of 
Breath "  were  epithets  merely.  Perhaps  there  was  an  approach 
to  a  title  of  veneration  when  the  method  of  their  clan  system  was 
applied  to  supernatural  persons,  among  whom  there  would  natu- 
rally be  a  chief  or  great  father  of  the  "  beast  gods,"  on  the  same 
principle  as  there  was  a  chieftaincy  in  tribes. 

The  missionaries  who  have  persistently  found  what  did  not 
exist  are  not  without  excuse.  Wholly  independent  of  any  design 
to  force  welcome  answers,  an  interviewer  who  asks  a  leading  ques- 
tion of  an  Indian  can  always  obtain  the  answer  which  is  supposed 
to  be  desired.     The  sole  safe  mode  of  reaching  the  Indian's  men- 


60  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

tal  attitude  is  to  let  him  tell  his  myths  and  make  his  remarks  in 
his  own  way  and  in  his  own  language.  When  such  texts  are 
written  out,  translated,  and  studied  they  are  of  great  value.  It 
is  only  within  about  twelve  years  that  this  has  been  done  in  a 
systematic  manner,  but  it  has  already  resulted  in  the  correction 
of  many  popular  errors. 

In  attempting  to  translate  the  epithets  mentioned,  the  mis- 
sionaries and  travelers  often  honestly  used  the  word  which,  in  their 
own  conception,  was  the  nearest  equivalent.  An  instructive  ex- 
ample is  where  Boscana  describes  a  structure  in  southern  Cali- 
fornia as  a  "  temple."  It  was  a  circular  fence,  six  feet  high,  not 
roofed  in — a  mere  plaza  for  dancing ;  but  the  dancing  was  reli- 
gious, and  the  word  "  temple  "  was  the  best  one  he  could  find,  by 
which  mistake  he  has  perplexed  archaeologists  who  have  sought 
in  vain  for  the  ruins. 

A  consideration  not  often  weighed  is  that  the  only  members 
of  the  Indian  tribes  who  are  willing  to  give  their  own  ideas  on 
religious  matters  to  foreigners  are  precisely  those  who  are  most 
intelligent  and  most  dissatisfied  with  their  old  stories.  There 
were  minds  among  them  groping  after  something  newer  and  bet- 
ter, and  it  would  be  easy  to  translate  their  vague  longings  into 
the  conception  of  an  overruling  Providence.  But  the  people  had 
made  no  such  advance. 

The  missionaries  who  announced  that  the  Indians  were  fixed 
in  the  belief  in  one  god  were  much  troubled  by  the  statement  of 
the  converted  native,  Hiaccomes,  of  Martha's  Vineyard,  who,  hav- 
ing enumerated  his  thirty-seven  gods,  gave  them  all  up.  This, 
however,  was  a  typical  instance  of  the  truth.  The  Indians  had  an 
indefinite  number  of  so-called  gods  corresponding  with  the  like 
indefinite  number  of  the  Elohim  of  the  Israelites  before  the  su- 
premacy of  Jahveh. 

The  biblical  religion  of  Israel  has  been  popularly  held  to  be 
coeval  with  the  world,  but  its  own  beginning  was  by  no  means 
archaic.  About  a  thousand  years  before  Christ  it  did  not  exist, 
and  at  least  four  hundred  years  were  required  for  its  develop- 
ment. The  religious  practices  of  David  and  Solomon  did  not 
materially  differ  from  those  of  their  neighbors  in  Palestine.  Not 
until  the  time  of  Hezekiah,  about  seven  hundred  and  twenty-five 
years  before  Christ,  did  the  Israelite  religion  attain  to  a  distinct 
formulation.  Its  ordinances  and  beliefs  advanced  from  crudity 
and  mutation  to  ripeness  and  establishment.  It  was  a  system 
long  in  growth,  and  so  could  not  early  possess  authoritative  docu- 
ments. 

The  nomad  Semite  believed,  with  other  barbarians,  that  he 
lived  amid  a  supernatural  environment.  The  world  was  sur- 
rounded and  governed  by  the  Elohim — myriads  of  active  beings, 


ISRAELITE  AND   INDIAN.  61 

seldom  with  distinct  proper  names,  so  that  it  was  easy  to  regard 
them  as  a  whole  and  confound  them  together.  Yet  the  power 
bore  different  names  in  different  tribes.  In  some  cases  it  was 
called  El,  or  Alon,  or  Eloah ;  in  other  cases  Elion,  Saddai,  Baal, 
Adonai,  Ram,  Milik  or  Moloch. 

The  Elohim,  though  generally  bound  together,  sometimes  acted 
separately ;  thus  each  tribe  gained  in  time  its  protecting  god, 
whose  function  was  to  watch  over  it  and  direct  it  to  success. 

In  the  transition  to  nationality,  the  Israelites  conceived  a  na- 
tional god,  Jahveh,  who  was  not  just,  being  partial  toward  Israel 
and  cruel  toward  all  other  peoples.  The  worship  of  a  national 
god  is  not  monotheistic,  but  henotheistic,  recognizing  other  gods 
of  other  peoples.  The  work  of  the  later  prophets  consisted  in 
restoring  the  attributes  of  the  ancient  elohism  under  the  form 
of  Jahveh,  and  in  generalizing  the  religious  cult  of  a  special  god. 

Jahveh  was  not  at  first  the  god  of  the  universe,  but  subse- 
quently became  so  because  he  was  the  God  of  Israel,  and  very 
long  afterward  was  claimed  to  be  the  only  god,  mainly  because 
the  Israelites  claimed  to  be  the  peculiar  people.  Even  down  to 
the  time  of  the  prophet  Isaiah,  there  was  alternation  of  conflict 
and  of  co-ordination  between  Jahveh  and  the  other  gods  of  Canaan, 
especially  Baal. 

The  revolution  accomplished  by  the  prophets  did  not  change 
expressions.  The  concept  of  Jahveh  was  too  deeply  rooted  to  be 
removed,  and  the  people  spoke  of  Jahveh  as  they  had  formerly 
spoken  of  the  Elohim.  He  thus  became  the  supreme  being  who 
made  and  governed  the  world.  In  time  even  the  name  of  Jahveh 
was  suppressed  and  its  utterance  forbidden ;  and  it  was  replaced 
by  a  purely  theistic  word  meaning  the  Lord.  Undoubtedly  the 
prophets,  at  the  time  of  the  kings  and  later,  taught  the  worship 
of  one  God,  but  the  people  were  not  converted  to  the  doctrine  un- 
til after  the  great  captivity. 

When  established  in  Palestine,  the  Israelites  entered  into  com- 
munion with  the  Canaanites,  their  kindred,  and  worshiped  Baal. 
Later  they  frequently  bowed  down  to  the  Dagon  of  the  Philistines, 
probably  because  he  was  the  god  of  their  warlike  victors.  Solo- 
mon, perhaps  from  admiration  of  Sidonian  culture,  introduced  the 
service  of  Astarte,  which  was  intermitted ;  but  later,  Ahab  estab- 
lished the  worship  of  the  Sidonian  divinities  in  the  kingdom  of 
Samaria.  It  was  subsequently  readopted  in  the  kingdom  of  Judah, 
and  not  until  the  reign  of  Josiah  were  the  Sidonian  altars  finally 
demolished. 

The  true  parallel,  therefore,  between  the  Indians  and  the 
Israelites,  as  to  belief  in  a  single  overruling  God,  is  not  that  both, 
but  that  neither,  held  it. 

In  the  stage  of  barbarism  all  the  phenomena  of  nature  are 


62  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

attributed  to  the  animals  by  which  man  is  surrounded,  or  rather 
to  the  ancestral  types  of  these  animals,  which  are  worshiped. 
This  is  the  religion  of  zootheism.  Throughout  the  world,  when 
advance  was  made  from  this  plane,  it  was  to  a  stage  in  which  the 
powers  and  phenomena  of  nature  are  personified  and  deified.  In 
this  stage  the  gods  are  anthropomorphic,  having  the  mental, 
moral,  and  social  attributes  of  men,  and  represented  under  the 
forms  of  men.  This  is  the  religion  of  physitheism.  The  most 
advanced  of  the  Indian  tribes  showed  evidence  of  transition  from 
zootheism  to  physitheism.  The  Israelites,  in  the  latter  part  of 
the  period  selected,  showed  the  same  transition  in  a  somewhat 
higher  degree  than  the  Indians  did  when  their  independent  prog- 
ress was  arrested. 

It  is  needless  to  enlarge  upon  the  animal  gods  of  the  Indians, 
or  to  furnish  evidence  that  they  gave  some  vague  worship  to  the 
sun,  the  lightning,  to  fire  and  winds. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  Israelites  were  for  a  long  period  in 
the  stage  of  zoolatry.  They  persisted  in  the  worship  of  animal 
gods — the  golden  calf,  the  brazen  serpent,  the  fish-god,  and  the 
fly-god.  The  second  commandment  is  explicitly  directed  against 
the  worship  of  the  daimons  of  air,  earth,  and  water,  which  is 
known  to  have  been  common ;  and  the  existence  of  the  prohibition 
shows  the  necessity  for  it,  especially  as  it  was  formulated,  after 
the  practice  had  existed  for  centuries,  by  a  religious  party  which 
sought  to  abolish  that  worship. 

The  god  of  Sinai  was  a  god  of  storm  and  lightning,  which 
phenomena  were  strange  to  the  Israelites  after  their  sojourn  in 
plains.  The  ancient  local  god  of  the  Canaanites  began  in  the 
exodus  to  affect  the  religious  concepts  of  the  Israelites,  so  that 
they  associated  Jahveh  with  the  god  whose  lands  they  were  plant- 
ing and  whose  influence  they  felt.  Sinai  was  thenceforward  the 
locality  of  their  theology.  Jahveh,  through  all  after-changes, 
remained  there  as  his  home ;  he  spoke  with  the  voice  of  thunder, 
and  never  appeared  without  storm  and  earthquake. 

Another  class  of  gods  connected  with  beast-worship  and  also 
with  the  totemic  institution  (to  be  hereafter  specially  noted)  was 
tutelar,  the  special  cult  of  tribes,  clans,  and  individuals.  It  was 
conspicuous  both  among  the  Israelites  and  the  Indians. 

Jahveh  may  first  have  been  a  clan  or  tribal  god,  either  of  the 
clan  to  which  Moses  belonged  or  of  the  clan  of  Joseph,  in  the  pos- 
session of  which  was  the  ark.  No  essential  distinction  was  felt  to 
exist  between  Jahveh  and  El,  any  more  than  between  Ashur  and  El. 
Jahveh  was  only  a  special  name  of  El,  which  had  become  current 
within  a  powerful  circle,  and  which,  therefore,  was  an  acceptable 
designation  of  a  national  god.  When  other  tutelar  gods  did  not 
succeed,  there  was  resort  to  Jahveh,  probably  in  the  early  in- 


ISRAELITE  AND   INDIAN.  63 

stances  because  he  was  the  most  celebrated  of  all  the  tutelar  gods, 
and  the  reason  for  that  celebrity  was  that  the  most  powerful  of 
the  clans  claimed  him  as  tutelar. 

Hecastotheism  is  a  title  given  to  the  earliest  form  of  religion 
known,  which  belongs  specially  to  the  plane  of  savagery.  In  it 
every  object,  animate  or  inanimate,  which  is  remarkable  in  itself 
or  becomes  so  by  association,  is  a  quasi  god.  The  transition  be- 
tween savagery  and  barbarism,  as  well  as  between  the  religions 
of  hecastotheism  and  zootheisin,  connected  with  them,  was  not 
sharply  marked,  so  that  all  their  features  could  coexist  at  a  later 
era,  though  in  differing  degrees  of  importance. 

This  intermixture  is  found  both  among  the  Israelites  and  In- 
dians. An  illustration  among  many  is  in  the  worship  of  localities 
and  of  local  gods.  Conspicuous  rocks,  specially  large  trees,  pecul- 
iar mountains,  cascades,  whirlpools,  and  similar  objects  received 
worship  from  the  Indians ;  also  the  places  where  remarkable  oc- 
currences, as  violent  storms,  had  been  noted ;  and  among  some 
tribes  the  particular  ground  on  which  the  fasting  of  individuals 
had  taken  place,  with  its  accompanying  dreams.  The  Indians 
frequently  marked  these  places,  often  by  a  pile  of  stones.  The 
Dakotas,  when  they  did  not  have  the  stones,  used  buffalo  skulls. 

In  the  Old  Testament  frequent  allusions  are  made  to  a  place 
becoming  holy  where  dreams  or  remarkable  events  had  occurred. 
They  were  designated  by  pillars.  The  Israelite  compilers  adopted 
the  pillar  of  Bethel  for  the  same  reason  that  required  Mohammed 
to  adopt  the  Caaba.  Though  struggling  for  monotheism,  they 
could  not  always  directly  antagonize  the  old  hecastotheism. 

Future  State. — The  topic  of  a  future  state  may  be  divided  into 
(1)  the  simple  existence  of  the  soul  after  death,  (2)  the  resurrec- 
tion of  the  body,  and  (3)  a  system  of  rewards  and  punishments 
in  the  next  world. 

The  classical  writers  often  distinguished  two  souls  in  the  same 
person — one  that  wandered  on  the  borders  of  the  Styx  until  the 
proper  honors  had  been  given  to  the  corpse;  the  other  being  a 
shadow,  image,  or  simulacrum  of  the  first,  which  remained  in  its 
tomb  or  prowled  around  it.  The  latter  could  be  easily  invoked  by 
enchanters. 

Some  of  the  Indians  thought  that  the  souls  of  the  dead  passed 
to  the  country  of  their  ancestors,  from  which  they  did  not  dare  to 
return  because  there  was  too  much  suffering  on  the  road  forward 
and  backward.  Nevertheless,  they  believed  that  there  was  some- 
thing spiritual  which  still  existed  with  their  human  remains,  and 
they  tell  stories  of  it.  Thus  there  are  two  souls,  and  the  Dakotas 
have  four,  one  of  which  wanders  about  the  earth  and  requires 
food,  the  second  watches  over  the  body,  the  third  hovers  around 
the  village,  and  a  fourth  goes  to  the  land  of  spirits. 


64  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

The  Iroquois  and  Hurons  believed  in  a  country  for  the  souls  of 
the  dead,  which  they  called  the  "  country  of  ancestors."  This  is 
to  the  west,  from  which  direction  their  traditions  told  that  they 
had  migrated.  Spirits  must  go  there  after  death  by  a  very  long 
and  painful  journey,  past  many  rivers,  and  at  the  end  of  a  narrow 
bridge  fight  with  a  dog  like  Cerberus,  and  some  may  fall  into 
the  water  and  be  carried  away  over  precipices.  This  road  is  all 
on  the  earth  ;  but  several  of  the  Indian  tribes  consider  the  Milky 
Way  to  be  the  path  of  souls,  those  of  human  beings  forming  the 
main  body  of  the  stars,  and  their  dogs,  which  also  have  souls,  run- 
ning on  the  sides.  In  their  next  world  the  Indians  do  the  same 
as  they  customarily  do  here,  but  without  life's  troubles. 

The  Israelites  believed  in  a  doubling  of  the  person  by  a  shadow, 
a  pale  figure,  which  after  death  descended  under  the  earth  and 
there  led  a  sad  and  gloomy  existence.  The  abode  of  these  poor 
beings  was  called  Sheol.  There  was  no  recompense,  no  punish- 
ment. The  greatest  comfort  was  to  be  among  ancestors  and  rest- 
ing with  them.  There  were  some  very  virtuous  men  whom  God 
carried  up  that  they  might  be  with  him.  Apart  from  these  elect, 
dead  men  went  into  torpor.  Man's  good  fortune  was  to  be  accord- 
ed a  long  term  of  years,  with  children  to  perpetuate  his  family 
and  respect  for  his  memory  after  death. 

The  Indians  did  not  believe  in  existence  after  death  in  a  posi- 
tive and  independent  state.  The  spirit  does  not  wholly  leave  the 
body  and  the  body  is  not  resurrected.  Perhaps  a  good  commen- 
tary upon  their  belief  is  furnished  by  a  tribe  of  Oregon  Indians 
who,  hearing  missionaries  preach  on  the  resurrection,  imme- 
diately repaired  to  an  old  battle-field  and  built  great  heaps  of 
stones  on  the  graves  of  their  fallen  foes  to  prevent  their  coming 
up  again.     They  did  not  want  any  of  that. 

Among  the  Israelites  the  resurrection  of  the  body  was  a  for- 
eign idea  imbibed  during  the  captivities  in  Assyria  and  Babylo- 
nia. Perhaps  the  first  reference  made  to  it  is  in  the  prophet  Dan- 
iel. It  was  not  fully  believed  in  so  late  as  the  procuratorship  of 
Pontius  Pilate. 

Among  the  Indians  privation  of  burial  and  funeral  ceremonies 
was  a  disgraceful  stigma  and  cruel  punishment.  There  was  trouble 
about  children  who  died  shortly  after  their  birth,  and  also  about 
those  whose  corpses  were  lost,  as  in  the  snow  or  in  the  waters.  In 
ordinary  cases  of  death  the  neglect  of  full  and  elaborate  ceremo- 
nies caused  misfortune  to  the  tribe. 

The  story  of  the  "  happy  hunting-ground  "  among  the  Indians 
has  not  been  generally  apprehended.  As  regards  what  we  now 
consider  to  be  moral  conduct  there  was  no  criterion.  A  good  In- 
dian was  one  who  was  useful  to  his  clan  and  family,  and  at  the 
time  of  his  death  was  not  under  charges  of  violating  the  clan  rules , 


ISRAELITE  AND  INDIAN.  65 

for  which  the  Polynesian  word  tabu  has  "been  adopted.  The  moral 
idea  of  goodness  of  a  Pani  chief  is  to  be  a  successful  warrior  or 
hunter.  The  actual  condition  at  the  moment  of  death  decided  the 
condition  in  the  future  far  more  than  any  conduct  during  the  past. 
In  the  portions  of  the  continent  where  the  scalp  was  taken,  the 
scalped  man  remained  scalped  in  the  world  of  spirits,  though  some 
tribes  believed  that  scalping  prevented  his  reaching  that  world. 
If  he  had  but  one  leg  or  eye  here,  he  had  but  one  leg  or  eye  after- 
ward. In  tribes  where  they  cut  off  the  ears  of  slain  foes  the 
spirit  remained  without  ears.  A  special  instance  is  where  the  vic- 
tim was  considered  too  brave  to  be  scalped,  but  the  conquerors  cut 
off  one  hand  and  one  foot  from  the  corpse  to  keep  him  from  in- 
flicting injury  upon  the  tribe  of  the  conquerors  in  the  next  world. 
Some  of  the  tribes  thought  that  if  an  Indian  died  in  the  night  he 
remained  in  total  darkness  ever  afterward. 

One  of  the  most  curious  of  their  beliefs  was  in  connection  with 
drowning  and  hanging,  the  conceit  being  that  the  spirit  (which 
was  in  the  breath)  did  not  escape  from  the  body.  This  doctrine 
was  made  of  special  application  to  prevent  suicide,  which  was 
generally  performed  either  by  hanging  or  drowning,  the  deduction 
being  that  suicides  could  not  go  to  the  home  of  the  ancestors. 

It  is  probable  that  the  various  trials  which  the  spirit  is  sup- 
posed to  undergo  before  reaching  the  other  world  were  devised 
to  secure 'confidence  in  the  absence  thereafter  of  the  ghosts  of  the 
dead,  because  the  same  difficulty  would  attend  their  return.  As 
without  the  assistance  of  mortuary  rites  the  ghosts  would  not  be 
able  to  reach  their  final  home,  their  permanent  absence  was  se- 
cured because  there  were  no  repetitions  of  those  rites  to  assist  their 
return.  Fear  of  the  ghosts,  not  only  of  enemies  but  of  the  dearest 
friends,  generally  prevailed.  After  a  death  all  kinds  of  devices 
were  employed  to  scare  away  the  spirit.  Sometimes  a  new  exit, 
through  which  the  corpse  was  taken,  was  cut  through  the  wigwam 
and  afterward  filled  up,  it  being  supposed  that  the  spirit  could 
re-enter  only  by  the  passage  through  which  it  went  out.  Some- 
times the  whole  wigwam  was  burned  down.  There  was  often  a 
long  period,  which  travelers  called  that  of  mourning,  during 
which  drums  and  rattles  were  used  to  drive  away  the  spirits. 
After  firearms  were  obtained,  they  were  discharged  in  and  around 
the  late  home  of  the  deceased  with  the  same  object.  The  loud 
cries  of  so-called  lamentation  had  probably  a  similar  origin,  and 
this  is  more  marked  when  the  lamenters  were  strangers  to  the 
dead,  and  even  professionals,  not  unlike  the  Irish  keeners. 

In  this  general  connection  it  is  proper  to  allude  to  the  common 
abstinence  from  pronouncing  the  true  name  of  any  dead  person. 
This  is  more  distinct  than  the  sociologic  custom  where  the  man's 
true  name  should  not  be  used  in  his  life  except  on  special  occa- 

VOL.  XXXVI. — 5 


66  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

sions.     There  was  some  fear  that,  by  calling  his  name,  he  might 
come  back. 

It  would  be  wrong  to  accuse  the  Indians  of  want  of  feeling  in- 
dicated by  their  horror  of  the  dead.  In  one  of  the  most  ancient 
accounts — that  of  Cabeza  de  Vaca — it  is  declared  that  the  parents 
and  other  relatives  of  the  sick  show  much  sympathy  while  life  re- 
mains, but  give  none  to  the  dead — do  not  speak  of  them  or  weep 
among  themselves,  or  make  any  signs  of  grief  or  approach  the  body. 
This  domestic  reticence  is  entirely  different  from,  but  not  antago- 
nistic to,  the  obligatory  mortuary  rites  which  were  practiced. 

To  secure  the  living  from  the  presence  of  the  spirits  of  the 
dead  was  the  first  object,  and  the  second  was  to  assist  those  spirits 
in  the  journey  to  their  destination.  These  were  the  prevailing 
ideas  of  all  the  mortuary  customs  of  the  Indians.  It  may  be  true 
that  there  was  in  some  cases  (though  missionary  influence  is  to  be 
suspected)  a  belief  that  there  were  two  different  regions  in  which 
the  bad  and  the  good  would  severally  remain,  but  that  was  not  of 
general  acceptance.  There  was  but  one  future  country,  and  the  only 
question  was  whether  the  spirits  got  there  or  not.  There  was  no  hell. 

The  Israelites,  in  their  sacred  books,  do  not  show  the  influence 
of  fears  or  hopes  concerning  a  future  state  with  reference  to  indi- 
vidual morality.  Among  them  death  at  any  age  was  not  an  inevi- 
table necessity,  as  they  thought  that  life  might  be  prolonged  to  an 
indefinite  extent,  but  it  was  inflicted  as  a  punishment  and  their 
signs  of  mourning  were  acts  of  penitence  and  contrition,  with  the 
idea  that  the  survivors  might  have  been  the  cause  of  the  death. 
All  deaths  were  classed  with  public  calamities,  such  as  pestilence, 
famine,  drought,  or  invasion,  being  the  work  of  an  enemy — per- 
haps a  punishing  god,  perhaps  a  daimon  or  a  witch.  They  re- 
garded it  so  great  an  evil  to  die  unlamented  that  it  was  one  of  the 
four  great  judgments  against  which  they  prayed,  and  it  was  called 
the  burial  of  an  ass.  These  are  the  inferences  to  be  derived  from 
the  books  as  we  have  them.  It  is,  however,  questionable  whether 
rites  attending  upon  death  were  not  with  them  similar  in  intent 
to  those  of  the  Indians — i.  e.,  to  provide,  by  means  of  those  rites, 
for  the  future  welfare  of  the  departed,  rather  than  in  accordance 
with  our  modern  sentiment,  to  show  respect  and  personal  sorrow. 
Passages  of  the  Old  Testament  may  be  noted — e.  g.,  the  one  tell- 
ing how  the  bodies  of  Saul  and  his  children  were  rescued  from 
Bethshan  and  taken  to  Jabesh,  where  they  were  burned  and  the 
bones  buried.  The  ceremony  in  this  case  and  others  seems  to  have 
been  the  burning  of  the  flesh  and  the  burial  of  the  bones,  as  was 
frequently  done  by  the  Indians  on  occasions  of  haste,  without 
waiting  as  usual  for  the  decay  of  the  flesh,  the  later  gathering  of 
the  bones  being  at  stated  periods  of  years. 

There  is  no  evidence  that  the  Israelites  feared  the  corpse  and 


ISRAELITE  AND  INDIAN.  67 

its  surroundings  "beyond  that  to  be  inferred  from  the  ordinances 
concerning  pollution,  which,  however,  are  significant. 

Religious  Practices. — There  should,  always  be  a  cross-refer- 
ence in  thought  between  what  in  time  became  a  religious  practice 
and  the  earlier  sociology,  to  be  mentioned  in  its  place,  with  which 
it  was  closely  connected. 

Josephus  remarks  about  the  Israelites  that  "  beginning  imme- 
diately from  the  earliest  infancy,  nothing  was  left  of  the  very 
smallest  consequence  to  be  done  at  the  pleasure  and  disposal  of 
the  person  himself." 

The  same  is  true  regarding  the  Indians.  Their  religious  life 
is  as  intense  and  all-pervading  as  that  of  the  Israelites.  It  is  yet 
noticed  in  full  effect  among  tribes  as  widely  separated,  both  by 
space  and  language,  as  the  Zuni  and  the  Ojibwa,  and  their  prac- 
tices are  astonishingly  similar  in  essence  and  even  in  many  details 
to  some  of  those  still  prevailing  in  civilization. 

Among  the  Hurons  and  Iroquois  there  were  religious  rites  for 
all  occasions,  among  others  for  the  birth  of  a  child,  for  the  first 
cutting  of  its  hair,  for  its  naming,  and  for  its  puberty,  for  the  ad- 
mission of  a  young  man  into  the  order  of  warriors,  and  the  pro- 
motion from  warrior  to  chieftain,  for  making  a  mystery-man,  for 
first  using  a  new  canoe,  for  breaking  tillage-ground,  for  sowing 
and  harvest,  for  fixing  the  time  to  fish,  for  deciding  upon  a  war- 
like expedition,  for  marriages,  for  the  torturing  of  captives,  for 
the  cure  of  disease,  for  consulting  magicians,  invoking  the  daimons, 
and  lamenting  the  dead. 

Shamans. — Among  the  Indians  there  was  frequently  an  estab- 
lished and  recognized  priesthood,  provided  by  initiation  into  secret 
religious  societies,  corresponding  in  general  authority  to  that  of 
the  Levites,  although  the  order  of  the  latter  was  instituted  in  a 
different  manner,  perhaps  imitated  from  the  exclusive  class  of  the 
priesthood  in  Egypt.  The  shamans  in  all  tribes  derived  a  large 
part  of  their  support  from  fixed  contributions  or  fees. 

Adair  describes  a  special  ceremony  for  the  admission  or  conse- 
cration of  a  priest  among  the  southern  tribes,  as  follows :  "  At  the 
time  of  making  the  holy  fire  for  the  yearly  atonement  of  sin  the 
Sagan  clothes  himself  with  a  white  ephod,  which  is  a  waistcoat 
without  sleeves,  and.  sits  down  on  a  white  buckskin,  on  a  white 
seat,  and  puts  on  it  some  white  beads,  and  wears  a  new  pair  of 
white  buckskin  moccasins,  made  by  himself,  and  never  wears  these 
moccasins  at  any  other  time." 

Similar  exclusive  use  by  the  high  priest  of  the  garments  used 
on  the  day  of  the  atonement  is  mentioned  in  Leviticus. 

In  addition  to  the  organized  class  referred  to,  there  were  other 
professional  dealers  in  the  supernatural  who  may  be  called  con- 
jurers, sorcerers,  or  prophets.   They  were  independent  of  and  often 


68  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

antagonistic  to  the  regular  shamans.  Instance  the  Jossakeed  of 
the  Ojibwa,  rivals  of  the  Mide*,  as  the  Israelite  prophets  were  of 
the  Levites.  At  the  time  of  the  Judges  the  prophets  were  isolated 
and  without  any  common  doctrine.  These  irregular  practitioners 
arrived  at  recognition  individually  by  personal  skill  in  an  exhibi- 
tion of  supernatural  power — that  is,  they  wrought  miracles  to 
prove  themselves  genuine. 

At  the  time  of  the  exodus  there  were,  among  all  the  Semitic 
tribes,  sorcerers  who  possessed  mysterious  secrets  and  enjoyed 
some  of  the  power  of  the  elohim.  They  were  paid  to  curse  those 
whose  ruin  was  desired.  Balaam  was  the  most  distinguished  sor- 
cerer of  that  time. 

One  of  the  most  frequent  purposes  for  employing  supernatural 
agency  was  to  bring  on  rain  in  time  of  drought.  The  practi- 
tioner generally  tried  to  delay  his  incantations  as  long  as  possi- 
ble in  hopes  of  a  meteorologic  change.  Sometimes,  on  failure,  he 
was  killed,  as  he  was  supposed  to  be  an  enemy  who  possessed  the 
power  he  professed  but  was  unwilling  to  use  it ;  and  to  prevent 
this  dangerous  ordeal  in  a  dry  season,  he  charged  in  advance  cer- 
tain crimes  and  "pollutions"  against  the  people,  on  account  of 
which  all  his  skill  would  be  in  vain.  The  more  skillful  rain-makers 
among  the  Sioux  and  the  Mandans  managed  not  to  be  among  the 
beginners,  but  toward  the  last  of  the  various  contestants.  The 
rain  would  surely  come  some  time,  and  when  it  came  the  incanta- 
tions ceased.  The  shaman  who  held  the  floor  at  the  right  time 
produced  the  rain. 

Frequent  reference  to  rain-making  is  found  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, in  which  the  prophets  were  the  actors. 

The  mystery-men  were  consulted  on  all  occasions  as  sources  of 
truth,  not  only  to  explain  dreams,  but  to  disclose  secrets  of  all 
kinds ;  to  predict  successes  in  war ;  to  tell  the  causes  of  sickness ; 
to  bring  luck  in  the  hunt  or  in  fishing ;  to  obtain  stolen  articles  ; 
and  to  produce  ill  luck  and  disease.  Their  processes,  together 
with  thaumaturgic  exhibitions,  included  some  empiric  knowledge, 
and  also  tricks  of  sleight-of-hand  and  hypnotic  passes. 

The  Chahta  had  a  peculiar  mode  of  finding  the  cure  for  dis- 
ease, by  singing  successively  a  number  of  songs,  each  one  of  which 
had  reference  to  a  peculiar  herb  or  mode  of  treatment.  The  pref- 
erence of  the  patient  for  any  song  indicated  the  remedy. 

The  Israelites  believed  that  diseases  as  well  as  accidents  with- 
out  apparent  cause,  and  other  disasters,  were  the  immediate  acts 
of  the  elohim  or  were  caused  by  evil  spirits ;  therefore  they  relied 
upon  prophets,  magicians,  or  enchanters  for  exorcism.  Hezekiah's 
boil  was  cured  by  Isaiah.  Benhadad,  King  of  Syria,  and  Naaman, 
the  Syrian,  applied  to  the  prophet  Elisha.  All  the  people  resorted 
to  their  favorite  mystery-men. 


ISRAELITE  AND  INDIAN.  69 

Even  so  late  as  the  time  of  Josephus  it  was  believed  that  Solo- 
mon had  invented  incantations  by  which  diseases  were  cured,  and 
some  handed  down  by  tradition  were  commonly  used.  Incense 
banished  the  devil,  which  also  could  be  done  by  the  liver  of  a  fish. 
Certain  herbs  and  roots  had  the  same  power.  Their  medical  prac- 
tices might  be  recited,  with  slight  change  of  language,  as  those  of 
the  Indians.  The  further  back  examination  is  made  into  sav- 
agery and  barbarism,  the  more  prevalent  faith-cure  appears. 

Witches. — The  Indians  were  in  constant  dread  of  witches,  wiz- 
ards, and  evil  spirits ;  but  the  activity  of  the  good  spirits  was  not 
so  manifest.  They,  however,  told  Adair  how  they  were  warned 
by  what  he  calls  angels,  of  an  ambuscade,  by  which  warning  they 
escaped.  Bad  spirits,  or  devils,  were  the  tutelar  gods  of  enemies, 
to  be  resisted  by  a  friendly  tutelar.  The  idea  of  a  personal  Satan 
was  not  found  before  the  arrival  of  the  missionaries. 

Among  the  Indians  witches  were  often  indicated  by  the  dreams 
of  victims.  They  were  sometimes  killed  merely  upon  accusation, 
and  it  is  interesting  to  notice,  with  relation  to  comparatively 
modern  history,  that  the  accused  frequently  confessed  that  they 
were  sorcerers,  and  declared  that  they  could  and  did  transform 
themselves  into  animals,  become  invisible,  and  disseminate  dis- 
ease. 

A  sufficient  reference  to  the  Israelites  in  this  connection  is  to 
quote  the  ordinance,  "  Thou  shalt  not  suffer  a  witch  to  live."  This 
injunction,  in  the  higher  civilization,  is  observed  by  destroying 
the  idea  that  witches  live,  ever  have  lived,  or  ever  can  live. 

Dreams  and  Divinations. — The  topics  of  inspiration  by  dreams 
and  divination  by  oracles  may  be  grouped  together. 

The  Indians  supposed  that  with,  and  sometimes  without,  a  spe- 
cial fasting,  and  other  devices  to  produce  ecstasy,  the  spirits  or 
daimons  manifested  themselves  in  dreams.  It  was  sometimes  pos- 
sible in  these  dreams  for  the  soul  to  leave  the  body,  and  even  to 
visit  the  abode  of  departed  spirits. 

Among  the  Iroquoian  tribes  the  suggestions  made  by  dreams 
were  implicitly  followed,  not  only  by  the  dreamer,  but  by  those 
to  whom  he  communicated  his  dreams.  For  instance,  an  Iroquois 
dreamed  that  his  life  depended  upon  his  obtaining  the  wife  of  a 
friend,  and,  though  the  friend  and  his  wife  were  living  happily, 
and  parted  with  great  reluctance,  £he  dreamer  had  his  wish.  The 
same  tribe  had  a  special  feast  which  was  called  the  "  feast  of 
dreams,"  and  partook  of  the  nature  of  Saturnalia.  Every  object 
demanded  by  the  dreamers  must  be  given  to  them.  In  some  in- 
stances they  were  unable  to  remember  their  dreams,  and  the  spe- 
cial interposition  of  the  mystery-men  was  invoked  to  state  what 
their  dreams  were  in  fact  and  what  was  their  significance. 

Among  the  invaluable  reports  of  the  Jesuit  missionaries,  one 


7o  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

in  1639  gives  the  general  statement  that  the  Indians  consulted 
dreams  for  all  their  decisions,  generally  fasting  in  advance ;  that, 
in  fact,  the  dream  was  the  master  of  their  lives ;  it  was  the  god  of 
the  country,  and  dictated  their  decisions  concerning  important 
matters — hunts,  fishing,  remedies,  dances,  games,  and  songs. 

The  belief  in  revelations  through  dreams  was  universal,  and 
the  power  of  explaining  them  was  also  by  revelation.  Their  le- 
gends on  this  subject  recall  those  about  Joseph  and  Daniel.  In 
addition,  Job  xxxiii,  15,  16,  may  be  quoted : 

"  In  a  dream,  in  a  vision  of  the  night,  when  deep  sleep  f alleth 
upon  men,  in  slumberings  upon  the  bed, 

"  Then  He  openeth  the  ears  of  men  and  sealeth  their  instruc- 
tion." 

And  in  Deuteronomy  a  prophet  is  equivalent  to  a  dreamer  of 
dreams. 

There  were  various  oracles  among  the  Indians.  Those  most 
interesting  to  me  are  connected  with  pictography.  Among  many 
tribes,  especially  the  Mandan,  Hidatsa  and  Minnitari,  after  cer- 
tain fasts  and  exercises,  hieroglyphics  deciding  the  questions 
which  had  been  propounded  appeared  next  morning  on  rocks. 
They  were  deciphered  by  the  shaman  who  had  made  them. 

The  apparatus  by  which  Jahveh  was  consulted  was  the  urim 
and  thummim,  a  form  of  oracle  described  as  connected  with  the 
ark.  It  ceased  to  be  known  in  the  fifth  century  before  Christ,  and 
is  now  but  vaguely  understood.  From  the  description  and  tradi- 
tion it  could,  physically,  have  been  worked  by  a  custodian. 

Severe  fasts  were  probably  the  most  common  religious  prac- 
tices of  the  Indians.  These  were  continued  until  they  saw  visions, 
sometimes  sought  for  personal  benefit  as  deciding  upon  their 
names  to  be  adopted  from  the  advent  of  a  guardian  spirit,  and 
sometimes  for  tribal  advantage.  The  doctrine  of  all  of  them,  as 
Father  Lafiteau  quaintly  observes,  was  the  same  that  prevailed 
among  many  people  of  his  day,  to  lead  the  mind  from  gross  and 
carnal  obstructions  of  the  body.  The  real  effect  was  to  produce 
mental  disorder.  This  ecstasy  obtained  by  fasting  was  often  ac- 
celerated by  profuse  sweating  and  the  use  of  purgative  or  emetic 
drinks.  Violent  and  prolonged  exercise  by  dancing  in  a  circle 
until  the  actors  dropped  in  a  swoon  sometimes  concluded  the  cere- 
monies. 

The  Israelite  prophets  were  excited  to  inspiration  by  external 
means,  such  as  dances  and  orgiastic  proceedings  resembling  those 
of  the  dervishes  and  those  of  the  Indian  mystery-men.  Music  was 
a  general  accompaniment  of  the  ecstasy.  When  they  were  about 
to  prophesy,  they  wrought  themselves  into  a  condition  of  frenzy. 
When  Elisha  sent  one  of  the  children  of  the  prophets  to  anoint 
Jehu,  it  was  said  of  him,  "  Wherefore  cometh  this  mad  fellow  ?  " 


ISRAELITE  AND   INDIAN.  71 

Pollution  and  Purification. — The  subject  of  pollution  and  puri- 
fication has  been  much  and  properly  insisted  upon  as  affording  a 
striking  parallel  between  the  Israelites  and  the  Indians.  The  In- 
dians made  special  huts  for  the  women,  at  certain  periods,  when 
they  were  considered  so  unclean  that  nothing  which  they  touched 
could  be  used.  A  Muskoki  woman,  after  delivery  of  a  child,  was 
separated  from  her  husband  for  three  moons  (eighty-four  days). 
This  may  be  compared  with  the  Levitical  law  by  which  the  mother 
of  a  female  child  was  to  be  separated  eighty  days  and  of  a  male 
forty  days.  Dr.  Boudinot  says  that  in  some  Indian  tribes  there  was 
similar  distinction  between  male  and  female  children. 

Among  the  southern  Indians  wounded  persons  having  running 
sores  were  confined  beyond  the  village,  and  kept  strictly  separate, 
as  by  the  Levitical  law.  An  Israelite  dying  in  any  house  or  tent 
polluted  all  who  were  in  it  and  all  the  furniture  in  it,  and  this 
pollution  continued  for  seven  days.  All  who  touched  a  corpse  or 
a  grave  were  impure  for  the  same  time.  Similarly,  many  of  the 
Indians  burned  down  the  house  where  there  had  been  a  death. 

Many  writers  have  asserted,  as  one  of  the  excellences  of  the 
Israelite  customs,  that  the  "  purification  "  imposed  upon  those  who 
had  been  engaged  in  a  burial  was  a  sanitary  regulation,  a  measure 
rendered  expedient  in  a  hot  country.  As  no  great  proportion  of 
the  Israelites  generally  inhabited  a  country  hot  to  the  degree 
indicated,  and  as  none  of  them  had  any  conception  of  disease  or 
the  cause  of  death,  this  explanation  is  hardly  sufficient.  Much 
later  the  compilers  might  have  gained  some  sanitary  knowledge 
by  which  the  old  superstition  was  utilized.  Its  true  explanation 
is  from  supernatural,  not  from  natural,  concepts.  It  is  probably 
connected  with  a  point  mentioned  before — i.  e.,  the  avoidance  of 
corpses  from  the  fear  of  the  spirit  of  the  dead  and  of  the  bad  spirit 
which  had  caused  the  death,  and  the  purificatory  ceremony  was 
for  the  daimon,  not  for  the  disease.  The  neglect  of  sanitation  is 
well  illustrated  among  the  Navajo,  who  are  little  affected  by  civ- 
ilization. Upon  the  death  of  one  of  their  members  they  block 
up  the  shelter  containing  the  corpse,  and,  from  fear  of  the  spook 
or  of  the  agent  of  death,  or  of  both,  not  from  fear  of  the  corpse 
itself,  they  never  again  visit  it.  Other  tribes  simply  piled  stones  on 
the  corpse,  which  prevented  its  disturbance  by  beasts,  but  did  not 
absorb  the  effluvium.  Still  others  exposed  the  dead  on  scaffolds. 
To  leave  corpses  to  putrefy  freely  is  certainly  not  a  sanitary  meas- 
ure, yet  it  was  a  practice  existing  together  with  the  mortuary 
rites  before  mentioned,  though  many  of  the  tribes  practiced  earth- 
burial,  and  a  few  used  cremation. 

On  a  broad  examination  of  the  topic  of  "  pollution,"  so  styled 
by  most  writers,  it  seems  to  be  best  explained  by  our  recent  under- 
standing of  tabu. 


72  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

Sacrifice. — Man  once  imagined  forces  superior  to  himself,  who  yet 
could  be  invoked  and  moved  to  and  from  any  purpose.  The  divine 
world  was  produced  in  his  own  image,  and  he  treated  its  gods  as 
he  liked  to  be  treated  by  his  inferiors.  He  believed  that  the  way 
to  placate  the  forces  surrounding  him  was  to  win  them  over  as  men 
are  won  over,  by  making  presents  to  them.  This  clearly  continued 
among  the  Israelites  until  the  eighth  century  b.  c,  but  it  is  to  be 
regarded  as  a  stage  succeeding  a  former  condition  of  zoolatry  and 
totemism,  without  notice  of  which  its  details  can  not  be  understood. 

Most  people  sacrificed  to  their  divinities  plants,  fruits,  and  herbs, 
and  animals  taken  from  their  flocks.  People  who  had  no  domes- 
tic animals  offered  those  taken  in  the  hunt.  The  Indians  offered 
the  maize  from  their  fields  and  the  animals  of  the  chase,  and  threw 
into  the  fire  or  water  tobacco,  or  other  herbs  which  they  used  in 
the  place  of  tobacco.  Sometimes  these  objects  were  hung  up  in 
the  air  above  their  huts.  The  northern  Algonquins  tied  living 
dogs  to  high  rods,  and  let  them  expire.  In  a  similar  manner  other 
Indians  stuck  up  a  deer,  especially  a  white  deer,  on  poles.  The 
plains  tribes  gave  the  same  elevation  to  the  head  or  skin  of  an 
albino  buffalo  on  mounds,  not  having  poles  convenient.  The  spot- 
less red  heifer  of  the  Israelites  may  be  compared  with  the  spotless 
white  animals  of  the  chase. 

The  southern  Indians  always  threw  a  small  piece  of  the  fattest 
of  the  meat  into  the  fire  when  eating  or  before  they  began  to  eat. 
They  commonly  pulled  their  newly  killed  venison  several  times 
through  the  smoke  of  the  fire — perhaps  as  a  sacrifice,  and  perhaps 
to  consume  the  life-spirit  of  the  animal.  They  also  burned  a  large 
piece  and  sometimes  the  whole  carcass  of  the  first  buck  they 
killed,  either  in  the  winter  or  the  summer  hunt.  The  Muskoki 
burn  a  piece  of  every  deer  they  kill. 

The  Israelites  offered  daily  sacrifice,  in  which  a  lamb  (except 
the  skin  and  entrails)  was  burned  to  ashes.  In  some  of  their  sac- 
rifices there  was  not  only  distinction  between  animals  that  were 
fit  and  unfit,  but  in  the  manner  of  treatment.  Sometimes  the  vic- 
tim was  not  to  be  touched,  but  should  be  entirely  consumed  by 
fire.  In  others  the  blood  should  be  sprinkled  around  the  altar 
and  the  fat  and  the  entrails  burned,  the  remainder  of  the  body  to 
be  eaten  by  the  priests.  But  it  was  a  crime  to  eat  flesh  that  had 
been  offered  in  sacrifice  to  a  false  god — i.  e.,  god  of  another  people. 

The  offering  of  the  first-fruits,  and  therefore  of  the  first-born, 
to  the  divinity,  was  one  of  the  oldest  ideas  of  the  Semites.  Moloch 
and  Jahveh  were  conceived  as  being  the  fire,  devouring  whatever 
was  offered  to  it,  so  that  to  give  to  the  fire  was  to  give  to  the  god. 
In  time,  a  substitute  was  suggested ;  the  first-born  was  replaced 
by  an  animal  or  a  sum  of  money.  This  was  called  the  "  money  of 
the  lives." 


ISRAELITE  AND  INDIAN. 


73 


The  "green-corn  dance/'  common  to  many  Indian  tribes,  is 
essentially  the  same  ceremony  of  thanksgiving,  or,  more  correctly, 
rejoicing  with  payment,  for  the  first-fruits  of  the  earth.  Adair 
says  that  at  the  festival  of  the  first-fruits  the  Southern  Indians 
drank  plentifully  of  the  cusseena  and  other  bitter  liquids,  to 
cleanse  their  bodies,  after  which  they  bathed  in  deep  water,  then 
went  sanctified  to  the  feast.  Their  annual  expiation  of  sin  was 
sometimes  at  the  beginning  of  the  first  new  moon  in  which  their 
corn  became  full-eared,  and  sometimes  at  the  recurrent  season 
of  harvest.  They  cleansed  their  "  temple "  and  every  house  in 
the  village  of  everything  supposed  to  pollute,  carrying  out  even 
the  ashes  from  the  hearths.  They  never  ate  nor  handled  any 
part  of  a  new  harvest  till  some  part  of  it  had  been  offered  up ; 
then  they  had  a  long  fast  "  till  the  rising  of  the  second  sun."  On 
the  third  day  of  the  fast  the  holy  fire  was  brought  out  from 
the  "temple,"  and  it  was  produced,  not  from  any  old  fire,  but 
by  the  rubbing  of  sticks.  It  was  then  distributed  to  the 
people. 

Lafiteau  says  that  the  first  animal  the  young  hunter  kills  he 
burns  with  fire  as  a  sacrifice.  Another  festival  was  a  kind  of  hol- 
ocaust, where  nothing  of  the  victim  was  left,  but  it  was  all  con- 
sumed, even  to  the  bones,  which  were  burned.  There  were  also 
feasts  of  first-fruits. 

The  Dakotas  allowed  no  particle  of  the  food  at  any  of  their 
religious  feasts  to  be  left  uneaten.  All  bones  were  collected  and 
thrown  into  the  water,  that  no  dog  might  get  them  or  woman  tram- 
ple over  them.  It  was  a  rule  among  many  of  the  tribes  that  no 
bones  of  the  beast  eaten  should  be  broken.  There  is  no  doubt  that 
this  was  connected  with  zoolatry,  and  was  intended  to  prevent 
anger  on  the  part  of  the  ancestral  or  typical  animal,  the  result 
of  which  would  be  the  disappearance  of  the  game.  There  were 
many  other  ceremonies  of  the  same  intent.  When  the  Mandans 
had  finished  eating,  they  often  presented  a  bowlful  of  the  food 
to  a  buffalo-head,  saying,  "  Eat  this,"  evidently  believing  that,  by 
using  the  head  well,  the  living  herds  of  buffalo  would  still  come 
and  supply  them  with  meat. 

It  is  probable  that  what  many  authors  have  called  the  "  day  of 
atonement "  or  "  expiation "  was  really  a  general  wiping  out  of 
offenses — a  settlement  of  accounts  between  individuals  and  par- 
ticularly between  clans,  after  which  there  should  be  no  reprisal. 
This  is  illustrated  by  a  peculiar  ceremony  among  the  Iroquois, 
strongly  resembling  the  scapegoat  of  the  Israelites.  A  white  dog, 
before  being  burned  at  the  annual  feast,  was  loaded  with  the  con- 
fessions or  repentings  of  the  people,  represented  by  strings  of 
wampum.     The  statute  of  limitations  then  began  to  operate. 

In  the  Jahvistic  version,  the  passover,  an  old  festival  held  in  the 


74  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

spring,  was  historically  connected  with  the  departure  from  Egypt. 
The  ceremonies  are  too  well  known  to  require  narration,  but  will 
readily  be  compared  with  those  of  the  Indians. 

Incense. — The  use  of  incense  among  Indians  was  the  same  as 
among  Israelites — i.  e.,  to  bring  and  to  please  the  spirit  addressed. 
A  genuine  instance  among  the  Iroquois  was  where  tobacco  was 
offered  as  late  as  1882,  and  in  archaic  formal  language  still  pre- 
served, translated  as  follows : 

Address  to  the  fire :  "  Bless  thy  grandchildren,  protect  and 
strengthen  them.  By  this  tobacco  we  give  thee  a  sweet-smelling 
sacrifice,  and  ask  thy  care  to  keep  us  from  sickness  and  famine." 

Address  to  the  thunder :  "  O  grandfather !  thou  large-voiced, 
enrich  and  bless  thy  grandchildren ;  cause  it  to  rain,  so  that  the 
earth  may  produce  food  for  us.  We  give  this  tobacco,  as  thou 
hast  kept  us  from  all  manner  of  monsters." 

The  Dakotas  not  only  burned  tobacco  in  their  "  buffalo  medi- 
cine "  to  bring  the  herds,  but  often  fragrant  grass.  Other  tribes 
burned  the  leaves  of  the  white  cedar.  These  forms  of  incense 
were  sometimes  used  to  entice  the  inimical  spirits,  the  shaman 
being  supposed  to  be  able,  when  they  had  arrived  in  the  form  of 
a  bear  or  some  other  animal,  to  kill  them  with  his  rattle.  Some 
of  the  Indians  believed  that  incense  and  sacrifices  generally  were 
to  be  used  only  for  the  spirits  from  whom  they  feared  harm.  They 
said  it  was  not  necessary  to  trouble  themselves  about  the  good 
spirits,  who  were  all  right  anyhow. 

Fetiches. — Among  many  of  the  tribes  of  Indians  there  is  a  tri- 
bal totem  (and  often  several  clan  totems)  which,  in  later  times 
becoming  chiefly  symbolic  and  emblematic,  was  once  used  in  ob- 
jective form  for  the  most  important  religious  purposes.  Particu- 
larly, it  was  carried  on  extensive  warlike  expeditions.  Adair, 
who  calls  it  an  "ark,"  describes  it  as  made  of  pieces  of  wood, 
fastened  together  in  the  form  of  a  square,  to  be  carried  on  the 
back.  It  was  never  placed  on  the  ground,  nor  did  the  bearers  sit 
on  the  earth  even  when  they  halted.  In  many  other  tribes  it  was 
a  bag  of  skins  and  its  contents  varied,  but  generally  were  "  blessed  " 
or  "  sacred  "  fragments  of  wood,  stone,  or  bone.  Among  the  Oma- 
ha it  was  a  large  shell,  covered  with  various  envelopes,  and  was 
never  wholly  exposed  to  sight,  for  that  would  occasion  death  or 
blindness. 

A  custodian  was  appointed  every  four  years  by  the  old  men  of 
the  Blackfeet,  to  take  charge  of  the  sacred  pipe,  pipe-stem,  mat, 
and  other  implements,  which  he  alone  was  permitted  to  handle. 

The  ark  of  the  Israelites  was  probably  derived  from  the  Egyp- 
tians, who  had  a  real  ark  which  was  carried  on  the  shoulders  of 
the  priests  in  processions.  When  the  exodus  began,  the  Egyptian 
ark  for  convenience  was  changed  into  a  chest  fitted  with  staves 


ISRAELITE  AND  INDIAN.  75 

for  bearers.  It  became  the  standard  of  their  warring  and  wan- 
dering life. 

In  addition  to  what  has  been  called  the  ark  or  tribal  fetich,  the 
mystery-bag  that  each  Indian  had  is  to  be  compared  with  the  Is- 
raelite teraph,  which  was  a  family  or  tutelary  fetich  independent 
of  the  national  worship,  and  later  was  the  subject  of  frequent 
denunciation.  It  was  probably  made  of  carved  wood,  and  was 
often  carried  on  the  person,  but  was  generally  held  as  a  house- 
hold god  or  domestic  oracle.  The  teraphim  markedly  resembled 
the  Roman  penates. 

This  comparison  is  explanatory  of  the  statement  that  neither 
the  Israelites  nor  the  Indians  worshiped  idols.  Its  truth  depends 
upon  what  is  considered  to  be  an  idol.  If  the  definition  is  limited 
to  the  human  form  the  assertion  is  true,  because  their  religion 
was  not  anthropomorphic ;  but  fetiches  were  certainly  the  objects 
of  worship,  the  recrudescent  forms  of  which,  appearing  even  in 
civilization,  have  been  amulets,  lucky-stones,  pieces  of  wood  and 
charms. 

Sabbath. — It  is  not  possible,  in  discussing  the  Israelites,  to  neg- 
lect the  institution  of  the  Sabbath.  The  four  quarters  of  the 
moon  made  an  obvious  division  of  the  month,  and  wherever  the 
new  moon  and  full  moon  are  made  religious  occasions  there  comes 
a  cycle  of  fourteen  or  fifteen  days,  of  which  the  week  of  seven  or 
eight  days  forms  half.  It  is  significant  that  in  the  older  parts  of 
the  Hebrew  Scriptures  the  new  moon  and  the  Sabbath  are  almost 
invariably  mentioned  together.  Among  the  Israelites,  and  per- 
haps among  the  Canaanites,  joy  on  the  new  moon  became  the  type 
of  religious  festivity  in  general.  There  is  an  indication  that  in 
old  times  the  feast  of  the  new  moon  lasted  two  days,  so  that  an 
approximation  to  regular  recurrence  of  the  subdivisions  constitut- 
ing the  week  was  gained.  The  Babylonians  and  Assyrians  had 
an  institution  dividing  the  month  into  four  parts,  by  which,  on 
the  days  assigned,  labor  was  forbidden ;  but  originally  the  Israel- 
ites' abstinence  from  labor  was  only  incidental  to  their  not  work- 
ing at  the  same  time  that  they  were  feasting.  "While  they  were 
nomads,  with  only  intermittent  work,  they  had  no  occasion  for  a 
fixed  day  of  rest. 

The  new  moons  were  at  least  as  important  as  the  Sabbath  until 
the  seventh  century  before  Christ.  When  the  local  sacrifices  were 
abolished  and  the  rites  and  feasts  were  limited  to  the  central  altar, 
which  practically  could  be  visited  only  at  rare  intervals,  the  gen- 
eral festival  of  the  new  moon  ceased.  The  Sabbath  did  not,  but 
became  an  institution  of  law  divorced  from  ritual.  The  connec- 
tion between  the  week  of  seven  days  and  the  work  of  creation  is 
now  recognized  as  secondary.  The  original  sketch  of  the  deca- 
logue probably  did  not  contain  any  allusion  to  the  creation,  and  it 


76  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

is  even  doubtful  whether  the  original  form  of  Genesis  distributed 
creation  over  six  days. 

Subsequent  history  of  the  Sabbath  shows  a  reflex  action  be- 
tween religion  and  sociology.  Religion  prevailed  against  better 
arrangements  for  periods  of  rest.  Sociology  used  religion  to  get 
what  it  could. 

The  Indians  reached  only  the  first  part  of  the  inception  of  the 
Sabbath  in  the  ceremonies  of  the  new  and  full  moon,  which  were 
to  them  of  great  importance,  those  of  the  new  moon  being  most 
noted. 

Circumcision. — This,  generally  regarded  as  a  distinctive  mark 
of  the  Israelites,  is  by  no  means  peculiar  to  them,  and  is  found  in 
so  many  parts  of  the  world,  with  such  evidences  of  great  antiquity, 
as  to  contravene  its  attribution  to  them.  Its  origin  is  a  subject 
of  much  dispute.  As  practiced  indiscriminately  in  infancy,  it 
is  perhaps  a  surgical  blunder.  It  is  certain  that  among  the  Is- 
raelites it  was  not  at  first  a  religious  rite.  The  operation  was  not 
then  performed  by  the  priesthood,  but  by  a  secular  person  of  skill, 
without  ceremonials.  Afterward  it  was  regarded  as  an  initiatory 
ceremony,  and  as  such  its  parallels  connected  with  the  sexual 
organization  may  be  found  all  over  the  world,  but  as  a  special 
national  distinction  the  declared  object  was  not  attained.  Besides 
the  Egyptians,  Arabs  and  Persians,  with  whom  the  coincidence 
might  be  expected,  many  tribes  of  Africa,  Central  and  South 
America,  Madagascar,  and  scores  of  islands  of  the  sea,  show  the 
same  mark,  and  it  has  even  been  found  in  several  of  the  North 
American  tribes.  The  sole  motive  for  alluding  to  this  very  com- 
prehensive subject  is  to  correct  the  popular  belief  that  the  custom 
is  peculiar  to  the  Israelites.  In  this  as  in  many  other  alleged  re- 
spects they  were  not  "  peculiar." 


^*«-&- 


IS  THE  HUMAN  BODY  A  STORAGE-BATTERY? 

Br  HTLAND  C.   KIEK. 

HON.  J.  W.  DOUGLASS,  a  lawyer  of  "Washington,  D.  C, 
formerly  Commissioner  of  Internal  Revenue,  after  reaching 
his  office  one  morning,  to  relieve  the  pressure  on  his  foot,  took  off 
one  of  his  new  boots  and  sat  at  his  work,  his  legs  crossed  in  the 
customary  legal  form,  his  stockinged  foot  swinging  freely.  It 
happened  to  swing  over  the  waste-basket,  when,  to  his  exceeding 
surprise,  every  piece  of  paper,  string,  and  scrap  in  that  receptacle, 
as  if  impelled  by  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  rose  up  and  clung  to  his 
foot.  He  brushed  off  the  scraps  and  tried  it  again,  and  again 
that  peremptory  mandamus  or  process  of  attachment  seemed  to 


IS   THE  HUMAN  BODY  A   STORAGE-BATTERY  ?     77 

issue  from  his  pedal  extremity,  and  again  the  "  poor  white  trash  " 
of  the  waste-basket  joined  issue  with  the  stocking.  He  was  in  a 
condition  of  excellent  health  and  spirits  that  morning,  and  in  a 
mood  for  experimenting:  he  removed  his  remaining  boot,  and 
secured  a  similar  result  with  the  other  foot ;  when,  congratulating 
himself  on  the  fact  that  he  seemed  to  be  a  very  attractive  person, 
he  returned  to  his  work. 

An  incident  of  this  kind,  though  more  startling  in  its  outcome, 
is  related  as  occurring  in  the  same  city  more  than  eighty  years 
ago,  in  a  letter  of  a  United  States  Senator,  Dr.  Samuel  L.  Mitchell. 
The  letter  is  dated  at  Washington,  March  17,  1802.  He  says :  "  A 
very  singular  occurrence  has  happened  to  General  Dayton,  of 
Elizabethstown,  one  of  the  New  Jersey  Senators.  He  pulled  off 
his  stockings  of  silk,  under  which  were  another  pair  of  woolen 
gauze,  just  as  he  was  going  to  bed.  The  former  were  dropped  on 
the  small  carpet  by  the  bedside,  and  the  latter  were  thrown  to  some 
distance  near  its  foot.  Electrical  snaps  and  sparks  were  observed 
by  him  to  be  unusually  prevalent  when  he  took  off  his  stockings. 
He  slept  until  morning,  when  the  silk  stockings  were  found  to  be 
converted  to  coal,  having  the  semblance  of  sticks  and  threads, 
but  falling  to  pieces  on  being  touched.  There  was  not  the  least 
cohesion.  One  of  the  slippers,  which  lay  under  the  stockings,  was 
considerably  burned.  One  of  the  woolen  garters  was  also  burned 
in  pieces — the  carpet  was  burned  through  to  the  floor,  and  the 
floor  itself  was  scorched  to  charcoal.  It  was  a  case  of  spontaneous 
combustion — the  candle  having  been  carefully  put  out,  and  there 
being  very  little  fire  on  the  hearth,  and  both  of  them  being  eight 
feet  or  more  from  the  stockings." 

Dr.  R.  D.  Mussey,  Professor  of  Surgery  in  Dartmouth  College, 
in  the  "American  Journal  of  Medical  Sciences"  for  January, 
1838,  gives  an  account  of  a  Mrs.  B — ,  a  married  lady  about  thirty 
years  of  age,  residing  in  Grafton  County,  New  Hampshire,  who 
gave  out  sparks  and  snaps  continuously  for  some  thirteen  weeks, 
when  this  power  was  entirely  lost  and  did  not  return  again.  The 
discovery  of  this  faculty  was  a  great  surprise  to  the  lady,  and 
subsequently  caused  her  some  annoyance.  Though  Mrs.  B —  wore 
a  silk  dress  at  the  time  of  the  commencement  of  the  phenomenon, 
this  was  exchanged  for  cotton  and  flannel  successively  without 
affecting  the  result ;  and  the  manifestations  were  found  to  be  due 
to  the  lady's  own  person,  and  not  to  the  clothing  or  other  con- 
ditions. Dr.  Mussey's  account  is  supported  also  by  Dr.  W.  Hos- 
ford,  the  lady's  family  physician. 

Phenomena  of  this  sort,  when  manifested,  do  not  seem  to  be 
confined  to  any  one  portion  of  the  human  body,  though  occasion- 
ally localized.  A  Capuchin  friar  is  mentioned  by  Dr.  Schneider, 
whose  scalp  was  a  veritable  reservoir  of  electricity.    Whenever 


78  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

he  removed  his  cowl  a  number  of  "  shining,  crackling  sparks " 
would  pass  from  his  bald  pate ;  and  this  phenomenon,  which  was 
definite  and  strong  while  the  monk  was  in  good  health,  continued 
perceptible  after  three  weeks'  illness. 

The  case  of  Angelique  Cottin  has  been  frequently  referred  to. 
She  was  a  French  peasant  girl,  fourteen  years  of  age,  and  pos- 
sessing excellent  health  at  the  time  her  singular  powers  were  dis- 
covered. She  resided  in  the  Commune  of  La  Perriere,  department 
of  Orne,  and  with  three  other  young  girls  was  engaged  in  knitting 
ladies'  silk-net  gloves.  Suddenly  the  oak  weaving-frame  was 
thrown  down.  The  girls  put  it  up  ;  and  almost  instantly  it  was 
again  upset.  It  was  soon  discovered  that,  whenever  the  girl  Cot- 
tin  touched  her  warp,  the  frame  was  agitated,  would  move  about, 
and  then,  without  apparent  cause,  be  thrown  violently  back.  Sub- 
sequently chairs,  tables,  lighted  fire-wood,  brushes,  books,  tongs, 
shovels,  scissors,  and  other  metallic  articles  were  all  set  in  mo- 
tion whenever  this  girl  approached  them.  The  girl  was  very  im- 
perfectly educated  and  her  friends  were  of  limited  intelligence,  so 
it  was  not  remarkable  that,  in  184G,  such  phenomena  should  be 
attributed  to  sorcery.  The  case  was  investigated  by  a  number  of 
scientific  gentlemen,  including  M.  Arago,  who  were  shocked,  as 
well  as  startled,  and  gave  surprising  accounts  of  her  powers. 
Some  time  after,  however,  she  was  taken  to  Paris  and  examined 
by  the  savants  of  the  Academy,  and  nothing  of  a  surprising  char- 
acter was  discovered.  She  had  simply  lost  the  power  she  formerly 
possessed. 

The  manifestations  of  Miss  Lulu  Hurst,  of  Georgia,  will  be 
recalled.  A  tall,  large-boned,  well-developed,  good-looking  coun- 
try girl,  reared  on  a  farm,  without  any  knowledge  of  occult  forces, 
and  among  people  almost  wholly  uninterested  in  scientific  sub- 
jects, suddenly  seems  to  possess  a  peculiar  force,  and  the  furni- 
ture begins  to  manifest  unusual  qualities  when  Miss  Hurst  is 
present,  phenomena  occurring  not  unlike  those  attributed  to  the 
French  girl  of  La  Perriere.  This  power,  which  was  considerable 
in  the  outset,  gradually  waned,  until  her  public  exhibitions  were 
quite  unsatisfactory. 

The  writer  was  one  of  the  committee  who,  on  her  first  appear- 
ance at  Wallack's  Theatre,  New  York,  had  opportunity  to  inves- 
tigate Miss  Hurst.  One  test  was  as  follows :  Three  gentlemen, 
among  whom  was  a  professor  of  athletics,  each  using  both  hands, 
held  a  billiard-cue  above  their  heads  in  the  air  ;  Miss  Hurst,  by 
placing  her  hands  flat  on  the  top  of  the  cue,  brought  it  down  with- 
out apparent  muscular  effort.  At  that  time  all  power  of  repelling 
articles  without  contact  seemed  to  have  left  her ;  but  her  success 
in  collapsing  umbrellas  held  by  a  reporter,  and  in  lifting  and  re- 
pelling chairs  by  lightly  touching  them,  was  quite  extraordinary. 


IS   THE  HUMAN  BODY  A   STORAGE-BATTERY  ?     79 

During  these  performances  she  kept  up  a  low,  nervous  giggle,  and 
did  not  seem  especially  fatigued  at  the  close. 

Other  Georgia  women  developed  similar  powers  about  the 
same  time,  or  shortly  after  Miss  Hurst's  peculiarity  became  known. 
Miss  Mattie  L.  Price,  living  in  the  same  neighborhood,  was  one 
of  these,  and  Mrs.  C.  F.  Coleman,  wife  of  the  superintendent  of 
the  Atlanta  cotton-factory,  was  another. 

These  accounts  all  appear  the  more  credible  from  the  fact  that 
an  examination  proves  every  human  being,  and  in  fact  every 
animal  organism,  to  be  in  some  degree  a  producing  battery  of 
electricity.  Du  Bois-Reymond,  Nobili,  and  Matteucci  have,  by 
numerous  experiments,  determined  the  existence  of  electric  cur- 
rents in  the  nerves  and  muscles ;  by  means  of  delicate  tests,  Bec- 
querel  has  detected  electricity  in  the  capillaries  and  other  minute 
tissues ;  Engelmann,  Volkmann,  Hermann,  and  others,  have  ex- 
perimentally determined  something  of  the  conditions  under  which 
various  tissue-currents  are  manifested ;  and  it  is  more  than  proba- 
ble that  this  subtile  fluid  is  being  constantly  generated  in  the 
processes  of  digestion,  circulation,  respiration,  and  secretion. 

The  electric  fishes — the  torpedo,  the  silurus,  the  gymnotus,  and 
the  ray — are  the  only  animals,  it  is  true,  possessing  a  special  appa- 
ratus for  the  production  of  electricity ;  yet  the  cell-structure  and 
disks  of  their  batteries  have  been  developed  from  ordinary  cells 
and  tissues  common  to  animal  life.  Other  animals  sometimes 
evince  like  powers.  An  acquaintance  of  the  writer,  some  years 
ago,  in  California,  came  upon  a  splendid  specimen  of  rattlesnake 
which  he  determined  to  capture.  With  a  forked  stick  he  suc- 
ceeded in  pinning  his  snakeship  to  the  ground  just  as  he  had 
reached  a  hole.  The  snake  seemed  to  be  securely  caught,  but 
with  a  convulsive  effort  he  not  only  entered  the  hole,  but  gave 
my  friend  an  electric  shock  which  he  recalls  as  one  of  the  strong- 
est he  ever  received. 

We  are  largely  ignorant  of  the  conditions  necessary  to  the 
storage  of  this  force  in  the  human  organism,  but  good  health 
seems  to  be  one.  When  their  power  is  dissipated  by  repeated 
shocks,  electric  fish  exhibit  all  the  lassitude  of  weary  human  be- 
ings. The  writer  once  handled  a  gymnotus,  in  Fulton  Market, 
whose  shock  was  hardly  perceptible;  yet,  when  vigorous,  they 
are  known  to  kill  horses  and  mules  by  their  powerful  discharges. 

It  is  said  that  any  person  in  good  health  may  convert  his  lower 
extremities  into  electric  batteries,  by  wearing  two  pairs  of  silk 
stockings,  preferably  a  black  pair  over  white.  After  wearing  them 
but  a  short  time  and  removing  them  together,  an  attempt  to  sepa- 
rate the  two  colors  will  manifest  a  resistance  of  several  pounds. 

Atmospheric  conditions  have  much  to  do  with  electricity  in 
the  body.     In  several  cases,  notably  those  of  Angelique  Cottin 


80  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

and  Mrs.  B — ,  of  New  Hampshire,  this  power  was  first  discovered 
during  the  imminence  of  a  thunder-storm.  Human  electrometers 
are  sometimes  met  with.  A  young  man  named  William  Chap- 
man, of  Providence,  R.  I.,  was  stunned  by  the  shock  of  a  stroke 
of  lightning  which  struck  his  father's  house.  The  current  passed 
through  his  body  and  went  out  at  his  right  heel,  which  was  pain- 
ful for  some  time  afterward.  On  every  occasion  of  a  thunder- 
storm since  then  he  feels,  hours  before  the  time,  a  tingling  pain 
in  the  heel.  Young  Chapman  would  be  a  valuable  acquisition  to 
the  Signal  Service  as  a  portable  electrometer,  and,  if  he  can  do  as 
well  as  he  is  said  to  have  done  on  certain  occasions,  he  would  be 
ahead  of  any  device  that  science  has  yet  lighted  upon  to  foretell 
an  electrical  storm. 

A  remarkable  instance  of  the  salutary  effects  of  atmospheric 
electricity  on  the  human  body  is  told  by  the  Wolverhampton  cor- 
respondent of  the  London  "  Times."  He  states  that  during  a 
thunder-storm  a  collier  named  Bates,  who  had  lost  his  sight 
through  an  accident,  was  being  led  home,  when  a  flash  of  light- 
ning was  reflected  on  the  spectacles  he  was  wearing  to  conceal 
his  disfigurement.  After  the  peal  of  thunder  which  followed  he 
complained  of  pain  in  his  head.  The  next  moment,  to  his  sur- 
prise, he  found  that  he  had  regained  possession  of  his  eye-sight. 
The  occurrence  caused  considerable  excitement  in  the  locality. 

Since  the  date  of  Galvani's  discovery,  there  have  been  many 
persons  sufficiently  bold  to  assert  the  identity  of  electricity  and 
life.  Even  before  that  period,  the  observance  of  electric  phenomena 
in  man  had  been  a  subject  of  popular  interest.  In  his  "  History 
of  Electricity,"  Priestley  relates  that  drawing  a  spark  from  a  liv- 
ing body  "  makes  a  principal  part  of  the  diversion  of  gentlemen 
and  ladies  who  come  to  see  experiments  in  electricity."  Doubt- 
less the  diversion  was  not  lessened  by  the  fact  that  the  "  electrical 
kiss  "  was  a  favorite  form  of  the  experiment. 

The  excitement  in  Paris,  Edinburgh,  and  other  cities,  follow- 
ing the  application  of  galvanic  electricity  to  dead  bodies,  was  of  a 
very  startling  character,  many  supposing  that  the  secrets  of  life 
were  about  to  be  yielded  up  by  this  wonderful  fluid.  Bonaparte, 
it  is  said,  after  witnessing  experiments  in  voltaic  electrolysis, 
remarked  to  his  physician,  Corvisart :  "  Here,  doctor,  is  the  image 
of  life ;  the  vertebral  column  is  the  pile,  the  liver  is  the  negative, 
the  bladder  the  positive  pole."  Though  much  has  been  discov- 
ered since  that  statement  was  made,  but  a  modicum  of  the  truth 
probably  is  known. 

Perhaps  the  developed  man  of  the  future,  in  his  physiological 
relations  to  the  universe,  may  exemplify  the  magnet,  whose  forces 
are  exerted  constantly  as  received  without  seeming  detriment  to 
its  substance. 


RESPONSIBILITY  IN  MENTAL   DISEASE.  81 


RESPONSIBILITY  IN  MENTAL  DISEASE.* 

By  Sir  JAMES  CRICHTON-BROWNE,  M.  D. 

I  CAN  not  pretend  to  summarize  what  has  been  written  or  said 
about  insanity  and  crime  during  the  last  forty  years,  or  a 
fourth  of  that  time.  All  that  I  propose  is  to  submit  a  few  obser- 
vations which  have  occurred  to  me  on  the  following  points :  (1) 
on  the  insufficiency  of  the  definition  or  test  of  insanity  at  present 
accepted  and  acted  on  in  courts  of  law  in  this  country,  and  on  an 
amended  test  which  would  commend  itself  to  medical  experience ; 
(2)  on  the  value  of  expert  testimony  in  establishing  the  existence 
and  nature  of  insanity  in  courts  of  law;  and  (o)  on  a  practical 
step  toward  the  reconcilement  of  medical  and  legal  differences  of 
opinion  on  questions  of  insanity  and  crime. 

What  is  the  law  of  England  with  reference  to  insanity  as  an 
excuse  for  crime,  and  how  far  is  that  law  reasonable  and  in  accord 
with  the  conclusions  of  medical  science  ?  As  to  what  the  law  is, 
there  can  not  be  much  doubt,  for  every  judgment  delivered  in 
cases  in  which  the  plea  of  insanity  has  been  set  up  since  1843  has 
been  founded  on  the  answers  then  returned  by  the  judges  to  the 
questions  put  to  them  by  the  House  of  Lords  during  the  ground- 
swell  of  the  McNaghten  case.  The  gist  of  these  answers  runs : 
"  That  to  establish  a  defense  on  the  ground  of  insanity,  it  must 
be  clearly  proved  that  at  the  time  of  committing  the  act  the  ac- 
cused was  laboring  under  such  a  defect  of  reason  from  disease 
of  the  mind  as  not  to  know  the  nature  and  quality  of  the  act  he 
was  doing,  or  if  he  did  know  it  that  he  did  not  know  he  was  doing 
what  was  wrong."  Now,  it  is  obvious  that  under  this  ruling,  if  I 
may  call  it  so,  are  included  a  .large  number  of  cases  of  insanity. 
Under  it  would  stand  excused  the  raving  maniac  who  does  not  ap- 
prehend the  nature  or  quality  of  any  act,  the  idiot  who  is  in  the 
same  predicament,  the  fatuous  person  who  can  not  foresee  the 
consequences  of  his  acts,  and  the  victim  of  delusions,  when  these 
are  of  such  a  character  as  would  justify  homicide  were  they  be- 
liefs entertained  by  a  sane  man.  But  it  is,  and  always  has  been, 
equally  obvious  to  medical  men  that  this  ruling  excludes  a  con- 
siderable proportion  of  cases  of  insanity  in  which  moral  as  dis- 
tinguished from  legal  irresponsibility  exists,  and  that  it  is  faulty 
in  founding  the  test  of  insanity  on  knowledge  or  an  intellectual 
state  while  it  ignores  states  of  the  emotions  and  will,  which  are 
always  more  influential  on  conduct  than  intellectual  states,  and 
bulk  far  more  largely  in  insanity.     The  test  of  insanity  which 

*  Abridged  from  a  lecture  delivered  to  the  College  of  State  Medicine. 
vol.  xxxvi. — 6 


8z  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

commends  itself  to  medical  men  was  never  more  clearly  and  suc- 
cinctly expressed  than  by  Lord  Bramwell  when  in  the  Dove  case 
he  asked,  "  Could  he  help  it  ?  "  Could  he  or  she  help  it  ?  That  is 
the  real  practical  question  at  issue  in  every  case  in  which  the 
defense  of  insanity  is  set  up.  Was  the  lunatic  free  to  choose,  or 
under  the  duress  of  disease  ?  Was  his  will  incapable  or  inept  ? 
But  Lord  Bramwell  and  those  who  think  with  him  argue  that 
it  is  sufficiently  proved  that  the  lunatic  could  help  it  if  he  knew 
the  nature  of  his  act — viz.,  that  it  was  killing ;  the  quality  of  his 
act — viz.,  that  it  was  a  crime  ;  and  also  that  it  was  wrong  in  the 
sense  of  being  forbidden  by  law.  Whereas  medical  men,  almost 
without  exception,  maintain  that  a  lunatic  may  be  able  to  know 
and  express  the  nature  and  quality  of  an  act  and  its  wrongness, 
and  yet  be  as  unable  to  resist  doing  it  as  he  is  to  abstain  from 
j  limping  under  a  smart  electric  shock  ;  and  that  knowledge  of  the 
nature  and  quality  of  an  act  and  its  wrongness  is  not  in  the 
regions  of  pathology  any  measure  of  will-power.  And  not  only 
medical  men,  but  judges,  have  perceived  this.  The  late  Lord 
Chief -Justice  Cockburn  said,  "  The  power  of  self-control,  when 
destroyed  or  suspended  by  mental  disease,  becomes,  I  think,  an 
essential  element  in  the  question  of  responsibility."  And  Mr. 
Justice  Stephen  has  said,  "  It  ought  to  be  the  law  of  England 
that  no  act  is  a  crime  if  the  person  who  does  it  is  at  the  time 
when  it  is  done  prevented  by  defective  mental  power,  or  by  any 
disease  affecting  his  mind,  from  controlling  his  own  conduct,  unless 
the  absence  of  the  power  of  self-control  has  been  produced  by  his 
own  default."  This  statement  of  the  law,  which  has  been  verbally 
amended  by  Dr.  Bucknill,  really  covers  all  that  medical  men  have 
ever  contended  for,  and,  having  received  it  from  so  high  an  au- 
thority, it  is  their  duty  to  do  their  best  to  secure  its  acceptance, 
and  provide  trustworthy  tests  of  loss  of  self-control. 

Now,  impairment  of  will,  or  loss  of  self-control,  more  or  less 
pronounced,  is,  according  to  medical  men,  the  first,  last,  and  uni- 
versal element  in  insanity,  and  ranges  from  a  trifling  reduction  in 
the  check-action  which  we  exercise  on  the  ordinary  currents  of 
thought  and  feeling  down  to  paralysis  of  the  sphincters.  Dissolu- 
tion— and  insanity  is  dissolution — implies  a  reversal  of  evolution, 
and  in  insanity  we  have,  as  Dr.  Hnghlings  Jackson  has  taught  us, 
a  process  of  undevelopment,  or  taking  to  pieces,  in  the  highest 
centers,  which  are  the  crown  or  climax  of  nervous  evolution.  In 
it  we  have  "  a  descent  from  the  least  organized,  most  complex,  and 
most  voluntary,  toward  the  most  organized,  most  simple,  and  least 
voluntary."  There  is  in  every  case  of  insanity  impairment  of  vol- 
untary control,  and  as  a  consequence  of  this  there  is  more  or  less 
license  given  to  those  lower  mental  functions  which  are  during 
sanity  under  voluntary  control,  and  which  become  then  overactive, 


RESPONSIBILITY  IN  MENTAL   DISEASE.  8.3 

tlieir  overactivity  being  expressed  in  delusions,,  hallucinations, 
wild  and  whirling  words,  and  extravagant  actions. 

When  our  attention  is  withdrawn — as,  for  instance,,  when  we 
have  dropped  into  a  reverie  or  are  just  falling  asleep — a  sound  that 
might  have  made  us  turn  our  heads,  if  on  the  alert,  will  cause  us 
to  start  violently  ;  and  when  in  insanity  volition  is  impaired,  sen- 
sations that  would  have  been  almost  unnoticed  in  health  stir  up 
morbid  feelings.  Did  time  permit,  I  think  I  could  establish  that 
affinitive  sights,  sounds,  smells,  tastes,  and  surface  impressions,  as 
well  as  organic  sensations,  play  a  larger  part  than  is  generally 
supposed  in  the  induction  of  morbid  impulses  when  the  regulating 
brain-centers  are  weakened.  Many  sane  persons  have  experienced 
horrid  promptings  when  standing  looking  over  a  precipice  or 
gazing  at  a  passing  train,  and  among  the  insane  the  glitter  of  a 
knife  or  the  crackling  of  a  fire  will  sometimes  evoke  suicidal  or 
homicidal  impulses  which  but  for  it  might  have  remained  dormant. 

Will  is  the  link  between  feeling  and  action,  and  when  it  is  im- 
paired it  ceases  to  be  available  to  prevent  the  transmutation  of  the 
energy  of  feeling  into  the  energy  of  motion.  And  here  we  have  an 
explanation  of  the  utter  inadequacy  of  the  motives  that  constantly 
lead  to  insane  crimes.  There  is  no  check-action ;  there  is  an  ab- 
breviation of  that  pause  that  gives  time  for  foresight  and  reflec- 
tion. "  Must  give  us  pause  ! "  says  Hamlet  when  on  the  brink  of 
suicide — time  to  summon  up  the  forces  of  rational  resistance.  Man 
is  a  hesitating  animal.  The  whole  system  of  Zoroaster  hinges  on 
the  fact  that  everything  noxious  and  evil  in  creation  is  the  work 
of  Ahriman,  an  independent  power,  whose  wickedness  depends  on 
the  fact  that  he  acts  before  he  thinks  ;  whereas  Ormuzd,  the  good 
spirit,  thinks  before  he  acts.  And  madmen  may  in  many  instances 
be  distinguished  from  sane  men  in  the  same  way.  The  impul- 
sive madman  acts  before  he  thinks ;  feeling  is  translated  into 
action  with  reflex  precipitancy,  with  an  abbreviation  of  that  time 
interval  between  stimulus  and  response  which  can  now  be  sub- 
jected to  experimental  measurement ;  in  the  absence,  therefore,  of 
all  restraining  considerations,  and  in  a  violent  and  disproportion- 
ate manner.  I  have  known  an  epileptic  to  kill  his  attendant,  beat- 
ing his  head  into  jelly,  because  he  had  prevented  him  from  taking 
his  daily  walk.  I  have  known  another  epileptic  hang  himself 
because  a  smaller  portion  of  bread  and  butter  had  been  served  out 
to  him  than  to  his  companions  ;  and,  in  the  recent  case  at  Weston- 
super-Mare,  the  lad  Hitchins  shot  his  sister  because  of  some  tri- 
fling slight  which  she  had  put  upon  him.  In  all  such  cases  a  mo- 
mentary irritation,  a  natural  feeling  of  chagrin,  such  as  we  all  feel 
when  thwarted  or  disparaged,  instead  of  being  inhibited  in  its  nas- 
cent state  when  inhibition  is  most  powerful,  so  that  the  reaction  to 
it  may  be  reduced  by  deliberation  to  rational  proportions,  is,  by  the 


84  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

diminished  resistance  of  the  will  and  the  consequent  overaction 
of  the  lower  centers,  permitted  to  become  fixed  or  to  express  itself  in 
a  grossly  exaggerated  manner. 

That  voluntary  power  is  invariably  impaired  in  insanity  is  not 
perhaps  evident  to  those  who  have  not  looked  closely  into  the 
matter.  Is  it  not  true,  it  may  be  asked,  that  some  insane  persons 
exhibit  extraordinary  fixity  of  purpose  and  persist  in  some  course 
of  conduct — as,  for  example,  the  refusal  of  food  with  dogged  ob- 
stinacy ?  That  is  so,  but  insane  obstinacy  is  no  more  an  indication 
of  voluntary  power  than  is  the  late  rigidity  of  a  paralyzed  arm. 
That  state  of  late  rigidity  in  which  the  arm  could  not  be  stretched 
without  being  broken  betokens  that  certain  lower  centers  have 
been  cut  off  from  intercourse  with  higher  ones  and  are  undergoing 
degeneration ;  and  so  the  unreasonable  obstinacy  of  lunatics  in 
insane  conduct  merely  indicates  that  certain  mental  functions 
have  escaped  the  regulation  of  volition,  which  is  enfeebled,  and 
are  acting  in  an  irregular  and  self-willed  manner  in  consequence. 

No  doubt  in  all  cases  of  insanity  a  certain  amount  of  volitional 
power  is  retained,  and  this  may  in  certain  cases  be  effectual  to  some 
extent  over  the  morbid  mental  manifestations.  There  may  be  con- 
tributory negligence  on  the  part  of  a  lunatic,  just  as  there  may  be 
on  the  part  of  an  invalid.  Prof.  Ruble,  of  Bonn,  recommends  the 
birch-rod  and  shower-baths  in  certain  cases  of  chronic  vomiting, 
and  asserts  that  children  often  die  of  a  bad  bringing  up,  and 
adults  because  they  can  not,  when  ill,  make  up  their  minds  to  do 
what  is  right  and  omit  what  is  hurtful ;  and  Niemeyer  quotes 
with  approval  the  dictum  of  the  wife  of  a  Prussian  general,  a 
most  determined  woman  but  a  tender  mother,  that  whooping- 
cough  is  only  curable  by  the  rod.  But  no  one  in  this  country 
would  now  sanction  such  heroic  treatment,  or  believe  that  any- 
thing but  evil  could  come  from  such  stringent  appeals  to  a  mere 
remnant  of  will  in  its  corporeal  relations ;  and  so  it  would  be  dan- 
gerous in  cases  of  insanity,  in  which  will  is  obviously  and  seriously 
involved  in  its  mental  relations,  to  infer  that  what  survives  of  it 
might,  if  put  forth,  have  prevented  a  criminal  act.  In  insanity, 
in  which  the  mental  movements  are  typically  involuntary,  but 
yet  susceptible  of  some  control,  we  must  not  expect  of  the  patient 
what  is  beyond  his  strength — the  habitual  suppression  of  his 
morbid  impulses.  The  criminal  act  of  a  lunatic  is  sometimes  so 
alien  to  his  healthy  disposition,  or  so  clearly  motiveless,  that  we 
have  no  hesitation  in  concluding  that  his  true  will  must  have 
been  in  abeyance  when  he  fell  into  it.  At  other  times  it  follows 
upon  mental  struggles  which  he  has  himself  described,  and  asked 
help  in,  previous  to  its  commission,  and  is  therefore  clearly  but 
the  climax  of  a  pathological  process  signifying  the  overthrow  of 
the  will.     And  at  other  times,  again,  it  is  associated  with  mental 


RESPONSIBILITY  IN  MENTAL   DISEASE.  85 

and  bodily  symptoms  which,  our  experience  has  taught  us,  corre- 
spond with  complete  paralysis  of  will. 

A  lunatic  may  unquestionably  commit  a  crime  under  ordinary 
motives.  It  can  not  be  contended  that  every  mental  oddity  and 
isolated  delusion  is  to  put  a  man  beyond  the  pale  of  the  law,  but 
it  is  to  be  remembered  that  a  really  isolated  delusion  is  a  rarity, 
and  that  most  delusions  are  but  local  manifestations  of  a  consti- 
tutional vice,  involving  weakening  of  will.  Most  lunatics  are,  it 
has  been  said,  mad  to  their  finger-tips ;  and  what  appear  to  be 
their  sane  acts  are  generally  more  or  less  tinctured  with  insanity. 

I  can  not  pause  here  even  to  sketch  the  several  stages  of  men- 
tal dissolution,  but  I  would  suggest  that  there  are  practically  three 
levels  of  these  in  connection  with  lunatic  crime.  They  are — the 
ideational  level,  the  impulsive  level,  and  the  automatic  level.  On 
the  first,  the  ideational  level,  the  criminal  act  is  committed  under 
the  influence  of  an  insane  motive  or  a  delusion  or  hallucination, 
with  consciousness  at  the  time  and  remembrance  afterward  of  all 
that  has  taken  place,  but  in  consequence  of  a  diminution  of  inhibi- 
tory or  resisting  power.  On  the  second,  it  is  committed  under 
the  stress  of  a  sudden  and  irresistible  impulse,  which  is  often  a 
reversion  to  a  mere  animal  instinct,  with  vague  or  imperfect  con- 
sciousness at  the  time,  obscure  remembrance  afterward,  and  under 
a  still  more  grave  paresis  of  inhibitory  power.  On  the  third,  it  is 
committed  under  the  influence  of  accidental  or  reflex  suggestion, 
without  consciousness  at  the  time  or  remembrance  afterward,  and 
during  the  complete  abrogation  of  inhibitory  power.  As  illustra- 
tions, I  may  mention  on  the  first  level  the  case  of  a  man  who  kills 
his  friend  with  elaborate  preparation  to  spare  him  suffering,  be- 
cause he  has  been  told  by  the  archangel  Michael  that  the  death  of 
that  friend  is  necessary  to  the  extinction  of  Freemasonry,  which 
is  the  curse  of  the  human  race,  and  who  afterward  describes  the 
homicide' in  detail,  and  with  evident  pride  and  satisfaction;  on  the 
second  level,  the  case  of  a  puerperal  woman,  who,  seeing  a  glitter- 
ing knife  by  her  bedside,  suddenly  cuts  her  baby's  throat,  without 
afterward  having  any  clear  recollection  of  the  event  or  being  able 
to  say  why  she  did  it,  although  the  knowledge  that  she  had  done 
it  fills  her  with  grief  and  remorse ;  and  on  the  third  level,  the  case 
of  an  epileptic,  who,  while  recovering  from  a  fit,  kills  whoever 
happens  to  be  nearest  to  him,  while  still  unconscious,  and  who 
retains  afterward  no  trace  of  recollection  of  the  tragedy. 

It  seems  to  me  that  nothing  has  more  retarded  an  approach  to 
a  just  appreciation  of  the  relations  of  responsibility  and  disease 
than  the  assent,  tacit  or  explicit,  generally  given  to  the  dogma 
that  the  existence  of  insanity  is  a  question  for  men  of  common 
sense — a  question  which  they  are  quite  as  capable  of  deciding  as 
medical  men  or  experts.     The  late  Lord  Shaftesbury,  who,  by  his 


86  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

philanthropic  labors,  conferred  such  signal  benefits  on  the  insane, 
did  some  disservice  to  medical  jurisprudence  when  he  lent  the 
weight  of  his  authority  to  this  doctrine,  and  maintained  that 
"  persons  of  common  sense,  conversant  with  the  world,  and  hav- 
ing a  practical  knowledge  of  mankind,  brought  into  the  presence 
of  a  lunatic,  would  in  a  short  time  find  out  whether  he  was  or  was 
not  capable  of  managing  his  own  affairs  " ;  and  the  late  Sir  Benja- 
min Brodie  erred,  I  think,  still  more  grievously  when  he  said : 
"  It  is  a  great  mistake  to  suppose  that  this  is  a  question  (unsound- 
ness of  mind)  which  can  be  determined  only  by  medical  practition- 
ers. Any  one  of  common  sense,  and  having  a  fair  knowledge  of 
human  nature,  who  will  give  it  due  consideration,  is  competent 
to  form  an  opinion  on  it ;  and  it  belongs  fully  as  much  to  those 
whose  office  it  is  to  administer  the  law  as  it  does  to  the  medical 
profession." 

Now,  it  may  be  admitted  that  there  was  a  time  when  medical 
science  was  in  its  infancy,  when  the  functions  of  the  brain  were 
unknown,  and  when  only  metaphysical  explanations  of  insanity 
were  attempted,  at  which  the  existence  of  insanity  in  any  given 
case  might  have  been  as  correctly  determined  by  plain,  unsophis- 
ticated men  as  by  pretentious  empirics.  Further,  it  may  be  grant- 
ed that  there  are  an  immense  number  of  cases  of  insanity  in  which 
the  symptoms  of  the  disease  are  so  obvious  and  external,  that  spe- 
cial skill,  although  requisite  to  interpret  these  symptoms,  explain 
their  causes,  predict  their  results,  and  prescribe  treatment,  is  not 
necessary  to  their  identification.  But,  beyond  all  this,  there  are, 
it  must  be  maintained,  cases  of  insanity  of  so  obscure  and  subtle  a 
nature  that  they  can  only  be  properly  identified  by  those  who 
have  made  themselves  intimately  acquainted  with  the  functions 
of  the  nervous  system  in  health  and  disease,  and  who  have  by  ex- 
perience come  to  appreciate  the  significance  of  combinations  of 
mental  phenomena  and  of  concomitant  bodily  variations,  which 
would  appear  meaningless  to  the  uninitiated. 

The  fact  is,  that  practically  the  utility  of  expert  testimony  in 
insanity  is  acknowledged,  and  it  is  difficult  to  understand  how  it 
could  be  otherwise,  for  all  who  have  made  only  a  superficial  study 
of  mental  diseases  must  perceive  that  there  are  in  them  little  sign  s 
and  symptoms,  perversions  of  thought  and  derangements  of  bod- 
ily functions,  which  would  altogether  escape  the  notice  of  com- 
mon sense,  but  warrant  an  expert,  founding  on  his  experience,  in 
proclaiming  that  the  will  is  reduced  to  impotency,  and  that  the 
lunatic  can  not  control  himself.  There  is  something  in  the  ap- 
pearance, manner,  and  mode  of  expression  of  lunatics  of  various 
classes  which  would  pass  unnoticed  by  common  sense,  but  be 
characteristic  to  those  who  had  been  accustomed  to  watch  them 
narrowly.     There  are  styles  of  morbid  thought  which  can  not  be 


RESPONSIBILITY  IN  MENTAL   DISEASE.  87 

simulated.  There  are  latent  or  concealed  delusions  which  start 
into  view  when  the  appropriate  spring  is  touched.  There  is  the 
order  in  disorder  of  dissolution  which  can  not  be  imitated.  There 
are  types  of  delusions  and  hallucinations  which  are  easily  recog- 
nized. And,  above  all,  there  are  physical  signs  of  disorder  of  the 
brain  and  nervous  system  which  correspond  with  certain  stages 
in  the  degradation  of  will-power. 

To  the  expert  witness  in  cases  of  insanity  and  crime  these 
questions  should,  it  seems  to  me,  be  put :  Was  the  prisoner  insane 
at  the  time  when  he  committed  the  act  of  which  he  is  accused  ? 
Was  his  insanity  of  such  a  nature  and  degree  as  to  deprive  him 
of  control  over  his  conduct  ?  What  are  the  grounds  upon  which 
you  have  formed  these  opinions  ?  It  would  then  remain  for  the 
jury,  aided  by  the  judge,  and  with  the  assistance  of  other  experts 
if  necessary,  to  decide  on  the  validity  of  the  grounds  stated  and 
on  the  weight  to  be  attached  to  the  opinions  expressed. 

Expert  testimony,  to  be  of  the  highest  value,  ought  of  course 
to  be  founded  on  an  examination,  or,  better  still,  on  repeated  ex- 
aminations, of  the  accused,  made  as  soon  as  possible  after  the  per- 
petration of  the  crime.  But  insanity  is  a  chronic  disease ;  and 
even  when  the  expert  has  not  seen  the  alleged  lunatic  until  some 
time  after  his  crime,  he  may  still  be  able  to  say  whether  in  the 
course  of  a  disease  still  existing,  or  of  the  recent  existence  of 
which  there  are  traces,  such  a  criminal  act  was  likely  to  crop  up 
as  part  and  parcel  of  the  disease;  and  whether  it  is  consistent 
with  his  experience  and  with  the  history  of  the  act  that  the  ac- 
cused could  not  help  it.  When  the  crime  was  committed  during 
a  temporary  paroxysm  of  madness  or  during  an  attack  from  which 
recovery  has  taken  place  before  the  examination  has  been  ordered, 
it  may  still  be  possible  for  an  expert  to  say  whether  the  symptoms 
described  to  him  form  a  true  picture  of  mental  disease  or  are  only 
a  spurious  copy,  and  whether  any  wreckage  still  marks  the  course 
of  a  nerve-storm.  Sometimes  it  will  be  impossible  for  an  expert 
to  make  up  his  mind  either  one  way  or  the  other,  and  then  it  is 
his  duty  plainly  to  say  so. 

And  now  I  have  a  practical  suggestion  to  offer  which  would, 
if  adopted,  I  venture  to  believe,  do  more  to  reconcile  the  great 
professions  of  law  and  medicine  on  the  questions  at  issue  between 
them  respecting  insanity  and  crime  than  any  prolongation  of 
those  elaborate  and  sometimes  highly  spiced  logomachies  in  which 
they  have  both  indulged  in  the  past. 

What  is  wanted  is  a  series  of  skilled  and  sustained  observa- 
tions on  homicides  who  have  escaped  punishment  on  the  plea  of 
insanity,  made  by  competent  and  unbiased  authorities,  couched  in 
language  understanded  of  the  people,  and  published  from  time  to 
time.     And,  in  order  that  such  a  series  of  observations  may  be 


88  THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

pursued,  I  would  propose  the  appointment  of  a  committee  or  com- 
mission, composed  in  equal  parts  of  lawyers  and  medical  men, 
whose  duty  it  should  be  to  visit  the  asylums  as  often  as  they 
might  deem  expedient,  to  examine  individually  all  patients  de- 
tained there  who  have  been  charged  with  murder,  and  also  the 
officers  of  the  asylums,  and  their  case-books  and  registers,  and  to 
report  annually  on  the  mental  condition  of  every  such  patient, 
with  special  reference  to  the  circumstances  of  the  crime  of  which 
he  or  she  was  accused,  and  the  evidence  adduced  at  his  or  her 
trial,  adding  such  remarks  on  the  relations  of  insanity  and  crime, 
and  such  recommendations  for  alterations' of  the  law,  as  their  ex- 
perience may  suggest  to  them. 

Looking  forward  to  such  reports,  the  faithful  scientific  witness 
would  speak  with  confidence,  assured  that  his  evidence,  although 
it  might  appear  strained  at  the  time,  would  be  confirmed  by 
events ;  while  the  pseudo-scientific  witness,  if  there  be  any  such, 
who  is  led  into  the  box  by  a  thirst  for  notoriety  or  a  spurious  phi- 
lanthropy, would  pause  before  committing  himself  to  statements 
which  might  rise  up  in  judgment  against  him  in  a  very  dam- 
aging and  persistent  way.  And  there  can  be  no  impropriety  in 
alleging  that  such  reports  would  ultimately  prove  useful  to  judges 
and  counsel. 

Beyond  this,  the  deliberations  of  such  a  commission  would 
conduce  in  some  degree  to  an  agreement  between  lawyers  and 
doctors  on  the  question  of  insanity  and  crime.  It  is  in  the  atmos- 
phere of  the  courts  of  law  that  differences  between  them  spring 
up,  differences  which  in  private  conference  speedily  dwindle  away. 
It  is  about  theoretical  definitions  and  verbal  distinctions  that  they 
contend ;  and  wherever  they  are  brought  together  in  actual  con- 
tact over  a  case  anywhere  save  in  a  court  of  law,  the  lawyers  with 
striking  aptitude  adopt  the  scientific  standpoint,  and  harmony 
results. — TJie  Lancet. 

**♦ 

THE   LUCAYAN   INDIANS. 

By  Prof.  W.  K.  BROOKS, 

OF    JOHNS    HOPKINS     UNIVERSITY. 

IN  three  years  the  world  will  unite  in  celebrating  the  four  hun- 
dredth anniversary  of  what,  from  our  point  of  view,  is  the 
grandest  and  most  important  event  in  history,  the  landing  of  Co- 
lumbus ;  but  in  our  consciousness  of  its  profound  significance,  are 
we  not  in  danger  of  forgetting  that  the  Spaniards  discovered  Amer- 
ica in  the  way  that  pirates  discover  a  vessel  with  a  helpless  crew  ? 
While  no  one  can  doubt  that  the  world,  as  a  whole,  has  been 
benefited,  there  is  reason  to  question  whether  any  of  the  islands 
which  Columbus  himself  discovered  have  profited  by  the  change. 


THE  LUG  AY  AN  INDIANS.  89 

Hayti  is  almost  completely  in  a  state  of  revolting  and  hopeless 
savagery,  and  recent  writers  assert  that  Jamaica  is  rapidly  trav- 
eling the  same  road.  The  condition  of  Cuba  is  by  no  means  en- 
couraging to  her  friends  ;  and  in  the  Bahamas,  abandoned  home- 
steads, costly  villas  tumbling  to  ruins,  roofless  walls,  and  fields 
and  plantations  converted  into  tropical  jungles,  testify  to  any- 
thing but  prosperity.  The  population  of  the  Bahamas  is  less 
to-day  than  it  was  on  the  day  Columbus  landed,  and  it  is  not 
increasing. 

He  found  the  Bahamas  in  the  possession  of  a  prosperous  and 
happy  people  who  called  the  islands  the  Lucayas,  and  themselves 
Ceboynas.  Twelve  years  afterward  every  soul  of  this  population 
of  more  than  forty  thousand  men,  women,  and  children  had  per- 
ished in  a  strange  land  under  the  lash  of  the  slave-driver;  the 
race  was  blotted  off  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  the  only  impression 
which  has  been  left  upon  our  civilization  by  those  who  first  wel- 
comed it  to  this  continent  is  a  single  word,  which,  together  with 
the  luxurious  article  it  designates,  has  spread  over  the  whole 
earth.  The  Ceboynas  gave  us  the  hammock,  and  this  one  Lucayan 
word  is  their  only  monument. 

Nowhere  in  all  the  black  pages  of  history  is  there  a  darker 
tragedy  than  theirs ;  and  while  it  is  eminently  proper  that  we 
should  pay  all  homage  to  the  transcendent  genius  and  noble  na- 
ture of  the  great  admiral,  and  that  we  should  celebrate  with  all 
pomp  and  pride  the  miraculous  growth  of  our  own  civilization, 
does  it  not  also  become  us  to  commemorate  in  some  way,  at  the 
same  time,  the  story  of  the  unhappy  and  forgotten  Ceboynas,  to 
whom  the  discovery  had  a  still  more  profound  significance  ? 

How  intensely  interesting,  just  at  present,  is  any  addition  to 
our  knowledge  of  the  other  party  to  the  transaction  !  The  writer 
has  recently  spent  two  seasons  in  zoological  research  in  the  Baha- 
ma Islands,  and  has  been  able  to  learn  a  few  facts,  which  are  new 
to  the  science  of  anthropology,  relating  to  the  bodily  structure  of 
the  long-lost  Ceboynas,  and  thus  to  contribute  toward  the  per- 
petuation of  their  memory. 

There  is  not  much  intrinsic  interest  in  a  few  fragments  of  hu- 
man bones,  but  the  Ceboyna  skull  which  stands  upon  my  table  as 
I  write  gives  life  and  vivid  reality  to  the  familiar  story  in  the 
first  chapter  of  my  school  history,  and  calls  up  in  all  its  details 
with  startling  clearness  the  drama  of  the  Bahama  Islands. 

To  most  of  us  these  islands  are  little  more  than  dots  upon  the 
map,  but,  small  and  sterile  and  unimportant  as  they  are,  they 
form  one  of  the  fairest  landscapes  upon  earth,  for  they  present  all 
the  conditions  which  are  most  favorable  for  intensity  of  color  of 
earth  and  sea  and  sky.  Under  the  combined  influence  of  white 
soil,  intense  sunlight,  and  perfect  purity  of  air  and  water,  they 


9o  THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

glow  with  the  sparkling  colors  of  jewels.  The  hot  air  is  loaded 
with  moisture  to  the  saturation-point,  like  that  of  the  deep,  shady 
recesses  of  a  rocky  glen  on  the  edge  of  a  waterfall ;  but  the  islands 
are  also  as  wind-swept  as  a  mountain-top,  and  the  air  is  absolutely 
pure,  for  the  ocean  breeze  brings  with  it  no  smoke  nor  dust,  no 
pollen  nor  vegetable  refuse,  nor  anything  whatever  except  pure, 
moist,  warm  air.  As  the  saturated  sea-breeze  blows  over  the 
thousand  islands  of  the  archipelago,  the  slight  difference  between 
the  temperature  of  the  changeless  ocean  and  that  of  the  variable 
land,  which  heats  quickly  in  the  daytime  and  cools  quickly  at 
night,  manifests  itself  by  the  formation  of  great,  snow-white  banks 
of  summer  clouds  which  are  as  characteristic  of  the  Bahama  hori- 
zon as  the  water  itself  or  the  deep,  pure  blue  of  the  sky  between 
the  clouds. 

The  islands  stand  on  the  extreme  edge  of  a  submerged  abyss 
where  the  surface  falls  as  suddenly  and  to  as  great  a  depth  as 
it  does  from  the  summit  of  the  Andes,  and  the  unfathomable  wa- 
ter of  mid-ocean  is  only  a  few  miles  away.  Some  of  the  out 
islands  are  only  two  miles  or  so  from  water  more  than  two  miles 
deep,  and  the  currents  which  sweep  through  the  sounds  and 
around  the  islands  at  each  turn  of  the  tide  are  absolutely  pure, 
and  they  have  the  intense  color  which  is  found  in  mid-ocean,  or 
the  melted  ice  of  glacial  lakes,  or  in  the  center  of  the  rocky  basin 
of  Lake  Superior.  In  great  depths  this  color  is  a  pure,  vivid  sap- 
phire blue,  darker  but  more  transparent  than  the  blue  of  the 
sky.  In  the  shallow  sounds,  where  the  intense  sunlight  is  re- 
flected back  from  the  chalky  bottom,  it  glows  like  a  surface  of 
beryl  with  an  intense  green  lustre  totally  unlike  anything  which 
is  met  with  in  other  waters,  although  the  center  of  the  Horse- 
shoe at  Niagara  would  be  very  similar  if  it  plunged  over  a  ledge 
of  white  marble  under  the  light  of  a  tropical  sun.  All  these 
influences  combine  to  give  a  degree  of  intensity  and  vividness 
which  can  not  exist  in  a  continent  to  ail  the  colors  of  a  landscape 
which  is  wrapped  in  perpetual  spring.  Under  their  dome  of 
blue  sky  and  snowy  clouds  the  Isles  of  June,  in  their  setting  of 
sapphire,  are  buried  under  a  mantle  of  verdure  so  dense  and  lux- 
uriant that  the  vegetation  thrives  as  if  in  a  hot-house,  and,  aban- 
doning the  rocky  and  sterile  ground  and  contenting  themselves 
with  the  warm,  moist  sea-breeze,  not  only  the  mosses  and  ferns 
and  orchids  and  bromeliads,  but  large  trees  as  well,  grow  tier 
above  tier,  climbing  over  each  other's  heads  in  their  efforts  to 
escape  the  struggle  for  existence  and  to  obtain  air  and  sunlight 
and  standing-room. 

Who  can  wonder  that,  when  Columbus  found  himself  in  this 
enchanted  fairy -land  after  the  changeless  monotony  of  mid-ocean 
and  all  the  anxieties  of  his  long  voyage  into  unknown  waters,  he 


THE  LUG  AY  AN  INDIANS.  91 

should  have  been  most  profoundly  impressed  by  its  beauty,  for  no- 
where on  earth  can  we  find  a  fairer  land  than  these  Isles  of  June. 
The  exciting  occupations  incident  upon  his  arrival  left  him  little 
time  for  writing,  but  he  faithfully  jotted  down  day  by  day  in  his 
log-book  in  short,  crisp  sentences  which  even  now  are  full  of  graph- 
ic interest,  the  impressions  which  were  still  fresh  upon  him.  The 
United  States  Coast  Survey  has  recently  done  good  service  to  his- 
tory by  the  publication  of  an  English  translation  of  this  rare  and 
almost  unknown  document,  and  the  extracts  in  this  paper  are  from 
this  translation.  After  he  set  sail  on  the  second  day,  he  says  that 
he  saw  so  many  islands  that  he  could  not  decide  to  which  one  he 
should  go  first,  and  the  men  he  had  taken  told  him  by  signs  that 
they  were  innumerable.  On  the  fifth  day  he  writes  of  the  island 
which  he  named  Isabella :  "  There  was  in  it  twelve  leagues,  as 
far  as  a  cape  which  I  called  Cape  Beautiful,  which  is  in  the  west, 
and  so  it  is  beautiful,  round,  and  very  deep  and  free  from  shoals  ; 
at  first  it  is  rocky  and  low,  but  farther  in  it  is  a  sandy  beach,  as 
it  is  along  most  of  our  coast.  The  island  is  the  most  beautiful 
thing  I  have  seen ;  if  the  others  are  very  beautiful,  this  is  still 
more  so ;  it  has  many  trees,  very  green  and  Very  large,  and  this 
land  is  higher  than  that  of  the  other  islands  I  have  discovered, 
although  it  can  not  be  called  mountainous.  Yet  gentle  hills 
enhance  with  their  contrasts  the  beauty  of  the  plain,  and  there 
appears  to  be  much  water  in  the  middle  of  the  island.  Northeast 
of  this  cape  there  is  an  extensive  promontory,  and  there  are  many 
groves  very  thick  and  very  large.  I  wished  to  anchor  off  it  in  order 
to  land,  and  visit  so  handsome  a  spot,  but  it  was  shallow  and  I 
could  not  anchor,  except  far  from  land,  and  the  wind  was  very 
favorable  to  come  to  this  cape,  where  I  am  now  anchored,  and 
which  I  have  called  the  Cape  Beautiful  because  it  is  so ;  and  so  I 
did  not  anchor  off  that  promontory,  because  I  saw  this  cape  so 
green  and  so  beautiful,  as  are  all  the  other  things  and  lands  of 
these  islands,  so  that  I  do  not  know  to  which  to  go  first,  nor  do 
my  eyes  grow  tired  with  looking  at  such  beautiful  verdure ;  and 
when  I  reached  this  cape  the  odor  came  so  good  and  sweet  from 
flowers  or  trees  on  the  land,  that  it  was  the  sweetest  thing  in  the 
world." 

Of  the  Island  of  Fernandina,  he  says  (October  16th)  :  "  The 
island  is  very  green  and  level,  and  exceedingly  fertile.  ...  I  saw 
many  trees  whose  shape  was  very  different  from  ours,  and  many 
of  them  which  had  branches  of  many  kinds,  although  all  growing 
from  one  trunk,  and  one  branch  of  one  kind  and  another  of 
another  kind,  and  so  different  that  the  diversity  of  the  kinds  is 
the  greatest  wonder  of  the  world — for  instance,  one  branch  had 
leaves  like  those  of  cane,  and  another  like  those  of  a  mastic ;  and 
thus  on  a  single  tree  there  were  five  or  six  of  these  kinds,  and  all 


9 2  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

so  different ;  nor  can  it  be  said  that  they  have  been  grafted, 
because  these  trees  grow  wild  in  the  field  and  nobody  cares  for 
them. 

"  The  fishes  here  are  so  different  from  ours  that  it  is  a  wonder. 
Some  look  like  cocks  of  the  finest  colors  in  the  world,  blue,  yellow, 
red,  and  all  colors,  and  others  variegated  in  a  thousand  fashions ; 
their  different  hues  being  so  exquisite  that  nobody  can  contem- 
plate them  without  wondering,  and  feeling  great  delight  in  seeing 
them.  There  are  also  whales  here  ;  but  on  shore  I  saw  no  beasts 
whatever,  save  parrots  and  lizards."   • 

Columbus  found  all  these  islands  much  more  thickly  inhabited 
than  they  are  to-day,  by  a  race  of  people  who  called  themselves 
Ceboynas,  although  his  misconception  as  to  the  nature  of  his  dis- 
covery led  him  to  bestow  on  them  the  name  by  which  all  the  ab- 
original inhabitants  of  this  continent  are  now  known. 

As  they  had  very  few  artificial  wants,  and  were  able  to  live 
without  forethought  or  care  in  a  land  which  knows  no  change  of 
sea  ms,  where  the  harvest  ripens  without  attention,  and  a  tempt- 
ing fish  for  the  day's  dinner  can  be  picked  out  and  speared  as  if  it 
floated  in  the  clear  water  of  an  aquarium,  they  were  totally  igno- 
rant of  much  that  the  Spaniards  regarded  as  essential  for  man, 
and  Columbus,  mistaking  simplicity  for  destitution,  makes  the 
entry  in  his  log-book  that  he  "  thought  them  to  be  a  very  poor 
people."  It  is  true  that,  except  for  the  "  one  who  wore  in  his  nose 
a  piece  of  gold  of  the  size  of  half  a  castellano,  on  which  were 
letters,"  he  found  no  indications  of  the  wealth  of  India  ;  but  before 
he  had  been  a  week  in  the  New  World  he  discovered  three  luxuries 
which  have  been  warmly  welcomed  by  the  whole  civilized  world. 

On  the  third  day  he  enters  in  his  log  that  "  the  men  I  sent  for 
water  told  me  that  the  houses  were  well  swept  and  perfectly  clean, 
and  that  their  beds  and  coverings  looked  like  cotton  nets,  which 
they  called  liamacas  " ;  and  within  a  few  days,  as  he  extended  his 
explorations  to  the  neighboring  Antilles,  he  met  with  cigars  and 
chocolate.  Poor  the  Ceboynas  might  be  in  the  matter  of  useless 
clothing  and  arms,  but  a  race  which  could  doze  idly  in  hammocks, 
under  the  blue  sky,  in  the  warm  sea-breeze,  idly  puffing  their 
Havana  cigars,  as  they  gazed  out  on  to  the  flashing  water  and 
waited  for  their  crops  to  ripen,  were  not  completely  destitute  and 
squalid.  Civilized  man  might  well  covet  even  a  harder  life  than 
that  of  the  natives  of  the  lovely  Lucayan  Islands  before  the  dis- 
covery, but  every  school-boy  knows  the  rude  awakening  which 
the  peaceful  Ceboynas  soon  received. 

Two  years  ago  I  enjoyed  the  delights  of  a  long  cruise,  in  the 
schooner  which  carries  the  mails,  through  the  calm,  landlocked 
sounds  which  thread  in  all  directions  the  mazes  of  the  archipelago, 
and  the  gentle  but  unfailing  breeze  bore  me  on  day  after  day, 


THE  LUC  AY  AN  INDIANS. 


93 


while  new  beauties  rose  up  and  unfolded  themselves  before  me  as 
the  islands  I  had  passed  dropped  down  toward  the  horizon  behind 
me  and  faded  away,  until  there  stole  over  me  the  feeling  that  the 
whole  might  be  some  fairy  landscape  traced  by  fancy  in  the  sum- 
mer clouds,  and  that  if  I  closed  my  eyes  for  a  minute  I  might 
find  it  all  dissolving  into  air. 

As  I  passed  the  little  inlets,  with  their  lines  of  white  breakers, 
and  beyond  them  the  deep  blue  of  the  open  ocean  fading  in  the 
distance  into  the  lighter  blue  of  the  sky ;  or,  as  I  leaned  over  the 
rail  while  the  vessel  slipped  on  as  if  it  were  hung  in  mid-air ;  as  I 
watched  the  gaudy  fishes  darting  over  the  white  sand  many  fath- 
oms below,  or  caught  glimpses  into  the  deep  dark  caves  between 
the  great,  dome-like  coral-heads  which  swept  up  in  smooth  curves 
from  the  depths  almost  to  the  surface,  and  overhung  cool  grottoes 
hung  with  gorgeous  anemones  and  sea-fans  and  sea-feathers, 
among  which  innumerable  animals  in  an  endless  diversity  of 
strange  forms  could  be  dimly  seen  as  the  vessel  slipped  by ;  as  I 
drifted  on  day  after  day,  and  passed  one  charming  spot  after 
another,  only  to  find  still  more  beauty  beyond,  I  could  not  escape 
the  thought  that  in  this  enchanted  land  of  beauty  which  no  brush 
could  paint,  where  every  prospect  pleases,  man  has  been  unuttera- 
bly vile,  and  this  not  the  heathen  in  his  blindness,  but  the  con- 
queror who,  as  old  Bernal  Diaz  quaintly  but  frankly  puts-  it, 
"  Took  his  life  in  his  hand  that  he  might  give  light  to  them  who 
sit  in  darkness,  and  satisfy  the  thirst  for  gold  which  all  men  feel." 

Less  than  fifteen  years  after  the  discovery  the  forty  thousand 
Ceboynas  were  gone,  and  the  Lucayas  were  left  desolate.  For 
nearly  two  hundred  years  every  one  of  these  thousands  of  lovely 
islands  was  abandoned  to  the  parrots  and  lizards,  and,  except  for 
the  visits  of  Ponce  de  Leon,  in  his  search  for  the  magic  fountain, 
and  an  occasional  English  sailor,  no  boat  moved  through  these  quiet 
sounds;  until  at  last  the  peaceful  islanders  who,  as  Coumbus 
writes  to  Queen  Isabella,  were  the  best  people  on  earth,  and  loved 
their  neighbors  as  themselves,  were  replaced  by  a  new  population, 
and  the  banner  of  the  Jolly  Rodger  gathered  here,  from  the  ports 
of  Europe,  the  worst  human  scum  which  civilization  has  ever 
produced.  Who  could  cruise  through  this  earthly  paradise  without 
meditating  upon  the  fruit  of  our  civilization  as  it  has  here  devel- 
oped itself  ? 

While  Columbus  had  none  of  the  vices  of  lesser  men,  he  felt 
bound  to  fulfill  his  promise  to  enrich  those  who  had  aided  him  ; 
and  on  his  first  Sunday,  October  14th,  only  two  days  after  his 
landing,  the  gentle  influences  of  the  Sabbath  in  this  strange  and 
beautiful  land  moved  him  to  commit  his  impressions  to  writing, 
and,  while  his  pen  overflows  with  the  delights  of  the  New  World 
and  the  loveliness  of  the  people,  he  enters  in  his  log  that  he  is 


94  THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

keeping  a  keen  watch  for  a  place  to  build  a  fort ;  for,  he  says, "  In- 
asmuch as  the  people  are  perfectly  defenseless,  and  totally  unac- 
quainted with  arms,  a  force  of  fifty  men  could  keep  them  captive 
in  their  own  island  and  make  them  do  whatever  might  be  de- 
sired/' in  case  the  king  might  not  wish  them  all  taken  to  Spain  as 
slaves. 

As  he  found  no  gold,  except  the  nose-ornament,  worth  about 
a  dollar  and  a  half,  which  the  owner  refused  to  barter  for  glass 
beads,  Columbus  soon  left  the  Lucayas,  and  for  a  few  years  they 
were  forgotten.  By  an  accident  hardly  less  probable  than  the 
discovery  of  a  new  world,  he  soon  actually  found  rich  gold- 
mines in  Hayti,  and  for  a  time  the  Spaniards  forgot  their  de- 
sire to  give  light  to  them  who  sit  in  darkness,  in  their  eager- 
ness to  slake  their  thirst  for  gold.  They  did  not,  however,  forget 
the  cotton  nets  of  the  Ceboynas,  and  they  soon  discovered,  as  all 
white  men  in  the  tropics  do,  that  it  is  much  easier  to  lie  in  a  ham- 
mock puffing  a  cigar,  and  to  sip  chocolate  as  the  days  slip  by,  than 
to  dig  for  gold,  and  they  then  bethought  themselves  of  their  duty 
to  enlighten  the  darkness  of  the  heathen  natives  of  the  Lucayas. 

The  king  at  once  perceived  the  importance  of  bringing  these 
people  under  Christian  influences,  and  in  1509,  or  less  than  eleven 
years  after  the  discovery,  he  issued  an  order  for  the  deportation 
of  the  whole  population  of  the  Lucayas  to  New  Spain,  and  the 
work  of  conversion  was  at  once  vigorously  instituted  with  the  aid 
of  blood-hounds. 

For  a  time  the  Spaniards  seem  to  have  regarded  the  Antilles 
as  an  inexhaustible  slave-quarry,  and  to  have  thought  it  cheaper 
to  replenish  their  exhausted  stock  of  slaves  than  to  care  for 
those  they  had.  They  soon  found,  however,  that  it  was  not  so 
easy  as  Columbus  had  thought  to  make  the  Ceboynas  "  do  what- 
ever might  be  desired " ;  and  while  the  people  who  had  never 
labored  for  themselves  were  powerless  to  escape  slavery,  they 
resisted  to  the  death  all  the  efforts  of  the  Spaniards  to  profit  by 
their  labor. 

So  relentless  were  the  conquerors,  and  so  determined  and  hope- 
less the  captives,  that  the  unhappy  slaves  perished  by  wholesale 
in  the  mines  of  Hayti,  under  the  lashes  of  their  drivers  and  the 
steel  swords  which  were  often  broken  over  their  obstinate  heads ; 
and  even  now  the  mind  recoils  from  the  contemplation  of  the  few 
facts  regarding  the  fate  of  the  Lucayans  which  history  has  pre- 
served. 

As  an  illustration,  Las  Casas  gives,  among  others,  the  case  of 
one  Spaniard  who,  three  months  after  he  had  received  three  hun- 
dred Lucayan  slaves,  had  less  than  thirty  left  alive.  For  a  short 
time  this  destruction  was  made  good  by  fresh  importations,  but 
the  supply  was  soon  exhausted.     All  the  islands  were  left  deso- 


THE  LUCAYAN  INDIANS. 


95 


late,  and  the  Lucayan  race  was  as  if  it  had  never  been.  The  ham- 
mock, the  first  gift  of  the  New  World  to  civilization,  is  their  only 
monument,  and  the  word  the  sole  remnant  of  their  language. 

Columbus  says  that,  on  Saturday,  October  13th,  the  second  day, 
"  A  great  crowd  came,  each  bringing  something,  giving  thanks 
to  God,  and  entreating  or  beseeching  us  to  land.  We  understood 
that  they  asked  us  if  we  had  come  down  from  heaven  "  ;  and  be- 
fore the  children,  who  were  led  to  the  beach  to  welcome  the  celes- 
tial visitors  who  had  been  borne  to  them  on  white  wings  out  of 
the  blue  dome  which  bounded  their  world,  had  grown  to  man- 
hood, they  perished,  with  all  their  race,  in  a  foreign  land. 

Where  shall  we  find  a  sadder  story  than  this  ?  The  evil  was 
done  long  ago ;  there  is  now  no  remedy ;  but  as  the  recollection 
thrills  our  pulse,  and  our  generous  sympathies  are  awakened,  how 
eagerly  do  we  ask  the  question :  "  What  manner  of  men  were  the 
Lucayans  ?    What  were  they  like  ? " 

These  questions  I  am  now  able  to  answer,  at  least  imperfectly, 


and  the  skull  which  is  here  figured  once  belonged  to  a  person  who 
may  possibly  have  been  among  those  who  welcomed  Columbus. 

Like  all  coral  islands,  the  Bahamas  abound  in  caves,  and  these 
were  used  in  some  way  by  the  Ceboynas,  perhaps  as  burial-places, 
possibly  as  refuges  from  the  blood-hounds  of  the  Spaniards.  The 
floor  of  these  caves  consists  of  red  clay,  rich  in  phosphates  and  of 
commercial  value,  and  within  recent  years  it  has  been  removed 


96  THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

froni  most  of  them  and  sold.  During  the  excavations  many  hu- 
man bones  and  other  relics  were  found,  but  they  attracted  little 
interest,  and  most  of  them  were  destroyed.  I  learned,  however, 
during  a  recent  visit  to  the  islands,  that  a  few  of  the  bones  had 
found  their  way  into  the  hands  of  thoughtful  and  intelligent  per- 
sons, and  had  thus  been  preserved.  Their  custodians  at  once  ap- 
preciated my  desire  to  study  them,  and  generously  placed  them 
at  my  service  for  this  purpose,  so  that  I  was  able  to  obtain  notes 
for  a  pretty  complete  anthropological  description  of  the  Ceboynas. 
The  wife  of  the  governor  of  the  colony,  Mrs.  Blake,  a  most  enthu- 
siastic and  able  naturalist,  whose  contributions  to  science  are 
well  known,  had  herself  explored  one  of  the  caves — an  undertak- 
ing which  calls  for  energy  and  endurance  quite  incomprehensible 
to  any  one  who  has  never  attempted  exploration  in  the  tropics. 
She  had  found  fragments  of  several  skeletons  in  the  cave,  and  she 
placed  them  all  in  my  hands  as  soon  as  I  expressed  a  wish  to  study 
them.  Dr.  J.  C.  Alberry,  a  Nassau  physician,  was  equally  generous 
with  a  female  skull  in  perfect  preservation,  which  he  had  in  his 
office,  and  both  he  and  Mrs.  Blake  afterward  authorized  me  to  de- 
posit these  relics  of  a  lost  and  almost  unknown  race  in  one  of  our 
great  anthropological  collections.  The  Nassau  Public  Library  con- 
tains two  male  skulls  which  the  trustees  kindly  permitted  me  to 
draw  and  measure. 

As  the  result  of  my  examination  of  this  material,  I  am  now 
able  to  state  that  the  Lucayans  were  large  people,  about  equal  in 
size  and  stature  to  the  average  European,  and  very  muscular  and 
heavy.  The  bones,  especially  those  of  the  skulls,  are  very  thick, 
firm,  and  heavy,  with  a  surface  almost  as  dense  and  white  as  ivory. 
After  examining  the  skulls,  it  is  easy  to  credit  the  statement  that 
the  steel  swords  of  the  Spaniards  were  often  broken  over  the  hard 
heads  of  the  Lucayans.  The  brain  was  large,  and  the  capacity  of 
the  cranium  is  about  equal  to  that  of  an  average  Caucasian  skull ; 
but  they  had  protuberant  jaws  and  the  powerful  neck-  and  jaw- 
muscles  of  true  savages,  and  the  outlines  of  the  skulls  have  none 
of  the  softness  and  delicacy  which  characterize  those  of  more 
civilized  and  gentle  races  of  men.  The  eyes  were  very  oblique, 
sloping  downward  away  from  the  nose,  and  the  orbits  are  very 
large  and  angular.  The  cheek-bones  are  broad  and  high,  and  the 
jaws  peculiarly  massive  and  square. 

The  skulls  are  extremely  broad  in  proportion  to  their  length, 
and  they  are  among  the  most  brachycephalic,  or  round-headed,  of 
all  known  human  skulls,  the  greatest  breadth  being  more  than 
nine  tenths  of  the  greatest  length. 

The  Ceboynas  flattened  their  heads  artificially  in  infancy,  so 
that  the  vertical  part  of  the  forehead  is  completely  obliterated  in 
all  the  adult  skulls,  and  the  head  slopes  backward  immediately 


THE  LUC  AY  AN  INDIANS.  97 

above  the  eyes.  This  flattening  was  practiced  to  such  a  degree 
that  the  bones  of  the  child's  skull  were  often  broken  by  the  press- 
ure of  the  bandages,  and  two  out  of  the  four  skulls  had  false 
joints,  which  appear  to  be  the  result  of  fracture  produced  in  this 
way. 

The  type  of  the  race  is  extremely  well  marked,  and,  after  one 
of  the  skulls  had  been  examined,  it  was  easy  to  see  at  a  glance 
that  the  others  belong  to  the  same  people,  and  their  characteristics 
agree  closely  with  the  very  short  description  of  the  Ceboynas 
which  Columbus  gives. 

In  his  log-book,  October  13th,  he  says:  "At  dawn  many  of 
these  men  came  down  to  the  shore.  All  are,  as  already  said, 
youths  of  good  size  and  very  handsome ;  their  hair  not  woolly,  but 
loose  and  coarse  like  horses'  hair.  They  have  broader  heads  and 
foreheads  than  I  have  ever  seen  in  any  race  of  men,  and  the  eyes 
very  beautiful,  not  small.  None  of  them  are  black,  but  of  the 
complexion  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  Canaries.  All,  without  ex- 
ception, have  very  straight  limbs,  and  no  bellies,  and  very  well 
formed." 

This  passage,  and  a  few  others  in  his  log-book,  contain  nearly 
all  that  is  known  of  the  race,  for  the  rapidity  with  which  discov- 
ery followed  discovery  was  unparalleled ;  and  the  simple  Lucayans 
attracted  little  interest  or  attention  after  the  Spaniards  found  the 
large  fertile  islands  of  the  Antilles  and  the  civilization  of  Mexico. 

We  know,  however,  that  the  statements  in  the  histories  to  the 
effect  that  they  were  naked,  weaponless,  and  without  arts,  are  in- 
correct, as  they  are  based  upon  the  impressions  which  Columbus 
formed  during  his  first  day  among  them. 

It  is  true  that  the  men  who  welcomed  Columbus  were  naked 
and  without  weapons,  and  that,  as  they  sat  in  their  canoes,  with 
their  stiff,  black  hair  cut  straight  across  their  low  foreheads  and 
hanging  down  behind  in  a  long  scalp-lock,  with  their  naked  bodies 
painted,  "some  black  and  some  white  and  some  red,  and  some 
whatever  they  find,"  they  must  have  seemed  like  thorough  sav- 
ages. He  soon  found,  however,  that  they  had  gardens  and  neat, 
well-swept  houses,  and  that  they  knew  how  to  manufacture 
cotton  cloth,  and  had  such  simple  clothing  as  suits  the  climate. 
Their  large  canoes,  hewed  out  of  the  trunks  of  single  trees,  were 
large  enough  to  hold  forty  or  fifty  men  each,  and  "  wonderfully 
built  according  to  the  locality,"  and  Columbus  says  they  were 
skillful  boatmen,  paddling  with  wonderful  speed,  and  managing 
them  with  great  dexterity. 

Fragments  of  pottery,  household  utensils  of  carved  wood,  and 
rude  pictorial  carvings  have  been  found  in  the  islands,  and  the 
occasional  discovery  of  beautifully  polished  stone  implements 
proves,  like  the  piece  of  gold  marked  with  letters,  that  they  were 

VOL.  XXXVI. — 7 


98  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

in  communication  with  distant  lands,  for  there  is  no  rock,  except 
soft  coral  limestone,  anywhere  in  the  archipelago.  They  knew 
the  direction  and  distance  of  Cuba  and  Hayti,  and  they  called  the 
larger  island  by  the  name  which  it  still  bears.  Their  language 
was  almost  identical  with  that  spoken  in  these  islands,  and,  while 
they  were  upon  the  extreme  edge  of  the  civilization  of  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico,  they  were  not  entirely  outside  its  influence,  and  the 
discoverers  were  able  to  use  them  as  interpreters  as  far  away  from 
their  home  as  Campeachy. 

This  is  about  the  sum  total  of  our  knowledge  of  the  Cebay- 
nas,  and  does  not  their  share  in  the  discovery  entitle  them  to  our 
remembrance,  and  bind  us  to  do  what  we  can  before  November  12, 
1892,  to  preserve  them  from  complete  oblivion  ? 

What  can  we  do  to  perpetuate  their  memory  ?  There  is  one 
thing  which  would  be  a  most  worthy  and  becoming  testimonial 
if  it  were  practicable.  The  injury  which  they  have  sustained  is 
past  and  irreparable,  but  if  three  years  hence  we  could  celebrate 
the  institution  of  a  wise,  humane,  and  consistent  method  of  dealing 
with  the  wards  of  our  nation  in  place  of  the  one  which  was  ini- 
tiated when  Columbus  devoted  his  first  Sunday  to  a  search  for  a 
fort,  the  shades  of  the  Ceboynas  might  accept  the  sacrifice. 

What  else  is  there  to  be  done  ?  Can  we  not  restore  to  the  map 
the  pretty  word  "  Lucayas  "  as  the  name  for  the  islands  ?  Surely 
if  Columbus  has  Columbia  for  his  monument,  the  Lucayans  are 
entitled  to  the  Lucayas ;  and  while  this  is  only  a  little  thing,  it 
would  be  a  graceful  tribute  to  them. 

In  the  little-known  interior  of  the  larger  islands  there  are 
many  caves  which  have  never  been  disturbed.  Canoes,  stone  im- 
plements, carved  utensils,  and  other  articles  have  been  found  from 
time  to  time  in  the  out-islands,  and,  while  the  articles  have  no 
great  archaeological  interest,  the  part  played  by  their  owners  in 
the  events  which  are  so  soon  to  be  commemorated  would  give 
great  value  to  any  new  discoveries. 

The  delightful  climate  and  the  beauty  of  the  landlocked 
sounds  give  to  the  Bahamas  the  greatest  charm  as  a  cruising- 
ground  ;  and  if  some  yacht -owner  were  to  devote  himself  to 
exploration,  with  a  well-equipped  and  energetic  staff  of  earnest 
assistants,  he  might  hope  to  gather  a  collection  of  Ceboyna  relics 
which,  placed  in  one  of  our  museums,  would  be  a  permanent  monu- 
ment to  their  memory. 


De.  Eduard  Nattmann,  of  Munich,  has  advanced  the  theory,  in  a  British  Asso- 
ciation paper,  that  the  magnetic  curves  of  the  earth,  wherever  a  magnetic  survey 
has  been  made,  show  a  distinct  relation  to  mountain  ranges,  faults,  eruptions,  and 
tectonic  disturbances.  He  urges  that  the  investigation  of  this  subject  be  taken  up 
at  once  all  over  the  world. 


SPEECH  AND   SONG.  99 


SPEECH  AND  SONG. 

By   Sib   MOEELL   MACKENZIE. 
PART  I. — SPEECH. 

IN  dealing  with  the  two  great  forms  of  local  utterance,  it  will 
be  most  convenient  to  take  them  in  their  historical,  or  at  any 
rate  their  logical,  order.  Whatever  "  native  wood-notes  wild  "  our 
hypothetical  half-human  ancestor  may  have  "  warbled  "  by  way  of 
love-ditties  before  he  taught  himself  to  speak,  there  is  no  doubt 
that  singing  as  an  art  is  a  later  development  than  articulate  speech, 
without  which,  indeed,  song  would  be  like  a  body  without  a  soul. 
I  will,  therefore,  treat  of  speech  first ;  and  it  will  clear  the  ground 
if  I  begin  with  a  definition.  Physiologically,  speech  is  the  power 
of  modifying  vocal  sound  by  breaking  it  up  into  distinct  elements, 
and  molding  it,  if  I  may  say  so,  into  different  forms.  Speech,  in 
this  sense,  is  the  universal  faculty  of  which  the  various  languages 
by  means  of  which  men  hold  converse  with  each  other  are  the 
particular  manifestations.  Speech  is  the  abstract  genus,  language 
the  concrete  species. 

I  am  happy  to  say  it  does  not  fall  within  the  scope  of  my  pres- 
ent purpose  to  discuss  the  origin  of  language,  a  mysterious  prob- 
lem, on  which  the  human  brain  has  exercised  itself  so  much  and 
to  so  little  purpose,  that  some  years  ago,  I  believe,  the  French 
Academy  declined  to  receive  any  further  communications  on  the 
subject.  The  origin  of  the  voice  is  a  different  matter.  The  vocal 
function  is  primarily  a  means  of  expression.  I  see  no  reason  for 
disagreeing  with  Darwin,  when  he  says  that  "  the  primeval  use 
and  means  of  development  of  the  voice  "  was  as  an  instrument  of 
sexual  attraction.  The  progenitors  of  man,  both  male  and  female, 
are  supposed  to  have  made  every  effort  to  charm  each  other  by 
vocal  melody,  or  what  they  considered  to  be  such,  and  by  constant 
practice  with  that  object  the  vocal  organs  became  developed.  Dar- 
win seems  inclined  to  believe  that,  as  women  have  sweeter  voices 
than  men,  they  were  the  first  to  acquire  musical  powers  in  order 
to  attract  the  other  sex,  by  which  I  suppose  he  means  that  the 
feminine  voice  owes  its  greater  sweetness  to  more  persevering  cult- 
ure for  purposes  of  flirtation.  I  do  not  know  whether  the  ladies 
of  the  present  day  will  own  this  soft  impeachment,  or  whether 
they  will  be  flattered  by  the  suggestion  that  their  remote  ances- 
tresses lived  in  a  perpetual  leap-year  of  courtship.  Other  emo- 
tions, however,  besides  the  master  passion  of  love  had  to  be  ex- 
pressed ;  joy,  anger,  fear,  and  pain  had  all  to  find  utterance,  and 
the  nervous  centers  excited  by  these  various  stimuli  threw  the 
whole  muscular  system  into  violent  contractions,  which  in  the 


loo  THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

case  of  the  muscles  moving  the  chest  and  the  vocal  cords  naturally- 
produced  sound — that  is  to  say,  voice.  These  movements,  at  first 
accidental  and  purposeless,  in  time  became  inseparably  associated 
with  the  emotional  state  giving  rise  to  them,  so  as  to  coincide  with 
it,  and  thus  serve  as  an  index  or  expression  thereof.  From  this 
to  the  voluntary  emission  of  vocal  sounds  is  an  easy  step,  and  it 
is  probable  enough  that  the  character  of  those  sounds  was  prima- 
rily due  to  the  "  imitation  and  modification  of  different  natural 
sounds,  the  voices  of  other  animals,  and  man's  own  instinctive 
cries. 

The  mechanism  of  the  voice  is  extremely  simple  in  its  general 
principles,  though  highly  complex  in  its  details.  Fortunately,  a 
knowledge  of  the  latter  is  not  required  for  the  comprehension  of 
the  main  facts  relative  to  the  production  of  the  voice,  and  I  shall 
not  further  allude  to  them  here.  Vocal  sound  is  produced  solely 
in  the  larynx,  an  elementary  fact  which  must  be  thoroughly 
grasped,  as  many  absurd  notions  are  current  even  among  people 
who  should  know  better,  such  as  that  the  voice  may  be  produced 
at  the  back  of  the  nose,  in  the  stomach,  and  elsewhere.  The 
larynx  is  a  musical  instrument  of  very  complex  structure,  partak- 
ing both  of  the  reed  and  the  string  type,  the  former,  however,  dis- 
tinctly predominating.  It  is  essentially  a  small  chamber  with 
cartilaginous  walls,  which  is  divided  into  an  upper  and  a  lower 
compartment  by  a  sort  of  sliding  floor,  or  double  valve,  formed  by 
the  two  vocal  cords.  In  breathing  this  valve  opens,  its  two  lateral 
halves  gliding  wide  apart  from  each  other,  so  as  to  allow  a  broad 
column  of  air  to  pass  through ;  in  speaking  or  singing,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  valve  is  closed,  but  for  a  narrow  rift  along  its 
middle.  Through  this  small  chink  the  air  escaping  from  the  lungs 
is  forced  out  gradually  in  a  thin  stream,  which  is  compressed,  so 
to  speak,  between  the  edges  of  the  cords,  that  form  the  opening 
technically  called  the  "glottis,"  through  which  it  passes.  The 
arrangement  is  typical  of  the  economical  workmanship  of  Nature. 
The  widest  possible  entrance  is  prepared  for  the  air  which  is  taken 
into  the  lungs,  as  the  freest  ventilation  of  their  whole  mucous 
surface  is  necessary.  When  the  air  has  been  fully  utilized  for 
that  purpose,  it  is,  if  need  be,  put  to  a  new  use  on  its  way  out  for 
the  production  of  voice,  and  in  that  case  it  is  carefully  husbanded 
and  allowed  to  escape  in  severely  regulated  measure,  every  parti- 
cle of  it  being  made  to  render  its  exact  equivalent  in  force  to  work 
the  vocal  mill-wheel.  When  the  air  is  driven  from  the  lungs  up 
the  windpipe  it  strikes  against  the  under  surface  of  the  floor  or 
double  valve  formed  by  the  vocal  cords,  which  are  firmly  stretched 
to  receive  the  shock,  forces  them  apart  to  a  greater  or  less  extent, 
and,  in  rushing  out  between  them,  throws  them  into  vibration. 
*  "  Descent  of  Man,"  second  edition,  1882,  p.  87. 


SPEECH  AND   SONG.  101 

The  vibration  of  the  vocal  cords  makes  the  column  of  air  itself 
vibrate,  and  the  vibration  is  communicated  to  the  air  in  the  upper 
part  of  the  throat,  the  nose,  and  mouth,  from  which  finally  it 
issues  as  sound.  The  vocal  cords  are  the  "  reeds "  of  the  vocal 
instrument,  and  as,  owing  to  the  extraordinary  number  and  intri- 
cate arrangement  of  their  muscular  fibers,  they  can  change  their 
length  and  shape  and  thickness  in  an  almost  infinite  variety  of 
ways,  they  are  equal  in  effect  to  many  different  reeds.  If  the  vocal 
cords  can  not  move  so  as  to  bring  their  edges  almost  into  contact, 
or  if  there  is  any  substance  between  them  which  prevents  them 
from  coming  together,  the  voice  is  destroyed ;  if  there  is  anything 
(such  as  a  growth)  in  or  on  one  of  them,  its  vibration  is  more  or 
less  checked,  and  hoarseness  is  the  consequence.  The  primary 
sound  generated  in  the  larynx  is  modified  by  the  shape,  size,  and 
density  of  the  parts  through  which  the  vibrating  column  of  air 
has  to  pass  before  it  issues  from  the  "  barrier  of  the  teeth."  These 
"  resonators,"  include  the  part  of  the  larynx  above  the  vocal  cords, 
with  the  little  sounding-board,  the  epiglottis,  covering  it;  the 
upper  part  of  the  throat  or  pharynx,  the  nasal  passages  with  cer- 
tain echoing  caves  in  the  bones  of  the  skull  which  communicate 
therewith  ;  and  the  mouth,  with  the  soft  palate  and  uvula,  tongue, 
cheeks,  teeth,  and  lips.  It  is  to  these  resonators,  as  well  as  to  the 
size  and  shape  of  the  larynx  itself — and  those  parts,  like  the  feat- 
ures of  the  face,  are  never  exactly  similar  in  any  two  individ- 
uals— that  the  distinctive  quality,  or  timbre,  of  the  voice  is  due. 

Timbre  is  the  physiognomy  of  the  voice  by  which  the  speaker 
can  be  recognized  even  when  unseen.  Just  as  the  face  may  be  lit 
up  with  joy,  darkened  with  sorrow,  or  distorted  with  passion,  so 
may  the  voice  be  altered  by  strong  mental  emotion.  This  is  due 
to  the  influence  of  the  mind  on  the  nervous  system,  which  con- 
trols every  part  of  the  body :  if  it  be  stimulated,  increased  action 
will  be  excited ;  if  disordered  by  shock,  feeble  irregular  move- 
ments will  be  produced,  the  limbs  will  shake,  and  the  voice  trem- 
ble. From  the  effect  of  peculiarities  of  physical  conformation  on 
the  voice  it  will  be  readily  understood  that  timbre  may  be,  in  some 
degree,  a  national  or  racial  peculiarity.  There  are  also  certain 
physical  types  which  correspond  to  particular  timbres  of  the  voice. 
I  have  noticed  this  particularly  in  persons  of  like  complexion  even 
when  different  in  race.  Thus,  a  certain  sharp  metallic  clearness 
of  articulation  is  often  found  in  individuals  of  ruddy  complexion, 
light  yellow  hair,  and  hard  blue  eyes,  while  rich,  mellow  tones, 
with  a  tendency  to  portamento  in  ordinary  speech,  are  often  asso- 
ciated with  black  hair  and  florid  face.  A  remarkable  point  is  that 
the  same  voice  may  be  altogether  different  in  timbre  in  singing 
from  what  it  is  in  speaking.  The  difference  is  probably  due  to 
the  fact  that  in  singing  the  resonators  are,  instinctively,  or  as  the 


loz  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

result  of  training,  managed  in  a  more  artistically  effective  manner 
than  in  ordinary  speech. 

Speech  differs  from  song  as  walking  does  from  dancing ;  speech 
may  be  called  the  prose,  song  the  poetry  of  vocal  sound.  Mr.  Her- 
bert Spencer  has  denned  song  as  "  emotional  speech,"  but  this 
term  might  with  greater  justice  be  used  to  designate  the  hystero- 
epileptic  oratory  which  threatens  to  become  acclimatized  in  this 
sober  island,  or  even  to  the  exchange  of  amenities  between  two 
angry  cabmen.  It  would  be  more  accurate  to  call  song  "  musical 
speech,"  using  the  word  "  musical "  in  its  strict  sense  as  signifying 
sound  with  definite  variations  of  tone  and  regularity  of  time.  But, 
just  as  there  may  be  "  songs  without  words,"  so  there  may  be 
speech  without  voice,  as  in  whispering.  Sound,  as  we  have  already 
seen,  is  produced  in  the  larynx,  but  articulation,  or  the  transforma- 
tion of  meaningless  sound  into  speech,  is  performed  in  the  mouth ; 
in  speaking,  therefore,  the  two  parts  work  together,  the  larynx 
sending  out  a  stream  of  sound,  and  the  mouth,  by  means  of  the 
tongue,  cheeks,  palate,  teeth,  and  lips,  breaking  it  up  into  vari- 
ously formed  jets  of  words.  In  other  words,  the  larynx  supplies 
the  raw  material  of  sound  which  the  mouth  manufactures  into 
speech.  Time,  which  is  an  essential  element  of  song,  is  altogether 
disregarded  in  speech,  while  the  intervals  of  tone  are  so  irregular 
as  to  defy  notation,  and  are  filled  up  with  a  number  of  interme- 
diate sounds  instead  of  being  sharply  defined.  The  voice  glides 
about  at  its  own  sweet  will  in  speaking,  obeying  no  rule  whatever, 
while  in  song  it  springs  or  drops  from  one  tone  to  the  next  over 
strictly  measured  gaps.  In  singing,  short  syllables  are  lengthened 
out  and  cease  in  fact  to  be  short,  and  (except  in  certain  kinds  of 
dramatic  singing  and  in  recitative)  the  accent  naturally  falls  on 
the  vowels  and  not  on  the  consonants.  In  speaking,  only  the  lower 
third  of  the  voice  is  employed  as  a  rule,  while  in  singing  the 
greatest  effect  is  generally  produced,  except  in  the  case  of  contral- 
tos and  basses,  by  the  use  of  the  upper  and  middle  notes.  In  speech 
the  range  of  tone,  even  in  the  most  excitable  persons,  hardly  ever 
exceeds  half  an  octave;  in  singing  the  average  compass  is  two 
octaves.  Singing  tends  to  preserve  purity  of  language,  the  rules 
which  govern  the  utterance  of  every  note  also  affecting  the  artic- 
ulate element  combined  with  it,  and  keeping  the  words  cast  in 
fixed  forms — a  stereotype  of  sound,  if  I  may  venture  the  metaphor. 
Speech,  on  the  other  hand,  like  handwriting,  is  always  changing. 
As  Max  Miiller  says  :  "  A  struggle  for  life  is  constantly  going  on 
among  the  words  and  grammatical  forms  in  each  language.  The 
better,  the  shorter,  the  easier  forms  are  constantly  gaining  the 
upper  hand,  and  they  owe  their  success  to  their  own  inherent 
virtue."  *    Thus  speech  not  only  tends  to  split  language  into  dia- 

*  "  Nature,"  January  6,  1870. 


SPEECH  AND   SONG. 


103 


lects,  but  each  dialect  is  being  continually,  though  imperceptibly, 
modified  not  only  in  construction  but  in  pronunciation.  The 
pronunciation  of  an  Englishman  of  Chaucer's  day  would  be  unin- 
telligible to  us,  while  that  of  one  of  Shakespeare's  contempora- 
ries would  be  as  strange  to  our  ears  as  the  accent  of  an  Aberdeen 
fishwife  is  to  the  average  cockney.  If  the  speaking  voice  has  a 
distinctly  sing-song  character — that  is  to  say,  if  it  proceeds  by  mu- 
sical intervals — the  result  is  as  grotesque  as  it  would  be  to  talk  in 
blank  verse,  or,  as  Sir  Toby  Belch  says,  "  to  go  to  church  in  a  gal- 
liard  and  come  home  in  a  coranto."  On  the  other  hand,  the  speak- 
ing voice  becomes  most  sympathetic  in  its  quality  when  it  ap- 
proaches the  singing  voice,  the  musical  character,  however,  being 
concealed  by  the  variety  of  its  inflections.  It  is  important  that  in 
speaking  a  musical  note  should  never  be  recognized  ;  the  effect  is 
as  unpleasant  to  our  ears  as  an  accidental  hexameter  in  a  sentence 
of  prose  was  to  the  ancients. 

Wide  as  the  difference  is  between  speech  and  song,  the  great 
gulf  fixed  between  them  is  partly  filled  up  by  intermediate  modes 
of  using  the  voice  which  partake  of  the  nature  of  both.  Thus 
there  is  the  measured  utterance  of  declamation,  which  may  be  so 
rhythmical  in  time  and  varied  in  tone  as  to  be  almost  song.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  recilativo  of  the  opera  approaches  speech.  Va- 
rious intermediate  forms  between  speech  and  song  may  be  heard 
in  the  ordinary  speech  of  certain  races,  notably  in  Italians,  Welsh- 
men, and  the  inhabitants  of  certain  parts  of  Scotland  and  Eng- 
land. The  Puritans,  as  is  well  known,  uttered  their  formal  and 
affected  diction  in  a  peculiar  nasal  tone ;  and  the  term  "  cant," 
though  properly  belonging  to  their  sing-song  delivery,  came  to  be 
applied  to  the  sentiments  expressed  by  it.  Many  of  the  ancient 
orators,  to  judge  from  the  description  left  us  by  Cicero  and  Quin- 
tilian,  would  seem  to  have  sung  their  speeches,  the  style  of  dec- 
lamation being,  in  fact,  expressly  termed  cantus  obscurior.  As 
they  generally  spoke  in  the  open  air,  and  to  vast  audiences,  this 
artificial  mode  of  delivery  may  have  been  necessary  in  order  to 
make  the  voice  reach  farther  than  if  they  had  spoken  in  a  more 
natural  way.  C.  Gracchus  used  to  have  a  musician  behind  him 
while  he  spoke,  to  give  him  the  note  from  time  to  time  with  a  mu- 
sical instrument  called  a  tonarion.  A  similar  plan  might,  with 
much  advantage  to  the  "  general  ear,"  be  adopted  by  certain  mod- 
ern orators,  the  crescendo  of  whose  enthusiasm  expresses  itself  in 
increasing  intensity  of  shrillness. 

Those  who  have  not  given  much  attention  to  the  subject  are 
apt  to  think  of  speaking,  as  Dogberry  did  of  reading  and  writing, 
that  it  "  comes  by  nature  " — that  it  is,  in  fact,  an  instinctive  act, 
which  no  more  needs  cultivation  for  its  right  performance  than 
eating  or  sleeping.     This  is  a  great  mistake.     Speaking,  even  of 


104  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

that  slipshod  kind  which  is  mostly  used  in  ordinary  conversation, 
is  an  art,  and  as  such  has  to  be  learned,  often  with  much  labor. 
The  complicated  muscular  actions,  the  nice  nervous  adjustments, 
the  combination  of  these  into  one  harmonious  effort  directed  to  a 
particular  end,  and,  finally,  the  mastery  of  all  these  movements 
till  they  can  be  produced  automatically  without  a  direct  and  con- 
tinuous exercise  of  will-power,  form  a  complex  process  which 
takes  years  to  learn,  and  which  by  many  is  even  then  very  imper- 
fectly acquired.  Good  speaking  is  a  higher  development  of  the 
art,  which  bears  the  same  relation  to  speech  as  ordinarily  heard 
that  the  horsemanship  of  an  Archer  or  a  Cannon  bears  to  the  per- 
formance of  a  costermonger's  boy  on  the  paternal  donkey. 

A  man  who  speaks  well  not  only  makes  himself  intelligible  to 
his  hearers  without  difficulty  to  them,  but  with  a  minimum  of 
effort  on  his  own  part.  If  the  voice  is  properly  used,  the  throat 
hardly  ever  suffers,  but  wrong  production  is  a  fertile  source  of 
discomfort  and  even  disease  in  that  region.  It  should  be  clearly 
understood  that  public  speaking,  in  addition  to  its  intellectual 
aspects,  is  a  physical  performance  which  requires  "  wind "  and 
"  muscle  "  and  the  perfect  management  of  one's  bodily  resources, 
like  any  other  athletic  feat.  To  attempt  to  speak  in  public  with- 
out previous  training  is  like  trying  to  climb  the  Matterhorn 
without  preparation,  and  is  just  as  certain  to  end  in  failure  if  not 
disaster. 

It  is  hardly  an  exaggeration  to  say  that  the  training  of  the 
voice  should  begin  almost  in  the  cradle.  I  do  not,  of  course,  mean 
that  a  baby  should  be  taught  to  squall  according  to  rule,  or  that 
the  prattle  of  children  should  be  made  a  laborious  task.  But  I 
wish  to  insist  on  the  importance  of  surrounding  the  child,  as  soon 
as  it  begins  to  lisp,  with  persons  who  speak  well.  "All  lan- 
guages," as  old  Roger  Ascham  says,  "  both  learned  and  mother 
tongues,  are  begotten  and  gotten  solely  by  imitation.  For  as  ye 
use  to  hear  so  ye  learn  to  speak ;  if  you  hear  no  other  ye  speak 
not  yourself ;  and  whom  ye  only  hear  of  them  ye  only  learn." 
Quintilian  says :  "  Before  all  .  .  .  let  the  nurses  speak  properly. 
The  boy  will  hear  them  first,  and  will  try  to  shape  his  words  by 
imitating  them."  This  applies  chiefly  to  pronunciation  and  the 
correct  use  of  words  ;  but  much  might  also  be  done  for  the  right 
management  of  the  voice  if  every  child  could  grow  up  among 
people  who  speak  well.  I  should  be  disposed  to  make  it  an  essen- 
tial point  in  the  selection  of  a  nurse  or  governess  that  she  should 
have  a  good  voice  as  well  as  a  refined  accent. 

In  antiquity  the  training  of  an  orator  was  almost  as  elaborate 
an  affair  as  the  training  of  a  race-horse  is  with  us.  Not  only  the 
voice,  but  the  whole  man,  physical,  intellectual,  and  moral,  was 
carefully  prepared,  with  conscientious  minuteness  of  detail,  for 


SPEECH  AND   SONG.  105 

the  great  business  of  life,  the  making  of  speeches.  In  this  system 
of  education  the  development  of  the  voice  naturally  held  a  large 
place,  and  the  phonascus,  or  voice-driller,  was  an  indispensable 
accessory,  not  only  of  every  school  of  oratory,  but  of  many  formed 
orators.  Of  the  methods  of  the  phonascus  we  know  little,  but  we 
find  hints  in  some  of  the  classical  writers  that,  like  certain  of  his 
professional  brethren  in  more  recent  days,  he  was  not  disinclined 
to  magnify  his  office.  Seneca,  in  one  of  his  letters,  warns  his 
friend  against  living,  vocally  speaking,  in  subjection  to  his  pho- 
nascus, and  implies  that  he  might  as  well  keep  another  artist  to 
superintend  his  walking.  In  our  own  day  the  phonascus  still  sur- 
vives in  public  life,  though  perhaps  more  as  a  luxury  than  an 
acknowledged  necessity.  A  celebrated  novelist,  dramatic  author, 
and  orator,  who  passed  over  to  the  great  majority  many  years 
ago,  used  always  to  put  himself  under  the  guidance  of  a  vocal 
mentor  before  delivering  a  speech.  Every  tone,  every  pose,  and 
every  gesture  was  carefully  prepared  and  industriously  practiced, 
under  the  direction  of  Mr.  Frederick  Webster,  brother  of  the  cele- 
brated comedian,  Benjamin  Webster.  That  the  elaborate  train- 
ing of  the  ancients  was  eminently  successful  is  shown  by  the  pow- 
ers of  endurance  which  it  is  clear  they  must  have  possessed.  They 
habitually  spoke  for  five  or  six  hours,  and  even  longer,  and,  in 
order  to  appreciate  their  staying  power,  it  must  be  remembered 
that  they  spoke  in  the  open  air,  amid  all  the  tumult  of  the  forum, 
which  was  capable  of  holding  eighty  thousand  people,  and  with 
an  amount  and  vigor  of  action  of  which  the  gesticulations  of  an 
Italian  preacher  are  but  a  pale  reflex.  Long-windedness  was  at 
one  time  cultivated  as  a  fine  art  by  Roman  orators,  when  they  had 
to  plead  before  a  judge  whom  they  supposed  to  be  in  favor  of  the 
other  side.  These  prototypes  of  our  modern  obstructionists  were 
aptly  termed  moratores,  or  delayers,  because  they  postponed  as  far 
as  possible  the  passing  of  the  sentence.  The  abuse  finally  reached 
such  a  height  that  a  law  had  to  be  passed  limiting  the  length  of 
pleadings  in  public  cases  to  the  running  out  of  one  clepsydra.  It 
is  impossible  to  say  exactly  what  period  of  time  this  was  equivalent 
to,  as  the  water-clocks  of  the  Romans  were  of  different  sizes,  and  the 
rapidity  of  flow  must  have  varied  under  different  circumstances ; 
from  twenty  minutes  to  half  an  hour  may,  however,  be  taken  as 
roughly  representing  the  average  length  of  a  speech  under  this 
strict  system  of  "closure."  On  the  whole,  I  think  we  use  the 
voice  in  public  even  more  than  the  ancients,  and  there  is,  there- 
fore, all  the  more  reason  for  its  being  properly  trained.  Good 
speaking  is  nowadays  important,  not  only  from  the  artistic  but 
from  the  business  point  of  view ;  and,  even  for  "  practical  men,"  it 
can  not  be  a  waste  of  time  to  acquire  so  valuable  a  faculty.  These 
arguments  may  perhaps  seem  superfluous,  as  the  proposition  they 


io6  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

are  intended  to  support  is  self-evident.  I  lay  stress  on  them,  how- 
ever, because  I  am  convinced  that  the  necessity  of  training  the 
speaking  voice  is  very  imperfectly  appreciated  by  most  people. 

It  is  not  within  my  province  to  discuss  the  technical  details  of 
voice-training.  I  will  only  say  that  every  system  of  vocal  in- 
struction should  aim  at  strengthening  the  power  of  the  voice, 
increasing  its  compass,  and  purifying  its  tone,  and,  above  all,  at 
giving  the  speaker  perfect  control  over  it,  even  in  the  very  whirl- 
wind of  oratorical  passion.  It  would  be  well  if  every  school  in 
the  land  had  a  master  of  elocution  attached  to  it,  and  if  the  art  of 
delivery  were  taught  to  every  boy  as  part  of  the  regular  course  of 
education.  In  the  excellent  system  of  education  which  Rabelais 
sketched  out,  the  development  of  the  voice  is  expressly  mentioned 
as  part  of  Gargantua's  athletic  training.  In  the  middle  of  a  de- 
tailed description  of  his  swimming  and  climbing  exercises  and 
practice  in  the  use  of  weapons  of  all  kinds,  we  are  told  that  "  pour 
s'exercer  le  thorax  et  poulmons  crioit  comme  tous  les  diables.  Je 
l'ouy  une  fois  appellant  Eudemon  depuis  la  porte  Sainct  Victor 
jusques  a  Montmartre.  Stentor  n'eut  onques  telle  voix  a  la  bataille 
de  Troye."  *  There  is  a  hint  for  schoolmasters  of  the  present  day. 
The  "  young  barbarians  "  under  their  charge  might  by  degrees  be 
made  to  look  on  strength  and  beauty  of  voice,  and  skill  in  using 
it,  as  an  athletic  distinction;  this  would  at  once  ennoble  the  sub- 
ject in  their  eyes,  and  make  elocution  a  matter  of  keen  competition. 

As  part  of  the  general  vocal  training  which  I  think  desirable, 
I  should  be  disposed  to  urge  that  all  children  and  young  people 
should  learn  to  sing  as  far  as  their  natural  capacity  will  allow. 
Even  those  with  little  or  no  musical  endowment  will  thus  learn 
to  use  their  voices  better  in  speaking.  I  may  say  here,  though  it 
is  rather  anticipating,  that,  if  I  think  it  desirable  for  speakers  to 
learn  to  sing,  I  think  it  still  more  necessary  that  singers  should 
learn  to  speak.  Too  many  of  those  who  soar  aloft  on  the  wings  of 
song  despise  the  musa  pedestris  of  speech,  and  take  no  trouble  to 
acquire  what  they  look  upon  as  an  inferior  and  possibly  super- 
fluous accomplishment — with  what  result  is  known  to  cultivated 
listeners  whose  ears  have  been  tortured  by  the  uncouth  distortions 
and  mutilations  to  which  singers  often  subject  the  words  they 
have  to  utter. 

Of  the  management  of  the  voice  I  can  not  say  much  here. 
The  chief  thing  is  that  the  speaker  should  make  himself  dis- 
tinctly heard  by  the  whole  of  the  audience,  and  to  this  end  art 
serves  better  than  loudness.  A  weak  voice,  properly  managed, 
will  carry  farther  than  9  powerful  organ  worked  by  sheer  brute 

*  For  exercise,  his  throat  and  lungs  cried  out  like  all  the  devils.  I  once  heard  him 
calling  Eudemon  from  the  Porte  Saint  Victor  to  Montmartre.  Stentor  in  the  Trojan  War 
had  no  such  voice. 


SPEECH  AND   SON-G.  107 

force.  Mr.  B right's  use  of  his  voice  always  gave  one  the  impres- 
sion of  a  large  reserve  of  power.  There  seemed  to  be  no  effort  in 
his  delivery,  even  when  speaking  to  a  mighty  concourse  of  people, 
and  yet  his  voice  was 

"To  the  last  verge  of  the  vast  audience  sent, 
And  played  with  each  wild  passion  as  it  went." 

One  element  of  success  in  this  matter  is  no  doubt  the  art  of  com- 
pelling an  audience  to  listen.  As  Montaigne,  in  his  quaint  old 
French,  says :  "  La  parole  est  moitie"  a  celuy  qui  parle,  nioitie*  a 
celuy  qui  l'escoute ;  celuy  cy  se  doibt  preparer  a  la  recevoir,  selon 
le  bransle  qu'elle  prend:  comme  entre  ceulx  qui  jouent  a  la  paulme, 
celuy  qui  soubstient  se  desmarche  et  s'appreste,  selon  qu'il  veoid 
remuer  celuy  qui  luy  jecte  le  coup  et  selon  la  forme  du  coup."  * 
Every  speaker  should  know  the  exact  limits  of  his  own  vocal  pow- 
ers, and  he  must  be  careful  never  to  go  beyond  them,  for  the  sake 
of  his  hearers  no  less  than  his  own.  He  must  learn  to  judge  in- 
stinctively of  distance,  so  as  to  throw  his  voice  to  the  farthest  part 
of  his  audience.  A  speaker,  and,  I  may  say,  a  singer  also,  should 
not  hear  his  own  voice  too  loudly.  Artistes  and  orators  are  often 
very  much  disappointed,  and  think  their  voice  is  not  traveling 
well  when  they  themselves  do  not  hear  it  very  distinctly.  The 
fact  is  that  when  the  speaker  does  not  hear  his  voice  this  proves 
that  it  reaches  to  a  distant  part  of  the  room,  and  that  there  is  very 
little  rebound.  Here  I  may  remark  that  we  never  hear  our  voices 
as  other  people  hear  them.  Our  own  voices  are  conveyed  to  the 
auditory  nerve,  not  only  through  the  outside  air,  but  more  directly 
from  the  inside,  through  the  Eustachian  tube,  as  well  as  through 
the  muscles  and  bones  of  the  mouth  and  head ;  the  singer  not  only 
hears  his  own  voice  from  a  different  quarter,  as  we  may  say,  but 
he  hears  besides  the  contraction  of  his  own  muscles.  The  fact  is 
well  illustrated  by  the  phonograph :  a  listener  can  recognize  other 
people's  voices,  but  if  he  speaks  into  the  phonograph,  and  after- 
ward reproduces  his  own  voice,  it  does  not  sound  at  all  like  itself 
to  him,  because  he  does  not  hear  it  in  the  manner  he  is  accustomed 
to,  and  because  he  hears  it  stripped  of  the  various  accompanying 
sounds  which  are  usually  associated  with  it  to  his  ear. 

The  acoustic  peculiarities  of  the  place  in  which  he  has  to  speak 
must,  if  possible,  be  carefully  studied  beforehand  by  the  orator. 
Public  buildings,  however,  vary  so  greatly  in  their  size  and  con- 
struction that  it  is  impossible  to  lay  down  any  general  rules  for 
the  guidance  of  speakers  in  this  matter.  Each  hall,  church,  court, 
and  theatre  has  its  own  acoustic  character,  which  can  be  learned 

*  Speech  belongs  half  to  the  speaker  and  half  to  the  hearer ;  the  latter  should  prepare 
himself  to  receive  it,  according  to  the  impetus  it  obtains.  As  with  tennis-players,  the  one 
to  whom  the  ball  is  served  poses  and  makes  ready  according  to  the  motions  of  the  server 
and  the  form  of  the  service. 


10S  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

only  by  experience ;  the  voice  must  be,  as  it  were,  tuned  to  it.  It 
is  well  if  this  experience  can  be  gained  by  the  orator  before  he 
faces  his  audience ;  but  he  must  remember  that  trying  his  voice  in 
an  empty  room  is  an  altogether  different  thing  from  actually  using 
it  in  the  same  place  packed  with  a  solid  mass  of  wheezing,  cough- 
ing, and  perspiring  humanity.  Handel  is  said  to  have  comforted 
himself,  when  one  of  his  oratorios  had  been  performed  to  empty 
benches,  by  the  reflection  that  "  it  made  ze  moosic  shound  all  ze 
better,"  but  this  consolation  is  denied  to  the  orator.  There  are 
some  buildings  which  are  so  utterly  bad  from  the  acoustic  point 
of  view  that  even  experienced  speakers  are  little  better  off  than 
novices.  The  House  of  Lords  has,  or  used  to  have,  an  unenviable 
reputation  in  this  respect.  A  story  is  told  of  the  late  Lord  Lyttel- 
ton  that,  after  exhausting  his  voice  in  vain  efforts  to  make  his 
brother  peers  hear  a  motion  which  he  wished  to  propose,  he  in 
despair  wrote  it  down  and  asked  the  clerk  at  the  table  to  read  it 
out.  That  functionary,  however,  was  quite  unable  to  decipher  the 
writing,  and  Lord  Lyttelton  complained  that  he  was  cut  off  from 
communication  with  his  fellows.  Science  has  not  always  been 
successful  in  coping  with  the  acoustic  difficulty.  In  1848  it  was 
so  difficult  for  speakers  to  make  themselves  heard  in  the  French 
Chamber,  that  a  committee,  consisting  of  the  leading  scientific 
luminaries  of  the  day — such  as  Arago,  Babinet,  Dumas  (the  chem- 
ist, not  the  author  of  "  The  Three  Musketeers  "),  Becquerel,  Chev- 
reul  (the  centenarian  who  died  the  other  day),  Pouillet,  Regnault, 
and  Duhamel — was  appointed  to  study  the  case  and  suggest  a 
remedy.  After  numerous  experiments  they  hit  on  a  contrivance, 
designed  on  the  most  scientific  principles,  which  was  to  make  the 
orator's  voice  ring  like  a  clarion  to  the  farthest  benches.  The  last 
state  of  the  speaker,  however,  was  worse  than  the  first ;  he  felt  as 
if  his  voice  was  stifled  under  a  huge  night-cap,  and  the  highly 
scientific  sound-reflector  had  to  be  discarded  as  a  failure.  Indeed, 
modern  public  buildings  are  so  often  defective  in  this  respect  that 
I  am  not  surprised  to  find  M.  Ch.  Gamier,  who  designed  the  Grand 
Opera  in  Paris,  exclaiming  dolefully,  "  The  science  of  theatrical 
acoustics  is  still  in  its  infancy,  and  the  result  in  any  given  case  is 
uncertain."  So  impressed  is  he  with  the  shortcomings  of  modern 
architecture  as  regards  the  conveyance  of  sound,  that  he  frankly 
confesses  that,  in  the  construction  of  the  Opera-House,  he  "  had 
no  guide,  adopted  no  principle,  based  his  design  on  no  theory " ; 
he  simply  left  the  acoustic  properties  of  the  building  to  chance. 
The  result  has  not  been  altogether  satisfactory,  though  it  has  been 
no  worse  than  in  many  other  buildings  where  the  architect  did 
his  best  to  make  the  acoustic  conditions  perfect.  One  of  the  most 
remarkable  buildings  from  the  acoustic  point  of  view  that  I  have 
ever  seen  is  the  beehive-shaped  Temple  in  Salt  Lake  City.     It 


SPEECH  AND   SONG.  109 

holds  from  twelve  to  fourteen  thousand  people,  and  one  can  liter- 
ally hear  a  pin  fall.  When  I  was  in  the  Temple,  with  some  other 
travelers,  in  1882,  the  functionary  corresponding  to  the  verger  of 
ordinary  churches  stood  at  the  farthest  end  and  dropped  a  pin  into 
his  hat.  The  sound  of  its  fall  was  most  distinctly  audible  to  all 
present.  The  scratching  of  the  pin  against  the  side  of  the  hat  was 
also  plainly  heard  across  the  whole  breadth  of  the  building.  The 
Temple  was  designed  by  Brigham  Young,  who  professed  to  have 
been  directly  inspired  by  the  Almighty  in  the  matter,  as  he  knew 
nothing  of  acoustics.  The  resonance  of  the  building  is  so  loud 
that  branches  of  trees  have  to  be  suspended  from  the  ceiling  in 
several  places  in  order  to  diminish  it.  It  is  likely  enough  that 
Brigham  Young's  inspiration  had  a  not  very  recondite  and  purely 
terrestrial  source,  for  his  Beehive  is  only  a  slight  modification  of 
the  whispering-gallery  in  St.  Paul's.  The  bad  acoustic  properties 
of  buildings  may  be  remedied  by  what  doctors  call  "  palliative 
treatment."  Charles  Dickens's  experience  as  a  public  reader  made 
him  a  man  of  ready  resource  in  meeting  such  difficulties.  On  one 
occasion,  when  he  was  going  to  lecture  at  Leeds,  Mr.  Edmund 
Yates,  who  had  spoken  in  the  same  hall  the  evening  before,  sent 
him  word  that  the  acoustic  conditions  of  the  place  were  very  bad. 
Dickens  at  once  telegraphed  instructions  that  curtains  should  be 
hung  round  the  walls  at  the  back  of  the  gallery ;  by  this  means 
he  was  able  to  make  himself  more  easily  heard. 

The  speaker  should  take  the  greatest  care  of  his  voice,  which 
is  the  instrument  both  of  his  usefulness  and  of  his  fame,  but  of 
course  it  is  not  always  easy  for  him  to  do  so.  Still,  he  should,  if 
possible,  make  it  a  rule  not  to  speak  when  his  voice  is  hoarse  or 
fatigued,  and,  when  he  has  a  great  oratorical  effort  to  make,  he 
should  reserve  himself  for  it.  Tobacco,  alcohol,  and  fiery  condi- 
ments of  all  kinds  are  best  avoided  by  those  who  have  to  speak 
much,  or  at  least  they  should  be  used  in  strict  moderation.  I  feel 
bound  to  warn  speakers  addicted  to  the  "  herb  nicotian  "  against 
cigarettes.  Like  tippling,  the  effect  of  cigarette-smoking  is  cumu- 
lative, and  the  slight  but  constant  absorption  of  tobacco  juice  and 
smoke  makes  the  practice  far  more  noxious  in  the  long  run  than 
any  other  form  of  smoking.  Our  forefathers,  who  used  regularly 
to  end  their  evenings  under  the  table,  seemed  to  have  suffered 
little  of  the  well-known  effects  of  alcohol  on  the  nerves,  while  the 
modern  tippler,  who  is  never  intoxicated,  is  a  being  whose  whole 
nervous  system  may  be  said  to  be  in  a  state  of  chronic  inflamma- 
tion. In  like  manner  cigarette-smokers  (those  at  least  who  inhale 
the  smoke,  and  do  not  merely  puff  it  "  from  the  lips  outward,"  as 
Carlyle  would  say)  are  often  in  a  state  of  chronic  narcotic  poison- 
ing. The  old  jest  about  the  slowness  of  the  poison  may  seem  ap- 
plicable here,  but,  though  the  process  may  be  slow,  there  can  be 


no  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

little  doubt  that  it  is  sure.  Even  if  it  does  not  kill  the  body,  it 
too  often  kills  or  greatly  impairs  the  victim's  working  efficiency 
and  usefulness  in  life.  The  local  effects  of  cigarettes  in  the  mouth 
must  also  be  taken  into  account  by  those  whose  work  lies  in  the 
direction  of  public  speech.  The  white  spots  on  the  tongue  and 
inside  of  the  cheeks,  known  as  "  smoker's  patches,"  are  believed 
by  some  doctors  with  special  experience  to  be  more  common  in 
devotees  of  the  cigarette  than  in  other  smokers ;  this  unhealthy 
condition  of  the  mouth  may  not  only  make  speaking  troublesome, 
or  even  painful,  but  it  is  now  proved  to  be  a  predisposing  cause 
of  cancer.  All  fiery  or  pungent  foods,  condiments,  or  drinks  tend 
to  cause  congestion  of  the  throat,  and  if  this  condition  becomes 
chronic  it  may  lead  to  impairment,  if  not  complete  loss,  of  voice. 
The  supposed  miraculous  virtues  of  the  mysterious  possets  and 
draughts  on  which  some  orators  pin  their  faith  exist  mainly  in 
the  imagination  of  those  who  use  them ;  at  best  they  do  nothing 
more  than  lubricate  the  joints  of  the  vocal  machine  so  as  to  make 
it  work  more  smoothly.  This  is  just  as  well  done  by  means  of  a 
glass  of  plain  water.  In  France  water  sweetened  with  sugar  is 
the  grand  vocal  elixir  of  political  orators.  As  Madame  de  Girar- 
din  said,  somewhat  unkindly :  "  Many  things  can  be  dispensed 
with  in  the  Tribune.  Talent,  wit,  conviction,  ideas,  even  memory, 
can  be  dispensed  with,  but  not  eau  sucree."  Stimulants  may  give 
a  sort  of  "  Dutch  courage  "  to  the  orator,  and  may  carry  him  suc- 
cessfully through  a  vocal  effort  in  which  indisposition  or  nervous- 
ness might  otherwise  have  caused  him  to  fail,  but  the  immediate 
good  which  they  do  is  dearly  purchased  by  the  thickening  and 
roughening  of  the  mucous  surface  of  the  throat  to  which  they 
ultimately  give  rise. 

Before  leaving  the  subject  of  the  speaking  voice,  a  word  or  two 
may  be  said  on  what  is  more  a  matter  of  curious  speculation  than 
of  practical  interest.  Is  the  human  voice  growing  in  power  and 
beauty,  or  is  it  tending  to  decay  ?  Certain  physiologists  assure  us 
that  the  retina  has  acquired  the  power  of  distinguishing  colors  by 
degrees,  and  that  the  process  will  probably  continue,  so  that  our 
descendants  will  by  and  by  evolve  the  power  of  seeing  colors  now 
quite  unknown  to  us.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  undeniable  that 
civilization,  so  far  from  increasing  the  keenness  of  our  sight, 
threatens  to  make  spectacles  universally  necessary.  There  can  be 
no  doubt  that  the  voice  has  developed  greatly  since  our  "  half -hu- 
man ancestors  "  wooed  each  other  in  the  primeval  forests,  and  it 
is  conceivable  that  it  may  in  time  to  come  acquire  the  power  of 
producing  musical  effects  at  present  undreamed  of.  It  is  also 
probable  enough  that  as  the  voice  gains  in  sweetness  it  may  lose 
in  power,  the  latter  quality  being  more  required  in  barbarous  than 
in  highly  civilized  conditions.     On  the  other  hand,  we  are  taller 


SPEECH  AND   SONG.  m 

and  of  larger  chest-girth  than  onr  predecessors  even  of  a  not  very- 
remote  date ;  it  is  reasonable,  therefore,  to  suppose  that  the  aver- 
age lungs  and  larynx  are  bigger  nowadays,  and  the  air-blast  from 
the  lungs  stronger.  This  would  appear  to  justify  us  in  believing 
that  the  voice  is  stronger  than  it  was  even  two  or  three  centuries 
ago.     There  are,  however,  no  facts  that  I  know  of  to  prove  it. 

Of  the  ethnology  of  the  voice  little  or  nothing  is  certainly 
known.  Almost  the  only  facts  I  know  of  coming  under  this  head 
are — (1)  the  superior  sonorousness  of  the  Italian  voice,  and  (2)  the 
want  of  resonance  in  the  voices  of  some  Australian  aborigines, 
which  is  supposed  to  be  due  to  the  extreme  smallness  of  the  hollow 
spaces  in  the  skull  which  serve  as  resonance  chambers.  Yet  there 
is  an  infinite  diversity  in  the  voices  of  different  nations,  arising 
from  difference  of  physical  conformation,  habit  of  speech,  climate, 
etc.  It  is  to  our  climate  that  Milton  attributed  the  fact,  which 
strikes  all  foreigners,  that  English  people  speak  with  the  mouth 
half  shut.  "  For  we  Englishmen,"  he  says,  "  being  far  northerly, 
do  not  open  our  mouths  in  the  cold  air  wide  enough  to  grace  a 
southern  tongue,  but  are  observed  by  all  other  nations  to  speak 
exceeding  close  and  inward ;  so  that  to  smatter  Latin  with  an 
English  mouth  is  as  ill  a  hearing  as  law  French."  Then  look  at  our 
American  cousins,  in  whom  it  is  not  the  mouth  but  the  nose  that 
is  the  "  peccant  part " — is  it  climate  or  variation  of  structure  that 
has  wrought  the  change  in  their  original  English  speech  ;  or  is  it 
simply  a  twang  inherited  from  their  Puritan  ancestors,  who  took 
their  "  cant "  with  them  to  the  New  World  ?  Americans,  including 
even  so  refined  a  scholar  as  Mr.  Lowell,  boast  that  they  alone  keep 
the  true  tradition  of  English  speech ;  but  I  can  not  believe  that 
our  forefathers,  "  in  the  spacious  times  of  great  Elizabeth,"  spoke 
in  the  accents  of  Hosea  Biglow.  The  difficulty,  or  rather  impossi- 
bility, of  studying  the  variations  of  the  voice  under  culture  has 
been  due  to  the  want  of  any  means  of  permanently  recording  its 
tones.  Now,  however,  that  the  phonograph  has  emerged  from 
the  condition  of  a  scientific  toy,  comparative  phonology  may,  per- 
haps, take  its  place  among  the  sciences.  Besides  this  and  other 
results,  Mr.  Edison's  wonderful  instrument  will  preserve  the  fame 
of  orators,  actors,  and  singers — hitherto  the  most  evanescent  kind 
of  glory,  as  it  had  to  be  taken  altogether  on  trust — in  a  form  as 
concrete  as  a  picture  or  a  poem.  The  little  revolving  cylinders 
will  reproduce  "  the  sound  of  a  voice  that  is  still,"  and  will  enable 
us  to  have  "  the  little  voice  set  lisping  once  again  "  years  after  our 
darling  has  been  laid  in  an  untimely  grave.  There  seems  to  be 
something  almost  uncanny  in  the  power  of  thus  permanently  en- 
shrining the  most  fleeting  part  of  man,  and  reawakening  at  will 
the  living  accents  of  one  who,  being  dead,  yet  speaketh  to  the 
bodily  ear. — Contemporary  Review. 


112  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


SKETCH  OF  PROF.  JOHN  LE  CONTE. 

By  Peof.  W.  LE  CONTE  STEVENS. 

THE  subject  of  the  present  sketch  is  the  Professor  of  Physics 
in  the  University  of  California,  where  he  has  for  many  years 
been  associated  with  his  brother,  the  distinguished  geologist  and 
writer  on  evolution.  He  was  the  second  son  of  Louis  Le  Conte, 
and  was  born  on  the  4th  of  December,  1818,  at  the  family  home- 
stead in  Liberty  County,  Georgia.  The  father  was  a  man  of 
much  independence  of  character,  firm  and  decided,  yet  kind  and 
gentle,  exceedingly  fond  of  investigation,  original  in  thought,  but 
singularly  indifferent  to  popular  recognition.  He  published  noth- 
ing himself,  and  would  never  have  become  known  away  from  his 
own  home,  had  not  others  been  appreciative  enough  of  his  real 
merit  to  give  some  of  his  results  to  the  world  by  presenting  them 
before  the  New  York  Lyceum  of  Natural  History. 

By  personal  influence  and  example,  Louis  Le  Conte  inculcated 
in  his  sons  the  love  of  science,  and  of  truth  for  its  own  sake.  The 
virtue  of  verification  was  one  which  he  sought  to  cultivate  in 
them  as  of  cardinal  importance.  An  illustration  of  the  success 
of  his  teaching  in  this  direction,  and  of  the  early  growth  of  the 
philosophical  habit  of  mind  in  his  son  John,  was  afforded  on  one 
occasion  when  the  father  and  a  number  of  neighbors,  while  pa- 
trolling at  night  to  check  some  illicit  transactions  between  the 
negro  slaves  and  the  shopkeepers  of  the  nearest  village,  were  fired 
upon  with  blank  cartridges,  and  thrown  from  their  startled  horses. 
Relating  the  story  of  his  mishap  after  he  had  reached  home,  the 
father  said,  "  I  lost  my  left  stirrup ;  at  the  turn  in  the  road  I  lost 
the  other  stirrup,  and  at  the  next  turn  I  was  thrown."  John,  who 
listened  to  the  narrative  with  great  interest,  was  perplexed  to 
know  how  the  stirrups  could  have  been  lost.  His  night's  rest  did 
not  remove  the  trouble,  and,  leaving  his  bed  before  sunrise,  he 
went  and  examined  the  saddle.  He  reported  upon  the  result  of 
his  investigation  at  the  breakfast-table.  "  Pa,  did  you  not  say 
last  night  that,  when  the  horse  ran  away  with  you,  you  lost  your 
stirrups  ?  "  "  Yes,  my  son,  I  did  say  so/'  "  Well,  I  have  found 
that  the  stirrups  are  safe  and  sound."  The  laugh  was  turned 
against  the  son,  and  the  father  often  told  the  story  afterward  as  a 
joke  upon  him.  It  was,  however,  no  joke ;  it  was  a  prediction  of 
the  career  of  the  future  investigator  in  physics. 

The  childhood  and  most  of  the  boyhood  of  John  Le  Conte  were 
spent  at  the  plantation  home  in  Georgia,  where  hunting,  fishing, 
boating,  and  all  kinds  of  athletic  sports  contributed  largely  to  the 
training  of  his  observing  faculties.     His  uncle,  Major  Le  Conte, 


SKETCH   OF  PROF.  JOHN  LE   CONTE.  n3 

an  accomplished  zoologist,  often  gave  np  his  New  York  home  in 
winter  for  the  purpose  of  spending  the  colder  months  on  the 
Southern  plantation.  The  scientific  proclivities  of  both  father 
and  uncle  insensibly  made  all  the  children  students  of  natural 
history  and  collectors  of  specimens.  Thus  they  gradually  imbibed 
knowledge  on  such  subjects,  and  acquired  powers  of  discrimina- 
tion that  are  ordinarily  attained  only  by  years  of  study  in  maturer 
life.  Their  mother  died  in  1826,  leaving  the  father  in  charge  of 
six  children.  Deprived  of  maternal  care  at  so  early  a  period  of 
life,  all  of  them,  and  especially  the  boys,  were  thrown  largely 
upon  their  own  resources  at  a  tender  age. 

In  those  days  and  in  that  country  neighborhood,  forty  miles 
from  the  nearest  city,  Savannah,  it  was  necessary  to  do  without 
the  school  accommodations  that  are  now  abundant  in  every  vil- 
lage of  our  land.  An  isolated  wooden-framed  house,  with  no 
plastering,  a  single  door  for  its  single  room,  abundant  ventilation 
through  the  crevices  of  the  floor  and  walls,  fully  supplemented 
by  the  draught  through  an  ample  clay  chimney — such  was  the 
school-house  in  which  the  children  were  gathered  daily  from 
plantations  varying  in  distance  from  one  to  half  a  dozen  miles  or 
more.  The  teacher  was  rarely  ever  of  the  best.  One  there  was 
who  took  charge  of  this  road-side  seminary  for  two  years,  became 
the  intimate  friend  of  Mr.  Le  Conte,  and  exerted  over  his  boys  an 
influence  that  became  life-long.  Alexander  H.  Stephens,  the  fu- 
ture statesman  and  historian,  was  then  a  young  graduate  who 
sought  in  teaching  the  pecuniary  support  that  was  necessary 
while  he  was  preparing  for  admission  to  the  bar.  His  fine  classi- 
cal taste  and  clear,  logical  mind  produced  a  lasting  impression 
upon  John  Le  Conte,  who  received  thus  his  training  for  college, 
and  entered  Franklin  College,  now  the  University  at  Athens,  Ga., 
with  distinguished  success  in  January,  1835. 

As  a  student,  young  Le  Conte  soon  became  noted  for  his  clear- 
ness of  conception  and  his  scrupulous  accuracy  in  work.  The 
curriculum  of  study  was  the  same  for  all,  irrespective  of  native 
bias  or  prospective  aim  in  life.  He  was  fully  appreciative  of  all 
the  classical  culture  that  was  there  afforded,  but  his  tastes  natu- 
rally led  him  into  spending  on  mathematics  and  its-  applications 
a  larger  share  of  attention  than  Latin  and  Greek  could  attract. 
"  Give  him  the  cosine  of  A  and  he  will  prove  anything,"  was  the 
criticism  expressed  by  an  admiring  fellow-student,  and  concurred 
in  by  the  rest.  The  formal  teaching  of  physics  and  chemistry 
involved  mere  text-book  recitation,  and  attendance  upon  illus- 
trated lectures  of  the  most  elementary  character,  which  were 
delivered  with  oracular  authority.  It  was  more  than  whispered 
among  the  students  that  on  these  topics  John  Le  Conte  knew  as 
much  as  or  more  than  the  professor  himself. 

VOL.   XSXYI. 8 


n4  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

During  his  senior  year  at  college  Mr.  Le  Conte  was  bereft  of 
his  devoted  father,  who  died  after  a  very  brief  illness.  This  ca- 
lamity hastened  his  selection  of  a  profession.  In  August,  1838, 
he  was  graduated  with  high  honor.  Immediately  afterward  he 
began  the  study  of  medicine,  and  in  the  spring  of  1839  he  entered 
the  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons  in  New  York,  where,  in 
March,  1811,  he  received  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Medicine.  A  few 
months  before  his  graduation  in  medicine  another  domestic  calam- 
ity befell  him  in  the  death  of  his  eldest  brother,  William,  to  whom 
had  been  committed  the  charge  of  the  family  estates  in  Georgia. 
This  event  hastened  Dr.  Le  Conte's  return  home  in  the  spring  of 
1841,  to  take  charge  of  the  estate  as  the  eldest  surviving  son,  and 
frustrated  the  execution  of  a  cherished  plan  for  supplementing 
his  medical  education  by  a  year's  residence  in  Paris. 

During  the  summer  of  1811  Dr.  Le  Conte  returned  to  New  York, 
and  was  married  in  July  to  Miss  Josephine  Graham,  of  that  city, 
an  accomplished  young  lady  of  Scottish  and  English  extraction. 
The  deep  love  and  earnest  devotion,  and  the  consequent  domestic 
happiness  which  crowned  this  union,  contributed  more  than  all 
else  afterward  to  fortify  and  sustain  him  in  the  battle  of  life.  Mrs. 
Le  Conte  was  a  woman  of  wonderful  personal  magnetism,  queenly 
in  bearing,  and  of  extraordinary  beauty.  Her  brilliancy  and  wit, 
her  quick  insight  and  ready  tact,  added  to  her  majestic  presence, 
made  her  the  center  of  attraction  in  every  social  gathering.  In 
after-years,  especially  at  the  annual  meetings  of  the  American  As- 
sociation for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  such  men  as  Bache, 
Peirce,  Henry,  and  Agassiz  vied  with  each  other  in  doing  her 
homage.  Her  fame  in  social  circles  equaled  that  of  her  husband 
among  men  of  science ;  and  no  important  step  in  his  life  has  been 
taken  without  acknowledgment  of  the  help  derived  from  the  so- 
cial influence  of  a  wife  of  whom  he  was  justly  proud. 

In  the  autumn  of  1842  Dr.  Le  Conte  established  himself  as  a 
practitioner  of  medicine  in  Savannah,  Georgia.  His  four  years  of 
residence  in  that  city  formed  no  exception  to  the  usual  experience 
of  a  young  doctor  :  a  very  small  practice  and  an  increasing  fam- 
ily. It  afforded,  however,  an  excellent  opportunity  for  study  and 
research,  and  it  was  during  this  period  that  he  made  his  most  im- 
portant contributions  to  medical  literature.  These  at  once  estab- 
lished his  reputation  in  the  profession  as  an  acute  observer,  cau- 
tious, exact,  and  industrious.  The  first  of  them,  entitled  "  A  Case 
of  Carcinoma  of  the  Stomach,"  published  in  the  "  New  York  Med- 
ical Gazette  "  in  1842,  was  the  initial  outcome  of  a  series  of  obser- 
vations on  cancer  that  has  been  continued  from  time  to  time,  even 
after  Dr.  Le  Conte's  abandonment  of  the  practice  of  medicine.  At 
this  period  he  probably  paid  more  attention  to  physiology  than  to 
any  other  of  the  departments  included  in  medical  science,  and  his 


SKETCH   OF  PROF.  JOHN  LE   CONTE. 


"5 


fondness  for  research,  interfered  to  some  extent  with  the  efforts 
that  might  have  been  made  to  secure  paying  patients. 

In  August,  1840,  Dr.  Le  Conte  accepted  the  chair  of  Natural  Phi- 
losophy and  Chemistry  in  Franklin  College,  his  alma  mater,  from 
which  he  had  gone  forth  eight  years  before  as  the  best  scientific 
student  in  his  class.  This  decided  his  withdrawal  from  the  field 
of  practical  work  in  medicine.  Henceforth  he  devoted  himself  to 
the  study  of  physical  science,  but  without  failing  to  keep  pace 
still  with  the  progress  of  physiology.  He  retained  his  professor- 
ship at  Athens  for  nine  years,  resigning  it  in  the  autumn  of  1855 
to  become  lecturer  on  chemistry  in  the  College  of  Physicians  and 
Surgeons,  his  medical  alma  mater.  In  the  spring  of  1856,  at  the 
conclusion  of  his  course  of  lectures  in  New  York,  he  accepted  a 
call  to  the  South  Carolina  College  at  Columbia,  where  he  had  been 
unanimously  elected  to  fill  the  chair,  then  first  created,  of  Natural 
and  Mechanical  Philosophy.  This  position  he  held  until  the  col- 
lege was  disbanded  soon  after  the  opening  of  the  civil  war.  He 
was  then  put  in  charge  of  the  Niter  and  Mining  Bureau  of  South 
Carolina.  In  1866  the  University  of  South  Carolina  was  organ- 
ized, and  Dr.  Le  Conte  was  elected  to  the  same  chair  that  he  had 
held  in  the  college  of  which  this  was  the  new  development.  This 
position  he  retained  until  1869,  when  he  gave  up  his  residence  in 
Columbia  to  become  an  adopted  citizen  of  California.  Here  his 
home  has  continued  up  to  the  present  time. 

The  period  of  thirteen  years  embracing  Dr.  Le  Conte's  connec- 
tion with  the  South  Carolina  College  and  University,  although 
clouded  by  the  saddening  events  incident  to  the  civil  war,  con- 
stituted the  pleasantest  and  most  satisfactory  period  of  his  life. 
The  institution  was  governed  by  a  board  of  trustees  composed  of 
gentlemen  of  refinement  and  culture,  who  entertained  a  genuine 
sympathy  for  the  labors  of  the  student  who  strives  to  plant  him- 
self at  the  most  advanced  outposts  of  science  and  literature.  The 
community  amid  which  the  college  had  been  developed  was 
strongly  influenced  by  the  atmosphere  of  scholarship  which  it 
produced.  There  was  a  quiet  spirit  of  encouragement  to  learn- 
ing, which,  by  its  freedom  from  pretension,  furnished  the  most 
grateful  incentive  to  study.  It  was  during  these  years  that  Dr. 
Le  Conte  established  a  European  reputation  through  his  writings, 
which  were  published  chiefly  in  the  "  American  Journal  of  Sci- 
ence "  and  the  "  London  Philosophical  Magazine/'  It  was  in  1857 
that  he  made  the  remarkable  discovery  of  the  sensitiveness  of 
flame  to  musical  vibrations — a  discovery  which  served  as  the 
starting-point  for  Barrett,  Tyndall,  and  Koenig  in  the  exquisite 
applications  that  have  since  been  worked  out  by  the  use  of  flame 
for  the  detection  of  sounds  too  delicate  for  the  ear  to  perceive, 
and  for  the  optical  analysis  of  compound  tones.     Unfortunately, 


n6  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

Dr.  Le  Conte  did  not  possess  the  wealth,  of  instrumental  appli- 
ances needed  for  the  development  of  his  unique  discovery,  but  his 
priority  was  gracefully  proclaimed  by  Tyndall  in  the  now  classic 
book  on  sound,  made  up  of  lectures  delivered  at  the  Royal  Insti- 
tution. Among  other  papers  that  attracted  marked  attention  in 
Europe  was  one  "  On  the  Adequacy  of  Laplace's  Explanation  to 
account  for  the  Discrepancy  between  the  Computed  and  the  Ob- 
served Velocity  of  Sound  in  Air  and  Gases,"  written  in  18G1  and 
published  in  1864.  Laplace's  modification  of  Newton's  formula 
had  been  questioned  by  eminent  English  mathematicians  and 
physicists.  Dr.  Le  Conte  showed  that  the  obscurity  into  which 
the  subject  had  been  thrown  was  due  to  misconception  of  the 
physical  theory  of  Laplace,  and  to  the  difficulties  and  obscurities 
which  invest  the  mathematical  theory  of  partial  differential  equa- 
tions in  their  application  to  physical  questions.  This  paper  evoked 
replies  from  Profs.  Challis,  Earnshaw,  and  Potter,  in  England ; 
but  the  American  physicist's  position  is  generally  accepted  to- 
day. The  paper  is  a  model  of  exact  physical  reasoning.  In  addi- 
tion to  the  discussion  of  Laplace's  views,  it  contains  an  original 
investigation  of  the  bearing  of  the  phenomena  attending  the 
propagation  of  sound  in  air  on  the  question  whether  the  gases 
constituting  our  atmosphere  are  in  a  state  of  mixture  or  of  com- 
bination. 

Just  before  the  close  of  the  war  the  home  of  Dr.  Le  Conte  was 
included  in  the  belt  of  desolation  that  was  left  by  General  Sher- 
man's march  through  South  Carolina.  Among  the  losses  by  fire 
was  the  manuscript  of  a  volume  on  general  physics,  the  product 
of  Dr.  Le  Conte's  many  years  of  experience  as  a  teacher  and  stu- 
dent of  this  subject.  The  tribulations  of  the  reconstruction  period 
in  South  Carolina  during  the  years  following  the  war  made  sci- 
entific investigation  impossible.  The  political  turmoil,  and  the 
inauguration  of  the  rule  of  ignorance  and  vice  in  place  of  intel- 
ligence, left  no  refuge  but  expatriation  for  those  whose  occupa- 
tions depended  upon  the  embellishments  of  civilization.  To  this 
source  of  disquietude  was  added  the  burden  of  domestic  affliction 
in  the  loss  of  an  only  daughter  in  the  bloom  of  early  womanhood. 

At  this  critical  time  came  a  call  to  the  Pacific  coast,  to  assume 
the  chair  of  Physics  and  Industrial  Mechanics  in  the  University 
of  California,  which  was  then  in  the  incipiency  of  its  organiza- 
tion. The  offer  was  accepted,  and  Dr.  Le  Conte  arrived  in  San 
Francisco  in  April,  1869.  Being  immediately  appointed  acting 
president,  he  drew  up  the  first  prospectus  of  the  university,  in 
which  was  set  forth  a  synopsis  of  the  proposed  courses  of  instruc- 
tion. In  September  of  the  same  year  exercises  were  begun  in 
temporary  buildings  at  Oakland,  where  during  the  following  sum- 
mer he  conferred  the  baccalaureate  degree  on  three  young  men, 


SKETCH   OF  PROF.  JOHN  LE   CONTE.  117 

and  then  retired  from  executive  duties  in  order  to  build  up  more 
thoroughly  his  own  department  of  work.  On  the  resignation  of 
President  Gilman  in  1875,  Dr.  Le  Conte  was  induced  again  to 
assume  the  presidency,  which  he  retained  until  June,  1881,  but 
still  performing  the  duties  of  his  professorship.  Since  that  date 
he  has  confined  himself  to  his  chair  of  Physics. 

Through  nearly  the  whole  of  life  the  two  brothers,  John  and 
Joseph  Le  Conte,  have  been  closely  associated,  each  attaining 
eminence,  the  elder  as  a  physicist,  the  younger  as  a  geologist. 
The  elder  preceded  the  younger  by  six  years  at  Franklin  College, 
in  Georgia.  They  went  almost  together  to  the  South  Carolina 
College,  and  likewise  to  the  University  of  California.  This  fact 
has  often  led  to  their  names  becoming  confounded  by  strangers. 

Dr.  Le  Conte  is  a  member  of  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences, 
the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  the 
American  Philosophical  Society  and  Academy  of  Natural  Sci- 
ences in  Philadelphia,  the  New  York  Academy  of  Sciences,  and 
the  California  Academy  of  Sciences.  To  this  list  might  be  added 
various  other  bodies  which  have  bestowed  upon  him  honorary 
membership. 

A  list  of  some  of  the  more  important  of  Dr.  Le  Conte's  pub- 
lished writings  is  appended.  The  entire  list  is  too  long  for  inser- 
tion, amounting  to  about  a  hundred  papers. 

Of  the  first  dozen,  which  show  the  direction  of  his  tastes  as  a 
physician,  perhaps  the  most  interesting  is  No.  9,  in  which  by  origi- 
nal experiments  he  proved  that  the  alligator  is  able  to  execute  de- 
liberate and  determinate  movements  after  decapitation  and  even 
after  destruction  of  the  spinal  cord. 

In  No.  10  he  shows  that  the  mortality  from  cancer  has  in- 
creased in  modern  times ;  that  it  augments  regularly  with  in- 
creasing age,  and  that  it  is  greater  in  France  than  in  England. 
The  same  subject  is  pursued  still  further  in  No.  28  and  No.  49, 
in  which  he  shows  important  errors  in  the  usual  methods  of  in- 
terpreting vital  statistics,  and  that  the  average  mortality  from 
cancer  is  fully  three  times  as  great  among  females  as  among 
males. 

In  No.  16  he  gives  the  first  rational  explanation  of  a  whole 
class  of  ice  phenomena  as  manifested  both  in  the  ground  and  in 
plants.  In  No.  17  the  investigation  is  continued,  and  from  nu- 
merous experiments  it  is  shown  that  many  plants  may  be  com- 
pletely frozen  without  injury. 

No.  19  is  a  criticism  of  Moseley's  theory  of  the  descent  of 
glaciers,  in  which  it  is  demonstrated  that  the  descent  can  not  be 
produced  by  expansions  and  contractions  of  the  ice  due  to  changes 
of  temperature. 

In  No.  20  it  is  shown  that  Maury's  theory  of  the  winds  is  un- 


u8  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

tenable.  This  conclusion  is  now  universally  accepted,  great  as 
was  the  value  of  Maury's  work  in  the  pioneer  days  of  meteorology. 

In  No.  23  it  is  shown  that  solar  light  has  no  sensible  influence 
on  combustion.  This  paper,  as  well  as  Nos.  16  and  17,  was  exten- 
sively reproduced  in  Europe.  The  same  remark  applies  to  Nos. 
24  and  26,  which  have  been  already  discussed. 

In  Nos.  25  and  39  an  account  is  given  of  investigations  regard- 
ing the  depth,  transparency,  and  color-tints  displayed  in  some  re- 
markable bodies  of  water. 

No.  35  contains  the  description  and  discussion  of  some  unique 
experiments  on  the  propagation  of  vibrations  through  water,  the 
source  of  disturbance  being  explosions  of  great  violence.  The  re- 
sults were  wholly  new,  and  attracted  much  attention  in  Europe. 

In  Nos.  37  and  41  the  principles  of  capillarity  are  very  thor- 
oughly discussed,  and  illustrated  by  some  new  experiments. 

Many  others  of  these  papers  might  be  summarized,  but  only 
by  exceeding  the  limits  of  a  brief  biographical  sketch. 

SCIENTIFIC. 

1.  "Case  of  Carcinoma  of  the  Stomach"  ("New  York  Medical  Gazette," 
1842). 

2.  "On  the  Mechanism  of  Vomiting"  ("New  York  Lancet,"  1842). 

8.  "  On  Carcinoma  in  General,  and  Cancer  of  the  Stomach  "  (ibid.,  1842). 

4.  "On  the  Explanation  of  the  Difference  in  Size  of  the  Male  and  Female 
Urinary  Bladder"  (ibid.,  1842). 

5.  "  An  Essay  on  the  Origin  of  Syphilis  "  ("  New  York  Journal  of  Medical  and 
Collateral  Sciences,"  1844). 

0.  "  Remarks  on  Cases  of  Inflamed  Knee- Joint "  (ibid.,  1844). 

7.  "  Extraordinary  Effects  of  a  Stroke  of  Lightning.— Singular  Phenomena  " 
(ibid.,  1844). 

8.  Observations  on  Geophagy "  (Southern  Medical  and  Surgical  Journal," 
1845). 

9.  "  Experiments  illustrating  the  Seat  of  Volition  in  the  Alligator,  or  Croco- 
dilus  Lucius  of  Cuvier.  With  Strictures  on  the  Reflex  Theory  "("New  York 
Journal  of  Medical  and  Collateral  Sciences,"  1845  and  184G). 

10.  "  Statistical  Researches  on  Cancer "  ("  Southern  Medical  and  Surgical 
Journal,"  1846). 

11.  "On  the  Quarantine  Regulations  at  Savannah,  Ga."  ("New  York  Journal 
of  Medical  and  Collateral  Sciences,"  184G). 

12.  "Remarks  on  the  Physiology  of  the  Voice  "  ("Southern  Medical  and  Sur- 
gical Journal,"  1846. 

13.  "  Dr.  Bennet  Dowler's  Contributions  to  the  Natural  History  of  the  Alli- 
gator "  (ibid.,  1847). 

14.  "  On  Sulphuric  Ether  "  (ibid.,  1847). 

15.  "  The  Philosophy  of  Medicine :  An  Address  "  (ibid.,  1849). 

16.  "Observations  on  a  Remarkable  Exudation  of  Ice  from  the  Stems  of 
Vegetables,  and  on  a  Singular  Protrusion  of  Icy  Columns  from  Certain  Kinds  of 
Earth  during  Frosty  Weather  "  ("  Proceedings  of  the  American  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Science,"  1850;  also,  "Philosophical  Magazine,"  1850). 


SKETCH   OF  PROF.  JOHN  LE   CONTE.  119 

17.  "  Observations  on  the  Freezing  of  Vegetables,  and  on  the  Causes  which 
enable  some  Plants  to  endure  the  Action  of  Extreme  Cold  "  ("  American  Journal 
of  Science,"  1852;  also  "Proceedings  of  the  American  Association  for  the  Ad- 
vancement of  Science,"  1851). 

18.  "On  the  Venomous  Serpents  of  Georgia  "  ("Southern  Medical  and  Sur- 
gical Journal,"  1853). 

19.  "  On  the  Descent  of  Glaciers  "  ("  American  Journal  of  Science,"  1855). 

20.  "Review  of  Lieutenant  M.  F.  Maury's  Work  on  the  'Physical  Geography 
of  the  Sea'  "  ("Southern  Quarterly  Review,"  1856). 

21.  "  The  Mechanical  Agencies  of  Heat  "  (ibid.,  1856). 

22.  "  Influence  of  the  Study  of  the  Physical  Sciences  on  the  Imaginative  Fac- 
ulties." An  Inaugural  Address,  delivered  December  1,  1857  (Columbia,  S.  C, 
1858). 

23.  "  Preliminary  Researches  on  the  Alleged  Influence  of  Solar  Light  on  the 
Process  of  Combustion  "  ("  American  Journal  of  Science,"  1857;  also,  "  Proceed- 
ings of  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science,"  1857;  and 
"  Philosophical  Magazine,"  1858). 

24.  "  On  the  Influence  of  Musical  Sounds  on  the  Flame  of  a  Jet  of  Coal-Ga3  " 
("American  Journal  of  Science,"  1858  ;   "  Philosophical  Magazine,"  1858). 

25.  "  On  the  Optical  Phenomena  presented  by  the  Silver  Spring  in  Marion 
County,  Florida  (U.  S.),"  ("American  Journal  of  Science,"  1861;  also,  "Pro- 
ceedings of  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science,"  1860). 

26.  "  On  the  Adequacy  of  Laplace's  Explanation  to  account  for  the  Discrep- 
ancy between  the  Computed  and  the  Observed  Velocity  of  Sound  in  Air  and 
Gases  "  ("  Philosophical  Magazine,"  1864). 

27.  "  Limiting  Velocity  of  Meteoric  Stones  reaching  the  Surface  of  the  Earth" 
("  Nature,"  1871). 

28.  "Vital  Statistics:  Illustrated  by  the  Laws  of  Mortality  from  Cancer" 
("  Western  Lancet,"  1872). 

29.  "  Heat  generated  by  Meteoric  Stones  in  traversing  the  Atmosphere  " 
("  Nature,"  1872). 

30.  "The  Nebular  Hypothesis  "  ("  Popular  Science  Monthly,"  1873). 

31.  Articles  on  "Bonanza,"  "  Comstock  Lode,"  and  "Death  Valley,"  in 
"  Johnson's  Cyclopaedia,"  vol.  iv,  Appendix,  1876. 

32.  "  Mars  and  his  Moons  "  ("  Popular  Science  Monthly,"  1879). 

33.  "  Origin  and  Distribution  of  Lakes ;  Meteorology  of  the  Pacific  Coast " 
("Mining  and  Scientific  Press  "  and  Supplement,  1880-'81). 

34.  "  Influence  of  Modern  Methods  of  popularizing  Science  "  ("  Berkeleyan," 
1882). 

35.  "  Sound-Shadows  in  Water "  ("  American  Journal  of  Science,"  1882  ; 
also,  "  Philosophical  Magazine,"  1882). 

36.  "Origin  of  Jointed  Structures  in  Undisturbed  Clay  and  Marl  Deposits" 
("  American  Journal  of  Science,"  1882). 

37.  "  Apparent  Attractions  and  Repulsions  of  Small  Floating  Bodias  "  ("  Amer- 
ican Journal  of  Science,"  1882  ;  also,  "  Philosophical  Magazine,"  1882). 

38.  "  Amount  of  Carbon  Dioxide  in  the  Atmosphere  "("  Philosophical  Maga- 
zine," 1882). 

39.  "  Physical  Studies  of  Lake  Tahoe  "  ("  Overland  Monthly,"  three  papers, 
1883-1884). 

40.  "  The  Part  played  by  Accident  in  Discoveries  "  ("Berkeleyan,"  1884). 

41.  "Horizontal  Motions  of  Small  Floating  Bodies,  in  relation  to  (he  Validity 


120 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


and  Postulates  of  the  Theory  of  Capillarity  "  ("  American  Journal  of  Science," 

1384;  also,  "Journal  de  Physique,"  1885). 

42.  "  Criticism  of  Bassnett's  Theory  of  the  Sun  "  ("  Overland  Monthly,"  1885). 

43.  "The Evidence  of  the  Senses  "  ("  North  American  Review,"  1885). 

44.  "The  Metric  System  "  ("  Overland  Monthly,"  1885). 

45.  "  Thought  Transference  "  (ibid.,  1885). 

46.  "Barometer  Exposure"  ("Science,"  1886). 

47.  "Electrical  Phenomena  on  a  Mountain"  (ibid.,  1887). 

48.  "  Standing  Tiptoe ;  a  Mechanical  Problem  "  (ibid.,  1887). 

49.  "Vital  Statistics,  and  the  True  Coefficient  of  Mortality,  illustrated  by 
Cancer  "  ("  Tenth  Biennial  Report  of  the  State  Board  of  Health  of  California," 
1888). 

50.  "  The  Decadence  of  Truthfulness  "  (1889). 

About  fifty  additional  papers  are  omitted  from  this  list. 


m  «♦»  m 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


THE  MENTAL  BIAS  OF  WITNESSES. 
Editor  Popular  Science  Monthly  : 

IN  the  recent  controversy  between  Prof. 
Huxley  and  Dr.  Wace,  I  was  struck  by 
the  fact  that  the  latter  does  not  seem  to  have 
seen  that  the  truth  of  the  gospel  narratives 
is  not  so  much  a  matter  of  literary  criticism 
as  of  psychological  criticism.  Though  M. 
Itenan  prove,  with  stronger  arguments  than 
Dr.  Wace  attributes  to  him,  that  the  Gospel 
of  St.  Mark  was  written  by  an  eye-witness, 
the  doubt  still  remains  as  to  whether  the 
eye-witness  could  be  trusted.  We  all  know 
that  even  in  this  age,  from  which  supersti- 
tion is  supposed  to  have  been  eliminated, 
people  can  not  always  be  trusted  to  give  an 
exact  account  of  what  they  have  seen ;  and 
how  much  more  would  this  be  likely  to  be 
true  of  the  imaginative  Oriental !  "  All  the 
vaporing,"  as  Dr.  Wace  calls  it,  "  about  the 
great  critical  operation  of  the  present  centu- 
ry "  in  "  Robert  Elsmere  "  is  in  reference  to 
this  point,  the  value  of  human  testimony — 
not  whether  such  a  one  wrote  at  such  a  time, 
but  just  how  much  he  was  influenced,  when 
he  did  write,  by  his  psychological  tendencies, 
and  also  by  the  traditions  of  which  he,  in 
common  with  his  fellow-men,  was  the  heir. 
When  we  find  in  the  ancient  religions  of 
India,  Persia,  and  Egypt  exactly  the  same 
supernatural  elements  that  we  find  in  the 
gospel  stories,  and  sometimes  even  a  resem- 
blance in  details,  such  as  there  is  between 
certain  points  in  the  life  of  Krishna  and  of 
Christ,  we  can  not  help  drawing  the  conclu- 
sion that  these  supernaturalisms  were,  in 
their  essence,  survivals  from  older  religions, 
and,  in  their  attachment  to  the  life  of  Christ, 
were  a  proof  of  the  psychological  tendencies 
of  the  people  of  that  time  toward  supernatu- 


ralism ;  but  that  such  conclusions  should  in 
any  way  affect  the  sincerity  of  Christ  him- 
self is  perfectly  absurd.  Dr.  Wace  thinks 
that,  unless  Christ  were  what  he  is  claimed 
by  orthodox  Christians  to  be,  he  would  be 
perjuring  himself,  for  example,  in  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  by  addressing  "  our  Father,"  which 
must  show  that  he  was  aware  of  a  special 
connection  between  God  and  himself;  it  nei- 
ther shows  a  special  connection  nor  hypoc- 
risy on  the  part  of  Christ,  but  is  a  most 
natural  form  of  expression.  Even  in  the 
hymns  of  the  "  Rig-Veda,"  probably  forming 
the  oldest  book  in  the  world,  men  worshiped 
Dyaus-Pitar  (Heaven-Father),  so  the  concep- 
tion of  "our  Father  who  art  in  heaven" 
is  far  older  than  the  time  of  Christ.  Through 
the  unbiased  study  of  comparative  religion 
— a  far  better  way  to  arrive  at  the  truth  than 
the  study  of  literary  criticism — the  figure  of 
Christ  is  made  to  stand  out  as  the  greatest 
revealer  of  absolute  truth ;  and  the  super- 
natural elements  which  have  been  welded 
into  his  gracious  life,  refined  of  trivialities 
which  attached  to  them  in  other  religions, 
are  but  the  attempt  of  the  human  mind  to 
clothe  in  fitting  outward  symbol  the  truth 
which  springs  from  within. 

Helen  A.  Clarke. 
Philadelphia. 


WHY  NOT  "COBBLE-UP"  THE  HUMAN 
BODY? 

Editor  Popular  Science  Monthly  : 

The  loud  trumpeting  of  Dr.  Brown-S6- 
quard's  alleged  discovery  of  an  "  elixir  of 
life "  suggests  another  still  more  rational 
and  practicable  way  of  securing  immortality, 
accompanied  by  youth  and  beauty,  which  I  am 
amazed  that  no  eminent  surgeon  has  as  yet 


CORRESP  ONDENGE. 


121 


made  a  bid  for  fame  by  proposing.  We  are 
all  familiar  with  the  brilliant  feats  of  modem 
surgery  in  replacing  damaged  portions  of 
the  human  body  by  sound  and  healthy  parts 
obtained  elsewhere.  Autoplasty  is  one  of 
the  wide-reaching  benefactions  of  science. 
Scalped  mill-operatives  have  been  furnished 
with  good-as-nevv  chcvelures  by  piecemeal 
contributions  from  the  heads  of  accommo- 
dating friends.  Mangled  eyes  have  been 
successfully  replaced  by  healthy  ones  taken 
from  cats  and  rabbits.  For  centuries  the 
victims  of  Oriental  despotism  have  had  their 
noses  and  ears  restored  by  the  skilled 
"  leeches  "  of  India,  Turkey,  and  Persia.  So 
common  have  become  operations  for  the 
restoration  of  noses,  eyelids,  ears,  lips,  pal- 
ates, and  tracheal,  that  each  of  these  has  re- 
ceived a  distinct  name  in  medical  literature. 
Nor  have  the  surgeons  stopped  with  these 
external  organs,  but  have  boldly  invaded  the 
interior  of  the  system ;  and  I  think  it  is  on 
record  that  one  surgeon  succeeded  in  saving 
his  patient's  life  by  patching  up  his  caecum 
with  the  intestines  of  a  sheep 

Why  is  not  this  idea  capable  of  indefinite 
expansion  ?  We  all  know  that,  as  a  rule, 
men  do  not  break  down  like  the  "Wonderful 
One-Hoss  Shay,"  which 

"  went  to  pieces  all  at  once- 
All  at  once,  and  nothing  first — 
Just  as  bubbles  when  they  burst." 

Almost  invariably  they  die  from  the  wearing 
out  or  lesion  of  some  one  organ. 

Now,  anatomists  tell  us  that  we  have  not 
a  muscle,  nerve,  or  organ  which  is  not  dupli- 
cated in  some  one  of  the  lower  animals. 
This  being  the  case,  what  is  to  prevent  the 
skillful  surgeon,  when  he  finds  that  one  of 
his  patient's  viscera — cranial,  thoracic,  or 
abdominal  —  has  become  incapable  of  per- 
forming its  functions,  on  account  of  wearing 
out  or  weakness,  from  removing  it,  and  sub- 
stituting a  brand-new  one  from  some  healthy 
and  high-bred  animal  ? 

For  example,  instead  of  using  the  pan- 
creatic juice  of  the  lower  animals,  as  Dr. 
Brown-Sequard  proposes,  why  not  transplant 
the  organ  which  produces  it,  and  thus  insure 
the  patient  a  never-failing  supply  of  the  di- 
gestive fluid  produced  on  the  spot  ?  When 
a  man's  pancreas  becomes  debilitated  from 
years  of  unremitting  toil  with  fried  pork  and 
mince-pies,  and  goes  on  a  strike,  threatening 
stoppage  of  all  other  bodily  functions  and 
death,  why  not  skillfully  excise  it,  and  put 
in  its  place,  say,  the  pancreas  of  a  goat  or  a 
pig  ?  The  wound  heals  by  first  intention  ; 
the  man's  digestion  recovers  the  tone  of  his 
boyhood  days ;  the  food  his  wife  cooks  tastes 
as  well  as  "  the  things  mother  used  to 
make  "  ;  existence  again  becomes  sweet  mu- 
sic, and  he  takes  a  new  lease  of  life,  until 
some  other  organ  breaks  down,  which  can  be 
similarly  replaced. 

So,  on  the  simple  plan  of  the  old  lady 
who  made  a  pair  of  stockings  last  a  lifetime 


by  knitting  on  new  feet  one  year  and  new 
legs  the  next,  men  can  readily  attain  the  age 
of  Methuselah,  with  no  other  drawbacks  than 
periodic  recoveries  from  surgical  operations, 
which  will  be  no  worse  than  their  customary 
"spells  of  fever,"  "attacks  of  indigestion," 
"  nervous  prostration,"  "  malarial  poison- 
ing," and  the  like. 

I  have  endeavored  to  treat  this  important 
subject  with  proper  scientific  gravity.  I  an- 
ticipate, however,  the  ghoulish  glee  of  the 
professional  humorist,  who  will  gloat  over 
the  prospect  of  prominent  citizens  being  al- 
luded to  as  "  well-repaired  "  instead  of  "  well- 
preserved"  men,  and  who  will  give  the  over- 
worked stove-pipe,  mother-in-law,  and  front 
gate  a  rest,  in  order  to  exploit  the  funny 
possibilities  of  a  mature  gentleman  who  has 
been  patched  up  until  he  has  the  digestive 
apparatus  of  a  goat,  the  vocal  and  respira- 
tory machinery  of  a  donkey,  and  a  cranial 
cavity  filled  with  the  ganglia  of  a  sheep  or 
an  intelligent  Newfoundland  dog. 

I  anticipate  also  the  moral  and  scriptural 
objections  of  a  part  of  the  clergy,  as  to  the 
effect  upon  the  soul  of  this  incorporation 
with  the  beasts  of  the  field. 

But  all  great  ideas  must  encounter  this 
sort  of  thing,  and  so  mine  must  perforce  en- 
dure it.  John  McEluoy. 

Washington,  D.  C. 


THE  EIGHT  TO  PEOPEETT. 

Editor  Popular  /Science  Monthly : 

In  Mr.  Philpott's  able  essay  on  "  The 
Origin  of  Property,"  in  the  "  Monthly  "  for 
September,  he  quotes  Prof.  Leslie's  notable 
remarks  on  the  true  meaning  of  the  word 
"  property."  While  there  may  have  been 
others  who  have  also  called  attention  to  the 
same  point,  I  can  not  refrain  from  specially 
referring  Mr.  Philpott  and  your  readers  to 
Volume  II  of  the  works  of  the  late  Thomas 
Hill  Green,  a  thinker  whose  acute  and  iucid 
discussion  of  fundamental  political  notions 
has  received  singularly  inadequate  notice. 
He  frequently  touches  bottom  ground  with  a 
firmness  characteristic  of  no  other  political 
writer  known  to  me,  and  in  this  instance  he 
phrases  with  especial  felicity  (Vol.  II, 
"  Principles  of  Political  Obligation,"  pp. 
517  et  seq.)  the  idea  upheld  by  Mr.  Philpott 
and  Prof.  Leslie :  "  Two  questions  are  apt 
to  be  mixed  up  which  ought  to  be  kept  dis- 
tinct. One  is  the  question  how  men  came 
to  appropriate  ;  the  other,  the  question  how 
the  idea  of  right  has  come  to  be  associated 
with  their  appropriations.  .  .  .  One  condi- 
tion of  the  existence  of  property,  then,  is 
appropriation.  But  another  condition  must 
be  fulfilled  in  order  to  constitute  property. 
This  is  the  recognition  by  others  of  a  man's 
appropriations  as  something  which  they  will 
treat  as  his,  not  theirs,  and  the  guarantee  to 
him  of  his  appropriations  by  means  of  that 


122 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


recognition  ...  (p.  522).  To  say  that  it  is  a 
'law  of  nature'  that  a  man  should  have  a 
property  in  the  work  of  his  hands,  is  no 
more  than  saying  that  that  on  which  a  man 
has  imposed  his  labor  is  recognized  by  others 
as  something  which  should  be  his,  just  as  he 
is  recognized  by  them  as  one  that  should  be 
his  own  master.  ...  It  is  only  within  a  so- 
ciety, as  a  relation  between  its  members, 
that  there  can  be  such  a  thing  as  a  right, 
and  the  right  to  free  life  rests  on  the  com- 


mon will  of  society.  Just  as  the  recognized 
interest  of  a  society  constitutes  for  each 
member  of  it  the  right  to  free  life,  so  it 
constitutes  the  right  to  the  instruments  of 
such  life,  and  thus  through  the  medium,  first 
of  custom,  then  of  law,  securing  them  to 
each."  This  is  Prof.  Leslie's  thought  in 
amplified  form,  and  it  may  be  of  interest  to 
Mr.  Philpott  to  note  the  passage. 

John  H.  Wigmore. 
Cambridge,  Mass.,  September  14, 1S89. 


EDITOR'S   TABLE. 


A  MINOR  ITT  BUT  NOT  A  SECT. 

A  PROTESTANT  minister  in  Oak- 
land,  Cal.,  in  a  recent  address 
on  the  subject  of  the  public  -  school 
system  of  the  United  States,  expressed 
himself  as  follows  :  "  In  one  of  the 
schools  of  Sau  Francisco  Herbert  Spen- 
cer's '  Data  of  Ethics '  was  intro- 
duced as  a  text-book  of  morals  —  as 
palpable  a  violation  of  the  law  forbid- 
ding sectarian  instruction  as  the  intro- 
duction of  the  Catholic  or  Methodist 
catechism ;  for  Herbert  Spencer  belongs 
to  that  very  small  and  narrow  sect 
which  promulgates  the  creed  of  agnosti- 
cism." If  the  reverend  speaker  had  ta- 
ken the  ground  that  the  "  Data  of  Eth- 
ics "  was  too  abstruse  a  book  to  be  placed 
in  the  hands  of  public-school  pupils,  we 
should  have  felt  inclined  to  sustain  his 
objection.  But  when  he  says  that  to 
introduce  such  a  book  is  to  give  a  secta- 
rian character  to  the  school  in  which  it 
is  used,  we  must  enter  a  protest.  Sci- 
ence is  never  sectarian  ;  philosophy  is 
never  sectarian.  Sectarian  teaching  be- 
gins when  you  ask  a  man  or  a  child  to 
assume  what  can  not  be  proved,  for  the 
sake  of  keeping  within  the  dogmatic 
lines  that  fence  round  some  particular 
creed.  The  followers  of  Mr.  Spencer 
may  be  a  minority,  but  they  are  no  more 
a  sect  than  were  the  adherents  of  the 
Oopernican  system  of  astronomy,  or 
than  are  the  believers  in  the  Darwinian 
theory  of  natural  selection.  Mr.  Spen- 
cer makes  no  appeal  to  faith,  but  finds 


his  premises  in  the  common  experience 
of  mankind.  A  pupil  who  was  being 
taught  out  of  the  "Data  of  Ethics" 
would  he  quite  at  liberty  to  dispute 
either  the  premises  or  the  arguments  of 
the  author ;  and  he  would  not  he  si- 
lenced by  the  declaration  that  Mr.  Spen- 
cer was  infallible.  But  when  catechisms 
are  taught  they  are  taught,  not  as  con- 
taining matter  for  discussion,  but  as 
containing  doctrines  that  must  not  be 
disputed,  on  pain  of  more  or  less  disa- 
greeable consequences.  Similarly,  when 
the  Bible  is  read  in  school,  it  is  read 
not  as  a  fallible  record  of  events  or  a 
fallible  guide  in  morals,  but  as  some- 
thing absolutely  authoritative — the  very 
voice  of  God.  It  is  perfectly  obvious, 
then,  where  sectarianism  in  education 
begins  :  it  begins  just  at  the  point  where 
doctrines  of  any  kind,  accepted  on  faith 
by  a  portion  of  the  community  and  not 
discussible  on  grounds  of  reason,  are 
made  a  part  of  public-school  instruction. 
Sectarianism  comes  in  whenever  the 
teacher  is  obliged  to  say  "  Hush !  "  to 
the  inquiring  scholar  who  wants  his 
reason  satisfied  before  he  will  believe. 
There  is  no  sectarianism,  on  the  other 
hand,  in  making  use  of  a  book  which 
lays  no  claim  to  any  kind  of  privilege, 
and  which,  therefore,  can  not  force  the 
belief  of  any  one.  The  followers  of  Mr. 
Spencer  do  not  form  a  sect,  because  they 
have  no  beliefs  which  they  wish  to  ex- 
empt from  criticism  or  discussion,  and 
becauso  they  hold  themselves  at  full  lib- 


EDITOR'S   TABLE. 


123 


erty  to  pass  beyond  the  bounds  of  Mr. 
Spencer's  thought  whenever  they  can 
see  their  way  to  doing  so.  Mr.  Spencer's 
"  Data  of  Ethics  "  may  not  contain  all  the 
truth  on  the  subject  of  morals,  but  the 
truth  which  it  does  contain  lends  itself 
to  demonstration ;  and  no  one  can  be 
the  worse  for  being  taught  demonstra- 
ble truths.  Upon  that  foundation  he 
can  afterward  build  what  he  likes — hay, 
stubble,  or  what  not;  and  after  his  su- 
perstructure has  been  tried  by  the  fire 
of  experience,  a3  it  is  very  likely  to 
be,  he  will  still  have  something  solid 
left  on  which  to  rebuild  in  perchance 
wiser  fashion.  We  do  not  advocate  the 
introduction  of  the  "Data  of  Ethics" 
into  the  public  schools;  but  we  are  con- 
vinced that  it  would  be  a  very  good  thing 
for  the  rising  generation  if  some  of  the 
ideas  contained  in  that  book  could  be 
brought  home  to  their  minds. 


SCIENCE  IN  DOMESTIC  ECONOMY. 

Mr.  Edwakd  Atkinson's  paper  on 
"  The  Art  of  CookiDg,"  which  opens 
this  number  of  the  "  Monthly,"  is  one 
to  which  we  confidently  call  the  atten- 
tion of  every  reader  of  the  magazine. 
There  is  no  art  which  concerns  the 
well-being  of  more  persons  than  cook- 
ery. Blunders  in  navigation  do  not  in- 
jure those  who  stay  on  land,  errors  of 
engineering  may  easily  be  escaped,  and 
the  mistakes  of  the  apothecary  do  not 
affect  him  who  takes  no  medicine.  But 
none  of  us  can  do  without  eating,  and 
if  our  food  is  not  properly  prepared  we 
are  sure  to  suffer  both  in  health  and 
in  pocket.  The  fact  which  Mr.  Atkin- 
son states  in  his  opening  sentence,  that 
"the  cost  of  materials  which  are  used 
for  food  comes  to  one  half  or  more  of 
the  average  income "  of  most  persons, 
shows  the  importance  of  carefully  lim- 
iting the  percentage  of  waste  in  this 
large  item  of  domestic  expenditure ;  and 
when  we  remember  that,  as  he  states 
in  the  next  paragraph,  "  good  health 
depends  in  greater  measure  upon  ade- 


quate nutrition  and  upon  the  conversion 
of  food  material  into  a  digestible  form 
than  upon  any  other  factor  in  life,"  the 
value  of  correct  principles  in  cookery, 
on  the  score  of  health,  is  apparent.  Yet 
the  present  mode  of  cooking  is  far  from 
agreeing  with  correct  principles. 

Mr.  Atkinson  says  that  almost  the 
whole  of  the  fuel  used  in  cooking  in  the 
ordinary  way  is  wasted,  while  the  odors 
which  accompany  the  process  are  evi- 
dence that  the  food  is  losing  nutritious 
properties,  and  often  that  it  is  being 
converted  into  an  unwholesome  condi- 
tion. The  effect  of  heat  on  starch,  su- 
gar, fats,  and  albuminoids,  and  the  laws 
of  radiation  and  conduction,  are  well 
enough  understood,  yet  cookery  has  re- 
mained stagnant,  while  metallurgy,  dye- 
ing, soap-making,  and  other  familiar 
arts,  which  likewise  depend  on  chem- 
istry and  the  science  of  heat,  have  made 
gratifying  progress.  The  cooking  of  the 
world  is  practically  in  the  hands  of 
women,  and  the  art  is  in  an  undeveloped 
state.  Here  is  a  chance  for  the  sex  to 
prove  good  their  claim  to  the  same  men- 
tal capabilities  as  men.  Let  them  give 
up  blind  following  of  recipes  and  learn 
to  understand  processes.  Let  them  ex- 
periment, record  observations,  and  in- 
vent. If  they  can  not  at  once  rise  to 
the  level  of  original  work,  let  them  at 
least  study  the  investigations  and  apply 
the  inventions  of  others.  Mr.  Atkinson 
has  made  experiments  in  cooking,  ex- 
tending over  some  years,  which  have 
led  to  the  invention  of  the  apparatus 
described  in  his  article.  His  "  oven  " 
and  "  cooker "  unquestionably  prevent 
the  scorching  of  food,  and  effect  a  won- 
derful economy  in  fuel,  yet  he  has  found 
it  difficult  to  give  away  his  valuable 
ideas  to  the  public.  "We  are  confident, 
however,  that  his  article  will  be  read 
with  more  interest  than,  say,  twenty 
years  ago.  A  steadily  growing  amount 
of  thought  is  being  given  to  making 
science  serviceable  in  the  preparation  of 
food,  and  in  other  matters  of  household 
economy.     The  fact  that  such  men  as 


124 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


Mr.  Atkinson  and  Prof.  Mattieu  Will- 
iams are  working  in  this  field,  and  that 
their  results  are  received  with  interest, 
gives  promise  that  the  human  race  will 
some  time  attain  to  a  thoroughly  intelli- 
gent style  of  daily  life. 

LITERARY  NOTICES. 

The  Structure  and  Distribution  of  Coral 
Reefs.  By  Charles  Darwin.  Third 
Edition,  with  an  Appendix  by  Prof.  T.  G. 
Bonnet.  With  Illustrations,  New  York: 
D.  Appleton  &  Co.     Pp.  344.    Price,  $2. 

The  formation  of  coral  reefs  was  one  of 
the  subjects  investigated  by  Darwin  during 
the  voyage  of  the  Beagle.  The  information 
which  he  obtained  from  his  own  observations 
and  the  reports  of  other  investigators,  to- 
gether with  the  mode  of  accounting  for  these 
structures  resulting  from  his  study  of  this 
material,  are  embodied  in  the  present  work. 
The  first  edition  of  the  book  was  published 
in  1842,  a  brief  sketch  of  the  author's  views 
having  been  read  in  1837  before  the  Geologi- 
cal Society,  of  London,  and  published.  Dar- 
win's theory  of  coral  reefs  speedily  won  ac- 
ceptance among  men  of  science,  and  had 
been  taught  in  scientific  lectures  and  text- 
books for  a  generation  before  any  consider- 
able rival  appeared.  In  1874  Darwin  issued 
a  revision  of  his  book,  containing  additional 
facts  obtained  by  later  explorers.  The  only 
important  work  on  the  subject  which  had 
appeared  since  1842  was  Prof.  James  D. 
Dana's  "  Corals  and  Coral  Reefs,"  issued  in 
1872.  Prof.  Dana  had  accepted  Darwin's 
theory  in  the  main,  though  objecting  very 
decidedly  to  some  of  its  minor  features.  In 
18S0  Mr.  John  Murray,  one  of  the  natural- 
ists of  the  Challenger  Expedition,  advanced 
a  theory  widely  at  variance  with  that  of 
Darwin,  which  has  found  vigorous  support- 
ers, and  various  modifications  of  both  the 
leading  hypotheses  have  been  offered  by  later 
investigators.  But  the  majority  of  those 
qualified  to  judge  of  this  difficult  question 
have  shown  a  disinclination  to  give  up  Dar- 
win's theory  for  that  of  Murray — so  much 
so  that  the  Duke  of  Argyll,  evidently  jealous 
for  Scottish  honor,  in  1887  accused  scientific 
men  of  disregarding  Murray's  work  from 
subserviency  to  their  idolized  Darwin.  The 
duke's  article  was  entitled  "  A  Conspiracy  of 


Silence,"  and  drew  forth  a  vigorous  reply 
from  Prof.  Huxley  in  the  review  in  which  it 
appeared,  besides  arousing  a  spirited  discus- 
sion in  the  columns  of  "  Nature."  The  new 
edition  of  "  Coral  Reefs  "  affords  the  means 
of  forming  an  intelligent  opinion  as  to  the 
merits  of  Darwin's  views.  It  is,  by  the  way, 
the  first  edition  that  has  been  published  in 
this  country.  The  body  of  the  work  has 
been  left  as  revised  by  the  author  for  the 
second  edition,  but  occasional  foot-notes,  and 
an  appendix  comprising  a  careful  summary 
of  the  more  important  memoirs  published 
since  1874,  have  been  added  by  Prof.  T.  G. 
Bonney.  In  the  first  three  chapters  the 
three  chief  classes  of  coral  formations — 
atolls  or  lagoon  islands,  barrier  reefs,  and 
fringing  or  shore  reefs — are  described.  The 
fourth  chapter  deals  with  the  distribution  of 
coral  reefs  and  conditions  favorable  to  their 
increase,  their  rate  of  growth,  and  the  depths 
at  which  reef-building  corals  can  live.  Dar- 
win's theory  of  the  formation  of  the  differ- 
ent classes  of  coral  reefs  then  follows. 
Coral  polyps  do  not  flourish  below  a  depth  of 
twenty  or  thirty  fathoms,  but  reefs  are  found 
rising  from  much  greater  depths — how  are 
these  to  be  accounted  for  ?  The  theory  re- 
gards barrier  reefs  and  atolls  as  having  been 
developed  successively  from  fringing  reefs. 
The  latter  are  so  named  because  they  closely 
skirt  the  shores  of  islands  and  continental 
land,  increasing  by  growth  on  the  outer  edge, 
where  the  conditions  seem  to  be  most  favor- 
able for  the  life  of  the  corals.  Imagine  such 
a  reef  formed  around  a  volcanic  island,  and 
the  island  then  to  begin  sinking  beneath  the 
sea.  The  reef  will  be  carried  down  with  it, 
but  the  active  growth  at  the  outer  edge  will 
still  keep  this  part  at  the  sea-level,  while  the 
inshore  part  where  growth  has  stopped  will 
become  deeply  submerged.  We  now  have 
an  island  surrouuded  by  a  deep  channel,  out- 
side of  which  is  a  ring  of  coral — that  is,  an 
island  encircled  by  a  barrier  reef.  Suppose 
the  subsidence  to  go  still  further  until  the 
highest  point  of  the  island  disappears,  the 
growth  at  the  outer  edge  of  the  reef  still 
keeping  it  up  to  the  surface,  and  there  re- 
sults a  ring-shaped  reef  inclosing  a  lagoon — 
that  is,  an  atoll.  It  can  not  be  denied  that 
this  theory  accounts  for  the  channel  within 
a  barrier  reef  and  the  ring  shape  of  atolls, 
besides  answering  the  question  asked  above, 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


125 


all  in  a  very  natural  way.  But  it  has  been 
objected  to  on  account  of  the  amount  of 
subsidence  in  the  floor  of  the  Pacific  and 
Indian  Oceans  which  it  would  imply,  and  for 
other  reasons.  Mr.  Murray  attempts  to  find 
a  foundation  at  a  suitable  depth  for  the  cor- 
als to  begin  work  upon  without  supposing 
subsidence.  He  thinks  this  could  be  fur- 
nished by  the  accumulation  of  skeletons  of 
minute  animals  and  plants,  upon  natural  ele- 
vations of  the  sea-floor,  although  when  such 
remains  fall  to  greater  depths  they  are 
mostly  dissolved  by  the  aid  of  the  carbon 
dioxide  in  the  water.  He  thinks  that  a  coral 
plantation  rising  on  such  a  base  would  tend 
to  assume  the  atoll  form  owing  to  the  more 
abundant  supply  of  food  to  the  outer  por- 
tions, and  the  removal  of  dead  coral  rock 
from  the  inner  portions  by  the  force  of  cur- 
rents and  by  solution.  Ee  believes  that  bar- 
rier reefs  have  been  built  out  from  the 
shore,  and  that  the  channel  within  them  is 
hollowed  out  by  the  same  agencies  as  the 
lagoon  of  an  atoll.  The  death  of  Darwin 
occurred  so  soon  after  the  promulgation  of 
this  theory  that  he  did  not  have  an  oppor- 
tunity to  publish  any  examination  of  it,  but 
to  a  friend,  Mr.  T.  Mellard  Reade,  who  had 
expressed  the  opinion  in  a  letter  that  it  was 
"  a  very  far-fetched  idea,"  he  replied :  "  I  am 
not  a  fair  judge,  but  I  agree  with  you  ex- 
actly that  Murray's  view  is  far-fetched.  It  is 
astonishing  that  there  should  be  rapid  disso- 
lution of  carbonate  of  lime  at  great  depths 
and  near  the  surface,  but  not  at  intermedi- 
ate depths  where  he  places  his  mountain- 
peaks."  Besides  a  statement  of  Murray's 
theory,  Prof.  Bonney's  appendix  contains 
abstracts  of  the  views  of  Alexander  Agassiz, 
II.  B.  Guppy,  G.  C.  Bourne,  Bayley  Balfour, 
W.  0.  Crosby,  and  J.  D.  Dana,  together  with 
an  expression  of  his  own  opinion  as  to  the 
value  of  the  various  objections  to  Darwin's 
theory.  The  volume  contains  three  folded 
charts,  and  has  an  adequate  index.  It  is 
bound  uniformly  with  the  other  works  of 
Darwin  issued  by  the  same  publishers. 

Natural  Religion.  ByF.  MaxMulleu.  Lon- 
don and  New  York  :  Longmans,  Green  & 
Co.     Pp.  608.     Price,  $5. 

This  book  includes  the  first  course  of 
Gifford  lectures,  twenty  in  number,  deliv- 
ered by  Prof.  Miiller  before  the  University 


of  Glasgow  in  1888.  The  Gifford  lectures 
rest  upon  a  fund  of  eighty  thousand  pounds 
which  was  left  by  Lord  Adam  Gifford  by  will 
in  1885,  to  be  applied  in  specific  sums  to  the 
establishment  in  four  Scotch  universities  of 
chairs  for  "  Promoting,  advancing,  teaching, 
and  diffusing  the  study  of  Natural  Theology," 
or  "  the  knowledge  of  God,  the  Infinite,  the 
All,  the  first  and  only  cause,  .  .  .  the  knowl- 
edge of  his  nature  and  attributes,  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  relations  which  men  and  the  whole 
universe  bear  to  him,  the  knowledge  of  the 
nature  and  foundation  of  ethics  or  morals, 
and  of  all  obligations  and  duties  thence  aris- 
ing." The  will  provided  for  changes  of  lect- 
urers at  short  intervals,  so  that  the  subject 
might  be  presented  by  different  minds ;  that 
no  tests  should  be  required  of  them  save 
that  they  be  "  able,  reverent  men,  true  think- 
ers, sincere  lovers  of  and  earnest  inquirers 
after  truth "  ;  and  that  they  should  treat 
their  subject  as  a  strictly  natural  science, 
and  under  no  restraint.  Prof.  Miiller's 
course  naturally  assumes  the  character  of 
an  introduction  to  the  courses  that  are  to 
follow.  Much  of  it  is  therefore  given  to  lay- 
ing down  the  lines  and  adjusting  the  bear- 
ings ;  and  the  discussions  comprised  in  it 
touch  chiefly  upon  the  three  points  of  the 
definition  of  natural  religion ;  the  proper 
method  of  its  treatment ;  and  the  materials 
available  for  its  study.  The  definition  is 
found  in  the  seventh  lecture  to  be,  "  Religion 
consists  in  the  perception  of  the  infinite  un- 
der such  manifestations  as  are  able  to  in- 
fluence the  moral  character  of  man."  Of 
methods,  the  historical  is  preferred  as  the 
one  most  likely  to  lead  to  results  of  perma- 
nent value.  Its  object  is  to  connect  the 
present  with  the  past,  to  interpret  the  pres- 
ent by  the  past,  and  to  discover,  if  possible, 
the  solution  of  our  present  difficulties,  by 
tracing  them  back  to  the  causes  from  which 
they  arose.  It  has  to  be,  and  is,  defended 
against  the  common  misapprehension  that 
the  historian  cares  only  about  facts,  without 
attempting  to  interpret  them ;  and  against 
the  opposite  school  of  philosophers  who 
think  that  our  own  inner  consciousness  is 
the  one  and  only  source  from  which  to  draw 
a  knowledge  and  understanding  of  natural  re- 
ligion— forgetting  that  their  inner  conscious- 
ness "  is  but  the  surface  of  the  human  intel- 
lect, resting  on  stratum  upon  stratum  of  an- 


126 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


cient  thought,  and  often  obscured  by  thick 
layers  of  dust  and  rubbish,  formed  of  the 
detritus  in  the  historical  conflicts  between 
truth  and  error."  The  materials  for  the 
study  are  language,  myths,  customs  and 
laws,  and  sacred  books.  In  pursuing  it, 
the  subject  is  divided  into  three  branches, 
according  as  what  is  here  called  the  Beyond 
or  the  Infinite  was  perceived,  in  nature — 
Physical  religion,  which  was  to  be  the  sub- 
ject of  the  next  course  of  lectures ;  in  man 
— Anthropological  religion,  which  meets  us 
again  and  again  in  different  ages  and  in 
widely  distant  parts  of  the  world ;  or  in  the 
self — Psychological  religion,  filled  with  in- 
tellectual endeavors  after  that  which  lies  be- 
yond man,  as  a  self-conscious  subject.  The 
last  statement  corresponds  in  the  Christian 
religion  with  the  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
by  which  was  meant  in  the  beginning  "  the 
Spirit  which  unites  all  that  is  holy  within 
man  with  the  Holy  of  Holies,  or  the  Infinite 
beyond  the  veil  of  the  Ego,  or  of  the  merely 
phenomenal  Self." 

A  Manual  of  Machine  Construction  for 
Engineers,  Draughtsmen,  and  Mechan- 
ics, EMBRACING  EXAMPLES,  RULES,  TA- 
BLES, and  References.  By  John  Rich- 
ards. Philadelphia  :  J.  B.  Lippincott 
Company.     Pp.  306.     Price,  $5. 

The  author  of  this  book  enjoys  the  ad- 
vantage of  an  experience  of  thirty-five  years 
in  constructive  engineering  work,  at  home 
and  abroad.  He  is  a  practical  mechanic  in 
metal  and  wood  work,  and  a  designer  and 
constructor  of  machine-work  of  all  kinds. 
He  has  prepared  original  designs  for  more 
than  a  thousand  machines  now  in  common 
use  in  America  and  Europe,  and  is  the  au- 
thor of  many  papers  and  a  number  of  valu- 
able treatises  on  various  mechanical  subjects. 
The  present  work  is  practical ;  is  not  for  in- 
struction so  much  as  for  direct  application, 
and  is  intended  to  meet  the  every-day  wants 
of  the  engineer,  draughtsman,  and  mechanic 
in  his  workshop.  The  tables  are  the  result 
of  actual  practice,  and  are  worked  out  from 
complete  drawings.  The  references  arc  such 
as  are  constantly  required  in  real  work,  and 
the  selection  is  made  by  noting  for  a  number 
of  years  the  relative  frequency  of  references 
to  the  different  subjects.  In  points  of  mate- 
rial content  and  arrangement,  each  alternate 
page  is  left  blank,  so  as  to  leave  a  place  for 


receiving  the  owner's  notes  and  original  mat- 
ter, the  constant  accumulation  of  which  will, 
it  is  believed,  make  the  work  a  valuable  vadc 
mecum.  There  are  other  conveniences  in  ar- 
rangement, designed  to  facilitate  the  use  of 
the  book  and  the  finding  of  the  page,  besides 
helps  to  the  reduction  of  values.  In  the  gen- 
eral introductory  observations,  the  possibil- 
ity of  determining  between  what  is  comput- 
able and  what  not,  is  considered.  Among 
the  particular  subjects  of  the  chapters  are : 
"  Machine  Design,"  "  Bearings  for  Shafts  and 
Spindles,"  "Sliding  Bearings,"  "The  Trans- 
mission of  Power," etc.,  " Steam  Machinery" 
with  its  details  ;  "  Hydraulics,"  "  Mechanical 
Draughting,"  "  Heat,"  "  Dynamics,"  "  Prop- 
erties of  Materials";  and  "Weights,  Meas- 
ures," etc.  . 

The  Federal  Government  of  Switzerland. 
By  Bernard  Moses,  Ph.  D.  Oakland,  Cal. : 
Pacific  Press  Publishing  Company.  Pp. 
256.     Price,  $1.50. 

This  volume,  by  the  Professor  of  Histo- 
ry and  Political  Economy  in  the  University 
of  California,  comprises  a  carefully  prepared 
essay  on  the  Constitution  of  the  principal 
established  European  republic  ;  one  that 
may  give  lessons  to  American  citizens,  and 
which  is  in  every  way  worthy  of  their  study. 
Prof.  Moses  approaches  the  subject  with  the 
manner  of  one  who  understands  it,  and  treats 
it  philosophically  and  judiciously,  not  only 
describing  the  provisions  of  the  Swiss  Con- 
stitution, but  investigating  their  evolution, 
and  finding  how  they  came  to  be  there.  In 
the  introduction,  having  considered  the  phys- 
ical conditions  of  Switzerland  and  observed 
the  composite  character  of  its  population, 
he  draws  a  contrast  between  it  and  the 
American  republics — the  United  States  and 
those  of  Spanish  origin.  The  population  of 
Switzerland,  various  as  it  is,  has  grown  from 
prehistoric  stock  without  serious  disturbing 
influences.  The  populations  of  the  Ameri- 
can republics  have  been  formed  from  ele- 
ments whose  later  environment  has  had  little 
in  common  with  their  earlier  surroundings, 
and  under  conditions  where  the  force  of  an- 
cient traditions  has  been  weakened  by  long 
migrations.  Switzerland  and  the  British 
colonies  were  predetermined  to  federation 
by  their  geographical  positions.  Switzerland 
is  the  only  existing  republic  that  has  lived 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


127 


through  the  period  in  which  religious  wars 
were  a  part  of  the  order  of  the  day.  Not- 
withstanding this,  and  the  sharp  religious 
divisions  between  the  cantons,  union  has 
prevailed,  and  a  federal  government  has 
been  established  under  which  both  Catholics 
and  Protestants  live  without  serious  friction. 
Another  peculiar  feature  of  Switzerland  is 
the  prevalence  of  three  distinct  and  official 
languages  (besides  the  unofficial  Romansch), 
and  the  maintenance  of  as  many  national 
characteristics,  while  in  the  United  States 
there  is  a  tendency  to  assimilation  in  all 
things  of  thiskind.  The  negro  in  the  South 
introduces  a  problem  into  our  political  life 
"of  which  the  population  of  Switzerland 
gives  no  hint."  Such  class  distinctions  as 
may  exist  there  are  those  that  may  arise  in 
a  homogeneous  society  under  the  conditions 
of  modern  life,  or  are  a  survival  from  the 
feudal  age;  but  "they  are  not  such  as  pro- 
ceed from  the  existence  in  the  population 
of  different  races  regarded  as  inferior  and 
superior."  Illiteracy  and  general  ignorance 
in  any  part  of  the  population  are  wanting  in 
Switzerland  ;  "  in  fact,  in  no  country  of  the 
world  are  the  affairs  of  education  adminis- 
tered more  zealously  or  with  greater  effi- 
ciency. The  problem  of  republican  govern- 
ment is,  therefore,  simpler  in  Switzerland 
than  in  America,  in  spite  of  the  proximity 
of  the  Swiss  to  the  monarchical  rule  of  Euro- 
pean states."  The  analysis  of  the  Swiss  Con- 
stitution is  introduced  by  a  review  of  the 
"  Antecedents  of  Swiss  Federalism,"  and  is 
applied  in  succession  to  the  several  depart- 
ments of  the  government,  its  foreign  and 
internal  relations,  the  army  and  finance, 
"Rights  and  Privileges,"  and  "The  Com- 
mon Fraternity." 

Kant's  Critical  Philosophy  for  English 
Readers.  A  New  and  Completed  Edition. 
By  John  P.  Mahaffy,  D.  D.,  and  John 
H.  Bernard,  B.  L>.  Vol.  II.  The  Pro- 
legomena translated,  with  Notes  and  Ap- 
pendices. London  and  New  York  :  Mac- 
millan  &  Co.     Pp.  239.     Price,  $1.50. 

This  is  the  second  volume  of  a  work 
whose  first  volume  was  noticed  in  this  maga- 
zine several  months  ago.  While  in  the  pre- 
ceding part  of  this  work  the  editor  has  taken 
the  more  agreeable  task  of  paraphrasing  the 
original,  because  the  "  Kritik"  is  already  ac- 
cessible in  English,  he  has  deemed  it  "  due 


to  Kant  to  put  his  '  Prolegomena'  in  all  their 
homeliness  literally  before  the  reader."  He 
has  reprinted  in  the  appendix  the  suppressed 
passages  of  Kant's  first  edition  of  the 
"  Kritik."  The  work  is  unfortunately  with- 
out an  index. 

TJie  Modern  Chess  Instructor,  Part  I,  by 
W.  Steinitz  (G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons),  contains 
elementary  explanations  for  beginners,  the 
description  of  notations,  a  telegraphic  chess 
code,  an  essay  on  the  principles  of  the  game, 
and  analyses  of  six  popular  openings,  with 
illustrative  games  to  each  opening,  while  the 
appendix  contains  the  games  of  the  contest 
between  Messrs.  Steinitz  and  Tschigorin 
which  were  played  at  Havana  in  January 
and  February,  1S89,  with  annotations  by  the 
author.     Pp.  193.     Price,  $1.50. 

Prof.  Charles  W.  Kent,  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Tennessee,  has  prepared  an  edition 
of  the  old  English  poem  Elcne,  which  is  as- 
scribed  to  Cynewulf,  with  introduction,  Latin 
original,  notes,  and  a  complete  glossary. 
The  introduction  and  notes  are  designed  for 
the  use  of  students,  and  not  with  any  view 
to  critical  purposes.  The  glossary  has  been 
made  more  complete  than  is  usual  in  edi- 
tions of  old  English  poems.  From  the  his- 
torical notice  in  the  introduction,  it  appears 
that  the  manuscript  of  this  poem  was  found 
in  1822  in  the  Cathedral  Library  in  Vercelli, 
and  the  question  of  the  way  it  got  there  has 
given  rise  to  considerable  discussion,  with 
not  very  definite  results.  The  author  is  sup- 
posed to  have  been  a  Northumbrian,  and 
to  have  lived  in  the  eighth  century.  The 
poem  is  founded  on  the  story  of  the  search 
for  the  cross  and  its  discovery  by  the  Era- 
press  Helena,  wife  of  Constantino.  While 
the  author  has  followed  the  story  with  con- 
siderable fidelity,  he  has  not  bound  himself 
too  closely  to  it,  and  those  passages  which 
are  all  his  own  are  the  best  in  the  work. 
Besides  the  historical  and  critical  introduc- 
tion, a  metrical  introduction  and  a  bibliog- 
raphy are  given.  We  last  month  published 
a  notice  of  a  translation  of  this  and  two 
other  old  English  poems.  Ginn  &  Co.,  pub- 
lishers.    Pp.  149.     Price,  65  cents. 

Of  two  text-books  in  Greek  published  by 
Ginn  &  Co.,  Mr.  Isaac  Flagg's  edition,  with 
notes,  of  Euripides's  Iphigcnia  among  the 
Taurians  commends  itself,  not  only  on  ao- 


128 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


count  of  the  superlative  literary  merit  of  the 
tragedy,  but  also  for  the  editor's  excellent 
critical  introductions,  in  which  he  gives  an 
account  of  the  growth  of  the  legend  of 
Iphigenia,  an  analysis  of  the  plot  and  artis- 
tic structure  of  the  work,  and  a  dissertation 
on  the  meters  and  technique.  The  volume 
is  one  of  the  publishers'  "  College  Series  of 
Greek  Authors,"  edited  under  the  supervis- 
ion of  J.  W.  White  and  T.  D.  Seymour.  Pp. 
197.  Price,  $1.50. — Mr.  Addison  Hague's 
Irregular  Verbs  of  Attic  Prose  gives,  after 
the  regular  verbs,  pure,  mute,  and  liquid,  the 
irregular  verbs  in  alphabetical  order,  with 
prominent  meanings  and  special  uses  of  fre- 
quent occurrence,  often  illustrated  by  trans- 
lated examples,  the  most  important  com- 
pounds, many  related  words,  and  some  four 
hundred  and  fifty  English  derivatives.  The 
volume  constitutes  a  helpful  bridge  over  a 
most  difficult  passage  in  the  study  of  Greek. 
Pp.  268.     Price,  $1.60. 

Prof.  S.  E.  Tillman's  Elementary  Lessons 
on  Heat  (J.  B.  Lippincott  Company)  have 
been  prepared  to  meet  the  necessities  of  a 
short  course  of  seventy  hours  at  the  United 
States  Military  Academy.  The  selection  of 
material  has  been  guided  by  considerations 
of  the  sub-course  of  studies  and  of  what  is 
essential  and  most  useful  for  the  students 
to  know.  A  logical  arrangement  is  sought, 
and  clearness  and  conciseness  in  relation  are 
aimed  at.  Most  of  the  experimental  illustra- 
tions described  or  referred  to  are  such  as 
can  be  performed  in  the  lecture-room.  The 
special  topics  treated  of  are  "  Thermome- 
try," "  Dilatation  of  Bodies,"  "  Calorimetry," 
"  Production  and  Condensation  of  Vapor," 
"Change  of  State,"  " Hygrometry,"  "Con- 
duction," "  Eradiation,"  "  Thermo  -  Dynam- 
ics," and  the  "Meteorological  Aspects  of 
Heat."    Pp.  160.     Price,  $1.80. 

The  Manual  of  Chemistry  for  the  Use  of 
Medical  Students  of  Dr.  Brandreth  Symonds 
(P.  Blakiston,  Son  &  Co.,  Philadelphia)  is 
not  designed  to  be  a  medical  chemistry,  but 
takes  up  those  parts  of  general  chemistry 
which  it  is  necessary  for  medical  students 
to  know.  The  author,  having  prepared 
students  for  several  years  in  this  branch, 
believes  that  he  knows  their  needs,  and  has 
made  this  effort,  in  the  light  of  that  knowl- 
edge, to  supply  them.  Besides  the  elements, 
a  large  share  of  the  space  is  allotted  to  the 


chemistry  of  water  and  air  and  the  sub- 
stances by  which  they  are  polluted ;  and  for 
this  acknowledgment  is  made  to  the  lectures 
and  articles  of  Prof.  C.  F.  Chandler.  A 
chapter  is  given  to  the  tests  for  the  impor- 
tant substances,  and  another  chapter  to  the 
tests  for  urine  and  the  substances  that  occur 
in  it.  The  theories  of  to-day  concerning 
chemical  action  arc  briefly  presented.  The 
metric  weights  and  measures  are  also  no- 
ticed, and  the  rules  are  given  for  converting 
degrees  of  temperature.  Pp.  154.  Price, 
$2.00. 

In  an  attractive-looking  volume  of  con- 
venient pocket  size,  entitled  Great  Words 
from  Great  Americans,  G.  P.  Putnam'3 
Sons  have  grouped  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  Washington's  inaugural  and  farewell 
addresses,  Lincoln's  inaugural  and  farewell 
addresses  and  his  great  Gettysburg  speech, 
and  Washington's  circular  letter  of  congratu- 
lation and  advice  to  the  Governors  of  the 
thirteen  States,  with  historical  notices  on 
some  of  the  papers,  and  portraits  of  Wash- 
ington and  Lincoln.  These  papers  all  cm- 
body  principles  and  enunciate  truths  the 
observance  of  which  is  essential  to  the  main- 
tenance of  our  Government,  and  which  it  is 
important  that  all  citizens  should  cherish 
and  keep  in  vigorous  life.  Pp.  199.  Price, 
75  cents. 

The  Kingdom  of  the  Unselfish ;  or,  the 
Empire  of  the  Wise  (Empire  Book  Bureau, 
28  Lafayette  Place,  New  York),  has  been 
written  by  Mr.  John  Lord  Peck  with  ref- 
erence to  the  existing  stage  of  social  evo- 
lution. If  not  suited  to  the  present  state  of 
opinion,  it  may  find  a  reading  in  the  next 
century.  The  purpose  of  the  book  is  un- 
folded in  the  introductory  chapter,  which  is 
headed  "  The  Reliable  and  Unreliable  in 
Thought."  Of  the  unreliable  are  all  relig- 
ious systems  founded  on  tradition  and  revela- 
tion, dogma,  and  speculative  philosophy,  in- 
cluding all  the  systems  that  have  followed 
one  another  from  Plato  and  the  ancients 
down  to  the  pessimism  of  Schopenhauer  and 
Hartmann  and  the  agnosticism  of  Comte, 
Huxley,  and  Spencer.  Neither  of  these  last 
systems  "  is  sufficiently  near  the  final  truth 
to  long  satisfy  the  human  mind,  and  the 
prediction  is  here  ventured  that  both  of 
them  will  give  way  to  a  system  of  ontology 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


129 


more  perfect  than  the  evolution  philosophy 
as  represented  by  Herbert  Spencer."  The 
class  of  ideas  that  is  most  positive  and  re- 
liable is  found  in  modern  science,  which  ac- 
knowledges nothing  as  beyond  candid  criti- 
cism, has  nothing  sacred  but  the  truth,  and 
investigates  every  part  of  the  universe  and 
of  man  with  equal  impartiality ;  and  is  not 
an  extreme  or  antagonistic  of  all  former 
knowledge  and  opinion,  but  "  is  a  more  com- 
plete, thorough,  and  systematic  knowledge 
of  the  same  kind  as  any  imperfect  knowl- 
edge preceding  it  that  has  a  real  basis  of 
fact." 

The  second  volume  of  the  Report  for 
1838  of  the  Geological  Survey  of  Arkansas, 
under  the  direction  of  State  Geologist  John 
C.  Branner,  comprises  a  review  of  the  Neo- 
zoic Geology  of  Southwestern  Arkansas,  by 
Robert  T.  Hill.  It  is  the  result  of  the  joint 
work  of  the  United  States  and  the  State 
Surveys,  in  which  the  latter  was  able  to 
avail  itself  of  Prof.  Hill's  knowledge  of  the 
mesozoic  geology  of  other  parts  of  the  Union. 
The  region  embraced  in  the  present  survey 
may  be  said  roughly  to  lie  between  the  Oua- 
chita and  Red  Rivers,  extending  a  little  east 
of  the  Ouachita,  including  Little  Missouri 
and  Little  Rivers,  and  to  consist  most  large- 
ly of  the  Trinity,  Lower  and  Upper  Creta- 
ceous, and  Tertiary  formations,  with  plateau 
gravel  and  associated  deposits,  and  the  flood 
plains  of  the  rivers,  of  the  Post-tertiary  or 
Quaternary.  In  determining  the  relations 
of  the  Upper  Cretaceous  beds,  the  author 
concludes  that  they  are  identical  with  those 
of  Texas,  more  obscurely  so  with  those  of 
New  Jersey,  and  the  equivalent  of  the  Upper 
Cretaceous  of  Europe.  The  relations  of  the 
Lower  Cretaceous  and  Trinity  with  forma- 
tions east  of  the  Mississippi  are  at  present 
only  conjectural.  Prof.  Hill's  review  is  sup- 
plemented by  papers  on  "  The  Northern 
Limits  of  the  Mesozoic  Rocks  in  Arkansas," 
by  Prof.  0.  P.  Hay,  and  "  On  the  Manufact- 
ure of  Portland  Cement,"  by  Prof.  Branner. 
— The  third  volume  of  the  series  is  a  pre- 
liminary report  on  the  Geology  of  the  Coal 
Regions,  by  Arthur  Winslow.  It  contains 
only  a  part  of  the  coal  regions  of  the  State, 
representing  an  area  of  nearly  two  thousand 
square  miles  and  extending  about  seventy- 
five  miles  along  the  Arkansas  River  from  the 
Indian  Territory  to  Dardanelle.      Chapters 

VOL.   XXXVI. 9 


are  devoted  to  the  "Distribution  of  the 
Coal,"  a  review  of  the  coal  industry  of  the 
State,  and  the  composition  and  adaptabilities 
of  the  coals. 

The  Commissioner  of  Agriculture,  in  his 
Report  for  1888,  represents  the  year  as  hav- 
ing been  one  of  much  greater  activity  in  the 
department  than  it  had  ever  before  experi- 
enced. The  investigations  made  have  ex- 
cited popular  interest,  and  the  results  ob- 
tained have  been  helpful  to  the  farming 
class.  A  good  record  was  made  of  the  work 
of  the  experiment  stations.  A  clearing-house 
or  exchange  is  called  for  through  which  they 
can  co-operate.  The  most  important  duty 
devolving  upon  the  Bureau  was  the  work  for 
eradicating  contagious  pleuro-pneumonia  in 
cattle ;  and,  in  connection  with  this,  the  need 
of  a  laboratory  is  suggested  where  persons 
can  qualify  themselves  by  experiment  for 
practice  in  the  diseases  of  animals.  The 
division  of  entomology  pursued  investiga- 
tions on  the  cottony-cushion  scale  of  Cali- 
fornia, the  hop-louse,  the  root-infesting  nema- 
tode worms,  the  cotton  and  boll  worm,  which 
attacked  the  tomato ;  the  Rocky  Mountain 
locust,  the  buffalo  gnat,  and  various  other 
insects  injurious  to  vegetation.  It  is  giving 
attention  to  the  introduction  of  parasites  de- 
structive of  such  insects.  Experiments  of 
silk-culture  have  not  yet  given  promise  of  a 
profitable  industry.  The  chemical  division 
interested  itself  in  the  study  of  food  adul- 
terations and  processes  for  making  sugar 
from  sorghum.  The  statistical  department 
had  to  meet  large  demands  for  supplying 
information.  The  botanical  division  was 
busy  in  experiments  on  the  adaptation  of 
various  plants,  and  in  studies  in  vegetable 
pathology.  Attention  was  given  to  the 
habits  of  different  birds,  and  the  depreda- 
tions on  crops  of  various  small  mammals. 
The  seed  division  was  active  in  sending  out 
seeds  to  experimental  cultivators  and  the 
constituents  of  members  of  Congress.  The 
forestry  division  reported  progress,  but  not 
much  encouragement  as  yet  for  the  restora- 
tion of  the  forests,  or  even  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  what  of  them  are  left.  Microscopical 
investigations  were  made  in  various  direc- 
tions. In  pomology  experiments  are  report- 
ed on  tropical  and  semitropical  fruits  and 
on  hardy  Russian  fruits  for  the  Northwest ; 
and  an  excellent  paper,  by  Mr.  W.  n.  Ragan, 


130 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


is  published  on  our  wild  fruits  and  the  de- 
sirability and  feasibility  of  perpetuating,  cul- 
tivating, and  improving  them. 

Sun  and  Shade  is  the  name  of  a  monthly 
"  picture  periodical  without  letterpress," 
published  by  the  Photo- Gravure  Company, 
853  Broadway,  New  York,  which  has  lately 
completed  its  first  year.  In  its  growth  it 
has  found  the  taste  of  its  patrons  preferring 
pictures  of  the  higher  class,  and  quality 
rather  than  quantity,  and  announces  its  pur- 
pose in  the  selection  of  subjects  to  respond 
to  this  demand.  Among  its  plans  for  the 
future  are  to  reproduce  the  leading  pictures 
in  the  collection  of  the  Metropolitan  Museum 
of  Art  and  the  works  of  American  artists  ; 
to  encourage  the  artistic  side  of  direct  pho- 
tography in  all  its  phases ;  and  to  add  exam- 
ples of  sculpture,  architecture,  and  indus- 
trial art.  The  subjects  of  "  Ecce  Homo," 
"The  Return,"  "Sunshine,"  "From  the 
Land  of  Sleepy  Hollow,"  and  others,  in  the 
August  number,  each  executed  in  its  peculiar 
style,  could  hardly  be  improved  upon.  Price, 
40  cents,  a  number ;  $4  a  year. 


PUBLICATIONS   RECEIVED. 

Allen,  Alexander  V.  G.  Jonathan  Edwards. 
Boston  and  New  Yoik :  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co. 
Pp.  401.     $1.25. 

Andrews,  E.  Benjamin.  Institutes  of  Economics. 
Boston  :  Silver,  Bur'dett  &  Co.     Pp.  227.     $1.80. 

Annals  of  the  Astronomical  Observatory  of  Har- 
vard College.  Vol  XX.  Part  I.  Meteorological 
Observations  made  during  the  Years  1840  to  1SS8  in- 
clusive. Pp.  157.— Part  II.  Observations  made  at 
the  Blue  Hill  Meteorological  Observatory.  Mass.,  in 
the  Year  18S8,  etc.,  under  the  Direction  of  A.  Law- 
rence Rotch      Pp.  267. 

Baker,  Charles  Whiting.  Monopolies  and  the 
People.  New  York  and  London:  G.  P.  Putnam's 
Sons.     Pp.  263.    $1.25. 

Baker,  Henry  B..  Lansing,  Mich.  The  Duties 
and  the  Compensation  of  the  Local  Health  Officer. 
Pp.  30. 

Bailliere,  J.  B.  et  Fila,  publishers,  Paris.  La 
Pisciculture  en  Eaux  Douces  (Pisciculture  in  Fresh 
Waters).     Pp  360. 

Baldwin,  James  Mark.  Hand-Book  of  Psy- 
chology. Senses  and  Intellect.  New  York  :  Henry 
Holt  &  Co.     Pp.  343. 

Borden,  John  American  Money.  Chicago  :  E. 
J.  Decker.     Pp.  45. 

Cornell  University  College  of  Aericulture.  A 
Study  of  Windbreaks  in  their  Relation  to  Fruit- 
Growing.     By  L.  H.  Bailey.     Pp.  24. 

Dall,  William  Healy.  A  Preliminary  Catalogue 
of  the  Shell-hearing  Marine  Mollnsks  and  Brachio- 
pods  of  the  Southeastern  Coast  of  the  United  States. 
Washinsrton  :  Government  Printing-Office.  Pp.221, 
with  74  Plates. 

Darwin,  Charles.  The  Structure  and  Distribu- 
tion of  Coral  Reefs  Third  edition,  with  an  Appen- 
dix by  Prof.  T.  G.  Bonney  New  York:  D.  Apple- 
ton  &  Co.     Pp.  344,  with  Maps.    $2. 

Eggleston,  Edward      A  First  Book  in  American 


History.    New  York:  D.  Appleton  &,  Co.    Pp.  203. 
7u  cents. 

Ferrel,  William.  A  Popular  Treatise  on  the 
Winds.  New  York  :  John  Wiiey  and  Sons.  Pp. 
505.     $4. 

Gore,  J.  Howard.  A  Bibliography  of  Geodesy. 
Washington  :  Government  I'rinting-Office.    Pp.  2u0. 

Green,  U.  L.  Giordano  Bruno :  his  Life,  Works, 
Worth,  Martyrdom,  Portrait,  and  Monument.  Buf- 
falo. N.  V.:  Office  of  the  "  > reethinker's  Magazine." 
Pp.  -Z0. 

Hare,  H.  A.,  Philadelphia.  The  Fatality  of  Car- 
diac Injuries.  Pp.  6  ;  Part  II.  Pp.  10.— The  Effect 
of  the  Entrance  of  Air  into  the  Circulation.    Pp.  5. 

Hinman,  Russell.  Eclectic  Physical  Geography. 
Cincinnati  and  New  York  :  Van  Antwerp,  Bragg  & 
Co.     Pp.  882. 

Hion  s,  Arthur  H.  Iron  and  Steel  Manufacture. 
London  and  New  York:  Macmillan  &,  Co.  Pp. 
180.    $1. 

Hitchcock,  Henry.  The  Development  of  the 
Constitution  as  influenced  by  Chief-Justice  Marshall. 
New  York  and  London  :  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons.  Pp. 
68. 

Hubert,  Philip  G,  Jr.  The  Nursery  Lesson- 
Book.  New  \ork  :  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons.  Pp.  72. 
75  cents. 

Janes,  Lewis  G.  Evolution  of  Morals.  Boston: 
New  Ideal  Publishing  Company.    Pp.  80.    10  cents. 

Klemm,  L.  R.  European  Schools;  or,  What  I 
saw  in  the  Schools  of  Germany,  France,  Austria,  and 
Switzerland.  New  York:  D.  Appleton  &  Co.  Pp. 
419.     $2. 

Marenboltz-Biilow.  The  Baroness.  The  Child  and 
Child-Nature  Syracuse,  N.  Y. :  C.  W.  Bardeen. 
Pp.  207.     $1.50. 

Massachusetts  State  Agricultural  Experiment 
Station.    Analysis  of  Commercial  Fertilizers.    Pp.4 

Michigan  Agricultural  College  Experiment  Sta- 
tion. Bulletins  on  Commercial  Fertilizers  and  on 
Spraying  with  Arsenites.     Pp.  7  and  8. 

Michigan  St9te  Board  of  Health.  Names  and 
Addresses  of  Health  Officers  in  Michigan.     Pp.  15. 

Minnesota  State  Board  of  Health.  Public  Health 
in  Minnesota,  August,  1889,  with  Supplement.  Pp. 
16. 

Neweomb,  George  B.  Teaching  School-Children 
to  think.    New  York:  D.  Appleton  &,  Co.    Pp.  22. 

"New  England  Magazine."  Ah  Illustrated 
Monthly.  Vol.  I,  No.  1.  September,  1889.  Pp. 
112.    25  cents,  $3  a  year. 

New  England  Meteorological  Society.  Bulletin, 
August,  18s9.  Pp.  9.  Appendix  to  Bulletins,  Me- 
teorological Summary  for  the  Year.     Pp.  43. 

Ohio  AgriculturallExperiment  Station.  Bulletin. 
Vol.  II,  Nos.  8,  4,  and  5.     Pp.  62. 

Parshall,  Nelson  C.  Proofs  of  Evolution.  Bos- 
ton :  New  Ideal  Publishing  Company.  Pp.  32.  10 
cents. 

Peabody  Museum  of  American  Archaeology  and 
Ethnology.  Palasolithic  Man  in  Eastern  and  Central 
North  America.     Pp.  20,  with  Plates. 

Peacncke,  John  M.,  M.  D..  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.  The 
Disposal  of  the  Dead.     Pp.  24. 

Photo-Gravure  Company.  Brooklyn.  N.  Y.  "  Pun 
and  Shade.  A  Photographic  Record  of  Events " 
Monthly.    40  cents,  $4  a  year. 

Pope,  Franklin  Leonard.  Evolution  of  the  Elec- 
tric Incandescent  Lamp.  Elizabeth,  N.  J. :  Henry 
Cook.     Pp.  91. 

Powell.  J.  W..  Director.  Sixth  Annual  Report 
of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  1884-'85,  Washington  : 
Government  I'rinting-Office.     Pp.  675. 

Proctor,  Richard  A.  Strength  :  how  to  get 
Strong  and  keep  Strong.  London  and  New  Yoik: 
Longmans,  Green  &  Co.     Pp.  178. 

Prudden,  T.  Mitchell,  M.  D.  The  Story  of  the 
Bacteria  and  their  Relations  to  Health  and  Disease. 
New  York  and  London :  G.  1*.  Putnam's  Sons.  Pp. 
143.    75  cents. 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 


131 


Furinton,  D.  B.  Christian  Theism,  its  Claims 
and  Sanctions.  New  York  and  London :  G.  P.  Put- 
nam's Sons.     Pp.  308.    $1.75. 

Putnam,  G.  P.'s  Sons.  The  Knickerbocker  Press. 
Pp  20. 

Richards,  Mrs.  Ellen  H.  Domestic  Economy  In 
Public  Education.  New  York  College  tor  the  Train- 
ing1 of  Teachers,  9  University  Place.  "  Educational 
Monographs"  Series.  Bi-monthly.  Pp.  30.  $1  a 
year. 

Smith,  Roderick  H.  The  Art  of  Speculation. 
Pp.  43. — Business  Chart,  showing  the  Course  of 
Business  in  the  United  States  for  the  Last  Thirty 
Years.     New  York:  American  Mews  Company. 

Smytbe,  G.  C,  M.  D.,  Greencastle,  Ind.  The 
Hydro-Therapeutic  Treatment  of  Typhoid  Fever. 
Pp.  11. — Address  before  the  Graduating  Class  of  the 
Central  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons.    Pp.  IS. 

Stark,  E.  D.  Bimetallism  and  the  Royal  Com- 
mission.    Cleveland.  Ohio,  "'Plain  Dealer."     Pp.53. 

Sumichra<t,  F.  C.  Les  Trois  Mousquetaires,  par 
Alexandre  Dumas.  Edited  and  annotated  fqr  use 
in  Colleges  and  Schools.  Boston  :  Ginn  &.  Co.  Pp. 
289.    SO  cents. 

Taylor,  W.  Edgar,  Peru,  Nebraska.  Local  Varia- 
tions in  the  Color  of  Flying-Squirrels.  Pp.  2. — Ge- 
ology in  our  Preparatory  Schools.  Pp.  6.— Notes  on 
Nebraska  Birds.     Pp.  4. 

Terry,  S.  B ,  Independence,  Mo.  Natural  Phi- 
losophy of  Social  Economy.     Pp.  24. 

Tuckerman,  Frederick,  M  D.,  Amherst,  Mass. 
Development  of  the  Taste-Organs  in  Man.     Pp.  24. 

Ward,  Prof.  Lester  F.,  Washington,  D.  C.  Causes 
of  Belief  in  Immortality.     Pp.9. 

White,  Prof.  Charles  A.  The  North  American 
Mesozoic.    Pp.  24. 

White,  Frances  Emily,  M.  D.  The  Evolution  of 
Morals.     Pp.  20. 

Whittier,  F.  N.,  M.  D.,  Brunswick,  Me.  Light 
Gymnastics  in  Schools.    Pp.  31. 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 

Ancient  Aboriginal  Mining. — Writing  on 
"  Ancient  Mining  in  North  America,"  Prof. 
Newberry  speaks,  in  the  "American  Anti- 
quarian," of  the  great  antiquity  of  the  abo- 
riginal works.  The  ancient  copper  mines 
on  Lake  Superior  were  abandoned  not  less 
than  four  hundred  years  ago  ;  for  the  heaps 
of  rubbish  around  the  pits  made  by  the  an- 
cient miners  were  covered  with  forest  trees 
that  had  reached  their  largest  size.  The  old 
mica  mines  of  North  Carolina  and  the  quar- 
ries of  serpentine  in  the  Alleghanies  showed 
like  evidences  of  antiquity.  Some  popula- 
tion in  the  Mississippi  Valley  worked  the 
oil-fields  in  various  places.  The  author,  vis- 
iting Titusville  in  1860,  when  the  first  well 
had  been  opened,  noticed  pits  in  the  ground 
which  proved  to  be  relics  of  the  excavations 
of  primeval  oil-gatherers.  A  citizen,  digging 
a  well  in  one  of  the  pits,  had  discovered  and 
followed  an  old  well,  which  was  cribbed  up 
with  timber  and  contained  a  primitive  lad- 
der, like  those  which  have  been  found  in  the 


old  copper  mines  of  Lake  Superior.  The 
cribbing  had  been  rudely  done  with  sticks 
from  six  to  eight  inches  in  diameter,  which 
had  been  cut  or  split  by  a  very  dull  instru- 
ment, "  undoubtedly  a  stone  hatchet."  The 
oil  was  probably  gathered  by  being  skimmed 
from  the  water  that  collected  in  the  bottom 
of  the  pit.  Traces  of  a  similar  well  were 
observed  at  Enniskillen,  Canada;  and  de- 
pressions in  the  surface  like  those  on  Oil 
Creek  were  noticed  at  Mecca  and  Grafton, 
Ohio.  Ruins  of  an  ancient  lead  mine  exist 
on  the  Morgan  farm,  near  Lexington,  Ky., 
in  the  form,  where  they  have  not  been  dis- 
turbed, of  an  open  cut,  from  six  to  ten  feet 
wide,  "  of  unknown  depth,  and  now  nearly 
filled  with  rubbish.  On  either  side  of  this 
trench  the  material  thrown  out  forms  ridges 
several  feet  in  height,  and  these  are  every- 
where overgrown  by  trees,  many  of  which 
are  as  large  as  any  found  in  the  forests  of 
that  region."  Galena  has  been  found  in 
many  of  the  ancient  works  in  Ohio,  but  has 
never  been  smelted,  and  appears  to  have 
been  valued  merely  for  its  brilliancy.  Dr. 
Newberry  does  not  believe  that  the  mound- 
builders  were  of  the  present  Indian  stock. 

The  Law's  Neglect  of  Children.— The 

defects  of  English  law  in  regard  to  the 
rights  and  claims  of  children  are  pointed  out 
by  Mary  C.  Tabor  in  the  "  Contemporary 
Review."  According  to  Chief-Justice  Cock- 
burn,  no  legal  obligation  is  imposed  on  the 
father  to  maintain  his  children  except  under 
the  poor-laws,  or  unless  his  neglect  shall 
bring  him  under  the  criminal  laws.  Nor  is 
there  any  obligation  upon  him  to  make  pro- 
vision for  them  after  his  death ;  but,  on  the 
other  hand,  he  can  by  the  appointment  of 
guardians  exercise  almost  as  absolute  a  con- 
trol over  them  in  other  respects  as  if  he  were 
living.  Responsibility  for  giving  a  certain 
degree  of  instruction  has  been  imposed  by 
the  late  Education  Act,  which  the  father 
shares  as  to  children  born  in  wedlock,  but 
as  to  illegitimate  children  he  is  scot-free. 
The  mother  of  an  illegitimate  child  may,  it 
is  true,  recover  from  the  father  a  sum  for 
maintenance,  but  that  obligation  is  in  law 
due  to  her  only,  and  in  no  way  to  the  child 
itself,  which  "is  shut  out  from  even  the 
shadow  of  a  right  to  a  father's  care."  The 
results  of  so  defective  a  system  are  what 


132 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


might  have  been  expected ;  the  working  of 
the  Education  Act,  and  of  several  benevolent 
enterprises  in  behalf  of  children,  "  have 
brought  to  light  an  appalling  amount  of 
semi-starvation,  ill-treatment,  or  neglect,  to 
which  children  are  subjected  with  impunity 
at  the  hands  of  drunken,  dissolute,  or  idle 
and  improvident  parents."  Thousands  of 
them  do  not  get  a  single  good  meal  a  day, 
but  come  breakfastless  to  school,  and  their 
midday  meal  is  provided  by  a  charity.  Cases 
of  neglect  and  cruelty  are  brought  before 
magistrates  against  which  no  statute  pro- 
vision can  be  found,  so  that  one  officer  was 
driven  to  declare:  "Had  it  been  a  dog,  I 
could  have  helped  you ;  but  it  is  only  a 
child,  and  I  am  powerless  to  assist."  The 
want  of  paternal  responsibility  is  what  drives 
unmarried  mothers  to  crimes  against  their 
offspring.  What  can  they  do  with  them  in 
the  situation  in  which  they  find  themselves  ? 
In  such  cases  the  author  would  make  the 
father  of  the  child  jointly  liable.  Matters 
are  better  in  most  of  the  American  States, 
but  in  the  majority  of  cases  our  own  pro- 
visions lack  enormously  of  what  they  ought 
to  be.  There  are  practical  difficulties  in  the 
way  of  securing  adequate  protection  by  law 
which  can  not  be  overlooked ;  so  that  the 
best  that  can  be  done  will  be  short  of  what 
is  desired.  But  this  only  enforces  the  rea- 
sons for  "  doing  the  best  that  can  be  done." 

Strnetnre  of  the  Ether. — "We  seem," 
said  Prof.  Fitzgerald,  in  the  British  Associ- 
ation, "  to  be  approaching  a  theory  as  to  the 
structure  of  the  ether.  There  are  difficulties 
connected  with  diffusion  in  the  simple  theory 
that  it  is  a  fluid  full  of  motion,  a  sort  of  vor 
tex  sponge.  There  are  similar  difficulties  in 
the  wave  theory  of  light,  owing  to  wave  prop- 
agation round  corners,  and  there  is  as  great 
a  difficulty  in  the  jelly  theory  of  the  ether 
arising  from  the  freedom  of  motion  of  mat- 
ter through  it.  It  may  be  found  that  there 
is  diffusion,  or  it  may  be  found  that  there 
are  polarized  distributions  of  fluid  kinetic 
energy  which  are  not  unstable  when  the  sur- 
faces are  fixed  ;  more  than  one  such  is  known. 
Osborne  Reynolds  has  pointed  out  another, 
though  in  my  opinion  less  hopeful,  direction 
in  which  to  look  for  a  theory  of  the  ether. 
Hard  particles  are  abominations.  Perhaps 
the  impenetrability  of  a  vortex  would  suffice. 


Oliver  Lodge  speaks  confidently  of  a  sort  of 
chemical  union  of  two  opposite  kinds  of  ele- 
ments forming  the  ether.  The  opposite  side3 
of  a  vortex  ring  might  perchance  suit,  or 
may  be,  the  ether,  after  all,  is  but  an  at- 
mosphere of  some  infra-hydrogen  element ; 
these  two  latter  hypotheses  may  both  come 
to  the  same  thing.  Anyway,  we  are  learn- 
ing daily  what  sort  of  properties  the  ether 
must  have.  It  must  be  the  means  of  propa- 
gation of  light;  it  must  be  the  means  by 
which  electric  and  magnetic  forces  exist ;  it 
should  explain  chemical  actions,  and,  if  pos- 
sible, gravity.  On  the  vortex-sponge  theory 
of  the  ether  there  is  no  real  difficulty  by 
reason  of  complexity  why  it  should  not  ex- 
plain chemical  actions.  In  fact,  there  is 
every  reason  to  expect  that  very  much  more 
complex  actions  would  take  place  at  dis- 
tances comparable  with  the  size  of  the  vor- 
tices than  at  the  distances  at  which  we  study 
the  simple  phenomena  of  electro-magnetism. 
.  .  The  theory  that  material  atoms  are 
simple  vortex  rings  in  a  perfect  liquid  other- 
wise unmoving  is  insufficient,  but  with  the 
innumerable  possibilities  of  fluid  motion  it 
seems  almost  impossible  but  that  an  expla- 
nation of  the  properties  of  the  universe  will 
be  found  in  this  connection." 

The  "  Rabbit  Pest "  in  Australia The 

prevalence  of  the  "  rabbit  pest "  in  Austra- 
lia seems  to  be  largely  a  result  of  man's  in- 
discreet interference  with  the  order  of  na- 
ture. Hares  were  introduced  for  coursing. 
Pet  rabbits  were  brought  over,  and  a  few 
pairs  of  gray  rabbits  were  turned  out  near 
Geelong,  to  form  a  warren.  The  last  lot  are 
believed  to  have  been  the  fathers  of  the 
mischief,  although  some  of  the  traits  of  the 
pets  are  found  among  the  pests.  The  rabbit 
army  generally  trends  toward  the  north  be- 
cause it  started  from  too  near  the  ocean  to 
advance  south.  Night  travelers  along  the 
Murray  River  used  to  describe  the  noise 
made  by  the  rabbits  scampering  off  from  the 
coach-lights  as  something  like  the  pattering 
of  a  hail-storm.  The  colonists  made  a  first 
mistake  in  having  the  dingoes,  or  native 
dogs,  destroyed,  because  they  were  danger- 
ous to  the  sheep.  Then  the  kangaroos  be- 
gan to  multiply,  taking  advantage  of  the 
accommodations  provided  for  the  sheep.  As 
soon  as  they  were  reduced  to  manageable 


P  OP  ULAR  MIS  CELL  ANY. 


133 


numbers,  the  rabbits  appeared.  The  twenty 
or  twenty-five  million  sheep  pastured  on  the 
Riverina  plains  are  being  gradually  eaten 
out  by  rabbits  to  an  extent  which  is  repre- 
sented by  the  decline  of  the  flocks  supported 
at  one  station  from  one  hundred  and  ten 
thousand  to  twelve  hundred  head.  The  rab- 
bits at  that  station  have  eaten  up  and  de- 
stroyed all  the  grass  and  herbage ;  have 
barked  all  the  edible  shrubs  and  bushes ; 
and  have  themselves  perished  by  thousands. 
Foxes  have  been  introduced  for  the  accom- 
modation of  hunters,  and  in  the  belief  that 
they  might  help  to  keep  down  the  rabbits, 
and  have  become  an  additional  and  fast-in- 
creasing nuisance.  Mr.  C.  G.  N.  Lockhart, 
in  "  Blackwood's  Magazine,"  advises  that 
the  rabbits  be  fought  by  the  encouragement 
of  their  natural  enemies,  cats  and  iguanas. 
Cats  hunt  them  industriously,  and  it  may  be 
estimated  that  the  progeny  of  one  pair  of 
cats  will  in  the  fifth  year  be  equal  to  the 
slaughtering  in  one  year  of  two  million  and 
a  half  of  them.  Iguanas,  in  the  growing 
scarcity  of  opossums,  their  proper  food,  may 
probably  learn  to  eat  rabbits.  The  bounties 
offered  for  the  destruction  of  rabbits  are  .act- 
ually contributing  to  their  perpetuation. 
The  professional  trappers  find  them  a  prof- 
itable game,  and  take  care  to  keep  up  the 
supply.  Hence  they  make  war  upon  the 
cats  with  much  more  anxiety  for  their  ex- 
tinction than  they  show  against  the  rabbits. 

The  Fate  of  the  Gulf  Stream.— M.  J. 

Thoulet,  applying  the  results  of  some  recent 
observations  respecting  the  relative  levels  of 
sea-water,  describes  the  Gulf  Stream  as  like 
a  river,  having  a  crest-line  more  inclined  in 
the  vicinity  of  its  source  than  toward  its 
mouth  ;  separated  by  a  valley  of  relatively 
abrupt  inclination  from  the  southward  New- 
foundland current,  while  its  right  flank  has 
a  more  considerable  breadth.  Certain  cur- 
rents from  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  strike 
it  so  as  to  retard  its  speed  and  cause  the  de- 
position as  a  submarine  delta  in  the  slope 
of  the  "  banks "  which  extend  along  the 
United  States  from  the  Great  Bank  of  New- 
foundland ;  while  the  eastern  polar  current, 
passing  around  Newfoundland  on  the  east, 
strikes  it  perpendicularly.  The  waters  of 
this  current,  colder  but  a  little  lighter  than 
those  of  the  Gulf  Stream,  mingle  with  them, 


and  almost  stop  it.  Its  warm  waters  then 
spread  out,  and  although  they  still  possess 
a  general  direction  toward  the  east,  are  sub- 
ject to  the  impulsion  of  the  winds  and  other 
accessory  causes  affecting  the  economy  of 
currents.  The  Gulf  Stream  is  then  in  the 
best  condition  to  mollify  the  climate  of  west- 
ern Europe,  but  no  longer  has  individuality ; 
it  has  become  a  simple  drift  without  depth, 
and  may  be  compared  to  a  great  river  lost 
in  swamps. 

Wild  Creatures  of  the  Alps.  —  Martens 
and  eagles  add  to  the  charms  of  the  land- 
scape for  the  Alpine  tourist,  but  are  hunted 
by  the  forester  as  his  special  enemies.  The 
marten  is  a  great  destroyer  of  eggs  and  weak 
young  creatures,  and  even  attacks  roes  during 
the  heavy  snows  of  winter.  It  steals  along 
by  the  animal  as  it  labors  through  the  heavy 
drifts  till  it  becomes  exhausted,  when  he 
springs  upon  it,  bites  its  jugular  vein,  and 
sucks  its  life  away.  The  marten  does  not 
eat  its  game,  but  drinks  the  blood  while  it  is 
still  warm,  and  leaves  the  body  for  other 
beasts  and  the  elements.  The  fox  hunts  in 
a  similar  way,  but  eats  the  flesh  till  it  is  sat- 
isfied, and  buries  the  rest  of  the  carcass. 
The  foresters  do  not  like  to  pursue  their 
predatory  enemies  with  poison  and  traps,  be- 
cause, it  is  said,  "  they  seem  to  think  that 
they  are  taking  an  unfair  advantage  of  a 
brother  sportsman  by  employing  such  un- 
derhand means  of  getting  rid  of  him."  Still, 
they  will  lie  in  ambush  to  shoot  their  rivals. 
Selecting  a  conveniently  situated  building, 
they  attract  the  foxes  toward  it  by  scattering 
carrion  around  at  a  suitable  distance.  Hav- 
ing learned  the  hour  at  which  the  animals 
are  accustomed  to  appear,  they  lie  in  wait 
for  them,  on  some  moonlight  night,  and 
shoot  at  the  shadowy  forms  as  they  come  in 
sight.  The  larger  birds  are  shot  in  a  similar 
manner,  but  under  circumstances  of  more 
labor  and  discomfort,  because  they  are  more 
wary.  While  the  fox  can  be  waited  for  in 
a  warm  room,  with  the  window  closed,  the 
birds  have  to  be  watched  from  some  rugged 
spot  where  it  is  impracticable  to  have  a  fire, 
and  with  open  windows.  The  birds  are  also 
hunted  for  with  a  decoy  horned  owl  —  a 
creature  toward  which  they  are  hostile  ;  and 
some  of  the  foresters  keep  owls  for  this 
work.     While  the  hunters  hide  in  some  shel- 


134 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


tcr  they  have  constructed,  the  owl  is  teth- 
ered upon  a  branch,  with  chain-room  enough 
to  enable  him  to  reach  and  move  about  upon 
the  ground ;  while  a  string  is  led  from  the 
chain  to  the  shelter,  by  means  of  which  the 
owl  is  kept  in  a  lively  condition.  The  flut- 
tering of  the  bird  between  the  ground  and 
the  perch  attracts  the  attention  of  the  crows  ; 
their  circling  and  cawing  are  noticed  by  the 
hawks  and  eagles,  which  come  around  to  see 
what  the  crows  have  found,  and  are  shot. 

Doctor  and  Patient  in  Aneient  Hispani- 
Ola. — Some  of  the  curious  features  and  cus- 
toms of  the  people  which  were  described  by 
the  early  travelers  in  Ilispaniola  or  Hayti 
have  been  recalled  by  Mr.  H.  Ling  Roth,  in 
a  paper  before  the  Archaeological  Institute. 
The  missionary  Ramon  Pane  says  that  the 
doctors  were  dieted  along  with  their  patients, 
and  were  obliged  to  purge  themselves  when 
they  did.  Intoxicating  himself  by  snuffing 
a  powder  which  may  have  been  tobacco,  the 
doctor  would  say  extravagant  things.  These 
were  regarded  as  communications  from  the 
Cemis  or  fetich,  and  as  embodying  revela- 
tions of  the  origin  of  the  sickness.  Having 
put  into  his  mouth  a  package  of  small  bones 
and  flesh  and  gone  through  some  preliminary 
observances,  the  doctor  would  go  toward  the 
sick  man  and  turn  him  twice  about;  then, 
standing  before  him,  take  him  by  the  legs, 
feel  his  thighs,  descending  by  degrees  to  his 
feet,  and  draw  hard,  as  if  he  would  pull 
something  off;  then,  going  to  the  door,  he 
would  shut  it,  saying,  "  Begone  to  the  mount- 
ain, or  to  the  sea,  or  whither  thou  wilt !"  With 
this  he  would  give  a  blast  as  if  he  were 
blowing  something  away,  turn  about,  clap  his 
hands  together,  and  shut  his  mouth,  while 
his  hands  would  be  quaking  as  if  he  were 
a-cold.  Then  he  would  blow  on  his  hands, 
and  drawing  in  his  blast  as  if  sucking  the 
marrow  of  a  bone,  he  would  suck  at  various 
parts  of  the  man's  body.  This  done,  after  a 
coughing  and  making  of  faces,  as  if  they  had 
eaten  some  bitter  thing,  the  doctor  would 
pull  out  what  he  had  put  into  his  mouth  be- 
fore starting  out.  If  it  was  anything  eatable, 
he  would  tell  his  patient  that  the  Ccmis  had 
put  it  into  him  to  cause  the  distemper  be- 
cause he  had  not  made  a  suitable  offering  to 
it.  If  the  patient  died,  and  his  friends  were 
strong  enough  to  oppose  the  physician,  they 


would  mix  with  the  juice  of  a  certain  herb 
and  the  dead  man's  nails  and  forehead  hair 
pounded  between  two  stones,  and,  pouring 
it  down  the  dead  man's  throat  and  nostrils, 
ask  him  whether  the  physician  was  the  cause 
of  his  death.  This  they  would  do  till  the 
dead  man  would  speak,  "  as  plain  as  if  he 
were  alive,"  and  answer  all  that  they  asked 
of  him,  when  they  would  return  him  to  his 
grave.  Another  method  of  making  the 
dead  speak  was  to  place  the  body  over  a 
very  hot  fire  covered  with  earth,  when  the 
dead  would  answer  ten  questions  and  no 
more.  If  the  physician  had  failed  to  do  his 
duty,  he  was  waylaid  and  bruised,  but  a  par- 
ticular mutilation  was  necessary  to  secure 
his  death.  At  night,  after  the  bruising, 
snakes  were  believed  to  lick  the  doctor's 
body,  and  he  would  tell  the  people  that  the 
Cemis  had  ccme  to  his  assistance. 

Conntry  Life,  Past  and  Present. — As  to 

whether  country  life  is  more  comfortable 
now  than  it  was  fifty  years  ago,  something 
may  be  said  on  both  sides.  Most  of  the 
places  remote  from  large  towns  were  literally 
out  of  the  world  in  the  old  times,  so  far  as 
society  and  active  life  were  concerned.  Trav- 
eling by  public  conveyance  was  difficult,  in- 
convenient, and  expensive  ;  and  visits  to  the 
city  were  rarely  enough  made  to  be  with 
many  literally  the  event  of  a  lifetime,  while 
hosts  of  other  persons  never  enjoyed  them 
at  all.  Communication  by  letter  even  was 
not  common,  for  postage  was  high  and  grad- 
uated according  to  the  distance,  and  only 
those  who  were  able  to  indulge  in  it  as  a 
luxury  felt  that  they  could  afford  to  dispatch 
many  letters  except  on  business  or  in  cases 
of  necessity.  There  were  market  towns,  and 
they  enjoyed,  a  kind  of  prosperity  of  their 
own  from  which  many  of  them  have  fallen 
since  railroads  came  in,  and  they  had  their 
societies  and  their  peculiar  codes  and  usages 
and  games  and  amusements,  which  left  no 
lack  of  sources  of  enjoyment.  But  very  few 
now  living  in  those  same  towns  would  ex- 
change their  present  life  there  for  that  of 
the  past.  There  were,  however,  a  sociality 
and  a  heartiness  in  the  neighborhood  life  of 
those  days,  a  freedom  and  equality  of  inter- 
course among  the  people  of  all  classes — an 
ignoring,  in  fact,  of  class  distinctions — a 
community  of  feeling  and  reciprocal  interest 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 


IS 


by  all  in  the  welfare  of  all,  a  wholesome 
public  opinion,  and  an  intelligent  public 
spirit,  that  have  now  disappeared.  Then 
Lincoln's  ideal  of  government  of  the  people, 
for  the  people,  by  the  people,  was  realized  in 
thousands  of  communities  where  the  hope  of 
it  and  even  the  imagination  of  it  are  not  now 
entertained.  We  have  gained  that  the  value 
of  which  we  can  not  calculate  with  railroads 
and  telegraphs,  and  the  changes  which  have 
come  over  our  social  life ;  but  it  is  equally 
impossible  to  estimate  what,  in  turn,  we 
have  lost. 

Deep  -  Sea  Fishes.  —  Remembering  the 
darkness  and  the  enormous  pressure  of  the 
water  in  the  depths  of  the  ocean,  no  one  will 
be  surprised  that  the  forms  and  the  organs 
of  deep-sea  fishes  differ  greatly  from  those 
of  species  which  live  near  the  surface.  Un- 
less among  microscopic  creatures,  no  such 
curious  and  grotesque  shapes  can  be  found 
in  the  animal  kingdom  as  among  these  fishes. 
Some  resemble  the  ribbon-fishes  of  our  own 
seas,  being  long  and  slender,  like  the  scab- 
bard of  a  sword.  Others  are  fashioned  after 
the  type  of  our  angler-fish,  having  organs 
about  the  mouth  suggestive  of  a  bait  to  at- 
tract its  prey.  Some  terminate  in  a  sharply 
pointed  tail  instead  of  the  familiar  form. 
One  strange  form  is  Bathypterois  longicauda, 
of  which  one  specimen  only  has  been  taken, 
from  a  depth  of  2,550  fathoms  in  the  middle 
of  the  South  Pacific.  This  fish  was  three 
inches  long,  with  a  big  head  and  tail  and  a 
very  slender  body.  The  uppermost  pectoral 
fin  was  longer  than  the  whole  fish,  and  was 
forked  from  its  middle.  Some  species  have 
huge  mouths  with  bodies  like  loose  sacs,  ca- 
pable of  prodigious  distention  when  they 
seize  upon  a  large  victim.  Macrurus  crassi- 
ceps  has  a  huge  head  with  hardly  any  body. 
The  hues  of  deep-sea  fish  are  mostly  simple. 
Their  bodies  are  either  black,  pink,  or  sil- 
very; though  some  which  are  black  when 
preserved  were  blue  on  being  brought  to  the 
surface.  In  only  a  few  are  some  filaments 
or  the  fin  rays  of  a  scarlet  color.  Black 
spots  on  the  fins  or  dark  cross-bars  on  the 
body  are  of  extremely  rare  occurrence.  Few 
people  are  aware  how  difficult  it  is  to  procure 
the  deep-sea  fishes.  Their  tissues  are  ex- 
tremely delicate,  so  that  the  dredge  often 
mutilates  them.     Frequently,  too,  in  coming 


up  from  the  bottom,  on  the  pressure  gradu- 
ally growing  less,  the  gases  which  they  con- 
tain, expanding,  tear  their  way  out.  Espe- 
cially is  this  the  case  with  those  which  pos- 
sess a  swim-bladder.  This  is  almost  always 
ruptured  a3  the  fish  comes  to  the  surface. 
Indeed,  some  specimens  have  been  found 
floating  in  a  dying  state  on  the  waves,  from 
having  seized  upon  prey  which  was  too  pow- 
erful for  them,  and  in  struggling  to  escape 
dragged  them  into  the  upper  waters,  when 
some  rupture  took  place  and  they  floated 
helplessly  to  the  surface.  The  most  curious 
part  of  the  organization  of  deep-sea  fishes  is 
undoubtedly  the  phosphorescent  or  luminous 
organs  which  distinguish  several  well-known 
species.  In  some  of  these  the  eyes  seem 
entirely  absent  or  only  rudimentary.  Thus, 
Tpnops  Murrai/i,  taken  from  a  depth  of  1,600 
to  2,150  fathoms,  possesses  no  eyes.  It  has 
a  depressed  head,  with  a  broad  snout,  and 
the  upper  surface  of  the  head  is  covered 
with  a  pair  of  transparent  membranes,  car- 
rying a  luminous  organ  divided  into  two 
symmetrical  halves.  Scopelus  is  another 
phosphorescent  species,  with  a  line  of  "  eye- 
like, pearl-colored  organs  "  running  on  each 
side  of  the  fish  from  head  to  tail.  Dr.  Giin- 
ther,  in  his  "  Introduction  to  the  Study  of 
Fishes,"  has  given  the  possible  uses  of  these 
organs  as,  first,  to  enable  the  fish  to  see; 
second,  if  placed  on  barbels  and  the  like,  to 
allure  prey ;  third,  to  terrify  foes.  Of  course, 
the  luminous  appearance  departs  at  death. 

If  there    were    no    Friction.— Having 

shown  that  friction  is  an  insuperable  impedi- 
ment to  the  realization  of  perpetual  motion, 
Prof.  Hele  Shaw  observes  that  "  if  we  are 
inclined  to  regret  this  fact,  a  little  reflection 
on  what  would  occur  if  friction  ceased  to 
act  may  not  be  uninstructive,  for  the  whole 
face  of  nature  would  be  at  once  changed, 
and  much  of  the  dry  land,  and,  even  more 
rapidly,  most  of  our  buildings,  would  disap- 
pear beneath  the  sea.  Such  inhabitants  as 
remained  a  short  time  alive  would  not  only 
be  unable  to  provide  themselves  with  fire  or 
warmth,  but  would  find  their  very  clothes 
falling  back  to  the  original  fiber  from 
which  they  were  made  ;  and  if  not  destroyed 
in  one  of  many  possible  ways — such  as  by 
falling  meteors,  no  longer  dissipated  by 
friction  through  the  air,  or  by  falling  masses 


i36 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


of  water,  no  longer  retarded  by  the  atmos- 
phere and  descending  as  rain — would  be  un- 
able to  obtain  food,  from  inability  to  move 
themselves  by  any  ordinary  method  of  loco- 
motion, or,  what  would  be  equally  serious, 
having  once  started  into  motion,  from  being 
unable  to  stop  except  when  they  came  into 
collision  with  other  unhappy  beings  or  mov- 
ing bodies.  Before  long  they,  with  all  heavier 
substances,  would  disappear  forever  beneath 
the  waters  which  would  now  cover  the  face 
of  a  lifeless  world." 

British  Whales.— The  whales  of  the  Brit- 
ish Islands  are  more  abundant  and  more  va- 
ried in  species  than  has  generally  been  sup- 
posed.    The  most  important  of  the  species 
that  have  occurred  in  Great  Britain  is  the 
Greenland  right  whale,  which  has  now  been 
driven   into   the  far  north.      The  Atlantic 
right  whale  was  once  hunted  with  consider- 
able vigor  in  the  English  Channel ;  and  those 
who  hunted  it  there  are  said  to  have  invented 
the  harpoon,  and  taught  the  Dutch  whalers 
how  to  use  it.     The  hump-backed  or  Ber- 
muda whale  has  been  cast  ashore  on  the  isl- 
ands, and  is  therefore  entitled  to  be  called 
a  British  species.     A  fourth  species  is  the 
caaing  or  bottle-nose  whale,  a  large  school  of 
which  was  seen  in  the  summer  of  1888  dis- 
porting in  the  Bay  of  Firth.    The  whale — an 
air-breathing  mammal    living  in  the  water 
— is  admirably  adapted  to  its  environment. 
The   blow-holes  are   placed  on  the  top  of 
the  head,  and  the  animal  can  respire  only 
when  they  are  above  the  water.     The  ani- 
mal heat  is  preserved  and  the  specific  grav- 
ity reduced  by  the  thick  coating  of  blub- 
ber that  lies  just  under  the  skin.     An  inter- 
esting trait  in  the  economy  of  the  whale  is 
the  manner  in  which  it  suckles  its  young.    It 
partly  turns  on  its  side,  and  the  teats  being 
protruded,    sucking   and   breathing   go    on 
simultaneously.      The    "baleen"   or  whale- 
bone of  the  "whalebone  whales"  consists 
of  about  five  hundred  laminae — taking  the 
place  of  teeth — ranged  about  two  thirds  of 
an  inch    apart,    and   having   their    interior 
edges  covered  with  fringes  of  hair.     Some 
of  them  are  fifteen  feet  long.    The  cavity  of 
a  whale's  mouth  has  been  compared  with 
that  of  an  ordinary  ship's  cabin,  the  inside 
of  which  is  covered  with  a  thick  fur.     The 
soft,  spongy  tongue  is   often   a  monstrous 


mass  ten  feet  broad  and  eighteen  feet  long. 
The  whale  feeds  upon  minute  mollusks — 
Medusae  and  Entomostracece — with  which 
the  northern  seas  abound.  "  Opening  its 
huge  mouth,"  says  Prof.  Huxley,  "and  al- 
lowing the  sea-water,  with  its  multitudinous 
tenants,  to  fill  the  oral  cavity,  the  whale 
shuts  the  lower  jaw  upon  the  baleen  plates, 
and,  straining  out  the  water  through  them, 
swallows  the  prey  stranded  upon  its  vast 
tongue." 

Standards  of  Light.— It  is  a  delicate  mat- 
ter to  obtain  an  accurate  standard  of  light. 
Candles  are  still  most  relied  upon  for  the 
tests  of  comparison,  but  it  is  obvious  that 
they  are  susceptible  of  great  variations  in 
the  intensity  of  the  light  they  afford.  Still, 
if  made  according  to  fixed  rules,  and  their 
burning  similarly  regulated,  they  will  give  a 
fair  approach  to  accuracy.  Various  English 
acts  prescribe  a  sperm  candle  of  six  to  the 
pound,  and  burning  at  the  rate  of  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty  grains  per  hour  ;  also  that 
the  tip  of  the  wick  shall  be  glowing  and 
slightly  bent.  Gas  examiners  are  not  always 
as  particular  in  the  matter  as  they  ought  to 
be,  and,  by  allowing  the  wick  to  remain  up- 
right, may  obtain  a  result  indicating  a  gas  of 
slightly  more  value  than  it  really  has.  The 
German  Gas  and  Water  Society  recommend 
an  amyl  acetate  lamp,  which  is  not  quite  as 
intense  as  a  candle,  and  is  objected  to  by 
Mr.  W.  J.  Dibdin  as  being  unsuitable  in  the 
color  of  its  light.  Dr.  Werner  Siemens  has 
devised  a  selenium  photometer,  the  electric 
resistance  of  which  is  exactly  dependent  on 
the  light  falling  upon  it.  The  pentane  lamp, 
and  the  Methven  screen,  in  which  a  coal-gas 
light  is  admitted  through  an  aperture  of  fixed 
dimensions,  are  favored  by  many  persons; 
and  a  standard  afforded  by  a  melting  or  a 
solidifying  platinum  wire  is  well  spoken  of. 

John  Mercer,  F.  R.  S. — John  Mercer  has 
been  called  by  Mr.  T.  E.  Thorpe,  in  "Na- 
ture," the  "Palissy  of  calico-printing."  lie 
achieved  a  great  success  in  the  arts  without 
any  other  helps  than  those  which  he  made  for 
or  attracted  to  himself.  He  was  born,  accord- 
ing to  Mr.  E.  A.  Parnell's  "Life,"  in  1791, 
the  son  of  a  hand-loom  weaver,  who  had 
turned  to  agriculture.  When  nine  years  old, 
he  was  set  to  work,  on  the  death  of  his 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 


137 


father,  at  bobbin-winding.  A  pattern-de- 
signer taught  him  reading  and  writing,  and 
an  excise-officer  gave  him  lessons  in  arith- 
metic. He  became  interested  in  colors  and 
dyeing,  when  sixteen  years  old,  from  observ- 
ing the  orange  color  of  the  dress  of  his  little 
step-brother.  Without  books  or  means  of 
obtaining  instruction,  but  having  got  a  full 
set  of  colors,  and  by  the  aid  of  trial  experi- 
ments, he  acquired  considerable  knowledge 
of  the  properties  of  dye-stuffs  and  of  the 
current  methods  of  coloring.  Then  he  got 
books  and  learned  exact  methods.  From 
this  time  his  course  was  upward  till  he  be- 
came master  of  his  art,  the  inventor  and 
teacher  of  new  methods,  and  the  author  of 
some  of  the  most  valuable  improvements 
that  were  made  in  dyeing  previous  to  the 
introduction  of  the  coal-tar  colors.  Mercer's 
skill  and  knowledge,  says  Mr.  Thorpe,  were 
ungrudgingly  given  to  his  fellow- workers  in 
the  art,  and  his  assistance  and  advice  were 
constantly  sought.  "  lie  had,  indeed,  all  the 
essential  qualities  and  instincts  of  the  sci- 
entific mind,  and  there  was  a  certain  com- 
prehensiveness about  the  man,  a  certain  vig- 
orous grasp  of  general  principles,  and  a 
largeness  of  view  which  made  his  influence 
felt  at  once  among  men  of  science."  He  was 
the  author  of  some  useful  investigation  in 
chemistry,  and  an  early  worker  in  photog- 
raphy. 

A  Chase  of  Evil  Spirits. — A  very  curious 
custom  is  that  called  the  women's  hunt, 
which  prevails  among  some  of  the  aboriginal 
tribes  of  Chota  Nagpore,  India.  It  is  ob- 
served whenever  any  calamity  falls  upon  the 
community — such  as,  perhaps,  a  visitation 
of  cholera.  The  women  put  on  men's  clothes, 
take  up  arms,  and  go  a-hunting — not  in  the 
jungles,  but  in  the  nearest  village  east  of 
them.  They  chase  pigs  and  fowls,  take  as 
their  own  everything  they  kill,  and  levy 
black-mail  from  the  heads  of  the  villages  for 
the  purchase  of  liquor,  or  else  they  allow 
themselves  to  be  bought  off  for  a  small  sum 
of  money  and  a  pig.  Toward  evening  the 
hunting  party  retire  to  a  stream,  cook  and 
eat  their  meal,  drink  their  liquor,  and  then 
return  home,  having  acquitted  themselves 
during  the  day  in  a  thoroughly  masculine 
and  boisterous  manner.  Then  the  village 
that  has  been  visited  goes  on  a  similar  ex- 


cursion to  the  next  village  east  of  it,  and  so 
on  to  the  eastern  borders  of  the  district. 
By  this  series  of  excursions  it  is  supposed 
the  evil  spirit  of  the  affliction  is  safely  con- 
ducted out  of  the  district  without  offending 
its  dignity.  A  single  village  is  excepted 
from  the  operation  of  the  custom,  and  is 
called  Mahadaiva,  being  devoted  to  Mahadev, 
and  under  his  special  protection.  If  cholera 
appears  there,  it  is  because  he  is  offended, 
and  he  must  be  propitiated  before  it  will 
disappear. 

A  Discussion  about  Leprosy. — A  recent 
discussion  about  leprosy  in  the  Epidemiologi- 
cal Society  of  London  has  made  it  very  ob- 
vious that  our  knowledge  on  the  subject  is 
extremely  indefinite.  While  some  persons 
insisted  that  the  disease  was  fast  increasing 
in  India  and  is  contagious  and  hereditary 
and  threatening  to  European  countries,  others 
brought  evidence  of  opposite  tenor.  A  case 
was  cited  in  which  a  man,  born  of  leprous 
parents  in  a  leper  hospital  and  brought  up 
there,  who  married  a  leprous  woman,  had 
not  contracted  the  disease  at  thirty  years 
of  age.  Other  evidence  was  to  the  effect 
that  contagiousness  is  conditioned  by  cir- 
cumstances not  well  understood,  among  which 
are  the  quantity  and  character  of  the  food, 
supply.  The  influence  of  inheritance  is  as 
doubtful  as  that  of  contagion.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  is  certain  that  leprosy  occurs  in 
cases  in  which  it  has  not  been  inherited, 
and  no  contagion  can  be  traced. 

Prunes. — Prunes  are  said  to  have  been 
introduced  into  France  by  the  Crusaders, 
and  to  have  been  first  cultivated  by  the  in- 
mates of  a  convent  near  Clairac.  The  plum- 
tree  is  profitably  cultivated  in  several  of  the 
departments,  and  grows  well  in  any  situa- 
tion that  is  favorable  to  grapes.  The  fruit 
when  ripe  is  covered  with  a  "  flower,"  which 
adds  much  to  its  value.  It  is  usually  gath- 
ered, after  the  night-damps  have  dried  away, 
by  shaking  lightly  from  the  tree,  and  only 
such  as  falls  readily  is  taken.  It  is  then 
put  in  a  building,  where  it  matures  com- 
pletely. Prunes  are  subjected  to  three  or 
four  cookings  before  they  are  ready  for  the 
market — two  for  the  evaporation  of  the 
contained  water,  and  the  others  for  drying 
and  giving  a  peculiar  brilliancy  to  the  prod- 


i38 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


uct.  In  Provence  the  freshly  gathered  fruit 
is  plunged  into  pots  of  boiling  water,  where 
it  remains  till  the  water  again  comes  to  the 
boiling-point.  It  is  then  shaken  in  baskets 
till  cool,  and  dried  in  the  sun  on  trays.  At 
Digne  the  fruits  are  peeled  with  the  nails 
and  strung  on  sticks  in  such  a  way  as  not 
to  touch,  and  then  are  stuck  into  straw 
frames  and  exposed  to  the  sun  till  the  prunes 
easily  detach  themselves  from  the  stick.  The 
pit  is  then  removed,  and  the  fruit  is  placed 
upon  trays  exposed  to  the  sun.  In  some 
other  districts  the  prunes  are  dried  in  im- 
mense ovens.  The  first  cooking  of  the  fruit 
should  be  at  a  temperature  not  exceeding 
50°,  the  second  70°  C,  while  the  third  may 
be  performed  at  80°  or  90°,  or  occasionally 
100°  C.  A  well-cooked  prune  is  dark  pur- 
ple, has  a  solid  and  brilliant  surface,  is 
malleable  and  elastic  to  the  touch,  with  the 
kernel  well  done  and  intact  in  the  shell. 
When  these  conditions  are  not  fulfilled,  the 
kernel  ferments,  and  the  prune  becomes 
moldy  and  worthless.  Bordeaux  is  the  prin- 
cipal center  of  the  prune  industry,  and  has 
a  trade  that  is  increasing. 

Climate  and  Phthisis.  —  The  question, 
Does  climate  cure  phthisis  ?  is  answered  by 
Dr.  James  A.  Lindsay,  of  Belfast,  Ireland, 
in  the  affirmative,  "  beyond  question."  It 
does  it,  not  usually  by  a  single  or  specific 
quality  of  the  air  or  by  any  definite  combina- 
tion of  meteorological  conditions,  but  by  re- 
moving the  consumptive  from  the  evil  in- 
fluences of  unfavorable  meteorological  con- 
ditions and  of  an  injurious  soil,  and  trans- 
ferring him  to  a  climate  where  fresh  air, 
sunshine,  and  outdoor  life  may  be  enjoyed 
and  their  concomitant  advantages  realized. 
The  best  climates  to  cure  phthisis  are  found 
at  marine  resorts  and  mountain  resorts. 
The  best  marine  resort  is  a  seagoing  ship — 
a  sailing  vessel  preferred — and  the  longer 
the  voyage  the  better.  Next  are  ocean  isl- 
ands, coast  islands,  and  shore  places,  of 
which  Algiers,  Tangier,  and  Malaga  are 
among  the  best.  Of  the  dry  inland  resorts, 
the  best  are  Nubia,  the  interior  parts  of 
Algeria,  the  Orange  Free  State,  and  the  vast 
interior  plains  of  Australia — of  which  the 
Orange  Free  State  is  recommended  on  ac- 
count of  its  altitude.  The  mountain  resorts 
have  proved  most  efficacious  in  cases  of  de- 


layed recovery  from  pneumonia,  with  threat- 
ening tuberculosis,  chronic  pleurisy  with 
much  fibroid  change,  incipient  catarrh  of  the 
apex,  and  chronic  tubercular  phthisis,  with 
good  reaction  and  the  retention  of  fair  con- 
stitutional vigor.  They  are  not  good  for 
advanced  and  much  weakened  cases ;  and, 
speaking  generally,  only  chronic  cases  with 
fair  reaction  are  suitable  for  climatic  treat- 
ment. 

The  Crofter's  Question.— The  English 
newspapers  have  had  much  to  say  concern- 
ing the  agitations  of  the  "  crofters  "  of  the 
Highlands  and  islands  of  Scotland.  The 
crofters  are  small  farmers,  living  on  rental 
holdings  which  have  generally  been  occu- 
pied by  the  family  through  many  genera- 
tions, or  perhaps  centuries,  coming  down 
from  the  times  when  the  clan  system  pre- 
vailed. During  the  present  century  their 
holdings  have  been  abridged  by  the  develop- 
ment of  sheep-farming  in  which  the  land- 
lords have  become  interested,  and  more  re- 
cently by  the  absorption  of  the  land  in  im- 
mense deer  parks.  The  crofters  naturally 
object  to  being  dispossessed  of  estates  which 
they  have  come  to  regard  as  in  a  measure 
their  inheritances,  and  have  manifested  their 
objections  in  ways  common  to  rude  and  igno- 
rant men.  Deprived  of  their  accustomed 
homes  and  of  the  only  resources  which  they 
knew  how  to  make  available,  their  situation 
became  so  distressing  ancj  desperate  as  to 
awaken  public  attention  and  form  a  lead- 
ing question  in  Parliament.  They  claim  a 
right  to  security  of  tenure,  to  the  fixation 
of  rent  by  a  land  court,  and  to  opportuni- 
ties for  enlarging  their  holdings.  As  de- 
fined in  the  "  Westminster  Review,"  their 
troubles  are  not  the  growth  of  a  few  years, 
nor  are  they  due  to  any  faults  of  their  own, 
but  rest  upon  claims  of  right  far  older  than 
the  present  civilization  and  regime  of  the 
country.  The  historic  claim  of  the  crofters 
is,  that  the  fertile  lands  in  the  Highland 
glens  and  pastures  and  on  the  hill-sides  were 
the  common  property  of  the  clan  under  the 
chief,  and  that,  even  though  the  chief  may 
have  been  in  the  eye  of  the  law  the  absolute 
owner  of  the  land,  still  in  point  of  fact  and 
immemorial  custom  the  clan  shared  his  pos- 
sessions, and  had  an  undisputed  and  undis- 
turbed right  to  their  crofts  and  their  past- 


P  OP  ULAR  MIS  CELL  ANY. 


!39 


ure3  or  grazings,  on  payment  of  a  small  rent, 
or  on  condition  that  they  served  under  their 
chief  in  case  of  war.  That  this  was  the  an- 
cient custom  is  not  questioned.  The  disre- 
gard of  it  now  shown  by  the  landlords,  with 
the  connivance  of  the  authorities,  is  excused 
by  saying  that  a  security  of  tenure,  founded 
in  the  old  usage  of  the  country,  can  not  now 
be  seriously  entertained,  as  the  clan  system 
no  longer  exists,  and  the  property  has  in 
many  cases  changed  hands.  At  the  same 
time,  the  Royal  Commissioners  appointed  to 
inquire  into  the  matter  admit  that  the  pres- 
ent crofters  are  the  descendants  and  heirs 
of  the  holders  who  acquired  these  rights, 
and  have  done  nothing  to  forfeit  them.  The 
landlords,  however,  have  disregarded  this 
tenure,  have  evicted  the  tenants,  and  have 
converted  their  farms  into  sheep-walks  and 
immense  deer  ranges — enforcing  their  pre- 
tensions with  many  instances  of  cruelty  and 
fiendish  hardship  ;  and  Parliament  has  done 
nothing' effectually  to  remedy  the  evil  which 
has  been  allowed  to  grow  up. 

Italian  \Yitc!i-Storics. — A  practice,  hy- 
brid of  the  legitimate  healing  art  and  of 
the  old  witchcraft,  is  still  current  in  parts 
of  Italy.  Its  professors  are  fairly  trust- 
worthy respecting  what  comes  under  their 
own  eyes,  and  prescribe  judiciously  for  the 
ordinary  ailments  of  animals,  but  can  also 
tell  some  marvelous  fables  about  minerals, 
plants,  and  beasts ;  and  it  sometimes  re- 
quires discrimination  to  distinguish  whether 
they  are  talking  from  knowledge  or  are 
repeating  some  old  fancy.  According  to 
one  of  their  stories,  if  one  takes  the  eggs 
from  a  raven's  nest,  boils  them,  and  puts 
them  back,  the  parent  bird  will  bring  a 
stone  of  the  same  shape  and  size  which  will 
have  the  power  of  restoring  life  to  them. 
The  stone,  remaining  in  the  nest  after  the 
birds  have  flown,  becomes  half  transparent 
and  like  an  egg  in  everything  except  weight 
and  hardness.  When  placed  near  poisoned 
food,  the  yolk  will  give  warning  of  the  fact 
by  becoming  violently  disturbed.  If  a  stone 
the  size  of  a  pea,  which  the  lapwing  is  said 
always  to  deposit  in  its  nest,  is  put  under 
the  pillow  of  a  sleeping  person,  the  sleeper 
will  answer  truthfully  any  reasonable  ques- 
tion in  the  language  in  which  it  is  asked.  A 
particular  serpent,  reputed  venomous  at  all 


times,  is  said  to  be  especially  so  in  May ; 
and  the  first  person  it  bites  in  that  month 
will  die  himself,  and  also  cause  the  death  of 
any  one  who  may  stand  beside  him  or  come 
to  his  help.  The  fondness  of  snakes  for 
milk  gives  the  basis  for  the  story  of  a 
coachman  into  whose  open  mouth  a  snake 
crawled  while  he  was  sleeping  by  the  road- 
side. The  doctors  having  failed  to  help 
him,  he  consulted  the  professors  of  the 
University  of  Naples  ;  they  hung  him  up  by 
his  feet  and  set  a  bowl  of  milk  under  his 
head.  The  snake  was  attracted  by  the 
smell  of  the  milk,  and  crept  partly  out  to 
get  it,  when  it  was  pulled  the  rest  of  the 
way  out.  Of  course,  the  coachman  recov- 
ered. 

Outdoor  Tastes   of  the  Anstralians. — 

The  climate  of  Australia  disposes  to  out- 
door life ;  hence  the  most  is  made  of  holi- 
days and  of  excuses  for  appointing  them, 
and  outdoor  sports  flourish  as  in  no  other 
country.  Thought  is  quick,  and  speech 
nimble  and  marked  by  a  reckless  energy  of 
diction — as  when  a  young  woman  of  great 
skill  at  lawn  tennis  is  complimented  by  being 
described  as  "  a  terror."  Mr.  Ernest  Moon 
finds  a  more  serious  result  of  the  outdoor 
habit  in  the  fact  that  there  is  little  time  or 
inclination  left  for  reading.  In  very  few 
homes,  indeed,  are  there  any  indications  of 
literary  tastes.  "Books  or  periodicals  are 
conspicuous  by  their  absence  from  most 
drawing-room  tables.  The  periodicals  at 
the  club  may  remain  for  days  uncut.  Nor 
are  the  books  at  the  club  libraries  numerous 
or  in  much  request.  .  .  .  There  arc  scien- 
tific institutions,  and  musical  and  art  socie- 
ties, but  I  have  been  assured  on  very  good 
authority  that  there  is  no  literary  club  or 
society  of  any  kind.  There  are,  of  course, 
other  reasons  for  the  absence  of  literary  life 
besides  the  allurements  of  the  harbor,  the 
garden,  or  the  veranda.  One  of  them  is 
that  there  is  not  a  class  of  literary  people." 

Classes  of  Men. — Recognizing  the  ine- 
quality among  men,  M.  de  Lapouge  main- 
tains that  a  man  is  what  his  birth  made 
him,  and  that  education  can  do  no  more  for 
him  than  develop  the  pre-existing  germs 
derived  from  his  progenitors  in  accordance 
with  the  laws  of  heredity.     This  reasoning 


140 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


is  extended  to  classes,  nations,  and  races, 
who  are  assumed  to  be  unequal  and  incapa- 
ble of  attaining  to  an  equal  degree  of  per- 
fection. The  author  divides  men  into  four 
classes,  in  the  first  of  which  he  places  those 
possessed  of  creative  and  initiative  faculties 
above  their  fellows,  while  it  is  to  the  rela- 
tive numerical  preponderance  of  this  class 
over  the  others  that  he  refers  the  undoubted 
superiority  of  one  race  to  another.  He 
thus  sees  in  the  dolichocephalic  blondes  the 
most  famed  of  all  the  races  of  humanity, 
since,  from  the  dawn  of  history,  all  heroes 
and  leaders  among  men  have  belonged  to 
this  type.  In  modern  times  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  race  has  owed  its  superiority  to  the 
preponderance  of  the  dolichocephalic  ele- 
ment. France  is  supposed  to  be  suffering 
from  the  diminution  of  this  type  in  its 
population,  together  with  the  rising  prepon- 
derance of  the  brachycephalic  type  to  which 
the  lower  classes  of  the  community  belong, 
while  a  great  deterioration  of  the  general 
personal  character  through  the  amalgama- 
tion of  the  two  is  anticipated  as  inevitable. 
Similarly  the  author  sees  in  the  present 
movement  for  raising  the  negro  races  a 
source  of  future  danger  to  the  Aryans, 
who  may  in  time  find  themselves  beaten 
down  by  the  brute  force  of  teeming  masses 
of  inferior  brachycephalic  peoples. 

A  Stoker's  Life. — The  stokers  on  one  of 
the  great  ocean  steamers  work  four  hours  at 
a  stretch,  in  a  temperature  ranging  from 
120°  to  160°.  The  quarters  are  close,  and 
they  must  take  care  that  while  feeding  one 
furnace  their  arms  are  not  burned  on  the 
one  behind  them.  Ventilation  is  furnished 
through  a  shaft  reaching  down  to  the  mid- 
die  of  their  quarters.  Each  stoker  tends 
four  furnaces,  spending  perhaps  two  or 
three  minutes  at  each,  then  dashes  to  the 
air-pipe  to  take  his  turn  at  cooling  off,  and 
waits  for  another  call  to  his  furnaces. 
When  the  watch  is  over,  the  men  go  per- 
spiring through  long,  cold  passages  to  the 
forecastle,  where  they  turn  in  for  eight  hours. 
One  man,  twenty-eight  years  old,  who  was 
interviewed  by  a  reporter,  had  been  em- 
ployed at  the  furnaces  since  he  was  fourteen 
years  old.  He  weighed  a  hundred  and 
eighty  pounds,  and  was  ruddy  and  seem- 
ingly happy.     lie  confessed  that  the  work 


was  terribly  hard,  but  "  it  came  hardest  on 
those  who  did  not  follow  it  regularly.  But 
if  we  get  plenty  to  eat,"  he  said,  "  and 
take  care  of  ourselves,  we  are  all  right. 
Here's  a  mate  of  mine,  nearly  seventy 
years  old,  who  has  been  a  stoker  all  his 
life,  and  can  do  as  good  work  as  I  can. 
Stokers  never  have  the  consumption,  and 
rarely  catch  cold.  Their  grog  had  been 
knocked  off  on  the  English  and  American 
lines,  because  the  men  got  drunk  too  often, 
and  the  grog  did  them  much  harm.  When 
I  used  to  take  my  grog,  I'd  work  just  like 
a  lion  while  the  effects  lasted.  I'd  throw  in 
my  coal  like  a  giant,  and  not  mind  the  heat 
a  bit ;  but  when  it  worked  off,  as  it  did  in 
a  very  few  minutes,  I  was  that  weak  that 
a  child  could  upset  me.  Take  a  man  dead 
drunk  before  the  fires,  and  the  heat  would 
sober  him  off  in  half  an  hour,  or  give  him 
a  stroke  of  apoplexy." 

Disparity  in  Marriage.  —  The  ft  West- 
minster Review "  shows  that  the  widows 
greatly  exceed  the  widowers  in  number,  the 
proportion  in  England  being  as  1,410,684  to 
589,644 — a  proportion  which  is  not  very 
greatly  varied  from  through  all  the  marriage- 
able ages.  The  difference  being  hardly  ac- 
counted for  by  the  superior  longevity  of 
women,  or  the  greater  exposure  to  dan- 
ger incurred  by  men,  the  "  Review  "  finds  a 
more  efficient  cause  in  marital  disparity. 
Women  prefer  husbands  who  have  made 
their  fortunes  and  can  give  them  ease  and 
display,  to  young  men  who  have  their  for- 
tunes to  make,  with  privations  that  must  be 
shared.  Thus  taking  companions  considera- 
bly older  than  themselves,  they  naturally 
outlive  them.  It  might  be  a  more  philo- 
sophical proceeding  for  the  woman  to  marry 
a  man  younger  than  herself,  that  she  may 
have  his  society  through  life,  and  a  support 
when  she  will  most  need  him.  The  results 
of  this  course  to  the  cause  of  purity  and  to 
the  health  of  the  human  race  are  to  be  de- 
plored. Disparate  unions  have  been  shown 
to  be  fertile  sources  of  the  failure  of  mar- 
riage. A  young  woman  marrying  a  man  of 
like  age  is  the  right  person  in  the  right 
place.  On  the  contrary,  in  marrying  a  man 
at  the  end  of  his  manhood,  she  often  drags 
him  down.  "  Gross  disparity  was  forbidden 
by  Jewish  lawgivers,  and  also  by  the  most 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 


141 


enlightened  of  pagan  legislators.  Is  it  wise 
or  prudent  to  permit  the  vigor  of  manhood 
to  be  dissipated  or  wasted,  and  to  allow  pos- 
terity to  owe  its  origin  to  the  waning  strength 
of  old  men  ?  It  is  certainly  contrary  to  the 
warning  voice  of  the  most  intelligent  and  dis- 
interested of  the  medical  profession.  .  .  . 
This  widow-making  vice  of  marital  disparity 
is  but  one  feature  in  that  hymeneal  profana- 
tion which  is  the  curse  and  disgrace  of  our 
age,  as  it  was  of  the  decline  of  Koine." 

Climates  of  British  Health  Resorts. — The 

isothermal  lines  in  the  British  Islands  run 
north  and  south  rather  than  east  and  west. 
Hence  latitude  is  there  a  less  sure  guide  to 
temperature  than  longitude.  All  the  health 
resorts  on  the  east  coast  have  a  very  similar 
character,  although  they  differ  so  much  in 
latitude  ;  and  the  like  rule  holds  good  on  the 
west  coast.  The  resorts  on  the  south  coast 
differ  materially,  according  as  they  lie  toward 
the  east  or  toward  the  west.  As  a  general 
rule,  the  east  coast  resorts  are  dry,  some- 
what cold  and  bracing,  while  the  west  coast 
resorts  are  relatively  humid,  mild,  and  relax- 
ing. All  the  coasts  are  more  or  less  windy ; 
but  there  is  a  great  difference  between  the 
dry,  somewhat  parching,  and  decidedly  brac- 
ing wind  that  comes  to  the  eastern  coasts 
across  the  German  Ocean,  and  the  soft,  rain- 
laden  breezes  of  the  Atlantic.  Some  places, 
however,  have  a  climate  of  their  own,  de- 
pending upon  peculiar  conditions.  The  line 
between  the  bracing  and  relaxing  of  the 
south  coast  resorts  lies  near  the  Isle  of 
Wight.  The  most  bracing  resorts  in  Eng- 
land are  those  of  Durham  and  Yorkshire ; 
the  most  relaxing  those  of  Devonshire  and 
Cornwall.  The  resorts  from  the  mouth  of 
the  Thames  to  Brighton  form  an  intermedi- 
ate class. 

Distinctive  Characteristics  of  Horse- 
flesh.— The  inspector  of  slaughter-houses  in 
Paris  distinguishes  between  horse-flesh  and 
beef  by  the  following  marks  :  Horse-flesh  is 
reddish  brown,  becoming  darker  on  exposure 
to  the  air;  it  has  an  odor  peculiar  to  itself; 
it  is  soft  and  slightly  tenacious,  allowing  the 
finger  easily  to  sink  into  it,  and  the  fibers, 
when  worked,  break  up  and  become  pulpy  ; 
the  muscular  fibers  are  long  and  fine,  and 
united  by  very  compact  cellular  tissue;  in 


cooking,  it  hardens  and  becomes  more  dense 
and  compact  than  beef ;  and  under  the  mi- 
croscope the  fibers  and  striations  of  the 
muscular  tissue  are  finer  than  in  the  flesh 
of  the  ox.  These  differences  not  always  ap- 
pearing sharply  defined  enough  to  make  the 
distinction  infallible,  James  Bell  has  sought 
other  tests,  and  found  them  in  the  character 
of  the  fats.  It  was  observed  that  the  adi- 
pose tissue  of  the  horse  was  of  a  softer  and 
more  oily  nature  than  that  of  beef.  On  melt- 
ing, horse  fat,  at  10°  Fahr.,  formed  a  clear 
oil;  the  melting-point  of  beef  fat,  which  is 
solid  at  ordinary  temperatures,  varied  from 
110°  to  116°  Fahr.  At  100°  Fahr.  the  spe- 
cific gravity  of  horse  fat  ranged  from  908*4 
to  908  8  ;  the  specific  gravity  of  beef  fat,  at 
120°  Fahr.,  was  from  903-6  to  904.  These 
important  characteristics  of  difference,  par- 
ticularly the  fluidity  of  horse  fat  at  70°  Fahr., 
make  the  distinction  between  the  two  fats 
very  plain. 

Mental  Powers  of  Spiders. — "  Some  Ob- 
servations about  the  Mental  Powers  of  Spi- 
ders "  are  recorded  by  G.  W.  and  E.  G.  Peck- 
ham  in  the  "  Journal  of  Morphology."  The 
authors  experimented  on  hundreds  of  spiders 
of  most  of  the  common  genera  and  species, 
with  relation  to  such  faculties  as  they  may 
be  supposed  to  possess,  but  found  the  way 
to  knowledge  on  the  subject  "  long  and  be- 
set with  difficulties."  The  faculty  of  smell 
seemed  to  be  fairly  developed  in  all  but  three 
out  of  twenty-six  species.  It  was  exhibited 
in  different  ways — by  various  movements  of 
the  legs,  palpi,  and  abdomen,  by  shaking 
their  webs,  by  running  away,  by  seizing  the 
rod  conveying  the  perfume  and  binding  it 
up  as  they  would  an  insect,  and  by  approach- 
ing the  rod  with  the  first  legs  and  palpi  held 
erect.  The  position  of  the  organ  of  smell  is 
unknown,  and  was  not  found.  In  hearing, 
spiders  made  no  response  to  any  loud  or  sen- 
sational sounds,  but  all  the  Epeirids  were 
sensitive  to  the  sound  of  the  tuning  fork, 
while  the  spiders  that  do  not  make  webs 
gave  no  heed  to  it.  In  love  of  offspring,  all 
the  spiders  eagerly  received  back  the  cocoons 
when  they  had  been  deprived  of  them  for 
various  periods  inside  of  twenty-four  hours  ; 
some  failed  at  twenty-four  hours,  while  only 
a  few  recognized  them  after  a  longer  pe- 
riod.   They  did  not,  however,  seem  able  to 


142 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


distinguish  their  own  cocoons  from  another 
spider's,  or  from  a  pith  ball  of  the  same 
size  ;  and  one  of  them  even  accepted  a  lead 
shot  over  which  the  covering  of  a  cocoon  had 
been  stretched.  In  the  sense  of  sight,  they 
had  great  difficulty  in  finding  their  cocoons, 
even  when  removed  from  them  only  three 
quarters  of  an  inch,  and  performed  long  and 
tortuous  routes  before  they  reached  them ; 
but  in  other  matters  they  showed  that  they 
could  see  well  enough.  The  trouble  about 
the  cocoons  arose  from  the  fact  that  the 
spiders  never  see  them  when  carrying  them, 
and  therefore  did  not  know  them  by  sight, 
but  depended  on  touch  to  identify  them. 
The  color  sense  appeared  to  be  fairly  well 
developed,  with  a  very  decided  preference 
for  red.  The  authors  do  not  believe  that 
spiders  feign  death.  Epeirids  drop  and  lie 
still  for  a  time,  but  that  is  because,  if  they 
run  about,  they  have  difficulty  in  finding  the 
thread  that  leads  back  to  their  web.  Other 
spiders  keep  still,  if  at  all,  only  for  a  few 
moments,  but  not  long  enough  to  give  an  ap- 
pearance of  death.  Darwin's  explanation  is, 
therefore,  correct,  that  the  habit  of  lying 
motionless  is  the  result  of  natural  selection, 
and  has  been  acquired  by  different  species 
in  different  degrees,  according  to  its  useful- 
ness in  their  various  modes  of  life. 

A  Patriarchal  Estate.  —  A  patriarchal 
system  of  management  is  on  trial  on  the  es- 
tate of  five  thousand  acres  of  Baron  Raimondo 
Franchetti  at  Canedole,  Mantua,  Italy.  Ma- 
chinery and  manures  are  liberally  employed. 
Nobody  pays  any  rent.  The  parish  priest, 
schoolmaster,  and  doctor  are  employed  and 
maintained  by  the  proprietor.  Sixty  children 
are  fed  and  looked  after  during  the  day  in 
the  Kindergarten,  to  and  from  which  they 
are  conveyed  in  an  omnibus.  The  buildings 
are  grouped,  at  the  Corte  de  Canedole,  around 
a  square  of  fifteen  thousand  square  yards 
area,  with  the  master's  house  facing  the  en- 
trance, and  the  steward's  and  other  farm  offi- 
cers' dwellings,  and  the  workshops,  stables, 
barns,  etc.,  near  at  hand.  The  whole  is  sur- 
rounded by  deep  canals  flushed  with  running 
water,  and  flanked  by  avenues  of  plane-trees. 
Watchmen  go  their  rounds  at  night.  Work- 
hours  arc  regulated  by  the  sound  of  the  bell ; 
strict  discipline  is  enforced  ;  the  upper  hands 
Bet  the  example  of  steady  and  serious  work, 


and  grand  balls  are  occasionally  given  by 
the  baroness  in  the  court-yard  to  all  the  peas- 
ants. It  is  not  known  how  profitable  the 
experiment  has  been,  but  it  has  not  been  a 
failure. 

The  Daman  Factor  in  SInms. — Mr.  Fred- 
erick Greenwood,  in  a  discussion  in  the 
"Nineteenth  Century"  of  the  problem  of 
"  Misery  in  Great  Cities,"  maintains  that  the 
slums  and  squalid  dens  that  abound  in  parts 
of  London — and  other  enormous  cities — 
"  correspond  far  more  than  most  kind  souls 
are  willing  to  perceive  to  the  measure  of  de- 
pravity and  weakness  of  the  human  mind ; 
and  at  the  same  time  to  the  proportion  of  in- 
capables  in  a  state  of  society  which  does  not 
allow  its  incapables  to  perish."  Every  vil- 
lage and  town  has  its  bad  spots  and  its  cen- 
ters of  degraded  population,  corresponding 
in  extent  with  its  size ;  and  it  is  only  the 
vast  extent  of  the  mischief  in  London,  com- 
mensurate with  the  dimensions  of  the  city, 
and  the  appalling  magnitude  of  the  prob- 
lems which  it  suggests,  that  excite  so  much 
commiseration  and  alarm.  Hence  it  may  be 
concluded  that  any  local  and  spasmodic  ef- 
forts to  ameliorate  the  evils  that  exist  are 
destined  to  only  a  very  limited  success,  and 
that  permanent  advantage  is  likely  to  accrue 
only  from  measures  that  tend  to  raise  the 
general  social  condition. 

Inheritance  of  Acquired  Habit. — In  il- 
lustration of  the  hereditary  transmission  of 
characteristics  acquired  by  habit,  Prof.  M. 
M.  Hartog  relates  in  "  Nature  "  the  case  of 
a  person  who  is  unequally  myopic  in  his 
eyes,  and  very  astigmatic  in  the  left  one. 
On  account  of  the  bad  images  given  by  this 
eye  for  near  objects,  he  was  compelled  in 
childhood  to  mask  it,  and  acquired  the  habit 
when  writing  of  leaning  his  head  on  the  left 
arm,  so  as  to  blind  it,  or  of  resting  the  left 
temple  and  eye  on  the  hand,  with  the  elbow 
on  the  table.  After  putting  on  spectacles, 
when  fifteen  years  old,  he  lost  the  habit  of 
leaning.  His  two  children,  while  they  have 
not  inherited  the  congenital  defect,  being 
emmetropic  in  both  eyes,  have  received  his 
acquired  habit,  and  have  to  be  watched  to 
keep  them  from  hiding  the  left  eye  when 
writing.  A  somewhat  similar  case  of  inher- 
itance of  acquired   habit   is   related  by  J. 


NOTES. 


H3 


Jenner  Weir  of  a  goat  and  its  kids  in  the 
Zoological  Gardens.  A  chain  was  attached 
to  the  animal's  neck  to  keep  him  from  jump- 
ing over  the  fence.  He  became  accustomed 
to  take  the  chain  up  by  his  horns  and  move 
it  from  one  side  to  another  over  his  back ; 
in  doing  this  he  threw  his  head  very  much 
back,  so  as  to  place  his  horns  in  a  line  with 
his  back.  His  offspring  have  inherited  this 
habit,  though  it  has  not  been  necessary  to 
put  chains  upon  them. 


NOTES. 

According  to  Mr.  F.  F.  Payne's  paper 
in  the  Canadian  Institute,  the  Eskimos  of 
Hudson  Strait  have  a  right  to  be  called 
keen  observers  of  nature.  The  author  found 
them  of  great  assistance  while  he  was  mak- 
ing his  collections  of  birds,  insects,  and  plants. 
"  If  an  insect  was  shown  them,"  he  says, 
"  they  could  usually  take  me  where  more  of 
the  same  species  might  be  found.  On  the 
approach  of  summer,  they  watched  with 
more  interest  its  signs,  and  often  would  bring 
to  me  insects  which  they  believed  were  the 
first  of  the  season.'' 

The  use  of  borax  for  the  preservation  of 
milk,  which  has  become  quite  common  when 
the  milk  has  to  be  carried  for  a  considerable 
distance,  has  suggested  the  question  wheth- 
er we  may  not  have  in  this  a  means  of  pro- 
moting immunity  against  scarlet  fever.  Re- 
cent investigations  have  shown  that  this  dis- 
ease is  often  carried  by  milk,  and  in  all  prob- 
ability frequently  starts  from  cows.  It  has 
been  remarked  by  Prof.  W.  Mattieu  Will- 
iams that  in  all  the  cases  where  an  outbreak 
of  scarlet  fever  has  been  traced  to  milk,  the 
dairy  has  been  a  local  one — that  is,  a  dairy 
that  has  supplied  milk  to  families  in  its  own 
immediate  neighborhood,  or  so  near  as  to 
render  the  use  of  borax  unnecessary. 

Fish-meat  according  to  Prof.  Atwater's 
researches,  does  not  contain  more  phosphorus 
than  ordinary  butcher's  meat.  The  benefit 
which  brain-workers  are  said  to  derive  from 
a  diet  of  fish  should  therefore  be  ascribed, 
not  to  the  phosphorus,  but  to  the  greater 
digestibility  of  the  fish.  The  excess  of  phos- 
phorus in  the  urine  of  such  persons  need  not 
be  regarded  as  a  resultant  of  brain-work, 
but  as  an  indication  of  the  disordered  diges- 
tion to  which  sedentary  persons  are  liable. 
The  recent  researches  of  Zuelzer  and  others 
seem  to  indicate  that  excessive  elimination 
of  phosphorus  by  the  urine  is  associated 
with  nervous  depression  rather  than  with 
nerve  activity. 

Several  instances  of  apparent  counting 
are  mentioned  by  Sir  John  Lubbock,  in  his 
"  Sonses  of  Animals,"  as  exhibited  by  insects. 


The  several  species  of  Eumcnes,  for  instance, 
supply  their  young  with  definite  numbers  of 
victims ;  and,  while  the  males  are  smaller 
than  the  females,  and  require  less  food,  the 
insect  seems  to  know  whether  the  egg  will 
produce  a  male  or  a  female  grub,  and  ap- 
portions the  quantity  of  food  accordingly, 
giving  five  victims  to  the  male  and  ten  to  the 
female.  It  is  suggested  by  Mr.  G.  A.  Free- 
man that  the  matter  is  one  of  physiological 
interval.  The  male  eggs  follow  one  another 
in  less  time  than  the  female,  giving  time  to 
store  a  smaller  number  of  caterpillars  be- 
fore the  next  egg  has  to  be  provided  for. 

Powdered  milk  is  prepared  by  reducing 
fresh  milk,  after  having  removed  a  portion 
of  the  cream,  in  a  vacuum-pan,  to  the  con- 
sistency of  ordinary  condensed  milk.  Gran- 
ulated white  sugar  is  next  added,  to  render 
the  mass  sufficiently  friable,  and  the  tem- 
perature is  lowered  some  twenty  or  thirty  de- 
grees. The  contents  are  then  removed  from 
the  vacuum-pan,  and  distributed  in  lumps,  or 
reduced  to  a  powder.  It  is  claimed  that  pow- 
dered milk  possesses  excellent  keeping  quali- 
ties, even  in  moist  air  at  high  temperatures. 

Dr.  B.  W.  Richardson  sounds  the  praises 
of  a  vegetarian  diet  when  he  assumes,  in 
his  lecture  on  "  Ideal  Foods,"  that  what  is 
commonly  called  happiness  —  lightness  of 
heart,  rapidity  of  thought,  and  all  else  that 
springs  from  a  happy  life — is  connected  with 
what  we  take  as  food.  That  happiness  is 
best  sustained  by  those  foods  which  minis- 
ter quickest  and  with  least  trouble  to  the 
digestion,  and  therefore  to  the  wants  of  the 
body.  Sir  James  Hannen  had  been  struck, 
when  he  changed  from  animal  food  to  a 
nearly  vegetarian  system,  by  the  state  of  hap- 
piness that  he  experienced,  compared  with 
what  he  had  felt  before.  The  speaker  had 
also  felt  this  in  his  own  life,  and  most  when 
he  was  most  nearly  a  vegetarian. 

Although  it  was  written  in  French  and 
translated  from  that  language  into  English, 
Prof.  Guyot's  "  Earth  and  Man  "  has  only 
recently  been  published  in  French  for  the 
first  time. 

The  security  of  the  Davy  safety  lamp 
has  been  partly  improved,  while  a  remedy 
has  been  found  for  the  obscurity  produced 
by  the  use  of  Marsant's  safety  bonnet,  by  the 
application  of  Mr.  Andrew  Howat's  "  deflect- 
or." The  leading  feature  of  this  device  lies 
in  a  flanged  ring  which  is  to  be  fitted  tightly 
between  the  outer  metal  shield  or  bonnet 
and  the  gauze  cylinder,  by  means  of  which 
all  the  air  admitted  for  combustion  is  car- 
ried under  or  near  the  bottom  of  the  bonnet 
and  passed  through  the  gauze  into  the  burn- 
er part  of  the  lamp.  A  brilliant  light  is 
thus  obtained.  This  lamp  has  been  passed 
through  some  severe  trials,  and  has  always 
been  extinguished  at  once  when  exposed  in 
a  current  of  explosive  mixture. 


144 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


Mr.  Thomas  Ward  assigns  the  causes  of 
subsidences  which  have  taken  place  at  North- 
wich  and  its  neighborhood,  Cheshire,  Eng- 
land, to  the  pumping  of  brine  for  the  manu- 
facture of  salt.  The  first  subsidence  was 
noticed  about  1770.  The  sinking  has  since 
gone  on  very  rapidly,  and  much  destruction 
of  property  has  resulted.  Large  lakes  or 
"  flashes,"  one  of  more  than  one  hundred 
acres  in  area,  and  of  all  depths  down  to  for- 
ty-five feet,  have  been  and  are  being  formed. 

In  Central  Africa,  according  to  Dr.  Jun- 
ker, an  almost  perpetual  state  of  warfare 
prevails.  The  abduction  of  a  woman  is  oft- 
en sufficient  to  engender  strife  ;  and,  conse- 
quently, the  abodes  of  the  Central  African 
tribes  and  their  political  conditions  are  sub- 
ject to  continual  and  incessant  changes.  If 
a  conquered  tribe  will  not  surrender  its  ter- 
ritory, it  falls  into  a  condition  of  bondage  to 
the  victorious  race.  It  can  not  be  said  that 
one  district  is  wholly  occupied  by  one  race, 
but  the  population  is  in  every  case  very 
mixed  and  composed  of  the  most  diverse  ele- 
ments. 

The  Akkas  are  described  by  Dr.  Junker 
as  the  only  voluntary  nomads  of  the  Central 
African  regions.  They  construct  their  lit- 
tle cone-shaped  grass  huts  in  the  shelter  of 
the  trees  of  the  woods,  and  live  in  a  district 
as  long  as  the  chase  lasts.  They  prefer  to 
abide  among  some  tribes  and  avoid  others. 
The  rulers  welcome  them,  and  they,  being  prac- 
ticed archers  and  cunning  warriors,  are  em- 
ployed in  the  invasions  of  the  territories  of 
neighboring  tribes.  They  possess  no  indus- 
try, and  buy  even  their  arrow-heads  in  ex- 
change for  meat,  the  produce  of  the  chase. 
They  are  timid  and  suspicious,  and  Dr.  Jun- 
ker only  once  saw  about  one  hundred  and 
fifty  of  them  together.  They  can  not  prop- 
erly be  described  as  dwarfs,  but  only  as  rela- 
tively very  small  men. 

M.  Jean  Luvini  supposes  that  the  elec- 
trical manifestations  of  the  atmosphere  are 
produced  by  the  friction  of  particles  of  wa- 
ter and  ice,  and  such  other  substances  as 
may  be  lifted  to  the  upper  regions  and  dis- 
persed through  several  miles  of  thickness. 
The  differences  in  the  character  of  the  mani- 
festations are  dependent  upon  differences 
in  intensity.  Auroral  lights  are  due  to  dis- 
charges in  rarefied  air. 

A  sailing  vessel  of  new  construction  has 
undergone  a  successful  trial  at  Southampton, 
England.  Its  peculiar  feature  is  the  shape 
of  the  submerged  part,  which  is  that  of  a  W, 
with  the  angles  well  rounded  off.  The  two 
keels  are  of  brass,  and  hollow,  so  that  the 
water  flows  through  them  from  end  to  end. 
The  vessel  possesses  remarkable  buoyancy. 

The  Medico-Chirurgical  Society  of  Edin- 
burgh, discussing  recently  the  subject  of 
further   legislation  for  habitual  drunkards, 


were  agreed  that  past  legislation  in  the  mat- 
ter had  been  a  complete  failure.  The  pres- 
ent law  presupposes  the  consent  of  the  pa- 
tient to  measures  for  putting  alcohol  out  of 
his  reach  for  a  year ;  the  proposed  new  law, 
which  the  society  approved,  will  do  away 
with  this  condition.  Sir  D.  Maclagan  re- 
garded the  so-called  "  liberty  of  the  subject" 
in  such  a  matter  as  this  as  "  an  intense  hum- 
bug." Dr.  Batty  Tukc  insisted  on  a  distinc- 
tion between  those  whose  drunkenness  was 
a  pure  vice  and  those  with  whom  it  was  an 
insanity ;  to  which  Dr.  Yellowlees  objected 
that  it  was  hard  to  "  house  respectable 
lunatics  with  the  class  of  habitual  drunk- 
ards." 

In  a  paper  on  "Clothing,"  Mr.  Francis 
Vacher  insists,  as  a  primary  consideration, 
on  the  importance  of  wearing  clean,  porous, 
and  warm  woolen  clothing ;  condemns  ani- 
line and  other  injurious  dyes ;  exposes  the 
evils  of  scanty  clothing,  unequal  pressure, 
heavy  superfluous  ornaments,  ill-adjusted 
corsets,  and  high-heeled  boots  ;  discrimi- 
nates between  different  styles  of  children's 
clothing ;  and  pronounces  the  morning  suit 
and  under-wear  of  men  nearly  perfect. 

As  the  conditions  are  set  forth  in  Mr. 
J.  B.  Bailey's  work  on  "  Modern  Methuse- 
lahs,"  moderation  in  eating,  drinking,  and 
living  are  conducive  to  long  life.  Persons 
in  a  comfortable  position  and  of  average  in- 
telligence enjoy  better  prospects  for  a  long 
future  than  those  at  either  extreme.  "Ear- 
nest and  ungrudging  exercise  of  the  mental 
powers  appears  to  be  no  bar  to  old  age,  and 
at  times  to  favor  it ;  but,  as  a  rule,  while  a 
moderate  use  of  the  faculties  tends  to  health 
and  endurance,  excessive  use  of  them  has 
often,  directly  or  indirectly,  had  a  reverse 
effect." 

For  the  removal  of  tattoo-marks  from 
the  skin,  M.  Variot  recommends,  in  the  "  Re- 
vue Scientifique,"  covering  with  concentrated 
solution  of  tannin  and  retattooing  in  the 
part  to  be  cleared ;  then  rub  with  a  nitrate- 
of-silver  crayon,  when  the  parts  will  turn 
black;  sprinkle  tannin-powder  on  the  sur- 
face several  times  a  day.  A  dark  crust  will 
form,  which  loses  color  in  three  or  four  days, 
and  in  a  fortnight  or  so  comes  away,  leaving 
a  reddish  scar  free  of  tattoo-marks,  which 
in  a  few  months  becomes  little  noticeable. 

The  question  whether  the  cuckoo  ever 
hatches  its  own  eggs  is  still  a  subject  of 
active  discussion.  Ilerr  Adolf  Midler  has 
lately  described  a  case  which  he  himself 
claims  to  have  observed.  Herr  Adolf  Wal- 
ter, who  has  not  observed  a  case,  thinks  Dr. 
Midler  is  mistaken.  An  incident  related  by 
Dr.  Erasmus  Darwin  is  cited  in  evidence  for 
the  affirmative ;  but,  as  Dr.  Darwin  and  his 
authority  are  beyond  the  reach  of  cross-ex- 
amination, the  adherents  of  the  negative  re- 
fuse to  receive  it. 


ROBERT    KOt'II. 


THE 

POPULAR    SCIENCE 
MONTHLY. 


DECEMBER,   1869. 


THE    DESCENDANTS    OF    PALAEOLITHIC    MAN    IN 

AMERICA. 

Br  Db.  CHARLES  C.  ABBOTT. 

THE  modest,  peaceful  valley  of  the  Delaware  River,  from  the 
head  of  tide-water  southward,  is  as  little  suggestive  of  the 
Arctic  Circle,  for  at  least  nine  months  of  the  year,  as  do  its  low 
and  weedy  banks  in  summer  suggest  the  tropics.  On  the  con- 
trary, every  tree,  shrub,  sedge,  beast,  bird,  or  fish  that  you  see 
above,  about,  or  within  it  is  a  feature  of  a  strictly  temperate 
climate.  Nevertheless,  a  dim  recollection  of  more  stirring  times 
still  clings  to  it,  and  the  year  not  unfrequently  opens  with  the 
river  firmly  ice-bound.  Over  its  shallows  are  often  piled  great 
masses  of  up-river  ice,  borne  hither  after  a  storm  by  the  swollen 
current.  Often  the  broad  and  shallow  channel  is  effectually 
closed,  and  the  river  becomes,  for  the  time  being,  a  frozen  lake. 

But  the  ice,  of  late  centuries,  has  not  been  able  to  hold  its  own 
for  any  significant  length  of  time.  The  increasing  warmth  of  the 
sun,  and  the  south  winds  with  their  accompanying  rains,  soon 
start  the  little  icebergs  oceanward,  or  melt  them  when  they  are 
securely  stranded.  Except  a  few  scattered  masses  along  the 
shady  shores,  the  river,  by  April,  is  a  quiet,  shallow,  tide- water 
stream  again. 

No  appreciable  amount  of  detritus  is  now  brought  from  the 
up-river  region  by  a  single  winter's  accumulation  of  ice.  As  the 
river  and  its  shores  are  to-day,  so  they  were  a  century  ago — per- 
haps for  many;  but  the  winter  of  our  varying  year  is  a  mere 
puppet-show  compared  with  what  New  Jersey  winters  once  were, 
and  the  culmination  of  arctic  rigors  gave  our  Delaware  Valley, 
in  that  distant  day,  a  far  different  aspect ;  and,  with  each  suc- 

VOL.  XXXVI. — 10 


146  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

ceeding  glacial  flood,  more  and  more  sand,  gravel,  and  great 
bowlders  were  rolled  down  from  the  rock-ribbed  valley  beyond 
and  spread  upon  the  open  plain  through  which  the  present 
stream  unruffled  flows. 

The  land  was  somewhat  depressed  then,  and  the  water  flowed 
at  a  higher  level,  but  nothing  unfavorable  to  man's  existence  ob- 
tained in  the  whole  region.  As  a  skilled  geologist  has  pointed 
out,  "  The  northern  ice  was  one  hundred  miles  away,  and  did  not 
prevent  primitive  man  from  assembling  about  the  low  and  hos- 
pitable shores  of  the  miniature  sea,  .  .  .  and  over  the  bosom  of 
the  bay,  little  affected  by  tide  because  of  its  distance  from  the 
ocean,  and  little  disturbed  by  waves  because  of  its  shoalness, 
palaeolithic  man  may  have  floated  on  the  simplest  craft,  or  even 
have  waded  in  the  shallow  waters."  Ay !  may  have ;  but  did  he  ? 
"What  evidence  is  there  that  that  most  primitive  of  mankind,  who 
left  such  abundant  traces  of  his  presence  in  the  valley  of  many 
a  European  river,  and  also  in  Asia  and  Africa,  was  ever  likewise 
here  in  eastern  North  America  ?  It  is  precisely  the  same  evi- 
dence— rude  stone  implements  of  the  simplest  type,  often  but 
slightly  modified  cobbles  merely,  that  were  found  to  be  more 
effective  by  having  a  chipped  and  jagged  edge,  rather  than  the 
smooth  and  tapering  one  that  water-wearing  produces.  These 
same  worked  stones — in  other  countries  always  of  flint,  but  in 
New  Jersey  of  argillite,  a  slate-like  stone  that  has  been  altered 
by  heat,  and  possesses  now  a  conchoidal  fracture — these  occur  in 
the  Delaware  gravels;  and  the  vivid  pictures  of  glacial  time, 
with  primitive  man  a  prominent  feature  thereof,  that  have  been 
given  by  Wright,  Wilson,  Haynes,  McGee,  Upham,  Cresson,  Bab- 
bitt, and  others,  are  doubtless  familiar  to  all  readers  of  recent  sci- 
entific literature. 

In  associating  man  with  ancient  river  valleys,  we  are  too  apt 
to  think  only  of  the  stream,  and  ignore  the  surrounding  country. 
Though  largely  so,  palaeolithic  man  was  not  strictly  an  amphibi- 
ous creature ;  for  instance,  on  each  side  of  the  ancient  Delaware 
River  extended  wide  reaches  of  upland  forest,  and  here,  too,  the 
rude  hunter  of  the  time  found  game  well  worthy  of  his  ingenuity 
to  capture,  and  so  powerful  that  all  his  wit  stood  him  well  in 
need  to  escape  their  equally  determined  efforts  to  capture  him. 
While  the  seal  and  walrus  disported  in  the  river ;  while  fish  in 
countless  thousands  stemmed  its  floods;  while  geese  and  ducks 
in  myriads  rested  upon  the  stream,  so,  too,  in  the  forest  roamed 
the  moose,  the  elk,  the  reindeer,  the  bison,  the  extinct  great 
beaver,  and  the  mastodon,  all  of  which,  save  the  elk,  had  long 
since  left  for  more  northern  climes  when  European  man  first 
sighted  North  America. 

The  association  of  man  and  the  mastodon  is  somewhat  start- 


PALAEOLITHIC  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  147 

ling  to  most  people ;  but,  as  has  been  time  and  again  conclusively 
shown,  it  is  no  unwarranted  fancy.  We  are  apt  to  consider  the 
mastodon  as  a  creature  of  so  distant  a  time  in  the  unrecorded 
past,  that  man  must  necessarily  have  appeared  much  later  upon 
the  scene.  The  truth  is,  comparatively  speaking,  the  creature  so 
recently  became  extinct  that,  in  all  probability,  our  historic  In- 
dians were  acquainted  with  it.  Certain  it  is  that,  in  the  distant 
long  ago  of  the  great  Ice  age,  the  mastodon  existed,  and  equally 
certain  that  with  him  lived  that  primitive  man  who  fabricated 
the  rude  implements  we  have  described.  The  bones  of  the  ani- 
mal and  the  bones  and  weapons  of  the  man  lie  side  by  side,  deep 
down  in  the  gravels  deposited  by  the  floods  from  the  melting  ice- 
sheet.  In  February,  1885,  I  walked  to  and  fro  over  the  frozen 
Delaware,  where  it  reaches  a  full  mile  in  width,  and  saw  at  the 
time  many  horses  and  sleighs  passing  from  shore  to  shore.  I 
recalled,  as  I  walked,  what  the  geologists  have  recorded  of  the 
river's  history,  and  it  was  no  wild  whim  of  the  unchecked  imagi- 
nation to  picture  the  Delaware  as  a  still  more  firmly  frozen 
stream;  so  firmly  ice-bound,  indeed,  that  the  mastodon  might 
pass  in  safety  over  it — not  cautiously,  even,  but  with  the  quick 
trot  of  the  angry  elephant — and  picture  still  further  a  terror- 
stricken  Stone-age  hunter  fleeing  for  his  life. 

Just  as  our  brief  yearly  winter  gives  way  to  milder  spring,  so, 
as  the  centuries  rolled  by,  the  mighty  winter  of  the  Ice  age  yield- 
ed to  changes  that  were  slowly  wrought.  Century  by  century,  the 
sun's  power  was  exerted  with  more  telling  effect ;  constantly  in- 
creasing areas  of  northward-lying  land  were  laid  bare,  and  the 
forest  followed  the  retreating  glaciers'  steps.  This  great  but 
gradual  change  had,  of  course,  its  influence  upon  animal  life,  and 
many  of  the  large  mammals  that  have  been  named  appear  to  have 
preferred  the  cooler  to  the  warmer  climate  and  followed  the  ice- 
sheet  on  its  northward  march. 

In  the  unnumbered  centuries  during  which  these  changes  came 
about,  man  increased  in  wisdom,  if  not  in  stature,  and  the  rude 
implements  that  characterize  the  lowest  known  form  of  humanity 
— palaeolithic  man  of  prehistoric  archaeology  —  were  gradually 
discarded  for  smaller  and  more  specialized  ones.  This  change  was 
doubtless  the  result  of  faunal  changes  that  required  a  compound 
instead  of  a  simple  implement,  as  an  effective  weapon — a  small 
spear-head  attached  to  a  shaft,  instead  of  a  sharpened  stone  held 
in  the  hand ;  and  we  find  now,  as  characteristic  of  conditions  geo- 
logically later  than  the  gravel  beds,  a  well-designed  spear-point, 
larger  than  Indian  arrow-heads,  of  a  remarkably  uniform  pattern, 
and  which  might  readily  be  supposed  to  be  the  handiwork  of  the 
historic  Indians.  But  let  us  examine  into  the  history  of  these  ob- 
jects a  little  closely.    In  the  first  place,  the  conditions  under  which 


148  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

these  rude  spear-points  are  found,  as  a  rule,  are  very  significant. 
In  certain  upland  fields,  never  far  from  water-courses,  and  which 
were  the  high,  dry,  habitable  localities  when  the  later  gravel  areas 
were  yet  comparatively  low  and  swampy,  these  objects  are  found 
in  great  abundance,  and  very  often  not  associated  with  the  famil- 
iar forms  of  Indian  implements.  Again,  they  also  occur  in  the 
alluvial  mud  which  has  been  for  centuries,  and  is  still,  accumulat- 
ing over  the  tide-water  meadows  that  skirt  the  banks  of  the  Dela- 
ware River  from  Trenton  to  the  sea.  Now,  it  may  be  maintained 
that  we  are  without  warrant  in  assuming  that  the  age  or  object  of 
any  given  form  of  stone  implement  can  be  determined  by  the 
character  of  the  locality  where  it  happens  usually  to  be  found — 
exception,  of  course,  being  made  to  the  palaeolithic  implements  of 
an  earlier  geological  period.  To  a  certain  extent  this  is  true.  A 
bead  is  none  the  less  an  ornament,  whether  dredged  from  the  river- 
bottom  or  found  in  an  upland  field ;  and  yet  how  very  seldom  does 
any  implement  or  other  relic  of  the  Indians  occur,  except  where 
we  should  expect  to  find  them !  In  basing  any  conclusions  upon 
the  characteristic  features  of  a  locality  where  implements  are 
found,  it  is  necessary  to  determine  if  there  has  been  any  recent 
general  disturbance  of  the  spot.  This  is  readily  done  usually,  and 
the  principal  barrier  to  a  logical  conclusion  is  removed.  Long  ex- 
perience in  archaeological  field-work  has  fully  convinced  me  that, 
in  the  vast  majority  of  instances,  stone  implements  are  practically 
in  the  same  position  that  they  were  when  buried,  lost,  or  discarded. 
A  single  specimen  or  even  a  hundred  might  mislead ;  but  it  be- 
comes safe  to  base  a  conclusion  upon  the  locality,  when  we  have 
the  material  in  such  abundance  as  in  this  instance  of  these  rude 
spear-points,  and  find  that  fully  eighty  per  cent  are  from  the  allu- 
vial mud  of  the  river  meadows,  or  such  isolated  upland  areas  as 
have  been  described.  But  more  significant  than  all  else  is  the  fact 
that  these  simply  designed  spear-points  are  all  of  argillite,  the 
same  material  of  which  are  made  the  rude  implements  found  in 
the  gravel.  There  is,  therefore,  no  break,  as  it  were,  in  the  se- 
quence of  events  in  the  occupation  of  the  region  by  man — no 
change  of  race,  no  evidence  of  an  abrupt  transition  from  one 
method  of  tool -making  to  that  of  another,  but  merely  an  improve- 
ment that  was  doubtless  as  gradual  as  the  change  from  the  epoch 
of  glacial  cold  to  that  of  our  moderate  climate  of  to-day.  What  at 
first  sight  appears  fatal  to  the  views  here  expressed  is  that  a  peo- 
ple so  far  advanced  as  to  make  these  spear-points  should  have 
made  many  other  forms  of  stone  implements  ;  but  only  the  former 
are  found  deeply  buried  in  the  mud  of  the  river.  If,  as  is  believed, 
the  spears  were  used  in  fishing  more  than  for  any  other  purpose, 
they  alone  would  be  likely  to  be  lost.  Other  objects  in  use  upon 
their  village  sites  would  seldom,  if  ever,  be  taken  to  the  fishing- 


PALAEOLITHIC  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  149 

grounds  ;  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  there  are  found  numbers  of  stone 
objects  of  a  rude  character,  usually  considered  of  Indian  origin, 
but  which  are  identical  with  those  used,  for  instance,  by  the  boreal 
Chukches.  In  Nordenskiold's  "  Voyage  of  the  Vega  "  is  described 
a  series  of  stone  hammers  and  a  stone  anvil  which  are  in  use  to- 
day for  crushing  bones.  Every  considerable  collection  of  "  Indian 
relics"  gathered  along  our  seaboard,  from  Maine  to  Maryland, 
contains  examples  of  identical  objects.  Of  course,  the  Indians 
might  have  used — indeed,  did  use — such  hammers  and  anvils,  but, 
considering  all  the  evidence,  and  not  merely  a  part  of  it,  it  does 
not  follow  that  all  hammers  and  anvils  are  of  Indian  origin.  I 
have  only  made  incidental  mention  of  the  historic  Indian,  and 
nothing  further  is  necessary.  He  plays  an  important  part  in  our 
early  history,  but  his  origin  is  yet  to  be  deciphered  from  many 
sources.  His  arrival  in  the  river's  valley  dates,  as  we  reckon 
years,  long,  long  ago  ;  but  no  evidence  is  as  yet  forthcoming  that 
it  was  prior  to  the  valley's  practically  present  physical  aspect. 

Let  us  consider  these  rude  argillite  spear-points,  and  the  cir- 
cumstances under  which  they  occur,  a  little  more  closely.  In  this 
magazine  (January,  1883),  I  based  the  opinion  that  these  objects 
were  of  an  earlier  and  other  than  Indian  origin,  because  of  their 
occurrence  in  so  many  localities  at  a  depth  greater  than  that  at 
which  jasper  and  quartz  arrow-heads  are  found.  In  other  words, 
the  plow  unearths  the  Indian  relics  in  great  quantities;  but,  by  dig- 
ging deeper,  objects  of  argillite  are  found  in  significant  numbers. 
In  this  earlier  communication  to  the  magazine,  reference  was 
made  only  to  scattered  objects ;  but  now  I  propose  to  call  atten- 
tion to  strictly  surface-found  specimens,  where  they  have  been 
discovered  in  such  abundance  as  to  plainly  indicate  the  former 
sites  of  camps  or  villages.  If  such  localities  are  really  pre-Indian 
in  origin,  then  it  remains  but  to  consider  the  fate  of  this  earlier 
people ;  but,  before  indulging  in  speculation,  what  of  the  facts  ? 
The  results  of  my  labors  may  be  summed  up  in  a  brief  account  of 
a  visit  to  one  locality  ;  for  all  subsequent  and  preceding  visits  to 
distant  points  resulted  similarly. 

In  two  instances,  collections  which  I  studied  were  of  such  mag- 
nitude, and  had  been  brought  together  with  such  care,  that  they 
had  a  decided  bearing  upon  the  question.  The  particular  fields 
from  which  the  great  bulk  of  the  specimens  had  been  taken  were 
studied  most  carefully,  and  it  soon  became  evident,  in  each  case, 
that  the  reported  commingling  of  all  forms  of  stone  implements 
was  more  apparent  than  real.  The  physical  geography  of  each 
locality  plainly  showed  that  for  a  very  protracted  period  these 
spots  had  been  habitable  and  inhabited.  It  was  evident,  in  each 
case,  that  a  very  undulating  surface  had  existed,  through  which 
meandered  a  small  stream  that  had  long  since  disappeared.     These 


i5o  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

areas  of  hillock  and  dale  had  been  densely  wooded,  with  here  and 
there  a  little  clearing ;  and  now,  for  nearly  two  centuries,  plowed 
over  almost  every  year.  What,  then,  should  we  expect,  presum- 
ing that  the  relics  of  two  peoples  had  been  left  upon  a  tract  of 
some  two  hundred  acres  ?  First,  the  tract  was  deforested,  which 
would  lead  to  much  disturbance  of  the  surface  soil ;  secondly,  the 
stumps  of  the  trees  were  uprooted,  which  would  lead  to  a  greater 
disturbance ;  and,  lastly,  constant  plowing,  exposure  of  a  raw  sur- 
face to  winds  and  rain,  and  the  erosion  due  to  the  flooding  of  the 
stream  that  drained  the  tract,  would  result  inevitably  in  the  mov- 
ing of  objects,  as  small  as  arrow-points,  to  considerable  distances 
from  where  they  were  left  in  Indian  or  pre-Indian  times.  It 
would  be  strange  indeed  if  any  evidence  of  earlier  and  later  oc- 
cupancy had  withstood  such  vicissitudes ;  and  yet  such  was  the 
case.  The  highest  ground  afforded  ninety  per  cent  of  the  speci- 
mens I  was  able  to  find,  of  argillite ;  while  in  the  low-lying  area 
of  the  one-time  stream's  tortuous  bed  the  argillite  and  jasper 
implements  were  commingled,  with  a  preponderance  of  jasper 
and  quartz  in  the  ratio  of  seven  to  two.  It  was  evident  that  the 
washing  down  of  the  higher  ground  and  partial  obliteration  of 
the  valley  had  transported  the  argillite  and  mingled  it  with  the 
jasper,  and  not  generally  commingled  and  brought  to  certain 
points  the  equally  scattered  objects  made  of  these  minerals.  Dur- 
ing the  summer  of  1887  a  very  careful  and  intelligent  observer 
reported  to  me  that,  in  a  field  not  far  from  where  I  live,  he  had 
found  a  considerable  deposit  of  argillite  chips,  rude  arrow-heads, 
and  bits  of  pottery ;  but  that  there  was  no  trace  of  jasper  or 
quartz,  or  indeed  of  any  other  mineral.  As  I  had  collected  Indian 
relics  by  the  hundreds,  in  this  same  field,  I  refrained  from  visit- 
ing the  spot,  but  requested  my  friend  to  examine  the  locality 
again  with  great  care,  and  report  to  Prof.  Putnam,  of  the  Peabody 
Museum  at  Cambridge,  Massachusetts.  What  was  the  result  ?  My 
friend  reported,  briefly,  that  the  spot  was  one  uncovered  by  heavy 
rains,  and  formed  part  of  the  bank  of  a  brook  that  crossed  the 
field  (this  brook,  I  would  state,  was  a  considerable  creek  in 
1680) ;  that  the  argillite  chips,  rude  arrow-points,  knives,  scrapers, 
and  bits  of  pottery  were  found  at  a  common  level,  and  about  fif- 
teen inches  below  the  present  surface  of  the  field.  Prof.  Putnam, 
in  acknowledging  the  receipt  of  the  specimens  and  report  as  to 
their  discovery,  replied  that  the  pottery  was  of  unusual  inter- 
est, as  it  was  exceedingly  rude  and  differed  very  greatly  from  any 
that  Dr.  Abbott  had  sent  from  the  same  general  neighborhood. 
As  the  bits  of  pottery  from  this  general  neighborhood  that  I  have 
collected  amount  to  hundreds  of  thousands,  it  would  seem  that 
Prof.  Putnam's  remarks  have  a  good  deal  of  significance. 

As  having  a  most  important  bearing  upon  this  general  question, 


PALEOLITHIC  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  151 

it  is  well  to  refer  to  the  results  of  others'  labors  in  the  same  gen- 
eral field.  In  an  address  before  the  American  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Science,  at  its  Cleveland  (Ohio)  meeting,  August, 
1888,  I  referred  to  the  Lockwood  collection,  now  at  the  Peabody 
Museum  at  Cambridge,  Mass.  This  series  of  ancient  stone  imple- 
ments is  one  of  exceeding  value,  because  the  objects  are  nearly  all 
from  shell-heaps  on  the  coast  of  New  Jersey.  When  arranging 
this  collection,  I  was  much  impressed  with  the  fact  that  the  argil- 
lite  implements,  of  which  there  were  many  considerable  lots,  were 
all  labeled  by  Prof.  Lockwood  as  having  been  found  alone — i.  e., 
not  associated  with  similar  objects  of  jasper  or  quartz ;  and  again, 
that  with  the  argillite  was  much  very  rude  pottery,  that  bore  little 
resemblance  to  the  fragments  of  earthenware  found  in  other  places 
associated  with  the  jasper,  quartz,  and  chert  implements.  Subse- 
quently, Prof.  Lockwood  informed  me  that,  while  these  various 
finds  did  not  vary  in  depth,  they  were  very  marked  otherwise, 
and  he  did  not  recall  any  special  "  find"  where  the  commingling 
of  the  two  forms  indicated  that  they  had  been  in  use  at  the  same 
time. 

Taking  a  hint  from  little  brooks  and  the  surrounding  fields, 
let  us  consider,  in  conclusion,  the  more  pretentious  rivers  and  their 
surrounding  uplands.  Will  the  same  results  be  obtained  ?  Can  we 
venture  to  reach  out  from  the  particular  to  the  general  ?  These 
were  the  questions  that  I  frequently  asked  of  myself,  and,  after 
many  a  weary  tramp  and  toilsome  digging  over  a  wide  area,  I  am 
happy  to  state  that  I  believe  my  efforts  have  been  crowned  with  a 
full  measure  of  success.  What  held  good  in  a  particular  field 
holds  good  of  a  county,  and  what  I  now  claim  for  the  tide-water 
portion  of  the  valley  of  the  Delaware  I  believe  is  true  of  a  much 
more  extended  area. 

In  no  case  have  I  been  able  to  find  stone  implements  signifi- 
cantly distributed  over  a  considerable  space — i.  e.,  tracts  of  five 
hundred  to  a  thousand  acres — except  where  there  was,  or  very  re- 
cently had  been,  running  water.  The  ground,  then,  to  be  examined 
was  either  the  high  land  that  shut  in  the  valley,  or  the  valley  itself, 
limiting  that  term  to  the  banks  of  the  stream  and  the  immediately 
adjacent  meadow  tracts ;  exception  being  made  where  the  bank  of 
the  stream  was  and  always  had  been  very  precipitous.  In  such  a 
case  the  brow  of  the  bluff  would  be  equivalent  to  the  meadow  or 
low  land  of  a  gently  sloping  valley. 

In  every  such  instance — and  I  have  made  or  have  had  made 
many  careful  examinations  of  river  and  creek  valleys — the  result 
was  the  same :  a  very  marked  preponderance  of  argillite  imple- 
ments on  the  crests  of  the  uplands,  and  a  very  great  excess  of  jas- 
per and  quartz  on  the  bottom  land,  or  that  directly  adjacent  to 
the  stream.     From  this  condition  I  am  led  to  infer  that,  when 


152  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

these  higher  points  were  occupied,  the  present  streams  main- 
tained a  uniform  flow  as  high  as  the  freshet  stage  of  these  water- 
courses ;  and  the  fact  that  an  Indian  village  site  near  by  will  be 
much  nearer  the  river  or  creek  shows  clearly,  I  hold,  that  on  a 
small  scale  the  same  conditions  were  repeated  that  occurred  in 
the  gradual  change  from  glacial  to  post-glacial  times.  The  vol- 
ume of  water  in  all  our  streams,  comparing  century  with  century, 
is  gradually  lessening. 

Comparing  then  the  rude  objects  of  argillite,  specialized  as  they 
are,  with  the  magnificent  flint-work  of  the  historic  Indians,  I 
would  designate  the  former  as  fossil  implements,  the  latter  as 
relics. 

To  this  point  I  feel  that  I  have  been  handling  facts  only,  and 
deducing  from  them  only  logical  inferences ;  but  now  looms  up 
the  natural  and  ever-interesting  question,  Who  were  these  people  ? 
The  origin  of  any  race  is  a  difficult  problem  to  solve,  but  none 
can  compare  with  these  misty  vestiges  of  prehistoric  humanity. 
It  seems  to  me  but  one  inference  is  permissible :  they  who  fash- 
ioned these  rude  argillite  implements  were  the  descendants  of  pa- 
laeolithic man,  and  his  superior  in  so  far  as  a  knowledge  of  the  bow 
and  arrow  and  rude  pottery  indicates.  Beyond  this,  perhaps,  we 
can  not  safely  venture.  Prof.  Haynes  has  recently  observed, "  The 
palaeolithic  man  of  the  river  gravels  at  Trenton  and  his  argillite- 
using  posterity  the  writer  believes  to  be  completely  extinct." 
While  this  at  present  seems  to  be  the  generally  accepted  conclu- 
sion, there  is  a  phase  of  the  subject  that  merits  consideration. 
May  not  this  "  argillite-using  "  man  have  been  a  blood-relation  of 
existing  Eskimos  ?  To  accept  the  view  of  Prof.  Haynes  that  "  ar- 
gillite "  man  became  extinct  infers  an  interval  of  indefinite  length, 
when  man  did  not  exist  on  our  central  Atlantic  seaboard ;  but  if 
we  may  judge  from  the  abundant  traces  of  man  that  have  been 
left  and  of  the  relation  as  to  position  that  these  three  general 
forms,  palaeolithic,  later  argillite,  and  Indian,  bear  to  each  other, 
it  would  appear  that,  in  the  valley  of  the  Delaware,  at  least,  man 
has  not  for  a  day  ceased  to  occupy  the  land  since  the  first  of  his 
kind  stood  upon  the  shores  of  that  beautiful  river. 

By  referring  these  intermediate  people  to  the  existing  Eskimos, 
I  would  not  be  understood  as  maintaining  that  these  boreal  people 
were  directly  descended  from  the  argillite-using  folk  of  the  Dela- 
ware Valley,  but  that  both  were  derived  from  palaeolithic  man ;  in 
other  words,  that  with  the  disappearance  of  glacial  conditions  in 
the  Delaware  valley,  and  the  retirement  northward  of  the  continen- 
tal ice-sheet,  if  such  there  were,  the  people  of  that  distant  day  fol- 
lowed in  its  tracks,  and  lived  the  same  life  their  ancestors  had 
lived  when  northern  New  Jersey  was  as  bleak  as  is  Greenland  to- 
day ;  but  that  not  all  of  this  strange  people  were  so  enamored  of 


PALAEOLITHIC  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  153 

an  arctic  life,  and  that  many  remained  and,  with  the  gradual- amel- 
ioration of  the  climate,  their  descendants  changed  in  their  habits 
so  far  as  to  meet  the  requirements  of  a  temperate  climate.  This 
explanation,  it  seems  to  me,  best  accords  with  known  facts. 

It  is  fitting,  after  a  long  tramp  in  search  of  human  relics  or 
remains,  still  so  abundantly  scattered  over  and  through  the  su- 
perficial soil,  to  halt,  at  the  day's  close,  upon  the  river's  bank, 
and  rest  upon  one  of  the  huge  ice-transported  bowlders  that  reach 
above  the  sod.  From  such  a  point  I  can  mark  the  boundary  of 
the  latest  phenomenon  of  the  valley's  geological  history,  and  seem 
to  see  what  time  the  walrus  and  the  seal  sported  in  the  river's  icy 
waters ;  what  time  the  mastodon,  the  reindeer,  and  the  bison  ten- 
anted the  pine  forests  that  clad  the  river's  banks,  and  what  time 
an  almost  primitive  man,  stealing  through  the  primeval  forests, 
surprised  and  captured  these  mighty  beasts — what  time,  linger- 
ing by  the  blow-holes  of  the  seal  and  walrus  in  the  frozen  river, 
surprised  and  killed  these  creatures  with  so  simple  a  weapon  as  a 
sharply  chipped  fragment  of  flinty  rock.  And,  as  the  centuries 
rolled  by,  and  the  river  lessened  in  bulk,  until  it  but  little  more 
than  filled  its  present  channel,  there  still  remained  along  its  shores 
the  more  cultured  descendants  of  the  primitive  chipper  of  pebbles. 
As  a  savage,  so  like  the  modern  Eskimo  that  he  has  been  held  to 
be  the  same,  this  pre-Indian  people  still  wrought  the  argillite 
that  their  ancestors  were  forced  to  use  for  their  palaeolithic  tools ; 
and  as  these  spear-points  are  being  gathered  from  the  alluvial 
deposits  of  the  more  modern  river,  I  can  recall  to  their  accustomed 
haunts  this  long-gone  people,  who,  ere  they  gave  place  to  the  fierce 
Algonkin,  were  the  peaceful  tenants  of  this  river's  valley.  Then, 
as  we  gather  the  beautiful  arrow-heads  of  jasper  and  quartz,  and 
pick  from  superficial  soils  grooved  axes,  celts,  chisels,  curiously 
wrought  pipes,  strange  ornaments,  ceremonial  objects,  and  frag- 
ments of  pottery,  literally  without  number,  we  marvel  at  the  skill 
of  those  who  wrought  them,  and  faintly  realize  how  long  these 
comparatively  recent  comers  must  have  dwelt  in  this  same  valley, 
to  have  accumulated  such  an  endless  store  of  these  imperishable 
relics. 

We  rightly  speak  of  the  antiquity  of  the  Indian,  but,  remote  as 
is  his  arrival  on  the  Atlantic  coast,  it  is  modern  indeed,  in  com- 
parison with  the  antiquity  of  man  in  the  same  region.  We  can 
think  of  it,  and  perhaps  faintly  realize  it,  as  "  time  relative,"  but 
in  no  wise  determine  it  as  "  time  absolute." 


Dr.  Buedon  Sanderson  foresees  another  division  in  science.     He  observes,  in 
a  biological  paper  in  the  British  Association,  that  morphology  and  physiology  have 
now  diverged  so  widely,  as  regards  subject  and  method,  that  there  seems  to  be 
danger  of  a  complete  separation  of  one  from  the  other. 
10* 


15+  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


GLASS-MAKING. 

By  C.  HANFOBD   HENDEESON, 

PROFESSOR    OF    PHYSICS    AND    CHEMISTRY   IN   THE   PHILADELPHIA    MANUAL   TRAINING    SCHOOL. 

III. — THE   EVOLUTION   OF  A   GLASS   BOTTLE. 

TO  a  little  sand,  a  little  alkali,  and  a  little  limestone,  add  con- 
siderable heat  and  a  still  greater  amount  of  skill,  might  be 
taken  as  a  brief  recipe  for  the  manufacture  of  a  glass  bottle. 

But  to  know  in  just  what  proportions  to  mix  these  several  in- 
gredients, how  to  produce  and  manage  the  requisite  heat,  and  par- 
ticularly how  to  cultivate  that  most  essential  part  of  the  whole 
process,  the  manual  dexterity  which  gives  value  to  these  other 
factors,  are  matters  less  briefly  disposed  of.  Their  consideration 
has  made  the  evolution  of  a  glass  bottle  a  history  covering  several 
thousand  years.  The  importance  of  this  modest  process  will  ap- 
pear, if  one  is  not  already  persuaded  of  it,  when  one  recalls  for  an 
instant  the  multitudinous  uses  to  which  bottles  are  now  put.  It 
is  difficult  to  fancy  the  confusion  which  would  result  were  so 
simple  an  article  of  commerce  suddenly  withdrawn  from  the  world 
of  fact,  and  society  called  upon  to  manage  without  its  service. 
Great  would  be  the  consternation  of  a  host  of  manufacturers,  and 
loud  the  outcry  of  a  larger  host  of  consumers. 

The  earlier  man,  it  is  to  be  remembered,  had  his  herds  always 
with  him,  his  spring  of  water  near  his  tent-door.  He  knew  no 
tonic  save  the  air  of  the  desert,  and  few  other  beverages  than  the 
wine  which  was  stored  in  sacks  of  goat's  skin.  To  him  bottles 
and  their  contents  were  matters  of  little  moment.  It  is  true  that, 
in  the  storage  of  the  one  liquid  which  he  preserved  in  this  way, 
he  did  have  to  be  careful  not  to  put  new  wine  into  old  bottles,  but 
the  proverb  was  easily  recalled,  and  its  precaution  not  difficult  to 
carry  out.  He  contented  himself  with  his  sack  of  skin,  and  found, 
in  the  projection  which  had  once  been  the  leg  or  neck  of  the  animal, 
a  mouth  to  his  bottle  sufficiently  convenient  to  serve  his  purpose. 

It  was  from  receptacles  such  as  this  that  the  tired  heroes  of  the 
Iliad  regaled  themselves,  and  the  aged  Noah  partook  too  gener- 
ously. 

Even  now  this  primitive  bottle  is  largely  used  for  the  trans- 
portation and  storage  of  water  by  the  people  of  western  Asia, 
and  the  usage  seems  to  possess  enough  inertia  to  carry  it  forward 
several  centuries  further.  Invading  Americans  may  find  the  bottle 
of  skin  still  in  vogue,  when  their  restless  westward-moving  activ- 
ity carries  them  across  the  Pacific. 

The  substitution  of  glass  bottles  was  effected  but  slowly  even 
among  the  more  progressive  of  ancient  peoples.     In  the  use  of 


GLA  SS-MAKING.  1 5  5 

glass,  the  idea  of  beauty  and  decoration  long  remained  paramount 
to  considerations  of  utility.  It  was  an  article  of  luxury  rather  than 
of  necessity.  Darwin  observed  with  amazement  that  when  the 
weather  was  warm  and  fair,  the  Fijians  paraded  their  coats  of 
furs  and  feathers  with  all  the  pomp  and  pride  of  the  Parisian 
beau-monde,  only  to  stand  naked  and  shivering  in  times  of  storm. 
It  seems  to  have  been  much  the  same  thing  among  the  ancients 
with  respect  to  their  glass  bottles.  It  was  ornament  in  place  of 
use.  They  were  quite  willing  to  get  along  without  them  in  the 
economy  of  every-day  life,  provided  they  could  have  a  few  rare 
vases  and  gold-mounted  amphorse  in  the  early  salons  where  Ra- 
meses  gossiped  about  Egyptian  politics,  and  Potiphar  discoursed 
upon  the  mysteries  of  metempsychosis. 

It  must  be  confessed  that,  in  the  pursuit  of  this  one  idea,  they 
were  eminently  successful.  Their  glass  trinkets  were  beautiful, 
both  in  outline  and  in  color,  even  if  their  bottles  for  real  service 
were  made  of  skin,  and  liable  to  rip  and  tear.  The  glass  bric-a- 
brac  of  antiquity,  its  bottles  and  vases  and  jars,  was  not  of  large 
dimension,  but  it  possessed  a  profusion  of  color  which  we  have 
only  of  recent  years  been  able  to  imitate. 

With  us  moderns,  however,  life  is  much  more  complex,  and 
the  case  is  quite  different.  We  are  not  insensible  to  ornamenta- 
tion, but  we  are  more  keenly  alive  to  comfort.  In  the  absence  of 
a  king's  taster,  we  are  disposed  to  guard  what  we  eat  and  drink. 
The  majority  agree  with  Charles  Lamb,  that  poisoning  is  "a  nasty 
death,"  and  so  we  eschew  the  use  of  metals  in  contact  with  our 
foods,  and  much  prefer  glass.  We  want  milk  miles  from  where 
it  is  produced,  and  fruits  and  vegetables  months  after  their  har- 
vest. We  want  medicines  for  health,  balms  for  bruises,  tonics  for 
appetites,  mineral  waters  for  digestion,  wines  for  strength,  con- 
densed products  for  our  travel.  We  want  to  separate  with  acids 
and  put  together  with  glues.  We  want  a  host  of  other  things 
which  come  in  bottles.  We  even  bottle  our  electricity — if  so  un- 
scientific an  expression  may  be  applied  to  the  storage-battery. 
There  is,  in  fact,  scarcely  a  single  department  of  life,  either  social 
or  industrial,  where  some  product  is  not  needed  which  must  be 
kept  or  carried  in  some  form  of  glass  bottle  or  jar.  The  manu- 
facture of  so  useful  an  article  is  thus  brought  into  relation  with 
all  of  our  many-sided  activity.  It  forms  a  distinct  and  very  im- 
portant branch  of  the  glass  industry. 

In  America,  the  process  of  bottle-making  is  nowhere  carried  on 
more  extensively  or  more  successfully  than  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Philadelphia.  Much  of  the  sand  of  southern  New  Jersey  is 
sufficiently  pure  to  make  an  excellent  bottle-glass.  Its  adapta- 
bility for  this  purpose  seems  to  have  been  appreciated  by  the  early 
colonists,  for  the  oldest  glass-works  in  this  country  are  those  es- 


i56 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


tablished  in  1775  at  Glassboro.  They  are  still  in  operation,  and 
are  at  the  present  day  the  most  extensive  of  American  bottle- 
works,  employing  as  they  do  some  six  hundred  persons  in  the 
conduct  of  their  operations.  It  is  a  significant  fact,  showing  the 
force  of  modern  progress,  that  after  existing  for  more  than  a  cent- 
ury, the  capacity  of  the  "  plant "  was  increased  over  fifty  per  cent 
during  a  recent  period  of  three  years.  It  is  one  of  several  estab- 
lishments which  have  grown  up  in  that  neighborhood,  and  which 
have  been  attracted  by  the  same  cause,  the  abundance  of  a  fair 
quality  of  sand.  There  is,  moreover,  something  highly  gregarious 
about  modern  industries.  It  frequently  happens  that  many  other 
localities  offer  quite  as  favorable  conditions  as  the  one  selected ; 
but  the  simple  presence  of  a  successful  industry  seems  to  turn 
men's  thoughts  in  that  direction,  and  lead  them  to  undertake 
similar  enterprises  rather  than  to  attempt  the  dangerous  experi- 
ment of  importing  a  new  manufacture.  To  this  principle  of  gre- 
gariousness,  as  well  as  to  the  wide  wastes  of  sand,  must  the  com- 
munity of  glass- workers  in  southern  New  Jersey  be  attributed. 
Like  apparently  begets  like. 


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tLm'^j  ■- 

TJMJ*        - 

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y*- 

Fig.  1.— A  Glass-Bottle  Factory  at  Southern  New  Jersey. 

There  is  little  that  is  attractive  about  the  exterior  of  such  a 
bottle-factory.  One  finds  it  set  down  in  the  midst  of  a  flat,  mo- 
notonous country,  and  surrounded  by  indifferent  wooden  houses 
with  bare,  sandy  door-yards  which  bespeak  small  appreciation  of 
the  element  of  beauty.  That  these  houses  are  homes,  and  are  for 
the  most  part  owned  by  those  who  live  in  them,  adds  immensely 
to  their  interest,  but  it  does  not  conceal  the  fact  that  life  here  is 


GLASS-MAKING.  157 

material  and  ugly.  It  is  not  a  beautiful  or  an  inspiring  thing  to 
blow  bottles  all  day  long,  unless  one  does  it  remarkably  well ;  but 
the  industry  remaining,  the  life  in  these  towns  might  still  be 
made  much  less  bare  than  it  is,  could  that  gospel  of  happiness  and 
culture  which  Mr.  Walter  Besant  and  others  are  preaching  in  the 
East  End  of  London  find  here  some  good  apostle  who  would  make 
it  the  burden  of  a  new  evangel. 

In  the  larger  bottle- works  there  are  generally  several  melting 
furnaces,  but  each  is  complete  in  itself,  a  unit  from  which  a  larger 
or  smaller  plant  may  be  constructed,  according  to  the  require- 
ments of  the  case.  Each  furnace  is  lodged  in  its  own  building. 
A  certain  symmetry  is  loaned  to  these  low,  rectangular  wooden 
structures  by  the  tall  brick  furnace-shaft  which  rises  through  the 
center  of  the  roof,  and  by  the  numerous  smaller  chimneys  scat- 
tered around  the  edge.  The  sides  of  the  building  are  movable  on 
pivots,  and  when  open  give  the  factory  somewhat  the  appearance 
of  the  Japanese  houses  pictured  by  Mr.  Morse. 

Inside  of  the  factory  all  is  life  and  movement.  But,  amid  the 
dirt  and  confusion  which  characterize  such  an  interior,  there  are 
the  order  of  active  money-getting  and  the  beauty  of  a  long-prac- 
ticed dexterity. 

If  one  follow  the  crude  materials  from  the  time  they  enter  the 
building  until  they  finally  emerge  in  the  form  of  many-shaped 
bottles,  he  will  begin  his  inspection  at  the  mixing-room,  where  the 
questions  of  content  and  proportion  are  decided.  Large  wooden 
wheelbarrows  come  and  go,  stopping  long  enough  only  to  have 
their  weight  taken,  and  to  dump  their  thoroughly  ground  contents 
into  one  of  the  bins  on  the  side  of  the  room.  Patient  old  men, 
with  hoe  and  shovel,  mechanically  mix  together  the  stuff  for  the 
"  batch/'  This  varies  in  its  composition  according  to  the  sort  of 
bottles  that  are  to  be  made.  Three  grades  of  bottle  glass  are  rec- 
ognized. The  ordinary  green  glass  is  obtained  from  a  mixture 
of  about  thirty-eight  parts  of  soda  and  twenty  parts  of  marble- 
dust  to  every  hundred  parts  of  sand.  The  glass  is  essentially  a 
lime-soda  glass,  not  dissimilar  to  window  glass  in  its  composition. 
The  sand  used  comes  from  the  neighborhood,  and  contains  a 
little  iron.  As  no  bleaching  agents  are  employed,  this  gives  the 
glass  its  characteristic  light  green  color — the  bottle-green  of  our 
colorists.  The  second  grade,  the  amber  glass,  has  about  the  same 
composition,  only  it  is  colored  by  the  addition  of  a  little  ground 
coke,  black-lead,  or  some  other  form  of  carbon,  about  eight  ounces 
to  every  hundred  pounds  of  sand.  This  makes  a  much  less  in- 
nocent-looking bottle  than  the  sea-green  tint  of  the  first  glass. 
The  finest  grade,  the  so-called  flint  glass,  contains  about  the  same 
ingredients  as  the  ordinary  bottle  glass,  but  the  materials  used 
are  purer,  and  some  such  bleaching  agent  as  manganese  dioxide, 


158  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

arsenious  acid,  or  nitrate  of  soda  is  used  to  make  the  glass  color- 
less. Blue  bottles  are  occasionally  wanted,  and  in  that  case  a 
little  peroxide  of  cobalt  is  added  to  the  customary  batch  to  give 
the  required  color. 

To  obtain  the  best  results,  it  is  essential  that  the  grinding  and 
mixing  of  the  crude  materials  be  carefully  looked  after.  At  Glass- 
boro  the  mixing  as  well  as  the  grinding  will  soon  be  done  by  ma- 
chinery in  one  central  mixing-room,  and  the  batch  conveyed  to 
the  different  furnaces  by  means  of  endless  belts.  It  is  believed 
that  this  improvement  will  insure  a  better  product  as  well  as  more 
economical  working. 

The  batch  having  been  prepared,  the  next  step  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  bottle  is  to  change  this  dull-white  powder  into  clear, 
fluid  glass.  Such  a  metamorphosis  is  accomplished  in  the  melt- 
ing furnace,  which  forms  very  naturally  the  central  feature  in  a 
bottle-factory.  The  gratifying  increase  in  the  capacity  of  the 
Glassboro  works  is  largely  if  not  entirely  due  to  the  introduction 
of  improved  furnaces  invented  by  the  chemist  of  the  works,  Mr. 
Andrew  Ferrari.  They  are  continuous  tank  furnaces  heated  by 
gas — that  is  to  say,  the  melting  is  carried  out  in  large  fire-clay 
tanks,  and  proceeds  without  interruption.  There  are  other  tank 
furnaces  in  use  in  America,  but  these  are  probably  the  only  works 
where  the  melting  is  carried  out  continuously.  Neither  the  em- 
ployment of  a  tank  in  place  of  separate  crucibles,  nor  the  substi- 
tution of  a  gaseous  for  a  solid  fuel,  is  in  itself  new ;  but  the  details 
of  the  Ferrari  furnace  are  quite  novel.  In  Europe,  the  regenera- 
tive system  of  Siemens  has  been  employed  with  marked  success 
in  the  manufacture  of  glass ;  but,  unfortunately,  the  Siemens  fur- 
naces are  expensive  in  their  construction  and  require  some  de- 
gree of  skill  to  insure  their  best  working.  The  Ferrari  furnace, 
on  the  other  hand,  is  an  inexpensive  affair  and  is  easily  worked. 
The  gas  generator  is  the  usual  inclined  or  "  step  "  grate  employed 
by  Siemens,  but  it  is  placed  directly  alongside  of  the  furnace,  thus 
obviating  the  transportation  of  the  gas,  and  the  consequent  neces- 
sity of  reheating  it  before  combustion. 

At  one  end  of  the  building  one  sees  an  elevated  platform  on 
which  are  stacked  large  blocks  of  bituminous  coal.  About  six 
tons  are  daily  required  for  each  furnace.  From  this  platform  a 
line  of  low,  irregular  brick-work  extends  to  the  central  stack.  It 
contains  the  gas  generators,  three  to  each  furnace,  and  beyond 
them  the  melting  tank,  which  communicates  on  the  other  side 
with  what  is  known  as  the  working  part  of  the  furnace,  lying 
directly  under  the  central  stack.  The  coal  is  fed  directly  into  the 
generators  from  the  platform,  and  on  the  inclined  grate  is  com- 
pletely burned — that  is  to  say,  it  unites  with  all  the  oxygen  possi- 
ble, forming  carbonic-acid  gas.    The  supply  of  air  may  be  regulated 


GLASS-MAKING.  i59 

by  dampers,  so  that  the  generator  yields  more  or  less  gas  accord- 
ing to  the  requirements  of  the  furnace.  But  the  carbonic-acid 
gas  thus  produced  would  be  of  no  value  as  fuel,  for  it  is  totally 
incombustible.  Rising,  however,  through  the  mass  of  incandes- 
cent fuel  above  it,  the  gas  is  speedily  reduced  to  the  condition  of 
carbonic  oxide,  that  combustible  gas  whose  blue  flame  plays  over 


Fig.  2. — An  Interior  View,  showing  the  Brick-work  which  contains  the  Gas  Generators 

and  Melting  Tank. 

the  surface  of  an  anthracite  fire  just  after  fresh  fuel  has  been 
thrown  on.  This  mixes  with  the  volatile  hydrocarbons — the  coal- 
gas  given  off  when  fresh  coal  is  introduced  into  the  generator — 
and  the  mixture  passes  at  once  to  the  chamber  above  the  melting 
tank.  The  air  necessary  for  the  burning  of  these  generator  gases 
is  first  heated  by  passing  through  a  number  of  chambers  in  the 
lower  part  of  the  furnace.  It  is  mixed  with  the  gases  to  be  burned 
just  before  they  reach  the  fire-clay  bridge  separating  the  gas  gen- 
erator from  the  melting  tank.  The  main  combustion  takes  place 
right  at  this  bridge,  and  produces  an  intense  heat  in  the  melting 
chamber,  for  both  the  gas  to  be  burned  and  the  air  to  burn  it  are 
highly  heated  before  they  are  allowed  to  combine.  The  effect  is 
the  same  as  would  be  produced  on  a  small  scale  if  one  fed  his 
stove  with  the  hot  air  from  a  register.  This  arrangement  removes 
in  a  simple  and  inexpensive  way  one  of  the  chief  objections  to  the 
use  of  gas  in  glass-making.  The  fuel  is  so  exceedingly  convenient 
that  its  use  in  the  industry  was  proposed,  and  indeed  attempted, 
years  ago,  but  a  sufficiently  intense  heat  could  not  be  thus  ob- 
tained. 

The  furnaces  are  in  continuous  operation  for  ten  months  in  the 


160  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

year.  Every  three  hours  during  the  entire  twenty-four  a  charge 
of  a  ton  and  a  half  of  the  batch  is  added  to  the  melting  tank. 
In  an  atmosphere  so  intensely  heated  as  this,  it  does  not  take  very 
long  for  the  crude  materials  to  fuse  and  form  a  glass  quite  as 
liquid  as  water. 

Picture  for  a  moment  the  white-hot  caldron  in  which  this  trans- 
formation of  the  opaque  into  the  transparent  takes  place.  It  is 
an  oblong  tank,  some  eight  by  ten  feet,  in  which  the  glass  in  vari- 
ous stages  of  fusion  stands  to  a  depth  of  nearly  three  feet.  Above 
this  seething  mass  there  is  a  low  arch  which  deflects  the  long,  curl- 
ing flame  as  it  comes  over  the  bridge  from  the  generators,  until  it 
bathes  the  entire  contents  of  the  tank  in  its  Plutonic  breath.  As 
the  materials  of  the  batch  unite  and  melt — alone,  they  would  be 
for  the  most  part  entirely  infusible— the  liquid  glass  sinks  to  the 
bottom  of  the  tank  and  flows  through  small  openings  into  the 
gathering  chamber  beyond.  The  glass  resulting  from  the  union 
of  sand  and  alkaline  bases  is  heavier  than  the  crude  materials 
from  which  it  is  formed,  and  consequently  seeks  the  lowest  level. 
In  this  way  the  tank,  although  filled  with  material  in  all  stages 
of  transformation,  has  always  at  the  bottom  a  bath  of  thoroughly 
fused  glass.  The  communication  between  tank  and  gathering 
chamber  is  arranged  at  such  a  level  that  the  fluid  glass  alone  can 
pass  from  one  to  the  other. 

This  central  gathering  chamber  and  the  busy  life  surrounding 
it  are  the  points  of  chief  interest  to  the  visitor  who  wishes  to  see 
the  scenic  part  of  bottle-blowing,  and  is  willing  to  take  the  chem- 
istry and  some  of  the  more  occult  parts  of  the  process  on  faith. 
The  chamber  itself  is  circular,  usually  about  sixteen  feet  in  diam- 
eter, and  contains  a  bath  of  molten  glass  nearly  two  feet  deep. 
The  temperature  of  this  fiery  lake  is  kept  above  the  fusing-point 
by  the  hot  gases  which  come  from  the  melting  tank  and  rise  into 
the  high  shaft  immediately  over  the  gathering  compartment.  It 
takes  only  from  two  and  a  half  to  three  hours  for  the  crude  ma- 
terials of  the  batch  to  pass  to  the  condition  of  perfectly  fused 
glass.     This  is  pretty  quick  glass-making. 

A  little  sand,  a  little  alkali,  a  little  limestone,  and  considerable 
heat  have  so  far  been  expended,  and  the  result  is  fluid  glass.  It  is 
that  greater  amount  of  skill  which  is  now  needed  to  transform 
the  glass  into  a  bottle. 

There  is  a  series  of  openings,  some  sixteen  in  number,  around 
the  sides  of  the  gathering  chamber  and  a  little  above  the  level  of 
the  molten  glass.  Through  these  the  glass-blower  draws  his  sup- 
ply, but  he  does  not  dip  his  blowpipe  directly  into  this  glowing 
reservoir.  Such  an  arrangement  would  cause  too  great  a  loss  of 
heat,  besides  interrupting  the  furnace-draught,  and  would  be  a 
source  of  constant  annoyance  to  the  gatherer  on  account  of  the 


GLASS-MAKING. 


161 


impurities  which  float  as  a  scum  on  the  surface  of  the  bath.  To 
avoid  these  evils,  each  gathering  hole  has  its  "  boot/'  a  rounded 
hood  of  fire-clay  which  surrounds  the  hole  on  the  inside  of  the 
chamber,  and  extends  downward  to  the  bottom  of  the  bath  in  the 
shape  of  an  oval  cylinder.  An  opening  near  the  bottom  of  the 
cylinder  admits  the  fluid  glass  into  the  interior  of  the  boot,  and 


Fig.  3.— The  Operation  of  "Marvering." 

permits  it  to  stand  always  at  the  same  level  there  as  in  the  gather- 
ing chamber  outside.  Thus  the  gatherer  draws  his  burden  from 
this  little  bucket-like  reservoir,  but,  like  the  widow's  cruse  of  oil, 
the  supply  never  gives  out. 

Outside  of  the  furnace  the  agencies  of  heat  and  chemism  are 
replaced  by  that  of  human  dexterity.  The  men  work  in  companies, 
which  are  known  in  the  glass-maker's  parlance  as  "  shops."  And 
very  busy  companies  they  are.  They  resemble  nothing  so  much 
as  a  swarm  of  bees,  as  they  hurry  to  and  fro  about  the  gathering 
holes.  The  condition  is  one  of  almost  nervous  activity.  The  men 
toss  their  blowpipes  hither  and  thither  in  the  operation  of  form- 
ing the  bottles,  and  boys  dart  in  and  out  of  the  crowd  carrying  bot- 

TOL.    XXXVI.  — 11 


i6z  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

ties  in  all  stages  of  development.  There  is  complete  singleness  of 
purpose.  They  are  all  intent  on  turning  out  the  largest  number 
of  bottles  possible — for  the  pay  is  largely  by  the  piece.  Where 
the  bottles  are  very  small,  one  man  has  been  known  to  blow 
as  many  as  two  hundred  dozen  in  a  day,  but  this  is  exceptional 
activity. 

There  are,  all  told,  seven  persons  in  such  a  shop :  three  men,  of 
whom  two  blow  the  bottles,  while  a  third,  the  gaffer,  forms  the 
necks,  and  four  boys  who  gather  the  molten  glass,  open  the  molds, 
and  carry  away  the  finished  products.  The  gatherer  is  a  some- 
what older  hoy  than  the  others,  and  stands  in  direct  line  of  pro- 
motion ;  is,  in  fact,  a  blower  or  gaffer  in  embryo.  He  aspires — the 
others  but  distantly.  One  shop  is  attached  to  each  boot ;  and  occa- 
sionally, when  work  presses,  there  are  two  shops  to  a  boot,  but  this 
is  rather  crowding  things  and  is  not  favorable  to  the  best  working. 
The  process  begins  with  the  gatherer.  His  blowpipe  is  a  tube  of 
wrought  iron,  five  or  six  feet  long,  and  of  lighter  weight  than  the 
pipe  used  in  blowing  window  glass.  He  dips  the  end  of  his  pipe 
into  the  molten  contents  of  the  boot,  and  brings  out  a  mass  of  red- 
hot  plastic  glass.  If  the  bottles  to  be  blown  are  small,  one  gath- 
ering suffices,  but,  for  larger  wares,  two  or  even  three  gatherings 
may  be  necessary  to  get  the  requisite  supply  of  material  on  the 
end  of  the  blowpipe.  When  the  gathering  is  done  properly,  this 
lump  of  red-hot  glass  is  a  perfectly  homogeneous  mass.  Its  subse- 
quent fortunes  rest  with  the  blower.  He  takes  the  blowpipe  from 
the  gatherer,  and,  resting  the  plastic  glass  against  a  marvering 
table  of  stone  or  cast  iron,  he  gives  the  pipe  a  few  adroit  rotations, 
thus  fashioning  the  glass  into  an  even  cylindrical  shape.  By 
further  rolling  it  along  the  edge  of  the  table  he  forms  the  smaller 
prolongation  of  glass  which  is  afterward  to  become  the  neck  of 
the  bottle.  Lifting  the  still  red-hot  glass  from  the  table,  he  blows 
through  the  pipe,  forming  a  small  bubble  of  air  in  the  interior  of 
the  mass  of  glass.  This  is  afterward  extended  until  it  becomes 
the  inwardness  of  the  bottle. 

The  partly  fashioned  bit  of  glassware  is  now  introduced  into 
the  mold  which  one  of  the  "  shop  "  boys  has  already  opened  to 
receive  it.  For  convenience  in  working,  the  mold  is  placed  on  a 
somewhat  lower  level  than  that  on  which  the  blower  stands.  It 
is  made  of  cast  iron,  and  is  commonly  formed  in  two  pieces.  One 
of  these  is  stationary,  while  the  other  opens  outward,  its  motion 
being  controlled  by  a  foot-lever.  When  the  blower  places  his  in- 
complete bottle,  still  attached  to  the  blowpipe,  into  the  mold,  he 
closes  the  mold  with  his  foot,  and  blows  through  the  pipe  until 
the  plastic  glass  is  everywhere  forced  against  the  sides  of  the 
mold,  and  has  impressed  upon  it  the  form  of  its  prison.  Then 
with  a  quick  motion  the  blower  detaches  his  blowpipe  from  the 


GLASS-MAKING. 


163 


projecting  neck  of  the  bottle — the  glass  is  still  plastic — hands  it 
over  to  the  gatherer,  and  with  a  fresh  blowpipe  repeats  his  labor. 
Such  constant  blowing  largely  develops  the  muscles  of  the  cheek, 
but  the  exercise  is  not  unwholesome.  It  is  impossible  by  methods 
like  these  to  obtain  bottles  of  uniform  thickness,  yet  the  varia- 
tions are  much  less  than  one  would  suppose. 


Fig.  4.— Putting  the  Bottle  in  the  Mold  preparatory  to  the  Final  Blowing. 

In  contact  with  the  iron  of  the  mold  the  bottle  cools  very  rapid- 
ly. Almost  as  soon  as  the  blower  takes  away  his  pipe,  the  mold 
may  be  opened  and  the  bottle  removed.  The  little  fellow  who 
does  this  is  called  a  "  snapper."  He  seizes  the  bottle  with  his  iron 
forceps  and  transfers  it  from  the  mold  to  a  pair  of  scales  near  by. 
A  small  square  of  asbestus  cloth  remains  permanently  on  the  scale- 
pan,  as  contact  with  the  cold  iron  would  be  apt  to  crack  the  glass. 
All  bottles,  except  the  very  small  ones,  are  thus  weighed,  and  any 
that  show  either  a  deficiency  or  an  excess  in  weight  are  rejected. 
There  will  always  be  a  slight  variation,  but  it  must  be  within 
narrow  limits,  not  exceeding,  for  instance,  an  ounce  in  bottles  in- 
tended to  weigh  seventeen  ounces.     Comparatively  few  bottles  are 


i64 


THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


rejected  for  this  cause.  The  bottle  of  approved  avoirdupois  is 
placed  in  a  closely  fitting  case  of  wrought  iron  mounted  on  a  long 
handle.  Only  the  neck  of  the  bottlers  allowed  to  project.  Thus 
blanketed  and  mounted,  the  hot  glass  is  easily  handled. 

It  goes  now  to  the  gaffer,  to  have  its  neck  properly  shaped. 
He  is  found  at  no  great  distance,  sitting  before  a  little  side  furnace 
which  affords  three  openings — "glory-holes'' — large  enough  to 
admit  the  necks  of  the  bottles,  and  a  heated  atmosphere  of  suffi- 
cient intensity  to  make  the   glass   necks  plastic  and  workable. 


Pig.  5.— Blowing  a  Flask  in  the  Air. 

Crude  petroleum  is  the  fuel  used.  It  is  stored  in  a  tank  to  one 
side  of  the  furnace,  and  trickles  down,  drop  by  drop,  into  a  tube 
which  brings  a  strong  blast  of  air  from  a  distant  fan.  In  this 
way  the  oil  is  vaporized,  and  mixed  with  such  proportions 
of  air  that  the  mixture  is  highly  combustible,  and  in  burning 
produces  an  intense  heat.  Three  tongues  of  yellow  flame  thrust 
themselves  out  of  the  glory-holes  and  leap  toward  the  gaffer  sit- 
ting before  them.  In  England  this  member  of  the  shop  is  known 
as  the  chairman,  a  term  which  refers  to  his  bodily  rather  than  to 


GLASS-MAKING. 


165 


his  official  position.  He  thrusts  the  necks  of  the  incased  bottles 
into  the  glory-holes,  and  then  one  by  one  withdraws  them  from 
their  aureole  and  forms  the  necks.  This  he  does  by  means  of  a 
convenient  implement  known  under  the  generic  name  of  tool.  It 
consists  of  a  central  stopper,  kept  moist  with  oil,  which  is  thrust 
into  the  mouth  of  the  bottle,  thus  determining  its  gauge ;  and  of 
two  outside  arms  of  iron,  which,  by  the  rotation  of  the  case,  the 
tool  remaining  stationary,  form  the  smooth  ring  commonly  adorn- 
ing the  necks  of  glass  bottles.  The  gaffer,  like  the  blower,  is  a 
quick  workman,  and  does  the  finishing  for  both  blowers  belonging 
to  his  shop.  He  does  not  leave  his  chair,  the  glass  being  brought 
to  him  and  carried  away  again  by  the  little  boys  who  have  been 
noticed  as  darting  about  in  such  a  lively  fashion. 

The  bottle  is  now  finished,  so  far  as  its  form  is  concerned,  but, 
like  the  window-pane  under  similar  circumstances,  it  would  have 
scant  value  if  sent  out  into  the  world  in  its  present  condition.  It 
would  be  too  brittle,  on  account  of  its  sudden  cooling,  and  must 
therefore  first  be  annealed.  This  operation  is  simply  one  of  grad- 
ual cooling,  and  is  carried  out  in  ovens  or  in  annealing  leers. 


Fig.  6.— A  View  of  the  Gaffer  at  Work,  showing  his  Tool  and  Manner  of  holding  the 

Bottle  when  forming  its  Neck. 

The  oven  is  a  roomy  chamber  of  brick-work,  in  which  a  wood 
fire  is  permitted  to  burn  for  a  couple  of  hours  in  the  early  part  of 
the  day.  It  is  opened  when  the  blowers  begin  work,  and  during 
the  remainder  of  the  day  it  is  gradually  filled  with  bottles  as  the 
different  gaffers  finish  them.  At  night  it  is  closed  and  permit- 
ted to  remain  so  for  three  days.  At  the  end  of  that  time  the  oven 
has  become  quite  cold,  and  the  bottles  are  thoroughly  annealed. 


166  THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE   MONTHLY. 

The  leer  is  a  later  invention  and  carries  out  the  same  process, 
only  it  acts  continuously  and  is  in  so  far  an  advance.  It  also  con- 
sists of  a  roomy  chamber  of  brick-work,  but  the  fire  is  permanent 
and  is  located  at  one  side  of  the  chamber.  A  long  brick  passage- 
way extends  for  eighty  feet  from  the  back  of  this  receiving  cham- 
ber. The  bottles  are  not  piled  directly  on  the  floor,  but  are  placed 
in  low  sheet-iron  cars  which  move  on  a  track  extending  the  length 
of  the  passage-way.  As  soon  as  a  car  is  filled,  it  is  moved  along 
the  passage-way  in  order  to  make  room  for  an  empty  car  in  the 
receiving  chamber.  In  this  gradual  way  the  loaded  cars  are 
moved  along  the  passage  farther  and  farther  from  the  source  of 
heat,  and  finally  discharge  their  loads  at  the  cold  end  of  the  leer. 
It  takes  from  forty-eight  to  sixty  hours  to  accomplish  the  journey, 
though  this  is  simply  a  matter  of  convenience,  as  the  annealing 
process  itself  would  not  require  more  than  from  nine  to  ten  hours, 
if  so  long  as  that. 

Ordinarily  the  bottles,  just  as  they  come  from  the  ovens  and 
leers,  are  ready  to  be  packed  and  shipped  to  their  purchasers.  In 
case,  however,  a  seal  has  been  blown  in  the  side  of  the  bottle  and 
its  prospective  contents  are  of  an  effervescent  character,  the 
strength  of  each  bottle  must  be  carefully  tested,  as  the  glass  form- 
ing the  seal  is  apt  to  blow  out  thinner  than  the  rest,  and  thus  be  a 
source  of  weakness.  The  testing  is  carried  out  by  filling  the  bot- 
tle with  water  and  then  subjecting  it  to  the  pressure  of  a  column 
of  water  equal  to  eighty  pounds  to  the  square  inch.  Only  a  few 
of  the  bottles,  however,  break  under  this  ordeal. 

But  in  case  the  bottle  has  a  screw  top,  as  in  fruit-jars  and  the 
like,  or  is  to  have  simply  a  plain  ground  edge,  as  in  electric-bat- 
tery jars,  it  is  manufactured  with  a  slight  excess  of  glass  on  the 
top.  This  is  known  as  a  "blow-over."  In  this  event  the  bottle 
does  not  pass  through  the  hands  of  the  gaffer,  but  goes  directly 
from  the  blower  to  the  ovens  or  annealing  leers.  In  the  grind- 
ing department  the  blow-over  is  knocked  off  and  the  rough  edges 
ground  smooth  in  a  rotary  grinding  machine.  In  this  the  bottles 
or  jars  are  put  in  upside  down,  eleven  at  a  time,  and  have  their 
edges  pressed  against  the  face  of  a  large  horizontal  iron  wheel 
which  is  rotated  by  steam-power.  The  framework  in  which  the 
jars  are  held  also  rotates,  and,  in  addition,  each  individual  jar 
turns  on  its  own  axis.  The  iron  wheel  is  supplied  with  a  constant 
stream  of  sand  and  water,  and  this,  with  the  triple  motion  of  the 
machine,  does  very  effective  work.  As  many  as  sixty  dozen  jars 
can  thus  be  ground  in  an  hour. 

The  products  of  such  a  bottle-factory  are  as  varied  as  the  pro- 
cesses by  which  they  are  fabricated.  There  are  large  bottles  and 
small  bottles,  tall  bottles  and  short  bottles,  thick  bottles  and  thin 
bottles,  ugly  bottles  and  pretty  bottles — in  fine,  all  sorts  of  bottles, 


GLASS-MAKING. 


167 


according  to  the  taste  and  requirements  of  the  purchaser.  He 
may  order  anything,  from  the  tiny  vial  of  one-drachm  capacity  up 
to  the  ungainly  carboy  holding  fourteen  gallons.  He  may  have 
any  tints  desired,  from  the  colorless  flint  glass  through  all  shades  of 
oreen  and  brown  and  blue  to  the  bottle  of  absolute  blackness.     Or 


Fig.  7.— The  Annealing  Leek,  as  seen  fkom  the  Front. 

he  may  have  any  shape  or  form  he  pleases.  Few  if  any  bottles 
are  kept  in  stock  or  made  until  ordered.  Nearly  all  of  the  work 
is  the  direct  filling  of  orders. 

It  is  only  by  comparison  with  the  older  order  of  things  that 
one  can  appreciate  the  large  improvements  that  have  recently 
been  introduced  into  the  process  of  bottle-making.  In  the  Glass- 
boro  works  the  Ferrari  furnace  has  effected  many  changes  and 
many  economies.  I  am  told,  on  very  reliable  authority,  that  not 
only  is  the  quality  of  the  glass  much  improved  by  the  employ- 
ment of  these  furnaces,  but  that  in  addition  the  experience  of  five 
years  has  shown  their  maintenance  and  operation  to  be  notably 
less  expensive  than  the  old-style  pot  furnaces.  In  the  matter  of 
fuel  the  saving  is  said  to  have  been  more  than  fifty  per  cent.  The 
repairs  have  also  cost  as  much  less  in  proportion.  When  the 
melting  was  done  in  pots,  the  cost  of  these  alone  made  an  appreci- 
able item  in  the  year's  expenses.  Each  one  cost  about  fifty  dollars, 
and  their  average  life  was  only  two  months.  Occasionally  one  was 
known  to  last  nine  months,  but  for  every  such  exception  there 
were  from  two  to  three  dozen  which  failed  in  less  than  a  month. 
The  four  furnaces  in  operation  would  require  in  all  about  forty 
pots,  and  these  renewed  every  two  months  would  mean  during  the 


168  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

working  year  an  expenditure  for  pots  alone  of  ten  thousand  dol- 
lars. The  present  tank  furnaces  are  out  of  blast  during  July  and 
August,  but  the  year's  repairs  are  only  a  nominal  expense.  The 
hot  season  is  chosen  for  renovation  for  very  obvious  reasons, 
though  the  heat  alone  is  not  sufficiently  intense  to  make  the  ces- 
sation of  work  a  necessity. 

In  thus  following  the  evolutionary  process  by  which  a  glass 
bottle  is  produced,  one  meets  with  many  ingenious  contrivances 
and  many  shrewd  adaptations  of  means  to  ends,  but  he  will  scarcely 
meet  with  any  problem  of  quite  such  deep  interest  as  that  pre- 
sented by  the  people  who  carry  out  this  process.  Particularly  is 
one  struck  with  the  large  number  of  boys,  scarcely  more  than 
children,  who  are  employed  in  such  a  factory.  About  the  furnace 
proper  there  are  even  more  boys  than  men.  The  law  does  not 
permit  the  employment  of  children  under  twelve  years  of  age,  but 
exceptions  are  sometimes  allowed  by  the  labor  inspector  in  case  a 
boy  has  a  widowed  mother,  or  some  other  particular  demand  upon 
his  early  activity.  New  Jersey  further  attempts  to  protect  her 
children  by  making  an  annual  school  attendance  of  five  months 
compulsory  for  them.  In  the  glass-blowing  districts  this  require- 
ment is  met  by  the  establishment  of  night  schools  supported  by 
the  State.  The  term  lasts  only  for  the  allotted  five  months,  the 
daily  session  being  for  two  hours,  from  half-past  six  to  half-past 
eight  o'clock.  My  own  limited  observation  of  the  working  of 
night  schools  has  led  me  to  believe  that  they  are  but  poor  substi- 
tutes for  work  done  earlier  in  the  day  when  the  boys  are  fresher 
and  more  buoyant ;  but  the  superintendent  of  a  large  factory,  to 
whom  I  spoke  on  the  subject,  was  of  the  opinion  that  these  child- 
ish glass-workers  are  doing  very  satisfactory  work  in  such  schools. 
It  is  hard,  nevertheless,  that  childhood  should  be  made  so  short, 
and  that  the  work-a-day  life  should  begin  so  early  for  these  little 
people.  They  seem,  it  is  true,  a  very  happy,  merry  set  of  young- 
sters, and,  if  one  may  judge  from  the  tricks  they  are  constantly 
playing  on  one  another,  they  manage  to  get  a  fair  share  of  boyish 
fun  ;  but  they  can  not  fail  to  lose  much  in  being  so  soon  harnessed. 
As  a  class,  these  lads  seemed  to  be  finer  looking  and  in  many  ways 
better  conditioned  than  the  older  workers,  so  that  one  would  nat- 
urally fancy  that  the  hard  work  was  leaving  its  landmarks.  Men 
who  have  known  them  longer  tell  me,  however,  that  it  is  a  new 
generation,  and  one  that  has  been  reared  under  more  favorable 
conditions  of  life. 

They  are  comparatively  well  paid.  The  little  boys  make  three 
dollars  a  week,  and  the  larger  ones  six ;  modest  sums  admittedly  ; 
but  large  enough  under  the  circumstances* of  country  life  to  per- 
mit a  little  laying  by.  I  felt  curious  to  know  what  aspirations 
were  most  favored  in  such  a  community,  and  to  what  ideals  the 


GLASS-MAKING.  169 

boys  looked  up.  The  story  was  soon  told :  to  become  glass-blow- 
ers, and  to  have  plenty  to  eat — that  was  all ;  a  life  centered  about 
bottles.  Yet,  among  so  many  bright-faced  lads,  there  are  doubt- 
less many  of  considerable  promise,  could  their  imaginations  only  be 
fired  by  some  well-directed  effort.  Some  one  with  a  passion  for 
culture  and  a  big  human  heart  could  do  great  things,  it  seemed 
to  me,  with  such  quick,  observant  material. 

With  the  older  workers  the  dice  have  been  cast,  and  life  is  well 
crystallized.  It  has  left  them  divided  into  two  classes :  the  green- 
glass  blowers,  who  are  chiefly  Americans,  and  the  flint-glass  blow- 
ers, who  are  more  largely  Germans.  Both  bodies  of  men  are  closely 
organized,  and  as  a  result  make  excellent  wages.  The  union  to 
which  they  belong  will  not  permit  more  than  two  apprentices  a 
year  to  a  single  furnace.  Such  a  regulation,  with  the  annual  in- 
crease of  the  industry  and  the  inevitable  deaths,  practically  ex- 
cludes competition.  The  blowers  make  on  an  average  five  dollars 
a  day.  In  rare  cases  as  much  as  three  hundred  dollars  a  month 
has  been  paid  to  a  single  man.  So  large  returns,  however,  are  only 
possible  for  blowers  and  gaffers.  The  other  members  of  the  shop, 
as  well  as  the  numerous  helpers  employed  in  the  conduct  of  such 
large  enterprises,  receive  regular  wages. 

One  other  feature  deserves  mention.  Throughout  the  entire 
works  there  is  observable  that  marked  tendency  of  modern  indus- 
trial life  to  substitute  continuous,  automatic  processes  for  those 
which  are  periodic  and  manual.  The  continuous  annealing  leer  is 
taking  the  place  of  the  oven ;  the  steady  flow  of  gaseous  fuel  is  re- 
placing the  oft-repeated  shovelful  of  coal ;  the  continuous  melting 
tank  has  been  substituted  for  the  discontinuous  reservoir  system 
represented  by  the  crucible  pots ;  the  uninterrupted  automatic 
charging  of  the  furnace  is  about  to  do  away  with  the  manual 
feeding  of  the  batch  every  three  hours ;  and  similarly,  in  all  depart- 
ments, the  change  is  in  progress.  The  operations  of  blowing  have 
not  yet  been  made  automatic.  Bottles  but  an  inch  long  are  still 
produced  by  the  blower's  breath,  and  little  boys  dispose  of  them 
one  by  one.  But  it  is  not  improbable,  in  spite  of  the  difficulties 
in  the  way,  that  a  patent  bottle-blowing  machine  will  some  day 
take  the  place  of  the  army  of  workers  who  now  swarm  around 
the  gathering  chamber  of  a  glass-furnace.  Such  a  machine  already 
exists  in  the  brain  of  a  man.  When  it  is  materialized  into  a  work- 
ing fact,  the  last  step  in  perfecting  the  evolution  of  a  glass  bottle 
will  have  been  taken,  and  any  further  development  will  be  along 
lines  already  laid  down. 


11* 


i7o  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


PLAIN  WORDS   ON  THE  WOMAN  QUESTION. 

By  GRANT  ALLEN. 

IF  any  species  or  race  desires  a  continued  existence,  then  above 
all  things  it  is  necessary  that  that  species  or  race  should  go 
on  reproducing  itself. 

This,  I  am  aware,  is  an  obvious  platitude ;  but  I  think  it  was 
John  Stuart  Mill  who  once  said  there  were  such  things  in  the 
world  as  luminous  platitudes.  Some  truths  are  so  often  taken  for 
granted  in  silence,  that  we  are  in  danger  at  times  of  quite  losing 
sight  of  them.  And  as  some  good  friends  of  mine  have  lately  been 
accusing  me  of  "  barren  paradoxes,"  I  am  anxious  in  this  paper  to 
avoid  all  appearance  of  paradox,  barren  or  fertile,  and  to  confine 
myself  strictly  to  the  merest  truisms.  Though  the  truisms,  to  be 
sure,  are  of  a  particular  sort  too  much  overlooked  in  controversy 
nowadays  by  a  certain  type  of  modern  lady  writers. 

Let  us  look  then  briefly  at  the  needful  conditions  under  which 
alone  the  human  race  can  go  on  reproducing  itself. 

If  every  woman  married,  and  every  woman  had  four  children, 
population  would  remain  just  stationary.  Or  rather,  if  every  mar- 
riageable adult  man  and  woman  in  a  given  community  were  to 
marry,  and  if  every  marriage  proved  fertile,  on  the  average,  to  the 
extent  of  four  children,  then,  under  favorable  circumstances,  that 
community,  I  take  it,  would  just  keep  up  its  numbers,  neither 
increasing  nor  decreasing  from  generation  to  generation.  If  less 
than  all  the  adult  men  and  women  married,  or  if  the  marriages 
proved  fertile  on  the  average  to  a  less  degree  than  four  children 
apiece,  then  that  community  would  grow  smaller  and  smaller.  In 
order  that  the  community  may  keep  up  to  its  normal  level,  there- 
fore, either  all  adults  must  marry  and  produce  to  this  extent,  or 
else,  fewer  marrying,  those  few  must  have  families  exceeding  on 
the  average  four  children,  in  exact  proportion  to  the  rate  of  ab- 
stention. And  if  the  community  is  to  increase  (which  on  Dar- 
winian principles  I  believe  to  be  a  condition  precedent  of  national 
health  and  vigor),  then  either  all  adults  must  marry  and  produce 
more  than  four  children  apiece,  or  else,  fewer  marrying,  those 
few  must  produce  as  many  more  as  will  compensate  for  the  ab- 
stention of  the  remainder  and  form  a  small  surplus  in  each 
generation. 

In  Britain,  at  the  present  day,  I  believe  I  am  right  in  deducing 
(after  Mr.  F.  Galton)  that  an  average  of  about  six  children  per 
marriage  (not  per  head  of  female  inhabitants)  is  necessary  in  order 
to  keep  the  population  just  stationary.  And  the  actual  number 
of  children  per  marriage  is  a  little  in  excess  of  even  that  high 


PLAIN   WORDS    ON  THE    WOMAN   QUESTION.      171 

figure,  thus  providing  for  the  regular  increase  from  census  to 
census  and  for  overflow  by  emigration. 

These  facts,  all  platitudes  as  they  are,  look  so  startling  at  first 
sight  that  they  will  probably  need  for  the  unstatistical  reader  a 
little  explanation  and  simplification. 

"Well,  suppose,  now,  every  man  and  every  woman  in  a  given 
community  were  to  marry ;  and  suppose  they  were  in  each  case  to 
produce  two  children,  a  boy  and  a  girl ;  and  suppose  those  chil- 
dren were  in  every  case  to  attain  maturity ;  why,  then,  the  next 
generation  would  exactly  reproduce  the  last,  each  father  being 
represented  by  his  son,  and  each  mother  by  her  daughter,  ad  infini- 
tum. (I  purposely  omit,  for  simplicity's  sake,  the  complicating 
factor  of  the  length  and  succession  of  generations,  which  by  good 
luck  in  the  case  of  the  human  species  practically  cancels  itself.) 
But,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  all  the  children  do  not  attain  maturity : 
on  the  contrary,  nearly  half  of  them  die  before  reaching  the  age 
of  manhood — in  some  conditions  of  life,  indeed,  and  in  some  coun- 
tries, more  than  half.  Roughly  speaking,  therefore  (for  I  don't 
wish  to  become  a  statistical  bore),  it  maybe  said  that  in  order  that 
two  children  may  attain  maturity  and  be  capable  of  marriage, 
even  under  the  most  favorable  circumstances,  four  must  be  born. 
The  other  two  must  be  provided  to  cover  risks  of  infant  or  adoles- 
cent mortality,  and  to  insure  against  infertility  or  incapacity  for 
marriage  in  later  life.  They  are  wanted  to  make  up  the  categories 
of  soldiers,  sailors,  imbeciles,  cripples,  and  incapables  generally. 
So  that  even  if  every  possible  person  married,  and  if  every  mar- 
ried pair  had  four  children,  we  should  only  just  keep  up  the  num- 
ber of  our  population  from  one  age  to  another. 

Now,  I  need  hardly  say  that  not  every  possible  person  does 
marry,  and  that  we  do  actually  a  good  deal  more  than  keep  up  the 
number  of  our  population.  Therefore  it  will  at  once  be  clear  that 
each  actual  marriage  is  fertile  to  considerably  more  than  the  ex- 
tent of  four  children.  That  is,  indeed,  a  heavy  burden  to  lay  upon 
women.  One  aim,  at  least,  of  social  reformers  should  certainly  be 
to  lighten  it  as  much  as  possible. 

Nevertheless,  I  think,  it  will  be  abundantly  apparent  from 
these  simple  considerations  that  in  every  community,  and  to  all 
time,  the  vast  majority  of  the  women  must  become  wives  and 
mothers,  and  must  bear  at  least  four  children  apiece.  If  some 
women  shirk  their  natural  duties,  then  a  heavier  task  must  be  laid 
upon  the  remainder.  But  in  any  case  almost  all  must  become 
wives  and  mothers,  and  almost  all  must  bear  at  least  four  or  five 
children.  In  our  existing  state  six  are  the  very  fewest  that  our 
country  can  do  with. 

Moreover,  it  is  pretty  clear  that  the  best  ordered  community 
will  be  one  where  as  large  a  proportion  of  the  women  as  possible 


i72  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

marry,  and  where  the  burden  of  maternity  is  thus  most  evenly 
shared  between  them.*  Admitting  that  certain  women  may  have 
good  reasons  for  avoiding  maternity  on  various  grounds — unfit- 
ness, or,  what  is  probably  much  the  same  thing  at  bottom,  disin- 
clination— and  admitting  also  that  where  such  good  reasons  exist, 
it  is  best  those  women  should  remain  unmarried,  we  must  still  feel 
that  in  most  cases  marriage  is  in  itself  desirable,  and  that  limited 
families  are  better  than  large  ones.  In  other  words,  it  is  best  for 
the  community  at  large  that  most  women  should  marry,  and  should 
have  moderate  families,  rather  than  that  fewer  should  marry  and 
have  unwieldily  large  ones ;  for  if  families  are  moderate  there  will 
be  a  greater  reserve  of  health  and  strength  left  in  the  mothers  for 
each  birth,  the  production  of  children  can  be  spread  more  slowly 
over  a  longer  time,  and  the  family  resources  will  be  less  heavily 
taxed  for  their  maintenance  and  education.  Incidentally  this  will 
benefit  both  parents  as  well  as  the  community.  That  is  to  say, 
where  many  marriages  and  small  families  are  the  rule,  the  chil- 
dren will  on  the  average  be  born  healthier,  be  better  fed,  and  be 
launched  more  fairly  on  the  world  in  the  end.  Where  marriages 
are  fewer  and  families  large,  the  strain  of  maternity  will  be  most 
constant  and  most  heavily  felt ;  the  father  will  be  harder  worked, 
and  the  children  will  be  born  feebler,  will  be  worse  fed,  and  will 
start  worse  equipped  in  the  battle  of  life. 

Hence  I  would  infer  that  the  goal  a  wise  community  should 
keep  in  view  is  rather  more  marriages  and  fewer  children  per 
marriage,  than  fewer  marriages  and  more  children  per  marriage. 

Or,  to  put  these  conclusions  another  way :  in  any  case,  the 
vast  majority  of  women  in  any  community  must  needs  become 
wives  and  mothers ;  and  in  the  best  ordered  community  the 
largest  possible  number  will  doubtless  become  so,  in  order  to  dis- 
tribute the  burden  equally,  and  to  produce  in  the  end  the  best  re- 
sults for  the  nation. 

Well,  it  may  be  brutal  and  unmanly  to  admit  these  facts  or  to 
insist  upon  these  facts,  as  we  are  often  told  it  is  by  maiden  ladies ; 
but  still,  if  we  are  to  go  on  existing  at  all,  we  must  look  the  facts 
fairly  and  squarely  in  the  face,  and  must  see  how  modern  tenden- 
cies stand  with  regard  to  them. 

Now,  I  have  the  greatest  sympathy  with  the  modern  woman's 
demand  for  emancipation.  I  am  an  enthusiast  on  the  Woman 
Question.  Indeed,  so  far  am  I  from  wishing  to  keep  her  in  sub- 
jection to  man,  that  I  should  like  to  see  her  a  great  deal  more 
emancipated  than  she  herself  as  yet  at  all  desires.  Only,  her 
emancipation  must  not  be  of  a  sort  that  interferes  in  any  way  with 

*Oh,  yes,  I  know  all  about  Malthus ;  but  Mr.  Galton  hag  shown  that  a  certain  amount 
of  over-population  is  necessary  for  survival  of  the  fittest,  and  that  if  the  best  and  most  in- 
telligent classes  abstain,  the  worst  and  lowest  will  surely  make  up  the  leeway  for  them. 


PLAIN    WORDS    ON  THE    WOMAN   QUESTION.      173 

this  prime  natural  necessity.  To  the  end  of  all  time,  it  is  mathe- 
matically demonstrable  that  most  women  must  become  the  moth- 
ers of  at  least  four  children,  or  else  the  race  must  cease  to  exist. 
Any  supposed  solution  of  the  woman  problem,  therefore,  which 
fails  to  look  this  fact  straight  in  the  face,  is  a  false  solution.  It 
cries  "  Peace,  peace  !  "  where  there  is  no  peace.  It  substitutes  a 
verbal  juggle  for  a  real  way  out  of  the  difficulty.  It  withdraws 
the  attention  of  thinking  women  from  the  true  problem  of  their 
sex  to  fix  it  on  side-issues  of  comparative  unimportance. 

And  this,  I  believe,  is  what  almost  all  the  Woman's  Rights 
women  are  sedulously  doing  at  the  present  day.  They  are  pursu- 
ing a  chimera,  and  neglecting  to  perceive  the  true  aim  of  their 
sex.  They  are  setting  up  a  false  and  unattainable  ideal,  while 
they  omit  to  realize  the  true  and  attainable  one  which  alone  is 
open  to  them. 

For  let  us  look  again  for  a  moment  at  what  this  all  but  uni- 
versal necessity  of  maternity  implies.  Almost  every  woman  must 
bear  four  or  five  children.  In  doing  so  she  must  on  the  average 
use  up  the  ten  or  twelve  best  years  of  her  life — the  ten  or  twelve 
years  that  immediately  succeed  her  attainment  of  complete  wom- 
anhood. For  note,  by  the  way,  that  these  women  must  also  for 
the  most  part  marry  young :  as  Mr.  Galton  has  shown,  you  can 
quietly  and  effectually  wipe  out  a  race  by  merely  making  its 
women  all  marry  at  twenty-eight :  married  beyond  that  age, 
they  don't  produce  children  enough  to  replenish  the  population. 
Again,  during  these  ten  or  twelve  years  of  child-bearing  at  the 
very  least,  the  women  can't  conveniently  earn  their  own  liveli- 
hood ;  they  must  be  provided  for  by  the  labor  of  the  men — under 
existing  circumstances  (in  favor  of  which  I  have  no  Philistine 
prejudice)  by  their  own  husbands.  It  is  true  that  in  the  very 
lowest  state  of  savagery  special  provision  is  seldom  made  by  the 
men  for  the  women  even  during  the  periods  of  pregnancy,  child- 
birth, and  infancy  of  the  offspring.  The  women  must  live  (as 
among  the  Hottentots)  over  the  worst  of  these  periods  on  their 
own  stored-up  stock  of  fat,  like  hibernating  bears  or  desert  cam- 
els. It  is  true  also  that  among  savage  races  generally  the  women 
have  to  work  as  hard  as  the  men,  though  the  men  bear  in  most 
cases  the  larger  share  in  providing  actual  food  for  the  entire  fam- 
ily. But  in  civilized  communities — and  the  more  so  in  proportion 
to  their  degree  of  civilization — the  men  do  most  of  the  hardest 
work,  and  in  particular  take  upon  themselves  the  duty  of  provid- 
ing for  the  wives  and  children.  The  higher  the  type,  the  longer 
are  the  wives  and  children  provided  for.  Analogy  would  lead 
one  to  suppose  (with  Comte)  that  in  the  highest  communities  the 
men  would  do  all  the  work,  and  the  women  would  be  left  entirely 
free  to  undertake  the  management  and  education  of  the  children. 


174  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

Seeing,  then,  that  these  necessities  are  laid  by  the  very  nature 
of  our  organization  upon  women,  it  would  appear  as  though  two 
diities  were  clearly  imposed  upon  the  women  themselves,  and 
upon  all  those  men  who  sympathize  in  their  welfare :  First,  to  see 
that  their  training  and  education  should  fit  them  above  every- 
thing else  for  this  their  main  function  in  life ;  and,  second,  that 
in  consideration  of  the  special  burden  they  have  to  bear  in  con- 
nection with  reproduction,  all  the  rest  of  life  should  be  made  as 
light  and  easy  and  free  for  them  as  possible.  We  ought  frankly 
to  recognize  that  most  women  must  be  wives  and  mothers ;  that 
most  women  should  therefore  be  trained,  physically,  morally,  so- 
cially, and  mentally,  in  the  way  best  fitting  them  to  be  wives  and 
mothers ;  and  that  all  such  women  have  a  right  to  the  fullest  and 
most  generous  support  in  carrying  out  their  functions  as  wives 
and  mothers. 

And  here  it  is  that  we  seem  to  come  in  conflict  for  a  moment 
with  most  of  the  modern  Woman-Question  agitators.  I  say  for  a 
moment  only,  for  I  am  not  going  to  admit,  even  for  that  brief 
space  of  time,  that  the  doctrine  I  wish  to  set  forth  here  is  one 
whit  less  advanced,  one  whit  less  radical,  or  one  whit  less  eman- 
cipatory than  the  doctrine  laid  down  by  the  most  emancipated 
women.  On  the  contrary,  I  feel  sure  that  while  women  are  cry- 
ing for  emancipation  they  really  want  to  be  left  in  slavery ;  and 
that  it  is  only  a  few  exceptional  men,  here  and  there  in  the  world, 
who  wish  to  see  them  fully  and  wholly  enfranchised.  And  those 
men  are  not  the  ones  who  take  the  lead  in  so-called  Woman's 
Rights  movements. 

For  what  is  the  ideal  that  most  of  these  modern  women  agi- 
tators set  before  them  ?  Is  it  not  clearly  the  ideal  of  an  unsexed 
woman  ?  Are  they  not  always  talking  to  us  as  though  it  were 
not  the  fact  that  most  women  must  be  wives  and  mothers  ?  Do 
they  not  treat  any  reference  to  that  fact  as  something  ungenerous, 
ungentlemanly,  and  almost  brutal  ?  Do  they  not  talk  about  our 
"  casting  their  sex  in  their  teeth "  ?— as  though  any  man  ever 
resented  the  imputation  of  manliness.  Nay,  have  we  not  even, 
many  times  lately,  heard  those  women  who  insist  upon  the  essen- 
tial womanliness  of  women  described  as  "  traitors  to  the  cause  of 
their  sex  "  ?  Now,  we  men  are  (rightly)  very  jealous  of  our  viril- 
ity. We  hold  it  a  slight  not  to  be  borne  that  any  one  should 
impugn  our  essential  manhood.  And  we  do  well  to  be  angry ;  for 
virility  is  the  key-note  to  all  that  is  best  and  most  forcible  in  the 
masculine  character.  Women  ought  equally  to  glory  in  their 
femininity.  A  woman  ought  to  be  ashamed  to  say  she  has  no 
desire  to  become  a  wife  and  mother.  Many  such  women  there  are, 
no  doubt— it  is  to  be  feared,  with  our  existing  training,  far  too 
many ;  but,  instead  of  boasting  of  their  sexlessness  as  a  matter  of 


PLAIN    WORDS    ON  THE    WOMAN   QUESTION.      175 

pride,  they  ought  to  keep  it  dark,  and  to  be  ashamed  of  it — as 
ashamed  as  a  man  in  a  like  predicament  would  be  of  his  impo- 
tence. They  ought  to  feel  they  have  fallen  short  of  the  healthy 
instincts  of  their  kind,  instead  of  posing  as  in  some  sense  the 
cream  of  the  universe,  on  the  strength  of  what  is  really  a  func- 
tional aberration. 

Unfortunately,  however,  just  at  the  present  moment,  a  con- 
siderable number  of  the  ablest  women  have  been  misled  into 
taking  this  unfeminine  side,  and  becoming  real  "  traitors  to  their 
sex "  in  so  far  as  they  endeavor  to  assimilate  women  to  men  in 
everything,  and  to  put  upon  their  shoulders,  as  a  glory  and  privi- 
lege, the  burden  of  their  own  support.  Unfortunately,  too,  they 
have  erected  into  an  ideal  what  is  really  an  unhappy  necessity  of 
the  passing  phase.  They  have  set  before  them  as  an  aim  what 
ought  to  be  regarded  as  a  pis-aller.  And  the  reasons  why  they 
have  done  so  are  abundantly  evident  to  anybody  who  takes  a 
wide  and  extended  view  of  the  present  crisis  —  for  a  crisis  it 
undoubtedly  is — in  the  position  of  women. 

In  the  first  place,  the  movement  for  the  higher  education  of 
women,  in  itself  an  excellent  and  most  praiseworthy  movement, 
has  at  first,  almost  of  necessity,  taken  a  wrong  direction,  which 
has  entailed  in  the  end  much  of  the  present  uneasiness.  Of  course, 
nothing  could  well  be  worse  than  the  so-called  education  of  women 
forty  or  fifty  years  ago.  Of  course,  nothing  could  be  narrower 
than  the  view  of  their  sex  then  prevalent,  as  eternally  predestined 
to  suckle  fools  and  chronicle  small  beer.  But  when  the  need  for 
some  change  was  first  felt,  instead  of  reform  taking  a  rational 
direction — instead  of  women  being  educated  to  suckle  strong  and 
intelligent  children,  and  to  order  well  a  wholesome,  beautiful, 
reasonable  household — the  mistake  was  made  of  educating  them 
like  men — giving  a  like  training  for  totally  unlike  functions. 
The  result  was  that  many  women  became  unsexed  in  the  process, 
and  many  others  acquired  a  distaste,  an  unnatural  distaste,  for  the 
functions  which  Nature  intended  them  to  perform.  At  the  pres- 
ent moment  a  great  majority  of  the  ablest  women  are  wholly  dis- 
satisfied with  their  own  position  as  women,  and  with  the  position 
imposed  by  the  facts  of  the  case  upon  women  generally ;  and  this 
as  the  direct  result  of  their  false  education.  They  have  no  real 
plan  to  propose  for  the  future  of  women  as  a  sex ;  but  in  a  vague 
and  formless  way  they  protest  inarticulately  against  the  whole 
feminine  function  in  women,  often  even  going  the  length  of  talk- 
ing as  though  the  world  could  get  along  permanently  without 
wives  and  mothers.* 

*  A  short  time  ago  I  received  an  angry  letter  from  a  correspondent  in  Iowa,  full  of 
curious  bluster  about  "  doing  without  the  men  altogether."  Apparently  this  lady  really 
imagined  that  the  human  race  could  be  recruited  from  the  gooseberry  bushes. 


176  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

In  the  second  place,  a  certain  real  lack  of  men  to  marry,  here 
and  now,  in  certain  classes  of  society,  and  those  the  classes  that 
lead  thought,  has  made  an  exceptional  number  of  able  women  at 
present  husbandless,  and  thus  has  added  strength  to  the  feeling 
that  women  must  and  ought  to  earn  their  own  living.  How  small 
and  local  this  cause  is  I  shall  hereafter  try  to  show :  but  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  it  has  much  to  do  with  the  present  discontents 
among  women.  There  is  a  feeling  abroad  that  many  women  can't 
get  married ;  and  this  feeling,  bolstered  up  by  erroneous  statistics 
and  misunderstood  facts,  has  greatly  induced  women  to  erect  into 
an  ideal  for  all  what  is  really  a  pis-aUer  for  a  small  fraction  of 
their  body — self-support  in  competition  with  men. 

But  are  there  not  seven  hundred  thousand  more  women  than 
men  in  the  United  Kingdom  ?  And  must  not  these  seven  hundred 
thousand  be  enabled  to  earn  their  own  living  ?  That  is  the  one 
solid  fact  which  the  "  advanced "  women  are  always  flinging  at 
our  heads ;  and  that  is  the  one  fallacious  bit  of  statistics  which 
seems  at  first  sight  to  give  some  color  of  reasonableness  to  the 
arguments  in  favor  of  the  defeminization  of  women. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  statistics  are  not  true.  There  are  not 
seven  hundred  thousand  more  women  than  men,  but  seven  hun- 
dred thousand  more  females  than  males  in  the  United  Kingdom. 
The  people  who  say  "  seven  hundred  thousand  women,"  picture  to 
themselves  that  vast  body  of  marriageable  girls,  massed  in  a  hol- 
low square,  and  looking  about  them  in  vain,  across  wide  leagues 
of  country,  for  non-existent  husbands.  But  figures  are  things  that 
always  require  to  be  explained,  and,  above  all,  to  be  regarded  in 
their  true  proportions  to  one  another.  These  seven  hundred  thou- 
sand females  include  infants  in  arms,  lunatics,  sisters  of  charity, 
unfortunates,  and  ladies  of  eighty.  A  large  part  of  the  excess  is 
due  to  the  greater  longevity  of  women ;  and  the  number  comprises 
the  great  mass  of  widows,  who  have  once  in  their  lives  possessed  a 
husband  of  their  own,  and  have  outlived  him,  partly  because  they 
are,  as  a  rule,  younger,  and  partly  by  dint  of  their  stronger  con- 
stitutions. Moreover,  this  total  disparity  of  seven  hundred  thou- 
sand, including  babies,  lunatics,  and  widows,  is  a  disparity  on  a 
gross  population  of  something  more  than  thirty-five  millions. 
Looking  these  figures  straight  in  the  face,  we  find  the  actual  pro- 
portion of  the  sexes  to  be  as  172  males  to  179  females.  Speaking 
very  roughly,  this  makes  about  four  females  in  every  hundred, 
including  babies,  widows,  and  so  forth,  who  have  not  a  comple- 
mentary male  found  for  them.  This  in  itself  is  surely  no  very 
terrible  disproportion.  It  does  not  more  than  cover  the  relative 
number  of  women  who  are  naturally  debarred  from  marriage,  or 
who  under  no  circumstances  would  ever  submit  to  be  married. 
Out  of  every  hundred  women,  roughly  speaking,  ninety-six  have 


PLAIN   WORDS    ON  THE    WOMAN   QUESTION.      i77 

husbands  provided  for  them  by  nature,  and  only  four  need  go  into 
a  nunnery  or  take  to  teaching  the  higher  mathematics.  And  if 
the  marriageable  men  and  women  only  are  reckoned  in  the  ac- 
count, as  far  as  I  can  gather  from  existing  statistics,  the  dispro- 
portion sinks  to  a  quite  insignificant  fraction. 

Nevertheless,  it  is  a  fact,  that  both  in  England  and  America  the 
marriageable  men  of  the  middle  and  upper  classes  are  not  to  the 
fore,  and  that  accordingly  in  these  classes — the  discussing,  think- 
ing, agitating  classes — an  undue  proportion  of  women  remains  un- 
married. The  causes  of  this  class  disparity  are  not  far  to  seek. 
In  America  the  young  man  has  gone  West.  In  England  he  is  in 
the  army,  in  the  navy,  in  the  Indian  Civil  Service,  in  the  Cape 
Mounted  Rifles.  He  is  sheep-farming  in  New  Zealand,  ranching 
in  Colorado,  growing  tea  in  Assam,  planting  coffee  in  Ceylon ;  he 
is  a  cowboy  in  Montana,  or  a  wheat-farmer  in  Manitoba,  or  a  dia- 
mond-digger at  Kimberley,  or  a  merchant  at  Melbourne :  in  short, 
he  is  anywhere  and  everywhere  except  where  he  ought  to  be,  mak- 
ing love  to  the  pretty  girls  in  England.  For,  being  a  man,  I,  of 
course,  take  it  for  granted  that  the  first  business  of  a  girl  is  to  be 
pretty. 

Owing  to  these  causes,  it  has  unfortunately  happened  that  a 
period  of  great  upheaval  in  the  female  mind  has  coincided  with  a 
period  when  the  number  of  unmarried  women  in  the  cultivated 
classes  was  abnormally  large.  The  upheaval  would  undoubtedly 
have  taken  place  in  our  time,  even  without  the  co-operation 
of  this  last  exacerbating  cause.  The  position  of  women  was  not 
a  position  which  could  bear  the  test  of  nineteenth-century 
scrutiny.  Their  education  was  inadequate ;  their  social  status 
was  humiliating ;  their  political  power  was  nil ;  their  practical 
and  personal  grievances  were  innumerable :  above  all,  their 
relation  to  the  family — to  their  husbands,  their  children,  their 
friends,  their  property — was  simply  insupportable.  A  real  Wom- 
an Question  there  was,  and  is,  and  must  be.  The  pity  of  it  is 
that  the  coincidence  of  its  recognition  with  the  dearth  of  mar- 
riageable men  in  the  middle  and  upper  classes  has  largely  de- 
flected the  consequent  movement  into  wrong  and  essentially  im- 
practicable channels. 

For  the  result  has  been  that,  instead  of  subordinating  the 
claims  of  the  unmarried  women  to  the  claims  of  the  wives  and 
mothers,  the  movement  has  subordinated  the  claims  of  the  wives 
and  mothers  to  the  claims  of  the  unmarried  women.  Almost  all 
the  Woman's  Rights  women  have  constantly  spoken,  thought, 
and  written  as  though  it  were  possible  and  desirable  for  the  mass 
of  women  to  support  themselves,  and  to  remain  unmarried  for- 
ever. The  point  of  view  they  all  tacitly  take  is  the  point  of  view 
of  the  self-supporting  spinster.    Now,  the  self-supporting  spinster 

VOL.  XXXVI. 12 


178  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

is  undoubtedly  a  fact — a  deplorable  accident  of  the  passing  mo- 
ment. Probably,  however,  even  the  most  rabid  of  the  Woman's 
Rights  people  would  admit,  if  hard  pressed,  that  in  the  best- 
ordered  community  almost  every  woman  should  marry  at  twenty 
or  thereabouts.  We  ought,  of  course,  frankly  to  recognize  the 
existence  of  the  deplorable  accident ;  we  ought  for  the  moment  to 
make  things  as  easy  and  smooth  as  possible  for  her ;  we  ought  to 
remove  all  professional  barriers,  to  break  down  the  absurd  jeal- 
ousies and  prejudices  of  men,  to  give  her  fair  play,  and  if  possible 
a  little  more  than  fair  play,  in  the  struggle  for  existence.  So 
much  our  very  chivalry  ought  to  make  obligatory  upon  us.  That 
we  should  try  to  handicap  her  heavily  in  the  race  for  life  is  a 
shame  to  our  manhood.  But  we  ought  at  the  same  time  fully  to 
realize  that  she  is  an  abnormity,  not  the  woman  of  the  future. 
We  ought  not  to  erect  into  an  ideal  what  is  in  reality  a  painful 
necessity  of  the  present  transitional  age.  We  ought  always 
clearly  to  bear  in  mind — men  and  women  alike — that  to  all  time 
the  vast  majority  of  women  must  be  wives  and  mothers ;  that  on 
those  women  who  become  wives  and  mothers  depends  the  future 
of  the  race;  and  that,  if  either  class  must  be  sacrificed  to  the 
other,  it  is  the  spinsters  whose  type  perishes  with  them  that 
should  be  sacrificed  to  the  matrons  who  carry  on  the  life  and 
qualities  of  the  species. 

For  this  reason  a  scheme  of  female  education  ought  to  be 
mainly  a  scheme  for  the  education  of  wives  and  mothers.  And 
if  women  realized  how  noble  and  important  a  task  it  is  that  falls 
upon  mothers,  they  would  ask  no  other.  If  they  realized  how 
magnificent  a  nation  might  be  molded  by  mothers  who  devoted 
themselves  faithfully  and  earnestly  to  their  great  privilege,  they 
would  be  proud  to  carry  out  the  duties  of  their  maternity.  In- 
stead of  that,  the  scheme  of  female  education  now  in  vogue  is  a 
scheme  for  the  production  of  literary  women,  schoolmistresses, 
hospital  nurses,  and  lecturers  on  cookery.  All  these  things  are 
good  in  themselves,  to  be  sure — I  have  not  a  word  to  say  against 
them ;  but  they  are  not  of  the  center.  They  are  side-lines  off  the 
main  stream  of  feminine  life,  which  must  always  consist  of  the 
maternal  element.  "  But  we  can't  know  beforehand,"  say  the  ad- 
vocates of  the  mannish  training,  "  which  women  are  going  to  be 
married,  and  which  to  be  spinsters."  Exactly  so  ;  and  therefore 
you  sacrifice  the  many  to  the  few,  the  potential  wives  to  the 
possible  lady  lecturers.  You  sacrifice  the  race  to  a  handful  of 
barren  experimenters.  What  is  thus  true  of  the  blind  groping 
after  female  education  is  true  throughout  of  almost  all  the 
Woman  Movement.  It  gives  precedence  to  the  wrong  element  in 
the  problem.  What  is  essential  and  eternal  it  neglects  in  favor 
of  what  is  accidental  and    temporary.     What  is  feminine  in 


PLAIN   WORDS    ON  TEE   WOMAN   QUESTION      179 

women  it  neglects  in  favor  of  what  is  masculine.  It  attempts  to 
override  the  natural  distinction  of  the  sexes,  and  to  make  women 
men — in  all  but  virility. 

The  exact  opposite,  I  believe,  is  the  true  line  of  progress.  "We 
are  of  two  sexes :  and  in  healthy  diversity  of  sex,  pushed  to  its 
utmost,  lies  the  greatest  strength  of  all  of  us.  Make  your  men 
virile  :  make  your  women  womanly.  Don't  cramp  their  intelli- 
gence :  don't  compress  their  waists :  don't  try  to  turn  them  into 
dolls  or  dancing  girls  :  but  freely  and  equally  develop  their  femi- 
nine idiosyncrasy,  physical,  moral,  intellectual.  Let  them  be 
healthy  in  body :  let  them  be  sound  in  mind :  if  possible  (but 
here  I  know  even  the  most  advanced  among  them  will  object),  try 
to  preserve  them  from  the  tyranny  of  their  own  chosen  goddess 
and  model,  Mrs.  Grundy.  In  one  word,  emancipate  woman  (if 
woman  will  let  you,  which  is  more  than  doubtful),  but  leave  her 
woman  still,  not  a  dulled  and  spiritless  epicene  automaton. 

That  last,  it  is  to  be  feared,  is  the  one  existing  practical  result 
of  the  higher  education  of  women,  up  to  date.  Both  in  England 
and  America,  the  women  of  the  cultivated  classes  are  becoming 
unfit  to  be  wives  or  mothers.  Their  sexuality  (which  lies  at  the 
basis  of  everything)  is  enfeebled  or  destroyed.  In  some  cases  they 
eschew  marriage  altogether — openly  refuse  and  despise  it,  which 
surely  shows  a  lamentable  weakening  of  wholesome  feminine  in- 
stincts. In  other  cases,  they  marry,  though  obviously  ill  adapted 
to  bear  the  strain  of  maternity ;  and  in  such  instances  they  fre- 
quently break  down  with  the  birth  of  their  first  or  second  infant. 
This  evil,  of  course,  is  destined  by  natural  means  to  cure  itself 
with  time  :  the  families  in  question  will  not  be  represented  at  all 
in  the  second  generation,  or  will  be  represented  only  by  feeble  and 
futile  descendants.  In  a  hundred  years,  things  will  have  righted 
themselves ;  but  meanwhile  there  is  a  danger  that  many  of  the 
most  cultivated  and  able  families  of  the  English-speaking  race 
will  have  become  extinct,  through  the  prime  error  of  supposing 
that  an  education  which  is  good  for  men  must  necessarily  also  be 
good  for  women. 

I  said  just  now  that  many  women  at  present  eschew  marriage, 
and  that  this  shows  a  weakening  of  wholesome  feminine  instinct. 
Let  me  hasten  to  add,  for  fear  of  misconception — I  mean,  of  course, 
if  they  eschew  it  for  want  of  the  physical  impulse  which  ought  to 
be  as  present  in  every  healthy  woman  as  in  every  healthy  man. 
That  independent-minded  women  should  hesitate  to  accept  the 
terms  of  marriage  as  they  now  and  here  exist,  I  do  not  wonder. 
But  if  they  have  it  really  at  heart  to  alter  those  terms,  to  escape 
from  slavery,  to  widen  the  basis  of  the  contract  between  the  sexes, 
to  put  the  wife  on  a  higher  and  safer  footing,  most  sensible  men, 
I  feel  sure,  will  heartily  co-operate  with  them.     As  a  rule,  how- 


180  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

ever,  I  observe  in  actual  life  that  "  advanced  "  women  are  chary 
of  either  putting  forward  or  accepting  modifications  in  this  mat- 
ter. They  dread  the  frown  of  their  Grundian  deity.  They  usually 
content  themselves  with  vague  declamation  and  with  erecting 
female  celibacy  into  a  panacea  for  the  ills  that  woman  is  heir  to, 
while  they  refuse  to  meddle  at  all  in  definite  terms  with  the  ques- 
tion of  marriage  or  its  substitute  in  the  future.  "While  denouncing 
loudly  the  supremacy  of  man,  they  seem  ready  to  shake  off  that 
supremacy  only  for  the  celibate  minority  of  their  sex,  without  at- 
tempting to  do  anything  for  the  married  majority. 

To  sum  up  the  point  whither  this  long,  and  I  confess  discursive, 
argument  is  tending.  There  is,  and  ought  to  be,  a  genuine  Wom- 
an Question  and  a  genuine  Woman  Movement.  But  that  move- 
ment, if  it  is  ever  to  do  any  good,  must  not  ignore — nay,  on  the 
contrary,  must  frankly  and  unreservedly  accept  and  embrace — the 
fact  that  the  vast  majority  of  adult  women  are  and  will  always  be 
wives  and  mothers  (and  when  I  say  "  wives,"  I  say  so  only  in  the 
broadest  sense,  subject  to  all  possible  expansions  or  modifications 
of  the  nature  of  wifehood).  It  must  also  recognize  the  other  fact 
that  in  an  ideal  community  the  greatest  possible  number  of  women 
should  be  devoted  to  the  duties  of  maternity,  in  order  that  the 
average  family  may  be  kept  small,  that  is  to  say,  healthy  and  ed- 
ucable.  It  must  assume  as  its  goal,  not  general  celibacy  and  the 
independence  of  women,  but  general  marriage  and  the  ample  sup- 
port of  women  by  the  men  of  the  community.  While  allowing 
that  exceptional  circumstances  call  for  exceptional  tenderness 
toward  those  women  who  are  now  compelled  by  untoward  con- 
ditions to  earn  their  own  livelihood,  it  will  avoid  creating  that 
accident  into  a  positive  goal,  and  it  will  endeavor  to  lessen  the 
necessity  for  the  existence  of  such  exceptions  in  the  future.  In 
short,  it  will  recognize  maternity  as  the  central  function  of  the 
mass  of  women,  and  will  do  everything  in  its  power  to  make  that 
maternity  as  healthy,  as  noble,  and  as  little  burdensome  as 
possible. 

If  the  "  advanced  "  women  will  meet  us  on  this  platform,  I  be- 
lieve the  majority  of  "  advanced  "  men  will  gladly  hold  out  to 
them  the  right  hand  of  fellowship.  As  a  body  we  are,  I  think, 
prepared  to  reconsider,  and  to  reconsider  fundamentally,  without 
prejudice  or  preconception,  the  entire  question  of  the  relations  be- 
tween the  sexes — which  is  a  great  deal  more  than  the  women  are 
prepared  to  do.  We  are  ready  to  make  any  modifications  in  those 
relations  which  will  satisfy  the  woman's  just  aspiration  for  per- 
sonal independence,  for  intellectual  and  moral  development,  for 
physical  culture,  for  political  activity,  and  for  a  voice  in  the  ar- 
rangement of  her  own  affairs,  both  domestic  and  national.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  few  women  will  go  as  far  in  their  desire  to  eman- 


NEW  PHASES  IN  THE   CHINESE  PROBLEM.       181 

cipate  woman  as  many  men  will  go.  It  was  Ibsen,  not  Mrs.  Ibsen, 
who  wrote  the  "  Doll's  House."  It  was  women,  not  men,  who  ostra- 
cized George  Eliot.  The  slavishness  begotten  in  women  by  the 
regime  of  man  is  what  we  have  most  to  fight  against,  not  the  slave- 
driving  instinct  of  the  men — now  happily  becoming  obsolete,  or 
even  changing  into  a  sincere  desire  to  do  equal  justice.  But  what 
we  must  absolutely  insist  upon  is  full  and  free  recognition  of  the 
fact  that,  in  spite  of  everything,  the  race  and  the  nation  must  go  on 
reproducing  themselves.  Whatever  modifications  we  make  must 
not  interfere  with  that  prime  necessity.  We  will  not  aid  or  abet 
women  as  a  sex  in  rebelling  against  maternity,  or  in  quarreling 
with  the  constitution  of  the  solar  system.  Whether  we  have  wives 
or  not — and  that  is  a  minor  point  about  which  I,  for  one,  am 
supremely  unprejudiced — we  must  at  least  have  mothers.  And  it 
would  be  well,  if  possible,  to  bring  up  those  mothers  as  strong,  as 
wise,  as  free,  as  sane,  as  healthy,  as  earnest,  and  as  efficient  as  we 
can  make  them.  If  this  is  barren  paradox,  I  am  content  to  be 
paradoxical ;  if  this  is  rank  Toryism,  I  am  content  for  once  to  be 
reckoned  among  the  Tories. — Fortnightly  Review. 


NEW   PHASES   IN   THE   CHINESE  PROBLEM. 

By  WILLAED  B.  FARWELL. 

THE  whirligig  of  politics,  rather  than  that  of  time,  undoubt- 
edly brought  about  the  hasty  passage  by  Congress  of  the  so- 
called  "  Chinese  Exclusion  Act."  Being  simply  "  a  supplement " 
to  the  act  of  May  6,  1882,  which  expires  by  its  own  limitation  on 
the  6th  of  May,  1892,  it  can  of  course  only  be  regarded  as  a  tem- 
porary measure ;  and  unless  other  legislation  of  like  character, 
but  more  well  considered  and  permanent  in  its  operation,  is  had 
before  May  6,  1892,  the  country  will  then  be  as  open  to  the  free 
and  unrestricted  immigration  of  the  Chinese  as  it  was  prior  to 
the  treaty  of  1881,  and  the  act  to  execute  its  provisions  to  which 
this  is  a  supplement.  The  passage  of  this  measure  by  Con- 
gress, and  its  approval  by  the  President,  suggest  new  phases  in 
the  Chinese  problem.  First  among  them  all  is,  Will  exclusion 
exclude,  as  provided  in  the  machinery  of  this  act  ?  To  find  an 
intelligent  answer  to  this  question,  it  is  necessary  first  to  under- 
stand the  causes  and  motives  which  impel  the  Chinese  to  mi- 
grate from  their  native  country.  Until  this  phase  of  the  question 
is  fairly  presented,  the  difficulties  involved  in  excluding  the  Chi- 
nese by  legislative  methods  will  not  be  rightly  estimated  by  Con- 
gress or  by  the  country  at  large. 

With  an  area  of  1,297,999  square  miles,  China  possessed  a  pop- 


i8z  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

illation  in  1882,  according  to  the  best  accepted  authorities,  of  380,- 
000,000,  or  a  fraction  less  than  300  people  to  the  square  mile.  This 
average,  large  as  it  is,  gives  no  adequate  idea  of  the  real  density  of 
the  population  in  the  nine  important  provinces  of  China.  In  1812 
the  Chinese  census  gave  850,  705,  and  671  inhabitants  to  the  square 
mile  in  the  three  provinces  of  Kiangsu,  Nganhwsu,  and  Chehkiang 
respectively.  These  averages  have  since  increased  largely,  but 
there  are  no  reliable  data  from  which  to  give  the  present  popula- 
tion per  square  mile  in  these  or  other  provinces.  The  struggle  for 
life  under  such  conditions  of  overpopulation  must  necessarily  be 
severe  beyond  description.  But  when  we  add  to  this  the  fluctua- 
tions of  rainfall,  involving  frequently  occurring  periods  of  drought 
and  flood,  and  consequent  famine  and  misery,  we  begin  to  per- 
ceive the  true  causes  of  Chinese  emigration. 

The  famine  of  1878,  growing  out  of  the  drought  of  the  four 
preceding  years,  it  is  estimated,  swept  from  nine  and  one  half  to 
thirteen  millions  of  inhabitants  out  of  existence.  "  At  all  epochs," 
says  the  Abbe"  Hue,  "  and  in  the  most  flourishing  and  best-gov- 
erned countries,  there  always  have  been,  and  there  always  will  be, 
poor ;  but  unquestionably  there  can  be  found  in  no  other  country 
such  a  depth  of  disastrous  poverty  as  in  the  Chinese  Empire.  Not 
a  year  passes  in  which  a  terrific  number  of  persons  do  not  per- 
ish of  famine  in  some  part  of  China,  and  the  number  of  those 
who  live  merely  from  day  to  day  is  incalculable.  Let  a  drought, 
an  inundation,  or  any  accident  whatever  occur  to  injure  the  har- 
vest in  a  single  province,  and  two  thirds  of  the  population  are  im- 
mediately reduced  to  a  state  of  starvation.  You  see  them  form- 
ing themselves  into  numerous  bands — perfect  armies  of  beggars — 
and  proceeding  together,  men,  women,  and  children,  to  seek  in  the 
towns  and  villages  for  some  little  nourishment  wherewith  to  sus- 
tain for  a  brief  interval  their  miserable  existence.  Many  fall 
down  by  the  wayside  and  die  before  they  can  reach  the  place 
where  they  had  hoped  to  find  help.  You  see  their  bodies  lying  in 
the  fields  and  at  the  road-side,  and  you  pass  without  taking  much 
notice  of  them,  so  familiar  is  the  horrid  spectacle." 

"  Calamities  of  this  kind  occur  every  year  in  some  place  or  oth- 
er ;  and  those  who  have  made  any  savings  are  able  to  get  through 
the  crisis  and  wait  for  better  days ;  but  others,  who  are  always 
in  much  greater  numbers,  have  no  choice  but  to  expatriate  them- 
selves or  die  of  famine." 

In  1855  Sir  John  Bowring,  the  "  British  Resident  at  Canton,"  in 
reply  to  inquiries  from  the  Registrar-General  in  London,  gave 
some  interesting  facts  concerning  the  Chinese,  which  were  subse- 
quently published  by  the  Statistical  Society.  Speaking  of  the 
emigration  from  China,  he  said : 

"  The  constant  flow  of  emigration  from  China,  contrasted  with 


NEW  PHASES  IN   THE   CHINESE  PROBLEM.       183 

the  complete  absence  of  immigration  into  China,  is  striking  evi- 
dence of  the  redundancy  of  the  population ;  for,  though  that  emi- 
gration is  almost  wholly  confined  to  two  provinces,  viz.,  Kwang- 
tung  and  Fookien,  representing  together  a  population  of  probably 
from  34,000,000  to  35,000,000, 1  am  disposed  to  think  that  a  num- 
ber nearer  3,000,000  than  2,000,000  from  these  provinces  alone  are 
located  in  foreign  countries.  In  the  kingdom  of  Siam  it  is  esti- 
mated that  there  are  at  least  1,500,000  Chinese,  of  which  200,000  are 
in  the  capital  (Bankok).  They  crowd  all  the  islands  of  the  Indian 
Archipelago.  In  Java,  we  know  by  correct  census  there  are  136,- 
000.  Cochin-China  teems  with  Chinese.  In  this  colony  we  are  sel- 
dom without  one,  two,  or  three  vessels  taking  Chinese  emigrants 
to  California  and  other  places.  Multitudes  go  to  Australia,  to  the 
Philippines,  to  the  Sandwich  Islands,  to  the  western  coast  of  Cen- 
tral and  Southern  America ;  some  have  made  their  way  to  British 
India.  The  emigration  to  the  British  West  Indies  has  been  con- 
siderable, to  the  Havanna  greater  still.  The  annual  arrivals  in 
Singapore  are  estimated  at  an  average  of  10,000,  and  2,000  is  the 
number  that  are  said  annually  to  return  to  China." 

"  There  is  not  only  this  enormous  maritime  emigration,  but  a 
considerable  inland  efflux  of  Chinese  toward  Manchuria  and 
Thibet ;  and  it  may  be  added  that  the  large  and  fertile  islands  of 
Formosa  and  Hainan  have  been  to  a  great  extent  won  from  the 
aborigines  by  successive  inroads  of  Chinese  settlers.  Now  these 
are  all  males ;  there  is  not  a  woman  to  10,000  men ;  hence,  perhaps, 
the  small  social  value  of  the  female  infant.  Yet  the  perpetual  out- 
flowing of  people  seems  in  no  respect  to  diminish  the  number  of 
those  who  are  left  behind." 

Sir  John  Bowring  not  only  testifies  to  this  perpetual  outflow 
of  Chinese  emigrants,  but  he  paints  in  vivid  colors  the  causes 
which  lead  to  these  results.  He  says :  "  There  is  probably  no  part 
of  the  world  in  which  the  harvests  of  mortality  are  more  sweep- 
ing and  destructive  than  in  China,  producing  voids  which  re- 
quire no  ordinary  appliances  to  fill  up.  Multitudes  perish  abso- 
lutely from  want  of  the  means  of  existence ;  inundations  destroy 
towns  and  villages,  and  all  their  inhabitants ;  it  would  not  be 
easy  to  calculate  the  loss  of  life  by  the  typhoons  and  hurricanes 
which  visit  the  coasts  of  China,  in  which  boats  and  junks  are 
sometimes  sacrificed  by  hundreds  and  by  thousands.  The  late 
civil  wars  in  China  must  have  led  to  the  loss  of  millions  of  lives. 
The  sacrifices  of  human  beings  by  executions  alone  are  frightful." 

It  is  such  a  condition  of  things,  and  such  causes  as  these,  that 
induce  the  laboring  classes  of  Chinese  to  emigrate  to  other  coun- 
tries. Considering  the  incentive  which  exists  in  these  densely 
populated  districts  to  escape  from  the  misery  which  marks  their 
existence,  and  to  seek  new  lands  where  their  condition  may  be 


184  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

bettered,  the  clangers  that  threaten  from  such  inexhaustible  sources 
of  human  supply  become  easy  of  appreciation. 

It  may  well  be  inferred  that  a  line  of  public  policy  on  the  part 
of  any  other  nation  intended  to  shut  out  such  a  class  of  immi- 
gration as  this  must  be  literally  "  iron-clad  "  in  its  construction, 
and  must  involve  measures  of  defense  practically  as  stern,  unre- 
lenting, and  costly  in  their  character  as  are  the  measures  of  de- 
fense against  invasion  commonly  taken  among  nations  at  war 
with  each  other. 

So  far,  Chinese  immigration  in  other  countries  has  been  suffi- 
ciently powerful  to  break  down  all  the  barriers  that  have  been 
reared  against  it.  Wherever  they  have  gained  a  foothold  there 
they  have  continued  to  go,  there  they  have  increased  and  multi- 
plied. Wherever  they  have  gone,  in  earlier  or  later  times,  pro- 
longed contact  with  them  and  competition  in  the  field  of  labor 
have  developed  the  same  race  antipathies  that  exist  between  the 
American  people  on  the  Pacific  coast  and  the  Chinese  to-day. 

Since  18G0  200,000  Chinese  have  landed  in  Chili  and  Peru. 
Nearly  400,000  have  found  their  way  into  the  United  States 
through  the  port  of  San  Francisco  since  the  Chinese  immigration 
first  began.  The  numbers  that  have  migrated  to  Australia,  the 
Sandwich  Islands,  and  other  countries  have  been  enormous.  The 
larger  part  of  this  emigration  from  China  has  occurred  since  the 
walls  of  Chinese  exclusiveness  were  battered  down  by  English 
and  French  cannon  in  1858.  It  is  clear  that,  while  China  was 
then  opened  to  the  commerce  and  intercourse  of  the  world,  so  the 
world  was  likewise  opened  to  the  free  flow  of  the  yellow  tide  of 
Chinese  immigration,  sweeping  with  constantly  augmented  and 
resistless  force  in  every  direction.  We  have  seen  the  incentive  of 
poverty  and  misery  at  home  that  underlies  and  induces  Chinese 
emigration.  We  have  seen  that  with  them  it  is  either  expatria- 
tion or  starvation.  We  have  seen  that  massacre  and  cruelty  can 
not  change  their  purpose  or  intimidate  them,  and  we  may  well  ask 
ourselves  the  question  whether  the  mild  type  of  legislation  em- 
bodied in  the  "  Scott  Exclusion  Act "  can  be  more  effective  in  this 
direction.  Assuming  that  it  will  be  sustained  by  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States,  assuming  that  it  will  effectually  stop 
the  landing  of  Chinese  in  our  ports,  how  far  will  it  prove  effective 
in  barring  the  entrance  of  Chinese  along  the  thousands  of  miles 
of  frontier  that  intervene  between  British  Columbia  on  the  north 
and  Mexico  on  the  south  ?  Is  it  to  be  presumed  that  Chinese  cun- 
ning and  perseverance,  inspired  by  their  wretched  condition  at 
home,  and  the  incentive  of  good  wages,  constant  employment,  and 
a  more  comfortable  mode  of  life  here,  will  not  overcome  all  ob- 
stacles that  this  hasty  and  crude  kind  of  legislation  has  set  up 
against  them  ?    Is  it  to  be  presumed  that  a  law  that  imposes  upon 


NEW  PHASES  IN   THE   CHINESE  PROBLEM.       185 

them  no  penalty  other  than  that  of  being  sent  back  if  they  are 
detected,  will  keep  them  out,  when  the  fear  of  death  has  been 
found  wholly  ineffective  to  do  so  ?  "Will  exclusion  exclude  under 
such  conditions  as  these  ?  Moreover,  can  any  law  ever  be  enacted 
by  an  American  Congress  that  would  not  shock  the  Christian 
world  by  the  inhumanity  of  its  penalties,  that  will  ever  be  effect- 
ive in  excluding  them  from  our  soil  ?  For  violations  of  State  and 
municipal  laws  the  jails  and  prisons  have  been  crowded  with 
Chinese  for  months  and  years,  and  all  to  no  purpose.  The  con- 
stant perpetration  of  the  same  offenses  manifests  but  too  plainly 
the  utter  inutility  of  dealing  with  the  Chinese  by  any  such  meth- 
ods as  these. 

The  race  that  is  reared  under  the  fear  of  the  "  cangue,"  the 
"  bastinado,"  and  limb  and  bodily  torture  of  hideous  ingenuity 
as  punishments  for  trivial  offenses,  can  not  be  restrained  or  terror- 
ized by  prison  penalties  as  ordinarily  provided  under  American 
laws.  Much  less  can  they  be  prevented  from  attempting  to  gain 
entrance  into  the  country  by  the  mere  fear  of  being  sent  back 
if  detected.  And  it  may  well  be  believed  that  thousands  upon 
thousands  would  still  continue  the  attempt,  in  willing  exchange 
for  free  board  and  lodging  in  a  well-kept  American  prison,  with 
hard  labor,  were  that  penalty  made  to  attach  to  the  act. 

Under  such  circumstances  as  these,  will  exclusion  exclude,  in 
the  way  and  manner  provided  in  the  "  Scott  Exclusion  Act "  ? 
More  than  this,  can  any  remedy  for  Chinese  immigration  be  de- 
vised that  does  not  look  to  the  stationing  of  an  army  of  thousands 
of  men  along  our  northern  and  southern  borders,  and  at  a  cost 
bordering  upon  the  permanent  prosecution  of  a  defensive  war, 
except  by  treaty  co-operation  on  the  part  of  the  British  provinces 
on  the  north  and  Mexico  on  the  south  ? 

The  inefficiency  of  this  hasty  political  measure  of  exclusion  is 
only  equaled  by  the  public  disgrace  involved  in  the  manner  of 
its  inception  and  enactment,  which  the  most  radical  believer  in 
the  policy  of  Chinese  exclusion  can  not  fail  to  admit  constitutes 
the  most  shameful  page  in  American  history. 

If  we  are  to  assume  that  this  or  any  other  legislation  that  may 
be  had  by  Congress  can  be  made  to  result  in  effectual  Chinese 
exclusion,  the  problems  that  present  themselves  for  consideration 
are  hardly  less  interesting  and  deserving  of  study  than  if  this 
class  of  immigration  were  to  be  tolerated  indefinitely.  Already 
there  are  probably  more  than  200,000  Chinese  upon  American 
soil.  In  mode  of  life,  costume,  religion,  clannishness,  social  vices, 
and  language,  they  may  be  said  to  have  evinced  no  perceptible 
change  during  the  forty  years  that  have  elapsed  since  they  found 
lodgment  here.  Had  they,  during  all  this  period,  remained  in  the 
heart  of  the  Chinese  Empire,  they  could  not  have  been  more  in- 


186  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

tensely  Chinese  in  all  respects  than  they  are  to-day  with  all  their 
experience  of  contact  with  American  civilization.  True,  they 
have  been  the  gainers  to  the  extent  of  the  knowledge  and  skill 
they  have  acquired  in  the  field  of  skilled  labor  and  the  use  of  ma- 
chinery, but  it  has  made  no  impression  upon  their  race-habits  and 
instanced  no  sign  of  assimilation  with  the  race  which  surrounds 
them. 

We  are  accustomed  to  regard  our  own  ethnological  stock  as 
the  dominant  race  of  mankind ;  and  yet,  wherever  the  Chinese 
have  colonized  among  us,  we  have  yielded  the  ground  before  their 
advancing  hosts,  and  have  surrendered  to  them  a  dominance  in 
law,  social  habits,  and  religion.  While  all  other  races  which  com- 
bine to  form  the  American  people  proper  yield  common  obedi- 
ence to  the  laws,  and  may  be  regarded  as  a  common  brotherhood 
in  social  and  political  citizenship,  the  Chinese  have  remained  a  law 
unto  themselves,  and  in  the  estimation  of  the  Christian  communi- 
ties in  which  they  have  established  themselves  they  are  the  same 
unchanged  and  unchangeable  heathen  race  that  they  were  when 
they  landed  upon  our  shores.  Such  have  been  the  results  of  nearly 
forty  years  of  contact  of  the  two  races.  If  we  consider  this  period 
too  short  a  time  in  which  to  look  for  contrary  results,  what  shall 
we  say  of  the  fact — for  fact  it  is — that  in  the  Philippine  Islands, 
where  the  Chinese  have  been  colonized  now  for  nearly  three  hun- 
dred years,  precisely  the  same  results  have  come  about — no  better 
and  no  worse  ?  Not  only  have  they  maintained  their  race  charac- 
teristics, but  in  every  instance  they  have  proved  themselves  to  be 
the  stronger,  in  so  far  as  the  acquisition  of  material  wealth  and 
advantage  are  concerned,  maintaining  all  the  while  their  religion 
against  all  efforts  at  conversion. 

"  In  1871,"  says  the  Baron  von  Hiibner,  "  the  entire  English 
trade  with  China,  amounting  to  £42,000,000  sterling,  was  trans- 
acted through  English  firms."  Since  that  time,  he  adds  that, 
"  with  the  exception  of  some  great  influential  English  firms,  all 
the  same  trade  has  passed  into  the  hands  of  Chinese  merchants." 
In  Macao  similar  results  have  obtained. 

When  the  Manchus  conquered  China,  they  swept  all  before 
them  and  introduced  Manchu  habits  and  customs.  But  steadily 
these  innovations  gave  way  to  Chinese  influences.  "  You  may 
now,"  says  the  Abbe'  Hue,  "  traverse  Manchuria  to  the  river 
Amoor  without  being  at  all  aware  that  you  are  not  traveling  in 
a  province  of  China.  The  local  coloring  has  been  totally  effaced. 
The  Manchu  Tartars  have  almost  totally  abdicated  their  own 
manners,  and  adopted  instead  those  of  the  Chinese." 

Has  Chinese  colonization  in  San  Francisco  shown  any  different 
results  ?  Let  us  see.  That  portion  of  San  Francisco  known  to- 
day as  Chinatown  was  originally  the  residence  and  business  cen- 


NEW  PHASES  IN   THE   CHINESE  PROBLEM.       187 

ter  of  the  town.  Its  natural  advantages  made  it  the  choice  of  the 
early  American  settlers,  and  as  such  it  would  doubtless  have 
remained  to-day  had  it  not  been  for  the  advent  of  the  Chinese. 
These  latter,  seeing  also  its  advantages,  located  themselves  there. 
As  they  increased  in  numbers,  Christian  civilization  with  instinct- 
ive repugnance  retreated  before  them,  until,  within  this  entire  dis- 
trict, once  literally  San  Francisco  itself,  there  is  not  a  vestige  of 
American  civilization  remaining  save  in  the  abandoned  homes, 
churches,  and  other  private  and  public  buildings,  each  one  of 
which  fairly  swarms  with  hordes  of  unclean  and  unsavory  Chi- 
nese. A  missionary  writer,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Gibson,  an  advocate  of 
Chinese  immigration  for  Christianizing  purposes,  tells  the  story  in 
his  book, "  The  Chinese  in  America,"  of  the  abandonment  of  the 
'■  First  Baptist  Church  "  in  San  Francisco  to  the  Chinese : 

"  What  was  lately  the  First  Baptist  Church  of  San  Francisco 
is  now  a  crowded  Chinese  tenement-house,  full  of  all  manner  of 
filthiness,  shame,  and  sin.  Where  but  lately  was  the  altar  of  the 
living  God,  now  smokes  the  incense  of  idolatry.  That  sacred 
temple,  where  once  the  voice  of  prayer  and  praise  to  God  was 
heard,  now  echoes  with  idolatrous  chants  and  bacchanalian  songs. 
Instead  of  standing  firm  against  the  incoming  hosts  of  idolatry 
and  sin,  the  Church  of  Christ  has  beaten  an  ignominious  retreat, 
has  surrendered  without  a  struggle  one  of  the  strongest  fortifica- 
tions and  retreated  in  disorder  before  the  advancing  hosts  of 
idolatry."  Thus,  here  as  elsewhere,  they  have  established  their 
supremacy,  defied  all  laws  for  their  government  and  the  suppres- 
sion of  their  vices/and  erected  themselves  into  an  imperium  in 
imperio,  conquering  and  still  to  conquer. 

If  the  further  coming  of  this  race  be  successfully  prevented,  it 
will  probably  be  contended  that,  among  the  new  generations  which 
are  to  be  born  here,  and  which  will  be  entitled  to  all  the  rights  and 
privileges  of  American  citizenship  by  reason  of  that  fact,  the  in- 
fluences of  Christian  civilization  will  be  so  powerful  as  to  oblit- 
erate race  habits  and  vices,  and  substitute  those  of  our  own  race 
for  their  own.  There  has  been  no  test  of  this  under  these  special 
conditions,  and  therefore  there  can  be  nothing  foretold  with  pre- 
cision in  regard  to  it.  We  can  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact,  however, 
that  the  children  born  of  Chinese  parents  in  San  Francisco  so  far 
are  as  distinctly  Chinese  in  race,  habits,  superstitions,  vices,  and 
costume  as  were  their  fathers  before  them.  Thus  far  there  has 
not  been  a  perceptible  change  in  them.  As  in  every  other  coun- 
try where  they  have  colonized  the  same  results  have  followed, 
why  should  we  look  for  different  results  here  ?  It  will  be  said 
that  they  are  quick  to  learn,  and  capable  of  excelling  in  all  classes 
of  skilled  labor,  and  therefore  they  should  be  equally  responsive  in 
exchanging  their  race  habits  and  civilization  for  our  own.    How- 


188  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

ever  plausible  such  a  theory  may  sound,  forty  years'  experience 
in  San  Francisco  testifies  to  the  contrary.  A  people  of  traditions, 
the  lives,  work,  and  history  of  whose  generations  are  and  always 
have  been  but  a  repetition  of  each  other,  they  seem  incapable  of 
change  except  in  the  acquisition  of  such  mechanical  skill  and 
knowledge  as  can  be  made  subservient  to  their  material  advantage. 

The  successful  exclusion  of  further  Chinese  immigration,  and 
thereby  the  complete  isolation  of  the  Chinese  who  are  among  us 
from  their  countrymen  at  home,  will  certainly  offer  a  more  favor- 
able field  for  Christian  missionary  work  than  has  heretofore  ex- 
isted. But  that  which  has  been  accomplished  thus  far  certainly 
does  not  inspire  confidence  that  much  is  to  be  gained  in  that  di- 
rection. Mr.  Gibson,  the  most  prominent  of  all  missionary  work- 
ers among  the  Chinese  in  California,  testified  in  1876  to  the  effect 
that,  out  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  Chinese  in  California, 
but  two  hundred  and  seventy-one  had,  up  to  that  date,  been  bap- 
tized and  received  into  Christian  church  communion.  And  he 
failed  entirely  to  note  how  many  of  these  had  fallen  from  grace, 
and  gone  back  to  their  original  faith  and  practices.  He  failed 
also  to  give  the  simple  truth  to  the  world  that,  for  every  "  soul 
so  hopefully  converted  and  saved  " — to  use  his  own  words — thou- 
sands of  young  men  had  been  ruined  by  the  presence  of  the  Chi- 
nese through  the  introduction  and  spread  of  the  opium  habit,  the 
dissemination  of  hereditary  disease  through  their  innumerable 
dens  of  prostitution,  the  destructive  influences  of  their  lottery 
and  gambling  dens,  and  the  general  demoralization  of  the  field 
of  labor. 

Is  there  not  something  that  always  has  and  always  will  suc- 
cessfully resist  efforts  at  Christianization  of  the  Chinese  ?  Let  us 
resort  again  to  the  testimony  of  that  devout  and  earnest  mission- 
ary, the  Abbe*  Hue,  than  whom  no  one  has  ever  written  more 
clearly  and  truthfully  of  the  habits  and  characteristics  of  the 
race : 

"  In  the  five  ports  open  to  Europeans,  religious  liberty  really 
does  exist,  and  it  is  protected  by  the  presence  of  consuls  and  ships 
of  war.  Yet  the  number  of  Christians  does  not  increase  more  rap- 
idly than  in  the  interior  of  the  empire.  In  Macao,  Hong-Kong, 
Manila,  Singapore,  Penang,  Batavia,  though  they  are  under  the 
dominion  of  Europeans,  the  great  mass  of  the  population  consists 
of  Chinese,  who  for  the  most  part  are  permanently  settled  in  these 
cities,  and  hold  in  their  hands  the  great  interests  of  agriculture, 
commerce,  and  industry.  It  is  certainly  not  the  fault  of  persecu- 
tion of  the  European  authorities  that  hinders  them  from  embrac- 
ing Christianity.  Yet  the  conversions  are  not  more  numerous 
than  elsewhere.  .  .  . 

"  The  Chinese  are  so  completely  absorbed  in  temporal  interests, 


NEW  PHASES  IN  THE   CHINESE  PROBLEM.       189 

in  the  things  that  fall  under  their  senses,  that  their  whole  life  is 
only  materialism  put  in  action.  .  .  . 

"  Lucre  is  the  sole  object  on  which  their  eyes  are  constantly 
fixed.  ...  A  burning  thirst  to  realize  some  profit,  great  or  small, 
absorbs  their  faculties,  the  whole  energy  of  their  being.  They 
never  pursue  anything  with  ardor  but  riches  and  natural  enjoy- 
ments. God,  the  soul,  a  future  life,  they  believe  in  none  of  them, 
or  rather  they  never  think  about  them  at  all."  * 

The  Chinese  maxim  is  " Pon-toun-kiao  "  ("  Religions  are  many, 
reason  is  one  :  we  are  all  brothers  ").  This  phrase  is  on  the  lips 
of  every  Chinese,  and  they  bandy  it  from  one  to  the  other  with 
the  most  exquisite  urbanity.  It  is  indeed  a  clear  and  concise 
expression  of  their  feelings  on  religious  questions.  In  their  eyes, 
a  worship  is  merely  an  affair  of  taste  and  fashion,  to  which  no 
more  importance  is  attached  than  to  the  color  of  garments. 

Let  it  not  be  forgotten  that  we  are  dealing  with  a  race  which 
holds  among  other  singular  tenets  the  abhorrent  doctrine  that 
woman  plays  no  other  part  in  nature  than  as  an  indispensable  ne- 
cessity for  the  propagation  of  mankind ;  that  she  has  no  soul,  but 
is  merely  a  necessary  animal  adjunct  in  the  human  race,  serviceable 
for  its  perpetuation,  for  the  gratification  of  the  animal  passions 
of  men,  for  the  common  drudgery  of  the  household  or  field  labor, 
but  not  worthy  of  education  and  not  eligible  to  salvation  as  taught 
by  any  scheme  of  future  existence  within  their  belief  or  knowl- 
edge. Let  us  make  no  mistake  about  this.  It  is  in  proof  in  the 
writings  of  Chinese  missionaries  and  travelers  of  every  national- 
ity. It  is  the  one  point  on  which  they  all  agree.  It  is  the  belief 
and  teaching  upon  which  the  practice  of  infanticide  prevails  in 
China,  in  which   the  female  child  is  invariably   the  victim  and 

*  Since  the  foregoing  was  written,  Canon  Taylor,  of  the  English  Established  Church,  in 
an  article  in  the  "  Fortnightly  Review,"  entitled  "  The  Great  Missionary  Failure,"  furnishes 
the  following  interesting  statistical  information  :  "  China  is  perhaps  the  most  dishearten- 
ing case.  The  population  is  reckoned  at  382,000,000.  The  annual  increase  by  the  excess 
of  births  over  deaths  would  be  about  4,580,000.  Last  year  the  Church  Missionary  Society 
baptized  167  adults.  At  this  rate  it  would  take  the  Church  Missionary  Society  27,000  years 
to  overtake  the  gain  to  heathenism  in  a  single  year !  If  the  population  were  stationary,  it 
would  take  more  than  1,680,000  years  to  convert  the  Chinese  Empire.  If  the  progress  is 
slow,  the  expenditure  is  lavish.  Last  year  in  Ceylon  424  agents  of  the  Church  Missionary 
Society  spent  £11,003  16s.  Id.  in  making  190  adult  converts  out  of  a  population  of  nearly 
three  millions,  but  the  relapses  were  more  numerous  than  the  converts,  as  there  was  a  de- 
crease of  143  in  the  native  Christian  adherents.  In  China  247  agents  of  the  same  society 
spent  £14,875  3s.  in  making  167  converts  out  of  a  population  of  3S2,000,000.  In  northern 
India  (Bengal,  Bombay,  and  the  Northwest  Provinces)  715  agents  made  173  converts,  at  a 
cost  of  £34,186  2s.  5d.  And  many  converts  are  paid.  In  Hong-Kong  there  are  94  commu- 
nicants and  35  paid  native  agents.  In  Egypt  and  Arabia  there  are  10  communicants  and  7 
paid  native  agents.  In  Yoruba,  after  forty  years  of  labor,  not  five  per  cent  of  the  people 
are  converted,  human  sacrifices  are  not  discontinued,  while  the  native  Christian  adherents 
decreased  last  year  by  885." 


i9o  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

the  sacrifice.  Bought  and  sold,  kidnapped  and  forced  into  a  life 
of  prostitution  and  helpless  misery,  woman  is  indeed  among  the 
Chinese  an  object  of  pity  and  commiseration.  The  evidences  are 
constantly  before  our  eyes  in  our  own  country,  wherever  the 
Chinese  are  gathered  in  communities,  that  her  lot  here  is  in  no 
way  ameliorated,  nor  have  her  Christian  surroundings  so  far,  in 
any  perceptible  degree,  tended  to  work  her  elevation  or  emancipa- 
tion. It  is  a  work  that  must  first  be  successfully  begun  and  car- 
ried out  before  we  may  indulge  in  the  idle  dream  of  Chinese  con- 
version to  the  doctrines  of  Christianity.  It  is  another — if  not  the 
most  important — factor  in  the  Chinese  problem  which  we  are  called 
upon  to  solve,  in  so  far  as  the  Chinese  who  are  to  remain  among 
us  are  concerned,  and  adds  perhaps  the  most  serious  complexity 
to  the  puzzle. 

The  children  born  upon  our  soil  so  far  are  in  the  main  illegiti- 
mate, and  in  all  cases  are,  by  the  very  nature  of  their  surround- 
ings, barred  out  from  possible  education  in  common  with  the 
children  of  our  population  in  general.  There  can  therefore  be  no 
common  school  system  which  in  its  proper  sense  can  be  made 
applicable  to  them.  What  then  occurs  ?  Either  they  must  be  de- 
barred from  being  educated  at  the  public  expense,  or  a  school  sys- 
tem must  be  devised  for  their  own  separate  teaching.  In  the  lat- 
ter case  there  will  no  longer  be  a  common  school  system,  but  a 
line  of  class  distinction  will  at  once  be  drawn,  and  the  virtual  in- 
troduction of  the  caste  system  will  begin.  "Will  not  this  even 
build  higher  still  the  barrier  between  Christianity  and  idolatry, 
and  will  not  the  way  of  conversion  be  made  still  more  difficult 
than  before  ? 

It  has  been  truly  said  of  the  Chinese  as  they  exist  in  the  San 
Francisco  colony  that  "  they  are  not  only  not  amenable  to  law,  but 
they  are  governed  by  secret  tribunals  unrecognized  and  unauthor- 
ized by  law."  These  tribunals  "  levy  taxes,  command  masses  of  men, 
intimidate  interpreters  and  witnesses,  enforce  perjury,  regulate 
trade,  punish  the  refractory,  remove  witnesses  beyond  the  reach 
of  the  courts,  control  liberty  of  action,  and  prevent  the  return  of 
Chinese  to  their  home  in  China  without  their  consent/'  And  this 
system  grows  out  of  the  inherent  quality  of  the  Chinese  mind.  It 
is  part  and  parcel  of  their  natures  to  be  their  own  masters,  to  ac- 
knowledge no  law  or  rule  of  action  not  of  their  own  making.  It 
is  this  quality  of  mind,  this  ancestral  inheritance,  that  must  be 
eradicated  and  changed  before  the  Chinese  can  be  made  to  stand 
upon  an  equality  before  the  law  with  other  American  citizens.  It 
adds  another  to  the  many  complications  of  the  Chinese  problem 
which  is  before  us  for  solution,  and  as  it  involves  a  change  of  nat- 
ural proclivities  which  can  not  be  brought  about  except  by  the 
slow  evolutionary  process  through  successive  generations,  it  be- 


GOVERNMENTAL  AID    TO  INJUSTICE.  191 

comes  possibly  the  most  serious  complication  of  all.  But  literally 
these  complications  are  endless,  and  do  not  admit  of  further  elab- 
oration in  this  paper.  They  suggest  the  conclusion  that  the  Chi- 
nese question,  whether  exclusion  excludes  or  not,  is  so  far  from 
being  finally  disposed  of,  that  it  is  now  assuming  its  gravest 
and  most  important  aspect.  While  we  may  well  wish  that  the 
Chinaman  might  have  been  permitted  to  remain  at  home  to  enjoy 
his  opium  cum  dignitate,  yet  regrets  on  this  point  are  worse  than 
useless,  and  the  question  now  is,  that,  having  him,  like  the  poor, 
always  with  us,  what  shall  we  do  with  him  ? 


-♦•♦-♦- 


GOVERNMENTAL  AID  TO  INJUSTICE. 

By  GEORGE  M.  WALLACE. 

PLACED  in  a  world  in  common,  with  every  degree  of  financial 
ability,  positive  and  negative,  we  are  all  spurred  on  by  com- 
mon necessity,  by  common  desire  to  escape  hunger,  cold,  disease, 
and  death.  To  this  end  we  enter  the  business  arena  and  struggle 
for  bread,  each  offering  for  sale  something  he  has  himself  pro- 
duced in  return  for  like  offerings  from  others.  In  this  arena  we 
find  the  successful  business  man  offering  for  sale  a  hundred  tons 
of  steel  rails;  beside  him  is  a  slender  girl  offering  for  sale  the 
labor  of  her  hands  for  ten  hours.  The  commodity  offered  by  each, 
by  each  has  been  produced :  the  business  man's  from  a  hundred 
tons  of  coal  burned  beneath  a  dozen  boilers,  perhaps ;  the  young 
girl's,  worked  up  in  a  physiological  laboratory,  comes  from  a 
night's  rest,  a  morning  and  midday  repast. 

So  long  as  each  has  produced  his  and  her  own  offering,  and  is 
allowed  to  enjoy  to  the  full  the  fruits  of  his  and  her  own  effort, 
no  one  shall  say  him  nay  if  the  business  man  offsets  the  muscular 
energy  of  the  young  girl  by  a  thousand  or  by  ten  thousand  fold. 
Neither  economics  nor  morals  shall  stint  or  limit  the  business 
man's  returns  so  long  as  legitimate  business  methods  alone  are 
adhered  to,  so  long  simply  as  business  men  are  content  to  take 
what  they  have  produced,  and  leave  to  others  their  own  produc- 
tions. In  a  purely  democratic  country  each  should  enjoy  all  the 
freedom  which  is  consistent  with  a  like  amount  of  freedom  in 

1 

others,  and  each  should  be  given  full  right  to  the  enjoyment  of 
the  fruits  of  his  own  effort.  The  maintenance  of  this  status  is  the 
best  function  and  only  justification  of  government.  Just  as 
church  and  state,  or  science  and  religion,  are  best  separated,  so 
politics  and  business  should  be  divorced.  The  latter,  depending 
on  the  natural  resources  of  a  country,  should  not  be  made  to  flue- 


192  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

tuate  with,  every  breath  of  public  opinion,  the  medium  on  which 
politics  depends ;  while  for  government  to  step  into  the  business 
arena  and  assist  one  party  or  the  other  is  as  immoral,  financially, 
as  for  the  umpire  of  a  ball-game  to  play  upon  one  side  or  the  other 
by  partial  decisions. 

In  1887  steel  rails  were  selling  in  the  markets  of  the  world  for 
twenty  dollars  per  ton.  Like  a  wall  around  the  United  States, 
there  was  a  protective  duty  of  seventeen  dollars,  and  steel  rails 
were  selling  within  this  country  at  thirty-seven  dollars  per  ton. 
Protection  removed  foreign  competition,  a  trust  removed  domestic 
competition,  and  the  two  carried  prices  to  the  very  limit.  Here 
the  business  men  of  Pittsburg  had  gone  out  of  the  purely  business 
arena — they  had  stepped  into  politics,  had  got  the  United  States 
Government  into  their  business  as  a  business  factor,  and,  securing 
to  themselves  the  surrender  of  a  part  of  its  taxing  power,  they  had 
government,  which  is  only  just  when  impartial,  playing  on  their 
side. 

Now  note,  the  business  man  by  government  partiality  gets  thirty- 
seven  dollars  per  ton  where  otherwise,  or  in  the  markets  of  the 
world,  he  could  only  get  twenty.  He  has  a  rise  in  price  on  steel 
rails  of  seventeen  dollars  per  ton.  The  young  girl  has  worked  a 
day  and  got  a  dollar;  she  wants  ten  yards  of  calico,  and  goes 
to  a  store  and  gets  it  at  ten  cents  a  yard,  and  pays  the  dollar  her 
day  had  produced.  The  store-keeper  would  have  charged  only 
nine  cents  a  yard  but  for  extra  freight  he  had  to  pay ;  the  railroad 
charged  extra  freight  because  of  the  increased  cost  of  its  steel 
rails.  In  other  words,  when,  by  government  interference  on  be- 
half of  the  business  man,  the  price  of  steel  rails  was  carried  from 
twenty  to  thirty-seven  dollars  per  ton,  the  railroad  got  it  back  by 
increased  freights  and  the  merchant  by  increased  prices.  The 
young  girl  got  it  back  from  nowhere ;  her  ten  cents  was  passed 
over  to  the  merchant,  who  passed  it  over  to  the  railroad,  which 
passed  it  over  to  the  business  man. 

Government,  which  can  produce  nothing,  has  wrought  a  dif- 
ferent distribution  of  wealth ;  the  business  man  gets  all  he  earns 
as  before,  but  also  gets  one  tenth  of  the  earnings  of  the  young 
girl.  Government  is  no  longer  just,  because  no  longer  impartial ; 
the  girl  is  no  longer  free,  because  not  permitted  to  enjoy  in  full 
the  fruits  of  her  own  labor.  Ten  cents  apiece,  once  a  year,  from 
a  hundred  thousand  persons,  made  up  of  young  girls,  boys,  babies, 
sick  and  old  folks,  and  the  poor  generally — for  the  tax  can  always 
be  landed  upon  the  poor  at  last — make  ten  thousand  dollars. 
That  ten  cents  to  the  young  girl  was  blood-money ;  she  will  be  less 
well  clothed,  less  well  nourished,  and,  taken  from  supplies  already 
scant,  it  may  mean  hunger,  cold,  and  even  death  to  her.  To  the 
business  man  it  may  mean  a  cigar,  or  a  stick  of  chewing-gum  for 


ISRAELITE  AND  INDIAN.  193 

his  child,  or,  put  with  other  forced  contributions,  the  total  may- 
take  his  daughter  to  Europe  for  a  pleasure-trip. 

Here  is  one  of  our  great  captains  of  industry,  assisted  by  ac- 
cumulated capital  and  corporate  franchises  as  well  as  the  ability 
which  makes  him  a  captain  of  industry,  competing  in  the  indus- 
trial arena  for  the  necessaries  and  good  things  of  life  with  a  frail 
girl  who  has  only  a  one-girl  power  to  depend  on,  and  of  the  two 
he  it  is  we  find  asking  government  aid,  and  aid  to  do  what  ?  Why, 
to  take  away  to  himself  all  his  own  and  a  part  as  well  of  the  poor 
girl's  earnings. 

This  in  what  ought  to  be  the  manliest  country  in  the  world,  on 
the  part  of  that  section  of  our  manhood  best  fitted  by  nature  for 
the  financial  struggle  for  bread,  and  aimed  by  these  financial 
giants  at  the  weakest  section  of  the  community.  "We  may  talk 
about  the  ferocity  of  the  Northmen  tossing  up  babies  and  catch- 
ing them  on  their  spears,  or  about  atrocities  practiced  in  Russia 
to-day ;  we  may  imagine  a  Sullivan  calling  for  steel  knuckles  with 
which  to  encounter  a  seven-year-old  boy ;  but  we  can  not  believe 
that  American  manhood  will  not  some  time  rise  above  the  unpar- 
alleled meanness  of  the  protective  tariff. 


-♦**- 


ISRAELITE  AND  INDIAN:   A  PARALLEL  IN  PLANES 

OF  CULTURE.* 

By  GAEEICK  MALLEEY. 
II. 

PARALLEL  MYTHS. — The  early  religious  opinions  and  prac- 
tices of  all  peoples  appear  in  myth  and  by  myths  are  ex- 
plained. When  a  religion  has  endured  among  a  people  for  a  long 
time  after  the  use  of  writing  has  become  general,  its  myths  are 
collected  and  collated  and  formed  into  a  system.  This  system 
generates  dogmas  which  require  support  from  glosses  on  the  text 
of  the  original  myths  ;  indeed,  these  texts  are  often  buried  under 
a  mass  of  homilies  and  predications,  or,  when  still  used  in  their 
purity,  are  interpreted  ad  libitum.  Such  is  the  history  of  the 
myths  and  the  religion  of  Israel. 

The  Indians  have  myths  and  legends  which  explain  their  re- 
ligious opinions  and  practices ;  but,  as  they  did  not  acquire  the  art 
of  writing,  they  did  not  formulate  articles  of  faith.  Their  beliefs 
must  be  ascertained,  therefore,  by  the  collection  and  study  of  the 
myths  themselves  as  now  reduced  to  writing  and  translated.    The 

*  Address  of  the  Vice-President  of  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of 
Science,  Section  H,  Anthropology,  delivered  at  the  Toronto  meeting,  August,  1889. 

VOL.  XXXVI. — 13 


i94  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

comparison  of  the  myths  of  the  Indians  with  the  myths  of  the 
Israelites  displays  striking  similarity  and  exhibits  more  clearly 
than  a  mere  statement  of  doctrines  the  likeness  of  the  religions  of 
the  two  peoples.  The  likeness  of  the  two  collections  of  myths  to 
one  another,  and  their  comparison  with  similar  collections  from 
other  peoples,  indicates  that  when  the  same  events  are  represent- 
ed as  occnrring  everywhere,  they  really  occurred  nowhere,  but 
were  the  mental  conceptions  of  men  in  the  same  stage  of  intel- 
lectual culture. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  mention  deluge  legends  common  in  all 
countries  where  inundations  have  occurred,  and  only  a  general 
interest  attaches  to  the  mythical  culture  hero.  He  was  some- 
times an  inspired  man,  and  sometinies  a  benevolent  god  in  shape 
of  man,  but  in  his  more  archaic  forms  he  was  a  beast  with  human 
metamorphoses.  He  taught  all  that  is  known  of  hunting,  fishing, 
the  properties  of  plants,  picture-writing,  and  indeed  of  every  art, 
and  founded  institutions  and  established  religions.  After  his 
achievements  he  generally  disappeared  with  mystery,  his  actual 
death  being  seldom  established,  leaving  a  hope  of  his  return  as  a 
triumphant  benefactor.  The  legends  relating  to  Michabo,  Ios- 
keha,  Hiawatha,  and  Manabosho  will  occur  to  all  special  students 
as  showing  their  analogues  in  the  biography  of  Moses.  But  the 
point  of  peculiar  interest  is  that  the  myths  referred  to  are  not 
only  similar  generically,  but  that  they  are  strikingly  identical  in 
their  minute  details  with  those  of  the  Israelites.  A  few  of  them 
will  be  noticed. 

It  will  be  understood  that  in  all  instances  presented  scrupulous 
care  has  been  taken  to  eliminate  European  influence  and  to  obtain 
assurance  of  the  aboriginal  and  ancient  origin  of  the  legends. 

An  Ojibwa  tradition  tells  the  adventures  of  eight,  ten,  and 
sometimes  twelve  brothers,  the  youngest  of  whom  is  the  wisest 
and  the  most  beloved  of  their  father  and  especially  favored  by  the 
high  powers.  He  delivers  his  brothers  from  many  difficulties  which 
were  brought  about  by  their  folly  and  disobedience.  Particularly, 
he  supplies  them  with  corn.  A  variant  statue  of  Lot's  wife  who, 
after  escaping  from  the  destruction  of  her  village,  was  turned  into 
stone  instead  of  salt,  is  still  shown  near  the  Mississippi  River. 
The  Chahta  have  an  elaborate  story  of  their  migrations  in  which 
they  were  guided  by  a  pole  leaning  in  the  direction  which  they 
should  take,  and  remaining  vertical  at  each  place  where  they 
should  encamp.  A  still  closer  resemblance  to  the  guidance  of  the 
Israelites  in  the  desert  by  a  pillar  of  fire  is  found  in  the  legendary 
migrations  of  the  Tusayan,  when  indication  was  made  by  the 
movement  and  the  halting  of  a  star.  The  Pai  Utes  were  sustained 
in  a  great  march  through  the  desert  by  water  which  continually 
filled  the  magic  cup  given  to  the  Sokus  Waiunats  in  a  dream, 


ISRAELITE  AND  INDIAN.  i95 

until  all  were  satisfied ;  and  a  similarly  miraculous  supply  of  food 
to  the  starving  multitude  is  reported  by  the  same  people.  In  the 
genesis  myth  of  the  Tusayan,  the  culture-hero  was  enabled  to  pass 
dry  shod  through  lakes  and  rivers  by  throwing  a  staff  upon  the 
waters,  which  were  at  once  divided  as  by  walls. 

Among  the  Ojibwa  traditions  there  is  a  variant  of  the  concep- 
tion that  man  could  not  look  upon  the  form  of  a  divine  being  and 
live.  According  to  these  traditions  the  divine  beings  were  obliged 
to  wear  veils,  and  when  one  of  them  unintentionally  let  his  eyes 
fall  upon  the  form  of  a  man  the  man  fell  dead  as  if  struck  by 
lightning. 

The  MideViwin  rite  was  granted  to  the  Ojibwa  at  a  time  of 
great  trouble,  through  the  intercession  of  Minabozho,  their  uni- 
versal uncle,  and  at  the  same  time  rules  of  life  were  given  to  them, 
which  are  still  represented  in  hieroglyphics  on  birch-bark.  They 
have  a  resemblance  in  motive  to  the  Biblical  legends  and  laws. 
At  the  time  of  a  great  pestilence,  which  came  "  when  the  earth 
was  new/'  the  Ojibwa  were  saved  by  one  of  their  number  to  whom 
a  spirit,  in  the  shape  of  a  serpent,  revealed  a  root  which  to  this 
day  they  name  the  "  snake-root,"  and  songs  and  rites  pertaining 
to  the  serpent  are  incorporated  in  the  Mide'wiwin. 

Mr.  W.  W.  Warren,  in  his  "  History  of  the  Ojibwa  Nation," 
tells  that  he  sometimes  translated  parts  of  Bible  history  to  the 
old  Ojibwa  men,  and  their  expression  invariably  was,  "  The  book 
must  be  true,  for  our  ancestors  have  told  us  similar  stories  genera- 
tion after  generation  since  the  earth  was  new."  Only  last  year  a 
well-informed  representative  in  Washington  of  the  Muskoki  an- 
swered questions  about  the  myths  and  legends  of  his  people  by 
the  simple  remark :  "  They  are  all  in  the  Old  Testament.  Read 
them  there,  without  the  trouble  of  taking  them  down  from  our 
people." 

Sociology. — The  golden  age  of  the  Israelites,  as  recorded  in 
the  Old  Testament  according  to  modified  tradition,  was  the  age 
ending  with  the  Judges.  The  people  lived  in  a  state  nearest  to 
their  ideal  under  a  supposed  theocracy,  which  really  was  not  in- 
stituted until  the  days  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah.  The  exploits  of 
Gideon,  Jephthah,  and  Samson  are  pictures  of  antiquity  equal  in 
grandeur  and  like  in  import  to  those  of  the  Homeric  heroes.  If 
the  Indians  could  have  written  about  their  own  past,  they  would 
have  portrayed  a  similar  golden  age,  which,  indeed,  is  mirrored  in 
their  traditions  and  myths. 

But  it  must  always  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  Indians  were  not 
nomads,  and  were  never  in  the  true  pastoral  stage ;  hence  their 
tales  of  the  good  old  times  were  more  archaic  than  those  presented 
to  us  in  the  Israelite  records. 

Nomadic  life  requires  the  possession  of  either  domesticated 


196  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

animals  for  sustenance  or  of  burden-bearing  animals  by  whose 
aid  fresh,  game  areas  may  be  readily  occupied.  The  persistent 
nomads — e.  g.,  the  Arabs — have  possessed  both  kinds  of  animals. 
The  Indians  had  neither.  The  large  majority  of  the  historic  In- 
dians never  saw  a  horse  until  centuries  after  the  Columbian  dis- 
covery. The  Dakota,  Comanche,  and  some  other  tribes  became 
nomads  adventitiously,  and  only  after  the  introduction  of  the 
horse  by  Europeans.  The  means  of  subsistence  of  these  tribes  in 
a  nomadic  life  were  afterward  increased  by  their  obtaining  fire- 
arms. 

The  pastoral  stage  also  depended  upon  the  possession  of  some 
of  the  animals  mentioned.  It  expedited  the  transition  of  the  Is- 
raelites from  savagery  to  barbarism,  but  it  was  not  experienced  by 
the  Indians.  Therefore,  supposing  that  the  two  peoples  were  at 
one  time  equally  advanced  in  culture,  it  might  well  have  required 
three  thousand  years  longer  for  the  Indians  to  reach  the  stage  in 
which  they  were  discovered  than  for  the  Israelites  to  attain  to  the 
culture  shown  in  the  days  of  the  Judges. 

At  the  time  taken  for  proper  comparison  between  the  two 
peoples,  which  has  before  been  designated,  both  were  living  under 
the  clan  or  totemic  system,  which  was  formerly  called  the  gentile 
system. 

A  clan  is  a  body  of  kindred  in  which  kinship  is  established  by 
laws  now  long  disused,  and  so  strange  to  our  present  ideas  as  to  be 
comprehended  with  difficulty.  Some  of  the  more  salient  features 
of  the  system  appear  in  the  division  of  the  people  into  tribes 
which  are  interpermeated  by  clans,  with  special  rules  of  govern- 
ment, adoption,  punishment,  protection,  property,  and  marriage. 

The  totemic  stage  was  first  intelligently  noticed  among  the 
aborigines  of  America  and  Australia,  and  typical  representations 
of  it  are  still  found  among  them.  In  Australia  it  is  called  Jco- 
bong.  An  animal  or  a  plant,  or  sometimes  a  heavenly  body,  is 
connected  with  all  persons  of  a  certain  stock,  who  believe  that  it 
is  their  totem,  their  protecting  daimon.  They  regard  themselves 
as  descendants  of  the  totem,  and  they  bear  its  name.  The  line 
of  descent  is  normally  female.  "When  a  clan  becomes  dominant, 
its  totem  daimon  prevails  together  with  it,  and  commands  the 
worship  of  all  the  clans  or  tribes  in  the  group,  the  daimons  of 
other  clans  and  tribes  becoming  subordinate. 

The  clan  system,  lately  found  in  actual  force  in  two  large  geo- 
graphic divisions  of  the  world,  has  preserved  a  clew  to  the  moldered 
maze  of  man's  early  institutions.  What  is  now  known  of  the 
clans,  tribes,  and  league  of  the  Iroquois  explains  what  was  for- 
merly mystical  about  the  tribes  of  Israel. 

Each  clan  or  tribe  took  as  a  badge  or  objective  totem  the 
representation  of  the  totemic  daimon  from  which  it  was  named. 


ISRAELITE  AND   INDIAN.  i97 

It  was  generally  an  animal — e.  g.,  an  eagle,  a  panther,  a  buffalo, 
a  bear,  a  deer,  a  raccoon,  a  tortoise,  a  snake,  or  a  fish,  but  some- 
times one  of  the  winds,  a  celestial  body,  or  other  impressive 
object  or  phenomenon. 

The  Israelites  had  such  badges  or  totems  which  have  been 
called  standards.  The  blessings  of  Jacob  and  of  Moses,  which 
mention  several  of  them,  were  not  merely  metaphoric.  In  the 
blessing  of  Jacob,  Judah  is  named  as  a  lion,  Issachar  as  an  ass,  Dan 
as  a  serpent,  Naphtali  as  a  hind,  Benjamin  as  a  wolf,  Joseph  as  a 
bough.  In  that  of  Moses,  four  such  names  occur — Ephraim  as  a 
bullock,  Manasseh  as  a  bison,  Gad  as  a  lion,  and  Dan  as  a  lion's 
whelp.  From  all  the  evidence  on  the  subject  there  is  reason  to 
believe  that  these  were  the  leading  totems  in  the  tribes  mentioned, 
and  the  discrepancies  in  the  lists  may  be  accounted  for  by  the 
fact  that  the  head  clans  in  some  tribes  had  changed  in  the  in- 
terval. 

David  seems  to  have  belonged  to  the  serpent  stock.  The  most 
prominent  among  his  ancestors  bore  a  serpent  name.  Some  pas- 
sages in  his  life  show  his  connection  with  a  serpent  totem. 

Critics  have  doubted  whether  Moses  was  as  much  opposed  to 
idolatry  as  is  asserted  in  the  records,  for  a  brazen  serpent,  perhaps 
an  ancient  idol  of  Jahveh,  said  to  have  been  set  up  by  him,  was 
in  existence  until  the  reign  of  Hezekiah,  who  broke  it  into  pieces. 
True,  it  may  have  been  an  idol  of  Jahveh,  or  perhaps  it  was  wor- 
shiped as  a  teraph  ;  but  it  may  have  been  simply  a  totem.  The 
lifting  up  of  the  brazen  serpent  by  Moses  in  the  wilderness  may 
be  more  consistently  explained  by  totemism  than  by  idolatry  in 
its  usual  sense. 

Government. — The  Israelites  in  their  normal  condition  were 
governed  by  a  number  of  their  elders  who  were  presumed  to 
have  the  greatest  wisdom  and  experience.  Special  powers  were 
conferred  in  emergencies  upon  one  man  and  were  intended  to  be 
of  short  duration,  but  while  they  lasted  they  were  dictatorial. 
The  judges  were  despots  without  a  standing  army  or  an  organ- 
ized government.  Their  selection  was  due  neither  to  inheri- 
tance, to  suffrage,  nor  to  violence,  but  to  personal  superiority  in 
strength,  wisdom,  and  courage.  The  usual  result  was,  that  the 
power  gained  by  a  ruler  was  held  during  his  life,  and  it  was  some- 
times contended  for  by  one  of  his  sons  with  temporary  success. 
The  government  of  the  Indians  was  substantially  the  same. 

The  alliance  of  the  tribes  was  loose.  They  seldom  hesitated  to 
make  war  upon  one  another.  Even  after  nationality  had  been 
initiated,  the  genius  of  David  and  the  magnificence  of  Solomon 
could  not  permanently  weld  them  together ;  and  doubtless  without 
the  later  and  cohesive  establishment  of  Jahvism  they  would  have 
often,  though  perhaps  but  temporarily,  fallen  back  into  an  incoher- 


i93  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

ent  state.  The  Indians  did  not  gain  such,  a  conservative  bond, 
and  the  alliances  of  their  tribes  were  more  loose  and  transient. 

The  characteristics  of  the  Israelite  and  of  the  Indian,  as  of  the 
Homeric  Achseans  and  of  the  extant  Bedouins,  were  predatory. 
The  tribe  and  its  clans,  with  their  occasional  allies,  went  forth 
against  the  rest  of  the  world. 

In  the  investigation  of  totemism  among  the  Israelites  it  is  im- 
portant to  observe  its  continued  existence  in  Arabia,  because  the 
state  of  society  there  still  remains  more  primitive  than  that  preva- 
lent in  the  land  of  Israel  even  at  the  time  of  imposing  antiquity 
when  the  Old  Testament  was  written. 

A  large  number  of  tribes  having  animal  names  are  still  found 
among  the  Arabs.  Some  of  these  tribal  names  are  Lion,  Wolf, 
Ibex,  She-fox,  Dog,  Bull,  Ass,  Hyena,  and  Lizard.  The  origin  of 
all  these  names  is  referred  by  the  people  to  an  ancestor  who  bore 
the  tribal  or  gentile  name.  The  animal  names  given  in  the  tribal 
genealogies  are  also  often  found  belonging  to  sub-tribes,  the  same 
animal  name  sometimes  occurring  in  subdivisions  of  different 
tribes.    These  particulars  correspond  with  the  Indian  clan  system. 

The  tribes  of  the  southern  and  eastern  parts  of  Canaan  had 
affinities  both  to  Israel  and  to  the  Arabs.  The  Arab  princes  of 
Midian  were  The  Raven  and  The  Wolf — heads  of  tribes  of  the 
same  names.  More  than  one  third  of  the  Horites,  the  descendants 
of  Seir  the  He-goat,  bear  animal  names ;  so  do  the  clans  of  the 
Edomites.  The  real  name  of  Moses's  father-in-law  is  in  dispute, 
but  he  had  some  connection  with  the  Kenites.  The  list  in  Gene- 
sis xxxvi  is  a  count  of  tribal  or  local  divisions  and  not  a  literal 
genealogy.  It  is  full  of  animal  names.  The  Antelope  stock  was 
divided  over  the  nation  in  a  way  only  to  be  explained  on  the  to- 
temic  and  not  on  a  genealogic  system.  The  same  names  of  totem 
tribes  that  appear  in  Arabia,  reach  through  Edom,  Midian,  and 
Moab  into  Canaan,  where  they  show  local  distribution,  which  is 
intelligible  only  on  the  assumption  that  the  totemic  system  pre- 
vailed there  also  when  the  first  books  of  the  Old  Testament  were 
written. 

Prof.  Robertson  Smith  gives  a  select  list  of  about  thirty  per- 
sons and  towns  in  point,  bearing  names  derived  from  animals  and 
plants.  Dr.  Joseph  Jacobs  has  expanded  that  list  into  a  hundred 
and  sixty  such  names,  though  he  considers  their  importance  to  be 
lessened  by  the  frequency  of  such  names  in  England,  forgetting, 
apparently,  that  the  clan  system  also  existed  among  the  ancestors 
of  the  English  people. 

The  twenty-sixth  chapter  of  Numbers  gives  the  clans  of  the 
Israelite  tribes.  Altogether  seventy-two  clans  are  mentioned,  and 
of  these  at  least  ten  occur  in  two  tribes,  among  which  the  Arodites 
or  Wild  Ass  clan,  found  both  in  Gad  and  in  Benjamin,  should  be 


ISRAELITE  AND   INDIAN.  199 

noted.  Other  clans  also  have  animal  names :  the  Shillimites  or 
Fox  clan,  of  Naphtali ;  the  Shuhamites  or  Serpent  clan,  of  Benja- 
min ;  the  Bachrites  or  Camel  clan,  of  Ephraim  and  Benjamin ;  the 
Elonites  or  Oak  clan,  of  Zebulon ;  the  Tolaites  or  Worm  clan,  of 
Issachar ;  and  the  Arelets  or  Lion  clan,  of  Gad. 

A  special  suggestion  comes  from  the  tribe  of  Simeon.  In  the 
blessing  of  Jacob,  Simeon  is  coupled  with  Levi  as  a  tribe  scat- 
tered in  Israel.  Some  Simeonites  lived  in  the  south  of  the  terri- 
tory of  Judah,  but  they  do  not  appear  there  as  an  independent 
local  tribe.  It  would  seem  that  Simeon  remained  as  a  divided 
stock,  having  representatives  through  the  female  line  in  the  dif- 
ferent local  groups.  When  the  old  system  was  transformed, 
Simeon  lost  importance  and  ultimately  dropped  from  the  list  of 
tribes.  The  name  of  the  tribe  was  lost  but  not  the  people,  as 
has  been  noticed  also  in  careful  statistical  examination  of  the 
Indians. 

The  tribe  of  Judah  received  the  powerful  accession  of  the  Dog 
tribe,  the  Calebites  (to  be  again  mentioned),  among  whom  there 
were  many  animal  names. 

In  view  of  the  above,  and  the  additional  fact  that  the  early 
Israelites  freely  intermarried  with  the  surrounding  nations,  it 
becomes  highly  probable  that  the  totemic  system  of  those  neigh- 
bors existed  in  all  Israel,  as  was  obviously  the  case  in  Judah. 

Punishment — In  the  stage  of  barbarism  man  belongs  not  to 
himself,  but  to  his  clan  and  tribe.  In  civilization  crime  is  the  act 
of  an  individual  for  which  he  is  responsible  to  the  whole  commu- 
nity, and  there  can  be  no  crime  without  a  malicious  intent.  In 
the  totemic  stage  the  clan  was  responsible  to  all  its  members  and 
to  all  other  clans  for  the  offense  of  any  of  its  own  members,  and 
the  act  itself,  not  its  intent,  constituted  the  offense.  Hence  the 
rules  respecting  obedience,  punishment,  and  protection  differ  from 
those  of  civilized  man. 

Punishments  among  the  Indians  were  chiefly  death  or  expul- 
sion from  the  tribe — the  latter,  from  the  unprotected  state  of  the 
offender,  being  tantamount  to  death.  The  code  consisted  in  the 
application  of  the  lex  talionis.  The  vengeance  of  blood  for  homi- 
cide was  exacted  as  a  clan  duty.  It  was  executed  by  the  clan  of 
the  person  killed,  generally  by  the  nearest  of  clan  kinship,  and  it 
was  required  even  if  the  death  were  by  accident,  unless  the  kill- 
ing was  condoned  by  payment.  Among  the  Israelites  the  lex  ta- 
lionis was  likewise  the  fundamental  law,  and  the  duty  of  blood 
revenge  also  devolved  on  the  kin  by  the  mother's  side — i.  e.,  the 
kindred  according  to  the  normal  clan  system. 

Sanctuary. — The  doctrine  that  no  crime  could  be  individual, 
but  might  be  committed  against  a  clan  by  a  clan  through  one  of 
its  members,  rendered  it  necessary  to  have  some  special  provision 


200  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

to  restrict  vengeance  and  maintain  peace.  Hence  the  right  of 
sanctuary,  which  appeared  later  as  a  prerogative  of  religion,  was 
in  its  origin  sociologic. 

The  avenger  of  blood  among  the  Indians  generally  had  the 
right  to  slay  the  criminal  if  found  within  a  specified  time,  for  in- 
stance, two  days  after  the  act ;  but  if  he  should  escape  beyond  such 
period,  the  avenger  could  no  longer  pursue,  and  was  himself  liable 
if  he  should  persevere.  The  clan  or  clans  concerned  interfered  at 
that  stage  in  prescribed  modes.  Among  some  tribes  localities 
(called  by  Adair  the  "  cities  of  refuge  ")  were  designated,  in  which 
the  accused  could  remain  in  safety  until  the  general  settlement 
of  accounts  at  the  next  annual  festival.  Compare  Numbers  xxxv, 
12  :  "  And  they  shall  be  with  you  cities  of  refuge  from  the  avenger ; 
that  the  man-slayer  die  not,  until  he  stand  before  the  congrega- 
tion in  judgment." 

The  functions  of  the  avenger  of  blood  are  only  referred  to  in 
the  Pentateuch,  but  were  well  known  in  ordinary  cases.  The  law 
treats  of  the  exceptional  circumstances  of  an  accidental  homicide. 
There  is  a  trace,  in  Deuteronomy  xxiii,  of  the  general  communal 
sanctuary  in  Israel.  It  enacts  that  any  town  or  village  shall  be 
an  asylum  for  an  escaped  slave.  In  Exodus  xxi,  the  altar  (pre- 
sumably any  one  of  the  numerous  village  altars)  is  mentioned  as 
a  refuge.  In  the  cities  of  refuge  the  sanctuary  was  used  only  for 
the  mitigation  of  the  revenge  of  blood. 

A  mode  of  bringing  to  notice  the  barbarian  stage  of  the  Israel- 
ites at  the  time  under  consideration  is  to  translate  into  English 
familiar  personal  names  from  the  Old  Testament,  such  as  the 
Dog,  the  Dove,  the  Hyena,  the  Lion's  Whelp,  the  Strong  Ass,  the 
Adder,  and  the  Eunning  Hind.  This  brings  into  immediate  con- 
nection the  English  translation  of  Indian  names,  such  as  Big- 
Bear,  White  Buffalo,  Wolf,  Red  Cloud,  Black  Hawk,  Fox,  Crow, 
and  Turtle.  Such  Israelite  names  were  probably  of  Gentile 
origin,  that  is,  from  the  clan  or  gens,  for  the  Israelites  were  surely 
Gentiles  in  the  true  sense,  although  later  they  abjured  the  charge. 
But  individuals  among  them  may  also  have  adopted  such  names 
because  they  could  be  represented  objectively.  Such  selection  is 
made  by  some  Indians  apart  from  their  totemic  designation.  In- 
dians possess  very  few  names  that  can  not  be  represented  in  picto- 
graphs ;  and  the  very  large  topic  of  tattooing  is  connected  with 
this  device  antecedent  to  writing.  The  compilers  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament probably  desired  to  break  down  a  former  practice,  as  is 
shown  in  Leviticus  xix,  28 :  "  Ye  shall  not  print  any  marks  upon 
you/'    And  there  are  other  similar  indications. 

Adoption. — The  early  history  after  the  exodus  shows  many 
cases  of  adoption  from  among  the  neighboring  tribes  in  which 
the  captive  or  the  stranger  adopted  became  a  member  of  one  of 


ISRAELITE  AND   INDIAN.  201 

the  clans.  This  was  an  essential  part  of  the  totemic  system  as  is 
noticed  universally  among  the  Indians.  "Without  membership  in 
a  clan  there  could  be  no  status  in  the  tribe. 

Caleb  is  first  known  as  the  son  of  Jephunneh,  the  Kenezite. 
Next  he  appears  as  a  chief  of  the  tribe  of  Judah ;  finally,  in  the 
book  of  Chronicles,  his  foreign  descent  is  lost.  He  becomes  Caleb, 
the  son  of  Hezron,  the  son  of  Judah.  This  is  an  instance  of  adop- 
tion and  is  not  contradictory.  He  is  first  described  in  accordance 
with  his  actual  descent,  but  when  adopted  with  his  family  and 
followers,  who  probably  formed  a  sub-clan,  he  would  be  called  by 
the  name  of  the  family  that  adopted  him. 

The  whole  population  of  the  country  which,  according  to  Deu- 
teronomy, was  doomed  to  be  exterminated,  slowly  became  amal- 
gamated with  the  invaders.  In  this  way  alone  their  rapid  increase 
can  be  accounted  for. 

The  doctrine  that  no  quarter  should  be  shown  to  the  enemy 
and  no  alliance  should  be  made  with  the  Goim  (a  word  meaning 
the  "  nations,"  with  the  implication  of  "  heathen ' ')  was  not  estab- 
lished until  the  late  prophetic  influence.  The  use  of  the  word 
Goim  dates  from  the  ninth  century  B.  c.  It  is  gratifying  to  be 
convinced  that  the  stories  of  the  wholesale  extermination  and 
cruel  outrages  injected  into  the  historical  narrative  were  after- 
thoughts intended  to  be  examples  for  the  future,  and  that  they 
never  actually  occurred.  If  the  stories  are  true,  the  brutality  of 
the  Israelites  to  the  conquered  was  more  horrible  than  that  of  the 
Indians,  among  whom  captivity  was  tempered  by  adoption. 

An  interesting  custom  of  the  Indians  connected  both  with  the 
rite  of  sanctuary  and  that  of  adoption  is  that  called  by  English 
writers  "  running  the  gantlet."  When  captives  had  successfully 
run  through  a  line  of  tormentors  to  a  post  near  the  council-house, 
they  were  for  the  time  free  from  further  molestation.  In  the 
northeastern  tribes  this  was  in  the  nature  of  an  ordeal  to  test 
whether  or  not  the  captive  was  vigorous  and  brave  enough  to  be 
adopted  into  the  tribe ;  but  among  other  tribes  it  appears  in  a 
different  shape.  Any  enemy,  whether  a  captive  or  not,  could 
secure  immunity  from  present  danger  if  he  could  reach  a  central 
post,  or,  if  there  were  no  post,  the  hut  of  the  chief.  A  similar 
custom  existed  among  the  Arikara,  who  kept  a  special  pipe  in  a 
"  bird-box."  If  a  criminal  or  enemy  succeeded  in  smoking  the 
pipe  contained  in  the  box,  he  could  not  be  hurt.  This  corresponds 
with  the  safety  found  in  laying  hold  of  the  horns  of  the  Israelite 
altar. 

Land. — In  the  earlier  history  of  the  Israelites  there  could  be 
no  individual  property  in  land — it  belonged  to  the  clan,  as  it  did 
among  the  Indians.  After  arriving  at  sedentary  and  national  life 
the  Israelites  found  it  expedient  to  permit  a  compromise  between 


202  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

the  permanent  possession  of  land  by  the  clan  and  a  right  of  indi- 
vidual occupancy  for  periods  sufficient  to  offer  a  proper  stimulus 
for  improvements.  This  was  done  by  the  institution  of  the  Sab- 
batical year  or  the  year  of  jubilee.  The  Indians,  not  having 
reached  the  true  sedentary  stage  (except  in  rare  instances),  were 
not  obliged  to  invent  that  device.  Thus  it  holds  true  among  both 
peoples  that  no  man  could  acquire  an  absolute  proj)erty  in  land. 
The  estate  was  not  in  him  but  in  his  clan. 

Forbidden  Food. — The  Indians  long  observed  a  prohibition 
against  killing  or  eating  any  part  of  the  animal  connected  with 
their  totem.  For  instance,  most  of  the  southern  Indians  abstained 
from  killing  the  wolf ;  the  Navajo  do  not  kill  bears ;  the  Osage 
never  killed  the  beaver  until  the  skins  became  valuable  for  sale. 
Afterward  some  of  the  animals  previously  held  sacred  were 
killed ;  but  apologies  were  made  to  them  at  the  time,  and  in  al- 
most all  cases  a  particular  ceremony  was  observed  with  regard 
to  certain  parts  of  those  animals  which  were  not  to  be  used  for  food 
on  the  principle  of  synecdoche,  the  temptation  to  use  the  food  being 
too  strong  to  permit  entire  abstinence.  The  Cheroki  forbade  the 
use  of  the  tongues  of  the  deer  and  bear  for  food.  They  cut  these 
members  out  and  cast  them  into  the  fire  sacramentally.  A  prac- 
tice reported  this  year  as  still  existing  among  the  Ojibwa  is  in 
point,  though  with  instructive  variation.  There  is  a  formal  re- 
striction against  members  of  the  bear  clan  eating  the  animal,  yet 
by  a  subdivision  within  the  same  clan  an  arrangement  is  made  so 
that  sub-clans  may  among  them  eat  the  whole  animal.  When  a 
bear  is  killed,  the  head  and  paws  are  eaten  by  those  who  form 
one  branch  of  the  bear  totem,  and  the  remainder  is  reserved  for 
the  others.  Other  Indians  have  invented  a  differentiation  in  which 
some  clansmen  may  eat  the  ham  and  not  the  shoulder  of  certain 
animals,  and  others  the  shoulder  and  not  the  ham. 

The  Egyptians  did  not  allow  the  eating  of  animals  that  bore 
wool.  This  prohibition  has  been  attributed  to  the  sacred  char- 
acter of  the  sphinx,  and  it  has  other  religious  connections.  It  is 
supposed  by  some  writers  that  the  legislation  of  Moses  with  refer- 
ence to  forbidden  food  was  aimed  to  antagonize  social  union  with 
the  Egyptians  by  prohibiting  to  the  Israelites  edibles  generally 
used  by  the  Egyptians,  and  vice  versa.  It  is  true  that  some  kinds 
of  food  forbidden  to  one  of  these  nations  were  allowed  to  the  other, 
but  the  rule  was  not  general,  and  in  particular  the  abstinence  of 
both  peoples  from  swine  is  inconsistent  with  the  hypothesis.  A 
more  .conclusive  criticism  is  that  the  legislation  so  interpreted 
would  have  been  too  late  for  application.  The  Israelites  had  left 
Egypt  before  even  the  alleged  time  of  its  promulgation. 

The  survival  of  totemism  may  be  inferred  from  the  lists  of 
forbidden  food  in  Leviticus  xi  and  Deuteronomy  xiv.    It  would 


ISRAELITE  AND   INDIAN.  203 

appear  that  about  the  time  of  the  exodus  the  Israelites  were  or- 
ganized on  the  basis  of  families  or  clans  tracing  through  female 
lines,  and  named  Hezir  (swine),  Achbor  (mouse),  Aiah  (kite), 
Arod  (wild  ass),  Shaphan  (coney),  and  so  on.  Each  of  the  clans 
refrained  from  eating  the  totem  animal,  or  only  ate  it  sacrament- 
ally.  As  the  totemic  organization  declined,  the  origin  of  the 
abstinence  would  be  lost,  but  the  custom  lasted,  and  when  the 
legislation  was  codified  it  was  incorporated  in  the  code.  The 
hypothesis  would  explain  certain  anomalies  in  the  list  —  e.  g., 
coney,  or  rock  badger,  for  which  no  other  explanation  deserving 
attention  has  been  given.  The  division  into  clean  and  unclean 
food  by  the  two  tests  of  cloven  foot  and  rumination  was  a  later 
induction  from  the  animals  regarded  as  tabu.  This  is  confirmed 
by  the  want  of  any  systemization  in  the  list  of  birds  given  in  Le- 
viticus. 

It  would  accord  with  other  examples  in  totemism  that  animal 
names  connected  with  the  animal  worship  before  mentioned  should 
be  adopted  by  clans,  and  by  individual  men  among  the  Israelites. 
There  is  some  evidence  that  men,  bearing  a  common  animal  stock 
name,  though  in  different  tribes  or  nations,  recognized  a  unity  of 
stock.  Our  most  definite  information  on  the  subject  is  derived 
from  Ezekiel  viii,  which  indicates  that  the  head  of  each  house 
acted  as  priest,  the  family  or  clan  images,  which  are  the  objects 
of  idolatry, being  those  of  "unclean"  reptiles  or  quadrupeds — i.e., 
those  which  are  prohibited  from  use  as  food.  Although  the  whole 
inference  of  Prof.  Smith  on  this  subject  is  not  admitted  by  Dr. 
Jacobs,  his  objection  is  to  the  survival,  not  to  the  early  existence, 
of  the  cult. 

No  satisfactory  explanation  of  the  Israelite  division  between 
clean  and  unclean  animals,  apart  from  that  afforded  by  the 
totemic  system,  has  hitherto  been  made.  No  rational  motive 
can  be  assigned  for  the  avoidance  of  certain  animals,  in  them- 
selves hygienically  good.  The  explanation  that  swine's  flesh  was 
liable  to  bring  disease,  and  therefore  was  prohibited  for  a  sanitary 
reason  only,  covers  but  a  small  part  of  the  subject  and  is  not  in 
itself  satisfactory.  The  meat  of  the  hog  is,  in  fact,  as  wholesome 
in  Syria  as  it  is  in  Cincinnati,  and  the  discovery  of  trichinosis  had 
certainly  not  been  made  in  the  times  under  consideration.  The 
avoidance  of  all  meat,  indeed  of  all  food,  for  purposes  of  fasting 
and  producing  ecstasy,  is  in  a  different  category  and  has  already 
been  mentioned. 

Marriage. — The  laws  of  marriage  in  the  stage  of  barbarism 
are  intricate,  but  attention  may  be  directed  to  a  few  points  which 
strongly  distinguish  them  from  the  marriage  laws  of  civilization. 
Their  most  general  characteristic  is  the  regulation  of  marriage 
within  strict  limits  of  conventional  kinship. 


204  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

The  levirate,  named  from  the  word  levir,  a  husband's  brother, 
is  in  brief  the  customary  right  and  obligation  combined  of  a 
brother — normally  the  eldest  surviving  brother — to  marry  the 
widow  of  his  deceased  brother.  Prof.  E.  B.  Tylor  reports  that 
this  law  appears  among  one  hundred  and  twenty  peoples — i.  e., 
in  about  one  in  three  of  the  distinct  peoples  of  the  world.  It  was 
almost  universal  among  the  Indians,  sometimes  with  additional 
duties  and  privileges.  A  widow,  as  a  rule,  could  not  marry  any 
one  but  her  deceased  husband's  brother  except  on  his  refusing  to 
marry  her,  nor  until  after  a  long  time  of  mourning,  or  more  prop- 
erly of  ordeal,  after  which  she  could  be  freed  from  the  tabu. 

In  several  tribes  marrying  an  elder  sister  gave  to  the  husband 
rights  over  all  the  other  sisters  of  the  wife.  Sometimes  the  son- 
in-law,  especially  when  he  married  the  eldest  daughter,  became 
entitled  to  all  the  younger  sisters  of  his  wife  at  his  option.  Other 
men  could  not  take  them  except  with  his  formal  consent.  This 
right  of  the  son-in-law  to  all  the  unmarried  younger  sisters  some- 
times continued  after  the  death  of  the  first  wife.  Not  unfrequent- 
ly  a  man  married  a  widow  and  her  daughters  at  the  same  time. 

Among  the  Israelites  it  was  common  to  have  several  wives  of 
equal  status,  who  often  were  sisters.  A  widow  had  a  right  to  ap- 
peal to  her  brother-in-law,  or  some  member  of  her  husband's  fam- 
ily, to  provide  her  with  a  second  husband,  and  an  evasion  of  the 
duty  in  personam  was  a  gross  offense.  Deuteronomy  xxv  shows 
the  degrading  terms  of  the  formality  by  which  alone  the  brother- 
in-law  could  be  freed  from  the  obligations  of  marriage  and  the 
widow  be  allowed  to  marry  another  man.  Judah  admitted  that 
Tamar's  conduct  was  perfectly  correct.  It  was  but  a  legitimate 
extension  of  the  levirate  law. 

There  is  the  clear  statement  in  Leviticus  that  the  Egyptians 
and  the  Canaanites  formed  such  marriages  as  were  in  accordance 
with  the  totemic  system,  but  which  were  made  incestuous  by  the 
Israelite  law.  The  laws  of  incest  given  in  Leviticus  are  probably 
later  than  the  code  of  Deuteronomy,  in  which  the  prohibition  is 
directed  against  marriage  by  a  man  with  his  father's  wife.  That 
precept  denounces  the  practice  in  Arabia  by  which  the  son  inher- 
ited his  father's  wife. 

In  the  framework  of  the  Deuteronomic  code  there  were  three 
incestuous  prohibitions,  viz.,  father's  wife,  sister,  and  wife's  mother. 
To  these  offenses  Ezekiel  adds  marriage  with  a  daughter-in-law. 
According  to  the  prophets,  all  those  forms  of  qwcisi-incest  were 
practiced  in  Jerusalem ;  and  the  history  indicates  that  all  at  some 
time  were  recognized  customs.  The  taking  in  marriage  of  a 
father's  wife  was  not  wholly  obsolete  in  the  time  of  David. 

As  regards  the  Israelite  system  of  descent  in  the  female  line,  it 
may  be  noticed  that  the  children  of  Nahor  by  Milkah  were  dis- 


ISRAELITE  AND  INDIAN.  205 

tinguished  from  his  children  by  his  other  wives.  Rebekak's  de- 
scent is  practically  valued  as  descent  from  Milkah,and  the  family 
or  clan  connection  is  traced  entirely  through  Milkah  and  Sarah. 
Their  rules  of  kinship  regarding  what  we  now  call  incest  are  part- 
ly indicated  by  the  following  instances :  Moses'  father  married  his 
father's  sister ;  Nahor  married  his  brother's  daughter ;  Abraham 
married  Sarah,  the  daughter  of  his  father  but  not  of  his  mother. 

A  passage  in  Judges  relates  to  exogamy,  recording  that  Ibzan 
had  thirty  sons,  and  also  thirty  daughters  whom  he  sent  abroad, 
and  took  thirty  daughters  from  abroad  for  his  sons.  But  exogamy 
could  not  be  kept  up  after  the  Israelites  had  become  mainly  an 
agricultural  people,  and  in  the  times  of  the  kings  only  survivals 
of  it  remained. 

Mr.  John  Fenton,  in  "  Early  Hebrew  Life,"  makes  some  acute 
remarks  upon  the  story  of  Lot's  daughters,  but  he  did  not  exhaust 
the  subject.  According  to  the  clan  system,  it  was  not  only  proper 
for  Lot  to  marry  his  daughters,  but  under  the  circumstances  it  was 
obligatory  upon  him  to  do  so.  The  logical  propriety  of  the  mar- 
riage of  a  father  to  his  daughters,  on  the  ground  that  they  did  not 
belong  to  the  same  clan,  is  clear,  and  the  practice  exists  to-day 
among  a  number  of  the  tribes  of  Indians  not  much  affected  by  Eu- 
ropean intercourse.  A  father  was  not  of  kin  to  his  own  children. 
They  belonged  to  the  mother's  clan,  and  not  to  his.  An  interest- 
ing example  of  this  clan  law  is  furnished  by  Dr.  George  M.  Daw- 
son as  still  existing  among  tribes  of  British  Columbia.  A  certain 
rich  Indian  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  search  for  his  aged 
father,  who  was  lost  and  starving  in  the  mountains.  He  did  not 
count  his  father  as  a  relative,  and  said,  "  Let  his  people  go  in 
search  of  him."  Yet  that  son  was  regarded  as  a  particularly  good 
Indian. 

There  are  other  instances  in  which  the  son  would  fight  against 
the  father  to  the  death.  Such  cases  would  occur  where,  according 
to  the  obligations  of  clan  law,  a  son  married  a  woman  of  a  clan 
other  than  that  of  his  father  and  went  to  live  with  her  people ;  and 
when  there  was  warfare  between  her  clan  and  that  of  his  father, 
the  son  was  by  association  expected  to  fight  against  his  father. 
The  real  tie  of  blood  gave  no  reason  why  he  should  not  be  alien 
and  antagonistic  to  his  father  and  his  father's  clan. 

But  it  is  true  that,  in  many  tribes  of  Indians,  since  they  have 
been  observed  by  Europeans,  the  marriage  of  father  and  daughter 
has  been  very  rare.  It  may  be  suggested  as  a  reason  that  a  grad- 
ual change  has  occurred  from  the  mother-right  to  the  father- 
right,  in  which  the  attitude  is  reversed ;  but  practically  the  fact 
that,  by  treating  the  daughter  as  an  object  of  value  or  merchan- 
dise, either  the  father  or  mother  could  secure  presents  from  the 
suitor,  naturally  tended  to  break  down  this  part  of  the  clan  mar- 


206  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

riage  system  before  any  other,  and,  the  custom  ceasing,  the  prac- 
tice became  wrong.  So  it  is  true  to-day  among  Indians,  as  it  "was 
in  a  much  more  marked  degree  among  the  Israelites  at  the  time  of 
the  compilation  of  the  existing  version  of  the  Old  Testament,  that 
the  marriage  of  a  father  and  daughter  is  reprobated.  In  this  con- 
nection it  is  instructive  to  notice  that  the  Navajo  have  a  myth, 
undoubtedly  genuine,  that  in  the  old  time  one  of  their  race  took 
his  daughter  to  wife,  and  their  offspring  became  the  ancestor  of 
the  Utes,  the  hereditary  enemies  of  the  Navajo.  This  is  a  parallel 
with  the  stigma  inflicted  upon  the  Moabites  and  Ammonites,  who 
were  the  descendants  of  Lot  and  the  enemies  of  the  Israelites  who 
wrote  the  history,  but  yet  were  recognized  by  the  latter  as  of  the 
same  stock. 

The  part  of  the  story  of  Lot  as  it  appears  in  our  version, 
which  tends  strongly  to  show  its  later  manipulation,  is  that  the 
authors  of  that  version,  having  at  that  time  the  idea  of  a  hor- 
rible incest,  explained  that  the  man,  specially  designated  by  tra- 
dition as  eminently  good,  was  guilty  only  because  he  was  betrayed 
through  intoxication.  They  were  obliged,  in  accordance  with  one 
tradition,  to  make  him  the  ancestor  of  Moab  and  Ammon.  By 
another  tradition  he  was  left  without  any  sons  and  no  wife, 
the  two  daughters  being  all  of  his  family  who  survived  the 
destruction  of  Sodom.  They  reconciled  their  data,  therefore,  by 
the  excuse  of  intoxication,  but  there  was  no  occasion  for  such 
excuse.  In  the  age  to  which  the  tradition  related  the  transaction 
was  perfectly  proper,  did  not  involve  sexual  passion,  and  was 
required  by  law  to  keep  up  the  stock.  The  clan  rules  had  been 
forgotten  when  the  book  of  Genesis  was  written. 

In  the  stage  of  barbarism  the  marriage  of  brother  and  sister 
was  common  all  over  the  world.  Where  polygamy  existed,  as 
was  the  case  among  the  Israelites,  and  probably  among  all  the 
Indians,  a  man,  according  to  the  rules  of  the  totemic  system,  could 
not  marry  into  his  own  clan.  If  he  took  several  wives,  they 
would  sometimes  be  of  different  clans,  not  only  from  his  own,  but 
from  one  another.  In  such  cases,  the  child  of  the  wife  of  clan  A 
was  not  of  the  same  clan  as  the  child  of  the  wife  of  clan  B,  and 
they  could  marry.  The  marriage  of  uterine  brothers  and  sisters 
was  not  consistent  with  the  clan  rules. 

Writers  on  the  clan  system  have  extolled  it  as  a  system  show- 
ing profound  physiological  insight  respecting  the  supposed  evils 
of  inbreeding ;  but  the  best  and  latest  physiologists  doubt  whether 
inbreeding  is  bad,  unless  there  is  a  taint  of  blood  which  should 
prohibit  the  marriage  of  either  party  to  any  one.  A  true  under- 
standing of  the  clan  system  would  have  shown  that  inasmuch  as 
it  certainly  permitted  marriage  between  a  man  and  his  half-sister, 
and  between  a  man  and  his  aunt,  his  father's  sister,  if  not  the 


ISRAELITE  AND  INDIAN.  207 

more  violent  case  of  marriage  between  father  and  daughter,  it  did 
not  accomplish  that  for  which  it  has  been  so  highly  praised. 

The  late  prohibition  of  a  man's  marriage  to  his  deceased  wife's 
sister  can  not  be  successfully  defended  on  any  principle  of  physi- 
ology or  sociology.  It  is  a  blunder  that  perhaps  arose  in  the 
transition  stage  from  the  matriarchate  to  the  patriarchate  method. 

Conclusions. — The  Indians  have  been  characterized  as  pe- 
culiar among  the  races  of  men.  One  school  of  writers  has  pro- 
nounced them  to  be  feres,  natures,  and  wholly  incapable  of  receiv- 
ing civilization.  Others  have  held  the  opposite  view,  that  they 
were  eminently  spiritualistic,  as  was  proved  by  their  having  pre- 
served the  pure  pristine  faith  to  a  degree  beyond  all  other  se- 
cluded peoples.  Both  of  these  assertions  are  disproved.  When 
Indians  have  been  allowed  reasonable  opportunities,  they  have 
advanced  in  civilization,  and  have  thriven  under  it.  "While  their 
religion  may  in  one  sense  be  pristine,  it  does  not  differ  materially 
from  that  found  in  many  other  regions. 

The  peculiarity  of  the  Semites,  and  especially  of  that  branch 
of  them  lately  styled  the  Syro- Aramaeans  (which  is  only  an  ethno- 
graphic name  including  the  Israelites),  has  been  accepted  as  an 
axiom.  It  was  pronounced  that  they  were  specially  adapted  to  a 
spiritual  religion ;  that  whether  through  an  exclusive  revelation, 
or  because  their  racial  constitution  was  exceptionally  receptive  to 
such  revelation,  their  idiosyncrasy  disposed  them  readily  to  spir- 
itual ideas,  which  to  modern  minds  means  monotheism.  This  is 
not  the  record  of  the  historical  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  even 
after  their  manipulation.  The  prophets  of  Israel  declared  the 
exact  contrary ;  they  denounced  their  own  people  as  rejecting 
spiritual  truth,  and  as  not  deserving  the  favor  of  Jahveh. 

The  historical  books  of  Israel  which  we  possess  are  not  his- 
torical records,  but  are  historic  legends  reduced  to  writing  by 
writers  who  had  sometimes  political  and  sometimes  religious  ends 
in  view.  The  argument  of  those  tales  is  that  all  the  people  habit- 
ually worshiped  Jahveh,  and  him  alone,  during  which  normal 
period  they  were  prosperous,  but  that  sometimes  under  evil  influ- 
ence they  abandoned  him  and  fell  into  disaster,  until,  after  suffi- 
cient chastisement,  they  returned  to  the  true  worship.  The  his- 
toric truth  is  that  the  old  Israelites,  when  disasters  came,  as  they 
always  do  come,  gave  up  the  worship  of  their  national  god  as 
not  a  success,  and  tried  the  gods  of  their  neighbors.  They  re- 
turned to  Jahveh  because  the  other  gods  did  not  satisfy  them  any 
better.  In  fact,  the  people  had  no  fixed  or  distinct  faith,  and  it 
is  not  correct  to  accuse  them  of  backsliding  when  they  were  only 
vacillating. 

The  prophets  tried  to  pull  the  Israelites  too  rapidly  through 


2o8  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

the  zootheistic  and  physitheistic  stages  into  monotheism,  and 
spasmodically  succeeded ;  but  the  body  of  the  people  never 
reached  the  stage  of  monotheism  until  after  the  Babylonian  cap- 
tivity. Most  writers  have  explained  this  on  the  theory  that  the 
terrible  chastisement  of  that  captivity  finally  brought  them  to 
submission;  but  it  is  more  probable  that  their  forced  relations 
with  their  more  cultured  conquerors  gave  them  new  ideas  never 
before  entertained,  which  infused  modifications  into  their  religion. 
The  resulting  combination  produced  those  characteristics  of  that 
religion  which  have  been  regarded  as  the  most  admirable. 

The  general  account  of  the  Israelite  lapses  is  not  unlike  that 
given  in  modern  times  by  missionaries,  who  also  have  been  im- 
petuous in  attempting  the  instantaneous  transport  of  Indians 
through  stages  that  are  marked  by  ages.  Tribes  of  Indians  have 
been  converted,  and  they  were  reported  and  recorded  as  being  in 
that  permanent  condition.  A  few  years  later,  from  some  dissatis- 
faction, they  returned  to  their  shaman  and  their  dreams,  which 
return  was  then  reported  as  a  lapse.  It  was  not,  in  fact,  a  lapse, 
but  the  claim  that  they  had  been  converted  was  premature.  There 
is,  however,  this  distinction  between  the  Israelites  and  the  In- 
dians :  that  the  former  were  allowed  to  return  to  Palestine  and 
carry  out  their  old  ideas  with  improvements  ;  while  the  Indians, 
remaining  under  the  same  foreign  influences  and  continually 
growing  weaker,  were  forced  to  abandon  all  their  faith  and  to 
accept  that  of  their  conquerors  without  composition. 

The  stories  of  the  conversion  of  Indians  by  thousands  would 
seem  false  to  one  who  did  not  know  that  they  were  ready  to  be- 
lieve any  new  thing  because  they  before  had  no  fixed  belief.  The 
record  of  the  Israelites  is  not  so  clear,  because  old ;  but  they  surely 
adopted  the  Satanic  doctrine  and  the  "Mosaic  cosmology,"  and 
continued  adopting  foreign  beliefs  until  a  late  date  in  their  his- 
tory. 

The  most  judicious  remarks  ever  made  by  missionaries  were 
those  of  the  Rev.  Messrs.  D.  Lee  and  J.  H.  Frost,  who,  after  ten 
years  in  Oregon  of  what  has  been  considered  successful  work,  an- 
nounced their  abandonment  of  their  former  tenet  that  if  the  hea- 
then were  converted  to  Christianity  civilization  followed  of  course. 
They  confessed  that  civilization  must  begin  before  Christianity 
could  even  be  understood.  Acute  travelers  throughout  the  world 
have  perceived  the  same  fact ;  and  it  is  not  a  too  violent  simile  to 
say  that  Christianity,  belonging  to  the  plane  of  civilization  and  to 
that  only,  sits  on  a  savage  or  barbarian  as  a  bishop's  mitre  would 
on  a  naked  Hottentot. 

The  Israelites  were  not  suddenly  lifted  from  their  barbarian 
condition.  It  was  not  possible.  As  regards  the  culture  strata 
we  may  take  a  lesson  from  geology.    Coal  is  not  found  in  the  Si- 


ISRAELITE  AND   INDIAN.  20g 

lurian  formation,  therefore  wise  miners  do  not  look  there  for  coal. 
The  higher  mammals  are  not  found  earlier  than  the  Cenozoic, 
though  their  precursors  are  in  the  Jurassic.  Man  in  the  savage 
stage  may  be  examined  in  the  same  spirit  as  the  Jurassic  stage  is 
studied  to  trace  what  may  afterward  appear  in  the  barbarian  and 
Cenozoic,  and  is  developed  in  the  present  epoch ;  but  to  search 
for  the  complete  ideas  of  civilization  in  the  period  of  barbarism 
would  be  as  judicious  as  to  dig  for  manuscripts  among  the  work- 
shops of  flint  arrow-heads. 

The  beliefs  and  practices  of  both  the  Israelites  and  the  Indians 
were  substantially  the  same  as  those  of  other  bodies  of  people  in 
the  same  stage  of  culture.  They  were  neither  of  them  a  "  pecul- 
iar "  people. 

There  is,  racially,  no  peculiar  people  in  the  sense  intended. 
Mankind  is  homogeneous  in  nature,  though  its  divisions  at  any 
one  time  are  found  in  differing  and  advancing  grades  of  culture. 
Such  advancement  has  been  from  causes  known  to  be  still  in  con- 
tinuous operation.  What  is  called  blood  in  a  racial  sense  may 
be  likened  unto  the  water  of  the  earth  :  as  the  water  comes  from 
the  clouds  it  is  chemically  the  same,  and  it  is  subjected,  wherever 
it  is,  to  the  same  laws.  The  early  course  of  a  rill  may  be  turned 
by  a  pebble,  and  from  the  elevations  and  depressions  met  it  may 
become  a  lake,  or  a  river,  or  a  stagnant  marsh.  From  the  charac- 
ter of  soil  encountered  it  may  be  clear  or  muddy,  alkaline,  chalyb- 
eate, or  sulphurous.  In  one  sense,  which  belongs  to  modern  and 
not  to  ancient  history,  the  Jews  are  a  peculiar  people,  from  the 
fact  that  for  many  centuries,  until  lately,  they  proclaimed  them- 
selves to  be  such,  and  observed  religiously  the  doctrine  about  the 
Goim,  and  therefore  did  not  intermarry  with  other  peoples ;  but 
that  should  not  be  a  reason  for  their  boasting.  Persecution  made 
them  pariahs  and  other  peoples  would  not  intermarry  with  them. 
During  recent  centuries  the  so-styled  purity  of  their  race  has 
been  kept  up  by  isolation,  but  the  assumption  of  great  purity  in 
the  stock  at  the  Christian  era  is  not  tenable.  Now  that  their 
prejudices  and  those  of  the  Goim  against  them  are  dissolving,  it 
is  probable  that  what  has  been  improperly  called  the  Jewish  race 
will  disappear  by  absorption  as  the  Indians  are  now  disappearing. 
To  renew  the  simile,  both  Israelite  and  Indian  will  be  lost  in  the 
homogeneous  ocean  which  all  mankind  seems  destined  to  swell. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  this  presentation  of  views  practically 
ignores  the  scholastic  divisions  of  mankind  into  distinct  races. 
The  result  of  my  own  studies  on  the  subject  is  a  conviction  that 
all  attempts  at  the  classification  of  races  have  failed.  The  best 
statement  of  the  condition  of  scientific  opinion  regarding  such 
classification  may  be  taken  from  the  address  of  Prof.  W.  H.  Flow- 
er to  the  Section  of  Anthropology  of  the  British  Association  for 

VOL.  XXXVI. — 14 


2 jo  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

the  Advancement  of  Science.  He  says :  "  I  am  compelled  to  use 
the  word  race  vaguely  for  any  considerable  group  of  men  who 
resemble  each  other  in  certain  common  characters  transmitted 
from  generation  to  generation."  Some  satisfactory  solution  of 
the  problem  may  be  made  in  the  future,  but  for  the  present  the 
most  useful  direction  of  the  work  of  anthropologists  is  not  in  at- 
tempts to  establish  racial  divisions,  but  in  the  determination  of 
the  several  planes  of  culture  with  recognition  of  specific  environ- 
ments. 

A  rabbinical  legend  tells  that  Lot  was  the  first  to  argue  the 
existence  of  one  god  ruling  the  universe,  from  the  irregular  phe- 
nomena observed  on  land  and  sea  and  among  the  heavenly  bodies. 
"  If  these  had  power  of  their  own,"  he  said,  "  they  would  have  had 
regular  motions,  but  as  they  had  no  regularity  they  were  subserv- 
ient to  the  occasional  exercise  of  a  higher  will."  In  times  of 
greater  scientific  knowledge  these  supposed  irregular  motions  are 
found  to  be  in  accordance  with  laws  considered  to  be  permanent, 
if  not  immutable,  and  the  recognition  of  such  tremendous  laws 
gives  a  higher  conception  of  their  maker.  The  notion  that  such 
laws  are  or  can  be  suspended  or  violated  suggests  irresolution  and 
caprice,  shocks  human  reason,  and  clouds  the  glory  of  divinity. 

The  doctrine  attributed  to  Lot  is  instructive,  because  the  con- 
ception of  nature  implied  in  it  permeated  all  the  early  philosophy. 
We  now  define  a  miracle  specifically  as  a  deviation  from  the  laws 
of  nature.  But  to  those  for  whom  nature  had  no  laws,  the  prime 
definition  as  "  the  wonderful "  was  alone  correct.  A  supernatural 
being  could  do  anything  whatever  in  accordance  with  his  arbi- 
trary will,  and  was  expected  to  act  in  that  manner.  Men  who 
were  inspired  or  empowered  by  the  supernatural  were  also  expect- 
ed, indeed  were  required,  to  work  wonders.  It  would  hardly  be  a 
paradox  to  assert  that  only  the  supernatural  was  natural,  and  that 
only  the  irregular  was  regular. 

That  both  the  Indians  and  the  Israelites  were  in  this  stage  of 
philosophy  has  been  conclusively  shown.  It  is  also  evident  that 
the  principle  of  ancientism  was  potent  in  their  religion. 

Ancientism,  which  still  has  surviving  influence,  declares  the 
old  thought,  that  of  the  ancient  men,  to  be  always  the  best.  This 
is  false,  unless  the  theory  is  true  that  all  knowledge  comes  from 
revelation,  which  was  given  only  to  the  ancient  men,  who  there- 
fore had  it  in  its  pure  condition.  To  cling  to  the  old  merely  be- 
cause it  is  old  is  bad ;  in  fact,  is  the  crudest  superstition.  Some 
advocates  of  the  old  reject  all  new  thoughts,  but  the  more  intelli- 
gent of  its  praisers  seek  to  force  a  reconciliation  between  the  old 
thought  and  the  new.  What  they  now  believe  must  be  right. 
What  they  are  not  accustomed  to  is  shocking,  and  therefore 
wrong.     So  the  old,  which  was  always  right,  must  be  distorted  so 


ISRAELITE  AND  INDIAN.  211 

as  to  comprehend  in  it  the  new,  which  is  also  right,  and  whatever 
there  is  of  the  old  that  can  not  be  managed  otherwise  must  be  ex- 
plained away. 

There  is  an  apparent  exception  in  favor  of  the  old  thoughts 
and  teachings  where  there  has  been  a  general  degradation  in  cult- 
ure ;  then  a  return  to  the  results  of  the  former  and  forgotten 
culture  is  most  desirable.  This  is  illustrated  in  the  revival  of  the 
old  learning  after  the  dark  ages  in  Europe,  when  the  classic  writ- 
ings as  discovered  brought  fresh  illumination  to  the  world.  But 
this  was  simply  a  resumption  of  advance  after  a  check ;  and  the 
wisdom  of  the  ancients,  which  has  appeared  marvelous,  owes 
much  of  its  splendor  to  the  intervening  darkness.  The  process  of 
development,  not  chronology,  makes  a  proper  criterion.  Though 
antiqaitas  scecuM  juvenilis  mundi,  the  archaic  is  that  which  relates 
to  the  earliest  steps  of  human  advance.  We  have  the  history  of 
the  Israelites  for  forty  centuries  ;  we  have  that  of  the  Indians  for 
little  more  than  three  centuries ;  and,  though  the  Israelites  in  re- 
corded times  advanced  beyond  the  plane  of  the  Indians,  who  shall 
say  which  of  the  two  peoples  is  in  years  the  older  ? 

The  points  before  mentioned — that  neither  the  Israelites  nor 
the  Indians  had  any  formulated  and  established  faith,  and  in  par- 
ticular did  not  believe  in  a  single  god,  and  that  they  did  not  have 
any  system  of  rewards  and  punishments  after  death — had  impor- 
tant consequences.  They  were  never  persecutors  for  religious 
opinion.  With  regard  to  the  Indians  that  assertion  will  at  once 
be  admitted ;  with  regard  to  the  Israelites  it  will  be  disputed  by 
those  who  take  the  statements  of  the  compilers  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment as  literally  historical. 

I  have  before  mentioned  one  reason,  that  of  the  amalgamation 
of  the  Israelites  with  the  inhabitants  of  Canaan,  why  there  could 
not  have  been  any  such  fanatic  massacre  as  is  narrated.  There 
are  other  potent  reasons.  This  plane  of  culture  of  the  Israelites 
being  established,  it  is  proper  theoretically  to  make  the  deduc- 
tions belonging  to  that  plane.  The  Indians  carefully  concealed 
their  special  mystery-daimons.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Israel- 
ites were  generally  in  accord  with  their  neighbors  in  religious 
opinions  and  practices,  so  there  could  have  been  no  antagonism 
from  religious  motives.  If  while  worshiping  Jahveh  they  made 
war  for  any  reason,  Jahveh  was  their  reliance,  and  he  conquered 
or  was  defeated  with  them  ;  but  they  did  not  make  war  to  force 
the  worship  of  Jahveh  upon  others.  They  would  have  regarded 
that  as  the  worst  possible  policy,  as  it  would  have  allowed  their 
enemies  to  pirate  upon  their  divine  monopoly  which  was  the 
essential  part  of  their  military  equipment. 

When  men  live  in  the  midst  of  many  religions,  which  imply 
many  revelations,  they  are  charitable  to  all  of  them.     It  is  only 


212  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

the  isolated  and  ignorant  who  are  bigoted.  A  still  higher  degree 
of  light  gained  by  those  who  have  come  out  of  the  caves  of  super- 
stition will  induce  them  to  imitate  the  decision  of  the  witty  sage 
with  regard  to  ghosts — he  had  seen  so  many  that  he  could  not  be- 
lieve in  any. 

When  a  future  state  of  rewards  and  punishments,  depending 
upon  belief  in  a  particular  dogma,  has  been  established,  the  atti- 
tude of  believers  becomes  antagonistic.  They  maintain  that  a 
denial  of  their  belief  is  disrespect  to  their  god,  and  they  angrily 
stigmatize  such  denial  as  blasphemy  or  skepticism,  or  use  some 
other  term  of  vituperation,  and  they  say  that  their  anger  is  right- 
eous. But  it  is  simply  egotistic.  The  true  ground  of  their  hos- 
tility to  any  dissentient  opinion  is  the  cloud  cast  on  their  title  to 
future  happiness.  This  must  be  fought  as  titles  are  contested  in 
courts  of  law,  or  by  the  last  resort  of  war,  or  by  such  persecution 
as  silences  the  objectors  to  the  title.  But  as  the  Israelites  claimed 
no  such  title,  they  were  not  sensitive  about  its  disparagement. 
In  the  religious  stage  described,  neither  the  Indians  nor  the  Is- 
raelites sought  to  make  religious  proselytes.  The  noble  motive 
of  missionaries  is  to  save  souls ;  but  the  peoples  now  compared 
could  not  have  had,  indeed  could  not  have  understood,  that  motive. 

At  the  commencement  of  this  address  the  rule  was  laid  down 
that  it  was  essential  to  omit  all  reference  to  revelation  as  de- 
ciding the  points  discussed.  Many  points,  however,  have  been 
touched  upon  which  properly  bring  to  notice  the  order  of  the 
development  of  revelation  in  general,  without  discussion  of  its 
decisive  authority.  This  procedure  may  be  submitted  to  students 
of  anthropology  as  applicable  to  all  revelations  save  those  which 
each  one  individually  credits. 

It  is  evident  that  some  practice  existed  early  for  which  a  natu- 
ral explanation  may  be  given.  This  practice  became  a  formal 
custom  which,  after  a  time,  was  considered  to  be  obligatory  under 
the  vague  but  compelling  idea  that  it  was  "  bad  luck  "  not  to  ob- 
serve it.  Bad  luck  is  necessarily  connected  with  the  supernatu- 
ral. Hence  the  custom  or  the  congeries  of  customs  became  a 
religion,  and  that  was  always  supported  and  explained  at  a  later 
time  by  a  myth.  That  was  not  necessarily  an  explanation  made 
by  imposture  or  with  intent  to  deceive,  but  grew  from  the  curi- 
osity of  men  and  their  hurry  to  account  for  everything.  All 
such  myths  are  declared  to  be  obtained,  through  revelation,  from 
a  power  higher  than  man.  The  result  is,  therefore,  that  revela- 
tion, which  is  the  last  step  in  the  evolution  of  religion,  is  enounced, 
by  antedating,  to  be  the  first  step.  When  supposed  revelation  is 
once  regnant,  men  cling  to  it  as  a  refuge  from  the  doubt  which 
must  always  result  from  reasoning  on  subjects  which  do  not  ad- 
mit of  demonstration.     Such  clinging  becomes  fanatical  with  most 


MENTAL  AND  PHYSICAL  TRAINING  OF  CHILDREN.  213 

men  because  they  dread  as  the  greatest  calamity  to  be  cast  into  the 
hands  of  Giant  Doubting,  who  to  them  is  but  another  name  for 
Giant  Despair.    But  the  path  of  Doubt  leads  to  the  portal  of  Truth. 

It  has  been  no  part  of  my  purpose  in  this  address  to  impugn 
the  character  of  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament.  On  the  con- 
trary, I  regard  that  noble  work  as  the  most  important  anthro- 
pologic record  possessed  by  man — a  work  which  richly  repays 
the  most  diligent  study.  I  gladly  accept  it  as  a  genuine  record, 
and  believe  that,  though  it  has  been  colored  by  time  and  by  the 
work  of  designing  men,  it  was  never  invented.  It  is  sometimes 
said  that  persons  who  are  absorbed  in  scientific  studies  fear  or 
pretend  to  scorn  the  Bible.  I  neither  fear  nor  scorn  it.  I  admire 
it,  and  study  it,  and  gain  much  from  it ;  but  no  intelligent  person 
takes  as  of  the  same  authority  all  its  versions,  or,  indeed,  all  the 
contents  of  the  books  which  are  arbitrarily  styled  canonical,  and 
about  the  very  names  and  numbers  of  which  scholars,  churches, 
and  sects  dispute. 

The  Hexateuch  contains  that  intrinsic  evidence  of  truth  which 
so  impressed  the  Ojibwa  elders,  before  mentioned,  who  said  that 
the  work  was  true  because  they  and  their  fathers  "  had  heard  the 
same  stories  since  the  world  was  new."  To  those  who  can  read  it 
understanding!  y  it  is  a  true  story  of  a  plane  of  culture. 

"  Now  as  to  myself  I  have  so  described  these  matters  as  I  have 
found  them  and  read  them ;  but,  if  any  one  is  inclined  to  another 
opinion  about  them,  let  him  enjoy  his  different  sentiments  without 
any  blame  from  me." 

[Concluded.  ] 


-♦♦♦- 


MENTAL    AND    PHYSICAL   TRAINING  OF   CHILDREN. 


M 


By  JESSIE  ORIANA  WALLER. 
I. 

Y  paper  is  entitled  the  "  Mental  and  Physical  Training  of 
Children,"  and  I  shall  begin  with  remarks  on  physical  train- 
ing, as  it  is  first  in  natural  order,  the  physical  life  beginning 
before  the  mental.  In  these  days,  when  there  is  a  great  rage  for 
education,  a  certain  top-heaviness  has  been  produced  among  chil- 
dren, and  the  good  homely  helpmate  of  the  mind— the  body— is 
decidedly  neglected.  It  is  looked  upon  as  is  the  dull  but  sensible 
wife  of  some  clever  man,  whose  duty  is  to  get  through  all  the 
home  drudgery.  She  must  be  invited  out  with  him,  but  is  ignored 
in  society,  and  is  only  tolerated  on  account  of  her  brilliant  hus- 
band. Now,  I  consider  the  body  to  be  just  as  important  as  the 
mind,  and  that  it  ought  to  be  treated  with  just  as  much  respect, 


214  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

especially  in  these  days  of  intense  competition,  when,  given  an 
equality  of  brains  and  education,  it  is  the  strong  body  that  tells 
in  the  long  run,  and  gives  staying  power.  That  alone  can  help 
the  mind  to  bear  the  strain,  and  anything  that  can  assist  our  chil- 
dren to  bear  this  daily  increasing  strain  is  surely  not  beneath  our 
notice. 

It  is  really  surprising  to  see  the  amount  of  trouble  and  pains 
bestowed  on  the  proper  housing  and  feeding  of  horses  and  dogs, 
or  other  domestic  animals,  while  at  the  same  time  comparatively 
little  attention  is  paid  to  these  matters  with  regard  to  the  rearing 
of  children.  Model  stables  and  model  kennels  abound,  while  the 
model  nursery  is  almost  wholly  unknown.  Warming,  ventila- 
tion, and  aspect  are  all  subjects  which  are  thoroughly  considered 
in  the  stable,  while  as  regards  the  nursery  they  are  generally  left 
for  chance  to  decide — though  the  health  of  a  child  is  surely  more 
important  than  that  of  a  horse  or  a  dog.  "We  have  all  stayed  in 
country  houses,  where  the  host  has  taken  us  over  his  beautiful 
stables  fitted  with  every  convenience,  and  have  heard  his  anxious 
inquiries  as  to  the  health  of  his  favorites,  or  we  have  been  driven 
to  the  model  cow-sheds,  or  kennels,  but  which  of  us  has  been 
taken  over  the  model  nursery  ? 

The  men  can  not  be  troubled  about  babies  !  (though  they  have 
no  objection  to  puppies  or  calves) — they  leave  all  that  to  the 
women — and  the  women,  that  is  to  say  the  mistresses,  leave  it  to 
the  nurses,  often  entirely  ignorant  though  kindly  persons,  whose 
chief  recommendation  is  that  they  are  so  fond  of  children !  This 
would  seem  a  ridiculous  state  of  affairs  were  it  not  so  lamentable. 

Two  of  the  best  rooms  in  the  house  should  be  assigned  to  the 
children,  one  for  the  night  the  other  for  the  day  nursery,  but  this 
is  by  no  means  often  done.  In  small  houses  where  there  is  but 
one  spare  room,  it  is  of  common  occurrence  to  see  the  largest  and 
sunniest  apartment  set  aside  for  the  visitors,  who  perhaps  occupy 
it  for  two  months  in  the  year,  while  the  children  have  to  live 
cramped  up  in  a  small,  sunless  garret. 

Sunshine  is  as  necessary  to  the  human  being  as  to  the  plant ; 
and  it  is  said  in  confirmation  of  this  that,  during  the  Crimean 
War,  Miss  Nightingale  nursed  the  wounded  soldiers  in  a  hospital 
one  side  of  which  looked  north,  the  other  south,  and  that  she  ob- 
served that  the  soldiers  lying  in  the  wards  with  a  southern  aspect 
recovered  far  sooner  than  their  comrades  in  those  on  the  northern 
or  sunless  side.  In  our  climate  it  is  hardly  possible  to  have  too 
much  sunshine,  and  the  nurseries  should  certainly  have  a  south- 
ern outlook. 

Where  there  is  a  large  family  of  children  the  night  nursery  is 
frequently  overcrowded,  and  no  regard  is  paid  as  to  whether  there 
is  sufficient  cubic  space  for  each  person.    If  there  be  overcrowd- 


MENTAL  AND  PHYSICAL  TRAINING  OF  CHILDREN.  215 

ing  in  a  hospital,  no  matter  how  you  ventilate  the  wards,  a  high 
death-rate  is  the  inevitable  result,  and  in  the  nursery  depressed 
vitality  and  sickliness  as  certainly  follow  upon  want  of  room 
and  air.  One  thousand  cubic  feet  is  not  too  much  to  allow  for 
each  person. 

No  nurseries  should  be  papered  unless  the  paper  is  varnished, 
for,  besides  the  great  risk  of  putting  up  an  arsenical  paper,  there 
is  this  to  be  considered — that  children  are  certain  to  go  through 
some  infectious  illnesses,  after  each  of  which  the  nurseries  must 
be  disinfected  and  repapered.  The  best  thing  for  the  walls  is 
paint,  which  can  always  be  washed  and  disinfected  with  little 
trouble,  and  once  on  the  walls  will  last  for  years.  Distemper  color 
is  the  alternative  to  paint,  but  with  it  a  dado  of  paint  or  varnished 
paper  should  be  used,  as  it  comes  off  when  touched  or  rubbed. 
Distemper  should  be  renewed  every  year,  or  after  any  infectious 
disease.  Nothing  that  can  hold  dust  should  be  allowed  in  the 
nursery.  There  should  be  no  carpet  nailed  down  over  the  floor ; 
it  can  not  be  taken  up  sufficiently  often  to  keep  the  room  sweet, 
and  the  accumulation  of  dust  under  such  a  carpet  is  astonishing. 
Directly  the  children  begin  to  romp,  the  room  becomes  most  un- 
wholesome with  its  dust-laden  atmosphere,  flavored  by  the  many 
mugs  of  milk  that  have  been  spilt,  and  the  many  pieces  of  bread 
and  butter  that  have  been  dropped  face  downward  on  the  carpet 
during  the  past  year.  But  I  have  not  space  to  do  more  than  point 
out  some  few  things  to  be  avoided,  and  must  as  far  as  possible 
keep  to  generalities. 

Our  lords  and  masters  arrange  the  diet  of  dogs  and  horses  with 
great  care  ;  whether  the  dog  should  be  fed  on  meat  or  farinaceous 
foods,  whether  the  horses  should  be  turned  out  to  grass  or  fed 
upon  oats  or  hay,  are  momentous  questions.  Any  one  having 
the  management  of  horses  will  notice  that  a  highly  fed  animal 
will  be  able  to  do  a  much  larger  amount  of  work  than  one  that  is 
stinted  and  underfed  ;  that  a  horse  fed  upon  corn  is  full  of  spirit, 
while  if  turned  out  to  grass  it  becomes  lazy  and  sleepy,  thus  prov- 
ing that  food  materially  affects  the  spirit  and  disposition  of  the 
animal.  And  if  this  be  true  for  one  animal,  it  will  be  true  for  all ; 
and  it  follows  that  the  superior  animal — the  child — will  be  equally 
affected  by  variations  in  food,  and  will  require  as  much  care  in 
feeding. 

This  will  hardly  be  disputed,  and  yet  very  rarely  is  any  sys- 
tem followed  in  feeding  children,  and  if  an  ordinary  fairly  edu- 
cated man  were  asked  to  consider  the  diet  of  his  children,  and 
whether  such  a  diet  might  not  be  found  which  would  develop  to 
its  utmost  the  physical  powers  of  each  child,  he  would  probably 
reply  that,  when  he  was  young,  children  ate  what  was  put  before 
them,  and  were  none  the  worse  for  it.     Now,  it  is  impossible  to 


216  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

prove  that  they  were  none  the  worse  for  an  indiscriminate  diet. 
No  one  can  say  how  many  slight  illnesses  might  have  been  avoid- 
ed, or  how  many  severe  ones  might  have  been  insignificant,  had  the 
child  been  in  a  perfectly  wholesome  state  of  body,  which  can  only 
result  when  it  has  lived  on  proper  food.  Good  blood  can  only  be 
obtained  by  good  food,  while  weakly  or  even  diseased  constitu- 
tions may  be  greatly  amended  by  simple  attention  to  diet. 

How  little  does  the  ordinary  young  mother  know  of  her  child's 
requirements !  The  first  baby  is  generally  subjected  to  a  terrible 
number  of  experiments :  the  mother,  perhaps,  gives  it  a  new  food 
merely  because  Mrs.  So-and-so's  baby  takes  it,  having  no  notion 
as  to  whether  it  is  suitable  for  her  own  infant's  digestion. 

I  shall  now  turn  to  the  important  subject  of  clothing.  The 
first  object  of  clothes  (at  any  rate  in  such  a  climate  as  ours)  is  to 
keep  the  body  from  being  chilled  during  our  incessant  variations 
of  temperature,  and  it  is  well  to  remark  that  the  prevention  of 
chill  has  nothing  to  do  with  "coddling,"  which  is  keeping  the 
body  needlessly  warm  merely  because  warmth  is  pleasant.  Clothes 
should  be  light,  and  of  woolen  material,  and  should  in  no  way  im- 
pede free  movement. 

It  may  seem  superfluous  to  state  facts  which  are  no  doubt  obvi- 
ous to  every  one,  but  it  is  not  of  common  occurrence  to  see  a  child 
dressed  in  a  reasonable  manner,  especially  when  it  is  very  young. 
Although  I  own  that  children  are  now  more  sensibly  clothed  than 
was  the  case  thirty  years  ago,  it  is  still  common  to  see  an  infant, 
who  can  take  no  exercise  to  warm  himself,  wearing  a  low-necked, 
short-sleeved,  short-coated  dress  in  the  coldest  weather.  The  two 
parts  of  the  body — viz.,  the  upper  portion  of  the  chest  and  the 
lower  portion  of  the  abdomen — which  it  is  most  important  to  keep 
from  variations  of  temperature,  are  exposed,  and  the  child  is  ren- 
dered liable  to  colds,  coughs,  and  lung  diseases  on  the  one  hand, 
and  bowel  complaint  on  the  other.  What  little  there  is  of  the 
dress  is  chiefly  composed  of  open  work  and  embroidery,  so  that 
there  is  about  as  much  warmth  in  it  as  in  a  wire  sieve,  and  the 
socks  accompanying  such  a  dress  are  of  cold  white  cotton,  expos- 
ing a  cruel  length  of  blue  and  red  leg.  I  can  not  see  the  beauty 
of  a  pair  of  livid  blue  legs,  and  would  much  rather  behold  them 
comfortably  clad  in  a  pair  of  stockings.  If  the  beauty  lie  in  the 
shape  of  the  leg,  that  shape  will  be  displayed  to  as  much  advan- 
tage in  a  pair  of  stockings ;  if  it  lie  in  the  coloring  of  the  flesh, 
beautiful  coloring  will  not  be  obtained  by  leaving  the  leg  bare ; 
and  from  the  artistic  point  of  view,  a  blue  or  red  stocking  is  infi- 
nitely preferable  to  a  blue  and  red  leg. 

There  is  a  comfortable  supposition  that  children  do  not  feel 
cold  so  much  as  grown-up  persons,  but  this  is  not  true.  It  is  a 
fact  that  not  only  has  a  child  less  power  of  generating  heat  than 


MENTAL  AND  PHYSICAL  TRAINING  OF  CHILDREN  217 

the  adult,  but  that  it  has  also  a  much  larger  surface  in  proportion 
to  the  mass  of  its  body,  and  will  consequently  be  far  more  suscep- 
tible to  cold.  Cold  feet  cause  a  great  amount  of  indigestion,  and 
exposure  of  the  large  blood-vessels  of  the  thigh  during  childhood 
frequently  sows  the  seeds  of  kidney  diseases,  to  develop  in  after- 
life. 

Insufficient  clothing  and  much  exposure  to  cold  have  the  effect 
of  making  a  child  appear  torpid,  benumbed  bodily  and  mentally, 
and  it  stands  to  reason  that  if  its  small  powers  are  entirely  con- 
sumed in  merely  keeping  alive  and  fairly  warm,  no  vital  energy 
will  be  left  for  anything  else,  and  a  child  has  more  to  do  than  the 
adult :  it  has  not  only  to  repair  waste,  but  it  has  to  grow  and 
make  new  tissue.  But  it  must  not  be  thought  that  I  am  a  friend 
to  coddling — on  the  contrary,  I  believe  that,  once  let  a  child  be 
clothed  from  head  to  foot  in  wool,  it  may  go  out  in  almost  any 
weather ;  and  I  am  sure  that  most  nurseries  would  be  healthier 
by  being  kept  cooler.  I  know  that  I  shall  have  the  cottage  chil- 
dren held  up  to  me  as  examples  of  the  hardening  system  ;  I  shall 
be  told  to  observe  their  rosy  cheeks,  their  sturdy  limbs.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  I  don't  much  believe  in  them.  Our  hospitals  are 
full  of  cottage  children — poor  little  creatures,  mostly  suffering 
from  exposure  and  bad  feeding !  The  reason  that  the  strongest 
live  is  that  they  live  in  the  open  air,  and  it  is  a  common  thing  to 
hear  a  poor  woman  say  in  response  to  your  inquiry  as  to  her  chil- 
dren :  "  I've  got  five,  ma'am ;  I've  buried  four."  The  largest  mor- 
tality occurs  in  children  under  one  year  old ;  and  in  Russia,  I  be- 
lieve, chiefly  owing  to  the  intense  cold  in  winter,  the  death-rate 
among  children  is  something  appalling.  In  England  infant  mor- 
tality is  greatest  in  hot  summer  and  autumn — from  diarrhoea — 
largely  owing  to  badness  of  milk  kept  in  dirty  vessels. 

In  concluding  this  part  of  my  paper,  I  may  remark  that  a 
mother  should  remember  the  old  proverb  that  prevention  is  bet- 
ter than  cure,  and  that,  by  daily  careful  supervision  of  her  child, 
she  may  save  him  from  much  that  the  unfortunate  child  of  a  care- 
less mother  has  to  endure,  and  may  also  console  herself,  when 
unavoidable  illness  comes,  that  she  has  done  all  that  lies  in  her 
power  to  provide  her  child  with  health  and  strength  to  resist 

disease. 

II. 

As  soon  as  a  child  is  old  enough  to  develop  a  will  of  its  own, 
the  first  thing  it  does  is  to  try  and  get  its  own  way,  and  one  of  the 
earliest  lessons  it  has  to  learn  is  that  it  can  only  have  its  own  way 
when  it  is  compatible  with  the  comfort  and  rights  of  others ;  and 
even  a  mere  baby  will  soon  find  out  how  far  it  may  encroach  on 
the  kindness  or  weakness  of  those  around  it. 

As  we  are  none  of  us  born  models  of  virtuous  behavior,  some 


2i 8  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

kind  of  punishment  must  necessarily  be  used  now  and  then  in  the 
nursery  ;  but,  as  far  as  is  possible,  the  child  should  be  made  to  feel 
that  the  punishment  is  the  natural  result  of  his  bad  action,  and 
not  the  mere  venting  of  anger  and  annoyance  on  the  part  of  the 
parent  or  nurse.  If  a  child  once  finds  out  that  certain  actions 
always  entail  unpleasant  consequences,  he  will  no  more  think  of 
committing  them  than  he  would  think  of  putting  his  hands  in  the 
fire,  which,  he  has  early  learned,  has  an  unpleasant  habit  of  burn- 
ing. There  are  no  better  philosophers  than  children,  who  always 
resign  themselves  to  the  inevitable ;  but  let  the  children  be  certain 
that  it  is  the  inevitable — let  the  child  find  out  that  bad  behavior  in 
the  drawing-room  means  instant  banishment  to  the  nursery ;  that 
if  he  knocks  his  brother  with  a  stick  the  result  is  "  no  sticks " ; 
that  if  he  refuses  to  put  away  his  toys  one  night,  he  must  manage 
without  toys  the  next  night,  and  so  on. 

If  the  mother  merely  talks  at  the  child,  and  says,  "  How  often 
must  I  tell  you  not  to  do  so  ?  "  or,  "  I  shall  send  you  up-stairs,"  the 
child  soon  perceives  that,  after  all,  this  entails  no  consequences, 
and  he  very  wisely  acts  accordingly.  On  the  other  hand,  nothing 
should  be  denied  to  a  child  without  some  reason.  A  great  many 
mothers,  and  most  nurses,  bring  up  children  on  the  principle  con- 
tained in  "Punch's"  remark,  so  delightfully  illustrated  by  Du 
Maurier :  "  Maud,  go  and  see  what  Baby  is  doing,  and  tell  him  he 
mustn't." 

With  regard  to  corporal  punishment,  I  think  it  wholly  un- 
necessary. Even  those  who  assert  that  it  is  good  for  children  can 
not  deny  that  it  is  bad  for  parents.  No  one  is  virtuous  enough  to 
be  judge,  jury,  and  executioner  in  one.  And  if  it  is  harmful  for  a 
mother  to  treat  her  child  like  an  animal,  it  must  no  less  harm  the 
child  to  be  treated  as  one,  and  to  be  governed  through  the  feelings 
of  pain  and  fear,  instead  of  the  higher  ones  of  reason  and  affection. 
But  here  I  can  not  do  better  than  quote  a  few  passages  from  Locke's 
"  Essay  on  Education,"  which  I  think  very  wise : 

The  usual  lazy  and  short  way  by  chastisement  with  the  rod,  the  only  instrument 
of  government  that  tutors  generally  know,  is  the  most  unfit  of  any  to  be  used  in 
education.  For  from  what  other  motive  but  of  sensual  pleasure  or  pain  does  a 
child  act  who  drudges  at  his  book  against  his  inclinations,  or  abstains  from  eating 
unwholesome  fruit  that  he  takes  pleasure  in  only  out  of  fear  of  whipping,  and  what 
is  it  to  govern  his  actions  and  direct  his  conduct  by  such  motives  as  these?  What 
is  it,  I  say,  but  to  cherish  that  principle  in  him  which  it  is  our  business  to  root  out 
and  destroy  ?  And  therefore  I  can  not  think  any  correction  useful  to  a  child  where 
the  shame  of  suffering  for  having  done  amiss  does  not  work  more  upon  him  than 
the  pain. 

And  again : 

I  am  very  apt  to  think  that  great  severity  of  punishment  does  but  very  little 
good,  nay,  great  harm,  in  education,  and  I  believe  it  will  be  found  those  children 
which  have  been  most  chastised  seldom  make  the  best  men. 


MENTAL  AND  PHYSICAL  TRAINING  OF  CHILDREN.  219 

If  the  mind  be  curbed  and  bumbled  too  much  in  children,  if  their  spirits  be 
abased  and  broken  much  by  too  strict  a  hand  over  them,  they  lose  all  their  vigor 
and  industry.  For  extravagant  young  fellows  that  have  liveliness  and  spirit  come 
sometimes  to  be  set  right,  and  so  make  able  and  great  men.  But  dejected  minds, 
timorous  and  tame,  and  low  spirits,  are  hardly  ever  to  be  raised,  and  very  seldom 
attain  to  anything. 

Again,  when  a  child  does  well,  Locke  advises  his  father  and 
mother  to  show  pleasure,  and,  upon  his  doing  ill,  to  show  a  cold, 
neglectful  countenance,  and  this,  he  says,  "  if  constantly  observed, 
I  doubt  not  but  will  of  itself  work  more  than  threats  or  blows, 
which  lose  their  force  when  once  grown  common,  and  are  of  no 
use  when  shame  does  not  attend  them."  "With  regard  to  the  early 
teaching  of  children,  it  should  be  remembered  that  a  young  child 
is  always  learning,  and  therefore  parents  should  not  be  in  too 
great  a  hurry  to  begin  that  branch  of  education  popularly  known 
as  "  lessons  " ;  and  lessons  themselves  must  not  be  looked  upon  as 
an  end,  but  as  a  means,  or  as  tools  put  into  the  hands  of  a  child  to 
enable  him  to  shape  his  own  life  and  discover  its  uses  and  beauty. 

We  do  not  want  to  manufacture  little  prigs,  who  have  swal- 
lowed a  mass  of  facts  never  to  be  digested,  but  we  want  children 
who  can  take  an  intelligent  interest  in  all  that  is  going  on  around 
them.  They  will  learn  much  if  their  mothers  will  only  take  the 
trouble  to  answer  questions  in  an  intelligent  manner :  it  is  either 
laziness  or  stupidity  to  repulse  a  child  with  "  Don't  ask  questions." 

A  mother  who  conscientiously  answers  questions  will  find  that 
she  too  has  profited  as  well  as  her  children,  and  if  there  are  some 
questions  the  right  answers  to  which  it  would  be  impossible  for 
children  to  understand,  let  them  be  told  so  honestly  and  not  put 
off  with  evasive  answers.  Nothing  is  better  for  young  children 
than  to  be  sent  to  a  good  Kindergarten :  they  learn  to  be  obedient 
when  they  find  obedience  is  expected  as  a  matter  of  course ;  they 
learn  to  be  observant,  which  is  of  great  use  to  them  in  after-life ; 
and  they  are  made  to  take  a  pleasure  in  all  they  do,  as  all  they 
learn  is  made  interesting  to  them.  The  Kindergarten  principles 
may,  however,  be  carried  out  in  all  home  teaching,  when  pleas- 
ure in  learning  will  be  found  one  of  the  greatest  aids  to  mental 
digestion. 

I  should  begin  the  teaching  of  a  child  as  a  favor,  not  as  a  task ; 
if  he  is  inattentive,  I  should  by  no  means  insist  upon  the  lesson 
being  done,  and  so  give  it  the  air  of  a  task.  It  is  far  better  to  say : 
"  I  really  can  not  waste  my  time  in  teaching  you.  I  have  other 
matters  to  do,  and  if  you  can  not  give  me  a  little  attention  you 
may  go  away."  With  the  natural  perversity  of  human  nature, 
the  child  immediately  becomes  anxious  to  learn,  and  feels  at  once 
that  you  are  doing  him  a  favor,  not  he,  you.  If  a  child  seems 
dull,  never  force  it  to  learn.     If  the  dullness  proceeds  from  deli- 


220  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

cacy,  every  effort  should  be  made  to  strengthen  the  body,  and 
definite  teaching  should  begin  later  than  with  a  robust  child.  It 
is  most  foolish  to  cram  the  head  of  a  backward  child  with  phrases 
it  can  not  understand — at  most  it  can  but  learn  parrot-fashion, 
and  such  a  proceeding  is  about  as  senseless  as  loading  a  delicate 
stomach  with  indigestible  food.  If  a  child  has  an  appetite  for  its 
bodily  food,  it  can  digest,  and  the  same  rule  holds  good  for  men- 
tal food.  There  is  no  use  in  cramming  it  down  if  the  appetite  for 
knowledge  be  not  there. 

All  teaching  should  proceed  from  the  concrete  to  the  abstract, 
though  the  reverse  method  is  generally  employed.  Arithmetic,  for 
instance,  should  at  first  be  taught  from  objects,  and  not  by  names 
and  figures  which  are  mere  symbols  and  abstractions,  and  most 
difficult  for  the  minds  of  children  to  grasp.  The  relative  value  of 
different  kinds  of  money  may  be  easily  learned  by  quite  youiig 
children,  merely  by  letting  them  play  at  shop  with  real  money. 
At  the  same  time  they  are  unconsciously  learning  both  addition 
and  subtraction.  Weights  and  measures  should  be  learned  in  the 
same  way,  and  they  will  be  far  better  impressed  on  the  memory 
than  by  merely  learning  the  tables  of  weights  and  measures  in  an 
arithmetic  book. 

Again,  with  languages — rules  of  grammar  should  be  learned  last 
of  all ;  a  language  is  formed  long  before  any  rules  for  speaking  it 
are  formulated.  The  rules  of  grammar  are  only  the  recorded  ob- 
servations of  what  I  may  call  the  habits  of  a  language.  Every 
child  should  learn  a  new  language  as  it  learns  its  own,  by  talking 
it,  looking  at  picture  books  and  learning  nursery  rhymes,  and  the 
language  will  have  some  chance  of  developing  naturally  and 
easily,  and  of  being  retained  for  use  in  after-life.  As  languages 
are  usually  taught  in  schools,  they  are  of  no  value  beyond  that  of 
mental  gymnastics,  and  when  the  school  life  is  over  all  the  rules 
and  exercises,  learned  with  so  much  weariness  and  disgust,  slip 
from  the  memory,  from  having  made  no  impression  on  the  mind. 

If  the  child  has  a  natural  bent  in  some  particular  direction, 
this  should  be  encouraged  as  early  as  possible.  I  think,  as  a  rule, 
children  are  taught  far  too  many  things.  Who  does  not  know  of 
girls  who,  with  no  ear  for  music,  are  forced  daily  to  undergo  the 
drudgery  of  practicing,  merely  because  it  is  the  proper  thing  for 
girls  to  play,  at  any  rate  a  little  ?  Many  persons  will  be  terribly 
alarmed  at  the  suggestion  that  science  is  one  of  those  things  all 
children  should  be  taught.  The  word  science  suggests  to  them  all 
that  is  dry,  cold,  difficult,  and  unromantic — why,  I  can  not  tell,  for 
the  word  itself  only  means  knowledge,  and  children  find  anything 
acceptable  and  interesting  that  will  answer  their  numerous  ques- 
tions concerning  all  around  them,  and  far  from  being  dry  and  un- 
romantic.   "  Science,"  to  use  the  words  of  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer, 


MENTAL  AND  PHYSICAL  TRAINING  OF  CHILDREN.  221 

"opens  up  realms  of  poetry  where  to  the  unscientific  all  is  a 
blank." 

Science  properly  taught  is  most  valuable  to  children,  in  that  it 
encourages  a  spirit  of  inquiry  and  love  of  truth,  and  trains  them 
in  habits  of  accurate  observance  of  all  around  them,  all  of  which 
qualities  must  surely  be  of  use  to  them.  These  conclusions  will 
not,  perhaps,  be  acceptable  to  those  persons  to  whom  science  is 
represented  merely  by  the  learning  by  heart  of  a  collection  of  arid 
statements :  such  as  the  distance  from  here  to  the  moon — the  rate 
at  which  the  earth  revolves  on  its  own  axis — and  so  on.  I  should 
certainly  advise  them  not  to  teach  their  children  science  of  this 
description. 

Before  ending  my  paper,  I  should  like  to  say  a  few  words  with 
regard  to  what  I  think  a  great  evil  in  the  education  of  girls.  At 
an  age  of  rapid  growth,  a  girl's  health  is  sometimes  ruined  for 
life  by  the  system  of  brain-forcing  to  which  she  is  subjected.  In 
many  cases  she  has  to  work  eight  hours  a  day,  which  is  the  average 
number  of  working  hours  of  a  grown  man.  Examinations  follow 
one  after  another,  there  is  no  time  to  attend  to  the  development  of 
the  body,  at  the  most  one  hour  in  the  twenty-four  is  given  up  to  a 
mild  walk ;  and  the  continuous  sitting  in  a  stuffy  room,  stooping 
over  books  narrows  the  chest,  and  spoils  the  eye-sight ;  at  the  age 
of  eighteen  a  pale,  anaemic  young  lady  emerges  from  the  school- 
room, doubtless  stocked  with  knowledge,  but  also  with  headaches 
and  backaches  enough  to  spoil  the  rest  of  her  life. 

When  one  considers  the  extraordinary  rate  at  which  a  girl  of 
fourteen  will  grow,  and  how  much  of  her  forces  must  be  consumed 
in  the  mere  act  of  growing,  surely  it  seems  more  reasonable  to 
lighten  her  work  than  to  increase  it.  Such  a  girl  should  only  be 
allowed  to  work  in  the  mornings,  when  she  is  freshest,  and  the 
rest  of  the  day  should  be  devoted  to  the  open  air,  and  development 
of  her  body  by  healthy  outdoor  games.  Above  all,  even  if  she 
has  work  in  the  afternoon — and  some  time  must,  I  suppose,  be 
allowed  for  preparation — no  mental  work  of  any  kind  should  be 
allowed  after  5  p.m.  After  a  long  day  at  school,  many  a  time 
does  the  tired  child  return  with  a  quantity  of  exercises,  etc.,  to  be 
prepared  for  the  morrow,  all  of  which  must  be  done  in  the  even- 
ing, and  it  stands  to  reason  that  it  must  be  highly  prejudicial  to 
the  brain  to  be  taxed  at  a  time  when  it  is  fatigued,  and  the  phys- 
ical powers  of  the  child  are  at  a  low  ebb. 

In  a  paper  entitled  "  Home  Lessons  after  School  Hours/'  sent 
to  me  by  my  friend  Sir  Joseph  Fayrer,  and  read  by  him  at  a  con- 
ference at  the  Health  Exhibition,  he  points  out  the  dangers  at- 
tending the  cramming  system,  and  instances  many  cases  of  brain 
disease  resulting  from  it. 

In  conclusion,  let  me  say  that  moral  development  can  not  be 


222  TEE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

too  early  or  carefully  attended  to.  Morals  in  a  child  are  in  a  very 
rudimentary  condition,  and  much  depends  on  the  mother  as  to 
whether  they  are  to  develop  and  give  strength  to  the  character,  or 
whether  they  are  to  wither  away,  like  unused  organs  of  the  body. 
Truthfulness,  courage,  and  unselfishness  are  blossoms  of  charac- 
ter growing  from  but  small  seeds ;  let  them  be  nourished  in  the 
warmth  and  sunshine  of  love  and  sympathy,  and  watchfully  pro- 
tected from  choking  weeds,  and  at  last  will  come  the  crowning  of 
a  fine  character,  without  which  all  the  book-learning  in  the  world 
is  but  a  parrot's  jargon. — Nineteenth  Century. 


-+•0- 


THE  STRUGGLE  OF  SEA  AND  LAND. 

By  Dr.  VINZENZ  HILBER,  of  Graz. 

WE  stand  on  a  bluff  at  the  sea-shore.  The  surf  is  undermining 
it.  That  deep  cutting  into  the  bank  is  its  work.  An  over- 
hanging mass  of  earth  is  thrown  down  and  becomes  the  toy  of  the 
waves,  which  reduce  it  to  gravel.  This  in  its  turn  becomes  am- 
munition to  be  hurled  against  the  shore.  Wherever  this  process 
is  going  on,  the  land  falls  back  before  the  advancing  sea,  and  con- 
siderable results  are  evident  in  a  short  time.  The  Island  of  Heli- 
goland has  been  reduced,  within  a  thousand  years,  from  a  con- 
siderable island  to  a  mere  rock.  The  strings  of  rocky  islands 
along  many  coasts  are  remnants  of  destroyed  shore-land.  Thus 
the  land  yields  with  hardly  a  struggle  to  the  supremacy  of  the 
sea.  Loose  alluvial  terrains  give  way  in  a  body.  The  Zuyder  Zee 
so  came  into  being  five  hundred  years  ago,  and  Holland,  part  of 
which  is  below  the  level  of  the  sea,  would  have  been  likewise 
overflown  if  it  had  not  been  defended  by  artificial  dikes.  Sub- 
sidences of  ground  have  also  been  sometimes  observed  during 
earthquakes. 

In  other  places  the  sea  gives  way.  Rivers  carry  out  masses 
of  detritus  and  deposit  them  along  the  shores,  causing  the  land 
to  advance.  By  the  operation  of  this  process  Roman  ports  on  the 
eastern  coast  of  Italy  have  been  left  away  inland,  and  whole  al- 
luvial districts  of  the  upper  Italian  plain  have  been  wrested  from 
the  sea. 

No  doubt  a  very  long  time  is  required  for  important  changes 
in  the  sea-lines  to  be  produced  by  these  processes  ;  hence  we  must 
widen  our  view  if  we  would  find  a  solution  of  the  problems  which 
the  history  of  the  primitive  seas  offers  us. 

When  the  Alpine  traveler  finds  sea-shells  included  in  the  rocks 
on  high  peaks,  he  says  that  the  strata  of  the  mountain  are  ocean 
deposits.    In  the  great  foldings  of  the  rocks  which  he  can  follow 


THE  STRUGGLE   OF  SEA  AND   LAND.  223 

along  the  naked  cliffs,  he  recognizes  the  results  of  mighty  move- 
ments which  the  strata  have  undergone  since  they  were  formed, 
and  will  correctly  ascribe  their  elevation  to  the  same  movements. 
The  mountain  has  been  produced  through  a  doubling  up  caused 
by  a  sidewise  pressure.  If  he  turns  his  steps  to  the  adjacent  low- 
lands, he  will  make  the  same  observation  in  horizontal  strata. 
He  now  has  his  choice  whether  to  believe  in  an  elevation  of  a  large 
part  of  the  earth's  crust,  or  in  a  sinking  of  the  level  of  the  sea 
since  the  crust  was  formed.  One  of  the  most  debated  questions 
of  geology  turns  on  this  point. 

The  successive  layers  of  the  earth's  crust  have  sometimes  been 
compared  to  the  leaves  of  a  book.  We  read  in  them  a  long  pas- 
sage in  the  earth's  history  written  by  the  scribe  Nature  herself 
while  the  events  were  happening,  and  therefore  even  more  trust- 
worthy than  the  sources  of  ordinary  history.  Yet  many  pages  of 
the  book  are  obscure,  and  those  of  the  first  part  are  still  waiting 
to  be  deciphered  ;  for,  in  the  sparkling  leaves  of  the  archaic  crys- 
talline rocks,  the  letters  that  should  give  us  knowledge  of  the 
beginnings  of  life  on  the  earth  seem  to  have  been  washed  out. 
The  first  volume,  telling  of  the  Palaeozoic  age,  makes  us  ac- 
quainted with  a  lower  fauna,  principally  marine,  from  which  only 
the  vertebrates  are  absent.  Then  cartilaginous  fishes  appear  in 
the  Silurian  and  Devonian,  and  land-inhabiting  vertebrates,  am- 
phibia, and  reptiles  in  the  Carboniferous  and  Permian.  The  de- 
velopment of  life  goes  on  in  the  Mesozoic  epoch.  The  oldest  and 
lowest  organized  mammals,  the  marsupials,  meet  us  in  the  upper 
Trias.  The  Jurassic  gives  us  the  first  birds,  curious  creatures 
with  teeth  in  their  bills  and  lizards'  tails  bearing  feathers.  Two 
specimens  have  been  found,  in  the  Archceopteryx,  of  the  transition 
form  between  the  reptile  and  the  bird.  The  Cretaceous  furnishes 
the  first  bony  fish  and  new  toothed  birds,  the  odontornithides. 
The  Cenozoic  age,  the  fourth  and  last  volume  of  the  great  book, 
exhibits  another  advance  in  the  development  of  animal  life ;  and 
in  the  Tertiary  the  forerunners  of  the  present  mammals,  and  in 
the  diluvial,  man,  appear.  A  similar  process  of  development  from 
lower  to  higher  forms  is  shown  in  the  vegetable  world. 

The  story  of  this  gradual  rise  of  more  and  more  highly  organ- 
ized beings  is  certainly  the  most  important  content  of  those  stone 
books.  But,  besides  that,  they  record  that  the  firm  lands  arose  out 
of  the  floods,  that  the  sea  washed  over  the  land,  left  it,  and  covered 
it  again,  while  the  mass  of  the  land  constantly  grew.  The  pages 
that  sketch  the  covering  of  a  stretch  of  earth  by  the  sea  are  fully 
written  up ;  but  the  periods  of  dry  land  are  more  frequently  made 
known  by  a  gap  than  by  a  continuance  of  the  relation ;  and,  in  the 
latter  case,  the  terrestrial  deposits  are  only  present  when  the  spot 
has  been  covered  by  a  river  or  a  lake. 


224  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

According  to  the  best  established  and  prevailing  views,  the 
great  sea-beds,  the  deep  basins,  are  the  original  features  of  the 
"face  of  the  earth."  They  are  the  first  depressions  that  were 
made  after  the  planet's  surface  was  solidified  and  its  structure 
began  to  shrink  from  cooling.  These  depressions  have  probably 
been  increasing  vertically  through  all  the  geological  ages,  and 
therein  lies  the  cause  of  the  constant  increase  of  the  land  to  the 
present  time.  But  the  constancy  of  this  increase  is  a  fact  only  as 
a  whole ;  for  there  have  been  times  when  the  sea  rose  over  the 
shore  and  overflowed  a  large  part  of  the  land.  The  last  great 
transgression  of  this  kind  occurred  at  the  beginning  of  the  Mio- 
cene Tertiary,  when  extensive  tracts  of  the  Old  World  were  cov- 
ered with  water.  Parts  of  Italy,  Portugal,  southern  France,  north- 
ern Switzerland,  southern  and  northern  Germany,  the  Vienna 
basin,  and  the  Hungarian  plain,  and  of  the  lowlands  of  eastern 
Europe  and  the  Black  Sea  region  away  into  the  interior  of  Asia 
to  Persia,  with  the  plains  of  North  Africa  still  bear  the  marine 
deposits  of  that  period,  with  the  remains  of  organisms,  mostly  of 
extinct  species,  that  inhabited  the  adjoining  seas.  The  waters  re- 
tired to  their  beds  during  the  Pliocene,  and  the  present  boundary- 
lines  of  the  land  regions,  aside  from  a  few  erosions,  were  shaped 
during  the  same  period.  Similar  processes  took  place  repeatedly 
in  the  earlier  periods  of  the  earth's  growth,  and  to  them  are  as- 
cribed most  of  the  changes  that  have  taken  place  in  the  species  of 
animals  and  plants ;  for  these  encroachments  of  the  sea  forced  the 
living  world  into  a  narrower  space,  and  entailed  a  fierce  struggle 
for  existence,  in  which  the  less  valiant  species  succumbed.  The 
retreat  of  the  sea  again  permitted  a  fruitful  development  of  life 
and  the  origination  of  new  species. 

An  important  circumstance  has  been  brought  to  light  in  the 
investigation  of  the  fluctuations  of  the  ocean.  The  continents 
have  been  overflowed  several  times.  Suess,  who  has  made  the 
most  thorough  study  of  the  subject,  has  recognized  six  principal 
periods  of  submersion,  and  as  many  of  dryness.  But  no  indubi- 
tably deep-sea  deposits  later  than  the  Silurian  are  to  be  found  on 
the  present  continents.  The  great  sea-beds  are  primitive;  and 
primitive  likewise  are  the  socles  of  the  continents,  standing  as 
equally  sturdy  champions  with  the  briny  flood,  sometimes  in  the 
alternations  of  the  contest  lying  under  it,  overcome  by  the  sea,  at 
other  times  shaking  it  off  and  sending  it  back  within  its  lines. 

The  cause  of  these  processes  is  still  awaiting  explanation.  Cel- 
sius and  Linnaeus,  who  observed  the  gain  of  land  on  the  Baltic 
coast  during  the  last  century,  expressed  the  opinion  that  the  sea 
was  retreating.  This  view  was  contested  at  the  beginning  of  the 
present  century  by  Leopold  von  Buch,  who  thought  that  Scandi- 
navia was  rising.    Lyell  and  Darwin  advanced  the  theory  of  the 


THE   STRUGGLE   OF  SEA  AND   LAND.  225 

rising  and  sinking  of  continents,  and  this  solution  of  the  prob- 
lem has  not  been  contradicted  till  very  recently.  There  is  a  kind 
of  suggestion  with  which  great  men,  to  whose  minds  the  world 
pays  deference,  inspire  their  contemporaries  when  they  give  any 
view  the  weight  of  their  approval,  which  is  at  the  same  time  detri- 
mental to  progress  in  science.  In  this  way  many  an  error  has  been 
generally  accepted  without  further  proof. 

Suess  does  not  ask  for  an  unjudicial  acceptance  of  his  theory, 
but  has  published  the  whole  course  of  his  investigations,  with  his 
proofs,  in  a  great  work,  the  "  Antlitz  der  Erde  "  ("  The  Face  of  the 
Earth "),  in  which  he  has  examined  the  signs  of  changes  in  the 
level  of  the  ocean,  so  far  as  they  have  been  observed  in  all  known 
parts  of  the  earth  and  through  all  the  geological  periods.  His 
exposition  points  to  a  synchronism  of  overflows  and  uncoverings 
of  the  land  over  extensive  regions.  This  result  has  impelled  him 
to  oppose  the  prevailing  doctrine  of  upheavals  and  depressions  of 
the  land.  Aside  from  the  fact  that  the  supposed  elevation  of  the 
continents  is  problematical  in  itself,  such  movements  could  not  go 
on  over  the  whole  earth  at  the  same  time  and  in  the  same  direc- 
tion. Changes  in  the  level  of  the  waters,  on  the  other  hand, 
would  be  of  the  general  character  which  the  survey  of  the  phe- 
nomena indicates,  for  a  free  rising  of  the  water,  even  under  local 
influences,  would  at  once  make  itself  felt  over  the  whole  surface 
of  the  earth. 

Suess's  studies  of  the  causes  of  the  rising  and  falling  of  the 
waters  brought  him  to  the  following  conclusions  :  The  ocean  beds 
were  produced  by  the  sinking  of  those  parts  of  the  earth's  surface 
that  correspond  with  them.  The  uneven  shrinking  of  the  globe  is 
a  consequence  of  its  continuous  cooling.  Every  new  subsidence  of 
the  sea-bottom  causes  a  falling  of  the  water.  Elevations  of  the 
ground  take  place  too.  The  bottom  of  the  ocean  is  incessantly 
receiving  detritus  from  the  overflowed  land,  of  which  the  water 
brings  down  as  much  as  it  can  hold ;  this  tends  to  raise  the  level 
of  the  ocean.  Yet  Suess  concludes  that  these  processes  are  not 
adequate  to  explain  the  full  measure  of  the  primitive  movements, 
and  reserves  judgment  on  that  point. 

The  present  author  has  gone  further  into  this  subject,  in  an 
article  in  the  "Zeitschrift  fur  wissenschaftliche  Geographie/' 
although  he  has  not  concealed  the  existing  difficulty.  Unfortu- 
nately, Suess's  deductions  were  not  before  him  when  he  prepared 
his  paper.  That  essay,  building  in  part  on  similar  researches, 
accepts  contraction  as  the  sufficient  cause  for  the  fluctuations  of 
the  sea.  According  to  the  now  prevailing  views,  which  have,  how- 
ever, been  very  recently  contradicted  by  investigators  of  repute, 
the  constant  loss  of  heat  from  the  interior  of  the  earth  produces  a 
steady  shrinkage  of  the  globe.     From  time  to  time  the  tensions  in 

TOL.  XXXVI. — 15 


226  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

the  outer  arches  of  the  earth  are  relaxed,  and  the  crust  sinks.  In 
that  case,  three  views  are  conceivable  respecting  the  relations  of 
land  and  sea :  either  both  parts  sink  alike,  or  the  land  sinks  more 
than  the  sea,  or  the  sea  than  the  land.  In  the  first  case,  the  rise  of 
the  sea  will  be  only  that  caused  by  the  contraction  of  its  bed, 
which,  being  dependent  on  the  slighter  contraction  of  the  surface 
of  the  globe,  is  of  relatively  little  importance  ;  in  the  second  case, 
the  sea  would  spread  over  the  lower  lands,  rising  to  appearance, 
while  in  fact  its  level  has  diminished  on  account  of  the  wider 
diffusion  of  its  waters ;  or,  in  the  third  case,  the  sea  would  retire 
on  account  of  the  falling  of  its  level. 

These  things  alone  could  hardly  have  produced  the  observed 
results,  had  there  not  been  important  circumstances  associated 
with  them  which  in  times  of  quiet  worked  in  their  favor.  The  land 
is  being  uninterruptedly  swept  off,  and  is  gradually  as  a  whole  be- 
coming lower  and  lower  from  the  top.  The  rock  falls  from  the 
heights,  the  brooks  and  rivers  take  fragments  in  their  course 
and  drag  the  chips  of  weathering  and  of  their  own  planing-work 
into  the  sea.  The  land  is  reduced  by  denudation,  the  sea  rises  by 
the  action  of  the  deposits  oh  its  bottom.  Extensive  lowlands  are 
at  last  formed  as  the  result  of  the  washings,  so  that  large  districts 
may  be  put  under  water  by  slight  shrinkings  of  the  land.  When 
these  are  overflowed  by  the  sea,  the  deposits  rise  on  its  bottom, 
stratum  by  stratum,  till,  after  a  long  time,  they  nearly  reach  the 
level  of  the  water.  Then  a  slight  sinking  of  the  sea-bottom  suf- 
fices to  reduce  the  water  to  its  old  level ;  and  the  alternation  of  a 
washing  away  of  the  soil  and  the  conversion  of  the  overflowed 
territory  into  dry  land  begins  anew. — Translated  for  the  Popular 
Science  Monthly  from  Das  Ausland. 


*»» 


THE  ROYAL   SOCIETY  OF  ENGLAND. 

By  Dr.  WILLIAM  C.  CAHALL. 

THAT  "  wonderful  pacifick  year  1660 "  witnessed  the  restora- 
tion of  the  house  of  Stuart  and  the  organization  of  the  Royal 
Society. 

After  twenty  years  of  civil  wars,  Cromwell,  and  Puritanism, 
ihe  English  people,  with  the  surfeit  which  invariably  follows  the 
prolonged  discussion  of  one  idea,  turned  with  avidity  to  the  gay 
court  which  Charles  II  brought  with  him  into  Whitehall.  Peace 
came,  commerce  flowed  on  undisturbed,  and  from  the  strictest 
religion  the  national  pendulum  swung  to  license,  skepticism,  and 
debauchery. 

Fortunately,  it  was  but  a  part  of  England  which  fell  into  these 


THE  ROYAL   SOCIETY  OF  ENGLAND.  227 

excesses.  There  was  an  element  which,  likewise  turned  from  the 
heated  discussions  of  theology,  but,  more  wisely,  sought  the  serene 
companionship  of  Nature  as  the  restful  change. 

"  There  arose  at  this  time/'  says  Dr.  Whewell,  "  a  group  of 
philosophers,  who  began  to  knock  at  the  door  where  truth  was 
to  be  found,  although  it  was  left  for  Newton  to  force  it  open. 
These  were  the  founders  of  the  Royal  Society." 

But  to  Lord  Bacon,  who  died  but  thirty-six  years  before  the 
incorporation  of  the  society,  is  due  the  first  impulse  in  England 
to  the  proper  study  of  nature.  Indeed,  some  such  an  institution 
as  the  Royal  Society,  for  the  study  of  the  sciences,  was  in  his 
mind  when  he  wrote  his  philosophical  romance,  the  "  New  Atlan- 
tis."   What  he  did  not  live  to  form,  his  disciples  realized. 

Dr.  Wallis,  in  his  diary  of  1696-'97,  says :  "  About  the  year 
1645,  while  I  lived  in  London  (at  a  time  when,  by  our  civil  wars, 
academical  studies  were  much  interrupted  in  both  our  univer- 
sities), besides  the  conversation  of  diverse  eminent  divines,  as 
to  matters  theological,  I  had  the  opportunity  of  being  acquainted 
with  diverse  worthy  persons,  inquisitive  into  natural  philosophy 
and  other  parts  of  human  learning,  and  particularly  of  what  had 
been  called  the  New  Philosophy  or  Experimental  Philosophy.  .  .  . 
Our  business  (at  these  meetings,  held  at  Gresham  College)  was 
(precluding  matters  of  theology  and  statecraft)  to  discourse  and 
consider  of  Philosophical  Enquiries,  and  such  as  related  thereto  : 
as  Physick,  Anatomy,  Geometry,  Astronomy,  Navigation,  Staticks, 
Magneticks,  Chemicks,  Mechanicks,  and  Natural  Experiments. 
We  then  discoursed  of  the  circulation  of  the  blood,  the  valves  of 
the  veins,  the  venae  lactese,  the  lymphatick  vessels,  the  Copernican 
hypothesis,  the  nature  of  comets  and  new  stars,  the  satellites  of 
Jupiter,  the  oval  shape  of  Saturn,  the  spots  in  the  sun,  and  its 
turning  on  its  own  axis,  the  inequalities  and  selenography  of  the 
moon,  the  several  phases  of  Venus  and  Mercury,  the  improvement 
of  telescopes,  and  grinding  of  glasses  for  that  purpose,  the  weight 
of  air,  the  possibility  or  impossibility  of  vacuities,  and  nature's 
abhorrence  thereof,  the  Torricellian  experiment  in  quicksilver, 
the  descent  of  bodies  and  the  degree  of  acceleration  therein,  and 
diverse  other  things  of  like  nature." 

These  meetings  were  continued  at  Gresham  College  and  at 
Oxford,  whither  many  went  with  Charles  I,  as  frequently  as  the 
exigencies  of  war  permitted;  but,  with  Charles  II  firmly  seated  on 
the  throne,  the  fugitives  returned  to  London,  where,  in  1660,  the 
society  was  formally  instituted,  and  application  was  made  to  the 
king  to  give  it  a  corporate  being  and  name  by  a  royal  charter. 

Sir  Robert  Moray,  the  first  president,  brought  in  word  from 
the  court  that  "  the  king  had  been  acquainted  with  the  design  of 
the  meeting.     And  he  did  well  approve  of  it,  and  would  be  ready 


228  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

to  give  encouragement  to  it."     The  royal  patron  fulfilled  his 
promise. 

The  charter  of  incorporation  passed  the  great  seal  on  the  15th 
of  July,  1G62,  and  was  read  on  the  13th  of  August  following. 

Evelyn's  "Diary"  of  this  date  contains  this  passage:  "Our 
charter  being  now  passed  under  the  broad  seal,  constituting  us  a 
corporation,  the  name  of  Royal  Society,  for  the  improvement  of 
natural  knowledge,  was  this  day  read ;  and  was  all  that  was  done 
this  afternoon,  being  very  long." 

Charles  affected  chemistry  and  navigation,  and,  when  he  grew 
tired  of  his  wine  and  his  mistresses,  would  resort  to  his  labora- 
tory, and  as  the  young  rakes,  who  circled  about  him,  imitated  the 
royal  exemplar's  dissipations,  so  they  frequented  the  scientific 
lectures  and  tried  to  look  wise.  But  even  Charles  and  his  fops 
could  not,  by  their  attention,  harm  the  growing  sciences  in  the 
estimation  of  good  and  true  men.  The  reason  for  this  may  be 
found  in  the  recognition  of  the  need  of  such  a  society,  and  the 
character  of  the  men  constituting  it.  The  fame  of  such  men  as 
Sir  Robert  Moray,  Boyle,  Evelyn,  Pepys,  Wallis,  Hooke,  and 
Wren,  who  were  among  the  incorporators,  continues  lively  to  this 
day.  It  may  not  be,  as  has  been  said,  that  the  incorporation  of 
the  Royal  Society  was  the  only  wise  act  of  Charles  II,  yet  it  has 
proved  itself,  without  a  doubt,  his  wisest  act. 

It  was  high  time  that  England  was  bestirring  herself,  for  on 
every  side  were  evidences  of  the  pressing  need  of  some  such  insti- 
gating and  conserving  force  as  the  Royal  Society  soon  became. 
Every  intellectual  center  of  Italy  had  its  Academy  of  Science,  and 
France  already  had  her  society  for  the  study  of  literature.  The 
origin  of  learned  societies  appears  to  take  the  same  course  as  the 
order  of  succession  of  the  universities.  As  the  first  university 
arose  in  Italy,  so  arose  the  first  academy;  then  comes  France, 
with  her  University  of  Paris  and  the  French  Academy  ;  later, 
England  follows  close  upon  the  heels  of  France,  with  her  univer- 
sities at  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  and  her  Royal  Society.  By  the 
lapsing  of  the  Academy  del  Cimento  of  Florence,  and  other 
Italian  academies,  the  Royal  Society  of  England  enjoys  the 
honor  of  being  the  oldest  in  consecutive  history  of  any  society 
in  Europe  which  was  established  for  the  investigation  and  ad- 
vancement of  science. 

There  is  no  better  illustration  of  the  true  scientific  spirit  of 
inquiry  which  the  Royal  Society  at  once  set  on  foot  throughout 
England,  than  its  influence  upon  the  popular  superstitions  of  the 
day.  The  popular  belief  in  witchcraft  had,  during  the  sixteenth 
and  seventeenth  centuries,  reached  the  height  of  its  frenzy. 

In  Germany  the  number  of  persecutions  was  enormous.  A 
twentieth  part  of  the  entire  population  of  the  small  district  of 


THE  ROYAL   SOCIETY   OF  ENGLAND.  229 

Lindheim  fell  victims  in  four  years.  In  the  district  of  Como, 
Switzerland,  one  thousand  were  burned  in  one  year  (1524).  In 
France  the  destruction  of  life  was  equally  frightful.  Witch-per- 
secutions in  England  came  on  later,  but  were  equally  ferocious. 

James  I  wrote  a  treatise  on  "  Demonology,"  and  during  the 
Long  Parliament  three  thousand  persons  were  executed  by  legal 
processes  alone,  not  counting  the  victims  by  mobs,  as  a  result  of 
this  witch-mania. 

But,  according  to  Hutchison,  chaplain  to  George  I,  who  wrote 
upon  witchcraft,  "  there  were  but  two  witches  executed  in  Eng- 
land after  the  Royal  Society  published  their  '  Transactions,'  and 
one  of  these  was  in  the  year  after  their  first  publication." 

And  Sir  Walter  Scott,  in  his  letters  on  "  Demonology  and 
Witchcraft,"  expresses  his  belief  that  the  Royal  Society  "  tended 
greatly  to  destroy  the  belief  in  witchcraft  and  superstition  gen- 
erally." 

What  a  comment  upon  the  value  of  scientific  studies ! 

Touching  for  king's-evil  or  scrofula,  which  was  long  rife  in 
England,  was  another  but  more  harmless  superstition  which  the 
Royal  Society  was  active  in  destroying.  Imagine  the  feelings  of 
the  fastidious  Charles,  under  such  ordeals  as  the  one  related  of 
him  by  Aubrey  in  his  "  Miscellanies  " :  "  Arise  Evans  had  a  fun- 
gous nose,  and  said  it  was  revealed  to  him  that  the  king's  hand 
would  cure  him :  and  at  the  first  coming  of  King  Charles  II  in 
St.  James's  Park  he  kissed  the  king's  hand  and  rubbed  his  nose 
with  it,  which  disturbed  the  king,  but  cured  him." 

Even  within  the  Royal  Society  itself  there  was  a  lack  of  pre- 
cision in  scientific  investigation.  Upon  the  same  evening  that  Sir 
Robert  Moray  was  elected  president  he  brought  in  a  contribution 
on  "  A  Relation  concerning  Barnicles,"  in  which  he  relates  of  a  visit 
to  Scotland,  where  he  found  attached  to  a  certain  variety  of  trees 
innumerable  little  shells,  each  containing  a  little  bird.  He  con- 
fesses that,  while  he  found  everything  for  "  making  up  a  perfect 
sea-f owle,"  he  never  saw  any  of  the  birds  alive.  "  Here  we  have 
the  absurd  notion  of  the  Lepas  anatifera  breeding  geese,  brought 
before  the  society  by  their  president." 

We  find  in  the  same  minutes  that  "  Dr.  Clark  was  intreated  to 
lay  before  the  society  Mr.  Pellin's  relation  of  the  production  of 
young  vipers  from  the  powder  of  the  liver  and  lungs  of  vipers." 

The  Royal  Society  owes  to  the  Hon.  Robert  Boyle  more  than  to 
any  other  one  person  for  its  inception.  A  bachelor  of  independent 
fortune,  he  devoted  his  great  resources,  mental  and  material,  to 
experimental  researches,  especially  in  relation  to  chemistry  and 
of  the  atmosphere.  An  enthusiastic  follower  of  Bacon,  he  believed 
and  practiced  the  cherished  doctrines  of  the  great  philosopher, 
that  experiment  and  experiment  is  the  only  and  sure  method  of 


230  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

founding  a  true  science.  A  prodigy  even  in  childhood,  having 
entered  Eton  College  when  but  eight  years  of  age,  he  further  en- 
joyed the  advantages  of  European  travels  and  education.  He  vis- 
ited Florence  in  1641,  and  spent  the  winter  there  studying  the 
works  of  Galileo.  He  may  have  caught  from  the  words  of  the 
then  blind  old  astronomer,  as  he  dictated  to  his  disciples  his  last 
work  on  the  "Impact  of  Bodies,"  that  unwavering  devotion  to 
natural  science  which  characterized  both  men.  Returning  to 
England,  he  gathered  around  him  a  circle  of  congenial  friends, 
which  formed  the  Invisible  College,  of  which  he  in  his  works  so 
frequently  makes  mention,  and  which  subsequently  became  the 
Royal  Society. 

He  was  a  prolific  contributor  to  the  "  Transactions/'  all  based 
upon  his  own  investigations.  His  improved  air-pump  and  his  ex- 
periments with  it  contributed  largely  to  the  knowledge  of  the 
properties  of  air  and  the  character  of  sound,  and  his  work,  "  Ex- 
periments and  Considerations  upon  Colours/'  prepared  the  way  for 
Newton's  more  elaborate  work  upon  the  same  subject.  It  is  said 
that  Boyle  in  the  latter  part  of  his  life  was  accustomed,  when  en- 
gaged upon  any  of  his  important  experiments,  to  write  above  his 
street-door,  "  Mr.  Boyle  can  not  be  spoken  with  to-day." 

The  mere  enumeration  of  the  contributions  of  Boyle  would  fill 
a  page,  but  he  gleaned  in  too  many  fields  to  thoroughly  exhaust 
any  one.  By  his  contemporaries  Boyle  was  considered  one  of  the 
greatest  natural  philosophers,  and  if  the  succeeding  generations 
failed  to  retain  the  same  high  estimate  of  his  position  it  is  because 
he  was  succeeded  by  some  of  the  greatest  minds  in  English 
thought.  It  is  sufficient  for  one  man's  fame  that  he  originated 
the  Royal  Society. 

November  12,  1662. — Robert  Hooke,  an  assistant  to  Boyle,  was 
elected  a  Fellow.  He  was  but  twenty-seven  years  old,  yet  as  the 
result  of  his  innumerable  experiments  "  facts  multiplied,  leading 
phenomena  became  prominent,  laws  began  to  emerge,  and  gener- 
alizations to  commence." 

Hooke  was  possessed  of  a  mind  inventive  and  mechanical  to  a 
high  degree,  which  led  him  to  the  threshold  of  some  of  the  grand- 
est discoveries  of  his  time.  His  experiments,  however,  like  Boyle's, 
were  too  diffuse,  and  he  repeatedly  was  mortified  by  seeing  his 
nearly  completed  discoveries  anticipated.  Hooke  was  a  genius, 
but  through  lack  of  concentration  cut  a  sorry  figure,  from  always 
being  a  little  too  late.  From  the  controversy  with  Huygens  in 
relation  to  the  invention  of  the  balance-spring  of  watches,  it  was 
shown  that  he  was  entitled  to  the  original  conception,  but  that  its 
practical  application  as  a  coil  belongs  to  Huygens. 

He  had  a  faint  conception  of  the  undulatory  theory  of  light ; 
he  discovered  the  mechanical  laws  which  govern  the  motions  of 


THE  ROYAL   SOCIETY   OF  ENGLAND.  231 

the  heavenly  bodies ;  and  he  so  nearly  discovered  the  law  of  gravi- 
tation that  Newton  was  obliged  to  defend  his  claims  before  the 
Royal  Society.  Even  in  controversies  such  as  that  with  Hevelius 
about  an  improvement  of  the  telescope,  where  he  had  the  best  of 
the  argument,  his  unmanly  conduct  and  irascible  temper  de- 
stroyed all  the  honor  he  might  otherwise  have  attained. 

With  a  person  misshapen  and  repulsive,  with  a  temper  as  dis- 
torted as  the  body,  miserly  in  his  habits,  and  morbidly  jealous  of 
his  co-laborers,  Hooke's  transcendent  mind  recalls  the  fable  of  the 
jewel  in  the  frog's  brain.  Sir  T.  Molyneux,  a  contemporary,  says, 
"  Hooke  is  the  most  ill-natured,  conceited  man  in  the  world,  hated 
and  despised  by  most  of  the  Royal  Society,  pretending  to  have 
all  other  inventions,  when  once  discovered  by  their  authors  to  the 
world." 

An  ill-requited  life  Hooke's  must  have  been  to  call  forth  upon 
his  death  the  declaration  that  "  society  has  gained  more  than  sci- 
ence has  lost." 

August,  1663. — Charles  II  displays  his  continued  interest  in 
the  society  by  presenting  the  president  with  the  splendid  mace, 
which  has  been  borne,  as  the  insignia  of  his  office,  before  every 
president  from  that  date  to  this.  It  is  of  silver,  richly  carved  and 
gilded,  and  weighs  one  hundred  and  ninety  ounces  avoirdupois. 
With  the  mace  is  given  the  privilege  of  having  two  sergeants-at- 
mace,  whose  duty  shall  be  to  wait  upon  the  president.  It  is  borne 
before  the  president  as  he  enters  to  his  chair,  and  is  placed  before 
him  upon  a  table  during  the  proceedings  of  the  meeting.  When 
kings,  princes  of  the  blood,  or  distinguished  ambassadors  from 
foreign  courts  desire  to  visit  the  society,  the  prasident,  attended  by 
the  mace  and  the  sergeants-at-mace,  meets  them  at  the  door  and 
escorts  them  to  a  seat  beside  him  on  the  dais.  No  meeting  is 
legal  unless  held  in  the  presence  of  this  ensign  of  authority.  The 
chief  decoration  of  the  enchased  work  of  the  mace  is  the  thistle, 
the  emblem  of  St.  Andrew,  who  was  the  patron  saint  of  the  so- 
ciety. The  anniversary  meetings  and  election  of  officers  were 
held  upon  St.  Andrew's  day,  at  which  time  the  Fellows  formerly 
wore  a  St.  Andrew's  cross  in  their  hats.  It  is  in  the  minutes  of 
this  year  we  find  the  resolution  that  "  the  president  when  in  the 
chair  is  to  be  covered,  notwithstanding  the  Fellows  of  the  society 
be  uncovered." 

June  28,  1665. — The  meetings  were  discontinued  on  account  of 
the  plague  which  was  at  that  time  devastating  England,  carrying 
off,  from  this  date  to  the  end  of  the  year,  seventy  thousand  per- 
sons in  London  alone. 

On  the  7th  of  June,  1665,  Samuel  Pepys  for  the  first  time  saw 
two  or  three  houses  marked  with  the  red  cross  and  the  words 
"  Lord  have  mercy  upon  us ! "  on  the  doors.   On  the  4th  of  Septem- 


23 2  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

ber  lie  writes  to  Lady  Carteret,  "  I  have  stayed  in  the  city  till 
above  seventy-four  hundred  died  in  one  week,  and  of  them  about 
six  thousand  of  the  plague,  and  little  noise  heard  day  or  night  but 
tolling  of  bells." 

The  meetings  were  renewed  again  March  14,  1666.  As  was  to 
be  expected,  we  find  that  the  medical  Fellows  had  some  report  to 
make  of  their  studies  of  such  a  direful  disease.  In  consideration 
of  the  present  agitation  of  the  germ  theory  of  disease,  it  is  inter- 
esting to  find  recorded  that  "  Dr.  Charlton  advanced  his  notion 
concerning  the  vermigation  of  the  air  as  the  cause  of  the  plague, 
first  started  in  England  by  Sir  George  Ent,  and  Dr.  Bacon  in 
Rome.  It  had  been  observed  that  there  was  a  kind  of  insect  in 
the  air,  which,  being  put  upon  a  man's  hand,  would  lay  eggs 
hardly  discernible  without  a  microscope,  which  eggs  being  for  an 
experiment  given  to  be  snuffed  up  by  a  dog,  the  dog  fell  into  a 
distemper,  accompanied  with  all  the  symptoms  of  the  plague." 

September  5,  1666. — The  journal  has  this  passage :  "  The  society 
could  not  meet  by  reason  of  the  late  dreadfull  Fire  in  London." 

The  calamity  of  the  many  is  often  the  opportunity  for  the  few. 
The  flames  which  brought  such  loss  and  suffering  upon  London, 
swept  away  all  obstacles  to  the  making  of  England's  greatest  archi- 
tect. In  the  ashes  of  St.  Paul's  Wren  found  his  opportunity  and 
fame.  Up  to  this  time  architecture  had  been  but  one  of  many  of 
the  studies  of  Sir  Christopher.  Even  when  a  gentleman-common- 
er at  Oxford  he  was  noted  for  his  attainments  and  inventions  in 
mathematical  and  experimental  philosophy.  Mathematics,  as- 
tronomy, chemistry,  and  anatomy  shared  with  architecture  in  his 
attention,  and  such  was  his  skill  in  them  all  that  Evelyn  styled 
him  "  that  rare  and  early  prodigy  of  universal  science." 

Wren  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Royal  Society,  and  was 
at  one  time  Professor  of  Astronomy  at  Gresham  College,  where  the 
society  first  met.  It  has  been  justly  observed  that,  "  but  for  the 
fire,  Wren  might  have  trifled  away  his  genius,  patching  the  old 
cathedral,  and  perhaps  adding  a  new  wing  to  Whitehall."  But 
fortunately  the  fire  found  him  still  young,  being  but  thirty-three, 
and  in  the  nearly  threescore  years  still  allotted  him  to  labor,  he 
industriously  followed  his  chosen  science.  Besides  fifty-odd 
churches,  Wren  designed  and  built  the  Royal  Exchange,  Custom- 
House,  Royal  Observatory,  College  of  Physicians,  Greenwich  Hos- 
pital, Buckingham  House,  Marlborough  House,  the  towers  of  the 
west  front  of  Westminster  Abbey,  and  many  other  noble  struct- 
ures. But  the  crowning  work  of  his  life  was  his  remodeling  and 
rebuilding  St.  Paul's,  which  is  esteemed  the  finest  specimen  of  its 
order  in  the  world.  Wren's  salary  as  architect  of  this  master- 
piece was  less  than  a  thousand  dollars  per  annum,  for  which  he  was 
not  only  architect  but  draughtsman,  overseer,  contractor,  and  audi- 


THE  ROYAL   SOCIETY   OF  ENGLAND.  233 

tor  as  well,  besides,  as  tlie  Duchess  of  Marlborough  observed,  "  bis 
being  dragged  up  in  a  basket  three  or  four  times  a  week  to  the  top 
of  the  building  at  great  hazard." 

Wren  was  a  prominent  Freemason,  "  was  for  eighteen  years  a 
member  of  the  old  Lodge  of  St.  Paul's,  then  held  at  the  Goose 
and  Gridiron,  near  the  cathedral,  now  the  Lodge  of  Antiquity ; 
and  the  records  of  that  lodge  show  that  the  maul  and  trowel 
used  at  the  laying  of  the  stone  of  St.  Paul's,  together  with  a  pair 
of  carved  mahogany  candlesticks,  were  presented  by  Wren,  and 
are  now  in  possession  of  that  lodge." 

Wren  was  neglected  by  the  court  in  his  latter  days,  but 
amends  were  partially  made  at  his  death  by  a  funeral  of  great 
distinction,  and  an  interment  in  his  own  cathedral.  Over  his 
tomb  in  the  crypt  of  St.  Paul's  were  inscribed  the  words,  worthy 
of  the  man  and  the  place,  "  Si  monumentum  requiris,  circum- 
spice  !  " 

November  23,  1667. — At  the  meeting  of  this  date  there  was 
performed  an  experiment  such  as  had  never  before  been  attempt- 
ed in  England.  The  year  before  Dr.  Wallis  had  reported  the 
success  of  some  experiments  made  at  Oxford  by  Dr.  Lower, "  of 
transfusing  the  blood  of  one  animal  into  the  body  of  another." 
But  now  the  operation  was  to  be  tested  upon  a  human  being.  A 
poor  theological  student,  Arthur  Coga  or  Coyn,  offered  himself 
as  the  subject.  The  operation  was  performed  by  Dr.  Lower  and 
Dr.  King  without  any  untoward  symptoms  arising.  Some  one 
asked  the  young  man  afterward  why  the  blood  of  a  sheep,  rather 
than  that  of  any  other  animal,  was  used  in  transfusion.  He 
replied,  "Sanguis  ovis  symbolicam  quandam  facultatem  habet 
cum  sanguine  christi,  quia  Christus  est  Agnus  Dei." 

Harvey's  discovery  of  the  circulation  of  the  blood,  though  for 
some  time  strenuously  opposed,  finally  became  accepted,  and  at 
once  gave  rise  to  the  wildest  speculations.  In  the  blood  were  sup- 
posed to  lie  all  the  ills  and  diseases  which  tormented  human  life, 
and  for  their  cure  the  bad  blood  had  only  to  be  drawn  off,  to  be 
replaced  by  the  pure  blood  of  some  young,  healthy  animal,  when 
the  sick  would  be  restored,  the  maniac  would  recover  his  reason, 
old  age  return  to  youth  again,  and  man  become  immortal. 

Transfusion  became  the  topic  of  the  day.  The  courtier,  the 
peasant,  the  man  of  science,  followed  every  experiment  with  in- 
tense interest.  It  was  a  subject  which  appealed  to  the  imagina- 
tion and  interest  of  every  individual.  If  one  may  not  secure  im- 
mortality one  way,  may  he  not  in  another  ? 

It  is  to  the  credit  of  the  medical  profession  that  as  a  body  it 
deprecated  the  indiscriminate  practice  of  such  a  hazardous  experi- 
ment. There  is  no  telling  where  the  delirium  may  have  carried 
the  practice  had  not  among  the  first  cases  occurred  two  deaths  in 


234  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

Paris,  when  it  was  prohibited  in  France  except  by  the  approba- 
tion of  the  Faculty  of  Paris,  and  later  occurred  two  deaths  in  Rome, 
whereupon  the  Pope  issued  an  edict  forbidding  transfusion  with- 
in his  domains. 

December  21,  1671. — The  minutes  contain  this  sentence :  "  The 
Lord  Bishop  of  Sarum  (Dr.  Seth  Ward)  proposed  for  candidate 
Mr.  Isaac  Newton,  Professor  of  the  Mathematicks  at  Cambridge." 
At  this  same  meeting  was  shown  a  reflecting  telescope  made  by 
Newton  to  overcome  the  objections  hitherto  pertaining  to  the 
refracting  telescope.  Upon  receiving  the  society's  hearty  con- 
gratulations upon  his  invention,  Newton  promised  to  send  the 
philosophical  experiments  which  led  to  its  construction.  This 
promise  he  fulfilled,  and  the  result  was  his  famous  work  on  "  Op- 
tics." Newton  now  was  fully  launched  upon  that  career  as  inves- 
tigator and  discoverer  which  has  covered  his  name  with  immor- 
tal renown.  He  was  yet  scarcely  thirty  years  of  age.  But  even 
as  a  boy  he  had  displayed  an  earnest  of  his  future  work  by  con- 
structing windmills,  water-clocks,  and  sun-dials ;  one  of  the  latter 
is  said  to  still  mark  the  hours  upon  the  walls  of  his  old  manor- 
house  at  Woolsthorpe,  Lincolnshire ;  when  only  twenty-three  he 
discovered  his  method  of  fluxions,  by  means  of  which  the  calcu- 
lations of  the  movements  of  the  planets  were  greatly  facilitated, 
and  he  already  was  in  possession  of  the  principle  of  gravitation, 
which  saw  light  sixteen  years  later,  only  because  an  erroneous 
estimate  of  the  earth's  diameter,  which  was  a  factor  in  his  calcu- 
lations, produced  some  inexplicable  deviation  from  the  result 
expected. 

Newton,  like  Boyle,  never  married,  but  devoted  his  long  life 
entirely  to  scientific  and  philosophical  studies.  Newton  was 
elected  President  of  the  Royal  Society  in  1703,  and  successively 
re-elected  until  his  death  in  1727,  thus  making  his  presidency 
exceed  that  of  any  other,  excepting  Sir  Joseph  Banks,  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  society.  This  honor  was  not  unfittingly  bestowed, 
for  there  is  no  other  name,  in  the  long  list  of  distinguished  Fel- 
lows, whose  life-work  has  reflected  greater  honor  upon  this  already 
famous  society. 

In  1675  the  Royal  Society  appealed  to  the  king  to  establish  an 
astronomical  observatory  for  the  study  of  astronomy  and  naviga- 
tion. This  the  king  consented  to  do,  and  commissioned  Sir  Chris- 
topher Wren  to  erect  such  a  building  at  Greenwich.  The  Royal 
Society  was  given  general  supervision  over  its  investigations,  and 
evinced  its  solicitude  by  furnishing  all  the  instruments  used  at 
the  observatory  during  the  first  fifteen  years. 

Under  Flamsteed  as  the  first  astronomical  observator,  or  as- 
tronomer royal  as  the  office  was  afterward  called,  and  Halley  as 
his  successor,  there  began  the  long  and  unbroken  series  of  impor- 


THE  ROYAL   SOCIETY   OF  ENGLAND.  235 

tant  observations  which  have  raade  the  Observatory  of  Green- 
wich the  most  famous  in  the  world.  When,  in  1698,  Peter  the 
Great  visited  England,  he  showed  his  great  natural  love  for  all 
that  bore  upon  navigation  by  spending  considerable  time  in  the 
observatory  and  among  the  Fellows  of  the  Royal  Society.  His 
quick  mind  evidently  saw  the  advantages  of  such  a  society  and 
observatory,  for  later  in  his  life  he  established  the  Academy  of 
Sciences  and  the  National  Observatory  at  St.  Petersburg. 

In  1695  Dr.  Woodward,  Fellow,  brought  forward  his  "  Essay 
towards  a  Natural  History  of  the  Earth,"  which  secured  consid- 
erable notice  from  the  great  knowledge  displayed  upon  geological 
subjects.  He  founded  the  professorship  of  Geology  at  Cambridge, 
and  bequeathed  his  geological  museum  to  the  university  at  his 
death.  In  1710  he  managed  to  insult  Sir  Hans  Sloane,  then  presi- 
dent of  the  society,  for  which  the  society  demanded  an  apology. 
This  he  refused  to  give,  and  was  expelled.  He  appealed  to  law 
for  reinstatement,  but  failed.  So  ended  the  first  quarrel  in  the 
history  of  the  society.  Woodward  must  have  had  a  testy  temper, 
for  he  had  a  quarrel  with  Dr.  Mead  over  some  medical  topic  about 
which  they  disagreed,  and  which  resulted  in  a  duel  under  the  gate 
of  Gresham  College.  During  the  duel  Woodward's  foot  slipped 
and  he  fell.  "  Take  your  life  ! "  exclaimed  Dr.  Mead.  "  Anything 
but  your  physic,"  replied  Woodward. 

1709  is  the  date  of  the  death  of  Sir  Godfrey  Copley,  Fellow, 
and  the  foundation  by  his  will  of  the  medal  of  that  name,  which 
has  been  so  pertinently  styled  by  Sir  Humphry  Davy  "  the  ancient 
olive  crown  of  the  Royal  Society."  This  medal  is  awarded  yearly 
"to  the  living  author  (native  or  foreign)  of  such  philosophical 
research,  either  published  or  communicated  to  the  society,  as  may 
appear  to  the  council  to  be  deserving  that  honor,"  and  many  of 
the  brightest  men  of  science  throughout  the  world  have  been  re- 
cipients of  this  medal. 

In  1752  England  officially  changed  the  calendar,  the  Royal  So- 
ciety, as  would  be  supposed,  being  chiefly  instrumental  in  the 
change.  The  bill  was  drawn  up  by  president  of  the  society  Folkes, 
the  secretary,  Duval,  and  Astronomer  Royal  Bradley. 

The  Julian  calendar,  as  instituted  by  Julius  Caesar,  was  so 
perfect  that  it  was  universally  used  until  the  sixteenth  century. 
But  as  time  ran  on  it  was  seen  that  the  Julian  year  was  eleven 
minutes  longer  than  it  should  be,  so  that  by  1582  there  was  a  dis- 
crepancy of  ten  days.  This  resulted  in  great  confusion  in  the 
Church,  respecting  the  proper  dating  of  Easter  and  all  other  mova- 
ble feasts.  Pope  Gregory  XIII  set  to  work  to  correct  this,  and,  by 
the  recommendation  of  Lilius,  a  Neapolitan  astronomer,  proposed 
the  Gregorian  Calendar  or  New  Style,  in  which  he  corrected  the 
excessive  ten  days  by  declaring  that  the  day  following  the  5th  of 


236  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

October,  1582,  should  be  called  the  15th,  and,  to  correct  the  annual 
gain  of  eleven  minutes,  that  every  hundredth  year  should  not  be 
called  a  leap-year,  excepting  every  four  hundredth,  beginning 
with  the  year  2000.  All  the  Catholic  powers  immediately  adopted 
the  Pope's  brief,  but  the  Protestant  countries,  in  their  intense 
hatred  of  all  that  pertained  to  popery,  refused  to  accept  for  a 
long  time  this  evidently  superior  calendar.  It  was  nearly  two 
centuries  before  England  accepted  the  New  Style,  and  was  the  last 
of  the  European  governments  to  surrender,  except  Russia,  which 
clings  to  the  Old  Style  to  this  day.  Late  as  it  was,  the  Royal  So- 
ciety, for  recommending  the  change,  shared  in  the  opprobrium 
which  fell  upon  the  ministry  who  adopted  it. 

Whenever  the  prime  minister  appeared  in  public,  mobs  sur- 
rounded his  carriage,  demanding  that  he  restore  the  days  by  which 
they  supposed  he  had  shortened  their  lives.  When  Astronomer 
Royal  Bradley  took  sick  and  died  amid  the  popular  excitement, 
his  death  was  believed  to  be  a  judgment  of  Heaven.  This  popu- 
lar indignation  extended  even  to  the  second  generation ;  for  when 
the  son  of  Lord  Macclesfield  was  standing  for  Parliament  in  the 
county  of  Oxford,  the  rabble  greeted  his  appearance  with  the 
taunting  words :  "  Give  us  back,  you  rascal,  those  eleven  days 
which  your  father  stole  from  us  ! " 

In  1753  Franklin's  electrical  experiments  won  for  him  the 
Copley  medal,  a  rare  prize  for  one  who  was  not  a  member  of  the 
Royal  Society.  In  1756  he  enjoyed  the  further  distinction  of 
being  elected  Fellow,  without  having  previously  requested  a  mem- 
ber to  propose  his  name,  which  had  been  the  almost  invariable 
custom  and  rule.  Forasmuch  as  the  society  had  elected  Frank- 
lin without  any  advance  on  his  part,  it  was  considered  but  a 
graceful  thing  for  it  to  release  him  from  all  annual  dues,  which 
was  done.  Franklin,  on  his  part,  fully  repaid  the  society  for  its 
favors  by  frequently  contributing  to  its  "  Transactions."  When 
medals  and  honorary  memberships  in  all  the  learned  societies  had 
been  conferred  upon  him,  when  he  had  become  the  most  talked-of 
and  courted  scientist  in  Europe,  when  his  attentions  conferred 
rather  than  received  honors,  even  during  the  period  of  the  Revo- 
lutionary War,  Franklin  kept  up  his  friendly  correspondence  with 
members  of  the  Royal  Society,  and  the  society  rendered  itself 
worthy  of  grateful  remembrance  by  every  American  in  its  brave 
stand  against  lending  itself  to  a  narrow-minded  sovereign  to  break 
down  Franklin's  scientific  reputation. 

Franklin's  electrical  experiments  had  led  to  his  discovery  of 
lightning-rods,  of  the  power  of  rods  and  points  to  carry  off  safely 
the  electrical  shock.  The  accuracy  of  his  experiments  was  gener- 
ally conceded,  but  Abbe*  Nollet,  in  France,  opposed  the  points  and 
declared  that  the  rods  should  be  blunt.    A  Mr.  Wilson  raised  the 


THE  ROYAL   SOCIETY   OF  ENGLAND.  237 

same  objections  in  England.  The  question,  which  at  other  times 
would  have  been  decided  in  scientific  circles,  became  a  political 
one.  George  III,  in  his  eagerness  to  weaken  Franklin's  prestige, 
decided  the  scientific  question  like  a  king,  adopted  Wilson's  views, 
and  had  blunt  rods  erected  upon  his  palace.  The  Royal  Society- 
was  appealed  to.  It  emphatically  declared  for  pointed  rods.  The 
president  of  the  society,  Sir  John  Pringle,  was  sent  for,  and  roy- 
ally commanded  to  support  Wilson  in  the  meetings.  Sir  John 
remonstrated :  "  Sire,  I  can  not  reverse  the  laws  and  operations  of 
nature."  George  III  modestly  suggested,  "  Perhaps,  Sir  John, 
you  had  better  resign." 

Franklin's  ready  wit  seized  this  incident  to  spit  the  king  upon 
the  point  of  this  epigram : 

"  While  you,  great  George,  for  knowledge  hunt, 
And  sharp  conductors  change  for  blunt, 

The  nation's  out  of  joint ; 
Franklin  a  wiser  course  pursues, 
And  all  your  thunder  useless  views, 
By  keeping  to  the  point." 

When  Halley  predicted  the  transit  of  Venus  in  1761,  the  Royal 
Society  recommended  the  Government  to  send  out  capable  men  to 
India  to  make  careful  observations  of  this  important  astronomical 
event.  For  this  purpose  Mason  and  Dixon,  two  eminent  astrono- 
mers and  mathematicians,  were  dispatched,  with  all  necessary  ap- 
paratus, upon  the  Government  vessel  Sea-Horse,  to  Bencoolen. 

An  encounter  with  a  French  frigate  drove  the  expedition  into 
a  friendly  port.  The  astronomers  proved  poor  soldiers,  and  they 
wrote  home  to  have  themselves  released  from  the  hazardous  un- 
dertaking. 

Their  apparatus  was  better  fitted  for  dealing  with  whirling 
bodies  at  a  distance  rather  than  at  close  range.  However,  the 
English  Government  commanded  them  to  sail,  which  they  with 
much  trepidation  proceeded  to  do,  although  the  time  wasted 
prevented  them  from  reaching  Bencoolen.  They  consequently 
landed  at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  and  made  their  observations 
there. 

Mason  and  Dixon  were  later  associated  in  an  expedition 
which  proved  more  successful.  They  landed  in  Philadelphia  in 
1763,  and  proceeded  to  survey,  and  settle  for  all  time,  the  disputed 
boundary-line  between  the  colonial  patents  of  the  Penns  and  Lord 
Baltimore.  This  line  afterward  became  famous  in  American  his- 
tory from  its  division  of  the  free  and  the  slave  States  of  the 
Union. 

It  is  sad  to  relate  that  the  society  which  could  stand  so  bravely 
beside  a  non-resident  member  should  so  weakly  yield  to  popular 
clamor  as  to  break  the  last  tie  which  held  one  of  its  most  distin- 


238  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

guished  resident  members  to  his  country  and  home.  It  but  illus- 
trates the  instability  of  human  nature  to  find  the  Royal  Society 
refuse  to  be  used  in  the  slightest  manner  to  punish  Franklin,  who 
represented  the  bitterest  hostility  to  George  III  and  his  ministry, 
and  only  a  few  years  later  demand  the  resignation  of  Dr.  Joseph 
Priestley,  who  simply  differed  with  the  Established  Church  by 
demanding  freedom  of  worship,  and  who  differed  with  the  Gov- 
ernment by  expressing  sympathy  for  the  American  colonies  and 
for  the  struggling  French  Republic.  It  counted  little  for  Priestley 
that  he  had  received  the  Copley  medal  for  his  electrical  investiga- 
tions and  made  it  possible  for  chemistry  to  become  a  science  by 
his  discovery  of  oxygen.  Priestley  was  a  Non-conformist  minister, 
and  rendered  himself  intensely  unpopular  by  continual  debates 
with  the  Established  clergy.  His  controversy  with  Dr.  (afterward 
Bishop)  Horsley  was  the  most  important  theological  controversy 
in  the  eighteenth  century.  In  view  of  the  invariable  preferment 
given  to  Dr.  Horsley  and  other  opponents  for  their  energy  dis- 
played in  these  contests,  Priestley  was  led  to  make  the  stinging 
comment  that  he  appointed  the  bishops  of  England.  Hated  and 
feared  by  the  Established  Church  for  his  undoubted  abilities  and 
heresies,  hated  and  feared  by  the  Government  for  his  dangerous 
political  heresies,  no  protection  was  granted  him  when,  upon  the 
anniversary  of  the  fall  of  the  Bastile,  a  mob  burned  to  the  ground 
his  house,  with  all  his  manuscripts  and  apparatus,  and  to  escape 
personal  violence  the  now  old  man  fled  for  refuge  to  America, 
where  he  spent  the  remainder  of  his  life. 

In  1779  Count  Rumforcl,  adventurer,  soldier,  and  scientist,  was 
elected  Fellow.  Sir  Benjamin  Thompson's  life  reads  like  a  ro- 
mance. A  poor  New  England  lad,  he  at  the  outbreak  of  the 
Revolution  sailed  to  England,  where  he  spent  the  greater  part  of 
his  life.  He  held  many  positions  of  honor  and  trust,  both  in  Eng- 
land and  Bavaria,  and  displayed  marked  ability  as  a  statesman 
and  as  a  general.  But  he  is  chiefly  remembered  for  his  scientific 
attainments.  He  founded  the  Rumford  medal  of  the  Royal  So- 
ciety, and  enjoyed  the  unique  distinction  of  being  its  first  recipi- 
ent. In  1802  the  society  decided  that  the  medal  be  given"  to  Ben- 
jamin Count  Rumford  for  his  various  discoveries  on  the  subject 
of  heat  and  light,"  Rumford  founded  the  Royal  Institute,  at 
London,  for  the  study  of  these  subjects,  and  many  of  England's 
greatest  chemists  and  physicists  have  lectured  here  under  its 
auspices. 

Various  papers  upon  physical  optics  were  read  before  the  so- 
ciety by  Dr.  Thomas  Young,  during  1801-3,  containing  his  newly 
discovered  law  of  interference  of  light,  which  led  to  the  establish- 
ment of  the  undulatory  theory  of  light.  This  discovery  placed 
Young  in  the  front  rank  of  the  natural  philosophers  of  his  day, 


THE  ROYAL   SOCIETY   OF  ENGLAND.  239 

but,  as  it  often  happens,  his  discovery  was  neglected  in  his  own 
country  until  taken  up  and  adopted  abroad.  Young  was  elected 
Fellow  as  soon  as  he  reached  his  twenty- first  year,  which  confirms 
to  a  certain  extent  the  stories  of  his  remarkable  youthful  attain- 
ments. 

Besides  being  an  eminent  physician  and  writer  on  medical  sub- 
jects, he  delivered  a  course  of  philosophical  lectures,  served  on  the 
Board  of  Longitude,  edited  the  "  Nautical  Almanac,"  and,  most 
important  of  all,  prosecuted  his  profound  studies  upon  the  Egyp- 
tian hieroglyphics,  which  led  in  1818  to  the  successful  interpreta- 
tion of  these  hitherto  sealed  histories. 

1806  is  the  date  of  the  Bakerian  lecture  before  the  Royal  So- 
ciety, "  On  Some  Chemical  Agencies  in  Electricity,"  by  Sir  Hum- 
phry Davy,  then  but  twenty-eight  years  old,  but  already  the  best- 
known  chemist  of  his  day.  This  brilliant  memoir  produced  a 
profound  sensation,  and  his  lecture-room  at  the  Royal  Institute 
became  a  fashionable  resort.  Its  scientific  import  was  at  once 
recognized  over  all  Europe. 

Although  England  and  France  were  at  war,  the  Institute  of 
France  awarded  Davy  the  handsome  prize  of  three  thousand 
francs,  offered  by  Bonaparte  for  the  experiments  best  calculated 
to  promote  science ;  and  when,  a  few  years  later,  Napoleon  allowed 
him  to  travel  through  France,  the  Institute  elected  him  corre- 
sponding member  of  the  first  class.  Upon  his  return  to  Eng- 
land, in  1815,  Sir  Humphry  began  his  memorable  investigation 
upon  fire-damp,  which  had  caused  such  havoc  to  life  by  explosions 
in  the  coal-mines. 

As  the  outcome  of  his  experiments  was  the  invention  of  the 
safety-lamp  known  by  his  name,  one  of  the  many  beneficent  con- 
tributions which  science  is  constantly  conferring  upon  humanity. 
Davy  deliberately  refused  to  gain  the  fortune  which  its  invention 
would  surely  have  brought  him,  but  the  coal -miners  showed  their 
gratitude  by  presenting  him  with  a  handsome  service  of  plate, 
and  the  Government  conferred  a  baronetcy  upon  him.  He  re- 
ceived all  the  honors  of  the  Royal  Society,  the  Copley,  the  Royal 
and  the  Rumford  medals,  and  was  president  of  the  society  for  a 
number  of  years.  Sir  Humphry  was  a  highly  imaginative,  poeti- 
cal writer,  and  a  consummate  scientific  lecturer,  but  his  presidency 
of  the  society  was  not  among  his  most  successful  acts.  After  he 
had  become  famous,  wealthy,  and  courted,  he  became  arrogant 
and  haughty,  and,  forgetful  of  his  own  lowly  origin,  talked  much 
of  aristocracy  and  high  connections  ;  so  that,  when  he  died,  many 
recalled  the  epigram  pronounced  upon  poor  Hooke.  Davy  kept 
up  the  custom  of  his  predecessor  in  office,  Sir  Joseph  Banks,  by 
appearing  in  a  full  court-dress  when  presiding  over  the  transac- 
tions of  the  society.     Withal,  his  presidency  was  a  brilliant  one, 


240  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

for  among  the  contributing  members  during  his  term  of  office 
were  Herschel,  Buckland,  Young,  Dalton,  Babbage,  Brewster,  and 
Faraday. 

King  George  IV,  in  1825,  showed  his  interest  in  the  Royal 
Society  by  proposing  to  award  two  gold  medals,  to  be  known  as 
the  Royal  medals.  The  society  accepted  the  proposal,  and  in  the 
following  year  the  first  prize  was  bestowed  upon  John  Dalton,  of 
Manchester,  "  for  the  development  of  the  chemical  theory  of  defi- 
nite proportions,  usually  called  the  atomic  theory,  and  for  his 
labors  and  discoveries  in  physical  and  chemical  science." 

The  laws  enunciated  by  Dalton  upon  the  atomic  theory  are 
the  greatest  generalizations  in  chemistry,  and  at  once  placed  it 
among  the  exact  sciences.  Dalton  had  an  analytical,  experimental 
turn  of  mind ;  patient,  persevering,  and  painstaking,  supreme  in 
the  laboratory,  but  almost  destitute  of  social  and  literary  in- 
stincts. When  asked  why  he  did  not  marry,  he  replied  that  he 
never  had  the  time.  One  who  had  not  time  to  seek  a  wife  would 
not  likely  have  the  time  nor  the  desire  to  seek  general  culture. 
So  we  are  not  surprised  to  hear  him  say  that  his  entire  library 
could  be  carried  upon  his  back,  and  scarcely  half  of  these  had 
he  read. 

Dalton  always  wore  the  plain,  colorless  garb  of  the  Friends, 
and  only  once  appeared  in  public  otherwise.  When  he  was  in 
London  in  1834  his  friends  desired  to  present  him  to  the  king,  but 
he  refused  to  invest  himself  in  the  court-dress.  He  went  arrayed 
in  the  scarlet  doctor's  robe,  perfectly  unconscious  of  the  brilliancy 
of  his  attire ;  he  was  a  victim  of  his  friends'  innocent  conspiracy, 
for  Dalton  was  color-blind. 

In  1864  the  Royal  Society,  through  its  president,  Major-General 
Sabine,  awarded  the  Copley  medal  to  Charles  Darwin,  the  author 
of  the  "  Origin  of  Species/'  The  president  highly  eulogized  the 
merits  of  his  works,  "stamped  throughout  with  the  impress  of 
the  closest  attention  to  minute  details  and  accuracy  of  observa- 
tion, combined  with  large  powers  of  generalization/'  In  1839, 
upon  his  return  from  his  voyage  on  the  Beagle,  the  young  natu- 
ralist, for  his  excellent  papers  on  volcanic  phenomena,  was  elected 
Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society,  and  at  the  anniversary  meeting  of 
the  society  in  November,  1853,  the  Royal  medal  was  presented 
him  for  his  masterly  treatise  on  "  Coral  Reefs."  So,  when  the 
"  Origin  of  Species  "  appeared,  it  was  not  from  an  unknown  au- 
thor, but  one  who  had  already  attained  a  world-wide  reputation. 
But  no  man's  reputation,  however  great,  could  have  saved  so  revo- 
lutionary a  work  as  the  "  Origin "  from  the  most  violent  oppo- 
sition. It  called  forth  grave  reviews,  satires,  wit,  even  personal 
vituperation ;  but  Darwin,  in  his  rural  home  in  Kent,  received  it 
all  in  a  philosophic  spirit,  and  abided  his  time.     The  "  Origin  of 


THE  ROYAL   SOCIETY   OF  ENGLAND.  241 

Species  "  was  tlie  launching  of  the  evolutionary  movement,  and, 
without  discussing  the  validity  of  the  doctrine,  it  is  safe  to  say 
that  it  has  given  rise  to  the  most  forcible  and  puissant  school  of 
philosophy  of  the  present  day,  and  has  affected  science,  in  its 
myriad  branches,  more  profoundly  than  any  other  scientific  gen- 
eralization since  Newton's  conception  of  the  pervading  force  of 
gravitation. 

During  the  early  existence  of  the  society  the  meetings  were 
held  in  Gresham  College,  where  many  of  its  members  were  pro- 
fessors. In  1710  the  society  removed  to  Crane  Court.  In  1780  the 
president,  Sir  Joseph  Banks,  was  instrumental  in  securing  from 
the  Government  more  comfortable  accommodations  in  Somerset 
House.  Their  present  location  is  at  Burlington  House,  whither 
they  moved  in  1857.  The  meetings  are  held  every  Thursday  at 
4.30  P.  M.,  from  November  to  June ;  and  of  the  communications 
read  before  the  society,  a  "Committee  of  Papers"  selects  the 
most  noteworthy  for  publication  in  the  "  Philosophical  Trans- 
actions "  or  the  "  Proceedings  of  the  Royal  Society."  Since  the 
presidency  of  Sir  Joseph  Banks,  membership  in  the  society  has 
been  much  more  difficult  to  attain  than  formerly,  from  the  great 
number  of  applicants  for  the  limited  vacancies  to  be  filled  each 
year.  Each  application  for  membership  must  be  signed  by  six 
Fellows,  three  of  whom  must  be  personally  acquainted  with  the 
applicant.  From  a  list  of  such  applicants,  as  it  is  often  a  long 
one,  the  Council  of  the  society  on  the  first  Thursday  of  June  each 
year  selects  fifteen  by  ballot,  which  selection  is  usually  ratified  by 
the  society  without  change. 

There  is  a  corresponding  class  of  foreign  members,  fifty  in 
number,  which  includes  the  names  of  the  foremost  scientists 
throughout  the  world.  No  scientist  is  so  eminent  but  feels  hon- 
ored by  being  elected  Fellow  of  this  ancient  corporation,  and  to 
have  one's  labors  crowned  by  one  of  its  medals  is  a  mark  of  the 
highest  distinction. 


The  luminous  night-clouds  which  have  been  seen  in  Europe,  at  about  the  time 
of  the  summer  solstice,  since  1885,  are  mentioned  by  Ilerr  Jesse  as  important  sub- 
jects for  accurate  study.  The  author  believes  that  they  are  interesting  from  an 
astronomical  as  well  as  meteorological  point  of  view,  because  their  periodic  move- 
ment, taken  in  connection  with  their  extraordinary  height,  suggests  that  they 
manifest  the  activity  of  cosmical  forces.  He  holds,  therefore,  that  they  may 
throw  some  light  upon  the  question  whether  cosmical  space  is  filled  with  a  resist- 
ing medium.  Some  other  observers  believe  that  the  luminosity  is  a  reflection 
from  the  very  high  solstitial  sun.  Herr  Stubenrauch,  meteorological  observer  at 
Punta  Arenas,  South  America,  informs  Herr  Jesse  that  he  saw  the  phenomenon 
twice  there  in  December,  1888 — also  near  the  summer  solstice  of  his  place  of 
observation. 

VOL.   XXXVI. 16 


242  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


SPEECH  AND  SONG. 

Br  Sib  MORELL  MACKENZIE. 
PART  II. — SONG. 

HAVING  dealt  in  a  previous  article  (see  "Popular  Science 
Monthly  "  for  November,  1889)  with  the  voice  in  its  every -day 
garb  of  speech,  it  now  remains  for  me  to  speak  of  it  as  it  is  when 
transfigured  in  song.  The  organ  is  the  same  in  both  cases,  but  in 
song  it  is  used  strictly  as  a  musical  instrument — one,  too,  of  far  more 
complex  structure  than  any  fashioned  by  the  hand  of  man.  The 
mechanism  of  voice  has  already  been  described,  but,  for  the  sake 
of  clearness,  it  may  be  well  to  recall  the  three  essential  elements 
in  its  production  :  1,  the  air-blast,  or  motive  power ;  2,  the  vibrat- 
ing reed,  or  tone-producing  apparatus  ;  3,  the  sounding-board,  or 
re-enforcing  cavities.  These,  to  parody  a  well-worn  physiological 
metaphor,  are  the  three  legs  of  the  tripod  of  voice ;  defect  in,  or 
mismanagement  of,  any  one  of  them  is  fatal  to  the  musical  effi- 
ciency of  the  vocal  instrument.  The  air  supplied  by  the  lungs  is 
molded  into  sound  by  the  innumerable  nimble  little  fingers  of 
the  muscles  which  move  the  vocal  cords.  These  fingers  (which 
prosaic  anatomists  call  fibers),  besides  being  almost  countless  in 
number,  are  arranged  in  so  intricate  a  manner  that  every  one  who 
dissects  them  finds  out  something  new,  which,  it  is  needless  to  say, 
is  forthwith  given  to  the  world  as  an  important  discovery.  It  is 
probable  that  no  amount  of  macerating  or  teasing  out  with  pin- 
cers will  ever  bring  us  to  "  finality  "  in  this  matter ;  nor  do  I  think 
it  would  profit  us  much  as  regards  our  knowledge  of  the  physiol- 
ogy of  the  voice  if  the  last  tiny  fibrilla  of  muscle  were  run  to  earth. 
The  mind  can  form  no  clearer  notions  of  the  infinitely  little  than 
of  the  infinitely  great,  and  the  microscopic  movements  of  these 
tiny  strips  of  contractile  tissue  would  be  no  more  real  to  us  than 
the  figures  which  express  the  rapidity  of  light  and  the  vast 
stretches  of  astronomical  time  and  distance.  Moreover,  no  two 
persons  have  their  laryngeal  muscles  arranged  in  precisely  the 
same  manner,  a  circumstance  which  of  itself  goes  a  considerable 
way  toward  explaining  the  almost  infinite  variety  of  human  voices. 
The  wonderful  diversity  of  expression  in  faces  which  structurally, 
as  we  may  say,  are  almost  identical,  is  due  to  minute  differences  in 
the  arrangement  of  the  little  muscles  which  move  the  skin.  The 
same  thing  holds  good  of  the  larynx.  In  addition  to  this  there 
are  more  appreciable  differences,  such  as  we  see  in  the  other  parts 
of  the  body.  The  larynx  itself  is  as  various  in  size  and  shape  as 
the  nose ;  and  this  is  still  more  the  case  with  the  other  parts  con- 
cerned in  the  production  of  the  voice.    The  most  laborious  ana- 


SPEECH  AND   SONG.  243 

toniical  Gradgrind  would  shrink  appalled  from  the  attempt  to 
measure  the  capacity  and  trace  the  shape  of  the  various  resonance 
chambers — chest,  throat,  mouth,  and  nose,  with  the  many  intricate 
little  passages  and  cave-like  spaces  communicating  with  the  lat- 
ter— yet  the  slightest  difference  in  the  form,  size,  or  material 
structure  of  any  of  these  parts  must  have  its  effect  in  modifying 
the  voice  to  some  extent. 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that  singers,  who  are  often  rather  unwilling 
to  believe  that  the  voice  is  formed  solely  in  the  larynx,  are  yet 
generally  surprised  to  be  told  that  the  true  nature  of  the  voice  can 
not  be  certainly  determined  by  examination  of  that  organ.  From 
what  has  been  said  as  to  the  extraordinary  number  of  the  compo- 
nent parts  of  the  vocal  machine,  it  will  be  evident  that  it  would 
be  almost  as  rash  to  pronounce  on  the  nature  of  the  voice  from 
the  appearance  of  the  larynx  as  it  would  be  to  take  the  shape  of 
the  nose  as  an  index  of  moral  character.  It  can  only  be  said  in  a 
general  way  that,  other  things  (notably,  the  resonance  chambers) 
being  equal,  one  expects  a  large,  roomy  larynx,  with  thick,  pow- 
erful cords,  to  yield  a  deep,  massive  voice,  and  a  small  organ,  with 
slender  cords,  to  send  forth  a  shrill,  high-pitched  voice.  These 
two  types  represent  the  male  and  female  voice  respectively ;  that 
of  the  child  belongs  to  the  latter  category.  It  must  be  understood 
that  the  difference  in  size  between  the  largest  larynx  and  the 
smallest  is,  after  all,  very  trifling  in  itself.  For  instance,  the  vocal 
cords  in  women  are  but  a  fraction  of  an  inch  shorter  than  in  men, 
and  the  other  dimensions  vary  in  much  the  same  proportion.  A 
like  difference  prevails  throughout  the  resonant  apparatus,  the  re- 
enforcing  chambers  being  larger  in  men,  and  their  walls  (which 
are  built  up  of  bone,  gristle,  and  muscle)  denser  and  more  solid. 

The  voice  varies  in  compass  no  less  than  in  quality.  A  priori 
long  vocal  cords  should  indicate  great  range  of  tone,  but  so  much 
depends  on  the  management  of  these  vibrating  reeds  that  com- 
paratively little  significance  can  be  attached  to  mere  length.  The 
average  compass  of  the  singing  voice  is  from  two  to  three  octaves, 
the  latter  limit  being  seldom  exceeded.  The  artistic  effect  pro- 
duced with  this  small  stock  of  available  notes  is  as  wonderful 
in  its  way  as  the  marvelous  results  that  can  be  got  out  of  the 
twenty-six  letters  of  the  alphabet.  In  singing  up  the  scale,  the 
vocalist  feels  that  at  a  certain  point  he  has  to  alter  his  method  of 
production  in  order  to  reach  the  higher  notes.  This  point  marks 
the  breaks  between  the  so-called  "  chest "  and  "  head  "  registers,  or 
what  I  may  call  the  lower  and  upper  stories  of  the  voice. 

The  subject  of  the  registers  has  been  much  debated  by  the 
learned,  and  still  more  perhaps  by  the  unlearned ;  it  is  the  "  East- 
ern question "  of  vocal  physiology.  Quite  a  considerable  litera- 
ture has  gathered  round  it ;  philosophers  have  lost  their  tempers 


244  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

and  musicians  have  shown  a  plentiful  lack  of  harmony  in  discuss- 
ing it.  The  inherent  difficulties  of  the  subject  have  been  increased 
by  the  fantastic  terminology  which  has  come  down  to  us  from  a 
pre-scientific  age,  and  by  the  erroneous  observations  of  incompe- 
tent persons.  I  can  touch  only  very  lightly  on  the  subject  here, 
but  those  who  wish  for  a  full  exposition  of  my  views  on  the  mat- 
ter may  be  referred  to  a  little  work  which  I  published  some  years 
ago,  and  which  has  been  translated  into  eight  languages.*  It  may 
be  asked,  What  is  a  register  ?  The  best  definition  I  can  offer  is 
that  it  is  a  series  of  tones  of  like  quality  produced  by  a  particular 
adjustment  of  the  vocal  cords  to  receive  the  air-blast  from  the 
lungs.  The  question  is  what  the  "  particular  adjustment "  is  in 
each  case.  The  first  step  toward  clearing  up  the  subject  is  to  dis- 
card the  terms  "  chest "  and  "  head  "  voice,  which  are  meaningless 
and  often  misleading.  Whatever  number  of  registers  there  may 
be,  and  however  they  may  be  produced,  it  is  certain  that  the 
change  of  mechanism  takes  place  only  in  the  larynx.  I  have  sug- 
gested that  the  terms  "  long  reed  "  and  "  short  reed  "  register  should 
be  used  to  designate  the  two  fundamental  divisions  of  the  human 
voice.  In  the  former,  usually  called  "  chest  voice/'  the  vocal  cords 
vibrate  in  their  whole  length,  and  the  sounds  are  re-enforced  largely 
by  the  cavity  of  the  chest,  the  walls  of  which  can  be  felt  to  vibrate 
strongly  when  this  register  is  used.  In  the  latter, "  head  voice/'  or 
falsetto,  only  a  part  of  the  cord  vibrates,  and  the  sound  is  re-en- 
forced by  the  upper  resonators,  mouth,  bony  cavities  of  the  skull, 
etc.  It  is  this  which  has  given  rise  to  the  absurd  statements  of 
singers  that  they  could  feel  their  head  notes  coming  from  the  back 
of  the  nose,  the  forehead,  etc.  In  the  "  long  reed "  register  the 
pitch  is  raised  by  increasing  tension  of  the  vibrating  element ;  in 
the  "  short  reed "  register  by  gradual  shortening  of  it.  This  is 
effected  by  a  curious  process,  which  can  be  distinctly  seen  in  the 
living  throat  with  the  laryngoscope.  The  two  cords  are  forced 
against  each  other  at  their  hinder  part  with  such  force  as  to  stop 
each  other's  movement.  While  the  notes  of  the  chest  register 
issue  from  the  natural  aperture  of  the  larynx,  the  head  notes  come 
through  an  artificially  diminished  orifice,  the  chink  becoming 
gradually  smaller  till  there  is  nothing  left  to  vibrate,  when  the 
limit  of  the  voice  is  reached.  The  two  registers  generally  over- 
lap for  a  greater  or  less  extent,  a  few  notes  about  the  middle  of 
the  voice  being  capable  of  being  sung  in  either.  Some  voices  have 
no  break  in  their  entire  compass,  the  same  mechanism  being  used 
throughout,  but  this  is  very  rare.  It  was  the  constant  aim  of  the 
famous  old  Italian  singing-masters  to  unite  the  two  natural  regis- 
ters so  perfectly  that  no  break  should  be  perceptible. 

Till  a  comparatively  recent  date  the  generally  received  explana- 

*"  Hygiene  of  the  Vocal  Organs,"  Macmillan  &  Co.,  sixth  edition,  1888. 


SPEECH  AND    SONG.  245 

tion  of  tlie  registers  was  that,  while  in  the  delivery  of  chest  notes 
the  whole  substance  of  the  vocal  cord  vibrated,  in  the  "  head  " 
voice  only  its  thin  inner  margin  did  so ;  in  both  cases  the  entire 
length  of  the  cord  was  supposed  to  vibrate.  The  shortening  of  the 
vibrating  reed,  however,  by  the  mutual  "  stopping  "  process  men- 
tioned above,  is  not  a  theory,  but  a  fact  which  can  be  seen.  I  am 
inclined  to  believe,  however,  that  under  certain  circumstances  the 
two  processes  of  shortening  and  marginal  vibration  may  be  com- 
bined. This  may  possibly  be  the  true  mechanism  of  the  falsetto 
voice,  as  to  which  there  has  been  so  much  dispute.  It  is  clear  that 
the  term  has  been  used  by  different  persons  in  different  senses, 
and  much  of  the  confusion  which  exists  on  the  subject  is,  in  my 
opinion,  due  to  this  cause.  By  most  of  the  old  Italian  writers,  the 
term  falsetto  is  used  as  synonymous  with  head  voice  ;  by  others  it 
is  employed  to  denote  that  kind  of  voice  "  whereby  a  man  going 
beyond  the  upper  limit  of  his  natural  voice  counterfeits  that  of  a 
woman  "  (Rousseau, "  Dictionnaire  de  Musique  ").  A  similar  differ- 
ence of  opinion  exists  as  to  the  beauty  of  falsetto,  some  speaking 
rapturously  of  its  flute-like  softness,  others  reviling  it  as  "  the 
most  disagreeable  of  all  timbres  of  the  human  voice"  (Rous- 
seau, ibid.).  I  venture  with  all  humility  to  submit  that  "falset- 
to "  and  "  head  voice  "  should  not  be  used  interchangeably.  The 
"  long  reed  "  and  "  short  reed  "  registers  are  used  alike  by  the  two 
sexes,  the  greater  part  of  the  male  voice,  however,  belonging  to 
the  former,  and  the  greater  part  of  the  female  to  the  latter.  The 
term  "  falsetto  "  should  be  reserved  for  the  artificial  method  of  de- 
livery, by  which  the  limited  "  short  reed  "  register  in  men  is  forced 
upward  beyond  its  natural  compass.  In  this  mode  of  production 
the  air  is  blown  up  from  the  lungs  so  gently  that  it  has  not  suffi- 
cient power  to  throw  the  whole  thickness  of  the  vocal  cord  into 
vibration.  This  accounts  for  the  soft, "  flute-like  "  tones  which  are 
characteristic  of  the  falsetto  voice. 

To  sum  up  the  mechanism  of  the  registers,  there  is  first  the 
"  long  reed  "  or  "  chest "  register,  in  which  the  cords  vibrate  in 
their  whole  length  and  thickness  ;  then  the  "  short  reed  "  or  "  head  " 
register,  in  which  the  vibrating  reed  is  gradually  shortened ;  lastly, 
the  falsetto,  which  belongs  to  men  alone,  and  is  formed  by  the 
vibration  of  the  margins  only  of  the  shortened  reeds.  Pitch  rises 
in  the  long  reed  register  owing  to  increasing  tension  of  the  cords, 
accompanied  by  increasing  rapidity  of  vibration ;  when  the  cord 
can  not  be  made  more  tense,  the  device  of  shortening  the  reed  is 
brought  into  play.  In  the  upper  register  not  only  is  the  aperture 
between  the  cords  ("  glottis  ")  diminished  to  the  smallest  possible 
size,  but  the  whole  upper  orifice  of  the  larynx  is  compressed  from 
side  to  side,  so  as  to  leave  only  a  very  narrow  chink  for  the  voice 
to  pass  through.    In  the  lower  register,  on  the  other  hand,  the 


246  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

larynx  is  wide  open,  and  the  vibrating  air  rushes  forth  in  a  full, 
broad  stream  of  sound. 

Many  singing-masters,  not  content  with  the  great  natural  di- 
visions of  the  voice  which  have  just  been  indicated,  insist  that 
there  are  five  different  registers,  each  with  a  distinct  mechanism 
of  its  own.  I  am  not  a  maestro,  and  therefore  I  am  willing  to  admit 
that,  artistically  speaking,  there  ought  to  be  five  registers,  or,  in 
fact,  any  number  of  them  that  may  be  thought  desirable.  But  if 
that  is  a  necessity  of  art,  it  is  not  a  necessity  of  Nature,  which 
does  all  that  is  required  by  the  simple  process  which  has  been 
described.  The  differences  of  mechanism  on  which  the  singing- 
masters  profess  to  base  their  division  are  mostly  of  so  subtle  a 
nature  as  to  be  almost  invisible  to  the  eye,  and  sometimes  even 
hardly  appreciable  by  the  ordinary  intellect.  I  think,  however, 
there  is  a  way  of  reconciling  their  views  with  mine,  diametrically 
opposed  as  they  at  first  sight  seem  to  be.  As  a  physiologist,  I 
speak  solely  of  the  tone  of  a  note,  that  is  to  say,  of  its  place  in  the 
musical  scale,  and  I  say,  That  note  is  delivered  by  the  long  reed  or 
short  reed  adjustment,  as  the  case  may  be ;  as  musicians,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  maestri,  speaking  of  the  quality  as  well  as  the 
tone,  say,  That  note  ought  to  be  delivered  in  such  and  such  a  way 
to  make  it  artistically  beautiful.  In  the  one  case,  in  short,  the 
voice  is  considered  purely  as  it  is  produced  in  the  larynx  ;  in  the 
other,  as  it  is  delivered  by  a  well-trained  singer  managing  his 
resonance  apparatus  to  the  best  advantage.  Now,  for  this  result 
many  things  are  needed  besides  the  correct  adjustment  of  the 
vocal  cords.  The  supply  of  breath  must  be  regulated  to  a  nicety, 
and  the  position  of  the  tongue,  soft  palate,  cheeks,  and  lips  must 
be  precisely  that  which  is  best  for  the  utterance  of  each  particular 
note.  There  are  rules  founded  on  experience  which  govern  all 
these  things ;  these  rules  are  expressed  in  terms  of  subjective  sen- 
sations, which  are  scientifically  absurd,  but,  at  the  same  time,  may 
be  practically  useful,  as  indicating  the  feelings  that  should  accom- 
pany the  right  performance  of  the  manoeuvre  required.  It  is  on 
all  this  complicated  mechanism  that  the  five  registers  of  the  sing- 
ing-masters are  based ;  the  more  or  less  fanciful  changes  in  the 
larynx,  to  which  they  attribute  the  slight,  but  artistically  vital, 
differences  in  production  which  their  trained  ear  enables  them  to 
appreciate,  have  in  reality  but  little  share  in  the  result.  The  dif- 
ference between  artistic  and  inartistic  production  of  the  voice  de- 
pends far  more  on  the  management  of  the  resonators  than  on  the 
adjustment  of  the  vocal  cords. 

This  point  will  be  better  understood  if  it  is  borne  in  mind  that, 
as  Helmholtz  has  shown,  every  musical  sound  is  "  compounded  of 
many  simples  "  ;  that  is  to  say,  the  fundamental  tone  is  re-enforced 
by  a  number  of  secondary  sounds  or  "  harmonics  "  which  accom- 


SPEECH  AND   SONG.  247 

pany,  and  as  it  were  echo,  it  in  a  higher  key,  the  whole  "being 
Mended  into  one  sensation  to  the  ear.  Then,  again,  it  is  well 
known  that  every  resonance  cavity  has  what  may  be  called  an 
"  elective  affinity "  for  one  particular  note,  to  the  vibrations  of 
which  it  responds  sympathetically,  like  a  lover's  heart  answering 
that  of  his  beloved.  As  the  crude  note  issues  from  the  larynx, 
the  mouth,  tongue,  and  soft  palate  mold  themselves  by  the  most 
delicately  adapted  movements  into  every  conceivable  variety  of 
shape,  clothing  the  raw  bones  of  sound  with  body  and  living  rich- 
ness of  tone.  Each  of  the  various  resonance  chambers  re-echoes 
its  corresponding  tone,  so  that  a  single  well-delivered  note  is  in 
reality  a  full  choir  of  harmonious  sounds. 

It  has  further  been  proved  that  each  vowel  has  its  own  special 
pitch,  and  hence  it  can  not  be  sounded  in  perfection  on  any  other. 
The  different  vowels,  in  fact,  are  produced  by  modifications  in  the 
length  and  shape  of  the  cavity  of  the  mouth,  and  the  note  of  each 
one  of  them  is  that  to  which  such  a  resonance  chamber  naturally 
responds.  It  follows  from  this  that,  in  order  to  get  the  best  effect 
from  the  vocal  instrument,  there  should  be  the  most  perfect  pos- 
sible adaptation  of  the  various  vowels  to  the  notes  on  which  they 
are  to  be  sung.  Sounds  like  o  and  ou  (oo)  are  best  rendered  in  the 
lower  notes  of  the  voice ;  a  and  i  (ee)  in  the  upper.  It  is  difficult, 
indeed  almost  impossible,  to  sing  the  latter  vowels  on  deep  notes. 
The  marriage  of  music  to  immortal  verse  can  not  be  perfect  unless 
the  various  affinities  of  the  vowel  sounds  are  carefully  respected 
by  the  composer. 

From  what  has  been  said  it  will,  I  think,  be  evident  that  no 
one,  however  happily  gifted  in  point  of  voice,  can  use  his  endow- 
ment to  the  best  advantage  without  careful  training.  Every  note 
requires  for  its  artistic  production,  not  only  a  particular  adjust- 
ment of  the  larynx,  but  a  special  arrangement  of  the  resonators 
and  suitable  management  of  the  breath,  all  the  complicated  move- 
ments involved  in  these  various  proceedings  having  to  be  per- 
formed automatically  and  with  the  most  exact  precision,  and  the 
whole  being  combined  into  one  instantaneous  act.  M.  Jourdain's 
master  was  not  such  a  fool  as  he  is  made  to  appear,  when  he  in- 
sisted on  the  mechanism  of  utterance  being  clearly  understood. 
When  this  has  been  acquired,  the  singer  is  still  only  like  a  child 
that  has  learned  to  stand ;  walking,  running,  and  dancing,  in 
other  words  the  junction  of  the  separate  notes  into  the  "  linked 
sweetness"  of  an  air,  the  graces  and  ornaments  of  vocalization, 
and  the  secret  of  sympathetic  expression  have  yet  to  be  acquired. 
There  is  an  unfortunate  tendency  at  the  present  day  to  be  satisfied 
with  a  very  inadequate  amount  of  training,  and  I  can  not  help 
thinking  that  this  is  partly  due  to  an  imperfect  appreciation  of 
its  necessity.    Years  are  ungrudgingly  given  to  acquiring  a  mas- 


248  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

tery  of  the  piano  or  violin,  and  it  is  recognized  that  to  excel  with 
either  of  these  instruments  seven  or  eight  hours  of  laborious  prac- 
tice every  day  are  necessary.  Yet  many  seem  to  fancy  that  the 
voice  can  be  trained  in  a  few  months.  How  preposterous  such  a 
notion  is  must  be  evident  to  any  one  who  takes  the  trouble  to 
think  about  the  matter.  In  the  case  of  the  violin  or  piano  the 
instrument  is  perfect  from  the  outset,  and  the  student  has  only  to 
learn  to  play  it ;  the  singer,  on  the  other  hand,  has  to  develop — in 
some  cases  almost  to  create — his  instrument,  and  then  to  master 
the  technique  of  it.  The  human  larynx  is,  as  already  said,  a  musi- 
cal instrument  of  the  most  complicated  kind,  for  its  two  reeds  are 
susceptible  of  almost  infinite  modification  in  size,  shape,  manner 
of  vibration,  etc.  A  distinguished  surgeon  not  long  ago  edified 
the  public  by  a  calculation  of  the  number  of  muscular  movements 
executed  by  a  young  lady  while  performing  a  simple  piece  on  the 
piano ;  it  would  be  hopelessly  impossible  to  count  the  movements 
of  the  muscles  which  work  the  vocal  cords. 

The  details  of  vocal  training  I  must  leave  to  the  singing-mas- 
ters ;  I  can  only  touch  on  one  or  two  points  which  lie  more  or  less 
within  my  own  province.  In  the  first  place,  the  vocal  organs 
must  be  strengthened  and  developed  by  exercise.  The  excellent 
maxim,  Memoria  excolendo  augetur,  which  we  learned  from  the 
Latin  grammar,  is  equally  true  of  muscle,  and  a  singer's  thyro- 
arytsenoidei  should  be  in  as  good  condition  as  a  pugilist's  biceps. 
Such  modes  of  life  as  are  good  for  the  general  health  will  also 
help  to  improve  the  voice  by  expanding  the  chest  and  keeping  all 
the  organs  at  their  maximum  of  efficiency.  In  order  to  "  know 
the  stops  "  of  the  vocal  instrument,  so  as  to  be  able  to  "  command 
it  to  any  utterance  of  harmony,"  training  must  be  directed  to  each 
of  the  three  factors  of  voice.  The  art  of  so  governing  the  breath 
that  not  a  particle  of  it  shall  escape  without  giving  up  its  mechan- 
ical equivalent  of  sound  must  first  of  all  be  acquired.  The  vocal 
cords  must  use  the  breath  as  Jacob  did  the  angel  with  whom 
he  wrestled ;  they  must  not  suffer  it  to  depart  till  it  has  blessed 
them.  The  first  thing  the  singer  has  to  do  is  to  learn  to  breathe  ; 
he  must  fill  his  lungs  without  gasping,  and  empty  them  quickly 
or  slowly,  gently  or  with  violence,  according  to  his  needs.  Much 
has  been  written  on  this  matter  with  which  I  need  not  perplex  the 
reader.  The  problem  is  how  the  lungs  can  be  replenished  most 
advantageously  for  the  purposes  of  the  singer.  The  chest  is  ex- 
panded by  pulling  up  the  ribs,  and  by  pushing  down  the  dia- 
phragm, or  muscular  partition  which  separates  the  chest  from  the 
abdomen.  In  violent  inspiratory  effort  the  collar-bone  may  be 
forcibly  drawn  up  by  the  muscles  attached  to  it,  but  this  mechan- 
ism is  seldom  brought  into  play  except  in  the  dire  struggle  for 
breath  when  suffocation  is  impending.    It  is  a  curious  fact  that 


SPEECH  AND   SONG.  249 

men  breathe  differently  from  women,  the  former  using  the  ab- 
dominal method — that  is,  pushing  down  the  diaphragm — and  the 
latter  doing  most  of  the  work  with  their  upper  ribs.  One  reason 
of  this  difference  is  that  the  fair  sex  insist  on  fixing  their  lower 
ribs,  to  which  the  diaphragm  is  attached,  with  stays,  which  make 
free  movement  of  that  muscle  impossible.  Doctors  have  fulmi- 
nated against  tight-lacing  for  the  last  three  centuries,*  but  to  as 
little  purpose  as  the  Archbishop  of  Kheims  thundered  against  the 
jackdaw.  Fashion  must  be  obeyed,  whatever  its  victims  may 
have  to  suffer.  It  is  right  to  state,  however,  that  stays  not  long 
ago  found  a  champion  in  no  less  a  person  than  the  Professor  of 
Pathology  in  the  University  of  Cambridge.  Professor  Roy  caused 
a  little  mild  scandal  at  the  last  meeting  of  the  British  Association 
by  urging  that  the  use  of  stays  might  have  certain  advantages. 
If  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  had  stood  up  in  Convocation  and 
denied  the  efficacy  of  baptism,  he  could  not  have  shocked  his 
hearers  more  than  Dr.  Roy  did  by  such  a  profession  of  heresy. 
The  scientific  ladies,  who  resemble  the  Greek  statues  in  the  loose- 
ness of  their  waists  if  in  nothing  else,  groaned  over  this  backslid- 
ing in  high  places,  and  their  more  frivolous  sisters  rejoiced.  A 
Defender  of  the  Faith,  however,  opportunely  appeared  in  the  per- 
son of  Dr.  Garson,  who  at  once  put  the  question  to  the  touch  by 
measurements  made  on  a  number  of  ladies  and  gentlemen  then 
present.  These  showed  that  the  vital  capacity  (which  is  measured 
by  the  quantity  of  air  that  can  be  expelled  from  the  lungs  after 
the  deepest  possible  inspiration)  was  considerably  greater  in  the 
men  than  in  the  women,  and  that  while  in  the  former  there  was  a 
constant  diminution  in  the  vital  capacity  in  every  period  of  ten 
years  after  the  age  of  thirty,  in  the  latter  it  actually  increased 
after  fifty,  a  time  of  life  at  which  the  majority  of  ladies  begin  to 
think  more  of  comfort  than  of  restraining  the  exuberance  of  their 
"  figure."  The  truth  appears  to  be,  however,  that  the  slight  press- 
ure exercised  by  stays  does  not  matter  in  the  case  of  ladies  who 
are  not  called  upon  to  use  their  voices  professionally,  and  who  do 
not  care  to  excel  as  amateurs.  In  the  ordinary  work  of  life  stays 
do  not  cause  any  inconvenience,  and  it  is  only  when  they  are  ab- 
surdly tight  that  they  do  serious  harm  to  the  internal  organs.  In 
the  case  of  the  artiste  it  is  quite  otherwise ;  here  anything  which 

*  Stays  are  generally  said  to  have  been  introduced  by  Catherine  de  Medicis,  who  may  be 
supposed  to  have  had  a  natural  genius  for  the  invention  of  instruments  of  torture.  They 
were,  however,  in  use  long  before  her  time.  I  have  in  my  possession  a  drawing  made  for 
me  in  1884  by  Mr.  Lewis  Wingfield  from  a  MS.  in  the  British  Museum  of  the  date  1043. 
It  is  figured  by  Strutt,  who  calls  it  "  A  Droll  Devil."  Mr.  Wingfield  more  aptly  terms  it 
the  "  Fiend  of  Fashion."  It  represents  a  figure  fantastically  dressed  in  what,  I  suppose, 
was  the  height  of  fashion  of  the  day.  Its  special  interest  in  connection  with  the  present 
subject  is  that  it  wears  a  pair  of  stays,  laced  up  in  front,  and  of  sufficient  constrictive  power 
to  please  a  modern  mondaine. 


250  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

in  the  smallest  degree  diminishes  the  vital  capacity  seriously 
handicaps  the  singer. 

Although  the  abdominal  mode  of  breathing  may  be  the  natural 
method  of  inspiration,  there  can,  I  think,  be  no  doubt  that  in  sing- 
ing it  is  not  the  most  effective.  On  this  point  the  empirical  tradi- 
tions of  singing-masters  were  abandoned  some  years  ago  in  favor 
of  what  was  supposed  to  be  the  teaching  of  science,  and  now  sing- 
ers are  often  taught  to  breathe  by  pushing  down  the  diaphragm 
and  protruding  the  stomach.  Anatomists  are,  however,  beginning 
to  see  that  the  Italian  masters  were  right  in  insisting  that  the 
diaphragm  should  be  fixed,  and  the  abdomen  flat  in  inspiration ; 
in  this  method  there  is  great  expansion  of  the  lower  ribs,  and  the 
increase  in  the  capacity  of  the  chest  takes  place  chiefly  in  this  di- 
rection. In  this  form  of  breathing  there  is  far  more  control  over 
expiration  than  when  the  diaphragm  is  displaced ;  the  act  can  be 
regulated  absolutely  by  the  will  to  suit  the  requirements  of  the 
vocalist.  Abdominal  inspiration  is  apt,  on  the  other  hand,  to  be 
followed  by  jerky  expiration,  a  defect  which  is  fatal  to  artistic 
delivery  and  most  fatiguing  to  the  singer. 

The  training  of  the  other  parts  of  the  vocal  machinery,  the 
vibrating  element  and  the  resonant  apparatus,  lies  altogether  out- 
side my  province.  What  I  may  call  the  "  fingering  "  of  the  vocal 
cords  and  the  "  tuning  "  of  the  resonators  can  be  acquired  only  by 
constant  practice  under  a  good  teacher.  There  is  no  such  thing 
as  a  self-taught  singer.  Constant  imitation  of  the  best  models 
and  the  watchful  discipline  of  an  experienced  instructor  consti- 
tute the  real  secret  of  the  old  Italian  schools  of  singing,  which 
gave  such  splendid  results.  Tosi  insisted  that  the  pupil  should 
never  sing  at  all  except  in  the  presence  of  a  master.  It  is  impor- 
tant that  the  very  best  teacher  that  can  be  found  should  be  chosen ; 
it  is  a  false  economy  to  trust  a  young  voice  to  an  inferior  man  on 
the  ground  of  cheapness.  To  masters  I  venture  to  hint  that  they 
should  strive  to  train  their  pupils  according  to  the  traditions  of 
the  golden  age  of  song  before  the  laryngoscope  was  invented. 

I  have  only  to  add  that  the  ear  should  be  not  less  carefully 
trained  than  the  vocal  organs.  An  old  Scotch  minister  used  to 
tell  his  flock  that  the  conscience  should  be  kept  "  as  white  as  the 
breest  o'  a  clean  sark."  The  ear  is  the  conscience  of  the  voice,  and 
its  purity  should  be  not  less  jealously  guarded.  Many  singers  of 
the  finest  vocal  endowment  fail  from  a  defect  of  ear ;  their  con- 
dition is  like  that  of  a  color-blind  painter.  Passing  indisposition 
may  sometimes  vitiate  the  ear  as  well  as  the  temper ;  the  artist 
should  on  no  account  attempt  to  sing  under  such  circumstances. 

Two  questions  in  connection  with  the  training  of  the  voice  still 
remain  to  be  discussed — viz.,  when  it  should  be  commenced,  and 
whether  it  should  be  interrupted  during  the  so-called  "  cracking  " 


SPEECH  AND   SONG.  251 

period.  With,  regard  to  the  first  of  these  questions  I  am  strongly 
of  opinion  that  training  can  hardly  be  begun  too  early.  Of  course, 
the  kind  and  amount  of  practice  that  are  necessary  in  the  adult 
would  be  monstrous  in  a  young  child,  but  there  is  no  reason  why, 
even  at  the  age  of  sis  or  seven,  the  right  method  of  voice-produc- 
tion should  not  be  taught.  Singing,  like  every  other  art,  is  chiefly 
learned  by  imitation,  and  it  seems  a  pity  to  lose  the  advantage  of 
those  precious  early  years  when  that  faculty  is  most  highly  de- 
veloped. There  is  no  fear  of  injuring  the  larynx  or  straining  the 
voice  by  elementary  instruction  of  this  kind ;  on  the  contrary,  it 
is  habitual  faulty  vocalization  which  is  pernicious.  The  sooner 
the  right  way  of  using  the  voice  is  taught  the  more  easy  will  it  be 
to  guard  against  the  contraction  of  bad  habits,  which  can  only  be 
corrected  at  a  later  period  with  infinite  trouble.  Many  of  the 
finest  voices  have  been  trained  almost  from  the  cradle,  so  to 
speak.  I  need  only  mention  Adelina  Patti,  Christine  Nilsson, 
Jenny  Lind,  and  Madame  Albani  ;  but  there  are  numbers  of 
other  queens  of  song  who  owe  great  part  of  their  success  to  the 
same  cause. 

As  for  the  other  point,  I  am  still  an  obstinate  dissenter  from 
the  "orthodox"  teaching  of  singing-masters  on  the  subject.  I 
have  already  more  than  once  expressed  my  belief  that  there  is  no 
reason  why  training,  within  certain  limits  and  under  strict  super- 
vision by  a  competent  person,  should  not  be  carried  on  when  the 
voice  is  in  the  transition  stage  of  its  development  from  childhood 
to  adolescence.  The  stock  argument,  invariably  advanced  to  prove 
the  necessity  of  suspending  the  education  of  the  voice  till  it  has 
passed  through  the  "  breaking "  period,  is  that,  as  the  parts  are 
undergoing  active  changes,  they  therefore  require  complete  rest. 
This  would  equally  apply  to  the  limbs,  and,  in  some  degree,  also 
to  the  brain.  Yet  I  am  not  aware  that  it  has  ever  been  proposed 
to  forbid  growing  lads  from  exercising  their  bodies,  even  in  games 
involving  considerable  muscular  violence,  or  to  interrupt  the  edu- 
cation of  the  mental  powers  till  the  brain  has  become  fully  formed. 
Overpressure  there  may  be,  no  doubt,  in  voice-training  as  in  other 
kinds  of  instruction.  All  voices  are  not  capable  of  bearing  the 
same  amount  of  training.  Each  case  must  be  dealt  with  accord- 
ing to  what  doctors  call  the  particular  "  indications "  that  may 
arise.  My  thesis  holds  good  only  as  a  general  rule,  to  which  there 
may  be  many  individual  exceptions.  A  judicious  teacher  will, 
however,  have  no  difficulty  in  deciding  as  to  the  best  course  to 
adopt  in  any  given  instance. 

After  the  voice  has  been  developed  to  its  utmost  capacity,  the 
next  thing  is  to  keep  it  in  perfect  condition.  How  is  this  to  be 
done  ?  As  Danton  said  that  the  three  things  needed  to  insure 
success  were  De  Vaudace,  de  Vaudace,  et  encore  de  Vaudace,  I  say 


252  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

the  three  things  necessary  to  keep  the  voice  in  good  order  are 
practice,  practice,  and  again  practice.  A  singer  who  lets  his  voice 
lie  idle  is  pretty  sure  to  lose  some  of  his  upper  notes,  his  breathing- 
power  falls  below  its  highest  standard,  and  the  larynx  becomes 
less  supple  and  less  obedient  to  his  will.  Another  vital  point  is 
never,  if  possible,  to  use  the  voice  when  it  is  not  at  its  best.  The 
slightest  cold  deadens  to  some  extent  the  vibrations  of  the  cords, 
and  the  resonators  are  also  thrown  out  of  tune  by  dryness  or  ex- 
cessive moisture  of  their  lining  membranes.  Bodily  weakness  or 
indisposition  is  reflected  in  the  voice ;  the  cords  do  not  come  firmly 
together,  and  their  tension  is  insufficient  for  perfect  purity,  much 
less  richness,  of  tone.  A  most  essential  element  in  the  care  of  the 
voice  is  attention  to  the  general  health.  This  is  very  apt  to  be 
neglected  by  singers,  who  have  rather  a  tendency,  as  a  class,  to 
lead  the  life  of  hot-house  plants,  living  in  rooms  from  which  fresh 
air  is  shut  out  almost  as  if  it  were  a  pestilence,  and  taking  little 
or  no  physical  exercise.  It  is  right,  no  doubt,  that  a  singer  should 
shield  his  precious  instrument  from  harm  as  carefully  as  a  violin- 
ist protects  his  Straduarius  or  Amati,  but  exaggerated  precaution 
may  defeat  its  object.  Even  the  most  dainty  of  light  tenors  can 
not  live  wrapped  up  in  cotton-wool,  and  the  delicacy  engendered 
by  the  unhealthy  conditions  of  life  which  have  been  referred  to 
makes  the  slightest  exposure  to  cold  or  fog  almost  deadly  to  his 
artificially  enervated  throat.  A  singer  who  wishes  to  keep  himself 
in  good  voice  should  rise,  if  not  exactly  with  his  brother  minstrel, 
the  lark,  at  least  pretty  early,  say,  before  eight  in  the  morning. 
Tosi  says  that  the  best  hour  for  practice  is  the  first  of  the  sun,  but 
this,  I  fear,  is  a  "  counsel  of  perfection  "  beyond  the  virtue  of  this 
unheroic  age.  The  singer  should  take  plenty  of  exercise  in  the 
open  air,  and  should  harden  his  constitution  by  leading,  as  far  as 
possible,  a  healthy  outdoor  life.  Nothing  gives  richness  and  vol- 
ume to  the  voice  like  vigorous  health ;  an  experienced  ear  can 
often  tell  a  man's  physical  condition  by  the  full,  generous  "  ring " 
of  his  tones,  both  in  singing  and  speaking. 

There  is  even  more  superstition  among  singers  than  among 
speakers,  as  to  what  is  "  good  for  the  voice."  A  formidable  list 
of  things  which  were  supposed  by  the  ancients  to  be  injurious  is 
given  by  Pliny ;  it  includes  such  a  variety  of  animal  and  vegetable 
substances  that  one  wonders  how  unfortunate  vocalists  could  have 
found  life  worth  living  under  such  ultra-Spartan  conditions.  Our 
modern  artistes  tend  to  err  rather  in  the  opposite  direction,  to 
judge  from  their  extraordinarily  comprehensive  views  as  to  what 
is  "  good  "  for  the  voice.  Every  species  of  drink,  from  champagne 
to  hot  water,  and  almost  every  recognized  article  of  food,  includ- 
ing that  particularly  British  institution,  cold  roast  beef,  has  its ' 
devotees.     I  have  no  manner  of  doubt  that  every  one  of  these 


SPEECH  AND   SONG.  253 

things  is  really  beneficial,  not  from  any  occult  virtue  that  there  is 
in  them,  but  because  the  solids  give  strength,  while  the  liquids 
moisten  and  lubricate  the  throat.  That  is  the  whole  secret  of 
the  cordials  and  elixirs  in  which  many  vocalists  place  their 
trust. 

A  useful  example  of  the  proper  care  of  the  voice  is  to  be  found 
in  a  very  unexpected  quarter.  The  Emperor  Nero,  as  is  well  known, 
believed  himself  to  be  a  great  artist,  a  notion  of  which  those  about 
were  not  likely  to  disabuse  him.  His  dying  words, "  Qualis  artifex 
pereo ! "  show  that  he  had  at  least  one  feature  of  the  artistic  tem- 
perament. He  sought  fame  by  many  paths — in  poetry,  fiddling, 
driving,  and  other  branches  of  the  fine  arts — to  say  nothing  of  his 
scientific  experiments  on  the  bodies  of  his  nearest  relations.  The 
imperial  virtuoso  was  particularly  vain  of  his  voice,  which  I  can 
well  imagine  to  have  been  soft  and  sweet,  qualities  which  often 
enough  accompany  a  cruel  nature.  He  was  proportionately  care- 
ful of  so  precious  a  possession.  His  system  is  worth  quoting.  In 
addition  to  such  general  measures  as  attending  to  his  liver,  and 
abstaining  from  such  fruits  and  other  food  as  he  fancied  to  be  in- 
jurious to  his  voice,  we  are  told  that  at  night  he  used  to  lie  on  his 
back  with  a  small  plate  of  lead  on  his  stomach.  This  was  proba- 
bly for  the  purpose  of  checking  the  tendency  to  abdominal  breath- 
ing, which  has  already  been  referred  to  as  the  less  perfect  way  in 
respiration  for  singers.  In  order  to  spare  his  voice  all  unnecessary 
fatigue,  he  gave  up  haranguing  his  troops  and  ceased  even  to  ad- 
dress the  Senate.  As  in  later  times  there  were  keepers  of  the  king's 
conscience,  Nero  gave  his  voice  into  the  keeping  of  a  phonascus. 
He  spoke  only  in  the  presence  of  this  vocal  director,  whose  duty 
it  was  to  warn  him  when  his  tones  became  too  loud,  or  when  he 
seemed  to  be  in  danger  of  straining  his  voice.  To  the  same  func- 
tionary was  intrusted  the  formidable  duty  of  checking  the  em- 
peror's eloquence  when  it  became  too  impetuous ;  this  he  did  by 
covering  the  imperial  orator's  mouth  with  a  napkin.  It  must  have 
needed  no  small  measure  of  courage  to  apply  this  effectual  method 
of  "  closure  "  to  the  arch-tyrant  of  history  when  intoxicated  with 
the  exuberance  of  his  own  vocalization. 

While  laying  stress  on  the  necessity  of  proper  cultivation  in 
order  to  make  the  singer  capable  of  giving  the  greatest  pleasure 
to  his  hearers  with  the  least  amount  of  fatigue  to  himself,  I  vent- 
ure to  add  that  many  singers  who  are  admirably  trained  have 
rather  a  tendency  to  "  o'erstep  the  modesty  of  nature "  in  their 
delivery.  It  was  said  of  Flaubert's  Salammbo,  that  it  might  be 
Carthaginian,  but  it  was  not  human ;  in  the  same  way  I  am  dis- 
posed to  say  of  certain  highly  "  artistic  "  vocal  displays  which  one 
is  sometimes  condemned  to  hear,  that  it  may  be  song  but  it  assur- 
edly is  not  music.    When  listening  to  such  tremendous  perform- 


254-  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

ances,  I  often  find  myself  echoing  the  words  of  poor  Christopher 
Sly :  "  Tis  a  very  excellent  piece  of  work,  madam  lady ;  would 
'twere  done ! "  An  old  Italian  writer,  himself  both  a  singer  and  a 
teacher,  most  truly  says :  "  E  vaglia  'I  vero,  dove  parla  la  passione 
i  trilli  e  i  passaggi  devon  tacere  " — leaving  the  soul  to  be  moved 
solely  by  the  beauty  of  expression.  It  was  this  quality  of  sympa- 
thetic expression  that  made  the  singing  of  Tom  Moore,  who  had 
no  "  voice  "  in  the  technical  sense,  more  moving  than  that  of  re- 
nowned artists.  In  an  altogether  different  line,  Mr.  George  Gros- 
smith  contrives  by  the  exquisite  clearness  of  his  modulation  to  add 
considerably  to  the  gayety  of  nations  with  a  very  limited  stock  of 
notes. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  things  relating  to  song  at  the  pres- 
ent day  is  the  scarcity  of  really  fine  voices.  It  will  not,  I  suppose, 
be  seriously  argued  that  the  human  voice  is  degenerating,  and 
never  were  the  inducements  to  cultivate  it  more  abundant  or  more 
powerful.  Yet,  if  we  are  to  believe  many  competent  authorities, 
never  were  first-rate  voices  so  rare  as  at  the  present  time.  The 
complaint  is  not  altogether  new,  and  is,  in  part  at  least,  nothing 
more  than  the  inevitable  moan  of  the  laudator  temporis  acti  over 
the  decadence  of  things  in  general.  Rossini  at  the  zenith  of  his 
fame  complained  that  there  were  so  few  good  voices,  and  quite  at 
the  beginning  of  the  last  century  we  find  Tosi  speaking  of  his  own 
period  as  one  of  decay.  Mancini  also  (1774)  says  that  vocal  art 
had  then  fallen  very  low,  a  circumstance  which  he  attributes  to 
singers  "  having  forgotten  the  old  systems  and  the  sound  practice 
of  the  ancient  schools."  Still,  modern  writers  on  singing  are 
agreed  that  there  is  a  dearth  of  really  beautiful  voices  at  the  pres- 
ent time,  and,  as  this  is  one  of  the  very  few  points  on  which  these 
contentious  persons  are  agreed,  there  can  be  little  doubt  of  the 
truth  of  the  fact  to  which  they  bear  witness.  Good  tenors  are 
especially  rare,  even  among  Italians,  the  chosen  people  of  song. 
There  are  no  tenors  now  who  can  be  compared  with  Mario  or  Ru- 
bini ;  indeed,  one  gathers  from  Mr.  Sims  Reeves's  reminiscences, 
published  not  long  ago,  that  the  world  is  at  present  blest  with 
only  one  really  first-rate  tenor.  Mr.  Reeves  leaves  his  readers  in 
no  doubt  as  to  the  identity  of  this  Triton  among  contemporaneous 
minnows  of  song.  We  have  no  basso  that  can  stand  beside  La- 
blache.  Except  Madame  Patti,  whose  glorious  voice  is  now  too 
seldom  heard,  and  Madame  Christine  Nilsson,  who,  to  the  regret 
of  all  lovers  of  song,  has  quitted  the  lyric  stage,  Madame  Albani 
and  Madame  Sembrich  are  almost  the  sole  inheritors  of  the 
renown  of  the  great  prime  donne  of  old.  It  is  not  only  in  com- 
pass and  quality  that  our  latter-day  voices  are  inferior  to  those  of 
preceding  generations,  but  in  endurance.  Catalani's  magnificent 
voice  remained  unimpaired  up  to  extreme  old  age,  and  Farinelli's 


SPEECH  AND   SONG.  255 

only  died  with  him.  Matteucci,  when  past  his  eightieth  year,  used 
to  sing  in  church  every  Sunday  per  mera  devozione,  and  such  was 
the  freshness  and  flexibility  of  his  voice  that  those  who  could  not 
see  him  took  it  to  be  that  of  a  young  man  in  the  flower  of  his  age. 
Indeed,  this  was  not  very  uncommon  in  singers  trained  according 
to  the  best  traditions  of  the  old  Italian  school,  which  seems  to  have 
possessed  the  secret  of  perpetual  youth  as  far  as  the  voice  was  con- 
cerned. 

Now,  to  what  can  our  poverty  in  voices  of  the  highest  class  be 
due  ?  I  believe  to  a  combination  of  three  different  causes :  First, 
inadequacy  of  training  ;  secondly,  the  want  of  good  teachers  ;  and, 
thirdly,  the  gradual  rise  of  the  concert  pitch  which  has  taken 
place  in  recent  years.  Insufficient  training  arises  from  the  breath- 
less haste  to  "  succeed  "  which  is  a  characteristic  of  this  feverish 
age.  Voices  are  quickly  run  up  by  contract,  and  as  swiftly  fall 
into  decay.  The  preference  for  supposed  "  royal  roads  "  over  the 
hard-beaten  path  that  has  led  former  singers  to  fame  is  another 
error  which  has  worked  almost  as  much  mischief  in  song  as  it  has 
in  scholarship.  A  vocalist  nowadays  thinks  that  a  year  in  Eng- 
land and  a  second  year  in  Italy  is  all  that  is  needed  to  equip  him 
for  a  brilliant  artistic  career.  In  "  the  brave  days  of  old  "  singers 
never  deemed  their  vocal  education  complete  until  they  had  given 
six  or  seven  years  to  the  ceaseless  study  of  their  art. 

The  want  of  good  teachers  is  closely  connected  with  the  inade- 
quacy of  modern  training,  for  it  is  evident  that  a  man  who  has 
not  himself  had  the  patience  or  the  industry  to  master  his  art  can 
not  be  a  satisfactory  guide  to  others.  Show  and  superficial  brill- 
iancy of  execution  are  aimed  at  rather  than  solidity  and  thor- 
oughness ;  more  attention  is  paid  to  vocal  tours  de  force  than  to 
artistic  ornament.  The  firm  basis  of  experience  has  been  aban- 
doned for  fantastic  methods  of  teaching  which  are  useless  when 
they  are  not  positively  harmful.  I  would  earnestly  advise  all 
those  who  profess  to  impart  the  divine  art  of  song,  like  Prospero, 
to  "  drown  their  books,"  and  study  the  production  of  the  voice  as 
an  art,  and  not  as  a  branch  of  Chinese  metaphysics. 

That  the  high  concert  pitch  now  generally  used,  especially  in 
this  country,  throws  an  unnatural  strain  on  even  the  finest  voices, 
is  a  fact  as  to  which  most  authorities  are  agreed.  In  the  classical 
period  of  music,  A  (second  space,  treble  clef)  represented  from  four 
hundred  and  fifteen  to  four  hundred  and  twenty-nine  vibrations  ; 
this  pitch  suited  the  human  voice  admirably.  The  desire  to  get 
increasingly  brilliant  effects  from  the  orchestra  forced  the  pitch 
higher  and  higher,  till  so  much  confusion  prevailed  that,  in  1859, 
a  French  commission  fixed  the  standard  pitch  at  four  hundred  and 
thirty-five  vibrations.  This  is  called  the  normal  diapason,  and  is 
now  generally  used  on  the  Continent ;  but  England,  with  her  cus- 


256  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

tomary  insular  independence,  has  not  conformed  to  the  general 
rule  in  the  matter,  and  the  pitch  has  in  this  country  actually  risen 
to  four  hundred  and  fifty-eight  vibrations.  This  result  is  largely 
due  to  the  extraordinary  impulse  given  to  orchestral  music  by  the 
genius  of  Costa,  who,  so  long  as  he  could  get  brilliant  effects  from 
his  instruments,  cared  little  for  the  consequences  which  the  rise 
of  pitch  entailed  on  the  voice.  But  it  will  be  said,  since  it  is 
all  a  matter  of  convention,  why  can  not  the  pitch  be  lowered  ? 
I  believe  the  chief  obstacle  is  the  expense  which  this  would 
involve  through  the  necessity  of  altering  instruments.  It  has 
been  estimated  that  it  would  cost  eighty  thousand  pounds  to 
alter  those  of  the  military  bands  alone,  and  politicians  probably 
think  that  these  are  hardly  the  times  to  ask  for  money  for  such 
an  object. 

But  worse  even  than  the  undue  height  of  the  pitch  is  the  dif- 
ference between  this  country  and  the  rest  of  the  civilized  world 
which  has  just  been  referred  to.  Herr  Joachim  complains  that 
he  is  obliged  to  begin  screwing  up  his  violin  eight  weeks  before 
he  comes  to  England,  in  order  that  the  instrument  may  not  be 
injured  by  a  sudden  change.  It  is  not  so  easy,  however,  for  the 
singer  to  prepare  his  delicately  strung  instrument  in  the  same 
way,  and  the  result  is  necessarily  great  strain  to  the  vocal  cords 
and  throat  generally.  The  high  pitch  used  in  England  leads  to 
the  production  of  very  disagreeable  shrieking ;  notes  are  delivered 
which  are  in  no  sense  artistically  beautiful,  and  which  only  "  split 
the  ears  of  the  groundlings."  Nearly  all  singers  are  in  favor  of 
lowering  the  pitch.  The  sole  exceptions  are,  I  believe,  the  con- 
traltos, whom  a  high  pitch  does  not  affect  so  much  as  it  does  oth- 
ers. I  know  of  one  justly  celebrated  contralto  who  produces  an 
extraordinary  effect  by  her  low  E.  If  the  pitch  were  altered  this 
vocal  feat  would  no  longer  be  so  wonderful,  and  it  is  natural, 
therefore,  that  this  lady  should  wish  the  present  state  of  things  to 
continue. 

Perhaps,  after  all,  the  supposed  scarcity  of  good  voices  may  be 
more  apparent  than  real.  It  is  possible  that  it  is  not  only  the 
pitch  but  the  standard  of  vocal  excellence  that  has  risen.  We 
know  how  the  general  level  of  literary  style  has  risen,  and,  in  par- 
ticular, how  the  art  of  melodious  versification  has  been  popular- 
ized, if  I  may  use  the  expression,  so  that  every  cheap  magazine, 
and  even  the  poets'  corner  of  provincial  newspapers,  contains  cop- 
ies of  verses  which  would  have  earned  considerable  reputation  for 
the  authors  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago.  It  is  immensely  more 
difficult  now  to  make  a  name  by  writing.  May  not  something  of 
the  same  kind  be  the  case  as  regards  singing  ?  I  fear  we  must 
not  lay  that  flattering  unction  to  our  souls.  Great  singers  are 
rarer  nowadays  than  in  former  times,  because  voice-training  is 


SUSPENSION   OF   VITALITY  IN  ANIMALS.         257 

almost  a  lost  art.  The  remedy  lies,  as  has  been  said,  in  a  return 
to  methods  consecrated  by  glorious  tradition,  and  fruitful  of 
results  which,  as  experience  has  abundantly  proved,  can  not  be 
attained  by  shorter  or  easier  ways. — Contemporary  Review. 

[Concluded.] 


■>  «  » 


SUSPENSION  OF  VITALITY  IN  ANIMALS. 

By  M.  VICTOE  LAPOETE. 

FAMILIAR  instances  of  suspended  vitality,  or  rather  latent 
vitality,  are  afforded  by  seeds,  which  may  be  kept  for  years 
without  showing  action,  but  are  yet  capable  of  being  recalled  to 
the  exercise  of  the  functions  of  life.  Other  instances  are  afforded 
by  the  lower  organisms,  which  will  remain  dry  and  sterile  for 
indefinite  periods,  to  be  brought  into  full  activity  at  any  time  by 
supplying  the  due  degree  of  moisture  and  warmth.  Coming  up 
to  higher  forms  of  life,  the  same  phenomena  are  usually  mani- 
fested in  insects,  one  of  the  normal  conditions  of  whose  life — the 
nympha  or  chrysalis  state — is  characterized  by  the  exhibition  of 
the  external  appearance  of  death.  During  this  stage  the  vital 
processes  are  tempered  down  till  only  enough  are  in  effect  to 
maintain  a  merely  vegetative  existence ;  yet  the  insect  is  capable 
of  slight  motions  when  subjected  to  a  shock  or  pressure.  The 
duration  of  this  apparent  death  varies  according  to  the  species 
and  to  external  conditions.  There  are  species  that  require  two 
years  of  incubation  before  going  through  their  metamorphosis. 
Others  pass  to  tlie  perfect  state  in  a  few  days.  Butterflies  demand 
a  certain  degree  of  heat,  below  which  they  will  not  issue.  The 
opening  of  the  chrysalis  takes  place  naturally  when  these  atmos- 
pheric conditions  are  realized.  If  the  season  is  late,  the  hatching 
is  also  late.  Hence  we  can  prolong  the  duration  of  the  chrysalis 
state  indefinitely  by  properly  adjusting  the  temperature,  delaying 
to  that  extent  the  metamorphosis  of  the  imprisoned  mummy  into 
the  free  and  winged  insect.  Reaumur,  by  putting  chrysalides  in 
an  ice-box,  was  able  to  keep  them  alive  and  retard  their  develop- 
ment several  years. 

"  Perfect "  insects  are  also  capable  of  passing  some  time  in  a 
more  or  less  definite  condition  of  apparent  death  without  losing 
the  capacity  to  revive.  I  do  not  mean  those  simulations  of  death 
which  some  species  put  on  in  order  to  escape  their  enemies,  and 
under  which  their  condition  may  be  mistaken  by  the  most  care- 
ful and  patient  observer,  but  cases  in  which  they  revive  under 
really  extraordinary  conditions.  Of  such  cases  are  instances  of 
flies,  which,  having  been  accidentally  inclosed  in  casks  of  Madeira 

VOL.  XXXVI. 17 


258  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

wine  shipped  to  Europe,  became  lively  as  soon  as  they  were  ex- 
posed to  the  air.  Frozen  caterpillars  are  sometimes  revived  when 
thawed  out.  That  May-bugs  can  be  restored  to  life  after  they 
have  been  drowned  has  been  proved  by  Prof.  Balbiani,  of  the  Col- 
lege de  France,  in  conclusive  experiments.  He  restored  many  by 
drying  them  in  the  sun  after  he  had  kept  them  immersed  for 
twenty-four  hours,  two  days,  and  even  five  days.  In  another 
experiment  a  stag-beetle,  put  under  alcohol  for  a  half -hour  and 
then  dried,  was  still  in  motion  after  three  days. 

Going  higher  up  in  the  animal  series — eggs,  which  are  analo- 
gous to  the  seeds  of  plants,  present  a  remarkable  example  of  re- 
tarded life.  One  of  the  most  interesting  features  about  them  is 
the  independence  of  their  vitality,  which  persists  even  when  the 
individual  that  has  produced  them,  and  within  whose  organism 
they  are  still  contained,  has  ceased  to  live.  This  fact  has  been 
recognized  in  pisciculture,  where  artificial  fecundation  has  been 
successful  with  eggs  taken  from  dead  fish. 

The  persistence  of  life  in  frogs  is  very  long.  Spallanzani  pre- 
served some  frogs  in  a  mass  of  snow  for  two  years.  They  became 
dry,  stiff,  and  almost  friable,  but  a  gradual  heat  brought  them 
back  to  life.  Vulpian  observed  a  return  of  life  in  frogs  and 
salamanders  that  had  been  poisoned  with  curare  and  nicotine.  In 
both  cases  the  animals  in  question  had  been  for  several  days  in 
the  condition  of  cadavers.  Toads  have  been  shut  up  in  blocks  of 
plaster,  and  then,  having  been  deprived  of  all  air  except  what 
may  penetrate  through  the  material,  and  of  all  sources  of  food, 
resuscitated  several  years  afterward.  This  question  presents  one 
of  the  most  curious  problems  that  biological  science  has  been 
called  on  to  explain.  The  longevity  and  vital  resistance  of  toads 
are  surprising.  Besides  the  experiments  we  have  cited,  Nature 
sometimes  presents  some  already  made,  and  vastly  more  astonish- 
ing. Toads  are  said  to  have  been  found  in  rocks.  Such  cases 
are  rare,  but  it  would  be  as  unreasonable  to  doubt  them  as  to  be- 
lieve in  some  of  the  miraculous  explanations  that  have  been  made 
of  the  matter.  The  phenomenon  is  marvelous,  it  is  true,  but  it 
is  supported  by  evidence  that  we  are  not  able  to  contest ;  and 
skepticism,  which  is  incompatible  with  science,  will  have  to  dis- 
appear if  rigorous  observation  shall  confirm  it.  The  toad  was 
observed,  in  one  case,  in  the  stone  itself,  and  before,  recovering 
from  its  long  lethargy,  it  had  made  any  motion.  One  of  these 
toads  was  presented  to  an  academy,  with  the  stone  which  had 
served  it  as  a  coffin  or  habitation,  and  it  was  ascertained  that  the 
cavity  seemed  to  correspond  exactly  with  the  dimensions  and 
form  of  the  animal.  It  is  remarkable  that  these  toad-stones  are 
very  hard  and  not  at  all  porous,  and  show  no  signs  of  fissure. 
The  mind,  completely  baffled  in  the  presence  of  the  fact,  is  equally 


SKETCH   OF  ROBERT  KOCH.  259 

embarrassed  to  explain  how  the  toad  could  live  in  its  singular 
prison  and  how  it  became  shut  up  there.  The  strangest  ideas 
have  been  expressed  on  this  point.  The  ridiculous  hypothesis  has 
even  been  proposed  of  an  imperceptible  toad-germ  that  was  de- 
veloped in  the  interior  of  the  stone.  The  fact  of  the  survival  of 
the  toad,  despite  the  impenetrability  of  the  stone,  becomes  less 
doubtful  when  we  recollect  the  similar  experiments  on  animals 
inclosed  in  plaster,  which  we  have  mentioned  above.  But  the 
problem  of  the  toad's  introduction  into  the  stone  still  remains  un- 
solved. 

M.  Charles  Richet  had  occasion  to  study  this  question  some 
months  ago,  and  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  fact  was  real, 
observing  that  even  if,  in  the  actual  condition  of  science,  certain 
phenomena  were  still  inexplicable,  we  were  not  warranted  in  de- 
nying their  existence,  for  new  discoveries  might  at  any  time  fur- 
nish an  explanation  of  them.  "  The  true  may  sometimes  not  be 
probable."  But  science  takes  accounting  of  the  truth,  not  of  the 
probability. 

Hibernating  mammalia  are  capable  of  putting  on  all  the 
appearance  of  death.  The  marmot,  during  its  lethargic  sleep,  is 
cold,  the  temperature  of  its  body  being  hardly  1°  C.  above  that 
without.  It  respires  only  three  times  a  minute  ;  and  the  beatings 
of  the  heart,  which  rise  to  ninety  a  minute  in  the  active  life  of  the 
animal,  fall  to  ten  in  a  minute.  Bats,  during  the  cold  season, 
hang  like  dead  bodies.  One  may  take  them  in  his  hands,  press 
them,  and  throw  them  into  the  air,  without  their  manifesting  any 
sign  of  feeling. — Translated  for  the  Popular  Science  Monthly  from 
La  Monde  de  la  Science  et  de  V Industrie. 


SKETCH  OF  ROBERT  KOCH. 

ONE  of  the  most  eminent  of  the  colaborers  of  Pasteur  in  the 
investigation  of  the  relations  of  microorganisms  to  disease- 
infection,  and  one  whose  labors  have  been  most  fully  appreciated 
by  intelligent  men,  is  Dr.  Robert  Koch,  of  Berlin.  He  was  born  at 
Clausthal  on  the  11th  of  December,  1843,  the  son  of  a  high  officer 
in  the  department  of  mines.  He  attended  the  gymnasium  in  his 
native  town,  and  afterward — from  1862  to  1866 — studied  medicine 
at  Gottingen.  He  became  an  assistant  in  the  Allgemeine  Krank- 
enhaus,  or  General  Hospital,  at  Hamburg ;  began  the  practice  of 
medicine  in  1866  at  Langenhagen  in  Hanover ;  then  settled  at 
Racknitz,  in  Posen.  From  1872  till  1880  he  was  physihas  or  dis- 
trict physician  at  Wallstein,  in  the  district  of  Bomst.  He  en- 
gaged in  studies  of  bacteriological  diseases,  including  wound- 


z6o  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

infections,  septicaemia,  and  anthrax,  or  splenic  fever,  with,  great 
success ;  and  was  appointed  in  1880  a  member  in  ordinary  of  the 
Imperial  Health  Office.  In  1885  he  was  appointed  a  j>rofessor,  and 
the  director  of  the  Hygienic  Institute  in  Berlin. 

The  first  public  report  of  Dr.  Koch's  to  attract  general  atten- 
tion was  that  in  reference  to  the  bacterium  which  had  been  found 
associated  with  anthrax,  or  splenic  disease,  and  was  made  about 
1878.  His  investigations  went  to  show  that  the  potency  of  this 
organism  lay  in  the  spores  rather  than  in  the  developed  bacterium. 
He  found  that,  when  no  spores  were  visible  in  the  dried  diseased 
blood  with  which  mice  were  inoculated,  the  power  of  conveying 
infection  lasted  only  for  a  few  weeks ;  while  blood  in  which  the 
spores  had  separated  continued  virulent  for  at  least  four  years. 

He  next  turned  his  attention  to  those  infectious  disorders 
which  originate  in  the  introduction  of  poisonous  matter  through 
wounds.  Living  organisms  had  already  been  observed  in  these 
diseases,  but  their  connection  with  the  development  of  the  infec- 
tion had  not  been  determined.  Dr.  Koch's  experiments  with 
small  animals  showed  that  different  forms  of  disease  were  pro- 
duced by  the  injection  of  putrid  blood,  one  of  which  was  not 
accompanied  by  the  development  of  bacteria,  but  seemed  due  to  a 
special  poison  which  he  named  septin  or  sepsin,  while  another 
form  was  evidently  bacterial;  and  that  the  effects  varied  with 
different  animals. 

In  1882  Dr.  Koch  published  the  results  of  experiments  which 
went  to  confirm  the  opinion  already  held  by  physicians  who  had 
observed  the  progress  of  the  discovery  of  the  fungoid  origin  of 
various  infections,  that  tubercular  disease  was  also  caused  by 
microphytic  germs.  He  claimed  not  only  that  he  had  ascertained 
the  bacterial  origin  of  the  disease,  but  to  have  detected  the  specific 
microbe,  having  found  a  characteristic  and  previously  unknown 
bacillus  in  all  tubercularly  altered  organs.  He  had  observed  it  in 
pulmonary  tuberculosis,  cheesy  bronchitis  and  pneumonia,  tuber- 
cles of  the  brain,  intestinal  tubercles,  scrofulous  glands,  and  fun- 
gous inflammation  of  the  joints ;  in  all  cases  which  he  had  exam- 
ined of  spontaneous  consumption  in  animals — in  cattle,  hogs, 
poultry,  monkeys,  porpoises,  and  rabbits.  In  monkeys  dead  of 
consumption  he  had  found  the  organisms  in  quanities  pervading 
the  lungs,  spleen,  liver,  diaphragm,  and  lymphatic  glands.  He 
supposed  that,  escaping  into  the  air  from  the  expectorations  of 
phthisical  patients,  they  were  inhaled  into  the  lungs,  where  they 
developed.  "Whenever  the  tubercular  process  was  in  its  early  and 
active  stage,  they  were  present  in  great  numbers.  When  the 
climax  of  the  tubercular  eruption  was  passed,  they  decreased  and 
might  totally  disappear. 

Dr.  Koch's  report  of  this  investigation  was  published  in  one  of 


SKETCH  OF  ROBERT  KOCH.  261 

the  Berlin  medical  journals,  in  a  memoir  on  "  The  Etiology  of 
Tuberculosis,"  of  which  Dr.  Klein,  a  distinguished  pathologist, 
said  that  any  one  who  carefully  reviewed  it  would  "  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  Dr.  Koch's  results  are  to  be  accepted  with  uncon- 
ditional faith,  and  I  have  no  manner  of  doubt  will  be  considered  by 
all  pathologists  as  of  the  very  highest  importance.  To  those  who 
are  familiar  with  Dr.  Koch's  previous  work,  especially  that  on  the 
etiology  of  splenic  fever,  or  anthrax,  and  his  observations  on  path- 
ogenic bacteria,  this  last  work  of  his,  on  the  etiology  of  tubercu- 
losis, will  be  an  additional  and  brilliant  testimony  to  his  ingenious 
and  successful  method  of  research."  This  testimony  is  the  more 
significant  because  Dr.  Klein  afterward  disputed  Koch's  identifi- 
cation of  the  "comma  bacillus"  with  the  cause  of  cholera.  In 
the  next  year  a  report  was  published  by  Mr.  Watson  Cheyne  of 
a  visit  which  he  had  made  as  a  commissioner  of  the  British  Asso- 
ciation for  the  Advancement  of  Medicine  by  Research,  to  the  labo- 
ratory of  Dr.  Koch,  and  also  to  that  of  M.  Toussaint,  who  was 
engaged  in  a  similar  investigation.  It  represented  that  such 
results  of  Toussaint  as  disagreed  with  those  obtained  by  Dr. 
Koch  were  not  borne  out.  But  the  result  of  inoculation  with 
cultivations  obtained  from  Dr.  Koch  was  in  all  cases  rapid  devel- 
opment of  tuberculosis.  The  examination  of  a  large  quantity 
of  tuberculous  material  showed  the  constant  presence  of  tuber- 
cle bacilli,  but  of  no  other  micro-organisms.  The  rapidity  and 
certainty  of  action  of  this  matter,  when  inoculated  into  animals, 
was  in  direct  ratio  to  the  number  of  bacilli  introduced,  and  the 
most  certain  and  rapid  means  of  inducing  tuberculosis  seemed  to 
be  the  inoculation  of  the  tubercle  bacillus  cultivated  on  solid 
blood-serum.  These  facts  led  Mr.  Cheyne  to  the  conclusion  that 
these  bacilli  are  the  virus  of  the  acute  tuberculosis  caused  in  ani- 
mals by  inoculation. 

When  the  cholera  broke  out  in  Egypt  in  1883,  the  German 
Government  appointed  Dr.  Koch  chief  of  a  commission  to  go  to 
that  country,  and  also  to  India,  for  the  purpose  of  watching  the 
course  of  the  epidemic  and  investigating  the  nature  and  cause  of 
the  disease.  The  report  of  the  work  of  this  commission  in  Egypt, 
published  in  the  early  autumn  of  1883,  while  it  did  not  make 
known  any  certain  results  of  the  investigation,  and  dealt  "  in  a 
very  guarded  manner "  with  the  question  of  the  discovery  of  a 
definite  cholera  bacillus,  pointed  out  the  line  on  which  future 
studies  were  to  be  pursued.  In  experiments  carried  on  in  both 
living  and  dead  subjects,  while  no  distinct  organism  could  be 
traced  in  the  blood  and  the  organs  which  are  most  frequently  the 
seat  of  micro-parasites,  bacteria  having  distinct  characteristics 
were  found  in  the  intestines  and  their  mucous  linings,  under  cir- 
cumstances that  seemed  to  identify  them  with  the  disease  from 


262  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

which  the  patients  were  suffering.  They  were  present  in  the  case 
of  all  patients  suffering  from  cholera,  and  in  the  bodies  of  all  who 
had  died  of  it,  whereas  they  were  absent  in  the  case  of  one  patient 
who  had  had  time  to  recover  from  cholera,  but  had  died  of  some 
secondary  complication ;  and  they  were  not  discoverable  in  the 
case  of  patients  who,  during  the  cholera  epidemic,  succumbed  to 
other  diseases.  They  were  also  the  same  with  the  bacillus  which 
Dr.  Koch  had  met  the  year  before  in  the  bodies  of  patients  who 
had  died  of  cholera  in  India.  From  these  causes  the  commission 
felt  justified  in  provisionally  holding  the  belief  that  those  bacilli 
were  in  some  way  related  to  cholera,  but  were  not  yet  prepared  to 
say  whether  they  were  the  cause  or  the  effect  of  the  disease.  In 
1884  Dr.  Koch  visited  Toulon,  where  cholera  was  raging,  partly 
at  the  wish  of  the  French  Government,  which  desired  to  know 
more  of  his  methods  of  investigating  and  suppressing  the  disease. 

The  investigations  of  the  German  commission  were  continued 
in  India,  and  Dr.  Koch's  report  on  the  subject  was  published 
in  the  "  Klinische  Wochenschrift,"  of  Berlin,  No.  xxxiv,  1884. 
He  had  found,  in  the  rice-water  discharges  of  patients  suffering 
from  cholera,  besides  the  micrococci  and  bacilli  common  to  the 
evacuations  of  other  patients,  peculiar  curved  bacteria,  which 
have  become  known  as  "  comma-shaped  "  bacilli,  such  as  he  had 
not  been  able  to  discover  in  any  cases  of  diarrhoea ;  and  he  had 
succeeded  in  isolating  them  by  artificial  culture.  This  he  declared 
to  be  a  specific  micro-organism  having  marked  characteristics 
distinguishing  it  from  all  other  known  organisms.  These  or- 
ganisms grow  rapidly  in  meat-infusion  and  blood-serum,  and 
well  in  other  fluids,  especially  milk,  and  in  potatoes ;  and  possess 
the  power  of  active  motion.  They  grow  best  at  a  temperature  of 
between  30°  and  40°  C,  and  cease  to  grow  at  16°  C,  but  are  not 
killed  by  freezing.  They  grow  only  in  the  presence  of  oxygen, 
and  very  fast ;  their  vegetation  rapidly  reaches  its  highest  point, 
then  remains  stationary  for  a  time,  after  which  it  ceases  as  rap- 
idly as  it  grew,  and  the  bacilli  die.  When  dried,  they  die  within 
three  hours ;  and  they  do  not  form  spores.  Micro-organisms  pos- 
sessing all  of  these  and  certain  more  delicate  characteristics  which 
are  definitely  described,  are  Koch's  bacilli ;  organisms  presenting 
only  some  of  the  characteristics,  such  as  microscopical  appear- 
ance, are  something  else. 

The  presence  of  these  bacilli  in  cholera,  which  was  represented 
as  universal,  was  determined  by  microscopical  examination  in  ten 
cases  in  Egypt,  and  by  microscopical  examination  and  cultivation 
in  gelatinous  meat-infusion  in  forty-two  cases  of  post-mortem  ex- 
amination in  India ;  and  in  numerous  other  cases  of  dejections  in 
Egypt,  India,  and  Toulon — giving  a  hundred  cases  occurring  in 
various  parts   of   the  world,  carefully  examined,  in  which   the 


SKETCH   OF  ROBERT  K0C11.  263 

organisms  were  found.  It  had  been  further  found  that  this  was 
the  only  form  of  micro-organism  that  was  constantly  present  in 
the  disease ;  that  it  was  present  in  greatest  numbers  in  acute  and 
uncomplicated  cases,  and  in  the  parts  most  affected ;  while  it  was 
never  present  in  other  diseases,  in  healthy  persons,  and  had  not  been 
found  outside  of  the  body  where  no  cholera  was  in  the  neighbor- 
hood. Then,  having  disposed  of  two  hypothetical  presumptions  of 
contrary  tenor,  Dr.  Koch  declared  that  no  other  conclusion  could 
be  arrived  at  than  that  these  bacilli  are  the  cause  of  cholera. 

Although  no  effects  had  then  been  obtained  from  experiments 
with  comma  bacillus  upon  animals,  and  direct  experiments  upon 
man  could  not  be  performed,  various  observations  confirming  the 
theory  had  been  obtained  which  were  almost  as  good  as  experi- 
ments on  man.  In  the  water  of  a  tank  whence  the  inhabitants  of 
a  village  near  Calcutta  derived  their  supplies  for  drinking,  chol- 
era bacilli  were  found  in  considerable  numbers  when  the  cholera 
epidemic  was  at  its  height.  At  a  later  period,  when  there  were 
only  a  few  cases  of  illness,  the  comma  bacilli  were  few  in  number, 
and  found  only  at  one  part  of  the  tank.  This  was  the  only  in- 
stance in  which  these  bacilli  were  found  outside  of  the  body. 
Finally,  Dr.  Koch  maintained  that  the  natural  history  of  the  dis- 
ease corresponds  with  the  various  characteristics  of  the  organism 
in  question  The  bacilli  grow  rapidly,  soon  reach  their  highest 
point  of  development,  then  die,  in  correspondence  with  what  oc- 
curs in  the  intestinal  canal.  Under  ordinary  circumstances  the 
bacilli  are  destroyed  in  the  healthy  stomach,  while  persons  suffer- 
ing already  from  some  disorder  of  the  stomach  are  most  liable  to 
be  attacked  with  cholera.  Lastly,  the  disease  dies  out  in  places 
where  the  conditions  for  its  continuance  are  unfavorable ;  as 
bacilli  that  have  no  spores  will  speedily  disappear.  In  experi- 
ments subsequent  to  this  report,  Dr.  Koch  succeeded  in  producing 
cholera  by  inoculation  in  some  of  the  smaller  animals. 

Dr.  Koch's  conclusions  were  contested  and  some  of  his  evi- 
dences were  disputed  by  a  French  commission  appointed  to  in- 
quire into  the  causes  of  cholera ;  by  certain  English  pathologists, 
including  Dr.  Klein  and  Dr.  Lewis,  of  Netley  ;  and  were  not  fully 
supported  by  an  English  commission  in  India ;  but,  while  they  may 
not  yet  have  been  fully  accepted,  they  have  not  been  overthrown, 
nor  do  they  seem  to  have  lost  ground.  A  bill  was  unanimously 
passed  by  the  German  Parliament,  in  1884,  awarding  a  sum  of 
135,000  marks  to  Dr.  Koch  and  his  companions  in  this  research. 

The  principal  published  works  of  Dr.  Koch  are  "  Etiology  of 
Splenic  Fever,"  187G ;  "  Researches  on  Diseases  of  Wound-Infec- 
tions," 1878 ;  "  Inoculation  for  Splenic  Fever,"  1882 ;  "  Contribu- 
tions to  the  Etiology  of  Tuberculosis,"  1882 ;  and  contributions  to 
the  transactions  of  the  German  Imperial  Health  Bureau. 


264 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


EDITOR'S   TABLE. 


EVER  Y-DA  T  SCIENCE. 

IF,  on  the  one  hand,  we  have  fre- 
quent cause  for  astonishment  at  the 
rapidity  with  which  modern  life  is  be- 
ing transformed  under  the  influence  of 
scientific  invention  and  discovery,  we 
are,  on  the  other,  sometimes  compelled 
to  wonder  at  the  extreme  slowness  with 
which  certain  useful  and  entirely  prac- 
ticable reforms,  plainly  indicated  by 
acknowledged  scientific  principles,  are 
adopted  by  the  public.  There  is  a  law  in 
these  matters  which  has  perhaps  never 
been  very  clearly  formulated,  but  which 
it  would  certainly  be  desirable  to  under- 
stand. The  telephone  makes  its  way 
everywhere  without  pause  or  check, 
and  the  same  is  true  of  electric  lighting 
and  traction;  while  scientific  cookery, 
though  its  general  principles  may  be 
said  to  be  fully  established,  lags  pain- 
fully behind.  That  the  latter  is  a  mat- 
ter of  the  utmost  importance,  economi- 
cally and  hygienically  considered,  needs 
no  laborious  demonstration ;  yet  how 
to  interest  the  public  in  it  seems  to  be  a 
most  difficult  problem.  People  who  go 
wild  over  the  New  Jerusalem  of  "  Look- 
ing Backward  "  listen  with  cold  indif- 
ference when  it  is  explained  to  them 
how  they  can  introduce  here  and  now 
a  most  important  amelioration  in  their 
own  lives  by  economizing  at  once  their 
worldly  substance  and  the  wear  and  tear 
of  their  physical  organs.  The  fact  that 
the  reform  in  question  would  be  par- 
ticularly beneficial  to  the  so-called 
"working  classes"  fails  to  commend  it 
to  those  who  want  a  revolution  or  noth- 
ing. It  is  probably  the  case  that  men 
in  general  are  more  interested  in  spend- 
ing than  in  saving,  just  as  they  have 
more  admiration  to  bestow  on  a  great 
warrior  than  on  a  great  philanthropist; 
and  that,  consequently,  inventions  that 
represent  and  call  for  expenditure  are 


more  attractive  than  those  which  sim- 
ply promote  economy.  More  than  one 
modern  "  improvement,"  we  doubt  not, 
has  been  adopted  by  many,  as  much 
from  the  pleasure  of  spending  and — per- 
haps a  more  potent  consideration  still — 
of  appearing  to  be  able  to  spend  the 
money  required  to  procure  it,  as  from  a 
sense  of  its  utility. 

However  this  may  be,  and  whatever 
the  law  may  be  which  regulates  public 
interest  in  the  practical  applications  of 
science,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  re- 
form in  culinary  operations  is  deserving 
of  far  more  attention  than  it  has  hith- 
erto   received.     As    we    showed    last 
month,  it  deals  with  a  prime — may  we 
not  say  the  prime  ? — necessity  of  hu- 
man life.     It  undertakes  to  substitute 
for  a  wasteful  and  hurtful  empiricism 
in    diet   a    scientific,    economical,   and 
wholesome  method  of  preparing  food 
for  consumption.     It  shows  us  how  we 
may  save  our  pockets,  how  we  may  save 
our  tissues,  how  we  may  lengthen  our 
lives,  and   how  we  may  increase  our 
enjoyments.     It  promises  to  improve 
our  tempers  by  decreasing  the  internal 
friction  of  our  physical  systems ;  and, 
of  course,  decrease  of  internal  friction 
means  increase  in  our  efficiency  for  all 
good  purposes.     Unlike  some  reforms 
that  exist  only  on  paper,  and  that  at- 
tract sentimental   people  for  the  very 
reason  that  they  are  never  likely  to  have 
more  than  a  paper  basis,  this  particular 
reform  has  been  tried  and  realized.     Its 
results  are  known  and  can  be  exhibited 
at  any  moment.     "What  is  now  required 
is  that  people  should  be  persuaded  that 
the  thing  is  worth  doing,  and  should  be 
roused  to  shake  off  that  lazy  love  of 
established  routine  which  alone  stands 
in  the  way  of  their  doing  it.   The  ordina- 
ry cooking-stove  has  so  long  been  a  kind 
of  domestic  Joss  that  its  worship  is  hard 


EDITOR'S   TABLE. 


265 


to  overthrow.  That  it  is  not  a  purely- 
beneficent  divinity  many  a  sweltering 
attendant  and  many  a  dyspeptic  par- 
taker at  the  altar  are  prepared  to  at- 
test; but  pure  beneficence,  as  every  one 
knows,  is  not  a  quality  that  votaries 
always  exact  of  their  deities.  Thus, 
just  as  long  ago,  at  Ephesus,  there  were 
shrine  -  makers  who  stoutly  withstood 
the  new-fangled  ideas  broached  by  Paul, 
so  to-day  there  are  shrine  -  makers  — 
i.  e.,  stove  -  makers  —  who  can  not  be 
expected  to  take  very  kindly  to  the 
ideas  of  our  modern  apostles  of  scien- 
tific cookery.  We  can  not  blame  them 
if  they  are  not  in  a  hurry  to  break  their 
molds  and  send  their  castings  to  the 
junk-shop ;  but,  all  the  same,  a  reform 
so  deeply  founded  in  common  sense 
must  come  in  time,  and  it  would  be  well 
to  prepare  for  its  coming  by  gradually 
approximating  to  the  type  of  cooking 
apparatus  required. 

It  is  not  in  the  matter  of  cookery 
alone  that  science  is  prepared  to  lend  a 
helping  hand  in  every-day  life.  There 
are  a  hundred  reforms  remaining  to  be 
accomplished,  each  one  of  which  would 
do  something  to  make  our  lives  more 
worthy  of  rational  beings.  The  most 
important  and  beneficent  ones  are  those 
that  can  only  be  wrought  by  the  earnest 
co-operation  of  each  individual.  "What 
we  have  to  do  is  to  see  that  a  duty  lies 
in  making  the  most  of  our  knowledge  ; 
and  it  can  nowhere  be  caused  to  yield  a 
larger  return  than  in  its  application  to 
those  ordinary  affairs  of  life  with  which 
all  are  concerned. 


A   COMPARISON  IN  RACIAL  DEVELOP- 
MENTS. 

Colonel  Garriok  Malleet's  ad- 
dress on  "  Israelite  and  Indian,"  which 
is  concluded  in  this  number  of  the 
"Monthly,"  presents  an  unusually  lucid 
and  interesting  study  in  comparative 
civilization  and  religion.  The  author's 
purpose  in  selecting  these  two  particu- 
lar peoples  for  comparison  is,  as  he 
declares  in  the  beginning,  not  because 


there  is  any  special  resemblance  be- 
tween them  more  than  between  any 
two  other  peoples  at  corresponding 
stages  of  civilization,  but  because  they 
offer  convenient  types  illustrative  of  a 
general  principle.  We  are  familiar  with 
both — with  the  Israelites,  through  the 
universal  habitual  study  of  the  Bible; 
aud  with  the  Indians,  by  virtue  of  our 
historical  intercourse  with  them ;  and 
the  illustrative  incidents  do  not  have  to 
be  explained,  as  they  would  be  in  the 
case  of  any  other  two  peoples  that 
might  have  been  selected.  The  princi- 
ple, which  has  been  reached  by  anthro- 
pologists and  students  of  religion  gen- 
erally, and  is  admitted  by  many  emi- 
nent theologians — that  religion  is  a 
thing  of  growth,  and  subject  to  con- 
tinual development  and  refinement,  and 
keeping  pace  with  the  advance  of  each 
nation  in  civilization  and  knowledge — 
is  well  set  forth  in  the  examples  cited. 
The  article  bears  the  marks  throughout 
that  the  author  has  studied  the  subject 
carefully  and  to  the  bottom.  On  the 
Israelite  side  he  displays  a  critical 
knowledge  of  the  Bible  and  the  envi- 
ronment within  which  it  was  composed ; 
besides  which,  he  has  brought  to  bear 
upon  his  argument  the  results  of  the 
investigations  of  that  band  of  eminent 
scholars  whose  conclusions,  under  the 
name  of  the  "higher  criticism,"  have 
deeply  moved  the  theological  world.  On 
the  Indian  side,  he  is  at  home  in  his 
own  special  field  of  research.  Taking 
the  two  peoples  at  those  periods  in 
their  history  when  they  had  reached 
nearly  equivalent  stages  in  civilization, 
he  holds  up  the  parallelisms  in  their  re- 
ligious opinions,  particularly  their  ideas 
of  God  and  a  future  state,  their  myths 
and  their  social  usages,  which,  he  as- 
sumes, were  not  peculiar  to  them,  but 
could  be  found  also  among  other  bodies 
of  people  in  the  same  stages  of  culture. 
That  similar  parallelisms  are  to  be  found 
among  other  nations  of  like  civilization 
is  a  fact  familiar  to  students  of  Oriental 
archaeology. 


266 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


The  weight  of  interest  will  center 
upon  Colonel  Mallery's  demonstration 
that  the  Israelites,  at  the  period  under 
examination,  were  polytheists.  The 
interest  is  heightened  by  the  appear- 
ance, in  the  "Jewish  Quarterly  Re- 
view" (London)  for  October,  1889,  of 
a  learned  and  exhaustive  article  by 
the  Rev.  Prof.  A.  H.  Sayce,  under  the 
title  "  Polytheism  in  Primitive  Israel," 
which  comes  to  the  same  conclusion. 
Most  of  the  points  mentioned  by  Colonel 
Mallery  in  this  regard  are  also  brought 
out  by  Prof.  Sayce,  of  course  independ- 
ently and  with  much  greater  elabora- 
tion. Some  of  his  more  striking  pas- 
pages  may  be  quoted.  He  speaks  of  "  the 
Israelites  who  first  ventured  to  use  the 
plural  Elohim  of  their  national  God," 
and  adds  :  "  The  fact  that  the  Israelites 
never  forgot  that  it  [Elohim]  was  a  plu- 
ral term,  that  up  to  tlie  last  they  often 
employed  it  in  a  plural  sense,  proves 
that  the  earliest  users  of  it  were  wor 
shipers  of  many  deities.  .  .  .  We  may 
gather  from  the  history  of  Micah,  in 
Judges  xviii,  that  the  worship  of  the 
teraphim  was  the  necessary  accompani- 
ment of  the  tribal  worship  of  Yahveh, 
as  represented  by  a  'carved  image,'  and 
in  the  case  of  the  tribe  of  Dan,  at  all 
events,  it  lasted  '  until  the  day  of  the 
captivity.'  .  .  .  Yahveh  was  not  yet 
conceived  of  as  the  sole  god.  ...  It 
was  in  Judah  that  the  older  cult  first 
died  out  of  the  popular  belief.  After 
the  division  of  the  kingdom,  Judah  with 
its  central  capital  at  Jerusalem  formed 
a  compact  and  organized  community, 
in  which  the  earlier  tribal  distinctions 
which  had  marked  it  off  from  Simeon, 
or  Dan  and  Benjamin,  were  soon  oblit- 
erated. The  dynasty  of  David  welded 
the  community  together,  and  the  Temple 
of  Solomon  became  more  and  more  the 
center  of  the  common  faith.  The  wor- 
ship that  was  carried  on  in  it,  the  belief 
of  which  it  was  the  outward  expression, 
the  religious  teaching  and  influence 
which  emanated  from  it,  gradually  af- 
fected the  ideas  and  convictions  of  the 


Jewish  people.  A  time  came  at  length 
when  Josiah  could  venture  to  destroy 
the  '  high  places '  where  the  old  local 
cults  had  been  carried  on  for  unnum- 
bered generations,  and  order  his  subjects 
to  '  worship  before  the  altar '  at  Jerusa- 
lem alone."  Prof.  Sayce  also  denies  that 
the  Semites  were  fundamentally  mono- 
theistic. 

This  publication  by  one  of  the  most 
learned  of  living  Oriental  scholars,  who 
is  a  professor  in  the  University  of  Ox- 
ford and  a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of 
England,  is  important  as  corroborating 
the  statements  of  fact  from  which  Colo- 
nel Mallery  has  drawn  anthropologic 
lessons. 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 

Scientific  Papers  of  Asa  Grav.  Selected 
by  Charles  Sprague  Sargent.  Boston 
and  New  York :  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co. 
2  vols.  Pp.  397  and  503.  Price,  $3  each. 

The  literary  value  of  the  papers  contained 
in  these  volumes  is  equal  to  their  scientific 
value,  and  that  is  well  understood.  Botani- 
cal criticism  and  description  are  not  usually 
classed  among  literary  subjects,  but  Prof. 
Gray  made  them  one ;  and  a  large  proportion 
of  what  he  has  written  in  that  field  is  aestheti- 
cally enjoyable.  The  period  of  his  scientific 
writing  lasted  fifty-three  years — from  1834 
to  1887 — and  during  that  time  he  made  a  re- 
markable number  and  variety  of  contribu- 
tions, all  stamped  with  evidence  of  thorough- 
ness and  the  complete  familiarity  with  his 
subject  that  seem  to  have  been  habitual 
with  him.  His  writings  are  grouped  by  Mr. 
Sargent  in  four  divisions.  The  first  in  im- 
portance contains  his  contributions  to  de- 
scriptive botany,  relating  chiefly  to  the  flora 
of  North  America ;  (i  and  although,"  says  the 
editor,  "  it  did  not  fall  to  his  lot  .  .  .  to  elab- 
orate any  one  of  the  great  families  of  plants, 
the  extent  and  character  of  his  contributions 
to  systematic  botany  will  place  his  name 
among  those  of  the  masters  of  the  science." 
Next  in  importance  are  his  educational  works, 
manuals  or  text-books,  the  influence  of  which 
on  the  development  of  botanical  knowledge 
in  this  country  has  been  great.     The  third 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


267 


group  includes  a  series  of  critical  reviews  of 
important  scientific  publications,  and  of  his- 
torical accounts  of  the  lives  and  labors  of 
workers  in  botany  ;  and  the  fourth  group  a 
number  of  papers  which  owe  their  existence 
to  the  discussions  that  followed  the  publica- 
tion of  Darwin's  "  Origin  of  Species."  The 
present  volumes  contain  a  selection  of  papers 
from  the  third  group,  with  a  few  essays  on 
subjects  of  general  interest  to  botanists. 
Most  of  these  papers,  unlike  those  of  the 
other  groups,  which  are  still  in  the  market, 
have  long  been  out  of  print,  and  have  not 
been  incorporated  in  any  recent  publication. 
The  selections  have  been  made  with  the 
thought  of  presenting,  as  far  as  might  be, 
a  view  of  the  growth  of  botanical  science 
during  the  fifty  years  through  which  the 
papers  run — a  period  which,  as  the  editor 
observes,  is  marked  by  the  gradual  change 
of  ideas  among  naturalists  upon  the  origin 
and  fixity  of  species  that  has  broadened  the 
field  of  all  biological  investigation.  The 
period  was  also  characterized  by  a  great  in- 
crease and  diffusion  of  the  knowledge  of 
botany  in  the  United  States,  and  by  the 
growth  of  a  body  of  earnest,  energetic  Ameri- 
can botanists,  who  have  not  only  given  vigor 
to  the  study  and  inspired  interest  in  it 
through  all  the  schools,  but  have  also  con- 
tributed to  exalt  the  reputation  of  American 
science;  and  these  botanists  are,  and  are 
what  they  are,  almost  wholly  by  reason  of 
what  Prof.  Gray  and  his  books  taught 
them. 

A  glimpse  of  the  condition  of  botanical 
study  in  the  United  States  at  the  beginning 
of  Prof.  Gray's  fifty  years  is  afforded  in  the 
first  of  the  papers,  which  is  a  review  of  the 
second  edition  of  Lindley's  "  Natural  System 
of  Botany,"  published  in  1836-'37.  The  inti- 
mation that  "  we  do  not  intend  to  engage  in 
a  defense  of  what  is  called  the  natural  system 
of  botany "  indicates  that  that  system  had 
not  yet  fully  conquered  acceptance.  Still, 
the  author  assumed  that  the  science  could  by 
no  other  method  be  successfully  and  philo- 
sophically pursued,  and  added:  "The  few 
persons  who  remain  at  this  day  unconvinced 
of  its  advantages  are  not  likely  to  be  affect- 
ed by  any  arguments  that  we  could  adduce. 
A  somewhat  larger  number  may  perhaps  be 
found  in  this  country  who  admit  the  impor- 
tance and  utility  of  the  natural  arrangement 


in  the  abstract,  but  decline  to  avail  them- 
selves of  the  advantages  it  affords  in  the 
study  of  plants,  because,  forsooth,  it  is  too 
much  trouble  to  acquire  the  enlarged  views 
of  vegetable  structure  which  arc  necessary 
for  the  application  of  its  principles."  But 
the  system  had  grown  in  favor  during  the 
preceding  six  years.  Twenty  years  later,  in 
the  review  of  Henfrey's  "  Botany,"  185*7,  we 
are  given  this  picture  of  the  condition  of 
botanical  instruction  here :  "  While  in  Eng- 
land botany  is  scarcely  an  academical  study, 
here  it  pertains  to  collegiate  and  academical 
instruction  where  it  is  taught  at  all.  In 
Europe  not  even  an  apothecary  can  be 
licensed  without  passing  an  examination  in 
botany ;  in  the  United  States,  we  believe,  it 
forms  no  part,  at  least  no  regular  part,  of 
the  medical  curriculum ;  no  medical  school 
has  a  botanical  chair;  and  no  knowledge 
whatever  of  the  science  of  the  vegetable 
kingdom,  which  supplies  the  materia  medica, 
is  required  for  the  degree  of  Doctor  in  Medi- 
cine !  "  With  botanical  chairs  in  a  large 
number  of  our  leading  universities  and 
schools,  filled  by  experts  who  are  engaged  in 
original  work  and  encourage  it  in  their  stu- 
dents ;  and  pupils  in  high  schools  knowing 
more  of  the  structure  and  qualities  of  plants 
than  the  doctors  Prof.  Gray  describes,  we  of 
the  present  time  have  no  reason  to  be  ashamed 
of  the  advance  that  has  been  made.  From 
these  almost  elementary  considerations,  the 
reviews  and  essays  follow  the  series  of  publi- 
cations in  the  science  and  the  course  of  dis- 
cussion over  the  whole  scientific  world,  while 
having  an  eye  primarily  to  America,  includ- 
ing such  subjects  as  Van  Mold's  observations 
of  the  cell ;  De  Candolle's  theories  of  varia- 
tion and  distribution  and  of  the  origin  of 
cultivated  plants,  in  reviewing  which  the 
author  displays  the  sharpness  of  his  discern- 
ment and  the  thoroughness  of  his  knowledge 
regarding  American  plants ;  Radlkofer's  and 
Henslow's  studies  in  fertilization ;  the  prin- 
ciples of  nomenclature  and  the  definition  of 
species ;  several  local  floras  and  special 
studies,  never  forgetting  those  that  are  pri- 
marily of  American  interest ;  and  those 
studies  in  which  Prof.  Gray  so  greatly  sup- 
ported and  aided  Darwin,  relative  to  variation 
and  the  origin  of  species.  In  these  notices, 
while  some  of  them  seem  to  bristle  with 
technicalities  and  run  to  details,  the  techni- 


268 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


calities  and  details  are  never  all,  and  are 
seldom  a  prominent  feature.  A  lesson  of 
general  application  is  to  be  drawn  in  each  of 
them,  and  is  drawn  and  presented  with  such 
directness  and  lucidity  that  even  young  stu- 
dents can  comprehend  it  and  be  interested 
in  it.  The  essays  in  the  second  volume  are 
more  extended  discussions  of  special  topics, 
among  which  are  "  The  Longevity  of  Trees," 
"  The  Sequoia  and  its  History,"  "  Do  Varieties 
wear  out,  or  tend  to  wear  out  ?  "  "  Forest 
Geology  and  Archaeology,"  "  The  Pertinacity 
and  Predominance  of  Weeds,"  and  two  on 
the  flora  of  North  America.  Many  of  these 
papers,  as  well  as  no  small  number  of  the 
"  Reviews,"  had  not  Prof.  Gray  been  so  pre- 
eminently a  man  of  science,  might  have  estab- 
lished his  reputation  as  a  literary  essayist  of 
the  first  rank.  In  some  of  them  the  author 
co-opeiates  with  Heer  and  De  Saporta,  an- 
ticipating the  chief  publications  of  the  latter 
author,  in  working  out  the  theory  of  the 
arctic  origin  of  the  plants  of  the  temperate 
zone.  "  Notes  on  a  Botanical  Excursion  to 
the  Mountains  of  North  Carolina  "  is  a  letter 
to  Hooker,  recording  the  experiences  and 
observations  acquired  in  a  visit  to  a  region 
which  was  of  peculiar  interest  at  the  time, 
and  is  equally  so  now,  on  account  of  the 
number  and  variety  of  rare  plants  to  be 
found  there.  This  excursion  seems  to  have 
been  an  exception  to  the  general  course  of 
Prof.  Gray's  life ;  for,  in  an  address  at  the 
American  Association  meeting  in  18*72,  on 
"  The  Sequoia  and  its  History,"  when  he  had 
just  visited  a  unique  botanical  region  in 
California,  he  says  that,  so  far  as  our  country 
was  concerned,  he  had  been  to  a  great  extent 
a  closet  botanist,  and  had  not  before  seen 
the  Mississippi  or  set  foot  upon  a  prairie. 
Through  all  of  these  papers  Prof.  Gray's 
style  is  clear ;  he  goes  directly  for  the  point ; 
is  judicially  minded ;  always  at  home,  search- 
ing in  criticism ;  and  sometimes,  as  when 
dealing  with  Mr.  Ruskin  or  exposing  an  er- 
ror of  the  authors  on  whom  Henfrey  relics, 
keen  in  sarcasm.  And  the  editor's  observa- 
tion that  "  his  reviews  represented  the  opin- 
ion of  a  just  and  discriminating  mind,  thor- 
oughly familiar  with  all  sides  of  the  ques- 
tion before  it,  critical  rather  than  laudatory, 
loving  the  truth  and  its  investigators,  but 
the  truth  above  everything  else,"  is  fully 
borne  out. 


Sixth  Annual  Report  of  the  Bureau  of 
Ethnology,  1884-'S5.  By  J.  W.  Pow- 
ell, Director.  Washington :  Govern- 
ment Printing-Orflce.     Pp.  lviii  +  675. 

It  is  impossible  to  examine  one  of  these 
handsome  volumes  without  being  deeply  im- 
pressed by  the  extent  of  the  work  that  is 
being  done  and  the  interest  of  the  store  of 
information  that  is  being  secured  by  this  bu- 
reau. The  report  of  the  director  states  that 
the  field-work  of  the  year  comprised  mound 
explorations  by  several  assistants  under  the 
charge  of  Prof.  Cyrus  Thomas ;  researches  in 
the  ancient  ruins  of  the  Southwest  by  parties 
in  charge  of  Mr.  James  Stevenson  and  Mr. 
Victor  Mindeleff;  linguistic  field-work  by 
Mrs.  Erminnie  A.  Smith,  Mr.  H.  W.  Hen- 
shaw,  Mr.  A.  S.  Gatschet,  Rev.  J.  Owen 
Dorsey,  and  Mr.  Jeremiah  Curtin.  Gen- 
eral ethnological  investigations  in  the  field 
were  carried  on  by  Dr.  Washington  Mat- 
thews, Dr.  H.  C.  Yarrow,  and  Dr.  W.  J.  Hoff- 
man. Office  work  on  sign-language  and  pic- 
tographs  was  continued  by  Colonel  Garrick 
Mallery ;  on  bibliography  of  North  American 
languages,  by  Mr.  James  C.  Pilling ;  on  the 
myths  and  customs  of  the  Zufii,  by  Mr.  Frank 
H.  Cushing;  on  ceramics,  by  Mr.  W.  H. 
Holmes ;  on  a  historical  atlas  of  Indian  con- 
cessions, by  Mr.  Charles  C.  Royce ;  and  by  the 
explorers  above  mentioned,  on  their  several 
specialties,  when  not  engaged  in  field-work. 
The  first  of  the  papers  accompanying  the 
report  is  on  "  Ancient  Art  of  the  Province 
of  Chiriqui,  Colombia,"  by  William  H. 
Holmes,  and  is  based  on  the  large  collection 
of  archaeologic  material  from  the  province 
in  the  National  Museum.  The  paper  con- 
tains a  wealth  of  information  in  regard  to 
the  works  of  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  this 
interesting  region,  and  its  descriptions  are 
assisted  by  286  illustrations.  A  curious 
feature  of  the  Chiriquian  objects  buried 
with  the  dead  is  that  they  appear  to  have 
been  made  for  that  purpose,  and  not  for  use 
by  the  living.  Another  paper  by  Mr.  Holmes 
is  "  A  Study  of  the  Textile  Art  in  its  Rela- 
tion to  the  Development  of  Form  and  Orna- 
ment." Mr.  Holmes  gives  an  instructive 
analysis  of  the  forces  and  influences  inherent 
in  the  textile  art,  the  first  lessons  of  which 
are  order,  uniformity,  and  symmetry.  He 
discusses  the  influence  of  textile  ornament 
upon  other  forms  of  art,  such  as  architect- 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


269 


ure  and  sculpture,  and  also  the  manner  in 
which  intrinsic  decorative  elements  are  re- 
modeled in  accordance  with  the  rules  of  text- 
ile combination.  The  paper  is  illustrated  with 
73  figures.  Prof.  Cyrus  Thomas  supple- 
ments his  former  publications  on  American 
palteeographic  literature  with  "  Aids  to  the 
Study  of  the  Maya  Codices,"  embodying  some 
original  discoveries,  and  some  explanations 
not  already  brought  forward.  Plates  50  to 
58  of  the  Dresden  Codex,  and  portions  of 
other  plates  of  the  Dresden  and  other  cod- 
ices, are  figured  in  the  text.  Rev.  J.  Owen 
Dorsey  furnishes  an  account  of  a  secret  so- 
ciety of  seven  degrees,  still  existing  among 
the  Osage,  in  which  the  traditions  of  the 
people  have  been  preserved.  This  is  accom- 
panied by  two  of  these  traditions  in  the 
original  language,  which  he  has  succeeded  in 
obtaining,  together  with  an  interlinear  and 
a  free  translation  of  each,  with  explanatory 
remarks.  An  extended  account  of  "The 
Central  Eskimo  "  is  contributed  by  Dr.  Franz 
Boas,  who  spent  a  considerable  time  among 
these  people  in  the  region  between  Hudson 
and  Baffin  Bays.  The  scope  of  the  paper 
includes  the  topography  of  the  region,  the 
distribution,  tribal  divisions,  and  numbers  of 
the  inhabitants,  their  habits  and  customs, 
their  religious  practices  and  beliefs,  with 
translations  of  their  myths  and  legends,  and 
descriptions  of  their  peculiar  and  ingenious 
weapons,  implements,  and  utensils.  Much 
work  of  previous  explorers  has  also  been 
incorporated  with  the  original  material  in 
this  account.  The  paper  is  illustrated  with 
156  figures  and  nine  plates,  two  of  the  lat- 
ter being  folded  maps  and  six  representing 
Eskimo  drawings  or  carvings.  A  feature  of 
the  paper  is  the  notation  of  a  number  of 
Eskimo  songs. 

Catalogue  of  Canadian  Plants.  Parts  I  to 
IV.  By  John  Macoun,  M.A.,  F.  L.  S., 
F.  R.  S.  O,  Naturalist  to  the  Geological 
and  Natural  History  Survey  of  Canada. 

Recent  years  have  brought  to  the  botany 
of  North  America  few  contributions  more 
valuable  than  the  "  Catalogue  of  Canadian 
Plants,"  by  Prof.  Macoun.  The  entire  work 
has  been  issued  within  the  past  six  years, 
the  first  part  appearing  in  1883,  the  fourth 
in  1S88,  and  only  recently  distributed;  but 
these  six  years  bear  only  small  proportion 


to  the  actual  amount  of  time  the  work  has 
cost.  Prof.  Macoun  gives  us  the  labor  of  a 
life.  For  nearly  forty  years  he  has  been  an 
indefatigable  explorer  and  systematist,  pur- 
suing his  investigations  from  Newfoundland 
to  Vancouver's,  from  the  Lakes  to  the  Arctic 
Circle.  The  plan  of  the  work  contemplates 
an  exact  enumeration  of  the  vegetable  life 
of  the  Dominion,  but  virtually  the  plants  of 
all  northern  North  America  are  included, 
Alaska  and  even  Greenland  not  being  for- 
gotten. For  this  area  not  only  is  each  spe- 
cies named,  but  for  each,  to  the  extent  of 
present  knowledge,  is  given  its  geographical 
range  as  well,  its  distribution,  also  its  syn- 
onymy, and,  in  many  cases,  notes  concern- 
ing habit  and  habitat.  Facts  of  distribution 
are  given  with  unusual  exactness.  For  every 
plant  each  station  is  named  and  the  name 
of  the  collector  given,  so  that  the  catalogue 
is  no  mere  check-list,  but  in  so  far  an  au- 
thentic geographical  botany. 

It  were  a  pleasing  task,  did  the  limits  of 
this  review  permit,  to  notice  at  length  many 
of  the  interesting  points  which  this  catalogue 
brings  to  light.  Each  specialist  will,  of 
course,  scan  the  field  in  search  of  his  own 
particular  favorites,  but  every  one  at  all 
familiar  with  North  American  botany  will 
enjoy  tracing  the  distribution  of  some  of  our 
more  common  or  interesting  forms.  The 
common  quaking  asp  (Populus  tremuloides), 
for  example,  occupies  the  whole  Northwest, 
from  Labrador  to  Alaska.  The  sundew  (Dro- 
sera  rotundifolia),  common  in  New  England, 
but  a  plant  which  many  a  Western  botanist 
has  vainly  desired  to  see,  is  reported  common 
from  Newfoundland  west  to  the  Pacific,  and 
north  to  the  Arctic  Sea.  Dodccathcon  Meadia 
likewise  runs  north  and  west,  and  shoots  its 
dainty  stars  in  far  Alaska,  while  plumes  of 
Hordeum  jubatum  wave  on  the  banks  of  the 
Mackenzie  and  Yukon.  Few  trees  cross  the 
continent  from  east  to  west.  The  paper 
birch  {Betula  papyrifcra)  is  one.  With  this 
may  be  named  Picea  alba  and  Picea  nigra. 
These  two  spruces  start  together  in  New- 
foundland and  extend  westward  across  the 
continent  side  by  side,  until  the  former  is  re- 
placed in  Columbia  by  P.  Engelmanii,  with 
which  in  the  Athabascan  region  it  seems  to 
blend,  while  the  latter  (P.  nigra)  drifts  north- 
ward, until  it  finally  vanishes  side  by  side 
with  the  paper  birch  hard  by  the  waters  of 


270 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


the  northern  sea.  All  the  species  that  pass 
from  east  to  west  seem  to  be  northern  forms. 
Lonicera  involucrata,  however,  crosses  the 
continent  from  New  Brunswick  to  the  sea- 
level  of  the  Pacific  coast.  Very  few  plants 
whose  center  of  distribution  is  west  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains  appear  in  the  flora  of  the 
East.  Pseudotsuga  Douglasii  comes  as  far 
east  as  longitude  114°;  Pinus  Murrayana, 
longitude  110°;  Rubus  nutkanus  reaches 
Sault  Ste.  Marie,  and  Gojdyera  Menziesii  the 
shores  of  Lake  Ontario. 

Some  species  which  in  those  northern 
regions  bind  the  floras  east  and  west  will 
interest  naturalists  generally  by  reason  of 
peculiarly  isolated  distribution.  Thus,  Ar- 
meria  vulgaris,  common  on  sea-shores  around 
the  entire  North,  is  found  in  profusion  on 
the  summit  of  Mount  Albert,  Gaspe.  Vac- 
cinium  ovalifolium,  reported  in  the  United 
States  from  a  single  locality  on  the  south 
shore  of  Lake  Superior,  occurs  at  many 
stations  in  the  far  Northwest  and  also  on  the 
summit  of  Mount  Albert.  Galium  kamt- 
schaticum,  another  arctic  species,  occupies 
the  same  interesting  locality.  Heliotropium 
curassavicum,  characteristic  rather  of  our 
Southern  flora,  surprises  us  by  appearing 
abundantly  away  north  and  west  of  the  Sas- 
katchewan. 

Six  parts  will  show  this  excellent  cata- 
logue complete.  Of  these,  the  four  already 
published  are  devoted  to  phenogamous  plants 
exclusively;  Part  V  will  present  the  ferns 
and  mosses ;  while  algas  and  fungi  are  rele- 
gated to  Part  VI. 

Handbook  of  Psychology  ;  Senses  and  In- 
tellect. By  James  Mark  Baldwin, 
Ph.  D.,  Professor  in  Lake  Forest  Uni. 
versity.  New  York :  Henry  Holt  &  Co- 
1889.     8vo.     Pp.  343.     Price,  $2.26. 

In  this  book  the  author  displays  a  thor- 
ough acquaintance  with  the  works  of  those 
writers  on  the  subject  whose  general  philo- 
sophical attitude  is  different  from  his  own, 
and  he  often  adopts  their  conclusions,  freely 
recognizing  their  merits.  The  references 
show  a  wide  acquaintance  with  psychological 
works  in  all  languages,  and  are  impartially 
made,  with  no  discrimination  in  favor  of 
either  Trojan  or  Tyrian,  the  author  evident- 
ly intending  that  the  reader  shall  be  made 
fully  acquainted  with  the  literature  of  the 


various  topics  treated.  The  work  is  that  of 
a  scholar,  the  style  is  good,  and  many  special 
themes  are  well  handled.  This  is  particu- 
larly true  of  sensation,  though  the  selection 
of  the  word  tone  to  characterize  the  quality 
of  sensation  as  pleasurable  or  painful  does 
not  seem  to  us  felicitous.  So  also  the  chap- 
ter on  illusions  is  an  excellent  presentation 
in  condensed  form  of  a  class  of  very  inter- 
esting mental  phenomena. 

But  while  the  author  makes  good  use  of 
the  results  of  scientific  psychological  study, 
his  work  is  vitiated  by  an  inability  to  get  rid 
of  the  notion  that  Psychology  must  be 
made  a  servant  of  Theology.  We  are  re- 
minded by  his  book  of  Dr.  McCosh's  works, 
though  Dr.  Baldwin  is  much  less  anachronis- 
tic. The  difficulty  is  the  old  heresy  that  the 
human  mind  has  a  special  and  higher  faculty 
for  seeing  things  invisible,  by  a  rational  or 
intuitional  apprehension.  The  moment  we 
apply  the  term  intuition  alike  to  presenta- 
tive  knowledge  and  to  representative  prod- 
ucts— concepts,  judgments,  inferences — as 
does  Dr.  Baldwin,  we  destroy  the  funda- 
mental psychological  distinction,  and  make  a 
jumble  of  mental  science.  This  is  what  is 
always  done  by  those  who  insist  on  a  "  rea- 
son "  and  on  "  rational  intuitions." 

We  have  yet  to  see  any  fairer  or  better 
handbooks  of  psychology  than  Prof.  Bain's 
and  Mr.  James  Sully's,  and  either  of  these 
we  should  certainly  recommend  in  preference 
to  the  present  work,  which,  spite  of  excel- 
lences, is  essentially  misleading  by  reason  of 
errors  mostly  growing  out  of  the  above- 
mentioned  confusion. 

"  The  New  Review."  Edited  by  Archibald 
Gove.  Monthly.  London  and  New  York : 
Longmans,  Green  &  Co.  Price,  15  cents 
a  number,  $1.75  a  year. 

This  addition  to  the  number  of  monthly 
reviews  deserves  to  be  classed  with  the  best. 
The  first  number  was  that  for  June,  1889, 
and  the  issues  that  have  already  appeared 
have  been  filled  with  the  contributions  of 
able  and  well-known  writers.  Being  an 
English  magazine,  of  course  it  contains  some 
articles  that  the  American  reader  would  skip 
as  being  of  rather  remote  interest ;  but  much 
of  its  contents  knows  no  nationality,  for  in- 
stance, "  After  the  Play,"  by  Henry  James, 
and  "  The  Dying  Drama,"  a  reply  by  William 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


271 


Archer ;  also  "  The  Religion  of  Self-Respect," 
by  Mrs.  Lynn  Linton ;  "  A  Month  in  Russia," 
by  Lady  Randolph  Churchill ;  "  Wrestling  in 
Japan,"  by  the  Hon.  George  N.  Curzon,  M.  P. 
Papers  on  General  Boulanger,  the  French 
elections,  and  the  German  emperor  are  among 
the  contents  of  the  early  numbers,  and  the 
scientific  arts  are  represented  by  an  article 
on  "  The  Eiffel  Tower,"  by  M.  Eiffel,  and  one 
on  "  Electric  Lighting,"  by  the  Duke  of  Marl- 
borough. English  political  problems,  general 
sociological  questions,  literature,  history,  and 
biography  are  among  the  fields  which  "  The 
New  Review"  has  already  entered, and  Charles 
Bradlaugh,  St.  George  Mivart,  M.  Flourens, 
and  Andrew  Lang  are  among  the  contribu- 
tors not  already  mentioned.  Its  mechanical 
work  is  excellent. 

Handy  Lists  of  Technical  Literature. 
Part  I.  Useful  Arts  in  General,  Prod- 
ucts and  Processes  used  in  Manufact- 
ure, Technology,  and  Trades.  Com- 
piled by  H.  E.  Haferkorn  and  Paul 
Heise.  Milwaukee :  National  Publishing 
and  Printing  Company.  Pp.  99.  Price 
with  Key,  $1.25  paper;  $1.50  cloth. 

As  one  of  the  tools  of  the  book  trade, 
this  series  of  lists  can  not  fail  to  be  of 
value.  It  furnishes  information  about  a 
class  of  books,  many  of  which  are  published 
and  distributed  through  other  than  the  well- 
known  trade  channels,  and  hence  are  not 
easily  found.  Part  I,  already  issued,  con- 
tains titles  of  books  in  English  published 
since  1880  of  the  classes  specified  in  its 
title,  entered  alphabetically  under  the  au- 
thor's name,  or,  if  anonymous,  under  the  first 
word  of  the  title.  Each  title  is  numbered, 
and  the  names  of  subjects  are  inserted  in  the 
same  list,  with  cross-references  to  the  titles. 
References  are  given  also  to  articles  in  cyclo- 
pasdias  and  to  parts  of  works  treating  of  the 
various  subjects.  The  size,  price,  and  date 
of  each  book  are  given,  and  the  publisher  is 
indicated  by  an  abbreviation.  The  key  con- 
sists of  a  list  of  the  publishers'  names  for 
which  these  abbreviations  stand,  with  ad- 
dresses, each  followed  by  the  list-numbers 
of  the  books  mentioned  which  the  publisher 
issues  or  keeps  on  sale.  An  appendix  to 
the  "  Handy  List "  consists  of  a  selection 
of  books  of  the  same  class  published  before 
1880,  and  still  kept  on  publishers'  and  job- 
bers' lists.     Other  parts  to  be  published  will 


include  lists  on  military  and  marine  affairs, 
engineering,  mining,  fine  arts,  building,  and 
miscellaneous  subjects. 

A  Dictionary  of  Music  and  Musicians. 
Edited  by  George  Grove.  Appendix. 
London  and  New  York  :  Macmillan  &  Co. 
Pp.  306.     Price,  $2.25. 

The  large  demand  for  this  elaborate 
work,  which  now  appears  in  a  complete  form, 
with  its  steady  increase  from  the  beginning, 
in  Europe  and  America,  are  accepted  by  the 
publishers  as  showiug  that  on  the  whole  the 
book  has  fulfilled  the  intentions  with  which 
it  started.  Shortcomings  were  to  be  ex- 
pected, and  may  be  found  ;  but  with  all  the 
allowance  that  need  be  made  for  them,  the 
value  of  the  work  is  exceedingly  great,  and 
is  far  more  than  an  equivalent  return  for 
the  cost.  Many  of  the  special  articles  are 
treatises  in  themselves,  and  the  biographical 
notices  give  very  satisfactory  accounts  of  the 
lives  and  works  of  musical  men  of  every 
class,  with  fullness  proportionate,  on  the  aver- 
age, to  the  importance  of  the  subject.  The 
purpose  of  the  appendix,  which  was  prom- 
ised from  the  beginning  of  the  publication, 
is  to  supply  omissions  and  correct  errors  in 
the  original  text,  furnish  new  information, 
and  bring  the  whole  up  to  the  latest  practi- 
cable dates.  It  is  arranged  alphabetically, 
and  forms  a  considerable  volume  in  itself. 
A  copious  index  of  the  whole  four  volumes 
will  shortly  be  published  in  a  separate  vol- 
ume. 

"  Bulletin,  No.  36,"  of  the  United  States 
National  Museum,  is  A  Review  of  the  Family 
Delphinidce,  prepared  by  Frederick  W.  True, 
as  a  contribution  to  the  natural  history  of 
the  cetaceans.  The  publication  is  the  forty- 
seventh  of  a  series  of  papers  intended  to 
illustrate  the  collections  of  the  National 
Museum.  Previous  to  preparing  the  review, 
Mr.  True  visited  the  European  museums,  in 
order  to  examine  the  type  specimens  con- 
tained in  them  as  an  essential  prelude  to  the 
proper  comparison  of  species.  He  there 
also  met  several  zoologists,  who  furnished 
him  information ;  among  them,  Prof.  Flower, 
who  placed  in  his  hands  the  proof-sheets  of 
his  own  work  on  "  The  Delphinidae."  The 
present  work  differs  from  Prof.  Flower's  in 
that  it  is  directed  to  the  determination  of 


272 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


species,  while  the  British  author  makes  the 
discovery  of  mutual  relations  and  associa- 
tions into  groups  a  prominent  object. 

The  tenth  volume  of  the  Resultados  del 
Observatorio  National  Argeniino  at  Cordoba, 
Juan  M.  Thome,  director,  contains  all  the 
observations  made  during  1877  for  the 
General  Catalogue,  the  four  microscopes,  as 
well  as  three  tallies  of  transit-threads,  having 
been  employed  for  them ;  and  the  zones  from 
755  to  759  inclusive,  with  their  reduction- 
tables,  and  an  index  for  reference.  The 
number  of  stellar  determinations  made  dur- 
ing the  year  was  17,380,  of  which  516  were 
made  in  zones.  Tables  of  corrigenda  for  the 
present  volume,  and  for  the  errors  detected 
in  the  volumes  already  published,  are  ap- 
pended. 

The  paper  of  Mr.  Cyrus  Thomas,  entitled 
Aids  to  the  Study  of  the  Maya  Codices  (Gov- 
ernment Printing-Office),  is  based  on  the  as- 
sumption that  an  attempt  to  decipher  those 
documents  on  the  supposition  that  they  con- 
tain true  alphabetic  characters  must  end  in 
failure.  Some  of  the  characters  are  more 
than  probably  phonetic  symbols  ;  but  Landa's 
alphabet  furnishes  no  help  in  deciphering 
them,  and  is  evidently  based  on  a  miscon- 
ception of  the  Maya  graphic  system.  "If 
the  manuscripts  are  ever  deciphered,  it  must 
be  by  long  and  laborious  comparisons  and 
happy  guesses."  This  paper  is  intended  to 
be  a  step  in  that  direction.  The  author 
concludes  that,  at  the  time  the  codices  ex- 
amined were  written,  "  Maya  culture  had 
reached  that  stage  where  the  idea  of  pho- 
neticism  was  being  introduced  into  the  writ- 
ing. Yet  it  is  certain,  and  even  susceptible 
of  demonstration,  that  a  large  proportion, 
perhaps  the  majority,  of  the  characters  are 
symbols.  The  more  I  study  these  characters 
the  stronger  becomes  the  conviction  that 
they  have  grown  out  of  a  pictographic  sys- 
tem similar  to  that  common  among  the  In- 
dians of  North  America.  The  first  step  in 
advance  appears  to  have  been  to  indicate,  by 
characters,  the  gesture-sign." 

In  Hints  for  Teachers  of  Physiology  (D. 
C.  Heath  &  Co.,  "  Guides  for  Science  Teach- 
ing"), Prof.  H.  P.  Bowdilch  makes  an  at- 
tempt to  show  how  a  teacher  may  supple- 
ment his  text-book  instruction  by  means 
of  simple  observations  and  experiments  on 
living  bodies  or  on  organic  material,  so  as 


to  impart  to  his  pupils  a  knowledge  of  the 
foundation  on  which  physiology  rests,  and 
bring  the  impressions  made  on  the  senses  to 
aid  the  memory  in  retaining  the  facts  com- 
municated didactically.  The  essay,  though 
simply  a  primer,  is  fruitful  in  suggestions 
for  familiar  illustrations. 

Though  edible  mushrooms  of  many  va- 
rieties are  found  in  all  parts  of  the  United 
States,  few  of  them  are  utilized,  because  the 
majority  of  the  people  do  not  know  how  to 
distinguish  them  from  poisonous  species. 
A  useful  aid  to  making  this  very  important 
distinction  is  furnished  in  Dr.  Thomas  Tay- 
lor's pamphlet  of  descriptions,  with  natural- 
colored  illustrations,  of  Twelve  Edible  Mush- 
rooms of  the  United  States  ;  which  also  gives 
directions  for  selecting  and  preparing  for 
the  table.  The  paper  is  embodied  in  the 
report  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture  for 
1885,  and  is  published  separately  by  Dr. 
Taylor  in  Washington. 

Investigations  of  sorghum  -  blight  and 
the  mildew  of  the  huckleberry,  with  certain 
parasitic  insects  inhabiting  the  knots  pro- 
duced by  it,  and  the  fungous  parasites  of 
weeds,  together  with  experiments  in  the  cross- 
fertilization  of  corn  and  the  germination 
of  weed-seeds,  are  described  in  the  Report 
of  the  Botanical  Department  of  the  Kansas 
State  Agricultural  College  Experiment  Sta- 
tion. 

A  number  of  documents  and  papers  con- 
cerning the  care  of  the  insane,  and  questions 
concerning  the  responsibility  of  the  insane, 
may  be  noticed  in  a  group.  The  Report  of 
the  Standing  Committee  on  the  Insane  of  the 
New  York  State  Board  of  Charities  presents 
the  results  of  the  annual  visitation  to  ex- 
amine the  condition  of  the  eight  State  hos- 
pitals and  asylums  and  the  eighteen  asylums 
of  the  exempted  counties.  The  Recent  Ju- 
dicial Departure  in  Insanity  Cases,  by  Clarfc 
Bell,  reviews  two  recent  decisions  of  high 
courts — one  of  the  State  of  Alabama  and 
the  other  of  the  United  States — that  indi- 
cate an  approach  to  a  more  fixed  and  accu- 
rate definition  of  the  responsibility  of  the 
insane  than  has  heretofore  prevailed.  —  In 
the  case  of  The  Insanity  of  Oscar  Hugo 
Webber,  Dr.  J.  Hendric  Lloyd  enters  a  pro- 
test against  the  conviction  for  murder  of  a 
man  who  in  the  author's  view  was  insane  to 
irresponsibility. — The  question  of  rcsponsi- 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


273 


bility  is  brought  more  directly  under  view  in 
Dr.  T.  R.  Buckharn's  paper  on  the  "  Right 
and  Wrong  "  Test  in  Insanity,  in  which  it  is 
maintained  that  the  subject  may  be  irre- 
sponsible, if  acting  under  insane  impulses, 
even  if  he  is  aware  that  the  deed  he  is  com- 
mitting is  wrong.  —  Mr.  A.  Wood  Renton, 
discussing  the  question  of  Testamentary  Ca- 
pacity in  Mental  Disease,  collates  what  the 
courts  have  defined  as  the  law  on  that  sub- 
ject, maintains  that  the  issue  on  that  point 
should  be  narrowed,  when  it  arises,  to  the 
question,  "Was  this  man  capable  of  making 
this  particular  will  at  the  time  of  its  exe- 
cution? " 

The  Commonwealth  is  the  name  of  a 
monthly  magazine  of  144  pages,  published 
by  the  Commonwealth  Publishing  Company, 
Denver,  Col.,  which  in  June,  1889,  had 
reached  its  fourth  number.  Among  several 
stories  and  miscellaneous  articles,  we  find 
two  or  three  relating  to  the  early  history 
of  Colorado.  Of  such  are  "  Glimpses  of 
Early  Days,"  describing  the  site  and  sur- 
roundings of  Denver  in  1856,  before  there 
was  a  town  or  house  there;  a  relation  of 
remarkable  trials  and  executions  by  extem- 
porized courts  that  took  place  in  the  primi- 
tive times  of  "  thirty  years  ago  " ;  and  an 
account  of  the  attempt  to  set  up  a  Territory 
of  Jefferson  in  1859,  while  the  region  of 
Denver  was  still  technically  Arapahoe  Coun- 
ty, Kansas.  The  effect  of  a  pungent  paper, 
suggesting  condemnation  of  the  awkward 
attitudes  into  which  religious  newspapers 
sometimes  place  themselves  with  regard  to 
politics,  is  neutralized  by  the  editor's  depre- 
ciation of  civil-service  reform. 

Dr.  T.  D.  Crothers,  in  a  paper  asking 
Should  Inebriates  be  punished  by  Death  for 
Crime  ?  and  Dr.  Joseph  Parrish,  in  The  Le- 
gal Responsibility  of  Inebriates,  argue  against 
treating  inebriate  criminals  as  if  they  were 
responsible,  and  in  favor  of  subjecting  them 
to  the  same  kind  of  treatment  as  is  given  to 
the  insane. 

Six  additional  numbers  of  the  Modern 
Science  Essayist,  a  monthly  publication  of 
lectures  and  essays  on  topics  immediately 
related  to  evolution,  invite  attention.  In 
the  first  of  the  group,  No.  1,  on  "  The  De- 
scent of  Man,"  Prof.  Cope  traces  the  descent 
in    lines  not  greatly   different   from   those 

vol.  xxxvi. — 18 


drawn  by  Prof.  Topinard  in  a  recent  num- 
ber of  the  "  Monthly,"  and  insists  that  man  is 
still  subject  to  the  struggle  for  existence.  In 
"  The  Evolution  of  Mind,"  Dr.  R.  G.  Ecclcs 
argues  that  the  elaborate  mental  functions 
of  man  have  been  gradually  developed  from 
the  simplest  beginnings.  In  "  Evolution  of 
Society,"  Mr.  James  A.  Skilton  treats  society 
as  an  organism,  capable  of  growth,  of  de- 
crease as  well  as  increase ;  of  vitality,  of 
disease  as  well  as  of  health ;  and  of  death 
and  decay  as  well  as  of  life  and  growth — all 
by  the  operation  of  natural  law.  In  "  Evo- 
lution of  Theology,"  Mr.  Z.  Sidney  Sampson 
assumes  that  the  tendency  of  the  general 
movement  of  the  theistic  conception  is  along 
the  same  lines  as  in  scientific  thought,  from 
narrower  to  wider  generalization  ;  following 
the  natural  order  of  the  evolution  of  the 
mind,  when  free,  from  lower  to  higher  ideals. 
In  "Evolution  of  Ethics,"  Mr.  Lewis  G. 
Janes  considers  the  individual  as  the  chief 
concern,  and  the  individual  character  as  the 
supreme  end,  by  the  perfection  of  which 
only  society  can  be  perfected.  In  the. 
twelfth  number  of  the  series,  the  "  Proofs  ol 
Evolution  "  are  summed  up  by  Mr.  Nelson 
C.  Parshall  as  derivable  from  astronomy,  ge- 
ology, morphology,  embryology,  metamor- 
phosis, rudimentary  organs,  geographical 
distribution,  discovered  links,  artificial  breed- 
ing, reversion,  and  mimicry. 

Alphonse  Daudet's  La  Belle  Nivernaise, 
or  the  story  of  a  river  barge  and  its  crew, 
has  been  selected  by  Prof.  James  Boielle  as 
the  "  ideal  "  reading-book  in  French  for  the 
junior  classes  of  high  schools  and  the  higher 
classes  of  preparatory  schools.  Having 
been  written  for  the  author's  ten-year-old 
son,  it  is  commended  as  a  striking  example 
of  "  a  great  intellect  coming  down  to  the 
level  of  a  child  of  tender  years,  and  telling 
in  short,  simple,  and  pithy  sentences,  preg- 
nant in  meaning,  the  story  of  the  loving 
sympathy  of  the  poor  for  their  poorer  and 
more  defenseless  brethren.  The  notes  give 
clear  definitions  of  idiomatic  expressions, 
with  explanations  of  etymologies  and  allu- 
sions.    Ginn  &  Co. 

Three  numbers — 7,  8,  9 — of  the  seventh 
series  of  the  Johns  Hopkins  University  Stud- 
ies in  Historical  and  Political  Science  are 
occupied  with  a  paper  on  The  River  Towns 


274 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


of  Connecticut — Wethersfield,  Hartford,  and 
Windsor — by  Charles  M.  Andrews.  As  in 
the  other  monographs  of  this  series,  the  ori- 
gin, growth,  and  development  of  these  towns, 
with  the  various  phases  of  social,  political, 
and  other  life  which  they  have  passed 
through,  are  reviewed  from  the  historical 
and  philosophical  point.  The  agrarian  and 
civil  life  of  the  sturdy  people  who  consti- 
tuted their  population,  the  author  observes 
near  the  end  of  his  story,  "  was  not  essen- 
tially different  from  that  existent  among  the 
other  New  England  towns ;  such  life  was  in 
its  general  features  everywhere  the  same. 
On  close  examination,  however,  we  find  that 
the  machinery  of  town  and  court  administra- 
tion can  be  classified  as  to  whether  it  is  pure 
or  mixed,  simple  or  complicated,  natural  or 
artificial.  To  Connecticut  belongs  the  best 
of  these  conditions.  Her  town  life  was  pure, 
simple,  and  natural ;  the  law  which  guided 
her  political  relations  was  nearer  to  the 
law  which  governs  to-day  than  anywhere 
else  on  the  American  continent.  We  are 
apt  to  think  of  her  settlement  as  an  artifi- 
cial importation,  as  one  ready-made  through 
the  influence  of  pre-existent  conditions.  Be- 
ginning with  the  commercial  stage,  when 
trade  was  the  motive  power,  it  soon  entered 
the  agricultural  stage,  when  the  adventure 
lands  were  occupied  by  planters.  With  the 
development  of  this  phase  of  its  growth  the 
military  stage  begins,  when  it  became  neces- 
sary to  systematically  arm  against  the  In- 
dians, and  to  turn  the  agricultural  settle- 
ments into  armed  camps,  with  the  people  a 
body  of  trained  soldiers.  At  this  stage  the 
ordinary  religious  life  begins,  when  system- 
atic church  life  arises  with  the  infusion  of 
new  settlers ;  and  last  of  all  is  reached  the 
civil  or  political  stage,  when  for  the  first 
time  the  settlements  may  be  fairly  called 
organized  towns." 

The  Batrachia  of  North  America,  by 
Prof.  E.  J).  Cope,  is  the  forty-fifth  of  the 
series  of  papers  illustrating  the  collections 
of  the  United  States  National  Museum.  The 
work  embraces  the  results  of  a  study  of  the 
character  of  the  species,  with  their  varia- 
tions, for  which  the  museum  furnished  lib- 
eral material,  and  studies  of  the  osteology  of 
the  class,  based  on  the  material  contained  in 
various  museums  of  the  United  States  and 
Europe.     The  manuscript  prepared  several 


years  ago  by  Prof.  Baird  and  Dr.  Girard  has 
also  been  used,  and  ninety-one  descriptions 
of  species  have  been  taken  from  it.  The  re- 
sults have  been  expressed  largely  in  system- 
atic form,  under  the  belief  that  descriptive 
zoology  will  never  be  complete  until  the 
structure  is  exhausted  in  furnishing  defini- 
tions. Reference  is  made,  wherever  prac- 
ticable, to  the  relations  between  the  extinct 
and  living  forms.  The  general  characters  of 
the  Batrachia,  their  general  anatomy,  larval 
characters,  classification,  affinities,  and  phy- 
logeny,  are  considered,  and  terms  and  nomen- 
clature explained,  in  the  chapter  introduc- 
tory to  the  descriptions. 

The  Annual  Report  of  the  State  Geolo- 
gist of  New  Jersey  for  18S8  announces  the 
completion  of  the  magnetic  and  topographic 
surveys.  The  results  have  already  been 
published  and  distributed  in  the  first  volume 
of  the  final  report,  recently  noticed  in  the 
"  Monthly."  The  second  volume  will  con- 
tain full  catalogues  of  the  minerals,  plants, 
and  vertebrate  and  invertebrate  animals, 
their  occurrence  and  localities  and  some 
practical  and  economic  particulars  regard- 
ing them.  The  work  still  to  be  done  in  the 
matter  of  the  geological  structure  of  the 
rocks  of  the  State  consists  mainly  in  combin- 
ing and  systematically  arranging  the  mate- 
rials which  have  been  collected.  A  few 
points  remain  to  be  cleared  up,  and  when 
this  is  done  the  volume  on  structural  geol- 
ogy can  be  prepared,  to  be  followed  by  one 
on  economical  geology.  Among  the  mate- 
rial returns  that  have  accrued  to  the  State 
from  the  distribution  of  the  reports  are  the 
system  of  artesian  well-boring,  which  was 
started  at  the  direct  suggestion  of  the  sur- 
vey ;  increased  attention  to  the  development 
of  the  fire  and  potter's  clay  properties; 
drawing  attention  through  the  maps  to  many 
peculiar  advantages  of  New  Jersey  ;  invest- 
ments induced  by  the  notices  of  mines,  quar- 
ries, lime,  marls,  drained  lands,  and  water 
supplies ;  and  benefits  to  agricultural  inter- 
ests. The  present  report  is  brief,  and  in- 
cludes "  Geological  Studies  of  the  Triassic  or 
Red  Sandstone  and  Trap  Rocks,"  with  pa- 
pers on  drainage  of  the  Pequcst  meadows 
and  the  low  lands  of  the  Passaic,  water  sup- 
ply and  artesian  wells,  and  statistics  of  iron 
ores,  zinc  ores,  fire  clays,  stoneware  clays, 
and  bricks. 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


275 


PUBLICATIONS  RECEIVED. 

Attfield,  John.  Chemistry,  General,  Medical,  and 
Pharmaceutical.  Twelfth  edition.  Philadelphia: 
Lea  Brothers  &  Co.    Pp.  770.     $3.25. 

Bagehot,  Walter  (the  late).  A  Practical  Plan  for 
assimilating  the  English  and  American  Money. 
London  and  New  York:  Longmans,  Green  &  Co. 
Pp.  71.    75  cents. 

Bilgram,  Hugo.  Involuntary  Idleness.  Phila- 
delphia: J.  B.  Lippincott  Company.     Pp.  119.     $1. 

Bonvill,  W.  G.  A.,  D.  D.  S.  The  Philosophy  of 
Eating  and  Drinking  from  a  Dental  aud  Medical 
Standpoint.     Philadelphia.     Pp.  21. 

Brinton,  Daniel  G.,  and  Anthony,  Rev.  Albert 
Seqaqkind,  Editors.  A  Lenape-English  Dictionary. 
Philadelphia:  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania. 
Pp.  236. 

Brown,  Walter  Lee.  Manual  of  assaying  Gold, 
Copper,  and  Lead  Ores.  Chicago  :  E.  H.  Sargent  & 
Co.     Pp.  437.     $2.50. 

Chisholm,  George  G.  Handbook  of  Commercial 
Geography.  London  and  New  York  :  Longmans, 
Green  &  Co.    Pp.  575.    $5. 

Dawson,  Sir  J.  William.  Handbook  of  Geology, 
for  the  Use  of  Canadian  Students.  Montreal :  Daw- 
son Brothers.     Pp.  250. 

Douglas,  Hon.  Stephen  A.  An  American  Con- 
tinental Commercial  Union  or  Alliance.  Edited  by 
J.  Madison  Cutts.  Washington,  D.  C:  Thomas  Mc- 
Gill  &  Co.,  printers.    Pp.  36.    25  cents. 

Eckstein,  Ernst.  Nero:  a  Romance.  Trans- 
lated by  Clara  Bell  and  Mary  .7.  Safford.  New  York  : 
W.  S.  Gottsberger.    2  vols.     Pp.  2S4  and  2S7. 

Edison  Electric  Light  Company.  The  Wefting- 
house-Edison  Case.  Pull  Text  of  Justice  Bradley's 
Opinion.     Pp.  20. 

Eigenmann,  Carl  H.,  and  Rosa  Smith.  Prelimi- 
nary Notes  on  South  American  Nematoguathi.  Pp. 
531.— On  the  Genesis  of  the  Color-Cells  of  Fishes. 
Pp.  2. — And  other  papers  on  fishes. 

Georgia,  Agricultural  College  of,  Crop  Report  for 
October,  1839.    Pp.  19. 

Goode,  G.  Browne.  Report  of  the  Commissioner 
of  Fish  and  Fisheries  for  1686.  Washington  :  Gov- 
ernment .Printing-Office.    Pp.  1071,  with  Charts. 

Greene,  Homer.  Coal  and  the  Coal  Mines.  Bos- 
ton and  New  York:  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.  Pp. 
216.     75  cents. 

Hale,  Edwin  M.,  M.  D.,  Chicago.  The  TJnproven 
Iodides.     Pp.  8. 

Heilprin,  Angelo.  The  Bermuda  Islands.  Phila- 
delphia: The  Author,  Academy  ol  Natural  Sciences. 
Pp.  231,  with  Plates. 

Hensoldt,  H.,  Ph.  D.,  Columbia  College,  New 
York.    Meteorites,  and  what  they  teach  us.    Pp.  24. 

Hogg,  Prof.  Alexander.  The  Railroad  in  Edu- 
cation. Edition  of  1889.  Fort  Worth,  Texas.  Pp. 
64. 

Hlinois,  University  of,  Agricultural  Experiment 
Station.     A  Bacterial  Disease  of  Corn.     Pp.  12. 

Iowa  Agricultural  Experiment  Station.  Bulletins 
Nos  5  and  6,  referring  to  Sorghum,  Wheat,  Injurious 
Insects,  etc.    Pp.  144. 

Jackson,  .Chevalier  R.,  M.  D.  The  Acarns  Fol- 
liculorum  in  the  Huimn  Skin.  Pp.  4,  with  Plate. 
— The  Bacillus  of  Leprosy.     Pp.  9. 

James,  Prof.  Joseph  F.,  Washington,  D.  C. 
Remarks  upon  Sedimentation  in  the  Ohio  Group. 
Pp.  3. 

Kapp,  Gisbert.  Alternate-Current  Machinery. 
New  York :  D.  Van  Nostrand  Company.  Pp.  199. 
50  cents. 

Konvalinka,  J.  G.,  Long  Island  City,  N.  Y.  How 
to  improve  the  Climate  of  the  United  States  and  of 
other  Countries.     Pp.  27. 

Krafft-Ebing,  Dr.  R.  von.  An  Experimental 
Study  in  the  Domain  of  Hypnotism.  Translated  by 
Charles  G.  Chaddock.  M.  D.  New  York :  G.  P. 
Putnam's  Sons.    Pp.  129.    $1.25. 


Lauridsen,  Peter.  Vitus  Bering,  the  Discoverer 
of  Bering  Strait.  Chicago :  S.  C.  Griggs  &  Co. 
Pp.  223,  with  Maps. 

Lewis,  T.  H.  Stone  Monuments  in  Southern 
Dakota.  Pp.  6.— A  New  Departure  in  Effigy 
Mounds.     Pp.  3. 

McGee,  Prof.  W  J.  The  World's  Supply  of 
Fuel.  Pp.  12. — An  Obsidian  Implement  from  Ple- 
istocene Deposits  in  Nevada.  Washington  :  Judd 
&  Detweiler.  Pp.  12. — The  Aborigines  of  the  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia  and  the  Lower  Potomac.  A  Sym- 
posium.   Same  publishers.    Pp.  44. 

Mills,  Wesley.  A  Text-Book  of  Animal  Physiol- 
ogy.   New  York:  D.  Appleton  &  Co.    Pp.699.    $5. 

Morris,  Charles.  Aryan  Sun-Myths  the  Origin 
of  Religions.  Troy,  N.  Y.:  Nims  &  Wright.  Pp. 
192. 

New  York  Agricultural  Experiment  Station, 
Geneva.   Cattle  Foods  and  Feeding  Rations.   Pp.  24. 

Nichols,  George  Warner.  Letters  from  Walde- 
grave  Cottage.  New  York :  Exchange  Printing 
Company.     Pp.  253. 

Nichols,  W  F.  Topics  in  Geography.  Boston  : 
D.  C.  Heath  &  Co.     Pp.  174.    55  cents. 

Ohio  Agricultural  Experiment  Station.  Seventh 
Annual  Report,  1888.     Columbus.     Pp.  216. 

Panin,  Ivan.  Lectures  on  Russian  Literature. 
New  York  and  London  :  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons.  Pp. 
220.    $1.50. 

Parkes.  Louis  C,  M.  D.  Hygiene  and  Public 
Health.  Philadelphia:  P.  Blakiston,  Son  &  Co.  Pp. 
471.     $2.50. 

Peacocke,  John  M.,  M.  D.,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.  The 
Disposal  of  the  Dead.    Pp.  24. 

Philadelphia,  Annual  Report  of  the  Public  Schools 
for  1888.  Pp.  144.— Reports  of  Committees  oi  Com- 
missioners for  the  Erection  of  Public  Buildings,  etc 
Pp.  188. 

Piatt.  Isaac  Hull,  M.  D.,  Lakewood,  N.  J.  The 
Pine  Belt  of  New  Jersey.     Pp.9. 

Redway,  Jacques  W.  The  Teacher's  Manual  of 
Geography.  Boston:  D.  C.  Heath  &  Co.  Pp.  74. 
55  cents. 

Remonding,  P.  C,  M.  D.,  San  Diego,  Cal.  The 
Climate  of  Southern  California  in  its  Relation  to 
Renal  Diseases.     Pp.  21. 

Rogers,  Henry  Wade,  Editor.  Constitutional 
History  of  the  United  States,  as  seen  in  the  Develop- 
ment of  American  Law.  Lectures  by  Five  Jurists. 
New  York  and  London  :  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons.  Pp. 
296.    $2. 

Rumford,  Isaac  B.,  Santa  Cruz,  Cal.  Edenie 
Diet.  The  Philosophy  of  Eating,  for  the  Physical 
and  Mental  Man.    Pp.  92. 

Scott,  Robert  P.  Cycling  Art,  Energy,  and  Lo- 
comotion. Philadelphia:  J.  B.  Lippincott  Com- 
pany.    Pp.  305.     $2. 

Shufeldt.  R.  W.,  M.  D.    Osteological  Studies  of 
the  Sub- Family  Ardeinae.     Pp.  31.— Studies  of  the 
Macrochires,  with  a  View  to  defining  their  Relation 
ship,  etc.     Pp.  96,  with  Plates. 

Spanish- American  Commercial  Union.  Proceed- 
ings at  the  Banquet.  New  York,  May  1, 1889.  Pp. 
47. 

Stillman,  James  W.  God  and  the  Universe. 
Pp.  20. 

Strasburger,  E.  Handbook  of  Practical  Botany. 
Editi-d,  from  the  German,  by  W.  Hillhouse.  New 
York  :  Macmillan  &  Co.     Pp.  425.    $2.50. 

Thorne,  William  Henry,  Philadelphia.  "The 
Globe."  a  New  Quarterly  Review.  Vol.  I,  No.  1. 
Pp.  96.    50  cents,  $2  a  year. 

Torrey,  Bradford.  A  Rambler's  Lease.  Boston 
and  New  York :  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.  Pp  221. 
$1.25. 

Uphton  Court,  Camden,  S.  C.     Pp.  16. 

Whitman,  C.  O.,  and  Allis,  Edward  Phelps.  Jr. 
"Journal  of  Morphology."  June,  1889.  Vol.  III.  No. 
1.  Boston  :  Ginn  &  Co.  Pp.  136,  with  Plates.   $3.50. 


276 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 

The  Name   Silnrian    in  Geology. — We 

have  received  from  Prof.  Dana  the  follow- 
ing note  in  explanation  of  a  change  in  geo- 
logical nomenclature  recently  proposed  by 
him : 

"  The  names  for  the  grander  divisions 
of  the  Palaeozoic  series  below  the  Devonian 
used  in  most  of  the  recently  published 
works  on  geology  are  Cambrian,  Lower  Silu- 
rian, and  Upper  Silurian.  Cambrian  was 
proposed  by  Sedgwick,  and  Silurian  by 
Murchison,  and  both  names  are  derived 
from  the  names  of  ancient  tribes  of  Wales. 
In  1879  Dr.  Lapworth  proposed  to  substi- 
tute the  term  Ordovician.  a  term  of  like 
origin,  for  the  Lower  Silurian,  and  its  adop- 
tion is  under  discussion.  Although  not  see- 
ing any  need  of  further  change,  I  urged,  in 
my  paper  before  the  American  Geological 
Society  at  Toronto,  that  the  name  Silurian, 
if  it  is  to  be  restricted,  should  be  used  for 
the  Lower  Silurian  rather  than  the  Upper, 
on  the  ground  that  it  was  more  just  to  Mur- 
chison and  better  for  the  science.  I  further 
added  that  for  a  new  name  for  the  Upper 
Silurian,  rather  than  go  again  to  Wales  for 
one,  we  should  consider  the  claims  of  Bohe- 
mia, the  land  where  Barrande  carried  for- 
ward his  great  work  on  the  Silurian  and 
associated  rocks,  or  to  the  region  of  New 
York  and  Canada,  made  famous  geologically 
by  the  Palaeozoic  labors  of  Hall,  Billings, 
and  others.  I  stated  that  the  French  geolo- 
gist, De  Lapparent,  had  already  used  the 
name  Bohemian  for  the  Upper  Silurian ;  and 
I  then  remarked  that  the  lower  portion  of 
the  Upper  Silurian  was  called  the  Ontario 
Division  in  the  Reports  of  1842  and  1846  of 
the  New  York  geologists,  Profs.  Mather  and 
Emmons,  and  that  this  suggested  the  use  of 
the  name  Ontarian.  This  would  make  the 
names  for  the  three  grand  divisions  referred 
to  the  Cambrian,  Silurian,  and  Ontarian. 
"James  D.  Dana." 

History  in  High  and  Preparatory 
Schools. — Two  opposite  demands,  according 
to  Mrs.  Mary  Sheldon  Barnes,  have  to  be 
met  in  teaching  history  in  the  high  school ; 
one  for  the  generalities  which  are  the  com- 
monplaces of  every  scholar,  the  other  for 
fresh  and  independent  study  of  historic  de- 


tail from  historic  sources.  As  a  solution  of 
the  difficulty  thus  raised,  the  author  pro- 
poses teaching  the  general  truth  through  the 
special  fact,  and  making  each  pupil  judge 
the  special  fact  for  itself  in  its  general  as- 
pects. The  first  step  in  this  direction  should 
be  to  give  the  student  a  little  collection  of 
historic  data,  and  extracts  from  contempo- 
rary sources,  together  with  a  few  questions 
within  his  power  to  answer  from  these  ma- 
terials. "  Then  let  him  go  by  himself,  like 
Agassiz's  famous  student  with  the  fish,  to 
see  what  he  can  see."  The  prominent  char- 
acteristics of  the  method  employed  by  Prof. 
I.  B.  Burgess,  of  Newport,  R.  I.,  for  teach- 
ing classical  history  preparatory  to  college, 
are,  almost  exclusive  attention  to  the  facts 
which  are  essential  to  the  comprehension  of 
Greek  and  Roman  life  and  its  development ; 
the  study  of  primitive  facts,  such  as  maps, 
pictures  of  Greek  and  Roman  works ; 
speeches  and  writings  of  Greeks  and  Ro- 
mans ;  and  the  use  of  questions  about  these 
facts,  which  require  not  the  simple  repeti- 
tion of  them,  but  the  gathering  and  compari- 
son of  different  fact3,  and  the  drawing  of 
inferences  from  them  by  the  pupil  himself. 

An  Unsettled  Part  of  Minnesota. — The 

report  of  the  Geological  and  Natural  His- 
tory  Survey  of  Minnesota  for  1887  consists 
most  largely  of  local  details,  of  interest 
chiefly  to  the  specialist.  The  work  was  pros- 
ecuted by  three  parties,  two  of  them  operat- 
ing in  the  region  of  the  original  Huronian  and 
the  iron-bearing  rocks  of  northern  Michigan 
and  Wisconsin,  and  the  third  in  the  region 
of  Rainy  Lake,  while  briefer  surveys  were 
made  in  other  regions.  Prof.  N.  II.  Win- 
chell's  examination  of  the  original  Huronian 
leads  to  some  important  results  which  have 
a  direct  bearing  on  the  classification  of  the 
rocks  of  Minnesota  and  of  the  Northwest. 
Prof.  Alexander  Winchcll  describes  the  Hu- 
ronian region  as  traversed  from  east  to  west 
by  a  low,  interrupted  swell,  called  the  Giant's 
Range,  and  by  another  series  of  still  higher 
reliefs  called  the  Mesabi  Rantje — which  must, 
however,  be  distinguished  from  another  Me- 
sabi Range — but  without  conspicuous  feat- 
ures of  mountain  relief.  As  a  rule,  the  sur- 
face is  rugged  and  uncultivable.  Between 
Fall  Lake  and  Grand  Portage,  and  north  of 
Grand  Marais,  the  region  is  "a  literal  wil 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 


277 


derness  without  inhabitant,  without  mails, 
without  roads,  and  with  only  an  occasional 
party  of  Indians  or  explorers,  following  the 
ancient  and  overgrown  trails  of  two  centu- 
ries ago."  Fires  have  denuded  the  region 
of  its  primitive  forests ;  but  the  older  burn- 
ings are  becoming  overgrown  with  thickets 
of  aspen,  white  paper  birch,  cherry,  etc.  A 
few  remnants  of  the  original  forest  are  oc- 
casionally found ;  and  various  shrubs  and 
low  herbs  occur.  Many  small  tracts  of  deep 
and  productive  soil  intervene  between  the 
almost  universal  rocky  or  thinly  covered 
exposures.  The  summer  climate  was  agree- 
able, with  sunny  days  as  the  rule  during  two 
seasons.  No  experience  was  had  of  the 
winter  climate.  The  character  of  the  coun- 
try covered  by  Mr.  H.  V.  Winchell's  Rainy 
Lake  survey  varies  greatly  in  different  re- 
gions. In  the  vicinity  of  Rainy  and  the 
neighboring  lakes,  it  is  very  rocky,  while 
west  of  these  lakes  the  surface  consists  of 
drift  deposits,  and  the  underlying  rock  ap- 
pears only  at  rapids  and  waterfalls  in  the 
streams  and  a  few  places  in  the  midst  of  the 
forest.  The  region  within  the  limits  of  the 
glacial  lake  Agassiz  is  now  covered  with  a 
fine  growth  of  timber,  both  hard  and  soft 
wood,  and  is  excellent  farming  land. 

Old  Cyclopaedias. — The  most  extensive, 
and  one  of  the  oldest  of  cyclopaedias  is  the  Chi- 
nese work,  the  name  of  which  may  be  trans- 
lated as  the  "  Thesaurus  of  Writings  Ancient 
and  Modern,"  compiled  under  the  scholarly 
Emperor  Kang  Hi,  which  was  printed  toward 
the  close  of  the  last  century.  It  was  the 
fruit  of  forty  years  of  labor,  and  filled  5,020 
volumes ;  but  this  by  no  means  implies  that 
it  was  as  large  as  a  European  book  of  that 
number  of  volumes  would  be.  Pliny's  "  Nat- 
ural History  "  may  be  regarded  as  the  oldest 
European  encyclopaedia.  The  ''  Speculum 
Majus  "  of  Vincent  de  Beauvais,  in  the  thir- 
teenth century,  was  divided  into  10,000  chap- 
ters, several  of  which  were  subdivided  alpha- 
betically. About  a  hundred  years  later  came 
the  "  De  Proprietatibus  Rerum  "  of  the  Eng- 
lish Franciscan  Bartholomew  de  Glanville, 
which  was  translated  into  the  English  of 
the  day.  Johann  Alsted's  "  Encyclopaedia  " 
(1630)  was  one  of  the  first  works  that  bore  the 
name.  The  anonymous  "  Universal  Histori- 
cal Geographical,  Chronological,  and  Classi- 


cal Dictionary"  (1703),  a  nearly  forgotten 
work,  is  said  to  be  "full,  concise,  lively,  and, 
all  things  considered,  wonderfully  accurate," 
but  some  very  funny  statements  made  in  it 
are  pointed  out.  In  the  next  year  was  pub- 
lished Dr.  Harris's  "  Lexicon  Technicum,  or 
an  Universal  Dictionary  of  Arts  and  Sci- 
ences," which  has  been  given  the  credit,  that 
of  right  belongs  to  the  preceding  work,  of  be- 
ing the  first  alphabetical  encyclopaedia  writ- 
ten in  English.  Next  to  these  works  fol- 
low the  generation  of  cyclopaedias  which  are 
still  known  among  us,  beginning  with  Eph- 
raim  Chambers's  Cyclopaedia  (1728)  and 
D'Alembert  and  Diderot's  great  work,  and 
coming  down  to  the  new  edition  of  the 
"  Britannica,"  Stephen's  "  Dictionary  of  Na- 
tional Biography,"  and  Appletons'  "  Ameri- 
can Cyclopaedia"  and  their  "Cyclopaedia  of 
American  Biography." 

The  Ice-Cap  of  Greenland.— Dr.  Frithiof 
Nansen  showed,  in  the  British  Association, 
in  opposition  to  Nordenskiold's  opinioD,  that 
the  part  of  Greenland  which  his  expedi- 
tion had  traversed  is  covered  with  a  shell- 
shaped  mantle  of  ice  and  snow,  under  which 
mountains,  as  well  as  valleys,  have  quite  dis- 
appeared, and  where  the  configuration  of 
the  land  and  mountains  can  not  be  traced. 
The  ice  covering  rises  rather  regularly  but 
rapidly  from  the  east  coast  to  a  height  of 
nine  or  ten  thousand  feet,  is  rather  flat  and 
even  in  the  middle,  and  falls  off  again  regu- 
larly toward  the  west  coast.  There  must  be 
mountains  and  valleys  in  the  interior  of 
Greenland  as  well  as  on  the  coast.  It  is  al- 
ready known  that  there  are  on  the  coasts 
deep  fiords  and  lofty  mountains  very  like 
those  of  western  Norway,  and  that  they 
have  in  some  places  just  the  same  wild  and 
prominent  character.  If  we  entertain  the 
opinion  that  these  fiords  were  excavated  by 
the  ice,  we  must  also  conclude  that  the  same 
ice  has  been  able  to  excavate  valleys  and 
form  mountains  in  the  interior  of  the  conti- 
nent. We  have  no  right,  therefore,  to  seek 
the  reason  of  the  shield-like  shape  of  the  ice 
in  the  configuration  of  the  land  underneath 
its  surface.  It  must  have  a  shape  of  its 
own,  which  was  given,  not  by  the  land,  but 
by  the  meteorological  circumstances.  No- 
body could  deny  that  the  ice  might  in  some 
places  have   an  enormous   thickness,  as  it 


278 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


filled  the  valleys  and  covered  up  all  the 
mountains.  The  thickness  must  be  regulated 
by  the  quantity  of  snow  falling,  and  this  is 
largest  toward  the  coast,  gradually  diminish- 
ing toward  the  interior.  Hence  the  thick- 
ness of  the  ice  would  be  greatest  on  both 
sides  toward  the  coast,  just  as  has  been  ob- 
served. The  surface  of  the  snow-field  in  the 
interior  is  even  and  as  if  polished,  resem- 
bling the  undisturbed  surface  of  a  frozen 
sea,  the  long  but  not  high  billows  of  which, 
rolling  from  east  to  west,  are  not  easily  dis- 
tinguishable to  the  eye.  The  principal  factor 
in  giving  the  surface  this  shape  is  the  wind. 
A  careful  observation  of  a  snow  and  ice  cov- 
ering like  that  of  Greenland  is  of  great  im- 
portance for  the  theory  of  the  formation  of 
valleys  and  fiords.  It  seems  that  the  more 
we  study  Greenland,  its  coasts,  and  its  inland 
ice,  the  more  convinced  we  must  feel  of  the 
power  of  the  ice  to  perform  this  work. 

The  Brnce  Photographic  Telescope. — 

The  Astronomical  Observatory  of  Harvard 
College  has  received  from  Miss  C.  W.  Bruce  a 
gift  of  fifty  thousand  dollars  for  the  construc- 
tion of  a  photographic  telescope  such  as  the  di- 
rector had  described  in  his  circular  of  Novem- 
ber 28,  1888,  as  desirable.  The  instrument 
will  have  an  objective  of  about  twenty-four 
inches  aperture,  and  a  focal  length  of  about 
eleven  feet.  It  will  differ  from  other  large 
telescopes  in  the  construction  of  its  object- 
glass,  which  will  be  a  compound  lens  of  the 
form  used  by  photographers  and  known  as 
the  portrait  lens.  The  focal  length  of  such 
a  lens  is  very  small  compared  with  its  diame- 
ter, and  much  fainter  stars  can  be  photo- 
graphed in  consequence.  The  advantage  is 
even  greater  in  photographing  nebulae  or 
other  faint  surfaces.  Moreover,  this  form 
of  lens  will  enable  each  photographic  plate 
to  cover  an  area  several  times  as  great  as 
that  which  is  covered  by  an  instrument  of 
the  usual  form.  The  time  required  to  pho- 
tograph the  entire  sky  is  reduced  in  the  same 
proportion.  A  telescope  of  the  proposed 
form,  having  an  aperture  of  eight  inches, 
has  been  in  constant  use  in  Cambridge  for 
the  last  four  years,  and  is  now  in  Peru  pho- 
tographing the  southern  stars.  It  has  proved 
useful  for  a  great  variety  of  researches. 
Stars  have  been  photographed  with  it  too 
faint  to  be  visible  in  the  fifteen-inch  refract- 


or of  the  observatory.  Its  short  focal  length 
enables  it  to  photograph  as  faint  stars  as 
any  which  can  be  taken  with  an  excellent 
photographic  telescope  having  an  aperture 
of  thirteen  inches.  The  eight-inch  telescope 
will  photograph  stars  about  two  magnitudes 
fainter  than  can  be  taken  with  a  similar  in- 
strument having  an  aperture  of  four  inches. 
A  corresponding  advantage  is  expected  from 
the  increase  of  the  aperture  to  twenty-four 
inches.  Other  advantages  to  be  anticipated 
from  the  use  of  such  an  instrument  will 
arise  from  the  opportunities  which  the  photo- 
graphs will  give  for  continuous  and  detailed 
study.  Witb  them  work  can  be  done  at  any 
place  and  any  time,  and,  by  multiplying 
copies,  by  any  number  of  observers.  And 
with  them  more  could  be  added  by  a  single 
lens  to  our  knowledge  of  the  stars  than  could 
be  obtained  by  any  number  of  telescopes  of 
the  usual  kind.  Prof.  Pickering  is  seeking 
the  best  possible  location  at  which  to  mount 
the  instrument.  Owing  to  the  difficulty  in 
maintaining  regular  observations  in  the  East- 
ern States  that  arise  from  the  prevalence  of 
cloudiness,  he  suggests  one  of  the  mount- 
ains of  southern  California  as  likely  to  offer 
the  most  favorable  climatic  conditions  at- 
tainable. 

What  it  takes  to  play  a  Piece  of  Music. 

— Science,  says  Sir  James  Paget,  will  sup- 
ply the  natural  man  with  wonders  uncount- 
ed. The  author  had  once  heard  Mile.  Ja- 
notha  play  a  presto  by  Mendelssohn.  She 
played  5,595  notes  in  four  minutes  and  three 
seconds.  Every  one  of  these  notes  involved 
certain  movements  of  a  finger,  at  least  two, 
and  many  of  them  involved  an  additional 
movement  laterally  as  well  as  those  up  and 
down.  They  also  involved  repeated  move- 
ments of  the  wrists,  elbows,  and  arms,  alto- 
gether probably  not  less  than  one  move- 
ment for  each  note.  Therefore  there  were 
three  distinct  movements  for  each  note.  As 
there  were  twenty-four  notes  per  second, 
and  each  of  these  notes  involved  three  dis- 
tinct musical  movements,  that  amounted  to 
seventy  -  two  movements  in  each  second. 
Moreover,  each  of  those  notes  was  deter- 
mined by  the  will  to  a  chosen  place,  with  a 
certain  force,  at  a  certain  time,  and  with  a 
certain  duration.  Therefore  there  were  four 
distinct  qualities  in  each  of  the  seventy-two 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 


279 


movements  in  each  second.  Such  were  the 
transmissions  outward.  And  all  those  were 
conditional  on  consciousness  of  the  position 
of  each  hand  and  each  finger  before  it  was 
moved,  and,  while  moving  it,  of  the  sound 
and  the  force  of  each  touch.  Therefore  there 
were  three  conscious  sensations  for  every 
note.  There  were  seventy-two  transmissions 
per  second,  one  hundred  and  forty-four  to 
and  fro,  and  those  with  constant  change  of 
quality.  And  then,  added  to  that,  all  the 
time  the  memory  was  remembering  each  note 
in  its  due  time  and  place,  and  was  exer- 
cised in  the  comparison  of  it  with  others 
that  came  before.  So  that  it  would  be  fair 
to  say  that  there  were  not  less  than  two 
hundred  transmissions  of  nerve  force  to  and 
from  the  brain  outward  and  inward  every 
second,  and  during  the  whole  of  that  time 
judgment  was  being  exercised  as  to  whether 
the  music  was  bring  played  better  or  worse 
than  before,  and  the  mind  was  conscious  of 
some  of  the  emotions  which  the  music  was 
intended  to  inspire. 

Ancient  Chaldean  and  Modern  Measnres. 

— According  to  Prof.  Harkness,  in  his  presi- 
dential address  to  the  Philosophical  Society 
of  Washington,  the  ancient  Chaldeans  used, 
primarily,  the  decimal  system  of  notation, 
and  also  the  duodecimal  in  the  division  of 
the  year  and  of  the  day  into  hours,  and  the 
sexagesimal  in  the  division  of  the  circle  and 
of  the  hour  and  minute.  The  last  two  sys- 
tems were  also  applied  to  weights  and  meas- 
ures, and  impressed  upon  them  by  the  scien- 
tific authority  of  those  ancient  sages.  "  Now 
observe,"  says  the  author,  "  how  the  scien- 
tific thought  of  to  -  day  repeats  the  scientific 
thought  of  four  thousand  years  ago.  These 
old  Chaldeans  took  from  the  human  body 
what  they  regarded  as  a  suitable  unit  of 
length,  and  for  their  unit  of  mass  they  adopt- 
ed a  cube  of  water  bearing  simple  relations 
to  their  unit  of  length.  Four  thousand 
years  later,  when  these  simple  relations  had 
been  forgotten  and  impaired,  some  of  the 
most  eminent  scientists  of  the  last  century 
again  undertook  the  task  of  constructing  a 
system  of  weights  and  measures.  With  them 
the  duodecimal  and  sexagesimal  systems  were 
Out  of  favor,  while  the  decimal  system  was 
highly  fashionable,  and  for  that  reason  they 
subdivided  their  units  decimally ;  but  they 


reverted  to  the  old  Chaldean  device  for  ob- 
taining simple  relations  between  their  units 
of  length  and  mass,  and  to  that  fact  alone 
the  French  metric  system  owes  its  survival. 
Every  one  now  knows  that  the  metre  is  not 
the  ten-millionth  part  of  a  quadrant  of  the 
earth's  meridian,  and  in  mathematical  phys- 
ics, where  the  numbers  are  so  complicated 
that  they  can  only  be  dealt  with  by  the  aid 
of  logarithms,  and  the  constant  it,  an  utterly 
irrational  quantity,  crops  up  in  almost  every 
integral,  mere  decimal  subdivision  of  the  units 
counts  for  very  little.  But  in  some  depart- 
ments of  science,  as,  for  example,  chemistry, 
a  simple  relation  between  the  unit  of  length 
(which  determines  volume),  the  unit  of  mass, 
and  the  unit  of  specific  gravity,  is  of  prime 
importance ;  and  wherever  that  is  the  case 
the  metric  system  will  be  used.  To  engineers 
such  relations  are  of  small  moment,  and,  con- 
sequently, among  English  -  speaking  engi- 
neers, the  metric  system  is  making  no  prog- 
ress, while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  chemists 
have  eagerly  adopted  it.  As  the  English 
yard  and  pound  are  the  direct  descendants 
of  the  Chaldean-Babylonian  natural  cubit 
and  mina,  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  yard 
should  be  only  0*48  of  an  inch  shorter  than 
the  double  cubit,  and  the  avoirdupois  pound 
only  665  grains  lighter  than  the  Babylonian 
commercial  mina;  but,  considering  the  ori- 
gin of  the  metric  system,  it  is  rather  curious 
that  the  metre  is  only  1"97  inches  shorter 
than  the  Chaldean  double  royal  cubit,  and 
the  kilogramme  only  102  grains  heavier  than 
the  Babylonian  royal  mina.  Thus,  without 
much  exaggeration,  we  may  regard  the  pres- 
ent English  and  French  fundamental  units 
of  length  and  mass  as  representing  respect- 
ively the  commercial  and  royal  units  of 
length  and  mass  of  the  Chaldeans  of  four 
thousand  years  ago." 

Monnt  Roraima. — Mount  Roraima,  that 
sharply  perpendicular  elevation  in  Guiana 
which  so  long  defied  attempts  to  reach  its 
summit,  has  been  ascended  twice  since  it 
was  first  conquered  by  Mr.  Im  Thurn  in  1884 
— by  Mr.  F.  Dressel  and  Mr.  Cromer,  in  Oc- 
tober and  November,  1886.  While  Mr.  Im 
Thurn's  ascent  took  place  at  the  beginning 
of  the  rainy  season,  Mr.  Dressel's  was  in  the 
dry  season,  and  their  respective  observations 
were  marked   by  corresponding  differences. 


280 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


Mr.  Im  Thurn  had  observed  no  animal  life 
while  he  was  upon  the  mountain ;  Mr.  Dies- 
sel  saw  a  few  butterflies,  all  of  a  dark-brown 
and  nearly  black  color.  In  the  shallow  ba- 
sins a  few  specimens  of  a  small  black  toad 
with  a  yellow  spot  on  the  throat  were  found. 
A  third  animal  form  was  noticed  in  the 
moist  earth  attached  to  some  plants  which 
had  been  pulled  up — a  milliped.  The  fan- 
tastic shapes  into  which  the  sandstones  have 
been  formed,  and  the  calmness  of  the  scene, 
affected  Mr.  Dressel  as  they  had  Mr.  Im 
Thurn. 

Experience  and  Training  in  Mechanical 
Work. — To  be  a  good  mechanic,  said  Sir 
Benjamin  Browne,  at  the  recent  meeting  of 
the  British  Association,  long  training  is  neces- 
sary; and,  above  all,  ability  to  distinguish 
good  work  from  inferior  work.  A  regular 
course  of  progress  from  one  branch  to  an- 
other should  be  carefully  followed,  so  as  to 
teach  every  class  of  work  up  to  the  most  dif- 
ficult. In  this  the  real  interest  of  the  em- 
ployer is  the  same  as  that  of  the  lad,  viz.,  to 
learn  every  step  thoroughly,  and  then  pass 
on  to  something  more  difficult.  The  author 
contended  that  a  long  training  in  a  manu- 
factory is  absolutely  necessary,  and  this 
should  be  supplemented  by  theoretical  and 
technical  instruction.  It  would  probably  be 
a  great  gain  to  give  a  lad  six  or  eight 
months  of  theoretical  teaching  after  he  is  out 
of  his  apprenticeship.  The  old-fashioned 
system  of  apprenticeship,  not  much  short- 
ened, and  with  very  slight  modifications,  is 
the  only  reliable  method  for  cither  employer 
or  mechanic  to  learn  his  business  ;  but,  as 
work  has  become  more  scientific  and  elabo- 
rate, it  is  necessary  for  any  young  man  who 
wishes  to  excel  to  have  a  good  theoretical 
and  technical  training  in  addition  to  his  fac- 
tory experience. 

How  Stone  Implements  were  made. — 

Mr.  Gerard  Fowke,  of  Sidney,  Ohio,  has  been 
studying  the  manner  in  which  primitive  man 
made  his  stone  implements.  Although  the 
subject  is  one  on  which  absolute  knowledge 
can  never  be  obtained,  he  has  been  able  to 
reach  some  definite  conclusions  on  it.  Some 
of  the  material  was  obtained  from  extensive 
quarries  in  Coshocton  County,  and  between 
Newark  and  Zanesville,  Ohio,  where  the  hills 


are  seamed  for  miles  with  the  trenches  and 
pits  left  by  the  ancient  diggers.  To  get  the 
flint,  the  overlying  stratum  of  earth,  nine  or 
ten  feet  thick,  had  to  be  removed,  with 
wooden  tools.  The  rock  was  then  cracked 
by  building  a  fire,  and  probably  pouring 
water  upon  it,  the  process  being  repeated 
till  the  limestone  was  reached  and  a  hole 
made  large  enough  to  work  in.  Other  cracks 
were  made  by  building  a  fire  at  the  lower 
part  of  the  ledge,  and  the  split  rock  was  de- 
tached. This  work  was  sometimes  carried 
on  for  several  hundred  yards.  The  stones 
were  reduced  to  blocks  of  suitable  size  by 
stone  hammers  weighing,  perhaps,  two  hun- 
dred pounds,  and  the  shaping  was  carried  on 
with  hammers  running,  according  to  its  stage 
and  the  quality  of  work  desired,  down  to  two 
ounces  in  weight.  The  finished  object  was 
smoothed  and  sharpened  by  rubbing  it  with 
sandstones.  If  a  hole  was  wanted,  it  was 
drilled  with  a  stick,  cane-stem,  piece  of  bone 
or  horn,  flint,  or  piece  of  sandstone,  which 
was  revolved  in  the  hands,  or  twisted  back 
and  forth  with  the  bowstring.  This  was 
not  a  speedy  process.  Dr.  Bau  worked  at 
it  experimentally  for  two  years,  and  left  his 
first  hole  not  bored  through.  Yet  some  of 
the  Amazon  tribes  spend  the  lifetimes  of  two 
men  in  drilling,  with  the  flexible  shoot  of  a 
wild  plantain  and  sand  and  water,  the  bores 
of  their  tubes  of  rock  crystal.  Handles 
were  fitted  on  in  a  rude  way  and  secured  by 
wrapping  with  sinew,  which  shrunk  and 
bound  them  tightly ;  or,  with  the  aid  of  gum. 
The  fashioning  of  arrow- heads  was  a  very 
delicate  and  curious  work,  requiring  skillful 
manipulation,  and  was  performed  with  stone 
hammers  or  chisel-points  of  deer-horn  or 
wood. 

Bellito. — The  new  explosive,  bellite,  was 
recently  subjected  in  England  to  some  very 
satisfactory  tests  of  its  safety  and  power. 
Letting  a  great  weight  fall  upon  cartridges 
composed  of  it,  they  were  simply  crushed 
into  a  hard  mass.  But  when  the  crushed  car- 
tridges were  afterward  detonated  by  means  of 
a  fulminate,  immense  energy  was  developed. 
Again,  when  placed  in  the  fire  of  a  smith's 
forge,  it  was  volatilized.  The  effect  of  ex- 
ploding a  three-ounce  cartridge  on  the  lid 
of  a  case  containing  bellite  was  simply  to 
pulverize  the  wooden  case  and  scatter  the 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 


281 


contents.  Comparative  experiments  showed 
that,  when  bellite  was  confined,  the  energy 
developed  on  detonation  was  equal  to  that 
of  dynamite ;  but  that  when  unconfined, 
bellite  apparently  did  less  work.  In  mine- 
blasting  bellite  was  proved  capable  of  doing 
the  work  of  three  or  four  times  its  weight  of 
gunpowder,  without  the  fumes  that  rise  when 
dynamite  or  gunpowder  is  used. 

Distribation  of  Rotifera. — Of  the  little 
animals  classified  as  Rotifera,  the  most  spe- 
cies have  been  found  in  Great  Britain — not 
certainly  because  they  are  more  abundant  or 
varied  in  England  than  elsewhere,  but  be- 
cause they  have  been  more  industriously 
looked  for,  and  more  found  there.  In  late 
years,  two  and  a  half  times  as  many  species 
have  been  added  to  the  British  lists  as  to 
those  of  all  other  countries  put  together. 
There  are  curiosities  in  the  distribution  of 
these  animals.  Twenty-four  out  of  the  re- 
corded species  in  Australia  are  also  British ; 
and  of  the  remaining  species,  one  has  a 
habitat  in  the  United  States.  The  same 
phenomena  occur,  though  on  a  reduced  scale, 
in  the  United  States,  Jamaica,  and  Ceylon. 
The  question  arises,  How  could  these  minute 
creatures,  which  are  inhabitants  of  lakes, 
ponds,  ditches,  and  sea-shore  pools,  contrive 
to  spread  themselves  over  the  whole  earth  ? 
A  species  which  is  known  only  in  a  small 
duck-pond  in  England  has  also  been  found 
at  Sydney.  Another  species  has  been  found 
almost  simultaneously  at  Sydney  and  in  On- 
tario. These  creatures,  "  to  whom  a  yard  of 
sea-water  is  as  impassable  a  barrier  as  a 
thousand  miles  of  ocean,"  could  only  have 
reached  distant  countries  in  the  egg;  this 
they  do  by  the  hardy  ephippial  egg.  These 
eggs  fall  to  the  bottom  of  the  water  in  shal- 
low pools,  or  are  attached  to  the  confervoid 
growth  on  the  stones.  The  pool  dries  up,  is 
swept  by  the  winds,  and  the  eggs  are  lifted 
up  and  carried  away.  There  is  hardly  any 
limit  to  the  distances  to  which  they  may  be 
thus  taken  and  yet  keep  vital.  Then,  as  Dr. 
C.  T.  Hudson  shows  in  his  paper  on  this  sub- 
ject, "  the  eggs,  of  course,  must  often  fall 
on  unsuitable  places,  and  be  carried  past 
suitable  ones,  and  this  accounts  for  the 
capricious  appearance  of  Rotifera  in  some 
well-watched  ponds,  and  for  the  frequent 
disappointment  of  the  naturalists  who  visit 


such  spots.  To  this  aerial  carriage  of  the 
eggs  is  also  due  the  perplexing  fact  that 
when  any  rare  Rotifera  is  found  in  one  spot, 
it  is  frequently  found  at  the  same  time  in 
closely  neighboring  ponds  and  ditches,  even 
in  such  an  unlikely  hole  as  the  print  of  a 
cow's  foot  filled  with  rain,  but  not  at  all  in 
more  promising  place,  at  some  distance  off." 
They  may  also  be  distributed  by  water-birds 
and  dogs.  The  animals  themselves  are  very 
hardy  against  heat  and  dryness.  The  Phila- 
dinadce,  when  time  is  given  them  to  don 
their  protective  coats,  oan  bear  a  heat  gradu- 
ally advancing  to  200°  Fahr.,  or  a  fifty  days' 
exposure  to  a  dryness  produced  over  sul- 
phuric acid  in  the  receiver  of  an  air-pump. 

The  City  of  the  Cat-Goddess.— M.  Edou- 
ard  Naville  recently  gave  before  the  Victoria 
Institute  an  account  of  his  important  dis- 
coveries at  Bubastis,  one  of  the  ancient  great 
cities  of  the  Delta  of  Egypt,  and  the  princi- 
pal seat  of  the  worship  of  the  cat-goddess, 
Pasht.  The  speaker  said,  at  the  beginning 
of  his  lecture,  that  it  was  remarkable  that 
while  one  of  the  latest  writers  on  the  East 
had  referred  to  the  failure  of  the  prophecies 
of  Ezekiel  regarding  the  cities  of  Egypt,  he 
had  himself  found  in  the  same  prophecies 
the  light  by  which  he  was  guided  in  his 
search.  Bubastis  was  found  to  have  been  a 
city  of  much  more  historical  importance  than 
had  generally  been  supposed,  the  recovered 
monuments  bearing  dates  all  the  way  down 
from  the  fourth  (or  Pyramid  -  builders')  to 
the  thirtieth,  or  last  Egyptian,  dynasty.  The 
most  conspicuous  relics  were  of  the  fourth, 
sixth,  twelfth,  shepherds',  nineteenth,  and 
twenty-second  dynasties.  Some  very  inter- 
esting relics  of  the  shepherd-kings,  hitherto 
rare  except  at  Tanis,  were  found ;  and  from 
the  beauty  of  their  statues,  and  other  evi- 
dences, the  author  concludes  that  they  must 
have  been  a  highly  cultivated  people,  and 
have  come  probably  from  Mesopotamia. 
Dr.  Virchow  considered  that  their  monuments 
represented  Turanians,  and  Prof.  Flower 
that  they  represented  people  of  a  Turanian 
or  Mongolian  type.  But  that  did  not  mean 
that  the  population  itself  was  Turanian. 
Their  worship  and  language  were  of  a  She- 
mitic  type,  but  the  statues  of  their  kings 
showed  that  they  were  not  Shemites.  M. 
Naville  remarked :  "  It  was  then  what  it  still 


282 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


is  now ;  and  I  believe  that  the  conquest  of 
Egypt  by  the  Hyksos  is  not  unlike  what 
would  happen  at  the  present  day  if  the 
population  of  Mesopotamia  overran  the  val- 
ley of  the  Nile :  you  would  have  masses,  in 
great  majority  of  Shemitic  race,  speaking  a 
Shemitic  language,  and  having  a  Shemitic 
religion,  but  under  the  command  of  Turks, 
who  are  not  Shemites,  but  Turanians."  M. 
Naville  regards  the  successive  discoveries 
that  have  been  made  in  the  Delta  as  making 
the  Bible-story  more  comprehensible  in  some 
points,  and  as  showing  that  the  distances  were 
much  shorter  than  was  generally  thought. 
"I  consider  it  important,  for  instance,  to 
have  established  that  Bubastis  was  a  very 
large  city,  and  a  favorite  resort  of  the  king 
and  his  family.  It  is  quite  possible  that,  at 
the  time  when  the  events  preceding  the  Ex- 
odus took  place,  the  king  was  at  Bubastis, 
and  not  at  Tanis,  as  has  been  generally  be- 
lieved." 

Composition  of  London  Fogs. — Studies  of 
London  fogs  by  various  observers  show  that 
during  the  winter  the  air  of  the  metropolis  has 
an  unusually  large  amount  of  carbonic  acid 
in  it.  Thus,  Dr.  W.  J.  Russell  found  on  one 
day,  a  few  years  ago,  that  it  contained  more 
than  three  and  a  half  times  the  average 
amount.  This  is  derived,  to  a  large  extent, 
from  respiration,  and  more  from  coal-burn- 
ing ;  and  "  it  is  almost  indisputable  that  the 
latter  produces  the  well-known  black  fogs 
and  yellow  fogs."  The  relative  thickness  and 
density  of  the  air  of  different  parts  of  London 
have  been  investigated  by  Mr.  W.  H.  Raffles, 
who  took  a  station  on  Primrose  Hill  and  ob- 
served the  visibility,  on  different  days,  of 
prominent  objects  at  known  distances  in  dif- 
ferent directions.  These  observations  showed 
plainly  that  the  amount  of  fog  was  largely 
governed  by  the  density  of  the  population 
and  the  frequency  of  factories.  A  similar 
conclusion  is  drawn  from  the  number  of 
hours  in  the  daytime  on  which  artificial  light 
was  used.  Ilomerton  had  twice  as  many 
hours  of  darkness  as  any  other  district  rep- 
resented in  the  tables,  and  it  has  a  very 
large  number  of  factories  in  its  neighbor- 
hood. Of  other  towns  in  which  the  inquiry 
was  pursued,  Leeds  suffered  most  from  dark- 
ness, probably  for  the  same  reason ;  while 
Manchester  is  said  to  have  been  unusually 


free  of  late  years  from  dark  fogs,  probably 
because  many  mills  have  moved  out.  The 
ordinary  white  fog  has  also  been  reduced  by 
the  draining  of  morass  lands  near  the  city. 
A  conception  of  the  cost  of  London  fogs 
may  be  gaiued  from  the  fact  that  during 
nine  days  of  fog  in  November,  18S7,  the 
public  paid  a  single  one  of  the  several  com- 
panies four  hundred  and  ninety  pounds,  or 
twenty-four  hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  an 
hour  for  artificial  light. 

Geological  History  of  Yellowstone  Park. 

— The  geological  history  of  Yellowstone  Na- 
tional Park  has  been  traced  by  Mr.  Arnold 
Hague  in  an  address  before  the  American 
Institute  of  Mining  Engineers.  Throughout 
Tertiary  time  the  history  was  characterized  by 
great  volcanic  activity.  Within  very  recent 
times  there  is  no  evidence  of  any  consider- 
able outburst;  indeed,  the  region  may  be 
considered  long  since  extinct.  The  volcanic 
rocks  present  a  wide  range  in  chemical  and 
mineral  composition  and  physical  structure, 
but  may  all  be  classed  in  the  groups,  follow- 
ing one  another  in  the  order  named — ande- 
sites,  rhyolites,  and  basalts.  Since  the  close 
of  the  Ice  period  no  geological  events  of  any 
moment  have  brought  about  any  changes  in 
the  physical  history  of  the  region  other  than 
those  produced  by  the  direct  action  of  steam 
and  thermal  waters.  Indications  of  fresh 
lava-flows  within  historical  times  are  wholly 
wanting.  All  our  observations  point  in  one 
direction,  and  lead  to  the  theory  that  the 
cause  of  the  high  temperature  of  the  waters 
of  the  geysers  and  hot  springs  must  be 
found  in  the  rocks  below,  and  that  the  ori- 
gin of  the  heat  is  in  some  way  associated 
with  the  source  of  volcanic  agency.  But  it 
does  not  follow  that  the  waters  themselves 
are  derived  from  any  deep-seated  source; 
on  the  contrary,  investigation  tends  to  show 
that  the  waters  brought  up  by  the  springs  are 
mainly  surface-waters  which  have  percolated 
downward  a  sufficient  distance  to  be  heated 
by  large  volumes  of  steam  ascending  through 
fissures  and  vents  from  much  greater  depths. 
The  existence  of  such  currents  of  steam  and 
hot  water  is  attested  by  the  decompositions 
they  have  effected  upon  the  rocks,  which 
"  have  proceeded  on  a  most  gigantic  scale"; 
and  they  have  left  an  indelible  impression 
upon  the  surface  of  the  country.     The  study 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 


283 


of  the  age  of  the  present  geysers  by  observa- 
tion of  the  rate  of  deposit  of  sinter  indicates 
a  great  antiquity  for  them — over  twenty-five 
thousand  years  for  "  Old  Faithful."  Our 
accurate  knowledge  of  them  only  began  in 
1871.  The  number  of  geysers,  hot  springs, 
mud-pots,  and  paint-pots  scattered  over  the 
park  exceeds  thirty-five  hundred,  and  the 
addition  of  the  fumaroles  and  solfataras 
would  make  the  whole  number  of  actual 
vents  double  that. 

Mound-Bnilders  and  Indians. — "Some 
Popular  Errors  in  regard  to  Mound-Builders 
and  Indians"  are  reviewed  by  Mr.  Gerard 
Fowke,  in  the  "  Ohio  Archaeological  and  His- 
torical Quarterly."  The  high  civilization 
ascribed  to  the  mound-builders  is  denied, 
because  they  have  left  no  evidence  that  they 
could  use  stone-dressing  tools,  could  carry 
earth  only  in  baskets  or  skins,  and  have 
left  no  indications  of  having  possessed  a 
written  language  or  domestic  animals,  etc. 
Against  the  assumption  that  they  possessed 
a  great  population,  it  is  shown  that  while 
the  construction  of  all  their  works  in  Ohio 
did  not  require  an  amount  of  labor  equal  to 
that  used  in  the  excavation  of  certain  mod- 
ern works,  there  is  nothing  in  the  way  of 
their  having  had  an  indefinite  time  in  which 
to  perform  it.  While  "  there  is  sufficient 
accuracy  in  some  cases  to  make  one  wonder 
that  the  builders  could  have  done  as  well  as 
they  did,  no  evidence  appears  of  any  'cal- 
culation' beyond  the  mere  sighting  and 
measuring  possible  to  any  one."  The  sup- 
posed evidences  of  the  great  antiquity  of 
the  mounds  and  of  the  extensive  commerce 
of  the  builders  are  assumed  to  be  insuffi- 
cient or  fallacious ;  minor  errors,  concern- 
ing the  distance  from  which  the  earth  used 
in  building  the  mounds  had  to  be  brought, 
concerning  the  size  of  the  builders,  the 
soundness  and  other  peculiarities  of  their 
teeth,  and  the  supposed  artistic  excellence  of 
their  work,  are  corrected  ;  and  the  questions 
whether  there  is  anything  in  their  work  that 
the  Indians  could  not  have  executed,  and 
whether  the  Indians  had  knowledge  of  them, 
are  taken  up.  Traditions  exist  among  the 
Indians  of  Michigan  and  Wisconsin  of  tribes 
who  built  mounds,  and  of  definite  occasions 
when  mounds  were  built.  A  certain  tribe 
were  called  by  the  Sioux  Ground-House  In- 


dians, because  they  lived  in  houses  covered 
with  earth.  The  chronicles  of  De  Soto's  ex- 
pedition describe  the  houses  of  the  Cherokees 
as  being  built  upon  mounds,  and  the  French 
give  a  similar  description  of  the  house  of  the 
king  of  the  Natchez.  Certain  earthworks  in 
western  New  York,  Ohio,  and  Pennsylvania 
are  conceded  to  have  been  built  by  the  Iro- 
quois and  adjacent  tribes.  The  Indians  of  the 
Ohio  Valley  may  have  been  ignorant  of  the 
subject,  because  they  were  a  comparatively 
recent  arrival.  It  is  objected  that  the  In- 
dians could  not  have  built  the  mounds,  be- 
cause the  builders  must  have  been  a  settled 
and  agricultural  people,  while  the  Indians 
live  by  hunting  and  fishing.  But  it  is  a  his- 
torical fact  that,  before  they  were  disturbed 
by  the  whites,  the  Indians  also  were  agricult- 
urists, raised  good  crops,  and  stored  their 
grain,  so  that  they  were  able  to  supply  the 
expeditions  that  came  among  them.  We 
can  not  judge  of  what  they  were  from  what 
they  are,  after  having  been  ruined  by  their 
contests  with  the  whites  and  their  vices. 
The  race  that  produced  a  Logan,  a  Corn 
Planter,  a  Red  Jacket,  a  Tecumseh,  and 
other  men  of  like  genius,  might  also  have 
developed  men  competent  to  construct  all 
the  works  that  now  puzzle  us.  Some  of  Mr. 
Fowke's  assertions  are  traversed  and  shown 
to  be  erroneous  in  the  "  American  Antiqua- 
rian," which,  while  it  admits  that  the  Indians 
built  mounds,  holds  that  there  were  other 
and  more  extensive  mound-builders  before 
them. 

Experiments  in  Germination. — A  series 
of  testings  of  the  influences  of  certain  condi- 
tions on  the  sprouting  of  seeds,  described  in 
a  bulletin  of  the  experiment  station  at  Cor- 
nell University,  indicates  that  variations  of 
temperature  are  an  important  factor  in  the 
matter,  and  that  a  constant  temperature 
gives  quicker  results  than  an  ordinarily  vari- 
able one  of  which  that  is  the  mean.  The 
mean  employed  in  most  of  the  experiments 
was  74° ;  but  there  is  probably  a  tolerably 
well-defined  best  temperature  for  each  spe- 
cies of  plant,  the  limit  of  which  is  not  close- 
ly determined  for  most  garden  seeds.  Soak- 
ing the  seeds  does  not  appear  to  influence 
the  total  amount  of  sprouting ;  nor  does  it 
seem  to  hasten  the  sprouting,  if  the  planting- 
time  is  reckoned  from  the  moment  of  putting 


284 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


the  seeds  to  soak  ;  it  only  shortens  the  time 
the  seeds  have  afterward  to  remain  in  the 
soil.  The  character  of  the  soil  may  influ- 
ence the  results.  Light,  when  it  has  any  in- 
fluence— and  it  has  great  influence  with  some 
species — has  a  retarding  effect.  The  weight 
of  the  seed  is  often  a  tolerably  accurate 
measure  of  its  viability.  As  a  rule,  heavy 
seeds  germinate  better  than  light  ones  of 
the  same  sample.  When  variability  was 
perceived  with  reference  to  color,  the 
stronger  sproutings  usually  occurred  in  the 
darker-colored  seeds.  The  latitude  in  which 
seeds  are  grown  may  determine  their  behav- 
ior in  germination — northern-grown  seeds 
seeming  to  germinate  more  quickly  than 
southern-grown.  More  than  one  test  is  need- 
ed to  be  decisive  respecting  any  sample  of 
seeds.  There  appear,  from  the  testings  re- 
ported, to  be  no  pernicious  adulteration  of 
garden  seeds  in  this  country,  and  no  hurtful 
impurities. 

Tapioea. — The  manihot,  or  tapioca  plant, 
was  originally  a  native  of  tropical  South 
America,  but  is  now  largely  cultivated 
throughout  all  tropical  countries.  It  is  a 
small,  shrubby  plant,  growing  from  four  to 
eight  feet  high ;  and  becomes  suitable  for 
use  in  from  sixteen  to  eighteen  months  after 
the  young  plants  are  established.  Besides 
the  well-known  wholesome  food,  the  root 
abounds  in  a  peculiar  poisonous  juice,  which 
is  said  to  be  analogous  to  hydrocyanic  acid ; 
but  this  substance  being  volatile  and  easily 
destroyed  by  fermentation,  no  difficulty  is 
met  in  procuring  the  food-product  free  from 
it.  The  pulp  obtained  from  the  roots  is 
washed  in  cold  water,  after  which,  upon 
resting,  the  starch  subsides.  The  water  is 
then  drawn  off  and  the  starch  is  heated, 
when  pearl  tapioca  is  obtained.  In  prepar- 
ing the  cassava  meal,  the  roots  having  been 
prepared,  are  baked  on  an  iron  plate.  Thus 
prepared,  the  meal  swells  considerably  in 
water  or  broth,  and  is  called  ccrraque. 
K,  instead  of  drying  the  grated  pulp,  it  is 
spread  upon  a  hot  iron  plate,  the  starch  and 
mucilage,  by  mixing  together,  consolidate 
the  pulp  and  form  a  biscuit,  called  cassava 
bread,  which  is  a  very  important  and  nutri- 
tious food.  The  resultant  of  the  mastication 
of  these  cukes,  upon  fermentation,  produces 
an  agreeable  but  intoxicating  drink. 


The  Island  of  Paros  and  its  Marbles. — 

The  Island  of  Paros,  according  to  Mr.  R. 
Swan's  description  in  the  British  Associa- 
tion, is  eleven  miles  long  and  eight  miles 
broad  at  its  widest  part,  with  a  mountainous 
interior  rising  to  a  height  of  twenty-five 
hundred  and  thirty  feet,  and  a  broad  belt  of 
nearly  level  land  round  the  coast.  The 
southern  part  of  the  island  consists  chiefly 
of  crystalline  limestone,  of  undefined  age 
but  probably  Cretaceous.  The  finest  statu- 
ary marble,  or  lychnitis,  varies  from  five  to 
fifteen  feet  in  thickness  at  the  quarries  of 
St.  Minas,  and  occurs  in  a  bed  of  coarse- 
grained white  marble  with  bluish -black 
veins.  The  coarse  marble  becomes  dark  in 
color  near  the  lychnitis,  both  above  and  be- 
low it,  and  thus  the  layer  of  statuary  marble 
is  distinctly  marked  off.  The  dark  color  is 
due  to  traces  of  binoxide  of  manganese  and 
ma<metic  oxide  of  iron.  The  rocks  are  much 
disturbed  and  folded,  and  often  clip  at  high 
angles.  The  ancients  avoided  the  marble 
lying  near  the  axis  of  elevation,  which  was 
of  inferior  quality  to  the  other  parts.  A 
Greek  company,  formed  a  few  years  ago  to 
work  the  quarries,  attacked  the  rock  here, 
where  it  could  be  got  at  least  expense,  and 
so  discredited  the  marble  in  the  market  that 
it  went  down,  after  one  hundred  and  sixty 
thousand  pounds  had  been  spent  in  getting 
the  quarry  ready.  There  is  a  good  deal  of 
excellent  colored  marble  on  the  island,  but, 
not  having  been  used  by  the  ancient  Greeks, 
is  not  much  known. 

A  Classification  of  Incendiaries.— Dr.  J. 

A.  Fowler,  of  Philadelphia,  has  made  a 
classification  of  more  than  twenty  different 
kinds  of  incendiaries,  or  motives  to  incen- 
diarism. They  are — 1,  the  incendiary  policy- 
holder; 2,  the  incendiary  for  gain  or  advan- 
tage other  than  insurance ;  3,  the  revengeful 
incendiary ;  4,  the  discharged  hand ;  5,  the 
malicious  servant;  6,  the  rioter;  V,  the 
tramp ;  8,  the  thief  (for  concealment  of 
theft);  9,  the  thief  (for  opportunity  for 
theft) ;  10,  the  murderer  (for  concealment 
of  crime);  11,  the  incendiary  for  murder; 
12,  the  mischievous  small  boy  (or  girl);  13, 
the  contriver  for  incendiary  reward  ;  14,  the 
fire-bug,  or  fire  conspirator  (terrorizing  by 
fire);  15,  incendiarism  from  momentary 
rage;    16,  the  drunken  incendiary;   1*7,  in- 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 


285 


cendiary  firemen;  18,  the  don't-care  bonfire- 
kindler;  19,  the  don't-care  pyrotechnic  ex- 
ploder; 20,  the  don't-care  manufacturer  of 
unsafe  kerosene,  etc. ;  21,  the  "  pyroma- 
niac."  The  last  four  can  not  be  considered 
legal  incendiaries,  "  but  they  bring  the  tres- 
pass so  near  the  crime  that,  they  can  be  ad- 
mitted into  the  insurance  catalogue  of  in- 
cendiaries as  practically  such." 

The  Condition  of  Deep-Sea  Life. — It  is 

suggested  by  Mr.  A.  R.  Hunt,  in  "  Nature," 
that  the  depth  of  the  horizon  above  which 
deep-sea  fish  do  not  rise,  is  controlled  rather 
by  the  matter  of  wave-motion  than  of  the 
penetration  of  light.  It  is  doubtful  if  sun- 
light ever  penetrates  to  the  depth  of  a  hun- 
dred fathoms,  which  Gunther  has  indicated  as 
marking  the  beginning  of  deep-sea  life ;  but 
that  depth  has  been  indicated  by  Mr.  Hunt 
as  the  extreme  depth  to  which  wave-action 
reaches.  This  view  is  fortified  by  the  fact 
that,  though  the  deep-sea  forms  do  not  usu- 
ally ascend  above  the  hundred-fathom  line, 
the  shallow-water  forms  go  far  below  it ; 
and  there  is  no  reason  why  they  should  not 
do  so ;  for,  although  a  form  unfitted  to  with- 
stand wave-currents  can  not  face  them,  there 
is  nothing  to  prevent  a  flat  fish,  fully  equipped 
as  to  this  condition,  from  passing  at  will 
from  the  disturbed  to  the  tranquil  horizon, 
and  returning. 

The  History  of  the  Doctrine  of  Assas- 
sination.— The  history  of  the  doctrine  of  po- 
litical assassination  or  tyrannicide  has  been 
elucidated  by  a  writer  in  the  "  Edinburgh  Re- 
view." It  prevailed  among  the  ancients,  as 
is  illustrated  in  the  stories  of  Brutus  and  of 
Harmodius  and  Aristogiton.  Its  great  apolo- 
gists have  been  the  Jesuits,  but  it  is  much 
older  in  its  Christian  form  than  the  Jesuit 
order.  At  the  beginning  of  the  fi  fteenth  cent- 
ury, not  to  go  further  back,  a  Franciscan  fri- 
ar, Jean  Petit,  who  was  Professor  of  Theol- 
ogy at  Paris,  undertook  to  justify  the  mur- 
der of  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  on  the  plea 
that  "it  is  lawful,  by  natural  and  divine  law, 
for  every  subject  to  kill  or  cause  to  be 
killed  a  traitorous  and  disloyal  tyrant."  His 
teaching  was  denounced  by  Gerson  and  con- 
demned by  the  Council  of  Constance.  The 
decree  of  the  council  was,  however,  rejected 
by  one  author  because  it  was  not  sanctioned 


by  the  Pope ;  while  others  sought  to  evade 
its  force  by  making  a  distinction  between  a 
tyrant  in  tilulo,  or  a  usurper,  and  a  tyrant 
in  regimine,  who  is  a  lawful  sovereign  but 
has  abused  his  trust.  The  decree  could  not, 
these  writers  alleged,  apply  to  the  tyrant  in 
tihclo,  because  a  usurper  has  no  subjects. 
Mariaua,  in  his  famous  work  "  De  Rege  et 
Regis  Institutione,"  published  in  1599,  de- 
fined as  tyrants  all  sovereigns,  legitimate  or 
not,  who  forfeit  their  rights  by  governing 
for  their  own  selfish  interests,  not  for  the 
good  of  their  people ;  and  held  that  such 
unjust  rulers  became  the  enemies  of  the  hu- 
man race,  and  might  lawfully  be  slain  by 
their  subjects.  He  argued  that  the  sover- 
eign power  is  always  dependent  on  popular 
consent,  and  that  a  tyrant  is  worse  than  a 
ferocious  wild  beast.  When  there  existed 
a  public  assembly  in  the  country,  it  should 
meet  and  pronounce  sentence  first,  but,  where 
no  such  resource  was  available,  any  person 
who  had  the  courage  might  lawfully  make 
himself  the  interpreter  of  the  popular  will. 
But  the  use  of  poison  was  forbidden  by  the 
common  sense  of  mankind.  The  doctrine 
is,  however,  a  most  mischievous  one,  which 
is  easily  made  to  work  both  ways. 

Evolntion  and  Disease. — Dr.  R.  G.  Ec- 

cles,  in  a  paper  on  "  Heredity  and  Disease," 
advises  the  application  of  the  principles  of 
evolution  to  pathological  studies.  "  A  vague, 
uncritical  sort  of  belief  in  the  transmission 
of  disease  tendencies,"  he  says,  "  has  ob- 
tained among  general  practitioners  for  a  long 
time.  Few  have  dared  to  allow  themselves 
to  speculate  upon  the  possibility  of  this 
chain  of  tendencies  stretching  back  into  the 
world  of  animated  nature  below  us.  No  one 
has  a  due  conception  of  the  vast  magnitude 
of  the  possibilities  involved  in  so  daring  a 
speculation.  Is  there  any  reason  for  believ- 
ing that  a  large  number  of  weaknesses  and 
disease  tendencies  of  the  human  family  are 
part  of  this  great  system  that  makes  us  ap- 
pear as  if  we  had  descended  from  quad- 
rupeds? What  harm  can  it  do  for  us  to 
work  on  this  assumption  for  a  while,  and  see 
whether  or  not  it  will  prove  as  fruitful  to 
the  pathologist  as  it  has  been  to  the  bota- 
nist, zoologist,  and  physiologist  ? "  In  a 
similar  vein  Dr.  Wesley  Mills  regards  the 
various  forms  of  disease  as  so  many  cases, 


286 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


by  the  deterioration  of  his  higher  faculties, 
of  reversion  toward  the  lower  forms  from 
which  man  is  derived.  Thus,  the  dying  hu- 
man subject  sinks  functionally  lower  and 
lower  in  the  scale  of  animal  life.  In  sleep 
it  will  be  seen,  if  we  consider  the  nervous 
system,  that  the  parts  peculiar  to  man,  or 
most  developed  in  man,  are  the  ones  that 
for  the  time  being  are  as  good  as  annihilated. 
Similar  tendencies  toward  a  sinking  to  equal- 
ity with  lower  forms  may  be  observed  in 
hypnotism, somnambulism,  andallied  phenom- 
ena. It  is  seen,  on  a  lower  level,  in  hiberna- 
tion, when  certain  normally  very  active  ani- 
mals return  to  a  condition  like  that  present 
in  cold-biooded  animals.  In  paralysis,  the 
graver  the  affliction  the  lower  in  the  scale 
must  we  seek  to  find  an  animal  comparable 
to  man  in  that  condition.  Views  in  harmony 
with  those  of  Prof.  Mills  were  published  by 
Dr.  Milner  Fothergill. 

The  Office  of  Iron  in  the  Blood.— Iron 

exists  in  the  blood  in  the  red  corpuscles,  and 
gives  them  color  and  the  power  of  absorbing 
gases.  The  fact  that  peroxide  of  iron  is  one 
of  the  readiest  absorbents  of  gases,  and  parts 
with  them  as  readily  on  exposure  in  thin 
layers  to  the  air,  so  that  it  can  be  used  over 
and  over  again  for  that  work,  gives  a  clew 
to  its  special  function  in  the  red  corpuscles 
of  the  blood.  It  enables  them  readily  to  ab- 
sorb oxygen  as  they  pass  along  the  minute 
blood-vessels  of  the  lungs,  and  to  carry  it  to 
all  parts  of  the  body,  where  they  part  with 
it  as  it  is  demanded.  It  is  supposed,  also, 
to  take  up  carbonic  acid  in  exchange  for  the 
oxygen  it  yields  up,  and  to  convey  to  the 
lungs  that  portion  of  this  substance  which  is 
expired.  If  this  be  its  double  function,  it  is 
one  the  importance  of  which  can  hardly  be 
exaggerated  ;  for  it  is,  in  effect,  to  be  the 
vehicle  to  all  parts  of  the  organism  of  that 
which  makes  them  vital,  while  it  also  re- 
moves the  waste  of  their  life,  which  would 
otherwise  clog  their  activity.  The  chemical 
changes  in  the  life  of  plants  are  effected  by 
means  of  the  iron  which  is  contained  in  the 
chlorophyl  by  processes  that  differ  in  partic- 
ulars, but  are  dependent  on  the  same  absorp- 
tion principle  of  the  peroxide.  Thus  "  it  is 
an  interesting  coincidence  that  iron  should 
be  the  active  agent  in  both  animal  and  vege- 
table life  for  the  assimilation  of  the  air  sub- 


stances required  for  their  existence;  and 
that  at  the  same  time  it  should  be  intimate- 
ly connected  with  the  production  of  the  dis- 
tinctive color  of  the  blood  and  of  the  foliage 
of  plants." 

Iron  Railway-Ties.  —  Iron  sleepers  or 
cross-ties  have  been  in  use  for  many  years 
on  the  railroads  of  India,  and  have  proved 
as  free  from  liability  to  accident  as  wooden 
ties.  The  East  India  Kailroad  has  more  than 
one  thousand  miles  laid  with  them,  and  is 
adding  to  the  length  every  year.  It  runs 
the  fastest  and  heaviest  trains  on  the  pen- 
insula, and  has  enjoyed  an  almost  proverb- 
ial immunity  from  accidents.  The  "  bowl 
sleeper"  appears  to  be  the  standard  type, 
although  it  was  once  condemned.  It  lies 
more  steadily  and  is  less  liable  to  horizontal 
displacement  than  any  wooden  sleeper.  It, 
however,  makes  the  track  too  rigid,  and  is  not 
suitable  for  high  speed,  and  is  likely  to  be 
discontinued  again.  A  tie  called  the  "  D  and 
0  sleeper"  gives  a  more  elastic  track,  and  is 
more  conveniently  packed  than  the  hollow 
sleepers. 


NOTES. 

The  Board  of  Directors  of  the  Zoological 
Society  of  Philadelphia  asserts  in  its  last 
report  that  the  collection  has  at  no  previ- 
ous time  been  so  well  able  to  fill  its  part 
among  the  educational  institutions  of  the 
city  as  at  present.  It  contains  a  sufficient 
variety  of  specimens  to  give  a  comprehensive 
idea  of  the  four  classes  of  vertebrates.  Some 
of  the  larger  groups  are  exceptionally  well 
represented.  The  series  of  monkeys  is  large, 
and  contains  a  number  of  species  rarely  seen 
in  captivity,  as  well  as  six  specimens  of  le- 
murs. The  collection  of  parrots  is  also  wor- 
thy of  special  attention.  Arrangements  have 
been  made  for  securing  an  extensive  collec- 
tion of  North  American  forms  of  reptiles 
and  amphibians. 

A  review  of  "  The  Sociological  Position  of 
Protection  and  Free  Trade"  leads  Mr.  Lester 
F.  Ward  to  the  conclusion  that  "  free  trade, 
laissez-faire,  and  individualism  in  general, 
represent  the  untamed  forces  of  nature,  such 
as  would  exist  in  the  physical  world  had 
there  never  been  any  inventions,  contriv- 
ances, machinery,  or  arts  "  ;  while  "  protec- 
tion belongs  to  the  great  class  of  ingenious 
instrumentalities  which  the  civilized  brain 
of  man  has  learned  to  devise  and  employ  for 
the  regulation,  control,  and  utilization  of  nat- 
ural agencies." 


NOTES. 


287 


The  studies  of  Sir  J.  William  Dawson 
on  the  Eozoic  and  Palaeozoic  rocks  of  the  At- 
lantic coast  of  Canada  have  led  him  to  a  con- 
clusion that,  in  the  rocks  from  the  Lawren- 
tian  to  the  Trias,  a  continuous  parallelism  ex- 
ists on  the  two  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  in  min- 
eral character  and  order  of  succession  of 
aqueous  deposits  ;  in  the  occurrence  of  great 
earth  -  movements  of  elevation,  depression, 
and  plication,  at  corresponding  times  ;  in  the 
ejection  of  like  kinds  of  igneous  rocks  in 
connection  with  like  members  of  the  aque- 
ous series ;  in  the  order  of  introduction  and 
extinction  of  animals  and  plants ;  and  in  the 
specific  identity  of  animals  and  plants  in  cor- 
responding formations. 

Prof.  Williamson  has  reported,  in  the 
British  Association,  concerning  some  speci- 
mens of  the  fruiting  of  the  Catamites  of  the 
coal-measures,  which  he  regarded  as  demon- 
strating his  opinion  that  these  plants  were 
equisetiform  cryptogams. 

The  experiment  of  amalgamating  the  In- 
dians with  the  surrounding  population  in 
Canada  and  inducing  them  to  adopt  a  settled 
life  has  been  most  successful  in  Ontario,  and 
in  all  cases  the  tribes  show  an  increase  in 
numbers.  There  are  124,539  Indians  in  the 
Dominion,  of  whom  37,94-4  are  in  British 
Columbia ;  26,36s  in  Manitoba  and  the  North- 
western Territory,  17,70)  in  Ontario,  12,465 
in  Quebec,  8,000  in  Athabasca,  7,000  in  the 
Mackenzie  district,  4,016  in  Eastern  Rupert's 
Land,  4,000  on  the  arctic  coasts,  2,145  in 
Nova  Scotia,  20,338  in  the  Peace  River  dis- 
trict, 1,594  in  New  Brunswick,  1,000  in  the 
interior  of  Labrador,  and  319  in  Prince  Ed- 
ward Island.  The  Indian  schools  are  at- 
tended by  6,127  youth  and  girls,  one  half  of 
them  being  in  Manitoba  and  the  Northwest- 
ern Territory. 

Experiments  by  Mr.  J.  B.  Francis,  of  the 
American  Society  of  Civil  Engineers,  show 
that  under  a  pressure  of  seventy  -  seven 
pounds  per  square  inch,  more  than  seven- 
teen gallons  of  water  per  square  foot  of  sur- 
face will  pass  through  sixteen  inches  of  ce- 
ment in  twenty-four  hours.  Thick  brick- 
work laid  in  cement  permitted  a  copious 
percolation  of  water  under  pressure. 

"  La  Nature  "  has  a  commendatory  no- 
tice of  the  display  of  American  precious 
stones  that  has  been  arranged  by  Mr.  George 
F.  Kunz,  of  tins  city.  It  includes  splendid 
specimens  of  native  crystallized  gold  from 
California ;  diamonds ;  "  incomparable  "  ru- 
bies, including  one  quite  exceptional  in  color 
and  limpidity,  from  Franklin,  N.  C. ;  sap- 
phires of  rare  quality,  emeralds,  tourmalines, 
perfectly  clear  rock  crystals,  pcriodotites ; 
amethysts  of  a  deep,  transparent  violet;  ob- 
sidian, gadolinite,  and  turquoises ;  also  speci- 
mens of  Indian  jewelry-work,  in  which  tur- 
quoises are  used;  "  superb  "  specimens  of  py- 
rites, azurite,  malachite,  and  amber  are  also 
mentioned. 


Dr.  Alfredo  da  Luy,  of  Rio  Janeiro,  be- 
lieves that  the  climate  of  Brazil  is  degener- 
ating to  Europeans,  especially  to  persons 
from  the  north.  lie  has  noticed  that  Bra- 
zilians in  general  are  more  pallid,  and  are 
less  vigorous  and  energetic,  than  persons 
coming  from  temperate  and  cold  climates, 
The  degeneration  of  the  Portuguese  race 
may  also  be  noted  in  Rio  de  Janeiro.  An 
amende  condition,  caused  by  malarious  influ- 
ences, is  common  among  them,  and,  while  it 
does  not  kill  by  itself,  weakens  the  hold  on 
life  and  greatly  increases  the  infant  mortal- 
ty.  The  children  of  Portuguese  and  Ital- 
ians do  not  seem  to  fare  so  badly  as  the 
children  of  parents  coming  from  more  north- 
ern countries. 

According  to  Dr.  Macgowan,  it  is  be- 
lieved in  India,  China,  and  Indo-China  that  a 
cobra  that  escapes  an  attack  from  a  man  will 
eventually  revenge  itself  upon  its  assailant, 
whatever  he  may  do  or  wherever  he  may  go. 
The  Chinese  believe,  too,  that  the  killer  of  a 
cobra  will  be  haunted  afterward  by  its  spirit, 
hence  the  snakes  are  shunned  rather  than 
attacked.  Among  the  stories  by  which  this 
superstition  is  enforced,  is  one  of  a  snake- 
spirit  which,  entering  into  possession  of  the 
slayer  of  the  reptile,  used  its  voice  to  curse 
him  until  he  was  relieved  by  death.  Stories 
are  also  given  of  the  gratitude  of  snakes. 
The  recently  established  native  newspapers 
of  China  are  full  of  accounts  of  popular 
superstitions,  prodigies,  talcs,  monstrosities, 
etc.,  illustrating  the  folk-lore  of  the  country. 

"  The  Lancet"  observes  that  it  has  been 
frequently  remarked  that  genius  and  insan- 
ity are  sometimes  combined  in  the  same  per- 
son or  in  closely  connected  members  of  the 
same  family ;  but  it  is  not  easy  to  trace  the 
connection  between  those  mental  conditions 
and  the  sinful  or  criminal  acts  that  are  apt 
to  be  committed  by  persons  so  organized. 
The  medical  profession  recognizes  forms  of 
affection  or  moral  insanity  in  which  the  ca- 
pacity to  govern  the  emotions  is  in  abeyance. 
A  marked  feature  of  this  phase  of  mental 
disease  is  the  absence  of  delusions;  and 
from  that  fact  conflict  often  arises  between 
the  medical  and  legal  aspects  when  the  ques- 
tion of  criminality  has  to  be  taken  into  con- 
sideration. 

Prof.  Steenstrup  has  given  an  account,  to 
the  Scientific  Society  of  Copenhagen,  of  the 
results  of  his  examination  of  a  great  mam- 
moth deposit  at  Predmost,  in  Moravia.  Dr. 
Wankel  and  Prof.  Maschka  believe  that  the 
animals  were  killed  by  man  and  brought  to 
the  district  to  be  eaten.  Prof.  Steenstrup 
believes  that  they  came  to  the  place  of  them- 
selves, and  died  from  some  cause  with  which 
man  had  nothing  to  do.  But,  in  maintaining 
his  position,  he  has  to  account  for  some  of 
the  bones  being  split,  for  their  bearing  marks 
of  fire,  and  for  decorative  lines  having  been 
scratched  upon  them, 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


Discussing  the  relation  of  occupations 
and  trades  to  public  health,  Dr.  John  T.  Al- 
ridge  remarks  that  erroneous  conclusions 
may  be  drawn  by  overlooking  factors  which, 
though  potent,  are  not  prominent  to  view. 
Thus,  as  a  general  rule,  light  occupations, 
in  good  social  credit,  will  attract  a  large  ra- 
tio of  weak  lives,  pronounced  incapable  of 
active  labor.  Such  an  occupation  is  that  of 
clerk ;  and  we  must  not  lay  too  much  stress 
on  its  unhealthfulness  as  being  a  sedentary 
calling,  when,  in  truth,  it  is  largely  filled 
with  persons  already  of  sickly  habit.  Dr. 
Alridge  believes  that  inhalation  of  dust  is  a 
most  effective  cause  of  disease,  and  that 
those  occupations  in  which  much  dust  is 
stirred  are  intrinsically  the  most  unhealthy. 

In  providing  for  the  water-supply  and 
the  disposal  of  the  sewage  of  the  city  of 
Toronto,  engineers  have  to  deal  with  the 
problem  which  is  presented  by  the  necessity 
of  drawing  the  water  from  and  returning  the 
sewage  to  the  same  body — Lake  Ontario. 
The  water  intake  is  now  through  a  crib  fixed 
at  about  two  thousand  feet  from  the  outer 
shore  of  the  island  that  lies  in  front  of  the 
harbor.  Messrs.  Rudolp  Hering  and  Sam- 
uel W.  Gray,  who  were  invited  to  study  the 
subject  and  report  upon  it,  have  reached  the 
conclusion  that  "  for  many  years  to  come  no 
objection  can  arise  and  no  pollution  will  be 
observed,  if  the  sewage  outfall  is  placed  as 
proposed,  six  and  one  half  miles  from  the 
present  water  intake." 

The  British  Association  Committee  on  the 
circulation  of  the  underground  waters  of  the 
kingdom,  etc.,  reports  that  since  it  was  ap- 
pointed, fourteen  years  ago,  the  recognition 
of  those  stores  as  affording  efficient  supplies 
of  water  free  from  organic  impurity  at  rela- 
tively little  cost  has  made  great  progress. 
The  publication  of  the  results  already  ob- 
tained has  been  greatly  appreciated  by  en- 
gineers and  contractors,  and  has  helped  and 
supported  recommendations  of  water  -  sup- 
plies from  underground  sources.  As  time 
goes  on,  large  numbers  of  borings  are  annu- 
ally made;  and  numerous  provincial  socie- 
ties are  giving  attention  to  the  subject  and 
publishing  results. 

Mr.  J.  A.  Loudon,  of  Newcastle,  showed 
in  the  British  Association  that  peat  fiber  can 
furnish  a  suitable  material  for  the  manu- 
facture of  brown  paper,  wrappers,  and  mill- 
boards. It  is  not,  however,  available  for 
white  paper. 

A  method  of  making  bottles  by  machinery 
was  described  by  Mr.  H.  M.  Ashley  in  the 
British  Association.  The  resultant  bottle  is 
homogeneous,  with  ring,  neck,  body,  and  bot- 
tom, all  as  one.  Specimens  had  been  subject- 
ed to  an  internal  pressure  of  three  hundred 
poundst  to  the  square  inch  without  any  being 
broken.  The  use  of  the  method  is  expected 
to  do  away  with  the  most  unhealthy  part  of 
the  ordinary  process  of  blowing  bottles. 


OBITUARY  NOTES. 

Mr.  C.  Spence  Bate,  a  British  authority 
on  crustaceans,  has  recently  died  at  Plym- 
outh. He  was  the  author  of  a  report  on  a 
class  of  crustaceans  collected  by  the  Chal- 
lenger Expedition  ;  of  a  catalogue  of  certain 
crustaceans  in  the  British  Museum;  of  a  "His- 
tory of  British  Sessile-eyed  Crustaceans  " ; 
and  of  a  work  on  the  "  Pathology  of  Dental 
Caries." 

Prof.  George  H.  Cook,  of  Rutgers  Col- 
lege, and  State  Geologist  of  New  Jersey, 
died  at  New  Brunswick,  in  that  State,  Sep- 
tember 22d,  in  the  seventy-third  year  of  his 
age.  He  was  born  at  Hanover,  N.  J. ;  be- 
came a  civil  engineer  in  1836;  laid  out  the 
line  of  the  Catskill  and  Canajoharie  Railroad ; 
was  graduated  from  Troy  Polytechnic  Insti- 
tute in  1839;  was  made  senior  professor  in 
that  institution  in  1840;  became  Professor 
of  Mathematics  and  Natural  Philosophy  in 
Albany  Academy  in  1842  ;  Principal  of  the 
Academy  in  1858;  Professor  of  Chemistry 
and  Natural  Philosophy  in  Rutgers  College 
in  1852  ;  Assistant  Geologist  of  New  Jersey 
in  the  next  year,  and  State  Geologist  in  1864, 
when  he  was  also  made  Vice-President  of 
the  State  Scientific  College.  He  was  active- 
ly connected  with  the  State  Board  of  Agri- 
culture ;  became  Director  of  the  State  Weath- 
er Service;  visited  Europe  three  times  on 
scientific  errands ;  and  was  associated  with 
many  public  enterprises. 

Prof.  Leo  Lesquereux,  the  eminent  bota- 
nist and  paleontologist,  died  at  Columbus, 
Ohio,  October  25th,  in  the  eighty-fourth  year 
of  his  age.  He  was  a  native  of  Switzerland, 
was  a  friend  of  Guyot  and  Agassiz,  and  came 
to  the  United  States  in  1848.  He  was  the 
author  of  nearly  fifty  scientific  works ;  and 
in  his  special  field  of  study  he  ranked  with 
Oswald  Heer.  A  sketch  of  his  life  and 
works,  accompanied  by  a  portrait  and  a  list 
of  his  writings,  was  published  in  "  The  Popu- 
lar Science  Monthly"  for  April,  1887. 

Dr.  James  Prescott  Jofle,  F.  R.  S.,  the 
discoverer  of  the  mechanical  equivalent  of 
heat,  died  at  Sale,  near  Manchester,  England, 
October  11th.  He  was  the  son  of  a  brewer 
in  Salford,  and  was  born  in  1818.  His  first 
contribution  to  scientific  literature  was  made 
when  he  was  about  twenty  years  old,  in  a 
paper  describing  an  electro-magnetic  engine. 
His  great  discovery  was  made  after  patient, 
independent  investigation  and  experiment, 
with  extremely  simple  apparatus  constructed 
by  himself.  He  constructed  electro-magnets 
of  greater  carrying  power  than  any  previ- 
ously known;  devised  electro-magnetic  en- 
gines and  new  forms  of  galvanometers ;  meas- 
ured the  heat  evolved  by  the  passage  of 
electricity  through  mechanical  conductors ; 
and  determined  tho  ratio  between  chemical 
and  thermal  energy.  A  sketch  of  his  life 
and  a  portrait  were  given  in  "  The  Popular 
Science  Monthly  "  for  May,  IS'74. 


ALEXANDER    WILSON. 


THE 

POPULAR    SCIENCE 
MONTHLY. 


JANUARY,   1890. 


THE  FUTURE  SITUS  OF  THE  COTTON  MANUFACTURE 
OF  THE  UNITED  STATES.* 

By  EDWAED   ATKINSON,   LL.  D.,  Ph.  D. 

I  have  been  asked  to  treat  two  subjects  :  1.  Is  the  present  num- 
ber or  the  recent  increase  of  cotton-spindles  in  the  United 
States  actually  or  relatively  in  excess  of  the  requirements  of  the 
population  ? 

2.  Is  the  South  likely  to  become  a  formidable  competitor  with 
New  England  in  the  cotton  manufacture  ? 

I  submit  the  facts  from  which  I  have  made  my  own  deduc- 
tions, and  from  which  each  one  may  draw  his  own  conclusions 
according  to  his  own  judgment. 

When  dealing  with  the  first  branch  of  the  subject,  as  all 
are  well  aware,  we  must  qualify  any  conclusion  based  on  the 
actual  number  of  spindles  by  making  allowance  for  higher  speed 
and  greater  product  per  spindle  in  recent  years  ;  hence  larger  rela- 
tive product.  On  the  other  hand,  we  must  qualify  the  data  of  the 
spindles  by  the  consideration  that  the  average  number  of  yarn 
spun  at  the  present  time  is  much  finer  than  it  was  twenty  years 
ago  ;  hence  a  less  proportionate  product  per  spindle. 

Again,  we  must  qualify  our  deductions  derived  from  the  actual 
number  of  spindles,  after  having  made  allowances  for  high  speed 
and  fine  numbers,  which  may  perhaps  be  held  to  balance  each 
other,  by  taking  into  consideration  the  very  rapid  increase  in  both 
national  wealth  and  general  welfare  in  recent  years ;  hence  a 
greater  consumption  of  cotton  fabrics  per  capita.  This  increase 
in  purchasing  power  and  this  choice  of  better  and  more  expensive 
fabrics  are  very  noticeable  in  the  Southern  States,  and  especially 

*  A  paper  prepared  for  the  New  England  Cotton  Manufacturers'  Association,  and  pre- 
sented at  their  meeting,  October  30,  1889. 
vol.  xxxvi. — 19 


29o  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

so  in  respect  to  the  colored  population  on  Sundays  and  holidays. 
After  balancing  higher  speed  against  the  finer  number,  this  last 
element  of  greater  power  to  purchase  would  lead  us  to  assume,  or 
to  expect  to  find,  a  steady  but  moderate  increase  in  the  ratio  of 
spindles  to  population  :  when  I  give  the  facts,  I  think  many  will 
be  somewhat  surprised  at  the  justification  which  the  figures  will 
give  of  this  hypothesis. 

In  treating  the  conditions  of  the  South  I  date  my  computations 
from  the  year  1870.  This  was  the  year  in  which  the  worst  effects 
of  the  war  had  been  in  part  overcome.  In  1870  our  Southern 
friends  made  a  fair  beginning,  on  which  they  continued  in  rather 
slow  and  even  measure  in  their  progress  until  about  1880,  when 
at  last  the  new  industries  of  the  new  South  began  to  make  prog- 
ress with  leaps  and  bounds  ;  the  greatest  impetus  being  imputed 
to  the  Atlanta  Cotton  Exhibition  by  the  Southerners  themselves. 
It  seems  as  if  the  display  in  this  exhibition  had  shown  to  them- 
selves, even  for  the  first  time,  the  wealth  of  minerals,  of  timber, 
and  of  other  resources  which  proved  to  them  that  cotton  was  very 
far  from  being  king  even  of  its  own  land. 

There  is  another  very  important  factor  which  enters  into  this 
consideration  to  which  no  attention  has  been  given  in  any  treatise 
upon  Southern  manufactures  that  I  have  yet  seen,  namely,  the 
great  number  of  people  in  the  Southern  States  who  were  clad  in 
homespun  or  in  hand-woven  fabrics,  both  before  the  war  and 
throughout  the  period  of  reconstruction  down  to  1870. 

The  moment  attention  is  called  to  this  element  in  the  ques- 
tion, all  will  doubtless  admit  that  a  change  from  homespun  to 
factory-made  goods,  whatever  its  measure  may  have  been,  was  the 
equivalent  of  so  much  added  population  and  so  much  increased 
demand  for  the  products  of  the  cotton-factories.  Conversely,  in 
any  computation  of  the  ratio  of  spindles  to  population  at  different 
dates,  a  deduction  must  be  made  in  1860  and  1870  for  those  who 
were  at  these  respective  dates  clothed  in  hand-made  fabrics.  Per- 
haps it  may  be  said,  and  perhaps  it  may  rightly  be  said,  that  if  an 
allowance  must  be  made  according  to  each  man's  judgment  for  all 
these  variable  elements  of  the  problem,  what  dependence  can  be 
put  upon  the  final  figures  ?  Each  one  may  answer  his  own  ques- 
tion or  doubt  in  his  own  way.  I  shall  only  give  what  appear  to 
be  the  facts,  and  I  will  say,  as  I  have  so  often  said  before,  that 
all  statistics,  unless  qualified  by  sound  judgment,  are  mere  rub- 
bish, not  worth  the  compilation.  I  think  many  may  be  some- 
what surprised,  however,  by  the  apparent  certainty  of  the  rule 
presented. 

I  have  corresponded  with  a  large  number  of  my  old  Southern 
friends  in  respect  to  the  homespun  consumption  of  former  times. 
I  omit  Texas  from  among  the  Southern  States,  for  the  reason  that 


THE  FUTURE   OF   OUR    COTTON  MANUFACTURE.  291 

it  has  always  been  more  like  a  Western  State ;  that  it  never  had 
any  considerable  number  of  cotton-spindles  within  its  borders, 
and  that  its  people  were  never  clad  in  hand-made  fabrics  to  any 
considerable  extent.  I  include  under  the  name  of  Southern  States 
Alabama,  Arkansas,  Florida,  Georgia,  Kentucky,  Louisiana,  Mis- 
sissippi, North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  Tennessee,  and  Virginia, 
including  West  Virginia. 

In  1860  the  population  of  these  specific  States  numbered  9,650,- 
000;  in  1870,  10,432,000;  in  1880,  13,665,000;  and  at  the  present 
time  their  population,  without  question,  exceeds  17,000,000. 

From  the  best  information  which  I  can  obtain,  and  in  the  best 
judgment  of  old  planters,  dealers,  and  manufacturers,  nearly  the 
whole  population  of  the  middle  or  mountain  section  of  these  States, 
two  to  three  millions  in  number — a  very  large  portion  of  the  col- 
ored people  on  the  plantations,  probably  two  or  three  millions 
more  out  of  four  millions — and  a  very  considerable  part  of  the 
population  of  country  districts  aside  from  these  two  classes,  were 
clad  in  homespun  or  hand  -  woven  fabrics  prior  to  1860.  The 
average  of  the  estimates  which  I  have  received  would  put  more 
than  one  half,  or  about  five  millions  of  the  population  in  1860,  of 
these  Southern  States  into  this  class. 

In  1870  very  moderate  progress  had  been  made  in  displacing 
hand-made  fabrics  with  the  products  of  Southern  factories,  but 
the  more  prosperous  people  were  consuming  more  Northern  goods 
of  finer  quality.  The  average  judgment  of  my  correspondents 
indicates  that  in  1870  at  least  forty  per  cent  of  the  population 
were  clad  in  hand-spun  or  hand-woven  fabrics.  I  estimate  it  at 
one  third,  numbering  three  and  a  half  millions,  in  my  succeeding 
computations. 

At  the  Atlanta  Exposition  Mr.  F.  E.  Clark,  of  the  Pemberton 
Mill,  and  myself,  computed  the  product  of  two  hand  carders,  two 
spinsters,  and  one  hand-loom  weaver,  who  were  working  on  thirty- 
two-inch  Osnaburgs,  about  thirty-six  picks  to  the  inch,  at  eight 
yards  a  day  of  ten  hours.  Five  operatives  in  the  Pemberton 
could  have  turned  out  eight  hundred  yards  of  the  same  fabric  in 
the  same  number  of  hours. 

In  my  computation  of  the  ratio  of  spindles  to  population  I  de- 
duct 4,800,000  in  1860  ;  3,500,000  in  1870 ;  in  1880  I  make  no  deduc- 
tion for  hand-work,  for  the  reason  that  the  art  was  then  nearly  a 
lost  art.  A  few  home  spinners  and  weavers  may  still  be  found 
only  in  the  heart  of  the  mountains  of  Kentucky  and  North  Caro- 
lina. On  this  basis  the  cotton-spindles  of  1860,  numbering  5,235,- 
727,  bore  the  ratio  of  one  spindle  to  each  of  5'05  of  the  remaining 
population  ;  1870,  spindles  7,132,415,  one  spindle  to  4*92  of  the  re- 
maining population ;  1880,  spindles  10,653,435,  one  spindle  to  4*71 
of  the  total  population ;  1889,  September  1st,  spindles  estimated 


292  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

by  the  "  Financial  Chronicle,"  14,175,000,  one  spindle  to  4'52  of  the 
probable  population,  now  computed  at  sixty -four  millions. 

Our  exports  have  varied,  but  not  enough  to  affect  the  average 
materially.  They  are  a  little  more  in  value  now  than  they  were 
in  1860,  but  not  so  much  in  ratio  to  product.  These  facts  appear 
to  sustain  the  theory  that  the  increased  purchasing  power  of  the 
population  will  sustain  a  small  relative  increase  in  spindles  per 
capita. 

Now,  any  one  can  form  his  own  judgment  as  to  whether 
or  not  the  spindles  are  in  excess  of  our  present  population.  In 
view  of  the  greater  variety  of  uses  to  which  cotton  fabrics 
are  now  put,  in  view  of  the  greater  purchasing  power,  in  view 
of  the  very  low  prices  of  cotton  fabrics,  and  in  view  of  the  ex- 
travagant habits  of  the  people,  my  own  judgment  is  that  the 
spindles  are  not  in  excess  of  the  population ;  on  an  even  balance 
we  may  of  course  be  subject  to  an  overstock  of  special  goods,  such 
as  affects  some  classes,  especially  export  goods  at  the  present  time. 
In  the  long  run  I  think  that  we  are  more  likely  to  require  a  ratio 
of  one  spindle  to  four  than  to  go  back  to  the  ratio  of  one  to  five 
persons.  We  now  gain  in  population  nearly  or  quite  two  millions 
in  a  year.  The  average  of  the  next  ten  years  may  be  two  mill- 
ion two  hundred  thousand  each  year.  On  the  basis  of  two 
millions  which  is  substantially  the  present  rate,  if  we  require  one 
spindle  to  each  five  of  the  population,  we  must  add  four  hundred 
thousand  new  spindles  every  year  to  our  present  number  ;  at  one 
to  four  and  a  half,  four  hundred  and  forty-four  thousand ;  at  one 
to  four,  five  hundred  thousand,  besides  providing  for  the  increas- 
ing wants  of  the  existing  population.  It  would  then  appear  that 
we  may  require  five  million  new  spindles  in  addition  to  our  present 
number  during  the  next  ten  years,  to  meet  the  increased  home 
consumption  of  cotton  fabrics,  no  consideration  being  given  to  any 
increase  in  exports.  Please  do  not  exaggerate  the  importance  of 
this  forecast,  and  don't  be  in  a  hurry  to  double  your  investments. 

Five  hundred  thousand  spindles  a  year  will  only  cost  sixty  to 
eighty  million  dollars,  varying  according  to  the  number  of  yarn. 
Now,  all  life  and  progress  consist  in  a  conversion  of  force.  We 
convert  the  food,  the  fuel,  and  the  clothing  which  we  consume — 

1.  To  sustaining  life. 

2.  To  an  increase  of  capital. 

We  may,  therefore,  take  any  single  element  of  our  food  as  a 
standard  by  which  to  measure  the  relative  increase  of  our  capital 
into  which  it  may  be  in  part  converted.  My  favorite  standard  is 
the  egg  standard  !  Agassiz  went  to  the  egg  to  find  the  unit  of  life, 
I  go  to  the  egg  to  find  the  relative  standard  of  production  and  of 
savings.  Don't  crow  very  much  over  your  own  little  egg ;  it  may 
be  only  a  Bantam.    If  each  adult  of  the  present  population  con- 


THE  FUTURE   OF   OUR    COTTON  MANUFACTURE.  293 

sumes  hens'  eggs  at  the  rate  of  consumption  in  your  own  factory 
boarding-houses,  the  hen-yards  of  the  country  now  supply  about 
one  hundred  and  twenty-five  million  dollars'  worth  of  eggs  a  year, 
and  by  exchange  and  conversion  into  capital  this  sum  would  suffice 
to  build  all  these  cotton-factories  and  to  supply  the  working  capi- 
tal as  well,  year  by  year. 

Again,  in  two  years  only  out  of  this  ten  ensuing,  as  much  capi- 
tal will  be  expended  in  the  construction  of  new  railroads  in  this 
country  as  the  whole  five  million  spindles  which  we  may  need  in 
ten  years  will  cost. 

Or,  again,  if  we  assign  only  five  hundred  dollars  to  the  con- 
struction of  a  dwelling-place  to  each  five  persons  comprised  in  this 
increase  of  population,  the  capital  which  will  be  needed  to  house 
them  will  come  to  two  hundred  and  twenty-five  million  dollars  a 
year,  or  $2,250,000,000  in  all. 

So  the  world  wags  on,  always  within  one  year  of  starvation, 
within  two  years  or  so  of  being  naked,  and  within  a  few  years  of 
being  houseless  and  homeless,  except  for  the  work  which  we  must 
do  to  supply  the  products  which  we  must  exchange  with  each 
other — eggs  for  cottons  and  cottons  for  eggs,  etc. 

This  may  be  a  pleasant  prospect  for  our  machine-shops.  They 
will  also  have  a  good  deal  of  work  to  do  in  substituting  new 
spindles  for  old,  and  perhaps  new  looms  for  old,  if  the  double- 
faced,  fast-running,  vertical  loom  does  the  work  which  is  expected 
of  it.  How  soon  will  your  present  noisy,  cumbrous,  and  unscien- 
tific loom  be  invented  out  of  existence  ?  When  will  it  be  dis- 
placed by  a  smooth-running,  circular  loom  ?  How  about  your 
carding-engines,  your  drawing  and  your  combing  machines?  Are 
we  to  go  on  importing  them  ?  Yes,  until  the  taxes  are  taken  from 
the  metals  and  from  the  other  crude  materials  which  are  needed 
to  make  them.  Iron  has  cost  you  for  ten  years  previous  to  the 
present  year  (1889)  ten  dollars  per  ton  on  the  common  grades, 
and  steel  fifteen  to  twenty-five  dollars  per  ton  more  than  the 
same  materials  cost  the  machinists  of  Great  Britain ;  thus  enhanc- 
ing the  cost  of  your  capital,  and  placing  you  at  a  disadvantage  in 
competition  with  the  manufacturers  of  Great  Britain,  Germany, 
Belgium,  Switzerland,  and  almost  all  the  other  manufacturing 
countries  in  which  such  materials  are  free  from  taxes.  The  lower 
the  prices  of  metal  the  greater  this  disparity. 

I  think  we  shall  not  even  secure  our  home  market,  much  less 
extend  our  foreign  sale,  so  long  as  the  prices  of  crude  materials 
are  kept  by  taxation  far  above  those  of  our  competitors.  If, 
however,  there  should  be  a  change  in  the  policy  of  the  country, 
to  which  all  events  appear  to  be  tending,  and  to  which  the  advo- 
cates of  both  sides  of  the  tariff  question  appear  to  be  moving,  and 
it  should  be  decided  that  the  crude  materials,  commonly  called 


294  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

"  raw  materials/'  and  the  partly  manufactured  products  which 
are  necessary  in  the  processes  of  domestic  industry,  should  be  im- 
ported free  of  tax,  I  think  there  could  then  be  very  little  doubt 
that  we  should  not  only  control  our  home  market,  but  also  secure 
a  much  larger  share  in  supplying  other  nations  with  cotton 
fabrics  than  we  now  enjoy.  The  number  of  our  spindles  might 
then  be  almost  indefinitely  extended ;  and  when  the  prices  of  iron, 
steel,  and  copper  are  the  same  in  this  country  as  they  are  in  Great 
Britain,  making  allowance  for  the  cost  of  transportation,  as  they 
would  be  if  free  of  duty  here,  I  doubt  if  any  carding-engine, 
combing-machine,  or  spinning-machinery,  or  any  other  important 
part  of  the  plant,  except  some  specialties,  could  be  imported  from 
any  other  country. 

The  annual  consumption  of  iron  and  steel  in  this  country  is 
now  thirty-five  to  forty  per  cent  of  the  commercial  or  known  prod- 
uct of  the  world.  It  is  equal  to  the  entire  commercial  product 
of  the  world  in  the  years  1865  and  1866.  It  is  in  excess  of  the 
largest  product  ever  made  by  Great  Britain.  Now,  it  is  upon 
supremacy  in  iron  more  than  anything  else  that  the  control  of 
commerce  rests,  and  I  think  we  shall  soon  hold  it  without  lower- 
ing our  prices  materially,  but  in  consequence  of  rising  prices 
abroad.  The  deposits  of  fine  iron  ore  suitable  for  making  Besse- 
mer steel  are  rapidly  diminishing  in  Great  Britain  in  ratio  to  the 
demand  upon  them.  The  coking  coals,  which  are  necessary  in  the 
work,  are  becoming  more  costly  year  by  year.  As  the  mines  be- 
come deeper  they  become  hotter,  and  the  veins  in  Durham,  the 
chief  source  of  supply,  are  only  two  feet  wide,  and  they  lie  hori- 
zontally, so  that  the  miners  must  work  at  a  great  depth  in  a  very 
heated  atmosphere,  lying  on  their  sides.  As  the  necessary  conse- 
quence, although  the  wages  of  labor  are  much  less,  the  cost  of 
coke  is  much  higher  than  it  is  in  this  country. 

Great  Britain  now  imports  twenty  per  cent  of  all  her  ores. 
The  chief  supply  of  fine  ore  has  been  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Barcelona,  Spain,  but  that  supply  is  becoming  exhausted.  When 
that  time  comes,  Great  Britain  must  get  her  supply  of  fine  ores 
from  the  south  of  Spain — inside  the  gates  of  Gibraltar — from 
Algiers,  or  irom  mines  not  yet  worked  to  any  great  extent,  three 
hundred  miles  from  the  extreme  northern  end  of  the  Baltic  Sea, 
in  Sweden. 

The  supply  of  workmen  capable  of  operating  iron-furnaces 
and  steel-works  in  Great  Britain  is  also  relatively  small,  so  that 
with  each  advance  in  the  price  of  iron,  an  advance  in  wages  is 
demanded — not  due  to  improvements  in  the  processes,  but  due 
to  the  relative  scarcity  of  laborers.  On  the  other  hand,  the  de- 
mand for  iron  upon  the  furnaces,  both  of  Great  Britain  and  of 
this  country,  which  for  many  years  varied  with  the  activity  or 


THE  FUTURE   OF   OUR    COTTON  MANUFACTURE.   295 

depression  in  the  construction  of  railroads  in  this  country,  is  now 
active.  The  very  rapid  extension  of  railways,  not  only  upon  this 
continent  but  upon  other  continents,  has  induced  an  enormous 
demand  for  iron  and  steel  for  other  purposes.  Therefore,  during 
the  last  years,  1888  and  1889,  although  the  construction  of  new 
railways  diminished  from  the  standard  of  1887  by  fifty  to  sixty 
per  cent,  yet  the  demand  for  iron  and  steel  has  gone  on  increasing, 
and  is  now  larger  than  was  ever  known  before. 

Again,  the  new  sources  of  supply  in  this  country  are  rapidly 
furnishing  iron  at  low  prices,  but  at  such  profits  that  the  produc- 
tion increases  very  rapidly  so  as  to  meet  the  increasing  demand. 
In  spite  of  this,  there  are  indications  of  an  insufficient  supply  of 
iron  the  world  over,  from  which,  of  course,  the  present  rising 
prices  have  ensued.  Now,  the  production  of  iron  is  a  matter  of 
relatively  small  consequence,  either  in  the  value  of  the  product  or 
the  number  of  men  employed,  as  compared  with  the  consumption. 
Gauged  by  my  favorite  standard,  even  the  present  large  pro- 
duction of  iron  in  the  United  States  is  only  equal  in  value  to  the 
product  of  hens'  eggs. 

Now,  suppose  for  an  instant  that  under  these  conditions  of  in- 
creasing demand  we  were  to  remove  the  duties.  New  England 
would  at  once  supply  herself  with  ores  and  coal  from  the  vast  and 
easily  worked  deposits  of  Nova  Scotia.  The  New  England  pro- 
duction of  heavy  machinery  would  be  resumed,  and  we  should  no 
longer  send  to  Milwaukee  for  our  heavy  stationary  engines,  but 
should  again  make  them  either  at  South  Boston  or  in  Providence. 
Even  then  it  would  be  doubtful  if  the  supply  of  iron  could  keep 
up  with  the  increasing  demand. 

Then  imagine,  if  you  can,  what  would  be  the  effect  upon  the 
price  of  iron  in  Great  Britain,  if  we  were  to  call  upon  her  only 
for  a  million  tons  extra,  or  only  for  the  increase  which  we  shall 
require  next  year.  That  would  be  a  demand  for  about  twelve  and 
a  half  per  cent  in  addition  to  the  present  product  of  her  iron- 
works, and  even  the  present  product  can  not  be  kept  up  without 
a  great  increase  of  cost.  Witness  the  recent  statements  in  the 
London  "  Economist "  to  that  effect. 

Finally,  let  it  be  assumed  that,  without  any  reduction  in  the 
present  low  price  of  iron  in  this  country,  the  consumers  of  iron 
in  Great  Britain — the  machinists,  the  builders  of  ships,  of  loco- 
motives, the  makers  of  rails,  and  the  like — were  called  upon  to  pay 
as  much  for  their  iron  and  steel  as  our  consumers  of  iron  now 
pay,  what  would  be  the  result  ?  They  have  had  an  advantage 
ranging  from  five  to  ten  dollars  per  ton  of  iron,  and  from  fifteen 
to  thirty  dollars  per  ton  of  steel,  for  many  years,  over  our  machin- 
ists, engine-builders,  and  ship-builders.  Imagine  what  the  con- 
ditions would  be,  if  you  can,  if  our  relations  were  reversed,  and 


296  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

if  crude  iron  and  crude  steel  could  be  had  at  lower  prices  in  this 
country  than  in  Europe ;  yet  that  is  what  is  more  likely  to  oc- 
cur than  anything  else,  and  that  time  would  be  greatly  hastened 
by  the  instant  removal  of  duties  on  ore  and  coal,  and  perhaps  by 
the  immediate  removal  of  every  duty  on  pig-iron,  although  pru- 
dence might  require  a  period  of  five  years  or  so  to  carry  out  the 
latter  policy  by  successive  reduction. 

I  think  we  have  been  protecting  the  machinists,  engine-builders, 
and  ship-owners  of  Great  Britain,  and  retarding  the  progress  of 
our  own,  by  keeping  up  a  disparity  in  the  price  of  the  materials 
which  form  the  chief  element  of  cost  from  fifty  to  a  hundred  per 
cent  higher  in  this  country  than  they  have  been  there.  How  can 
we  expect  to  keep  the  control  of  the  home  market  on  machinery 
when  the  duty  on  the  materials  is  fifty  to  a  hundred  per  cent 
higher  than  on  the  machine  itself  ?  I  think  it  is  time  this  ques- 
tion was  taken  out  of  politics  and  settled  by  sensible  men  in  a 
sensible  way ;  but  that  may  be  a  visionary  theory,  which  I  may 
not  live  to  see  reduced  to  practice. 

I  speak  of  this  subject  because  it  has  a  most  important  bearing 
upon  the  question  which  has  been  put  to  me.  We  can  readily 
overstock  our  own  market,  which  is  small  compared  with  the  de- 
mand of  the  world.  Glance  at  the  accompanying  pictures  which 
represent  the  present  conditions  of  the  cotton  manufacture  of  the 
great  empire  of  China.  In  No.  1  is  seen  the  cotton  growing ;  in 
No.  2,  the  clearing  from  the  seed  by  snapping  a  bow-string  with 
the  hand,  which  gave  the  name  of  "  bowed  Georgia  "  to  Southern 
cotton  before  Whitney  invented  the  saw  gin;  No.  3  shows  the 
press ;  No.  4  the  spinning-wheel,  No.  5  the  warper,  and  No.  6  the 
hand  loom,  as  they  have  been  in  use  since  prehistoric  times.  In 
one  of  these  pictures  there  is  a  bit  of  evidence  of  manual  dexterity 
which  is  hardly  credible :  one  woman  appears  to  be  spinning 
three  strands  from  three  separate  rovings  on  one  wheel. 

The  latest  and  most  authentic  computation  of  the  population 
of  the  globe  is  fourteen  hundred  millions.  The  manufacturing  or 
machine-using  nations  of  the  world — that  is  to  say,  the  nations 
which  have  to  any  considerable  extent  adopted  the  factory  system 
of  making  textile  fabrics — consist  mainly  of  the  inhabitants  of 
this  country,  of  Canada,  of  Great  Britain,  France,  Germany,  Bel- 
gium, Holland,  and  Switzerland,  numbering  in  all  about  two 
hundred  millions. 

The  only  nation,  and,  in  fact,  perhaps  the  only  country,  which 
makes  cotton  fabrics  to  any  extent  in  excess  of  its  own  consump- 
tion is  England.  We  import  more  cotton  fabrics  than  we  export, 
but  they  are  chiefly  of  the  finer  kinds,  or  else  they  are  laces,  em- 
broideries, and  "the  like.  I  am  not  quite  sure,  but  I  think  that 
even  France  and  Germany  import  more  cotton  fabrics  than  they 


No.  1  —Cotton  Culture, 


vol.  xxxvi. — 19'* 


298  THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

export,  if  the  fine  yarns  are  included  in  their  import,  which  can 
only  be  made  for  them  in  Lancashire.  There  are,  as  you  are 
aware,  a  few  cotton-factories  in  Russia  and  a  few  in  India,  but 
their  product  in  ratio  to  the  consumption  of  the  continent  of  Asia 
is  utterly  insignificant. 

The  number  of  people  who  are  at  this  time  clothed  in  hand- 
spun  and  hand-woven  fabrics  is  more  than  double  the  number  of 
those  who  yet  purchase  the  fabrics  which  are  made  in  our  facto- 
ries or  in  those  of  any  other  nation.  I  made  a  computation  a  few 
years  since,  and  I  think  the  conditions  have  not  greatly  changed, 
to  this  effect :  that  all  the  cotton  fabrics  exported  from  Europe 
and  from  the  United  States  to  China  would  only  suffice  to  clothe 
sixty  to  seventy  millions  out  of  a  computed  population  of  four 
hundred  millions — even  at  the  ratio  of  only  two  and  a  half  pounds 
of  cotton  to  the  head.  I  consider  that  ratio  incorrect,  although  it 
is  commonly  used. 

A  large  part  of  China  in  which  there  is  a  very  dense  popula- 
tion, and  to  which  most  of  our  drills  and  sheetings  are  sent,  is  in 
the  same  latitude  as  the  northern  United  States.  It  is  not  as 
cold,  but  yet  it  is  a  cold  country,  and  the  common  people  are  clad 
wholly  in  cotton  fabrics.  Here  are  one  of  their  coats  and  some 
of  their  other  garments.  You  can  judge  for  yourself  whether  or 
not  they  consume  more  than  two  and  a  half  pounds  per  head. 
This  coat  alone  weighs  nearly  four  pounds. 

At  five  pounds  per  head,  which  is  a  much  more  reasonable 
estimate,  the  factory-made  fabrics  of  this  country  and  of  Europe 
would  not  suffice  to  clothe  more  than  ten  per  cent  of  the  popula- 
tion of  China.  There  has  been  an  ill-defined  dread  lest  China 
should  build  cotton-factories  and  then  should  undertake  to  clothe 
us  with  the  products  of  the  cheap  labor  of  the  "  heathen 
Chinee." 

Now,  entirely  aside  from  the  fact  that  low-priced  labor  is  not 
cheap  labor,  and  that  high-priced  labor  is  cheap  because  more 
effective  in  making  goods  at  low  cost,  I  venture  to  ask  if  any  of 
my  readers  ever  bought  or  spun  any  Chinese  cotton  ?  I  think 
very  few  of  the  present  generation  have  had  any  experience  even 
with  Surats  or  India  cotton.  I  think  those  who  know  even  what 
India  cotton  is  will  not  dread  any  serious  competition  from  that, 
and  the  very  few — perhaps  I  am  the  only  one  who  ever  bought 
any  Chinese  cotton — will  after  that  experience  lay  aside  all  fear  of 
Chinese  competition  in  the  contest  for  supremacy  in  the  cotton 
manufacture.  It  is  the  whitest,  cleanest,  and  most  honestly 
packed,  but  also  the  shortest,  meanest,  and  most  worthless  cotton 
of  which  I  ever  attempted  to  draw  the  staple  or  to  put  through  a 
factory. 

The  Appalachian  chain,  gathering  the  moisture  from  the  Gulf 


THE  FUTURE    OF   OUR    COTTON  MANUFACTURE.  299 

Stream  and  spreading  it  over  the  fertile  cotton-fields  of  the 
United  States,  has  fixed  our  supremacy  in  cotton  production  and 
probably  in  the  cotton  manufacture  of  the  future,  until  Egypt  is 
more  fully  redeemed  from  barbarism,  or  until  the  lands  bordering 
upon  the  Paraguay  and  Parana  Rivers  in  South  America  are 
more  fully  occupied  by  a  dense  and  industrious  population. 

But  perhaps  the  seat  of  the  cotton  manufacture  of  the  future 
may  not  be  wholly  where  the  cotton  grows.  Cotton  is  a  sun- 
plant.  It  thrives  best  and  yields  the  largest  product  in  the  hot, 
dry  years  when  the  dryness  does  not  become  a  drought.  The 
very  characteristics  of  climate  which  promote  the  production 
of  the  fiber  are  to  some  extent  inconsistent  both  with  spin- 
ning and  weaving,  which  call  for  a  cool,  moist  atmosphere. 
The  variety  of  Dacca  muslin  so  fine  as  to  have  been  called  the 
"  woven  wind  "  is  spun  and  woven  only  in  the  early  morning  by 
weavers  who  sit  upon  the  ground  under  the  trees  where  the  hu- 
midity of  the  air  is  greatest.  I  believe  they  even  dig  a  hole  in  the 
ground,  in  which  they  sit,  so  as  to  bring  the  web  in  front  of  them 
close  to  the  ground. 

This  brings  us  to  the  question  of  prime  interest  to  all  of  us. 
Will  that  Southern  cotton  land  also  become  the  principal  site  of 
the  cotton  manufacture  of  the  United  States  ?  Upon  this  ques- 
tion I  will  first  submit  the  facts,  and  I  will  then  give  the  conclu- 
sions which  I  have  myself  derived  from  them. 

The  number  of  spinning  and  weaving  mills  in  the  Southern 
States  which  I  have  named,  both  before  the  war  and  subsequently 
down  to  1870,  was  not  sufficient  to  be  considered  a  factor  of  any 
considerable  importance.  In  1860  the  number  of  Southern  spindles 
was  about  five  per  cent  of  the  total  number  of  spindles  of  the 
country.  They  were  in  by  far  the  greatest  proportion  devoted  to 
spinning  coarse  yarns  to  be  woven  upon  hand  looms  and  con- 
verted into  Osnaburgs  or  into  jeans,  the  latter  mostly  of  the 
so-called  "  butternut  variety "  ;  goods  dyed  with  the  butternut 
dye,  which  color  gave  the  name  to  the  Confederate  uniforms. 

There  were  a  few  considerable  and  successful  mills  devoted 
to  both  spinning  and  weaving ;  notably  at  Columbus,  under  the 
able  supervision  of  William  H.  Young  and  John  Hill;  other 
mills  at  Augusta,  the  Graniteville  Mill,  and  a  very  few  others. 

In  1870  the  number  of  Southern  spindles  was  nearly  three 
hundred  and  twenty-eight  thousand,  gradually  and  slowly  in- 
creasing, down  to  1880,  to  five  hundred  and  forty-two  thousand. 
In  this  period  looms  were  being  added  to  many  of  the  spinning- 
mills,  and  the  change  was  going  on  from  the  homespun  to  the 
factory-made  goods.  It  is  only  since  1880  that  the  additions  have 
been  made  to  the  spindles  of  the  South  which  have  attracted  so 
much  attention. 


No.  2. — Cotton  Ginning. 


THE  FUTURE    OF   OUR    COTTON  MANUFACTURE.   301 

According  to  the  "Financial  Chronicle,"  there  were  in  the 
Southern  States  named,  in  the  cotton  year  1888-89,  two  hundred 
and  fifty-nine  factories,  averaging  a  little  over  five  thousand 
spindles  each,  giving  a  total  number  of  one  million  three  hundred 
and  forty-four  thousand  five  hundred  and  seventy-six  spindles 
in  operation,  with  thirty-one  thousand  four  hundred  and  thirty- 
five  looms.  The  number  of  yarn  spun  was  a  fraction  under  No. 
14— a  gain  in  the  fineness  of  the  yarn,  since  my  computation  of 
1880,  of  one  number  only. 

If  we  deduct  the  few  large  mills,  the  average  of  the  greater 
number  is  about  four  thousand  spindles,  ranging  from  one  to  six 
or  seven  thousand.  The  Southern  consumption  of  cotton  had 
increased  from  one  hundred  and  eighty-eight  thousand  seven 
hundred  and  forty-eight  bales  in  1879-80  to  four  hundred  and 
eighty-six  thousand  six  hundred  and  three  bales  in  the  last  cotton 
year.  In  addition  to  the  spindles  in  operation,  a  few  have  been 
added,  and  it  is  estimated  by  the  "  Financial  Chronicle  "  that,  on 
the  1st  of  September  of  the  present  year,  there  were  one  million 
four  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  spindles  in  the  Southern  States, 
of  which  about  one  million  are  in  the  States  of  North  and  South 
Carolina  and  Georgia.  The  list  given  in  the  Baltimore  "  Manu- 
facturers' Record  "  gives  a  greater  number,  but  many  mills  in  that 
list  are  only  projected.  I  therefore  adhere  to  the  carefully  pre- 
pared statistics  of  the  "  Financial  Chronicle." 

It  is  on  the  Piedmont  plateau  that  you  are  to  look  for  competi- 
tion if  anywhere  in  the  Southern  country.  The  mills  will  be 
built  upon  the  foot-hills  of  the  Appalachian  chain  ;  in  the  uplands 
rather  than  upon  the  lowlands  of  the  South.  On  the  foregoing- 
statement  there  has  therefore  been  a  gain  in  the  twenty  years 
that  have  elapsed  since  1869  in  Southern  spindles,  mainly  in  the 
last  ten  years,  of  about  eleven  hundred  thousand  spindles ;  cer- 
tainly very  rapid  progress.    But  now  let  us  look  at  the  other  side. 

The  gain  in  the  population  of  these  same  States  since  1870,  on 
the  basis  of  an  estimate  of  our  present  population  made  by  the 
Actuary  of  the  Treasury  Department,  has  been  six  million  six 
hundred  thousand.  At  the  ratio  of  five  persons  to  a  spindle  this 
absolute  increase  in  the  population  of  these  same  Southern  States 
has  called  for  the  product  of  one  million  three  hundred  and 
twenty  thousand  spindles,  or  two  hundred  and  twenty  thousand 
in  excess  of  the  actual  gain  in  the  Southern  factories.  At  the  ratio 
of  four  and  a  half  persons  to  a  spindle,  which  is  the  present  aver- 
age, the  gain  in  the  population  in  these  States  requires  the  prod- 
uct of  fourteen  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  spindles.  In  these 
computations  no  cognizance  is  taken  of  the  displacement  of  home- 
spun fabrics. 

If  my  computation  is  correct,  that  three  and  a  half  million 


3o2  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

people,  who  were  clad  down  to  1870  in  homespun  fabrics,  have 
changed  to  factory  -made  goods,  in  which  estimate  I  am  very  much 
more  than  sustained  by  my  correspondents,  that  change  calls  for 
seven  hundred  thousand  additional  spindles  at  the  ratio  of  one  to 
five,  or  seven  hundred  and  eighty  thousand  at  the  ratio  of  one  to 
four  and  a  half. 

These  statistics,  so  far  as  they  prove  anything,  therefore  prove 
that  while  the  spindles  of  the  South  have  gained  eleven  hundred 
thousand  since  1870,  the  demand  of  the  South  for  cotton  fabrics  at 
the  average  of  the  country  has  increased  in  a  ratio  of  more  than 
double  the  product  of  their  own  increase  of  spindles ;  and  I  think 
all  our  observations  tend  to  confirm  these  statistics. 

A  few  sheetings  and  drills  have  been  exported  from  the  South- 
ern factories  and  a  few  Southern  goods  have  been  sold  in  the  West, 
but  at  the  same  time  there  has  been  a  constantly  increasing 
demand  upon  the  North  for  medium  and  fine  goods.  These  South- 
ern goods  which  we  have  heard  of  from  our  salesmen  were  all 
made  in  the  larger  factories,  which  are  well  equipped  with  modern 
machinery — many  of  them  being  operated  by  men  who  would 
succeed  anywhere — but  they  do  not  yet  constitute  a  rule,  nor  must 
we  forget  or  disregard  the  personal  factor  in  dealing  with  this 
question.  It  is  upon  the  personal  factor,  much  more  than  upon 
proximity  to  the  cotton-field,  that  the  success  of  the  Southern 
factory  will  depend.  The  advantage  of  position  was  only  meas- 
ured at  a  cent  a  pound  four  or  five  years  ago.  The  freight  from 
central  Alabama  to  New  England  is  now  less  than  three  quarters 
of  a  cent  a  pound.  Very  soon  it  will  be  down  to  half  a  cent ;  then 
what  ?  The  greater  part  of  the  Southern  factories  are,  as  you 
observe,  too  small  to  be  economically  worked,  averaging  but  a 
fraction  over  five  thousand  spindles  each.  So  long  as  these  small 
factories  are  devoted  to  supplying  Southern  neighborhoods  and 
Southern  communities  with  checks,  plaids,  and  heavy  brown 
cottons,  for  which  there  is  always  a  demand  in  that  section  greater 
than  any  other,  they  will  succeed  or  fail  according  to  the  skill  and 
aptitude  of  the  owner  or  manager.  It  may  have  been  observed 
that  within  the  last  few  weeks  there  has  been  an  overstock  of 
these  peculiarly  Southern  goods,  and  an  effort  has  been  made  to 
check  the  production.  Some  of  the  Southern  sheetings  which 
have  lately  appeared  in  Northern  markets  must,  I  think,  have 
been  sold  at  less  than  cost. 

I  have  referred  to  the  personal  factor  as  the  main  element  in 
settling  this  question.  In  a  small  factory,  wherever  it  may  be, 
there  must  be  such  personal  interest  or  individual  ownership  as  to 
secure  the  necessary  skill  and  judgment  in  the  conduct  of  the 
work,  and  there  must  not  be  a  set  of  stockholders  who  like  cor- 
morants swallow  their  dividends  and  demand  them  without  regard 


No.  3.— Baling  and  Pressing  Cotton. 


3°4 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY 


to  the  conditions  of  the  market.  In  the  larger  mills,  especially 
when  owned  by  a  corporation,  the  establishment  must  be  of  suffi- 
cient size  to  command  the  services  of  the  most  competent  men, 
especially  in  the  manufacturing  department. 

Does  it  not  follow,  from  all  these  facts  which  I  have  submitted, 
that  the  competition  of  the  Southern  with  the  Northern  factory, 
down  to  this  time,  has  been  more  theoretical  than  practical  ?  Is  it 
not  yet  to  begin,  if  it  is  felt  in  any  considerable  measure  in  respect 
to  the  home  consumption  of  the  East,  the  Middle  States,  and  the 
West,  aside  from  a  very  few  heavy  sheetings  which  have  been 
sold  in  our  Northern  markets  ? 

I  must,  therefore,  again  repeat  the  word  of  warning  which  I 
have  so  often  given  to  my  Southern  friends :  Beware  of  the 
isolated  cotton-factory,  and  also  beware  of  the  small  corporation; 
do  not  proceed  upon  the  idea  that,  because  the  factory  is  near  the 
cotton,  it  possesses  any  great  advantage.  Men  who  begin  in  a 
small  way  and  who  grow  up  with  their  business,  or  who  have 
learned  it  elsewhere,  may  succeed,  as  many  are  now  succeeding ; 
but  those  who  subscribe  to  the  stock  of  an  isolated  Southern 
cotton-factory  with  the  notion  that  a  cent  a  pound  or  less  advan- 
tage over  the  North  in  the  price  of  cotton  will  assure  success  may 
get  their  experience  at  a  high  price  when  some  other  shrewder 
man  buys  the  mill  at  a  low  price.  In  any  event,  under  present 
conditions,  not  less  than  ten  per  cent  a  year  on  the  cost  of  machin- 
ery should  be  charged  off  to  depreciation.  In  many  mills  which 
I  have  visited,  at  least  that  portion  of  the  machinery  was  going 
into  the  cost  of  the  goods ;  in  some  cases  without  the  knowledge 
of  the  owners. 

Now,  as  to  the  future  center  or  situs  of  the  cotton  manufacture. 
If  you  glance  over  the  history  of  nearly  all  the  principal  arts,  you 
will  find  that  there  has  been  a  tendency  for  them  to  concentrate 
in  special  sections  of  given  countries  or  states.  Where  and  how 
such  arts  may  originate  may  be  to  a  certain  extent  a  matter  of 
chance ;  but,  once  established,  it  seems  as  if  not  only  the  manual 
skill  and  aptitude  but  the  mental  force  of  the  whole  neighborhood 
adjusted  themselves  to  the  special  condition  of  these  particular 
arts.  Some  one  man  invents  or  improves  the  machine,  begins  his 
work  in  one  place,  and  makes  money  at  it.  This  attracts  attention ; 
others  gather  in  the  neighborhood,  and  presently  that  place 
becomes  the  center  of  that  specific  art. 

Go  to  Gloversville,  in  New  York,  away  off  on  the  high  hills 
north  of  the  Mohawk  River  :  the  whole  population  makes  gloves 
and  mittens.  The  art  has  existed  there  for  so  long  a  time  that  it 
has  affected  the  language.  If  you  are  invited  out  to  tea,  when 
you  are  offered  sugar  and  cream  the  hostess  will  ask  you  if  you 
"take  trimmings  with  your  tea." 


No.  4.— Cotton  Spinning. 


3o6  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

Go  to  Troy.  One  man  invented  nearly  all  the  machinery  on 
which  the  laundry-work  is  established,  and  all  the  laundries  are 
called  "  Troy  laundries/'  Then,  since  the  laundry  is  the  necessary 
adjunct  of  the  shirt-factory,  Troy  and  its  neighborhood  have 
become  the  center  of  the  shirt,  collar,  and  cuff  manufacture.  In 
this  art  the  cutting  and  making  of  the  shirt  have  been  so  perfected 
that  it  costs  less  to  make  the  shirt  than  it  does  to  do  the  laundry- 
work  upon  it  and  get  it  ready  for  sale ;  while  the  women  who 
operate  the  sewing  and  ironing  machinery  earn  higher  wages  than 
even  your  best  weavers,  because  they  make  the  shirts  at  the 
lowest  cost.  It  is  only  the  woman  who  sews  poorly  who  is  a  poor 
sewing- woman. 

Go  to  Foxborough,  Mass. — the  whole  population  makes  straw 
hats  ;  over  at  Taunton  and  in  that  neighborhood,  tacks  and 
brads  ;  down  in  Connecticut,  around  Meriden  and  Waterbury, 
all  the  brass-work  of  special  kinds.  Go  to  Leicester  Hill,  the 
important  occupation  is  making  cards  for  your  factories,  with 
some  offshoots  in  Worcester.  Even  a  single  art  divides  up.  Lynn 
makes  fine  boots  and  shoes  for  women  ;  Brockton,  common  boots 
for  men  ;  Spencer,  heavy  boots  for  men. 

The  Dundee  orange  marmalade  is  another  instance.  Why 
should  orange  marmalade  be  made  in  Scotland,  and  not  in  Spain, 
where  the  oranges  grow  ?  I  think  the  immediate  benefit  to  the 
people  in  Florida,  Louisiana,  and  Georgia  might  be  greater  in  the 
introduction  of  the  marmalade  manufacture  rather  than  in  that 
of  the  cotton  fabrics.  The  capital  of  a  single  cotton-mill  would 
establish  a  great  many  marmalade-factories,  and,  like  the  eggs, 
there  might  be  no  end  to  the  consumption. 

Now,  for  one  reason  or  another,  the  art  of  spinning  cotton 
centered  in  Lancashire,  England,  first  starting  in  and  around 
Manchester.  It  stays  in  Lancashire.  Manchester  remains  the 
center  of  the  trade,  but  the  trend  of  the  spindles  is  away  from 
Manchester  proper.  The  spinners  have  for  some  years  built 
nearly  all  the  new  mills  at  Oldham  and  other  towns,  seven  or 
eight  hundred  feet  above  the  sea-level,  on  the  crest  of  the  ridge 
beyond  which  the  moors  stretch  away  to  Scotland.  They  may  not 
have  known  why  they  went  there,  but  it  is  the  point  where  the 
relative  humidity  of  the  atmosphere  is  most  constant.  The  rain- 
fall is  only  about  half  what  it  is  in  Massachusetts,  but  the  rela- 
tive humidity  of  the  atmosphere  is  very  high,  and  you  are  always 
looking  out  for  a  shower.  The  dry,  bad  days  for  spinning  are 
when  the  wind  is  from  the  east — that  is,  the  dry  wind  in  England 
coming  over  the  land. 

They  are  building  a  ship-canal  to  Manchester  at  an  enormous 
expense,  estimated  at  ten  million  pounds,  or  fifty  million  dollars, 
in  order  to  save  the  railway  freight  on  cotton  from  Liverpool  to 


THE  FUTURE    OF   OUR    COTTON  MANUFACTURE.  307 

Manchester ;  but  when  the  cotton  reaches  Manchester  it  will  be 
taken  over  upon  the  cars  and  hauled  up  this  heavy  grade.  The 
spinners  did  not  make  this  change  without  a  reason.  What  was 
it  ?     Can  there  be  any  reason  except  the  climatic  conditions  ? 

Our  textile  factories  first  gathered  in  centers  where  there  was 
water  power.  It  happened  that  Samuel  Slater  landed  in  Rhode 
Island,  midway  in  the  section  where,  I  think,  the  cotton  manu- 
facture will  stay.  But  water  power  carried  many  mills  away  up 
into  New  Hampshire,  down  into  Maine,  and  elsewhere.  That 
influence  has  gone  by.  Steam  has  taken  the  place  of  water 
power. 

My  judgment  has  been  for  a  very  long  time  that,  barring  one 
element  which  I  will  treat  later,  the  greater  part  of  the  cotton 
spinning  and  weaving  of  this  country  will  tend  to  concentrate 
along  the  south  shore  of  New  England,  from  New  Bedford  by 
way  of  Fall  River,  Narragansett  Bay,  and  so  on  along  the  Sound, 
at  the  points  to  which  coal  can  be  carried  in  barges  at  very  mod- 
erate cost,  to  which  the  cotton  can  be  brought  at  diminishing 
rates  of  transportation  from  the  South,  and  where  the  conditions 
of  life  are  comfortable,  the  supplies  abundant,  and  where  all  the 
subsidiary  arts  will  gather  or  have  gathered  around  the  factories. 

It  is  along  this  shore  that  the  Gulf  Stream  exerts  an  influence 
somewhat  like  that  which  affects  Lancashire.  Although  perhaps 
less  in  degree,  the  humidity  of  the  atmosphere  is  more  constant 
and  more  nearly  consistent  with  the  best  conditions  for  spinning 
and  weaving  than  it  is  in  any  other  section  of  this  country  within 
my  knowledge.  I  will  not  speak  dogmatically  upon  this  point, 
because  I  do  not  think  we  yet  know  enough  of  atmospheric  con- 
ditions to  be  able  to  determine  this  question.  It  is  one  of  the  ele- 
ments of  the  case.  As  this  concentration  takes  place,  as  you  so 
well  know,  the  relative  number  of  spare  hands  and  the  number  of 
repair  hands  in  each  factory  will  be  diminished  ;  thus  the  general 
expenses  will  be  reduced.  The  draft  for  help  will  be  made  upon 
the  whole  population,  and  the  work  will  be  subdivided  in  the  way 
which  is  most  conducive  to  the  very  closest  economy. 

To  what  extent  weaving  will  be  separated  from  spinning  we 
have  yet  to  see.  I  think  that  separation  will  go  on  as  the  work 
becomes  finer  and  more  dependent  upon  the  changing  fashion  and 
fancy  of  the  season  than  upon  its  quality  for  the  sale  of  the  prod- 
uct. That  tendency  is  clearly  apparent  in  the  increase  of  fine 
spinning-mills  in  this  section,  in  which  no  weaving  is  done.  I 
have  called  attention  to  these  points  before. 

Again,  I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  any  very  rapid  develop- 
ment of  Southern  cotton  manufacture  will  meet  a  check  from  the 
yet  more  rapid  progress  of  our  Southern  brethren  in  many  other 
apparently  minor  branches  of  industry.     These  minor  branches, 


No.  5.— Reelinc;  and  phepakinc  tiik  Wakp. 


THE  FUTURE    OF   OUR    COTTON  MANUFACTURE.  309 

in  tlie  aggregate,  are  more  important  to  the  state  and  more  con- 
ducive to  diversity  of  occupation. 

There  has  been  up  to  this  time  a  large  reserve  of  unemployed 
people  who  could  be  drawn  from  the  mountain  sections  of  the 
South,  where  the  factory-made  fabrics  have  displaced  the  product 
of  the  spinning-wheel  and  of  the  hand  loom,  by  which  these  peo- 
ple had  been  habituated  to  the  textile  industry.  They  are  an 
excellent  class  of  operatives,  and,  in  passing  from  their  isolated, 
narrow,  and  penurious  lives  on  the  hills  to  the  factory  and  its  sur- 
roundings, they  have  made  a  step  in  progress  corresponding  to 
that  which  occurred  in  New  England  when  the  farmers'  daughters 
left  the  household  and  filled  up  the  factories  away  back  in  1840 
and  1850.  But  it  will  be  remembered  that,  with  the  progress  of 
wealth  and  common  welfare,  all  the  farmers'  daughters  of  New 
England  have  gone  up  and  out  of  the  textile  factory  into  better 
paid  branches  of  work,  which  are  less  monotonous,  and  which 
are  more  conducive  to  a  satisfactory  life. 

The  farmers'  daughters  earned  from  one  hundred  and  fifty 
to  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  dollars  a  year  for  thirteen  hours 
of  arduous  work  each  day,  in  a  low-studded,  stove-heated,  badly 
lighted,  and  non-ventilated  factory.  The  French  Canadians, 
who  now  in  greatest  number  occupy  their  places,  earn  about 
twice  as  much  per  day  and  more  than  twice  as  much  per  hour, 
working  ten  hours  per  day,  in  the  modern  factory  which  I  may 
presently  show  can  yet  be  made  a  chosen  sanitarium.  As  the 
earnings  have  advanced  with  the  improvements  in  the  processes 
and  conditions  of  the  work,  the  cost  of  the  product  has  diminished, 
while  the  workman  has  received  an  increasing  proportion  and  the 
capitalist  a  diminishing  proportion  of  the  joint  product ;  but  there 
was  far  greater  opportunity  for  women  to  change  from  the  fac- 
tory to  other  branches  of  work  in  New  England  in  former  times 
than  there  will  soon  be  at  the  South.  We  at  the  North  were 
always  a  versatile  people.  We  always  had  variety  of  occupation, 
whereas  in  the  South  nearly  all  the  minor  arts  of  life  are  in  a 
very  imperfect  stage  and  in  the  very  beginning  of  development ; 
hence  the  change  may  be  more  rapid  from  the  factory  to  other 
occupations. 

Now,  where  it  requires  a  thousand  dollars  or  more  of  capital 
to  set  one  woman  at  work  in  a  cotton-mill,  it  only  calls  for  two 
hundred  or  so  to  set  one  woman  or  man  at  work  in  a  shoe-factory, 
in  a  clothing-factory,  in  a  saddler's  shop,  or  in  any  of  the  minor 
arts  which  may  be  counted  by  hundreds— each  inconspicuous  in 
itself,  but  the  aggregate  giving  employment,  even  here  in  New 
England,  to  a  force  to  which  our  factory  population  bears  but  the 
ratio  of  a  small  fraction. 

I  have  stated  the  natural  law  which  I  think  will  be  one  of  the 


■%'x^con". ,^~j*'c*£i*ri 


acpax^cKjr 


No.  6.— Cotton  Weaving. 


THE  FUTURE    OF    OUR    COTTON  MANUFACTURE.  311 

forces  tending  to  concentrate  the  more  important  branches  of  the 
cotton  manufacture  along  the  south  shore  of  New  England.  I 
hesitate  to  treat  the  subject  of  the  influence  of  relative  and  abso- 
lute humidity  upon  cotton  spinning  and  weaving,  because  none  of 
us  have  yet  any  very  accurate  or  scientific  knowledge  upon  the  sub- 
ject ;  but,  in  order  that  a  beginning  might  be  made  and  the  basis 
of  an  investigation  might  be  laid  down,  I  wrote  to  General  A. 
W.  Greely,  giving  the  terms  of  the  problem  in  a  general  way,  and 
he  has  very  kindly  and  carefully  prepared  tables  for  me  which  it 
might  be  judicious  to  incorporate  in  this  report,  giving  the  mean 
relative  humidity  three  times  a  day — at  7  A.  m.,  at  3  p.  m.,  and  at 
11  p.  m. — as  well  as  the  temperature.  These  observations  are  aver- 
aged separately  for  each  month  in  the  year,  and  in  the  accom- 
panying tables  the  mean  for  five  years,  1881  to  1885,  is  charted. 
My  hypothesis  had  been  that  somewhere  between  the  elbow  of 
Cape  Cod  and  Staten  Island  the  cotton  manufacture  of  the  United 
States  would  gradually  concentrate.  That  hypothesis,  so  far  as 
relative  humidity  may  be  a  factor  in  the  case,  is  fully  sustained 
by  these  tables.  From  General  Greely's  figures  I  have  taken  the 
mean  temperatures  at  the  same  hours  of  the  day  and  the  mean 
relative  humidity  in  New  London,  Conn.,  and  Augusta,  Ga.  The 
conditions  are  shown  by  curves  on  these  charts. 

As  is  quite  well  known,  the  term  "  relative  humidity  "  defines 
the  ratio  of  the  moisture  in  the  air  to  the  amount  which  would 
saturate  the  air  at  a  given  degree  of  heat.  Saturation  being  called 
one  hundred,  this  factor  is  represented  on  the  chart  by  percentage. 
The  absolute  humidity,  or  absolute  number  of  grains  of  moisture 
contained  in  each  cubic  foot  of  air,  will  of  course  vary  with  the 
temperature  of  the  atmosphere,  and  the  absolute  humidity  at  the 
South  may  be  greater  than  that  of  the  North,  owing  to  the  higher 
degree  of  heat. 

I  think  all  will  agree  with  me  that  spinning  and  weaving 
depend  more  upon  the  uniform  conditions  of  relative  humidity  in 
respect  to  spinning,  perhaps  more  on  absolute  humidity  in  respect 
to  weaving,  than  upon  almost  any  other  climatic  condition.  Gen- 
eral Greely  remarks :  "  In  locations  distant  from  the  coast  there 
is  a  greater  diurnal  range  of  relative  humidity  in  the  atmosphere, 
owing  to  the  heating  effect  of  the  sun's  rays  upon  the  atmosphere, 
causing  the  temperature  of  the  air  to  increase  more  rapidly  than 
the  dew-point,  thus  making  the  air  relatively  dry  during  the 
working  hours  of  the  day.  It  is  possible  that  this  condition 
has  tended  to  drive  the  cotton-mills  toward  the  southern  coast 
of  New  England,  where  they  are  more  completely  covered  by  the 
vapor  laden  winds  from  neighboring  ivaters,  causing  a  reduced 
diurnal  range  in  temperature  and  a  more  constant  relative  hu- 
midity." 


312 


THE   POPULAR    SCIENCE   MONTHLY. 


I 

1 — **— - __                c 

" — —— — —IT 

LL 

*"l 

rf 

■.r> 

XI 

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lit 

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3 

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THE  FUTURE   OF   OUR    COTTON  MANUFACTURE.  313 


In  the  chart  which  I  have 
referred  to,  I  have  compared 
the  relative  humidity  of  the 
atmosphere  at  New  London, 
Conn.,  with  that  of  Augusta, 
Ga.,  from  General  Greely's  ta- 
bles, and  I  have  added  the  data 
of  New  Bedford,  Mass.,  from 
the  private  records  which  have 
been  kept  for  a  very  long  pe- 
riod by  Mr.  T.  R.  Rodman  and 
his  father.  I  have  also  com- 
piled some  data  relating  to 
Atlanta,  Ga. 

The  general  results  derived 
from  these  two  charts  prove 
that  the  mean  temperature  of 
Atlanta  is  12f°  Fahr.  above 
that  of  New  London,  with  13£ 
less  per  cent  of  relative  hu- 
midity, and  subject  to  a  vastly 
greater  variation  day  by  day. 
Augusta,  perhaps  the  principal 
center  of  the  cotton  manufact- 
ure of  the  South,  yields  a  lit- 
tle different  result :  the  mean 
temperature  of  New  London 
through  the  year  is  49f  ° ;  at 
Augusta,  Ga.,  64"4°,  a  differ- 
ence of  a  little  over  15°  in  heat. 
The  mean  relative  humidity  at 
New  London  is  74'53  per  cent ; 
the  greatest  variation  in  the 
year,  23*4  per  cent;  the  mean 
variation,  10  per  cent.  At  Au- 
gusta, Ga.,  however,  the  mean 
relative  humidity  is  71'42  ;  the 
extreme  variation  55  per  cent, 
and  the  mean  variation  37'45 
per  cent  in  relative  humidity, 
or  nearly  four  times  as  much 
as  at  New  London.* 

*  Since  this  paper  was  written,  through 
the  action  of  the  New  Bedford  Board  of 
Trade,  Mr.  R.  C.  P.  Coggeshall  has  been 


vol.  xxxvi. — 20 


3 h  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

Now,  I  think  no  one  would  care  to  attempt  fine  spinning 
nnder  a  hot  sun  where  the  humidity  of  the  outer  atmosphere 
changed  between  seven  o'clock  in  the  morning  and  three  o'clock  in 
the  afternoon  from  84  per  cent  of  moisture  to  38,  or  from  93  to  50. 
Bear  in  mind  that  the  variation  charted,  as  I  have  presented  it,  is 
the  mean  variation  of  each  and  every  day,  averaged  by  months. 
It  will  be  observed  that  this  change  in  the  humidity  of  the  air 
makes  the  heat  more  comfortable  and  more  easy  to  bear ;  that  is 
the  reason  why  our  Southern  friends  complain  of  the  heat  of  the 
summer  as  compared  with  their  own  when  they  come  North  ; 
but,  whether  these  conditions  and  variations  are  conducive  to 
spinning  and  weaving  cotton,  my  hearers  are  better  judges  than 
I  am. 

It  may  be  remembered  that  we  took  this  subject  up  some  years 
ago,  but  I  do  not  think  it  was  then  ripe.  It  might  be  judicious 
for  the  association  to  make  some  arrangement  for  a  very  thor- 
ough and  complete  study  of  this  matter,  in  connection  with  a  very 
visionary  proposition  which  I  am  about  to  submit,  for  making 
use  of  freezing  apparatus  in  tempering  and  controlling  the  air  of 
factories.  I  was  unable  to  take  this  subject  into  consideration 
until  very  lately,  and  I  need  to  apologize  for  the  superficial  treat- 
ment which  I  have  given  it.  I  introduce  it  because  I  think  it 
may  be  a  most  important  and  perhaps  the  paramount  factor  in  de- 
termining— 

1.  Where  the  coarse  work,  13  to  20,  may  be  done. 

2.  Where  the  medium,  20  to  40,  may  be  carried  on  without  dis- 
advantage. 

enabled  to  furnish  the  figures  by  means  of  which  the  mean  temperature  and  the  mean 
relative  humidity  at  New  Bedford  have  been  compiled  for  the  year  1881.  The  results  are 
as  follow : 

Mean  temperature,  dry  bulb 48'9°  F. 

Wet  bulb 46 -4°  F. 

Mean  relative  humidity,  7  a.  m 90  per  cent. 

Mean  relative  humidity,  2  p.  m *74       " 

Mean  relative  humidity,  9  p.  m 90       " 

Mean  of  the  year 84       " 

Maximum  during  the  year 100       " 

Minimum  during  the  year 60       " 

I  have  also  received  readings  for  the  mean  relative  humidity  of  Prestwich,  a  suburb  of 
Manchester,  in  Lancashire,  but  not  situated  high  above  the  sea  on  the  crest,  like  the  Old- 
ham district,  Prestwich  being  only  294  feet  above  the  sea-level.  The  readings  for  9  a.  m. 
show  a  mean  relative  humidity  of  84  per  cent ;  for  9  p.  m.,  87-6  per  cent.  There  is  no  mid- 
day observation.  The  variations  morning  and  night  correspond  very  closely  with  those  of 
New  Bedford,  the  relative  humidity  being  a  little  lower. 

I  am  led  to  believe,  from  all  that  I  can  learn,  that  so  far  as  atmospheric  conditions 
constitute  a  factor  in  cotton-spinning,  the  conditions  of  the  southern  coast  of  New  England, 
where  the  climate  is  affected  by  the  moisture  from  the  Gulf  Stream,  are  as  favorable  as 
those  of  Lancashire  to  any  kind  of  work. 


THE  FUTURE   OF   OUR    COTTON  MANUFACTURE.  315 

3.  Where  the  medium,  fine  work,  40  to  80,  ought  to  go. 

4.  Where  the  finest,  80  to  200,  or  upward,  must  go,  unless  we 
can  prepare  a  special  atmosphere  for  each  class  of  work. 

I  looked  over  a  few  numbers  of  the  reports  of  the  Royal 
Meteorological  Society  of  Great  Britain,  and,  while  I  find  there 
are  great  variations  in  the  relative  humidity  of  the  atmosphere  in 
different  parts  of  Great  Britain,  the  changes  are  not  as  great  as 
they  are  in  this  country,  even  between  morning  and  night.  I 
can  not  find  any  midday  record  as  yet.     I  have  sent  for  one. 

Neither  have  I  been  able  to  find  a  record  of  a  manufacturing 
town,  but  I  should  infer  that  the  conditions  of  Buxton,  one  of  the 
stations,  might  correspond  to  Oldham,  Preston,  etc.  Buxton  is, 
as  you  know,  an  inland  health-resort  on  the  peaks  of  Derbyshire, 
not  far  from  Manchester,  about  a  thousand  feet  above  the  sea- 
level,  not  much  higher  than  Oldham,  and  facing  the  Gulf  Stream. 
The  mean  temperature  of  the  year  at  9  a.  m.  is  44*15° ;  9  p.  m., 
42*5° ;  extreme  temperature,  1888,  79"2° ;  mean  relative  humidity 
at  9  a.  M.,  90  per  cent ;  9  p.  M.,  92  per  cent ;  highest  point,  95  per 
cent;  lowest,  80  per  cent;  variation,  15  per  cent.  No  wonder  it 
rains  easily  where  the  atmosphere  is  within  less  than  10  per  cent 
of  the  saturation  point  almost  all  the  time. 

Since  dictating  the  foregoing  statement,  Mr.  Clayton,  of  the 
Blue  Hill  Observatory,  has  kindly  computed  the  mean  relative 
humidity  of  the  atmosphere  at  Greenwich,  England,  from  data 
within  his  possession,  for  the  years  1884,  1885,  and  1886.  The 
mean  of  the  hours  7  a.  m.  and  3  P.  m.  is  87  per  cent ;  the  extreme 
variation,  from  95  per  cent  of  humidity  at  7  a.  m.,  October,  1886,  to 
49  at  3  p.  m.,  August,  1884.  As  I  have  before  stated,  the  changes 
at  Greenwich  are  very  much  greater  than  they  are  in  Lancashire. 
I  hope  to  procure  figures  for  Lancashire,  which  I  have  sent  for, 
before  this  report  is  published. 

I  have  thus  given  some  of  the  apparent  advantages  of  New 
England  over  the  South.  I  will  now  present  some  of  the  advan- 
tages of  the  Piedmont  plateau,  of  the  foot-hills,  and  of  the  upland 
country  of  the  South,  for  the  manufacture  of  coarse  fabrics,  even 
though  the  extreme  of  heat  in  the  summer  months  is  less  condu- 
cive to  continuous  work  throughout  the  year  than  the  extreme  of 
cold  of  our  winter  climate,  and  even  though  the  humidity,  both 
absolute  and  relative,  of  that  section  of  our  country  is  very  much 
more  variable  than  upon  the  south  shore  of  New  England. 

While  pointing  out  the  advantage  upon  coarse  numbers,  I 
also  call  your  attention  to  the  indications  that  the  demand  of  this 
country  for  coarse  and  unbleached  fabrics  is  relatively  diminish- 
ing while  the  consumption  of  the  finer  bleached  and  printed 
fabrics  is  relatively  increasing.  As  soon  as  people  can  afford  to 
wear  a  "  b'iled  "  shirt  rather  than  a  gray  cotton,  or  a  fancy  satine 


316  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

rather  than  a  common  print,  they  will  have  them  and  they  can 
now  well  afford  to  pay  for  them. 

I  was  under  the  impression  until  I  took  up  this  subject  that 
the  North  had  a  positive  advantage  in  pure  water  for  bleaching 
and  finishing,  for  the  reason  that  all  the  rivers  south  of  the  lower 
margin  of  the  glacial  drift,  which  ended  at  the  mouth  of  the  Del- 
aware River,  are  muddy  or  turbid  during  a  large  part  of  the  year, 
and  there  are  no  ponds  or  lakes  of  clear  water;  hardly  any  of  any 
kind  in  the  cotton  States.  My  correspondence  with  Mr.  John 
Hill  has  disposed  of  this  superficial  doubt  by  calling  my  atten- 
tion to  the  facility  with  which  very  pure  and  very  soft  water  may 
be  derived  either  from  abundant  springs  or  from  artesian  wells. 
There  is  no  point  to  be  made  against  the  South  on  bleaching  and 
coloring. 

Again,  so  long  as  the  supply  of  native  operatives  suffices,  there 
may  be  a  great  field  hardly  yet  occupied,  in  the  production  of 
coarse  rather  than  of  fine  cotton  fabrics,  without  trenching  or 
taking  away  from  us  any  part  of  the  work  which  we  can  do 
in  the  best  way.  I  think  our  Southern  friends  may  develop  a 
very  important  branch  of  textile  industry  in  spinning  and  weav- 
ing below  No.  20. 

It  will  be  observed  that  this  whole  problem  turns  upon  an  aver- 
age advantage  claimed  by  the  South  over  the  North  of  about  one 
cent  a  pound  in  the  price  of  cotton.  This  present  advantage, 
whatever  it  may  be,  will  be  reduced  whenever  the  volume  of 
Southern  railway  traffic  becomes  greater  and  freight  charges  are 
cut  down ;  but  it  may  always  be  a  considerable  point  on  heavy 
goods.  There  is  not,  however,  the  full  difference  of  the  freight 
between  the  North  and  the  South.  Very  few  mills  can  supply 
themselves  with  cotton,  even  in  the  South,  from  the  immediate 
neighborhood  ;  and,  when  cotton  must  be  baled  and  put  upon  cars 
for  transportation,  the  local  rates  are  apt  to  be  quite  heavy  for 
short  distances. 

The  advantages  claimed  by  the  South  on  account  of  the  longer 
hours  of  work  can  not  be  admitted.  In  the  first  place,  they 
will  soon  be  shortened,  either  from  choice  or  necessity ;  and,  in 
the  second  place,  I  doubt  if  any  very  skillful  manager  now  thinks 
that  high  speed  can  be  profitably  maintained  more  than  ten  hours 
a  day. 

Again,  it  is  claimed  that  wages  are  lower  in  the  South  than  in 
New  England.  This  is  true.  The  rate  of  wages  is  lower,  but  I 
doubt  if  the  cost  of  labor  is  any  lower,  if  as  low.  It  may  be  in  a 
very  few  of  the  best  managed  mills,  but  in  taking  the  census  of 
1880  I  made  a  very  careful  computation  of  the  proportion  of  hands 
to  spindles  and  looms,  and  after  making  every  allowance  for  dif- 
ference in  yarn,  in  number,  and  in  quality  of  mills,  I  found  that 


THE  FUTURE   OF   OUR    COTTON  MANUFACTURE.  3i7 

there  were  substantially  two  hands  employed  in  the  South  against 
one  in  New  England,  and  this  computation  has  been  sustained  by 
my  observation  in  such  mills  as  I  have  visited. 

Now,  it  is  well  known  that  the  more  hands  the  more  waste,  the 
more  want  of  discipline,  the  more  lack  of  good  work.  In  a  recent 
report  on  Russian  spinning  by  our  friend  Mr.  Dobson,  who  spoke 
to  us  on  carding-engines,  he  reaches  identically  the  same  con- 
clusion in  comparing  Russia  with  Great  Britain. 

Doubtless  there  has  been  great  improvement  in  Southern 
methods  since  1880;  with  increased  efficiency,  the  number  of  hands 
decreases  ;  but  the  wages  or  earnings  rise,  and  will  continue  to  do 
so,  until  they  become  equal  to  what  we  pay. 

I  am,  therefore,  confident  that  we  may  hold  a  long  lead,  and 
that  we  need  not  yet  borrow  trouble  from  any  competition  in 
Southern  factories  after  they  have  learned  to  keep  their  deprecia- 
tion account,  and  after  they  cease  to  run  the  risk  of  bankruptcy 
by  working  their  machinery  into  their  fabrics  without  charging 
it  off. 

I  might  here  rest  my  case ;  but  I  will  venture  to  give  a  few 
more  facts  bearing  upon  this  subject. 

There  is  one  development  of  science  which  may  render  the  cot- 
ton-factory entirely  independent  of  climatic  conditions.  One  of 
the  visionary  theories  which  I  presented  many  years  ago  has 
not  yet  been  put  into  practice  in  any  great  measure.  I  sug- 
gested preparing  the  atmosphere  which  is  to  be  used  as  an  in- 
strument for  taking  away  the  moisture  from  the  slashers  by 
carrying  it  into  the  sizing-room  through  a  chamber  filled  with 
ice.  Since  that  date  there  has  been  immense  progress  in  the  art 
of  freezing.  Frozen  carcasses  of  mutton  are  now  carried  from 
Australia  to  England.  When  the  trade  was  first  established,  the 
owners  of  the  Victoria  Docks  in  London  prepared  chambers  which 
were  cooled  by  ammonia  machines  sufficient  to  hold  3,200  car- 
casses. There  were  four  chambers  of  12,000  cubic  feet  each,  sup- 
plied by  a  ten  horse-power  engine,  delivering  10,000  cubic  feet  of 
air  below  the  freezing-point  per  hour.  There  are  now  on  the 
Royal  Victoria  Docks  sixty  chambers  of  240,000  cubic  feet  ca- 
pacity, supplied  with  370,000  cubic  feet  of  air  below  the  freezing- 
point  each  hour,  by  a  three  hundred  and  twenty  horse-power 
engine.  These  chambers  will  hold  80,000  carcasses  of  mutton  at 
one  time. 

I  lately  put  a  very  commonplace  question  to  the  F.  W.  Wolf 
Company,  of  Chicago,  manufacturers  of  freezing  machinery.  I 
asked  them,  as  if  it  were  an  every-day  ordinary  matter  of  busi- 
ness, at  what  price  they  would  put  down  an  ammonia  plant  suit- 
able for  maintaining  the  temperature  of  a  cotton-mill  three  hun- 
dred feet  long,  one  hundred  feet  wide,  twelve-foot  post,  four  stories 


3i8  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

high,  at  a  uniform  degree  of  70°  Fahr.  throughout  the  summer. 
To  which  they  replied  : 

"  Yours  of  the  9th  instant  is  at  hand.  We  can  furnish  you 
one  of  our  No.  5  Linde  refrigerating  machines,  having  a  capacity 
equal  to  the  melting  of  twenty-five  tons  of  ice  in  twenty-four 
hours"  (this  is  the  standard  of  the  effectiveness  of  this  ma- 
chinery). 

"  With  this  machine  the  temperature  of  a  spinning-mill  of  the 
size  given  may  easily  be  kept  at  70°  Fahr.  We  will  furnish  the 
whole  plant,  including  the  necessary  cold-air  pipes,  ventilators, 
etc.,  for  the  sum  of  fifteen  thousand  dollars." 

I  have  written  to  them  to  know  what  would  be  the  cost  of 
operating  this  machine. 

Cotton  manufacturers  may  yet  be  obliged  to  convert  their 
mills  into  sanitariums,  to  which  they  may  attract,  not  perhaps  the 
most  attractive  women  of  the  land,  but  those  most  capable  of  be- 
ing attracted  by  attractive  conditions  of  work,  by  offering  them 
the  most  equable  and  pleasant  temperature,  most  conducive  to 
health,  which  they  can  find  in  any  occupation  open  to  them. 
This  will  only  be  in  the  line  of  all  the  other  improvements  which 
have  been  made  in  mill  operation. 

All  progress  consists  in  alleviating  the  noxious  and  arduous 
conditions  of  labor,  in  enabling  the  workmen  to  increase  the  prod- 
uct with  lessening  effort,  in  shortening  the  hours  of  labor,  in  rais- 
ing the  rate  of  wages,  and  in  reducing  the  cost  of  production.  In 
this  line  of  progress  there  is  room  and  to  spare  for  us  all.  We  of 
the  North  may  retain  what  we  possess  and  we  may  continue  to 
gain  in  the  finer  branches  of  the  textile  arts.  At  the  same  time 
we  may  welcome  our  Southern  friends  in  their  effort  to  supply 
themselves  and  to  share  the  wider  markets  of  the  world,  which 
may  soon  be  open  to  us  by  the  removal  of  the  duties  on  the  crude 
or  partly  manufactured  materials  which  are  necessary  in  the  con- 
struction of  our  factories  and  in  the  processes  of  our  industry. 

I  am  conscious  that  I  have  covered  too  much  ground.  My  time 
does  not  suffice  for  condensing  what  I  have  to  say.  I  have  given 
my  manufacturing  friends  an  optimistic  view  of  the  future  of 
cotton-spinning  in  this  country.  Bear  in  mind  that  for  any  im- 
mediate application  these  figures  are  all  rubbish.  There  is  at  the 
moment  an  overstock  of  Southern  goods,  and  apparently  an  over- 
supply  of  heavy  goods  and  of  colored  goods  in  the  North  as  well. 
Therefore,  unless  they  act  upon  old  Billy  Gray's  principle  of  mov- 
ing against  the  evidence,  and  operating  always  when  appearances 
are  most  adverse,  they  will  conclude  that,  although  we  may  re- 
quire five  million  spindles  in  the  next  ten  years,  the  man  who 
puts  in  a  foundation  next  year  may  make  a  great  blunder. 

I  have  ventured  to  suggest  to  the  promoters  of  the  Exhibition 


PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  AND    CRIME.  319 

of  1892  that  a  considerable  part  of  that  undertaking  shall  be  de- 
voted to  object-lessons  in  the  development  of  the  arts  of  life,  tak- 
ing as  my  example  spinning  and  weaving.  The  distaff,  used  as  it 
was  in  the  days  of  Homer,  may  still  be  found  in  use  in  northern 
Italy.  The  hand  loom  and  the  spinning-wheel  of  prehistoric  type 
are  presented  in  these  pictures  from  China.  Other  methods 
of  spinning,  and  other  wholly  different  forms  of  hand  loom  car- 
ried in  the  hand  for  weaving  narrow  stripes,  may  be  brought  from 
central  Africa,  and  so  the  whole  history  of  the  textile  arts  may  be 
gathered  in  one  place,  either  by  obtaining  examples  from  different 
parts  of  the  world,  or  any  one  may  study  the  whole  development 
of  the  cotton  manufacture  if,  before  it  is  too  late,  he  will  visit  the 
heart  of  the  eastern  Kentucky  mountains,  and  from  there  journey 
by  way  of  the  neighborhood  mills  of  the  South  to  the  great  fac- 
tories of  the  North. 


PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  AS  AFFECTING  CRIME  AND  VICE. 

By  BENJAMIN  EEECE. 

THE  political  and  material  progress  of  the  nineteenth  century 
have  been  truly  wonderful.  The  past  year  was  memorable 
as  the  anniversary  of  the  inauguration  of  the  first  President  of 
this  great  republic,  and  what  a  record  of  bewildering  changes  do 
those  hundred  years  unfold !  Thirteen  States  have  been  increased 
to  forty-two,  and  the  center  of  population  has  moved  back  from 
the  seaboard  to  a  point  nearly  a  thousand  miles  in  the  interior. 
The  lakes  of  the  North  have  given  birth  to  gigantic  commercial 
marts,  which  rival  in  trade,  wealth,  and  culture  those  seats  of  an- 
cient pomp,  and  empires  and  cities  of  mediaeval  grandeur,  which 
flourished  on  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean. 

The  affairs  of  the  remotest  portions  of  this  immense  domain, 
together  with  the  world's  more  notable  events,  are  regularly  re- 
corded in  the  daily  press  and  read  the  morning  following  at  the 
breakfast  table.  The  traveler  boards  the  train  at  New  York, 
having  telegraphed  his  friend  in  Chicago  to  meet  him  at  the 
station  twenty-four  hours  later,  giving  the  exact  minute  of  his 
arrival  at  a  place  a  thousand  miles  distant  from  his  starting- 
point.  A  change  of  cars  is  made  for  San  Francisco,  and  after 
riding  over  hundreds  of  miles  of  fertile  prairie  covered  with 
growing  crops,  crossing  wide  rivers  spanned  by  bridges  which 
fifty  years  ago  were  deemed  impossible,  across  boundless  plains 
where  countless  herds  of  cattle  and  flocks  of  sheep  are  fed,  and 
passing  through  vast  mountain  ranges  pierced  by  tunneled  pas- 
sage-ways, the  traveler  reaches  his  destination  upon  the  shores  of 


32o  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

the  Pacific  Ocean  the  very  minute  of  the  day  announced  to  him  by 
the  ticket  agent  in  New  York. 

If  we  turn  our  thoughts  seaward  the  development  is  no  less 
remarkable ;  for  the  long,  dangerous,  and  uncertain  voyages  once 
made  by  sail  to  Europe  are  now  conducted  with  almost  equal 
regularity  and  safety,  and  the  mammoth  steamers  of  the  Clyde 
accomplish  in  days  the  trips  which  formerly  took  months  to  per- 
form, and,  within  an  hour  of  the  safe  landing  of  the  passengers, 
the  electric  telegraph  through  the  media  of  lines  and  ocean  cables 
discloses  to  friends  at  home  the  news  of  their  safe  arrival.  In  the 
political  world  the  progress  of  the  century  has  not  been  less 
marked.  England,  which  during  the  reign  of  George  III  so  per- 
sisted in  tyrannical  measures  of  taxation  as  to  push  its  American 
colonies  into  a  successful  struggle  for  freedom,  has  extended  the 
utmost  liberty  of  action  to  its  remaining  American  dependencies 
and  Australian  colonies ;  so,  when  Britain  was  threatened  with 
hostilities  in  the  East,  she  moved  to  the  scene  of  action  the  dusky 
warriors  of  her  Indian  empire,  while  the  impetuous  youth  of  her 
distant  colonies  volunteered  to  do  her  service  on  the  desert  sands 
of  Africa  or  in  the  mountain  fastnesses  of  Asiatic  Russia.  "Within 
a  generation  has  been  witnessed  the  voluntary  liberation  of  the 
serfs  of  Russia,  the  slaves  of  Cuba  and  South  America,  and  in  our 
own  country  chattel  slavery  was  forever  extinguished  by  the 
sword. 

The  growth  of  liberal  ideas  and  the  love  of  liberty  have  been 
very  marked.  Hungary  has  been  granted  the  right  to  legislate 
upon  its  own  affairs ;  a  republic  has  been  established  in  France, 
and  in  spite  of  dire  forebodings  and  prophecies  of  evil  it  has  with- 
stood every  shock  and  weathered  every  storm ;  while  the  greatest 
of  English  parliamentary  leaders,  in  his  declining  years  exhibit- 
ing all  the  ardor  of  youth,  combined  with  the  vigor  of  robust 
manhood  and  the  matured  wisdom  of  old  age,  has  brought  his 
fellow  countrymen  to  a  recognition  of  Ireland's  wrongs,  and  is 
moving  the  English  masses  to  extend  the  principles  of  Anglo- 
Saxon  liberty  and  home  rule  to  Ireland,  which  for  centuries  has 
been  inthralled.  But  volumes  would  be  required  for  the  mere 
enumeration  of  the  growth  and  development  which  have  come 
with  extended  knowledge  and  the  more  general  schooling  of  the 
people.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  statesmen  unstintingly  provide  for 
the  wants  of  our  public  schools ;  that  divines  dwell  with  rapture 
upon  the  blessings  they  have  brought  us ;  that  political  orators 
eulogize  them  as  the  foundation  of  our  prosperity  and  the  main- 
stays of  our  liberties ;  that  agitators  vehemently  demand  an  ex- 
tension of  their  benefits ;  or  that  the  people  feel  an  honest  and 
unquestioning  pride  in  this  governmental  institution  of  their  own 
creation,  which  has  promoted  religious  tolerance,  extended  the 


PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  AND    CRIME. 


321 


bounds  of  political  liberty,  enhanced  the  nation's  wealth,  and  con- 
tributed so  largely  to  its  power  ? 

It,  however,  is  further  claimed,  and  almost  universally  allowed, 
that  the  instruction  of  our  public  schools  serves  to  ennoble  the 
emotions  and  to  moderate  the  passions,  to  regenerate  the  viciously 
inclined,  and  to  correct  and  subdue  the  tendency  to  crime.  De- 
voutly as  such  a  result  is  to  be  desired,  the  facts  unhappily  flatly 
contradict  the  theory,  and  unless  the  glaring  inconsistencies  are 
reconciled,  and  contravening  evidence  is  satisfactorily  explained, 
the  claim  must  be  abandoned  as  unfounded. 

At  a  session  of  the  National  Prison  Congress,  held  in  Boston 
during  1888,  Mr.  Brooker,  chairman  of  the  Board  of  Directors  of 
the  South  Carolina  Penitentiary,  having  made  the  statement  that 
of  a  thousand  convicts  in  the  State  not  more  than  fifty  were 
whites,  it  was  asked  by  a  delegate,  "  What  is  the  condition  of  the 
education  of  the  colored  people  ?  "  To  this  question  Mr.  Brooker 
made  the  following  reply :  "  Before  emancipation,  the  colored  peo- 
ple had  no  opportunity  for  education.  When  made  suddenly 
free,  all  negroes  were  illiterate  and  ignorant.  Since  that  time  a 
young  generation  has  grown  up,  and  of  them  a  very  considerable 
number  are  well  educated.  But  it  is  a  fearful  fact  that  a  large 
proportion  of  our  prison  population  is  of  tlie  educated  class. 
This  is  so  much  the  case  that  the  idea  has  become  prevalent  that 
to  educate  the  negro  is  to  make  him  a  rascal.  But  this  idea  is  of 
course  superficial,  and  does  not  find  lodgment  in  the  minds  of 
thoughtful  men.  I  am  totally  averse  to  it  myself,  and  think  that 
all  reasonable  means  should  be  exerted  toward  their  enlighten- 
ment and  education."  ("  Proceedings  of  the  National  Prison  Asso- 
ciation/' 1888,  p.  72.) 

The  constructing  engineer  is  to  our  industrial,  commercial,  and 
mechanical  development  all  that  the  statesman  and  student  of 
sociology  is  to  our  moral,  social,  and  political  progress.  If  in  a 
convention  of  engineers  a  verified  report  had  been  made  that 
bridges  of  accepted  form  were  showing  visible  signs  of  weakness, 
the  report  would  have  been  listened  to  with  the  greatest  con- 
sternation and  dismay.  The  convention  would  have  instituted 
the  closest  inquiry  and  most  searching  examinations;  it  would 
have  stopped  the  construction  of  such  bridges  until  the  causes  of 
failure  had  been  determined  and  the  remedy  ascertained,  and 
failing  in  this  the  construction  of  such  bridges  would  have  been 
permanently  abandoned  and  more  perfect  structures  substituted. 

But  here  was  the  most  astounding  fact  that  in  South  Carolina, 
which  in  1880  had  more  than  half  its  population  returned  as 
illiterate,  the  educated  negroes  furnished  a  large  proportion  of 
its  criminals,  pressed  upon  a  representative  body  of  philanthro- 
pists, publicists,  and  statesmen,  and  it  did  not  so  much  as  provoke 


322  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

a  comment,  while  the  author  of  the  statement  boldly  affirmed  his 
unshaken  faith  in  a  theory  the  facts  of  which  he  had  himself 
impugned.  What  deference  should  we  pay  to  thought  unless 
based  upon  correct  observations,  and  of  what  utility  are  facts  and 
experiences  unless  their  teachings  are  heeded  and  their  meaning 
properly  interpreted  ? 

In  his  "Political  Science"  Woolsey  tells  us  that  "the  fall  of 
the  Roman  Empire  was  an  effect  of  a  moral  ruin."  Yet  all  will 
admit  that  Rome  and  the  other  civilizations  of  antiquity  were 
richer  and  more  learned  in  the  time  of  their  decay  than  during 
the  period  of  their  infancy  and  growth ;  but  the  moral  correlative 
being  wanting,  they  tottered  to  their  fall. 

Just  look  at  the  records  of  our  mentally  and  morally  deranged 
as  exhibited  in  our  statistics  of  insanity  and  crime  and  vice,  and 
they  alone  are  enough  to  cast  doubt  upon  the  claim  that  a  public- 
school  education  for  our  illiterates  is  sufficient  to  insure  a  decrease 
of  mental  and  moral  delinquency.  For  it  remains  to  be  explained 
why,  in  the  decade  ending  with  1880,  population  having  increased 
thirty  per  cent  and  illiteracy  only  ten  per  cent,  a  relative  decrease ; 
that  the  number  of  criminals  during  the  same  period  present  the 
alarming  increase  of  eighty-two  per  cent,  while  of  insane  persons 
there  appears  the  enormous  addition  of  one  hundred  and  forty- 
five  *  per  cent  ? 

Can  it  be  possible  that  with  greater  educational  facilities  there 
is  to  be  increased  crime,  and  that  every  enlargement  in  the  seat- 
ing capacity  of  our  schools  is  to  be  followed  by  a  larger  corre- 
sponding demand  for  insane  accommodations,  and  additional 
felons'  cells  ?  Perish  the  thought !  Yet  if  the  instruction  of  our 
common  schools  subdues  the  tendency  to  crime,  why  is  it  that  the 
ratio  of  prisoners,!  being  one  in  3,442  inhabitants  in  1850,  rose 
to  one  in  every  1,647  in  1860,  one  in  1,021  in  1870,  and  one  in  837 
in  1880 ;  while,  upon  the  authority  of  the  Rev.  S.  W.  Dicke,  the 
amount  of  liquor  consumed  per  capita  was  three  times  as  great 
in  1883  as  in  1840  ? 

One  naturally  looks  to  the  large  and  constant  influx  of  foreign 
immigrants  as  a  partial  explanation  of  this  growing  dispropor- 
tionate increase  of  crime ;  but  the  facts  deny  the  hope,  for  the 
great  increase  is  to  be  found  among  the  native-born.  The  Rev. 
F.  H.  Wines,  who  conducted  this  branch  of  the  "  Tenth  Census 
Report,"  says  that,  while  in  1850  the  ratio  of  foreign  criminals  to 
population  was  five  times  that  of  the  native-born,  in  1880  the 

*  It  is  but  fair  to  state  that  this  enormous  increase  of  insanity  has  led  the  compiler  to 
question  the  accuracy  of  the  returns  of  insane  persons  made  in  1870,  yet  it  is  admitted 
that,  after  making  every  allowance,  the  ratio  of  increase  is  out  of  all  proportion  to  that 
of  population.     (See  page  1660,  "Compendium  of  the  Tenth  Census.") 

\  "Proceedings  of  the  National  Prison  Congress,"  1886,  p.  134. 


PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  AND    CRIME.  323 

ratio  was  only  two  to  one ;  and  if  we  deduct  the  commitments  for 
disorder  and  immorality,  the  ratio  of  foreign  criminals  is  but  little 
in  excess  of  that  for  native  whites.  So  clearly  is  this  indicated 
by  facts  and  figures,  that  Mr.  Wines  arrives  at  the  conclusion 
that  "  the  foreign  disregard  for  law  shows  itself  far  more  in  im- 
morality and  disorder  than  in  dishonesty  and  violence."  * 

An  examination  of  the  "  Compendium  of  the  Tenth  Census " 
of  the  United  States  discloses  some  novel  and  threatening  facts. 
The  illiterates  of  the  United  States  comprise  seventeen  per  cent 
of  the  total  population.  The  morally  and  mentally  deranged,  as 
shown  by  the  number  of  criminal  and  insane  persons,  bear  the 
ratio  of  one  to  every  332  inhabitants.  The  general  average  of 
illiteracy  is  exceeded  by  every  one  of  the  original  slave  States 
with  the  exception  of  Missouri,  but  the  average  ratio  of  the  men- 
tally and  morally  unsound  is  only  reached  in  the  State  of  Mary- 
land. South  Carolina,  which  shows  the  highest  percentage  of 
illiterates,  viz.,  55^  per  cent,  presents  the  lowest  average  of  any 
State  in  the  Union  as  regards  insanity  and  crime,  having  but  one 
delinquent  in  every  568  inhabitants  as  compared  with  one  in  every 
167  in  California,  one  in  205  in  Massachusetts,  and  one  in  every 
222  in  the  State  of  New  York.  With  the  single  exception  of  the 
State  of  Maine,  every  Northern  State  east  of  Indiana  has  a  larger 
ratio  of  insane  and  criminals  than  the  average  for  the  Union, 
while  the  States  west  of  Ohio,  those  on  the  Pacific  slope  excepted, 
fall  below  the  general  average. 

If  we  measure  the  extent  of  unrecorded  vice  by  the  proportion 
of  saloons  to  population,  the  showing  is  no  less  remarkable.  The 
"  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Internal  Revenue  for  the  Year 
1887,"  page  xxxiii,  shows  that,  for  the  entire  country  during  that 
year,  a  retail  license  for  selling  liquor  was  granted  for  every  329 
inhabitants.  Of  the  fifteen  States  showing  more  than  the  average 
number  of  illiterates  that  ratio  was  only  exceeded  in  the  State  of 
Louisiana;  while  the  lowest  average  in  the  country  was  to  be 
found  in  Mississippi,  which,  with  49155-  per  cent  of  its  inhabitants 
returned  in  1880  as  being  illiterate,  supported  but  one  saloon  for 
every  1,695  persons.  Even  the  prohibition  States  of  Maine  and 
Kansas  secured  licenses  for  the  sale  of  intoxicants  at  retail  to  an 
extent  only  equaled  by  four  of  the  fifteen  super-illiterate  States. 
The  proportion  of  saloons  to  population  throughout  the  fifteen 
super-illiterate  States  is  one  for  every  700  inhabitants,  while  of 
the  other  States  California  heads  the  list  with  one  to  every  99 
persons,  New  Jersey  coming  next  with  one  license  to  every  171 
inhabitants,  followed  closely  by  New  York  with  one  to  every  179. 

The  table  which  follows  presents  some  disquieting  facts,  which 

*  "Proceedings  of  the  National  Prison  Association,"  1888,  p.  255. 


324 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


should  serve  as  a  salutary  warning  to  those  who  expect  to  find  in 
mental  stimulation  an  equivalent  for  moral  growth  and  culture : 

Compiled  from  Compendium  of  Tenth  Census,  and  other  official  sources. 


Illiterates  ten 

years  of  age 

and  over. 

Assessed 
valuation 
per  capita. 

Ratio  of 

insane  and 

criminal. 

Eatio  of 

saloons  to 

population.^ 

1880.t 

1880.t 

1880.t 

1887.     . 

Fifteen  illiterate  States* 

Northern  States  west  of  Ohio  . 
Northern  States  east  of  Indiana. 

Percentage. 
40-Ar 

7 

Ho- 

Amt.  per  capita. 
$145 
297 
551 

1  in  402 
1  in  379 
1  in  265 

1  in  700 
1  in  308 
1  in  227 

Average 

17 

$340 

1  in  332 

1  in  329 

The  table  unmistakably  shows  a  greater  per  capita  of  wealth 
where  the  fewest  illiterates  are  enumerated,  but  it  no  less  clearly 
shows  that  this  augmentation  of  riches  has  been  accompanied  by 
increased  insanity  and  crime  and  more  wide-spread  vice. 

But  we  need  not  confine  ourselves  to  the  general  statistics  of 
the  United  States,  for  the  records  of  New  York  present  similar 
conditions,  which  can  be  analyzed  more  in  detail.  The  "  Annual 
Report  of  the  Superintendent  of  the  New  York  State  Prisons, 
1886,"  records  that  the  prisons  of  Auburn  and  Sing  Sing  contained 
2,610  convicts;  of  these,  1,801  are  credited  with  a  common-school 
education,  373  are  classed  as  being  able  to  read  and  write,  19  are 
returned  as  collegiates,  10  as  having  received  classical  and  78 
academic  educations,  97  as  being  able  to  read  only,  and  238  as 
having  no  education.  Is  it  not  contrary  to  our  most  confident 
predictions  and  undoubted  expectations  that  the  common  schools 
should  furnish  eighty-three  per  cent  and  the  colleges  and  acade- 
mies over  four  per  cent  of  the  inmates  of  Auburn  and  Sing  Sing  ?  # 

When  it  is  remembered  that  the  detected  illiterate  generally 
finds  his  way  to  prison,  while  the  highly  educated  or  well-to-do 
are  frequently  saved  by  friends,  who  compound  the  felony  to 
escape  exposure  and  consequent  family  disgrace ;  that  many  are 
saved  from  conviction  by  the  ability  of  counsel  whose  services 
are  far  beyond  the  means  of  the  illiterate  poor,  while  still  many 
others  escape  into  voluntary  exile  to  avoid  imprisonment,  it  will 
be  seen  that  even  the  figures  given  inadequately  portray  the  ex- 
tent of  crime  which,  in  strict  justice,  is  properly  chargeable  to  the 
educated  classes.     Of  the  prisoners  of  Auburn  and  Sing  Sing  it 

*  Includes  all  States  having  a  percentage  of  illiteracy  above  seventeen  per  cent,  the  av- 
erage for  the  entire  country. 

f  Computed  from  tables  in  Compendium  of  the  Tenth  Census. 

%  Retail  licenses  issued  by  United  States  in  1887,  taken  from  Report  of  Internal  Rev- 
enue Commissioner.     Population  for  1887  from  "World  Almanac,"  1888. 

*  The  report  for  Clinton  Prison  simply  classified  the  prisoners  received  during  the  year, 
and  it  could  not  be  included  with  Auburn  and  Sing  Sing,  which  classify  all  inmates. 


PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  AND    CRIME.  325 

is  further  noted  that  twenty  per  cent  were  total  abstainers  from 
intoxicants,  showing  very  clearly  that  a  perfect  mastery  of  self  is 
by  no  means  necessarily  allied  with  an  honest  regard  for  the 
rights  and  property  of  others. 

But  if  the  education  of  the  masses  is  accompanied  by  no  dimi- 
nution of  vice,  crime,  and  insanity,  what  shall  we  say  of  the  effect 
illiteracy  may  have  upon  our  institutions  by  the  abuse  or  misuse 
of  the  suffrage  ?  The  following  extract  from  the  address  of  the 
Rev.  J.  C.  Hartzall,  delivered  before  the  National  Education  As- 
sembly at  Ocean  Grove,  in  August,  1885,  which,  with  other  ex- 
tracts, is  incorporated  in  the  speech  of  Senator  Blair  on  his  Edu- 
cational Bill,  delivered  in  the  Senate,  February  8,  188G,  presents  a 
fair  example  of  the  rather  extravagant  statements  often  made  by 
publicists  and  statesmen  concerning  the  dangers  attending  the  ex- 
ercise of  the  elective  franchise  by  illiterate  voters.  The  reverend 
doctor  thus  appealed  to  the  Assembly :  "  I  simply  call  your  atten- 
tion to  what  may  be  the  injurious  effect  of  their  (illiterates)  silent 
action  at  the  polls.  The  members  of  our  respective  political  par- 
ties believe  in  the  Tightness  of  their  principles,  and  seek  to  make 
their  appeal  to  the  reason  and  the  consciences  of  the  people  ;  but 
the  figures  disclose  the  alarming  fact  that  in  eleven  States  these 
illiterate  voters  outnumber  the  votes  cast  in  the  last  presidential 
(1884)  election  by  either  of  the  political  parties.  Thus,  should 
they  unite  under  any  strong,  impassioned,  successful  leader,  they 
would  have  absolute  control  of  legislation  and  offices  in  those 
States,  and  of  the  election  of  twenty-two  members  of  the  United 
States  Senate." 

Only  a  moment's  thought  is  necessary  to  expose  the  folly  of 
such  ill-founded  fears,  for  the  suggested  peril  is  contravened  by 
the  very  conditions  set  forth  as  dangerous,  as  the  inability  to  read 
and  write  affords  a  complete  and  absolute  bar  against  the  possi- 
bility of  such  concerted  action ;  for  what  means  of  communication 
are  to  be  employed  to  unite,  for  a  single  purpose,  the  illiterates  of 
eleven  States,  who  can  neither  read  letters,  circulars,  documents, 
nor  newspapers,  and,  still  further,  are  unable  to  write  answers  in 
return  ?  It  requires  the  most  perfect  organization,  careful  can- 
vass, and  the  expenditure  of  vast  sums  of  money,  to  bring  out  a 
full  vote  where  conditions  are  the  most  favorable  for  it,  in  the 
enlightened  and  thickly  settled  portions  of  the  Union,  and  only 
where  States  are  very  evenly  divided  is  the  organization  so  per- 
fected, at  great  cost,  as  to  make  a  full  vote  possible. 

But  the  election  returns  themselves  are  sufficient  to  prove  that 
the  voters  in  the  illiterate  States  adhere  more  closely  to  the  two 
great  parties  which  are  said  to  "  appeal  to  the  reason  and  con- 
sciences of  men  "  than  do  the  voters  of  the  States  affording  the 
best  facilities  for  the  education  of  the  masses ;  and  in  the  election 


326  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

referred  to  in  the  address,  the  fifteen  super-illiterate  States  com- 
bined cast  but  twenty-five  per  cent  of  the  Greenback  vote  polled 
by  the  single  State  of  Michigan,  while  in  the  late  presidential 
election  the  same  fifteen  States  cast  but  ten  per  cent  more  Labor- 
Union  votes  than  were  cast  in  the  State  of  Kansas  alone,  and 
nine  of  the  super-illiterate  States  fail  to  record  the  polling  of  a 
Union-Labor  vote. 

Far  from  mental  stimulation  being  essential  to  moral  devel- 
opment, the  most  perfect  order  and  deepest  sense  of  justice  are 
often  found  associated  with  the  densest  ignorance  among  the  low- 
est races  of  humanity.  Turn  your  attention  to  the  Papuan-Isl- 
anders,* the  Veddahs,f  the  Dyaks  of  Borneo,!  the  Fuegians,*  and 
other  barbarous  races  which,  in  the  absence  of  rulers  or  organ- 
ized societies,  with  no  learning  and  but  little  acquaintance  with 
even  the  rude  arts  of  many  primitive  people,  have  developed  the 
highest  degree  of  tribal  piety,  integrity,  chastity,  and  regard  for 
covenants  almost  unknown  to  civilized  man.  The  testimony  of 
early  travelers  proves  conclusively  that  intense  poverty  and  deep 
ignorance  are  by  no  means  incompatible  with  honesty,  integrity, 
and  virtue. 

The  table  shows  that  where  the  extremes  of  poverty  and 
wealth  prevail,  as  in  the  Eastern  States,  there  is  found  a  maxi- 
mum of  moral  and  mental  derangement,  as  exhibited  in  insanity, 
crime,  and  vice.  Where  wealth  is  more  evenly  distributed,  as  in 
the  "Western  States,  there  are  noted  less  insanity  and  crime,  but 
almost  as  high  a  ratio  of  saloons  as  in  the  East.  In  the  Southern 
States,  although  having  a  low  per  capita  of  wealth,  yet  the  men- 
tal and  moral  forces  of  development  are  more  nearly  in  adjust- 

*  "  It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  these  simple  islanders,  without  hope  of  reward  or  fear  of 
future  punishment  after  death,  live  in  such  peace  and  brotherly  love  with  one  another,  and 
that  they  recognize  the  right  of  property  in  the  fullest  sense  of  the  word,  without  there 
being  any  authority  among  them  other  than  the  decision  of  their  elders,  according  to  the 
customs  of  their  forefathers,  which  are  held  in  the  highest  regard."  (Earl  Kolff's  "  Voyages 
of  the  Dogma,"  p.  161.) 

f  "  The  Rock  Veddahs  are  divided  into  small  clans,  or  families,  associated  for  relation- 
ship, who  agree,  partitioning  the  forests  among  themselves  for  hunting-grounds,  the  limits 
of  each  family's  possession  being  marked  by  streams,  hills,  rocks,  or  some  well-known 
trees,  and  these  conventional  allotments  are  always  honorably  recognized  and  mutually  pre- 
served from  violation.  Each  party  has  a  head  man,  the  most  energetic  senior  of  the  tribe, 
but  who  exercises  no  authority  except  distributing  at  a  particular  season  the  honey  capt- 
ured by  the  members  of  the  clan."     (Tennant,  ii,  p.  440.) 

%  "  The  Dyaks'  minds  are  as  healthy  as  their  bodies ;  theft,  brawling,  and  adultery  are 
unknown  to  them."     (Boyle's  "  Borneo,"  p.  335.) 

"The  Dyaks  are  manly,  hospitable,  honest,  kindly,  and  humane  to  a  degree  which  might 
well  shame  ourselves."     (Ibid,  p.  215.) 

*  "  Nothing  like  a  chief  could  be  made  out  among  the  Fuegians  of  Blunder  Cove,  nor 
did  they  seem  to  require  one  for  the  peace  of  their  society,  for  their  behavior  one  to 
another  was  most  affectionate,  and  all  property  seemed  to  be  possessed  in  common." 
(Weddell's  "Voyages  toward  the  South  Pole,"  p.  168.) 


PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  AND    CRIME.  327 

ment  with  the  material  environment ;  hence  the  average  of  crime 
and  vice  is  shown  by  the  table  to  be  relatively  low. 

The  Rev.  F.  H.  Wines,  statistician  and  philanthropist,  who  has 
made  questions  of  crime  and  criminals  the  study  of  a  lifetime,  was 
selected  by  the  authorities  at  Washington  to  compile  the  statistics 
bearing  on  delinquents  in  the  tenth  census ;  and  after  a  careful 
study  of  the  mass  of  figures  returned,  but  few  of  which  appear 
in  the  compendium,  he  makes  this  very  remarkable  statement  con- 
cerning the  facts  collected  and  enumerated :  "  If  a  comparison  is 
made  between  offenses  against  public  morals  and  against  public 
peace,  the  smallest  amount  of  disorder  and  the  largest  of  immo- 
rality, relatively,  are  found  among  the  native  whites,  the  most 
disorder  and  least  immorality  among  the  negroes;  and  the  for- 
eigners occupy  a  middle  ground  between  the  two."  ("  American 
Prisons  in  the  Tenth  Census,"  "  Proceedings  of  the  National  Pris- 
on Association  for  1888,"  p.  268.)  When  it  is  realized  that  the 
native  whites  represent  the  better  educated  portion  of  our  popu- 
lation, and  the  negroes  the  more  illiterate,  while  the  foreigners 
are  on  an  educational  scale  between  the  two,  the  significance  of 
the  statement  can  neither  be  gainsaid  nor  belittled. 

We  are,  then,  confronted  by  facts  which  reveal  a  condition 
of  decreasing  illiteracy  and  increasing  crime,  of  augmenting 
wealth  with  more  wide-spread  destitution.  While  inventors  and 
engineers  have  united  continents  by  steamship  lines  and  cables, 
States  by  telegraph  and  railway  lines,  and  cities  by  bridges, 
statesmen  have  vainly  sought  to  unite  the  interests  of  employers 
and  employe's,  of  railway  managers  and  shippers,  of  producers 
and  consumers ;  and  every  legislative  measure  intended  to  har- 
monize the  interests  of  these  conflicting  elements  has  given  rise  to 
greater  irritation  and  more  complicated  evils. 

Since  the  record  of  material  progress  and  mechanical  construc- 
tion has  been  one  of  unvarying  certainty  and  triumph,  while  leg- 
islation has  so  often  led  to  failure  in  the  investigation  of  this  edu- 
cational problem,  will  it  not  be  well  to  reject  the  hap-hazard 
devices  of  the  legislator,  and  confine  ourselves  to  the  scientific 
methods  so  successfully  employed  by  the  constructing  engineer 
and  mechanical  inventor  ?  Take,  for  illustration,  the  history  of 
Bessemer  steel  railway-bars.  The  introduction  and  use  of  these 
bars  for  our  railway -tracks  so  cheapened  the  cost  of  transporta- 
tion that  it  made  possible  the  development  of  the  far  Western 
States  and  Territories,  which  find  themselves  enabled  to  profitably 
market  produce  thousands  of  miles  away. 

Twenty  years  ago,  under  a  traffic  which  constituted  but  a 
small  fraction  of  the  mileage  which  the  same  roads  are  perform- 
ing to-day,  iron  rails  became  worn  down  and  laminated  with  such 
rapidity  that  the  cost  of  track  repairs  was  enormous,  and   it 


328  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

was  by  no  means  uncommon  for  iron  rails  to  be  removed  from 
the  track  worn  out  before  they  bad  been  subjected  to  a  single 
season's  wear.  About  that  time  the  Bessemer  steel  rail  was  in- 
troduced, and  its  hard,  homogeneous  metal  offered  great  resist- 
ance to  the  wear  and  abrasion  of  the  rolling  wheels.  But  a  new 
difficulty  appeared ;  for,  while  the  steel  rails  suffered  but  little 
from  wear,  they  developed  a  provoking  tendency  to  break  with- 
out giving  any  previous  warning,  which  served  to  increase  the 
danger  of  railroad  traveling.  Upon  the  discovery  of  this  evil, 
the  engineers  in  charge  neither  discarded  the  Bessemer  rails,  nor 
did  they  close  their  eyes  to  its  obvious  defects,  but,  in  imitation 
of  our  social  concerns,  they  kept  acurate  statistics  of  the  life  and 
breakage  of  the  rails,  and  finally  discovered  that,  in  the  effort  to 
resist  the  tendency  to  wear,  they  had  gone  so  far  as  to  make  the 
metal  brittle ;  hence  the  saving  to  wear  was  partly  lost  because  of 
the  failure  of  rails  by  breaking.  Less  carbon  was  put  into  the 
steel,  and  a  softer  metal  was  produced,  which,  while  vastly  supe- 
rior to  iron  as  against  lamination  and  abrasion,  was  sufficiently 
soft  to  avoid  the  breaking,  with  its  attendant  dangers. 

Do  not  the  facts  disclosed  by  our  social  statistics  cause  it  to 
appear  that,  in  the  adjustment  of  our  schools,  we  have  gone  too 
far  in  our  aim  for  material  advancement  and  development  of 
wealth,  and  that  we  are  correspondingly  losing  in  the  direction 
of  moral  growth  and  culture  ?  Let  us,  then,  imitate  the  prudence 
of  the  railway  engineer,  and,  though  seeking  to  retain  the  ad- 
vantages which  are  already  ours,  let  us  not  be  blind  to  the  visible 
defects  and  besetting  dangers  of  our  present  system.  Let  us  de- 
termine the  composition  of  the  training  of  our  public  schools; 
let  us  see  if  its  parts  are  well  proportioned  and  the  compound 
skillfully  wrought,  and  a  thorough  analysis  may  prove,  as  with 
the  Bessemer  steel  rail,  that,  by  a  judicious  change  in  the  nature 
or  proportion  of  the  ingredients,  our  rapid  increase  of  wealth 
may  suffer  a  trifling  diminution,  but  the  moral  balance  of  educa- 
tion will  be  restored,  and  material,  political,  and  moral  progress 
will  move  forward  together. 


Is  his  presidential  address  to  the  Royal  Geographical  Society,  President 
Strachey,  assuming  that  the  last  barrier  excluding  us  from  unknown  regions  would 
soon  he  broken  through,  named  the  establishment  of  the  supremacy  of  modern 
civilization  and  progress  over  Africa  as  the  next  geographical  problem.  That  con- 
tinent presents  wholly  different  conditions  from  any  other  land  that  has  been 
brought  under  civilization,  and  will  call  for  different  methods  of  management.  It 
can  not  be  directly  colonized,  as  were  North  America  and  Australia,  or  adminis- 
tered as  India  is ;  and  amalgamation  between  European  settlers  and  the  indigenous 
races  is  wholly  out  of  the  question.  The  operation  will  necessarily  be  a  long  and, 
in  some  respects,  a  painful  one. 


THE   TA0U1ST  RELIGION.  329 

THE  TAOUIST  RELIGION. 

By  WARREN  G.  BENTON. 

IN  an  attempt  to  unravel  the  mysteries  of  the  religions  of  the 
Chinese,  one  is  confused  at  the  outset  by  the  almost  obliter- 
ated lines  between  the  three  leading  forms  of  religion  existing 
side  by  side.  The  process  of  amalgamation  has  gone  on  for  so 
many  centuries  that  one  is  liable  to  be  misled  in  an  effort  to  ana- 
lyze the  different  creeds.  The  fact  is  that  Buddhism,  Taouism, 
and  Confucianism  have  existed  in  the  same  minds  until  a  belief 
in  the  distinctive  phases  of  each  has  become  quite  common.  And 
even  those  who  nominally  accept  the  Christian  religion,  either 
Catholic  or  Protestant,  really  add  the  new  to  the  old  faiths,  and 
believe  more  or  less  in  the  four  religions.  It  is  thus  true  that  in 
one  mind  may  be  found  a  belief  in  four  primarily  distinct  and 
separate  religions — each  having  added  its  quota  toward  a  result 
whose  aggregate  beliefs  are  derived  from  wholly  dissimilar 
sources ;  and  the  result  is,  as  might  be  looked  for,  a  unique  speci- 
men of  religionist. 

In  this  paper  I  shall  endeavor  to  indicate  the  particular  feat- 
ures of  Taouism. 

This  system  of  religion  is  pronounced  indigenous  to  China. 
Its  founder  was  one  Laou-tse,  who  is  supposed  to  have  lived  con- 
temporary with  Confucius,  and  to  have  been  some  years  older 
than  that  celebrated  philosopher.  The  word  Taou  signifies  rea- 
son, and  therefore  a  Taouist  is  a  rationalist,  in  name  at  least ;  but, 
in  fact,  the  Taouists  are  the  most  irrational  of  all  the  religionists 
of  the  East. 

The  tendency  in  rationalism  is  toward  the  utter  destruction  of 
belief  in  the  existence  of  unseen  spirits  of  evil.  Enlightened  rea- 
son dethrones  devils;  but  Laou-tse  created  devils  innumerable, 
and  the  chief  concern  of  the  Taouist  sect  has  always  been  to 
manipulate  these  emissaries  of  evil.  Modern  rationalists  deny 
the  existence  of  devils,  and  relegate  them  to  the  category  of 
myths  and  to  personified  ideas. 

Not  so  the  rationalist  of  the  Orient.  He  finds  his  greatest 
pleasure  in  contemplating  the  very  atmosphere  he  breathes  as 
filled  with  spirits  constantly  seeking  his  injury ;  and  to  outwit 
his  satanic  majesty  is  the  chief  end  of  life. 

The  sect  is  founded  on  the  monarchic  plan.  The  chief  high 
priest  corresponds  to  the  Pope  in  the  Catholic  religion,  and  all 
authority  is  vested  in  him.  His  decrees  constitute  the  laws  of  the 
sect,  and  all  power  to  perform  miracles  must  come  from  him  to 
the  priesthood.     He  has  the  power  to  exorcise  devils  and  to  heal 

VOL.  XXXTI. — 21 


33o  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

the  sick  and  avert  calamities,  and  this  power  he  delegates  to  such 
of  the  priesthood  as  command  his  favor.  Such  delegated  power, 
however,  is  held  on  sufferance,  and  not  in  fee-simple.  It  is  not 
only  necessary  that  a  priest  gain  favor  with  his  royal  highness 
to  get  this  power,  but  he  must  retain  said  favor  in  order  to  hold 
the  power.  This  has  created  a  vast  army  of  priests,  who  are  the 
willing  tools  of  the  high  priest ;  and  he  is  thus  enabled  to  wield 
the  most  absolute  and  despotic  sway  over  the  minds  of  the  people. 

The  system  has  the  most  elaborated  code  of  demonology,  and 
it  is  likewise  patterned  after  the  political  constitution  of  the 
empire.  The  head  devil  lives  in  the  sea,  and  has  been  honored  by 
the  Chinese  people  by  being  adopted  as  their  national  emblem. 
The  dragon  flag,  which  floats  from  every  staff,  from  the  dome  of 
the  royal  palace  at  Pekin  to  the  mast-head  of  the  humblest  Chi- 
nese boat,  testifies  to  the  high  esteem  in  which  the  chief  devil  of 
Laou-tse's  followers  is  held.  Then  the  multitude  of  lesser  devils 
is  so  great  that  no  man  can  number  them  ;  and  these  are  on  the 
track  of  every  man,  woman,  and  child,  seeking  in  all  methods 
their  injury.  To  watch  the  movements  of  this  devil  host,  and  to 
frustrate  their  designs,  is  the  province  of  the  Taouist  priests. 

Here  we  have  a  decidedly  interesting  state  of  things.  The 
very  earth  teeming  with  malicious  demons !  Man  everywhere 
exposed  to  their  attacks,  and  but  one  avenue  of  escape,  viz., 
through  the  interventions  of  the  priests !  Is  it  a  matter  of  sur- 
prise, therefore,  that  this  priesthood  wields  such  absolute  power 
over  the  minds  of  the  people  ?  They  live  on  the  fat  of  the  land. 
They  are  consulted  on  all  occasions,  and  their  instructions  are 
obeyed  to  the  letter  by  their  deluded  followers.  It  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at  that  these  priests  look  with  disfavor  upon  the  advent 
of  Europeans ;  that  they  fill  the  minds  of  the  people  with  such 
antipathy  to  all  change  from  the  established  order.  They  are 
wise  enough  to  forecast  their  own  overthrow  with  the  advent  of 
a  deeper  intelligence. 

The  priests  are  celibates,  perhaps  with  the  thought  that,  if 
they  were  to  prove  unequal  to  the  task  of  managing  a  wife,  their 
prestige  in  devil  manipulation  might  suffer.  They  keep  aloof 
from  the  common  life  around  them  and  live  in  mountains  and 
unfrequented  and  isolated  places,  that  they  may  the  better  im- 
press their  own  superiority  over  their  fellows. 

The  priests  are  called  upon  by  the  people  when  it  is  discovered 
that  a  home  or  village  is  infested  by  a  devil.  Devils  have  the 
power  to  materialize  themselves  into  a  piece  of  waste  paper  or 
dirt  in  order  to  get  into  the  houses  unobserved.  These  devils  are 
not  credited  with  a  high  order  of  intelligence.  Chinese  archi- 
tecture is  governed  by  this  conception.  The  doors  or  main  en- 
trances are  put  in  unexpected  angles  and  niches  in  the  walls,  with 


THE  TAOUIST  RELIGION.  33i 

the  idea  that  they  will  fool  the  devils.  They  cut  up  the  roof -lines 
on  dwellings  into  fantastic  shapes  for  the  purpose  of  preventing 
devils  using  them  for  promenade  purposes ;  and,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  these  imps  have  hard  work  to  get  into  the  houses.  But, 
when  they  once  get  in,  no  power  is  able  to  get  them  out  except 
the  priests. 

The  white  horse  is  a  common  form  in  which  devils  infest  a 
community.  They  appear  in  the  form  of  a  white  horse  walking 
upon  the  city  walls,  and  over  graveyards,  and  even  stepping 
from  one  roof  to  another.  He  is  thus  seen  by  some  truthful  wit- 
ness, and  the  evil  omen  soon  gains  currency. 

The  intervention  of  the  nearest  priest  is  sought,  who  takes  a 
survey  of  the  situation,  and  discovers  the  number  of  devils,  if 
more  than  one,  and  calculates  on  the  necessary  steps  to  capture  it 
or  them. 

The  financial  ability  of  the  community  has  much  to  do  in 
determining  the  means  of  safety.  If  the  locality  is  wealthy,  or 
has  a  few  wealthy  men  in  it,  the  priest  generally  makes  out  a 
strong  case.  He  may  require  to  call  in  other  priests  in  consulta- 
tion. All  this  time  the  people  dwell  in  morbid  fear,  pending  de- 
liverance. At  length  the  priests  announce  their  ultimatum.  It 
will  require  a  fee  of  one  hundred  taels  (about  one  hundred  and 
thirty-three  dollars,  American  money)  to  procure  safety.  The 
money  is  raised  by  public  subscription  and  paid  over  to  the  priest 
in  charge.     Then  the  capture  of  the  devils  is  the  next  step. 

A  bottle  or  jar  is  secured  for  each  devil,  and  the  priests  secure 
a  bait  in  the  shape  of  imitation  gold  and  silver  tinted  paper 
(called  Joss  paper).  This  paper  is  imitation  money,  and  when 
it  is  reduced  to  spirit  by  being  burned,  the  devils  do  not  know 
it  from  genuine  money — here  again  showing  their  low  mentality 
— and  they  enter  the  bottle  in  which  the  Joss  paper  has  been 
burned.  When  they  are  thus  entrapped,  the  bottle  is  sealed  and 
carried  away  by  the  priest.  Then  the  people  feel  grateful  to 
their  deliverer,  and  the  priest  has  again  impressed  his  importance 
to  the  welfare  of  the  community  and  at  the  same  time  replenished 
his  bank  account.  The  "  Tsung  li  Yamen,"  or  office  of  the  head 
priest  of  this  sect,  is  a  curiosity.  It  has  large  halls  and  rooms 
filled  with  dust-covered  and  sealed  jars,  in  every  one  of  which  is 
confined  a  devil,  captured  in  the  above  unique  plan.  And  were 
each  and  every  jar  filled  with  silver,  I  question  if  it  would  equal 
the  sums  paid  for  the  capture  of  these  imprisoned  devils. 

This  demonology  enters  into  every  phase  of  Chinese  life.  The 
priest  is  the  only  medium  between  the  people  and  their  invisible  foe. 
Not  a  voyage  is  undertaken  until  the  devils  are  baited  by  burning 
bogus  paper  money.  Not  a  wedding,  but  the  priest  is  called  in  to 
decipher  the  omens  for  good  or  ill  luck.    And  when  a  man  is  sick, 


332  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

he  is  possessed  of  devils.  Chills  are  the  most  common  form  of 
possession.  "What  makes  a  man  shake  if  he  is  not  in  the  power 
of  a  devil  ?  So  the  people  believe,  and  a  priest  is  called  instead 
of  a  doctor,  and  prayers  take  the  place  of  pills.  Epileptic  fits  or 
convulsions  are  the  devil  in  a  malignant  form ;  and  if  a  man  is 
taken  thus  in  a  crowded  building,  that  building  is  rapidly  de- 
serted. 

A  good  doctor  could  go  among  the  Chinese  and,  by  curing  the 
sick,  attending  his  physic  by  incantations,  enthrone  himself  as 
a  deity  in  the  belief  of  that  deluded  people.  When  a  man  is 
dying,  no  money  would  induce  a  Chinaman  to  remain  near  him. 
I  first  met  this  fact  on  a  Pacific  steamer  bound  from  San  Francisco 
to  Hong-Kong.  I  was  walking  on  the  deck  with  the  ship's  sur- 
geon, when  a  stream  of  Chinamen  came  rushing  on  deck  from  the 
lower  decks  like  a  colony  of  ants  when  disturbed.  I  asked  what 
had  caused  such  a  stampede.  The  doctor  replied  that  a  China- 
man was  dying.  He  hurried  below,  and  found  a  man  gasping  his 
last  breath,  with  consumption.  I  discovered  later,  when  pursuing 
my  studies  of  Chinese  religions,  the  secret  of  this  strange  stam- 
pede. The  devil  was  after  the  soul  of  that  poor  consumptive,  and 
the  rest  were  not  going  to  take  any  chances  by  remaining  near 
him  in  the  final  struggle. 

Not  every  wise-looking  magpie  or  crow,  which  alights  upon 
the  bough  of  a  tree  to  rest,  is  the  innocent  creature  it  appears  to 
be ;  but  a  devil  in  disguise  spying  out  the  lay  of  the  land.  Nor 
do  the  frightened  people  seek  relief  by  killing  the  bird  of  evil 
omen,  but  they  call  a  priest  to  look  into  the  matter.  He  generally 
advises  that  the  tree  be  cut  down  in  the  night  and  removed. 

Thus,  when  the  devil,  alias  a  magpie,  returns  to  his  perch,  he 
is  fooled,  and  thus  thrown  off  the  track. 

The  ceremonies  so  often  observed  on  occasions  of  death  all 
have  their  origin  in  the  demonology  of  the  Taouists.  Paper  suits, 
paper  palaces,  paper  pipes  and  money  are  burned  when  a  man 
dies,  to  provide  the  soul  of  the  dead  with  means  of  bribing  its 
way  through  the  devil's  kingdom  to  its  rest,  and  the  suits  burned 
are  often  patterned  after  high  officials'  gowns,  in  order  to  im- 
press more  favorably  the  spirits  encountered  on  the  mysterious 
journey. 

Taouist  priests  are  called  to  consult  the  soul  of  the  departed 
to  ascertain  its  wishes.  They  discover  the  locality  for  burial,  and 
indicate  all  details  of  this  last  service  to  the  dead. 

The  Shanghai  Railroad  met  its  doom  from  this  source.  The 
priests  informed  the  people  that  the  rumbling  noise  of  the  cars 
and  the  steam-engine  were  distasteful  to  the  dead  who  filled  the 
numerous  mounds  along  its  course.  To  appease  the  wrath  of  the 
dead,  Chinese  capitalists  bought  the  road  with  its  equipments, 


THE   TA0UI8T  RELIGION.  333 

and  tore  up  the  tracks  and  stored  the  entire  plant  under  sheds  at 
Shanghai.  Thus  it  is  seen  that  this  religion  stands  in  the  way  of 
all  innovations  in  that  old  country,  and  the  first  thing  necessary 
in  order  to  introduce  railroads  into  China  is  to  dethrone  the  priests 
and  infuse  a  little  common  sense  into  the  people. 

Since  this  last  paragraph  was  written,  this  point  has  had  a 
characteristic  demonstration.  Through  the  influence  of  Li  Hung 
Chang,  the  most  intelligent  and  progressive  Chinaman,  and  one 
or  two  other  high  officials,  the  emperor  was  prevailed  upon  to 
grant  the  construction  of  a  railroad  from  Hankow  to  Pekin.  Not 
many  days  had  elapsed  after  the  permit  was  given  until  the  Tem- 
ple of  Heaven  at  Pekin  was  burned,  and  floods  came  in  the  Yel- 
low and  Yang-tse  River  Valleys,  which  were  interpreted  to  have 
been  indications  of  the  disapproval  of  the  proposed  innovation  on 
the  part  of  spirits  or  the  Taouist  devil ;  and  the  press  dispatches 
announce  that  the  emperor  has  taken  the  timely  warning  and  re- 
voked his  sanction  of  the  proposed  railroad.  Any  one  having  to 
make  the  journey  between  the  two  objective  points  of  the  pro- 
posed road  will  save  time  by  starting  on  foot,  or  going  around 
via  Shanghai  by  water.  Otherwise  he  is  liable  to  have  a  long 
time  to  wait  for  the  completion  of  the  road. 

During  the  prevalence  of  the  great  famine  in  northwestern 
China  in  1874-'78  there  was  an  unusual  flood  in  the  valley  of  the 
Yang-tse-Kiang.  The  priests  endeavored  to  solve  the  mystery  of 
this  uneven  distribution  of  rain.  The  censure  fell  upon  the  royal 
household  at  Pekin.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  emperor  to  enter  the 
Temple  of  Heaven  twice  a  year  and  invoke  the  blessings  of  Heaven 
upon  the  people.  He  always  asks  for  rain  among  other  things, 
and  the  impression  obtained  that  the  emperor  had  hurriedly  asked 
for  rain,  but  had  not  taken  the  pains  to  state  where  he  wanted  it. 
The  result  was  that  floods  came  in  some  places,  while  famine  from 
drought  came  in  other  parts  of  the  empire.  This  feeling  was  pro- 
ducing a  general  spirit  of  revolt,  when  in  1878  the  rains  came  to 
the  rescue  in  the  drought-smitten  provinces. 

At  this  time  I  had  a  conversation  with  a  merchant  at  Shanghai 
on  the  subject.  He  exhibited  an  independence  of  thought  which 
was  exceptional.  But  it  showed  a  tendency  toward  the  inevitable 
break  from  the  tyrannical  rule  of  ignorance  and  superstition 
which  must  eventually  come  to  awaken  an  age  of  reason.  And 
when  it  comes,  the  Taouist  high  priest  must  fold  his  tent  and 
silently  march  away. 

The  merchant  said, "  Chinaman,  he  all  time  chin,  chin  "  (mean- 
ing that  they  resort  to  prayers  and  other  priestly  methods  in  time 
of  calamity),  "while  Melican  man,  he  build  more  stout  walls  to 
keep  water  back." 

Thus  had  one  man  concluded  that  substantial  sea-walls  and 


334  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

dikes  were  more  availing  in  times  of  flood  than  prayers  as  a  pro- 
tection from  encroaching  waters  from  overflowing  rivers. 

But  the  dominance  of  ignorance  and  the  quackery  of  priests 
will  hold  China  in  slavery  to  an  unreasoning  fear  and  irrational 
faith  for  generations  yet  unborn.  Yet  the  seeds  of  a  better  intel- 
ligence are  being  planted  in  this  dark  corner  of  the  earth.  The 
people  observe  that  Europeans  give  no  heed  to  imaginary  devils, 
and  still  they  prosper  without  the  intervention  of  priests;  and 
thus  will  eventually  dawn  upon  them  how  grievously  their  fore- 
fathers have  been  hoodwinked,  cheated,  and  robbed  by  the  reign 
of  demonology,  created  and  perpetuated  for  their  own  gain  by  the 
army  of  Taouist  priests. 


-♦♦♦- 


LETTERS  ON"  THE  LAND  QUESTION. 

By  HERBERT  SPENCER,  FREDERICK   GREENWOOD,  Professor  HUXLEY, 
Sib  LOUIS   MALLET,  and  JOHN  LAIDLER. 

THE  following  letters,  reprinted  from  the  London  "  Times  "  of 
•  recent  dates  (from  November  7  to  15,  1889),  are  of  great  in- 
terest on  account  of  the  light  they  throw  upon  some  of  the  more 
important  aspects  of  the  question  of  land  nationalization,  and  on 
the  problems  of  socialism  in  general. — Editor.] 

MR.  SPENCER'S   FIRST   LETTER. 

To  the  Editor  of  "  The  Times  "  : 

Sir:  During  the  interview  between  Mr.  Morley  and  some  of 
his  constituents,  reported  in  your  issue  of  the  5th  inst.,  I  was  re- 
ferred to  as  having  set  forth  certain  opinions  respecting  land-own- 
ership.*   Fearing  that,  if  I  remain  silent,  many  will  suppose  I 

*  Extract  from  the  Morley  Interview. 

Mr.  Laidler  said  their  method  of  dealing  with  the  land  would  be  that  the  present 
owners  should  hold  it  for  their  time,  and  that  it  should  revert  back  to  the  State.  They  re- 
membered that  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  had  said  that  the  land  had  been  taken  by  force  and  by 
fraud.     That  gentleman  had  also  said  that  to  right  one  wrong  it  takes  another. 

Mr.  Morley. — Has  Mr.  Spencer  said  this  ? 

Mr.  Laidler. — Yes ;  we  all  know. 

Mr.  Morley. — You  are  aware  that  he  has  recalled  some  of  the  things  he  has  laid  down? 

Mr.  Laidler. — If  he  has  stated  truth  and  recalled  it,  the  truth  will  prevail. 

Mr.  Morley. — Do  you  include  houses  ? 

Mr.  Laidler. — We  include  land,  not  houses.  In  houses  there  is  labor,  but  in  land 
there  is  not. 

Mr.  Morley. — Not? 

Mr.  Laidler. — There  may  be  labor  exerted  in  land,  but  as  far  as  the  labor  is  in  the 
land  we  believe  it  ought  to  belong  to  the  laborer.  As  the  land  has  been  obtained  by  the 
method  I  have  named — by  force  and  fraud,  as  Spencer  says — we  contend  that  the  land 
ought  to  be  taken  back  by  the  community  and  handed  over  to  the  municipalities  and  county 
councils  to  be  used  in  such  democratic  manner  as  the  people  may  elect  those  bodies  for. 

Mr.  Morley.— I  can  not  think  that  what  is  commonly  called  nationalization  of  the  land 


LETTERS    ON   THE  LAND    QUESTION  335 

have  said  things  which  I  have  not  said,  I  find  it  needful  to  say- 
something  in  explanation. 

Already  within  these  few  years  I  have  twice  pointed  out  that 
these  opinions  (made  to  appear  by  those  who  have  circulated  them 
widely  different  from  what  they  really  are,  by  the  omission  of  ac- 
companying opinions)  were  set  forth  in  my  first  work,  published 
forty  years  ago ;  and  that,  for  the  last  twelve  or  fifteen  years,  I 
have  refrained  from  issuing  new  editions  of  that  work  and  have 
interdicted  translations,  because,  though  I  still  adhere  to  its  gen- 
eral principles,  I  dissent  from  some  of  the  deductions. 

The  work  referred  to — "  Social  Statics  " — was  intended  to  be  a 
system  of  political  ethics — absolute  political  ethics,  or  that  which 
ought  to  be,  as  distinguished  from  relative  political  ethics,  or  that 
which  is  at  present  the  nearest  practicable  approach  to  it.  The 
conclusion  reached  concerning  land-ownership  was  reached  while 
seeking  a  valid  basis  for  the  right  of  property  :  the  basis  assigned 
by  Locke  appearing  to  me  invalid.  It  was  argued  that  a  satisfac- 
tory ethical  warrant  for  private  ownership  could  arise  only  by  con- 
tract between  the  community,  as  original  owner  of  the  inhabited 
area,  and  individual  members,  who  became  tenants,  agreeing  to 
pay  certain  portions  of  the  produce,  or  its  equivalent  in  money,  in 
consideration  of  recognized  claims  to  the  rest.  And  in  the  course 
of  the  argument  it  was  pointed  out  that  such  a  view  of  land-own- 
ership is  congruous  with  existing  legal  theory  and  practice ;  since 
in  law  every  land-owner  is  held  to  be  a  tenant  of  the  Crown — that 
is,  of  the  community,  and  since,  in  practice,  the  supreme  right  of 
the  community  is  asserted  by  every  Act  of  Parliament  which, 
with  a  view  to  public  advantage,  directly  or  by  proxy  takes  pos- 
session of  land  after  making  due  compensation. 

All  this  was  said  in  the  belief  that  the  questions  raised  were 
not  likely  to  come  to  the  front  in  our  time  or  for  many  genera- 
tions ;  but,  assuming  that  they  would  some  time  come  to  the  front, 
it  was  said  that,  supposing  the  community  should  assert  overtly 
the  supreme  right  which  is  now  tacitly  asserted,  the  business  of 
compensation  of  land-owners  would  be  a  complicated  one : 

One  that  perhaps  can  not  be  settled  in  a  strictly  equitable  manner.  .  .  .  Most 
of  our  present  land-owners  are  men  who  have,  either  mediately  or  immediately, 
either  by  their  own  acts  or  by  the  acts  of  their  ancestors,  given  for  their  estates 
equivalents  of  honestly  earned  wealth,  believing  that  they  were  investing  their 
savings  in  a  legitimate  manner.  To  justly  estimate  and  liquidate  the  claims 
of  such  is  one  of  the  most  intricate  problems  society  will  one  day  have  to 
solve. 

To  make  the  position  I  then  took  quite  clear,  it  is  needful  to 
add  that,  as  shown  in  a  succeeding  chapter,  the  insistence  on  this 

is  anything  but  what  it  was  called  the  other  day — either  robbery  or  folly.  I  have  really  no 
more  to  say  on  that  subject. 


336  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

doctrine,  in  virtue  of  which  "the  right  of  property  obtains  a 
legitimate  foundation/'  had  for  one  of  its  motives  the  exclusion 
of  Socialism  and  Communism,  to  which  I  was  then  as  profoundly 
averse  as  I  am  now. 

Investigations  made  during  recent  years  into  the  various  forms 
of  social  organization,  while  writing  the  "  Principles  of  Sociology," 
have  in  part  confirmed  and  in  part  changed  the  views  published 
in  1850.  Perhaps  I  may  be  allowed  space  for  quoting  from  "  Po- 
litical Institutions  "  a  paragraph  showing  the  revised  conclusions 
arrived  at : 

At  first  sight  it  seems  fairly  inferable  that  the  absolute  ownership  of  land  by 
private  persons  must  be  the  ultimate  state  which  industrialism  brings  about.  But 
though  industrialism  has  thus  far  tended  to  individualize  possession  of  land  while 
individualizing  all  other  possession,  it  may  be  doubted  whether  the  final  stage  is 
at  present  reached.  Ownership  established  by  force  does  not  stand  on  the  same 
footing  as  ownership  established  by  contract;  and  though  multiplied  sales  and 
purchases,  treating  the  two  ownerships  in  the  same  way,  have  tacitly  assimilated 
them,  the  assimilation  may  eventually  be  denied.  The  analogy  furnished  by  as- 
sumed rights  of  possession  over  human  beings  helps  us  to  recognize  this  possibility. 
For,  while  prisoners  of  war,  taken  by  force  and  held  as  property  in  a  vague  way 
(being  at  first  much  on  a  footing  with  other  members  of  a  household),  were  re- 
duced more  definitely  to  the  form  of  property  when  the  buying  and  selling  of 
slaves  became  general ;  and,  while  it  might  centuries  ago  have  been  thence  in- 
ferred that  the  ownership  of  man  by  man  was  an  ownership  in  course  of  being 
permanently  established,  yet  we  see  that  a  later  stage  of  civilization,  reversing 
this  process,  has  destroyed  ownership  of  man  by  man.  Similarly,  at  a  stage  still 
more  advanced,  it  may  be  that  private  ownership  of  land  will  disappear.  As  that 
primitive  freedom  of  the  individual  which  existed  before  war  established  coercive 
institutions  and  personal  slavery  comes  to  be  re-established  as  militancy  declines, 
so  it  seems  possible  that  the  primitive  ownership  of  land  by  the  community,  which, 
with  the  development  of  coercive  institutions,  lapsed  in  large  measure  or  wholly 
into  private  ownership,  will  be  revived  as  industrialism  further  develops.  The 
regime  of  contract,  at  present  so  far  extended  that  the  right  of  property  in  mova- 
bles is  recognized  only  as  having  arisen  by  exchange  of  services  or  products  under 
agreements,  or  by  gift  from  those  who  had  acquired  it  under  such  agreements, 
may  be  further  extended  so  far  that  the  products  of  the  soil  will  be  recognized  as 
property  only  by  virtue  of  agreements  between  individuals  as  tenants  and  the 
community  as  land-owner.  Even  now,  among  ourselves,  private  ownership  of 
land  is  not  absolute.  In  legal  theory  land-owners  are  directly  or  indirectly  tenants 
of  the  Crown  (which  in  our  day  is  equivalent  to  the  State,  or,  in  other  words,  the 
community) ;  and  the  community  from  time  to  time  resumes  possession  after 
making  due  compensation.  Perhaps  the  right  of  the  community  to  the  land,  thus 
tacitly  asserted,  will  in  time  to  come  be  overtly  asserted  and  acted  upon  after 
making  full  allowance  for  the  accumulated  value  artificially  given.  .  .  .  There  is 
reason  to  suspect  that,  wrhile  private  possession  of  things  produced  by  labor  will 
grow  even  more  definite  and  sacred  than  at  present,  the  inhabited  area,  which 
can  not  be  produced  by  labor,  will  eventually  be  distinguished  as  something  which 
may  not  be  privately  possessed.  As  the  individual,  primitively  owner  of  himself, 
partially  or  wholly  loses  ownership  of  himself  during  the  militant  regime,  but 
gradually  resumes  it  as  the  industrial  regime  develops,  so  possibly  the  communal 


LETTERS    ON  THE  LAND    QUESTION.  337 

proprietorship  of  land,  partially  or  wholly  merged  in  the  ownership  of  dominant 
men  during  evolution  of  the  militant  type,  will  be  resumed  as  the  industrial  type 
becomes  fully  evolved  (pp.  643-646). 

The  use  of  the  words  "  possible,"  "  possibly,"  and  "  perhaps  " 
in  the  above  extracts  shows  that  I  have  no  positive  opinion  as  to 
what  may  hereafter  take  place.  The  reason  for  this  state  of  hesi- 
tancy is  that  I  can  not  see  my  way  toward  reconciliation  of  the 
ethical  requirements  with  the  politico-economical  requirements. 
On  the  one  hand,  a  condition  of  things  under  which  the  owner  of, 
say,  the  Scilly  Isles  might  make  tenancy  of  his  land  conditional 
upon  professing  a  certain  creed  or  adopting  prescribed  habits  of 
life,  giving  notice  to  quit  to  any  who  did  not  submit,  is  ethi- 
cally indefensible.  On  the  other  hand,  "nationalization  of  the 
land,"  effected  after  compensation  for  the  artificial  value  given 
by  cultivation,  amounting  to  the  greater  part  of  its  value,  would 
entail,  in  the  shape  of  interest  on  the  required  purchase-money, 
as  great  a  sum  as  is  now  paid  in  rent,  and  indeed  a  greater,  con- 
sidering the  respective  rates  of  interest  on  landed  property  and 
other  property.  Add  to  which,  there  is  no  reason  to  think  that 
the  substituted  form  of  administration  would  be  better  than  the 
existing  form  of  administration.  The  belief  that  land  would  be 
better  managed  by  public  officials  than  it  is  by  private  owners  is 
a  very  wild  belief. 

"What  the  remote  future  may  bring  forth  there  is  no  saying ; 
but  with  a  humanity  anything  like  that  we  now  know,  the  im- 
plied reorganization  would  be  disastrous. 

I  am,  etc.,  Herbert  Spencer. 

Athenaeum  Club,  November  GOi. 

MR.   GREENWOOD'S  LETTER. 

To  the  Editor  of  "The  Times" : 

Sir:  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer's  letter  in  "The  Times"  of  to-day 
carries  with  it  a  heavy  lesson  to  political  philosophers.  They  are 
taught  to  remember  that  this  is  an  age  of  popular  education,  as 
well  as  of  social  unrest ;  that  their  books  are  read  not  only  by 
students  like  themselves,  who  often  find  their  chief  interest  in  a 
display  of  intellectual  subtlety  or  athleticism,  but  by  thousands 
of  men  who  are  ever  on  the  alert  for  warranted  theories  of  social 
reform  that  will  better  their  condition.  And  if  such  theories 
should  happen  to  be  ill-considered  before  publication,  or  unaccom- 
panied by  a  strong  and  clear  recital  of  whatever  reasons  are  fatal 
to  their  application  in  this  work-a-day  world,  the  mischief  they 
may  do  is  enormous.  How  clearly  Mr.  Spencer  himself  must  see 
this  now !  And  how  sorry  he  must  be  for  having  so  terribly  mis- 
led, not  Mr.  Laidler  and  the  Labor  party  of  Newcastle  alone — that 


338  TEE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

is  not  imaginable — but  many  other  poor  men  also  who  habitually 
hang  on  the  authority  of  great  men  like  himself. 

It  was  when  Mr.  Morley  was  so  delicately  heckled  at  New- 
castle that  a  member  of  the  Labor  party  deputation  asked  him 
what  he  thought  about  the  nationalization  of  the  land.  Mr. 
Morley  demurred.  Mr.  Laidler  said  the  Labor  party  had  its  own 
plan.  "  They  remembered  that  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  had  said  that 
the  land  had  been  taken  by  force  and  fraud ;  that  gentleman  had 
also  said  that  to  right  one  wrong  it  takes  another."  "  Why,"  re- 
plies Mr.  Morley,  "  has  he  said  this  ? "  "  We  all  know  he  has/' 
rejoins  Mr.  Laidler.  "But  you  are  aware  that  he  has  recalled 
some  of  the  things  he  has  laid  down  ? "  "  Yes,"  rejoins  Mr. 
Laidler ;  "  but  if  he  has  stated  truth  and  recalled  it  the  truth  will 
prevail."  There  we  are.  This  little  bit  of  conversation  is  pre- 
cious beyond  many  pages  of  "absolute  political  ethics,"  judged 
by  the  standard  of  usefulness ;  and  it  will  be  useful  to  nobody  so 
much  as  to  writers  like  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer. 

For  what  has  he  to  say  to  it  all  ?  He  says  that  the  opinions 
quoted  by  Mr.  Laidler  were  set  forth  forty  years  ago  in  a  work 
"  intended  to  be  a  system  of  absolute  political  ethics ;  or  that 
which  ought  to  be,  as  distinguished  from  relative  political  ethics, 
or  that  which  is  at  present  the  nearest  practical  approach  to  it." 
These  opinions  were  accompanied  by  others  which  forbid  the 
interpretation  sometimes  put  upon  them.  But  yet,  on  reflection, 
they  satisfied  Mr.  Spencer  so  little,  he  thought  them  so  little 
guarded  or  corrected  by  those  other  opinions  of  his,  that  for  the 
last  fifteen  years  he  has  not  allowed  the  book  that  contained  them 
to  appear  in  any  language.  "  Though  I  still  adhere  to  its  general 
principles,  I  dissent  from  some  of  the  deductions" — those,  per- 
haps, which  Mr.  Laidler  regards  as  truth  once  uttered  and  never 
to  be  recalled.  Besides,  what  Mr.  Spencer  said  on  this  subject 
"  was  said  in  the  belief  that  the  questions  raised  were  not  likely 
to  come  to  the  front  in  our  time  or  for  many  generations  " ;  and 
it  did  include  the  statement  that,  if  the  community  took  the  land, 
the  necessary  business  of  compensation  would  be  a  complicated 
one.  "  To  justly  estimate  and  liquidate  the  claims  "  of  our  pres- 
ent land-owners  "  is  one  of  the  most  intricate  problems  society  one 
day  will  have  to  solve."  Since  "  Social  Statics  "  was  published, 
however,  Mr.  Spencer  has  come  to  revised  conclusions;  and  these 
he  now  sets  forth  in  "  The  Times."  Permit  me  to  quote  a  few 
sentences  from  this  statement : 

Though  industrialism  has  thus  far  tended  to  individualize  possession  of  land, 
while  individualizing  all  other  possessions,  it  may  be  doubted  whether  the  final 
stage  is  at  present  reached.  Ownership  established  by  force  does  not  stand  on  the 
same  footing  as  ownership  established  by  contract;  and  though  multiplied  sales 
and  purchases  treating  the  two  ownerships  in  the  same  way  have  tacitly  assimi- 


LETTERS    ON  THE  LAND    QUESTION.  339 

lated  them,  the  assimilation  may  eventually  be  denied.  .  .  .  There  is  reason  to 
suspect  that,  while  private  possession  of  things  produced  by  labor  will  grow  even 
more  definite  and  sacred  than  at  present,  the  inhabited  area,  which  can  not  be 
produced  by  labor,  will  eventually  be  distinguished  as  something  which  may  not 
be  privately  possessed.  .  .  .  Possibly  the  communal  proprietorship  of  land,  par- 
tially or  wholly  merged  in  the  ownership  of  dominant  men  during  evolution  of 
the  militant  type,  will  be  resumed  as  the  industrial  type  becomes  fully  evolved. 

After  quoting  these  and  similar  passages  from  his  revised 
opinions,  Mr.  Spencer  makes  the  following  observations:  "The 
use  of  the  words  ' possible/  'possibly/  and  ' perhaps/  in  the  above 
extracts  shows  that  I  have  no  positive  opinion  as  to  what  may- 
hereafter  take  place."  But  of  this  Mr.  Spencer  feels  sure :  Na- 
tionalize the  land  on  righteous  principles  of  compensation,  and 
the  interest  on  the  purchase-money  would  exceed  the  sum  now 
paid  in  rent.  Moreover,  it  is  a  "  wild  belief  "  that  the  land  would 
be  better  managed — i.  e.,  more  profitably  managed — by  public 
officials  than  by  private  owners.  "With  a  humanity  anything 
like  that  we  now  know,  the  implied  reorganization  would  be  dis- 
astrous." 

Well,  we  have  only  to  do  with  the  humanity  that  we  now 
know;  and  being  what  it  is,  surely  Mr.  Spencer  should  have 
taken  pains  from  the  beginning  to  consider  its  manifold  weak- 
nesses and  temptations.  Yet  still  he  repeats  that  the  individual 
ownership  of  land  was  established  by  force,  the  assertion  that  Mr. 
Laidler  and  the  Labor  party  of  Newcastle  stand  upon.  While,  as 
for  his  perhapses  and  possiblies,  they  are  in  fact  expressions  of 
doubt  as  to  whether  the  community  will  or  will  not  resume  own- 
ership of  the  land,  but  they  are  not  necessarily  to  be  taken  in  that 
sense,  and  any  Mr.  Laidler  might  be  forgiven  if  he  saw  in  them  a 
suggestion  of  the  right  thing  to  do,  or  a  prophecy  the  fulfillment 
of  which  it  would  not  be  wrong  to  precipitate.  All  the  more 
reasonably  might  he  think  so  when  he  sees  that  in  these  same 
revised  conclusions  Mr.  Spencer  likens  the  acquisition  of  property 
in  land  by  individuals  to  the  old-time  "ownership  of  man  by 
man."  "The  ownership  of  land  was  established  by  force";  it 
originated  in  robbery ;  at  the  root  it  is  robbery  still.  That  is  the 
point  for  Mr.  Laidler ;  and,  writing  for  humanity  as  we  know  it, 
and  as  the  next  generation  is  likely  to  know  it,  it  is  a  pity  that 
Mr.  Spencer  did  not  guard  at  once  and  in  the  strongest  way 
against  the  probable  use  that  humanity,  as  we  know  it,  would 
make  of  the  assertion.  The  possible  resumption  of  the  land  by 
some  totally  different  generation  of  humanity,  one  that  we  know 
not  of,  should  not  have  been  committed  to  print  as  the  righting 
of  a  wrong,  without  the  clearest  warning  that,  till  that  generation 
comes,  land  nationalization  must  be  an  exceeding  great  folly, 
amounting  to  absolute  disaster.     For  the  good  of  humanity,  that 


340  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

was  always  the  most  important  point  to  insist  upon.  It  is  to  be 
feared  that  some  thousands  of  Laidlers  will  not  think  so  much  of 
it  now.  So  much  does  it  become  political  philosophers  to  be  care- 
ful. Some  medicines  are  also  poisons;  such  medicines  should 
never  be  issued  over  the  counter  to  any  and  every  purchaser  with- 
out a  warning  label ;  and  this  I  hope  I  may  say  without  seeming 
disrespect  for  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer. 

Your  obedient  servant, 

Frederick  Greenwood. 

November  7th. 

PROF.   HUXLEY'S   LETTER. 

To  the  Editor  of  "  The  Times  "  : 

Sir  :  I  have  read  with  very  great  interest  the  "  heckling "  of 
Mr.  Morley,  the  letters  of  Mr.  Spencer  and  of  Mr.  Greenwood,  and 
your  editorial  comments  on  this  triangular  duel.  But,  if  I  may 
speak  in  the  name  of  that  not  inconsiderable  number  of  persons 
to  whom  absolute  ethics  and  a  priori  politics  are  alike  stumbling- 
blocks,  permit  me,  borrowing  a  phrase  which  a  learned  judge  has 
immortalized,  to  say  that  "  You  have  not  helped  us  much." 

Let  me  explain  the  nature  of  the  further  help  we  require  by 
putting  a  case  which  is  not  altogether  imaginary  : 

A  score  of  years  ago  A.  B.  bought  a  piece  of  land ;  he  paid  the 
price  asked  by  the  vender,  and  all  the  conditions  required  by  the 
law  were  fulfilled  in  the  transference  of  ownership.  The  transac- 
tion was  as  much  a  free  contract  as  if  A.  B.  had  gone  to  market 
and  bought  a  cabbage.  At  the  time  that  A.  B.  handed  over  his 
money  he  believed  that  the  State  was  a  copartner  in  the  contract, 
in  so  far  that  it  undertook  to  maintain  his  rights  of  ownership 
against  everything  and  everybody  who  should  attempt  to  invade 
them,  except  an  act  of  the  Legislature,  or  the  orders  of  the  com- 
manding officer  in  war-time,  or  a  police  officer  legally  authorized. 
A.  B.  has  gone  on  paying  his  taxes  to  the  State  all  these  years,  in 
full  conviction  that  the  State  contracted,  among  other  things,  to 
afford  him  the  protection  thus  defined. 

A.  B.'s  lawyers  assured  him  that  the  title  to  the  land  was  per- 
fectly good.  This  means  that,  for  several  centuries  at  least, 
neither  force  nor  fraud  has  intervened,  but  that  the  land  has 
passed  from  owner  to  owner  by  free  contract.  At  the  same  time, 
A.  B.,  who  is  somewhat  pedantic  in  the  matter  of  historical  accu- 
racy, admits  that,  for  anything  he  knows  to  the  contrary,  in  the 
reign  of  King  John  his  bit  of  land  may  have  belonged  to  Cedric 
the  Saxon  ;  and  that  possibly  the  son-in-law  of  that  worthy  thane, 
after  the  quarrel  with  Rowena,  related  by  an  historian  of  later 
date  than  Scott,  may  have  taken  forcible  possession  of  it,  and, 
in  virtue  of  his  favor  at  Court,  kept  it  for  himself  and  his  de- 
scendants. 


LETTERS    ON  THE  LAND    QUESTION  341 

Now,  my  friends  and  myself,  having  no  better  guides  than 
common  morality  and  common  sense,  are  of  opinion  that,  suppos- 
ing Ivanhoe  to  have  behaved  in  this  scandalous  fashion,  the  fact 
makes  not  the  smallest  difference  in  justice  or  in  equity  to  the  title 
of  A.  B. ;  and  that,  if  it  did,  the  State,  which  has  contracted  to  de- 
fend A.  B.'s  title  without  the  least  reference  to  such  antiquarian 
contingencies,  would  commit  a  gross  fraud  if  it  broke  its  contract 
on  any  such  flimsy  pretenses. 

The  right  to  compensation  is  not  in  question ;  what  we  deny  is 
the  right  to  disturb  A.  B.  on  such  a  ground. 

It  would  appear,  however,  that  there  is  some  better  guidance 
than  that  of  common  morality  and  common  sense ;  "  absolute  po- 
litical ethics  "  is  an  infallible  indicator  of  what  we  ought  to  do — 
whether  the  action  indicated  is  possible  or  impossible. 

Now,  what  we  want  is  this  very  light  as  to  what  we  ought  to 
do  in  such  a  concrete  case  as  that  I  have  mentioned.  The  dictum 
that  "  ownership  established  by  force  does  not  stand  on  the  same 
footing  as  ownership  established  by  contract,"  I  must  repeat, 
"  does  not  help  us."  Construed  strictly,  it  is  a  mere  truism ;  con- 
strued broadly,  it  may  cover  Mr.  Laidler's  view. 

What  we  want  to  know  is  this :  According  to  "  absolute  political 
ethics,"  has  A.  B.  a  moral  as  well  as  a  legal  right  to  his  land  or  not  ? 

If  he  has  not,  how  does  "  absolute  political  ethics  "  deduce  his 
title  to  compensation  ?  And,  if  he  has,  how  does  "  absolute  politi- 
cal ethics  "  deduce  the  State's  right  to  disturb  him  ? 

No  question  is  raised  here  as  to  the  right  of  the  State  to  deal 
with  A.  B.'s  land  or  anything  else  he  possesses  on  grounds  of 
public  utility  or  necessity  ;  nor  do  we  want  to  know  what  may  be 
done  by  the  wisdom  or  the  folly  of  future  generations.  "  Abso- 
lute political  ethics"  should  be  independent  of  time  and  space; 
and  it  ought  to  be  able  to  tell  us  whether,  in  foro  conscientiw, 
A.  B.,  if  he  continue  to  hold  his  land  under  the  circumstances  sup- 
posed, is  an  honest  man  or  a  receiver  of  stolen  goods. 

I  intervene  in  this  discussion  most  unwillingly,  but  I  have 
long  been  of  opinion  that  the  great  political  evil  of  our  time  is  the 
attempt  to  sanction  popular  acts  of  injustice  by  antiquarian  and 
speculative  arguments. 

My  friend  Mr.  Spencer  is,  I  am  sure,  the  last  person  willingly 
to  abet  this  tendency.  But  I  am  afraid  that,  in  spite  of  all  Mr. 
Spencer's  disclaimers,  the  next  time  Mr.  Morley  visits  his  constitu- 
ents his  pertinacious  "heckler"  will  insist  that,  after  all,  the 
younger  and  the  older  philosopher  are  not  disagreed  in  principle ; 
and  that  the  difference  of  "  footing  "  between  ownership  primarily 
based  on  force  and  other  ownership  can  not  be  cured  by  efflux  of 
time,  and  justifies  the  State  now,  or  at  any  future  period,  in  deal- 
ing differently  with  the  two. 


342  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

In  Ireland  confiscation  is  justified  by  the  appeal  to  wrongs  in- 
flicted a  century  ago ;  in  England  the  theorems  of  "  absolute 
political  ethics "  are  in  danger  of  being  employed  to  make  this 
generation  of  land-owners  responsible  for  the  misdeeds  of  William 
the  Conqueror  and  his  followers. 

I  am,  sir,  your  obedient  servant, 

T.  H.  Huxley. 

November  11th. 

SIR  L.   MALLET'S   LETTER. 

To  the  Editor  of  "  The  Times  "  : 

Sir  :  Mr.  Frederick  Greenwood's  letter,  and  the  leading  article 
in  "  The  Times  "  of  to-day,  on  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer's  recent  letter 
upon  this  subject,  leave  little  more  to  be  said  on  several  aspects 
of  the  question,  but  there  are  one  or  two  points  upon  which  I 
should  be  glad  of  an  opportunity  of  adding  a  few  remarks. 

The  passage  in  the  "  Political  Institutions "  quoted  by  Mr. 
Herbert  Spencer  has  been  long  familiar  to  the  students  of  his 
writings,  and  to  some  of  them,  who,  like  myself,  are  among  his 
sincere  admirers,  has  always  been  a  subject  of  surprise  and  regret. 

The  whole  extract  should  be  read,  but  to  save  your  space  I 
confine  myself  to  the  concluding  sentences,  which  are  enough  for 
my  purpose : 

There  is  reason  to  suspect  that  while  private  possession  of  things  produced  by 
labor  will  grow  even  more  definite  and  sacred  than  at  present,  the  inhabited  area, 
which  can  not  be  produced  by  labor,  will  eventually  be  distinguished  a3  some- 
thing which  may  not  be  privately  possessed.  As  the  individual,  primitively 
owner  of  himself,  partially  or  wholly  loses  ownership  of  himself  during  the  mili- 
tant regime,  but  gradually  resumes  it  as  the  industrial  regime  develops;  so,  possi- 
bly, the  communal  proprietorship  of  land,  partially  or  wholly  merged  in  the 
ownership  of  dominant  men  during  evolution  of  the  militant  type,  will  be  resumed 
as  the  industrial  type  becomes  fully  evolved. 

The  analogy  here  suggested  between  the  ownership  of  man  by 
other  men,  or  slavery,  and  the  private  ownership  of  land,  with  the 
inference  drawn  from  it,  that  as  the  first  has  been  abolished  in 
civilized  countries  the  second  may  possibly  share  its  fate,  has 
always  appeared  to  me  essentially  fallacious. 

The  principle  of  private  property,  so  far  as  the  term  is  appli- 
cable to  human  beings,  has  not  in  their  case  been  abolished— on 
the  contrary,  it  has  been  signally  vindicated. 

The  destruction  of  slavery  asserted  the  right  of  every  man  to 
property  in  himself,  while  prohibiting  the  ownership  of  man  by 
other  men,  both  individually  and  collectively.  It  was  the  restitu- 
tion of  a  right  of  property  from  a  wrongful  to  a  rightful  owner. 
In  order  to  render  Mr.  Spencer's  analogy  applicable,  it  seems  to 
me  that  the  right  of  ownership  in  one  man  by  another,  instead  of 
being  abolished  altogether,  should  have  been  transferred,  as  it  is 


LETTERS    ON  THE  LAND    QUESTION.  343 

proposed  to  do  in  the  case  of  land,  from  the  individual  to  the 
State. 

But,  however  this  may  be,  it  seems  clear  that  the  principle 
which  excludes  the  ownership  of  one  man  by  another,  rests  upon 
the  same  grounds  as  that  which  includes  private  property  in  land 
— viz.,  that  the  general  interests  of  society  are  best  promoted  by 
personal  freedom. 

There  seems  to  be  sufficient  evidence  that  compulsory  labor  is 
less  productive  than  free  labor;  and  if  this  is  so  we  may  con- 
clude, even  setting  aside  all  considerations  of  humanity  or  mo- 
rality, that  the  interests  of  society  are  better  promoted  by  free 
labor  or  property  in  one's  self,  than  by  slavery  or  property  in 
others. 

This  is  usually  admitted,  but  it  is  necessary  to  insist  upon 
what  is  always  forgotten  by  those  who  declaim  against  private 
property  in  land — that  this  last  institution  also  is  an  essential 
condition  of  personal  freedom,  as  by  no  other  means  short  of 
coercion  can  a  due  relation  be  maintained  between  demand  and 
supply. 

Whoever  holds  the  land  holds  that  which,  being  limited  in 
extent  (the  only  assumption  on  which  the  question  arises),  im- 
poses on  its  possessor  the  function  and  duty,  which  he  is  bound  in 
the  interest  of  society,  no  less  than  his  own,  to  perform,  of  restrict- 
ing an  undue  pressure  on  the  soil,  whether  for  agricultural  or 
urban  purposes,  whether  for  food  or  shelter,  by  the  increasing 
wants  of  the  population. 

If  the  family  is  the  economic  unit,  this  object  may  be  effected 
by  the  exercise  of  the  personal  responsibility  and  authority  of  its 
head  in  regulating  supply,  and  by  a  gradual  augmentation  of 
price  and  rent  in  restraining  demand.  When  the  limits  of  pro- 
duction or  supply  are  reached,  any  additional  population  must 
migrate  or  be  supported,  if  possible,  by  charity. 

But  whenever  the  economic  unit  is  extended  so  as  to  include 
a  whole  community,  this  personal  responsibility,  and  with  it  per- 
sonal liberty,  disappears.  In  a  small  district  (a  village  or  canton) 
where  the  conditions  approximate  to  family  or  patriarchal  life  the 
evil  is  mitigated  ;  but  in  a  large  and  complex  society,  to  vest  the 
property  of  the  soil  in  the  State — i.  e.,  in  a  central  Government, 
removed,  as  it  must  be,  from  all  personal  contact  with  individu- 
als— is  to  throw  upon  it  the  paramount  obligation  of  either  regu- 
lating the  increase  of  population  or  of  providing  food  and  shelter 
for  increasing  numbers  by  progressive  inroads  upon  the  accumu- 
lated capital  of  the  country — in  short,  upon  the  net  product,  which 
is  the  only  source  of  a  progressive  civilization.  The  first  of  these 
alternatives  can  not  be  better  described  than  in  the  words  of 
Bastiat : 


344  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

Ce  serait  creer  le  plus  faillible,  le  plus  nniversel,  le  plus  immediat,  le  plus 
inquisitorial,  le  plus  insupportable,  et  disons,  fort  heureusement,  le  plus  impossi- 
ble, de  tous  les  despotismes  que  jamais  cervelle  de  pacha  ou  de  mufti  ait  pu  con- 
cevoir. 

The  second  course  could  only  lead  to  the  gradual  pauperization 
and  ultimate  bankruptcy  of  any  country  which  had  the  folly  to 
embark  in  it.  Such  an  experiment  would  be  only  comparable  .to 
that  of  a  vast  joint-stock  company  in  which  all  comers  were  enti- 
tled to  shares  without  paying  for  them. 

The  distinction  drawn  by  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer,  in  common 
with  the  late  Mr.  Mill,  between  private  jjroperty  in  land  and  pri- 
vate property  in  things  produced  by  labor  is  one  which  I  believe 
to  have  no  economic  justification  whatever.  It  ignores  the  funda- 
mental principle,  on  which  the  institution  of  private  property  is 
grounded — viz.,  that  a  due  relation  between  demand  and  supply 
can  be  maintained  in  no  other  way  consistently  with  personal 
freedom. 

From  this  point  of  view  the  fact  that  the  supply  of  land  is 
practically  limited,  and  that  it  is,  therefore,  a  natural  monopoly, 
renders  it  not  less  but  more  necessary  that  it  should  be  allowed 
to  be  the  subject  of  private  appropriation. 

Sir  Henry  Maine  has  summed  up  the  whole  question  in  a  few 
words,  which  can  not  be  too  often  repeated  : 

There  are  two  sets  of  motives,  and  two  only,  by  which  the  great  bulk  of  the 
materials  of  human  subsistence  and  comfort  have  hitherto  been  produced  and 
reproduced.  One  has  led  to  the  cultivation  of  the  Northern  States  of  the  Ameri- 
can Union  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific ;  the  other  had  a  considerable  share  in 
bringing  about  the  agricultural  and  industrial  progress  of  the  Southern  States, 
and  in  old  days  it  produced  the  wonderful  prosperity  of  Peru  under  the  Incas. 
One  system  is  economical  competition,  the  other  consists  in  the  daily  task,  per- 
haps fairly  and  kindly  allotted,  but  enforced  by  the  prison  or  the  scourge.  So  far 
as  we  have  any  experience  to  teach  us,  we  are  driven  to  the  conclusion  that  every 
society  of  men  must  adopt  one  system  or  the  other,  or  it  will  pass  through  penury 
to  starvation.     ("  Popular  Government.") 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  sir,  your  obedient  servant, 

Louis  Mallet. 

13  Royal-Crescent,  Bath,  November  9th. 

MR.   SPENCER'S   SECOND   LETTER. 

To  the  Editor  of  "  The  Times  "  : 

Sir  :  As  Prof.  Huxley  admits  that  his  friend  A.  B.'s  title  to  his 
plot  of  land  is  qualified  by  the  right  of  the  State  to  dispossess  him 
if  it  sees  well — as,  by  implication,  he  admits  that  all  land-owners 
hold  their  land  subject  to  the  supreme  ownership  of  the  State,  that 
is,  the  community — as  he  contends  that  any  force  or  fraud  by 
which  land  was  taken  in  early  days  does  not  affect  the  titles  of 


LETTERS    ON  THE  LAND    QUESTION.  345 

existing  owners,  and  a  fortiori  does  not  affect  the  superior  title  of 
the  community — and  as,  consequently,  he  admits  that  the  commu- 
nity, as  supreme  owner  with  a  still  valid  title,  may  resume  posses- 
sion if  it  thinks  well,  he  seems  to  me  to  leave  the  question  standing 
very  much  where  it  stood ;  and  since  he,  as  I  suppose,  agrees  with 
me  that  any  such  resumption,  should  a  misjudgment  lead  to  it, 
ought  to  be  accompanied  by  due  compensation  for  all  artificial 
value  given  to  land,  I  do  not  see  in  what  respect  we  disagree  on 
the  land  question.  I  pass,  therefore,  to  his  comments  on  absolute 
political  ethics. 

"  Your  treatment  is  quite  at  variance  with  physiological  principles  "  would 
probably  be  the  criticism  passed  by  a  modern  practitioner  on  the  doings  of  a  San- 
grado,  if  we  suppose  one  to  have  survived.  "  Oh,  bother  your  physiological  prin- 
ciples "  might  be  the  reply.  "  I  have  got  to  cure  this  disease,  and  my  experience 
tells  me  that  bleeding  and  frequent  draughts  of  hot  water  are  needed."  "  Well," 
would  be  the  rejoinder,  "  if  you  do  not  kill  your  patient,  you  will  at  any  rate 
greatly  retard  his  recovery,  as  you  would  probably  be  aware  had  you  read  Prof. 
Huxley's  '  Lessons  on  Elementary  Physiology,'  and  the  more  elaborate  books  on 
the  subject  which  medical  students  have  to  master." 

This  imaginary  conversation  will  sufficiently  suggest  that, 
before  there  can  be  rational  treatment  of  a  disordered  state  of  the 
bodily  functions,  there  must  be  a  conception  of  what  constitutes 
their  ordered  state :  knowing  what  is  abnormal  implies  knowing 
what  is  normal.  That  Prof.  Huxley  recognizes  this  truth  is,  I 
suppose,  proved  by  the  inclusion  of  physiology  in  that  course  of 
medical  education  which  he  advocates.  If  he  says  that  abandon- 
ment of  the  Sangrado  treatment  was  due,  not  to  the  teachings  of 
physiology,  but  to  knowledge  empirically  gained,  then  I  reply 
that  if  he  expands  this  statement  so  as  to  cover  all  improvements 
in  medical  treatment  he  suicidally  rejects  the  teaching  of  physi- 
ological principles  as  useless. 

"Without  insisting  upon  that  analogy  between  a  society  and 
an  organism  which  results  from  the  interdependence  of  parts  per- 
forming different  functions — though  I  believe  he  recognizes  this 
— I  think  he  will  admit  that  conception  of  a  social  state  as  dis- 
ordered implies  conception  of  an  ordered  social  state.  We  may 
fairly  assume  that,  in  these  modern  days  at  least,  all  legislation 
aims  at  a  better ;  and  the  conception  of  a  better  is  not  possible 
without  conception  of  a  best.  If  there  is  rejoicing  because  certain 
diseases  have  been  diminished  by  precautions  enforced,  the  im- 
plied ideal  is  a  state  in  which  these  diseases  have  been  extin- 
guished. If  particular  measures  are  applauded  because  they  have 
decreased  criminality,  the  implication  is  that  the  absence  of  all 
crime  is  a  desideratum.  Hence,  however  much  a  politician  may 
pooh-pooh  social  ideals,  he  can  not  take  steps  toward  bettering  the 
social  state  without  tacitly  entertaining  them.     And  though  he 

vol.  xxxvi. — 22 


346  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

may  regard  absolute  political  ethics  as  an  airy  vision,  he  makes 
bit  by  bit  reference  to  it  in  everything  he  does.  I  simply  differ 
from  him  in  contending  for  a  consistent  and  avowed  reference, 
instead  of  an  inconsistent  and  unacknowledged  reference. 

Even  without  any  such  strain  on  the  imagination  as  may  be 
required  to  conceive  a  community  consisting  entirely  of  honest 
and  honorable  men — even  without  asking  whether  there  is  not  a 
set  of  definite  limits  to  individual  actions  which  such  men  would 
severally  insist  upon  and  respect — even  without  asserting  that 
these  limits  must,  in  the  nature  of  things,  result  when  men  have 
severally  to  carry  on  their  lives  in  proximity  with  one  another,  I 
should  have  thought  it  sufficiently  clear  that  our  system  of  justice, 
by  interdicting  murder,  assault,  theft,  libel,  etc.,  recognizes  the 
existence  of  such  limits  and  the  necessity  for  maintaining  them ; 
and  I  should  have  thought  it  manifest  enough  that  there  must 
exist  an  elaborate  system  of  limits  or  restraints  on  conduct,  by 
conformity  to  which  citizens  may  co-operate  without  dissension. 
Such  a  system,  deduced  as  it  may  be  from  the  primary  conditions 
to  be  fulfilled,  is  what  I  mean  by  absolute  political  ethics.  The 
complaint  of  Prof.  Huxley  that  absolute  political  ethics  does  not 
show  us  what  to  do  in  each  concrete  case  seems  to  be  much  like 
the  complaint  of  a  medical  practitioner  who  should  speak  slight- 
ingly of  physiological  generalizations  because  they  did  not  tell 
him  the  right  dressing  for  a  wound  or  how  best  to  deal  with  vari- 
cose veins.  I  can  not  here  explain  further,  but  any  one  who  does 
not  understand  me  may  find  the  matter  discussed  at  length  in 
a  chapter  on  "  Absolute  and  Relative  Ethics "  contained  in  the 
"Data  of  Ethics." 

It  appears  to  me  somewhat  anomalous  that  Prof.  Huxley,  who 
is  not  simply  a  biologist  but  is  familiar  with  science  at  large,  and 
who  must  recognize  the  reign  of  law  on  every  hand,  should  tacitly 
assume  that  there  exists  one  group  of  lawless  phenomena — social 
phenomena.  For  if  they  are  not  lawless — if  there  are  any  natural 
laws  traceable  throughout  them,  then  our  aim  should  be  to  ascer- 
tain these  and  conform  to  them,  well  knowing  that  non-conformity 
will  inevitably  bring  penalties.  Not  taking  this  view,  however, 
it  would  seem  as  though  Prof.  Huxley  agrees  with  the  mass  of 
"  practical "  politicians,  who  think  that  every  legislative  measure 
is  to  be  decided  by  estimation  of  probabilities  unguided  by  a  priori 
conclusions.  Well,  had  they  habitually  succeeded,  one  might  not 
wonder  that  they  should  habitually  ridicule  abstract  principles ; 
but  the  astounding  accumulation  of  failures  might  have  been  ex- 
pected to  cause  less  confidence  in  empirical  methods.  Of  the 
18,110  public  acts  passed  between  20  Henry  III  and  the  end  of 
1872,  Mr.  Janson,  Vice-President  of  the  Law  Society,  estimates 
that  four  fifths  have  been  wholly  or  partially  repealed,  and  that 


LETTERS    ON  THE  LAND    QUESTION.  347 

in  the  years  1870-'72  there  were  repealed  3,532  acts,  of  which  2,759 
were  totally  repealed.  Further,  I  myself  found,  on  examining 
the  books  for  1881-'83,  that  in  those  years  there  had  been  re- 
pealed 650  acts  belonging  to  the  present  reign,  besides  many  of 
preceding  reigns.  Remembering  that  acts  which  are  repealed 
have  been  doing  mischief,  which  means  loss,  trouble,  pain  to  great 
numbers — remembering,  thus,  the  enormous  amount  of  suffering 
which  this  helter-skelter  legislation  has  inflicted  for  generations 
and  for  centuries,  I  think  it  would  be  not  amiss  to  ask  whether 
better  guidance  may  not  be  had,  even  though  it  should  come  from 
absolute  political  ethics. 

I  regret  that  neither  space  nor  health  will  permit  me  to  discuss 
any  of  the  questions  raised  by  Sir  Louis  Mallet.  And  here,  in- 
deed, I  find  myself  compelled  to  desist  altogether.  In  so  far  as  I 
am  concerned,  the  controversy  must  end  with  this  letter. 

I  am,  etc.,  Herbert  Spencer. 

AniENiEUM  Club,  November  13th. 

MR.  LAIDLER'S  LETTER. 

To  the  Editor  of  "  The  Times  " : 

Sir  :  As  one  of  the  deputation  of  members  of  the  Newcastle 
Labor  Electoral  Organization  who  recently  waited  upon  Mr. 
John  Morley,  M.  P.,  to  ascertain  his  opinions  on  certain  politi- 
cal and  social  topics,  I  was  intrusted  by  my  fellow-members  of 
the  deputation  with  the  question  of  the  nationalization  of  the 
land,  and  this  subject  I  discussed  with  Mr.  Morley.  In  doing  so, 
I  sought  to  back  up  my  position  by  quoting  the  ninth  chapter  of 
"  Social  Statics,"  by  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer,  and  I  certainly  thought 
I  had  a  good  case  when  I  found  on  my  side  the  most  distinguished 
authority  of  our  time.  To  my  great  surprise  I  now  find  that  in 
the  letters  which  he  has  addressed  to  you,  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer 
appears  to  be  very  anxious  to  repudiate  the  doctrines  which  he 
preached  so  eloquently  in  1850.  Now,  although  it  is  a  common 
thing  for  the  politician  of  to  -  day  to  repudiate  principles  and 
deductions  which  he  formerly  warmly  espoused  and  to  adopt 
others  which  he  once  energetically  condemned,  one  does  not 
expect  the  same  vacillation  on  the  part  of  a  distinguished  phi- 
losopher like  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer.  I  find  it  difficult  to  under- 
stand his  position,  which  seems  to  be  this — that  while  adhering 
to  his  general  principles  he  abandons  certain  deductions  there- 
from. Now,  to  my  mind,  the  ninth  chapter  of  "  Social  Statics," 
which  deals  with  "  The  right  to  the  use  of  the  earth,"  seems  as 
true,  as  logical,  and  as  unanswerable  an  argument  in  favor  of  the 
nationalization  of  the  land  as  it  doubtless  appeared  to  Mr.  Her- 
bert Spencer  on  the  day  it  was  written.     Let  us  trace  the  course 


348  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

of  his  argument  through,  the  ten  sections  of  which  the  chapter  is 
composed : 

1.  Given  a  race  of  beings  having  little  claims  to  pursue  the 
objects  of  their  desires,  and  a  world  into  which  such  beings  are 
similarly  born,  it  unavoidably  follows  that  they  have  equal  rights 
to  the  use  of  this  world.  Conversely,  it  is  manifest  that  no  one, 
or  part  of  them,  may  use  the  earth  in  such  a  way  as  to  prevent  the 
rest  from  similarly  using  it. 

2.  Equity,  therefore,  does  not  permit  property  in  land.  Other- 
wise, landless  men  might  equitably  be  expelled  from  the  earth 
altogether. 

3.  We  find  yet  further  reason  to  deny  the  rectitude  of  property 
in  land.  Violence,  fraud,  the  prerogative  of  force,  the  claims  of 
superior  cunning,  these  are  the  sources  to  which  titles  may  be 
traced.  Could  valid  claims  thus  be  constituted  ?  Hardly.  If  not, 
what  becomes  of  the  pretensions  of  all  subsequent  holders  of 
estates  so  obtained  ? 

4.  Not  only  have  present  land  tenures  an  indefensible  origin, 
but  it  is  impossible  to  discover  any  mode  in  which  land  can  be- 
come private  property.    Cultivation  can  not  give  a  legitimate  title. 

5.  Why  not  agree  to  a  fair  subdivision  of  the  land  ?  Until  we 
can  demonstrate  that  men  born  after  a  certain  date  should  be 
doomed  to  slavery,  we  must  consider  no  such  allotment  permissible. 

6.  Either  men  have  a  right  to  make  the  soil  private  property 
or  they  have  not.  No  compromise  is  possible.  If  they  have  such 
a  right,  then  the  Duke  of  Sutherland  may  justifiably  banish  High- 
landers to  make  room  for  sheep-walks. 

7.  After  all,  nobody  does  implicitly  believe  in  landlordism.  If 
a  canal,  a  railway,  or  a  turnpike  road  is  to  be  made,  we  do  not 
scruple  to  seize  just  as  many  acres  as  may  be  requisite.  If  we 
decide  that  the  claims  of  individual  ownership  must  give  way, 
then  we  imply  that  the  right  of  the  nation  at  large  to  the  soil  is 
supreme. 

8.  To  what  does  this  doctrine,  that  men  are  equally  entitled  to 
the  use  of  the  earth,  lead  ?  Instead  of  being  in  the  possession  of 
individuals,  the  country  would  be  held  by  the  great  corporate 
body — society.  Instead  of  leasing  his  acres  from  an  isolated  pro- 
prietor, the  farmer  would  lease  them  from  the  nation.  Clearly, 
on  such  a  system,  the  earth  might  be  inclosed,  occupied,  and  culti- 
vated in  entire  subordination  to  the  law  of  equal  freedom. 

9.  No  doubt  great  difficulties  must  attend  the  resumption,  by 
mankind  at  large,  of  their  rights  to  the  soil.  The  question  of 
compensation  to  existing  proprietors  is  a  complicated  one — one 
that  perhaps  can  not  be  settled  in  a  strictly  equitable  manner. 
But  there  are  others  besides  the  landed  class  to  be  considered. 
The  rights  of  the  many  are  in  abeyance.    To  deprive  others  of 


TWO  AND   A  HALF  PER    CENT. 


349 


their  rights  to  the  use  of  the  earth  is  to  commit  a  crime  inferior 
only  in  wickedness  to  the  crime  of  taking  away  their  lives  or  per- 
sonal liberties. 

10.  The  right  of  each  man  to  the  nse  of  the  earth,  limited  only 
by  the  like  rights  of  his  fellow-men,  is  immediately  deducible 
from  the  law  of  equal  freedom.  The  maintenance  of  this  right 
necessarily  forbids  private  property  in  land.  The  theory  of  the 
co-heirship  of  all  men  to  the  soil  is  consistent  with  the  highest 
civilization,  and,  however  difficult  it  may  be  to  embody  that  the- 
ory in  fact,  equity  sternly  commands  it  to  be  done. 

In  the  foregoing  digest,  beyond  one  or  two  connecting  words, 
the  language  is  that  of  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  himself.  Does  it  not 
constitute  an  unanswerable  argument  in  favor  of  the  nationaliza- 
tion of  the  land  ?  If  the  author  would  permit  it  to  be  reprinted, 
what  an  admirable  tract  the  ninth  chapter  of  "  Social  Statics " 
would  be  for  the  propagation  of  Socialistic  principles !  But  he 
now  seems  to  repudiate  the  offspring  of  his  own  genius !  We 
have,  however,  a  right  to  ask  that,  instead  of  a  vague  repudiation 
in  general  terms,  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  should  tell  us  specifically 
what  deductions  he  has  abandoned  and  why  he  has  abandoned 
them.  We  might  then  endeavor  to  answer  his  answers  to  his 
own  propositions.  Yours, 

John  Laidler,  Bricklayer. 


-♦*♦- 


TWO  AND  A  HALF  PER  CENT. 

By  GEORGE  ILES. 

THE  fall  in  the  rate  of  interest  is  one  of  the  most  striking  facts 
in  the  financial  history  of  this  generation.  At  times  the 
price  of  money  has  risen,  and  investors  have  hoped  that  the  good 
old  rates  were  to  be  a  permanency ;  but  interest  has  soon  declined 
again,  vibrating  about  a  point  a  little  lower  than  the  center  of  its 
former  seesaw. 

Last  April,  the  city  of  New  York,  in  purchasing  certain  up- 
town parks,  sold  stock  bearing  2%  per  cent  per  annum,  maturing 
in  twenty  years,  and  exempt  from  city  and  county  taxation.  The 
stock,  $7,457,000  in  amount,  brought  on  an  average  100T3o.  High 
as  the  credit  of  the  metropolis  stands  with  investors,  still  higher 
stands  the  credit  of  the  United  States.  Its  bonds  last  April  netted 
a  return  at  current  market  prices  of  but  2*07  per  cent.  During 
the  decade  ending  with  January,  1889,  the  average  rate  realized 
on  a  United  States  Government  bond  was  2'72  per  cent ;  during 
the  preceding  ten  years  it  was  4'06  per  cent,  very  nearly  one  half 
more.     Comparing  the  nine  years  and  nine  months  ending  Octo- 


35° 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


ber  31, 1889,  with  the  decade  preceding,  the  rate  of  discount  charged 
on  prime  commercial  paper  by  the  banks  of  New  York  city  de- 
clined from  an  average  of  6*23  to  an  average  of  5*29  per  cent.  The 
Bank  of  England's  rate  concurrently  compared  shows  the  rela- 
tively small  diminution  of  from  3*40  to  3'28  per  cent.* 

As  far  as  concerns  the  manufacturing  and  trading  public  who 
obtain  credit  at  banks  in  the  United  States,  the  decline  in  the  rate 
of  interest  has  been  slight.  It  has  been  very  different  with  regard 
to  returns  obtainable  from  investments  of  the  highest  class,  such 
as  those  offered  on  the  bonds  of  the  United  States  Government, 
and  of  the  great  cities  with  credit  unsmirched  by  traditions  of 
bankruptcy  or  repudiation.  An  investor  in  a  Government  bond 
has  certainly  a  form  of  property  wherein  the  cares  of  ownership 
are  brought  to  the  vanishing-point.  His  security  is  absolute ;  his 
bonds  are  registered,  so  that  he  need  fear  no  thief ;  he  can  sell  all 
or  any  part  of  them  at  pleasure ;  and,  should  he  desire  to  pledge 
them  for  a  loan,  no  operation  is  simpler  and  easier.  Still,  two 
things  remain  to  be  desired — the  perpetuity  of  the  obligation,  and 
a  larger  supply  of  the  securities.  In  a  term  of  years,  all  too  brief, 
the  bonds  will  be  paid,  and  the  question  of  reinvestment  will  come 
up,  perhaps  to  be  settled  by  heirs  and  assigns  who  may  be  tempted 
by  a  shrinking  rate  of  return  to  accept  securities  which  are  no  se- 
curities. Eailroad  financiers  have  noted  the  demand  for  perma- 
nency in  investments,  and  have  profited  in  supplying  it.  For  ex- 
ample, certain  permanent  debenture  stock  issued  by  the  Canadian 


* 

Rate  realized  on 
U.  S.  Government 
bonds  at  average 

January  prices. 

Rate  of  discount 

charged  by  banks  in 

New  York  city  for 

prime  commercial 

paper ;  average  for 

year. 

Bank  of  England's 

rate  of  discount ; 

average  for  year. 

1870 

Per  cent. 
4-86 
5-28 
5-06 
4-50 
4-58 
3-94 
228 
240 
3-69 
4-00 
375 
3-25 
3  00 
2-87 
2-60 
2-63 
2-50 
2-23 
2-28 
2-07 

Per  cent. 
8-08 
6-13 
6-38 
992 
5  98 
551 
512 
521 
4-81 
5-19 
5-33 
519 
5-67 
5-56 
5-40 
4-18 
495 
5-79 
4-87 

591 

Per  cent 
3*44 

1871 

2*88 

1872 

4  09 

1873 

4-89 

1874 

3-69 

1875 

1876 

3-23 
261 

1877 

2-91 

1878 

3-78 

1879 

2-50 

1880 

2-76 

1881 

348 

1882 

415 

1883 

3-57 

1884 

2-96 

1885 

292 

1886 

305 

1887 

3-34 

1888 

3-30 

1889 

1889,  January  1  to  October  31  . . . 

3-25 

TWO   AND   A   HALF  PER   CENT.  35i 

Pacific  Railway  Company,  is  quoted  at  123 ;  certain  other  of  its 
bonds,  equally  well  secured,  but  payable  in  1937,  are  quoted  at 
110 ;  both  bear  five  per  cent.  Investors  of  the  wealthiest  class  pre- 
fer investments  which,  while  absolutely  secure,  may  be  subscribed 
for  in  blocks  of  a  quarter  to  a  round  million — a  desideratum  which 
further  restricts  their  choice.  An  electric  current  may  be  so  in- 
tense as  to  become  an  obstacle  in  its  own  path  ;  a  vast  volume  of 
capital  in  the  hands  of  an  individual  has  somewhat  the  same  effect. 
While  the  rate  of  interest  on  Government  bonds,  and  city  and 
railroad  debentures  has  been  steadily  falling  within  the  past  two 
decades,  the  rates  payable  on  real-estate  mortgages  have  declined 
in  sympathy.  This  year,  in  New  York  and  Boston,  liens  on  the 
best  city  property  have  been  placed  at  four  per  cent,  two  per  cent 
less  than  the  rates  current  in  1869.  In  other  large  cities  of  the 
Union  a  similar  decline  is  observable  ;  and,  as  between  newly  set- 
tled States  and  Territories  and  the  financial  centers  of  the  nation, 
the  disparity  in  the  rates  payable  on  well-secured  loans  is  much 
less  to-day  than  it  was  twenty  years  ago.  The  significant  point 
in  the  matter  under  consideration  is  not  so  much  that  the  rate  of 
interest  has  been  falling  as  that  interest  has  become  distinctly 
separated  from  the  wages  of  superintendence  and  the  premium  for 
incurred  risk,  which  used  to  be  combined  with  it.  The  return  on  a 
Government  bond  represents  the  bare  remuneration  of  capital  em- 
ployed, without  hazard  or  care.  An  investor  in  first-class  city 
mortgages  receives  a  larger  income  than  if  he  had  bought  Govern- 
ment bonds  with  his  money,  but  he  has  not  so  easy  a  time  of  it.  He 
must  have  titles  carefully  and  responsibly  examined ;  his  credit- 
ors may  be  unpunctual ;  occasionally  he  may  have  the  trouble  of 
a  foreclosure  on  his  hands.  His  investments  are  for  comparative- 
ly short  terms  of  years,  and,  between  one  investment  and  another, 
part  of  his  capital  may  be  unproductive;  or,  in  reinvesting,  he 
may  be  obliged  to  accept  a  reduced  rate.  Hence  the  competition 
for  securities  eliminating  hazard  and  bother,  which  is  one  of  the 
notable  facts  in  the  modern  world  of  finance.  Many  causes  have 
been  at  work  in  bringing  down  the  return  on  a  New  York  debent- 
ure to  five  eighths  as  much  as  can  be  obtained  on  a  Fifth  Avenue 
or  Broadway  mortgage.  First  of  all,  of  course,  must  count  the 
enormous  growth  of  American  wealth  within  recent  years ;  and, 
next,  the  fact  that  a  good  deal  of  it  is  in  the  hands  of  compara- 
tively few  men.  A  multi-millionaire's  income,  even  at  the  lowest 
current  percentage,  is  so  much  more  than  his  outgo  that,  if  he  can 
be  relieved  from  care  and  anxiety  in  looking  after  his  possessions, 
he  is  often  content  to  buy  securities  paying  but  half  as  well  as  the 
best  properties  did  twenty  years  since.  Another  prime  cause  for 
the  fact  under  notice  is  the  steady  approximation  to  European 
rates  of  interest  which  has  been  going  on  since  the  close  of  the 


352  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

war.  With  trade  restored  to  its  normal  channels,  and  a  steady- 
reduction  in  the  national  debt,  have  come  a  constant  appreciation 
in  national  securities.  Ever-improving  means  of  intercourse  "by 
steam  and  telegraph  have  brought  about  a  better  knowledge  in 
Europe  of  other  leading  American  investments,  and  a  competition 
for  them  which  makes  the  London  demand  in  substantial  sympa- 
thy with  that  of  New  York.  Meanwhile,  too,  European  rates  of 
interest  have  fallen ;  in  1887  Germany  was  able  to  convert  her 
3|'s  into  3's ;  last  year  Great  Britain  refunded  a  large  portion  of 
her  debt,  which  had  borne  3  per  cent,  at  2f ,  with  a  liability  for 
but  %\  after  a  certain  term.  Among  the  consequences  which  have 
followed  the  diminution  of  income  from  secure  European  invest- 
ments has  been  the  invasion  of  the  American  industrial  field  by 
European  capital.  This  invasion,  partly  prompted  by  the  fear  of 
continental  war,  in  seeking  to  add  profit  to  interest,  must  both 
tend  to  increase  commercial  competition  in  America  and  contrib- 
ute to  further  lower  the  rate  of  interest.  A  fact  recently  pre- 
sented by  Mr.  M.  A.  Neymarck,  the  French  economist,  is  worth 
mentioning  in  this  connection :  when  the  existing  redeemable 
debts  of  France,  of  Paris,  and  of  the  French  railway  companies 
are  paid,  the  redemption  prices  will  exceed  the  issue  prices  by 
$1,300,000,000. 

While  the  progress  of  science,  applied  to  developing  the  re- 
sources of  this  country,  has  prodigiously  increased  its  capital,  the 
ratio  of  it  offered  for  safe  investment  has  increased  at  the  same 
time.  Savings-banks,  trust  companies,  building  associations,  in- 
surance companies  diverse  in  type,  afford,  as  it  were,  a  thorough 
system  of  conduits  to  bring  every  tiny  rill  of  saved  earnings  to 
some  great  reservoir  of  accumulation.  Despite  America's  increase 
of  population,  there  are  now,  probably,  fewer  hoards  of  money  in 
its  old  stockings  than  ever.  When  tenders  for  city,  county,  State, 
or  railroad  bonds  are  opened,  it  is  usual  to  find  that  the  majority 
of  competitors  are  trust  companies,  savings-banks,  and  other  con- 
cerns representing  small  investors,  whose  demand  first  and  chiefly 
is  that  their  security  shall  be  unquestionable.  To  this  numerous 
class  a  vitally  important  inquiry  is,  Are  we  to  expect  a  rise  or  a 
fall  in  the  rate  of  interest  ?  In  considering  this  question  it  will 
be  enough,  in  passing,  to  say  that  abnormal  influences  affecting 
the  rate  of  interest  are  the  remote  contingencies  of  foreign  war  or 
civil  commotion ;  the  normal  influences  are  chiefly  four : 

First,  the  comparative  efficiency  or  reproductive  power  of 
capital ;  next,  its  security,  depending  on  the  character  and  ability 
of  those  who  handle  it ;  third,  its  supply  and  demand  ;  lastly,  the 
soundness  of  the  currency,  assuring  the  repayment  of  loans  in  un- 
depreciated money.  With  respect  to  the  first  factor,  a  glance  is 
enough  to  show  it  to  be  two-sided.    In  the  new  South  and  new 


TWO   AND   A   HALF  PER    CENT.  35 3 

West,  virgin  forests,  prairies,  and  mines  offer  as  splendid  oppor- 
tunities to  enterprise  as  enterprise  has  ever  known ;  so  far,  there- 
fore, the  demand  for  capital  to  develop  these  new  resources  will 
tend  to  raise,  or  at  least  to  conserve,  the  rate  of  interest.  While 
this  is  true,  it  must  be  remembered  that  a  given  amount  of  capi- 
tal is  more  efficient  now  than  it  ever  was,  that  its  efficiency  in- 
creases ;  which  means  lessened  demand  for  it,  tending  to  reduce 
the  terms  paid  for  its  use — unless  new  and  profitable  applications 
of  capital  can  be  made.  As  invention  after  invention  is  perfected 
and  introduced,  the  outlay  for  machinery  required  to  make  a 
million  pairs  of  shoes  steadily  diminishes.  Quick  and  cheap 
railroad  transportation  enables  a  country  merchant  to  keep  his 
stock  at  a  minimum  by  constantly  "  sorting-up  " — reducing  the 
capital  needed  for  his  business.  Telegraphic  purchases  and  pay- 
ments now  exclude  the  necessity  for  locking  up  capital  while 
correspondence  goes  on  through  the  post-office.  In  the  vast 
stores  of  capital,  set  free  in  these  and  similar  ways,  arrives  the 
opportunity  for  inventiveness,  taste,  and  skill  to  create  new  wants, 
to  supply  them  and  some  old  wants  as  well  which  have  long  gone 
hungry — to  increase  the  quantity  and  improve  the  quality  of  life. 
In  so  far  as  such  new  applications  of  capital  are  not  commercially 
reproductive,  they  tend  to  maintain  the  rate  of  interest. 

Next,  as  to  security  in  investment.  During  recent  years  there 
has  been  an  immense  growth  of  American  capital  in  the  hands  of 
people  unable  or  unwilling  to  superintend  its  application  in  busi- 
ness, people  in  the  main  desirous  of  thorough  security  in  their 
investments — many  of  them  executors  and  trustees.  Financiers 
have  not  failed  to  observe  this  state  of  things  ;  it  has  enabled  them 
to  obtain  vast  loans  at  comparatively  low  and  diminishing  rates. 
Of  late  years  have  appeared  innumerable  issues  of  bonds,  debent- 
ures, and  mortgages ;  covering  not  only  railroad  property,  but 
mills,  elevators,  apartment  -  houses,  office  and  club  buildings. 
When  the  loans  obtained  by  these  wholesale  borrowings  have 
been  remuneratively  applied,  the  result  has  been  all  that  the 
lenders  could  wish.  But,  unfortunately,  the  securities  which 
warrant  a  buyer  in  dismissing  caution  and  the  necessity  for  dis- 
crimination are  few  indeed.  The  popularity  of  coupon  bonds  has 
extended  from  those  of  a  substantial  description  to  many  of  little 
or  no  value.  During  the  year  ending  June  30,  1888,  twenty-one 
per  cent  of  the  bonds  outstanding  on  American  railroads  paid  no 
interest ;  the  capital  involved  being  no  less  a  sum  than  eight  hun- 
dred and  twenty-seven  million  dollars.  Of  allied  significance  is 
the  fact  that  in  1888  one  in  every  ninety-eight  firms  in  business  in 
the  United  States  became  insolvent.  Despite  improved  methods 
of  transacting  business,  of  estimating  credits  through  mercantile 
agencies,  there  persists  an  overtrading  which  burdens  the  com- 


354  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

inunity  with  a  heavy  tax  for  bankruptcy.  That  administrative 
ability  is  much  rarer  than  opportunities  for  its  exercise  is  clearly 
one  of  the  causes  for  low  interest,  and  for  the  addition  thereto 
which  bankers  and  other  lenders  must  charge  in  order  to  cover 
commercial  risks. 

The  third  influence  bearing  on  the  rate  of  interest  is  the  com- 
parative scarcity  or  plentifulness  of  capital.  This  is  determined 
not  only  by  the  amount  and  efficiency  of  capital  productively  em- 
ployed, but  by  the  ratio  of  reproduced  capital  which  is  saved. 
Taking  it  by  and  large  there  seems  no  reason  to  believe  that  hab- 
its of  thrift  are  losing  their  hold  on  the  people  of  this  country. 
As  will  shortly  be  seen,  the  returns  of  savings-banks  bear  this 
out.  If  persons  of  small  capital  are  exposed  to  a  reduction  of  in- 
terest from  the  safest  forms  of  investment,  this  very  liability  may 
lead  to  greater  thrift  among  those  of  forecasting  mind.  Where 
accumulation  is  quite  too  small  for  its  income  to  yield  a  living,  it 
is  the  capital  sum  that  is  looked  to  as  a  resource  against  a  rainy 
day. 

Lastly,  as  to  the  soundness  of  the  currency.  While  "  the  con- 
sensus of  the  competent "  holds  that  there  is  the  menace  of  finan- 
cial derangement  in  the  legal-tender  decision  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States,  and  in  the  silver  legislation  of  Con- 
gress, neither  of  these  seems  as  yet  to  have  affected  the  rate  of 
interest.  To  provide  against  the  contingency  of  a  depreciated 
currency,  whether  fiat-paper  or  silver,  now  sought  to  be  artifi- 
cially bolstered  in  value,  certain  loans  of  large  amount  have  re- 
cently been  effected  in  Wall  Street  with  the  express  stipulation  of 
payment  in  gold  coin.     The  precaution  is  significant. 

Refraining  from  any  attempt  to  weigh  and  balance  others  of 
the  multifarious  influences  working  for  the  depression  or  elevation 
of  the  rate  of  interest,  it  may  be  enough  to  say  that  the  prevailing 
impression  among  both  economists  and  men  of  business  is  that 
downward  influences  will  probably  continue  the  stronger  in  the 
years  of  the  near  future.  This  means  hardship  to  many  worthy 
people  whose  time  of  competence  it  postpones  indefinitely  ;  hard- 
ship, too,  for  the  class  who,  unable  to  accept  business  risks  or 
manage  business  investments,  must  needs  accept  less  and  less  re- 
turn from  a  little  capital.  Small  comfort  for  them  to  hear  that 
prices  are  falling,  so  that  their  loss  of  income  is  largely  or  wholly 
offset;  does  not  rent  rise  constantly,  and  does  not  the  area  of 
"  necessities  "  expand  the  while  with  an  imperiousness  scarcely  to 
be  withstood  ?  But,  turning  from  cases  of  this  kind,  which  are 
after  all  comparatively  few,  the  reduction  of  the  rate  of  interest 
paid  by  secure  investments  is  in  the  main  a  benefit ;  it  means  in- 
crease in  the  shares  of  produced  wealth  divisible  as  wages  and 
profits,  if  it  also  means   more  for  rent.      It  indicates  that  the 


TWO   AND   A   HALF  PER    CENT.  355 

growth  of  large  fortunes  is  likely  to  be  slower  in  the  future  than 
it  has  been  in  the  past ;  and  the  growth  of  large  fortunes  is  in 
many  quarters  regarded  as  a  menace  to  industrial  and  political 
freedom.  That  wages  have  in  the  main  risen  during  the  past 
twenty  years  is  clearly  shown  in  the  statistics  of  the  State  and 
National  Labor  Bureaus.  In  many  trades  money-wages  have 
advanced ;  in  others,  where  they  have  remained  stationary  or 
fallen  a  little,  their  purchasing  power  has  increased;  in  a  few 
trades,  superseded  by  newly  devised  machinery,  and  in  the  case 
of  unskilled  labor  subjected  to  competition  with  hordes  of  immi- 
grants accustomed  to  a  low  standard  of  living,  wages  have  fallen 
below  the  purchasing  power  of  those  paid  twenty  years  ago.  No 
State  in  the  Union  adds  to  her  population  more  immigrants  of 
the  wage-depressing  type  than  New  York ;  still,  on  July  1,  1889, 
her  savings-banks  held  on  deposit  $536,417,974,  due  1,389,907  de- 
positors. The  amount  had  increased  $22,000,000  during  the  pre- 
ceding twelve  months,  and  $201,000,000  during  the  preceding  nine 
years.  These  figures  prove  a  rapid  improvement  in  the  condition 
of  the  working  people  of  New  York ;  and,  since  migration  from 
New  York  to  other  States  is  easy  and  cheap,  her  advance  in  gen- 
eral prosperity  may  be  fairly  interpreted  as  gauging  prosperity 
throughout  the  nation. 

While,  then,  wages  have  been  rising  and  interest  falling,  a  new 
method  has  perforce  entered  into  the  management  of  large  prop- 
erties. It  used  to  be  remarked,  as  a  characteristic  of  American 
engineering,  that  it  presented  not  the  best  thing,  but  the  lowest- 
priced  thing  that  would  serve.  This  is  true  no  longer.  Every- 
where we  find  railroads  adopting  the  most  substantial  types  of 
construction  and  equipment.  Steel  rails  long  since  replaced  iron 
rails  ;  now  steel  bridges  are  replacing  wooden  bridges  ;  not  only  on 
trunk  lines,  but  on  local  roads,  large  outlays  are  being  constantly 
made  for  improved  curves,  gradients  and  ballasting.  Already 
the  increase  in  the  cost  of  lumber,  due  to  forest  destruction,  has 
brought  in  the  experimental  use  of  steel  both  for  ties  and  for  car- 
construction.  A  steel  tie  is  dearer  than  a  wooden  one,  but  its  life 
is  vastly  longer.  The  same  principle  obtains  in  mills  and  facto- 
ries :  net  profit  can  be  increased  by  a  judicious  increase  of  capital 
expenditure,  which  adds  to  the  account  for  interest,  but  deducts  a 
larger  sum  from  disbursements  for  maintenance,  repairs,  and  acci- 
dents. Cheap  money  for  good  security  has,  too,  had  much  to  do 
with  the  new  architecture  of  our  cities — architecture  which  em- 
ploys granite  instead  of  sandstone,  substitutes  sandstone  and  mar- 
ble for  brick,  and  demands  brick  of  new  durability  and  beauty. 
In  quite  modest  dwellings  it  is  now  usual  to  find  hot- water  or  hot- 
air  furnaces  instead  of  the  heating  stoves  still  general  a  decade 
ago ;  ranges  and  gas-stoves  for  cook-stoves ;  elaborate  laundry 


356  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

appliances  ;  electric  "bells — all  intended  to  minimize  service  at  the 
expense  of  an  increased  original  outlay.  If  the  occupant  of  a  suite 
in  a  New  York  apartment-house,  who  has  abandoned  a  self-con- 
tained house,  is  asked  the  reason,  he  will  probably  say,  "  I  pay 
just  as  much  rent,  but  I  get  along  now  with  fewer  servants/' 

The  tendency  observable  on  all  hands  to  provide  durability  in 
the  stead  of  flimsiness,  the  most  elaborate  and  complete  machin- 
ery for  anything  short  of  it,  is  accompanied  by  another  tendency 
in  no  sense  economical.  When  banks  and  office-buildings  display 
floors  of  rich  mosaic,  walls  and  ceilings  of  variegated  marble,  stair- 
cases of  Mexican  onyx,  it  is  evident  that  luxury  brings  a  price  as 
well  as  wholesomeness  and  commodiousness.  Throughout  the 
Union  every  considerable  city  has  its  structures  of  this  type  dis- 
covering the  sky,  mostly  erected  by  insurance  companies  who 
seem  to  be  hedging  on  the  fall  in  the  rate  of  interest  by  reaching 
out  after  unearned  increment. 

Rent  has  been  affected  in  diverse  ways  by  the  cheapening  of 
secure  loans.  In  so  far  as  mining  privileges  and  the  like  can  be 
worked  with  less  cost  for  the  hire  of  capital  than  ever,  their  net 
income,  rent  or  royalty,  has  increased.  Farming  lands  of  all  kinds 
but  the  best  situated  or  the  most  fertile  have  tended  to  fall  in  rent 
as  massed  capital  has  become  cheaper.  Railroads,  in  opening  up 
vast  tracts  of  new  territory  with  great  rapidity,  have  kept  the  val- 
ues of  even  the  best  farming  land  lower  than  they  would  otherwise 
have  been.  In  the  same  direction  also  has  operated  the  lowered 
rate  at  which  money  can  now  be  borrowed  on  farm  buildings  and 
machinery.  In  the  cities  and  larger  towns  rents  have  risen  remark- 
ably within  twenty  years,  yet  the  rise  would  have  been  greater 
still  had  not  the  rate  of  interest  dropped.  Rent  in  cities  and 
towns,  as  elsewhere,  depends  upon  two  values — that  of  land  apart 
from  improvements,  and  that  of  improvements.  The  first  of  these 
values  is  determined  by  the  comparative  salubrity,  publicity,  con- 
venience, and  beauty  of  sites  ;  other  things  equal,  it  will  tend  to 
rise  as  the  income  of  the  average  citizen  rises — with  the  increase 
of  ability  to  compete  for  advantages  desired.  The  rental  value  of 
improvements,  of  all  that  capital  adds  in  preparing  for  a  build- 
ing, constructing  it,  and  fitting  it  up,  will  tend  to  approximate  to 
the  rate  of  interest  payable  on  approved  real-estate  security.  In 
New  York  city,  where  land  is  usually  more  valuable  than  the  build- 
ings which  cover  it,  low  terms  for  mortgage  interest  have  not 
affected  rents  so  much  as  in  smaller  cities  where  buildings  are  as 
valuable  as  or  more  valuable  than  their  sites.  Last  spring  a 
block  of  tenement-houses  in  New  York  sold  at  a  price  so  high  as 
to  realize  its  purchaser  but  six  per  cent  as  a  gross  return  on  his 
investment.  If  his  rents  remain  unchanged,  any  further  fall  in 
the  rate  of  interest  will  enhance  the  price  of  his  property.    This 


TWO  AND   A  HALF  PER    CENT.  357 

incidentally  illustrates  how  as  interest  falls  land  values  rise,  and 
explains  the  growing  appreciation  of  home-owning  in  cities  and 
their  suburbs. 

According  to  the  statistics  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commis- 
sion, the  bonded,  share,  and  floating  liabilities  of  American  rail- 
roads amounted  to  $8,129,000,000  on  June  30, 1888.*  It  is  not  likely 
that  science  has  any  such  revolutionary  gift  for  mankind  in  the 
near  future  as  the  railroad  ;  and  as  American  capital  at  this  time 
demands  new  outlets  whereby  to  effect  new  economies  or  save 
noteworthy  waste,  it  may  be  allowable  to  note  some  fields  for 
sound  investment  as  yet  unoccupied.  Is  not  the  improvement  of 
our  towns  and  cities,  as  such,  a  field  which  capital  might  well 
enter  ?  Recent  investigations  by  Captain  Francis  V.  Greene,  of 
New  York,  and  other  experts,  demonstrate  that,  were  the  city's 
pavements  as  good  as  they  should  be,  horses  could  draw  threefold 
greater  loads  over  them,  with  an  immense  abatement  of  both  noise 
and  filth.  While  the  improvement  of  the  metropolis  due  to  individ- 
ual enterprise  and  taste  has  been  marvelous  of  late  years,  its  man- 
sions and  business  structures  vying  with  the  finest  in  the  world, 
the  city  as  a  city  is  little  changed.  Its  gas,  water,  and  sewer  pipes 
are  still  laid  in  the  earth  beneath  its  streets,  subject  to  unceasing 
disturbance  for  repairs.  Its  electric  wires,  for  many  years  a  griev- 
ous eyesore,  a  menace  to  pedestrians  and  an  obstruction  often  fatal 
to  its  firemen,  at  last  have  so  multiplied  in  number  and  deadliness 
that  a  beginning  has  been  made  in  laying  them  underground — a 
tentative  procedure  attended  with  all  the  uncomfortable  results 
of  an  underground  piping  for  gas  and  water  service.  Repeatedly 
the  suggestion  has  been  made,  echoed  at  last  in  the  City  Hall,  that 
subways  be  constructed  for  the  accessible  disposition  of  gas,  water, 
and  sewer  pipes,  and  for  electric  wires.  Never  until  this  sugges- 
tion is  acted  upon  will  the  city's  pavements  be  free  from  constant 
breaks,  which,  were  repair  of  the  carefullest,  would  never  permit 
New  York  streets  to  remain  smooth  and  seemly.  Subways  of  the 
kind  proposed  could  easily  accommodate  pneumatic  tubes  for  the 
conveyance  of  postal  letters  and  parcels.  To-day  the  mails  trav- 
erse New  York,  much  as  furniture  and  vegetables  do,  in  common 
vans.  So  slow  is  their  delivery  that  letters  from  Albany,  arriving 
at  the  Grand  Central  Station  at  7  A.  M.,  reach  Fourth  Avenue  and 
Thirty-second  Street  partly  at  10.40  a.  m.,  but  in  larger  part  be- 
tween 12.40  and  1.10  p.  m.  The  point  named  is  half  a  mile  from 
the  station,  on  the  way  between  it  and  the  Post-Office.  The 
quickest  train  from  Albany  to  New  York  travels  the  distance,  one 
hundred  and  forty-eight  miles,  in  three  hours  and  thirty  minutes ; 
a  letter  traversing  a  distance  of  six  miles  within  the  city  occupies 

*  Of  this  stupendous  total,  39  per  cent  had  made  no  return  whatever  during  the  preced- 
ing twelve  months. 


358  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

on  an  average  five  hours.  Long  ago  the  Western  Union  Tele- 
graph Company  connected  its  Madison  Square  branch  with  its 
headquarters  on  Dey  Street :  written  messages  are  transmitted 
through  its  cylinders,  two  and  a  half  inches  in  diameter,  at  the 
rate  of  a  mile  a  minute.  The  tube  in  its  course  connects  with 
three  branch  offices  in  Broadway — a  hint  for  the  pneumatic  con- 
nection of  branch  post-offices  with  the  general  Post-Office,  which, 
extended  to  the  principal  railway  stations  and  ferry-houses  in  the 
metropolitan  district,  would  give  the  postal  service  a  new  effi- 
ciency. More  important  than  this  pneumatic  tubing  is  the  ques- 
tion of  rapid  passenger  transit,  the  inadequacy  of  existing  methods 
being  peculiarly  impressive  as  the  great  exhibition  of  1892  is  dis- 
cussed. Whether  by  tunnel  or  viaduct,  it  seems  imperative  that 
New  York,  at  an  early  day,  shall  provide  itself  with  transit  facili- 
ties such  as  those  of  the  German  capital,  where  trains  stopping  at 
all  stations,  and  trains  running  at  high  speed  stopping  only  at 
the  principal  stations,  run  on  separate  sets  of  tracks. 

This  continent  is,  after  all,  only  a  larger  kind  of  island,  and  in- 
crease of  transatlantic  travel  has  been  needed  to  remove  some  of 
its  insular  complacencies,  especially  that  with  which  it  has  hith- 
erto regarded  the  condition  of  its  streets. 

In  common  with  New  York,  every  city  and  large  town  in 
America  requires  what  may  be  called  integration — a  thoroughly 
comprehensive  and  intelligently  planned  outlay  of  capital  for 
every  means  of  welding  it  into  a  unit — commodious,  wholesome, 
and  pleasant  to  live  in ;  easy  and  cheap  to  get  about  in.  There  is 
an  art  of  city  design  as  well  as  house  design :  modern  house  plan- 
ning not  only  bestows  new  comforts  and  refinements,  it  makes 
them  all  part  and  parcel  of  a  whole.  When  cities  and  towns  are 
treated  structurally  exactly  as  a  good  architect  treats  the  edifice 
an  unstinting  capitalist  asks  him  to  create,  life  in  them  will  be 
much  better  worth  having  than  it  is.  And  the  financial  oppor- 
tunity to  do  all  this  appears  when  New  York  can  borrow  money 
at  two  and  a  half  per  cent — a  rate  one  half  as  much  as  her  citizens 
are  obliged  to  pay  for  individual  borrowings.  What  has  been 
said  with  regard  to  cities  and  towns  applies  equally  to  means  of 
communication  between  them  and  villages — the  common  roads, 
whose  badness  Prof.  Shaler  tells  us  imposes  a  tax  of  at  least  ten 
dollars  a  year  on  the  average  American  household.  Road  im- 
provement offers  scope  and  verge  for  the  profitable  and  safe  in- 
vestment of  a  good  many  millions  now  idle.  Passing 
from  matters  of  municipal  and  county  administration  to  State 
and  national  interests,  does  not  cheap  and  abundant  capital  make 
it  possible  to  conserve  the  Adirondacks  as  a  State  park,  and  as 
the  source  of  the  principal  rivers  of  New  York ;  to  establish  a 
national  system  of  afforestation  ;  to  reclaim  the  arid  plains  of  the 


THE  RARE  FORMS    OF   ORCHIDS.  359 

far  "West  to  fertility  ;  to  take  in  hand  on  "broad  lines  the  improve- 
ment of  the  nation's  water-ways  ?  Governments,  honest  and  able, 
can  do  many  things  for  the  common  interest  which  the  people  as 
individuals  are  powerless  to  do  for  themselves.  Honest  and  able, 
there's  the  rub  !  The  municipal  administration  of  Berlin,  a  city 
well-nigh  perfect  in  government,  is  carried  on  for  a  trifle  more 
than  the  interest  on  the  public  debt  of  New  York.  Abounding 
cause  is  there  to  fear  waste,  corruption,  and  incapacity  in  any 
extension  of  governmental  functions  which  the  future  may  de- 
velop. Still,  it  is  not  so  much  fear  of  this  kind  which  prevents 
that  extension,  as  a  lack  of  perception  by  the  American  people, 
governing  and  governed,  of  the  great  benefits  that  can  follow  the 
organized  action  of  municipalities,  counties,  States,  and  the 
nation  itself.  There  is  much  deploring  of  political  degradation 
and  political  immorality:  may  we  not  reckon  in  the  future,  among 
the  forces  working  for  reform,  that  of  capital  wrongly  excluded 
from  vast  fields  of  usefulness  and  profit  ? 

♦•♦ 


THE  RARE  FORMS  OF  ORCHIDS. 

By  J.   DYBOWSKI. 

THE  varieties  of  plants  which,  under  various  titles,  charm  us 
as  house-ornaments,  and  give  our  habitations  a  character  of 
freshness  and  life  that  is  always  dear  to  us,  are  already  numerous. 
Right  along  with  their  growing  number  goes  our  increasing 
affection  for  them.  They  are  not  of  the  kind  of  things  we  tire  of 
as  soon  as  we  become  acquainted  with  them ;  but  the  more  inti- 
mately we  know  them  the  more  disposed  we  are  to  seek  for  new 
ones.  They  will  never  become  common.  We  might  suppose  that, 
the  more  numerous  rare  flowers  become  and  the  more  fond  ama- 
teurs grow  of  them,  common  flowers  would  fall  into  neglect. 
But  this  is  not  so.  We  are  not  only  fond  of  flowers  because  they 
are  rare  or  precious,  but  we  love  them  also  for  themselves  and  for 
the  attractions  of  their  own  that  they  possess.  In  the  grand  army 
of  flowers  which  seem  made  to  impress  a  tone  of  the  gay  on  the 
sober  background  of  our  existence,  there  are  some  stately  ones 
that  appear  to  constitute  a  kind  of  aristocracy  of  this  enchanting 
world. 

Such  flowers  are  the  subject  of  our  present  essay.  The 
orchids,  conquerors  of  the  light,  may  well  claim  pardon  for  their 
triumph  over  their  humble  companions  of  the  gardens,  for  their 
victory  is  fairly  achieved.  They  astonish  us  when  we  first  exam- 
ine them,  then  charm  us.  Nature  has  been  liberal  with  them, 
and  they  have  everything.     Their  flowers  are  full  of  that  curious 


360  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

charm  that  captivates.  Their  colors  are  harmoniously  toned,  and 
always  bright  and  elegant.  Their  odor  is  sweet  and  penetrating, 
but  does  not  cloy.  Notwithstanding  their  thin  texture,  which 
gives  them  a  delicate  and  frail  air,  they  last  longer  than  other 
ornamental  flowers.  Nothing,  in  fact,  seems  to  be  wanting  to 
them  but  a  more  lively  and  abundant  foliage ;  and  that  can  be 
supplied  by  mingling  fern-leaves  with  them. 

It  was  long  supposed  that  these  wonderful  plants  were  ex- 
tremely delicate  and  capricious.  This  was  a  mistake.  To  their 
other  virtues  they  join  the  rare  one  of  simplicity. 

Nearly  all  the  orchids  cultivated  in  greenhouses  are  natives  of 
the  intertropical  zone,  and  it  was  supposed  from  this  fact  that 
they  required  considerable  heat.  But  it  has  gradually  been  es- 
tablished that  a  high  temperature  really  hinders  their  best  devel- 
opment. A  considerable  number  of  them  in  their  native  state 
grow  on  high  mountains,  under  exposure  to  a  bracing  atmos- 
phere ;  and  they  are  now  cultivated  in  moderately  warmed  and 
freely  ventilated  greenhouses.  They  are  therefore  relatively 
hardy  plants,  well  adapted  to  the  decoration  of  our  rooms. 

The  genera  and  species  of  orchids  already  known  are  very  nu- 
merous, but  the  varieties  are  more  so.  The  cause  of  the  multiplic- 
ity of  form,  shade,  and  appearance  lies  chiefly  in  the  organization 
of  the  flower.  Without  going  into  technical  details  and  descrip- 
tions, it  is  enough  to  say  that  the  pollen  is  not  spontaneously 
carried  to  the  stigma,  and  that  a  foreign  agent  has  to  intervene 
in  the  fertilization  of  the  seed.  The  office  is  discharged  by  insects, 
which  visit  the  flowers  for  their  honey  and  involuntarily  load 
themselves  with  pollen ;  then,  flying  from  one  flower  to  another 
of  different  varieties  and  species,  they  effect  all  kinds  of  mixtures. 
Consequently,  varieties  are  endlessly  multiplied.  While  many  of 
these  may  be  common,  others  obtain  special  hues  or  streaks,  which 
render  them  rare  and  cause  them  to  be  sought  out  by  collectors. 
Now  that  orchids  are  in  full  favor,  and  are  likely  to  continue  so 
for  a  long  time,  enormous  prices  are  paid  for  the  choice  varieties. 

A  Catileya  (Fig.  1),  shown  at  a  recent  horticultural  exhibition 
in  Paris,  had  a  light  violet-blue  corolla  instead  of  the  usual 
rose- violet.  This  sport  in  color  was  enough  to  raise  the  price  of 
the  plant  to  ten  thousand  or  twelve  thousand  francs.  The  owner 
— M.  Piret,  of  Argenteuil — had  himself  sought  out  the  variety  in 
the  forests  of  Venezuela.  The  instance  is  not  a  rare  one.  At  a 
recent  sale  in  Ghent,  every  specimen  of  a  certain  Cypripedium 
brought  six  thousand  francs ;  and  like  prices  are  often  obtained 
in  England.  The  ordinary  prices  in  trade  are,  however,  more 
moderate  than  this.  As  the  result  of  numerous  explorations,  often 
made  at  great  risk  of  life,  orchids  of  all  kinds  and  of  the  more 
usual  varieties  have  been  imported  by  thousands  within  the  last 


THE  RARE  FORMS    OF   ORCHIDS. 


361 


few  years,  and  are  sold  at  reasonable  prices ;  and  the  business  of 
dealing  in  them  returns  little  profit  unless  some  of  the  rarer  vari- 
eties are  on  the  list. 

While  it  is  difficult  and  dangerous  to  go  to  their  native  haunts 
for  orchids,  it  is  not  much  more  easy  to  possess  the  rarer  varieties 
in  cultivation;  for,  while  the  care  of  adult  plants  is  compara- 


Fig.  1.— Orchids,   Caitleya  nossia  (bluish  mauve). 

tively  easy,  the  raising  of  the  seedlings  is  attended  for  many  years 
with  almost  insurmountable  difficulties.  But  cultivators  have 
become  possessed  with  the  idea  that  it  would  be  well  to  imitate 
with  species  selected  for  their  beauty  and  good  forms  the  acci- 
dental hybridizations  of  the  forests.  Many  have  tried  ;  a  few  have 
succeeded.  One  of  the  first  among  these  was  M.  Bleu,  General  Sec- 
retary of  the  French  Horticultural  Society.  He  cross-fertilized, 
sowed  the  seeds,  and  raised  young  plants.  To  appreciate  the  diffi- 
culties of  these  operations,  they  must  be  followed  out.  In  the  first 
place,  the  seeds  are  so  fine  that  they  can  not  be  seen  without  a 
strong  glass ;  they  are  sown  on  the  bark  of  trees  or  in  chopped 
moss  ;  and  they  are  transplanted  when  the  plants  are  so  small 
that  the  work  has  to  be  done  by  the  aid  of  a  magnifier.  These 
material  difficulties  are  still  as  nothing  compared  with  the  care 
that  has  to  be  given  the  nurslings  to  secure  a  good  development 
of  them.  The  cultivator  may  consider  himself  fortunate  if  he  gets 
a  few  dozen  good  plants  out  of  several  thousand  seedlings. 

Orchids  in  all  their  varieties  of  aspect  and  form  have  very  dif- 

vol.  xxxvi. — 23 


362 


THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


ferent  ways  of  growing.  Some,  like  the  lady's-slippers  (Cypri- 
pedium)  and  the  superb  Odontoglossums,  are  ground-plants ;  oth- 
ers, perhaps  most  of  the  class,  are  epiphytes,  attaching  themselves 
to  the  bark  of  trees,  where  they  live  at  considerable  heights  above 
the  soil.  Of  this  class  are  the  fragrant  Cattleya  and  the  splendid 
Plialcenopsis,  so  elegant  with  great  bunches  of  white  or  rose- 
colored  flowers. 

It  follows  from  this  great  diversity  of  exigencies  that  orchids 
lend  themselves  readily  to  all  possible  combinations  in  the  orna- 
mentation of  rooms.  Some  are  cultivated  in  pots  and  help  in  the 
decoration  of  jardineres  (Fig.  2);  others,  which  live  on  the  trunks 


^4 


mrf- 


t**~\ 


^a&^i8 


_  :s 


Pig.  2.— Orchid-Growing  in  a  Room. 


Fig.  3.— Corsage  Bouquet  of  Orchids. 


of  trees,  can  be  placed  in  hanging  baskets,  or  fixed  in  front  of  a 
mirror  which  will  reflect  their  graceful  figures. 

Orchids  will  last  a  long  time  in  a  room  if  proper  care  has  been 
taken  in  cutting  and  transporting  them.  The  flower  will  some- 
times keep  its  freshness  for  two  or  three  weeks.  Their  preserva- 
tion may  be  prolonged  by  covering  them  every  evening  with  a 
sheet  of  silk  paper,  which  will  protect  them  from  dust  and  excess- 
ive evaporation.  They  lend  themselves  remarkably  well  to  the 
formation  of  bouquets,  where  their  quality  of  keeping  fresh  for 
weeks  gives  them  much  value.  An  effective  bouquet  shown  at 
a  horticultural  exhibition  in  Paris,  which  was  formed  by  attach- 
ing orchids  mingled  with  branches  of  asparagus  to  moss-covered 
bamboo  sticks,  is  shown  in  Fig.  4.  On  account  of  their  enduring 
freshness  orchids  are  favorite  flowers  for  bouquets  to  be  worn  on 


THE  RARE  FORMS    OF   ORCHIDS. 


363 


^B0. 


festive  occasions,  and  a  considerable  trade  has  been  developed  in 
flowers  for  such  uses.  Favorite  kinds  for  this  purpose  are  the 
Odo  ntoglossums, 
with  handsome 
white,  starry 

flowers,  and  the 
Oncidium  papil- 
io,  with  its  but- 
terfly-shaped co- 
rolla. 

The  enormous 
sums  that  are 
often  paid  for  or- 
chids are  decried 
as  foolish,  and 
the  extravagance 
is  sometimes  com- 
pared with  the 
craze  that  once 
raged  about  tu- 
lips. The  two 
fashions  are  not 
to  be  compared  ; 
for  there  is  some- 
thing real  and 
solid  about  or- 
chids, which  will 
always  give  them 
rank  among  the 
finest  and  most 
highly  esteemed 
flowers ;  while  tu- 
lips are  not  fine, 
and  soon  suffered 
a  loss  of  the  ex- 


travagant   admi- 


Fig.  4.— Motive  in  Cut  Orchids,  mounted  on  Bamboo. 


ration  that  prevailed  for  them  for  a  time.  New  varieties  of  the 
rose,  although  it  is  a  very  old  flower,  still  bring  higher  prices 
than  the  rarest  of  orchids. — Translated  for  the  Popular  Science 
Monthly  from  La  Nature. 


One  point  of  great  interest  observed  by  Dr.  Hansen  in  his  expedition  across 
Greenland  was  the  very  low  temperature  in  the  interior,  which  seems  to  be  in  de- 
parture from  the  received  meteorological  laws.  This  may,  he  thinks,  throw  a 
good  deal  of  light  on  the  much-discussed  question  of  the  cause  of  the  great  cold 
of  the  Glacial  period.  No  better  place  can  be  found  for  the  pursuit  of  this  inquiry 
than  Greenland. 


364  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

IRRIGATION   OF   ARID   LANDS. 

By  HENRY  J.    PH1LP0TT. 

THERE  is  no  more  striking  difference  between  the  inhabitants 
of  the  Eastern  and  Western  United  States  than  the  degree  of 
their  familiarity  with  the  word  irrigation.  And  there  will  never 
be  a  profounder  difference  than  will  be  engendered  by  the  thing 
itself.  The  Eastern  farmer  irrigates  his  cabbage  and  tomato 
plants  when  he  first  transplants  them.  His  wife  irrigates  her 
flowers.  The  city  gentleman  irrigates  his  lawn.  But  the  idea  of 
watering  a  whole  farm — not  a  New  England  "patch,"  but  a 
Western  ranch  of  from  fifty  to  fifty  thousand  acres — seems  a 
financial  absurdity.  What  the  Eastern  farmer  could  not  produce 
without  such  expensive  cultivation  he  would  say  was  not  worth 
producing. 

Equally  incredible  will  seem  farming  without  irrigation  to  the 
generation  now  growing  to  manhood  over  a  large  part  of  the 
Pacific  coast.  To  them  it  will  seem  an  absurdity  not  to  have  the 
water  as  fully  under  your  own  control  as  the  land.  They  would 
not  want  to  cultivate  land  if  they  had  to  take  chances  on  there 
being  neither  too  much  nor  too  little  rain. 

What  would  surprise  the  Eastern  farmer  still  more,  if  he  knew 
it,  is  that  thousands  of  acres  of  land,  intended  for  nothing  but  hay 
and  pasture,  are  not  only  irrigated  from  ditches  a  dozen  miles 
long,  but  must  first  be  leveled  down  with  road-scrapers,  and  often 
the  grading  costs  twenty-five  dollars  an  acre.  This,  however,  ap- 
plies only  to  certain  forms  of  irrigation.  My  present  purpose  is 
to  describe  a  number  of  different  ways  of  irrigation  which  I  have 
seen  exemplified  on  a  large  scale. 

The  simplest  plan  is  with  a  street-sprinkler.  It  is  profitable 
on  certain  crops  of  high  value  per  acre.  For  irrigating  trees  and 
vines  the  spray  may  be  taken  off  the  wagon  and  a  straight  stream 
conveyed  by  a  short  hose  to  the  roots.  I  have  seen  vineyards  of 
one  hundred  acres  watered  in  this  way.  It  is  chiefly  used  in  tid- 
ing young  vineyards  and  orchards  over  the  first  year,  on  land 
which  thereafter  will  need  no  irrigation.  It  always  struck  me 
rather  comically  to  see  a  street-sprinkler  meandering  over  a  field 
thirty  miles  from  the  nearest  town,  as  if  it  had  got  lost  and  were 
groping  about  and  trying  to  find  its  way  back  to  its  native  haunts. 

In  such  case  the  original  source  of  the  water  may  be  a  well  or 
a  mountain  canon.  I  confess  it  still  staggers  me  to  see  the  miles 
of  iron  pipe  through  which  a  stream  of  irrigating  water  must 
often  be  carried  from  the  mountain  spring  to  the  nearest  field 
whereon  it  is  to  be  used.     A  two-inch  pipe,  by  the  time  it  is  laid, 


IRRIGATION   OF  ARID  LANDS.  365 

costs  anywhere  in  the  neighborhood  of  one  thousand  dollars  a 
mile. 

Wherever  the  water  comes  from,  it  is  usually  conveyed  into  a 
tank  or  a  reservoir,  and  then  piped  or  ditched  about  over  the  farm 
wherever  needed.  A  hand  pump  is  a  rarity  in  southern  Cali- 
fornia. A  windmill  pumps  the  water  into  a  high  tank,  which 
gives  it  the  pressure  needed  for  sprinkling.  Hydrants  are  placed 
at  the  house,  at  the  barn,  in  the  garden,  in  the  orchard,  and  at 
other  points.  With  plenty  of  hose  the  fire  protection  is  admi- 
rable. The  farmer's  wife  is  as  well  off  as  her  city  cousin  in  the 
matter  of  water  conveniences. 

Running  through  iron  pipes  near  the  surface  of  a  blistering 
hot  soil,  the  water  gets  warm,  not  to  say  hot,  and  so  it  does  stand- 
ing in  the  tank  over  the  well.  When  wanted  for  drinking,  it  is 
put  into  a  porous  earthen  jar  called  an  alia,  and  the  evaporation 
of  the  large  part  which  soaks  through  the  jar  cools  the  contents. 
Always  in  the  morning,  and  nearly  always  throughout  the  day, 
you  can  get  a  drink  as  cool  as  the  stomach  ought  to  have.  Some- 
times a  barrel,  covered  with  a  cloth  kept  wet,  is  used  for  the  same 
purpose. 

The  water  thus  piped  to  various  points  on  the  farm  is  some- 
times carried  from  the  hydrants  through  ditches  which  run  along 
the  highest  parts  of  the  ground.  These  ditches  are  the  simplest 
possible  in  construction.  They  go  winding  about  like  natural 
streams.  Sometimes  a  furrow  of  the  large  farm-plow  answers 
every  purpose.  For  the  capillaries  of  the  circulation  the  furrows 
made  between  the  rows  of  vegetables  in  cultivating  them  are 
quite  sufficient.  When  you  have  irrigated  a  few  rows,  a  hoeful 
or  two  of  earth  applied  to  each  furrow  stops  the  water  from  them, 
and  then  the  dam  is  removed  farther  down  the  main  stream,  and 
more  rows  are  irrigated  in  the  same  way. 

The  method  of  irrigating  trees  is  different.  A  circular  de- 
pression, with  a  raised  rim,  is  made  about  the  tree.  In  a  large 
orange  orchard  this  is  done  with  a  machine — a  kind  of  compli- 
cated scraper  dragged  around  each  tree  by  horses.  The  saucer 
thus  formed  may  be  fifteen  or  twenty  feet,  but  is  usually  much 
less,  in  diameter.  The  water  is  turned  into  it  from  a  hose  or 
through  a  surface  ditch.  An  orange  grove  never  looks  prettier 
than  when  thus  prepared  for  irrigation.  Sometimes,  instead  of 
the  circular  basin  about  each  tree,  small  ridges  are  thrown  up 
midway  between  the  rows,  in  both  directions.  This  makes  a 
larger  irrigated  surface,  and,  of  course,  requires  more  water. 

All  these  methods  of  irrigation  are  simply  extensions  of  ordi- 
nary garden  watering.  I  have  seen  two  other  quite  different 
methods  in  operation.  One  of  them  is  the  simplest  and  cheapest, 
the  other  the  most  complicated  and  expensive  of  all. 


3 66  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

In  the  former  nothing  is  done  except  to  dig  a  large  ditch 
through  the  field,  as  near  the  middle  as  is  consistent  with  its  fol- 
lowing sufficiently  high  ground,  or  between  two  fields,  if  both  are 
to  be  watered  from  it.  Through  this  ditch,  or  zanje,  a  slow 
stream  of  water  is  kept  running.  It  soaks  into  the  ground  and 
percolates  or  "  seeps  "  through  it  and  thus  sub-irrigates  the  whole 
field  without  any  lateral  ditches.  Of  course,  this  occurs  only  in 
peculiar  soils.  Its  best  exemplification  is  in  Fresno  and  Tulare 
Counties,  California.  Sometimes  a  single  ditch,  nearly  straight, 
will  in  this  way  irrigate  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres. 

The  other  method  is  exactly  opposite.  The  whole  field  is 
flooded.  Head-gates  are  placed  along  the  main  ditch,  and  from 
every  head-gate  a  dike  or  levee  is  run  across  the  field.  Levees 
are  also  run  along  the  sides,  one  of  them  forming  the  outside  of 
the  ditch.  If  these  levees  ran  at  right  angles,  a  field  thus  pre- 
pared for  irrigation  would  look  for  all  the  world  like  a  huge 
printer's  case.  The  levees  may  be  two  to  four  feet  high.  The 
intervening  spaces  are  called  "  checks,"  and  may  contain  any 
amount  of  land.  I  have  seen  one  thousand  acres  cut  into  checks 
of  from  one  to  ten  or  twenty  acres.  I  did  not  see  how  it  could 
pay.    Nothing  was  grown  but  hay  and  pasturage. 

The  checks  are  leveled,  if  not  already  sufficiently  level.  They 
are  flooded  one  at  a  time.  In  flooding  check  No.  1,  head-gate  No. 
1  is  opened  and  No.  2  closed.  As  soon  as  the  whole  surface  of 
this  check  has  been  covered  with  water,  head-gate  No.  2  is 
opened,  and  the  same  flood  runs  back  into  the  ditch  and  down 
into  check  No.  2,  and  so  on.  The  water  is  kept  on  the  land  but  a 
short  time.  In  warm  weather  the  flooding  is  done  mostly  at  night. 
The  basins  or  checks  formed  by  the  dikes  are  not  filled  with 
water. 

Alfalfa  hay  is  cut  four  or  five  times  a  year,  and  the  land  is 
flooded  after  each  cutting.  Twelve  tons  a  year  per  acre  are  not 
a  rare  crop,  though  less  is  commoner  than  more.  For  wheat  and 
other  cereals  one  good  flooding  is  enough. 

A  good  deal  of  California  land  has  been  over-irrigated.  Al- 
kali has  been  brought  on  or  brought  up,  the  soil  has  been  made 
heavy,  pools  have  been  formed  from  the  "  seepage,"  and  orchards 
and  vineyards  have  been  spoiled.  After  a  field  has  been  irrigated 
for  a  few  years  it  becomes  saturated,  and  wells  dug  in  it  soon 
reach  water.  It  no  longer  needs  so  much  water,  and  its  former 
supply  may  be  carried  on  to  reclaim  new  deserts.  How  much  a 
single  river  will  reclaim,  only  give  it  time  enough,  can  be  vaguely 
guessed.  Thousands  of  acres  in  the  San  Joaquin  Valley  have 
been  placed  beyond  the  need  of  further  irrigation.  The  whole 
valley  was  once  a  desert. 

A  part  of  it  seems  beyond  the  reach  of  any  irrigation  except 


IRRIGATION   OF  ARID   LANDS.  367 

what  can  be  done  during  the  rainy  season.  The  Coast  Mountains 
do  not  furnish  living  streams,  and  the  Sierra  Nevada  water  must 
run  up  hill  to  cross  the  valley  and  climb  the  western  slope.  How 
to  get  it  over  there  is  a  problem  vexing  many  minds.  Several 
companies  have  been  formed,  and  surveys  have  been  made,  for 
doing  the  work  on  different  plans.  One  company  proposes  to  lay 
iron  pipes  about  fifty  miles,  at  a  cost  of  several  millions  of  dollars. 
Another  would  carry  the  water  in  an  open  ditch  above  ground. 
At  the  lowest  part  of  the  valley-trough  the  ditch  would  have  to 
be  at  least  fifty  and  ought  to  be  at  least  one  hundred  feet  above 
ground,  for  several  miles. 

Under  a  new  law  of  California,  irrigation  districts  may  be 
formed,  and  a  vote  taken  as  to  what,  if  any,  mains  shall  be  con- 
structed. A  majority  of  residents  rules.  The  minority,  if  they 
own  land,  help  foot  the  bill.  So  do  all  non-resident  land-owners. 
The  district  where  these  great  iron  pipes  aforesaid  are  proposed 
would  contain  about  eight  hundred  thousand  acres.  It  was  esti- 
mated that  five  dollars  an  acre  would  pay  the  cost.  A  gentle- 
man interested  as  a  landholder,  however,  assured  me  that  his 
honest  estimate  would  be  not  less  than  two  hundred  dollars  an 
acre.  With  plenty  of  water  the  land,  now  practically  worthless, 
would  be  well  worth  one  hundred  dollars  an  acre. 

It  will  be  readily  admitted  that  such  gigantic  schemes  of  irri- 
gation as  these  must  raise  new  questions  of  both  civil  law  and 
political  economy.  The  constitutional  conventions  of  the  newly 
admitted  States  spent  some  time  in  wrestling  with  the  problem  of 
water  rights.  In  all  our  arid  regions  property  in  land  involves 
property  in  water.  If  by  going  higher  up  the  river  or  canon  your 
neighbor  may  divert  and  use  the  water  you  have  depended  on, 
he  might  as  well  be  permitted  to  take  your  land  also,  for  it  is 
valueless  without  the  water.  Litigation  over  these  water  rights 
has  already  given  the  California  courts  much  to  do,  at  heavy  ex- 
pense to  litigants. 

The  rights  themselves  vary.  In  some  cases  one  man  or  corpo- 
ration owns  the  water,  while  another  merely  has  the  perpetual 
right  to  a  share  of  it  on  the  payment  of  a  reasonable  rate.  But 
this  right  pertains  to  a  particular  body  of  land,  and  not  to  the 
person.  In  other  cases  each  landholder  is  a  shareholder  in  the 
water  company.  The  difference  appears  on  the  face  of  the  stock 
certificate.  In  the  former  case  the  name  of  the  association  which 
has  tapped,  say,  the  Alpine  Canon,  will  be  "  Alpine  Water  Com- 
pany," while  in  the  latter  case  it  will  be  "  Alpine  Land  and  Water 
Company." 

There  are  a  good  many  of  these  land  and  water  companies  com- 
posed of  farmers.  Here  is  a  new  element  introduced  into  farm 
life — an  element  of  business  and  of  co-operation.     Sometimes  it 


368  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

involves  also  an  element  of  clannishness ;  as,  when  two  such  com- 
panies fall  to  fighting  over  the  same  supply  of  water.  In  fact,  as 
I  have  already  observed,  this  necessity  of  irrigation  will  make  the 
deepest  of  all  the  differences  in  personal  character  and  habits  of 
thought  between  the  East  and  the  West.  Nobody  will  doubt  that 
the  institution  of  property  in  land  has  an  important  influence  on 
character.  Why  not,  then,  property  in  water  ?  And  while  this 
may  be  said  to  exist  in  the  East,  it  is  rarely  thought  of,  while  in 
the  far  West  it  is  the  thing  most  thought  of  and  talked  about.  It 
is  the  main  factor  in  human  sustenance. 

The  result  is  bound  to  be  that  East  and  West  will  take  differ- 
ent views  of  life.  Hence  they  are  likely  not  to  understand  each 
other.  At  present  this  makes  the  less  trouble,  from  the  fact  that 
the  East  can  so  easily  outvote  the  West.  I  mean,  of  course,  the 
arid  West.  I  think  it  a  safe  proposition  that,  when  the  country 
is  all  settled  to  a  density  everywhere  corresponding  with  its  fer- 
tility, the  arid  lands  will  outvote  the  regions  needing  no  irriga- 
tion. And  long  before  that  time  they  will  hold  the  balance  of 
power. 

Already  the  irrigants  have  secured  from  the  non-irrigants  the 
concession  of  an  appropriation  for  surveys,  and  the  appointment 
of  a  senatorial  committee,  which  is  now  on  its  travels,  studying 
the  advisability  of  a  great  system  of  irrigating  reservoirs  to  be 
built,  or  at  least  surveyed,  at  national  expense ;  and  in  the  latter 
case  the  demand  will  doubtless  be  for  such  disposal  of  the  affected 
public  lands  as  will  make  it  worth  some  private  citizens'  while  to 
construct  the  reservoirs. 

The  desert-land  act  was  intended  to  be  a  step  in  that  direction. 
Under  that  law,  the  man  who  irrigates  a  square  mile  (six  hundred 
and  forty  acres)  of  desert  land  within  three  years  after  filing  his 
entry,  may  buy  it  at  one  dollar  and  twenty-five  cents  an  acre. 
It  must  be  land  not  capable  of  producing  crops  without  irrigat- 
ing, and  twenty-five  cents  per  acre  must  be  paid  at  the  date  of 
entry.  By  the  operation  of  this  law,  and  by  purchase  of  adjoin- 
ing railroad  lands,  a  single  firm  has  acquired  the  ownership  of 
four  hundred  thousand  acres  of  as  good  land  as  ever  lay  out  of 
doors.  The  owners  have  carried  over  it  the  most  gigantic  system 
of  irrigation  on  this  continent.  They  have  divided  up  the  waters 
of  Kern  River,  and  spread  them  out  into  a  great  artificial  delta. 
They  have  now  begun  to  sell  their  lands  in  small  lots  of  ten, 
twenty,  forty  acres,  and  so  on.  I  attended  one  of  their  auction- 
sales,  and  saw  land,  which  ten  years  ago  was  uninhabitable  desert, 
knocked  down  at  fifty,  a  hundred,  and  even  a  hundred  and  fifty 
dollars  an  acre.  The  water  rate  is  extra,  and  is  so  much  per  inch 
used.  An  inch  is  the  amount  that  will  run  through  an  orifice  an 
inch  square  in  the  course  of  a  year,  under  a  four-inch  pressure. 


IRRIGATION   OF  ARID   LANDS.  369 

The  desert-land  act  was  not  intended  to  pnt  snch  large  bodies 
of  land  in  the  possession  of  so  few  men.  But  any  law  is  apt  to 
work  that  way.  Where  the  stock  of  the  water  company  is  held 
by  all  the  land-owners  using,  the  land  is  often  hypothecated  as 
security  for  the  assessments,  and  in  default  of  payment  could  only 
fall  into  the  company's  hands.  What  sort  of  land  monopoly  will 
grow  up  under  it,  the  whole  business  of  irrigation  is  too  new  to 
foreshadow.  There  is  a  bitter  feeling  already  against  certain 
large  owners  and  syndicates.  But  it  is  doubtful  whether  the  still 
heavier  enterprises  of  damming  waters  up  in  the  caiions  will  ever 
be  carried  out  by  private  purses,  unless  those  who  go  into  them 
are  well  assured  of  fee  simple  in  still  larger  bodies  of  land.  And 
that,  I  judge,  is  about  what  far  Western  people  mean  when  they 
say  they  don't  want  the  Government  to  dam  the  waters,  but  only 
to  "  encourage  private  enterprise." 

The  landscape  effects  of  some  of  these  irrigating  systems  are 
quite  striking;  sometimes  pretty  and  sometimes  depressing. 
Many  of  the  main  ditches  are  fifty  feet  wide.  Such  a  stream  of 
water,  or  a  much  narrower  one,  must  form  no  insignificant  part 
of  the  picture  on  the  eye  of  the  traveler.  If  it  is  straight,  slug- 
gish, green,  bare,  it  may  be  a  nightmare  in  its  oppressive  ugli- 
ness. But  where  it  winds  about  like  a  natural  stream,  as  it  often 
does  in  order  to  keep  on  high  ground,  and  is  shaded  by  trees 
planted  hap-hazard  along  its  banks,  it  is  a  thing  of  beauty. 

You  drive  along  a  lovely  lane,  lined  on  both  sides  by  tall  pop- 
lar-trees, between  fertile  fields,  gardens,  orchards,  shady  groves, 
and  now  and  then  you  come  to  one  of  these  artificial  brooks. 
You  may  have  to  go  up  hill  to  cross  it.  In  fact,  the  sides  of  the 
ditch  are  naturally  and  properly  above  the  level,  so  that  the  water 
will  run  out  over  the  land.  So  you  have  the  funny  sensation  of 
crossing  a  creek  on  a  hill-top,  and  even  then  driving  upward  to 
get  over  it.  The  bridge  is  natural  as  life,  and  likewise  the  mill- 
dam  and  the  mill.  A  drive  through  the  country  between  Han- 
ford  and  Fernone  is  as  pretty  as  the  imagination  can  picture  it. 
Its  beauties  are  wholly  artificial.  Ten  years  ago  that  was  a 
desert ;  to-day  it  is  ahead  of  the  Mohawk  Valley  in  everything 
that  goes  to  make  a  fine-looking  agricultural  region.  Its  one 
fault  as  a  landscape  is  that  it  is  as  level  as  a  billiard-table. 

It  is  a  disputed  question  whether  irrigation  induces  disease. 
Certain  it  is  that  the  irrigated  portions  of  the  San  Joaquin  Valley 
are  malarious.  But  Mr.  Nordhoff  says  they  are  less  so  than  before 
they  were  irrigated.  I  have  talked  with  some  hundreds  of  the 
inhabitants,  and  they  seem  as  a  rule  to  think  otherwise.  They  do 
say,  however,  that  there  is  an  improvement  in  the  general  health 
since  they  learned  to  drink  deep-well  water  instead  of  the  surface 
water  which  seeps  through  from  the  ditches.      Some  neighbor- 


37o  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

hoods  have  artesian  water.  The  whole  valley  is  hot  as  a  furnace, 
and  the  steaming  canals  probably  make  it  seem  hotter  than  it 
would,  and  may  breed  malaria  as  well  as  frogs  and  mosquitoes. 

The  Secretary  of  the  Interior  is  reported  to  have  sent  an  agent 
to  Europe  to  study  the  subject  of  irrigation.  We  have  a  corps 
of  engineers  and  a  senatorial  committee  studying  it  in  America. 
On  the  whole,  it  looks  as  if  we  ought  to  find  out  something  about 
it.  I  have  made  a  special  study  of  it,  and  find  it  quite  interest- 
ing. There  is,  perhaps,  no  more  striking  application  of  science  to 
agriculture.  You  must  know  how  to  compute  the  mass  of  water 
that  will  flow  through  a  ditch  of  a  given  size  with  a  given  fall. 
You  must  also  know  how  much  water  will  irrigate  your  particu- 
lar piece  of  land.  This  will  depend  on  its  character  as  well  as  its 
size,  and  also  on  its  annual  rainfall. 

It  is  astonishing  how  much  the  commonest  Calif ornians  know 
about  rainfall  records.  Rain-gauges  are  kept  everywhere.  The 
morning  after  a  shower  the  farmers,  instead  of  merely  informing 
one  another  that  it  has  rained,  fall  to  talking  of  the  quantity — 
and  there  is  a  good  deal  of  sense  in  that.  "  My  gauge  showed 
fifty-seven  hundredths  of  an  inch,"  says  Farmer  Jones.  "That 
makes  11*24  inches  we  have  had  this  season,"  says  Farmer  Brown ; 
"  last  season  up  to  this  time  we  had  13"42."  And  then  they  dis- 
course of  the  precipitation  yet  needed  to  produce  a  crop  without 
irrigation,  or  with  partial  irrigation,  and  the  amount  of  irrigat- 
ing water  that  will  be  required.  The  morning  paper  will  give 
the  rainfall  in  hundredths  of  an  inch  for  a  number  of  points 
throughout  the  coast  country. 

The  size  and  strength  of  dams,  head-gates,  levees,  etc.,  are  mat- 
ters requiring  mathematical  calculation  of  a  delicate  kind.  Johns- 
town tells  with  terrible  earnestness  how  important  it  is  that  these 
calculations  should  be  to  the  last  degree  accurate.  A  careful  sur- 
vey of  the  route  of  each  important  ditch  is  also  necessary.  In 
fact,  a  number  of  sciences  are  involved  in  irrigating,  but  "  prac- 
tice makes  perfect."  Little  by  little  the  Western  farmers  are 
learning  to  depend  more  on  cultivation  and  less  on  irrigation. 
They  find  it  better  in  many  ways ;  they  now  irrigate  a  greater 
area  with  the  same  amount  of  water.  This  hastens  the  day  when 
the  much-talked-of  storage  will  pay. 

What  ought  the  Government  to  do  in  the  premises  ?  Tax  the 
East  to  dam  the  West  ?  I  should  say  not,  unless  the  expense  were 
recouped.  Perhaps  it  might  construct  the  works  and  increase  its 
prices  on  the  land  benefited.  It  gives  lands  to  railroads  in  alter- 
nate sections,  and  then  gets  even  by  doubling  the  price  of  its  own 
lands.  What  sort  of  a  plan  would  it  be  for  Uncle  Sam  to  follow 
the  example  of  the  land-operators  above  mentioned — irrigate  his 
land  and  sell  it  off  at  auction  ?    He  might  sell  it  on  sealed  bids. 


PALM-TREES  AND    THEIR    USES.  3?l 

I  should  not  much,  wonder  if  he  could  in  this  way  make  a  hand- 
some speculation. 

Since  the  above  was  written,  I  read  in  the  dailies  that  Secre- 
tary Noble  has  been  informed  that  speculators  are  following  in 
the  wake  of  the  Government  surveyors,  and  trying  to  secure  land 
and  water  titles ;  and  that  the  Land-Office  has  been  instructed  to 
inform  its  registers  and  receivers  throughout  the  arid  regions 
that  no  such  business  will  be  allowed,  but  that  the  Government 
will  retain  control  of  these  rights.  This  is  a  matter  of  several 
hundred  times  more  importance  than  one  Eastern  man  in  a  dozen 
will  dream  of. 


-+*+- 


PALM-TREES  AND   THEIR  USES. 

By  M.   J.  POISSON. 

AFTER  the  grasses,  with  their  various  adaptabilities  for  the 
purposes  of  food  and  the  arts,  the  palm-trees  hold  the  first 
place ;  and  this,  not  only  on  account  of  the  uses  for  which  they 
are  fit,  but  also  by  reason  of  the  beauty  and  amplitude  of  their 
foliage  and  the  stately  size  which  many  of  them  attain.  Their 
worth  in  decoration  and  their  usefulness  have  been  celebrated  in 
all  times  and  in  many  languages.  In  the  time  of  Linnaeus,  eight 
or  ten  species,  belonging  to  half  a  dozen  genera,  were  known.  At 
this  time  the  number  of  determined  species  exceeds  a  thousand, 
and  these  are  distributed  among  about  one  hundred  and  thirty 
genera.  In  a  short  article  like  this  we  can  only  touch  upon  the 
subject  and  indicate  the  principal  useful  species. 

The  date  palm  was  the  one  of  most  interest  to  the  ancients. 
It  is  the  fortune  of  the  peoples  of  northern  Africa  and  the  orna- 
ment of  the  oases  of  that  region.  It  sports  into  numerous  varie- 
ties, which  are  easily  obtained  from  the  seed.  When  quarrels 
arise  between  tribes,  the  first  thought  of  the  hostile  factions  is  to 
ruin  their  enemies  by  attacking  their  date  crops.  The  male  and 
female  flowers  being  borne  on  different  trees,  a  few  male  plants 
are  sufficient  for  the  fecundation  of  a  great  many  females ;  and 
the  destruction  of  the  former — not  a  very  hard  task — will  make 
the  latter  worthless.  Date-trees  the  fruits  of  which  are  not  pala- 
table are  used  for  building  purposes,  or  for  making  palm-wine — 
the  fermented  sap,  which  is  drawn  from  the  tree  by  tapping  it  as 
we  tap  maple-trees.  The  sap  is  also  much  drunk  fresh,  when  the 
Arabs  call  it  lagmi.  The  dates  are  eaten  directly,  or  their  ex- 
pressed juice  is  used  for  sirups  and  flavorings.  Those  which, 
because  of  being  grown  too  near  the  sea  or  in  unfavorable  situa- 
tions, as  at  many  places  in  the  regency  of  Tunis,  do  not  become 
fully  ripe,  are  mixed  with  bread  and  fed  to  horses  and  cattle. 


372  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

The  dwarf  palm  of  Algeria  and  southern  Spain  (Chamcerops 
humilis)  is  not  a  profitable  sort,  but  is  rather  a  detriment  to  the 
Algerian  plains.  When  it  gets  possession  of  a  spot,  it  is  very 
hard  to  exterminate,  and  the  place  becomes  little  to  be  preferred 
to  the  desert.  The  palm  lands  have,  however,  been  cleared  to  a 
considerable  extent  since  the  French  occupation  of  Algeria.  The 
leaves  are  used  in  making  brooms,  baskets,  and  minor  articles,  for 
paper  pulp,  cords,  and  "  vegetable  hair." 

The  tender,  plump  buds  of  many  species  of  Indian  and  Ameri- 
can palms  supply  a  choice  food  which  is  called  "  palm  cabbage." 
The  young  tissue,  which  is  very  like  salad-heart,  is  eaten  raw  or 
cooked  and  seasoned  in  different  ways,  or  pickled.  The  leaves 
that  are  large  enough  are  used  on  the  roofs  of  houses  or  in  the 
manufacture  of  a  diversity  of  articles.  Hindu  characters  are 
sometimes  traced  with  a  bodkin  on  strips  of  the  leaves  of  the  fan 
palm  (Corypha)  of  the  Indian  islands,  and  these  are  folded  like 
letters  and  sent  in  the  mail.  The  flexibility  of  the  leaves  adapts 
them  to  many  purposes  of  art.  From  the  young  leaves  of  the 
coco  (Lodoicea  seychellarum),  whose  enormous  and  strange-look- 
ing fruit  is  an  object  of  curious  interest,  the  natives  of  the  Sey- 
chelles Islands  make  some  handsome  basket-work.  The  extremely 
light  and  durable  hats  called  Panama  are  made  from  the  leaves  of 
species  of  this  family.  The  pellicle  of  the  leaves  of  the  Baphia,  or 
sago  palm  of  Madagascar,  from  which  the  natives  of  that  island 
make  fine  cloths,  is  used  for  ties  in  gardening  and  in  the  manu- 
facture of  artificial  flowers,  and  is  good  for  many  other  purposes. 

Bridges  over  torrents  and  small  rivers  are  made  of  the  solid 
trunks  of  palm-trees.  When  the  wood  is  fine  and  close,  it  is  split 
into  pieces  that  are  turned  and  polished.  Highly  esteemed  um- 
brella-handles —  called  laurel  handles — are  made  from  several 
kinds.  If  the  central  part  of  the  stem  is  filled  with  tender  pith, 
not  too  much  stringy  and  tough,  it  is  collected  as  sago ;  of  which 
the  sago  palm  of  Madagascar  and  the  corresponding  regions  of 
Africa  affords  the  most  highly  prized  quality. 

Stems  of  small  diameter  are  equally  desirable.  The  jungles  in 
the  East  Indian  Archipelago — Java,  Sumatra,  and  the  peninsula 
of  Malacca — abound  in  climbing  palms  or  palm  vines,  the  stems 
of  which  wind  among  the  limbs  of  the  trees  to  the  top.  Some 
have  been  measured  that  were  a  hundred  yards  long  before  they 
became  interlocked  with  the  network  of  the  forest.  They  are  the 
rattans  (Fig.  4)  which  are  so  handy  where  a  cane  or  any  kind  of 
flexible  stick  is  wanted.  Chairs  are  caned  with  the  outer  part  of 
the  rattan,  and  from  the  rest  of  the  stem  children's  chairs,  baskets, 
and  many  useful  articles — including  even  dish-cloths — are  made. 
The  author  of  this  essay  has  had  considerable  success  in  making 
such  ornamental  articles  as  earrings,  scarf-pins,  etc.,  out  of  the 


PALM-TREES   AND    THEIR    USES. 


373 


handsome  fruits  of  some  of  the  rattans.  And  the  continued 
abundance  of  wild  beasts,  like  the  tiger,  etc.,  in  the  East  Indian 
forests,  in  spite  of  the  activity  with  which  they  are  hunted,  is 


Fig.  1.— Areca  lutescens— a  young  specimen  in  pot, 
to  show  the  ornameutal  character  of  small  palms. 


Fig.  2.— Inflorescence  and  Fruit  op  Palm.  1.  Spathe 
and  portion  of  spadix  of  Chamaerops. ,  2.  Staminate 
flower.  3.  Pistillate  flower.  4.  Fruit.  5.  Seed.  6. 
Seed  cut  vertically. 


Fig.  3.— Palm-Stem  in 
Section. 


Fig.  4. —  Rattan  Palm 
{Calamus  rotang). 


explained  by  the  growth  of  rattans  which  make  the  jungle  im- 
penetrable to  hunters. 

Some  palm-trees  furnish  a  sweetening  juice.     The  most  famous 


374 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


Fig.  5. — Oham^erops  excelsa. 


of  these  is  probably  the  Areng,  or  sugar  palm  of  Amboyna  {Arenga 
sacchar If 'era),  which  grows  in  India  and  the  archipelago.  It  is  a 
superb  tree,  with  pinnate  leaves  twenty-five  feet  long,  and  is  as 

handsome  as  it  is  useful. 
A  number  of  species  be- 
longing to  different  genera 
furnish  a  kind  of  hair  of 
finer  or  coarser  texture.  It 
is  found  in  the  fibrous 
sheaths  of  the  leaf-stalks 
and  in  the  jagged  edges  of 
the  leaves.  Cables  made 
of  the  black,  tough  fibers 
of  the  Areng  are  preferred 
by  the  coasting  sailors  of 
the  Spanish  colonies  on  ac- 
count of  their  elasticity  and  durability  ;  and  they  are,  moreover, 
very  fine.  The  hemp  palm  of  Japan  and  China  {Chamcerops 
excelsa,  Fig.  5)  is  available  in  the  hands  of  the  industrious  people 
of  those  countries  for  making  the  finer  brooms,  light  strings,  and 
a  thousand  articles  of  daily  use.  Palms  of  coarser  fiber,  like  the 
Piacaba  of  Brazil  (Leopoldina  piacaba),  furnish  material  for 
blinds,  brushes,  brooms,  and  the  rollers  of  mechanical  sweepers, 
which  are  much  more  durable  than  rollers  fitted  with  steel  teeth. 
A  waxy  exudation  forms  on  the  trunks  of  the  wax  palm  of  the 
Andes  (Ceroxylon  andicola)  and  is  collected  by  the  natives  for 
purposes  of  illumination.  The  Carnauba  of  Brazil  (Copernica 
cerifera)  forms  a  cerous  efflorescence  on  the  inside  of  its  leaves. 
The  natives  climb  upon  the  trees  of  the  latter  species  and  beat 
the  leaves  with  rods,  when  a  fine  snow  falls  from  them  and  is  col- 
lected on  cloths  spread  upon  the  ground  for  the  purpose.  The 
wax  of  the  Carnauba  is  used  in  commerce,  both  by  itself  and  asso- 
ciated with  other  similar  substances. 

The  fruits  of  the  palm  are  inferior  to  none.  Every  child  knows 
what  Robinson  Crusoe  did  with  his  cocoanuts.  After  dates,  this 
is  the  most  generally  diffused  fruit  of  the  palm.  No  drink  is  more 
in  demand  among  the  Creoles  and  blacks  than  the  milky  kernel  of 
the  green  cocoanut.  When  the  fruits  reach  us,  the  albumen  has 
hardened  and  become  somewhat  tough  and  indigestible.  This  nut 
is  one  of  the  sources  of  wealth — in  some  cases,  perhaps,  the  only 
one — of  the  coral  islands  of  Oceania  and  some  other  tropical 
regions.  With  the  top  in  the  sun  and  its  roots  bathed  by  the  sea- 
waters — its  favorite  station — the  cocoa-tree  (Cocos  nucifera)  con- 
tinues in  good  condition  to  the  age  of  seven  or  eight  hundred 
years.  The  dry  nut,  called  copra,  is  marketed  by  the  thousand 
tons  every  year,  to  be  employed  in  various  uses  for  which  fats  are 


PALM-TREES   AND    THEIR    USES. 


375 


i    m   f 


Fig.  6.  — Cabbage  Palms  in  the  "Savannah"  of  Cayenne 


376 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


wanted.  The  thick,  fibrous  envelope  of  the  nut  has  been  much- 
used  of  late  years  in  Europe.  After  being  macerated,  the  fibers, 
called  coir  or  cair,  are  combed.  Ropes  made  of  them  are  elastic 
and  hardy  against  decay.  They  are  worked  into  articles  of 
esparto  and  brushes,  and  we  tread  them  under  feet  in  cocoa  mat- 
tings. From  the  hard  shell  of  the  nut  are  made  cups  and  dishes, 
which  are  susceptible  of  a  ready  polish,  and  can  be  carved.  The 
leaves  can  be  utilized,  like  those  of  other  palms,  but  lack  the  sup- 
pleness of  the  leaves  of  other  kinds. 

Not  all  the  species  of  Cocos  bear  fruits  as  large  as  those  of 
nucifera.  The  small  species  also  contribute  to  the  maintenance 
of  man  and  industries.  A  considerable  trade  is  carried  on  in  the 
little  cocoa  of  Central  America  (Cocos  lapidea),  which  is  some- 
times called  the  "  convicts'  cocoa,"  because  prisoners  polish  or 
carve  the  hard  egg-sized  shells  of  the  nuts,  and  make  of  them 
balls  for  mending  stockings,  bead-boxes,  tobacco-boxes,  and  toys 
to  sell  to  visitors.  The  same  shell  is  in  favor  for  making  fancy 
buttons. 

Some  other  species  of  palm  bear  eatable  or  oleaginous  fruits. 
The  reddish -yellow,  acorn-shaped  fruits  of  the  Paripon  of  Guiana 
(Guilielma  speciosa)  is  highly  esteemed.  It  is  cultivated  under 
different  names  in  all  the  Central  American  countries.  Beverages, 
and  often  alcohol,  are  obtained  from  the  fruits  of  several  other 
species.  The  Avoira,  or  oil  palm,  of  Africa  (Elo?is  guineensis)  is, 
after  the  cocoa,  the  most  important  of  the  palms  as  a  commercial 
object.  The  numerous  fruit-clusters  of  this  palm,  twice  as  large 
as  a  man's  head,  contain  many  fruits  of  the  size  of  a  walnut,  the 

external  envelope  of  which 
is  charged  with  "  palm- 
oil,"  a  fat  that  is  much 
used  in  soap-making,  and 
is  esteemed  by  Africans  as 
an  aliment.  The  kernel  of 
the  fruit  affords  an  oil 
superior  in  limpidity  and 
savor  to  that  of  the  peri- 
carp. The  African  prod- 
uct of  avoira  fruits  is  es- 
timated at  one  hundred 
thousand  tons  a  year. 
The  manufacture  of  textile  fabrics  from  palm-leaves  has  not 
been  fully  experimented  upon.  A  few  Central  American  palms 
and  the  oil-palm  afford  a  strong  and  very  fine  fiber. 

Horticulturists  have  made  much  of  palm-trees,  and  they  are 
now  abundant  in  the  flower  markets.  The  Bourbon  palm  (Livis- 
tonia  sinensis)  ;  date  palms  of  several  species ;  dwarf  palms  and 


Fig.  7. 


-Fruit  and  Nut  of  Betel  Palm,  entire  and 

in  SECTION. 


A  HARVEST  FROM  THE   OCEAN.  377 

the  tall  Chamcerops  ;  the  Corypha  ;  Weddell's  cocoa,  and  two  or 
three  other  species,  are  common  as  room  ornaments.  Other  species 
do  not  bear  the  close  air  of  apartments  well,  and  are  very  liable  to 
die  if  taken  from  the  greenhouse  or  conservatory. 

Fig.  6  represents  an  avenue  called  the  "  Savannah  of  Cay- 
enne," which  is  composed  of  the  straight-stemmed  cabbage  palm 
( Oreodoxa  oleracea  of  the  Antilles),  and  has  been  much  admired  by 
travelers.  Whenever  one  of  the  trees  is  blown  down,  or  removed 
by  any  other  cause,  another  one  is  at  once  planted  in  its  place. 

Palm-trees  rarely  grow  in  numbers  together.  There  are,  how- 
ever, groves  of  a  few  species.  The  Attalea  excelsa  of  America,  which 
grows  to  the  height  of  more  than  fifty  feet,  forms  small  woods. 
The  Oreodoxa  oleracea,  or  cabbage  palm,  is  one  of  the  largest  spe- 
cies known,  with  its  head  often  rising  above  the  foliage  of  the  vir- 
gin forest.  Specimens  of  it  have  been  found  by  measure  to  be 
about  a  hundred  feet  high,  and  the  royal  species  of  Havana  rises 
to  nearly  one  hundred  and  twenty  feet.  These  plants  are  for  the 
most  part  evergreen.  They  do  not  love  climates  of  intermittent 
temperatures  and  abrupt  changes,  except  in  rare  cases,  of  which 
the  Areca  palm  of  India  {Areca  catechu)  affords  an  example.  This 
species  is  extensively  cultivated  in  the  Indies,  where  the  firm  and 
astringent  kernel  of  its  nut  (Fig.  7)  is  chewed  with  the  betel-leaf 
by  every  native,  as  other  people  smoke  or  chew  tobacco. 

A  considerable  number  of  fossil  palms  have  been  found,  chiefly 
in  the  Miocene  Tertiary  of  America,  India,  and  Europe. — Trans- 
lated for  the  Popular  Science  Monthly  from  La  Nature. 


A  HARVEST  FROM  THE   OCEAN". 

By  Pkof.  C.  MORTON  STRAHAN. 

THE  compensations  of  nature  are  nowhere  more  forcibly  illus- 
trated than  along  the  bleak  and  rugged  coasts  of  Scotland, 
Ireland,  and  Brittany,  and  their  adjoining  islands.  Towering 
cliffs,  whose  scarred  faces  show  no  sign  of  verdure  and  defy  all 
hope  of  cultivation,  clasp  the  deeply  indented  bays  in  rude  em- 
brace. Hamlets  by  the  score  hide  themselves  in  the  more  shel- 
tered nooks,  and  the  inhabitants  find  a  precarious  living  by  follow- 
ing the  sea.  Amid  such  unpromising  surroundings  Nature  yearly 
plants  and  nourishes  beneath  the  waves  and  along  the  wave- 
washed  rocks  a  bounteous  crop  of  sea-weed,  which  proves  a  genu- 
ine blessing  to  the  dwellers  on  those  shores.  Not  only  is  this  both 
planted  and  nourished  by  the  ocean,  but  it  is  to  a  great  degree 
harvested  by  the  same  hand,  and  laid  ready  for  use  at  the  very 
doors  of  the  fisherman's  hut.     The  terrible  storms  which  drive 

vol.  xxxvi. — 24 


378  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

the  venturous  seaman  against  hidden  rocks,  sweeping  ashore  his 
lifeless  body  and  dismembered  ship,  also  tear  up  great  quantities 
of  this  valuable  weed  from  the  ocean's  bed  and  dash  them  in  con- 
tinuous bulwarks  high  up  on  the  beach.  Thus  thrown  ashore 
during  the  winter  and  early  spring  is  a  mass  of  what  the  natives 
call  "  deep-sea  tangle,"  but  which  in  the  hands  of  the  naturalist 
is  recognized  as  a  mixture  of  two  kinds  of  Algce,  termed  respective- 
ly Laminaria  digitata  and  Laminaria  saccharina.  In  the  spring 
and  fall  the  milder  storms  add  the  "tangle-top"  to  the  winter 
harvest.  The  tangle-top,  as  its  name  implies,  consists  of  the  tops 
or  fronds  of  the  same  plants  whose  stems  compose  the  "  tangle  " 
proper.  These  self -gathered  masses  constitute  the  greater  bulk 
and  the  more  valuable  part  of  the  annual  yield.  Together  they 
are  known  as  "  drift-weed,"  as  opposed  to  three  varieties  of  Fuci 
(more  commonly  known  as  wracks)  which  grow  on  the  rocks  in 
that  area  covered  by  the  rise  and  fall  of  the  tides,  and  which, 
from  the  manner  of  their  gathering,  take  the  name  of  "  cut- 
weed." 

Recourse  must  be  had  at  this  point  to  chemical  analysis  to 
reveal  some  useful  ingredient  which  may  justify  this  wet,  salty, 
ill-odored  mass  of  vegetable  matter  being  dignified  by  the  name 
of  a  crop.  The  analyses  of  the  several  species  of  Laminaria  and 
Fuci  show  considerable  variations ;  it  may,  however,  be  taken 
that  of  the  ordinary  mixed  mass  of  wet  tangle  and  cut-weed  about 
eighty  per  cent  is  water,  fifteen  per  cent  organic  matter,  and  five 
per  cent  ash  or  mineral  matter.  In  the  same  way  it  may  be  ad- 
mitted that  one  hundred  pounds  of  the  ash  will  contain,  approxi- 
mately, twenty  pounds  of  insoluble  material,  fifty  pounds  of  alka- 
line carbonates  and  chlorides,  twenty-two  pounds  of  potash  and 
soda,  G"5  pounds  of  sulphurio  acid  in  combination,  and  1'5  pound 
of  iodine  in  combination  as  iodides  of  potassium,  sodium,  etc. 
One  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago  such  an  analysis  had  never  been 
made,  nor  would  it  have  possessed  any  of  its  present  suggestive- 
ness,  for  at  that  time  iodine  had  not  yet  been  discovered,  and  the 
burning  of  sea-weed  for  its  ashes  was  practiced  to  but  a  very  lim- 
ited extent.  It  required  the  pressure  placed  upon  the  soap-makers 
of  France  and  England  by  the  wars  of  the  great  Napoleon  to  force 
practical  and  wide-spread  attention  to  the  ashes  of  sea-weed.  In 
virtue  of  that  pressure  the  foreign  supply  of  soda  and  potash  salts 
in  both  of  those  countries  was  entirely  cut  off,  and  every  domestic 
substance  was  ransacked  for  its  contents  of  alkalies.  This  gave 
rise  to  that  general  movement  among  the  Scotch  and  Irish  peas- 
antry which  resulted  in  the  annual  burning  of  the  sea-weed  har- 
vest, and  the  introduction  of  a  new  commercial  body  under  the 
name  of  varec  or  kelp. 

Though  the  absolute  yield  of  the  alkali  salts  was  small  (about 


A   HARVEST  FROM  THE   OCEAN.  m 

fifty  pounds  to  one  ton  of  the  wet  weed),  so  complete  was  the  em- 
bargo against  Spanish  barilla  and  salt  that  kelp  assumed  a  value 
as  high  as  one  hundred  dollars  per  ton.  During  this  halcyon 
period  Scotland  and  her  western  isles  reaped  an  annual  income  of 
nearly  three  million  dollars,  a  sum  which  raised  to  affluence  many 
a  Scottish  lord  whose  sole  possession  hitherto  had  been  a  long 
title  and  a  few  miles  of  barren  sea-shore.  But  the  end  of  the  war, 
and  the  success  of  Le  Blanc's  process  for  making  sodium  car- 
bonate out  of  common  salt,  brought  down  the  value  of  kelp  with 
a  sudden  and  disastrous  drop.  In  1831  the  price  had  fallen  to  ten 
dollars  per  ton,  a  figure  no  longer  remunerative.  At  this  period 
kelp-making  would  have  died  out  entirely  but  for  the  presence  in 
it  of  a  small  quantity  of  iodine.  The  discovery  of  that  element  in 
1812,  by  Courtois,  and  the  demands  for  its  manufacture,  which  had 
arisen  between  that  date  and  1840,  were  the  sole  cause  for  the 
continuance  of  kelp-making ;  for  kelp  was  then,  and  has  since 
remained,  the  only  practicable  source  of  iodine  in  Europe.  Dur- 
ing the  past  fifty  years  kelp  has  furnished  fully  ninety  per  cent 
of  all  the  iodine  and  iodides  which  commerce  has  handled.  The 
remaining  ten  per  cent  comes  from  South  America,  being  derived 
from  the  well-known  caliche  of  Peru.  This  substance,  in  being 
worked  for  the  large  amount  of  nitrate  of  soda  it  contains,  also 
gives  a  small  quantity  of  iodine  as  a  profitable  by-product.  The 
caliche  yields  from  two  to  three  pounds  of  iodine  per  ton,  against 
an  average  yield  of  twelve  or  fifteen  pounds  on  the  part  of  kelp. 
Many  bothering  questions  of  manipulation  increase  the  labor  and 
cost  of  the  product  from  the  former  source,  thus  leaving  the  com- 
mercial advantage  with  kelp.  With  the  origin  of  this  new  demand 
for  kelp  the  industry  received  a  strong  impulse,  and  the  price  was 
restored  to  fairly  profitable  figures,  ranging  from  fifteen  to  twenty 
dollars  per  ton,  at  which  price  it  is  still  in  commerce. 

It  may  be  proper  to  note  several  interesting  facts  connected 
with  the  growth  and  composition  of  iodine-bearing  weeds.  All 
sea-weeds  do  not  contain  iodine,  although  that  substance  is  uni- 
versally present  in  sea- water  in  the  ratio  of  one  to  two  hundred 
and. fifty  thousand,  proportions  which,  though  minute,  are  amply 
sufficient  to  tempt  assimilation  by  all  growing  sea-plants  at  least 
to  an  appreciable  extent.  Yet  very  few  of  them  outside  the  family 
of  Algai.  contain  even  a  trace  of  that  element.  So  that  to  this 
family  has  been  committed  the  chief  work  of  withdrawing  iodine 
from  sea- water,  and  of  concentrating  it  in  plant-tissues  in  a  form 
easy  of  extraction.  The  power  of  iodine  absorption  on  the  part  of 
the  Algol  is  the  more  remarkable  when  it  is  remembered  that  their 
growth  transpires  in  the  presence  of  three  hundred  times  as  much 
of  the  very  similar  element  bromine,  which  latter,  however,  is  ab- 
sorbed in  only  one  tenth  the  quantity.    The  localities  where  they 


380  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

grow,  as  well  as  the  number  of  iodine-bearing  plants,  are  very- 
limited.  The  shores  of  the  British  Isles  and  of  Brittany  are  the 
spots  most  favored,  owing  to  the  presence  of  the  Gulf  Stream, 
which  serves  as  the  carrier  of  the  iodine  and  of  the  temperature 
conditions  necessary  to  the  growth  of  the  Algcz. 

By  far  the  larger  portion  of  the  sea- weed  harvest  comes  ashore 
in  the  early  spring  and  in  the  late  fall.  The  fall  harvest,  together 
with  that  which  winter  adds,  is  suffered  in  most  localities  to  lie  un- 
touched on  the  beach  until  it  has  been  carried  out  to  sea  again  and 
lost  forever.  It  is  only  the  spring  crop  which  receives  special  care. 
Thousands  of  women  and  children,  and  a  small  sprinkling  of  men, 
may  be  seen  nocking  to  the  beach  during  the  month  of  May,  armed 
with  rakes  and  wheelbarrows,  or  driving  low  carts,  whose  wheels 
are  made  broad  enough  to  prevent  their  sinking  in  the  sand.  The 
wet  weeds  are  raked  into  piles,  and  carried  either  by  barrow  or 
cart  to  a  conveniently  safe  distance  from  the  water's  edge.  Usu- 
ally a  sheltered  nook  is  chosen,  if  near  at  hand,  and  in  it  is  stored 
a  great  mass  of  the  weed.  Here  it  is  left  to  dry  under  the  sum- 
mer's hot  sun,  meanwhile  exhaling  odors  of  no  dainty  description. 
There  are  well-recognized  liberties  and  restrictions  in  regard  to 
sea-weed  accorded  to  landlords  and  peasantry  who  dwell  along 
the  shore.  The  landlords  have  most  of  the  liberties,  while  the 
peasants  enjoy  the  restrictions.  Conflicts  of  sea-weed  rights  have 
been  known  to  occur,  in  which  cases  the  shillalah  has  had  an  im- 
portant share  in  the  gathering  of  the  crop. 

When  the  weed  is  dry — that  is,  in  the  latter  part  of  July  and 
the  first  of  August — the  owners  of  the  sea-weed  heaps  undertake 
to  burn  them  into  kelp.  This  burning  is  done  in  the  crudest  and 
most  wasteful  manner.  Shallow  pits,  often  dug  right  in  the 
sand,  are  filled  with  weed  and  the  mass  ignited.  Upon  the  first 
charge  fresh  quantities  of  weed  are  thrown  from  time  to  time,  the 
whole  mass  burning  more  or  less  rapidly  in  proportion  to  the  dry- 
ness of  the  weed.  There  results,  in  the  bottoms  of  these  pits,  a 
black  mass  resembling  iron-slag  in  appearance,  though  not  in 
hardness,  which,  being  sprinkled  with  water  while  hot,  breaks  up 
into  large  lumps  suitable  for  transportation.  Owing  to  the  care- 
lessness with  which  the  weeds  are  raked  up,  this  crude  kelp-slag 
always  contains  a  large  percentage  of  sand  and  other  impurities, 
sometimes  amounting  to  one  half  the  total  weight  of  the  product. 
The  improvidence  of  this  is  the  more  marked  in  view  of  the  small 
amount  of  valuable  salts  which  even  at  best  can  be  found  in  the 
kelp,  and  the  rapid  ratio  in  which  the  cost  of  transportation 
diminishes  the  profits  when  half  of  the  slag  is  dead  weight.  The 
improvidence  extends  equally  to  the  burning  itself.  This  takes 
place  in  full  access  of  air,  and  at  a  temperature  so  high  as  to  vola- 
tilize much  of  the  iodine.    Besides,  all  the  gaseous  products  of  the 


A   HARVEST  FROM   THE    OCEAN.  381 

combustion  are  lost  and  the  escaped  gases  overcloud  whole  town- 
ships, and  impart  to  miles  of  sea-shore  the  peculiar  odor  charac- 
teristic of  burning  kelp.  To  save  these  gaseous  products  by  dis- 
tilling the  weeds  in  closed  retorts,  at  low  temperatures,  would 
mean  the  production,  at  little  extra  cost,  of  valuable  amounts  of 
ammonia,  parafin,  acetic  acid,  naphtha,  etc.  In  addition,  the  char- 
coal left  would  be  much  richer  in  iodine  than  the  ordinary  kelp, 
and  its  mechanical  form  much  easier  of  subsequent  extraction. 
Attention  has  been  called  time  and  again  to  the  enormous  waste 
of  material  and  the  easy  means  of  improvement  in  kelp-making, 
but  thus  far  little  inroad  has  been  made  into  this  European  species 
of  ancestor-worship.  The  crofters  cling  to  traditional  methods 
and  primitive  tools. 

When  kelp,  such  as  has  been  described,  is  brought  into  market, 
it  is  purchased  by  those  directly  engaged  in  making  the  salts  of 
iodine  and  the  alkalies.  In  their  hands  it  becomes  the  subject  of 
careful  treatment  to  separate  the  valuable  ingredients  from  the 
gross  impurities  with  which  they  are  associated.  This  is  commonly 
done  by  breaking  the  kelp  into  small  lumps  and  lixiviating  in 
suitable  vats  filled  with  hot  water  or  supplied  with  steam  vapor. 
Such  treatment,  when  sufficiently  prolonged,  dissolves  out  the 
alkaline  and  iodine  salts,  which  need  only  the  subsequent  opera- 
tion of  being  allowed  to  settle  and  siphoning  off  to  separate  them 
from  the  insoluble  matters.  The  liquor  contains  chiefly  the  chlo- 
rides, the  sulphates,  the  sulphites,  and  the  hyposulphites  of  sodium 
and  potassium,  as  well  as  the  iodides  and  bromides  of  those  metals. 
By  evaporating  this  solution,  the  greater  portion  of  the  chlorides 
and  sulphates  will  crystallize  out  before  the  iodides,  bromides, 
and  lower  sulphur  compounds  begin  to  deposit.  The  former  may 
then  be  fished  out  of  the  evaporating  pan,  leaving  a  resultant 
mother-liquor  rich  in  iodides.  The  hurtful  sulphur  compounds 
remaining  are  decomposed  by  excess  of  strong  sulphuric  acid,  and 
then  the  proper  quantity  of  manganese  dioxide  is  added.  This 
mixture  is  transferred  to  an  iron  retort  and  heated,  the  result  of 
which  is  to  liberate  the  iodine  and  part  of  the  bromine  present. 
The  vapors  of  these  elements  are  conducted  into  proper  earthen- 
ware condensers,  where  the  iodine  is  deposited  as  a  black  powder, 
and  the  small  quantity  of  bromine  as  a  dense  brown  liquid  moist- 
ening the  iodine  powder.  As  before  indicated,  from  twelve  to 
twenty  pounds  of  this  crude  iodine  are  obtained  from  the  mother- 
liquor  of  one  ton  of  kelp.  There  are  several  possible  ways  of  puri- 
fying the  crude  iodine,  in  order  to  secure  the  iodine  of  commerce 
and  also  the  bromine  which  had  been  its  chief  impurity.  Even 
this  purified  iodine  contains  minute  traces  of  bromine,  owing  to 
the  difficulty  of  their  perfect  separation.  If  iodide  of  potassium 
is  desired  instead  of  free  iodine,  it  is  still  necessary  to  produce 


382  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

the  latter,  and  froni  it  obtain  the  iodide  by  the  action  of  potas- 
sium hydrate  or  caustic  potash. 

Iodine,  as  a  commercial  body,  has  been  subject  to  great  fluctu- 
ations in  price.  It  has  ranged  from  a  minimum  of  $1.50  to  a 
maximum  of  $9.50  per  pound,  and  is  at  present  quoted  at  the 
fairly  constant  figure  of  $4  per  pound. 

This  harvest  of  sea- weed,  whose  transformation  into  iodine  has 
been  briefly  traced,  has  been  to  a  certain  extent  the  subject  of 
other  industrial  applications.  In  Ireland  and  the  Channel  Islands 
the  weeds  are  used  directly  as  a  fertilizer.  Its  advantages  in  this 
line  are  chiefly  felt  in  the  Irish  potato  crop,  where  the  potash  of 
the  sea-weed  supplies  a  most  important  ingredient  of  that  staple 
tuber.  The  presence,  also,  of  small  proportions  of  the  earthy 
phosphates  increases  its  value  for  fertilizing  purposes.  Attempts 
have  been  made  to  utilize  these  weeds  in  the  manufacture  of  paper 
and  textile  goods,  but  with  little  or  no  success,  owing  to  the  fact 
that  the  true  Algce  are  not  fibrous  in  their  structure ;  nor  is  it  sur- 
prising to  find  sea-weed  quite  extensively  used  as  a  fuel  among  a 
tenantry  so  poverty-stricken,  and  in  a  country  so  bare  of  combus- 
tibles. But  the  chief  value  of  the  sea-weed  harvest  remains  in  the 
monopoly  of  iodine  which  its  tissues  possess. 

Despite  its  many  wasteful  drawbacks,  the  kelp  industry  shows 
the  respectable  annual  yield  of  six  million  dollars,  much  of  which 
finds  its  way  into  the  pockets  of  a  very  destitute  tenantry.  In 
those  districts  where  the  winter  supply  is  carefully  gathered  and 
burned,  the  production  of  kelp  has  had  very  beneficial  effects  by 
employing  and  remunerating  the  most  indigent  classes  at  a  time 
when  they  would  otherwise  be  totally  unproductive. 


BIRDS  WITH   TEETH. 

By  OTTO  MEYER,  Ph.  D. 

THE  birds  of  our  present  world,  however  different  they  may 
be  from  each  other  in  size,  shape,  color,  etc.,  are  remarkably 
uniform  in  their  anatomical  construction.  Adapted  to  a  life  in 
the  air,  they  all  possess  bones  which  are  more  or  less  pneumatic — 
that  is,  contain  air-cavities,  to  lessen  the  weight  of  the  skeleton. 
Altogether  the  reduction  of  weight  has  been  brought  down  to  per- 
fection, and  a  flying  bird  carries  very  little,  if  any,  unnecessary 
substance.  Locomotion  in  the  air  requires,  further,  a  vigorous 
action  of  the  wings,  and  such  a  motion  could  hardly  be  executed 
in  presence  of  a  loose  and  shaky  body.  But  the  skeleton  of  the 
body  of  a  bird  is  not  loose ;  on  the  contrary,  it  is  very  solid.  The 
vertebrae  of  the  backbone  are  grown  together  and  form  a  firm 


BIRDS    WITH    TEETH. 


383 


column.  With  this  column  the  broad  ribs  unite  in  the  back, 
while  in  front  they  are  held  together  by  the  sternum  ;  and  to 
make  this  cradle  of  bones  more  compact  and  fit  to  resist  the 
action  of  the  wings,  and  to  protect  the  interior  organs,  the  ribs 
touch  each  other  with  what  the  anatomists  call  "uncinate  pro- 
cesses." Whoever  is  called  upon  to  carve  at  the  table  a  chicken 
or  a  turkey  will  experience  how  solid  and  protective  the  construc- 
tion of  the  skeleton  of  the  body  is. 

If  the  main  body  is  in  this  way  compact  and  immovable,  some 
other  part  must  be  so  much  the  more  flexible,  and  this  is  the 
neck.  If  we  watch  a  swan  oiling  its  feathers  with  its  bill,  see  the 
cervical  evolutions  of  a  flamingo,  or  an  owl  sitting  with  its  head 
reversed,  we  are  apt  to  experience  a  painful  sensation  in  our  necks 
and  may  wonder  whether  the  bird  will  assume  its  normal  position 
without  breaking  something.  But  all  these  motions  are  executed 
with  the  most  perfect  ease  and  security,  and  the  construction  of 
the  vertebrae,  which  enables  the  birds  to  perform  them,  is  simple 
and  effective.  These  vertebrse  do  not  articulate  with  each  other 
by  plain  faces  as  the  vertebrae  in  our  bodies,  but  the  articulations 
are  saddle-shaped,  so  that  the  prominence  of  one  vertebra  fits  into 
the  excavation  of  the  next  one,  and  vice  versa.  If  we  take  two 
adjoining  vertebrae  of  the  neck  of  a  bird  and  try  their  motion,  we 
shall  find  that  this  articulation  admits  two  ways  of  turning — from 
one  side  to  the  other  as  well  as  up  and 
down.  This  saddle  shape  of  the  articular 
face  of  the  cervical  vertebrae  is  found  with- 
out exception  in  all  existing  birds  and  in 
no  other  animal. 

There  are  other  features  which  are  met 
with  in  all  birds  and  exclusively  in  them — 
for  instance,  the  plumage.  The  horny  bill 
is  without  teeth.  The  vertebrae  of  the  tail 
are  grown  together  and  form  a  plowshare- 
shaped  bone.  This  bone  supports  the  tail 
feathers,  which  can  be  opened  and  closed 
like  a  fan,  and  which  serve  as  a  rudder  and 
a  parachute.  The  bones  of  the  anterior  ex- 
tremities are  transformed  in  such  a  way 
that  they  form  an  excellent  framework  for 
the  wings;  but,  although  the  anatomists 

distinguish  easily  radius,  ulna,  digits,  etc.,  one  would  hardly  sus- 
pect that  these  wing  bones  are  perfectly  analogous  to  those  in  the 
fore-feet  of  quadrupeds,  or  in  our  arms  and  hands. 

Now  let  us  turn  our  attention  to  the  reptiles  which  exist  at 
the  present  time — to  the  lizards,  crocodiles,  snakes,  and  turtles. 
These  cold-blooded,  scaly  animals  seem  to  have  nothing  at  all  in 


Fig.  1. — Vertebra  op  a  Bird 
with  Saddle -shaped  Ar- 
ticular Face. 


3*4 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY 


Psychozoic.  < 


i — -===  -Terti  ary. 


~&<vsmi 


x 


-Cretaceous 
(Hesperornis, 
Ichthyornipj. 


J  °„S  ".'•'.'.'  -Jurassic 

■Aw-HgSs&gl     (Arcbaeopterys). 


common  with  the  warm-blooded,  feathered  inhabitants  of  the  air ; 
and  yet  onr  first  scientists,  for  instance,  Prof.  Huxley,  unite  rep- 
tiles and  birds  as  one  class  of  ani- 
mals. However  closely  we  may 
study  the  anatomy  of  a  chicken 
and  of  a  crocodile,  and  search  for 
points  which  are  common  to  both, 
we  shall  be  only  moderately  in- 
clined to  follow  the  example  of 
these  naturalists  and  consider 
birds  and  reptiles  as  near  rela- 
tives. But  we  shall  become  con- 
vinced of  their  close  connection 
if  we  study  also  their  geological 
history. 

In  the  first  instance,  we  then 
see  that  the  reptiles  of  the  present 
time  are  only  small  remnants  of  a 
once  numerous  and  powerful  tribe. 
In  certain  former  geological  pe- 
riods we  find  reptiles  to  be  the 
kings  of  the  earth  ;  we  discover 
reptiles  of  enormous  sizes  ;  rep- 
tiles of  all  kinds  of  shape  and  ana- 
tomical construction ;  and  among 
them  there  are  some  which  resem- 
ble birds  much  more  than  does  a 
crocodile  or  a  lizard  of  the  present 
day.  In  the  second  instance,  if  we 
look  at  the  birds  of  former  periods 
we  find  that,  in  the  same  way  as 
we  go  backward  in  the  history  of 
our  earth,  these  former  inhabitants 
of  the  air  differ  more  and  more 
from  the  specialized  pattern  after 
which  all  our  present  birds  are 
built,  that  they  become  more  and 
more  reptile-like,  and  that  there 
can  hardly  be  any  doubt  that  the 
birds  are  indeed  branched  off  from 
the  great  reptilian  trunk  of  the 
animal  kingdom. 

There  are  three  fossil  birds  of 
pretertiary  age  known  almost  com- 
pletely ;  two  of  them  were  found  in  the  Cretaceous  formation  of 
North  America,  and  one  in  the  Jurassic  formation  of  Germany. 


&SI 


Fig.  2.— Section  of  the  Earth's  Crust. 


BIRDS    WITH   TEETH. 


3«5 


During  the  Cretaceous  period  the  Rocky  Mountains  were  not 
yet  the  high  elevation  which  they  are  now,  but  were  existing 
probably  only  as  a  succession  of  low  islands.  The  land  of  several 
States  of  the  Union  was  deposited  at  that  time  at  the  bottom  of 
the  ocean,  east  of  this  line  of  islands.  One  of  these  States  is 
Kansas,  in  which,  therefore,  the  cold  water  was  then  still  more 
supreme  than  it  is  now.  In  the  Cretaceous  deposits  of  Kansas 
the  remains  of  the  bird  Hesperomis  have  been  found.     It  was  a 


Fig.  3.— Hesperornis  regalis  (restored  by  Marsh). 


large  animal,  about  five  feet  long,  with  well-developed,  strong 
legs,  but  perfectly  obsolete  wings.  The  anatomical  construction 
indicates  the  way  of  living.  It  was  entirely  without  the  power 
of  flight,  living  in  the  way  of  penguins,  mostly  on  the  water, 
diving  for  fish,  which  it  was  admirably  adapted  to  catch,  and 
with  which  the  Cretaceous  ocean  here  was  teeming.  The  shores 
were  visited  probably  only  for  the  purpose  of  breeding.  There  is 
nothing  very  peculiar  in  it's  anatomy,  with  the  exception  of  one 
fact,  which,  however,  distinguishes  it  at  once  thoroughly  from 
all  birds  living  now :  its  long  bill  was  provided  with  teeth,  teeth 
which  resemble  those  of  reptiles.  Few  discoveries  have  at  their 
time  caused  so  much  interest  among  geologists  as  when  through 


386 


THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


Kansas  fossils  the  fact  was  established  that  birds  with  teeth  for- 
merly existed. 

The  deposits  of  Kansas  in  which  the  Hesperornis  has  been 
found  have  yielded  also  the  remains  of  another  Cretaceous  bird, 


Fig.  4.— Restoration  of  Icqthyornis  victor  (after  Marsh).     One  half  natural  size. 


the  Ichthyornis.  This  animal  was  small,  of  about  the  size  of  the 
tern,  and  probably  also  resembled  it  in  its  habits  and  mode  of  liv- 
ing ;  at  any  rate,  it  was  a  good  flier,  with  powerful  wings  and 
small  legs.  The  Ichthyornis  also  had  teeth  in  both  jaws.  But  in 
still  another  respect  it  was  different  from  all  our  present  birds. 
The  articular  faces  of  its  vertebrse  were  not  saddle-shaped,  but 
simply  excavated  on  both  sides ;  they  were  biconcave.  This  form 
of  vertebrae  is  met  with  in  a  few  recent  and  many  extinct  reptiles, 
and  in  the  amphibians.  But  it  is  especially  characteristic  of 
fishes,  and  the  name  has  been  chosen  on  account  of  it,  for  Iclithy- 


BIRDS    WITH   TEETH. 


387 


omis  means  "  fish-bird."  The  fossil  remains  from  which  Hesper- 
ornis  and  Ichthyomis  have  been  described  are  exhibited  in  the 
Museum  of  Yale  College,  in  New  Haven. 

A  long  time,  a  whole  geological  period,  before  Hesperornis  and 
Ichthyomis  were  enjoying  life  and  eating  fish  on  the  vast  Creta- 
ceous ocean  of  the  western  United  States,  there 
was  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic,  at  about 
the  site  of  the  town  of  Solenhofen,  in  Bavaria, 
a  lake  or  marine  gulf  in  a  protected  situation, 
with  very  quiet  waters.  The  lime  carried  by 
the  rivers  into  this  gulf  was  deposited  at  the 
bottom,  in  an  exceedingly  uniform  and  undis- 
turbed manner,  as  a  very  fine  sediment.  At 
present,  after  millions  of  years,  the  gulf  is  dried  up  and  the  sedi- 
ment has  been  hardened  to  a  limestone,  the  grain  of  which  is  un- 
usually small  and  regular.     In  fact,  no  limestone  in  any  country 


Fig.  5.— Cervical  Verte- 
bra OF  ICHTHYORNIS 
DISPAR,   X   2. 


^'V  VlCCK    s.F.CAL 


Fig.  6.— Arch^optertx  macroura  (Berlin  specimen) 


388 


THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


surpasses,  or  even  equals,  this  Jurassic  limestone  of  Bavaria  in 
this  respect,  and  therefore  the  lithographers  of  the  whole  earth 
receive  their  lithographic  stones  froih  the  quarries  of  Solenhofeu. 
We  may  obtain  an  idea  of  the  exceptional  and  uniform  way  in 
which  this  limestone  has  been  deposited  when  we  see  the  impres- 
sions and  casts  of  jelly-fish  and  other  delicate  animals,  which  are 
found  as  fossils  in  this  stone  and  in  no  other  known  deposit. 

In  this  lithographic  stone  of  Bavaria  there  was  found,  in  the 


Fig.  7.— Auch-eopteryx  macrouka,  restored  (after  Owen). 


year  1860,  the  impression  of  a  feather.  This  proved  the  existence 
of  a  bird  during  the  Jurassic  period — that  is,  of  a  feathered  ani- 
mal much  older  than  all  other  known  fossil  birds.  It  was  there- 
fore named  Archceopteryx,  which  means  "  old  wing."  The  feather 
was  there ;  a  sharp  lookout  was  kept  now  for  the  bird  itself,  and, 
indeed,  one  year  later,  a  nearly  complete  skeleton  of  it  was  found. 
It  was  bought  by  the  British  Museum,  in  London,  for  fourteen 
thousand  marks,  and  has  been  described  by  Prof.  Owen,  Sixteen 
years  later,  in  1877,  a  second  specimen  was  discovered  in  Solen- 
hofen.  The  electrician,  Dr.  Siemens,  in  Berlin,  did  not  wish  that 
this  fossil  should  also  go  out  of  Germany ;  therefore  he  bought 
it  for  twenty  thousand  marks,  and  sold  it  afterward,  at  the  same 
price,  to  the  Prussian  Government.  It  is  now  in  the  Berlin  Mu- 
seum. 

Both  specimens  together  furnish  us  with  an  almost  complete 
picture  of  the  Jurassic  bird.  The  Archceopteryx  was  about  the 
size  of  a  pigeon.  The  Berlin  specimen  proves  that  its  bill  was 
also  provided  with  teeth.  Furthermore,  the  vertebrae  show  also 
that  biconcave  form,  as  in  Ichthyornis  and  in  lower  animals. 
But  there  are  a  number  of  other  features  in  the  Archceopteryx 
which  remove  it  still  further  from  the  birds  of  the  present  time, 
and  make  it  resemble  a  reptile :  1.  Its  wing  bones  were  not  grown 
together  in  the  way  of  all  the  other  birds,  but  they  were  partially 


THE  EFFECTS    OF  CAVE  LIFE   ON  ANIMALS.      389 

separate,  as  in  the  fore-foot  of  a  quadruped,  and  there  were  even 
three  claws,  so  that  the  animal  could  also  grasp  with  its  win«-s. 
2.  Its  ribs  were  small,  thin,  without  uncinate  processes,  and  there- 
fore formed  no  compact  and  solid  cradle.  3.  Its  pelvic  bones 
were  almost  like  those  of  certain  extinct  reptiles.  4.  Its  tail  was 
not  short,  with  a  plowshare-shaped  bone  and  a  fan-like  arrange- 
ment of  the  tail  feathers,  as  in  all  other  birds,  but  it  was  long, 
composed  of  not  less  than  twenty  vertebrse,  and  the  feathers  were 
fixed  along  the  whole  length  of  this  tail.  In  other  words,  it  was 
a  regular  lizard  tail,  but  covered  with  feathers.  It  is  no  wonder 
that  some  scientists  did  not  consider  the  Arcliceopteryx  as  be- 
longing to  the  birds,  but  thought  it  was  a  reptile.  Apart  from  its 
plumage,  however,  there  is  too  much  in  its  anatomy  that  is  avian. 
At  any  rate,  it  was  a  very  reptile-like  bird,  and  its  power  of  flight 
was  certainly  not  great.  It  probably  fluttered  more  than  flew, 
and  occasionally  used  its  claws  to  support  itself.  The  formation 
of  its  eye  bones  seems  to  indicate  that  it  was  of  nocturnal  habits, 
like  our  owls. 

Other  fossils,  lying  as  yet  unknown  in  the  strata  of  our  earth 
and  waiting  for  the  ardent  scientific  digger,  will  teach  us  consid- 
erably more  about  the  evolution  of  the  birds,  but  the  outlines  of 
it  are  already  mapped  out  by  what  we  possess  at  present ;  and  it 
must  be  said,  especially  about  the  Archceojoteryx,  that  it  sheds 
more  light  upon  the  development  of  the  animal  kingdom  during 
former  periods  than  perhaps  any  other  known  fossil. 


THE  EFFECT  OF  CAVE   LIFE   ON  ANIMALS,  AND  ITS 
BEARING   ON  THE   EVOLUTION  THEORY. 

By  A.  S.   PACKAKD. 

THE  main  interest  in  studies  on  cave  life  centers  in  the  obvious 
bearing  of  the  facts  upon  the  theory  of  descent.  The  condi- 
tions of  existence  in  caverns,  subterranean  streams,  and  deep  wells 
are  so  marked  and  unlike  those  which  environ  the  great  majority 
of  organisms,  that  their  effects  on  the  animals  which  have  been 
able  to  adapt  themselves  to  such  conditions  at  once  arrest  the  at- 
tention of  the  observer.  To  such  facts  as  are  afforded  by  cave 
life,  as  well  as  parasitism,  the  philosophic  biologist  naturally  first 
turns  for  the  basis  of  his  inductions  and  deductions  as  to  the  use 
and  disuse  of  organs  in  inducing  their  atrophy.  It  is  compara- 
tively easy  to  trace  the  effects  of  absence  of  light  on  animals  be- 
longing to  genera,  families,  or  orders  in  which  eyes  are  normally 
almost  universally  present.    As  we  have  seen  in  non-cavernicolous 


39o  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

animals,  the  eyes  are  wanting  froni  causes  of  the  same  nature  as 
have  induced  their  absence  in  true  cave  animals.  No  animal  or 
series  of  generations  of  animals,  wholly  or  in  part,  lose  the  organs 
of  vision  unless  there  is  a  physical  appreciable  cause  for  it.  "While 
we  may  never  be  able  to  satisfactorily  explain  the  loss  of  eyes  in 
certain  deep-sea  animals  from  our  inability  to  personally  pene- 
trate to  the  abysses  of  the  sea,  we  can  explore  caves  at  all  times  of 
day  and  night,  of  winter  and  summer ;  we  can  study  the  egg-lay- 
ing habits  of  the  animals,  and  their  embryonic  development ;  we 
can  readily  understand  how  the  caves  were  colonized  from  the 
animals  living  in  their  vicinity ;  we  can  nicely  estimate  the  na- 
ture of  their  food,  and  its  source  and  amount,  as  compared  with 
that  accessible  to  out-of-door  animals ;  we  can  estimate  with  some 
approach  to  exactitude  the  length  of  time  which  has  elapsed  since 
the  caves  were  abandoned  by  the  subterranean  streams  which 
formed  them  and  became  fitted  for  the  abode  of  animal  life.  The 
caves  in  southern  Europe  have  been  explored  by  more  numerous 
observers  than  those  of  this  country,  and  the  European  cave 
fauna  is  richer  than  the  American,  but  the  conditions  of  Euro- 
pean cave  life  and  the  effects  of  absence  of  light  and  the  geological 
age  of  the  cave  fauna  are  like  those  of  American  caves.  More- 
over, the  cave  life  of  New  Zealand  and  the  forms  there  living  in 
subterranean  passages  and  in  wells  show  that  animal  life  in  that 
region  of  the  earth  has  been  affected  in  the  same  manner.  The 
facts  seem  to  point  to  the  origin  of  the  cave  forms  from  the  species 
now  constituting  a  portion  of  the  present  Quaternary  fauna; 
hence  they  are  of  very  recent  origin. 

The  result  of  cave  exploration  shows  that  no  plants,  even  the 
lowest  fungi,  with  the  exception  of  Oozonium  auricomum  Link, 
and  perhaps  one  or  two  other  kinds  of  fungi  common  to  Europe 
and  America  in  and  out  of  caves,  can  so  adapt  themselves  as  to 
live  and  propagate  their  species  in  the  total  darkness  of  caverns. 
They  are  far  more  dependent  on  the  influence  of  light  than 
animals. 

"We  will  now  briefly  rehearse  the  facts  relating  to  the  changes 
in  structure  and  color  undergone  by  animals  adapted  to  a  life  in 
total  darkness  in  caves,  premising  that,  so  far  as  we  know,  the 
Protozoa  detected  in  subterranean  waters  do  not  essentially  differ 
from  those  living  in  the  light.  It  appears  from  the  following 
facts  that  eyeless  animals  change  their  color  as  well  as  those  hav- 
ing eyes : 

1.  A  sponge  {Spongilla  stygia)  found  by  Dr.  Joseph  in  the 
waters  of  Carniolan  grottoes,  instead  of  being  green,  is  pellucid 
and  bleached. 

2.  The  Hydra  (H.  pellucida),  also  found  by  Dr.  Joseph  in  the 
subterranean  lakes  of  Carniola,  was,  as  its  name  indicates,  neither 


THE  EFFECTS    OF   CAVE  LIFE   ON  ANIMALS.      39i 

green  nor  brown,  like  the  two  species  of  the  upper  world,  but 
pellucid,  bleached  out,  or  colorless. 

Such  was  also  found  by  Dr.  Joseph  to  be  the  case  with  the 
smaller  crustaceans,  such  as  certain  cave  species  of  Cypris,  Lep- 
todera,  Estheria,  and  Branchipus  (B.  pellucidus  Jos.). 

3.  As  regards  change  of  color,  we  do  not  recall  an  exception  to 
the  general  law  that  all  cave  animals  are  either  colorless  or  nearly 
white,  or,  as  in  the  case  of  Arachnida  and  insects,  much  paler  than 
their  out-of-door  relatives. 

The  worms  (planarians  and  earth-worms)  are  somewhat  paler 
than  their  allies  living  out  of  caves,  but  as  the  normal  environ- 
ment of  most  planarians  and  earth-worms  is  much  like  those  of 
cave  animals,  the  difference  is  not  so  marked,  though  both  of  our 
cave  planarian  worms  are  white  and  eyeless. 

All  the  cave  Crustacea,  both  aquatic  and  terrestrial,  are  color- 
less or  whitish,  more  or  less  vitreous,  and  pellucid,  the  pigment 
cells  being  degenerate  and  functionless.  The  effects  of  total  dark- 
ness seem  quite  different  from  the  influence  to  which  the  eyeless 
deep-sea  Crustacea  are  exposed,  since  they,  like  their  fellows  with 
eyes  normal  or  hypertrophied,  are  said  to  be  of  the  same  flesh  and 
reddish  tints  common  to  deep-sea  animals. 

In  the  case  of  the  cavernicolous  myriapods  the  bleaching  of 
the  body  is  very  marked.  In  out-of-door  myriapods  the  normal 
tint  of  the  integument  is  brown  or  rarely  amber-brown ;  but  the 
color  of  the  cavernicolous  species  is  white  or  flesh- white,  like  a 
freshly  molted  myriapod  of  normal  habitat. 

The  cave  species  of  Arachnida  are  usually  whitish  or  pale 
amber-colored,  or  pale  horn,  with  a  reddish  tint.  Of  the  mites, 
some  are  white,  others  horn-color,  or  chitinous.  In  the  family 
Chernetidaz  the  cave  species  are  "dull  white,"  or  "  pale  horn  with 
a  reddish  tint,"  or  "  pale  yellowish." 

The  effects  upon  the  eyes  and  optic  lobes  of  a  life  in  total  dark- 
ness are  the  following : 

1.  Total  atrophy  of  optic  lobes  and  optic  nerves,  with  or  with- 
out the  persistence  in  part  of  the  pigment  or  retina  and  the  crys- 
talline lens  (Cozcidotaia,  Crangonyx,  Chthonius,  Adelops,  Pseudo- 
tremia). 

2.  Persistence  of  the  optic  lobes  and  optic  nerves,  but  total 
atrophy  of  the  rods  and  cones,  retina  (pigment)  and  facets  (Or- 
conectes). 

3.  Total  atrophy  of  the  optic  lobes,  optic  nerves,  and  all  the 
optic  elements,  including  rods  and  cones,  retina  (pigment)  and 
facets  (Anophthalmus,  Scoterpes,  and  ?  Anthrobia). 

An  interesting  fact  confirmatory  of  the  theory  of  occasional 
rapid  evolution,  as  opposed  to  invariably  slow  action  involved  in 
pure  Darwinism,  is  that  we  never  find  any  rudiments  of  the  optic 


392  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

lobes  or  optic  nerves ;  if  they  are  wanting  at  all,  they  are  totally . 
abolished ;  there  is  not  a  series  of  individuals  with  these  organs 
in  different  degrees  of  development  corresponding  to  the  rudi- 
mentary conditions  of  the  eye.  The  atrophy  is  comparatively 
rapid,  sudden,  and  wholesale.  On  the  other  hand,  we  have  series, 
as  in  Ccecidoicea  or  Chtho?iius,  where  there  is  but  a  single,  or  two 
or  three,  or  several  crystalline  lenses,  partially  enveloped  in  pig- 
ment. 

These  varying  degrees  of  development  in  the  peripheral  parts 
of  the  eye  prove  that  the  animals  entered  the  caves  at  different 
periods,  and  have  been  exposed  for  different  lengths  of  time  to  the 
loss  of  light.  For  example,  those  individuals  of  Chthonius  Pack- 
ardii  which  live  in  the  Labyrinth  of  Mammoth  Cave  are  eyeless, 
or  have  merely  pigment  spots;  those  collected  in  the  Rotunda 
(which  is  much  nearer  the  entrance  to  the  cave)  have  eyes,  or  at 
least  lenses  and  a  retina.  While  most  individuals  of  the  Cceci- 
dotcea  are  eyeless,  a  few  have  rudimentary  eyes.  Thus,  in  the  dif- 
fering conditions  of  the  eyes  in  different  individuals,  we  have  an 
epitome  of  the  developmental  history  of  the  genus  Ccecidotcea  and 
its  species.  Certain  Aselli  borne  into  caves  or  introduced  into 
subterranean  streams  feeding  deep,  dark  wells,  losing  the  stimulus 
of  the  light,  begin  to  lose  their  eyes  and  the  power  of  sight.  The 
first  step  is  the  decrease  in  the  number  of  facets  and  correspond- 
ing lenses  and  retina ;  after  a  few  generations — perhaps  in  four  or 
five — the  facets  become  reduced  to  only  four  or  five ;  the  eye  is 
then  useless ;  then  all  at  once,  perhaps  after  only  two  or  three 
generations,  as  a  result  of  disuse,  there  is  a  failure  in  forming 
images  on  the  retina,  and  those  complicated,  elaborate  structures, 
the  optic  ganglion  and  optic  nerve,  suddenly  break  down  and  are 
absorbed,  though  the  external  eye  still  exists  in  a  rudimentary 
state.  These  imperfect  lenses  and  retinae,  like  all  rudimentary 
organs  throughout  the  animal  world,  are  like  ancient,  decayed 
sign-posts,  pointing  out  some  nearly  obliterated  path  now  unworn 
and  disused.  The  result  of  change  of  environment,  with  disuse 
and  atrophy  of  the  organs  of  vision,  together  with  the  inheritance 
of  these  defects  and  their  establishment  as  fixed  specific  and  even 
generic  characters,  results  in  the  creation  of  a  new  natural  genus 
with  its  assemblage  of  species,  and,  if  we  include  all  the  cave  ani- 
mals thus  produced,  the  creation  of  a  new  fauna.  It  would  be  a 
thorough  test  of  the  theory  of  descent  if  we  could  keep  these 
creatures  in  confinement,  exposed  first  to  twilight  and  then  to  the 
full  light  of  day,  and  endeavor  to  breed  a  few  generations  of  these 
blind  animals  and  ascertain  whether  their  descendants  would  not 
revert  to  the  original  ancestral  eyed  forms.  The  Ccecidotcea  would 
perhaps  be  the  best  subject  for  such  an  experiment ;  it  is  so  abun- 
dant and  easy  to  breed.     That  the  Ccecidotcea  has  been  evolved 


THE  EFFECTS    OF   CAVE  LIFE   ON  ANIMALS.      393 

from  some  species  of  Asellus  hardly  admits  of  a  doubt.  Our 
Asellus  communis  abounds  under  sticks  and  stones,  submerged 
boards  and  logs,  throughout  the  Northern  and  central  States. 
Thence  it  could  readily  be  carried,  in  cavernous  regions  like 
those  of  southern  Illinois,  Indiana,  and  Kentucky,  into  subterra- 
nean streams.  The  supply  must  be  very  great,  as  the  individuals 
of  C.  stygia  are  very  abundant ;  indeed,  so  far  as  we  know,  as  much 
as  or  even  more  so  than  those  of  Asellus  communis. 

In  the  blind  crayfish  of  the  caverns  of  Indiana  and  Kentucky, 
and  of  the  similar  species  (C.  hamulatus)  inhabiting  the  Nicka- 
jack  Cave  of  Tennessee,  we  have  two  aberrant  forms  belonging  to 
a  widely  diffused  group,  whose  center  of  distribution  lies  in  the 
Mississippi  Valley,  and  which  is  rich  in  species  and  in  individuals. 
All  the  streams  and  ditches  situated  over  or  near  the  caves  are 
densely  populated  with  crayfish.  I  was  interested,  after  finding 
C.  pellucidus  in  a  stream  flowing  through  the  Bradford  Cave,  near 
New  Albany,  Indiana,  to  find  the  common  eyed  crayfish  of  that 
region  in  great  abundance  a  few  yards  from  the  mouth,  outside  of 
the  cave,  in  the  shallow  brook  issuing  from  the  cave  itself.  That 
crayfish  with  eyes  can  readily  enter  a  cave — probably  in  time  of 
freshets — is  proved  by  the  fact  that  Cambarus  Bartonii  is  often 
found  in  Mammoth  Cave,  where  it  finds  food ;  and  a  small  speci- 
men has  been  found  by  Mr.  Putnam  a  little  paler  than  usual — i.  e., 
as  pale  as  the  darker  specimens  of  C.  pellucidus — but  the  eyes  were 
normal,  though  it  is  doubtful  if  it  lives  long  enough  in  the  cave 
to  breed  there. 

The  nearest  out-of-door  ally  of  Cambarus  pellucidus  is  Cam- 
barus affinis.  On  the  other  hand,  the  nearest  lucicolous  ally  of 
C.  hamulatus  is  perhaps  C.  latimanus. 

It  is  instructive  to  find  that,  in  regard  to  the  development  of 
the  eyes,  and  the  slenderness,  size,  and  color  of  the  body,  these  two 
cave  crayfish  closely  resemble  each  other,  though  obviously  origi- 
nating, as  Prof.  Faxon  states,  from  species  belonging  to  quite  dif- 
ferent sections  of  the  genus  Cambarus,  and  to  a  different,  more 
southern,  river  valley.  These  facts  appear  to  prove  beyond  ques- 
tion that  the  cave  species  of  crayfish  in  the  United  States  have  de- 
scended from  quite  different  species  of  Cambarus,  belonging  to 
different  zoogeographical  areas.  Had  the  two  species  of  blind 
crayfish  been  produced  instantaneously  by  special  creation,  as 
popularly  supposed  and  advocated  in  the  past  by  some  natural- 
ists, why  should  the  accessory  genital  organs  (gonopoda)  differ  so 
much  that  on  this  account  they  belong  to  different  sections  of  the 
genus  Cambarus  ? 

The  cave  Phalangidce,  or  harvest-men,  whose  habits  and  dis- 
tribution in  Europe  as  well  as  the  United  States,  both  as  regards 
lucicolous  and  cavernicolous  forms,  have  been  given  in  much  de- 

VOL.   XXXVI. —  25 


394  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

tail  elsewhere,  illustrate  clearly  the  theory  that  certain  subter- 
ranean forms,  living  deep  in  the  soil,  under  stones  in  the  cave 
regions  of  both  hemispheres,  especially  in  France  and  Austria, 
have  been  carried  into  caves,  have  survived  the  loss  of  out-of-door 
conditions,  becoming  adapted  to  the  new  and  strange  environment, 
losing  their  eyes  totally  or  in  part  from  disuse  of  those  organs,  and 
have  bred  true  to  the  new  specific  characters  thus  established, 
and  are  now  as  unchangeable  as  the  physical  conditions  in  which 
they  live. 

The  cave  spiders  in  all  important  respects  exemplify  the  same 
rule.  They  belong  to,  or  are  closely  allied  to,  genera  rich  in 
species  in  the  cavernous  regions  they  inhabit,  and  which  live  in 
dark  places.  Although  scarcely  necessary  in  its  changed  environ- 
ment, where  there  are  no  hydrographic  changes,  no  winter  and 
summer,  and  few  enemies  to  contend  with,  the  most  aberrant 
form,  the  completely  eyeless  Anthrobia  of  Mammoth  Cave,  still 
spins  a  silk  cocoon  around  its  eggs  ;  while  in  Weyer's  Cave  Nes- 
ticus  pellidus  Emerton  spins  a  cocoon  for  its  eggs ;  and  either  this 
species  or  its  fellow  troglodyte,  Linyphia  incerta  Emerton,  or  both 
species,  spin  a  weak,  irregular  web,  consisting  of  a  few  threads. 
Is  not  this  a  useless  habit,  a  simple  survival  of  ancestral  traits  ? 

It  was  noticed  that  the  number  of  individuals  of  different 
species  was  greater  in  the  smaller  shallower  caves,  such  as  the 
Weyer  and  Carter  Caverns ;  each  of  these  groups  of  caves  has 
three  species,  while  in  Mammoth  Cave  there  is  but  one,  and  the 
individuals  are  less  common.  Moreover,  all  are  darker  than  An- 
throbia, all  have  eyes,  and  the  number  of  eyes  is  variable.  These 
facts  show  that  Anthrobia  and  the  eyed  forms  have  originated 
from  species  living  in  partial  darkness  at  or  near  the  mouths  of 
the  caverns.  In  Mr.  Emerton's  description  of  Linyphia  incerta 
it  will  be  seen  how  variable  are  the  number  of  eyes.  From  this 
it  may  be  inferred  that  the  specific  characters  of  this  form,  as  re- 
gards the  eyes  at  least,  have  not  been  firmly  established,  and 
hence  it  has  only  recently  become  a  true  troglodyte. 

In  the  foregoing  examples  we  have  as  yet  not  discovered  in 
this  country  any  connecting  links  between  the  eyed  and  blind  or 
eyeless  species  of  cave  animals.  But  in  a  series  of  specimens  of  a 
cave  myriapod,  Pseudotremia  cavernarum,  which  is  abundant  in 
the  Wyandotte  and  Carter  Caves,  we  have  what  we  regard  as 
good,  if  not  complete,  evidence  that  this  cave  form  has  directly 
originated  from  a  common  and  widely  distributed  out-of-door 
form.  The  cave  Pseudotremia  has  black  eyes,  composed  of  from 
twelve  to  fifteen  facets  arranged  in  a  triangular  area ;  of  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  specimens  examined  none  were  found  to  be  eyeless. 
In  a  large  cave  like  "Wyandotte  there  is  little  variation  in  this 
species  as  regards  size,  proportion,  or  color  (being  white  with  a 


THE  EFFECTS    OF   CAVE  LIFE   ON  ANIMALS.      395 

slight  flesh  tint).  But  in  Bradford  Cave,  a  grotto  in  Indiana,  only- 
three  hundred  to  four  hundred  yards  deep,  where  the  conditions 
are  naturally  more  variable,  the  species  likewise  varied  more  in 
proportion  of  parts,  and  in  respect  to  the  eyes,  which  were  more 
rudimentary,  while  the  individuals  were. whiter. 

We  have  attempted  to  show  that  the  only  known  species  of  the 
myriapod  genus  Pseudotremia  has  been  derived  from  the  widely 
diffused  Lysiopetalum  lactarium  (Say) ;  it  differs  in  having  only 
about  half  as  many  segments  as  in  its  out-of-door  parent  form 
(this  diminution  in  the  number  of  segments  being,  due  to  arrest  of 
development) ;  in  the  smaller,  rudimentary  eyes,  while  the  an- 
tennse  are  slenderer  and  longer.  Now,  in  the  Carter  Caves  of 
eastern  Kentucky  we  found  specimens  which  prove  to  us  that  the 
cave  form  is  only  a  modified  L.  lactarium.  In  those  caves  Pseudo- 
tremia cavernarum  is  only  partly  bleached,  being  brownish ;  the 
eyes  are  larger,  having  from  twenty-three  to  twenty-five  facets ; 
and  the  general  appearance  of  the  specimens  is  such,  especially 
the  prominent  ridges  on  the  latero-dorsal  tubercles,  that  the  speci- 
mens might  be  mistaken  for  pale,  partly  bleached  L.  lactarium  J 
yet  the  variety  (Carterensis)  is  true  to  its  generic  character,  hav- 
ing half  as  many  segments  as  in  Lysiopetalum.  Why  the  number 
of  body  segments  should  be  so  greatly  diminished  in  the  cave 
form  is  only  explicable  on  the  ground  that  it  is  due  to  an  arrest  of 
development,  or  that  the  cave  form  has  descended  from  some  un- 
known species  of  Lysiopetalum,  with  half  the  number  of  seg- 
ments as  L.  lactarium. 

In  like  manner  the  Mammoth  Cave  hairy  myriapod,  Scoterpes 
Copei,  was  evidently  derived  from  some  species  of  the  hairy  genus 
Trichopetalum.  Scoterpes  has  no  trace  of  eyes,  and  differs  from 
Trichopetalum  in  the  longer  legs  and  slightly  longer  and  slenderer 
antennae.  There  is  no  reasonable  doubt  but  that  Scoterpes  is  a 
bleached  Trichopetalum  which  has  lost  its  eyes,  and  consequently 
has  longer  legs.  Some  systematists  may  yet  refer  it  to  Tricho- 
petalum, to  which  it  has  the  same  relations  as  Anophthalmus  to 
Trechus.  It  should  be  observed  that  several  myriapods  found  in 
twilight  within  the  mouths  of  caves,  such  as  species  of  Polydesmus 
and  Cambala,  are  more  or  less  bleached,  showing  the  change 
wrought  by  a  life  in  partial  darkness  after  a  limited  number  of 
generations. 

The  Podurans  afford  instances  of  the  modification  of  color 
especially.  Whether  living  in  caves  in  the  central  States  or  in 
Utah,  the  common  cosmopolitan  Tomocerus  plumbeus  is  bleached, 
retaining  its  eyes,  though  they  are  of  diminished  size.  This  is, 
however,  rather  a  twilight  than  a  true  cave  species. 

The  beetles  of  the  genera  Anophthalmus  and  Adelops  are  the 
best-known  examples  of  cave  animals.     The  Adelops  of  Mammoth 


396  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

Cave  and  a  few  adjoining  caves — the  only  species  in  this  country 
of  the  genus — is  blind,  but  possesses  rudiments  of  the  outer  eye, 
several  corneal  lenses  surviving.  On  the  other  hand,  the  species 
of  this  or  the  closely  allied  representative  genus  Bathyscia,  to 
which  they  are  now  referred  by  Dr.  Horn,  are  very  numerous  in 
Europe,  and  are  scavengers  in  habit.  Bedel,  in  his  list  of  the  cave 
insects  of  Europe  (1875),  states  that  sixty-five  species  are  known, 
and  that  several  others  were  known  but  not  described,  and  that 
probably  further  explorations  in  the  region  of  the  Pyrenees,  both 
in  France  and  Spain,  will  lead  to  further  discovery  of  species.  It 
appears  that  not  all  the  species  live  in  caves,  but  occur  in  the  open 
air  under  large  stones,  moss,  vegetable  detritus,  or  at  the  entrances 
to  caves.  It  is  apparent,  then,  that  the  cave  animals  are  emigrants 
from  out  of  doors,  and  that  the  cave  species,  by  isolation  from  the 
light  and  from  interbreeding  with  out-of-door  forms,  as  well  as  by 
adaptation  to  total  darkness,  have  become  fixed  species  with  sepa- 
rate generic  characters. 

Equally  instructive  and  explanatory  of  the  origin  of  cave  ani- 
mals in  general  is  the  genus  Ariophthalmus.  In  the  caverns  of  the 
central  United  States  there  are  only  eight  species,  and  none  occur 
elsewhere  in  America,  though  we  have  two  or  three  species  of 
Trechus,  one  at  least  not  infrequent,  and  Trechus  micans  is  com- 
mon to  both  hemispheres.  Not  alone  loss  of  sight  and  eyes,  but 
other  modifications  of  the  body,  legs,  and  antennae,  evidently  the 
result  of  loss  of  sight,  occur,  so  universal  is  the  modification  of  the 
organism.  It  is  evident  that  southern  Europe  is  the  zoogeo- 
graphical  center  of  this  subgenus,  for  sixty-four  species  of  com- 
pletely eyeless  beetles  referred  to  this  genus  have  already  been 
discovered  in  the  caves  of  Austria,  Italy,  France,  and  Spain. 
Lately,  however,  owing  to  the  studies  of  Putzeys,  and  especially 
of  De  Perrin,  the  genus  Anophthalmus  has  been  united  to  Trechus, 
since  there  is  a  series  of  forms  with  more  or  less  rudimentary 
eyes  connected  with  the  eyed  species  of  Trechus.  Bedel  also  tells 
us  that  in  all  the  species  of  Trechus  there  is  a  natural  tendency  to 
penetrate  into  grottoes,  even  when  ordinarily  they  live  in  the  open 
air  buried  in  the  earth  under  stones. 

It  seems  reasonable  to  conclude  that  the  cave  species,  which 
are  without  optic  ganglia,  optic  nerves,  and  any  traces  of  eyes,  had 
originally,  by  adaptation  to  total  darkness,  become  isolated,  and 
that  their  characteristics  after  being  fixed  by  heredity  have  been 
transmitted  for  generations,  becoming  as  unchanging  in  their  way 
as  the  physical  conditions  of  darkness  and  uniform  temperature 
surrounding  them.  Those  living  in  the  open  air  in  the  soil  under 
stones,  or  at  or  just  within  the  entrances  to  caves,  vary  most  as 
regards  the  eyes,  as  we  have  found  to  be  the  case  with  the  other 
forms  previously  mentioned. 


THE   CHINESE   THEORY   OF  EVOLUTION.  397 

This  intimate  dependence  on  the  physical  conditions  of  life  is 
so  plainly  shown  in  these  animals,  that  we  can  well  understand 
how  potent  have  been  the  factors  (i.  e.,  change  from  light  to  total 
darkness  and  an  even  cave  temperature)  which  have  operated  on 
out-of-door  forms  to  induce  variation.  Given  great  changes  in 
the  physical  surroundings,  inducing  loss  of  eyes  from  disuse,  the 
abolition  in  some  cases  of  the  optic  ganglia  and  optic  nerves,  the 
elongation  of  the  appendages,  isolation  from  out-of-door  allies, 
and  the  transmission  by  heredity  owing  to  close  in-and-in  breed- 
ing within  the  narrow  fixed  limits  of  the  cave,  and  are  not  these 
collectively  verm  causes, ;  do  they  not  fully  account  for  the  origi- 
nal variations  and  their  fixation  ;  in  short,  can  we  not  clearly  un- 
derstand the  mode  of  origin  of  cave  species  and  genera  ?  What 
room  is  there  in  a  case  like  this  or  in  that  of  parasitic  animals  for 
the  operation  of  natural  selection  ?  The  latter  principle  only 
plays,  it  has  seemed  to  us,  a  very  subordinate  and  final  part  in  the 
set  of  causes  inducing  the  origin  of  these  forms. 


-+*+- 


THE   CHINESE   THEORY   OF   EVOLUTION. 

By  ADELE  M.  FIELDE. 

"^VTOT  long  ago  I  engaged  a  new  Chinese  teacher,  Mr.  Khu,  and 
-»-^l  as  I  was  his  first  foreign  acquaintance,  as  he  had  never 
tampered  with  books  of  Western  origin,  and  as  he  was  said  to 
have  made  a  special  study  of  the  occult  sciences  and  to  be  de- 
voutly religious,  I  considered  him  a  treasure-trove.  That  which 
I  here  set  down  as  the  Chinese  theory  of  evolution  has  been 
translated  largely  from  Mr.  Khu's  expositions  of  cosmogony.  It 
agrees  with  what  I  have  gathered,  through  conversations  in  the 
vernacular,  from  other  native  scholars. 

Neither  Lau-Tse,  Confucius,  nor  Buddha,  the  founders  of  the 
three  great  religions  whose  tenets  harmoniously  dwell  together  in 
the  Chinese  mind,  has  set  forth  an  account  of  the  making  of  the 
universe.  But  the  human  intellect  seems  to  trend  inevitably 
toward  attempts  to  explain  the  existence  of  things  seen,  and  so 
there  is  a  Chinese  theory  of  evolution,  whose  exact  origin  it  is 
difficult  to  trace  through  the  four  millenniums  and  the  myriads 
of  volumes  that  hold  the  written  history  of  the  empire. 

In  the  beginning  all  matter  was  transparent,  diffused,  and 
without  differentiation.  In  it  dwelt  the  dual  powers ;  both  subtle, 
ethereal,  and  eternal ;  but  the  one  was  virile,  warm,  radiant,  and 
active ;  the  other,  feminine,  cold,  somber,  and  quiescent.  These 
dual  powers  are  symbolized  by  two  similar,  conjoined  figures, 
whose  outlines  may  be  made  by  drawing  upon  the  diameter  of  a 


398  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

circle  two  oppositely  directed  semicircles,  whose  centers  are  those 
of  the  two  radii.  The  reciprocal  action  of  the  dual  powers,  con- 
tinuing through  ages,  produced  all  that  is.  Puan  Ko,  sometimes 
represented  as  a  giant  holding  up  the  sun  and  moon  and  shaping 

the  mountains,  is  only  the  personifica- 

^ -^  tion  of  the  forces  that  wrought  in  chaos. 

^Sg  n,  A  zenith,  ;i  nadir,  and  all  the  points 

A    W         a  \       °f  the  compass  wen'  gradually  evolved. 

M      ak  \      There  came  to  lie  a  distinction  between 

fl         ^^  I     the  ^ > i * i i-A'  1 1 1  heavens,  with  the  seven  mov- 

gfek  I     ing  luminaries,  and  the  dark  earth,  with 

m       m^<  m  /     ^s  seas'     ^G  ma^e  Prmciple  predomi- 

^  W  /       nated  above,  the  female  principle  pre- 

^^     ^p     ^y  dominated  below,  as  Father  Heaven  and 

Mother  Earth,  each  having  an  all-per- 
vading spirit,  but  with  unlike  influence.  The  body  comes  from 
and  depends  upon  the  earth ;  the  soul  comes  from  and  returns  to 
the  heavens. 

The  rocks  are  the  bones  of  the  divine  body,  the  soil  is  the  flesh, 
the  metals  are  the  nerves  and  veins ;  the  tide,  wind,  rain,  clouds, 
frost,  and  dew  are  all  caused  by  its  respirations,  pulsations,  and 
exhalations.  Originally  the  mountains  rose  to  the  firmament,  and 
the  seas  covered  the  mountains  to  their  tops.  At  that  time  there 
was,  in  the  divine  body,  no  life  besides  the  divine  life.  Then  the 
waters  subsided ;  small  herbs  grew,  and  in  the  lapse  of  cycles 
developed  into  shrubs  and  trees.  As  the  body  of  man,  unwashed 
for  years,  breeds  vermin,  so  the  mountains,  unlaved  by  the  seas, 
bred  worms  and  insects,  greater  creatures  developing  out  of  lesser. 
Beetles  in  the  course  of  ages  became  tortoises,  earth-worms  became 
serpents,  high-flying  insects  became  birds,  some  of  the  turtle-doves 
became  pheasants,  egrets  became  cranes,  and  wild  cats  became 
tigers.  The  praying  mantis  was  by  degrees  transformed  into  an 
ape,  and  some  of  the  apes  became  hairless.  A  hairless  ape  made  a 
fire  by  striking  crystal  upon  a  rock,  and,  with  the  spark  struck 
out,  igniting  the  dry  grass.  With  the  fire  they  cooked  food,  and 
by  eating  warm  victuals  they  grew  large,  strong,  and  knowing, 
and  were  changed  into  men.  There  is  a  story  that  the  ape  who 
first  taught  cooking  had  a  peculiar  origin.  He  was  imprisoned, 
from  the  beginning,  in  a  rock  on  the  sea-shore.  The  waves  beat 
on  the  rock  century  after  century,  and  at  last  wore  away  all  except 
the  ape  that  had  been  its  center.  Then  the  sun  warmed  him,  and 
the  winds  breathed  upon  him,  till  he  became  alive,  and  with  a 
divine  impulsion  went  and  taught  his  kind  to  cook  their  food. 

Khu  says :  "  In  the  early  days  of  man  there  were  peace  and 
plenty,  because  no  one  disturbed  or  maltreated  the  body  of  God. 
Those  who  saw  a  stone  removed  from  its  natural  site,  wept,  and 


THE   CHINESE   THEORY   OF  EVOLUTION.  399 

carried  it  back  and  put  it  in  the  place  from  which  it  came.  Chil- 
dren were  taught  that  if  they  found  a  piece  of  metal  they  must 
not  touch  it.  No  silver,  nor  gold,  nor  jade  was  to  be  seen  in  any 
dwelling.  To  the  wise,  dreams  were  given,  in  which  the  universal 
parent  spoke,  saying :  '  Child,  the  gold,  the  jade,  the  metals,  and 
the  gems  are  all  parts  of  my  body.  Touch  them  not,  nor  meddle 
with  them  to  my  hurt  and  yours.  To  take  stones  from  the  earth 
is  to  dislocate  the  bones  of  one's  parent ;  when  the  parent  suffers, 
the  dependent  child  is  harmed.'  In  those  days  the  soil  was  red 
and  rich ;  it  was  heavy  as  iron,  and  so  ductile  that  it  could  be 
drawn  into  filaments.  There  was  no  need  of  fertilizing  the  fields. 
Whatever  was  planted  grew  quickly,  and  the  kernels  of  grain 
were  as  large  as  chestnuts,  and  the  potato-tubers  were  as  large  as 
squashes  now  are.  The  products  of  the  earth  were  so  nutritious 
that  one  meal  a  day  was  sufficient,  and  so  luscious  were  they  that 
condiments  were  needless.  It  is  the  disrespect  shown  to  the  di- 
vine body  that  has  made  the  life  of  man  so  hard.  One  should  be 
content  with  what  may  be  had  without  deeply  disturbing  the  soil. 
The  displeasure  of  Heaven  is  often  manifestly  visited  upon  the 
agriculturists  who  give  the  land  no  rest,  and  the  lightning  fre- 
quently strikes  those  who  are  at  work  in  the  fields.  Those  who 
walk  on  mountains  soon  tire,  because  they  tread  upon  the  bones, 
while  those  who  keep  to  the  artificial  highways  are  not  so  soon 
fatigued." 

This  pantheistic  theory  being  in  its  loftiest  conceptions  too 
abstract  for  the  masses,  it  is  expressed  by  them  in  the  assertion 
that  "  there  is  a  god  to  every  eight  feet  of  space."  Every  tree, 
grotto,  and  hummock  has  its  tutelary  deity.  Consequently,  no 
man  begins  to  dig  a  cistern,  to  remove  earth  from  a  hill,  to  cut  a 
stone,  or  to  till  a  garden,  without  offering  propitiatory  gifts  to 
the  local  divinity.  If  fever,  headache,  or  dyspepsia  follow  the 
effort,  the  displeasure  of  the  god  is  believed  to  be  its  cause,  and 
the  work  is  apt  to  be  abandoned. 

It  is  at  once  apparent  that  this  pantheistic  theory  of  evolution 
offers  serious  hindrance  to  the  utilization  of  the  metals  contained 
in  the  mountains,  to  the  opening  of  mines,  the  building  of  rail- 
roads, and  the  erection  of  structures  requiring  deep  foundations. 
It  has  prevented  the  Chinese  from  availing  themselves  of  the 
vast  mineral  resources  of  their  country,  from  leveling  thorough- 
fares where  they  are  pressingly  required  for  traffic,  and  from  full 
use  of  the  products  of  the  earth  in  promoting  the  well-being  of 
man.  It  is  the  chief  reason  why  the  emigration  of  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  men  in  search  of  work  has  now  become  necessary. 
If  the  Chinese  were  unhampered  by  fear  of  the  invisible  ones  who 
are  considered  by  all  to  be  the  real  proprietors  of  the  land,  they 
would  have  an  abundance  of  lucrative  work  within  their  own 


4oo  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

borders,  and  they  need  not  then  afflict  other  countries  by  their 
immigration.  The  losses  that  accrue  to  them  through  this  false 
theory  are  both  positive  and  negative.  It  occasions  an  enormous 
outlay  upon  profitless  offerings  that  must  be  bought  with  money 
earned  by  hard  labor;  and  it  prevents  their  use  of  the  wealth 
stored  in  their  lands.  Affecting  daily  the  welfare  of  hundreds  of 
millions  of  persons,  it  well  illustrates  the  practical  evil  of  false 
doctrine,  and,  by  contrast,  shows  the  great  economic  value  of 
truth. 


SKETCH   OF  ALEXANDER  WILSON. 

A  PECULIAR  interest  attaches  to  the  lives  and  labors  of  pio- 
neers. The  circumstances  which  led  to  the  discovery  of  a  new 
continent,  the  first  application  of  one  of  the  forces  of  nature  to 
the  service  of  man,  the  making  of  the  first  instrument  for  viewing 
the  stars,  and  the  first  description  of  the  animals,  plants,  or  physi- 
cal features  of  a  country,  always  have  eager  readers.  Then,  too, 
the  personality  of  a  man  who  has  the  courage  and  originality  to 
set  forth  into  an  untrodden  field  is  generally  picturesque  and 
inspiring.  All  these  claims  to  attention  are  possessed  by  the  pio- 
neer American  ornithologist. 

Alexander  Wilson  was  born  on  the  6th  of  July,  1766,  at 
Paisley,  in  Renfrewshire,  which  lies  just  south  of  the  river  Clyde. 
His  father,  Alexander  Wilson,  was  a  weaver,  and  reached  the  age 
of  eighty-eight  years,  dying  in  1816.  During  the  latter  part  of 
his  life,  at  any  rate,  the  father  was  rated  as  a  most  exemplary  citi- 
zen, but  there  is  a  glamour  of  "moonshine"  about  his  early  man- 
hood, in  the  sense  that,  when  not  occupied  with  tending  the  loom, 
he  operated  a  "  wee  still,"  from  which  trickled  good  Scotch  whisky 
that  was  consumed  without  paying  tribute  to  the  tax-collector. 
This  has  naturally  been  denied,  but  not  with  entire  success.  His 
wife  was  a  Mary  McNab,  of  a  strictly  pious  character,  and  with 
the  beauty  that  frequently  accompanies  a  tendency  to  consump- 
tion. Of  this  disease  she  died  when  young  Alexander,  who  was 
one  of  three  children,  was  ten  years  old. 

Like  many  devout  Scottish  folk,  the  parents  of  "  Alic,"  espe- 
cially his  mother,  cherished  the  ambition  that  their  boy  should 
"  wag  his  head  i'  the  puppit  yet,"  but  his  genius  did  not  lie  in  the 
direction  of  the  ministerial  office.  He  attended  the  Grammar 
School  of  Paisley,  but  his  schooling  must  have  been  interrupted 
and  of  no  great  amount,  for  much  of  his  boyhood  was  otherwise 
occupied,  and  his  deficiencies  in  grammar,  spelling,  etc.,  clung  to 
him  till  manhood.  He  is  known  to  have  struggled  with  his  back- 
wardness in  arithmetic  after  emigrating  to  America.     His  hand- 


SKETCH    OF  ALEXANDER    WILSON.  401 

writing  was  called  excellent,  and  his  language  was  simple  and 
idiomatic.  The  taste  for  reading,  which  he  early  developed, 
largely  made  up  for  his  scanty  schooling.  At  one  time  he  was 
sent  to  be  a  herd  on  a  farm  called  Bakerfield,  not  far  from  Pais- 
ley, where  he  remained  probably  not  more  than  a  single  sum- 
mer. It  is  said  that  "  he  was  a  very  careless  herd,  letting  the 
kye  transgress  on  the  corn,  being  very  often  busied  with  some 
book." 

In  his  thirteenth  year  he  was  bound  apprentice  as  a  weaver, 
for  three  years,  to  his  brother-in-law,  William  Duncan.  Having 
served  out  his  time  in  1782,  he  continued  a  weaver  "  by  constraint, 
not  willingly,"  for  four  years,  living  part  of  the  time  under  his 
father's  roof  in  Paisley  and  in  Lochwinnoch,  and  finally  with  his 
brother-in-law  at  Queensferry.  His  taste  was  for  outdoor  life, 
and  he  had  inherited  a  feeble  constitution  from  his  mother,  so 
that  the  loom  was  irksome  to  him  both  mentally  and  physically. 
During  this  period  young  Wilson  began  to  contribute  verses  to 
the  local  newspapers.  His  best  piece,  however, "  Watty  and  Meg," 
was  published  in  1792,  as  a  penny  chap-book,  without  his  name, 
and  was  ascribed  to  Robert  Burns.  The  latter,  who  lived  not  far 
away,  and  was  but  six  years  older, 'strengthened  the  compliment 
by  avowing  that  he  should  have  been  glad  to  be  its  author.  Wil- 
son's descriptive  pieces  are  interesting,  from  the  evidence  they 
give  of  his  natural  fondness  for  the  woods  and  fields. 

After  a  while  Duncan  decided  to  "  travel "  as  a  peddler  through 
the  eastern  districts  of  Scotland,  and  invited  Alexander  to  accom- 
pany him.  Accordingly,  the  two  abandoned  the  loom  and  entered 
upon  their  new  occupation.  The  Scotch  peddler  of  that  time  was 
generally  a  man  of  shrewdness  and  common  sense,  probably  re- 
sembling the  best  type  of  our  own  departed  Yankee  peddler,  and 
was  generally  respected  by  the  common  people,  but  often  sus- 
pected and  despised  by  the  wealthier.  This  occupation,  although 
it  delivered  Wilson  from  the  confinement  of  the  weaving-room, 
was  not  all  sunshine.  It  involved  trials  and  rebuffs,  which  to  a 
man,  as  Grosart  *  calls  him,  "  of  sensitive,  strangely  refined  if  also 
in  elements  as  strangely  coarsened  temperament,"  must  have  been 
hardly  borne.  His  "  Journal  as  a  Pedlar,"  several  poems  bearing 
on  his  experiences  of  the  road,  and  his  earlier  letters,  give  a  real- 
izing sense  of  the  lights  and  shadows  of  this  kind  of  life.  In  ad- 
dition to  his  trading,  he  solicited  subscriptions  for  a  volume  of 
poems,  which  he  published  in  1790. 

In  a  short  time  he  dropped  the  pack  and  returned  to  his  hated 
trade  of  weaving.  Being  in  ill-health  and  sorely  oppressed  by 
poverty,  he  was  at  this  period  much  given  to  despondency.    Yet  he 

*  "  The  Poems  and  Literary  Prose  of  Alexander  Wilson,"  edited,  with  Memorial  Intro- 
duction, Essay,  etc.,  by  the  Rev.  Alexander  B.  Grosart,  two  vols.,  Paisley,  1876. 
vol.  xxxyi. — 26 


4o2  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

had  a  liumor  wliich  enabled  him  at  times  to  joke  about  his  neces- 
sities. He  had  a  gift  of  satire,  also,  which  got  him  into  some 
trouble,  but  which  was  the  cause  of  his  taking  the  first  step  in  the 
path  that  led  to  fame.  Industrial  affairs  in  Great  Britain  at  that 
time  were  greatly  unsettled.  Many  of  the  Paisley  weavers  were 
unemployed,  and  capital  and  labor  were  arrayed  against  each 
other.  Some  of  the  turbulent  spirits  among  his  fellow  weavers 
induced  the  enthusiastic  young  Wilson  to  use  his  talent  for  verse- 
making  to  abuse  the  capitalists.  Several  poems  of  his,  portraying 
in  no  flattering  light  certain  local  petty  tyrants,  were  adjudged 
libelous,  and  Wilson,  who  manfully  acknowledged  their  author- 
ship, was  fined  heavily,  and  condemned  to  burn  the  poems  in  pub- 
lic.   Being  unable  to  pay  the  fine,  he  was  sent  to  jail. 

In  this  hour  of  gloom,  Wilson's  eyes  were  turned  to  the  New 
World.  Attracted  by  the  chances  for  winning  his  way  open  to  a 
free  man  in  a  new  country,  he  determined  to  emigrate.  Accord- 
ingly, he  and  his  nephew,  William  Duncan,  sailed  from  Belfast 
Loch,  Friday,  May  23, 1794,  and  after  a  voyage  of  over  seven  weeks 
landed  at  Newcastle,  Delaware.  Wilson  was  then  twenty-eight 
years  old.  He  and  young  Duncan  went  first  to  Wilmington,  and 
from  there  to  Philadelphia,  looking  for  employment  at  weaving. 
At  the  latter  place,  he  writes  in  his  first  letter  home  to  his  father 
and  step-mother,  "  we  made  a  more  vigorous  search  than  ever  for 
weavers,  and  found,  to  our  astonishment,  that,  though  the  city  con- 
tains between  forty  and  fifty  thousand  people,  there  is  not  twenty 
weavers  among  the  whole,  and  these  had  no  conveniences  for 
journeymen,  nor  seemed  to  wish  for  any:  so,  after  we  had  spent 
every  farthing  we  had,  and  saw  no  hopes  of  anything  being  done 
that  way,  we  took  the  first  offer  of  employment  we  could  find,  and 
have  continued  so  since."  This  employment  was  in  the  shop  of  a 
copper-plate  printer.  The  above  quoted  letter  was  a  long  and  very 
newsy  one,  and  contains  Wilson's  first  observation  of  the  feathered 
creatures  that  were  to  make  his  fame.  He  writes :  "  As  we  passed 
through  the  woods  on  our  way  to  Philadelphia,  I  did  not  observe 
one  bird  such  as  those  in  Scotland,  but  all  much  richer  in  color. 
We  saw  a  great  number  of  squirrels,  snakes  about  a  yard  long, 
and  some  red  birds,  several  of  which  I  shot  for  our  curiosity." 

Wilson  remained  in  his  first  found  employment  but  a  few 
weeks.  After  that  he  worked  at  his  trade  of  weaving  at  a  place 
ten  miles  north  of  Philadelphia,  and  for  a  short  time  in  Virginia. 
In  1795  he  tramped  through  northern  New  Jersey  as  a  peddler. 
He  had  been  in  America  but  little  over  a  year  when  he  took  up 
school-teaching,  and  at  this  occupation  he  succeeded  remarkably 
well,  although  it  gave  him  only  a  scanty  income.  He  first  opened  a 
school  at  Frankford,  but  soon  gave  it  up  to  become  master  of  the 
school  at  Milestown,  in  Philadelphia  County,  where  he  taught  for 


SKETCH   OF  ALEXANDER    WILSON.  403 

nearly  six  years.  His  own  education  had  been  limited ;  so,  after  he 
began  to  teach,  he  had  to  study  diligently  to  make  up  his  deficien- 
cies. He  advanced  so  far  in  mathematics  that  he  was  enabled  to 
take  occasional  employment  as  a  surveyor. 

After  leaving  Milestown  he  taught  for  a  while  at  Bloomfield, 
N.  J.,  but  he  found  this  place  disagreeable,  and  he  was  at  the  same 
time  burdened  with  a  trouble,  only  dimly  revealed  in  his  letters, 
but  in  which  one  of  the  Milestown  young  ladies  figured.  He  be- 
came very  despondent,  and  even  thought  of  returning  to  Scotland. 
It  was  not  long  before  he  obtained  a  school  at  Kingsessing,  near 
Gray's  Ferry,  on  the  Schuylkill.  His  removal  to  this  place  was 
attended  with  important  results.  He  became  acquainted  with 
William  Bartram,  whose  famous  garden  was  not  far  away,  and 
with  Alexander  Lawson,  the  engraver,  both  of  whom  became  his 
steadfast  friends.  Bartram  lent  him  books,  among  them,  the  works 
of  Catesby  and  Edwards.  In  the  parts  of  these  works  relating  to 
American  birds,  Wilson's  own  acquaintance  with  the  birds  was 
enough  to  show  him  an  exasperating  number  of  errors,  false  theo- 
ries, and  caricatured  figures.  During  the  early  part  of  his  life  at 
this  place  Wilson  was  so  despondent  that  Lawson  at  one  time  feared 
for  his  reason,  and  advised  him  to  give  up  poetry  and  his  flute, 
which  seemed  to  increase  his  melancholy,  and  to  take  up  drawing. 
This  accomplishment  does  not  seem  to  have  come  very  naturally  to 
him,  for  he  made  a  failure  of  the  landscapes  and  human  figures 
which  Lawson  set  before  him.  Still,  the  statement  of  an  American 
writer,  that  he  was  "  without  any  previously  suspected  aptitude,"  is 
denied  by  Mr.  Grosart,  who  adds  that  drawings  by  him  before  he 
left  Scotland  are  preserved  in  the  Paisley  Museum  with  the  col- 
lection of  Wilson's  manuscripts.  Bartram  and  his  niece,  Miss 
Nancy,  started  him  again  on  easier  subjects,  first  flowers,  and  then 
birds,  with  which  he  made  encouraging  success. 

It  is  in  a  letter  to  one  of  his  Scottish  biographers,  his  old  friend 
in  Paisley,  Mr.  Thomas  Crichton,  under  date  of  June  1,  1803,  that 
Wilson's  determination  to  study  the  birds  of  America  is  earliest 
recorded.  "  Close  application  to  the  duties  of  my  profession,"  he 
writes,  "  which  I  have  followed  since  November,  1795,  has  deeply 
injured  my  constitution,  the  more  so  that  my  rambling  disposition 
was  the  worst  calculated  of  any  one's  in  the  world  for  the  austere 
regularity  of  a  teacher's  life.  I  have  had  many  pursuits  since  I 
left  Scotland — mathematics,  the  German  language,  music,  draw- 
ing, etc.,  and  I  am  now  about  to  make  a  collection  of  all  our  finest 
birds."  At  first  he  devoted  only  leisure  hours  to  the  birds,  and 
his  figures  "  were  chiefly  colored  by  candle-light,"  but  he  soon  be- 
gan to  make  longer  and  longer  expeditions.  In  October,  1804,  he 
set  out  with  two  companions,  on  foot,  to  visit  Niagara.  From 
there  he  went  through  the  lake  region  of  central  New  York,  visit- 


4o4  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

iiig  his  sister  and  her  children,  who  were  living  on  a  farm  that 
Wilson  and  his  nephew  "William  had  bought  together.  He  made 
his  way  home  down  the  Mohawk  Valley  to  Albany,  and  thence  by 
boat  to  New  York.  In  this  journey,  occupying  two  months,  he 
traversed  over  twelve  hundred  miles.  Winter  overtook  him  in 
the  midst  of  it,  so  that  the  latter  part  of  it  was  made  "  through  deep 
snows  and  almost  uninhabited  forests ;  over  stupendous  mount- 
ains and  down  dangerous  rivers."  The  trip  seems  to  have  bene- 
fited both  his  health  and  spirits,  for  in  his  account  of  it,  written 
to  Bartram,he  expresses  eagerness  for  wider  explorations  and  new 
discoveries.  "  With  no  family  to  enchain  my  affections,  no  ties  but 
those  of  friendship,  and  the  most  ardent  love  of  my  adopted  coun- 
try ;  with  a  constitution  which  hardens  amid  fatigues,  and  a  dispo- 
sition sociable  and  open,  which  can  find  itself  at  home  by  an  Indian 
fire  in  the  depth  of  the  woods,  as  well  as  in  the  best  apartment 
of  the  civilized  [world],  I  have  at  present  a  real  design  of  becom- 
ing a  traveler.  But  I  am  miserably  deficient  in  many  acquire- 
ments absolutely  necessary  for  such  a  character.  Botany,  miner- 
alogy, and  drawing  I  most  ardently  wish  to  be  instructed  in,  and 
with  these  I  should  fear  nothing."  How  oblivious  to  matters  of 
detail  his  enthusiasm  made  him  can  be  judged,  Ord  *  remarks, 
from  the  fact  that  at  this  time  Wilson's  available  cash  amounted 
to  seventy-jive  cents. 

Two  of  the  birds  which  he  shot  in  New  York,  one  being  the 
Canada  jay,  were  unknown  to  Wilson's  associates.  He  made 
careful  drawings-  of  them,  and  got  Mr.  Bartram  to  send  them  to 
President  Jefferson,  whom  Wilson  much  admired.  The  Presi- 
dent, who  was  quite  an  amateur  naturalist,  replied  with  a  very  ap- 
preciative letter,  in  which  he  put  Wilson  on  the  track  of  a  certain 
sweet-singing  and  very  unapproachable  bird.  He  had  "  followed  it 
for  miles  without  ever,  but  once,  getting  a  good  view  of  it,"  and 
had  for  twenty  years  tried  to  get  a  specimen  without  success. 
"After  many  inquiries  and  unwearied  research,"  says  Ord,  "it 
turned  out  that  this  invisible  musician  was  no  other  than  the 
wood  robin,  a  bird  which,  if  sought  for  in  those  places  which  it 
affects,  may  be  seen  every  hour  of  the  day."  The  next  summer 
Wilson  announced  to  Bartram  his  determination  to  make  a  collec- 
tion of  drawings  of  the  birds  of  Pennsylvania,  and  sent  him  twen- 
ty-eight for  criticism.  The  scope  of  his  undertaking  was  extend- 
ed, within  a  few  months,  so  as  to  include  the  whole  United  States. 
He  had  planned  an  expedition  down  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  Riv- 
ers for  the  summer  of  1806  with  Bartram ;  but  the  latter,  who  was 
nearly  seventy  years  old,  gave  up  the  idea.  Wilson,  who  had  heard 
that  explorers  were  to  be  sent  up  the  Red  and  Arkansas  Rivers, 

*  "  Life  of  Alexander  Wilson,"  by  George  Ord.     In  Volume  IX  of  the  "  American  Or- 
nithology." 


SKETCH   OF  ALEXANDER    WILSON.  405 

through  the  recently  acquired  Territory  of  Louisiana,  then  offered 
himself  to  President  Jefferson  for  this  service.  "  Mr.  Wilson,"  says 
Ord,  "  was  particularly  anxious  to  accompany  Pike,  who  com- 
menced his  journey  from  the  cantonment  on  the  Missouri,  for 
the  sources  of  the  Arkansas,  etc.,  on  the  15th  of  July,  1806."  But 
no  reply  was  made  to  his  application. 

In  April  he  was  engaged  by  the  publishers,  Messrs.  Bradford 
and  Inskeep,  as  assistant  editor  for  the  revision  of  Rees's  "  New 
Cyclopaedia,"  on  "  a  generous  salary,"  namely,  nine  hundred  dol- 
lars a  year.  He  now  gave  up  school-keeping,  which  had  been  his 
calling  for  ten  years.  While  in  this  position,  he  made  known  his 
plans  for  the  "  American  Ornithology  "  to  Bradford,  who  readily 
agreed  to  undertake  its  publication.  A  prospectus  was  immedi- 
ately issued,  and  a  year  later,  in  September,  1808,  the  first  volume 
of  the  work  appeared.  In  the  fall  of  that  year  he  made  a  trip 
through  New  England,  "  in  search  of  birds  and  subscribers."  On 
the  way  from  Philadelphia  he  stopped  at  Princeton,  to  show  his 
work  to  the  college  professors.  He  expected  to  get  some  valuable 
information  on  American  birds  from  the  Professor  of  Natural  His- 
tory, "  but,"  he  writes,  "  I  soon  found,  to  my  astonishment,  that 
he  scarcely  knew  a  sparrow  from  a  woodpecker."  Wherever  he 
showed  his  book  to  college  professors,  and  other  literary  men,  the 
highest  praise  was  lavished  upon  it,  but  subscriptions  were  not 
so  freely  forthcoming,  the  price,  one  hundred  and  twenty  dollars, 
being  a  serious  obstacle.  He  wrote  from  Albany,  on  his  way 
home,  that  he  had  obtained  only  forty-one  subscribers.  One  of 
the  less  intelligent  personages,  whose  favor  he  had  sought,  was 
the  then  Governor  of  New  York — Daniel  D.  Tompkins.  This 
magnate,  as  Wilson  informs  us,  "  turned  over  a  few  pages,  looked 
at  a  picture  or  two,  asked  me  my  price,  and,  while  in  the  act 
of  closing  the  book,  added,  '  I  would  not  give  a  hundred  dol- 
lars for  all  the  birds  you  intend  to  describe,  even  had  I  them 
alive/  " 

He  soon  set  off  again  on  a  trip  through  Baltimore,  Washington 
(where  he  was  received  "  very  kindly  "  by  Jefferson),  and  other 
Southern  cities,  and  when  he  reached  home  had  in  all  two  hundred 
and  fifty  subscribers.  In  the  South  he  shot  several  new  birds. 
It  was  now  deemed  advisable  to  add  three  hundred  impressions 
of  Volume  I  to  the  two  hundred  first  struck  off,  and  the  second 
volume  started  with  an  edition  of  five  hundred  copies.  His  un- 
dertaking had  already  won  him  "  reputation  and  respect,"  but  the 
pecuniary  return  was  still  doubtful. 

Volume  II  of  the  "  Ornithology  "  was  ready  in  1810,  and  in 
February  of  that  year  Wilson  set  out  on  another  hunt  for  new 
specimens  of  the  feathered  tribes  and  those  rare  birds — subscrib- 
ers.   His  varied  adventures  on  these  expeditions,  and  his  impres- 


4o6  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

sious  of  the  people  and  places  that  he  visited,  are  delightfully 
recorded  in  the  letters  which  Mr.  Grosart  collected. 

At  Hanover,  Pa.,  he  met  a  judge  who  condemned  his  work 
because  "  it  was  not  within  the  reach  of  the  commonality,  and 
therefore  inconsistent  with  our  republican  institutions."  Wilson 
turned  the  tables  on  this  learned  man  by  showing  that  the  judge's 
elegant  three-story  brick  house  was  open  to  the  same  objection ; 
and  then  in  a  more  serious  vein  pointed  out  to  him  the  benefit 
which  a  young,  rising  nation  can  derive  from  science,  "  till  he 
began  to  show  such  symptoms  of  intellect  as  to  seem  ashamed  of 
what  he  said."  From  Pittsburg  Wilson  made  his  way  in  a  skiff 
down  the  Ohio  over  seven  hundred  miles,  nearly  to  Louisville, 
stopping  at  the  important  towns  on  the  way. 

At  Louisville  one  of  the  persons  on  whom  he  called  was  Audu- 
bon, then  thirty  years  old  and  engaged  in  business.  Audubon 
has  left  an  account  of  this  meeting,  in  which  he  thus  describes 
Wilson's  physical  appearance  :  "  How  well  do  I  remember  him  as 
he  walked  up  to  me !  His  long,  rather  hooked  nose,  the  keenness 
of  his  eyes,  and  his  prominent  cheek-bones,  stamped  his  counte- 
nance with  a  peculiar  character.  .  .  .  His  stature  was  not  above 
the  middle  size."  Audubon  claims  that  he  was  about  to  subscribe 
for  the  "  Ornithology,"  but  a  complimentary  reference  to  his  own 
knowledge  of  birds,  spoken  in  French  by  his  partner,  checked 
him.  "Vanity  and  the  encomium  of  my  friend  prevented  me 
from  subscribing,"  he  writes,  and  to  this  he  adds  that  he  lent 
some  of  his  drawings  to  Wilson,  and  hunted  with  him,  obtain- 
ing some  birds  which  the  latter  had  never  seen  before.  Audu- 
bon states  also  that  being  in  Philadelphia  some  time  afterward 
he  called  on  Wilson,  who  received  him  with  civility,  but  did  not 
speak  of  birds  or  drawings.  Against  this  story  must  be  set  the 
following  extract  from  Wilson's  diary  published  in  the  ninth  vol- 
ume of  the  "  Ornithology  " :  "  March  23d,  I  bade  adieu  to  Louis- 
ville, to  which  place  I  had  four  letters  of  recommendation,  and 
was  taught  to  expect  much  of  everything  there;  but  neither 
received  one  act  of  civility  from  those  to  whom  I  was  recom- 
mended, one  subscriber,  nor  one  new  bird  ;  though  I  delivered  my 
letters,  ransacked  the  woods  repeatedly,  and  visited  all  the  char- 
acters likely  to  subscribe.  Science  or  literature  has  not  one  friend 
in  this  place."  "  We  must  take  Audubon's  account,"  says  his  own 
biographer,  Robert  Buchanan,  "  cum  grano  salis,"  while  Grosart, 
eager  in  defense  of  Wilson,  does  not  hesitate  to  call  it  "  a  tissue  of 
lies,"  except  his  admission  that  vanity  kept  him  from  subscribing 
to  Wilson's  work. 

Turning  southward,  Wilson  crossed  Kentucky  to  Tennessee, 
and  proceeded  through  the  Chickasaw  and  Choctaw  countries  to 
Natchez,  and  thence  went  to  New  Orleans. 


SKETCH   OF  ALEXANDER    WILSON.  407 

By  persistent  labor  the  successive  volumes  of  the  "Ornithol- 
ogy "  were  issued  up  to  the  seventh,  which  appeared  in  the  spring 
of  1813.  On  the  6th  of  July  in  that  year  he  wrote :  "  I  am  my- 
self far  from  being  in  good  health.  Intense  application  to  study 
has  hurt  me  much.  My  eighth  volume  is  now  in  the  press  and 
will  be  published  in  November.  One  volume  more  will  complete 
the  whole."  But  he  was  not  to  see  the  appearance  of  even  the 
eighth  volume.  The  unremitting  labor  of  that  summer,  carried 
on  in  the  city,  where  even  his  tramps  with  his  gun  were  cut  off,  so 
reduced  his  strength  that  he  succumbed  to  an  attack  of  his  old 
enemy  the  dysentery  and  died,  August  23, 1813,  at  the  age  of  forty- 
seven.  The  immediate  cause  of  the  attack  was  his  swimming  a 
river  in  pursuit  of  a  rare  bird  that  he  caught  sight  of  while  visit- 
ing a  friend.  Wilson  died  unmarried,  although  in  his  letters  he 
condemns  celibacy,  and  shows  that  he  was  not  indifferent  to  female 
companionship.  In  fact,  he  was  to  have  married  a  Miss  Miller, 
whom  he  made  one  of  his  executors.  George  Ord,  who  had  accom- 
panied Wilson  on  some  of  his  trips,  was  made  a  co-executor,  and 
completed  the  publication  of  the  "  Ornithology,"  prefixing  to  the 
last  volume  a  life  of  the  author.  The  original  edition  of  Wilson's 
great  work  is  now  rare.  It  comprises  nine  thin  folio  volumes,  about 
eleven  by  fourteen  inches  in  size.  Several  birds  are  figured  on 
each  plate — the  smallest  ones  of  life-size,  the  others  reduced.  An 
edition  in  three  volumes,  including  the  birds  afterward  described 
by  Prince  Bonaparte,  was  issued  in  1829-'36,*  and  another  in  four 
volumes,,  edited  by  Prof.  Robert  Jameson,  in  1831. 

Wilson  was  no  compiler  ;  he  took  his  facts  from  his  own  obser- 
vations, or  the  accounts  of  those  who  had  known  the  birds  for  a 
lifetime.  He  had,  further,  as  Grosart  says,  a  "  magnetical  sympa- 
thy with  the  birds  whereby  his  descriptions  of  their  looks  and 
ways  and  faculties  take  the  coloring  of  so  many  little  biographies 
of  personal  friends." 

Sir  William  Jardine  says  of  Wilson :  "  He  was  the  first  who 
truly  studied  the  birds  of  North  America  in  their  natural  abodes, 
and  from  real  observations;  and  his  work  will  ever  remain  an 
ever-to-be-admired  testimony  of  enthusiasm  and  perseverance — 
one  certainly  unrivaled  in  descriptions ;  and  if  some  plates  and 
illustrations  •  may  vie  with  it  in  finer  workmanship  or  pictorial 
splendor,  few,  indeed,  can  rival  it  in  fidelity  and  truth  of  deline- 
ation." 

*  "  American  Ornithology,"  by   Alexander  Wilson  and  Prince   Charles  Lucien  Bona- 
parte.    Edited,  with  a  Life  of  Wilson,  by  Sir  William  Jardine,  Bart. 


408 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


FARMING   AND  THE  TARIFF. 
Editor  Popular  Science  Monthly  : 

DEAR  SIR :  The  article  in  your  Novem- 
ber issue,  by  Joel  Benton,  on  "The 
Decadence  of  Farming,"  greatly  interested 
me,  as  it  must  every  lover  of  our  country, 
and  it  suggested  several  questions  which  I 
believe  should  be  considered,  that  we  may 
get  at  the  facts. 

The  reasoning  is  that,  because  farming 
has  decayed  at  the  same  time  that  a  protect- 
ive tariff  has  prevailed,  which  has  enhanced, 
as  it  is  claimed,  the  cost  of  what  the  farmer 
has  had  to  buy,  therefore  the  tariff  is  re- 
sponsible for  this  decay.     Saying  nothing  of 
the  claim  that  the  tariff   does  in  the  long 
time  enhance  the  price  of  what  the  farmer 
has  to  buy,  let  us  ask  how  free  trade  has 
helped  the  farmers  in  Great  Britain.     Is  it 
not  a  fact  that  during  these  same  years  farm- 
ing has  decayed  there  fully  as  much  as  in 
our   own   country?      The   wonder   is   how, 
with    produce    so    low,   the    Irish    farmers 
can  pay  their  rent,  and  many  can  not,  and 
the  land-owners'  profits  have  almost  disap- 
peared.   A  Yorkshireman  recently  told  the 
writer  that  he  knew  of   many  large  farms 
the  owners  of  which  would  be  glad  to  give 
a  lease  for  a  term  of  years  for  no  rent,  if 
the  land  could  be  kept  up.     Now,  by  parity 
of  reasoning,  may  we  not  say  that,  seeing 
farming  has  decayed   in  Great  Britain,   at 
the  same  time  that  free  trade  has  prevailed, 
which  has  brought  down  the  price  of  what 
the  farmer  has  to  buy,  therefore  free  trade 
has  caused  the  decay  of  farming  ?     Is  it  any 
better  in  free-trade  Holland,  from  which  the 
farm   laborers  are   coming  to   the  writer's 
own  community,  because  the  best  farm  la- 
borer there  can  get  but  forty  cents  a  day, 
whereas   here   he  gets  at   once    more  than 
double  ?    Do  not  these  facts   suggest   the 
question  whether  there  are  not  other  causes 
besides  tariff  or  free  trade  which  may  account 
for  this  manifest  decay  of  farming  ? 

Has  not  the  wonderful  cheapening  of 
transportation  brought  cheaper  and,  for  a 
time,  more  fertile  soils  into  competition  with 
the  dearer  and  worn-out  soil  of  our  older 
States  ?  Cereals  and  meat  and  wool  can  be 
raised  so  cheaply  on  these  new  lands  that 
the  Western  farmer,  with  the  low  cost  of 
transportation  added,  can  undersell  the  farm- 
ers of  the  older  States.  The  same  is  true 
in  the  case  of  Great  Britain.  And  this  power 
to  undersell  is  increased  by  the  use  of  ma- 
chinery in  farming,  which  use  can  be  so 
much  greater  and  more  effectual  on  the  large 
farms  of  the  new  States  than  in  the  older 
States.  A  bushel  of  wheat  or  corn  can  be 
raised  with  a  small  part  of  the  labor  cost  in 


Kansas  or  Dakota  as  compared  with  New 
York.  The  result  is,  that  in  the  older  States 
the  farmer  is  compelled  to  look  for  his 
profits  to  raising  the  products  that  will  not 
bear  transportation,  cither  because  they  are 
perishable,  as  milk,  or  because  they  are  too 
bulky,  as  hay.  He  must  depend  upon  the 
near-by  market,  and  supply  it  with  what  the 
farmers  of  the  West  can  not  send  it. 

Does  not  this  suggest  another  thought  ? 
We  must  look  for  relief,  not  in  the  direction 
of  urging  more  to  engage  in  farming,  but  by 
finding,  if  possible,  other  employments  for 
men  which  are  more  profitable;  and  this, 
many  of  us  still  believe,  can  be  done  better 
with  a  wisely  adjusted  protective  tariff  than 
with  free  trade,  which  would  tend  to  crowd 
still  more  the  already  overfull  ranks  of  the 
farmers.  John  R.  Thurston. 

Whitinsville.  Mass.,  October  30, 18S9. 


A  REMONSTRANCE. 

Editor  Popular  Science  Monthly: 

Sir:  I  have  been  accustomed  to  read 
with  a  high  degree  of  pleasure  the  contribu- 
tions of  Mr.  Grant  Allen  which  I  have  seen 
from  time  to  time  in  your  pages.  Read- 
ing in  your  December  number  his  "  Plain 
W°ords  on  the  Woman  Question,"  copied 
from  the  "Fortnightly  Review,"  I  rubbed 
my  eyes  once  or  twice  over  the  following 
words,  which  seem,  after  a  second  or  third 
perusal,  much  too  plain : 

"  Whether  we  have  wives  or  not — and 
that  is  a  minor  point  about  which  I,  for  one, 
am  supremely  unprejudiced — we  must  at 
least  have  mothers." 

Calving  must  go  on,  no  doubt,  if  the  race 
of  horned  cattle  is  to  be  kept  up,  and  it  is 
not  important  that  calves  should  know  their 
own  fathers,  or  have  an  acknowledged  par- 
entage on  the  male  side.  It  is  quite  other- 
wise with  human  beings,  and  I  submit  that 
no  teacher  of  biology  can  afford  to  be  with- 
out a  bias  in  favor  of  wives,  looking  strictly 
at  human  progress,  which  is  the  great  desid- 
eratum of  the  article  in  which  this  extraor- 
dinary passage  occurs. 

Possibly  the  words  quoted  may  have  a 
biological  meaning  somewhat  different  from 
the  obvious  meaning.  If  so,  Mr.  Grant  Al- 
len should  be  cautioned,  when  writing  for 
the  laity,  to  use  the  kind  of  language  which 
they  understand.  If  the  obvious  meaning  is 
the  real  meaning,  I  have  only  to  say  to  him, 
"  Never  more  be  officer  of  mine."     H.  W. 

New  York,  November  30,  18S9. 

Mr.  Allen,  we  are  sure,  is  the  very  last 
man  who  would  deliberately  say  anything 
calculated  to  encourage  immoral  tendencies. 


CORRESP  ONDENCE. 


409 


There  is,  however,  in  this  particular  contro- 
versy, much  excuse  for  the  plain  speaking  to 
which  our  correspondent  takes  exception. 
The  real  woman  question,  which,  as  Mr.  Al- 
len points  out,  is  whether  woman  shall  un- 
sex  herself  or  not,  has  long  been  obscured 
by  a  sort  of  sentimental  glamour  which  is 
daily  exerting  the  worst  kind  of  influence  in 
society ;  and  when  the  scientific  man  takes 
up  the  subject,  it  becomes  his  duty,  if  he 
would  be  true  to  the  spirit  of  his  craft,  to 
set  forth  in  the  strongest  light  the  essential 
facts  of  the  case.  All  through  his  article  it 
is  the  biological  question  involved  which  Mr. 
Allen  keeps  to  the  front,  and  in  the  passage 
complained  of  he,  as  we  read  him,  is  simply 
emphasizing  the  supreme  importance  of  this 
aspect  of  the  subject. — Editor. 


ENVIRONMENT  AND  THE  REPRODUCTIVE 

POWER  OF  ANIMALS. 
Editor  Popular  Science  Monthly : 

I  have  read  with  great  interest  an  article 
in  the  November  number  of  "  The  Popular 
Science  Monthly  "  entitled  "  Conditions  af- 
fecting the  Reproductive  Power  of  Animals," 
and,  while  I  fully  agree  with  the  facts  as 
stated,  it  seems  to  me  that  the  manner  in 
which-  it  is  written  savors  overmuch  of  the 
"  carpenter  theory  of  creation." 

I  do  not  deny  that  "  the  activity  of  the 
reproductive  function  is  in  proportion  to  the 
unfavorableness  of  the  embryonic  environ- 
ment "  ;  but  is  not  this  a  fact  rather  than  a 
law  ?  It  is  true  that  the  power  of  producing 
young  in  immense  numbers  is  the  conditio 
sine  qua  non  among  lower  orders  of  ani- 
mals, but  should  we  not  look  deeper  for  the 
reason  of  this  power  ?  Are  there  any  laws 
in  nature  which  exist  simply  because  they 
are  good  ? 

Among  the  lower  orders  of  animals  the 
weight  of  each  offspring  is  much  less  in  pro- 
portion to  that  of  the  parent  than  among  the 
higher.  The  organization  of  the  lower  or- 
ders being  much  simpler  than  the  higher,  the 
offspring  can  be  brought  to  perfection  in  a 
much  shorter  time.  Therefore,  each  in- 
dividual offspring  of  the  lower  orders  is  pro- 
duced with  much  less  expenditure,  on  the 
part  of  the  parent,  of  both  matter  and  vital- 
ity. Were  these  the  only  differences,  they 
would  be  sufficient  to  account  for  a  vast  dif- 
ference in  reproductive  power. 

This  reproductive  power  is  fostered  by 
natural  selection.  Among  those  species 
whose  young  are  exposed  to  so  many  chances 
of  destruction,  those  varieties  which  possess 
the  greatest   reproductive  power  are  more 


likely  to  survive  in  the  struggle  for  exist- 
ence, and  will  transmit  to  their  offspring 
their  more  vigorous  reproductive  power. 
To  say  that  the  reproductive  power  of  an 
animal  can  be  affected  directly  by  anything 
which  may  happeD  to  the  offspring  after 
birth  reminds  us  of  the  belief  current 
among  children  that,  if  a  lost  tooth  be  swal- 
lowed by  a  dog,  a  dog's  tooth  will  grow  in 
its  place. 

We  know  that  the  existence  of  a  species 
in  any  given  state  depends  upon  certain  con- 
ditions. While  the  study  of  that  species 
may  teach  us  much  concerning  those  condi- 
tions, it  is  necessary  for  us  10  take  a  wider 
and  deeper  view  before  we  can  discover  the 
causes  which  led  to  them  ;  and  we  should 
ever  keep  in  mind  the  fact  that  while  the  spe- 
cies owes  its  existence,  in  any  given  state,  to 
those  conditions,  the  conditions  were  not 
necessarily  created  by  Nature  for  the  sake  of 
preserving  the  species  in  that  particular  state. 
Nature  helps  those,  and  only  those,  who 
help  themselves. 

Charles  A.  Peple. 
Richmond,  Va.,  November  4, 18S9. 


A  CORRECTION. 

Editor  Popular  Science  Monthly : 

Dear  Sir  :  My  attention  has  been  called 
to  a  slip  occurring  in  my  article  in  the  April 
issue  of  the  "  Monthly."  In  the  sentence  (in 
the  foot-note,  page  V27)  reading  "...  Add 
to  this  the  confession  of  an  exposed  medium, 
Mr.  D.  D.  Home,"  etc.,  the  exposed  medium 
is  not  D.  D.  Home,  but  one  cited  by  him  as 
exposed.  The  only  hint  I  have  as  to  the  ori- 
gin of  the  printed  version  is  from  my  frag- 
mentary notes  for  the  paper,  in  which  the 
words  stand  thus :  "  Add  to  this  the  confes- 
sion of  an  exposed  medium  (D.  D.  Home, 
'  Lights  and  Shadows  of  Spiritualism,'  etc.)." 
I  remember  deciding  to  omit  all  mention  of 
names  wherever  possible,  and  must  have 
crossed  off  part  of  the  parentheses  instead 
of  all.  I  am  very  sorry  that  so  slight  an 
error  should  have  ended  in  throwing  blame 
where  it  did  not  belong,  and  especially  so  as 
my  point  was  simply  that  a  medium  was 
exposed  in  the  manner  indicated,  it  being  en- 
tirely immaterial  who  the  medium  might  be. 

I  must  further  apologize  for  the  lateness 
of  my  writing,  on  the  plea  of  a  six  months' 
absence  abroad,  and  the  consequent  accumu- 
lation of  duties  awaiting  me  on  my  return. 
Truly  yours, 

Joseph  Jastrow. 
Madison,  Wis.,  Oct  31, 18S9. 


4-io 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY 


EDITOR'S   TABLE. 


TOZSTOrS  "  CONFESSION." 

AMONG  the  numerous  writings 
from  the  pen  of  Count  Tolstoi 
which  have  of  late  been  made  accessible 
to  the  English  reader  is  one  entitled 
"  My  Confession."  In  this  work  the 
author  tells  us  that,  having  in  his  youth 
led  the  life  of  a  pleasure-loving  man  of 
the  world,  and  in  his  maturer  years  of  a 
literary  man  in  considerable  repute,  he 
woke  up  in  middle  life,  when  all  his 
outward  circumstances  were  highly 
prosperous,  to  find  that  life  to  him 
seemed  to  possess  no  meaning  and  no 
value.  He  could  find  no  answer  to  the 
Carlylean  questions  "Whence?"  and 
"Whither?"  and  so  distressed  was  he 
thereat  that  for  a  long  time  he  was 
haunted  by  the  thought  of  suicide.  He 
had  recourse  to  science,  and  could  get 
no  light ;  to  philosophy,  and  could  reap 
no  consolation.  It  seemed  to  him  as  if 
some  tyrant  had  called  him  into  exist- 
ence simply  to  make  a  mock  of  him,  by 
hiding  from  his  eyes  the  answer  to  life's 
riddle — by  implanting  in  him  an  in- 
stinctive love  of  life,  and  yet  depriving 
him  of  the  knowledge  which  alone 
would  supply  a  rational  motive  for 
living. 

The  nature  of  Tolstoi's  trouble  is 
fully  explained  in  his  book.  His  youth 
had  been  one  of  passion  and  riot,  un- 
guided  by  any  principle  save  the  loose 
code  of  honor  prevalent  in  military 
circles.  As  an  author  he  had  encount- 
ered men  with  whom  literature  was  a 
means  for  the  gratification  of  vanity  and 
nothing  more,  whose  aims  were  sordid, 
whose  ideas  were  conventional,  and 
whose  lives  were  actually  worse  than 
those  of  the  wild  companions  of  his 
youth.  Yet  these  men  set  themselves  up 
for  guides  of  society  and  final  arbiters 
in  all  questions  of  taste  and  morals. 
Tolstoi  himself  had  caught  their  tone, 


and  for  a  time  imagined  that,  because 
he  enjoyed  popularity  as  a  writer,  he 
must  necessarily  be  a  very  superior  per- 
son. According  to  the  ideas  prevalent 
among  his  literary  friends,  the  world 
existed  for  hardly  any  other  purpose 
than  to  provide  them  with  the  oppor- 
tunity for  airing  their  superiority.  It 
is  not  surprising  that  a  man  of  Tolstoi's 
sensibility  should  eventually  have  been 
led  to  see  the  falsity  of  this  whole  view 
of  life ;  the  only  wonder  is  that  he  did 
not  revolt  against  it  sooner  than  he  did. 
The  thoughts  that  came  to  him  toward 
middle  life  have  come  to  some  others 
much  earlier.  The  poet  Clough  was 
only  twenty- two  when  he  wrote : 

"  How  often  sit  I  poring  o'er 
My  strange  distorted  youth, 
Seeking  in  vain,  in  all  my  store, 

One  feeling  based  on  truth  ; 
Amid  the  maze  of  petty  life 
A  clew  whereby  to  move, 
A  spot  whereon  in  toil  and  strife 
To  dare  to  rest  and  love ! " 

The  life  of  Tolstoi  had  been  essentially 
based  upon  privilege.  He  had  lived 
above  the  mass  of  mankind,  and  had 
imbibed  the  narrow  ideas  of  an  exclu- 
sive set.  He  had  not  taken  humanity 
into  his  thoughts,  except  for  purposes 
of  literary  treatment;  and,  therefore, 
when  a  period  of  calm  reflection  came, 
though  his  intellectual  pride  took  flight, 
and  his  false  ideas  stood  confessed  in 
their  falsity,  what  to  do  he  knew  not. 
It  seemed  to  him  that  he  had  to  con- 
struct a  new  philosophy  of  life,  and  in 
the  search  for  a  solid  basis  for  such  a 
philosophy  he  endured  the  distress 
which  he  has  so  vividly  described.  He 
attacked  the  problem,  however,  from 
the  wrong  side,  asking  questions  which 
only  metaphysicians  or  theologians  have 
ever  attempted  to  answer,  and  which 
have  never  been  answered  in  any  satis- 


EDITOR'S   TABLE. 


411 


factory  manner.  After  many  wander- 
ings and  many  perilous  lingerings  on  the 
very  verge  of  despair,  he  bethought  him- 
self of  the  thousands  and  millions  of 
human  beings  who  go  about  their  daily 
tasks  and  take  up  their  daily  burdens 
without  repining  or  misgiving,  who  find 
a  natural  sweetness  in  life,  and  never 
think  of  worrying  themselves  over  ques- 
tions of  ontology  or  metaphysics.  These, 
he  said  to  himself,  must  possess  the  true 
secret  of  life,  and  the  best  thing  I  can 
do  is  to  learn  it  of  them. 

Tolstoi  was  here  getting  upon  solid 
ground.  His  previous  life  had  been 
governed  without  any  reference  to  car- 
dinal principles  of  duty  or  to  the  essen- 
tial relations  of  human  beings  to  one 
another.  One  of  the  aphorisms  of  the 
founder  of  the  Positive  Philosophy  is 
that  between  individual  man  and  the 
universe  humanity  is  needed  as  media- 
tor. Suppress  humanity,  that  is  to  say, 
suppress  all  true  thoughts  in  regard  to 
humanity,  suppress  the  sense  of  inclu- 
sion in  and  identification  with  the  great 
human  whole,  and  individual  man  is 
indeed  a  poor,  defenseless  thing,  or,  as 
Matthew  Arnold  has  expressed  it — 

"  A  naked,  eternally  restless  mind." 
No  words  could  describe  better  than 
these  the  true  condition  of  the  great 
Russian's  mind  when  the  scales  had 
fallen  from  his  eyes,  and  he  realized  in 
what  a  vain  show  he  had  been  walking. 
Peace  came  to  him  through  his  suddenly 
awakening  to  a  sense  of  the  vastness  of 
the  life  of  humanity,  and  his  sudden  re- 
solve to  take  refuge  in  it,  and,  as  far  as 
possible,  to  make  its  thoughts  and  feel- 
ing his  own.  The  lesson  in  all  this  is 
obvious,  and  it  is  in  direct  line  with  our 
remarks  in  a  previous  number  under  the 
head  of  "The  Domain  of  Science."  There 
is  a  science  of  life.  There  is  a  way  of 
regarding  our  relations  to  the  world  at 
large  which  is  true;  and,  unfortunately, 
there  are  many  ways  of  regarding  them 
which  are  false.  There  are  thoughts, 
tempers,  dispositions,  habits,  that  make 
for  soundness  both  of  mind  and  body, 


and  there  are  others  in  great  variety 
that  make  for  unsoundness.  There  are 
certain  normal  conditions  of  existence 
determined  by  the  whole  course  of 
human  evolution ;  and  these  can  not  be 
too  widely  departed  from,  under  the 
guidance  of  purely  individual  feelings, 
without  serious  danger.  The  work  of 
placing  life  on  a  sound  basis  may  be 
begun  at  any  time,  though  early  is  in- 
deed much  better  than  late.  It  is  all  a 
question  of  seeing  things  in  their  right 
relations  and  acting  accordingly — all  a 
question  of  extending  the  domain  of  sci- 
ence from  biology  and  physiology  to  soci- 
ology and  individual  conduct.  Rightly 
read,  Tolstoi's  "  Confession,"  though  it 
mentions  science  but  disparagingly, 
should  be  a  great  help  in  this  direction. 
It  certainly  contains  a  grave  warning 
against  the  tyranny  of  the  passions  and 
the  utter  hollowness  of  much  that  passes 
for  literature  and  philosophy. 


THE  LAND   QUESTION. 

It  is  almost  needless  to  direct  atten- 
tion to  the  letters  on  the  land  question 
published  in  this  issue,  as  the  names 
of  certain  of  the  writers  would  alone 
create  interest  in  the  discussion.  Mr. 
Spencer,  unfortunately,  has  been  for 
some  time  in  a  state  of  health  that 
almost  wholly  incapacitates  him  for  the 
labor  of  the  pen ;  and,  though  he  has 
given  us  two  very  interesting  letters, 
most  readers  will  feel  that  he  has  hardly 
done  full  justice  to  his  own  position.  He 
has  confined  himself  to  the  criticisms 
of  Prof.  Huxley,  and  passed  unnoticed 
those  of  Mr.  Greenwood  and  Sir  Louis 
Mallet.  Had  he  possessed  his  old-time 
fire  and  energy,  he  would  probably  have 
dealt  with  all  his  critics  in  a  manner 
that  would  have  left  little  to  be  desired  ; 
we  may  be  sure  at  least  that  he  would 
have  considered  fully  and  fairly  all  their 
objections  to  his  views,  and  would  have 
given  any  necessary  explanations  in  that 
spirit  of  candor  which  has  always  dis- 
tinguished him. 


412 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


It  will  be  noticed  that  Mr.  John 
Laidler,  "  bricklayer,"  is  disposed  to  be 
severe  upon  Mr.  Spencer  for  having  in 
part  abandoned  the  views  expressed  by 
him  as  long  ago  as  the  year  1852,  in  his 
work  on  "  Social  Statics."  It  is  hardly 
worth  while,  however,  to  be  a  philoso- 
pher if  a  man  can  not  mature  and,  if 
necessary,  modify  his  views  as  he  ad- 
vances in  life  and  gathers  the  fruits  of 
experience  and  reflection.  Mr.  Spencer 
long  ago  recognized  that  in  his  "  Social 
Statics  "  he  had  expressed  himself  some- 
what unguardedly  on  the  land  question; 
and  he  has  refrained  for  many  years 
from  giving  any  currency  to  his  earlier 
opinions  on  that  subject.  Had  his  health 
permitted,  it  is  not  improbable  that  he 
would  have  taken  some  recent  occasion 
for  reviewing  the  whole  question,  and 
giving  the  world  the  benefit  of  his  latest 
thought.  As  it  is,  he  is  obliged  to  con- 
tent himself  with  indicating  the  germ 
of  truth  in  his  former  views,  and  the 
modifications  and  safeguards  he  would 
now  attach  to  the  enunciation  of  the 
general  principle  which  they  em- 
bodied. 

Mr.  Frederick  Greenwood,  who  par- 
ticipates in  the  discussion,  undertakes 
to  point  a  serious  moral,  to  the  effect, 
namely,  that  philosophers  should  be 
careful  how  they  scatter  abroad  ideas 
which  may  serve  as  the  seeds  of  revo- 
lution. The  caution  reminds  us  of  a 
famous  one  given  by  St.  Peter  to  St. 
Paul,  some  of  whose  writings,  the  for- 
mer apostle  thought,  "  the  unlearned 
and  the  unstable"  might  "wrest  to 
their  own  destruction."  It  was  St. 
Paul,  however,  with  his  bent  toward 
philosophy,  who  moved  the  ancient 
world  to  embrace  Christianity.  What 
his  critic  did  in  that  direction  is  not 
very  conspicuously  recorded  on  the  page 
of  history.  Mr.  Spencer  has  labored 
hard  to  rationalize  the  thought  of  his 
age,  to  bring  the  minds  of  men  into 
contact  with  the  laws  that  —  whether 
we  recognize  them  or  not — govern  hu- 
man life  ;  and  if,  by  some,  his  teachings 


are  misunderstood  and  misapplied,  we 
must  judge  of  his  total  influence,  not 
by  such  cases,  but  by  the  whole  volume 
of  mental  activity  that  owes  its  origin 
to  his  writings. 

The  general  impression  which  the 
controversy  will  leave  on  the  minds  of 
most  readers  will  be,  if  we  mistake  cot, 
that  the  land  question  is  a  good  one 
to  leave  alone — at  present.  Not  that 
there  are  not  many  abuses  connected 
with  the  tenure  of  land  waiting  to  be 
corrected  ;  but  that  the  correction  of 
such  abuses  can  best  be  accomplished 
without  raising  the  fundamental  ques- 
tion as  to  whether  land  can  or  can  not 
be  held  by  as  good  a  title  as  chattel 
property.  In  this  country,  a  few  years 
ago,  we  had  a  slight  wave  of  excitement 
in  connection  with  the  theories  pro- 
pounded in  Mr.  George's  "  Progress  and 
Poverty  " ;  but  the  conviction  has  been 
strengthening,  we  believe,  in  most 
thoughtful  minds  that,  plausibly  and 
eloquently  and  earnestly  as  Mr.  George 
has  presented  his  ideas,  their  adoption 
could  only  lead  to  social  and  political 
confusion.  The  world  at  large  will  be 
better  when  men  individually  are  bet- 
ter; and  social  justice  will  reign  when 
individual  justice  reigns.  The  land  re- 
quires to  be  appropriated  to  and  by  in- 
dividuals in  order  that  the  best  and 
most  profitable  use  may  be  made  of  it ; 
but  it  does  not  follow  that  the  individ- 
ual occupier  should  act  the  part  of  a 
tyrant  toward  his  fellow-men.  A  man 
may  do  that  without  owning  a  foot  of 
land.  Every  man  who  follows  a  gain- 
ful trade  or  profession  has  an  interest 
in  the  land,  seeing  that  those  who  own 
and  till  it,  own  and  till  it  for  him  to  the 
extent  of  the  demand  expressed  by  his 
wages  or  emoluments.  The  world  wants 
justice  and  wants  it  now  ;  but  it  would 
be  a  poor  inauguration  of  justice  to  turn 
title-deeds  to  which  society  has  given 
every  possible  sort  of  sanction  into 
waste  paper,  and  virtually  confiscate 
the  honest  earnings,  invested  in  land,  of 
millions  of  honest  men. 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


4>3 


THE  TWENTIETH  BIRTHDAY  OF  "NA- 
TURE." 

"  Nature,"  now  accepted  as  the 
foremost  scientific  journal  in  Europe, 
signalizes  the  beginning  of  its  forty-first 
volume  by  reviewing  its  own  career 
and  the  advancement  of  science  during 
the  twenty  years  that  have  elapsed 
since  its  first  number  was  issued,  in  No- 
vember, 1869.  It  came  forward  with- 
out obtrusive  advertising,  and  without 
making  any  promises  other  than  what 
was  implied  in  the  statement  in  Prof. 
Huxley's  introductory  article  that  its 
aim  would  be  "  to  mirror  the  progress 
of  that  fashioning  of  herself  in  the  mind 
of  man  which  we  call  the  progress  of 
science."  It  now  claims,  with  a  justice 
that  all  its  readers  will  recognize,  that 
it  "has  not  disappointed  the  hopes  of 
its  founders,  nor  failed  in  the  task  it 
undertook."  Its  pages  fairly  reflect  the 
aspects  which  scientific  discussion  has 
assumed  from  year  to  year ;  and  every 
established  conclusion  has  been  suitably 
noticed  in  them  as  it  gained  the  right  to 
claim  attention.  The  reader  can  turn 
to  its  columns  for  facts  bearing  on  all 
matters  of  interest  of  this  kind,  in  the 
assurance  that  he  will  find  them  there. 
"  Nature  "  has  been  able  to  accomplish 
this  purpose,  it  says,  by  enlisting  the 
co-operation — in  contributions,  and  by 
advice  and  suggestion — of  the  leaders  in 
all  branches  of  research,  and  by  show- 
ing its  desire  to  be  for  the  good  of  sci- 
ence and  the  promotion  of  knowledge 
— regarding  these  as  of  more  impor- 
tance than  journalistic  success.  While 
its  most  prominent  function  has  been 
to  present  at  first  hand  the  results  of 
the  work  of  these  men,  it  has  not 
disregarded  the  laity  of  science.  Be- 
sides taking  pains  to  present  its  profes- 
sional articles  in  a  form  acceptable  to 
the  great  body  of  unlearned  inquirers, 
it  has  in  its  correspondence  department 
given  them  a  free  parliament  for  discus- 
sion. Making  itself  a  faithful  mirror  of 
scientific  thought,  it  speedily  gained 
favor  among  English  readers;  extended 


its  reputation  abroad  ;  and  became  the 
one  journal  indispensable  to  students  in 
every  branch  and  every  land. 

Its  record  of  the  achievements  of 
science  during  its  lifetime,  though  con- 
sisting only  of  the  briefest  mentions,  is  a 
large  one,  and  includes  such  facts  as  the 
establishment  of  the  Darwinian  theory, 
the  periodic  law  in  chemistry,  the  deter- 
mination of  a  relation  between  electrici- 
ty and  light,  the  progress  of  bacteriolog- 
ical investigation,  the  advance  of  spec- 
troscopical  discovery,  the  vast  expansion 
of  physiological  research,  and  many 
other  matters  of  hardly  inferior  moment. 
In  all  these  achievements  English  inves- 
tigators are  exhibited  as  among  the  most 
active,  solid  in  work,  and  thorough  in 
inquiry;  and  none  have  been  more  sa- 
gacious than  they  in  generalization  and 
in  applying  principles  to  practice.  Not 
the  least  important  of  the  results  is  the 
education  of  a  generation  who  have  suf- 
ficient knowledge  of  science  to  recog- 
nize its  importance  and  give  it  its  true 
position ;  so  that,  when  now  it  points 
out  a  new  field  of  inquiry  or  asserts  a 
new  principle,  it  has  no  longer  apolo- 
getically to  face  suspicion  and  hostility, 
but  meets  a  friendly  and  helping  public. 

LITERARY  NOTICES. 

Recent  Economic  Changes  and  their  Ef- 
fect upon  the  Production  and  the  Dis- 
tribution of  Wealth,  and  the  Well- 
Being  of  Society.  By  David  A.  Wells, 
LL.  D.,  D.  C.  L.  New  York  :  D.  Apple- 
ton  &  Co.     Pp.  493.     Price,  $2. 

Two  years  ago  Mr.  Wells  contributed  to 
"  The  Popular  Science  Monthly  "  a  series  of 
articles  entitled  "  Recent  Economic  Disturb- 
ances." They  elicited  so  much  comment  and 
discussion  that  the  author  now  presents  them 
as  a  book.  In  so  doing  he  has  brought  his 
record  of  fact  down  to  date,  and  extended 
his  review  so  as  not  merely  to  treat  the 
economic  derangements  which  date  from 
1873-'74,  but  to  include  the  economic  his- 
tory of  the  past  three  decades. 

In  comparing  the  present  earnings  of  la- 
bor and  assets  of  capital  with  the  figures  for 
1860,  Mr.  Wells  shows  that   the  economic 


4H 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


advance  of  the  last  thirty  years  has  been  lit- 
tle short  of  revolutionary.     Science  applied 
to  field  and  farm,  mill  and  factory,  ship  and 
railroad,  has   enormously  increased  the  effi- 
ciency of  labor.     Hence  the  remarkable  rise 
in  wages,  and  the  correlative  fact  of  the  fall 
of    prices  which  makes  a  dollar  exchange- 
able for  more  food  and  clothing  than  ever. 
Although  the  fortunes  of  men  have  been 
steadily   improving,   heightened   sensibility, 
progress  in  social  ambition,  all  that  goes  to 
raise    the   standard   of    living,   have    kept 
pace  with  the  increase  of   popular  luxury 
and  refinement.     Then,  too,  the  blessings  of 
industrial  evolution,  though  general,  have  not 
been  universal ;  and  in  considering  its  inci- 
dental pains  and  penalties  Mr.  Wells  is  both 
candid    and   sympathetic.      He   notes    how 
handicraft  skill  is  rendered  valueless  as  ma- 
chinery supersedes  trade  after  trade.     Old- 
time  shoemakers  now  only  get  cobbling  to 
do,  and  the  tinsmith  who  once  made  all  the 
paraphernalia  of   the  kitchen   is  to-day  no 
more  than  a  tinker.     Minute  subdivision  of 
labor  reduces  an  operative  to  a  mere  tooth  on 
a  wheel ;  disrupted  from  it  by  an  untoward 
accident  of  trade,  he  is  of  little  more  worth 
than  a  bit  of  scrap-metal.     In  manufactures 
and  commerce  modern  exigencies  demand  a 
discipline  which  almost  completely  effaces  in- 
dividuality :  both  employers  and  workmen  are 
subordinated  as  parts  of  a  vast  and  complex 
enginery.      In   undergoing   the  painful  and 
costly  readjustments  enforced  by  new  econo- 
mies, capital  and  labor  have  been  partners 
in  distress,  and  labor  has  not  suffered  more 
than  capital.     The  increase  in  the  average 
man's  wealth  has  been  partly  at  the  expense 
of  certain  unfortunate  classes  of  capitalists. 
While  one  set  of  farmers  are  being  enriched 
by  the  rise  in  the  value  of  Dakota   lands, 
another  set  in  France  and  England  are  be- 
ing impoverished  by  the  cheapness  of  Dako- 
ta wheat.     The   Suez  Canal,  in   shortening 
the  route  between  Europe  and  the  East,  ef- 
fected a  saving  in  freights  greatly  to  the  ad- 
vantage of  consumers  of  tea,  silk,  cotton,  and 
spices :    it   also  threw  into  idleness   a  vast 
fleet  of  ships  adapted  to  the  voyage  around 
the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and  ruined  a  lengthy 
chain  of  interests  vested  in  things  as  they 
were.     The  discovery  of  excellent  coal  and 
iron-ore  near  together  in  Alabama  cheapens 
iron,  but   it   extinguishes   furnaces   in   the 


Northern  States  built  at  enormous  outlay, 
and  leads  to  the  abandonment  of  large  found- 
ry properties  in  New  York  and  New  England. 
Every  new  machine  and  process,  while  it  en- 
riches the  community,  entails  loss  on  indi- 
viduals for  expensive  plant  which  must  go 
to  the  scrap-heap. 

While  Fortune  in  the  economic  world  has 
in  the  main  been  prodigal  of  her  gifts,  those 
upon  whom  her  lash  has  fallen  very  natu- 
rally demean  themselves  differently  from 
those  upon  whom  she  has  smiled.  While 
the  cultivation  of  inconspicuousness  on  the 
part  of  millionaires  is  far  from  uncommon, 
those  who  have  seen  their  possessions  melt 
away  in  the  discarding  of  old  machinery,  old 
methods,  and  old  routes,  make  loud  com- 
plaint. Of  equal  loudness  is  the  alarm  vent- 
ed by  those  who  have  reason  to  fear  loss 
through  the  supersedure  of  their  property 
as  Science  marches  on.  This  complaint  and 
this  alarm  have  been  so  sustained  as  to  cre- 
ate an  exaggerated  impression  of  the  evils 
economic  progress  brings  in  its  train.  Left 
to  themselves,  economic  forces  would  merge 
the  world  into  a  single  competitive  field,  the 
markets  of  which  would  be  supplied  only 
from  the  sources  where  capital  and  labor 
could  work  to  most  advantage.  The  redis- 
tribution of  populations  and  employments 
which  this  would  entail  is  a  price  a  majority 
of  civilized  nations  refuse  to  pay :  its  inci- 
dental loss  and  misery  impi'ess  their  imagina- 
tion too  deeply.  Yet  the  choice  is  between 
this  shunned  evil  and  a  greater.  Vastly  more 
is  lost  by  declining  to  enjoy  the  gifts  new 
knowledge  stands  ready  to  confer,  in  de- 
clining the  harvests  labor  can  reap  when  free 
to  sow  and  till  where  natural  conditions 
most  favor  it.  Nothing  in  Mr.  Wells's  book 
is  more  impressive  than  the  picture  he  draws 
of  European  nations  severally  striving  by 
force  of  law  to  overcome  some  defect  in  soil, 
climate,  position,  or  skill.  France,  for  ex- 
ample, excludes  American  wheat  as  far  as 
she  can  by  a  high  duty.  Does  she  not  there- 
by injure  the  population  of  bread  -  eaters 
more  than  she  eases  the  lot  of  a  few  wheat- 
growers  ?  The  vanity  of  attempts  to  jug- 
gle with  inexorable  Nature  has  imperiled 
interests  higher  than  those  of  wealth  ;  these 
attempts  have  checked  the  good-will  which 
was  springing  up  as  trade  united  interna- 
tional interests  and  foreigners  were  ceasing 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


415 


to  be  strangers.  In  making  battlefields  of 
their  custom-houses,  ethnic  dislike  has,  doubt- 
less, served  to  stimulate  commercial  jealousy 
among  the  people  of  Europe,  and  this  in 
its  turn  fans  the  animosities  which  endanger 
peace. 

While  their  neighbors  have  been  indulg- 
ing in  costly  tariff  reprisals  upon  each  other, 
the  British,  Dutch,  and  Swiss,  firmly  holding 
to  freedom  as  the  right  rule  of  trade,  have, 
perhaps  unconsciously,  borne  testimony  to 
economy  and  ethics  being  fundamentally  one. 
Theirs  has  been  the  chief  progress  not  only 
in  wealth,  but  education,  the  abatement  of 
crime,  the  lengthening  of  life.  Russia,  at  the 
other  extreme  of  fiscal  policy,  aiming  at 
nothing  short  of  the  prohibition  of  foreign 
trade,  finds  her  markets  depressed  and  her 
treasury  depleted.  The  oblique  form  of  pro- 
tection known  as  the  bounty  system  has  been 
tried  with  results  which,  as  traced  by  Mr. 
Wells,  must  have  surprised  the  experiment- 
alists. France  and  Germany,  in  artificially 
stimulating  the  production  of  beet- root  sugar, 
have  only  succeeded  in  taxing  themselves 
heavily  to  provide  their  chief  rival  in  manu- 
factures, Great  Britain,  with  an  important 
raw  material  at  less  than  cost.  The  British 
industry  in  jam  and  sweets,  expanded  by 
cheap  sugar,  now  employs  more  people  than 
those  needed  to  refine  the  sugar  consumed. 

The  general  fall  in  prices  during  the  re- 
cent past  has  been  a  source  of  much  embar- 
rassment and  perplexity  in  the  world  of  com- 
merce. Among  the  theories  proffered  in  its 
explanation  that  of  the  bimetallists  has  been 
prominent,  and  Mr.  Wells  riddles  it  thor- 
oughly. He  shows  that  whereas  the  cost  in 
labor  of  producing  gold  has  varied  but  little 
for  ages,  silver  during  this  generation  has 
been  discovered  in  prodigious  deposits  ; 
therefore  any  legislative  attempt  to  main- 
tain a  hard-and  fast  relation  between  the 
values  of  gold  and  silver  must  be  vain. 
He  points  out  that  the  gold  reserves  in 
the  banks  of  the  world  are  to-day,  pro- 
portionately to  capital,  larger  than  ever. 
Furthermore,  that  the  demand  for  gold  con- 
stantly diminishes  as  banking  facilities  over- 
spread the  world  with  their  telegraphic  trans- 
fers, clearing-houses,  and  other  devices  for  the 
economy  of  coin.  But  if  it  be  demurred,  Does 
not  a  debt  incurred,  say,  ten  years  ago,  require 
to-day  more  wheat  or  iron  for  its  satisfac- 


tion than  the  sum  could  have  bought  when 
first  borrowed  ?  Certainly,  but  the  wheat 
or  iron  represents  no  more  labor  now  than 
it  did  ten  years  ago,  and  its  increase  in 
quantity  stands  for  the  new  efficiency  which 
applied  science  has  bestowed  on  toil.  Let 
the  fall  in  the  rate  of  interest  be  noted  as 
evidence  that,  among  sufferers  from  reduced 
pay,  capital  ranks  as  chief. 

In  every  page,  whether  considering  the 
eight  -  hour  movement,  the  transportation 
problem,  the  gigantic  cost  of  protecting 
American  iron  and  steel  for  a  decade,  or  any 
other  of  the  manifold  lines  of  his  inquiry, 
Mr.  Wells's  analysis  is  transparent  and  im- 
partial. In  tracing  the  bearing  of  econom- 
ic development  on  the  welfare  of  man  he 
rises  by  breadth  of  mind  and  sympathy  to  the 
dignity  of  a  philosopher. 


A  Popular  Treatise  on  the  Winds.  By 
William  Ferrel,  Ph.  D.,  late  Professor 
and  Assistant  in  the  Signal  Service.  New 
York:  John  Wiley  &  Sons.  Pp.  505. 
Price,  $4. 

Several  essays  bearing  upon  the  mechan- 
ics of  the  atmosphere  have  been  published 
by  Prof.  Ferrel  at  various  times  since  1856, 
but,  as  they  were  of  a  very  mathematical 
character,  they  were  adapted  only  to  those 
well-trained  in  mathematics.  The  present 
volume  is  of  a  more  popular  nature,  although 
the  simpler  mathematical  operations  involved 
in  the  presentation  of  the  subject  are  re- 
tained. After  a  general  description  of  the 
constitution  and  nature  of  the  atmosphere, 
the  effect  of  the  earth's  rotation  in  the  dy- 
namics of  the  atmosphere  is  explained,  the 
general  circulation  of  the  atmosphere  is  de- 
scribed, and  its  climatic  influences  are  pointed 
out.  This  circulation  is  shown  to  agree  with 
the  laws  governing  the  movements  of  gases 
and  vapors  acted  upon  by  heat  and  other 
forces.  The  rest  of  the  volume  is  devoted 
to  descriptions  of  the  various  kinds  of  winds, 
monsoons,  land  and  sea  breezes,  cyclones  of 
several  varieties,  and  tornadoes,  and  explana- 
tions of  their  special  causes.  Thunder-storms 
water-spouts,  hail-storms,  and  cloud-bursts, 
with  various  other  allied  phenomena,  are  also 
explained.  The  author  offers  his  book  to  gen- 
eral readers  interested  in  the  subject,  and 
to  lecturers  on  meteorological  subjects  be- 
fore college  classes  or  other  audiences. 


416 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY 


European  Schools.  By  L.  R.  Klemm,  Ph.  D. 
International  Education  Series,  Vol.  XII. 
New  York :  D.  Appleton  &  Co.  Pp.  419. 
Price,  $2. 

Rarely  has  a  book  for  teachers  appeared 
containing  so  much  that  can  be  used  in  the 
school-room.  It  is  not  a  ponderous  and  re- 
pulsive budget  of  statistics  of  school  attend- 
ance, examination  marks,  illiteracy,  etc.,  with 
courses  of  study  and  descriptions  of  depart- 
mental machinery.  It  is  an  account  of  the 
notable  features  observed  during  a  trip  of 
nearly  a  year  among  the  educational  institu- 
tions of  the  continent  of  Europe,  or,  as  the 
author  describes  it  in  his  sub-title,  "  what  I 
saw  in  the  schools  of  Germany,  France,  Aus- 
tria, and  Switzerland."  The  first  device  de- 
scribed in  the  book  is  an  expedient  which 
was  employed  by  a  teacher  in  Hamburg,  and 
is  called  by  the  author  "  a  master  stroke." 
A  stupid  boy  could  not  see  that  the  differ- 
ence between  plus  six  and  minus  ten  is  six- 
teen. The  master  explained  the  problem 
and  illustrated  it  with  marbles,  but  in  vain. 
Finally,  he  cast  his  eyes  about  the  room,  and 
they  fell  upon  the  thermometer.  In  a  mo- 
ment he  had  this  before  the  pupil's  eyes,  and 
readily  made  him  comprehend  that  the  dif- 
ference between  6°  above  zero  and  10°  be- 
low zero  is  16°.  A  box  of  movable  letters, 
a  board  with  a  slit  in  it  through  which  let- 
ters making  words  are  shown,  a  scheme  for 
ventilation,  a  mode  of  teaching  home  geog- 
raphy, and  a  sketch  of  an  efficient  city  school 
system,  follow  within  the  compass  of  a  few 
pages.  Methods  of  teaching  drawing  in  dif- 
ferent schools  are  described  in  several  parts 
of  the  volume,  and  singing,  knowledge  of 
nature,  mensuration,  and  language  are  only 
a  few  of  the  subjects  dealt  with.  A  notable 
section  is  that  devoted  to  "  a  separate  school 
for  dullards,"  an  idea  which  started  in  Rhen- 
ish Prussia  at  Elberfeld  and  has  spread  to 
other  cities.  This  is  not  a  school  for  idiots, 
but  is  intended  for  those  unfortunate  chil- 
dren whose  dullness  acts  as  a  drag  on  their 
classes  and  brings  ridicule  and  discourage- 
ment upon  themselves.  Here  they  receive 
patient  instruction,  and  learn  much  more 
than  they  could  in  schools  adapted  to  bright- 
er pupils,  while  the  latter  are  freed  from  im- 
pediments to  their  progress.  The  account 
of  girls'  industrial  education  at  Cologne, 
comprising  knitting,  crocheting,  embroidery, 


weaving,  sewing,  lace-making,  cutting  out 
garments,  mending  and  patching,  and  accom- 
panied by  drawing,  will  be  found  interesting 
and  suggestive.  It  is  impossible  to  mention 
here  all  the  subjects  touched  upon  in  this 
book ;  they  cover  a  wide  range,  and  each  is 
presented  in  sufficient  detail  to  give  a  definite 
idea  of  the  method  employed.  The  style  of 
the  book  is  clear  and  enthusiastic;  the  lan- 
guage is  simple  and,  in  humorous  passages, 
even  colloquial.  It  is  a  very  readable  vol- 
ume— one  which  the  teacher  can  take  up  at 
odd  moments  even  when  tired,  and  study 
without  a  sense  of  laboring.  A  notable  feat- 
ure of  it  is  its  abundance  of  illustrations, 
there  being  five  hundred  and  twenty-three 
figures  showing  drawing  models  and  outlines, 
articles  used  in  teaching,  plans  of  school- 
buildings,  maps  made  in  teaching  local  geog- 
raphy, articles  and  patterns  made  in  manual 
training  schools,  etc.,  etc. 

The  Journal  or  Physiology.  Vol.  X.  Ed- 
ited by  Michael  Foster,  M.  D.,  F.  R.  S. 
Cambridge  (Eng.):  Cambridge  Scientific 
Instrument  Company.  Pp.  576.  Thirty- 
three  Plates.     Price,  $5  a  volume. 

There  are  two  papers  in  this  volume  on 
"  The  Regulation  of  Respiration,"  by  Henry 
Head.  The  first  details  experiments  made 
to  ascertain  the  effects  on  breathing  pro- 
duced by  dividing  the  vagi,  by  altering  the 
volume  of  the  lungs,  by  artificial  respiration, 
and  other  means.  Many  observations  were 
also  made  on  the  forms  which  the  apncea 
pause  produced  by  artificial  respiration  as- 
sumes under  various  conditions.  Nine  plates 
of  curve  tracings  accompany  this  paper.  The 
theoretical  conclusions  from  these  experi- 
ments are  embodied  in  the  second  paper. 
C.  A.  MacMunn  contributes  an  account  of 
experiments  from  which  he  infers  that  "  bili- 
rubin and  biliverdin  are  produced  in  the 
liver  mainly  from  effete  haemoglobin  ;  these 
are  acted  on  in  the  small  intestine  by  the 
digestive  and  putrefactive  ferments,  and 
some,  at  least,  changed  into  simple  metabo- 
lites like  the  urobilin-like  substance  of  bile." 
Stercobilin,  formed  in  the  intestines  from 
derivatives  of  bile  and  haematin,  may  be 
taken  up  and  excreted  in  the  urine  as  patho- 
logical urobilin.  Some  "  Observations  on  Hu- 
man Bile  obtained  from  a  Case  of  Biliary 
Fistula,"  by  S.  M.  Copeman  and  W.  B.  Win- 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


417 


ston,  appear  in  another  number  of  this  vol- 
ume.     Regarding   "  The  Nature   of   Knee- 
jerk,"  W.  P.  Lombard   maintains   that   the 
reflex  theory  readily  explains  the  intimate 
dependence  of  the   phenomenon  upon   the 
spinal   cord,  and    that   the   time   argument 
against  it  is  inconclusive,  owing  to  our  mea- 
ger knowledge  of   reflex  times  in  general, 
while   the   peripheral   theory   is   untenable. 
The  third  number  of  this  volume  is  devoted 
to  a  paper  on  "  The  Relation  between  the 
Structure,  Function,  Distribution,  and  Origin 
of  the  Cranial  Nerves ;  together  with  a  The- 
ory of  the  Origin  of  the  Nervous  System  of 
Vertebrata,"  by  W.  II.  Gaskell.     It   is   ac- 
companied by  five  plates.    W.  D.  Halliburton 
contributes  the  results  of  chemical  analysis 
of  a  number  of  specimens  of  cerebro-spinal 
fluid,  and,  together  with  W.  M.  Friend,  the 
results  of  an  examination  of  the  stromata  of 
the  red  corpuscles.     A  second  paper  on  "  The 
Electrical  Organ  of  the  Skate,"  by  J.  B.  San- 
derson  and  Francis  Gotch,  contains  obser- 
vations as  to  the  nature  of  the  normal  reflex 
process  by  which  the  electric  organ  is  dis- 
charged, and  the  measurement  of  the  electro- 
motive force  of  the  response  of  the  organ  to 
a  single  excitation.     J.  N.  Langley  reports 
further    investigations    upon    the    salivary 
glands  in  two  papers,  one  dealing  with  "  The 
Physiology  of   the  Salivary  Secretion,"  the 
other  with  "  The  Histology  of  the  Mucous 
Salivary  Glands,  and  the  Behavior  of  their 
Mucous  Constituents."      L.  C.  Wool  bridge, 
in  a  brief  paper  entitled  "  The  Coagulation 
Question,"  argues  against  certain  views  of 
Dr.  Halliburton.     W.  II.  White  contributes 
"  Further  Observations  on  the  Histology  and 
Function   of  the   Mammalian    Sympathetic 
Ganglia,"  a  previous  paper  having  been  pub- 
lished in  No.  2,  Vol.  VIII  of  the  "Journal." 
An  extended  paper  on  "  The  Innervation  of 
the  Renal  Blood- Vessels,"  by  J.  Rose  Brad- 
ford, deals  with  the  courses  of  the  vaso-con- 
strictor   and   vaso-dilator    fibers,    with   the 
phenomena     following     excitation    of    the 
splanchnic  nerve  and  of  the   peripheral  end 
of  the  divided  vagus,  also  with  the  reflex 
phenomena   of   the   renal   vessels.      T.  W. 
Shore  and  II.   L.  Jones  publish  a  descrip- 
tion  of  "  The   Structure   of   the  Vertebrate 
Liver,"  approaching  their  subject  from  the 
side  of  comparative  anatomy.     G.  N.  Stew- 
art presents  a  detailed  account  of  a  research 
vol.  xxxvi. — 27 


on  "  The  Stimulation  Effects  in  a  Polarized 
Nerve  during  and  after  the  Flow  of  the  Polar- 
izing Current."  C.  S.  Sherrington  and  C.  A. 
Ballance,  in  a  paper  on  "  Formation  of  Scar- 
Tissue,"  give  the  record  of  their  investiga- 
tion as  to  whether  the  colorless  corpuscles 
of  the  blood  are  the  source  of  the  new  tissue 
which  the  inflammatory  process  produces. 

Hygiene  and  Public  Health.  By  Louis  C. 
Parkes,  M.  D.  Philadelphia :  P.  Blakis- 
ton,  Son  &Co.     Pp.  471.     Price,  $2.50. 

Substantially  the  whole  field  of  sanitary 
science  is  brought  within  a  moderate  com- 
pass in  this  book.  Water,  removal  of  refuse, 
ventilation,  warming,  lighting,  climate,  build- 
ing-sites, food,  exercise,  and  clothing,  all  re- 
ceive due  attention  from  the  hygienic  side. 
A  chapter  on  the  prevention  of  communica- 
ble diseases  has  been  included,  also  one  on 
vital  statistics.  The  book  is  intended  for 
both  the  physician  and  the  layman.  Its 
language  is  simple  enough,  so  that  no  tech- 
nical knowledge  is  needed  to  understand  it, 
though  there  are  some  tests  and  calculations 
included  which  the  average  layman  will  not 
make  use  of  for  himself.  Numerous  exam- 
ples and  illustrations  are  introduced  in  order 
to  assist  the  physician  in  his  public  health 
work.  The  author  deems  the  chapter  on  the 
removal  of  refuse  rather  long  in  proportion 
to  the  book,  but  gives  as  his  reason  for 
going  so  much  into  detail  that  apparently 
trivial  defects  in  house-drainage,  which  are 
liable  to  be  overlooked  without  thorough 
knowledge,  are  often  the  cause  of  the  most 
severe  outbreaks  of  disease.  The  volume  is 
lettered  on  the  back,  "Practical  Hygiene, 
Parkes,"  but  the  intending  buyer  should  not 
confuse  the  book  with  the  "Manual  of  Prac- 
tical Hygiene"  by  the  late  E.  A.  Parkes. 

A  First  Book  in  American  History.  By 
Edward  Eggleston.  Illustrated.  New 
York:  D.  Appleton  &  Co.  Pp.  203. 
Price,  70  cents. 

The  story  of  America  is  told  by  Mr. 
Eggleston  in  this  book  in  a  simple  and  vivid 
style.  The  requirements  that  he  has  had  in 
view  while  preparing  it  arc  that  an  element- 
ary book  must,  for  those  whose  school-life  will 
be  short,  give  the  leading  facts  of  the  whole 
field  to  be  studied,  and  must  not  force  upon 
those  who  are  to  follow  it  with  an  advanced 
work  matters  which  will  have  to  be  restudied 


418 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


later.  Furthermore,  a  beginners'  book  ought, 
before  all  things  else,  to  be  interesting.  "  The 
main  peculiarity  of  the  present  book,"  says 
the  author,  "  is  that  it  aims  to  teach  chil- 
dren the  history  of  the  country  by  making 
them  acquainted  with  some  of  the  most 
illustrious  actors  in  it.  A  child  is  interested, 
above  all,  in  persons.  Biography  is  for  him 
the  natural  door  into  history.  The  order  of 
events  in  a  nation's  life  is  somewhat  above 
the  reach  of  younger  pupils,  but  the  course 
of  a  human  life  and  the  personal  achieve- 
ments of  an  individual  are  intelligible  and 
delightful."  By  this  means,  also,  the  young 
American  gets  distinct  pictures  of  the  careers 
of  the  great  men  of  his  country.  It  is  easy, 
moreover,  in  a  history  of  the  biographical 
type,  to  adopt  the  modern  style  of  describing 
the  life  of  the  people  in  former  times,  as 
well  as  the  progress  of  public  events.  The 
author  is  convinced  that  the  lamented  lack 
of  moral  teaching  in  our  schools  can  be 
largely  supplied  by  the  inspiring  examples 
found  in  the  careers  of  our  great  men.  The 
author  has  availed  himself  abundantly  of  the 
aid  of  pictures  in  giving  the  pupil  a  vivid 
conception  of  the  narrative.  No  precipe 
mode  of  studying  the  book  is  prescribed,  but 
brief  suggestions  for  a  topical  recitation  are 
appended  to  each  lesson.  The  book  is  well 
adapted  to  be  used  as  a  class  reader,  and 
several  school  superintendents  have  already 
declared  their  intention  of  employing  it  in 
this  way.  The  pictures  are  numerous  and 
bear  the  signatures  of  some  of  the  most  emi- 
nent illustrators  in  America.  The  maps  arc 
bird's-eye  views,  and  one,  designed  to  show 
the  territorial  growth  of  the  United  States, 
has  the  successive  additions  of  territory 
printed  on  successive  pages,  the  blank  parts 
of  which  are  to  be  cut  out. 

Chemistry:  General,  Medical,  and  Phar- 
maceutical. By  John  Attfielp,  F.  R.  S., 
etc.  Twelfth  edition.  Philadelphia:  Lea 
Brothers  &  Co.     Pp.  770.     Price,  $3.25. 

This  substantial  volume  is  adapted  to  be 
the  life-long  companion  of  the  pharmacist 
or  physician — a  manual  of  instruction  in  his 
student  days  and  a  work  of  reference  in  his 
business  or  professional  practice.  The  au- 
thor expressly  disclaims  the  recognition  of 
any  such  varieties  of  the  science  as  medical 
and  pharmaceutical  chemistry,  and  uses  these 


terms  only  to  indicate  that  he  illustrates  the 
principles  of  chemistry  by  those  facts  of  spe- 
cial  interest  to  the  followers  of  medicine 
and  pharmacy.  "  From  other  chemical  text- 
books," he  states  in  the  preface,  "  it  differs 
in  three  particulars:  first,  in  the  exclusion 
of  matter  relating  to  compounds  which  at 
present  are  only  of  interest  to  the  scientific 
chemist ;  secondly,  in  containing  more  or  less 
of  the  chemistry  of  every  substance  recognized 
officially  or  in  general  practice  as  a  remedial 
agent;  thirdly,  in  the  paragraphs  being  so 
cast  that  the  volume  may  be  used  as  a  guide 
in  studying  the  science  experimentally.  The 
order  of  subjects  is  that  which,  in  the  au- 
thor's opinion,  best  meets  the  requirements 
of  medical  and  pharmaceutical  students  in 
Great  Britain,  Ireland,  America,  India,  and 
the  English  colonies."  A  few  leading  prop- 
erties of  the  elements  arc  first  given,  some 
of  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  science 
are  next  stated,  and  then  the  properties  and 
relations  of  the  elements  and  the  compound 
radicals  are  presented  in  detail,  attention 
being  directed  to  those  qualities  on  which 
analysis  and  synthesis  depend.  The  chem- 
istry of  the  carbon  compounds  is  next  con- 
sidered. Practical  toxicology  and  the  chem- 
istry of  morbid  physiological  products  then 
receive  attention.  The  concluding  sections 
form  a  laboratory  guide  to  the  chemical  and 
physical  study  of  quantitative  analysis.  In 
the  appendix  is  a  long  table  of  tests  for  impu- 
rities in  medicinal  preparations  ;  also  a  short 
one  of  the  saturating  powers  of  acids  and 
alkalies,  designed  for  use  in  prescribing  and 
dispensing.  In  his  arrangement  of  the  radi- 
cals, the  author  "  has  preferred  to  lead  up  to, 
rather  than  follow,  scientific  classification," 
for  the  reason  that  systems  of  classification 
give  "  undue  prominence  to  one  set  of  rela- 
tions and  undeserved  obscurity  to  others." 
The  metric  system  is  alone  used  in  the  sec- 
tions on  quantitative  analysis  ;  in  other  parts 
of  the  volume  avoirdupois  weights  and  impe- 
rial measures  are  employed.  Numerous  ety- 
mological notes  are  scattered  through  the 
book.  A  list  of  questions  follows  each  sec- 
tion. The  present  edition  contains  what  al- 
terations and  additions  have  become  neces- 
sary since  the  appearance  of  the  eleventh  in 
1885.  The  work  now  includes  the  whole  of 
the  chemistry  of  the  United  States  Pharma- 
copoeia and  nearly  all  that  of  the  British  and 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


419 


Indian  Pharmacopoeias.  The  chief  new  feat- 
ure is  the  extended  section  on  organic  chemis- 
try. By  means  of  the  index  of  fifty-six  pages 
all  the  information  in  this  comprehensive  vol- 
ume is  made  readily  accessible ;  eighty-eight 
cuts  show  the  forms  of  apparatus  needed  for 
the  operations  described. 

Strength  :  How  to  Get  Strong  and  Keep 
Strong  By  Richard  A.  Proctor.  Lon- 
don and  New  York :  Longmans,  Green  & 
Co.     Pp   178.     Price,  75  cents. 

The  scope  of  this  book  is  well  set  forth 
in  the  following  sentences  from  the  introduc- 
tory pages :  "  Men,  and  women  too,  though 
they  may  have  no  occasion  to  acquire  skill 
in  athletic  exercises,  have  great  occasion  to 
possess  sound  bodies,  unless  they  are  pass- 
ing absolutely  useless  lives,  when  they  may 
do  as  they  please  so  far  as  their  value  to  the 
community  is  concerned.  ...  I  propose  in 
this  little  treatise  to  show  how,  by  devoting 
a  few  hours  weekly  to  well-arranged  exer- 
cises, this  end  can  be  attained.  No  violent 
exertions  are  necessary,  no  difficult  feats 
need  be  attempted,  no  special  form  of  exer- 
cise need  occupy  much  of  the  time  and  atten- 
tion." Successive  chapters  are  devoted  to 
the  description  of  exercises,  many  without 
apparatus,  the  others  with  only  simple  ap- 
pliances, adapted  to  the  expansion  of  the 
chest,  and  to  the  development  of  the  mus- 
cles of  the  chest,  abdomen,  loins,  arms,  and 
legs.  There  are  also  chapters  on  reducing 
fat,  the  adapting  of  exercise  to  advancing 
years  and  to  weakness,  some  "  notes  on  row- 
ing," and  directions  for  learning  to  swim.  A 
comparison  of  "Nature's  Waist  and  Fash- 
ion's "  is  included,  to  which  a  lady  contrib- 
utes her  experience  in  discarding  the  corset 
and  adopting  the  divided  skirt.  The  volume 
is  illustrated  with  figures  of  classic  statuary 
and  of  gymnastic  apparatus. 

The  Story  of  the  Bacteria.  By  T.  Mitch- 
ell Prcdden,  A.  M.  New  York  :  G.  P. 
Putnam's  Sons.    Pp.  143.   Price,  75  cents. 

Everybody  has  heard  of  bacteria ;  many 
with  a  conscientious  desire  to  keep  informed 
upon  the  progress  of  science  have  undertaken 
to  read  up  aboit  them ;  and  a  large  propor- 
tion of  these  inquirers  must  have  retreated 
baffled  from  the  task.  But  if  those  who 
have  been  discouraged  by  the  technicalities 


of  the  learned  treatises  on  micro-organisms 
would  still  like  to  know  what  the  bacteria 
are  and  do,  and  how  they  are  cultivated  and 
examined ,  they  can  find  out  very  pleasantly 
by  reading  Dr.  Prudden's  simple  and  fasci- 
nating "  Story  of  the  Bacteria."  The  au- 
thor describes  the  chief  forms  of  bacteria, 
and  several  kinds  which  are  curious  from 
their  color,  power  of  emitting  light,  etc. 
He  then  tells  how  they  act  in  producing 
surgical  diseases,  consumption,  and  typhoid 
fever,  and  what  means  are  taken  to  repel 
their  attacks.  He  also  sets  forth  what  is 
believed  in  regard  to  the  relations  of  bacte- 
ria to  Asiatic  cholera,  diphtheria,  pneumonia, 
scarlet  fever,  etc. — diseases  in  which  the  ac- 
tion of  the  germs  is  less  easily  demonstrable. 
He  points  out,  further,  how  impure  food,  air, 
water,  and  even  ice  may  serve  as  sources  of 
bacterial  infection ;  and  in  conclusion  gives 
the  layman  an  intelligent  view  of  the  pres- 
ent standing  of  investigation  in  this  field. 
This  little  book  shows  how  perfectly  a  sci- 
entific subject  may  be  freed  from  perplexing 
technicalities,  and  may  well  serve  as  a  model 
of  popular  scientific  writing. 

According  to  the  Report  of  the  Commis- 
sioner of  Fish  and  Fisheries  for  1886  (United 
States  Fish  Commission),  the  work  of  the 
year  included  explorations  along  the  eastern 
coast  of  North  America  from  the  Straits  of 
Florida  to  Newfoundland,  in  order  to  ascer- 
tain the  winter  range  and  habits  of  the 
mackerel,  menhaden,  blue-fish,  and  other 
important  food  fishes  that  resort  to  the 
eastern  shores  of  the  United  States  in  the 
warmer  months.  Observations  of  the  tem- 
peratures and  densities  of  the  water  were 
made  continuously  at  all  the  stations  of  the 
Commission,  from  the  Commission's  vessels, 
and  at  many  light-houses  and  light-ships. 
The  schooner  Grampus,  intended  as  a  mod- 
el for  off-shore  fishing  smacks,  and  also 
containing  a  well  for  the  conveyance  of  live 
fishes,  was  completed  and  added  to  the  fleet 
of  the  Commission  in  this  year.  The  dis- 
tribution of  the  eggs  and  fry  of  food  fishes 
was  continued.  The  papers  appended  to 
the  report  comprise  a  comprehensive  account 
of  "The  Sea  Fisheries  of  Eastern  North 
America,"  by  the  late  commissioner,  Spen- 
cer F.  Baird ;  "  A  Review  of  the  Flounders 
and    Soles   of    America   and    Europe,"  by 


4-20 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


David  Starr  Jordan  and  David  Kop  Goss ; 
a  review  of  the  Seiceniclce,  by  Prof.  Jordan 
and  Carl  IT.  Eigenmann ;  a  paper  on  inter- 
nal parasites  of  fishes,  by  Edwin  Linton  ;  and 
a  report  on  Medusae,  by  J.  Walter  Fewkes, 
all  but  the  first  of  these  being  illustrated. 
A  large  number  of  reports  from  the  vessels 
and  stations  of  the  Commission  are  printed, 
and  the  following  papers  from  foreign  sources 
are  included  in  the  volume :  "  On  the  Fish- 
cultural  Establishments  of  Central  Europe," 
by  E.  Bettoni  and  D.  Vinciguerra ;  "  Chemi- 
cal Composition  of  Food  Products,"  by  P. 
Kostytscheff ;  "  Cases  of  Poisoning  caused 
by  Spoiled  Codfish,"  by  Dr.  E.  Mauriac,  and 
"  Notes  on  the  Norwegian  Fisheries  of  1885," 
by  A.  N.  Kiaer.  There  is  also  a  list  of  sta- 
tions at  which  dredgings  have  been  made  in 
the  Atlantic  and  Arctic  Oceans  from  1867 
to  1887,  by  Sanderson  Smith.  The  list  is 
accompanied  by  five  charts. 

A  translation  of  a  series  of  essays  by  the 
Baroness  Marenholtz  -  Buelow,  setting  forth 
Froebel's  educational  system,  has  been  pub- 
lished under  the  title  The  Child  and  Child- 
Nature  (Bardeen,  $1.50).  It  describes  the 
nature  of  the  child,  his  needs,  and  the  effects 
of  training  upon  him.  An  account  of  Froe- 
bel's method  is  given,  and  this  is  followed 
by  some  of  the  exercises  and  translations  of 
the  songs  which  he  devised  for  teachiug  the 
child's  relations  to  nature,  to  mankind,  and 
to  God.  A  bibliography  of  Froebel  is  ap- 
pended, and  an  index  has  been  added  to  the 
American  edition. 

Dr.  R.  von  Krafft-Ebing's  Experimental 
Study  in  the  Domain  of  Hypnotism  has  been 
translated  into  English  by  Charles  G.  Chad- 
dock,  M.  D.  (Putnam,  $1.25).  It  is  an  ac- 
count of  a  case  which  has  excited  much 
interest  in  Gratz,  and  comprises  the  prelimi- 
nary history  of  the  patient,  a  record  of  the 
course  of  her  hystcro-epileptic  attacks,  and 
a  transcript  from  Prof.  Krafft's  daily  note- 
book of  hypnotic  experiments  upon  her. 

Evolution  of  the  Electric  Incandescent 
Lamp,  by  F.  L.  Pope  (H.  Cook,  Elizabeth, 
N.  J.),  is  a  collection  of  extracts  from  rec- 
ords of  courts  and  of  the  Patent  -  Office, 
newspaper  files,  and  transactions  of  scien- 
tific societies  bearing  upon  the  question 
whether  Edison  or  Sawyer  and  Man  deserve 
the  credit  for  the  employing  of  a  carbonized 
filament  of   organic   material  in  the  incan- 


descent lamp.     The  book  is  illustrated  with 
cuts  of  apparatus. 

A  beginner's  text-book  of  Iron  and  Steel 
Manufacture  has  been  prepared  by  Arthur 
H.  Hiorns  (Macmillan,  $1),  designed  to  give 
a  knowledge  of  the  principles  underlying 
the  processes  of  this  industry.  In  the  early 
chapters  the  substances  used  or  produced  in 
smelting  are  defined,  the  ores  of  iron  are  de- 
scribed, and  the  chemistry  of  the  subject  is 
explained.  Then  follow  descriptions  of  the 
usual  methods  of  extracting  and  refining  the 
metal,  and  of  the  furnaces,  hammers,  and 
rolls  employed  in  these  operations.  Iron 
casting,  tinning,  and  galvanizing  are  also 
described.  The  processes  in  the  production, 
tempering,  and  testing  of  steel  are  set  forth 
in  like  manner.  Questions  are  appended  to 
each  chapter  for  the  use  of  students. 

No.  96  of  Van  Nostrand's  Science  Series 
is  on  Alternate-Current  Machinery,  and  com- 
prises a  paper  read  by  Gisbert  Kapp  before 
the  Institution  of  Civil  Engineers,  London, 
with  the  discussion  upon  it.  Of  the  appa- 
ratus which  may  be  properly  included  under 
his  title,  the  author  deals  especially  with 
alternators,  transformers,  and  motors.  The 
volume  is  illustrated  with  forty-three  dia- 
grams. 

Since  the  first  edition  of  the  Manual  of 
Assaying  Gold,  Silver,  Copper,  and  Lead 
Ores,  prepared  by  Walter  Lee  Brown  (E.  H. 
Sargent  &  Co.,  $2.50),  was  noticed  in  this 
magazine,  the  book  has  been  increased  from 
318  to  487  pages.  Other  changes  as  given 
by  the  author  are,  "  the  stating  of  all  charges 
in  assay  tons,  grammes,  and  grains ;  detailed 
charges  in  the  scorification  process  ;  full 
notes  on  the  colors  and  appearances  of  the 
scorifiers  (with  a  colored  plate)  and  cupels 
after  work ;  the  expansion  of  the  crucible 
process  from  nine  to  almost  ninety  pages; 
more  complete  articles  on  the  assay  of  gold 
and  silver  bullion,  and  the  volumetric  analy- 
sis of  copper  ores ;  and,  finally,  the  issuance 
of  the  book  in  flexible  covers."  The  present 
(third)  edition  is  but  little  changed  from  the 
second. 

The  little  book  by  the  late  Walter  Bage- 
hot,  embodying  a  Flan  for  Assimilating  the 
English  and  American  Money,  first  pub- 
lished in  1869,  has  been  reissued  in  view 
of   an  expected  revival   of  interest  in  the 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


421 


subject  (Longmans,  75  cents).  The  author 
names,  as  trifling  advantages  of  an  interna- 
tional coinage,  the  convenience  of  travelers, 
facility  in  the  exchange  and  transmission  of 
coin,  and  in  the  comparison  of  monetary 
statistics.  What  he  deems  the  one  great 
advantage  of  such  a  money  would  consist  in 
making  identical  the  monetary  language  of 
the  trade  circulars  of  different  nations.  He 
believes  that  an  international  coinage  should 
be  founded  on  a  single  standard,  have  a  high 
gold  unit,  have  decimal  divisions,  and  do  no 
violence  to  national  jealousies.  Several  inter- 
national unit  coins  have  been  proposed — a 
twenty-five-franc  piece,  the  English  sover- 
eign, a  piece  weighing  ten  grammes,  and  a  ten- 
franc  piece — but  Mr.  Bagehot  points  out  ob- 
jections to  them  all.  The  scheme  which  the 
author  proposes  is  to  unite  the  two  great 
Anglo-Saxon  nations  upon  a  system  of  coins, 
by  changing  the  sovereign  from  960  to  1,000 
farthings,  or  £1  0s.  10c/.,  which  is  almost 
identical  with  the  American  half-eagle.  He 
believes  that  Germany  and  the  Latin  Union 
would  in  time  adopt  the  Anglo-American 
money. 

In  his  essay  on  Involuntary  Idleness,  read 
before  the  American  Economic  Association, 
and  now  published  as  a  book  (Lippincott, 
$1),  the  author,  Mr.  Hwjo  Bilgram,  searches 
for  the  cause  of  lack  of  employment.  He 
first  examines  the  relation  of  capital  and 
interest  to  labor,  and  obtains  the  inference 
that  "  a  close  relation  exists  between  the 
economic  cause  of  involuntary  idleness  and 
the  law  of  interest."  The  author  states  that 
there  is  a  tendency  for  the  industrial  class 
to  drift  into  bankruptcy,  and  for  money  to 
accumulate  in  the  hands  of  the  financial 
class,  thus  depriving  the  channels  of  com- 
merce of  the  needed  medium  of  exchange, 
and  causing  stagnation  of  business  and 
dearth  of  employment.  The  law  of  interest 
is  then  evolved  by  an  analysis  of  the  mone- 
tary circulation  between  the  debtors  and 
creditors.  From  this  analysis  is  drawn  the 
inference  that  "  an  expansion  of  the  volume 
of  money,  by  extending  the  issue  of  credit- 
money,  will  prevent  business  stagnation  and 
involuntary  idleness." 

The  Teacher's  Manual  of  Geography,  by 
Jacques  W.  Rcdway  (Heath,  55  cents),  con- 
sists of  suggestions  to  teachers  on  out-of- 


door  lessons  for  young  pupils,  the  use  of 
pictures  and  models,  recitation,  map-making, 
geodesy,  hydrography,  meteorology,  history 
in  geography,  and  boundary  lines.  Simple 
ideas  of  form,  size,  color,  and  locality  are 
suggested  to  be  presented  to  the  youngest 
children  in  preliminary  oral  work.  The  tend- 
ency of  the  book  throughout  is  to  lead  the 
teacher  to  give  pupils  a  practical,  compre- 
hensible knowledge  of  the  earth's  surface, 
to  correct  popular  errors,  and  to  escape  from 
traditional  ruts.  A  list  of  books  for  geo- 
graphical reading  is  appended. 

A  series  of  Topics  in  Geography,  pre- 
pared by  W.  F.  Nichols,  for  the  use  of  his 
own  schools,  has  now  been  published  (Heath, 
55  cents).  The  author  states  that  his  aim 
has  been  to  make  the  study  of  geography 
more  valuable,  while  shortening  the  time 
usually  spent  upon  it.  To  this  end  he  shows 
what  to  teach  and  what  to  omit,  giving  first 
a  brief  outline  for  a  study  of  any  continent 
based  upon  slope,  and  furnishing  topics,  to 
be  taken  up  after  this,  which  cover  all  that 
it  is  desirable  to  learn.  Other  features  of 
his  treatment  are  the  sparing  use  of  statis- 
tics, the  combination  of  language  with  geog- 
raphy, and  the  making  prominent  of  natu- 
ral objects  and  wonders,  which  are  always 
interesting  to  pupils.  The  course  of  study  is 
graded.  By  permission,  Prof.  Redway's  list  of 
books  for  geographical  reading  is  included. 

The  Nursery  Lesson  Book,  by  Philip  G. 
Hubert,  Jr.  (Putnam,  75  cents),  is  designed 
as  a  guide  for  mothers  in  teaching  young 
children.  It  comprises  fifty  lessons,  each 
conveying  simple  and  progressive  instruc- 
tion in  reading,  writing,  arithmetic,  drawing, 
and  singing.  It  contains  one  hundred  illus- 
trations in  outline  and  sixteen  songs  set  to 
music.  The  page  is  large,  the  margins  gen- 
erous, and  the  general  appearance  of  the 
book  is  attractive. 

The  life  and  labors  of  Vitus  Bering,  the 
Discoverer  of  Bering  Strait,  have  been  re- 
corded in  Danish  by  Peter  Lauridsen,  and 
an  English  translation  by  Prof.  Julius  E. 
Olson  is  now  published  (Griggs,  $1.25). 
Bering  was  a  Dane,  who  took  to  the  sea  in 
early  life,  and  at  the  age  of  twenty-two 
joined  a  Russian  fleet  as  a  sub-lieutenant. 
This  was  during  the  period  of  Russia's  rapid 
advancement  under  Peter  the  Great.  In 
1724  Bering,  then  a  captain,  was  appointed 


422 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


chief  of  an  expedition  to  determine  whether 
Asia  and  America  were  connected  by  land. 
The  expedition  went  overland  through  Sibe- 
ria to  Kamchatka,  where  ships  were  built 
and  the  explorations  begun.  Bering  reached 
the  strait  that  bears  his  name,  and  thus 
proved  that  Asia  and  America  were  sepa- 
rated by  water.  Soon  after  his  return  he 
proposed  a  second  expedition  to  chart  the 
northwestern  coast  of  America,  then  an  un- 
known land,  and  the  northern  coast  of  Sibe- 
ria. This  should  lead  to  the  establishment 
of  trade  with  the  American  colonies,  and 
also  make  known  a  way  by  water  from  Rus- 
sia ai'ound  to  Japan.  Bering  reached  the 
coast  of  Alaska  in  1741,  and  died  on  the 
way  back.  For  a  long  time  jealousy  dis- 
credited his  results,  and  the  chief  object  of 
the  present  volume  is  to  establish  the  value 
of  his  discoveries.  The  book  also  tells  the 
story  of  the  obstacles  which  he  overcame  in 
his  expeditions.  It  is  accompanied  by  two 
folded  maps,  and  has  an  introduction  by 
Lieutenant  Frederick  Schwatka. 

The  literature  of  cycling  has  been  in- 
creased by  a  book  bearing  the  title  Cycling 
Art,  Energy,  and  Locomotion,  written  by  Rob- 
ert P.  Scott  (J.  B.  Lippincott  Company,  $2). 
It  is  largely  devoted  to  explaining  the  me- 
chanical principles  involved  in  the  action  of 
the  cranks,  wheels,  springs,  bearings,  gears, 
etc.  It  includes  also  brief  discussions  of 
the  injuries  charged  against  cycling,  the  bi- 
cycle for  ladies,  English  and  American  work- 
manship in  cycles,  aluminum  in  cycle  con- 
struction, and  the  application  of  steam  and 
electricity  to  cycles.  A  second  part  of  the 
volume  comprises  extracts  from  the  patent 
specifications  of  a  large  number  of  veloci- 
pedes, cycles,  and  nondescript  vehicles,  with 
the  inventors'  drawings  of  the  machines  and 
riders,  and  humorous  comments  by  the  au- 
thor. Many  of  these  machines  are  astonish- 
ing contrivances,  and  perhaps  none  more  so 
than  the  flying-machine,  patented  March  5, 
1889,  which  is  introduced  at  the  end. 


PUBLICATIONS   RECEIVED. 

Adams,  Mvron.  The  Continuous  Creation.  Bos- 
ton and  New  "York  :  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.  Pp. 
259.     $1.50. 

Barnard,  Charles,  and  Woodhull,  John  F.  Graphic 
Methods  in  Teaching.  New  York  :  College  for  the 
Training  of  Teachers  (Educational  Monographs). 
Pp.82.    $1  a  year. 

Boston  Society  of  Natural  Ilistory.  Proceedings, 
VoL  XXIV,  May,  1888,  to  May,  1889.     Pp.  256. 


Barnes,  A.  8.,  &  Co. :  New  York  and  Chicago. 
List  of  Standard  Works  on  Botany  and  Catalogue  of 
New  and  Revised  Educational  Works. 

Becker,  George  F.  Geology  of  the  Quicksilver 
Deposits  of  the  Pacific  Slope.  Washington  :  Govern- 
ment Printing-office.  Pp.  486,  with  Map,  and  with 
an  Atlas  of  fourteen  sheets. 

Bonw.ll,  W.  G.  A.  The  Philosophy  of  Eating 
and  Drinking,  from  a  Medical  aud  Dental  Stand- 
point.    Philadelphia.     Pp.  21. 

Chadwick,  John  W.  Evolution  as  related  to 
Re'.igious  Thought.  Boston :  The  New  Ideal  Pub- 
lishing Company.     Pp.  24.     10  cts. 

Cornell  University  College  of  Agriculture;  Ex- 
periment Station.     Bulletin.    Ton  atoes.     Pp.  16. 

Dabney.  W.  D.  The  Public  Regulation  of  Rail- 
ways. New  Tork  and  London:  G.  P.  Putnam's 
Sons.     Pp  281.     $1.25. 

Darby,  John.  Man  and  his  World  ;  or,  the  One- 
ness of  Now  and  Eternity.  Philadelphia :  J.  B. 
Lippincott  Company.     Pp.  259.     $1. 

Davis.  Nathaniel  E.  Foods  for  the  Fat.  Ameri- 
can edition,  edited  by  C  W.  Greene.  Philadelphia: 
J.  B.  Lippincott  Company.     Pp.  138.     75  cents. 

Davis,  Walter  G.  Ligeros  Apuntes  sobre  el 
Clima  de  la  Repub'.ica  Argentina  (Notes  on  the  Cli- 
mate of  the  Argentine  Republic).  Buenos  Ayres. 
Pp.  254,  with  Tables  and  Map. 

Donisthorpe,  Wordsworth.  Individualism.  A 
System  of  Politics.  London  and  New  York:  Mac- 
millan  &  Co.     Pp.  393.     $4. 

Dunton,  Larkin.  The  World  and  its  People 
(Young  Folks'  Library,  Vols.  V  and  VI).  Boston, 
New  York,  and  Chicago:  Silver,  Burdett  &  Co. 
Two  volumes.     Pp.  160  and  159.    36  cents  each. 

Fulton,  A.  R.  American  Political  Parties.  Des 
Moines,  Iowa.  Hedge  and  Keeler,  Printers.   Pp.  17. 

"Geographic  Magazine,  The  National."  Vol.  I, 
No.  4.  Washington,  D.  C. :  The  National  Geographic 
Society.    Pp.  60,  with  Maps.    50  cents. 

Harrison,  John  Thornhill.  On  the  Creation  and 
Physical  Structure  of  the  Earth.  London  and  New 
York:  Longmans,  Green  &  Co.     Pp.  189. 

Hubert,  Philip  G..  Jr.  Liberty  and  a  Living. 
New  York  and  London  :  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons.  Pp. 
239. 

Keyes,  Charles  R.  Johns  Hopkins  University. 
Lower  Carbonic  Gasteropoda  from  Burlington,  Iowa. 
The  American  Species  of  Polypbemopsis  Sphaero- 
doma;  a  Genus  of  Fossil  Gasteropoda.     Pp  24. 

Laing,  Samuel.  Problems  of  the  Future ;  and 
Essays.     London:  Chapman  &  Hall.     Pp.409. 

McCarthy,  Gerald.  Botany  as  a  Disciplinary 
Study.     Pp.  6. 

MeKendiick,'John  Gray.  A  Text  Book  of  Phys- 
iology. Vol.11.  Special  Physiology.  New  York : 
Macmillan  &  Co.     Pp.  S03.     $6. 

Massachusetts  Agricultural  Experiment  Station. 
Bulletin  No.  35.  Meteorological  Summary.  Pp. 
11. 

Morgan,  Thomas  J.  Studies  in  Pedagogy.  Bos- 
ton, New  York,  and  Chicago  :  Silver,  Burdett  &  Co. 
Pp.  355.     $1.75. 

Neal,  J.  C.  The  Root-Knot  Disease  of  the 
Peach,  Orange,  and  other  Plants  of  Florida,  due  to 
the  Work  of  Anguillula.  Washington:  Government 
Printing-office.     Pp.  30,  with  21  Plates. 

Newberry,  John  8.  Fossil  Fishes  and  Fossil 
Plants  of  the  Triassic  Rocks  of  New  Jersey  and  the 
Connecticut  Valley.  Washington  :  Government 
Printing-Office.     Pp.  95,  with  26  Plates. 

Nichols.  Starr  Moyt.  Tha  Philosophy  of  Evolu- 
tion. Boston:  The  New  Ideal  Publishing  Com- 
pany.    Pp.  24.     10  cents. 

Ohio  Agricultural  Experiment  Station,  Colum- 
bus. Bulletin,  September,  18S9.  Five  articles  on 
Insects  and  Fotato-rot.     Pp.  28. 

Oliver,  Charles  A..  M.  D.,  Philadelphia.  De- 
scription of  a  Case  of  Embolism  of  the  Left  Central 
Retinal  Artery.     Pp.  5. 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 


423 


Piatt,  James.  Money.  New  York  and  London : 
G.  P.  Putnam's  Sous.     Pp.  207.    75  cents. 

Pope,  Colonel  Albert  A.,  Boston.  Highway  Im- 
provement.    Pp.  18. 

Roberts,  John  B.,  Philadelphia.  The  Cure  of 
Crooked  and  Otherwise  Deformed  Noses.  Pp.  24. 
—Delusions  in  Eye-Surgery.    Pp.  8. 

Rothschild,  M.  D.  A  Handbook  of  Precious 
Stones.  New  York  and  London:  G.P.Putnam's 
Sons.     Pp.  143.    $1. 

Savage,  Minot  J.  The  Effects  of  Evolution  on 
the  Coming  Civilization.  Boston  :  The  New  Ideal 
Publishing  Company.     Pp.  24.     10  cents. 

Storrs  Agricultural  Experiment  Station,  Mans- 
field, Conn.  Bulletin  No.  5.  Atmospheric  Nitro- 
gen as  Plant  Food.     Pp.  19. 

Stroud,  William  L.,  Editor.  "Eusebia:  A 
Monthly  Journal  for  Bible  Students."  Oakland,  Cal : 
L.  F.  Cockroft.     Pp.  14.     $1  a  year. 

Taylor,  John  W.,  Joliet,  III.  Cause  and  Effect 
inherent  in  the  Heavenly  Substance.     Pp.  59. 

Thackeray,  S.  W.  The  Land  and  the  Commu- 
nity.   New  York  :  D.  Appleton  &  Co.    Pp.  22:3.   $1. 

United  States  Geological  Survey,  Bulletins.  No. 
48.  On  the  Form  and  Position  of  the  Sea-Level. 
By  R.  S.  Woodward.  Pp.  S3.  10  cents.— No.  49. 
Latitudes  and  Longitudes  of  Certain  Points  in  Mis- 
souri, Kansas,  and  New  Mexico.  By  R  S.  Wood- 
ward. Pp.133.  15  cents.— No.  50.  Formulas  and 
Tables  to  facilitate  the  Construction  and  Use  of 
Maps.  By  R.  S.  Woodward.  Pp.  124.  15  cents. 
—No.  51.  On  Invertebrate  Fossils  from  the  Pacific 
Coast.  By  C.  A.  White.  Pp.  H>2,  with  14  Plates. 
15  cents.— No.  52.  Sub-aerial  Decay  of  Rocks,  and 
Origin  of  the  Red  Color  of  Certain  Formations.  By 
I.  (I.  Russell.  Pp.  65.  with  Five  Plates.  10  cents. 
—No.  53.  The  Geology  of  Nantucket.  By  N.  S. 
Shaler.     Pp.  55,  with  Ten  Plates.    10  cents. 

Waller,  E.,  Ph.  D.  Notes  on  the  Analysis  of 
Zinc  Ores.     Pp.  5. 

Ward,  H.  Marshall.  Timber  and  some  of  its 
Diseases.  London  and  New  York  :  Macmillan  & 
Co.     Pp.  295.    $1.75. 

Whitman,  C.  O.  "Journal  of  Morphology."  Sep- 
tember, 18S9.     Boston :  Ginn  &  Co.     Pp.148. 

Wood,  Alphonso.  Lessons  on  the  Structure. 
Life,  and  Growth  of  Plants.  Revised  and  edited  by 
Oliver  R.  Willis.  New  York  and  Chicago:  A.  S. 
Barnes  &  Co.     Pp.  220.     $1. 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 

The  American  Forestry  Association. — 

The  American  Forestry  Congress  at  its  eighth 
annual  meeting,  held  in  Philadelphia  in  Octo- 
ber, changed  its  name  to  Association.  The 
meeting  was  opened  with  an  address  by  the 
Hon.  Carl  Schurz,  in  which  he  narrated  the 
difficulties  he  encountered  from  the  opposi- 
tion of  Congressmen  when,  as  Secretary  of 
the  Interior,  he  endeavored  to  protect  the 
forests  on  the  public  lands  against  timber 
thieves.  Mr.  B.  E.  Fernow  spoke  on  "  Meth- 
ods of  Forestry  Reform,"  and  particularly  of 
what  lay  within  the  competency  of  the  Gov- 
ernment. Resolutions  offered  by  Mr.  Fernow, 
recommending  the  withdrawal  of  all  public 
forest-lands  from  sale  till  a  permanent  sys- 
tem of  national  forest  management  can  bo 
applied,  called  out  debate.    Mr.  L.  Thompson, 


a  lumberman,  argued  that  it  would  be  con- 
trary to  our  national  usage  and  the  spirit  of 
our  institutions  to  extend  the  sphere  of  Gov- 
ernment control  over  interests  that  have  been 
hitherto  successfully  managed  by  private  en- 
terprise ;  that  the  forests  would  be  better 
protected  by  selling  the  land  to  citizens  than 
by  putting  them  under  the  management  of 
office-seekers  and  politicians.  Colonel  Ed- 
gar T.  Ensign  held  that  where  large  water- 
sheds are  involved,  and  the  streams  are  to  be 
used  for  irrigation,  only  national  control  can 
be  made  efficient  and  adequate ;  that  it  is 
not  enough  even  to  leave  the  matter  to  indi- 
vidual States.  Mr.  Richard  J.  Bin  ton  point- 
ed out  the  impossibility  of  adequate  super- 
vision by  owners  or  individual  States  of  riv- 
ers like  those  that  have  their  sources  in  our 
Western  mountain  forests.  Mr.  Fernow's 
resolutions  were  adopted.  A  resolution  in 
favor  of  removing  the  duty  on  lumber  wa8 
not  entertained,  for  fear  of  drawing  the  Asso- 
ciation into  political  controversies. 

Lake  Ridges  of  Ohio. — In  the  American 
Association  paper  of  the  Rev.  G.  Frederick 
Wright  on  "The  Relation  of  Lake  Ridges  in 
New  York,  Ohio,  and  Ontario,"  the  ridges  in 
Ohio  were  described  as  being  four  intnum- 
ber,  and  standing  at  elevations  above  the 
sea  of  775,  720,  G90,  and  650  feet.  They 
consist  of  sand  and  gravel  piled  up  to  the 
height  of  from  five  to  twenty-five  feet,  and 
approximately  parallel  with  Lakes  Erie  and 
Ontario,  and  are  evidently  old  shore  lines 
of  the  lakes.  The  problem  of  how  the  water 
could  have  been  kept  up  to  these  several  levels 
seems  to  have  been  solved  with  considerable 
probability  by  recent  glacial  investigations. 
Attention  was  called  to  the  fact  that  the  ir- 
regularities of  the  southern  boundary  of  the 
glacial  region  are  such  that  if  the  retreat  of 
the  ice  front  was  with  equal  rapidity  all  along 
its  course  it  would  have  wholly  withdrawn 
from  Lake  Erie  and  western  Lake  Ontario 
some  time  before  the  ice-dams  across  the  Mo- 
hawk and  the  St.  Lawrence  had  been  melted 
away.  An  inspection  of  the  map  shows  that 
two  of  the  most  important  of  these  outlets 
would  be,  (1)  that  through  Seneca  Lake  into 
the  Chemung  River  in  New  York,  and  so  into 
the  Susquehanna,  and  (2)  that  through  the 
Wabash  at  Fort  Wayne,  Ind.  The  heights 
correspond  pretty  well  with  that  of  the  up- 


424 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


per  and  third  ridges  in  Ohio,  the  upper  ridge 
being  probably  connected  with  the  Chemung 
River  outlet,  and  the  third  with  the  Wabash 
outlet. 

Favoritism  at  Trinity  Honse. — Prof.  Tyn- 
dall  published  a  full  account,  in  the  "  Fort- 
nightly Review  "  some  months  ago,  of  the 
transactions  that  led  him,  in  1883,  to  resign 
his  position  as  scientific  adviser  to  the  Trin- 
ity House.  The  case,  according  to  his  show- 
ing, was  one  of  the  persistent  exercise  of  per- 
sonal and  political  favoritism  by  the  Eoard 
of  Trade  in  the  experiments  for  determining 
what  were  the  best  lights  for  lighthouse 
purposes.  In  the  competition  between  the 
quadriform  gas-light  of  Mr.  Wighain,  a  Scotch 
Irishman,  who  had  the  misfortune  to  be  in 
trade,  and  the  eight-wick  oil-lamp  of  Mr. 
Douglass,  whose  brother  was  connected  with 
Trinity  House,  the  conditions  were  arranged 
so  as  to  be  more  favorable  to  the  latter.  The 
electric  light  was  then  introduced  into  the 
competitions,  and  the  proposition  gradually 
assumed  a  form  indicating  a  disposition  to 
crowd  Mr.  Wickham  out ;  so  that  Prof.  Tyn- 
dall  came  to  the  conclusion  that  "if  the 
treatment  of  the  gas  invention  and  its  opti- 
cal adjuncts  could  be  regarded  as  a  fair  sam- 
ple of  the  treatment  of  Ireland  by  England, 
it  would  be  the  bounden  duty  of  every  Irish- 
man to  become  a  Home-Ruler."  The  evi- 
dences of  partiality  becoming  more  and  more 
prominent  in  the  action  of  the  board  and 
its  committee,  Prof.  Tyndall  felt  constrained 
to  resign.  Two  months  afterward  the  com- 
mittee went  to  pieces.  Prof.  Tyndall  ob- 
serves that  some  of  the  parties  throughout 
the  transactions  seemed  to  think  that  Ire- 
land, and  not  the  ships  of  all  nations  sailing 
to  its  coasts,  was  the  chief  beneficiary  from 
the  lighthouses. 

Interesting  Fossils  of  British  North  Amer- 
ica.— The  Cretaceous  fossil  plants  of  Port 
McNeill,  Vancouver  Island,  as  described  by 
Sir  William  and  G.  M.  Dawson,  consist  chiefly 
of  dicotyledonous  leaves,  with  a  few  fruits. 
Large  slabs  have  been  procured,  some  with 
perfect  specimens  of  the  leaves.  There 
are  no  ferns  or  cycads  in  the  collection,  and 
conifers  are  rare.  Among  the  latter  are  two 
species  of  Salisburia,  or  gingko,  one  of  which 
is  "  a  beautiful  little  form."    The  exogenous 


leaves  are  very  numerous,  and  belong  to  a 
number  of  genera,  with  at  least  twenty  spe- 
cies, giving  evidence  of  a  very  rich  and  varied 
forest  flora  of  warm  temperate  aspect.  Sir 
William  Dawson  has  made  an  interesting 
study  of  the  Balanus  hameri  of  the  Pleisto- 
cene of  Riviere  Beaudette,  a  species  which  is 
still  living  in  somewhat  deep  water  on  the  Ca- 
nadian coasts.  The  specimens  under  consid- 
eration were  found  farther  west  than  any  point 
at  which  the  fossil  had  been  previously  ob- 
served, and  are  interesting  from  their  remark- 
able perfection  and  the  large  masses  which 
they  form.  The  original  attachments  of  the 
animals,  so  far  as  observed,  were  on  pebbles 
on  the  surface  of  the  clay,  and,  as  these 
afforded  space  for  only  one  or  two  indi- 
viduals, the  young  were  obliged  to  attach 
themselves  to  the  old  in  successive  genera- 
tions. Most  grotesque  groups  were  thus 
formed,  which  still  remain  entire.  Observa- 
tions of  peculiar  varieties  of  the  mussels 
Mya  arenaria  and  Mya  truncata  in  the  mod- 
ern sea  and  in  the  Pleistocene  have  led  the 
same  author  to  remark  upon  the  interesting 
feature  of  "  the  companionship  of  these  al- 
lied species  in  the  North  Atlantic  throughout 
the  Pleistocene  and  modern  periods,  and  their 
range  of  varietal  forms  applicable  to  each, 
according  to  the  conditions  to  which  they 
have  been  exposed,  along  with  their  contin- 
ued specific  distinctness,  and  the  preference 
of  each  for  certain  kinds  of  environment ; 
so  that  in  some  places  one  and  in  others  the 
other  predominates,  while  this  relative  pre- 
dominance, as  well  as  the  prevalence  of  cer- 
tain varietal  forms,  might  no  doubt  be  re- 
versed by  change  of  climate  or  depth." 

The    Cretaeeons   Inland  Sea.  —  In  the 

course  of  two  years'  study  of  the  northern 
and  eastern  terminations  of  the  Texas  Cre- 
taceous deposits,  Prof.  Robert  T.  Hill  has 
found  that  the  marine  sedimentation  of  both 
divisions  of  the  formation  was  limited" on 
the  north  by  an  older  continental  shore  line, 
the  present  remnant  of  which  extends  from 
the  Ouachita  River,  near  Malvern  and  Hot 
Springs,  Arkansas,  almost  due  west  through 
Indian  Territory  into  the  Fanhandlc  of  Tex- 
as. The  whole  Cretaceous  history,  includ- 
ing the  upper  and  lower  systems,  can  be 
summed  up  as  two  profound  subsidences,  sep- 
arated by  a  land  epoch,  which  have  left  in 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 


425 


their  sediments  two  great  chalk  formations. 
During  the  second  subsidence,  which  was 
the  deepest  in  all  Mesozoic  times,  the  Atlantic 
Ocean  extended  continuously  from  British 
America  southward  around  the  Appalachian 
continent.  Prof.  Hill  has  begun  the  publi- 
cation of  a  series  of  illustrations  of  the  pale- 
ontology of  the  Cretaceous  formations  of 
Texas,  in  which  pictures  and  outlines  of 
characteristic  fossils  are  given,  with  letter- 
press descriptions.  The  first  number  thus 
represents  Peden  (Vola?)  Rocmeri  Petero- 
cera  Shumardi,  and  Crioceras  ?  (Acayloceras) 
Texanus — all  new  species,  of  the  Comanche 
series,  or  Lower  Cretaceous. 

An  Orthodox  Compliment  to  Darwin. — 

The  first  number  of  the  "  Cumberland  Pres- 
byterian Pteview"  (Nashville,  Tenn.,  Janu- 
ary, 1889)  contains  a  broad  and  enlightened 
article  on  "  Charles  Darwin,"  by  Prof.  J.  I. 
D.  Hinds.  The  author,  whom  the  company  in 
which  he  appears  attests  to  be  orthodox, 
looks  at  Darwin's  doctrines  on  their  merits, 
without  regarding  their  seeming  bearing  on 
questions  that  are  equally  liable  to  be  mis- 
understood with  those  with  which  the  theory 
of  evolution  deals.  "When  a  man  wins 
distinction  in  this  world,"  he  begins,  "  it  is 
customary  to  condemn  him  outright  if  his 
teaching  happen  to  be  in  conflict  with  the 
consensus  of  mankind.  This  is  natural,  but 
at  the  same  time  very  unwise  ;  since  it  has 
thus  often  happened  that  theories  have  been 
placed  under  the  ban  which  have  afterward 
been  proved  true.  ...  If  Darwin  found  the 
correct  explanation  of  the  phenomena  of  the 
organic  world,  his  theory  will  stand  the  test 
of  investigation  and  logic ;  if  not,  it  must 
take  its  place  with  other  theories  which  have 
served  their  day,  and  have  yielded  to  better 
ones ;  she  must  be  content  to  leave  the  decis- 
ion to  the  scientist  and  the  philosopher,  and 
we  can  certainly  have  no  reason  to  reject 
their  final  conclusion.  .  .  .  The  Christian, 
of  all  men,  should  have  the  greatest  confi- 
dence and  repose  of  mind  in  the  face  of  the 
investigations  of  the  present  day :  for,  if  his 
religion  be  true,  its  foundations  can  not  be 
shaken ;  and,  if  it  be  false,  he  has  nothing 
to  lose."  Of  Darwin's  theory,  undoubt- 
edly its  first  tendency  "  is  toward  infidelity 
and  skepticism.  But  since  the  world  has 
become  familiar  with  it,  and  has  found  that 


it  is  simply  an  attempted  explanation  of  the 
ordinary  course  of  nature,  to  be  placed  side 
by  side  with  Newton's  law  of  gravitation, 
Copernicus's  theory  of  the  solar  system,  the 
nebular  hypothesis,  and  the  geological  eras 
of  indefinite  time,  it  has  ceased  to  be  athe- 
istic, and  is  likely  soon  to  become  itself  one 
of  the  arguments  of  natural  theologians." 
Of  Darwin's  agnosticism,  "  his  religious 
views  and  the  changes  through  which  they 
passed  were  but  the  natural  outcome  of  the 
course  of  his  investigations  and  studies.  He 
was  a  pioneer,  and  could  not  see  the  true 
ethical  import  of  the  doctrine  which  he  pro- 
mulgated. Like  many  other  investigators, 
he  contrasted  the  ideal  of  God  to  which  his 
theories  led  him  with  theological  dogmas 
and  the  prevalent  anthropomorphic  concep- 
tions of  Deity.  His  training  had  been  Cal- 
vinistic,  and  the  freedom  which  he  found 
everywhere  in  nature  did  not  accord  with 
the  Calvinistic  idea  of  fatality  and  the  arbi- 
trary action  of  the  supernatural  will."  Fi- 
nally, "  In  truth,  let  me  ask,  how  much  worse 
is  it  to  have  pithecoid  ancestors  than  to  be 
a  beast  in  propria  persona  ?  The  great  ques- 
tion with  us  is,  not  whence  we  came,  but 
what  we  are,  what  we  should  be,  and  what 
we  are  destined  to  be." 

The  Moving  Forces  of  Meteorite  Swarms. 

— An  attempt  has  been  made  by  Mr.  G.  H. 
Darwin  to  apply  the  kinetic  theory  of  gases 
to  the  case  of  a  swarm  of  meteorites  in  space. 
The  individual  meteorites  are  analogous  to 
the  molecules  of  the  gas,  and  the  mass  of 
gas  corresponds,  in  the  author's  theory,  to  the 
whole  solar  system.  Lockyer  and  Sir  Will- 
iam Thomson  have  expressed  their  conviction 
that  the  present  condition  of  the  solar  system 
is  derived  from  an  accretion  of  meteorites, 
but  the  idea  of  fluid  pressure  seems  necessary 
in  explaining  present  forms  of  equilibrium. 
The  author  proposes  to  reconcile  the  two 
theories  by  showing  that  the  laws  of  fluid 
pressure  apply  to  a  swarm  of  meteorites 
which  is  condensing  to  a  solid  form.  The 
case  of  an  infinite  atmosphere  of  equal- 
sized  meteorites  is  consfflered,  and  then  the 
case  of  meteorites  of  very  different  sizes.  In 
the  case  of  a  swarm  of  meteorites  condensing 
under  the  mutual  attractions  of  its  parts,  the 
author  shows  that  the  larger  meteorites  will 
gravitate  toward  the  center  of  condensation, 


426 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


and  that  consequently  the  mean  density  of 
the  condensed  mass  will  decrease  from  the 
center  toward  the  circumference.  During 
the  process  of  condensation  the  condensing 
mass  will  first  gain  by  accretion  of  meteor- 
ites; then  a  balance  will  be  maintained  be- 
tween those  which  remain  on  the  condensing 
mass  and  those  which  rebound  from  it;  and, 
finally,  more  will  be  lost  by  rebounding  than 
gained  by  accretion. 

The  Sacred  Maori  Axet— The  thought 
of  a  connection  between  ancient  stone 
weapons  and  thunder  is  widely  diffused, 
and  has  a  hold  even  in  European  minds.  A 
curious  illustration  of  its  character  has  been 
communicated  to  "  Nature  "  by  Mr.  Edward 
Tregear,  of  Wellington,  New  Zealand.,  in  the 
shape  of  a  translation  from  a  Maori  news- 
paper of  the  story  of  the  finding  of  the  sacred 
axe,  Te  Anhiorangi,  which  had  been  hidden 
by  a  remote  ancestor,  and  had  not  been  seen 
again  till  December,  188V.  A  party  of  Maoris 
had  gone  out  to  gather  the  edible  mushroom. 
With  them  was  a  young  woman,  a  stranger 
in  the  district,  and  ignorant  of  the  sacred 
places.  Wandering  away  by  herself,  and 
looking  here  and  there  for  funguses,  "  she 
saw  a  tree  on  which  there  was  a  fungus,  and 
laid  her  hand  on  it,  but  suddenly  there  came 
the  flash  of  the  axe.  Following  with  her 
eyes  the  direction  of  the  flash,  she  saw  the 
axe  close  against  the  foot  of  a  pukatea-tree ; 
a  cry  of  terror  broke  from  her,  and  she  fled 
screaming.  At  the  same  time  the  thunder 
roared,  the  lightning  flashed,  and  blinding 
hail  burst  forth  in  sudden  storm,  increasing 
her  terror  almost  to  madness.  Her  husband 
heard  her  cries  as  she  flew  along ;  but  an  old 
man,  called  Te  Rangi  Whakairione,  directly 
he  heard  her  shrieks,  understood  the  reason 
of  the  outcry,  so  he  began  to  chant  an  incan- 
tation, and  the  fury  of  the  storm  abated. 
When  the  party  had  assembled  in  the  open 
land,  the  old  priest  asked  which  of  them  had 
been  to  Tieke ;  whereupon  the  girl  asked, 
'  Where  is  Tieke  ?  '  The  old  man  answered 
that  it  was  beyond  the  turn  at  Waione.  To- 
mairangi  replied :  '  I  have  been  there,  but  I 
did  not  know  it  was  a  sacred  place ;  I  saw 
something  that  looked  like  a  spirit,  and  I  am 
full  of  great  fear.'  Then  all  the  party  went 
to  ascertain  what  it  was,  and  then  they  found 
that  it  was  indeed  the  lost  sacred  axe,  Te 


Anhiorangi.  After  Te  Rangi  Whakairione 
had  chanted  another  incantation  over  it,  they 
all  took  hold  of  the  axe,  and  wailed  over  it. 
When  the  crying  had  ceased,  they  brought 
the  axe  back  to  the  settlement."  The  tra- 
dition had  long  existed  that  the  axe  was  at 
the  spot  where  it  was  found,  which  had  there- 
fore been  tabooed,  and  never  visited  until  on 
this  occasion.  On  the  next  day  the  sacred 
thing  was  hung  up  on  a  tree,  that  all  might 
see  it,  with  imposing  ceremonies  of  a  proces- 
sion and  priests  reciting  charms  and  incanta- 
tions. "  All  the  people  carried  green  branches 
in  their  hands  as  an  offering  to  Te  Anhiorangi. 
When  the  concourse  drew  near  the  place, 
successive  peals  of  thunder  and  flashes  of 
lightning  rent  the  air;  then  came  down  a 
dense  fog,  making  it  dark  as  night.  The 
Tohunga  (priests)  stopped  the  thunder  and 
dispersed  the  darkness  by  their  incantations. 
When  the  light  again  appeared,  the  people 
offered  the  green  branches,  together  with  a 
number  of  Maori  mats,  etc. ;  then  they  made 
lamentations,  and  sang  the  old  songs  in 
which  the  ancient  axe  was  spoken  of  by 
their  forefathers.  The  pedigree  of  the  axe, 
which  was  a  stone  weapon  of  extremely  high 
polish,  was  traced  back  to  the  first  Maori 
chief  who  came  to  New  Zealand ;  and  to  him 
it  had  descended,  through  the  great  god, 
Taue,  from  the  primeval  pair,  Heaven  and 
Earth. 

Remedies  for  Sleeplessness. — Correspond- 
ents of  the  London  "  Spectator  "  have  been 
supplying  that  journal  with  various  remedies 
for  sleeplessness.  A  curate  in  London  is 
afflicted  in  direct  proportion  to  the  mental 
worry  and  absence  of  air  and  exercise  he  has 
to  endure,  and  finds  that  "  to  walk  even  one 
mile  in  the  day  is  a  great  thing"  in  the  way 
of  a  remedy.  At  the  moment,  he  says,  the 
best  thing  one  can  do  is  to  get  up,  drink 
half  a  glass  of  water,  and  walk  round  the 
room.  The  slight  alternation  of  cold  and 
warmth  has  a  soporific  effect.  For  a  per- 
manent result :  "  Live  healthily.  Avoid  too 
little  and  too  much  exercise,  food,  particu- 
larly wine.  Dine  lightly,  eating  very  little 
meat ;  drink  only  one  glass  of  wine.  Bathe 
an  hour  before  dinner,  not  before  going  to 
bed.  ...  Do  something  in  the  evening  that 
does  not  excite  you,  something  like  whist 
that  does  itself  mechanically.     Decide  how 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 


427 


much  sleep  you  ought  to  have — say,  eight 
hours — and  get  up  sternly  when  you  have 
been  in  bed  eight  hours,  however  long  you 
have  been  awake.  Increase  your  air  and 
exercise  gradually."  A  journalist,  when 
suffering  from  an  over-excited  brain,  and 
finding  his  eyes  in  constant  movement, 
although  the  lids  are  closed,  resolutely  fixes 
the  gaze  downward — say,  to  the  foot  of  the 
bed — while  the  lids  are  kept  closed.  If  his 
sleeplessness  arises  from  flatulence,  he  takes 
a  remedy  for  that.  "  A  most  wretched  lier- 
awake"  of  thirty-five  years'  standing,  who 
had  for  ten  years  thought  himself  happy  if 
he  could  get  twenty  minutes'  sleep  in  the 
twenty-four  hours,  took  hot  water — "  a  pint, 
comfortably  hot,  one  good  hour  before  each 
of  my  three  meals,  and  one  the  last  thing  at 
night — naturally,  unmixed  with  anything 
else.  The  very  first  night  I  slept,  for  three 
hours  on  end,  turned  round,  and  slept  again 
till  morning.  I  have  faithfully  and  regularly 
continued  the  hot  water,  and  have  never  had 
one  '  bad  night '  since.  Pain  gradually  less- 
ened, and  went ;  the  shattered  nerves  became 
calm  and  strong,  and  instead  of  each  night 
being  one  long  misery  spent  in  wearying  for 
the  morning,  they  are  all  too  short  for  the 
sweet,  refreshing  sleep  I  now  enjoy." 

The  Mental  Torpor  Remedy.— Complete 
intellectual  torpor  is  recommended  as  a 
remedy  for  overweariness  by  a  writer  who, 
to  sustain  his  view,  brings  pertinent  illustra- 
tion to  the  support  of  argument.  Such  a 
condition  is  almost  superstitiously  avoided 
by  hard-working  men,  who  are  disposed  to 
regard  it  as  a  waste  and  an  idle  indulgence. 
But  "  there  is  no  more  harm  in  intellectual 
torpor  for  the  sake  of  the  mind's  health, 
than  in  sleep  for  the  sake  of  the  body's 
health ;  and  its  duration  ought  to  be  gov- 
erned only  by  expediency.  ...  As  to  the 
curative  effect  of  torpor,  we  have  no  doubt 
whatever.  So  far  from  the  mind  being 
weakened  by  total  rest,  or  the  energies  dimin- 
ished, both  wake  after  a  time  fully  recov- 
ered, and  repossessed  of  the  old  readiness  to 
exert  themselves  to  fatigue.  'I  am  tired,' 
says  the  cured  man  to  himself,  '  of  doing 
nothing' — that  is,  he  has  recovered  the  power 
to  do  things  easily,  which  is  the  mark  of 
mental  health.  The  mind  itself  is,  in  fact, 
often  positively  stronger,  having  grown  in 


its  sleep  as  the  body  grows,  and  having,  so 
to  speak,  resharpened  its  weapons,  till  the 
'lazy'  mathematician  can  not  only  solve  bis 
old  problems  more  quickly,  but  can  recol- 
lect them  more  accurately,  the  mind  having 
gained,  as  in  boyhood  it  gained,  from  sleep. 
We  can  all  recollect  how  in  school-days  the 
lesson  of  the  evening  was  often  best  known 
on  the  following  morning,  although,  if  tor- 
por weakens,  we  ought  in  the  intervening 
twelve  hours  to  have  invariably  lost  some 
slight  grip  of  the  words,  instead  of  gaining 
a  fresh  one.  The  memory  in  particular  re- 
covers under  this  process  in  the  most  amaz- 
ing way,  so  that  even  the  permanent  weak- 
ness, the  slowness  of  recollection  which 
comes  of  advancing  years,  seems  to  disap- 
pear. The  grand  gain,  however,  is  in  mental 
nerve,  in  the  disappearance  of  that  appre- 
hensive anxiety  and  sense,  not  of  strain 
which  is,  but  of  strain  which  is  coming,  that, 
far  more  than  actual  toil,  however  severe, 
shatters  men's  powers  to  pieces.  But  how 
is  torpor  to  be  attained  ?  Like  everything 
else,  by  determining  to  have  it — that  is,  by 
a  persistent  resolve  to  be  lazy,  to  do  noth- 
ing, read  nothing,  think  nothing,  and  say 
nothing,  that  involves  the  smallest  up- 
springing  of  the  sense  either  of  trouble  or 
of  effort." 

Animal  Language.  —  Whether  animals 
can  "  talk,"  and  men  can  learn  to  under- 
stand their  "language,"  is  the  subject  of  an 
article  by  Mr.  F.  G.  Frazer  in  the  "  Archaeo- 
logical Review."  A  critic  of  the  paper  de- 
nies the  human  part  in  the  matter,  and  de- 
clares that  the  supposition  that  men  can 
learn  to  understand  animals  to  the  extent 
implied  "is  a  direct  contradiction  to  universal 
and  unbroken  human  experience."  All  rep- 
resentations asserting  such  an  achievement 
as  a  fact,  or  assuming  its  possibility,  are  vain 
boastings  or  imaginings.  Yet  beasts  and 
birds  all  utter  sounds,  and  sounds  that  have 
meaning  to  them,  and  meanings  which  to  a 
certain  extent  we  can  understand.  "  They 
all  utter,  or  at  least  they  all  seem  to  utter, 
the  same  sounds  to  express  the  same  emo- 
tions. The  love-cry  of  the  nightingale,  the 
low  by  which  a  cow  recalls  a  straying  calf, 
the  grunt  of  a  pig  when  it  sees  food,  the 
mew  of  a  cat  who  wants  the  door  opened — 
that  is,  wants  to  attract  attention — the  bark 


428 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY 


of  a  domesticated  dog  to  testify  recognition, 
and  the  howl  of  an  uncivilized  dog  as  the 
moon  rises,  or  of  a  civilized  dog  when  the 
church-bells  begin,  are  all,  to  human  ears  at 
least,  unchanging  sounds,  sounds  with  one 
meaning  and  no  other."  So  with  numerous 
other  familiar  sounds  peculiar  to  certain  ani- 
mals, and  well  understood ;  but  they  can  not 
be  regarded  as  "  language  "  in  the  sense  in 
which  the  term  is  used  in  the  proposition 
under  review.  An  interesting  detail  of  the 
discussion  concerns  the  grating  sound — not 
unlike  the  "  gnashing  of  teeth  " — of  the  scold- 
ing or  "  swearing  "  of  birds,  which  they  utter 
also  evidently  in  play — as  kittens  and  dogs 
are  also  fond  of  playing  bite,  and  dogs 
bark.  However  much  there  may  be  that 
one  can  not  learn  of  the  "  language  of  ani- 
mals," the  study  of  the  little  that  is  at  our 
command  is  enough  to  furnish  profitable  as 
well  as  amusing  occupation. 

A  Glance  at  Cambodia. — A  French  trav- 
eler, writing  from  Penompein,  the  capital  of 
Cambodia,  says  that  "in  passing  from  Co- 
chin China  to  Cambodia,  the  difference  be- 
tween the  Cambodian  and  the  Annamite 
type  is  very  striking.  The  Cambodian  is  al- 
most the  height  of  Europeans,  and  is  idle 
and  dirty,  while  the  Annamite  is  small  and 
active.  A  full-grown  Annamite  woman  is 
like  a  French  girl  of  twelve.  A  book  on 
Cambodia  would  be  very  interesting.  The 
banks  of  the  river  are  covered  with  luxu- 
riant vegetation.  The  entire  territory  and 
its  inhabitants  belong  absolutely  to  the  king, 
who  lives  here,  with  a  second  and  third  king 
besides  him,  while  a  fourth  king  is  stationed 
in  the  interior.  He  has  three  hundred  wives, 
chosen  from  the  handsomest  women  in  the 
whole  country.  The  second  king  at  present 
is  in  opposition  to  King  Merodom.  All  the 
Cambodians  are  the  king's  earraen  or  slaves, 
and  pay  him  rent.  .  .  .  The  country  is  a  most 
curious  one.  Elephants  are  very  numerous 
here,  and  wander  about  in  freedom  through 
the  brushwood,  like  oxen  in  the  meadows  of 
France.  The  capital  of  Cambodia  consists 
of  only  one  street,  which  is  nearly  four  miles 
long.  In  all  the  town  there  are  not  ten 
houses  built  of  stone  or  of  bricks,  and  those 
so  built  are  public  buildings.  All  the  offi- 
cers are  lodged  together  in  two  payothes, 
which  are  almost  contiguous.     A  payollu  is 


composed  of  a  wooden  floor  resting  in  turn 
on  a  scaffolding  of  bamboo.  The  walls  are 
formed  of  a  trellis  of  straw  or  leaves,  in  the 
style  of  the  thatch  of  cottages  all  over  Eu- 
rope. If  you  push  with  your  finger  a  little 
strongly,  it  will  pass  through  the  wall.  The 
roof  is  of  thatch.  The  furniture  is  very 
primitive.  It  consists  of  a  bed,  formed  of  a 
frame  in  bamboo  on  which  is  placed  a  mat, 
and  a  table." 

Stages  of  Himalayan  Vegetation. — Gen- 
eral R.  Strachey  describes  the  changes  which 
the  traveler  meets  in  ascending  one  of  the 
great  mountain-ranges,  as  embodying  a  com- 
pendium of  the  climates  and  vegetation  of 
the  entire  globe.  Nowhere  can  such  a  display 
be  better  or  more  easily  obtained  than  upon 
the  Himalayas.  The  transition  is  abrupt 
from  the  well  -  cultivated  plain  of  northern 
India,  with  its  fields  of  rice  and  millet,  or 
golden-flowering  mustard,  to  the  dense,  um- 
brageous forests  along  their  base,  almost 
wholly  composed  of  trees  of  tropical  forms, 
with  a  few  oaks  and  an  elm,  which,  with  a 
tangled  growth  of  undershrubs  and  creep- 
ers and  epiphytal  plants,  give  cover  to  the 
elephant,  the  rhinoceros,  and  tiger,  and  af- 
ford shelter  to  the  peacock  and  other  gayly 
colored  birds.  The  glens  are  choked  with 
gigantic  grasses  and  feathering  bamboos. 
Great  forests  cover  the  outer  ranges  of  the 
chain,  scandent  palms  spreading  over  the 
lofty  trees,  whose  stems  are  splendidly  fur- 
nished with  the  dark-green  foliage  of  climb- 
ing aroids ;  the  ground  beneath  them  is  con- 
cealed under  a  rich  growth  of  tree  and  other 
ferns,  orchids,  and  Scitaminece,  or  broad- 
leaved  plantains.  With  gradually  increas- 
ing elevation  and  falling  temperature  the 
character  of  the  vegetation  changes.  More 
open  woods  of  evergreen  trees,  typical  of 
warm  temperate  climates,  succeed,  including 
rhododendrons,  oaks,  and  laurels.  Lofty 
pines  cover  the  vast  mountain-slopes  through 
many  thousand  feet  of  altitude  in  unbroken 
uniformity.  Still  ascending,  are  reached 
forests  of  deciduous  trees  of  surpassing  size 
and  beauty,  crowning  the  hill-tops  and  fring- 
ing the  courses  of  the  rivers,  intermingled 
with  many  flowering  shrubs  and  an  abun- 
dant display  of  herbaceous  plants,  of  which, 
at  the  greater  elevations,  the  forms  are  for 
the  most  part  allied  to   or   identical  with 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 


429 


those  of  Europe.  The  arboreous  vegetation, 
the  last  members  of  which  are  commonly 
birches,  pines,  and  junipers,  usually  ends  at 
about  twelve  or  thirteen  thousand  feet  above 
the  sea-level,  the  shrubby  growths  ascend- 
ing a  thousand  feet  higher.  The  Alpine 
region  is  thus  attained,  where,  under  the 
influence  of  the  frequent  showers  that  fall 
upon  the  mountain -slopes  exposed  to  the 
south,  the  open  pastures  are  adorned,  during 
their  short  summer,  with  flowers  of  every 
hue  and  in  the  greatest  profusion  and  lux- 
uriance, including  well  -  known  European 
forms,  such  as  gentian,  primula,  anemone, 
ranunculus,  and  many  others.  With  in- 
creased elevation,  and  as  the  ranges  are  less 
directly  exposed  to  the  rain-bearing  winds 
from  the  south,  the  climate  becomes  colder 
and  drier,  the  vegetation  more  scanty,  the 
forms  fewer ;  and  on  reaching  the  border  of 
Thibet,  at  an  elevation  of  fourteen  or  fifteen 
thousand  feet,  where  the  atmospheric  condi- 
tions are  wholly  changed,  the  aspect  of  the 
country  is  that  of  a  desert  —  treeless  and 
bare,  as  a  rule — and,  excepting  in  the  rare 
neighborhood  of  water,  not  one  twentieth  of 
the  surface  is  clothed  with  vegetation,  and 
such  bushes  as  there  are  seldom  rise  to  a 
greater  height  than  one  or  two  feet. 

Experimental  Fields  at  Rotnamstcad. — 

The  grass-land  experimental  field  at  Rotham- 
stead  consists  of  about  seven  acres,  and  is 
divided  into  twenty  plots.  It  has  probably 
been  laid  down  in  grass  for  some  centuries. 
It  is  certain  that  no  fresh  seed  has  been 
artificially  sown  within  the  last  fifty  years ; 
and  there  is  no  record  of  any  having  been 
sown  since  the  grass  was  first  laid  down. 
The  experiments  were  begun  in  1856,  when 
the  herbage  was  uniform  in  character.  Each 
plot  has  been  treated  differently.  One  has 
had  no  manure,  others  have  had  farm-yard 
dung,  superphosphate  of  lime,  ammonia  salts, 
sulphate  of  potash,  or  other  chemicals.  Sir 
John  Lawes  said  to  a  writer  in  the  "  Pall 
Mall  Gazette,"  who  visited  the  farm,  that 
"the  result  was  evident  in  many  ways.  On 
one  plot  the  fertilizers  supplied  had  fed  only 
a  single  kind  of  grass,  which  had  covered  the 
whole  area,  killing  out  all  the  rest.  On  an- 
other the  grass  was  hard  and  wiry,  scarcely 
fit  for  food  ;  and  on  yet  another  the  land  was 
little  better  than  a  bog.    We  can  not  go  into 


technical  details  as  to  the  results,  but  these 
experiments  have  shown  that  the  food  which 
plants  receive,  either  artificially  from  the 
soil,  or  by  the  atmosphere,  determines  their 
nature  as  much  as  in  the  case  of  animals. 
The  same  thing  is  seen  in  the  wheat  and 
barley  fields.  One  of  the  most  important  of 
the  former  is  a  section  upon  which  the  grain 
has  been  grown  continuously  for  forty-five 
years,  in  one  case  without  manure.  The 
average  of  the  first  recorded  eighteen  years 
gave  14|  bushels  per  acre,  and  last  year  the 
same  quantity  was  produced,  showing  that  in 
the  soil  there  is  a  large  reserve  amount  of 
fertility."  In  another  part  of  the  field,  Sir 
John  Lawes  told  the  writer :  "  Five  years  ago 
we  left  the  upper  end  of  this  wheat-field  un- 
cropped,  allowing  the  corn  to  fall  when  ripe. 
In  three  years  there  was  scarcely  a  single  ear 
of  corn  left ;  those  which  I  could  find  were 
short  in  the  stalk,  and  with  perhaps  a  single 
grain.  Now  there  is  not  one.  This  shows 
that  food-products  are  almost  entirely  arti- 
ficial, and  that  in  a  few  years  the  land  would 
be  a  perfect  wilderness,  if  uncultivated.  But 
I  myself  was  surprised  at  the  rapidity  with 
which  the  wheat  disappeared."  This  was  ex- 
plained thus :  "  The  weeds  were  stronger,  and 
killed  out  the  artificial  grain.  Weeds  are 
hardy,  and  it  is  really  'the  survival  of  the 
fittest '  or  the  hardiest.  The  same  thing  I  can 
show  you  in  the  turnip-field,  where  the  un- 
manured  plot  is  almost  barren,  the  plants 
having  scarcely  in  any  case  formed  a  bulb. 
It  is  the  starch  we  want  as  food.  Cultivation 
and  fertilization  give  that  starch." 

Palm-Oil. — Palm-oil  is  the  product  of  the 
fruit  of  the  oil-palm  tree  of  Guinea.  The 
fruit  grows  in  clusters  on  top  of  the  tree, 
which  is  about  thirty  feet  high,  and  resem- 
bles a  chestnut.  The  oil  is  extracted  by 
boiliDg  the  pulpy  and  fibrous  mass  around 
the  central  nut,  and  is  used  in  making  soap 
and  candles.  The  fruits  are  harvested  :n 
April.  The  oil  of  Arachis,  which  is  equally 
important  in  commerce,  is  from  the  nut  of 
the  Arachis  (peanut),  thousands  of  tons  of 
which  are  sent  to  Europe  every  year  to  be 
made  up  into  "olive-oil."  It  is  the  fruit  of 
an  annual  creeping  plant  (Arachis  hypogea), 
and  ripens  in  July  and  August.  Oils  of  in- 
ferior quality  are  made  into  soap.  Another 
underground    nut   ( Voandzeia    subterranea) 


43° 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


affords  a  white,  hard  butter,  richer  than  but- 
ter from  the  cow,  which  has  the  further  ad- 
vantage of  remaining  fresh  for  a  whole  year 
without  being  salted.  Only  limited  quanti- 
ties of  this  product  have  as  yet  come  into 
the  market.  The  native  Africans  use  all 
these  fruits,  under  one  form  or  another,  for 
their  own  alimentation. 

Flowers  and  Perfumes. — The  rose  is  ex- 
tensively cultivated  in  the  Balkan  Peninsula, 
chiefly  for  the  sake  of  the  perfume  it  af- 
fords. The  Provence  or  cabbage  rose,  it  is 
said,  will  yield  in  the  second  year  from  one 
hundred  to  two  hundred  bushels  of  flowers 
per  acre,  weighing  six  pounds  to  the  bushel. 
The  rose  harvest  at  Adrianople  sometimes 
yields  about  ninety-four  thousand  ounces  of 
attar  of  roses ;  the  average  of  the  Bulgarian 
harvests  in  the  past  ten  seasons  has  been 
fifty-seven  thousand  ounces.  The  price  of 
this  perfume  has  declined  fifty  per  cent  since 
18S3.  The  Moors  in  Algeria  extract  an  at- 
tar of  moderate  value  from  the  indigenous 
double  white  musk  rose.  Twenty-eight  tons 
of  rose-leaves  were  imported  into  Aden  in 
1886,  of  which  half  were  shipped  to  India. 
The  "  ixora  extract "  is  made  from  the  soka- 
flower  {Parvclta  angustijlora) ;  frangipanni, 
from  the  flowers  of  species  of  Plumcria,  na- 
tive to  the  West  Indies  and  some  parts  of 
South  America ;  the  essence  and  pomade  of 
cassie,  of  the  French  perfumers,  from  the 
flowers  of  Acacia  famesicina.  About  one 
hundred  tons  of  these  flowers  are  used  in 
Cannes  yearly,  individual  makers  working 
up  one  hundred  thousand  pounds.  The  fra- 
grant white  flowers  of  Bligltia  sapida  and 
of  the  Bukul  {Mimusops  Elengi)  are  used  for 
making  distilled  waters ;  and  the  flowers  of 
spikenard  {Andropoc/on  nardus)  are  employed 
in  Algeria  for  perfuming  hair-oils  and  cos- 
metics. Moorish  women  form  garlands  to 
ornament. the  interior  of  their  dwellings  from 
the  flowers  of  the  jasmine,  and  obtain  a 
perfume  by  steeping  them  with  oil  in  bottles, 
which  are  exposed  to  the  sun.  The  same 
process  is  applied  to  the  flowers  of  the  tu- 
berose and  the  cassia.  Hungary  water  is 
distilled  with  spirit  from  the  tops  of  rose- 
mary-flowers. Twenty  tons  of  violets  are 
used  annually  in  Nice  and  Cannes,  and  one 
hundred  and  twenty  tons  of  orange-blossoms 
in  Nice.     Orange-flower  water  is  one  of  the 


most  agreeable  vehicles  for  nauseous  medi- 
cines that  we  have.  Rose-buds  are  made 
into  preserves  in  Arabia;  the  blossoms  of 
the  shaddock  are  used  for  flavoring  sweet- 
meats, and  the  fleshy  calyces  or  flower-bracts 
of  the  Indian  sorrel,  a  Hibiscus,  having  a 
pleasant  acid  taste,  are  made  into  tarts, 
jellies,  and  refreshing  drinks  in  India.  The 
petals  of  flowers  arc  much  used  in  Roumania 
for  flavoring  preserves,  of  which  not  less 
than  one  hundred  and  fifty  varieties  are 
made. 


NOTES. 

Attention  has  been  called,  in  letters  writ- 
ten by  Mr.  James  R.  Skilton  to  the  Mayor 
of  Brooklyn,  to  the  dangers  that  are  hidden 
in  the  pipes  through  which  water-gas  is  con- 
veyed into  houses  and  in  the  meters.  The 
pipes  and  the  meters  are  often — it  would 
hardly  be  too  much  to  say,  usually — leaky, 
and  as  the  escaping  gas,  largely  carbonic 
oxide,  while  extremely  poisonous,  is  imper- 
ceptible to  the  senses,  great  harm  may  be 
and  often  is  wrought  before  the  family  are 
aware  that  anything  is  wrong.  It  is  hard, 
even  when  the  nuisance  is  known  to  exist, 
to  force  timely  attention  from  the  compa- 
nies furnishing  the  gas,  and,  when  they  do 
send  men  to  make  repairs,  the  work  is,  as 
a  rule,  done  in  the  most  negligent  manner. 
Mr.  Skilton  has  no  doubt  that  "  hundreds  of 
people  are  sacrificed  every  year  to  the  Mo- 
loch of  the  gas-meter." 

In  the  "  Monthly  "  for  July  there  is  a 
note  in  which  Asamayama  is  spoken  of  as 
the  highest  active  volcano  in  Japan.  This 
is  popularly  correct,  but  is  not  scientifically 
exact.  Asamayama  is  8,284  feet  high  (Rein). 
The  last  fatal  eruption  took  place  in  1783, 
and  the  last  emission  of  ashes  occurred  in 
1870,  while  the  evidences  of  volcanic  erup- 
tion are  much  more  conspicuous  than  they 
are  around  Fujiyama,  the  height  of  which 
is  12,287  feet  (ibid.),  and  which  has  been 
quiet — i.  e.,  not  violently  active — since  1707. 
But  when  one  sees  the  "  hot "  place  on  the 
side  of  Fuji,  it  becomes  very  apparent  that 
the  activity  of  Asama  is  very  little  greater 
than  that  of  her  peerless  sister.  The  heat 
at  one  place  on  Fuji  is  so  great  as  to  be  per- 
ceptible to  the  hand.  Snow  will  not  lie ;  and 
it  is  said  that  there  is  an  escape  of  steam. 

Borings  of  rock-salt  at  Ellsworth  and 
Kingman,  Kansas,  were  described  by  Mr. 
Robert  Hay  at  the  meeting  of  the  American 
Association.  The  veins  were  discovered  in 
April  and  August,  1888.  One  hundred  and 
fifty-five  barrels  of  salt  were  manufactured 
in  Kansas  in  1888,  and  it  is  estimated  that 
the  output  of  1889  will  not  be  less  than 
three  times  as  large. 


NOTES. 


43i 


Respecting  "artists'  colors,"  Dr.  A.  P. 
Laurie  said,  in  the  British  Association,  that 
one  point  that  came  out  in  the  course  of  his 
inquiries  about  the  colors  used  by  the  old  mas- 
ters was  the  fact  that  they  largely  employed 
vegetable  pigments,  many  of  which  were  not 
used  by  modern  painters.  His  researches 
into  the  ordinary  methods  of  manufacturing 
colors  showed  that  great  variations  prevailed 
in  different  makes  of  the  same  color,  and 
the  matter  was  an  important  one  to  look 
after.  One  of  the  most  valuable  oils  used 
by  the  old  masters  was  that  of  the  walnut. 

The  work  of  Columbus  is  to  be  commem- 
orated in  Italy  according  to  a  scheme  adopt- 
ed by  a  Royal  Commission,  which  includes 
the  publication  of  a  "Raccolta  Colombiana" 
in  six  volumes,  devoted  to  (1)  the  writings 
of  Columbus ;  (2)  Columbus  and  his  family  ; 
(3)  the  discovery  of  America;  (4)  navigation 
and  cartography  of  the  discovery  ;  (5)  mono- 
graphs (Italian  precursors  and  continuers  of 
the  work  of  Columbus) ;  (0)  bibliography. 
This  work  will  apparently  be  the  outcome 
of  a  large  amount  of  diligent  research. 

The  establishment  of  a  biological  labora- 
tory for  the  observation  and  study  of  fresh- 
water Algce  was  suggested  by  Mr.  William 
R.  Dudley,  in  a  paper  read  at  the  meeting  of 
the  American  Association. 

Prof.  J.  W.  Mallet  has  found,  in  experi- 
ments upon  alum  baking-powders,  that  most 
of  the  preparations  of  that  class  in  the  mar- 
ket are  made  with  alum,  the  acid  phosphate  of 
calcium,  bicarbonate  of  sodium,  and  starch. 
Among  the  resultants  of  the  chemical  changes 
by  baking  are  aluminum  hydroxide  and  phos- 
phate. These  substances,  in  doses  not  very 
greatly  exceeding  such  quantities  as  may  be 
derived  from  bread  as  commonly  used,  pro- 
duce an  inhibitory  effect  upon  gastric  diges- 
tion. This  effect  is  probably  due  to  precipi- 
tation in  insoluble  form  of  the  organic  sub- 
stance constituting  the  peptic  ferment  and  of 
some  of  the  organic  matter  of  food.  Hence 
it  is  concluded  that  "not  only  alum  itself, 
but  the  residues  which  its  use  in  baking- 
powder  leaves  in  bread,  can  not  be  viewed  as 
harmless,  but  must  be  ranked  as  objection- 
able." 

According  to  a  calculation  furnished  us 
by  Prof.  William  Harkness,  of  the  Naval 
Observatory,  "a  body  weighing  one  pound 
avoirdupois  on  a  spring  balance  at  the  earth's 
equator  would  weigh  only  (V16584  of  a  pound, 
or  2*6534  ounces,  upon  the  same  spring  bal- 
ance, at  the  moon's  equator.  In  the  state- 
ments on  this  subject  appearing  in  books  the 
centrifugal  force  is  neglected.  It  amounts  to 
24  grains  in  an  avoirdupois  pound  of  7,000 
grains. 

According  to  a  paper  by  Prof.  Wiley, 
in  the  Society  for  promoting  Agriculture, 
the  butter  of  cows  fed  on  cotton-seed  is 
marked  by  the  presence  of  a  small  supply 


of  volatile  acid  and  a  high  melting-point. 
The  power  possessed  by  cotton-seed  oil  of 
acting  on  silver,  passes  through  the  animal, 
and  appears  in  the  butter  made  from  ita 
milk — a  fact  which  shows  that  substances 
can  be  carried  directly  from  the  food  to  the 
butter.  A  new  standard  of  analysis  will 
have  to  be  adapted  to  the  butters  of  cows 
fed  on  cotton-seed  oil,  for  the  low  amount 
of  volatile  acid  contained  in  them  would 
cause  them  to  be  condemned  as  spurious. 

The  relative  values  as  foods  of  the  grains 
named  below  are  given  by  Prof.  Wiley  as, 
first,  wheat ;  second,  sorghum  ;  third,  maize ; 
fourth,  unhulled  oats.  Sorghum-seed  fur- 
nishes a  flour  like  buckwheat,  that  makes 
passable  bread,  and  is  coming  into  consid- 
erable use. 

The  workmen  in  the  Venetian  glass  fac- 
tories at  Murano,  according  to  Dr.  Salviati, 
fall  victims  in  time  to  failure  of  eye-sight 
and  ultimate  blindness,  caused  by  the  excess- 
ive heat  and  intense  glare  of  the  furnaces. 
As  they  live  simply  and  receive  high  wages, 
they  are  usually  able  to  save  enough  before 
the  disability  comes  upon  them  to  support 
them  for  the  remainder  of  their  lives. 

Prop.  Renzi,  of  Naples,  has  reported 
cures  of  tetanus  by  securing  absolute  rest 
for  the  patient — that  is,  rest  for  the  senses 
as  well  as  for  the  body.  The  patient's  ears 
are  closed  with  wax,  his  room  is  dark,  and 
the  floor  is  heavily  carpeted.  His  nurse  at- 
tends him  with  a  shaded  lantern ;  he  is 
served  food  that  requires  no  mastication ; 
and  sedatives  are  given  to  relieve  pain.  It 
is  not  pretended  that  this  treatment  short- 
ens the  period  of  the  disease,  but  that  it 
lessens  the  force  of  the  paroxysms,  which 
eventually  cease. 

Experiments  by  Dr.  Pinel  show  that 
hypnotic  patients  will  obey  the  directions 
conveyed  to  them  mechanically  by  the  pho- 
nograph as  readily  as  they  will  obey  living 
words.  Hence,  he  argues,  the  theory  of  ani- 
mal magnetism — that  is,  of  a  magnetic  cur- 
rent passing  from  operator  to  subject — 
is  baseless ;  and  the  real  cause  of  the  phe- 
nomena of  hypnotism  is  a  disordered  men- 
tal state. 

A.  W.  Buckland  has  endeavored  to  re- 
store to  the  moon  the  credit  that  has  been 
snatched  from  it  of  having  influence  over 
the  weather  and  the  welfare  of  men.  Some 
of  the  superstitions  relative  to  the  moon 
may  be  traced  to  the  old  moon-worship.  For 
others,  Mr.  Buckland  assumes,  ground  may 
be  found  in  fact.  Meteorologists  deny  any 
influence  of  the  moon  upon  weather;  but 
the  moon  raises  the  tides  of  the  ocean,  and 
it  also  creates  tides  in  the  air,  which  have 
received  no  attention  from  science.  We  are 
ignorant  of  the  forces  that  may  reside  in  the 
air-tides  and  of  the  phenomena  that  may  be 
dependent  upon  them. 


432 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


Mr.  Bosworth  Smith,  in  a  report  on  the 
Kolar  gold-field,  in  southern  India,  records 
some  finds  of  old  mining  implements,  old 
timbering,  fragments  of  bones,  an  old  oil- 
lamp,  and  broken  pieces  of  earthenware,  in- 
cluding a  crucible,  the  remains  of  ancient 
mining  operations.  He  expresses  astonish- 
ment at  the  fact  that  the  old  miners  were 
able  to  reach  depths  of  two  hundred  or  three 
hundred  feet  through  hard  rock,  with  the 
simple  appliances  at  their  command. 

Bcffaloes  are  said  to  be  becoming  very 
abundant  and  increasing  rapidly  in  north- 
ern Australia,  where  they  were  introduced 
about  1S29.  They  are  described  as  being 
massive  and  heavy,  "  with  splendid  horns," 
and  affording  fine  sport  for  bold  hunters. 

In  the  discussion  in  the  British  Associa- 
tion of  the  report  of  the  Committee  on  Science 
Teaching  in  the  Elementary  Schools  (which 
exhibited  a  continued  decline),  Sir  Benjamin 
Browne  said  that  the  school  boards  would 
be  amazed  at  the  high  standard  of  the 
qualifications  of  the  lads  who  came  to  his 
firm  to  be  apprenticed  engineers.  Recently 
a  boy  thirteen  years  of  age  came  to  him, 
and  he  failed  to  puzzle  him  with  problems 
from  Euclid.  His  opinion  was,  that  what- 
ever could  be  done  voluntarily  was  better 
than  what  could  be  done  by  the  Government. 

Dr.  D.  G.  Brinton,  of  Philadelphia,  an- 
nounces as  in  press  a  collection  of  sacred  songs 
of  the  ancient  Mexicans,  entitled  "  Rig  Veda 
Americana,"  with  a  gloss  in  Nahuatl,  para- 
phrase, notes,  and  vocabulary.  The  texts 
are  derived  from  two  Nahuatl  manuscripts, 
one  at  Madrid  and  the  other  at  Florence, 
both  of  which  have  been  personally  collated 
by  the  editor.  This  volume  will  form  num- 
ber eight  of  the  "  Library  of  Aboriginal 
American  Literature." 

An  instrument  called  the  telegraphone 
has  been  patented,  which  enables  the  sender 
to  record  his  message  on  a  cylinder  attached 
to  the  receiving  instrument,  in  the  absence 
of  any  one  to  hear  it,  and  even  to  repeat 
the  message  back  to  himself  for  correction. 

Mr.  De  Cort  Smith,  at  the  American 
Association,  exhibited  specimens  of  the 
Shamanic  masks  and  rattles  of  the  Ononda- 
ga Indians,  and  exemplified  their  use.  The 
masks  are  symbolical  of  supernatural  evil 
beings,  and  their  aid  is  invoked  to  drive 
away  witches.  The  spirits  are  believed  to 
cause  or  remove  illness.  They  are  pro- 
pitiated with  feasts  and  sacrifices  of  to- 
bacco. 


OBITUARY   NOTES. 

Prof.  Victor  Eggertz,  late  head  of  the 
School  of  Mines  of  Sweden,  died  in  Stock- 
holm in  the  last  days  of  August.  He  was 
the  inventor  of  what  is  called  the  coloration 
test  for  analyzing  carbon  in  iron  and  steel. 


Mr.  E.  F.  H.  Francis,  Professor  of 
Chemistry  in  Queen's  College,  Georgetown, 
Demerara,  and  analytical  chemist  to  the 
Government,  has  recently  died,  aged  thirty- 
nine  years.  He  went  to  the  service  in  Brit- 
ish Guiana  from  a  similar  position  in  Trini- 
dad in  1875. 

Senor  Don  Sebastian  Vidal,  who  died  at 
Manila  July  28,  1889,  had  been  for  several 
years  Inspector-General  of  Forests  and  Di- 
rector of  the  Botanic  Garden  at  Manila,  and 
was  the  author  of  several  works  on  Philip- 
pine botany.  He  was  practically  a  pioneer 
in  the  investigation  of  the  Philippine  flora, 
and  has  determined  several  peculiarities 
distinguishing  it  from  the  allied  Malayan 
flora. 

Mr.  John  Ball,  F.  R.  S.,  a  distinguished 
traveler,  Alpine  explorer,  and  botanist,  of 
England,  died  in  London,  October  10,  1889, 
soon  after  returning  from  an  excursion  to 
the  Dolomite  Alps.  He  was  born  in  Dublin 
in  1818;  won  high  mathematical  honors  at 
Cambridge ;  was  called  to  the  bar,  and  ap- 
pointed an  assistant  Poor  Law  Commissioner, 
served  in  Parliament  and  as  Under  Secretary 
for  the  Colonies,  and  then  withdrew  from 
public  life  and  devoted  himself  to  Alpine 
exploration  and  botany.  He  accompanied 
Sir  Joseph  Hooker  to  Morocco,  and  wrote  an 
account  of  the  botany  and  natural  history  of 
the  highlands  of  that  country.  He  also  vis- 
ited Peru  and  Patagonia  and  the  Island  of 
Tcneriffe,  for  scientific  exploration.  He 
published  an  "Alpine  Guide,"  which  is 
spoken  of  as  a  work  of  standard  merit. 

The  distinguished  French  chemist,  Dr. 
Augustin  Quesneville,  died  on  the  4th  of 
November,  1889,  aged  eighty  years.  He 
was  a  pupil  of  Vauquclin's,  and  succeeded 
him  in  his  factory.  Having  attended  Chev- 
reul's  lectures,  he  was  admitted  as  a  doctor 
of  medicine  in  1S34,  from  which  time  he 
devoted  himself  to  the  study  of  science  and 
industrial  chemistry.  In  1840  he  founded  a 
monthly  journal,  called  at  first  the  "Revue 
Scientifique,"  but  after  1S57  the  "Mcniteur 
Scientifique,"  devoted  to  chemistry  and  its 
industrial  applications.  This  journal  was 
continued  till  October  last,  when  the  veteran 
editor  gave  it  up,  on  account  of  the  pressure 
of  old  age. 

"Ciel  et  Terre"  records  the  death,  on 
the  10th  of  October,  in  bis  sixty-sixth  year, 
of  M.  Francois  Henri  Carlier,  proprietor 
and  director  of  the  Meteorological  Observa- 
tory of  Saint  Martin-de-IIinx  in  the  Landes. 
This  establishment  is  described  as  having 
been  a  model  one,  and  better  furnished  than 
many  state-supported  observatories.  The 
observations  taken  there  under  M.  Carlier 
during  the  past  twenty-five  years  form  one 
of  the  most  important  contributions  to  the 
study  of  the  climate  of  the  extreme  south- 
east of  France. 


JAMES    GLAISHER. 


/ 


THE 

POPULAR    SCIENCE 
MONTHLY. 


FEBRUARY,   1890. 


NEW  CHAPTERS  IN  THE  WARFARE  OF  SCIENCE. 

VII.  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

By  ANDREW  DICKSON  WHITE,  LL.D.,  L.H.D., 

EX-PRESIDENT  OF   CORNELL  UNIVERSITY. 

PART  I. 

A  FEW  years  since,  Maxime  Du  Camp,  an  eminent  member  of 
the  French  Academy,  traveling  from  the  Red  Sea  to  the 
Nile  through  the  Desert  of  Kosseir,  came  to  a  barren  slope  covered 
with  bowlders,  rounded  and  glossy. 

His  Mohammedan  camel-drivers  accounted  for  them  on  this 
wise : 

"  Many  years  ago  Hadji  Abdul- Aziz,  a  sheik  of  the  dervishes, 
was  traveling  on  foot  through  this  desert ;  it  was  summer ;  the 
sun  was  hot  and  the  dust  stilling ;  thirst  parched  his  lips,  fatigue 
weighed  down  his  back,  sweat  dropped  from  his  forehead,  when 
looking  up  he  saw — on  this  very  spot — a  garden  beautifully  green, 
full  of  fruit,  and,  in  the  midst  of  it,  the  gardener. 

" '  O  fellow-man/  cried  Hadji  Abdul- Aziz,  s  in  the  name  of 
Allah,  clement  and  merciful,  give  me  a  melon  and  I  will  give  you 
my  prayers.' 

"  The  gardener  answered, '  I  care  not  for  your  prayers ;  give  me 
money,  and  I  will  give  you  fruit.' 

" '  But/  said  the  dervish,  *  I  am  a  beggar ;  I  have  never  had 
money ;  I  am  thirsty  and  weary,  and  one  of  your  melons  is  all  that 
I  need.' 

"'No,'  said  the  gardener,  'go  to  the  Nile  and  quench  your 
thirst.' 

"  Thereupon  the  dervish,  lifting  his  eyes  toward  heaven,  made 
this  prayer  :  '  O  Allah,  thou  who  in  the  midst  of  the  desert  didst 
make  the  fountain  of  Zem-Zem  spring  forth  to  satisfy  the  thirst 

vol.  xxxvi. — 28 


434  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

of  Ismail,  father  of  the  faithful ;  wilt  thou  suffer  one  of  thy  creat- 
ures to  perish  thus  of  thirst  and  fatigue  ? ' 

"  And  it  came  to  pass  that,  hardly  had  the  dervish  spoken, 
when  an  abundant  dew  descended  upon  him,  quenching  his  thirst 
and  refreshing  him  even  to  the  marrow  of  his  bones. 

"  Now  at  the  sight  of  this  miracle  the  gardener  knew  that  the 
dervish  was  a  holy  man,  beloved  of  Allah,  and  straightway  of- 
fered him  a  melon. 

" '  Not  so/  answered  Hadji  Abdul- Aziz, '  keep  what  thou  hast, 
thou  wicked  man.  May  thy  melons  become  as  hard  as  thy  heart, 
and  thy  field  as  barren  as  thy  soul ! ' 

"And  straightway  it  came  to  pass  that  the  melons  were 
changed  into  these  blocks  of  stone,  and  the  grass  into  this  sand, 
and  never  since  has  anything  grown  thereon/' 

In  this  story,  and  in  myriads  like  it,  we  have  a  survival  of  that 
early  conception  of  the  universe  in  which  so  many  of  the  leading 
moral  and  religious  truths  of  the  great  sacred  books  of  the  world 
are  imbedded. 

All  ancient  sacred  lore  abounds  in  such  mythical  explanations 
of  remarkable  appearances  in  nature,  and  these  are  most  fre- 
quently prompted  by  mountains,  rocks,  and  bowlders  seemingly 
misplaced. 

In  India  we  have  such  typical  examples  among  the  Brahmans 
as  the  mountain-peak  which  Durgu  threw  at  Parvati ;  and  among 
the  Buddhists  the  stone  which  Devadatti  hurled  at  Buddha. 

In  Greece  the  Athenian,  rejoicing  in  his  belief  that  Athena 
guarded  her  chosen  people,  found  it  hard  to  understand  why  the 
great  rock  Lycabettus  should  be  just  too  far  from  the  Acropolis 
to  be  of  use  as  an  outwork ;  but  a  myth  was  developed  which  ex- 
plained all.  According  to  this,  Athena  had  intended  to  make 
Lycabettus  a  defense  for  the  Athenians,  and  she  was  bringing  it 
through  the  air  from  Pallene  for  that  very  purpose ;  but,  unfor- 
tunately, a  raven  met  her  and  informed  her  of  the  wonderful 
birth  of  Erichthonius,  which  so  surprised  the  goddess  that  she 
dropped  the  rock  where  it  now  stands. 

So,  too,  a  peculiar  rock  at  JEgina  was  accounted  for  by  a  long 
and  circumstantial  legend  to  the  effect  that  Peleus  threw  it  at 
Phocas. 

A  similar  mode  of  explaining  such  objects  is  seen  in  the  my- 
thologies of  northern  Europe.  In  Scandinavia  we  constantly  find 
rocks  which  tradition  accounts  for  by  declaring  that  they  were 
hurled  by  the  old  gods  at  each  other,  or  at  the  early  Christian 
churches. 

In  Teutonic  lands,  as  a  rule,  wherever  a  strange  rock  or  stone 
is  found,  there  will  be  found  a  myth  or  a  legend,  heathen  or 
Christian,  to  account  for  it. 


NEW  CHAPTERS  IN  THE   WARFARE   OF  SCIENCE.   435 

So,  too,  in  Celtic  countries ;  typical  of  this  mode  of  thought  in 
Brittany  and  in  Ireland  is  the  popular  belief  that  such  features  in 
the  landscape  were  dropped  by  the  devil  or  by  fairies. 

Even  at  a  much  later  period  such  myths  have  grown  and 
bloomed ;  Marco  Polo  gives  a  long  and  circumstantial  legend  of  a 
mountain  in  Asia  Minor  which,  not  long  before  his  visit,  was  re- 
moved by  a  Christian  who  had  "  faith  as  a  grain  of  mustard- 
seed,"  and,  remembering  the  Saviour's  promise,  transferred  the 
mountain  to  its  present  place  by  prayer,  "  at  which  marvel  many 
Saracens  became  Christians."  * 

Similar  mythical  explanations  are  also  found,  in  all  the  older 
religions  of  the  world,  for  curiously  marked  meteoric  stones,  fos- 
sils, and  the  like. 

Typical  examples  are  found  in  the  imprint  of  Buddha's  feet  on 
stones  in  Siam  and  Ceylon ;  in  the  imprint  of  the  body  of  Moses, 
which  down  to  the  middle  of  the  last  century  was  shown  near 
Mount  Sinai ;  in  the  imprint  of  Poseidon's  trident  on  the  Acropo- 
lis at  Athens ;  in  the  imprint  of  the  hands  or  feet  of  Christ  on 
stones  in  France,  Italy,  and  Palestine  ;  in  the  imprint  of  the  Vir- 
gin's tears  on  stones  at  Jerusalem ;  in  the  imprint  of  the  feet  of 
Abraham  at  Jerusalem  and  of  Mohammed  on  a  stone  in  the  Mosque 
of  Khait  Bey  at  Cairo ;  in  the  imprint  of  the  fingers  of  giants  on 
stones  in  the  Scandinavian  Peninsula,  in  north  Germany,  and  in 
western  France ;  in  the  imprint  of  the  devil's  thighs  on  a  rock  in 
Brittany,  and  of  his  claws  on  stones  which  he  threw  at  churches 
in  Cologne  and  Saint  Pol-de-Le'on ;  in  the  imprint  of  the  shoulder 
of  the  devil's  grandmother  on  the  "  elbow-stone  "  at  the  Mohriner- 
see;  in  the  imprint  of  St.  Otho's  feet  on  a  stone  formerly  pre- 
served in  the  castle  church  at  Stettin ;  in  the  imprint  of  the  little 
finger  of  Christ  and  the  head  of  Satan  at  Ehrenberg ;  and  in  the 
imprint  of  the  feet  of  St.  Agatha  at  Catania,  in  Sicily.  To  ac- 
count for  these  appearances  and  myriads  of  others,  long  and  in- 
teresting legends  were  developed,  and  out  of  this  mass  we  may 
take  one  or  two  as  typical. 

*  For  Maxime  Du  Camp,  see  "Le  Nil,  Egypte  et  Nubie,"  Paris,  1877,  chapter  v.  For 
India,  see  Diincker,  "  Geschichte  des  Alterthums,"  iii,  366 ;  also  Coleman,  "  Mythology  of 
the  Hindus,"  p.  90.  For  Greece,  as  to  the  Lycabettus  myth,  see  Leake,  "  Topography  of 
Athens,"  vol.  i,  sec.  3 ;  also  Burnouf,  "La  Legende  Athe'nienne,"  p.  152.  For  the  rock  at 
.<Egina,  see  Charton,  vol.  i,  p.  310.  For  Scandinavia,  see  Thorpe,  "Northern  Antiqui- 
ties," passim.  For  Teutonic  countries,  see  Grimm,  "  Deutsche  Mythologie  "  ;  Panzer,  "  Bei- 
trag  zur  deutschen  Mythologie,"  vol.  ii ;  and  especially  J.  B.  Friedrich,  "  Symbolik  und 
Mythologie  der  Natur,"  pp.  116  et  seq.  For  Celtic  examples  I  am  indebted  to  that  learned 
and  genial  scholar,  Prof.  J.  F.  Mahaffy,  of  Trinity  College,  Dublin.  See  also  story  of  the 
devil  dropping  a  rock  when  forced  by  the  archangel  Michael  to  aid  him  in  building  Mont 
Saint-Michel  on  the  west  coast  of  France,  in  Sebillot's  "  Traditions  de  la  Haute-Bretagne," 
vol.  i,  p.  22 ;  also  multitudes  of  other  examples  in  the  same  work.  For  Marco  Polo,  see  in 
Grynaeus,  p.  337;  also  Charton,  "Voyageurs  anciens  et  modernes,"  pp.  274  et  seq.,  where 
the  long  and  circumstantial  legend  is  given. 


436  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

One  of  the  most  beautiful  was  evolved  at  Rome.  On  the  bor- 
der of  the  mediaeval  city  stands  the  church  of  "Domine  quo 
vadis " ;  it  was  erected  in  honor  of  a  stone,  which  is  still  pre- 
served, bearing  a  mark  resembling  a  human  footprint — perhaps 
the  bed  of  a  fossil. 

Out  of  this  a  pious  legend  grew  as  naturally  as  a  wild  rose  in 
a  prairie.  According  to  this  story,  in  one  of  the  first  great  per- 
secutions the  heart  of  St.  Peter  failed  him,  and  he  attempted 
to  flee  from  the  city  ;  arriving  outside  the  walls  he  was  suddenly 
confronted  by  the  Master,  whereupon  Peter  in  amazement  asked, 
"  Lord,  where  goest  thou  ?  "  {Domine  quo  vadis  ?) ;  to  which  the 
Master  answered,  "  To  Rome,  to  be  crucified  again."  The  apostle, 
thus  rebuked,  returned  to  martyrdom ;  the  Master  vanished,  but 
left,  as  a  perpetual  memorial,  his  footprint  in  the  solid  rock. 

Still  another  legend  accounts  for  a  curious  mark  in  a  stone  at 
Jerusalem.  According  to  this,  St.  Thomas,  after  the  ascension 
of  the  Lord,  was  again  troubled  with  doubts,  whereupon  the  Vir- 
gin Mother  threw  down  her  girdle,  which  left  its  imprint  upon 
the  rock,  and  thus  converted  the  doubter  fully  and  finally. 

And  still  another  example  is  seen  at  the  very  opposite  extreme 
of  Europe,  in  the  legend  of  the  priestess  of  Hertha  in  the  island  of 
Rugen.  She  had  been  unfaithful  to  her  vows,  and  the  gods  fur- 
nished a  proof  of  her  guilt  by  causing  her  and  her  child  to  sink 
into  the  rock  on  which  she  stood.* 

*  For  myths  and  legends  crystallizing  about  bowlders  and  other  stones  curiously  shaped 
or  marked,  see,  on  the  general  subject,  in  addition  to  works  already  cited,  Des  Brosses, 
"  Les  Dieux  Fetiches,"  1760,  passim,  but  especially  pp.  166,  167 ;  and  for  a  condensed 
statement  as  to  worship  paid  them,  see  Gerard  de  Rialle,  "  Mythologie  comparee,"  vol.  vi, 
chapter  ii.  For  imprints  of  Buddha's  feet,  see  Tylor,  "  Researches  into  the  Early  History 
of  Mankind,"  London,  1878,  pp.  115  et  seq. ;  also  Coleman,  p.  203,  and  Charton,  "Voya- 
geurs  anciens  et  modernes,"  pp.  365,  366,  where  engravings  of  one  of  the  imprints,  and  of 
the  temple  above  another,  are  seen.  There  are  five  which  are  considered  authentic  by  the 
Siamese,  and  a  multitude  of  others  more  or  less  strongly  insisted  upon.  For  the  imprint  of 
Moses'  body,  see  travelers  from  Sir  John  Maundeville  down.  For  the  mark  of  Neptune's 
trident,  see  last  edition  of  Murray's  "  Handbook  of  Greece,"  vol.  i,  p.  322 ;  and  Burnouf, 
"La  Legende  Athenienne,"  p.  153.  For  imprint  of  the  feet  of  Christ,  and  the  Virgin's 
girdle  and  tears,  see  many  of  the  older  travelers  in  Palestine,  as  Arculf,  Bouchard,  Roger, 
and  especially  Bertrandon  de  la  Brocquiere  in  Wright's  "Collection,"  pp.  339,  340;  also 
Maundrell's  "  Travels  "  and  Maundeville.  For  the  curious  legend  regarding  the  imprint  of 
Abraham's  foot,  see  Weil,  "Biblische  Legenden  der  Muselmanner,"  pp.  91  et  seq.  For 
many  additional  examples  in  Palestine,  particularly  the  imprints  of  the  bodies  of  three 
apostles  on  stones  in  the  Garden  of  Gethsemane  and  of  St.  Jerome's  body  in  the  desert, 
see  Beauvau,  "Relation  du  Voyage  du  Levant,"  Nancy,  1615, passim.  For  the  various  im- 
prints made  by  Satan  and  giants  in  Scandinavia  and  Germany,  see  Thorpe,  ii,  85 ;  Fried- 
richs,  pp.  126  and  passim.  For  a  very  rich  collection  of  such  explanatory  legends  regard- 
ing stones  and  marks  in  Germany,  see  Karl  Bartsch,  "  Sagen,  Marchen  und  Gebrauche  aus 
Mecklenburg,"  Wien,  1880,  vol.  ii,  pp.  420  et  seq.  For  a  woodcut  representing  the  imprint 
of  St.  Agatha's  feet  at  Catania,  see  Charton,  "  Voyageurs  anciens  et  modernes,"  vol.  ii, 
p.  75.  For  a  woodcut  representing  the  imprint  of  Christ's  feet  on  the  stone  from  which  he 
ascended  to  heaven,  see  woodcut  in  Maundeville,  edition  of  1484,  in  the  White  Library, 


NEW  CHAPTERS  IN  THE   WARFARE   OF  SCIENCE.   437 

Another  and  very  fruitful  source  of  explanatory  myths  is 
found  in  ancient  centers  of  volcanic  action,  and  especially  in  old 
craters  of  volcanoes  and  fissures  filled  with  water. 

In  China  we  have,  among  other  examples,  Lake  Man,  which 
was  once  the  site  of  the  flourishing  city  Chiang  Shui,  over- 
whelmed and  sunk  on  account  of  the  heedlessness  of  its  inhabi- 
tants regarding  a  divine  warning. 

In  Phrygia  the  lake  and  morass  near  Tyana  were  ascribed  to 
the  wrath  of  Zeus  and  Hermes,  who,  having  visited  the  cities 
which  formerly  stood  there,  and  having  been  refused  shelter  by 
all  the  inhabitants  save  Philemon  and  Baucis,  sank  the  wicked 
cities  beneath  the  lake  and  morass,  but  rewarded  their  bene- 
factors. 

Stories  of  similar  import  grew  up  to  explain  the  crater  near 
Sipylos  in  Asia  Minor  and  that  of  Avernus  in  Italy ;  the  latter 
came  to  be  considered  the  mouth  of  the  infernal  regions,  as  every 
school-boy  knows  when  he  has  read  his  Virgil. 

In  the  later  Christian  mythologies  we  have  such  typical  le- 
gends as  those  which  grew  up  about  the  old  crater  in  Ceylon ;  the 
salt  water  in  it  was  accounted  for  by  supposing  it  the  tears  of 
Adam  and  Eve,  who  retreated  to  this  point  after  their  expulsion 
from  paradise  and  bewailed  their  sin  during  a  hundred  years. 

So,  too,  in  Germany  we  have  multitudes  of  lakes  supposed  to 
owe  their  origin  to  the  sinking  of  valleys  as  a  punishment  for 
human  sin.  Of  these  are  the  "Devil's  Lake,"  near  Gustrow, 
which  rose  and  covered  a  church  and  its  priests  on  account  of 
their  corruption;  the  lake  at  Probst- Jesar,  which  rose  and  cov- 
ered an  oak-grove  and  a  number  of  peasants  resting  in  it  on  ac- 
count of  their  want  of  charity  to  beggars ;  and  the  Lucin  Lake, 
which  rose  and  covered  a  number  of  soldiers  on  account  of  their 
cruelty  to  a  poor  peasant. 

Such  legends  are  found  throughout  America  and  in  Japan, 
and  will  doubtless  be  found  throughout  Asia  and  Africa,  and 
especially  among  the  volcanic  lakes  of  South  America,  the  pitch 
lakes  of  the  Caribbean  Islands,  and  even  about  the  Salt  Lake  of 
Utah;  for  explanatory  myths  and  legends  under  such  circum- 
stances are  inevitable.* 

Cornell  University.  For  the  legend  of  Domine  quo  vadis,  see  many  books  of  travel  and 
nearly  all  guide-books  for  Rome,  from  the  mediaeval  "  Mirabilia  Romas  "  to  the  latest  edition 
of  Murray.  The  footprints  of  Mohammed  at  Cairo  were  shown  to  the  present  writer  in 
1889.  On  the  general  subject,  with  many  striking  examples,  see  Falsan,  "  La  Periode  gla- 
ciaire,"  Paris,  1889,  pp.  17  and  294,  295. 

*  As  to  myths  explaining  volcanic  craters  and  lakes,  and  embodying  ideas  of  the  wrath 
of  Heaven  against  former  inhabitants  of  the  neighboring  country,  see  Forbiger,  "  Alte 
Geographie,"  Hamburg,  1877,  i,  563.  For  exaggerations  concerning  the  Dead  Sea,  see 
ibid.,  i,  575.  For  the  sinking  of  Chiang  Shui  and  other  examples,  see  Denny's  "  Folklore  of 
China,"  p.  126  et  seq.    For  the  sinking  of  the  Phrygian  region,  the  destruction  of  its  inhabi- 


438  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

To  the  same  manner  of  explaining  striking  appearances  in 
physical  geography,  and  especially  strange  rocks  and  bowlders, 
we  mainly  owe  the  innumerable  stories  of  the  transformation  of 
living  beings,  and  especially  of  men  and  women,  into  these  natu- 
ral features. 

In  the  mythology  of  China  we  constantly  come  upon  legends 
of  such  transformations — from  that  of  the  first  counselor  of  the 
Han  dynasty  to  those  of  shepherds  and  sheep.  In  the  Brahman- 
ical  mythology  of  India,  Salagrama,  the  fossil  ammonite,  is  recog- 
nized as  containing  the  body  of  Vishnu's  wife,  and  the  Binlang 
stone  has  much  the  same  relation  to  Siva;  so,  too,  the  nymph 
Raniba  was  changed,  for  offending  Ketu,  into  a  mass  of  sand ;  by 
the  breath  of  Siva  elephants  were  turned  into  stone,  and  in  a 
very  touching  myth  Luxman  is  changed  into  stone  but  afterward 
released.  In  the  Buddhist  mythology  a  Nat  demon  is  repre- 
sented as  changing  himself  into  a  grain  of  sand. 

Among  the  Greeks  such  transformation-myths  come  constantly 
before  us — both  the  changing  of  stones  to  men  and  the  changing 
of  men  to  stones.  Deucalion  and  Pyrrha,  escaping  from  the  flood, 
repeopled  the  earth  by  casting  behind  them  stones  which  became 
men  and  women ;  Heraulos  was  changed  into  stone  for  offending 
Mercury ;  Pyrrhus  for  offending  Rhea ;  Phineus,  and  Polydektes 
with  his  guests,  for  offending  Perseus ;  under  the  petrifying  glance 
of  Medusa's  head  such  transformations  became  a  thing  of  course. 

To  myth-making  in  obedience  to  the  desire  of  explaining  strik- 
ing natural  appearances,  coupled  with  the  idea  that  sin  must  be 
followed  by  retribution,  we  also  owe  the  well-known  Niobe  myth. 
Having  incurred  the  divine  wrath,  she  saw  those  dearest  to  her 
destroyed  by  missiles  from  heaven,  and  was  finally  transformed 
into  a  rock  on  Mount  Sipylos  which  bore  some  vague  resemblance 
to  the  human  form,  and  her  tears  became  the  rivulets  which 
trickled  from  the  neighboring  strata. 

Thus,  in  obedience  to  a  moral  and  intellectual  impulse,  a  strik- 
ing geographical  appearance  was  explained,  and  for  ages  pious 
Greeks  looked  with  bated  breath  upon  the  rock  at  Sipylos  which 
was  once  Niobe,  just  as  for  ages  pious  Jews,  Christians,  and  Mo- 
hammedans looked  with  awe  upon  the  salt  pillar  at  the  Dead  Sea 
which  was  once  Lot's  wife. 

tants, and  the  saving  of  Philemon  and  Baucis,  see  Ovid's  "Metamorphoses,"  Book  VIII; 
also  Botticher,  "  Baumcultus  der  Alten,"  etc.  For  the  lake  in  Ceylon  arising  from  the 
tears  of  Adam  and  Eve,  see  variants  of  the  original  legend  in  Maundeville  and  in  Jiirgen 
Andersem  "  Reisebeschrcibung,"  1669,  ii,  132.  For  the  volcanic  nature  of  the  Dead  Sea, 
see  Daubeny  cited  in  Smith's  "  Dictionary,"  1873,  sub  voc.  "Palestine."  For  lakes  in  Ger- 
many owing  their  origin  to  human  sin  and  various  supernatural  causes,  sec  Karl  Bartsch, 
"  Sagen,  Marchen  und  Gebrauche  aus  Mecklenburg,"  vol.  i,  pp.  397  et  seq.  For  lakes  in 
America,  see  any  good  collection  of  Indian  legends.  For  lakes  in  Japan  sunk  supemat- 
urally,  see  Braun's  "  Japanesische  Marchen  und  Sagen,"  Leipsic,  1885,  pp.  350,  351. 


NEW  CHAPTERS  IN   THE   WARFARE   OF  SCIENCE.   439 

Pausanias,  one  of  the  most  honest  of  ancient  travelers,  gives 
us  a  striking  exhibition  of  this  feeling.  Having  visited  this  mon- 
ument of  divine  vengeance  at  Mount  Sipylos,  he  tells  us  very 
naively  that,  though  he  could  discern  no  human  features  when 
standing  near  it,  he  thought  that  he  could  see  them  when  standing 
at  a  distance.  There  could  hardly  be  a  better  example  of  that 
most  common  and  deceptive  of  all  things — belief  created  by  the 
desire  to  believe. 

In  the  pagan  mythology  of  Scandinavia  we  have  such  typical 
examples  as  Bors  slaying  the  giant  Ymir  and  transforming  his 
bones  into  bowlders ;  also  "  the  giant  who  had  no  heart "  trans- 
forming six  brothers  and  their  wives  into  stone ;  and,  in  the  old 
Christian  mythology,  St.  Olaf  changing  into  stone  the  wicked 
giants  who  opposed  his  preaching. 

So,  too,  in  Celtic  countries  we  have  in  Ireland  such  legends  as 
those  of  the  dancers  turned  into  stone ;  and  in  Brittany,  the  stones 
at  Plesse",  which  were  once  hunters  and  dogs  violating  the  sanctity 
of  Sunday ;  and  the  stones  of  Carnac,  which  were  once  soldiers 
who  sought  to  kill  St.  Comely. 

Teutonic  mythology  inherited  from  its  earlier  Eastern  days  a 
similar  mass  of  old  legends,  and  developed  a  still  greater  mass  of 
new  ones.  Thus,  near  the  Konigstein,  which  all  visitors  to  the 
Saxon  Switzerland  know  so  well,  is  a  bowlder  which  for  ages  was 
believed  to  have  once  been  a  maiden  transformed  into  stone  for 
refusing  to  go  to  church  ;  and  near  Rosenberg  in  Mecklenburg  is 
another  curiously  shaped  stone  of  which  a  similar  story  is  told. 
Near  Spornitz,  in  the  same  region,  are  seven  bowlders  whose  forms 
and  position  are  accounted  for  by  a  long  and  circumstantial  legend 
that  they  were  once  seven  impious  herdsmen  ;  near  Brahlsdorf  is 
a  stone  which,  according  to  a  similar  explanatory  myth,  was  once 
a  blasphemous  shepherd ;  near  Schwerin  are  three  bowlders 
which  were  once  wasteful  servants ;  and  at  Neustadt,  down  to  a 
recent  period,  was  shown  a  collection  of  stones  which  were  once  a 
bride  and  bridegroom  with  their  horses  and  wagon — all  punished 
for  an  act  of  cruelty ;  and  these  stories  are  but  typical  of  thousands. 

At  the  other  extremity  of  Europe  we  may  take,  out  of  the 
multitude  of  explanatory  myths,  that  which  grew  about  the  well- 
known  group  of  bowlders  near  Belgrade.  In  the  midst  of  them 
stands  one  larger  than  the  rest :  according  to  the  legend  which 
was  developed  to  account  for  all  these,  there  once  lived  there  a 
swineherd,  who  was  disrespectful  to  the  consecrated  host ;  where- 
upon he  was  changed  into  the  larger  stone,  and  his  swine  into  the 
smaller  ones.  So  also  at  Saloniki  we  have  the  pillars  of  the  ruined 
temple,  which  are  widely  believed,  especially  among  the  Jews  of 
that  region,  to  have  once  been  human  beings,  and  are  therefore 
known  as  the  "  enchanted  columns/' 


440  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

Among  the  Arabs  we  have  an  addition  to  our  sacred  account 
of  Adam — the  legend  of  the  black  stone  of  the  Caaba  at  Mecca, 
into  which  the  angel  was  changed  who  was  charged  by  the  Al- 
mighty to  keep  Adam  away  from  the  forbidden  fruit,  and  who 
neglected  his  duty. 

Similar  old  transformation  legends  are  abundant  among  the 
Indians  of  America,  the  negroes  of  Africa,  and  the  natives  of 
Australia  and  the  Pacific  islands. 

Nor  has  this  making  of  myths  to  account  for  remarkable  ap- 
pearances yet  ceased,  even  in  civilized  countries. 

About  the  beginning  of  this  century  the  Grand  Duke  of  Wei- 
mar, smitten  with  the  classical  mania  of  his  time,  placed  in  the 
public  park  near  his  palace  a  little  altar,  and  upon  this  was  carved, 
after  the  manner  so  frequent  in  classical  antiquity,  a  serpent 
taking  a  cake  from  it. 

And  shortly  there  appeared,  in  the  town  and  the  country 
around  about,  a  legend  to  explain  this  altar  and  its  decoration.  It 
was  commonly  said  that  a  huge  serpent  had  laid  waste  that  region 
in  the  olden  time,  until  a  wise  and  benevolent  baker  had  rid  the 
world  of  the  monster  by  means  of  a  poisoned  biscuit. 

So,  too,  but  a  few  years  since,  in  the  heart  of  the  State  of  New 
York,  a  swindler  of  genius  having  made  and  buried  a  "  petrified 
giant,"  one  theologian  explained  it  by  declaring  it  a  Phoenician 
idol,  and  published  the  Phoenician  inscription  which  he  thought 
he  had  found  upon  it ;  others  saw  in  it  proofs  that  "  there  were 
giants  in  those  days,"  and  within  a  week  after  its  discovery  myths 
were  afloat  that  the  neighboring  remnant  of  the  Onondaga  Indians 
had  traditions  of  giants  who  frequently  roamed  through  that 
region.* 

*  For  transformation  myths  and  legends,  identifying  rocks  and  stones  with  gods  and 
heroes,  see  Welcker,  "  Gotterlehre,"  pp.  218  et  seq.  For  recent  and  more  accessible  state- 
ments for  the  general  reader,  see  Robertson  Smith's  admirable  "  Lectures  on  the  Religion 
of  the  Semites,"  Edinburgh,  1889,  pp.  86  et  seq.  For  some  thoughtful  remarks  on  the  ancient 
adoration  of  stones  rather  than  statues,  with  reference  to  the  anointing  of  the  stones  at  Bethel 
by  Jacob,  see  Dodwell,  "  Tour  through  Greece,"  vol.  ii,  p.  1*72 ;  also  Robertson  Smith  as  above, 
Lecture  V.  For  Chinese  transformation  legends,  see  Denny's  "  Folklore  of  China,"  pp.  96 
and  128.  For  Hindu  and  other  ancient  legends  of  transformations,  see  Dawson,  "Diction- 
ary of  Hindu  Mythology,"  also  Coleman  as  above,  also  Cox,  "  Mythology  of  the  Aryan  Na- 
tions," pp.  81-97,  etc.  For  such  transformations  in  Greece,  see  the  "Iliad,"  and  Ovid  as 
above ;  also  Stark,  "  Niobe  und  die  Niobiden,"  p.  444  and  elsewhere ;  also  Preller,  "  Griech- 
ische  Mythologie,"  ii,  383  ;  also  Baumeister,  "  Denkmaler  des  classischen  Altcrthums,"  Art. 
"  Niobe  " ;  also  Botticher  as  above ;  also  Curtius,  "  Griechische  Geschichte,"  vol.  i,  pp.  71,  72. 
For  Pausanius's  naive  confession  regarding  the  Sipylos  rock,  see  Book  I,  215.  See  also 
Texier,  "  Asie  Mineure,"  pp.  265  et  seq. ;  also  Chandler,  "  Travels  in  Greece,"  vol.  ii,  p.  80, 
who  seems  to  hold  to  the  later  origin  of  the  statue.  At  the  end  of  Baumeister  there  is  an 
engraving  copied  from  Stuart  which  seems  to  show  that,  as  to  the  Niobe  legend,  at  a  later 
period  Art  was  allowed  to  help  Nature.  For  the  general  subject,  see  Scheiffle,  "  Program 
des  K.  Gymnasiums,"  in  Ell wangen,  "  Mythologische  Parallelen,"  1865.  For  Scandinavian 
and  Teutonic  transformation  legends,  see  Grimm,  "  Deutsche  Mythologie,"  vierte  Ausg.,  i, 


NEW   CHAPTERS  IN  THE    WARFARE   OF  SCIENCE.   441 

To  the  same  stage  of  thought  belongs  the  conception  of  hnman 
beings  changed  into  trees. 

But,  in  the  historic  evolution  of  religion  and  morality,  while 
changes  into  stone  or  rock  were  considered  as  punishment,  or  evi- 
dence of  divine  wrath,  those  into  trees  and  shrubs  were  frequently 
looked  upon  as  rewards,  or  evidences  of  divine  favor. 

A  very  beautiful  and  touching  form  of  this  conception  is  seen 
in  such  myths  as  the  change  of  Philemon  into  the  oak,  and  of 
Baucis  into  the  linden  ;  of  Myrrha  into  the  myrtle ;  of  Melos  into 
the  apple-tree ;  of  Attys  into  the  pine ;  of  Adonis  into  the  rose- 
tree  ;  and  in  the  springing  of  the  vine  and  grape  from  the  blood 
of  the  Titans,  the  violet  from  the  blood  of  Attys,  and  the  hyacinth 
from  the  blood  of  Hyacinthus. 

Thus  it  was,  during  the  long  ages  when  mankind  saw  every- 
where miracle  and  nowhere  law,  that,  in  the  evolution  of  religion 
and  morality,  striking  features  in  physical  geography  became  con- 
nected with  the  idea  of  divine  retribution.* 

But,  in  the  natural  course  of  intellectual  growth,  thinking  men 
began  to  doubt  the  historical  accuracy  of  these  myths  and  legends 
— or,  at  least,  to  doubt  all  save  those  of  the  theology  in  which  they 
happened  to  be  born  ;  and  the  next  step  was  taken  when  they  be- 
gan to  make  comparisons  between  the  myths  and  legends  of  differ- 
ent neighborhoods  and  countries ;  so  came  into  being  the  science 

457 ;  also  Thorpe,  "  Northern  Antiquities  "  ;  also  Friedrich,  passim,  especially  p.  116  et  seq.  ; 
also,  for  a  mass  of  very  curious  ones,  Karl  Bartsch,  "  Sagen,  Marchen  und  Gebrauche  aus 
Mecklenburg,"  vol.  i,  p  420,  et  seq.  ;  also  Karl  Simrock's  edition  of  the  "  Edda,"  ninth  edition, 
p.  319;  also  John  Fiske,  "Myths  and  Myth-Makers,"  pp.  8  and  9.  On  the  universality  of 
such  legends  and  myths,  see  Ritter's  "  Erdkunde,"  xiv,  1098-1122.  For  Irish  examples,  see 
Manz,  "  Real  Encyelopadie,"  art.  "Stein"  ;  and  for  multitudes  of  examples  in  Brittany,  see 
Sebillot,  "  Traditions  de  la  Haute-Bretagne."  For  the  enchanted  columns  at  Saloniki,  see 
latest  edition  of  Murray's  ''Handbook  of  Turkey,"  vol.  ii,  p.  711.  For  the  legend  of  the 
angel  changed  into  stone  for  neglecting  to  guard  Adam,  6ee  Weil,  university  librarian  at 
Heidelberg,  "Biblische  Legende  der  Muselmanner,"  Frankfort-am-Main,  1845,  pp.  37  and 
84.  For  similar  transformation  legends  in  Australia  and  among  the  American  Indians,  see 
Andrew  Lang,  "  Mythology,"  French  translation,  pp.  83  and  102 ;  also  his  "  Myth  Ritual 
and  Religion,"  vol.  i,  pp.  150  et  seq.,  citing  numerous  examples  from  J.  G.  Miiller,  "  (Jrre- 
ligionen,"  Dorman's  "  Primitive  Superstitions,"  and  "  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology  " 
for  1880-'81  ;  and  for  an  African  example,  see  account  of  the  rock  at  Balon  which  was  once 
a  woman,  in  Berengcr-Feraud,  "  Contes  populaires  de  la  Senegambie,"  chap.  viii.  For  the 
Weimar  legend,  see  Lewes,  "  Life  of  Goethe,"  Book  IV.  For  the  myths  which  arose  about 
the  swindling  "  Cardiff  Giant "  in  the  State  of  New  York,  see  especially  an  article  by  G.  A. 
Stockwell,  M.  D.,  in  "  The  Popular  Science  Monthly  "  for  June,  1878  ;  and  for  the  "  Phoenician 
inscription,"  given  at  length  with  a  translation,  see  the  Rev.  Alexander  McWhorter,  in  "  The 
Galaxy  "  for  July,  1872.  The  present  writer  has  in  his  possession  a  mass  of  curious  docu- 
ments regarding  this  fraud  and  the  myths  to  which  it  gave  rise,  and  hopes  ere  long  to  pre- 
pare a  supplement  to  Dr.  Stockwell's  valuable  paper. 

*  For  the  view  taken  in  Greece  and  Rome  of  transformations  into  trees  and  shrubs,  see 
Botticher,  "  Baumcultus  der  Alten,"  xix,  pp.  2  and  3  ;  also  Ovid,  "  Metamorphoses,"/>as.,imi  / 
also  foregoing  notes. 


442  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

of  Comparative  Mythology — a  science  sure  to  be  of  vast  value,  be- 
cause, despite  many  stumblings  and  vagaries,  it  shows  ever  more 
and  more  how  our  religion  and  morality  have  been  gradually 
evolved,  and  gives  a  firm  basis  to  faith  that  higher  planes  may  yet 
be  reached. 

Such  a  science  makes  the  sacred  books  of  the  world  more  and 
more  precious,  in  that  it  shows  how  they  have  been  the  necessary 
envelopes  of  our  highest  spiritual  sustenance;  how  even  myths 
and  legends  apparently  the  most  puerile  have  been  the  natural 
husks  and  rinds  and  shells  of  our  best  ideas ;  and  how  the  atmos- 
phere is  created  in  which  these  husks  and  rinds  and  shells  in  due 
time  wither,  shrivel,  and  fall  away,  so  that  the  fruit  itself  may 
be  gathered  to  sustain  a  nobler  religion  and  a  purer  morality. 

The  coming  in  of  Christianity  contributed  elements  of  inestima- 
ble value  in  this  evolution,  and,  at  the  center  of  all,  the  thoughts, 
words,  and  life  of  the  Master.  But  when,  in  the  darkness  that 
followed  the  downfall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  there  was  developed 
a  theology  and  a  vast  ecclesiastical  power  to  enforce  it,  the  most 
interesting  chapters  in  this  evolution  of  religion  and  morality 
were  unfortunately  removed  from  the  domain  of  science. 

So  it  came  that  for  over  eighteen  hundred  years  it  has  been 
thought  natural  and  right  to  study  and  compare  the  myths  and 
legends  arising  east  and  west  and  south  and  north  of  Palestine 
with  each  other,  but  never  with  those  of  Palestine  itself ;  so  it 
came  that  one  of  the  regions  most  fruitful  in  materials  for  rever- 
ent thought  and  healthful  comparison  was  held  exempt  from  the 
unbiased  search  for  truth  ;  so  it  came  that,  in  the  name  of  truth, 
truth  was  crippled  for  ages.  While  observation,  and  thought  upon 
observation,  and  the  organized  knowledge  or  science  which  results 
from  these,  progressed  as  regarded  the  myths  and  legends  of  other 
countries,  and  an  atmosphere  was  thus  produced  giving  purer  con- 
ceptions of  the  world  and  its  government ;  myths  of  that  little 
geographical  region  at  the  eastern  end  of  the  Mediterranean  re- 
tained possession  of  the  civilized  world  in  their  original  crude 
form,  and  have  at  times  done  much  to  thwart  the  noblest  efforts 
of  religion,  morality,  and  civilization. 

The  history  of  myths — of  their  growth  under  the  earlier 
phases  of  human  thought  and  of  their  decline  under  modern 
thinking — is  one  of  the  most  interesting  and  suggestive  of  human 
studies ;  but,  since  to  treat  it  as  a  whole  would  require  volumes, 
I  shall  select  only  one  small  group,  and  out  of  this  mainly  a  single 
myth — one  about  which  there  can  no  longer  be  any  dispute — the 
group  of  myths  and  legends  which  grew  upon  the  shore  of  the 
Dead  Sea,  and  especially  that  one  which  grew  up  to  account  for 
the  successive  salt  columns  at  its  southwestern  extremity. 

The  Dead  Sea  is  about   thirty-nine    geographical   miles    in 


NEW   CHAPTERS  IN  THE  WARFARE   OF  SCIENCE.   443 

length  and  nine  miles  in  width;  it  lies  in  a  very  deep  fissure 
extending  north  and  south,  and  its  surface  is  about  thirteen  hun- 
dred feet  below  that  of  the  Mediterranean.  It  has,  therefore,  no 
outlet,  and  is  the  receptacle  for  the  waters  of  the  whole  system  to 
which  it  belongs,  including  those  collected  by  the  Sea  of  Galilee 
and  brought  down  thence  by  the  river  Jordan. 

It  certainly — or,  at  least,  the  larger  part  of  it — ranks  geologi- 
cally among  the  oldest  lakes  on  earth.  In  a  broad  sense  the  re- 
gion is  volcanic:  on  its  shore  are  evidences  of  volcanic  action 
which  must,  from  the  earliest  period,  have  aroused  wonder  and 
fear,  and  stimulated  the  myth-making  tendency  to  account  for 
them.  On  the  eastern  side  are  impressive  mountain-masses  which 
have  been  thrown  up  from  old  volcanic  vents ;  mineral  and  hot 
springs  abound,  some  of  them  spreading  sulphurous  odors ;  earth- 
quakes have  been  frequent,  and  from  time  to  time  these  cast  up 
masses  of  bitumen ;  concretions  of  sulphur  and  large  formations 
of  salt  constantly  appear. 

The  water  which  comes  from  the  springs  or  oozes  through  the 
salt  layers  upon  its  shores  constantly  brings  in  various  salts  in 
solution,  and,  being  rapidly  evaporated  under  the  hot  sun  and 
dry  wind,  there  has  been  left,  in  the  bed  of  the  lake,  a  strong 
brine  heavily  charged  with  the  usual  chlorides  and  bromides — a 
sort  of  bitter  "  mother  liquor."  This  fluid  has  become  so  dense  as 
to  have  a  remarkable  power  of  supporting  the  human  body ;  is  of 
an  acrid  and  nauseating  bitterness  ;  and  by  ordinary  eyes  no  evi- 
dence of  life  is  seen  in  it. 

Thus  it  was  that  in  the  lake  itself,  and  in  its  surrounding 
shores,  there  was  enough  to  make  the  generation  of  explanatory 
myths  on  a  large  scale  inevitable. 

The  main  northern  part  of  the  lake  is  very  deep,  the  plummet 
having  shown  an  abyss  of  thirteen  hundred  feet,  but  the  south- 
ern end  is  shallow  and  in  places  marshy. 

The  system  of  which  it  forms  a  part  shows  a  likeness  to  that 
in  South  America,  of  which  the  mountain  lake  Titicaca  is  the 
main  feature ;  as  a  receptacle  for  surplus  waters,  only  rendering 
them  by  evaporation,  it  resembles  the  Caspian  and  many  other 
seas ;  as  a  sort  of  evaporating  dish  for  the  leachings  of  salt  rock, 
and  consequently  holding  a  body  of  water  unfit  to  support  the 
higher  forms  of  animal  life,  it  resembles,  among  others,  the  Me- 
dian lake  of  Urumiah ;  as  a  deposit  of  bitumen,  it  resembles  the 
pitch  lakes  of  Trinidad. 

Striking,  then,  as  was  the  Dead  Sea  in  its  appearance  to  pre- 
scientific  man,  there  is  nothing  in  it  of  extraordinary  difficulty  to 
the  modern  geologist  or  geographer.* 

*  For  modern  views  of  the  Dead  Sea,  see  the  Rev.  Edward  Robinson,  D.  D.,  "  Biblical 
Researches,"  various  editions  ;  Lynch's  "  Exploring  Expedition  "  ;   De  Saulcy,  "  Voyage 


444  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

At  a  very  early  period,  myths  and  legends,  many  and  long, 
grew  up  to  explain  features  then  so  incomprehensible. 

As  the  myth  and  legend  grew  up  among  the  Greeks  of  a 
refusal  of  hospitality  to  Zeus  and  Hermes  by  the  village  in 
Phrygia,  and  the  consequent  sinking  of  that  beautiful  region 
with  its  inhabitants  beneath  a  lake  and  morass,  so  there  came  a 
belief  in  a  similiar  offense  by  the  people  of  the  beautiful  valley 
of  Siddim,  and  the  consequent  sinking  of  that  valley  with  its  in- 
habitants beneath  the  waters  of  the  Dead  Sea.  Very  similar  to 
the  accounts  of  the  saving  of  Philemon  and  Baucis  are  those  of  the 
saving  of  Lot  and  his  family. 

But  the  myth-making  and  miracle-mongering  by  no  means 
ceased  in  ancient  times  ;  they  continued  to  grow  through  the  me- 

autour  de  la  Mer  Morte  " ;  Stanley's  "  Palestine  and  Syria  "  ;  Schaff's  "  Through  Bible 
Lands " ;  and  other  travelers  hereafter  quoted.  For  good  "photogravures"  showing  the 
character  of  the  whole  region,  see  the  portfolio  forming  part  of  De  Luynes's  monumental 
"  Voyage  d'Exploration."  For  geographical  summaries,  see  Reclus,  "  La  Terre,"  Paris,  1870, 
pp.  832-848 ;  Ritter,  "  Erdkunde,"  volumes  devoted  to  Palestine  and  especially  as  supple- 
mented in  Gage's  translation  with  additions ;  Reclus,  "  Nouvelle  Geographie  Universelle," 
ix,  736,  where  a  small  map  is  given  presenting  difference  in  depth  between  the  two  ends 
of  the  lake,  of  which  so  much  was  made  theologically  before  Lartet.  For  still  better 
maps,  see  De  Saulcy,  and  especially  De  Luynes,  "  Voyage  d'Exploration  "  (portfolio).  For 
very  interesting  panoramic  views,  see  last  edition  of  Canon  Tristram's  "  Land  of  Israel," 
p.  635.  For  the  geology,  see  Lartet,  in  his  reports  to  the  French  Geographical  Society,  and 
especially  in  vol.  iii  of  De  Luynes's  work,  where  there  is  an  admirable  geological  map  with 
sections,  etc. ;  also  Ritter ;  also  Sir  J.  W.  Dawson's  "  Egypt  and  Syria,"  published  by  the 
Religious  Tract  Society  ;  also  Rev.  Cunningham  Geikie,  D.  D.,  "  Geology  of  Palestine  "  :  and 
for  pictures  showing  salt  formation,  Tristram,  as  above.  For  the  meteorology,  see  Vignes, 
"  Report  to  De  Luynes,"  pp.  65  et  seq.  For  chemistry  of  the  Dead  Sea,  see  as  above,  and 
Terreil's  report,  given  in  Gage's  Ritter,  vol.  iii,  Appendix  2,  and  tables  in  De  Luynes's  third 
volume.  For  zoology  of  the  Dead  Sea,  as  to  entire  absence  of  life  in  it,  see  all  earlier  trav- 
elers ;  as  to  presence  of  lower  forms  of  life,  see  Ehrenberg's  microscopic  examinations  in 
Gage's  Ritter.  See  also  reports  in  third  volume  of  De  Luynes.  For  botany  of  the  Dead 
Sea,  and  especially  regarding  "  apples  of  Sodom,"  see  Dr.  Lortet's  "Palestine,"  p.  412; 
also  Reclus,  "  Nouvelle  Geographie,"  ix,  737.  Also  for  photographic  representations  of 
them,  see  portfolio  forming  part  of  De  Luynes's  work,  plate  27.  On  Strabo's  very  perfect 
description,  etc.,  see  lib.  xvi,  II,  44;  also  Fallmerayer,  "  Werke,"  pp.  177,  178.  For 
names  and  positions  of  a  large  number  of  salt  lakes  in  various  parts  of  the  world  more  or 
less  resembling  the  Dead  Sea,  see  De  Luynes,  iii,  242  et  seq.  For  Trinidad  "  pitch-lakes," 
found  by  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  in  1595,  see  Langegg,  "El  Dorado,"  Part  I,  p.  103,  and 
Part  II,  p.  101 ;  also  Reclus,  Ritter,  et  al.  For  the  general  subject,  see  Schenkel,  "  Bible 
Lexicon,"  sub  voc.  "  Todtes  Meer,"  an  excellent  summary.  The  description  of  the  Dead 
Sea  in  Lenormant's  great  history  is  utterly  unworthy  of  him,  and  must  have  been  thrown 
together  from  old  notes  after  his  death.  It  is  amazing  to  see  in  such  a  work  the  old  su- 
perstition that  birds  attempting  to  fly  over  the  sea  are  suffocated.  See  Lenormant,  "  His- 
toire  ancienne  de  l'Orient,"  edition  of  1888,  vol.  vi,  p.  112.  For  the  absorption  and  adop- 
tion of  foreign  myths  and  legends  by  the  Jews,  see  Baring-Gould,  "  Myths,"  etc.,  p. 
390.  For  the  views  of  Greeks  and  Romans,  see  especially  Tacitus,  "  History,"  Book  V, 
Pliny,  and  Strabo,  in  whose  remarks  are  the  germs  of  many  of  the  medireval  myths. 
For  very  curious  examples  of  these,  see  Baierus,  "  De  Excidio  Sodomae,"  Halle,  1705, 
passim. 


NEW   CHAPTERS  IN  THE   WARFARE   OF  SCIENCE.   445 

diseval  and  modern  period  until  they  have  quietly  withered  away 
in  the  light  of  modern  scientific  investigation,  leaving  to  us  the 
religious  and  moral  truths  they  inclose. 

It  would  be  interesting  to  trace  this  whole  group  of  myths : 
their  origin  in  times  prehistoric;  their  development  in  Greece 
and  Rome ;  their  culmination  during  the  ages  of  faith ;  and  their 
disappearance  in  the  age  of  science.  It  would  be  especially  in- 
structive to  note  the  conscientious  efforts  to  prolong  their  life  by 
making  futile  compromises  between  science  and  theology  regard- 
ing them  ;  but  I  shall  mention  this  main  group  only  incidentally, 
confining  myself  almost  entirely  to  the  one  above  named — the 
most  remarkable  of  all — the  myth  which  grew  about  the  salt  pil- 
lars of  Usdum. 

I  select  this  mainly  because  it  involves  only  elementary  prin- 
ciples, requires  no  abstruse  reasoning,  and  because  all  controversy 
regarding  it  is  ended.  There  is  certainly  now  no  theologian  with 
a  reputation  to  lose  who  will  venture  to  revive  the  idea  regarding 
it  which  was  sanctioned  for  hundreds,  nay  thousands,  of  years  by 
theology,  was  based  on  Scripture,  and  was  held  by  the  universal 
Church  until  our  own  century. 

The  main  feature  of  the  salt  region  of  Usdum  is  a  low  range 
of  hills  near  the  southwest  corner  of  the  Dead  Sea,  extending  in 
a  southeasterly  direction  for  about  five  miles,  and  made  up  mainly 
of  salt  rock.  This  rock  is  soft  and  friable,  and,  under  the  influ- 
ence of  the  heavy  winter  rains,  it  has  been,  without  doubt,  from  a 
period  long  before  human  history,  as  it  is  now,  cut  ever  into  new 
shapes,  and  especially  into  pillars  or  columns,  which  sometimes 
bear  a  resemblance  to  the  human  form. 

A  clergyman  who  visited  this  spot  about  ten  years  since  speaks 
of  the  appearance  of  this  salt  range  as  follows : 

"  Fretted  by  fitful  showers  and  storms,  its  ridge  is  exceedingly 
uneven,  its  sides  carved  out  and  constantly  changing ;  .  .  .  and 
each  traveler  might  have  a  new  pillar  of  salt  to  wonder  over  at 
intervals  of  a  few  years."  * 

Few  things  could  be  more  certain  than  that,  in  the  indolent 

*  As  to  the  substance  of  the  "  pillars  "  or  "statues"  or  "needles  "  of  salt  at  Usdum, 
many  travelers  speak  of  it  as  "marl  and  salt."  Irby  and  Mangles,  in  their  " Travels  in 
Egypt,  Nubia,  Syria,  and  the  Holy  Land,"  chapter  vii,  call  it  "  salt  and  hardened  sand." 
The  citation  as  to  frequent  carving  out  of  new  "  pillars  "  is  from  the  "  Travels  in  Palestine" 
of  the  Rev.  H.  F.  Osborn,  D.  D.  See  also  Palmer,  "  Desert  of  the  Exodus,"  ii,  pp.  478,  479. 
For  engravings  of  the  salt  pillar  at  different  times  compare  that  given  by  Lynch  in  1 848, 
when  it  appeared  as  a  column  forty  feet  high,  with  that  given  by  Palmer  as  the  frontis- 
piece to  his  "  Desert  of  the  Exodus,"  Cambridge,  England,  1871,  when  it  was  small  and 
"  does  really  bear  a  curious  resemblance  to  an  Arab  woman  with  a  child  upon  her  shoulders  " ; 
and  this  again  with  the  picture  of  the  salt  formation  at  Usdum  given  by  Canon  Tristram, 
at  whose  visit  there  was  neither  "  pillar  "  nor  "  statue."  See  "  The  Land  of  Israel,"  by  H. 
B.  Tristram,  D.  D.,  F.  R.  S.,  London,  1882,  p.  324. 


446  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

dream-life  of  the  East,  myths  and  legends  would  grow  up  to  ac- 
count for  this  as  for  other  strange  appearances  in  all  that  region. 
The  question  which  a  religious  Oriental  put  to  himself  in  ancient 
times  at  Usdum  was  substantially  that  which  his  descendant  to- 
day puts  to  himself  at  Kosseir :  "  Why  is  this  region  thus  blasted?" 
— "  whence  these  pillars  of  salt  ? "  or  "  whence  these  blocks  of 
granite  ? " — "  what  aroused  the  vengeance  of  Jehovah  or  of  Allah 
to  work  these  miracles  of  desolation  ?  " 

And,  just  as  Maxime  Du  Camp  recorded  the  answer  of  the 
modern  Shemite  at  Kosseir,  so  the  compilers  of  the  Jewish  sacred 
books  recorded  the  answer  of  the  ancient  Shemite  at  the  Dead 
Sea ;  just  as  Allah  at  Kosseir  blasted  the  land  and  transformed 
the  melons  into  bowlders  which  are  seen  to  this  day,  so  Jehovah 
at  Usdum  blasted  the  land  and  transformed  Lot's  wife  into  a 
pillar  of  salt  which  is  seen  to  this  day. 

No  more  difficulty  was  encountered  in  the  formation  of  the 
Lot  legend,  to  account  for  that  rock  resembling  the  human  form, 
than  in  the  formation  of  the  Niobe  legend,  which  accounted  for  a 
supposed  human  resemblance  in  the  rock  at  Sipylos ;  it  grew  up 
just  as  we  have  seen  thousands  of  similar  myths  and  legends 
grow  up  about  striking  natural  appearances  in  every  home  of  the 
human  race.  Being  thus  consonant  with  the  universal  view  re- 
garding the  relation  of  physical  geography  to  the  divine  govern- 
ment, it  became  a  treasure  of  the  Jewish  nation  and  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church — a  treasure  not  only  to  be  guarded  against  all  hostile 
intrusion,  but  to  be  increased,  as  we  shall  see,  by  the  myth-mak- 
ing powers  of  Jews,  Christians,  and  Mohammedans  for  thousands 
of  years. 

The  spot  where  the  myth  originated  was  carefully  kept  in 
mind;  indeed,  it  could  not  escape,  for  in  that  place  alone  was 
constantly  seen  the  phenomena  which  caused  the  myth.  We 
have  a  steady  chain  of  testimony  through  the  ages  all  pointing  to 
the  salt  pillar  as  the  irrefragable  evidence  of  divine  judgment. 
That  great  theological  test  of  truth — the  dictum  of  St.  Vincent  of 
Lerins — would  certainly  prove  that  the  pillar  was  Lot's  wife ;  for 
it  was  believed  so  to  be  by  Jews,  Christians,  and  Mohammedans 
from  the  earliest  period  down  to  a  time  almost  within  present 
memory — "  always,  everywhere,  and  by  all."  It  would  stand  per- 
fectly the  ancient  test  insisted  upon  by  Cardinal  Newman,  "  Se- 
curus  judicat  orbis  terrarum." 

For,  ever  since  the  earliest  days  of  Christianity,  the  identity 
of  the  salt  pillar  with  Lot's  wife  has  been  universally  held  and 
supported  by  passages  in  Genesis,  in  St.  Luke's  Gospel,  and  in  the 
Second  Epistle  of  St.  Peter — coupled  with  a  passage  in  the  book  of 
the  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  which  to  this  day,  by  a  majority  in  the 
Christian  Church,  is  believed  to  be  inspired,  and  from  which  are 


NEW  CHAPTERS  IN  THE  WARFARE   OF  SCIENCE.   447 

specially  cited  the  words,  "  A  standing  pillar  of  salt  is  a  monu- 
ment of  an  unbelieving  soul."  * 

Never  was  chain  of  belief  more  continuous.  In  the  first  cent- 
ury of  the  Christian  era  Josephus  refers  to  the  miracle,  and  de- 
clares regarding  the  statue,  "  I  have  seen  it,  and  it  remains  at 
this  day  " ;  and  Clement,  Bishop  of  Rome,  one  of  the  most  revered 
fathers  of  the  Church,  noted  for  the  moderation  of  his  statements, 
expresses  a  similar  certainty,  declaring  that  he  knew  the  miracu- 
lous statue  to  be  still  standing. 

In  the  second  century  that  great  father  of  the  Church,  bishop 
and  martyr,  Irenseus,  not  only  vouched  for  it,  but  gave  his  ap- 
proval to  the  belief  that  the  soul  of  Lot's  wife  still  lingered  in 
the  statue,  giving  it  a  sort  of  organic  life ;  thus  virtually  began 
in  the  Church  that  amazing  development  of  the  legend  which  we 
shall  see  taking  various  forms  through  the  middle  ages  —  the 
story  that  the  salt  statue  exercised  certain  physical  functions 
which  in  these  more  delicate  days  can  not  be  alluded  to  save 
under  cover  of  a  learned  language. 

This  addition  to  the  legend,  which  in  these  signs  of  life,  as  in 
other  things,  is  developed  almost  exactly  on  the  same  lines  with 
the  legend  of  the  Niobe  statue  in  the  rock  of  Mount  Sipylos  and 
the  legends  of  human  beings  transformed  into  bowlders  in  various 
mythologies,  was  for  centuries  regarded  as  an  additional  confir- 
mation of  revealed  truth. 

In  the  third  century  the  myth  burst  into  still  richer  bloom  in 
a  poem  long  ascribed  to  Tertullian.  In  this  poem  more  miracu- 
lous characteristics  of  the  statue  are  revealed.  It  could  not  be 
washed  away  by  rains;  it  could  not  be  overthrown  by  winds; 
any  wound  made  upon  it  was  miraculously  healed;  and  the 
earlier  statements  as  to  its  physical  functions  were  amplified  in 
sonorous  Latin  verse. 

With  this  appeared  a  new  legend  regarding  the  Dead  Sea :  it 
became  universally  believed,  and  we  find  it  repeated  throughout 
the  whole  mediseval  period,  that  the  bitumen  could  only  be  dis- 
solved by  such  fluids  as  in  the  processes  of  animated  nature  came 
from  the  statue. 

The  legend  thus  amplified  we  shall  find  dwelt  upon  by  pious 
travelers  and  monkish  chroniclers  for  hundreds  of  years :  so  it 
came  to  be  more  and  more  treasured  by  the  universal  Church,  and 
held  more  and  more  firmly — "  always,  everywhere,  and  by  all." 

In  the  two  following  centuries  we  have  an  overwhelming  mass 
of  additional  authority  for  the  belief  that  the  very  statue  of  salt 

*  For  the  usual  biblical  citations,  see  Genesis  xix,  26  ;  St.  Luke  xvii,  32 ;  Second  Peter 
ii,  6.  For  the  citation  from  "  Wisdom,"  see  x,  V.  For  the  account  of  the  transformation 
of  Lot's  wife  put  into  its  proper  relations  with  the  Jchovistic  and  Elohistic  documents,  see 
Lenormant's  "  La  Genese,"  Paris,  1883,  pp.  53,  199,  and  317,  318. 


448  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

into  which  Lot's  wife  was  transformed  was  still  existing.  In  the 
fourth  the  continuance  of  the  statue  was  vouched  for  by  St.  Sil- 
via, who  visited  the  place :  though  she  could  not  see  it,  she  was 
told  by  the  Bishop  of  Segor  that  it  had  been  there  some  time 
before,  and  she  concluded  that  it  had  been  temporarily  covered 
by  the  sea.  In  both  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries  such  great 
doctors  in  the  Church  as  St.  Jerome,  St.  John  Chrysostom,  and 
St.  Cyril  of  Jerusalem  agreed  in  this  belief  and  statement ; 
hence  it  was,  doubtless,  that  the  Hebrew  word  which  is  trans- 
lated in  the  authorized  English  version  "  pillar,"  was  translated 
in  the  Vulgate,  which  the  vast  majority  of  Christians  believe 
divinely  inspired,  by  the  word  "  statue  " ;  we  shall  find  this  fact 
insisted  upon  by  theologians  arguing  in  behalf  of  the  statue,  as  a 
result  and  monument  of  the  miracle,  for  over  fourteen  hundred 
years  afterward.* 

About  the  middle  of  the  sixth  century  Antoninus  Martyr 
visited  the  Dead  Sea  region  and  described  it,  but  curiously  re- 
versed a  simple  truth  in  these  words  :  "  Nor  do  sticks  or  straws 
float  there,  nor  can  a  man  swim,  but  whatever  is  cast  into  it 
sinks  to  the  bottom."  As  to  the  statue  of  Lot's  wife,  he  threw 
doubt  upon  its  miraculous  renewal,  but  testified  that  it  was  still 
standing. 

In  the  seventh  century  the  Targum  of  Jerusalem  not  only 
testified  that  the  salt  pillar  at  Usdum  was  once  Lot's  wife,  but 
declared  that  she  must  retain  that  form  until  the  general  resur- 
rection. In  the  seventh  century,  too,  Bishop  Arculf  traveled  to 
the  Dead  Sea,  and  his  work  was  added  to  the  treasures  of  the 
Church.  He  develops  the  legend,  and  especially  that  part  of  it 
given  by  Josephus,  greatly.  The  bitumen  that  floats  upon  the 
sea  "  resembles  gold  and  the  form  of  a  bull  or  camel " ;  "  birds 
can  not  live  near  it " ;  and  "  the  very  beautiful  apples "  which 
grow  there,  when  plucked,  "  burn  and  are  reduced  to  ashes,  and 
smoke  as  if  they  were  still  burning." 

In  the  eighth  century  the  Venerable  Bede  takes  these  state- 
ments of  Arculf  and  his  predecessors,  binds  them  together  in  his 
work  on  "  The  Holy  Places,"  and  gives  the  whole  mass  of  myths 
and  legends  an  enormous  impulse,  f 

In  the  tenth  century  new  force  is  given  to  it  by  the  pious  Mos- 

*  See  Josephus,  "Antiquities,"  1,  1,  chap,  ii ;  Clement,  "Epist.,"  1;  Cyril,  "Hieros. 
Catech.,"  six  ;  Chrysostom,  "  Horn.,"  xviii,  xliv  in  Genes. ;  Irenaeus,  lib.  iv,  c.  xxxi,  or  cap. 
i,  p.  354,  edition  Oxon.,  1702.  For  St.  Silvia,  see  "  S.  Silvias  Aquitana?  Peregrinatio  ad 
Loca  Sancta,"  Roma?,  1887,  p.  55,  also  edition  of  1885,  p.  25.  For  legends  of  signs  of  con- 
tinued life  in  bowlders  and  stones  into  which  human  beings  have  been  transformed  for 
sin,  see  Karl  Bartsch,  "  Sagen,"  etc.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  420  et  seq. 

\  For  Antoninus  Martyr,  see  Tobler's  edition  of  his  work  in  the  "  Itinera,"  i,  p.  100, 
Geneva,  1877.  For  the  Targum  of  Jerusalem,  see  citat.  in  Quaresmius,  "Terra?  Sancta? 
Elucidatio,"  Peregrinatio  vi,  cap.  xiv ;  new  Venice  edition.     For  Arculf,  see  Tobler.     For 


NEW  CHAPTERS  IN  THE   WARFARE   OF  SCIENCE.   449 

lein,  Mukadassi.  Speaking  of  the  town  of  Segor,  near  the  salt 
region,  he  says  that  the  proper  translation  of  its  name  is  "  Hell " ; 
and  of  the  lake  he  says,  "  Its  waters  are  hot,  even  as  though  the 
place  stood  over  hell-fire." 

In  the  crusading  period,  immediately  following,  all  the  legends 
hurst  forth  more  brilliantly  than  ever. 

The  first  of  these  new  travelers  who  makes  careful  statements 
is  Fulk  of  Chartres,  who  in  1100  accompanied  King  Baldwin  to 
the  Dead  Sea  and  saw  many  wonders ;  but,  though  he  visited  the 
salt  region  of  Usdum,  he  makes  no  mention  of  the  salt  pillar  :  evi- 
dently he  had  fallen  on  evil  times  ;  the  older  statues  had  probably 
been  washed  away,  and  no  new  one  had  happened  to  be  washed 
out  of  the  rocks  just  at  that  period. 

But  his  misfortune  was  more  than  made  up  by  the  triumphant 
experience  of  a  far  more  famous  traveler,  half  a  century  later — 
Rabbi  Benjamin  of  Tudela. 

Rabbi  Benjamin  finds  new  evidences  of  miracle  in  the  Dead 
Sea,  and  develops  to  a  still  higher  point  the  myth  and  legend  of 
the  salt  statue  of  Lot's  wife,  enriching  the  world  with  the  state- 
ment that  it  was  steadily  and  miraculously  renewed  ;  that,  though 
the  cattle  of  the  region  licked  its  surface,  it  never  grew  smaller. 
Again  a  thrill  of  joy  went  through  the  monasteries  and  pulpits 
of  Christendom  at  this  increasing  "evidence  of  the  truth  of 
Scripture." 

Toward  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century  there  appeared  in 
Palestine  a  traveler  superior  to  most  before  or  since — Count 
Burchard,  monk  of  Mount  Sion.  He  had  the  advantage  of  know- 
ing something  of  Arabic,  and  his  writings  show  him  to  have  been 
observant  and  thoughtful.  No  statue  of  Lot's  wife  appears  to 
have  been  washed  clean  of  the  salt  rock  during  his  visit,  but  he 
takes  it  for  granted  that  the  Dead  Sea  is  "  the  mouth  of  hell,"  and 
that  the  vapor  rising  from  it  is  the  smoke  from  Satan's  furnaces. 

These  ideas  seem  to  have  become  part  of  the  common  stock, 
for  Ernoul,  who  traveled  to  the  Dead  Sea  during  the  same  century, 
always  speaks  of  it  as  the  "  Sea  of  Devils." 

Near  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century  came  a  traveler 
of  far  wider  influence — Sir  John  Maundeville. 

In  the  various  editions  of  the  book  ascribed  to  him,  myths  and 
legends  of  the  Dead  Sea  and  of  the  pillar  of  salt — old  and  new — 
burst  forth  into  wonderful  luxuriance.  He  brings  news  of  a 
woman  changed  into  an  enormous  dragon  ;  of  a  monster  who  be- 
sought a  monk  to  cast  out  the  devil  from  him,  and  who  had  horns 
on  his  head,  which  horns  were  shown  Maundeville  by  the  monk 

Bede,  see  his  "  De  Locis  Sanctis  "  in  Tobler's  "  Itinera,"  i,  p.  228.     For  an  admirable 
statement  of  the  mediaeval  theological  view  of  scientific  research,  see  Eicken,  "  Geschichte, 
etc.,  der  Mittelalterlichen  Weltanschauung,"  Stuttgart,  18S7,  chap.  vi. 
vol.  xxxvi. — 29 


45 o  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

who  told  him  the  story.  He  gives  full  details  of  the  phoenix 
rising  from  its  own  ashes.    But  all  culminates  at  the  Dead  Sea. 

He  tells  us  that  masses  of  fiery  matter  are  every  day  thrown 
up  from  it  as  large  as  a  horse ;  that,  though  it  contains  no  living 
thing,  it  has  been  shown  that  men  thrown  into  it  can  not  die  ;  and 
finally,  as  if  to  prove  the  worthlessness  of  devout  testimony  to  the 
miraculous,  he  says  :  "  And  whoever  throws  a  piece  of  iron  therein, 
it  floats ;  and  whoever  throws  a  feather  therein,  it  sinks  to  the 
bottom ;  and,  because  that  is  contrary  to  nature,  I  was  not  willing 
to  believe  it  until  I  saw  it." 

He  of  course  mentions  Lot's  wife,  and  says  that  the  pillar  of 
salt  "  stands  there  to-day,"  and  "  has  a  right  salty  taste." 

Great  injustice  has  been  done  to  Maundeville  in  holding  him 
a  liar  of  the  first  magnitude.  Never  was  man  further  from  the 
thought  of  lying.  He  simply  abhorred  skepticism,  and  thought  it 
meritorious  to  believe  all  pious  legends.  The  ideal  Maundeville 
was  a  man  of  overmastering  faith,  and  resembled  Tertullian  in 
believing  things  "  because  they  are  impossible  "  ;  he  was  entirely 
conscientious;  the  solemn  ending  of  the  book  shows  that  he 
listened,  observed,  and  wrote  under  the  deepest  conviction,  and 
those  who  re-edited  his  book  were  probably  just  as  honest  in  add- 
ing the  later  stories  of  pious  travelers. 

The  "  Travels  of  Sir  John  Maundeville,"  thus  appealing  to  the 
popular  heart,  were  most  widely  read  in  the  monasteries  and  re- 
peated among  the  people.  Innumerable  copies  were  made  in 
manuscript,  and  finally  in  print,  and  so  the  old  myths  received 
a  new  life.* 

In  the  fifteenth  century  wonders  were  increased.  In  1418  we 
have  the  Lord  of  Caumont,  who  makes  a  pilgrimage  and  gives  us 

*  For  Fulk  of  Chartres  and  Crusading  travelers  generally,  see  Bongar's  "  Gesta  Dei  per 
Francos," passim  ;  also  histories  of  the  Crusades  by  Wilkins,  Poujoulat,  and  others.  See  also 
Robinson,  "Biblical  Researches,"  ii,  109,  and  Tobler,  "  Bibliographia  Geographica  Pales- 
tine," 1867,  p.  12.  For  Benjamin  of  Tudela's  statement,  see  Wright's  "  Collection  of 
Travels  in  Palestine,"  p.  84,  and  Asher's  edition  of  Benjamin  of  Tudela's  travels,  vol  i, 
pp.  71,  72 ;  also  Charton,  vol.  i,  p.  180.  For  Borchard  or  Burchard,  see  full  text  in  the. 
"Reyssebuch  dess  Heyligen  Landes";  also  Grynseus,  "Nov.  Orbis,"  Basil.,  1B82,  folio  298, 
329.  For  Ernoul,  see  his  "  L'Estat  de  la  Cite  de  Ilierusalem,"  in  Michelin  and  Raynaud, 
"  Itineraires  Francaises  au  12me  et  lome  Siecles."  For  Petrus  Diaconus,  see  "  Petri  Diaconi 
de  Locis  Sanctis,"  edited  by  Gamurrini,  Rome,  1887,  pp.  12fi,  127.  For  Maundeville  I  have 
compared  several  editions,  especially  those  in  the  "  Reyssebuch,"  in  Canisius  and  in  Wright, 
with  Ilalliwell's  reprint  and  with  the  rare  Strasburg  edition  of  1484  in  the  Cornell  Univer- 
sity Library  :  the  whole  statement  regarding  the  experiment  with  iron  and  feathers  is  given 
differently  in  different  copies.  The  statement  that  he  saw  the  feathers  sink  and  the  iron 
Bwim  is  made  in  the  Reyssebuch  edition,  Frankfort,  1584.  The  story,  like  the  saints' 
legends,  evidently  grew  as  time  went  on,  but  is  none  the  less  interesting  as  showing  the 
general  credulity.  Since  writing  the  above  I  have  been  glad  to  find  my  view  of  Maunde- 
ville's  honesty  confirmed  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Robinson,  and  by  Mr.  Gage  in  his  edition  of  Hit- 
ter's "Palestine." 


NEW  CHAPTERS  IN  THE   WARFARE   OF  SCIENCE.    451 

a  statement  which  is  the  result  of  the  theological  reasoning  of 
centuries,  and  especially  interesting  as  a  typical  example  of  the 
theological  method  in  contrast  with  the  scientific.  He  could  not 
understand  how  the  blessed  waters  of  the  Jordan  could  "be  allowed 
to  mingle  with  the  accursed  waters  of  the  Dead  Sea.  In  spite, 
then,  of  the  eye  of  sense,  he  beheld  the  water  with  the  eye  of  faith, 
and  calmly  announced  that  the  Jordan  water  passes  through  the 
sea,  but  that  the  two  masses  of  water  are  not  mingled.  As  to  the 
salt  statue  of  Lot's  wife,  he  declares  it  to  be  still  existing ;  and, 
copying  a  table  of  indulgences  granted  by  the  Church  to  pious 
pilgrims,  he  puts  down  the  visit  to  the  salt  statue  as  giving  an 
indulgence  of  seven  years. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  century  we  have  another  traveler  yet 
more  influential,  Bernard  of  Breydenbach,  Dean  of  Mainz.  His 
book  of  travels  was  published  in  1486,  at  the  famous  press  of 
Schoeffer,  and  in  various  translations  it  was  spread  through 
Europe,  exercising  an  influence  wide  and  deep.  His  first  im- 
portant notice  of  the  Dead  Sea  is  as  follows :  "  In  this,  Tirus  the 
serpent  is  found,  and  from  him  the  Tiriac  medicine  is  made.  He 
is  blind,  and  so  full  of  venom  that  there  is  no  remedy  for  his  bite 
except  cutting  off  the  bitten  part.  He  can  only  be  taken  by  strik- 
ing him  and  making  him  angry ;  then  his  venom  flies  into  his 
head  and  tail."  Breydenbach  calls  the  Dead  Sea  "  the  chimney  of 
hell,"  and  repeats  the  old  story  as  to  the  miraculous  solvent  for 
its  bitumen.  He,  too,  makes  the  statement  that  the  holy  water 
of  the  Jordan  does  not  mingle  with  the  accursed  water  of  the 
infernal  sea ;  but  increases  the  miracle  which  Caumont  had  an- 
nounced by  saying  that,  although  the  waters  appear  to  come 
together,  the  Jordan  is  really  absorbed  in  the  earth  before  it 
reaches  the  sea. 

As  to  Lot's  wife,  various  travelers  at  that  time  had  various 
fortunes.  Some,  like  Caumont  and  Breydenbach,  took  her  con- 
tinued existence  for  granted ;  some,  like  Count  John  of  Solms, 
saw  her  and  were  greatly  edified ;  some,  like  Hans  Werli,  tried  to 
find  her  and  could  not,  but,  like  St.  Silvia,  a  thousand  years 
before,  were  none  the  less  edified  by  the  idea  that,  for  some  inscru- 
table purpose,  the  sea  had  been  allowed  to  hide  her  from  them ; 
some  found  her  larger  than  they  expected,  even  forty  feet  high, 
as  was  the  salt  pillar  which  happened  to  be  standing  at  the  visit 
of  Commander  Lynch  in  1848 ;  but  this  only  added  a  new  proof 
to  the  miracle,  for  the  text  was  remembered,  "  There  were  giants 
in  those  days." 

Out  of  the  mass  of  works  of  pilgrims  during  the  fifteenth  cent- 
ury I  select  just  one  more  as  typical  of  the  theological  view  then 
dominant,  and  this  is  the  noted  book  of  Felix  Fabri,  a  preaching 
friar  of  Ulm. 


452  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

I  select  him,  because  even  so  eminent  an  authority  in  our  own 
time  as  Dr.  Edward  Robinson  declares  him  to  have  been  the  most 
thorough,  thoughtful,  and  enlightened  traveler  of  that  century. 

Fabri  is  greatly  impressed  by  the  wonders  of  the  Dead  Sea, 
and  typical  of  his  honesty  influenced  by  faith  is  his  account  of  the 
Dead  Sea  fruit ;  he  describes  it  with  almost  perfect  accuracy,  but 
adds  the  statement  that  when  mature  it  is  "  filled  with  ashes  and 
cinders." 

As  to  the  salt  statue,  he  says :  "  We  saw  the  place  between  the 
sea  and  Mount  Segor,  but  could  not  see  the  statue  itself  because 
we  were  too  far  distant  to  see  anything  of  human  size ;  but  we 
saw  it  with  firm  faith,  because  we  believed  Scripture,  which  speaks 
of  it ;  and  we  were  filled  with  wonder." 

To  sustain  absolute  faith  in  the  statue  he  reminds  his  readers 
that  "  God  is  able  even  of  these  stones  to  raise  up  seed  to  Abra- 
ham," and  goes  into  a  long  argument,  discussing  such  transforma- 
tions as  those  of  King  Atlas  and  Pygmalion's  statue,  with  a  mul- 
titude of  others,  winding  up  with  the  case,  given  in  the  miracles 
of  St.  Jerome,  of  a  heretic  who  was  changed  into  a  log  of  wood, 
which  was  then  burned. 

He  gives  a  statement  of  the  Hebrews  that  Lot's  wife  received 
her  peculiar  punishment  because  she  had  refused  to  add  salt  to  the 
food  of  the  angels  when  they  visited  her,  and  he  preaches  a  short 
sermon  in  which  he  says  that,  as  salt  is  the  condiment  of  food,  so 
the  salt  statue  of  Lot's  wife  "  gives  us  a  condiment  of  wisdom."  * 

There  were  indeed  many  discrepancies  in  the  testimony  of 
travelers  regarding  the  salt  pillar — so  many,  in  fact,  that  at  a  later 
period  the  learned  Dom  Calmet  acknowledged  that  they  shook  his 
belief  in  the  whole  matter ;  but,  during  this  earlier  time,  under 
the  complete  sway  of  the  theological  spirit,  these  difficulties  only 
gave  new  and  more  glorious  opportunities  for  faith. 

For,  if  a  considerable  interval  occurred  between  the  washing 
of  one  salt  pillar  out  of  existence  and  the  washing  of  another  into 
existence,  the  idea  arose  that  the  statue,  by  virtue  of  the  soul 
which  still  remained  in  it,  had  departed  on  some  mysterious  excur- 
sion ;  did  it  happen  that  one  statue  was  washed  out  one  year  in 
one  place  and  another  statue  another  year  in  another  place,  this 
difficulty  was  surmounted  by  believing  that  Lot's  wife  still  walked 
about ;  did  it  happen  that  a  salt  column  was  undermined  by  the 
rains  and  fell,  this  was  believed  to  be  but  another  sign  of  life ;  did 

*  For  Bernhard  of  Breydenbach,  see  marked  pages  in  the  Latin  edition,  Mentz,  1486,  in 
the  White  collection,  Cornell  University,  also  in  German  edition  in  the  "  Reyssebuch  "  ;  for 
John  of  Solrns,  Werli,  and  the  like,  see  the  "  Reyssebuch,"  which  gives  a  full  text  of  their 
travels.  For  Fabri  (Schmid),  see,  for  his  value,  Robinson,  also  Tobler,  "  Bibliographia," 
53  et  seq.  ;  and  for  texts  the  "Reyssebuch,"  122b  ct  seq.,  but  best  the  "Fratris  Fel.  Fabri 
Evagatorium,"  ed.  Hassler,  Stuttgart,  1813,  iii,  172  ct  seq. 


NEW   CHAPTERS  IN  THE   WARFARE   OF  SCIENCE.    453 

a  pillar  happen  to  be  covered  in  part  by  the  sea,  this  was  enough  to 
arouse  the  belief  that  the  statue  from  time  to  time  descended  into 
the  Dead  Sea  depths — possibly  to  satisfy  that  old  fatal  curiosity 
regarding  her  former  neighbors ;  did  some  smaller  block  of  salt 
happen  to  be  washed  out  near  the  statue,  it  was  believed  that  a 
household  dog,  also  transformed  into  salt,  had  followed  her  back 
from  beneath  the  deep ;  did  more  statues  than  one  appear  at  one 
time,  that  simply  made  the  mystery  more  impressive. 

In  facts  now  so  easy  of  scientific  explanation  the  theologians 
found  wonderful  food  for  discussion. 

One  great  question  among  them  was  whether  the  soul  of  Lot's 
wife  did  really  remain  in  the  statue.  On  one  side  it  was  insisted 
that,  as  Holy  Scripture  declares  that  Lot's  wife  was  changed  into 
a  pillar  of  salt,  and  as  she  was  necessarily  made  up  of  a  soul  and 
a  body,  the  soul  must  have  become  part  of  the  statue.  This  argu- 
ment was  clinched  by  citing  that  passage  in  the  Book  of  Wisdom 
in  which  the  salt  pillar  is  declared  to  be  still  standing  as  "  the 
monument  of  an  unbelieving  soul."  On  the  other  hand,  it  was 
insisted  that  the  soul  of  the  woman  must  have  been  incorporeal 
and  immortal,  and  hence  could  not  have  been  changed  into  a  sub- 
stance corporeal  and  mortal.  Naturally,  to  this  it  would  be 
answered  that  the  salt  pillar  was  no  more  corporeal  than  the 
ordinary  materials  of  the  human  body,  and  that  it  had  been  made 
miraculously  immortal,  and  that  "  with  God  all  things  are  possi- 
ble."   Thus  long  vistas  of  theological  discussion  were  opened.* 

As  we  enter  the  sixteenth  century  the  Dead  Sea  myths,  and 
especially  the  legends  of  Lot's  wife,  are  still  growing.  In  1507 
Father  Anselm  of  the  Minorites  declares  that  the  sea  sometimes 
covers  the  feet  of  the  statue,  sometimes  the  legs,  sometimes  the 
whole  body. 

In  1555  Gabriel  Giraudet,  priest  at  Puy,  journeyed  through 
Palestine.  His  faith  was  robust,  and  his  attitude  toward  the 
myths  of  the  Dead  Sea  is  seen  by  his  declaration  that  its  waters 
are  so  foul  that  one  can  smell  them  at  a  distance  of  three  leagues ; 
that  straw,  hay,  or  feathers  thrown  into  them  will  sink,  but  that 
iron  and  other  metals  will  float ;  that  criminals  have  been  kept  in 
them  three  or  four  days  and  could  not  drown.  As  to  Lot's  wife, 
he  says  that  he  found  her  "  lying  there,  her  back  toward  heaven, 
converted  into  salt  stone ;  for  I  touched  her,  scratched  her,  and 
put  a  piece  of  her  into  my  mouth,  and  she  tasted  salt." 

At  the  center  of  all  these  legends  we  see,  then,  the  idea  that, 
though  there  were  no  living  beasts  in  the  Dead  Sea,  the  people  of 
the  overwhelmed  cities  were  still  living  beneath  its  waters,  prob- 

*  For  a  brief  statement  of  the  main  arguments  for  and  against  the  idea  that  the  soul 
of  Lot's  wife  remained  within  the  salt  statue,  see  Cornelius  a  Lapide,  "  Commentarius  in 
Pentateuchum,"  Antwerp,  1697,  chap.  xix. 


454  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY, 

ably  in  hell ;  that  there  was  life  in  the  salt  statue ;  and  that  it 
was  still  curious  regarding  its  old  neighbors. 

Hence  such  travelers  in  the  latter  years  of  the  century  as 
Count  Albert  of  Lowenstein  and  Prince  Nicholas  Radzivill  are 
not  at  all  weakened  in  faith  by  failing  to  find  the  statue ;  what 
the  former  is  capable  of  believing  is  seen  by  his  statement  that  in 
a  certain  cemetery  at  Cairo  during  one  night  in  the  year  the  dead 
thrust  forth  their  feet,  hands,  limbs,  and  even  rise  wholly  from 
their  graves. 

There  seemed,  then,  no  limit  to  these  pious  beliefs.  The  idea 
that  there  is  merit  in  credulity,  with  the  love  of  myth-making 
and  miracle-mongering,  constantly  made  them  larger.  Nor  did 
the  Protestant  Reformation,  which  now  came  in,  diminish  them 
at  first ;  it  rather  strengthened  them  and  fixed  them  more  firmly 
in  the  popular  mind.  They  seemed  destined  to  last  forever.  How 
they  were  thus  strengthened  at  first,  under  Protestantism,  and 
how  they  were  finally  dissolved  away  in  the  atmosphere  of  scien- 
tific thought,  will  be  shown  in  the  following  chapter.* 


-♦*♦- 


THE   LOCALIZATION  OF  INDUSTRIES. 

Bt  J.  J.  MENZIES. 

AMONG  the  ancient  peoples  of  the  far  East  any  exchange  of 
productions  was  necessarily  on  a  small  scale.  Means  of 
transport  were  limited — by  land,  to  the  backs  of  men  and  animals ; 
and  by  water,  to  rivers  and  such  lakes  or  inland  seas  as  could 
be  safely  navigated  by  small  and  rudely  constructed  boats.  Most 
commodities  were  raised,  manufactured,  and  consumed  within  very 
restricted  areas,  with  little  division  of  labor ;  and  excepting  nat- 
urally abundant  agricultural  products  and  domestic  animals  were, 
therefore,  inferior  and  expensive,  and  men  could  only  accommo- 
date themselves  to  variations  in  crops  by  lavish  consumption  when 
they  were  abundant,  and  by  starvation  when  they  were  scanty. 
In  later  times,  the  art  of  navigation  was  so  far  improved  as  to  ex- 
tend trading  along  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  eventu- 
ally across  it,  by  which  means  countries  situated  round  about  that 
great  inland  sea  were  brought  into  close  communication  with  each 
other,  a  rapid  advance  in  the  arts  and  sciences  resulted,  countries 
hitherto  little  known  were  explored,  a  larger  exchange  of  com- 
modities was  effected,  and  surpluses  and  deficits  were  made  to  bal- 

*  For  Father  Anselm,  see  his  "  Descriptio  Terra?  Sanctae,"  in  H.  Canisius,  "  Thesaurus 
Monument.  Eccles.,"  Basnace  edition,  Amsterdam,  1725,  vol.  iv,  p.  7S8.  For  Giraudet,  see 
his  "  Discours  du  Voyage  d'Oultre  Mer  .  .  .  et  autres  Lieux  de  la  Terre  Saincte,"  Paris, 
1585,  p.  50a.     For  Radziwill  and  Lowenstein,  see  the  "  Reyssebuch,"  especially  p.  198a. 


THE  LOCALIZATION   OF  INDUSTRIES.  455 

ance  each  other.  Still  later  navigation  reached  to  all  the  shores 
of  the  Old  World,  and  finally  into  the  Western  hemisphere. 
With  every  addition  to  the  field  of  human  knowledge  and  enter- 
prise there  was  a  corresponding  increase  in  the  volume  of  ex- 
changes and  in  the  variety  of  manufactures  and  useful  conven- 
iences. Each  country  and  district  parted  with  that  which  it  had 
in  superabundance,  or  was  particularly  skilled  in  producing,  for 
goods  that  were  scarce  or  wanting  to  it,  or  that  its  own  artificers 
were  not  accustomed  to  manufacture. 

The  same  system  of  operations  continues  extending  at  the 
present  day,  and  may  do  so  apparently  for  an  indefinite  time. 
Every  new  country  brought  tinder  cultivation,  every  new  dis- 
covery of  the  treasures  of  the  earth  and  waters,  every  new  ap- 
pliance adding  to  our  powers  and  to  our  facilities  of  communi- 
cation, and  even  every  increase  in  itself  in  the  sum  of  trading 
operations,  forms  the  basis  of  new  exchanges  to  mutual  advan- 
tage; for  the  greater  the  quantities  the  smaller  the  profit  at 
which  it  will  pay  to  exchange  them.  Experience  keeps  con- 
stantly adding  to  our  knowledge  of  the  special  advantages  of 
each  locality,  and  every  free  movement  of  trade  and  industry 
increases  the  sum  of  their  usefulness  to  the  human  race.  Scar- 
city of  food  can  no  longer  exist  among  nations  that  have  kept 
abreast  of  this  economical  revolution.  The  aggregate  of  com- 
forts and  luxuries  generally  attainable  has  multiplied  enor- 
mously, and  the  mere  operations  of  exchange  give  directly  and 
indirectly  steady  and  profitable  employment  to  vast  numbers. 
Nor  is  this  freer  exchange  of  commodities  and  of  ideas  attended, 
as  many  suppose,  by  increased  competition  between  men  and 
nations,  for  it  is  accompanied  by  a  better  and  more  wide-spread 
division  of  labor,  and  men  by  degrees  cease  to  produce  these  arti- 
cles in  which  they  are  manifestly  at  a  disadvantage,  and  the  dis- 
posal of  which  entails  loss  and  disappointment.  Those  who 
doubt  the  advantages  of  this  universal,  world-wide  intercourse 
and  exchange  are  bound  in  consistency  to  advocate  the  reversion 
of  society  not  merely  to  any  earlier  stage  in  its  development,  but 
to  that  state  of  things  which  preceded  its  initiation — that  is,  to 
pure  and  simple  cannibalism ;  for  an  argument  that  is  good 
against  one  step  in  this  march  of  progress  is  equally  good  against 
another.  As  it  is  certain,  too,  that  this  same  movement,  in  spite 
of  wars  and  governmental  interferences,  is  constant  and  resistless, 
there  can  be  no  more  important  question  than  how  best  to  con- 
form to  and  profit  by  it,  which  we  may  learn  by  observing  how 
men  and  nations  naturally  find  their  most  suitable  and  profitable 
occupations. 

The  general  principles  determining  the  employment  of  the  soil 
of  different  countries  and  localities  are  tolerably  simple.    Com- 


456  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

mon,  bulky,  and  perishable  articles  are  naturally  produced  as 
near  as  possible  to  the  places  of  consumption,  though  improve- 
ments enabling  them  to  be  more  easily  and  cheaply  transported 
render  them  more  available  for  distant  markets.  Such  are  the 
compression  and  baling  of  hay,  the  conveyance  of  dead  meats  in 
refrigerated  chambers,  of  live  animals  in  specially  adapted  wag- 
ons and  steamships,  and  of  ordinary  fresh  fruits  and  vegetables 
by  express  trains.  More  valuable  articles  and  luxuries,  such  as 
the  finer  fruits,  sugar,  tobacco,  and  cotton,  the  cost  of  transport  of 
which  is  relatively  less  important,  can  and  often  must  be  pro- 
duced in  localities  specially  adapted  to  them  at  greater  distances 
from  the  places  of  their  eventual  consumption.  Dried  fruits  are 
more  fitted  for  distant  and  uncertain  markets  than  green  fruits. 
Other  generally  esteemed  articles,  such  as  silk,  tea,  and  the  finer 
wines,  naturally  monopolize  the  limited  areas  capable  of  produc- 
ing them.  On  the  other  hand,  as  almost  any  part  of  the  world 
can  grow  wheat  and  the  ordinary  small  grains  by  the  employ- 
ment of  a  comparatively  limited  capital,  as  the  cost  of  transporting 
them  is  inconsiderable,  as  they  are  not  liable  to  spoil,  and  as  the 
enormous  quantities  in  which  they  are  handled  and  the  universal 
competition  among  producers  of  them  enable  and  necessitate  their 
being  turned  over  at  the  minimum  profits,  the  growth  of  these 
indispensable  staples  is  left  to  the  newest,  the  poorest,  and  the  most 
remote  countries,  and  to  those  parts  of  other  countries  for  which 
no  better  employment  can  be  found.  A  decline  in  the  production 
of  these  articles  is  a  sign,  beyond  doubt,  of  the  increasing  wealth  of 
a  country,  and  that  it  has  found  better  employments  for  its  capital 
and  labor.  This  is  especially  noticeable  in  England,  Germany, 
France,  and  our  own  Eastern  States ;  and  California  also,  it  may 
be  noted,  is  discontinuing  the  production  of  grain  as  rapidly  as 
she  can  find  a  market  for  her  higher  class  articles.  A  still  more 
decided  move  in  the  same  direction  is  only  restrained  in  England 
by  the  uncertainty  of  the  climate,  and  the  consequent  danger  of 
devoting  too  great  an  area  to  pasturage,  green  crops,  fruit,  or 
hops,  since  an  excess  of  drought  is  adverse  to  the  first  two,  and 
an  excess  of  moisture  to  the  others.  The  future  order  of  cultiva- 
tion in  the  United  States  is  dependent  chiefly  on  the  development  by 
irrigation  of  the  vast  arid  regions  of  the  West,  and  upon  the  nature 
of  the  resources  which  may  thereby  be  disclosed,  as  also  upon  the 
description  and  extent  of  the  trade  just  beginning  between  our 
Pacific  coast,  Japan,  China,  Australia,  and  New  Zealand,  and 
that  to  open  up  later  with  the  East  by  the  Central  American  inter- 
oceanic  canal.  It  is  already  certain  that  the  convenient  position 
of  California  for  this  trade,  her  variety  of  climate  and  elevation, 
and  resulting  adaptability  for  a  great  choice  of  productions, 
insures  for  her,  through  the  extension  of  irrigation,  a  great  and 


THE  LOCALIZATION  OF  INDUSTRIES.  457 

distinctive  future.  If  her  wine  trade  be  not  as  yet  as  prosperous 
as  she  could  wish,  no  one  need  be  surprised  at  this  who  has  re- 
marked the  specialties  of  character  in  the  different  European 
wines,  and  considered  the  centuries  of  labor  and  application  that 
have  been  required  to  evolve  these  varied  types  as  the  most  appro- 
priate to  their  several  localities,  as  also  the  great  capital  employed 
at  low  rates  of  interest  in  maturing  these  wines  and  in  educating 
the  tastes  of  consumers  thereto.  The  production  of  wool  on  a 
large  scale  is  a  natural  resource  of  mountainous  countries  and  of 
regions  distant  from  centers  of  population,  as  we  see  in  Wales, 
portions  of  Scotland,  Germany,  and  the  United  States.  The 
marked  devotion  of  Australia  to  this  industry  is  due  to  the  sud- 
den opening  of  her  unlimited  territories,  to  the  nature  of  her 
climate,  suitable  for  the  rearing  of  sheep,  and  to  her  rainfall, 
too  limited  and  uncertain  for  profitable  cultivation.  Added  to 
these  causes  is  her  remoteness  from  other  countries,  which,  mak- 
ing impossible  the  export  of  the  animals  themselves,  dead  or  alive, 
on  an  adequate  scale,  has  allowed  her  flocks  to  increase  almost 
unchecked. 

As  we  already  saw  in  the  case  of  the  common  and  bulky  natu- 
ral products,  so  it  is  with  the  corresponding  class  of  manufactured 
goods ;  they  can  not  well  bear  a  long  and  expensive  carriage,  and 
therefore,  other  things  being  equal,  are  naturally  produced  as 
near  as  possible  to  their  places  of  consumption.  As  in  the  United 
States  there  are  numerous  contiguous  deposits  of  coal  and  iron, 
those  most  convenient  to  the  large  centers  of  population  have 
been  in  the  mean  time  utilized,  both  for  fuel  and  for  the  heavy 
iron  manufactures,  rails,  pipes,  and  machinery,  that  the  various 
purposes  of  such  communities  call  for  on  a  great  scale.  When 
such  articles  must  necessarily  be  sent  to  long  distances,  those 
points  most  convenient  to  water-carriage  are  naturally  preferred 
for  their  production.  Pittsburgh  is  a  notable  instance  of  this,  also 
the  English,  Scotch,  Welsh,  and  Australian  coal  ports,  from  which 
this  indispensable  mineral  is  shipped  to  every  part  of  the  world. 
When  especially  it  is  desirable  for  some  manufactures  to  mix  the 
heavier  metals  of  different  countries,  such  operations  must  neces- 
sarily take  place  at  or  near  some  convenient  port.  Thus,  tin  mined 
in  Cornwall  is  taken  to  Swansea,  the  nearest  port  having  iron- 
works, when  required  for  making  tin  plates,  and  imported  ores 
are,  by  the  use  of  the  adjacent  coal,  also  smelted  there,  as  well  as 
at  various  coal  ports  in  the  northwest  coast  of  England  and  else- 
where. The  convenience  of  both  coal  and  iron  has  made  the  river 
Clyde  the  chief  seat  of  iron  ship-building,  just  as  its  local  timber 
made  Boston  that  of  wooden  ship-building.  Makers  of  boilers, 
engines,  and  heavy  machinery  at  Manchester,  England,  have  also 
discovered  that  even  the  thirty  miles  of  rail  carriage  to  Liverpool, 


45*  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

and  the  rehandling  there,  handicap  them  in  competition  with 
Glasgow  shippers  of  the  same  articles,  which  is  one  of  the  chief 
reasons  for  the  construction,  now  in  progress,  of  the  Manchester 
ship-canal.  In  countries  where  deposits  of  coal  and  iron  are  com- 
paratively rare,  as  in  France,  Germany,  and  elsewhere,  the  favored 
spots  necessarily  become  themselves  the  chief  centers  of  manu- 
facture and  population.  Furniture  is  a  rather  bulky  and  expen- 
sive article  to  move  about,  and  its  manufacture,  for  use  through  a 
large  portion  of  the  United  States,  has  found  an  appropriate  and 
central  position  at  Grand  Rapids,  Mich.,  where  the  most  useful 
native  timbers  and  water-power  are  in  abundance. 

The  lighter  metal  and  wood  manufactures,  the  textiles,  leather, 
pottery,  and  miscellaneous  small  wares,  in  which  the  cost  of  trans- 
port is  relatively  less  important,  are  determined,  as  to  their  loca- 
tion, by  a  much  greater  complexity  of  conditions,  and  the  general 
rules  on  this  point  are  subject,  in  their  case,  to  variation  from 
specially  dominant  influences.  In  order  to  combine  the  most  ob- 
vious advantages,  they  should  not  be  situated  too  far  from  a  sup- 
ply of  coal  and  iron,  should  be  convenient  to  the  sources  of  their 
raw  material,  whether  home  or  foreign,  and  to  the  markets  where 
their  finished  products  are  expected  to  find  a  sale.  While,  too, 
each  article  and  department  of  manufacture  will  usually  succeed 
best  around  a  center  of  its  own,  where  a  skilled  and  adapted  popu- 
lation has  become  settled,  it  is  still  more  important  that  all  should 
be  conveniently  clustered  for  mutual  assistance.  While  these 
conditions  are  more  or  less  generally  complied  with  in  all  great 
manufacturing  countries,  they  are  most  completely  so  in  Great 
Britain,  partly  by  reason  of  its  natural  facilities,  partly  owing  to 
the  absence  of  any  fiscal  interference  by  their  own  Government. 
Thus  it  may  be  observed  that  the  location  of  the  cotton  manufact- 
ure in  Lancashire,  of  the  woolen  in  Yorkshire,  and  of  the  lighter 
metal  and  miscellaneous  in  and  around  Birmingham,  is  in  compli- 
ance with  those  principles,  as  well  as  the  subdivision  and  speciali- 
zation of  all  these  various  industries,  many  of  which  and  similar 
ones  may  also  be  found  in  Scotland,  which,  to  a  certain  extent,  is 
a  smaller  independent  center.  Subject  to  necessary  geographical 
differences,  the  location  and  arrangement  of  similar  manufactures 
in  the  United  States  and  on  the  European  continent  follows  as  near- 
ly as  possible  the  same  conditions.  Only  in  New  England  had  we 
in  existence  a  population  capable  of  successfully  undertaking  the 
production  of  the  great  variety  of  those  articles  when  prematurely 
called  for  by  the  imposition  of  our  high  protective  tariff  on  their 
importation  ;  and  the  situation  of  that  country,  in  a  corner,  as  it 
were,  of  our  territory,  and  without  local  supplies  of  coal  and  iron, 
is  not  all  that  could  be  desired  for  the  purpose.  True,  its  sea- 
ports, convenient  for  coastwise  navigation,  its  abundant  water- 


THE  LOCALIZATION   OF  INDUSTRIES.  459 

power,  and  its  supply  of  native  wool  and  timber,  to  a  great  extent 
set  off  these  disadvantages,  though  probably  not  completely. 

The  free  commercial  policy  of  Great  Britain,  united  with  the 
combination  in  a  small,  centrally  situated  space  of  country  of  all 
the  most  desirable  facilities,  marks  her  out  as  the  greatest  of 
international  manufacturing  and  trading  countries.  Her  manu- 
facturers have  perfect  liberty  to  purchase  their  raw  or  partially 
manufactured  materials  in  the  best  and  cheapest  markets ;  and 
their  constant  intercourse  with  all  parts  of  the  world  keeps  them 
informed  of  every  new  invention  and  resource.  Their  own 
home  market  is  one  of  the  most  important,  and,  having  no  pro- 
tection therein,  they  know  at  once  when  they  are  excelled  in  the 
production  of  any  article,  and  whether  it  is  owing  to  any  natural 
or  acquired  advantage,  so  that  among  them  there  is  very  little 
waste  of  effort.  Extent  of  capital  hitherto  undreamed  of,  ready 
to  back  their  efforts  abroad  by  investments  in  every  promising 
enterprise,  also  enables  them  to  command  a  preference  in  many 
undeveloped  and  poor  countries.  Yet  it  would  be  a  great  error 
to  suppose  that  there  do  not  exist  in  many  other  countries  advan- 
tages sufficient  to  enable  them  also  to  carry  on  a  large  export  busi- 
ness in  manufactured  goods.  All  are  able  to  utilize  some  native 
materials  and  to  save  the  intermediate  profits  and  carriages  upon 
foreign  wares,  and  without  doubt  there  are  many  wants  that  are 
best  understood  by  the  native  manufacturers.  Crippled  as  their 
producers  are  by  fiscal  restrictions  upon  their  purchases  and  com- 
binations, several  of  them  are  even  now  able  to  sell  their  wares 
largely  to  England  herself.  The  artisans  of  the  European  conti- 
nent are  willing  to  work  during  a  greater  number  of  hours  daily 
and  for  lower  wages  than  those  of  Great  Britain,  and  the  cost 
of  production  is  thereby  diminished ;  and  there  are  always  in  each 
country  some  advantages  peculiar  to  itself  and  its  population. 
Thus,  France  has  a  specialty  in  artistic  taste,  which  enables  her  to 
supply  the  English  market  with  most  of  its  silks  and  ornamental 
objects,  as  well  as  with  large  quantities  of  fine  woolen  fabrics. 
Germany,  the  best  educated  country  in  the  world,  excels  in  ap- 
plied science,  as  in  the  working  of  metals  and  stained  glass ;  and 
the  United  States  in  labor-economizing  apparatus,  such  as  agri- 
cultural, sewing,  and  printing  machines.  Belgium  has  supplied 
wrought-iron  girders  for  the  roofs  of  English  and  Scotch  rail- 
way stations.  England  also  exports  large  quantities  of  partially 
manufactured  goods,  such  as  yarns,  chemicals,  and  pig-iron,  show- 
ing that  the  importing  countries  have,  in  various  ways,  superior 
facilities  for  the  finishing  processes.  She  also  has  need  of  the 
co-operation  of  other  countries  for  the  perfecting  of  her  own 
wares.  Thus,  the  finest  flax  grown  in  the  north  of  Ireland,  in 
order  to  attain  its  highest  quality,  must  be  sent  to  Belgium  to  be 


460  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

steeped  in  the  water  of  a  certain  river.  Returning  from  there,  it 
is  spun  into  superfine  yarns  by  the  best  machinery  and  in  the 
naturally  adapted  moist  climate  of  Belfast.  At  that  stage  the 
product  is  again  sent  back  to  Belgium,  where  it  is  woven  into 
gossamer-like  cambrics,  in  low,  damp  cellars,  and  under  condi- 
tions that  would  not  be  agreeable  to  the  north  of  Ireland  artisan, 
and  the  work  of  the  Belgian  hand-loom  weaver  must  then  be 
carried  back  to  be  bleached  under  the  dripping  skies  of  the  Green 
Isle.  England  is,  besides,  herself  the  largest  and  readiest  buyer 
of  all  improved  articles  of  necessity  and  luxury,  from  whatever 
source  arriving;  and,  while  usually  the  first  to  open  up  new 
markets,  in  none  does  she  lay  claim  to  any  exclusive  privilege. 

There  is,  indeed,  ample  room  in  the  natural  economy  of  pro- 
duction for  the  services  of  all  nations,  and  none  need  stand  idle. 
Co-operation,  not  hostility  and  jealousy,  should  be  the  watchword 
of  modern  industrial  enterprise.  We  ought,  in  the  interest  of  pro- 
ducer and  consumer  alike,  to  remove  all  fiscal  shackles  from  our 
trade  and  manufactures.  European  governments,  hampered  with 
the  expenses  of  an  all-devouring  militarism,  may  be  unable  to 
abandon  any  source  of  revenue,  however  demoralizing  in  its  inci- 
dence or  costly  in  its  collection.  They  may  also  fear  the  effects 
upon  their  own  stability  of  even  a  temporary  disturbance  of  ex- 
isting employments.  But  neither  of  these  objections  can  be  of 
any  weight  with  a  nation  perplexed  only  with  the  disposal  of  its 
surplus  revenues,  and  whose  reposing  might  need  fear  no  foreign 
attack.  In  the  enormous  extent  of  our  partially  developed  terri- 
torial resources,  and  no  less  in  our  wealth  of  inventiveness,  now 
but  half  utilized,  there  can  be  no  scarcity  of  employment  for 
capital  and  labor,  nor  can  we  find  any  such  profitable  investment 
for  our  hoarded  millions  as  the  release  of  our  capitalists  and 
artisans,  by  just  indemnities  and  pensions,  from  the  demoralizing 
servitude  of  state-supported  industries.  In  the  past  we  have 
misdirected  their  energies  and  squandered  their  resources,  and 
we  owe  them  some  compensation.  Let  us  all  make  a  new  start 
by  working  in  alliance  with  Nature,  and  no  longer  in  ignorant 
opposition  to  her.  Let  each  industry  freely  settle  where  it  may, 
in  our  territory  or  out  of  it,  and  within  the  lifetime  of  many 
already  middle-aged  we  shall  see  progress  in  the  wealth  of  our 
country,  and  in  the  growth  and  contentment  of  our  population, 
far  surpassing  all  our  previous  experience. 


A  new  view  into  the  conditions  and  international  relations  of  the  remote  past 
is  given  by  Dr.  Lehmann,  of  Berlin,  in  a  paper  on  "  Ancient  Metrology."  His 
showing  that  the  Egyptian  system  of  weights  and  measures,  instead  of  being  the 
origin  of  that  of  Babylonia,  presupposes  the  sexagesimal  system  of  the  latter,  if  con- 
firmed, would  indicate  the  existence  of  commercial  intercourse  between  Babylonia 
and  Egypt  at  a  time  of  which  we  have  at  present  no  contemporaneous  records. 


EVOLUTION    OF   THE  MODERN  RAILWAY  BRIDGE.  461 


THE  EVOLUTION"  OF  THE  MODERN  RAILWAY 

BRIDGE. 

By  Peof.  CHAKLES  DAVIS  JAMESON, 

OF  THE   STATE   UNIVEESITY   OF   IOWA. 

ABRIDGE  is  a  structure  over  a  river,  ravine,  or  other  open- 
ing, for  the  purpose  of  sustaining  a  moving  load.  This,  in 
the  case  of  a  railroad  bridge,  consists  of  a  heavy  locomotive  and 
train  coming  on  at  one  end,  rushing  rapidly  over  the  bridge,  and 
off  at  the  other  end.  This  fact,  that  the  load  to  which  bridges  are 
subjected  is  a  moving  load  applied  for  only  a  short  period  of  time 
and  then  removed,  is  a  most  important  factor  to  be  considered  in 
calculating  the  necessary  strength  of  the  various  members,  as  the 
strain  produced  in  any  piece  of  material  by  the  application  of  a 
load  is  nearly  doubled  when  the  load  is  applied  quickly  as  com- 
pared with  that  produced  by  the  same  load  when  applied  grad- 
ually. 

Bridges  may  be  divided  into  the  following  classes :  1.  The 
beam  or  girder.  2.  The  framed  truss.  3.  The  arch.  4.  The  sus- 
pension bridge. 

The  most  ordinary  form  which  we  see  in  this  country,  and  the 
one  most  generally  used  for  the  purpose  of  railway  bridges,  is 
the  framed  truss,  and  that  is  the  one  the  development  of  which  it 
is  our  purpose  to  show. 

The  one  point  to  be  carefully  studied  in  all  bridge  construc- 
tion is  economy — that  is,  to  get  as  much  strength  with  as  little 
material  as  possible;  in  other  words,  the  maximum  amount  of 
strength  with  the  minimum  amount  of  material. 

The  simplest  method  of  crossing  any  opening  where  the  dimen- 
sions of  the  opening  are  not  so  great,  or  the  load  so  heavy,  as  to 
forbid  its  use,  is  by  means  of  a  plank  placed  from  one  side  to  the 
other,  making  the  plank  of  such  a  length  that  the  ends  may  have 
sufficient  bearing  upon  each  side  of  the  opening  (Fig.  1). 


Fiff.l 

In  crossing  an  opening  by  means  of  a  simple  plank  or  beam, 
supposing  we  make  the  beam  large  enough,  it  answers  every  pur- 
pose and  will  hold  up  the  required  load.  But  in  this  there  is 
great  waste  of  material.  We  will  take,  for  example,  a  plank 
twelve  inches  wide,  and  three  inches  deep,  over  an  eighteen-foot 
opening — that  is,  the  plank  would  have  to  be  about  twenty-one  or 
twenty-two  feet  long,  in  order  to  allow  the  ends  sufficient  bearing 
surface  upon  the  masonry  on  each  side.  This  plank  would  hold 
up  a  certain  amount  of  weight,  but,  as  the  weight  is  increased,  in 


462  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

a  very  short  time  the  plank  would  begin  to  "bend  and  buckle  in  the 
center.  In  order  to  increase  the  strength  of  this  primitive  bridge, 
we  could  place  another  plank  beside  it,  making  the  bridge  twenty- 
four  inches  wide,  and,  if  the  passing  load  were  made  to  bear  upon 
the  entire  width  of  this  bridge,  of  course  the  bridge  would  bear 
just  twice  as  much  as  one  plank;  but,  in  order  to  double  the 
strength  of  the  bridge,  we  have  also  doubled  the  amount  of 
material  necessary  in  its  construction,  and  therefore  have  not  in 
any  way  increased  the  economy. 

This  system  might  be  carried  on  to  infinity,  and  almost  any 
amount  of  required  strength  be  obtained  by  placing  a  sufficient 
number  of  planks  one  beside  the  other.  But,  returning  again  to 
the  two  planks,  instead  of  placing  them  one  beside  the  other,  sup- 
pose we  place  one  plank  on  top  of  the  other,  and  nail  them  to- 
gether firmly,  so  that  they  shall  act  as  one  plank  (Fig.  2).    We 


1  5555555555555=5555555555=  =55  = 

Fig.  2 

then  have  a  bridge  eighteen  feet  long,  twelve  inches  wide,  and  six 
inches  deep.  In  this  bridge  we  have  exactly  the  same  amount  of 
material  we  had  when  the  two  planks  were  placed  side  by  side, 
but  we  have  four  times  as  strong  a  bridge  instead  of  only  twice ; 
that  is,  we  have  doubled  the  amount  of  material,  but  we  have 
multiplied  the  strength  by  four. 

If  one  plank  would  hold  up  one  hundred  pounds  on  the  center, 
then  the  two  planks  placed  side  by  side  would  hold  up  two  hun- 
dred pounds ;  while,  placing  the  planks  one  on  top  of  the  other, 
and  nailing  them  firmly  together,  they  would  hold  up  four  hun- 
dred pounds.  In  this  way  we  see  that,  in  order  to  increase  the 
strength  of  the  bridge  or  beam  faster  than  we  increase  the  amount 
of  material,  the  increased  amount  of  material  should  go  into  the 
depth  of  the  beam  and  not  into  the  width  of  it.  This  is  one  of 
the  first  principles  in  the  resistance  of  material,  that  the  strength 
of  a  beam  varies  directly  as  the  width — that  is,  if  we  make  the 
beam  twice  as  wide,  it  will  hold  twice  as  much ;  and  that  the 
strength  varies  as  the  square  of  the  depth — that  is,  if  we  make 
it  twice  as  deep,  it  will  hold  up  four  times  as  much.  If  we  make 
it  three  times  as  deep,  it  will  hold  up  nine  times  as  much  of  a 
load.  So  that  you  can  readily  understand  that,  in  order  to  in- 
crease the  strength  of  the  bridge  or  beam  without  increasing  the 
material  in  the  same  proportion,  the  increased  amount  of  material 
should  be  put  into  the  depth  and  not  into  the  width. 

We  now  have  a  bridge  twelve  inches  wide  and  six  inches  deep, 
which  will  hold  up  four  times  as  much  as  our  original  bridge, 
twelve  inches  wide  and  three  inches  deep,  and  the  amount  of 
material  is  simply  doubled.     To  advance  one  step  beyond  this, 


EVOLUTION   OF  THE  MODERN  RAILWAY  BRIDGE.  463 


suppose  we  take  one  of  the  planks  and  stand  it  up  edgewise,  and 
then  place  the  other  plank  upon  its  flat  side  upon  the  top  of  this, 
as  shown  in  Fig.  3,  and  nail  the  planks  firmly  together. 


We  now  have  a  bridge  twelve  inches  wide,  as  we  originally 
had,  but  fifteen  inches  deep,  or  what  is  known  as  the  T-bar  or 
girder,  and  the  only  difficulty  about  this  bridge  is  the  trouble 
in  making  it  stand  up ;  being  so  much  higher  than  it  is  wide,  it 
has  a  great  tendency  to  tip  over.  But  supposing  the  planks  are 
made  to  stand  in  this  shape,  which  is  a  simple  matter,  we  then 
have  a  bridge  fifteen  inches  deep,  which  will  hold  about  seven 
times  as  much  load  as  the  original  plank.  Of  course,  if  the 
bridge  were  made  fifteen  inches  deep  and  the  same  width,  that  is, 
twelve  inches  wide,  it  would  hold  twenty-five  times  as  much  as 
the  original  bridge ;  but  by  turning  one  of  the  planks  upon  the 
edge  we  have  increased  the  depth  and  decreased  the  breadth,  so 
that  the  breadth  of  the  bridge  under  the  top  plank  is  only  one 
fourth  of  what  it  was  before,  and  the  total  strength  of  the  bridge 
is  from  seven  to  eight  times  that  of  the  original  plank.  Now,  in 
order  to  obviate  some  of  the  difficulty  in  making  this  bridge 
stand  up,  suppose  we  take  the  plank  that  is  upon  the  edge  and 
make  two  planks,  each  of  them  twelve  inches  wide  but  only  an 
inch  and  a  half  thick,  and  then  nail  the  floor  plank  upon  the 
edges  of  this,  making  an  inverted  box,  as  shown  in  Fig.  4.  We 
then  have  a  bridge  that  there  is  no  trouble  in  making  stand,  as 
it  has  twelve  inches  of  bearing  surface,  and  we  have  the  same 
amount  of  strength  as  when  it  was  in  the  shape  of  the  T-bar,  and 
we  have  what  is  technically  known  as  the  U-bar  or  channel-bar. 


In  this  U-bar  there  is  this  trouble :  that,  having  the  sides  only 
an  inch  and  a  half  thick  and  twelve  inches  deep,  there  is  a  tend- 
ency to  bend  in  the  sides — that  is,  a  tendency  to  give  sidewise ; 
and  in  order  to  obviate  this  we  take  the  top  plank  and  split  it  in 
two,  making  two  planks  twelve  inches  wide  and  an  inch  and  a 
half  thick.  Nail  one  on  the  top  and  the  other  on  the  bottom :  we 
get  what  is  called  a  box  girder  (Fig.  5),  and  which  has  about  nine- 
teen times  the  strength  of  the  original  three-inch  plank  and  only 
double  the  amount  of  material. 

So  far  we  have  considered  our  bridge  as  being  only  twelve 


464 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


inches  wide.  We  now  wish  a  bridge  wider  than  this,  but  with 
no  more  material  in  it  except  what  may  be  needed  in  order  to 
make  the  floor.  Suppose  we  take  the  top  and  bottom  plank  of 
this  box  girder,  cut  them  in  two  lengthwise,  making  out  of  each 
two  planks  six  inches  wide  instead  of  twelve,  and  we  fasten  these 


upon  each  of  the  vertical  planks,  as  shown  in  the  drawing.  We 
then  have  what  is  technically  known  as  an  I-bar,  or  flanged  girder 
(Fig.  6).  Provided  these  flanged  girders  are  so  braced  as  to  pre- 
vent their  bending  sideways,  the  two  flanged  girders  are  of  exactly 
the  same  strength  as  the  box  girder,  and,  as  you  see,  can  be  placed 
at  any  distance  apart,  and  the  floor  simply  placed  on  top  of  them 
or  on  the  lower  flange,  and  we  have  a  bridge  as  wide  as  we  wish, 
with  the  strength  of  the  box  girder. 

This  I-bar,  or  flanged  girder,  is  one  of  the  most  generally  used 
forms  of  construction  for  bridges  of  short  spans. 

So  far  we  have  considered  the  material  used  to  be  simply  wood, 
but  I-bars  are  now  made  of  iron  or  steel,  and  within  the  last  few 


Fig.  6  A. 


years  entirely  of  steel,  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  improved  method 
of  making  steel  has  rendered  it  even  cheaper  than  wrought  iron. 

Let  Fig.  6  represent  a  side-view  of  the  flanged  girder,  or  I-bar, 
of  which  Fig.  6  A  is  an  end-view. 

Suppose  this  beam  to  be  supported  at  each  end  and  a  load 
placed  upon  the  center.  Then  the  tendency  of  that  load  would 
be  to  bend  the  beam  down  in  the  shape  of  the  dotted  line,  and,  in 
case  the  load  is  sufficient,  it  would  break  in  that  way. 

Before  the  breaking-point  is  reached  the  top  and  bottom  of  this 
beam  are  subjected  to  totally  opposite  classes  of  strain,  as  you  will 
see.  If  you  bend  the  beam,  the  tendency  in  the  bottom  of  it  is 
to  pull  the  beam  apart,  or,  in  technical  language,  the  bottom 
flange  of  the  beam  is  in  tension — tension  being  the  force  which 
tends  to  pull  apart  the  particles  of  the  beam.  Thus,  if  you  take 
a  string  fastened  at  one  end,  and  hang  a  weight  on  the  other  end, 
the  string  is  in  tension,  the  action  of  the  weight  being  to  pull  the 
particles  of  the  string  apart. 

The  top  flange  of  the  beam  is  in  compression — that  is,  the 


EVOLUTION   OF  THE  MODERN  RAILWAY  BRIDGE.  465 

particles  of  which  the  beam  is  composed  are  forced  together.  It 
is  the  same  strain  obtained  if  you  take  a  vertical  post  and  put  a 
weight  on  top  of  it ;  that  weight  tends  to  force  together  the  parti- 
cles of  the  post,  and  the  post  is  said  to  be  in  compression. 

It  is  well  to  get  a  thorough  understanding  of  these  two  kinds  of 
strains,  as  they  are  the  principal  strains  that  have  to  be  considered 
in  all  bridge-building.  There  is  a  point  between  the  top  and  bot- 
tom of  the  beam  at  which  the  character  of  the  strain  changes  from 
compression  into  tension,  where  there  is  no  strain  at  all,  and  the 
amount  of  strain  in  the  beam  decreases  from  the  outside  toward 
the  center  until  this  zero-point,  or  neutral  plane,  is  reached ;  and, 
as  the  greater  part  of  the  strain  comes  upon  that  portion  of  the 
beam  farthest  from  the  center,  you  will  at  once  see  the  economy 
and  necessity  of  placing  as  much  of  the  material  as  far  from  the 
center  as  possible — that  is,  placing  the  material  where  it  is  going 
to  do  the  most  work,  and  this  is  what  has  led  to  the  adoption  of  the 
flanged  girder,  or  I-beam,  as  a  favorite  method  of  construction. 
The  principal  part  of  the  material  is  placed  at  the  two  outside 
edges  of  the  beam  where  the  strain  is  the  greatest,  and  the  amount 
of  material  between  these  two  outside  flanges  is  simply  enough 
to  keep  the  flanges  apart. 

As  the  size  of  the  opening  to  be  crossed  increases,  the  size  of 
the  flanged  girder  necessary  to  hold  up  a  given  load  increases,  so 
that  in  a  very  short  time  the  piece  of  iron  or  steel  necessary 
becomes  so  large  as  to  make  it  almost  impossible  to  handle  if  it 
is  all  in  one  piece,  and  also  a  great  deal  of  the  material  in  the 
flanged  girder  is  absolutely  of  no  use — that  is,  a  great  deal  of  it 
can  be  cut  away  and  used  to  more  advantage  in  other  places. 

This  leads  us  at  once  to  the  framed  truss  or  framed  girder. 
There  is  one  thing  in  connection  with  framed  trusses  to  which  I 
wish  to  call  your  attention,  and  that  is,  the  whole  foundation  of 
the  framed  truss  is  based  upon  a  triangle.  You  will  readily  see 
the  object  of  this.    Suppose  four  pieces  of  timber  are  framed  to- 


J       L 


gether,  as  shown  in  the  drawing  (Fig.  7),  in  the  form  of  a  square 
or  rectangle.  Then  any  strain  coming  upon  one  side  of  this  rect- 
angle tends  to  change  the  form  of  the  figure,  and,  unless  the  joints 
are  made  perfectly  stiff,  the  rectangle  is  changed  to  the  shape 
shown  in  Fig.  8,  where  every  piece  is  of  its  original  length,  and 

VOL.  XXXVI. 30 


466  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

simply  the  angles  have  been  changed.  Now,  suppose  we  divide 
this  rectangle,  by  means  of  a  brace  or  tie,  into  two  triangles. 
Then  not  one  of  these  timbers  can  be  moved,  or  the  form  of  the 
rectangle  changed  in  any  way,  without  lengthening  or  shortening 
the  diagonal  which  divides  it  into  triangles,  and,  therefore,  the 
rectangle  with  the  brace  and  tie  forms  a  perfectly  rigid  figure 
(Fig.  9). 

In  other  words,  the  triangle  is  the  only  figure  the  form  of 
which  can  not  be  changed  without  changing  the  length  of  one  of 
the  sides ;  and  thus  any  truss,  to  be  perfectly  braced  and  able  to 
withstand  any  strains  that  come  upon  it,  must  be  framed  so  as  to 
be  divided  into  a  series  of  triangles. 

Returning  to  our  original  beam  thrown  across  an  opening,  we 
will  suppose  that  we  have  a  beam  long  enough  and  strong  enough 
with  the  required  load  to  cross  an  opening  eighteen  feet  wide,  and 
that  we  have  an  opening  thirty-six  feet  wide  which  we  wish  to 
cross.  That  could  be  done  by  building  a  pier  in  the  center  of  the 
opening  and  dividing  it  into  two  openings,  each  eighteen  feet,  as 
shown  in  Fig.  10 ;  but,  in  the  case  of  a  bridge  over  a  road  or  over 
a  small  river,  it  would  not  be  advisable  to  block  up  the  way  by 
this  pier,  and  some  other  method  must  be  found  to  support  the 
two  inner  ends  of  the  beams.  The  simplest  plan  of  doing  it  is 
shown  in  Fig.  11.     Taking  two  beams  that  are  each  slightly 

Fig.  10 

a 1 


rz^si m jm >. 


KING  POST  Fig.  11 

longer  than  eighteen  feet,  we  throw  them  across  the  opening, 
as  shown  in  Fig.  11.  These  two  beams  meet  at  the  angle,  the 
apex,  A,  of  which  is  up,  and,  if  the  two  lower  ends  are  kept  from 
sliding  apart,  will  stand  in  that  position.  Now,  if  from  the  angle 
where  these  two  beams  meet  we  let  down  a  rope  or  iron  rod,  run 
out  the  floor  beams  eighteen  feet  long,  and  connect  the  inner  end 
of  each  to  this  rope  or  rod,  we  have  a  bridge  covering  an  open- 
ing thirty-six  feet  long — that  is,  one  end  of  each  floor  beam 
rests  upon  the  ground,  the  other  end  is  sustained  by  the  rope  or 


EVOLUTION   OF  THE  MODERN  RAILWAY  BRIDGE.  467 

iron  rod,  and  all  the  weight  upon  these  ends  of  the  beams  passes 
up  the  rod,  and  then  conies  down  the  two  diagonal  beams  to  the 
abutments.  The  one  thing  necessary  in  this  is  that  the  lower 
ends  of  the  two  diagonal  beams  shall  be  so  fixed  as  to  make  it 
impossible  for  them  to  slip  out  in  the  direction  of  the  arrows,  and 
this  object  is  usually  attained  by  making  the  floor  stringers  serve 
as  a  tie  to  hold  them  together.  In  the  drawings,  the  full  black 
lines  are  in  compression  and  the  dotted  lines  are  in  tension.  Thus, 
you  see  the  vertical  rod  or  rope  in  the  center  is  in  tension — that 
is,  a  weight  being  at  W,  all  of  that  weight  comes  directly  upon 
the  rod  and  is  carried  to  the  apex,  A ;  then  half  of  it  passes  to 
each  side  down  the  inclined  braces,  and  they  are  in  compression. 
The  tendency  at  the  foot  of  these  braces  is  for  them  to  slip  out  in 
the  direction  of  the  arrows.  They  are  held  together  by  the  tie- 
rod  or  floor  stringers,  which  are  in  tension.  In  regard  to  tension 
and  compression,  you  may  get  a  better  comprehension  of  them  if 
you  understand  that  a  cord  or  rope  can  be  used  for  any  member 
of  a  bridge  that  is  in  tension,  while  a  post  or  some  stiff  piece  of 
timber  or  iron  is  necessary  for  anything  in  compression — that  is, 
in  all  these  diagrams  the  dotted  lines  could  be  replaced  by  ropes  or 
cords,  while  the  full  black  lines  are  obliged  to  be  iron  or  wooden 
posts  or  braces. 

You  thus  see  that  we  have  the  simplest  form  of  a  framed 
truss.  This  form  of  truss  is  called  the  king-post  truss.  Now,  as 
the  width  of  the  opening  increases,  the  height  of  the  posts  would 
also  have  to  increase,  and  in  a  very  short  time  would  get  so  high, 
and  make  the  inclined  braces  so  long,  as  to  become  unwieldy.  In 
order  to  overcome  this,  after  a  certain  height  has  been  reached, 
instead  of  continuing  the  king-post  higher,  we  simply  cut  it  off 
and  substitute  two  posts  or  rods  in  its  place  (Fig.  12).    In  this  the 


QUEEN  POST  Fig.  12 

length  of  span  that  can  be  covered  with  the  same  sized  material 
is  one  half  larger,  and  the  bridge  is  divided  into  three  panels,  as 
they  are  called.  A  panel  is  one  of  any  number  of  equal  parts  into 
which  the  truss  of  a  bridge  is  divided  by  means  of  the  posts  or 
rods.  This  second  truss  is  called  the  queen-post  truss ;  here  also 
the  full  black  lines  are  in  compression  and  the  dotted  lines  are  in 
tension.    As  you  will  notice  in  this  truss,  which  is  also  the  case  in 


468 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


the  flanged  girder,  the  top  part  of  the  truss  and  the  top  flange  are 
always  in  compression ;  so  the  lower  chord  is  always  in  tension, 
as  the  lower  flange  in  the  flanged  girders.  This  principle  is  the 
same  in  all  framed  girders. 

Fig,  13 


Either  of  these  trusses  can  be  inverted  whenever  it  is  desired, 
so  that  the  truss  comes  below  the  floor,  as  shown  in  Figs.  13  and 
14 ;  the  only  difference  that  it  makes  is  in  the  character  of  the 
strain  that  comes  upon  the  different  members  of  the  truss.     The 


vertical  member  in  the  upright  truss  is  in  tension,  and  when  the 
truss  is  inverted  it  is  in  compression,  as  shown  in  the  drawing. 
The  braces  become  ties,  and  the  floor  stringers  are  in  compression. 
Whenever  it  is  desired  to  make  the  floor  come  upon  the  top  of 
the  truss,  then  the  bottom  chord  or  tie-rods  can  be  omitted  en- 
tirely, and  the  horizontal  thrust  taken  by  means  of  the  masonry 


EVOLUTION   OF  THE  MODERN  RAILWAY  BRIDGE.  469 

abutments  (Figs.  15  and  16).  There  the  weight  comes  directly- 
down  from  the  top  of  the  bracing,  and  the  lower  end  of  the  braces 
are  held  in  place  by  the  masonry  abutments. 

From  some  combination  of  these  trusses  can  be  constructed 
any  form  of  bridge,  with  the  exception  of  the  suspension  bridge 
and  the  arch.  By  increasing  the  number  of  panels  or  by  com- 
bining a  number  of  king-post  trusses  (Figs.  17  and  18),  we  have 
what  is  known  as  the  pony  truss,  and  for  short  spans  one  that  is 
used  to  a  great  extent  on  all  railroads. 


PONY  TRUSS. 


rif/.  17 


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PONY  TRUSS. 


Fig.  18 


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FINK  TRUSS. 


Tig.  19 


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BOLMAN  TRUSS,      Fig.20 

Every  bridge  is  composed  of  two  or  more  trusses.  The  ordi- 
nary railroad  bridge  is  composed  of  simply  two  trusses,  one  upon 
each  side.  These  trusses  are  connected  at  the  top  and  bottom, 
and  the  train  can  either  run  over  the  top  of  the  bridge,  or  through 
the  bridge  on  the  bottom  chord. 

In  the  pony  truss,  the  only  distinctive  feature  is  that  the 
trusses  are  not  deep  enough  to  allow  of  their  being  fastened  to- 
gether across  the  top,  when  the  train  runs  through  upon  the  bot- 
tom chord,  and  therefore  they  can  only  be  used  for  very  short 


47° 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


spans,  and.  it  is  considerable  trouble  to  so  brace  them  as  to  keep 
them  in  a  true  vertical  plane.  These  pony  trusses,  however,  when 
used  as  a  deck  bridge,  that  is,  when  the  train  runs  on  the  top,  can 
be  braced  so  as  to  form  a  very  firm  bridge,  and  practically  it  is 
simply  a  box  girder  (Fig.  5). 

The  members  of  a  bridge  at  the  top  and  bottom  of  each  truss, 
either  horizontal,  inclined,  or  curved,  are  called  chords ;  that  at 
the  top  is  called  the  top  chord  (A  B,  Fig.  22),  the  bottom  one,  the 
bottom  chord  (CD,  Fig.  22).  In  the  bridges  we  are  considering, 
they  are  usually  parallel. 

The  brace  or  strut  is  a  compression  member,  and  may  be  either 
vertical  or  inclined  (E  F,  Figs.  21  and  22),  the  object  of  which  is  to 
keep  the  two  chords  apart.  The  tie  is  a  tension  member,  and  also 
may  be  either  vertical  or  inclined  (G  H,  Figs.  21  and  22).  The 
lower  chord  being  always  in  tension  is  sometimes  called  the  strain- 
ing piece. 

E  G 


HOWE  TRUSS 


Fig.  21 


PRATT  TRUSS 


Fig.  22 


In  some  types  of  bridges  which  we  will  take  up  at  once  there 
is  no  bottom  chord  (Fig.  19).  We  have  what  is  called  the  Fink 
truss.  As  will  be  readily  seen,  it  is  merely  a  combination  of  the 
inverted  king-post  trusses,  combined  in  such  a  way  as  to  suit 
any  required  span.  In  this  bridge  the  bottom  chord  is  not  in 
any  way  necessary  to  the  proper  construction  of  the  truss,  but  in 
case  of  a  long  span  it  is  usually  put  in  as  shown  by  the  dotted  line, 
not  in  any  way  to  increase  the  strength  of  the  truss,  but  simply  to 
add  to  its  stiffness  and  stability.  The  Fink  truss  was  invented  by 
Albert  Fink,  and  manufactured  for  many  years  by  the  Louisville 
Bridge  and  Iron  Company.  For  short  spans,  or  what  are  usually 
called  shore  spans  in  many-span  bridges,  it  is  a  most  convenient 
and  economical  method  of  construction,  and  has  been  very  much 
used.  The  top  chord  is  in  compression,  as  shown  in  the  drawing, 
and  is  usually  made  of  wood,  although  this  is  not  by  any  means 
necessary.  The  posts,  or  vertical  compression  members,  are  usu- 
ally of  iron,  and  the  tension  members  consist  of  round  iron  rods, 
fastened  by  means  of  an  eye  and  pin  at  the  ends. 


EVOLUTION   OF  THE  MODERN  RAILWAY  BRIDGE.  471 

The  next  form  of  truss  is  that  known  as  the  Bolman  truss 
(Fig.  20).  In  this  also,  as  in  the  Fink  truss,  there  is  no  bottom 
chord  necessary.  The  distinctive  characteristic  of  the  Bolman 
truss  is  that  from  the  lower  end  of  each  vertical  compression 
member  the  tension  members  run  directly  to  each  abutment, 
differing  in  this  respect  from  the  Fink  truss,  where  most  of  the 
tension  members  run  across  simply  one  or  two  panels  of  the 
bridge.  In  this  way  any  load  coming  upon  the  top  of  one  of  the 
panels  in  the  Bolman  truss  passes  down  the  vertical  compression 
member  and  is  at  once  carried  to  the  abutments  by  means  of  the 
tie-rods.  Theoretically,  this  bridge  is  one  of  the  most  simple  that 
can  be  constructed;  but  when  the  span  becomes  of  any  great 
length,  the  length  of  these  tie-rods  becomes  so  great  as  to  render 
them  unmanageable,  and  within  very  small  limits  they  become 
impracticable  for  that  reason.  Hence,  the  Bolman  truss  has  not 
been  used  to  any  considerable  extent.  By  the  addition  of  the  bot- 
tom chord  to  support  the  floor  timbers  of  the  bridge,  either  the 
Bolman  or  the  Fink  bridge  can  be  used  as  a  through  bridge  as 
well  as  a  deck  bridge,  although  to  achieve  the  utmost  economy  in 
their  use  they  are  both  eminently  deck  bridges. 

We  will  now  take  up  the  different  kinds  of  trusses  that  are 
used  in  ordinary  railroad  work,  all  of  which  are  simply  some 
combination  of  the  king-post  trusses,  either  upright  or  inverted. 
The  first  and  most  common  form  in  this  country  is  what  is  known 
as  the  Howe  truss  (Fig.  21).  In  this  the  braces  are  diagonal  and 
the  tension  members  are  vertical. 

This  form  of  truss  has  probably  been  built  a  hundred  times 
more  than  any  other  form  that  is  in  use.  It  is  not  in  every  re- 
spect an  economical  truss ;  but  the  reason  of  such  general  use  is 
the  fact  that  it  is  one  of  the  most  simple  to  construct.  The  full 
lines  are  those  in  compression,  and  are  usually  built  of  wood.  In 
the  Howe  truss,  the  lower  chord,  which  is  in  tension,  is  also  built 
of  wood,  while  the  only  iron- work  about  it  is  the  vertical  rods 
and  cast-iron  blocks  for  the  ends  of  the  post.  You  will  thus  see 
the  advantages  of  this  truss  in  a  country  where  wood  is  very 
plenty  and  iron  is  scarce.  The  construction  of  the  iron-work 
is  very  simple,  and  the  parts  are  in  pieces,  so  that  they  can  be 
easily  handled  by  one  gang  of  men  with  the  ordinary  block  and 
tackle.  The  angle  blocks  are  all  duplicates,  so  that,  after  a  pattern 
has  once  been  made,  a  great  many  similar  pieces  can  be  made 
from  it ;  and  this,  in  the  absence  of  skilled  labor  or  proper  shops 
for  doing  bridge  work,  is  a  great  saving  of  time. 

In  all  Howe  trusses  a  very  large  "  factor  of  safety  "  has  to  be 
used  in  order  to  take  into  account  the  uncertain  character  of  the 
wood.  By  a  factor  of  safety  we  mean  this :  you  have  a  given 
load  which  is  to  be  supported  by  a  bridge ;  if  all  the  material 


47- 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


used  in  that  bridge  were  absolutely  perfect,  the  size  of  each  piece 
would  have  to  be  exactly  large  enough  to  bear  its  part  of  the 
strain,  and  no  larger ;  but  as  neither  in  iron  or  steel,  and  particu- 
larly in  wood,  can  you  calculate  just  exactly  how  many  pounds  of 
strain  any  particular  piece  will  stand,  in  order  to  make  it  perfectly 
safe  you  use,  in  calculating  the  size  of  the  bridge  members,  the 
load  it  is  to  bear  multiplied  by  five,  and  sometimes  even  by  ten, 
and  then  make  the  bridge  theoretically  strong  enough  to  hold  up 
this  load — that  is,  five  or  ten  times  the  amount  of  load  that  ever 
can  come  on  it — and  this  five,  or  ten,  or  six,  as  the  case  may  be,  is 
called  the  factor  of  safety;  that  is,  if  all  material  used  in  the 
bridge  were  absolutely  perfect,  the  bridge  would  hold  up  five  or 
ten  times  as  much  as  ever  would  come  upon  it ;  and  wherever  a 
great  deal  of  wood  is  used  the  factor  of  safety  has  to  be  very 
large,  as  the  amount  of  strain  that  wood  will  bear  is  very  uncer- 
tain, and  varies  under  different  circumstances. 

You  will  readily  see  that  the  Howe  truss  can  be  used  either  as 
a  deck  bridge  or  a  through  bridge,  and  remember  that  the  Howe 
truss  is  the  type  of  bridge  that  was  generally  used  upon  railroads 
so  situated  that  wood  was  plenty  and  iron  expensive,  and  without 
money  enough  to  send  a  long  distance  for  iron  bridges ;  and  there 
have  been  some  remarkable  examples  in  this  country  of  the  dura- 
bility of  Howe-truss  bridges  designed  by  ordinary  carpenters 
without  any  technical  education. 

As  the  price  of  iron  decreased,  in  a  very  short  time  the  lower 
chord  of  the  Howe-truss  bridge  was  made  of  iron  instead  of  wood, 
as  it  was  found  to  be  much  more  economical,  and  it  was  then 
what  is  called  a  "  combination  bridge  " ;  that  is,  of  wood  and  iron. 

The  next  form  of  bridge  is  what  is  called  the  "  Pratt  truss " 
(Fig.  22).  The  distinctive  feature  of  this  is  that  the  compression 
members  are  vertical,  while  the  tension  members  or  ties  are  in- 
clined or  diagonal.  In  this,  the  amount  of  iron,  supposing  the 
tension  members  to  be  of  iron  and  the  compression  members  of 
wood,  is  increased  and  the  amount  of  wood  is  decreased.  This  was 
a  very  natural  result  as  the  price  of  iron  decreased.  In  a  short 
time  the  wooden  posts  were  removed  and  iron  posts  substituted 
for  them,  and  we  then  have  an  entire  bridge  of  iron,  in  which  the 
compression  members  are  vertical  and  the  tension  members  in- 
clined, and  it  is  the  most  generally  used  form  of  iron  bridge  in 
this  country ;  it  may  be  called  the  typical  American  railway 
bridge. 

The  next  form  of  truss  that  we  will  examine  is  what  is  known 
as  the  Warren  triangular  girder  (Fig.  23).  You  will  see  that  each 
of  the  pieces  connecting  the  upper  and  lower  chords  acts  both  as 
a  tie  and  a  brace — that  is,  is  subject  to  both  compression  and  ten- 
sion.    The  only  advantage  that  can  be  claimed  for  this  bridge 


EVOLUTION   OF  THE  MODERN  RAILWAY  BRIDGE.  473 

is  simplicity  and  a  fewer  number  of  parts  than  any  other  form  of 
bridge  truss ;  but  by  thus  reducing  the  number  of  parts  we  have  in- 
creased the  size  of  the  parts  that  are  used,  and  thus,  to  some  extent, 
done  away  with  the  advantage.  Each  of  the  tie-braces,  as  they 
are  called,  crosses  one  panel,  and  the  bridge  is  thus  divided  into 
bays  two  panels  long.     The  vertical  rods,  as  shown  in  the  draw- 


WARREN  TRIANGULAR  TRUSS 


Fig.  23 


ing,  are  not  in  any  way  necessary  to  the  theoretically  proper  con- 
struction of  the  truss,  but  are  simply  put  in  to  support  the  chord 
between  the  panel-points  and  make  it  able  to  bear  the  cross-strain 
that  comes  upon  it  from  the  floor  system,  provided  the  bridge  is  a 
through  bridge.  When  the  bridge  is  used  as  a  deck  bridge  and 
the  floor  system  laid  upon  the  top  chord,  there  is  the  same  neces- 
sity for  vertical  posts. 

In  countries  where  it  is  possible  to  procure  good  timber  of 
large  size,  the  Warren  triangular  bridge  is  as  economical  and 
convenient  a  form  of  truss  as  can  be  built.  To  use  it  in  its  most 
economical  manner  the  lower  chord  is  usually  made  of  iron,  as 
that  simply  has  to  withstand  tension ;  but  the  tie-braces  are  made 
of  wood,  and  also  the  top  chord.  One  point  which  is  to  be  studied 
carefully  in  the  Warren  triangular  truss  is  the  fastening  of  these 
braces,  as  they  must  be  fastened  in  such  a  manner  that  they  not 
only  will  resist  compression,  but  also  that  they  will  act  as  ties 
and  resist  tension.  This  necessitates  a  rather  more  complicated 
method  of  fastening. 

Another  great  advantage  connected  with  the  use  of  the  trian- 
gular truss  is  the  ease  with  which,  when  necessary,  any  piece  can 
be  removed  and  replaced  by  a  new  piece  without  in  any  way  im- 
peding the  passage  of  trains  over  the  bridge  during  the  operation. 
In  the  case  of  wooden  or  combination  bridges  this  becomes  a 
matter  of  great  importance,  as  the  timber  in  these  bridges  is  ex- 
posed to  alternate  dryness  and  moisture,  and  thus,  in  a  compara- 
tively short  time,  decays,  and  there  soon  is  the  necessity  of  replac- 
ing the  bridge  piece  by  piece ;  therefore  any  bridge  that  is  con- 
structed in  such  a  manner  as  to  make  this  possible,  without  im- 
peding the  traffic  on  the  road,  possesses  a  great  advantage  over 
other  forms  of  bridges.  The  triangular  truss  is  a  favorite  method 
of  construction  on  all  railroads  in  the  southern  part  of  this  coun- 
try running  through  that  belt  where  it  is  possible  to  obtain,  at 
comparatively  slight  cost,  yellow  pine  for  the  requisite  timber. 

We  come  next  to  the  last  type  of  bridge  that  has  been  used,  to 


474 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


any  great  extent,  upon  the  railways  of  this  country.  This  bridge 
is  called  the  Post  bridge  (Fig.  24),  taking  its  name  from  its  in- 
ventor. The  characteristic  features  are  that  the  compression 
members  are  inclined  at  what  is  claimed  to  be  the  most  econom- 
ical angle — that  is,  the  most  economical  in  regard  to  the  amount 
of  strength  obtained  for  the  amount  of  material  used.    They  are 


POST  TRUSS 


Fig.  24 


so  inclined  as  to  cross  one  panel  of  the  bridge,  while  the  tie-rods, 
running  at  an  angle  with  the  braces,  cross  two  panels.  This  is 
the  only  advantage  that  can  be  claimed  for  this  form  of  truss,  and 
much  of  this  so-called  advantage  is  more  than  counterbalanced  by 
some  of  the  difficulties  encountered  in  the  actual  construction ; 
and  whether  the  bridge  really  in  itself  is  a  more  economical  bridge 
than  the  Pratt,  yet  remains  to  be  practically  proved. 

We  stated  in  the  beginning  that  bridges  consist  of  arches  and 
suspension  bridges  as  well  as  framed  trusses.     The  relation  be- 


Fig.  25 

BOWSTRING  GIRDER. 


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Fig.  27 


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tween  the  framed  truss  and  the  arch  will  be  readily  seen  by  an 
examination  of  Fig.  25.  Take  a  truss  of  the  Pratt  pattern ;  then, 
in  place  of  having  the  top  chord  parallel  with  the  lower  chord, 
let  the  compression  members  be  increased  in  length,  as  shown  in 
the  drawing,  and  the  top  chord  take  the  form  of  an  arch,  and  we 
have  the  bow-string  girder.  The  ends  of  the  arch  on  each  side 
are  simply  held  together  by  means  of  the  lower  chord,  which  acts 
as  a  tie-rod  upon  them. 


EVOLUTION   OF  THE  MODERN  RAILWAY  BRIDGE.  475 


Now,  in  the  case  of  a  masonry  arch  (Fig.  26),  which  has  the 
weight  all  on  top,  there  is  no  necessity  for  the  tie-rod  to  hold  the 
ends  of  the  arch  together,  for  the  reason  that  the  ends  of  the  arch 
are  always  built  so  as  to  abut  against  heavy  masonry  which  will 
withstand  the  horizontal  thrust,  and  thus  without  the  interven- 
tion of  any  tie  members  we  have  a  perfect  bridge  by  means  of  the 


arch,  all  the  weight  coming  upon  the  top  being  passed  from  one 
stone  to  the  other  in  the  arch  until  it  reaches  the  two  abutments 
the  same  as  in  a  framed  truss. 

The  suspension  bridge  (Fig.  28)  is  nothing  more  or  less  than 
the  arch  turned  upside  down.    In  the  arch,  as  we  have  seen,  the 


SUSPENSION  BRIDGE. 
Fig.  28 


'A 

X//{ 

(A  '  / 


» 


■\ 


only  strain  that  comes  upon  it  is  compression ;  in  the  suspension 
bridge,  on  the  other  hand,  the  only  strain  that  comes  upon  the 
sustaining  member  or  cable  which  is  stretched  between  the  points 
of  support  is  tension.  In  the  arch  bridge  all  the  weight  comes 
above  the  arch  and  presses  down  upon  it ;  in  the  suspension  bridge 
all  the  weight  comes  below  the  suspension  chains  and  simply 


476 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


hangs  from  thera.  In  the  suspension  bridge  the  cables,  chains, 
or  any  other  flexible  devices  are  stretched  between  the  two  points 
of  support,  the  ends  carried  over  the  tops  of  the  towers,  and  firmly 
anchored  in  the  ground  beyond.  Then  the  roadway  of  the  bridge 
is  simply  hung  by  tie-rods  from  this  suspension  cable. 

The  suspension  bridge  is  undoubtedly  one  of  the  oldest  forms 
in  existence.  At  the  time  when  our  ancestors  were  either  swim- 
ming across  creeks,  or  cutting  trees,  making  them  fall  across  in 
order  that  they  might  walk  over  on  them — that  is,  one  thousand 
years  ago — the  Japanese  were  building  suspension  bridges  which 
are  in  use  to-day,  using  iron  chains  for  suspension  cables,  and  in 
every  way  building  them  in  as  scientific  a  manner  as  the  East 
River  Bridge  in  New  York  is  built  to-day.  Of  course,  there  was 
a  certain  crudeness  as  to  the  methods  which  were  used,  but  this  in 
no  way  affected  the  scientific  principles  on  which  the  bridges  were 
built.  It  is  not  our  purpose,  however,  in  this  paper  to  take  up  the 
question  of  suspension  bridges. 

We  pass  now  to  the  last  form,  and  in  this  country  at  least  the 
latest  form,  of  the  framed  truss — that  is,  the  cantilever  bridge. 
The  object  of  the  cantilever  bridge  is  to  make  possible  the  eco- 
nomical construction  of  long,  clear  spans  of  a  rigid  truss,  and  thus 
do  away  to  a  great  extent  with  the  necessity  of  suspension  bridges, 
as  there  are  many  disadvantages  besides  the  mere  one  of  expense 
that  are  connected  with  the  use  of  suspension  bridges.  The  other 
advantages  of  the  cantilever  will  be  taken  up  later. 

To  show  the  development  of  the  cantilever  bridge,  we  will 
take  two  king-post  trusses  (Fig.  29) ;  putting  them  together,  we 


form  a  bridge  of  two  spans,  which  has  an  abutment  at  each  end 
and  a  pier  in  the  center.  In  case  this  was  for  the  passage  of  a 
river,  the  center  pier  would  come  directly  in  the  center,  obstruct- 
ing navigation  to  a  great  extent,  and  otherwise  prove  an  incon- 
venience. We  use  the  king-post  truss  merely  as  the  most  simple 
form  of  truss  that  is  built.  In  any  other  form  that  could  be  built 
the  result  would  be  the  same ;  that  is,  for  a  bridge  of  two  spans 
there  would  be  a  pier  in  the  center  of  the  river,  and  for  any  span 
that  could  be  built  of  any  of  the  types  of  bridges  which  we  have 
noticed  thus  far  the  amount  of  open  space  that  would  be  left  in 


EVOLUTION   OF  THE  MODERN  RAILWAY  BRIDGE.  477 

the  center  of  the  river  may  be  less  than  that  required  by  naviga- 
tion, so  that,  from  what  we  now  have,  our  only  remedy  would  be 
the  use  of  the  suspension  bridge. 

In  order  to  do  away  with  this,  and  make  a  wider  opening  in 
the  center  of  the  river,  suppose  we  take  away  the  center  pier  and 
replace  it  by  two  piers  directly  under  the  king-posts  of  the  truss 
(Fig.  30).    In  this  way  we  see  we  have  left  a  large,  clear  span  in 


/ 


/ 


& 


A 


\ 


\ 


\ 


\ 


\ 

\         / 

\     / 

\s. 


\ 


\ 


\ 


\ 


\ 


\ 


\ 


CANTILEVER. 


v/4 
Fig.  30 


the  center  of  the  river,  and  we  have  in  no  way  increased  the 
amount  of  materia^  necessary  for  the  building  of  the  bridge,  and 
the  two  spans  that  we  are  using  are  now  balanced,  each  upon  the 
top  of  its  respective  pier.  These  two  spans  are  fastened  together 
in  the  center,  and  the  shore  ends  of  both  are  anchored  firmly, 
in  order  to  keep  them  from  tipping  up  whenever  a  load  comes 
upon  the  river  end.  We  thus  see  that  we  have  doubled  the  clear 
span  in  the  center  of  the  river,  and  we  have  what  is  called  a  can- 
tilever bridge ;  that  is,  a  truss  supported  at  one  end,  and  extending 
out  over  an  opening,  there  being  no  support  under  the  other  end. 
Now,  suppose  it  was  desired  to  make  this  center  opening  still 
larger,  we  have  simply  to  move  the  piers  apart  (Fig.  31).    We 


/ 


A 


/ 


/ 


/ 


C/ 


/ 


\ 


\     CANTILEVER. 

\ 
\ 

V 


Fig.  31      / 

/ 
/ 

B/ 


/ 


''/A 


\EE3SEP 


\ 


\ 


\ 


\ 


\D 


>// 


have  our  two  cantilever  spans.  The  shore  end  of  each  is  firmly 
anchored  down,  and  the  two  other  ends,  A  B,  project  simply  into 
space.  If  we  build  thus,  the  two  ends,  A  B,  are  firmly  fixed 
and  can  not  in  any  way  yield  to  the  load  that  may  come  upon 
them.  If  we  now  construct  an  ordinary  framed  truss,  of  either 
the  Howe,  Pratt,  or  any  other  type,  and  instead  of  putting  this 
truss  upon  two  piers  or  abutments  we  simply  hang  it  between  the 
two  ends  of  the  cantilever  spans,  A  B,  which  are  projecting  over 
the  river,  the  weight  of  this  truss  will  be  sustained  by  the  tie-rods 
from  the  king-posts,  or  in  the  case  of  the  cantilever  that  run  over 
the  tower  and  are  anchored  down  upon  the  other  side.  We  thus 
see  that  by  increasing  very  slightly  the  amount  of  material  used 


478 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


in  the  construction  of  the  "bridge  we  have  an  open,  clear  span 
in  the  center  three  times  the  width  that  would  be  possible  with 
the  ordinary  framed  truss,  and  we  have  what  is  known  and  has 
lately  become  famous  as  the  cantilever  bridge.  The  spans  C  A 
and  B  D  are  called  the  cantilever  spans,  and  A  B  the  suspended 
span. 

The  variations  in  the  cantilever  bridge  are  almost  infinite, 
although  the  principles  in  all  of  them  are  the  same.  In  the  place 
of  using  the  upright  truss,  for  example,  this  truss  can  be  turned 
over,  and  the  ties  then  become  braces,  the  floor  comes  upon  the 


•^J^iMxi 


CANTILEVER. 


Fig.  32 


top,  the  shore  ends  being  firmly  anchored  in  place,  and,  the  sus- 
pended span  held  in  place,  we  have  a  cantilever  of  the  type  that 
has  just  been  erected  across  the  Hudson  at  Poughkeepsie  (Fig. 
32),  while  the  first  example  given  you  is  the  type  of  cantilever 
that  crosses  the  St.  John  River  at  St.  John,  New  Brunswick 
(Fig.  31). 

Then,  when  a  greater  length  is  desired  and  increased  strength, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  bridge  across  the  Frith  of  Forth,  in  Scot- 
land, we  simply  combine  the  two,  putting  the  two  king-post 
trusses  base  to  base,  and  hanging  the  suspended  truss  between 
(Fig.  33). 

In  that  way  we  have  the  strongest  form  for  the  cantilever 
bridge,  and  there  is  hardly  any  limit  to  the  length  of  span  that 
can  be  made  by  this  method. 


CANTILEVER. 
Fig.  33 


The  advantages  gained  by  the  use  of  the  cantilever  for  long- 
span  bridges  are  as  follow : 

As  a  substitute  for  the  suspension  bridge  it  is,  up  to  a  certain 
length  of  span,  less  expensive,  and  it  can  be  given  great  rigidity 
and  stability  which  are  impossible  in  the  suspension. 

As  a  substitute  for  the  ordinary  framed  truss  it  has  the  ad- 
vantages of  not  requiring  any  false  works  for  its  erection.  In  the 
erection  of  the  ordinary  bridge  there  must  be  built  first  a  timber 
frame  or  staging  between  the  piers  to  sustain  the  weight  of  the 


EVOLUTION    OF  THE  MODERN  RAILWAY  BRIDGE.  479 

different  parts  of  the  bridge  while  it  is  being  put  together.  This 
is  a  great  expense ;  and  in  some  cases,  where  the  bridge  is  far 
above  the  water,  the  current  very  rapid,  or  an  existing  necessity 
of  not  obstructing  the  water-way,  becomes  impossible.  In  the 
erection  of  a  cantilever,  each  cantilever  span  is  balanced  on  its 
own  pier  and  built  out  each  side  from  the  tower  in  such  a  manner 
as  to  preserve  this  balance  until  the  shore  ends  are  anchored 
firmly,  after  which  the  river  ends  can  be  extended  as  far  as  de- 
sired. The  suspended  span,  which  is  never  of  extraordinary 
length,  can  usually  be  built  directly  from  the  ends  of  the  can- 
tilever spans,  and  the  necessity  of  false  work  entirely  done  away 
with. 

In  all  bridges  of  long  span  that  the  weight  of  the  bridge  itself 
is  by  far  the  greatest  load  that  the  bridge  has  to  bear.  In  bridges 
of  short  spans,  the  weight  of  the  locomotive  and  train  coming 
upon  them  suddenly  constitutes  the  greatest  load,  as  the  weight 
of  the  train  is  greater  than  the  weight  of  the  bridge  itself ;  but  as 
the  size  of  the  bridge  increases,  its  weight  increases  very  rapid- 
ly, and  the  weight  of  the  locomotive  and  train  becomes  almost 
nothing  as  compared  with  the  weight  of  the  bridge  itself ;  that  is, 
if  any  of  these  long  bridges  are  built  strong  enough  to  hold  them- 
selves up,  with  a  very  slight  margin  of  safety  above  that,  there  is 
scarcely  any  danger  of  their  ever  falling  from  any  weight  that 
could  come  upon  them  from  an  outside  load.  For  this  reason,  in 
building  short-span  bridges,  the  amount  of  economy  that  can  be 
exercised  in  the  use  of  material  is  very  small,  as  the  bridge  must 
be  built  stiff  and  rigid,  even  if  this  necessitates  the  using  of  much 
more  material  than  the  absolute  weight  of  the  tender  and  locomo- 
tive that  come  upon  it  would  demand.  For  this  reason  plate  gird- 
ers or  flanged  girders  have  many  advantages  connected  with  their 
use  for  short-span  bridges,  because  the  whole  amount  of  material 
used  is  comparatively  of  little  value,  and  extreme  stiffness  and 
rigidity  are  the  result ;  while  in  the  case  of  long-span  bridges,  such 
as  cantilever,  or  any  remarkably  long  bridge,  every  calculation 
must  be  made  with  the  greatest  care  in  order  to  reduce  the  amount 
of  necessary  material  as  much  as  possible,  because  by  reducing  the 
amount  of  material  used  the  weight  is  reduced,  and  that  again 
reduces  the  amount  of  material.  The  factor  of  safety  to  be  used 
can  be  only  two  or  three  in  long-span  bridges,  while  in  short  spans 
it  should  run  up  even  to  ten. 

Although  cantilever  bridges  are  of  rather  recent  use  in  this 
country  and  in  Europe,  and  much  has  been  written  claiming  them 
as  an  invention  of  modern  times,  still,  the  same  can  be  said  of  them 
that  was  said  of  suspension  bridges — that  there  at  present  exists 
in  Japan,  built  by  the  order  of  the  Mikado  two  hundred  and  fifty 
years  ago,  as  perfect  and  scientific  a  cantilever  bridge  as  any  that 


480  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

are  built  in  this  country  or  in  Europe ;  and  in  this  way,  as  in 
many  others,  the  Japanese  show  that  two  or  three  hundred  years 
ago  they  had  advanced  to  a  wonderful  degree  in  the  study  of 
applied  mechanics  and  the  "  strength  and  resistance  of  material." 
The  only  trouble  is,  that  they  stopped  advancing  for  two  or  three 
hundred  years,  and  up  to  ten  or  twenty  years  ago  were  not  as  far 
ahead  as  two  hundred  years  earlier. 

In  closing,  I  wish  to  call  your  attention  for  a  few  moments  to 
some  of  the  differences  that  exist  between  the  American  and 
English  practice  of  bridge-building,  and  the  causes  that  have  led 
to  these  differences.  The  characteristic  difference  is  in  the  meth- 
ods used  in  joining  together  the  different  parts  of  the  bridge. 
American  bridges,  as  a  class,  are  pin-connected — that  is,  the 
different  members,  when  possible,  are  joined  by  means  of  a  steel 
pin  passing  through  holes  in  the  ends  of  the  pieces.  These  joints 
are  perfectly  flexible,  and  each  member  is  designed  to  do  its  own 
particular  work.  English  bridges,  as  a  class,  have  "  riveted  con- 
nections"— that  is,  the  members  are  fastened  rigidly  together, 
and  each  member  is  designed  to  act  simply  as  a  part  of  a  rigid, 
inflexible  whole. 

The  causes  that  have  led  to  this  difference  are  as  follow :  In 
the  construction  of  bridges  the  English  engineer  started  with 
the  flanged  girder  of  cast  or  rolled  iron,  or  some  other  form  of  a 
stiff  beam,  and  as  the  bridges  increased  in  size  so  as  to  necessitate 
the  framing  of  a  truss,  his  whole  effort  was  directed  toward  mak- 
ing that  truss  as  nearly  similar  to  the  original  flanged  or  box  gird- 
er as  possible.     This  led  to  perfect  rigidity  at  the  joints. 

The  American  engineer,  on  the  other  hand,  had  very  little  or 
no  iron  and  steel  to  work  with,  and  of  necessity  used  wood.  As 
the  necessary  bridges  were  of  considerable  span,  the  only  possible 
solution  of  the  problem  was  the  pinning  together  of  small  pieces 
of  wood  so  as  to  form  a  connected  series  of  triangles.  The  joints 
in  wood  could  not  easily  have  been  made  rigid,  and  it  was  not  de- 
sirable that  they  should  be,  as  the  strength  of  wood  is  very  slight 
when  the  strain  is  applied  in  any  direction  other  than  in  the 
direction  of  the  fibers  of  the  piece,  and  the  use  of  the  pin  joint, 
theoretically  at  least,  insures  this  line  of  action.  There  has  been 
much  ingenuity  displayed  by  our  engineers,  in  the  years  gone  by, 
in  the  combinations  of  triangles  used  in  bridge-designing,  and  in 
many  cases  this  has  led  to  absurdities.  The  whole  tendency,  how- 
ever, at  present  in  American  practice  is  to  extend  the  use  of  riv- 
eted joints,  and  in  English  practice  to  extend  the  use  of  the  "  pin 
connections."  Both  are  working  in  opposite  directions,  but  from 
opposite  sides,  and  therefore  toward  the  same  point. 

One  great  drawback  to  the  more  general  use  of  pin  connec- 
tions by  English  engineers  is  the  immense  first  cost  of  the  plant 


AGRICULTURE  AND   THE  SINGLE  TAX.  481 

necessary  to  do  the  work.  Our  bridges  are  -usually  designed  and 
built  by  the  same  company,  so  that  the  design  within  certain  lim- 
its corresponds  to  the  available  plant  of  the  manufacturer,  and  the 
expensive  tools  can  be  used  over  and  over  again.  In  English 
practice,  however,  the  bridges  are  designed  according  to  the  ideas 
of  the  individual  engineer,  and  then  some  firm  has  to  build  them 
in  all  their  details  to  correspond  with  the  design.  If  the  construc- 
tion necessitates  expensive  machinery  and  tools,  no  company  would 
undertake  them  at  any  reasonable  cost,  as  there  would  be  very 
little  chance  of  any  other  similar  design  being  offered  upon  which 
they  could  use  the  same  tools. 

In  riveted  work,  however,  the  tools  required  are  within  certain 
limits  the  same,  regardless  of  the  details  of  design.  Pin-connected 
bridges  are  much  more  economical  for  large  work  than  riveted 
ones ;  and  this  fact,  taken  in  connection  with  the  unrivaled  facili- 
ties we  have  for  doing  the  work,  accounts  for  the  fact  that  in  the 
building  of  large  bridges  American  firms  can  underbid  any  others, 
and  not  in  any  way  lower  the  character  of  the  work  done.* 


■»♦» 


AGRICULTURE  AND  THE  SINGLE  TAX. 

Br  HOKACE   WHITE. 
I. 

|~N  the  second  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  there  arose  a  school 
-L  of  thinkers  in  France  to  whom,  at  a  later  period,  J.  B.  Say 
gave  the  name  of  physiocrats.  The  founder  of  the  school  was 
Frangois  Quesnay.  Turgot  was  one  of  his  disciples,  and  was  the 
most  distinguished  member  of  the  group.  De  Gournay,  the  elder 
Mirabeau,  Morellet,  and  Dupont  de  Nemours  are  well-remem- 
bered names  of  the  physiocratic  school.  Adam  Smith  was  in 
Paris  in  the  year  1764,  and  was  much  in  the  society  of  Quesnay 
and  his  friends.  The  exchange  of  thoughts  among  these  great 
men  must  have  been  mutually  beneficial,  but  the  question  that 
has  since  been  raised  and  discussed  with  some  heat,  whether  the 
author  of  the  "  Wealth  of  Nations  "  gained  more  from  that  inter- 
course than  he  gave  in  return,  is  a  barren  controversy. 

At  that  time  governmental  interference  with  the  business  and 
livelihood  of  the  people  was  incessant  and  almost  universal,  and 

*  Lattice  riveted  bridges  and  double  intersection  trusses  have  not  been  discussed,  as 
their  introduction  would  only  have  obscured  the  object  of  the  paper. 

In  regard  to  the  advantages  of  the  American  pin-connected  bridges  for  long  spans,  we 
may  say  that  from  the  most  recent  data  the  time  required  for  the  erection  of  the  bridge, 
after  everything  is  ready,  is  only  about  one  twentieth  of  that  required  for  the  erection  of 
the  English  riveted  bridges. 

VOL.  XXXVI. — 31 


482  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

was  generally  acquiesced  in.  The  doctrine  that  money  was  the 
only  form  of  wealth  was  held  by  nearly  all  statesmen  and  trad- 
ers, and  had  resulted  in  the  establishment  of  the  so-called  mer- 
cantile system.  The  physiocrats  taught  the  contrary  of  both 
these  conceptions.  They  held  that  governmental  interference 
with  the  gainful  occupations  of  the  people  was  bad  for  both 
government  and  people,  since  it  hindered  the  increase  of  wealth 
and  the  productiveness  of  taxes.  They  maintained  that  money 
was  not  wealth  except  in  a  secondary  sense,  as  a  tool  and  instru- 
ment of  exchange,  since  all  persons  who  acquire  money  find  it 
for  their  advantage  immediately  to  lay  it  out  for  other  things. 
These  two  contentions  of  the  physiocrats  constitute  their  claim 
to  the  admiration  of  mankind. 

They  had  another  doctrine  by  which,  as  it  has  turned  out, 
they  are  now  more  generally  distinguished.  They  held  that  land 
was  the  only  source  of  wealth,  and  that  all  occupations  except 
agriculture  were  unproductive. 

Agriculture,  they  said,  yielded  a  "net  product"  over  and 
above  the  wages  of  the  cultivator  during  the  time  he  was  en- 
gaged in  producing  the  crop.  This  net  product  went  to  the 
landlord,  and  might  rightfully  be  taken  by  the  Government  to 
the  extent  necessary  to  defray  the  public  expenses.  They  accord- 
ingly proposed  and  advocated  the  impot  unique,  or  single  tax,  on 
the  income  derived  from  landed  property.  The  residue  of  the 
net  product  remaining  in  the  landlord's  hands  after  the  payment 
of  taxes  was,  in  their  judgment,  the  annual  and  sole  increment 
of  the  world's  capital  and  stock  in  trade  for  the  upbuilding  of 
civilization. 

All  other  trades,  such  as  manufacturing  and  commerce,  were 
sterile.  These  served  as  the  clerks,  the  agents,  the  porters  of 
agriculture.  If  any  of  these  saved  anything  from  their  earnings 
as  the  handmaids  of  agriculture,  competition  would  cut  down 
their  gains,  so  that  eventually  they  would  have  nothing  left  over 
at  the  end  of  the  year. 

Adam  Smith  agreed  with  the  physiocrats  in  their  views  re- 
specting governmental  interference  with  private  business,  and  as 
to  the  true  character  and  functions  of  money.  He  differed  from 
them  as  to  the  "  net  product."  He  held  that  land  was  not  the  sole 
source  of  wealth,  but  that  all  useful  labor  was  to  be  reckoned, 
equally  with  agriculture,  among  the  sources.  His  answer  to  the 
physiocrats  is  embraced  in  Chapter  IX,  Book  IV,  of  the  "  Wealth 
of  Nations."  Notwithstanding  an  occasional  subsequent  flicker, 
it  may  be  said,  speaking  broadly,  that  if  there  ever  was  any 
economic  conclusion  upon  which  the  world  had  agreed  it  was 
that  the  physiocratic  docrine  of  net  product  and  single  tax  was 
erroneous. 


AGRICULTURE  AND    THE  SINGLE  TAX.  483 

II. 

This  consensus  of  opinion  held  good  for  something  more  than 
a  century.  In  the  year  1879  Mr.  Henry  George  published  his 
"Progress  and  Poverty,"  in  which  he  revived  the  single-tax 
idea  with  some  variations.  Mr.  George  says  that  he  arrived  at 
his  conclusions  by  independent  reasoning,  without  knowing  any- 
thing of  Quesnay  or  his  doctrines  ("  Progress  and  Poverty,"  p. 
381).  The  only  practical  difference  between  Mr.  George  and  the 
physiocrats  is  that  he  would  take  all  the  "net  product"  for 
public  use,  while  they  would  take  only  so  much  as  might  be  re- 
quired for  the  purposes  of  economical  government.  There  are 
differences  of  reasoning  between  them,  but  this  is  the  only  differ- 
ence in  results.* 

Mr.  George's  latest  commentator,  Mr.  Samuel  B.  Clarke,f 
allows  that  the  net  product  may  turn  out  to  be  a  net  deficiency 
as  regards  the  full  support  of  government.  In  one  of  his  opening 
paragraphs  he  says : 

"  He  (George)  assumes,  without  conclusive  evidence,  that 
economic  rent  in  the  present  state  of  this  and  every  civilized 
country  largely  exceeds  the  amount  required  for  necessary  gov- 
ernmental expenses.  The  assumption,  however,  is  not  essential  to 
his  scheme.  If  the  amount  realized  by  the  proposed  tax  would 
not  support  the  Government,  of  course  there  would  have  to  be 
taxes  on  other  things  ;  but  the  amount  to  be  raised  would  be  less 
by  the  amount  of  the  land-value  tax." 

If  we  could  settle  this  question  of  the  sufficiency  of  economic 
rent  to  sustain  all  the  costs  of  government  in  advance  of  actual 
experiment,  much  would  depend  upon  what  we  should  call  neces- 
sary governmental  expenditures ;  much  would  depend  also  upon 
what  we  should  take  for  the  basis  of  economic  rent.  The  lat- 
ter is  defined  by  Mr.  Clarke  as  "the  fair  rental  value  of  land 
exclusive  of  distinguishable  betterments."  Buildings,  fences, 
and  growing  orchards  are  distinguishable  betterments.  Perhaps 
roads  and  ditches  made  at  the  sole  expense  of  the  land-owners 
may  be  so  considered.  But  are  clearing,  grubbing,  breaking, 
marling,  grading,  and  like  ameliorations  distinguishable  ?    If  so, 

*  In  the  "  Forum,"  September,  1889,  Mr.  Thomas  G.  Shearman,  one  of  the  most  dis- 
tinguished members  of  the  single-tax  party,  holds  that  it  is  not  necessary  to  push  the  single 
tax  beyond  necessary  governmental  expenses.  The  absorption  of  the  entire  ground-rent, 
he  says,  "  is  not  a  practical  question  at  present,  and  will  not  be  for  a  long  time  to  come,  if 
every  This  marks  the  recent  divergence  between  Mr.  George  and  the  "  Standard  "  on  the 
one  hand,  and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Pentecost  and  the  "  Twentieth  Century"  on  the  other.  With 
the  latter  the  single  tax  is  a  cult ;  with  the  former  it  is  now  only  an  economic  doctrine, 
or  at  most  a  "  pious  opinion."  But  certainly  "  Progress  and  Poverty  "  teaches  a  cult,  if  it 
teaches  anything. 

f  "  Current  Objections  to  the  Exaction  of  Economic  Rent  by  Taxation  considered,"  by 
Samuel  B.  Clarke,  of  New  York  ;  pamphlet  edition,  1889. 


484  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

we  have  Henry  C.  Carey's  word  for  it  that  no  farming  district  or 
county  or  township  will  sell  to-day  for  as  much  as  it  has  cost  to 
bring  it  to  its  present  state  of  productiveness.  I  do  not  agree 
with  Mr.  Carey  in  this.  I  only  mention  it  to  show  what  a  chasm 
of  divergence  will  open  whenever  the  Government  shall  under- 
take to  define  distinguishable  betterments  and  separate  them 
from  undistinguishable  ones  for  the  purpose  of  securing  what 
Mr.  Clarke  calls  "  a  firm  foothold  "  for  the  inscribing  of  the  fair 
rental  value  of  each  piece  of  land  in  the  public  accounts.  Still, 
this  difficulty  may  not  be  insuperable. 

I  propose  to  examine  Mr.  Clarke's  pamphlet  rather  than  Mr. 
George's  book,  because  the  former,  although  drawn  almost  wholly 
from  the  latter,  embraces  in  small  compass  and  with  eminent 
fairness  all  that  is  needed  to  set  out  the  single-tax  argument,  and 
does  not  lure  us  into  by-ways  as  Mr.  George  often  does. 

"  Why  should  land  be  singled  out,  and  its  holder  made  to  bear 
a  burden  from  which  the  owners  of  other  sorts  of  property  are 
exempt  ?  " 

This  question  is  answered  by  Mr.  Clarke,  first  on  economical 
and  then  on  ethical  grounds.     On  economical  grounds  :  "  Because 

(1)  material  progress  in  a  community  where  absolute  private  prop- 
erty in  land  is  maintained  by  law,  acts,  by  force  of  that  fact,  like 
a  wedge  thrust  midway  into  the  social  structure,  to  raise  a  few 
without  effort  or  merit  on  their  part,  and  to  grind  down  the 
masses  of  men,  however  meritorious  they  may  be ;  and  because 

(2)  property  in  land  being  qualified  in  the  way  proposed,  poverty 
will  be  abolished  for  that  increasing  class  in  civilized  commu- 
nities who  are  willing  to  work,  but  have  few  opportunities  to  do 
so  advantageously." 

We  are  not  authorized  to  infer  from  this  statement  that  in  a 
community  where  absolute  private  property  in  land  is  maintained 
by  law,  e.  g.,  the  United  States,  "  a  few  "  belonging  to  the  landless 
class  never  get  unduly  elevated,  or  that  land  -  owners  never  get 
ground  down,  in  both  cases  regardless  of  merits,  or  out  of  all  pro- 
portion to  merits ;  nor  can  we  infer  that  in  a  community  where 
the  state  is  the  landlord,  e.  g.,  British  India,*  a  few  are  never  ele- 
vated and  the  masses  never  ground  down,  regardless  of  their  mer- 
its respectively.  But  we  may  fairly  demand  that  the  writer  shall 
point  out  his  "few"  before  he  asks  us  to  accept  his  statement. 
Do  land-owners  in  the  United  States  get  rich  faster  than  other 
people  ?    To  say  that  the  Astors  are  very  wealthy,  and  that  they 

*  De  Laveleye,  in  his  work  on  "  Primitive  Property,"  gives  the  reason  for  holding  that 
the  state  is  the  real  landlord  in  India.  "Where  the  land-tax  rises  so  high,"  he  says,  "as  to 
absorb  nearly  the  whole  produce  and  to  leave  the  cultivators  only  the  bare  means  of  sub- 
sistence, it  is  obviously  an  actual  rent  that  is  paid  ;  and  if  it  is  the  state  that  receives  such 
a  tax,  it  may  be  considered  as  the  true  proprietor." 


AGRICULTURE  AND    THE  SINGLE  TAX.  485 

have  their  counterparts  as  land-owners  in  all  our  lesser  cities,  does 
not  answer  the  question,  because  the  Vanderbilts,  the  Havemeyers, 
the  Drexels,  the  Rockefellers,  the  Carnegies,  the  Armours,  and 
the  Pullmans  are  also  very  rich,  and  they  do  not  own  land  to  any 
large  extent.  Can  anybody  point  to  a  similar  group  of  rich  men 
whose  income  is  derived  from  agricultural  land  ? 

Any  man  of  fair  intelligence  can  answer  the  question  for  him- 
self. The  opportunity  has  been  open  to  me,  for  example,  to  get  rich 
by  land-owning  ever  since  I  arrived  at  man's  estate.  It  has  been 
open  to  me  to  acquire  land  at  all  prices,  from  nothing  per  acre  up- 
ward. I  was  once  domiciled  for  a  short  time  at  a  place  where  land 
was  obtainable  at  the  former  price — good  arable  land,  underlaid 
by  a  workable  vein  of  coal.  I  filed  an  entry  on  one  hundred  and 
sixty  acres  of  it  at  the  United  States  Land-Office  at  Lecompton, 
Kansas ;  but,  happening  to  receive  an  offer  of  twenty-five  dollars 
X^er  week  to  work  on  a  newspaper  shortly  afterward,  I  abandoned 
my  claim,  and  I  am  sure  that  I  made  no  mistake  in  the  point  of 
view  of  dollars  and  cents.  I  took  up  my  abode  in  the  city  of  Chi- 
cago when  there  were  only  sixty  thousand  inhabitants  there.  The 
growth  of  that  place  has  been,  since  that  time,  one  of  the  remark- 
able phenomena  in  the  world's  history,  and  a  great  part  of  this 
growth  took  place  under  my  eye ;  yet  I  have  never  seen  the  time 
when  I  thought  I  could  make  better  use  of  my  small  capital  by 
becoming  a  land-owner  than  by  following  other  pursuits.  But  I 
have  had  some  experience  as  a  land-owner.  The  land  that  I  have 
at  one  time  and  another  owned,  whether  urban,  suburban,  or  agri- 
cultural, or  taken  altogether,  has  not  served  me  as  well  on  the 
whole  as  other  investments. 

I  make  this  personal  reference  because  I  know  that  my  expe- 
rience tallies  with  that  of  many  others.  Mr.  Henry  George,  for 
example,  has  fairly  earned  all  that  he  possesses  of  this  world's 
goods.  I  venture  to  ask  whether  the  same  amount  of  labor,  dili- 
gence, and  foresight  that  he  has  bestowed  upon  his  own  vocation 
of  book-writer,  journalist,  and  publisher,  if  applied  to  the  acqui- 
sition and  use  of  land,  would  have  netted  him  as  much.  Undoubt- 
edly both  he  and  I,  by  the  use  of  hind-sight,  can  see  where  we 
might  have  made  larger  gains  by  becoming  land-owners  than  we 
have  ever  made.  But  so,  too,  by  the  use  of  hind-sight  we  can  see 
how  we  might  have  made  as  much  or  more  in  still  other  ways. 
We  might  have  invented  a  telephone,  for  example. 

Before  proceeding  it  should  be  noted  that  Mr.  Clarke  expressly 
repudiates  the  idea  that  the  single-tax  argument  rests  upon  the 
idea  of  an  "  unearned  increment."  The  rise  in  land  values  due  to 
the  growth  of  population  has  nothing  to  do  with  it,  or  at  most 
only  serves  to  set  it  in  a  more  glaring  light. 

"  The  argument  for  the  land-value  tax  "  (he  says)  "  is  very  apt 


486  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

to  assume  the  form,  and,  if  we  may  judge  from  current  criticism, 
is  quite  generally  understood  to  have  the  form,  that  because  the 
value  of  land  increases  without  effort  on  the  part  of  the  land- 
holders as  the  community  grows,  therefore  the  community  has 
earned  such  value,  and  may  justly  take  it  for  common  purposes. 
In  that  form  the  argument  is  fallacious  beyond  question." 

Land,  he  shows,  is  subject  to  decrease  as  well  as  to  increase  of 
value,  and  other  kinds  of  property  increase  or  decrease  in  value 
quite  independently  of  the  owner's  exertions,  merits,  or  demerits. 

The  second  economical  reason  why  land  should  be  singled  out 
and  its  holder  made  to  bear  a  burden  from  which  the  owners  of 
other  sorts  of  property  are  exempt,  as  stated  in  the  quoted  para- 
graph, is  "  because  property  in  land  being  qualified  in  the  way 
proposed,  poverty  will  be  abolished,"  etc.  No  mode  or  process  by 
which  poverty  is  to  be  abolished  being  furnished,  we  are  at  liberty 
to  infer  that,  if  a  marked  addition  were  made  to  the  land-tax  all 
over  the  country,  the  poor  would  soon  find  themselves  in  easier 
circumstances  ;  and  that  if  successive  additions  were  made,  they 
would  become  more  and  more  prosperous ;  and  that  when  the 
whole  rental  value  had  been  taken,  there  would  be  no  poor  people 
anywhere. 

Now,  taxes  on  land  are  paid  by  land-owners  (I  believe  that  Mr. 
George  agrees  to  this).  The  proposition  then  is,  that  if  land- 
owners were  required  to  pay  into  the  public  treasury  as  much  as 
they  could  by  any  possibility  pay,  other  people  would  be  so  much 
benefited  that  even  the  poorest  people  in  the  world  would  be  in 
comfortable  circumstances. 

The  only  way  that  this  great  change  can  be  brought  about  is 
by  the  abolishment  of  all  other  taxes.  I  do  not  undervalue  the 
relief  that  would  accrue  to  industry  from  the  abolition  of  indirect 
taxes.  I  hold  that  it  should  be  the  first  step  toward  the  elevation 
of  the  poor  man,  and  the  bettering  of  his  condition,  to  let  him 
have  and  enjoy  what  he  earns — all  of  it,  except  just  sufficient  to 
keep  him  watchful  of  tax-eaters  and  tax-thieves. 

But  suppose  that  Divine  Providence  should  bestow  upon  us 
rulers  who  could  carry  on  government  without  any  taxes  what- 
ever. "Would  that  dispensation  abolish  poverty  ?  Those  who 
think  so  are  bound  to  tell  us  how. 

The  single-tax  philosophy  does  not  propose  to  constitute  a  fund 
for  general  distribution.  If  anything  should  be  left  over  after 
defraying  all  necessary  expenses  of  government,  the  residue  is  to 
be  applied  to  the  common  benefit  and  delectation  through  free 
libraries,  music  halls,  picture  galleries,  higher  education,  etc. 
There  is  to  be  no  alms-giving,  because  there  are  to  be  no  poor.  I 
take  it  that  the  utmost  good  to  be  derived  from  the  exemption  of 
all  others  than  land-owners  from  taxation  would  be  gained  equally 


AGRICULTURE  AND   THE  SINGLE  TAX.  487 

by  any  device  or  dispensation  which  should  enable  government  to 

be  carried  on  without  taxes.     I  protest  against  the  assumption 

that  this  would  abolish  poverty,  unless  those  who  hold  that  it 

would  shall  offer  us  something  more  conclusive  than  their  private 

opinions. 

III. 

The  ethical  reason  why  land  should  be  singled  out  exclusively 
for  purposes  of  taxation  is  based  upon  what  are  called  "  natural 
rights/'    I  quote  Mr.  Clarke's  words : 

"  The  second  answer,  in  substance,  is :  Because  land  is  not 
rightfully  the  subject  of  absolute  property,  and  because  the  injus- 
tice of  allowing  it  to  be  so  acquired  and  held  will  be  remedied  by 
the  exaction  and  application  to  common  uses  of  economic  rent. 

"  The  standard  of  right,  to  which  this  answer  appeals,  is  that 
conception  of  inherent  or  underlying  rights  which  is  usually  de- 
scribed, perhaps  not  altogether  happily,  by  the  phrase  natural 
rights." 

General  Francis  A.  Walker,  in  his  "Land  and  its  Rent,"  dis- 
poses of  the  dogma  of  natural  rights  as  applied  by  Mr.  George 
with  a  few  words  of  sarcasm,  which,  really  do  embrace  the  true 
philosophy  of  the  subject.  He  says  that  as  he  has  never  lived  in 
the  state  of  nature  himself,  but  has  passed  his  whole  life  in  com- 
munities more  or  less  civilized,  he  does  not  feel  moved  to  discuss 
the  subject  on  any  other  than  economic  grounds.  According  to 
my  observation,  more  people  of  fair  intelligence  are  taken  in  the 
single-tax  net  by  this  dogma  than  by  all  others  together ;  and  even 
when  they  are  shaken  from  every  other,  they  still  cling  to  this  as 
a  sheet-anchor.  It  is  worth  while,  therefore,  and  indeed  necessary, 
to  give  some  particular  attention  to  it,  in  an  elementary  way. 

Having  cautioned  us  against  the  use  of  the  phrase  "  natural 
rights  "  as  not  altogether  happy,  Mr.  Clarke  proceeds  to  use  it 
twenty-one  times  in  the  next  twenty  pages,  as  though  it  were  as 
happy  as  possible,  assuming  in  all  cases  that  every  person  born 
into  the  world  has  a  natural  right  to  land  and  a  natural  right  to 
the  best  land — conditioned,  however,  upon  every  other  person's 
equal  right  to  the  same  land.  The  only  way  to  make  these  con- 
flicting natural  rights  effective  is  to  confiscate  economic  rent 
through  the  taxing  power. 

What  are  "natural  rights"  ?  Let  us  test  them  for  a  moment 
by  the  Socratic  dialogue,  the  interlocutors  being  A  and  B : 

A.  When  you  speak  of  natural  rights,  you  mean  rights  accord- 
ing to  nature,  I  suppose  ? 

B.  Undoubtedly. 

A.  And  that  the  origin  of  such  rights  is  traceable  to  the  state 
of  nature  ? 

B.  Certainly. 


488  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

A.  What  would  be  the  opposite  of  a  state  of  nature,  regarded 
as  an  origin  of  rights  ? 

B.  Art,  convention,  agreement,  law. 

A.  Then  the  opposite  of  natural  rights  would  be  artificial,  con- 
ventional, and  legal  rights  ? 

B.  Not  the  opposite  exactly,  but  the  counterpart  and  supple- 
ment of  such  rights. 

A.  But  as  to  their  origin  only,  you  would  say  that  the  two 
origins  were  opposite  to  each  other,  the  one  being  according  to 
nature  and  the  other  not  according  to  nature  ? 

B.  Yes,  that  would  be  a  fair  statement. 

A.  How  do  we  learn  whether  anything  is  according  to  nature, 
so  as  to  distinguish  it  from  things  not  according  to  nature  ? 

B.  By  observing  what  takes  place  in  a  state  of  nature. 

A.  So,  if  we  saw  a  wolf  devouring  a  sheep  in  a  forest,  we  should 
say  that  it  was  the  nature  of  wolves  to  kill  sheep  ? 

B.  Of  course. 

A.  But  if  we  saw  a  dog  guarding  a  flock  of  sheep  and  driving 
them  into  a  sheep-fold  at  night,  should  we  say  that  it  was  the 
nature  of  wolves  to  kill  sheep,  but  the  nature  of  dogs  to  protect 
them? 

B.  No,  we  should  say  that  the  dog  had  been  trained  to  take 
care  of  sheep,  although  his  ancestors  had  themselves  been  sheep- 
killers. 

A.  "Why  should  we  say  this  ? 

B.  Because  we  know  it  by  observation  and  testimony. 

A.  Do  observation  and  testimony  teach  us  that  in  a  state  of 
nature  all  men  have  equal  rights  ? 

B.  We  do  not  know  exactly  what  is  the  state  of  nature  appli- 
cable to  man,  since  he  has  improvable  faculties  and  is  always 
changing,  or  is  susceptible  of  change. 

A.  Yet  the  hypothesis  is  that  equal  rights  are  according  to 
nature — that  is,  to  man's  nature.  Are  we  to  say  that  natural 
rights  exist  because  there  is  no  state  of  nature  for  man,  as  there 
is  for  dogs  and  wolves  ? 

B.  Although  man  has  improvable  faculties  and  is  susceptible 
of  change,  and  although  his  actual  state  of  nature  is  hidden  from 
us  in  the  darkness  of  ages,  before  written  language  existed,  yet  if 
is  possible  to  approximate  toward  the  state  of  nature  by  observing 
what  takes  place  among  those  tribes  that  are  nearest  to  the  state 
of  nature. 

A.  And  do  we  observe  that  among  such  tribes  equal  rights 
exist  as  to  life  or  liberty,  or  any  kind  of  property  ? 

The  colloquy  would  "  naturally  "  come  to  an  end  at  this  point, 
because,  in  a  state  of  nature,  might  makes  right.  The  natural 
man  takes  what  he  wants,  wherever  he  can  find  it.     He  takes  the 


AGRICULTURE  AND   THE  SINGLE  TAX.  489 

weaker  man's  wife  or  property,  and  kills  or  enslaves  him,  as  the 
ease  may  be.*  It  is  safe  to  say  that  this  has  been  the  state  of  man 
in  all  countries  "  ere  human  statute  purged  the  gentle  weal." 

The  village  community,  in  which  the  land  was  held  in  common 
for  the  villagers  (not  for  everybody),  was  the  outgrowth  of  law, 
of  art,  of  convention;  but  even  this  was  subject  to  the  law  of  the 
strongest,  in  the  sense  that  every  village  community  was  liable  to 
be  dispossessed  by  any  wandering  tribe  better  armed,  or  more 
numerous  or  braver,  that  might  suddenly  emerge  from  the  neigh- 
boring forest  or  mountain.  The  feudal  system  displaced  the 
village  community  because  the  village  could  not  protect  itself 
against  armed  robbers,  f 

The  recent  searching  examination  of  "  natural  rights  "  by  Prof. 
Sumner  \  renders  it  unnecessary  for  me  to  go  more  deeply  into 
this  branch  of  the  subject.  What  are  commonly  and  loosely 
called  natural  rights  are  the  outcome  of  centuries  of  hard  knocks, 
the  results  of  training,  education,  and  experience,  the  very  flower 
and  last  refinement  of  art  as  applied  to  society  and  government. 
Mr.  Clarke  cites  certain  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court  to  show 
that  natural  rights  have  "  their  seat  in  the  bosom  of  God  and  their 
voice  in  the  harmony  of  the  world,"  to  quote  from  Hooker's  defi- 
nition of  law.  But  all  such  opinions  are  obiter  to  this  discussion. 
That  our  ideas  of  natural  rights,  civilized  though  we  be,  change 
greatly  in  the  progress  of  time,  is  proved  by  our  own  recent  his- 
tory, the  right  to  liberty  having  been  denied  by  a  majority  of 
Americans  within  our  time. 

Conjoined  to  the  doctrine  of  natural  rights,  though  not  a  neces- 
sary part  of  it,  is  the  doctrine  of  equal  rights,  which  I  share  as 
fully  as  anybody.  But,  if  I  attempt  to  draw  generalizations  from 
it,  I  am  confronted  by  the  fact  that  it  is  not  universally  held,  but 
is  really  confined  to  a  small  portion  of  the  human  family.    The 

*  The  movement  now  in  progress  for  the  suppression  of  the  African  slave  trade  has  shed 
an  abundance  of  light  (if  any  more  were  needed)  on  the  subject  of  "  rights  "  as  they  actu- 
ally exist  in  the  state  of  nature.  The  prime  difficulty  there  is  not  Arab  slave-dealing,  but 
the  practice  prevailing  among  the  native  tribesmen  of  enslaving  each  other  for  the  pur- 
poses of  human  sacrifice  in  their  religious  ceremonial.  Arab  slave-dealing  is  not  the  cause 
of  African  slavery,  but  merely  an  adjunct  to  it. 

f  "  Not  to  be  killed,"  says  Stendhal,  "  and  to  have  a  good  sheepskin  coat  in  winter,  was, 
for  many  people  in  the  tenth  century,  the  height  of  felicity  " ;  let  us  add,  for  a  woman,  that 
of  not  being  violated  by  a  whole  band.  When  we  clearly  represent  to  ourselves  the  con- 
dition of  humanity  in  those  days,  we  can  comprehend  how  men  readily  accepted  the  most 
obnoxious  of  feudal  rights,  even  that  of  the  droit  du  seigneur.  The  risks  to  which  they 
were  daily  subject  were  even  worse.  The  proof  of  it  is  that  the  people  flocked  to  the 
feudal  structure  as  soon  as  it  was  completed.  In  Normandy,  for  instance,  when  Rollo  had 
divided  off  the  lands  with  a  line,  and  hung  the  robbers,  the  inhabitants  of  the  neighbor- 
ing provinces  rushed  in  to  establish  themselves.  The  slightest  security  sufficed  to  repopu- 
late  a  country.     (Taine's  "Ancient  Regime.") 

X  "  Popular  Science  Monthly,"  July,  1889. 


49o  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

Hindus,  for  example,  hold  tliat  rights  ought  to  be  apportioned 
according  to  caste.  In  the  Mohammedan  world  the  doctrine  of 
fate  completely  overtops  and  stifles  the  doctrine  of  equal  rights. 
A  considerable  portion  of  the  human  race  hold  that  women  have 
no  rights.  A  majority  of  the  civilized  races  hold  that  woman's 
rights  are  inferior  to  man's  rights,  and  we  ourselves  do  not  con- 
sider them  embraced  in  the  term  "popular  sovereignty."  Yet 
they  are  one  half  of  the  human  race,  and  the  more  meritorious 
half.* 

I  shall  assume,  without  further  argument,  that  the  rights  of 
life,  liberty,  and  property,  including  land,  all  rest  upon  experience, 
translated,  after  infinite  trouble,  conflict,  and  bloodshed,  into  law, 
and  this  notwithstanding  any  opinions  of  the  Supreme  Court  that 
can  be  quoted  to  the  contrary. 

A  title  to  anything,  land  or  personal  property,  is  defined  to  be 
"a  just  cause  of  exclusive  ownership,"  and  a  title-deed  is  the 
accepted  evidence  of  the  same.  The  law  tells  us  what  shall  con- 
stitute just  cause  of  exclusive  ownership  and  what  shall  constitute 
good  evidence  of  it.  It  is  the  same  law,  as  to  its  origin,  that  fixes, 
prescribes,  defines,  and  enforces  all  rights. 

The  law  has  prescribed  in  this  country  the  following  among 
other  things :  (1)  That  human  life  shall  not  be  taken  except  in 
self-defense  or  by  due  process  of  law ;  (2)  that  private  property 
shall  not  be  taken  for  public  use  without  just  compensation ;  (3) 
that  slavery  or  involuntary  servitude  shall  not  exist  except  as 
a  punishment  for  crime — this  is  placed  last  because  it  was  enacted 
last. 

On  the  ground  of  salus  populi  suprema  lex  the  state  holds  com- 
mand over  the  lives  and  fortunes  of  its  citizens,  and  to  this  sover- 
eignty land  forms  no  exception.  The  state  may  draft  the  citizen 
into  its  army  or  navy,  and  send  him  into  battle  where  he  may  be 
killed.  It  may  likewise  take  his  landed  property  or  his  personal 
property.  It  is  the  sole  judge  of  the  occasions  and  the  reasons. 
But  it  must  act  in  accordance  with  its  own  constitution.  It  must 
not  arbitrarily  choose  A,  B,  and  C  to  go  to  the  wars.  It  must  not 
take  private  property  without  just  compensation.  If  it  does  these 
things,  it  subverts  itself  and  plunges  into  chaos. 

There  is  no  peculiar  sacredness  about  land  titles  as  distin- 
guished from  other  titles.    If  the  annual  tax  on  land  is  not  paid, 

*  Jeremy  Bentham  has  given  an  analysis  of  the  phrases  in  common  use  which  are 
synonymous  with  law  of  nature,  such  as  moral  sense,  common  sense,  law  of  reason,  natural 
justice,  natural  equity,  and  fitness  of  things.  "  Common  sense,"  he  says,  "  means  a  sense 
of  some  kind  or  another  which  the  author  affirms  is  possessed  by  all  mankind ;  tbe 
sense  of  those  whose  sense  is  not  the  same  as  his  being  struck  out  of  the  account  as  not 
worth  taking.  ...  If  such  a  man,"  he  adds,  "  happens  to  possess  the  advantages  of  style, 
his  book  may  do  a  considerable  deal  of  mischief  before  the  nothingness  of  it  is  understood." 
("Principles  of  Morals  and  Legislation," chap,  ii.) 


AGRICULTURE  AND    THE  SINGLE   TAX.  491 

the  title  is  subverted  at  once.  So,  too,  if  a  special  assessment,  or  a 
mere  water  rate,  is  not  paid,  the  land  is  sold,  and  a  new  title  deliv- 
ered to  the  purchaser,  and  this  happens  even  if  the  non-payment  is 
the  result  of  accident.  Personal  property  is  liable  to  seizure  and 
sale  in  like  manner,  and  this  is  right,  because  the  state  must  have 
the  means  of  existence.  All  persons  have  had  notice  that  such 
are  the  conditions  of  civilized  life,  the  alternative  to  which  is 
the  feudal  system,  or  the  worse  condition  that  went  before  it. 

When  we  are  told  that  the  state  could  not  divest  itself  of  the 
right  to  resume  possession  of  the  land,  we  reply  that  it  never  has 
done  so.  It  has  only  divested  itself  of  the  right  to  take  it  with- 
out just  compensation.  If  any  casuist  puts  himself  back  of  the 
contract,  and  says  it  was  wrong  in  the  beginning  and  void  db  initio, 
he  has  before  him  the  immense  task  of  turning  the  world  over 
without  a  fulcrum ;  for  the  world,  after  an  incalculable  deal  of 
shifting  and  balancing,  has  settled  down  to  the  belief  that  agree- 
ments made  in  writing  should  be  kept. 

Suppose  we  admit  that  there  are  two  sides  to  the  question,  and 
that  it  is  submitted  to  a  jury  from  the  moon.  A  holds  that  pri- 
vate property  in  land  is  a  disadvantage  to  society,  and  should 
therefore  be  abolished  without  compensation  to  owners.  B  holds 
that  it  is  an  advantage  to  society,  independently  of  constitutions 
and  laws,  and  he  shows  in  addition  that  a  solemn  agreement  has 
been  made  that  it  shall  not  be  abolished  without  compensation. 
Both  advance  such  arguments  as  they  may.  A  says  (using  the 
words  of  Mr.  George  in  his  speech  at  Brighton  Beach,  July  28, 
1889) : 

"  So  monstrous  is  private  ownership  of  land,  so  unjust  is  it — 
so  ridiculous  even  is  it,  that  a  few  men  should  be  the  owners  of 
the  element  on  which  and  from  which  a  whole  people  must  live — 
so  clear  is  it  that  all  men  have  by  nature  equal  rights  to  the  use 
of  the  land — that  private  property  in  land  as  we  know  it  can  only 
long  continue  where  from  the  force  of  habit  it  is  acquiesced  in 
and  never  questioned.  When  it  is  thought  about,  when  it  is 
talked  about,  even  when  it  is  defended,  it  is  doomed." 

B  replies  that  "  force  of  habit "  is  another  name  for  human  ex- 
perience, and  that  it  has  stronger  presumptions  in  its  favor  than 
anybody's  inner  consciousness ;  that  the  usefulness  of  land  resides 
in  its  cultivation,  and  that  no  man  can  show  from  inner  con- 
sciousness that  better,  or  as  good,  cultivation  would  result  from 
the  abolition  of  private  ownership ;  and  that,  if  worse  cultivation 
should  follow,  the  whole  human  race  would  be  sufferers.  Would 
not  the  men  from  the  moon  say :  "  Gentlemen,  your  arguments 
are  somewhat  confusing.  We  perceive  that  private  ownership  of 
land,  like  most  of  your  institutions,  has  advantages  and  disad- 
vantages ;  but  there  is  one  fact  about  which  no  confusion  exists, 


492  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

and  that  is,  that  men  ought  to  live  up  to  their  agreements.  "We 
accordingly  give  our  verdict  to  B.  And  we  do  this  with  the  more 
confidence  because  we  believe  that,  when  the  disadvantages  be- 
come clearly  preponderant,  you  will  find  a  way  to  overcome  them 
without  shocking  the  moral  sense  of  distant  observers." 

IV. 

Are  the  taxes  on  land  in  this  country  high  enough  or  not  ?  Is 
economic  rent  sufficient  in  amount  to  support  government  ?  We 
will  consider  these  questions  in  their  relation  to  agriculture. 

The  generally  received  idea  of  the  single-tax  party  is  that  held 
by  the  physiocrats,  that  all  wealth  proceeds  from  agriculture, 
using  that  term  to  include  all  the  products  of  the  earth  and  the 
sea.  This  is  a  corollary  of  Mr.  George's  book,  although  I  believe 
he  has  not  explicitly  affirmed  it.  I  find  an  apt  statement  of  it  in 
the  "  Twentieth  Century"  of  August  3d,  viz. : 

"  Where  all  land  is  occupied,  the  annual  rental  value  of  the 
land  of  a  nation  is,  theoretically,  equivalent  to  its  net  annual  pro- 
duction— that  is,  to  the  total  production,  less  sustenance,  interest, 
and  replacement.  This,  through  private  land-ownership,  is  now 
all  absorbed  by  a  small  number  of  individuals."  * 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  mere  space,  which  is  not  applied  to 
the  growing  or  gathering  or  mining  of  anything,  is  not  to  be  in- 
cluded in  the  wealth-producing  parts  of  the  earth's  surface,  ac- 
cording to  the  physiocratic  conception — such  as  lots  in  towns  and 
cities.  If  all  wealth  comes  from  the  earth  by  means  of  agricult- 
ure, mining,  hunting,  and  fishing,  why  should  not  they  pay  all 
the  expenses  of  government  and  a  fund  besides  for  the  general 
use  ?  Would  not  those  industries,  after  such  deductions,  still  be 
as  well  off  as  the  industries  which  have  no  share  in  the  land  ?  Is 
not  the  whole  of  a  thing  equal  to  all  of  its  parts  ? 

It  is  true  that  man  draws  his  sustenance  from  the  earth,  and 
that  the  annual  surplus  which  takes  the  form  of  capital,  of  what- 
ever sort,  there  has  its  start.  But  where  does  agriculture  begin 
and  end  ?  It  is  commonly  supposed  to  begin  with  the  making  of 
roads,  the  clearing  of  land,  and  the  destruction  of  beasts  of  prey. 
But,  before  land  can  be  cleared,  tools  must  be  made.  Axes,  plows, 
spades,  wagons,  bows  and  arrows,  gunpowder  perhaps,  must  be 
manufactured.  And  where  does  it  end  ?  All  production  is  under- 
taken to  satisfy  man's  wants.  These  are  not  satisfied  when  a  bale 
of  cotton  has  been  picked  or  a  ton  of  wheat  gathered  into  a  barn. 
The  wheat  must  be  ground  into  flour,  the  flour  must  be  baked 

*  I  do  not  find  any  explanation  of  the  word  "  theoretically,"  but  I  suppose  that  it  wa3 
not  used  without  a  purpose.  Theoretically  a  man  who  owns  the  only  coal  mine  on  the  line 
of  a  railroad  has  a  valuable  monopoly,  but  it  may  turn  out  practically  that  he  only  has  the 
privilege  of  working  it  on  terms  fixed  by  the  railroad.     I  can  point  to  cases  of  this  kind. 


AGRICULTURE  AND    THE  SINGLE  TAX.  493 

into  bread,  the  bread  must  be  carried  to  the  consumer.  All  these 
processes  require  labor  in  countless  forms  in  the  production  of 
machinery,  buildings,  tools,  packages,  and  transportation.  The 
bale  of  cotton  must  be  packed,  carried  to  and  fro,  spun,  woven, 
and  again  carried  to  and  fro.  So  of  every  product  of  the  earth, 
without  exception.  All  industry  and  all  commerce  are  concerned 
in  changing  the  forms  and  places  of  the  products  of  agriculture, 
forestry,  mines,  and  fisheries. 

John  Stuart  Mill  ("  Political  Economy,"  Book  I,  Chapter  II) 
asks  why  the  grinding  of  corn  should  be  considered  a  manufact- 
uring employment,  while  the  thrashing  of  it  is  agricultural.  The 
only  reason,  he  says,  is  that  thrashing  is  usually  done  on  the  farm, 
while  the  grinding  is  done  at  a  mill.  Butter-making  is  counted 
an  agricultural  employment  if  it  is  done  on  the  farm,  but  a  manu- 
facturing employment  if  it  is  done  at  a  creamery.  But  it  is  the 
making  of  the  butter,  and  not  the  place  of  making,  that  is  the 
essential  thing.  *  Carry  your  imagination  along  all  the  ramifica- 
tions of  human  industry  to  its  farthest  confines,  and  where  can 
you  find  anything  that  is  not  analogous  to  the  two  related  em- 
ployments of  the  milk-maid  and  the  butter-maker  ?  Mr.  Mill 
shows  that  the  labor  of  astronomers,  who  help  the  sailor  to  find 
his  way  by  the  shortest  paths  over  seas,  carrying  the  farmer's 
products,  is  productive  labor,  and  that  whether  it  be  called  agri- 
cultural or  not  is  of  no  importance  to  the  sum  total  of  the  world's 
wealth.  To  draw  a  distinction,  therefore,  between  agriculture 
and  the  manipulation  and  transportation  of  its  products,  as  a 
source  of  wealth  and  taxes,  is  false  reasoning. 

Taxes  must  be  apportioned  among  political  units.  The  State 
of  Connecticut  is  one  such  unit,  and  I  choose  this  for  present  con- 
sideration because  there  has  been  a  recent  official  examination  of 
the  profits  of  agriculture  in  that  State,  which  enables  us  to  see 
what  economic  rent  amounts  to  in  one  of  the  most  industrious 
and  prosperous  communities  in  the  Union.  It  is  embraced  in  the 
"  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  for  the  year  1889." 
Mr.  Hotchkiss,  the  commissioner,  has  sought  to  make  out  as  good 
a  case  for  agriculture  as  possible,  to  show  that  it  is  not  in  a  dis- 
tressed condition,  or  not  necessarily  so.  What  is  the  showing  of 
economic  rent  in  Connecticut  ? 

Six  hundred  and  ninety-three  farms  were  visited.  Three 
hundred  and  fourteen  report  average  profits  of  I3G2.88.  Three 
hundred  and  seventy-eight  report  an  average  loss  of  $268.59. 
One  reports  neither  loss  nor  gain.  In  this  calculation  the  farm- 
er's family  support  was  reckoned  as  part  of  the  farm  expenses, 
which  Mr.  Hotchkiss  thinks  is  improper,  since,  in  reckoning  the 
gains  of  other  trades,  it  is  customary  to  deal  only  with  the  profits 
and  losses  of  the  business  by  itself.    Making  this  correction,  he 


494  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

finds  that  six  hundred  and  fifty  farms  make  an  average  profit  of 
$551.36,  and  that  forty-two  sustain  an  average  loss  of  $232.45. 
The  average  size  of  the  farms  reported  on  was  one  hundred  and 
ten  acres. 

I  can  not  agree  with  Mr.  Hotchkiss  that  the  family  expenses 
ought  to  be  deducted  in  estimating  the  profits,  unless  an  allow- 
ance is  made  on  the  other  side  of  the  ledger  for  wages  of  the 
family.  The  children  of  farmers  begin  to  work  as  early  as  ten 
or  twelve  years  of  age.  Therefore,  the  first  cited  computation 
of  the  profits  of  farming  in  Connecticut  is  the  nearer  to  the 
truth.  The  footings,  as  summarized  by  the  commissioner,  are  as 
follows : 

Total  receipts  from  six  hundred  and  ninety-three  farms $707,153 

Total  expenses,  including  family  support 690,990 

Total  profit $16,163 

Among  the  farm  expenses  we  find  the  gross  sum  of  $37,526  set 
down  to  taxes  and  insurance,  but  there  is  no  separation  of  the 
taxes  from  the  insurance.  It  is  apparent  that  if  the  gross  sum 
of  $16,163  had  been  added  to  the  tax  bills  of  these  farmers,  it 
would  have  taken  not  only  the  whole  of  the  economic  rent,  but 
the  profits  on  their  capital  besides.  The  statistics  in  hand  lead 
me  to  believe  that  the  single-tax  theory  is  already  in  operation 
in  rural  Connecticut,  "unbeknownst"  to  its  advocates — that  is, 
that  economic  rent  is  wholly  taken  by  the  tax-gatherer  from 
agricultural  land  plus  something  from  the  returns  of  the  farmers' 
capital  invested  in  live  stock,  implements,  and  "  distinguishable 
betterments,"  which  the  theory  requires  us  to  exclude  from  the 
list  of  taxables.  Live  stock,  farming  utensils,  and  wagons  are 
shown  in  the  report  to  be  sixteen  per  cent  of  the  farmer's  capital, 
the  real  estate  being  eighty-four  per  cent.  But  the  real  estate 
includes  buildings  of  every  description,  fences,  drains,  wells,  and 
every  kind  of  improvement. 

If  this  is  the  true  state  of  the  case  in  one  of  the  most  densely 
populated  States  of  the  Union,  where  shall  we  look  for  the  revenue 
that  is  to  liberate  all  other  industry  from  taxation  and  abolish 
poverty  throughout  the  land  ?  I  know  something  about  farming 
in  the  West,  some  years  of  my  life  having  been  spent  on  a  farm 
in  a  then  frontier  State,  where  the  conditions  were  substantially 
the  same  as  those  now  prevailing  in  Dakota  and  Nebraska.  I 
know  that  my  step-father,  the  owner  of  the  hundred  and  sixty 
acres  under  cultivation,  had  hard  work  to  make  ends  meet  in  a 
very  economical  way,  although  he  had  a  family  of  willing  help- 
ers. Tea  and  coffee  were  luxuries  never  seen  in  the  household. 
Only  one  hired  man  was  ever  employed  on  the  place,  except  in 
harvest-time.    Thus  the  wages  bill  was  kept  down  to  a  minimum. 


AGRICULTURE  AND   THE  SINGLE  TAX.  495 

The  yearly  tax  bill  took  tlie  whole  of  the  economic  rent,  if  not 
more,  just  as  it  now  does  in  Connecticut.  I  remember  that  my 
step-father  was  glad  to  resign  his  advantages  as  a  land-owner 
and  accept  a  salary  of  five  hundred  dollars  per  year  in  a  town, 
in  lieu  of  his  chances  of  being  lifted  into  affluence  by  "  the  wedge 
thrust  midway  into  the  social  structure,"  which  Mr.  Clarke 
pictures  for  us.  I  suspect  that  Mr.  Clarke  never  worked  on  a 
frontier  farm. 

Between  the  extreme  West  and  the  extreme  East  I  presume 
that  instances  of  economic  rent  can  be  found  in  farming  districts, 
but  my  observation  teaches  me  that  it  is  an  insignificant  affair 
in  the  total  economy  of  the  nation.  When  you  have  swept  off 
all  buildings  and  other  distinguishable  betterments,  all  live  stock 
and  other  personal  property,  and  when  you  have  deducted  fair 
wages,  or  if  you  please  the  family  support  of  the  farmer  (gen- 
erally of  a  very  meager  sort),  the  residuum  of  economic  rent,  I 
am  very  sure,  will  not  be  worth  the  trouble  of  confiscation. 

If  the  single-tax  theory  prevails,  what  shall  be  done  in  those 
cases  where  economic  rent  is  a  minus  quantity  ?  According  to 
the  Connecticut  report,  three  hundred  and  seventy-eight  farms 
out  of  six  hundred  and  ninety-three  (fifty-four  per  cent)  report 
no  profits,  but  losses  instead.  Should  they  not  be  compensated 
in  some  way  ?  Would  it  be  fair  for  the  state  to  take  only  the 
choice  cuts  of  economic  rent,  and  leave  the  bone  and  gristle  ? 
The  least  that  it  could  do  would  be  to  abolish  taxes  on  all  land 
that  yields  no  return  to  an  industrious  cultivator.  Of  course, 
there  are  good  farmers  and  bad  farmers.  Some  can  make  a  liv- 
ing where  others  can  not.  But  when  the  Government,  in  addition 
to  all  its  other  duties,  takes  up  the  task  of  separating  all  the  dis- 
tinguishable betterments  of  the  country  from  all  the  land  in  the 
country,  and  rack-renting  the  land  afterward,  it  will  probably 
stop  short  of  the  task  of  discriminating  between  good  farmers 
and  poor  ones.  It  would  be  obliged  to  stop  taxing  the  non-profit- 
making  farmers,  if  indeed  it  did  not  consider  them  entitled  to 
some  compensation  out  of  the  treasury  for  their  labor.  I  do  not 
see  how  otherwise  the  single  tax  would  abolish  the  poverty  of 
these  three  hundred  and  seventy-eight  Connecticut  farmers. 

V. 

The  solidarity  and  interdependence  of  useful  industry  dispose 
of  the  complaint  that  all  except  land-owners  are  crippled  and  cur- 
tailed of  their  chance  of  earning  a  living.     Says  Mr.  Clarke  : 

"A  material  thing  is  not  rightfully  the  subject  of  absolute 
property  if  the  appropriation  of  it  by  the  exertion  of  one  man's 
natural  powers  interferes  with  the  equal  right  of  other  men  to 
exert  their  natural  powers. 


496  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

"  The  appropriation  of  land  does  so  interfere.  To  test  the  prin- 
ciple, it  will  be  proper  to  take  for  illustration  a  community  like 
New  York  or  Massachusetts,  whose  laws  maintain  private  prop- 
erty in  land,  and  in  which  all  the  land  has  been  fenced  in  or  sub- 
stantially so ;  for  such  communities  are  numerous,  and,  as  popu- 
lation increases,  will  become  more  numerous.  In  such  a  com- 
munity, obviously,  a  landless  man  can  not  do  anything  individ- 
ually. He  can  not  obtain  for  himself  food  or  clothing  or  shelter 
or  fire ;  he  is  dependent  upon  other  men  for  such  alms  or  for  such 
employment  as  they  are  willing  to  give  him." 

When  the  fight  against  the  English  corn  laws  was  in  progress, 
it  was  urged  by  the  protectionists  that  agriculture  was  the  most 
meritorious  of  all  employments,  because  it  furnished  food,  without 
which  man  could  not  exist.  I  recall  the  apt  reply  of  General  Per- 
ronet  Thompson,  who  said  that,  if  you  were  to  throw  two  men  into 
the  street,  one  without  any  products  of  agriculture  and  the  other 
without  any  products  of  manufacture,  there  would  not  be  much  to 
choose  between  them.  One  of  them  would  be  hungry  and  the 
other  naked.  But  the  naked  man  would  very  soon  be  as  hungry 
as  the  other,  because  he  would  have  no  tools  to  cultivate  the  land 
with,  and  if  the  temperature  happened  to  be  at  zero  the  naked 
man  would  be  frozen  to  death  before  the  hungry  man  would  be 
starved  to  death. 

Mr.  Clarke,  I  believe,  makes  his  living  by  the  practice  of  law, 
and,  being  a  landless  man, "  can  not  do  anything  individually."  He 
is  "  dependent  upon  other  men  for  such  alms  or  such  employment 
as  they  are  willing  to  give  him."  I,  too,  am  in  this  plight.  We 
two  are  therefore  worse  off  theoretically  than  any  of  the  Connecti- 
cut farmers  whose  pecuniary  condition  has  been  ascertained  for 
us  in  the  report  of  the  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.  I  say  "  theoret- 
ically," but  I  suppose  that  actually  the  case  is  somewhat  different. 
If  we  are  dependent  on  farmers  for  food,  they  are  dependent  on  us 
for  law  and  newspapers.  They  might  get  on  after  a  fashion  with- 
out law  and  without  newspapers,  perhaps,  but  they  could  not  get 
on  without  houses,  clothing,  tools,  wagons,  railroads,  ships,  medi- 
cines, etc.,  the  producers  of  which  in  turn  have  need  of  law  and 
newspapers.  The  only  man  who  can  do  anything  "  individually  " 
is  Robinson  Crusoe.  Neither  of  us  would  care  to  swap  places 
with  him. 

There  are  other  economic  formulas  in  the  essay  before  us  as 
unsubstantial  as  this,  but  space  serves  to  notice  only  one  more. 
The  merit  or  demerit  of  this  belongs  to  Mr.  George,  Mr.  Clarke 
having  merely  condensed  what  Mr.  George  has  set  forth  at  greater 
length.  It  relates  to  land  held  for  speculative  purposes,  and  the 
argument  is,  that  the  single  tax  will  wipe  out  this  speculative 
element  and  thus  benefit  society.    Thus,  it  is  said :  "  A  very  great 


AGRICULTURE  AND    THE   SINGLE   TAX.  497 

body  of  land  would  become  substantially  free,  and  all  the  people 
of  this  country  would  stand,  so  far  as  abundance  of  natural  oppor- 
tunities are  concerned,  where  their  predecessors  stood  sixty  or 
eighty  years  ago.  .  .  .  Furthermore,  the  annihilation  of  the  spec- 
ulative element  of  value  is  likely  to  have  a  particular  beneficial 
•effect  in  and  near  large  cities,  where  now  the  density  of  population 
presents  a  great  and  terrible  and  threatening  problem,  before 
which,  hitherto,  all  the  wisest  and  most  humane  of  men  have 
stood  gasping  and  helpless."  Capitalists,  it  is  contended,  would 
hasten  to  erect  comfortable  houses  for  rent  on  vacant  city  and 
.suburban  lots  "  if,  from  the  value  of  such  lots,  the  speculative 
element  were  excluded.  Houses  would  compete  for  men,  instead 
of  men  cutting  each  other's  throats,  as  now,  in  the  competition 
for  houses." 

The  first  result  of  the  application  of  the  single-tax  principle 
would  be  to  discharge  from  taxation  all  unoccupied  land  in  both 
city  and  country.  The  value,  or  rent-yielding  quality,  having 
been  seized  by  the  state,  nobody  would  be  so  foolish  as  to  pay  taxes 
on  property  which  neither  now  nor  hereafter  could  bring  him  any 
return.  All  such  holdings  would  be  abandoned  to  the  state,  and 
this  is  exactly  what  is  intended.  Of  course,  the  state  would  not 
tax  its  own  property. 

Then  the  state  would  say  to  capitalists,  "  You  can  build  on 
this  land  on  condition  of  paying  ground-rent,  and  you  will  receive 
such  interest  on  your  capital  invested  in  bricks  and  mortar  as  the 
law  of  competition  will  allow."  But  that  is  what  capitalists  can 
•do  now.  By  paying  ground-rent  they  can  build  as  much  as  they 
please.  How  is  building  to  be  expedited  by  changing  the  land- 
lord ?  In  fact,  it  would  be  retarded.  At  present  the  land-owner 
is  spurred  on  to  improvement  by  the  hope  of  gaining  a  ground- 
rent  and  by  the  imposition  of  a  yearly  tax  on  his  property,  which 
he  must  pay  whether  it  yields  any  return  or  not.  Both  these  in- 
centives would  be  wanting  if  the  land  were  owned  by  the  state. 

How  would  it  be  with  agricultural  land  held  for  speculative 
purposes  ?  The  state  would  say  to  the  would-be  farmer,  "  You 
can  cultivate  this  land  by  paying  the  rent  which  neighboring 
land  pays."  But  can  not  the  farmer  get  the  same  land  now  on 
the  same  terms  ?  Show  me  the  owner  of  unfilled  agricultural 
land  who  refuses  to  allow  his  acres  to  be  cultivated  at  a  fair  rental. 
I  can  show  plenty  of  such  land  within  one  hundred  miles  of  New 
York,  and  all  over  New  England,  which  any  cultivator  can  have 
the  use  of,  without  paying  any  rent  at  all,  on  condition  of  culti- 
vating it.  Surely  the  state  would  not  offer  land  on  more  favor- 
able terms.  It  would  not  let  the  land,  rent  free,  and  furnish  the 
capital  to  cultivate  it  also.  In  short,  no  new  opportunities  for  the 
cultivation  of  land  would  exist  unless  the  state  should  offer  better 

vol.  xxxvr. — 32 


498  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

terms  than  present  owners  offer.  But  this  the  state  could  not  do 
without  sacrificing  the  fundamental  principle  of  the  single  tax, 
which  is  that  the  occupier  shall  pay  the  full  economic  rent. 

It  is  the  testimony  of  all  observers  that,  of  two  men  of  equal 
endowment  cultivating  land,  the  one  being  the  owner  and  the 
other  only  a  tenant,  the  owner  makes  the  best  use  of  the  land, 
gets  the  largest  crops,  has  the  best  cattle  and  the  best  orchard, 
and  in  all  ways  takes  the  best  care  of  the  property.  The  reason 
is  very  simple.  It  is  because  all  the  labor,  skill,  and  economy 
bestowed  upon  the  land  enure  to  his  own  advantage.  The  net 
results  belong  to  him,  and  this  is  sufficient  reason  for  the  employ- 
ment of  his  best  powers  and  for  the  practice  of  the  utmost  frugal- 
ity. Capital  arises  from  the  exercise  of  industry  and  frugality. 
It  is  for  the  interest  of  the  state  that  capital  should  be  created. 
The  system  of  land  tenure  which  offers  the  greatest  inducement 
to  the  creation  of  capital  is  the  one  most  conducive  to  the  public 
interest. 

Again,  the  private  ownership  of  land  tends  to  stability  in  in- 
stitutions. The  ideas  which  gather  about  the  word  home  are  the 
most  precious,  both  to  the  individual  and  to  the  community,  that 
we  are  able  to  conceive  of.  A  man  will  ordinarily  undergo 
greater  hardships,  practice  more  self-denial,  exercise  more  of  the 
virtues  which  go  to  the  upbuilding  of  the  commonwealth,  in  order 
to  secure  a  home,  than  to  accomplish  any  other  object.  This  is 
what  his  mind  is  first  set  on,  and  when  he  has  gained  it  his  efforts 
are  equally  enlisted  to  keep  it.  The  single  tax  threatens  to  pro- 
foundly alter  the  meaning  of  this  word  as  we  understand  it.  It 
is  not  consistent  with  the  idea  of  home  that  somebody  should  take 
it  away  from  us  by  bidding  at  an  auction.  If  it  be  said  that  no 
such  auction  would  take  place,  but  that  the  state  would  fix  the 
tax  at  a  rate  previously  ascertained  as  sufficient  to  take  the  eco- 
nomic rent,  differing  from  the  present  tax  only  in  amount,  then 
we  say  that  there  is  no  means  of  ascertaining  what  the  economic 
rent  is.  It  would  be  possible  to  form  an  approximate  estimate  at 
the  beginning  by  taking  as  a  standard  the  rents  paid  by  individ- 
uals for  the  use  of  land  as  a  matter  of  bargain.  But  the  standard 
would  only  serve  for  the  first  renting.  What  about  the  second  ? 
Land  values  change.  It  is  the  aim  of  the  single  tax  to  gather  in 
the  values  that  grow  with  the  progress  of  society.  A  large  part  of 
Mr.  George's  argument  is  addressed  to  the  coming  time  when  all 
available  land  shall  be  appropriated.  Renting  by  auction  is  the 
only  process  that  will  enable  society  to  collect  economic  rent 
surely,  equitably,  progressively,  and  scientifically. 

I  have  no  apprehension  that  the  single-tax  theory  will  ever 
get  beyond  the  argumentative  stage  in  this  country,  or  in  any 
country  where  small  ownership  is  the  characteristic  feature  of  agri- 


AGRICULTURE  AND    THE  SINGLE   TAX.  499 

culture.  The  land-owners  have  so  many  stakes  in  the  country,  and 
these  are  driven  so  firmly,  and  woven  together  so  tightly,  that  no 
revolution  can  gain  head  which  has  for  its  aim  to  dispossess  them 
of  their  homes  and  acres,  or  to  unduly  tax  them. 

No  evidence  exists  showing  or  tending  to  show  that  agricult- 
ural land  in  the  United  States  is  capable  of  yielding  any  consider- 
able amount  of  public  revenue  above  what  it  now  yields  under 
the  tax  laws  of  the  several  States.  Evidence  corroborating  that 
cited  from  the  Connecticut  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  has  been 
supplied  lately  in  a  rapidly  swelling  stream,  especially  in  the  offi- 
cial publications  of  the  Commissioners  of  Vermont  and  New  Hamp- 
shire, where  there  are  literally  tens  of  thousands  of  acres  of  aban- 
doned lands,  which  were  once  the  homes  of  thrifty  farmers,  and 
which  can  now  be  had  for  no  greater  price  than  the  present  value 
of  the  improvements  thereon.  A  remarkable  letter  from  Judge 
Nott,  of  the  United  States  Court  of  Claims,  in  the  "  Nation  "  of  No- 
vember 21, 1889,  presents  facts  and  reasoning  thereon,  which,  what- 
ever else  may  be  said,  show  conclusively  that  in  the  fairest  parts  of 
agricultural  New  England  there  is  nothing  left  for  the  single  tax 
to  sweep  into  the  public  treasury.  In  the  presence  of  such  facts, 
how  idle  is  it  for  disputants  to  cull  figures  out  of  the  census 
reports,  as  Mr.  Shearman  does  in  the  "  Forum  "  article  previously 
cited,  to  show  what  was  the  value  of  farms  in  1880,  and  what 
annual  percentage  they  ought  to  yield — like  measuring  a  man  for 
clothes,  at  the  distance  of  a  mile,  with  a  theodolite ! 

There  is  no  subject  more  bedeviled  with  dogmatism  than  tax- 
ation. There  is  none  in  which  dogmatism  is  less  helpful.  The 
more  study  one  bestows  upon  it  the  less  will  he  be  inclined  to  lay 
down  inflexible  rules.  While  justice  should  be  ever  in  the  mind's 
eye,  yet  our  conclusions  must  always  be  mainly  experimental.  Of 
all  the  dogmas  on  taxation  the  single  tax  on  land  is  the  most  dog- 
matic, and  the  one  least  favored  by  experiment,  so  far  as  experi- 
ment has  been  made.  In  India  the  single  tax  has  been  in  force 
from  the  earliest  times,  supplemented  by  other  taxes  only  after 
economic  rent  had  been  exhausted.  During  the  last  half-century 
British  India  has  been  well  governed,  so  that  whatever  bless- 
ings the  single  tax  has  in  hiding  ought  there  to  have  been  dis- 
closed. That  it  has  not  abolished  poverty,  or  exhibited  any 
tendency  to  do  so,  may  be  confidently  affirmed. 

There  are  some  hundreds  of  professors  of  political  economy  in 
the  colleges  and  universities  of  the  civilized  world.  They  are  of 
various  schools,  including  that  of  state  socialism.  Some  are  con- 
servatives, others  progressives,  still  others  may  be  called  radicals. 
They  are  men  who  have  somehow  got  themselves  recognized  as 
fit  to  instruct  others  in  the  principles  of  the  science  which  deals 
with  the  production  and  distribution  of  wealth,  with  land,  labor, 


5oo  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

capital,  interest,  taxes,  etc.  Of  course,  they  have  all  had  their 
attention  called  to  the  single-tax  doctrine.  It  has  been  "  in  the 
air  "  for  ten  years,  and  it  is  their  business  to  know  all  the  discov- 
eries in  their  science,  just  as  it  is  that  of  astronomers  to  know  all 
the  finds  of  new  comets  and  satellites.  If  any  one  of  them,  either 
in  Europe  or  America,  has  given  his  adhesion  to  the  doctrine,  I 
have  not  heard  of  him.  All  who  have  taken  the  trouble  to  give 
any  opinion  about  it  have  spoken  adversely.  It  can  not  be  said 
that  they  are  afraid  to  speak  their  real  sentiments  ;  most  of  them 
are  free-traders,  and  nothing  has  been  more  unpopular  than  free 
trade,  although  that  tide  appears  now  to  be  turning.  If  the  single 
tax  contains  the  germ  of  truth,  is  it  not  a  little  remarkable  that 
no  member  of  the  profession  should  have  perceived  and  acknowl- 
edged it  ? 

♦•♦ 

CHINESE   SILK-LORE.* 

By  General  TCHENG-KI-TONG, 

SECRETARY   OF  THE   CHINESE   EMBASSY    AT   PARIS. 

THE  time  of  the  hatching  of  silk-worms  in  China  always  cor- 
responds with  the  first  thunder  of  spring.  As  soon  as  the 
detonations  are  heard,  a  watch  is  set  upon  the  eggs,  which  have 
been  carefully  made  ready  beforehand  for  the  occasion ;  and  the 
appearance  of  the  larvae  may  usually  be  counted  on  within  five 
days,  more  or  less.f  Thunder  at  this  season  is  the  sign  of  that 
condition  of  electrical  movement  in  the  air  which  is  produced 
artificially  in  Europe  to  hasten  the  hatching,  by  means  of  a  shower 
of  sparks. 

For  the  protection  of  the  mulberry -trees,  the  raising  of  poly- 
voltines,  or  worms  that  hatch  several  broods  a  year,  is  forbidden 

*  From  an  address  given  at  the  Orange  Garden  of  the  Tuileries,  during  the  exhibition 
of  Useful  and  Injurious  Insects. 

f  The  Emperor  Yu,  called  the  Great,  ascended  the  throne  2205  b.  c,  and  reigned  twenty- 
seven  years.  He  founded  the  second  dynasty  and  completed  the  civilizing  work  of  the  Em- 
peror Hoang-Ti,  of  whom  he  was  a  descendant.  He  divided  each  of  the  signs  of  the  zodiac 
into  two  equal  fractions  of  15°.  The  farmers  observe  with  the  greatest  attention  the  man- 
ner in  which  the  several  parts  of  this  cycle  follow  one  another,  and  prognosticate  concern- 
ing meteorological  phenomena  from  them.  The  observations  made  at  Zi-ka-wei  by  Father 
Dechevrens  do  not  lead  us  to  suppose  seriously  that  there  was  any  foundation  for  this  su- 
perstitious meteorology.  The  date  of  the  entrance  of  the  sun  into  each  of  these  twenty-four 
divisions  was  indicated  by  that  of  the  Chinese  New  Year.  According  to  the  calendar  for 
1888,  as  marked  out  by  Bishop  Perney's  table,  the  14th  of  February  was  the  date  for 
the  opening  of  spring  ;  February  29th,  for  rain ;  March  15th,  for  the  hatching  of  silk-worms ; 
March  31st,  for  real  spring,  etc.  There  is  nothing  absurd  in  the  idea  of  a  connection  be- 
tween the  first  electrical  phenomena  and  the  hatching  of  the  worms  ;  for  the  early  electri- 
cal phenomena  are  usually  associated  with  an  atmospheric  temperature  favorable  to  such 
changes. 


CHINESE  SILK-LORE. 


501 


in  many  countries.  But  most  caterpillars  have  only  three  molt- 
ings.  Here  I  may  remark  that  we  define  two  periods  in  the  molt- 
ings  :  the  first,  when  the  worms  cease  to  take  food,  when  we  say 
that  they  lie  down ;  and  the  second,  when  they  lay  aside  their 
envelope,  which  we  call  their  getting  up.  We  also  say,  when  we 
smother  them  with  hot  water,  that  they  are  taking  a  bath. 

m       i  &  %  &  %  <k  $L%  <$ 


Fig.  1.— Collecting  the  Leaves. 

Climbing  the  trees,  the  village  boys 

Fill  the  air  with  the  songs  of  their  age  ; 

Each  of  the  trees  has  its  owner, 

But  every  one  respects  his  neighbor's. 

The  living  leaf  flies  to-day  into  our  basket. 

And  the  zephyr  is  less  quick  than  the  hand  that  gathers  it. 

I  am  not  acquainted  with  the  significance  of  these  terms,  to 
lie  down,  get  up,  and  take  a  bath ;  but  I  suppose  that  those  who 
are  charged  with  the  duty  of  raising  the  Worms  wish  to  give 
them   an   orderly  regimen.*      The   quality  of   our   silk  and  the 

*  The  verse  subjoined  to  our  second  illustration  expresses  the  same  thought  as  the 
remark  of  General  Tcheng-Ki-Tong,  that,  to  preserve  the  luster  of  the  silk,  the  worms  that 


502 


THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


%&.$l&%1>  ft # %M 


/;''V;i,  STEE^ 


Fig.  2. — Separation  of  the  Worms  about  to  spin. 
A  peculiar  luster  of  the  worm's  belly 
Is  a  sign  that  it  is  about  to  change, 
And  that  its  mouth  will  spin  us  its  silk. 
Madam  busies  herself  in  preparing  its  bed, 
And  lays  it  on  the  straw,  that  nothing  may  soil 
The  immaculate  thread  which  itself  fixes. 

method  of  manufacturing  are  so  well  known  that  it  is  not  neces- 
sary to  relate  them  in  detail  in  this  short  address ;  but  I  must 
remark  upon  one  feature  which,  I  believe,  exists  nowhere  but 

have  ceased  to  perform  their  digestive  functions  must  be  carefully  separated  from  those 
which  continue  eating.  This  duty,  which  requires  experience,  devolves  upon  the  matrons, 
while  the  fabrication  of  the  thread  is  assigned  to  the  young  women.  But  the  separation  is 
hardly  as  absolute  as  is  assumed  by  the  poet.  It  may  be  seen  from  our  figures  that  the 
Chinese  women,  in  preparing  the  silk  fiber,  use  extremely  rudimentary  processes ;  but  it 
must  be  remembered  that  manual  labor  is  very  cheap  among  the  Celestials,  and  that,  con- 
sequently, they  have  few  inducements  for  economizing.  The  people,  men  and  women,  are 
assiduous  workers,  and  make  available  instruments  so  rude  that  Westerners  would  find  it 
very  hard  to  use  them  at  all.  Only  the  culture  of  the  domestic  silk-worm  is  described  in 
the  treatise  of  the  Emperor  Kang-Hi,  while  the  less  precious  though  useful  fiber  of  the  wild 
worm  is  prepared  in  a  quite  different  manner. 


CHINESE   SILK-LORE. 


5°3 


with  us,  and  the  discovery  of  which  goes  back  to  ancient  times. 
I  mean  the  music  of  silk.  My  countrymen,  even  before  they  had 
invented  the  art  of  working  silk  and  making  cloths  of  it,  had  dis- 
covered the  secret  of  making  it  musical,  and  of  drawing  from  it 
the  sweetest  and  most  tender  sounds.  From  the  time  of  the  Em- 
peror Fo-Hi  (3000  b.  c.)  they  made  an  instrument  consisting  of 

til  M  ti  £  "f  fr 


Fig.  3.— Pabkication  op  the  Thread. 

The  steps  in  front  lead  to  the  clear  water 

In  which,  carried  by  a  maiden,  the  skein 

Is  rinsed  ;  on  the  right  a  turning  wheel 

Winds  it,  for  ready  hands  to  change  it  oft, 

With  care  that  it  do  not  get  knotted  and  tangled. 

a  board  of  soft,  light,  and  dry  wood,  on  which  they  stretched 
cords  of  silk  twisted  between  the  fingers.  The  board  gradually 
assumed  a  definite  shape  and  curvature,  with  measured  dimen- 
sions. The  cords  were  more  artfully  spun  and  composed  of  a 
determined  number  of  fibers,  and  the  number  of  them  was  fixed 
according  to  the  character  of  the  instrument  desired.  These 
cords,  properly  adjusted  as  to  size  and  tension,  were  made  to  give 


504  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

the  tones  of  a  regular  stringed  instrument.  Such  was,  in  short,, 
the  origin  of  our  first  musical  instruments,  the  kin  and  the  die,. 
which  were  both  invented  by  the  same  person  and  at  the  same 
time,  and  both  give  the  peculiar  sound  of  silk.* 

The  construction  of  the  instrument  kin  affords  matter  for  an 
interesting  study.  It  is  made  of  toung-wood.  The  upper  part  is 
rounded,  to  represent  the  sky ;  the  lower  part  is  flat,  and  repre- 
sents the  earth.  The  abode  of  the  dragon — that  is,  the  upper  part,, 
from  the  bridge,  eight  inches  down — represents  the  eight  areas  of 
the  wind;  and  the  nest  of  Foung-Hoang,  or  the  same  part  at 
four  inches  in  its  height,  represents  the  four  seasons  of  the  year. 
It  is  furnished  with  five  cords,  representing  the  five  planets  and 
the  five  elements.  Its  total  length  is  seven  feet  and  two  inches,, 
representing  the  universality  of  things.  The  inventor,  by  means 
of  this  instrument,  first  regulated  his  own  heart  and  restrained  his 
passions  within  just  limits.  He  then  labored  to  civilize  men.  He 
made  them  capable  of  obeying  the  laws  ;  of  doing  acts  worthy  of 
reward ;  and  of  engaging  in  peaceful  industry,  by  which  they 
acquired  the  arts.  Besides  these  five  cords  which  give  the  five 
full  tones,  there  are  two  others  that  give  the  half-tones  and  repre- 
sent the  sun  and  moon. 

Concerning  the  construction  of  the  che*,  I  will  only  mention 
that  it  had  fifty  and  still  has  twenty-five  cords ;  for  I  perceive 
that  I  am  saying  too  much  about  the  music  of  silk.  It  was,  how- 
ever, proper  to  give  a  full  account  of  the  kin,  for  it  represents  the 
first  application  of  this  music,  f 

*  The  engravings  accompanying  this  article  are  from  photographs  from  an  edition  of 
the  poem  of  the  Emperor  Kang-Hi,  published  at  Shanghai.  They  show  most  evidently  that 
the  artist  has  depicted  customs  of  a  very  remote  antiquity.  Men  are  employed  only  for 
operations  that  require  strength,  like  the  cultivation  of  the  mulberry-tree,  the  collection  of 
leaves,  etc.  The  legends  beneath  the  designs  are  free  translations  of  the  Chinese  verses 
above  them. 

f  The  inventor  of  the  kin  and  the  che  was  no  other  than  the  Emperor  Fo-Hi,  who 
reigned  about  two  hundred  years  before  Hoang-Ti.  The  invention  of  thread  and  of  fire  is 
attributed  to  him  ;  and  he  taught  men,  who  had  previously  eaten  their  meat  raw,  to  cook 
it.  The  che  kept  its  fifty  cords  till  the  time  of  Hoang-Ti,  when  a  young  maiden  played  it 
before  the  emperor  with  such  effect  that  he  concluded  that  it  was  a  dangerous  instrument 
to  hear,  and  too  liable  to  excite  the  passions  of  the  people.  Instead  of  throwing  himself  at 
the  feet  of  the  siren,  as  a  European  monarch  would  have  done,  he  in  his  wisdom  decreed 
that  the  che  should  in  future  have  only  twenty-five  cords.  Notwithstanding  IIoang-Ti's 
edict,  the  number  of  cords  has  been  varied  several  times.  There  have  been  sometimes 
twenty-seven,  sometimes  twenty-three,  and  sometimes  only  nineteen,  but  no  one  has  vent- 
ured to  go  back  to  fifty  ;  the  changes  having  been  instigated  by  considerations  of  the  sig- 
nificance of  numbers,  to  which  the  Chinese  are  much  addicted.  The  che  has  now  twenty- 
five  strings.  Each  string  is  held  by  a  colored  bridge.  The  first  five  are  always  blue ;  the 
next  five  red  ;  the  next  yellow  ;  the  next  white ;  and  the  last  series  black.  The  bridges  are 
movable,  and  each  one  is  adjusted  according  to  considerations  that  we  shall  not  enter  into. 
There  are  four  kinds  of  che's,  which  are  of  different  length,  but  of  identical  construction. 
They  are  played  at  court  and  in  the  Confucian  temple.     In  the  latter  case  four  instrumente- 


CHINESE   SILK-LORE.  50 5 

You  know  so  well  liow  our  silk-worms  are  cultivated  that  I 
need  not  relate  the  details  of  the  method.  In  principle  there  is 
not  much  difference  between  our  method  and  yours ;  possibly 
yours  is  only  a  copy  of  ours,  without  pretending  to  possess 
any  novel  features.  But  our  system  goes  back  to  twenty-seven 
hundred  years  before  Christ.  The  queen  of  the  Emperor  Hoang- 
Ti  at  that  time  first  conceived  the  idea  of  raising  silk-worms  and 
of  making  from  their  production  garments  with  which  to  clothe 
the  people  over  whom  her  august  husband  ruled.* 

The  indention  had  such  a  following  that  it  is  still  spreading 
through  the  whole  world  on  a  growing  scale.  Notwithstanding 
we  have  the  wool  and  fur  of  animals,  silk  still  is  and  always  will 
be  an  article  of  luxury  that  no  one  who  has  the  means  of  getting 
it  will  do  without,  f  We,  who  are  always  grateful  to  our  bene- 
factors, honor  the  inventor  of  the  art  of  silk-culture  with  a  real 
perpetual  cult.  Besides  the  temples  which  we  have  erected  in  all 
the  corners  of  the  empire,  her  Majesty  the  Empress  goes  every 
year  at  the  hatching  season,  in  person,  with  all  her  suite,  and  in 
great  pomp,  to  the  field  of  the  mulberry,  to  sacrifice  to  the  goddess 
who  was  the  queen  of  the  Emperor  Hoang-Ti.J  After  the  cere- 
are  used,  two  of  which  are  placed  in  the  east  and  two  in  the  west.  Music  was  regarded 
by  the  ancient  Chinese  as  an  affair  of  state  and  religion,  as  a  science  revealed  from  heaven, 
a  ray  of  the  universal  harmony  emanating  from  divinity.  Celestial  forces  and  virtue  were 
attributed  to  it.  It  was  to  them  the  science  of  sciences,  the  one  by  which  all  others  were 
explained,  to  which  they  were  related  and  from  which  they  were  descended.  The  modern 
Chinese  have  not  abandoned  their  notions,  although  the  sound  of  their  music  does  not 
suggest  them  to  Europeans. 

*  This  celebrated  woman,  whose  name  was  Loui  Tseu,  is  adored  as  the  goddess  of  silk. 
She  was  born,  according  to  the  Chinese  historians,  2697  b.  c,  in  the  city  of  Si-Ling.  Her 
husband  was  the  first  Chinese  legislator,  and  reigned  a  hundred  years — from  2*737  b.  c.  to 
2637  b.  c. — and  died  at  the  age  of  one  hundred  and  twenty-one  years.  One  of  his  ministers 
composed  the  famous  Chinese  cycle  ;  another  constructed  the  celestial  sphere ;  and  a  third 
regulated  the  notes  of  the  gamut,  with  which  he  associated  a  metrical  system.  The  Chinese 
refer  the  invention  of  wagons,  bows,  spun  goods,  and  bells — in  short,  the  origin  of  civiliza- 
tion— to  that  period. 

f  Mencius,  the  Chinese  philosopher  next  in  esteem  after  Confucius,  said  that  after  fifty 
years  of  age  one  could  not  keep  warm  without  wearing  silk  clothing.  It  is  likely  that  even 
before  the  time  of  Hoang-Ti  the  Chinese  could  make  cloth  of  the  silk  of  the  wild  worms, 
those  that  lived  on  the  oak,  for  example.  Another  use  of  silk,  which  the  author  does  not 
mention,  was  in  the  fabrication  of  the  cords  by  means  of  which  grand  dignitaries  received 
orders  to  strangle  themselves.  The  messengers,  who  communicated  the  sentences  to  them, 
besides  bearing  the  order  written  with  the  terrible  vermilion,  were  usually  instructed  to 
proceed  with  the  execution  in  case  the  victim  had  not  courage  to  perform  it  himself.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  emperor  often  expressed  his  satisfaction  through  gifts  of  balls  of 
silk  ;  whence  originated  the  expression  to  "present  the  silk  "  ;  and  this,  being  confounded 
with  the  sentence-bearing  cords,  has  given  rise  to  some  curious  mistakes. 

X  The  calculation  of  the  days  for  the  performance  of  the  traditional  sacrifices  by  the 
Emperor  is  one  of  the  principal  duties  of  the  astronomers  of  the  observatory  at  Pekin. 
Since  the  ancient  formulas  no  longer  suffice  for  the  determination  of  the  dates,  the  astro- 
nomical bureau  includes  several  Europeans,  who  are  called  assistant  astronomers,  and  are 


506 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


mony  at  the  temple,  her  Majesty,  followed  by  her  ladies,  goes  into 
the  field,  and,  surrounded  by  the  farmers'  wives,  cooks  some  mul- 
berry-leaves and  lays  them  on  a  basket  containing  the  newly 
hatched  worms.     The  festival  is  closed  with  her  winding  a  cocoon 


&  #  sjj  i*  m 

Iff 

£  d  £ 

g  £  .'1 


Fig.  4.— Thanks  to  the  Goddess  op  Silk. 
In  Szechuen  our  ancestors  in  ancient  times 
Became  masters  of  the  precious  worms  ; 
So,  when  the  snowy  skeins  we  see, 
Let  us  pay  our  vows,  all,  at  Loui'  Tseu's  feet. 
Bending  our  heads  before  her  shrine, 
Offering  her  silk  and  the  flowers  of  the  land. 

by  way  of  setting  an  example,  in  the  presence  of  the  people,  and 
distributing  gifts  to  those  persons  who  have  been  reported  by  the 
authorities  of  their  villages  as  most  worthy  by  reason  of  their 
fidelity  in  attention  to  the  care  of  the  silk-worms. 

charged  with  making  all  the  calculations.  There  are  four  full  astronomers,  two  Chinese 
and  two  Tartars,  who  appear  in  the  religious  solemnities.  Under  the  reign  of  the  Emperor 
Kang-Hi  the  astronomers  were  Jesuits,  and  had  a  great  influence  at  court.  But  they  were 
denounced  at  Rome  by  the  Franciscans,  as  favoring  idolatry.  A  suit  ensued,  which  the 
Franciscans  gained,  and  the  Jesuits  had  to  resign  their  long-held  functions. 


LETTERS    ON   THE  LAND    QUESTION  507 

This  ceremony,  which  is  one  of  the  most  important  of  those 
her  Majesty  has  to  perform  during  the  year,  is  a  great  incentive 
to  the  silk-raising  population,  who  can  not  neglect  their  own 
work  when  they  see  their  sovereign  occupied  in  the  same  way. 
An  old  proverb  says  that  "  an  idle  farmer  causes  two  persons 
to  die  of  hunger,  and  a  woman  who  will  not  weave  will  see  ten 
dying  of  cold."  The  proverb  illustrates  the  value  of  encourage- 
ment, and  shows  that  silk- worm  raising  and  weaving  are  duties 
of  the  women. —  Translated  for  the  Popular  Science  Monthly  from 
La  Nature. 


LETTERS   ON  THE   LAND   QUESTION. 

[  Con  tinned.  ] 

By   Prof.  HUXLEY,   HEEBERT   SPENCER,    AUBERON   HERBERT,   FREDERICK 
GREENWOOD,  and  DARCY  WILSON. 

PROF.   HUXLEY'S   SECOND   LETTER. 

To  the  Editor  of  "  The  Times  " : 

SIR :  After  a  careful  perusal  of  Mr.  Spencer's  letter  in  "  The 
Times  "  of  to-day,  I  fear  I  can  only  reiterate  my  declaration 
that  he  "  has  not  helped  us  much."  So  far  as  anything  said  in 
that  letter  goes,  it  remains  an  open  question  whether  Mr.  Spencer 
agrees,  in  principle,  with  Mr.  Morley's  "  hecklers  "  or  whether  he 
does  not.  If  any  one  maintains  that  private  ownership  in  land 
was  originally  set  up  by  force  or  by  fraud,  and  consequently  has 
no  ethical  foundation,  I  think,  as  matters  stand,  he  has  a  right  to 
cite  Mr.  Spencer's  authority  in  favor  of  that  position  ;  and  I,  for 
one,  very  much  regret  that  any  person  should  possess  that  right. 
It  seems  to  me  lamentable  that  the  "absolute  political  ethics" 
of  to-day  should  have  got  so  very  little  further  than  the  point 
reached  by  Rousseau,  the  absolute  political  philosopher  of  one 
hundred  and  thirty  years  ago,  who  tells  us  that — 

Le  premier  qui  ayant  enclos  un  terrain  s'avisa  de  dire  Ceci  est  d  moi,  et  tronva 
des  gens  assez  simples  pour  le  croire,  fut  le  vrai  fondateur  de  la  societe  civile.* 

Rousseau  laments  that  there  was  no  one  to  pull  out  the  stakes 
and  fill  up  the  ditch  of  this  primitive  land-grabber  ;  and  to  warn 
mankind  that  "the  fruits  of  the  earth  are  everybody's  and  the 
land  nobody's." 

These  passages  are  cited  from  the  famous  "  Discours  sur  l'Ori- 
gine  de  l'lnegalite'  par  mi  les  Hommes,"  published  in  1754,  in  which 
I  think  will  be  found,  implicitly  or  explicitly,  all  the  propositions 

*  [The  first  one  who,  having  inclosed  a  field,  took  it  into  his  head  to  say  "  This 
is  mine,"  and  found  people  simple  enough  to  believe  it,  was  the  true  founder  of  civil 
society.] 


5o8  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

which  Mr.  Laidler  discovers  in  "  Social  Statics  "  and  attributes  to 
Mr.  Spencer. 

However,  these  are  matters  of  opinion ;  and  as  Mr.  Spencer, 
leaving  the  main  issue  aside,  has  put  me  on  my  defense,  I  hope  I 
may  say  a  word  or  two  to  show  how  very  easy  that  process  is ; 
for,  surely,  nothing  can  be  easier  than  to  refuse  to  be  charged  with 
the  consequences  of  opinions  one  does  not  hold.  Mr.  Spencer  says 
that  I  "  admit  that  all  land-holders  hold  their  land  subject  to  the 
supreme  ownership  of  the  State  "  ;  and  his  remarkable  inability  to 
see  that  we  disagree  on  the  land  question  flows  out  of  this  assump- 
tion. But  I  admit  nothing  of  the  kind.  If  I  declare  that,  under 
certain  circumstances,  the  State  has  a  right  to  shut  me  up  and  to 
make  me  work  on  the  tread-mill,  or  to  hang  me,  or  to  dispose  of 
me  and  my  property  in  any  other  way,  it  does  not  appear  to  me 
that  "  by  implication  "  I  admit  that  I  hold  my  property,  my  lib- 
erty, and  my  life,  "  subject  to  the  supreme  ownership  of  the 
State."  Surely  the  State  is  not  my  owner — I  am  not  a  serf — be- 
cause I  admit  the  right  of  the  State  to  do  these  things !  It  is 
absolutely  unintelligible  to  me  that  on  such  grounds  as  those 
alleged  any  one  should  try  to  force  me  to  the  conclusion  that  "  the 
community,  as  supreme  owner,  with  a  still  valid  title,  may  resume 
possession  if  it  thinks  well." 

And  this  leads  me  to  another  point.  What  historical  ground 
is  there  for  the  assumption  that  the  community  (in  the  sense  of 
"  the  State  ")  ever  had  a  "  valid  title  "  as  universal  land-owner  ?  I 
am  not  ignorant  that  there  have  been  and  are  such  things  as 
"  village  communities " ;  and  if  any  one  chooses  to  assert  that 
communal  ownership  is  the  primitive  form  of  land-holding,  I  am 
willing,  for  the  sake  of  argument,  to  admit  that  such  is  the  case. 
Let  the  further  assumption  that  no  agencies  save  force  and  fraud 
have  broken  up  the  communal  organization  (astonishing  as  it  is) 
be  accepted.  Well,  then,  I  see  that  a  sort  of  an  argument  (though 
I  think  a  very  fallacious  one)  in  favor  of  going  back  to  ownership 
by  village  communities  might  be  founded  on  these  data.  But 
what  has  that  to  do  with  State  land-ownership,  which  has  not  the 
remotest  resemblance  to  the  communal  system  of  antiquity  ? 

Mr.  Spencer  addresses  a  sort  of  argumentum  ad  hominem  to 
me.  It  is  hardly  chosen  with  so  much  prudence  as  might  have 
been  expected.  Mr.  Spencer  assumes  that,  in  the  present  state  of 
physiological  and  medical  science,  the  practitioner  would  be  well 
advised  who  should  treat  his  patients  by  deduction  from  physio- 
logical principles  ("absolute  physiological  therapeutics"  let  us 
say)  rather  than  by  careful  induction  from  the  observed  phe- 
nomena of  disease  and  of  the  effects  of  medicines. 

Well,  all  I  can  reply  is,  Heaven  forbid  that  I  should  ever  fall 
into  that  practitioner's  hands  ;  and  if  I  thought  any  writings  of 


LETTERS    ON   THE  LAND    QUESTION  509 

mine  could  afford  the  smallest  pretext  for  the  amount  of  man- 
slaughter of  which  that  man  would  be  guilty,  I  should  be  grieved 
indeed.  Mr.  Spencer  could  not  have  chosen  a  better  illustration 
•of  the  gulf  fixed  between  his  way  of  thinking  and  mine.  When- 
ever physiology  (including  pathology),  pharmacy,  and  hygiene 
are  perfect  sciences,  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  practice  of  medicine 
will  be  deducible  from  the  first  principles  of  these  sciences.  That 
happy  day  has  not  arrived  yet,  and  I  fancy  it  is  not  likely  to  ar- 
rive for  some  time.  But,  until  it  comes,  no  practitioner  who  is 
sensible  of  the  profound  responsibility  which  attaches  to  his 
office,  or,  I  may  say,  is  sane,  will  dream  of  treating  cholera  or 
small-pox  by  deduction — from  such  mere  physiological  principles 
as  are  at  present  well  established.  And  if  this  is  so,  what  is  to  be 
said  of  the  publicist,  who,  undertaking  to  preserve  the  health  and 
heal  the  diseases  of  an  organism  vastly  more  complicated  than  the 
human  body,  seeks  guidance,  not  from  the  safe,  however  limited, 
inductions  based  on  careful  observation  and  experience,  but  puts 
his  faith  in  long  chains  of  deduction  from  abstract  ethical  assump- 
tions, hardly  any  link  of  which  can  be  tested  experimentally  ? 

No  doubt  a  great  many  foolish  laws  are  passed.     Also  a  great 

many  foolish  prescriptions  are  written  ;  but  the  latter  fact  is  not 

evidence  in  favor  of  "  absolute  physiological  medicine,"  any  more 

than  the  former  testifies  to  the  value  of  "  absolute  political  ethics." 

I  am,  sir,  your  obedient  servant,  T.  H.  Huxley. 

Eastbourne,  November  15th. 

MR.   HERBERT'S   LETTER. 

To  the  Editor  of  "  The  Times  "  : 

Sir  :  I  more  than  suspect  that  my  friend  Mr.  Greenwood  can 
not  have  escaped  a  few  moments'  quiet  amusement  the  other 
morning  when  he  read  his  own  letter  in  "  The  Times."  Mr. 
Spencer,  after  many  years,  slowly  and  cautiously  modifies  a  view 
formed  earlier  in  life,  and  Mr.  Greenwood  thereupon  addresses  to 
the  whole  body  of  philosophers,  to  make  use  of  his  own  words,  "  a 
heavy  lesson."  When,  currents  calamo,  he  took  the  philosophers 
under  his  charge  for  the  purposes  of  instruction,  did  it  never  occur 
to  him  to  ask  himself  how  many  oracles  of  his  own  it  is  the  fate 
of  the  most  careful  editor — be  he  who  he  may — in  the  course  of 
even  one  short  year  of  political  warfare  to  recall  and  silently  re- 
place by  their  opposites  ?  The  philosophers  may  have  their  faults, 
but  I  am  afraid  they  are  hardly  to  be  convicted  of  them  by  any 
•one  who  has,  closely  or  remotely,  independently  or  subserviently, 
followed  the  zigzags  of  political  life. 

And  now  as  regards  the  question  itself.  There  are  some  of  us 
who  have  been  watching  for  years  with  great  pleasure  the  growing 
change  in  Mr.  Spencer's  views  about  land,  and  have  only  wished 


510  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

the  change  might  go  further.  We  have  looked  on  "  Social  Statics" 
as  one  of  the  most  splendid  and  helpful  books  ever  written  in  the 
English  language,  and  even  the  blot,  as  it  seems  to  us,  of  land 
nationalization  could  not  dim  our  enthusiasm  for  it ;  and  now  we 
— in  saying  "  we,"  it  is  not  an  undivided  "  we/'  for  I  admit  fully 
the  divisions  among  individualists  on  this  point — rejoice  greatly 
to  think  that  our  leader  has,  at  last,  his  doubts  and  hesitations 
whether  land  nationalization  is  a  true  article  in  the  creed  which 
he  has  taught  us. 

May  I  now  add  some  reasons  to  those  already  given  in  "  The 
Times "  why  land  nationalization  is  both  bad  as  philosophy  and 
bad  as  expediency  ? 

1.  As  philosophy.  It  is  said  that  the  land  of  a  country  belongs 
to  the  people  as  a  whole.  But  if  so,  it  is  clearly  the  people,  that 
is,  the  whole  people  without  exception,  to  whom  it  belongs,  and 
not  a  majority  among  them.  Philosophy  must  be  exact  in  her 
terms,  and  if  she  says  it  belongs  to  the  people,  she  can  not  pos- 
sibly mean  two  thirds  or  three  fourths,  or  some  other  unstated 
quantity  short  of  the  whole.  It  may  be,  I  can  readily  understand, 
a  matter  of  practical  convenience  to  politicians  and  other  believers 
in  power  to  treat  a  majority  as  society ;  but  no  amount  of  torture 
could  wring  from  a  Philosophy  that  knew  what  she  was  talking 
about  the  admission  that  the  two  things  are  equivalents.  The 
deductions  from  this  are  plain.  Property  belonging  to  the  whole 
people  could  never  be  used  by  any  part  of  them,  for  the  consent  of 
the  whole  could  not  practically  be  got  as  regards  any  special  use  of 
it,  seeing  that  every  day,  almost  every  hour,  that  whole  is  chang- 
ing. We  can,  therefore,  hardly  accept  a  theory  which  lands  us 
forthwith  in  an  absurdity. 

2.  If  the  soil  belongs  to  society  in  the  abstract,  and  if,  notwith- 
standing the  urgent  remonstrances  of  Philosophy,  we  decide  to 
interpret  the  word  "  society  "  by  the  word  "  majority,"  why  is  it 
taken  for  granted  that  it  belongs  to  that  majority  of  the  people 
who  at  any  given  moment  happen  to  inhabit  it  ?  If  the  Chinese 
are  overcrowded,  or  to  come  nearer  home,  if  the  Belgians  are  over- 
crowded, or  if  some  part  of  the  Russian  people  possesses  a  less 
attractive  portion  of  the  world  to  live  in  than  our  own,  can  they 
not  claim  with  unanswerable  logic  that  the  doctrine  of  the  major- 
ity has  no  merely  local  application,  but  must  be  treated  in  a  far 
more  comprehensive  spirit  ?  If  Philosophy  says  the  land  of  right 
belongs  to  the  majority,  it  must  also  answer,  "  What  majority  ?  " 
and  the  nations  that  are  now  located  on  the  least  advantageous 
spots  will  not  answer  that  question  in  quite  the  same  way  as  the 
nations  that  enjoy  the  sunny  side  of  the  hedge. 

3.  It  is  claimed  that  the  present  owners  may  be  dispossessed 
by  force  because  some  of  them  (a  quantity  that  is  diminishing 


LETTERS    ON   THE  LAND    QUE  STL  ON.  511 

every  day — see  the  yearly  returns  of  land-sales)  became  possessed 
in  old  days  of  their  land  by  force.  But  if  an  act  of  ancient  force 
is  sufficient  cause  to  disinherit  these  holders  of  land,  it  must,  I 
fear,  also  disinherit  the  whole  nation,  for  we  all  came  here  by 
force.  Celt,  as  far  as  we  know,  Anglo-Saxon,  and  Norman  came 
by  force,  and  the  nation  that  is  rather  strangely  asked  to  show  its 
horror  of  past  force  by  carrying  out  anew  another  wholesale  act 
of  force,  is  itself  out  of  court  for  the  very  same  offense  as  that 
under  which  it  is  proposed  to  condemn  the  land-owners. 

4.  All  the  articles  of  use  and  commerce — if  we  except  those 
taken  from  water  —  are  drawn  in  the  marvelous  laboratory  of 
nature  from  or  under  the  soil,  or  from  the  soil  and  air  combined. 
Every  tree,  every  crop  of  corn  or  roots,  every  fleece,  contains  in 
itself  positively  and  actually  so  much  of  the  soil  where  it  was 
raised.  Where,  then,  is  the  logic  of  declaring  that  certain  parti- 
cles— and  these  the  very  best — when  taken  from  the  soil  may  be 
private  property,  while  the  other  particles — which  are  generally 
of  lesser  value — left  lying  in  the  field  are,  by  some  abstract  right, 
the  property  of  an  unknown  and  unstated  portion  of  the  people — 
called  a  majority — who  have  never  yet  set  eyes  upon  their  prop- 
erty, and  could  not  distinguish  it  if  they  did  ?  My  coat  is  now  my 
private  property ;  but  years  ago,  before  the  grass  grew  which  fed 
the  sheep,  the  larger  part  was  public  property.  What  a  marvelous 
transformation,  and  what  inextricable  confusion  both  of  theory 
and  of  fact !  How  a  thing  which,  as  a  matter  of  abstract  right, 
once  belonged  to  everybody,  can  rightly  become  my  private  prop- 
erty, I  am  utterly  unable  to  understand.  Perhaps  Mr.  George  or 
Mr.  Laidler  could  help  me. 

Then  for  the  expediency.  Is  the  race  to  deprive  itself,  for  the 
sake  of  a  theory  that  can  not  hold  what  is  put  into  it  better  than 
a  sieve  can  hold  water,  of  the  immense  happiness  and  comfort  that 
may  come  to  thousands  and  thousands  of  families  from  the  per- 
manency of  possession  ?  If  the  land  belongs  to  the  majority,  can 
there  be  this  permanency  ?  How  can  you  let  A  and  A's  family 
retain  forever  the  possession  of  the  holding  which  he  has  indus- 
triously acquired,  when  B  and  C  are  waiting  for  their  turn  of 
what,  without  any  industry  or  acquisitive  virtue  on  their  part,  is 
declared  to  belong  to  them  ?  That  A  is  better  fitted — naturally 
selected — to  fill  the  holding,  to  use  it  happily  and  profitably  for 
himself  and  for  society,  must  count  as  nothing  in  face  of  the  fact 
that  B  and  C  have  taken  the  trouble  to  be  born  the  owners  of  it. 
Then,  too,  comes  in  all  the  trouble  and  confusion  about  improve- 
ments, where  property  is  split  into  this  double  ownership  between 
the  abstract  state  and  the  concrete  holder.  Improvements,  we  are 
told,  can  only  realize  their  full  value  if  there  be  a  free  sale  and 
fixed  rents.     Do  any  persons  in  their  sober  senses  imagine  that 


5i2  THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

the  hungry,  greedy,  necessitous  state  of  the  politician  will  ever 
place  itself  on  the  same  footing  as  it  has  placed  the  Irish  land- 
lord, upon  whom  the  other  day  it  so  freely  practiced  its  cheap 
philanthropy ;  that  it  will  ever  consent  to  fix  its  rents  in  per- 
petuity, or  to  abide  by  them  if  they  were  fixed  ?  Then  comes  all 
the  unutterable  official  management,  the  inspectorate,  the  armies 
of  surveyors  and  clerks,  the  arrogant  petty  kinglets,  the  red  tape, 
the  annoying  conditions,  the  unending  correspondence  on  the  sub- 
ject of  the  new  pump  or  the  new  road,  the  constant  battle  in  Par- 
liament as  to  new  methods  of  land-tenure,  new  methods  to  allow 
A  to  replace  B  in  quicker  succession,  new  forms  of  land-taxation, 
universal  upsetting  of  existing  system,  and  universal  establish- 
ment of  the  last  land  fancy  of  the  half-baked  theorist.  Conceive 
for  one  moment  the  slough  of  despond  into  which  you  would 
plunge  back  a  vigorous,  self -helping  nation  that  had  once,  how- 
ever hesitatingly  and  half-heartedly,  taken  the  first  few  steps 
along  the  road  of  individual  initiative,  experiment,  and  progress. 

No,  it  is  in  another  direction  our  efforts  must  be  turned.  Years 
and  years  ago,  if  our  political  parties  were  not — both  of  them — 
like  wild  beasts  fighting,  with  no  thought  or  sense,  but  for  the 
mad  struggle  in  which  they  lie  locked  together,  biting  and  tearing 
with  tooth  and  claw,  they  would  have  freed  the  land.  They  would 
have  broken  the  lawyer's  yoke  that  still  curses  our  present  gener- 
ation and  again  and  again  prevents  the  ready  sale,  and  they  would 
have  got  rid  of  the  heavy  burdens  of  rate  and  tax  that  now  fall 
•on  land  and  make  it  an  undesirable  possession  for  the  poor  man. 
Of  all  pieces  of  stupidity  none  is  greater  than  taxing  land  just 
because  the  rich  man  at  present  holds  the  larger  part  of  it.  It  is 
like  all  other  pieces  of  class  legislation,  branded  on  its  forehead 
with  the  fool's  mark.  You  strike  at  your  supposed  enemy  and 
wound  yourself.  Land  must  be  made  free  in  the  only  true  sense 
— free  from  the  clutch  of  the  lawyer,  free  from  the  visits  of  the 
tax  and  rate  collector,  and  it  will  then  become  the  greatest  source 
of  happiness  and  comfort  to  our  people.  Once  really  freed,  the 
industrious,  vigorous  poor  will  slowly  wrest  it  from  the  rich  man, 
paying,  as  has  been  seen  in  France,  notwithstanding  the  heavy 
State  burdens  on  land,  a  price  that  the  rich  man  will  not  pay  for 
its  acquisition.  Above  all  other  forms  of  investment  for  the  poor 
man,  land  is  far  away  king.  It  is  no  pig  in  a  poke  for  him.  He 
knows  it,  he  understands  it  in  all  its  good  and  bad  qualities  better 
probably  than  any  other  living  man  ;  he  can  not  be  juggled  out  of 
it,  when  it  is  once  bought,  by  the  carelessness  or  fraud  of  direct- 
ors ;  he  can  put  all  his  spare  time  and  spare  labor  into  it.  It  is 
not,  however,  a  question  of  the  agricultural  laborer  alone,  but  also 
of  the  saving  mechanic  in  town,  who  would  look  forward  to  the 
'bee  farm,  or  flower  or  fruit  farm,  on  which  he  might  end  his  days. 


LETTERS    ON  THE  LAND    QUESTION.  513 

It  is  not  only  a  question  of  the  townsman ;  it  is  also  a  question  of 
co-operative  and  trade-union  societies,  who  also  would  learn  to 
put  their  investments  in  land,  perhaps  producing  for  themselves, 
and  offering  in  many  cases  opportunities  of  country  life  to  their 
members  who  needed  rest  and  change.  Unless  we  persist  in  follies 
upon  follies  in  the  shape  of  legislative  interferences ;  of  expensive 
machinery  to  provide  the  people  with  land — machinery  that  will 
defeat  its  own  object,  for  it  must  be  paid  for  out  of  the  rates,  and 
will  therefore  increase  the  burdens  on  land ;  of  forced  agricultural 
agreements  between  landlord  and  tenant  that  tend  to  stereotype 
all  farms  in  their  present  size  ;  of  State-hired  allotments  that,  as 
in  the  case  of  our  benighted  dealings  with  Ireland,  must  tend  to 
weaken  the  desire  for  ownership,  the  land  of  this  country,  now 
thrown  upon  the  market  at  prices  so  far  below  its  real  value,  in- 
dustriously acquired  and  held  in  firm,  unalterable  fee-simple,  will 
prove  the  greatest  blessing  to  all  classes  of  our  working  people. 
All  that  is  wanted  is  to  keep  land  free — free  alike  from  Radical 
messing  and  Tory  messing,  and  leave  it  what  it  naturally  is — until 
spoiled  by  that  blessed  politician  whose  eternal  finger  finds  its  way 
into  every  pie — the  sweetest  reward  for  a  man's  labor  and  the 
most  powerful  incentive  to  undergo  those  labors.  If  you  wish  to 
develop  all  the  virile  virtues  of  our  English  country  folk,  and  to 
place  before  them  a  worthy  goal  for  their  life-efforts,  sweep  away 
every  obstruction  and  make  it  easy  for  them  to  gain  their  own 
home,  held  neither  at  the  will  of  the  land-owner  nor  of  that  worse 
modern  creation — the  changing  majority  inside  Parliament. 

I  notice  that  Mr.  Spencer  still  allows  himself  to  think  of  that 
ogre,  the  land-owner,  who  might  clear  a  district  if  so  minded. 
That  is  true  ;  but  may  I  submit  to  him  that  it  is  equally  true  of  a 
majority,  and  in  one  sense  more  true  ?  A  parliamentary  majority 
which  once  considered  itself  lord  and  master  of  the  soil  might 
play  any  prank  under  high  heaven  that  once  occurred  to  it.  It 
would  be  quite  likely  to  turn  a  perpetuity  into  a  thirty  years'  ten- 
ure, or  a  thirty  years'  tenure  into  a  fifteen  years'  tenure,  or  to 
revolutionize  every  home  in  England  in  deference  to  the  last 
notion  that  had  got  uppermost  in  its  infallible  head.  Moreover, 
it  should  be  seen  that  once  the  spirit  of  individualism  begins  to 
get  hold  of  our  people,  the  action  of  the  landlord  who  cleared  the 
estate  would  serve  to  redouble  the  efforts  of  the  people  to  become 
absolute  owners  of  their  property.  Unconsciously  he  would  be 
the  instrument  of  a  good  greater  than  the  harm  he  had  caused. 
We  have  not  yet  sufficiently  profited  by  Mr.  Spencer's  teaching  to 
recognize  the  enormous  stimulus  for  good  which  there  is  in  every 
form  of  evil  when  once  we  are  fairly  on  the  track  of  fighting  it 
with  the  true  self-helpful  remedies.  "What  delays  and  impedes 
the  human  race  is  far  less  the  evil  that  abounds  than  the  false 

vol.  xxxvi. — 33 


5 14  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

remedies  which,  we  apply  to  cure  it.  It  is  hardly  too  much  to  say 
that  human  improvement  is  due  to  the  evils  and  difficulties  of  life 
overcome  in  the  right  way. 

One  last  word.  Men  doubt  about  "  absolute  political  ethics." 
Yet  they  do  not  doubt  about  absolute  principles  in  physics,  in 
chemistry,  in  biology,  in  psychology,  or  even  in  the  ethics  of  pri- 
vate life.  Does  it  never  strike  them  that  it  is  a  mightily  strange 
thing — requiring,  I  think,  some  explanation  on  their  part  to  which 
they  do  not  often  condescend — that  we  should  live  in  this  world 
almost  surrounded  by  order,  or  fixed  law,  on  every  side  of  us,  and 
yet  in  one  special  department  of  it — that  of  political  action — this 
order  should  suddenly  he  replaced  "by  disorder  and  uncertainty  ? 
Does  it  never  occur  to  them  that  this  strange  inexplicable  contra- 
diction may  be  not  in  nature,  but  possibly  only  in  their  own 
minds  ?  Does  it  never  occur  to  Prof.  Huxley,  who  is  not  an  ad- 
mirer, I  suspect,  of  our  party  warfares,  that  the  danger  of  modern 
civilization,  the  unscrupulousness,  the  corruption,  the  cowardice, 
the  shiftiness,  the  untrue  motives  that  flourish  in  public  life  have 
their  stronghold  in  this  belief  that  politics  are  an  Alsatia,  where 
alone  in  the  wide  universe  the  writ  of  the  Great  Power  does  not 
run  ?  Does  he  not  see  that  as  long  as  politics  are  held  to  he  out- 
side moral  law  and  scientific  statement  so  long  we  shall  he  at 
the  mercy  of  all  those  who  for  their  own  purpose  try  to  persuade 
the  people  to  believe  the  ignoble  creed  that  whatever  they  desire 
is  right,  that  the  measure  of  their  wants  is  the  measure  of  the  just 
and  true  ?  Some  day,  when  possibly  men  may  have  forgotten 
"the  heavy  lesson"  my  friend  Mr.  Greenwood  addresses  to  the 
philosophers,  they  may,  warned  by  the  great  social  dangers  press- 
ing upon  them,  turn  round  and  see  the  full  meaning  of  Mr.  Spen- 
cer's work,  and  understand  that  he  alone  has  pointed  to  them  the 
path  that  leads  out  of  the  wilderness. 

May  I  say  that  I  am  always  glad  to  send  some  of  our  individ- 
ualist tracts  to  any  person  who  writes  to  me  ? 

I  am,  very  faithfully,  Auberon  Herbert. 

Old-House,  Ringwood,  November  14th. 

MR.  GREENWOOD'S  SECOND  LETTER. 

To  the  Editor  of  "The  Times  "  : 

Sir  :  If  the  question  is  whether  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  is  right 
in  endeavoring  to  purify  the  conduct  of  public  affairs  and  dis- 
charge it  of  error  by  establishing  a  system  of  "  absolute  political 
ethics,  or  that  which  ought  to  be,"  I  submit  that  he  need  not  have 
said  so  much  as  he  has  lately  said  in  your  columns.  Who  doubts 
that  he  is  right  ?  Who  doubts  that  he  is  wisely  and  nobly  em- 
ployed when  his  business  is  to  discover  the  bases  of  true  political 
morality,  and  to  exhort  mankind  never  to  lose  sight  of  them,  what- 


LETTERS    ON  THE  LAND    QUESTION.  515 

ever  may  be  the  stress  of  expediency  or  compulsion  in  the  world 
as  we  find  it  ?  But  is  that  the  question  that  was  raised  on  the 
conversation  between  Mr.  Laidler  and  Mr.  Morley  at  Newcastle  ? 
Not  at  all.  By  that  conversation  we  saw  in  a  remarkably  plain 
way  that  large  numbers  of  the  most  intelligent  and  powerful  rep- 
resentatives of  labor  in  this  country  had  derived  from  Mr.  Spen- 
cer's teaching  these  conclusions  :  That  private  property  in  land  is 
a  public  wrong  based  on  force  and  fraud,  and  that  to  right  one 
wrong  it  is  sometimes  necessary  to  do  another.  This  they  took  to 
be  a  lesson  in  practical  politics  ;  and  what  it  points  to,  in  practice, 
is  perfectly  clear.  Resume  possession  of  the  stolen  land,  if  you 
please,  for  as  private  property  it  still  is,  and  under  its  present 
ownership  it  must  ever  remain,  a  wrong  to  the  community.  For 
the  rest,  though  compensation  must  be  made  for  whatever  is  in 
the  land  which  was  not  in  it  when  it  was  stolen,  yet  to  right 
one  wrong  it  is  sometimes  necessary  to  do  another.  That  is  the 
point  for  attention  as  the  matter  stands  at  present.  For  though  Mr. 
Spencer  tells  the  people,  as  he  could  and  should  have  told  them 
from  the  first,  that  just  compensation  would  entail  a  disastrous 
outlay,  infallibly  to  become  more  disastrous  through  inferior  man- 
agement of  the  land  by  public  officials,  what  of  that  if,  to  right 
one  wrong,  it  is  sometimes  necessary  to  do  another  ?  What  of 
just  compensation,  if  it  makes  a  standing  crime  against  the  com- 
munity completely  irremediable,  and  if  the  people  are  at  liberty 
to  decide  whether  this  is  not  a  case  where  to  right  one  wrong  it  is 
necessary  to  do  another  ?  The  point  has  been  actually  considered 
by  labor  societies  and  the  leaders  of  the  new  Socialist  movement 
all  over  the  country,  and  it  seems  quite  clear  that  the  Newcastle 
Labor  Electoral  Association,  for  one,  has  come  to  the  conclusion 
that,  morally,  there  need  not  be  much  punctilio  about  compen- 
sation. 

But  perhaps  Mr.  Spencer  has  never  said  that  to  right  one  wrong 
it  is  sometimes  necessary  to  do  another.  In  one  of  his  letters  to 
"  The  Times  "  he  wrote  that  he  could  not  be  positive  whether  he 
had  or  not ;  which  seems  to  imply  that  he  would  not  be  surprised 
to  learn  that  at  one  time  or  another  he  had  included  this  doctrine 
in  his  teaching  of  absolute  political  ethics.  Be  that  as  it  may, 
however,  he  could  have  told  us  when  he  was  challenged  on  the 
subject  whether  this  is  his  teaching  now  or  not.  He  has  written 
three  letters ;  we  remain  in  the  dark  on  the  most  important  point 
of  all,  and  at  the  close  of  an  argument  entirely  occupied  with  a 
defense  of  propagating  "  absolute  political  ethics "  Mr.  Spencer 
announces  his  determination  to  go  no  further  with  the  contro- 
versy. Meanwhile  here  is  Mr.  Laidler  in  his  old  position,  and 
here  left.  To  be  sure,  it  seems  difficult  to  include  the  dogma  he 
rests  upon  in  any  system  of  absolute  political  ethics ;  and  if  Mr. 


5i6  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

Spencer  had  not  said  that  he  could  not  be  sure  that  he  had  never 
preached  it,  we  might  conclude  without  further  inquiry  that  the 
doctrine  had  never  been  his.  As  matters  stand  it  would  be  an 
extremely  good  thing  if  he  could  assert  that  he  does  not  hold  it 
now,  anyway.  That  done,  his  counsel  against  the  nationalization 
of  the  land  as  a  fatally  bad  bargain  (since  it  must  be  carried 
out  on  just  compensation  principles  if  at  all)  would  have  full 
effect.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  Mr.  Laidler's  questions  in  "The 
Times  "  of  to-day  will  be  answered,  and  they  will  be  if  Mr.  Spen- 
cer does  not  turn  his  back  on  doubting  disciples  who  cry  to  him. 
Your  obedient  servant,        Frederick  Greenwood. 

November  15th. 

MR.   WILSON'S  LETTER. 

To  the  Editor  of  "  The  Times  "  : 

Sir  :  Mr.  Laidler  has  given  us  a  digest  of  the  ninth  chapter  of 
Mr.  Herbert  Spencer's  "  Social  Statics/'  and  asks  triumphantly, 
"  Does  it  not  constitute  an  unanswerable  argument  in  favor  of  the 
nationalization  of  the  land  ?  "  Mr.  Spencer  has  modified  the  views 
expressed  in  that  work,  but,  as  Mr.  Laidler  now  elects  to  stand  or 
fall  by  them,  it  may  perhaps  be  worth  while  to  inquire  how  far 
they  support  his  proposals. 

The  nationalization  of  the  land,  as  defined  by  Mr.  Laidler  in 
his  interview  with  Mr.  Morley,  means  that  the  land,  but  not  the 
houses,  of  this  country  should,  on  the  death  of  the  present  owners, 
revert  to  the  nation  or  State  without  any  payment  therefor. 

In  the  "  Social  Statics  "  it  is  argued  that  each  one  of  the  race 
of  beings  born  into  the  world  has  equal  rights  to  the  use  of  this 
world,  and  that  no  one  or  part  of  such  race  of  beings  may  use  the 
earth  in  such  a  way  as  to  prevent  the  rest  from  similarly  using 
it.  From  this  it  follows  that  land  can  not  justly  become  the 
property  of  individuals  ;  but  it  also  follows  that  no  given  portion 
of  the  globe  can  justly  become  the  property  of  any  individual 
nation,  for  that  would  be  to  deprive  the  rest  of  "mankind  at 
large,"  the  rest  of  "  the  human  race,"  of  their  equal  rights.  It  is 
true  that  Mr.  Spencer  in  one  place  says  that  under  his  system, 
instead  of  leasing  his  acres  from  an  isolated  proprietor,  the 
farmer  would  lease  them  from  the  "  nation."  But  this  can  only 
be  reconciled  with  the  rest  of  the  chapter  if  the  nation  is  under- 
stood to  be  acting  as  the  "  agent  or  deputy  agent  "  of  the  commu- 
nity at  large.  According,  then,  to  the  argument  in  the  "  Social 
Statics,"  the  land  of  this  country  should  belong,  not  to  individuals 
nor  to  the  State,  but  to  the  human  race. 

Mr.  Spencer  is  also  in  favor  of  giving  existing  owners  compen- 
sation.    On  this  he  says  that — 

Great  difficulties  must  attend  the  resumption  by  mankind  at  large  of  their 
rights  to  the  soil.     Had  we  to  deal  with  the  parties  who  originally  robbed  the 


LETTERS    ON  THE  LAND    QUESTION.  517 

human  race,  we  might  make  short  work  of  the  matter.  But,  unfortunately,  most  of 
our  present  land-owners  are  men  who  have,  either  hy  their  own  acts  or  by  the 
acts  of  their  ancestors,  given  for  their  estates  equivalents  of  honestly  earned 
wealth,  believing  that  they  were  investing  their  savings  in  a  legitimate  manner. 
To  justly  estimate  and  liquidate  the  claims  of  such  is  one  of  the  most  intricate 
prohlems  society  will  one  day  have  to  solve. 

What  Mr.  Spencer  advocates  is,  in  short,  that  the  land  should 
revert  (a)  to  the  human  race,  (b)  after  payment  of  compensation. 
And  it  seems  to  be  generally  admitted  that  the  compensation 
would  amount  in  the  shape  of  interest  on  purchase-money  to  a 
greater  sum  than  is  now  paid  in  rent. 

So  far,  Mr.  Laidler  and  Mr.  Spencer  do  not  seem  to  have  much 
in  common.  The  one  point  on  which  they  do  agree  is  that  the 
existing  titles  to  land  are  not  legitimate,  because  they  are  founded 
on  "  force  or  fraud."  Let  us  apply  this  view  to  England.  When 
this  country  was  conquered  by  the  Normans  the  land  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  sovereign,  or,  in  other  words,  the  State.  It  was  then 
granted  out  in  part  to  Normans,  and  in  part  to  existing  owners. 
How  can  it  be  said  that  the  grantees  obtained  their  land  by  force 
or  fraud  ?  They  obtained  it  by  grant  from  the  State.  The  title 
of  the  State  which  made  the  grants  did,  no  doubt,  depend  on 
conquest  or  force.  But  if  this  fact  is  to  invalidate  the  title  of 
existing  owners,  it  must,  a  fortiori,  utterly  destroy  the  title  of  the 
State  to  resume  its  possession  to-day. 

The  schemes,  then,  for  dealing  with  the  land  appear  to  be 
three  in  number :  (1)  Mr.  Laidler's,  that  the  land  should  revert  to 
the  State  without  compensation ;  (2)  that  it  should  so  revert  with 
compensation ;  (3)  Mr.  Spencer's,  that  it  should  revert  to  the 
human  race  with  compensation.  Of  these,  the  first  has  been  truly 
described  as  robbery,  and  the  second  as  folly.  The  third  seems  to 
be  a  philosopher's  dream. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be  your  obedient  servant, 

Darcy  Wilson. 

Boodle's,  St.  James's  Street,  November  16th. 

MR.   SPENCER'S  THIRD  LETTER. 

To  the  Editor  of"  The  Times" : 

Sir  :  I  suppose  I  may  make  a  denial  without  continuing  a  con- 
troversy ;  and,  unless  I  make  it,  a  grave  charge  against  me  will 
remain  unrebutted. 

Over  and  over  again  Mr.  Greenwood  refers  to  the  statement 
that  I  have  said  that  "  to  right  one  wrong  it  is  sometimes  neces- 
sary to  do  another,"  and  apparently  wishes  to  force  it  upon  me 
notwithstanding  what  I  supposed  was  a  sufficient  repudiation. 
Being  unable  to  recall  all  the  contents  of  some  ten  thousand 
pages,  written  during  forty  years,  I  said  as  much  as  it  seemed  pos- 


5i8  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

sible  to  say  with,  reason;  for  it  has  sometimes  happened  that 
opinions  have  "been  quoted  with  approval  as  mine  which  I  had 
quite  forgotten  were  mine.  I  therefore  wrote,  "  My  belief  is  that 
I  have  not  said  this  in  any  connection."  That  is,  I  am  absolutely 
unconscious  of  ever  having  written  it,  and  do  not  believe  I  ever 
did  write  it.  I  do  not  see  what  more  was  required.  Mr.  Green- 
wood urges  that  I  have  not  repudiated  it  even  now.  It  never  oc- 
curred to  me  that,  after  what  I  said,  this  was  needful.  But,  as  he 
thinks  otherwise,  I  very  willingly  repudiate  it,  both  for  the  past 
and  the  present. 

Even  did  I  wish  to  continue  my  discussion  with  Prof.  Huxley, 
it  would  be  ended  by  his  letter.  From  it  I  learn  that  the  princi- 
ples of  physiology — as  at  present  known — are  of  no  use  whatever 
for  guidance  in  practice ;  and  my  argument,  therefore,  collapses. 

I  am,  etc.,  Herbert  Spencer. 

Athenaeum  Club,  November  18th. 

PROF.  HUXLEY'S  THIRD  LETTER. 

To  the  Editor  of  "  The  Times  "  : 

Sir  :  It  seems  to  me  to  be  a  pity  that  the  discussion  which  has 
been  carried  on  in  your  columns  should  come  to  an  end  before 
Mr.  Laidler's  able  letter  of  the  15th  instant  has  been  considered 
on  its  merits.  I  conceive  it  to  be  a  matter  of  vital  importance  to 
the  whole  nation  that  the  representatives  of  labor  should  be 
under  no  misapprehension  with  respect  to  the  grounds  of  any 
action  they  may  think  fit  to  take.  And  as,  all  my  life,  I  have 
done  my  best  to  bring  sound  knowledge  within  reach  of  the  work- 
ing classes,  I  trust  that  they  will  do  me  the  justice  to  believe  that 
I  am  actuated  by  no  other  motive  now. 

Let  me  say,  at  the  outset,  that  I  have  expressed  no  opinion, 
and  that  I  do  not  intend  to  express  any  opinion,  as  to  whether 
State  ownership  of  land  is  desirable  or  not.  If  it  can  be  proved 
by  arguments,  having  some  foundation  in  practical  experience, 
that  the  abolition  of  several  ownership  in  land  and  the  substitu- 
tion for  it  of  State  ownership  is  essential  to  the  welfare  of  the 
people,  no  one  would  feel  more  bound  to  give  practical  effect  to 
that  demonstration  than  I. 

In  Mr.  Laidler's  letter,  however,  such  arguments  are  not  em- 
ployed. On  the  contrary,  he  adopts  the  method  of  Rousseau  and 
his  followers,  which,  consists  in  making  certain  assumptions 
about  matters  of  ethics  in  the  first  place,  and  certain  assumptions 
about  matters  of  history  in  the  second  place,  and  then  drawing 
the  obvious  conclusion  that  the  assumed  facts  are  in  sad  disaccord- 
ance  with  the  assumed  ethical  rules.  It  is  a  delightfully  easy 
method,  and  saves  all  the  trouble  of  going  deeply  and  thoroughly 


LETTERS    ON   THE  LAND    QUESTION.  519 

into  the  foundations  of  ethics  and  the  truth  of  history  which  the 
scientific  plodders  give  themselves. 

Now,  I  do  not  propose  to  discuss  the  ethical  assumptions  set  forth 
by  Mr.  Laidler.  Let  it  be  granted,  for  the  moment,  that  "  equity 
does  not  permit  property  in  land/'  and  that  "  men  are  equally  en- 
titled to  the  use  of  the  earth."  Well,  starting  from  those  axioms, 
I  fail  to  see  by  what  logical  process  one  gets  at  State  ownership. 
If  "  equity  does  not  permit  property  in  land/'  how  does  it  contrive 
to  permit  State  ownership  ?  The  State  is  only  a  name  for  a  body 
of  men ;  and,  if  "  all  men  are  equally  entitled  to  the  use  of  the 
earth,"  why  have  Englishmen  any  more  .right  of  property  in  the 
soil  of  England  than  Frenchmen  or  Germans,  or,  for  the  matter 
of  that,  the  natives  of  Timbuctoo,  have  ? 

Thus  it  is  the  logical  consequence  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Rous- 
seauites  that  nations  are  as  much  usurpers  as  individuals,  and  that 
there  can  be  no  valid  title  to  land  until  the  whole  surface  of  the 
habitable  globe  has  been  thrown  into  hotchpot,  and  that  share 
which  every  man  may  enjoy  the  use  of,  without  damage  to  his 
neighbors,  determined  by  a  cosmopolitan  plebiscite. 

Thus,  if  we  are  to  appeal  to  logical  consequences,  those  of 
the  principles  adopted  by  Mr.  Laidler's  authorities  are  just  as 
startling  as  those  of  the  principles  of  the  advocates  of  the  "  abso- 
lute "  rights  of  private  property.  And  I  would  put  it  to  Mr. 
Laidler,  as  a  man  conversant  with  the  practical  side  of  life, 
whether  this  does  not  suggest  to  his  mind  that  modes  of  reason- 
ing which  lead  to  obvious  absurdities  must  be  fundamentally 
vicious  ? 

Now  let  us  turn  to  the  historical  assumptions  of  Mr.  Laidler's 
authorities.  They  affirm  that  several  ownership  of  land  origi- 
nated in  force  and  fraud — whereby  the  nation,  in  whom  the  own- 
ership was  previously  vested,  was  robbed  of  its  rights.  And 
from  these  data  they  argue  that  the  nation  is  justified  in  "  re- 
suming "  its  "  rights  to  the  soil." 

Now,  this  is  an  assertion  as  to  a  matter  of  historical  fact 
which  can  be  tested.  In  the  course  of  the  last  thirty  years  a  vast 
amount  of  evidence  has  been  obtained  respecting  the  manner  in 
which  land  is  and  has  been  held  by  people  in  an  early  stage 
of  civilization  all  over  the  world.  And  resting  on  this  founda- 
tion of  laboriously  ascertained  truth,  is  the  conclusion  that  the 
tenure  of  land  by  communities  is  that  which  most  extensively 
prevailed  in  remote  antiquity.  What  this  exactly  means  will  per- 
haps be  best  made  plain  by  the  supposition  that  the  land  in  every 
parish  in  England  was  owned,  not  by  one  or  more  private  indi- 
viduals, but  by  the  males  of  one  or  more  resident  families,  form- 
ing a  corporation  in  which  the  ownership  vested.  The  land  of 
the   community,  in  fact,  resembled    an   entailed  estate,  which 


520  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

should  be  inherited  by  all  the  males  of  a  family  collectively,  they 
being  forbidden  to  alienate  any  portion  of  it. 

This  "  joint  family  "  or  "  village  community  "  system,  there- 
fore, so  far  from  denying  the  right  of  several  property  in  land, 
is  founded  upon  that  right.  Assuredly,  our  ancestors  did  not 
trouble  themselves  much  about  the  philosophical  foundations  of 
property.  But  I  am  well  assured  that  if  any  one  had  tried  to 
persuade  a  village  community  that  all  mankind  had  as  much 
right  as  they  to  their  land,  that  missionary  of  "  absolute  political 
ethics  "  would  have  been  short-lived. 

It  may  be  said  that  I  have  been  talking  about  the  archaic  ex- 
istence of  "  several "  property  in  land,  while  the  question  is  about 
"  personal "  property.  But  is  that  so  ?  Are  the  land  reformers 
going  to  exempt  corporate  several  ownerships  in  land,  when  they 
abolish  personal  ownerships  ?  If  so  will  they  explain  why  cor- 
porate several  ownership  is  less  an  infringement  of  the  rights  of 
mankind  in  general  than  personal  ownership  ?  But  if  corporate 
several  ownership  is  not  "  permitted  by  equity  "  any  more  than 
personal  property — if  the  archaic  communities  had  no  more  valid 
title  than  the  squires  who  have  succeeded  them — whence  comes 
the  evidence  that  those  rights  of  "  mankind  at  large  "  to  the  use 
of  the  soil,  which  we  are  told  they  are  to  "  resume,"  ever  existed  ? 

Let  us,  then,  clear  our  minds  of  all  the  cant  of  "  history  after 
the  manner  of  Rousseau."  Genuine  history  shows  that,  as  far 
back  as  the  constitution  of  settled  society  can  be  safely  traced, 
several  property  in  land  was  recognized  and  acted  upon.  It  also 
affords  much  ground  for  the  belief  that  individual  property  was 
recognized  in  the  case  of  the  clearer  of  forest  land ;  that  either 
individual  or  family  several  property  was  recognized  in  the  case 
of  the  plot  of  land  in  which  the  house  was  situated  ;  and  that,  in 
bringing  about  the  change  from  collective  to  individual  sever- 
alty, industrialism  has  been  just  as  important  a  factor  as  milita- 
rism. State  ownership  may  be  right  or  wrong,  but  those  who  sup- 
pose it  to  be  a  resumption  by  the  people  of  a  right  they  ever 
exercised,  or  even  claimed,  are  at  variance  with  the  plainest  teach- 
ings of  history. 

I  am,  sir,  your  obedient  servant,         T.  H.  Huxley. 

Eastbourne,  November  19th. 

P.  S. — Mr.  Spencer,  in  the  letter  which  you  publish  to-day, 
says  that  he  learns  from  me  that  "  the  principles  of  physiology, 
as  at  present  known,  are  of  no  use  whatever  for  guidance  in  prac- 
tice." I  think  that  Mr.  Spencer  must  have  achieved  this  feat  of 
learning  by  his  favorite  a  priori  method,  for  nothing  of  the  kind 
is  discoverable  by  mere  observation  and  deduction  in  what  I  have 
said.  No  phrase  of  mine  is  inconsistent  with  my  belief  that  the 
principles  of  physiology,  like  those  of  ethics,  are  of  great  use,  so 


LETTERS    ON  THE  LAND    QUESTION.  521 

long  as  they  are  applied  with  that  caution  and  discretion  which 
are  to  be  gained  only  by  practical  experience  in  medicine  or  in 
affairs.  If  Mr.  Spencer  were  acquainted  with  the  history  of 
medicine  or  with  the  present  relations  of  physiology  and  thera- 
peutics, he  would  have  been  unable  to  learn  from  me  that  which 
it  would  have  been  ridiculous  in  any  one  to  teach. 

MR.  GREENWOOD'S   THIRD   LETTER. 

To  the  Editor  of  "  The  Times  "  : 

Sir  :  Without  meaning  to  do  so — I  am  quite  sure  of  that — Mr. 
Auberon  Herbert  has  placed  me  in  a  false  light.  It  might  be  sup- 
posed, from  a  letter  in  which  he  deals  with  much  more  important 
things,  that  I  had  reproached  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  with  changing 
his  opinions,  which  would  be  great  presumption.  That,  however, 
I  have  not  done ;  and,  indeed,  there  is  no  reproach  in  changed 
opinions  when  they  are  not  fundamental,  and  when  the  one  judg- 
ment and  the  other  are  not  based  on  the  same  unaltered  data.  My 
complaint  was  against  the  publication  of  imperfect  theories  of 
social  reform  "  unaccompanied  by  a  clear  statement  of  whatever 
reasons  are  fatal  to  their  application  in  this  work-a-day  world," 
the  point  being  that  certain  doctrines  of  Mr.  Spencer's,  acknowl- 
edgedly  ill-considered  and  so  unaccompanied,  had  gravely  misled 
large  numbers  of  men  eager  for  social  revolution.  That  is  a  very 
different  thing  from  complaining  of  reasonably  changed  opinion. 
Mr.  Auberon  Herbert  seems  also  to  make  out  that,  on  the  ground 
of  reasonably  changed  opinion  alone,  I  presume  to  impose  "a 
heavy  lesson"  on  political  philosophers.  It  would  have  been 
arrogant  indeed  if  I  had  so  described  my  interference,  as  Mr. 
Auberon  Herbert  suggests.  But  here  he  does  me  wrong  alto- 
gether. My  account  of  the  matter  was  that  the  conversation  be- 
tween Mr.  Morley  and  Mr.  Laidler,  together  with  Mr.  Spencer's 
letter  on  that  conversation,  conveyed  "  a  heavy  lesson  "  to  political 
philosophers.  That  is  what  did  it.  I  had  nothing  to  do  with  a 
lesson  ready  made. 

The  controversy  has  been  extremely  useful — thanks  to  your 
liberal  publication  of  it — and  will  do  a  world  of  good  all  round, 
especially  after  Mr.  Spencer's  welcome  letter  of  to-day. 

Your  obedient  servant,  F.  Greenwood. 

November  19th. 


Prof.  Chookes  expresses  the  opinion,  pertinent  to  his  researches  on  the  rare 
earths,  that  while,  besides  compounds,  we  have  hitherto  recognized  merely  ulti- 
mate atoms  or  the  aggregations  of  such  atoms  into  simple  molecules,  it  is  becom- 
ing more  and  more  probable  that  between  the  atom  and  the  compound  there  is  a 
gradation  of  molecules  of  different  ranks,  which  may  pass  for  elementary  bodies. 
For  these  bodies  he  offers  the  provisional  name  of  "meta-elements."  Their  true 
character  should  be  the  subject  of  future  unbiased  research. 


522  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

EXERCISE  FOR  CHEST  DEVELOPMENT.* 

Br  FEKNAND  LAGKANGE,  M.  D. 

HOW  is  it  that  the  lungs  can  increase  in  size  through  athletic 
exercise  ?  By  a  mechanism  well  known  in  physiology,  by 
the  filling  out  of  certain  air-cells  ordinarily  inactive,  which  only 
come  into  play  during  forced  inspiration.  The  expansion  of  the 
pulmonary  vesicles  is  complete  in  proportion  to  the  quantity  of 
air  introduced.  The  atmospheric  air  drawn  into  the  lungs  by  a 
very  powerful  inspiration  seeks  out  the  most  obscure  corners,  and 
inflates  the  air-cells  of  certain  regions  which  ordinarily  have  no 
part  in  the  respiratory  function. 

A  definite  increase  in  the  volume  of  the  lungs  is  the  conse- 
quence of  frequent  repetition  of  this  supplemental  respiration. 
The  air-cells  which  are  as  a  rule  inactive,  and  which  are  reserved 
for  cases  of  excessive  respiratory  strain,  arise  from  their  inaction ; 
their  walls,  which  are  usually  collapsed,  and  even  stuck  together, 
separate  and  give  entrance  to  the  air  which  can  not  find  room  in 
the  confined  space  sufficient  for  ordinary  breathing. 

If  the  forced  inspirations  are  often  repeated,  the  air-cells,  the 
action  of  which  has  thus  been  accidentally  solicited,  come  in  the 
end  to  associate  regularly  in  the  ordinary  respiratory  movements. 
They  are  then  very  quickly  modified  in  the  sense  most  favorable 
for  efficient  working,  according  to  the  law  we  have  so  often  pointed 
out,  of  the  adaptation  of  organs  to  the  functions  they  perform. 

Thus,  forced  respirations  result  in  a  modification  of  the  struct- 
ure of  certain  regions  of  the  lung,  and  in  making  them  work 
better.  Under  the  influence  of  unusual  exercise  the  vesicles  in- 
crease in  size  and  contain  more  air.  More  blood  is  also  supplied 
to  them.  Their  capillary  network  becomes  richer,  and  their  nu- 
trition more  active.    Thus  in  the  end  they  take  up  more  room. 

It  is  in  this  manner  that  the  regular  working  of  a  great  num- 
ber of  air-cells,  ordinarily  inactive,  can  rapidly  increase  the  size 
of  the  lungs. 

If  we  follow  out  the  modifications  produced  by  forced  respira- 
tions, we  see  that  the  lungs  thrust  outward  the  thoracic  walls  to 
make  more  room  for  themselves.  During  inspiration  the  ribs,  by 
rising,  favor  the  inflation  of  the  lungs ;  but  in  this  case  it  is  the 
lungs  which,  having  increased  in  size,  thrust  the  ribs  upward  and 
keep  them  raised  even  in  the  condition  of  repose.  Hence  an  in- 
crease in  the  circumference,  and  a  vaulted  conformation  of  the 
thorax. 

*  From  advance  sheets  of  the  author's  work  on  "  Physiology  of  Bodily  Exercise,"  in 
the  "  International  Scientific  Series,"  to  be  issued  shortly  by  D.  Appleton  &  Co. 


EXERCISE  FOR    CHEST  DEVELOPMENT.  523 

It  is  then  from  within  outward  that  the  force  capable  of  ex- 
panding the  chest  acts,  and  it  is  in  reality  to  the  lnngs  and  not  to 
the  muscles  that  the  chief  share  in  the  changes  in  form  and  size 
of  the  chest  belong.  The  most  powerful  inspiratory  muscles  can 
not  raise  the  ribs,  unless  the  lungs  participate  in  the  movement 
of  expansion,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  lungs  can  raise  the  ribs 
without  the  aid  of  the  muscles,  for  the  chests  of  emphysematous 
patients  remain  vaulted  in  spite  of  their  efforts  to  lower  the  ribs 
and  complete  the  expiratory  movement. 

If  we  sum  up  the  facts  we  have  just  enunciated,  we  shall  be 
driven  to  the  conclusion  that,  in  order  to  raise  the  ribs  and  get 
rid  of  the  vicious  conformation  of  flat  chest,  we  must  not  seek  to 
act  directly  on  the  thoracic  muscles,  but  to  produce  as  extensive 
respiratory  movements  as  possible. 

There  are  two  methods  of  amplifying  respiration :  one  con- 
sists in  voluntarily  expanding  the  thorax  in  all  directions.  This 
method  is  in  the  domain  of  "  chamber  gymnastics  "  ;  it  has  been 
much  extolled,  and  it  may  give  good  results.  The  other  method 
comes  more  directly  into  the  field  of  our  studies.  It  consists  in  in- 
creasing by  exercise  the  amplitude  of  the  respiratory  movements. 

The  problem  has  now  become  clear  and  definite.  "We  need,  in 
order  to  develop  the  chest,  to  know  what  exercises  are  most  fitted 
to  produce  a  series  of  very  extensive  respiratory  movements. 
Now,  the  amplitude  of  respiration,  as  well  as  its  frequency,  is  in 
direct  ratio  to  the  intensity  of  the  respiratory  need,  and  we  know 
that  the  intensity  of  this  need  depends  on  the  quantity  of  me- 
chanical work  performed  in  a  given  time. 

The  exercises  which  cause  an  accumulation  of  work  are,  then, 
those  most  fitted  for  increasing  the  size  of  the  thorax,  and  for 
demanding  increased  work  from  the  lungs.  And  we  know  that 
this  accumulation  of  work  occurs  especially  in  exercises  of 
strength  and  speed. 

Thus  the  mechanism  of  exercise,  its  performance  by  the  aid  of 
these  muscles  or  of  those,  are  of  secondary  importance  in  pro- 
ducing the  result  of  which  we  are  speaking.  It  matters  little  by 
what  process  the  muscular  force  is  expended,  provided  that  there 
is  great  expenditure  in  a  short  period  of  time.  It  is  indifferent 
whether  the  movements  are  very  slow,  each  of  them  representing 
a  great  number  of  kilogrammetres,  or  whether  they  are  extremely 
rapid,  each  movement  representing  but  a  moderate  effort.  It  is 
merely  necessary  that  the  sum  of  work  represented  by  these 
movements,  whether  few  or  many,  should  be  considerable  in  a 
short  time. 

Now,  the  quantity  of  work  which  a  given  muscular  group  can 
perform  in  a  given  time  is  subordinated  to  the  strength  of  this 
group.     There  are  muscular  groups  which  are  too  weak  to  ex- 


5 24  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

pend  much  force  in  a  short  time.  One  arm  may  use  its  whole 
strength  without  its  work  representing,  in  the  unit  of  time,  a 
great  number  of  kilogrammetres.  So,  whatever  form  the  exercise 
takes,  if  the  arm  alone  is  working,  we  shall  not  find  that  the 
breathing  is  much  quickened.  The  exercise  may  induce  local 
fatigue  before  the  intensity  of  the  respiratory  need  has  increased. 
It  may  even  happen  that  the  work  of  both  arms  together  does 
not,  after  a  given  time,  amount  to  enough  to  demand  more  ample 
respirations. 

In  general,  the  exercises  which  are  performed  with  the  legs 
represent  more  work  than  those  which  are  performed  with  the 
arms.  The  muscles  of  the  upper  limbs  could  not  support,  without 
extreme  fatigue,  an  expenditure  of  force  which  will  cause  no  effort 
to  the  lower  limbs.  It  is  not  tiring  to  any  one  to  walk  five  hun- 
dred metres  in  five  minutes :  what  gymnast  could  traverse  the 
same  distance  in  the  same  time  hanging  by  his  hands  from  a 
stretched  rope  ?  The  total  mechanical  work  would  be,  however, 
the  same — displacing  the  same  weight  through  the  same  horizon- 
tal distance. 

We  must  not,  then,  trust  to  the  muscles  of  the  arms  to  expand 
the  chest.  Muscular  exercise  can  only  lead  to  the  development  of 
the  thorax  in  an  indirect  manner,  and  in  no  way  by  a  direct  effect 
comparable  to  the  increase  in  size  of  a  muscle  which  works.  The 
muscle  which  contracts  often  becomes  larger  because  its  nutrition 
is  more  active.  But  the  chest  only  expands  when  the  surcharge 
of  the  blood  with  carbonic  acid  creates  a  need  of  a  greater  quan- 
tity of  oxygen  for  haematosis. 

It  is  to  the  more  active  respiratory  need,  to  the  "  thirst  for  air," 
that  the  instinctive  movement  by  which  the  ribs  are  more  ener- 
getically raised  is  due,  in  order  to  draw  into  the  lungs  a  greater 
quantity  of  air. 

The  thirst  for  air,  carried  too  far,  produces  breathlessness, 
which  is  nothing  else  than  a  powerless  struggle  of  the  system 
seeking  in  vain  to  satisfy  a  need.  When  breathlessness  is  very 
moderate,  it  causes  very  ample  respiratory  movements  ;  but  when 
it  is  excessive,  the  breathing  becomes  very  shallow  as  well  as  very 
rapid.  So  that  exercise  has  no  longer  any  effect  in  expanding  the 
chest  when  breathlessness  reaches  an  extreme  degree. 

To  sum  up,  the  most  profitable  way  of  dilating  the  lungs,  devel- 
oping the  thorax,  and  expanding  the  chest,  consists  in  the  per- 
formance of  exercises  capable  of  increasing  the  respiratory  need, 
without  pushing  them  so  as  to  produce  an  extreme  degree  of 
breathlessness. 

If  we  pass  from  physiological  explanation  to  observation  of 
facts,  we  see  that  practice  gives  a  striking  confirmation  of  theory. 


EXERCISE  FOR    CHEST  DEVELOPMENT.  525 

Exercises  of  strength  lead  rapidly  to  an  increase  in  the  size  of 
the  thorax.  It  is  the  same  with  exercises  of  speed  when  they  need 
very  energetic  movements.  No  exercise  develops  the  chest  as  rap- 
idly as  does  running,  unless  it  be  wrestling. 

Mountaineers  all  have  large  chests,  and  the  Indians  who  live 
on  the  high  plateaus  of  the  Cordillera  in  the  Andes  have  been 
noted  for  the  extraordinary  size  of  their  chests.  This  great  de- 
velopment in  mountaineers  is  due  to  two  causes  which  act  in  the 
same  direction :  frequent  ascent  of  steep  inclines,  and  constant 
residence  at  great  heights  at  which  the  air  is  rarefied.  The  climb- 
ing of  these  slopes  needs  a  great  quantity  of  work,  which  causes 
increase  of  the  respiratory  need  ;  respiration  in  a  rarefied  atmos- 
phere obliges  a  man  to  take  deeper  breaths  in  order  to  supple- 
ment, by  the  quantity  of  air  breathed,  the  insufficiency  of  its  vivi- 
fying properties. 

Singers,  with  no  other  exercise  but  singing,  acquire  great  re- 
spiratory power  and  a  remarkable  increase  in  the  dimensions  of 
their  chests. 

Numerous  observations  prove  that  it  is  enough  voluntarily  to 
take  a  certain  number  of  deep  breaths  every  day,  to  produce,  in  a 
short  time,  an  increase  in  the  circumference  of  the  chest  which 
may  amount  to  two  or  three  centimetres. 

If  we  wish  to  gain  the  same  result  from  muscular  exercise,  we 
must  choose  a  form  of  work  which  will  increase  the  intensity  of 
the  respiratory  effort — that  is,  an  exercise  which  brings  powerful 
muscular  masses  into  action.  We  shall  thus  perform  a  great 
quantity  of  work  in  a  short  time  without  producing  fatigue. 
Now  the  legs,  which  possess  three  times  as  much  muscle  as  the 
arms,  can  perform  thrice  the  quantity  of  work  before  being 
fatigued.  The  lower  limbs  are,  then,  more  capable  than  the  arms 
of  awakening  the  respiratory  need,  which  is  proportional  to  the 
expenditure  of  force. 

Thus  it  is  an  error  to  demand  from  gymnastic  exercises  prac- 
ticed with  appliances,  exercises  of  suspension  or  support,  any 
development  of  the  chest.  The  trapeze,  the  rings,  the  parallel 
bars,  quicken  respiration  much  less  than  running.  These  exer- 
cises cause  an  increase  in  the  size  of  the  muscles,  and  even  of 
the  bones  of  the  regions  which  work,  but  they  cause  very  little 
increase  in  the  dimensions  of  the  thorax. 

Men  who  do  much  work  with  their  arms  have  often  a  confor- 
mation which  is  very  imposing  at  the  first  glance.  They  have 
sometimes  broad  shoulders  ;  but  if  the  arms  have  done  the  work 
alone,  without  the  assistance  of  the  muscles  of  the  trunk,  we  easily 
see  that  the  apparently  large  size  of  the  thorax  is  due  to  an  excess- 
ive development  of  the  muscles  about  the  shoulder- joint,  and  not 
to  raising  of  the  ribs. 


5 26  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

Thus  we  are  on  the  wrong  road  when  we  look  for  too  ingenious 
means  for  developing  the  chest ;  this  result,  precious  above  all, 
can  be  obtained  without  any  complicated  appliances,  without  any 
difficult  process ;  and  if  we  had  to  formulate  concise  advice  on  this 
subject  we  should  say  : 

When  a  young  person  has  a  narrow  and  flat  chest,  recommend 
running  if  he  be  a  boy,  or  skipping  if  a  girl. 


♦»» 


CANADIAN  ASBESTUS:   ITS  OCCURRENCE  AND  USES. 

By  J.  T.  DONALD,  M.  A., 

PROFESSOR   OF   CHEMISTRY,    MEDICAL    FACULTY,    BISHOP'S    COLLEGE,   MONTREAL. 

ASBESTUS  is  a  singular  mineral,  whose  characteristics  are  well 
-  indicated  in  the  various  names  by  which  it  is  known.  The 
French  Canadian  miners  call  it  pierre  a  colon — i.  e.,  cotton-stone. 
The  Germans  speak  of  it  as  Steinflaclis,  stone-flax ;  and  amianto, 
the  Italian  name,  indicates  that  which  is  undefiled,  in  allusion  to 
the  fact  that  it  may  be  cleansed  by  fire.  Asbestus,  the  name  by 
which  it  is  generally  known,  is  a  Greek  word,  signifying  endless, 
ceaseless,  and  points  to  its  fire-resisting  properties. 

Asbestus  is,  then,  a  mineral  occurring  in  a  fibrous  form,  the 
fibers  being  so  fine  and  flexible  that  they  may  be  spun  and  woven 
as  cotton  and  flax  are ;  and,  moreover,  the  fabric  so  obtained  is 
capable  of  resisting  a  very  high  temperature.  Some  varieties  are 
said  to  have  resisted  a  temperature  of  5,000  °  Fahr.  It  must  be 
noted,  however,  that  although  this  mineral  is  infusible,  except  at 
extremely  high  temperatures,  its  fibers  lose  their  flexibility  and 
become  brittle  at  a  temperature  only  sufficiently  high  to  deprive 
it  of  the  water  which  forms  a  part  of  its  composition. 

By  the  mineralogist  the  term  asbestus  was  originally  applied  to 
a  finely  fibrous  form  of  hornblende ;  but,  as  Dana  adds,  much  that 
is  so  called  is  a  fibrous  form  of  serpentine.  Most  if  not  all  the  as- 
bestus of  commerce  is  fibrous  serpentine.  A  recent  analysis  made 
in  the  writer's  laboratory  showed  the  following  composition : 

Silica 39-05  per  cent. 

Magnesia 40-07        " 

Alumina 3-G9        " 

Oxide  of  iron 241        " 

Water 1448        " 

Undetermined -30        " 

100-00 

This  mineral  has  been  known  from  very  early  times,  but  it  is 
only  within  recent  years  that  it  has  found  any  extensive  applica- 
tion in  the  various  industrial  arts.     In  ancient  Greece  the  bodies 


CANADIAN  ASBESTUS.  527 

of  those  who  were  to  be  burned  upon  the  funeral  pyre  were 
wrapped  in  asbestus  cloth,  that  their  ashes  might  be  kept  sepa- 
rate from  those  of  the  pyre.  In  the  eighth  century  Charlemagne 
is  said  to  have  had  an  asbestus  table-cloth,  with  which,  when  the 
feast  was  over,  he  was  wont  to  amuse  his  rude  warrior  guests  by 
throwing  it  into  the  fire,  and  in  a  short  time  withdrawing  it 
cleansed  and  uninjured. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  first  Canadian  deposit  was  opened  only 
in  1878,  and  the  owners  experienced  considerable  difficulty  in  dis- 
posing of  their  output,  which  for  the  season  did  not  exceed  fifty 
tons.  In  1889,  with  a  Canadian  output  for  the  year  of  nearly  five 
thousand  tons,  the  demand  is  in  excess  of  the  supply,  and  is  in- 
creasing, with  prices  showing  an  upward  tendency. 

The  asbestus  of  commerce  is  the  product  of  two  widely  sepa- 
rated countries — Italy  and  Canada.  The  Italian  article  was  first 
in  the  market,  but  the  Canadian  product  soon  made  for  itself  a 
place  and  a  name,  and  the  mineral  is  now  shipped  from  Canada  to 
Italy ;  while  toward  the  close  of  1889  the  United  Asbestus  Com- 
pany, Limited,  of  London,  England,  which  controls  the  Italian 
mines,  acquired  property  in  the  Canadian  field,  and  is  equipping 
the  same  with  a  complete  plant  preparatory  to  operations  on  a 
large  scale.  It  is  very  evident,  then,  that  the  Canadian  fiber  is,  to 
say  the  least,  no  mean  factor  in  the  asbestus  industry. 

Canadian  asbestus  occurs  in  serpentine,  being,  as  already  ex- 
plained, a  fibrous  form  of  this  mineral.  In  two  great  geological 
formations  represented  in  Canada  there  are  extensive  areas  of  ser- 
pentine, viz. — the  Laurentian,  which,  beginning  on  the  coast  of 
Labrador,  stretches  westward  beyond  the  Great  Lakes ;  and  the 
Quebec  Group,  a  formation  occupying  a  large  portion  of  the 
province  of  Quebec  lying  between  the  river  St.  Lawrence  and 
the  United  States  boundary.  In  the  serpentine  of  both  these  for- 
mations asbestus  occurs,  but  as  yet  it  has  not  been  proved  that 
the  asbestus  veins  of  the  Laurentian  serpentines  are  sufficiently 
persistent  to  warrant  mining  operations.  It  is  not  improbable 
that  productive  areas  may  yet  be  found  in  the  Laurentian  rock, 
as  prospectors  are  now  turning  attention  in  this  direction.  But 
at  present  it  is  only  in  the  serpentine  of  the  Quebec  Group  that 
productive  mining  is  carried  on. 

In  this  formation  there  is  a  belt  of  serpentine  rock  "which 
extends  with  tolerable  directness,  though  with  frequent  breaks, 
northeastward  from  the  Vermont  boundary  to  some  distance  be- 
yond the  Chaudiere  River,"  which  flows  into  the  St.  Lawrence 
near  the  city  of  Quebec.  Throughout  the  whole  of  this  belt  there 
are  indications  of  the  occurrence  of  asbestus,  but  the  present  pro- 
ductive area  comprises  only  a  very  small  portion  of  this  extensive 
belt.   Although  good  workings  occur  elsewhere,  the  great  majority 


5 28  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

of  the  mines  are  along  the  line  of  the  Quebec  Central  Railway, 
which  runs  from  the  city  of  Quebec  to  Skerbrooke,  the  capital  of 
the  so-called  Eastern  Townships  of  Canada,  and  cluster  around  two 
points  a  short  distance  apart  and  about  midway  between  the  two 
cities.  In  this  district  the  serpentine  forms  a  very  rugged  coun- 
try, rising  into  bold  peaks  and  ridges,  the  ruggedness  and  boldness 
being  enhanced  by  numerous  faults  and  dislocations  of  the  rock. 
Bush-fires  have  recently  passed  over  much  of  it,  and  the  partially 
burned  trees,  with  the  scarred  and  seamed  rocks  as  a  back-ground, 
constitute  a  somewhat  drear  and  dismal  scene. 

In  the  serpentine  the  asbestus  forms  irregular  veins,  varying 
from  mere  threads  to  four,  six,  and  occasionally  even  more  inches 
in  width.  The  fiber  is  always  at  right  angles  to  the  sides  of  the 
vein,  unless  thrown  otherwise  as  a  result  of  faults.  In  some  cases 
the  mineral  has  been  found  concentrated  in-  pockets,  from  which 
several  tons  have  been  taken.  The  color  of  the  asbestus  in  the 
veins  is  white,  greenish,  or  yellow,  but  near  the  surface  the  veins 
are  frequently  more  or  less  discolored  from  infiltration  through 
the  shattered  rock  of  water  carrying  oxide  of  iron.  At  a  depth, 
and  where  solid  rock  is  reached,  this  trouble  usually  ceases.  The 
asbestus  veins  are  frequently  traversed  by  bands  of  foreign  mat- 
ter, such  as  compact  serpentine,  chromic  and  magnetic  iron,  and 
these,  of  course,  lessen  the  value  of  the  veins  in  which,  they  occur, 
since  they  cut  up  the  fiber  and  must  be  removed  at  considerable 
trouble. 

Associated  with  the  asbestus  one  usually  finds  a  considerable 
quantity  of  coarsely  fibrous  mineral,  for  which,  as  yet,  no  use  has 
been  found,  together  with  foliated  and  slaty  forms  of  serpentine. 
Some  of  the  latter  are  of  very  singular  appearance.  To  use  the 
words  of  an  English  gentleman  who  spent  some  time  in  the 
Canadian  asbestus  region,  "  Many  of  these  fragments,  as  they  lie 
on  the  ground  after  blasting,  have  so  much  the  appearance  of  a 
wood-cutter's  choppings  that,  if  placed  side  by  side  with  actual 
choppings  from  rough  timber,  exposed  to  the  weather,  the  one 
could  in  no  way  be  distinguished  from  the  other  except,  of  course, 
by  handling."  Others,  again,  in  color  and  shape  very  much  re- 
semble strips  of  fancy  confectionery. 

Still  another  singular  associate  of  the  asbestus  is  a  mineral  of 
a  white  or  green  or  yellow  color,  occurring  in  thin  veins.  When 
first  exposed  it  is  so  soft  that  it  may  be  easily  indented  by  the 
finger-nail,  but  on  contact  with  the  air  it  soon  hardens  and  as- 
sumes an  appearance  somewhat  like  porcelain.  Analysis  shows 
it  to  be  closely  related  to  serpentine. 

Mining  is  carried  on  by  cutting  down  the  hills  of  asbestus- 
bearing  serpentine,  much  as  a  farmer  cuts  down  a  stack  of  hay  or 
straw,  or  by  open  quarrying  on  the  level.     The  rock  is  blasted 


CANADIAN  ASBESTUS.  529 

out  and  the  asbestus,  separated  from  the  containing  rock,  is 
"  cobbed  " — i.  e.,  separated  by  hammering  from  adhering  foreign 
matter.  This  "  cobbing  "  is  a  comparatively  easy  matter  in  the 
case  of  the  finer  quality,  as  it  usually  separates  readily  from  the 
gangue,  but  in  the  lower  grades  much  difficulty  is  experienced  in 
separating  the  fibrous  matter  from  the  non-fibrous.  At  best  there 
is  great  waste.  Much  of  the  asbestus  is  in  thin  or  narrow  veins, 
and  is  wasted,  as  by  the  present  mode  of  operating  it  does  not 
pay  to  separate  this  from  the  serpentine.  A  machine  that  will 
enable  these  narrow  veins  to  be  utilized  is  a  desideratum. 

When  "  cobbed "  the  asbestus  is  graded  according  to  purity, 
color,  and  length  of  fiber  into  three  grades  and  bagged  for  ship- 
ment. The  finest  quality  or  "firsts"  finds  ready  sale  at  prices 
ranging  from  $80  to  $110  per  ton  ;  "  seconds "  fetch  from  $50  to 
$70  per  ton ;  while  "  thirds  "  may  be  valued  at  $13  to  $15  per  ton. 
In  good  mines  the  yield  of  asbestus  is  from  three  to  five  per  cent 
of  the  rock  quarried,  and  the  cost  of  mining  may  be  put  down  at 
$25  to  $30  per  ton.  Returns  obtained  by  the  Geological  Survey  of 
Canada  show  that,  for  the  year  1888,  Canada's  output  was  4,404 
tons,  valued  at  the  mines  at  $255,000,  and  this  the  output  of  nine 
different  mines.  Over  three  fourths  of  the  whole  was  shipped  to 
the  United  States ;  small  quantities  going  to  Great  Britain,  Ger- 
many, France,  Belgium,  and  Italy,  and  being  used  in  domestic 
manufacturing. 

Judging  from  the  results  obtained  in  the  mines  now  worked, 
and  the  indications  in  other  parts  of  the  serpentine  belt,  it  may 
be  safely  said  that  the  asbestus  deposits  of  Canada  are  well-nigh 
inexhaustible.  There  is  every  prospect  that  the  industry  will 
rapidly  expand,  as  capitalists  are  turning  attention  to  it,  the  work 
hitherto  done  "proving  conclusively  that  mining  for  asbestus, 
when  properly  conducted,  shows  a  more  steady  return  for  the 
money  invested,  with  less  elements  of  risk,  than  mining  for  any 
other  known  mineral." 

Upon  its  non-conducting  power  and  its  ability  to  resist  high 
temperature  depend  the  many  varied  uses  of  the  mineral.  First 
and  most  important  are  its  applications  in  connection  with  the 
steam  engine  and  boiler.  For  packing  pistons,  flange  joints,  hot- 
air  joints,  cylinder-heads,  and  similar  purposes,  asbestus  has 
proved  itself  invaluable,  and  for  these  purposes  it  is  spun  into  yarn 
or  wicking  or  rope,  or  made  into  mill-board.  A  large  quantity 
is  manufactured  into  a  kind  of  felt,  either  alone  or,  in  some  cases, 
along  with  other  fibrous  material.  Much  of  this  asbestus  felt  is 
used  as  a  non-conducting  covering  for  steam-pipes.  It  is  made 
into  sections  to  fit  any  size  of  pipe,  and  into  rolls  and  sheets  for 
large  surfaces.  It  is  in  use  on  the  war-ships  of  the  United  States 
Navy,  and  has  there  and  elsewhere  been  demonstrated  to  be  supe- 

VOL.  XXXTI. 3-i 


53o  THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

rior  to  hair-felt  as  a  non-conductor.  By  preventing  radiation  of 
heat  from  steam  and  hot-air  pipes,  this  felt  effects  a  large  saving 
in  fuel  and  gives  dry  steam  at  long  distances  from  the  boiler,  and, 
by  preventing  excessive  warmth  of  the  boiler-house,  adds  much 
to  the  comfort  of  the  workmen.  The  felt  also  finds  application 
as  a  sheathing  for  covering  wood-work  in  positions  exposed  to 
heat,  and  for  fire-proofing  flooring,  shelving,  partitions,  and  the 
like. 

As  far  back  as  1850  the  Chevalier  Aldini  of  Milan,  experi- 
mented with  asbestus,  mainly  with  the  object  of  turning  it  to 
account  in  the  manufacture  of  asbestus  cloth,  but  little  success 
was  met  with  until  twenty  years  later.  The  unctuous  character 
of  the  substance  and  the  extreme  fineness  of  the  ultimate  fiber 
are  obstacles  in  the  way  of  making  asbestus  cloth  that  shall  be 
strongly  coherent  and  not  pull  asunder  easily.  These  difficulties 
appear  to  have  been  overcome  to  a  great  extent,  and  now  in  the 
form  of  woven  fabrics  there  are  many  important  applications  of 
asbestus.  To  one  of  these,  in  particular,  the  attention  of  the 
public  is  frequently  directed,  because  of  the  numerous  fatal  fires 
reported  in  theatres,  music-halls,  and  similar  places  of  entertain- 
ment. In  the  great  majority  of  theatre  fires  the  flames  begin  in 
the  stage  curtains  or  drapery.  When  these  are  made  of  asbestus, 
of  course  they  are  incombustible ;  or,  if  the  curtain  alone  be  of 
asbestus  it  affords  a  means  of  separating  the  stage  from  the  body 
of  the  theatre,  and,  in  case  of  fire  in  the  former,  prevents  its 
spread  to  the  auditorium.  Asbestus  curtains  are  now  in  use  in 
the  principal  Roman  theatres,  and  in  many  theatres  in  German, 
English,  and  American  cities,  much  to  the  advantage  of  the 
theatre-going  public.  The  mineral  is  also  made  into  gloves, 
stockings,  and  other  garments  ;  in  fact,  complete  suits  of  asbestus 
clothing  can  be  obtained.  In  Paris  the  firemen  of  the  city  have 
recently  been  furnished  with  entire  suits  of  asbestus  cloth,  and  it 
is  said  to  be  probable  that  London  will  soon  follow  the  example 
of  the  French  capital. 

In  the  form  of  gloves  it  is  of  much  service  to  stokers  and 
furnace-men,  and  as  salvage  blankets  it  is  of  great  value.  It  is 
announced  that  mail-bags  will,  in  the  near  future,  be  of  asbestus. 
The  frequent  loss  of  mail  matter  by  fire,  in  connection  with  rail- 
way accidents,  renders  it  desirable  that  some  incombustible  mate- 
rial be  used  for  this  purpose. 

Much  of  the  lower  grade  of  asbestus  is  ground  up  with  other 
materials  and  made  into  cement  and  paint.  The  former  is  exten- 
sively used  as  a  non-conducting  covering  for  boilers  and  steam- 
pipes.  Being  a  cement,  it  can  not  be  readily  removed  without 
much  labor  and  loss,  so  that  it  is  somewhat  less  convenient  than 
the  felt,  which,  as  already  mentioned,  is  used  for  the  same  pur- 


CHR  YS  ANTHEM  VMS.  5  3 1 

pose.  It  is,  however,  very  much  cheaper ;  and  this,  in  the  esti- 
mation of  many,  more  than  compensates  for  the  less  convenient 
form.  Certain  it  is  that  much  more  cement  than  felt  is  used  as  a 
non-conducting  covering. 

The  paint  finds  extensive  application  ;  a  layer  of  it,  while  not 
rendering  a  wooden  surface  absolutely  fire -proof,  is  yet  proof 
against  sparks  and  slight  flames,  and  thus  prevents  the  spread 
and  increase  of  many  an  incipient  fire. 

In  the  form  of  rope  it  is  used  in  the  construction  of  fire-escapes 
and  supports  that  may  have  to  withstand  fire.  We  have  also 
asbestus  paper.  As  a  wall-paper  it  aids  in  rendering  a  building 
fire-proof.  In  the  form  of  writing  and  printing  paper  it  presents 
a  fire-proof  paper  that  may  be  used  in  valuable  legal  and  com- 
mercial documents. 

Not  only  does  our  mineral  resist  high  temperatures,  but  it  is 
also  proof  against  the  action  of  the  majority  of  chemicals.  It 
therefore  forms  a  very  valuable  substance  for  use  in  filtering 
apparatus,  especially  where  acid  and  alkaline  liquids  which  cor- 
rode ordinary  filtering  paper  and  cloth  have  to  be  dealt  with.  As 
a  filtering  medium  it  is  used  not  only  in  chemical  laboratories, 
but  in  manufacturing  establishments  as  well. 

Though  the  asbestus  industry  is  only  in  its  infancy,  many  other 
uses  might  be  mentioned  ;  but,  bearing  in  mind  that  it  is  possible 
to  produce  from  it  fire-proof  fabrics  of  any  form  or  shape,  there 
will  readily  occur  to  the  mind  of  the  reader  many  other  possible 
applications  of  this  curious  product  of  Nature's  laboratory  which 
has  waited  so  long  for  an  opportunity  to  minister  to  the  comfort, 
convenience,  and  safety  of  man. 


CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 

By   JEAN   DYBOWSKI. 

EVERY  season  has  its  peculiar  flowers.  Even  in  our  ex- 
tremely irregular  climate  there  are  few  times  in  the  year 
when  we  can  not  have  some  pretty  blossom  to  admire.  The 
explorations  that  are  made  into  all  the  quarters  of  the  globe, 
with  importations  that  have  followed  them,  have  endowed  our 
flora  with  such  a  number  of  varieties  that  we  may  say  we  have 
only  to  choose  from  among  them  to  get  the  handsomest  there 
are.  There  are  few  flowers  that  do  not  wear  an  infinite  charm, 
and  very  few  are  those  which  fail  to  make  an  impression  with 
their  elegant  form  and  fresh  colors.  Some  among  them,  however, 
unite  in  themselves  such  combinations  of  qualities  that  they  are 
lifted  above  their  fellows,  and  occupy  a  place  of  honor  among 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

Of  these,  those  that  are  late  in  blossoming  offer  a  special 
interest.  Among  the  plants  of  this  class  which  the  public  justly 
regards  with  the  highest  favor  are  the  chrysanthemums.  Few 
plants  combine  so  many  desirable  qualities  as  they ;  abundance 
of  blossom,  richness  in  coloring,  elegance  of  form,  and  long  dura- 
tion, are  some  of  their  leading  qualities. 

The  plant  has  been  known  from  very  ancient  times,  and  the 
beginning  of  its  cultivation  among  us  dates  from  several  hun- 
dred years  back  ;  but  it  was  for  a  long  time  neglected,  and  only 
a  few  varieties  were  known,  whose  small,  imperfectly  shaped 
flowers  gave  no  indication  of  what  could  be  made  of  them  if 
special  attention  were  given  them.  Now  the  varieties  are  counted 
by  hundreds.  Some  have  been  directly  imported  from  China 
and  Japan,  but  the  most  of  them  are  of  French  or  English  ori- 
gin. Intelligent  sowing  and  careful  selections  have  given  unan- 
ticipated results ;  and  several  types  have  been  developed  which 
are  quite  distinct  in  the  form  and  arrangement  of  their  flower- 
rays. 

The  flowers  are  originally  of  a  similar  disposition  to  those  of 
the  field  daisies.  By  cultivation  they  have  been  made  double — 
that  is,  all  the  minute  flowers  in  the  center  have  .been  endowed 
with  large  corollas  like  those  constituting  the  white  border  of  the 
daisy.  Then  the  form  of  the  corolla  has  varied  so  as  to  appear 
under  very  distinct  types.  Sometimes  the  petals  curve  upon 
themselves,  so  as  to  form  a  regular  large  head,  as  in  what  are 
called  the  Indian  chrysanthemums.  Others  curve  outward  and 
give  a  more  open  form  to  the  whole,  as  in  the  Chinese  chrysan- 
themums. In  others,  again,  the  corollas  deviate  in  every  direc- 
tion, constituting  an  odd,  irregular  type,  but  marked  with  a  spe- 
cial artistic  elegance,  as  in  the  Japanese  chrysanthemums. 

Chrysanthemums  were  formerly  regarded  as  garden  plants; 
they  are  equally  house  plants.  There  are  few  plants  so  well 
adapted  to  the  ornamentation  of  our  dwellings,  whether  they  are 
treated  as  cut  flowers  or  pot  plants.  For  bouquets,  only  the  orchis 
can  rival  them  in  lasting  qualities.  If  cut  in  full  bloom  and 
kept  in  water,  they  will  last  two  or  three  weeks ;  but  the  water 
should  be  renewed  often,  and  kept  pure  with  charcoal.  Bouquets 
of  exceeding  elegance  can  be  made  of  chrysanthemums.  The 
flowers  should  be  cut  with  as  long  stems  as  possible,  and  placed, 
after  stripping  the  leaves  from  the  lower  ends,  in  a  wide-mouthed 
vase  (Fig.  1).  The  bouquet  then  has  the  appearance  of  a  sheaf  in 
which  each  flower  displays  its  full  beauty,  and,  by  contrast  of 
color  and  form,  heightens  the  effect  of  its  neighbor.  A  special 
business  is  made  of  growing  flowers  for  these  bouquets.  In  this 
cultivation  all  the  flowers  except  the  terminal  one  are  suppressed 
on  every  branch,  whereby  the  flower  that  is  left  reaches  a  large 


CHE  Y  SAN  THEM  UMS. 


533 


Fig.  1. — Bouquet  op  Chrysanthemums. 


size.  The  plants  thus  treated  are  cultivated  under  glass,  and  co- 
piously manured  in  order  to  give  them  great  vigor.  Flowers  have 
been  thus  produced  measur- 
ing not  less  than  twenty  cen- 
timetres in  diameter  (Fig.  2). 
Assiduous  care  is  given  to  all 
the  details  in  raising  these 
flowers.  The  petals  are  fash- 
ioned by  hand,  and  are  given 
the  desired  curvature,  and  put 
in  determined  positions  by  the 
aid  of  ivory  pincers.  A  sin- 
gle flower  thus  produced  will 
bring  from  two  to  four  shil- 
lings. 

The  effort  to  produce  such 
exaggerated  specimens  can, 
however,  not  be  regarded  as 
a  well-directed  one.  Over- 
grown flowers  lose  in  beauty, 
and  extreme  regularity  of 
shape  is  obtained  at  the  ex- 
pense of  grace,  and  of  the  great  charm  of  the  flower,  which  lies 
chiefly  in  an  unexpected  novelty  of  form,  and  the  special  stamp  of 

originality  that  gives  each 
blossom  an  expression  of  its 
own.  We  might  as  well  make 
them  out  of  paper  at  once  as 
treat  them  so  that  they  shall 
all  be  alike. 

The  November  chrysan- 
themum exhibitions  of  the 
horticultural  societies  are 
growing  in  importnace.  The 
superb  plants  that  are  now 
shown  at  them  are  counted 
by  the  thousand.  The  house 
of  Leveque,  which  obtained 
the  chief  prize  at  a  recent 
exhibition  of  the  National 
Horticultural  Society  of 
France,  had  six  hundred  dis- 
tinct varieties. 

Europeans  are  not  alone 
in  their  admiration  of  beautiful  flowers.  Some  other  people,  hav- 
ing a  fine  artistic  taste,  entertain  an  enthusiasm  for  them  that 


Fig.  2. — Large  Chrysanthemums  (reduced). 


534 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


rises  to  a  passion.  With  the  Japanese,  who  love  flowers  above 
every  other  decoration,  the  chrysanthemum  holds  the  place  of 
honor,  and,  as  the  golden  chrysanthemum,  is  the  highest  national 
decoration.  It  is  usual  with  them  to  name  women  after  flowers, 
and  "  Madame  Chrysanthemum "  is  much  favored.  A  custom 
prevails  among  them  at  chrysanthemum-time  of  covering  human 


Fig.  3. — Japanese  Manikins,  plastered  and  dressed  in  Chrysanthemum  Flowers.    (From  a 

photograph.) 

figures  with  a  coating  of  clay  and  arranging  chrysanthemums 
upon  them,  in  colors,  in  imitation  of  their  dress-goods  ;  these 
manikins  may  represent  men  playing  some  scene  of  action  (Fig. 
3),  or  women  making  or  offering  tea  (Fig.  4).  The  figures  are 
placed  on  exhibition,  and  an  admission  fee  is  charged  for  seeing 
them. 

Not  all  chrysanthemums  can  be  cultivated  here  in  the  open 
air.  Some  of  the  choicest  varieties,  true  to  their  Eastern  origin, 
are  too  tender  for  our  chilly  autumns,  and  need  to  be  sheltered. 
But  they  pay  well  for  the  attention,  by  preserving  a  brighter 
verdure,  and  fresher  and  more  brilliant  colors.  Some  effort  has 
been  made,  by  heading  in  and  otherwise  trimming  the  plants,  to 
make  them  grow  into  particular  shapes,  but  the  practice  has  not 
become  very  extensive. 

Chrysanthemums  thus  combine  the  advantage  of  blooming  in 
the  autumn  and  late  into  the  winter,  and  submitting  to  various 
trimmings,  and  assuming  diverse  aspects.      The   cultivation  of 


RAINFALL    ON   THE  PLAINS. 


535 


Fig.  4. — Japanese  Manikins,  dressed  in  Chrysanthemums,  represented  as  making  Tea. 

(Prom  a  photograph.) 

them  will,  no  doubt,  go  on  increasing,  for  they  are  justly,  on  ac- 
count of  the  many  desirable  qualities  they  combine,  appreciated 
very  highly. — Translated  for  the  Popular  Science  Monthly  from 
La  Nature. 


-+*+- 


RAINFALL  ON  THE   PLAINS. 

By  STUART   0.    HENEY. 

THE  general  impression  seems  to  be  that  the  rainfall  has  in- 
creased and  is  increasing  on  our  "  plains  "  because  of  their 
settlement  and  cultivation.  It  is  fancied  that,  as  the  population 
moves  westward,  augmented  precipitation  follows,  so  that  there 
is  now  sufficient  rain  where  ten  or  twenty  years  ago  it  was  too 
dry.  Travelers  who  ride  swiftly  across  this  region  in  a  day  find 
towns  and  catch  glimpses  of  farming  operations  where  five  years 
ago  they  saw  but  a  barren  waste.  They  conclude  that  a  marked 
climatic  change  has  taken  place,  and  infer  that  it  can  only  be  due 
to  the  presence  of  population.  They  fancy  that  the  cultivation  of 
the  land  must  produce  marked  hygrometric  results.  That  this  is 
a  remarkable  fallacy  becomes  certain  when  attention  is  called  to 
the  evidence. 

In  the  first  place,  neither  history  nor  science  gives  any  testi- 
mony to  show  that  the  tillage  of  the  soil  and  the  planting  of  trees 


536  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

have  any  appreciable,  to  say  nothing  of  a  considerable,  effect  on 
the  climate.  Even  in  irrigated  countries  only  a  barely  perceptible 
increase  in  the  rainfall  has  been  discovered.  In  Spain,  France,, 
and  Italy,  irrigation  is  now  not  only  required  for  farming,  but  it 
is  more  widely  practiced  than  ever  before  ;  yet,  if  the  "  rain-belt " 
theory  were  correct,  these  countries  would  long  ago  have  had 
sufficient  precipitation  for  successful  agriculture.  There  is. 
scarcely  any  rainfall  in  the  valley  of  the  Nile  to-day,  after  centu- 
ries of  cultivation  and  of  annual  floods. 

Our  "  plains,"  or  arid  region,  lie  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
and  are  at  least  four  hundred  miles  across.  Although  the  pre- 
cipitation gradually  decreases  as  one  proceeds  westward  from  the 
Missouri  River,  it  is  difficult  to  fix  an  isohyetal  line.  But  the  line 
is  somewhere  between  one  hundred  and  two  hundred  miles  west 
of  the  Missouri,  as  the  flora  clearly  shows.  It  seems  to  have  been 
taken  for  granted  that  the  plains  were  treeless  and  well-nigh 
grassless  because  of  lack  of  rain.  Whether  the  absence  of  trees 
is  ascribable  to  the  pulverulence  of  their  soil,  or  the  germless 
lacustrine  deposit  which  covers  them,  or  the  excess  of  moisture,. 
or  the  fires  of  the  Indians,  it  is  clear  that  it  is  not  due  to  rain- 
lessness,  because  the  dry  hill-tops  in  the  midst  of  the  arid  region 
have  some  trees.  In  other  words,  there  is  no  evidence  whatever 
that  the  precipitation  on  the  plains  to-day  is  any  greater  than  it 
was  fifty  or  one  hundred  years  ago  ;  and  there  is  every  reason  to 
believe  that  it  is  less. 

But,  it  is  said,  the  observations  west  of  the  Missouri  show  a 
material  increase  in  the  rainfall.  This  is  not  true.  In  the  reports 
of  the  Kansas  State  University  and  the  Kansas  State  Agricult- 
ural College  we  learn  that  the  rainfall  for  the  ten  years  from 
1879  to  1888  is  not  so  great  as  that  of  the  previous  decade.  One 
authority  on  the  subject  has  recently  taken,  among  other  series, 
the  observations  at  Fort  Leavenworth  from  1837  to  1883,  and,, 
testing  by  the  proper  mathematical  processes  their  variabilities 
and  probabilities,  demonstrates  that  there  is  no  indication  what- 
ever of  permanent  climatic  change.  Yet  Fort  Leavenworth  is 
one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  east  of  the  eastern  line  of  the  dry 
region. 

It  must  appear  irrational  to  any  one,  after  a  moment's  reflec- 
tion, that  the  settlement  of  five  or  six  thousand  people  in  a  county 
usually  twenty-four  by  thirty-six  miles  in  dimensions,  and  the 
tillage  of  a  small  part  of  its  area,  would  so  materially  increase  the 
rainfall  in  the  brief  period  of  ten  or  twenty  years  as  to  make  agri- 
culture successful  and  profitable  where  before  it  was  not  possible. 
Extending  these  limits  to  the  wide  expanse  of  States  does  not 
make  the  idea  any  more  tenable.  Yet  on  such  conditions  as  these 
the  theory  as   applied    to   our   plains  is  based.     The  reports  of 


RAINFALL    ON   THE  PLAINS.  537 

the  Nebraska  and  Kansas  Boards  of  Agriculture  will  show  that, 
in  the  territory  lying  west  of  the  ninety-eighth  meridian  in  those 
States,  the  acreage  of  land  actually  under  cultivation,  when  com- 
pared with  the  whole  area  of  that  territory,  is  almost  insignifi- 
cant. The  climate,  as  well  as  the  law,  pays  no  heed  to  small 
things. 

It  would  not  answer  for  the  advocates  of  the  theory  only  to 
claim  that  precipitation  would  be  augmented  somewhere,  and  not 
necessarily  in  the  certain  region  where  is  found  the  increase  of 
farmed  lands ;  for  it  would  then  be  very  reasonable  to  suppose 
that  the  prevailing  southwest  and  west  winds  of  the  plains 
would  drive  from  them  the  moisture  which  the  farmer  there  had 
earned.  Iowa,  Missouri,  and  eastern  Kansas,  instead  of  the  dry 
region,  would  get  the  increased  rainfall. 

Prof.  Frank  H.  Snow,  of  the  Kansas  State  University,  said 
several  years  ago :  "  But  the  fact  that  thousands  of  new-comers, 
from  ignorance  of  the  climate,  have  attempted  to  introduce  ordi- 
nary agricultural  operations  upon  the  so-called  plains,  and  have 
disastrously  failed  in  the  attempt,  has  placed  an  undeserved 
stigma  upon  the  good  name  of  Kansas  in  many  far-distant  com- 
munities, and  has  undoubtedly  somewhat  retarded  immigration 
during  the  past  few  years.  It  is  time  for  the  general  recognition 
of  the  fact  that,  except  in  the  exceedingly  limited  area  where  irri- 
gation is  possible,  the  western  third  of  Kansas  is  beyond  the  limit 
of  successful  agriculture."  The  severe  seasons  of  drought  which 
have  occurred  since  the  above  conservative  statement  was  written 
show  the  whole  truth  of  the  matter  to  be  that  the  westward  ad- 
vancing line  of  settlement  is  by  no  means  an  isohyetal  one,  but 
that  it  is  merely  a  line  representing  in  a  way  the  overflow  of  the 
population  of  our  Eastern  States.  It  needs  but  a  slight  acquaint- 
ance among  the  old  settlers  in  central  Kansas  to  know  that  they 
fear  nowadays  excessively  dry  weather  as  much  as  they  did 
twenty-five  years  ago.  The  people  who  live  farther  west  are 
losing  faith  in  the  idea  of  an  increased  rainfall,  as  is  evidenced  by 
the  fact  that  over  two  hundred  linear  miles  of  main  canals  have 
lately  been  constructed  for  irrigation  purposes  nearly  as  far  east 
as  Kinsley,  in  the  Arkansas  Valley  of  western  Kansas.  In  the 
Platte  "Valley,  in  Nebraska,  large  irrigating  systems  are  at  present 
being  projected. 

He  who  would  provide  the  plains  with  an  ample  precipita- 
tion must  remove  the  Rocky  Mountains.  Is  it  reasonable  to  sup- 
pose that  three  or  four  telegraph  lines,  small  bunches  of  stripling 
trees  here  and  there,  and  the  turning  over  of  a  few  thousand 
acres  of  sod,  can  be  of  any  avail  in  changing  a  great  dry  territory 
into  a  garden  ?  Can  man  so  easily  control  Nature  and  her  laws  ? 
Certainly  not.     Climates  are  immutable  so  far  as  the  puny  efforts 


538  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

of  humanity  are  concerned.  And  it  is  a  grave  fallacy,  for  on  the 
strength  of  it  hundreds  of  families  are  induced  each  year  to 
locate  on  the  plains  with  the  expectation  of  farming  success- 
fully. Failure  follows,  of  course,  and  their  only  hope  is  to  sell 
out  to  trustful  new-comers,  and  move  where  the  natural  condi- 
tions are  favorable  to  agriculture  and  the  prosperity  of  farm- 
homes. 


♦«» 


LONG  FASTINGS  AND   STARVATION. 

Bt  M.  CHARLES  KICHET. 

WHAT  takes  place  in  an  animal  deprived  of  food  may  be 
explained  by  recurrence  to  the  comparison  between  the 
animal  and  the  machine,  which,  though  very  old  and  common- 
place, is  still  exact  and  almost  inevitable.  In  the  machine,  the 
burning  of  carbon  gives  rise  to  heat  and  force ;  animals  also,  burn- 
ing carbon,  develop  heat  and  force.  The  same  is  true  of  plants,  for 
they  likewise  disengage  heat  and  force ;  only  the  plant  disengages 
very  little,  and  the  animal  much  of  them.  While  the  plant  is 
stationary,  fixed  to  the  ground,  the  animal  is  forced  to  move  to 
find  food.  We  might,  indeed,  say  that  all  its  wonderfully  com- 
plicated organism  is  in  substance  only  an  apparatus  attached  to 
the  stomach.  The  lower  animals  are  hardly  anything  else  than  a 
stomach  adapted  to  motion;  and  the  animal  is  improved  as  its 
means  of  seeking  food  everywhere  and  at  a  distance  are  perfected. 
The  animal  goes  out  in  search  of  food  because  it  feels  a  want — 
hunger.  Nature,  in  fact,  distrusts  the  intelligence  of  her  chil- 
dren, and  for  that  reason  has  given  to  all  living  beings  instincts 
and  wants ;  and  has  armed  them  all,  without  exception,  with  the 
sensation  of  hunger,  to  provoke  them  to  seek  nourishment.  With- 
out this  irresistible  feeling  no  being  could  live. 

The  sensation  of  hunger  is  a  painful  feeling  of  uneasiness  and 
weakness.  It  is  a  general  feeling,  but  is  localized  apparently  in 
the  stomach.  Many  ancient  authors  regarded  it  as  a  local  sensa- 
tion. Some  said  that  the  gastric  fluid  became  more  acid  and 
produced  a  burning  feeling  in  the  stomach ;  others,  that  a  con- 
traction of  the  stomach  took  place.  But,  although  the  sensation 
of  hunger  is  related  to  the  stomach,  it  is  really  general.  While  it 
is  sometimes  alleviated  by  swallowing  earth  and  stones,  such 
inert  substances  may  deceive  it,  but  do  not  appease  it.  It  has, 
moreover,  been  experimentally  determined  that  the  feeling  of 
hunger  is  not  abolished  after  cutting  the  pneumogastric  or  sen- 
sitive nerve  of  the  stomach. 

So,  in  thirst  we  feel  a  dryness  in  the  back  part  of  the  throat. 
The  local  sensation  is  deceptive,  for  thirst  does  not  depend  upon 


LONG  FASTINGS  AND   STARVATION.  539 

■ 

any  condition  of  the  mucus  of  the  pharynx.  It  is  caused  by  the 
exhaustion  of  the  watery  elements  of  the  blood.  It  is  therefore 
removable  by  injections  of  water,  and  by  bathing,  when  water  is 
absorbed  by  the  pores. 

If  hunger  is  not  satisfied,  it  disappears  after  a  certain  length 
of  time.  The  most  intense  suffering  is  endured  during  the  first 
twenty-four  hours,  after  which  the  pain  diminishes.  The  char- 
acteristic phenomenon  exhibited  by  an  animal  subjected  to  star- 
vation is  the  constant  diminution  of  weight.  I  have  made  many 
experiments  on  this  loss,  comparing  animals  of  various  sizes,  and 
have  determined  that  the  function  of  dehydration — or  reduc- 
tion of  weight — is  in  direct  relation  with  the  size  of  the  animal ; 
and  I  believe  that  I  can  deduce  a  great  rule  of  comparative 
physiology  that  the  activity  and  intensity  of  all  the  functions  are 
determined  by  size.  Carnivorous  animals  appear  to  bear  fasting 
better  than  herbivorous  kinds.  The  latter  eat  nearly  all  the  time, 
and  are  ill  when  they  have  to  stop ;  but  carnivorous  animals,  in 
the  wild  state,  are  often  forced  to  endure  abstentions  of  consider- 
able length ;  and  a  fast  of  several  days  is  almost  a  physiological 
condition  with  them. 

When  we  examine  the  phases  of  the  loss  of  weight  of  a  starv- 
ing animal,  we  find  that  it  loses  much  during  the  first  days.  Then 
a  moderate  drain  sets  in.  Again,  in  the  last  days  considerable  loss 
takes  place,  and  this  is  the  forerunner  of  death. 

Cold-blooded  animals  can  support  inanition  during  a  prodi- 
giously long  time.  M.  Vaillant  has  told  me  of  a  python  weighing 
seventy  kilogrammes  that  lived  twenty-three  months  without 
eating ;  M.  Colin,  of  a  rattlesnake  that  lived  twenty-nine  months. 
Redi  mentions  a  tortoise  that  lived  eighteen  months,  and  a  frog 
sixteen  months,  without  food.  When  we  have  frogs  in  our 
aquariums  waiting  to  be  experimented  upon,  we  never  feed  them 
and  they  never  starve.  Dogs  can  endure  abstinence,  on  the  aver- 
age, of  thirty  days ;  cold-blooded  animals,  twice  as  long.  They 
are  capable  of  this,  because  their  tissues  are  consumed  more 
slowly,  and  do  not  require  so  frequent  renewing.  With  both 
classes  the  fatal  limit  is  reached  when  the  loss  of  weight  amounts 
to  forty  per  cent.  This  point  is  reached  by  the  warm-blooded 
animal  ten  times  as  quickly  as  by  the  cold-blooded  one,  because 
its  nervous  system  is  ten  times  as  active.  The  relation  of  the 
nervous  system  to  the  intensity  of  the  chemical  exchanges  of 
vital  action  is  shown  by  the  existence  of  hibernating  animals,  or 
warm-blooded  animals  which  periodically  become  cold-blooded. 
Becoming  torpid  at  the  approach  of  the  cold  season,  their  breath- 
ing and  circulation  become  slow,  their  motions  weaker,  their 
eyelids  close,  they  fall  into  their  winter  sleep,  and  their  tempera- 
ture descends  to  about  40°  Fahr. 


54o  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

The  nervous  system  is  the  great  inciter  of  nutrition :  when 
it  is  vigorous  or  excited,  the  digestion  is  active,  the  breathing 
rapid,  and  the  temperature  high ;  and  the  loss  of  weight  and  the 
possible  duration  of  abstinence  follow  the  same  rule. 

Man  is  subject  to  the  same  conditions  in  case  of  fasting  or 
starvation  as  warm-blooded  animals ;  and  the  influences  of  size, 
age,  and  nervous  constitution  are  similar  upon  him.  This  is 
illustrated,  in  respect  to  age,  in  the  legend  of  the  family  of 
Ugolin,  in  which  the  youngest  child  died  first,  at  eight  years  of 
age,  and  the  other  children  followed,  while  the  father  did  not  die 
till  three  or  four  days  after  the  death  of  the  last  of  them.  So, 
in  the  wreck  of  the  Medusa,  the  children  died  first  on  the  raft, 
the  old  men  next,  and  the  adults  last.  We  might  have  supposed 
that  the  old  men  would  have  resisted  better ;  but  while  they  may, 
perhaps,  bear  moderate  fasting  with  less  inconvenience  than 
more  active  persons,  they  are  less  able  to  endure  starvation. 
New-born  infants  are  less  capable  of  resistance '  than  adults ; 
but  the  young  of  animals — puppies  and  kittens — are  more  hardy 
than  we  would  be  ready  to  suppose.  Experiments  on  new-born 
children  have  shown  that  they  can  offer  considerable  resistance 
to  external  influences,  provided  they  are  well  fed.  Their  mor- 
tality is  principally  due  to  a  deficiency  of  alimentation  called 
athrepsy,  infants  dying  of  which  present  the  same  lesions  as 
starved  animals.  Their  fat  is  exhausted,  while  the  weight  of 
their  nervous  system  is  not  reduced.  Another  feature  of  the 
starvation  of  infants  is  a  relative  increase  in  the  globules  of  the 
blood  by  dehydration  ;  not  that  the  number  of  globules  is  greater, 
but  the  proportion  of  them  to  the  whole  volume,  a  considerable 
portion  of  the  water  having  disappeared. 

The  duration  of  the  possible  fast  is  considerably  influenced  by 
fever.  That  is  supposed  to  determine  the  production  of  poisons 
which  stimulate  the  nervous  system  and  intensify  the  process  of 
denutrition  ;  so  that  under  its  influence,  as  has  been  observed  in 
experiments  on  animals  and  in  man,  the  weight  diminishes  more 
rapidly  than  under  starvation  alone. 

The  influence  of  drinking  is  also  noticeable.  Of  two  dogs  ob- 
served by  M.  Laborde,  one  died  in  twenty  days  ;  the  other,  which 
could  drink  at  will,  was  still  living  at  the  end  of  thirty-seven 
days.  There  are  also  examples  on  the  other  side.  Falck's  dog 
went  sixty -one  days  without  drinking  or  eating.  Starving  dogs 
usually  drink  but  little,  as  if  warned  by  instinct  not  to  drink 
more  than  they  have  to.  Water,  in  fact,  expedites  the  wasting  of 
the  tissues  and  accelerates  the  drain  of  the  salts  in  the  organism. 
Hence,  by  drinking,  we  excrete  more  chloride  of  sodium,  phos- 
phates, urea,  etc.,  so  that,  although  in  general  animals  deprived 
of  water  do  not  live  as  long  as  those  which  can  drink,  there  is 


LONG  FASTINGS  AND   STARVATION.  541 

some  difference  between  those  which  can  drink  a  little  and  those 
which  drink  a  great  deal.     The  last  die  sooner. 

There  is  always  less  suffering  when  it  is  possible  to  drink ;  for 
it  is  a  characteristic  of  privation  that  thirst  torments  more  than 
hunger,  and  those  who  have  told  of  what  they  have  suffered  on 
such  occasions  have  usually  emphasized  this  fact.  But  I  do  not 
believe  that  the  hour  of  death  is  much  delayed  by  the  ingestion 
of  drinks. 

In  considering  cases  of  fasts  endured  by  men,  we  have  to  dis- 
tinguish between  the  experimental  fast,  carefully  arranged  for 
and  limited  to  a  certain  number  of  days ;  the  fast  which  I  call 
cliarlatanish  ;  and  the  compulsory  fast,  which  is  inflicted  upon 
persons  who  have  been  surprised  by  accidents,  such  as  ship- 
wrecks or  land-slides,  or  who  have  been  left  in  the  wastes  of 
the  desert. 

Experimental  Fasts. — Mr.  Ranke,  a  German  physiologist, 
felt  no  great  inconvenience  for  forty-eight  hours,  and  his  worst 
sufferings  were  in  the  earlier  stage.  His  symptoms  were  great 
muscular  weakness,  impossibility  of  sustaining  prolonged  move- 
ments, fibrillary  shiverings,  and  headache.  The  most  striking 
phenomena  were  insomnia  with  nightmare  and  throbbing  in  the 
head.  Beginning  nineteen  hours  after  he  had  taken  his  last  food, 
he  determined  by  experiment  what  was  his  daily  diminution  of 
weight,  and  the  rate  of  consumption  of  carbon  and  nitrogen  per 
kilogramme  and  per  hour.  He  found  that  the  consumption  of 
carbon  was  twenty  times  that  of  nitrogen ;  that  he  lost  in  weight 
about  1*2  gramme  per  kilogramme  per  hour;  and  that  he  pro- 
duced fourteen  litres  of  carbonic  acid  per  kilogramme  per  hour. 
The  last  number  is  important.  In  the  normal  condition  we  pro- 
duce eighteen  litres  of  carbonic  acid  per  kilogramme  and  per 
hour.  As  Mr.  Ranke's  case  was  not  one  of  illness  or  any  kind 
of  weakness,  the  question  arises  as  to  the  purpose  served  by  these 
four  litres  of  surplus  carbonic  acid.  The  most  obvious  answer  is 
that  they  are  a  luxury.  In  some  experiments  which  I  made,  the 
rate  of  production  by  my  subject,  while  fourteen  litres  during  the 
fast,  rose  by  one  third  after  he  had  eaten  a  hearty  meal,  and  his 
respiration  increased  in  a  like  proportion. 

In  the  cases  of  the  celebrated  fasters  Tanner,  Succi,  and  Mer- 
latti,  while  it  may  be  hard  to  prove  that  there  was  no  fraud,  the 
precautions  taken  against  it  seem  to  have  been  ample  to  make  it 
extremely  improbable.  They,  moreover,  all  endured  their  fasts 
under  special  conditions.  Merlatti  ate  a  fat  goose,  bones  and  all, 
before  beginning ;  Succi  took  a  drink  to  which  he  attached  great 
importance.  The  diminution  of  weight  was  less  considerable  than 
in  the  other  subjects  mentioned,  but  in  Merlatti's  case  the  whole 
amounted  to  twenty-seven  per  cent  at  the  end  of  the  fifty  days, 


542  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

and  there  was  great  danger  of  a  fatal  result  from  the  enfeeble- 
ment  of  the  nervous  system.  The  faster  persisted  in  going  on  to 
the  end,  after  being  advised  to  discontinue  the  experiment,  and 
vomited  immediately  after  taking  the  first  food.  Nevertheless, 
he  presided  at  a  banquet  given  in  his  honor,  and  fully  recovered 
in  two  months.  Cetti,  whom  M.  Senator  put  on  an  experimental 
fast  of  ten  days,  and  who  drank  all  the  water  he  wanted,  lost 
more  weight  during  the  first  than  during  the  second  five  days. 

In  view  of  other  facts  showing  less  capacity  to  endure  long 
fasts,  we  have  to  conclude  that  such  persons  as  Tanner,  Succi,  and 
Merlatti  performed  their  experiments  under  exceptionally  favor- 
able conditions.  They  had  no  severe  weather  to  face,  no  concern 
about  their  fate,  and  knew  that  they  had  only  to  make  a  sign  to 
have  a  savory  repast  brought  to  them.  Quite  different  is  the  situ- 
ation of  persons  who  have  been  buried,  for  example,  under  land- 
slides. Cut  off  from  the  rest  of  the  world,  they  know  that  no  help 
can  come  to  them  for  the  moment,  but  that  to  reach  them  tunnels 
must  be  bored  and  large  masses  of  earth  and  stones  removed. 
Long  privations  of  food  have  often  to  be  suffered  under  such  con- 
ditions. Berard  mentions  men  who  were  confined  for  fourteen 
days  in  a  damp  cellar.  Licetus  was  shut  up  for  seven  days.  The 
miners  of  Bois  Mousil  were  confined  for  eight  days  after  a  land- 
slide, without  suffering  greatly. 

Other  examples  are  afforded  by  shipwrecked  persons.  There 
is  an  interesting  story  of  a  party  wandering  on  the  ice-fields  who 
were  exposed  to  a  terrible  cold  for  seventeen  days,  in  1809,  with- 
out other  nourishment  than  water  thawed  from  sea-ice.  When 
found,  their  skin  was  sticking  to  their  bones,  their  eyes  were  sunk 
deep  in  their  orbits,  and  they  had  fetid  breaths  and  earthy  com- 
plexions, their  skin  was  covered  with  a  sooty  scurf,  and  their 
tongues  were  black.  This  sooty  aspect  of  the  skin  is  a  common 
symptom  in  great  famines,  such  as  occur  in  India  and  China. 

We  have  many  instances  of  individual  fasts.  An  Italian 
seventy-seven  years  old,  mentioned  by  MM.  Monin  and  Mare'chal, 
lived  without  food  to  the  thirty-seventh  day,  only  drinking  oc- 
casionally a  little  brandy  and  water ;  then  went  to  eating  again 
without  feeling  any  inconvenience.  A  man  named  Granie,  con- 
demned to  execution,  starved  himself  to  death  in  sixty-three  days. 
Antonio  Viterbi,  in  1821,  allowed  himself  to  die  of  hunger  in 
order  to  escape  the  penalty  of  death.  He  had  also  resolved  not  to 
drink ;  but  at  one  time,  taking  water  in  his  mouth  to  refresh  him- 
self, he  could  not  restrain  himself  and  swallowed  it.  He  had 
vertigo  and  nightmare,  but  suffered  most  from  thirst,  and  died 
on  the  seventeenth  day.  This  period,  from  seventeen  to  twenty 
days,  represents  the  mean  duration  of  life  of  a  man  in  normal 
conditions   who  is  starving.      But   Simon  Goulart   tells  of   one 


LONG  FASTINGS   AND   STARVATION.  543 

Hasselt  who  was  found  alive  after  having  been  shut  up  for  forty 
days  without  food. 

Succi  and  Merlatti  were  perhaps  insane  or  melancholy.  Per- 
sons who  are  taken  in  good  health  resist  less  effectively  than  ma- 
niacs. M.  Lepine  cites  the  case  of  a  girl  who  had  constriction  of 
the  oesophagus,  who  died  after  having  lived  sixteen  days  without 
food  or  drink.  There  is  also  the  extremely  interesting  case  of  a 
German  merchant  who,  having  been  unfortunate,  went  into  the 
woods  to  starve  himself  to  death,  and  died  after  eighteen  days. 
He  was  still  breathing  when  discovered.  He  had  noted  down  his 
impressions  daily.  After  five  days  he  wrote :  "  If  I  only  had  fire, 
a  little  fire !  How  long  the  nights  are — how  cold  they  are ! "  On 
that  day  he  drank.  Three  days  afterward,  cold  water  which  he 
tried  to  drink  made  him  vomit.  A  week  after  that  he  tried 
to  go  to  the  water,  but  his  strength  failed  him  and  he  stuck  to 
his  resting-place.  During  these  eighteen  days  of  suffering  he 
therefore  drank  only  once.  These  periods  of  nineteen,  seven- 
teen, and  sixteen  days,  in  persons  not  out  of  their  minds,  justify 
the  estimate  of  twenty  days  as  the  length  of  the  fast  which  will 
bring  death  to  healthy  persons  under  no  nervous  waste.  But  the 
time  admits  of  a  considerable  extension  among  insane  persons  and 
those  who  have  made  preparations  for  their  fast.  Succi,  who 
fasted  thirty  days,  had  been  twice  in  an  insane  asylum.  Cardan 
relates  the  case  of  a  Scotchman  who  lived  thirty  days  in  a  prison 
without  eating.  Devilliers,  in  the  "  Journal  de  Me'decine,"  men- 
tions an  insane  person  who  died  after  seventy-five  days  of  partial 
fasting,  in  which  he  took  only  a  few  glasses  of  liquid— a  little 
wine  and  bouillon.  The  amount  of  weight  lost  at  death  can  not 
be  closely  determined,  but  may  be  estimated  at  about  thirty  per 
cent. 

These  conditions  relate  to  sound  or  nearly  sound  persons. 
Respecting  the  stories  told  of  diseased  persons,  we  have  to  steer 
between  a  Scylla  and  a  Charybdis  of  excessive  credulity  and  ex- 
cessive incredulity.  A  Prof.  Licetus,  of  Padua,  near  the  beginning 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  wrote  a  rather  stupid  folio  in  Latin, 
"  On  those  who  can  live  a  Long  Time  without  Food."  It  contains 
various  chapters,  on  "  those  who  live  eight  days  " ;  "  those  who 
live  a  month  " ;  "  those  who  lived  three  months  " ;  "  those  who  lived 
from  one  year  to  eight  years  " ;  "  those  who  lived  more  than  twelve 
years  " ;  and  ends  with  the  story  of  the  seven  sleepers  of  Ephesus, 
who  went  to  sleep  in  the  reign  of  the  Emperor  Decius  and  woke 
in  that  of  Theodosius.  We  can  more  than  doubt  some  of  the 
stories  of  Licetus ;  but  there  are  facts  as  remarkable  as  some  of 
them,  concerning  long  fasts  by  diseased  infants  and  girls,  which 
we  can  not  question. 

The    excessively    long   fasts,  whether  experienced    by  men, 


544  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

women,  or  children,  have  usually  been  observed  in  hysterical 
persons — for  it  is  now  known  that  hysteria  exists  in  men  and 
children  as  well  as  in  women.  Taking  up  almost  any  of  the 
numerous  stories  related  by  the  old  authors,  we  find  manifest 
traces  of  hysteria  in  them.  Here,  for  example,  is  "the  memora- 
ble and  prodigious  history  of  a  girl  who  for  many  years  neither 
ate  nor  slept  nor  voided,  and  yet  lived  by  God's  admirable  grace 
and  virtue"  (Frankfort,  1587).  She  was  Catherine  Binder,  of 
Heidelberg,  who  at  twenty-seven  years  of  age  all  at  once  lost  the 
taste  for  warm  food  (a  hysterical  fancy),  and  ate  nothing  warm 
for  five  years,  when  she  was  treated  by  a  quack,  and  also  lost  the 
taste  for  cold  food.  She  neither  ate  nor  drank  for  seven  years. 
While  we  may  entertain  some  question  respecting  the  accuracy  of 
this  affirmation,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  girl  was  nervously 
affected.  She  had  been  deprived  of  hearing  and  speech  for  three 
years ;  she  had  spasms  when  she  tried  to  eat,  so  that  she  could  not 
swallow ;  and,  during  two  weeks  that  she  was  watched,  she  neither 
ate  nor  drank.  Another  girl  (1586),  religiously  affected  in  her 
hysteria,  was  taken  with  an  aversion  to  everything  eatable,  and  a 
difficulty  in  swallowing,  and  lived  for  four  years  on  nothing  but 
water  and,  at  long  intervals,  a  little  bread  dipped  in  water.  Apol- 
lonia  Schrierer,  of  Berne  (1G04),  lay  physically  insensible  but  wide 
awake  day  and  night.  She  was  kept  apart  from  her  mother  and 
constantly  watched  by  the  officers  for  two  weeks,  during  which 
she  took  no  food.  In  the  same  book  with  this  story  is  that  of  a 
girl  of  Spires,  watched  for  twelve  days,  who  was  assumed  to  have 
lived  for  three  years  upon  nothing  but  a  few  drops  of  water  or 
wine,  which  she  took  in  her  lips.  She  was  twelve  years  old,  and 
slept  most  of  the  time.  A  girl  of  Cologne,  who  lived  four  years 
without  food,  fainted  whenever  they  tried  to  put  anything  into  her 
mouth.  Passing  over  several  other  cases  related  by  these  old 
authors,  which  vary  but  little  in  their  general  features,  we  come 
to  a  number  of  cases  recorded  in  medical  publications  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  in  all  or  nearly  all  of  which  the  long  fast  is 
accompanied  by  some  kind  of  disorder  of  the  body  or  mind.  In 
many  of  these  instances,  as  in  some  of  those  described  above, 
the  fast  was  not  absolute,  but  was  occasionally  relieved  by  the 
introduction  of  a  few  drops  of  milk  or  broth.  Such  a  fast  can  be 
continued  indefinitely — as  in  the  case  of  a  woman  described  by 
Vandermonde  in  1760,  who  lived  thus  for  twenty-six  years. 

The  present  century  furnishes  numerous  fairly  well  authenti- 
cated instances  of  extraordinarily  long  fasts,  which  were  nearly 
always  associated  with  some  form  of  hysteria.  We  can  not  men- 
tion them  all  here,  and  omit  those  which  are  most  frequently 
cited  in  the  medical  books.  Anna  Garbero  is  described  by  Ricci 
as  having,  after  a  sleep  without  eating  of  forty  days,  been  taken, 


LONG  FASTINGS  AND   STARVATION.  545 

on  the  8tli  of  September,  1825,  with  an  absolute  repulsion  against 
food,  and  thus  continued  till  the  day  of  her  death,  after  a  lethargic 
sleep  of  three  months,  on  the  19th  of  March,  1828.  The  autopsy 
disclosed  a  contraction  of  the  sigmoid  flexure  of  the  colon.  One 
of  the  most  extraordinary  cases  on  record  is  that  of  the  Dutch 
hysteric  Angelina  de  Vlies,  forty-one  years  old,  who  continued 
without  food  from  the  10th  of  March,  1822,  to  1826.  She  was  sub- 
ject to  cramps  and  tremors,  and  was  very  weak,  and  not  able  to 
rise  without  help.  Bourneville  and  D'Olier  tell  of  an  idiotic  child 
who  at  two  years  of  age  lived  three  weeks,  and  at  seven  years 
twenty-eight  days,  on  nothing  but  water  and  broth.  In  many 
similar  cases,  the  patients  have  eaten  occasionally,  but  only  the 
minimum  quantity  indispensable  for  the  maintenance  of  life. 
Thus,  a  woman  cited  by  Lase'gue  only  ate  during  a  year  what  an 
ordinary  person  would  require  for  two  days. 

One  of  the  characteristics  of  cases  of  this  kind  is  the  extraor- 
dinary perversion  of  appetite.  An  insatiable  craving  prevails  in 
some  of  the  patients,  a  loathing  in  others.  Perversions  of  the 
sexual  passion  have  also  been  remarked.  "With  these  fantastic 
tastes  is  associated  an  exceptionally  strong  and  enduring  power  of 
resistance. 

There  was  for  a  long  time  at  the  Salpetriere  a  woman  named 
Etchverry,  who  had  hemiplegia  on  one  side  and  contracture  on  the 
other.  Her  hysteria  should  apparently  have  provoked  a  general 
denutrition,  but  it  did  not.  She  would  not  eat,  and  had  to  be  fed 
artificially.  Her  excretions  were  marked  by  an  extreme  deficiency 
of  urea.  There  was  no  deception  in  her  case,  for  she  was  under 
constant  watch. 

I  have  observed  in  a  very  precise  experiment  the  diminution 
in  the  phenomena  of  nutrition  in  hysterics.  M.  Hannot  and  my- 
self, studying  two  hystero-epileptic  cases  at  the  Salpetriere,  found 
that  the  patient  in  a  condition  of  lethargy  received  only  four  litres 
of  air  into  her  lungs  in  sixteen  minutes,  and  made  only  eight  in- 
spirations in  thirty-six  minutes.  This  marvelous  slackening  of 
the  respiratory  phenomena  constitutes  a  real  hibernation  in  man, 
resulting  from  the  absence  of  stimulation  of  the  nervous  system. 

Observations  have  been  made  of  a  disease  of  somnolence. 
M.  Charcot  has  recently  published  an  account  of  a  case,  and  MM. 
Semelaigne  and  Gelineau  have  published  another.  An  irresistible 
torpor  takes  possession  of  the  patients,  who  fall  into  a  sleep  in 
which  all  the  phenomena  of  nutrition  are  slackened,  but  the  sleep- 
ers wake  occasionally  and  take  food  or  perform  physical  offices. 

The  fakirs  of  India,  who  allow  themselves  to  be  buried  alive, 
belong  to  the  same  category.  They  submit  to  extraordinary  mor- 
tifications, eat  but  little,  abstain  from  meats,  and  use  curious  arts 
to  empty  their  stomachs.     Having  hypnotized  themselves,  they 

vol.  xxxvi. — 35 


546  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

rest  almost  without  breathing.  While  much  of  this  may  be  im- 
posture, there  are,  according  to  Rousselet  and  Jacolliot,  some  well- 
authenticated  cases  of  the  kind.  English  sentinels  were  set 
around  one  fakir  who  was  buried  alive.  When  disinterred  he  was 
apparently  dead,  but  was  aroused  and  lived.  I  do  not  consider  it 
necessary  to  question  the  correctness  of  the  cases  of  lethargy  and 
apparent  death  recorded  in  the  books.  A  considerable  depression 
of  the  nervous  system  accompanies  all  such  phenomena,  and  the 
activity  of  the  heart  and  the  rhythm  of  respiration  disappear  at  a 
certain  stage  of  the  disease. 

There  have  not  been  many  experiments  on  this  subject  made 
upon  men.  We  have  one,  however,  from  M.  Debove,  on  the  influ- 
ence of  suggestion  upon  hysterics.  On  his  indication  to  two 
patients  that  they  should  not  eat  or  drink,  they  comfortably  sup- 
ported a  fast  of  fifteen  days,  with  only  slightly  proportionate  de- 
crease of  weight,  and  they  had  had  hardly  any  feeling  of  hunger 
at  the  end  of  the  period.  For  comparison,  M.  Debove  tried  to  im- 
pose a  fast  on  a  vigorous  man,  but  was  obliged  to  suspend  it  after 
five  days.  This  subject  lost  at  the  rate  of  0'8  gramme  per  kilo- 
gramme per  hour,  against  0'13  gramme  in  the  hysterical  patients. 
He  was  not  susceptible  to  suggestion. 

We  draw  from  these  facts  that  the  functional  exchanges  are 
retarded  in  cases  of  hysteria.  We  do  not  yet  know  the  exact  influ- 
ence of  the  nervous  system.  There  is  certainly  a  diminution  of 
chemical  activity  in  the  tissues  which  produce  heat  and  in  the 
glands  that  furnish  the  secretions.  This  is  not  saying  much,  but 
it  is  something. — Translated  for  the  Popular  Science  Monthly  from 
the  Revue  Scientifique. 


-♦♦♦- 


SKETCH  OF  JAMES  GLAISHER,  F.  R.  S. 

METEOROLOGY  owes  to  Mr.  Glaisher  the  results  of  many 
years  of  patient  labor  at  the  institutions  and  observatories 
with  which  he  has  been  connected  ;  a  series  of  valuable  researches 
undertaken  at  the  instance  of  the  British  Association ;  and  those 
daring  and  brilliant  observations  in  a  balloon  at  very  great 
heights  in  the  atmosphere  with  which  his  name  is  most  con- 
spicuously associated.  Yet,  as  has  been  observed  by  one  of  his 
biographers,  "  his  numerous  contributions  to  scientific  and  popu- 
lar literature,  often  published  in  a  most  unobtrusive  manner, 
which  is  very  characteristic  of  the  man,  have  scarcely  gained  him 
so  wide  a  reputation  in  the  learned  world  as  he  certainly  de- 
served." 

James  Glaisher  was  born,  according  to  the  "  Men  of  the  Time/' 
in  London  in  1809.     In  1829,  as  assistant  in  the  principal  trian- 


SKETCH   OF  JAMES   GLAISHER,  F.  R.  S.  547 

gulation  of  the  ordnance  survey  in  Ireland,  he  was  charged 
with  the  meteorological  observations  on  the  Bencorr  and  Keeper 
Mountains.  These  observations  were  published  in  1836.  From 
1833  to  1836  he  was  assistant  at  the  Madingly  Observatory,  near 
Cambridge ;  was  appointed  in  the  latter  year  assistant  in  the 
astronomical  department  of  the  Greenwich  Observatory ;  and  was 
made  in  1840  Superintendent  of  the  Magnetical  and  Meteorologi- 
cal Departments  of  the  same  institution,  where  he  remained  till 
he  retired  from  the  public  service  at  the  end  of  1874.  In  1865, 
upon  the  death  of  Admiral  Fitzroy,  he  was  appointed  to  the  con- 
trol of  the  meteorological  department  of  the  Board  of  Trade. 
From  1841  till  very  recently  he  has  contributed  to  the  registrar- 
general's  reports  the  quarterly  and  annual  meteorological  re- 
ports embodying  the  results  of  the  reductions  and  discussions  of 
the  observations  of  about  sixty  voluntary  observers  scattered  over 
England. 

Among  Mr.  Glaisher's  earlier  contributions  to  the  literature  of 
meteorology  were  the  "  Hygrometrical  Tables/'  first  published 
in  1845,  which  has  passed  through  six  editions,  and  is  regarded  as 
a  fundamental  work  in  connection  with  the  science ;  "  A  Memoir 
on  the  Radiation  of  Heat  from  Various  Substances,"  1848 ;  certain 
papers  on  the  forms  of  snow-crystals,  1855  ;  a  report  on  the  "  Me- 
teorology of  London  during  the  Cholera  Epidemic  of  1853-'54," 
published  by  the  Board  of  Health  in  1855 ;  and  a  report  on  the 
"  Meteorology  of  India  in  Relation  to  the  Health  of  the  Troops," 
1863,  which  formed  an  appendix  to  the  report  of  a  Royal  Com- 
mission on  the  Army  in  India.  In  1857  he  conducted  the  experi- 
ments and  wrote  the  report  of  the  Royal  Commission  on  the 
Warming  and  Ventilation  of  Dwellings.  He  was  the  founder 
of  the  Royal  Meteorological  Society,  of  which  he  was  the  secre- 
tary for  nearly  twenty  years,  and  the  president  in  1867-'68.  He 
is  a  past  President  of  the  Royal  Microscopical  Society. 

As  a  member  of  the  British  Association  he  has  been  active  in 
the  meteorological  researches  undertaken  under  the  direction  of 
that  body ;  and  we  find  his  name  attached  year  after  year  to  the 
reports  on  "  Luminous  Meteors,"  "  Rainfall,"  "  Rate  of  Increase  of 
Underground  Temperature  downward,"  "Circulation  of  Under- 
ground Waters  as  related  to  the  Water-Supply  of  certain  Towns 
and  Districts,"  and  "  Mathematical  Tables."  The  reports  on  "  Lu- 
minous Meteors  "  were  particularly  minute  and  exhaustive.  They 
seem  to  have  been  intended  to  include  as  full  and  accurate 
accounts  as  it  was  possible  to  get  of  every  meteor  that  fell  any- 
where on  the  earth  within  the  view  of  a  man  intelligent  enough 
to  describe  it ;  and  they  embody  frequent  suggestions  as  to  the 
direction  which  future  research  might  take.  Thus,  the  report  of 
1874  noticed  the  apparent  connection  between  some  meteor-show- 


548  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

ers  and  certain  comets,  and  spoke  of  the  coincidences  as  being 
numerous  enough,  and  sufficiently  exact  to  render  desirable  the 
further  cultivation  of  cometary  astronomy  by  star-shower  obser- 
vations. The  report  of  1875  pointed  out  that  the  work  of  properly 
treating  meteor  observations  had  become  so  great  as  to  be  beyond 
the  power  of  the  Association  to  grapple  with  it,  and  commended 
the  arrangements  which  M.  Leverrier  was  making  for  that  study. 
In  1878  the  committee,  finding  it  probable  that  the  highest  attain- 
able accuracy  in  mapping  the  observed  directions  of  the  apparent 
paths  of  shooting-stars  was  the  real  key  to  the  solution  of  the 
problem  presented  by  their  nightly  flights,  and  that  the  question 
of  the  possible  connection  of  fire-balls  and  aerolites,  or  large 
stony  masses,  with  such  showers — and  accordingly,  it  might  be, 
in  certain  cases,  with  comets — depended  for  its  solution  on  ac- 
curate observations  of  these  meteors,  recommended  the  study  as 
an  attractive  one,  and  gave  a  series  of  directions  for  following 
it  up. 

A  committee  was  appointed  at  the  Aberdeen  meeting  of  the 
British  Association  in  1859  to  make  observations,  by  means  of  a 
balloon,  in  the  higher  regions  of  the  atmosphere.  Nothing  was 
done  for  two  years,  for  want  of  a  balloon  and  an  observer.  The 
committee  was  reappointed  at  the  Manchester  meeting  in  1861 ;  a 
balloon  was  contracted  for  with  Mr.  Coxwell,  an  expert  aeronaut, 
and  Mr.  Glaisher,  the  most  active  member  of  the  committee,  vol- 
unteered to  go  up  with  him  and  make  the  observations.  Twenty- 
eight  ascents  were  made  from  Wolverhampton,  the  Crystal  Pal- 
ace, and  other  places  not  far  from  London,  between  the  17th  of 
July,  1862,  and  the  26th  of  May,  1866,  of  which  seven  were  made 
into  extraordinarily  high  regions,  from  22,884  feet  to  37,000  feet, 
or  seven  miles.  In  all  these  ascents,  Mr.  Glaisher  remarks,  in  the 
introduction  to  "  Travels  in  the  Air,"  "  I  used  the  balloon  as  I 
found  it.  The  desire  which  influenced  me  was  to  ascend  to  the 
higher  regions  and  travel  by  its  means  in  furtherance  of  a  better 
knowledge  of  atmospheric  phenomena;  neither  its  management 
nor  its  improvement  formed  a  part  of  my  plan." 

The  first  ascent  was  marked  by  meeting  a  warm  current  at  a 
great  elevation.  Clouds  were  entered  at  4,000  feet,  which  proved 
to  be  also  4,000  feet  thick.  The  temperature  at  starting  being 
59°  Fahr.,  fell  to  45°  at  4,000  feet,  and  to  26°  at  10,000  feet,  from 
which  it  remained  stationary  up  to  13,000  feet.  Then  it  rose  to 
31°  at  15,500  feet,  and  42°  at  19,500  feet,  after  which  it  fell  rapidly 
to  16°  at  26,000  feet. 

In  the  ascent  of  September  1, 1862,  the  curious  phenomenon  was 
observed  of  the  formation  of  clouds  along  the  course  of  the 
Thames  from  the  Nore  to  Richmond.  The  clouds  followed  the 
river  in  its  courso  through  all  its  windings,  not  departing  from  it 


SKETCH   OF  JAMES   GLAISHER,  F.  R.  S.  549 

on  either  side.  It  being  abont  the  time  of  high  water,  the  forma- 
tion was  supposed  to  be  the  effect  of  the  warm  current  coming  np 
from  the  sea. 

On  the  5th  of  September,  1862,  the  aeronauts  reached  the 
height,  which  has  never  been  surpassed  by  man,  of  37,000  feet,  or 
seven  miles.  Mr.  Glaisher  thus  described  his  experiences  after 
making  his  observations  at  29,000  feet :  "  Shortly  afterward,  I  laid 
my  arm  upon  the  table,  possessed  of  its  full  vigor,  and,  on  being 
desirous  of  using  it,  I  found  it  powerless — it  must  have  lost  its 
power  momentarily.  I  tried  to  move  the  other  arm,  and  found  it 
powerless  also.  I  then  tried  to  shake  myself,  and  succeeded  in 
shaking  my  body.  I  seemed  to  have  no  limbs.  I  then  looked  at 
the  barometer,  and  while  doing  so  my  head  fell  over  my  left 
shoulder.  I  struggled  and  shook  my  body  again,  but  could  not 
move  my  arms.  I  got  my  head  upright,  but  for  an  instant  only, 
when  it  fell  on  my  right  shoulder,  and  then  I  fell  backward,  my 
back  resting  against  the  side  of  the  car  and  my  head  on  its  edge ; 
in  this  position  my  eyes  were  directed  toward  Mr.  Coxwell  in  the 
ring.  When  I  shook  my  body  I  seemed  to  have  full  power  over 
the  muscles  of  the  back,  and  considerable  power  over  those  of  the 
neck,  but  none  over  either  my  arms  or  my  legs ;  now,  in  fact,  I 
seemed  to  have  none.  As  in  the  case  of  the  arms,  all  muscular 
power  was  lost  in  an  instant  from  my  back  and  neck.  I  dimly 
saw  Mr.  Coxwell  in  the  ring,  and  endeavored  to  speak,  but  could 
not ;  when,  in  an  instant,  intense  black  darkness  came ;  the  optic 
nerve  finally  lost  power  suddenly.  I  was  still  conscious,  with  as 
active  a  brain  as  at  the  present  moment  while  writing  this.  I 
thought  I  had  been  seized  with  asphyxia,  and  that  I  should  expe- 
rience no  more,  as  death  would  come  unless  we  speedily  de- 
scended ;  other  thoughts  were  entering  my  mind,  when  I  suddenly 
become  unconscious  as  in  going  to  sleep.  I  can  not  tell  anything 
of  the  sense  of  hearing ;  the  perfect  stillness  and  silence  of  the 
regions  six  miles  from  the  earth  (and  at  this  time  we  were 
between  six  and  seven  miles  high)  is  such  that  no  sound  reaches 
the  ear."  During  this  time  Mr.  Coxwell  was  in  the  ring  above 
the  car,  trying  to  open  the  valve.  He  also  lost  the  use  of  his 
hands,  and  was  obliged  to  seize  the  cord  with  his  teeth  and  pull 
it  by  dipping  his  head.  Consciousness  returned  gradually  to  Mr. 
Glaisher,  and  no  inconvenience  followed  the  insensibility ;  and 
when  the  party  had  landed,  no  conveyance  being  available,  they 
were  obliged  to  walk  several  miles. 

In  the  ascent  of  June  26, 1863,  the  party  passed  through  layer 
above  layer  of  clouds  to  the  height  of  four  miles ;  in  the  descent, 
they  passed  through  a  fall  of  rain,  and  below  it  a  snow-storm,  the 
flakes  of  which  were  composed  of  spiculse  of  ice  and  innumer- 
able snow-crystals.     On  reaching  the  ground  the  atmosphere  was 


55o  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

thick,  misty,  and  murky,  and  the  afternoon  cold,  raw,  and  disa- 
greeable for  a  summer's  day. 

The  observations  made  during  night  ascensions,  or  those  which 
were  continued  into  the  night,  on  temperatures  at  different  heights, 
gave  results  different  from  the  theories  previously  held  on  the 
subject.  An  increase  of  the  temperature  with  the  height  was 
noticed  after  sunset.  The  rate  of  decline  of  temperature  with  ele- 
vation when  near  the  earth  was  subject  to  variation  as  the  sky 
was  clear  or  cloudy.  From  an  elevation  of  three  miles  cirrus 
clouds  were  seen  apparently  as  far  above  the  observers  as  they 
seem  when  viewed  from  the  earth,  and  that  under  such  conditions 
that  it  was  hard  to  believe  that  their  presence  was  due  to  moist- 
ure. The  audibility  of  sounds  from  the  earth  depended  consider- 
ably on  the  amount  of  moisture  in  the  air.  The  noise  of  a  railway 
train  could  be  heard  in  clouds  at  four  miles  high,  but  not  when 
the  clouds  were  far  below.  The  discharge  of  a  gun  was  heard  at 
10,000  feet ;  the  barking  of  a  dog  at  two  miles ;  but  the  shouting 
of  a  multitude  at  not  more  than  4,000  feet.  Many  differences  in 
the  results  of  observations  were  supposed  to  depend  upon  atmos- 
pheric conditions,  while  these  vary  with  the  time  of  day  and  the 
season  of  the  year ;  so  that  a  great  many  observations  would  be 
required  to  determine  the  true  laws.  Having  followed  up  one  of 
the  observations  recorded  above  with  a  captive  balloon  and  by 
other  means,  Mr.  Glaisher  declared  to  the  Meteorological  Society, 
in  1870,  that  the  theory  that  the  temperature  is  always  lower  at 
higher  elevations  is  not  true. 

Some  noteworthy  mental  impressions  are  recorded  in  Mr. 
Glaisher's  descriptions  of  his  ascents.  Writing  of  his  feelings 
at  the  height  of  23,000  feet,  and  under  the  imminent  necessity 
of  descending  at  once,  he  was  surprised  "at  the  extraordinary 
power  which  a  situation  like  this  calls  forth,  when  it  is  felt 
that  a  few  moments  only  can  be  devoted  to  noting  down  all  ap- 
pearances and  all  circumstances  at  these  extreme  positions ;  and 
if  not  so  rapidly  gleaned  they  are  lost  forever.  In  such  situa- 
tions every  appearance  of  the  most  trivial  kind  is  noticed :  the 
eye  seems  to  become  keener,  the  brain  more  active,  and  every 
sense  increased  in  power  to  meet  the  necessities  of  the  case ;  and 
afterward,  when  time  has  elapsed,  it  is  wonderful  how  distinctly 
at  any  moment  scenes  so  witnessed  can  be  recalled  and  made  to 
reappear  mentally  in  all  their  details  so  vividly  that,  had  I  the 
power  of  the  painter,  I  could  reproduce  them  visibly  to  the  eye 
upon  the  canvas."  A  fine  description,  of  which  we  can  quote  only 
a  part,  is  given  of  the  scenery  of  the  upper  air :  "  Above  the  clouds 
the  balloon  occupies  the  center  of  a  vast,  hollow  sphere,  the  lower 
portion  of  which  is  generally  cut  off  by  a  horizontal  plane.  This 
section  is  in  appearance  a  vast  continent,  often  without  intervals 


SKETCH   OF  JAMES   GLAISHER,  F.R.S.  551 

or  breaks,  and  separating  us  completely  from  the  earth.  No  iso- 
lated clouds  hover  above  this  plane.  We  seem  to  be  citizens  of 
the  sky,  separated  from  the  earth  by  a  barrier  which  seems  im- 
passable. We  are  free  from  all  apprehension  such  as  may  exist 
when  nothing  separates  us  from  the  earth.  We  can  suppose  the 
laws  of  gravitation  are  for  a  time  suspended,  and,  in  the  upper 
world  to  which  we  seem  now  to  belong,  the  silence  and  quiet  are 
so  intense  that  peace  and  calm  seem  to  reign  alone."  The  descrip- 
tions of  sky  and  cloud  scenes  that  follow  are  very  picturesque. 

Mr.  Glaisher  was  elected  a  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society  in  1849. 
On  the  death  of  Lord  Chief -Baron  Sir  F.  Pollock,  about  1870, 
he  became  the  third  President  of  the  Photographic  Society  of 
Great  Britain,  an  office  which  he  still  holds.  This  society  pre- 
sented to  him  in  1887  a  marble  bust  of  himself,  executed  under 
its  direction  by  the  sculptor  Albert  Toft.  He  was  a  juror  in  the 
class  of  scientific  and  philosophical  instruments  at  the  Great 
Exhibitions  of  1851  and  1863,  and  was  the  reporter  of  the  class 
in  1851. 

Mr.  Glaisher  is  the  author  of  more  than  one  hundred  books 
and  papers  relating  to  astronomy,  meteorology,  and  the  theory 
of  numbers.  Some  of  these  have  already  been  mentioned.  Among 
the  others  are  many  papers  in  the  "  Proceedings  of  the  British 
Association "  relating  to  his  balloon  ascensions  and  the  subjects 
of  his  special  investigations.  His  best-known  work  is  "  Travels 
in  the  Air,"  of  which  he  is  joint  author,  which  is  composed  of  the 
narratives  by  himself  of  his  own  balloon  voyages  and  observa- 
tions, and  accounts  by  M.  Gaston  Tissandier  and  M.  de  Fonvielle 
of  their  experiments  in  the  same  line.  He  edited  and  compressed 
the  English  version  of  Camille  Flammarion's  "  Atmosphere,"  per- 
forming, in  addition  to  the  regular  labor  of  such  a  task,  that  of 
reducing  the  notations  of  the  French  system  to  their  equivalents 
in  English  units,  and  replacing  French  observations  and  data 
with  English  corresponding  ones.  In  1877  he  translated  and 
edited  Amede'e  Guillemin's  "  World  of  Comets."  After  he  retired 
from  the  Royal  Observatory  he  devoted  himself  to  the  completion 
of  the  factor  tables,  begun  by  Burckhardt  in  1814  and  continued 
by  Dace  in  1862-'65;  Burckhardt  published  the  first  three  mill- 
ions, and  Dace  the  seventh,  eighth,  and  ninth  millions.  The  three 
intervening  millions  have  been  calculated  by  Mr.  Glaisher  and 
published,  with  a  full  enumeration  relating  to  the  whole  nine 
millions,  in  three  quarto  volumes.  Since  1880  Mr.  Glaisher  has 
been  chairman  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Palestine  Ex- 
ploration Fund. 


552 


THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


GRANT  ALLEN  ON  THE  WOMAN  QUES- 
TION. 
Editor  Popular  Science  Monthly  : 

IT  is  gratifying  to  know  that  so  able  an 
advocate  as  Mr.  Grant  Allen  has  come 
forward  to  champion  the  cause  of  the  real 
emancipation  of  woman,  in  claiming  for  her 
the  right  to  be  exempt  from  the  burden  of 
her  own  support.  To  meet  with  success  as 
a  bread-winner  in  these  days  of  severe  com- 
petition requires  the  best  energies  of  the 
best  years  of  life — just  the  time  when  a 
mother  should  be  giving  the  best  energies  of 
life  to  the  care  of  her  children.  The  differ- 
ence between  a  well-mothered  child  and  an 
ill-mothered  one,  in  morals,  conduct,  intelli- 
gence, and  teachableness,  is  so  great  as  to 
warrant  the  assertion  that,  next  to  heredity, 
a  child's  home  training  is  the  most  important 
factor  in  the  evolution  of  its  character.  Na- 
ture has  ordained  that  for  this  training  it 
shall  look  to  the  mother,  and  hence  it  is  a 
self-evident  fact  that  her  own  education 
should  be  such  as  will  best  fit  her  for  the 
task.  It  is  about  what  constitutes  the 
proper  training  to  this  end  that  opinions 
differ.  The  average  man  thinks  that  to  know 
how  to  make  pies  and  sew  on  buttons  is 
enough,  while  we  "  advanced"  women  believe 
that  a  "wise"  and  "  sane  "  mother  should  be 
able  to  meet  the  moral  and  intellectual  re- 
quirements of  her  children  as  well  as  admin- 
ister to  their  physical  wants.  We  believe 
that  she  should  know  enough  of  science  to 
give  reasonable  answers  to  her  children  when 
they  question  her  about  the  phenomena  of 
nature,  and  not  to  object  to  the  study  of  bot- 
any as  improper  for  girls  (which  I  heard  a 
model  mother  of  the  good  old  school  do,  the 
other  day)  because  it  talks  about  the  ova- 
ries !  We  believe  that  her  literary  taste 
should  be  sufficiently  cultivated  for  her  to 
take  pleasure  in  reading  something  above 
the  inane  fiction  which  constitutes  the  chief 
intellectual  pabulum  of  the  average  woman 
of  to-day;  and  even  if  she  should  have  a 
taste  for  anything  so  dreadful  as  the  higher 
mathematics,  we  see  no  great  harm  in  her 
indulging  it,  if  it  gives  her  pleasure  to  do  so ; 
the  worst  that  can  possibly  result  being  to 
give  her  children  inherited  aptitudes  in  the 
same  direction.  Indeed,  we  see  no  danger 
to  the  established  order  of  the  universe  in 
her  cultivating  intellectual  tastes  simply  for 
her  own  pleasure,  if  she  chooses.  It  is  only 
when  a  woman  has  to  add  the  drudgery  of 
bread-winning  to  the  natural  duties  of  her 
sex  that  she  need  be  condemned  to  intellect- 
ual atrophy. 

In  dealing  with  this  part  of  the  subject, 
Mr.  Grant  Allen  seems  to  have  lost  hisusual 


clear-headedness  when  he  mistakes  the  aim 
of  "  the  woman's  movement  "  for  an  "  en- 
deavor to  put  upon  the  shoulders  of  women, 
as  a  glory  and  a  privilege,  the  burden  of 
their  own  support."  Now,  I  feel  safe  in 
affirming  that  there  is  not  one  among  us, 
even  of  the  most  "advanced,"  who  would 
not  gladly  welcome  Mr.  Allen's  ideal  civiliza- 
tion, in  which  all  the  labor  should  be  done 
by  men — and  we  won't  even  grudge  them 
the  cooking  and  the  washing,  which  I  can 
assure  them  is  labor  just  as  real  as  buying 
cotton  futures  or  watering  railroad  stocks. 
The  "  woman's  movement  "  does  not  aim  to 
force  upon  women  the  burden  of  their  own 
support,  but  merely  to  fit  them,  when  that 
burden  is  forced  upon  them,  to  bear  it  suc- 
cessfully. Recognizing,  as  we  do,  the  fact 
that,  with  our  advancing  civilization,  a  large 
and  ever-increasing  proportion  of  women 
must  be  self-supporting,  we  believe  it  is  un- 
just and  cruel  that  they  should  have  to  en- 
gage in  the  struggle  handicapped  by  igno- 
rance, hampered  by  conventional  prejudices, 
and  oppressed  by  political  disabilities  that 
deny  us  a  vote  even  on  the  whisky  question 
— a  subject  of  such  vital  importance  to  us. 
In  disposing  of  a  large  proportion  of  the 
700,000  superfluous  females  of  the  United 
Kingdom  as  "infants,  lunatics,  sisters  of 
charity,  unfortunates,  and  ladies  of  eighty," 
Mr.  Allen  "  explains  "  his  statistics  on  one 
side  only,  and  forgets  to  offset  his  incapa- 
bles  by  at  least  an  equal  proportion  of  in- 
fants, lunatics,  priests,  octogenarians,  con- 
victs, drunkards,  and  other  ineligibles  of  the 
opposite  sex,  to  say  nothing  of  that  vast 
mass  of  incompetents  who  must  rank  away 
down  below  zero  as  husbands,  and  have  to 
be  supported  by  their  wives  or  sisters.  The 
existence  of  these  negative  quantities  on  the 
other  side  is  one  of  the  "  deplorable  acci- 
dents "  that  men  are  prone  to  overlook  in 
considering  this  question,  but  it  is  one  which 
enlarges  so  enormously  the  number  of  neces- 
sarily self-supporting  women  as  to  make  it 
an  open  question  whether  they  do  not  con- 
stitute a  majority  of  the  sex  instead  of  a 
minority.  Now,  I  am  not  arguing  that  this 
is  right,  but  it  is  a  deplorable  fact  all  the 
sauie~;  and  since  we  can  not  force  the  wicked 
men  to  support  us,  the  bravest  and  strong- 
est of  us  (instead  of  sitting  down  and  crying 
about  it)  are  claiming  the  modest  right  to  at 
least  support  ourselves — and  too  often  the 
men  who  ought  to  be  supporting  us  into  the 
bargain,  or  the  children  whose  bread  they 
are  spending  for  whisky.  And  while  we  are 
thus  relieving  society  of  its  "  potential " 
paupers,  can  the  witty  philosopher  think  of 
no  better  return  than  to  consign  us,  with  a 
stroke  of  his  graceful   pen,  to  everlasting 


COBRESP  ONDENCE. 


553 


confusion  as  mere  paltry  accidents  ?     Oh  fie, 
Mr.  Grant  Alien ! 

One  more  word,  as  to  the  supposed  effect 
of  the  higher  education  in  deterring  girls 
from  marriage.  I  have  been  engaged  in  dis- 
pensing the  higher  education  to  girls  for  a 
good  many  years,  and  have  yet  to  meet  the 
first  one  who  was  the  least  averse  to  matri- 
mony ;  on  the  contrary,  to  quote  from  a 
composition  on  "  Girls,"  written  by  a  little 
friend  of  mine  not  long  ago,  "  I  think  it  is 
the  nature  of  girls  to  have  sweethearts, 
whether  they  are  little  or  whether  they  are 
big." 

The  only  influence  that  education  can 
have  in  "  cornering  "  the  matrimonial  mar- 
ket is  by  making  girls  more  fastidious,  and 
this  is  not  likely  to  have  any  practical  effect 
except  in  the  case  of  a  few  ugly  girls. 
While  I  do  not  doubt  that  all  women  are  just 
as  willing  to  look  pretty  as  they  are  to  get 
married,  the  "  factors  of  organic  evolution," 
which  have  taken  the  place  of  our  old-fash- 
ioned "  providence,"  have  not  improved  at 
all  upon  its  methods,  but  have  dealt  so  un- 
fairly with  a  large  proportion  of  the  sex 
that,  when  told  by  Mr.  Grant  Allen  that  their 
first  business  is  to  look  pretty,  they  feel  very 
much  as  that  philosopher  probably  does  when 
blandly  requested  by  the  photographer  to 
"  assume  a  pleasant  expression." 

Now,  as  marriage  means  survival  of  the 
prettiest,  rather  than  survival  of  the  fittest 
(unless  we  take  a  purely  masculine  view  of 
the  case  and  assume  that  the  prettiest  are  the 
fittest),  all  the  matrimonial  plums  fall  into 
the  laps  of  the  pretty  girls,  and  the  ugly 
ones  have  no  chance  at  all  but  to  take  every- 
body's leavings.  Of  course,  I  know  it  is 
very  unreasonable  for  an  ugly  girl  to  ask  for 
any  of  the  plums  out  of  life's  pudding;  but 
then,  women  will  be  unreasonable,  to  the 
end  of  time — that  is  one  of  the  factors  of 
the  woman  question  with  which  we  shall 
always  have  to  reckon.  Moreover,  the  ugly 
girl  sometimes  has  the  presumption  to  be 
exceedingly  clever,  and  feels  that  she  can  do 
much  better  for  herself  than  marry  a  scrub- 
by little  clerk  on  forty  dollars  a  month. 
Under  the  old  regime,  when  marriage  was 
the  only  possible  solution  for  a  woman  of 
the  problem  of  life,  she  had  no  choice  but 
to  take  any  man  she  could  get;  but  now 
she  naturally  declines  to  give  up  a  hundred- 
dollar  salary  for  a  fifty-dollar  man.  I  do 
not  pretend  to  decide  the  question  whether 
the  general  good  does  not  demand  that 
she  should  still  be  forced  to  sacrifice  her- 
self in  a  distasteful  marriage,  rather  than 
remain  single  to  swell  the  number  of  "  de- 
plorable accidents  "  that  so  weigh  upon 
Mr.  Grant  Allen's  mind.  From  a  human 
point  of  view  it  is  undoubtedly  for  the  gen- 
eral good  that  lobsters  should  be  boiled, 
but  we  shall  hardly  get  the  lobster  to  look  at 
it  in  that  light.  E.  F.  Andrews. 

Wesleyan  College,  Macon,  Ga., 

December  9, 1SS9. 


DECADENCE  OF   FAKMING  IN   ENGLAND. 
Editor  Popular  Science  Monthly  : 

I  was  very  much  interested  in  "  The  De- 
cadence of  Farming,"  which  you  published 
in  November  from  the  pen  of  Joel  Benton. 
The  picture  which  he  draws  of  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  farming  interest,  both  East  and 
West,  is  a  vivid  one,  and  deserves  the  stud- 
ied consideration  of  economists.  I  do  not 
now  say  that  the  statements  of  facts  are  over- 
drawn, that  the  conclusions  drawn  are  illogi- 
cal and  strained,  nor  that  the  condition  of 
affairs,  as  depicted,  can  be  logically  and 
naturally  explained  in  antagonism  to  Mr. 
Benton's  conclusions ;  nor  do  I  stop  to  point 
out,  now,  the  facts  which  his  article  con- 
tains, which,  if  reasonably  interpreted,  will 
nullify  his  conclusions.  My  purpose  in 
this  letter  is  to  present  another  picture,  not 
so  artistically  drawn,  it  may  be,  but  as  true 
to  life,  I  think,  as  Mr.  Benton's  picture. 

The  daily  papers  of  November  30,  18*78, 
contained  a  news-telegram  from  London, 
dated  the  29th.  After  noticing  the  condi- 
tion of  trade,  the  closing  of  factories,  and 
the  reduction  of  wages,  it  continued : 
"  Kentish  hop-growers  say,  '  As  the  general 
depression  of  agriculture  and  commerce  is 
largely  caused  by  the  protective  tariffs  of 
other  countries,  the  duties  on  foreign  pro- 
ductions should  be  revived.'  " 

I  do  not  know  the  political  views  of  the 
reporter  of  that  dispatch;  but  the  Associ- 
ated Press  reports  are  presumed  to  be  non- 
partisan. 

The  New  York  correspondent  of  the  Cin- 
cinnati "  Enquirer,"  under  date  of  Decem- 
ber 12,  1878,  sends  to  his  paper  the  report 
of  an  interview  with  Mr.  Armour,  the  noted 
dealer  and  packer  of  meats,  of  Chicago,  who 
had  just  returned  from  an  extended  tour 
in  Great  Britain.  In  the  reported  interview 
Mr.  Armour  said  :  "  The  manufacturers  are 
running  behind,  the  tenants  can  not  pay 
their  rents,  real  estate  has  shrunk  in  value 
and  can  not  be  sold  at  any  price.  .  .  .  The 
shrinkage  is  awful.  .  .  .  The  hard  times,"  he 
said,  "  will  end  in  a  dreadful  depreciation 
of  real  estate." 

I  do  not  know  the  politics  of  Mr.  Ar- 
mour ;  the  "  Enquirer  "  represents  the  theory 
of  "  free  trade." 

The  Chicago  "  Tribune  "  of  July  8,  1879, 
reprinted  from  the  New  York  "  Herald  "  an 
editorial  in  regard  to  English  affairs,  in 
which  the  "Herald"  said,  "The  agricult- 
ural depression  in  Great  Britain  has  been 
felt  for  a  long  time  very  severely  by  the  ten- 
ant farmers."  The  "  Herald  ""then  quoted 
from  the  "  Pall  Mall  Gazette  "  that  "  the 
prevalent  belief  as  to  the  severity  of  the 
depression  existing  in  English  agriculture 
will  be  confirmed  by  figures  recently  pro- 
duced before  the  Devizes  Union  Assessment 
Committee." 

The  three  papers  mentioned  in  this  para- 
graph represent  free-trade  ideas. 


554 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


The  London  "  Telegraph,"  of  March  26, 
1881,  as  cited  by  several  American  journals, 
said  that,  according  to  a  correspondent  of  a 
provincial  contemporary,  "  the  depression  in 
the  agricultural  districts  is  fully  as  great  as 
it  was  represented  by  many  of  the  speakers 
in  the  debate  in  the  House  of  Commons  on 
Wednesday.  .  .  .  Thousands  of  acres,"  it 
said,  "  are  lying  unproductive,  because 
without  tenants,  in  various  parts  of  Eng- 
land ;  and  a  clergyman,  writing  from  Not- 
tinghamshire, gives  a  doleful  account  of 
affairs  in  that  district.  There  seems,  he 
says,  to  be  a  better  state  of  things  in 
towns  than  in  the  country.  Here  general 
bankruptcy  seems  imminent.  Hundreds  of 
farms  are  to  be  let  and  few  farmers  seem 
to  have  any  capital  left  to  take  them." 
No  reform  of  more  urgent  interest  could 
possibly  be  taken  in  hand  by  any  ministry 
than  the  raising  of  British  agriculture  from 
its  present  drooping  condition. 

Under  date  of  January  10, 1881,  consular 
clerk  Charles  F.  Thirion,  of  Liverpool,  re- 
ported to  the  State  Department  some  facts 
concerning  English  agriculture.  The  com- 
parisons, when  not  stated  otherwise,  are 
between  1870  and  1879.  The  report  shows 
a  decrease  of  arable  area,  33  per  cent ;  of 
corn  land,  3'1  per  cent;  of  wheat  land,  163 
per  cent ;  of  barley  land,  138  per  cent ; 
of  oat  land,  4-4  per  cent ;  a  comparison  of 
1879  with  1874  shows  a  decrease  in  the 
number  of  sheep  of  1,414,000,  a  little  more 
than  7  per  cent. 

The   Chicago   "Tribune"  of   June    21, 

1881,  reprinted  from  the  New  York  "  Trib- 
une "  an  article  upon  English  estates.  In 
that  article  the  "  Saturday  Review "  is 
quoted  as  saying,  "A  state  of  things  has 
undoubtedly  existed  for  some  time,  and  still 
exists,  which  justly  awakens  great  anxiety 
for  the  future  of  the  country,  and  profound 
sympathy  for  the  sufferers.  ".  .  .  The  adver- 
tisements in  the  London  '  Times  '  bear  elo- 
quent testimony  to  this  state  of  things. 
Columns  are  filled  with  notices  of  old  coun- 
try residences,  broad  demesnes,  wooded 
parks,  and  snug  country-houses  to  be  sold. 

.  .  .  Ninety-five  per  cent  of  the  small  es- 
tates are  mortgaged,  often  for  one  third  or 
two  thirds  of  their  value." 

The  New  York  "  Tribune "  represents 
protective  ideas  the  other  two  papers  are 
free-traders. 

A  telegram  from  "Washington  to  the  St. 
Louis  "  Globe-Democrat,"  dated  August  1, 

1882,  stated  that  a  communication  had  been 
received  at  the  State  Department  from  the 
consul  at  Liege.  As  reported  by  the  tele- 
gram, that  communication  contained  this 
summary :  "  In  one  year,  the  falling  off  in 
English  agriculture  was  42  per  cent ;  for 
six  consecutive  years  it  was  20  per  cent." 

The  "  Globe-Democrat  "  is  recognized  as 
a  protective  organ  of  a  very  conservative  type. 

The  Chicago  "  Inter-Ocean  "  (protec- 
tion) of   September  27,  1889,  reprints  this 


excerpt  from  the  London  "  World  " :  "  An 
example  of  the  ruinous  depreciation  of  agri- 
cultural land  in  Lincolnshire  was  recently 
afforded  when  a  farm  with  houses  and 
buildings,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Alford, 
was  offered  for  sale,  and  the  highest  bid  was 
£2,100,  although  the  property  cost  £6,700 
eighteen  years  ago,  and  a  considerable  sum 
has  since  been  expended  in  improvements." 
The  same  Chicago  journal  quotes  from  the 
London  "  Times  "  that  "  fifty  per  cent  of  the 
dock  laborers,  including  perhaps  the  perma- 
nent men,  are  agricultural  laborers  in  point 
of  origin." 

The  startling  likeness  of  the  two  pictures 
must  be  remarked.  The  one  is  fuller, 
decked  off  with  more  rhetoric,  than  the 
other,  but  the  essential  features  are  the 
same :  the  heavy  mortgages ;  the  deprecia- 
tion in  value  to  one  third  of  the  cost;  la- 
borers abandoning  the  farms  for  town  and 
city ;  the  abandoned  (at  least  uncultivated) 
lands ;  unprofitable  farming ;  decrease  in 
productions  and  of  sheep.  I  have  given  the 
character  of  my  witnesses,  when  known.  If 
Mr.  Benton  had  admitted  that  his  principal 
witness  on  the  wool  question,  Hon.  John  E. 
Russell,  was  a  free-trader  and  interested  in 
free  wool  (which  I  understand  to  be  facts), 
the  value  of  his  "  opinion  "  would  be  heav- 
ily discounted.  The  pertinent  question  that 
must  arise  here  is,  If  the  protective  tariff 
of  the  United  States  has  destroyed  the 
agricultural  interests  of  this  nation,  did  the 
free-trade  policy  of  Great  Britain  cause  the 
great  depression  in  the  agriculture  of  that 
nation  ?  In  other  words,  does  agriculture 
prosper  any  more  under  free  trade  than 
under  protection  ?  M.  B.  C.  True. 

Edgab,  Neb.,  December  1,  1SS9. 


THE  TEST  OF  INSANITY. 
Editor  Popular  Science  Monthly : 

Some  parts  of  the  paper  by  Dr.  Sir  James 
Crichton-Browne,  in  the  November  number 
of  your  journal,  are  open  to  serious  criti- 
cism. I  refer  especially  to  his  remarks  "on 
the  insufficiency  of  the  definition  or  test  of 
insanity  laid  down  by  British  and  Ameri- 
can courts,  and  on  an  amended  test  which 
would  commend  itself  to  medical  experi- 
ence." 

It  is  admitted  by  the  learned  writer  that 
the  accepted  legal  test — a  knowledge  of  right 
and  wrong  in  reference  to  the  criminal  act — 
is  satisfactory  in  most  cases ;  but  he  holds 
that  there  are  certain  morbid  states  of  the 
emotions  and  will  which  constitute  insanity, 
although  connected  with  a  sound  intel- 
lect. Now,  the  vast  majority  of  medical 
men  with  experience  of  the  insane  have  no 
knowledge  of  such  cases.  For  myself,  I 
have  never  seen  a  case  of  this  kind  in  the 
examination  of  several  thousand  lunatics, 
and  I  have  never  heard  of  any  mark  by 
which  these  can  be  distinguished  from  cases 
of   vice   and   crime.     Dr.  Crichton-Browne 


EDITOR'S   TABLE. 


555 


commends  the  test  of  Lord  Bramwell,  con- 
tained in  the  questions  :  "  Could  he  help  it  ? 
Was  the  lunatic  free  to  choose,  or  under  the 
duress  of  disease  ?  "  And  there  is  no  doubt 
that  the  power  of  self-control  is  an  essential 
element  in  the  question  of  responsibility. 
We  may  even  admit  that  "  impairment  of 
will  or  loss  of  self-control,  more  or  less  pro- 
nounced, is  the  first,  last,  and  universal  ele- 
ment in  insanity."  But  impairment  of  will 
is  found  in  all  human  beings,  the  sane  and 
the  insane.  A  heathen  poet  has  confessed: 
"  Video  meliora  probogue,  deteriora  sequor." 
[I  perceive  the  better  things,  and  approve 
them;  I  follow  the  worse.]  And  a  sacred 
writer  declares  :  "  The  good  that  I  would,  I 
do  not ;  but  the  evil  which  I  would  not,  that 
I  do."  Loss  of  self-control,  then,  is  not  at 
all  peculiar  to  insanity,  and  the  degree  of 
this  loss  has  no  measure  in  medical  science. 
Plainly,  the  proposed  test  is  quite  without 
value,  and,  indeed,  is  no  test  at  all. 

Again,  it  is  proposed  to  make  "  a  con- 
dition of  insanity  "  the  test  of  responsibility. 
But  the  term  insanity  is  so  extremely  vague 
and  indefinite,  even  a3  used  by  medical  men 
and  experts,  that  it  is  worthless  for  such  a 
purpose.  It  is  applied  to  every  kind  and 
degree  of  chronic  mental  disorder,  without 
reference  to  the  element  of  responsibility. 
About  fifty  years  ago  a  law  was  enacted  by 
the  Legislature  of  New  York  in  these  words  : 
"  No  act  done  by  a  person  in  a  state  of  in- 
sanity can  be  punished  as  an  offense."  But 
Chief-Judge  Beardsley  (in  the  Freeman  case, 
4  Denio,  p.  27)  held  that  the  natural  con- 
struction of  this  act  "  would  indeed  be  a 
mighty  change  in  the  law,  and  afford  abso- 
lute impunity  to  every  person  in  an  insane 
state."  He  refused,  therefore,  so  to  con- 
strue it,  and  held  to  the  principle  of  the  Eng- 
lish law,  which  has  ever  since  been  adhered 
to  by  our  courts. 


It  is  plain,  indeed,  that  insanity  may  ex- 
ist in  a  degree  calling  for  medical  treatment, 
and  even  for  confinement  in  an  asylum, 
without  bringing  with  it  irresponsibility  for 
crime.  In  the  case  of  Speirs,  a  patient  set 
fire  to  the  Utica  Asylum  to  revenge  a  wrong 
done  him  by  the  authorities.  The  act  was 
found  to  be  a  sane  one,  and  the  lunatic 
was  sentenced  to  a  long  term  in  the  State 
prison.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  in  most  asy- 
lums there  will  be  found  at  least  ten  per 
cent  whose  degree  of  insanity  is  less  than 
that  of  the  notorious  Guiteau.  But  the  jury 
were  able,  under  the  common-law  test,  to 
find  that  Guiteau's  motive  was  a  vicious  one, 
and  that  he  had  the  power  to  refrain  from 
his  crime. 

So  indefinite,  however,  is  the  line  between 
sanity  and  insanity,  and  so  hard  to  be  drawn 
in  cases  made  still  more  difficult  by  passion 
and  prejudice,  that  the  plan  of  a  permanent 
commission,  of  lawyers  and  physicians,  to 
visit  those  who  have  escaped  punishment  on 
the  ground  of  insanity,  and  report,  from  time 
to  time,  on  their  condition,  should  be  com- 
mended to  our  Legislature.  In  this  way, 
perhaps,  some  light  may  be  thrown  on  the 
question  of  a  legal  test  of  insanity,  and  upon 
the  true  value  of  expert  evidence.  At  pres- 
ent, in  view  of  the  law  which  forbids  a  phy- 
sician to  disclose  on  the  witness-stand  any 
information  acquired  by  him  in  a  profes- 
sional capacity,  thus  often  withholding  facts 
of  the  utmost  importance,  the  necessity  of 
expert  testimony  in  lunacy  cases  must  be 
admitted.  It  remains,  however,  to  define 
more  exactly  who  are  experts,  by  whom  they 
shall  be  called,  and  what  questions  they 
shall  answer.  Upon  these  points,  also,  the 
suggestions  of  Dr.  Crichton-Browne  are  most 
practical  and  valuable. 

L.  A.  Tocrteixot,  M.  D. 
Utica,  N.  T.,  November  30,  18S9. 


EDITOR'S  TABLE. 


USEFUL  IGNORANCE. 

MR.  HERBERT  SPENCER,  in  a 
well-known  essay,  has  discussed 
the  question,  "  What  knowledge  is  of 
most  worth  ?  "  It  is  perhaps  time  to 
begin  the  discussion  of  the  question, 
"What  ignorance  is  of  most  value?" 
There  is  a  story  told  of  the  great  phi- 
losopher whom  we  have  just  named 
that,  on  one  occasion,  in  reply  to  a 
question  upon  some  rather  minute  point 
of  history  or  archaeology,  he  expressed 
a  devout  thankfulness  that  he  knew 
nothing  whatever  about  it.    The  capaci- 


ty of  even  the  greatest  minds  is  limit- 
ed; and  the  man  who  would  make  the 
best  use  of  his  powers  of  memory  must 
exercise  a  wise  discretion  as  to  the 
things  he  undertakes  or  tries  to  re- 
member. 

If  any  principle  in  education  ought 
to  be  clear,  it  is  that  there  should  be  no 
overcrowding  in  the  mind  of  the  pupil, 
but  that  each  portion  of  knowledge 
imparted  should  have  room  to  define 
itself,  to  assume  distinctness  and  to 
grow.  Where  there  is  overcrowding 
there  will  be  no  sense  of  order  and  no 


556 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


healthy  development  of  ideas.    All  edu- 
cators acknowledge  this,  just  as  men  in 
general  acknowledge  the  moral  law ;  but 
how  many  of  them  live  up  to  it  ?     How 
many  of  them  are  willing  to  leave  in 
their  pupils'  minds  liberal  tracts  of  ig- 
norance, acknowledged  as  such — tracts 
which  might  be  cultivated,  but  which 
are  left  fallow  simply  in  order  that  the 
mental  powers  may  not  be  overtaxed 
nor  imagination  unduly  restrained  ?   We 
venture  to  say  that  the  cases  are  rare 
in  which  an  effort  is  not  being  made  to 
cultivate,  as  it  were,  every  square  inch 
of  mental   territory,   and  call  all  the 
strength  of  the  intellect  into  exercise. 
Each  school  or  academy  must  teach  so 
many  "branches";  it  would  never  do 
for  one  to  omit  what  another  has  in 
its  curriculum ;  and  every  pupil,  if  not 
compelled,  is  urged  to  take  up  just  as 
many  subjects  as  he  or  she  can  possibly 
grapple  with.     The  general,  at  least  the 
frequent,  consequence  is  —  congestion, 
confusion,  enfeebled  memory,  impaired 
judgment,  lowered  intellectual  vitality. 
Better  far,  in  many  cases,  would  it  have 
been  if  the  child,  with  no  education  be- 
yond reading  and  writing,  had  lived  in 
a  concrete  world  and  picked  up,  gradu- 
ally, verifiable  notions  about  real  things. 
There  is  nothing  fortuitous  in  the  fact 
that  so  many  men,  eminent  in  various 
departments  of  life,  have  had  but  the 
most  meager  "  educational  advantages" 
in  their  youth.     It  would  seem  as  if  the 
one  great  "  educational  advantage  "  they 
had  was  in  getting  free  from  so-called 
education  at  a  very  early  period  and  be- 
taking themselves  to  the  school  of  act- 
ive life — a  school  that  leads  up  to  ab- 
stract truths   only  through   multiplied 
concrete   examples;  that  leaves  ample 
space  in  the  mind  for  useful  ignorance, 
and  consequently  makes  all  the  better 
provision  for  useful  knowledge. 

There  is  much  sound  philosophy  in 
regard  to  education  abroad  in  the  world 
to-day.  What  is  needed  is,  that  edu- 
cators should  be  as  wise  in  practice  as 
they  are  in  theory.     The  labor  of  the 


gardener,  every  one  knows,  consists,  to 
a  large  extent,  in  "thinning  out"  his 
crops.  If  a  similar  process  could  be 
practiced  on  the  minds  of  the  young, 
and  if  it  were  practiced,  the  evils  of  too 
copious  sowing  would  not  be  so  great; 
but,  as  the  method  is  hardly  applicable 
to  intellectual  growths,  teachers  should 
educate  themselves  up  to  the  point  of 
sowing  sparingly  in  order  that  they  may 
reap  abundantly.  The  evil  of  too  thick 
sowing  attains,  we  believe,  greater  pro- 
portions in  academies  for  young  ladies 
than  anywhere  else.  There,  nearly  ev- 
erything that  is  taught  to  boys  enters 
into  the  course  of  instruction,  while 
music  and  other  "  accomplishments," 
together  with  an  extra  language  or  two, 
are  generally  superadded.  As  if  this 
were  not  enough,  a  special  acquaint- 
ance with  the  literature,  history,  and 
institutions  of  the  ancient  Jews,  un- 
tinged,  however,  by  any  touch  of  "  mod- 
eru  criticism,"  is  frequently  also  insisted 
on.  The  effect  of  all  this  may  be  easily 
imagined — a  spindly  growth  of  rootless 
ideas,  habits  of  intellectual  indifference, 
a  medley  of  incongruous  notions  in  re- 
gard to  ill- apprehended  facts;  in  a  word, 
a  seriously  injured,  if  not  a  fatally 
ruined,  intelligence. 

The  intellectual  signs  of  the  times, 
it  should  be  remembered,  are  not  all 
favorable.  We  have  such  an  educational 
apparatus,  for  extent  and  scope  at  least, 
as  the  world  never  saw  before ;  but  the 
results — it  is  not  easy  to  be  enthusiastic 
over  the  results.  Where  is  the  quick- 
ened sense  for  evidence  that  we  might 
have  expected  to  see  ?  Where  the  se- 
riousness of  intellectual  aim?  Where 
the  refinement  of  popular  taste?  Cant 
seems  to  stalk  abroad  through  the  world 
as  potent  an  enslaver  as  ever  of  the 
minds  of  men.  Credulity  is  wide-spread. 
Superstition  still  occupies  its  strong- 
holds and  rules  over  vast  multitudes. 
Faction  controls  our  politics  and  legis- 
lation is  made  a  plaything.  We  have, 
perhaps,  expected  too  much  of  educa- 
tion in  the  past ;  but  at  least,  if  we  un- 


EDITOR'S   TABLE. 


557 


derstand  its  true  principles,  we  should 
try  to  apply  them.  One  of  the  first  of 
these  principles  is  not  to  teach  too 
much,  not  to  congest  the  mind,  not  to 
overtax  its  powers.  Our  effort  should 
be  to  whet  curiosity,  awaken  a  cer- 
tain variety  of  interests,  develop  the 
natural  powers  of  the  mind,  and  leave 
room  for  the  imagination  to  work.  It 
is  the  spontaneous  effort  of  the  mind, 
not  its  forced  labor,  that  yields  the  best 
results.  Hitherto  we  have  been  fight- 
ing ignorance  so  hard,  and  have  been  so 
afraid  of  it,  that  the  idea  of  knowledge 
in  any  degree  being  dangerous  has  sel- 
dom occurred  to  us.  But  knowledge 
may  be  as  dangerous  as  food,  if  given 
in  wrong  quantities  and  under  wrong 
conditions.  "When  we  realize  this  as 
fully  as  we  have  heretofore  realized  the 
danger  of  ignorance,  a  new  era  in  edu- 
cation will  have  dawned. 


INDIVID  UALISM. 

The  discussion  on  the  land  question 
in  the  London  "  Times,"  a  further  in- 
stallment of  which  is  given  in  our  pres- 
ent issue,  will  have,  we  may  hope,  one 
or  two  good  results.  It  will  tend  to 
produce  in  the  public  mind  a  more  vivid 
sense  of  the  difficulty  of  dealing  with 
the  land  question  on  any  abstract  prin- 
ciples, and  it  will  help,  perhaps,  to  bring 
home  the  lesson  that  social  progress  is 
more  a  matter  of  individual  improve- 
ment than  of  political  reconstruction. 
Mr.  Auberon  Herbert,  in  the  letter 
which  we  print  this  month,  calls  at- 
tention to  the  fact  that  the  whole  drift 
of  Mr.  Spencer's  philosophy  is  toward 
individualism,  and  suggests  that  the  so- 
cial dangers  of  the  present  time  arise 
precisely  from  the  fatal  disposition  of 
men  to  invoke  state  action  as  a  remedy 
for  all  evils.  It  is  indeed  a  serious 
fact  that  so  few  of  those  who  seek  to 
catch  the  public  ear  lay  any  emphasis 
on  the  need  for  individual  reform,  or 
have  anything  to  say  about  individual 
responsibility.     Institutions  are  wrong, 


laws  are  wrong,  social  organization  is 
wrong — all  general  forces  and  agencies 
are  wrong;  but  rarely  does  any  one 
discover  that  this  or  tbat  man  is  wrong. 
Such  a  discovery,  if  made,  would  per- 
haps not  be  thought  worth  announcing, 
or  perhaps  might  not  be  considered  safe 
to  announce.  It  is  more  popular  to 
abuse  institutions  at  large  than  to  at- 
tempt to  fix  the  responsibility  for  their 
defects;  and  no  prudent  orator  would 
think  of  suggesting  to  his  audience  that 
the  true  starting-point  of  reform  would 
be  in  the  habits  and  dispositions  of  just 
such  people  as  themselves. 

Mr.  Frederick  Greenwood's  letter, 
published  by  us  last  month,  furnishes  a 
striking  illustration  of  the  readiness 
with  which  the  principle  of  personal 
responsibility  is  overlooked  by  even 
thoughtful  writers.  Mr.  Greenwood 
reads  a  lesson  to  Mr.  Spencer  for  hav- 
ing, as  he  considers,  put  forward  certain 
radical  theories  as  to  land  tenure  with- 
out sufficient  qualification,  and  so  given 
occasion  to  men  like  Mr.  Laidler  to 
quote  him  in  support  of  their  revolu- 
tionary schemes.  The  true  view  of  the 
matter,  however,  is  that  Mr.  Spencer 
acquitted  himself  of  his  duty  to  society 
by  giving  expression  to  the  opinions 
which,  at  the  time,  commended  them- 
selves to  his  acceptance.  He  did  not 
force  them  upon  the  world,  or  upon  any 
one.  He  did  not  offer  them  as  infallibly 
inspired ;  he  gave  them  simply  as  the 
views  of  Herbert  Spencer,  guaranteeing 
nothing,  even  by  implication,  save  their 
sincerity.  What  was  the  nature,  then, 
of  his  responsibility  in  the  matter  ?  "We 
answer  that  he  staked,  to  a  certain  ex- 
tent, such  literary  or  philosophical  repu- 
tation as  he  had,  at  the  time,  acquired, 
and  made  himself  a  mark  for  the  criti- 
cism of  all  who  differed  from  him  in 
opinion.  On  the  other  hand,  he  did  not 
render  himself  responsible  for  all  who 
might  adopt  his  views  simply  because 
they  were  his,  or  for  those  who,  under 
any  circumstances,  accepted  them  with- 
out sufficient  examination,  possibly  with- 


558 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


out  possessing  the  qualifications  neces- 
sary for  giving  them  any  examination 
deserving  of  the  name.  Nor  did  he 
make  himself  responsible  for  the  inert- 
ness of  those  who,  having  examined  the 
views  in  question  and  found  them  un- 
sound, failed  to  demonstrate  the  fact  to 
Mr.  Spencer  himself  or  to  the  public. 
When  thirty  valuable  years,  in  which 
certain  (let  us  assume)  erroneous  specu- 
lations might  have  been  combated,  have 
been  allowed  to  slip  by  unimproved,  so 
far  as  that  object  is  concerned,  it  seems 
late  in  the  day  to  turn  round  on  the  au- 
thor of  the  speculations  and  read  him  a 
lesson  on  the  responsibilities  of  a  philoso- 
pher. The  true  way  in  which  to  have 
enforced  his  responsibility  was  to  criti- 
cise his  views  with  the  utmost  rigor, 
misrepresenting  nothing,  but  omitting 
no  argument  that  may  fairly  tell  against 
them.  It  should  not  be  forgotten,  how- 
ever, that  Mr.  Spencer  showed  a  further 
sense  of  responsibility  in  withdrawing 
from  circulation  the  book  in  which  his 
speculations  on  the  land  question  were 
contained,  as  soon  as  he  became  con- 
vinced that  the  views  enunciated  by 
him  upon  that  point  and  upon  one  or 
two  others  discussed  in  the  same  volume 
needed  amendment  or  qualification,  and 
in  giving  it  to  be  distinctly  understood 
that  he  no  longer  held  to  his  former 
opinions  on  these  matters.  It  is  hard 
to  understand,  therefore,  how  the  prin- 
ciple of  personal  responsibility  could 
have  been  more  fully  recognized,  or  the 
duties  flowing  therefrom  more  scrupu- 
lously performed,  than  they  were  in  this 
particular  case  by  the  eminent  author  of 
the  "Synthetic  Philosophy." 

More  to  the  purpose  would  it  have 
been,  in  our  opinion,  had  Mr.  Green- 
wood dwelt  with  some  force  on  the 
responsibility — too  little  recognized — 
which  rests  upon  those  who  pin  their 
faith  to  the  authority  of  others.  This 
is  a  thing  which  is  too  often  done  in  a 
most  reckless  and  irresponsible  manner, 
with  the  result  of  rendering  public  opin- 
ion far  less  intelligent  than  it  ought  to  be 


and  might  be.  A  sense  of  individual  re- 
sponsibility for  opinions  accepted  would 
lead  to  a  more  careful  examination  of 
all  theories  and  reasonings;  and  would, 
in  a  multitude  of  cases,  abate  the  blind 
confidence  with  which  ill-understood  no- 
tions are  now  espoused.  It  is  quite  true 
that  every  one  is  not  able  to  subject  the 
views  of  a  writer  like  Mr.  Spencer  to 
critical  scrutiny ;  but  those  who  can  not 
do  it  should,  at  least,  try  to  take  the 
right  measure  of  their  own  powers,  and 
abstain  from  judgments  for  which  they 
can  not  give  adequate  reasons.  Very 
serious  also  is  the  responsibility  resting 
upon  those  who  recognize  that  an  opin- 
ion which  has  been  given  to  the  world 
is  erroneous.  The  duty  of  such  persons 
is  to  proclaim  what  they  hold  to  be  the 
truth  according  to  the  measure  of  their 
opportunities  and  the  urgency  of  the 
occasion.  Because  A  has  accidentally 
kindled  a  conflagration,  shall  B,  who  is 
passing  by,  and  who  has  water  at  com- 
mand, make  no  effort  to  arrest  the 
flames?  Upon  whom,  in  such  a  case, 
does  the  heavier  blame  rest — upon  the 
man  who,  without  intending  it,  has  set 
things  on  fire,  or  the  man  who,  rather 
than  take  a  little  trouble,  lets  the  fire 
gain  headway?  The  doctrine  of  indi- 
vidual responsibility  is  the  true  leaven 
that  will  leaven  society;  for  it  comes 
home  to  each  man  and  summons  him 
to  put  the  question  seriously  to  himself 
whether  he  is  making  the  most  and  the 
best  of  his  own  powers,  whether  he  is 
really  striving  to  be  an  efficient  unit  in 
the  social  body.  Thousands,  nay  mill- 
ions, to-day  are  waiting  for  some  super- 
natural or  revolutionary  moving  of  the 
waters,  in  order  that  they  may,  in  a 
moment,  be  healed  of  their  infirmities. 
The  doctrine  of  individualism  bids  them 
halt  no  longer  by  the  pool,  but  go 
straightway  about  their  business  in  a 
new  spirit  of  duty  and  self-help. 

We  are  glad  to  welcome  the  appear- 
ance of  a  book  which  promises  to  help 
in  this  direction,  namely,  Mr.  Words- 
worth Donisthorpe's  "  Individualism,  a 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


559 


System  of  Politics  " — a  book  which  ably 
vindicates  the  sufficiency  of  individual 
initiative  in  a  vast  number  of  matters 
that  have  been  laid  hold  of  by  the  state. 
The  present  mania  for  legislation  Mr. 
Donisthorpe  attributes  to  the  inexperi- 
ence and  want  of  historical  knowledge 
of  the  classes  who  now  control  the  suf- 
frage. Errors  which  the  more  thought- 
ful and  instructed  members  of  the  com- 
munity have  outgrown  still  look  like 
truths  to  the  less  thoughtful  and  less 
instructed.  The  watchword  of  the  hour 
is  individualism,  which  simply  means 
personal  liberty  and  personal  efficiency 
carried  to  their  highest  point.  Let  all 
who  believe  in  this  do  their  utmost  to 
make  the  truth  prevail. 

LITERARY  NOTICES. 

Christian  Theism:  Its  Claims  and  Sanc- 
tions. By  D.  B.  Pubinton,  LL.  D.  New 
York  and  London :  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons. 
Pp.  303.     Price,  $1.75. 

The  author  of  this  book,  who  is  Pro- 
fessor of  Metaphysics  in  West  Virginia  Uni- 
versity, in  presenting  his  thesis,  has  had 
three  objects  in  view,  viz. — to  construct  a 
progressive  argument  logical  in  its  method 
and  correct  in  its  general  conclusions,  and 
likewise  defensible  in  each  individual  part 
and  item  of  it ;  to  free  the  subject  from  or- 
dinary obscurities  and  difScultics ;  and  to 
present  it,  "  without  dodging  any  of  its  pro- 
found problems,"  in  such  a  clear  and  simple 
manner  as  to  commend  it  to  the  general 
reader  who  is  willing  to  think  as  he  reads. 
Christian  theism  being  presented  as  a  fact, 
making  positive,  bold,  radical,  uncompro- 
mising, and  universal  claims,  the  author  pre- 
sents as  arguments  in  support  of  it:  Intelli- 
gence in  nature,  the  eutaxiological  argu- 
ment ;  volition  in  nature,  the  teleological 
argument ;  the  personality  of  God,  or  the  in- 
tuitive argument ;  the  goodness  of  God,  or 
the  historical  argument ;  the  unity  of  God, 
or  the  monistic  argument ;  and  the  infinity 
of  God,  or  the  causal  argument.  As  "  anti- 
theistic  errors  "  are  combated  materialism, 
pantheism,  positivism,  and  agnosticism.  The 
last  system  is  regarded  as  "  an  ingenious 
combination  and  modification "  of  the  other 


three  systems,  which  in  its  present  phase  has 
taken  shape  and  name  from  Herbert  Spen- 
cer, "  the  great  agnostic  of  modern  times," 
a  study  of  whose  works  "  produces  a  pro- 
found conviction  of  his  depth  and  patience 
of  thought,  his  breadth  and  profundity  of 
scholarship,  his  fertility  of  imagination,  and 
his  frankness  and  earnestness  of  purpose." 
This  system  is  reviewed  in  an  attempt  to 
show  it  to  be  logically  self-destructive.  A 
comparison  of  "  Evolution  and  Christian 
Theism "  leads  to  the  conclusion  that  most 
of  the  objections  to  the  former  scheme  lie 
not  so  much  against  evolution  as  against  the 
mechanical  form  of  it.  "  Nature  is  not  a 
machine,  for  it  is  plastic,  progressive,  im- 
provable, while  a  machine  is  neither  of  these. 
Matter  can  reveal  higher  and  still  higher 
forms  of  organism,  but  can  never  create 
them.  Matter,  motion,  and  force,  without 
a  directive  idea,  can  do  nothing  toward  ex- 
plaining a  rationally  developed  universe. 
But  why  exclude  a  creative  and  directive 
idea  ?  Let  that  idea  be  God.  There  is  not 
a  single  fact  in  nature  against  the  existence 
of  a  personal  God  or  the  occurrence  of  an 
act  of  creation.  There  are  many  facts  in 
favor  of  both.  Why  not  admit  that  God 
made  the  world  and  sustains  it  in  being? 
That  admission  would  not  blot  out  evolution, 
but  would  view  it  as  a  possible  or  it  may  be 
probable  method  of  God's  creative  and  prov- 
idential work."  The  question  would  then  be 
not  "  evolution  versus  creation,"  but  "  evo- 
lution the  method  of  creation."  The  ques- 
tion of  immortality  is  also  considered. 

The  Land  and  the  Community.  By  S.  W. 
Thackebat.  New  York  :  D.  Appleton  & 
Co.     Pp.  223.     Price,  $1. 

This  work  bears  the  indorsement  of 
Henry  George,  who  supplies  it  with  a  pref- 
ace. In  its  original  form  it  was  presented 
as  a  thesis  to  the  University  of  Cambridge 
for  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws.  The 
essay  has  been  expanded  and  arranged  for 
reference.  It  is  commended  for  the  fullness 
and  clearness  with  which  the  historical  and 
legal  aspects  of  the  question  have  been 
dwelt  upon,  the  attention  given  in  it  to  the 
matter  of  compensation,  and  the  religious 
feeling  and  conservative  disposition  mani- 
fested in  it  throughout.  It  serves  the  office, 
according  to  Mr.  George,  of  a  clear  and  sim- 


560 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


pie  exposition  of  essential  principles  and 
important  facts,  which  shall  give  force  and 
definiteness  to  the  ideas  growing  out  of  the 
doctrine  of  equality  of  right  to  the  use  of 
the  land,  make  manifest  their  conformity 
with  historical  experience  and  religious  truth, 
put  them  in  such  a  relation  that  the  rec- 
ognition of  common  rights  in  land  may 
strengthen,  not  weaken,  the  recognition  of 
individual  rights  in  the  products  of  labor; 
and  supply  answers  to  the  arguments  urged 
upon  the  other  side.  Mr.  Thackeray  begins 
his  thesis  with  a  history  of  land  tenure  in 
England,  divided  into  the  pre-feudal,  feudal, 
and  post-feudal  periods,  in  which  the  subject 
is  treated  with  special  reference  to  the  rights 
and  interests  of  the  community  as  distinct 
from  the  individual  interests  involved.  The 
origin  of  the  present  system  is  traced  to  the 
acts  of  1656  and  1660,  "which  turned  mili- 
tary tenures  into  free  and  common  socage." 
Community  rights  were  trampled  upon  or 
ignored  under  these  acts,  the  custom  of 
making  settlements  grew  up  and  was  recog- 
nized, and  lands  before  common  were  in- 
closed without  effective  resistance  till  about 
half  a  century  ago,  when  laws  were  passed 
restricting  the  right.  The  key  to  the  future 
of  land  tenure  may  be  found  in  the  exercise 
of  the  right  of  eminent  domain,  which  the 
author  regards  as  an  assertion  of  the  state's 
ownership  and  its  right  to  change  tenants 
on  condition  of  the  new  tenant  indemnifying 
the  old  one  for  the  damage  he  may  suffer. 
The  right  of  the  community  to  resume  its 
possession  of  the  land  being,  as  the  author 
believes,  shown,  a  second  part  of  the  work 
is  occupied  with  the  questions  relating  to 
compensation.  The  rights  of  the  community 
may  be  reasserted  and  secured  by  requiring 
those  who  occupy  or  cultivate  the  land  to 
pay  to  the  community  a  full  equivalent  for 
the  special  privileges  which  they  thus  enjoy 
— that  is,  through  the  appropriation  of 
ground-rents  by  taxation,  and  applying  the 
proceeds  for  the  benefit  of  the  whole  com- 
munity. A  plan  is  outlined  for  effecting 
the  change  with  the  least  harshness;  and 
the  beneficial  effects  anticipated  from  it 
are  enumerated.  As  to  those  who  may  be 
supposed  to  be  injured  by  the  change — re- 
duced to  landlords — the  conclusion  is  reached 
that  most  landlords  would  lose  nothing  with- 
out receiving  advantages  nearly  if  not  fully 


compensating  them ;  while  the  others,  if  not 
relatively  as  great  gainers  as  other  classes  of 
the  community,  would  not  be  absolute  losers. 
The  landlords'  claims  for  compensation  are 
examined  and  found  not  good,  either  in  law 
or  equity — in  fact,  the  claim  of  the  commu- 
nity against  them  is  assumed  to  be  the  bet- 
ter one ;  and,  finally,  they  are  invited  man- 
fully to  accept  the  situation,  and  themselves 
lead  in  recognizing  the  justice  of  the  new 
dispensation. 

Studies  in  Pedagogy.  By  Thomas  J.  Mor- 
gan. Boston :  Silver,  Burdett  &  Co. 
Pp.  355.     Price,  $1.15. 

The  author,  Principal  of  the  Rhode  Island 
State  Normal  School,  and  before  that  of 
normal  schools  at  Potsdam,  N.  Y.,  and  Peru, 
Neb.,  has  embodied  in  this  volume  the  fruits 
of  many  years  of  observation,  reading,  think- 
ing, and  experience  in  the  exercise  of  his 
profession,  and  makes  in  offering  them  "  an 
earnest  effort  to  contribute  toward  the  pro- 
motion of  higher  ideals  of  education  and  bet- 
ter methods  of  teaching."  His  view  of  edu- 
cation in  the  general  sense  is  a  broad  one, 
and  embraces  all  that  marks  the  difference 
between  what  a  child  is  by  nature  at  birth 
and  that  which  he  becomes  by  growth, 
training,  and  experience.  In  this  sense,  na- 
ture is  embraced  as  one  of  the  greatest 
forces  of  education.  In  the  narrower  sense, 
to  the  consideration  of  which  this  book  is 
chiefly  devoted,  education  is  restricted  to  the 
effect  produced  upon  the  young  mind  by 
those  who  seek  purposely  to  influence  it,  or 
the  direct  influence  of  teachers  and  schools. 
Its  most  important  factor  is  training,  which 
here  signifies  such  a  control  exercised  by  the 
teacher  over  the  pupil  as  will  lead  him  so  to 
use  his  faculties  as  to  secure  their  completest 
development ;  and  which  has  for  its  imme- 
diate end  the  evolution  of  power.  These 
faculties  may  be  grouped  under  the  heads  of 
acquiring,  understanding,  reproducing,  using, 
and  expressing  knowledge,  each  of  which, 
again,  includes  its  own  several  topics  and 
means.  More  nearly  than  any  other  work 
of  the  teacher  it  meets  the  ideal  of  educa- 
tion ;  it  is  an  essential  preliminary  to  a  suc- 
cessful work  of  instruction ;  and  is  the  pro- 
cess that  best  prepares  the  student  for  the 
active  duties  of  life.  The  special  applica- 
tions of  training  discussed  are  those  to  the 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


561 


senses,  the  imagination,  thinking,  the  sensi- 
bilities, language,  the  will,  learning  music, 
the  use  of  books,  and  "training  for  free- 
dom." There  must  be  method  in  the  per- 
formance of  the  teacher's  work ;  hence  we 
have  a  series  of  chapters  on  "Methodology." 
In  "  Man  and  his  Method  "  the  principle  is 
enforced  that,  important  as  the  method  may 
be,  the  man  behind  it,  who  should  inspire  it, 
is  more  so.  Method  in  questioning  and  in 
teaching  arithmetic  is  treated  with  some  full- 
ness. The  value  and  purpose  of  examina- 
tions are  estimated.  "The  Ideal  School- 
master "  holds  up  the  objective  toward  which 
every  teacher  should  strive.  "  The  True 
Function  of  a  Normal  School "  is  a  paper 
which  was  awarded  the  prize  of  the  Ameri- 
can Institute  of  Instruction  in  1885.  "Ad- 
vice to  Young  Teachers  "  embodies  the  sub- 
stance of  several  addresses  to  graduating 
classes  of  the  normal  school.  In  them 
"  Independent  Thinking  "  and  "  Training  for 
Citizenship  "  are  prominent  topics. 

Geology  of  the  Quicksilver  Deposits  of 
the  Pacific  Slope,  with  an  Atlas.  By 
George  F.  Becker.  Washington  :  Gov- 
ernment Printing-Office  (United  States 
Geological  Survey).  Pp.  486,  with  seven 
Plates.     Atlas,  14  sheets.     Price,  $2. 

The  field  work  of  the  investigations  re- 
corded in  this  volume  occupied  the  most 
of  three  seasons,  beginning  in  1883.  There 
remained  to  complete  the  examinations  sat- 
isfactorily the  investigation  of  some  impor- 
tant general  problems  affecting  the  whole 
region.  Among  these  were  indications  af- 
forded by  the  paleontology  and  structure  of 
a  previously  undetermined  non-conformity 
existing  in  the  Coast  Ranges,  These  were 
confirmed.  Another  investigation  related  to 
a  possible  connection  between  the  forma- 
tion of  ore  deposits  and  the  metamorphism 
of  the  Mesozoic  rocks.  A  third  special  in- 
quiry was  directed  to  determining  whether 
the  deposition  of  cinnabar  is  still  taking 
place  at  Sulphur  Bank  and  Steamboat 
Springs,  and,  if  so,  under  what  conditions 
the  solution  and  precipitation  of  cinnabar 
and  the  accompanying  mineral  occur.  The 
author  finds  that  the  quicksilver  deposits  lie 
along  the  great  axes  of  disturbance  of  the 
world.  One  of  these  is  on  the  line  of  the 
principal  mountain  systems  of  Europe  and 
Asia,  and  the  other  coincides  with  the  west- 
vol.  xxxvi. — 36 


era  ranges  of  the  Cordilleran  system  of 
America.  The  principal  mines  are  at  Al- 
maden  in  Spain,  Idria  in  Austria,  Huan- 
cavelica  in  Peru,  and  those  in  California. 
From  1850  to  1886  California  supplied 
nearly  half  the  product  of  the  world,  but  is 
not  probably  destined  to  maintain  the  same 
rank  in  the  future.  Quicksilver  was  first 
recognized  as  occurring  at  the  croppings  of 
the  new  Almaden  mine  in  1845.  But  few 
other  minerals  occur  in  considerable  quanti- 
ties with  the  ore.  Among  them  are  pyrite 
or  marcasitc,  arsenic  and  antimony,  and 
sometimes  copper  ores,  while  other  metal- 
liferous minerals  arc  comparatively  rare. 
The  principal  gangue  seems  to  be  silica  or 
carbonates.  The  cinnabar  appears  to  have 
been  deposited  solely  in  pre-existing  open- 
ings, and  never  by  substitution  for  rock. 
The  fissure  systems,  which  are  always  pres- 
ent, are  very  irregular,  and  deposits  can  not 
conveniently  be  classified  according  to  exist- 
ing systems.  All  of  them  seem  to  have  proba- 
bly been  deposited  in  the  same  way  from  hot 
sulphur  springs.  At  Sulphur  Bank  cinnabar 
is  now  being  precipitated  from  heated  waters 
largely  by  the  action  of  ammonia ;  at  Steam- 
boat Springs  it  is  being  deposited  without 
complications  from  the  presence  of  ammonia. 
In  dealing  with  the  processes  by  which  the 
ore  has  been  dissolved  and  precipitated  in 
nature,  it  has  been  shown  by  experiment 
and  analysis  that  cinnabar  unites  with  sodi- 
um sulphide  in  various  proportions,  forming 
soluble  double  sulphides,  and  that  these 
compounds  can  exist  in  such  waters  as  flow 
from  Sulphur  Bank  and  Steamboat  Springs, 
either  at  ordinary  temperatures  or  above  the 
boiling-point.  The  quicksilver  is  probably 
derived  from  granitic  rocks  by  the  action  of 
heated  sulphur  waters,  which  rise  through 
the  granite  from  the  foci  of  volcanic  activity 
below  that  rock. 

Coal  and  the  Coal  Mines.  By  Homer 
Greene.  Boston  and  New  York  : 
Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.  Pp.  246.  Price, 
75  cents. 

This  is  a  volume  of  the  attractive  "  Riv- 
erside Library  for  Young  People,"  and  is 
intended  to  tell  readers,  in  a  style  free  from 
minute  details  and  technicalities,  all  that  re- 
lates to  coal  and  to  procuring  it  from  the 
earth.  The  information  has  been  gained  for 
the  most  part,  the  author  says,  from  per- 


562 


THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


sonal  experience  in  the  mines ;  but  little  of 
it  comes  from  books,  for  the  literature  of 
the  special  subject  is  meager.  Beginning  at 
the  beginning,  we  have  a  brief  reference  to 
the  geological  record  previous  to  coal.  Then 
the  composition  of  coal  is  elucidated,  the 
time  when  it  was  formed  is  defined,  and  the 
situation  of  the  coal-beds  is  described.  The 
history  as  it  relates  to  our  own  period  be- 
gins with  the  discovery  of  coal  and  its  intro- 
duction into  use.  The  account  of  the  mines 
includes  the  way  into  them,  the  plan  of  a 
typical  mine,  "  the  miner  at  work,"  the  ob- 
stacles and  dangers  he  has  to  encounter, 
and  the  anthracite  breakers.  A  chapter  is 
given  to  the  bituminous  coal  mines.  The 
account  of  "  The  Boy  Workers  at  the  Mines  " 
is  of  particular  interest  to  the  young  peo- 
ple, and  the  chapter  on  "  Miners  and  their 
Wages  "  to  searchers  for  facts. 

A  Handbook  of  Obstetrical  Nursing.  By 
Anna  M.  Fcjllerton,  M.  D.  Philadel- 
phia: P.  Blakiston,  Son  &  Co.  Pp.  214. 
Price,  $1.25. 

The  great  number  and  variety  of  the 
things  to  be  attended  to  in  a  case  of  child- 
birth, many  of  which  are  not  so  familiar  as 
the  matters  concerned  in  the  treatment  of 
disease,  together  with  their  importance  as 
affecting  two  lives,  make  a  special  manual 
on  this  subject  highly  desirable  for  the 
nurse.  It  would  be  well,  also,  for  every 
mother  to  have  read  a  book  of  this  sort  be- 
fore her  confinement,  in  order  that  she  may 
understand  and  co-operate  in  the  efforts 
of  the  physician  and  nurse  for  her  wel- 
fare, and  be  protected  from  the  antiquated 
wisdom  and  dismal  tales  of  injudicious 
friends.  It  would  be  difficult  to  make  a 
more  comprehensive  and  practical  book  than 
Dr.  Fullerton's.  It  is  an  outgrowth  of  the 
extensive  practice  of  the  hospital  and  the 
systematic  instruction  of  the  nurses'  train- 
ing-school. The  teachings  which  it  embodies 
are  chiefly  the  substance  of  a  series  of  lect- 
ures delivered  yearly  by  Dr.  Anna  E.  Broo- 
mall  to  the  nurse-pupils  of  the  Woman's 
Hospital  of  Philadelphia,  and  they  are  fol- 
lowed in  the  Maternity  connected  with  that 
hospital.  The  whole  ground  from  the  man- 
agement of  pregnancy  to  the  ailments  of 
early  infancy  is  covered.  Directions,  suffi- 
ciently detailed  for  the  use  of  a  trained 
nurse,  are  given  for  the  care  of  the  patient 


immediately  before  and  during  labor,  for  the 
care  of  the  new-born  infant,  and  the  man- 
agement of  the  lying-in.  The  appliances 
which  the  nurse  will  need  to  use,  and  the 
articles  of  clothing  for  mother  and  child,  are 
described,  and  many  of  them  are  figured. 
The  Jenness-Miller  reformed  garments  are 
indorsed.  A  short  chapter  is  devoted  to  the 
appearance  of  infants  in  health  and  disease. 
In  the  chapter  on  ailments  of  infancy  the 
couvcuse,  or  brooder,  for  keeping  premature 
infants  warm,  is  described  and  figured. 
Throughout  the  volume  reference  is  made 
easy  by  printing  the  subject  of  each  para- 
graph in  the  margin. 

Fossil  Fishes  and  Fossil  Plants  of  the 
Triassic  Rocks  of  New  Jersey  and  the 
Connecticut  Valley.  By  John  S.  New- 
berry. Washington :  Government  Print- 
ing-Office  (United  States  Geological  Sur- 
vey). Pp.  152,  with  26  Plates.  Price, 
•1. 

The  Triassic  rocks,  according  to  Prof. 
Newberry,  probably  furnished  the  first  fos- 
sils collected  on  this  continent :  fishes  at 
Durham  and  Sunderland,  Conn. ;  plants  at 
Richmond,  Va. ;  and  the  so-called  bird-tracks 
at  Turner's  Falls,  Mass.  While  the  forma- 
tion has  received  considerable  attention  in 
detail,  no  systematic  collection  or  thorough 
study  of  its  fauna  or  flora  as  a  whole  was 
attempted  till  about  1880,  when  Prof.  Fon- 
taine took  it  up  for  the  fossil  plants  of  the 
Virginia  and  North  Carolina  Mesozoic  coal 
basins.  His  publication  established  the 
parallelism  of  our  new  red  sandstone  with 
the  keuper  of  Europe.  The  animal  remains 
were  left  to  be  studied,  and  that  work  was 
taken  up  by  Prof.  Newberry,  with  results 
that  are  presented  in  this  volume.  The 
special  studies  are  preceded  by  a  geological 
sketch  of  the  new  red  sandstone  regions  of 
New  Jersey  and  Connecticut,  concerning  the 
relations  of  which  to  one  another  there  ap- 
pear to  be  different  opinions.  The  Triassic 
rocks  are  about  five  thousand  feet  thick  and 
present  some  singularities  of  structure.  The 
materials  were  probably  derived  from  the 
adjacent  highlands.  The  rocks  are  charac- 
terized by  their  red  color,  derived  from  the 
oxide  of  iron,  the  presence  of  which  proves 
that  they  contained  but  little  organic  matter 
when  deposited.  Their  relations  to  the 
Triassic  beds  of  the  interior  and  the  western 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


563 


margin  of  the  continent  can  hardly  be  es- 
tablished without  larger  collections  of  fossils 
from  Western  localities.  The  fishes,  though 
so  far  as  yet  known  representing  only  six 
genera  and  about  twenty -five  species,  are 
locally  very  numerous,  and  are  found  in 
many  places.  The  principal  sites  represented 
in  the  volume  are  Boonton,  N.  J. ;  Durham, 
Conn. ;  and  Turner's  Falls,  Mass. ;  while  they 
have  also  been  obtained  at  Plainfield,  Mil- 
ford,  Newark,  and  near  Hoboken,  N.  J.,  aud 
at  Middletown,  Sudbury,  Chicopee,  Amherst, 
and  Hadley's  Falls,  in  the  Connecticut  Val- 
ley. The  several  species  are  described  in 
detail  and  illustrated  by  figures  apparently 
of  the  size  of  nature.  We  are  glad  to  learn 
that  the  author's  collection,  which  is  the 
largest  yet  made,  is  safely  deposited  in  the 
fire-proof  Geological  Museum  of  Columbia 
College. 

Ligeros  Apuntes  sobre  el  Clima  de  la 
Republica  Argentina.  (Notes  on  the 
Climate  of  the  Argentine  Republic.)  By 
Gualterio  G.  Davis,  Director  of  the 
Argentine  Meteorological  Office,  Buenos 
Ayres.  Pp.  254,  with  27  Plates  and 
Charts. 

The  Argentine  Meteorological  Office  was 
established  in  1872,  and  was  organized  un- 
der the  direction  of  Dr.  B.  A.  Gould,  whom 
Mr.  Davis  succeeded  on  his  retirement  after 
twelve  years  of  service.  It  has  gradually 
extended  its  sphere  of  operations  to  the 
most  remote  parts  of  the  country,  and  now 
receives  observations  of  the  more  important 
weather  phenomena  from  sixty-six  stations, 
and  of  rainfall  from  ninety  more.  The  six 
volumes  of  the  publications  of  the  office 
embody  the  results  of  observations  taken  at 
twenty -six  points,  with  analytical  discussions 
of  the  data,  and  deductions  of  the  general 
laws  of  atmospheric  changes ;  and  the  an- 
nual reports  contain  a  large  part  of  the  re- 
sults reached  in  the  corresponding  years. 
But  a  more  compact  work  was  needed  to 
embody  a  summary  of  these  results  adapted 
to  practical  use ;  and  the  attempt  is  made 
to  supply  this  need  in  the  present  volume, 
which  is  intended  to  put  within  reach  of  the 
colonist,  the  farmer,  and  the  doctor  such 
meteorological  facts  as  bear  upon  their  in- 
dustrial enterprises  and  hygienic  studies. 
Twenty-one  stations  are  selected  as  typical 
of  the  various  climatological  conditions  that 


prevail  in  all  parts  of  the  republic.  The 
lines  extend  from  the  Atlantic  coast  to  the 
western  points  of  the  country,  and  from  lati- 
tude 54°  53'  in  Tierra  del  Fuego  to  Salta  in 
latitude  26°  46'  20"  ;  the  altitudes  range 
from  8  metres  to  2,845  metres  above  the 
level  of  the  sea.  To  each  of  these  stations 
is  allotted  its  given  space  for  general  de- 
scription, with  tables  representing  the  vari- 
ous meteorological  facts  in  detail  and  a 
graphic  chart.  The  publication  thus  fur- 
nishes a  summary  of  the  local  climates,  de- 
duced from  several  years'  observations  of 
the  various  districts  of  which  the  particular 
stations  are  the  centers. 

Monopolies  and  the  People.  By  Charles 
W.  Baker,  C.  E.  New  York :  G.  P. 
Putnam's  Sons.  Pp.  263.  Price,  $1.25. 
There  is  abundant  reason  for  including 
monopoly  among  the  "  Questions  of  the 
Day,"  as  is  done  in  this  volume.  Trusts  and 
monopolies  exist,  as  the  author  shows  at 
length  in  a  series  of  chapters,  in  manufactur- 
ing, mining,  transportation,  trade,  and  labor. 
There  are  monopolies  constructed  directly 
by  those  who  profit  from  them,  monopolies 
created  by  municipal  enactments,  and  mo- 
nopolies supported  by  governmental  policy. 
The  author  next  examines  the  theory  of  uni- 
versal competition,  after  which  he  states  the 
laws  of  modern  competition.  He  denies  that 
"  the  prevalence  of  monopolies  evidences  the 
decay  of  the  nobler  aspirations  of  humanity." 
He  regards  them  as  an  outgrowth  of  the 
modern  conditions  of  industry,  and,  while 
they  involve  evils,  he  affirms  that  "the 
remedy  for  the  evils  of  monopoly  is  not 
abolition,  but  control."  He  then  specifies 
some  of  these  evils,  and  names  also  some 
ameliorating  influences.  The  remedies  that 
have  been  proposed  are  based  on  one  or  the 
other  of  the  opposite  principles,  individu- 
alism and  societism,  or  communism.  Mr. 
Baker  maintains  that  neither  should  be 
adopted  wholly,  and  in  his  concluding  chap- 
ter advocates  the  owning  of  all  railroads  by 
the  Government,  and  their  operation  by  cor- 
porations which  should  pay  a  rental  for  the 
privilege ;  the  owning  of  mines  by  the  States, 
which  should  lease  them  to  private  parties 
for  operation.  Water-works,  gas  and  elec- 
tric lighting  plants,  street  railways,  and  simi- 
lar local  enterprises  should  be  owned  by  the 
cities  in  which  they  are  located,  and  also 


564 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


operated  by  private  companies.  Mr.  Baker 
does  not  favor  the  same  procedure  in  the 
case  of  monopolies  in  trade  and  manufactur- 
ing. But  he  would  legalize  them,  and  then 
force  them  to  let  daylight  in  upon  their  op- 
erations and  agreements,  and  apply  to  them 
the  principle  of  non-discrimination. 

Aryan  Sun- My  f  lis  the  Origin  of  Religions 
(Nims  &  Knight)  is  the  title  of  a  book  de- 
signed to  show  that  the  mythology  of  this 
great  primitive  race  is  the  parent  of  the 
chief  modern  religions,  just  as  the  race  itself 
is  the  parent  of  the  peoples  who  hold  these 
religions.  In  the  Aryan  mythology  we  have 
the  immaculate  conception,  from  which  the 
son  of  heaven,  the  sun,  is  born,  at  the  time 
of  the  December  solstice.  We  have  the 
twelve  signs  of  the  zodiac  as  his  disciples ; 
his  temptation,  persecution,  and  execution. 
There  is  a  descent  of  the  sun  into  hades, 
when  he  enters  the  sign  Capricornus  and 
appears  to  remain  three  days  at  his  lowest 
point.  The  Aryans  observed  baptism,  sac- 
rifice, and  the  eucharist,  and  the  doctrines 
of  original  sin  and  the  fallen  condition  of 
man  were  not  unknown  to  them.  When  we 
come  down  to  the  Hindus,  who  have  written 
religious  records,  we  find  the  same  features 
and  more.  So  also  among  the  Persians,  the 
Egyptians,  the  Chinese,  the  Greeks,  the 
Scandinavians,  and  the  ancient  Mexicans. 
Some  of  the  same  ideas  are  found  among 
other  ancient  nations  of  the  Old  World,  and 
among  the  American  Indians.  "  Ancestral 
and  other  systems  of  worship,"  says  Mr. 
Charles  Morris,  in  the  introduction  which 
he  contributes  to  the  volume,  "have  influ- 
enced religious  practice  and  ceremony  to  a 
marked  extent,  but  have  had  much  less  to 
do  with  the  growth  of  dogma  than  the  in- 
tricate details  of  the  history  of  the  gods,  to 
which  the  numerous  phenomena  of  nature 
gave  rise.  Over  religious  belief  the  sun  has 
exercised  a  dominant  influence,  and  still 
faintly  yet  distinguishably  shines  through 
the  most  opaquely  obscure  of  modern  theo- 
logical dogmas." 


In  a  paper  on  Teaching  School  Children 
to  Think  (D.  Appleton  &  Co.),  Prof.  George  B. 
Newcomb  discusses  first  the  question,  "  What 
is  the  capacity  and  exercise  of  the  mind 
which  is  indicated  by  the  terms  '  thought ' 


and  '  thinking '  ?  "  He  shows  that  in  the 
reaction  from  the  old  mechanical  drill  we 
should  avoid  going  to  the  opposite  extreme 
of  taxing  the  child's  mind  beyond  its  pow- 
ers. The  faculty  of  thinking  is  a  growth, 
and  needs  to  be  dealt  with  according  to  the 
stage  of  development  it  has  reached.  Ca- 
pacity to  form  abstract  ideas  and  reason  con- 
secutively does  not  come  at  once  ;  "  yet  long 
before  reasoning,  strictly  so  called,  is  devel- 
oped, there  is  rationality,  the  exercise  of  in- 
telligence in  unifying  the  scattered  particu- 
lars of  sense ;  in  correlating  facts  and  light- 
ing up  one  fact  by  another  " ;  and  it  is  all 
alive  in  the  child's  mind,  in  the  curiosity 
that  asks  the  reason  why.  While  children 
dislike  remote  abstractions,  they  are  capable 
of  general  thought  and  rational  connecting, 
and  make  crude  attempts  at  rational  synthe- 
sis. The  manifestations  of  these  faculties 
may  be  watched  for  and  taken  advantage  of 
and  directed  as  they  appear,  and  the  child 
thus  be  led  gradually  up  to  the  habit  of  ra- 
tional thought  on  every  subject.  This  pre- 
cept partly  furnishes  the  answer  to  the  au- 
thor's second  question,  "In  what  sense  or 
within  what  limits,  if  any,  should  the  devel- 
opment of  thought  be  a  prominent  aim  in 
the  training  of  school  children  ?  "  A  third 
question,  involving  the  consideration  of  ways 
and  means  for  developing  rational  intelli- 
gence in  the  pupil,  is  too  large  for  treatment 
in  a  single  paper ;  and  upon  it  the  author 
aims  only  to  enunciate  broad  principles  or 
make  helpful  suggestions  without  going  into 
details. 

In  A  Ramblei-'s  Lease,  Mr.  Bradford 
Torrey,  one  of  the  most  pleasant  of  our 
rural  essayists,  assumes  the  position  of  a 
leasehold  tenant  of  other  people's  fields  and 
woods  to  the  extent  of  the  aesthetic  enjoy- 
ment and  opportunities  for  the  study  of 
life  and  nature  that  they  afford.  He  there- 
fore makes  himself  at  home  in  them,  and 
keeps  company  with  the  trees  and  flowers 
and  insects  and  birds  ;  with  some  of  which 
he  has  enjoyed  privileges  of  rarely  close 
association.  The  present  volume  contains 
some  of  the  fruits  which  he  has  gathered 
in  these  possessions ;  seemly  and  agreeable 
fruits  in  every  way,  and  flavored  with  occa- 
sional choice  grains  of  wit.  In  it  he  intro- 
duces us  to  the  wild  birds  which  he  has  be- 
come so  intimate  with  as  to  feed  them  by 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


S^S 


hand ;  reports  his  observations  on  clima- 
tology and  seasonal  phenomena ;  draws  the 
lessons  to  be  learned  from  a  ramble  in  "  an 
old  road " ;  exalts  the  man  "  behind  the 
eye "  rather  than  the  eye  as  the  important 
factor  in  observation,  and  the  mental  atti- 
tude in  "  taking  a  walk " ;  and  presents 
studies  of  mountain  scenes,  "  butterfly  psy- 
chology," and  the  means  by  which  the  par- 
tridge executes  his  "drumming."  (Hough- 
ton, Mifflin  &  Co.,  $1.25.) 

The  Anatomy  of  Astrangia  Dana,  pub- 
lished in  quarto  form  by  the  Smithsonian 
Institution,  comprises  six  lithographs  from 
drawings  made  by  A.  Sonrel,  under  the  di- 
rection of  Prof.  Agassiz  in  1S49,  illustrating 
the  structure  of  that  madrepore,  the  only 
representative  of  the  family  in  shallow  New 
England  waters,  with  text  explaining  the 
plates  by  J.  Walter  Fcwkes.  Although  there 
has  been  a  great  advance  in  histological 
methods  since  the  figures  were  drawn,  it  has 
hardly  extended  to  the  minute  anatomy  of 
these  creatures ;  so  that  the  representations 
are  nearly  as  fresh  as  if  they  had  been  drawn 
to-day.  Whatever  may  be  lacking  to  bring 
them  up  to  the  present  state  of  knowledge 
is  supplied  in  Mr.  Fewkes's  descriptions, 
which  are  based  on  studies  of  living  speci- 
mens. 

Studies  of  the  Macrochires,  Morphological 
and  otherwise,  with  the  View  of  indicating 
their  Relationships  and  defining  their  Several 
Positions  in  the  System,  by  R.  W.  Shufeldt, 
M.  D.,  bear  upon  the  comparative  anatomy 
and  place  of  the  swifts,  whip-poor-wills,  and 
humming-birds.  The  author  had  already 
proposed  a  separate  order  for  the  Trochili, 
or  humming-birds,  and  is  more  than  ever 
convinced  of  the  correctness  of  his  scheme. 
In  the  present  essay  he  proposes  a  new 
group  or  order — that  of  Cypseli — for  the 
swifts.  This  order,  were  it  represented  by 
a  circle,  would  be  found  just  outside  the 
passerine  circle,  "  but  tangent  to  a  point  in 
its  periphery  opposite  the  swallows. 

In  a  monograph  on  The  World's  Supply 
of  Fuel,  Prof.  W  J  Me  Gee  describes  rock 
gas  and  its  occurrence  ;  accounts  for  its  for- 
mation by  the  decomposition  of  the  organic 
matter  contained  in  sediments ;  answers  in 
the  affirmative  the  question  whether  it  is 
still  forming,  and  adds  that  it  will  probably 
continue  to   form  indefinitely,  though  at  a 


decreasing  rate;  and  predicts  that  it  is 
destined  to  be,  after  the  coal  has  been  ex- 
hausted, the  world's  unfailing  supply  of  fuel 
and  light. 

The  address  of  Prof.  Charles  A.  White,  aa 
Vice-President  of  the  Geological  Section  of 
the  American  Association,  is  devoted  to  the 
survey  and  definition  of  Tlie  North  American 
Mesozoic,  particularly  of  the  formation  called 
Triassic.  There  are  doubts  about  the  corre- 
spondence of  this  with  European  forma- 
tions ;  and  this  and  certain  other  facts  give 
occasion  for  the  expression,  with  some  full- 
ness, of  the  opinion  that  we  must  not  expect 
to  discover  a  precise  correspondence,  either 
in  time  or  character,  in  the  geological  history 
of  our  own  and  other  continents,  or  an  ex- 
act identity  of  formations  in  them.  Hence, 
with  all  respect  to  European  classification 
and  names,  which  may  still  be  used  tenta- 
tively in  each  of  the  great  divisions  of  the 
earth,  and  with  reference  to  the  ultimate 
establishment  of  a  universal  system,  it  is 
for  North  American  geologists  to  elaborate 
a  scheme  for  the  formations  of  our  own  con- 
tinent. 

In  a  pair  of  papers  on  Meteorites  and 
what  they  teach  us,  Dr.  H.  Hensoldt  sum- 
marizes what  has  been  learned  about  me- 
teorites, and  declares  his  own  theory  as  to 
their  origin.  This  theory  is  based  on  the 
presence  of  liquid  carbonic  acid  in  the  cavi- 
ties of  these  bodies.  The  fluid  is  ascer- 
tained to  be  carbonic  acid  by  the  instanta- 
neous change  of  form  which  it  undergoes 
between  30°  and  31°  C,  which  is  character- 
istic of  that  substance.  Now,  carbonic  acid 
can  not  be  liquefied  except  under  a  pressure 
which  exists  in  nature  only  deep  in  the 
earth.  Hence  the  meteorites  must  have 
been  at  some  time  subjected  to  such  a  press- 
ure. It  is  therefore  concluded  that  they 
have  come  from  the  interior  of  some  plane- 
tary body  which  has  been  rent  by  an  explo- 
sion. 

Proceedings  of  the  Boston  Society  of  Natu- 
ral History,  Vol.  XXIV,  contains  the  reports 
of  the  society  and  its  proceedings,  with  the 
papers  read,  from  May,  1888,  to  May,  1889. 
Prof.  Hyatt's  report  as  curator  of  the  muse- 
um shows  that  that  institution  is  growing  at 
a  healthy  rate,  and  the  arrangement  of  its 
collections  is  going  forward.  The  papers 
relate  to  various  topics  of  biology,  geology, 


5  66 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


and  archaeology.  Among  thern  are  those 
of  Prof.  Hyatt  on  the  "Evolution  of  the 
Fauna  of  the  Lower  Lias  " ;  of  Mr.  S.  H. 
Scudder  on  a  Palaeozoic  "  Cockroach  Fauna  " 
at  Richmond,  Ohio;  of  Prof.  Marcou  on 
"  Canadian  Geological  Classification  for  the 
Province  of  Quebec  " ;  of  Mr.  Alfred  C.  Lane 
on  the  "  Geology  of  Nahant " ;  of  Mr.  War- 
ren Upham  on  "  Marine  Shells  and  Frag- 
ments of  Shells  in  the  Till  near  Boston  "  ; 
of  Mr.  Samuel  Garman  on  the  "  Evolution  of 
the  Rattlesnake  " ;  and  of  Prof.  Goodall  on 
the  "  Life  and  Work  of  Dr.  Asa  Gray." 

Several  archaeological  papers,  which  ap- 
pear in  this  volume  of  the  "  Proceedings,"  are 
also  published  separately  by  the  Peabody 
Museum  of  American  Archaeology  and  Eth- 
nology, under  the  title  of  Palceolilhic  Man  in 
Eastern  and  Central  America.  They  are 
"Early  Man  in  the  Delaware  Valley,"  in- 
cluding an  account  of  the  lately  discovered 
"  Rock  Shelter "  at  Naaman's  Creek,  and 
descriptions  of  Palaeolithic  implements  ;  and 
an  account  of  an  implement  from  the  In- 
diana gravel,  by  Hilborne  T.  Cresson ;  Prof. 
G.  F.  Wright's  paper  on  the  "  Age  of  the 
Philadelphia  Red  Gravel  "  ;  "  Water-worn 
Implements  from  the  Delaware  River,"  by 
Dr.  C.  C.  Abbott ;  and  remarks  on  the  whole 
subject  by  President  F.  W.  Putnam.  Prof. 
Wright's  paper  bears  upon  the  age  of  the 
rock  shelter  and  of  the  implements  in  the 
Delaware  Valley  described  by  Mr.  Cresson, 
which  the  author  decides  are  older  (perhaps 
by  a  thousand  years)  than  the  deposits  at 
Trenton,  N.  J.,  Loveland  and  Madisonville, 
Ohio,  Little  Falls,  Minn.,  and  Medora,  Ind. 
(Cresson). 

An  Obsidian  Implement  from  Pleistocene 
Deposits  in  Nevada,  by  WJ  Mc  Gee,  discusses 
the  age  of  a  handsome  neolithic  work  found 
on  Walker  River,  to  which  the  author  has 
already  made  reference  in  the  "  Monthly  " 
(November,  1888,  p.  25).  The  solution  of  the 
question  is  partly  dependent  upon  the  char- 
acter of  the  occurrence  of  the  implement — 
whether  it  be  adventitious  or  normally  in  situ. 
The  deposit  being  unconsolidated,  this  can  not 
be  determined  certainly  without  the  help  of 
other  human  relics  found  in  the  same  place 
to  keep  it  company  ;  and  such  have  not  been 
found.  But,  since  the  implement  was  ob- 
served, the  discovery  of  other  extremely  an- 
cient relics  in  various  parts  of  the  country 


has  given  color  to  the  hypothesis  that  this 
was  an  original  deposit ;  and  the  author  now 
inclines  to  that  view. 

The  Aborigines  of  the  District  of  Colum- 
bia and  the  Lower  Potomac — a  symposium 
in  the  Anthropological  Society  of  Washing- 
ton— besides  an  address  by  Otis  T.  Mason, 
introducing  the  subject,  contains  papers  on 
"  The  Geological  Antecedents  of  Man  in  the 
Potomac  Valley,"  by  W  J  McGee ;  "  The 
Palaeolithic  Period  in  the  District,  of  Colum- 
bia," by  Thomas  Wilson ;  "  Ancient  Village 
Sites  and  Aboriginal  Workshops,"  by  S.  V. 
Proudfitt ;  "  The  Pottery  and  Textiles  of  the 
Tide- Water  Region,"  by  W.  H.  Holmes; 
"The  Shell  Mounds  of  the  Potomac  and 
Micomico,"  by  Elmer  R.  Reynolds ;  "  Indian 
Tribes  of  the  District,"  by  James  Mooney ; 
and  a  discussion  by  Prof.  F.  W.  Putnam. 

Of  six  additional  "  Bulletins  "  of  the 
United  States  Geological  Survey,  No.  48  is 
On  the  Form  and  Position  of  the  Sea-Level, 
with  special  reference  to  its  dependence  on 
superficial  masses  symmetrically  disposed 
about  a  normal  to  the  earth's  surface,  by 
Robert  Simpson  Woodward.  The  treatise  is 
mathematical,  and  relates  to  a  problem  of 
peculiar  difficulty,  the  solution  of  which  has 
been  as  yet  only  approached.  The  same 
author's  Latitudes  and  Longitudes  of  Certain 
Points  in  Missouri,  Kansas,  and  Neiv  Mex- 
ico, constituting  "  Bulletin  No.  49,"  relates  to 
the  processes  of  determination  at  Oswego,  Elk 
Falls,  and  Fort  Scott,  Kan. ;  Springfield  and 
Bolivar,  Mo. ;  and  Albuquerque,  N.  M.  The 
author  has  endeavored  to  collect,  arrange, 
and  discuss  the  observations  in  such  a  man- 
ner as  to  render  their  results  most  useful  for 
the  purposes  of  geography  and  geodesy. 
Bulletin  No.  50,  also  by  Mr.  Woodward,  con- 
sists of  Formulas  and  Tables  to  facilitate  the 
Construction  of  Maps.  The  tables  were  pre- 
pared for  the  Division  of  Geography  in 
1885-86.  Constant  use  since  then  has 
demonstrated  their  utility.  They  have  been 
revised  and  extended,  and  are  accompanied 
by  an  explanatory  text.  Dr.  Charles  A. 
Wldte  gives,  in  Bulletin  No.  51,  descriptions 
of  some  Invertebrate  Fossils  from  the  Pacific 
Coast.  They  fall  under  five  headings :  "  New 
Mollusca  from  the  Chico-Tejon  Series  of  Cali- 
fornia," representing  nineteen  new  species  and 
one  new  genus  ;  "  The  Occurrence  of  Equiv- 
alents of  the  Chico-Tejon  Series  in  Oregon 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


567 


and  Washington  Territory  "  ;  "  Cretaceous 
Fossils  from  Vancouver  Island  Region,"  in 
which  an  intimate  relation  is  shown  with  the 
fauna  of  the  Chico  group  ;  "  The  Molluscan 
Fauna  of  the  Puget  Group,"  unique  and  indi- 
cating deposition  in  a  large  estuary;  and 
"  Mesozoic  Mollusca  from  the  Southern  Coast 
of  the  Alaskan  Peninsula,"  which  are  re- 
garded as  new.  No.  52,  Subaerial  Decay  of 
Bocks  and  Origin  of  the  Red  Color  of  Cer- 
tain Formations,  relates  studies  of  the  sub- 
ject by  Israel  Clark  Russell,  chiefly  among 
the  Appalachian  Mountains  in  Virginia  and 
North  Carolina.  The  author  believes  that 
changes  by  decay  have'  a  wider  geological 
bearing  than  has  generally  been  assigned  to 
them  ;  and  that  the  red  color  of  certain 
sandstones  is  due  to  a  coating  of  their  par- 
ticles with  ferric  oxide  received  during  the 
process  of  subaerial  decay  of  the  rocks  of 
the  debris  of  which  they  are  composed.  The 
last  of  the  present  series  of  Bulletins — No. 
53 — is  a  study  of  The  Geology  of  Nantucket, 
by  Prof.  N.  S.  Shaler.  The  island  is  re- 
garded, together  with  the  accompanying 
southern  Massachusetts  coast,  Martha's  Vine- 
yard, Long  Island,  etc.,  as  "  the  dissevered 
remains  of  a  great  shelf  formed  of  the  debris 
brought  to  its  present  position  by  the  glacial 
ice  and  by  the  streams  of  water  which  flowed 
beneath  it." 

The  United  States  Department  of  Agri- 
culture, Division  of  Entomology,  publishes  an 
investigation  of  The  Root-knot  Disease  of  the 
Peach,  Orange,  and  other  Plants  in  Florida, 
due  to  the  Work  of  Anguilhda,  made  under  its 
direction,  in  1888,  by  Dr. ./.  C.  Neal.  A  large 
number  of  species  of  plants  are  attacked  by 
the  worms,  whose  depredations  are  marked 
by  the  appearance  of  swellings  or  "  knots  " 
on  the  roots,  and  threaten  to  be  damaging. 
The  author  has  made  studies  of  the  nature 
of  the  insect  and  its  ravages,  and  has  experi- 
mented with  reference  to  the  remedies.  His 
report  is  illustrated  with  plates  representing 
attacked  roots  and  the  life-history  of  the 
enemy. 

The  June  number  of  the  Journal  of  Mor- 
phology, Vol.  Ill,  No.  1  (Prof.  C.  0.  Whit- 
man and  Edward  Phelps  Allis,  Jr.,  editors  ; 
Ginn  &  Co.),  contains  articles  on  "  The  Acti- 
niaria  of  the  Bahama  Islands,"  by  Dr.  J.  Play- 
fair  McMurrich  ;  "  Contributions  to  the  Com- 
parative Osteology  of  the  Families  of  North 


American  Passeres,"  and  "  Notes  on  the 
Anatomy  of  Spcotyto  cunicularia  hypogea^  by 
Dr.  R.  W.  Shufeldt ;  and  "  Variation  of  the 
Spinal  Nerves  in  the  Caudal  Region  of  the 
Domestic  Pigeon,"  by  James  I.  Peck.  The 
September  number,  Vol.  Ill,  No.  2,  has 
"The  Mechanical  Causes  of  the  Develop- 
ment of  the  Hard  Parts  of  the  Mammalia," 
by  E.  D.  Cope  ;  and  "  The  Embryology  of 
Blatta  germanica  and  Doryphora  decem- 
lincata  " — the  cockroach  and  the  Colorado 
potato  beetle — by  William  M.  Wheeler. 

A  Bibliography  of  Geodesy  was  compiled 
by  Prof.  J.  Howard  Gore  to  supply  a  need 
which  he  felt  while  preparing  a  work  on  the 
"  History  of  Geodesy."  Before  proceeding 
far  in  that  work  he  found  it  very  difficult  at 
any  time  to  make  sure  that  the  literature  re- 
garding the  operations  of  a  given  period  had 
been  exhausted,  and  he  sought  to  collect 
titles  as  well  as  the  works  themselves.  His 
purpose  extended  to  making  the  enterprise 
useful  to  others.  He  went  abroad  and 
searched  through  European  libraries,  exam- 
ined minor  libraries  by  proxy,  and  corre- 
sponded with  authors  to  find  if  they  had  any 
other  works  than  those  of  which  he  had  the 
titles.  The  outcome  of  this  persevering  la- 
bor is  a  list  filling  four  hundred  columns  of 
references,  with  short  remarks  where  the 
title  alone  is  not  explanatory  enough.  Sev- 
eral institutions,  among  them  the  Interna- 
tional Geodetic  Congress  of  Berlin,  offered 
to  publish  the  book  ;  but  the  author  thought 
our  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  was  entitled 
to  the  preference,  and  the  work  is  therefore 
issued  under  its  auspices. 

Part  I  of  the  nineteenth  volume  of  the 
"  Annals  of  the  Observatory  of  Harvard  Col- 
lege" contains  Meteorological  Observations 
made  during  the  Years  1S40  to  1888  inclu- 
sive, under  the  direction  of  the  several  di- 
rectors of  the  observatory,  Profs.  W.  C.  and 
G.  P.  Bond,  Joseph  Winlock,  and  F.  C.  Pick- 
ering.  Partial  publications  of  these  observa- 
tions could  already  be  found  in  the  "  Mem- 
oirs "  of  the  American  Academy  of  Arts 
and  Sciences,  the  "  American  Almanac,"  and 
the  Patent-Office  Reports,  but  it  has  seemed 
desirable  to  make  a  collection  of  the  monthly 
means.  The  volume  begins  with  a  history 
of  the  meteorological  work  of  the  observa- 
tory ;  the  "  monthly  and  annual  results " 
come  next ;   after  which  follow  "  Observa- 


568 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


tions  of  Aurora  Borealis,"  "  Thunder  and 
Lightning,"  and  "  Miscellaneous  Phenome- 
na," embracing  "  temperatures  of  wells,"  of 
"  river,  rain,  and  cellar,"  "  Extremes  of  At- 
mospheric Pressure  or  Temperature,"  "  So- 
lar Ilalos  and  Parhelia,"  lunar  halos,  and 
"  General  Remarks."— Vol.  XX,  Part  II,  of 
the  same  series  records  the  Observations 
made  at.  the  Blue  Hill  Meteorological  Observ- 
atory, Massachusetts,  in  1888,  with  a  state- 
ment of  the  local  weather  predictions,  under 
the  direction  of  A.  Lawrence  Rotch. 

A  paper  on  Domestic  Economy  in  Public 
Education,  by  Mrs.  Ellen  H.  Richards,  of 
the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology, 
is  published  in  the  series  of  "  Educational 
Monographs  "  of  the  New  York  College  for 
the  Training  of  Teachers.  The  success  of 
the  manual  training  system  that  has  been 
developed  out  of  the  carpentry  classes  for 
boys  has  prompted  the  author  to  look  for  a 
kindred  course  adapted  to  the  life  of  girls. 
She  finds  it  in  domestic  economy,  in  which 
the  purposes  of  sanitary  science  and  hygiene 
should  play  an  important  part.  A  schedule 
for  a  four  years'  course  is  introduced.  In 
it  cooking — "kitchen  science" — is  promi- 
nent, and  this,  the  author  insists,  can  be 
placed  on  a  level  with  the  use  of  workshop 
tools  as  a  means  of  mental  and  physical 
training.  Having  mentioned  the  scientific 
principles  involved  in  the  processes  of  pre- 
paring a  meal,  the  author  maintains  that 
"  the  school-girl  who  has  had  the  elements 
of  chemistry  and  physics,  which  are  often 
taught  as  abstract  sciences,  summed  up  and 
applied  to  the  making  of  a  simple  dish,  has 
had  her  mind  awakened  to  the  relations  and 
interdependence  of  things  as  no  other  train- 
ing now  given  can  awaken  it."  In  an  ap- 
pendix are  given  summaries  of  the  provis- 
ions made  for  teaching  domestic  economy  in 
several  public  schools  and  colleges  in  the 
United  States  and  in  the  girls'  schools  of  the 
city  of  Paris. — Another  number  of  the  same 
series  is  an  essay  on  Graphic  Methods  in 
Teaching,  by  diaries  Barnard,  with  an  in- 
troduction by  Prof.  John  F.  Woodhull,  set- 
ting forth  "  Training  in  Natural  Science  as 
an  Essential  Factor  in  the  Education  of  the 
Citizen."  Mr.  Barnard's  essay  embodies  the 
relation  of  experiences  in  training  children 
to  the  observation  of  natural  facts  and  phe- 
nomena, and  to  keeping  regular  records  of 


them  by  means  of  the  graphic  system,  with 
specimens  of  the  actual  work  of  certain 
children  in  that  line.  Of  the  value  to  the 
child  of  thus  recording  weather  observa- 
tions the  author  says :  "  The  making  of  the 
diagram  (printed  forms  should  never  be 
used)  is  something  in  the  way  of  mechanical 
drawing  that  is  a  good  training  for  the  hand 
and  eye.  Secondly,  the  diagram,  being  fast- 
ened upon  the  wall  in  some  convenient 
place,  becomes  a  reminder  of  stated  work  to 
be  done  at  a  fixed  hour — a  capital  training 
in  punctuality,  promptness,  and  precision." 
Then  the  thermometer  is  a  tool  which  the 
child  learns  to  use.  He  is  induced  to  go 
out  of  doors.  Pride  is  taken  in  the  work  as 
it  goes  on,  developing  a  regular  course.  It 
is  instructive  and  a  useful  exercise  in  neat- 
ness and  accuracy,  and  when  it  is  done  "  the 
child  has  two  graphic  statements  of  real 
phenomena  in  nature  observed  by  himself 
and  so  recorded  that  at  the  end  the  entire 
work  of  the  month  is  plainly  seen." 

The  Globe,  a  New  Quarterly  Review  of 
World-Literature,  Society,  Religion,  Art,  and 
Politics,  of  which  we  have  the  first  number, 
October  to  December,  1889,  is  projected  by 
William  Henry  Thome,  in  Chicago,  to  be  a 
"  first-class  literary  review,"  which  he  be- 
lieves we  have  not ;  and  he  aspires  "  to 
edit  and  publish  something  better,  broader, 
stronger,  and  more  cosmopolitan  "  than  any 
existing  American  periodical.  After  a  care- 
ful inspection  of  his  work  we  are  forced  to 
say  with  regret  that  he  has  not  reached  the 
object  of  his  aspiration,  and  that  the  want 
he  describes,  if  it  existed  before,  is  still  un- 
supplied.  The  initial  number  of  The  Globe 
contains  articles  on  "  The  Fuss  about  Bruno," 
"  The  English,  French,  and  American  Stage," 
"  The  Heroic  and  Commonplace  in  Art," 
"  Emerson  and  his  Biographers,"  "  Socialism 
and  Poetic  Retribution,"  "  Dr.  McCosh  and 
Modern  Philosophy,"  etc. 

Edenic  Diet,  the  Philosophy  of  Eating 
for  the  Physical  and  Mental  Man  (Isaac  B. 
Rumford,  Santa  Cruz,  Cal.,  25  cents),  is  in- 
tended primarily  to  exalt  an  exclusive  vege- 
table diet  and  furnish  recipes  involving  its 
principles.  To  this  are  added  a  mass  of 
rhapsodical  matter  and  a  scheme  for  "  an 
Edenic  home  "  which  those  may  enjoy  to 
whose  mode  of  thought  they  are  adapted. 

Mr.  J.  Madison  Cutts,  of   Washington, 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


569 


has  published,  as  especially  pertinent  to  the 
times,  an  address  by  the  late  Stephen  A. 
Douglas  on  An  American  Continental  Com- 
mercial Union  or  Alliance.  It  is,  he  says, 
the  last  paper  written  by  the  distinguished 
statesman,  and  has  not  been  published  be- 
fore. It  was  prepared  after  seven  of  the 
Southern  States  had  gone  through  the  form 
of  seceding,  and  was  intended  to  serve  as 
one  of  Mr.  Douglas's  immediate  plans  to 
promote  the  future  welfare  of  the  country  in 
case  a  reconciliation  and  restoration  were 
effected.  Besides  its  interest  as  the  last 
thought  of  one  of  the  most  distinguished 
statesmen  of  the  period  before  the  war,  the 
address  is  pertinent  on  account  of  its  di- 
rect bearing  on  a  scheme  of  national  policy 
which  is  now  under  discussion. 

In  an  essay  on  God  and  iJie  Universe, 
Mr.  James  W.  Stillman  proposes  to  consider 
41  the  alleged  existence  of  a  Supreme  Being 
and  the  theistic  hypothesis  of  creation." 
lie  is  brought  to  the  conclusion  that  "  the 
whole  problem  of  the  existence  of  God  and  the 
origin  of  the  universe  is  entirely  beyond  and 
above  the  scope  of  the  human  intellect "  ; 
and  there  he  is  content  to  leave  the  matter. 
In  a  pamphlet  on  The  Disposal  of  the 
Dead,  Dr.  John  M.  Peacocke,  of  Brooklyn, 
after  considering  other  methods,  suggests 
desiccation,  which  was  practiced  by  the  an- 
cient Peruvians,  as  in  many  respects  the 
preferable  one. 

Questions  for  Debate  in  politics  and  eco- 
nomics is  the  latest  publication  (No.  XXVIII) 
of  the  Society  for  Political  Education,  330 
Pearl  Street,  New  York.  A  perusal  of  its 
pages  shows  its  compilers  to  have  seized 
upon  every  living  issue  affecting  American 
citizenship.  In  addition  to  the  questions, 
subjects  for  essays  are  given,  as  well  as 
terms  for  definition.  Brief  and  pithy  hints 
to  debaters  and  essay-writers  are  included,  as 
also  a  form  of  constitution  and  by-liws  for 
debatiug-clubs.    Pages  40.    Price,  25  cents. 


PUBLICATIONS    RECEIVED. 

Anthropology,  Miscellaneous  Papers  on.  Wash- 
ington :  Government  Printing-Office  (Smithsonian 
Institution).     Pp.  12-1. 

Atkinson,  Edward.  The  Industrial  Progress  of 
the  Nation.  New  York  and  London :  G.  P.  Put- 
nam's Sons.     Pp.  395. 

Barker,  George  F.  An  Account  of  the  Progress 
of  Physics  in  the  Year  18S6.  Washington  :  Govern- 
ment Printing-Offlce  (Smithsonian  Institution).  Pp. 
60. 


Bell,  Alexander  Melville.  Popular  Manual  of 
Yocal  Physiology  and  Visible  Speech.  New  York : 
E.  S.  Werner,  2S  West  Twenty-thud  Street.  Pp.  L9. 
50  cents. 

Benson,  Lawrence  Sinter,  25  Bond  Street,  New 
York.     Tract  on  Mensuration.     Pp.16. 

Boehmer,  George  H.  Report  on  Smithsonian 
Exchanges.  Washington  :  Government  Printing- 
Oflice  (Smithsonian  Institution).     Pp.  24. 

Bolton,  H.  Carrington.  Account  of  the  Progress 
of  Chemistry  in  18^6.  Washington:  Government 
rrinting-Office  (Smithsonian  Institution).     Pp.  52. 

Breneman,  A.  A.,  Editor.  "Journal  of  the 
American  Chemical  Society."  Vol.  XI.  Nos.  7  and 
S.  September  and  October,  1S89.  Pp.  16  each.  $5 
a  year. 

Broadhead,  Prof.  G.  C,  University  of  Missouri. 
Mitchell  County,  Texas.  Pp.  4.— Missouri :  its  Min- 
eral Resources.  Pp.  8.— 'lhe  Missouri  River.  Pp. 
S.-The  Geological  History  of  the  Ozark  Uplift. 
Pp.  8. 

Brooklyn  Ethical  Association.  Evolution.  Popu- 
lar Lectures  and  Discussions.  Boston :  James  H. 
West.    Pp.  400. 

Clark  University,  Worcester,  Mass.  Opening 
Exercises,  October  2,  1S89.    Pp.  44. 

Connecticut  Agricultural  Experiment  Station. 
Bulletin  No.  100.     Analyses  of  Fertilizers.     Pp.  28. 

Cope,  E.  D.,  Philadelphia.  The  Horned  Dino- 
sauria  of  the  Laramie.  Pp.  3.  with  Two  Plates.— An 
Outline  of  the  Philosophy  of  Evolution.     Pp.  10. 

Cornell  University  College  of  Agriculture;  Ex- 
periment Station.  On  a  Sand-Fly  Borer  in  Wheat. 
Pp.  16,  with  Plate, 

Cosmic  Law,  The,  of  Thermal  Repulsion.  New 
York  :  John  Wiley  &  Sons.    Pp.  CO.    75  cents. 

Crooker,  Joseph  Henry.  Problems  in  American 
Society.    Boston  :  George  II.  Ellis.    Pp.  293. 

Dana,  Edward  S.  Account  of  the  Progress  ot 
Mineralogy  in  18S6.  Washington :  Government 
Priuting-Office  (Smithsonian  Institution).    Pp.  28. 

Dana,  James  D.  Biographical  Memoir  of  Prof. 
Arnold  Guyot.  Washington  :  Government  Printing- 
office  (Smithsonian  Institution).     Pp.  30. 

Darton,  Nelson  H.  Account  of  the  Progress  of 
North  American  Geology  in  1886.  Washingtou  : 
Government  Printing-Offico  (Smithsonian  Institu- 
tion).   Pp.  40. 

Davidson,  J.  F.,  &  Co.,  New  York.  Inventor's 
Manual.  By  an  Experienced  and  Successful  Invent- 
or.   Pp.  96.    .$1. 

Donisthorpe,  Wordsworth.  Individualism.  A 
System  of  Politics.  London  and  New  York:  Mac- 
millan  &  Co.     Pp.  vii-393.    $4. 

Drey,  Sylvan.  The  Moral  and  Religious  Aspects 
of  Herbert  Spencer's  Philosophy.  Boston :  James 
H.  West.    Pp.  14.    10  ets. 

Ferree,  Barr,  New  Yrork.  The  Element  of  Ter- 
ror in  Primitive  Art.     Pp.  20. 

Flower,  B.  O.,  Editor.  "  The  Arena."  Monthly. 
January,  1S89.  Vol.1.  No.  2.  Boston :  The  Arena 
Publishing  Company.    Pp.  12S.    50  cents.    $5  a  year. 

Franklin,  Christine  Ladd.  On  some  Character- 
istics of  Symbolic  Logic.     Pp.  25. 

Gibbons,  Cardinal ;  Bishop  Kane,  Edwin  D.  Mead, 
Ph.  D.,  and  Hon.  John  Jay.  Denominational  Schools. 
A  Discussion.  Syracuse,  N.  Y. :  C.  W.  Bardeen. 
Pp.  71. 

Gill,  Theodore.  Account  of  Progress  in  Zoology 
in  1886.  Washington  :  Government  Printing-Office 
(Smithsonian  Institution).     Pp.  44. 

Gouvy,  M.  A.,  Jr. ;  W.  F.  Durfee,  translator.  An 
Investigation  of  the  Construction  of  the  Various 
Kinds  of  Cupolas  that  have  been  used  for  the  melt- 
ing of  Pig-iron.  Philadelphia:  The  Franklin  Insti- 
tute.   Pp.  53. 

Hall,  G.  Stanley.  "The  American  Journal  of 
Psychology."  Vol"  II.  No.  4.  Quarterly.  Wor- 
cester, Mass. :  E.  C.  Sandford.  Pp.  168.  $1.50 ;  $5 
a  year. 


57° 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


Harris,  "William  T.,  LL.  D.  Introduction  to  the 
Study  of  Philosophy.  New  York  :  D.  Appleton  & 
Co.  Pp.  287.  $l".50.—  The  Educational  Value  of 
Manual  Training.  Pp.  14.— Art  Education  the  True 
Industrial  Education.  Pp.  a.  Syracuse,  N.  Y. :  C. 
W   Bardeen.    15  cents  each. 

Haworth,  Prof.  Erasmus,  Oskaloosa,  Iowa.  The 
Chemistry  of  Narcotics.     Pp.49.    25  cents. 

Henry,  Mrs,  S.  M.  I.  Prances  Raymond's  In- 
vestment. Pp.51.  £0  cents.— Unanswered  Prayer. 
Pp  106.  50  cents.  Chicago:  Woman's  Temperance 
Publication  Association. 

Hill,  Robert  T.,  University  of  Texas.  Check- 
List  of  Invertebrate  Fossils  from  the  Cretaceous 
Formations  of  Texas,  etc.  Part  I.  Pp.  20.— The 
Foraminiferous  Origin  of  Certain  Limestones  and 
the  Sequence  of  Sediments  in  the  North  American 
Cretaceous.  Pp.  4.— Paleontology  of  the  Cretaceous 
Formations  of  Texas.  Part  I.  Pp.  4,  with  Three 
Plates.  25  cents. — Relation  of  the  Uppermost  Cre- 
taceous Beds  of  the  Eastern  and  Southern  United 
States.  Pp.  2— With  R.  A.  F.  Penrose,  Jr.  Ter- 
tiary Cretaceous  Parting  of  Arkansas  and  Texas. 
Pp.4. 

Hitchcock,  Romyn.  The  Action  of  Light  on 
Silver  Chloride.     Pp.  6. 

Hough,  Walter.  The  Preservation  of  Museum 
Specimens  from  Insects  and  the  Effects  of  Dampness. 
Washington  :  Government  Printing-Office  (.Smith- 
sonian Institution).     Pp.  S. 

Huxley,  Thomas  H.  The  Advance  of  Science  in 
the  Last  Half-Century.  Washington:  Government 
Printing-Office  (Smithsonian  Institution).     Pp.  42. 

Janes,  Lews  G.  The  Scope  and  Principles  of  the 
Evolution  Philosophy.  Boston:  James  H.  West. 
Pp.  26.     10  cents. 

Kellerman,  W.  A.  Preliminary  Report  on  Smut 
in  Oats.  Kansas  State  Agricultural  College  Experi- 
ment Station,  Manhattan.    Pp.  24,  with  Four  Plates. 

Libbey,  William,  Jr.  Account  of  the  Progress  of 
Geography  and  Exploration  in  1SS6.  Washington  : 
Government  Printing-Office  (Smithsonian  Institu- 
tion).    Pp.  12. 

Marcou,  John  Belknap.  Bibliography  of  North 
American  Paleontology  for  1836.  Washington : 
Government  Printing-Office  (Smithsonian  Institu- 
tion).     Pp.  60. 

Martin,  H.  Newell,  and  Brooks,  W.  K.,  Editors. 
Studies  from  the  Biological  Laboratory  of  Johns 
Hopkins  University.  November,  1889.  Pp.  64.  75 
cents ;  $5  a  volume. 

Mason,  John  W.,  Commissioner.  Report  of  the 
Commissioner  of  Internal  Revenue  to  June  30, 18S9. 
Washington  :  Government  Printing-Office.   Pp.  218. 

Mason,  Otis  T.  The  Human  Beast  of  Burden. 
Pp.  56. — Account  of  the  Progress  of  Anthropology 
in  1886.  Pp.  44. — Cradles  of  the  American  Aborigi- 
nes. Pp.  72.  Washington  :  Government  Printing- 
Office  (Smithsonian  Institution).     Pp.  44. 

Michigan,  Agricultural  College  of;  Botanical  De- 
partment. Experiments  and  Observations  on  the 
Jack-Pine  Plains.    Pp.  10. 

Missouri  Botanical  Garden.  Announcement  con- 
cerning Garden  Pupils.     Pp.  8. 

New  England  Meteorological  Society.  Monthly 
Bulletins. 

New  York  Academy  of  Sciences.  Annals.  Pp. 
56. 

Ohio  Agricultural  Experiment  Station.  Bulletin, 
Technical  Series.  No.  1.  Studies  of  Insects  and  Pond 
Life.     Pp.  46,  with  Two  Flates. 

Photo-Engraving  Company,  67  to  71  Park  Place, 
N.  Y.     Specimens,  with  Twenty-one  Plates. 

Pilling,  James  Constantine.  Bibliographies  :  Of 
the  Siouan  Languages.  Pp.  S5.— Of  the  Muskho- 
gean  Languages.  Pp.  114.— Of  the  Iroquoian  Lan- 
guages. Pp.  208.— Of  the  Eskimo  Language.  Pp. 
116.  Washington  :  Government  Printing-Office 
(Smithsonian  Institution). 

1'orter.  Dr.  J.  II.  Notes  on  the  Artificial  Defor- 
mation of  Children  among  Savage  and  Civilized 
Peoples,  with  a  Bibliography.    Washington:  Gov- 


ernment Printing-Office  (Smithsonian  Institution). 
Pp.  12. 

Posse,  Nils.  Douglas  Graham,  Massage  Trans- 
lation into  Swedish,  Lund.     Boston  •  C.  Schoenhof. 

Potts,  Edward.  Report  upon  some  Fresh-Water 
Sponges  collected  in  Florida  by  James  Willcox,  Esq. 
Pp.  3. 

Pratt,  C.  S.,  and  Ella  Farman,  Editors.  "  Wide 
Awake."  December,  1889.  Monthly.  Pp.  120. 
Boston:  D.  Lothrop  Company.  20  cents,  $2.40  a 
year. 

Pratt  Institute  Record.  Founder's  Day  Number. 
Pp.  53.— Thrift  Association.   Pp.  10.   Brooklyn.  N.  T. 

Rockwood,  C.  G.,  Jr.  Account  of  the  Progress 
of  Vulcanology  and  Seismology  in  1886.  Washing- 
ton: Government  Printing-Office  (Smithsonian  In- 
stitution).    Pp.  24. 

Shufeldt,  R.  W.,  M.  D.  Contributions  to  the 
Comparative  Osteology  of  the  Families  of  North 
American  Passeres.  Pp.  32,  with  Plates. — Anatomy 
of  Speototo  Cunicularia  IIypog£ea.  Pp.  11,  with 
Plates.    Boston  :  Ginn  &  Co. 

Society  for  Political  Education,  New  York. 
Questions  for  Debate.    Pp.  40.    25  cents. 

Stearns,  Robert  E.  C.  Ethno-Conchology :  A 
Study  of  Primitive  Money.  Washington  :  Govern- 
ment Printing-Office  (Smithsonian  Institution).  Pp. 
36,  with  Plates. 

Transfer,  The,  of  the  U.  S.  Weather  Service  to  a 
Civil  Bureau.  Boston  :  Alfred  Mudge  &,  Son.  Pp. 
32. 

Upham,  Warren,  Somerville,  Mass.  Marine 
Shells  and  Fragments  of  Shells  in  the  Till  near  Bos- 
ton. Pp.  16.— The  Structure  of  Drumlins.  Pp.  14. 
— Glaciation  of  Mountains  in  New  England  and  New 
York.    Pp.  82. 

Wiley,  John,  &  Sons.  Now  York.  Catalogue  of 
Books  on  Chemistry,  Electricity,  Physics,  etc.  Pp. 
60. 

Willard,  Frances  E.  The  Year's  Bright  Chain. 
Chicago:  Woman's  Temperance  Publication  Asso- 
ciation.   50  cents. 

Winchell.  N.  H.  Natural  Gas  in  Minnesota.  Pp. 
89.— The  History  of  Geological  Surveys  in  Minne- 
sota. Pp.  37. — Geological  and  Natural  History  Sur- 
vey of  Minnesota.  Seventeenth  Annual  Report. 
Pp.  273.    St.  Paul. 

Woman's  Temperance  Publication  Association, 
Chicago.  Crusader  Programmes  for  the  Loyal  Tem- 
perance Legion.  Pp.  188.  25  cents.— Songs  of  the 
Young  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union.  Pp. 
96.    25  cents. 

WoodhulL  Zula  Maud.  The  Proposal :  A  Dia- 
logue.   London.     Pp.  82. 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 

Flour-making  in  the  Northwest. — Mr. 

Charles  A.  Pillsbury,  of  Minneapolis,  states 
that  the  manufacture  of  flour  is  to-day  prob- 
ably the  largest  industry  in  the  United  States, 
not  excepting  that  of  iron.  About  85,000,000 
barrels  of  flour,  of  an  average  value  of 
about  $400,000,000,  are  made  in  this  country 
yearly.  About  ten  per  cent  of  this  product 
is  manufactured  in  Minneapolis.  As  much 
as  1,000  car-loads  of  wheat  are  often  re- 
ceived at  Minneapolis  in  a  single  day,  or 
enough  to  load  a  train  six  miles  long.  To 
say  that  flour  made  from  Minnesota  and  Da- 
kota wheat  is  the  best  in  the  world  is  only 
saying  what  is  recognized  by  the  trade  the 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 


571 


world  over,  in  the  prices  which  it  brings  as 
compared  with  other  flours.  Wheat  grown 
in  this  latitude  has  so  large  a  proportion  of 
gluten  and  phosphates  that  it  is  gradually 
but  surely  crowding  more  starchy  flours  to 
the  wall.  When  Mr.  Pillsbury  began  milling 
twenty  years  ago,  he  secretly  brought  flour 
from  St.  Louis  to  use  in  his  own  family. 
Minneapolis  flour  sold  very  much  below  that 
made  in  other  sections  of  this  country,  and 
stood  at  the  foot  of  the  list  in  market  quo- 
tations. Now  it  stands  at  the  top  of  the 
list.  A  Board  of  Trade  report,  of  the  city 
of  Minneapolis,  for  1866,  stated  that  the 
production  of  flour  in  the  city  during  that 
year  was  172,000  barrels;  now  it  is  forty 
times  as  much.  Only  eleven  years  ago  the 
amount  of  flour  made  in  Minneapolis  and 
exported  from  this  country  was  109,183  bar- 
rels ;  now  it  is  over  3,000,000,  or  thirty 
times  as  much.  It  is  the  improvement 
which  has  been  made  in  milling  in  this  sec- 
tion which  has  accomplished  these  results. 
It  has  also  made  the  rapid  settlement  of  the 
Northwest  possible,  as  wheat  is  by  all  odds 
the  chief  crop  of  that  region.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  rapid  increase  of  the  farming  pop- 
ulation in  the  tributary  country  has  made 
possible  the  rapid  increase  of  mills  in  Min- 
neapolis. Another  thing  that  has  contrib- 
uted largely  to  this  result  is  cheap  trans- 
portation to  the  East.  A  few  years  ago  the 
millers  were  paying  one  dollar  and  a  half  a 
barrel  to  get  their  flour  carried  to  the  sea- 
board ;  now  the  rate  is  only  fifty-five  cents. 
Mr.  Pillsbury  deems  it  quite  possible  that 
the  flour  industry  of  the  Northwest  is  even 
yet  in  its  infancy,  as  probably  not  more 
than  ten  per  cent  of  the  available  land  trib- 
utary to  Minneapolis  has  been  placed  under 
cultivation. 

Aboriginal  Mounds  in  Manitoba. — The 

Winnipeg  mound  region,  as  described  in 
the  American  Association,  by  Prof.  George 
Byles,  of  Manitoba  College,  includes  a  dis- 
trict some  four  hundred  miles  long  from 
east  to  west,  and  running  from  the  interna- 
tional boundary  north  to  at  least  latitude  50°. 
The  author  had  seen  some  sixty  mounds 
and  had  opened  ten,  working  usually  in  con- 
nection with  the  Manitoba  Historical  Society. 
Numerous  skeletons  have  been  exhumed.  Un- 
manufactured articles  found  included  large 


quantities  of  charcoal — red  and  yellow  ochre 
and  birch  bark  charred.  Manufactured  ar- 
ticles :  Stone  implements,  scrapers,  gouges, 
chisels,  axes,  malls,  conjurers'  tubes,  and  a 
set  of  gaming  stones.  Bones :  Breast  orna- 
ments of  various  kinds,  whistles,  beads,  etc. 
Shells :  Columella  of  conch  from  trophies, 
tropical  natica  and  marginetta  shells  made 
into  beads,  wampum,  and  breast  ornaments. 
Horn :  Fish-spear,  pottery,  numerous  marked 
fragments,  various  copper  implements,  and 
near  one  skeleton  two  lumps  of  arsenical 
pyrites,  no  doubt  used  as  sacred  objects. 
All  mounds  were  circular,  and  all  on  promi- 
nent headlands.  The  majority  contained 
skeletons,  probably  of  Mandans  of  the  Mis- 
souri, who  fifty  years  ago  were  almost  ex- 
terminated by  small-pox.  Certain  mounds, 
from  the  state  of  the  bones  and  certain  topo- 
graphical and  geological  considerations,  are 
likely  to  date  from  the  beginning  of  their 
central  parts  four  hundred  years  back. 

Tapestries. — The  word  tapestry  has  pri- 
mary reference  to  carpets.  As  now  used, 
we  learn  from  a  lecture  by  Mr.  Alan  S.  Cole 
upon  the  subject,  it  may  be  read  in  two 
senses :  one  in  which  it  refers  to  hangings 
generally  ;  and  the  other  in  which  it  implies 
a  special  method  of  producing  a  textile  fab- 
ric. In  making  carpet  by  hand,  as  in  ordi- 
nary weaving,  a  stretched  warp  is  necessary  ; 
but  the  warp-threads  play  no  visible  part  in 
the  face  of  the  carpet.  They  are  covered 
with  weft-threads.  Instead  of  a  shuttle 
with  a  weft,  as  in  weaving,  various  sets  of 
thread  are  used,  which  are  looped,  knotted, 
and  intertwined  upon  the  warp-threads.  In 
making  carpets  with  a  pile,  the  ends  of  the 
threads  which  have  been  knotted  upon  the 
warp  are  cut.  From  above  these  knotted 
threads,  and  across  and  in  between  the  warp- 
threads,  a  stout  thread  is  thrown.  This  is 
pressed  down  with  a  comb,  so  as  to  com- 
pact the  whole  fabric.  A  fresh  series  of 
knottings  is  then  made,  and  the  previous 
operations  are  repeated.  In  another  closely 
allied  process  for  making  carpets  and  hang- 
ings, a  stout  cord  is  thrown  across  and  in 
between  the  warp-threads ;  no  scissors  are 
used  to  cut  the  ends  of  knotted  warp-threads, 
and  no  pile  is  produced.  This  process  re- 
quires the  variously  colored  wefts  to  be  in- 
tertwisted   between    groups    of  the   warp- 


572 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


threads ;  and  in  this  respect  it  is  almost 
identical  with  that  particular  process  which 
is  known  as  tapestry- making  ;  but  tapestries 
are  finished  for  display  on  one  side  only. 
They  are  made  upon  vertical  threads,  when 
they  are  high-warp  or  haute  lisse,  or  upon 
horizontal  threads,  when  they  are  low-warp 
or  basse  lisse,  tapestries.  But  the  results  of 
both  methods  are  virtually  identical,  so  that 
it  is  almost  impossible  to  detect  any  pecul- 
iarity which  shall  distinguish  one  from  the 
other.  The  earlier  hangings  appear  to  have 
been  of  lighter  material  than  that  of  the 
special  fabric ;  and  they  were  ornamented 
by  weaving,  embroidery,  or  painting.  The 
special  process  was  applied  in  early  times 


to  making  small 


ornamental  trimmings  for 


costume.  Its  application  to  works  on  a  much 
larger  scale  appears  to  date  from  the  twelfth 
and  thirteenth  centuries,  although  it  had 
probably  been  already  employed  in  old 
Asiatic  civilizations  for  carpets.  The  num- 
ber of  colors  of  the  earlier  tapestries  was  re- 
stricted, but,  after  the  tapestry-making  craft 
was  established,  a  more  generous  scheme  of 
colors  was  employed.  This  has  developed 
in  such  a  way  that  it  is  a  boast  now  at  the 
Gobelins  factory  that  they  have  upward  of 
fourteen  thousand  four  hundred  tons  of 
colors  in  dyes  for  threads. 

Our  Arid  Regions  aud  the  Rainfall. — 
The  soils  of  the  arid  regions  of  the  United 
States,  according  to  the  paper  read  by  Prof. 
J.  R.  Dodge  at  the  meeting  of  the  American 
Association,  are  generally  fertile  to  excess. 
The  only  amelioration  they  require  is  that 
which  is  secured  by  the  application  of  water. 
That  may  be  obtained  from  natural  precipi- 
tation; by  irrigation  from  supplies  at  pres- 
ent available  or  from  storage  reservoirs  and 
catch-basins  to  be  erected  to  hold  the  sur- 
plus of  rains ;  by  pumping  from  the  under- 
ground channels  of  streams ;  or  by  means 
of  artesian  wells.  After  all  available  water 
has  been  obtained  by  these  means  and  ex- 
pedients, there  is  still  a  large  part  of  the 
superficial  area  that  must  remain  unirrigated. 
Some  say  that  this  part  constitutes  four  fifths 
or  five  sixths  of  the  whole,  but  those  who 
have  an  intimate  knowledge  of  the  practical 
work  of  irrigation  insist  that  it  is  not  more 
than  one  tenth  or  one  eighth  of  the  area. 
Still,  the  remainder  is  not  quite  a  desert. 


There  are  what  are  called  agricultural  rain- 
belts  which,  with  from  fifteen  to  eighteen 
inches  of  water,  sometimes  twenty  inches  per 
annum,  are  found  to  produce  good  crops  of 
corn  up  to  an  elevation  of  three  thousand  or 
four  thousand  feet,  and  wheat,  oats,  potatoes, 
alfalfa,  and  many  grasses  up  to  six  thousand 
or  seven  thousand  feet,  by  adaptation  of 
methods  of  cultivation  to  suit  the  best  utili- 
zation of  available  moisture.  The  question 
of  increasing  rainfall  gains  an  affirmative 
answer  from  practical  cultivators,  while  the 
records  of  the  rain-gauge  fail  to  make  such 
a  response.  There  is  an  increase,  if  not  in 
actual  rain,  certainly  in  available  moisture ; 
for  the  water  which  formerly  flowed  away 
with  as  much  facility  as  from  the  back  of  a 
duck,  is  nearly  all  retained  by  cultivated 
lands.  If  the  irrigation  is  general  and  con- 
tinued for  years,  there  is  a  change  of  climate, 
with  more  moisture  in  the  atmosphere,  dews 
at  night  frequent  where  they  were  formerly 
unknown,  and  general  enhancement  of  the 
agricultural  value  of  the  air. 

The  Beanty  of  Childhood. — A  recent  dis- 
covery of  classical  sculptures  has  recalled 
attention  to  the  fact  that  the  ancients  had, 
so  far  as  appears  from  their  works,  no  ap- 
preciation of  the  beauty  of  childhood.  In 
the  present  instance,  in  which  the  figures 
relate  to  death  scenes  and  include  family 
pictures,  while  the  mature  characters  are 
represented  with  the  best  skill  which  the 
artist  could  command,  the  children — at  the 
age  fullest  of  beauty  for  a  modern  eye — are 
executed  with  archaic  clumsiness.  Miss  Har- 
rison has  pointed  out,  in  her  lectures  on 
Greek  sculpture,  that  representations  of  in- 
fancy are  characteristic  of  the  decaying  art 
of  Alexandria ;  the  best  period  of  art  affords 
no  specimen  of  such  a  choice  of  subject. 
"  The  artists  whose  work  has  afforded  models 
for  all  time  have  not  left  a  single  specimen 
of  that  beauty  which  modern  eyes  most  ad- 
mire, the  beauty  of  childhood."  And  in 
Grecian  and  Roman  literature  there  is  none 
of  that  happy  picturing,  that  dwelling  with 
delight  upon  the  beauties  of  childhood  that 
seem  to  have  entered  into  the  very  essence 
of  modern  natures.  To  the  Romans,  "  in- 
fancy was  only  a  journey  toward  manhood ; 
the  sooner  it  was  over  the  better."  In  the 
reference  to  childhood  which  is  most  truly 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY 


573 


affecting  of  all  in  ancient  literature,  the 
fright  of  the  child  in  Homer's  "  Parting  of 
Hector  and  Andromache,"  the  interest,  "  if 
we  analyze  it,  belongs  rather  to  an  impartial 
delineation  of  human  life  as  it  is,  than  to 
any  sympathy  with  the  helplessness  and  de- 
pendence of  its  earliest  stage."  While  mod- 
ern art  does  not  show  an  equal  lack  of  the 
taste  for  childhood,  it  "  is  comparatively 
feeble  at  all  times  in  comparison  with  the 
feeling  of  our  own  day."  This  feeling  is  re- 
flected in  its  intensity  first  in  the  poem3  of 
Wordsworth  and  the  pictures  of  Sir  Joshua 
Reynolds.  "  This  sympathy  with  childhood," 
says  the  writer  in  the  "  Spectator "  whose 
essay  we  have  summarized,  "  which  gives  its 
coloring  to  modern  literature  and  art,  is  to 
be  traced  back  to  utterances  which  have  in- 
fluenced more  than  the  literature  and  art  of 
modern  Europe.  '  Except  ye  become  as  little 
children,  ye  can  not  enter  into  the  kingdom 
of  heaven,'  was  a  saying  new  to  the  world. 
The  fresh  aspect  under  which  all  weakness, 
all  dependence,  appeared  in  the  light  of  that 
teaching,  was  evidently  bewildering  to  its 
hearers."  It  took  centuries  for  the  Chris- 
tian world  to  take  in  the  full  meaning  of 
that  utterance,  which  has  not  been  realized 
as  a  fact  of  ordinary  life  till  nearly  our  own 
time.  But  now,  "  for  a  year  or  two  in  this 
pilgrimage  of  ours,  the  most  commonplace, 
the  most  tiresome  of  us  is  invested  with  this 
wonderful  capacity  [of  persuasion  and  con- 
ciliation] ;  every  human  being  has  once  upon 
a  time  hushed  enmities  and  bridged  estrange- 
ment." 

Iron  as  a  Purifier  of  Water. — The  power 
of  iron  to  remove  coloring  matter  and  or- 
ganic contamination  from  impure  waters  has 
been  made  capable,  by  recent  improvements 
in  processes,  of  receiving  a  greatly  extended 
application.  In  Prof.  Bischof's  system,  a 
sand  filter  which  separates  the  mechanical 
impurities  is  underlaid  by  a  mixture  of 
gravel  and  iron  in  the  proportion  of  three 
parts  to  one.  When  the  water  is  drawn  off 
from  this  filter  after  using,  no  discoloration 
is  visible  in  the  upper  sand,  nor  till  near  the 
iron  mixture.  In  this  the  particles  of  gravel 
and  iron  become  thickly  coated  and  mixed 
with  the  reddish,  slimy  product  of  the  chemi- 
cal action  of  the  iron ;  and,  still  lower  down, 
the  mixture  is  black,  and  not   subject   to 


change.  The  slimy-coated  mixture  has  to 
be  removed  and  washed  every  six  months. 
By  another  improvement  the  iron  is  pre- 
sented in  a  state  of  constant  agitation,  and 
the  slimy  coating  being  washed  away  as  fast 
as  it  is  formed,  an  always  clean  surface  is 
offered  to  the  water.  The  working  of  the 
method  is  satisfactory,  and  may,  by  adding 
fresh  iron  from  time  to  time,  be  made  near- 
ly continuous.  The  purification  depends 
upon  the  chemical  action  of  iron  on  organic 
matter  in  solution,  and  its  property  of  co- 
agulating very  finely  divided  particles  of 
matter  so  that  they  can  be  removed  by  fil- 
tration. The  iron,  in  this  process,  changes 
the  chemical  nature  of  the  organic  matter 
and  greatly  reduces  the  albuminoid  ammo- 
nia; softens  the  hard  scales  that  form  in 
boilers,  and  destroys  or  removes  much  of  the 
infusorial  life  in  the  water. 

A  Bit  of  Triassic  History. — Mr.  W.  M. 

Davis's  study  of  the  "  Topographic  Devel- 
opment of  the  Triassic  Formation  of  the 
Connecticut  Valley  "  shows  that  the  country 
from  northwest  to  southeast  suffered  from 
repeated  faultings  after  the  trap  sheets  had 
taken  their  places,  as  extensive  surface-flows, 
in  the  stratified  series,  the  trend  of  the  faults 
being  to  the  southwest.  The  initial  con- 
structional regions  are  represented  by  the 
faulted  blocks  of  southern  Idaho.  A  mount- 
ainous variety  of  form  prevailed  —  which 
may  provisionally  be  called  the  Jurassic 
stage  of  the  evolution  of  the  district ;  but 
in  time — during  the  Cretaceous — the  fault- 
ed ridges  were  reduced  to  a  low,  base-leveled 
plain,  in  which  the  present  valleys  were  worn 
after  its  elevation.  The  Connecticut  River 
was  originally  consequent  on  the  monoclinal 
faulting ;  and,  while  it  has  entered  on  a  sec- 
ond cycle  of  life  as  a  result  of  the  elevation 
of  the  lowland  that  was  produced  in  its  first 
cycle,  it  still  persists  in  the  course  it  first  took. 

Uranium. — It  is  now  a  hundred  years 
since  Klaproth  (in  17S9)  discovered  the 
metal  which  be  named  after  the  planet 
Uranus,  then  recently  discovered  by  Her- 
schcl.  Uranic  oxide,  which  is  yellow,  is 
used  to  produce  a  beautiful  golden  color, 
and,  with  other  minerals,  opalescent  tint3 
in  glass  and  porcelain.  The  pentoxide  is 
black,  and    is   used  in  the  production   of 


574 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


costly  black  porcelain  and  the  dark  tints  in 
majolica-ware.  The  chloride  of  uranium  is 
coming  into  use  as  a  substitute  for  the  chlo- 
ride of  gold  in  photography.  It  is  antici- 
pated that  two  extensive  fields  for  the  em- 
ployment of  the  metal  will  soon  be  opened. 
One  is  as  a  substitute  for  gold  in  electro- 
plated ware,  for  with  platinum  and  copper 
it  forms  two  beautiful  yellow  alloys.  Its 
platinum  alloy  has  a  special  value  from  its 
power  of  resistance  to  the  action  of  acids. 
The  other  use  will  be  found  in  electric  in- 
stallations, and  depends  on  its  high  elec- 
trical resistance.  Uranium  has  hitherto 
been  found  only  in  pockets  or  patches  in 
Bohemia,  Saxony,  and  Cornwall,  but  in  the 
centennial  year  of  its  discovery  a  lode  of 
the  metal  which  promises  a  large  supply 
was  found  in  the  latter  region. 

A  Chemist's  Services  to  Mankind.— In  a 

recent  address  on  the  life-work  of  Pasteur, 
Sir  Henry  E.  Roscoe  emphasized  the  benefits 
to  humanity  which  have  resulted  from  the 
researches  of  the  great  French  chemist. 
"The  first  and  obvious  endeavor  of  every 
cultivator  of  science,"  he  said,  "  ought  to  be 
to  render  service  of  this  kind.  For,  although 
it  is  foolish  and  shortsighted  to  decry  the 
pursuit  of  any  form  of  scientific  study  be- 
cause it  may  be  as  yet  far  removed  from 
practical  application  to  the  wants  of  man, 
and  although  such  studies  may  be  of  great 
value  as  an  incentive  to  intellectual  activity, 
yet  the  statement  is  so  evident  as  to  almost 
amount  to  a  truism,  that  discoveries  which 
give  us  the  power  of  rescuing  a  population 
from  starvation,  or  which  tend  to  diminish 
the  ills  that  flesh,  whether  of  man  or  beast, 
is  heir  to,  must  deservedly  attract  more  at- 
tention and  create  a  more  general  interest 
than  others  having  so  far  no  direct  bearing 
on  the  welfare  of  the  race."  Pasteur's  se- 
ries of  valuable  labors,  including  the  discov- 
ery of  the  causes  and  remedies  for  the  sick- 
nesses which  wine  and  beer  undergo,  the 
cure  of  the  silk-worm  disease,  the  existence 
of  which  in  one  year  cost  France  more  than 
one  hundred  millions  of  francs,  the  extermi- 
nation of  fowl-cholera,  and  of  the  fatal  dis- 
ease known  as  anthrax  in  cattle  and  wool- 
sorters'  disease  in  man,  culminates  in  his  dis- 
covery of  a  successful  treatment  for  rabies. 
Prof.  Itoscoc  gives  an  idea  of  the  wide  de- 


mand for  the  treatment  of  Pasteur's  labora- 
tory in  these  words :  "  There  I  saw  the  French 
peasant  and  the  Russian  moujik  (suffering 
from  the  terrible  bites  of  rabid  wolves),  the 
swarthy  Arab,  the  English  policeman,  with 
women  too  and  children  of  every  age,  in  all 
perhaps  a  hundred  patients.  All  were  there 
undergoing  the  careful  and  kindly  treat- 
ment which  was  to  insure  them  against  a 
horrible  death.  Such  a  sight  will  not  be 
easily  forgotten.  By  degrees  this  wonder- 
ful cure  for  so  deadly  a  disease  attracted 
the  attention  of  men  of  science  throughout 
the  civilized  world.  The  French  nation 
raised  a  monument  to  the  discoverer  better 
than  any  statue,  in  the  shape  of  the  '  Pasteur 
Institute' — an  institution  devoted  to  carry- 
ing out  in  practice  this  anti-rabic  treatment, 
with  laboratories  and  every  other  conven- 
ience for  extending  by  research  our  knowl- 
edge of  the  preventive  treatment  of  infec- 
tious disease."  The  contrast  between  the 
spirit  of  science  and  the  spirit  of  war  is 
well  expressed  in  Pasteur's  own  words  at 
the  opening  of  this  institute:  "Two  adverse 
laws  seem  to  me  now  in  contest.  One  law 
of  blood  and  death,  opening  out  each  day 
new  modes  of  destruction,  forces  nations  to 
be  always  ready  for  the  battle-field.  The 
other,  a  law  of  peace,  of  work,  of  safety, 
whose  only  study  is  to  deliver  man  from  the 
calamities  which  beset  him." 

The  Cotton  Fiber. — Mr.  Thomas  Pray, 
Jr.,  in  a  lecture  before  the  Franklin  Insti- 
tute, said  that  the  ordinary  way  of  judging 
raw  cotton  by  feeling  with  the  fingers  was 
exceedingly  crude,  seeing  that  the  fibers  vary 
all  the  way  from  -^his  °f  an  mcn  iQ  thickness 
for  the  coarsest  "  upland,"  to  ?oW  f°r  tne 
best  Sea  Island  cotton.  Some  few  cotton- 
spinners  have  now  been  induced  by  Mr.  Pray 
to  adopt  the  microscope  in  examining  cot- 
ton. The  finest  cotton  raised  in  any  of  the 
fields  of  the  world  comes  from  the  Missis- 
sippi delta.  Under  the  microscope  it  is  seen 
to  be  beautiful  in  structure,  of  perfect  de- 
velopment, full  of  oil  deposits,  and  having 
nearly  four  hundred  spirals  per  inch.  It 
makes  very  strong  yarn,  capable  of  coloring 
all  the  delicate  shades,  like  pink,  and  bleach- 
es in  the  most  perfect  manner.  Dyers  fre- 
quently find  spots  in  cotton  goods  that  will 
not  take  color  at  all,  or  only  unevenly.    Cer- 


NOTES. 


S7S 


tain  pieces  can  not  be  printed  or  colored 
anything  but  black.  If  fibers  of  such  cot- 
ton are  looked  at  under  the  microscope  after 
being  mordanted,  some  parts  will  be  seen 
prepared  for  coloring,  and  others  where  the 
mordant  has  not  taken  hold.  Cotton  is  often 
badly  damaged  by  poor  ginning ;  the  fibers 
are  torn,  and  millions  of  short  pieces  to  every 
bale  are  broken  off,  which  in  spinning  fly  all 
over  the  mill  and  machinery,  and  go  into  the 
waste  instead  of  being  made  into  yarn.  Much 
has  been  said  about  "parallelism"  of  cotton 
fibers  in  the  manufactured  goods,  but,  if  a 
bit  of  one  of  the  best  grades  of  cotton  cloth 
made  is  examined  under  the  microscope, 
there  is  seen  to  be  no  such  thing  as  parallel- 
ism among  the  fibers. 

Snow  -  Blindness. — Snow  -  blindness,  ac- 
cording to  Dr.  Berlin,  of  Nordenskiold's 
Expedition  to  Greenland  of  1883,  is  met 
with  as  far  north  as  any  arctic  expedition 
has  penetrated,  but  is  unknown,  except  spo- 
radically in  high  mountains,  south  of  cer- 
tain degrees  of  latitude.  It  follows  the 
sinuosities  of  the  isothermal  lines.  In  the 
arctic  regions  it  breaks  out  usually  in  the 
spring-time,  but  also  occurs  in  summer  wher- 
ever snow  remains.  It  appears  during  snow- 
storms and  fogs,  as  well  as  when  the  sun  is 
shining.  The  prominent  symptom  is  an 
intense  burning  pain  in  the  eyes,  beginning 
with  a  prickling  sensation  as  if  produced  by 
a  foreign  body,  with  increased  secretion  of 
tears,  photophobia,  and  blepharospasm.  The 
visual  power  is  not  diminished,  but  the  field 
is  narrowed.  Most  cases  will  get  well  at  the 
end  of  two  or  three  days,  if  the  patient 
guards  himself  against  the  exciting  causes  ; 
or  the  disease  may,  exceptionally,  become  a 
serious  matter.  It  is  not  a  dazzling  caused 
by  the  snow,  for  dazzling  does  not  produce 
its  effects,  and  it  does  not  prevail  everywhere 
that  there  are  snow  and  sunlight ;  nor  can  it 
be  explained  by  the  fact  of  the  rarefaction 
of  the  air.  It  is  probably  a  result  of  the 
low  temperature  and  the  want  of  humidity 
in  the  air  which  characterize  the  places 
where  it  prevails.  As  it  is  the  humidity  of 
the  air  which  principally  absorbs  the  radi- 
ant heat,  the  caloric  rays  of  the  sun  must, 
in  those  localities,  manifest  an  intensity  of 
action  far  above  the  common.  Observation 
has  shown  that  this  is  the  case,  for  on  high 


mountains  and  in  the  arctic  regions  exposure 
to  the  sun's  rays  produces  on  the  bare  skin 
an  excessively  painful  dermatitis,  which  the 
radiant  heat  reflected  by  the  snow  very  much 
aggravates.  The  effects  of  exposure  to  the 
sun  appear  to  be  most  severe  in  spring-time. 
The  eyes  are  affected  simultaneously  with 
the  skin  or  somewhat  previously.  The  or- 
dinary treatment  of  snow-blindness  consists 
in  the  use  of  spectacles  of  dark-colored  glass, 
with  opiates  to  relieve  the  pain.  Blacken- 
ing of  the  nose  has  been  found  by  several 
travelers  to  be  an  effective  remedy. 

The  Great  Hall  of  the  Mammoth  Cave. — 

Some  important  new  discoveries  in  the  Mam- 
moth Cave  were  described  by  the  Rev.  Dr. 
H.  C.  Hovey  at  the  meeting  of  the  American 
Association.  They  are  connected  with  the 
arrangement  of  the  cave  passages  in  tiers 
and  the  great  pits  or  domes.  Following 
the  guide  across  a  treacherous  chasm  known 
as  the  covered  pit,  the  author  found  a  se- 
ries of  these  chasms  exceeding  in  size  any 
that  had  ever  been  discovered  before.  He 
afterward  visited  the  pits  with  a  photog- 
rapher, Mr.  Ben  Hains,  and  means  for  tak- 
ing photographs.  As  measured  from  above, 
they  varied  from  forty-seven  to  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty-five  feet  in  depth.  With 
much  difficulty  and  risk  he  succeeded  in 
reaching  the  bottom  of  Charybdis,  the  deep- 
est of  the  pits,  and  there  discovered,  by  the 
aid  of  chemical  fires,  that  the  whole  series 
of  pits,  eight  in  all,  were  joined  at  the  bot- 
tom into  one  magnificent  hall  several  hun- 
dred feet  long.  This  hall  was  traversed  from 
end  to  end.  Dr.  Hovey  proposes  to  name  it 
Harrison's  Hall,  after  the  President  of  the 
United  States. 


NOTES. 

A  bacterial  disease  of  carnations  was 
described  by  Prof.  J.  C.  Arthur  at  the  meet- 
ing of  the  American  Association.  It  is  re- 
vealed by  the  presence  in  the  leaves  of 
transparent  dots  that  can  be  seen  only  by 
transmitted  light.  These  spots  increase  and 
coalesce,  and  finally  kill  the  tissues,  when 
the  leaves  dry  up  and  the  plant  gradually 
dies.  The  transparent  spots  are  found, 
under  the  microscope,  to  be  due  to  the  en- 
largement of  the  cells  with  bacteria. 

When  the  governor  of  a  province  in 
Madagascar  wishes  to  issue  a  proclamation, 


576 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


he  sends  out,  according  to  Mr.  L.  H.  Kan- 
some,  messengers  to  all  the  villages  under 
his  control,  bidding  the  principal  men  from 
each  to  assemble  at  an  appointed  time  ;  this 
gathering  is  called  a  kabary.  When  all 
those  summoned  are  present,  the  governor 
or  his  deputy  reads  aloud  the  proclamation, 
which  then  becomes  law,  the  representa- 
tives of  each  village  being  responsible  for 
its  publicity.  Sometimes  justice  is  adminis- 
tered at  a  kabary  of  this  kind,  when  the 
governor  pronounces  sentence,  after  hearing 
the  evidence  on  both  sides. 

A  method  of  sewage  purification  called 
the  "  Amines "  process  is  being  tried  at 
Wimbledon  (England)  Sewage  Farm.  It  is 
so  named  because  it  employs  certain  basic 
carbon  compounds  called  amines,  together 
with  milk  of  lime.  At  present  herring- brine 
is  the  cheapest  substance  which  contains  the 
amines.  When  the  brine  is  introduced  into 
freshly  made  milk  of  lime  it  is  decomposed 
and  a  very  soluble  reagent  is  evolved,  to 
which  the  inventor  has  given  the  name 
"  aminol."  This  substance  has  a  peculiar 
briny  odor,  and  when  introduced  into  sew- 
age is  said  to  extirpate  all  micro-organisms 
capable  of  causing  putrefaction  and  disease. 

A  committee  of  the  Royal  Society  has 
been  appointed  on  the  erection  of  a  national 
memorial  to  Dr.  Joule. 

A  specimen  of  the  crested  starling 
(Freyilupus  varius),  of  Reunion  Island,  has 
recently  been  obtained  for  the  British  Mu- 
seum. This  bird,  which  has  been  probably 
exterminated,  is  rarer  in  collections  than  the 
great  auk.  Its  coloring  consists  simply  of 
black,  white,  and  gray,  but  when  alive  it 
must  have  been  a  graceful  bird.  Some 
Creoles  on  the  islands,  who  remembered  the 
bird  in  their  younger  days,  told  the  late  Mr. 
Pollen  that  it  was  so  tame  and  stupid  that 
it  could  be  knocked  over  with  a  stick.  Only 
sixteen  specimens  are  known  to  exist,  and 
there  is  none  in  any  American  museum. 

Concerning  "the  grass  problem  in  Ne- 
braska," Prof.  Bessey,  at  the  agricultural 
meeting  of  the  American  Association,  men- 
tioned places  where  buffalo  grass  is  plentiful, 
and  others  where  the  soil  is  a  moving  sand, 
that  gradually  becomes  covered  with  native 
American  grasses.  In  older  tracts,  timothy 
has  been  introduced,  Kentucky  blue  grass  is 
grown  successfully,  and  clovers  are  doino; 
well.  Prof.  Beal,  in  a  paper  on  "  Wild 
Grasses  under  Cultivation,"  said  that  he  had 
found  in  his  researches  many  wild  grasses 
that  were  valuable,  and  advised  selections 
for  experiment. 

Prof.  Fernow  is  quoted  in  the  "  Toronto 
Globe"  as  advancing,  in  an  interview,  the 
opinion,  respecting  the  influence  of  forests 
on  climate,  that  the  lack  of  moisture  on  the 
plains  of  a  large  portion  of  the  West  was 
due  not  so  much  to  deficient  rainfall  as  to 


excessive  evaporation,  which  in  turn  was 
due  to  the  unchecked  action  of  the  wind. 
Were  there  wind-breaks  in  the  form  of 
patches  of  trees  in  that  country,  part  of  the 
land  would  be  thereby  reclaimed,  and  the 
reclamation  of  the  rest  would  be  rendered 
far  more  easy.  The  proposition  of  Major 
Powell,  to  remove  the  forests  from  the 
crown  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  as  a  means 
of  improving  the  water  conditions  of  the 
desert,  he  regarded  as  preposterous,  and 
opposed  to  all  our  knowledge  regarding  the 
natural  conditions  of  mountainous  districts. 

Dr.  von  Reuben  Paschnitz  having  con- 
cluded that  when  earthquake-shocks  occur 
simultaneously  at  different  places,  as  re- 
cently happened  in  Japan  and  Germany,  a 
connection  may  be  presumed  between  them, 
Mr.  William  White  has  presented  some  very 
forcible  arguments  in  "  Nature  "  in  support 
of  an  opposite  view. 

A  statue  of  the  French  chemist,  Nicolas 
Leblanc,  has  been  erected  at  Saint-Denis, 
where  he  had  a  manufactory. 

While  the  enormous  output  of  coal  dur- 
ing the  last  few  years  has  not  actually 
crippled  British  fuel  resources,  Prof.  Hull 
anticipates  a  general  rise  in  the  value  of  coal 
in  the  near  future,  on  account  of  the  great 
depth  at  which  the  mines  will  have  to  be 
worked,  and  the  increased  cost  of  coal- 
mining. 

Both  the  Russian  and  English  engineers 
are  planting  trees  extensively  as  an  aid  to 
their  operations  in  Central  Asia.  The  Rus- 
sians, under  the  direction  of  General  Annen- 
koff,  are  especially  active  in  this  work.  Or- 
ders have  been  given  that  no  bushes  are  to 
be  cut  down  within  ten  miles  of  the  Trans- 
caspian  Railway,  and  that  the  existing  for- 
ests of  saxaul  are  to  be  preserved.  Planta- 
tions of  this,  which  is  a  kind  of  brier-wood, 
are  to  be  made  alons  the  line,  with  camel- 
thorn  and  other  native  bushes  that  thrive 
well.  It  is  expected  that  these  will  protect 
the  line  and  provide  shelter  for  weaker  trees 
and  bushes  of  foreign  origin.  The  tree- 
planting  of  the  last  three  years  has  not  been 
a  complete  success,  but  experience  has  shown 
what  varieties  will  and  what  will  not  thrive. 

The  London  "  Spectator  "  publishes  let- 
ters showing  that  the  idea  that  horse-hairs 
dropped  into  water  in  time  beget  life  and 
become  worms  or  "  snakes  "  prevails  exten- 
sively over  Europe  as  well  as  America.  It 
is  based  on  the  fact  that  worms  resembling 
short  horse-hairs  exist,  and  are  not  uncom- 
mon in  placid  pools.  A  contributor  to  the 
"Spectator"  accounts  for  the  experiences 
of  persons  who  claim  to  have  "  seen "  the 
horse-hairs  become  living,  by  observing  that 
after  lying  in  the  water  for  a  long  time  a 
hair  swells,  assumes  the  form  of  a  young 
eel,  and,  in  a  way  common  to  many  inanimate 
substances,  acquires  a  slow,  wriggling  motion. 


AXTOINE    FERDINAND    J.    PLATEAU. 


POPULAR    SCIENCE 
MONTHLY. 


MARCH,   1890. 


NEW   CHAPTERS   IN  THE   WARFARE   OF  SCIENCE. 

VII.  COMPARATIVE  MYTHOLOGY. 

By  ANDREW  DICKSON  WHITE,  LL.  D.,  L.  H.  D., 

EX-PRESIDENT   OF   CORNELL   UNIVERSITY. 

PART   II. 

THE  first  effect  of  the  Protestant  Reformation  was  to  popu- 
larize the  older  Dead  Sea  legends,  and  to  make  the  public 
mind  still  more  receptive  for  the  newer  ones. 

Luther's  great  pictorial  Bible,  so  powerful  in  fixing  the  ideas 
of  the  German  people,  showed  by  very  striking  engravings  all 
three  of  these  earlier  myths — the  destruction  of  the  cities  by  fire 
from  heaven,  the  transformation  of  Lot's  wife,  and  the  vile  origin 
of  the  hated  Moabites  and  Ammonites ;  and  we  find  the  salt 
statue,  especially,  in  this  and  other  pictorial  Bibles,  during  gener- 
ation after  generation. 

Catholic  peoples  also  held  their  own  in  this  display  of  faith. 
About  1517  Francois  Regnault  published  at  Paris  a  compilation 
on  Palestine  enriched  with  woodcuts ;  in  this  the  old  Dead  Sea 
legend  of  the  "  Serpent  Tyrus  "  reappears  embellished,  and  with 
it  various  other  new  versions  of  old  stories.  Five  years  later 
Bartholomew  de  Salignac  travels  in  the  Holy  Land,  vouches  for 
the  continued  existence  of  the  Lot's  wife  statue,  and  gives  new 
life  to  an  old  marvel  by  insisting  that  the  sacred  waters  of  the 
Jordan  are  not  really  poured  into  the  infernal  basin  of  the  Dead 
Sea,  but  that  they  are  miraculously  absorbed  by  the  earth. 

These  ideas  were  not  confined  to  the  people  at  large ;  we  trace 

them  among  scholars. 
vol.  xxxvi. —  37 


578  'THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

In  1581  Bunting,  a  North  German  professor  and  theologian, 
published  his  "Itinerary  of  Holy  Scripture,"  and  in  this  the 
Dead  Sea  and  Lot  legends  continue  to  increase.  He  tells  us  that 
the  water  of  the  sea  "  changes  three  times  every  day " ;  that  it 
"  spits  forth  fire  " ;  that  it  throws  up  "  on  high  "  great  foul  masses 
which  "  burn  like  pitch  "  and  "  swim  about  like  huge  oxen  " ;  that 
the  statue  of  Lot's  wife  is  still  there,  and  that  it  shines  like  salt. 

In  1590  Christian  Adrichom,  a  Dutch  theologian,  published 
his  famous  work  on  sacred  geography.  He  does  not  insist  upon 
the  Dead  Sea  legends  generally,  but  declares  that  the  statue  of 
Lot's  wife  is  still  in  existence,  and  on  his  map  he  gives  a  picture 
of  her  standing  at  Usdum. 

Nor  was  it  altogether  safe  to  dissent  from  such  beliefs.  Just 
as,  under  the  papal  sway,  men  of  science  had  been  severely  pun- 
ished for  wrong  views  of  the  physical  geography  of  the  earth  in 
general,  so,  when  Calvin  decided  to  burn  Servetus,  he  included  in 
his  indictment  for  heresy  a  charge  that  Servetus,  in  his  edition 
of  "Ptolemy,"  had  made  unorthodox  statements  regarding  the 
physical  geography  of  Palestine.* 

So,  too,  Protestants  and  Catholics  vied  with  each  other  in  the 
making  of  new  myths.  Thus,  in  his  "  Most  Devout  Journey," 
published  in  1608,  Jean  Zvallart,  Mayor  of  Ath  in  Hainault,  con- 
fesses himself  troubled  by  conflicting  stories  about  the  salt  statue, 
but  declares  himself  sound  in  the  faith  that  "  some  vestige  of  it 
still  remains,"  and  makes  up  for  his  bit  of  freethinking  by  add- 
ing a  new  mythical  horror  to  the  region — "crocodiles,"  which, 
with  the  serpents  and  the  "  foul  odor  of  the  sea,"  prevented  his 
visit  to  the  salt  mountains. 

In  1615  Father  Jean  Boucher  publishes  the  first  of  many  edi- 
tions of  his  "  Sacred  Bouquet  of  the  Holy  Land."  He  depicts  the 
horrors  of  the  Dead  Sea  in  a  number  of  striking  antitheses,  and 
among  these  is  the  statement  that  it  is  made  of  mud  rather  than 
of  water,  that  it  soils  whatever  is  put  into  it,  and  so  corrupts  the 
land  about  it  that  not  a  blade  of  grass  grows  in  all  that  region. 

In  the  same  spirit  thirteen  years  later,  the  Protestant  Christo- 
pher Heidmann  publishes  his  "  Palsestina,"  in  which  he  speaks  of 

*  For  biblical  engravings  of  Lot's  wife  transformed  into  a  salt  statue,  etc.,  see  Luther's 
Bible,  1534,  p.  xi ;  also  the  pictorial  "  Electoral  Bible  "  ;  also  Merian's  "  Icones  Biblicse  "  of 
1625;  also  the  frontispiece  of  the  Luther  Bible  published  at  Nuremberg  in  1708;  also 
Scheuchzer's  "  Kupfer  Bibel,"  Augsburg,  1731,  Tab.  lxxx.  For  the  account  of  the  Dead 
Sea  serpent  "Tyrus,"  etc.,  see  "  Le  Grand  Voyage  de  Hierusalem,"  Paris  (1517  ?),  p.  xxi. 
For  De  Salignac's  assertion  regarding  the  salt  pillar  and  suggestion  regarding  the  absorp- 
tion of  the  Jordan  before  reaching  the  Dead  Sea,  see  his  "  Itinerarium  Sacra;  Scripturae," 
Magdeburg,  1593,  §§  34  and  35.  For  Bunting,  see  his  "  Itinerarium  Sacrae  Scripturae," 
Magdeburg,  1 589,  pp.  78,  79.  For  Adrichom's  picture  of  the  salt  statue,  see  map,  p.  38, 
and  text,  p.  205,  of  his  "Theatrum  Terrae  Sancta?,"  1613.  For  Calvin  and  Servetus,  see 
Willis,  "  Servetus  and  Calvin,"  pp.  96  and  307 ;  also  the  Servetus  edition  of  Ptolemy. 


NEW   CHAPTERS  IN   THE   WARFARE   OF  SCIENCE.    579 

a  fluid  resembling  blood  oozing  from  the  rocks  about  the  Dead 
Sea,  and  cites  authorities  to  prove  that  the  statue  of  Lot's  wife 
still  exists  and  gives  signs  of  life. 

Yet,  as  we  near  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century,  some  evi- 
dences of  a  healthful  and  fruitful  skepticism  begin  to  appear. 

The  old  stream  of  travelers,  commentators,  and  preachers,  ac- 
cepting tradition  and  repeating  what  they  have  been  told,  flows 
on ;  but  here  and  there  we  are  refreshed  by  the  sight  of  a  man 
who  really  begins  to  think  and  look  for  himself. 

First  among  these  is  the  French  naturalist  Pierre  Belon.  As 
regards  the  ordinary  wonders,  he  has  the  simple  faith  of  his  time. 
Among  a  multitude  of  similar  things,  he  believed  that  he  saw 
the  stones  on  which  the  disciples  were  sleeping  during  the  prayer 
of  Christ,  the  stone  on  which  the  Lord  sat  when  he  raised  Laza- 
rus from  the  dead,  the  Lord's  footprints  on  the  stone  from  which 
he  ascended  into  heaven,  and,  most  curious  of  all,  "the  stone 
which  the  builders  rejected."  Yet  he  makes  some  advance  on  his 
predecessors,  since  he  shows  in  one  passage  that  he  had  thought 
out  the  process  by  which  the  simpler  myths  of  Palestine  were 
made.  For,  between  Bethlehem  and  Jerusalem,  he  sees  a  field 
covered  with  small  pebbles,  and  of  these  he  says :  "  The  common 
people  tell  you  that  a  man  was  once  sowing  peas  there,  when  Our 
Lady  passed  that  way  and  asked  him  what  he  was  doing ;  the 
man  answered,  fI  am  sowing  pebbles/  and  straightway  all  the 
peas  were  changed  into  these  little  stones." 

His  ascribing  belief  in  this  explanatory  transformation-myth 
to  the  "  common  people  "  marks  the  faint  dawn  of  a  new  epoch. 

Typical  also  of  this  new  class  is  the  German  botanist  Leon- 
hard  Rauwolf.  He  travels  through  Palestine  in  1575,  and,  though 
devout  and  at  times  credulous,  notes  comparatively  few  of  the 
old  wonders,  while  he  makes  thoughtful  and  careful  mention  of 
things  in  nature  that  he  really  saw ;  he  declines  to  use  the  eyes  of 
the  monks,  and  steadily  uses  his  own  to  good  purpose. 

As  we  go  on  in  the  seventeenth  century,  this  current  of  new 
thought  is  yet  more  evident ;  a  habit  of  observing  more  carefully 
and  of  comparing  observations  had  set  in ;  the  great  voyages  of 
discovery  by  Columbus,  Yasco  Da  Gama,  Magellan,  and  others 
were  producing  their  effect,  and  this  effect  was  increased  by  the 
inductive  philosophy  of  Bacon,  the  reasonings  of  Descartes,  and 
the  suggestions  of  Montaigne. 

So  evident  was  this  current  that,  as  far  back  as  the  early  days 
of  the  century,  a  great  theologian,  Quaresmio,  of  Lodi,  had  made 
up  his  mind  to  stop  it  forever.  In  1616,  therefore,  he  began 
his  ponderous  work  entitled  "The  Historical,  Theological,  and 
Moral  Explanation  of  the  Holy  Land."  He  labored  upon  it  for 
nine  years,  gave  nine  years  more  to  perfecting  it,  and  then  put  it 


580  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

into  the  hands  of  the  great  publishing  honse  of  Plantin  at  Ant- 
werp ;  they  were  four  years  in  printing  and  correcting  it,  and, 
when  it  at  last  appeared,  it  seemed  certain  to  establish  the  theo- 
logical view  of  the  Holy  Land  for  all  time.  While  taking  abun- 
dant care  of  other  myths  which  he  believed  sanctified  by  our 
sacred  books,  Quaresmio  devoted  himself  at  great  length  to  the 
Dead  Sea,  but  above  all  to  the  salt  statue,  and  divides  his  chapter 
on  it  into  three  parts,  each  headed  by  a  question :  First,  "Hoio 
was  Lot's  wife  changed  into  a  statue  of  salt  ?  "  Secondly,  "  Where 
was  she  thus  transformed  ?  "  And,  thirdly,  "  Does  that  statue  still 
exist  ? "  Through  each  of  these  divisions  he  fights  to  the  end 
against  all  who  are  inclined  to  swerve  in  the  slightest  degree 
from  the  orthodox  opinion.  He  utterly  refuses  to  compromise 
with  any  modern  theorists.  To  all  such  he  says,  "  The  narration 
of  Moses  is  historical  and  is  to  be  received  in  its  natural  sense, 
and  no  right-thinking  man  will  deny  this."  To  those  who  favored 
the  figurative  interpretation  he  says,  "  With  such  reasonings  any 
passage  of  Scripture  can  be  denied." 

As  to  the  spot  where  the  miracle  occurred,  he  discusses  four 
places,  but  settles  upon  the  point  where  the  picture  of  the  statue 
is  given  in  Adrichom's  map.  As  to  the  continued  existence  of 
the  statue,  he  plays  with  the  opposing  view  as  a  cat  fondles  a 
mouse,  and  then  shows  that  the  most  revered  ancient  authorities, 
venerable  men  still  living,  and  the  Bedouins,  all  agree  that  it  is 
still  in  being.  Throughout  the  whole  chapter  his  thoroughness 
in  scriptural  knowledge  and  his  profundity  in  logic  are  only  ex- 
celled by  his  scorn  for  those  theologians  who  were  willing  to 
yield  anything  to  rationalism. 

So  powerful  was  this  argument  that  it  seemed  to  carry  every- 
thing before  it,  not  merely  throughout  the  Roman  obedience,  but 
among  the  most  eminent  theologians  of  Protestantism. 

As  regards  the  Roman  Church,  we  may  take  as  a  type  the  mis- 
sionary priest  Eugene  Roger,  who,  shortly  after  the  appearance 
of  Quaresmio's  book,  published  his  own  travels  in  Palestine.  He 
was  an  observant  man,  and  his  work  counts  among  those  of  real 
value ;  but  the  spirit  of  Quaresmio  had  taken  possession  of  him 
fully.  His  work  is  prefaced  with  a  map  showing  the  points  of 
most  importance  in  scriptural  history,  and  among  these  he  identi- 
fies the  place  where  Samson  slew  the  thousand  Philistines  with 
the  jaw-bone  of  an  ass,  and  where  he  hid  the-  gates  of  Gaza ;  the 
cavern  which  Adam  and  Eve  inhabited  after  their  expulsion  from 
paradise ;  the  spot  where  Balaam's  ass  spoke  ;  the  tree  on  which 
Absalom  was  hanged  ;  the  place  where  Jacob  wrestled  with  the 
angel ;  the  steep  place  where  the  swine  possessed  of  devils  plunged 
into  the  sea  ;  the  spot  where  the  prophet  Elijah  was  taken  up  in 
a  chariot  of  fire  ;  and,  of  course,  the  position  of  the  salt  statue 


NEW  CHAPTERS  IN   THE   WARFARE   OF  SCIENCE.    581 

which  was  once  Lot's  wife.  He  not  only  indicates  places  on  land, 
but  places  in  the  sea ;  thus  he  shows  where  Jonah  was  swallowed 
by  the  whale,  and  "  where  St.  Peter  caught  one  hundred  and  fifty- 
three  fishes." 

As  to  the  Dead  Sea  miracles  generally,  he  does  not  dwell  on 
them  at  great  length ;  he  evidently  felt  that  Quaresmio  had  ex- 
hausted the  subject,  but  he  shows  largely  the  fruits  of  Quaresmio's 
teaching  in  other  matters.  He  sees,  describes,  and  reasons  with 
great  theological  acuteness  upon  the  basilisk.  The  animal  is 
about  a  foot  and  a  half  long,  shaped  like  a  crocodile,  and  kills 
people  with  its  glance.  The  one  which  he  saw  was  dead,  fortu- 
nately for  him,  for  in  the  time  of  Pope  Leo  IV,  as  he  tells  us, 
one  appeared  at  Rome  and  killed  many  people  by  merely  looking 
at  them,  but  the  Pope  destroyed  it  with  his  prayers  and  the 
sign  of  the  cross.  He  says  that  Providence  has  wisely  and  merci- 
fully protected  man  by  requiring  the  monster  to  cry  aloud  two  or 
three  times  whenever  he  leaves  his  cavern,  and  the  divine  wisdom 
has  also  made  it  necessary  that  the  monster  should  look  his  victim 
in  the  eye,  and  at  a  certain  distance,  in  order  that  his  glance  may 
penetrate  the  victim's  eye,  and  so  pass  at  once  to  his  heart.  He 
also  gives  reason  for  supposing  that  the  same  divine  mercy  has 
provided  that  the  crowing  of  a  cock  will  kill  a  basilisk. 

But  even  in  this  good  and  credulous  missionary  we  see  the  in- 
fluence of  Bacon  and  the  dawn  of  experimental  science ;  for,  hav- 
ing been  told  many  stories  regarding  the  salamander,  he  secured 
one,  placed  it  alive  upon  the  coals,  and  reports  to  us  that  the 
legends  regarding  its  power  to  live  in  the  fire  are  untrue.  He 
also  tried  experiments  with  the  chameleon,  and  found  that  the 
stories  told  regarding  it  were  to  be  received  with  much  allow- 
ance ;  but,  while  he  uses  his  mind  in  these  things  after  the  modern 
method,  he  locks  up  his  judgment  when  he  discusses  the  letter  of 
Scripture.  A  curious  example  of  this  we  find  in  his  reference  to 
the  famous  text,  in  the  thirty-eighth  chapter  of  Ezekiel,  which 
led  the  mediaeval  map-makers  to  place  Jerusalem  at  the  center  of 
the  earth.  Coupling  with  this  a  text  from  Isaiah,  he,  by  a  theo- 
logical argument,  satisfies  himself  that  the  exact  center  of  the 
earth  is  a  certain  spot  marked  on  the  pavement  of  the  Church  of 
the  Holy  Sepulchre  :  by  a  similar  process  of  theological  reasoning 
he  also  proves  that  the  place  where  the  Holy  Cross  stood  was  the 
identical  spot  first  occupied  by  the  tree  which  bore  the  forbidden 
fruit  in  the  Garden  of  Eden. 

So,  too,  we  find  the  thoughts  and  words  of  Quaresmio  echoing 
afar  through  the  German  universities,  in  public  disquisitions, 
dissertations,  and  sermons.  The  great  Bible  commentators,  both 
Catholic  and  Protestant,  generally  agreed  in  accepting  them. 

But,  strong  as  this  theological  theory  was,  we  find  that,  as 


582  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

time  went  on,  it  required  to  be  braced  somewhat,  and  in  1692 
Wedelius,  Professor  of  Medicine  at  Jena,  chose  as  the  subject  of 
his  inaugural  address  "  The  Physiology  of  the  Destruction  of 
Sodom  and  of  the  Statue  of  Salt." 

It  is  a  masterly  example  of  "sanctified  science."  At  great 
length  he  dwells  on  the  characteristics  of  sulphur,  salt,  and  thun- 
derbolts ;  mixes  up  scriptural  texts,  theology,  and  chemistry  after 
a  most  bewildering  fashion ;  and  finally  comes  to  the  conclusion 
that  a  thunderbolt,  flung  by  the  Almighty,  calcined  the  body  of 
Lot's  wife,  and  at  the  same  time  vitrified  its  particles  into  a  glassy 
mass  looking  like  salt.* 

By  such  demonstrations  as  these  of  Quaresmio  and  Wedelius 
the  theological  view  of  the  myth  seemed  fastened  upon  the  world 
forever. 

Not  only  was  this  view  demonstrated,  so  far  as  theologico- 
scientific  reasoning  could  demonstrate  anything,  but  it  was  clearly 
shown,  by  a  continuous  chain  of  testimony  from  the  earliest  ages, 
that  the  salt  statue  at  Usdum  had  been  recognized  as  the  body  of 
Lot's  wife  by  Jews,  Mohammedans,  and  the  universal  Christian 
Church,  "  always,  everywhere,  and  by  all." 

Under  the  influence  of  teachings  like  these — and  of  the  winter 
rains — new  wonders  began  to  appear  at  the  salt  pillar.  In  1661 
the  Franciscan  monk  Zwinner  published  his  travels  in  Palestine, 
and  gave  not  only  all  the  old  myths  regarding  the  salt  statue,  but 
a  new  one,  in  some  respects  more  striking  than  any  of  the  old — 
for  he  had  heard  that  a  dog,  also  transformed  into  salt,  was  stand- 
ing by  the  side  of  Lot's  wife. 

Even  the  more  solid  Benedictine  scholars  were  carried  away, 
and  we  find  in  the  "  Sacred  History  "  by  Prof.  Metzger,  of  the  Order 

*  For  Zvallart,  see  his  "  Tres  devot  Voyage  a  Ierusalem,"  Antwerp,  1608,  book  iv,  chapter 
viii.  His  journey  was  made  twenty  years  before.  For  Father  Boucher,  see  his  "  Bouquet  de 
la  Terre  Saincte,"  Paris,  1622,  pp.  447,  448.  For  Heidmann,  see  his  "  Patestina,"  1689,  pp. 
58-62.  For  Belon's  credulity  in  matters  referred  to,  see  his  "  Observations  de  Plusieurs 
Singularitez,"  etc.,  Paris,  1553,  pp.  141-144  ;  and  for  the  legend  of  the  peas  changed  into 
pebbles,  p.  145  ;  see,  also,  Lartet  in  "De  Luynes,"  iii,  p.  11.  For  llauwolf,  see  the  "  Reysse- 
bucb,"  and  Tobler,  "  Bibliographia."  For  a  good  account  of  the  influence  of  Montaigne  in  de- 
veloping French  skepticism,  see  Prevost-Paradol's  study  on  Montaigne  prefixed  to  the  Le  Clerc 
edition  of  the  "Essays,"  Paris,  1865  ;  also  the  well-known  passages  in  Lecky's  "Rationalism 
in  Europe."  For  Quaresmio  I  have  consulted  both  the  Plantin  edition  of  1639  and  the- 
superb  new  Venice  edition  of  1880-'82.  The  latter,  though  less  prized  by  book  fanciers, 
is  the  more  valuable,  since  it  contains  some  very  interesting  recent  notes.  For  the  above 
discussion  see  Plantin  edition,  vol.  ii,  pp.  758  et  seq.,  and  Venice  edition,  vol.  ii,  pp.  572- 
574.  As  to  the  effect  of  Quaresmio  on  the  Protestant  Church,  for  Wedelius,  see  his  "  De 
Statua  Salis,"  Jenae,  1692,  pp.  6,  7,  and  elsewhere.  For  Eugene  Roger,  see  his  "La  Terre 
Saincte,"  Paris,  1664 ;  the  map  showing  various  sites  referred  to  is  in  the  preface ;  and 
for  basilisks,  salamanders,  etc.,  see  pp.  89-92,  139,  218,  and  elsewhere.  For  thorough  dis- 
cussion of  the  Old  Testament  and  mediaeval  view  of  Jerusalem  as  the  center  of  the  earth, 
see  Eicken,  "Geschichte  und  System  der  Mittelalterlicher  Weltanschauung,"  Stuttgart,  1887y 
p.  622.     See,  also,  on  next  page,  legend  that  the  grave  of  Adam  was  on  Mount  Calvary. 


NEW   CHAPTERS  IN  THE   WARFARE   OF  SCIENCE.    583 

of  St.  Benedict,  published  in  1700,  a  renewal  of  the  declaration 
that  the  salt  statue  must  be  a  "perpetual  memorial." 

But  it  was  soon  evident  that  the  scientific  current  was  still 
working  beneath  this  ponderous  mass  of  theological  authority.  A 
typical  evidence  of  this  we  find  in  1666  in  the  travels  of  Doubdan, 
a  canon  of  St.  Denis.  As  to  the  Dead  Sea,  he  says  that  he  saw  no 
smoke,  no  clouds,  and  no  "  black,  sticky  water " ;  as  to  the  statue 
of  Lot's  wife,  he  says,  "  The  moderns  do  not  believe  so  easily  that 
she  has  lasted  so  long  " ;  then,  as  if  alarmed  at  his  own  boldness, 
he  concedes  that  the  sea  may  be  black  and  sticky  in  the  middle  ; 
and  from  Lot's  wife  he  escapes  under  cover  of  some  pious  gener- 
alities. Four  years  later  another  French  ecclesiastic,  Jacques 
Goujon,  referring  in  his  published  travels  to  the  legend  of  the  salt 
pillar,  says :  "  People  may  believe  these  stories  as  much  as  they 
choose ;  I  did  not  see  it,  nor  did  I  go  there."  So,  too,  in  1697, 
Morison,  a  dignitary  of  the  French  church,  having  traveled  in 
Palestine,  confesses  that,  as  to  the  story  of  the  pillar  of  salt,  he 
has  difficulty  in  believing  it. 

The  same  current  is  observed  working  still  more  strongly  in 
the  travels  of  the  Rev.  Henry  Maundrell,  an  English  chaplain  at 
Aleppo,  who  traveled  through  Palestine  during  the  same  year. 
He  pours  contempt  over  the  legends  of  the  Dead  Sea  in  general : 
as  to  the  story  that  birds  could  not  fly  over  it,  he  says  that  he  saw 
them  flying  there ;  as  to  the  utter  absence  of  life  in  the  sea,  he 
saw  small  shells  in  it ;  he  sees  no  traces  of  any  buried  cities ;  and, 
as  to  the  stories  regarding  the  statue  of  Lot's  wife  and  the  pro- 
posal to  visit  it,  he  says,  "  Nor  could  we  give  faith  enough  to  these 
reports  to  induce  us  to  go  on  such  an  errand." 

The  influence  of  the  Baconian  philosophy  on  his  mind  is  very 
clear ;  for,  in  expressing  hi?  disbelief  in  the  Dead  Sea  apples,  with 
their  contents  of  ashes,  he  says  that  he  saw  none,  and  he  cites 
Lord  Bacon  in  support  of  skepticism  on  this  and  similar  points. 

But  the  strongest  effect  of  this  growing  skepticism  is  seen  near 
the  end  of  that  century,  when  the  eminent  Dutch  commentator 
Clericus  published  his  commentary  on  the  Pentateuch  and  his 
"  Dissertation  on  the  Statue  of  Salt." 

At  great  length  he  brings  all  his  shrewdness  and  learning  to 
bear  against  the  whole  legend  of  the  actual  transformation  of 
Lot's  wife  and  the  existence  of  the  salt  pillar,  and  ends  by  saying 
that "  the  whole  story  is  due  to  the  vanity  of  some  and  the  credulity 
of  more." 

In  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century  we  find  new  tribu- 
taries to  this  rivulet  of  scientific  thought.  In  1701  Father  Felix 
Beaugrand  dismisses  the  Dead  Sea  legends  and  the  salt  statue 
very  curtly  and  dryly — expressing  not  his  belief  in  it,  but  a  con- 
ventional wish  to  believe. 


584  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

In  1709  a  scholar  appeared  in  another  part  of  Europe  and  of 
different  faith,  who  did  far  more  than  any  of  his  predecessors  to 
envelop  the  Dead  Sea  legends  in  an  atmosphere  of  truth — Adrian 
Reland,  professor  at  the  University  of  Utrecht.  His  work  on  Pales- 
tine is  a  monument  of  patient  scholarship,  having  as  its  nucleus  a 
love  of  truth  as  truth :  there  is  no  irreverence  in  him,  but  he  quietly 
brushes  away  a  great  mass  of  myths  and  legends  :  as  to  the  statue 
of  Lot's  wife,  he  does  not  deign  to  treat  it  at  length,  but  incident- 
ally applies  the  comparative  method  to  it  with  killing  effect,  for 
he  shows  that  the  story  of  its  miraculous  renewal  is  but  one 
among  many  of  its  kind.* 

Yet  to  superficial  observers  the  old  current  of  myth  and  mar- 
vel seemed  to  flow  into  the  eighteenth  century  as  strong  as  ever, 
and  of  this  we  may  take  two  typical  evidences.  The  first  of  these 
is  the  "Pious  Pilgrimage"  of  Vincent  Briemle.  His  journey  was 
made  about  1710 ;  and  his  work,  brought  out  under  the  auspices 
of  a  high  papal  functionary  some  years  later,  in  a  heavy  quarto, 
gave  new  life  to  the  stories  of  the  hellish  character  of  the 
Dead  Sea,  and  especially  to  the  miraculous  renewal  of  the  salt 
statue. 

In  1720  came  a  still  more  striking  effort  to  maintain  the  old 
belief  on  the  Protestant  side,  for,  in  that  year  the  eminent  theo- 
logian Masius  published  his  great  treatise  on  "  The  Conversion  of 
Lot's  Wife  into  a  Statue  of  Salt." 

He  evidently  intended  that  this  work  should  be  the  last  word 
on  this  subject  among  Protestants,  as  Quaresmio  had  imagined 
that  his  work  would  be  the  last  among  Catholics.  He  develops 
his  subject  after  the  high  scholastic  and  theologic  manner.  Call- 
ing attention  first  to  the  divine  command  in  the  New  Testament, 
"  Remember  Lot's  wife,"  he  argues  through  a  long  series  of  chap- 
ters. In  the  ninth  of  these  he  discusses  "  the  impelling  cause  "  of 
her  looking  back,  and  introduces  us  to  the  question,  formerly  so 
often  discussed  by  theologians,  whether  the  soul  of  Lot's  wife  was 
finally  saved.  Here  we  are  glad  to  learn  that  the  big,  warm  heart 
of  Luther  lifted  him  above  the  common  herd  of  theologians,  and 
led  him  to  declare  that  she  was  "  a  faithful  and  saintly  woman," 
and  that  she  certainly  was  not  eternally  damned.  In  justice  to 
the  Roman  Church  also  it  should  be  said  that  several  of  her  most 

*  For  Zwinner,  see  his  "Blumenbuch  des  Heyligen  Landes,"  Miinchen,  1661,  p.  454. 
For  Mezger,  his  "  Sacra  Historia,"  Augsburg,  1*700,  p.  30.  For  Doubdan,  see  his  "  Voyage  de 
la  Terre  Sainte,"  Paris,  1666,  pp.  338,  339 ;  also  Tobler  and  Gage's  "  Ritter."  For  Goujon, 
his  "  Histoire  et  Voiage  de  la  Terre  Saincte,"  Lyons,  1670,  p.  230,  etc.  For  Morison,  see 
his  "  Voyage,"  book  ii,  pp.  516,  517.  For  Maundrell,  see  in  Wright's  "  Collection,"  pp.  383 
et  seq.  For  Clericus,  see  his  "  Dissertatio  de  Salis  Statua,"  in  bis  "  Pentateuch,"  edition  of 
1696,  pp.  327  et  acq.  For  Father  Beaugrand,  see  bis  "Voyage,"  Paris,  1701,  pp.  137  et 
seq.  For  Reland,  see  his  "  Palaestina,"  Traject.  Batavorum,  1714,  vol.  i.,  pp.  61-254,  and 
passim. 


NEW   CHAPTERS  IN  THE   WARFARE   OF  SCIENCE.    585 

eminent  commentators  took  a  similar  view,  and  insisted  that  the 
sin  of  Lot's  wife  was  venial,  and  therefore,  at  the  worst,  could 
only  subject  her  to  the  fires  of  purgatory. 

The  eleventh  chapter  discusses  at  length  the  question  liow  she 
was  converted  into  salt,  and,  mentioning  many  theological  opin- 
ions, dwells  especially  upon  the  view  of  Rivetus — that  a  thunder- 
holt,  made  up  apparently  of  fire,  sulphur,  and  salt,  wrought  her 
transformation  at  the  same  time  that  it  blasted  the  land  ;  and  he 
bases  this  opinion  upon  the  twenty-ninth  chapter  of  Deuteronomy 
and  the  one  hundred  and  seventh  Psalm. 

Later,  there  is  presented  a  sacred  scientific  theory  that  "  saline 
particles  entered  into  her  until  her  whole  body  was  infected " ; 
and  with  this  Masius  connects  another  piece  of  sanctified  science, 
to  the  effect  that  "  stagnant  bile  "  may  have  rendered  the  surface 
of  her  body  "  entirely  shining,  bitter,  dry,  and  deformed/' 

Finally,  in  the  fourth  division  of  the  second  section,  he  comes 
to  the  great  question  whether  the  salt  pillar  is  still  in  existence. 
On  this  he  is  full  and  fair.  On  one  hand  he  allows  that  Luther 
thought  that  it  was  involved  in  the  general  destruction  of  Sodom 
and  Gomorrah,  and  he  cites  various  travelers  who  had  failed  to 
find  it ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  he  gives  a  long  chain  of  evidence 
to  show  that  it  continued  to  exist :  very  wisely  he  reminds  the 
reader  that  the  positive  testimony  of  those  who  have  seen  it  must 
outweigh  the  negative  testimony  of  those  who  have  not,  and  finally 
decides  that  the  salt  statue  is  still  in  being. 

No  doubt  a  work  like  this  produced  a  considerable  effect  in 
Protestant  countries ;  indeed,  this  effect  seems  evident  as  far  off 
as  England,  for,  in  1720,  we  find  in  Dean  Prideaux's  "  Old  and  New 
Testament  connected  "  a  map  on  which  the  statue  of  salt  is  care- 
fully indicated.  So,  too,  in  Holland,  in  the  "  Sacred  Geography," 
published  at  Utrecht  in  1758,  by  the  theologian  Bachiene,  we  find 
him,  while  showing  many  signs  of  rationalism,  evidently  inclined 
to  the  old  views  as  to  the  existence  of  the  salt  pillar;  but  just  here 
comes  a  curious  evidence  of  the  real  direction  of  the  current  of 
thought  through  the  century,  for,  nine  years  later,  in  the  German 
translation  of  Bachiene's  work  we  find  copious  notes  by  the  trans- 
lator in  a  far  more  rationalistic  spirit ;  indeed,  we  see  the  dawn  of 
the  inevitable  day  of  compromise,  for  we  now  have,  instead  of 
the  old  argument  that  the  divine  power  by  one  miraculous  act 
changed  Lot's  wife  into  a  salt  pillar,  the  suggestion  that  she  was 
caught  in  a  shower  of  sulphur  and  saltpeter,  covered  by  it,  and 
that  the  result  was  a  lump,  which,  in  a  general  way,  is  called  in 
our  sacred  books  "  a  pillar  of  salt."  * 

*  For  Briemle,  see  his  "  Andachtige  Pilgerfahrt,"  p.  129.  For  Masius,  see  his  "  De 
Uxore  Lothi  in  Statuam  Salis  con  versa,"  Hafnia?,  1720,  especially  pp.  29-31.  For  Dean 
Prideaux,  see  his  "Old  and  New  Testament  connected  in  the  History  of  the  Jews,"  1*720, 


5 86  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

But,  from  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  new  cur- 
rent sets  through  Palestine  with  ever-increasing  strength.  Very- 
interesting  is  it  to  compare  the  great  scriptural  commentaries  of 
the  middle  of  this  century  with  those  published  a  century  earlier. 

Of  the  earlier  ones  we  may  take  Matthew  Poole's  "  Synopsis  " 
as  a  type :  as  authorized  by  royal  decree  in  1667  it  contains  very 
substantial  arguments  for  the  pious  belief  in  the  statue.  Of  the 
later  ones  we  may  take  the  edition  of  the  noted  commentary  of 
the  Jesuit  Tirinus  seventy  years  later ;  while  he  feels  bound  to 
present  the  authorities,  he  evidently  endeavors  to  get  rid  of  the 
subject  as  speedily  as  possible  under  cover  of  conventionalities ; 
of  the  spirit  of  Quaresmio  he  shows  no  trace.* 

About  1760  came  a  striking  evidence  of  the  strength  of  this 
new  current.  The  Abate  Mariti  then  published  his  book  upon  the 
Holy  Land ;  and,  of  this  book  by  an  Italian  ecclesiastic,  the  most 
eminent  of  German  bibliographers  in  this  field  says  that  it  first 
broke  a  path  for  critical  study  of  the  Holy  Land. 

Mariti  is  entirely  skeptical  as  to  the  sinking  of  the  valley  of 
Siddim  and  the  overwhelming  of  the  cities.  He  speaks  kindly  of 
a  Capuchin  Father  who  saw  everywhere  at  the  Dead  Sea  traces  of 
the  divine  malediction,  while  he  himself  could  not  see  them,  and 
says,  "  It  is  because  a  Capuchin  carries  everywhere  the  five  senses 
of  faith,  while  I  only  carry  those  of  nature."  He  speaks  of  "  the 
lies  of  Josephus,"  and  makes  merry  over  "  the  rude  and  shapeless 
block  "  which  the  guide  assured  him  was  the  statue  of  Lot's  wife, 
explaining  the  want  of  human  form  in  the  salt  pillar  by  telling 
him  that  this  complete  metamorphosis  was  part  of  her  pun- 
ishment. 

About  twenty  years  later  another  remarkable  man  broaches 
the  subject  in  what  was  then  known  as  the  "philosophic"  spirit 
— Volney.  Between  the  years  1783  and  1785  he  made  an  extensive 
journey  through  the  Holy  Land  and  published  a  volume  of  trav- 
els which  by  acuteness  of  thought  and  vigor  of  style  secured  gen- 
eral attention.  In  these,  myth  and  legend  were  thrown  aside,  and 
we  have  an  account  simply  dictated  by  the  love  of  truth  as  truth. 
He,  too,  keeps  the  torch  of  science  burning  by  applying  his  geo- 
logical knowledge  to  the  regions  which  he  traverses. 

As  we  look  back  over  the  eighteenth  century  we  see  mingled 
with  the  new  current  of  thought,  and  strengthening  it,  a  con- 
stantly increasing  stream  of  more  strictly  scientific  observation 
and  reflection. 

To  review  it  briefly,  in  the  very  first  years  of  the  century  Ma- 
map  at  page  7.  For  Bachiene,  see  his  "  Historische  und  geographische  Beschreibung  von 
Palasstina,"  Leipzig,  1766,  vol.  1,  pp.  118-120,  and  notes. 

*  For  Poole,  see  "Poli  Synopsis,"  1669,  p.  179;  and  for  Tirinus,  the  Lyons'  edition  of 
his  "Commentary,"  1736,  p.  10. 


NEW   CHAPTERS   IN   THE   WARFARE   OF  SCIENCE.    587 

raldi  showed  the  Paris  Academy  of  Sciences  fossil  fishes  found  in 
the  Lebanon  region  ;  a  little  later,  Cornelius  Bruyn,  in  the  French 
edition  of  his  Eastern  travels,  gave  well-drawn  representations  of 
fossil  fishes  and  shells,  some  of  them  from  the  region  of  the  Dead 
Sea.  About  the  middle  of  the  century  Richard  Pococke,  Bishop 
of  Meath,  and  Korte,  of  Altona,  made  more  statements  of  the  same 
sort ;  and  toward  the  close  of  the  century,  as  we  have  seen,  Volney 
gave  still  more  of  these  researches,  with  philosophical  deductions 
from  them. 

The  result  of  all  this  was  that  there  gradually  dawned  upon 
thinking  men  the  conviction  that,  for  ages  before  the  appearance 
of  man  on  the  planet,  and  during  all  the  period  since  his  appear- 
ance, natural  laws  have  been  steadily  in  force,  and  in  Palestine  as 
elsewhere ;  this  conviction  obliged  men  to  consider  other  than 
supernatural  causes  for  the  phenomena  of  the  Dead  Sea,  and  myth 
and  marvel  steadily  shrank  in  value. 

But  at  the  very  threshold  of  the  nineteenth  century  Chateau- 
briand came  into  the  field,  and  he  seemed  to  banish  the  scientific 
spirit,  though  what  he  really  did  was  to  conceal  it  temporarily 
behind  the  vapors  of  his  rhetoric.  The  time  was  propitious  for 
him.  It  was  the  period  of  reaction  after  the  French  Revolution, 
when  what  was  called  religion  was  again  in  fashion,  and  when 
even  atheists  supported  it  as  a  good  thing  for  common  people  ;  of 
such  an  epoch  Chateaubriand,  with  his  superficial  information, 
thin  sentiment,  and  showy  verbiage,  was  the  foreordained  prophet. 
His  enemies  were  wont  to  deny  that  he  ever  saw  the  Holy  Land ; 
whether  he  did  or  not,  he  added  nothing  to  real  knowledge,  but 
simply  threw  a  momentary  glamour  over  the  regions  he  described, 
and  especially  over  the  Dead  Sea.  The  legend  of  Lot's  wife  he 
carefully  avoided,  for  he  knew  too  well  the  danger  of  ridicule  in 
France. 

As  long  as  the  Napoleonic  and  Bourbon  reigns  lasted,  and  in- 
deed for  some  time  afterward,  this  kind  of  dealing  with  the  Holy 
Land  was  fashionable,  and  we  have  a  long  series  of  men,  espe- 
cially of  Frenchmen,  who  evidently  received  their  impulse  from 
Chateaubriand. 

About  1831  De  Geramb,  Abbot  of  La  Trappe,  evidently  a  very 
noble  and  devout  spirit,  sees  vapor  above  the  Dead  Sea,  but 
stretches  the  truth  a  little — speaking  of  it  as  "  vapor  or  smoke." 
He  could  not  find  the  salt  statue,  and  complains  of  the  "diversity 
of  stories  regarding  it."  The  simple  physical  cause  of  this  di- 
versity— the  washing  out  of  different  statues  in  different  years — 
never  occurs  to  him,  but  he  comforts  himself  with  the  scriptural 
warrant  for  the  metamorphosis.* 

*  For  Mariti,  see  his  "  Voyage,"  etc.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  352-356.    For  Tobler's  high  opinion  of 
him,  see  the  " Bibliographia,"  pp.   132,   133.     For  Volney,  see  his  "Voyage  en  Syrie  et 


5 88  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

But  to  the  honor  of  scientific  men  and  scientific  truth  it  should 
he  said  that  even  under  Napoleon  and  the  Bourbons  there  were 
men  who  continued  to  explore,  observe,  and  describe  with  the 
simple  love  of  truth  as  truth,  and  in  spite  of  the  probability  that 
their  researches  would  be  received  during  their  lifetime  with  con- 
tempt and  even  hostility  both  in  church  and  state. 

The  pioneer  in  this  work  of  the  nineteenth  century  was  the 
German  naturalist  Ulrich  Seetzen.  He  began  his  main  investi- 
gation in  1806,  and  soon  his  learning,  courage,  and  honesty  threw 
a  flood  of  new  light  into  the  Dead  Sea  questions. 

In  this  light,  myth  and  legend  faded  more  rapidly  than  ever. 
Typical  of  his  method  is  his  examination  of  the  Dead  Sea  fruit. 
He  found,  on  reaching  Palestine,  that  Josephus's  story  regarding 
it,  which  had  been  accepted  for  nearly  two  thousand  years,  was 
believed  on  all  sides  ;  more  than  this,  he  found  that  the  original 
myth  had  so  grown  that  a  multitude  of  respectable  people  at 
Bethlehem  and  elsewhere  assured  him  that  not  only  apples,  but 
pears,  pomegranates,  figs,  lemons,  and  many  other  fruits  which 
grow  upon  the  shores  of  the  Dead  Sea,  though  beautiful  to  look 
upon,  were  filled  with  ashes.  These  good  people  declared  to 
Seetzen  that  they  had  seen  these  fruits,  and  that,  not  long  before, 
a  basketful  of  them  which  had  been  sent  to  a  merchant  of  Jaffa 
had  turned  to  ashes. 

Seetzen  was  evidently  perplexed  by  this  mass  of  testimony, 
and  naturally  anxious  to  examine  these  fruits.  On  arriving  at 
the  sea  he  began  to  look  for  them,  and  the  guide  soon  showed 
him  the  "  apples."  These  he  found  to  be  simply  an  asclepia, 
which  had  been  described  by  Linnaeus,  and  which  is  found  in  the 
East  Indies,  Arabia,  Egypt,  Jamaica,  and  elsewhere ;  the  "  ashes  " 
were  simply  seeds.  He  looked  next  for  the  other  fruits,  and  the 
guide  soon  found  for  him  the  "  lemons  " ;  these  he  discovered  to 
be  a  species  of  solarium  found  in  other  parts  of  Palestine  and 
elsewhere,  and  the  seeds  in  these  were  the  famous  "  cinders." 
He  looked  next  for  the  pears,  figs,  and  other  accursed  fruits  ;  but, 
instead  of  finding  them  filled  with  ashes  and  cinders,  he  found 
them  like  the  same  fruits  in  other  lands,  and  he  tells  us  that  he 
ate  the  figs  with  much  pleasure. 

So  perished  a  myth  which  had  been  kept  alive  two  thousand 
years,  partly  by  modes  of  thought  natural  to  theologians,  partly 
by  the  self-interest  of  guides,  and  partly  by  the  love  of  marvel- 
mongering  among  travelers. 

Egypte,"  Paris,  180*7,  i,  308  et  seq.;  also,  for  a  statement  of  contributions  of  the  eighteenth 
century  to  geology,  Lartet  in  De  Luynes's  "  Mer  Morte,"  vol.  iii,  p.  12.  For  Cornelius 
Bruyn,  see  French  edition  of  his  works,  1714,  in  which  his  name  is  given  as  "Le  Brun," 
especially  for  representations  of  fossils,  pp.  309  and  375.  For  Chateaubriand,  see  his 
"  Voyage,"  etc.,  vol.  ii,  part  iii.     For  De  Geramb,  see  his  "  Voyage,"  ii,  45-47. 


NEW  CHAPTERS   IN  THE   WARFARE   OF  SCIENCE.    589 

The  other  myths  fared  no  better.  As  to  the  appearance  of  the 
sea,  he  found  its  waters  not  "black  and  sticky,"  but  blue  and 
transparent;  he  found  no  smoke  rising  from  the  abyss,  but  tells 
us  that  sunlight  and  cloud  and  shore  were  pleasantly  reflected 
from  the  surface.  As  to  Lot's  wife,  he  found  no  salt  pillar  which 
had  been  a  careless  woman,  but  the  Arabs  showed  him  many 
bowlders  which  had  once  been  wicked  men. 

His  work  was  worthily  continued  by  a  long  succession  of  true 
and  reverent  men,  among  them  such  travelers  or  geographers  as 
Burckhardt,  Irby,  Mangles,  Fallmerayer,  and  Carl  von  Raumer : 
by  men  like  these  the  atmosphere  of  myth  and  legend  was  stead- 
ily cleared  away ;  as  a  rule,  they  simply  forgot  Lot's  wife  alto- 
gether. 

Greatest  of  all  in  this  noble  succession  was  an  American  theo- 
logian, Dr.  Edward  Robinson,  professor  at  New  York,  a  man  of 
whom  his  country  and  humanity  may  well  be  proud. 

Beginning  about  1826,  he  devoted  himself  for  thirty  years  to 
the  thorough  study  of  the  geography  of  Palestine,  and  he  found 
a  worthy  coadjutor  in  another  American  divine,  Dr.  Eli  Smith. 
Neither  of  these  men  departed  openly  from  the  old  traditions; 
that  would  have  cost  a  heart-breaking  price,  the  loss  of  all  further 
opportunity  to  carry  on  their  researches.  Robinson  did  not  even 
think  it  best  to  call  attention  to  the  mythical  character  of  much 
on  which  his  predecessors  had  insisted ;  he  simply  brought  in, 
more  and  more,  the  dry,  clear  atmosphere  of  the  love  of  truth  for 
truth's  sake,  and,  in  this,  myths  and  legends  steadily  disappeared. 

By  doing  this  he  rendered  a  far  greater  service  to  real  Chris- 
tianity than  any  other  theologian  had  ever  done  in  this  field. 

Very  characteristic  is  his  dealing  with  the  myth  of  Lot's  wife. 
Though  more  than  once  at  Usdum,  though  giving  valuable  in- 
formation regarding  the  sea,  shore,  and  mountains  there,  he  care- 
fully avoids  all  mention  of  the  salt  pillar  and  of  the  legend  which 
arose  from  it.  In  this  he  set  an  example  followed  by  most  of 
the  more  thoughtful  religious  travelers  since  his  time.  Very 
significant  is  it  to  see  the  New  Testament  injunction,  "  Remem- 
ber Lot's  wife,"  so  utterly  forgotten.  These  later  investigators 
seem  never  to  have  heard  of  it,  and  this  constant  forgetfulness 
shows  the  change  which  had  taken  place  in  the  enlightened 
thinking  of  the  world. 

But  in  the  year  1848  came  an  episode  very  striking  in  its 
character  and  effect. 

At  that  time,  the  war  between  the  United  States  and  Mexico 
having  closed,  Lieutenant  Lynch,  of  the  United  States  Navy, 
found  himself  in  the  port  of  Vera  Cruz,  commanding  an  old  hulk, 
the  Supply.  Looking  about  for  something  to  do,  it  occurred  to 
him  to  write  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  asking  permission  to 


59o  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

explore  the  Dead  Sea.  Under  ordinary  circumstances  the  pro- 
posal would  doubtless  have  been  strangled  with  red  tape ;  but 
fortunately  the  Secretary  at  that  time  was  Mr.  John  Y.  Mason,  of 
Virginia.  Mr.  Mason  was  famous  for  his  good  nature :  both  at 
Washington  and  at  Paris,  where  he  was  afterward  minister,  this 
predominant  trait  has  left  a  multitude  of  amusing  traditions ;  it 
was  of  him  that  Thomas  Benton  said, "  To  be  supremely  happy  he 
must  have  his  paunch  full  of  oysters  and  his  hands  full  of  cards." 

The  Secretary  granted  permission,  but  evidently  gave  the 
matter  not  another  thought.  As  a  result,  came  an  expedition  the 
most  comical  and  one  of  the  most  rich  in  results  to  be  found 
in  American  annals.  Never  was  anything  so  happy-go-lucky. 
Lieutenant  Lynch  started  with  his  hulk,  with  hardly  an  instru- 
ment save  those  ordinarily  found  on  shipboard,  and  with  a  body 
of  men  probably  the  most  unfit  for  anything  like  scientific  inves- 
tigation ever  sent  on  such  an  errand  ;  fortunately,  he  picked  up  a 
young  instructor  in  mathematics,  Mr.  Anderson,  and  added  to 
his  apparatus  two  strong  iron  boats. 

Arriving,  after  a  tedious  voyage,  on  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor, 
he  set  at  work.  He  had  no  adequate  preparation  in  general  his- 
tory, archseology,  or  the  physical  sciences,  but  he  had  his  Ameri- 
can patriotism,  energy,  pluck,  pride,  and  devotion  to  duty,  and 
these  qualities  stood  him  in  good  stead.  With  great  labor  he  got 
the  iron  boats  across  the  country.  Then  the  tug  of  war  began. 
First  of  all  investigators,  he  forced  his  way  through  the  whole 
length  of  the  river  Jordan  and  from  end  to  end  of  the  Dead  Sea. 
There  were  constant  difficulties,  geographical,  climatic,  and  per- 
sonal, but  Lynch  cut  through  them  all.  He  was  brave  or  shrewd, 
as  there  was  need.  Anderson  proved  an  admirable  helper,  and 
together  they  made  surveys  of  distances,  altitudes,  depths,  and 
sundry  simple  investigations  in  a  geological,  mineralogical,  and 
chemical  way.  Much  was  poorly  done,  much  was  left  undone, 
but  the  general  result  was  most  honorable  both  to  Lynch  and 
Anderson,  and  Secretary  Mason  found  that  his  easy-going  patron- 
age of  the  enterprise  was  the  best  act  of  his  official  life. 

The  results  of  this  expedition  on  public  opinion  were  most 
curious.  Lynch  was  no  scholar  in  any  sense;  he  had  traveled 
little,  and  thought  less  on  the  real  questions  underlying  the 
whole  investigation ;  as  to  the  difference  in  depth  of  the  two  parts 
of  the  lake,  he  jumped — with  a  sailor's  disregard  of  logic — to  the 
conclusion  that  it  somehow  proved  the  mythical  account  of  the 
overwhelming  of  the  cities,  and  he  indulges  in  reflections  of  a 
sort  probably  suggested  by  his  recollections  of  American  Sunday 
schools. 

Especially  noteworthy  is  his  treatment  of  the  legend  of  Lot's 
wife.     He  found  the  pillar  of  salt.     It  happened  to  be  at  that 


NEW   CHAPTERS  IN   THE   WARFARE   OF  SCIENCE.    591 

period  a  circular  column  of  friable  salt  rock,  about  forty  feet 
high ;  yet,  while  he  accepts  every  other  old  myth,  he  declares  the 
belief  that  this  was  once  the  wife  of  Lot  "  a  superstition." 

One  little  circumstance  added  enormously  to  the  influence  of 
this  book,  for,  as  a  frontispiece,  he  inserted  a  picture  of  the  salt 
column.  It  was  delineated  in  rather  a  poetic  manner;  light 
streamed  upon  it,  heavy  clouds  hung  above  it,  and  as  a  back- 
ground were  ranged  buttresses  of  salt  rock,  furrowed  and  chan- 
neled out  by  the  winter  rains :  this  salt  statue  picture  was  spread 
far  and  wide,  and  in  thousands  of  country  pulpits  and  Sunday 
schools  it  was  shown  as  a  tribute  of  science  to  Scripture. 

Nor  was  this  influence  confined  to  American  Sunday-school 
children,  for  Lynch  had  innocently  set  a  trap  into  which  several 
European  theologians  stumbled.  One  of  these  was  Dr.  Lorenz 
Gratz,  Vicar-General  of  Augsburg,  a  theological  professor.  In  the 
second  edition  of  his  "  Theatre  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,"  published 
in  1858,  he  hails  Lynch's  discovery  of  the  salt  pillar  with  joy ;  for- 
gets his  allusion  to  the  old  theory  regarding  it  as  a  superstition ; 
and  does  not  stop  to  learn  that  this  was  one  of  a  succession  of 
statues  washed  out  yearly  by  the  rains,  but  accepts  it  as  the  origi- 
nal Lot's  wife. 

The  French  churchmen  suffered  most.  About  two  years  after 
Lynch,  De  Saulcy  visits  the  Dead  Sea  to  explore  it  thoroughly, 
evidently  in  the  interest  of  sacred  science — and  of  his  own  pro- 
motion. Of  the  modest  thoroughness  of  Robinson  there  is  no 
trace  in  his  writings.  He  promptly  discovered  the  overwhelmed 
cities,  which  no  one  before  or  since  has  ever  found,  poured  con- 
tempt on  other  investigators,  and  threw  over  his  whole  work  an 
air  of  piety.  But,  unfortunately,  having  a  Frenchman's  dread 
of  ridicule,  he  attempted  to  give  a  rationalistic  explanation  of 
what  he  calls  "  the  enormous  needles  of  salt  washed  out  by  the 
winter  rain,"  and  their  connection  with  the  Lot's  wife  myth,  and 
declared  his  firm  belief  that  she,  "  being  delayed  by  curiosity  or 
terror,  was  crushed  by  a  rock  which  rolled  down  from  the  mount- 
ain, and  when  Lot  and  his  children  turned  about  they  saw  at  the 
place  where  she  had  been  only  the  rock  of  salt  which  covered  her 
body." 

But  this  would  not  do  at  all,  and  an  eminent  ecclesiastic  pri- 
vately and  publicly  expostulated  with  De  Saulcy — very  naturally 
declaring  that  "  it  was  not  Lot  who  wrote  the  book  of  Genesis." 

The  result  was  that  another  edition  of  De  Saulcy's  work  was 
published  by  a  Church  Book  Society,  with  the  offending  passage 
omitted  ;  but  a  passage  was  retained  really  far  more  suggestive 
of  heterodoxy,  and  this  was  an  Arab  legend  accounting  for  the 
origin  of  certain  rocks  near  the  Dead  Sea  curiously  resembling 
salt  formations ;  this  in  effect  ran  as  follows : 


592  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

"  Abraham,  the  friend  of  God,  having  come  here  one  day  with 
his  mule  to  buy  salt,  the  salt-workers  impudently  told  him  that 
they  had  no  salt  to  sell,  whereupon  the  patriarch  said:  'Your 
words  are  true ;  you  have  no  salt  to  sell,'  and  instantly  the  salt 
of  this  whole  region  was  transformed  into  stone,  or  rather  into 
a  salt  which  has  lost  its  savor." 

Nothing  could  be  more  sure  than  this  story  to  throw  light  into 
the  mental  and  moral  process  by  which  the  salt  pillar  myth  was 
originally  created. 

In  the  years  1864  and  1865  came  an  expedition  on  a  much  more 
imposing  scale — that  of  the  Due  de  Luynes.  His  knowledge  of 
archaeology  and  his  wealth  were  freely  devoted  to  working  the 
mine  which  Lynch  had  opened,  and,  taking  with  him  an  iron  ves- 
sel and  several  savants,  he  devoted  himself  especially  to  finding 
the  cities  of  the  Dead  Sea,  and  to  giving  less  vague  accounts  of 
them  than  those  of  De  Saulcy.  But  he  was  disappointed,  and 
honest  enough  to  confess  his  disappointment.  So  vanished  one  of 
the  most  cherished  parts  of  the  legend. 

But  worse  remained  behind.  In  the  orthodox  duke's  company 
was  an  acute  geologist,  Monsieur  Lartet,  who  in  due  time  made 
an  elaborate  report,  which  let  a  flood  of  light  in  upon  the  whole 
region. 

The  Abbe"  Richard  had  been  rejoicing  the  orthodox  heart  of 
France  by  exhibiting  some  prehistoric  flint  implements  as  the 
knives  which  Joshua  had  made  for  circumcision.  By  a  truthful 
statement  Monsieur  Lartet  set  all  France  laughing  at  him,  and 
then  turned  to  the  geology  of  the  Dead  Sea  basin.  While  he  con- 
ceded that  man  may  have  seen  some  volcanic  crisis  there  toward 
its  end,  and  may  have  preserved  a  vivid  remembrance  of  the  vapor 
then  rising,  his  whole  argument  showed  irresistibly  that  all  the 
phenomena  of  the  region  are  due  to  natural  causes,  and  that  so  far 
from  a  sudden  rising  of  the  lake  above  the  valley  within  historic 
times,  it  has  been  for  ages  steadily  subsiding. 

Since  Balaam  was  called  by  Balak  to  curse  his  enemies,  and 
"  blessed  them  altogether,"  there  has  never  been  a  more  unexpected 
tribute  to  truth. 

Even  the  salt  pillar  at  Usdum,  as  depicted  in  Lynch's  book, 
aided  to  undermine  the  myth  among  thinking  men,  for  the  back- 
ground of  the  picture  showed  them  other  pillars  of  salt  in  process 
of  formation ;  and  the  ultimate  result  of  all  these  expeditions  of 
the  century  was  to  spread  an  atmosphere  in  which  myth  and  legend 
became  more  and  more  attenuated. 

To  sum  up  the  main  points  in  this  work  of  the  nineteenth  cent- 
ury, Seetzen,  Robinson,  and  others  had  found  that  a  human  being 
could  traverse  the  lake  without  being  killed  by  hellish  smoke ; 
that  the  water  gave  forth  no  odors :  that  the  fruits  of  the  region 


NEW   CHAPTERS  IN  THE   WARFARE   OF  SCIENCE.    593 

were  not  created  full  of  cinders  to  match  the  desolation  of  the 
Dead  Sea,  but  were  growths  not  uncommon  in  Asia  Minor  and 
elsewhere ;  in  fact,  that  all  the  phenomena  were  due  to  natural 
causes. 

Ritter  and  others  had  shown  that  all  noted  features  of  the 
Dead  Sea  and  the  surrounding  country  were  to  be  found  in  vari- 
ous other  lakes  and  regions,  to  which  no  supernatural  cause  was 
ascribed  among  enlightened  men.  Lynch,  Van  de  Velde,  Osborne, 
and  others  had  revealed  the  fact  that  the  "  pillar  of  salt "  was 
frequently  formed  anew  by  the  rains ;  and  Lartet  and  other 
geologists  had  given  a  final  blow  to  the  myths  by  making  it  clear 
from  the  markings  on  the  neighboring  rocks  that,  instead  of  a 
sudden  upheaval  of  the  sea  above  the  valley  of  Siddim,  there  had 
been  a  gradual  subsidence  for  ages.* 

Even  before  all  this  evidence  was  in,  a  judicial  decision  had 
been  pronounced  upon  the  whole  question  by  an  authority  both 
Christian  and  scientific,  from  which  there  could  be  no  appeal. 
During  the  second  quarter  of  the  century  Prof.  Carl  Ritter,  of  the 
University  of  Berlin,  began  giving  to  the  world  those  researches 
which  have  placed  him  at  the  head  of  all  geographers  ancient  or 
modern,  and  finally  he  brought  together  those  relating  to  the 
geography  of  the  Holy  Land,  publishing  them  as  part  of  his  great 
work  on  the  physical  geography  of  the  earth.  He  was  a  Chris- 
tian, and  nothing  could  be  more  reverent  than  his  treatment  of 
the  whole  subject ;  but  his  German  honesty  did  not  permit  him 
to  conceal  the  truth,  and  he  simply  classed  together  all  the  stories 
of  the  Dead  Sea — old  and  new — no  matter  where  found,  whether 
in  the  sacred  books  of  Jews,  Christians,  or  Mohammedans ; 
whether  in  lives  of  saints  or  accounts  of  travelers,  as  "  myths  " 
and  "  sagas." 

From  this  decision  there  has  never  been  among  intelligent 
men  any  appeal. 

*  For  Seetzen,  see  his  "  Reisen,"  edited  by  Kruse,  Berlin,  1854-'59;  for  the  "Dead 
Sea  Fruits,"  vol.  ii,  p.  231  et  seq. ;  for  the  appearance  of  the  sea,  etc.,  p.  243,  and  else- 
where ;  for  the  Arab  transformation  explanatory  legends,  vol.  iii,  pp.  7,  14,  17.  As  to 
similarity  of  the  "  pillars  of  salt  "  to  columns  washed  out  by  rains  elsewhere,  see  Kruse's 
"Commentary"  in  vol.  iv,  p.  240;  also  Fallmerayer,  i,  197.  For  Irby  and  Mangles,  see 
work  already  cited.  For  Robinson,  see  his  "  Biblical  Researches,"  London,  1841  ;  also  his 
"Later  Biblical  Researches,"  London,  1866.  For  Lynch,  see  his  " Narrative,"  London, 
1849.  For  Gratz,  see  his  "  Schauplatz  der  Heyl.  Schrift.,"  pp.  186,  187.  For  De  Saulcy, 
see  his  "Voyage  autour  de  la  Mer  Morte,"  Paris,  1853,  especially  vol.  i,  p.  262,  and  his 
journal  of  early  months  of  1851,  in  vol.  ii,  comparing  with  it  his  work  with  the  same  title 
published  in  1858  in  the  "  Bibliotheque  Catholique  de  Voyages  et  Romans,"  vol.  i,  pp.  78- 
81.  For  Lartet,  see  his  papers  read  before  Geographical  Society  at  Paris;  also  citations  in 
Robinson ;  but,  above  all,  his  elaborate  reports  which  form  the  greater  part  of  the  second 
and  third  volumes  of  the  monumental  work  which  bears  the  name  of  De  Luynes,  already 
cited.  For  exposures  of  De  Saulcy's  credulity  and  errors,  see  Van  de  Velde,  "  Syria  and 
Palestine,"  passim  ;  also  Canon  Tristram's  "  Land  of  Israel  "  ;  also  De  Luynes,  passim. 
vol.  xxxvi. — 38 


594  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

The  adjustment  of  recent  orthodox  thought  to  this  view  pre- 
sents some  curious  features.  As  typical  we  may  take  the  travels 
of  two  German  theologians  between  1860  and  1870 — John  Kranzel, 
pastor  in  Munich ;  and  Peter  Schegg,  lately  professor  in  the  uni- 
versity of  that  city. 

The  archdiocese  of  Munich-Freising  is  one  of  those  in  which 
the  attempt  to  oppress  modern  scientific  thought  has  been  most 
steadily  carried  on.  Its  archbishops  have  constantly  shown  them- 
selves assiduous  in  securing  cardinals'  hats  by  thwarting  science 
and  by  stupefying  education.  The  twin  towers  of  the  old  cathe- 
dral of  Munich  have  seemed  to  throw  a  killing  shadow  over  intel- 
lectual development  in  that  region.  Naturally,  then,  these  two 
clerical  travelers  from  that  diocese  did  not  commit  themselves  to 
clearing  away  any  of  the  Dead  Sea  myths  ;  but  it  is  significant 
that  neither  of  them  follows  the  example  of  so  many  of  their 
clerical  predecessors  in  defending  the  salt-pillar  legend;  they 
steadily  avoid  it  altogether. 

The  more  recent  history  of  the  salt  pillar,  since  Lynch,  de- 
serves mention.  It  appears  that  the  travelers  immediately  after 
him  found  it  shaped  by  the  storms  into  a  spire  ;  that  a  year  or  two 
later  it  had  utterly  disappeared ;  and  about  the  year  1870  Prof. 
Palmer  on  visiting  the  place  found  at  some  distance  from  the 
main  salt  bed,  as  he  says,  "  a  tall,  isolated  needle  of  salt  or  salt 
rock,  which  does  really  bear  a  curious  resemblance  to  an  Arab 
woman  with  a  child  on  her  shoulders." 

Three  years  later  Smith's  "  Dictionary  of  the  Bible  "  makes  its 
concession  to  the  old  belief  regarding  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  as 
slight  as  possible,  and  the  myth  of  Lot's  wife  entirely  disappears. 

The  theological  effort  to  compromise  with  science  now  came  in 
more  strongly  than  ever.  This  effort  had  been  made  long  before : 
as  we  have  seen,  it  had  begun  to  show  itself  decidedly  as  soon  as 
the  influence  of  the  Baconian  philosophy  was  felt.  Clerc  thought 
that  the  shock  caused  by  the  sight  of  fire  from  heaven  killed 
Lot's  wife  instantly  and  made  her  body  rigid  as  a  statue.  Eich- 
horn  suggested  that  she  fell  into  a  stream  of  melted  bitumen. 
Michaelis  suggested  that  her  relatives  raised  a  monument  of  salt 
rock  to  her  memory.  Friedrichs  suggested  that  she  fell  into  the 
sea,  and  that  the  salt  stiffened  around  her  clothing,  thus  making  a 
statue  of  her.  Some  claimed  that  a  shower  of  sulphur  came  down 
upon  her,  and  that  the  word  which  has  been  translated  "  salt " 
could  possibly  be  translated '"  sulphur."  Others  hinted  that  the 
salt  by  its  antiseptic  qualities  preserved  her  body  as  a  mummy. 
De  Saulcy,  as  we  have  seen,  thought  that  a  piece  of  salt  rock 
fell  upon  her ;  and  very  recently  Principal  Dawson  ventures  the 
explanation  that  a  flood  of  salt  mud  coming  from  a  volcano 
incrusted  her. 


NEW  CHAPTERS  IN   THE   WARFARE   OF  SCIENCE.    595 

But  theologians  themselves  were  the  first  to  show  the  inade- 
quacy of  these  explanations.  The  more  rationalistic  pointed  out 
the  fact  that  they  were  contrary  to  the  sacred  text :  Von  Bohlen, 
an  eminent  professor  at  Konigsberg,  in  his  sturdy  German  hon- 
esty, declared  that  the  salt  pillar  gave  rise  to  the  story,  and  com- 
pared the  pillar  of  salt  causing  this  transformation  legend  to  the 
rock  in  Greek  mythology  which  gave  rise  to  the  transformation 
legend  of  Niobe. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  more  severely  orthodox  protested  against 
such  attempts  to  explain  away  the  clear  statements  of  Holy  Writ. 
Dom  Calmet,  while  presenting  many  of  these  explanations  made 
as  early  as  his  time,  gives  us  to  understand  that  nearly  all  theolo- 
gians adhered  to  the  idea  that  Lot's  wife  was  instantly  and  really 
changed  into  salt ;  and  in  our  own  time,  as  we  shall  presently  see, 
have  come  some  very  vigorous  protests. 

Similar  attempts  were  made  to  explain  the  other  ancient  le- 
gends regarding  the  Dead  Sea.  One  of  the  most  recent  of  these 
is  that  the  cities  of  the  plain,  having  been  built  with  blocks  of 
bituminous  rock,  were  set  on  fire  by  lightning,  a  contemporary 
earthquake  helping  on  the  work.  Still  another  is  that  accumula- 
tions of  petroleum  and  inflammable  gas  escaped  through  a  fissure, 
took  fire,  and  so  produced  the  catastrophe.* 

Against  this  sort  of  rationalism  perhaps  the  most  vigorous  of 
recent  protests  appeared  in  1876,  in  an  edition  of  Monseigneur 
Mislin's  work  on  "  The  Holy  Places."  In  order  to  give  weight  to 
the  book,  he  spread  his  qualities  at  great  length  on  the  title-page. 
Among  other  things,  he  was  prelate  of  the  papal  household,  apos- 
tolic prothonotary,  a  doctor  of  theology  and  of  philosophy,  and 
his  work  is  prefaced  by  letters  from  Pope  Pius  IX  and  sundry 
high  ecclesiastics — and  from  Alexandre  Dumas.  His  hatred  of 
Protestant  missionaries  in  the  East  is  phenomenal ;  he  calls  them 
"  bagmen,"  ascribing  all  mischief  and  infamy  to  them ;  and  his 
hatred  is  only  exceeded  by  his  credulity.  He  cites  all  the  argu- 
ments in  favor  of  the  salt  statue  at  Usdum  as  the  identical  one 
into  which  Lot's  wife  was  changed,  adds  some  of  his  own,  and  pre- 
sents her  as  "  a  type  of  doubt  and  heresy."  With  the  proverbial 
facility  of  theologians  in  translating  any  word  of  a  dead  language 
into  anything  that  suits  their  purpose,  he  says  that  the  word  in 
the  nineteenth  chapter  of  Genesis,  which  is  translated  "  statue  "  or 
"  pillar,"  may  be  translated  "  eternal  monument "  ;  he  is  especially 

*  For  Kranzel,  see  his  "  Reise  nach  Jerusalem,"  etc. ;  for  Schegg,  his  "  Gedenkbuch 
einer  Pilgerreise,"  etc.,  186V,  chapter  xxiv.  For  Palmer,  see  his  "Desert  of  the  Exodus," 
vol.  ii,  pp.  478,  479.  For  the  various  compromises,  see  works  already  cited,  passim.  For 
Von  Bohlen,  see  his  "Genesis,"  Konigsberg,  1835,  pp.  200-213.  For  Calmet,  see  his 
"  Dictionarium,"  etc.,  Venet.,  1766.  For  very  recent  compromises,  see  J.  W.  Dawson  and 
Dr.  Cunningham  Geikie  in  works  cited. 


596  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

severe  on  poor  Monsieur  De  Saulcy  for  thinking  that  Lot's  wife 
was  killed  by  the  falling  of  a  piece  of  salt  rock,  and  actually  boasts 
that  it  was  he  who  caused  De  Saulcy,  a  member  of  the  French  In- 
stitute, to  suppress  the  obnoxious  passage  in  a  later  edition. 

Nor  did  such  rationalizing  efforts  fare  much  better  among 
Protestant  theologians.  In  his  excellent  work  on  "  The  Land  of 
Israel/'  Canon  Tristram  makes  an  energetic  protest  against  scien- 
tific explanations  of  biblical  statements. 

Between  1870  and  1880  came  two  killing  blows  at  the  older 
theories,  and  they  were  dealt  by  two  American  scholars  of  the 
highest  character.  First  of  these  may  be  mentioned  Dr.  Philip 
Schaff,  a  professor  in  the  Presbyterian  Theological  Seminary  at 
New  York;  who  published  his  travels  in  1877.  In  a  high  degree 
he  united  the  scientific  with  the  religious  spirit,  but  the  trait 
which  made  him  especially  fit  for  dealing  with  this  subject  was 
his  straightforward  German  honesty.  He  tells  the  simple  truth 
regarding  the  pillar  of  salt,  so  far  as  its  physical  origin  and 
characteristics  are  concerned,  and  leaves  his  reader  to  draw  the 
natural  inference  as  to  its  relation  to  the  myth.  With  the  fate  of 
Dr.  Robertson  Smith  in  Scotland  and  Dr.  Woodrow  in  South 
Carolina  before  him — both  recently  driven  from  their  professor- 
ships for  truth-telling — Dr.  Schaff  deserves  honor  for  telling  as 
much  as  he  does. 

Similar  in  effect,  and  even  more  bold  in  statement,  were  the 
"  Travels "  of  the  Rev.  Henry  Osborne,  published  in  1878.  In  a 
truly  scientific  spirit  he  calls  attention  to  the  similarity  between 
the  Dead  Sea,  with,  the  river  Jordan,  to  sundry  other  lake  and  river 
systems  ;  he  points  out  the  endless  variations  between  writers 
describing  the  salt  formations  at  Usdum  ;  accounts  rationally 
for  these  variations,  and  quotes  from  Dr.  Anderson's  report,  say- 
ing, "  From  the  soluble  nature  of  the  salt  and  the  crumbling 
looseness  of  the  marl,  it  might  be  well  imagined  that,  while  some 
of  these  needles  are  in  process  of  formation,  others  are  being 
washed  away." 

Thus  came  out,  little  by  little,  the  truth  regarding  the  Dead 
Sea  myths,  and  especially  the  salt  pillar  at  Usdum  ;  but  the  final 
truth  remained  to  be  told,  and  now  one  of  the  purest  men  and 
truest  divines  of  this  century  told  it.  Arthur  Stanley,  Dean  of 
Westminster,  visiting  the  country  and  thoroughly  exploring  it, 
allowed  that  the  physical  features  of  the  Dead  Sea  and  its  shores 
suggested  the  myths  and  legends,  and  he  sums  up  the  whole  as 
follows  :  "  A  great  mass  of  legends  and  exaggerations,  partly  the 
cause  and  partly  the  result  of  the  old  belief  that  the  cities  were 
buried  under  the  Dead  Sea,  has  been  gradually  removed  in  recent 
years." 

So,  too,  about  the  same  time,  Dr.  Conrad  Furrer,  pastor  of  the 


NEW  CHAPTERS   IN   THE    WARFARE   OF  SCIENCE.    597 

great  church  of  St.  Peter  at  Zurich,  gave  to  the  world  a  book  of 
travels  reverent  and  thoughtful,  and,  in  this,  honestly  acknowl- 
edged that  the  needles  of  salt  at  the  southern  end  of  the  Dead  Sea 
"  in  primitive  times  gave  rise  to  the  tradition  that  Lot's  wife  was 
transformed  into  a  statue  of  salt."  Thus  was  the  mythical  char- 
acter of  this  story  at  last  openly  confessed  by  leading  churchmen 
on  both  continents. 

Plain  statements  like  these  from  such  sources  left  the  high 
theological  position  more  difficult  than  ever,  and  now  a  new  com- 
promise was  attempted.  As  the  Siberian  mother  tried  to  save  her 
best-beloved  child  from  the  pursuing  wolves  by  throwing  over  to 
them  her  less  favored  children,  so  an  effort  was  now  made  in  a 
leading  commentary  to  save  the  legends  of  the  valley  of  Siddim 
and  the  miraculous  destruction  of  the  cities  by  throwing  over- 
board the  legend  of  Lot's  wife.* 

But  even  this  utterly  failed,  for  there  soon  followed  the  worst 
blows  of  all.  First,  from  Van  de  Velde,  who  made  his  journey  in 
1851  and  1852.  He  is  a  most  devout  man,  but  he  confesses  that 
the  volcanic  action  at  the  Dead  Sea  must  have  been  far  earlier 
than  the  catastrophe  mentioned  in  our  sacred  books,  and  that 
"  the  overthrow  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  had  nothing  to  do  with 
this."  A  few  years  later  a  very  eminent  dignitary  of  the  English 
Church,  Canon  Tristram,  doctor  of  divinity  and  fellow  of  the 
Royal  Society,  who  had  explored  the  Holy  Land  thoroughly, 
after  some  generalities  about  miracles,  gave  up  the  whole  attempt 
to  make  science  agree  with  the  myths,  and  used  these  words :  "  It 
has  been  frequently  assumed  that  the  district  of  Usdum  and  its 
sister  cities  was  the  result  of  some  tremendous  geological  ca- 
tastrophe. .  .  .  Now,  careful  examination  by  competent  geologists, 
such  as  Monsieur  Lartet  and  others,  has  shown  that  the  whole 
district  has  assumed  its  present  shape  slowly  and  gradually 
through  a  succession  of  ages,  and  that  its  peculiar  phenomena  are 
similar  to  those  of  other  lakes."  So  sank  from  view  the  whole 
mass  of  Dead  Sea  myths  and  legends,  and  science  gained  a  victory 
both  for  geology  and  comparative  mythology. 

An  amusing  result  has  followed  this  development  of  opinion. 
As  we  have  already  seen,  traveler  after  traveler,  Catholic  and 
Protestant,  now  visits  the  Dead  Sea,  and  hardly  one  of  them 
follows  the  New  Testament  injunction  to  "  remember  Lot's  wife." 
Nearly  every  one  of  them  seems  to  think  it  best  to  forget  her. 

*  For  Mislin,  see  his  "  Les  Saints  Lieux,"  Paris,  1876,  vol.  iii,  pp.  290-29S,  especially  note 
at  foot  of  page  292.  For  Schaff,  see  his  "  Through  Bible  Lands,"  especially  chapter  xxix. 
See  also  Rev.  H.  S.  Osborne,  M.  A.,  "  Travels,"  etc.,  pp.  267  et  seq. ;  also  Stanley's  "  Sinai 
and  Palestine,"  London,  1887,  especially  pp.  290-293.  For  Furrer,  see  his  "En  Palestine," 
Qeneva,  1886,  vol.  i,  p.  246.  For  the  attempt  to  save  one  legend  by  throwing  overboard 
the  other,  see  Keil  und  Delitsch,  "  Biblischer  Commentar  ueber  das  Alte  Testament,"  vol. 
i,  pp.  155,  156.     For  Van  de  Velde,  see  his  "Syria  and  Palestine,"  vol.  ii,  p.  120. 


598  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

Of  the  great  mass  of  pious  legends  they  are  shy  enough,  but  that 
of  Lot's  wife,  as  a  rule,  they  seem  never  to  have  heard  of,  and,  if 
they  do  allude  to  it,  they  simply  cover  the  whole  subject  with  a 
haze  of  conventionality  and  sacred  rhetoric* 

Naturally,  under  this  state  of  things,  there  has  followed  the 
usual  attempt  to  throw  off  from  Christendom  the  responsibility 
of  the  old  belief,  and  in  1887  came  a  curious  effort  of  this  sort. 
In  that  year  appeared  the  Rev.  Dr.  Cunningham  Geikie's  valu- 
able work  on  "  The  Holy  Land  and  the  Bible."  In  it  he  makes  the 
following  statement  as  to  the  salt  formation  at  Usdum :  "  Here  and 
there,  hardened  portions  of  salt,  withstanding  the  water,  while  all 
around  them  melts  and  wears  off,  rise  up  isolated  pillars,  one  of 
which  bears  among  the  Arabs  the  name  of  Lot's  wife." 

In  the  light  of  the  previous  history,  there  is  something  at  once 
pathetic  and  comical  in  this  attempt  to  throw  the  myth  upon 
the  shoulders  of  the  poor  Arabs.  The  myth  was  not  originated 
by  Mohammedans  ;  it  appears,  as  we  have  seen,  first  among  the 
Jews,  and,  I  need  hardly  remind  the  reader,  comes  out  in  the 
Book  of  Wisdom  and  in  Josephus,  and  has  been  steadily  main- 
tained by  fathers,  martyrs,  and  doctors  of  the  Church,  by  at  least 
one  pope,  and  by  innumerable  bishops,  priests,  monks,  commenta- 
tors, and  travelers,  Catholic  and  Protestant,  ever  since.  In  thus 
throwing  the  responsibility  of  the  myth  upon  the  Arabs  Dr. 
Geikie  appears  to  show  both  the  "  perf ervid  genius  "  of  his  coun- 
trymen and  their  incapacity  to  recognize  a  joke. 

Nor  is  he  more  happy  in  his  rationalistic  explanations  of  the 
whole  mass  of  myths.  He  supposes  a  terrific  storm,  in  which  the 
lightning  kindled  the  combustible  materials  of  the  cities,  aided 
perhaps  by  an  earthquake ;  but  this  shows  a  disposition  to  break 
away  from  the  exact  statements  of  the  sacred  books  which  would 
have  been  most  severely  condemned  by  the  universal  Church 
during  at  least  eighteen  hundred  years  of  its  history.  Nor  would 
the  explanations  of  Sir  William  Dawson  have  fared  any  better : 
it  is  very  doubtful  whether  either  of  them  could  escape  unscathed 
to-day  from  a  synod  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland,  or  of  any  of 
the  leading  orthodox  bodies  in  the  Southern  States  of  the  Ameri- 
can Union,  f 

*  The  only  notice  of  the  Lot's  wife  legend  in  the  editions  of  Robinson  at  my  command 
is  a  very  curious  one  by  Leopold  von  Buch,  the  eminent  geologist.  Robinson,  with  a  fear- 
lessness which  does  him  credit,  consulted  Von  Buch,  who  in  his  answer  was  evidently  in- 
clined to  make  things  easy  for  Robinson  by  hinting  that  Lot  was  so  much  struck  with  the 
salt  formations  that  he  imagined  that  his  wife  had  been  changed  into  salt.  On  this  theory 
Robinson  makes  no  comment.  See  Robinson,  "  Biblical  Researches  in  Palestine,"  etc., 
London,  1841,  vol.  ii,  p.  674. 

f  For  these  most  recent  explanations,  see  Rev.  Cunningham  Geikie,  D.  D.,  in  work  cited ; 
also  Sir  J.  W.  Dawson,  "Egypt  and  Syria,"  published  by  the  Religious  Tract  Society,  1887, 
pp.  125,  126. 


NEW  CHAPTERS  IN  THE   WARFARE   OF  SCIENCE.    599 

How  unsatisfactory  all  such  rationalism,  must  be  to  a  truly 
theological  mind  is  seen  not  only  in  the  dealings  with  Prof.  Rob- 
ertson Smith  in  Scotland  and  Prof.  Woodrow  in  South  Carolina, 
but,  most  clearly,  in  a  book  published  in  1886  by  Monseigneur 
Hausman  de  Wandelbourg.  This  work  appeared  in  two  ponder- 
ous volumes  and  with  a  great  flourish  of  trumpets.  To  the  name 
of  the  author  was  attached  a  long  list  of  titles :  among  other 
things,  he  is  Prelate  of  the  Pope's  Household,  a  Mitred  Abbot, 
Canon  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  and  a  Doctor  of  Theology  of  the 
Pontifical  University  at  Rome,  and  the  work  is  introduced  by 
approving  letters  from  Pope  Leo  XIII  and  the  Patriarch  of  Jeru- 
salem. Monseigneur  de  Wandelbourg  scorns  the  idea  that  the 
salt  column  at  Usdum  is  not  the  statue  of  Lot's  wife ;  he  points 
out  not  only  the  danger  of  yielding  this  evidence  of  miracle  to 
rationalism,  but  the  fact  that  the  divinely  inspired  authority  of 
the  Book  of  Wisdom,  written,  at  the  latest,  two  hundred  and  fifty 
years  before  Christ,  distinctly  refers  to  it.  He  summons  Josephus 
as  a  witness.  He  dwells  on  the  fact  that  Pope  St.  Clement,  Ire- 
naeus,  Hegesippus,  and  St.  Cyril,  "  who  as  Bishop  of  Jerusalem 
must  have  known  better  than  any  other  person  what  existed  in 
Palestine,"  with  St.  Jerome,  St.  Chrysostom,  and  a  multitude  of 
others,  attest  as  a  matter  of  their  own  knowledge  or  of  popular 
notoriety  that  the  remains  of  Lot's  wife  really  existed  in  their 
time  in  the  form  of  a  column  of  salt ;  and  he  points  triumphantly 
to  the  fact  that  Lieutenant  Lynch  found  this  very  column. 

In  the  presence  of  such  a  continuous  line  of  witnesses,  some  of 
them  divinely  inspired,  and  all  of  them  greatly  revered — a  line 
extending  through  thirty-seven  hundred  years — he  condemns 
most  vigorously  all  those  who  do  not  believe  that  the  pillar  of 
salt  now  at  Usdum  is  identical  with  the  wife  of  Lot,  and  stigma- 
tizes them  as  people  who  "  do  not  wish  to  believe  the  truth  of  the 
word  of  God."  His  ignorance  of  many  of  the  simplest  facts  bear- 
ing upon  the  legend  is  very  striking,  yet  he  does  not  hesitate  to 
speak  of  men  who  know  far  more  and  have  thought  far  more 
upon  the  subject  as  "grossly  ignorant."  The  most  laughable 
feature  in  his  ignorance  is  the  fact  that  he  is  utterly  unaware  of 
the  annual  changes  in  the  salt  statue.  He  is  entirely  ignorant  of 
such  facts  as  that  the  priest  Gabriel  Giraudet  in  the  sixteenth 
century  found  the  statue  lying  down;  that  the  monk  Zwinner 
found  it  in  the  seventeenth  century  standing,  and  accompanied  by 
a  dog  also  transformed  into  salt ;  that  Prince  Radziwill  found  no 
statue  at  all ;  that  the  pious  Vincent  Briemle  in  the  eighteenth 
century  found  the  monument  renewing  itself;  that  about  the 
middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  Lynch  found  it  in  the  shape  of  a 
tower  or  column  forty  feet  high ;  that  within  two  years  afterward 
De  Saulcy  found  it  washed  into  the  form  of  a  spire ;  that  a  year 


600  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

later  Van  de  Velde  found  it  utterly  washed  away  ;  and  that  a  few 
years  later  Palmer  found  there  "  a  statue  bearing  a  striking  re- 
semblance to  an  Arab  woman  with  a  child  in  her  arms."  Thus 
ended  the  last  great  demonstration  thus  far  on  the  side  of  sacred 
science — the  last  retreating  shot  from  the  theological  rear-guard. 

It  is  but  just  to  say  that  a  very  great  share  in  the  honor  of  the 
victory  of  science  in  this  field  is  due  to  men  trained  as  theolo- 
gians. It  would  naturally  be  so,  since  few  others  have  devoted 
themselves  to  direct  labor  in  it ;  yet  great  honor  is  none  the  less 
due  to  such  men  as  Reland,  Mariti,  Robinson,  Smith,  Schaff,  Stan- 
ley, and  Tristram. 

They  have  rendered  even  a  greater  service  to  religion  than  to 
science,  for  they  have  made  a  beginning,  at  least,  of  doing  away 
with  that  enforced  belief  in  myths  as  history  which  has  become 
a  most  serious  danger  to  Christianity. 

For  the  worst  enemy  of  Christianity  could  wish  nothing 
more  than  that  its  main  leaders  should  prove  or  insist  that  it  can 
not  be  adopted  save  by  those  who  accept,  as  historical,  statements 
which  enlightened  men  throughout  the  world  know  to  be  mythi- 
cal. The  result  of  such  a  demonstration  would  only  be  more  and 
more  to  make  thinking  people  inside  the  church  dissemblers,  and 
thinking  people  outside,  scoffers. 

Far  better  is  it  to  welcome  the  aid  of  science,  in  the  conviction 
that  all  truth  is  one,  and,  in  the  light  of  this  truth,  to  allow  the- 
ology and  science  to  work  together  in  the  steady  evolution  of 
religion  and  morality. 

The  revelations  made  by  the  sciences  which  most  directly  deal 
with  the  history  of  man  all  converge  in  the  truth  that  during  the 
earlier  stages  of  this  evolution  moral  and  spiritual  teachings  must 
be  inclosed  in  myth,  legend,  and  parable.  "  The  Master  "  felt  this 
when  he  gave  to  the  poor  peasants  about  him — and  so  to  the 
world— his  simple  and  beautiful  illustrations.  In  making  this 
truth  clear,  science  will  give  to  religion  far  more  than  it  will  take 
away,  for  it  will  throw  new  life  and  light  into  all  sacred  lit- 
erature. 


The  origin  of  the  Malays  is  traced  by  Dr.  B.  Hagen  to  the  highlands  of  west 
Sumatra,  whence  the  peoples  extended  slowly  eastward;  the  first  movement  be- 
ing probably  by  the  races  that  are  now  to  be  found  only  in  the  interior  of  the 
great  islands.  These  "  aborigines  "  of  the  islands  crushed  out  a  population  already 
in  possession,  as  remains  of  which  the  negritos  may  be  taken.  The  Malays  in  the 
narrower  sense  occupying  Sumatra,  Malacca,  and  north  Borneo,  are  to  be  regarded 
as  the  last  emigration  from  this  center,  which  occurred  between  the  twelfth  and 
fifteenth  centuries  a.  d.  Crosses  and  mixtures  arose  with  the  Indians  and  Chinese, 
who  have  been  long  in  intercourse  with  the  archipelago,  and  in  less  measure  also 
with  the  Arabs.  For  this  reason  we  must  not  expect  to  find  the  pure  racial  type, 
especially  not  in  the  coast  population. 


THE  MISSION   OF  EDUCATED    WOMEN.  601 

THE   MISSION  OF  EDUCATED   WOMEN. 

By  Mrs.  M.  F.  AKMSTKONG. 

"  Love  seldom  haunts  the  breast 
Where  learning  lies." — Pope. 

"  'Tis  Reason's  part, 
To  govern  and  to  guard  the  heart." — Cotton. 

"  I  loved  her  well ;  I  would  have  loved  her  better 
Had  love  been  met  with  love ; 
As  'tis,  I  leave  her 
To  brighter  destinies,  if  so  she  deems  them." — Byron. 

AN  article  entitled  "  Plain  Words  on  the  Woman  Question," 
-  reprinted  from  the  "  Fortnightly  Review  "  in  this  magazine, 
is  so  far  in  the  nature  of  an  attack  upon  the  women  whom  the 
writer  calls  into  court  as  to  make  reply,  from  one  or  another 
quarter,  legitimate,  and  indeed,  I  think,  obligatory.  As  a  woman, 
who  is  bound  by  the  conditions  of  wife  and  motherhood,  for 
which  Mr.  Allen  makes  so  able  a  plea,  I  can  not  individually 
appear  on  either  side.  It  is  not  the  women  whom  I  represent  who 
are  under  discussion,  but  none  the  less  are  the  principles  involved 
of  the  deepest  and  most  pressing  interest  to  thoughtful  women 
everywhere,  whether  they  have  elected  the  single-handed  fight, 
or  the  less  evident  but  none  the  less  serious  test  which  comes  with 
motherhood  and  the  endeavor  to  make  a  home. 

My  excuse,  therefore,  for  offering  myself,  in  a  sense,  as  a  mouth- 
piece for  the  women  whom  Mr.  Allen  classifies  as  "  deplorable 
accidents  "  is,  first,  that  the  points  raised  are  in  reality  of  as  much 
importance  to  married  women  as  to  their  unmarried  sisters ;  and, 
second,  that  my  position  gives  me,  I  think,  unusual  advantages 
for  getting  at  certain  underlying  facts. 

I  have  been  for  years  connected  with  a  large  educational  insti- 
tution, where  young  men  and  women  are  working,  side  by  side, 
under  identically  similar  influences.  The  officials  and  teachers 
in  this  school  are  largely  women,  and  women  who,  to  quote  Mr. 
Allen,  have  become  "  traitors  to  their  sex,"  in  that  they  have 
taken  upon  their  shoulders  the  burden  of  their  own  support. 
They  are,  with  few  exceptions,  highly  educated,  many  of  them 
college-bred,  three  among  them  being  regular  physicians,  while 
all  of  them,  if  I  may  be  permitted  to  judge,  are  of  at  least  average 
attractiveness.  As  to  health,  social  position,  and  previous  con- 
dition, they  offer  also,  I  believe,  a  fair  average,  while  their  intel- 
lectual standards  mark  them  high  in  the  scale  of  feminine  de- 
velopment. 

For  years  they  have  puzzled  me,  for  they  are,  without  doubt, 
representative  of  a  social  phase,  and  the  reasons  for  their  exist- 


6oz  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

ence,  as  well  as  the  future  to  which  they  point,  offer  a  unique 
temptation  to  the  theorist.  The  appearance  of  the  article  already- 
alluded  to  gave  me  a  long-desired  opportunity,  and  I  at  once  laid 
it  before  my  friends,  asking  for  it  their  serious  consideration. 
Nowhere  in  America,  I  am  sure,  could  the  opportunity  be  more 
complete,  or  the  response  more  telling ;  and  I  trust  that  what  these 
women  have  to  say  for  themselves  will  not  be  without  interest,  to 
those  at  least  who  have  read  Mr.  Allen's  frank  and,  on  the  whole, 
liberal  article. 

In  a  charming  cottage,  occupied  by  two  of  this  misguided  sis- 
terhood, to  whose  menage  the  most  critical  eye  could  find  nothing 
lacking,  there  was  gathered,  a  week  or  two  since,  an  unmistaka- 
bly striking  assemblage  of  single  women,  well  looking,  well 
dressed,  ranging  from  twenty  to  fifty  years  of  age,  every  one  of 
whom  could  have,  in  the  past,  married,  or  could  still  marry,  were 
it  her  desire  to  do  so. 

There  was  not  a  fanatic  among  them ;  they  were  sensible,  ear- 
nest, in  some  cases  brilliant  women,  who  had,  with  more  or  less 
intention,  turned  their  backs  upon  marriage,  and  chosen  instead 
lives  of  self-supporting  indejDendence.  Why  have  they  done  this  ? 
Undoubtedly  it  is  to  more  than  one  cause  that  we  must  look  for 
this  result ;  but,  at  the  outset  of  the  discussion,  it  was  universally 
admitted  that  Mr.  Allen  is  right  in  considering  the  "  higher  edu- 
cation," to  which  he  objects,  to  be  the  most  potent  factor  in  the 
situation.  Furthermore,  the  knowledge  of  life  in  all  its  phases, 
which  these  women  have  gained,  both  from  their  intellectual  train- 
ing and  their  practical  experience  as  bread-winners  for  them- 
selves and  others,  makes  them  ready  to  accept  most  of  his  other 
premises. 

They  admit,  that  is,  the  physical  necessity  for  maternity,  and 
no  man  can  appreciate  its  sacredness  as  they  do. 

They  admit,  again,  the  necessity  for  that  tremendous  over- 
loading of  the  sexual  instinct,  whose  meaning  Emerson  interprets 
when  he  says  :  "  The  lover  seeks  in  marriage  his  private  felicita- 
tion and  perfection,  with  no  prospective  end  ;  and  Nature  hides  in 
his  happiness  her  own  end,  namely,  progeny,  or  the  perpetuity  of 
the  race." 

They  admit,  too,  the  value  of  the  institution  of  marriage,  and, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  ideal  motherhood,  put  its  beauty  and  its 
possibilities  of  happiness  far  beyond  the  usual  masculine  concep- 
tion. 

As  to  the  continuance  of  the  race,  they  are  far  too  keen  to 
blink  any  facts,  even  when  they  count  against  themselves.  The 
race,  at  all  costs,  must  go  on,  and  women  must  be  wives  and 
mothers,  or,  to  keep  exactly  to  the  lines  laid  down  by  Mr.  Allen, 
must  at  least  be  mothers,  to  the  end  of  time.     And,  following 


THE  MISSION   OF  EDUCATED    WOMEN.  603 

their  logic  to  the  bitter  end,  they  admit  that,  under  existing  con- 
ditions, and  probably  for  long  periods  yet  to  come,  the  women 
who  assume  motherhood  as  their  vocation  must  be  prepared  to 
renounce,  more  or  less  completely,  their  chance  for  intellectual 
development. 

To  this  point  our  argument,  on  the  evening  of  which  I  speak, 
went  smoothly  enough.  Little  or  no  exception  was  taken  to  Mr. 
Allen's  position.  So  long  as  he  made  himself  only  an  exponent 
of  natural  laws,  and  of  their  inevitable  effect  upon  the  social 
fabric,  there  were  no  dissentient  voices.  But  there  came  a  mo- 
ment when  the  qnestion  must  be  put  point  blank,  and  it  was  then 
that,  for  the  first  time,  we,  so  to  speak,  came  down  to  business. 

"  Now,"  I  said,  from  my  vantage-ground  of  neutrality,  "  you 
have  cleared  the  decks.  No  social  philosopher  can  demand  more 
hearty  agreement  with  the  principles  of  his  science  than  you 
have  given ;  no  man  could  desire  more  generous  acknowledgment 
of  man's  place  in  creation,  or  of  the  fundamental  relations  of  the 
sexes,  than  you  offer;  but  the  main  issue  is  still  untouched. 
Tell  me  why  you,  as  representative  individuals,  have  not  married, 
do  not  marry,  and  are  endeavoring,  so  far  as  educational  methods 
can  do  it,  to  perpetuate  your  type  ?  " 

Masculine  critics  will  possibly  here  suggest  that  a  truthful 
answer  to  the  first  of  these  questions  was  far  and  away  beyond 
my  reach ;  but  the  women  to  whom  I  was  speaking  were  fully  in 
earnest,  and  there  were  no  evasions. 

"  In  the  first  place,"  said  a  clever  woman  beside  me, "  while  we 
deny  that  our  education  unsexes  us,  we  are  conscious  that  it  gives 
us  a  self-control,  a  balance,  which  is  of  inestimable  advantage 
to  us  in  the  practical  affairs  of  life,  and  induces  us  to  consider 
marriage  from  more  than  one  point  of  view.  In  the  past,  it  is 
the  emotional  nature  of  women  which  has  been  cultivated,  often 
at  a  heavy  cost.  Now,  her  intellect  is  taking  charge,  and  we 
believe  that  there  is  no  longer  any  reason  why,  as  a  rule,  we 
should  be  sacrificed  to  our  own  emotions.  Is  it  not,  on  the 
whole,  desirable  that  women  should  study  facts  and  weigh  rea- 
sons as  men  do  ?  You  may  say  that  it  is  the  emotional  virtues 
which  are  distinctively  feminine,  and  that,  as  Mr.  Allen  says, 
1  a  woman's  glory  is  to  be  womanly,  as  a  man's  is  to  be  virile ' ; 
but  can  it  be  shown  that  the  training  of  her  intellect  makes  a 
woman  any  less  capable  of  love  and  devotion  ?  Does  it  make 
her  any  less  willing  to  sacrifice  herself  for  the  good  of  others  ? 
I  think,  on  the  contrary,  that  there  is  abundant  witness  to  the 
fact  that  the  increase  of  a  woman's  intellectual  power  usually 
intensifies  her  susceptibility  to  high  motives,  from  whatever 
source  they  may  reach  her,  or  through  whatever  channel  they 
may  come.     But,  certainly,  she  is  no  longer  a  passive  recipient ; 


6o4  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

she  thinks  now  as  well  as  feels,  and  the  inevitable  result  is  that 
her  attitude  is  more  judicial  than  of  old." 

"  Do  you  know,"  here  interpolates  a  newly  graduated  col- 
legian, "  that  in  our  colleges  it  has  become  a  proverb  that,  if  a 
girl  isn't  engaged  before  she  is  a  sophomore,  the  chances  are  all 
against  her  marriage  ?  " 

The  assent  to  this  is  very  general,  and  one  of  the  older  women 
states  the  evident  reasons  for  it :  "  We  become  more  interested  in 
our  studies,  more  certain  of  our  ability  to  take  care  of  ourselves, 
and  therefore  less  interested  in  men  as  possible  lovers,  and  more 
independent  of  them  as  a  means  of  support." 

"  And  also,"  dryly  remarks  a  very  marriageable  maiden,  "  it 
becomes  evident  to  us  that,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  men  whom 
our  friends  marry  do  not  always  come  to  time  in  their  role  of 
'  providers/  and  are  not  infrequently  ready  to  accept  assistance  at 
the  hands  of  the  women  whom  they  have  undertaken  to  support." 

Apropos  of  this,  it  is  here  suggested  that  possibly  the  prospect 
of  domestic  drudgery  is  not  congenial  to  women  who  have  found 
themselves  capable  of  different  and  better  work  ;  and  this  is 
assented  to  by  several  of  those  present  who  are  supporting  their 
own  establishments,  and  paying  servants  to  perform  the  house- 
hold labor  which  would  fall  upon  their  shoulders  were  they  in  the 
position  of  the  married  woman  of  average  means. 

This,  again,  suggests  a  comparison  as  to  the  relative  value  of 
the  normal  home  wherein  father,  mother,  and  children  complete 
the  group,  and  of  those  more  artificial  homes  which  lack  the  nat- 
ural elements  of  union.  Generous  recognition  is  at  once  given  of 
the  beauty  of  the  possible  home,  and  of  the  power  and  importance 
of  the  woman  who  creates  it ;  but  that  this  is  woman's  only  field 
is  emphatically  denied.  There  are  now  open  to  her  many  channels 
through  which  she  can  influence  the  race,  and  the  question  is 
raised  as  to  whether  the  advantage  in  this  respect  is  altogether  on 
the  side  of  the  married  woman.  Two  or  three  of  the  older  women 
in  the  group,  who  have  had  long  and  varied  experience  as  teachers, 
ask  if  it  is  not  probable  that  among  the  many  children  who  have 
come  into  their  hands  there  are  not  some,  at  least,  who  owe  more 
to  their  school  environment  than  to  the  home  life.  They  claim 
that  they,  as  teachers,  should  be  credited  with  the  influence 
which,  in  the  nature  of  things,  is  inseparable  from  the  respon- 
sibility which  is  put  upon  them.  "  To  us,"  they  say,  "  and  not  to 
the  already  overburdened  wife  and  mother,  is  given  the  power  to 
lead  and  direct  the  youth  of  the  race.  Would  you  have  us,  with 
that  in  view,  aim  for  anything  less  than  the  best  ?  The  education 
of  English  and  American  children  is,  in  the  main,  in  the  hands  of 
women,  and  this  not  because  of  an  anomalous  social  condition,  but 
because  of  their  peculiar  fitness  for  the  work.     On  Mr.  Allen's 


THE  MISSION   OF  EDUCATED    WOMEN.  605 

own  showing,  these  women  should  remain  unmarried,  and,  if  this 
involves  a  sacrifice  on  their  part,  it  is  left  for  him  to  show  us  that 
such  sacrifice  is  ignoble,  or  in  any  sense  threatening  to  the  public 
welfare." 

A  response  to  this  comes  from  the  women  physicians,  who,  in 
their  work  for  their  own  sex  and  for  children,  feel,  in  all  humility, 
that  they  are  doing  more  for  humanity  than  if  they  limited  them- 
selves to  the  reproduction  of  their  kind.  Granting  that  each  of 
these  women  might  leave  behind  her  the  ideal  four  successors, 
what  is  this  in  comparison  with  the  many  women  whom  she  may 
have  saved  from  disease  and  death ;  the  households  to  which  she 
has  taught  better  ways ;  the  new  standards  of  purity  and  self- 
restraint  for  which  she  has  bravely  fought  ? 

In  such  a  discussion  it  is  difficult  not  to  individualize ;  but, 
well  as  I  know  these  women,  I  am  surprised  at  the  breadth  of 
their  views,  their  candor,  and  their  humility  in  regard  to  their 
own  achievements.  But  it  is  a  humility  which  permits  no  abate- 
ment of  their  just  claims.  They  no  longer  admit  any  question  as 
to  their  intellectual  capacity.  With  the  simplicity  of  conscious 
strength  they  take  their  place  beside  the  men  who  challenge  them, 
and  are  not  at  all  afraid  to  face  the  result  of  their  own  actions. 
It  is  also  plain  that  they  are,  on  the  whole,  contented  with  the  lot 
which  they  have  chosen.  The  sacrifice,  if  it  be  such,  has  been 
made  with  open  eyes  and  of  free  will,  and  there  is  no  sighing  after 
the  possibilities  which  they  have  rejected. 

"  But,"  I  ask,  "  do  you  never  feel,  especially  as  you  grow  older, 
the  lack  of  some  young  strength  upon  which  to  lean,  some  fresh 
energy  to  which  to  bequeath  your  own  experience  ?  " 

As  might  be  expected,  the  answer  to  this  is  varied.  In  some 
instances  the  strength  of  the  maternal  instinct  has  led  to  the 
adoption  of  children ;  in  others,  to  some  special  work  which  keeps 
up  the  connection  with  childhood  ;  while  again  there  are  women, 
as  there  are  men,  in  whom  the  instinct  is  lacking,  and  who  find 
other  interests  sufficient  to  fill  the  gap. 

Mr.  Allen's  suggestion  as  to  the  possible  readjustment  of  the 
marriage  relation,  and  his  pledge  that  men  will  meet  women  half- 
way in  any  such  attempt,  is  received  without  special  enthusiasm. 
That  is,  the  general  feeling  is,  that  it  is  not  in  the  marriage  rela- 
tion, either  in  its  legal  or  social  aspect,  that  the  root  of  the  diffi- 
culty is  to  be  found.  Rather,  they  consider,  it  must  be  looked  for 
in  the  standards  with  which  men  and  women  enter  into  that  rela- 
tion. It  is  constantly  proved,  by  the  evidence  of  happy  marriages, 
that  the  contract  easily  adjusts  itself  where  the  parties  to  it  com- 
prehend and  accept  its  terms.  Not  that  there  is  not  room  for 
improvement  in  minor  particulars,  especially  in  the  direction  of 
certain  legislative  changes  ;  but  that,  fundamentally,  the  monoga- 


606  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

mous  idea,  the  permanent  union  of  one  woman  with,  one  man,  is  a 
trustworthy  basis  upon  which  to  rest  the  social  structure. 

The  women  of  whom  I  am  writing  disclaim  positively  that 
their  indifference  as  to  marriage  arises  from  any  dissatisfaction 
with  the  institution  as  it  now  and  here  exists.  They  deny  also 
unanimously,  and  backed  by  a  good  deal  of  proof,  that  their 
education  (it  being  understood  that  they  have  received  the  mod- 
ern college  education,  or  its  equivalent)  in  any  way  unfits  them 
for  the  duties  of  wifehood  and  maternity,  or,  primarily,  renders 
these  conditions  any  less  attractive  to  them  than  to  the  "  domes- 
tic "  type  of  women.  On  the  contrary,  they  hold  that  their  knowl- 
edge of  physiology  makes  them  better  mothers  and  housekeepers ; 
their  knowledge  of  chemistry  makes  them  better  cooks;  while, 
from  their  training  in  other  natural  sciences  and  in  mathematics, 
they  obtain  an  accuracy  and  fair-mindedness  which  is  of  great 
value  to  them  in  dealing  with  their  children  or  their  employe's. 
In  short,  they  are  not  afraid  to  match  themselves  in  practical  life 
with  the  women  for  whom  Mr.  Allen  claims  a  development  im- 
possible to  the  "  dulled  and  spiritless  epicene  automata  "  to  whom 
his  attack  is  addressed. 

As  we  approach  the  close  of  the  discussion,  the  common  sense 
of  the  various  speakers  makes  itself  strongly  felt.  They  are  not 
theorists,  but  practical,  healthy  women,  and  they  do  not  in  the 
least  deceive  themselves  as  to  the  actual,  every-day  aspect  of  this 
question.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  they  stand  for  the  feminine  type 
of  which  our  American  prophet  and  seer  wrote  thirty  years  ago :  * 
"  At  this  moment  I  esteem  it  a  chief  felicity  of  this  country  that 
it  excels  in  women.  A  certain  awkward  consciousness  of  inferi- 
ority in  the  men  may  give  rise  to  the  new  chivalry  in  behalf  of 
*  woman's  rights.'  Certainly,  let  her  be  as  much  better  placed 
in  the  laws  and  in  social  forms  as  the  most  zealous  reformer  can 
ask  ;  but  I  confide  so  entirely  in  her  inspiring  and  musical  nature 
that  I  believe  only  herself  can  show  us  how  she  shall  be  served. 
The  wonderful  generosity  of  her  sentiments  raises  her  at  times 
into  heroical  and  godlike  regions,  and  verifies  the  pictures  of 
Minerva,  Juno,  or  Polymnia ;  and,  by  the  firmness  with  which  she 
treads  her  upward  path,  she  convinces  the  coarsest  calculators 
that  another  road  exists  than  that  which  their  feet  know."  And 
it  is  therefore  no  surprise  to  find  that  these  women  of  a  later  gen- 
eration are,  finally,  by  the  loftiness  of  their  ideas  and,  as  it  were, 
in  spite  of  themselves,  lifted  above  the  plane  of  Mr.  Allen's  argu- 
ments. 

They  sum  up  the  reasons  why  they,  as  individuals,  do  not 
marry,  in  a  somewhat  formidable  array.  "  We  find,"  they  say, 
"  that  we  are  intellectually  the  equals  of  the  men  whom  we  meet. 

*  Emerson,  "  Essay  on  Manners." 


THE  MISSION   OF  EDUCATED    WOMEN.  607 

It  is  now  a  fair  give  and  take,  and  it  is  no  longer  required  of  us 
that  we  niake  up  for  the  light  weight  of  our  intellects  by  throw- 
ing in  a  double  measure  of  sentiment.  Neither  is  it  any  longer 
necessary  that  we  marry  for  the  sake  of  a  somewhat  uncertain 
support.  We  are  able  to  take  care  of  ourselves,  and  we  find 
nothing  uncongenial  or  unsexing  in  our  success. 

"  Furthermore,  and  above  all,  we  see  that,  while  the  processes 
of  evolution  have  pushed  us  so  far  forward  that  there  is  no 
longer,  in  our  dealings  with  men,  any  serious  question  as  to  infe- 
rior or  superior  abilities,  there  still  remains  between  our  moral 
standards  and  theirs  the  same  gap  that  has  existed  ever  since  the 
purity  of  woman  has  been  tacitly  recognized  as  essential  to  civi- 
lization. 

"  The  moral  sense  is,  in  us,  more  highly  developed  than  in  the 
men  who  are  otherwise  our  peers ;  and  now  that  this  is  no  longer 
deflected  in  its  action  by  the  pressure  of  unfair  conditions,  it  is 
equivalent  to  a  new  factor  in  the  relation  of  the  sexes.  It  is  evi- 
dent, however,  that  this  factor  can  not  have  full  play  except  as 
the  individual  is  independent ;  and  it  is  to  the  single,  self-support- 
ing woman  only  that  this  independence  is  possible.  Women  who 
are  dependent,  in  any  direction,  upon  men,  must,  almost  of  neces- 
sity, condone  their  vices,  and  as  a  result  gradually  approximate 
to  their  standards,  which  is  a  consummation  most  devoutly  not  to 
be  desired.  We  believe  that  there  is  no  personal  conceit  in  claim- 
ing that  we  are  morally  upon  a  higher  level  than  men,  this  being 
a  recognized  fact  in  modern  sociology;  but  it  is  a  fact  which 
repels  us  from  the  close  relations  of  marriage,  in  which  we  now 
believe  that  we  have  a  right  to  a  return  for  all  that  we  give. 
When,  therefore,  we  find  that,  while  we  are  offered  intellectual 
companionship  and  provision  for  our  physical  needs,  the  higher 
demands  of  our  spiritual  nature  are  ignored  or  set  aside,  we  natu- 
rally hesitate,  and  hesitating  are,  from  Mr.  Allen's  point  of  view, 
lost.  He  looks  at  our  problem  from  without,  we  from  within. 
We  realize,  often  in  bitterness  of  heart,  that  our  moral  life,  the 
life  of  our  aspirations,  is  upon  a  plane  which,  as  yet,  the  average 
man  has  not  reached.  We  can  never  go  back  to  him,  but  we  stand 
ready  to  welcome  him  whenever  he  can  bridge  the  chasm  and 
make  our  standard  his. 

"  This  is  our  position  as  individuals ;  as  a  class  we  see  no  evi- 
dence that  we  are  '  accidents/  still  less  that  we  are  to  be  deplored. 
We  believe  indeed  that,  so  far  from  this  being  true,  we  in  reality 
represent  an  important  phase  in  human  development,  that  we  are 
a  distinct  product  of  evolutionary  forces,  and  that  in  the  future  it 
is  not  impossible  that  the  '  balance  of  power '  may  be  found  to  lie 
in  our  hands." 

The  value  of  this  statement  is  in  the  fact  that  it  comes  not 


608  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

from  one  woman  but  from  many,  and  in  it  there  is  surely  nothing 
to  discourage  Mr.  Allen  and  those  who  think  with  him.  The 
women  to  whom  he  appeals  are  ready  to  meet  him,  but  it  must  be 
on  a  platform  of  their  own  choosing,  and  they  can  afford  to  wait. 
They  do  not  ask  "  aid  in  rebelling  against  maternity,"  but  they 
demand  that  the  responsibilities  of  fatherhood  shall  no  longer  be 
shifted  or  made  light  of.  In  short,  they  require  of  the  fathers  of 
the  next  generation  just  what  Mr.  Allen  demands  for  the  mothers, 
viz.,  "  that  they  shall  be  as  strong,  as  wise,  as  pure,  as  sane,  as 
healthy,  as  earnest,  and  as  efficient  as  they  can  be  made." 

And  as  this  demand,  on  the  part  at  least  of  the  men  who  make 
it,  is  presumably  based  not  so  much  on  any  personal  predilection 
for  the  qualities  enumerated  as  upon  their  desire  to  further  the 
best  interests  of  the  race,  the  argument  in  its  favor  is  as  valid  for 
the  one  sex  as  for  the  other. 


-♦••►-♦- 


ABSOLUTE   POLITICAL  ETHICS. 

By  HERBERT   SPENCER. 

LIFE  in  Fiji  at  the  time  when  Thomas  Williams  settled  there 
must  have  been  something  worse  than  uncomfortable.  One 
of  the  people  who  passed  near  the  string  of  nine  hundred  stones 
with  which  Ra  Undreundre  recorded  the  number  of  human  vic- 
tims he  had  devoured,  must  have  had  unpleasant  waking  thoughts 
and  occasionally  horrible  dreams.  A  man  who  had  lost  some 
fingers  for  breaches  of  ceremony,  or  had  seen  his  neighbor  killed 
by  a  chief  for  behavior  not  sufficiently  respectful,  and  who  re- 
membered how  King  Tanoa  cut  off  his  cousin's  arm,  cooked  it 
and  ate  it  in  his  presence,  and  then  had  him  cut  to  pieces,  must 
not  unfrequently  have  had  "a,  bad  quarter  of  an  hour."  Nor 
could  creeping  sensations  have  failed  to  run  through  any  women 
who  heard  Tui  Thakan  eulogizing  his  dead  son  for  cruelty,  and 
saying  that  "  he  could  kill  his  own  wives  if  they  offended  him, 
and  eat  them  afterward."  Happiness  could  not  have  been  general 
in  a  society  where  there  was  a  liability  to  be  one  among  the  ten 
whose  life-blood  baptized  the  decks  of  a  new  canoe— a  society  in 
which  the  killing  even  of  unoffending  persons  was  no  crime  but  a 
glory ;  and  in  which  every  one  knew  that  his  neighbor's  restless 
ambition  was  to  be  an  acknowledged  murderer.  Still  there  must 
have  been  some  moderation  in  murdering  even  in  Fiji.  Or  must 
we  hesitate  to  conclude  that  unlimited  murder  would  have  caused 
extinction  of  the  society  ? 

The  extent  to  which  each  man's  possessions  among  the  Biluchis 
are  endangered  by  the  predatory  instincts  of  his  neighbors,  may 


ABSOLUTE  POLITICAL   ETHICS.  609 

be  judged  from  the  fact  that  "  a  small  mud  tower  is  erected  in  each 
field,  where  the  possessor  and  his  retainers  guard  his  produce." 
If  turbulent  states  of  society  such  as  early  histories  tell  of,  do  not 
show  us  so  vividly  how  the  habit  of  appropriating  one  another's 
goods  interferes  with  social  prosperity  and  individual  comfort, 
yet  they  do  not  leave  us  in  doubt  respecting  these  results.  It  is 
an  inference  which  few  will  be  hardy  enough  to  dispute,  that  in 
proportion  as  the  time  of  each  man,  instead  of  being  occupied  in 
further  production,  is  occupied  in  guarding  that  which  he  has 
produced  against  marauders,  the  total  production  must  be  di- 
minished and  the  sustentation  of  each  and  all  less  satisfactorily 
achieved.  And  it  is  a  manifest  corollary  that  if  each  pushes  be- 
yond a  certain  limit  the  practice  of  trying  to  satisfy  his  needs  by 
robbing  his  neighbor,  the  society  must  dissolve  :  solitary  life  will 
prove  preferable. 

A  deceased  friend  of  mine,  narrating  incidents  in  his  life,  told 
me  that  as  a  young  man  he  sought  to  establish  himself  in  Spain 
as  a  commission  agent ;  and  that,  failing  by  expostulation  or  other 
means  to  obtain  payment  from  one  who  had  ordered  goods  through 
him,  he,  as  a  last  resource,  went  to  the  man's  house  and  presented 
himself  before  him  pistol  in  hand — a  proceeding  which  had  the 
desired  effect :  the  account  was  settled.  Suppose  now  that  every- 
where contracts  had  thus  to  be  enforced  by  more  or  less  strenuous 
measures.  Suppose  that  a  coal-mine  proprietor  in  Derbyshire, 
having  sent  a  train-load  to  a  London  coal-merchant,  had  com- 
monly to  send  a  posse  of  colliers  up  to  town,  to  stop  the  man's 
wagons  and  take  out  the  horses  until  payment  had  been  made. 
Suppose  the  farm  laborer  or  the  artisan  was  constantly  in  doubt 
whether,  at  the  end  of  the  week,  the  wages  agreed  upon  would  be 
forthcoming,  or  whether  he  would  get  only  half,  or  whether  he 
would  have  to  wait  six  months.  Suppose  that  daily  in  every  shop 
there  occurred  scuffles  between  shopman  and  customer,  the  one  to 
get  the  money  without  giving  the  goods,  and  the  other  to  get  the 
goods  without  paying  the  money.  What  in  such  case  would  hap- 
pen to  the  society  ?  What  would  become  of  its  producing  and 
distributing  businesses  ?  Is  it  a  rash  inference  that  industrial 
co-operation  (of  the  voluntary  kind  at  least)  would  cease  ? 

"  Why  these  absurd  questions  ?  "  asks  the  impatient  reader. 
"  Surely  every  one  knows  that  murder,  assault,  robbery,  fraud, 
breach  of  contract,  etc.,  are  at  variance  with  social  welfare  and 
must  be  punished  when  committed."  My  replies  are  several.  In 
the  first  place,  I  am  quite  content  to  have  the  questions  called  ab- 
surd ;  because  this  implies  a  consciousness  that  the  answers  are  so 
self-evident  that  it  is  absurd  to  assume  the  possibility  of  any  other 
answers.  My  second  reply  is  that  I  am  not  desirous  of  pressing 
the  question  whether  we  know  these  things,  but  of  pressing  the 

VOL.  XXXVI. — 39 


610  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

question  how  we  know  these  things.  Can  we  know  them,  and  do 
we  know  them,  by  contemplating  the  necessities  of  the  case  ?  or 
must  we  have  recourse  to  "  inductions  based  on  careful  observa- 
tion and  experience  "  ?  Before  we  make  and  enforce  laws  against 
murder,  ought  we  to  inquire  into  the  social  welfare  and  individual 
happiness  in  places  where  murder  prevails,  and  observe  whether 
or  not  the  welfare  and  happiness  are  greater  in  places  where  mur- 
der is  rare  ?  Shall  robbery  be  allowed  to  go  on  until,  by  collecting 
and  tabulating  the  effects  in  countries  where  thieves  predominate 
and  in  countries  where  thieves  are  but  few,  we  are  shown  by  induc- 
tion that  prosperity  is  greater  when  each  man  is  allowed  to  retain 
that  which  he  has  earned  ?  And  is  it  needful  to  prove  by  accu- 
mulated evidence  that  breaches  of  contract  impede  production  and 
exchange,  and  those  benefits  to  each  and  all  which  mutual  depend- 
ence achieves  ?  In  the  third  place,  these  instances  of  actions  which, 
pushed  to  extremes,  cause  social  dissolution,  and  which,  in  smaller 
degrees,  hinder  social  co-operation  and  its  benefits,  I  give  for  the 
purpose  of  asking  what  is  their  common  trait.  In  each  of  such 
actions  we  see  aggression — a  carrying  on  of  life  in  a  way  which  di- 
rectly interferes  with  the  carrying  on  of  another's  life.  The  rela- 
tion between  effort  and  consequent  benefit  in  one  man,  is  either 
destroyed  altogether  or  partially  broken  by  the  doings  of  another 
man.  If  it  be  admitted  that  life  can  be  maintained  only  by  certain 
activities  (the  internal  ones  being  universal,  and  the  external  ones 
being  universal  for  all  but  parasites  and  the  immature),  it  must 
be  admitted  that  when  like-natured  beings  are  associated,  the  re- 
quired activities  must  be  mutually  limited  ;  and  that  the  highest 
life  can  result  only  when  the  associated  beings  are  so  constituted 
as  severally  to  keep  within  the  implied  limits.  The  restrictions 
stated  thus  generally,  may  obviously  be  developed  into  special 
restrictions  referring  to  this  or  that  kind  of  conduct.  These,  then, 
I  hold  are  a  priori  truths  which  admit  of  being  known  by  contem- 
plation of  the  conditions — axiomatic  truths  which  bear  to  ethics  a 
relation  analogous  to  that  which  the  mathematical  axioms  bear  to 
the  exact  sciences. 

I  do  not  mean  that  these  axiomatic  truths  are  cognizable  by 
all.  For  the  apprehension  of  them,  as  for  the  apprehension  of 
simpler  axioms,  a  certain  mental  growth  and  a  certain  mental  dis- 
cipline are  needed.  In  the  "  Treatise  on  Natural  Philosophy  "  by 
Profs.  Thomson  and  Tait,  it  is  remarked  that  "  physical  axioms 
are  axiomatic  to  those  only  who  have  sufficient  knowledge  of  the 
action  of  physical  causes  to  enable  them  to  see  at  once  their  neces- 
sary truth."  Doubtless  a  fact  and  a  significant  fact.  A  plow-boy 
can  not  form  a  conception  of  the  axiom  that  action  and  reaction 
are  equal  and  opposite.  In  the  first  place  he  lacks  a  sufficiently 
generalized  idea  of  action — has  not  united  into  one  conception 


ABSOLUTE  POLITICAL   ETHICS.  611 

pushing  and  pulling,  the  blow  of  a  fist,  the  recoil  of  a  gun,  and 
the  attraction  of  a  planet.  Still  less  has  he  any  generalized  idea 
of  reaction.  And  even  had  he  these  two  ideas,  it  is  probable  that, 
defective  in  power  of  representation  as  he  is,  he  would  fail  to 
recognize  the  necessary  equality.  Similarly  with  these  a  priori 
ethical  truths.  If  a  speculative  member  of  that  Fijian  slave-tribe 
who  regarded  themselves  as  food  for  the  chiefs  had  suggested  that 
there  might  come  a  place  where  men  would  not  eat  one  another, 
his  implied  belief  that  they  might  come  to  have  a  little  respect  for 
one  another's  lives,  condemned  as  utterly  without  justification  in 
experience,  would  be  considered  as  fit  only  for  a  wild  speculator. 
Facts  furnished  by  every-day  observation  make  it  clear  to  the 
Biluchi,  keeping  watch  in  his  mud  tower,  that  possession  of  prop- 
erty can  be  maintained  only  by  force  ;  and  it  is  most  likely  to  him 
scarcely  conceivable  that  there  exist  limits  which,  if  mutually  rec- 
ognized, may  exclude  aggressions,  and  make  it  needless  to  mount 
guard  over  fields :  only  an  absurd  idealist  (supposing  such  a  thing 
known  to  him)  would  suggest  the  possibility.  And  so  even  of  our 
own  ancestors  in  feudal  times,  it  may  be  concluded  that,  constantly 
going  about  armed  and  often  taking  refuge  in  strongholds,  the 
thought  of  a  peaceful  social  state  would  have  seemed  ridiculous  ; 
and  the  belief  that  there  might  be  a  recognized  equality  among 
men's  claims  to  pursue  the  objects  of  life,  and  a  consequent  desist- 
ence  from  aggressions,  would  have  been  scarcely  conceivable.  But 
now  that  an  orderly  social  state  has  been  maintained  for  genera- 
tions— now  that  in  daily  intercourse  men  rarely  use  violence,  com- 
monly pay  what  they  owe,  and  in  most  cases  respect  the  claims  of 
the  weak  as  well  as  those  of  the  strong — now  that  they  are  brought 
up  with  the  idea  that  all  men  are  equal  before  the  law,  and  daily 
see  judicial  decisions  turning  upon  the  question  whether  one  citi- 
zen has  or  has  not  infringed  upon  the  equal  rights  of  another ; 
there  exist  in  the  general  mind  materials  for  forming  the  concep- 
tion of  a  regime  in  which  men's  activities  are  mutually  limited, 
and  in  which  maintenance  of  harmony  depends  on  respect  for  the 
limits.  There  has  arisen  an  ability  to  see  that  mutual  limitations 
are  necessitated  when  lives  are  carried  on  in  proximity ;  and  to  see 
that  there  necessarily  emerge  definite  sets  of  restraints  applying 
to  definite  classes  of  actions.  And  it  has  become  manifest  to  some, 
though  not  it  seems  to  many,  that  there  results  an  a  priori  system 
of  absolute  political  ethics — a  system  under  which  men  of  like 
natures,  severally  so  constituted  as  spontaneously  to  refrain  from 
trespassing,  may  work  together  without  friction,  and  with  the 
greatest  advantage  to  each  and  all. 

"  But  men  are  not  wholly  like-natured  and  are  unlikely  to  be- 
come so.  Nor  are  they  so  constituted  that  each  is  solicitous  for 
his  neighbor's  claims  as  for  his  own,  and  there  is  small  probability 


612  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

that  they  ever  will  be.  Your  absolute  political  ethics  is  therefore 
an  ideal  beyond  the  reach  of  the  real."  This  is  quite  true.  Never- 
theless, much  as  it  seems  to  do  so,  it  does  not  in  the  least  follow 
that  there  is  no  use  for  absolute  political  ethics.  The  contrary  may 
clearly  enough  be  shown.    An  analogy  will  explain  the  paradox. 

There  exists  a  division  of  physical  science  distinguished  as 
abstract  mechanics  or  absolute  mechanics — absolute  in  the  sense 
that  its  propositions  are  unqualified.  It  is  concerned  with  statics 
and  dynamics  in  their  pure  forms — deals  with  forces  and  motions 
considered  as  free  from  all  interferences  resulting  from  friction, 
resistances  of  media,  and  special  properties  of  matter.  If  it  enun- 
ciates a  law  of  motion,  it  recognizes  nothing  which  modifies  mani- 
festation of  it.  If  it  formulates  the  properties  of  the  lever  it  treats 
of  this  assuming  it  to  be  perfectly  rigid  and  without  thickness — 
an  impossible  lever.  Its  theory  of  the  screw  imagines  the  screw 
to  be  frictionless  ;  and  in  treating  of  the  wedge,  absolute  incom- 
pressibility  is  supposed.  Thus  its  truths  are  never  presented  in 
experience.  Even  those  movements  of  the  heavenly  bodies  which 
are  deducible  from  its  propositions  are  always  more  or  less  per- 
turbed ;  and  on  the  Earth  the  inferences  to  be  drawn  from  them 
deviate  very  considerably  from  the  results  reached  by  experiment. 
Nevertheless  this  system  of  ideal  mechanics  is  indispensable  for 
the  guidance  of  real  mechanics.  The  engineer  has  to  deal  with  its 
propositions  as  true  in  full,  before  he  proceeds  to  qualify  them  by 
taking  into  account  the  natures  of  the  materials  he  uses.  The 
course  which  a  projectile  would  take  if  subject  only  to  the  pro- 
pulsive force  and  the  attraction  of  the  Earth  must  be  recognized, 
though  no  such  course  is  ever  pursued :  correction  for  atmospheric 
resistance  can  not  else  be  made.  That  is  to  say,  though,  by  em- 
pirical methods,  applied  or  relative  mechanics  may  be  developed 
to  a  considerable  extent,  it  can  not  be  highly  developed  without 
the  aid  of  absolute  mechanics.  So  is  it  here.  Relative  political 
ethics,  or  that  which  deals  with  right  and  wrong  in  public  affairs 
as  partially  determined  by  changing  circumstances,  can  not  pro- 
gress without  taking  into  account  right  and  wrong  considered 
apart  from  changing  circumstances — can  not  do  without  absolute 
political  ethics;  the  propositions  of  which,  deduced  from  the  con- 
ditions under  which  life  is  carried  on  in  an  associated  state,  take 
no  account  of  the  special  circumstances  of  any  particular  asso- 
ciated state. 

And  now  observe  a  truth  which  seems  entirely  overlooked : 
namely,  that  the  set  of  deductions  thus  arrived  at  is  verified  by 
an  immeasurably  vast  induction,  or  rather  by  a  great  assemblage 
of  vast  inductions.  For  what  else  are  the  laws  and  judicial  sys- 
tems of  all  civilized  nations,  and  of  all  societies  which  have  risen 
above  savagery  ?     What  is  the  meaning  of  the  fact  that  all 


ABSOLUTE  POLITICAL  ETHICS.  613 

peoples  have  discovered  the  need  for  punishing  murder,  usually 
by  death  ?  How  is  it  that  where  any  considerable  progress  has 
been  made,  theft  is  forbidden  by  law,  and  a  penalty  attached  to 
it  ?  Why  along  with  further  advance  does  the  enforcing  of  con- 
tracts become  general  ?  And  what  is  the  reason  that  among  fully 
civilized  peoples  frauds,  libels,  and  minor  aggressions  of  various 
kinds  are  repressed  in  more  or  less  rigorous  ways  ?  No  cause  can 
be  assigned  save  a  general  uniformity  in  men's  experiences, 
showing  them  that  aggressions  directly  injurious  to  the  indi- 
viduals aggressed  upon  are  indirectly  injurious  to  society.  Gen- 
eration after  generation  observations  have  forced  this  truth  on 
them ;  and  generation  after  generation  they  have  been  developing 
the  interdicts  into  greater  detail.  That  is  to  say,  the  above  fun- 
damental principle  and  its  corollaries  arrived  at  a  priori  are  veri- 
fied in  an  infinity  of  cases  a  posteriori.  Everywhere  the  tendency 
has  been  to  carry  further  in  practice  the  dictates  of  theory — to 
conform  systems  of  law  to  the  requirements  of  absolute  political 
ethics:  if  not  consciously,  still  unconsciously.  Nay,  indeed,  is 
not  this  truth  manifest  in  the  very  name  used  for  the  end  aimed 
at — equity  or  equalness  ?  Equalness  of  what  ?  No  answer  can 
be  given  without  a  recognition — vague  it  may  be,  but  still  a  rec- 
ognition— of  the  doctrine  above  set  forth. 

Thus,  instead  of  being  described  as  putting  faith  in  "long 
chains  of  deduction  from  abstract  ethical  assumptions  "  I  ought  to 
be  described  as  putting  faith  in  simple  deductions  from  abstract 
ethical  necessities;  which  deductions  are  verified  by  infinitely 
numerous  observations  and  experiences  of  semi-civilized  and  civi- 
lized mankind  in  all  ages  and  places.  Or  rather  I  ought  to  be  de- 
scribed as  one  who,  contemplating  the  restraints  everywhere  put 
upon  the,  various  kinds  of  transgressions,  and  seeing  in  them  all  a 
common  principle  everywhere  dictated  by  the  necessities  of  the 
associated  state,  proceeds  to  develop  the  consequences  of  this 
common  principle  by  deduction,  and  to  justify  both  the  deduc- 
tions and  the  conclusions  which  legislators  have  empirically 
reached  by  showing  that  the  two  correspond.  This  method  of 
deduction  verified  by  induction  is  the  method  of  developed  sci- 
ence at  large.  I  do  not  believe  that  I  shall  be  led  to  abandon  it 
and  change  my  "way  of  thinking"  by  any  amount  of  disap- 
proval, however  strongly  expressed. 

Are  we  then  to  understand  that  by  this  imposing  title,  "  Abso- 
lute Political  Ethics,"  nothing  more  is  meant  than  a  theory  of  the 
needful  restraints  which  law  imposes  on  the  actions  of  citizens — 
an  ethical  warrant  for  systems  of  law  ?  Well,  supposing  even 
that  I  had  to  answer  "  Yes "  to  this  question  (which  I  do  not), 
there  would  still  be  an  ample  justification  for  the  title.  Having 
for  its  subject-matter  all  that  is  comprehended  under  the  word 


6i4  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

"  Justice/'  alike  as  formulated  in  law  and  administered  by  legal 
instrumentalities,  the  title  has  a  sufficiently  large  area  to  cover. 
This  would  scarcely  need  saying  were  it  not  for  a  curious  defect 
of  thought  which  we  are  everywhere  led  into  by  habit. 

Just  as,  when  talking  of  knowledge,  we  ignore  entirely  that 
familiar  knowledge  of  surrounding  things,  animate  and  inani- 
mate, acquired  in  childhood,  in  the  absence  of  which  death  would 
quickly  result,  and  think  only  of  that  far  less  essential  knowl- 
edge gained  at  school  and  college  or  from  books  and  conversation 
— just  as,  when  thinking  of  mathematics,  we  include  under  the 
name  only  its  higher  groups  of  truths  and  drop  out  that  simpler 
group  constituting  arithmetic,  though  for  the  carrying  on  of  life 
this  is  more  important  than  all  the  rest  put  together ;  so,  when 
politics  and  political  ethics  are  discussed,  there  is  no  thought  of 
those  parts  of  them  which  include  whatever  is  fundamental  and 
long  settled.  The  word  political  raises  ideas  of  party-contests, 
ministerial  changes,  prospective  elections,  or  else  of  the  Home- 
Rule  question,  the  Land-Purchase  scheme,  Local  Option,  or  the 
Eight-Hours  movement.  Rarely  does  the  word  suggest  law-re- 
form, or  a  better  judicial  organization,  or  a  purified  police.  And 
if  ethics  comes  into  consideration,  it  is  in  connection  with  the 
morals  of  parliamentary  strife  or  of  candidates'  professions,  or  of 
electoral  corruptions.  Yet  it  needs  but  to  look  at  the  definition 
of  politics  ("  that  part  of  ethics  which  consists  in  the  regulation 
and  government  of  a  nation  or  state,  for  the  preservation  of  its 
safety,  peace,  and  prosperity  "),  to  see  that  the  current  conception 
fails  by  omitting  the  chief  part.  It  needs  but  to  consider  how 
relatively  immense  a  factor  in  the  life  of  each  man  is  constituted 
by  safety  of  person,  security  of  house  and  property,  and  enforce- 
ment of  claims,  to  see  that  not  only  the  largest  part  but  the  part 
which  is  vital  is  left  out.  Hence  the  absurdity  does  not  exist  in 
the  conception  of  an  absolute  political  ethics,  but  it  exists  in  the 
ignoring  of  its  subject-matter.  Unless  it  be  considered  absurd  to 
regard  as  absolute  the  interdicts  against  murder,  burglary,  fraud, 
and  all  other  aggressions,  it  can  not  be  considered  absurd  to  re- 
gard as  absolute  the  ethical  system  which  embodies  these  in- 
terdicts. 

It  remains  to  add  that  beyond  the  deductions  which,  as  we 
have  seen,  are  verified  by  vast  assemblages  of  inductions,  there 
may  be  drawn  other  deductions  not  thus  verified  — deductions 
drawn  from  the  same  data,  but  which  have  no  relevant  experi- 
ences to  say  yes  or  no  to  them.  Such  deductions  may  be  valid  or 
invalid  ;  and  I  believe  that  in  my  first  work,  written  forty  years 
ago  and  long  since  withdrawn  from  circulation,  there  are  some 
invalid  deductions.  But  to  reject  a  principle  and  a  method  be- 
cause of  some  invalid  deductions  is  about  as  proper  as  it  would 


ABSOLUTE  POLITICAL   ETHICS.  615 

be  to  pooh-pooh  arithmetic  because  of  blunders  in  certain  arith- 
metical calculations. 

I  turn  now  to  a  question  above  put — whether,  by  absolute 
political  ethics,  nothing  more  is  meant  than  an  ethical  warrant 
for  systems  of  law — a  question  to  which,  by  implication,  I  an- 
swered No.  And  now  I  have  to  answer  that  it  extends  over  a 
further  field  equally  wide  if  less  important.  For  beyond  the  rela- 
tions among  citizens  taken  individually,  there  are  the  relations 
between  the  incorporated  body  of  citizens  and  each  citizen.  And 
on  these  relations  between  the  State  and  the  man,  absolute  politi- 
cal ethics  gives  judgments  as  well  as  on  the  relations  between 
man  and  man.  Its  judgments  on  the  relations  between  man  and 
man  are  corollaries  from  its  primary  truth,  that  the  activities  of 
each  in  pursuing  the  objects  of  life  may  be  rightly  restricted  only 
by  the  like  activities  of  others :  such  others  being  like-natured 
(for  the  principle  does  not  contemplate  slave-societies  or  societies 
in  which  one  race  dominates  over  another) ;  and  its  judgments 
on  the  relations  between  the  man  and  the  State  are  corollaries 
from  the  allied  truth,  that  the  activities  of  each  citizen  may  be 
rightly  limited  by  the  incorporated  body  of  citizens  only  as  far 
as  is  needful  for  securing  to  him  the  remainder.  This  further 
limitation  is  a  necessary  accompaniment  of  the  militant  state; 
and  must  continue  so  long  as,  besides  the  criminalities  of  indi- 
vidual aggression,  there  continue  the  criminalities  of  international 
aggression.  It  is  clear  that  the  preservation  of  the  society  is  an 
end  which  must  take  precedence  of  the  preservation  of  its  indi- 
viduals taken  singly;  since  the  preservation  of  each  individual 
and  maintenance  of  his  ability  to  pursue  the  objects  of  life,  de- 
pend on  the  preservation  of  the  society.  Such  restrictions  upon 
his  actions  as  are  imposed  by  the  necessities  of  war,  and  of  pre- 
paredness for  war  when  it  is  probable,  are  therefore  ethically  de- 
fensible. 

And  here  we  enter  upon  the  many  and  involved  questions 
with  which  relative  political  ethics  has  to  deal.  When  originally 
indicating  the  contrast,  I  spoke  of  "  absolute  political  ethics,  or 
that  which  ought  to  be,  as  distinguished  from  relative  political 
ethics,  or  that  which  is  at  present  the  nearest  practicable  approach 
to  it " ;  and  had  any '  attention  been  paid  to  this  distinction,  no 
controversy  need  have  arisen.  Here  I  have  to  add  that  the  quali- 
fications which  relative  political  ethics  sets  forth  vary  with  the 
type  of  the  society,  which  is  primarily  determined  by  the  extent 
to  which  defense  against  other  societies  is  needful.  Where  inter- 
national enmity  is  great  and  the  social  organization  has  to  be 
adapted  to  warlike  activities,  the  coercion  of  individuals  by  the 
State  is  such  as  almost  to  destroy  their  freedom  of  action  and 


616  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

make  them  slaves  of  the  State ;  and  where  this  results  from  the 
necessities  of  defensive  war  (not  offensive  war,  however),  relative 
political  ethics  furnishes  a  warrant.  Conversely,  as  militancy 
decreases,  there  is  a  diminished  need  both  for  that  subordination 
of  the  individuals  which  is  necessitated  by  consolidating  them 
into  a  fighting  machine,  and  for  that  further  subordination  en- 
tailed by  supplying  this  fighting  machine  with  the  necessaries  of 
life ;  and  as  fast  as  this  change  goes  on,  the  warrant  for  State  - 
coercion  which  relative  political  ethics  furnishes  becomes  less 
and  less. 

Obviously  it  is  out  of  the  question  here  to  enter  upon  the  com- 
plex questions  raised.  It  must  suffice  to  indicate  them  as  above. 
Should  I  be  able  to  complete  Part  IV  of  the  "Principles  of 
Ethics"  treating  of  "Justice,"  of  which  the  first  chapters  only 
are  at  present  written,  I  hope  to  deal  adequately  with  these  rela- 
tions between  the  ethics  of  the  progressive  condition  and  the 
ethics  of  that  condition  which  is  the  goal  of  progress — a  goal  ever 
to  be  recognized,  though  it  can  not  be  actually  reached. 

The  grave  misrepresentations  dealt  with  in  the  foregoing  sec- 
tions, I  have  been  able  to  rectify  by  an  exposition  that  is  mainly 
impersonal :  allusions,  only,  having  been  made  to  the  personal 
bearings  of  the  argument.  But  there  remain  other  grave  misrep- 
resentations which  I  can  not  dispose  of  in  the  same  way.  Life 
sometimes  presents  alternatives  both  of  which  are  disagreeable, 
and  acceptance  of  either  of  which  is  damaging.  A  choice  between 
two  such  I  now  find  myself  compelled  to  make.  Prof.  Huxley, 
referring  to  me,  speaks  of  "the  gulf  fixed  between  his  way  of 
thinking  and  mine  " :  the  implication  being  that  as  he  regards  his 
own  "  way  of  thinking "  as  the  right  one,  my  way  of  thinking, 
separated  from  it  by  a  gulf,  must  be  extremely  wrong.  As  this 
tacit  condemnation  of  my  "  way  of  thinking "  touches  not  only 
the  question  at  issue  but  also  many  other  questions,  and  as  it 
comes  not  from  an  anonymous  critic,  but  from  one  whose  state- 
ments will  be  taken  as  trustworthy,  I  am  placed  in  the  dilemma 
of  either  passively  allowing  his  injurious  characterization,  or  else 
of  showing  that  it  is  untrue,  which  I  can  not  do  without  describ- 
ing or  illustrating  my  "  way  of  thinking."  This  is,  of  course,  an 
unpleasant  undertaking,  and  one  which  self-respect  would  ordi- 
narily negative.  But  unpleasant  as  it  is,  I  feel  obliged  to  enter 
upon  it. 

Years  ago  Prof.  Huxley  criticised  the  political  doctrine  held 
by  me,  and  entitled  his  article  "  Administrative  Nihilism."  As 
this  doctrine  includes  advocacy  of  governmental  action  for  the 
repression  not  only  of  crimes  but  of  many  minor  offenses,  I  pointed 
out  that  if  it  is  to  be  called  "  administrative  nihilism,"  then  still 


ABSOLUTE  POLITICAL  ETHICS.  617 

more  must  the  eight  prohibitory  clauses  of  the  decalogue  be  called 
ethical  nihilism.  Prof.  Huxley  nevertheless  thought  his  title  a 
fit  one;  and  has  continued  to  use  it  in  the  last  edition  of  his 
"  Critiques  and  Addresses."  This  political  doctrine  held  by  me 
remains  unchanged,  but  the  view  taken  of  it  by  Prof.  Huxley 
appears  to  have  been  reversed.  In  an  emphatic  manner  he  has 
recently  warned  me  against  "  undertaking  to  preserve  the  health 
and  heal  the  diseases  of  an  organism  vastly  more  complicated 
than  the  human  body/'  having  for  my  guides  "long  chains  of 
deduction  from  abstract  ethical  assumptions."  So  that  while 
represented  as  one  who  would  have  no  administration  at  all,  I 
am  represented  as  advocating  dangerous  administrative  methods 
of  healing  diseases  of  the  body  politic.  My  policy  is  characterized 
now  as  a  policy  of  no  action,  and  now  as  a  policy  of  rash  action. 
These  two  characterizations  are  applied  to  the  same  set  of  beliefs, 
and  they  stand  in  direct  contradiction.  Necessarily  there  must 
be  extreme  error  in  one  or  both ;  and  the  latter  alternative  is  the 
true  one :  both  are  wrong. 

The  "  way  of  thinking  "  which  Prof.  Huxley  indicates  as  sep- 
arated by  a  gulf  from  his  own,  and  which  he  implies  is  exclusively 
pursued  by  me,  is  that  of  reaching  conclusions  by  "  long  chains  of 
deduction  from  abstract  ethical  assumptions,  hardly  any  link  of 
which  can  be  tested  experimentally."  On  the  other  hand  the 
course  he  advocates  is  that  of  seeking  guidance  from  "  inductions 
based  on  careful  observation  and  experience" — a  course  which 
he  implies  is  not  pursued  by  me,  either  in  the  political  sphere  or 
elsewhere ;  certainly  not  in  the  political  sphere.  Now  let  us  ask 
what  is  implied  by  the  evidence.  Up  to  the  end  of  the  division 
treating  of  Ecclesiastical  Institutions,  where  it  has  stood  still  for 
these  four  years,  the  "Principles  of  Sociology"  contains  more  than 
five  thousand  facts,  gathered  from  accounts  of  more  than  two 
hundred  societies,  savage  and  civilized,  ancient  and  modern.  If, 
then,  I  am  rightly  described  as  pursuing  the  deductive  method 
(exclusively,  as  it  would  appear),  there  arises  this  curious  ques- 
tion : — How  have  I  used  for  deductive  purposes  more  facts  than 
have  been  used  by  any  other  writer  on  Sociology  for  inductive 
purposes  ?  "  This  is  irrelevant,"  will  perhaps  be  the  rejoinder — 
"  the  question  concerns  not  the  method  pursued  in  dealing  with 
Sociology  at  large,  but  the  method  pursued  in  dealing  with  govern- 
mental actions  at  the  present  time."  Merely  remarking  that  it 
would  be  strange  had  I  pursued  one  method  in  treating  the  sub- 
ject at  large  and  an  opposite  method  in  treating  a  small  division 
of  it,  I  go  on  to  reply  that  I  have  not  pursued  the  opposite  method 
but  the  same  method.  The  views  I  hold  respecting  the  sphere  of 
governmental  action  are  everywhere  supported  by  inductions. 
The  essay  on  "  Over-Legislation,"  dating  back  to  1853,  is  almost 


618  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

wholly  inductive.  Inductive  reasoning  in  support  of  the  same 
views  occupies  the  greater  part  of  the  essay  on  "  Representative 
Government,"  much  of  the  essay  on  "  Parliamentary  Reform :  the 
Dangers  and  the  Safeguards,"  and  half  of  the  essay  on  "  Special- 
ized Administration."  In  the  "  Study  of  Sociology,"  again,  several 
masses  of  facts  are  brought  in  support  of  the  same  views  (pp.  3, 4, 
161-1G9,  and  270-273) ;  and  once  more  in  "  The  Man  versus  the 
State"  (pp.  48-60  and  62-64)  a  like  course  is  pursued.  I  count, 
in  different  places,  eight  inductive  arguments,  not  in  defense  of 
proposals  for  curing  the  diseases  of  the  body  politic,  but  in  repro- 
bation of  proposals  for  doing  this.  "  But  do  not  the  books  and 
essays  named  contain  deductive  arguments  ? "  it  may  be  asked. 
Certainly  they  do ;  and  I  should  be  ashamed  of  them  if  they  did 
not.  But  everywhere  there  has  been  pursued  what  I  have  above 
said  is  the  method  of  developed  science — deduction  verified  by 
induction.  I  shall  think  it  time  to  reconsider  the  deductions 
when  I  find  the  masses  of  facts  which  support  them  met  by 
larger  masses  of  facts  which  do  the  reverse.  "  Careful  observa- 
tion and  experience  "  have  not  yet  furnished  these. 

To  make  clear  the  use  of  an  ideal  for  guidance  in  dealing  with 
the  real,  I  had  recourse  to  the  familiar  comparison  between  the 
individual  body  and  the  body  politic.  I  remarked  that  "  before 
there  can  be  rational  treatment  of  a  disordered  state  of  the  bodily 
functions,  there  must  be  a  conception  of  what  constitutes  their 
ordered  state."  The  guidance  contemplated  as  derivable  from  such 
knowledge  consists  in  exclusion  of  what  is  wrong  to  be  done,  not 
in  directions  concerning  what  is  right  to  be  done.  This  is  clearly 
shown  by  the  context.  There  is  an  imaginary  warning  against 
the  excesses  of  a  supposed  empiric  as  being  "  at  variance  with  physi- 
ological principles  " ;  that  is,  negatived  by  them  or  forbidden  by 
them.  There  is  no  trace  whatever  of  any  proposed  treatment 
conforming  to  physiological  principles,  but  merely  an  interdict 
against  a  treatment.  Yet  on  the  strength  of  these  passages,  Prof. 
Huxley  ascribes  to  me  the  monstrous  belief  that  the  practitioner 
should  "  treat  his  patients  by  deduction  from  physiological  prin- 
ciples " !  Similarly  with  the  body  politic.  While  I  have  alleged 
that  "  a  system  of  limits  and  restraints  on  conduct "  may  be  de- 
duced from  the  primary  conditions  of  social  co-operation,  Prof. 
Huxley  represents  me  as  proposing  to  seek  guidance  in  healing 
"  the  diseases  of  an  organism  vastly  more  complicated  than  the 
human  body  "  by  "  deduction  from  abstract  ethical  assumptions ! " 
"While  in  both  cases  the  guiding  inferences  indicated  by  me  all 
come  under  the  blank  form — "  Thou  shalt  not  do  this,"  they  are  rep- 
resented as  coming  under  the  blank  form — "  Thou  shalt  do  that." 
How  utterly  at  variance  is  the  view  thus  ascribed  to  me  with  the 
view  I  have  myself  expressed,  will  be  seen  in  the  following  passage : 


ABSOLUTE  POLITICAL   ETHICS.  619 

How,  indeed,  can  any  man,  and  how  more  especially  can  any  man  of  scientific 
culture,  think  that  special  results  of  special  political  acts  can  be  calculated,  when 
he  contemplates  the  incalculable  complexity  of  the  influences  under  which  each 
individual,  and  a  fortiori  each  society,  develops,  lives,  and  decays?  .  .  . 

As  fast  as  crude  conceptions  of  diseases  and  remedial  measures  grow  up  into 
Pathology  and  Therapeutics,  we  find  increasing  caution,  along  with  increasing 
proof  that  evil  is  often  done  instead  of  good.  This  contrast  is  traceable  not  only 
as  we  pass  from  popular  ignorance  to  professional  knowledge,  but  as  we  pass  from 
the  smaller  professional  knowledge  of  early  times  to  the  greater  professional 
knowledge  of  our  own.  The  question  with  the  modern  physician  is  not  as  with 
the  ancient— shall  the  treatment  be  blood- letting?  shall  cathartics,  or  shall  dia- 
phoretics be  given  ?  or  shall  mercurials  be  administered  ?  But  there  rises  the 
previous  question — shall  there  be  any  treatment  beyond  a  wholesome  regimen  ? 
And  even  among  existing  physicians  it  happens  that,  in  proportion  as  the  judg- 
ment is  most  cultivated,  there  is  the  least  yielding  to  the  "  must-do-something  " 
impulse. 

Is  it  not  possible,  then — is  it  not  even  probable,  that  this  supposed  necessity 
for  immediate  action,  which  is  put  in  as  an  excuse  for  drawing  quick  conclusions 
from  few  data,  is  the  concomitant  of  deficient  knowledge  ?  Is  it  not  probable  that 
as  in  Biology  so  in  Sociology,  the  accumulation  of  more  facts,  the  more  critical 
comparison  of  them,  and  the  drawing  of  conclusions  on  scientific  methods,  will  be 
accompanied  by  increasing  doubt  about  the  benefits  to  be  secured,  and  increasing 
fear  of  the  mischiefs  which  may  be  worked  ?  Is  it  not  probable  that  what  in  the 
individual  organism  is  improperly,  though  conveniently,  called  the  vis  medicatrix 
natures,  may  be  found  to  have  its  analogue  in  the  social  organism  ?  and  will  there 
not  very  likely  come  along  with  the  recognition  of  this,  the  consciousness  that  in 
both  cases  the  one  thing  needful  is  to  maintain  the  conditions  under  which  the 
natural  actions  have  fair  play? — The  Study  of  Sociology,  pp.  15-21. 

Manifestly  if,  instead  of  saying  that  I  proposed  to  treat  the 
diseases  of  this  complex  social  organism  by  the  aid  of  deductions 
from  "  abstract  ethical  assumptions,"  Prof.  Huxley  had,  contrari- 
wise, said  that  I  am  so  over-cautious  that  I  dare  not  treat  them  at 
all,  save  by  maintaining  the  conditions  to  health,  he  would  have 
had  ground  for  his  statement.  As  early  as  1853  ("  Over-Legisla- 
tion," pp.  62,  63)  I  dwelt  on  the  involved  structure  of  a  society  and 
the  consequent  difficulty  and  danger  of  dealing  with  it.  Since 
then  I  have  more  than  once  insisted  on  these  facts.  And  now  that 
which  I  have  been  teaching  for  a  generation  is  put  before  me  «as  a 
lesson  to  be  learned  ! 

Replies  will,  I  suppose,  be  made  to  some  of  the  things  said  in 
the  foregoing  pages.  Always  there  are  collateral  questions  on 
which  debates  may  be  raised.  I  see,  for  instance,  that  one  of  my 
remarks  may  have  given  to  it  a  meaning  quite  different  to  that 
which  I  intended.  After  the  ascription  to  me  of  the  belief  that 
treatment  of  diseases  should  be  dictated  by  physiological  princi- 
ples, rightly  enough  regarded  by  Prof.  Huxley  as  absurd,  there 
came  from  me  the  remark  that,  according  to  him,  "  the  principles 
of  physiology,  as  at  present  known,  are  of  no  use  whatever  for 


62o  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

guidance  in  practice  " — a  remark  which  may  be  interpreted  as  a 
tacit  indorsement  of  the  ascription ;  whereas  it  referred  to  the  fact 
that  he  had  recognized  for  the  present  (though  not  for  the  future) 
no  guidance  whatever  beyond  that  of  empiricism.  Doubtless  there 
may  be  other  side-issues  which  I  do  not  perceive.  But  no  number 
of  such  can  change  the  verdicts  on  the  main  issues.  That  Prof. 
Huxley's  two  characterizations  of  the  political  doctrine  I  hold  are 
contradictory,  is  undeniable.  That  his  description  of  my  "  way  of 
thinking  "  is  utterly  at  variance  with  the  evidence  as  presented  in 
my  books,  is  no  less  demonstrated.  And  it  is  equally  certain  that 
the  conceptions  of  right  treatment,  medical  and  political,  which 
he  ascribes  to  me  are  opposite  to  those  I  have  myself  set  forth. — 
Nineteenth  Century. 

♦♦♦ 

THE   LAWS  OF  FILMS. 

By  SOPHIE  BLEDSOE  HEREICK. 

THERE  is  scarcely  anything  in  the  world  which  seems  more 
utterly  outside  the  realm  of  law  than  a  soap-bubble.  The 
delicate  film,  with  its  exquisite  floating  colors,  its  power  of  instant- 
ly vanishing,  leaving  no  trace  behind,  hardly  seems  as  though  it 
could  form  a  link  in  the  inexorable  chain  of  cause  and  effect  which 
we  call  physical  law. 

The  atmospheric  pressure  on  a  bubble  six  inches  in  diameter  is 
over  fifteen  hundred  pounds,  and  yet  the  fragile  film  lies  safely 
between  the  opposing  forces  of  nature — the  pressure  of  the  outer 
air,  the  spring  of  the  inclosed  cushion  within  it,  the  downward 
pull  of  gravity,  the  upward  push  of  the  buoyant  atmosphere,  and 
the  molecular  forces  in  the  film  itself  :  so  long  as  the  bubble  lasts ; 
it  is  because  of  an  exquisite  adjustment  of  all  the  forces,  physical 
and  molecular,  concerned  in  its  existence. 

This  is,  of  course,  the  merest  commonplace,  and  yet  it  is  one  of 
the  commonplaces  of  nature,  which,  however  well  we  may  know 
them,  never  cease  to  be  wonderful  when  they  are  in  any  degree 
realized.  There  are  other  laws  governing  films  which  are  no  less 
wonderful,  though  they  are  less  familiarly  known.  A  heap  of 
bubbles  blown  while  the  pipe  is  dipped  under  the  surface  of  soapy 
water  looks  like  a  chaotic  huddle  of  bubbles  of  all  sizes  and  many 
shapes ;  but,  upon  careful  examination,  it  is  found  that  never  more 
than  three  films  meet  at  an  unsupported  liquid  edge,  and  never 
more  than  four  edges  meet  at  a  liquid  point,  and  that  the  angles 
are  always  equal ;  that  is,  films  will  not  meet  each  other  at  an  un- 
supported edge  or  point  at  an  angle  smaller  than  120° — one  third 
of  a  circle. 

Ordinary  soap-suds  made  with  clean  hot  water  and  ivory  or 


THE  LAWS    OF  FILMS.  621 

pure  Castile  soap,  and  allowed  to  settle  and  clarify,  or  else  filtered, 
answer  very  well  for  a  series  of  simple  and  beautiful  experiments 
in  the  forms  assumed  by  soap  films  in  order  to  fulfill  this  law  of 
their  union.  There  is  a  glyceric  fluid  made,  which  by  various 
means  has  all  the  impurities  of  soap  and  water  removed,  and  is 
toughened  by  the  addition  of  pure  glycerin  ;  and  this  is  of  course 
better,  because  much  more  persistent.  A  bubble  made  from  this 
glyceric  fluid,  and  carefully  protected  by  a  tumbler  or  bell-glass, 
will  last  for  hours,  and  in  some  cases  for  days. 

For  these  experiments  in  form,  common  suds  last  long  enough 
to  show  the  forms  very  satisfactorily,  but  for  experiment  in  color 
the  more  lasting  fluid  is  necessary,  so  a  recipe  for  it  is  given 
here.* 

When  frames  made  in  various  forms,  by  bending  fine  copper 
wire,  are  dipped  into  the  fluid,  it  is  found  that  the  films  take  on 
the  most  wonderful  and  beautiful  shapes  in  order  to  fulfill  the 
law  of  their  union.  The  material  of  which  the  films  are  made 
does  not  at  all  affect  their  form. 

With  fine,  well-straightened  copper  wire,  outline  a  cube ;  this 
may  be  done  with  the  fingers  or  a  pair  of  ordinary  pliers,  and  the 
figure  need  not  be  very  exact.  The  wires  can  be  double  along  any 
of  the  lines ;  let  one  end  project  from  some  corner  for  a  handle,  to 
be  used  in  dipping  the  frame  into  the  fluid. 

Immerse  this  cube  in  the  suds,  and  as  you  lift  the  frame  out 
observe  the  films  forming  and  shaping  themselves.  They  usually 
take  for  a  moment  the  form  in  Fig.  1  and  slowly  change  to  Fig.  2. 
Sometimes  they  retain  the  first  form;  in  this  case,  the  central 
drop  with  a  glass  of  low  power  is  seen  to  be  not  really  a  drop 
of  fluid,  but  a  tiny  cube  of  films,  each  meeting  the  film  from 
the  wire  edge  by  a  curvature  of  its  faces  at  exactly  the  required 
angle,  120°.  The  films  have  constructed  in  their  midst  this 
tiny  cube,  because  the  twelve  films  could  not  otherwise  meet  in 
the  center  at  the  proper  angle.  This  cube  is  formed  and  kept 
where  a  tiny  bubble  has  been  entrapped  in  the  system  of  films. 
If  no  such  bubble  of  air  has  been  caught  in  with  the  films,  they 

*  Plateau's  mixture.  This  must  be  made  in  a  warm  room,  temperature  about  68°  Fahr. 
Let  one  half  ounce  of  newly  made  Marseilles  or  pure  Castile  soap  be  dissolved  in  one  pint 
(twenty  ounces)  of  hot  distilled  water.  When  the  solution  has  cooled  to  about  the  tem- 
perature of  the  room,  it  is  filtered  into  a  bottle.  In  using  the  common  filter  paper  (bought 
at  a  drug-store  for  ten  cents  a  dozen  sheets),  it  is  better  to  put  only  a  small  quantity  of  the 
mixture  in  at  a  time,  and  to  support  the  paper  in  a  funnel  or  muslin  to  prevent  its  break- 
ing. The  paper  soon  clogs ;  it  should  then  be  renewed.  The  process  is  slow,  but  not 
troublesome.  When  it  has  all  been  filtered,  add  fifteen  ounces  of  pure  glycerin — either 
Price's  or  Scheering  and  Glatz's — the  ordinary  glycerins  are  not  fit  for  the  purpose.  Let  the 
mixture  be  violently  and  frequently  shaken  ;  then  allow  it  to  stand  seven  days ;  on  the 
eighth  cool  it  to  about  37°  Fahr.,  and  filter.  If  the  liquid  comes  through  turbid,  pour  it 
back  and  filter  over  again  through  very  porous  paper. 


622 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


assume  the  form  of  Fig.  2.     The  twelve  films  from  the  edges  of 
the  cube  meet  a  square  unsupported  plate  of  film  in  the  center. 

With  No.  2  still  on  the  frame,  dip  it  again  into  the  suds.  You 
catch  a  bubble  by  doing  this  which  goes  at  once  to  the  center 
(Fig.  3),  and  forms  such  a  cube  as  existed  at  the  center  of  Fig.  1, 


m 

!   ■    > 
ijl'l 

/ 

\, 

^ 

\l    at 

Fig.  1. 


Pig.  2. 


Fig.  3. 


only  large  enough  to  show  the  curvature  of  the  films  necessary  to 
make  them  meet  at  their  fixed  angle.  The  laws  of  films  formu- 
lated are  as  follows  :  1.  From  each  wire  edge  of  a  frame  proceeds 
a  film.  Generally,  if  care  be  taken,  no  air  will  be  inclosed,  then 
every  film  will  be  in  contact  with  the  surrounding  air  on  both  its 
faces.  2.  Only  three  films  can  meet  at  any  liquid  edge.  3.  When 
several  liquid  edges  terminate  in  one  point  in  the  interior  of  the 
system,  the  edges  are  always  four  in  number,  and  the  angles  in- 
cluded between  them  are  equal.  4.  Whenever  the  films  can  fulfill 
these  conditions,  and  remain  plain  films,  they  are  so  ;  when  they 
can  not,  they  are  curved,  but  so  curved  that  their  mean  curvature 
is  null — that  is,  if  in  one  part  of  the  film  the  law  of  its  union  re- 
quires an  upward  curvature,  in  some  other  portion  there  will  be 
an  equal  downward  curvature  to  compensate  for  it. 

In  the  films  upon  the  cube  frame,  for  in- 
stance, there  is  a  slight  curvature,  just  enough 
to  enable  them  to  meet  each  other  on  the  an- 
gle of  120°.  This  is  a  very  simple  digression 
from  the  plane  form,  but  in  many  other  frames 
the  divergence  is  very  marked  ;  for  instance, 
in  the  triangular  pyramid  (Fig.  4)  with  wires 
dividing  each  side,  after  a  bubble  has  been 
entrapped  by  a  second  dip,  the  curvature  is 
very  remarkable. 

Plateau,  the  blind  philosopher  of  Ghent, 
first  studied  this  subject  and  formulated  these  laws.  He  began  his 
studies  with  some  experiments  far  removed  from  our  films.  In 
order  to  get  some  idea  of  the  interaction  of  the  molecular  forces,  he 
removed  a  mass  of  liquid  matter  he  was  observing,  as  far  as  he 
could,  from  the  action  of  the  physical  forces.  Using  the  well-known 
principle  that  a  submerged  body  sinks  till  it  has  displaced  its 
own  weight  of  the  fluid  in  which  it  is  immersed,  he  made  a  mixt- 


Fig.  4. 


THE  LAWS    OF  FILMS. 


623 


ure  of  alcohol  and  water  of  exactly  the  specific  gravity  of  oil. 
Into  the  midst  of  this  liquid  he  quietly  introduced  oil  by  means 
of  a  funnel.  The  oil  lay  passive  between  the  equal  downward  pull 
of  gravity  and  the  upward  lift  of  the  alcohol  and  water.  In  this 
way  the  forces  which  bound  the  oil  particles  together  had  free 
play.  The  oil  rounded  itself  at  once  into  a  sphere.  For  a  time 
there  was,  of  course,  some  chemical  action  between  the  oil  sphere 
and  the  surrounding  liquid ;  but,  in  making  his  observations, 
Plateau  waited  till  these  affairs  had  been  settled  between  them, 
and  their  relations  became  fixed. 

He  then  introduced  into  his  oil  sphere  a  rod,  with  a  disk 
smaller  in  circumference  than  the  oil  sphere  about  it.  Both  of 
these  were  well  oiled,  and  they  entered  the  sphere  without  dis- 
turbing it.  The  globe  of  oil  hung  in  the  water,  with  the  rod 
running  through  it  in  the  posi- 
tion of  the  earth's  axis,  and  the 
disk  almost  reaching  to  the  line 
corresponding  with  our  equator 
(Fig.  5). 

By  means  of  a  handle  the  rod 
was  turned,  at  first  slowly,  then 
gradually  and  steadily  faster. 
The  oil  sphere  slipped  more  easi- 
ly around  in  its  water  socket 
than  it  would  around  the  re- 
volving rod  and  disk,  and  there- 
fore turned  upon  its  own  axis. 
By  varying  his  experiments,  re- 
volving his  rod  faster  or  slower, 
Plateau  made  a  miniature  repre- 
sentation of  a  world  revolving 
about  its  own  axis ;  he  made  his  oil  sphere  throw  off  satellites, 
which  revolved  about  the  central  sphere ;  he  also,  by  what  he  calls 
a  trick,  imitated  Saturn  with  its  attendant  ring. 

He  followed  these  experiments  by  using  outlined  frames  of 
wire,  such  as  we  used  for  our  soap  films.  These  he  adjusted 
around  his  hanging  sphere  of  oil,  and  with  a  syringe  withdrew 
the  oil,  making  first  a  cube  of  oil  with  unsupported  faces;  and 
finally,  as  more  and  more  oil  was  withdrawn,  there  resulted  a 
system  of  oil  films,  each  face  of  which  was  in  contact  with  the 
water,  exactly  like  those  in  Figs.  1  and  2. 

This  was  the  manner  in  which  such  systems  of  films  were  first 
reached ;  and,  historically,  the  experiments  have  an  interest  in 
their  relation  to  the  subject  of  films  as  well  as  for  the  proof  they 
offer  that  the  material  of  which  the  films  are  formed  has  nothing 
to  do  with  the  forms  they  take  on.     Plateau  went  on  from  his  oil 


Fig.  5. 


624 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


films  to  those  made  with  soap-suds  and  glyceric  fluid.  We  have 
reversed  the  order  in  considering  them,  but  it  amounts  to  the 
same  thing  in  the  end. 

Plateau's  researches  have  been  carried  on  by  Brewster  and 
others,  and  the  subject  much  enriched  by  later  experimenters. 
One  of  the  most  beautiful  forms  has  not,  it  is  believed,  been  pub- 
lished. A  sphere  is  outlined  with  three  equal  circles,  making, 
when  joined  together  at  equal  angles,  a  globe  with  six  meridians. 
When  this  is  dipped  in  the  suds,  a  rather  complicated  figure  ap- 
pears. It  is  sometimes  necessary  to  dip  this  frame  several  times 
to  get  a  perfect  figure.  From  an  axial  edge  of  film  three  films 
start  out.  Just  half-way  between  the  axis  and  the  outside  curve 
of  the  sphere  each  of  these  three  films  meet  two  crescent-shaped 
films  from  two  of  the  wire  meridians,  curved  so  that  the  three 
meet  at  the  required  angle.  Sometimes  when  a  bubble  has  been 
caught  in  the  system,  and  always  if  a  small  bubble  is  carefully 
blown  between  two  of  the  wires,  a  new  figure  will  be  formed. 
In  an  instant,  as  though  the  change  were  wrought  by  magic,  the 
new  figure  flashes  into  existence.  A  long,  six-sided,  melon-shaped 
figure  reaches  from  pole  to  pole  inside  the  sphere ;  from  each 
edge  of  this  figure,  entirely  unsupported  as  it  is  by  the  wire,  a 
crescent-shaped  film  reaches  to  each  wire  meridian. 

The  figures  formed 
with  the  wire  frames 
are  usually  perfectly 
symmetrical ;  but  some- 
times, from  the  peculiar 
form  of  the  frame,  sym- 
metry is  not  consistent 
with  a  union  at  the  an- 
gle of  120°.  The  law  in 
such  a  case  is  obeyed, 
and  symmetry  cast  to 
the  winds.  In  Fig.  6,  at 
the  first  dip  the  figure 
is  very  unsymmetrical, 
though  always  the  same.  When  a  bubble  is  blown  on  the  bottom, 
the  figure  starts  out  perfectly  symmetrical  in  form. 

Brewster  has  added  many  experiments  to  those  of  Plateau's. 
The  next  one  given  is  his,  and  a  very  curious  one  it  is  too.  Two 
rectangles  are  made  of  the  copper  wire  ;  one  is  slipped  within  the 
other  and  held  at  right  angles  to  it ;  they  are  in  this  position 
dipped  into  the  suds.  The  system  which  starts  into  being  can  be 
seen  in  Fig.  7.  The  central  oval  stands  diagonally  just  half-way 
between  two  of  the  angles  made  by  the  crossed  frames.  Now,  if 
the  frames  are  gradually  turned  upon  each  other,  which  it  is  very 


Fig.  6. 


Fig.  7. 


THE  LAWS    OF  FILMS.  625 

easy  to  do,  the  form  of  the  oval  changes.  At  right  angles  the  oval 
film,  is  four  times  longer  than  it  is  broad.  As  the  angle  between 
which  the  oval  film  stands  is  increased,  it  widens  till  it  is  nearly 
square.  If  the  rectangles  could  be  made  to  lie  exactly  one  upon 
the  other,  the  oval  film  would  fill  up  the  space.  Now,  when  the 
angle  of  the  two  wire  frames  is  made  narrower  instead  of  wider, 
the  oval  narrows  till,  at  45°,  it  is  a  line,  and  in  one  moment  the 
system  has  changed :  the  oval  stands  between  the  wider  angle  just 
across  its  old  position  and  at  right  angles  to  it. 

A  still  more  remarkable  change  takes  place  when  a  bubble  is 
blown  upon  the  oval  film,  the  lines  being  at  right  angles  to  each 
other.  When  it  reaches  the  proper  size,  all  the  films  disappear,  and 
a  hollow  curvilinear  cube  is  formed,  each  side  curving  out  from 
the  wires  which  define  its  vertical  edges.  At  the  top  and  bottom  the 
wires  make  a  cross  on  the  film ;  in  each  of  these  triangular  spaces 
four  summits  appear ;  colored  rings  form  around  them ;  a  black 
spot  shows  in  the  center  of  each  summit,  and  the  bubble  bursts. 
If  the  wires  are  held  straight  up  and  down  when  the  bubble 
bursts,  the  old  system  of  films  will  start  into  being  again,  as  if  it 
had  left  its  ghost  behind  it  to  recover  the  elements  which  the 
bubble  had  appropriated. 

Dr.  Sloane,  in  his  "  Home  Experiments  in  Science,"  gives 
some  beautiful  figures.  A  wire  is  bent  in  a  spiral,  with  one  end 
turned  straight  up  through  the  middle  like  an  axis.  Dipped  in 
the  fluid,  it  gives  a  single  spiral  film  curving  around  the  central 
wire  as  a  spiral  staircase  curves  around  its  central  pillar.  He  also 
gives  some  very  simple  and  interesting  experiments  showing  the 
traction  of  films,  requiring  no  special  apparatus  or  fluid,  and  so 
within  the  reach  of  every  one.  All  the  frames  used  in  this  article 
were  made  of  thin  copper  wire  bent  into  shape  with  the  fingers 
or  a  pair  of  pliers.  Of  course,  if  the  wires  are  soldered  instead  of 
being  twisted  together,  and  are  covered  with  a  thin  film  of  par- 
affin by  rubbing  a  so-called  wax  candle  on  them  and  then  holding 
the  frame  above  but  not  too  near  a  bed  of  coals,  the  films  will 
last  longer ;  but  that  is  the  only  difference. 

The  wonderful  traction  of  films  is  shown  by  the  recent  experi- 
ments with  oil  upon  the  waves  in  a  storm.  The  oil,  of  course, 
does  not  still  the  waves,  but  it  converts  the  combing  waves,  so 
dangerous  to  navigators,  into  a  comparatively  harmless  swell.  It 
is  the  traction  of  the  film  which  prevents  the  wind  from  drawing 
the  water  up  the  incline  of  the  wave  and  sending  it  jetting  up- 
ward to  fall  over  in  a  comb.  A  film  of  oil  ^-oisVo-o  of  an  inch  in 
thickness  will  hold  the  wave  of  water  driving  before  a  gale  so 
that  it  can  not  break  into  spray. 

The  closing  words  in  Brewster's  experiment  on  the  revolving 
rectangles  of  wire  bring  us  to  another  remarkable  though  famil- 

TOL.  XXXVI. 40 


626  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

iar  fact  in  regard  to  films — their  wonderful  and  changing  colors, 
what  in  scientific  language  is  called  "  the  colors  of  thin  plates/' 
because  the  same  effect  is  produced  in  many  cases  where  "  film  " 
is  not  exactly  the  word  to  use. 

The  colors  of  soap-bubbles  furnish  one  of  the  most  triumph- 
ant vindications  of  the  wave  theory  of  light,  and  offer  to  its 
opposers  one  of  the  hardest  possible  nuts  to  crack.  A  brief  expla- 
nation of  the  wave  theory  of  light  and  interference,  so  far  as  it 
bears  upon  our  subject,  will,  it  is  hoped,  be  pardoned.  It  is  an  idea 
so  familiar  to  those  who  have  studied  physics,  and  yet  so  difficult 
of  conception  to  those  who  have  not,  that  a  few  words  seem  neces- 
sary in  a  popular  exposition  of  the  colors  of  films. 

Light  is,  of  course,  our  name  for  the  sensation,  but  back  of  the 
sensation  there  lie  the  physical  conditions  which  are  its  cause. 
The  theory  of  Newton,  that  light  is  caused  by  minute  particles 
of  matter  shot  out  from  the  luminous  body,  stood  the  test  of  the 
simpler  phenomena ;  but,  when  it  came  to  the  explanation  of  soap- 
bubble  colors,  his  theory,  even  with  the  marvelous  ingenuity 
which  he  brought  to  bear  upon  it,  broke  down.  If  light  were 
matter,  it  is  impossible  to  see  how  one  light  can  be  added  to 
another  light  and  produce  darkness,  which  is  sometimes  the  case-, 
while,  if  it  were  motion,  we  can  readily  see  how  motion  may  be 
added  to  motion,  and  the  result  be  rest.  A  sound  can  be  so  added 
to  a  sound  as  to  produce  silence,  but  the  more  familiar  illustration 
is  with  waves  of  water.  Two  stones  dropped  into  water  will  pro- 
duce waves,  and  where  these  meet  there  are  points  at  which  the 
water  remains  at  its  original  level.  This  is  because  at  these  points 
one  set  of  waves  tends  to  raise  the  water  while  the  other  set 
tends  to  lower  it,  and  between  the  two  it  remains  where  it  origi- 
nally was.  This  occurs  in  some  parts  of  the  ocean  where  the  tidal 
wave  sweeps  around  an  island  and  meets,  one  wave  being  half  a 
length  behind  the  other,  in  which  case  they  simply  neutralize 
each  other.  Where  the  crest  of  one  wave  would  have  been,  the 
trough  of  the  other  would  have  been  at  the  same  time,  and  be- 
tween the  two  impulses  in  opposite  direction  at  the  same  moment 
the  water  remains  unmoved,  and  there  are  no  tides. 

Darkness  corresponds  with  this  unmoved  plane  of  water,  and 
with  silence  in  the  case  of  sound-waves.  If  light  were  simple 
waves,  as  a  result  of  such  interference  we  would  simply  have 
darkness,  and  as  a  result  of  partial  interference  we  would  have 
all  the  gradations  from  darkness  to  light ;  but  a  light-wave  is  not 
a  simple  undulation,  it  is  made  up  of  innumerable  vibrations  of 
various  wave-lengths,  each  of  which  corresponds  with  a  color  or 
tone.  The  resultant  of  all  these  motions  combined  is  white  light. 
Extinguish  one  rate  of  vibration,  say  the  smaller  waves  which  cause 
the  sensation  of  blue,  and  we  have  a  wave  the  resultant  of  all  that 


THE  LAWS    OF  FILMS.  627 

is  left  behind,  which  will  be  yellow.  Color  is  a  partial  extinction 
of  light — not  of  light  as  a  whole,  but  a  suppression  of  one  of  its 
constituents.  If  you  take  a  yellow  glass  and  allow  the  light  to 
fall  through  it,  you  will  find  it  transparent ;  in  the  same  way  a 
blue  glass  is  transparent ;  but  if  these  glasses  are  the  comple- 
mentary blue  and  yellow  color,  and  placed  one  on  top  of  the  other, 
no  light  comes  through  them.  The  yellow  glass  sifts  out  all  the 
blue  rays,  and  the  blue  glass  sifts  out  all  the  other  rays,  and  no 
light  can  get  through.  If  the  colors  are  not  pure,  it  is  usually 
because  the  yellow  has  some  green  in  it,  and  so  has  the  blue. 
Neither  the  yellow  glass  nor  the  blue  is  competent  to  sift  out 
these  rays,  so  we  see  green  come  through  them  both.  This  is  the 
case  in  mixing  blue  and  yellow  in  paints:  the  resulting  green 
does  not  come  from  the  mixture,  but  is  the  sediment — you  might 
almost  call  it — left  after  the  pure  blue  and  pure  yellow  have  neu- 
tralized each  other. 

It  is  clear  that,  if  two  waves  can  be  made  to  set  into  vibration 
the  same  medium  at  the  same  time,  and  from  almost  exactly  the 
same  center,  one  of  them  being  a  half-wave  or  several  half- 
waves'  length  behind  the  other,  we  shall  have,  as  in  the  case  of 
water  and  sound,  no  movement,  or  darkness.  If  there  is  not 
exactly  a  half-wave's  distance  between  them,  some  color-waves 
will  neutralize  each  other  and  be  extinguished,  and  we  shall  get 
the  complementary  color — the  resultant  of  all  that  is  left  un- 
neutralized. 

This  is  the  cause  of  all  the  flitting  and  changing  colors  in  soap- 
bubbles,  mother-of-pearl,  peacocks'  plumage,  opals,  and  iridescent 
glass.  By  some  means  certain  vibrations  have  been  extinguished 
by  interference,  and  we  see  the  resultant  of  the  rest.  Whenever 
light  goes  from  one  medium  into  another,  even  when  both  media 
seem  perfectly  transparent,  there  is  a  partial  reflection  from  the 
surface  where  the  media  meet.  Hold  a  pin  against  the  surface  of 
a  piece  of  glass  (unsilvered  plate  glass  is  the  best) :  you  will  see  two 
faint  reflections  of  the  pin,  one  from  the  front  surface  of  the  glass 
and  one  from  the  back,  and  yet  the  main  part  of  the  light  reflected 
from  the  pin  goes  through,  as  you  can  easily  tell  by  looking 
through  the  glass  at  the  pin.  So  it  is  with  a  soap  film :  when  light 
falls  on  it,  most  of  it  goes  through,  but  there  is  a  slight  reflection 
from  the  outer  surface  of  the  thin  lamina  of  soap-suds  and  another 
slight  reflection  from  the  back  of  it.  The  two  sets  of  reflected 
waves  start  from  points  so  very  near  each  other  that  they  both 
act  on  the  medium  in  different  directions  at  the  same  time  and  in 
the  same  place,  and  we  have  color. 

If  light  went  forward  like  a  regiment  of  soldiers  in  line,  there 
might  be  just  as  much  interference  from  the  plate  of  glass  as 
there  is  from  the  film  of  soap-suds ;  but  it  does  not — it  goes  out  in 


628  THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

circular  or,  rather,  spherical  waves  in  every  direction  from  the 
starting-point.  It  is  only  waves  of  light  which  are  reflected  back 
from  two  points  very,  very  near  each  other,  which  produce  the 
colors  of  interference.  Circles  which  do  not  have  the  same  cen- 
ter cut  each  other  only  at  two  points ;  but,  the  nearer  the  two 
centers  are,  the  more  nearly  the  circumferences  coincide.  When 
the  light  comes  back  colored  from  a  piece  of  mother-of-pearl,  it  is 
because  the  waves  are  reflected  back  from  lines  so  close  together 
that  you  can  not  see  them,  except  under  a  very  high  power  of 
the  microscope,  and  so  they  interfere.  Metal  may  be  ruled  with 
lines  that  give  back  the  same  sort  of  color,  and  perfect  impres- 
sions in  black  sealing-wax  of  the  colored  pearl  will  show  colors 
in  the  same  way. 

The  colors  which  flit  over  the  surface  of  a  soap-bubble  each 
tells  the  story  of  the  thickness  of  the  film  at  that  point.  These 
films  are  exposed  to  the  movement  and  drying  effects  of  the  air, 
and  to  the  irregular  puffs  of  air  entering  from  the  mouth  in 
blowing  them  ;  but  if  a  film  can  be  secured  from  these  influences 
and  allowed  to  become  gradually  and  evenly  thinner,  even  and 
regular  colors  appear.  Blow  a  soap-bubble  in  a  watch-glass  filled 
with  the  soapy  fluid.  Let  it  sit  in  a  saucer  in  which  there  is  also 
some  of  the  fluid,  and  cover  with  a  clear  glass  tumbler  the  instant 
the  bubble  a  little  overhangs  the  watch-glass.  The  soapy  fluid  in 
the  saucer  prevents  the  air  from  getting  in  or  out  of  the  tumbler. 
Such  a  bubble  blown  from  soap-suds  made  of  distilled  water  and 
white  Castile  soap,  which  had  been  standing  a  very  long  while 
and  become  crystal  clear,  lasted  for  three  hours  and  a  quarter.  It 
had  no  colors  upon  it  when  covered.  They  began  to  form  at  once : 
broad  bands  of  pink  and  green  slipped  down  from  the  apex ;  then 
came  closer  and  more  vivid  rings  of  color ;  at  last  a  black  spot  ap- 
peared, which  grew  in  size.  In  the  long-lived  bubble  just  spoken 
of,  the  whole  upper  part  became  a  metallic  gray,  covered  with 
clouds  of  darkness  and  velvety  black  spots,  the  colors  being 
crowded  from  the  apex  down  to  the  edges.  That  these  appear- 
ances are  all  due  to  interference  is  proved  by  the  fact  that,  when 
the  light  by  special  means  is  prevented  from  reflection  at  one  of 
the  surfaces  of  the  film,  the  color  disappears. 

There  is  no  special  advantage  for  home  experiments  in  having 
a  bubble  last  so  long.  Very  much  the  same  changes  occur  in  a 
bubble  which  lasts  for  half  an  hour  as  in  one  that  lasts  for  three 
hours,  only  they  occur  more  quickly. 

The  colors  of  films  are  rarely,  if  ever,  pure  prismatic  colors ; 
they  are  the  resultant  of  certain  colors  left  after  the  extinction  of 
others.  Various  shades  of  green,  from  almost  gold  to  the  intensest 
emerald  green,  orange  dusky  with  red,  red  magenta-colored  from 
the  admixture  of  blue  waves,  and  so  on,  are  the  colors  seen. 


THE  LAWS    OF  FILMS. 


629 


Another  simple  and  very  interesting  experiment  is  to  twist  a 
copper  wire  into  the  shape  of  a  tennis-racket  or  battledore,  dip  it 
into  the  fluid  and  set  it  upright  under  the  tumbler.  If  the  saucer 
is  partially  filled  with  yellow  beeswax,  melted  and  allowed  to 
harden,  this  can  be  very  easily  done.  The  colors  in  this  case 
come  down  in  bars,  in  the  same  order  as  they  did  on  the  bubble  ; 
the  black  spot  is  much  larger  and  more  irregular  in  shape.  In 
one  instance,  with  a  simple  soap  solution,  this  spot  of  intense 
black  covered  three  quarters  of  the  frame  before  the  breaking  of 
the  film.  Many  films  may  break  before  one  is  secured  which  will 
last  so  as  to  show  these  effects. 

The  cause  of  these  regular  rings  and  bars  of  color  is  that  the 
film  gradually  thins  from  the  top,  by  the  slow  streaming  off  or 
evaporation  of  the  suds  from  the  film,  and  for  each  definite  thick- 
ness a  definite  color  appears.  The  black  spot  which  comes  last  of 
all  shows  that  the  film  at  that  place  is  just  one  half  a  wave-length 
of  light  in  thickness,  a  size  entirely  too  small  for  our  conception, 
though  it  can  be  told  in  numbers.  The  length  of  a  wave  of  red  light 
is  about  3  n  \  Q  &  of  an  inch,  and  of  all  the  other  colors  smaller. 

The  circulation  and  changes  in  the  film  are  most  curiously  re- 
vealed by  the  movement  of  flecks  of  color  on  its  surface. 

There  are  other  ways  of  making  inequalities  in  the  film,  which 
are  revealed  by  the  colors.    A  little  instrument,  called  the  phonei- 


FlG.  81— Phoneidoscope. 

A,  bell-glass ;  B,  elbow  ;  C,  India-rubber  tube ;  D,  wire  support ;  F,  upper  half  of  mouth-piece ; 

E,  lower  half  of  mouth-piece  ;  G,  diaphragm. 

doscope,  which  may  be  either  bought  or  very  easily  made,  shows 
most  beautiful  figures  which  start  into  shape  in  answer  to  musical 
notes  sung  or  words  spoken  into  it.  It  is  in  all  its  forms  a  modifi- 
cation of,  or  improvement  upon,  this  idea :  an  inch  tube  of  India 
rubber  of  any  length,  with  a  funnel  on  one  end  and  a  mouth-piece 
on  the  other,  diaphragms  of  thin  metal  or  varnished  cardboard 
being  placed  across  the  mouth  of  the  funnel  with  holes  of  various 


63o 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


shapes  cut  in  them  to  sustain  the  film.  A  very  satisfactory  one 
may  be  made  with  very  little  trouble  and  at  slight  cost :  three  feet 
of  inch  rubber  tubing,  a  bell-glass,  such  as  is  used  to  shade  night 
tapers,  some  pieces  of  cardboard  or  thin  brass,  which  can  be  cut 
with  the  scissors,  and  an  inch  tin  elbow,  used  in  speaking-tubes 
and  costing  three  cents.  Fit  the  parts  together  as  in  Fig.  8.  The 
diaphragms  should  be  blackened  and  varnished  if  of  cardboard ; 
the  holes  in  them  can  be  triangular,  square,  round,  or  of  any  geo- 
metrical shape.  A  film  is  drawn  across  the  hole  in  the  diaphragm ; 
it  should  be  set  upon  edge  till  the  colors  are  established,  then  it 
is  to  be  laid  across  the  mouth  of  the  bell-glass,  and  into  the  other 
end  of  the  tube  notes  can  be  sung ;  but  the  breath  must  not  be 
inhaled  or  exhaled  carelessly,  or  the  film  will  be  broken. 

A  closed  mouth-piece  may  be  made  by  filing  off  two  tin  toy 
trumpets  two  inches  from  the  open  end.  Over  one  tie  a  stretched 
membrane  of  India-rubber  sheeting,  such  as  dentists  use,  or  fasten 


^~ 


i 


Et-'«~ 


r  Ely 


T! 


my 


iiiMiM»*— ■IML.ii.qjV  n'      i.  ill ''V ill 


Fig.  9.— Figures  on  Films  in  Phoneidoscope. 
A,  B,  C,  forms  whirling  and  evanescent ;  D,  E,  F,  forms  which  remained  for  some  time  after  the 

vibrations  of  film  ceased. 

with  paper  a  thin  sheet  of  mica,  E,  or  even  tough,  strong  letter- 
paper  may  be  used.  Hold  the  second  trumpet,  F,  reversed  against 
this,  and  sing  into  it. 

The  colors  and  figures  on  these  films,  if  one  is  patient  and 
learns  how  to  use  the  voice,  are  simply  incredible— they  are  so 
wonderful  and  gorgeous.  Fig.  9,  A,  B,  C,  D,  E,  F,  show  the 
forms  obtained  on  several  diaphragms  with  the  home-made 
phoneidoscope  described  above,  some  with  the  closed  mouth-piece 


THE  LAWS    OF  FILMS.  631 

and  others  by  simply  carefully  singing  into  the  rubber  tube.  The 
colors  change  constantly,  and  are  so  rich  and  gorgeous  that  they 
seem  to  have  lost  their  transparency  and  to  be  metallic  plates,  ex- 
cept for  their  streaming,  swirling  colors.  The  diaphragms  should, 
as  was  said  before,  be  blackened,  and  the  film  seen  projected 
against  a  black  background.  I  simply  use  a  piece  of  black  mate- 
rial placed  behind  and  a  little  below  the  bell-glass  on  which  the 
diaphragm  rests. 

These  interference  colors  do  not  require  a  film  of  any  special 
substance,  or,  indeed,  of  any  substance  at  all.  The  air  between 
two  plates  of  clean,  clear  glass,  pressed  together  and  worked  with 
the  fingers  till  they  are  as  close  as  possible,  gives  beautiful  rings 
and  fringes  of  color.  A  crack  in  the  center  of  a  block  of  clear 
ice,  where  there  is  not  even  air,  but  only  empty  space,  or,  rather, 
the  ether  that  fills  all  space,  gives  out  gorgeous  colors  of  inter- 
ference. 

The  colors  of  iridescent  glass  are  due  to  interference.  In  its 
manufacture,  by  some  chemical  means,  the  surface  film  has  been 
made  different  from  the  glass  below,  and  so  acts  as  the  soap  film 
does,  and  gives  out  its  lovely  tints.  A  drop  of  turpentine  on  the 
surface  of  water  on  a  black  tray  shows  fringes  of  color  from  the 
same  cause. 

One  of  the  most  beautiful  examples  of  interference  color  may 
be  seen  at  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art  in  New  York,  in  the 
Cesnola  collection  of  ancient  glass.  Originally  this  glass  was 
evidently  ordinary  transparent  glass.  From  some  cause  the  sur- 
face has  been  acted  upon  till  it  lies  in  thin  films  one  upon  the 
other,  sending  back  to  the  eye  the  most  gorgeous  interference 
colors.  By  the  courtesy  of  Dr.  Isaac  Hall,  the  curator  of  the  mu- 
seum, I  was  enabled  to  examine  some  fragments  of  this  glass  mi- 
croscopically. 

The  whole  surface  is  made  up  of  a  series  of  films  of  the  most 
exquisite  delicacy.  There  are  tiny  cavities  united  by  a  network 
of  lines  from  which  the  decomposition  has  spread  laterally  in 
every  direction.  Flakes  come  off  with  the  lightest  touch,  so  thin 
that  it  seems  impossible  they  should  be  capable  of  subdivision, 
and  yet  a  good  two-thirds  glass  (about  one  hundred  diameters) 
shows  it  to  be  made  up  of  a  number  of  superposed  plates.  The 
fact  that  the  color  of  this  glass  is  due  to  interference  is  proved  by 
putting  a  drop  of  alcohol  or  oil  upon  a  flake,  when  the  colors  dis- 
appear or  are  entirely  changed.  As  the  liquid  dries,  the  colors 
gradually  come  back. 

The  beauty  of  this  glass  under  the  microscope  is  simply  inde- 
scribable. Gold  and  silver,  exquisitely  wrought,  and  vivid  with 
every  known  jewel,  would  be  tame  and  colorless  beside  it  (Fig. 
10,  A).     The  films,  as  they  come  off,  are  in  many  cases  not  ordi- 


632 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


nary  flat  films ;  the  outlines  are  sometimes  very  singular,  being 
made  up  of  most  eccentric  curves  in  all  sorts  of  combination.  In 
one  or  two  instances  these  scales  overlapped,  showing  that  the 
disintegration  had  taken  place  in  a  spiral  direction  (Fig.  10,  B). 
This  world  of  beauty,  in  both  colors  and  form,  was  found  within 
the  area  of  one  square  inch  or  less,  on  a  small  fragment  of 
no  special  brilliancy  to  the  naked  eye. 

Brewster  describes,  in  the  "  Transactions  of  the  Edinburgh 

Royal  Society,"  some  specimens 
A  of    ancient    decomposed    glass, 

but  they  must  have  been  in  a 
much  earlier  stage  of  decom- 
position than  the  Cesnola  glass, 
judging  from  the  figures  and 
Jf  descriptions  given.     He  states 


^ 


Pig.  10.— Cesnola  Glass. 

A.  a,  emerald-green,  with  strings  of  bubbles  light-green  and  brilliant,  like  pale  emeralds  ;  6, 
bronze-gold  ground,  spots  of  violet,  and  bronze-gold  rings,  ruby,  pale  vivid  blue,  and  deep 
sapphire  blue  ;  c,  partly  scaled  film,  vivid  violet,  toning  down,  with  spots  as  above;  d,  deep 
violet-blue,  like  the  sky  on  certain  nights  ;  e,  speckled  gold  ;  /,  exquisite  violet,  with  bubbles 
Jike  pearls,  only  shaded  violet  tone. 

B.  Shape  of  violet  layer  as  it  came  off,  very  thin. 

that  the  experiment  had  been  made  of  submitting  glass  to  power- 
ful solvents,  when,  in  a  short  time,  circles  and  other  forms,  centers 
of  decomposition,  began  to  appear.  Here  was  probably  the  sug- 
gestion which  has  since  been  followed  in  the  manufacture  of  our 
modern  iridescent  glass.  In  a  piece  of  iridescent  glass,  brilliant 
at  first,  but  which  has  been  growing  more  brilliant  for  several 
years,  I  find  a  number  of  distinct  centers  of  disintegration,  show- 
ing the  process,  whether  by  art  or  by  time,  to  be  identical  in  kind. 


The  question  involved  in  the  problem  of  air  navigation  is  regarded  by  Mr.  E. 
N.  Lewis  as  simply  one  of  increasing  power  without  increasing  the  weight  of  the 
apparatus  by  which  the  power  is  applied.  The  supposition  that  the  vehicle  must 
be  lighter  than  the  air,  on  which  experiment  has  mostly  proceeded,  is  a  mistaken 
one.  "  A  bird  can  fly,  not  because  it  is  comparatively  light  in  weight  (for  it  is 
not),  but  because  it  is  strong."  The  successful  air-ship  will  be  a  large  structure, 
very  light  in  weight  compared  with  its  strength,  but  many  times  heavier  than  the 
air  it  displaces,  and  propelled  by  machinery  capable  of  developing  enormous  power. 
"  The  skill  which  has  produced  .  .  .  the  modern  bicycle  will  not  find  the  task  of 
designing  such  a  structure  too  difficult." 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY    OF  PREJUDICE.  633 


THE   PSYCHOLOGY   OF   PREJUDICE. 

By   G.  T.  W.  PATEICK,  Ph.  D., 

PROFESSOR    OF    PHILOSOPHY    LN   THE    STATE    UNIVERSITY    OF   IOWA. 

THE  rapidly  enlarging  field  of  modern  psychology  makes  it 
possible  to  discuss  some  questions  not  before  attempted  by 
students  of  mental  science.  There  is,  however,  even  yet,  one 
apparently  simple  problem  in  mental  pathology  which  the  most 
hardy  philosopher  would  hardly  hope  to  solve.  This  problem 
is  to  determine,  by  analysis  of  the  soul,  the  causes,  symptoms, 
and  cure  of  narrow-mindedness,  or  mental  bias.  Such  a  research, 
if  aught  could  be  made  of  it,  would  be  as  fascinating  as  it  would 
be  fruitful. 

My  present  attempt  is  less  ambitious.  It  is  to  trace  out  some 
primary  laws  of  psychic  activity  in  their  bearing  on  that  con- 
dition of  mind  known  as  prejudice.  I  shall  not  here  allow  myself 
to  be  entangled  in  a  metaphysical  puzzle  by  attempting  an  accu- 
rate definition  of  prejudice.  To  define  it  as  deflection  from  truth 
would  be  to  raise  the  ancient  question,  What  is  truth  ?  It  will 
be  quite  sufficient  for  my  purpose  to  consider  prejudice  as  indi- 
vidual deviation  from  the  normal  beliefs  of  mankind,  taking  as 
the  standard  the  universal,  the  general,  or  the  mean. 

The  chapter  in  modern  psychology  which  furnishes  the  prin- 
ciples in  quest  is  the  chapter  on  apperception — really  only  an- 
other word  for  attention.  All  knowledge  is  the  result  of  the 
union  of  two  factors,  one  objective  and  one  subjective.  To 
know  anything  is  to  refer  it  to  something  known  before.  In 
every  cognition  there  is  a  union  of  the  group  of  sensations  com- 
posing the  object  with  a  group  of  ideas  previously  acquired  and 
now  recalled.  Knowledge  is  classification.  The  class  is  within 
us ;  the  thing  to  be  classified  is  without.  A  piece  of  sugar  lies 
before  me  on  the  table.  I  perceive  only  that  it  is  a  white  object 
of  a  certain  form.  I  apperceive,  by  means  of  the  group  of  ideas 
previously  associated  with  such  white  substances,  that  it  is  also 
sweet,  hard,  heavy,  soluble  in  water — in  fact,  that  it  is  sugar.  The 
inner  group  of  ideas  varies  indefinitely  in  complexity.  Closely 
related  ideas  may  be  altogether  wanting,  as  when  one  sees,  for 
instance,  a  horse  for  the  first  time,  and  can  only  ask,  What  is  that 
thing  ?  or,  What  is  that  animal  ?  One  with  more  experience — that 
is,  with  more  related  ideas — apperceives  that  it  is  a  horse.  A 
jockey,  however,  apperceives  all  his  "  points  " ;  a  zoologist  still 
more.  We  say  that  the  jockey  or  zoologist  really  sees  more  in 
the  horse  than  the  ignorant  man,  yet  the  image  made  upon  the 
retina  of  the  eye  is  the  same  in  each  observer.      Similarly,  in 


634  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

reading,  we  cast  the  eye  rapidly  down  the  page  and,  although  we 
do  not  see  one  half  the  words,  or  a  fraction  of  the  letters,  yet  we 
catch  the  sense.  If  it  happens  to  be  a  letter  from  a  well-known 
friend,  we  read  also,  as  we  say,  between  the  lines.  Really  we  read 
out  of  our  own  heads. 

The  subjective  or  a  priori  factor  is  simplest,  therefore,  when,  as 
in  the  cases  given,  it  is  merely  the  class  notion,  horse  or  sugar ;  it 
is  most  complex  when  it  represents,  for  instance,  a  whole  system 
of  astronomy,  as  when,  in  a  falling  body,  there  is  apperceived  a 
law  of  gravitation.  But,  simple  or  complex,  it  follows,  first,  that 
unless  there  be  an  inner  group  of  ideas  to  which  the  object 
may  in  some  way  be  referred,  knowledge  of  it  is  impossible ;  and, 
secondly,  that  the  character  of  the  resulting  knowledge  depends 
upon  the  character  of  the  inner  group  of  ideas.  You  and 
I,  therefore,  see  everything  to  some  extent  differently.  You 
see  things  from  the  standpoint  of  your  previously  acquired 
groups  of  ideas ;  I  from  mine.  Strictly,  no  two  persons  can  see 
the  same  thing  in  the  same  way,  for  it  can  never  happen  that 
two  persons  have  precisely  the  same  groups  of  ideas  relating 
to  any  subject.  These  depend  on  our  past  experience,  on  our 
education,  on  the  beliefs  of  our  times,  on  our  various  sects  or 
parties,  on  our  pet  theories,  our  interests,  and  our  desires.  Here 
is  a  simple  illustration.  Suppose  an  artist  and  an  engineer,  stand- 
ing side  by  side  overlooking  a  tract  of  country.  What  they  per- 
ceive is  the  same  ;  what  they  apperceive  is  wholly  different.  To 
the  engineer  the  country  presents  itself  as  a  possible  line  for  a 
railroad,  with  here  advantageous  grades  and  there  economic 
bridges.  Before  the  artist  is  spread  out  a  landscape,  with  light 
and  shade  and  harmony  of  colors.  Suppose,  again,  a  plot  of 
level  ground  in  the  suburbs  of  a  city.  A  college  student  riding 
by  apperceives  it  as  a  possible  ball-ground ;  a  young  girl,  as  a 
tennis-court ;  a  speculator,  as  an  addition  for  town  lots ;  an  under- 
taker, perhaps,  as  a  possible  site  for  a  cemetery. 

In  the  primary  laws  of  knowing,  above  stated,  we  discover 
the  ground  principles  of  the  psychology  of  prejudice.  The  re- 
sults may  be  summed  up  in  the  form  of  two  laws : 

1.  We  see  only  so  much  of  the  world  as  we  have  apperceptive 
organs  for  seeing. 

2.  We  see  things  not  as  they  are  but  as  we  are— that  is,  we  see 
the  world  not  as  it  is,  but  as  molded  by  the  individual  peculiari- 
ties of  our  minds. 

Applications  of  the  first  law  I  shall  state  briefly ;  of  the  second, 
more  in  detail.  The  eye  is  limited  by  its  structure  to  the  recep- 
tion of  ethereal  vibrations  between  the  colors  red  and  violet. 
The  ear  converts  into  sound  only  air-vibrations  of  a  limited 
rapidity.     Just  so  the  mind,  in  its  reception  of  knowledge,  is 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY   OF  PREJUDICE.  635 

limited  by  the  quality  and  amount  of  its  previous  acquisitions. 
'"  No  man/'  Emerson  tells  us, "  can  learn  what  he  has  not  prepara- 
tion for  learning,  however  near  to  his  eyes  is  the  object.  A  chem- 
ist may  tell  his  most  precious  secrets  to  a  carpenter,  and  he  shall 
be  never  the  wiser — the  secrets  he  would  not  utter  to  a  chemist 
for  an  estate.  God  screens  us  evermore  from  premature  ideas. 
Our  eyes  are  holden  that  we  can  not  see  things  that  stare  us  in 
the  face,  until  the  hour  arrives  when  the  mind  is  ripened ;  then 
we  behold  them,  and  the  time  when  we  saw  them  not  is  like  a 
dream."  Instinctively,  therefore,  we  seek  the  mental  food  that 
our  minds  are  prepared  to  digest — that,  namely,  which  is  most 
clearly  related  to  what  we  know  already.  In  conversation,  notice 
how  people  brighten  up  when  you  tell  them  something  that  they 
know  already,  especially  if  it  is  something  they  have  long  be- 
lieved or  themselves  discovered.  In  society  we  know  how  to  make 
ourselves  agreeable  by  speaking  to  each  person  on  the  subject  of 
his  peculiar  interests.  If  we  are  wise,  we  shall  engage  each  person 
in  subjects  of  conversation  about  which  he  is  best  informed.  By 
so  doing  we  can  not  only  make  ourselves  agreeable,  but  lay  by  a 
stock  of  useful  information  at  the  same  time.  Such  a  course  is 
by  no  means  easy.  We  fall  naturally  into  the  vice  of  parading 
our  bwn  knowledge,  and  we  like  to  hear  others  talk,  not  of  their 
interests,  but  of  ours.  Sometimes  persons  in  conversation  act 
simply  as  foils  each  for  the  other.  I  listen  to  your  stories  only 
that  you  in  turn  may  listen  to  mine ;  and  in  the  next  company  I 
tell  not  the  ones  I  heard,  but  the  ones  I  told  before.  Thackeray, 
in  "  Henry  Esmond,"  hits  upon  this  human  weakness.  "  They 
emptied  scores  of  bottles  at  the  '  King's  Arms,'  each  prating  of 
his  love,  and  allowing  the  others  to  talk  on  condition  that  he 
might  have  his  own  turn  as  a  listener." 

We  like  also  to  read  that  which  favors  our  side  of  a  question. 
The  Republican  subscribes  for  a  Republican  newspaper,  and  the 
Democrat  reads  the  organ  of  his  party.  In  the  last  political  cam- 
paign it  was  no  doubt  true  that  advocates  of  free  trade  or  of  tariff 
reform,  and  advocates  of  protection,  read  for  the  most  part  liter- 
ature favorable  to  their  respective  views.  The  churches  plead  for 
greater  consensus  of  opinion,  yet  the  Methodist  subscribes  for  a 
Methodist  paper,  the  Baptist  for  a  Baptist  paper,  the  Roman 
Catholic  for  a  Catholic  paper.  In  general  we  read  the  organ  of 
our  own  sect  or  party.  There  are,  of  course,  some  valid  economic 
reasons  for  so  doing.  I  shall  speak  of  these  reasons  below.  But,  if 
truth  alone  were  sought,  the  plan  we  pursue  would  be  the  worst 
plan  possible.  Sometimes  even  we  indignantly  refuse  mental  food 
that  might  serve  as  a  corrective  of  our  possible  one-sidedness,  in- 
stinctively avoiding  that  which  we  feel  can  not  be  assimilated 
without   a   dangerous   readjustment  of  our  mental  possessions. 


636  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

The  skeptic  in  religion  opens  a  book  on  Christian  evidences,  only 
to  close  it  in  haste  when  he  perceives  its  trend ;  while  the  pious 
believer,  who  picks  up  the  work  of  Strauss  or  Renan,  drops  it  like 
a  burning  coal.  We  avoid  books,  men,  sermons,  society,  that  are 
not,  as  we  say,  congenial.  Hence  the  trouble  we  have  in  getting 
our  books  read  by  the  very  people  for  whom  they  were  written,  or 
in  getting  our  articles  printed  in  the  journals  that  circulate  among 
the  readers  we  desire  to  reach.  The  preacher  prepares  a  vigorous 
sermon  for  "  sinners,"  but  he  preaches  it  to  his  own  devout  peo- 
ple ;  the  "  sinners  "  are  not  there. 

Our  psychological  law  of  prejudice  thus  developed  teaches  us 
that,  since  we  seek  not  for  what  may  correct  our  possible  errors,, 
but  for  what  will  confirm  our  already  acquired  opinions,  our  men- 
tal life  always  tends  toward  intensification  or  involution.  Evi- 
dently this  tendency  of  the  mind  toward  involution  will  grow 
with  age,  and  our  every-day  experience  confirms  this  deduction. 
Teaching  new  tricks  to  old  dogs  is  easier  than  giving  us  new  ap- 
perceptive organs  when  middle  life  is  past.  The  old  man  changes 
his  politics  rarely,  his  religion  never.  He  lives  from  within.  The 
mind  becomes  more  and  more  a  microcosm.  The  cerebral  tracts 
show  well-beaten  paths  of  association.  The  brain  becomes  hard- 
ened and  fixed.  "An  old  man/"  says  Dr.  Holmes,  "who  shrinks 
into  himself,  falls  into  ways  which  become  as  positive  and  as  much 
beyond  the  reach  of  outside  influences  as  if  they  were  governed  by 
clock-work."  The  brain,  he  continues,  has  its  "  systole  and  dias- 
tole as  regular  as  that  of  the  heart  itself." 

"  Minds  roll  in  paths  like  planets :  they  revolve 
This  in  a  larger,  tbat  a  narrower  ring, 
But  round  they  come  at  last  to  that  same  phase, 
That  self-same  light  and  shade  they  showed  before. 
I  learned  his  annual  and  his  monthly  tale, 
His  weekly  axiom  and  his  daily  phrase. 
I  felt  them  coming  in  the  laden  air, 
And  watched  them  laboring  up  to  vocal  breath, 
Even  as  the  first-born  at  his  father's  board 
Knows  ere  he  speaks  the  too  familiar  jest 
Is  on  its  way.  by  some  mysterious  sign 
Forewarned,  the  click  before  the  striking  bell." 

The  older  we  get,  the  larger  becomes  the  subjective  factor  of 
knowledge  and  the  smaller  the  objective.  We  are,  as  said  the 
obscure  sage  of  Ephesus,  like  those  asleep,  withdrawn  each  into  a 
private  world  of  his  own.  We  can  now  understand  that  state 
of  mind  described  by  the  word  "confirmed."  We  hear  of  a  con- 
firmed pessimist,  a  confirmed  protectionist  or  free-trader.  Some- 
times we  apply  the  word  without  shame  to  ourselves,  saying  that 
experience  has  confirmed  us  in  this  or  that  opinion,  not  know- 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY    OF  PREJUDICE.  637 

ing  that  to  a  considerable  extent  we  have  selected  our  own  ex- 
perience. 

Our  second  law  affirms  that  we  see  the  world  not  as  it  is  but 
as  modified  by  the  individual  peculiarities  of  our  minds.  The 
illusions  that  result  are  Bacon's  well-known  "  idols  of  the  den," 
doubtless  the  most  fruitful  of  the  four  sources  of  error  pointed 
out  by  that  clear-headed  philosopher.  For  our  starting-point  we 
may  turn  again  to  physics  and  physiology.  Vibrations  of  the 
luminiferous  ether  of  varying  rapidity  are  perceived  by  the  eye 
as  a  harmony  of  colors.  Vibrations  of  the  air  of  varying  rapidity 
are  perceived  by  the  ear  as  a  harmony  of  tones.  Unless,  now, 
we  are  prepared  to  say  that  the  colors  red  or  green,  or  that  the 
tones  a  or  a',  are  like  or  in  any  way  similar  to  the  motion  of  the 
ether  or  air ;  unless,  further,  we  are  prepared  to  say  that,  corre- 
sponding to  the  subjective  harmony  of  colors  and  tones  which  we 
feel,  there  is  an  objective  harmony  of  motions  in  the  ponderable 
stuff,  then  we  must  admit  that  we  have  here  cases  of  the  great 
primary  illusion  of  a  phenomenal  world  of  ideas  like  a  noumenal 
world  of  things-in-themselves.  With  this  ancient  problem  of  per- 
ception we  are  not  now  concerned,  but  it  serves  as  an  illustration 
of  our  mental  law  of  apperception.  As  the  eye  and  the  ear,  each 
according  to  its  structure,  make  over  the  manifold  motions  of  the 
external  world  into  sensations  of  light  and  sound,  so  the  mind 
makes  over  the  materials  of  knowledge  into  this  or  that  product 
according  to  its  peculiar  constitution.  Observe,  however,  this 
difference  between  the  two  cases.  While  the  eye  and  the  ear  vary 
little  in  structure  in  different  individuals,  the  variations  in  mental 
structure  are  endless,  being  determined  by  our  environment,  edu- 
cation, and  inherited  peculiarities.  Color-blindness  is  compara- 
tively rare  and  limited  to  a  few  colors  ;  psychical  blindness,  in  a 
greater  or  less  degree,  is  a  defect  no  man  is  free  from. 

The  simpler  illustrations  of  this  law  need  not  detain  us.  We 
put  any  new  phenomenon  into  that  class  of  our  previous  notions 
which  it  most  closely  resembles.  A  child  who  sees  a  cow  for  the 
first  time  calls  it  a  horse,  if  familiar  with  horses.  The  same  plant 
may  be  apperceived  by  a  girl  as  a  flower,  by  a  farmer  as  a  weed, 
by  an  old  woman  as  an  herb.  The  story  of  the  precocious  boy  is 
in  point.  He  sat  under  a  tree  as  three  strangers  passed  by.  The 
first  said,  "  What  a  fine  stick  of  timber  ! "  "  Good-morning,  car- 
penter," said  the  boy.  The  second,  "  What  excellent  bark ! " 
"Good-morning,  tanner."  The  third,  "What  a  beautiful  tree- 
top  ! "  "  Good-morning,  artist."  He  had  correctly  interpreted 
their  vocations  from  their  manner  of  apperceiving  the  tree.  Our 
habits  of  thought,  once  started,  grow  on  any  food.  We  go  by 
chance  to  hear  a  lecturer  of  an  opposite  party  or  sect,  and  come 
away  confirmed  in  our  own  views.     This  law  of  mental  inertia 


638  THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

tends  constantly  to  produce  one-sidedness.  Nature  strives  ever 
to  rectify  this  tendency  by  presenting  to  us  an  unsorted  variety 
of  details,  and  succeeds  in  keeping  most  of  us  within  the  bounds 
of  sanity,  though  not  of  perfect  balance.  "  The  complexity  of  our 
environment,"  says  Kibot,  "  is  our  safeguard  against  automatism." 
But  our  ideas  are  ingrowing,  and  need  to  be  constantly  watched 
and  corrected.  Insanity  is  a  matter  of  degree.  When  the  "  fixed 
ideas  "  which  few  of  us  are  without  pass  a  certain  point  and  get 
too  obtrusive,  we  become  monomaniacs.  Men  of  one  idea,  men 
of  mental  bias,  narrow-minded  men,  present  milder  cases  of  the 
same  disease. 

Fruitful  illustrations  of  this  law  may  be  seen  in  the  systems 
of  thought  that  have  prevailed  since  the  days  of  Pythagoras. 
Systems  of  words  would  be  a  better  name  for  many  of  them. 
As  in  our  seeing,  so  in  our  thinking,  we  are  limited  by  the  ap- 
paratus that  happens  to  be  at  our  command.  For  most  of  us,, 
at  least,  the  available  apparatus  for  constructing  a  philosophi- 
cal system  is  a  philosophical  vocabulary.  From  this  fact  and 
the  further  one  that  these  vocabularies  are  largely  inherited 
from  the  schools,  it  results  that  the  apperceptive  organs  of  meta- 
physicians are  wofully  inadequate  to  the  task  they  undertake, 
namely,  the  cognition  of  ultimate  realities.  It  is  no  wonder, 
therefore,  that  these  realities  have  been  persistently  apperceived 
under  so  many  different  forms  in  the  various  metaphysical  sys- 
tems, supported  by  so  many  "hide-bound  adult  philosophers."' 
Many  a  well-meaning  philosopher  has  got  caught  in  the  swing 
of  a  certain  terminology,  till  his  thoughts  have  become  slaves  to 
the  movements  of  his  tongue.  We  are  reminded  of  Aristotle's, 
categories,  Kant's  map  of  the  mind,  Comte's  three  stages,  Hegel's 
thesis,  antithesis,  and  synthesis,  the  absolute  and  the  finite,  sub- 
ject and  object,  mind  and  matter,  body  and  spirit,  noumenon  and 
phenomenon,  real  and  ideal,  rational  and  empirical.  This  is  the 
"  tyranny  of  formulas  "  from  whose  iron  rule  science  is  now  escap- 
ing, but  which  is  still  the  terror  of  philosophy  and  religion. 

The  danger  of  words  and  formulas  may  be  well  illustrated 
further  by  the  mischief  made  in  philosophy  by  the  presence  of 
negative  terms.  These  are  the  words  which  in  the  finished 
systems  of  the  philosophers  mark,  we  may  say,  the  absence  of 
thought.  We  recall  the  "Infinite  "  of  Zeno  and  Kant,  the  "Ab- 
solute "  of  Fichte  and  Hegel,  the  "  Supra-essential "  of  Pseudo-Dio- 
nysius,  the  "  Unconditioned"  of  Hamilton,  the  "  Unknowable  "  of 
Spencer,  the  "  iVctf-ourselves  "  of  Matthew  Arnold,  the  "  Uncon- 
scious "  of  von  Hartmann,  the  "Immortality  "  of  Christian  believ- 
ers, the  m  ov  of  the  Greeks,  and  the  "  iVon-being  "  of  the  Hege- 
lians. These  represent  the  unfathomable  places  in  thought,  which 
we  bridge  with  a  negative  term  and  pass  on  blithely  as  before,  but 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY   OF  PREJUDICE.  639 

presently   find   ourselves  using  them   as   conceptions  regularly- 
formed.     In  Goethe's  well-turned  phrase  : 

"  Denn  eben  wo  Begriffe  fehlen, 
Da  stellt  ein  "Wort  zur  rechten  Zeit  sich  ein." 

But  if  prejudice  prevails  in  philosophy,  what  shall  we  say  of 
religion  ?  The  race  as  a  whole  is  divided  into  a  large  number  of 
religious  systems,  and  each  system  into  sects.  Every  individual 
apperceives  the  "  eternal  truths  "  from  the  standpoint  of  the  sect 
in  which  he  was  educated.  Rarely  does  he  change  from  one  faith 
to  another,  and  when  he  does  so  it  is  not  often  for  his  peace  of 
mind.  Such  an  "  Exodus  from  Houndsditch,"  in  Carlyle's  homely 
phrase,  is  accomplished  only  "  in  a  state  of  brutal  nakedness,  scan- 
dalous mutilation."  Why  ?  Because  religious  ideas  are  deep-seated 
and  fundamental.  To  receive  into  the  mind  a  group  of  new  and 
foreign  notions  of  such  a  kind  requires  a  breaking  up  and  read- 
justing of  the  old  order  such  as  few  can  undertake  with  safety. 
The  very  psychological  laws  that  we  are  studying,  however,  may 
teach  us  that  these  world-wide  differences  in  opinions  are  not 
destructive  of  the  eternal  verities  of  religion,  but  only  that 
these  verities  are  distorted  when  narrowed  down  to  fit  our  par- 
ticular systems  and  our  individual  capacities. 

There  is  a  curious  science  called  the  science  of  interpretation, 
whose  business  it  is  to  translate  the  facts  and  thoughts  of  the 
world  into  phrases  comprehensible  to  a  mind  limited  to  a  certain 
system  of  ideas.  Have  we  ever  stopped  to  think  what  a  confession 
of  shame  such  a  science  carries  on  its  face  ?  To  interpret  is,  in 
some  sense,  to  change,  to  distort.  An  instructive  illustration  of 
this  branch  of  learning  may  be  seen  in  hermeneutics,  or  the  sci- 
ence of  the  interpretation  of  the  Scriptures.  Never  in  any  litera- 
ture were  thoughts  expressed  in  so  simple,  straightforward,  and 
honest  language  as  in  the  books  of  the  Bible,  or  in  language  less 
in  need  of  interpretation.  What  this  science  really  has  in  hand 
is  the  pitiful  task  of  fitting  a  vast  variety  of  thoughts  into  the 
limited  number  of  forms  of  some  system  of  theology.  So,  every- 
where, it  is  a  mistake  to  interpret  things.  It  is  better  to  let  Na- 
ture carry  on  her  work  of  rectification,  by  allowing  the  bare  facts 
of  the  world  to  project  themselves  freely  against  our  minds  and 
be  perceived  as  they  are,  or  make  for  themselves  apperceptive 
organs. 

Interpretation  leads  to  over-interpretation.  This  evil  becomes 
prominent  in  connection  with  those  studies  which  are  not  yet 
exact  sciences,  such  as  sociology,  ethics,  metaphysics,  and  the- 
ology. Here,  as  we  know,  we  very  often  have  to  make  an  allow- 
ance for  the  "  personal  equation  "  of  the  author — unless,  unfortu- 
nately, belonging  to  the   same  party,  sect,  or  school,  we  have 


640  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

blindly  accepted  him  as  a  guide.  We  understand  that  he  writes 
from  a  certain  standpoint,  and  that  unconsciously  and  inevitably 
he  will  see  things,  not  just  as  they  are,  but  as  tinged  by  his  own 
subjective  light.  Where,  for  instance,  shall  we  find  a  perfectly 
just  history  of  philosophy  ?  Not  in  Schwegler,  who  glances  over 
the  past  through  a  pair  of  thick  Hegelian  spectacles ;  nor  in 
Lewes,  who  apperceives  the  opinions  of  thinkers  with  a  positiv- 
istic  bias.  Theology  is  quite  a  different  science  as  presented  by  a 
St.  Augustine  and  a  Pelagius,  by  a  Protestant  and  a  Romanist. 
The  Socrates  of  Grote  is  not  the  same  man  as  the  Socrates  of 
Cousin.  Jesus,  even,  is  seen  in  an  entirely  different  light  by  Fleet- 
wood and  by  Renan.  The  Greek  thinkers,  especially  Aristotle 
and  Plato,  have  suffered  much  at  the  hands  of  modern  writers, 
being  used  as  props  to  bolster  up  every  man's  system  of  science  or 
philosophy. 

Over  -  interpretation  is  really  only  the  logical  outcome  of 
another  wide-spread  evil,  that  of  over-systemization.  This  is  a 
prevalent  modern  vice.  It  is  the  abuse  of  classification,  or  the 
scientific  method.  It  is  the  tendency  to  group  under  any  outlined 
system  or  theory  more  facts  than  properly  belong  to  it.  We  fall 
in  love  with  our  favorite  theory,  and  it  seems  to  us  to  possess 
exaggerated  virtues,  and  to  be  able  to  explain  all  phenomena. 
Darwinism  in  biological  science,  utilitarianism  in  ethics,  and  He- 
gelianism  in  philosophy,  are  examples.  The  latter  is  a  very  beau- 
tiful illustration  of  over-systemization.  Hegel,  with  his  thesis, 
antithesis,  and  synthesis,  fondly  thought  he  had  spread  a  net  that 
should  capture  the  universe.  But  the  strain  appears  to  have  been 
too  great,  and  already  we  see  the  ruins  of  a  great  collapsed  phi- 
losophy. Over-systemization  is  apparent  also  in  the  present  rage 
for  publication,  especially  in  Germany.  Every  university  man 
must  publish  a  book,  and  every  book  must  present  either  some 
theory  or  the  results  of  some  original  research.  Under  these  cir- 
cumstances, it  is  not  surprising  that  the  demand  for  new  material 
exceeds  the  supply.  The  result  is,  that  the  author  falls  back  upon 
his  own  mental  resources.  He  makes  a  new  and  original  hypoth- 
esis and  apperceives  his  facts  to  fit  his  theory.  Adopting,  as  it 
would  seem,  the  maxim  that  it  is  better  to  be  original  than 
reasonable,  it  is  considered  no  disadvantage  if  the  new  hypothesis 
is  somewhat  fanciful  and  startling,  as  for  instance  that  Schiller, 
not  Goethe,  was  the  author  of  "  Faust,"  or  that  Shakespeare's 
plays  were  written  by  Bacon. 

I  have  explained  the  narrowing  effect  of  "  schools  "  and  sys- 
tems, and  the  mental  bias  which  results  from  over-systemization ; 
but  the  use  as  well  as  the  abuse  of  systems  must  not  pass  un- 
noticed. There  is  good  in  them  as  well  as  evil.  Trendelenburg 
says  that  a  system  is  as  necessary  for  a  thinker  as  a  house.     We 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY   OF  PREJUDICE.  641 

must  get  our  knowledge  into  some  sort  of  unity,  otherwise  it  can 
neither  be  retained  nor  used.  The  Ptolemaic  system  of  astronomy 
was  far  better  than  none ;  it  served  as  a  framework  for  a  great 
body  of  facts,  distorted  though  they  were  by  the  false  theory.  We 
are  lovers  of  systems.  Most  of  us  prefer  unity  to  verity.  We 
want  order  and  discipline  among  our  ideas.  Of  absolute  truth 
we  can  not  speak  ;  of  order  and  consistency  we  may.  Any  new 
system  may  find  numerous  adherents,  if  only  it  be  presented  in 
the  threefold  form  of  unity,  consistency,  and  repetition.  It  is 
easy  to  understand  this  love  of  systems.  They  save  us  from  the 
inevitable  mental  bankruptcy  which  would  result  from  the  influx 
of  a  mass  of  uncoordinated  impressions.  Grant  us  a  system,  all 
complete  in  its  several  compartments,  where  we  can  pigeon-hole 
each  newly  acquired  fact,  and  peace  and  harmony  reign  within. 
No  matter  if  the  system  be  so  narrow  that  we  can  dispose  therein 
only  a  limited  number  of  impressions ;  if  only  we  have  confidence 
in  it,  all  heterogeneous  elements  we  may  cast  out  as  "  error."  We 
love  harmony  and  hate  antagonisms.  It  is  mental  economy, 
therefore,  for  us  to  read  the  organs  of  our  sects  and  parties,  to 
converse  with  those  with  whom  we  sympathize,  to  listen  to  that 
which  we  believe  already.  Great  historical  disturbances  bring 
out  systems.  It  is  in  this  way  that  we  get  ourselves  ready  for 
troublous  times.  A  system  is  a  kind  of  mental  fortress,  a  vantage- 
ground  from  which  to  scrutinize  each  new  idea,  and  apperceive 
it  as  a  friend  to  be  received  or  an  enemy  to  be,  on  a  priori  grounds, 
repelled.  System-forming  is  thus  the  process  of  mental  involu- 
tion, which  is  the  law  of  individual  minds,  as  evolution  is  of  the 
mind  of  the  race. 

Mental  involution  shows  another  phase  in  habit.  Habits  are 
well-knit  associations.  They  make  us  machines,  committed  forever 
to  a  determined  manner  of  acting  and  thinking.  A  habit  is  itself 
a  mental  bias.  Stereotyped  and  inherited,  it  becomes  instinct, 
where  we  see  the  full  fruition  of  the  involution  movement  and 
the  dead  level  of  automatism.  From  this  point  of  view,  instinct 
has  been  well  called  "  lapsed  intelligence,"  if  by  intelligence  we 
mean  power  to  adapt  ourselves  to  new  surroundings  and  to  avail 
ourselves  of  new  impressions.  Habit  is  opposed  to  progress.  In 
history,  our  reformers — Jesus,  Savonarola,  Luther — have  been 
habit-breakers.  Genius,  too,  is  only  the  name  of  that  disposition 
which  rebels  against  the  law  of  mental  involution,  breaks  away 
from  systems,  and  goes  out  in  search  of  the  objective  truths  of 
nature.  Thus,  side  by  side  with  the  involution  movement,  we 
find  the  evolution  movement.  In  the  animal  kingdom,  it  is  rep- 
resented by  the  persistent  but  mysterious  tendency  toward  vari- 
ation ;  in  human  history,  by  the  comet-like  appearance  of  the 
reformer  ;  in  art,  by  the  lawless  product  of  genius.     All  these  are 

VOL.  XXXVI. 41 


642  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

factors  in  the  upward  world-movement  which  saves  us  from 
the  stagnation  of  the  relentless  law  of  habit. 

But  habits,  like  systems,  have  their  good  side.  They  enable 
us  to  do  a  vast  number  of  actions  with  the  minimum  of  attention 
and  the  least  expenditure  of  nervous  energy.  Education  consists 
largely,  as  has  been  said,  in  making  habitual  as  many  good  ac- 
tions as  possible.  The  training  of  domestic  animals  is  purely  the 
formation  of  good  habits  ;  the  training  of  children  is  largely  so. 
Every  time  we  form  a  good  association  and  send  it  down  into  the 
region  of  the  unconscious,  we  practice  mental  economy.  Habits, 
therefore,  are  at  the  same  time  our  salvation  and  our  damnation. 
This  is  the  great  dilemma  in  education.  Extremists  like  Rous- 
seau, impressed  with  the  danger  of  habits,  condemned  them  all 
outright.  Perhaps  we  may  say  that  it  is  the  abuse  of  habits,  the 
falling  into  fatal  ruts,  that  constitutes  our  prevailing  sin. 

The  laws  of  prejudice  that  we  have  examined  naturally  sug- 
gest one  or  two  questions.  Is  there  any  escape  from  this  narrow- 
ing of  mind  that  accompanies  the  hardening  of  the  brain  ?  If  not, 
are  there  any  pedagogical  principles  the  application  of  which  in 
educational  systems  may  retard  the  involution  and  hasten  the 
evolution  movement  ?  It  is  not  my  purpose  to  attempt  to  answer 
these  questions  here ;  but,  if  the  first  one  must  be  answered  in  the 
negative,  the  latter  may  certainly  be  answered  in  the  affirmative. 
Our  psychological  principles  have  already  shown  us  the  direction 
in  which  the  solution  of  this  problem  must  be  sought.  There 
must  be  persistent  emphasis  of  the  objective  factor  of  knowledge. 
The  senses,  the  primal  source  of  all  our. knowledge,  must  be  kept 
open  and  alert.  This  is  vastly  more  difficult  than  at  first  appears. 
The  man  prejudiced  by  his  interests  has  his  eyes  and  ears  open, 
and  yet,  being  open,  they  are  shut.  More  than  twenty  centuries 
ago  an  old  Greek  philosopher  said,  "  Eyes  and  ears  are  bad  wit- 
nesses to  men  having  rude  souls."  To  escape  mental  bias,  we 
must  not  only  have  our  senses  open  to  the  outer  world,  but  we 
must  apperceive  this  world  as  it  is,  not  as  warped  by  our  receptive 
faculties.  But,  however  excellent  this  advice,  it  is  as  impossible 
for  us  with  minds  already  formed  to  follow  it  as  to  see  the  ultra 
red  or  violet  colors  with  our  eyes  constituted  as  they  are.  The 
remedy  is  to  be  found  in  education,  especially  of  the  young.  For- 
tunately, we  live  in  an  epoch  of  objective  education.  The  training 
of  the  senses,  thanks  to  the  labors  of  Rousseau,  Pestalozzi,  Froebel, 
and  their  disciples,  and  thanks  to  the  retroactive  influence  of 
the  physical  sciences,  is  now  the  great  central  thought  in  peda- 
gogical systems.  Unfortunately,  it  is  still  too  largely  theory  and 
too  little  practice.  In  our  primary  as  well  as  in  our  secondary 
schools  we  slip  back  too  easily  into  the  lazy  scholastic,  deductive 
methods.     The  tendency,  however,  is  the  other  way. 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY   OF  PREJUDICE.  643 

Our  free  press,  also,  and  our  free  speech  are  great  educators. 
In  these  days  we  are  compelled  to  see  and  hear  and  think.  The 
narrow-minded  man  is  unhappy  and  distracted.  He  is  no  longer 
protected  in  his  little  system  by  college  or  cloister  walls.  A 
myriad  unwelcome  facts  peer  in  at  him  from  every  side — from  the 
circulating  library,  from  the  interesting  novel,  from  the  omni- 
present and  iconoclastic  newspaper.  The  man  of  mental  bias  is 
veritably  a  victim  of  persecution.  Optimists  tell  us  that  the 
world  is  growing  honest.  I  am  optimist  enough  to  believe  that 
it  is  growing  broad-minded.  Perforce  it  must.  The  air  is  full  of 
everybody's  ideas.  They  circulate  everywhere  and  act  as  a  series 
of  incessant  shocks  wherever  they  find  a  mind  too  narrowly 
planned  to  admit  them.  Hence  men  are  beginning  to  avoid  sys- 
tems as  the  cause  of  more  friction  than  they  save.  They  are 
willing  to  sacrifice  a  narrow  love  of  unity  and  consistency  for  a 
broader  harmony  with  the  spirit  of  the  age. 

What  is  likely  to  be  the  result  of  this  general  breaking  up  of 
old  unities,  systems,  habits  ?  An  increase  of  insanity  ?  By  no 
means.  Insanity  proceeds  from  the  opposite  movement,  from  the 
involution  of  the  mind  upon  itself,  till  fixed  ideas  can  no  longer 
be  rectified  by  objective  facts.  The  results  will  be  good  and  bad : 
good,  in  encouraging  inquiry  and  in  substituting  the  love  of  truth 
for  the  love  of  consistency ;  bad,  in  discouraging  a  certain  moral 
earnestness  and  enthusiasm  which  are  the  outgrowth  of  strong 
conviction,  for  the  narrower  is  one's  system  of  thought,  the 
stronger  often  are  one's  convictions  of  its  truth  and  importance. 
The  extreme  form  of  this  union  of  prejudice  and  intensity  we 
call  fanaticism.  If  not  in  fanaticism,  at  least  in  enthusiasm, 
there  is  an  element  of  good  which  we  must  not  overlook.  Men 
possessed  with  one  idea  are  men  of  action.  Enthusiasts  carry  for- 
ward great  movements.  The  development  of  the  intellect  is  the 
weakening  of  the  will.  Children  and  animals  act  out  every 
thought.  Education  is  a  training  in  the  inhibition  of  movements 
by  the  higher  intellectual  processes.  The  man  of  many-sided 
mind  finds  every  volition  "  checked  "  by  some  antagonistic  idea. 
The  correction  of  mental  bias,  therefore,  will  result  in  a  certain 
loss  of  spontaneity.  But  progress  will  not  suffer.  If  we  move 
more  slowly,  it  will  be  more  surely.  "What  we  lack  in  enthusiasm 
we  shall  make  up  in  balance. 


"  The  great  fault  of  non-manual  training  schools,"  says  Prof.  C.  M.  Woodward, 
"  is  their  haziness.  The  pupils  look  at  multitudes  of  things  but  do  not  perceive 
them.  Having  eyes,  they  see  not ;  and  having  ears,  they  hear  not.  There  is  too 
much  that  is  dim  and  muddy  and  feeble.  Substances  elude  the  grasp ;  shadows, 
uncertain  and  fleeting,  are  too  often  the  only  results.  The  method  which  reason 
and  experience  both  approve  is  reversed,  and  pupils  are  put  to  committing  to 
memory  matters  which  they  are  not  prepared  to  understand." 


644  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

ORIGIN  OF  LAND-OWNERSHIP. 

Br  DANIEL  E.  WING. 

IT  has  been  asserted  that  nothing  is  so  devoid  of  natural  justice 
and  moral  right  as  private  ownership  in  land — the  sole  domin- 
ion over  a  portion  of  the  earth's  surface  which  one  man  claims 
and  exercises  to  the  exclusion  of  the  dominion  of  every  other  man 
therein.  The  proposition  would  be  true,  and  private  ownership . 
in  land  would  work  the  greatest  injustice  that  the  mind  can  con- 
ceive— human  slavery  absolute — if  it  were  possible  that  one  man 
or  a  set  of  men  with  one  common  motive  could  appropriate  all 
land.  But  such  a  thing  is  absurd.  And  it  is  denied  that  private 
ownership  in  land  as  now  constituted  is  unjust,  or  detrimental  to 
the  best  interests  of  mankind  associated  in  the  social  organization 
of  the  world. 

Let  us  assume  that  primarily  land  was  held  in  common,  or  a 
yet  stronger  proposition,  that  it  is  a  law  of  nature  that  all  land 
shall  be  so  owned  and  enjoyed.  By  the  same  law  of  nature,  and 
by  reason,  he  who  first  began  to  use  a  particular  spot  or  field  ac- 
quired therein  a  kind  of  transient  property  that  lasted  so  long  as 
he  was  using  it.  The  right  to  use  it  lasted  so  long  as  possession 
continued,  and  with  death  or  removal,  possession  ceasing,  the  per- 
sonal right  of  usage  ceased  also,  and  the  land  was  open  to  the  next 
occupant.  That  is,  whoever  was  in  occupation  acquired  for  the 
time  being  a  sort  of  ownership,  a  gwasi-ownership  for  the  purpose 
of  subsistence,  or  rest  if  you  please,  and  to  drive  him  therefrom 
by  force  would  be  a  violation  of  the  same  law  of  nature.  But 
once  he  quitted  it,  another,  having  the  same  right  of  use  and 
an  equal  claim  to  occupancy,  might  seize  it  without  injustice. 
Applying  this  system  to  an  imaginary  or  ideal  state,  to  men  hav- 
ing a  common  interest  and  few  wants,  and  those  supplied  from 
nature  by  the  simpler  forms  of  industry,  the  result  is  a  picture  of 
comfort  and  competence  for  every  one  of  the  community ;  in  fact, 
an  extensive  household,  with  its  respected  father  or  chief,  around 
whom  cluster  the  helpless  and  inexperienced. 

But  will  any  one  say  that  no  more  stable  way  of  holding  land 
than  this  is  required  in  a  society  teeming  with  population,  where 
each  man  eager  for  gain  is  pressing,  pushing,  and  jostling  his 
neighbor — where  the  industry  of  one  man  may  have  added  to  the 
fertility  and  usefulness  of  his  land  what  neglect  and  sloth  have 
denied  to  that  of  another  ?  Every  man's  hand  would  be  raised 
against  his  neighbor,  and  there  would  be  no  domestic  quietude  or 
personal  security ;  and,  consequently,  no  social  bond,  civil  govern- 
ment, or  commercial  life.  This  insecurity  I  apprehend  to  be  the 
prime  cause  of  establishing  a  more  permanent  property  in  land. 


ORIGIN   OF  LAND-OWNERSHIP.  645 

Necessity  gave  to  the  occupant  more  than  a  mere  transient  in- 
terest. Necessity  gave  a  species  of  'property  in  the  soil,  and,  in 
order  to  insure  that  property,  recourse  was  had  to  social  organiza- 
tion, to  laws,  and  punishments  for  violation  of  laws. 

Now,  when  man  enters  into  civil  society  and  partakes  of  its 
benefits,  he  must  surrender  some  of  his  absolute  personal  rights, 
or  exchange  them,  as  it  were,  for  such  relative  rights  as  are  inci- 
dent to  men  as  factors  of  society.  This  is  no  loss  or  hardship,  for 
he  gains  by  exchange  that  security  of  person  and  property  which 
it  is  the  object  of  civil  government  to  insure ;  whereas,  in  the  nat- 
ural state,  every  other  man  being  possessed  of  the  same  absolute 
rights  of  person  and  property,  there  would  be  no  security  either 
of  person  or  property.  The  rights,  then,  belonging  to  a  man  in 
civil  society,  which  we  will  call  his  civil  rights,  are  the  absolute 
right  belonging  to  him  by  nature,  so  far  restrained  by  civil  law 
as  is  necessary  and  expedient  for  the  general  advantage  of  the 
community. 

It  being  evidently  natural  that  man  should  acquire  a  right  of 
property  in  the  soil,  the  next  inquiry  is,  how  property  became 
actually  vested.  As  occupancy  gave  the  right  to  temporary  use, 
so  occupancy  also  gave  the  original  right  of  property  in  the  thing 
used.  The  same  law  of  nature  would  suggest  that  the  first  occu- 
pant who  had  by  his  industry  and  thrift  added  to  the  utility  of  the 
soil — in  fact,  developed  by  labor  the  only  value  therein — should 
become  the  owner.  The  product  of  a  man's  labor,  the  work  of  his 
hands,  is  his.  "Whatever  he  removes  out  of  the  condition  that 
nature  has  left  it  in,  he  has  mixed  his  labor  with  and  joined  to  it 
something  that  is  his  own,  and  thereby  acquires  a  property  in  the 
thing  itself.  Necessity,  arising  from  insecurity  of  person  and 
property,  being  assigned  as  the  first  and  primary  reason  for  pri- 
vate ownership  in  land,  the  right  of  a  man  to  the  product  of  his 
labor  may  be  cited  as  a  secondary  reason. 

Although  by  theory  of  civil  law  as  well  as  by  usage,  ripening 
into  universal  sanction,  the  ownership  of  land  is  deemed  to  be  in 
private  individuals,  can  it  be  said,  after  all,  honestly  and  ration- 
ally, that  the  individual  has  an  ownership  of  the  soil  as  absolute 
as  in  the  case  of  personal  property  ?  His  interest  is  rather  pos- 
sessory for  the  time  being,  the  manner  of  his  enjoyment  usufruct- 
uary :  he  can  not  move  the  land  or  carry  it  with  him  from  place 
to  place  ;  he  can  not  change  the  nature  of  it ;  he  can  merely  draw 
from  its  substance  for  the  time  being,  to  the  exclusion  of  all  others 
from  such  use.  In  such  exclusive  use  he  is  as  much  supported 
and  upheld  by  natural  justice  and  moral  right  as  in  the  case  of 
personal  property.  His  labor  and  capital  have  improved  it,  beau- 
tified it,  rendered  it  more  productive,  and  enhanced  its  utility ; 
and,  so  far  as  value  is  concerned,  it  will  be  argued  hereafter  that 


646  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

land  has  no  value  except  as  labor  lias  made  one  for  it.  So  I  sug- 
gest the  possessory  and  usufructuary  interest  of  the  individual  in 
land  is  not  the  absolute  ownership  and  proprietorship  of  the  soil. 

Let  us  see  if  anything  more  than  occupation,  by  successive 
individuals,  is  contemplated  by  social  law,  or  by  statute  law  in 
England  or  America.  In  England  the  proprietary  ownership  of 
all  land  is  by  common  law  in  the  people  as  represented  by  the 
king,  the  trustee  under  the  social  system  of  all  their  common  in- 
terests, rights,  and  properties.  In  the  United  States  it  is  vested 
directly  in  the  people.  By  the  Constitution  and  statute  of  New 
York  State,  "the  people  of  the  State  in  their  right  of  sovereignty 
are  deemed  to  possess  the  original  and  ultimate  property  in  and  to 
all  lands  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  State."  This  I  understand 
to  signify  precisely  what  the  common  law  of  England  and  the 
universal  law  of  nature  are  :  namely,  that  all  property  in  land  was 
originally  vested  in  the  people  in  common  ;  and  if  there  ever  hap- 
pens a  time  when  no  person  is  in  occupation  of  any  portion  there- 
of, the  tenancy  in  common  of  the  whole  community  immediately 
goes  on  again  just  the  same  as  when,  after  the  first  occupant  or 
squatter  had  relinquished  his  temporary  occupancy,  the  whole 
community  was  again  in  possession,  every  man  having  the  right 
to  occupy  it,  but  all  in  common.  So  I  assert  that  private  owner- 
ship, so  called,  is  not  a  proprietary  quality.  It  extends  to  and 
includes  only  the  use ;  the  absolute  ownership  of  all  land  being, 
in  fact,  in  the  community  composed  of  all  individuals. 

Suppose  that  every  new-born  offspring  of  that  community  by 
virtue  of  natural  right  becomes  a  tenant  in  common  with  all  indi- 
viduals then  existing,  should  he  share  in  the  possessory  right  or 
use  of  a  particular  piece  of  land  already  in  occupation  of  an  indi- 
vidual ?  By  being  debarred  from  such  possession,  it  may  be  that 
he  is  deprived  of  a  natural  right,  but  he  becomes  a  member  of  the 
society  into  which  he  is  born,  governed  by  its  laws  for  the  time 
being,  surrendering  some  portion  of  his  natural  and  absolute 
rights  for  the  protection  guaranteed  by  the  existing  social  laws, 
and  participates  in  all  the  advantages  now  existing  as  well  as  in 
the  advancement  and  social  improvement  of  all  previous  time.  Is 
he,  then,  defrauded  ? 

The  possession  of  land  remains  in  the  occupant  by  right  and 
justice  till  such  time  as  he  does  some  act  indicating  his  intention 
to  abandon  it,  whereupon  it  becomes  common  property,  and  liable 
to  be  again  appropriated  by  the  next  comer.  Sale  and  delivery 
of  possession  to  a  purchaser  are  forms  for  the  convenience  of 
social  government,  and  instituted  with  a  view,  I  apprehend,  of 
preserving  the  quiet  and  security  of  social  order.  By  means 
thereof  the  present  occupant  indicates  his  intention  to  abandon 
the  land  appropriated.     The  deed  of  conveyance  is  an  evidence  of 


ORIGIN   OF  LAND-OWNERSHIP.  647 

that  intention  ;  and  the  purchaser,  being  the  first  acquainted  with 
such  intention,  steps  in  and  seizes  the  vacant  possession.  Thus 
the  act  of  abandonment  gives  the  new  taker  a  right  against  the 
first,  acting  by  what  is  known  in  law  as  an  estoppel,  and  posses- 
sion or  occupancy  is  by  natural  law  good  against  all  the  world 
besides.  The  most  effectual  way  of  abandonment  is  by  death  of 
the  occupant,  when  both  the  possession  and  intention  of  keeping 
possession  ceasing,  the  right  of  occupancy  by  natural  law  also 
ceases,  and  the  land  is  open  to  the  next  taker.  The  custom,  which 
has  ripened  into  statute  law,  that  the  next  of  blood  take  on  decease 
of  the  occupant,  has  its  foundation  in  natural  law  instead  of  mere 
civil  right.  A  man's  children,  those  of  his  blood,  his  nearest 
relatives,  are  usually  about  him  on  his  death-bed,  and  are  presum- 
ably the  first  witnesses  of  his  decease.  They  become,  therefore, 
presumably  and  by  natural  law,  the  next  occupants,  until  in  pro- 
cess of  time  this  frequent  usage  ripened  into  social  law. 

I  have  gone  to  this  length  in  discussing  the  origin  of  so-called 
private  property  in  land  to  ascertain  on  what  support  of  natural 
justice  and  moral  right  it  rests.  This  consideration  is  the  foun- 
dation upon  which  stands  the  whole  superstructure  of  proposed 
single  taxation ;  for,  "  if  private  property  in  land  be  just,  then  is 
the  remedy  proposed  a  false  one."  If  the  individual  has  no  such 
property,  or  the  tenure  by  which  he  holds  occupancy  is  supported 
by  natural  law,  and  his  use  of  the  land  is  consistent  with  natural 
justice,  even  though  it  works  a  wrong  to  another,  the  fault  is  not 
due  to  "  maladministration  of  social  laws,"  in  this  particular  at 
least. 

Investigation  leads  me  to  assert  that  the  occupant  of  to-day 
holds  by  a  tenure  as  much  supported  by  natural  justice  and  moral 
right  as  did  the  first  taker ;  and  more  so,  because  he  has,  by  ex- 
change of  his  capital,  the  product  of  his  labor,  purchased  the 
improvements  added  by  every  occupant  preceding  him. 

Land  has  no  absolute  value.  In  a  natural  state  and  unoccu- 
pied by  man  it  produces  no  wealth.  It  is  only  as  capital  and  labor 
are  applied  to  it  that  it  becomes  a  factor  in  wealth,  and  hence 
acquires  a  commercial  value.  I  agree  to  the  proposition  that 
what  a  man  makes  or  produces  is  his  own  to  enjoy,  to  use,  to 
exchange,  or  to  give  ;  that  no  one  else  can  rightfully  claim  it,  and 
his  exclusive  right  to  it  involves  no  wrong  to  any  one  else.  So, 
if  by  his  labor  and  capital  man  in  occupation  of  land  removes  it 
from  the  state  in  which  Nature  has  left  it,  improves  it,  renders  it 
more  productive,  or  if  he  acquires  by  exchange  the  improvements 
already  made  therein  by  another,  he  has  joined  to  it  something 
that  is  his  own,  and  has  created  a  value  in  it  that  did  not  exist 
before.  Admitting  the  proposition  that  government,  representing 
in  the  social  state  the  common  rights  of  the  community,  may 


648  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

interfere  and  take  the  land  occupied  by  such,  individual,  as  the 
whole  community  acting  in  common  as  owners  might  have  ejected 
the  first  taker,  yet  on  the  principle  of  natural  justice  and  moral 
right  it  can  do  so  only  upon  reimbursing  the  occupant  for  all 
improvements  to  the  land — that  is,  for  all  the  product  of  labor 
expended  upon  it,  including  that  which  he  has  become  possessed 
of  by  purchase.  Since  all  the  value  in  land  is  due  to  the  employ- 
ment of  capital  and  labor,  such  reimbursement  should  equal  the 
present  commercial  value  of  the  land  to  the  occupant  (owner). 
Upon  this  naturally  just  and  moral  principle  rests  the  constitu- 
tional restriction  to  eminent  domain,  that  private  property  shall 
not  be  taken  for  public  use  without  just  compensation. 

Nor  can  I  see  that,  because  land  occupied  by  an  individual  may 
have  a  value  beyond  the  value  of  the  labor  expended  upon  it,  by 
reason  of  its  proximity  to  other  lands  upon  which  greater  wealth 
has  been  expended  by  other  individuals,  the  injustice  of  depriva- 
tion is  lessened.  The  same  rule  of  reasoning  applies  to  this  un- 
earned increment  as  applies  to  the  actual  labor  value  of  the  land. 
The  present  owner  has  acquired  it  by  the  exchange  of  his  capital, 
which  was  the  product  of  his  labor  elsewhere,  and  it  is  really  as 
much  a  value  made  in  the  land  by  the  expenditure  of  capital  and 
labor  as  that  represented  by  the  actual  labor  of  the  first  occupant. 
If  so,  it  is  included  in  the  present  commercial  value  of  the  land. 

And  why  should  land  alone  be  deprived  of  this  unearned  in- 
crement ?  Other  possessions  receive  a  borrowed  value  from  ex- 
traneous circumstances,  such  as  the  occurrence  of  war,  change  of 
fashion,  etc.,  and  no  one  suggests  that  it  is  not  a  true  value  to 
which  the  property  or  commodity  is  entitled. 

To  recapitulate : 

By  natural  law  land  is  owned  by  all  men  in  common. 

The  first  taker  or  occupant  might  rightfully  appropriate  so 
much  to  his  exclusive  use  as  a  proper  use  thereof  permitted. 

His  possession,  to  the  exclusion  of  every  one  else,  might  con- 
tinue so  long  as  he  used  the  land,  or  while  he  was  using  it. 

Upon  possession  ceasing,  his  right  to  use  it  ceased,  and  the 
land  was  again  held  in  common,  subject  to  be  again  appropriated 
for  use. 

Insecurity  in  the  use,  since  the  occupant's  labor  added  to  the 
soil  what  before  it  was  devoid  of — a  commercial  value — necessi- 
tated a  more  substantial  tenure,  a  sort  of  property  in  the  soil 
which  is  called  private  ownership. 

To  secure  this  to  individuals,  social  governments  and  social 
laws  sprang  into  being. 

These  latter,  either  by  common  usage  long  established  and 
acquiesced  in,  or  by  express  provision,  not  only  recognize  but 
assert  the  law  of  nature  in  respect  to  property  in  land. 


THE   GROSS  AND  NET  GAIN   OF  RISING    WAGES.    649 

Sale  of  land  in  occupation  of  an  individual  is  an  act  indicating 
his  intention  to  abandon  it,  a  grant  or  conveyance  being  the 
means  established  by  social  law  to  signify  this  intention. 

The  purchaser,  being  the  first  acquainted  with  such  purpose, 
seizes  the  vacant  land  and  is  the  next  taker  by  natural  law. 
The  consideration  paid  represents  the  capital  and  labor  expended 
in  the  land  by  all  occupants,  and  the  justice  of  such  payment  is 
sustained  by  every  principle  of  natural  law  and  moral  right, 
since  the  capital  and  labor  so  expended  represent  all  the  com- 
mercial value  that  the  land  possesses. 

And,  finally,  to  deprive  the  individual  of  his  occupancy  and 
possession,  although  it  be  to  reinstate  the  owners  in  common,  can 
only  be  in  natural  justice  and  moral  right  upon  payment  of  the 
value  of  the  capital  and  labor  represented  in  the  land,  which  is 
the  whole  commercial  value  of  the  land. 

It  follows,  then,  that  the  demands  of  natural  justice  and  moral 
right  would  be  ignored  if  all  taxes  were  put  upon  land,  because 
one  form  only  of  labor  and  capital  would  be  thus  compelled  to 
bear  the  whole  burden  of  taxation. 


♦»» 


THE  GROSS   AND  NET  GAIN  OF   RISING  WAGES. 

By   ROBERT   GIFFEN. 

IN  the  discussions  to  which  former  papers  of  mine  on  working- 
class  progress  have  given  rise,  there  are  some  criticisms  which 
have  interested  me  very  much.  They  are  made  by  members  of 
the  working  class  themselves,  who  are  slow  enough  to  admit  the 
average  increase  of  their  money  earnings  in  the  last  fifty  years 
which  the  figures  demonstrate.  But,  admitting  some  increase  of 
money,  they  go  on  to  say,  and  admitting,  too,  the  low  prices,  the 
improvement  after  all  is  not  without  drawbacks,  or,  as  I  have 
suggested  in  the  above  title,  it  is  mainly  in  the  gross.  There  are 
drawbacks  which  take  away  much  of  the  apparent  advantage. 
A  general  statement  like  this,  apart  from  particular  allegations 
to  support  it,  could  not  but  excite  my  attention,  although  I  have 
avoided  hitherto  any  discussion  of  it.  It  is  a  good  rule  to  do  one 
thing  at  a  time.  An  improvement  of  money  earnings  and  no 
increase  of  prices  appeared  to  be  two  points  worth  establishing, 
whatever  the  drawbacks  of  a  less  apparent  kind,  and  which  the 
working  classes  could  themselves  best  appreciate,  might  be.  But 
while  avoiding  the  discussion  hitherto,  I  have  been  none  the  less 
observant,  for  the  simple  reason  that  each  class  knows  its  own 
grievances  as  no  others  can,  and  that  such  complaints,  though 
easy  enough  to  prove  unfounded,  are  apt  to  cover  facts  which 


650  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

will  reward  investigation — which  will  throw  light,  when  properly 
understood,  not  only  on  the  particular  problems  in  hand,  but  on 
larger  problems.  I  propose  in  the  present  paper  to  communicate 
some  reflections  which  I  have  made.  The  alleged  drawbacks, 
when  considered,  do,  in  fact,  suggest  for  consideration  questions 
of  a  weighty  nature,  which  go  to  the  root  of  ideas  of  progress,  and 
affect  the  most  general  views  of  the  prospects  of  modern  civili- 
zation. 

The  alleged  drawbacks  of  which  I  speak  are  mainly  the  follow- 
ing :  First,  it  is  said,  workingmen  in  many  cases  have  more  to 
pay  for  rent  than  they  would  have  to  pay  when  earning  less 
money  under  different  conditions,  or  they  have  to  pay  railway  or 
'bus  fares  or  similar  charges  for  conveyance  to  and  from  their 
work,  which  are  in  the  nature  of  an  increase  of  rent.  Conse- 
quently, although  the  money  wage  is  more,  the  workman  is  not 
so  much  better  off  than  he  was,  because  a  large  part  of  that 
money  wage  has  to  be  paid  as  a  fine,  practically,  to  enable  the 
workingman  to  be  in  a  position  to  earn  it.  In  other  words,  the 
gross  sum  is  more,  but  the  net  sum  is  not  so  much  more.  It  is 
easy  to  perceive,  also,  that  this  principle  may  have  a  much  wider 
application  than  may  at  first  be  surmised.  The  case  usually 
thought  of  is  that  of  rent,  or  an  equivalent  fine  on  a  workman, 
which  he  pays  in  order  to  be  in  a  certain  place  where  the  money 
wage  can  be  earned.  Suppose  the  climate  in  which  he  has  to  live 
in  order  to  earn  a  larger  money  wage  than  he  can  get  elsewhere 
is  so  exhausting  as  to  compel  a  larger  consumption  of  food  in 
order  that  the  money  may  be  earned  ?  The  question  of  gross  and 
net  is  thus  of  a  wide-sweeping  kind. 

Next,  it  is  maintained  that  along  with  a  great  increase  in  pro- 
duction, which  has  undoubtedly  taken  place,  there  has  come  an 
increase  in  the  severity  of  the  labor,  and  that  the  workman's 
remuneration  has  not  risen  in  proportion.  It  seems  to  be  sug- 
gested at  times  that  the  increase  in  the  labor  is  itself  an  evil,  even 
if  it  were  proportionately  remunerated,  but  the  complaint  rather  is 
that  the  severer  toil  is  not  adequately  compensated ;  the  workman 
has  a  severer  call  made  on  his  energies,  and  he  is  not  so  much 
better  off.  To  be  able  to  earn  more  money,  it  is  sometimes  urged, 
he  must,  in  fact,  spend  more  money  on  food  and  other  things  than 
he  formerly  did.  Here,  again,  is  a  question  of  gross  and  net,  and 
it  will  be  observed  how  the  last  complaint  raises  in  a  different 
form  the  question  already  suggested  under  the  first  head  by  a 
consideration  of  the  effects  of  climate.  A  distinction  is  made 
between  the  gross  earning  and  the  net  surplus,  the  difference 
being  something  which  the  workingman  has  to  pay  as  a  fine  to 
enable  him  to  earn  the  net  sum  which  he  wishes  to  spend. 

Last  of  all,  it  is  maintained  that  on  all  sides  the  scale  of  living 


THE   GROSS  AND   NET   GAIN   OF  RISING    WAGES.   651 

has  become  more  expensive.  The  workingman  has  to  get  more 
food,  clothing,  and  shelter  for  his  family  than  he  would  formerly 
have  had  to  get ;  more  is  expected  of  him ;  and  he  has  to  pay  for 
such  things  as  the  education  of  his  children  to  a  much  greater 
extent  than  he  would  formerly  have  had  to  pay.  In  this  way  the 
strain  upon  the  workingman  has  increased.  As  I  understand 
the  complaint,  he  is  no  more  a  free  man  than  before.  His  energies 
are  mortgaged  in  advance,  and  he  has  all  the  old  difficulty  to  keep 
his  footing  in  the  world. 

Now,  whether  these  complaints  are  right  or  wrong,  well  or  ill 
founded,  it  is  clear  that  they  involve  problems  of  a  most  vital  kind 
as  to  the  general  effect  upon  the  working  classes  of  the  conditions 
of  modern  civilization.  To  take  the  first  head  of  complaint.  If 
it  be  the  case  that  a  rise  of  rent  or  the  charge  for  traveling  be- 
tween the  place  of  living  and  the  place  of  work  or  similar  ex- 
penditure is  sufficient  to  deprive  workingmen  of  the  advantage 
of  increased  money  wages,  then  the  congregation  of  men  in  cities 
or  in  certain  parts  of  cities,  where  higher  money  wages  are  to  be 
obtained  than  elsewhere,  which  appear  to  be  the  conditions  of 
modern  industrial  life,  would  be  fatal  to  improvement.  It  would 
be  the  same  with  the  necessity  for  working  in  an  exhausting  cli- 
mate. The  problem,  as  stated,  is  certainly  of  the  gravest  kind. 
The  questions  raised  by  the  second  head  of  complaint  are  just 
as  important.  If  increase  of  toil,  not  proportionately  remuner- 
ated— for  which  perhaps  there  can  be  no  proportionate  remuner- 
ation— comes  with  the  increase  of  productive  capacity  and  the 
greater  call  thus  made  on  the  nervous  and  mental  energy  of  the 
workman,  what  is  the  workingman  the  better  off  for  all  the  civili- 
zation ?  Finally,  as  regards  the  increased  cost  of  living  through 
a  rise  in  the  scale,  may  it  not  be  the  case  that  such  a  rise  in  the 
scale  of  living  is  to  some  extent  what  is  meant  by  progress,  though 
the  drawback  of  the  slavery  of  the  workers,  which  some  working- 
men  appear  to  feel  so  keenly,  remains.?  How  far  is  the  "  slavery  " 
itself  avoidable,  so  long  as  human  nature  is  what  it  is,  unless  at 
the  risk  of  all  civilization  perishing  ?  Such  problems  are  obvi- 
ously of  the  deepest  interest.  The  desire  for  leisure,  for  an  ease 
to  a  severe  strain,  in  all  these  complaints,  is  itself  very  striking, 
and  may  perhaps  be  held  of  itself  to  indicate  a  change  of  work- 
ing-class conditions,  as  compared  with  a  time  when  the  masses 
simply  endured,  or  were  content  to  drag  on  a  dull  existence,  with 
little  color  in  it,  and  without  hope  of  change.  The  whole  subject, 
at  any  rate,  should  be  well  worth  considering.  What  are  the 
facts,  and  what  should  be  the  conclusions  regarding  them  ? 

Dealing  with  the  first  head  of  complaint,  which  is  perhaps  the 
simplest  and  most  easily  dealt  with,  we  must  allow  it  to  be  obvi- 


652  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

ous  on  the  surface  that  there  is  a  real  point  for  discussion.  Under 
the  essential  conditions  of  modern  life,  principally  the  concentra- 
tion of  huge  masses  on  narrow  room,  competition  among  laborers 
undoubtedly  produces  monopoly  rent,  the  payment  of  which  is 
a  simple  deduction  from  the  gross  money  wages  which  work- 
men receive.  If  workmen,  to  avoid  paying  more  than  they  can 
help,  live  at  a  distance  from  their  work,  they  only  escape  the  evil 
partially,  because  charges  for  conveyance  to  and  from  their  work 
have  to  be  paid.  Clearly  workmen  under  such  conditions,  as  com- 
pared with  conditions  under  which  no  monopoly  rent  or  its  equiv- 
alent has  to  be  paid,  are  at  a  disadvantage.  To  show  their  real 
position  for  the  purpose  of  comparison,  the  monopoly  portion  of 
the  rent  must  be  deducted.  It  is  quite  obvious,  also,  on  the  merest 
superficial  aspect  of  the  question,  that  as  regards  many  workmen, 
at  least,  the  disadvantage  may  easily  be  so  serious  as  to  compen- 
sate, and  more  than  compensate,  all  the  difference  between  the 
money  wage  of  the  country,  where  there  is  no  monopoly  rent,  and 
the  money  wage  of  the  town.  Take  the  case  of  a  west  Highland 
peasant  fifty  years  ago,  living  on  a  scanty  wage  of  a  few  shillings 
a  week,  or  the  produce  of  a  poor  croft  eked  out  by  kelp-gathering 
or  fishing,  and  his  descendant  at  the  present  time  in  the  slums  of  a 
great  city,  earning  perhaps  fifteen  shillings  a  week,  but  disbursing 
four  or  five  shillings  for  rent.  The  improvement  in  money  earnings 
may  be  immense,  perhaps  one  hundred  per  cent,  and  as  regards 
prices  of  commodities  there  may  be  no  drawback  in  the  change,  but 
the  rent  takes  a  monstrous  cantle  out  of  the  margin.  Comparing 
all  the  conditions,  it  may  certainly  be  doubted  whether  the  peasant, 
in  the  case  supposed,  in  exchanging  the  hard  life  of  the  country, 
which  still  had  the  advantage  of  being  in  the  open,  for  the  hard 
life  of  the  city,  has  made  any  real  advance.  Take  a  case  higher 
in  the  scale.  A  doctor,  to  earn  a  living,  resides  in  a  city  rather 
than  in  the  country,  pays  a  huge  monopoly  rent  to  begin  with, 
and  incurs  many  other  analogous  expenses,  so  that  altogether  he 
has  a  large  leeway  to  make  up  before  he  can  reckon  that  net 
income  which  can  properly  enter  into  comparison  with  that  of  his 
country  colleague.  The  difference  may  easily  be  so  great,  I  be- 
lieve, that  in  many  cases  a  professional  man  in  a  small  country 
town  with  three  or  four  hundred  pounds  a  year  may  have  a 
larger  net  income  for  the  real  objects  of  life,  dealing  with  the 
question  in  a  wise,  philosophic  spirit,  than  a  professional  man  in 
London  with  a  thousand  or  twelve  hundred  pounds  a  year.  There 
are  differences  even  between  London  and  smaller  provincial  cities. 
Thus  the  question  between  gross  and  net,  which  workingmen 
have  raised  in  these  discussions,  apropos  of  monopoly  rent  or  the 
equivalent,  is  a  real  question.  It  is  a  new  form  of  the  old  theo- 
rem that  people  may  buy  gold  too  dear. 


THE   GROSS  AND   NET   GAIN   OF  RISING    WAGES.    653 

I  have  already,  in  part,  dealt  with  the  question  practically  as 
far  as  workingmen  are  concerned,  by  pointing  out  the  really 
narrow  limits  of  monopoly  rent,*  and  practically  the  final  conclu- 
sion must  be  reached  by  the  statistical  method,  and  in  the  way  I 
have  already  used.  But  I  wish  to  avoid  statistics  for  the  present, 
and  to  indicate  merely  the  general  conditions  of  the  problem  to 
be  solved,  which  appear  to  minimize  the  possible  extent  of  the 
alleged  drawback. 

It  is  clear,  first  of  all,  on  general  grounds,  that  the  concentra- 
tion of  men  in  cities  is  due  to  the  fact  that  cities,  on  the  whole, 
weigh  in  the  balance  against  the  country.  There  is  more  and 
better  employment  there  than  in  the  country,  all  deductions 
made,  in  the  opinion  of  those  interested ;  and  that  seems  a  conclu- 
sive answer  to  the  question  as  to  whether,  on  the  whole,  there  is 
not  a  net  as  well  as  a  gross  improvement  in  wages  as  far  as  this 
drawback  is  concerned. 

Next,  it  is  plain  that,  as  a  great  part  of  the  improvement  of  the 
last  fifty  years  has  consisted  in  the  substitution  of  artisan  and 
other  highly  paid  labor  for  merely  rude  labor,  the  additional 
monopoly  rent  payable  in  the  cities  can  only  be,  in  most  cases,  a 
comparatively  trifling  drawback.  It  may  be  the  case  that,  if  we 
compare  the  former  peasant  of  the  country  with  the  rude  laborer 
of  the  city,  and  especially  of  the  metropolis,  the  latter  has  hardly 
gained;  but  if  we  compare  the  former  peasant  of  the  country 
with  the  town  artisan  of  the  present  time,  although  the  latter  has 
to  pay  monopoly  rent  or  an  equivalent  charge  for  conveyance, 
there  is  still  an  enormous  gain  in  the  latter's  position.  It  is  the 
same  with  the  professional  classes.  If  the  latter  were  stationary 
in  number,  or  increasing  only  pari  passu  with  the  increase  of 
population,  then  the  larger  gross  income  on  the  average  earned 
by  the  masses  of  professional  men  in  cities,  as  compared  with  the 
professional  incomes  earned  in  the  country  formerly,  might  show 
little  net  improvement ;  but  allowance  has  to  be  made  for  the 
fact  that  the  number  of  such  incomes  has  enormously  increased, 
and  that  the  earners  largely  compare  with  the  earners  of  wholly 
inferior  incomes  in  former  times,  whether  in  town  or  country. 
As  the  increase  of  these  classes  could  not  have  taken  place  with- 
out the  growth  of  cities,  there  must  be  a  large  net  as  well  as  gross 
gain  to  be  reckoned  when  the  comparison  is  properly  made. 

To  bring  the  matter  to  a  point,  what  I  have  to  urge  is,  that 
the  very  growth  of  cities  implies  the  existence  of  conditions 
under  which  workmen  of  higher  grades  take  the  place  of  work- 
men of  lower  grades,  so  that,  although  class  for  class  a  workman 
passing  from  country  to  town  does  not  seem  to  gain  so  very 
much,  on  account  of  the  difference  between  gross  and  net,  yet, 

*  See  "Essays  in  Finance,"  second  series,  pp.  381,  382. 


654  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

man  for  man,  on  the  average  there  is  an  enormous  gain.  Illusion 
is  produced  because  the  proper  terms  of  the  comparison  are  lost 
sight  of.  The  point  is  especially  important  as  regards  what  is 
known  as  the  residuum.  Nothing  can  appear  so  deplorable  or  so 
hopeless  as  the  conditions  of  the  floating  mass  of  rude  labor  in 
large  cities.  Monopoly  rents  in  this  case  appear  to  sweep  away 
all  possible  advantage  which  may  result  from  higher  money 
wage,  comparing  the  laborer  of  the  town  with  the  laborer  of  the 
country.  In  many  cases,  even,  it  must  be  admitted,  the  "  residu- 
ary "  of  the  city  is  on  a  lower  level  than  the  "  residuary  "  of  the 
country.  His  "  net "  earnings  are  less.  But  the  question,  after 
all,  is  one  of  proportion.  The  absolute  magnitude  of  the  city 
residuum  must  not  blind  us  to  the  fact  that  it  may  be,  not  an 
increasing  but  a  diminishing  element  with  reference  to  the  pop- 
ulation generally.  I  believe  it  is  a  diminishing  element,  but  this 
would  hardly  be  the  place  to  discuss  the  point,  and  I  am  content 
for  the  present  to  call  attention  to  its  importance  in  the  discus- 
sion. The  assumption,  so  often  made,  that  the  residuum  is  in- 
creasing relatively,  is  one  which  requires  proof,  and  I  have  never 
seen  any  attempt  at  proof,  while  there  are  some  broad  facts,  such 
as  the  diminution  of  serious  crime  and  of  pauperism,  against  it. 

The  question  of  the  way  in  which  the  net  value  of  an  increase 
of  money  wages  may  be  affected  by  the  necessity  of  living  in  a 
more  exhausting,  or  in  some  way  more  expensive,  climate,  or  by 
the  specially  exhausting  character  of  a  highly  paid  occupation, 
such  as  puddling,  is  one  of  the  same  kind.  There  is  clearly  a 
point  in  the  matter  for  consideration  and  discussion.  I  am  dis- 
posed to  believe,  for  instance,  that  the  exhausting  climate  of  the 
United  States,  compelling  the  consumption  of  more  food  to  enable 
the  same  work  to  be  done,  is  a  distinct  drawback  to  the  Ameri- 
can workingman  as  compared  with  his  competitor  in  western 
Europe,  and  especially  in  Great  Britain.  I  am  not  sure  but  that 
living  in  the  south  of  England,  owing  to  climate,  is  more  expen- 
sive than  in  the  north  and  in  Scotland.  The  point  has  hardly 
been  expressly  considered,  the  workingman  practically  having 
been  right  to  go  where  he  gets  the  highest  money  wage,  but  it  is 
one  that  may  become  of  increasing  practical  interest  now  that 
charges  for  conveyance  are  so  low  throughout  the  world  as  to 
make  it  quite  unnecessary  for  men  to  live  near  the  places  where 
their  food  and  raw  materials  are  produced.  I  shall  be  well  con- 
tent for  the  present  if  the  remarks  here  made  induce  some  work- 
ingmen  to  elaborate  it  from  their  practical  experiences.  Of 
course,  in  any  discussion  it  would  also  have  to  be  considered  that 
the  greater  expense  of  living  may  not  be  a  pure  drawback.  The 
ability  to  consume  and  produce  more,  to  bear  exhausting  climate 
or  occupation,  in  fact,  may  be  a  good  thing,  and  bring  its  own 


THE   GROSS   AND   NET   GAIN    OF  RISING    WAGES.    655 

compensation,  although  the  net  gain,  taking  matters  strictly,  may 
hardly  be  appreciable. 

The  next  head  of  complaint  is  the  increase  in  the  severity  of 
labor  and  the  want  of  any  proportionate  remuneration. 

On  this  head  it  may  be  admitted,  to  begin  with,  that  there  is 
apparent  foundation  for  some  of  the  complaints.  Workmen  in 
particular  employments  do  not  get  a  reward  at  all  in  proportion 
to  the  increase  of  production  in  those  employments.  The  illus- 
tration of  a  cotton-mill  is  familiar.  A  single  attendant  on  a  num- 
ber of  machines  will  "  produce  "  as  much  in  an  hour  as  formerly 
in  a  year  or  two,  but  his  wages  are  only  double — or  perhaps  not 
quite  double — what  they  were  when  the  production  was  so  much 
less.  A  great  steamship  supplies  another  illustration.  The  ship 
does  many  times  the  work  which  could  have  been  performed  by 
the  sailing  ship  it  has  displaced,  and  with  much  fewer  men  in 
proportion  to  the  tonnage  conveyed.  But  the  wages  of  the  aver- 
age member  of  the  crew  are  again  only  double,  or  not  quite 
double,  what  they  were  when  the  conveyance  done  was  so  much 
less.  In  these  and  similar  cases,  who  gets  the  benefit  of  all  the 
increase  of  production  ?  The  workmen  in  the  particular  employ- 
ments concerned,  receiving  only  a  fraction  of  the  gain,  may  be 
excused  for  suspecting  that  there  is  something  inexplicable  in 
those  social  and  economic  arrangements  by  which  the  benefit  is 
spirited  away  from  them. 

But,  however  natural  the  question,  it  is  not  difficult  to  point 
out  that  there  is  a  good  reason  why  workmen  in  some  given  em- 
ployments should  only  receive  a  fraction  of  the  benefit  from  the 
increased  productiveness  of  those  employments,  and  that  this  fact 
is  quite  consistent  with  an  improvement  in  the  position  of  work- 
men all  round  in  proportion  to  the  generally  increased  product- 
iveness of  labor,  which  is  the  real  question  we  are  now  investigat- 
ing, for  the  purpose  of  comparing  this  increase  of  productiveness 
with  the  increase  of  the  severity  of  labor  throughout  society. 
The  short  explanation  is  that  the  employments  in  which  there  is 
a  great  increase  of  production,  being  mainly  the  employments  in 
which  there  are  great  mechanical  improvements  from  time  to 
time,  constitute  only  a  part  of  the  whole  employment  for  labor, 
and  that  by  a  natural  law  labor  in  each  employment  finds  its 
level,  the  increase  of  the  return  arising  from  an  invention  in  a 
particular  employment  resulting  in  a  gain,  not  to  the  particular 
laborers  concerned,  but  to  the  whole  community  of  laborers. 
That  the  gain  may  be  general,  it  is,  in  fact,  essential  that  laborers 
generally  should  gain  as  consumers  rather  than  as  producers, 
which  implies  that  in  a  given  employment  wages  should  increase, 
not  in  proportion  to  the  increased  productiveness  of  that  employ- 


656  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

ment  by  itself,  but  in  proportion  to  the  increased  productiveness 
of  labor  generally.  Hence,  it  may  well  be  that  while  the  product- 
ive power  of  machines  may  enormously  increase,  yet  the  general 
increase  of  productive  power  may  be  much  less  than  would  at 
first  be  thought,  owing  to  the  comparatively  small  proportion  of 
laborers,  after  all,  who  use  machinery  of  great  capacity  largely  in 
their  employments.  Looking  at  the  number  of  domestic  servants, 
of  clerks,  of  professional  men  and  women,  of  unskilled  laborers 
of  every  kind,  of  skilled  laborers,  such  as  painters,  who  do  not 
use  machines,  I  should  doubt  very  much  whether  one  fourth  of 
the  laborers,  even  in  a  society  like  that  of  England,  the  most 
manufacturing  in  the  world,  use  machinery  of  great  capacity  in 
their  employments.  It  is  easily  to  be  accounted  for,  therefore, 
why  in  a  given  employment  there  should  be  a  great  increase  of 
production  without  a  corresponding  increase  of  remuneration  to 
those  engaged  in  that  particular  employment.  The  gain  has  to 
be  diffused  through  society,  and  the  increase  of  production  gen- 
erally is  not  so  great,  and  not  nearly  so  great,  as  in  a  few  special 
cases. 

Another  observation  must  be  made.  There  may  be  a  consider- 
able improvement  in  the  quality  of  production  in  employments 
of  a  non-mechanical  kind,  which  it  is  difficult  or  even  impossible 
to  note  by  quantities,  but  where  the  labor  competes  with  all  other 
labor  for  remuneration.  Where  the  increased  remuneration 
should  go  to,  when  machines  improve,  is  not  thus  so  easy  to  de- 
termine a  'priori. 

It  is  also  obvious  that  even  in  an  advancing  community  the 
remuneration  of  certain  kinds  of  laborers,  whose  numbers  con- 
tinue disproportionate,  may  either  not  increase  at  all,  or  increase 
very  little,  the  whole  gain  from  increased  productiveness  being 
for  the  benefit  of  the  laborers  whose  own  labor  improves  in  qual- 
ity, apart  from  the  fact  that  it  is  employed  on  more  productive 
machines.  Strictly  speaking,  unless  there  is  a  rise  in  the  scale  of 
living,  accompanied  by  an  improvement  in  quality  all  round, 
there  is  no  reason  why,  in  modern  times,  a  man  who  can  only 
drive  a  spade  into  the  ground,  or  wheel  a  barrow,  or  carry  bricks 
up  a  ladder,  should  receive  any  higher  reward  than  similar  labor- 
ers in  former  ages.  The  fact  that  such  laborers  are  little  better 
off  is  not  inconsistent  with  the  fact  that  workmen  generally  re- 
ceive a  larger  reward  than  in  any  former  period. 

The  way  is  thus  cleared  for  answering  the  question  as  to 
whether  the  remuneration  of  labor  has  increased  generally  in  pro- 
portion to  the  increased  severity  of  labor. 

It  can  not  be  denied,  first  of  all,  that  there  is  a  great  increase 
of  the  productiveness  of  labor  itself,  as  well  as  a  great  increase  of 
the  absolute  amount  of  remuneration.     This  is  admitted  on  all 


THE   GROSS  AND   NET   GAIN   OF  RISING    WAGES.    657 

sides.  The  increase  of  production  is  the  very  fact  which  is  as- 
sumed. Nor  is  the  increase  of  remuneration  denied — the  only 
question  is  of  the  proportionate  remuneration.  Before  passing 
from  this  point,  however,  I  should  like  to  dwell  a  little  on  the 
fact  already  referred  to,  of  an  improvement  in  the  quality  of  non- 
mechanical  labor,  because,  as  this  labor  is  largely  the  subject  of 
direct  exchange  without  much  intervention  of  capital,  the  mere 
fact  of  improvement  implies  almost  a  proportionate  increase  of 
remuneration.  At  any  rate,  the  laborers  concerned  get  almost 
the  whole  benefit,  because  they  exchange  with  each  other.  I 
refer  to  such  employments  as  those  of  teaching,  medical  attend- 
ance, nursing,  domestic  service,  dressmaking,  and  the  like  among 
the  upper  and  middle  classes.  The  increase  of  remuneration  here 
may  not  be  in  proportion  to  the  improvement  of  quality ;  the 
game  may  not  be  worth  the  candle ;  but,  at  any  rate,  the  ex- 
changes are  direct.  Now,  as  to  the  fact  of  great  improvement,  I 
believe  there  is  no  doubt.  Nursing,  for  instance,  is  said  to  be  an 
entirely  different  thing  in  hospitals  from  what  it  was  only  fifteen 
or  twenty  years  ago.  Domestic  service,  as  regards  cooking,  wait- 
ing, and  other  points,  is  also,  on  the  whole,  better,  notwithstand- 
ing manifold  complaints,  just  because  of  the  general  improve- 
ment in  education  and  intelligence.  The  same  with  dressmaking. 
More  intelligence  and  skill  are  everywhere  applied,  and  in  direct 
exchanges,  without  much  intervention  of  machines  or  of  capital. 

Next,  it  has  to  be  considered,  as  regards  the  question  of  pro- 
portionate remuneration,  that  by  the  very  mode  of  here  stating 
the  question,  it  appears  that  it  is  not  so  much  a  question  of  in- 
crease in  the  severity  of  labor  generally,  as  of  a  change  in  the 
character  of  the  labor.  If  the  quality  of  labor  has  altered  and 
improved  in  many  directions,  there  is,  in  truth,  no  proper  term 
for  comparison  between  the  present  and  former  times.  The  im- 
provement of  the  quality  of  the  labor,  which  is  another  name  for 
the  increased  intelligence  and  energy  of  society,  may  not  be  pro- 
portionately remunerated ;  but  there  is  no  means  of  telling. 
People  would  not  go  back  to  the  conditions  of  a  former  society, 
where  less  intelligence  and  energy  were  required  for  a  lower  scale 
of  living,  even  if  they  had  the  choice.  The  new  advantages,  with 
all  their  drawbacks,  are  accepted  as  part  of  a  higher  state.  The 
complaints  are  to  some  extent  a  sign  of  the  perpetual  unrest  of 
human  life,  and  of  the  fact  of  improvement  itself. 

There  can  equally  be  no  doubt,  looking  at  the  matter  in  this 
way,  that  in  certain  directions  there  may  be  a  very  poignant  and 
not  unjustifiable  feeling  as  to  an  increase  in  the  severity  of  labor. 
This  appears  to  be  the  case  as  regards  employments  which  in- 
volve the  watching  of  machines,  the  very  employments  where 
there  is  apparently  the  greatest  increase  of  production  and  the 

vol.  xxxvi. — 42 


658  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

least  proportionate  increase  of  the  remuneration  of  labor.  The 
strain  upon  the  nervous  system,  through  the  combined  monotony 
of  the  employment  and  the  constant  vigilance  required,  are  no 
doubt  very  often  most  severe,  and  are  perhaps  felt  the  more 
because  the  present  generation  is  comparatively  untrained.  But 
the  increased  severity  of  toil,  without  proportionate  remunera- 
tion, might  be  admitted  in  those  special  employments  without 
altering  the  fact  that  remuneration  has  increased  generally. 
What  seems  to  have  happened  in  these  cases  is,  that  the  develop- 
ment of  society  imposes  a  heavy  burden  on  a  special  class,  involv- 
ing rapid  change  in  the  quality  of  its  labor,  to  which  it  is  hardly 
equal,  but  that  the  improvement  in  quality  is  part  of  the  general 
improvement  in  society.  The  nervous  power  to  stand  monotony 
and  supply  the  necessary  vigilance  and  other  moral  qualities 
necessary  for  the  supervision  of  machines  may  exist  in  greater 
abundance  in  the  next  generation,  along  with  a  continued  im- 
provement in  the  quality  of  labor  in  non  -  mechanical  employ- 
ments. 

It  will,  perhaps,  be  urged  that  the  workman  does  not  get  a 
proportionate  remuneration  because  the  capitalist  obtains  for 
himself  the  increased  product — the  socialist  argument.  But  the 
facts  are  all  against  this  explanation.  One  of  the  most  remark- 
able facts  of  recent  years  is  the  general  decline  in  the  return  to 
capital.  Capitalists  from  year  to  year  have  been  willing  to  invest 
for  a  smaller  and  smaller  return.  We  must  assume,  then,  that  if 
they  have  gained  at  all  it  has  only  been  by  the  immense  cheapen- 
ing of  commodities,  and  labor  has  gained  more  than  in  propor- 
tion. This  would  appear  to  be  the  case :  only  the  laborers  who 
have  gained,  as  we  have  seen,  are.  not  specially  those  who  are 
occupied  about  machines.  The  gain  is  generally  diffused,  and  is 
received  by  laborers  generally  in  proportion  to  the  relative  values 
of  their  work.  Apparently  the  greatest  gain  has  been  among  the 
higher  artisan  and  lower  professional  classes — the  very  classes,  it 
may  be  remarked,  by  whom  the  strain  of  modern  life  is  felt  the 
most  intensely. 

The  conclusion,  then,  is,  that  if  the  return  to  labor  generally 
is  not  proportionate  to  the  increase  of  the  severity  of  toil  itself, 
the  reason  must  be  that  people  are  working  for  inadequate  ob- 
jects. The  game,  in  one  sense,  may  not  be  worth  the  candle. 
The  problem  is  another  form  of  the  very  same  problem  that  has 
been  considered  with  reference  to  the  payment  of  monopoly  rents. 
On  the  whole,  notwithstanding  all  the  drawbacks  of  city  life, 
there  is  some  improvement  which  makes  the  payment  of  monop- 
oly rents  worth  while.  People  would  not  change  back  to  the 
former  conditions.  So,  on  the  whole,  notwithstanding  all  the 
drawbacks  of  really  severer  toil,  and  the  inadequacy  of  the  addi- 


THE   GROSS  AND   NET   GAIN   OF  RISING    WAGES.    659 

tional  remuneration,  people  would  not  change  back.  What  has 
happened  is  really  a  revolution  in  the  quality  of  labor  and  the 
general  conditions  of  life.  The  net  gain,  in  one  view,  is  less  than 
the  apparent  gross  improvement,  looking  at  the  matter  strictly ; 
in  another  view,  the  gain  is  so  great  as  to  make  the  present  con- 
dition of  workmen  on  the  average  incommensurable  with  their 
former  condition.  The  two  things  are  not  on  the  same  plane,  and 
can  hardly  be  compared. 

An  important  corollary  seems  to  be  suggested  by  these  con- 
siderations. If  there  is  so  much  doubt  about  the  adequacy  of  the 
reward  for  the  additional  labor  thrown  on  workmen  by  the  con- 
ditions of  modern  society,  is  not  that  reward  really  a  minimum 
reward  ?  In  other  words,  may  not  the  amount  of  production 
itself  be  conditioned  by  the  energy  of  the  workman,  which  is  in 
turn  a  function  of  the  food  and  other  things  on  which  he  expends 
his  wages,  so  that  the  quality  of  labor  by  which  modern  society 
is  carried  on  would  not  itself  exist  if  the  remuneration  were  less 
than  it  is  ?  The  complaint  we  are  dealing  with  is  that  of  the 
severity  of  modern  toil,  and  implies  that  the  workman  is  tasked  to 
his  full  capacity,  and  can  just  do  the  work,  so  that  the  remuner- 
ation can  not  be  reduced.  And  that  this  is  really  the  case  in  many 
employments  may  be  easily  enough  illustrated.  It  is  quite  certain 
that  the  driver  of  an  express  engine  could  not  go  through  the 
very  formidable  labors  he  undergoes  if  he  only  had  the  food  of  the 
rude  laborer  of  a  former  time,  and  only  lived  in  the  way  that  such 
a  laborer  used  to  live.  He  would  not,  under  such  conditions,  have 
the  energy  or  brain-power  for  the  work  to  be  done.  It  is  the 
same  with  workmen  in  a  factory  who  have  to  attend  to  many 
machines.  The  constant  strain  simply  could  not  be  endured  if 
the  workman  had  to  live  as  the  factory  worker  of  a  former  time 
had  to  live.  The  present  worker  is  really  cheaper  than  the  former 
worker,  because  he  does  more  in  proportion ;  but,  dear  as  he  is, 
yet,  in  another  respect,  he  may  perhaps  be  viewed,  according  to  a 
suggestion  already  made,  as  really  engaged  at  a  minimum  wage — 
without  which  he  could  not  do  the  work  at  all.  This  is  not  a 
question  merely  of  a  rise  in  the  scale  of  living,  though  that  ques- 
tion is  intermixed  with  it.  It  is  a  question  of  the  actual  necessity 
on  the  part  of  the  workman  that  certain  things  should  be  put 
into  him,  or  supplied  to  him,  as  a  condition  of  his  doing  the  work 
which  he  actually  performs.  What  is  true  of  the  workman  spe- 
cially referred  to  is  of  course  still  more  true  of  the  higher  kinds 
of  work  involving  artistic  or  other  skill. 

It  may  also  be  added  that  the  suggestion  already  made  as  to 
the  reason  for  a  non-increase  of  remuneration  in  certain  direc- 
tions being  that  the  work  done  has  not  itself  improved  in  quality, 
is  fully  confirmed  by  the  general  view  thus  stated.     If  the  work 


660  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

which  has  improved  in  quality  is  itself  only  so  remunerated  as  to 
make  it  doubtful  whether  the  remuneration  is  adequate,  whether 
the  game  is  worth  the  candle,  and  is,  in  fact,  at  the  point  of  mini- 
mum, so  as  to  enable  the  work  to  be  done  at  all,  out  of  what  fund 
is  the  remuneration  of  the  work  that  has  not  improved  in  quality 
to  come  ?  In  the  midst  of  plenty,  apparently,  such  workmen,  by 
comparison,  must  starve,  because,  notwithstanding  all  the  plenty, 
those  who  really  do  the  hard  work  of  modern  society  are  only 
just  paid,  and  no  more.  It  is  easy  for  such  workmen  and  their 
so-called  friends  to  point  to  the  capitalists  as  living  on  their 
labor ;  and  no  doubt,  if  it  were  possible  to  divide  the  earnings  of 
capitalists  among  society  generally,  according  to  numbers,  these 
particular  workmen  might  be  much  better  off.  But  it  is  not  from 
the  labor  of  such  workmen  that  capitalists  mainly  derive  their 
income,  while  those  who  do  work,  as  we  have  seen,  have  so  large 
a  remuneration  that  they  can  have  no  quarrel  with  the  capitalist. 
The  suggested  division  would  therefore  only  be  for  the  benefit  of 
a  special  class  whose  existence  is  itself  a  danger  to  society,  and 
which  should  rather  be  discouraged  than  encouraged,  the  whole 
efforts  of  society  being  rather  directed  to  their  transformation 
by  education  and  similar  agencies  into  a  higher  class,  than  to 
securing  an  increased  payment  for  their  work  under  present  con- 
ditions. The  curse  of  the  very  poor,  in  more  senses  than  one,  is 
their  poverty — poverty  in  strength,  in  mental  capacity,  in  moral 
qualities.  They  are  poor  because  they  can  not  earn  more.  If 
they  were  stronger  they  would  have  the  earnings,  and  would  have 
no  quarrel  with  the  capitalists.  To  improve  their  condition  they 
must  be  made  stronger,  and  not  merely  given  more  to  spend, 
which  would  be  a  curse  to  them  instead  of  a  blessing,  as  it  is  to 
the  merely  idle  capitalist  whose  luxury  they  envy,  whose  exist- 
ence is  a  danger  to  society  also,  and  whose  obliteration,  or  rather 
transformation  into  a  different  class,  is  equally  to  be  sought  for. 

The  next  head  of  complaint  is  that  a  workman  has  more  ex- 
penses now,  in  consequence  of  the  rise  in  the  scale  of  living.  Not 
only  himself,  but  his  family,  must  live  better.  They  must  have 
better  and  more  food,  be  better  clothed  and  sheltered,  be  better 
educated,  and  so  on.  The  workman  himself,  on  whom  the  burden 
falls,  has  no  more  surplus  than  before.     He  is  not  a  freer  man. 

This  head  of  complaint,  however,  demands  very  little  remark. 
The  statement  of  the  complaint  is,  in  truth,  one  of  the  best  evi- 
dences of  progress.  Of  course,  there  has  been  a  rise  in  the  scale 
of  living.  Such  a  rise  was  quite  certain  to  come  with  an  improve- 
ment in  the  earnings  of  workmen.  The  fact  that  it  has  come  is 
itself  one  of  the  proofs  of  improvement.  No  doubt  there  is  a  con- 
tinued absence  of  a  free  surplus.  I  suspect,  however,  that  at  no 
time  have  many  people,  in  this  country  at  least,  had  philosophy 


THE   GROSS   AND   NET   GAIN   OF  RISING    WAGES.    661 

enough  to  be  thrifty  and  careful,  and  to  do  without  some  things 
that  appear  to  be  necessary  for  their  sphere  in  life,  so  as  to  have 
what  is  meant  by  a  surplus.  Its  absence  is  certainly  no  proof  that 
the  condition  of  those  who  make  the  complaint  has  not  improved. 
The  scale  of  living  has  risen,  and  this  rise,  beyond  all  question, 
imposes  a  strain  upon  many  workmen  which  only  the  greatest 
care  and  philosophy  can  mitigate.  It  involves  of  necessity  severer 
toil  on  the  part  of  the  bread-winner,  with  no  apparent  surplus  for 
himself. 

It  is  apparent,  however,  that  to  some  extent  what  is  called  a 
rise  in  the  scale  of  living  is,  in  reality,  an  improvement  in  the 
mode  of  living  which  is  absolutely  necessitated  by  the  work  itself, 
without  which,  in  fact,  the  work  could  not  be  done.  Where 
moral  qualities  are  to  be  displayed,  and  great  vigor,  punctuality, 
and  energy  are  required,  they  are  not  to  be  expected  except  from 
workmen  of  a  certain  class,  whose  scale  of  living  has,  in  fact, 
risen  to  the  standard  necessary,  and  whose  "  medium  "  and  "  at- 
mosphere," of  which  the  condition  of  wife  and  children  or  rela- 
tions is  a  part,  are  altogether  different  from  what  they  were.  Be- 
fore human  beings  can  display  the  qualities  and  exert  the  energies 
required,  they  must  have  certain  tastes  and  wants  to  gratify, 
or  there  would  be  no  motive  to  exhibit  those  qualities  and  en- 
ergies. Hence  a  rise  in  the  scale  of  living  is  only  another  mode 
of  describing  the  improvement  in  the  character  of  the  workman, 
which  is  essential  to  the  performance  of  the  work  to  be  done. 

The  conclusions  of  this  long  argument  may  now  be  very 
shortly  restated.  In  certain  cases  the  increase  of  net  earnings  by 
the  advance  of  the  last  fifty  years  can  not  be  so  great  as  the  in- 
crease of  gross  earnings,  because  some  classes  of  workmen  have 
to  submit  to  an  increased  charge  for  rent  and  railway  fares,  and 
similar  expenditure,  which  really  amount  to  a  reduction  from  the 
gross  earnings  which  they  receive.  But,  on  the  whole,  the  classes 
of  workmen  affected  in  this  way  must,  from  the  nature  of  things, 
be  comparatively  small,  while  the  general  conditions  are  such  that 
the  deduction  from  gross  earnings,  as  a  rule,  still  leaves  an  enor- 
mous net  gain.  Next,  the  allegation  as  to  the  increased  severity 
of  labor,  and  as  to  workmen  not  getting  a  sufficiently  ade- 
quate remuneration  or  a  sufficient  share  of  the  increased  gross 
produce,  is  met  by  the  admission  generally  of  an  increase  in  the 
severity  of  labor,  which,  however,  is  found  to  be  more  properly 
described  as  a  revolution  in  the  quality  of  the  labor,  and  to  be 
connected  with  the  fact  of  improvement  generally,  and  to  be  evi- 
dence of  improvement  in  the  workman's  condition.  The  character 
of  labor  generally  has  so  changed  that  it  can  not  really  be  meas- 
ured in  comparison  with  the  labor  of  a  former  time.    Some  work- 


66z  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

men  engaged  about  machines  may  appear  to  get  comparatively 
little  of  the  increased  production  for  themselves,  but  the  reason  is 
that  the  improvement  in  machines  is  for  the  benefit  of  society  as 
a  whole,  and  not  specially  for  that  of  the  particular  workmen 
engaged  upon  them,  who  only  participate  in  the  improvement  as 
consumers,  and  not  as  producers.  Substantially,  however,  there 
is  more  severe  toil  all  round,  and  whether  the  additional  remuner- 
ation is  adequate  or  not,  the  change  in  the  quality  of  the  labor  is 
necessary  to  the  production,  the  laborer  gets  all  the  possible  re- 
muneration, and  the  labor  itself  could  not  be  carried  on  without 
the  remuneration  obtained.  It  is  the  same  with  the  complaint  as 
to  the  rise  in  the  scale  of  living.  The  rise  in  the  scale  is  at  once 
a  proof  of  the  improvement  in  the  workman's  condition,  and  of 
the  necessity  for  an  improvement  in  his  living  to  enable  him  to 
do  the  new  work.  The  two  things  are  inextricably  connected. 
On  the  whole,  the  complaint  of  workmen  as  to  the  difference  be- 
tween gross  and  net  is  not  unjustified,  but  it  points  to  changes  in 
their  condition  of  a  remarkable  kind,  which  are  in  every  way  de- 
serving of  further  study.  To  show  fully  what  these  changes  are, 
statistics  would  be  needed,  but  the  necessary  conditions  of  the  prob- 
lem are  apparent  without  statistics.  The  complaints  here  dealt  with 
could  not  exist  without  that  improvement  in  society  and  the  con- 
dition of  the  masses  which  the  complaints  seem  to  call  in  question. 
A  further  conclusion  may  be  drawn.  The  conditions  of  life 
thus  indicated  seem  favorable,  on  the  whole,  to  a  continuous  im- 
provement in  society,  so  long  as  science  and  art  make  progress, 
and  heavier  and  heavier  calls  are  made  on  the  intelligence  and 
energy  of  workmen,  along  with  an  increase  of  their  capacities  on 
the  one  side  and  their  wants  on  the  other.  The  whole  structure 
of  modern  society  is  such  as  to  require  greater  and  greater  knowl- 
edge, greater  and  greater  energy  and  moral  power,  greater  and 
greater  capacity  of  every  kind,  so  as  to  make  sure  that  machines 
and  inventions  are  maintained  and  improved,  and  that  artistic 
capacities  and  the  arts  of  living  are  developed  to  correspond. 
The  continuous  improvement  implies  a  continuous  improvement, 
on  the  average,  of  the  human  being  who  really  belongs  to  the  new 
society.  So  long  as  society,  therefore,  continues  to  progress — that 
is,  for  our  present  purpose,  so  long  as  the  average  workman  con- 
tinues to  produce  more  quantity  or  better  quality — there  must  be 
continuous  improvement  and  progress  in  the  quality  of  workmen 
themselves  and  the  conditions  of  their  existence,  although  we 
should  not  expect  that  complaints  would  cease  as  to  the  greater 
severity  of  toil  and  as  to  particular  classes  of  workmen  not  getting 
for  themselves  the  full  benefit  of  the  increased  production.  Still, 
the  improvement  is  there,  and  the  complaints,  when  analyzed,  are, 
in  truth,  signs  of  the  improvement. 


CONCERNING    SHREWS.  663 

The  one  doubtful  sign,  it  appears  to  me,  as  regards  the  future, 
is  pointed  at  by  the  qualification  implied  in  the  words — the  human 
being  ivlw  really  belongs  to  the  new  society.  It  may  possibly  hap- 
pen that  there  will  be  an  increase,  or  at  least  non-diminution,  of 
what  may  be  called  the  social  wreckage.  A  class  may  continue 
to  exist  and  even  increase  in  the  midst  of  our  civilization,  possibly 
not  a  large  class  in  proportion,  but  still  a  considerable  class,  who 
are  out  of  the  improvement  altogether,  who  are  capable  of  noth- 
ing but  the  rudest  labor,  and  who  have  neither  the  moral  nor 
the  mental  qualities  fitted  for  the  strain  of  the  work  of  modern 
society.  On  the  other  side,  as  already  hinted,  the  existence  of 
what  may  be  called  a  barbarian  class  among  the  capitalist  classes, 
living  in  idle  luxury  and  not  bearing  the  burden  of  society  in  any 
way,  seems  also  a  danger.  But  speculations  of  this  sort  would 
perhaps  take  us  too  far  at  present.  Substantially,  as  yet,  there 
seems  to  be  ho  reason  to  doubt  the  steadiness  of  the  improvement 
in  recent  years  among  the  working  classes,  both  those  practically 
so  called  and  those  who  may  be  included  when  we  use  the  lan- 
guage in  its  widest — that  is,  the  strictly  economic — sense,  and 
that  this  improvement  goes  on  from  year  to  year,  and  from  gen- 
eration to  generation,  and  must,  in  the  nature  of  things,  go  on, 
in  consequence  of  the  improvements  and  inventions  of  the  modern 
world  and  the  general  spread  of  education,  so  long  as  nothing- 
happens  to  prevent  a  continuous  improvement  in  the  efficiency  of 
human  labor  and  the  average  return  it  can  obtain  from  the  forces 
with  which  it  works. — Contemporary  Review, 


CONCERNING  SHREWS, 

Bt  frederik  a.  fernald. 

THE  shrews,  or  shrew  mice,  as  they  are  often  called  from  their 
mouse-like  size  and  general  appearance,  are  nearly  related  to 
the  moles,  but  may  be  distinguished  from  them  by  their  distinct 
outer  ear  and  the  moderate  size  of  their  fore-paws,  which  are  not 
usually  employed  in  digging.  They  have  a  long,  pointed  muzzle, 
with  two  very  long  cutting  teeth  in  each  jaw — the  upper  much 
curved  and  the  lower  nearly  horizontal.  Their  other  teeth  are 
many-pointed,  being  thus  adapted  to  seizing  the  worms  and 
crushing  the  hard  wing-cases  of  the  beetles  which  form  their 
food.  They  also  sometimes  destroy  small  vertebrates  and  devour 
each  other.  Most  species  of  shrews  live  on  the  surface  of  the 
ground,  and  a  few  in  burrows.  They  do  not  hibernate.  They 
take  their  food  at  night.  They  are  spread  over  the  northern 
hemisphere,  sometimes  going  very  far  north,  and  the  smaller  spe- 


664 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


cies  enduring  severe  cold.  The  sub-family  Soricina  is  the  only 
one  represented  in  North  America ;  other  sub-families  are  found 
in  Europe,  Asia,  the  East  Indies,  and  in  south  and  central  Africa ; 
none  as  yet  have  been  detected  in  South  America.  Most  of  the 
American  species  belong  to  the  genus  Sorex  (Linnseus).  Prof. 
Spencer  F.  Baird  described  twelve  species,  varying  in  length  from 
three  to  four  and  a  half  inches,  in  Vol.  VIII  of  the  Pacific  Pail- 
road  Reports.  In  color  they  range  from  blackish  and  brownish  to 
grayish  above  and  lighter  to  whitish  beneath.  Most  of  the  species 
belong  on  the  Pacific  coast  or  in  the  Northwestern  States  and  Ter- 
ritories. The  8.  personatus  is  the  least  of  the  American  shrews, 
and  among  the  smallest  of  the  quadrupeds  of  this  country,  being 
not .  quite  three  inches  long ;  it  belongs  in  the   South  Atlantic 

States.  In  the  genus  Blarina 
(Gray)  the  body  is  stout,  the 
tail  shorter  than  the  head  ; 
the  skull  is  short  and  broad, 
and  the  fore-paws  are  large 
in  proportion  to  the  hind- 
paws.  This  genus  is  peculiar 
to  America.  The  mole  shrew 
(B.  talpoides,  Gray),  the  lar- 
gest of  the  American  shrews, 
four  and  a  half  inches  long, 
is  found  from  Nova  Scotia 
to  Lake  Superior,  and  south- 
ward to  Georgia.  It  is  dark, 
ashy  gray  above  and  paler  below,  with  whitish  feet.  Several 
other  species  are  described  by  Baird,  of  which  two  are  in  Mexico 
and  Texas. 

Four  species  of  shrew  are  mentioned  by  Wood  as  inhabiting 
the  British  Isles :  the  erd  shrew,  the  water  shrew,  the  oared 
shrew,  and  the  rustic  shrew.  The  erd  shrew,  also  called  the  shrew 
mouse,  is  the  common  shrew  of  England,  and  is  found  also  all 
over  Europe,  Unlike  most  animals,  they  are  often  found  dead ; 
though,  owing  to  their  nocturnal  habits,  they  are  seldom  seen 
alive.  Aubyn  Battye  writes  in  "  Longman's  Magazine  " :  "  Every 
countryman  is  familiar  with  the  sight  of  shrew  mice  lying  dead 
on  autumn  footpaths  and  by  sides  of  roads.  The  hot,  dry  English 
September  weather  presses  very  hardly  on  this  class  of  animals. 
Worms  retire  then  a  long  way  below  ground,  and  even  the  strong 
mole  often  can  not  follow  them  in  the  hard-baked  ground,  and 
has  to  trust  to  slugs  for  maintenance.  The  damp,  dead  leaves  of 
the  hedge-bottom,  which  were  once  the  shrew's  best  hunting- 
ground,  are  dry  and  deserted  now — a  fatal  change  of  things. 
Yes,  dead  we  often  see  the  shrew ;  and  picking  him  up  we  hold  in 


Fig.  1.  -Mole  Shrew. 


CONCERNING   SHREWS. 


665 


our  hand  a  little  creature  of  an  oddly  quaint  and  old-world  ap- 
pearance, with  a  coat  like  velvet,  brownish  black  above  and  gray- 
ish white  beneath.  But  the  two  ends  of  him  strike  us  most ;  a 
long,  pink-tipped  snout,  and  a  blunt,  four-sided  tail."  Shrews  are 
accustomed  to  eating  much  and  often,  which  doubtless  accounts  for 
their  dying  so  speedily  when  food  becomes  scarce.  The  reason 
why  their  bodies  are  seen  lying  about  instead  of  being  devoured 
by  flesh-eating  creatures  is  probably  because  they  secrete  a  strong 
scent  that  does  not  seem  to  please  the  palate  of  cat  or  weasel. 
Cats  will  catch  them  to  play  with,  and  finally  kill  them,  but  will 
not  eat  them.  Owls  eat  them,  however,  and  so  does  the  kestrel 
falcon.  On  account  of  this  scent,  the  animal  is  known  in  some 
parts  of  England  by  the  name  of  fetid  shrew.  In  Scotland  it  is 
called  the  ranny.  The  Latin  term  araneus,  or  spider-like,  has 
been  applied  to  this  creat- 
ure by  several  writers,  be- 
cause it  was  said  to  bite 
poisonously  like  a  spider. 
The  body  of  the  shrew  is 
not  much  over  two  inches 
long,  and  its  whole  length 
from  the  snout  to  the  tip 
of  the  tail  is  about  four 
inches.  It  lives  in  little 
tunnels  which  it  digs  in  the 
earth,  and  which  serve  also 
as  a  hunting-ground.  The 
nest  in  which  the  young 
shrews  are  brought  forth 
is  not  made  in  the  burrow,  but  in  some  little  hollow  or  a  hole  in  a 
bank.  It  is  composed  of  leaves  and  like  substances  and  is  entered 
by  a  hole  at  the  side.  The  young  are  from  five  to  seven  in  num- 
ber, and  are  generally  born  in  the  spring. 

The  word  shrew  applied  to  a  scolding  woman  has  a  different 
derivation,  according  to  the  dictionaries,  from  the  name  of  our 
little  insect-hunter.  But  it  is  no  libel  on  the  animal  to  give  its 
name  to  a  vixen  even  of  a  more  unconquerable  sort  than  is  rep- 
resented in  Shakespeare's  "  Taming  of  the  Shrew,"  as  the  follow- 
ing character  which  "Wood  gives  it  abundantly  shows  : 

"  Sometimes  the  shrews  mutually  kill  each  other,  for  they  are 
most  pugnacious  little  beings,  and  on  small  ground  of  quarrel 
enter  into  persevering  and  deadly  combats ;  which,  if  they  took 
place  between  larger  animals,  would  be  terrifically  grand,  but  in 
such  little  creatures  appear  almost  ludicrous.  They  hold  with 
their  rows  of  bristling  teeth  with  the  pertinacity  of  bull-dogs,  and, 
heedless  of  everything  but  the  paroxysm  of  their  blind  fury,  roll 


Fig.  2.— Common  European  Shrew  (Sorex  araneus). 


666  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

over  each  other  on  the  ground,  locked  in  spiteful  embrace  and 
uttering  a  rapid  succession  of  shrill  cries,  which  pierce  the  ears 
like  needles  of  sound.  It  is  a  most  fortunate  circumstance  that 
the  larger  animals  are  not  so  vindictively  pugnacious  as  the 
moles  and  the  shrews ;  for  it  would  be  a  very  hard  case  if  we  were 
unable  to  put  two  horses  or  two  cows  in  the  same  field  without 
the  certainty  of  immediate  fight,  and  the  probability  that  one  of 
the  combatants  would  lose  its  life  in  the  struggle." 

The  bite  of  such  a  little  creature  obviously  need  not  be  feared 
by  a  human  being,  though  ancient  prejudice  attributes  to  it  such 
venomous  properties  that  in  many  districts  in  England  the  viper 
is  no  more  dreaded  than  the  shrew.  Even  the  touch  of  the  ani- 
mal's tiny  foot  was  believed  to  cause  pains  which  could  only  be 
relieved  on  the  "  like  cures  like  "  principle. 

The  following  curious  account  of  this  latter  superstition  is 
from  Gilbert  White's  "  Natural  History  of  Selborne " :  "  At  the 
fourth  corner  of  the  Plestor,  or  area,  near  the  church,  there  stood 
about  twenty  years  ago  a  very  old,  grotesque,  hollow  pollard  ash, 
which  for  ages  had  been  looked  on  with  no  small  veneration  as  a 
shrew  ash.  Now  a  shrew  ash  is  an  ash  whose  twigs  or  branches, 
when  gently  applied  to  the  limbs  of  cattle,  will  immediately  re- 
lieve the  pains  which  a  beast  suffers  from  the  running  of  a  shrew 
mouse  over  the  part  affected ;  for  it  is  supposed  that  a  shrew 
mouse  is  of  so  baneful  and  deleterious  a  nature  that  wherever  it 
creeps  over  a  beast,  be  it  horse,  cow,  or  sheep,  the  suffering  animal 
is  afflicted  with  cruel  anguish,  and  threatened  with  the  loss  of 
the  use  of  the  limb.  Against  this  accident,  to  which  they  were 
continually  liable,  our  provident  forefathers  always  kept  a  shrew 
ash  at  hand,  which,  when  once  medicated,  would  maintain  its 
virtue  forever.  A  shrew  ash  was  made  thus :  Into  the  body  of 
the  tree  a  deep  hole  was  bored  with  an  auger,  and  a  poor  devoted 
shrew  mouse  was  thrust  in  alive  and  plugged  in,  no  doubt  with 
several  quaint  incantations  long  since  forgotten." 

The  shrew  is  often  seen  near  reposing  cattle,  and  this  habit 
probably  gave  the  chance  for  putting  upon  it  any  unexplained 
malady  that  the  cattle  might  suffer.  But  it  has  been  well  sug- 
gested that  the  shrew  goes  to  domestic  animals  for  the  insects 
which  light  upon  them.  From  the  fact  that  the  shrew  will  eat 
one  of  its  own  species,  if  slain  in  battle,  it  is  evident  that  insects 
and  worms  do  not  form  its  whole  diet.  "  One  of  these  little  creat- 
ures," says  Wood, "  has  been  discovered  and  killed  while  grasping 
a  frog  by  the  hind-leg ;  and  so  firmly  did  it  maintain  its  grasp, 
that  even  after  its  death  the  sharp  teeth  still  clung  to  the  limb  of 
the  frog.  Whether  the  creature  intended  to  eat  the  frog,  or 
whether  it  was  urged  to  this  act  by  revenge  or  other  motive,  is 
uncertain." 


CONCERNING   SHREWS. 


667 


The  water  shrew  is  much  like  the  erd  shrew  in  general  appear- 
ance, but  its  fur  is  nearly  black  on  the  upper  parts  of  the  body, 
instead  of  the  reddish-brown  color  which  marks  its  relative.  On 
the  under  parts  its  fur  is  beautifully  white.  The  fur  is  very  silky 
and  has  the  useful  property  of  repelling  water.  When  swimming, 
the  parts  of  the  body  which  are  submerged  appear  to  be  sprinkled 
with  tiny  silver  beads,  which  give  the  animal  a  very  brilliant 
appearance.  This  phenomenon  is  due  to  air-bubbles  that  cling 
to  the  fur.  Water  shrews  are  fond  of  pools  and  streams  that  are 
pretty  well  open  to  the  sunlight. 

The  following  account  of  them  is  given  by  the  writer  in 
"  Longman's,"  already  quoted :  "  See  these  water  shrews,  how 
they  chase  one  another  in  the  pool !  Out  of  the  water  their  fur 
is  black  and  soft,  but  under  it  a  thousand  air-bubbles  clothe  them 
round  till  they  flash  like  silver  fishes  in  the  sun.  In  and  out  of 
the  weeds  they  swim,  picking  off  the  fresh-water  shrimps  from 
under  the  leaves.  No  sea  otter  is  more  at  home  under  the  water 
than  they.  Yet  are  their  feet  not  webbed,  but  only  fringed  about 
with  stiff  white  hairs.  Instead  of  swimming  with  the  direct  mo- 
tion of  the  water  rat,  the  water  shrew  appears  to  move  alternately 
both  its  feet  on  either  side.  Unlike  the  common  shrew,  which 
rears  its  young  near  the  surface  of  the  ground,  often  in  the  old 
nest  of  a  field  mouse,  the  water  shrew  nests  in  holes  under  the 
bank.  It  generally,  I  think  always,  appropriates  some  existing 
hole,  which  it  no  doubt  improves  to.  its  liking." 


kss^SfeVc* 


v"U- 


Fig.  3.— Water  Shrew  (Crossopits  fodiens). 

Besides  catching  aquatic  insects,  the  water  shrew  roots  out 
larvae  from  the  muddy  banks  with  its  long  snout,  and  does  not 
hesitate  to  eat  moths  and  other  like  insects  which  fall  into  the 
water  and  drown.  The  ears  of  this  creature  are  peculiarly  adapted 
to  prevent  the  entrance  of  water.  When  it  goes  beneath  the  sur- 
face, the  pressure  of  the  water  folds  together  three  small  valves, 
which  effectually  close  the  opening  of  the  ear.  "  The  total  length 
of  the  water  shrew  is  not  quite  four  inches  and  a  half,  the  length 


668  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

of  the  head  and  body  being  a  little  niore  than  three  inches,  and 
that  of  the  tail  being  about  two  inches.  Its  snout,  although 
long,  is  not  quite  so  narrow  and  pointed  as  that  of  the  erd  shrew, 
and  its  ears  are  remarkably  small.  When  it  swims,  it  has  a  curi- 
ous habit  of  spreading  out  its  sides,  so  as  to  flatten  its  body  as  it 
floats  upon  the  water"  (Wood). 

Another  kind  of  shrew  which  frequents  the  water  is  the  oared 
shrew,  so  called  from  the  oar-like  shape  of  the  feet  and  tail.  It- 
is  the  largest  of  the  British  shrews,  its  total  length  to  the  tip  of 
the  tail  being  about  five  inches  and  a  quarter.  The  fur  on  its 
back  is  sprinkled  with  white  hairs,  and  that  on  the  flanks  and 
belly  is  blackish  gray,  tinged  with  yellow.  On  account  of  the 
general  dark  appearance  of  its  fur,  it  is  sometimes  called  the 
"black  water  shrew."  The  rustic  shrew  (Corsira  rustica)  is 
found  in  many  parts  of  England,  while  in  Ireland  it  replaces  the 
erd  shrew. 

The  smallest  mammal  known  to  exist  is  found  among  the 
shrews.  This  is  the  Etruscan  shrew,  and  it  is  found  in  Italy.  Its 
head  and  body  measure  only  an  inch  and  a  half  in  length,  and 
its  tail  adds  about  an  inch  more. 


A  CHEMICAL  PROLOGUE. 

By  C.  HANFORD   HENDERSON, 

PROFESSOR   OF   PHTSICS    AND    CHEMISTRY    IN   THE   PHILADELPHIA    MANUAL  TRAINING    SCHOOL. 

THE  human  infant,  during  the  first  few  weeks  of  its  life,  must 
be  regarded  simply  as  a  bundle  of  possibilities.  A  bright 
light,  a  loud  noise,  an  appreciable  degree  of  heat  or  of  cold,  pro- 
duce, it  is  true,  corresponding  reactions.  The  child  blinks,  or  it 
starts,  or  it  shrinks,  and  there  is  manifest  to  the  most  careless  ob- 
server a  general  sense  of  uneasiness.  But  these  reactions  must  be 
regarded  as  purely  involuntary.  One  can  not  discover  in  any  of 
them  the  presence  of  thought.  There  is  no  co-ordination  of  the 
faculties.  The  touch  includes  anything  that  may  come  within 
reach.  It  does  not  act  in  any  way  in  harmony  with  the  eye.  Nor 
does  the  gaze  become  fixed  upon  any  object.  The  eye  wanders 
from  one  thing  to  another  without  really  seeing  anything.  Simi- 
larly with  the  sense  of  hearing.  Sound  is  a  mere  vibration, 
without  any  meaning  whatever.  If  it  be  sufficiently  loud,  it 
makes  the  infant  start  much  as  a  violent  explosion  would  shake  a 
window  or  rattle  a  pile  of  dishes. 

But  as  the  weeks  roll  by,  there  comes  a  marked  change.  When 
the  child  reaches  the  age  of  three  months  the  presence  of  will  be- 
comes unmistakable.     The  faculties  begin  to  act  in  harmony  with 


A    CHEMICAL   PROLOGUE.  669 

each  other ;  or,  as  we  are  apt  to  say,  the  child  begins  to  take  no- 
tice. Then  it  is  that  the  birth  of  the  human  soul  into  the  little 
body  becomes  apparent.  The  child  is  observed  to  fix  its  gaze 
upon  objects.  It  begins  to  recognize  faces ;  it  begins  to  see ;  it 
begins  to  hear;  it  begins  to  feel.  In  a  word,  intelligence  has 
dawned. 

The  years  succeeding  infancy  are  full  of  incident.  Each  day 
is  crowded  with  new  experiences  and  new  sensations.  Years  pass 
before  the  most  obvious  of  these  are  exhausted  of  their  interest. 
The  child  reaches  out  its  hand  for  the  moon ;  it  finds  delight  in 
the  glancing  sunbeam ;  it  is  surprised  by  its  own  reflection  in  the 
glass ;  it  is  charmed  by  all  forms  of  rapid  motion ;  it  dances  glee- 
fully before  the  fire ;  it  is  made  curious  by  the  rustling  of  a  leaf, 
The  little  man  is  full  of  the  spirit  of  investigation.  He  is  a  true 
experimenter.  He  is  constantly  putting  questions  to  Nature,  and, 
after  a  fashion,  he  is  finding  answers.  He  awakens  to  conscious- 
ness in  a  world  that  is  for  him  full  of  wonders  and  surprises. 
There  is  no  truer  fairy-land  than  that  in  which  he  daily  moves. 
The  ever-present  mystery ;  the  delightful  sense  of  anticipation ; 
the  persistent  belief  in  the  impossible,  make  childhood — in  spite 
of  its  little  worries  and  absurd  fears — a  veritable  paradise,  from 
which  advancing  years,  like  the  angel  with  the  flaming  sword, 
casts  us  out  all  too  soon. 

The  activity  of  the  child  is  exceedingly  interesting  in  the  ab- 
stract ;  perhaps  a  little  inconvenient  in  the  concrete.  He  throws  a 
goblet  on  the  floor,  and  is  as  much  amazed  that  it  should  break  as 
the  owner  of  the  goblet  is  annoyed.  It  is  a  destructive  age,  and  is 
apt  to  meet  with  but  little  sympathy  from  older  persons  who  for- 
get that  they  have  gained  their  own  store  of  knowledge  from  just 
such  a  series  of  adventures.  Children  willingly  sacrifice  a  toy  to 
learn  what  it  is  made  of,  and  I  am  disposed  to  think  that  the 
knowledge  so  gained  is  worth  more  thanflt-he  plaything.  And  so 
the  first  years  of  life  are  spent  in  becoming  acquainted  with  sur- 
rounding objects.  The  days  are  very  full  of  pleasure  when  one  is 
acquiring  knowledge  in  this  simple  and  natural  fashion.  All  of 
us  have  gone  through  these  experiences.  By  hundreds  of  tests — 
pleasant  and  otherwise — we  have  learned  that  certain  substances 
are  brittle  or  tough ;  are  hard  or  soft ;  are  rigid  or  flexible ;  are 
light  or  heavy.  By  repeated  falls  we  have  gained  some  notion  of 
gravitation — that  bodies  unsupported  will  fall  to  the  ground. 
Burned  fingers  have  taught  us  that  flame  and  fire  are  hot.  Torn 
jackets  have  shown  us  that  there  is  a  point  beyond  which  we  can 
not  go  and  expect  cloth  to  resist  strains.  It  is  in  this  way  that 
we  have  gained  our  stock  of  common  knowledge.  Experience  is 
undoubtedly  the  best  teacher.  When  maturity  is  reached,  all 
have   gained  the   greater  part   of  this   common   stock,  and  the 


67o  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

affairs  of  everyday  life  proceed  upon  the  very  reasonable  suppo- 
sition that  such  knowledge  may  be  taken  for  granted.  But  the 
question  arises  as  to  whether  experience  shall  be  permitted  to  end 
here,  and  so  superficial  a  knowledge  content  us.  It  has  been  good 
for  man  to  learn  these  more  common  truths.  Would  it  not,  then, 
be  well  for  him  to  carry  the  search  somewhat  further,  and  to 
learn  facts  less  commonly  observed,  as  well  as  to  investigate  as 
far  as  he  is  able  the  cause  and  significance  of  all  phenomena  ? 
There  is  but  one  answer  :  it  is  overwhelmingly  affirmative. 

It  is  to  this  problem  that  science  addresses  itself.  The  value 
of  a  study  so  intimately  connected  with  the  conduct  of  life  is 
attracting  an  increasing  number  of  students.  The  old  battle  be- 
tween science  and  the  classics  in  college  curriculum  does  not  need 
to  be  waged  over  again.  Generations  devoted  to  the  pursuit  of 
language  have  at  length  evolved  a  people  in  whom  facility  of  ex- 
pression is  hereditary.  The  lack  of  something  to  say  alone  pre- 
vents universal  authorship.  The  youth  of  the  present  day  ask  a 
discipline  more  inspiring  than  that  offered  by  grammar  and  lexi- 
con. It  is  found  that  the  mind  can  be  both  instructed  and  trained 
without  first  killing  the  natural  curiosity  and  interest  of  the 
pupil.  It  is  true  that  there  is  a  college  near  Philadelphia  where  a 
young  woman  is  not  even  permitted  to  take  a  special  course  in 
biology  unless  she  has  an  intimate  knowledge  of  at  least  three 
foreign  tongues,  but  happily  such  absurdities  are  rare.  As  a 
rule,  the  colleges  and  universities  of  the  country  have  responded 
generously  to  the  demand  for  broad  scientific  culture.  In  that 
field  the  battle  has  been  won.  But  a  little  leaven  leaveneth  the 
whole.  Beginning  at  the  top  of  our  educational  system,  the  tend- 
ency toward  scientific  study  is  gradually  making  its  way  down  to 
the  very  Kindergarten.  It  would  be  still  more  general,  and  would 
be  a  larger  factor  in  individual  life,  were  that  important  truth  re- 
alized which  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  has  so  often  insisted  upon,  that 
scientific  knowledge  is  simply  a  higher  development  of  common 
knowledge,  and  means  only  more  accurate  and  more  extended 
thinking  about  our  environment.  And  so,  in  science,  we  are  to 
become  again  as  little  children,  and  put  more  questions  to  our 
great  mother,  Nature. 

The  results  of  this  renewed  questioning  will  not  be  trivial. 
They  serve  a  dual  purpose.  They  bring  a  much  enlarged  expe- 
rience, and  discover  to  us  the  relation  between  widely  different 
phenomena.  By  the  one  service,  the  confines  of  our  apprehended 
universe  are  expanded  to  such  magnitudes  that  they  demand  for 
their  occupancy  the  highest  intellectual  effort  of  which  man  is 
capable.  Through  the  other,  no  confusion  results  from  this  im- 
mensity. It  is  a  world  of  harmonies  and  relations.  Man  feels 
himself  not  oppressed,  but  inspired,  by  such  a  contemplation  of 


A    CHEMICAL   PROLOGUE.  671 

Infinity.  He  is  one  both  with  that  star-beam  which  left  its  home 
before  America  was  discovered,  and  with  the  blowing  flower 
which  a  breath  of  summer  has  called  forth.  It  is  no  mean  van- 
tage-ground, nor  one  which  the  spectacled  haunter  of  libraries 
can  afford  to  despise,  to  feel  one's  self  a  sharer  in  the  pulsating 
life  of  the  universe,  to  be  a  citizen  of  space,  at  home  everywhere. 
Such  is  the  position  of  the  earnest  scientist.  He  is  the  true  poet 
and  the  true  prophet.  He  lives  in  communion  with  a  God  who 
is  the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever ;  in  whom  there  is  no 
variableness,  neither  shadow  of  turning.  This  absolute  confidence 
in  the  inexorableness  of  divine  law  begets  a  serenity  of  life  which 
is  with  difficulty  disturbed,  and  a  deep  morality  of  thought  and 
deed  which  is  seldom  the  child  of  more  local  revelation.  The  idea 
of  chance  or  caprice  becomes  impossible. 

"  All's  love,  but  all's  law." 

It  is  with  a  curious  pity  that  the  student  of  Nature  watches  the 
crowd  of  worshipers  at  the  Tower  of  Babel.  He  is  willing  to 
admit,  with  Max  Muller,  that  there  is  no  thought  without  lan- 
guage, and  no  language  without  thought  ;  but  so  pre-eminent 
seems  the  thought  to  him  that  he  feels  well  assured  that  a  suit- 
able vehicle  will  not  be  wanting  for  the  carriage  of  so  royal  a 
guest.  To  such  a  one,  the  conduct  of  life  becomes  the  chief 
end  of  education.  The  crucial  test  which  he  applies  to  each 
branch  of  study  offered  to  either  young  or  old  is  not  whether  it 
is  useful,  but  whether  it  is  the  most  useful.  He  will  not  be  satis- 
fied with  any  choice  that  is  merely  second  best,  for  time  mean- 
while is  flying,  and,  if  we  do  this,  we  can  not  do  that.  The  question 
is  not  whether  any  particular  course  will  bring  wealth  of  infor- 
mation, but  rather  whether  it  will  induce  fullness  of  living.  It  is 
surprising  with  what  a  small  stock  of  facts,  if  they  be  of  the  right 
sort,  a  man  can  get  along,  and  still  be  happy  and  progressive.  I 
remember,  as  a  boy,  the  envious  regard  which  I  bestowed  upon  a 
little  friend  of  mine,  whose  dexterity  in  the  difficult  art  of  parsing 
quite  surpassed  my  own  feebler  efforts.  But  one  day  I  made  the 
discovery  that  not  only  was  he  no  better  for  entertaining  that  sort 
of  knowledge,  but,  what  was  more  surprising,  his  English  was  no 
more  polished  than  my  own.  Since  that  time  I  have  had  frequent 
occasion  to  recall  the  discovery,  and  I  confess  that  it  has  recon- 
ciled me  to  an  ignorance  upon  many  similar  subjects.  The  sub- 
stitution of  this  artificial,  lifeless  knowledge  for  that  which  is 
natural  and  organic,  must  be  regarded  as  scarcely  less  than  crimi- 
nal by  those  who  hold  the  true  aim  of  culture  to  be  the  evolution 
of  wisdom  and  of  goodness.  A  man  can  not  be  expected  to  think 
soundly  about  a  world  of  which  he  is  quite  ignorant,  or  to  bring 
himself  into  relation  with  a  universe  whose  confines  are  nearer 
than  his  finger-ends. 


672  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

It  is  true  that  scientific  education  may  fail  quite  as  dismally 
as  the  classical  has  in  times  past  if  the  grand  generalizations  of 
science  are  to  be  obscured  by  its  manifold  details.  Emerson  has 
somewhere  said,  "  Men  are  so  prone  to  mistake  the  means  for  the 
end  that  even  natural  history  has  its  pedants  who  mistake  classi- 
fication for  science/'  As  a  detached  fact,  the  knowledge  that 
water  is  composed  of  hydrogen  and  oxygen  has  no  value.  It  is 
only  when  brought  into  relation  with  other  chemical  facts  that  it 
becomes  significant.  The  statement  found  in  elementary  physical 
geographies  and  geologies  that  nine  hundred  and  seventy-seven 
thousandths  of  the  earth's  crust  consist  of  the  nine  elements — 
oxygen,  silicon,  aluminium,  calcium,  magnesium,  sodium,  potas- 
sium, iron,  and  carbon — carries  very  little  instruction  with  it  un- 
less the  children  know  the  substances  of  which  these  names  are 
the  symbols.  Mere  classification  is  a  weariness  of  the  flesh.  Sci- 
ence has  no  greater  lesson  to  teach  than  roots  and  case  endings 
have,  unless  it  be  linked  to  human  life.  Nor  must  it  be  pursued 
externally ;  it  must  touch  our  own  experience,  and  its  truths  be- 
come a  part  of  us,  to  be  remembered  because  they  can  not  be  for- 
gotten. This  is  knowledge,  and  nothing  less  than  this  deserves 
the  name. 

It  is  not  so  difficult  to  make  even  the  more  profound  scientific 
studies  touch  intimately  our  daily  life  as  one  would  imagine  who 
has  been  taught  to  mistake  classification  for  science.  It  is  true 
that  the  multitude  of  objects  which  come  within  the  field  of  sci- 
entific research  require  for  their  distinction  a  nomenclature  which 
is  not  brief,  but  the  student  needs  only  a  small  part  of  it  in  the 
beginning.  His  vocabulary  will  grow  with  the  using.  In  his 
"American  Addresses"  Prof.  Huxley  says,  "For  the  purpose  of 
getting  a  definite  knowledge  of  what  constitutes  the  leading- 
modifications  of  animal  and  plant  life,  it  is  not  needful  to  ex- 
amine more  than  a  comparatively  small  number  of  animals  and 
plants."  This,  indeed,  is  the  distinctive  method  of  science.  The 
student  is  made  to  advance  from  the  particular  to  the  general. 
The  result  justifies  the  method.  By  knowing  a  few  things  well, 
one  knows  everything,  for  one  can  not  know  even  a  few  things 
well  without  having  discovered  by  that  very  study  the  essential 
unity  underlying  all  things.  Our  great  geologists  are  not  those 
who  have  "  done  "  the  earth,  but  rather  those  who  have  patiently 
and  persistently  studied  a  very  small  corner  of  it.  To  this  rational 
mode  of  study  all  sciences  are  unmistakably  coming.  From  its 
very  nature,  chemistry  has  been  among  the  last  to  fall  into  line. 
It  has  been  held,  and  in  most  quarters  is  still  held,  that  the  num- 
ber of  substances  studied  by  the  chemist  should  be  limited  only 
by  the  span  of  life.  In  accordance  with  this  view,  the  young  stu- 
dent, instead  of  being  allowed  to  make  friends  with  a  few  of  the 


A    CHEMICAL   PROLOGUE.  673 

elements  and  really  inquire  into  their  secrets,  lias  been  hurriedly 
introduced  to  all  of  those  available,  and  has  been  left  to  struggle 
as  best  he  could  with  their  multitudinous  compounds.  The  result 
has  been  to  confuse,  and  in  many  cases  finally  to  disgust.  Chem- 
istry— and  I  do  not  wonder  at  it — has  been  voted  "  dry  "  by  the 
majority  of  college  boys. 

This  result  has  come  about  because  the  science  has  been  unsci- 
entific. The  meaning  of  science  is  to  know,  but  one  knows  very 
little  from  such  a  gallop  among  the  varied  forms  of  matter.  If 
one  knows  thoroughly  two  or  three  typical  gases,  two  or  three 
typical  liquids,  and  two  or  three  typical  solids,  he  knows  chemis- 
try. He  may  not  be  worth  much  as  a  reference-book ;  but  then 
encyclopedias  are  nearly  always  available,  while  thoughtful  men 
are  rare.  Further,  the  quality  of  such  knowledge  deserves  atten- 
tion. It  has  become  a  part  of  the  man  himself,  for  he  has  learned 
it  the  way  children  learn  things.  It  is  no  longer  simply  a  fact  of 
chemistry;  it  is  a  fact  of  life,  a  part  of  the  oft-repeated  expe- 
riences which  go  to  make  up  his  intelligence.  Imagine  for  a 
moment  the  amusement  of  a  bright  boy  were  he  asked  whether  he 
remembered  if  stones  are  hard,  or  lead  heavy,  or  glass  brittle. 
His  answer  will  be  that  of  course  he  does  not ;  he  knoivs  that  they 
are.  It  is  knowledge  of  a  similar  definiteness  that  the  scientific 
method  strives  to  cultivate.  Studied  in  this  way,  chemistry  ceases 
to  be  a  matter  of  simple  memory,  and  becomes  almost  exclusively 
a  branch  of  pure  reasoning.  It  passes  from  the  objective  to  the 
subjective  world,  and  becomes  a  valuable  means  of  mental  de- 
velopment as  well  as  a  study  now  well  worth  pursuing  for  its 
own  sake. 

One  of  the  first  requisites,  then,  in  the  proper  presentation  of 
chemistry  seems  to  be  the  entire  banishment  of  that  alien  element 
which  makes  it  a  thing  by  itself,  and  the  insistence  upon  its  recog- 
nition as  a  purely  natural  extension  of  common  knowledge.  Any 
experience  in  life  will  form  a  suitable  starting-point.  It  may 
readily  be  analyzed  into  its  components ;  the  chemical  element 
can  not  well  be  missed.  If  the  occurrence  be  such  as  we  com- 
monly call  accidental,  or,  more  strictly  speaking,  if  it  be  devoid  of 
human  agency,  it  will  resolve  itself  into  two  terms,  conveniently 
expressible  by  the  words  matter  and  motion.  If  the  occurrence 
be  voluntarily  producible,  a  third  element  is  involved — that  of 
will.  It  would  be  foreign  to  the  present  purpose  to  enter  the 
vexed  discussion  of  whether  this  third  element,  this  unknown 
something  which  makes  the  distinction  between  conscious  and 
unconscious  existence,  is  the  cause  or  the  result  of  those  reactions 
in  matter  and  force  with  which  will,  as  we  know  it,  seems  to  be 
indissolubly  connected.  It  will  be  sufficient  for  the  present  to  call 
it  x,  a  designation  involving  neither  issues  nor  compromises. 

vol.  xxxvi. — 43 


674  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

Any  common  event,  then,  which  may  be  selected  by  way  of  illus- 
tration, will  furnish  two  elements  open  to  scientific  study — matter 
and  motion.  The  distinction  between  the  two  is  more  convenient 
than  essential,  for  we  are  unacquainted  with  matter  devoid  of 
motion,  and  the  idea  of  motion  divorced  from  matter  is  similarly 
unthinkable.  However,  the  distinction  is  convenient,  so  that  it 
will  be  well  to  follow  it.  The  study  of  the  analysis  and  synthesis 
of  matter  is  the  field  of  chemistry.  The  study  of  those  varied 
motions  which  give  to  matter  its  apparent  properties  belongs  to 
the  domain  of  physics.  The  two  sciences  are  commonly  made  the 
objects  of  separate  study.  It  would  be  more  true  to  nature  to 
consider  chemistry  simply  as  a  branch  or  subdivision  of  physics, 
for  it  is  impossible  to  make  any  change  in  the  constitution  of 
matter  without  at  the  same  time  disturbing  the  physical  equilib- 
rium. Heat  is  either  given  out  during  the  reaction  or  it  is  taken 
in.  If  it  be  chemical  combination,  heat  is  commonly  disengaged  ; 
if  a  chemical  disunion,  heat  is  commonly  involved.  So  general  is 
the  truth  of  this  statement  that  we  are  able  to  predict  what  will 
occur  chemically  if  the  physical  conditions  are  known.  If  there 
be  two  or  more  reactions  possible,  that  one  will  take  place  which 
will  liberate  the  greatest  amount  of  heat.  It  is,  indeed,  the  dis- 
tinctive character  of  the  so-called  New  Chemistry  that  it  takes 
cognizance  of  the  physical  reaction  which  invariably  accompanies 
the  chemical.  If  the  labors  of  Crookes,  Roscoe,  Hunt,  and  other 
eminent  contemporary  chemists  count  for  anything,  it  is  from 
such  joint  study  as  this  that  the  best  secrets  of  chemistry  are  to 
be  evolved.  With  the  view  of  lessening  difficulties,  this  necessary 
interdependence  between  the  chemical  and  physical  is  frequently 
omitted  in  presenting  the  science  to  young  students ;  but  the  prac- 
tice of  teaching  errors  or  half-truths,  in  order  that  the  truth  itself 
may  afterward  be  apprehended,  has  as  little  excuse  in  science  as 
it  has  in  religion,  for  generally  it  is  the  error  which  proves  obdu- 
rate, and  the  subsequent  truth  has  no  chance  whatever.  It  robs 
the  science,  moreover,  of  an  element  of  vitality  which  is  one  of  its 
chief  attractions. 

In  selecting  our  illustrations  of  chemical  action,  the  more 
commonplace  the  event  the  better.  The  affairs  of  every-day  life 
present  such  excellent  objects  for  study  that  it  would  be  as  un- 
necessary as  it  would  be  uselessly  distracting  to  go  in  search  of 
the  unusual,  until  the  fundamental  principles  have  been  learned 
from  a  study  of  that  which  is  familiar.  That  coal  will  burn, 
that  milk  will  sour,  that  iron  will  rust,  that  cider  will  turn  into 
vinegar,  and  that  wood  will  decay,  are  all  well-known  facts  of 
every-day  life.  But  they  are  also  facts  of  chemistry,  for  they  in- 
volve a  change  in  the  composition  of  matter.  It  needs  no  scientist 
to  perceive  that  the  original  coal,  milk,  iron,  cider,  and  wood  have 


A    CHEMICAL   PROLOGUE.  675 

disappeared  as  such,  and  that  new  substances  with  totally  differ- 
ent properties  have  taken  their  place.  Yet  this  is  all  that  a  chemi- 
cal reaction  means.  It  may  be  studied  any  day  in  the  kitchen. 
The  question  of  heat  is  quite  as  obvious.  The  coal  has  been 
burned  for  that  very  purpose.  At  first  sight  these  several  facts 
seem  entirely  unrelated.  They  have  been  selected  quite  at  ran- 
dom. A  moment's  consideration,  however,  will  show  that  these 
reactions,  though  seemingly  dissimilar,  are  essentially  identical. 
Your  cook  may  not  be  able  to  explain  them  to  you,  but  she  can 
tell  how  they  may  be  prevented,  and  that  will  serve  the  purpose 
equally  well.  Her  answer  will  be  the  same  for  all :  Keep  the  air 
from  them.  A  fire  with  all  the  draught  closed  off  goes  out.  Her- 
metically sealed  milk  keeps  fresh.  Painted  iron  does  not  rust. 
Bottled  cider  remains  cider.  Wood,  not  exposed  to  the  air,  will 
endure  for  centuries.  So,  after  all,  the  common  element  in  these 
reactions  is  not  difficult  to  find.  It  is  manifestly  the  air,  for,  in 
the  absence  of  that,  they  do  not  occur.  To  the  chemist  they  are 
all  cases  of  oxidation.  If  he  wishes  to  prevent  them,  he  does  just 
what  the  cook  does — he  keeps  the  oxygen  of  the  air  away  from 
them.  That  is  all  that  Mr.  Edison  does  when  he  pumps  the  air 
out  of  the  bulb  of  his  incandescent  electric  light,  so  that  the  little 
carbon  horseshoe  shall  not  burn  up. 

Now,  there  is  nothing  occult  about  all  this.  The  examples 
given  are  not  sufficient  in  number  to  warrant  any  very  broad 
generalization,  but  they  can  readily  be  extended,  and  conclusions 
of  universal  application  reached  without  other  resource  than  that 
found  within  one's  self.  Beginning  in  the  home,  one's  conclusions 
will  be  found  to  extend  to  the  town,  to  the  county,  to  the  State,  to 
the  world.  One  may  finally  think  about  the  universe.  The  spirit 
in  which  these  investigations  are  conducted  will  be  that  of  an 
inquiring  child.  It  is  literally  true  in  science  that  "  a  little  child 
shall  lead  them."  The  men  who  have  built  it  up  have  labored 
successfully  in  exact  proportion  as  they  have  put  their  questions 
directly  to  Nature  rather  than  to  books  and  to  the  sages.  The 
most  hopeful  sign  that  the  growing  scientific  mind  can  disclose  to 
its  fellows  is  that  increasing  simplicity  of  heart  and  mind  which 
has  characterized  all  the  immortals  recognized  by  science.  It  is 
this  very  faculty  that  has  made  men  of  science  so  notoriously 
incompetent  in  business  matters.  We  have  come  to  expect  little 
news  from  a  sharp  bargainer. 

Questioning  Nature  in  this  childlike  and  natural  fashion,  life 
becomes  again  a  daily  revelation,  and  inspiration  a  contemporary 
event.  It  is  paradise  regained.  There  are  still  suffering  and  sor- 
row, but  there  are  also  their  antidotes,  hope  and  faith.  There  is 
universal  law,  but  there  is  also  universal  love.  The  severe  har- 
monies of  the  universe  lend  grandeur  and  dignity  to  the  pass- 


676  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

ing  moment.     One  feels  that  the  destiny  of  man  is  assuredly 
noble. 

The  student  will  not  go  far  in  his  quest  before  facts  begin  to 
accumulate  which  are  fraught  with  the  deepest  significance.  He 
has  known  perfectly  well  all  along  that  only  a  certain  amount  of 
heat  can  be  obtained  from  burning  a  definite  quantity  of  coal,  and 
that  it  will  be  given  out  in  proportion  to  the  rapidity  with  which 
the  burning  is  accomplished.  If  he  wishes  his  room  to  be  warmer, 
he  opens  the  draught  and  gives  a  more  abundant  supply  of  air  to 
the  fire.  The  operation  has  been  too  often  repeated  to  excite  any 
wonder.  But  it  becomes  significant  when  he  discovers  that  all 
other  chemical  reactions  rest  upon  precisely  the  same  principle. 
Each  substance  is  found  to  have  a  definite  combining  power,  and 
in  every  reaction,  however  simple  or  complex  it  may  be,  a  definite 
quantity  of  one  element  unites  with  a  definite  quantity  of  another. 
If  too  much  of  either  element  be  taken,  it  will  be  left  over.  But 
this  is  the  law  of  definite  proportions  discovered  by  Dr.  Dalton  in 
the  early  part  of  the  century  and  now  the  very  corner-stone  of 
chemical  science.  If  the  student  further  inquire  what  has  become 
of  the  coal  and  the  oxygen  whose  union  we  call  combustion,  he 
will  find  that  a  colorless  gas,  carbonic-acid  gas,  has  been  formed 
whose  weight  is  exactly  equal  to  the  sum  of  their  weights.  Other 
illustrations  will  yield  parallel  results,  and  the  far-reaching  con- 
clusion will  be  forced  upon  him  that  man  is  neither  able  to  create 
matter  nor  to  destroy  it.  This  single  truth  once  really  appre- 
hended gives  a  stability  to  thought  which  can  scarcely  come  from 
any  other  single  consideration.  The  universe  is  seen  to  be  in  an 
eternal  ebb  and  flow,  but  its  materials  are  seen  to  be  constant. 
Once  persuaded  of  the  fact,  and  the  suspicion  arises  that  the  same 
may  be  the  case  with  heat  and  other  forms  of  motion.  And  such 
he  finds  to  be  the  truth.  He  learns  that  energy  likewise  is  neither 
creatable  nor  destructible,  and  that  all  the  work  going  on  in  the 
universe  is  simply  that  of  transformation.  New  distributions  of 
motion  and  new  combinations  in  matter,  these  make  up  the  cosmic 
life,  but  the  sum  total  in  each  case  remains  unaltered.  Perpetual 
motion  is  seen  to  be  more  than  a  possibility ;  it  is  found  to  be  a 
necessity.  One  sees  all  of  the  universe  in  a  state  of  ceaseless  flux, 
sees  that  nothing  stands  still,  that  growth  involves  never-ending 
change,  and  becomes  prepared  to  accept  without  fear  those 
changes  of  opinion  which  intellectual  growth  necessitates  as  well 
as  that  great  change  of  state  which  we  call  death.  I  can  not  hold 
as  idle  or  of  secondary  import  the  speculations  which  these  con- 
siderations engender.  It  is  good  for  a  man  to  penetrate  as  far  as 
he  may  into  the  established  order  of  the  universe,  for  its  secret  is 
his  secret,  its  process  is  his  process.  Curious  thoughts  spring 
from  brooding  over  these  doctrines  of  the  conservation  of  force 


A    CHEMICAL   PROLOGUE.  677 

and  matter.  If  in  imagination  we  go  back  to  that  early  time 
when  our  little  planet  was  thrown  off  from  its  parent  sun,  we  see, 
in  the  nebulous  stuff  from  which  it  has  precipitated,  the  materials 
of  our  own  bodies.  We  are  conscious  of  having  had  part  in  that 
wonderful  birth,  of  having  been  present  at  the  creation  of  the 
earth.  It  is  true  that  we  were  very  absent-minded  at  the  time, 
but  nevertheless  our  interest  in  that  little  ball  of  glowing  vapor 
sent  whirling  off  into  space  was  even  then  a  very  personal  one, 
for  it  was  the  aerial  ship  that  carried  our  own  destinies.  If,  then, 
the  smallest  atom  that  to-day  forms  a  part  of  the  delicate  organ- 
ism which  we  hold  to  be  the  tool  of  an  indwelling  spirit,  has  ex- 
isted from  all  time,  and  is  pledged  to  all  eternity,  it  is  difficult  for 
the  student  of  nature  to  conceive  that  the  intellect  which  has 
given  worth  and  dignity  to  this  otherwise  inanimate  mass  of 
matter  should  not  be  equally  enduring.  He  is  led  to  believe  in 
an  immortality  of  spirit  which  has  known  no  beginning  and  will 
know  no  end.  He  is  brought  to  what  may  be  called  the  doctrine 
of  the  conservation  of  soul. 

It  has  been  a  dream  of  poets  and  philosophers  that  there  is  in 
all  the  universe  but  one  true  element,  and  that  the  so-called  ele- 
ments— what  we  know  as  gold  and  silver,  copper  and  iron,  hydro- 
gen and  oxygen — are  but  modifications  of  this  one  primordial  unit. 
The  chemists  of  the  nineteenth  century  are  turning  poets  and 
dreaming  this  dream  over  again.  What  would  have  been  scorned 
but  a  few  years  ago  as  alchemists'  madness  is  now  orthodox 
science.  It  is  hard  to  believe  that  such  a  heavy,  infusible  metal 
as  platinum  has  anything  in  common  with  a  light,  combustible 
gas  like  hydrogen ;  but,  when  we  come  to  think  about  it,  it  is  still 
harder  to  believe  that  the  two  are  unrelated.  When  it  is  found 
that  such  dissimilar  substances  as  charcoal,  graphite,  and  diamond 
are  chemically  identical,  it  is  quite  possible  to  believe  that  all  the 
elements  are  the  products  of  a  chemical  evolution  that  has  per- 
haps started  with  the  element  "  helium,"  which  the  spectroscope 
discloses  in  the  atmosphere  of  the  sun.  Thus  the  belief  in  the 
essential  unity  of  the  universe  grows  apace,  and  the  cosmic 
drama  gains  in  wonder  as  it  gains  in  simplicity.  What  Goethe 
has  called  "  the  open  secret  of  the  universe "  stares  every  man  in 
the  face.  As  one  follows  the  wonderful  story  of  its  mode  of  be- 
coming, and  traces  the  far-reaching  harmonies  and  relations,  he 
is  moved  to  exclaim  with  the  devout  Kepler,  "  O  God,  I  think 
over  again  thy  thoughts  after  thee ! " 

These  considerations  by  the  way,  have  for  their  sole  purpose 
the  indication  of  what  I  feel  to  be  the  rational  mode  of  approach 
to  the  study  of  chemistry.  It  is  a  science  so  competent  to  become 
a  means  of  keen  intellectual  pleasure  and  a  stimulus  to  the  most 
profound  thinking,  that  its  neglect  by  all  but  special  students 


678  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

seems  to  me  the  neglect  of  a  source  of  inspiration  that  one  can  ill 
afford  to  slight.  Pursued  in  the  spirit  that  I  have  tried  to  in- 
dicate, as  a  natural  extension  of  the  experimental  knowledge 
of  childhood,  and  through  the  medium  of  a  few  substances 
thoroughly  studied,  I  venture  to  recommend  it  quite  as  highly  as 
a  means  of  culture,  as  an  end  valuable  in  itself.  It  would  be  an 
easy  task  to  extend  such  considerations  indefinitely ;  but  I  want 
rather  to  open  the  right  door  into  chemistry,  than  to  decorate  its 
vestibule.  "  It  is  a  foolish  thing,"  says  the  author  of  the  Book 
of  Maccabees,  "  to  make  a  long  prologue  and  to  be  short  in  the- 

story  itself." 

♦♦♦ 

THE  PHYSIOGNOMY  OF  THE  MOUTH. 

By  TH.   PIDEKIT. 

THE  muscles  of  the  mouth  have  a  triple  function.  They  serve- 
in  the  articulation  of  sounds,  and  assist  the  activity  of  the 
taste  and  the  hearing.  Our  present  study  is  limited  to  the  move- 
ments of  the  buccal  muscles,  which  have  to  do  with  the  taste. 
Taste  is  the  earliest  developed  of  all  our  senses,  and  abides  with 
us  from  the  first  to  the  last  hour  of  life.  No  other  sense  controls 
man  so  early  or  with  so  much  power ;  none  remains  so  long  faith- 
ful to  him. 

The  lips  may  be  regarded  as  a  flat,  circular  muscle  placed  in 
front  of  the  buccal  cavity,  cleft  horizontally  in  the  middle,  with 
a  moist,  ruddy  mucous  membrane  covering  the  edges  of  the  open- 
ing thus  formed.  Not  regarding  now  the  muscles  of  the  lower 
jaw,  the  mouth  is  closed  by  the  contraction  of  the  orbicular  mus- 
cle of  the  lips,  and  opened  by  antagonistic  muscles  which  are  fixed 
on  its  outer  edge.  The  mouth  is,  then,  destined  to  undergo  very 
great  variations  of  form ;  and,  by  virtue  of  this  variety  of  its 
movements,  it  enjoys  at  least  as  much  importance  as  the  eyes  in 
whatever  concerns  the  mimetic  expression  of  the  countenance. 

When  any  object  perceptible  to  the  taste  is  placed  upon  the 
tongue  at  rest,  the  sensation  of  the  contact  is  vague  and  im- 
perfect. It  is  only  when  the  upper  face  of  the  tongue  is  pressed 
against  the  osseous  vault  of  the  palate  that  a  complete  impression 
of  the  object  can  be  made  upon  the  nerves  of  taste,  the  extremi- 
ties of  which  abut  upon  the  caliciform  papillae  of  this  surface. 
Hence,  when  in  mastication  we  inopportunely  encounter  anything 
of  disagreeable  taste,  we  at  once  separate  our  jaws  to  get  the  tongue 
as  far  as  possible  from  the  palate  or  to  prevent  any  further  rub- 
bing of  the  upper  face  of  the  tongue  and  repetition  of  the  bad 
taste.  The  movement  of  the  jaws  is  accompanied  by  a  corre- 
sponding movement  of  the  mouth.     The  upper  lip  is  removed 


THE  PHYSIOGNOMY   OF  THE  MOUTH 


679 


from  the  lower  lip  as  the  palate  is  removed  from  the  tongue  by 
the  levator  muscles  of  the  lip  and  of  the  wings  of  the  nose  draw- 
ing it  up.  Each  of  these  two  muscles  rises  near  the  inner  corner 
of  the  eye,  and  ends  in  two  points — one  of  which  is  attached  to 
the  wing  of  the  nose,  and  the  other  to  the  middle  lateral  half  of 
the  upper  lip.  When  these  muscles  come  into  play,  the  expression 
of  the  face  is  modified  in  a  striking  manner.  The  red  edge  of  the 
upper  lip  is  drawn  up  in  the  middle  of  its  upper  half,  and  this 
part  of  the  lip  is  turned  over,  so  as  to  give  the  line  of  its  profile 
a  broken  appearance.  The  wings  of  the  nose  are  raised,  and  the 
naso-lateral  grooves,  which,  beginning  at  these  wings,  continue 
in  an  oblique  direction  to  the  commissure  of  the  lips,  appear  near 
their  beginning  strongly  pronounced  and  unusually  straight.  A 
still  further  effect  of  the  movement  is  an  even  folding  of  the  skin 
of  the  back  of  the  nose  (Fig.  1).  The  expression  thus  depicted, 
appearing  primarily  with  bitter  tastes,  is  also  associated  with 
other  disagreeable  feelings,  which  have  become  characterized  by 
the  term  bitter. 

While  in  ordinary  disagreeable  representations  and  disposi- 
tions the  skin  of  the  forehead  alone  is  wrinkled  vertically,  the 
bitter  trait  of  the  mouth  also  appears  in  such  as  are  very  disagree- 
able (Fig.  2).     The  significance  and  importance  of  this  expression 


Fig.  1.— Bitter  Expression. 


Fig.  2.— Bitter  Expression,  with  Vertical  Wrinkles 
on  the  Forehead. 


vary  essentially  according  to  the  nature  of  the  look.  If  it  is  dull, 
the  face  bears  the  impress  of  bitter  suffering,  and  it  is  a  sign  that 
the  person  is  suffering  from  bitter  feelings  and  trials ;  but  if  it  is 
firm  and  energetic,  the  face  then  wears  the  marks  of  lively  reac- 
tion and  violent  irritation.  When  the  eyes  are  directed  upward 
in  ecstasy,  the  vertical  wrinkles  are  of  course  absent,  and  then, 
while  the  upper  lip  is  contracting  bitterly,  the  face  expresses  a 
painful  concentration.  Such  is  the  expression  which  painters 
have  sought  or  should  have  sought  to  represent  in  the  penitent 


680  THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

Magdalen.  If,  instead  of  vertical  wrinkles,  horizontal  furrows 
appear  on  the  forehead  while  the  mouth  is  wearing  the  bitter  trait, 
we  recognize  that  the  man  is  occupied  with  painful  recollections. 

The  physiognomy  is  most  violently  changed  when  the  expres- 
sion of  fear  is  manifested  simultaneously  with  the  bitter  trait,  or 
when  the  vertical  and  horizontal  wrinkles  both  appear  on  the 
forehead  at  once.  In  this  way  the  countenance  receives  the  ex- 
pression of  violent  terror.  Leonardo  da  Vinci  describes  this  ex- 
pression in  very  striking  terms  when  he  says :  "  Paint  wounded 
and  bruised  persons  with  pale  faces  and  elevated  eyebrows ;  the 
whole,  including  the  flesh  above,  covered  with  wrinkles,  the  out- 
side of  the  nostrils  with  a  few  wrinkles  ending  near  the  eye. 
The  wrinkled  nostrils  should  raise  themselves  and  the  upper  lip 
with  them,  so  as  to  expose  the  upper  teeth,  and  these,  parting 
from  the  lower  jaw,  will  indicate  the  cries  of  the  wounded."  Dar- 
win describes  other  symptoms  of  terror  and  fear  as  follows :  "  The 
heart  beats  quickly  and  violently,  so  that  it  palpitates  or  knocks 
against  the  ribs.  .  .  .  The  skin  becomes  instantly  pale,  as  during 
incipient  faintness.  This  paleness  of  the  surface,  however,  is 
probably  in  large  part  or  exclusively  due  to  the  vaso-motor  center 
being  affected  in  such  a  manner  as  to  cause  the  contraction  of  the 
small  arteries  of  the  skin.  That  the  skin  is  much  affected  under 
the  sense  of  great  fear  we  see  in  the  marvelous  and  inexplicable 
manner  in  which  perspiration  immediately  exudes  from  it.  This 
exudation  is  all  the  more  remarkable  as  the  surface  is  then  cold, 
and  hence  the  term  a  cold  sweat,  whereas  the  sudorific  glands 
are  properly  excited  into  action  when  the  surface  is  heated.  The 
hairs  also  on  the  skin  stand  erect,  and  the  superficial  muscles 
shiver.  In  connection  with  the  disturbed  action  of  the  heart,  the 
breathing  is  hurried.  .  .  .  One  of  the  best-marked  symptoms  is 
the  trembling  of  all  the  muscles  of  the  body.  .  .  .  From  this  cause, 
and  from  the  dryness  of  the  mouth,  the  voice  becomes  husky  or 
indistinct,  or  may  altogether  fail.  '  Obstupui  steteruntque  comse, 
et  vox  f aucibus  haesit ' "  (I  was  amazed,  my  hair  stood  up,  and  my 
voice  stuck  in  my  throat).  This  form  of  mouth  occurs  physiog- 
nomically  among  persons  of  a  soured  nature. 

The  sweet  trait  is  opposed  to  the  expression  of  bitterness ;  for 
while  that  seeks  to  avoid  as  much  as  possible  a  disagreeable  sen- 
sation of  taste,  in  it  the  muscles  are  set  to  play  in  such  a  manner 
as  to  gather  up  the  gustatory  impressions  as  completely  as  pos- 
sible. The  mouth  is  closed  and  the  cheeks  are  strongly  pressed 
against  the  teeth,  so  as  to  concentrate  and  retain  upon  the  tongue 
all  the  parts  of  the  sapid  object,  which  during  mastication  and 
degustation  glide  between  the  cheeks  and  the  jaws.  In  this  way 
the  activity  of  the  nerves  of  taste  is  greatly  assisted.  The  cheeks 
are  pressed  against  the  teeth  chiefly  by  the  action  of  the  same 


THE  PHYSIOGNOMY   OF  THE  MOUTH. 


68  i 


Fig.  3.— Sweet  Expression. 


muscles  as  are  exercised  in  laughing,  and  for  this  reason  the 
sweet  trait  bears  a  degree  of  resemblance  with  the  trait  of  the 
smile ;  but  the  simultaneous  contraction  of  the  orbicular  muscle 
of  the  lips  suppresses  to  a  considerable  extent  the  lateral  effect  of 
the  laughing  muscles.  The  most  es- 
sential characteristic,  however,  of  the 
sweet  trait  is  the  peculiar  form  as- 
sumed by  the  lips  ;  their  orbicular 
muscle  being  drawn  closely  against 
the  teeth,  the  red  lips  lose  their  nor- 
mal swell,  so  as  to  appear  flattened 
and  straight  when  viewed  in  profile 
(Fig.  3).  The  mouth  is  drawn  up  in 
this  way  under  the  influence  of  un- 
usually agreeable,  sweet  tastes,  and 
also  as  a  mimic  expression  of  ex- 
tremely pleasant  feelings  in  the  repre- 
sentations and  recollections  to  which 
the  usages  of  language  have  given  the  epithet  of  sweet. 

The  sweet  mouth,  combined  with  an  enraptured  look,  gives  the 
mimic  expression  of  a  pleasant  reverie ;  joined  with  a  sly  look, 
the  expression  of  amorous  coquetry ;  with  horizontal  wrinkles  it 
suggests  occupation  with  pleasant  thoughts  or  recollections.  It 
frequently  appears  when  the  lips  are  prepared  to  give  a  real  or 
feigned  kiss.  Inasmuch  as  the  very  agreeable  feelings  to  which 
the  term  sweet  is  applied  are  of  only  exceptional  occurrence,  this 
trait  is  rarely  developed  physiognomically.  It  hardly  ever  exists 
among  men,  but  is  occasionally  found  among  extremely  affection- 
ate women.  When  it  becomes  constant  upon  the  face,  it  pro- 
duces an  impression  akin  to  that  of  a  too  constant  sweet  taste,  as 
if  there  were  too  much  of  it.  If  we  observe  the  trait  plainly 
impressed  upon  a  person,  we  shall  be  likely  to  find  him  in  con- 
versation making  much  use  of  the  word  sweet,  and  speaking  of 
"  sweet  women,"  "  sweet  music,"  "  sweet  love,"  and  even  of  "  sweet 
grief." 

The  central  fibers  of  the  orbicular  muscle  are  capable  of  con- 
traction independently  of  the  lateral  fibers,  and  this  movement 
gives  the  scrutinizing  trait.  When  we  are  on  the  point  of  tasting 
a  sapid  substance,  such  as  wine,  we  introduce  it  between  the  lips 
projected  into  the  form  of  a  muzzle ;  we  then  carefully  let  the 
liquid  flow  slowly  upon  the  upper  surface  of  the  tongue,  in  order 
that  the  impression  of  the  taste  may  be  prolonged  as  much  as 
possible,  and  we  may  gain  more  time  to  appreciate  it.  The  same 
expression  may  be  observed  on  the  faces  of  men  who  are  exam- 
ining the  value  of  an  object,  whether  it  be  something  perceptible 
to  the  senses,  or  abstract  thoughts  or  associations.     The  art  critic 


68z 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


looking  at  a  picture,  the  doctor  feeling  the  pulse  of  his  patient, 
the  judge  weighing  the  testimony  of  a  witness,  the  merchant 
deliberating  concerning  the  acceptability  of  a  commercial  propo- 
sition— all  are  tempted  involuntarily  to  project  their  lips,  as  if 
about  to  taste  something  sweet,  and  that  the  more  readily  as  they 
fancy  themselves  better  qualified  to  form  a  judgment.  This  trait 
furthermore  betrays  a  kind  of  feeling  of  one's  own  value,  a  feel- 
ing of  superiority ;  for  whoever  considers  himself  authorized  and 
fit  to  pass  a  definite  judgment  on  men,  things,  or  events  at  once 
feels  that  by  virtue  of  his  quality  of  judge  he  rises  superior  to 


Fig.  4.— Scrutinizing 
Expression. 


Fig.  5.— Scrutinizing  Expression, 
with  Vertical  Wrinkles. 


Fig.  6. — Scrutinizing  Expres- 
sion, with  Horizontal 
Wrinkles. 


the  object  on  which  he  is  called  to  pronounce.  For  this  reason 
the  scrutinizing  trait  is  also  often  the  expression  of  arrogance 
and  presumption  (Fig.  4).  If  the  scrutinizing  trait  is  associated 
with  vertical  wrinkles,  it  indicates  that,  while  the  man  is  weigh- 
ing and  studying  the  reasons  for  and  against  the  judgment  he  is 
to  pronounce,  whatever  may  be  his  final  decision,  he  is  already 
in  a  bad  humor  (Fig.  5).  With  horizontal  wrinkles,  the  scruti- 
nizing trait  indicates  that  attention  is  fixed  in  the  highest  degree 
upon  the  matters  that  are  under  examination,  and  that  they  are 
considered  very  important  or  very  delicate.  A  fine  representa- 
tion of  this  expression  is  given  in  Hasenklever's  picture,  "La 
Degustation  du  Vin  "  ("  The  Wine-tasting,"  Fig.  7).  This  expres- 
sion is  frequently  found  among  men  who  think  much  of  the 
pleasures  of  the  table.  Their  imagination  indulging  in  fancies  of 
pleasures  obtained  or  anticipated,  their  lips  advance  as  if  they 
were  really  tasting  what  they  are  imagining ;  and  thus  the  scru- 
tinizing trait  becomes  physiognomic.  It  is  also  developed  in  men 
who  have  a  high  idea  of  their  own  value,  and  feel  called  upon  to 
judge  concerning  the  value  of  other  men. 


THE  PHYSIOGNOMY   OF  THE  MOUTH. 


683 


When  we  make  any  very  violent  bodily  effort,  as  to  pnt  on  a 
tight  boot,  or  to  open  a  tightly  closed  door,  besides  contracting 
the  muscles  of  the  arm,  we  stiffen  the  neck,  clinch  the  teeth,  and 
press  the  lips  close  upon  one  another.  It  is  very  evident  that 
these  muscles  do  not  in  any  way  contribute  to  the  attainment  of 
the  end  proposed ;  but  at  the  moment  when  the  man  is  calling 
upon  all  his  strength  and  energy  to  overcome  a  difficulty  by 
means  of  a  bodily  effort,  the 
intensity  of  his  will  is  mani- 
fested not  only  in  the  muscles 
that  serve  to  produce  the  de- 
sired effect,  but  also  in  all 
the  muscular  apparatus  of 
the  body.  Every  muscle  con- 
tracts ;  and,  of  course,  the  con- 
traction of  the  weaker  muscles 
is  neutralized  by  that  of  the 
smaller  ones.  These  simulta- 
neous movements,  without  in- 
tention or  object,  appear  more 
evidently  in  the  facial  mus- 
cles, and  notably  in  the  vig- 
orous muscles  of  mastication. 
In  all  violent  or  difficult  move- 
ments we  are  accustomed,  by  the  contraction  of  the  muscles,  to 
press  the  lower  jaw  against  the  upper,  as  if  we  were  tearing  or 
breaking  some  hard  object. 

The  fact  that  we  have  noticed  in  connection  with  the  bitter 
trait — that  the  movement  of  the  lower  jaw  is  accompanied  with  a 
similar  movement  of  the  mouth — is  likewise  observed  in  the 
pinched  trait.  As  in  the  former  case  we  remove,  as  far  as  pos- 
sible, not  only  the  upper  maxillary  from  the  lower  maxillary,  but 
also  the  upper  lip  from  the  lower ;  so,  in  the  latter,  we  press  the 
lower  maxillary  against  the  upper,  and  the  lower  lip  against  the 
upper.  In  consequence  of  the  contraction  of  the  orbicular  labial 
muscle  and  of  the  incisor  muscles,  the  lips  are  closely  shut  and 
their  red  edges  are  turned  within ;  but  at  the  same  time  the  lower 
lip  is  energetically  pressed  against  the  upper,  by  the  action  of  the 
two  levators  of  the  chin.  These  muscles  start  from  the  upper 
edge  of  the  lower  jaw,  near  the  median  incisives,  directing  their 
fibers  downward  and  outward,  and  lose  themselves  in  the  skin  of 
the  chin.  They  lift  the  middle  of  the  lower  half  of  the  orbicular 
labial  muscle,  and  press  the  skin  of  the  chin  closely  against  the 
bone.  In  consequence  of  this  movement,  the  middle  of  the  lower 
lip  seems  to  be  raised,  and  simultaneously  two  wrinkles  or  inden- 
tations appear,  which,  beginning  at  the  middle  of  the  lower  lip, 


Fig.  7— Head  prom  Hasenklever's  "Wink- 
tasting,"  Scrutinizing  Expression. 


684 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


Fig.  8.— Pinched  Expression. 


are  directed  tlience  toward  the  sides,  like  the  sides  of  an  obtuse- 
angled  triangle,  in  a  straight  line  downward  and  outward.  These 
two  indentations  are  very  characteristic  of  the  pinched  trait,  and 
correspond  with  the  lower  border  of  the  tense  labial  orbicular, 

drawn  up  in  its  middle  (Fig.  8).  This 
expression  is,  however,  provoked  not 
only  by  very  intense  corporeal  but 
also  by  very  intense  intellectual  ef- 
forts. The  efforts,  however,  which  we 
make  in  mental  works — in  scientific 
researches,  for  example — are  rarely 
passionate  enough  in  their  nature  to 
bring  on  a  spasmodic  pressure  of  the  lips  and  teeth ;  but  this 
takes  place  when  we  dispose  ourselves  for  an  intellectual  com- 
bat, when  one  appeals  to  all  the  force  of  his  will  to  defend 
himself  against  strange  influences  and  guard  his  own  convic- 
tions. The  mouth  closed  firmly,  with  the  lower  lip  raised,  gives 
the  expression  of  tenacity,  stubbornness,  obstinacy,  and  perse- 
verance. 

A  person  having  his  teeth  and  lips  closely  shut  and  the  skin  of 
his  forehead  contracted  at  the  same  time  into  vertical  wrinkles, 
shows  that  he  is  angry,  and  firmly  disposed  to  contend  about  the 
matter  that  is  on  his  mind  (Fig.  9).     If  his  lips  are  pinched  and 


Fig.  9.— Pinched  Expression,  with  Vertical 
Wrinkles. 


Fig.  10.— Pinched  Expression,  with  Hori- 
zontal Wrinkles. 


his  eyebrows  lifted  up,  he  is  trying  to  maintain  the  impressions 
that  have  determined  him  to  an  obstinate  persistence  in  his  opin- 
ions and  intentions  (Fig.  10).  In  J.  Schrader's  picture,  "  Gregory 
VII  in  Exile  at  Salerno"  (Fig.  11),  the  tenacity  of  the  mouth,  the 
anger  expressed  in  the  vertical  wrinkles,  and  the  tense  attention 
in  the  horizontal  ones,  joined  with  a  secretive  look,  give  to  the 
face  of  the  character  the  expression  of  a  dangerous  man  who  is 
contemplating  perfidy  and  vengeance.     Another  combination  is 


THE  PHYSIOGNOMY   OF  THE  MOUTH. 


685 


that  of  the  pinched  trait  and  vertical  wrinkles  with  the  bitter  ex- 
pression of  the  mouth  (Fig.  12). 

It  remains  to  describe  the  complicated  muscular  movements 
that  accompany  a  violent  rage.  The  jaws  are  strongly  pressed 
upon  one  another,  in  expression  of  an  energy  ready  for  the  com- 


Fio.  11.— Pinched  Expression,  with  Furtive  Look;       Fig.  12.— Pinched  Expression,  with 
Horizontal  and  Vertical  Wrinkles.  Bitter,  and  Vertical  Wrinkles. 

bat,  of  a  provoking  resolution ;  the  upper  lip  is  elevated  and 
also  the  wings  of  the  nose  (bitter  trait)  so  high  that  it  is  impos- 
sible to  pinch  the  lips ;  and  the  teeth  of  the  upper  jaw  are  seen 
above  the  upward-drawn  lower  lip.  The  nostrils  are  swelled  out 
wide,  for  the  movements  of  respiration  and  the  heart  are  precipi- 
tate in  rage,  and  the  air  is  inhaled  and  expired  violently  to  meet 
an  obstacle  in  the  tightly  closed  teeth,  so  that  the  breathing,  pref- 
erably done  through  the  nose,  is  facili- 
tated by  the  inflation  of  the  nostrils. 
The  forehead  presents  horizontal  wrin- 
kles as  a  sign  of  close  attention,  and 
vertical  wrinkles  in  expression  of 
anger.  The  eyes  look  brilliant  and 
"flash  with  fire"  under  the  effect  of 
the  mental  excitement,  roll  wildly  in 
their  orbits,  or  cast  a  fixed  and  pierc- 
ing look  (Fig.  13). 

The  pinched  trait  becomes  physi- 
ognomical most  easily  and  frequently 
with  persons  whose  daily  occupations  fig.  ia— pinched  expression,  with 

-i  />,  /»        n  •     i  •  Bitter.    Eyes  wide  open.  Vertical 

involve  often  or  for  long  periods  pam-  AND  horizontal  wrinkles,  and 
ful  or  intense  bodily  efforts,  whether     WlNG8  0F  THE  NoeE  celled  out 

^  ti  n       (Expression  of  Furt). 

m  the   shape   of  a    great  display   of 

force,  or  of  special  care  and  prudence.  It  may  be  developed  among 
blacksmiths  as  well  as  among  embroiderers,  among  butchers  or 
sculptors ;  but  we  may  be  sure  that  persons  with  whom  we  find  it 


686 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


are  accustomed  to  do  work  with  zeal  and  conscientiously.  This 
trait  can  not,  however,  be  developed  physiognomically  as  the  re- 
sult of  intellectual  efforts  and  the  expression  of  tenacity,  except 
the  corresponding  states  of  the  mind  are  repeated  not  only  often 
"but  with  duration.  We  recognize  in  them  the  tenacem  propositi 
virum  (man  tenacious  of  his  purpose)  of  Horace,  the  persevering 
man ;  and  also,  when  the  expression  of  the  pinched  air  is  engraved 
with  a  particular  force,  the  opinionated,  obstinate,  headstrong, 
hardened  man. 

The  expression  of  contempt,  or  disdain,  is  manifested  partly  in 
the  eyes  and  partly  in  the  mouth.  A  person  who  wishes  to  show 
his  contempt  raises  his  head  in  order  to  cast  his  look  downward 
npon  the  object  of  his  scorn ;  he  thus  expresses  that  he  feels 
superior  to  the  one  who  appears  low  to  him — only  he  does  not 
look  straightforwardly  at  the  object,  but  side  wise,  as  if  he  did  not 
judge  it  necessary  to  turn  his  head  in  order  to  fix  his  eyes  upon 
him  ;  at  the  same  time  the  eyelids  droop  as  in  sleepiness  and  as  a 
sign  of  extreme  indifference  toward  the  real  or  imaginary  cause. 

Still,  a  certain  degree  of  idle  and  con- 
strained attention  is  recognizable  in 
the  stretched  appearance  of  the  frontal 
muscles ;  the  eyebrows  are  drawn  up 
and  horizontal  wrinkles  are  formed  on 
the  skin  of  the  forehead  (Fig.  14).  Thus, 
a  feeble  degree  of  contempt  is  expressed 
only  in  the  eyes,  but  in  the  rising  de- 
grees of  a  haughty  disdain  the  expres- 
sion of  the  mouth  becomes  modified  in 
a  peculiar  way.  The  bitter  trait  appears 
in  the  upper  lip,  as  if  the  person  were 
feeling  a  disagreeable,  nauseating  taste, 
and  simultaneously  the  lower  lip  is  pushed  forward  and  upward, 
as  if  in  the  desire  to  remove  an  insignificant  object  from  the  neigh- 
borhood of  the  lips.  The  sign  that  the  object  is  regarded  as  very 
insignificant  is  derived  from  the  fact  that  in  elongating  the  lower 
lip  we  are  accustomed  to  blow  a  little  puff  of  air,  as  if  that  were 
enough  to  blow  away  so  light  an  object.  Hence  the  mimic  ex- 
pression of  contempt  is  a  complicated  one,  and  is  related  partly  to 
imaginary  objects  and  partly  to  imaginary  sensorial  impressions. 

As  in  the  pinched  trait,  the  lower  lip  is  likewise  drawn  up  in 
the  trait  of  contempt,  and  in  both  cases  by  means  of  the  two  leva- 
tor muscles  of  the  chin.  The  expression  of  stubbornness,  how- 
ever, is  essentially  distinguished  from  that  of  contempt  by  the 
lips  being  drawn  inward,  while  in  contempt  the  lower  lip  is 
pushed  forward.  This  is  due  to  a  combined  action  of  the  levator 
muscles  and  of  the  triangular  muscles  of  the  chin ;  while  the 


Fig.  14.— Expression  op  Contempt. 


THE  PHYSIOGNOMY   OF  THE  MOUTH. 


687 


Fig. 


15.— Contemptuous  Expres- 
sion in  the  Mouth. 


former  push  the  lower  lip  upward  and  the  corners  of  the  mouth 
are  depressed,  the  red  edge  of  the  lower  lip  is  turned  outward. 
Under  the  influence  of  the  levator  muscles  of  the  chin,  wrinkles 
characteristic  of  the  lower  lip  are  formed  in  the  expression  of 
contempt  as  well  as  in  that  of  stubborn- 
ness ;  but  in  the  latter  the  wrinkles  start 
from  the  middle  of  the  lower  lip  and  are 
directed  in  a  straight  line  toward  the 
base  and  outward,  like  the  sides  of  an 
obtuse  -  angled  triangle,  while  in  the 
former  they  form,  by  tension  toward  the 
base   of  the  triangulars  of  the   chin,  a 

curved  line,  the  convexity  of  which  is  upward  (Fig.  15).  In  both 
expressions  the  chin  is  flat,  because  its  skin,  under  the  influence 
of  the  levator  muscles,  is  drawn  upward  and  tightly  stretched. 

If  vertical  wrinkles  appear  along  with  the  expression  of  con- 
tempt, and   the   arched  eyebrows  and  horizontal  wrinkles  are 

wanting,  we  judge  that  the  person 
is  under  the  influence  of  both  anger 
and  contempt  (Fig.  16).  The  ex- 
pressions of  contempt  and  bitter- 
ness may  be  combined,  as  signs  of 
a  corresponding  complexity  of  feel- 
ings. The  expression  of  contempt 
occurs  physiognomically  with  pre- 
tentious, arrogant  men,  who  are  ac- 
customed to  measure  the  conditions 
and  opinions  of  others  by  the  scale 
of  their  own  imagined  excellence, 
and  who  are  hard  to  satisfy.  This 
trait  is  manifested  in  the  eye  by 
highly  arched  brows,  horizontal 
wrinkles,  and  depressed  lids.  In  the  mouth,  we  perceive  that  the 
middle  of  the  lower  lip  seems  pressed  up,  and  that  under  its  red 
border,  which  is  slightly  thrown  out,  an  arched  wrinkle  is  devel- 
oped, the  convexity  of  which  is  turned  upward. — Translated  for 
the  Popular  Science  Monthly  from  the  Revue  Scientifique. 


Fig.  16. — Contemptuous  Expression,  with 
Vertical  Wrinkles  on  the  Forehead. 


In  a  work  on  the  "Constitution  of  Celestial  Space,"  M.  Hirn  deals  with  the 
question  of  the  existence  of  an  ether  and  its  possible  tenuity.  Among  the  curious 
conclusions  that  he  reaches  is  one  that  the  density  of  a  medium  capable  by  its  re- 
sistance of  causing  a  secular  acceleration  of  half  a  second  in  the  mean  velocity  of 
the  moon,  would  correspond  with  a  kilogramme  of  matter  uniformly  distributed 
throughout  a  space  of  about  three  hundred  and  ninety  thousand  square  miles. 
This  is  a  density  one  million  times  rarer  than  that  of  the  air  reduced  to  one 
millionth  of  its  normal  density  in  Mr.  Crookes's  apparatus. 


688  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

THE   MEANING  OF  PICTURED   SPHERES. 

By  J.  C.  HOUZEAU. 

WHEN  we  take  up  a  treatise  on  astronomy  and  come  to  the 
description  of  the  constellations,  we  meet  an  amazing  sys- 
tem of  nomenclature.  The  celestial  sphere  is  represented  as  cov- 
ered with  fictitious  figures  of  all  sorts  of  personages  and  objects, 
to  which  the  stars  are  referred.  There  are  heroes,  like  Hercules 
and  Perseus ;  women,  like  Andromeda,  Cassiopeia,  and  the  Virgin ; 
a  giant,  Orion ;  simple  workingmen,  such  as  a  charioteer  and  a 
herdsman;  a  considerable  number  of  animals,  including  two 
bears,  a  lion,  a  bull,  a  serpent,  a  crab,  and  a  scorpion  ;  monsters, 
like  the  dragon  and  the  Capricorn ;  and  various  inanimate  objects, 
from  a  crown  and  a  harp  to  a  river.  No  other  science  offers  so 
singular  a  system  of  nomenclature,  so  far  outside  of  scientific 
conceptions.  In  botany,  zoology,  and  topography,  objects  have 
distinctive  names.  We  are  universally  accustomed  to  apply  to 
the  things  we  speak  of  designations  that  belong  to  them ;  but  a 
system  by  itself,  a  figurative  nomenclature,  is  applied  to  the 
groups  of  stars.  This  is  a  unique  exception  in  the  sciences.  It  is 
furthermore  remarkable  in  this  exception  that  it  has  held  with 
all  peoples  who  have  made  or  begun  a  description  of  the  sky. 
While  the  work  may  have  been  executed  in  isolation  and  in 
ignorance  of  the  way  followed  by  other  nations,  and  the  figures 
employed  may  be  distinct,  original,  and  inspired  by  the  charac- 
ter of  the  people,  the  system  of  figuration  has  been  the  same. 

There  must  evidently  exist  a  cause  of  a  general  nature  which 
has  directed  the  thought  of  man  in  this  always  identical  direc- 
tion. There  must  be  some  feature  in  the  aspect  of  the  constella- 
tions different  from  those  of  other  collections  of  natural  objects 
and  conditions  which  provoke  a  distinct  work  of  the  intelligence. 
This  feature  and  these  conditions  we  are  concerned  to  find.  It 
would  have  been  no  more  strange  to  apply  a  figurative  nomen- 
clature to  topographical  groups  than  to  the  stars.  Persons  who 
first  arrive  in  previously  uninhabited  countries  are  obliged  to 
give  names  to  the  landmarks  of  the  region  which  they  will  occupy  ; 
they  have  to  distinguish  the  rivers  and  their  affluents,  the  mount- 
ains and  rocks.  A  chain  of  mountains  might,  perhaps,  be  more 
justly  compared  to  a  dragon  than  the  file  of  stars  that  bears  that 
name.  The  first  mountain  of  the  range  might  be  the  head  of  the 
monster,  the  second  the  neck,  and  the  last  the  tail,  while  the  lesser 
chains  might  be  called  the  flippers  or  feet.  This  possibility  is 
not  to  be  rejected,  for  traces  of  a  similar  application  are  to  be 
found  in  Formosa.     The  Chinese  have,  according  to  Ritter,  put 


THE  MEANING    OF  PICTURED   SPHERES.  689 

upon  some  of  the  Ta-Shan  Mountains,  which  compose  the  nucleus 
of  that  island,  the  forms  of  men  and  figures  of  gods.  But  this  is 
an  isolated  case. 

When  we  pass  to  uranography,  the  figurative  system  be- 
comes generally  applied.  It  is  well  understood  that  the  Greeks 
borrowed  from  the  Chaldeans  the  general  idea  if  not  the  details 
of  their  astronomy ;  and  we  accept  their  pictured  sphere.  Other 
peoples  of  antiquity  likewise  had  their  figured  spheres,  formed  on 
the  same  principle — only  the  stars  were  differently  grouped  by 
each  people  according  to  its  fancy,  and  the  symbols  chosen  were 
different.  Nothing  better  proves  the  independence  of  these  con- 
structions than  this,  but  nothing  also  is  more  suited  to  exhibit 
what  there  is  remarkable  in  this  community  of  systems. 

The  Egyptians  had  a  pictured  sphere  in  very  ancient  times. 
Signs  of  it  may  be  seen  in  the  tomb  of  Seti  I,  at  Biban-el-Moluk, 
and  considerable  developments  of  it  in  the  calendar  sculptured  on 
the  ceiling  of  the  tomb  of  Ramses  IV,  at  Medinet  Abou.  There  are 
on  this  monument,  which  is  of  the  thirteenth  century  B.  c,  a  series 
of  constellations  designated  by  imaginary  figures.  Among  them 
are  a  river,  an  arrow,  and  a  lion  which  differs  from  that  of  our 
classical  sphere.  There  are  a  hippopotamus  and  a  lute-bearer ; 
with  a  great  asterism  extending  over  nearly  a  quarter  of  the 
circumference  of  the  sky,  called  the  god  Nacht,  or  the  Con- 
queror, carrying  a  set  of  arms  and  ascending  a  stepping-stone. 
Another  personage,  Mena,  is  surrounded  by  servants.  Egypt, 
therefore,  in  its  uranography  most  distinctly  followed  the  sys- 
tem of  a  pictured  nomenclature. 

The  Aryans  of  India  did  the  same  thing  in  another  independ- 
ent manner.  We  find,  among  other  things  on  their  sphere,  which 
was  completed  in  the  ninth  century  before  the  Christian  era,  a 
stork,  two  swine,  a  large  tree  with  a  dog  in  it,  an  Ethiopian  with  a 
giant's  features,  and  a  woman  covered  with  a  cloak.  The  Chinese 
adopted  the  system  of  small  groups,  and  consequently  consider- 
ably multiplied  the  number  of  denominations,  so  that  their 
sphere  bears  more  than  three  hundred  names — names  of  person- 
ages and  objects — forming  in  fact  a  figurative  system.  Here  are 
the  celestial  pivot,  precious  stones,  a  bushel-measure,  a  woman 
embroidering,  the  sovereigns  of  the  sky,  and  a  number  of  the 
dignitaries  of  the  Celestial  Empire.  The  Arabs,  previous  to  the 
time  of  Mohammed,  also  had  a  figured  nomenclature,  with  a  camel, 
a  jackal,  a  sheep,  an  ostrich,  and  a  dog ;  among  inanimate  objects, 
a  tent,  a  crib,  a  pot,  a  plate,  a  cubit,  and  a  well-bucket.  The  Great 
Bear  was  a  coffin,  followed  by  the  three  stars  in  the  tail  as  three 
mourners.  While  the  groups  were  independent  and  the  figures 
unlike,  the  system  of  figuration  still  prevailed. 

These  peoples  all  had  complete  uranographies,  covering  every 

vol.  xxxvi. — 44 


69o  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

part  of  the  sphere  that  they  could  perceive  above  their  horizon. 
Others,  of  a  less  advanced  civilization,  only  named  the  more  con- 
spicuous groups  of  stars.  They  merely  made  a  start.  Yet  the 
problem  presented  itself  everywhere  under  the  same  aspect,  for  the 
solution  was  much  of  the  same  kind.  Thus,  the  Scandinavians  had 
a  dog,  a  chariot,  a  cross,  and  a  spindle  in  the  sky.  The  Eskimos 
put  seal-hunters  there.  The  Makah  Indians  of  the  strait  of  San 
Juan  de  Fuca,  living  on  the  sea-coast,  chose  figures  of  fishes  and 
cetaceans.  The  Aztecs  and  Mayas  saw  animals  there,  including  a 
scorpion,  which  does  not  correspond  with  our  constellation  Scor- 
pio. The  Peruvians  designated  a  jaguar,  a  cross-bearer,  and  a 
sheep  suckling  her  lamb.  The  Puelches  of  Patagonia  set  ostrich- 
feathers  in  the  Magellanic  clouds.  The  Oceanian  peoples  applied 
figures  to  the  constellations  that  impressed  them. 

These  facts  will  lead  the  reader  to  ask  if  the  resemblance  pre- 
sented by  the  configurations  of  some  of  the  stars  with  familiar 
objects  has  not  provoked  comparisons  of  which  the  pictured 
sphere  is  a  result.  Thus,  the  constellation  Gemini  is  composed 
of  two  lines  of  stars,  each  beginning  with  one  of  the  first  magni- 
tude. There  is  a  striking  duality  in  this,  which  has  seemed  to 
suggest  the  same  representative  idea  in  many  quarters.  But  the 
Accadians,  who  gave  us  the  constellation  of  the  Twins,  did  not 
figure  it  as  we  do,  nor  as  the  Tahitians  do.  Instead  of  arranging 
the  brothers  side  by  side,  they  opposed  them  foot  to  foot. 

The  small  number  of  similitudes  that  we  meet  in  the  spheres 
of  peoples  distant  from  one  another  have  an  important  signifi- 
cance. The  Pleiades  were  nearly  everywhere  the  first  group  that 
was  remarked  and  named.  The  agglomeration  of  stars  in  it  was 
of  a  nature  to  provoke  the  same  kind  of  impressions.  Yet  differ- 
ent peoples  attached  different  figures  to  it.  The  ancient  Egyptians 
were  struck  by  the  idea  of  number,  and,  running  into  a  prodigious 
exaggeration,  called  it  by  a  name  that  signified  thousands.  In 
India  they  saw  a  hen  and  chickens  in  the  group.  This  name 
spread  thence  to  western  Asia  and  then  to  Europe,  and  is  still 
common.  The  similitudes  were  different  in  the  New  World.  The 
Eskimos  called  the  group  the  "  bound  together  " ;  in  a  great  part 
of  North  America  the  thought  is  of  a  dance — with  the  Iroquois,  of 
men  and  women;  with  the  Chokitapias,  or  Blackfeet,  a  sacred 
dance  around  the  sacred  seed.  We  may  pertinently  recollect  that 
in  classic  antiquity  Hyginus  said  that  the  Pleiades  were  so  dis- 
posed as  to  seem  to  be  dancing  around. 

The  second  stellar  object  that  impressed  primitive  peoples  is 
the  milky  way,  which  naturally  suggests  the  idea  of  a  road  and  a 
river.  It  is  called  the  celestial  river  in  China.  To  the  ancient 
poets  it  was  the  stream  of  milk  which  Alcmene  spilled  when  nurs- 
ing Hercules.     To  the  philosophers  it  was  the  highway  of  souls, 


THE  MEANING    OF  PICTURED    SPHERES.  691 

and  had  two  gates,  at  the  two  places  where  it  intersects  the  zodiac. 
The  souls  entered  the  world  by  the  gate  of  the  Twins  (which  cor- 
responds with  the  sign  Cancer),  and  left  it  to  return  to  the  gods 
by  the  gate  of  Sagittarius  (sign  of  Capricorn).  It  is  a  little  re- 
markable that  some  of  the  American  nations  also  called  the  milky 
way  the  highway  of  souls  ;  *  but  it  does  not  appear  so  singular 
upon  reflection.  The  milky  way  certainly  resembles  a  road  in  its 
shape.  Let  us  now  recollect  that  a  large  number  of  people  con- 
sign the  souls  of  their  ancestors  to  the  sky ;  hence  the  idea  might 
easily  have  occurred  frequently.  There  has  also  been  a  fortuitous 
and  unconscious  agreement  among  nations  to  give  the  name  of 
the  Bear  to  the  most  brilliant  constellation  in  the  neighborhood 
of  the  north  pole.  The  primitive  Sanskrit  name  of  this  constella- 
tion, according  to  Prof.  Max  Muller,  meant  "  chariot,"  and  this 
was  the  original  image,  which  survives  among  some  of  our  people 
to  the  present.  But  as  the  same  word,  rihsha,  also  designates  a 
bear,  there  has  sometimes  been  confusion,  and  the  image  of  a  bear 
was  placed  by  the  Greeks  on  the  classic  sphere.  A  bear  was  also 
represented  by  the  principal  North  American  Indian  nations  in 
the  quadrilateral  of  this  constellation.  Only,  these  nations,  who 
were  familiar  with  the  bear,  did  not  include  in  the  same  constella- 
tion the  three  stars  of  what  we  call  the  tail,  because  the  bear  has 
only  a  very  short  tail,  and  this  inclusion  would  have  made  it 
monstrous ;  so  they  fancied  them  three  hunters  pursuing  the 
bear. 

Now,  is  there  anything  extraordinary  in  the  coincidence  of  like 
similitudes  in  the  Old  and  New  Worlds  ?  "We  do  not  think  there 
is.  The  bear  is  a  polar  animal.  The  constellation  is  large,  and 
demands  a  large  symbol.  Facts  prove  this,  for  the  constellation 
was  a  reindeer  with  the  Eskimos,  an  elk  with  the  Indians  of  Puget 
Sound,  and  an  elephant  with  the  Hindoos.  The  fortuitous  coin- 
cidence of  names  in  two  different  centers  does  not,  therefore,  seem 
hard  to  explain.  It  only  implies  that  there  is  a  resemblance  with 
the  adopted  image  in  the  aspect  of  the  constellation.  We  should 
also  consider  that,  within  the  limits  of  a  certain  compass  of  ideas, 
the  number  of  objects  to  which  it  is  possible  to  recur  is  restricted, 
and  two  peoples  may  be  led  by  chance  to  select  the  same  symbol 
for  the  same  group  of  stars.  This  is  visibly  the  case  with  the 
constellation  Cancer,  which  is  represented  in  Japan  by  another 
crustacean,  the  many-fingered  limulus. 

I  shall  not  insist  upon  the  coincidence  which  La  Condamine 
thought  he  had  found,  respecting  the  constellation  Taurus,  among 
some  of  the  Indians  of  the  Amazon.  It  is  now  understood  that 
the  term  by  which  these  Indians  designated  the  Hyades  did  not 
mean  a  bull's  jaw,  but  a  tapir's.     The  examples  of  identity  or  of 

*  J.  F.  Labitau,  "  Moeurs  des  sauvages  Ameriquains,"  4to,  1724,  vol.  i,  p.  406. 


692  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

seeming  identity  in  the  images  are  therefore  reduced  to  a  small 
number  of  comparisons.  They  are  exceptional  cases,  in  which  the 
aspect  of  the  asterism  may  have  had  something  to  do  with  the 
suggestion  of  similar  images.  Aside  from  this  there  is  nothing 
in  common :  the  figures  set  in  the  sky  upon  the  constellations 
were  peculiar  to  each  people ;  they  were  arbitrary  creations,  and 
that  proves  that  the  outlines  formed  by  the  stars  did  not  directly 
suggest  either  personages  or  animals  by  which  the  imagination 
was  struck.  Apart  from  a  few  geometrical  figures — a  quadrilat- 
eral, a  triangle,  or  a  cross — the  configurations  of  the  stars  pre- 
sented no  relations  with  the  objects  selected  to  designate  them. 
We  are  dealing,  then,  with  a  fanciful  creation  by  each  people,  in 
which  each  one  exhibited  the  peculiar  tendencies  of  its  imagina- 
tion and  genius. 

This  circumstance  renders  the  nomenclature  in  question  still 
more  remarkable,  since  there  is  nothing  or  hardly  anything  in  the 
aspect  of  the  celestial  tableau  to  provoke  the  construction  of  it. 
We  return  to  the  question  with  which  we  started  :  By  what  cause 
has  a  nomenclature  so  strange,  unique  in  its  kind,  possessed,  in  a 
seemingly  inevitable  way,  all  the  peoples  who  have  looked  into  the 
sky  ?  For  we  might  predict,  from  the  generality  of  the  method, 
that  if  some  new  people,  having  everything  to  begin  again,  should 
start  to  construct  its  system  of  knowledge,  it  would  again  make  a 
pictured  sphere  for  the  stars.  I  will  not  pretend  to  answer  a 
question  of  scientific  archseology  that  has  not  been  sounded,  not 
even  outlined,  till  now.  If  I  suggest  a  solution,  it  is  simply  as  an 
essay  and  hint,  leaving  it  to  professional  students  of  folk-lore  to 
enlighten  us  more  fully.  It  sometimes  seems  to  me  that  we  might 
draw  some  indications  of  a  comparison  between  the  manner  in 
which  places  in  hitherto  uninhabited  countries  are  named  and 
the  nomenclature  of  the  stars. 

When  immigrants  arrive  in  countries  without  inhabitants  and 
unmapped,  the  first  names  given  to  the  natural  landmarks — the 
rivers,  hills,  clumps  of  trees,  and  rocks — are  descriptive  ones. 
These  names  often  survive  after  the  first  arrivals  have  been  dis- 
persed and  replaced  by  other  peoples  ;  and  we  know  how  ethnog- 
raphers find,  in  geographical  appellations,  the  track,  the  limits, 
and  the  language  of  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  a  country.  In 
such  primary  nomenclature,  they  say,  for  instance,  the  blue  water, 
the  green  mountain,  the  brown  rock,  the  cedar  wood,  the  steep 
cliff,  etc.  It  was  the  natural  course,  which  has  been  followed 
everywhere.  Why  has  the  human  mind  taken  a  wholly  differ- 
ent course  for  the  sky  ?  Was  it  not  because  the  multiplicity  of 
objects  and  their  great  resemblance  had  exhausted  the  series 
of  descriptive  terms  ?  Multiplicity  often  confuses  the  judgment ; 
for  it  is  known  that  the  view  of  the  sky  conveys  the  impression 


SKETCH   OF  A.  F.  J.  PLATEAU.  693 

of  a  larger  number  of  stars  than  are  really  seen  there.  We 
instinctively  halt  before  the  seemingly  impossible  task  of  find- 
ing distinctive  epithets  for  so  many  stars  and  asterisms;  for, 
after  a  few  such  qualifications  as  blazing,  sparkling,  pale,  trem- 
bling, etc. — perhaps  there  are  twenty  of  them  in  all — we  find  that 
words  fail. 

We  suggest  this  explanation  tentatively,  without  attaching 
particular  importance  to  it.  But  we  invite  the  serious  attention 
of  archaeologists,  and  psychologists  as  well,  to  the  singular  phenom- 
enon in  mental  evolution  which  the  case  of  the  pictured  spheres 
discloses.  It  derives  interest  from  its  unique  character  as  a 
nomenclature,  and  from  its  being  reproduced,  without  exception, 
in  all  the  centers  of  evolution.  There  is  evidently  something  in 
the  constant  return  of  this  process  that  comes  from  the  very  laws 
of  our  nature. — Translated  for  the  Popular  Science  Monthly  from 
del  et  Terre. 


♦»» 


SKETCH  OF  A.   F.  J.   PLATEAU. 

By  SOPHIE  BLEDSOE  HEREICK. 

ANTOINE  FERDINAND  JOSEPH  PLATEAU  was  born  in 
Brussels,  October  14, 1801.  He  was  brought  up  in  the  midst 
of  artistic  influences,  his  father  having  been  a  flower-painter  of 
great  talent.  From  his  earliest  childhood  the  boy  exhibited  not 
only  remarkable  ability,  but  clearly  manifested  the  bent  of  his 
mind.  When  scarcely  more  than  a  baby  he  showed  the  greatest 
delight  in  some  physical  experiments  which  were  made  in  his 
presence. 

In  the  days  when  Plateau  was  a  child,  very  little  attention  was 
paid  to  natural  bent  by  parents  in  the  selection  of  a  life-work  for 
their  children.  The  idea  of  the  hereditary  transmission  of  occu- 
pation dominated  all  others.  The  boy,  with  no  taste  for  art,  was 
devoted  at  an  early  age  by  his  father  to  the  study  of  painting. 

At  fourteen  years  of  age  he  became  an  orphan,  and  with  his 
two  sisters  was  left  to  the  care  of  his  uncle — M.  Thirion,  an 
advocate.  Soon  after  this  his  health,  which  was  never  strong, 
showed  signs  of  failure ;  and  his  uncle  sent  the  children  to  a 
little  village  near  Waterloo.  It  was  upon  the  eve  of  the  battle, 
and  the  villagers  took  refuge  in  the  depths  of  the  forest  of 
Soignes,  where  for  two  days  and  nights  they  remained  in  the  open 
air,  sleeping  at  night  before  a  great  fire,  and  living  upon  potatoes 
which  were  baked  in  the  cinders. 

The  boy  seemed  scarcely  conscious  of  the  violent  detonations 
which  shook  the  ground  beneath  them,  he  was  so  absorbed  in  his 
favorite  pastime  of  catching  butterflies.     The  panic  over,  the  vil- 


69+  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

lagers  went  back  to  their  homes,  and  Joseph  and  his  sisters  re- 
mained some  time  in  the  little  village  of  Ohain. 

As  soon  as  his  health  was  restored  he  returned  to  his  art 
studies.  Here  he  made  such  excellent  progress  that  one  evening 
Prince  Frederick,  the  son  of  the  king,  who  was  visiting  the  estab- 
lishment, was  attracted  by  the  boy's  work.  When  he  found  that 
Joseph  was  an  orphan,  he  said,  "  Well,  from  this  moment  I  take 
you  under  my  protection."  Later,  when  M.  Thirion  wished  to 
remind  the  prince  of  his  promise,  he  was  deterred  by  the  boy's 
unwillingness  to  make  any  claim  upon  him. 

Painting  occupied  Joseph  by  day,  but  in  the  evening  and  in 
his  leisure  moments  his  beloved  physics  employed  all  his  time. 
With  the  aid  of  some  young  friends  he  organized  soirees,  the  en- 
tertainment being  experiments  of  his  own  devising,  made  with 
apparatus  constructed  by  himself. 

At  sixteen  years  of  age  he  entered  the  Athenaeum  at  Brussels. 
He  omitted  certain  studies,  but  in  all  that  he  undertook  he  dis- 
tinguished himself  by  his  enthusiastic  progress.  His  masters 
became  at  once  interested  in  their  brilliant  pupil.  The  friendship 
of  Quetelet,  which  became  stronger  as  time  went  on,  proved  of 
the  greatest  benefit  to  him  in  later  life. 

His  school-life  over,  the  subject  of  a  profession  presented  itself 
for  reconsideration.  His  uncle  pressed  upon  the  boy  the  study  of 
law,  as  the  noblest  of  all  professions,  and  Joseph  consented.  In 
choosing  art  there  had  been  no  great  sacrifice ;  he  had  been  too 
young  at  that  time  to  know  his  own  mind ;  but  he  felt  a  strong 
antipathy  to  the  law. 

This  dislike  did  not  prevent  honest  and  conscientious  work  in 
the  pursuit  of  his  legal  studies  ;  but  the  physical  sciences  held  for 
him  their  old  fascination,  and  he  made  the  rather  singular  com- 
promise of  studying  both  law  and  physics,  and  doing  himself 
credit  in  both  alike.  His  faithful  work  had  its  reward  at  last : 
his  uncle,  seeing  his  determination,  and  at  the  same  time  his  will- 
ingness to  be  guided,  withdrew  his  opposition,  and  the  young  stu- 
dent gave  himself  up  wholly  to  scientific  pursuits. 

The  care  of  his  younger  sister  now  fell  upon  Plateau,  and, 
pressed  by  the  necessity  to  provide  for  them  both,  he  accepted  the 
professorship  of  elementary  mathematics  in  the  Athenaeum  at 
Liege.  This  was  in  1827.  In  1829  he  received  the  degree  of 
Doctor  in  Physical  Sciences  and  Mathematics,  and  from  that  time 
he  gave  himself  to  original  research. 

During  this  year  he  devoted  much  time  to  experimenting  upon 
various  points  in  regard  to  vision,  to  the  persistence  of  impres- 
sions upon  the  retina,  subjective  color,  etc.  On  one  occasion,  to 
determine  some  point,  he  looked  at  the  sun  for  twenty-five  sec- 
onds with  the  naked  eye.     For  many  days  after  this  hazardous 


SKETCH   OF  A.  F.  J.  PLATEAU.  695 

experiment  his  eyes  were  strongly  affected,  bnt  he  did  not  sus- 
pect that  he  had  done  them  a  permanent  injury.  This  experi- 
ment undoubtedly  laid  the  foundations  of  that  disease  which 
twelve  years  later  brought  on  total  blindness. 

After  being  forced  to  resign  his  work,  in  1830,  he  again  re- 
sumed it  at  Brussels.  In  1835  Quetelet  urged  Plateau  to  apply 
for  the  professorship  of  experimental  science  in  the  University  of 
Ghent.  The  young  savant  refused  at  first  to  offer  himself  as 
candidate  for  a  position  in  the  first  institution  in  his  native  land, 
pleading  youth  and  inexperience;  but  later  his  scruples  were 
overcome,  and  he  received  the  appointment  to  the  chair. 

As  soon  as  he  began  his  work  in  Ghent,  he  found  the  collec- 
tions of  the  university  very  poor  and  meager.  He  gave  himself 
at  once  to  the  work  of  remedying  this  deficiency.  In  order  to 
inform  himself,  he  visited  and  examined  minutely  the  most  cele- 
brated collections  in  England,  France,  and  Germany.  He  ad- 
dressed the  Government  and  the  inspector  of  the  university,  and 
pleaded  his  case  so  well  that  in  the  end  —  though  it  was  only 
after  long  and  wearisome  labor — he  succeeded  in  securing  one 
of  the  finest  physical  cabinets  in  existence  to  the  University  of 
Ghent. 

In  1840  Plateau  married  Mile.  Clavareau,  daughter  of  a  director 
of  tax-collections.  She  was  always  a  devoted  wife  and  true  help- 
mate to  him.  Outliving  him,  she  was  able  to  comfort,  sustain, 
and  help  him  when  darkness  settled  over  his  life.  In  1841  his 
son  Felix,  now  Professor  of  Zoology  and  Comparative  Anatomy 
in  the  University  of  Ghent,  was  born.  During  the  same  year  the 
disease  which  ended  in  total  blindness  made  itself  felt.  For  two 
years  he  submitted  to  the  most  painful  treatment  in  hopes  of 
saving  his  eye-sight.  The  trouble  which  had  attacked  the  right 
eye  extended  to  the  left.  During  these  long  months  neither  his 
terrible  affliction  nor  his  excruciating  suffering  ever  drew  a  word 
of  complaint  from  his  lips. 

The  courage  which  showed  itself  in  this  heroic  endurance  was 
far  from  being  merely  passive.  Nothing  daunted  by  what,  in  a 
lesser  man,  would  have  ended  his  life's  work,  Plateau  never  lost 
courage.  The  future  must  have  looked  very  dark  even  to  his 
courageous  spirit,  but  he  gave  no  token  of  failure.  Happily,  all 
material  anxieties  were  removed  by  the  action  of  his  countrymen. 
He  was  appointed  "professeur  ordinaire,"  and  a  little  later  a 
royal  order,  countersigned  by  M.  Rogier,  assured  him  of  the  en- 
joyment of  the  entire  salary  and  emoluments  of  his  position.  A 
noble  recognition  of  the  man  and  of  his  services — a  recognition 
fully  justified  by  forty  years  of  fruitful  work,  and  by  a  series  of 
discoveries  "which  have  made  Belgian  science  illustrious  through- 
out the  entire  world." 


696  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

As  soon  as  Plateau  found  himself  fairly  out  of  the  physicians' 
hands,  with  restored  health,  he  resumed  his  experiments  with 
ardor.  He  was  most  happy  in  finding  co-laborers  who  gave  him 
the  most  efficient  and  willing  help.  "  Thanks  to  their  generous 
co-operation,"  said  he, "  the  career  of  scientific  work  remains  open 
to  me.  I  can,  in  spite  of  the  infirmity  with  which  I  have  been 
visited,  put  in  order  the  materials  which  I  have  amassed,  and 
even  undertake  new  researches/' 

When  this  experimental  work  began  again,  Plateau  showed 
at  once  that  the  clouding  of  his  physical  sight  had  only  served  to 
clarify  his  mental  vision.  At  first  he  could  not  give  up  his  inde- 
pendence, and  for  some  time  he  wrote  between  metallic  slips ;  his 
assistants  soon  learned  to  decipher  the  writing.  Later,  however, 
he  gave  up  this  habit,  and  contented  himself  with  writing  to  dic- 
tation. 

His  temper  was  usually  calm  and  equable ;  he  never  uttered  a 
complaint  on  account  of  the  many  deprivations  which  his  blind- 
ness imposed.  He  was  bright  and  amusing  in  his  conversation, 
and  yet  he  was,  as  all  thinkers  are,  in  the  main,  sober. 

His  memory,  which  was  naturally  a  good  one,  had  become 
phenomenal  by  cultivation.  It  was  only  necessary  to  hear  an 
ordinary  poem  read  once  or  twice  for  him  to  be  able  to  repeat  it 
accurately.  This  gift  was  one  of  his  greatest  compensations  for 
the  loss  of  sight,  and  of  incalculable  benefit  in  his  experiments 
made  by  the  hands  of  others.  His  method,  given  by  his  son-in- 
law  and  biographer,  G.  van  der  Mensbrugghe,  is  as  follows  :  In  a 
day  devoted  to  experiment,  speaking  of  the  latter  years  of  the 
physicist's  life,  he  says :  "  The  old  man's  face  is  animated ;  he  an- 
nounces with  admirable  precision  all  the  precautions  to  be  taken 
that  the  apparatus  should  work.  According  to  his  often  expressed 
desire,  the  assistant  acquaints  him  successively  with  his  opera- 
tions, even  to  the  smallest  point.  No  manoeuvre  is  left  to  his 
personal  valuation.  The  apparatus  is  at  last  ready  to  be  set  in 
motion.  The  master,  who  imagines  and  regulates  all  the  disposi- 
tions, makes  still  other  suggestions ;  he  assures  himself  by  differ- 
ent means  that  all  is  ready  in  accordance  with  his  will.  At  last 
the  assistant  is  asked  to  operate — the  experiment  succeeds !  What 
a  satisfaction,  what  a  relief  for  the  noble  worker  who  has  con- 
ceived it !  For  greater  assurance  he  causes  it  to  be  repeated,  with 
various  modifications  suggested  by  the  descriptions  of  the  ob- 
served effects.  If  all  passes  as  he  has  foreseen,  he  at  once  asks 
his  secretary  to  write  to  his  dictation  all  the  details  of  the  experi- 
ment. No  point  is  forgotten,  for  the  provisional  wording  ought 
to  represent,  as  exactly  as  possible,  all  that  had  been  verified. 
But  if  the  observation  did  not  meet  his  expectations,  in  spite  of 
the  precautions  he  had  deemed  necessary,  the  physicist  promised 


SKETCH   OF  A.  F.  J.  PLATEAU.  697 

himself  to  think  it  over  again.  He  would  then  devote  a  part  of 
the  night  to  revolving  the  question  again  and  again  under  all  its 
aspects,  to  seek  the  cause  of  the  failure  and  the  means  of  future 
success." 

His  enthusiasm  would  sometimes  put  his  assistants'  patience 
to  a  rather  severe  test,  and  he  would  cry  out,  "  Oh,  if  I  could  only 
see ! "  but  as  soon  as  success  crowned  his  efforts,  the  indefatigable 
experimenter  loved  to  express  his  gratitude.  He  cross-questioned 
Nature  with  more  severity  because  he  could  only  receive  her  an- 
swers by  the  voice  of  an  interpreter.  The  thousand  obstacles  that 
presented  themselves  because  of  his  infirmity  only  suggested  a 
thousand  precautions  in  order  to  surmount  them.  His  inner 
vision  was  so  preternaturally  clear  that  he  often  corrected  the 
observations  of  his  assistants,  and  taught  their  eyes  to  see  aright. 

The  love  of  scientific  accuracy  is  not  so  much  a  mental  as  a 
moral  quality.  Plateau  was  possessed  of  a  supreme  love  for  truth, 
which  not  only  made  him  accurate  in  his  investigations  and  in 
the  records  of  his  experiments,  but  it  made  him  careful  not  to 
judge  others  without  a  full  knowledge  of  the  facts.  Always  ready 
to  ascribe  scientific  discovery  to  the  right  persons,  he  spared  no 
pains  to  know  who  was  the  true  discoverer. 

The  instructions  which  he  gave  to  his  pupils  bore  his  own  pe- 
culiar stamp.  He  used  simple  language  and  almost  a  conversa- 
tional tone.  His  phrases  were  short,  incisive,  and  clear,  a  fitting 
medium  for  the  expressions  of  a  mind  so  unclouded,  so  direct,  and 
so  concentrated.  His  talents  as  an  experimenter  were  even  more 
marked  than  as  a  speaker — more  marked,  because  it  is  a  far  more 
uncommon  gift. 

He  was  an  old-fashioned  believer.  The  more  deeply  he  "  pene- 
trated into  the  secrets  of  Nature,  the  more  he  inclined  toward  the 
mysteries  of  the  supernatural  order,"  says  his  biographer. 

The  picture  of  his  home-life— his  delight  in  and  tenderness  for 
his  children  in  his  early  manhood,  and  the  same  gentle  benevo- 
lence shown  toward  his  grandchildren  in  his  old  age — is  very 
beautiful. 

As  a  scientist  he  is  held  in  very  high  esteem  by  the  greatest 
of  his  contemporaries.  Honors  were  showered  upon  him  by  the 
great  scientific  societies  of  Europe.  Such  men  as  Arago  and  Fara- 
day were  glad  to  do  him  honor. 

His  earlier  work  was  confined  to  the  subject  of  the  persistence 
of  luminous  impressions  upon  the  eye  and  the  determination  of 
several  simultaneous  impressions  under  various  conditions  of  mo- 
tion. Many  of  the  scientific  toys  of  to-day  are  the  outcome  of 
facts  and  laws  established  by  him,  though  he  is  not  often  accred- 
ited with  these  earlier  discoveries.  With  the  study  of  persistence 
of  visual  impression  is  so  closely  associated  subjective  color  that 


698  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

this  soon  came  under  consideration,  both  accidental  color  which 
follows  an  impression  and  that  caused  by  juxtaposition.  He  sim- 
plified the  subject  greatly  by  making  this  division  of  the  subject, 
the  first  class  including  all  appearances  which  succeed  the  con- 
templation of  a  bright-colored  object,  the  second  those  which  ac- 
company such  contemplation.  The  phenomena  had  been  observed 
before,  but  Plateau  was  the  first  who  reduced  them  to  law. 

Some  valuable  experiments  and  formulated  theories  on  the 
subject  of  irradiation  were  begun,  but  was  interrupted  by  his  on- 
coming blindness. 

Before  this  time,  Plateau's  attention  had  been  fixed  by  the 
spherical  form  which  a  drop  of  oil  assumed  when  introduced  into 
an  alcoholic  liquid  having  the  same  specific  gravity  as  the  oil. 
From  this  small  beginning  he  developed  a  most  wonderful  series 
of  experiments  and  laws  under  the  title  "  Memoirs  upon  the  Phe- 
nomena which  a  Free  Mass  of  Liquid  presents  when  removed 
from  the  Action  of  Gravity."  Eleven  papers  upon  this  general 
subject  appeared  between  the  years  1843  and  1868  in  the  memoirs 
of  the  Academy  of  Brussels.  These  included  his  experiments 
upon  films  and  the  formulation  of  the  laws  which  govern  their 
union — one  of  Plateau's  most  valuable  contributions  to  physical 
science.  He  also  made  some  very  interesting  investigations  upon 
liquid  jets,  with  a  number  of  shorter  papers  and  notes  upon  vari- 
ous subjects.  Most  of  these  papers  appeared  in  the  memoirs  or 
bulletins  of  the  Academy  of  Brussels,  a  few  in  the  French  and 
German  annals  of  science,  "  Comptes  Rendu  de  l'Acade'mie  des 
Sciences  de  Paris,"  and  Poggendorff 's  "  Annalen."  He  died  Sep- 
tember 15,  1883. 

It  is  impossible  to  read  of  Plateau's  work,  carried  on  for  so 
many  years  in  spite  of  frail  health  and  total  blindness,  and  not 
draw  a  parallel  between  Huber  and  himself — each  of  them  a 
man  who  was  the  peer  of  any  worker  in  his  own  field,  though  so 
cruelly  handicapped.  They  are  two  of  the  purest,  noblest,  most 
pathetic,  most  heroic  figures  who  adorn  the  annals  of  science. 


While  believing  it  premature  till  some  new  groups  of  lines  are  further  studied 
to  express  more  than  provisional  suggestions  as  to  the  nature  of  certain  nebula? 
he  has  been  examining  spectroscopically,  Mr.  Huggins  supposes  that  they  may 
represent  an  early  stage  in  the  evolutionary  changes  of  the  heavenly  bodies.  They 
consist  probably  of  gas  at  a  high  temperature  and  very  tenuous,  where  chemical 
dissociation  exists,  and  the  constituents  of  the  mass  are  arranged  in  the  order  of 
vapor-density.  But  the  stage  of  evolution  which  the  nebula  in  Andromeda  repre- 
sents is  no  longer  a  matter  of  hypothesis.  Eecent  photographs  show  a  planetary 
system  at  a  somewhat  advanced  stage  of  evolution.  Already  several  planets  have 
been  thrown  off,  and  the  central  gaseous  mass  has  condensed  to  a  moderate  size 
as  compared  with  the  dimensions  it  must  have  possessed  before  any  planets  had 
been  formed. 


CORRESP  ONDENCE. 


699 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


A  FALLACY   OF   THE   SOCIALISTS. 
Editor  Popular  Science  Monthly  : 

DEAR  SIR:  Is  not  the  laud  question, 
viewed  from  an  American  standpoint, 
simply  a  disagreement  about  methods  rather 
than  ethical  principles ;  and  are  not  the  dis- 
tinctions sought  to  be  established  between 
absolute  and  relative  political  ethics  more 
subtle  than  philosophical  or  accurate  ? 

A  great  part  of  the  land  in  the  United 
States  was  in  the  beginning,  and  much  of  it 
is  still,  just  in  the  condition  demanded  by 
Mr.  Laidler  and  his  confrh-cs — the  absolute 
property   of  the  Government.     Almost  the 
whole  country  was  at  first  "  held  by  the  great 
corporate  body — society,"  without  any  sus- 
picion of  "  violence,  fraud,  the  prerogative 
of  force,  or  the  claims  of  superior  cunning  " 
in  any  way  affecting  the  sources  to   which 
titles  are  traced.     Government  was  free  to 
do  as  it  would  with  its  possessions :  either  to 
sell,  lease,  or  farm  them  in  its  own  behalf. 
Government — that  is,  society — chose  to  sell 
or  give  away  the  public  domain  in  fee-sim- 
ple, reserving  the  right  of  eminent  domain. 
The  moment  land  is  reduced  to  private  own- 
ership, it  becomes  subject  to  taxation,  and 
must  bear  its  share  of  the  burdens  of  soci- 
ety.    It  contributes  toward  the  maintenance 
of  roads,  schools,  infirmaries,  hospitals,  and 
all  the  complicated  machinery  necessary  to 
the  well-being  of  the  social  fabric.     If  land, 
subject  to  private  ownership,  fails  to  pay  its 
tax  assessments,  it  is  forthwith  confiscated 
and  reverts  to  the  state,  which  finally  sells 
it,  without  possibility  of  redemption,  to  some 
other  person  who  will  pay  the  taxes — that 
is,    contribute   to   maintain   society.      Who 
decides  what  amount  of  burden  land  shall 
bear  ?     Not  the  private  proprietor  certainly, 
but    society.     No  private  owner  can  evade 
this  implied  contract — namely,  to  contribute 
as  much  to  the  support  of  society  as  society 
may  deem  necessary.     Hence  every  citizen 
may  be  said  to  have  an  interest  to  the  ex- 
tent of  his  political  or  social  influence  in  all 
the  lands  of  the  commonwealth.     And  the 
tenure  of  every  landholder  depends  on  his 
ability  to  meet  the  burdens  laid  upon  his 
land  by  non-owners,  since  these  everywhere 
constitute   a    majority.      Strictly   speaking, 
therefore,  there  is  no  such  thing  as  private 
ownership  of  land  in  the  sense  in  which  the 
expression  is  used   in  the  discussion.     The 
owner  may  sell,  lease,  or  bequeath  his  hold- 
ing ;  but  the  usufruct  of  society,  which  exists 
prior  to  all  other  claims,  can  not  be  avoided. 
Mr.   Laidler's    assertion,  therefore,  quoting 
from  Mr.  Spencer,  that  if  men  may  make 
the  soil  private  property,  "  then  the  Duke 
of  Sutherland  may  justifiably  banish  High- 
landers to  make  room  for  sheep-walks,"  is 


\  fallacious.  This  false  assumption  invali- 
dates equally  all  of  the  ten  sections  which 
compose  his  argument.  As  land  tenures  ex- 
ist in  the  United  States,  the  landless  men, 
instead  of  becoming  subject  to  "  expulsion 
from  the  earth  altogether,"  would  be  far  more 
likely  to  bring  about  the  confiscation  of  all 
of  the  duke's  vast  possessions  by  the  legiti- 
mate exercise  of  their  constitutional  powers 
of  direct  and  indirect  taxation. 

It  may  be  urged  that  the  existing  tenure 
of  land  in  the  United  States  does  not  repre- 
sent the  status  of  private  ownership  in  older 
and  densely  populated    countries,  and    still 
less  so  that  possible  condition  of  the  earth 
and  mankind  contemplated  by  the  expound- 
er of  absolute  political  ethics.     The  obvious 
reply  is,  that  neither  condition  is  essential  to 
the  continuation  of  private  ownership.     Let 
the  Socialists  direct  their  complaints  against 
hereditary  privileges  and  the  abuses  of  private 
ownership,  and  not  against  that  coincident 
form  of  land  tenure  which,  when  properly  ad- 
justed, is  best  adapted  to  realize  their  views. 
If  all  lands  in  Great    Britain  could   be 
suddenly  transferred  to  the  crown,  is  there 
any  way  in  which  society  could  better  man- 
age  or  dispose   of  them   than  the  United 
States  has  adopted  ?     No  better  way,  cer- 
tainly, has  yet  been  indicated.     Government 
here — notably  the  State  of  Ohio  in  the  man- 
agement of  her  school  lands — tried  for  many 
years  all  known    methods  of   leasing  these 
lands,  and  all  ended  in  conspicuous  failure. 
Her  public  men  universally  denounced  the 
system  of  leases,  after  experimenting  with  it 
in  all  possible  ways,  until  an  act  of  Congress 
authorized  the  school  lands  to  be  sold.     If 
society,   after  actual   experience,   has    con- 
demned and  abandoned  the  methods  advo- 
cated by  the  Socialists,  and  adopted  the  ex- 
isting form  of  private  ownership  as  the  best 
which  statesmanship  has  to  offer,  what  rea- 
son is  there  to  suppose  that  the  resumption 
of  public  ownership,  if  it  could  be  accom- 
plished, would  lead  to  better  results  in  the 
future  ?     Under  the  present  form  of  private 
holdings,  land  is  made  to  yield  the  largest 
possible    returns,  and   to   contribute  of  its 
products  the  largest  possible  contingent  for 
the  benefit  of  the  landless.     Can  any  theory 
of  government  or  system  of  philosophy  be 
true  which  is  inconsistent  with  obvious  facts  ? 

James  L.  Taylor. 
"Wheelebsbueg,  Ohio,  December  30,  1S89. 


A  DEFENSE  OF  "ADVANCED"   WOMEN. 
Editor  Popular  Science  Monthly  : 

I  have  read  the  article  by  Grant  Allen 
in  the  October  number  of  "  The  Popular  Sci- 
ence Monthly,"  and  I  wish  to  say  that  if  I 
knew  even  one  woman  of  "  advanced  "  ideas 


JOO 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


holding  the  opinions  he  attributes  to  them  I 
should  value  the  article  in  that  proportion ; 
but  as  I  do  not  know  a  single  one — and  I 
have  lived  a  good  deal  among  women  of 
"advanced  "  ideas — I  can  not  help  thinking 
the  article  worse  than  uncalled  for. 

As  far  as  I  know  anything  about  it,  those 
who  shirk  the  duties  of  maternity  have  ideas 
very  far  from  advanced :  they  are  the  poorer 
kind  of  society  women,  many  of  whom  would 
be  horrified  at  being  suspected  of  intelli- 
gence or  independence. 

The  charge  used  to  be  that  women  be- 
came spinsters  because  they  could  not  get 
husbands,  and  that  was  considered  sufficient- 
ly opprobrious.  Now  Mr.  Allen  charges 
them  with  unwillingness  to  take  husbands ; 
and  yet  states  in  the  same  breath  that  the 
marriageable  men  go  off  beyond  reach  when 
they  "  ought  to  be  making  love,"  etc. 

Here  is  an  arraignment  indeed  !  Why 
not  devote  an  article — any  number  of  arti- 
cles— exclusively  to  these  marriageable  men  ? 

The  great  body  of  noble  women  who 
have  thrown  themselves  into  the  struggle  for 
equal  freedom  are  behind  no  one  in  desire  for 
true  womanliness  and  femininity.  Already 
we  are  well  on  the  way  to  the  emancipation 
that  Mr.  Allen  pleads  for,  the  sound  bodies 
and  minds  that  are  to  come  from  the  free 
and  entire  development  of  girls  and  boys, 
and  freedom  from  Mrs.  Grundy  ;  but  all  the 
progress  made  is  due  to  these  "  women-ques- 
tion agitators." 

If  there  exists  this  deplorable  indiffer- 
ence to  marriage  on  the  part  of  women,  is 
it  not  the  consequence  of  the  very  state  of 
things  that  these  leaders  are  striving  to  abol- 
ish— and  also,  perhaps,  of  the  sacrifices  that 
this  strife  entails,  and  of  some  of  the  char- 
acteristics that  are  inevitably  developed  by 
it,  and  that  no  one  knows  or  deprecates 
more  than  these  valiant  workers  themselves  ? 

All  reforms  have  their  attendant  evils ; 
but  it  is  the  state  of  things  that  called  for 
the  reform  that  is  to  blame  for  them — or  the 
"  nature  of  things." 

We  need  patience,  hands  off,  fair  play 
without  privilege,  and  that  each  should  think 
most  of  his  own  duty.  A.  A.  M. 

Boston,  December  15,  1889. 


PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  AND  CKIME. 
Editor  Popular  Science  Monthly  : 

As  I  have  more  than  seven  hundred  pu- 
pils under  my  charge,  and  that,  too,  in  a  State 
not  backward  in  common-school  education, 
I  venture  to  protest  against  being  lodged  in 
a  criminal-making  class.  Like  Mr.  Reece,  I 
would  ask,  "  Of  what  utility  are  facts  and 
experiences  unless  their  teachings  are  heeded 
and  their  meaning  properly  interpreted  ?  " 
With  Mr.  Atkinson,  I  say,  "  All  statistics,  un- 
less qualified  by  sound  judgment,  are  mere 
rubbish." 

Mr.  Reece  mentions  the  fact  of  the  in- 
crease of  criminals  since  the  period  of  mod- 


'  ern  civilization  and  science  commenced,  but 
I  he  does  not  mention  that  the  methods  of 
tracking  criminals  have  wonderfully  in- 
creased, so  that  we  may  have  a  larger  ratio 
of  criminals  caught  than  in  days  before  the 
swift  post,  the  telegraph,  the  police  system, 
the  photograph,  and  the  extradition  treaty. 
Surely  he  should  give  the  public  school  the 
praise  of  supplying  some  of  the  means  of 
catching  the  criminal  after  it  has  made  him ! 
I  will  say  nothing  about  the  increased  accu- 
racy of  the  statistics  of  1880  over  those  of 
the  earlier  period. 

While  discussing  criminality  in  New  York 
State,  he  states  that  the  common  schools 
furnish  eighty -three  per  cent  of  the  inmates 
of  Auburn  and  Sing  Sing,  while  a  little  over 
nine  per  cent  is  credited  to  the  illiterate 
population.  Out  of  2,616  convicts,  1,801  are 
credited  to  the  common  school  and  238  to 
the  illiterates.  I  can  not  see  that  even  his 
own  arrangement  of  the  figures  is  against  us. 
Surely  nine  per  cent  is  a  much  larger  ratio, 
when  compared  with  the  number  of  illiter- 
ates in  New  York,  than  eighty-three  per 
cent  would  be  if  compared  with  the  number 
of  the  common-school  graduates.  It  seems 
to  me  that  he  should  have  taken  as  bases 
for  his  example  in  social  arithmetic  the  num- 
ber of  illiterates  and  the  number  of  common- 
school  graduates.  I  have  not  the  statistics 
of  illiteracy  in  New  York  at  hand,  but  I  be- 
lieve the  figures  will  show  fully  three  times 
as  large  a  ratio  of  criminals  to  be  credited 
to  them  as  to  the  common  school. 

Mr.  Reece  cites  various  savage  tribes  as 
being  examples  to  us  in  morals.  He  fails 
to  see  that  temptations  are  increased  a  thou- 
sand-fold for  the  civilized  man.  There  could 
not  be  many  thefts  where  all  property  is 
held  in  common,  when  the  property  owned 
is  so  paltry  as  not  to  be  worth  the  carrying 
away. 

1  do  not  contend  that  the  public  school 
is  doing  all  it  is  able,  but  it  is  doing  as  well 
as  the  church  and  the  family  are  doing  in 
their  spheres  toward  elevating  the  moral 
tone  of  the  community.  Writers  like  Mr. 
Reece  seem  inclined  to  find  fault  with  us 
because  we  can  not  do  the  work  of  the  fam- 
ily and  the  church.  We  are  doing  a  good 
share  of  it,  but,  under  the  triple  burden,  we 
may  sometimes  fail  to  send  out  all  good  citi- 
zens. Very  truly,  Charles  S.  Davis. 
Lynn,  Mass.,  January  15,  1890. 


A    NOVEL  WATER-COOLER. 
Editor  Popular  Science  Monthly  : 

My  article  in  the  January  (1890)  number 
of  the  "  Monthly  "  brought  me  an  inquiry  from 
Quincy,  Illinois,  as  to  where  the  writer  could 
get  an  olla  (pronounced  o-ya),  and  what  it 
would  cost.  Here  in  southern  California 
they  are  plenty,  and  the  regular  retail  price 
is  twenty  cents  a  gallon.  What  the  trans- 
portation would  be  I  do  not  know. 

Since  my  article  was  written  I  have  heard 


EDITOR'S    TABLE. 


701 


of  another  way  of  keeping  water  cool,  which 
I  have  never  seen  exemplified.  A  grain- 
sack,  such  as  is  used  by  the  Eastern  farm- 
ers, is  painted  and  filled  with  water,  and 
hung  up  in  a  cool  place  where  the  breeze 
strikes  it. 

The  olla,  too,  must  be  kept  in  a  breezy 
place.  Wind  will  dry  clothes  or  a  field,  and 
so  it  will  evaporate  the  water  oozing  through 
an  olla,  or  barrel,  or,  I  suppose,  the  painted 
grain-bag.  The  evaporation  is  what  does  the 
cooling,  according  to  a  well-known  principle 
of  physics.  Henry  J.  Philpott. 

Pasadena,  Cal.,  January  13, 1890. 


THE  LTJCAYAN  INDIANS. 
Editor  Popular  Science  Monthly  : 

Sir:  With  reference  to  Prof.  Brooks's 
paper,  "  The  Lucayan  Indians,"  in  the  No- 
vember number  of  the  "  Monthly,"  I  have  ex- 
amined one  or  two  caves  during  the  past 
summer,  and  have  been  intending  to  make  a 
more  thorough  search  during  the  winter ;  so, 
if  any  of  your  readers  should  feel  inclined  to 
adopt  the  professor's  suggestion,  I  shall  be 
glad  to  co-operate. 

Although  no  doubt  the  aborigines  of  the 
Bahamas  had  intercourse  with  Hayti  and 


Cuba,  the  possession  by  them  of  stone  imple- 
ments does  not,  as  Prof.  Brooks  supposes, 
prove  it ;  for,  although  the  islands  consist 
solely  of  coral  rock,  yet  stone,  identical  in 
appearance  with  that  of  which  the  stone  im- 
plements are  usually  made,  is  constantly  be- 
ing washed  up  on  the  northern  shore  of  New 
Providence,  and  probably  elsewhere ;  so  that 
the  Lucayan  implement-makers  would  have 
had  plenty  of  material  in  the  archipelago. 

Also,  it  must  not  be  too  hastily  con- 
cluded that  all  remains  found  in  caves  in  the 
Bahamas  are  Lucayan.  Negro  skulls  have 
been  found  more  than  once,  and  in  one  cave 
I  found,  consolidated  into  breccia,  a  number 
of  bones  which  a  local  anatomist  pro- 
nounced to  be  those  of  "  some  large  verte- 
brate animal."  They  presented  an  appear- 
ance of  great  antiquity,  and,  had  we  not 
known  that  there  were  no  large  animals  in 
these  islands  at  the  time  of  their  discovery, 
they  would  certainly  have  been  referred  to 
pre-European  days ;  whereas,  they  were 
probably  the  remains  of  an  ox  which  had 
been  killed  and  eaten  by  runaway  slaves,  for 
the  surface  of  the  rock  showed  traces  of 
fire.  Yours  faithfully, 

A.  B.  Ellis. 

Nassau,  N.  P.,  November  28, 1889. 


EDITOR'S   TABLE. 


HOW  TO  MAKE  KNOWLEDGE  REAL. 

THERE  was  an  interesting  discussion 
a  month  or  two  ago  at  a  meeting 
of  the  Chicago  Institute  of  Education. 
A  paper  had  been  read  by  one  of  the 
members  of  the  Institute,  Mr.  Fernando 
Sanford,  on  "The  Disciplinary  Value 
of  Scientific  Study,"  which  is  stated  to 
have  been  a  strong  and  well-constructed 
plea  for  the  study  of  science  by  original 
observation  rather  than  by  the  ordinary 
text-book  methods.  Many  of  our  read- 
ers would  expect  that  unqualified  as- 
sent would  have  been  given  to  the  ar- 
gument of  the  paper ;  but  it  happened 
that  an  eminent  educationist  was  pres- 
ent in  the  person  of  Superintendent 
Howland,  of  the  Chicago  public  schools, 
who  dissented  entirely  from  Mr.  San- 
ford's  thesis.  He  thought  all  this  talk 
about  observation  of  facts  and  handling 
of  objects  was  great  nonsense ;  why  not 
let  children  learn  out  of  books  that 
things  were  so  and  so,  and  commit  the 


facts  to  memory  ?  What  was  the  use  of 
all  the  accumulated  knowledge  and  in- 
telligence of  the  ages,  if  children  were 
to  begin  at  the  beginning  and  make  over 
again  for  themselves  discoveries  that 
were  made  centuries  ago  ?  Life  was 
too  short,  he  held,  for  this  kind  of  thing. 
Let  the  pupil  start  with  the  knowledge 
of  his  own  day  as  gathered  and  gar- 
nered in  books,  and  not  bother  to  find 
out  things  for  himself.  Moreover,  man 
and  his  institutions  are  more  worth 
studying  than  all  the  world  besides.  It 
would  be  a  misfortune,  he  thought,  if 
the  advice  given  in  the  paper  were  fol- 
lowed in  the  schools. 

We  take  the  report  of  this  speech 
as  we  find  it  in  the  columns  of  our 
contemporary  "  Intelligence "  of  Chi- 
cago, and  we  judge  by  the  remarks  that 
followed  that  the  meaning  we  attach  to 
it  is  precisely  that  which  it  conveyed  to 
those  who  were  present.  These  views, 
expressed  by  a  man  holding  a  most  im- 


JOZ 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


portant  official  position,  and  eminent  as 
an  educational  leader,  are  so  strikingly 
opposed  to  the  general  verdict  of  scien- 
tific educators  as  to  challenge  exami- 
nation. The  question  is,  how  shall  sci- 
ence be  taught?  Only  experience  can 
answer.  If  there  is  any  fact  that 
experience  has  overwhelmingly  illus- 
trated and  established,  it  is  that  mere 
book-teaching  of  science  is  void  and  of 
no  effect — nay,  that  it  is  worse  :  that  it 
has  an  actively  injurious  effect  on  the 
mind,  which  it  deadens  with  meaningless 
jargon  and  befogs  with  ill-comprehend- 
ed notions.  The  highest  scientific  au- 
thorities have  proclaimed  this;  and  a 
committee  of  the  American  Association 
for  the  Advancement  of  Science  put  on 
record  three  or  four  years  ago  their  de- 
liberate opinion  that  the  book  science 
taught  in  the  schools  of  this  country 
was  valueless  for  any  purpose  of  intel- 
lectual discipline.  Superintendent  How- 
land  must  have  observed  in  the  course 
of  his  wide  experience  how  hollow  and 
often  how  fantastically  absurd  are  the 
ideas  children  acquire  of  things  of  which 
they  are  told,  but  which  they  have  never 
seen  or  handled.  Every  one  who  has 
been  a  close  observer  of  his  own  contem- 
poraries must  be  aware  of  many  a  man 
and  woman  who,  for  want  of  early  and 
practical  familiarity  with  this  or  that 
class  of  physical  facts,  labors  under  a 
confirmed  disability  in  dealing  with  all 
facts  of  that  particular  order.  How  is 
a  knowledge  of  or  interest  in  flowers 
and  plants  (for  example)  to  be  acquired, 
if  not  by  personal  handling  and  ob- 
servation of  the  objects  themselves? 
And  are  there  not  many  persons  who, 
for  want  of  this  practical  training,  go 
through  life  with  little  knowledge  of 
flowers  beyond  the  fact  that  they  are  of 
various  colors  and  odors,  and  of  plants 
that  they  are  for  the  most  part  green 
and  require  soil  and  sunlight  for  their 
growth  ?  Many  a  man  will  give  abun- 
dant testimony  showing  how  hard  he  has 
striven  in  mature  years  to  gain  a  little 
knowledge  from  books  of  this  or  that 


branch  of  science,  and  what  terribly  up- 
hill and,  in  the  main,  ineffectual  work 
it  has  been,  just  on  account  of  defect  in 
his  powers  of  observation,  and  in  that 
memory  for  the  forms  and  qualities  of 
physical  things  which  due  exercise  of 
the  observing  habit  in  early  life  devel- 
ops. Take  any  man  on  the  ground  that 
has  become  familiar  to  him  by  actual 
observation,  and  he  is  at  his  best.  Talk 
to  the  sportsman  about  guns  and  game, 
and  you  are  amazed  at  the  profusion 
and  minuteness  of  his  knowledge.  Talk 
to  the  naturalist,  and  he  is  inexhaustible 
in  his  descriptions  and  explanations  of 
the  objects  of  his  craft.  Talk  to  the 
geologist,  and  you  will  find  that  the  strata 
and  their  fossil  contents  are  the  true  re- 
alities amid  which  he  lives.  But  talk  to 
any  man  about  that  which  he  has  only 
learned  from  books,  and,  though  his 
speech  may  be  copious,  it  will  lack  a 
certain  living  quality  that  comes  only 
from  conversance  with  realities.  Even 
in  such  a  domain  as  history,  which  some 
may  say  can  not  be  learned  except  from 
books,  there  is  a  marked  difference  be- 
tween the  man  whose  memory  is  sim- 
ply laden  with  names  and  dates,  and  the 
man  who  has  become,  in  a  sense,  practi- 
cally acquainted  with  the  memorials  of 
past  ages — who  has  studied  their  monu- 
ments, their  arts,  their  coins,  their  char- 
ters, their  institutions,  and  who  has 
vivified  the  whole  by  a  knowledge  of 
similar  things  belonging  to  the  present 
time.  It  is  safe  to  say  tbat  no  man  will 
ever  understand  history  from  the  mere 
perusal  of  a  narrative;  he  must,  in  a  man- 
ner, make  himself  a  contemporary  of  the 
times  he  is  reading  about ;  and  then  he 
may  know  the  past  a  little  as  an  intelli- 
gent man  of  affairs  knows  the  present. 

We  had  a  splendid  example  here  in 
this  city  not  many  weeks  ago  of  what 
book-teaching  of  science  amounts  to. 
The  "Evening  Post  "  gave  a  selection 
of  over  fifty  answers  given  by  young 
women  of  the  average  age  of  seventeen, 
all  pupils  of  our  public  schools,  most  of 
them  having  gone  through  the  highest 


EDITOR'S   TABLE. 


703 


grade,  to  five  very  simple  questions 
forming  an  examination  paper  set  for 
candidates  for  admission  to  a  free  sten- 
ographic class  at  the  Cooper  Institute. 
These  damsels  were  asked,  among  other 
things,  to  state  how  many  motions  the 
earth  has,  and  how  much  time  each  oc- 
cupies ;  also  what  causes  the  change  of 
seasons.  These  things  had  been  fully 
explained  to  them,  as  was  supposed,  at 
school ;  and  all,  or  nearly  all,  had  in 
point  of  fact  retained  some  shreds  of 
the  phraseology  in  which  the  expla- 
nations had  been  conveyed.  Here  are 
some  examples  of  the  answers  to  the 
question  as  to  the  motions  of  the  earth  : 

"  One  motion.  One  year.  The  mo- 
tion of  sun  round  the  earth." 

"  Two  motions.  Night,  Day,  twelve 
hours  for  each." 

"Four  motions,  it  revolves  on  its 
axis  around  once  a  year,  and  the  four 
motions  cause  the  seasons  spring,  sum- 
mer, fall,  and  winter." 

"  The  revolution  of  the  earth  on  its 
axis,  and  the  inclination  of  23J  per  cent 
of  its  poles  to  the  plane  of  its  orbit." 

"  Two  motions,  day  and  night.  The 
sun  causes  the  earth  to  move  around 
its  axis  every  twenty-four  hours." 

"  Two,  Regular  and  Circular,  twelve 
hours  for  each." 

"  If  the  earth  would  not  be  round, 
the  sun  and  moon  could  not  go  round 
the  earth.  Sun  takes  twenty-four 
hours.  Moon  takes  twenty -four  hours. 
Stars  at  night." 

"We  can  not  afford  more  space  to  this 
rubbish.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  our  con- 
temporary prints  the  answers  given  to 
the  several  questions  by  fifty-six  of  the 
candidates,  and  that  they  all  display  the 
most  deplorable  ignorance  and  confu- 
sion. 

The  problems  of  how  science  shall  be 
taught  in  the  public  schools,  or  indeed 
whether  it  shall  be  brought  into  them  at 
all,  depend  for  their  solution  upon  having 
the  right  kind  of  teachers.  They  need  to 
realize  the  utter  ignorance  of  the  child- 
mind  as  it  comes  for  instruction  to  the 


public  school,  and  to  understand  how 
to  build  up  in  that  mind  a  fabric  of  real 
and  coherent  knowledge.  Let  us  turn 
children  out  of  the  public  schools  igno- 
rant, if  need  be,  of  many  things  that  are 
taught  to  them  now ;  but  let  this  idea  at 
least  be  rooted  in  their  minds,  that  this 
world  is  made  up  of  real  things;  and  this 
further  idea,  that  words  are  worse  than 
useless  unless  they  can  be  applied  in  the 
most  definite  manner  to  well-understood 
objects  of  sense  or  of  thought.  What  a 
blessing  it  would  be  if  we  could  inspire 
the  rising  generation  with  a  real  horror 
of  vague  and  meaningless  language !  It 
would  mean  nothing  less  than  an  in- 
tellectual revolution  in  the  world — or  at 
least  in  our  considerable  pbrtion  of  it. 


THE  RECOGNITION'  OF  TRUTH. 

If  there  should  arise  a  class  of  men 
who  were  able  to  distinguish,  promptly 
and  invariably,  genuine  things  from  imi- 
tations, facts  from  falsehoods,  and  truth 
from  error,  they  would  have  an  almost 
inconceivable  advantage  in  the  struggle 
of  life.  The  tricks  of  impostors  would 
never  deceive  them ;  the  bubbles  of  vis- 
ionaries would  never  delude  them ;  they 
would  never  be  misled  by  the  sophistries 
of  shallow  theorists  ;  never  be  enslaved 
by  baseless  superstitions.  Such  wisdom 
is  so  unlike  what  the  world  has  ever 
known  that  the  idea  savors  of  Utopia 
or  the  millennium,  and  to  express  it 
seems  almost  childish.  Yet  it  is  a  fact 
that  some  progress  toward  this  ideal  has 
been  made — some  increase  of  the  power 
of  recognizing  truth  has  been  gained.  A 
class  of  men  has  arisen  whose  pursuit  of 
health  is  not  hampered  by  the  delusion 
that  disease  is  a  punishment  for  lapses 
from  religion,  who  do  not  waste  their 
money  on  schemes  for  getting  more 
power  out  of  a  machine  than  is  put 
into  it,  who  do  not  accept  every  state- 
ment that  is  put  to  them  with  rhetorical 
vehemence  and  defective  evidence.  This 
superior  discernment — far  from  perfect, 
but  the  best  that  man  has  ever  had — 


7°+ 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


is  the  possession  of  those  who  have 
adopted  the  scientific  habit  of  thought. 
A  writer  in  the  "Lancet"  remarks  that 
a  supersensitiveness  with  regard  to 
truth  is  the  essential  characteristic  of  a 
scientific  frame  of  mind.  Every  sugges- 
tion that  is  offered  in  explanation  of 
phenomena  which  are  imperfectly  un- 
derstood is  received  with  cautious  re- 
serve. This  characteristic  is  liable  to  be 
mistaken  for  uncertainty  or  for  preju- 
dice ;  but  in  reality  it  is  solely  the  out- 
ward sign  of  a  just  appreciation  of  the 
numerous  sources  of  fallacy,  which  so 
often  tend  to  render  -the  most  brilliant 
speculations  worthless,  when  examined 
rigidly  and  coldly  by  the  ideal  standard 
of  truth.  When  gauging  the  probability 
of  the  truth  of  any  suggested  explana- 
tion, it  is  held  to  be  scientifically  un- 
sound to  welcome  it  merely  because 
some  one  of  undoubted  honesty  of  pur- 
pose has  expressed  his  entire  belief  in 
it.  There  is  always  the  possibility  of 
mental  bias  to  be  reckoned  with,  as  well 
as  the  possibility  of  unconscious  delu- 
sion. No  single  sense  is  to  be  implicitly 
trusted.  A  preconceived  idea  may  lead 
to  the  recognition  of  one  property,  while 
others  of  greater  importance  are  over- 
looked. Pushed  to  its  logical  conclu- 
sion, this  ideal  standard  of  truth  de- 
mands more  proof  than  can  ever  be 
obtained,  and  for  working  purposes  it 
is  found  convenient  to  employ  what 
may  be  called  provisional  truths,  which 
we  accept  on  account  of  the  facts  that 
appear  to  support  them  being  vastly 
more  numerous  than  those  that  appear 
to  oppose  them,  or  because  they  have 
been  set  forth  by  careful,  conscientious 
observers,  after  thorough  consideration 
and  elimination  of  all  probable  sources 
of  error. 

Imperfect  education  fosters  delusion ; 
indeed,  delusions  are  most  rife  with  the 
ambitious  condition  which  often  comes 
from  "  a  little  learning,"  when  the  whole 
is  liable  to  be  rashly  assumed  from  the 
part ;  when  a  false  appearance  of  truth 
may  bo  mistaken  for  explanation  ;  when 


the  result  of  an  erroneous  observation, 
unchecked  by  scientific  training,  may  be 
hastily  considered  to  amount  to  demon- 
stration. Education  can  have  no  more 
important  aim  than  to  equip  pupils  with 
the  best  known  method  for  the  recogni- 
tion of  truth.  Every  day  of  their  fives 
they  will  have  to  decide  as  to  the  truth  or 
falsity  of  some  statement ;  and  what  is  to 
prevent  their  going  astray,  if  they  have 
not  been  practiced  in  searching  out  all 
modifying  circumstances  of  a  problem, 
if  they  have  not  been  accustomed  to 
finding  the  balance  of  evidence,  and 
taught  the  great  lesson  that  judgment  is 
not  to  be  given  rashly,  but  must  be  sus- 
pended when  sufficient  data  to  warrant 
a  decision  are  not  obtainable  ?  The  old 
studies  of  our  schools  do  nothing  toward 
training  the  young  in  examining  evi- 
dence and  forming  judgments.  The 
study  of  science,  however,  when  rightly 
conducted,  mainly  consists  of  the  pro- 
cess of  investigation,  the  very  instru- 
ment which  pupils  must  be  able  to  use 
handily  in  after  life  to  save  themselves 
from  becoming  the  victims  of  impostors 
and  swindlers.  Aside  from  the  material 
advantages  involved,  the  habit  of  mak- 
ing truth  the  goal  of  his  exertions  in- 
spires in  the  young  learner  a  respect 
and  fondness  for  truth  for  its  own  sake 
which  can  not  fail  to  have  an  elevating 
influence  on  his  character.  Science 
should  have,  therefore,  an  important 
place  in  every  school  programme ;  it 
should  be  introduced  in  the  lowest 
grades,  in  order  to  give  the  child's  un- 
folding faculties  the  proper  bent;  and 
it  should  be  continued  throughout  the 
school  course  in  order  to  save  the  half- 
formed  habit  of  intelligent  inquiry  from 
being  lost  by  an  interruption  of  its  ex- 
ercise. Our  children  could  well  afford 
to  grow  up  in  ignorance  of  the  height 
of  Mount  Ohuquibaraba  and  the  length 
of  the  Brahmapootra ;  they  might  dis- 
pense with  a  smattering  of  French,  or 
do  without  the  Latin  declensions  and 
conjugations,  if  the  time  thus  saved  en- 
abled them  to  gain  some  facility  in  sift- 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


705 


ing  truth  from  falsehood.  An  encour- 
aging improvement  in  our  educational 
ideas  has  been  shown  of  late,  and  it 
seems  as  if  the  time  could  not  be  far 
distant  when  all  who  have  any  voice  in 
the  training  of  the  young  will  see  clear- 
ly what  knowledge  and  what  acquire- 
ments are  of  most  worth. 

LITERARY  NOTICES. 

Individualism,  a  System  of  Politics.  By 
Wordsworth  Donisthoupe,  Barrister-at- 
Law,  author  of  "  Principles  of  Plutolo- 
gy,"  etc.  London  and  New  York :  Mac- 
millan  &  Co.     Pp.  393.     Price,  $4. 

This  is  a  work  which  we  feel  justified, 
after  a  careful  perusal,  in  commending  to 
the  study  of  our  readers.  The  questions 
which  it  discusses  are  of  the  first  impor- 
tance, and  Mr.  Donisthorpe  gives  one  the 
impression  of  a  man  thoroughly  familiar 
with  his  own  ground,  and  whose  conclusions 
have  not  been  formed  at  hap-hazard  or  with- 
out deep  and  earnest  reflection.  The  main 
idea  of  the  book  is  that  individualism  proper- 
ly understood  furnishes  the  key  to  a  true 
political  system.  The  last  thing  Mr.  Donis- 
thorpe would  wish  to  do  would  be  to  relax 
the  bonds  of  society.  His  aim,  on  the  con- 
trary, is  to  strengthen  and  perfect  society, 
in  the  first  place,  by  a  scientific  separation 
of  the  domain  of  the  state  and  that  of  pri- 
vate activity ;  and,  secondly,  by  carrying  to 
its  fullest  legitimate  development  the  prin- 
ciple of  individual  liberty.  He  has  not,  per- 
haps, developed  his  thesis  in  the  most  co- 
herent manner  possible ;  we  think  the  work 
might  be  rearranged  and  perhaps  some- 
what compressed,  with  advantage  to  the 
main  argument ;  but  meantime  we  are  glad 
to  recognize  in  it  a  powerful  and  timely  plea 
for  principles  of  government  with  which 
"  The  Popular  Science  Monthly  "  has  always 
been  distinctly  in  sympathy.  Mr.  Donis- 
thorpe writes  as  a  lawyer ;  and  the  influence 
of  his  juristic  studies  is  visible  on  every 
page.  At  times  his  argument  gains  in  force 
through  the  dispassionate  practicality  of 
the  legal  mind ;  and  at  times  it  assumes  a 
character  somewhat  too  forensic  for  the  best 
general  effect. 

In  Chapter  I  we  have  a  discussion  of  the 
growth  and  evolution  of  the  state.  There  is 
vol.  xxxvi. — 45 


nothing  here  distinctly  novel.  As  regards 
the  origin  of  political  government  the  author 
accepts  the  ideas  of  Mr.  Spencer,  and  refers 
also  with  approval  to  "  the  learned  and  fas- 
cinating works  of  the  late  Sir  Henry  Maine." 
He  develops  well,  however,  the  idea  that 
the  tendency  of  modern  times  has  been 
toward  the  forming  of  larger  and  larger 
political  aggregates ;  and  that  in  the  pres- 
ent day  the  facilities  for  communication  and 
transport  which  science  has  made  available 
have  increased  more  wonderfully  than  ever 
the  possibilities  of  state  growth.  Apparent- 
ly Mr.  Donisthorpe's  ideal  is  one  center  of 
law — so  far  as  law  is  an  absolute  necessity 
— and  the  widest  possible  individual  liberty 
throughout  the  whole  community.  He  is 
not  a  friend  to  what  is  called  "  local  op- 
tion " ;  he  considers  that  it  means  little  else 
than  local  tyranny,  and  perhaps  he  is  right. 
He  does  not  believe  in  cutting  up  a  country 
into  larger  and  smaller  geographical  squares, 
and  making  the  conditions  of  life  for  each 
man  depend  on  the  particular  square  in 
which  he  chances  to  live.  He  holds  that 
the  same  (legal)  conditions  of  life  should  be 
available  for  all  members  of  the  community, 
and  that  these  should  be  of  the  simplest 
character  possible.  "  Imperial  law,"  he  says, 
"must  henceforth  be  based  on  individual 
and  local  liberty." 

Chapter  II  deals  with  "The  Structure 
of  the  State."  The  author  announces  him- 
self a  thorough-going  democrat,  and  ventures 
to  lay  down  the  principles  to  which  a  true 
democratic  government  must  conform.  We 
must  refer  to  the  book  itself,  however,  for 
his  definition  and  defense  of  democracy,  in- 
cluding the  principle,  unreservedly  accepted, 
of  universal  suffrage.  One  remark  here  is 
worth  quoting  :  "  Majorities  for  their  own 
sakes  would  do  well  not  to  bring  minorities 
to  bay.  The  result  may  be  either  painful  or 
humiliating — painful,  as  when  the  minority 
(in  heads,  in  riches,  and  in  organization) 
withstood  the  tyranny  of  the  Stuarts ;  hu- 
miliating, as  when  England  bowed  down 
before  the  determined  Boers  of  the  Trans- 
vaal. It  is  not  wise  to  threaten  what  you 
do.  not  mean  to  perform.  Minorities  mean 
action  ;  majorities  as  a  rule  do  not." 

In  Chapter  III,  on  "  The  Functions  of 
the  State,"  we  have,  in  the  first  place,  a 
resume  of  the  functions  commonly  assigned 


706 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


to  modern  governments  ;  and,  secondly,  a 
criticism  of  the  tendency,  just  at  present  in 
the  ascendant,  of  looking  to  legislation  for 
the  cure  of  all  ills  and  the  securing  of  all 
benefits.  "The  spirit  of  the  individualist 
movement,"  the  author  tells  us,  "  is  one  of 
resistance  to  any  overstepping  by  the  legis- 
lature of  its  normal  boundaries.  It  is  the 
embodiment  of  the  absolute  principle  of  civil 
liberty,  or  the  greatest  possible  liberty  of 
each  compatible  with  the  equal  liberty  of 
all."  We  need  hardly  observe  that  this  is 
sound  Spencerian  doctrine.  Later  on  in  the 
volume  the  author  has  a  good  deal  to  say  in 
criticism  of  Mr.  Spencer's  "  Man  vs.  the 
State  "  ;  but  this  does  not  prevent  his  recog- 
nizing Mr.  Spencer,  on  the  first  page  of  his 
preface,  as  the  man  "who  has  contributed 
more  to  the  scientific  study  of  society  than 
any  other  thinker — not  even  excepting  Au- 
guste  Comte  or  John  Austin  " ;  and  as  the 
one  to  whom  the  merit  belongs  "  of  formu- 
lating this  (the  individualistic)  theory  of 
government,  and  thus  of  laying  the  rough 
foundation  on  which  a  sound  art  of  politics 
may  be  based."  Mr.  Donisthorpe  laments 
the  fact  that  in  England  to-day  "the  Con- 
servative party  have  thrown  in  their  lot 
with  state  socialism,"  and  are"  now  playing 
with  the  Liberals  a  game  of  grab  for  the 
votes  of  those  whom  a  Socialistic  programme 
attracts.  He  shows  reasons,  however,  for 
holding  that  the  present  tendency  is  rather 
an  eddy  in  the  general  current,  than  a  main 
movement  likely  to  be  continued  in  the  fu- 
ture— a  reaction  toward  unintelligent  politi- 
cal methods  due  to  the  recent  inclusion  (he 
is  speaking  of  England)  of  lower  layers  of 
the  population  in  the  electorate. 

We  pass  over  Chapters  IV  and  V,  en- 
titled "  What  is  Property  ?  "  and  "  What  is 
Capital  ?  "  which  do  not  seem  to  us  to  have 
a  very  direct  bearing  on  the  main  purpose 
of  the  bock ;  while  the  style  in  which  they 
are  written  is  somewhat  tiresomely  dispu- 
tatious. The  chapters  on  "  The  Labor 
Question"  and  "The  Capitalization  of  La- 
bor," which  immediately  follow,  are,  on  the 
other  hand,  full  of  interest.  In  the  first  of 
these  the  author  describes  with  great  force 
the  present  economic  condition  of  the  la- 
boring classes.  He  accepts  without  reserve 
the  Ricardian  doctrine  of  the  tendency  of 
wages  to  a   minimum,  maintaining   that  it 


has  been  so  irresistibly  proved  a  priori  that 
to  discuss  it  in  the  light  of  any  partial  facts 
or  observations  is  the  merest  waste  of  time. 
He  pours  unmeasured  ridicule  on  the  new- 
fangled doctrine  of  "  the  standai'd  of  com- 
fort" by  which  some  political  economists 
try  to  make  the  Ricardian  law  appear  less 
cruel  in  its  operation.  "  Wagedom,"  says 
Mr.  Donisthorpe,  is  only  a  shade  better 
than  serfdom,  and  is  virtually  a  kind  of 
serfdom.  The  remedy  for  it,  however, 
does  not  lie  in  socialism,  which  would  only 
aggravate  all  the  ills  of  society,  but  in  the 
substitution  for  the  wage  system  of  what 
Mr.  Donisthorpe  calls  "  the  capitalization 
of  labor."  His  idea  is  briefly  this:  The 
wage-earner  at  present  takes,  when  he  can 
get  it,  a  certain  average  wage  from  his  em- 
ployer, the  amount  of  which  does  not  de- 
pend upon  the  profitableness  or  otherwise  to 
his  employer  of  the  business  carried  on.  In 
other  words,  the  employer  insures  the  laborer 
a  certain  wage  independently  of  the  fortunes 
of  his  business.  Now,  nobody  insures  an- 
other without  charging  something  for  it ; 
and  the  capitalist  class  recoup  themselves 
for  insuring  a  certain  average  wage  to  their 
employes  by  putting  that  average  wage  some- 
what, perhaps  considerably,  below  what  their 
average  profits  would  justify.  By  the  capi- 
talization of  labor  Mr.  Donisthorpe  means 
treating  labor  as  capital  (which  he  con- 
tends it  is),  and  establishing  a  partner- 
ship between  it  and  capital — a  true  partner- 
ship, in  which  gains  and  losses  would  be 
shared.  Mr.  Donisthorpe  shows  how  a  be- 
ginning might  be  made  by  taking  the  aver- 
age wages  in  one  or  more  lines  of  business 
for  a  certain  number  of  years,  and  fixing 
the  proportion  which  these  had  borne  to 
average  profits  during  the  same  period.  The 
laborers  might  then  approach  the  capitalists 
and  say:  These  are  the  wages  you  have 
been  able  to  pay  us  on  the  principle  of  in- 
suring us  a  fixed  compensation  whether  your 
business  prospered  or  not.  Now,  we  wish  to 
throw  our  labor  as  so  much  capital  into  your 
business,  on  the  understanding  that,  if  your 
profits  are  greater  than  the  average  profits 
of  the  period  we  have  been  considering,  you 
will  pay  us  in  proportion,  and  that,  if  they 
are  less,  you  will  pay  us  in  proportion  also. 
We  must  refer  those  of  our  readers  who 
wish  to  see  how  much  can  be  urged  on  behalf 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


707 


of  the  plan  proposed,  to  Mr.  Donisthorpe's 
book,  merely  observing  that,  in  point  of  prac- 
tical suggestiveness,  we  consider  the  two 
chapters  last  mentioned  worth  a  score  of  such 
books  as  "  Looking  Backward."  We  do  not 
say  that  every  difficulty  has  been  fully  met ; 
but  we  do  say  that  Mr.  Donisthorpe  has  pro- 
pounded a  scheme  which  is  not  necessarily 
Utopian,  and  which  seems  to  contain  great 
promise  of  good.  Surely,  on  the  face  of  it, 
it  is  evident  that  society  must  some  day  dis- 
cover some  better  principle  than  that  ac- 
cording to  which  the  laborer  of  to-day  pro- 
fessedly gives  the  least  amount  of  work  for 
the  largest  amount  obtainable  in  wages,  and 
the  capitalist  the  smallest  amount  in  wages 
for  the  largest  amount  obtainable  of  work. 
Such  a  principle  means  war,  means  waste, 
means  wide-spread  social  demoralization ; 
and  it  must,  if  society  is  to  endure,  be  suc- 
ceeded at  no  distant  day  by  some  true  prin- 
ciple of  accommodation  and  harmony,  in 
virtue  of  which  it  shall  become  the  interest 
of  the  laboring  classes  to  promote  the  crea- 
tion of  wealth  by  faithful  and  intelligent 
work,  and  the  interest  of  the  capitalist  class 
to  extend  the  fullest  measure  of  justice  to 
those  whose  labor  fructifies  their  capital. 

The  closing  chapter  of  the  book  contains 
a  most  effective  criticism  of  socialism  in  re- 
ply to  a  Mr.  J.  L.  Joynes,  who,  if  we  remem- 
ber rightly,  was  a  co-laborer  with  Mr.  Henry 
George  in  England.  It  is  satisfactory,  in 
these  days  of  crude  theories  and  doleful 
vaticinations,  to  meet  with  a  book  written  in 
as  sober  and  withal  as  cheerful  and  hopeful 
a  spirit  as  this  of  Mr.  Donisthorpe's.  We 
wish  very  much  that  the  more  helpful  por- 
tions of  it  could  be  presented  to  the  public 
in  briefer  and  more  popular  form ;  but,  as  it 
is,  we  trust  that  the  book,  as  a  whole,  will 
be  read  and  pondered  by  all  who  are  inter- 
ested in  social  problems. 

Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Philosophy. 
By  William  T.  Harris.  Comprising 
Passages  from  his  Writings,  selected 
and  arranged,  with  Commentary  and  Il- 
lustration, by  Marietta  Kies.  New 
York :  D.  Appleton  &  Co.  Pp.  287. 
Price,  $1.50. 

This  compilation  has  been  made  in  order 
to  adapt  for  class  use  the  teachings  con- 
tained in  the  miscellaneous  philosophical 
works  and  articles  of  Dr.  Harris.     Many  of 


the  passages  have  been  taken  from  the 
"  Journal  of  Speculative  Philosophy,"  others 
from  the  editor's  prefaces  to  volumes  in  the 
"  International  Education  Series,"  from  Dr. 
Harris's  lectures  at  the  Concord  School  of 
Philosophy,  and  from  his  articles  in  various 
educational  journals.  The  illustrations  sup- 
plied by  Miss  Kies  are  such  as  she  has  used 
with  her  classes  of  girls  at  Mount  Holyoke 
Seminary.  The  opening  chapters  deal  with 
"  Methods  of  Study,"  the  "  Presuppositions 
of  Experience,"  and  the  "  Philosophy  of 
Nature."  The  rest  of  the  volume  deals  with 
man  as  a  self-active  individual,  taking  up  in 
successive  sections  sense-perception,  repre- 
sentation, reflection,  the  syllogism,  the  abso- 
lute idea  or  the  reason,  the  emotions,  and 
the  will.  The  concluding  chapter  discusses 
the  immortality  of  man.  "  Philosophy  as 
presented  by  Dr.  Harris,"  says  Miss  Kies  in 
her  preface,  "  gives  to  the  student  an  inter- 
pretation and  explanation  of  the  phases  of 
existence  which  render  even  the  ordinary 
affairs  of  life  in  accordance  with  reason ; 
and,  for  the  higher  or  spiritual  phases  of 
life,  his  interpretations  have  the  power  of  a 
great  illumination." 


Problems  of  the  Future,  and  Essays.  By 
S.  Laino.  London  :  Chapman  &  Hall. 
Pp.409.     Price,  3s.  6c?. 

It  is  characteristic  of  man  to  take  pleas- 
ure in  measuring  his  strength  against  obsta- 
cles. In  the  youth  of  the  individual  or  the 
race,  he  delights  in  athletic  contests  ;  in  the 
prime  of  life,  he  enjoys  the  struggle  to  obtain 
subsistence  and  comforts  for  his  family,  and 
the  rewards  of  social  eminence ;  and  at  a 
more  advanced  period  the  study  and  more  or 
less  perfect  solution  of  intellectual  problems 
afford  him  satisfaction.  The  world,  or  at 
any  rate  the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  may  be  said 
to  have  reached  its  maturity,  and  intellectual 
problems  are  exciting  our  interest  and  en- 
gaging our  powers  as  never  before.  There 
have  been  a  few  philosophers  in  every  age 
since  the  beginning  of  history,  but  scientific, 
social,  and  religious  questions  are  now  occu- 
pying the  minds  of  many  who  do  not  claim 
to  be  philosophers.  "  There  is  a  large  and, 
I  believe,  rapidly  increasing  class,"  says  Mr. 
Laing  in  his  introduction,  "who  have  al- 
ready acquired  some  elementary  ideas  about 


708 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


science,  and  who  desire  to  know  more.    Curi- 
osity and  culture  are  in  effect  convertible 
terms :  the  wish  to  know  is  the  first  condi- 
tion of  knowing.     To  many  who  are  in  this 
stage  of  culture,  but  who  have  neither  the 
time  nor  faculty  for  following  up  closely  the 
ever-widening  circle  of  advanced  thought,  it 
may  be  interesting  to  get  some  general  and 
popular  idea  of  some  of  the  unsolved  prob- 
lems which  have  been  raised  by  modern  sci- 
ence, and  are  occupying  the  thoughts  of  the 
men  who  lead  its  van."     To  meet  the  want 
defined  in  this  passage  is  the  object  of  the 
present  volume.     The  questions  which  the 
author  discusses  in  his  earlier  chapters  re- 
late to  the  past  history  of  the  earth  and 
other  cosmic  bodies.     These  are,  How  long 
has  the  sun  been  giving  out  heat  enough  to 
sustain  life  on  the  earth  ?     What  is  the  uni- 
verse made  of  ?    What  has  been  the  climate 
of  the  earth  in  geologic  times  ?     When  was 
the  Glacial  period,  and  how  long  did  it  last  ? 
From  these  topics  he  passes  to  the  consider- 
ation of  the  antiquity  of  man  and  the  method 
of  his  origin.    A  chapter  is  devoted  to  "  Ani- 
mal Magnetism  and  Spiritualism  " ;  several 
religious  questions  are  then  taken  up ;  and, 
finally,  certain  economic  problems  are  con- 
sidered.  The  religious  questions  are,  whether 
agnosticism  is  reconcilable  with  Christianity ; 
how  great  a  historical  element  there  is  in  the 
Gospels ;  and  whether  the  skepticism  of  the 
present  day  justifies  pessimism.  "  The  Creeds 
of  Great  Poets  "  are  also  passed  in  review. 
First  of  the  political  and  economic  essays  is 
an  analysis  of  the  reasons  for  the  tension 
which  keeps  Europe  constantly  armed ;  the 
others  deal  with  the  financial  problems  of 
England,  and  the  increase  of  population  with 
reference  to  the  food-supply  of  the  world. 
In  the  case  of  each  problem  which  he  raises, 
Mr.  Laing  makes  evident  what  solution  he 
deems  most  probable.    His  discussions  show 
a  thorough  knowledge  of  and  sympathy  with 
the  scientific  enlightenment  of  the   times ; 
and,  in  regard  to  those  questions  which  man 
must  answer  in  the  future,  he  is  generally 
confident  that  science  will  be  able  to  give  a 
beneficent  solution.     The  only  exception  is 
in  regard  to  the   food  problem,  where  he 
can  see  relief  only  from  a  diminished  birth- 
rate or  an  increased  death-rate,  and  the  idea 
of  discovering  new  ways  of  producing  edible 
products  is  not  mentioned. 


Timber  and  some  of  its  Diseases.  By  H. 
Marshall  Ward.  London  and  New 
York :  Macmillan  &  Co.    Pp.  295.    Price, 

$1.15. 

This  work  originated  in  a  series  of  short 
articles  in  "  Nature,"  and  forms  one  of  the 
Messrs.  Macmillan's  "Nature  Series."     It  is 
intended  as  a  popular  scientific  rather  than 
an  exhaustive  and  technical  account  of  its 
subject.      The  opening  chapters  deal  with 
the  general  character  and  structure  and  the 
properties  and  varieties  of  timbers ;  also  with 
the  classification  of  timbers  based  on  these 
properties.     An  extended  review  of  the  the- 
ories about  the  ascent  of  water  in  tall  trees 
is  given,  the  conclusion  of  the  author  being 
that  of  the  imbibition  theory  of  Sachs  and 
the  osmosis-gas-pressure  theory  of  Hartig  and 
Godlewski  and  others,  the  latter  is  the  more 
probable.     While  he  admits  that  the  rhyth- 
mical character  of  the  respiration  of  proto- 
plasm, on  which  the  osmosis-pressure  theory 
depends,  is  not  proved,  he  maintains  that  re- 
cent researches  are  in  favor  of  Godlewski's 
views  as  to  the  behavior  of  the  protoplasm. 
The  next  three  chapters  deal  with  the  dry- 
rot  and  other  diseases  of  timber  caused  by 
various  fungi,  figures  of  which   are  given. 
The  structure  of  the  bark  of  trees,  and  the 
process  of  healing  wounds  by  occlusion,  are 
then  described,  with  illustrations.    Returning 
to  diseases,  the  author  describes  "  canker," 
or  the  larch  disease,  leaf  diseases,  and  pine 
blister.     The  final  chapter  deals  with  the 
"  damping  off  "  of  seedling  trees. 

Institutes   of  Economics.      By  E.  B.  An- 
drews, D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  President  of  Brown 
University.      Boston:  Silver,  Burdett  & 
Co.     Pp.  227.     Price,  $1.30. 
The   most   conspicuous    feature  of   this 
book  is  the  thoroughness  with  which  its  con- 
tents has  been  analyzed,  classified,  and  an- 
notated.    It  is  introduced  by  a  chapter  de- 
fining the  field  of  economics   and  stating 
the  nature  of  the   chief  schools  of  econo- 
mists.    The  body  of  the  work  is  divided  into 
six  parts,  devoted  respectively  to  production, 
exchange,    money  and    credit,   distribution, 
consumption,  and  "  practical  topics  involving 
economic  theory,"  which  last  includes  chap- 
ters on  coin  and  paper  currency  in  the  United 
States,  taxation,  and  poverty.     It  is  an  ele- 
mentary text-book,  intended  for  classes  in 
colleges  and,  with  perhaps  the  omission  of 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


709 


the  most  difficult  sections,  for  high-school 
and  academy  classes.  Its  point  of  view  is 
historical,  though  it  maintains  the  existence 
of  general  economic  laws,  absolutely  and 
universally  valid.  Its  sundering  of  eco- 
nomics from  ethics,  jurisprudence,  and  soci- 
ology in  general  is  less  arbitrary  than  in 
most  treatises.  It  makes  wealth,  not  ex- 
change, the  central  conception  of  the  science, 
and  recognizes  immaterial  wealth  as  well  as 
material.  On  the  difficult  topic  of  value,  the 
fresh  analyses  of  Bohm-Bawerk  and  Men- 
ger  are  heeded  and  in  part  followed.  The 
leading  ideas  are  distinguished  by  heavy 
type,  and  each  section  is  accompanied  by  a 
list  of  references  bearing  upon  its  subject- 
matter,  and  by  copious  notes.  The  volume 
lacks  an  index. 

Eclectic  Physical  Geography.  By  Rus- 
sell Hinman.  Cincinnati :  Van  Antwerp, 
Bragg  &  Co.  Pp.  382.  12mo. 
Since  physical  geography  includes  parts 
of  nearly  all  branches  of  science,  and  its 
study  precedes  that  of  the  sciences  in  many 
schools,  an  introductory  chapter  has  been 
prefixed  to  this  book,  in  which  the  chief 
properties  of  matter  and  of  heat,  light, 
magnetism,  and  electricity  are  set  forth. 
The  topics  forming  the  body  of  the  book  are 
arranged  in  a  logical  order,  putting  first  the 
relations  of  the  earth  to  the  other  members 
of  the  solar  system.  After  this  difficult  sub- 
ject has  been  disposed  of,  the  atmosphere 
is  considered,  for  the  reasons  that  it  forms 
the  outer  envelope  of  the  earth,  and  that 
its  action  is  the  proximate  cause  of  all  de- 
tails in  the  relief  of  the  land  and  of  the 
more  conspicuous  phenomena  of  the  sea. 
Next  come  descriptions  of,  first,  the  sea, 
and  then  the  land.  The  subject  of  climate 
follows  these,  and  the  concluding  chapters 
deal  with  life,  from  yeast  up  to  man.  The 
details  concerning  the  various  topics  are  put 
in  small  type.  The  text  is  illustrated  by 
one  hundred  and  fifty  cuts  and  many  maps. 

A  Lenape-English  Dictionary.  Edited  by 
Daniel  G.  Brinton,  M.  D.,  and  Rev.  Al- 
bert Seqaqkind  Anthony.  Philadelphia : 
The  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania. 
Pp.  236.     Price,  $3. 

This  vocabulary  is  based  upon  an  anony- 
mous manuscript  in  the  archives  of  the  Mo- 
ravian church  at  Bethlehem,  Pa.,  supposed 
to  have  been  compiled  by  the  Rev.   C.  F. 


Dencke,  and  containing  about  three  thou- 
sand seven  hundred  words.  The  manuscript 
was  carefully  examined  by  the  Rev.  A.  S. 
Anthony,  who  is  a  born  Lenape,  after  which 
he  and  Mr.  Brinton  together  passed  in  review 
every  word  in  the  dictionary.  No  attempt 
has  been  made  to  increase  the  lexicography 
by  the  insertion  of  words  or  forms  obtained 
from  the  Delaware  language  of  to-day.  The 
editors  have  confined  their  efforts  to  pre- 
senting this  work  as  exclusively  concerned 
with  the  dialect  as  employed  by  the  Mora- 
vian missionaries ;  and  hence  all  additions 
to  the  vocabulary  have  been  from  their 
writings.  A  full  index  enables  the  equiva- 
lent of  any  English  word  to  be  found  in  the 
dictionary,  if  it  is  therein.  The  volume  is 
printed  on  rough,  heavy  paper,  with  un- 
trimmed  edges.  It  is  the  first  of  "  The 
Penn'a  Students'  Series,"  a  series  of  volumes 
to  contain  material  of  interest  to  the  students 
of  Pennsylvanian  history.  Copies  may  be 
procured  from  the  Librarian  of  the  Histori- 
cal Society,  1300  Locust  Street,  Philadelphia. 

The  Industrial  Progress  of  the  Nation. 
By  Edward  Atkinson,  LL.  D.,  Ph.  D. 
New  York  :  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons.  Pp. 
395.     Price,  $2.50. 

Under  the  above  title  Mr.  Atkinson  has 
combined  two  series  of  magazine  articles 
dealing  with  economic  subjects,  together 
with  two  or  three  addresses  not  before  pub- 
lished. The  statements  and  inferences  pre- 
sented in  this  volume  are  based  on  the 
author's  extended  study  of  the  national  ac- 
counts and  the  statistics  of  international 
commerce.  In  the  paper  which  stands  first, 
the  idea  is  presented  that  "  while  the  power 
of  mankind  to  consume  the  products  of  the 
earth  is  limited,  the  source  from  which  man 
may  draw  satisfaction  for  his  material  wants 
is  practically  unlimited."  A  special  part  of 
the  subject  of  production  and  consumption, 
namely,  the  food  question  in  America  and 
Europe,  is  treated  in  the  next  essay,  and  a 
host  of  facts  and  figures  are  given  bearing 
on  the  existence  of  waste  and  want  side  by 
side.  In  the  two  articles  on  "  The  Relative 
Strength  and  Weakness  of  Nations,"  the 
strength  of  democracy,  as  shown  in  America, 
and  the  weakness  of  nations  which  are  gov- 
erned by  monarchs,  are  analyzed.  Following 
these  is  a  series  of  papers  dealing  with  the 
distribution  of  the  products  of  industry,  and 


710 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


as  connected  with  this  subject  the  author 
discusses  in  another  essay  the  question 
"  What  shall  be  taxed  ?  "  The  general  con- 
clusions to  which  this  series  of  inquiries  leads 
him  are,  that  the  working  classes  are  obtain- 
ing a  constantly  increasing  and  the  capital- 
ists a  constantly  diminishing  share  of  an 
increasing  product  ;  that  the  share  which 
any  person  may  secure  depends  upon  his 
use  of  his  own  abilities ;  and  that  all  laws 
restricting  the  free  use  of  time  and  talent 
are  inconsistent  with  progress.  In  the  latter 
portion  of  the  volume  are  papers  on  "  Slow- 
burning  Construction  "  (illustrated) ;  "  The 
Missing  Science "  (in  which  an  economical 
method  and  apparatus  for  cooking  are  de- 
scribed) ;  "  A  Single  Tax  on  Land " ;  and 
"Religion  and  Life."  The  discussions  in 
this  volume  are  characterized  by  thorough- 
ness of  study,  and  an  earnest  desire  to  spread 
enlightenment  on  these  important  subjects. 

A  third  hand-book  of  pronunciation  has 
been  published  by  William  H.  P.  Phyfe,  en- 
titled Seven  Thousand  Words  often  Mispro- 
nounced (Putnam,  $1.25).  It  is  intended  to 
include  all  the  English  words  and  names  and 
the  foreign  words  liable  to  be  mispronounced 
by  an  English-speaking  person.  The  words 
are  all  arranged  in  one  alphabetical  list,  the 
names  only  beginning  with  capitals.  Pro- 
nunciation is  indicated  by  respelling  in  full, 
and  in  some  cases  how  the  word  is  not  sound- 
ed is  also  indicated,  and  other  explanatory 
notes  arc  inserted.  Where  several  important 
pronunciations  of  a  word  occur,  the  fact  is 
indicated,  Webster's  pronunciation  being  gen- 
erally placed  first.  Prefixed  to  the  list  are  a 
chapter  on  the  sounds  of  the  English  lan- 
guage, suggestions  on  the  use  of  the  book, 
and  a  key  of  diacritical  marks.  The  author 
enumerates  forty-two  sounds  in  English,  al- 
though the  American  Philological  Associa- 
tion recognizes  only  forty — the  two  addition- 
al ones  being  obtained  by  distinguishing  the 
vowel  in  serge  from  that  in  urge,  and  the  one 
in  dog  from  that  in  odd.  Two  instances  of 
carelessness  are,  that  the  author  names  as  one 
:>f  his  authorities  "  Worcester's  Unabridged 
Dictionary,"  meaning  "  Worcester's  Quarto 
Dictionary,"  and  the  only  pronunciation  of 
Algonquin  given  in  the  Supplement  to  Web- 
ster is  ignored.  The  volume  is  printed  in 
clear  type  on  fine  paper. 


We  have  received  of  what  might  be 
styled  calendar  publications  of  the  Smith- 
sonian Institution,  Mr.  G.  H.  Boehmer^s  Re- 
port on  Exchanges  for  the  year  ending  June 
30,  1887,  and  nine  Accounts  of  Progress  in 
as  many  branches  of  investigation  in  the 
year  1886.  In  the  first  of  these  publications, 
Mr.  Boehmer,  after  relating  the  year's  trans- 
actions in  his  office,  reiterates  the  recom- 
mendation that  has  been  made  in  previous 
reports,  for  the  designation  of  a  permanent 
agency  abroad  to  give  personal  attention  to 
the  business  of  exchanges.  His  opinion 
that  otherwise  only  temporary  results  can 
be  obtained  is  confirmed  by  his  own  experi- 
ences.— In  his  Account  of  the  Progress  of 
North  American  Geology  for  1886,  Mr.  Nel- 
son H.  Darton  has  sought  to  include  ab- 
stracts, without  bias  or  partiality,  of  all  im- 
portant publications  distributed  during  the 
year.  It  is  unfortunate,  and  hardly  in  keep- 
ing with  the  character  of  an  institution  like 
the  Smithsonian  —  especially  when  three 
years  are  taken  for  the  printing — that  hur- 
*ried  preparation  is  offered  as  a  reason  for 
imperfections,  and  limitations  of  space  for 
omitting  the  bibliography,  which  is  to  be 
made  a  bulletin  of  the  Geological  Survey. 
Mr.  C.  G.  Rockwood,  Jr.,  arranges  his  Ac- 
count of  Progress  of  Vulcanology  and  Seis- 
mology under  the  heads,  as  heretofore,  of 
Vulcanology — including  volcanic  phenomena 
of  1886,  volcanic  phenomena  of  previous 
years,  and  causes  of  volcanic  action ;  Seis- 
mology—  earthquakes  of  1886,  earthquake 
lists  of  1885  ;  catalogues  of  earthquakes  of 
previous  years,  and  study  of  earthquakes ; 
and  Seismometry — instrumental  records  and 
instruments.  A  bibliography  of  eight  pages 
is  appended.  —  Mr.  John  Belknap  Marcou 
furnishes  to  the  series  a  Bibliography  of 
North  American  Paleontology,  giving  the 
titles  of  works  in  the  order  of  the  authors' 
names,  alphabetically,  and  descriptions  or 
analyses  of  the  contents  of  the  more  elabo- 
rate ones,  in  some  instances  of  considerable 
fullness.  —  The  Account  of  Geography  and 
Exploration,  by  William  Libbey,  Jr.,  com- 
prises extremely  brief  accounts,  by  conti- 
nents, of  the  principal  explorations  of  the 
year,  their  purposes  and  facts.  In  the  Ac- 
count of  Progress  in  Physics,  Prof.  George  F. 
Barker  gives  lucid  analyses  of  the  principal 
papers  presented,    with    results  determined 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


711 


or  suggested  on  the  general  subject  and  in 
mechanics,  heat,  light,  and  electricity.  A 
necrology  and  bibliography  supplement  the 
text. — Prof.  H.  Carrington  Bolton,  in  the 
Account  of  Progress  in  Chemistry,  gives 
similarly  clear  notices  of  papers,  discoveries, 
and  experiments  in  chemistry,  with  necrolo- 
gy and  bibliography. — The  Progress  of  Min- 
eralogy is  described  by  Edward  S.  Dana 
under  the  heads  of  "  General  Works  "  on 
the  subject,  "  Crystallography  and  Physical 
Mineralogy,"  "  Chemical  Mineralogy,"  "  New 
Mineral  Occurrences  in  the  United  States 
and  Elsewhere,"  and  "  New  Minerals."  The 
bibliography  includes  brief  references  to 
papers  upon  mineral  species. — As  character- 
istic of  Progress  in  Zoology,  Mr.  Theodore 
Gill  observes  that  more  and  more  attention 
is  being  paid  to  histology  and  embryology, 
perhaps  at  an  undue  expense  to  sytematic 
zoology,  and  regrets  the  tendency  as  hurtful 
to  the  welfare  of  the  science,  but  hopes  that 
in  due  time  it  will  be  corrected.  The  sub- 
ject is  reviewed  in  the  order  of  zoological 
classification,  and  a  necrology  is  supplied. — 
In  the  account  of  Progress  of  Anthropology, 
Prof.  Otis  T.  Mason  draws  attention  to  com- 
prehensive summaries,  courses  of  lectures, 
and  descriptions  of  instrumentalities.  The 
heads  are,  "  Archaeology,"  "  Biology,"  "  Psy- 
chology," "  Ethnology,"  "  Comparative  Phi- 
lology," and  "Mythology  and  Folk  Lore." 
Clear  ideas  of  the  principal  papers  are  given 
in  the  abstracts.     A  bibliography  is  added. 

Mr.  Otis  T.  Mason  gives  in  the  papers  of 
the  United  States  National  Museum  a  valu- 
able contribution  to  anthropology  in  the 
shape  of  an  illustrated  paper  on  the  Cradles 
of  the  American  Aborigines.  The  author 
finds  that  in  both  Americas  the  majority  of 
aboriginal  children  are  confined  in  a  sort  of 
cradle  from  their  birth  till  they  are  able  to 
walk  about.  During  this  period  the  cradle 
serves  many  purpose's — as  a  mere  nest  for 
the  helpless  infant,  as  a  bed  so  constructed 
and  manipulated  as  to  permit  sleep  in  either 
a  vertical  or  horizontal  position,  as  a  vehicle 
for  carrying  the  child  suspended  on  the  moth- 
er's back  or  from  the  saddle-bow,  as,  indeed, 
a  cradle  to  be  hung  on  the  limbs  of  trees  to 
rock,  as  a  playhouse  and  baby-jumper,  and 
as  a  kind  of  training  school  whence  the 
child  emerges  little  by  little  till  it  leaves  it 
altogether.    These  various  uses  are  exhibited 


in  the  accounts  which  follow  of  the  cradle 
systems  of  the  different  tribes.  Methods  of 
strapping  the  limbs  and  treating  the  head 
and  their  effects  on  the  form,  also  enter 
into  consideration. — Mr.  Walter  Rongji's  pa- 
per On  the  Preservation  of  Museum  Speci- 
mens from  Insects  and  the  Effects  of  Damp- 
ness considers  the  virtues  and  defects  of 
various  poisonous  preparations,  and  supplies 
directions  for  accomplishing  the  objects  im- 
plied in  the  title. — Ethno  -  Conchology  :  A 
Study  of  Primitive  Money,  by  Robert  E.  C. 
Stearns,  describes  the  many  kinds  of  shells 
that  have  been  applied  by  primitive  people 
in  all  parts  of  the  world  to  the  purposes  of 
a  currency,  the  methods  of  preparing  and 
using  them,  more  particularly  the  wampum 
belts  of  our  Eastern  Indians,  and  the  shell 
money  of  the  Pacific  coast.  The  text  is 
illustrated  by  nine  plates  and  many  inserted 
cuts,  and  some  dozen  other  papers  are  cited 
in  the  bibliography.  —  Dr.  J.  H.  Porter's 
Notes  on  the  Artificial  Deformation  of  Chil- 
dren among  Savages  and  Civilized  Peoples  is 
also  published  in  connection  with  Prof.  Ma- 
son's Cradles,  to  which  it  bears  a  close  rela- 
tion, as  it  is  in  the  cradles  that  the  deforma- 
tions are  started.  The  subject  is  considered 
by  Dr.  Porter  from  a  broad  philosophical 
point  of  view,  without  much  reference  to 
special  methods  of  deformation.  These  are 
mentioned  in  a  summary  of  "  General  Notes 
on  Deformition,"  which  is  at  the  same  time 
a  bibliography. — Prof.  Mason's  The  Human 
Beast  of  Burden  is  of  a  piece  in  value  and 
interest  with  his  paper  on  "  Cradles."  The 
author  is  set  by  the  sight  of  an  express 
train  to  reflecting  on  the  long  and  tiresome 
experiences  through  which  the  human  mind 
has  passed  upward  to  that  climax  of  inven- 
tion. At  the  lower  end  of  this  line  "  we 
come  at  last  to  the  primitive  common  carrier, 
the  pack-man  himself,  and  also  the  pack- 
woman,  for  men  and  women  were  the  first 
beasts  of  burden."  This  person,  with  his 
load  and  his  method  of  attaching  and  man- 
aging it,  are  considered  under  the  aspects 
they  present  or  have  presented  in  different 
countries  and  ages  ;  and  the  whole  is  made 
plain  by  means  of  pertinent  illustrations. 

Further  contributions  by  Dr.  R.  W. 
Shufeldt  to  the  study  of  the  bone-structures 
of  birds  include  Observations  upon  the  Oste- 
ology of  the  Order   Tubinares  and  Stegano- 


712 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


podes,  or  albatrosses,  fulmars,  shearwaters, 
petrels,  gannets,  cormorants,  pelicans,  etc. ; 
similar  Studies  of  the  Sub-family  Ardeinoe, 
of  which  the  great  blue  heron,  Ardea  hero- 
dias,  is  selected  as  the  type ;  and,  under  the 
heading  of  Contributions  to  the  Comparative 
Osteology  of  Arctic  and  Sub-arctic  Water- 
Birds,  a  memoir  on  "  The  Auklets." 

The  number  of  The  American  Journal  of 
Psychology  (E.  C.  Sanford,  Worcester,  Mass., 
$5  a  year)  which  completes  its  second  year 
contains  three  principal  articles.  The  first 
of  these  is  by  Charles  L.  Edwards,  on  the 
"Folk-lore  of  the  Bahama  Negroes,"  and 
embodies  many  stories  similar  in  character 
to  those  which  have  been  recently  obtained 
from  the  negroes  of  our  Southern  States. 
The  collection  is  introduced  by  several  pages 
of  description  of  the  islands  and  the  peo- 
ple. The  second  paper  is  "  On  some  Char- 
acteristics of  Symbolic  Logic,"  by  Christine 
L.  Franklin.  The  fourth  and  concluding 
paper  of  Dr.  W.  H.  Burnham's  series  on 
"  Memory,  historically  and  experimentally 
considered,"  appears  in  this  number.  In 
this  paper  Dr.  Burnham  sketches  the  prog- 
ress of  recent  theories.  He  finds  that  the 
view  that  "  the  essence  of  memory  is  a 
functional  disposition  persisting  in  the  brain 
is,  perhaps,  the  one  most  widely  held  by  con- 
temporary psychologists."  He  also  glances 
at  the  recent  experimental  studies  upon 
memory,  and  appends  to  his  paper  a  bibliog- 
raphy of  the  most  important  literature  of 
the  subject. 

In  The  Chemistry  of  Narcotics,  a  pam- 
phlet by  Prof.  E.  Haworth  (the  author,  Os- 
kaloosa,  Iowa,  25  cents),  a  brief  account  is 
given  of  the  preparation  and  chemical  char- 
acter of  the  common  alcoholic  beverages, 
chloral,  the  bromides,  and  the  vegetable 
alkaloids.  A  table  of  percentages  of  alco- 
hol in  foreign  and  domestic  alcoholic  bever- 
ages is  appended. 

Tlie  Cosmic  Law  of  Thermal  Repulsion 
(Wiley,  15  cents)  is  an  attempt  to  account 
for  the  tails  of  comets.  The  author's  view 
is,  that  the  projected  matter  forming  the  tail 
has  been  separated  from  the  body  of  the  com- 
et by  the  radiant  energy  of  the  sun.  He 
states  the  details  of  his  hypothesis  in  the 
present  essay,  and  quotes  from  many  scien- 
tific authorities  passages  which  directly  or 
indirectly  support  it. 


The  popular  lectures  and  discussions 
given  before  the  Brooklyn  Ethical  Associa- 
tion last  winter  have  been  published  in  book- 
form  under  the  title  Evolution  (James  H. 
West,  Boston).  The  fifteen  papers  on  vari- 
ous evolutionary  topics  which  the  volume 
comprises  were  noticed  in  these  pages  when 
published  separately. 

A  paper  on  Marine  Shells  and  Fragments 
of  Shells  in  the  Till  near  Boston,  by  Prof. 
Warren  Upham,  has  been  published  in  the 
Proceedings  of  the  Boston  Society  of  Nat- 
ural History,  Vol.  XXIV.  The  fossils  here 
described  have  been  before  regarded  as  evi- 
dence that  the  land  in  which  they  are  found 
had  been  previously  submerged  beneath  the 
sea.  Instead  of  this,  the  observations  of 
Prof.  Upham  go  to  show  that  the  fossils 
were  brought  to  their  present  positions  from 
the  bed  of  the  sea  on  the  north,  by  the  ice- 
sheet.  In  the  same  volume  is  a  paper  on 
The  Structure  of  Drumlins,  also  by  Prof. 
Upham.  Another  recent  paper  by  him,  on 
Olaciation  of  Mountains  in  New  England  and 
New  York,  is  published  in  "  Appalachie," 
Vol.  V,  No.  IV. 

In  a  bulletin  on  Natural  Gas  in  Minne- 
sota, the  geologist  of  that  State,  Prof.  N.  H. 
Winchell,  reviews  the  geological  facts  and 
the  results  of  experiments  bearing  on  the 
question  whether  gas  in  any  considerable 
quantity  is  likely  to  be  found  in  Minnesota. 
His  conclusions  are,  that  the  great  forma- 
tions that  furnish  gas  in  the  United  States 
are  almost  wholly  wanting  in  Minnesota ;  that 
the  gas  which  comes  from  shallow  wells  at 
Freeborn  is  confined'to  the  drift ;  and  that  if 
gas  is  found  in  Minnesota  in  a  lower  forma- 
tion than  it  has  been  found  in  anywhere  else, 
as  has  been  predicted,  it  will  be  something 
new  in  geology. 

The  publication  of  a  treatise  on  the  Pa- 
leontology of  the  Cretaceous  Formations  of 
Texas  has  been  undertaken  by  Prof.  Robert. 
T.  Hill,  of  the  University  of  Texas,  at  Aus- 
tin. It  is  to  be  published  in  installments,  at 
twenty- five  cents  each.  Part  I,  now  issued, 
comprises  descriptions  of  three  specimens, 
with  plates.  The  same  author  has  also  pub- 
lished Part  I  of  a  Check-List  of  the  Inverte- 
brate Fossils  from  the  Cretaceous  Formation* 
of  Texas,  accompanied  by  Notes  on  their  Geo- 
graphic and  Geologic  Distribution.    In  "  The 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


713 


American  Journal  of  Science  "  has  appeared 
recently  a  paper  by  him  on  the  Relation  of 
the  Uppermost  Cretaceous  Beds  of  the  Eastern 
and  Southern  United  States,  and  in  "The 
American  Geologist "  another  on  The  Fora- 
miniferal  Origin  of  Certain  Cretaceous  Lime- 
stones and  the  Sequence  of  Sediments  in  North 
American  Cretaceous. 

The  little  Hand-Book  of  Precious  Stones, 
by  M  D.  Rotlischild  (Putnam,  $1),  gives  a 
brief  sketch  of  the  properties  of  each  min- 
eral used  in  jewelry.  The  specific  descrip- 
tions are  introduced  by  directions  for  recog- 
nizing and  determining  the  characters  by 
which  the  quality  of  precious  stones  is  ascer- 
tained. A  table  of  hardness  and  specific 
gravity  is  appended. 

Three  memoirs  on  Meteoric  Iron,  by 
George  F.  Kunz,  relate  respectively  to  a 
mass  weighing  VS\  ounces,  which  was  found 
on  Linnville  Mountain,  N.  C,  about  1882 ; 
a  mass  of  25*61  pounds  weight,  which  was 
found  in  Laramie  County,  Wyoming,  in  Jan- 
uary, 188V  ;  and  the  Johnson  County  (Ar- 
kansas) mass,  which  fell  in  1886,  and  is  note- 
worthy as  having  been  the  largest  mass  ever 
actually  seen  to  fall.  It  weighed  107-2  pounds. 
Physical  descriptions,  chemical  analyses,  and 
photographic  illustrations  of  the  stones  are 
given.  Another  paper  by  Mr.  Kunz  includes 
*'  Mineralogical  Notes  "  on  "  Phenacite  from 
Maine,"  "  Quartz  Pseudomorphs  after  Spo- 
dumene,"  "  A  Remarkable  Variety  of  Trans- 
parent Oligoclase,"  "Apatite  from  near  Yon- 
kers,  N.  Y.,  "  Cyanite  from  North  Carolina," 
and  an  "  Aragonite  Pseudomorph." 

A  valuable  contribution  to  the  study  of 
the  structure  of  the  crinoids  is  given  in  a 
paper  entitled  Discovery  of  the  Ventral 
Structure  of  Taxocrinus  and  Haplocrinus, 
and  Consequent  Modifications  in  the  Classifi- 
cation of  the  Crinoidea,  by  Charles  Wachs- 
muth,  of  Burlington,  Iowa,  and  Frank 
Springer,  of  Las  Vegas,  N.  M.  The  descrip- 
tions are  supplemented  by  excellent  plate 
illustrations. 


PUBLICATIONS    RECEIVED. 

Aekerman,  A.  A.,  U.  S.  N.  Notes  on  the  Man- 
agement ot  Boats  in  the  Surf.     Pp.  14. 

Bigelow,  Prof.  Frank  H.  The  Solar  Corona, 
discussed  by  Celestial  Harmonics.  Washington  : 
Smithsonian   Institution.     Pp.  20,  with  Plate. 

Billings,  John  S.,  M.  D.,  and  colahorers.  The 
National  Medical  Dictionary.  Philadelphia:  Lea 
Brothers  &  Co.  2  vols.  Pp.  781,  799.  Leather. 
$14. 


Bonham,  J.  M.  Railway  Secrecy  and  Trusts. 
New  York  :  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons.     Pp.  138. 

Brace,  C.  Loring.  The  Unknown  God ;  or,  In- 
spiration among  pre-Christian  Kaces.  New  York; 
A.  C.  Armstrong  &  Son.     Pp.  886.    .$2.50. 

Brooklyn  Ethical  Association.  Lectures  and  Dis- 
cussions on  Evolution.  Boston :  James  H.  West. 
Pp.  400.    $2. 

Byrnes,  William,  Editor.  "  Lock  and  Bell." 
Monthly.  New  York  and  Philadelphia.  Pp.  24.  10 
cents,  $1  a  year. 

Cajori,  Prof.  Florian,  New  Orleans.  History  of 
Infinite  Series.     Pp.  22. 

Calendars.  The  "Don't  Forget  It"  Calendar, 
Daily  Record,  and  Blotter.  E.  B.  Treat,  New  York. 
Price,  15  cents. — The  Homer  Lee  Bank  Note  Com- 
pany, Tribune  Building,  New  York.— "Milwaukee 
Herold." 

Children's  Aid  Society,  New  York.  Thirty- 
seventh  Annual  Report.     Pp.  112. 

Clarke,  F.  W.  Meteorite  Collection  in  the  Na- 
tional Museum ;  Catalogue,  Smithsonian  Institution. 
Pp.  11. — Relative  Abundance  of  the  Chemical  Ele- 
ments. Philosophical  Society  of  Washington.  Pp. 
12. 

Collins,  F.  H.  Epitome  of  the  Synthetic  Philos- 
ophy.   New  York  :  D.  Appletoa  &  Co.     Pp.  571. 

Connecticut  Pharmaceutical  Association.  Pro- 
ceedings, 1S88. 

Connor,  Leartus,  M.  D.,  Detroit,  Mich.  The 
American  Academy  of  Medicine,  etc.    Pp.  43. 

Cornell  University  College  of  Agriculture,  Experi- 
ment Station  Bulletins,  13  and  14. 

Davis,  Eb.  H.  Second  Reading  Book.  Philadel- 
phia :  J.  B.  Lippincott  Company.    Pp.  20S.   40  cents. 

Dawson,  N.  H.  R.  Report  of  the  Commissioner 
of  Education  for  1887-'S8.  Washington  :  Govern- 
ment Printing-Offlce.     Pp.  1209. 

Duluu  &  Co.,  London.  Catalogue  of  Works  on 
Chemistry  and  Physics.     Pp.  126. 

Fewkes,  J.  Walter.  Zoological  Excursions.  I 
New  Invertebrata  from  the  Coast  of  California.  Bos- 
ton :  The  Author.    Pp.  50,  with  Seven  Plates. 

Goodwin,  W.  W.  Syntax  of  the  Moods  and 
Tenses  of  the  Greek  Verb  Boston :  Ginn  &  Co. 
Pp.464.     $1.50. 

Green,  H.  L.,  Buffalo,  N.  T.  The  Bruno  Monu- 
ment.   Plate. 

Hale,  E.  M.,  M.  D.,  Chicago.  On  Eecent  Ad- 
vances in  Cardiac  Therapeutics.     Pp.  S. 

Haslam,  George.  Ecker's  Anatomy  of  the  Frog. 
Translation,  with  Notes  and  Additions.  New  York : 
Macmillan  &  Co.     Pp.  449.     $5.25. 

Hensoldt,  Dr.  II.,  Columbia  College,  New  York. 
Natural  History  in  Elementary  Schools.  Pp.  19. — 
A  Naturalist's  Rambles  in  Ceylon.     Pp.  18. 

Hornaday,  W.  T.  The  Extermination  of  the 
American  Bison.  Washington:  Smithsonian  Insti- 
tution.    Pp.  80,  with  Map. 

Howland,  George.  Practical  Hints  for  the  Teach- 
ers of  Public  Schools.  New  Y'ork  :  D.  Appleton  & 
Co.    Pp.  198. 

Illinois,  Statistics  of  Coal  in,  1889.  Springfield. 
Pp.  134. 

Iowa  Agricultural  Experiment  Station,  Ames. 
Bulletin  No.  7.  containing  Seven  Papers.     Pp.  42. 

Iowa  State  Board  of  Health.  Monthly  Bulletins. 
December,  18S9,  and  January,  1890. 

James,  Joseph  F.,  Washington.  On  "Lauren- 
tian"  as  applied  to  a  Quaternary  Terrane.     Pp.  7. 

Langley,  S.  P.  Report  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Smithsonian  Institution,  Washington.    Pp.  84. 

McCook,  Henry  C.  American  Spiders  and  their 
Spinning  Work.  Vol.1.  Philadelphia :  The  Author. 
Academy  of  Natural  Sciences.  Pp.  372.  $30  Ibr 
three  volumes. 

Moorehead.  W.  K.  Fort  Ancient,  the  Great  Pre- 
historic Earthwork  of  Warren  County,  Ohio.  Cin- 
cinnati :  Robert  Clarke  &,  Co.    Pp.  129. 


7H 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


Michigan  Agricultural  Experiment  Station.  Bul- 
letin Mo.  55.    Fruit  Testing.     Pp.  32. 

Miller,  S.  A.  North  American  Geology  and 
Paleontology.    Cincinnati :  The  Author.    Pp.  664. 

Minnesota  State  Board  of  Health.  Public  Health 
in  Minnesota.     Pp.  ». 

Minerva  Publishing  Company.  New  York.  The 
Exegesis  of  Life.    Pp.  192.    50  cents. 

Myers,  J.  H.  The  Myers  American  Ballot  Ma- 
chine.   Pp.  20. 

North  Carolina  Agricultural  Experiment  Station. 
Technical  Bulletin  No.  1. 

Ostrom.  Kurre  W.  Massage  and  the  Original 
Swedish  Movements.  Philadelphia:  P.  Blakiston, 
Son  &  Co.    Pp.  97.    75  cents. 

Parker,  Francis  W.,  Chicago.  Report  of  the 
Principal  of  the  Cook  County  Normal  School.  Pp. 
16. 

Eibot,  Th.  The  Psychology  of  Attention.  Chi- 
cago :  Open  Court  Publishing  Company.  Pp.  121. 
75  cents. 

Scudder,  S.  H.  Work  of  a  Decade  on  Fossil  In- 
sects.   Pp.  9. 

Sickels,  Ivin,  M.  D.  Exercises  in  Wood-working. 
New  York:  D.  Appleton  &  Co.     Pp.  158. 

Truth-Seeker  Annual  for  1890.  New  York  : 
Truth-Seeker  Company.     Pp.  115.    25  cents. 

Tennessee  State  Board  of  Health  Bulletin.  Vol. 
V,  No.  5.    Nashville.    Pp.16.    25  cents  a  year. 

Texas,  University  of,  Bulletin.  December,  1889. 
Pp.  39. 

Thayer,  David.  Aerial  Railway  for  the  Explora- 
tion of  the  Polar  Zone,  etc.  Boston  :  Alfred  Mudge 
&  Son.    Pp.  7,  with  Plate. 

Treat,  Rev.  Charles  R.,  New  York.  Sanitary  En- 
tombment.   Pp.  22. 

Vick's  Floral  Guide,  1890.  Rochester,  N.  Y. : 
James  Vick.     Pp.  90. 

Walker,  Francis  A.  First  Lessons  in  Political 
Economy.    New  York  :  Henry  Holt  &  Co.    Pp.  323. 

Washburn  College  Laboratory  of  Natural  His- 
tory.    Bulletin.     Topeka,  Kansas.     Pp.  4. 

West,  James  H..  Editor  and  Publisher.  "  The 
New  Ideal."  Monthly.  Boston.  Pp.  48.  20  cents. 
$2  a  year. 

Wilson,  Samuel.  Annual  Price  List  and  Cata- 
logue (Seeds  and  Plants)  for  1890.  Mechanicsville, 
Bucks  County,  Pa.     Pp.  112. 

Wisconsin,  Natural  History  Society  of.  Occasion- 
al Papers  (Spiders).     Pp.  113. 

Younsr.  Prof.  Charles  A.  Elements  of  Astronomy. 
Boston  :  Ginn  &  Co.    Pp.  430  +  42,  with  Maps. 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 

The  Fnturc  of  our  Weather  Service. — 

Everybody  has  been  noticing  that  more  and 
more  of  our  official  weather  predictions  turn 
out  wrong,  and  in  the  hope  of  restoring  their 
former  efficiency  several  bills  have  been  in- 
troduced into  Congress  within  the  last  few 
years  for  transferring  the  Weather  Service 
from  the  War  Department  to  a  civil  bureau. 
The  reasons  for  such  a  change,  as  stated  in 
a  pamphlet  sent  to  us  by  Mr.  H.  H.  Clayton, 
are  that  military  regulations  hamper  the 
scientific  work  of  the  bureau,  and  cause 
civilians,  who  have  joined  the  service  from 
aptitude  for  science,  to  resign.  The  abler 
military  men,  also,  seeing  no  hope  of  pro- 


motion in  the  Signal  Corps,  generally  pre- 
fer the  line.  The  natural  result  has  been 
that,  as  General  Greely  reports,  the  service 
is  full  of  incompetents,  and  the  percentage 
of  successful  weather  predictions  has  de- 
creased in  the  last  five  or  six  years  from 
eighty-seven  to  seventy-six  per  cent.  Dur- 
ing the  same  time  the  weather  service  in 
European  countries  has  been  steadily  gain- 
ing in  efficiency.  The  objections  to  the 
transfer  are :  First,  that  military  control  is 
claimed  to  secure  superior  promptness,  accu- 
racy, and  continuity  of  record,  which  is  met 
by  the  statement  that  the  European  weather 
services  are  entirely  civilian,  and  our  own 
depends  for  some  of  its  data  upon  observa- 
tions telegraphed  by  civilian  observers  from 
about  twenty  stations  in  Canada.  Second,  it 
is  claimed  that  only  military  discipline  could 
keep  men  in  disagreeable  or  dangerous 
places ;  but  civilian  observers  are  found  to 
man  the  Canadian  meteorological  outposts  in 
Manitoba,  and  the  mountain-peak  stations 
in  Europe.  Third,  it  has  been  urged  that 
the  cost  of  the  weather  service  would  be  in- 
creased by  civilian  control ;  but  our  military 
weather  service  costs  more  than  the  civilian 
services  of  all  the  governments  of  Europe 
put  together.  The  appropriations  are  now 
about  $900,000  a  year,  and  some  considera- 
ble reduction  that  has  been  made  in  the  cost 
during  the  last  few  years  has  been  due  to 
the  employment  of  civilian  aid.  Fourth,  it 
has  been  urged  that  the  military  training  of 
the  observers  would  be  of  value  in  case  of 
war ;  but  if  this  argument  is  valid,  the  postal 
service  and  all  the  other  Government  de- 
partments should  be  put  under  military  con- 
trol. A  fifth  objection  is,  that  in  a  civil 
bureau  the  appointments  would  be  controlled 
by  political  influence.  But  with  the  protec- 
tion of  the  civil  service  rules,  it  is  probable 
that  the  bureau  would  be  at  least  as  free 
from  favoritism  as  the  army  is.  It  has  also 
been  objected  that  the  Government  would 
be  breaking  its  contract  with  the  men  of  the 
Signal  Corps  if  they  were  transferred  to  a 
civil  bureau.  But  this  difficulty  could  be 
met  by  allowing  the  military  men  now  in  the 
bureau  to  choose  whether  they  would  go 
with  the  Weather  Service  or  stay  with  the 
Signal  Corps.  The  chief  signal  officer  is  even 
better  aware  of  the  defects  of  the  Weather 
Service   than   any  outside   critic.     But   the 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 


715 


remedy  which  General  Greely  proposes  is  to 
replace  the  second  lieutenants  in  the  Weather 
Service  by  officers  of  higher  rank,  and  that 
future  vacancies  in  the  lowest  rank  of  com- 
missioned officers  in  the  service  shall  be 
filled  by  transfer  from  the  line  of  the  army. 
This  latter  provision,  by  taking  away  hope 
of  promotion  from  the  sergeants  and  pri- 
vates, would  deter  able  men  from  entering 
the  lower  grades,  and  gaining  the  experience 
necessary  for  filling  the  higher  positions. 
Moreover,  the  Weather  Service  has  so  ab- 
sorbed the  Signal  Corps  that  the  major-gen- 
eral in  command  of  the  army  is  now  urging 
the  formation  of  a  special  Signal  Corps  for 
actual  army  purposes.  Both  these  schemes 
would  involve  additional  expense,  but  the 
transfer  of  the  Weather  Service  to,  say,  the 
Department  of  Agriculture,  would  secure  the 
same  ends  by  leaving  the  present  Signal  Corps 
free  for  signaling  service,  and  allowing  the 
meteorological  work  to  be  put  in  charge  of 
scientific  men  instead  of  soldiers,  while  the 
cost  of  the  work  would  be  lessened  instead 
of  increased. 

Open-air  Travel  for  Consumption. — Dr. 
Henry  L.  Bowditch  has  given  the  Climato- 
logical  Association  an  account  of  the  treat- 
ment which  seems  to  have  counteracted  a 
strong  tendency  to  consumption  in  his  own 
family.  In  1808  his  father,  then  thirty-five 
years  old,  was  undoubtedly  threatened  with 
consumption.  On  August  29th  of  that  year, 
when  thus  ill,  he  started  from  Salem,  Mass., 
with  a  friend  as  his  companion  and  driver,  in 
an  open  one-horse  chaise,  for  a  tour  through 
New  England.  The  trip  lasted  thirty  days 
and  covered  748  miles.  During  that  time 
he  passed  from  the  deepest  mental  discour- 
agement and  physical  weakness  through  all 
stages  of  feeling  up  to  a  real  enjoyment  of 
life.  His  journey,  though  benefiting  him 
immensely,  probably  did  not  wholly  cure 
him,  but  it  proved  to  him  the  absolute  need 
he  had  of  regular,  daily,  physical,  open-air 
exercise.  Afterward,  under  walks  of  one 
and  a  half  to  two  miles,  taken  three  times 
daily,  all  pulmonary  troubles  disappeared. 
He  died,  thirty  years  after  the  journey,  from 
carcinoma  of  the  stomach,  his  lungs  being 
normal  except  that  one  presented  evidences 
of  an  ancient  cicatrix  at  its  apex.  He  pre- 
scribed for  his  children  the  same   regular 


out-of-door  exercise  which  had  been  so  ben- 
eficial to  him.  As  soon  as  they  were  old 
enough  they  were  required  to  take  daily 
morning  walks  of  about  a  mile  and  a  half. 
If  at  any  time  they  were  observed  to  be 
drooping,  they  were  taken  from  school  and 
sent  into  the  country  to  have  farm-life  and 
out-of-door  play  to  their  hearts'  content.  In 
consequence  of  this  early  instruction,  all 
his  descendants  have  become  thoroughly  im- 
pressed with  the  advantages  of  daily  walk- 
ing, of  summer  vacations  in  the  country,  and 
of  camping  out,  etc.,  among  the  mountains. 
Dr.  Bowditch's  father  had  married  his  cousin, 
who,  after  long  invalidism,  died  of  chronic 
phthisis  in  1834.  Certainly  a  consanguine- 
ous union  of  two  consumptives  foreboded 
nothing  but  evil.  Yet,  of  their  eight  chil- 
dren, six  are  either  now  alive  or  they  arrived 
at  adult  age,  married,  and  have  had  children 
and  grandchildren,  but  not  a  trace  of  phthisis 
has  appeared  in  any  of  these  ninety-three 
persons.  Dr.  Bowditch  sees  nothing  but  the 
influence  of  out-of-door  life  to  which  this 
immunity  of  his  family  from  consumption 
can  be  attributed.  He  has  prescribed  it,  un- 
der proper  precautions,  in  his  practice  for 
years,  and  says,  in  conclusion :  "  I  have  no 
objection  to  drugs,  properly  chosen,  and  I 
almost  always  administer  them  ;  but  if  the 
choice  were  given  me  to  stay  in  the  house 
and  use  medicines,  or  to  live  constantly  in 
the  open  air  without  them,  I  should  infinitely 
prefer  the  latter  course  in  case  of  my  being 
threatened  with  pulmonary  consumption." 

Precious  Stones  in  the  United  States. — 

Mr.  George  F.  Kunz's  report  on  precious 
stones  to  the  United  States  Geological  Sur- 
vey's Division  of  Mining  Statistics  shows 
that  the  industries  of  our  country  in  that 
line,  though  not  very  extensive,  are  more 
considerably  developed  than  they  are  gener- 
ally known  to  be.  The  principal  localities 
where  gems  are  sought  for  systematically 
are  at  Mount  Mica,  Paris,  Me.,  and  Stony 
Point,  N.  C.  Considerable  quantities  of  tour- 
maline and  other  gems  are  produced  at 
Mount  Apatite,  Auburn,  Me.  Several  locali- 
ties in  North  and  South  Carolina  and  Ken- 
tucky have  been  opened  and  are  worked  for 
the  production  of  zircon  and  several  other 
comparatively  rare  minerals  which  have  been 
looked  on  heretofore  only  as  gems,  but  are 


716 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


now  used  for  making  the  oxides  of  zirco- 
nium, lanthanum,  caosium,  etc.,  to  be  em- 
ployed for  manufacturing  purposes.  A  con- 
siderable number  of  cases  of  exceptional  dis- 
coveries of  gems  of  rare  value  are  recorded, 
but  they  are  so  scattered  as  not  to  admit  of 
grouping  either  by  kind  or  place.  Among 
the  notable  collections  of  gems  in  the  United 
States  mentioned  by  the  author,  are  the  three 
hundred  and  thirty-one  antique  gems  of  the 
late  Rev.  C.  W.  King,  of  England,  which 
have  been  presented  to  the  Metropolitan 
Museum  of  Art ;  Mr.  Maxville  Somerville's 
collection  of  fifteen  hundred  specimens  of 
antique  jewel-carving  art,  now  on  loan  in 
the  Metropolitan  Museum  ;  the  Rev.  Dr.  W. 
Hayes  Ward's  three  hundred  ancient  Baby- 
lonian, Persian,  and  other  cylinders,  now 
the  property  of  the  museum ;  the  gem  col- 
lection bequeathed  by  Dr.  Isaac  Lea  to  his 
daughter  ;  and  the  series  of  precious  stones, 
including  about  one  thousand  specimens, 
which,  though  not  expensive,  are  the  finest 
in  the  United  States  from  an  educational 
point  of  view,  belonging  to  the  National 
Museum.  Mr.  Kunz  also  gives  some  inter- 
esting fashion-notes  about  precious  stones. 
They  fluctuate  in  favor.  Amethysts  and 
cameos,  much  sought  for  ten  years  ago,  are 
now  thrown  out.  Rubies,  already  very  high, 
are  all  the  time  rising.  Topaz  is  not  in  de- 
mand. Coral  is  going  out,  while  the  popu- 
larity of  amber  is  increasing.  The  use  of 
Brazilian  pebbles  has  decupled  since  1878. 
The  rare  stones  known  as  "  fancy  stones," 
which  were  formerly  kept  only  as  specimens, 
are  now  looked  upon  as  articles  of  trade,  and 
us  part  of  the  normal  jeweler's  stock.  Mr. 
Kunz,  as  agent  of  Tiffany  &  Co.,  had  a  fine 
collection  of  North  American  precious  and 
ornamental  stones  at  the  Paris  Exposition, 
of  which  we  have  published  a  laudatory 
notice  by  "  La  Nature."  It  included  three 
hundred  and  eighty-two  specimens. 

Botany  as  a  Disciplinary  Stndy. — Botany 
is  recommended  as  a  disciplinary  study  by 
Mr.  Gerald  McCarthy.  It  is  much  in  its 
favor  that  the  objects  with  which  it  deals 
are  convenient  of  access  and  full  of  interest. 
Among  the  other  advantages  that  it  offers 
are  the  adaptation  of  the  study  of  plants  to 
the  cultivation  of  the  aesthetic  faculties  ;  to 
training  the  mind  to  habits  of  close  observa- 


tion and  discriminating  judgment,  orderly 
arrangement,  and  the  "logic  of  systemiza- 
tion  "  ;  its  presenting  the  phenomena  of  life 
in  its  least  complicated  manifestations  ; 
plants  offering  better  opportunities  for  thor- 
ough study  than  is  practicable  with  minerals 
and  animals  ;  the  usefulness  of  the  study  as 
a  recreation  and  mental  tonic ;  and  the  inex- 
haustible field  for  research  which  it  offers. 
If  some  object  that  the  technical  names  are 
hard,  "  at  the  beginning  it  will  serve  just  as 
well  to  use  the  common  vernacular  name,  or 
even  invent  names  for  one's  self.  The  name 
is  the  least  important  thing  one  can  learn 
about  a  plant,  and  it  is  not  wise  for  the  be- 
ginner to  exhaust  his  time  and  patience  in 
trying  to  choose  the  most  proper  of  several 
possible  and  equally  unintelligible  names. 
Rather  he  should  seek  to  group  the  speci- 
mens around  common  types,  thus  learning 
for  himself  the  philosophy  of  the  natural 
system."  But  the  scientific  name  must 
eventually  be  learned,  and  it  will  come 
easier  after  the  student  has  observed  well 
for  himself.  For  young  pupils,  and  older 
ones  who  are  unfamiliar  with  Latin,  Miss 
Youmans's  "  First  Book  in  Botany "  is  rec- 
ommended as  the  best  manual  to  begin  with. 
It  will  lead  up  to  the  more  advanced  works. 
But  more  useful  than  any  book  is  the  stu- 
dent's field  outfit,  of  lenses  and  knives, 
needles  and  trowel,  and  air-tight  specimen- 
box. 

Canses  of  Cn  healthiness  in  Large  Cities. 

— The  mere  age  of  London,  said  Dr.  G.  V. 
Poor,  in  a  lecture  at  the  Sanitary  Institute, 
was  one  of  the  reasons  why  it  became  un- 
wholesome. Roman  London  was  buried 
deeply  among  rubbish  of  all  kinds,  much 
of  which  was  putrescible,  and  therefore  a 
source  of  danger  in  the  soil.  Ancient  Lon- 
don was  well  placed  and  magnificently  sup- 
plied with  water  through  the  Thames  and 
many  smaller  streams.  All  the  smaller 
streams  had  become  disgracefully  foul,  "and 
for  very  shame  had  been  covered  over." 
That  mediaeval  London  was  very  unhealthy, 
a  perfect  fever-den,  there  could  be  no  doubt. 
The  causes  of  the  enormous  mortality  lay 
in  the  marshy,  undrained  soil,  fouled  with 
refuse  of  every  kind ;  in  the  filthy  state 
of  the  unpaved  city,  and  a  perfectly  swin- 
ish condition  of   the  houses   of   the  lower 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 


7*7 


orders  ;    in   the   ill-nourished   and  drunken 
condition  of  the  masses  ;   in  the   state  of 
superstition  and  brutality  which  made  any 
measure  of  public  health  impracticable ;  in 
the  bad  management  in  epidemics,  and  in 
the  incompetence   of  the   medical   faculty. 
There  had  been  a  great  and  manifest  im- 
provement in  London.     This  could  be  cred- 
ited to  the  increase  of  knowledge  among  the 
doctors  and  among  the  people  generally ;  to 
vaccination  and  the  modern  plan  of  treating 
infectious  diseases  by  the  prompt  separation 
of  the  patients ;  to  the  cheapness  of  food, 
clothing,  and  fuel,  and  the  facility  of  obtain- 
ing fresh  fruit  and  vegetables  ;  to  improved 
water-supply;  and,  although  the  system  of 
sewage  disposal  was  an  undoubted  evil,  it 
had   removed   a  great  deal   of  filth   from 
dwellings,  and  the  balance  was  probably  so 
far  in  its  favor.     The  outlook  in  the  future 
was  obscured  by  increased   overcrowding  ; 
the  discharge  of  sewage  into  the  Thames ; 
and  the  increasing  danger  of  the  pollution 
of  the  water-supply  by  the  accumulation  of 
population  along  the  valley  of  that  river. 

Clark  University.  —  Clark  University, 
Worcester,  Mass.,  founded  by  Mr.  Jonas  G. 
Clark  as  an  institution  for  the  highest  cult- 
ure, was  opened  in  October,  1889,  in  the  de- 
partments of  mathematics,  physics,  chemis- 
try, biology,  and  psychology,  under  the  pres- 
idency of  G.  Stanley  Hall.  The  president 
is,  for  the  time  being,  Professor  of  Psychol- 
ogy, and,  with  the  assistance  of  Prof.  Sand- 
ford,  will  assist  students  in  the  departments 
under  that  head  by  instruction,  or  by  con- 
ference and  guidance  to  literature  ;  and  will 
direct  the  work  of  special  students  in  the 
history,  methods,  and  organization  of  edu- 
cation, elementary,  intermediate,  and  supe- 
rior, lecturing  on  them  during  a  part  of  the 
year.  The  professors  are  H.  H.  Donald- 
son in  neurology,  Edmund  C.  Sanford  in 
psychology,  Warren  P.  Lombard  in  physi- 
ology, F.  Mall  in  anatomy,  Albert  A.  Nichol- 
son in  physics.  The  methods  of  instruction 
include  field-work,  excursions,  "coaching  and 
cram  classes,"  examinations,  conferences,  lab- 
oratory work,  and  lectures.  The  students  are 
classified  as  independent,  candidates  for  the 
degree  of  Ph.  D.,  special  students  not  candi- 
dates for  a  degree,  medical  students,  and 
preliminary  candidates  or   undergraduates. 


Twenty  fellowships  and  ten  scholarships 
have  been  provided  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Clark, 
affording  free  tuition  to  thirty  persons. 

Huron  and  Iroquois  Burials. — In  a  paper 
on  "  Indian  Burial  in  New  York,"  read  at 
the  meeting  of  the   American  Association, 
Mr.  W.  M.    Beauchamp   said   that   several 
modes  of  burial  prevailed  in  the  Huron  and 
Iroquois  family  at  the  same  time  ;  but  at  a 
later  date  the  influence  of  contact  with  Euro- 
peans and  of  the  custom  of  adoption  was 
observed.     Although  the  usual  position  in 
Indian  burial  was  supposed  to  be  a  sitting 
posture,  facing  the  west,  the  bodies  in  a 
large  proportion  of  the  New  York  graves, 
while  sitting,  faced  the  east.     Many  burials, 
both  early  and  recent,  were  horizontal,  and 
often  without  deposited  articles.     For  sec- 
ondary burial,   bone-pits  were   common  in 
the  western  part  of  the  State,  appearing  like 
the  Huron  ossuaries  of  Canada,  or  rising 
into    mounds.      The    eastern    Iroquois,   at 
least  after  the  formation  of  their  league, 
did  not  rebury  their  dead.     They  used  raised 
tombs,  sometimes  a  mound  of  earth,  and 
often  a  wooden  structure  like  a  small  house. 
Burial  in  circles  was  secondary  ;  the  bodies 
were  laid  with  their  feet  toward  the  center. 
Graves  lined  with  stones  are  not  frequent, 
but  stone  heaps  were  raised  over  some  graves. 
Bodies  were  rarely  buried  one  above  another, 
with  an  intervening  layer  of  earth.     When 
buried  in  mounds,  or  in  the  bone-pits,  they 
might  be  placed  promiscuously  or  arranged 
with  care.     The  mode  of  sepulture  was  af- 
fected by  superstition  and  in  consideration 
of  crime.     The  New  York  Indians  have  for 
a  long  time  been  burying  their  dead  much 
in  the  manner  of  their  white  neighbors. 

How  the  Woodcock  feeds.— A  writer  in 
"Forest  and  Stream"  gives  the  following 
account  of  the  way  he  saw  woodcock  "bor- 
ing "  for  worms  one  moonlight  night :  "  The 
birds  would  rest  their  bills  upon  the  mud 
and  stand  in  this  position  for  several  seconds, 
as  if  listening.  Then,  with  a  sudden,  swift 
movement,  they  would  drive  the  bill  its 
entire  length  in  the  soil,  hold  it  so  for  a 
second,  and  then  as  swiftly  withdraw  it. 
Though  I  watched  the  birds  carefully  with 
the  glass,  I  could  not  detect  the  presence  of 
a  worm  in  their  bills  when  they  were  with- 
drawn.    But  a  subsequent  process  gave  me 


7i8 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


the  clew  to  their  method  of  feeding.  After 
having  bored  over  a  considerable  piece  of 
ground — a  square  foot  or  more — they  pro- 
ceeded to  execute  what  looked  comically  like 
a  war-dance  upon  the  perforated  territory. 
They  also  occasionally  tapped  the  ground 
with  the  tips  of  their  wings.  My  intense 
curiosity  to  know  the  possible  utility  of  this 
process  was  at  length  gratified  by  seeing  a 
worm  crawl,  half-length,  from  one  of  the 
borings,  when  it  was  immediately  pounced 
upon  and  devoured  by  one  of  the  woodcock. 
Presently  another  worm  made  its  appear- 
ance, and  so  on  until  the  two  woodcock  had 
devoured  as  many  as  a  dozen  of  them.  Then 
the  '  vein '  seemed  exhausted,  and  the  birds 
took  their  leave.  I  have  subsequently  studied 
the  philosophy  of  this  method  of  digging 
bait,  and  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that 
certain  birds  are  a  great  deal  wiser  than 
certain  bipeds  without  feathers.  If  you  will 
take  a  sharpened  stick  and  drive  it  into  the 
ground  a  number  of  times,  in  a  spot  which 
is  prolific  with  worms,  and  then  tap  on  the 
ground  with  the  stick  for  a  few  minutes,  you 
will  find  that  the  worms  will  come  to  the 
surface,  and  that  they  will  come  up  through 
the  holes  which  you  have  made.  I  account 
for  it  by  the  supposition  that  the  tapping  of 
the  stick  somehow  affects  the  worms  the 
same  as  the  patter  of  rain,  and  it  is  a  well- 
known  fact  that  worms  come  to  the  surface 
of  the  ground  when  it  rains.  The  antics  of 
the  woodcocks  after  they  had  made  their 
borings,  then,  were  simply  mimetic,  and  in- 
tended to  delude  the  worms  into  the  belief 
that  it  was  raining  in  the  upper  world.  The 
worms,  being  deceived,  came  up  and  were 
devoured.  All  this  may  seem  ridiculous,  but, 
if  it  is  not  true,  will  some  naturalist  please 
state  how  a  woodcock  can  grasp  and  devour 
a  worm  when  its  bill  is  confined  in  a  solid, 
tight-fitting  tunnel  of  soil,  and  also  how  it  is 
enabled  to  know  the  exact  spot  where  it  may 
sink  its  bill  and  strike  a  worm  ?  And  further, 
of  all  those  who  have  seen  a  woodcock  feed- 
ing, how  many  ever  saw  it  withdraw  a  worm 
from  the  ground  with  its  bill  ?  " 

The  Colorado  River  of  Texas.— The  Colo- 
rado River  of  Texas  is  described  by  Prof.  Rob- 
ert T.  Hill  as  presenting  most  interesting  feat- 
ures, which  rival  in  some  respects  those  of 
the  Colorado  of  the  West.     It  begins  in  the 


dry  arroyas  which  border  the  eastern  scarp 
of  the  "  Staked  Plain,"  where  it  has  cut 
canons  nearly  a  thousand  feet  deep  in  the 
soft  Quaternary,  Cretaceous,  and  Triassic 
strata,  recording  in  their  precipitousness  both 
the  aridity  and  the  gradual  elevation  of  the 
region.  Between  the  ninety-seventh  and  nine- 
ty-eighth meridians  it  cuts  through  an  area 
of  Palaeozoic  rocks  which  was  the  land  bar- 
rier between  the  Atlantic  Ocean  and  the  in- 
land sea  during  Mesozoic  times.  Within  the 
short  distance  traversed  by  the  Atlantic 
section  of  its  course,  it  has  worn  through  the 
Cretaceous  sediments  of  the  plains  and  now 
traverses  nearly  every  terrane  from  the  late 
Quaternary  to  the  earliest  Cambrian.  "  Per- 
haps nowhere  else  in  the  world  can  be  seen 
a  more  comprehensive  geologic  section,  a 
better  illustration  of  sedimentary  and  igne- 
ous rocks  and  their  relation  to  topographic 
form  and  economic  conditions  and  other 
geologic  features  dependent  upon  structure, 
than  in  that  portion  of  the  Colorado  which 
traverses  the  counties  of  Burnet  and  Travis. 
.  .  .  Here  the  erosion  of  the  river-basin  has 
exposed  nearly  ten  thousand  feet  of  struct- 
ure that  would  otherwise  not  be  exposed, 
and  every  bend  serves  to  reveal  some  inter- 
esting topographic  or  geologic  fact. .  .  .  When 
it  is  added,"  the  author  concludes,  "  that  no 
man  has  ever  explored  the  deep  canons,  that 
the  paleontology  is  almost  untouched,  that 
hardly  any  details  of  all  these  grand  features 
have  been  recorded,  one  can  but  feel  that 
the  student  of  geology  has  here  an  inexhaust- 
ible field  before  him." 


NOTES. 

Prof.  H.  A.  Rowland,  of  Johns  Hopkins 
University,  has  been  elected  one  of  the  for- 
eign members  of  the  Royal  Society,  in  rec- 
ognition of  his  determination  in  absolute 
measure  of  the  magnetic  susceptibilities  of 
iron,  nickel,  and  cobalt ;  his  accurate  meas- 
urements of  fundamental  physical  constants ; 
his  experimental  proof  of  the  electro-mag- 
netic effect  of  convection;  his  theory  and 
construction  of  curved  diffraction-gratings 
of  very  great  dispersive  power  ;  and  the 
effectual  aid  which  he  has  given  to  the 
progress  of  physics  in  America  and  other 
countries.  Prof.  Cannazaro,  of  Rome,  and 
Prof.  Chauveau,  of  Paris,  were  elected  for- 
eign members  on  the  same  day. 

An  experiment  has  been  made  at  the 
agricultural  station  of  Champ  de  l'Air,  Vau- 


NOTES. 


719 


dois,  in  hatching  trout  ova  in  complete  dark- 
ness, the  water  being  at  a  temperature  of 
5-8°  C,  or  42-4°  F.  The  hatching  was  de- 
layed fifteen  days  by  the  darkness.  The 
advantages  are  claimed,  in  prolonging  the 
incubation,  that  the  young  fry  put  into  the 
streams  in  April  or  May  more  readily  find 
food  than  in  February  or  March ;  that  they 
are  more  vigorous ;  and  that  fewer  mon- 
strosities are  produced. 

Experiments  in  feeding  milch-cows,  de- 
scribed in  the  November  "  Bulletin  "  of  the 
Massachusetts  State  Agricultural  Experi- 
ment Station,  attest  the  great  economical 
value  of  corn -fodder,  stover,  and  ensilage 
for  the  production  and  quality  of  milk  and 
cream. 

The  study  of  the  effect  of  fertilizers  on 
the  quality  of  fruit  is  recommended  by  Prof. 
P.  T.  Austen  as  a  line  of  inquiry  distinct 
from  their  effect  on  its  quantity.  This  in- 
volves a  wide  range  of  investigation,  em- 
bracing, in  fact,  all  the  properties  of  the 
plant  and  the  manner  in  which  they  are 
affected  by  manures,  particularly  the  part 
played  by  each  chemical  substance  in  the 
plant  and  the  specific  action  of  fertilizing 
materials  on  the  formation  of  those  sub- 
stances ;  together  with  the  relation  of  the 
different  species  of  plants  to  their  chemical 
composition,  and  the  extent  to  which  plants 
of  the  same  family  produce  substances  of 
the  same  type.  The  influence  of  treatment 
with  drugs  opens  a  parallel  line  of  investi- 
gation. 

The  Rev.  J.  Owen  Dorsay  is  preparing  a 
monograph  on  Indian  names,  to  contain  lists, 
with  English  meanings,  in  six  different  lan- 
guages— the  whole  number  of  names  being 
thirty-one  hundred  and  forty-six.  The  con- 
nection between  the  myths  and  some  of  the 
personal  names  will  be  considered ;  and  cer- 
tain classes  of  names — such  as  color  names, 
iron  names,  and  the  names  of  composite 
beings — will  be  treated  in  detail. 

The  latest  published  volume  of  Hen- 
Richard  Andree's  "Ethnographical  Parallels 
and  Comparisons  "  deals  with  such  topics  as 
red  hair,  albinos,  games,  masks,  marks  of 
property,  superstitions  connected  with  the 
chase,  "  tree  and  man,"  circumcision,  draw- 
ing among  primitive  people,  thunderbolts, 
money  for  the  dead,  emotional  expressions 
and  gestures,  demoniacs  and  mental  dis- 
orders, etc. 

The  report  of  Manchester  (England) 
Technical  School  for  the  year  ending  July 
31,  1889,  shows  an  increase  of  students 
from  2,871  to  3,328.  The  most  important 
extension  during  the  year  was  the  opening  of 
a  spinning  and  weaving  department.  The  day 
classes  in  this  department  have  but  a  small 
attendance  as  yet,  but  a  considerable  number 
of  students  are  attending  the  evening  ses- 
sions. 


The  suggestion  has  been  made  in  Lon- 
don that,  as  the  French  have  erected  the 
highest  tower,  the  English  shall  dig  the  deep- 
est hole — say  on  the  exhibition  grounds  of 
1851  in  Hyde  Park.  The  pit  could  be  fur- 
nished with  an  elevator  shaft,  and  lit  up  by 
electricity  ;  and  in  each  stratum  there  could 
be  an  excavated  museum  with  specimens  of 
the  minerals,  fossils,  etc.,  afforded  by  it. 

According  to  a  study  by  Dr.  George  N. 
Kreider,  of  Springfield,  111.,  micro-organisms 
enter  the  body  first  by  the  skin — through  le- 
sions, openings  of  the  sweat-pores,  or  seba- 
ceous ducts,  or  by  the  sides  of  the  hairs ;  and, 
secondly,  by  the  mucous  membrane — through 
lesions  of  the  membrane,  openings  of  the 
ducts  or  follicles,  or  pockets,  sulci,  or  folds. 
There  are  also  localized  infections,  originat- 
ing in  a  manner  as  yet  unknown,  and  giving 
rise  to  certain  violent  diseases ;  and  universal 
infections,  giving  rise  to  hereditary  transmis- 
sible disease.  The  severity  of  the  infection 
varies  with  the  condition  of  the  body  as  re- 
gards idiosyncrasy,  or  strength,  or  weakness ; 
the  amount  of  infecting  material  that  gains 
entrance ;  the  character  of  the  infecting  ma- 
terial ;  and  the  tissue  which  it  penetrates, 
and  its  location. 

The  underlying  motions  of  the  Nile  Delta 
are  described  by  Mr.  W.  J.  Flinders  Petrie 
as  those  of  depression  on  the  coast  and  up- 
heaval at  Ismailia.  Above  these  movements 
great  changes  have  been  made  by  wind-ac- 
tion. In  some  sites  at  least  eight  feet  of 
ground  have  been  removed  and  deposited  in 
the  water.  This  has  partly  caused  the  great 
retreat  of  the  Red  Sea  head,  and  tends  to 
form  the  characteristic  swamps  of  that  dis- 
trict. Formerly  the  Delta  was  a  desert 
tract,  with  valleys  inundulated  by  the  Nile. 
Before  historic  times  the  Nile  Valley  was 
deep  in  water,  partly  estuarine,  partly  fluvial, 
and  great  rainfall  then  took  place.  That 
this  was  in  the  human  age  is  shown  by  the 
position  of  worked  flints. 

A  memorial  to  Prejevalski  is  to  be  erected 
on  the  shore  of  Lake  Issyk-kul.  It  repre- 
sents a  rock,  upon  which  an  eagle  is  descend- 
ing, having  a  map  of  Asia  in  its  talons  and 
an  olive-branch  in  its  beak.  The  monument 
will  have  the  inscription,  "  To  the  first  ex- 
plorer of  nature  in  Central  Asia." 

A  correspondent  of  "  Nature "  urges 
that  boys  should  be  tested  for  color-blind- 
ness in  school — before  they  go  out  into  life 
— so  that  they  need  not  lose  the  time  re- 
quired for  working  up  to  positions  on  rail- 
roads or  elsewhere  in  which  ability  to  dis- 
tinguish colors  is  essential. 

A  curious  story  is  told,  by  a  correspond- 
ent of  "  Nature,"  of  a  dog  which  was  struck 
by  lightning  and  considered  dead,  but  which 
afterward  partly  recovered.  It  continued 
deaf  and  blind,  and  had  to  depend  on  its 
smell  for  recognition  of  persons  and  things. 


720 


THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


OBITUARY   NOTES. 

Prof.  Chester  S.  Lyman,  of  Yale  Uni- 
versity, died  in  New  Haven,  Coon.,  January 
29th,  aged  seventy-six  years.  A  sketch  of 
his  life  and  works,  and  a  portrait,  were  pub- 
lished in  "The  Popular  Science  Monthly" 
for  November,  1887. 

M.  Cosson,  member  of  the  French  Acade- 
my of  Sciences,  and  author  of  several  mem- 
oirs on  the  flora  of  Algeria  and  Tunis,  died 
in  Paris  on  the  last  day  of  the  year  1889. 
He  was  President  of  the  Botanical  Society 
of  France  and  Archivist  of  the  Societe  d'Ac- 
climation. 

Dr.  William  Ramsay  McNab,  Professor 
of  Botany  in  the  Royal  College  of  Science, 
Dublin,  recently  died,  suddenly,  of  heart 
disease.  He  was  born  in  Edinburgh  in  1S44, 
his  father,  as  his  grandfather  had  been,  being 
Curator  of  the  Botanic  Garden  there.  He 
studied  at  Edinburgh,  where  he  was  also 
assistant  to  Prof.  Balfour,  and  at  Berlin, 
practiced  medicine  for  three  years,  after 
which,  in  18V0,  he  entered  upon  a  biological 
career.  He  introduced  important  reforms 
in  the  method  of  teaching  botany,  chiefly  by 
adopting  the  method  of  Sachs ;  was  author 
of  numerous  works  or  papers  relating  to 
botany  and  fossil  plants ;  was  a  practical 
student  of  geology ;  and  collected  coleoptera. 
He  was  appointed  in  18S8  Swiney  Lecturer 
to  the  British  Museum  of  Natural  Sciences, 
and  was  at  the  time  of  his  death  about  to 
begin  a  third  course  on  fossil  botany. 

Prof.  Lorenzo  Respighi,  Director  of  the 
Osservatorio  Campidoglio,  Rome,  one  of  the 
most  eminent  scientific  men  in  Italy,  died 
December  10th. 

The  people  of  Manchester  interested  in 
the  subject  have  decided  to  erect  in  that  city 
a  memorial  of  James  Prescott  Joule,  which 
shall  take  the  form  of  a  white  marble  statue, 
and  also  to  set  up  a  replica  in  bronze  in  some 
public  place  in  the  city.  An  international 
monument  to  James  Watt  is  proposed,  to  be 
erected  at  Greenock,  his  birthplace,  and  to 
take  the  form  of  a  large  and  thoroughly 
equipped  technical  school. 

Senhor  Jose  Augusto  de  Sereza,  curator 
of  the  zoological  department  of  the  muse- 
um at  Lisbon,  Portugal,  who  has  recently 
died,  was  the  author  of  some  useful  mem- 
oirs on  African  birds,  and  of  museum  cata- 
logues of  certain  orders. 

Edouard  Phillipps,  an  eminent  French 
mechanician  and  engineer,  died  December 
14th,  in  his  seventieth  year.  He  left  im- 
portant works  on  mechanics  and  metallurgy, 
and  his  "  Lectures  "  on  hydraulics  and  hy- 
drostatics, published  in  1875,  was  highly 
appreciated.  lie  was  made  a  member  of  the 
Academy  of  Sciences,  in  the  Section  of  Me- 
chanics, in  1868. 


Among  the  recent  foreign  deaths  is  that 
of  the  Italian  physicist  Govi,  whose  name  is 
closely  associated  with  matters  relating  to 
the  history  of  science,  particularly  in  his  own 
country.  He  prepared  an  interesting  group 
for  the  International  Electrical  Exposition  of 
1881  of  instruments  which  had  been  used  by 
Galvani,  Volta,  and  Nobili. 

Julien  Sacaze,  a  young  epigraphist  and 
archaeologist  of  great  repute  in  the  provin- 
cial districts  of  France,  has  recently  died. 
He  discovered  a  considerable  number  of  pre- 
historic monuments  and  sites  in  and  near 
the  Pyrenaean  departments,  co-operated  in 
the  foundation  of  the  Pyrenaean  Association 
and  of  a  more  local  society  at  Comminges, 
and  with  Dr.  F.  Garrigo  established  the 
"  Revue  des  Pyrenees  et  de  la  France  Meri- 
dionale."  The  collections  which  he  made  in 
the  course  of  his  investigations  are  described 
as  having  been  "  superb."  He  left  the  man- 
uscript of  a  work  on  the  "  Epigraphy  of  the 
Pyrenees,"  which  will  be  published. 

Vice-Admirax  Cloue,  who  died  in  Paris 
on  the  25th  of  December,  was  best  known 
for  the  marine  charts  he  constructed  and  for 
his  exertions  to  make  of  practical  value  the 
property  of  oil  in  stilling  the  waves.  When 
he  entered  the  service  the  French  marine  was 
dependent  on  English  or  Dutch  charts.  He 
substituted  for  these  French  charts,  many 
of  which  he  prepared.  He  was  born  in  1817 
and  spent  his  life  in  the  French  naval  serv- 
ice or  positions  connected  with  it,  was  ap- 
pointed Governor  of  Martinique  in  1872,  and 
afterward  held  the  position  of  Minister  of 
the  Marine  and  the  Colonies.  He  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Bureau  of  Longitudes,  of  the  Ob- 
servatory and  the  Meteorological  Council, 
and  had  been  elected  to  a  seat  in  the  Insti- 
tute. 

Mr.  E.  J.  Jones,  since  1883  an  officer  of 
the  Geological  Survey  of  India,  who  died  Oc- 
tober 15th,  aged  thirty  years,  was  an  associ- 
ate of  the  Royal  School  of  Mines  and  a 
chemist  from  the  schools  of  Zurich  and 
Wurzburg.  He  contributed  several  geologi- 
cal and  chemical  papers  to  the  publications 
of  the  Survey. 

Mr.  John  Ta vernier  Bartram,  who  died 
recently  at  Stake's  Point,  Bermuda,  in  his 
seventy-ninth  year,  was  held  in  high  esteem 
among  scientific  men  as  a  naturalist.  Dur- 
ing the  forty-two  years  that  he  resided  at 
Stoke's  Point,  says  "The  Bermuda  Colo- 
nist," he  made  a  collection  of  birds,  fishes, 
shells,  and  other  natural  curiosities,  that  has 
long  since  come  to  be  "  one  of  the  things 
to  be  seen  in  Bermuda  " ;  and  for  the  past 
twenty-five  years  no  scientific  man  who  visit- 
ed Bermuda  and  could  get  to  Stoke's  Point 
ever  failed  to  pay  him  a  visit.  He  contrib- 
uted articles  to  the  local  press  on  the  natu- 
ral history  and  geology  of  Bermuda,  and 
prepared  hand-books  on  the  cage-birds  and 
the  shells  of  the  island. 


DAVID    RITTENH0U8E. 


POPULAR    SCIENCE 
MONTHLY. 


APRIL,   1890. 


SCIENCE  m  THE  HIGH  SCHOOL.* 

By  Prof.  DAVID   STARE  JORDAN, 

PRESIDENT     OF     THE    UNIVERSITY     OF    INDIANA. 

THE  purpose  of  science-teaching  as  a  part  of  general  education 
is  this — to  train  the  judgment  through  its  exercise  on  first- 
hand knowledge.  The  student  of  science  is  taught  to  know  what 
he  knows  and  to  distinguish  it  from  what  he  merely  remembers  or 
imagines.  Our  contact  with  the  universe  is  expressed  in  what 
we  call  science.  Throughout  the  ages,  the  growth  of  the  human 
mind  has  been  in  direct  proportion  to  the  breadth  of  this  contact. 
To  the  man  without  knowledge  of  science,  the  universe  seems 
small.  Science  is  our  perception  of  realities  ;  and  as  the  realities 
come  year  by  year  to  occupy  a  larger  and  larger  place  in  our  life, 
so  the  demand  for  more  and  better  training  in  science  will  long 
be  an  urgent  and  growing  one.  But  science  should  hold  its  place 
in  the  schools  by  virtue  of  its  power  as  an  agent  in  mental  train- 
ing, not  because  of  the  special  usefulness  of  scientific  facts,  nor 
because  knowledge  of  things  has  a  higher  market  value  than  the 
knowledge  of  words. 

The  time  will  come  when  the  study  of  the  objects  and  forces 
of  nature  will  be  as  much  a  matter  of  course  in  all  our  schools  as 
the  study  of  numbers,  but  the  science- work  of  the  next  century 
will  not  be  the  work  we  are  doing  now.  The  science  in  our  schools 
is  too  often  a  make-believe,  and  the  schools  will  lose  nothing 
when  every  make-believe  slips  out  of  the  curriculum.  Deeply  as 
I  am  interested  in  the  progress  of  science,  both  in  school  and  out, 
with  Prof.  Huxley  "  I  would  not  turn  my  hand  over  "  to  have 
biology  taught  in  every  school  in  the  land,  if  the  subject  is  taught 
through  books  only.     To  pretend  to  do,  without  doing,  is  worse 

*  Read  before  the  Indiana  State  Teachers'  Association,  December  26,  1889. 
vol.  xxxvi. — 46 


72  2  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

than  not  to  pretend.  The  conventional  "  fourteen  weeks  "  in  sci- 
ence gives  no  contact  with  nature,  no  training  of  any  sort,  no 
information  worth  having ;  only  a  distaste  for  that  class  of  scat- 
tering information  which  is  supposed  to  be  science. 

There  is  a  charm  in  real  knowledge  which  every  student  feels. 
The  magnet  attracts  iron,  to  be  sure,  to  the  student  who  has 
learned  the  fact  from  a  book,  but  the  fact  is  real  only  to  the 
student  who  has  himself  felt  it  pull.  It  is  more  than  this,  it  is 
enchanting  to  the  student  who  has  discovered  the  fact  for  himself. 
To  read  a  statement  of  the  fact  gives  knowledge,  more  or  less 
complete  as  the  book  is  accurate  or  the  memory  retentive.  To 
verify  the  fact  gives  training ;  to  discover  it  gives  inspiration. 
Training  and  inspiration,  not  the  facts  themselves,  are  the  justifi- 
cation of  science-teaching.  Facts  enough  we  can  gather  later  in 
life  when  we  are  too  old  to  be  trained  or  inspired. 

What  is  true  of  one  science  is  true  of  all  in  greater  or  less  de- 
gree ;  and  I  may  take  the  science  of  zoology  for  my  illustration 
simply  because  it  is  the  one  nearest  my  hand.  In  very  few  of  our 
high  schools  has  the  instruction  in  zoology  any  real  value.  For 
this  unfortunate  fact  there  are  several  causes,  and  some  of  these 
are  beyond  the  control  of  the  teachers.  In  the  first  place,  the 
high-school  course  is  overloaded,  and  the  small  part  of  the  course 
given  to  the  sciences  is  divided  among  too  many  of  them.  A 
smattering  of  one  science  is  of  little  value,  either  for  discipline  or 
information.  A  smattering  of  many  sciences  may  be  even  worse, 
because  it  leads  the  mind  to  be  content  with  smattering.  Indeed, 
so  greatly  have  our  schools  sinned  in  this  respect  that  many 
writers  on  education  seem  to  regard  science  as  synonymous  with 
smattering,  and  they  contrast  it  with  other  branches  of  learning, 
which  are  supposed  to  have  some  standard  of  thoroughness. 
Most  of  our  colleges  have,  at  one  time  or  other,  arranged  courses 
of  study  not  approved  by  the  faculty,  in  response  to  the  popular 
demand  for  many  studies  in  a  little  time.  Such  a  course  of  odds 
and  ends  is  always  called  "  the  scientific  course,"  and  it  leads  to 
the  appropriate  degree  of  "  B.  S." — Bachelor  of  Surfaces. 

The  high  school  can  do  some  things  very  well,  but  it  will  fail 
if  it  tries  to  do  too  much.  Unfortunately,  the  present  tendency  in 
our  high  schools  is  in  the  direction  of  such  failure — to  do  many 
things  poorly  rather  than  a  few  things  well.  Each  high  school 
aims  to  give  a  general  education ;  to  be  a  university  in  a  small 
way — a  university  for  the  poor — a  poor  university.  In  the  words 
of  Lowell,  "  The  public  schools  teach  too  little  or  too  much ;  too 
little,  if  education  is  to  go  no  further ;  too  many  things,  if  what  is 
taught  is  taught  thoroughly.  And  the  more  they  seem  to  teach, 
the  less  likely  is  education  to  go  further;  for  it  is  one  of  the 
weaknesses  of  democracy  to  be  satisfied  with  the  second  best,  if  it 


SCIENCE  IN  THE  HIGH  SCHOOL.  723 

appear  to  answer  the  purpose  tolerably  well  and  is  cheaper,  which 
it  never  is  in  the  long  run."  In  other  words,  we  try  to  satisfy  the 
public  by  a  show  of  teaching  those  subjects  which  we  can  not 
really  teach.  And  so,  in  the  sciences  we  study  books  instead  of 
Nature,  because  books  are  plenty  and  cheap,  and  can  be  finished 
quickly,  while  Nature  herself  is  accessible  only  to  those  who  want 
something  of  her. 

The  high  school  would  do  well  not  to  attempt  to  give  a  general 
view  of  science.  This  is  possible  only  in  a  "  Chautauqua  course  " 
or  in  a  "school  of  all  sciences."  It  is  better  to  select  some  two  or 
three  of  the  number,  a  physical  and  a  biological  science,  perhaps, 
and  to  spend  the  available  time  on  these.  The  choice  should 
depend  mainly  on  the  interest  or  the  skill  of  the  teacher.  Teach 
those  sciences  that  you  can  teach  best. 

President  Hill,  of  Rochester  University,  has  well  said :  "  Thou- 
sands of  our  youth  have  studied  chemistry  without  ever  seeing  an 
experiment,  physics  without  seeing  an  air-pump,  and  astronomy 
without  ever  looking  through  a  telescope.  A  professor  of  the 
ancient  type  maintained  that  this  is  a  great  advantage,  like  the 
study  of  geometry  without  figures,  because  it  stimulates  the  imagi- 
nation. It  is  an  invigoration  of  stupidity  and  conceit,  sealing  the 
mind  to  reality  by  substituting  subjective  fancies  for  experimental 
proofs,  and  the  pretense  of  knowing  for  clear  ideas.  Its  effect 
upon  the  morals  is  as  pernicious  as  its  effect  upon  the  mind,  for 
it  weakens  the  reverence  for  truth  and  engenders  the  habit  of 
mental  trifling." 

Even  so  wise  a  schoolmaster  as  Dr.  William  T.  Harris  excludes 
science-teaching  (and  science-teaching  with  him  means  simply 
giving  information  about  scientific  subjects)  from  the  funda- 
mental requirements  of  education,  because  the  knowledge  of  na- 
ture is  not  one  of  the  five  windows  through  which  the  soul  looks 
out  on  life.  These  windows,  according  to  Mr.  Harris,  are  reading 
and  writing,  grammar,  arithmetic,  geography,  and  history.  The 
simile  is  a  happy  one.  The  soul,  confined  in  the  watch-tower  of 
mediaeval  education,  looks  out  on  the  world  through  these  five 
windows,  and  they  are  but  windows,  for  they  give  no  contact  with 
the  things  themselves.  The  study  of  nature  throws  wide  open 
the  doors,  and  lets  the  soul  out  to  the  fields  and  woods.  It  brings 
that  contact  with  God  through  his  works  which  has  been,  through 
all  the  ages,  the  inspiration  of  the  poets  and  prophets,  as  well  as 
of  those  long-despised  apostles  of  truth  whom  we  call  men  of 
science. 

A  second  difficulty  is  this:  Our  towns  will  not  pay  for  teach- 
ers enough  to  do  the  work  as  it  should  be  done,  and  of  the  few 
teachers  we  have  the  people  make  no  demand  for  thorough  prepa- 
ration.    Very  few  of  them  are  broadly  educated  or  have  had  any 


724  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

scientific  training  whatever.  And  such  teachers  are  expected  to 
teach  a  dozen  subjects  each,  and  therefore  have  no  time  to  make 
good  their  defective  preparation.  Thus  good  teaching  of  science 
can  not  be  expected,  for  streams  do  not  rise  higher  than  their 
sources.  The  only  remedy  for  these  conditions  seems  to  lie  in 
the  gradual  education  of  the  people.  A  series  of  object-lessons, 
showing  the  difference  between  a  good  teacher  and  a  poor  one,  is 
the  most  effective  means  of  causing  good  work  to  be  appreciated. 

But  taking  things  as  they  are,  even  with  uneducated  teachers 
and  teachers  crowded  for  time,  fairly  good  work  may  be  done  by 
the  use  of  good  methods.  A  great  deal  will  depend,  not  on  the 
kind  of  books  you  use,  but  on  the  kind  of  books  you  avoid.  Most 
of  the  current  text-books  of  elementary  zoology  are  simply  per- 
nicious so  far  as  your  purposes  are  concerned.  Even  if  these 
books  were  well  digested  and  accurate  in  their  statements  of  fact, 
which  is  rarely  the  case,  they  are  based  on  incorrect  principles. 
They  are  not  elementary  but  fragmentary  in  their  character.  It 
is  a  great  mistake  to  suppose  that,  because  a  book  is  small  and 
says  very  little  about  each  one  of  the  animals  of  which  it  treats,  it 
is  thereby  rendered  elementary.  Fragments  are  not  necessarily 
elements.  A  fragment  of  rock  is  as  hard  to  digest  as  a  bowlder. 
Elementary  work  in  science  should  treat  of  but  few  things,  but 
the  impressions  it  leaves  with  the  child  should  be  very  clear  ones. 
The  ideas  derived  from  the  common  text-books  are  of  the  vaguest 
possible  character.  These  books  are  the  parasites,  not  the  allies,  of 
science.  They  bear  the  same  relation  to  the  progress  of  science 
that  barnacles  bear  to  the  progress  of  a  ship.  If  you  keep  clear 
of  these,  you  can  not  go  far  astray.  Let  us  recall  the  words  of 
Agassiz  to  the  publisher  who  tried  to  induce  him  to  write  a  school- 
book  on  zoology : 

"  I  told  him,"  he  said,  "  that  I  was  not  the  man  to  do  that  sort 
of  thing ;  and  I  told  him,  too,  that  the  less  of  that  sort  of  thing 
which  is  done  the  better.  It  is  not  school-books  we  want,  but  stu- 
dents. The  book  of  nature  is  always  open,  and  all  I  can  do  or  say 
shall  be  to  lead  students  to  study  that  book,  and  not  to  pin  their 
faith  to  any  other."  And  at  another  time  he  said,  "  If  we  study 
Nature  in  books,  when  we  go  out  of  doors  we  can  not  find  her." 

The  essential  of  method  is  that  we  allow  nothing  to  come  be- 
tween the  student  and  the  object  which  he  studies.  The  book  or 
chart  or  lecture  which  can  be  used  in  place  of  the  real  thing  is  the 
thing  you  should  never  use.  Your  students  should  see  for  them- 
selves, and  draw  their  own  conclusions  from  what  they  see.  When 
they  have  a  groundwork  of  their  own  observations,  other  facts 
can  be  made  known  to  them  as  a  basis  for  advanced  generaliza- 
tions, for  the  right  use  of  books  is  as  important  as  their  misuse  is 
pernicious ;  but  work  of  this  sort  belongs  to  the  university  rather 


SCIENCE  IN   THE  HIGH  SCHOOL.  725 

than  to  the  high  school.  You  do  not  wish  to  have  your  students 
tell  you  from  memory  the  characters  of  the  Sauropsida  as  distin- 
guished from  the  Ichthyopsida.  What  you  want  is  the  answer 
to  their  own  questionings  of  the  frog  and  the  turtle. 

I  was  lately  present  at  a  high-school  examination  in  zoology. 
The  teacher  gave  a  number  of  the  stock  questions,  such  as  "  De- 
scribe the  Gasteropoda."  "  What  are  the  chief  differences  between 
the  domestic  turkey  and  the  turkey  of  Honduras  ? "  "  How  do 
Asiatic  and  African  elephants  differ  ? "  "  On  which  foot  of  the 
ornithorhynchus  does  the  webbing  extend  past  the  toes  ? "  and 
so  on.  At  last  he  said :  "  I  will  now  give  you  a  practical  ques- 
tion :  A  few  days  ago  we  had  a  frog  in  the  class,  and  all  of  you 
saw  it ;  now  write  out  all  the  characteristics  of  the  sub-kingdom, 
class,  and  order  to  which  the  frog  belongs/' 

This  is  all  useless.  The  definitions  of  these  classes  and  orders 
do  not  concern  the  child.  To  the  working  naturalist  these  names 
are  as  essential  as  the  names  of  the  stations  on  the  road  to  a  rail- 
way engineer.  They  belong  to  his  business,  but  the  names  and 
distances  of  railway  stations  do  not  form  part  of  any  good  work 
in  primary  geography.  You  do  not  need  to  teach  your  students 
that  vertebrates  are  divided  into  mammals,  birds,  reptiles,  batra- 
chians,  and  fishes.  It  is  not  true  in  the  first  place,  and,  if  it  were, 
it  is  not  relevant  to  them.  Stick  to  your  frog,  if  you  are  studying 
frogs,  and  he  will  teach  you  more  of  the  science  of  animals  than 
can  be  learned  from  all  the  memorized  classifications  that  you  can 
bracket  out  on  a  hundred  rods  of  blackboard ! 

The  prime  defect  in  our  schools  is  not,  after  all,  that  the  teach- 
ers do  not  know  the  subjects  they  teach,  but  that  they  do  not 
know  nor  care  for  the  purpose  of  their  teaching.  In  other  words, 
they  do  not  know  how  to  teach.  The  book  is  placed  in  their 
hands  by  the  school  board,  and  they  teach  by  the  book.  If  the 
book  comes  to  them  wrong-side  up,  their  teaching  is  forever 
inverted.  That  this  is  true,  the  statistics  gathered  last  year  from 
the  high  schools  of  Indiana,  by  Prof.  Evermann,  very  clearly 
show.  It  is  no  wonder  that  a  superintendent  is  needed  for  every 
dozen  teachers.  A  good  teacher  should  know  the  end  for  which 
he  works,  and  then  he  can  adapt  his  means  to  fit  this  end. 

I  once  visited  a  large  high  school,  one  of  the  best  in  the  coun- 
try, with  a  science  teacher  whose  studies  have  won  him  the  re- 
spect of  his  fellow- workers.  But  for  some  reason,  on  that  day  at 
least,  he  failed  to  bring  his  own  knowledge  into  the  class-room. 
I  heard  him  quizzing  a  class  of  boys  and  girls  on  animals — not  on 
the  animals  of  the  woods  and  fields,  not  on  the  animals  before 
them,  for  there  were  none,  but  on  the  edentates  of  South  Amer- 
ica. An  especial  point  was  to  find  out  whether  it  is  the  nine- 
banded  armadillo  (novemcinctus)  or  the  three-banded  armadillo 


7 26  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

(tricinctus)  which  does  not  dig  a  hole  in  the  ground  for  its  nest. 
The  book,  written  by  a  man  who  did  not  know  an  armadillo 
from  a  mud-turtle,  gives  this  piece  of  information.  It  was  in  the 
lesson,  and  the  students  must  get  it.  And  on  this  and  like  sub- 
jects these  boys  and  girls  were  wasting  their  precious  time — 
precious  because,  if  they  do  not  learn  to  observe  in  their  youth, 
they  will  never  learn,  and  the  horizon  of  their  lives  will  be  always 
narrower  and  darker  than  it  should  have  been.  Already  the  work 
of  that  day  is  a  blank.  They  have  forgotten  the  nine-banded 
armadillo  and  the  three-banded,  and  so  has  their  teacher,  and  so 
have  I.  All  that  remains  with  them  is  a  mild  hatred  of  the  arma- 
dillo and  of  the  edentates  in  general,  and  a  feeling  of  relief  at 
being  no  longer  under  their  baleful  influence.  But  with  this 
usually  goes  the  determination  never  to  study  zoology  again. 
And  when  these  students  later  come  to  the  college,  they  know  no 
more  of  science  and  its  methods  than  they  did  when  at  the  age  of 
one  year  they  first  cried  for  the  moon. 

Darwin  tells  us  that  his  early  instruction  in  geology  was  so 
"  incredibly  dull "  that  he  came  to  the  determination,  afterward 
happily  changed,  "  never  so  long  as  he  lived  to  read  a  book  on 
geology  or  in  any  way  to  study  the  subject." 

I  once  had  a  student,  well  trained  in  the  conventional  methods 
of  non-science,  who  was  set  to  observe  the  yeast-plant  under  the 
microscope.  He  had  read  what  the  books  say  about  yeast,  and 
had  looked  at  the  pictures.  So  he  went  to  work  vigorously. 
In  a  short  time  he  had  found  out  all  about  the  little  plant,  and 
had  made  a  series  of  drawings  which  showed  it  very  nicely.  By 
and  by  some  one  noticed  that  he  was  working  without  any  object- 
glass  in  his  microscope.  He  had  not  seen  the  yeast -plant  at  all, 
only  the  dust  on  the  eye-piece.  This  is  the  vital  fault  of  much  of 
our  teaching  of  elementary  science.  It  is  not  real ;  it  is  not  the 
study  of  nature,  only  of  the  dust-heaps  of  old  definitions. 

Yet  nothing  is  easier  than  to  do  fairly  good  teaching,  even 
without  special  knowledge  or  special  appliances.  Bring  out  your 
specimens  and  set  them  before  the  boys  and  girls.  They  will  do 
the  work,  and  do  it  eagerly  ;  and  they  will  furnish  the  specimens 
too.  There  is  no  difficulty  about  materials.  Our  New  World  is 
the  "  El  Dorado  "  of  the  naturalists  of  Europe.  You  can  get  ma- 
terials for  a  week's  work  by  turning  over  a  single  rotten  log.  I 
once  heard  Prof.  Agassiz  say  to  an  assembly  of  teachers,  and  I 
quote  from  him  the  more  freely  because  he  gave  his  life  to  the 
task  of  the  introduction  of  right  methods  into  American  schools  : 

"  Select  such  subjects  that  your  students  can  not  walk  out  with- 
out seeing  them.  If  you  can  find  nothing  better,  take  a  house-fly 
or  a  cricket,  and  let  each  one  hold  a  specimen  while  you  speak. 
.  .  .  There  is  no  part  of  the  country  where,  in  the  summer,  you 


ETHICS  AND   RELIGION.  727 

can  not  get  a  sufficient  supply  of  the  best  of  specimens.  Teach 
your  pupils  to  bring  them  in.  Take  your  text  from  the  brooks 
and  not  from  the  booksellers.  ...  It  is  better  to  have  a  few  forms 
well  studied  than  to  teach  a  little  about  many  hundred  species. 
Better  a  dozen  forms  thoroughly  known  as  the  result  of  the  first 
year's  work,  than  to  have  two  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  shells 
and  corals  bought  from  a  curiosity  store.  The  dozen  animals  will 
be  your  own.  .  .  .  You  will  find  the  same  elements  of  instruction 
all  about  you  wherever  you  may  be  teaching.  You  can  take  your 
classes  out  and  give  them  the  same  lessons,  and  lead  them  up  to 
the  same  subjects  in  one  place  as  another.  And  this  method  of 
teaching  children  is  so  natural,  so  suggestive,  so  true.  That  is  the 
charm  of  teaching  from  Nature.  No  one  can  warp  her  to  suit  his 
own  views.  She  brings  us  back  to  absolute  truth  so  often  as  we 
wander." 


-♦•♦- 


ETHICS  AND   RELIGION. 

By  CRAWFORD   HOWELL  TOY, 

PROFESSOR    OF   HEBREW   IN  HARVARD   UNIVERSITY. 

"XT~0  subjects  occupy  men's  attention  more  than  morality  and 
-L  ^  religion.  They  are  patent,  ever-present  facts,  always  intrud- 
ing themselves  on  our  thoughts,  and  always  demanding  consider- 
ation. They  have  formed  subjects  of  human  reflection  since  the 
race  of  man  began ;  nations  have  wrought  out  practical  schemes, 
philosophers  have  invented  systems  ;  thousands  of  generations 
have  talked  over  individual  facts  and  ideas.  Yet  men  are  far 
from  being  at  one  on  the  nature  of  the  two  and  the  relation  be- 
tween them. 

One  opinion,  held  widely  in  our  own  times,  is  that  religion  is 
the  creator  of  ethics — an  opinion  not  unnaturally  suggested  by 
the  fusion  of  ethical  and  religious  ideas  and  practices  which  exists 
among  us.  The  masses  of  our  communities  are  reared  in  a  re- 
ligious atmosphere.  Their  first  impressions  of  duty  and  right  are 
colored  by  religious  ideas  and  supported  by  religious  sanctions. 
The  most  generally  accepted  and  revered  ethical  codes  are  con- 
tained in  the  sacred  books,  and  the  most  prominent  preachers  of 
morals  are  ministers  of  religion.  Our  courts  of  law  dispense  jus- 
tice in  the  name  of  the  Divine  Being.  Kings  rule  by  the  grace  of 
God,  and  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  has  stamped  a  decla- 
ration of  the  national  trust  in  God  on  a  silver  coin.  In  many 
countries  religion  appears  at  the  birth  of  a  child,  to  initiate  it  by 
a  symbolic  ceremony  into  the  Church ;  almost  everywhere  when 
life  is  departing  religion  comes  to  care  for  man's  future ;  and  it  is 
religion  which  announces  the  close  of  life  by  the  solemn  depo- 


7 28  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

sition  of  the  body  in  the  grave.  There  are  many  who  hold  that 
both  the  content  and  the  impulse  of  ethical  life  are  given  by  re- 
ligion ;  that  man  can  neither  know  nor  do  right  without  divine 
aid ;  and  that  human  virtue,  apart  from  the  supernatural  element, 
is  a  delusion  and  a  snare,  since  it  allures  men  to  a  fatal  self- 
dependence  by  holding  out  the  false  hope  that  they  can  be  really 
good  without  divine  aid.  This  is  the  annihilation  of  morality  in 
the  ordinary  sense  of  the  term. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  opinion  is  held  that  religion  and  morals 
are  wholly  distinct,  neither  in  any  wise  affecting  the  fundamental 
conceptions  or  the  practical  development  of  the  other.  According 
to  this  view,  the  two  start  from  different  points,  have  regard  to 
different  objects,  look  to  different  aims,  and  follow  different  meth- 
ods. Sometimes  this  distinctness  is  represented  as  belonging  only 
to  the  ideal  conception  of  religion  and  ethics,  sometimes  it  is 
claimed  as  a  characteristic  of  the  historical  development  of  the 
two.  Religion,  it  is  said,  deals  with  God,  ethics  with  man ;  and 
this  difference,  it  is  held,  severs  the  two  by  a  world-wide  interval. 
Such  a  position  may  be  maintained  both  by  those  who  accept  and 
by  those  who  reject  a  supernatural  divine  revelation  of  truth.  A 
believer  in  revelation  might  hold  the  atonement  of  Christ  to  be  a 
distinctively  religious  fact,  while  he  might  regard  the  ethical 
teaching  of  Jesus  or  Paul  as  the  product  of  human  experience. 

Still  another  view  considers  the  two  as  different  indeed  in 
origin  and  modes  of  development,  but,  since  both  are  essential  ele- 
ments of  life  existing  from  the  beginning,  as  acted  on  and  inter- 
penetrated each  by  the  other.  It  may  be  held,  for  example,  that 
the  posture  of  mind  necessary  to  produce  ethical  convictions  is, 
if  not  created,  at  least  modified  by  the  religious  theory,  the  con- 
sciousness of  the  presence  of  the  Deity  deepening  the  instinct  or 
conviction  of  duty  toward  one's  fellow-men ;  or  that,  in  the  inverse 
direction,  the  sentiment  of  duty  toward  the  Deity  is  quickened  by 
the  feeling  of  human  obligation ;  or,  again,  that  the  hope  of  reward 
or  the  fear  of  punishment  from  the  supernatural  powers  may  fur- 
nish a  strong  motive  for  right-doing ;  or  that  the  ideals  of  duty, 
constantly  transcending  practice,  and  embodied  in  the  Deity,  may 
be  an  ethically  elevating  influence.  According  to  this  view,  the 
present  ethical  religious  thought  of  the  world  is  the  product  of  a 
long  series  of  interactions  between  ethical  and  religious  ideas 
which  have  grown  up  more  or  less  independently. 

In  order  to  test  the  correctness  of  these  various  opinions,  we 
must  consider  briefly  the  history  of  the  development  of  men's 
religious  and  moral  ideas  and  practice.  Our  knowledge  of  this 
history  can  be  only  a  general  one :  we  have  not  the  data  necessary 
to  describe  the  beginning  of  any  line  in  human  life ;  we  do  not 
know  with  certainty  how  man  formed  his  first  notion  of  the  super- 


ETHICS   AND   RELIGION.  729 

natural,  or  under  what  conditions  his  moral  life  began.  There  are 
hypotheses  or  surmises  which  we  may  think  natural  or  probable ; 
but  these  must,  of  course,  be  distinguished  from  what  is  known  to 
be  fact.  Let  us  begin  by  defining  the  principal  terms  of  our  in- 
quiry. Religion  is  the  body  of  beliefs  and  practices  pertaining  to 
the  nature  and  worship  of  the  Deity,  and  determining  man's  effort 
to  propitiate  him  and  secure  his  aid ;  ethics  is  the  body  of  beliefs 
and  practices  regulating  the  conduct  of  man  to  man.  True,  this 
distinction  seems  to  be  sometimes  abandoned  :  the  Deity  is  said  to 
be  pleased  by  ethically  right  conduct,  or  a  religious  ceremonial 
comes  to  be  regarded  as  having  an  ethical  character.  But  even 
in  these  cases  the  distinction  really  exists.  For,  the  conduct  held 
to  be  acceptable  to  God  not  only  relates  to  intercourse  between 
human  beings,  but  exists  as  a  social  custom  before  it  is  approved 
by  religion ;  and  the  religious  ceremonial,  primarily  designed  to 
secure  the  divine  favor,  is  ethical  only  in  so  far  as  it  involves  rela- 
tions among  men.  This  distinction  is  not  affected  by  the  question 
respecting  a  divine  revelation  of  truth,  for  such  a  revelation  might 
naturally  treat  duties  to  God  and  duties  to  man  as  separate  sorts 
of  obligation. 

Before,  however,  entering  on  the  discussion  of  the  subject,  it 
may  be  proper  to  ask  whether  our  opinion  as  to  the  genesis  of 
ethical  practice  must  be  modified  by  belief  in  a  supernatural, 
divine  revelation  of  truth.  I  do  not  inquire  whether  such  reve- 
lations have  really  been  given.  It  is  sufficient  for  our  present 
purpose  to  ask  whether  the  objective  content  of  the  alleged  reve- 
lation is  of  such  character  as  to  take  it  out  of  the  line  of  natural 
human  development.  How  stands  the  case,  for  example,  with  the 
ethical  teaching  of  the  Hindu,  Persian,  and  Arabian  sacred  books  ? 
The  morality  of  the  Koran  is  in  part  high  and  pure,  doubtless  an 
advance  on  the  current  usage  of  Mohammed's  time.  Yet,  leaving 
out  of  consideration  what  was  borrowed  from  Jewish  and  Chris- 
tian sources,  it  contains  nothing  that  may  not  have  been  the 
product  of  human  reflection.  The  social  life  of  the  Arabs  of  that 
period  was  comparatively  well  organized,  and  Mohammed  under- 
took for  the  most  part  only  to  modify  existing  customs — to  restrain, 
for  example,  the  rights  of  divorce  and  retaliation ;  and  the  duties 
of  honesty,  justice,  kindness,  and  mercy  which  he  enjoined  were 
such  as  would  naturally  suggest  themselves  to  a  large-hearted 
and  keen-sighted  man  anxious  to  secure  the  permanence  of  a  new 
faith  and  the  well-being  of  his  countrymen.  The  same  thing  may 
be  said  of  the  moral  codes  of  Zoroaster,  the  Veda,  and  Buddha. 
Of  these  the  last  named  is  the  most  remarkable  so  far  as  regards 
purity  and  depth  of  ethical  perception.  It  has  permanent  value 
quite  apart  from  the  Buddhist  idea  of  happiness  and  perfection  as 
consisting  in  absolute  freedom  from  thought  and  feeling ;  its  fun- 


73o  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

damental  principles  of  self -culture  and  self-denial  involve  a  noble 
and  spiritual  conception  of  life,  and  are  capable  of  leading  to  the 
most  admirable  results.  But,  even  with  the  obscurity  that  rests  on 
the  beginnings  of  Buddhism  and  the  moral-religious  development 
that  preceded  it,  none  of  us  will  be  inclined  to  deny  that  it  is  the 
outcome  of  the  experience  and  thoughts  of  the  time.  Such,  also, 
appears  to  be  the  case  with  the  ethical  codes  of  the  Bible.  The 
ordinary  social  duties  which  are  enjoined  in  the  Old  Testament  and 
New  Testament,  such  as  honesty,  truthfulness,  sobriety,  kindness 
to  the  poor,  are  common  to  many  times  and  peoples.  All  the  moral 
requirements  of  the  Decalogue  are  found  among  the  Egyptians  at 
a  period  earlier  than  that  usually  assigned  to  Moses,  Even  the 
nobler  qualities  of  love  to  man,  forgiveness  of  injuries,  denial  of 
self,  are  not  without  parallel  in  other  communities.  In  some  cases 
a  process  of  natural  development  may  be  observed  in  the  biblical 
ethics.  The  prophets  enjoin  on  the  Israelites  justice  and  kindness 
to  their  own  countrymen,  but  their  view  does  not  extend  beyond 
their  own  land ;  one  of  the  later  law-books  (Lev.  xix,  18)  contains 
the  precept,  "  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself,"  but  it  de- 
fines neighbors  as  "  the  children  of  thy  people  " ;  the  great  Jewish 
lawyer  Hillel,  toward  the  end  of  the  first  century  before  the  begin- 
ning of  our  era,  announced  as  the  central  principle  of  conduct  that 
a  man  should  not  do  to  others  what  he  would  not  have  them  do  to 
him ;  Jesus  put  this  principle  into  positive  shape  (the  same  thing 
substantially  existed  among  the  Chinese  and  Greeks).  The  ethical 
treatise  of  the  Egyptian  Ptah-hotep,  said  by  Maspero,  Renouf, 
and  other  eminent  scholars  to  be  the  oldest  book  in  the  world  (its 
date  is  put  before  2000  b.  a),  contains  a  moral  code  remarkable 
for  loftiness  and  spirituality  ;  it  enjoins  gentleness,  forgetting 
wrong,  contentment,  kindness,  avoidance  of  pride,  of  hardness  of 
heart,  and  of  bad  temper.  It  would  appear,  from  the  codes  of  peo- 
ples for  whom  no  divine  revelation  is  claimed  by  us,  that  man  by 
his  unaided  efforts  has  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  best  prin- 
ciples and  practices  of  morality,  has  not  only  made  admirable 
rules  of  conduct,  but  has  perceived  that  the  essence  of  goodness 
lies  in  the  character  of  the  soul.  If  this  be  so,  it  is  unnecessary 
to  suppose  a  supernatural  divine  revelation  to  account  for  the 
ethical  phenomena  of  society.  It  might  be  said,  indeed,  that  all 
this  ethical  development  proceeds  from  a  primitive  divine  reve- 
lation. But  this  statement  rests  on  no  historical  proof,  nor  would 
it  explain  the  fact  that  the  ethical  progress  of  a  nation  goes  hand 
in  hand  with  its  growth  in  civilization.  If  the  ancient  Hebrews 
received  their  ethical  code  directly  from  God,  whence  comes  it  that 
manners  were  milder  in  Ezra's  time  than  in  the  pre-exilian  pro- 
phetic period,  less  mild  in  the  days  of  David,  and  comparatively 
rude  in  the  period  of  the  Judges  ?     It  would  be  singular  if  the 


ETHICS  AND   RELIGION.  731 

generations  which  stood  nearest  the  revelation  were  least  affected 
by  it. 

Religion  consists  of  creed  and  ritual.  What  is  the  origin  and 
nature  of  these  facts  ?  The  religious  creed  is  the  embodiment  of 
man's  view  of  the  supernatural  constitution  of  the  universe.  It 
defines  the  origin  and  nature  of  the  powers  which  stand  outside  of 
human  life,  and  the  manner  in  which  they  brought  into  being  the 
whole  system  of  things ;  it  describes  the  character  of  the  relations 
between  them  and  men,  resulting  from  the  attributes  of  the  dei- 
ties. From  these  premises  the  ritual  law  prescribes  the  processes 
by  which  the  favor  of  the  supernatural  powers  is  to  be  secured. 

The  main  article  of  the  creed,  the  theology  or  doctrine  of  the 
deity,  is  the  result  of  reflection.  Man  demands  a  ground  for  the 
external  world,  which  he  naturally  at  first  thinks  of  as  animated 
by  spirits  like  his  own.  To  these  spirits  he  ascribes  passions  such 
as  he  is  conscious  of  in  his  own  nature.  Every  object  becomes  for 
him  a  living  creature ;  he  refers  every  phenomenon  to  an  invisible 
spiritual  nature.  In  process  of  time  he  separates  the  agent  from 
the  object  or  phenomenon,  and  regards  it  as  an  independent  power, 
endowed  with  such  qualities  as  are  suggested  by  the  particular 
conditions  of  the  case.  A  deity  thus  arises,  who  is  gradually  in- 
vested with  a  history.  Myths  which  embody  natural  phenomena 
or  ritual  processes,  legends  which  spring  from  vague  recollections 
of  historical  occurrences,  symbolical  stories  expressing  ethical  and 
other  thought  gather  around  his  person,  and  gradually  build  up 
for  him  a  distinct  individuality.  The  qualities  ascribed  to  him 
are  modified  generation  after  generation  and  age  after  age  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  social  development  of  the  community.  Starting 
from  his  undefined,  primitive  character,  the  deity  becomes  a  war- 
rior or  a  sage,  malevolent  or  beneficent  according  to  the  conditions 
which  determine  his  growth.  His  ethical  nature  at  any  given  time 
will  reflect  the  moral  ideas  of  the  community  at  that  time.  Man's 
consciousness  of  the  two  opposing  elements  of  good  and  evil  in 
nature  will  lead  him  to  apportion  beneficial  and  hurtful  attributes 
and  acts  among  the  gods.  Those  of  them  who  are  good  will  be 
credited  with  the  best  qualities  that  men  can  think  of,  and  the  bad 
will  tend  to  become  as  bad  as  can  be.  The  latter  may  then  retain 
their  independence  and  autonomy  (as  in  the  Persian  religion),  or 
they  may  bo  degraded  to  a  subordinate  position  and  retain  their 
power  and  existence  only  through  the  sufferance  of  the  supreme 
Deity  (as  among  the  Hebrews). 

This  process  of  constructing  the  deity  supposes  a  parallel  pro- 
cess of  self -analysis  by  man.  He  finds  himself  forced  by  all  the 
conditions  of  life  to  inquire  into  his  own  nature  and  needs,  and 
thus  gradually  builds  up  an  anthropology.  This  belongs  in  itself 
to  the  domain,  not  of  religion,  but  of  science.     But  it  is  the  neces- 


73 2  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

sary  basis  of  religion.  Without  the  knowledge  of  man  the  knowl- 
edge of  God  would  be  useless  for  religious  purposes ;  the  two  go 
hand  in  hand.  The  former  springs  from  and  is  applied  to  all  the 
relations  of  human  life.  The  part  of  it  which  comes  to  be  distinct- 
ively religious  is  the  consciousness  of  dependence  on  God,  with  all 
the  convictions  and  feelings  which  therewith  connect  themselves. 
This  consciousness  has  a  history  similar  to  that  of  man's  theo- 
logical creed.  It  is  at  first  simple  and  fleshly,  relating  to  man's 
animal  passions  and  needs ;  it  is  purified  by  time,  growing  till  it 
attains  a  well-developed  ethical-spiritual  shape.  From  being  a 
creature  who  needs  only  food  and  raiment,  man  comes  to  be  a 
highly  endowed  soul  with  aspirations  after  moral  perfectness,  and 
at  each  step  the  deity  must  be  able  to  satisfy  his  needs. 

The  history  of  the  genesis  of  things  is  in  itself  no  more  re- 
ligious than  •  anthropology.  How  the  world,  and  man,  and  the 
gods  came  into  existence  are  essentially  scientific  questions ;  they 
assume  a  religious  aspect  from  the  fact  that  they  are  interwoven 
with  man's  really  religious  conceptions.  The  first  attitude  of  the 
human  mind  on  these  points  is  one  of  indifference ;  men  accept 
known  facts  without  question.  A  period  of  reflection  follows ; 
interest  is  felt  in  the  problem  of  origins.  The  construction  of  the 
world  is  assigned,  of  course,  to  the  supernatural  powers ;  the  pro- 
cess of  creation  is  thought  of  as  similar  to  human  methods  of 
work :  the  world  is  said  to  have  issued  from  an  egg,  or  to  have 
been  formed  from  the  limbs  of  a  giant,  or  to  have  been  fashioned 
in  some  way  familiar  to  man.  The  genesis  of  man  is  explained  in 
a  similar  manner.  He  is  born  of  divine  or  half -divine  parents,  or 
fashioned  out  of  stone  or  clay.  The  gods  themselves  are  supposed 
to  have  issued  from  earlier  gods,  who  are  held  to  have  come  into 
existence  in  some  far-off  time  out  of  primitive  material,  commonly 
water.  The  whole  process  is  one  of  reflection — it  is  man's  effort 
to  embody  in  living  form  the  forces  which  he  conceives  to  have 
been  at  work  in  the  creation  of  the  universe.  It  is  his  first  attempt 
at  scientific  analysis  and  construction. 

This  theological  exposition  of  the  world  is  a  necessity  of 
human  thought ;  man  can  no  more  ignore  it  than  he  can  cease 
to  breathe.  It  is  equally  necessary  that  he  should  define  his  own 
relation  to  the  unseen  powers  around  him.  They  are  believed  to 
determine,  in  large  measure,  his  weal  or  woe :  they  send  rain  and 
storm,  pestilence  and  famine,  sunshine  and  food ;  they  smite  with 
disease,  or  maintain  in  health ;  they  give  victory  over  enemies, 
and  decide  the  success  or  failure  of  all  undertakings.  In  order  to 
secure  their  favor  and  aid,  he  must  know  what  it  is  in  his  conduct 
that  pleases  or  displeases  them,  and  by  what  processes  their  anger 
may  be  averted  and  their  good-will  obtained.  At  first,  the  sup- 
posed requirements  of  human  conduct  are  altogether  ceremonial; 


ETHICS   AND   RELIGION.  733 

but  they  gradually  assume  an  ethical  character.  Man  ascribes 
his  own  conscience  to  the  deity ;  he  can  not  think  of  the  divine 
as  morally  inferior  to  himself;  the  divine  demands  are  those 
which  man  recognizes  in  his  own  conscience. 

The  forms  of  the  ritual  are  developed  out  of  social  customs. 
The  first  idea  of  the  primitive  man  probably  is  that  the  deity  is 
to  be  propitiated  by  friendly  attentions  or  by  a  gift,  as  a  human 
chieftain  or  other  person  would  be,  and  the  more  precious  the  gift 
the  better.  A  man  would  therefore  offer  that  which  he  held  to  be 
dearest  to  him— even  his  own  flesh  and  blood;  a  human  life  would 
be  considered  the  costliest  of  offerings.  All  the  ceremonies  of  so- 
cial life  were  naturally  transferred  to  the  sacrifice  of  the  gods.  As 
eating  was  so  prominent  a  fact  for  man,  he  prepared  feasts  for  his 
deities ;  tables  were  spread,  and  food  and  drink  were  offered.  It 
was  assumed  that  the  gods  shared  men's  love  of  praise ;  hymns 
were  sung  celebrating  the  divine  power  and  glory.  Sometimes  a 
malevolent  nature  was  ascribed  to  the  deity :  it  was  supposed  that 
he  was  jealous  of  man's  prosperity,  and  that  his  displeasure  was 
to  be  removed  by  the  sacrifice  of  something  which  the  man 
esteemed  valuable— a  costly  ring,  for  example,  would  be  thrown 
into  the  sea ;  but  woe  to  the  offerer  if  it  should  be  found  in  a  fish 
and  returned  to  him!  Out  of  this  primitive  material  of  sacri- 
fices, feasts,  praise,  and  thanksgiving,  have  arisen  all  the  compli- 
cated liturgies  and  rituals  of  the  world.  The  outward  form  of 
them  has  followed  the  customs  of  society.  That  which  in  social 
intercourse  came  to  be  considered  seemly  and  reverent  was 
adopted  as  the  proper  attitude  toward  the  gods.  The  dress  of 
the  ministers  of  religion,  words  of  supplication  or  praise  which 
they  employed,  the  posture  of  the  worshipers,  have  always  been 
determined  by  the  forms  of  human  society.  The  basis  of  religious 
service  is  man's  desire  to  secure  the  friendship  of  the  deity,  its 
form  is  determined  by  the  social  proprieties.  These  last  must 
therefore  be  looked  on  as  an  accessory  of  religion,  important  as 
means,  but  not  belonging  to  its  essence.* 

Parallel  with  the  religious  development  is  the  growth  of  moral 
ideas  and  the  elaboration  of  systems .  of  practical  ethics.  These 
also  are  founded  in  the  nature  of  things,  inasmuch  as  they  have 
never  failed  to  appear  in  human  society.  It  is  not  our  purpose 
here  to  attempt  an  explanation  of  the  origin  of  those  instincts  on 
which  society  is  founded,  and  which  furnish  the  basis  of  moral 
character.  So  far  as  we  know,  the  complementary  instincts  of 
self -maintenance  and  sympathy  are  inseparable  from  the  nature 
of  man.  They  are  found,  indeed,  in  the  lower  forms  of  being,  and 
were  doubtless  inherited  by  man  from  his  ancestors  of  a  lower 
type ;  but,  in  any  case,  they  are  now  to  be  considered  essential 

*  It  is  not  here  intended  to  deny  that  ritual  may  be  a  symbolic  representation  of  ideas. 


734  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

parts  of  the  human  constitution,  and  out  of  them  spring  all  the 
details  of  ethical  life.  Nor  are  we  called  on  to  discuss  the  origin 
of  the  sentiment  of  obligation,  since  we  are  warranted  in  holding 
that  it  also  belongs  to  the  essence  of  human  nature.  No  man,  so 
far  as  our  information  goes,  has  ever  been  found  to  be  destitute  of 
it,  and,  as  far  as  concerns  our  world,  it  may  be  regarded  as  found- 
ed in  the  nature  of  things.  It  is  the  basis  of  all  moral  develop- 
ment. The  only  question  that  need  be  asked  is  whether  it  is  at 
all  dependent  on  religion  for  its  essential  character — that  is  to 
say,  at  the  moment  when  this  sentiment  was  shaping  itself  in  the 
mind  of  man,  was  its  genesis  at  all  conditioned  on  the  recognition 
of  the  supernatural  ?  In  the  decision  of  such  a  question  we  can 
be  guided,  of  course,  only  by  data  of  our  own  consciousness.  But 
the  reference  to  the  supernatural  does  not  seem  to  help  the  matter 
much,  since  we  meet  here  at  the  outset  this  same  sentiment  of 
obligation.  What  is  the  origin  of  the  convictions  of  duty  which 
man  feels  toward  the  unseen  powers  around  him  ?  Does  it  spring 
from  the  recognition  of  their  superiority  of  position  ?  But  this 
is  nothing  more  than  the  recognition  of  a  relation  which  involves 
the  power  of  harming  or  helping  in  the  superior  being,  and,  so 
far  as  the  same  power  is  supposed  to  reside  in  men,  the  same 
sentiment  toward  them  will  arise.  Or  does  the  feeling  of  duty 
toward  the  gods  come  from  the  recognition  of  rights  belonging 
to  them  ?  Then  it  does  not  appear  why  there  should  not  be  a 
similar  recognition  of  rights  belonging  to  men,  since  in  the  ear- 
liest conceptions  there  is  no  difference  between  man  and  the  deity, 
except  in  the  point  of  power.  It  does  not  seem,  therefore,  that 
religion  has  been  effective  in  producing  the  feeling  of  obligation, 
except  so  far  as  it  has  added  to  the  objects  toward  which  this  feel- 
ing was  directed.  There  would  be  just  as  much  ground  for  hold- 
ing that  the  sentiment  of  religious  obligation  sprang  from  the 
feeling  of  duty  which  arose  between  man  and  man.  In  point  of 
fact,  no  doubt,  both  were  products  of  the  same  primitive  elements 
of  man's  constitution.  The  recognition  of  an  object  implies  the 
recognition  both  of  its  nature  and  of  those  powers  in  it  by  which 
it  affects  us  for  good  or  for  bad,  and  from  the  interplay  of  these 
ideas  comes  finally  the  conviction  that  the  object  has  certain 
rights ;  we  first  perceive  and  estimate  the  personality,  and  then, 
through  experience  and  reflection,  come  to  the  conclusion  that  it 
is  obligatory  on  us  to  allow  it  such  freedom  as  is  consistent  with 
the  freedom  of  other  personalities.  The  degree  of  liberty  we 
allow  will  be,  in  general,  in  proportion  to  the  power  of  the  per- 
sonality :  men  can  be  controlled  by  equal  powers ;  the  gods, 
wielding  irresistible  power,  will  enjoy  perfect  liberty.  The  two 
sorts  of  feeling  of  duty,  toward  man  and  toward  the  deity,  grow 
by  mutual  action  and  reaction ;  each,  as  it  becomes  more  refined 


ETHICS  AND   RELIGION.  735 

and  powerful,  communicates  something  of  its  qualities  to  the 
other.  In  man's  progress  in  culture  of  soul  there  is  no  part  of 
his  nature  that  does  not  affect  and  is  not  affected  by  all  other 
parts. 

Let  us  pass  on  to  the  details  of  man's  ethical  codes.  It  is  gen- 
erally agreed  that  the  great  mass  of  these  spring  from  the  ex- 
periences of  human  intercourse.  The  ordinary  moral  rules  of  life 
have  arisen  from  men's  observation  that  without  them  society  is 
not  possible.  Such  is  the  origin  of  the  feeling  against  theft,  mur- 
der, and  falsehood.  The  family  life  is  dependent  on  the  subordi- 
nation of  children  to  parents,  and  the  tribal  or  national  life  on 
the  obedience  of  subjects  to  rulers.  The  early  particular  per- 
ceptions of  the  law  of  kindness  arise  from  a  compromise  between 
the  instincts  of  self -development  and  sympathy.  A  man  helps  his 
fellow-man,  but  not  more  than  is  consistent  with  the  mainte- 
nance of  his  own  interest.  There  are  special  instincts,  like  that  of 
maternal  love,  which  carry  with  them  absolute  self-abnegation. 
In  process  of  time  moral  principles  acquire  a  certain  universality, 
and  are  embodied  in  ideal  forms  of  men  or  gods,  and  these  ideals 
and  principles  assume  an  independent  shape  and  enter  as  inde- 
pendent forces  into  moral  life.  Even  the  broadest  and  most  un- 
selfish ethical  conceptions  and  usages  of  our  best  developed 
societies  are  thus  to  be  traced  back  to  the  habits  of  thought  which 
arise  from  social  intercourse. 

The  results  of  the  ethical  thought  of  society  are  adopted  by 
religion.  Observation,  as  is  remarked  above,  teaches  that  so  soon 
as  the  constitution  of  the  community  becomes  distinctly  moral, 
its  religion  assumes  the  same  tone  —  the  content  of  the  divine 
character  becomes  moral,  and  the  deity  is  conceived  to  be  pleased 
by  conduct  which  is  in  accord  with  his  character.  It  need  not  be 
thought  derogatory  to  religion  that  it  should  depend  on  the  ex- 
periences of  human  society  for  its  moral  teachings.  The  essence 
of  religion  is  not  the  content  of  the  divine  personality,  but  man's 
desire  to  put  himself  in  sympathy  with  the  divine.  The  ethical 
character  with  which  man  enters  into  relation  is,  of  course,  of 
extreme  importance ;  but  the  human  mind  can  not  truly  appro- 
priate thoughts  which  it  has  not  learned  by  experience,  and  no 
divine  ideal  would  be  effective  which  had  not  previously  been 
wrought  out  by  the  mind  itself. 

Such  an  ideal  may  exert  a  powerful  influence  on  life,  but  only 
on  condition  that  it  correspond  with  ethical  conceptions  held  by 
the  community  in  which  it  exists.  If  there  is  a  conflict  between 
these  two  standards,  there  is  in  most  cases  no  doubt  as  to  which 
of  them  will  determine  conduct :  men  will  follow  their  own  con- 
victions, preserving  a  respectful  attitude  toward  the  divine,  but 
ignoring  its  guidance  in  this  point.     Illustrations  of  this  fact  are 


736  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

probably  to  be  found  in  all  advanced  societies.  Plato  wished  to 
banish  the  poets  from  his  Republic  because  he  feared  the  influ- 
ence of  the  immoral  stories  they  told  of  the  gods.  But  his  very 
protest  shows  that  he  and  the  members  of  his  circle  had  risen 
above  the  moral  plane  of  these  stories ;  and,  in  fact,  it  is  clear 
from  the  writings  of  the  period,  especially  those  of  JEschylus, 
Sophocles,  Plato,  Xenophon,  Demosthenes,  not  to  speak  of  the 
Stoics,  that  the  moral  conduct  of  men  was  determined  at  that 
time,  not  by  the  example  of  the  gods,  but  by  such  social  consid- 
erations as  influence  us  at  the  present  day;  it  would  no  doubt 
have  been  thought  ridiculous  if,  for  example,  a  man  had  adduced 
precedents  in  the  lives  of  Zeus  or  Hermes  or  Aphrodite  in  de- 
fense of  conduct  condemned  by  the  laws  and  usages  of  Athens. 
A  similar  ineffectiveness  of  divine  precedent  may  be  observed  in 
Christian  societies  of  our  own  time,  who  listen  Sunday  after  Sun- 
day, devoutly  but  with  complete  ethical  indifference,  to  proced- 
ures represented  in  the  Old  Testament  as  based  on  divine  com- 
mand, but  foreign  to  our  modes  of  thought.  I  once  heard  from  a 
learned  clergyman  an  argument  of  an  hour  to  show  that  Abra- 
ham's purpose  to  offer  his  son  could  not  reasonably  be  regarded 
as  an  example  for  us,  since  Abraham  was  certain  that  he  had  the 
divine  command,  while  we  are  not  warranted  in  believing  that  we 
enjoy  personal  direction  from  God  of  that  sort.  The  occasion  of 
the  discourse  was  the  shocking  history  of  a  citizen  of  Massachu- 
setts, who,  aided  and  abetted  by  his  wife,  sacrificed  his  child  in 
obedience  to  a  supposed  command  from  God.  But  people  gener- 
ally disposed  of  the  matter  more  simply  by  saying  that  the  man 
was  crazy,  and  so  he  was  adjudged  to  be  in  a  court  of  law ;  the 
general  feeling  was  that  no  sane  man  could  thus  go  counter  to  the 
ethical  principles  of  our  time.  The  command  to  exterminate  the 
Canaanites,  though  it  may  be  vaguely  regarded  by  many  as 
having  been  right  at  that  time,  would  not  now  be  pleaded  by  the 
general  of  an  army  or  by  a  minister  of  war  as  authority  for 
wholesale  slaughter  of  enemies.  Theoretically  these  things  are 
widely  looked  on  as  divine ;  but  the  popular  instinct,  with  easy 
illogicalness,  decides  that  for  some  reason  or  other  they  do  not 
belong  to  our  times.  The  explanation,  of  course,  is  simple  :  these 
procedures  were  the  product  of  half -barbarous  communities,  or  at 
any  rate  of  a  period  when  men  saw  nothing  wrong  in  them ;  they 
were  repudiated  by  the  moral  sense  of  the  later  Jews.  Slavery, 
recognized  as  lawful  in  the  Hebrew  and  Christian  Scriptures,  is 
now  condemned  by  the  civilized  world  ;  and  the  New  Testament 
teaching  on  this  subject  is  explained,  by  those  who  hold  the  bibli- 
cal ethics  to  be  absolutely  correct,  as  a  wise  reticence  :  the  apostle 
Paul,  it  is  said,  refrained  from  interfering  with  the  social  insti- 
tutions of  his  time,  and  trusted  to  the  regenerating  power  of  the 


ETHICS   AND   RELIGION.  737 

principles  of  the  gospel.  It  is  true  that  there  is  a  spirit  in  the 
New  Testament  which  is  antagonistic  to  the  enslaving  of  human 
beings.  But  it  is  also  true  that  Paul  saw  no  incompatibility  be- 
tween slavery  and  Christianity,  and  it  is  only  recently  that  the 
Christian  world  has  come  to  a  definite  conclusion  on  this  point. 
It  is  not  long  since  devout  men  in  England,  Russia,  Brazil,  and 
the  United  States  defended  slavery  on  biblical  and  moral  grounds ; 
and  the  present  condemnation  of  it  is  to  be  regarded  as  a  product 
of  the  modern  social  movement  toward  the  recognition  of  all 
human  rights. 

The  relation  of  divine  standards  to  human  experience  is  illus- 
trated in  our  own  times  by  the  discussions  on  various  points  of 
social  morals.  The  Catholic  Church,  following  what  it  supposed 
to  be  the  New  Testament  teaching,  affirmed  the  perpetuity  of  the 
marriage  relation  and  the  impossibility  of  divorce.  There  is  a 
difference  of  opinion  among  biblical  expositors  as  to  the  meaning 
of  the  passage  in  which  the  Founder  of  Christianity  has  ex- 
pressed his  opinion  on  this  point  (Matt,  v,  32) ;  some  hold  that 
there  is  one  scriptural  ground  of  divorce,  others  that  there  is 
none.  Modern  legislators  and  social  philosophers,  however, 
proceed  without  reference  to  the  biblical  rule.  The  old  church 
law  has  been  abandoned  in  most  countries,  and  in  the  discussions 
which  take  place  in  private  circles  the  arguments  on  the  sub- 
ject are  based  not  on  scriptural  grounds  but  on  considerations 
supposed  to  connect  themselves  with  the  well-being  of  society. 
There  are  many  questions  for  the  decision  of  which  there  is  no 
specific  religious  authority;  they  have  arisen  from  distinctly 
modern  conditions  of  life,  of  which  the  older  religious  books,  of 
course,  take  no  note.  Such  questions  may  often,  perhaps  always, 
be  brought  under  general  ethical  principles  announced  in  the 
Bible.  But  the  particular  application  of  these  principles,  the 
practical  decision  of  present  questions  of  duty,  is  determined  by 
existing  social  conditions.  Whether  capital  punishment  should 
be  abolished,  how  far  the  use  of  alcoholic  drinks  should  be 
allowed  or  prohibited  by  the  state,  whether  parks  and  museums 
should  be  thrown  open  to  the  public  on  Sundays,  whether  the 
theatre  should  be  favored  or  opposed — these  questions  are  all  dis- 
cussed on  modern  social  grounds. 

Has  religion  contributed  any  idea  to  ethics  ?  It  might  seem 
at  first  view  that  this  question  must  be  answered  in  the  affirma- 
tive. The  Church  has  at  various  times  imposed  laws  on  the 
world.  The  ethical  life  of  Europe  has  been  deeply  affected  by  the 
church  law  of  divorce.  The  celibacy  of  the  clergy,  a  purely  eccle- 
siastical enactment,  has  had  far-reaching  moral  consequences. 
In  all  times  and  countries  the  ministers  of  religion  have  had  more 
or  less  to  do  with  the  establishment  of  customs  and  laws  relating 

vol.  xxxvi. — 47 


738  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

to  morals.  And  yet  it  must  be  considered  doubtful  whether,  by 
the  authority  of  ministers  of  religion  or  by  the  experience  of  the 
individual  conscience,  religion  has  ever  originated  an  ethical 
principle.  We  have  seen  above  that  the  hypothesis  of  a  super- 
natural divine  revelation  is  not  necessary  in  order  to  explain  the 
existence  of  our  ethical  principles  and  practices.  We  have  also 
seen  further  that  these  principles  and  practices  have  their  origin 
in  general  not  in  man's  feeling  toward  the  divine,  but  in  his  inter- 
course with  his  fellow-creatures.  There  seems  to  be  no  rule  of 
ethical  usage  among  us  that  does  not  finally  go  back  to  our  view 
of  its  bearing  on  the  well-being  of  society.  This  last  is  the  final 
standard  by  which  we  test  all  our  arguments  on  moral  questions. 
If  we  wish  to  decide  on  the  desirableness  of  flogging  on  board 
ships,  we  ask  whether  it  maintains  discipline  better  than  any 
other  punishment,  and  how  it  affects  the  character  of  the  sailor,  it 
being  assumed  that  the  proper  development  of  the  individual  is 
an  essential  element  of  social  progress.  In  the  same  way  we  treat 
all  disciplinary  problems — capital  punishment,  solitary  confine- 
ment, corporal  chastisement  by  parents  and  teachers  :  we  inquire 
into  the  effect  on  the  individual,  but  the  individual  as  a  member 
of  society.  We  recognize  individual  rights,  but  we  do  not  hesitate 
to  sacrifice  them  to  the  welfare  of  the  whole.  No  sympathy  with 
a  culprit  affects  us  if  we  believe  that  the  good  of  the  community 
requires  his  punishment.  An  argument  which  demonstrates  the 
best  social  good  is  considered  final.  In  the  prohibition  contro- 
versies the  only  point  really  considered  by  the  disputants  is,  Does 
prohibition  prohibit  ?  Is  war  lawful  ?  The  answer  is  given  by 
appeal  to  the  necessities  of  national  life. 

But  how  is  it  with  cases  of  priestly  legislation  ?  Are  they  not 
contributions  of  religion  to  ethics  ?  In  all  such  cases  I  believe  it 
will  be  found  that  the  ethical  principle  involved  is  one  which  has 
already  been  established  by  society  and  is  only  applied  by  re- 
ligion. As  an  example  let  us  take  the  institution  of  taboo,  whose 
usages  are  so  widely  spread  in  civilized  as  well  as  uncivilized 
countries.  Taboo  sets  certain  things  apart  as  sacred  or  as  the 
special  property  of  gods  or  men,  not  to  be  owned  or  used  by 
others.  Obviously  an  ethical  principle  enters  here,  since  the  use  of 
tabooed  objects  by  the  community  becomes  wrong ;  and,  as  taboo 
is  an  essentially  religious  idea,  it  may  be  said  that  religion  has 
here  established  a  moral  rule.  But  let  us  see  whether  this  is 
really  the  case.  The  customs  of  taboo  are  of  two  sorts,  those 
which  relate  to  the  gods  and  to  persons  and  places  consecrated  to 
their  worship,  and  those  which  relate  to  ordinary  social  inter- 
course. 

The  reverence  required  for  images  of  deities,  for  sacred  build- 
ings and  their  furniture  and  ministers,  is  of  course  a  purely  re- 


ETHICS   AND   RELIGION.  739 

ligious  sentiment.  Of  this  nature  was  the  sacredness  which 
attached  among  the  Hebrews  to  the  temple  and  especially  to  the 
holy  of  holies,  which  none  but  a  minister  of  religion  might  enter ; 
and  to  the  sin-offering,  which  only  the  priests  were  permitted  to 
eat.  Persons  devoted  in  any  way  to  the  Deity  were  debarred  from 
certain  things  which  were  supposed  to  render  them  impure  ;  here 
there  was  no  question  of  an  infringement  of  a  moral  law,  but  only 
the  feeling  that  contact  with  or  use  of  certain  objects  impaired 
the  religious  efficiency  of  the  devoted  person,  probably  because 
such  acts  and  objects  were  held  for  some  reason  to  be  displeasing 
to  the  Deity,  or  to  vitiate  the  body,  or  to  interfere  with  the  func- 
tions of  a  ministrant.  In  some  cases  we  can  see  the  grounds  for 
these  provisions,  in  other  cases  they  go  back  to  customs  of  un- 
known origin.  The  Jewish  Nazarite  was  forbidden  to  eat  or  drink 
of  the  products  of  the  vine  or  to  cut  his  hair ;  the  first  of  these 
injunctions  was  probably  a  survival  from  the  old  nomadic  life,  in 
which  the  vine  was  not  cultivated  (so  also  in  the  case  of  the  Rech- 
abites),  the  second  regarded  the  hair  as  a  seat  of  life,  and  there- 
fore as  a  symbol  of  the  divine  presence  and  authority.  The  Roman 
flamen  dialis  enjoyed  many  privileges  as  a  high  representative  of 
a  god,  but  on  the  other  hand  was  enveloped  in  an  extraordinary 
mass  of  restrictions :  he  could  not  be  out  of  the  city  a  single  night, 
or  sleep  out  of  his  own  bed  three  consecutive  nights ;  and  no  one 
else  might  sleep  in  his  bed.  He  was  forbidden  to  swear  an  oath ; 
to  wear  any  but  a  plain  ring ;  to  walk  along  a  path  covered  by 
vines ;  to  touch  flour,  leaven,  or  a  dead  body ;  to  touch  or  to  name 
a  dog,  a  she-goat,  ivy,  beans,  or  raw  flesh.  When  his  hair  and 
nails  were  cut,  the  clippings  and  parings  were  buried  beneath  a 
tree  whose  fruit  could  be  offered  to  the  superior  deities.  His  wife 
was  surrounded  by  similar  restrictions.  Evidently  some  of  these 
were  intended  to  keep  the  priest  faithful  to  his  duties,  to  secure 
his  presence  at  the  temple.  The  objects  he  was  forbidden  to 
touch  were  doubtless  held,  from  some  forgotten  customs,  to  be 
distasteful  to  the  deity  (taboo).  That  there  was  no  real  ethical 
element  in  the  prohibition  appears  from  the  fact  that  other  men 
might  do  the  forbidden  things  with  impunity.  We  may  compare 
the  modern  notions  in  some  communities  which  require  clergy- 
men to  wear  certain  sorts  of  dress,  or  insist  on  their  refraining 
from  certain  things  which  are  regarded  as  lawful  for  other  men. 
A  minister  of  religion  offending  in  these  points  we  regard  not  as 
immoral,  but  rather  as  improper ;  a  Roman  priest  so  offending 
would  have  been  looked  on  as  guilty  of  impiety  toward  the  deity 
and  toward  the  state. 

In  undeveloped  communities  the  honors  paid  to  the  gods  are 
naturally  transferred  to  chiefs  and  royal  persons  supposed  to  be 
descended  from  the  gods.     We  may  thus  explain  the  prohibition 


74o  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

of  the  use  of  their  names  by  other  men,  and  the  custom  would  be 
so  far  religious;  but  it  would  probably  be  encouraged  by  the 
chiefs  on  governmental  grounds,  and  would  in  so  far  be  ethical. 
Even  the  religious  usage  probably  goes  back  to  the  sentiment  of 
respect  felt  for  the  chiefs  as  rulers. 

A  number  of  taboo  customs  seem  to  be  probably  or  possibly 
social.  The  prohibition  of  the  use  of  the  flesh  of  a  particular 
animal  or  of  a  whole  class  of  animals  as  food  is  of  uncertain 
origin.  It  is  supposed  by  some  to  result  from  the  idea  of  to- 
tems, each  tribe  refraining  from  the  flesh  of  its  own  totem,  but 
other  considerations  may  have  entered  in  part  at  least  into  the 
usage,  and  the  origin  of  totemism  itself  is  unknown.  The  rule 
among  some  tribes  that  women  shall  not  eat  human  flesh  is  possi- 
bly social;  it  was  perhaps  intended  to  guard  the  character  of 
women.  When  it  is  forbidden  to  touch  a  dead  body  or  a  burial- 
ground,  or  a  man  who  has  slain  an  enemy,  the  idea  of  pollution 
thus  incurred  may  be  physical,  though  it  may  also  come  from  the 
belief  that  the  dead  person  is  a  spirit  or  inhabited  by  a  spirit.  It 
is  possible  also  that  this  last  may  be  the  ground  of  the  rule  that 
persons  dangerously  ill  should  not  be  touched ;  here,  however,  a 
physical  reason  may  have  been  effective.  The  appropriation  or 
protection  of  property  by  taboo  depends  on  ordinary  principles  of 
social  organization.  When  a  chief  declares  that  a  certain  object 
is  his  head  or  his  hand,  and  thereby  secures  it  for  himself,  this 
is  merely  using  the  religious  sanction  to  give  authority  to  what 
we  may  suppose  to  be  a  natural  disposition  in  chiefs,  namely,  to 
appropriate  as  much  of  the  property  of  their  tribesmen  as  pos- 
sible. A  private  man  who  declares  his  field  taboo,  and  thus  pro- 
hibits other  men  from  entering  it,  is  only  asserting  the  right  of 
private  property  and  calling  in  the  aid  of  religion. 

It  may  fairly  be  said  that  those  taboo  usages  which  are  really 
ethical  arise  from  ideas  which  have  been  established  by  social 
intercourse.  In  the  case  of  the  sick  person,  for  example,  that  cer- 
tain persons  are  forbidden  to  touch  him  is  a  religious  usage,  and  if 
the  prohibition  were  universal,  it  would  be  fatal  to  the  sick  man ; 
but  the  helpfulness  of  those  persons  who  actually  tend  him  comes 
from  the  kindly  relations  engendered  by  ordinary  social  inter- 
course, which  overbear  the  religious  prohibition.  It  does  not 
appear  that  taboo  has  ever  pronounced  any  class  of  actions  to  be 
good  or  bad ;  it  has  only  brought  particular  acts  under  existing 
moral  categories.  Neither  it  nor  any  other  religious  institution 
has  ever  in  the  first  instance  taught  men  that  it  was  wrong  to 
steal  or  right  to  be  kind. 

So  far  we  have  regarded  only  the  content  of  ethical  usage. 
We  now  have  to  ask  whether,  if  religion  has  received  its  code 
from  ethics,  it  has  not  communicated  something  in  return.     It  is 


ETHICS   AND   RELIGION.  741 

a  noteworthy  fact  that  many  great  ethical  teachers  have  been  at 
the  same  time  religious  reformers  ;  such  were  Zoroaster,  Buddha, 
Jesus,  and  Mohammed.  In  other  cases,  as  in  the  codes  of  the 
Egyptian  Ptah-hotep  and  of  Socrates,  though  there  is  no  religious 
revolution,  a  religious  atmosphere  is  present.  Where  religion 
seems  to  be  lacking,  as  in  the  case  of  Confucius,  still  it  may  be 
said  that  the  ethical  system  has  arisen  in  a  community  permeated 
with  religious  ideas.  From  these  facts  it  might  be  supposed  that 
religion  has  been  the  most  powerful  influence  in  the  world  in  the 
elaboration  of  moral  codes.  But  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  at 
a  period  when  religion  was  bound  up  with  common  life  much 
more  closely  than  now,  a  practical  thinker  (and  such  the  great 
religious  reformers  were)  could  not  separate  the  two.  In  Semitic 
nations  not  only  morals  but  government  also  was  bound  up  with 
religion.  Ethics  and  religion  were  so  intertwined  in  human  de- 
velopment that,  though  their  origins  and  laws  of  growth  may 
have  been  different,  they  had  come  together  into  a  substantial 
unity. 

In  thus  associating  itself  with  ethics,  religion  supports  it  by 
supernatural  sanctions.  It  is  a  question  of  serious  import,  which 
doubtless  now  occupies  many  minds,  whether  the  moral  status  of 
society  could  be  maintained  without  this  external  aid.  It  is  a 
question  to  which  no  decided  answer  can  be  given,  because  the 
experiment  has  never  been  tried.  The  probability  is  that,  if  the 
religious  element  of  thought  were  now  abruptly  eliminated  from 
our  society,  the  moral  life  would  suffer  enormously  if  it  did  not 
perish  outright.  Such  a  sudden  withdrawal  is,  however,  impossi- 
ble, and  need  not  enter  into  our  calculations.  The  elimination  of 
religion,  if  it  can  be  conceived  of  as  possible,  could  be  effected 
only  by  a  very  gradual  process,  during  which  men  would  be  little 
by  little  trained  under  other  influences.  The  vanishing  of  reli- 
gion, indeed,  out  of  human  life  is  hardly  conceivable ;  but  we  may 
suppose  that  the  conception  of  its  sanctions  may  change — the 
physical-supernatural  form  of  them  may  give  way  to  the  moral. 
This  change  has  actually  begun :  a  not  inconsiderable  section  of 
the  Christian  world  now  believes  that  the  rewards  and  punish- 
ments which  attach  to  well-doing  and  ill-doing  are  determined  by 
natural  law,  whether  in  the  physical  or  in  the  moral  life.  Nor 
can  we  see  that  the  effect  of  this  change  on  the  ethical  status  of 
society  is  bad.  If  the  bodily  rewards  and  punishments  have  van- 
ished, new  and  strong  ethical  motives  have  been  introduced  ;  there 
is  a  deeper  sense  of  personal  responsibility,  and  there  are  higher 
ideals. 

A  still  more  fundamental  inquiry  is  how  far  the  practical 
ethical  life  of  the  world  is  affected  by  the  belief  in  future  rewards 
and  punishments.      But   to   discuss   this   point   properly  would 


742  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY.  ' 

require  a  collection  of  data  which  has  not  yet  been  made.  It  has 
been  said  that  men  are  deterred  from  wrong-doing  much  more  by 
the  fear  of  immediate  punishment  than  by  the  prospect  of  a  retri- 
bution which  seems  indefinitely  remote..  Such,  certainly,  appears 
to  a  superficial  view  to  be  the  state  of  the  case ;  a  keen  observer  of 
human  life  long  ago  remarked  that  because  sentence  against  an 
evil  work  is  not  executed  speedily,  therefore  the  heart  of  the  sons 
of  men  is  fully  set  in  them  to  do  evil.  But  who  can  read  the 
deeper-lying  motives  of  men  ?  Who  knows  what  profounder 
ethical  direction  is  given  to  life  by  the  constant  contemplation  of 
recompense  beyond  the  grave  ?  The  history  of  human  virtue  and 
vice  has  unfolded  itself,  almost  without  exception,  in  the  atmos- 
phere of  this  belief.  One  noted  exception  there  is — the  early 
Semites,  the  Assyrians,  and  the  Jews  prior  to  B.  c.  300,  appear  to 
have  lived  practically  without  recognition  of  the  future,  and  it 
does  not  seem  that  their  morality  was  inferior  to  that  of  other 
nations ;  we  ourselves  indeed  must  acknowledge  that,  so  far  as  our 
practical  life  is  concerned,  we  have  something  to  learn  from  the 
codes  of  the  prophets  and  the  law.  But  it  must  be  said,  on  the 
other  hand,  that  the  Jews  of  that  time  had  a  powerful  ethical 
stimulus  which  is  wanting  in  our  time — namely,  a  vivid  belief  in 
the  immediateness  of  divine  interventions  in  human  life,  An  ex- 
periment of  a  morality  supported  only  by  human  sanctions  has 
never  been  tried  in  modern  times  on  a  large  scale.  Nor  can  it  be 
doubted  that  the  belief  in  future  retribution  exerts  a  powerful 
influence  on  men's  lives.  Strictly  speaking,  however,  this  belief 
does  not  belong  to  the  domain  of  religion.  Its  precise  origin  is 
doubtful,  but  it  has  arisen  from  man's  reflection  on  his  own  life, 
and  not  on  his  relation  to  the  Deity.  Its  relations  with  both 
religion  and  ethics  are  close,  but  it  can  'not  properly  be  said  to 
represent  an  influence  of  the  former  on  the  latter. 

It  appears,  then,  that  the  real  substance  of  man's  ethical  code 
has  not  been  affected  by  religion.  The  belief  in  supernatural  re- 
wards and  punishments,  though  it  influences  men's  conduct,  is  not 
a  moral  force ;  it  has  no  power  to  change  the  heart.  The  true 
salutary  influence  of  religion  on  human  life  is  found  in  the  crea- 
tion of  divine  ideals  to  be  loved  and  imitated.  Such  an  ideal  is 
the  embodiment  of  man's  own  highest  ethical  conceptions.  Vi- 
talized into  a  person,  ethical  perfectness  acquires  an  independent 
power,  attracting  and  stimulating  us,  lifting  us  up  above  the  ordi- 
nary low  level  of  our  lives,  inspiring  us  by  presenting  a  goal  to 
be  reached,  and  encouraging  us  with  the  hope  of  divine  aid.  The 
standard  of  human  achievement  is  expressed  in  the  exhortation 
of  Jesus  to  men  to  be  perfect  as  God  is  perfect,  and  the  proper 
emotional  attitude  in  the  Old  Testament  declaration  that  men 
are  to  love  God   with   all  the  heart.      Such  a  love  toward  God 


ETHICS  AND   RELIGION.  743 

as  a  perfect  being  implies  the  love  of  right  in  man's  soul ;  but 
this  love  may  exist  in  incomplete  or  feeble  form,  and  may  be 
heightened  and  developed  by  constant  contemplation  of  ideal 
goodness  ;  it  is  still  further  aided  by  the  sentiment  of  gratitude 
in  response  to  benefits  believed  to  have  been  received  from  the 
hand  of  God. 

The  effect  of  such  ideals  is  both  to  ennoble  individual  charac- 
ter and  to  elevate  the  moral  standard  of  the  community.  A  con- 
ception of  perfectness  formed  by  the  best  minds  always  goes  be- 
yond the  general  practice,  and  calls  into  being  principles  of  action 
which  gradually  make  their  way  from  the  few  to  the  many.  A 
gradual  reorganization  of  society  is  thus  effected ;  social  inter- 
course is  based  on  these  enlarged  ethical  views,  habits  spring  up 
in  accordance  with  them,  they  create  new  grooves  for  men's  sym- 
pathies and  interests,  so  that  it  becomes,  as  a  rule,  easier  to  act 
with  than  against  them,  easier  in  general  to  do  right  than  to  do 
wrong.  It  is  impossible,  however,  to  define  the  influence  of  the 
ideal  precisely,  to  separate  it  from  the  general  effects  of  social  life. 
Take,  for  example,  the  principles  of  forgiveness  and  revenge  as 
they  exist  among  us.  The  recognized  religious  ideals  in  all  parts 
of  this  country  inculcate  the  duty  of  forgiveness  of  injuries,  and 
yet  the  practice  varies  greatly  in  different  regions.  The  differ- 
ence of  custom  appears  to  depend  chiefly  on  difference  of  social 
organization.  In  those  communities  which  are  semi-feudal  in 
character,  where  there  is  comparatively  little  social  organization, 
and  individuality  of  action  has  been  cultivated,  the  habit  of  re- 
venge for  personal  injuries  is  more  common ;  while  in  those  com- 
munities in  which  commercial  interests  are  stronger,  and  social 
combinations  firmer  and  more  numerous,  personal  vengeance  is 
rarer,  and  the  appeal  to  society  and  law  more  frequent.  Whether 
there  is  a  corresponding  difference  in  the  temper  of  the  soul  may 
be  a  question  ;  yet  it  is  probable  that  the  constant  habit  of  refrain- 
ing from  private  retaliation  induces  a  more  peaceful  and  sel*f- 
restraining  attitude  of  heart.  The  effect  of  the  religious  ideal  is, 
however,  seen  in  individuals  in  all  Christian  communities,  who 
practice  forgiveness  out  of  loyalty  and  love  to  the  divine  law- 
giver. And  it  is  impossible  to  say  how  far  this  ideal  has  every- 
where affected  the  feeling  of  men  through  the  example  of  those 
who  have  manifested  obedience  to  the  religious  law  of  for- 
giveness. 

There  are,  of  course,  ethical  as  well  as  religious  ideals,  and 
these  have  had  their  due  effect.  The  moral  progress  of  men  has 
been  effected  by  the  combination  of  the  two  great  factors,  the 
organization  of  society  and  ethical-religious  ideals.  Every  step 
taken  toward  binding  men  closer  together  in  social  life,  and  every 
announcement  and  practical  exhibition  of  a  supereminent  ethical 


744  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

principle  is  an  element  of  advance  toward  social  perfection.  The 
progress  may  be  largely  external,  and  change  of  heart  does  not 
always  accompany  conformity  to  rule ;  nevertheless,  long-contin- 
ued habit  is  almost  sure  to  produce  change  in  men's  conception 
of  life. 


DARWIN  ON  THE  FUEGIANS  AND  PATAGONIANS.* 

HAVING  now  finished  with  Patagonia  and  the  Falkland  Isl- 
ands, I  will  describe  our  first  arrival  in  Tierra  del  Fuego. 
A  little  after  noon  we  doubled  Cape  St.  Diego  and  entered  the 
famous  Strait  of  Le  Maire.  We  kept  close  to  the  Fuegian  shore, 
but  the  outline  of  the  rugged,  inhospitable  Staten-land  was  visible 
amid  the  clouds.  In  the  afternoon  we  anchored  in  the  Bay  of 
Good  Success.  While  entering  we  were  saluted  in  a  manner  be- 
coming the  inhabitants  of  this  savage  land.  A  group  of  Fue- 
gians,  partly  concealed  by  the  entangled  forest,  were  perched  on  a 
wild  point  overhanging  the  sea ;  and,  as  we  passed  by,  they  sprang 
up  and  waving  their  tattered  cloaks  sent  forth  a  loud  and  sono- 
rous shout.  The  savages  followed  the  ship,  and  just  before  dark 
we  saw  their  fire,  and  again  heard  their  wild  cry.  The  harbor 
consists  of  a  fine  piece  of  water  half  surrounded  by  low,  rounded 
mountains  of  clay-slate,  which  are  covered  to  the  water's  edge  by 
one  dense,  gloomy  forest.  A  single  glance  at  the  landscape  was 
sufficient  to  show  me  how  widely  different  it  was  from  anything 
I  had  ever  beheld.  At  night  it  blew  a  gale  of  wind,  and  heavy 
squalls  from  the  mountains  swept  past  us.  It  would  have  been  a 
bad  time  out  at  sea,  and  we,  as  well  as  others,  may  call  this  Good 
Success  Bay. 

In  the  morning  the  captain  sent  a  party  to  communicate  with 
the  Fuegians.  When  we  came  within  hail,  one  of  the  four  natives 
who  were  present  advanced  to  receive  us,  and  began  to  shout  most 
vehemently,  wishing  to  direct  us  where  to  land.  When  we  were 
on  shore  the  party  looked  rather  alarmed,  but  continued  talking 
and  making  gestures  with  great  rapidity.  It  was  without  excep- 
tion the  most  curious  and  interesting  spectacle  I  ever  beheld :  I 
could  not  have  believed  how  wide  was  the  difference  between  sav- 
age and  civilized  man :  it  is  greater  than  between  a  wild  and  do- 
mesticated animal,  inasmuch  as  in  man  there  is  a  greater  power 
of  improvement.  The  chief  spokesman  was  old,  and  appeared  to 
be  the  head  of  the  family  ;  the  three  others  were  powerful  young 
men,  about  six  feet  high.     The  women  and  children  had  been  sent 

*  From  advance  sheets  of  a  new  edition,  illustrated  by  R.  T.  Pritehett,  of  Darwin's 
"  Journal  of  Researches  "  made  during  the  voyage  round  the  world  of  H.  M.  S.  Beagle, 
in  preparation  by  D.  Appleton  &  Co. 


DARWIN  ON  THE  FUEGIANS  AND  PATAGONIANS.   745 


away.  These  Fuegians  are  a  very  different  race  from  the  stunt- 
ed, miserable  wretches  farther  westward ;  and  they  seem  closely 
allied  to  the  famous  Patagonians  of  the  Strait  of  Magellan.    Their 


only  garment  consists  of  a  mantle  made  of  guanaco- 
skin,  with  the  wool  outside  ;  this  they  wear  just 
thrown  over  their  shoulders,  leaving  their  persons 
as  often  exposed  as  covered.  •  Their  skin  is  of  a  dirty 
coppery-red  color. 

The  old  man  had  a  fillet  of  white  feathers  tied 
round  his  head,  which  partly  confined  his  black, 
coarse,  and  entangled  hair.  His  face  was  crossed  by 
two  broad  transverse  bars  :  one,  painted  bright  red, 
reached  from  ear  to  ear  and  included  the  upper  lip ; 
the  other,  white  like  chalk,  extended  above  and  par- 
allel to  the  first,  so  that  even  his  eyelids  were  thus 
colored.  The  other  two  men  were  ornamented  by 
streaks  of  black  powder  made  of  charcoal.  The 
party  altogether  closely  resembled  the  devils  which 
come  on  the  stage  in  plays  like  Der  Freischiitz. 

Their  very  attitudes  were  abject, 
and  the  expression  of  their  coun- 
tenances distrustful,  surprised,  and 
startled.  After  we  had  presented 
them  with  some  scarlet  cloth,  which 
they  immediately  tied  round  their 
necks,  they  became  good  friends. 
This  was  shown  by  the  old  man 
patting  our  breasts,  and  making  a 
chuckling  kind  of  noise,  as  people 
do  when  feeding  chickens.  I  walked 
with  the  old  man,  and  this  demon- 
stration of  friendship  was  repeated 
several  times  ;  it  was  concluded  by  three  hard  slaps,  which  were 
given  me  on  the  breast  and  back  at  the  same  time.  He  then  bared 
his  bosom  for  me  to  return  the  compliment,  which  being  done,  he 
seemed  highly  pleased.     The  language  of  these  people,  according 


Fig.  1.— Fcegian  Basket  and  Bone 
Weapons. 


746  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

to  our  notions,  scarcely  deserves  to  be  called  articulate.  Captain 
Cook  has  compared  it  to  a  man  clearing  his  throat,  but  certainly 
no  European  ever  cleared  his  throat  with  so  many  hoarse,  guttural, 
and  clicking  sounds. 

They  are  excellent  mimics  :  as  often  as  we  coughed  or  yawned, 
or  made  any  odd  motion,  they  immediately  imitated  us.  Some  of 
our  party  began  to  squint  and  look  awry  ;  but  one  of  the  young 
Fuegians  (whose  whole  face  was  painted  black,  excepting  a 
white  band  across  his  eyes)  succeeded  in  making  far  more  hide- 
ous grimaces.  They  could  repeat  with  perfect  correctness  each 
word  in  any  sentence  we  addressed  them,  and  they  remem- 
bered such  words  for  some  time.  Yet  we  Europeans  all  know  how 
difficult  it  is  to  distinguish  apart  the  sounds  in  a  foreign  language. 
Which  of  us,  for  instance,  could  follow  an  American  Indian 
through  a  sentence  of  more  than  three  words  ?  All  savages  ap- 
pear to  possess,  to  an  uncommon  degree,  this  power  of  mimicry. 
I  was  told,  almost  in  the  same  words,  of  the  same  ludicrous  habit 
among  the  Caff  res ;  the  Australians,  likewise,  have  long  been  noto- 
rious for  being  able  to  imitate  and  describe  the  gait  of  any  man, 
so  that  he  may  be  recognized.  How  can  this  faculty  be  explained  ? 
Is  it  a  consequence  of  the  more  practiced  habits  of  perception  and 
keener  senses,  common  to  all  men  in  a  savage  state,  as  compared 
with  those  long  civilized  ? 

When  a  song  was  struck  up  by  our  party,  I  thought  the  Fue- 
gians would  have  fallen  down  with  astonishment.  With  equal 
surprise  they  viewed  our  dancing  ;  but  one  of  the  young  men, 
when  asked,  had  no  objection  to  a  little  waltzing.  Little  accus- 
tomed to  Europeans  as  they  appeared  to  be,  yet  they  knew  and 
dreaded  our  firearms ;  nothing  would  tempt  them  to  take  a  gun  in 
their  hands.  They  begged  for  knives,  calling  them  by  the  Span- 
ish word  cuchilla.  They  explained  also  what  they  wanted,  by 
acting  as  if  they  had  a  piece  of  blubber  in  their  mouths,  and  then 
pretending  to  cut  instead  of  tear  it. 

It  was  as  easy  to  please  as  it  was  difficult  to  satisfy  these  sav- 
ages. Young  and  old,  men  and  children,  never  ceased  repeating 
the  word  yammer  schooner ,  which  means  "  give  me."  After 
pointing  to  almost  every  object,  one  after  the  other,  even  to  the 
buttons  on  our  coats,  and  saying  their  favorite  word  in  as  many 
intonations  as  possible,  they  would  then  use  it  in  a  neuter  sense, 
and  vacantly  repeat  yammer  schooner.  After  yammerschooher- 
ing  for  any  article  very  eagerly,  they  would  by  a  simple  artifice 
point  to  their  young  women  or  little  children,  as  much  as  to  say, 
'If  you  will  not  give  it  me,  surely  you  will  to  such  as  these." 

There  is  one  vegetable  production  deserving  notice  from  its  im- 
portance as  an  article  of  food  to  the  Fuegians.  It  is  a  globular, 
bright-yellow  fungus,  which  grows  in  vast  numbers  on  the  beech- 


DARWIN  ON  THE  FUEGIANS  AND  PATAGONIANS.   747 

trees.  When  young  it  is  elastic  and  turgid,  with  a  smooth  sur- 
face ;  but  when  mature  it  shrinks,  becomes  tougher,  and  has  its 
entire  surface  deeply  pitted  or  honeycombed,  as  represented  in 
the  accompanying  woodcut.  This  fungus  belongs  to  a  new  and 
curious  genus.  I  found  a  second  species  on 
another  species  of  beech  in  Chili ;  and  Dr. 
Hooker  informs  me  that  just  lately  a  third 
species  has  been  discovered  on  a  third  species 
of  beech  in  Van  Diemen's  Land.  How  sin- 
gular is  this  relationship  between  parasitical 
fungi  and  the  trees  on  which  they  grow,  in 
distant  parts  of  the  world  !  In  Tierra  del 
Fuego  the  fungus  in  its  tough  and  mature 
state  is  collected  in  large  quantities  by  the 
women  and  children,  and  is  eaten  uncooked. 
It  has  a  mucilaginous,  slightly  sweet  taste,  with  a  faint  smell  like 
that  of  a  mushroom.  With  the  exception  of  a  few  berries,  chiefly 
of  a  dwarf  arbutus,  the  natives  eat  no  vegetable  food  besides  this 
fungus.  In  New  Zealand,  before  the  introduction  of  the  potato, 
the  roots  of  the  fern  were  largely  consumed  ;  at  the  present  time, 
I  believe,  Tierra  del  Fuego  is  the  only  country  in  the  world  where 
a  cryptogamic  plant  affords  a  staple  article  of  food. 


Fig.  2. 


-Ctttakia  Dar- 

WINII. 


Mr 


Fig.  3— Patagonians  from  Cape  Gregory. 


In  the  end  of  May,  1834,  we  entered  for  the  second  time  the 
eastern  mouth  of  the  Strait  of  Magellan.  The  country  on  both 
sides  of  this  part  of  the  strait  consists  of  nearly  level  plains,  like 
those  of  Patagonia.  Cape  Negro,  a  little  within  the  second  Nar- 
rows, may  be  considered  as  the  point  where  the  land  begins  to 


748 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


assume  the  marked  features  of  Tierra  del  Fuego.  On  the  east 
coast,  south  of  the  strait,  broken,  park-like  scenery  in  a  like  man- 
ner connects  these  two  countries,  which  are  opposed  to  each  other 
in  almost  every  feature.  It  is  truly  surprising  to  find  in  a  space 
of  twenty  miles  such  a  change  in  the  landscape.  If  we  take  a 
rather  greater  distance,  as  between  Port  Famine  and  Gregory 
Bay,  that  is  about  sixty  miles,  the  difference  is  still  more  wonder- 
ful. At  the  former  place  we  have  rounded  mountains 
concealed  by  impervious  forests,  which  are  drenched 
with  the  rain  brought  by  an  endless  succession  of 
gales  ;  while  at  Cape  Gregory  there  is  a  clear  and 
bright  blue  sky  over  the  dry  and  sterile  plains.  The 
atmospheric  currents,  although  rapid,  turbulent,  and 
unconfined  by  any  apparent  limits,  yet  seem  to  fol- 
low, like  a  river  in  its  bed,  a  regularly  determined 
course. 

During  our  previous  visit  (in  January),  we  had  an 
interview  at  Cape  Gregory  with  the  famous  so-called 
gigantic  Patagonians,  who  gave  us  a  cordial  reception. 
Their  height  appears  greater  than  it  really  is,  from 
their  large  guanaco  mantles,  their  long,  flowing  hair, 
and  general  figure  ;  on  an  average  their  height  is 
about  six  feet,  with  some  men  taller  and  only  a  few 
shorter ;  and  the  women  are  also  tall ;  altogether,  they 
are  certainly  the  tallest  race  which  we  anywhere  saw. 
In  features  they  strikingly  resemble  the  more  north- 
ern Indians  whom  I  saw  with  Rosas,  but  they  have  a 
wilder  and  more  formidable  appearance :  their  faces 
were  much  painted  with  red  and  black,  and  one  man 
was  ringed  and  dotted  with  white  like  a  Fuegian. 
Captain  Fitz  Roy  offered  to  take  any  three  of  them  on 
board,  and  all  seemed  determined  to  be  of  the  three. 
It  was  long  before  we  could  clear  the  boat ;  at  last  we 
got  on  board  with  our  three  giants,  who  dined  with 
the  captain,  and  behaved  quite  like  gentlemen,  helping 
themselves  with  knives,  forks,  and  spoons:  nothing 
was  so  much  relished  as  sugar.  This  tribe  has  had  so 
much  communication  with  sealers  and  whalers  that 
most  of  the  men  can  speak  a  little  English  and  Span- 
fig.  4.  -PATA-  ish ;  and  they  are  half  civilized,  and  proportionally  de- 
gonian  bolas.  moralized. 

The  next  morning  a  large  party  went  on  shore,  to 
barter  for  skins  and  ostrich-feathers  ;  firearms  being  refused,  to- 
bacco was  in  greatest  request,  far  more  so  than  axes  or  tools.  The 
whole  population  of  the  toldos,  men,  women,  and  children,  were  ar- 
ranged on  a  bank.    It  was  an  amusing  scene,  and  it  was  impossible 


DARWIN  ON  THE  FUEGIANS  AND  PATAGONIANS.   749 

not  to  like  the  so-called  giants,  they  were  so  thoroughly  good-hu- 
mored and  unsuspecting ;  they  asked  us  to  come  again.  They  seem 
to  like  to  have  Europeans  to  live  with  them ;  and  old  Maria,  an  im- 
portant woman  in  the  tribe,  once  begged  Mr.  Low  to  leave  any  one 
of  his  sailors  with  them.  They  spend  the  greater  part  of  the  year 
here  ;  but  in  summer  they  hunt  along  the  foot  of  the  Cordillera ; 
sometimes  they  travel  as  far  as  the  Rio  Negro,  seven  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  to  the  north.  They  are  well  stocked  with  horses,  each 
man  having,  according  to   Mr.  Low,  six   or  seven,  and  all  the 


Fig.  5. — Patagonian  Spurs  and  Pipe. 

women,  and  even  children,  their  one  own  horse.  In  the  time  of 
Sarmiento  (1580)  these  Indians  had  bows  and  arrows,  now  long 
since  disused ;  they  then  also  possessed  some  horses.  This  is  a 
very  curious  fact,  showing  the  extraordinarily  rapid  multiplica- 
tion of  horses  in  South  America.  The  horse  was  first  landed  at 
Buenos  Ayres  in  1537,  and  the  colony  being  then  for  a  time  de- 
serted, the  horse  ran  wild  ;  in  1580,  only  forty -three  years  after- 
ward, we  hear  of  them  at  the  Strait  of  Magellan !  Mr.  Low  in- 
forms me  that  a  neighboring  tribe  of  foot-Indians  is  now  chang- 
ing into  horse-Indians  ;  the  tribe  at  Gregory  Bay  giving  them 
their  worn-out  horses,  and  sending  in  winter  a  few  of  their  best 
skilled  men  to  hunt  for  them. 

June  1st. — We  anchored  in  the  fine  bay  of  Port  Famine.  It 
was  now  the  beginning  of  winter,  and  I  never  saw  a  more  cheer- 
less prospect ;  the  dusky  woods,  piebald  with  snow,  could  be  only 
seen  indistinctly  through  a  drizzling,  hazy  atmosphere.  We  were, 
however,  lucky  in  getting  two  fine  days.  On  one  of  these,  Mount 
Sarmiento,  a  distant  mountain  six  thousand  eight  hundred  feet 
high,  presented  a  very  notable  spectacle.  I  was  frequently  sur- 
prised, in  the  scenery  of  Tierra  del  Fuego,  at  the  little  apparent 
elevation  of  mountains  really  lofty.  I  suspect  it  is  owing  to  a 
cause  which  would  not  at  first  be  imagined,  namely,  that  the 


75° 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


whole  mass,  from  the  summit  to  the  water's  edge,  is  generally  in 
full  view.  I  remember  having  seen  a  mountain,  first  from  the 
Beagle  Channel,  where  the  whole  sweep  from  the  summit  to  the 
base  was  full  in  view,  and  then  from  Ponsonby  Sound  across  sev- 
eral successive  ridges  ;  and  it  was  curious  to  observe  in  the  latter 
case,  as  each  fresh,  ridge  afforded  fresh  means  of  judging  of  the 
distance,  how  the  mountain  rose  in  height. 


IS  EDUCATION   OPPOSED    TO   MOTHERHOOD?      751 
IS   EDUCATION  OPPOSED   TO   MOTHERHOOD  ? 

By   ALICE  B.  TWEEDY. 

IF,  as  Max  Muller  asserts,  the  first  duty  of  honest  philosophers 
is  definition,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  in  following  it  many- 
clouds  of  discussion  may  be  swept  away.  Definitions  are  contin- 
ually assumed,  and  we  clothe  our  creeds  in  wordy  obscurity  that 
totally  hides  their  nature.  No  subject  suffers  more  from  this 
error  than  the  woman  question.  If  debated  words  were  rigidly 
defined,  and  results  placed  barely  before  us,  many  sentimental 
arguments  would  fail  in  foundation. 

In  "  Plain  Words  on  the  Woman  Question,"  *  Mr.  Grant  Allen 
discusses  a  topic  which,  he  thinks,  is  "  too  much  overlooked  by 
modern  lady  writers."  It  is  the  continuation  of  the  human  race. 
Intrenched  behind  population  and  marriage  statistics,  he  opens 
fire  upon  feminine  reformers  from  a  quarter  where  they  have 
made  little  defense.  His  text  is — if  a  race  will  continue,  it  must 
reproduce  itself.     His  argument  may  be  briefly  given  as  follows  : 

I.  Marriages  are  decreasing  in  England  and  America. 

II.  Women  of  the  cultivated  classes  are  becoming  unfitted  for 
motherhood. 

III.  The  movement  which  demands  the  independence  and 
higher  education  of  women  is  responsible  for  this — it  creates 
a  "spiritless  epicene  automaton"  and  the  "self-supporting 
spinster." 

IV.  The  emancipation  of  women,  especially  from  Mrs.  Grundy, 
is  desirable ;  but  it  must  not  conflict  with  the  existence  of  mothers 
who  are  necessary  to  the  race. 

Mr.  Allen  states  the  needful  conditions  of  a  stationary  popula- 
tion in  this  manner :  A  father  and  mother  are  exactly  represented 
in  another  generation  by  two  children,  a  boy  and  a  girl.  But,  in 
order  that  two  may  attain  maturity,  four  \  must  be  born ;  so  that 
either  every  woman  must  have  four  children,  or  those  who  do 
marry  must  have  more  than  four  to  make  up  the  requisite  num- 
ber. From  this  he  deduces:  "  The  best  ordered  community  will  be 
one  where  as  large  a  proportion  of  women  as  possible  marry. 
Where  many  marriages  and  small  families  are  the  rule,  the  chil- 
dren will  on  the  average  be  born  healthier,  be  better  fed,  and  be 
launched  more  fairly  on  the  world  in  the  end." 

After  clearly  stating  and  carefully  explaining  these  indisputa- 
ble facts,  Mr.  Allen  startles  us  by  acknowledging  that  "  it  may  be 
brutal  and  unmanly  to  admit  or  insist  upon  them,"  as  he  has  been 

*  "  Popular  Science  Monthly,"  December,  1889. 

f  This  number  is  based  upon  the  present  proportion  of  children  who  become  healthy 
adults,  statistics  which  ought  to  be  materially  altered  for  the  better. 


75 2  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

"  often  told  it  is  by  maiden  ladies  " !  There  is  but  one  intelligent 
attitude  concerning  them — are  they  true  or  false  ?  Granting, 
then,  that  these  conditions  are  truthfully  represented,  what  can 
be  said  to  the  argument  which  Mr.  Allen  founds  upon  them  ? 

I.  Marriages  are  decreasing  in  many  civilized  countries.  There 
are  local  causes  for  this  tendency  among  men,  but  the  principal 
and  prevailing  one  with  women  is  that  they  are  passing  from  the 
rule  of  force  to  a  state  of  freedom,  and  use  their  newly  found  lib- 
erty to  reject  what  seems  to  hamper  and  handicap  them.  They 
are  emerging  from  the  condition  in  which  marriage  is  consequent 
upon  physical  or  social  constraint,  and  they  have  not  generally 
arrived  at  the  point  where  it  is  for  them  the  result  of  deliberate 
choice  or  response  to  natural  instinct.  In  China,  India,  Persia, 
and  Arabia,  where  marriages  are  still  controlled  by  force,  the 
number  would  be  diminished  at  once,  without  the  influence  of 
higher  education  or  industrial  training,  were  the  women  allowed 
simple  freedom  of  choice.*  This  decrease  would  not  indicate 
"the  dulling  of  feminine  instinct,"  but  the  vitality  of  it — since 
marriages  are  made  there  in  defiance  of  natural  selection,  and 
represent  the  worst  condition  of  servitude.  In  more  civilized 
states  the  popularity  of  marriage  does  not  depend  wholly  upon 
the  way  in  which  women  regard  it,  but  upon  the  way  in  which  it 
is  treated  by  men.  The  laws  of  some  countries  render  it  easier 
for  a  man  to  live  illegitimately  with  a  woman  than  to  marry 
her ;  f  true  marriage  is  discouraged  by  social  usage  and  dishon- 
ored by  false  philosophy.  Few  thoughtful  minds  will  deny  that 
the  customs  which  render  it  difficult  for  a  young  man  to  marry, 
which  send  him  hither  and  thither  to  gain  a  fortune,  succeed  in  a 
profession,  or  dissipate  his  strength,  when  he  should  be  choosing 
his  sweetheart,  are  harmful,  and  divert  men  "  from  the  true  prob- 
lem of  their  sex  to  fix  it  on  side  issues  of  comparative  unimpor- 
tance." 

Boys,  as  well  as  girls,  should  be  taught  that  the  full  meaning  of 
human  life  is  missed  unless  they  deserve  and  find  a  fitting  mate. 
Authors  who  represent  wifehood  and  maternity  f  as  onerous  and 
unattractive,  however  necessary,  or  who  surround  illicit  and  in- 

*  It  is  related  that  in  1878  eight  young  girls  living  near  Canton,  having  been  betrothed, 
arrayed  themselves  one  evening  in  fine  attire,  bound  themselves  together,  and  plunged  into 
the  river  to  avoid  marriage. 

f  In  Germany,  where  marriage  is  forbidden  the  younger  soldiers,  the  birth  statistics  are 
disadvantageous  to  the  state. 

\  Some  English  conservatives  discourse  on  these  topics  in  a  strain  wholly  abhorrent  to 
healthy  women.  They  write  of  "the  inexorable  laiv  from  which,  however  distasteful,  a 
woman  can  not  escape  "  ;  "  the  stem  law  that  makes  women  wives  and  mothers."  One  would 
imagine  from  them  that  marriage  and  motherhood  made  a  yawning  grave  of  hope  and  aspi- 
ration. Normal  women,  who  have  passed  through  these  experiences,  use  no  woful  tones 
in  description. 


IS  EDUCATION   OPPOSED    TO  MOTHERHOOD?     753 

complete  love  with  superficial  glamour,  are  open  to  the  charge  of 
depreciating  marriage.  Guests  are  not  tempted  to  a  banquet  by- 
fear  of  starvation,  nor  are  men  attracted  toward  matrimony  for 
the  interests  of  the  race.  Instead  of  showing  that  marriage  offers 
the  greatest  possibility  of  happiness,  it  is  often  described  by  men 
as  an  unintellectual,  slavish,  and  pitiable  condition.  Few  epi- 
thalamia  are  sung  by  the  generation  which  asks,  "  Is  marriage  a 
failure  ?  "  and  rare  is  the  poet  who  writes : 

"  Clear  as  amber,  fine  as  musk, 
Is  life  to  those  who,  pilgrim- wise, 
Move  hand  in  hand  from  dawn  to  dusk." 

II.  Mr.  Allen  seems  to  regard  as  evidence  that  women  "  are 
becoming  unfitted  for  motherhood"  the  fact  that  they  do  not 
glory  in  their  femininity,  and  charges  also  that  women  reformers 
speak  and  write  "  as  though  it  were  desirable  that  the  mass  of 
women  should  remain  unmarried  forever/'  Worse  even  than 
this,  he  asserts :  "  At  the  present  moment  a  great  majority  of  the 
ablest  women  are  wholly  dissatisfied  with  their  own  position  as 
women,  and  with  the  position  imposed  by  the  facts  of  the  case 
upon  women  generally ;  this  as  the  direct  result  of  their  false  edu- 
cation." Here  are  two  ideas  badly  entangled  for  want  of  defini- 
tion— the  natural  and  the  artificial  position  of  women.  Mr.  Allen 
gives  us  on  the  following  page  his  opinion  of  "  the  position  "  (arti- 
ficial) of  women  in  language  strong  enough  for  the  most  blatant 
reformer.  "  The  position  of  women  was  not  a  position  which 
could  bear  the  test  of  nineteenth-century  scrutiny ;  .  .  .  their  rela- 
tion to  the  family,  to  their  husbands,  their  children,  their  friends, 
their  property,  was  simply  insupportable."  (Does  he  demand  of 
these  ablest  women  that  they  should  be  satisfied  with  a  position 
he  calls  "  insupportable  "  ?)  But,  let  him  not  be  distressed  because 
woman  does  not  openly  "  glory  "  in  her  natural  position  of  woman- 
hood. There  is  no  failure  of  healthy  instinct  here,  but  a  natural 
feminine  divergence  from  the  masculine  feeling.  The  differentia- 
tion of  the  sexes  is  a  subject  upon  which  we  have  no  adequate 
data.  We  might  as  well  try  to  surmise  the  habits  of  the  wild  cat 
from  the  domesticated  pussy,  as  to  speculate  upon  the  essential 
qualities  of  free  womanhood.  But,  so  far  as  woman's  physical 
constitution  indicates  anything,  it  points  toward  greater  reserve 
on  her  part  than  is  exhibited  by  man.  This  corresponds  with  the 
almost  universal  inclination  of  women  to  be  more  modest  than 
men.*  Therefore,  though  a  woman  may  prefer  her  own  sex  and 
be  proud  of  her  privileges  as  woman,  she  will  not  voluntarily  go 
about  "  glorifying  "  her  womanhood.  If  Mr.  Allen  should  meet  a 
young  woman  who  announced  herself  a  candidate  for  mother- 

*  A  few  savage  tribes  form  exceptions  to  this  rule. 
vol.  xxxvi. — 48 


754  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

hood,  it  is  doubtful" whether  he  would  approve  of  her,  although 
she  embodied  his  theory.* 

Here,  also,  Mr.  Alleu  misinterprets  the  women  reformers  of 
England.  He  states  that  they  "  openly  refuse  and  despise  mar- 
riage." Some  may ;  some  write  very  bitterly  of  men.  But  this 
refusal  is  for  themselves,  or  for  the  class  to  which  they  belong — 
reformers.  In  this  they  do  not  differ  from  a  large  number  of 
religious  or  political  enthusiasts  of  both  sexes,  in  every  age,  who 
claim  that  their  "  cause  "  is  superior  to  individual  rights  or  duties. 
"Who  is  the  woman  in  England  who  maintains  such  doctrine  for 
the  majority  of  her  sex  ?  One  of  the  ablest  advocates  for  women, 
Emily  Pfeiffer,f  writes  to  her  countrymen : 

"  You  do  not  well  to  rest  your  hope 
On  natures  of  a  narrower  scope, 
And  leave  the  souls  which,  like  your  own, 
Aspire,  to  find  their  way  alone — 
To  go  down  childless  to  their  graves, 
The  while  you  get  your  sons  of  slaves." 

Though  men  have  greatly  outgrown  tyranny  of  thought  and 
action,  there  is  still  alive  much  masculine  arrogance.  "With  many 
it  is  entirely  unconscious  ;  it  probably  is  so  with  Mr.  Allen  when 
he  calls  a  literary  or  scientific  education  "  mannish."  I  do  not 
know  of  any  purely  mannish  training  except  that  received  by  the 
monks  of  La  Trappe,  and  that  which  fits  men  to  be  soldiers,  sail- 
ors, blacksmiths,  or  workmen  whose  physical  force  is  a  necessity 
to  their  calling.  A  college  or  university  education,  although  in 
past  years  given  exclusively  to  men,  was  never  supposed  to  fit 
them  for  any  essentially  masculine  occupation,  not  even  to  become 
the  fathers  of  the  future  race.  It  was  preliminary  to  a  profes- 
sional or  literary  career,  and  intended  to  develop  the  powers  of 
mind.  And  mind — emphasize  as  we  will  the  physical  differences 
of  the  body  that  goes  with  it — has  no  discoverable  gender.  The 
lavish  way  in  which  the  epithet  of  "  masculine  "  or  "  feminine  " 
has  been  applied  to  particular  minds  is  utterly  destructive  of  pre- 
cision of  thought.  Vigorous  minds  are  called  masculine  and 
those  of  the  namby-pamby,  sentimental  sort  are  dubbed  feminine. 
This  classification  may  be  historically  justifiable  by  the  slight 
appearance  women  have  made  in  the  literary  and  scientific  world, 

*  In  college  days  I  knew  a  young  lady  medical  student  who  illustrated  this  doctrine. 
She  openly  proclaimed  that  she  studied  mediciue  for  the  purpose  of  fittiDg  herself  to  be- 
come a  wife  and  mother.  She  enlarged  her  waist,  wore  most  ungraceful  garments,  broached 
her  pet  idea  on  social  occasions,  and  was  the  bete  noire  of  her  companions.  Perhaps  she 
was  Mr.  Allen's  ideal  of  an  emancipated  woman.  Her  fellow-students  thought  she  had 
missed  the  inheritance  of  womanly  instinct,  or  that  some  secondary  male  characteristic 
had  cropped  out  in  her.     At  last  accounts  she  had  not  put  her  precepts  into  practice. 

f  "  A  Rhyme  for  the  Time,"  "  Contemporary  Review." 


IS  EDUCATION   OPPOSED    TO  MOTHERHOOD?     755 

but  there  have  been  clear-headed  women  enough  in  all  antiquity, 
and  there  are  too  many  well-developed  minds  among  them  to-day, 
not  to  make  them  resent  further  tricking  out  with  masculine 
trappings.  The  wise  old  Greeks  saw  fit  to  personify  mind  in  a 
woman  ;  the  moderns  seem  to  be  afraid  of  such  a  result. 

If  education  must  be  specialized,  and  women  should  be  fitted 
to  become  wise  mothers,  then,  in  all  fairness,  men  should  be 
trained  to  become  intelligent  fathers.  Their  lack  in  this  respect 
is  as  palpable  to  any  just  mind  as  the  failure  of  women  in  moth- 
erhood. That  there  should  be  fathers,  and  good  fathers,  is  no  less 
important,  from  a  utilitarian  standpoint,  than  that  there  should 
be  good  mothers.  Indeed,  it  may  be  questioned  whether  there 
are  not  annually  more  children  lost  to  the  world  through  the 
wickedness  and  ignorance  of  male  parents  *  than  would  be  gained 
by  the  conversion  of  all  "  self-supporting  spinsters "  into  model 
matrons.  It  is  not  necessary  to  enter  into  detail  here,  but  appall- 
ing statistics  are  easily  obtainable.  Until  no  foundling  hospital, 
no  abandoned  family  exists,  it  is  ungenerous  to  reproach  woman 
with  evading  or  "  shirking  "  her  natural  duties.  Postponement 
of  marriage  by  men  results  in  another  not  inconsiderable  evil, 
false  marriage  f  of  many  young  women.  Nature  often  revenges 
herself  here  by  a  lack  of  mothers.  The  wiser  plan  would  be  to 
follow  the  teaching  of  Nature  and  not  dissociate  the  sexes,  par- 
ticularly during  impressionable  years.  In  study,  work,  or  society, 
do  not  bar  them  from  each  other ;  then  they  will  not  form  the 
erroneous  notions  that  taint  maturity.  Let  them  be  "  human, 
instead  of  half -human." 

III.  The  most  evident  good  of  education  to  woman,  aside  from 
the  discipline  of  mind  and  development  of  power,  is  in  its  teach- 
ing observation  of  nature  and  the  intelligent  use  rather  than  the 
repression  of  any  instinct  or  force.  Those  who  assert  that  these 
influences  "  unsex  "  woman,  render  her  "  unwomanly/'  should  ex- 
plain what  is  meant.  She  may  lose  some  of  the  characteristics 
that  have  distinguished  her  in  the  past,  but  while  analytic  or 
radical  minds  call  these  characteristics  local  and  temporary,  con- 
servatives cling  to  them  as  part  of  essential  womanhood.  It  may 
be  observed  that,  although  Mr.  Allen  holds  fast  to  the  term  of 
"  radical,"  he  agrees  with  our  dear  old  great-grandmothers  in  this 
apprehension  that  education  %  and  independence  unfit  women  to 
become  mothers.     To  these  timid  souls  may  be  recommended  a 

*  Meaning  the  sex  as  a  whole.  The  large  class  with  which  we  are  best  acquainted 
includes  fathers  whose  fidelity  to  duty  and  patient  toil  equal,  if  they  do  not  surpass,  those 
of  the  hardest-working  mothers. 

f  Marriage  under  coercion,  or  from  social  or  ambitious  motives,  ignores  natural  selec- 
tion, and  is  often  unproductive.  A  striking  example  of  this  is  given  in  France,  where  false 
marriage  prevails. 

%  The  same  education  as  that  given  to  man. 


756  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

greater  trust  in  Nature,  that  she  will  be  able  to  maintain  the  dif- 
ferences necessary  to  a  continuance  of  the  race.*  Clothes  and 
customs  vary  with  time  and  place ;  sex  is  stable  and  not  injured 
by  anything  but  physical  condition.  The  traditional  idea  that 
womanhood  can  be  modified  in  some  occult  t  way  by  occupation, 
training,  or  environment,  is  wholly  unscientific  and  baneful ;  for 
it  undoubtedly  serves  to  nurse  in  many  a  woman  that  "  slavish- 
ness  of  soul "  which  Mr.  Allen,  as  a  true  well-wisher  of  woman, 
deplores.  Physical  condition,  then,  is  the  constant  coefficient  in 
the  problem.  Anything  injurious  to  the  health  of  either  man  or 
woman  incapacitates  each  just  so  much  for  the  fullest  require- 
ment of  life. 

Mr.  Allen  claims  that  the  result  of  the  higher  education  in 
England  and  America  has  been  to  convert  woman  into  "  a  dulled 
and  spiritless  epicene  automaton."  Now,  this  peculiar  product, 
which  I  take  to  mean  the  opposite  of  a  healthy  woman,  must  be 
wholly  within  the  reach  of  statistics,  else  she,  or  it,  is  a  fabulous 
affair.  In  England  it  is  possible  she  may  exist,  but  the  best  avail- 
able statistics  of  Girton,  Newnham,  and  Cheltenham  prove  that 
she  is  not  typical.  The  following  testimony  in  regard  to  women 
students  is  given :  \ 

"  I  have  known  intimately  Girton  and  Newnham  Colleges  and 
what  is  now  the  women's  department  of  Owens  College,  Manches- 
ter. .  .  .  Were  an  impression  to  get  abroad  that  a  thorough  school 
and  college  education  is  injurious  to  tolerably  healthy  women,  it 
would  be  as  mistaken  as  it  would  be  unfortunate  "  (Miss  Bulley). 

"  My  unqualified  testimony  is,  that  the  intellectual  quickening 
resulting  from  advanced  education  is  of  great  benefit  to  their  phys- 
ical condition  "  (Miss  Mackillip,  Londonderry  Collegiate  School). 

"  I  have  been  head  of  this  college  for  more  than  twenty-eight 
years.  .  .  .  We  have  kept  the  minutest  possible  statistics  # — these 
show  that  girls,  working  under  proper  conditions,  are  exception- 
ally healthy  "  (Miss  Beale,  Cheltenham  College). 

Mr.  Fitch,  inspector  of  training  schools,  testifies :  "  There  are 
in  England  twenty-six  training  colleges  for  schoolmistresses, 
containing  in  all  eighteen  hundred  resident  students.  It  is  my 
duty,  on  behalf  of  the  Government,  to  make  an  annual  visit  to 
these  institutions,  and  I  have  seen  every  one  of  them  during  the 
last  twelve  months.  ...  It  is  the  uniform  opinion  of  the  medical 

*  The  average  notion  of  manliness  or  womanliness  is  very  fluctuating.  A  young  man 
showing  great  interest  in  laces  and  hosiery  would  be  considered  to-day  an  effeminate  fel- 
low ;  yet  in  the  time  of  Charles  I  such  attention  to  fripperies  was  deemed  manly  enough. 

f  "  Principles  of  Biology,"  Herbert  Spencer  ;  "  Sex  in  Mind  and  in  Education,"  Henry 
Maudsley,  M.  D. 

X  "  Woman  and  Work,"  Emily  Pfeiffer,  pp.  115,  111,  128. 

*  Six  hundred  and  twenty-seven  pupils  passed  senior  and  higher  university  examina- 
tions. 


IS  EDUCATION   OPPOSED    TO  MOTHERHOOD?     757 

officers  that  the  students  improve  in  health  and  vigor  during  their 
two  years  of  residence." 

In  America,  the  dulled  automaton  is  not  discoverable  ;  indeed, 
the  records  are  so  much  in  favor  of  a  healthier  class  than  the 
average  of  women  that  physicians  who  have  hastily  committed 
themselves  to  an  opposite  opinion  say,  upon  examination,  that 
they  "  utterly  distrust  the  statistics  " !  *  The  necessary  amount  of 
this  distrust,  and  the  direction  in  which  it  is  exercised,  may  be 
estimated  by  citing  the  authorities  for  the  health  of  women  stu- 
dents: Secretary  of  the  Society  of  Associated  Alumnse  of  Ameri- 
can Colleges,!  seven  hundred  and  five  alumnse  who  report  person- 
ally ;  Committee  of  Education,  1883-84,  Washington ;  Addresses 
of  President  Angell,  of  Michigan  University ;  ex-President  White, 
of  Cornell;  and  President  Horace  Davis,  of  the  University  of 
California. 

But,  it  may  be  asked,  "  Are  doubting  physicians  not  justified 
at  all — are  there  no  women  students  who  break  down  %  or  die  ?  " 
There  are  such  cases  of  overstrain  or  feeble  constitution  which 
find  their  parallel  among  men,  but  the  percentage  among  women 
is  so  small  that  it  leaves  the  health  average  still  above  the  gener- 
ality of  women. 

But,  urges  Mr.  Allen,  there  is  "the  self-supporting  spinster"; 
"  almost  every  woman  should  marry  " ;  and  she  is  "  a  deplorable 
accident."  Now,  it  is  possible  that  while  I  may  deem  her  admi- 
rable, another  may  consider  her  "  deplorable  " — it  is  a  matter  of 
taste  merely.  But,  that  she  is  not  an  "  accident,"  rather  an  eternal 
verity,  stands  confessed  in  Mr.  Allen's  "  almost."  Unless,  indeed, 
the  entire  community  should  be  paired  off — which  is  not  desir- 
able for  economic  reasons — spinsters  and  bachelors  will  continue 
to  exist.  It  does  not  materially  affect  the  issues  of  the  race 
whether  they  are  dependent  or  independent,*  and  we  may  fear- 
lessly praise  in  them  the  qualities  which  please  us  most.  If  the 
condition  of  "self-supporting  spinsterhood "  is  more  attractive 
than  the  condition  of  wifehood,  there  is  menace  for  the  future. 

*  Dr.  Weir  Mitchell,  "Wear  and  Tear,"  p.  151. 
f  Report  published  at  Boston,  May,  1885. 

\  Rumors  of  this  kind  are  sometimes  too  readily  circulated.  "  Serious  case,  that  of 
Miss  0.,"  said  a  prominent  physician  in  a  Western  city ;  "  she  has  returned  from  Vassar 
thoroughly  overworked."  "  Who,  Carrie  0.  ?  "  exclaimed  a  young  lady  hearer.  "  0  doctor, 
that  isn't  possible  !  She  was  the  giddiest  girl  in  our  class,  went  to  parties  three  or  four 
nights  in  the  week,  never  had  a  lesson,  and  so  Miss  M.  dropped  her.  When  she  found  she 
couldn't  graduate,  she  went  to  Vassar  as  a  special  student,  because,  she  said,  '  it  was  so  far 
away  no  one  would  know  whether  she  stood  high  or  not,  and  she  didn't  intend  to  study  her 
eyes  out.'  "  The  doctor's  countenance  fell.  One  victim  of  "higher  education"  was  crossed 
off  the  score. 

*  It  is  desirable  that  young  women  should  support  themselves  for  these  reasons :  (1) 
that  they  may  be  free  to  marry ;  (2)  in  case  they  fail  of  marriage ;  and  (3)  beeause  sickness 
or  accident  to  the  husband  may  render  a  wife's  support  valuable. 


75 8  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

It  would  be  alarming,  if  we  could  believe  with.  Mr.  Allen  in  any- 
thing so  unflattering  to  masculine  endeavor ;  but,  unfortunately, 
there  are  no  statistics  to  prove  whether  this  is  due  to  dulled  femi- 
nine instinct,  or  to  the  failure  of  man  to  make  love  at  the  right 
time.  In  the  interim,  from  collateral  evidence,  the  latter  cause 
appears  more  trustworthy. 

IV.  If  freedom  from  Mrs.  Grundy  is  desirable,  it  is  patent 
that  education  and  independence  are  gradually  liberating  woman. 
The  counter-charge  is  often  made  that  the  educated  woman  is  too 
regardless  of  that  favored  deity. 

From  a  biological  point  of  view,  Mr.  Allen  endows  four  years 
of  college  training  with  enormous  potentiality.  In  this  he  evi- 
dently follows  the  eminent  leader,  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer,  who 
asserts  that  the  infertility  of  "  upper-class  girls  "  in  England  is 
due  to  "  overtaxing  of  their  brains  " !  *  Whether  the  majority  of 
English  "  upper-class  girls "  are  educated  to  that  extreme  point, 
and  whether  the  question  is  not  begged  in  the  use  of  the  word 
"overtaxation,"  may  be  left  to  the  reader.  It  is  strange  that 
powerful  heredity  and  palpable  causes  of  race  deterioration 
should  be  ignored  by  physiologists  f  in  order  to  throw  the  onus 
of  this  accusation  upon  mental  culture.  Insurance  tables  are 
made  out  more  scientifically  than  this  forecast  of  a  girl's  future. 
If  in  education,  or  in  the  industrial  independence  of  women,  there 
existed  any  tendency  toward  infertility,  it  would  be  barely  dis- 
coverable in  our  generation,  little  more  so  in  the  next,  and  possi- 
bly in  the  third  generation  something  might  be  ascertained  from 
careful  statistics  following  Mr.  Galton's  method.  Nature  does 
not  retrograde  so  rapidly.  There  is  nothing  to  warrant  the  as- 
sumption that  four  years  of  altered  food,  training,  or  environ- 
ment, not  interfering  with  good  physical  condition,  could  obliter- 
ate an  instinct  or  function.  Investigation  corroborates  this. 
Even  in  England,  we  learn  that  infertility  and  higher  education 
are  not  synonymous  terms.  A  teacher  of  wide  experience  states :  \ 
"  I  know  several  families  of  children  whose  mothers  were  among 
the  pioneers  of  the  movement  now  so  savagely  attacked.  .  .  . 
Among  my  friends,  not  a  few  sturdy,  handsome  children,  whose 
mothers  underwent  severe  study  in  their  earlier  days.  One  of 
these  was  a  lady  who,  with  one  other,  was  the  first  woman  to 
take  the  classical  tripos,  and  whose  degree  was  not  beaten,  I 
think,  for  ten  years."  In  America,  in  "a  report  given  of  the 
family  conditions  of  one  hundred  and  thirty  aluinnse  who  have 

*  "  Principles  of  Biology." 

t  Similar  premature  judgment  was  given  by  the  late  Dr.  E.  H.  Clarke,  of  Boston,  in 
1871,  "Sex  and  Education."  See  also  "Woman's  Work  in  Creation,"  Dr.  B.  W.  Richard- 
son, "Longman's  Magazine,"  October,  1886. 

%  "Woman  and  Work,"  p.  116. 


IS  EDUCATION   OPPOSED    TO  MOTHERHOOD?     759 

had  children,  the  exceptional  record  of  good  health  among  these 
children,  and  their  low  death-rate,  are  strong  evidences  that  the 
powers  of  motherhood  have  not  suffered  from  college  work."* 
In  addition,  the  writer's  mite  of  testimony  may  be  offered.  In 
the  schools  which  she  has  attended,!  the  majority  of  earnest  stu- 
dents were  in  uniformly  good  health ;  a  minority  were  delicate 
before  beginning  study.  The  most  frequent  examples  of  ill  health 
were  found  among  those  who  made  a  pretense  of  study  and 
eagerly  pursued  social  excitements.  Subsequent  effect  upon  the 
health  may  be  judged  when  it  is  found  that  twelve  years  after 
graduation  one  young  woman,  ranking  at  the  head  of  her  class,  is 
the  mother  of  six  vigorous  children ;  two  others,  earnest  students, 
have  each  a  family  of  five,  and  a  number  of  others  have  four 
children.  No  correspondence  has  been  held  with  married  class- 
mates living  at  a  distance.  These  mentioned  are  personally 
known  to  be  mothers  in  the  fullest  sense,  and  constitute  striking 
contradictions  to  the  claim  that  education  has  an  injurious  effect 
upon  woman.  "But,"  it  may  be  objected,  "these  are  exception- 
ally healthy  women."  Undoubtedly,  but  if  the  training  has  any 
influence  at  all,  it  should  make  them  fall  slightly  below  the  stand- 
ard of  the  preceding  generation,  whereas,  in  several  instances, 
they  improved  upon  the  record  of  their  mothers,  not  only  in  gen- 
eral health,  but  in  the  condition  and  size  of  their  families. 

If,  now,  we  review  the  discussion  to  this  point,  it  may  be 
summed  up  as  follows : 

I.  Decrease  of  marriage  results  from  a  transition  state  in  the 
condition  of  women,  also  from  unjust  laws  and  false  social  cus- 
toms which  discourage  matrimony. 

II.  Able  women  generally  are  not  dissatisfied  with  woman- 
hood, and  do  not  advocate  celibacy.  It  is  not  evident  that  women 
of  any  class  are  becoming  unfitted  for  motherhood,  but  women  of 
the  "  cultivated  classes  "  are  not  the  best  possible  mothers.  Inde- 
pendent and  highly  educated  women  are  only  a  fraction  among 
these,  and  can  not  be  substituted  for  the  whole. 

III.  The  higher  education  of  woman  teaches  her  reverence 
for  Nature ;  the  development  and  control,  not  the  suppression 
of  natural  instinct,  therefore  tends  to  make  her  the  best  wife  and 
mother.  The  "spiritless  epicene  automaton"  is  mythical.  The 
spinster  is  an  eternal  verity.  The  woman  movement  has  not  created 
her,  but  changed  her  condition  from  dependence  to  self-support. 

IV.  The  education  and  independence  of  women  is  a  step  in 
emancipation  even  from  Mrs.  Grundy,  but  it  can  not  be  made 
responsible  for  the  present  infertility  among  women,  for  these 
reasons : 

*  Report  of  "Health  Committee,  Association  Coliegiate  Alumnse,"  Annie  G.  Howes,  1885. 
f  Four  schools  for  girls,  one  college  for  women,  two  universities  for  men  and  women. 


76o  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

First.  It  is  too  recent  in  effect,  having  barely  reached  the  sec- 
ond generation.  Second.  There  are  more  potent  causes — heredity, 
race  deterioration,  and  false  marriage.  Third.  It  actually  pro- 
duces healthy  wives  and  mothers  in  the  fullest  sense. 

There  is  no  denial  of  the  fact  that  too  large  a  percentage  of 
educated  women,*  as  well  as  of  the  cultivated  classes  generally, 
remain  unmarried.  However,  it  has  been  shown  in  regard  to  the 
former,  that  "  dulled  instinct "  is  not  a  tenable  cause.  Some  have 
attributed  it  more  wisely  to  increased  "  nicety  of  choice."  This 
may  prove  beneficial  in  the  end,  when  man  shall  have  become  a 
more  importunate  suitor. 

Women  can  no  longer  be  coerced  into  marriage,  nor  will  they 
marry  from  a  sense  of  duty  to  humanity.  But  for  these  reasons 
there  need  be  no  fear  that  the  race  will  perish.  There  is  as  much 
prospect  that  roses  will  refuse  to  bloom  in  June  as  that  women 
will  ever  become  invincible  to  love.  This  force,  and  this  alone, 
can  make  of  them  light-hearted  mothers  in  place  of  the  weary 
wrecks  whose  perverted  motherhood  has  been  anything  but  a 
boon  to  humanity.  As  long  as  it  is  taught  that  motherhood 
oppresses  woman  physically  and  restricts  her  intellectually,  so 
long  the  average  woman  may  dread  or  rebel  against  it.  "When  she 
studies  it  in  all  its  conditioning,  she  finds  it  does  not  impose  such 
a  fate  upon  her.  She  learns  to  discriminate  between  the  ordering 
of  Nature  and  the  blunders  of  mankind,  and  recognizes  that  nor- 
mal physical  development  can  not  be  antagonistic  to  mental 
growth. 

If,  as  is  known  among  the  lower  forms  of  life,  there  should  be 
such  evil  fate  in  store  for  women  as  parthenogenesis  or  poly- 
embryony,  or  any  entire  change  of  function  or  structure,  it  would 
be  quite  useless  to  rebel.  Even  such  highly  imaginary  metamor- 
phosis would  not  imply  extinction  of  species.  The  causes  of  this 
calamity  have  not  been  fathomed  by  Darwin  nor  Weissman  ;  and, 
if  such  disintegrating  forces  were  at  work  among  us,  who  would 
be  wise  enough  to  recognize  them  ? 

Study  of  nature  leads  us  to  believe  that,  if  the  individual  be 
free  and  supplied  with  the  means  of  life,  there  is  great  probability 
of  the  survival  of  his  kind.  However,  we  have  seen  that  the  hu- 
man race  decreases  under  artificial  conditioning,  and,  if  we  are 
concerned  lest  man  should  become  extinct,  let  us  strive  to  live 
simply,  naturally ;  neither  separate  nor  antagonize  the  sexes ; 
then  there  may  be  more  need  of  Mr.  Malthus  than  of  any  pessi- 
mistic prophecy  on  the  danger  of  developing  a  woman's  mind. 

*  Highly  educated  women  are  yet  a  minority  among  women  of  the  so-called  "  cultivated 
classes,"  and  are  better  ranked  with  working  women,  since  they  agree  with  them  more 
nearly  in  habits  of  life. 


ON  THE  NATURAL  INEQUALITY    OF  MEN         761 
ON  THE   NATURAL   INEQUALITY  OF  MEN. 

By  Prof.  T.   H.  HUXLEY,  F.  K.  S. 

THE  political  speculations  set  forth  in  Rousseau's  "Discours 
sur  l'origine  de  l'ine'galite'  parmi  les  hommes,"  and  in  the 
more  noted  essay,  "  Du  Contrat  Social,"  which  were  published, 
the  former  in  1754  and  the  latter  eight  years  later,  are,  for  the 
most  part,  if  not  wholly,  founded  upon  conceptions  with  the  origi- 
nation of  which  he  had  nothing  to  do.  The  political,  like  the 
religious,  revolutionary  movement  of  the  eighteenth  century  in 
France  came  from  England.  Hobbes,  primarily,  and  Locke,  sec- 
ondarily (Rousseau  was  acquainted  with  the  writings  of  both), 
supplied  every  notion  of  fundamental  importance  which  is  to  be 
found  in  the  works  which  I  have  mentioned.  But  the  skill  of  a 
master  of  the  literary  art  and  the  fervor  of  a  prophet  combined 
to  embellish  and  intensify  the  new  presentation  of  old  specula- 
tions ;  which  had  the  further  good  fortune  to  address  itself  to  a 
public  as  ripe  and  ready  as  Balak  himself  to  accept  the  revelations 
of  any  seer  whose  prophecies  were  to  its  mind. 

Missionaries,  whether  of  philosophy  or  of  religion,  rarely  make 
rapid  way,  unless  their  preachings  fall  in  with  the  prepossessions 
of  the  multitude  of  shallow  thinkers,  or  can  be  made  to  serve  as  a 
stalking-horse  for  the  promotion  of  the  practical  aims  of  the  still 
larger  multitude,  who  do  not  profess  to  think  much,  but  are  quite 
certain  they  want  a  great  deal.  Rousseau's  writings  are  so  admi- 
rably adapted  to  touch  both  these  classes  that  the  effect  they 
produced,  especially  in  France,  is  easily  intelligible.  For,  in  the 
middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  French  society  (not  perhaps  so 
different  as  may  be  imagined  from  other  societies  before  and 
since)  presented  two  large  groups  of  people  who  troubled  them- 
selves about  politics — in  any  sense  other  than  that  of  personal  or 
party  intrigue.  There  was  an  upper  stratum  of  luxurious  idlers, 
jealously  excluded  from  political  action  and  consequently  ignorant 
of  practical  affairs,  with  no  solid  knowledge  or  firm  principles  of 
any  sort ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  open-minded  to  every  novelty 
which  could  be  apprehended  without  too  much  trouble,  and  exqui- 
sitely appreciative  of  close  deductive  reasoning  and  clear  expo- 
sition. Such  a  public  naturally  welcomed  Rousseau's  brilliant 
developments  of  plausible  first  principles  by  the  help  of  that 
a  priori  method  which  saves  so  much  troublesome  investigation.* 

*  In  his  famous  work  on  "  Ancient  Law  "  the  late  Sir  Henry  Maine  has  remarked,  with 
great  justice,  that  Rousseau's  philosophy  "  still  possesses  singular  fascination  for  the  looser 
thinkers  of  every  country "  ;  that  "  it  helped  most  powerfully  to  bring  about  the  grosser 
disappointments  of  which  the  first  French  Revolution  was  fertile,"  and  that  "it  gave  birth, 
or  intense  stimulus,  to  the  vices  of  mental  habit  all  but  universal  at  the  time,  disdain  of 


76z  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

It  just  suited  the  "  philosophes,"  male  and  female,  interchanging 
their  airy  epigrams  in  salons,  which  had  about  as  much  likeness 
to  the  Academy  or  to  the  Stoa,  as  the  "  philosophes  "  had  to  the 
philosophers  of  antiquity. 

I  do  not  forget  the  existence  of  men  of  the  type  of  Montesquieu 
or  D'Argenson  in  the  France  of  the  eighteenth  century,  when  I 
take  this  as  a  fair  representation  of  the  enlightened  public  of  that 
day.  The  unenlightened  public,  on  the  other  hand,  the  people 
who  were  morally  and  physically  debased  by  sheer  hunger;  or 
those,  not  so  far  dulled  or  infuriated  by  absolute  want,  who  yet 
were  maddened  by  the  wrongs  of  every  description  inflicted  upon 
them  by  a  political  system  which,  so  far  as  its  proper  object,  the 
welfare  of  the  people,  was  concerned,  was  effete  and  powerless ; 
the  subjects  of  a  government  smitten  with  paralysis  for  every- 
thing but  the  working  of  iniquity  and  the  generation  of  scandals ; 
these  naturally  hailed  with  rapture  the  appearance  of  the  teacher 
who  clothed  passion  in  the  garb  of  philosophy ;  and  preached  the 
sweeping  away  of  injustice  by  the  perpetration  of  further  injus- 
tice, as  if  it  were  nothing  but  the  conversion  of  sound  theory  into 
practice. 

It  is  true  that  any  one  who  has  looked  below  the  surface  *  will 
hardly  be  disposed  to  join  in  the  cry  which  is  so  often  raised 
against  the  "  philosophes "  that  their  "  infidel  and  leveling " 
principles  brought  about  the  French  Revolution.  People,  like 
the  Marquis  d'Argenson,  with  political  eyes  in  their  heads,  saw 
that  the  revolution  was  inevitable  before  Rousseau  wrote  a  line. 
In  truth,  the  Bull  "  Unigenitus,"  the  interested  restiveness  of  the 
Parliaments,  and  the  extravagancies  and  profligacy  of  the  court 
had  a  great  deal  more  influence  in  generating  the  catastrophe 
than  all  the  "  philosophes  "  that  ever  put  pen  to  paper.  But,  un- 
doubtedly, Rousseau's  extremely  attractive  and  widely  read  writ- 
ings did  a  great  deal  to  give  a  color  of  rationality  to  those  princi- 
ples of  '89  f  which,  even  after  the  lapse  of  a  century,  are  considered 

positive  law,  impatience  of  experience,  and  the  preference  of  a  priori  to  all  other  reason- 
ing "  (pp.  89-92).  I  shall  often  have  to  quote  "  Ancient  Law."  The  first  edition  of  this 
admirable  book  was  published  in  1861,  but  now,  after  eighteen  years  of  growing  influence 
on  thoughtful  men,  it  seems  to  be  forgotten,  or  willfully  ignored,  by  the  ruck  of  political 
speculators.  It  is  enough  to  make  one  despair  of  the  future  that  Demos  and  the  Bourbons 
seem  to  be  much  alike  in  their  want  of  capacity  for  either  learning  or  forgetting. 

*  Those  who  desire  to  do  so  with  ease  and  pleasure  should  read  M.  Rocquain's  "  L'esprit 
r6volutionnaire  en  France  avant  la  Revolution."  It  is  really  a  luminous  book,  which  ought 
to  be  translated  for  the  benefit  of  our  rising  public  men,  who,  having  had  the  advantage  of 
a  public-school  education,  are  so  often  unable  to  read  French  with  comfort.  For  deeper 
students  there  is,  of  course,  the  great  work  of  M.  Taine,  "  Les  origines  de  la  France  con- 
temporaine." 

f  Sir  H.  Maine  observes  that  the  "  strictly  judicial  axiom  "  of  the  lawyers  of  the  Anto- 
nine  era  ("  omnes  homines  natura  aequales  sunt " — all  men  are  by  nature  equal),  after  pass- 
ing through  the  hands  of  Rousseau,  and  being  adopted  by  the  founders  of  the  Constitution 


ON   THE  NATURAL  INEQUALITY   OF  MEN.         763 

by  a  good  many  people  to  be  the  Magna  Charta  of  the  human 
race.  "  Liberty,  Equality,  and  Fraternity/'  is  still  the  war-cry  of 
those,  and  they  are  many,  who  think,  with  Rousseau,  that  human 
sufferings  must  needs  be  the  consequence  of  the  artificial  arrange- 
ments of  society,  and  can  all  be  alleviated  or  removed  by  political 
changes. 

The  intellectual  impulse  which  may  thus  be  fairly  enough  con- 
nected with  the  name  of  the  Genevese  dreamer  has  by  no  means 
spent  itself  in  the  century  and  a  half  which  has  elapsed  since  it 
was  given.  On  the  contrary,  after  a  period  of  comparative  obscu- 
rity (at  least  outside  France),  Rousseauism  has  gradually  come  to 
the  front  again,  and  at  present  promises  to  exert  once  more  a  very 
grave  influence  on  practical  life.  The  two  essays  to  which  I  have 
referred  are,  to  all  appearance,  very  little  known  to  the  present 
generation  of  those  who  have  followed  in  Rousseau's  track.  None 
the  less  is  it  true  that  his  teachings,  filtered  through  innumerable 
channels  and  passing  under  other  names,  are  still  regarded  as  the 
foundations  of  political  science  by  the  existing  representatives  of 
the  classes  who  were  so  much  attracted  by  them  when  they  were 
put  forth.  My  friend  Mr.  John  Morley,  who  probably  knows 
more  about  Rousseau  and  his  school  than  anybody  else,*  must 
have  been  entertained  (so  far  as  amusement  is  possible  to  the 
subject  of  the  process  of  "  heckling  ")  when  Rousseau's  plats,  the 
indigestibility  of  which  he  exposed  so  many  years  ago,  were  set 
before  him  as  a  wholesome  British  dish  ;  the  situation  had  a  cer- 
tain piquancy,  which  no  one  would  appreciate  more  keenly. 

I  happened  to  be  very  much  occupied  upon  subjects  of  a  totally 
different  character,  and  had  no  mind  to  leave  them,  when  the  nar- 
rative of  this  occurrence  and  some  letters  to  which  it  gave  rise, 
appeared  in  the  "  Times."  But  I  have  very  long  entertained  the 
conviction  that  the  revived  Rousseauism  of  our  day  is  working 
sad  mischief,  leading  astray  those  who  have  not  the  time,  even 
when  they  possess  the  ability,  to  go  to  the  root  of  the  superficially 
plausible  doctrines  which  are  disseminated  among  them.  And  I 
thought  it  was  my  duty  to  see  whether  some  thirty  years'  training 
in  the  art  of  making  difficult  questions  intelligible  to  audiences 
without  much  learning,  but  with  that  abundance  of  keen  practical 
sense  which  characterizes  English  workmen  of  the  better  class, 

of  the  United  States,  returned  to  France  endowed  with  vastly  greater  energy  and  dignity, 
and  that  "of  all  'the  principles  of  1789'  it  is  the  one  which  has  been  least  strenuously 
assailed,  which  has  most  thoroughly  leavened  modern  opinion,  and  which  promises  to  modify 
most  deeply  the  constitution  of  societies,  and  the  politics  of  states"  ("Ancient  Law,"  p.  96). 
*  If  I  had  not  reason  to  think  that  Mr.  Morley's  "  Rousseau,"  and  Sir  Henry  Maine's 
"  Ancient  Law,"  especially  the  admirable  Chapters  III  and  IV,  must  be  unknown  to 
many  political  writers  and  speakers,  and  a  fortiori  to  the  general  public,  there  would  be  no 
excuse  for  the  present  essay,  which  simply  restates  the  case  which  they  have  so  exhaust- 
ively treated. 


764  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

would  enable  me  to  do  something  toward  the  counteraction  of  the 
fallacious  guidance  which  is  offered  to  them.  Perhaps  I  may  be 
permitted  to  add  that  the  subject  was  by  no  means  new  to  me. 
Very  curious  cases  of  communal  organization  and  difficult  ques- 
tions involving  the  whole  subject  of  the  rights  of  property  come 
before  those  whose  duty  it  is  to  acquaint  themselves  with  the  con- 
dition of  either  sea  or  fresh- water  fisheries,  or  with  the  adminis- 
tration of  fishery  laws.  For  a  number  of  years  it  was  my  fate  to 
discharge  such  duties  to  the  best  of  my  ability ;  and,  in  doing  so, 
I  was  brought  face  to  face  with  the  problem  of  land-ownership 
and  the  difficulties  which  arise  out  of  the  conflicting  claims  of 
commoners  and  owners  in  severalty.  And  I  had  good  reason  to 
know  that  mistaken  theories  on  these  subjects  are  very  liable  to 
be  translated  into  illegal  actions.  I  can  not  say  whether  the  letters 
which  I  wrote  in  any  degree  attained  the  object  (of  vastly  greater 
importance,  to  my  mind,  than  any  personal  question)  which  I  had 
in  view.  But  I  was  quite  aware,  whatever  their  other  results,  they 
would  probably  involve  me  in  disagreeable  consequences ;  and, 
among  the  rest,  in  the  necessity  of  proving  a  variety  of  state- 
ments, which  I  could  only  adumbrate  within  the  compass  of  the 
space  that  the  "Times"  could  afford  me,  liberal  as  the  editor 
showed  himself  to  be  in  that  respect.  What  I  purpose  to  do  in 
the  course  of  the  present  article,  then,  is  to  make  good  these  short- 
comings ;  to  show  what  Rousseau's  doctrines  were,  and  to  inquire 
into  their  scientific  value — with,  I  hope,  that  impartiality  which  it 
beseems  us  to  exhibit  in  inquiries  into  ancient  history.  Having 
done  this,  I  propose  to  leave  the  application  of  the  conclusions  at 
which  I  arrive  to  the  intelligence  of  my  readers,  as  I  shall  thus 
escape  collision  with  several  of  my  respected  contemporaries.* 

I  have  indicated  two  sources  from  which  our  knowledge  of 
Rousseau's  system  may  be  derived,  and  it  is  not  worth  while  to  go 
any  further.  But  it  is  needful  to  observe  that  the  dicta  of  the 
author  of  the  "  Contrat  Social,"  published  in  1762,  are  not  unfre- 
quently  very  hard — indeed,  I  might  say  impossible — to  reconcile 
with  those  of  the  author  of  the  "  Discours,"  which  appeared  eight 
years  earlier ;  and  that,  if  any  one  should  maintain  that  the  older 

*  From  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer's  letter  in  the  "Times"  of  November  27,  1889,  I  gather 
that  he  altogether  repudiates  the  doctrines  which  I  am  about  to  criticise.  I  rejoice  to  hear 
it :  in  the  first  place,  because  they  thus  lose  the  shelter  of  his  high  authority ;  secondly, 
because,  after  this  repudiation,  anything  I  may  say  in  the  course  of  the  following  pages 
against  Rousseauism  can  not  be  disagreeable  to  him  ;  and,  thirdly,  because  I  desire  to  ex- 
press my  great  regret  that,  in  however  good  company,  I  should  have  lacked  the  intelligence 
to  perceive  that  Mr.  Spencer  had  previously  repudiated  the  views  attributed  to  him  by  the 
land  socialists.  May  I  take  this  opportunity  of  informing  the  many  correspondents  who 
usually  favor  me  with  comments  (mostly  adverse,  I  am  sorry  to  say)  on  what  I  venture  to 
write,  that  I  have  no  other  answer  to  give  them  but  Pilate's,  "  What  I  have  written  I  have 
written  "  ?     I  have  no  energy  to  waste  on  replies  to  irresponsible  criticism. 


ON  THE  NATURAL  INEQUALITY   OF  MEN.         765 

essay  was  not  meant  to  be  taken  seriously,  or  that  it  has  been,  in 
some  respects,  more  or  less  set  aside  by  the  later,  he  might  find 
strong  grounds  for  his  opinion.  It  is  enough  for  me  that  the 
same  a  priori  method  and  the  same  fallacious  assumptions  per- 
vade both. 

The  thesis  of  the  earlier  work  is  that  man,  in  the  "  state  of 
nature,"  was  a  very  excellent  creature  indeed,  strong,  healthy, 
good,  and  contented ;  and  all  the  evils  which  have  befallen  him, 
such  as  feebleness,  sickness,  wickedness,  and  misery,  result  from 
his  having  forsaken  the  "  state  of  nature  "  for  the  "  state  of  civili- 
zation." And  the  first  step  in  this  downward  progress  was  the 
setting  up  of  rights  of  several  property.  It  might  seem  to  a  plain 
man  that  the  argument  here  turns  on  a  matter  of  fact :  if  it  is  not 
historically  true  that  men  were  once  in  this  "state  of  nature" — 
what  becomes  of  it  all  ?  However,  Rousseau  tells  us,  in  the  pref- 
ace to  the  "  Discours,"  not  only  that  the  "  state  of  nature "  is 
something  which  no  longer  exists,  but  that  "  perhaps  it  never  ex- 
isted, and  probably  never  will  exist."  Yet  it  is  something  "  of 
which  it  is  nevertheless  necessary  to  have  accurate  notions  in 
order  to  judge  our  present  conditions  rightly."  After  making 
this  singular  statement,  Rousseau  goes  on  to  observe :  "  II  faudrait 
meme  plus  de  philosophie  qu'on  ne  pense  a  celui  qui  entrepren- 
drait  de  determiner  exactement  les  precautions  a  prendre  pour 
faire  sur  ce  sujet  de  solides  observations."  (More  philosophy  in- 
deed is  needed  than  one  thinks  for  him  who  undertakes  to  deter- 
mine exactly  the  precautions  to  be  taken  to  make  solid  observa- 
tions on  this  subject.)  And,  certainly,  the  amount  of  philosophy 
required  to  base  an  argument  on  that  which  does  not  exist,  has  not 
existed,  and  perhaps  never  will  exist,  may  well  seem  unattainable 
— at  any  rate,  at  first  sight.  Yet,  apart  from  analogies  which 
might  be  drawn  from  the  mathematical  sciences — where,  for  ex- 
ample, a  straight  line  is  a  thing  which  has  not  existed,  does  not 
exist,  and  probably  never  will  exist,  and  yet  forms  a  good  ground 
for  reasoning ;  and  the  value  of  which  I  need  not  stop  to  discuss 
— I  take  it  that  Rousseau  has  a  very  comprehensible  idea  at  the 
bottom  of  this  troublesome  statement.  "What  I  conceive  him  to 
mean  is  that  it  is  possible  to  form  an  ideal  conception  of  what 
ought  to  be  the  condition  of  mankind ;  *  and  that,  having  done 
so,  we  are  bound  to  judge  the  existing  state  of  things  by  that 

*  Compare  "  Ancient  Law  "  :  "  The  Law  of  Nature  confused  the  Past  and  the  Present. 
Logically,  it  implied  a  state  of  Nature  which  had  once  been  regulated  by  Natural  Law ; 
yet  the  jurisconsults  do  not  speak  clearly  or  confidently  of  the  existence  of  such  a  state  " 
(p.  73).  "  There  are  some  writers  on  the  subject  who  attempt  to  evade  the  fundamental 
difficulty  by  contending  that  the  code  of  Nature  exists  in  the  future  and  is  the  goal  to 
which  all  civil  laws  are  moving  "  (p.  74).  The  jurisconsults  conceived  of  Natural  Law  "  as 
a  system  which  ought  gradually  to  absorb  Civil  Laws  "  (p.  76).  "  Its  functions  were,  in 
short,  remedial,  not  revolutionary  or  anarchical.     And  this  unfortunately  is  the  exact  point 


766  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

ideal.  That  assumption  puts  us  on  the  "high  priori  road"  at 
once. 

I  do  not  suppose  that  any  one  is  inclined  to  doubt  the  useful- 
ness of  a  political  ideal  as  a  goal  toward  which  social  conduct 
should  strive,  whether  it  can  ever  be  completely  realized  or  not ; 
any  more  than  any  one  will  doubt  that  it  is  useful  to  have  a  moral 
ideal  toward  which  personal  conduct  should  tend,  even  though 
one  may  never  reach  it.  Certainly,  I  am  the  last  person  to  ques- 
tion this,  or  to  doubt  that  politics  is  as  susceptible  of  treatment 
by  scientific  method  as  any  other  field  of  natural  knowledge.* 
But  it  will  be  admitted  that,  great  as  are  the  advantages  of  hav- 
ing a  political  ideal,  fashioned  by  an  absolute  rule  of  political 
conduct,  it  is  perhaps  better  to  do  without  one,  rather  than  to 
adopt  the  first  phantasm,  bred  of  fallacious  reasonings  and  born 
of  the  unscientific  imagination,  which  presents  itself.  The  be- 
nighted traveler,  lost  on  a  moor,  who  refuses  to  follow  a  man  with 
a  lantern,  is  surely  not  to  be  commended.  But  suppose  his  hesita- 
tion arises  from  a  well-grounded  doubt  as  to  whether  the  seeming 
luminary  is  anything  but  a  will  o'  the  wisp  ?  And,  unless  I  fail 
egregiously  in  attaining  my  purpose,  those  who  read  this  paper 
to  the  end  will,  I  think,  have  no  doubt  that  the  political  lantern 
of  Rousseauism  is  a  mere  corpse-candle  and  will  plunge  those  who 
follow  it  in  the  deepest  of  anarchic  bogs. 

There  is  another  point  which  must  be  carefully  borne  in  mind 
in  any  discussion  of  Rousseau's  doctrines ;  and  that  is  the  mean- 
ing which  he  attaches  to  the  word  "  inequality."  A  hundred  and 
fifty  years  ago,  as  now,  political  and  biological  philosophers 
found  they  were  natural  allies,  f  Rousseau  is  not  intelligible 
without  Buff  on,  with  whose  earlier  works  he  was  evidently  ac- 
quainted, and  whose  influence  in  the  following  passage  is  obvious  : 

It  is  easy  to  see  that  we  must  seek  the  primary  cause  of  the  differences  hy 
which  men  are  distinguished  in  these  successive  changes  of  the  human  constitu- 
tion ;   since  it  is  universally  admitted  that  they  are,  naturally,  as  equal  among 

at  which  the  modern  view  of  a  Law  of  Nature  has  often  ceased  to  resemble  the  an- 
cient "  (p.  77). 

*  In  the  course  of  the  correspondence  in  the  "  Times  "  to  which  I  have  referred,  I  was 
earnestly  exhorted  to  believe  that  the  world  of  politics  does  not  lie  outside  of  the  province 
of  science.  My  impression  is  that  I  was  trying  to  teach  the  public  that  great  truth, 
which  I  had  learned  from  Mill  and  Comte,  thirty-five  years  ago ;  when,  if  I  mistake  not, 
my  well-meaning  monitor  was  more  occupied  with  peg-tops  than  with  politics.  See  a 
lecture  on  the  "Educational  Value  of  the  Natural  History  Sciences  "  delivered  in  1854 
("  Lay  Sermons,"  p.  97). 

f  The  publication  of  Buffon's  "  Histoire  Naturelle  "  began  in  1749.  Thus  Rousseau  was 
indebted  to  the  naturalists ;  on  the  other  hand,  in  the  case  of  the  elder  Darwin,  who 
started  what  is  now  usually  known  as  Lamarck's  hypothesis,  the  naturalist  was  set  spec- 
ulating by  the  ideas  of  the  philosopher  Hartley,  transmitted  through  Priestley.  See  "  Zoo- 
nomia,"  I,  sect,  xxxix,  p.  483  (ed.  1796).  I  hope  some  day  to  deal  at  length  with  this 
curious  fact  in  scientific  history. 


ON  THE  NATURAL  INEQUALITY   OF  MEN.         767 

themselves  as  were  the  animals  of  each  species  before  various  physical  causes  had 
produced,  in  some  of  them,  the  varieties  which  we  observe.  In  fact,  it  is  not  con- 
ceivable that  these  first  changes,  by  whatever  means  they  were  brought  about, 
altered,  at  once  and  in  the  same  way,  all  the  individuals  of  a  species ;  but  some 
having  become  improved  or  deteriorated,  and  having  acquired  different  qualities, 
good  or  bad,  which  were  not  inherent  in  their  nature,  the  others  remained  longer 
in  their  original  state ;  and  such  was  the  first  source  of  inequality  among  men, 
which  is  more  easy  to  prove  thus,  in  a  general  way,  than  to  assign  exactly  to  its 
true  causes.     ("  Discours,"  preface.) 

In  accordance  with  this  conception  of  the  origin  of  inequality 
among  men,  Rousseau  distinguishes,  at  the  outset  of  the  "Dis- 
cours/' two  kinds  of  inequality : 

the  one  which  I  term  natural,  or  physical,  because  it  is  established  by  nature,  and 
which  consists  in  the  differences  of  age,  health,  bodily  strength,  and  intellectual 
or  spiritual  qualities;  the  other,  which  may  be  called  moral,  or  political,  because 
it  depends  on  a  sort  of  convention,  and  is  established,  or  at  least  authorized,  by 
the  consent  of  mankind.  This  last  inequality  consists  in  the  different  privileges 
which  some  enjoy,  to  the  prejudice  of  others,  as  being  richer,  more  honored,  more 
powerful  than  they,  or  by  making  themselves  obeyed  by  others. 

Of  course  the  question  readily  suggests  itself :  Before  drawing 
this  sharp  line  of  demarkation  between  natural  and  political  in- 
equality, might  it  not  be  as  well  to  inquire  whether  they  are  not 
intimately  connected,  in  such  a  manner  that  the  latter  is  essen- 
tially a  consequence  of  the  former  ?  This  question  is  indeed  put 
by  Rousseau  himself.  And,  as  the  only  answer  he  has  to  give  is 
a  piece  of  silly  and  insincere  rhetoric  about  its  being  a  question 
fit  only  for  slaves  to  discuss  in  presence  of  their  masters,  we  may 
fairly  conclude  that  he  knew  well  enough  he  dare  not  grapple 
with  it.  The  only  safe  course  for  him  was  to  go  by  on  the  other 
side  and  as  far  as  the  breadth  of  the  road  would  permit ;  and,  in 
the  rest  of  his  writings,  to  play  fast  and  loose  with  the  two  senses 
of  inequality,  as  convenience  might  dictate. 

With  these  preliminary  remarks  kept  well  in  view,  we  may 
proceed  to  the  discussion  of  those  fundamental  theses  of  the  "  Dis- 
course "  and  of  the  "  Social  Contract "  which  Rousseau  calls  the 
"  principes  du  droit  politique."    Rousseau  defines  his  object  thus: 

Je  veux  chercher  si  dans  l'ordre  civil  il  peut  y  avoir  quelque  regie  d'administra- 
tion  legitime  et  sure,  en  prenant  les  hommes  tels  qu'ils  sont  et  les  lois  tels  qu'elles 
peuvent  etre.  Je  tacherai  d'allier  toujours  dans  cette  recherche  ce  que  le  droit 
permet  avec  ce  que  l'interet  present,  afin  que  la  justice  et  l'utilite  ne  se  trouvent 
point  divis6es.*  (I  seek  to  know  if  there  may  be  in  the  civil  order  any  legitimate 
and  sure  rule  of  civil  administration,  taking  men  as  they  are  and  laws  as  they 
might  be.  I  shall  try  to  combine  in  this  research  what  the  law  permits  with  what 
interest  prescribes,  so  that  justice  and  utility  shall  not  find  themselves  divided.) 

*  "  Contrat  Social,"  livre  1".  Compare  Hobbes's  dedication  of  "  Human  Nature  "  written 
in  1640:  "They  who  have  written  of  justice  and  policy  in  general  do  all  invade  each  other 


768  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

In  other  words,  our  philosopher  propounds  "sure,"  that  is 
"absolute,"  principles  which  are,  at  once  ethically  and  politically, 
sufficient  rules  of  conduct,  and  that  I  understand  to  be  the  precise 
object  of  all  who  have  followed  in  his  track.  It  was  said  of  the 
Genevese  theorist,  "  Le  genre  humain  avait  perdu  ses  titres ;  Jean- 
Jacques  les  a  retrouve's  "  (the  human  race  had  lost  its  title-deeds ; 
Jean-Jacques  found  them  again) ;  just  as  his  intellectual  progeny 
declare  that  the  nation  ought  to  "  resume "  the  landed  property 
of  which  it  has,  unfortunately,  lost  the  title-deeds. 

We  are  now  in  a  position  to  consider  what  the  chief  of  these 
principles  of  the  gospel  according  to  Jean-Jacques  are : 

1.  All  men  are  born  free,  politically  equal,  and  good,  and  in 
the  "  state  of  nature  "  remain  so ;  consequently  it  is  their  natural 
right  to  be  free,  equal,  and  (presumably,  their  duty  to  be)  good.* 

2.  All  men  being  equal  by  natural  right,  none  can  have  any 
right  to  encroach  on  another's  equal  right.  Hence  no  man  can 
appropriate  any  part  of  the  common  means  of  subsistence — that 
is  to  say,  the  land  or  anything  which  the  land  produces — without 
the  unanimous  consent  of  all  other  men.  Under  any  other  cir- 
cumstances, property  is  usurpation,  or,  in  plain  terms,  robbery,  f 

3.  Political  rights,  therefore,  are  based  upon  contract ;  the  so- 
called  right  of  conquest  is  no  right,  and  property  which  has  been 
acquired  by  force  may  rightfully  be  taken  away  by  force.  J 

and  themselves  with  contradictions.  To  reduce  this  doctrine  to  the  rules  and  infallibility 
of  reason  there  is  no  way,  but,  first,  put  such  principles  down  for  a  foundation,  as  passion, 
not  mistrusting,  may  not  seek  to  displace ;  and  afterward  to  build  thereon  the  truth  of 
cases  in  the  law  of  nature  (which  hitherto  have  been  built  in  the  air)  by  degrees,  till  the 
whole  have  been  inexpugnable."  However,  it  must  be  recollected  that  Hobbes  does  not 
start  from  a  priori  principles  of  ethics,  but  from  the  practical  necessities  of  men  in  society. 

*  "  Contrat  Social,"  v,  pp.  98,  99.  The  references  here  given  are  to  the  volumes  and 
pages  of  Mussay  Pathay's  edition  (1S26).     "  Discours,"  passim  ;  see  especially  p.  268. 

|  "  Discours,"  pp.  257,  258-276.  How  many  wild  sermons  have  been  preached  on  this 
text :  "  Ignorez-vous  qu'une  multitud  e  de  vos  freres  pe>it  ou  souff re  du  besoin  de  ce  que 
vous  avez  de  trop,  et  qu'il  vous  fallait  un  consentement  expres  et  unanime  du  genre  humain 
pour  vous  approprier  sur  la  subsistance  commune  tout  ce  qui  alloit  au-dela  de  la  votre  ?  " 
(Don't  you  know  that  a  multitude  of  your  brothers  are  perishing  or  suffering  for  the  need 
of  what  you  have  too  much  of,  and  that  you  ought  to  have  an  express  and  unanimous  con- 
sent of  the  human  race  before  you  appropriate  to  yourself  from  the  common  subsistence 
any  more  than  you  need  for  your  own  ?) 

\  "Discours,"  pp.  276,  280;  "Contrat,"  chap.  iii. :  "Telle  fut  ou  dut  etre"  (charming 
alternative !)  "  Porigine  de  la  societe  et  des  lois,  qui  donnerent  de  nouvelles  entraves  au 
foible  et  de  nouvelles  forces  au  riche,  detruisirent  sans  retour  la  libert6  naturelle,  fixerent 
pour  jamais  la  loi  de  la  propriete  et  de  Pinegalite\  d'une  adroite  usurpation  firent  un  droit 
irrevocable,  et,  pour  le  profit  de  quelques  ambitieux,  assujettirent  desormais  tout  le  genre 
humain  au  travail,  a  la  servitude  et  a  la  misere."  (Such  was  or  must  have  been  the  origin 
of  society  and  of  the  laws  which  imposed  new  shackles  on  the  weak  man  and  gave  new 
forces  to  the  rich  one,  destroyed  natural  liberty  without  requital,  established  forever  the 
law  of  property  and  inequality,  made  an  irrevocable  law  of  an  adroit  usurpation,  and 


ON  THE  NATURAL  INEQUALITY   OF  MEN.         769 

I  am  bound  to  confess,  at  the  outset,  that,  while  quite  open 
to  conviction,  I  incline  to  think  that  the  obvious  practical  conse- 
quences of  these  propositions  are  not  likely  to  conduce  to  the  wel- 
fare of  society,  and  that  they  are  certain  to  prove  as  injurious  to 
the  poor  as  to  the  rich.  Due  allowance  must  be  made  for  the  pos- 
sible influence  of  such  prejudice  as  may  flow  from  this  opinion 
upon  my  further  conviction  that,  regarded  from  a  purely  theo- 
retical and  scientific  point  of  view,  they  are  so  plainly  and  demon- 
strably false  that,  except  for  the  gravity  of  their  practical  conse- 
quences, they  would  be  ridiculous. 

"What  is  the  meaning  of  the  famous  phrase  that  "  all  men  are 
born  free  and  equal,"  *  which  gallicized  Americans,  who  were  as 
much  "  philosophes "  as  their  inherited  common  sense  and  their 
practical  acquaintance  with  men  and  with  affairs  would  let  them 
be,  put  forth  as  the  foundation  of  the  "  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence "  ?  I  have  seen  a  considerable  number  of  new-born  infants. 
Without  wishing  to  speak  of  them  with  the  least  disrespect— a 
thing  no  man  can  do,  without,  as  the  proverb  says,  "  fouling  his 
own  nest " — I  fail  to  understand  how  they  can  be  affirmed  to  have 
any  political  qualities  at  all.  How  can  it  be  said  that  these  poor 
little  mortals  who  have  not  even  the  capacity  to  kick  to  any  definite 
end,  nor  indeed  to  do  anything  but  vaguely  squirm  and  squall, 
are  equal  politically,  except  as  all  zeros  may  be  said  to  be  equal  ? 
How  can  little  creatures  be  said  to  be  "  free "  of  whom  not  one 
would  live  for  four-and-twenty  hours  if  it  were  not  imprisoned 
by  kindly  hands  and  coerced  into  applying  its  foolish,  wandering 
mouth  to  the  breast  it  could  never  find  for  itself  ?  How  is  the 
being  whose  brain  is  still  too  pulpy  to  hold  an  idea  of  any  de- 
scription to  be  a  moral  agent  either  good  or  bad  ?  Surely  it  must 
be  a  joke,  and  rather  a  cynical  one  too,  to  talk  of  the  political 
status  of  a  new-born  child !  But  we  may  carry  our  questions  a 
step  further.  If  it  is  mere  abracadabra  to  speak  of  men  being 
born  in  a  state  of  political  freedom  and  equality,  thus  fallaciously 
confusing  positive  equality — that  is  to  say,  the  equality  of  powers 
— with  the  equality  of  impotences ;  in  what  conceivable  state  of 
society  is  it  possible  that  men  should  not  merely  be  born,  but  pass 
through  childhood  and  still  remain  free  ?  Has  a  child  of  fourteen 
been  free  to  choose  its  language  and  all  the  connotations  with 
which  words  became  burdened  in  their  use  by  generation  after 
generation  ?  Has  it  been  free  to  choose  the  habits  enforced  by 
precept  and  more  surely  driven  home  by  example  ?  Has  it  been 
free  to  invent  its  own  standard  of  right  and  wrong  ?    Or  rather, 

henceforth,  for  the  profit  of  a  few  ambitious  persons,  subjected  the  whole  human  race  to 
labor,  servitude,  and  misery.) — ("  Discours,"  p.  278).  Behold  the  quintessence  of  Rousseau- 
ism — method  and  results — with  practical  application,  legible  by  the  swiftest  runner ! 

*  ["All  men  are  created  equal"  is  the  wording  of  the  "  Declaration."— Editor  P.  S.  M.] 

VOL.  XXXTI. 49 


77o  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

has  it  not  been  as  much  held  in  bondage  by  its  surroundings  and 
driven  hither  and  thither  by  the  scourge  of  opinion,  as  a  veritable 
slave,  although  the  fetters  and  the  whip  may  be  invisible  and  in- 
tangible ? 

Surely,  Aristotle  was  much  nearer  the  truth  in  this  matter 
than  Hobbes  or  Rousseau.  And  if  the  predicate  "born  slave" 
would  more  nearly  agree  with  fact  than  "  born  free,"  what  is  to 
be  said  about  "  born  equal "  ?  Rousseau,  like  the  sentimental 
rhetorician  that  he  was,  and  half,  or  more  than  half,  sham,  as 
all  sentimental  rhetoricians  are,  sagaciously  fought  shy,  as  we 
have  seen,  of  the  question  of  the  influence  of  natural  upon  politi- 
cal equality.  But  those  of  us  who  do  not  care  for  sentiment  and 
do  care  for  truth  may  not  evade  the  consideration  of  that  which 
is  really  the  key  of  the  position.  If  Rousseau,  instead  of  letting 
his  children  go  to  the  infants  trouves,  had  taken  the  trouble  to 
discharge  a  father's  duties  toward  them,  he  would  hardly  have 
talked  so  fast  about  men  being  born  equal,  even  in  a  political 
sense.  For,  if  that  merely  means  that  all  new-born  children  are 
political  zeros — it  is,  as  we  have  seen,  though  true  enough,  nothing 
to  the  purpose ;  while,  if  it  means  that,  in  their  potentiality  of  be- 
coming factors  in  any  social  organization — citizens  in  Rousseau's 
sense — all  men  are  born  equal,  it  is  probably  the  most  astounding 
falsity  that  ever  was  put  forth  by  a  political  speculator ;  and  that, 
as  all  students  of  political  speculation  will  agree,  is  saying  a  good 
deal  for  it.  In  fact,  nothing  is  more  remarkable  than  the  wide 
inequality  which  children,  even  of  the  same  family,  exhibit,  as 
soon  as  the  mental  and  moral  qualities  begin  to  manifest  them- 
selves ;  which  is  earlier  than  most  people  fancy.  Every  family 
spontaneously  becomes  a  polity.  Among  the  children,  there  are 
some  who  continue  to  be  "  more  honored  and  more  powerful  than 
the  rest,  and  to  make  themselves  obeyed  "  (sometimes,  indeed,  by 
their  elders)  in  virtue  of  nothing  but  their  moral  and  mental 
qualities.  Here  "  political  inequality  "  visibly  dogs  the  heels  of 
"  natural "  inequality.  The  group  of  children  becomes  a  political 
body,  a  civitas,  with  its  rights  of  property,  and  its  practical  dis- 
tinctions of  rank  and  power.  And  all  this  comes  about  neither 
by  force  nor  by  fraud,  but  as  the  necessary  consequence  of  the 
innate  inequalities  of  capability. 

Thus  men  are  certainly  not  born  free  and  equal  in  natural 
qualities ;  when  they  are  born,  the  predicates  "  free  "  and  "  equal " 
in  the  political  sense  are  not  applicable  to  them ;  and  as  they  de- 
velop, year  by  year,  the  differences  in  the  political  potentialities 
with  which  they  really  are  born,  become  more  and  more  obviously 
converted  into  actual  differences — the  inequality  of  political  fac- 
ulty shows  itself  to  be  a  necessary  consequence  of  the  inequality 
of  natural  faculty.     It  is  probably  true  that  the  earliest  men  were 


ON   THE  NATURAL  INEQUALITY   OF  MEN.        771 

nomads.  But  among  a  body  of  naked,  wandering  savages,  though, 
there  may  be  no  verbally  recognized  distinctions  of  rank  or  office, 
superior  strength  and  cunning  confer  authority  of  a  more  valid 
kind  than  that  secured  by  acts  of  Parliament ;  there  may  be  no 
property  in  things,  but  the  witless  man  will  be  poverty-stricken 
in  ideas,  the  clever  man  will  be  a  capitalist  in  that  same  commod- 
ity, which  in  the  long  run  buys  all  other  commodities ;  one  will 
miss  opportunities,  the  others  will  make  them ;  and,  proclaim  hu- 
man equality  as  loudly  as  you  like,  Witless  will  serve  his  brother. 
So  long  as  men  are  men  and  society  is  society,  human  equality 
will  be  a  dream ;  and  the  assumption  that  it  does  exist  is  as  un- 
true in  fact  as  it  sets  the  mark  of  impracticability  on  every  theory 
of  what  ought  to  be,  which  starts  from  it. 

And  that  last  remark  suggests  that  there  is  another  way  of  re- 
garding Rousseau's  speculations.  It  may  be  pointed  out  that, 
after  all,  whatever  estimate  we  may  form  of  him,  the  author  of 
works  which  have  made  such  a  noise  in  the  world  could  not  have 
been  a  mere  fool ;  and  that  if,  in  their  plain  and  obvious  sense,  the 
doctrines  which  he  advanced  are  so  easily  upset,  it  is  probable  that 
he  had  in  his  mind  something  which  is  different  from  that  sense. 

I  am  a  good  deal  disposed  to  think  that  this  is  the  case.  There 
is  much  to  be  said  in  favor  of  the  view  that  Rousseau,  having  got 
hold  of  a  plausible  hypothesis,  more  or  less  unconsciously  made  up 
a  clothing  of  imaginary  facts  to  hide  its  real  nakedness.  He  was 
not  the  first  nor  the  last  philosopher  to  perform  this  feat. 

As  soon  as  men  began  to  think  about  political  problems,  it 
must  have  struck  them  that,  if  the  main  object  of  society  was  the 
welfare  of  its  members  (and  until  this  became  clear,  political  ac- 
tion could  not  have  risen  above  the  level  of  instinct),*  there  were 
all  sorts  of  distinctions  among  men,  and  burdens  laid  upon  them, 
which  nowise  contributed  to  that  end.  Even  before  the  great  lev- 
eler,  Rome,  had  actually  thrown  down  innumerable  social  and 
national  party-walls,  had  absorbed  all  other  forms  of  citizenship 
into  her  own,  and  brought  the  inhabitants  of  what  was  then 
known  as  the  world  under  one  system  of  obligations — thoughtful 

*  It  is  not  to  be  forgotten  that  what  we  call  rational  grounds  for  our  beliefs  are  often  ex- 
tremely irrational  attempts  to  justify  our  instincts.  I  can  not  doubt  that  human  society 
existed  before  language  or  any  ethical  consciousness.  Gregarious  animals  form  polities  in 
which  they  act  according  to  rules  conducive  to  the  welfare  of  the  whole  society,  although, 
of  course,  it  would  be  absurd  to  say  that  they  obey  laws  in  the  juridical  sense.  The  polities 
of  the  masterless  dogs  in  Eastern  cities  are  well  known.  And,  in  any  street  of  an  English 
town,  one  may  observe  a  small  dog  chased  by  a  bigger,  who  turns  round  the  moment  he  has 
entered  his  own  territory  and  defies  the  other ;  while,  usually,  after  various  manifestations 
of  anger  and  contempt,  the  bigger  withdraws.  No  doubt  the  small  dog  has  had  previous 
experience  of  the  arrival  of  assistance  under  such  circumstances,  and  the  big  one  of  the 
effects  of  sticks  and  stones  and  other  odd  missiles  ;  no  doubt  the  associations  thus  ingrained 
are  the  prime  source  of  the  practical  acknowledgment  of  ownership  on  both  sides.  I  sus- 
pect it  has  been  very  much  the  same  among  men. 


772  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

men  were  discovering  that  it  was  desirable,  in  the  interest  of  soci- 
ety, that  all  men  should  be  as  free  as  possible,  consistently  with 
those  interests ;  and  that  they  should  all  be  equally  bound  by  the 
ethical  and  legal  obligations  which  are  essential  to  social  exist- 
ence. It  will  be  observed  that  this  conclusion  is  one  which  might 
be  arrived  at  by  observation  and  induction  from  the  phenomena 
of  past  and  present  experience.  My  belief  is  that  it  is  the  conclu- 
sion which  must  be  reached  by  those  means,  when  they  are  rightly 
employed — and  that,  in  point  of  fact,  the  doctrines  of  freedom  and 
equality,  so  far  as  they  were  preached  by  the  Stoics  and  others, 
would  have  not  the  least  success,  if  they  had  not  been  so  far  ap- 
proved by  experience  and  so  far  in  harmony  with  human  instincts 
that  the  Roman  jurists  found  they  could  work  them  up  with  effect 
into  practical  legislation.  For  the  a  priori  arguments  of  the  phi- 
losophers in  the  last  century  of  the  republic,  and  the  first  of  the 
empire,  stand  examination  no  better  than  those  of  the  philoso- 
phers in  the  centuries  before  and  after  the  French  Revolution. 
As  is  the  fashion  of  speculators,  they  scorned  to  remain  on  the 
safe  if  humble  ground  of  experience,  and  preferred  to  prophesy 
from  the  sublime  cloud-land  of  the  a  priori  ;  so  that,  busied  with 
deduction  from  their  ideal  "  ought  to  be,"  they  overlooked  the 
"  what  has  been,"  the  "  what  is,"  and  the  "  what  can  be." 

It  is  to  them  that  we  owe  the  idea  of  living  "  according  to  na- 
ture "  ;  which  begot  the  idea  of  the  "  state  of  nature  " ;  which  be- 
got the  notion  that  the  "  state  of  nature  "  was  a  reality,  and  that, 
once  upon  a  time,  "  all  men  were  free  and  equal " — which  again 
begot  the  theory  that  society  ought  to  be  reformed  in  such  a  man- 
ner as  to  bring  back  these  halcyon  days  of  freedom  and  equality ; 
which  begot  laissez  faire  and  universal  suffrage ;  which  begot  the 
theory  so  dear  to  young  men  of  more  ambition  than  industry,  that 
while  every  other  trade,  business,  or  profession  requires  theoreti- 
cal training  and  practical  skill,  and  would  go  to  the  dogs  if  those 
who  carry  them  on  were  appointed  by  the  majority  of  votes  of 
people  who  know  nothing  about  it  and  very  little  about  them — 
the  management  of  the  affairs  of  society  will  be  perfectly  success- 
ful if  only  the  people  who  may  be  trusted  to  know  nothing  will 
vote  into  office  the  people  who  may  be  trusted  to  do  nothing. 

If  this  is  the  political  ideal  of  the  modern  followers  of  Rous- 
seau, I,  for  my  part,  object  to  strive  after  it,  or  to  do  anything 
but  oppose,  to  the  best  of  my  ability,  those  who  would  fain  drive 
us  that  way.  Freedom,  used  foolishly,  and  equality,  asserted  in 
words,  but  every  moment  denied  by  the  facts  of  nature,  are  things 
of  which,  as  it  seems  to  me,  we  have  rather  too  much  already.  If 
I  mistake  not,  one  thing  we  need  to  learn  is  the  necessity  of  limit- 
ing individual  freedom  for  the  general  good ;  and  another,  that 
although  decision  by  a  majority  of  votes  may  be  as  good  a  rough- 


ON  THE  NATURAL  INEQUALITY   OF  MEN         773 

arid-ready  way  as  can  be  devised  to  get  political  questions  settled, 
yet  that,  theoretically,  the  despotism  of  a  majority  is  as  little  jus- 
tifiable and  as  dangerous  as  that  of  one  man ;  and  yet  another, 
that  voting  power,  as  a  means  of  giving  effect  to  opinion,  is  more 
likely  to  prove  a  curse  than  a  blessing  to  the  voters,  unless  that 
opinion  is  the  result  of  a  sound  judgment  operating  upon  sound 
knowledge.  Some  experience  of  sea-life  leads  me  to  think  that  I 
should  be  very  sorry  to  find  myself  on  board  a  ship  in  which  the 
voices  of  the  cook  and  the  loblolly  boys  counted  for  as  much  as 
those  of  the  officers,  upon  a  question  of  steering,  or  reefing  top- 
sails ;  or  where  the  "  great  heart "  of  the  crew  was  called  upon  to 
settle  the  ship's  course.  And  there  is  no  sea  more  dangerous  than 
the  ocean  of  practical  politics — none  in  which  there  is  more  need 
of  good  pilotage  and  of  a  single,  unfaltering  purpose  when  the 
waves  rise  high. 

The  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter,  then,  would  seem  to  be 
that  the  doctrine  that  all  men  are,  in  any  sense,  or  have  been,  at 
any  time,  free  and  equal,  is  an  utterly  baseless  fiction.  Nor  does 
the  proposition  fare  much  better  if  we  modify  it,  so  as  to  say  that 
all  men  ought  to  be  free  and  equal,  so  long  as  the  "  ought "  poses 
as  a  command  of  immutable  morality.  For,  assuredly,  it  is  not 
intuitively  certain  "that  all  men  ought  to  be  free  and  equal/' 
Therefore,  if  it  is  to  be  justified  at  all  a  priori,  it  must  be  dedu- 
cible  from  some  proposition  which  is  intuitively  certain;  and 
unfortunately  none  is  forthcoming.  For  the  proposition  that  men 
ought  to  be  free  to  do  what  they  please,  so  long  as  they  do  not 
infringe  on  the  equal  rights  of  other  men,  assumes  that  men  have 
equal  rights  and  can  not  be  used  to  prove  that  assumption.  And 
if,  instead  of  appealing  to  philosophy,  we  turn  to  revealed  religion, 
I  am  not  aware  that  either  Judaism  or  Christianity  affirms  the 
political  freedom  or  the  political  equality  of  men  in  Rousseau's 
sense.  They  affirm  the  equality  of  men  before  God — but  that  is 
an  equality  either  of  insignificance  or  of  imperfection. 

With  the  demonstration  that  men  are  not  all  equal  under 
whatever  aspect  they  are  contemplated,  and  that  the  assumption 
that  they  ought  to  be  considered  equal  has  no  sort  of  a  priori 
foundation — however  much  it  may,  in  reference  to  positive  law, 
with  due  limitations,  be  justifiable  by  considerations  of  practical 
expediency — the  bottom  of  Rousseau's  argument,  from  a  priori 
ethical  assumptions  to  the  denial  of  the  right  of  an  individual  to 
hold  private  property,  falls  out.  For  Rousseau,  with  more  logical 
consistency  than  some  of  those  who  have  come  after  him,  puts 
the  land  and  its  produce  upon  the  same  footing.  "  Vous  6tes  per- 
dus  si  vous  oubliez  que  les  fruits  sont  a  tous,  et  que  la  terre  n'est 
a  personne,"  says  he.  (You  are  lost  if  you  forget  that  the  fruits 
are  for  all  and  the  land  is  not  for  any  one.) 


774  TEE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

From  Rousseau's  poiut  of  view,  this  is,  in  fact,  the  only  ra- 
tional conclusion  from  the  premises.  The  attempt  to  draw  a  dis- 
tinction between  land,  as  a  limited  commodity,  and  other  things 
as  unlimited,  is  an  obvious  fallacy.  For,  according  to  him,*  the 
total  habitable  surface  of  the  earth  is  the  property  of  the  whole  hu- 
man race  in  common.  Undoubtedly,  the  habitable  and  cultivable 
land  amounts  to  a  definite  number  of  square  miles,  which,  by  no 
effort  of  human  ingenuity,  at  present  known  or  suspected,  can  be 
sensibly  increased  beyond  the  area  of  that  part  of  the  globe  which 
is  not  covered  by  water ;  and  therefore  its  quantity  is  limited. 
But  if  the  land  is  limited,  so  is  the  quantity  of  the  trees  that  will 
grow  on  it ;  of  the  cattle  that  can  be  pastured  on  it ;  of  the  crops 
that  can  be  raised  from  it ;  of  the  minerals  that  can  be  dug  from 
it ;  of  the  wind  ;  and  of  the  water-power,  afforded  by  the  limited 
streams  which  flow  from  the  limited  heights.  And,  if  the  human 
race  were  to  go  on  increasing  in  number  at  its  present  rate,  a  time 
would  come  when  there  would  not  be  standing-ground  for  any 
more  ;  if  it  were  not  that,  long  before  that  time,  they  would  have 
eaten  up  the  limited  quantity  of  food-stuffs  and  died  like  the  locusts 
that  have  consumed  everything  eatable  in  an  oasis  of  the  desert. 
The  attempt  to  draw  a  distinction  between  land  as  limited  in 
quantity,  in  the  sense,  I  suppose,  that  it  is  something  that  can  not 
be  imported — and  other  things  as  unlimited,  because  they  can  be 
imported — has  arisen  from  the  fact  that  Rousseau's  modern  fol- 
lowers entertain  the  delusion  that,  consistently  with  their  princi- 
ples, it  is  possible  to  suppose  that  a  nation  has  right  of  ownership 
in  the  land  it  occupies.  If  the  island  of  Great  Britain  is  the  prop- 
erty of  the  British  nation,  then,  of  course,  it  is  true  that  they 
can  not  have  more  than  somewhere  about  ninety  thousand  square 
miles  of  land,  while  the  quantity  of  other  things  they  can  import 
is  (for  the  present,  at  any  rate),  practically,  if  not  strictly,  unlim- 
ited. But  how  is  the  assumption  that  the  Britons  own  Britain,  to  be 
reconciled  with  the  great  dictum  of  Rousseau,  that  a  man  can  not 
rightfully  appropriate  any  part  of  this  limited  commodity,  land, 
without  the  unanimous  consent  of  all  his  fellow-men  ?  My  strong 
impression  is  that  if  a  party-colored  'plebiscite  of  Europeans,  Chi- 
nese, Hindoos,  negroes,  red  Indians,  Maoris,  and  all  the  other 
inhabitants  of  the  terrestrial  globe  were  to  decree  us  to  be  usurp- 
ers, not  a  soul  would  budge ;  and  that,  if  it  came  to  fighting, 
Mr.  Morley's  late  "  hecklers  "  might  be  safely  depended  upon  to 
hold  their  native  soil  against  all  intruders,  and  in  the  teeth  of  the 
most  absolute  of  ethical  politicians,  even  though  he  should  prove 
from  Rousseau — 

Exceedingly  well 

That  such  conduct  was  quite  atrocious. 

*  As  to  Hobbes,  but  on  different  grounds. 


ON  THE  NATURAL  INEQUALITY   OF  MEN.         77s 

Rousseau's  first  and  second  great  doctrines  having  thus  col- 
lapsed, what  is  to  be  said  to  the  third  ? 

Of  course,  if  there  are  no  rights  of  property  but  those  based  on 
contract,  conquest,  that  is  to  say,  taking  possession  by  force,  of 
itself  can  confer  no  right.  But,  as  the  doctrine  that  there  are  no 
rights  of  property  but  those  based  on  the  consent  of  the  whole  hu- 
man race — that  is,  that  A.  B.  can  not  own  anything  unless  the 
whole  of  mankind  formally  signify  their  assent  to  his  ownership — 
turns  out  to  be  more  than  doubtful  in  theory  and  decidedly  incon- 
venient in  practice,  we  may  inquire  if  there  is  any  better  reason 
for  the  assertion  that  force  can  confer  no  right  of  ownership. 
Suppose  that,  in  the  old  seafaring  days,  a  pirate  attacked  an  East 
Indiaman — got  soundly  beaten  and  had  to  surrender.  When  the 
pirates  had  walked  the  plank  or  been  hanged,  had  the  captain  and 
crew  of  the  East  Indiaman  no  right  of  property  in  the  prize — I 
am  not  speaking  of  mere  legal  right,  but  ethically  ?  But  if  they 
had,  what  is  the  difference  when  nations  attack  one  another ; 
when  there  is  no  way  out  of  their  quarrel  but  the  appeal  to  force, 
and  the  one  that  gets  the  better  seizes  more  or  less  of  the  other's 
territory  and  demands  it  as  the  price  of  peace  ?  In  the  latter 
case,  in  fact,  we  have  a  contract,  a  price  paid  for  an  article — to 
wit,  peace — delivered,  and  certain  lands  taken  in  exchange ;  and 
there  can  be  no  question  that  the  buyer's  title  is  based  on  con- 
tract. Even  in  the  former  alternative,  I  see  little  difference. 
When  they  declared  war,  the  parties  knew  very  well  that  they 
referred  their  case  to  the  arbitrament  of  force ;  and  if  contracts 
are  eternally  valid,  they  are  fully  bound  to  abide  by  the  decision 
of  the  arbitrator  whom  they  have  elected  to  obey.  Therefore, 
even  on  Hobbes's  or  Rousseau's  principles,  it  is  not  by  any  means 
clear  to  my  mind  that  force,  or  rather  the  state  of  express  or  tacit 
contract  which  follows  upon  force  successfully  applied,  may  not 
be  plausibly  considered  to  confer  ownership. 

But  if  the  question  is  argued,  as  I  think  it  ought  to  be,  on  em- 
pirical grounds — if  the  real  question  is  not  one  of  imagined  a 
priori  principle,  but  of  practical  expediency — of  the  conduct 
which  conduces  most  to  human  welfare — then  it  appears  to  me 
that  there  is  much  to  be  said  for  the  opinion  that  force  effectually 
and  thoroughly  used,  so  as  to  render  further  opposition  hopeless, 
establishes  an  ownership  *  which  should  be  recognized  as  soon  as 
possible.  I  am  greatly  disposed  to  think,  that  when  ownership 
established  by  force  has  endured  for  many  generations,  and  all 
sorts  of  contracts  have  been  entered  into  on  the  faith  of  such 
ownership,  the  attempt  to  disturb  it  is  very  much  to  be  deprecated 
on  all  grounds.   For  the  welfare  of  society,  as  for  that  of  individual 

*  Submission  to  the  Revolution  of  1688  by  Jacobites  could  be  advocated  ethically  on  no 
other  ground,  though  all  sorts  of  pretexts  were  invented  to  disguise  the  fact. 


776  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

men,  it  is  surely  essential  that  there  should  he  a  statute  of  limita- 
tions in  respect  of  the  consequences  of  wrong-doing.  As  there  is 
nothing  more  fatal  to  nobility  of  personal  character  than  the  nurs- 
ing of  the  feeling  of  revenge — nothing  that  more  clearly  indicates 
a  barbarous  state  of  society  than  the  carrying  on  of  a  vendetta, 
generation  after  generation — so  I  take  it  to  be  a  plain  maxim  of 
that  political  ethic  which  does  not  profess  to  have  any  greater 
authority  than  agreeableness  to  good  feeling  and  good  sense  can 
confer,  that  the  evil  deeds  of  former  generations — especially  if 
they  were  in  accordance  with  the  practices  of  a  less  advanced 
civilization,  and  had  the  sanction  of  a  less  refined  morality — 
should,  as  speedily  as  possible,  be  forgotten  and  buried  under 
better  things. 

"Musst  immer  thun  wie  neu  geboren"  (must  ever  do  as  if 
new-born)  is  the  best  of  all  maxims  for  the  guidance  of  the  life  of 
states,  no  less  than  of  individuals.  However,  I  express  what  I 
personally  think,  in  all  humility,  in  the  face  of  the  too  patent  fact 
that  there  are  persons  of  light  and  leading — with  a  political  au- 
thority to  which  I  can  make  not  the  remotest  pretension,  and 
with  a  weight  of  political  responsibility  which  I  rejoice  to  think 
can  never  rest  on  my  shoulders — who  by  no  means  share  my  opin- 
ion, but  who,  on  the  contrary,  deem  it  right  to  fan  the  sparks  of 
revenge  which  linger  among  the  embers  of  ancient  discords ;  and 
to  stand  between  the  dead  past  and  the  living  present,  not  with 
the  healing  purpose  of  the  Jewish  leader,  but  rather  to  intensify 
the  plague  of  political  strife,  and  hold  aloft  the  brazen  image  of 
the  father's  wrongs,  lest  the  children  might  perchance  forget  and 
forgive. 

However,  the  question  whether  the  fact  that  property  in  land 
was  originally  acquired  by  force  invalidates  all  subsequent  deal- 
ings in  that  property  so  completely,  that  no  lapse  of  time,  no  for- 
mal legalization,  no  passing  from  hand  to  hand  by  free  contract 
through  an  endless  series  of  owners,  can  extinguish  the  right  of 
the  nation  to  take  it  away  by  force  from  the  latest  proprietor,  has 
rather  an  academic  than  a  practical  interest,  so  long  as  the  evi- 
dence that  landed  ownership  did  so  arise  is  wanting.  Potent  an 
organon  as  the  a  priori  method  may  be,  its  employment  in  the 
region  of  history  has  rarely  been  found  to  yield  satisfactory  re- 
sults ;  and,  in  this  particular  case,  the  confident  assertions  that 
land  was  originally  held  in  common  by  the  whole  nation,  and  that 
it  has  been  converted  into  severalty  by  force,  as  the  outcome  of 
the  military  spirit  rather  than  by  the  consent,  or  contract,  charac- 
teristic of  industrialism,  are  singularly  ill-founded. 

Let  us  see  what  genuine  history  has  to  say  to  these  assertions. 
Perhaps  it  might  have  been  pardonable  in  Rousseau  to  propound 


ON  THE  NATURAL  INEQUALITY   OF  MEN         777 

such,  a  statement  as  that  the  primitive  land-owner  was. either  a 
robber  or  a  cheat ;  but,  in  the  course  of  the  century  and  a  half 
which  has  elapsed  since  he  wrote,  and  especially  in  that  of  the  last 
fifty  years,  an  immense  amount  of  information  on  the  subject  of 
ancient  land-tenure  has  come  to  light ;  so  that  it  is  no  longer  par- 
donable, in  any  one,  to  content  himself  with  Rousseau's  ignorance. 
Even  a  superficial  glance  over  the  results  of  modern  investiga- 
tions into  anthropology,  archaeology,  ancient  law,  and  ancient  re- 
ligion, suffices  to  show  that  there  is  not  a  particle  of  evidence  that 
men  ever  existed  in  Rousseau's  state  of  nature,  and  that  there  are 
very  strong  reasons  for  thinking  that  they  never  could  have  done 
so,  and  never  will  do  so. 

It  is,  at  the  least,  highly  probable  that  the  nomadic  preceded 
any  other  social  state  ;  and,  as  the  needs  of  a  wandering  hunter's 
or  pastor's  life  are  far  more  simple  than  any  other,  it  follows  that 
the  inequalities  of  condition  must  be  less  obvious  among  nomads 
than  among  settled  people.  Men  who  have  no  costume  at  all,  for 
example,  can  not  be  said  to  be  unequally  clothed ;  they  are,  doubt- 
less, more  equal  than  men  some  of  whom  are  well  clothed  and 
others  in  rags,  though  the  equality  is  of  the  negative  sort.  But  it 
is  a  profound  mistake  to  imagine  that,  in  the  nomadic  condition, 
any  more  than  in  any  other  which  has  yet  been  observed,  men  are 
either  "  free  "  or  "  equal "  in  Rousseau's  sense.  I  can  call  to  mind 
no  nomadic  nation  in  which  women  are  on  an  equality  with  men ; 
nor  any  in  which  young  men  are  on  the  same  footing  as  old  men ; 
nor  any  in  which  family  groups,  bound  together  by  blood  ties, 
by  their  mutual  responsibility  for  bloodshed  and  by  common 
worship,  do  not  constitute  corporate  political  units,  in  the  sense  of 
the  city  *  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans.  A  "  state  of  nature "  in 
which  noble  and  peaceful,  but  nude  and  propertyless,  savages  sit 
in  solitary  meditation  under  trees,  unless  they  are  dining  or  amus- 
ing themselves  in  other  ways,  without  cares  or  responsibilities  of 
any  sort,  is  simply  another  figment  of  the  unscientific  imagination. 
The  only  uncivilized  men  of  whom  anything  is  really  known  are 
hampered  by  superstitions  and  enslaved  by  conventions,  as  strange 
as  those  of  the  most  artificial  societies,  to  an  almost  incredible  de- 
gree. Furthermore,  I  think,  it  may  be  said  with  much  confidence 
that  the  primitive  "land-grabber"  did  not  either  force  or  cheat 
his  co-proprietors  into  letting  him  fence  in  a  bit  of  the  land  which 
hitherto  was  the  property  of  all. 

The  truth  is,  we  do  not  know,  and  probably  never  shall  know 
completely,  the  nature  of  all  the  various  processes  by  which  the 
ownership  of  land  was  originally  brought  about.    But  there  is 

*  I  may  remind  the  reader  that,  in  their  original  senses,  ir6\is  and  civitas  mean,  not  an 
aggregation  of  houses,  but  a  corporation.  In  this  sense,  the  City  of  London  is  formed  by 
the  freemen  of  the  city,  with  their  common  councilors,  aldermen,  and  lord  mayor. 


778  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

excellent  ground  for  sundry  probable  conclusions*  in  the  fact 
that  almost  all  parts  of  the  world,  and  almost  all  nations,  have 
yielded  evidence  that,  in  the  earliest  settled  condition  we  can  get 
at,  land  was  held  as  private  or  several  property,  and  not  as  the 
property  of  the  public,  or  general  body  of  the  nation.  Now  pri- 
vate or  several  property  may  be  held  in  one  of  two  ways.  The 
ownership  may  be  vested  in  a  single  individual  person,  in  the 
ordinary  sense  of  that  word ;  or  it  may  be  vested  in  two  or  more 
individuals  forming  a  corporation  or  legal  person ;  that  is  to  say, 
an  entity  which  has  all  the  duties  and  responsibilities  of  an  indi- 
vidual person,  but  is  composed  of  two  or  more  individuals.  It  is 
obvious  that  all  the  arguments  which  Rousseau  uses  against  indi- 
vidual land-ownership  apply  to  corporate  land-ownership.  If  the 
rights  of  A,  B,  and  C  are  individually  nil,  you  can  not  make  any 
more  of  your  0  by  multiplying  it  by  3.  (A,  B,  C) — the  corpora- 
tion— must  be  a  usurper  if  A,  B,  and  C,  taken  each  by  himself,  is 
so.  Moreover,  I  think  I  may  take  it  for  granted  that  those  who 
desire  to  make  the  state  universal  land-owner  would  eject  a  cor- 
poration from  its  estates  with  even  less  hesitation  than  they  would 
expel  an  individual. 

The  particular  method  of  early  land-holding  of  which  we  have 
the  most  wide-spread  traces  is  that  in  which  each  of  a  great  num- 
ber of  moderate-sized  portions  of  the  whole  territory  occupied  by 
a  nation  is  held  in  complete  and  inalienable  ownership  f  by  the 
males  of  a  family,  or  of  a  small  number  of  actual  or  supposed 
kindred  families,  mutually  responsible  in  blood  feuds,  and  wor- 
shiping the  same  God  or  Gods.  No  female  had  any  share  in  the 
ownership  of  the  land.  If  she  married  outside  the  community, 
she  might  take  a  share  of  the  movables ;  and,  as  a  rule,  she  went 
to  her  husband's  community.  If,  however,  the  community  was 
short  of  hands,  the  husband  might  be  taken  into  it,  and  then  he 
acquired  all  the  rights  and  responsibilities  of  the  other  members. 
Children  born  in  the  community  became  full  members  of  it  by 
domicile,  so  to  speak,  not  by  heredity  from  their  parents.  This 
primitive  "  city  "  was  lodged  in  one  or  more  dwellings,  each  usu- 
ally standing  in  a  patch  of  inclosed  ground ;  of  arable  land  in  the 
immediate  neighborhood  of  the  dwellings ;  while  pasture  and  un- 
cleared forest  land  lay  outside  all.  Each  commune  was  as  jealous 
of  its  rights  of  ownership  as  the  touchiest  of  squires  ;  but,  so  long 
as  the  population  was  as  scanty  in  proportion  to  the  occupied  ter- 
ritory as  was  usually  the  case  in  ancient  times,  the  communities 
got  along  pretty  peaceably  with  one  another.    Any  notion  that  all 

*  For  the  difficulties  which  attach  to  the  establishment  of  such  probable  conclusions, 
see  the  remarkable  work  of  M.  Fustel  de  Coulanges,  "  Recherches  sur  quelques  problemes 
d'Histoire :  Les  Germains." 

f  Inalienable,  that  is,  without  the  consent  of  the  whole  owning  community. 


ON  TEE  NATURAL  INEQUALITY   OF  MEN.         779 

the  communities  which  made  up  the  nation  had  a  sort  of  corpo- 
rate overlordship  over  any  one,  still  more  that  all  the  rest  of  the 
world  had  any  right  to  complain  of  their  "  appropriation  of  the 
means  of  subsistence,"  most  assuredly  never  entered  the  heads  of 
our  forefathers.  But,  alongside  this  corporate  several  ownership, 
there  is  strong  ground  for  the  belief  that  individual  ownership 
was  recognized,  to  a  certain  extent,  even  in  these  early  times. 
The  inclosure  around  each  dwelling  was  understood  to  belong  to 
the  family  inhabiting  the  dwelling ;  and,  for  all  practical  pur- 
poses, must  have  been  as  much  owned  by  the  head  of  it  as  a 
modern  entailed  estate  is  owned  by  the  possessor  for  the  time 
being.  Moreover,  if  any  member  of  the  community  chose  to  go 
outside  and  clear  and  cultivate  some  of  the  waste,  the  reclaimed 
land  was  thenceforth  recognized  as  his — that  is  to  say,  the  right 
of  ownership,  in  virtue  of  labor  spent,  was  admitted.* 

Thus  it  is  obvious  that,  though  the  early  land-holders  were,  to 
a  great  extent,  collective  owners,  the  imaginary  rights  of  mankind 
to  universal  land-ownership,  or  even  of  that  of  the  nation  at  large 
to  the  whole  territory  occupied,  were  utterly  ignored  ;  that,  so  far 
from  several  ownership  being  the  result  of  force  or  fraud,  it  was 
the  system  established  with  universal  assent ;  and  that,  from  the 
first,  in  all  probability,  individual  rights  of  property,  under  cer- 
tain conditions,  were  fully  recognized  and  respected.  Rousseau 
was,  therefore,  correct  in  suspecting  that  his  "state  of  nature" 
had  never  existed — it  never  did,  nor  anything  like  it.  But  it  may 
be  said,  supposing  that  all  this  is  true,  and  supposing  that  the 
doctrine  that  Englishmen  have  no  right  to  their  appropriation  of 
English  soil  is  nonsense  ;  it  must,  nevertheless,  be  admitted  that, 
at  one  time,  the  great  body  of  the  nation,  consisting  of  these 
numerous  land-owning  corporations,  composed  of  comparatively 
poor  men,  did  own  the  land.  And  it  must  also  be  admitted  that 
now  they  do  not ;  but  that  the  land  is  in  the  hands  of  a  relatively 
small  number  of  actually  or  comparatively  rich  proprietors,  who 
constitute  perhaps  not  one  per  cent  of  the  population.  What  is 
this  but  the  result  of  robbery  and  cheating  ?  The  descendants  of 
the  robbers  and  cut-throat  soldiers  who  came  over  with  William 
of  Normandy  have  been  true  to  their  military  instincts,  and  have 
"  conveyed  "  the  property  of  the  primitive  corporations  into  their 
own  possession.  No  doubt,  that  is  history  made  easy ;  but  here, 
once  more,  fact  and  a  priori  speculations  can  not  be  made  to  fit. 

Let  us  look  at  the  case  dispassionately,  and  by  the  light  of  real 
history.  No  doubt,  the  early  system  of  land-tenure  by  collective 
several  ownership  was  excellently  adapted  to  the  circumstances  in 
which  mankind  found  themselves.    If  it  had  not  been  so,  it  would 

*  Rousseau  himself  not  only  admits  but  insists  on  the  validity  of  this  claim  in  the 
"  Contrat  Social,"  liv.  i,  chap.  ix. 


78o  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

not  have  endured  so  long,  nor  would  it  have  been  adopted  by  all 
sorts  of  different  races — from  the  ancient  Irish  to  the  Hindoos,  and 
from  the  Russians  to  the  Caffres  and  Japanese.  These  circum- 
stances were  in  the  main  as  follows  :  that  there  was  plenty  of  land 
unoccupied ;  that  population  was  very  scanty  and  increased 
slowly  ;  that  wants  were  simple  ;  that  people  were  content  to  go 
on  living  in  the  same  way,  generation  after  generation  ;  that  there 
was  no  commerce  worth  speaking  of ;  that  manufactures  were 
really  that  which  they  are  etymologically — things  made  by  the 
hands ;  and  that  there  was  no  need  of  capital  in  the  shape  of 
money.  Moreover,  with  such  methods  of  warfare  as  then  existed, 
the  system  was  good  for  defense,  and  not  bad  for  offense. 

Yet,  even  if  left  to  itself,  to  develop  undisturbedly,  without 
the  intrusion  of  force,  fraud,  or  militarism  in  any  shape,  the  com- 
munal system,  like  the  individual  -  owner  system  or  the  state- 
owner  system,  or  any  other  system  that  the  wit  of  man  has  yet 
devised,  would  sooner  or  later  have  had  to  face  the  everlasting 
agrarian  difficulty.  And  the  more  the  communities  enjoyed  gen- 
eral health,  peace,  and  plenty,  the  sooner  would  the  pressure  of 
population  upon  the  means  of  support  make  itself  felt.  The  diffi- 
culty paraded  by  the  opponents  of  individual  ownership,  that,  by 
the  extension  of  the  private  appropriation  of  the  means  of  sub- 
sistence, the  time  would  arrive  when  men  would  come  into  the 
world  for  whom  there  was  no  place,  must  needs  make  its  appear- 
ance under  any  system,  unless  mankind  are  prevented  from  mul- 
tiplying indefinitely.  For,  even  if  the  habitable  land  is  the  prop- 
erty of  the  whole  human  race,  the  multiplication  of  that  race 
must,  as  we  have  seen,  sooner  or  later,  bring  its  numbers  up  tp 
the  maximum  which  the  produce  can  support ;  and  then  the  in- 
teresting problem  in  casuistry,  which  even  absolute  political  eth- 
ics may  find  puzzling,  will  arise :  Are  we,  who  can  just  exist, 
bound  to  admit  the  new-comers  who  will  simply  starve  them- 
selves and  us  ?  If  the  rule  that  any  one  may  exercise  his  freedom 
only  so  far  as  he  does  not  interfere  with  the  freedom  of  others  is 
all-sufficient,  it  is  clear  that  the  new-comers  will  have  no  rights 
to  exist  at  all,  inasmuch  as  they  will  interfere  most  seriously  with 
the  freedom  of  their  predecessors.  The  population  question  is 
the  real  riddle  of  the  sphinx,  to  which  no  political  CEdipus  has  as 
yet  found  the  answer.  In  view  of  the  ravages  of  the  terrible 
monster  over-multiplication,  all  other  riddles  sink  into  insignifi- 
cance. 

But  to  return  to  the  question  of  the  manner  in  which  indi- 
vidual several  ownership  has,  in  our  own  and  some  other  coun- 
tries, superseded  communal  several  ownership.  There  is  an 
exceedingly  instructive  chapter  in  M.  de  Laveleye's  well-known 
work  on  "  Primitive  Property,"  entitled  "  The  Origin  of  Inequality 


ON  THE  NATURAL  INEQUALITY   OF  MEN.         781 

in  Landed  Property."  And  I  select  M.  de  Laveleye  as  a  witness 
the  more  willingly,  because  lie  draws  very  different  conclusions 
from  the  facts  he  so  carefully  adduces  to  those  which  they  appear 
to  me  to  support. 

After  enumerating  various  countries  in  which,  as  M.  de  Lave- 
leye thinks,  inequality  and  an  aristocracy  were  the  result  of  con- 
quest, he  asks  very  pertinently  : 

But  how  were  they  developed  in  such  countries  as  Germany,  which  know 
nothing  of  conquerors  coming  to  create  a  privileged  caste  above  a  vanquished 
and  enslaved  population  ?  Originally  we  see  in  Germany  associations  of  free  and 
independent  peasants  like  the  inhabitants  of  Uri,  Schwyz,  and  Unterwalden  at 
the  present  day.  At  the  close  of  the  middle  ages  we  find,  in  the  same  country,  a 
feudal  aristocracy  resting  more  heavily  on  the  soil,  and  a  rustic  population  more 
completely  enslaved  than  in  England,  Italy,  or  France  (p.  222). 

The  author  proceeds  to  answer  the  question  which  he  pro- 
pounds by  showing,  in  the  first  place,  that  the  admission  of  the 
right  of  individuals  and  their  heirs  to  the  land  they  had  re- 
claimed, which  was  so  general,  if  not  universal,  created  heredi- 
tary individual  property  alongside  the  communal  property,  so 
that  private  estates  arose  in  the  waste  between  the  sparse  com- 
munal estates.  Now,  it  was  not  every  family  or  member  of  a 
community  that  was  enterprising  enough  to  go  out  and  clear 
waste  lands,  or  that  had  the  courage  to  defend  its  possessions 
when  once  obtained.  The  originally  small  size  of  the  domains 
thus  acquired,  and  the  strong  stimulus  of  personal  interest,  led  to 
the  introduction  of  better  methods  of  cultivation  than  those  tra- 
ditional in  the  communes.  And,  finally,  as  the  private  owner  got 
little  or  no  benefit  from  the  community,  he  was  exempted  from 
the  charges  and  corvees  laid  upon  its  members.  The  result,  as 
may  be  imagined,  was  that  the  private  proprietors,  aided  by  serf- 
labor,  prospered  more  than  the  communities  cultivated  by  their 
free  members,  seriously  hampered  them  by  occupying  fresh  waste 
lands,  yielded  more  produce,  and  furnished  wealth,  which,  with 
the  help  of  the  majorat  system,  remained  concentrated  in  the 
hands  of  owners  who,  in  virtue  of  their  possessions,  could  main- 
tain retainers ;  while,  freed  from  the  need  to  labor,  they  could 
occupy  themselves  with  war  and  the  chase,  and,  as  nobles,  attend 
the  sovereign.  On  the  other  hand,  their  brethren,  left  behind  in 
the  communes,  had  little  chance  of  growing  individually  rich  or 
powerful,  and  had  to  give  themselves  up  to  agricultural  toil.  The 
Bishop  of  Oxford,  in  his  well-known  "  Constitutional  History  of 
England  "  (vol.  i,  p.  51),  puts  the  case,  as  his  wont  is,  concisely 
and  precisely :  "  As  the  population  increased,  and  agriculture 
itself  improved,  the  mark  system  must  have  been  superseded 
everywhere."  No  doubt,  when  the  nobles  had  once  established 
themselves,  they  often  added  force  and  fraud  to  their  other  means 


782  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

of  enlarging  their  borders.  But,  to  begin  with,  the  inequality 
was  the  result,  not  of  militarism,  but  of  industrialism.  Clearing 
a  piece  of  land  for  the  purpose  of  cultivating  it  and  reaping  the 
crops  for  one's  own  advantage  is  surely  an  industrial  operation,  if 
ever  there  was  one. 

Secondly,  M.  de  Laveleye  points  out  that  the  Church  was  a 
great  devourer  of  commune  lands : 

"  We  know  that  a  member  of  the  commune  could  only  dispose 
of  his  share  with  the  consent  of  his  associates,  who  had  a  right  of 
resumption;  but  this  right  could  not  be  exercised  against  the 
Church.  Accordingly,  in  these  days  of  religious  fervor,  the  faith- 
ful frequently  left  to  the  Church  all  that  they  possessed,  not  only 
their  house  and  its  inclosure,  but  the  undivided  share  in  the  mark 
attached  to  it "  (p.  225).  Thus  an  abbot,  or  a  bishop,  became  co- 
proprietor  with  the  peasants  of  a  commune;  and,  with  such  a 
cuckoo  in  the  nest,  one  can  conceive  that  the  hedge-sparrows 
might  have  a  bad  time.  "  Already  by  the  end  of  the  ninth  cent- 
ury one  third  of  the  whole  soil  of  Gaul  belonged  to  the  clergy  " 
(p.  225).  But,  if  the  men  who  left  their  property  to  the  Church 
believed  that  they  got  their  quid  pro  quo  in  the  shape  of  masses 
for  their  souls,  as  they  certainly  did  ;  and  if  the  churchmen  be- 
lieved as  sincerely  (and  they  certainly  did)  that  they  gave  valua- 
ble consideration  for  the  property  left  them,  where  does  fraud 
come  in  ?  Is  it  not  again  a  truly  industrial  operation  ?  Indeed, 
a  keen-witted  and  eminent  Scotch  judge  once  called  a  huge  be- 
quest to  a  church  "  fire  insurance,"  so  emphatically  commercial 
did  the  transaction  appear  to  him. 

Thirdly,  personal  several  property  was  carved  out  of  the  cor- 
porate communal  property  in  another  fashion,  to  which  no  objec- 
tion can  be  taken  by  industrialism.  Plots  of  arable  land  were 
granted  to  members  of  the  commune  who  were  skilled  artificers, 
as  a  salary  for  their  services.  The  craft  transmitting  itself  from 
father  to  son,  the  land  went  with  it  and  grew  into  an  hereditary 
benefice. 

Fourthly,  Sir  Henry  Maine  *  has  proved  in  a  very  striking 
manner,  from  the  collection  of  the  Brehon  laws  of  ancient  Ire- 
land, how  the  original  communal  land-ownership  of  the  sept,  with 
the  allotment  of  an  extra  allowance  of  pasture  to  the  chief,  as  the 
honorarium  for  his  services  of  all  kinds,  became  modified,  in  con- 
sequence of  the  power  of  keeping  more  cattle  than  the  rest  of  the 
sept,  thus  conferred  on  the  chief.  He  became  a  lender  of  cattle 
at  a  high  rate  of  interest  to  his  more  needy  sept  fellows,  who  when 
they  borrowed  became  bound  to  do  him  service  in  other  ways  and 
lost  status  by  falling  into  the  position  of  his  debtors.  Hence  the 
chief  gradually  acquired  the  characteristics  of  what  naturalists 

*  Sec  "  Early  History  of  Institutions,"  epecially  Lecture  vi. 


ON  THE  NATURAL  INEQUALITY   OF  MEN.        783 

have  called  "  synthetic  "  and  "  prophetic  "  types,  combining  the 
features  of  the  modern  gombeen-man  with  those  of  the  modern 
rack-renting  landlord,  who  is  commonly  supposed  to  be  a  purely 
imported  Norman  or  Saxon  product,  saturated  with  the  very 
spirit  of  industrialism  —  namely,  the  determination  to  get  the 
highest  price  for  an  article  which  is  to  be  had.  As  a  fact,  the 
condition  of  the  native  Irish,  under  their  own  chiefs,  was  as  bad 
in  Queen  Elizabeth's  time  as  it  has  ever  been  since.  Again,  the 
status  of  the  original  commoners  of  the  sept  was  steadily  altered 
for  the  worse  by  the  privilege  which  the  chief  possessed,  and  of 
which  he  freely  availed  himself,  of  settling  on  the  waste  land  of 
the  commune  such  broken  vagabonds  of  other  tribes  as  sought 
his  patronage  and  protection,  and  who  became  absolutely  depend- 
ent upon  him.  Thus,  without  war  and  without  any  necessity  for 
force  or  fraud  (though  doubtless  there  was  an  adventitious  abun- 
dance of  both),  the  communal  system  was  bound  to  go  to  pieces, 
and  to  be  replaced  by  individual  ownership,  in  consequence  of  the 
operation  of  purely  industrial  causes.  That  is  to  say,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  many  commercial  advantages  of  individual  owner- 
ship over  communal  ownership ;  which  became  more  and  more 
marked  exactly  in  proportion  as  territory  became  more  fully  occu- 
pied, security  of  possession  increased,  and  the  chances  of  the  suc- 
cess of  individual  enterprise  and  skill  as  against  routine,  in  an 
industrial  occupation,  became  greater  and  greater. 

The  notion  that  all  individual  ownership  of  land  is  the  result 
of  force  and  fraud  appears  to  me  to  be  on  a  level  with  the  pecul- 
iarly short-sighted  prejudice  that  all  religions  are  the  results  of 
sacerdotal  cunning  and  imposture.  As  religions  are  the  inevita- 
ble products  of  the  human  mind,  which  generates  the  priest  and 
the  prophet  as  much  as  it  generates  the  faithful ;  so  the  inequality 
of  individual  ownership  has  grown  out  of  the  relative  equality  of 
communal  ownership  in  virtue  of  those  natural  inequalities  of 
men  which,  if  unimpeded  by  circumstances,  can  not  fail  to  give 
rise  quietly  and  peaceably  to  corresponding  political  inequalities. 

The  task  I  have  set  myself  is  completed,  as  far  as  it  can  be 
within  reasonable  limits.  I  trust  that  those  who  have  taken  the 
trouble  to  follow  the  argument  will  agree  with  me  that  the  gos- 
pel of  Jean-Jacques,  in  its  relation  to  property,  is  a  very  sorry 
affair— that  it  is  the  product  of  an  untrustworthy  method,  applied 
to  assumptions  which  are  devoid  of  foundation  in  fact ;  and  that 
nothing  can  be  more  profoundly  true  than  the  saying  of  the  great 
and  truly  philosophical  English  jurist,  whose  recent  death  we  all 
deplore,  that  speculations  of  this  sort  are  rooted  in  "  impatience 
of  experience,  and  the  preference  of  a  priori  to  all  other  methods 
of  reasoning." 


784  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

Almost  all  the  multitudinous  causes  which  concurred  in  bring- 
ing about  the  French  Revolution  are  happily  absent  in  this  coun- 
try ;  and  I  have  not  the  slightest  fear  that  the  preaching  of  any 
amount  of  political  fallacy  will  involve  us  in  evils  of  the  magni- 
tude of  those  which  accompanied  that  great  drama.  But,  seeing 
how  great  and  manifold  are  the  inevitable  sufferings  of  men  ;  how 
profoundly  important  it  is  that  all  should  give  their  best  will  and 
devote  their  best  intelligence  to  the  alleviation  of  those  sufferings 
which  can  be  diminished,  by  seeking  out,  and,  as  far  as  lies  within 
human  power,  removing  their  causes ;  it  is  surely  lamentable  that 
they  should  be  drawn  away  by  speculative  chimeras  from  the 
attempt  to  find  that  narrow  path  which  for  nations,  as  for  indi- 
vidual men,  is  the  sole  road  to  permanent  well-being.— Nineteenth 
Century. 


SLOYD :   ITS  AIM,  METHOD,  AND  RESULTS. 

By  FEIMANN  B.  AENGEIMSSON. 

SLOJD,  anglicized  into  sloyd,  is  a  Swedish  word,  meaning  dex- 
terity or  manual  skill  (compare  old  Norse  slclegd,  cunning, 
and  English  sly).  Of  late,  however,  the  word  has  been  restricted 
to  denote  a  system  of  manual  training. 

This  system  came  originally  from  Finland,  but  was  adopted 
some  fifteen  years  ago  in  Sweden,  and  there  perfected  in  its  meth- 
ods. The  Finnish  teacher  Zygnaus  is  its  originator ;  but  to  Messrs. 
A.  Abrahamson  and  O.  Salomon,*  of  Naas,  Sweden,  is  due  the 
honor  of  having  adapted  it  to  the  use  of  schools  and  made  it  gen- 
erally known.  For  fifteen  years  their  institute  has  been  growing 
in  importance,  and  in  that  time  over  one  thousand  teachers  have 
been  trained  there  and  sent  out  to  different  parts  of  the  world. 
Hence  this  method  has  often  been  called  the  Naas  system  of 
manual  training. 

The  aim  of  the  system  is  not  to  teach  the  pupil  a  trade,  but  to 
educate  him.  Its  primary  object  is  to  insure  a  healthy  physical 
and  mental  development,  while  its  secondary  object  is  to  secure 
general  dexterity  useful  in  every  vocation. 

The  method  is  based  upon  the  principle  that  a  harmonious 
mental  development  is  best  secured  through  a  harmonious  physi- 
cal development,  promoted  by  exercise.  It  proceeds  first  to  call 
the  physical  activities  into  play,  and  by  stimulating,  strength- 
ening, and  training  these,  it  seeks  to  awaken,  develop,  and  culti- 
vate the  powers  of  the  mind.    Taking  advantage  of  the  pupil's 

*  For  more  detailed  accounts  of  the  Sloyd  system,  consult  the  writings  of  Dr.  0.  Salo- 
mon, Miss  C.  Lord,  Prof.  W.  T.  Ilarris,  P.  M.  Sluys,  etc. 


SLOYD:    ITS  AIM,  METHOD,  AND  RESULTS.       785 

natural  activity,  it  permits  him  to  engage  in  work  so  arranged  as 
to  lead  him  to  discover  the  principles  to  be  taught,  to  apply  his 
knowledge,  and  thus  obtain  a  useful  training. 

The  instruction  is  on  the  inductive  plan,  mainly  through  prac- 
tical exercises,  but  in  part  oral.  Class  instruction  is  used  only 
when  general  directions  must  be  given,  as  when  commencing  a 
class,  explaining  the  use  of  tools,  position,  etc.  Otherwise,  indi- 
vidual instruction  is  employed,  it  being  found  to  yield  the  best 
results  ;  but,  as  the  pupil  advances,  the  teacher's  aid  becomes  less 
necessary. 

The  training  consists  mainly  in  performing  certain  exercises 
calculated  to  give  general  dexterity,  promote  health  and  strength, 
and  at  the  same  time  develop  the  perceptive  faculties,  ingenuity 
of  construction,  concentrated  attention,  love  of  exactness,  and  ar- 
tistic taste. 

The  exercises,  though  necessarily  varying  with  the  require- 
ments of  different  localities,  must  embody  the  leading  principles 
of  the  system ;  be  conducive  to  health  and  development ;  pleasing, 
so  as  to  interest  the  pupil ;  varied,  so  as  to  exercise  the  various 
faculties ;  and  graded,  so  that  the  pupil  may,  with  the  mere  guid- 
ance of  the  teacher,  pass  from  the  first  and  simplest  to  the  last 
and  most  difficult. 

Series  of  objects  or  models  made  of  wood  (Figs.  1  and  2)  are 
used  to  illustrate  the  exercises.  These  models,  though  varying 
according  to  localities,  must  always  represent  useful  articles ;  be 
of  pleasing  forms,  in  which  curved  lines  largely  enter ;  be  varied, 
so  as  to  demand  variety  of  skill ;  and  be  systematically  arranged, 
so  that  each  subsequent  model  requires  an  exact  copy  of  the  pre- 
ceding. All  careless  work  must  be  excluded,  as  also  polishing 
and  painting,  in  order  to  secure  the  more  thorough  workmanship. 
The  tools  comprise  all  the  essential  ones  used  in  carpentry — as  the 
knife,  the  hammer,  the  center-bit,  the  try-square,  compasses,  saws, 
files,  planes,  etc.  The  work-room  must  be  spacious,  airy,  and 
well  lighted,  and  the  work-benches  should  turn,  so  that  when 
the  pupil  is  at  work  the  light  shall  fall  on  him  chiefly  from  the 
left  side.  The  teaching  should  not  be  intrusted  to  others  than 
those  who  have  natural  qualifications  for  the  work,  have  been  in- 
structed in  the  science  of  education,  and  trained  in  the  system 
of  Sloyd. 

The  courses  of  instruction  must  necessarily  depend  on  circum- 
stances, but  the  instruction  falls  naturally  into  three  stages,  viz., 
an  elementary,  an  intermediate,  and  an  advanced  course ;  or,  more 
simply,  into  an  elementary  course  for  children,  and  an  advanced 
course  for  older  pupils.  In  any  case  the  period  of  instruction  may 
be  made  to  coincide  with  that  of  the  common  school. 

What  relation  Sloyd  bears  to  other  systems  of  manual  training 

VOL.  XXXVI. — 50 


786 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


can  here  be  merely  indicated  in  a  very  general  way.  This  system 
agrees  with  ether  systems  of  manual  training  in  making  physical 
i 'rise  the  basis  of  its  instruction  and  training,  also  in  adopting 
the  inductive  method  of  teaching.  But  it  differs  from  most  of 
these  in  using  wood  as  the  only  material  for  construction,  and  in 
the  form  of  its  models.  From  the  various  handicrafts  in  wood,  as 
carpentry,  wood-carving,  wood-engraving,  etc.,  it  differs  in  not 


Fig.  1.— Models. 


being  a  trade ;  and  from  other  Sloyd  systems,  in  avoiding  their 
tendency  of  either  aiming  at  a  mere  technical  skill  or  a  mere 
mental  discipline.  Thus,  it  differs  from  those  adopted  in  France 
and  Denmark  in  being  less  technical,  from  those  in  Germany  in 
being  less  theoretical,  and  from  the  Russian  system  chiefly  in  lay- 
ing greater  stress  on  the  utility  of  the  articles  and  introducing 
curved  lines  at  an  earlier  stage. 

How  far  Sloyd  may  be  adopted  in  the  public  schools  has  been 
extensively  discussed  in  Europe.  That  it  should  be  introduced 
into  the  public  schools,  either  as  a  separate  branch  of  study  or 
incorporated  with  the  ordinary  branches  as  a  continuation  of  the 
Kindergarten  system,  has  been  earnestly  urged  by  some  schools 
of  pedagogy,  and  as  strenuously  opposed  by  others.  It  is  not  pos- 
sible to  enter  fully  into  the  subject  here ;  but  it  may  be  noted  that 


SLOYD  :    ITS  AIM,  METHOD,  AND  RESULTS.       787 

the  principal  teacher  of  Sloyd,  Director  Salomon,  unhesitatingly 
claims  that  its  introduction  into  the  public  schools  would  be  bene- 
ficial, directly  promoting  general  health,  and  indirectly  by  facili- 
tating the  acquisition  of  other  studies. 

It  has  been  claimed  by  many  advocates  of  this  system  that  it 
is  better  than  most  others,  supplies  a  healthful  training,  without 
becoming  on  the  one  hand  a  mere  trade,  or  on  the  other  a  mere 
theoretic  study  ;  that  while  it  trains  in  general  dexterity  and  pro- 
motes physical  development,  it  at  the  same  time  strengthens  and 
disciplines  the  faculties  of  the  mind  ;  cultivating  the  perceptives. 


Fig.  2. — Models. 


especially  the  senses  of  form  and  order ;  training  the  power  of 
comparison,  constructiveness,  and  concentration  of  thought ;  be- 
sides awakening  a  liking  for  manual  labor,  respect  for  manual 
workers,  love  for  the  true,  and  taste  for  the  beautiful.  Whatever 
may  be  said  to  the  contrary,  so  much  is  certain  that,  if  properly 
taught,  Sloyd  is  a  valuable  means  to  education  and  an  important 
complement  to  the  ordinary  branches  of  school  studies.  This  is 
borne  out  by  its  phenomenal  success  in  Sweden,  its  extensive 
adoption  in  countries  where  education  is  most  advanced,  as  in 
Germany,  France,  and  Great  Britain,  and  by  its  growing  popu- 
larity on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic. 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

Some  idea  of  how  Sloyd  is  succeeding  on  this  continent  may  be 
gleaned  from  the  following  extract  from  the  "  Midsummer  Report 
of  the  Sloyd  School "  at  No.  10  Warrenton  Street,  Boston  : 

"  This  school  was  started  by  Mrs.  Quincy  A.  Shaw.  It  is  super- 
intended by  Mrs.  F.  S.  Fiske.  The  Sloyd  instruction  is  given  by 
Mr.  G.  Larsson,  formerly  a  teacher  in  the  normal  school  at  Naas, 
Sweden. 

"  The  school  began  in  November,  1888,  in  the  Warrenton  Street 
Chapel,  the  intention  being  to  show  the  principles  of  the  Swedish 
method  of  manual  training — modified,  however,  according  to 
American  requirements.  The  course  from  November  1,  1888,  to 
July  1,  1889,  has  been  carried  on  with  continually  growing  inter- 
est on  the  part  of  the  pupils.  As  the  course  has  been  free,  with 
no  obligatory  attendance  whatever,  it  is  astonishing  to  see  with 
what  interest  and  attention  it  has  been  followed,  not  only  hj  the 
grown-up  pupils,  but  especially  by  the  younger  ones. 

'  The  number  of  pupils  who  have  received  instruction  is  above 
one  hundred  and  forty ;  of  these,  fifty-three  were  lady  teachers, 
twenty  working-girls,  thirty-seven  boys  between  the  ages  of  ten 
and  sixteen  years,  ten  young  men,  and  twenty  from  the  Horace 
Mann  School  (deaf  and  dumb). 

"  About  fifty  of  the  pupils  have  begun  the  normal  course, 
but  the  time  has  been  too  short  for  any  of  these  to  finish  the 
series. 

'  The  pupils  have  to  complete  a  copy  of  each  model  as  exactly 
as  possible  before  they  begin  the  next  number. 

"  As  soon  as  they  have  completed  the  series,  they  will  have  a 
few  lessons  in  sharpening  tools ;  also  get  practice  in  teaching 
pupils ;  and  by  short  discussion  obtain  some  knowledge  of  the 
different  systems  of  manual  training  in  wood,  their  advantages, 
disadvantages,  etc." 

Since  this  report  was  written  the  school  has  steadily  increased, 
so  that  now  the  pupils  number  over  two  hundred.  Of  these  about 
eighty  are  boys,  the  rest  being  chiefly  teachers  from  the  city 
schools.  There  are  two  courses  provided,  and  a  third  more  ad- 
vanced course  will  be  added  if  necessary.  The  time  required  for 
completing  a  course  varies  from  one  hundred  and  fifty  to  two 
li  mid  red  hours,  according  to  the  pupil's  ability.  The  pupils  are 
divided  into  classes  of  twenty  each,  and  these  meet  at  stated  times, 
generally  twice  a  week,  the  lessons  being  usually  of  two  hours' 
duration.  Admission  to  the  school  is  limited  to  teachers,  boys 
l'i( >m  the  public  schools,  and  deaf-mutes  from  the  Horace  Mann 
School.     Tuition  is  free. 

The  following  table  of  the  first  six  models,  in  a  series  of 
twenty-five,  shows  that  the  order  of  the  exercises  is  the  essential 
quality  of  a  series  of  models  : 


SLOYD:    ITS  AIM,  METHOD,  AND  RESULTS.       789 


No. 

Model. 

1 

Wedge. 

2 

Flower- 

3 

pm. 
Flower- 
stick. 

4 

Pen-holder. 

5 

Cutting- 
board. 

6 

Flower-pot 
stand. 

New 
exercises. 


Whittling. 

Square  whit- 
tling. 
Square  sawing 
and  planing. 

Curved  whit- 
tling and 
boring. 
Round  saw- 
ing, filing, 
and  using  of 
block-plane. 

Nailing  and 

using  of 
bench-hook. 


New  tools. 


Knife,  rule,  lead- 
pencil. 
Knife,  rule,  and  lead- 
pencil. 
Splitting-saw,  jack- 
plane,  try-square,  and 
marking-gauge. 
Center-bit. 


Cross-cut  saw,  turn- 
ing saw,  compasses, 
flat  file,  block-plane, 
center-bit  and  back- 
saw. 
Hammer  and  bench- 
hook. 


Kind  of 
wood. 


Pine. 
Pine. 
Pine. 

Hard 
pine. 

Pine 
or 
white- 
wood. 

Pine. 


Dimen- 
sions— ins. 


3xlxi 
12x£ 
15x£ 

8x£ 

17x6xf 

20  x  6  x  f 


Drawing. 


Parallel  lines. 

Parallel  lines. 

How  to  find  the 

Free-hand  draw- 
ing of  curved 

lines. 
How  to  find  the 
center  of  a  line ; 
to  draw  a  circle, 
given  the  radius 
or  two  tangents. 
Continued  elem'n- 
tary  drawing. 


A  Glimpse  of  the  Sloyd  School  in  Boston. — It  is  a  rather 
remarkable  building,  that  chapel  at  No.  10  Warrenton  Street.  The 
first  floor  is  used  for  Kindergarten  and  evening  school,  the  second 
for  a  church  and  lecture-room,  while  on  the  third  floor  is  a  Sloyd 
school. 

Here  the  visitor  enters  a  large,  well-lighted  hall  (Fig.  3),  with 
two  rows  of  benches  along  the  sides,  and  at  each  bench  is  a  student. 
It  may  be  that  a  class  of  teachers  is  at  work,  teachers  mature  in 
years  and  experience,  of  delicate  frames,  care-worn  countenances, 
watchful  eyes,  aquiline  noses,  now  and  then  adorned  with  a  pair 
of  gold  spectacles — gentlemen,  men  of  polite  address,  ladies  of 
queenly  deportment — all  at  present  whittling  or  hammering,  saw- 
ing or  planing,  like  genuine  carpenters,  exercising  many  a  deli- 
cate muscle  now  perhaps  for  the  first  time  in  their  lives,  working 
with  a  will,  even  enthusiasm,  which  can  not  be  explained  on  the 
supposition  that  they  are  trying  to  atone  for  the  sins  of  their 
quondam  educators.  No,  they  are  here  to  educate  themselves,  that 
they  may  the  better  educate  those  placed  in  their  charge ;  and  it 
is  this  which  makes  their  work  sublime,  even  sacred.  Or  it  may 
happen  that  a  class  of  youths  are  at  work — boys  from  the  pub- 
lic schools  or  the  machine-shops,  factory-girls  and  servant-girls  ; 
youths  who  feel  the  irksome  and  unhealthy  influence  of  hard 
service,  who  are  debarred  by  utter  poverty,  arrogant  pride,  or 
blind  custom,  from  obtaining  that  education  which  their  gentle, 
aspiring,  and  noble  natures  desire — debarred  from  the  full  develop- 
ment and  the  free  exercise  of  their  God-given  faculties ;  youths 
of  untutored  talents  as  well  as  those  of  well-instructed  minds  are 
here.  And  all  engage  in  the  work  ;  all  take  hold  with  a  will,  even 
with  joy.  For  they  feel  the  blood  course  more  freely  in  their 
veins,  hear  the  wind  breathe  sweeter  music,  and  see  the  light 


79° 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


weave  a  more  lovely  world  of  colors.  Their  dormant  energies 
are  awakened,  the  heightened  color  on  the  cheek,  the  lustrous 
laughing  eye,  the  merry  mobile  lip,  the  fair  white  hand,  the  whole 
person  speaks  in  eloquent  language  the  pleasure  which  springs 
from  progress,  or  a  work  well  done. 


Fig.  3.— Free  Slotd  School— Normal  Class. 

But  it  may  be  that  neither  mature  teachers  nor  tender  youths 
are  at  their  benches,  but  playful,  frolicsome  children  flitting  about 
their  work  like  butterflies  about  a  flower,  and  working  with  glee, 
learning  almost  unconsciously.  Here  is  a  batch  of  boys,  there  a 
group  of  girls,  who  at  other  times  might  be  called  a  little  unruly ; 
they  are  now  all  attention,  their  minds  concentrated  on  the  curious 
models  before  them  ;  and,  while  the  exercise  lasts,  there  is  no  indi- 
cation of  unrestrained  spirits. 

But  perhaps  the  school  presents  none  of  these  sights,  but  a  very 
different  one ;  a  sight  half  sad,  yet  not  without  a  ray  of  gladness ; 
a  picture  not  composed  of  trained  teachers,  or  boisterous  youths, 
or  prattling  children,  eagerly  listening,  and  as  eagerly  speaking, 
but  of  a  group  of  deaf  and  dumb.  And  now,  if  ever,  you  may  see 
what  intense  enthusiasm  may  be  thrown  into  manual  training. 
The  poor  unfortunates  deprived  of  hearing  and  of  speech  find 
here  a  new  field  in  which  to  exercise  their  minds  and  express  their 
ideas.     By  their  very  disabilities  they  are  enabled  to  concentrate 


THE  MYSTERIOUS   MUSIC   OF  PASCAGOULA.      791 

their  minds  better  than  their  more  fortunate  brethren,  and  even 
outstrip  them  in  excellence  of  workmanship.  Among  the  boys 
there  is  a  deaf-mute  some  sixteen  years  of  age  who  surpasses  all 
others  in  the  school,  a  result  attained  not  by  superior  talent  but 
by  close  application.  Near  him  another  boy  of  magnificent  build 
and  great  ability  dashes  off  his  work — now  planing,  now  carving, 
with  a  master  hand.  On  the  other  side  of  the  room,  in  the  midst 
of  that  row  of  girls — neat,  even  pretty  girls — there  are  two  most 
noticeable  ;  one  a  brunette,  whose  quick,  observant  eye  omits 
nothing  while  her  snow-white  hand  deftly  draws  and  carefully 
carves  the  model.  Beside  her  stands  a  quiet  blonde  with  blue, 
thoughtful  eyes,  carefully  examining  her  model ;  and  then,  as  if 
suddenly  discovering  some  new  principle,  makes  a  gesture  of  joy 
and  resumes  her  work.  At  the  close  of  the  exercise  she  takes  the 
finished  model  to  her  teacher,  and,  with  a  pleasant  smile,  joyful 
feelings  struggling  for  expression  in  her  soulful  face,  says,  in  the 
deaf-mute  language,  "  I  love  this  work." 


THE   MYSTERIOUS  MUSIC   OF  PASCAGOULA. 

By  CHAKLES   E.   CHIDSEY. 

ANY  one  examining  a  map  of  the  Mississippi  coast  will  find 
indicated  thereon,  about  one  hundred  miles  east  of  New 
Orleans,  the  town  of  Scranton,  or  East  Pascagoula,  situated  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Pascagoula  River.  The  waters  of  this  river  have 
become  famous  in  "song  and  story"  for  the  strange  sounds  which 
they  give  forth  as  they  slowly  make  their  way  to  the  Gulf.  For 
forty  years  or  more  a  great  deal  has  been  written  in  prose  and 
verse  about  this  mysterious  music  of  Pascagoula,  yet  no  one  that 
I  know  of  has  ever  attempted  to  give  an  accurate  description  or  a 
plausible  explanation  of  the  phenomenon.  In  the  following  paper 
it  is  my  purpose  to  describe  the  sounds  as  I  have  often  heard 
them,  and  for  an  explanation  of  the  mystery  to  give  a  theory, 
long  since  advanced  by  Darwin  and  Rev.  Charles  Kingsley,  to 
explain  the  cause  of  similar  music  heard  on  the  southern  coast  of 
France. 

It  was  late  one  evening  in  September,  1875,  that  I  first  heard 
the  mysterious  music  of  Pascagoula.  An  old  fisherman  called 
me  from  the  house  where  I  then  was,  to  come  down  on  the  river- 
bank  and  "hear  the  spirits  singing  under  the  water."  Full  of 
eager  curiosity,  I  readily  obeyed  the  summons,  and,  if  what  I  heard 
can  not  be  properly  called  music,  it  was  certainly  mysterious. 
From  out  of  the  waters  of  the  river,  apparently  some  forty  feet 


792 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


from  its  shelving  bank,  rose  a  roaring,  murmuring  sound,  which 
gradually  increased  in  strength  and  volume,  until  it  had  reached 
its  height,  when  it  as  slowly  descended.  It  may  be  represented  as 
follows : 

Diapason . 

± 


Crescendo. 


Diminuendo. 


It  never  advanced  or  receded,  but  seemed  always  in  the 
same  spot ;  and,  though  I  remained  there  some  time,  it  never 
ceased,  but  continued  to  rise  and  .fall  in  the  manner  that  I  have 
indicated  above.  The  reader  may  obtain  a  better  idea  of  the  mu- 
sic if  he  will  place  his  ear  against  a  telegraph-pole,  the  timber  of 
which,  acting  as  a  sounding-board  for  the  wires  that  are  played 
upon  by  the  wind,  gives  forth  a  strange,  tremulous  sound,  that 
is  an  exact  counterpart  of  the  "  music  of  Pascagoula  " — with  this 
difference,  however,  that  whereas  the  music  of  the  wires  is  very 
wavering  and  tremulous,  that  of  the  water  rises  and  falls  with  a 
steady  swell. 

One  evening  in  October,  some  years  after  the  event  above 
mentioned,  while  seated  on  an  old  wharf  on  the  banks  of  the  Pas- 
cagoula River,  idly  watching  the  ever  varying  and  shifting  hues 
of  the  setting  sun,  pointing  with  my  finger  across  the  wide  extent 
of  marsh  that  stretched  before  me  to  a  squall  that  was  raging  in 
the  Gulf,  I  remarked  to  my  companion  how  distinctly  we  could 
hear  the  roar  of  the  wind,  though  the  storm  was  so  far  off.  "  That," 
she  replied,  "  is  not  the  storm  that  you  hear,  but  the  mysterious 
music."  Approaching  the  edge  of  the  wharf  upon  which  we  sat, 
and  leaning  over,  I  soon  ascertained  the  truth  of  her  words,  for 
from  out  of  the  water  came  a  roaring,  rushing  sound  like  that  of 
a  mighty  wind,  that  may  be  represented  thus  : 


The  sound,  however,  was  not  caused  by  the  wind  passing  be- 
tween the  wharf  and  the  water,  as  there  was  very  little  breeze 
where  we  were,  and,  though  I  visited  the  spot  some  time  after- 
ward, it  abated  but  little.  I  have  been  frequently  told  by  fisher- 
men that,  when  fishing  at  night  on  the  waters  of  the  Pascagoula, 
should  they  hear  the  mysterious  music  and  make  an  unusual 
sound  by  splashing  the  water  with  an  oar,  or  jumping  overboard, 


THE  MYSTERIOUS  MUSIC   OF  PASCAGOULA.      793 

the  music  will  instantly  cease,  to  begin  again  as  soon  as  all  is 
quiet. 

A  few  days  ago  I  was  told,  by  a  lady  residing  here,  that  one 
night  this  summer,  while  rowing  upon  the  river,  she  heard  the 
music.  "  As  we  approached  the  sound/'  she  said,  "  it  seemed  to 
go  away  from  us,  but  we  continued  to  follow  it  even  some  dis- 
tance up  the  bayou  on  the  other  side  of  the  river,  when,  for 
fear  of  losing  ourselves  in  the  intricate  windings  of  the  bayou, 
we  left  it." 

My  friend,  the  late  Rev.  R.  G.  Hinsdale,  of  Biloxi,  has  told  me 
that  at  that  place  there  are  three  different  kinds  of  this  music 
heard,  viz. :  the  first  is  like  that  I  have  described ;  the  second  is  a 
quick,  sharp  note  sounded  at  different  intervals,  like  this  : 


the  third  is  another  note  repeated  twice,  as  follows 


~o~    ^ 

h  „    h 

r>  „    h 

— ts N 

=F  ~ 

ik  %*- 

—d— y— J— 

-j  ^— *— 

~-d    *    * 

*— ^— 

As  I  have  before  hinted,  I  have  no  theory  of  my  own  to  offer 
in  explanation  of  the  strange  phenomenon  known  as  the  mys- 
terious music  of  Pascagoula,  but  shall  merely  give  the  theory 
that  was  advanced  by  Darwin  years  ago.  In  his  "  Descent  of 
Man,"  page  347  (revised  edition),  Darwin  says,  "  The  last  point 
which  need  be  noticed  is  that  fishes  are  known  to  make  various 
noises,  some  of  which  are  described  as  being  musical.  Dr.  Du- 
fosse*,  who  has  especially  attended  to  this  subject,  says  that  the 
sounds  are  voluntarily  produced  in  several  ways  by  different 
fishes :  by  the  friction  of  the  pharyngeal  bones ;  by  the  vibration 
of  certain  muscles  attached  to  the  swim-bladder,  which  serves  as 
a  resounding-board ;  and  by  the  vibration  of  the  intrinsic  muscles 
of  the  swim-bladder.  By  this  latter  means  the  Trigla  produces 
pure  and  long-drawn  sounds  which  range  over  nearly  an  octave. 
But  the  most  interesting  case  for  us  is  that  of  two  species  of 
Ophidium,  in  which  the  males  alone  are  provided  with  a  sound- 
producing  apparatus,  consisting  of  small  movable  bones,  with 
proper  muscles,  in  connection  with  the  swim-bladder.  The  drum- 
ming of  the  Umbrinas  in  the  European  seas  is  said  to  be  audible 
from  a  depth  of  twenty  fathoms,  and  the  fishermen  of  Rochelle 
assert  that '  the  males  alone  make  the  noise  during  the  spawning- 
time,  and  that  it  is  possible,  by  imitating  it,  to  take  them  without 
bait.' " 

Whether  or  not  these  fishes  inhabit  or  visit  the  waters  of  the 

VOL.   XXXVI. — 51 


794  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

Pascagoula,  I  am  unable  to  say ;  but  if  Darwin's  views  are  correct, 
and  I  have  no  doubt  that  they  are,  then  we  have  a  very  probable 
explanation  of  the  mysterious  music ;  if  not,  then  we  are  as  much 
in  the  dark  as  ever.* 


-•-*+- 


THE  INDWELLING  SPIRITS  OF  MEN. 

By  Hon.  Major  A.  B.  ELLIS. 

IN  the  spring  of  1889  an  officer  of  the  United  States  Army,  who 
was  visiting  Nassau,  N.  P.,  for  the  benefit  of  his  health,  lent 
me  a  pamphlet,  a  reprint  of  Dr.  Washington  Matthews's  "  The 
Prayer  of  a  Navajo  Shaman,"  which  had  originally  been  pub- 
lished in  the  "  American  Anthropologist "  for  April,  1888,  and  at 
page  19  of  that  pamphlet  I  read  as  follows : 

"The  suppliant  is  supposed,  through  the" influence  of  witch- 
craft, exercised  either  in  this  world,  or  in  the  lower  world  when 
in  spirit  he  was  traveling  there,  to  have  lost  his  body,  or  parts 
thereof — not  his  visible  body,  nor  yet  his  soul,  his  breath  of  life 
— for  both  of  these  he  knows  himself  to  be  still  in  possession  of, 
but  a  sort  of  spiritual  body  which  he  thinks  constitutes  a  part  of 
him — the  astral  body,  perhaps,  of  our  theosophic  friends.  This 
third  element  of  man  belongs  not  only  to  his  living  person,  but  to 
things  which  pertain  to  it,  such  as  his  ejected  saliva,  his  fallen 
hair,  the  dust  of  his  feet,  etc." 

What  struck  me  in  this  passage  was  the  curious  analogy  be- 
tween the  belief  thus  stated  to  be  held  by  the  Navajos  and  one 
which,  in  the  course  of  my  investigation  of  the  religious  systems 
of  the  negroes  of  West  Africa,  I  had  discovered  to  be  held  by  the 
various  tribes  of  the  Gold  and  Slave  Coasts ;  and  it  is  with  the 
object  of  calling  the  attention  of  American  anthropologists  to  this 
third  element  in  man  that  I  venture  to  put  forward  this  paper. 

The  Navajo  believes  that  there  are  three  entities  in  man:  (1)  The 

*  [Prof  G.  Brown  Goode,  in  his  "  American  Fishes,"  mentions  several  species  to  which 
the  name  Drum  has  been  given  because  of  their  ability  to  produce  sounds.  In  his  account 
of  the  Sea  Drum  he  says  :  "  Another  historical  incident  is  connected  with  Pogonias.  The 
legend  of  Pascagoula  and  its  mysterious  music,  deemed  supernatural  by  the  Indians,  is  still 
current.  '  It  may  often  be  heard  there  on  summer  evenings,'  says  a  recent  writer.  '  The 
listener  being  on  the  beach,  or,  yet  more  favorably,  in  a  boat  floating  on  the  river,  a  low, 
plaintive  sound  is  heard  rising  and  falling  like  that  of  an  ^Eolian  harp,  and  seeming  to 
issue  from  the  water.  The  sounds,  which  are  sweet  and  plaintive,  but  monotonous,  cease 
as  soon  as  there  is  any  noise  or  disturbance  of  the  water.'  Bienville,  the  French  explorer, 
heard  the  music  of  Pascagoula  when  he  made  his  voyage  in  1699  to  the  mouths  of  the 
Mississippi,  and  his  experiences  are  recorded  in  his  narrative."  Speaking  of  the  Lake 
Drum,  Prof.  Goode  remarks :  "  These  names,  '  Croaker,'  '  Drum,'  '  Thunder-pumper,'  etc., 
refer  to  the  croaking  or  grunting  noise  made  by  this  species  in  common  with  most  Sciae- 
noids.  This  noise  is  thought  to  be  made  in  the  air-bladder  by  forcing  the  air  from  one 
compartment  to  another." — Editor.] 


THE  INDWELLING   SPIRITS    OF  MEN.  795 

corporeal  man ;  (2)  his  soul,  the  vehicle  of  independent  personal  ex- 
istence, which,  at  the  death  of  the  body,  survives  and  continues  its 
career  in  the  land  of  spirits ;  (3)  his  spiritual  body,  which  Dr.  Mat- 
thews terms  his  "  third  element."  The  Tshi-speaking  negroes  of 
the  Gold  Coast — that  is,  the  Ashantis,  Fantis,  Wassaws,  Gamans, 
and  several  other  tribes — believe  similarly  in  three  entities :  (1)  The 
corporeal  man ;  (2)  his  soul,  or  ghost ;  (3)  the  indwelling  spirit  of 
the  living  man,  which  they  term  his  kra. 

Now,  though  the  kra  has  frequently  been  confounded  with  the 
soul  or  ghost,  it  is  essentially  distinct.  The  soul  or  ghost  only 
comes  into  being  when  the  corporeal  man  ceases  to  exist,  and  so 
may  be  considered  to  be  the  latter  deprived  of  his  material  body ; 
but  the  kra,  the  Tshi-speaking  negro  believes,  existed  independ- 
ently before  the  birth  of  the  man,  and  after  his  death  will  con- 
tinue to  exist  equally  independently  of  the  soul  or  ghost.  A  kra 
may  have,  and  almost  always  has,  been  a  kra  in  the  bodies  of  other 
men  since  deceased,  and,  at  the  death  of  the  individual  whose  body 
he  is  now  tenanting,  will  seek  to  enter  the  body  of  some  new-born 
human  being.  Failing  this,  it  enters  the  body  of  an  animal,  and, 
if  unable  to  enter  the  body  either  of  a  human  being  or  of  an  ani- 
mal, it  becomes  a  sisa,  a  kra  without  a  tenement,  and  wanders 
about  the  earth,  causing  sickness  to  mankind.  The  ghost  or  soul 
which,  at  the  death  of  the  corporeal  man,  proceeds  to  Dead-land, 
and  there  continues  the  former  vocations  of  the  man,  and  for 
whose  service  in  Dead-land  slaves  and  wives  are  sacrificed,  and 
arms,  implements,  and  clothing  buried  with  the  corpse,  is  the 
vehicle  of  individual  personal  existence,  the  true  soul;  and  the 
kra,  whose  connection  with  the  man  commences  with  the  birth 
and  terminates  at  his  death,  is  something  quite  different. 

The  difference  between  the  kra  and  the  soul  is  also  well  shown 
by  the  different  results  which  ensue  when  they  quit  the  body. 
The  kra  can  and  does  quit  the  body  at  will.  Usually  it  does  so 
only  during  the  sleep  of  the  man,  who  is  unconscious  of  its  de- 
parture, and  its  adventures  are  the  occurrences  of  which  the  man 
dreams.  If  it  should  leave  while  the  man  is  awake,  the  latter  is 
only  made  conscious  of  it,  if  at  all,  by  a  yawn,  a  sneeze,  a  shudder, 
or  some  such  slight  convulsion,  which  indicates  to  him  that  his 
kra  is  going  out.  In  any  case,  whether  sleeping  or  waking,  he 
suffers  no  pain,  feels  no  inconvenience,  and  is  subject  to  no  appar- 
ent change  consequent  on  the  departure  of  his  kra.  The  absence 
of  the  kra  is,  however,  dangerous,  as  it  affords  an  opportunity  for 
a  sisa,  or  kra  without  a  tenement,  to  enter  the  vacant  body,  for 
which  the  insisa  are  believed  to  be  always  on  the  lookout.  The 
man  is  not  conscious  of  the  entry  of  the  sisa,  and  nothing  hap- 
pens until  the  kra  returns  and  attempts  to  eject  the  intruder, 
when  the  effect  of  the  internal  struggle  is  to  throw  the  man  into 


796  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

convulsions.  In  this  manner  the  West  African  negroes  seek  to 
account  for  epileptic  and  similar  seizures ;  they  are  what  used  to 
be  termed  cases  of  "  possession,"  but  they  are  not  directly  attrib- 
utable to  the  departure  of  the  kra,  per  se. 

When,  however,  the  soul  quits  the  body,  the  latter  falls  at  once 
into  a  motionless  and  lifeless  condition.  Sometimes,  though  but 
rarely,  the  soul  returns,  and  then  the  man  has  been  in  a  swoon  or 
trance  ;  more  frequently  it  does  not  return,  and  then  the  man  is 
dead.  It  is  in  the  hope  that  the  soul  may  return  that  appeals  to 
the  dead  to  come  back  are  always  made,  and  that  the  corpse  is 
kept  until  the  signs  of  corruption  show  that  the  soul  has  gone  for- 
ever. The  difference,  then,  between  the  results  of  departure  is 
clear.  When  the  kra  departs,  there  is  no  direct  and  immediate 
result,  though  the  departure  may  lead  to  "  possession  " ;  but  when 
the  soul  departs,  the  direct  and  immediate  result  is  suspended  ani- 
mation or  death. 

The  Ewi-speaking  peoples  of  the  Slave  Coast — the  Awunas, 
Krepis,  Dahomis,  Mahis,  etc. — hold  exactly  similar  views ;  the 
third  element,  or  indwelling  spirit  of  man,  being  by  them  termed 
a  luivo.  The  Ga-speaking  peoples  of  the  eastern  districts  of  the 
Gold  Coast  have  modified  the  more  original  conception,  and  be- 
lieve that  each  individual  has  two  kla  (the  Ga-term  for  kra),  a 
male  and  a  female,  the  former  being  of  a  bad  disposition  and  the 
latter  of  a  good. 

By  all  the  tribes  of  these  three  lingual  groups  the  indwelling 
spirit  is  believed  to  afford  some  protection  to  man.  It  receives  oc- 
casional thank-offerings,  and  the  anniversary  of  each  individual's 
day  of  birth  is  held  as  a  day  sacred  to  the  spiritual  tenant.  On  this 
account  the  hra  may  be  regarded  in  some  respects  as  a  guardian 
spirit,  dwelling  in  the  body  of  the  man ;  but  it  is  more  than  that. 
Its  close  connection  with  the  man  himself  is  indicated  by  the  fact 
of  its  nocturnal  adventures  during  its  absence  from  the  body 
being  remembered  by  the  man  when  he  awakes.  The  latter  even 
feels  physically  the  effects  of  his  kra's  actions ;  and  when  the  ne- 
gro awakes  from  sleep  feeling  stiff  and  unref reshed,  or  with  limbs 
aching  from  muscular  rheumatism,  he  invariably  attributes  these 
symptoms  to  the  fact  of  his  Icra  having  been  engaged  in  some 
struggle  or  some  severe  toil.  If,  moreover,  a  man  dreams  of  other 
men,  he  believes  that  his  kra  has  met  theirs ;  consequently,  the  kra 
is  held  to  have  the  outward  appearance  of  the  man  whose  body  he 
tenants.  Hence  the  kra  is  more  than  a  mere  tenanting  or  guardian 
spirit.  He  has,  though  doubtless  only  in  a  shadowy  form,  the 
very  shape  and  appearance  of  the  man ;  and  both  the  mind  and 
body  of  the  latter  are  affected  by  and  register  the  results  of  the 
kra's  actions.  How  the  notion  of  such  an  existence  came  into 
being  it  is  beyond  the  province  of  this  paper  to  inquire.     It  is 


THE  INDWELLING   SPIRITS   OF  MEN.  797 

sufficient  that  it  does  exist,  and  that  the  Jcra  is  believed  to  be  essen- 
tially distinct  from  the  soul  or  ghost,  which,  at  the  death  of  the 
body,  proceeds  to  Dead-land,  and  there  continues  the  life  that  the 
man  led  in  the  world. 

I  am  unaware  if  American  anthropologists  have  considered 
this  third  element  of  man,  and  its  bearing  upon  the  theory  of 
animism,  or  even  if  instances  of  the  belief  being  held,  other  than 
that  mentioned  by  Dr.  Washington  Matthews,  have  been  recorded ; 
but  in  Europe  it  seems  quite  to  have  escaped  notice,  and  the  belief 
is  not  referred  to  in  any  one  of  the  text-books  of  anthropology  that 
I  have  examined.  This  is  doubtless  in  consequence  of  the  German 
missionaries  in  "West  Africa  having  translated  the  words  hra,  Ma, 
and  luivo  as  "soul/'  a  term  which  is  not  at  all  applicable,  and 
which  has  led  to  the  third  element  being  confused  with  the  soul 
proper. 

It  is  in  its  bearing  upon  that  branch  of  animism  which  is 
termed  Nature-worship  that  this  third  element  seems  most  im- 
portant. The  negroes  of  the  Gold  and  Slave  Coasts,  like  every 
other  people  low  in  the  stage  of  civilization,  believe  that  inani- 
mate as  well  as  animate  objects  have  souls  or  ghosts — a  belief 
which  is  proved  by  the  practice  of  burying  arms,  implements, 
utensils,  etc.,  for  the  use  of  the  dead  in  Dead-land.  The  soul  or 
ghost  of  the  dead  hunter  goes  to  Dead-land,  and  there  continues 
the  former  pursuit  of  the  man,  using  the  souls  or  ghosts  of  the 
weapons  buried  with  him ;  but  the  negroes  have  gone  beyond  this, 
and,  just  as  they  believe  man  to  possess  a  third  element  or  indwell- 
ing spirit,  so  do  they  believe  that  every  natural  object,  everything 
not  made  by  human  hands,  has,  in  addition  to  its  soul  or  ghost,  a 
third  element  or  spiritual  individuality.  They  hold  that  just  as, 
when  the  man  dies,  the  hra  of  the  man  enters  a  new-born  child, 
and  the  soul  or  ghost-man  goes  to  Dead-land ;  so,  when  the  tree 
dies,  the  hra,  so  to  speak,  of  the  tree  enters  a  seedling,  and  the 
ghost-tree  goes  to  join  the  ranks  of  the  shadowy  forest  in  Dead- 
land.  And  it  is  these  animating  or  spiritual  tenants  of  natural 
objects  and  natural  features  that  the  negro  fears,  and  consequently 
worships. 

The  process  is  something  like  this  :  Some  day  a  man  falls  into 
a  river  and  is  drowned.  The  body  is  recovered  by  the  man's  com- 
rades, and  is  found  to  present  no  sign  of  external  injury  which, 
in  their  experience,  would  account  for  death.  Being  necessarily 
ignorant  of  the  processes  by  which  life  is  maintained,  and  seeking 
for  a  cause  to  which  to  attribute  the  disaster,  they  conceive  the 
spiritual  tenant  or  spiritual  individuality  of  the  river  to  have 
killed  their  comrade.  And  to  this  day,  when  a  negro  is  drowned, 
his  friends  say,  "  So-and-so  "  (the  spirit  or  god  of  the  river)  "  has 
taken  him  down."    Whether  it  was  with  the  design  of  accounting 


798  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

satisfactorily  for  such  accidents — for  to  man  in  a  low  state  of  cult- 
ure nothing  happens  by  chance — that  the  negro  extended  to  natural 
objects  and  features  the  theory  of  a  third  element  which  he  had 
hitherto  restricted  to  himself ;  or  whether  he  had  already  formed 
the  belief  that  such  objects  and  features  possessed  spiritual  indi- 
vidualities, and  such  accidents  only  proved  to  him  the  malignity 
and  power  for  evil  of  those  beings,  the  result  would  be  the  same. 
In  either  case  he  would  seek  to  propitiate  these  powerful  beings, 
and  that  class  of  worship  which  we  term  Nature-worship  would 
originate. 

The  theory  of  animism  is  divided  into  two  parts,  namely :  that 
which  treats  of  the  souls  or  ghosts  of  individual  creatures  or  ob- 
jects, capable  of  continued  existence  after  the  death  or  destruction 
of  the  material  part ;  and  that  which  treats  of  spiritual  beings,  or 
gods,  who  are  held  to  affect  and  control  man's  life  and  the  events 
of  the  material  world.     In  explanation  of  the  first  belief  we  have 
the  well-known  theory  advanced  by  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer,  Dr.  Ty- 
lor,  and  others,  and  which  is  now  very  generally  accepted ;  but 
for  the  origin  of  the  second  belief  we  have  no  such  satisfactory  ex- 
planation, and  have  to  fall  back  upon  the  theory  that  the  dei  loci 
— the  gods  of  mountains,  rivers,  lakes,  rocks,  and  trees — are  deified 
dead  men,  an  explanation  that  will  only  apply  in  a  few  isolated 
cases.   Here,  however,  on  the  Gold  and  Slave  Coasts  of  "West  Africa, 
we  find  ready  to  hand  a  belief  which  explains  the  origin  of  such 
beings.     If  a  tree  should  fall  in  the  forest  and  crush  a  man,  those 
who  witness  the  accident,  or  find  the  body  crushed  under  the  fallen 
tree,  have  no  hesitation  in  immediately  attributing  the  disaster  to 
the  indwelling  spirit,  or  third  element,  of  the  tree.    This  is  the 
belief  held,  and  the  explanation  invariably  given.     Naturally, 
those  indwelling  spirits  which  time  and  experience  show  to  be 
harmless,  are  not  much  regarded  ;  the  indwelling  spirits  of  stones, 
bushes,  etc.,  are  considered  of  but  little  importance,  and,  though 
the  belief  in  their  existence  remains,  they  are  disregarded,  and 
the  worship  and  offerings  are  applied  to  propitiate  those  which 
are  believed  to  possess  both  the  power  and  the  desire  to  injure. 
Hence  we  find,  generally  speaking,  that  the  features  worshiped 
are  such  as  rivers,  lakes,  the  sea,  cliffs,  mountains,  etc. — that  is, 
localities  in  which  accidents  are  more  liable  to  occur.     The  in- 
dwelling spirits  or  third  elements  of  such  features  are  not  regard- 
ed as  being  inseparably  bound  up  with  them.     Like  the  hra  of 
the  man,  each  ordinarily  resides  in  its  own  feature  or  object,  but 
can  and  does  leave  it  temporarily.     At  a  later  stage,  when  priest- 
craft has  intervened,  the  indwelling  spirit  is  held  to  enter  the 
image,  made  by  the  priests  to  represent  it,  while  sacrifice  is  being 
offered,  and  also  the  priest  himself,  who  then  becomes  inspired. 

It  is  clear,  from  their  construction,  that  the  Tshi,  Ga,  and  Ewi 


THE  INDWELLING   SPIRITS    OF  MEN.  799 

languages  all  belong  to  one  family,  and  that  the  tribes  now  speak- 
ing them  are  descended  from  one  common  stock.  The  question 
then  arises,  Is  this  an  isolated  belief  which  will  account  for  the 
origin  of  Nature-worship  in  certain  districts  of  West  Africa,  and 
must  be  limited  to  them  ;  or  is  it  a  wide-spread  belief  which  will 
account  for  the  origin  of  that  form  of  worship  generally  ?  Fur- 
ther researches  can  alone  determine  this  satisfactorily,  but  there 
are  certain  indications  which  tend  to  show  that  the  belief  is  wide- 
spread. It  must  be  remembered  that  it  is  unusual  for  students  of 
anthropology  to  come  into  direct  contact  with  people  in  that  con- 
dition which  we  term  savagery,  and  ordinary  travelers  possessing, 
like  all  Europeans,  the  belief  in  one  soul  only,  and  perhaps  never 
having  conceived  the  possibility  of  a  man  supposing  himself  to 
possess  a  third  element,  would  be  very  unlikely  to  make  any  in- 
quiries in  this  direction.  Even  if  a  communicative  native  stated 
to  him  his  theory  of  an  indwelling  spirit,  or  third  element,  the 
traveler  would  perhaps  doubt  if  he  really  understood  him ;  but 
people  low  in  the  stage  of  civilization  are  not  communicative  on 
such  points.  Consequently,  we  can  not  expect  to  find  many  indi- 
cations, but  there  are  some. 

Cross  tells  us  *  that  the  Karens,  who  inhabit  parts  of  Burmah, 
Tenasserim,  and  Siam,  believe  in  two  elements  in  addition  to  the 
corporeal  man,  viz.,  the  thah,  which  seems  to  answer  to  the  soul, 
and  the  la  or  kelah,  which  is  described  as  a  "  life-phantom  "  ;  and 
Williams,f  that  the  Fijians  say  that  a  man's  "  shadow  "  or  "  dark- 
spirit"  goes  to  Dead-land,  and  that  his  "light- spirit"  stays  near 
where  he  dies.  These  appear  to  be  beliefs  somewhat  analogous  to 
that  in  the  Tcra,  but  these  different  elements  have  not  yet  been 
defined.  The  genius  natalis  of  the  Romans,  too,  presents  many 
points  of  resemblance  to  the  kra.  Like  it,  it  entered  the  man  at 
birth,  and  attended  him  till  death.  It  was  regarded  as  a  second 
spiritual  self,  and  the  anniversary  of  the  birthday  of  the  man 
was  held  as  a  day  sacred  to  it,  libations  being  offered  to  the  image 
by  which  it  was  represented  among  the  household  gods.  At  a 
later  period  of  the  Roman  dominion  this  belief  was  modified,  and, 
as  among  the  Ga-speaking  peoples  of  the  Gold  Coast,  a  belief  in 
two  indwelling  spirits,  one  good  and  one  bad,  was  formed.  It 
was  the  latter  which  appeared  to  Brutus  in  the  camp  at  Sardis. 
"  What  art  thou  ?  "  said  Brutus  ;  "  art  thou  god  or  man  ?  "  The 
apparition  answered  :  "  I  am  thy  evil  genius,  Brutus.  Thou  wilt 
see  me  at  Philippi."  \ 

It  is,  however,  in  America  that  we  find  the  greater  number  of 
indications.  Foremost  stands  Dr.  Washington  Matthews's  above- 
mentioned  account,  in  which  the  belief  of  the  Navajo  in  the  third 

*  "Journal  of  the  American  Oriental  Society,"  vol.  iv,  p.  310. 

f  "Fiji,"  vol.  i,  p.  241.  %  "  Plutarch's  Lives"  (Marcus  Brutus),  p.  684. 


800  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

element  of  man  is  directly  stated ;  and  in  connection  with  this 
there  is  the  following  passage  from  the  "  Ethnography  and  Phi- 
lology of  the  Hidatsa  Indians/'  *  by  the  same  learned  author : 

"  They  "  (the  Hidatsa  Indians)  "  worship  everything  in  nature. 
Not  man  alone,  but  the  sun,  the  moon,  the  stars,  all  the  lower  ani- 
mals, all  trees  and  plants,  rivers  and  lakes,  many  bowlders  and 
other  separated  rocks,  even  some  small  hills  and  buttes  which 
stand  alone — in  short,  everything  not  made  by  human  hands, 
which  has  an  independent  being,  or  can  be  individualized,  pos- 
sesses a  spirit,  or,  more  properly,  a  shade. 

"  To  these  shades  some  respect  or  consideration  is  due,  but  not 
equally  to  all.  For  instance,  the  shade  of  the  cottonwood,  the 
greatest  tree  of  the  upper  Missouri  Valley,  is  supposed  to  possess 
an  intelligence  which  may,  if  properly  approached,  assist  them  in 
certain  undertakings ;  but  the  shades  of  shrubs  and  grasses  are  of 
little  importance.  .  .  .  Formerly  it  was  considered  wrong  to  cut 
down  one  of  these  great  trees,  and,  when  large  logs  were  needed, 
only  such  as  were  found  fallen  were  used  ;  and  to-day  some  of  the 
more  credulous  old  men  declare  that  many  of  the  misfortunes  of 
the  people  are  the  result  of  their  modern  disregard  for  the  rights 
of  the  living  cottonwood." 

These  views  are  exactly  similar  to  those  held  by  the  negroes  of 
the  Gold  and  Slave  Coasts.  With  them,  as  with  the  Hidatsa  In- 
dians, the  shades,  or  third  elements,  of  shrubs  and  grasses,  which 
experience  has  proved  to  be  innocuous,  are  of  little  importance ; 
while,  like  the  cottonwood,  the  Bombax,  the  giant  of  the  West  Afri- 
can forest,  whose  gray  trunk  frequently  rises  to  a  height  of  ninety 
feet  before  a  single  branch  is  thrown  out,  is  reverenced.  The 
Tshi-speaking  peoples  have  indeed  classed  the  indwelling  spirits, 
or  third  elements,  of  these  trees  into  a  species  called  Srahmantin 
— monstrous  beings,  gray  in  color  and  with  long  hair,  who  hurl 
down  the  decayed  trees  upon  passers-by.  How  did  the  Hidatsa 
Indians  form  the  belief  that  "everything  not  made  by  human 
hands,  which  has  an  independent  being,  or  can  be  individualized, 
possesses  a  spirit,  or,  more  properly,  a  shade  "  ?  Do  they,  like  the 
Navajos,  believe  that  they  possess  a  third  element ;  and  have  they, 
like  the  negroes  of  the  Gold  and  Slave  Coasts,  extended  the  belief 
to  all  nature,  or  has  with  them  Nature-worship  originated  in  some 
other  way  ? 

Among  other  instances  reported  from  North  America  the  fol- 
lowing may  be  mentioned  :  The  Algonquins  are  said  to  believe 
in  two  "  souls,"  one  of  which  goes  out  during  sleep,  and  whose 
adventures  during  its  absence  are  the  occurrences  dreamed  of, 
while  the  other  stays  with  the  body.  The  same  people  are  also 
said  to  believe  that  sickness  is  caused  by  the  man's  "  shadow " 

*  Washington,  Government  Printing-Office,  18V7,  p.  48. 


NORTHERN  LIGHTS.  801 

being  detached  from  the  body.*  The  Salish  Indians  of  Oregon 
regard  the  spirit  as  distinct  from  the  vital  principle,  and  capable 
of  quitting  the  body  for  a  short  time  without  the  patient  being 
conscious  of  its  absence  f  ;  while  the  Dakotas  are  said  to  believe 
in  four  "  souls."  The  first  belief  seems  to  resemble  the  kra  theory ; 
but  here,  as  in  most  other  cases,  the  use  of  the  word  "  soul "  tends 
to  confuse  the  subject. 

When  attention  is  called  to  the  subject,  many  more  instances 
will  no  doubt  be  forthcoming ;  but  here,  at  all  events,  is  something 
to  work  upon :  and,  having  regard  to  the  great  strides  which  the 
science  of  anthropology  is  making  in  the  United  States,  it  will  not 
be  difficult  for  American  anthropologists  to  determine  whether  a 
belief  in  the  possession  of  a  third  element  by  man  is  common  to 
many  tribes  of  the  northern  continent,  and,  if  so,  whether  the 
origin  of  Nature-worship  among  such  tribes  may  be  attributed  to 
an  extension  of  this  belief  to  natural  objects  and  features. 


-♦♦♦- 


NORTHERN  LIGHTS. 

Br  welhelm  stosz. 

THE  inhabitants  of  northern  Europe,  who  passed  their  days  in 
the  midst  of  vast  forests,  and  whose  fancy  fashioned  the  forms 
of  heroes  and  of  gods  from  the  mists  that  hung  over  their  vales, 
naturally  associated  with  the  gods  they  worshiped  the  phenom- 
ena of  northern  lights,  which  to  them  were  revealed  in  all  their 
splendor.  Thus,  the  Edda  gives  descriptions  of  naming  steeds 
speeding  to  Walhalla,  and  of  valkyries  dashing  on  through  seeth- 
ing flames.  Nations  that  as  yet  rest  close  to  Nature's  breast  do 
not  seek  explanations  of  such  phenomena ;  while  those  that  have 
risen  to  a  higher  plane  of  culture  are  in  possession  of  simple  de- 
scriptions of  these  occurrences,  and  also  of  crude  attempts  at 
investigating  Nature's  wonders.  Thus,  in  the  old  writings  of  the 
Chinese,  whose  realm  was  a  flourishing  one  two  thousand  years 
before  our  time,  there  may  be  found  many  accounts  of  the  occur- 
rence of  northern  lights.  They  observed  red  vapors  arise  in  the 
northern  heavens,  which  spread  evenly  to  both  sides ;  sometimes 
the  fiery  sheen  was  encircled  by  a  large  white  bow,  and  flaming 
rays  pierced  the  vapors.  Such  descriptions  can  only  refer  to 
northern  lights. 

In  the  Greek  and  Latin  classics  we  find  more  detailed  descrip- 
tions of  similar  phenomena.  Aristotle,  Cicero,  Seneca,  Pliny, 
Lucan,  Plutarch,  Tacitus,  and  others  describe  the  appearance  of 

*  Tanner's  "Narrative,"  p.  291.  f  "Primitive  Culture,"  vol.  i,  p.  437. 


8oz  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

auroras  more  or  less  completely.  Some  authors,  instead  of  giving 
a  simple  narration  of  events,  seek  for  an  explanation  of  what  they 
observed.  Of  course,  these  attempts  in  the  main  are  very  naive 
and  without  any  scientific  value. 

Aristotle  speaks  of  red  beams  in  the  heavens,  of  torches  and 
of  billows  of  fire.  Seneca  compares  the  phenomena  to  flashes  of 
lightning,  and  writes  about  the  blazing  of  the  heavens.  Accord- 
ing to  him,  "  the  gleaming  flashes  may  be  caused  by  violent  winds, 
or  by  the  heat  of  the  upper  regions  of  the  air ;  for,  when  the  fiery 
phenomenon  spreads  far,  it  sometimes  extends  to  the  lower  region, 
if  it  be  inflammable." 

Pliny  writes :  "  Fiery  beams  occur  likewise ;  such  a  one  was 
seen  when  the  Lacedaemonians,  vanquished  at  sea,  lost  their  sway 
over  Greece.  Sometimes  the  heavens  cleave ;  this  is  spoken  of  as 
a  '  chasma.'  But  naught  is  more  terrible  for  mortals  than  when 
a  blood-red  conflagration  starts  in  the  heavens,  and  from  there 
falls  to  the  earth.  This  happened  in  the  third  year  of  the  one 
hundred  and  seventh  Olympiad,  when  King  Philip  warred  in 
Greece.  I,  however,  believe  that  these  phenomena,  as  all  others, 
occur  at  times  regulated  by  Nature,  and  are  not,  as  most  people 
suppose,  to  be  ascribed  to  a  variety  of  causes  which  their  fancies 
invent.  They  have,  however,  been  premonitors  of  great  misfor- 
tune. As  they  occur  so  very  rarely,  the  law  which  they  obey  re- 
mains hidden,  and  may  not  be  traced/'  Furthermore,  "  During 
the  reign  of  the  consuls  Caius  Csecilius  and  Cneius  Papirius,  and 
also  at  other  times,  light  was  seen  in  the  heavens,  so  that  night 
became  as  day."  The  words  of  Lucan,  "  Fire  storming  from  the 
north,"  remind  us  of  the  sagas  of  northern  tribes. 

The  middle  ages  could  not  readily  free  themselves  from  the  in- 
fluence of  the  mysterious.  Wondrous  phenomena,  the  true  nature 
of  which  was  not  grasped  and  understood,  were  veiled  in  mys- 
tery, and  ascribed  to  the  workings  of  demons.  This  is  proved 
by  many  records  and  traditions.  Does  not  Shakespeare  possibly 
refer  to  northern  lights  in  "  King  Henry  VI,"  Part  III,  act  ii, 
scene  1  ? — 

Rich.  See,  how  the  morning  opes  her  golden  gates, 

And  takes  her  farewell  of  the  glorious  sun ! 

How  well  resembles  it  the  prime  of  youth, 

Trimm'd  like  a  yonnker,  prancing  to  his  love! 
Edw.  Dazzle  mine  eyes,  or  do  I  see  three  suns? 
Rich.  Three  glorious  suns,  each  one  a  perfect  sun  ; 

Not  separated  with  the  racking  clouds, 

But  sever'd  in  a  pale  clear-shining  sky. 

See,  see!  they  join,  embrace,  and  seem  to  kiss, 

As  if  they  vow'd  some  league  inviolable: 

Now  are  they  but  one  lamp,  one  light,  one  sun. 

In  this  the  heaven  figures  some  event. 


NORTHERN  LIGHTS.  803 

Many  investigators  consider  the  observations  of  Gassendi, 
which  relate  chiefly  to  the  phenomena  of  1621,  as  the  starting- 
point  toward  a  more  correct  conception  of  the  nature  of  northern 
lights.  The  first  move  toward  a  truly  scientific  investigation 
into  the  matter  was  made  by  Halley,  who  in  1716  suggested  that 
auroras  were  a  magnetic  exudation  from  the  northern  pole  of  the 
globe.  His  contemporaries  did  not  share  Halley's  opinion.  Wolf, 
in  Halle,  maintained  that  the  lights  consisted  of  inflammable  sul- 
phurous fumes.  Descartes  and  Triewald  saw  in  them  only  a  re- 
flection of  the  snow  and  ice  at  the  north  pole.  Mairan  (1733) 
considered  them  formed  by  a  blending  of  zodiacal  light  with  the 
earth's  atmosphere.  The  famous  mathematician  Euler  adhered 
to  a  sort  of  nebular  hypothesis  and  declared  the  aurora  to  be  a 
phenomenon  similar  to  that  presented  by  the  tails  of  comets. 
Halley  had  arrived  at  his  view  through  the  observation  that  the 
center  line  of  the  light-arc  deviated  to  the  west  of  the  meridian 
to  about  the  same  extent  as  the  north  pole  of  a  magnetic  needle. 
This  important  discovery  was  followed  by  one  made  by  Mairan, 
that  the  crown  of  the  northern  lights  lies  in  the  (prolonged)  direc- 
tion of  the  dipping-needle ;  and  soon  after  this  Hjoter,  in  Upsala, 
demonstrated  the  influence  of  the  aurora  on  a  magnetic  needle 
placed  horizontally  (1741). 

It  was  by  these  discoveries  that  the  relation  between  northern 
lights  and  magnetism  was  established.  Winkler  (1746)  and  Van 
Marum  (1777)  compared  the  former  to  the  electric  glow  which  can 
be  produced  in  rarefied  air.  The  veil  of  the  mystery  had  been 
raised,  but  only  to  disclose  a  new  query,  for  the  demonstration  of 
the  cause  of  these  relations  was  a  problem  the  solution  of  which 
was  reserved  for  modern  science.  How  far  the  efforts  in  this 
direction  have  been  crowned  by  success  we  are  now  to  consider. 

Auroras  are  most  frequently  seen  in  the  cold  and  in  the  north- 
ern temperate  zone,  rarely  in  the  southern  temperate  zone,  and 
hardly  ever  in  the  tropics.  The  places  where  they  most  frequently 
appear  lie  between  the  sixtieth  and  seventieth  degrees  of  north 
latitude.  In  the  form  of  an  oval,  they  include  the  geographical 
as  well  as  the  magnetic  north  pole,  which  is  to  be  found  on  the 
peninsula  Boothia  Felix,  Iceland,  the  Kara  Sea,  northern  Siberia, 
Bering  Strait,  Hudson  Bay,  Labrador,  and  Greenland.  Northern 
lights  have  been  seen  as  far  down  as  the  twenty-fifth  degree  of 
north  latitude.  In  full  splendor,  however,  they  may  be  seen  only 
in  the  northern  polar  regions  to  the  seventy-fifth  degree  of  lati- 
tude. Here  Nature  is  displayed  in  all  her  grandeur.  When  the 
sun  has  set,  and  the  gray  veil  of  twilight  is  cast  over  the  earth, 
the  northern  horizon  grows  darker  and  darker.  Soon  there  may 
be  distinguished  a  segment  of  the  sky  more  somber  than  its  back- 
ground ;  this  is  hemmed  in  by  white  concentric  arcs  of  light. 


8 o4  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

Colored  rays  shoot  forth  therefrom  in  all  directions.  They  inter- 
lace and  intertwine  until  they  seem  to  be  •woven  into  one  flut- 
tering band  of  color.  And  anon  it  changes  to  a  sea  of  fire !  The 
rays  leap  upward  far  above  the  zenith,  form  there  a  flaming  crown, 
and  then  sink  back,  to  begin  anew  the  wondrous  play.  The  most 
beautiful  descriptions  and  trustworthy  observations  we  owe  to 
Nordenskjold  and  Ekama.  All  explanations  which  have  been 
attempted  as  to  the  origin  and  the  cause  of  northern  lights  are 
based  on  analysis  by  the  spectroscope,  on  the  determination  of  the 
elevation,  and  on  observations  of  the  peculiar  behavior  of  the 
magnetic  needle. 

If  northern  lights  are  observed  through  a  spectroscope,  a  char- 
acteristic yellowish-green  line  will  always  be  seen,  no  matter  how 
faint  the  light  may  be.  If  the  phenomena  are  well  pronounced, 
several  red  lines  appear  in  the  spectrum.  What  inferences  may 
be  drawn  from  these  observations  ? 

If  a  very  powerful  electric  current  is  sent  through  what  is 
called  a  Geissler  tube  filled  with  dried  and  rarefied  air,  sparks  will 
flash  from  one  platinum  wire  to  the  other,  and  if  these  are  exam- 
ined by  the  spectroscope  they  show  the  characteristic  yellowish- 
green  line.  In  a  tube  filled  with  nitrogen  these  lines  are  especially 
well  pronounced.  As  nitrogen  is  the  predominant  constituent  of 
the  air,  we  infer  the  northern  lights  to  be  a  phenomenon  similar  to 
the  glowing  of  the  electric  spark  in  dry  and  rarefied  air,  in  which 
oxygen  and  nitrogen  are  the  sole  conductors  of  electricity.  If 
white  sunlight  is  caused  to  shine  on  a  solution  of  chlorophyl  (the 
green  coloring  matter  of  leaves),  it  shows  a  blood-red  color.  This 
phenomenon,  when  the  reflected  light  appears  of  a  different  color 
from  that  which  is  transmitted,  is  termed  fluorescence.  Electric 
light  possesses  to  a  marked  degree  the  property  of  calling  forth 
fluorescence,  as  can  easily  be  demonstrated  by  various  experi- 
ments. It  may  hence  be  assumed  that  the  red  lines  in  the  spec- 
trum of  northern  lights  are  due  to  the  fluorescence  of  oxygen  in 
the  upper  layers  of  air,  caused  by  powerful  electric  discharges. 

The  determination  of  the  elevation  of  northern  lights  serves  to 
confirm  the  foregoing  conclusions,  for  it  is  a  well-known  fact  that 
in  the  higher  regions  of  the  atmosphere  the  air  is  dry  and  rarefied. 
The  height  of  the  auroral  crown  has  been  found  to  be  five  hundred 
kilometres,  the  lower  boundary  being  about  seventy  kilometres. 

Of  greater  importance  for  ascertaining  the  true  nature  of  north- 
ern lights  has  been  the  demonstration  of  the  relation  these  phe- 
nomena hold  to  terrestrial  magnetism,  a  mysterious  power  of 
which  our  globe  is  the  conductor.  Powerful  magnetic  currents 
appear  suddenly  and  disappear  as  quickly,  and  we  are  not  able  to 
name  the  cause  of  their  existence. 

Like  a  vast  ocean  the  magnetic  force  is  constantly  surging 


NORTHERN  LIGHTS.  805 

through  our  globe,  here  appearing,  there  receding,  but  forever 
seeking  to  attain  its  equilibrium.  The  instrument  by  which  these 
occurrences  are  observed  is  the  most  simple  conceivable  —  the 
magnetic  needle.  It  is  known  that  the  direction  and  the  inclina- 
tion of  the  needle  point  out  the  magnetic  location  of  a  place. 
From  its  movement  the  degree  of  magnetic  attraction  of  any 
point  may  be  accurately  determined.  If  sudden  deviations  and 
fluctuations  of  the  needle  occur,  this  evidently  is  an  indication 
that  the  magnetic  condition  of  the  earth  has  been  disturbed.  If 
such  variations  always  occur  simultaneously  with  the  appearance 
of  northern  lights,  this  is  to  be  regarded  as  proof  that  an  inti- 
mate relation  exists  between  these  phenomena  and  terrestrial 
magnetism.  Strong  northern  lights,  in  fact,  exert  so  great  an 
influence  on  the  magnetic  condition  of  the  earth,  that  the  appear- 
ance of  the  phenomenon  in  some  northern  latitude  may  be  in- 
ferred from  the  sudden  oscillations  of  the  needle  in  places  where 
the  lights  are  not  visible.  But  the  most  striking  connection  be- 
tween terrestrial  magnetism  and  northern  lights  is  shown  by  the 
position  of  the  light-crown  in  the  heavens.  The  center  of  this  is 
always  to  be  found  at  that  point  where  the  dipping-needle,  if  pro- 
longed, would  meet  the  aurora.  The  rays  emanating  from  the  arc 
have  the  direction  of  the  earth's  magnetic  power ;  they  are  there- 
fore parallel,  and  only  apparently  converge  to  a  point.  The  crown 
of  light  has  in  truth  no  fixed  place  in  the  heavens,  but  like  the 
rainbow  its  position  depends  on  the  point  from  which  it  is  ob- 
served, and  thus  moves  with  the  observer.  But  the  dipping-needle 
in  every  place  points  to  the  center  of  the  crown. 

It  may  hence  be  asserted  that  the  northern  lights  hold  an  inti- 
mate relation  to  the  changes  of  terrestrial  magnetism  as  indi- 
cated by  the  oscillation  of  the  needle,  and  that  both  phenomena 
must  have  one  and  the  same  cause.  The  explanation  of  this 
cause  has  been  sought  in  various  ways,  but  an  interpretation 
which  would  be  universally  accepted  has  thus  far  not  been  ad- 
vanced. One  of  the  first  attempts  to  solve  the  problem  was  made 
by  the  physicist  De  la  Rive,  of  Geneva,  in  1862.  It  was  based  on 
an  experiment  devised  by  him,  in  which  he  attempted  an  imita- 
tion of  these  phenomena  on  a  small  scale.  He  held  that  vapors 
charged  with  positive  electricity  rise  into  the  higher  regions  of 
the  atmosphere,  while  the  earth  remains  charged  with  the  nega- 
tive fluid.  When  the  vapors  are  driven  by  the  trade-winds  to  the 
poles,  as  soon  as  the  tension  is  sufficient  to  overcome  the  non-con- 
ducting property  of  the  air,  which  like  an  insulator  lies  between 
the  earth  and  these  vapors,  the  positive  and  the  negative  electricity 
come  together.  This  process  is  accompanied  by  the  appearance 
of  light.  The  earth  and  the  upper  layer  of  the  atmosphere  must 
hence  be  regarded  as  an  electrical  condenser,  with  the  lower  layers 


8o6  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

of  air  as  the  separating  medium.  An  actual  proof  that  the  north- 
ern lights  are  caused  by  electric  currents  in  the  atmosphere  was 
attempted  by  Lemstrom  in  1883.  He  covered  the  plateaus  of  two 
mountains  in  northern  Finland  with  a  network  of  copper  wires 
raised  several  metres  above  the  ground  and  provided  it  with  hun- 
dreds of  metal  points.  The  whole  was  insulated  and  connected 
with  a  zinc  plate  buried  in  damp  ground  in  the  plain  below.  A 
continuous  electric  current  from  the  air  to  the  ground  was  notice- 
able, and  a  light  which  appeared  hovering  over  the  metal  points 
showed,  when  examined  by  the  spectroscope,  the  characteristic 
line  of  the  auroral  spectrum. 

The  theories,  however,  according  to  which  the  northern  lights 
are  a  flowing  together  of  terrestrial  and  atmospheric  electricity 
of  opposite  kinds,  leave  unanswered  the  question  as  to  the  origin 
of  these  electric  fluids.  As  no  adequate  cause  could  be  found  on 
the  globe  for  such  a  tremendous  evolution  of  electricity,  attention 
was  directed  to  the  sun  as  the  source  of  it  all.  Why  should  not 
Helios,  the  giver  of  all  light  and  life  of  our  world,  be  as  well  the 
creator  of  that  inexhaustible  force  of  nature  that  is  revealed  in 
the  splendors  of  the  northern  lights  ? 

As  the  endless  supply  of  light  and  heat  which  is  radiated  into 
space  by  the  sun,  is  accounted  for  by  the  contraction  of  that  body, 
this  may  also  be  assigned  as  the  cause  of  the  stupendous  genera- 
tion of  electricity.  According  to  the  theory  of  Kant  and  Laplace, 
the  sun  and  other  heavenly  bodies  are  assumed  to  have  been 
formed  by  the  condensation  of  vapors  which  originally  filled  all 
space.  This  condensation  is  still  going  on  in  the  sun  in  conse- 
quence of  the  enormous  radiation  of  heat  into  space,  and  with  it 
the  consequent  contraction. 

Possibly  also  there  might  be  suggested  as  a  cause  the  cooling 
process  which  the  sun  is  undergoing.  It  may  be  assumed,  too, 
that  vast  amounts  of  electricity  are  hurled  into  space  with  the 
ignited  masses  of  gas,  whose  eruption  from  the  sun  may  be  con- 
stantly observed.  But  it  is  more  probable  that  the  sun  acts  upon 
the  earth  by  induction.  Try  the  following  experiment :  Two  insu- 
lated spheres  are  placed  near  one  another,  but  without  being  in 
contact.  On  one  of  these  spheres  a  bar  of  metal  is  placed,  to  which 
there  is  fastened  a  screen  made  of  some  good  conducting  material. 
If  one  of  the  spheres  is  charged  with  a  certain  kind  of  electricity, 
say,  for  instance,  negative  electricity,  the  opposite  kind — in  this 
case  positive  electricity — will,  by  induction,  be  generated  on  the 
other  sphere.  A  corresponding  amount  of  negative  electricity 
will  in  the  mean  time  be  discharged  on  to  the  screen.  An  action 
similar  to  this  may  be  assumed  to  be  going  on  between  the  sun 
and  the  earth. 

The  sun's  electricity,  which  may  be  assumed  to  be  negative  on 


NORTHERN  LIGHTS.  807 

account  of  the  preponderance  of  metal  in  the  composition  of  that 
body,  generates  positive  electricity  on  the  earth  by  induction, 
while  the  negative  electricity  passes  over  into  the  atmosphere  sur- 
rounding the  earth.  The  constitution  of  the  air  at  different  times 
and  at  different  places  favors  this  process  more  or  less.  The  con- 
ducting metallic  rod  of  our  electrical  experiments  may  be  consid- 
ered here  as  being  replaced  by  mountain-peaks  projecting  high 
into  the  air. 

If  the  equatorial  currents,  already  mentioned  by  De  la  Rive, 
are  borne  in  mind,  it  is  evident  that  the  air  at  the  poles  must  be 
highly  electrified,  and  that  an  exchange  must  then  and  there  take 
place  between  the  negative  electricity  and  the  positive  (induced) 
electricity.  This  exchange  gives  rise  to  phenomena  of  light  iden- 
tical with  those  observed  as  northern  lights  at  the  north  pole  and 
as  southern  lights  at  the  south  pole. 

This  theory  is  strengthened  by  the  observation  that  northern 
lights  are  closely  connected  with  the  appearance  of  sun-spots  and 
protuberances  on  the  sun.  Already  in  former  times  a  certain 
periodicity  of  northern  lights  was  noticed.  Besides  the  annual 
period  in  which  they  appear  most  frequently  at  the  times  of  the 
equinox,  and  least  frequently  at  the  times  of  the  solstices,  a  period 
of  eleven  years  has  been  observed,  corresponding  closely  to  that 
of  the  sun-spots,  the  maximum  of  which  coincides  with  the  maxi- 
mum of  northern  lights. 

The  appearance  of  sun-spots  and  protuberances,  the  connection 
between  which  was  pointed  out  by  Tacchini  in  1885,  may  be  re- 
garded as  signs  of  changes  occurring  on  the  sun,  probably  involv- 
ing increased  combustion. 

This  increased  activity  must  influence  the  induced  terrestrial 
electricity,  and  in  consequence  also  the  phenomena  of  northern 
lights.  The  variations  and  declinations  of  the  magnetic  needle, 
moreover,  give  indubitable  proof  of  the  connection  between 
the  periods  of  sun-spots  and  the  electrical  condition  of  the 
earth. 

It  should  not  seem  strange  that  the  terms  electric  and  mag- 
netic condition  have  been  here  used  as  synonymous.  Since  Oer- 
sted's discovery  of  the  influence  of  the  electric  current  on  the  mag- 
netic needle,  and  Ampere's  theory  of  magnetism,  electricity  and 
magnetism  are  regarded  as  merely  two  different  forms  of  one  and 
the  same  force  of  nature. — Translated  for  the  Popular  Science 
Monthly  from  Ueber  Land  und  Meet. 


Prof.  Flower  expressed  the  opinion,  in  his  presidential  address  before  the 
British  Association,  that  an  impartial  survey  of  the  recent  progress  of  paleonto- 
logical  discovery  must  lead  to  the  conclusion  that  the  evidence  in  favor  of  the 
doctrine  of  a  gradual  transformation  of  living  forms  is  steadily  increasing. 


8o8  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


DRAGONS,  FABLED  AND  REAL. 

By  M.  MAUEICE  MAINDEON. 

THE  geological  age  of  reptiles  was  marked  by  various  curious, 
seemingly  only  partly  perfected  forms,  which  appear  to  have 
passed  away  without  leaving  any  permanent  descent.  To  it  be- 
long the  relics  of  those  flying  reptiles,  the  Rhamphorhynchus  and 
the  Pterodactyls.  The  type  of  the  pterodactylean  wing  was  not 
at  all  like  that  of  the  wings  of  birds,  which  were  yet  to  come,  and 
were  beginning  to  appear  when  the  reptilian  era  approached  its 
close.  The  apparatus  for  flying  was  not  formed  by  any  essential 
modification  of  the  limbs,  but  rather,  like  that  of  the  bats,  was 
constituted  by  a  broad  fold  of  the  skin,  attached  to  and  sustained 
by  the  digits  of  the  fore-limb.  The  last  or  outer  digit,  greatly 
elongated,  formed  a  rigid  side  bordering  and  sustaining  the  para- 
chute, which  was  further  attached  along  the  full  length  of  the 
arm,  and  in  the  Rhampliorhynchus  was  continued  to  the  tail. 
These  animals  also  had  a  long  tail  ending  in  a  membrane,  sus- 
tained by  rigid  ribs,  that  served  as  a  kind  of  rudder. 

There  were  giants  and  dwarfs  among  the  pterosaurians.  Of 
the  former  were  the  Pteranodus,  of  the  Kansas  Cretaceous ;  and 
of  the  latter,  little  Jurassic  pterodactyls,  which  were  not  larger 
than  a  lark. 

The  hieratic  traditions  of  dragons  appear  at  first  sight  to  have 
been  inspired* by  the  singular  forms  of  these  monsters;  and  it 
would  be  easy  enough  to  suppose  that  the  simple-minded  figure- 
makers  of  the  middle  ages  were  acquainted  with  the  pterosauri- 
ans, and  patterned  after  them  in  sculpturing  the  dragons  and 
griffins  which  they  set  up  at  church  entrances.  But  they  did 
not.  Man's  imagination  is  always  capable  of  associating  different 
forms  into  individuals,  and  even  of  inventing  new  forms.  That 
the  dragons  of  art  were  such  inventions  is  proved  by  the  awkward 
attachments  which  the  artists  affixed  to  their  strange  conceptions. 
Some  of  their  creatures,  if  living,  would  have  had  a  hard  task  to 
fly  with  the  wings  they  gave  them ;  and  others  would  have  been 
greatly  embarrassed  to  make  use  of  all  the  appendages  with  which 
a  hand  more  lavish  than  wise  had  endowed  them. 

Movement  by  flying,  the  realization  of  which  is  still  only  a 
dream  for  man,  has  had  a  charm  for  the  mystics  of  all  ages.  All 
religions  concur  in  the  common  fancy  of  putting  wings  on  the 
shoulders  of  their  gods,  genii,  cherubim,  angels,  and  seraphim. 
There  were  necessary  for  the  transportation  of  such  forms,  for 
company  and  service,  and  to  do  battle  for  them,  animals  having 
forms    likewise    supernatural    and    agile ;    whence    hippogriffs, 


DRAGONS,  FABLED  AND  REAL. 


809 


chimseras,  and  dragons.  St.  Michael  the  archangel,  with  the 
wings  of  a  bird,  lies  low  and  slays  the  fallen  angel  Lucifer, 
having  bats'  wings.  Dragons  have  also  had  their  contests  with 
saints.  St.  George  defeated  a  monstrous  dragon ;  other  holy  per- 
sonages followed  his  example,  and  the  times  became  very  hard 
for  gargoyles,  tarasques,  and  guivres.     Many  of  the  dragons  were 


Fig.  1.— Winged  Dragons.     (From  a  MS.  of  the  Fourteenth  Century.     Book  of  the  "  Wonders 

of  the  World.") 

slain,  and  an  old  monkish  chronicle  tells  how  the  skin  of  one  of 
them  was  hung  from  an  arch  in  a  church.  The  historians  and 
wise  men  of  antiquity  did  not  forget  to  describe  these  monsters. 
Pliny  speaks  of  a  precious  stone,  called  dracontias,  which  could 
only  be  found  in  the  head  of  a  dragon.  St.  Augustine  informs 
us  that  "  the  dragon  often  rests  in  his  den ;  but  whenever  he  feels 
the  moisture  of  the  air  he  is  able  to  rise  on  his  wings  and  fly  with 
great  impetuosity."  Other  authors  exhibit  dragons  ejecting  fire 
and  smoke  from  their  burning  throats,  and  enveloping  in  flames 
the  audacious  enemy  who  ventures  to  attack  them.  Such  fables 
found  credence  as  late  as  the  sixteenth  century.  Even  the  grave 
Gessner  believed  in  the  existence  of  these  creatures,  and  has 
said :  "  Numerous  dragons  are  found  in  Ethiopia,  a  fact  to  be 
attributed  to  the  heat  that  prevails  in  that  country.  They  are 
also  to  be  found  in  India  and  Libya,  where  they  reach  a  length 
of  fifteen  feet,  and  the  thickness  of  the  trunk  of  a  tree ;  but  they 
are  generally  larger  in  India  than  in  any  other  country.  Two 
kinds  of  dragons  are  known :  those  that  live  in  the  mountainous 
country  are  large,  alert,  and  swift,  and  have  a  crest,  while  those 
that  live  in  marshy  regions  are  sluggish  and  idle.  The  former 
have  wings,  and  the  latter  have  not ;  some  have  feet,  and  can  get 
rapidly  over  the  ground.  Their  vision  is  sharp,  their  hearing 
delicate.  They  rarely  sleep,  and  for  that  reason  the  poets  have 
made  them  guardians  of  treasures  that  man  can  not  get.  Near 
their  abodes  the  air  is  noisome  with  their  breath,  and  rings  with 
their  hissings." 

51* 


8io 


THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


Fia.  2.— Flying  Dragons  op  Malaysia,  Draco  volans  and  flmbriatm.    (Prom  specimens  brought 

home  by  M.  Maurice  Maindrou.) 

These  wonders,  like  other  things  of  the  kind,  have  had  their 
day.  The  only  dragons  with  which  science  now  concerns  itself 
are  the  little  saurians,  which  are  classed  by  some  naturalists  with 


DRAGONS,  FABLED  AND  REAL.  811 

the  acrodont  iguanans  and  by  others  with  the  agamians,  and  of 
some  of  which  we  give  representations. 

There  live  in  the  forests  of  India,  the  Malay  Archipelago,  and 
the  Philippine  Islands,  lizards,  whose  speckled  dress  and  odd 
forms  have  long  made  them  objects  of  interest  to  collectors.  They 
live  exclusively  on  insects,  which  they  hunt  with  extreme  agility 
of  pursuit  along  the  trunks  and  among  the  branches  of  trees.  In 
whatever  spot  they  may  be  hiding,  their  variegated  liveries  of 
gray  and  brown,  speckled  with  black,  yellow,  or  green,  mask  them 
effectively  and  cause  them  to  pass  unperceived  in  the  cracks  or 
among  the  inequalities  of  the  bark.  Squatting  under  this  cover, 
they  await  the  coming  of  some  insect  within  reach  of  them ;  or 
they  may  be  seen  running  rapidly  and  suddenly  covering  consid- 
erable space,  by  a  kind  of  flight,  to  place  themselves  upon  another 
tree  or  fix  themselves  near  a  vine.  Nature  has  been,  in  fact, 
pleased  to  facilitate  the  movements  of  these  lively  and  graceful 
beings  by  an  ingenious  artifice.  By  the  aid  of  their  parachute, 
dragons  can  execute  leaps  in  the  air  of  considerable  length,  and 
pass  from  one  tree  to  another  as  if  by  flying.  But  it  must  not  be 
supposed  that  they  can  fly  after  the  manner  of  birds.  They  can 
descend  rapidly,  describing  a  large  parabola,  sometimes  almost  a 
horizontal,  but  can  not  fly  upward. 

I  have  frequently  observed  these  pretty  little  saurians  in  Java. 
The  first  time  I  saw  one  I  succeeded  in  shooting  him  with  a  small- 
bored  gun  loaded  with  fine  shot.  When  I  picked  my  victim  up 
I  was  somewhat  surprised  to  find  that  I  had  a  dragon ;  for  its 
jerky  and  irregular  flight  along  a  large  tree  had  caused  me  to 
suppose  that  it  was  some  kind  of  a  grasshopper  or  moth,  which  I 
could  not  get  in  any  other  way  than  by  shooting. 

The  dragons,  as  Cuvier  says,  fly  by  means  of  their  ribs.  Their 
first  six  pairs  of  false  ribs,  instead  of  being  attached  to  the 
sternum,  are  drawn  out  and  prolonged,  so  as  to  constitute  the 
framework  of  a  kind  of  umbrella,  the  covering  of  which  is 
formed  of  a  wide  membrane  making  a  fold  in  the  skin  of  the 
flanks.  This  membrane  is  independent  of  the  limbs.  When  at 
rest,  it  is  folded  up  along  each  flank ;  but  it  can  be  quickly  un- 
folded and  spread  out  in  case  of  need.  The  name  patagium  has 
been  given  to  it.  The  head  and  neck  are  ornamented  with  crests 
and  dewlaps,  often  variegated  with  brilliantly  defined  colors ; 
and  a  long  tail  gives  them  a  singular  gait  which  is  not  without 
grace. 

The  harmless  little  flying  lizards  inhabit  forests  and  garden 
trees ;  and  nothing  is  more  amusing  than  to  watch  their  manoeu- 
vres, when,  not  aware  that  they  are  observed,  they  execute  their 
gambols  in  the  full  flush  of  freedom.  Running  swiftly  along  the 
trees,  stopping  instantaneously,  snapping  up  an  insect  or  retiring 


812  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

disappointed  after  they  have  missed  it;  pursuing  one  another; 
inflating  their  dewlaps  and  depressing  their  crests  when  enraged, 
they  fly  away  spasmodically  to  drop  a  few  yards  farther  along, 
down  upon  another  tree,  along  which  they  continue  their  evo- 
lutions. In  some  dragons  the  tympanum  is  visible,  in  others  it 
is  hidden  by  a  fold  of  the  skin.  A  special  genus  (Dranuncidus) 
has  been  constituted  for  the  latter,  while  the  former  compose  the 
genus  Draco.  This  genus  is  represented  by  six  species,  of  which 
three  inhabit  the  island  of  Java ;  one,  recognizable  by  its  vertical 
nostrils,  is  peculiar  to  continental  India ;  the  fifth  is  native  to  the 
island  of  Timor ;  and  the  sixth  is  found  at  Pulu  Penang.  The 
Dranunculus  inhabits  Amboyna  in  the  Moluccas,  Celebes,  and 
the  Philippine  Islands. 

The  dragons  are  the  only  existing  reptiles  that  possess  organs 
of  aerial  locomotion.  Other  saurians  have  folds  of  skin  along  the 
flanks ;  but  in  no  other  of  them  is  this  disposition  so  developed  as 
in  a  curious  geckotian,  the  Ptychozoon  homacephalum  of  Java 
and  other  Sunda  Islands.  A  broad  membrane  extending  from  the 
temples  to  the  tail,  where  it  is  divided  into  slit  lobes,  is  broad- 
ened along  the  flanks.  Without  reaching  the  dimensions  of  the 
patagium  of  the  dragons,  or  possessing  its  rigid  supports,  it  rep- 
resents a  kind  of  parachute,  the  importance  of  which  may  have 
been  augmented  by  long  use  ;  or  else  we  may  regard  these  exten- 
sions of  the  skin  as  survivals  of  a  provision  which  sedentary  or 
profoundly  changed  habits  have  rendered  useless. 

It  may  be  added  that  the  livery  of  the  Ptychozoon  is  of  such  a 
nature  as  to  assure  it  all  the  advantages  of  protective  resemblance. 
The  green  color,  yellowish  on  the  upper  side  of  the  body,  greenish 
along  the  flanks,  varied  with  brown  lines  or  transverse  brown 
fasciae,  constitutes  a  general  tone  which  becomes,  with  wonderful 
ease,  confounded  with  the  bark  and  parasitic  plants  with  which 
the  trees  are  covered  where  they  pass  their  lives. — Translated  for 
the  Popular  Science  Monthly  from  La  Nature. 

[To  this  account  of  these  interesting  animals  we  add  a  por- 
trait of  the  frilled  lizard  (Chlamydosaurus  Kingii),  which  pos- 
sesses an  appendage  of  different  structure  from  the  wings  of  the 
dragons,  but  at  the  first  view  reminding  one  of  them.  The  frill, 
which  is  its  conspicuous  ornament,  is  covered  with  scales  and 
is  toothed  on  the  edge.  It  does  not  come  of  full  size  till  the 
animal  is  grown,  and  increases — according  to  Wood — in  regu- 
lar proportion  to  the  age  of  the  owner.  In  the  young  it  does 
not  even  reach  the  base  of  the  fore-limbs,  while  in  the  adult  it 
extends  well  beyond  them.  M.  F.  Mocquard,  who  observed  one 
of  the  animals  during  several  weeks,  is  of  the  opinion  that  it 
serves  the  lizard  as  a  kind  of  parachute,  sustaining  it  during  its 


DRAGONS,  FABLED  AND  REAL. 


8i3 


Fig.  3.-The  Chlamtdosaurus.     (From  a  specimen  in  the  Reptile  Menagerie  in  the  Museum  of 

Natural  History  in  Paris.) 

leaps.  It  is  essentially  a  tree-inhabiting  animal,  though  it  can 
rnn  very  swiftly  along  the  ground.  According  to  Captain  Grey, 
who  observed  it  in  nature,  "  when  not  provoked  or  disturbed  it 
moves  quietly  about,  with  its  frill  lying  back  in  plaits  upon  the 


8 14  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

body ;  but  it  is  very  irascible,  and  directly  it  is  frightened  it  ele- 
vates the  frill  or  ruff  and  makes  for  a  tree,  where,  if  overtaken,  it 
throws  itself  upon  its  stern,  raising  its  head  and  chest  as  high  as 
it  can  upon  the  fore-legs,  then,  doubling  its  tail  underneath  the 
body,  and  displaying  a  very  formidable  set  of  teeth  from  the  con- 
cavity of  its  large  frill,  it  boldly  faces  an  opponent,  biting  furi- 
ously whatever  is  presented  to  it,  and  even  venturing  so  far  in  its 
rage  as  to  fairly  make  a  charge  at  its  enemy."  M.  Mocquard  says 
it  is  quite  inoffensive.  It  is  nearly  three  feet  in  length,  including 
its  very  long  tail,  is  of  a  tawny  color,  with  mottles  on  the  back 
and  blackish  rings  on  the  tail.  The  teeth  on  its  fringe  have  white 
ends,  and  at  a  distance  look  like  pearls.  It  belongs  to  the  family 
of  the  agamians,  and  is  represented  only  by  a  single  species, 'in 
Australia. — Editor.] 


ALCHEMIST'S   GOLD. 

By  M.  A.  DE  EOCHAS. 

64  n^HE  definite  and  unchangeable  existence  of  sixty-six  distinct 
-L  elements,  as  we  regard  them  now,  would  assuredly  never 
have  occurred  to  an  ancient  philosopher,,  or  rather  would  have 
been  dismissed  by  him  as  ridiculous :  it  had  to  be  imposed  upon 
us  by  the  incontestable  force  of  the  experimental  method.  Is  this, 
then,  the  final -#imit  of  our  conceptions  and  hopes?  Not  at  all; 
for  really  this  limit  has  never  been  accepted  by  chemists  except 
as  a  present  fact,  which  they  have  always  hoped  to  pass  by." 

This  paragraph,  quoted  from  Berthelot's  "  Origins  of  Chem- 
istry," explains  why  so  many  distinguished  men  have  spent  their 
days  in  seeking  the  transmutation  of  metals.  Did  they  find  it  ? 
Excellent  minds  assure  us  that  they  did  not,  because,  in  spite  of 
the  infinitely  more  powerful  forces  we  now  have  at  our  disposal, 
we  have  not  been  able  to  decompose  any  metal.  Others  maintain 
that  the  reasoning  is  not  conclusive;  for  numerous  industrial 
processes  have  been  lost,  and  we  knew  how  to  convert  alcohol  into 
vinegar  long  before  we  could  analyze  either  substance  ;  and  there 
is  one  element — time — which  the  moderns,  with  their  intensive 
life,  can  not  use  as  their  predecessors  did.  Where  is  the  man  now 
who' would  bind  himself  down  for  years  to  make  the  projecting 
powder  or  the  philosopher's  stone — representing  the  hypothetical 
ferment  of  inorganic  substances— or  who  could  count  enough 
upon  the  future  to  bequeath  the  continuation  of  his  experiments 
to  his  heirs,  as  did  the  adepts  of  old  ? 

There  have  been  many  alchemists  who,  notwithstanding  the 
satirical  definition  of  their  art—"  Ars  sine  arte  ;  cujus  principium 
mentiri,  medium  laborare  et  finis  mendicare  "  ("  An  art  without 


ALCHEMIST'S    GOLD.  815 

art ;  the  beginning  of  which  is  to  lie,  the  middle  to  work,  and  the 
end  to  beg  ") — have  acquired  considerable  wealth,  the  source  of 
which  it  is  hard  to  divine  in  any  other  way.  M.  Louis  Figuier 
has  collated  the  stories  of  the  principal  of  them  in  his  "  History 
of  Alchemy."  I  purpose  in  this  article  to  describe  some  medals 
which  were  struck  from  gold  which  was  said  to  have  been  com- 
pounded. I  have  seen  one  of  the  pieces,  and  tried  to  buy  it  for 
purposes  of  analysis,  but  the  holder  would  not  sell  it.  Probably 
an  interesting  collection  might  be  made  of  such  medals. 

In  1312  Raymond  Lulle  went  to  the  British  Islands  in  an 
effort  to  induce  Kings  Edward  III  and  Robert  Bruce  to  engage  in 
a  crusade,  and  promised  to  pay  all  the  expenses  of  the  expedition 
by  means  of  his  art.  King  Edward,  more  concerned  about 
making  gold  than  about  going  to  the  Holy  Land,  furnished  the 
alchemist  with  a  laboratory  in  the  Tower  of  London ;  and  there 
Raymond,  according  to  a  declaration  in  his  will,  at  a  single  opera- 
tion converted  fifty  pounds  of  mercury,  lead,  and  tin  into  "  gold." 
This  "  gold  "  was  used  in  striking  "  rare  nobles,"  some  of  which 
weighed  as  much  as  ten  ducats,  and  must,  therefore,  have  been  as 
large  as  a  French  hundred-franc  piece.  Under  the  name  of  Ray- 
mond's nobles,  they  have  been  much  sought  for  by  English  col- 
lectors. 

King  Henry  VI  granted  to  several  alchemists  the  right  of 
making  gold  and  silver  out  of  the  base  metals.  The  products  of 
their  industry  were  probably  used  for  coining  the  false  money, 
the  emission  of  which  provoked  prohibitory  measures  from  the 
Scotch  Parliament.  Conrad  Barchusen,  a  Dutch  chemist  of  the 
beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  assumed  that  the  "  gold " 
of  Henry  VI  was  obtained  by  putting  mercury  and  sulphate  of 
copper  in  an  iron  crucible  with  a  little  water.  The  copper,  set 
free  by  the  action  of  the  iron,  formed  with  the  mercury  an  amal- 
gam which,  washed  and  pressed  to  drive  out  the  soluble  sub- 
stances and  the  excess  of  mercury,  gave  on  fusion  a  metal  having 
the  color  of  gold,  but  lighter,  and  readily  taking  the  impress  of 
the  die. 

At  about  the  same  time,  Bafbe  de  Cilley — wife  of  the  Emperor 
Sigismund  of  Germany — pretended  that  she  had  found  the  phi- 
losopher's stone,  in  order  to  make  her  subjects  accept  an  alloy  of 
copper  and  arsenic  for  silver,  and  an  alloy  of  gold,  copper,  and 
silver  for  gold.  The  alchemist  Jean  de  Laaz  solicited  from  her 
the  privilege  of  being  present  at  one  of  her  transmutations.  He 
detected  the  cheat,  and  was  simple  enough  to  reproach  her 
Majesty  for  having  bungled ;  and  for  this  he  barely  escaped  going 
to  prison. 

Jacques  Cceur  obtained  from  Charles  VI  of  France,  in  consid- 
eration of  his  possession  of  the  secret,  power  to  coin  money  of 


816  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

"  silver,"  some  of  the  pieces  of  which  were  described  by  De  Planis 
Campy  as  still  existing  in  1633.  They  bore  his  name  and  the 
three  hearts  of  his  arms. 

Monconis  *  tells  of  a  merchant  of  Lubeck  who  transformed 
lead  into  a  hundred  "  gold  "  livres  in  the  presence  of  Gustavus 
Adolphus,  King  of  Sweden ;  and  who  furnished  the  gold  from 
which  ducats  were  coined,  bearing  on  one  side  the  figure  of  the 
prince,  and  on  the  other  side  his  arms,  associated  with  alchemic 
symbols,  in  recollection  of  the  origin  of  the  metal.  The  merchant 
died  some  years  afterward,  leaving  an  enormous  fortune,  although 
his  trade  had  been  insignificant. 

Christian  IV  of  Denmark,  in  1646,  appointed  as  "  alchemist  to 
the  king "  Gaspar  Harbach,  who  made  him  some  "  gold,"  from 
which  were  coined  medals  bearing  the  inscription  "  Vide  mira  Do- 
mini (' Behold  the  wonders  of  the  Lord'),  1647,"  beneath  the  sign 
O — O,  designating  mercury. 

An  Austrian  named  Richtausen,  in  1648,  received  as  a  bequest 
from  one  of  his  friends  a  casket  containing  precipitating  powder ; 
with  a  grain  of  this  powder,  the  Count  de  Riitz,  director  of  the 
mines  of  the  empire  at  Prague,  in  the  presence  of  the  Emperor 
Ferdinand  III  and  the  absence  of  Richtausen,  transformed  three 
livres  or  six  marks  of  mercury  into  five  marks  of  "  gold."  Rodolph 
had  struck  in  this  "  gold  "  a  medal  which  still  existed  in  the  Treas- 
ury at  Vienna  in  1797.  It  represents  the  god  of  the  sun  carrying 
the  caduceus  and  having  wings  on  his  feet — all  by  way  of  reminder 
of  the  formation  of  "gold"  by  the  aid  of  mercury,  f  In  1650  the 
emperor  made  a  second  precipitation  at  Prague,  from  lead ;  and 
the  medal  struck  on  this  occasion  bore  the  inscription  "  Aurea 
progenies  plumbo  prognata  parente  "  ( "  Golden  progeny  of  a  lead 
parent ").  This  medal  was  still  shown  in  the  last  century,  in  the 
collection  of  the  Chateau  d'Ambras  (Tyrol).  Richtausen  received 
for  his  discovery  the  characteristic  title  of  Baron  of  Chaos. 

General  Paykhul,  in  1706,  made  for  King  Charles  XII  of  Swe- 
den, with  lead  and  a  few  grains  of  his  powder,  under  the  sur- 
veillance of  artillery-general  Hamilton  and  the  chemist  Hieme,  a 
mass  of  "gold"  sufficient  for  the  coinage  of  one  hundred  and 
forty-seven  ducats  ;  a  commemorative  medal,  struck  on  the  occa- 
sion, from  the  same  "  gold,"  weighed  two  ducats  and  bore  the  in- 
scription "Hoc  aurum  arte  cliimica  conflavit  Uolmice-  1706,  O.  A. 
V.  Paikhull "  ("  This  gold  O.  A.  V.  Paikhull  produced  by  chemi- 
cal art  at  Holm  in  1706  "). 

*  "  Voyage  d'Allemagne." 

f  Arsenic  (to  apcreviniv,  the  male)  was  one  of  the  first  substances  tried  for  the  purpose 
of  transmutation.  Its  vapors  whitened  copper  (which  was  considered  a  female  element, 
was  dedicated  to  Venus,  and  was  represented  by  the  sign  s ),  forming  an  arseniuret ;  and 
this  change  was  for  a  long  time  regarded  as  the  beginning  of  transmutation. 


ALCHEMIST'S   GOLD.  817 

In  1704  a  goldsmith  of  Lubeck,  named  Stolle,  received  a  visit 
from  a  stranger,  supposed  to  be  the  celebrated  adept  Lascaris, 
who,  after  a  discussion  respecting  the  transmutation  of  metals, 
left  with  him,  as  a  proof  of  the  possibility  of  the  operation,  an 
ingot  weighing  about  a  half-livre,  which  he  said  he  had  just 
made ;  he  asked  Stolle  to  treat  it  with  antimony  to  purify  it,  heat 
it,  and  cut  it  into  seven  pieces.  He  then  left  two  of  the  pieces 
with  the  goldsmith  as  a  souvenir,  and  added  eight  ducats.  One 
of  the  pieces  was  given  to  King  Augustus  of  Poland,  and  the 
other  was  deposited  in  the  collection  of  medals  at  Lubeck.  They 
bore  the  inscription  "  O  tu  .  .  .  philosophorum  "  ("  O  thou  ...  of 
philosophers  !"),  which  the  adept  had  had  engraved  by  the  gold- 
smith. 

A  Provencal  locksmith,  named  Jean  Troins,  who  called  him- 
self the  Sieur  Delisle,*  fabricated  in  the  presence  of  M.  de  Saint- 
Maurice,  president  of  the  mint  at  Lyons,  and  at  the  Chateau  Saint- 
Auban,  two  ingots  of  "  gold,"  one  from  mercury  and  the  other 
from  lead.  On  trying  to  strike  medals  from  this  preparation  at 
Lyons,  the  minter  found  it  "  so  hard  that  it  was  not  possible  to 
work  it."  It  was  then  sent  to  Paris,  to  the  controller-general  of 
finance,  who  had  a  number  of  medals  struck  from  it  bearing  the 
inscription  "  Aurum  ex  arte  factum  "  ("  Gold  made  by  art ").  One 
of  the  medals  was  deposited  in  the  Royal  Cabinet,  and,  according 
to  Langlet-Dufresnoy,  its  allotted  square  was  still  existing  at  the 
mint  in  1762.  I  have  handled  and  have  an  impression  of  a  piece 
which,  although  the  inscription  is  not  identical  with  that  described 
by  Dufresnoy,  was  most  probably  made  from  Delisle's  metal,  f 
Its  density  is  perceptibly  different  from  that  of  gold,  and  that 
should  give  it  a  place  in  the  class  of  tokens  without  value.  Some 
spots  of  verdigris  disappeared  under  the  action  of  nitric  acid, 
which  did  not  attack  the  rest  of  the  metal.  Delisle  likewise  made, 
under  similar  circumstances,  but  with  a  different  powder,  an  ingot 
of  "  silver,"  from  which  two  crowns,  two  half-crowns,  two  quar- 
ters, and  three  ten-sous  pieces  were  struck. 

In   1717   Landgrave   Ernest   Louis  of  Hesse-Darmstadt,  who 

*  Delisle  is  accused  of  having  been  the  servant  of  Lascaris,  and  of  having  assassinated 
him  in  Savoy,  in  order  to  steal  his  powder.  After  this  crime,  in  1706,  he  established  him- 
self at  Sisteron,  where  he  married  and  soon  achieved  a  great  local  notoriety  by  changing 
nails,  knives,  shoe-buckles,  rings,  etc.,  of  iron  and  steel  into  "  gold  "  or  "  silver."  Some 
of  these  transformed  objects  might,  perhaps,  still  be  found  in  the  country  if  one  should  be 
at  the  pains  of  searching  for  them.  Delisle  resided  in  succession  at  Sisteron,  the  chateau 
of  Palud  Digne,  where  he  is  said  to  have  enriched  a  merchant  named  Taxis  ;  at  Castellane, 
and  at  Senez,  where  he  performed  several  times  before  the  bishop. 

f  Possibly,  however,  this  was  a  mock  token,  like  those  which  were  struck  in  England  in 
1815,  when  Napoleon  was  sent  to  St.  Helena.     That  token  was  just  like  a  twenty-franc 
piece,  and  bore  the  figure  of  the  emperor  on  one  side  and  a  ship  on  the  other,  with  the 
inscription  "  This  is  copper." 
vol.  xxxvi. — 52 


818  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

was  an  amateur  alchemist,  received  by  mail  a  little  box  containing 
two  packages  of  powder,  one  red  and  the  other  white,  with  direc- 
tions for  using  them.  He  was  thus  able  to  enjoy  the  pleasure  of 
himself  changing  lead  into  "  gold  "  and  "  silver."  From  the  "  gold  " 
he  struck  a  few  hundred  ducats,  bearing  on  one  side  his  name  and 
effigy,  and  on  the  other  the  lion  of  Hesse  and  his  initials,  E.  L. 
From  the  "  silver  "  he  struck  a  hundred  thalers  bearing  his  name 
and  likeness  on  one  side,  and  on  the  other  the  inscription  "  Sic  pla- 
cuit  Deo  in  tribulationibus  "  ("  Thus  it  has  pleased  God  in  tribula- 
tions "),  1717,  with  the  lion  of  Hesse  and  his  initials,  surrounded  by 
four  crowns. 

These  operations  made  so  much  stir  that  the  Academy  of  Sci- 
ences was  moved  by  it;  and  in  1722  the  chemist  Geoff roy  was 
charged  to  demonstrate  to  the  learned  company  that  these  extraor- 
dinary achievements  were  a  pure  fraud.  In  the  report,  which  he 
read  on  the  15th  of  April,  he  said :  "  Since  the  main  intention  of 
the  operators  is  usually  to  show  gold  or  silver  in  the  place  of  the 
minerals  which  they  pretend  to  transmute,  they  sometimes  use 
double  crucibles  or  cupels,  or  they  put  salts  of  gold  or  silver  in 
the  bottom  of  them;  they  then  cover  the  bottom  with  a  paste 
made  by  mixing  crucible-dust  with  gum- water  or  wax;  doing  it 
so  that  this  false  bottom  shall  seem  to  be  the  real  bottom.  At 
other  times  they  put  gold  or  silver  dust  in  a  hole  made  in  a  piece 
of  charcoal;  or  they  saturate  charcoal  with  solutions  of  those 
metals  and  then  reduce  the  mass  to  a  powder,  in  order  to  project 
it  upon  the  substances  which  they  are  going  to  transmute. 

"  They  use  rods  with  hollowed  ends  containing  in  the  cavities 
gold  or  silver  filings,  and  stopped  up  with  sawdust  of  the  same 
wood.  Stirring  their  molten  matter  with  these  rods,  the  sticks 
burn,  leaving  in  the  crucible  the  metal  with  which  they  have 
been  charged.  In  an  endless  variety  of  ways  they  mix  gold  or 
silver  with  the  substances  with  which  they  work.  A  small  quan- 
tity of  gold  or  silver  will  not  show  in  a  large  quantity  of  such 
metallic  snbstances  as  the  regulus  of  antimony,  lead,  or  copper. 
Salts  of  gold  and  silver  can  very  easily  be  mixed  with  salts  of  lead, 
antimony,  and  mercury.  Grains  or  nuggets  of  gold  and  silver 
can  be  inclosed  in  lead.  Gold  may  be  whitened  with  quicksilver 
and  made  to  pass  for  tin.  The  collection  of  gold  and  silver  from 
the  substances  with  which  they  have  been  mixed  may  be  made  to 
pass  for  transmutation. 

"All  that  goes  on  in  the  hands  of  these  people  should  be 
watched.  For  the  aqua  fortis  or  aqua  regia  which  they  use  is  often 
already  charged  with  solutions  of  gold  or  silver.  The  papers  in 
which  they  wrap  their  chemicals  are  sometimes  loaded  with  salts 
of  these  metals ;  and  the  pasteboards  they  employ  may  conceal 
such  salts  in  their  thickness.     Glass  has  been  known  to  come  out 


ALCHEMIST'S    GOLD.  819 

from  furnaces  charged  with  portions  of  gold  which  had  been  ad- 
mittedly slipped  in  while  it  was  molten. 

"  Some  alchemists  have  imposed  on  their  spectators  with  nails 
half  of  iron  and  half  of  gold  or  silver.  They  make  believe  that 
they  effect  a  real  transmutation  of  half  of  these  nails  by  dipping 
it  into  a  pretended  tincture.  Nothing  is  more  seductive  at  first ; 
but  it  is,  after  all,  only  a  trick.  The  nails,  which  seemed  to  be  all 
iron,  were  really  in  two  pieces  neatly  soldered,  the  gold  or  silver 
to  the  iron,  and  washed  with  an  iron-colored  wash,  that  disap- 
peared when  they  were  dipped  into  a  suitable  liquid.  Of  this 
character  was  the  gold  and  iron  nail  formerly  to  be  seen  in  the 
cabinet  of  the  Grand  Duke  of  Tuscany  ;  of  like  nature  are  those 
half-silver  and  half-iron  nails  which  I  present  to  this  society  to- 
day. Such  also  was  the  knife  which  a  monk  once  presented  to 
Queen  Elizabeth  of  England,  in  the  earlier  years  of  her  reign,  the 
end  of  the  blade  of  which  was  of  gold ;  as  well  also  those  knives, 
half  silver  and  half  iron,  which  a  famous  quack  scattered  a  few 
years  ago  over  Provence.  It  is  true  that  they  say  that  this  last 
performer  operated  on  knives  that  were  given  him,  and  which  he 
gave  back  after  a  time  with  the  ends  of  the  blades  silvered.  But 
there  is  reason  for  supposing  that  the  change  was  made  by  cut- 
ting off  the  end  of  the  blade  and  soldering  on  a  similar  end 
of  silver. 

"  There  have  been  also  pieces  of  money  and  medals  half  gold 
and  half  silver.  Such  pieces  were  said  to  have  been  originally 
all  silver,  half  of  which  was  turned  into  gold  by  dipping  them 
half-way  into  the  philosopher's  mixture,  without  the  outer  form 
or  the  engraved  designs  being  essentially  changed.  I  say  that  no 
such  medal  was  ever  all  silver,  but  that  they  were  in  two  pieces, 
one  of  silver  the  other  of  gold,  so  soldered  together  as  to  preserve 
the  proper  arrangement  of  the  characters.  The  thing  could  be  eas- 
ily done  by  having  several  silver  medals  of  the  same  kind,  a  little 
worn,  and  making  molds  of  them  in  sand  for  casting  copies  in  gold. 
The  sand  would  not  even  have  to  be  very  fine.  Then  let  the  med- 
als be  cut  exactly  to  rule,  fitted  by  filing,  and  the  complementary 
halves  soldered  together  with  care,  to  have  the  designs  precisely 
correspond.  Any  trifling  flaw  could  be  mended  with  the  graver. 
The  part  of  the  medal  that  is  of  gold,  having  been  cast  in  sand, 
looks  a  little  grainy  and  is  rougher  than  the  silver  part,  which 
was  pressed;  but  this  fault  was  given  out  to  be  an  effect  or  a 
proof  of  the  transmutation ;  because  a  given  quantity  of  silver, 
having  a  larger  volume  than  a  like  quantity  of  gold,  the  silver 
shrunk  some  in  changing  into  gold,  leaving  the  pores  or  spaces 
that  constituted  the  grain.  The  operator,  besides,  took  pains  to 
make  the  golden  part  a  little  thinner  than  the  silver,  to  keep  up 
the  semblance ;  and  to  use  only  as  much  or  not  quite  as  much 


820  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

gold  as  there  was  of  silver.  A  second  medal  was  prepared  in 
the  same  way. 

"  They  also  took  a  silver  medal,  filed  down  one  half  of  it  on 
either  side,  without  touching  the  other  half,  till  they  reduced  it 
to  about  the  thickness  of  a  playing-card.  Then,  taking  half  of  a 
medal  of  gold,  they  split  it,  and  reducing  the  two  parts  in  the 
required  proportions,  adjusted  the  outside  parts  over  the  silver 
core,  preserving  the  proper  arrangement  of  the  designer.  They 
then  had  a  whole  medal,  half  silver  and  half  gold,  but  with  the 
gold  part  stuffed  with  silver.  This,  they  said,  was  a  silver  medal 
which  had  not  lain  long  enough  in  the  elixir,  and  had  only  been 
partly  transmuted. 

"  Half  of  a  third  medal  was  superficially  gilded  with  an  amal- 
gam of  gold,  and  represented  a  piece  which,  having  been  merely 
dipped  into  the  elixir,  had  only  begun  to  turn. 

"  When  this  game  was  played,  the  golden  parts  of  the  three 
pieces  were  whitened  with  mercury,  so  as  to  look  as  if  they  were 
all  silver.  To  make  the  deception  more  complete,  the  per- 
former, who  should'  have  a  knack  for  conjuring,  exhibited  three 
genuine  silver  pieces  that  had  not  been  tampered  with,  and  per- 
mitted the  audience  to  examine  them.  Taking  them  back,  he 
slyly  substituted  his  prepared  pieces  for  them ;  fixed  these  in  his 
glasses,  poured  in  as  much  of  his  elixir  as  suited  him,  and  with- 
drew them  at  the  lapse  of  the  designated  intervals  of  time.  He 
threw  them  into  the  fire  and  left  them  there  long  enough  to  drive 
away  the  mercury  with  which  the  gold  was  masked.  Then  he 
took  them  out,  looking  as  if  they  were  half  of  silver  and  half  of 
gold ;  but  with  the  difference  that,  in  cutting  the  parts  that 
seemed  to  be  of  gold,  one  was  merely  gilded  on  the  surface, 
another  was  gold  filled  with  silver,  and  the  third  was  gold  all 
through. 

"  Chemistry  furnished  these  tricksters  with  other  most  subtle 
means  of  carrying  out  their  deceptions.  It  was  also  possible  to 
introduce  another,  lighter  metal  into  gold,  which,  while  reducing 
its  weight  to  that  of  an  equal  volume  of  silver,  would  not  change 
its  color,  or  separate  from  it  in  any  part  of  the  process." — Trans- 
lated for  the  Popular  Science  Monthly  from  La  Nature. 


Mant  very  curious  features  of  language  are  exhibited  in  Dr.  Leitner's  book 
on  the  Hunzas  of  Dardistan.  The  substantive  can  not  be  used  without  the  per- 
sonal pronoun  ;  as  if  we  could  say  "my  heart,"  "thy  heart,"  or  "his  heart,"  but 
not  "heart"  by  itself.  The  plurals  of  many  feminine  nouns  are  masculine,  and 
vice  versa.  In  the  verb  "to  be"  or  "to  become,"  as  well  as  in  numerous  other 
verbs,  there  are  different  plurals  for  men,  women,  animals,  etc.,  and  the  latter  are 
again  subdivided  according  to  sex.  Objects  also  are  distinguished  into  male  and 
female,  according  to  their  fancied  stronger  or  weaker  uses. 


A  LESSON  IN   CO-OPERATION  821 

A  LESSON  IN  CO-OPERATION. 

By  CLAKENCE  N.  OUSLEY. 

THE  commercial  method  of  the  times  seems  to  be  the  merging 
of  competing  enterprises  into  syndicates  and  trusts  under  a 
single  management.  Naturally  enough  a  similar  tendency  is  be- 
coming manifest  among  producers  as  well  as  among  manufactur- 
ing and  transportation  agencies.  Various  meetings  and  conven- 
tions among  farmers  of  late  have  suggested  the  establishing  of 
co-operative  stores  and  exchanges  controlled  by  a  central  bureau, 
which  shall  be  the  head  of  a  gigantic  farmers'  pool.  Indeed,  the 
first  steps  to  this  end  have  already  been  taken  in  several  Southern 
and  Western  States.  In  view  of  the  event  to  which  these  signs 
point,  it  is  not  amiss  at  this  juncture  to  interpose  a  lesson  in  co- 
operation furnished  by  the  rise  in  1887  and  fall  in  1889  of  a  large 
enterprise  of  this  sort,  viz.,  the  Farmers'  Alliance  Exchange  of 
Texas.  It  is  not  the  purpose  of  this  paper  to  discuss  the  expedi- 
ency of  such  commercial  ventures.  The  intention  is  merely  to 
give  an  historical  account  of  the  particular  case  under  examina- 
tion, without  even  pointing  a  moral  further  than  that  which 
would  suggest  itself  to  any  thoughtful  mind — viz.,  like  causes, 
operating  under  like  conditions,  will  produce  like  effects. 

The  Farmers'  Alliance  of  the  Southern  States,  which  was  con- 
solidated with  other  farmers'  organizations  at  St.  Louis  in  De- 
cember last  into  the  Farmers'  Alliance  and  Industrial  Union  of 
America,  had  its  origin  in  Texas  several  years  ago.  One  of  its 
original  purposes,  according  to  the  declaration  of  its  constitution, 
was  "  to  develop  a  better  state  financially "  among  its  members ; 
and  in  pursuance  of  this  purpose  the  Farmers'  Alliance  Exchange 
of  Texas  was  organized.  It  was  the  first  extensive  business  exper- 
iment under  the  Alliance  movement,  which  had  meanwhile  spread 
over  the  South,  and  was  therefore  watched  with  considerable  in- 
terest. At  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Texas  Alliance,  at  Waco,  in 
August,  1887,  the  following  plan  of  business  was  adopted :  1.  To 
incorporate  the  Farmers'  Alliance  Exchange  of  Texas.  2.  To  sell 
farmers'  produce  and  to  buy  farmers'  supplies  as  the  farmers' 
agent,  and  to  erect  suitable  buildings  for  conducting  the  business. 

3.  The  capital  stock  to  be  $500,000,  divided  into  twenty-five  shares, 
controlled  by  twenty-five  trustees  elected  by  the  State  Alliance. 

4.  To  raise  the  capital  stock  by  assessing  each  member  of  the  Al- 
liance two  dollars,  and  on  receipt  of  $50,000  to  credit  each  share 
with  ten  per  cent  paid  in,  and  like  credit  to  be  made  for  each  sub- 
sequent payment  of  the  same  amount.  The  twenty -five  trustees 
were  elected,  and  a  State  business  agency,  previously  in  operation 
on  a  small  scale,  was  merged  into  the  new  enterprise.    From  this 


822  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

time  forward  for  several  months  there  prevailed  among  the  mem- 
bers of  the  order  the  most  hopeful  and  enthusiastic  spirit  possible 
to  imagine,  amounting  to  almost  a  universal  conviction  that  finan- 
cial salvation  was  come. 

The  main  body  of  the  Alliance  was  composed  of  tenant  farm- 
ers, who  as  a  class  farm  on  the  "  third  and  fourth/'  that  is,  by 
paying  a  third  of  the  cotton  and  a  fourth  of  the  corn  as  rental  for 
the  land.  They  are  possessed  of  little  more  than  a  meager  house- 
hold and  farming  equipment,  and  are  generally  compelled  to 
mortgage  the  growing  crop  to  the  country  merchant  for  the 
year's  supplies  of  groceries,  clothing,  and  implements.  Their 
hope  was  to  escape  from  the  country  merchant,  who,  to  say  the 
least,  does  not  conduct  his  business  on  the  plan  of  quick  sales  and 
small  profits.  To  afford  such  escape  was  equally  the  design  of  the 
Exchange.  It  may  be  readily  perceived,  therefore,  that  the  Alli- 
ance was  wrought  to  the  highest  pitch  of  excitement  in  contem- 
plation of  abolishing  the  awful  credit  system  which  is  a  veritable 
millstone  about  the  neck  of  the  improvident  farmer.  In  addition 
to  the  work  of  public  lecturers  sent  out  by  the  Alliance,  several 
papers  published  in  the  interest  of  the  order  kept  the  Exchange 
topic  red  hot,  while  it  was  also  a  theme  for  discussion  in  the  pa- 
pers at  large,  so  that  the  general  public  was  in  a  state  of  greater 
or  less  expectancy.  In  connection  with  the  Exchange  it  was  an- 
nounced by  the  Alliance  organs  and  speakers  that  the  movement 
would  result  finally — and  not  a  very  far  off  "  finally  "  at  that — in 
cotton  and  woolen  mills,  implement  and  wagon  factories,  a  huge 
printing-house,  etc.  A  plan  was  formulated  also  for  establishing 
an  Alliance  University,  with  departments  of  law,  medicine,  and 
theology.  From  first  to  last  several  factories  have  been  started, 
but  without  a  single  exception  they  have  failed  to  reach  the  stage 
of  successful  operation. 

Immediately  after  the  Waco  meeting  of  the  Alliance,  the  twen- 
ty-five trustees  met  and  delegated  the  transaction  of  business  to  a 
board  of  seven  directors,  which  was  organized  by  the  election  of 
the  following  officers :  a  president,  secretary,  treasurer,  and  a  gen- 
eral business  manager.  Meanwhile  a  charter  had  been  procured 
in  accordance  with  the  foregoing  plan,  and  the  establishment  was 
located  at  Dallas,  in  consideration  of  $10,000  cash  subsidy,  a  site 
for  buildings,  and  other  substantial  inducements.  The  business 
was  opened  in  September,  1887,  in  temporary  quarters  provided 
rent  free  by  the  citizens  of  Dallas.  The  published  report  of  the 
manager  for  that  month  shows  an  expense  account  of  $793.91  and 
a  cash  balance  of  $201.40,  or  total  resources  amounting  to  $991.31. 
This  was  a  part  of  the  $10,000  cash  subsidy,  which,  though  never 
quite  paid  in  full,  was  practically  discharged  and  furnished  the 
available  capital  for  some  time. 


A  LESSON  IN   CO-OPERATION.  823 

The  Exchange  commenced  business  by  handling  cotton  and 
grain,  and  farm  implements.  The  former  were  sold  after  the  plan 
of  a  regular  commission-house  ;  the  latter  were  procured  and  fur- 
nished at  good  discounts  by  centering  the  trade  direct  to  a  whole- 
sale dealer,  who  was  nominally  the  Alliance  implement  agent,  but 
in  fact  was  selling  on  his  own  account.  It  was  but  a  short  time, 
however,  until  the  business  was  extended  to  the  buying  and  sell- 
ing of  dry  goods,  groceries,  and  general  supplies. 

Notwithstanding  the  lack  of  capital  which  appears  from  the 
business  manager's  reports,  the  Exchange  was  complimented  by 
the  mercantile  public  with  a  fairly  good  credit,  and  may  be  said 
to  have  commenced  life  under  the  most  favorable  circumstances. 
The  financial  statement  for  the  forty-five  days  ending  October 
31st,  is  as  follows  : 

Accounts  and  bills  receivable $9,962  51 

Office  fixtures  and  furniture 202  20      $10,164  71 

Liabilities. 

Accounts  and  bills  payable $9,511  24 

Total  liabilities $9,511  24 

Net  capital $653  47 

Losses. 

Expense  account $312  64 

Help  account 1,588  82 

Total  losses $1,901  46 

Gains. 
On  bagging  and  ties $79  65 

Interest  and  discount 1   80 

Commission  account 493  41 

Merchandise , 62 

Total  gains 575  48 

Net  losses $1,325  98 

Investment $201  40 

Received  from  donation,  etc 1,778  05 

Total  capital $1,979  45 

Deduct  net  losses 1,325  98 

Net  capital 653  47 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  September  cash  balance  of  $201.40 
has  been  supplemented  only  by  $1,778.05  "  received  from  donation, 
etc.,"  which  was  mainly  "  donation  "  and  little  "  etc." — that  is  to 
say,  chiefly  from  the  citizens'  subsidy  and  almost  nothing  from 
stock  subscription.  The  statement  for  November  exhibits  an 
increment  of  $1,122.40  from  donation  account,  and  practically 
nothing  from  stock,  with  a  net  capital  of  only  $1,195.17,  showing 
the  business  to  be  still  operating  at  a  loss. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  directors,  November  5,  1887,  a  novel  plan 
of  business  was  adopted  which   became  the  central  and  chief 


824  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

feature  of  the  institution,  becoming  first  the  means  of  its  sudden 
advancement,  and  later  the  cause  of  its  sudden  suspension.  It 
is  attributed,  in  the  minutes  of  the  meeting,  to  one  of  the  direct- 
ors, but  probably  owes  its  origin  to  the  manager,  who  was  the 
controlling  spirit  of  the  Exchange  enterprise  from  its  inception  to 
the  spring  of  1889 — the  period  of  his  management.  The  plan  was 
briefly  as  follows  : 

1.  Members  of  each  Sub- Alliance,  wishing  supplies  on  credit, 
to  furnish  a  schedule  of  their  probable  needs  during  the  year, 
together  with  a  showing  of  their  full  financial  responsibility,  and 
a  pledge  of  cotton  at  least  three  times  as  much  as  the  amount  of 
credit. 

2.  These  several  members  of  each  Sub-Alliance  to  execute  a 
joint  note  for  the  estimated  amount  of  supplies,  said  note  to  draw 
interest  after  May  31st  and  to  be  paid  November  15th. 

It  was  designed  that  these  notes  should  be  signed  also  by  re- 
sponsible farmers  (if  necessary  to  make  them  bankable),  who 
would  secure  themselves  against  loss  by  taking  mortgages  on  the 
growing  crops.  In  this  way  the  country  merchant  was  to  be 
avoided. 

These  joint  notes  acknowledged  full  consideration  in  the  face, 
and  were  to  be  credited  finally  with  the  difference  between  the 
face  and  the  actual  credit  account.  The  notes  at  first  were  accom- 
panied by  a  sort  of  bond  of  corresponding  number,  issued  by  the 
Exchange,  agreeing  not  to  part  ownership  with  the  notes ;  but, 
upon  the  failure  of  the  order  during  November  and  December  to 
pay  in  any  considerable  amount  of  the  capital  stock,  the  available 
donation  being  then  about  exhausted,  the  notes  were,  by  order  of 
the  board  of  directors  in  January,  used  as  collateral  security  in 
borrowing  money. 

The  business  manager's  report  for  the  month  ending  January 
31st  showed  $4,157.36  increase  of  capital  during  the  month,  or  a 
total  of  $5,247.93.  The  months  of  January,  February,  and  March 
constituted  a  period  of  great  activity.  The  country  was  alive 
with  lecturers  in  the  joint  employ  of  the  State  Alliance  and  the 
Exchange  ;  "  The  Southern  Mercury,"  organ  of  the  order,  had  an 
extensive  circulation,  and  the  Exchange  was  issuing  a  semi- 
monthly circular  letter  containing  private  advice,  discounts,  etc. 
During  this  time  the  total  capital  was  increased  to  $20,215.38  ;  the 
amount  of  joint  notes  reached  $200,974.88,  on  which  goods  had 
been  advanced  to  the  amount  of  $108,371.06. 

An  extract  from  the  business  manager's  report  for  the  month 
of  March  shows  "  the  beginning  of  the  end,"  the  first  embarrass- 
ments that  soon  culminated  in  a  serious,  not  to  say  fatal,  collapse : 

'  The  business  manager  spent  the  whole  of  the  month  of 
March  in  trying  to  negotiate  banking  arrangements  whereby  a 


A   LESSON  IN   CO-OPERATION.  825 

loan  could  be  effected  at  a  reasonable  rate  of  interest,  to  provide 
funds  to  purchase  goods  with  which  to  supply  the  contracts  ac- 
cepted by  the  committee  of  acceptance ;  but  all  the  efforts  made 
were  unsuccessful,  and  tended  to  produce  the  conviction  that 
those  who  controlled  the  moneyed  institutions  of  the  State  either 
did  not  choose  to  do  business  with  us,  or  they  feared  the  ill  will 
of  a  certain  class  of  business  men  who  consider  their  interests 
antagonistic  to  those  of  our  order  and  corporation.  At  any  rate, 
be  the  causes  what  they  may,  the  effort  to  borrow  money  in  a  suf- 
ficient quantity  failed." 

The  month  of  April  showed  an  increase  in  capital,  from  stock 
paid  in,  of  $1,526.36.  During  the  month  of  May  maturing  obliga- 
tions failed  to  be  met,  notes  of  the  Exchange  went  to  protest,  and 
general  disaster  followed,  amounting  almost  to  a  total  suspension 
of  business.  During  all  this  time  the  most  hopeful  statements 
were  made  by  the  manager  to  the  public,  and  the  general  frater- 
nity were  induced  by  official  utterances  to  believe  that  the  troubles 
of  their  business  were  precipitated  by  a  combination  of  bankers 
and  wholesale  merchants  to  crush  it  out.  A  meeting  of  the  State 
Alliance  Executive  Committee  was  called,  and,  after  a  few  days 
of  examination  into  the  business  at  Dallas,  the  following  call, 
signed  by  the  seven  directors,  was  issued : 

Members  of  the  Farmers'  Alliance  of  Texas: 

Brethren  :  Grave  and  important  issues  confront  us  to-day.  Unjust  combina- 
tions seek  to  throttle  our  lawful  and  legitimate  efforts  to  introduce  a  business  sys- 
tem more  just  and  equitable  than  is  now  prevailing.  ...  In  order  that  the  proof 
of  the  existence  of  this  combination  may  be  submitted  to  you,  and  that  a  full,  free 
conference  may  be  had  with  the  brethren,  it  is  most  earnestly  recommended  that 
a  mass  meeting  be  held  at  the  court-house  in  each  county  of  the  State  on  the  sec- 
ond Saturday  in  June,  at  which  meeting  documentary  evidence  disclosing  facts  of 
^ast  importance  will  be  laid  before  you,  and  a  plan  for  your  consideration  and 
adoption.  .  .  . 

In  addition  to  this,  there  was  issued  about  the  same  time  a 
secret  circular,  signed  by  the  officers  of  the  Exchange,  which  is  so 
violent  in  language  as  to  almost  merit  the  adjective  "revolu- 
tionary." The  circular  is  too  long  for  reproduction  here,  but  the 
main  points  may  be  summarized  as  follow : 

1.  There  was  from  the  first  a  hidden,  underhanded,  masked  opposition  to  the 
Exchange.  2.  That  Dallas  bankers,  wholesale  merchants,  implement  dealers,  and 
manufacturers  entered  into  a  combination  to  crush  the  Exchange ;  that  the  bank- 
ers refused  to  lend  the  Exchange  money  upon  any  terms  or  any  security,  and 
tried  to  force  them  to  buy  through  jobbers.  3.  That  the  Dallas  combination 
"kept  the  mails  full  and  the  wires  red  hot"  to  prevent  the  Exchange  from  get- 
ting money  at  Fort  Worth,  Houston,  Galveston,  and  New  Orleans. 

These  utterances  indicate  the  bitterness  of  feeling  incited  by 
the  Exchange  management  and-  the  officers  of  the  State  Alliance. 


8z6  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

While  the  circulars  were  condemned  by  a  few  conservative  spir- 
its, and  were  subsequently  regretted,  probably,  by  all  reasonable 
men  in  the  order,  at  that  time  they  were  not  publicly  disputed 
except  by  outside  parties.  "The  Texas  Farmer,"  organ  of  the 
Texas  State  Grange,  went  to  the  trouble  of  interviewing  promi- 
nent bankers  and  business  men  in  Dallas,  who  uniformly  denied 
the  existence  of  any  such  combination,  and  affirmed  their  good- 
will for  the  Exchange,  attributing  its  failure  to  lack  of  busi- 
ness management.  From  the  publication  of  these  circulars,  in 
May,  to  the  9th  of  June,  the  Alliance  was  in  a  state  of  violent  ex- 
citement. In  addition  to  the  circulars  and  other  publications, 
lecturers  covered  the  entire  State,  and,  by  every  possible  argu- 
ment and  appeal,  urged  the  members  to  take  stock  and  save  the 
business  from  final  ruin.  The  effect  was  to  raise  only  little  less 
than  $30,000,  though  subsequent  fruits  of  the  same  canvass  in- 
creased that  amount  to  nearly  $50,000.  The  statement  for  June 
shows  a  total  capital  invested  of  $56,409.26. 

This  call  on  the  9th  of  June,  1888,  which  became  a  memorable 
day  in  Alliance  history,  forcibly  illustrates  the  weakness  of  such 
financial  schemes  as  depend  on  popular  subscriptions,  or  per 
capita  assessments,  with  no  other  power  of  collection  than  the 
force  of  fraternal  obligation.  The  membership  of  the  Alliance 
in  Texas  had  been  frequently  estimated  by  Alliance  speakers  and 
writers  at  250,000,  though  it  probably  never  reached  more  than 
half  that  number — if  more,  it  all  the  more  strongly  illustrates 
the  point.  In  speaking  of  the  resources  of  the  Alliance  business, 
it  was  common  with  leaders  to  say  that  unlimited  sums  could  be 
raised  on  call.  For  instance,  an  assessment  of  one  dollar  per 
capita  would  bring  in,  within  thirty  days,  $125,000  (or  $250,000, 
according  to  the  highest  estimate  of  membership).  Here  was  a 
case  of  prime  importance  in  which  it  was  urged  that  not  only 
the  salvation  of  the  business  but  the  freedom  of  the  farmer  was 
at  stake,  and  yet  the  total  subscriptions,  first  and  last,  did  not 
exceed  $50,000. 

Notwithstanding  the  disaster  impending  in  the  early  spring, 
the  board  of  directors  at  their  March  meeting  entered  into  a  con- 
tract for  a  building,  to  cost  $34,117,  which  was  in  due  time  com- 
pleted, though  never  one  fourth  paid  for,  and  in  April  opened 
a  branch  Exchange  in  Belton,  Texas.  The  Belton  business  re- 
ceived substantial  inducements  from  citizens  amounting  to  about 
$10,000. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  further  follow  the  business  in  detail.  The 
June  rally  failed  to  raise  the  needful  amount  of  funds  to  make  the 
Exchange  easy.  Extensions  were  secured  from  time  to  time,  and 
efforts  were  constantly  made  to  raise  the  capital  stock,  but  without 
material  success.    The  Exchange  never  recovered  from  the  wild 


A  LESSON  IN   CO-OPERATION.  827 

and  extravagant  methods  of  its  first  winter,  and  in  the  summer  and 
fall  of  1888  it  was  further  crippled  by  attacks  of  "The  Southern 
Mercury/'  the  State  Alliance  organ,  on  its  business  management. 
This  caused  internal  dissensions  which  threatened  at  one  time  to 
disrupt  the  order,  creating  two  bitter  factions,  which  for  a  long 
time  refused  to  be  reconciled.  Early  in  1889  the  business  manager 
of  the  Exchange  resigned,  and  a  new  one  was  elected  in  his  stead. 
Meanwhile  there  had  been  a  change  in  the  editorial  management 
of  the  "  Mercury,"  and  the  spirit  of  true  fraternity  soon  reasserted 
itself,  the  order  becoming  again  firmly  cemented,  though  it  had 
lost  materially  in  members.  However,  the  better  part  remained, 
and  the  Alliance  has  since  been  happily  progressing  in  all  that 
relates  to  social  and  economic  education. 

The  management  of  the  Exchange  during  1889  was  conserva- 
tive and  judicious,  and,  under  other  circumstances,  he  would 
doubtless  have  made  it  a  successful  enterprise ,  but  it  was  too 
heavily  encumbered,  and  the  confidence  of  the  order  in  it  had 
been  sacrificed.  His  report  to  the  State  Alliance,  August,  1889,  is 
as  follows : 


Resources. 

Exchange  building,  Dallas $70,000  00 

Exchange  building,  Belton  . . .  12,000  00 

Exchange  building,  Longview  .  9,000  00 

Live  stock,  Henrietta 7,500  00 

Merchandise,  all  points 50,238  00 

Accounts  and  bills  receivable, 

estimated  good 39,210  00 

$179,848  00 


Liabilities. 

Bills  payable  on  merchandise  .     $44,704  42 

Bills  payable  on  buildings 29,300  00 

Accounts  payable 1,285  81 

$75,290  23 
Present  net  worth 104,557  77 

$179,848  00 


Cash  received  and  paid  out. 

Amount  paid  on  old  indebtedness $34,103  43 

Amount  received  from  sale  of  lands $14,800  00 

Amount  received  from  capital  stock 5,276  50 

Merchandise  sales  and  collections 14,026  93 

$34,103  43       $34,103  43 

Report  made  to  directors  in  January  showed  the  mercantile  indebtedness  to  be  $46,000. 
The  real  fact  is  that  it  was  $78,817.85. 

The  State  Alliance,  in  August,  1889,  passed  a  resolution  provid- 
ing for  a  voluntary  trust  fund  of  $75,000,  or  enough  to  discharge 
the  entire  indebtedness  of  the  Exchange,  but  not  to  be  used  until 
raised  in  full.  The  trust  fund  never  reached  a  third  of  the  re- 
quired amount,  and  in  December  last  the  Exchange  building  at 
Dallas  was  sold  under  mortgage  for  $35,000.  Immediately  there- 
after the  manager  proceeded  to  wind  up  the  affairs  of  the  Farm- 
ers' Alliance  Exchange  of  Texas. 

To  recapitulate  :    The  Exchange  commenced  to  do  business 


8 z8  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

without  capital,  depending  on  donations  and  assessments,  with 
no  power  to  enforce  collection.  Instead  of  confining  its  opera- 
tions to  buying  and  selling  as  the  farmers'  agent,  it  attempted  to 
take  the  place  of  the  country  merchants,  and  to  furnish  supplies 
on  credit  to  all  the  farmers  of  Texas.  To  do  this  successfully 
would  require  millions  instead  of  thousands.  The  reason  the 
banks  refused  to  lend  money  to  the  Exchange  in  March,  1889, 
was  neither  opposition  to  the  Exchange  nor  undue  friendliness  to 
the  jobbers,  but  plain  business  prudence.  The  Exchange  was 
doing  a  larger  business  than  its  capital  warranted ;  the  joint  notes 
used  as  collateral  security  were  represented  by  accounts  from 
twenty-five  to  seventy-five  per  cent  less  than  the  face  of  the  notes, 
and  while  innocent  purchasers  could  be  protected  in  the  courts, 
still  litigation  is  a  resort  which  every  prudent  business  man  tries 
to  avoid ;  some  of  the  joint  notes  were  offset  by  bonds  agreeing 
not  to  part  ownership,  while  as  a  matter  of  fact  they  were  placed 
in  serious  jeopardy  by  being  put  up  as  collateral  security  for  ex- 
tensive loans.  The  wisdom  of  these  precautions  was  demonstrated 
in  the  final  outcome  of  the  Exchange's  management. 

In  October  last  the  representatives  of  the  trust  fund,  which 
reached  about  $17,000,  perceiving  that  it  would  be  inadequate  for 
the  ends  sought,  met  at  Dallas  and  placed  it  in  the  hands  of  the 
manager,  instructing  him  to  save  such  part  of  the  Exchange  as 
might  be  possible.  Since  the  sale  of  the  building  there  has  been 
organized  a  new  corporation,  composed  of  Alliance  members  rep- 
resenting the  trust  fund  ;  and  this  new  corporation,  known  as  the 
Farmers'  Alliance  Commercial  Agency,  has  purchased  the  Ex- 
change building,  and  designs  carrying  on  a  general  buying  and 
selling  agency.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  new  enterprise  will  be 
more  successful  than  the  old  one  was. 


According  to  Oudeman's  review  of  parallax  investigations,  the  distance  of 
forty  of  the  fixed  stars  has  been  approximately  determined.  The  disproportion  be- 
tween this  number  and  the  number  of  stars  of  which  we  know  nothing  is  so  great, 
says  Mr.  A.  M.  Clarke,  that  general  conclusions  seem  discredited  beforehand,  and 
negative  ones  can  have  no  weight.  But  it  is  evident  that  the  largest  stars  are  not 
always  those  nearest  to  the  earth.  Seven  of  those  whose  distances  have  been  as- 
certained are  invisible  to  the  naked  eye,  while  one  is  nearer  than  Sirius,  and  all 
are  nearer  than  Capella,  Vega,  Arcturus,  or  CaDopus.  A  further  conclusion  may 
be  deduced  that  the  disparities  between  the  stars  are  enormous.  "  A  farthing 
rush-light  is  not  more  insignificant  compared  with  the  electric  arc  than  a  faint 
star  compared  with  a  potent  sun.  Sirius  emits  6,400  times  as  much  light  as  the 
ninth-magnitude  star  11,677  Argelander-Oelzen  ;  and  our  own  sun  is  nearly  as 
much  inferior  to  Arcturus.  Inequalities  of  the  same  order  appear  between  the 
members  of  revolving  systems ;  as,  for  instance,  Sirius  shines  like  four  thousand 
of  his  companions." 


INTELLIGENCE   OF  SQUIRRELS.  829 


INTELLIGENCE  OF  SQUIRRELS.* 

By  Dr.  T.  WESLEY   MILLS, 

PROFESSOR   OF   PHYSIOLOGY   IN   MCGILL   UNIVERSITY. 

TTNTIL  recently,  the  habits  of  animals  seem  to  have  been  con- 
\-J  sidered  simply  as  interesting  manifestations  of  'their  life, 
but  without  any  special  reference  to  their  relations  to  the  intel- 
lectual part  of  the  creatures  concerned.  But  unless  we  assume 
that  animals  are  devoid  of  mind  and  true  intelligence — an  ex- 
treme and  untenable  position — there  must  be  a  possible  science  of 
comparative  psychology,  as  there  is  of  comparative  anatomy  and 
physiology.  The  study  of  animal  intelligence  is  possible,  inter- 
esting, and  important,  whether  we  regard  man  as  derived  from 
some  lower  form,  and  his  intellectual  as  well  as  his  physical  being 
the  result  of  evolution ;  or  whether  we  consider  that  man  stands 
wholly  apart  in  origin  either  as  to  body  or  mind.  In  the  latter 
case,  the  study  of  the  lower  forms  of  mind  affords  a  useful  con- 
trast with  its  highest  development  as  seen  in  man ;  in  the  former, 
we  aim  at  the  construction  of  a  ladder  by  which  we  may  climb 
from  the  simplest  manifestations  of  consciousness  to  the  highest 
performances  of  the  most  gigantic  human  intellect. 

I  have  selected  the  study  of  squirrel  psychology  as  the  subject 
of  this  paper,  because  so  little  seems  to  have  been  written  on  the 
subject;  because  these  animals  are  open  to  the  observation  of 
every  one ;  and  chiefly  because  I  have  been  able  to  give  special 
attention  to  them  myself.  Their  habits  will  be  considered  princi- 
pally, but  not  exclusively,  from  the  psychological  standpoint ; 
and  I  shall  apply  the  comparative  method,  making  such  refer- 
ences to  the  habits  and  intelligence  of  other  rodents  as  seem  to 
throw  light  on  those  of  the  squirrel.  While  some  attention  has 
been  paid  to  other  species  of  squirrels,  my  studies  have  been 
chiefly  on  the  ground  squirrel  (Tamias  Lysteri)  and  the  red 
squirrel  (Sciurus  Hudsonius). 

These  species,  in  many  respects,  form  a  contrast  to  each  other. 
The  chipmunk,  chipping  squirrel,  or  hackee,  has  his  abode  under- 
ground in  a  specially  constructed  burrow;  the  red  squirrel,  or 
chickaree,  lives  in  nests  in  trees ;  and  the  intelligence  of  the  latter 
seems  to  be  altogether  of  a  much  higher  order  than  in  the  ground 
squirrel.  This  was  abundantly  illustrated  in  my  experiments 
with  an  ordinary  wire  rat-trap  having  a  spring  door.  The  trap 
was  scarcely  laid  down  near  the  haunts  of  the  chipmunk  before 
one  entered  it,  in  fact  before  my  eyes ;  and  there  was  never  any 
difficulty  in  securing  as  many  as  were  wanted.     On  several  occa- 

*  Part  of  a  paper  communicated  to  the  Royal  Society  of  Canada. 


830  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

sions,  when  one  had  escaped  in  the  room,  on  placing  a  small  apple 
in  the  cage,  the  creature  re-entered  it  almost  at  once. 

Very  different  was  it  with  the  red  squirrels ;  at  first  they  en- 
tered the  trap,  hut  not  afterward.  They  approached  it,  some- 
times two  or  three  together,  ran  round  it  on  the  upper  rail  of  the 
fence  on  which  it  was  placed,  or  sat  on  top  of  it — in  short,  did 
everything  but  enter  it — all  the  while  seeming  to  enjoy  the  whole 
greatly. 

Having  secured  a  couple  of  ground  squirrels  in  the  manner 
described,  I  kept  them  under  observation  for  the  period  during 
which  they  survived,  viz.,  one  for  about  a  month  and  the  other 
for  between  two  and  three  months.  From  the  first,  one  of  them 
seemed  to  take  more  kindly  to  his  new  surroundings  than  the 
other;  one  appeared  shy  and  dull,  while  his  fellow  seemed  as 
happy  as  any  chipmunk  might  be.  They  were  captured  in  Sep- 
tember, and  it  has  often  occurred  to  me  that  their  habit  of  hiber- 
nation had  something  to  do  with  the  behavior  of  the  one,  though 
we  should  expect  that,  in  such  a  matter,  both  would  be  equally  or 
considerably  affected.  The  degree  to  which,  while  retaining  their 
original  habits,  the  latter  became  modified  in  confinement,  fur- 
nished me  with  an  interesting  study,  and  suggested  many  prob- 
lems. My  experience  does  not  agree  wholly  with  that  of  Audu- 
bon and  Bachmann,  who  say,  in  their  "  Quadrupeds  of  North 
America,"  "  We  are  doubtful  whether  this  species  can  at  any 
time  be  perfectly  tamed."  The  one  of  my  chipmunks  that  sur- 
vived longest  became  in  a  short  time  so  tame  that  he  would  eat 
from  the  hand,  and  even  looked  to  be  fed  in  this  way.  True,  any 
noise,  or  any  unusual  movement,  might  startle  the  creature,  when 
he  would  make  the  quick  dart  away  so  characteristic  of  the  spe- 
cies in  the  wild  state.  But  from  this  he  very  quickly  recovered, 
and  the  tendency  to  be  thus  frightened  grew  less  and  less.  The 
authors  referred  to  also  state  that  "  they  appeared  to  have  some 
aversion  to  playing  on  a  wheel,  which  is  so  favorite  an  amuse- 
ment of  the  true  squirrels."  This  does  not  at  all  agree  with  my 
observations;  for  though  at  first  my  chipmunk  was  apt  to  be 
startled  when  he  found  the  revolver  of  his  cage  moving  on  his 
entering  it,  he  soon  got  used  to  it,  and  delighted  in  it  as  much  as 
any  squirrel  could — in  fact,  he  used  it  by  night  and  by  day,  mani- 
festing an  ability  to  control  it  which  speaks  much  for  the  readi- 
ness with  which  such  animals  adapt  themselves  to  new  and  diffi- 
cult movements,  and  which  shows  how  highly  developed  those 
parts  of  the  brain  must  be  which  are  concerned  in  the  balancing 
and  kindred  functions.  I  may  here  correct  another  statement  of 
the  same  authors.  They  maintain  that  squirrels  do  not  lap  fluids 
as  the  dog  and  cat.  From  repeated  observations  I  know  this  to 
be  an  error,  at  least  so  far  as  the  ground  squirrel  is  concerned. 


INTELLIGENCE   OF  SQUIRRELS.  831 

It  has  usually  been  assumed  that  squirrels,  and  indeed  most 
rodents,  feed  wholly  on  vegetable  food,  and  that  in  those  instances 
in  which  the  contrary  has  been  observed  there  was  evidence  of  a 
perverted  or  morbid  appetite.  Audubon  and  Bachmann,  however, 
state  that  the  flying  squirrel  (Pteromys  volucella,  Des.)  has  been 
caught  in  traps  baited  with  meat.  A  number  of  writers,*  espe- 
cially within  the  past  few  years,  have  drawn  attention  to  flesh- 
eating  habits  in  several  rodents,  mostly  under  peculiar  circum- 
stances. Some  interesting  questions  arise  in  this  connection: 
1.  In  how  far  is  any  rodent  carnivorous,  when  abundance  of  all 
the  different  kinds  of  vegetable  food  that  the  animal  uses  is  at 
hand  ?  2.  What  is  the  relation  between  confinement  and  altered 
appetites  ?  3.  In  how  far  are  such  altered  appetites  evidence  of 
morbid  or  perverted  conditions,  and  in  how  far  simply  the  expres- 
sion of  physiological  needs  ?  The  whole  subject,  I  am  inclined  to 
think,  might  be  placed  on  a  broad  and  sound  physiological 
foundation  ;  but,  before  that  can  be  done,  many  accurate  observa- 
tions are  required,  and  possibly  also  many  series  of  experiments. 
If  we  may  judge  by  the  common  house  rat,  rodents  possess  un- 
usual plasticity  as  to  feeding  and  other  habits,  and  not  less  as 
regards  their  mental  life.  I  found  that  my  chipmunk  would  take 
a  great  variety  of  foods,  though  the  experiment  of  feeding  with 
meat  was  not  tried.     He  drank  milk  greedily. 

There  is  one  peculiar  habit,  interesting  from  a  physiological 
point  of  view,  to  be  observed  in  squirrels  in  confinement.  A  writer 
in  "  Nature  "  (vol.  x  )  says, "  I  have  noticed  that  whenever  it  [the 
squirrel]  cleans  itself,  after  licking,  it  sneezes  violently  three  or 
four  times  into  its  fore-paws,  then  rubs  them  thus  damped  over  its 
fur."  And  this  writer  raises  the  question  as  to  whether  this  habit, 
which  he  believes  voluntary,  was  confined  to  squirrels.  He  does 
not  mention  what  sort  of  a  squirrel  his  own  was ;  but  I  have 
noticed  this  behavior  as  of  most  frequent  occurrence  in  my  caged 
chipmunk.  It  seems  to  me,  on  the  whole,  most  natural  to  con- 
sider it  a  voluntary  act  of  the  same  character,  and  possibly  for  a 
similar  purpose,  as  cleaning  the  throat  in  the  human  subject,  or 
perhaps  even  blowing  the  nose.  And  I  am  the  more  inclined  to 
believe  that  it  is  voluntary,  from  the  account  given  of  the  flying 
squirrel,  as  observed  by  Prof.  G.  H.  Perkins  and  recorded  in  "  The 
American  Naturalist"  (vol.  vii).  This  writer  states  that  on  one 
occasion  his  squirrel  lapped  some  ink,  but  shortly  afterward 
manifested  disgust  and  indulged  in  violent  sneezings.  Under 
these  circumstances  it  is  difficult  to  understand,  by  anything  in 
our  own  experience,  how  the  act  could  have  been  reflex. 

Speaking  of  the  relative  intelligence  of  squirrels,  this  writer 
says,  "  I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  the  flying  squirrel  does  not 

*  "  Science,"  vol.  viii ;  "  Canadian  Naturalist,"  vol.  iii. 


832  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

possess  as  much  intelligence  as  the  gray  or  red  or  some  other  spe- 
cies." From  the  entire  account  of  the  flying  squirrel  given  by 
Prof.  Perkins,  I  should  suppose  that  the  intelligence  of  this  species 
and  that  of  the  ground  squirrel  are  about  on  a  par — the  explana- 
tion of  which  will  be  considered  later. 

A  question  of  much  interest  to  the  naturalist  and  psycholo- 
gist, it  seems  to  me,  is  the  following,  viz.,  to  what  extent  the  intel- 
ligence of  animals  that  hibernate  has  been  modified  by  this  pro- 
cess, and  in  what  directions.  With  regard  to  hibernation,  so  far 
as  the  squirrels  are  concerned,  there  seems  to  be  great  dearth  of 
accurate  observations;  in  fact,  the  same  remark  applies  to  the 
whole  subject  of  hibernation,  one  of  the  most  interesting  in  the 
whole  realm  of  physiology.  A  number  of  observations  are  to  be 
found  scattered  through  the  literature,  but  they  are  fatally  lack- 
ing, in  most  cases,  in  precision  of  observation  and  accurate  rec- 
ord of  dates.  From  a  short  but  valuable  paper  on  "  The  Ameri- 
can Chipmunk,"  in  "  The  Popular  Science  Monthly  "  (vol.  vii),  by 
Dr.  C.  Abbott,  we  are  led  to  believe  that  the  ground  squirrel  spends 
some  time  in  his  burrow  before  hibernation  begins,  and  that  the 
food  laid  up  is  consumed  in  part  before  the  winter  torpor  sets  in, 
and  more  especially  in  the  spring  before  a  fresh  supply  is  obtained 
in  the  usual  way.  Concerning  the  winter  habits  of  other  species, 
I  have  been  able  to  learn  nothing  from  any  quarter  that  definitely 
settles  the  question  as  to  whether  they  hibernate  or  not.  Audu- 
bon and  Bachmann  (loc.  cit.)  state  that  as  much  as  one  bushel  and 
a  half  of  nuts  has  been  found  in  a  single  hollow  tree  occupied  by 
a  chickaree  or  red  squirrel.  They  also  state  that  this  species  may 
have  several  hoards.  From  different  remarks  dropped  by  these 
writers,  from  what  I  have  myself  observed,  and  from  the  state- 
ments of  Dr.  R.  Bell,  I  am  inclined  to  the  belief  that  the  red 
squirrel  and  some  other  species  do  not  regularly  hibernate  the 
whole  winter  through.  But  whether  they  hibernate  at  all,  in  the 
true  sense  of  that  term ;  whether  they  have  short  periods  of  hiber- 
nation, followed  by  intervals  of  consciousness,  during  which  they 
feed ;  whether  they  remain  in  a  condition  of  partial  torpor,  with 
slowing  of  all  the  vital  processes,  and  yet  not  in  absolute  insensi- 
bility and  with  cessation  of  respiration,  etc. — all  these  questions 
seem  to  be  as  yet  wholly  undecided. 

It  has  long  been  known  that  many  cold-blooded  animals  hiber- 
nate and,  under  altered  conditions,  sestivate  ;  it  is  further  believed 
that  among  warm-blooded  animals,  besides  bats,  many  rodents 
and  some  allied  animals  hibernate.  But,  when  the  matter  is 
looked  into  carefully,  it  is  found  that  the  term  "  hibernation " 
has  been  used  in  a  loose  and  very  plastic  sense  by  different  authors. 
It  is  highly  desirable,  therefore,  that  writers  should  state  exactly 
to  what  extent  the  animal  they  describe  as  "  torpid,"  "  hibernat- 


INTELLIGENCE   OF  SQUIRRELS.  833 

ing,"  or  "  in  winter-sleep/'  deviates  functionally  from  the  normal ; 
also,  that  the  exact  time  of  the  observations  be  recorded.  There 
is  a  certain  amount  of  evidence  that  even  birds,  representing 
the  highest  type  of  activity,  may  possibly  hibernate ;  and  that 
many  animals,  not  usually  thus  affected,  may  become  so  under 
exceptional  circumstances — indeed,  that  man  himself,  owing  to 
peculiar  states  of  the  nervous  system,  may  pass  into  a  condi- 
tion ("trance")  having  much  in  common  with  the  hibernation 
of  lower  animals.  I  think  it  is  very  probable  that,  when  the 
matter  has  been  fully  investigated,  all  degrees  of  cessation  of 
functional  activity  will  be  found  represented,  from  the  normal 
daily  sleep  of  man  and  other  animals,  to  the  lowest  degree  of  activ- 
ity consistent  with  the  actual  maintenance  of  life.  The  flying 
squirrel  is  nocturnal  in  habits  and  exceedingly  active,  even  in 
confinement,  as  Prof.  Perkins  (loc.  cit.)  has  shown  ;  but  during  the 
daytime  it  seems  not  to  be  correspondingly  quick — in  a  condition, 
in  fact,  resembling  somewhat  that  of  a  hibernating  animal.  The 
"  diurnal  hibernation  "  of  the  bat  is  not  to  be  forgotten.  I  noticed 
that  my  chipmunk  invariably,  after  feeding,  tucked  his  head 
down  and  assumed  a  more  or  less  ball-like  form  highly  suggestive 
of  a  tendency  to  hibernation. 

There  are  many  questions  that  arise  in  connection  with  this 
subject,  one  of  which  bears  directly  on  the  subject  of  comparative 
psychology:  How  and  to  what  extent  is  the  intelligence  of  animals 
influenced  by  hibernation?  It  may  be  considered  pretty  clear  that 
both  the  ground  squirrel  and  the  flying  squirrel  hibernate,  and 
these  are  certainly  among  the  lowest — perhaps  are  actually  the 
lowest — in  intelligence  of  the  whole  tribe.  "We  know  that  struggle 
among  higher  animals  develops  mental  adaptation  and  other 
forms  of  intelligence,  and  it  is  rational  to  suppose  that  those  spe- 
cies of  squirrels  that  do  not  hibernate  throughout  the  winter,  but 
endeavor  to  prevail  over  their  surroundings,  as  well  as  to  adapt 
themselves  to  them,  should  be  more  intelligent  than  those  spend- 
ing a  large  portion  of  each  year  in  inactivity. 

My  chipmunk,  during  its  captivity,  under  certain  circum- 
stances, kept  to  his  original  habits — e.  g.,  when  a  single  nut  was 
given  him  he  would  eat  it  immediately,  but  if  several  were  pre- 
sented at  once  he  would  hide  them  one  by  one  in  a  corner  of  his 
cage,  or,  if  sufficiently  small,  pack  them  away  in  his  cheek-pouches. 
He  did  the  same  with  cereal  grains.  When  cotton  wool  or  web- 
like material  was  placed  in  the  cage,  he  manipulated  it  a  good 
deal,  but  finally  made  a  bed  of  it,  in  which  he  buried  himself  out 
of  sight. 

Within  the  last  ten  years  attention  has  been  called  to  "  sing- 
ing "  in  certain  rodents,  especially  mice  ;  but  from  numerous  ref- 
erences in  the  literature  it  appears  that  "  singing,"  or  something 

vol.  xxxvi. — 53 


834  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

analogous  to  it,  has  been  noticed  in  a  large  number  of  rodents.* 
The  well-known  note  of  the  chipmunk,  from  which  it  has  derived 
its  name,  is  the  only  one  I  have  heard  from  it.  After  studying  a 
colony  of  red  squirrels  for  some  weeks  last  summer,  I  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  they  have  a  capacity  of  vocal  expression  much 
greater  than  is  commonly  believed.  Their  usual  "  barking,"  or 
trilling,  seems  to  be  the  commonest,  the  most  instinctive,  and  not 
largely  expressive  of  anything  beyond  general  satisfaction ;  but 
I  found  that,  under  excitement,  there  were  many  other  tones,  asso- 
ciated with  great  complexity  of  emotion,  which  I  am  not  prepared 
to  analyze,  but  which  there  can  be  little  doubt  the  creatures  them- 
selves employ  as  a  means  of  intercommunication.  Under  marked 
excitement,  as  the  result  of  repeated  interferences,  I  have  heard  a 
red  squirrel  so  mingle  tones  of  a  musical  kind  that  a  stranger, 
arriving  on  the  spot,  would  certainly  have  been  deluded  into  the 
belief  that  he  was  listening  to  some  bird,  or  rather  to  an  excited 
pair  of  birds.  The  musical  character  of  this  combination,  together 
with  its  continuity  and  complexity,  would  perhaps  justify  the 
designation  "  song."  One  of  the  writers  on  musical  mice  refers  to 
their  singing  but  little  in  certain  instances,  except  when  excited, 
which  is  a  point  of  analogy  with  the  chickaree. 

It  would  appear,  therefore,  that  it  is  likely  that,  throughout 
the  order  Rodentia,  a  genuine  musical  appreciation  and  executive 
capacity  exists,  and  in  some  instances  in  a  very  high  degree  ;  and 
that  apart  from  this  there  is  also  considerable  ability  displayed  in 
the  expression  of  states  of  emotion,  at  least,  by  vocal  forms.  Mani- 
festly, the  degree  to  which  animals  can  express  their  psychic 
states — and  especially  in  vocal  forms — is  a  matter  of  the  greatest 
importance,  and  I  have  already  elsewhere  ("Popular  Science 
Monthly,"  March,  1887)  expressed  my  conviction  that  animals 
have  a  power  of  communicating  with  each  other,  altogether  be- 
yond what  has  been  generally  surmised.  The  subject  is  beset 
with  great  difficulties,  and  calls  for  the  closest  observations. 


The  reviewer,  in  "The  Academy,"  of  Dr.  Oliver  Lodge's  "Modern  Ideas  of 
Electricity"  emphasizes  the  promise  implied  in  the  present  state  of  scientific 
research  and  mathematical  investigation  that  some  great  step  forward  is  about  to 
be  made.  "It  is  because  the  scientific  world,"  he  says,  "knows  itself  to  be  on 
the  verge  of  discoveries  as  to  the  nature  of  the  ether,  more  far-reaching  possibly 
than  the  discovery  of  the  mode  of  gravitation,  that  it  lives  in  a  state  of  suppressed 
excitement,  which  hinders  it  sometimes  from  further  progress  or  from  recognition 
of  the  relative  importance  of  recent  work  "  ;  and  lie  hints  that  the  century  wbich 
produced  Darwin  is  now  ripe  for  almost  a  greater  genius  than  he.  A  similar  tone 
is  sounded  in  Prof.  Lodge's  book. 

*  See  especially  "  Nature,"  vol.  xv,  "  Popular  Science  Monthly,"  vol.  i,  and  "  The  Ameri- 
can Naturalist." 


SKETCH   OF  DAVID   RITTENHOUSE.  835 


SKETCH   OF   DAVID   RITTENHOUSE. 

66  A  S  a. citizen  of  Pennsylvania/'  says  William  Barton,  in  the 
-£j-  preface  to  his  "Memoirs  of  the  Life  of  David  Ritten- 
house";  "as  an  inestimable  public  and  private  character;  as  a 
distinguished  son  of  science,  of  great  probity  and  extensive  use- 
fulness in  society — in  all  these  points  of  view,  the  history  of  Dr. 
Rittenhouse  may  be  contemplated  as  holding  a  relationship  with 
almost  every  object  connected  with  science  and  art  in  his  day 
that  could  in  any  way  contribute  to  the  well-being  of  mankind  in 
general  and  his  native  country  in  particular."  He,  in  fact,  ac- 
quired a  fame  in  the  period  of  the  infancy  of  American  science, 
the  nature  and  extent  of  which  can  hardly  be  realised  in  this 
day ;  and  his  gifts,  then  regarded  as  extraordinary,  were  always 
freely  placed  at  the  service  of  the  public. 

David  Rittenhouse  was  born  in  Roxborough  Township,  near 
Germantown,  Pa.,  April  8,  1732,  and  died  in  Philadelphia,  June 
26,  1796.  He  was  descended  from  a  family  of  paper-makers  resid- 
ing at  Arnheim,  Guelderland.  His  great-grandfather,  William 
Rittenhouse,  a  Mennonite  preacher,  came  from  Holland  with  his 
family  in  1687-'88 ;  was  the  first  Mennonite  minister  in  Pennsyl- 
vania ;  and  established  the  first  paper-mill  in  this  country,  at  the 
spot  where  David  was  born. 

David  was  early  put  to  work  on  the  farm,  and  was  plowing  at 
fourteen  years  of  age.  An  uncle  dying  had  left  him  a  chest  of 
tools  and  a  few  books  on  arithmetic  and  geometry,  with  some 
manuscript  mathematical  calculations.  These  furnished  pala- 
table food  to  his  mind,  and  his  biographers  tell  of  his  having  cov- 
ered the  handle  of  his  plow  and  the  fences  around  the  field  with 
his  workings  of  the  problems  which  they  set  before  him.  As  the 
uncle  mentioned  above  was  his  mother's  brother,  it  is  inferred 
that  he  inherited  his  genius  from  his  mother's  side.  His  mechani- 
cal talent  was  shown  in  his  construction  of  a  complete  water-wheel 
in  miniature  when  eight  years  old,  a  wooden  clock  when  seventeen, 
and  a  clock  with  metallic  works  at  a  later  age.  His  father  was  not 
disposed  at  first  to  favor  the  youth's  tastes,  but  eventually  he  fur- 
nished him  with  money  enough  to  buy  a  set  of  clock-making  tools ; 
and  David  built  a  workshop  at  Norriton,  whither  the  family  had 
removed,  where  he  carried  on  the  clock-making  business  for  several 
years.  He  at  the  same  time  pursued  his  studies  so  diligently  that 
he  impaired  his  constitution,  and  contracted  a  pain  that  afflicted 
him  all  his  life.  Astronomy  appeared  to  be  his  favorite  study ; 
and  he  was  interested  in  optics  and  mechanical  science.  He  dis- 
covered himself,  independently,  the  method  of  fluxions,  of  which, 
in  his  imperfect  knowledge  of  what  Newton  and  Leibnitz  had 


836  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

done,  he  believed  himself  to  be  the  originator ;  and  mastered  the 
English  translation  by  Motte  of  Newton's  "  Principia." 

The  acquaintance  which  he  formed  in  1751  with  Thomas  Bar- 
ton, who  afterward  married  his  sister,  had  an  important  influence 
in  shaping  his  career.  Rittenhouse,  according  to  William  Barton, 
"  possessed  a  sublime  native  genius  ;  which,  however,  was  yet  but 
very  imperfectly  cultivated  for  want  of  indispensable  means  of 
extending  the  bounds  of  natural  knowledge."  Barton  had  enjoyed 
these  means,  and  had  acquired  the  reputation  of  being  a  man  of 
learning.  He  found  Rittenhouse's  society  profitable,  and  Ritten- 
house found  his  equally  so.  Barton  aided  Rittenhouse  greatly  by 
helping  him  to  the  books  he  needed.  Partly  through  his  instru- 
mentality a  circulating  library  was  established  at  Norriton ;  and 
he  bought  books  for  Rittenhouse  when  he  went  to  Europe. 

Mr.  Rittenhouse  was  called  upon  in  1763  to  determine  the 
initial  of  the  boundary-line  between  Pennsylvania  and  Maryland, 
his  particular  duty  being  defined  to  be  to  ascertain  and  fix  the 
"  circle  to  be  drawn  at  twelve  miles'  distance  from  New  Castle, 
northward  and  westward,  with  the  beginning  of  the  fortieth  de- 
gree of  north  latitude,"  etc.  The  work  was  an  arduous  one,  and 
involved  going  through  a  number  of  tedious  and  intricate  calcu- 
lations. It  was  performed  in  a  satisfactory  manner,  for  which 
acknowledgment  was  made  in  the  shape  of  extra  compensation, 
and  with  instruments  to  a  large  extent  of  Rittenhouse's  own 
making ;  and  his  observations  were  accepted  without  change 
by  the  official  astronomers,  Mason  and  Dixon,  when  they  took 
charge  of  the  work.  He  was  afterward  appointed  to  a  similar 
work  in  1769,  by  the  commission  to  settle  the  boundary  between 
New  York  and  Pennsylvania.  Among  his  scientific  studies  at 
this  period  were  the  investigation  of  variations  in  the  oscillations 
of  the  pendulum  under  changes  of  temperature,  with  the  device 
of  a  plan  for  compensation,  and  the  construction  of  what  he  called 
a  metalline  thermometer.  This  instrument  was  so  made — on  the 
principle  of  the  expansion  and  contraction  of  metals  under  varia- 
tions of  temperature — that  the  degrees  of  heat  and  cold  were  in- 
dicated by  the  movements  of  an  index  moving  along  a  graduated 
semicircle.  It  was  adapted,  in  form  and  size,  to  be  carried  in 
the  pocket.  He  discussed  the  compressibility  of  water  in  the 
light  of  an  experiment  that  had  been  reported  to  the  Royal 
Society,  and  observed,  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Barton,  that,  although 
the  experiment  did  not  please  him,  he  did  not  doubt  the  fact ;  for, 
"if  the  particles  of  water  were  in  actual  contact,  it  would  be  diffi- 
cult to  conceive  how  any  body  could  much  exceed  it  in  specific 
gravity  ;  yet  we  find  that  gold  does,  more  than  eighteen  times." 
We  find  him  also  at  this  time  (1767)  indulging  in  some  amusing 
speculations  on  the  possibility  of  a  man's   moving  the  world. 


SKETCH   OF  DAVID  RITTENHOUSE.  837 

Some  one  having  published  the  result  of  calculations  he  had 
made  respecting  the  fulfillment  of  Archimedes's  famous  dictum  on 
the  subject,  Mr.  Rittenhouse  gave  the  result  of  his  own  computa- 
tions, which  was  that  "  the  force  wherewith  a  man  acts  when  he 
lifts  a  weight  of  two  hundred  pounds,  if  applied  without  inter- 
mission for  the  space  of  one  hundred  and  five  years,  is  sufficient, 
without  any  machinery,  to  move  the  earth  one  inch  in  that  time ; 
and  it  must,  from  the  velocity  received  by  that  force  alone,  con- 
tinue forever  after  to  move  at  the  rate  of  one  inch  in  fifty  years." 
The  first  calculator  had  computed  that  twenty-seven  billions  of 
years  would  be  required  to  accomplish  the  movement. 

Mr.  Rittenhouse's  reputation  as  an  astronomer  became  con- 
spicuous, and  his  name,  according  to  Mr.  Barton,  acquired  a 
celebrity  even  in  the  Old  World,  "  of  which  his  early  but  now 
much-increased  fame  in  his  native  country  was  a  sure  presage." 
A  great  bound  was  given  to  his  fame  by  his  construction  of  an 
orrery,  or  apparatus  for  illustrating  the  planetary  motions,  and 
by  the  conspicuous  part  which  he  took  in  the  observations  of  the 
transit  of  Venus  of  1769. 

The  design  of  the  orrery  is  indicated  in  the  correspondence 
with  Mr.  Barton  in  1767,  in  the  course  of  which  Mr.  Rittenhouse 
says :  "  I  did  not  design  a  machine  which  should  give  the  igno- 
rant in  astronomy  a  just  view  of  the  solar  system;  but  would 
rather  astonish  the  skillful  and  curious  examiner  by  a  most  accu- 
rate correspondence  between  the  situations  and  motions  of  our 
little  representatives  of  the  heavenly  bodies  and  the  situations 
and  motions  of  those  bodies  themselves.  I  would  have  my  orrery 
really  useful  by  making  it  capable  of  informing  us  truly  of  astro- 
nomical phenomena  for  any  particular  point  of  time,  which  I  do 
not  find  that  any  orrery  yet  made  can  do." 

This  instrument  was  bought  before  it  was  finished  for  Prince- 
ton College.  The  trustees  of  the  College  of  Philadelphia  had  also 
been  bargaining  for  it,  and  were  disappointed  over  the  turn  the 
affair  had  taken.  Mr.  Rittenhouse  had  made  a  saving  clause  in 
his  bargain  in  favor  of  the  College  of  Philadelphia,  in  agreement 
with  which  he  began  another  orrery  for  that  institution.  "  This," 
he  said,  "  I  am  not  sorry  for,  since  the  making  of  the  second  will 
be  but  an  amusement  compared  with  the  first ;  and  who  knows 
but  that  the  rest  of  the  colonies  may  catch  the  contagion  ?  "  The 
sum  of  two  hundred  pounds  was  obtained  toward  paying  for  the 
instrument  by  means  of  lectures  on  astronomy  delivered  by  Rit- 
tenhouse's friend,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Smith,  Provost  of  the  College  of 
Philadelphia,  concerning  which  the  Rev.  Dr.  Peters  wrote,  "  The 
doctor  in  his  introductory  lecture  was  honored  with  the  principal 
men  of  all  denominations,  who  swallowed  every  word  he  said 
with  the  pleasure  that  attends  the  eating  of  the  choicest  viands, 


838  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

and  in  the  close,  when  he  came  to  mention  the  orrery,  he  over- 
excelled  his  very  self."  The  members  of  the  Assembly  of  Pennsyl- 
vania took  a  view  of  the  orrery,  and,  "  being  of  the  opinion  that  it 
greatly  exceeds  all  others  hitherto  constructed,  in  demonstrating 
the  true  Situations  of  the  celestial  Bodies,  their  Magnitudes,  Mo- 
tions, Distances,  Periods,  Eclipses,  and  Order,  upon  the  principles 
of  the  Newtonian  System,"  voted  the  constructor  three  hundred 
pounds  in  consideration  of  his  mathematical  genius  and  mechan- 
ical abilities,  and  appointed  a  committee  to  agree  with  him  for  a 
new  orrery  for  the  use  of  the  public.  This  purpose  was  not  car- 
ried out.  Mr.  Rittenhouse  became  engaged  in  public  enterprises, 
which  occupied  his  time  till  the  beginning  of  the  Revolution, 
when  all  other  interests  were  suspended. 

The  praises  which  were  bestowed  upon  Mr.  Rittenhouse  for  his 
orrery  were  extravagant,  and  seem  now  even  absurd ;  but  noth- 
ing, perhaps,  can  more  clearly  illustrate  the  infantine  condition  of 
American  science  at  the  time. 

Mr.  Barton,  by  way  of  emphasizing  the  assertion  that  the  skill 
and  accuracy  he  displayed  in  the  construction  of  his  mathemat- 
ical and  astronomical  instruments  were  not  surpassed  by  similar 
works  of  the  most  celebrated  British  mathematicians,  remarks 
that  "  his  profoundness  in  astronomical  science  and  his  wonderful 
ingenuity,  manifested  in  the  construction  of  his  orrery,  leave  him 
without  a  rival  in  the  twofold  character  of  an  astronomer  and 
mechanic."  Dr.  Jedediah  Morse,  in  his  "  Geography "  (1789), 
noticing  some  of  the  more  prominent  productions  of  scientific  in- 
genuity and  skill  in  America,  observed  that  "  every  combination 
of  machinery  may  be  expected  from  a  country,  a  native  son  of 
which,  reaching  this  inestimable  object  in  its  highest  point,  has 
epitomized  the  motions  of  the  spheres  that  roll  throughout  the 
universe."  Mr.  Thomas  Penn,  of  London,  was  surprised  that  the 
instrument  could  have  been  executed  in  Pennsylvania.  Joel  Bar- 
low wrote,  in  the  "  Vision  of  Columbus  " : 

See  the  sage  Rittenhouse,  with  ardent  eye, 
Lift  the  long  tube  and  pierce  the  starry  sky; 
Clear  in  his  view  the  circling  systems  roll, 
And  broader  splendors  gild  the  central  pole; 
He  marks  what  laws  th'  eccentric  wand'rers  bind, 
Copies  Creation  in  his  forming  mind, 
And  bids  beneath  his  hand  in  semblance  rise, 
With  mimic  orbs,  the  labors  of  the  skies. 

Thomas  Jefferson,  the  sober  statesman,  Mr.  Rittenhouse's  suc- 
cessor as  President  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  wrote, 
in  his  "  Notes  on  Virginia,"  in  refutation  of  the  Abbs'  Reynal's 
assertion  that  America  had  "  not  produced  one  able  mathemati- 
cian, one  man  of  genius  in  a  single  art  or  science  " :  "  We  have 


SKETCH   OF  DAVID   RITTENHOUSE.  839 

supposed  Mr.  Rittenhouse  second  to  no  astronomer  living ;  that  in 
genius  lie  must  be  the  first,  because  he  is  self-taught.  As  an  artist 
he  has  exhibited  as  great  a  proof  of  mechanical  genius  as  the 
world  has  ever  produced.  He  has  not,  indeed,  made  a  world ;  but 
he  has  by  imitation  approached  nearer  its  Maker  than  any  man 
who  has  lived  from  the  creation  to  this  day." 

A  committee  of  thirteen  persons  was  appointed  by  the  Ameri- 
can Philosophical  Society  early  in  1769  to  view  the  transit  of 
Venus,  which  was  to  occur  on  the  3d  of  June — a  phenomenon 
which  had  been  scientifically  observed  only  twice  before.  This 
committee  was  divided  into  three,  for  observation  at  three  sta- 
tions— Philadelphia,  Mr.  Rittenhouse's  home  at  Norriton,  and  the 
lighthouse  near  Cape  Henlopen.  Three  other  observers  were  as- 
sociated with  Mr.  Rittenhouse  at  Norriton.  An  observatory  was 
furnished,  and  the  preparations  and  calculations  preliminary  to 
taking  the  observations  were  made  by  Mr.  Rittenhouse.  Some 
instruments  were  bought  for  the  other  stations.  For  Norriton  a 
reflecting  telescope  was  furnished  by  Mr.  Maskelyne,  Astronomer 
Royal  at  Greenwich — afterward  given  to  the  Philadelphia  College 
— an  astronomical  quadrant  by  the  Earl  of  Stirling,  of  East  Jer- 
sey ;  and  an  equal-altitude  instrument,  a  transit  telescope,  and  a 
timepiece  were  made  by  Mr.  Rittenhouse.  The  results  of  the  ob- 
servations were  communicated  to  the  American  Philosophical 
Society,  and  a  report  of  them  was  furnished  to  Mr.  Maskelyne, 
who  declared  that  they  seemed  excellent  and  complete,  and  did 
honor  to  the  gentlemen  who  made  them  and  to  those  who  pro- 
moted the  undertaking.  The  whole  affair,  in  fact,  gave  the  ob- 
servers great  credit  abroad,  and  was  regarded  as  promising  well 
for  the  future  of  American  science.  The  importance  of  the  obser- 
vation may  be  judged  from  the  fact  that  it  furnished  one  of  the 
elements  for  verifying  the  great  astronomical  unit — the  earth's 
distance  from  the  sun. 

On  the  9th  of  November  following  this  observation  a  transit 
of  Mercury — the  fourth  ever  witnessed — was  observed  at  Norriton 
by  Mr.  Rittenhouse  and  his  fellow-astronomers,  and  a  report  on 
the  subject  was  filed  with  the  Philosophical  Society.  Shortly 
after  this  the  difference  of  the  meridians  of  Norriton  and  Phila- 
delphia was  determined  by  a  committee,  of  which  Mr.  Rittenhouse 
was  one,  at  the  request  of  Mr.  Maskelyne,  who  wished  to  connect 
the  observations  of  the  longitude  of  Norriton  with  those  made  by 
Messrs.  Mason  and  Dixon  in  the  course  of  measuring  the  degree 
of  latitude. 

About  this  time  a  scheme  was  started  by  Dr.  Smith  to  induce 
Mr.  Rittenhouse  to  remove  to  Philadelphia.  Recommending  him 
for  appointment  as  a  trustee  of  the  Loan  Office,  then  before  the 
Assembly,  Mr.  Smith  represented  to  the  Speaker  that  he  "  ought 


840  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

to  be  encouraged  to  come  to  town,  to  take  a  lead  in  a  manufact- 
ure, optical  and  mathematical,  which  never  had  been  attempted 
in  America,  and  drew  thousands  of  pounds  to  England  for  instru- 
ments, often  ill-finished ;  and  it  would  redound  to  the  honor  of 
Philadelphia  to  take  a  lead  in  this,  and  of  the  Assembly  to  en- 
courage it."  The  proposition  was  received  enthusiastically,  and 
the  whole  house  rose  to  vote  for  Mr.  Rittenhouse,  one  of  the  mem- 
bers exclaiming,  "  Our  name  is  legion  for  this  vote."  The  Assem- 
bly adjourned,  however,  without  passing  the  bill,  although  Mr. 
Rittenhouse  was  afterward  appointed  to  the  position  for  which 
he  was  named  in  it.  He  removed  to  Philadelphia,  on  his  own 
account,  in  the  fall  of  1770.  The  next  scientific  investigation  in 
which  he  appears  to  have  been  engaged  was  the  observation  of 
the  comet  of  1770,  of  which  he  calculated  the  elements,  and  com- 
municated the  results  to  the  American  Philosophical  Society. 
We  afterward  find  him,  with  several  other  gentlemen,  making 
experiments  on  the  electric  eel  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  the 
origin  of  the  shock  which  the  animal  emits  on  being  touched. 

From  this  time  on,  Rittenhouse  was  to  a  considerable  extent 
engaged  in  works  in  the  service  of  the  public,  to  some  of  which  he 
was  called  in  consequence  of  his  scientific  ability  and  mechanical 
skill,  to  others  commended  by  his  character  as  a  citizen  and  his 
integrity.  He  was  given  charge  of  the  State-House  clock;  ap- 
pointed to  survey  the  lands  between  the  Susquehanna  and  Dela- 
ware Rivers ;  to  superintend  the  improvement  of  the  Schuylkill ; 
and  to  determine  the  northwestern  extremity  of  the  boundary 
between  New  York  and  Pennsylvania. 

In  1775  the  American  Philosophical  Society  presented  to  the 
Pennsylvania  Assembly  a  plan  for  the  erection  of  an  observatory 
under  State  control,  with  Mr.  Rittenhouse  as  "  public  astronomi- 
cal observer  " ;  describing  him  as  "  a  gentleman  whose  abilities, 
speculative  as  well  as  practical,  would  do  honor  to  any  country. 
.  .  .  Under  his  auspices  the  work  could  now  be  undertaken  with 
the  greatest  advantages ;  and  others  may  be  bred  up  by  him,  to 
prosecute  it  in  future  times ;  but,  if  the  present  opportunity  is 
neglected,  perhaps  whole  centuries  may  not  afford  another.  To 
rescue  such  a  man  from  the  drudgery  of  manual  labor,  and  give 
him  an  occasion  of  indiilging  the  bent  of  his  genius  with  advan- 
tage to  his  country,  is  an  honor  which  crowned  heads  might  glory 
in ;  but  it  is  an  honor  also,  which  it  is  hoped,  in  the  case  of  a 
native,  Pennsylvania  would  not  yield  to  the  greatest  prince  or 
people  on  earth."  The  Revolution  came  on,  and  the  scheme  was 
not  carried  out. 

In  view  of  that  crisis,  Mr.  Rittenhouse  was  commissioned  to 
prepare  molds  and  have  iron  clock-weights  cast,  to  be  exchanged 
with  the  people  for  their  leaden  ones ;  as  engineer  to  the  Com- 


SKETCH  OF  DAVID  RITTENHOUSE.  841 

mittee  of  Safety,  to  arrange  for  casting  cannon ;  to  view  a  site  for 
the  erection  of  a  Continental  powder-mill;  to  conduct  experi- 
ments for  rifling  cannon  and  musket  balls ;  to  devise  a  method 
of  fastening  a  chain  for  the  protection  of  the  river ;  to  superin- 
tend the  manufacture  of  saltpeter,  and  to  locate  a  magazine  for 
military  stores.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Committee  of  Safety 
in  April,  its  vice-president  in  August,  and  its  presiding  officer  in 
November,  1776.  In  1776  he  was  a  member  of  the  Assembly  from 
Philadelphia,  and  a  member  of  the  first  Constitutional  Conven- 
tion of  Pennsylvania ;  a  member  of  the  Board  of  War ;  and  one 
of  the  Council  of  Safety,  which  had  absolute  powers.  He  was 
the  first  State  Treasurer  of  Pennsylvania,  from  1777  to  1789,  when 
he  declined  to  serve  any  longer.  He  was  the  first  Director  of  the 
United  States  Mint,  serving  for  three  years  from  1792;  and  he 
was  called  upon  on  several  occasions  to  serve  on  commissions  for 
the  adjustment  of  boundaries.  In  connection  with  these  public 
employments  we  find  a  curious  letter  from  Mr.  Jefferson  to  Mr. 
Rittenhouse,  written  in  1778,  protesting  against  his  wasting  his 
abilities  on  affairs  of  state.  "  I  am  satisfied,"  he  says,  "  that  there 
is  an  order  of  geniuses  above  that  obligation  [to  conduct  govern- 
ment], and  therefore  exempt  from  it.  No  one  can  conceive  that 
Nature  ever  intended  to  throw  away  a  Newton  upon  the  occupa- 
tions of  a  crown.  It  would  have  been  a  prodigality  for  which 
even  the  conduct  of  Providence  might  have  been  arraigned,  had  he 
been  by  birth  annexed  to  what  was  so  far  below  him.  ...  I  doubt 
not  there  are  in  your  country  many  persons  equal  to  the  task  of 
conducting  government ;  but  you  should  consider  that  the  world 
has  but  one  Rittenhouse,  and  that  it  never  had  one  before." 

Mr.  Rittenhouse  was  Professor  of  Astronomy  in  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania  from  1779  till  1782,  and  was  a  trustee  of  the  insti- 
tution, continuing  in  that  office  after  its  reorganization  in  1791. 
He  was  made  one  of  the  secretaries  of  the  American  Philosophi- 
cal Society  in  1771 ;  became  its  vice-president  in  1786 ;  and  suc- 
ceeded Benjamin  Franklin  as  president,  on  his  death  in  1790.  He 
was  elected  a  Fellow  of  the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sci- 
ences in  1782,  and  an  Honorary  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society  in 
1795.  He  received  degrees  from  the  College  of  Philadelphia, 
William  and  Mary  College,  and  Princeton  College. 

He  was  tall  and  slender,  quick  in  gait,  had  a  countenance 
"  indicative  of  intelligence,  complacency,  and  goodness,"  and  a 
disposition  and  manners  that  secured  him  friends  and  kept 
them.  He  bore  testimony  against  the  slave  trade,  and  sympa- 
thized with  the  original  motives  of  the  French  Revolution  to 
such  an  extent  that  he  assisted  in  the  organization  of  the  Dem- 
ocratic Society,  and  was  made  its  president — but  this  was  before 
the  excesses    of    the    Revolution  were   committed.      While    he 


842  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

might  be  called  self-educated,  lie  was  not,  as  Mr.  Barton  shows, 
wholly  without  assistance  in  pursuing  his  studies,  although  some 
writers  had  mistakenly  affirmed  this,  but  that  assistance  was 
small.  Dr.  Rush  assumed,  in  the  eulogy  he  pronounced  upon 
him,  that  the  eminence  he  attained  was  to  be  ascribed  "  chiefly  to 
his  having  escaped  the  pernicious  influence  of  monkish  learning 
upon  his  mind  in  early  life";  otherwise,  "instead  of  revolving 
through  life  in  a  planetary  orbit,"  he  might  have  spent  his  time 
"in  composing  syllogisms,  or  in  measuring  the  feet  of  Greak  and 
Latin  poetry."  He  understood  the  German  and  Low  Dutch  lan- 
guages, acquired  a  reading  knowledge  of  French,  and  "  overcame 
in  a  great  degree  the  difficulties  of  the  Latin  tongue."  He  was  a 
firm  believer  in  the  Christian  religion,  though  he  was  not  at- 
tached to  any  church.  That  speculative  disquisitions  were  of 
little  interest  to  him  is  shown,  perhaps,  as  much  as  by  anything, 
by  his  remark  concerning  a  conversation  with  a  clerical  gentle- 
man, that  it  was  "  not,  perhaps,  greatly  to  the  satisfaction  of  either 
of  us ;  for  he  appears  to  be  a  mystical  philosopher,  and  I,  you 
know,  care  not  a  farthing  for  anything  but  sober  certainty  in 
philosophy."  He  published  but  little,  because,  as  his  biographer 
believes,  he  was  too  busy  with  work  to  give  his  time  to  the  com- 
position of  formal  papers.  The  list  of  his  contributions  to  the 
American  Philosophical  Society  includes  twenty-two  titles  of 
papers  relating  to  his  orrery ;  the  transits  of  Venus  and  Mercury ; 
the  comet  of  1770 ;  a  method  of  deducing  the  true  time  of  the 
sun's  passing  the  meridian ;  the  difference  of  longitude  between 
the  observations  of  ISTorriton  and  Philadelphia ;  an  explanation 
of  an  optical  deception;  experiments  on  magnetism;  a  remark- 
able meteor  seen  in  1779  ;  a  comet  observed  in  1784 ;  a  new  method 
of  placing  the  meridian  mark ;  an  optical  problem ;  astronomical 
observations  (on  the  Georgium  Sidus  and  a  transit  of  Mercury) ; 
an  account  of  several  houses  struck  with  lightning ;  another  ac- 
count of  the  effects  of  a  stroke  of  lightning ;  several  astronomical 
observations  described  in  a  single  paper ;  a  mathematical  prob- 
lem; a  comet  observed  in  1793;  the  improvement  of  time-keep- 
ers ;  the  expansion  of  wood  by  heat ;  a  problem  in  logarithms ; 
and  the  mode  of  determining  the  true  place  of  a  planet  in  an 
elliptical  orbit — his  last  paper,  read  February  5,  1796.  To  these 
is  added  his  oration  on  "  Astronomy,"  delivered  before  the  Ameri- 
can Philosophical  Society,  on  the  24th  of  February,  1775,  and  in- 
scribed "  To  the  delegates  of  the  thirteen  United  Colonies."  In  this 
oration,  three  years  before  the  announcement  of  Mayer's  discovery 
of  the  proper  motion  of  certain  stars,  and  six  years  before  Her- 
schel's  discovery  of  Uranus,  the  author  put  forth  the  suggestion, 
which  has  since  proved  a  presage,  that  the  fixed  stars,  and  par- 
ticularly the  milky  way,  would  afford  fruitful  fields  of  observation. 


CORRESP  ONDENCE. 


843 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


MOEAL  INSTRUCTION  IN  OUR  PUBLIC 
SCHOOLS. 
Editor  Popular  Science  Monthly : 

IN    "The  Popular  Science  Monthly"  for 
January  I  read  with  much  interest,  but 
not  surprise,  an  article  by  Benjamin  Reece, 
on  "  Public  Schools  as  affecting  Crime  and 
Vice."     The  author  very  clearly  shows  that 
our  school  system  is  not  elevating  the  moral 
standard  of  the  rising    generation,  as  had 
been  so  sanguincly  expected,  but  rather,  that 
as  the  minds  of  the  masses  are  increased  in 
knowledge,  there  is  an  equal  if  not   more 
rapid  increase  of  vice  and  crime.     But  the 
root  of  the  evil  is  not  in  the  system  of  pub- 
lic  instruction,   for,  as   a   general   rule,  no 
teacher  is  given  a  school  who  does  not  bear 
an  exceptionally  good  moral  character,  and 
a  majority  of  them  are  members  of  good 
standing    in   the   various   churches.      With 
this  guarantee  for  the  moral  training  of  the 
pupils  by  precept  and  example  on  the  part 
of  the  teachers,  it  seems  to  me  that  all  is 
being  done  in  that  line  that  can  be  done. 
Furthermore,    the     Sunday    school,    where 
moral  training  is  especially  attended  to,  is 
now  considered  an  indispensable  adjunct  to 
every  church;    yet,  with  all   this,  vice  and 
crime  are  on  the  ascending  scale,  and  in  a 
most  astonishing  degree. 

It  is  a  mistaken  notion  that  simply  to 
educate  a  people  is  to  improve  them  moral- 
ly ;  for  a  man  can  possess  the  most  exalted 
moral  qualities  without  the  least  intellectual 
culture,  and  vice  versa.    Now  that  our  ethical 
hooes  in  public  -  school   education  are  not 
fulfilled,  what  shall  be  further  done  to  lessen 
this  dark  cloud  of  vice  and  crime  ?     My  an- 
swer is,  we  must  combine  other  lessons  with 
our  present  system  of  moral  teachings,  and 
these  other  lessons  must  be  ethical  object- 
lessons.     Man,  to  a  very  large  degree,  is  an 
imitative  creature,  and  especially  so  in  child- 
hood.     By  constant  imitation  of  what  he 
sees  others  do,  habits  are  formed,  and,  once 
formed  at  that  early  period,  be  they  good  or 
bad    are  rarely,  if  ever,  entirely  suppressed 
in  after-years.     All  the  ethical  subject-les- 
sons may  be  given  him  that  is  possible ;  but 
if  there  be  object-lessons  that  go  counter  to 
them,  these  invariably  take  the  deeper  root, 
and  soon  nullify  or  supplant  the  former. 

With  these  truths  before  us,  is  it  not  the 
imperative  duty  of  all— all  who  wish  for 
good  government,  safety  of  person  and  prop- 
erty, and  the  advancement  of  the  race— to 
become  bright  and  living  ethical  object-les- 
sons to  the  rising  generation  ?  Nor  is  this 
all  that  is  to  be  done :  we  should  discounte- 
nance and  remove  all  who  are  not  ethical 
object-lessons  worthy  of  study.     Man's  imi- 


tative propensity  is  called  forth  principally 
by  those  whom  he  thinks  are  his  superiors. 
Consequently  all  those  in  high  places  of  all 
kinds  who  are  pernicious  object-lessons 
should  be  the  first  to  be  removed ;  for,  if 
the  source  be  putrid,  the  onflowing  stream 
becomes  foul  also.  The  author,  in  the  arti- 
cle referred  to,  very  truly  tells  us  that  the 
fall  of  the  Roman  Empire  was  "  an  effect  of 
a  moral  ruin."  Now,  all  readers  of  Roman 
historv  know  that  the  germ  of  this  "  moral 
ruin  ""  had  its  birth  in  the  topmost  strata 
of  Roman  society;  and  the  masses,  with 
ready  imitativeness,  became  rotten  to  the 
core.  The  sad  finale  of  that  wonderful  em- 
pire we  all  know. 

Is  Roman  history  now  preparing  to  repeat 
itself  in  these  United  States  ?     The  indica- 
tions all  strongly  point  that  way.    Do  we  not 
see  venality  and  corruption  pervading,  more 
or  less,  every  branch  of  the  Government? 
Even   our   halls   of    justice   are  frequently 
tainted  with  it,  while   the  politicians   and 
office-seekers,  with  scarcely  an  exception, 
are     prostituting    the     elective     franchise 
throughout  the  land  by  a  venal  use  of  the 
"almighty  dollar."      This    bribe -money  is 
brought  to  bear  almost  exclusively  upon  the 
needy  poor— making  their  pockets  heavier, 
but  dwarfing  their  moral  manhood.     With 
this  state  of  things,  is  it  to  be  wondered  at 
that  vice  and  crime  are  rolling  up  m  billows 
mountain- high?     Is  it  to  be  wondered  at 
that  our  public  schools,  our  Sunday  schools, 
and  pulpits  are  impotent  to  check  the  ap- 
proach of  this  "moral  ruin"?     Nor  can  it 
be  checked   until   the  wise   and  the   good 
throughout  the   land  determine    to  elevate 
to  places  of  honor  and  trust  only  those  who 
are  calculated  to  make  the  best  ethical  ob- 
ject-lessons for  the  study  of  the  rising  gen- 
eration.    How  many  can  we  point  to  who 
now  sit  in  high  places  that  would  make  good 
object-lessons  for  the  study  of  all  our  school 
children?      Purify   the   fountain,    and    the 
stream   will    become    likewise    limpid   and 
pure.  E-  p-  Meredith. 

Atlee's  Station.  Hanover  County,  Va., 
January  27,  1S90. 


POLITICS  AND  FARM  MORTGAGES. 
Editor  Popular  Science  Monthly  : 

Sir  :  It  was  a  gloomy  picture  of  the  condi- 
tion and  prospects  of  agriculture  in  the  United 
States  which  Mr.  Joel  Benton  drew  in  his  arti- 
cle entitled  "  The  Decadence  of  Farming,"  in 
the  November  "  Monthly."  A  similar  view  is 
presented  by  Judge  Nott,  in  a  series  of  articles 
published  bv  the  New  York  "  Evening  Post ; " 
while  recent  reports  of  the  State  Commission- 


844 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


er  of  Agriculture  of  Vermont  and  of  New 
Hampshire  substantiate  these  accounts  as  re- 
gards those  two  States.  Abandoned  farms  in 
the  East  and  farm-mortgage  foreclosures  in 
the  West,  Mr.  Benton  tells  us,  are  becoming 
distressingly  common,  and  many  farmers  who 
still  hold  and  work  their  lands  are  struggling 
along  under  increasing  indebtedness,  or  at 
best  obtain  only  rapidly  diminishing  returns. 
Certain  of  our  public  men,  however,  deny 
that  agriculture  in  the  United  States  is  suf- 
fering such  a  severe  depression  as  these 
statements  indicate.  The  Hon.  Philetus 
Sawyer,  Senator  from  Wisconsin,  has  said, 
according  to  the  "  Milwaukee  Daily  Journal," 
that  he  had  never  known  of  but  one  fore- 
closure of  a  farm  mortgage  in  his  section  of 
the  country,  and  the  remark  was  used  in  de- 
bate in  the  Senate  by  his  colleague,  Hon. 
John  C.  Spooner.  Our  members  of  Con- 
gress might  be  expected  to  furnish  reliable 
information.  They  are  selected  to  make 
laws  for  the  people,  theoretically,  because 
each  one  knows  the  condition  and  needs  of 
his  constituents,  and  how  to  provide  for 
them.  But  the  above  assertion  has  been  in- 
vestigated by  the  "  Journal,"  with  the  result 
of  proving,  either  that  a  false  statement  had 
been  willfully  made  by  one  of  the  Senators, 
and  repeated  by  the  other,  or  that  both  were 
ignorant  of  affairs  in  the  State  they  repre- 
sent that  any  observing  man  must  be  aware 
of.  Foreclosures  have  to  be  advertised  in 
the  local  papers,  and,  out  of  forty  of  the 
"  Journal's  "  exchanges  from  within  the 
State,  foreclosure  notices  were  found  in 
fourteen.  In  these  papers  were  thirty-two 
notices.  The  papers  examined  are  not  more 
than  one  eighth  of  those  published  in  the 
State.  The  "  Journal "  also  wrote  for  the 
records  of  foreclosures  for  the  last  ten  years 
in  most  of  the  counties  of  eastern  Wiscon- 
sin, as  far  north  as  the  farming  region  ex- 
tends. In  reply,  letters  were  received,  most- 
ly from  county  officials,  which  were  published 
in  the  "  Journal "  of  February  1st,  and  which 
showed  that  in  nine  counties  of  Wisconsin 
there  have  been  seven  hundred  and  eleven 
farm-mortgage  foreclosures  in  ten  years,  in- 
volving $1,297,905.49.  These  counties  con- 
tain about  one  sixth  of  the  population  of 
the  State,  and,  allowing  liberal  margins, 
the  "  Journal "  estimates  that  twenty-five 
hundred  farm  mortgages  have  been  fore- 
closed in  the  whole  State  during  the  past 
ten  years.  Senator  Sawyer  resides  at  Osh- 
kosh,  in  Winnebago  County,  which  is  not  one 
of  the  nine  counties  above  mentioned,  but 
foreclosures  occur  in  the  Senator's  immedi- 
ate vicinity  as  well  as  in  the  rest  of  the 
State.  The  "  Journal "  quotes  the  "  Oshkosh 
Times  "  as  saying, "  In  the  year  1888  ten  mort- 
gages were  foreclosed  on  farms  in  Winneba- 
go County,  and  in  1889  four  more  changed 
hands  in  the  same  way."  And  yet  Politician 
Sawyer  declared  that  he  had  never  known 
of  but  one  foreclosure  in  his  section  of  the 
country.     It  is  obviously  unsafe  to  assume 


that  what  a  politician  don't  know,  therefore, 
does  not  exist. 

Senator  Sawyer's  alleged  ignorance  re- 
minds one  of  Sam  Weller's  behavior  on  the 
witness-stand  in  the  great  Pickwick  trial, 
when  his  father  had  been  guilty  of  disturb- 
ing the  court.  On  that  occasion  the  judge 
asked : 

"  Do  you  know  who  that  was,  sir  ?  " 

"  I  rayther  suspect  it  was  my  father,  my 
lord,"  replied  Sam. 

"  Do  you  see  him  here  now  ?  "  said  the 
judge. 

"No,  I  don't,  my  lord,"  replied  Sam, 
staring  right  up  into  the  lantern  in  the  roof 
of  the  court. 

Senator  Sawyer  must  have  been  looking 
hard  in  some  other  direction  when  notices  of 
foreclosures  in  his  section  were  floating  about. 
Politicians  do  not  deal  much  in  facts.  Their 
stock  in  trade  is  mainly  exaggerated  asser- 
tions, off-hand  denials,  and  buncombe,  and 
they  trust  to  their  eloquence,  their  artful 
ways  of  putting  things,  or  to  the  authority 
of  their  official  positions  to  secure  belief. 
When  it  suits  their  purposes  to  have  the 
truth  known,  they  bring  it  out  with  a  grand 
flourish  of  figures ;  but  when  it  seems  to  them 
more  politic  to  keep  the  public  in  ignorance, 
they  take  refuge  in  general  assertions.  The 
true  state  of  affairs  in  any  given  case  can 
only  be  learned  by  searching  out  all  the  sep- 
arate facts.  Just  as  truly  as  eternal  vigi- 
lance is  the  price  of  liberty,  the  price  of 
truth  is  thorough  investigation. 
Very  truly  yours, 

Frederik  A.  Fernald. 
New  Toek,  February  22, 1S90. 


RIGIDITY  OP  THE  SUSPENSION  BRIDGE. 
Editor  Popular  Science  Monthly  : 

Sir:  In  the  article  on  "The  Evolution 
of  the  Modern  Railway  Bridge,"  by  Prof. 
Jameson,  he  says  (page  478)  that  "it" 
(namely,  the  cantilever  bridge)  "  can  be  given 
great  rigidity  and  stability,  which  are  impos- 
sible in  the  suspension  (bridge),"  to  which 
should  have  been  added,  "  as  usually  built," 
because  otherwise  the  statement  would  not 
be  correct. 

Prof.  Jameson  himself  correctly  states 
in  another  place  (on  page  475)  that  "a  sus- 
pension bridge  is  nothing  else  than  an  arch 
bridge  turned  upside  down."  It  follows  that 
a  suspension  bridge  can  be  built  just  as  rigid 
as  an  erect  arch  bridge.  But  it  is  demon- 
strable that  a  suspension  bridge  can  be  made 
more  rigid,  particularly  against  lateral  forces, 
than  an  erect  arch.  A  suspension  arch  is  in 
stable  equilibrium ;  an  erect  arch  is  in  un- 
stable equilibrium,  and  requires  lateral  brac- 
ing, which  the  suspended  arch  does  not  re- 
quire. Thus,  if  the  steel  arches  of  the  St. 
Louis  Railway  Bridge  were  turned  upside 
down,  with  the  roadway  suspended  from 
them,  and  if  the  compression  tubes  were  re- 
placed by  steel  links,  the  suspended  arches 


EDITOR'S    TABLE. 


845 


thus  formed  would  have  the  same  vertical 
rigidity  as  the  existing  compression  arches, 
and  it  is  obvious  that  the  lateral  bracing 
which  is  necessary  for  the  tubes  of  the  erect 
arch  could  be  dispensed  with  for  the  links  of 
the  suspended  arch.  The  question  of  anch- 
orages is  outside  of  the  comparison. 

The  popular  misconception  as  to  sus- 
pension bridges  is  due  to  the  many  insuf- 
ficiently stiffened  structures  of  this  kind. 
No  other  bridge  system  can  be  built  so  im- 
perfectly stiffened,  and  yet  be  safe,  as  the 
suspension  bridge.  An  erect  arch  bridge 
built  in  the  same  manner  would  fall  of  its 
own  weight. 

Another  popular  and  fashionable  concep- 
tion, but  a  misconception  all  the  same,  is  as 
to  the  merits  of  the  cantilever  bridge.  Theo 
retically  and  practically,  the  cantilever  of  all 
bridge  systems  has  the  greatest  deflections 
and  oscillations  under  passing  loads,  all 
other  things  being  equal,  and  therefore  is  the 
least  rigid  system.  It  has,  however,  its  p;ood 
uses  otherwise.  Gustav  Lindenthal. 

PiTTSBtrBG,  Pa.,  February  2,  1890. 


THE  SALT  PRODUCT  OF  KANSAS. 
Editor  Popular  Science  Monthly  : 

Dear  Sir:  In  your  issue  of  January, 
1890,  page  430,  under  "Notes,"  it  is  said, 
"  One  hundred  and  fifty-five  barrels  of  salt 


were  manufactured  in  Kansas  in  1888,  and 
it  is  estimated  that  the  output  in  1889  will 
be  not  less  than  three  times  as  large." 

From  the  annual  report  of  the  Secretary 
of  the  State  Board  of  Agriculture  for  1S88, 
it  is  learned  that  seven  salt-works  reporting 
produced  122,420  barrels.  Of  the  seven, 
three  reported  to  December  31st,  and  four 
to  November  30th.  One  of  the  seven  report- 
ing began  March  1 5th,  three  in  October,  and 
two  in  November. 

From  the  same  source  for  18S9,  547,224 
barrels  of  salt  were  manufactured  and  19,- 
056  tons  of  salt  not  put  in  barrels.  Seven- 
teen companies  reported  in  the  latter  year. 

I  have  bought  a  copy  of  "  The  Popular 
Science  Monthly  "  since  its  first  publication, 
and  I  was  loath  to  pass  such  an  error  un- 
challenged.    Success  to  you  and  yours. 

J.  G.  Wood. 

Topeka,  Kansas,  February  11, 1S90. 

[The  number  intended  was  1 55,000  bar- 
rels. The  dropping  out  of  the  thousands  in 
transcribing  the  item  escaped  notice.  On 
the  basis  of  that  number,  the  output  of  Kan- 
sas salt  in  1889  would  be,  according  to  Mr. 
Hay's  estimate,  not  less  than  465,000  barrels. 
We  thank  our  correspondent  for  giving  us 
the  opportunity  of  correcting  the  error. — 
Editor.] 


EDITOR'S   TABLE. 


POLITICAL  ECONOMY. 

AMONG  the  regularly  constituted 
sciences  that  claim  the  attention 
of  the  world  to-day,  it  can  scarcely  be 
said  that  political  economy  has  an  undis- 
puted place.  Fourteen  years  ago,  in  an 
article  on  the  centenary  of  the  "  Wealth 
of  Nations  "  (which  fell  in  the  same  year 
as  the  centenary  of  our  Declaration  of 
Independence),  the  late  Prof.  Jevons 
acknowledged  that  there  was  then  far 
less  agreement  among  teachers  of  politi- 
cal economy,  in  regard  to  the  funda- 
mentals of  their  subject,  than  there  had 
been  fifty  years  earlier.  He  acknowl- 
edged, also,  how  little  interest  was  taken 
in  lectures  on  political  economy  at  the 
universities,  and  how  little  weight  was 
attached  by  practical  men  to  proposi- 
tions or  principles  put  forth  as  the  re- 
sult of  studies  in  that  field.  Row  does 
the  matter  stand  now  that  fourteen  years 


more  have  flown?  Has  the  credit  of 
the  economists  of  the  generation  that 
has  passed  away  —  the  Mills,  the  Mc- 
Cullochs,  the  Seniors,  the  Says — been 
in  any  degree  rehabilitated?  Scarcely. 
As  time  goes  on,  it  becomes  increasingly 
clear  that  the  whole  work  of  these  writ- 
ers was  carried  on  too  much  in  the  re- 
gion of  abstractions,  and  was  too  little 
vivified  by  direct  contact  with  facts. 
Bacon  long  ago  remarked  on  the  error 
of  those  who  supposed  in  nature  a  greater 
simplicity  than  really  exists;  and  this 
error  was  abundantly  exemplified  by 
the  classical  or  "orthodox"  economists. 
It  was  to  certain  minds,  no  doubt,  a  fas- 
cinating pursuit  to  seize  upon  two  or 
three  general  principles,  and  by  their 
help  to  interpret  and  methodize  all  the 
complex  phenomena  of  economic  pro- 
duction, distribution,  and  exchange; 
but  the  process  was  hazardous  in  the 


846 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


extreme,  and  much  that  passed  for  brill- 
iant philosophizing  fifty  or  even  thirty 
years  ago  is  now  regarded  as  little  better 
than  obsolete  sophistry.  Two  of  the 
latest  works  that  have  fallen  into  our 
hands — Mr.  Wordsworth  Donisthorpe's 
"  Individualism  ;  a  System  of  Politics," 
and  Prof.  Thorold  Rogers's  "  Economic 
Interpretation  of  History  "  —  illustrate 
this  very  strongly.  "Practical  men," 
says  the  former,  "have  long  since  ceased 
to  attach  any  importance  to  the  slipshod 
twaddle  of  those  who  pose  as  the  the- 
orists of  the  art  of  wealth-producing." 
The  latter,  referring,  as  it  would  seem, 
particularly  to  Mill,  says :  "  The  politi- 
cal economist  of  the  later  school  has 
thoroughly  carried  out  in  his  own  per- 
son the  economical  law  which  he  sees 
to  be  at  the  bottom  of  all  industrial 
progress — that  of  obtaining  the  largest 
possible  result  at  the  least  possible  cost 
of  labor.  He  has,  therefore,  rarely  been 
at  the  trouble  of  verifying  his  conclu- 
sions by  the  evidence  of  facts.  He  has, 
therefore,  constantly  exalted  into  the 
domain  of  natural  law  what  is,  after 
all,  and  at  the  best,  a  very  dubious  tend- 
ency, and  may  be  a  perfectly  baseless 
hypothesis.  His  conclusions  have  been 
rejected  by  workmen  and  flouted  by 
statesmen." 

We  quote  these  passages  not  as  fully 
indorsing  them,  but  simply  as  showing 
to  what  extent  the  authority  of  a  school 
that  once  was  dominant  is  to-day  called 
in  question,  if  not  discredited.  At  the 
same  time,  we  fully  believe  that,  before 
political  economy  can  be  a  science  in 
any  satisfactory  sense  of  the  term,  it 
has  to  be  reconstructed  and  rewritten 
in  the  light  of  careful  inductions  from 
vast  collections  of  facts.  The  basis  of 
the  "orthodox"  economy  was  too  nar- 
row, while  its  method  was  too  deductive 
and  dogmatic.  Mr.  Mill  was  a  man  of 
a  mind  at  once  acute  and  candid ;  but 
he  had  not  received  the  education  that 
fitted  him  for  the  vast  task  which  he 
assumed  of  reviewing  the  whole  field  of 
economics  and  enlarging  its  boundaries. 


In  his  youth  he  was  overdrilled  by  a 
stern  and  remorselessly  logical  father. 
His  attention  was  largely  turned  to 
classical,  historical,  and  mathematical 
studies.  In  the  region  of  natural  sci- 
ence he  never  acquired  any  real  com- 
petency. His  tendency  was,  therefore, 
rather  to  read  theories  into  facts  than 
to  make  facts  point  the  way  to  theories. 
His  mind  was  extremely  hospitable  to 
new  ideas,  and  his  sympathies  were 
quick  and  warm;  upon  the  whole,  few 
truer  or  better  men  have  ever  lived; 
but  he  had  only  a  kind  of  literary  ac- 
quaintance with  economic  facts,  and  it 
is  not  surprising  that  much  of  the  rea- 
soning in  which  he  indulged  is  now  seen 
to  have  been  concerned  rather  with 
fanciful  abstractions  than  with  real 
things. 

The  political  economy  of  the  future 
will  be  of  comparatively  slow  growth, 
but  it  will  deal  with  men  as  creatures 
of  flesh  and  blood ;  not  as  automata 
moved  by  a  few  ticketed  wires.  The 
materials  for  the  rising  science  are  being 
laboriously  gathered  by  many  earnest 
investigators,  who  are  fully  alive  to  the 
errors  of  their  predecessors,  and  who 
mean,  therefore,  to  let  the  facts  as  much 
as  possible  speak  for  themselves.  To 
the  new  political  economy  many  inde- 
pendent lines  of  inquiry  will  contribute. 
The  biologist,  the  moralist,  the  states- 
man, the  lawyer,  will  all  bring  their 
stores  of  carefully  assorted  data;  and, 
when  these  have  been  further  arranged 
and  correlated  by  minds  of  competent 
scope  and  grasp,  we  shall  begin  to  see 
the  outlines  of  a  much  more  compre- 
hensive theory  of  economics  than  any 
that  has  heretofore  been  given  to  the 
world.  In  a  word,  science  will  under- 
take to  organize  a  region  that  in  the  past 
has  been  too  much  given  over  to  a  pri- 
ori speculation,  with  its  natural  accom- 
paniment of  presumptuous  dogmatism. 
In  future  our  concern  will  be  not  with 
the  opinions  of  individual  writers,  but 
with  their  demonstrations;  mere  hy- 
potheses will  carry  no  more  weight  in 


EDITOR'S   TABLE. 


847 


this  field  than  in  any  recognized  depart- 
ment of  natural  science.  What  the 
effect  upon  social  order  and  progress  ot 
a  really  well-constituted  science  of  po- 
litical economy  will  be  it  is  not  difficult 
to  foresee.  It  will  act  as  the  great  har- 
monizer  of  conflicting  claims,  and  a  most 
potent  aid  to  the  realization  of  justice 
in  all  human  relations.  And  once  more 
it  will  be  proved  that  the  only  way  to 
know  things  is  to  know  them  practically, 
and  that  the  only  way  to  build  up  a  sci- 
ence is  to  bring  the  facts  together,  and 
all  the  facts. 


EXAMPLE  IN  MORAL   TEACHING. 

Oue  correspondent,  who  writes  on 
"  Moral  Instruction  in  our  Public 
Schools,"  in  this  number  of  the  "  Month- 
ly," points  out  an  influence  that  pro- 
foundly affects  the  education  of  Ameri- 
can youth.  What  Mr.  Meredith  states 
in  modern  scientific  language — that  man 
is  an  imitative  creature  —  had  been 
learned  generations  ago  from  the  expe- 
rience of  practical  men,  and  applied  to 
education  in  the  terse  maxim,  "  Exam- 
ple is  better  than  precept."  Who  that 
has  had  the  care  of  children  does  not 
know  how  readily  they  do  what  they 
have  seen  older  children  and  grown 
people  do,  and  how  hard  it  is  to  make 
them  remember  what  they  are  told  to 
do  !  This  should  be  a  sufficient  reason 
to  make  every  person  so  order  his  daily 
life  that  it  shall  be  an  improving  object- 
lesson  to  his  own  children  and  to  the 
children  who  are  to  be  the  associates  of 
his  own.  It  should  be  a  sufficient  rea- 
son, also,  as  our  correspondent  points 
out,  for  elevating  only  men  of  high  in- 
tegrity to  positions  of  trust  and  power. 
In  a  country  where  it  is  possible  for  any 
native-born  boy  to  become  the  head  of 
the  nation,  youthful  ambition  has  free 
scope.  In  order  to  satisfy  this  desire, 
the  means  by  which  public  officials  have 
risen  to  power  are  copied,  the  traits  of 
successful  men  are  imitated,  even  the 
manners  and  habits  of  those  whom  the 
people  honor  are  adopted  by  the  young. 


Hence  it  is  extremely  important  that 
these  means  and  traits  and  habits  should 
be  worthy  of  imitation.  A  determined 
effort  should  be  made  to  check  the  de- 
moralizing influence  at  present  exerted 
by  American  public  life.  If  this  is  not 
done  speedily,  the  evil  will  grow  as 
slavery  grew,  till  it  finally  challenges 
the  nation  to  a  life-and-death  struggle 
whose  outcome  no  one  can  foresee. 
The  example  set  by  the  present  genera- 
tion will  determine  whether  the  children 
now  growing  up  shall  be  arrayed  on  the 
side  of  virtue  and  honor,  or  shall  swell 
the  ranks  of  corruption  and  crime. 

We  emphatically  dissent,  however, 
from  Mr.  Meredith's  proposition  that  all 
is  being  done  in  the  public  schools  that 
can  be  done,  in  the  line  of  moral  in- 
struction. There  is  probably  not  a  city 
or  town  in  the  country  where  morality 
is  a  recognized  subject  of  instruction  in 
the  common  schools,  standing  on  the 
same  footing  as  spelling  or  geography. 
Our  schools  give  only  information  that 
will  serve  business  purposes  or  disci- 
pline the  mind,  and  utterly  neglect 
training  in  right  conduct.  Their  aim  is 
to  turn  out  money-getters,  rather  than 
to  produce  good  citizens.  If  our  schools 
were  to  give  as  much  attention  to  judi- 
cious instruction  in  ethics  as  they  now 
devote  to  the  teaching  of  arithmetic,  for 
instance,  we  believe  that  they  would 
come  much  nearer  to  exerting  the  bene- 
ficial influence  that  is  claimed  for  them 
than  they  do  at  present. 


AN   UNFOUNDED  STATEMENT. 

The  "  Chautauquan  "  is  a  magazine 
published  for  the  benefit  of  what  is 
known  as  the  "  Chautauqua  Literary  and 
Scientific  Circle."  It  is  religious  in  its 
general  character.  It  contains  "  Sunday 
Readings  "  which  are  noted  as  "  selected 
by  Bishop  Vincent."  In  one  of  these 
we  lately  read  the  following :  "  Some 
counselors,  like  Herbert  Spencer,  advise 
us  to  follow  our  own  self-interest,  with- 
out concern  for  others,  with  the  assur- 
ance that. all  will  be  thus  happier,  be- 


848 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


cause  more  independent."  Now,  why 
a  statement  like  this,  which  is  absolutely 
without  foundation  and  entirely  mis- 
leading, should  be  considered  as  particu- 
larly suitable  for  Sunday  reading,  we, 
who  are  not  of  the  "  Circle,"  can  not  in 
the  least  divine.  It  is  given  to  the 
members  of  the  Circle,  however,  as  the 
utterance  of  a  leading  educator,  Dr. 
Ilill,  President  of  the  Baptist  University 
of  Rochester,  and  with  the  indorsement 
of  Bishop  Vincent,  who,  by  selecting 
it,  stamped  it  with  his  approval.  The 
ordinary  members  of  the  Circle  will, 
therefore,  feel  justified  in  accepting  it 
without  hesitation  or  reserve,  and  will 
form  their  opinion  of  Herbert  Spencer 
accordingly.  The  wrong  is  done,  not 
so  much  to  Mr.  Spencer,  whose  reputa- 
tion is  established  in  the  world  of  phi- 
losophy and  science,  as  to  the  members 
of  the  Circle,  who  are  made  to  receive  a 
false  impression  of  his  moral  teaching. 
If  Bishop  Vincent  is  not  too  busy  with 
work  of  more  importance,  we  would 
earnestly  invite  him  to  do  one  of  two 
things — either  justify  the  above  state- 
ment in  regard  to  Mr.  Spencer  or  with- 
draw it,  and  that  in  the  same  columns 
in  which  the  statement  appeared.  We 
affirm  most  emphatically  that  it  does  en- 
tire injustice  to  Mr.  Spencer's  teaching. 

LITERARY  NOTICES. 

Physiology  of  Bodily  Exercise.  By  Fer- 
nand  Lagrange,  M.  D.  The  Interna- 
tional Scientific  Series,  Vol.  LXVI.  New 
Yorjc:  D.  Appletou  &  Co.  Pp.  395. 
Price,  $1.75. 

In  early  times  men  depended  upon  the 
constant  use  of  their  physical  strength  to 
obtain  the  means  of  subsistence,  and  to  pro- 
tect themselves  and  their  possessions  against 
violence ;  during  a  later  period,  when  a  class 
had  arisen  whose  subsistence  was  provided 
by  serfs,  even  these  were  still  required  by 
custom  to  use  their  muscles  in  warlike  exer- 
cises ;  at  present  a  large  and  increasing  por- 
tion of  civilized  men  are  engaged  in  occupa- 
tions which  do  not  demand  bodily  exertion, 
and  much  of  the  labor  formerly  done  by  hu- 
man muscles   is  now  performed  by  steam 


and  electricity.  The  modern  man  has  rev- 
eled for  a  time  in  bodily  inactivity,  but  is 
now  waking  up  to  the  fact  that  exercise  is 
as  essential  to  health  and  the  enjoyment  of 
life  as  sufficient  food  and  sleep.  But  there 
are  many  who  have  not  yet  learned  this  les- 
son, and  not  all  of  those  who  are  willing  to 
take  exercise  have  the  right  knowledge  to 
secure  for  them  its  full  benefits,  or  to  pro- 
tect them  against  its  misuse.  Knowledge 
of  this  sort  it  is  the  object  of  the  present 
volume  to  supply.  We  do  not  know  of  any 
other  book  that  explains  so  fully  as  this 
what  goes  on  within  the  body  when  the 
muscles  are  used.  The  author  first  de- 
scribes the  process  of  muscular  work,  then 
explains  the  nature  of  fatigue,  tells  what 
changes  in  the  body  are  produced  by  habitu- 
ation to  work,  what  the  essential  characters 
of  the  different  exercises  are,  what  results 
are  effected  by  different  kinds  of  exercise, 
and  closes  by  pointing  out  the  office  of  the 
brain  in  exercise.  The  slightest  movement 
performed  by  the  human  machine,  he  says, 
brings  into  play  the  neighboring  parts,  and 
sometimes  also  more  distant  ones.  The  old 
soldier  who  said,  "  When  I  had  my  two  legs, 
I  used  to  give  a  splendid  blow  with  my  fist," 
spoke  sound  science.  Hence  an  exercise 
may  produce  marked  effects  in  a  part  of  the 
body  where  we  should  not  have  dreamed  of 
looking  for  them.  The  great  organic  func- 
tions of  the  body  are  not  isolated  from  the 
work  of  the  muscles.  More  blood  is  drawn 
to  the  working  muscular  masses,  and  this 
stimulus  to  the  circulation  causes  the  lungs 
to  draw  in  a  larger  supply  of  air.  It  is 
commonly  said  that  work  produces  heat  in 
the  body,  but  in  reality  the  heat  is  the  cause 
of  the  work,  and  is  itself  produced  by  com- 
bustion of  the  nutritive  substances  derived 
from  our  food,  of  the  fat,  and,  when  these 
are  exhausted,  of  the  bodily  tissues.  The 
waste  products  of  this  combustion  clog  the 
muscles  and  are  one  of  the  causes  of  fatigue. 
Breathlessness  is  caused  by  violent  exercise, 
which  suddenly  increases  the  quantity  of 
carbon  dioxide  in  the  blood,  and  makes  a 
great  demand  on  the  lungs  to  eliminate  the 
poison.  The  stiffness  of  fatigued  muscles 
is  due  to  other  waste  products,  notably  the 
urates.  Overwork  causes  more  of  such 
products  to  be  produced  than  can  be  ex- 
creted ;  hence   they  accumulate  within  the 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


849 


system,   and   their   poisonous   action   often 
brings  on  a  fever  similar  to  typhoid.     The 
organism  is  poisoned  by  its  own  products. 
Repose  brings  cessation  of  painful  frictions 
of  nerve-fibers  and  shocks  of  muscle-fibers, 
and  allows  time  for  the  elimination  of  waste 
products  and  the  repair  of  the  tissues.     The 
construction  and  action  of  the  bodily  organs 
become  so  modified  by  training  that  they  can 
do  more  work  without  fatigue  than  before. 
Dr.  Lagrange  classifies  exercises  as  those  of 
strength,  of  speed,  and  of  endurance.     Be- 
fore passing  to  the  general  effects  of  exer- 
cise, he  tells  what  groups  of  muscles  are 
brought  into  action  in  the  common  exercises. 
Exercise  produces  salutary  effects,  he  says, 
alike  in  those  who  assimilate  too  little  and 
in   those   who   do   not   dissimilate    enough. 
The  enlargement  of  the  chest  cavity  is  one 
of  the  most  beneficial  results  of  exercise, 
and  many  suppose  that  it  can  be  best  secured 
by  the  use  of  the  arms,  but  Dr.  Lagrange 
argues  that  exercises  of  the  legs  are  most 
effective  in  expanding  the  lungs,  because  the 
legs  can  do  more  work  than  the  arms,  and 
thus  create  a  greater  respiratory  need.     The 
author  then  points  out  how  some  popular 
exercises  cause  deformity,  and  names  others 
which  do  not  have  this  tendency.     It  has 
been  found  that  brain-work,  like  muscular 
exertion,  is  attended  by  a  greater  flow  of 
blood  to  the  working  organ,  an  increase  of 
heat,  more  vigorous  combustion,  and  hence 
increased    formation    of    waste     materials. 
Mental    overwork,    also,    leads    to   feverish 
states,  which  must  be  attributed  to  the  ac- 
cumulation of  products  of  combustion,  as  in 
the  case  of  physical  overwork.     Now,  while 
the  muscles   are  the   immediate  agents   in 
bodily  movements,  the  exciting  cause  of  the 
movements  is  the  will.     In  executing  a  diffi- 
cult feat  much  brain-work  is  demanded  in 
order  to  co-ordinate  the  muscles  employed, 
and,  if  the  brain  is  already  overworked,  the 
author  concludes,  such  an  additional  mental 
task  is  injurious.    Hence,  for  persons  suffer- 
ing from  mental  overwork,  exercises  which 
can  be  performed  automatically  should  be 
prescribed,  rather  than   exercises  of   skill. 
The  volume  furnishes  practical  information 
which  will  enable  the  reader  to  so  regulate 
the  amount  and  kind  of  his  exercise  as  to 
benefit  and  not  injure  himself.     Its  style  is 
simple,  and  the  reader  is  led  along  by  such 
vol.  xxxvi. — 54 


easy  steps  that  the  course  of  the  exposition 
can  be  readily  followed.  This  latest  addi- 
tion to  the  International  Scientific  Series 
ranks  with  the  best  of  its  companions  in  im- 
portance and  general  interest. 

The  Continuous  Creation.  An  Application 
of  the  Evolutionary  Philosophy  to 
the  Christian  Religion.  By  Muyron 
Adams.  Boston  and  New  York  :  Hough- 
ton, Mifflin  &  Co.  Pp.  259.  Price, 
$1.50. 

The  author  of  this  work,  who  is  pastor 
of  a  Congregational  church  in  Rochester, 
N.  Y.,  believes  that  the  "  inevitable  revolu- 
tion which  Matthew  Arnold  declares  is  be- 
falling the  religion  in  which  we  have  been 
brought  up,  is  part  of  that  evolution  by 
which  God  continues  the  higher  processes  of 
creation."  He  conceives  the  possibility  of 
thinking  under  the  principle  of  evolution  and 
at  the  same  time  as  a  Christian  believer,  and 
believes  that  before  long  it  will  be  found 
impossible  to  think  clearly  in  any  other  way. 
The  book  is  the  outcome  of  a  course  of  Sun- 
day evening  lectures  which  he  delivered  to 
his  congregation  on  evolution  and  its  re- 
lation to  religion.  A  key  to  the  central 
thought  of  the  work  may  be  found  in  a  com- 
parison, in  the  second  chapter,  between  the 
former  and  more  recent  theories  of  creation. 
"According  to  the  old  story  of  creation, 
which  was  based  upon  no  facts,  but  only 
upon  a  misinterpretation  of  revelation,  God 
made  man  at  one  stroke,  not  as  a  sculptor 
makes  a  statue,  not  as  an  inventor  makes  a 
machine,  but  as  the  magician  makes  his 
prodigy.  Accordingly,  God  is  no  constant 
and  necessary  factor  of  creation,  but  is  a 
being  who  may  be  dispensed  with,  except 
for  occasional  irruptions  into  our  region  of 
space  to  perform  wonders.  Nowr,  in  place 
of  such  a  conception,  evolution  offers  a  far 
nobler  one  ;  and  produces  an  array  of  facts, 
ever  increasing  in  bulk  and  significance,  to 
substantiate  it.  The  process  of  change 
which  goes  on  generation  after  generation, 
and  age  upon  age,  is  creation.  The  Creator 
does  not  act  as  a  magician,  suddenly,  as  by 
mere  impulse,  but  as  the  steady,  eternal  en- 
ergy, and  ever  according  to  that  purpose 
which  we  begin  to  consider."  Again,  in  the 
chapter  on  "  The  Idea  of  God  "  :  "  When  we 
are  told  that  evolution  abolishes  God,  or 
renders  him  superfluous,  we  see,  on  the  con- 


850 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


trary,  that  evolution  can  not  proceed  one 
step  without  God.  The  materialist  may  de- 
clare that  evolution  proceeds  by  material 
energy  or  force.  The  agnostic  may  say  that 
we  do  not  know  and  can  not  know.  The 
theist  identifies  the  universal  Power  and  In- 
telligence, proceeding  by  universal  laws,  as 
the  Being  of  whom  men  have  had  imperfect 
intuitions,  of  whom  men  have  had  inspira- 
tions." As  to  the  bearing  of  evolution  on 
religion,  we  are  told :  "  There  is  a  feeling 
that  evolution  is  dangerous.  The  exaggera- 
tion of  that  feeling  is  that  evolutionary  phi- 
losophy comes  as  a  whirlwind  to  destroy  re- 
ligion ;  on  the  contrary,  it  comes  to  restore 
and  revive  it.  My  friends,  evolution  will 
prove  itself  dangerous  to  the  kind  of  religion 
which  treats  it  in  that  way.  The  religion 
that  seeks  to  stand  on  the  ground  of  opposi- 
tion to  light,  on  the  ground  of  resistance, 
will  find  itself  more  and  more  threatened 
and  undermined  by  it."  The  evolution  of 
the  idea  of  immortality  is  also  regarded  as 
of  the  highest  importance,  as  showing  the 
consummation  of  the  works  of  creation. 
Other  special  topics  considered  include  the 
Bible  as  a  record  of  religious  gradual  growth, 
"  the  problem  of  evil,"  the  relations  of  evo- 
lution with  Christianity  and  with  special 
features  and  aspects  of  Christian  faith,  and 
its  relations  with  social  institutions  and  de- 
velopment. Finally,  criticism,  both  higher 
and  lower,  and  that  of  all  shades  and  grades 
between,  is  declared  really  to  have  but  the 
one  purpose  of  coming  at  the  abiding  and 
the  useful.  The  law  of  development  being 
all-inclusive,  "  truth,  sacred  truth,  must  also 
have  its  course  of  development  and  progress. 
It  can  not  long  be  contained  in  any  state- 
ment or  mass  of  statements.  It  increases 
by  its  own  vitality  and  outgrows  the  most 
elaborate  and  finished  form  in  which  any 
age  can  put  it.  And,  above  all,  religious 
truth  is  not  stationary — a  jewel  cut  and 
fashioned  by  skillful  device ;  it  is  in  the  na- 
ture of  seed,  inclosing  the  elements  of  growth, 
else  it  is  no  vital  truth.  .  .  .  The  serious 
concern  of  all  men  ought  to  be  to  know  the 
truth,  and  to  commit  themselves  to  it.  Not 
to  commit  themselves  to  the  uncertainties, 
but  to  the  certainties.  So  far  as  they  do 
that,  they  will  have  no  fear  of  the  thrashing 
process  of  criticism  which  comes  at  various 
periods,  and  has  now  come." 


Epitome  of  the  Synthetic  Philosophy. 
By  F.  Howard  Collins,  with  a  Pref- 
ace by  Herbert  Spencer.  New  York  : 
D.  Appleton  &  Co.  Pp.  571.  Price, 
$2.50. 

We  have  here  an  eminently  useful  idea 
carried  out  in  a  very  satisfactory  manner. 
Mr.  Collins  has  undertaken  the  by  no  means 
inconsiderable  labor  of  going  over  the  ten 
published  volumes  of  Mr.  Spencer's  system 
of  philosophy  and  summarizing  them  page 
by  page.  As  he  states  in  the  "  Compiler's 
Preface,"  "  The  object  of  this  volume  is  to 
give  in  a  condensed  form  the  general  prin- 
ciples of  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer's  philosophy 
as  far  as  possible  in  his  original  words. 
In  order  to  carry  out  this  intention,  each 
section  (§)  has  been  reduced,  with  but  few 
exceptions,  to  one  tenth ;  the  five  thou- 
sand and  more  pages  of  the  original  being 
thus  represented  by  a  little  over  five  hun- 
dred. The  '  Epitome  '  consequently  repre- 
sents 'The  Synthetic  Philosophy'  as  it 
would  be  seen  through  a  diminishing  glass ; 
the  original  proportion  holding  between  all 
its  varied  parts."  Mr.  Collins  has  aimed  to 
present  every  salient  point,  to  omit  no  essen- 
tial link  in  the  argument  by  which  the  cele- 
brated exponent  of  the  doctrine  of  Evolu- 
tion deduces  the  whole  course  of  history 
and  the  laws  that  govern  all  nature,  animate 
and  inanimate,  from  certain  fundamental 
postulates  of  the  most  abstract  or  at  least 
of  the  most  general  kind.  The  first  thing 
that  strikes  us  is  the  severity  of  the  test  to 
which  Mr.  Spencer's  philosophy  has  thus 
been  subjected.  Stripping  off  all  externals 
and  non-essentials,  Mr.  Collins  has  laid  bare 
the  very  framework  of  the  system.  He  has 
reduced  the  Synthetic  Philosophy  to  a  series 
of  almost  naked  propositions,  the  connection 
or  lack  of  connection  of  each  of  which  with 
those  that  precede  and  follow  can  be  seen 
at  a  glance.  Opinions  will  doubtless  differ 
as  to  the  degree  of  logical  coherence  thus 
brought  to  light ;  but  we  must  declare,  for 
our  own  part,  that  we  are  impressed  anew, 
not  only  with  the  wonderful  grasp  of  Mr. 
Spencer's  mind,  but  with  the  philosophic 
unity  of  his  thought.  The  apostle  of  Evo- 
lution has  afforded  us,  in  his  successive  vol- 
umes and  in  the  successive  chapters  of  each 
volume,  one  of  the  most  magnificent  exam- 
ples of  evolution.  The  success  with  which 
he  has  developed  his  system  speaks  power- 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


851 


fully  for  its  essential  conformity  with  the 
true  order  of  nature. 

It  is  hard  to  say  whether  Mr.  Collins  has 
rendered  a  greater  service  to  those  who  are 
already  familiar  with  Mr.  Spencer's  writings 
or  to  those  who  will  first  obtain  some  knowl- 
edge of  them  through  his  book.  Certainly 
the  former  will  thank  him  warmly  for  hav- 
ing placed  within  their  reach  a  compend 
which  will  enable  them  at  any  moment  to 
study  to  the  greatest  advantage  the  connec- 
tion of  the  different  parts  of  Mr.  Spencer's 
system,  and  to  refer  at  once  to  any  portion 
which  requires  for  its  full  comprehension  that 
more  complete  elucidation  which  Mr.  Spen- 
cer's own  works  supply.  In  the  preface  he 
has  written  for  the  present  work  Mr.  Spencer 
says  that  he  was  somewhat  surprised  to  find 
that  it  had  been  possible  "  to  put  so  much 
into  so  small  a  space  without  sacrifice  of  in- 
telligibility." We  are  not  surprised  at  his 
surprise.  The  result  must  be  attributed  to 
Mr.  Collins's  skill ;  but  it  also  testifies  to  the 
essential  lucidity  of  the  text  on  which  Mr. 
Collins  was  working.  With  the  utmost  skill 
he  could  not  have  made  pages  intelligible 
that  were  involved  in  obscurity  and  self-con- 
tradiction. No  one  who  is  really  interested  in 
Mr.  Spencer's  writings  will  care  to  be  with- 
out the  present  manual.  Giving,  as  it  does, 
the  gist  of  every  paragraph  in  the  original 
volumes,  it  will  in  many  cases  render  the 
consultation  of  those  volumes  unnecessary. 
What  Mr.  Spencer  thinks  is  here,  we  might 
almost  say,  fully  set  forth.  His  own  books 
give  us  in  addition  confirmatory  reasonings 
and  illustrations.  Any  one,  therefore,  who, 
without  knowing  anything  of  Spencer,  be- 
comes interested  in  Mr.  Collins's  epitome 
will  probably  seek  the  fountain-head  whence 
so  much  of  striking  thought  and  compact 
argument  has  been  derived. 

Naturally,  certain  parts  of  the  present 
epitome  are  more  effective  than  others. 
The  section  on  the  Unknowable  in  Mr.  Spen- 
cer's "First  Principles"  does  not  admit  of 
much  condensation,  and  here  the  epitome  is 
too  abstract  for  anything  like  general  read- 
ing, though  possessing  in  common  with  all 
the  rest  a  high  degree  of  usefulness  for  seri- 
ous students  of  Spencer.  The  same  remark 
applies  to  large  portions  of  the  "  Psychol- 
ogy ;"  but  in  the  biological  and  sociological 
portions  Mr.  Collins  has  given  us  a  version 


of  Spencer  that  is  at  once  pithy,  vigorous, 
and  thoroughly  interesting.  We  could  quote 
scores  of  paragraphs  that  tell  their  tale  with 
admirable  condensation  and  point,  and  that 
make  good  reading  for  any  day  in  the  year. 
The  effect,  therefore,  of  the  present  work,  we 
may  hope,  will  be  to  popularize  to  some  ex- 
tent a  system  of  thought  which,  abstract  as 
it  may  seem,  has  been  elaborated  by  its  dis- 
tinguished author  in  the  most  practical  spirit 
possible  and  which  can  not  become  more 
widely  known  without  conferring  propor- 
tionate benefit  upon  society. 

Special  Physiology,  including  Nutrition, 
Innervation,  and  Reproduction.  By 
John  Gray  M'Kendrick,  M.  D.,  LL.  D., 
F.  R.  S.,  Professor  of  the  Institutes  of 
Medicine  in  the  University  of  Glasgow, 
Fellow  of  the  Royal  College  of  Physi- 
cians of  Edinburgh.  London  and  New 
York:  Macmillan  &Co.  1889.  8vo.  Pp. 
803.     Price,  $6. 

Dr.  M'Kendrick  states  in  his  preface 
that  it  has  been  his  "endeavor  throughout 
this  volume  to  lay  before  the  reader  the  main 
facts  of  physiological  science,  and  as  far  as 
possible  to  state  these  facts  in  terms  of  meas- 
urement. The  time  has  gone  past  for  vague 
generalities  in  the  description  of  physiologi- 
cal phenomena,  and  physiology  is  year  by 
year  drawing  nearer  to  her  true  position 
as  a  science,  dealing  as  strictly  with  the 
phenomena  and  basis  of  organic  life  as  phys- 
ics deals  with  those  of  dead  matter." 

The  book  is  divided  into  sections,  subdi- 
vided into  chapters.  The  sections  deal,  in 
order,  with  nutrition ;  food ;  digestion  ;  ab- 
sorption ;  the  blood  and  its  circulation  ;  res- 
piration ;  assimilation  or  nutrition  ;  glyco- 
genosis ;  excretion ;  the  income  and  expend- 
iture of  the  body ;  animal  heat ;  the  nervous 
system  ;  the  senses ;  the  voice ;  animal  loco- 
motion ;  and  reproduction.  There  are  four 
hundred  and  eighty-five  illustrations. 

Dr.  M'Kendrick's  well-known  scholar- 
ship is  a  guarantee  that  this  book  is  a  valu- 
able one.  But  that  such  is  the  fact  would 
be  quite  apparent  from  inspection,  even 
were  his  name  not  placed  on  the  title-page. 
It  gives  the  latest  results  of  physiological 
study  with  accuracy  and  exactness.  Wheth- 
er or  not  his  expectations,  quoted  from  the 
preface,  are  ever  to  be  realized,  he  certainly 
has  aided  to  advance  the  science  of  physiol- 


852 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


ogy  in  the  direction  of  his  ideal.  While  the 
difficulties  in  the  way  of  quantitative  esti- 
mates of  physiological  phenomena  are  some- 
times very  great,  that  is  no  reason  for  relax- 
ing efforts  to  overcome  them,  since  in  the 
accomplishment  of  this  lies  the  hope  of  per- 
fecting the  science. 

We  have  little  space  for  special  criticisms, 
but  we  think  the  author  would  have  done 
better  to  leave  some  things  to  psychology, 
which  he  includes  in  his  work.  For  in- 
stance (page  G58),  he  speaks  of  pain  as 
"  a  third  kind  of  sensation,  unlike  touch  and 
temperature."  Now,  there  is  a  long-stand- 
ing controversy  as  to  this  point — whether 
pleasure  and  pain  are  distinct  sensations  or 
a  quality  of  all  sensations.  Dr.  M'Kendrick 
ought  to  have  seen  that  this  question  could 
not  be  disposed  of  in  a  paragraph.  Moreover, 
he  should  have  recognized  that  it  is  clear- 
ly and  peculiarly  a  psychological  question. 
To  include  such  a  statement  as  he  makes  in 
a  physiological  work  is  certainly  an  error, 
whether  he  be  right  or  wrong.  And  the  as- 
sumption he  makes  is,  besides,  one  which  he 
would  have  great  difficulty  in  substantiating. 
The  likelihood  is  that  pleasure  and  pain  are 
not  distinct  forms  of  sensation,  but  qualities 
of  all  sensation  whatsoever. 

Problems  in  American  Society.  By  Joseph 
H.  Crooker.  Boston  :  George  H.  Ellis. 
Pp.  293.     Price,  $1.25. 

Six  essays  on  moral  and  social  problems 
of  the  time  constitute  this  volume.  The  first 
is  entitled  "  The  Student  in  American  Life," 
and  its  key-note  is  contained  in  the  words 
"Americans  are  prone  to  ignore  the  vast 
practical  importance  of  cultivated  men." 
The  second  essay  gives  a  sketch  of  the  his- 
tory of  scientific  charity,  from  the  "  Ham- 
burg System "  to  the  "  Charity  Organiza- 
tion "  system  of  England  and  America,  em- 
bodying many  of  the  principles  of  this 
method  of  diminishing  poverty.  "  The  Boot 
of  the  Temperance  Problem  "  is  the  subject 
of  the  next  paper.  The  author  does  not 
think  attacking  the  saloon-keeper  is  the  way 
to  reach  the  root  of  drunkenness.  On  the 
contrary,  "  true  temperance  methods,"  he 
says,  "  are  such  as  reach  the  reason,  the 
conscience,  and  the  will  of  each  individual." 
There  is  an  essay  on  "  The  Political  Con- 
science," which   in  many  men  is  a  coarser 


article  than  the  private  conscience.  In  re- 
gard to  "  Moral  and  Beligious  Instruction  in 
our  Public  Schools,"  the  author  maintains 
that,  "  logically  there  is  no  stopping  short 
of  a  state  religion,  if  religious  instruction  is 
insisted  upon  in  the  public  schools "  ;  and 
in  answer  to  the  question,  "  Shall,  then,  our 
public  schools  teach  a  formal  moral  code?" 
he  answers :  "  No  ;  rather  let  them  possess  a 
moral  atmosphere,  derived  from  the  person- 
ality of  the  teacher."  In  the  closing  essay 
he  discusses  the  fact  that  many  villages  hav- 
ing churches  of  half  a  dozen  sects  are  almost 
destitute  of  real  religion. 

The  Town-Dweller  :  His  Needs  and  his 
Wants.  By  J.  Milner  Fothergill,  M.  D. 
With  an  Introduction  by  B.  W.  Bichard- 
son,  M.  D.,  F.  B.  S.  New  York :  D.  Ap- 
pleton  &  Co.     Pp.  118.     Price,  $1. 

Two  general  reasons  are  given  by  Dr. 
Fothergill  for  the  dwellers  in  towns  being 
inferior  physically  to  the  inhabitants  of  the 
country.  First,  a  natural  selection  draws 
the  slight  men  of  active  brain  from  the 
country  into  the  towns ;  and,  second,  the  con- 
ditions of  life  in  the  towns  are  hostile  to 
physical  vigor.  In  successive  chapters  of 
this  book  the  dangers  in  these  conditions  of 
city  life  are  pointed  out.  The  house  of  the 
town-dweller  may  be  built  on  a  rubbish-heap, 
and  have  smoky  chimneys  and  dangerous 
plumbing.  His  surroundings  may  include 
noisy  or  ill-smelling  premises,  while  street 
noises  afflict  the  best  city  neighborhoods. 
The  air  he  breathes  lacks  ozone,  and  is 
charged  with  the  oxides  of  carbon,  sulphur 
dioxide,  and  metallic  fumes,  and  contains 
often  irritating  dust.  The  water-supply  of 
towns  is  not  always  wholesome.  The  town- 
dweller  eats  too  much  meat  and  white  bread, 
and  he  rejects  fat,  which  shows  that  his  di- 
gestive organs  are  too  weak  to  digest  it.  Too 
much  tea  and  alcoholic  beverages  are  con- 
sumed by  town  -  dwellers,  and  the  liquors 
often  contain  substances  more  harmful  than 
alcohol.  Most  of  the  work  of  the  town  is 
done  indoors,  and  in  a  hot  atmosphere, 
which  favors  the  handling  of  small  objects. 
Town  amusements  are  also  mostly  carried  on 
indoors,  and  furnish  little  of  the  recreation 
needed.  The  brain  and  nerves  of  the  town- 
dweller  are  unnaturally  developed,  while  his 
muscles  and  internal  organs  are  proportion- 
ately weakened.      Blight's  disease  and  dia- 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


853 


betes  are  especially  associated  with  the  men- 
tal activity  of  town-dwellers.  Their  children 
are  sickly,  and  if  it  were  not  for  the  constant 
inflow  of  new  blood  from  the  country,  the 
towns  would  be  depopulated  in  three  or  four 
generations.  Dr.  Richardson,  in  his  intro- 
duction to  the  volume,  says,  "  The  divisions 
are  excellent,  the  title  of  each  division  at- 
tractive, and  the  mode  of  progress  from  stage 
to  stage  artistic."  He  draws  attention  to 
certain  "  short,  sharp  sayings,  each  one  in 
its  proper  place,  and  easily  learned  and  not 
easily  forgotten."  As  samples  of  these  he 
quotes,  "  Flags  and  pavements  produce  no 
grass."  "  Brains  are  the  finest  raw  material 
of  a  country."  "  To  kill  the  weak  and  in- 
jure the  middling  is  a  long  price  for  educa- 
tion." He  calls  it  also  an  eminently  sug- 
gestive book,  which,  if  the  author  had  lived, 
would  doubtless  have  been  expanded. 

On  the  Creation  and  Physical  Structure 
of  the  Earth.     By  John  T.  Hakrison. 
London    and    New    York  :    Longmans, 
Green  &  Co.     Pp.  189.     Price,  $2.50. 
The  author  offers  this  production  as  an 
essay  toward  a  theory  of  the  formation  of 
the    earth's    crust.      In  his   discussion  he 
makes  liberal  use  of  passages  in  the  writ- 
ings of  the  leading  geologists,  which  often 
reveal  wide  differences  of  opinion  concern- 
ing the  questions  discussed.     He  also  puts  at 
the  heads  of  several  chapters,  and  scatters 
through  his  text,  passages  from  the  Bible, 
with  which  he  evidently  deems  it  essential 
that  his  views  should  conform.     A  striking 
case  of  this  tendency  to  subordinate  his  opin- 
ions to  the  imagined  geological  teachings  of 
the  Bible  is  where  he  says  that  the  earth- 
quakes which  now  occur  result  from  disturb- 
ance of  the  crust  in  one  or  other  of  the  old 
lines  of  rupture,  and  asks,  "  Who  can  ear- 
nestly consider  this  condition  of  the  earth 
and  say  that  it  may  not  be  nearly  ripe  for 
another  paroxysm  ?  "     He  then  quotes  from 
Prof.  Hitchcock  to  the  effect  that  the  earth 
contains  within  itself  chemical  energies  suffi- 
cient to  accomplish  its  own  destruction,  and 
adds,  "  We  have  the  yet  older  and  surer  reve- 
lation that  the  earth  shall  reel  to  and  fro 
like  a  drunken  man,  and,  when  enveloped  in 
flames,  all  the  works  of  man  shall  be  burned 
up."     This,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  pro- 
gressive cooling  of  the  earth  points  to  its 
end  in  frigidity. 


A  Test-Book  of  Animal  Physiology,  with 
Introductory  Chapters  on  General  Bi- 
ology and  a  Full  Treatment  of  Repro- 
duction.    For  Students  of  Human  and 
Comparative  (Veterinary)  Medicine  and 
of  General  Biology.     By  Wesley  Mills, 
Professor  of  Physiology  in  McGill  Uni- 
versity and  the  Veterinary  College,  Mont- 
real.    New  York :    D.  Appleton  &  Co. 
1889.     8vo.     Pp.  TOO. 
The  plan  of  this  important  work  is  new. 
It  adopts  the  comparative  method,  begins 
with  general  biology,  treats  of  the  cell  as  the 
unit,  gives  an  account  of  unicellular  vegetal 
organisms  both   on   the  morphological  and 
the   physiological  side,  then  of   unicellular 
animals,   next   of    multicellular   organisms, 
leading   up   to  a  consideration  of   the  ani- 
mal body,  the   animal  kingdom   and  man's 
place   therein.     Following  all  this  is  a  full 
exposition  of  the  origin  of  life  in  general 
and  of    reproduction,   very   admirably  pre- 
sented.    Then  the  chemical  constitution  of 
the  animal  body  is  taken  up,  the  blood  and 
the  contractile    tissues    are   examined,  the 
graphic  method  is  extensively  applied  to  the 
study  of  muscle  physiology,  the  circulatory 
system  is  explained,  succeeded  by  an  account 
of  the  digestive  system.     Excretion  is  next 
dealt  with,  then  the  metabolic  or  chemically 
transforming  processes,  while   the   nervous 
system  and  the  senses  form  the  concluding 
portions  of  the  work. 

The  plan  has  obvious  advantages.     It  is 
much  better  adapted  to  giving  the  learner 
a  correct  and  comprehensive  view  of  physi- 
ology than  treatises  in  the  usual  form  and 
order.      Moreover,  the  work  in  question   is 
admirably  executed  and  has  all  the  charac- 
teristics of  a  truly  scientific  production.     It 
is  certain  that  physiology  must  be  hereafter 
studied  with  reference  to  general  biological 
laws,  and  not  by  piecemeal  methods.     Then 
books  like  the  present  one  will  inevitably  su- 
persede the  older  text-books,  presenting  a 
less  unified  physiology.     Dr.  Mills's  volume 
will  help  this  progress.    It  may  be  safely 
recommended  as  one  of  the  best  treatises  on 
the  subject  extant,  and  in  respect  to  method 
we  know  of  none  more  praiseworthy. 

La  Pisciculture  en  Eaux  Douces  (Fish 
Culture  in  Fresh  Waters).  By  A.  Gobin. 
Paris :  J.  B.  Bailliere  et  Fils.     Pp.  360. 

M.  Gobin  has  given  us  a  handy  and  use- 
ful book,  comprehensive  and  practical.    The 


854 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY 


subject  has  been  introduced  into  the  agri- 
cultural and  national  schools  of  France,  and 
the  art  has  become  there,  according  to  the 
author,  not  only  a  regular  branch  of  indus- 
try, but  also  the  fashion.  It  is  recommended 
as  being  equally  well  adapted  to  women  with 
the  care  of  poultry,  bees,  and  silk-worms. 
"As  a  recreation,  it  interests  the  mind  and 
the  eyes  ;  and  it  has  been  well  tested  as  an 
economical  resource.  As  a  regular  pursuit,  it 
has  been  taken  up  and  then  dropped  several 
times  ;  in  the  present  effort  that  is  making 
to  establish  it  on  a  systematic  basis,  the 
United  States  is  acknowledged  to  be  in  ad- 
vance of  any  of  the  European  countries 
which  are  named.  Of  its  importance,  the 
author  well  says  that,  in  a  period  of  civiliza- 
tion like  that  which  we  have  reached,  every 
waterfall,  however  slight  it  may  be,  should 
and  can  be  utilized  as  a  motor  force,  and 
every  stream  and  water  surface  should  be 
made  to  support  the  maximum  of  aquatic  in- 
habitants best  suited  to  purposes  of  food. 
To  obtain  this  condition,  nothing  has  to  be 
created.  All  that  is  necessary  is  "  to  study 
and  adopt  what  has  been  done  in  England, 
Switzerland,  some  places  in  Germany,  and 
especially  in  the  United  States."  In  the 
several  chapters  and  sections  of  the  book 
are  considered  the  properties  of  fresh  water, 
the  different  kinds  of  fish,  natural  and  arti- 
ficial breeding  and  feeding,  the  construction 
and  management  of  fish-ponds,  the  manage- 
ment of  lakes  and  methods  of  dealing  with 
running  waters,  migratory  and  "  sedentary  " 
fish,  crustaceans,  lagoon  fish,  and  sea  fish. 
The  whole  is  abundantly  and  satisfactorily 
illustrated,  and  a  classified  list  of  the  fresh- 
water fishes  of  France  is  added. 

A  paper  that  will  have  value  for  manu- 
facturers of  iron  and  steel  is  that  on  The 
Construction  of  Cupolas  for  the  Melting  of 
Pig-Iron,  by  M.  A.  Gouvy,  Jr.,  translated 
by  W.  F.  Durfee,  which  appeared  in  the 
"  Journal  of  the  Franklin  Institute "  for 
January,  1889.  It  presents,  in  one  compre- 
hensive view,  most  of  the  experiments  that 
have  been  tried  in  many  lands,  with  a  hope 
of  improving  the  working  of  cupolas ;  and 
the  translator  believes  that,  if  its  conclu- 
sions are  intelligently  followed  by  users  of 
cupolas,  very  large  economies  of  fuel  will 
result.     Among  the  experiments  whose  his- 


tory is  given  in  this  sketch  are  the  employ- 
ment of  hot  blast,  utilization  of  the  gas  es- 
caping from  the  top  of  the  furnace,  changes 
in  the  form  of  the  vertical  section  of  cupolas, 
cooling  the  walls,  equal  distribution  of  the 
blast,  suction-blast,  gas-firing,  and  complete 
combustion  of  the  carbonic  oxide.  The  au- 
thor points  out  clearly  the  advantages  and 
disadvantages  of  each  of  these  devices,  aud 
at  the  end  sums  up  his  conclusions.  A  table 
giving  the  relative  dimensions,  the  product, 
and  the  consumption  of  fuel  in  thirty-three 
cupolas  of  various  construction  accompanies 
the  paper. 

The  purpose  of  the  manual  on  Foods  for 
the  Fat,  by  Nathaniel  F.  Davies  (Lippincott, 
75  cents),  is  to  enable  persons  suffering  from 
corpulency  to  so  regulate  their  diet  as  to  cure 
their  ailment.  The  first  division  of  the  vol- 
ume tells  the  amount  of  food  required  by 
persons  in  ordinary  occupations,  the  uses  of 
fat  in  the  body,  and  the  effect  on  corpulency 
of  exercise,  stimulants,  tea,  coffee,  and  other 
beverages.  In  the  second  part  of  the  book 
a  list  of  articles  which  may  be  eaten  by  the 
corpulent  is  given  for  each  month,  and  some- 
thing more  than  half  the  volume  is  devoted 
to  recipes  for  preparing  such  articles. 

Dr.  Ceorge  31.  Gould,  of  Philadelphia, 
publishes  a  report  of  three  cases  in  which, 
respectively,  chorea,  flatulent  dyspepsia,  and 
palpitation  of  the  heart  had  been  caused  by 
eye-strain,  and  were  cured  when  the  eye  was 
relieved.  Following  the  line  of  research 
thus  opened,  the  author  examines  the  rela- 
tion of  sexualism  and  reflex  ocular  neuroses, 
and  finds  a  means  of  accounting  for  the  head- 
aches of  women  in  the  years  between  puberty 
and  middle  age,  and  for  various  other  func- 
tional derangements. 

The  object  of  the  Inventor's  Manual  (J. 
F.  Davidson  &  Co.,  New  York,  f  1)  is  "  to  give 
the  inventor  and  patentee  some  hints  on 
patents  generally,  together  with  information 
on  ways  of  exhibiting  inventions,  bringing 
them  to  public  notice,  and  effecting  sales." 
Among  the  subjects  treated  in  this  work  are, 
how  to  invent,  how  to  secure  a  good  patent, 
value  of  a  good  invention,  how  to  exhibit  an 
invention,  how  to  interest  capital,  how  to 
estimate  the  value  of  a  patent,  advice  on 
selling  patents,  advice  on  the  formation  of 
stock  companies,  forms  for  assignments, 
licenses,  and  contracts,  State  laws  concerning 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


8S5 


patent-rights,  and  other  items  of  information 
not  generally  accessible  to  the  inventor  or 
manufacturer. 

The  following  five  books  and  pamphlets 
are  issued  by  the  Woman's  Temperance  Pub- 
lication Association :  The  Year's  Bright 
Chain  (price,  50  cents)  consists  of  twelve 
pages  of  quotations  from  the  writings  of 
Frances  E.  Willard,  alternating  with  full- 
page  pictures  representing  the  months. 
Each  picture  is  accompanied  by  a  couple  of 
stanzas  of  verse  telling  the  wish  the  month 
grants  to  a  boy  and  to  a  girl.  A  finely  en- 
graved steel  portrait  of  Miss  Willard  forms 
the  frontispiece.  The  artistic  and  mechani- 
cal quality  of  the  book  can  not  fail  to  delight 
her  young  admirers.  Frances  Raymond's 
Investment,  by  Mrs.  S.  M.  I.  Henry  (price,  50 
cents),  is  the  story  of  a  woman's  complaint 
against  the  State  for  the  loss,  due  to  the 
licensed  saloon,  of  what  her  boy  had  cost 
her.  The  Unanswered  Prayer  ;  or,  Why  do 
so  many  Children  of  the  Church  go  to  Ruin  ? 
also  by  Mrs.  Henry  (price,  50  cents)  consists 
of  several  chapters  of  counsel  to  mothers  in 
regard  to  saving  their  children  from  the 
evils  and  dangers  that  beset  them.  Songs 
of  the  Young  Woman's  Christian  Temperance 
Union,  by  Anna  A.  Gordon  (price,  25  cents), 
consists  of  ninety-five  pages  of  words  and 
music,  suitable  for  temperance  meetings. 
Crusader  Programs  (price,  25  cents)  is  a 
collection  of  exercises,  consisting  of  recita- 
tions, dialogues,  etc.,  interspersed  with  songs, 
and  designed  for  the  Loyal  Temperance 
Legion,  Sunday  schools,  etc.,  and  adapted  to 
Arbor-day,  Easter,  Decoration-day,  and  other 
occasions. 

A  new  review,  called  The  Arena,  has  been 
started  in  Boston,  under  the  editorship  of  B. 
0.  Flower  (The  Arena  Publishing  Company, 
$5  a  year).  The  promise  that  it  will  be  il  a 
field  of  combat "  where  the  many  social, 
ethical,  and  political  questions  of  the  day 
will  be  fought  over,  seems  likely  to  be  veri- 
fied, for  among  the  contributors  to  the  first 
two  numbers  are  some  of  the  most  belligerent 
writers  for  the  press  who  are  now  in  the 
field.  These  are  such  as  Robert  G.  Ingersoll, 
who  opens  the  first  number  with  an  article 
on  "  God  in  the  Constitution  "  ;  Lawrence 
Gronlund,  who  writes  on  li  Nationalism  "  ; 
Hugh  0.  Pentecost,  on  "  The  Crime  of  Capi- 
tal  Punishment";    Henry  George,   on  the 


"  Rum  Power  "  ;  Rev.  Minot  J.  Savage,  W. 
H.  H.  Murray,  Mrs.  Mary  A.  Livermore,  and 
Hudson  Tuttle.  Besides  these  serious  dis- 
cussions, The  Arena  offers  papers  on  literary 
subjects,  by  Dion  Boucicault,  Louis  Frechette, 
and  others,  and  poetry  and  fiction  by  Joaquin 
Miller,  W.  H.  H.  Murray,  Edgar  Fawcett,  and 
others.  Each  number  is  to  have  a  portrait 
as  a  frontispiece  ;  that  of  Dion  Boucicault 
appears  in  the  first  number,  and  that  of  Rev. 
Minot  J.  Savage  in  the  second. 

In  Some  Social  and  Economic  Paradoxes 
— a  reprint  from  the  "  American  Anthro- 
pologist"— Mr.  Lester  F.  Ward  sustains  a 
number  of  theses,  the  contrary  of  which  i9 
now  more  currently  held,  such  as  that  "  The 
artificial  is  superior  to  the  natural ;  "  "  Social 
activities  may  be  artificially  regulated  to  the 
advantage  of  society  "  ;  "  Reforms  are  chiefly 
advocated  by  those  who  have  no  personal 
interest  in  them  "  ;  "  Discontent  increase 
with  the  improvement  of  the  social  condi- 
tion "  ;  "  The  means  of  subsistence  increases 
more  rapidly  than  population,"  and  others 
on  the  relations  of  capital,  profits,  and 
wages. 

A  pamphlet  published  by  E.  Truelove,  of 
London — Home  Rule  and  Federation  is  its 
name,  and  A  Doctor  of  Medicine  its  author 
— advocates  the  federation  of  nations  on  a 
plan  resembling  that  of  the  United  States 
as  the  cure  or  most  effective  palliative  for 
existing  social  and  political  evils.  It  might 
begin  with  states  already  showing  inclina- 
tions in  that  direction,  like  those  of  the 
Balkan  Peninsula  and  Scandinavia;  then 
bring  in  France  and  England,  whereby,  it  is 
suggested,  a  solution  of  the  Irish  question 
may  be  found;  and  at  last  be  made  uni- 
versal. 

Some  years  ago  Mr.  /.  C.  Pilling  under- 
took the  compilation  of  a  bibliography  of 
North  American  languages ;  visited  many 
public  and  private  libraries,  and  corre- 
sponded extensively ;  and  embodied  the  re- 
sults of  his  researches  in  a  volume  of  which 
a  limited  number  of  copies  were  printed  and 
distributed.  He  has  since  continued  his  in- 
vestigations, and  has  collected  enough  new 
material  to  lead  to  the  belief  that  a  fairly 
complete  catalogue  of  the  works  relating  to 
each  of  the  more  important  linguistic  stocks 
of  North  America  may  be  prepared.     Four 


856 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


catalogues  of  the  new  series  have  been  pub- 
lished by  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology.     The 
first   of  them   is   the  Bibliography  of  the 
Eskimo   language,    which    is    spoken    by  a 
people  covering  a  very  extensive  range  of 
territory  and  widely  scattered,  and  is  repre- 
sented in  many  dialects.     The  earliest  date 
recorded  in  the  bibliography  is  1*729,  and  it 
is  brought  down  to  include  titles  that  came 
in  while  the  work  was  in  process  of  type- 
setting.    Next  in  order  is  the  Bibliography 
of  the  Siouan  Languages,  in  preparing  which 
the  compiler  enjoyed  the  advantage  of  the 
fact  that   many  of  those  who  have  fash- 
ioned the  literature  of  the  language  are  still 
living,  and  he  has  had  personal  intercourse 
or  correspondence  with  a  number  of  them 
for  several  years.     The  publications  of  the 
Siouan  group  cover,  perhaps,  a  wider  range 
than  those  of  any  other  linguistic  group  of 
North  America.     Nearly  every  dialect  is  rep- 
resented in  print  or  manuscript,  either  by 
dictionaries   or  extensive  vocabularies,  and 
pretentious  grammars  have  been   prepared 
of  at  least  five  of  the  languages.     The  third 
bibliography  is  of  the  Iroquoian  Languages 
to  which  group,  perhaps,  belongs  the  honor 
of  being  the  first  of  American  languages  to 
be  placed  upon  record.    The  languages  most 
largely    represented    are   the  Mohawk  and 
Cherokee.    Of  manuscripts,  mention  is  made 
of  a  greater  number  in  Mohawk  than  in  any 
of  the   other   languages.      Grammars  have 
been  printed  of  the  Cherokee,  Huron,  and 
Mohawk ;    dictionaries   in  Huron,   Mohawk, 
and  Onondaga,  and,  in  manuscript,  of  Seneca 
and  Tuscarora.    The  Muskhogean  Languages, 
to  which  the  fourth  bibliographical  paper  is 
devoted,  are  represented  by  521   entries,  of 
which  467  relate  to  printed  books  and  arti- 
cles and  54  to  manuscripts. 

Les  Trois  Moitsquelaires  —  The  Three 
Musketeers — of  Alexandre  Dumas  is  pub- 
lished by  Ginn  &  Co.,  in  an  edition  prepared 
for  the  use  of  schools,  by  Prof.  F.  C.  Suni- 
chrast,  of  Harvard  College.  This  is  one  of 
the  best  works  of  the  lively  novelist,  and 
belongs  to  a  series  to  which  Mr.  George 
Saintsbury  has  ascribed  remarkable  and 
almost  unique  merits.  But  all  of  Dumas's 
works  are  liable  to  objection  because  of 
their  containing  passages  unfit  to  be  put  into 
the  hands  of  pupils.  The  present  edition 
is  an  attempt  to  offer  a  condensation  of  the 


book,  in  which,  while  leaving  the  main  feat- 
ures of  the  story  and  the  brilliant  and  de- 
lightful passages  untouched,  all  that  is  ob- 
jectionable is  excluded,  and  the  volume  is 
brought  within  such  limits  of  length  that  it 
may  be  conveniently  used  as  a  text-book. 
The  notes  include  explanations  of  difficult 
passages  and  allusions,  and  notices  of  his- 
torical persons  and  places  mentioned  in  the 
story.     Price,  80  cents. 

The  Young  Folks'  Library,  edited  by 
Larhn  Bunion,  LL.  D.  (Silver,  Burdett  & 
Co.),  is  a  series  of  supplementary  readers, 
designed  to  give,  besides  practice  in  reading, 
useful  information  in  special  fines  of  school 
study,  and  selections  from  the  best  litera- 
ture. The  World  and  its  People  is  a  section 
of  this  library  devoted  to  geography.  Book 
I,  First  Lessons,  starts  with  the  building  of 
a  doll's  house  with  blocks,  and  proceeds  to 
the  drawing  of  a  plan  of  a  school-room  and 
play-ground,  a  village,  and  a  city,  after 
which  the  meaning  and  use  of  a  map  and  of 
the  points  of  the  compass  are  fully  explained. 
Spelling  lists  follow  each  lesson,  and  the 
volume  is  illustrated.  Book  II,  Glimpses  of 
the  World,  aims  to  present  such  ideas  of  per- 
sons and  places  as  will  interest  children  and 
fit  them  for  the  study  of  geography  proper. 
The  maps  inserted  usually  represent  portions 
of  the  United  States,  and  at  the  same  time 
illustrate  general  geographical  features  of 
the  world.  The  frontispiece  is  liable  to  give 
children  a  wrong  idea  of  the  size  of  the 
earth ;  it  represents  the  globe  floating  in 
space,  with  a  swallow  the  size  of  Greenland 
flying  over  it  about  a  thousand  miles  above 
the  atmosphere.  Many  poetical  pieces  are 
introduced  into  each  book.  Other  volumes 
are  to  follow. 

Prof.  Alexander  M,  Bell  has  embodied 
his  widely  known  system  of  sound  notation 
in  a  Popular  Manual  of  Vocal  Physiology 
and  Visible  Speech  (E.  S.  Werner,  New  York, 
50  cents),  designed  as  a  text-book  for  teach- 
ing these  subjects  in  schools  and  colleges. 
It  gives  a  complete  view  of  the  actions  of 
the  vocal  organs  and  the  resulting  elements 
of  speech.  The  symbols  used  to  represent 
the  various  motions  and  positions  of  the 
organs  constitute  visible  speech.  The  mas- 
tery of  spoken  languages,  the  exact  acquire- 
ment of  native  or  foreign  pronunciations, 
the  correction  of  defects  of  utterance,  and 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


857 


the  teaching  of  articulation  to  the  deaf,  are 
uses  to  which  Prof,  Bell's  system  is  applicable. 

References  to  the  United  States  Constitu- 
tion, by  William  E.  Foster,  is  published  as 
No.  XXIX  in  the  series  issued  by  the  Society 
for  Political  Education,  330  Pearl  Street, 
New  York.  Mr.  Foster,  Librarian  of  the 
Providence  Public  Library,  is  one  of  the 
scholarly  men  who  seek  to  make  the  collec- 
tions of  books  committed  to  their  care  of 
the  largest  possible  public  benefit.  This 
pamphlet  is  an  object-lesson  in  reading 
with  a  purpose.  It  gives  clear  references 
by  chapter  and  page  to  everything  in  print 
having  a  bearing  on  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States.  We  are  given  a  list  of  the 
works  showing  the  antecedent  influences  in 
antiquity,  in  German  and  English  institu- 
tions, and  in  American  colonial  history.  The 
more  immediate  causes  are  traced  in  the 
records  of  the  Annapolis  Convention,  1786, 
and  the  Philadelphia  Convention,  178*7.  Next 
Mr.  Foster  analyzes  the  Constitution  as 
framed  and  adopted,  and  shows  the  various 
sources  of  its  articles.  He  then  proceeds 
with  Constitutional  History  since  1789,  giv- 
ing reference  to  all  the  leading  expositions 
and  commentaries  on  the  Federal  and  State 
Governments,  with  notes  on  the  various 
amendments,  and  on  the  comparisons  of 
other  governments  with  that  of  the  United 
States.  An  appendix  summarizes  the  decis- 
ions of  the  Supreme  Court  since  1865  on 
questions  affecting  national  or  State  suprem- 
acy. Mr.  Foster  has  performed  his  task 
with  conscientious  care  and  thoroughness. 
His  References  will  save  every  student  of  the 
Constitution  much  unnecessary  labor  and 
bring  before  him  much  that  he  might  never 
otherwise  know.     (Price,  25  cents.) 

Prof.  Simon  iV.  Patten,  of  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania,  in  his  pamphlet  on  The 
Rational  Principles  of  Taxation,  makes  a 
debatable  contribution  to  a  difficult  theme. 
He  maintains  that  the  wastes  and  burdens 
of  competition  in  methods  of  distribution 
are  increasing ;  the  great  cost  of  solicitation 
and  advertisement  in  their  manifold  forms 
he  holds  to  be  the  chief  reason  why  science 
applied  to  industry  has  not  enriched  the  na- 
tion as  it  should.  His  remedy  for  undue 
and  wasteful  competition  is  of  a  heroic  kind  ; 
it  is  no  other  than  an  adaptation  of  the  high- 


license  plan  in  dealing  with  the  retail  liquor 
trade.  Prof.  Patten  holds  that  while  that 
plan  deprives  no  patron  of  his  desired  bev- 
erages, effects  no  increase  of  prices,  it  re- 
sults in  notable  economy  to  the  community 
in  extinguishing  one  half  or  more  of  the 
saloons,  with  their  outlays  for  rent,  attend- 
ants, and  so  on.  He  argues  that  a  similar 
reduction  of  the  ranks  of  all  distributive 
classes  by  a  high  special  tax  would  inure  to 
a  general  promotion  of  prosperity  in  which 
these  classes  would  perforce  share. 


PUBLICATIONS   RECEIVED. 

Appleton,  John  Howard.  Laboratory  Tear- 
Book,  1890.  Providence,  R.  I. :  Gordon  Roscoe  &, 
Co.     Pp.  81.     12  cents. 

Arey.  Albert  L.  Laboratory  Manual  of  Experi- 
mental Physics.  Syracuse,  N.  Y. :  C.  W.  Bardeen. 
Pp.  200.    75  cents. 

Astronomical  Observatory  of  Harvard  College. 
Annals. — Meteorological  Observations  made  on  the 
Summit  of  Pike's  Peak,  January,  1874.  to  June, 
18S8.  Pp.  475. — Observations  of  the  New  England 
Meteorological  Society  in  the  Year  18S8.  Pp.  99, 
with  Charts.— Monthly  Bulletins  ot  the  New  Eng- 
land Meteorological  Society.  Cambridge,  Mass. : 
Edward  C.  Pickering,  Director. 

Blackmar,  Frank  W.  History  of  State  Aid  to 
Higher  Education  in  the  United  States.  Washing- 
ton :  Government  Printing-Offiee.     Pp.  343. 

Blake,  William  P.,  New  Haven,  Conn.  Mineral- 
ogical  Notes  (Verde  Valley,  Ariz. ).    Pp.  3. 

Bray,  Henry  Truro.  The  Evolution  of  a  Life 
from  the  Bondage  of  Truth  to  the  Freedom  of  Rea- 
son.   Chicago :  Holt  Publishing  Co.    Pp.  486.    $2. 

Brinton,  Daniel  G.  On  Etruscan  and  Libyan 
Names.    A  Comparative  Study.    Pp.  16. 

Canadian  Institute.  Annual  Report  for  1889. 
Toronto  :  Charles  Carpmael,  President  of  the  Coun- 
cil.    Pp.  118. 

Chisolm,  Julian  J.,  Baltimore.  Persistent  Head- 
aches and  how  to  Treat  them.    Pp  12. 

Clark,  A.  Arnold,  Lansing.  Mich.  GermB,  the 
Prevention  of  Consumption,  etc.    Pp.  16. 

Clark,  Kate  Elizabeth.  The  Dominant  Seventh. 
A  Musical  Story.  New  York  :  D.  Appleton  &  Co. 
Pp.  164.     50  cents. 

Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  United  States.  Ta- 
bles for  converting  Customary  and  Metric  Weights 
and  Measures.    Pp.  4. 

Crawley,  Edwin  S.  Elements  of  Plane  and 
Spherical  Trigonometry.  Philadelphia:  J.  B.  Lip- 
pincott  Company.     Pp.  159.    $1. 

Crocker,  Uriel  H.,  Boston.  Excess  of  Supply : 
its  Cause  and  its  Results.     Pp.  8. 

Crookshank,  Edgar  M.  History  and  Pathology 
of  Vaccination.  Philadelphia:  P.  Blakiston,  Son  & 
Co.    2  vols.     Pp.  460  and  610,  with  Plates. 

Ethnologv,  United  States  Bureau  of.  J.  W. 
Powell,  Director.  Report.  1888-84.  Pp.  564  — 
Ibid  .  18S4-,85.  Pp.  675,  both  with  Maps  and  Plates. 
—The  Circular.  Square,  and  Octagonal  Earthworks 
of  Ohio.  Bv  Cvrus  Thomas  Pp.  36,  with  Plates. 
—  Textile  Fabrics  of  Ancient  Peru.  By  William  H. 
Holmes.  Pp.  17.  Washington :  Government  Print- 
ing-Offlce. 

Dead  Heart,  Sonvenir  of  the  (Lvceum  Theatre, 
London).  New  York  :  Cassell  &  Co.  Pp.  51,  with 
Plates. 

Ebers.  Georg.  Joshua,  a  Story  of  Biblical  Times. 
Translated  bv  Mary  Safford.  New  York:  W.  8. 
Gottsberger  &  Co.     Pp.  371. 


858 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


Foster,  Michael,  and  others,  Editors.  The  "  Jour- 
nal of  Physiology-"  Vol.  XI,  Nos.  1  and  2.  (Jam- 
bridge  Scientific  Instrument  Company's  Works, 
England.     Pp.  ICO,  with  Plates.     $5  a  volume. 

Gray,  Henry,  London.  Kandom  Catalogue  of 
Americana  and  Ooloniana.  Pp.  241.— Random  Cata- 
logue of  Choice  Books.     Pp.  16. 

Harrison,  Louis  Reeves.  Rothermal.  New 
Tork :  American  News  Company.  Pp.  2S1.  50 
cents. 

Iowa,  State  University  of.  Bulletin  from  the 
Laboratory  of  Natural  History.  (Anatomy  of  the 
Gorgonida?  and  the  Native  Fishes  of  Iowa.)  Iowa 
City.     Pp.  TO. 

James,  Edmund  J.  Federal  Constitution  of 
Germany.  Philadelphia :  University  of  Pennsylva- 
nia.   Pp.  43.     50  cents. 

Kansas  Academy  of  Sciences.  Transactions, 
188T-S8.  Topeka:  B.  B.  Smyth,  Librarian.  Pp. 
129. 

Martin,  H.  Newell,  and  Brooks,  "W.  K.  Studies 
from  the  Biological  Laboratory  of  Johns  Hopkins 
University.  Baltimore  :  N.  Murray.  Pp.  100,  with 
Plates.    $1. 

Massachusetts  Agricultural  College.  Twenty- 
seventh  Annual  Report.     Pp.  99. 

National  Museum,  United  States.  A  Review  of 
the  Genus  Xiphocolaptes  of  Lesson.  Pp.  20.  And 
of  the  Genus  Sclerurus  of  Swainson.  Pp.10.  Birds 
collected  in  the  Galapagos  Islands  in  1SS8.  Pp.  2S. 
And  Birds  collected  at  certain  other  South  American 
Islands  in  1SS7-'8S.  Pp.  10.  All  by  Robert  Ridg- 
way. — Descriptive  Notes  on  New  Genera  and  Spe- 
cies from  the  Lower  Cambrian  of  North  America. 
By  Charles  D.  Walcott.  Pp.  16. — New  North  Amer- 
ican Acrididse.  By  Laurence  Bruner.  Pp.  36,  with 
Plate. — Contribution  to  the  History  of  Pallas"  s  Cor- 
morant. By  Leonard  Stejneger  and  Frederick  A. 
Lucas.  Pp.  12.  — Description  of  Two  New  Species  of 
Snakes  from  California.  By  Leonard  Stejneger. 
Pp.  5. — Report  on  the  Batrachians  and  Reptiles 
collected  in  1887-88.  By  E.  D.  Cope.  Pp.  7. — 
Descriptions  of  New  Species  of  Fishes.  Galapagns 
Islands  and  Coast  of  Colombia.  By  David  Starr 
Jordan  and  C.  II.  Bollman.  Pp.  34. — Catalogue  of 
Insects  collected  in  1887-'88.  By  I.  O.  Howard- 
Scientific  Results  of  Explorations  by  the  United 
States  Fish  Commission  Steamer  Albatross.  By  Dr. 
George  Vasey.  Washington:  Government  PriQt- 
ing-Office 

New  Jersey  Agricultural  College.  Experiment 
Station,  New  Brunswick,  Bulletin.  Fungous  Dis- 
eases of  the  Cranberry.  By  Bvron  D.  Halsted.  Pp. 
40. 

New  Tork  Agricultural  Experiment  Station, 
Geneva,  Bulletin.     Testing  of  Dairy  Breeds.    Pp.44. 

Noel,  Hon.  Edward.  Natural  Weights  and 
Measures  London :  Edward  Stanford.  Pp.  83, 
with  Plates. 

"P.,  G.W."  American  Whist.  Illustrated.  Bos- 
ton and  New  Tork  :  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.  Pp. 
367.    $1.75. 

Pickering,  Edward  C.  On  the  Spectrum  of  Zeta 
Ursre  Majoris.     Pp.  2. 

Rankin.  Francis  II  .  M.  D.  Hygiene  of  Child- 
hood. New  York :  D.  Appleton  &  Co.  Pp.  140. 
75  cents. 

Richards,  Ed?ar.  Some  Food  Substances  and 
Adulterants.     Washington,  D.  C.    Pp.  18. 

Rochester,  N.  T.  Forty-second  Annual  Report 
of  the  Board  of  Education.     Pp.  207. 

Salomons,  Sir  David.  Electric  Light  Installa- 
tions and  the  Management  of  Accumulators.  New 
York:  D. Van Nostrand  Company.    Pp.334.    $1.50. 

Sampson,  Z.  Sidney.  Primitive  Man.  Boston  : 
James  H.  West.     Pp.  8.    10  cents. 

Sapp,  Hudson,  Mansfield,  Ohio.  A  New  Revela- 
tion, Unequaled  Theology.     Pp.  164. 

Savage,  Minot.  J.  Sermons  on  Life.  (Wealth 
and  Poverty;  Mr.  Bellamy's  Nationalism.)  Bos- 
ton: George  II.  Ellis.     Pp.  16  and  19.    5  cents  each. 

Small,  Albion  W.    The  Beginnings  of  American 


Nationality.  Baltimore :  Johns  Hopkins  Univer- 
sity.   Pp.  77.    $1. 

Shuleldt,  R.  W.  Remarks  upon  Extinct  Mam- 
mals of  the  United  States.  Pp.  3S.— Progress  in 
Avian  Anatomy  in  18S8-S9.  Pp.  5.— Osteology  of 
Arctic  and  Sub-Arctic  Water  Birds.  Pp.  28,  with 
Plates. 

Stewart.  Hon.  William  N.,  United  States  Senate. 
Speech  on  Speculators  in  Money  and  Debts.     Pp.  8. 

Tennessee  State  Board  of  Health,  Bulletin.  Nash- 
ville.    Pp.  20. 

Wagner  Free  Institute  of  Science,  Philadelphia, 
Transactions,  18S9.     Prof  Joseph  Leidy,  President. 

Wake,  C.  Staniland.  The  Growth  of  the  Mar- 
riage Relation.  Boston :  James  H.  West.  Pp.  70. 
10  cents. 

White,  Andrew  Dickson,  LL.  D.  Syllabus  of 
Lectures  on  the  Causes  of  the  French  Revolution. 
Philadelphia.     Pp.  14. 

Whitman,  C.  O.,  and  Allis.  Edward  Phelps,  Jr., 
Editors.  "  Journal  of  Morphology,"  December,  18o9. 
Boston  :  Ginn  &  Co.     Pp.  120. 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 

The  Disaster  at  Toronto. — On  the  even- 
ing of  February  14th  the  larger  portion  of 
the  University  of  Toronto  was  laid  in  ashes. 
Its  governing  body  have  met  the  disaster 
with  commendable  promptitude  and  spirit. 
Plans  are  afoot  not  only  to  rebuild  the 
structure  in  its  original  beauty  of  outline, 
but  to  extend  it  for  the  accommodation  of 
the  ever-growing  number  of  the  university's 
students.  Last  summer  the  university  was 
the  home  of  the  American  Association.  The 
cordial  hospitality  of  its  venerable  principal, 
Sir  Daniel  Wilson,  and  his  staff  of  profess- 
ors, on  that  occasion,  have  done  not  a  little 
to  widen  the  circle  of  sympathy  felt  with 
Ontario's  capital  in  its  grievous  loss. 

Irish  Holiday  Customs. — A  paper  by  Mr. 
James  Mooney,  on  the  "  Holiday  Customs  of 
Ireland,"  presents  the  Celtic  peasant  in  a 
different  aspect  from  that  under  which  he  is 
exhibited  in  the  English  Unionist  accounts 
of  his  misery  and  turbulence,  and  one  which, 
we  may  easily  believe  with  the  author,  is 
more  really  illustrative  of  his  character  and 
home  life.  The  old  customs  are,  however, 
decaying  in  Ireland  as  elsewhere,  and  many 
of  the  observances  which  were  once  general 
are  now  confined  to  remote  mountain  dis- 
tricts or  live  only  in  the  memory  of  the  older 
people.  Yet  others  are  still  common  through- 
out the  country.  As  there  is  but  little  com- 
munication among  the  peasantry  of  differ- 
ent districts,  except  at  the  fairs  in  the  sum- 
mer-time, the  customs  common  in  one  par- 
ish are  sometimes  entirely  unknown  in  an- 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 


859 


other  hardly  ten  miles  distant.  While  a 
number  of  the  holiday  observances  are  more 
or  less  common  to  all  the  Aryan  natives,  the 
features  more  peculiarly  Irish  are  mainly 
derived  from  the  old  Druidic  worship.  Aside 
from  some  essentially  foreign  customs  not 
noticed  in  Mr.  Mooney's  paper,  many  of  the 
genuine  Irish  observances  have  been  consid- 
erably modified  by  English  influences.  This 
is  especially  true  of  the  May-day  and  Christ- 
mas celebrations  ;  and  many  holiday  rhymes 
and  children's  rhymes,  riddles,  and  other 
formulas — even  in  the  remote  parts,  where 
Celtic  is  the  ordinary  language  of  the  peo- 
ple— have  been  imported  bodily  from  Eng- 
land. Mr.  Mooney  has  also  reprinted,  from 
the  "  Journal  of  American  Folk-Lore, "  a 
paper  on  the  "  Folk-Lore  of  the  Carolina 
Mountains,"  which,  while  it  can  hardly  be 
summarized,  is  full  of  matters  of  curious  and 
quaint  interest. 

Ants  and  the  Plants  that  harbor  them. 

— In  a  paper  read  before  the  British  Associa- 
tion on  the  Humboldtia  laurifolia  as  an  ant- 
harboring  plant,  Prof.  Bower  observed  that 
the  peculiar  relations  between  plants  and 
ants  had  been  the  subject  of  considerable 
observation  from  time  immemorial.  The 
literature  on  the  subject  could  be  traced  as 
far  back  as  1750,  and  Captain  Cook,  in  de- 
scribing his  voyages,  distinctly  alluded  to 
the  matter.  In  one  place  he  said  that  he 
had  seen  on  a  certain  tree  a  number  of  black 
ants  which  perforated  the  twigs,  and,  after 
eating  out  the  pith,  formed  a  lodging  in  the 
cavity,  and  yet  the  tree  continued  in  a  flour- 
ishing condition.  In  tropical  climates  there 
were  many  plants  pre-eminently  associated 
with  ants.  The  Italian  botanist  Picari  con- 
tended that  the  relationship  was  advanta- 
geous alike  to  the  plants  and  to  the  ants.  The 
former  afforded  shelter  to  the  latter,  and  in 
some  cases  supplied  them  with  food.  In  the 
course  of  a  short  discussion  Dr.  Tieman  said 
there  were  five  species  of  Humboldtia  in  trop- 
ical countries.  The  ants  took  advantage  of 
the  hollowness  of  the  plants,  but  he  did  not 
think  the  latter  derived  any  benefit  from 
their  presence. 

Alcoholism  and  Consnmption. — In  three 
professional  papers  Prof.  Thomas  J.  Mays 
exhibits  relations  between  consumption  and 
nervous  disorder,  and  between  consumption 


and  alcoholism.  The  former  connection  is 
illustrated  by  the  citation  of  numerous  cases 
in  medical  practice,  the  deductions  from 
which  lead  to  the  conclusion  that  "  he  who 
looks  at  the  disease  which  goes  under  the 
name  of  pulmonary  consumption  solely  from 
a  pulmonary  standpoint  obtains  but  a  very 
limited  and  distorted  conception  of  its  magni- 
tude and  nature  ;  but  that  he  who  takes  the 
view  here  indicated  will  realize  that  the  lung 
affection  is  only  a  special  manifestation  of 
the  disease  which  invades  the  whole  body ; 
and  that  all  its  diversified  symptoms,  such 
as  fatigue  and  exhaustion,  anorexia,  dyspep- 
sia, wasting,  dyspnoea,  sweating,  diarrhoea, 
haemoptysis,  intercostal  tenderness,  hoarse- 
ness, aphonia,  oedema,  are  not  the  conse- 
quences of  the  pulmonary  disease,  as  is  gen- 
erally believed,  but  in  all  probability  find  a 
common  bond  of  union  in  a  general  disorder 
of  the  peripheral  nervous  system."  In  the 
other  aspect  of  the  theory  cases  are  cited  to 
prove  that  "  alcoholism  and  phthisis  are  not 
mere  coincidences,  but  that  they  have  a  rela- 
tionship so  intimate  that  one  may  be  con- 
verted into  the  other " ;  and  that  pulmo- 
nary phthisis  can  be  produced  through  the 
toxic  action  of  alcohol  on  the  nervous  system. 
"  Such,  then,  being  the  relation  between  al- 
coholism and  pulmonary  phthisis,  it  is  very 
readily  understood  why  these  two  diseases 
should  so  frequently  change  places  in  differ- 
ent members  or  generations  of  the  same 
family,  and  why  they  are  so  often  associated 
with  various  other  nervous  disorders." 

Old  Panama  Canal  Projects. — The  feasi- 
bility of  cutting  a  canal  across  the  Isthmus 
was  discussed  by  William  Paterson,  in  1701, 
in  connection  with  his  Darien  scheme,  but 
only  incidentally.  He  thought  that  the  ca- 
nal could  be  easily  cut  for  six  out  of  the 
eight  leagues  between  the  oceans,  while  the 
other  two  passages  would  be  difficult.  Hum- 
boldt, in  a  report  made  in  1799,  enumerated 
nine  different  points  at  which  the  two  oceans 
might  be  connected.  Previous  to  this,  in 
1788,  a  passage  between  the  two  oceans  for 
small  craft  was  actually  accomplished.  The 
author  of  this  achievement,  says  Mr.  J. 
Stephen  Jeans,  in  a  paper  on  the  subject, 
was  the  curate  of  Nevita,  who  induced  his 
Indian  flock  to  cut  a  trench  between  the 
upper  streams  of  the  San  Juan  River,  near 


86o 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


Chirambira  Bay,  and  the  higher  waters  of 
the  river  Atrato,  which  flow  into  the  Atlan- 
tic through  Choco  Bay,  in  the  Gulf  of  Da- 
rien,  so  that  they  could  pass  from  the  Carib- 
bean to  the  Pacific  in  their  canoes.  In 
carrying  this  passage  into  effect,  the  Aras- 
tradera,  or  summit  level,  a  plain  about  three 
miles  in  width,  formed  by  an  interruption  of 
the  mountainous  ridge,  was  cut  across.  The 
passage  was,  however,  dangerous  and  diffi- 
cult at  all  times,  even  for  canoes,  and  the 
communication  has  now  for  many  years  been 
neglected  and  disused. 

Land  Tenures  in  China. — While  the  em- 
peror theoretically  owns  all  the  land  in  Chi- 
na, the  private  owner  has  as  absolute  a 
property  in  it  as  he  can  have  under  any  gov- 
ernment. The  tenures  are  military  and  com- 
mon, the  latter  applying  to  far  the  largest 
proportion  of  the  territory.  ,  It  exists  upon 
the  conditions  of  payment  of  the  land-tax, 
the  supply  on  demand  of  statute  labor  to  the 
authorities,  and  the  payment  of  a  fine  on 
alienation.  The  land-tax  is  assessed  in  a 
fixed  sum  on  the  district  magistrate,  who 
recovers  from  the  tenant,  but  is  sometimes 
remitted  in  case  of  a  great  calamity.  The 
supplying  of  statute  labor  has  almost  fallen 
into  disuse.  The  fees  are  payable  on  the 
transfer  of  land  by  sale  or  mortgage,  suc- 
cession or  inheritance.  About  half  the  soil 
is  probably  the  property  of  the  tenants  who 
till  it ;  but  large  tracts  are  also  owned  by 
"  literati  and  gentry,"  who  lease  it  to  small 
farmers  for  a  rental  consisting  of  a  propor- 
tion of  the  crops  fixed  according  to  the  qual- 
ity of  the  soil.  The  rents  are  paid  as  soon 
as  the  crop  is  harvested,  and,  being  seldom 
in  arrear,  evictions  are  rare.  The  laws  are 
all  in  favor  of  the  tenant,  who  pays  no  taxes 
or  rates,  and  takes  everything,  including  his 
house.  There  is  every  possible  variety  of 
arrangement  in  the  ownership  of  land.  There 
are  absolute  sales  and  sales  in  which  the 
vendor  reserves  the  right  to  a  share  in  a 
future  rise  in  value ;  revocable  and  irrevoca- 
ble sales ;  and  dual  ownership,  in  which  one 
man  owns  the  surface  and  the  other  the 
soil,  and  is  liable  for  the  taxes. 

Refrigeration  by  Ammonia. — Ammonia 
has  been  very  generally  employed  for  re- 
frigerating purposes  in  the  United  States 
and  Germany,  and  to  some  extent  elsewhere, 


for  ten  years  or  more.  Other  agents  used 
for  this  purpose  are  methylic  ether,  Pictet's 
liquid,  sulphur  dioxide,  and  ether.  Ammonia 
in  its  anhydrous  condition  possesses  in  an 
eminent  degree  the  properties  most  desired 
in  a  refrigerant,  for  it  boils  at  the  low  tem- 
perature of  374-°  Fahr.,  while  its  latent  heat 
of  vaporization  is  900°.  Two  distinct  sys- 
tems are  employed  in  the  use  of  ammonia, 
differing  from  one  another  in  the  method  of 
securing  the  rejection  of  heat  during  conden- 
sation of  the  vapor,  while  the  mere  evapo- 
rating or  refrigerating  part  of  the  process  is 
the  same  in  both.  In  the  absorption  process 
ammonia  and  water  are  vaporized  together 
and  then  fractionally  condensed  by  cooling. 
The  water,  condensing  first,  is  caught  and 
run  back  to  the  generator,  while  the  nearly 
anhydrous  ammonia  is  collected  separately. 
With  this  process  200,000  units  of  heat  per 
hour  may  be  eliminated  by  the  consumption 
of  about  one  hundred  pounds  of  coal,  with 
a  temperature  in  the  refrigerator  of  about 
20°  F.  In  the  compression  process  the 
ammonia  vapor  is  drawn  from  the  refriger- 
ator and  compressed  by  a  pump  and  deliv- 
ered into  the  condenser  and  liquefied  at  the 
temperature  of  the  cooling  water.  It  is 
more  economical  than  the  absorption  pro- 
cess, and  is  adequate  to  the  elimination  of 
240,000  units  per  hour.  The  process  is  ap- 
plied to  ice-making  and  to  the  cooling  of 
stores  and  rooms. 

The  Tahl-tan  Indians  of  British  Colum- 
bia.— An  account  of  this  people  by  Mr.  J.  C. 
Callbreath,  included  in  a  report  of  an  explo- 
ration by  George  M.  Dawson,  gives  their  max- 
imum height  as  about  five  feet  seven  and  a 
half  inches,  and  maximum  girth  of  chest 
about  thirty-seven  inches.  Their  heads  are 
small,  and  the  feet  and  hands  are  generally 
small,  as  are  also  the  wrist  and  ankle,  espe- 
cially in  the  women.  Traders  sell  more  No. 
2  women's  and  No.  6  men's  shoes  than  any 
other  sizes.  No  men's  hats  above  No.  1  are 
sold.  Bialf-breeds  from  a  white  man  and  a 
Tahl-tan  woman  are  more  like  the  father  than 
the  mother,  and  three  generations  where  the 
father  is  in  every  case  white  seem  to  oblit- 
erate all  trace  of  Indian  blood.  The  children 
are  more  cunning  and  clever  when  young 
than  those  of  the  white  race,  but  grow  dull 
as  they  age.     Yarn  is  spun  from  the  wool  of 


POPULAR   MISCELLANY. 


861 


the  mountain  goat  and  is  woven  into  excel- 
lent blankets,  which  are  highly  colored  and 
ornamented.  The  process  of  boiling  water 
with  hot  stones  in  baskets  or  wooden  bowls 
was  formerly  common.  The  dances  of  the 
Tahl-tan  are  tame  affairs  compared  with 
those  of  the  coast  tribes,  but  their  musical 
capabilities  are  considerable.  Kinship,  so  far 
as  marriage  or  inheritance  of  property  goes, 
is  with  the  mother  exclusively,  and  the  father 
is  not  considered  a  relative  by  blood.  Mr. 
Callbreath  tells  of  an  instance  where  a 
rich  Indian  would  not  go  out  or  even  con- 
tribute to  send  others  out  to  search  for  his 
aged  and  blind  father  who  was  lost  and 
starving  in  the  mountains.  Not  counting  his 
father  as  a  relative,  he  said,  "  Let  bis  people 
go  and  search  for  him."  Yet  this  man  was 
a  more  than  average  good  Indian.  A  man's 
female  children  are  as  much  his  property  as 
his  gun,  aud  he  sells  them  to  whom  he 
pleases.  If  the  husband  pays  for  his  wife 
in  full  and  she  dies,  even  ten  years  after- 
ward, the  father  is  bound  to  supply  a  wife, 
if  he  have  any  more  eligible  daughters,  with- 
out additional  payment.  Their  laws  are 
based  on  the  principle  that  any  crime  may 
be  condoned  by  a  money  payment.  Their 
religious  belief  was  simply  what  their  medi- 
cine-men might  lay  down  for  them  from  time 
to  time,  and  the  idea  of  a  Supreme  Being 
was  very  obscure  if  not  altogether  wanting. 
They  have  no  fear  of  death  except  from 
dread  of  the  pain  of  dying.  There  is  a  be- 
lief propagated  by  their  medicine-men  that 
the  otter  gets  inside  their  women  and  some- 
times causes  death  by  a  lingering  illness,  in 
other  cases  allowing  the  woman  to  live  on 
till  she  dies  from  some  other  cause. 

An  African   Tribe  of  Promise.  —  The 

Benge  are  a  very  intelligent  and  pleasant 
tribe  which  Lieutenant  R.  Kund's  exploring 
party  found  occupying  an  "  immense  clear- 
ing "  in  the  midst  of  the  Congo  wilderness. 
Their  village,  surrounded  by  large  manioc- 
fields,  consisted  of  a  street  about  fifty  yards 
wide  extending  farther  than  the  eye  could 
reach.  The  huts  of  the  villagers  squarely 
faced  the  street  on  either  side,  and  behind 
them  were  well-kept  plantations  of  bananas, 
backed  by  oil  palms,  with  the  giant  trees  of 
the  forest  looming  in  the  rear  of  all.  The 
race  is  of  a  very  fine  type,  with  a  brownish- 


red  complexion  some  degrees  removed  from 
black,  fine,  manly  features  with  an  intel- 
lectual cast,  and  cleanly  and  orderly  in  habits. 
They  are  good  hunters,  and  practice  wood- 
carving  and  other  arts  with  a  skill  that 
would  do  credit  to  Europeans.  They  have 
attained  in  all  respects  a  higher  standard  of 
civilization  than  is  to  be  found  among  the 
other  tribes  of  West  Africa.  They  exhib- 
ited none  of  the  stupid  superstition  in  the 
presence  of  the  travelers  which  had  ap- 
peared in  other  places,  and  showed  no  signs 
of  cannibalism  or  fetichism  or  coarse  idolatry. 

Effect  of  a  Cobra's  Bite.— The  taxider- 
mist of  the  Victoria  Museum  was  bitten  in 
the  hand  by  a  cobra,  from  which  the  poison- 
bag  had  been  extracted,  while  feeding  it. 
Supposing  the  bite  to  be  harmless,  he  took 
no  notice  of  it  till  pain  and  nausea  began. 
Then  all  the  usual  antidotes  were  tried  with- 
out effect.  The  man  lost  the  power  of 
speech,  became  paralyzed  in  his  muscular 
system,  and  ceased  to  breathe.  Artificial 
respiration  was  applied  for  eight  hours,  after 
which  he  began  to  breathe  again  and  gradu- 
ally regained  consciousness.  After  two  days 
he  was  able  to  tell  his  friends  that  he 
had  been  fully  aware  of  all  that  was  go- 
ing on  during  the  efforts  to  restore  him,  but 
had  not  been  able  to  move  a  muscle  or  to 
make  his  feelings  known.  He  could  see 
and  hear  and  feel,  but  not  move  or  twitch. 
He  was  afterward  attacked  by  high  fever 
and  inflammation  of  the  lungs,  from  which 
he  died  on  the  Sunday  following  the  Wednes- 
day on  which  he  was  bitten. 

Dnst  essential  to  Fogs. — Nearly  ten  years 
ago  John  Aitken,  of  Edinburgh,  proved  ex- 
perimentally that  the  presence  of  dust  was 
essential  to  the  formation  of  fog  and  cloud. 
He  connected  two  receivers,  one  containing 
common  air,  the  other  air  freed  from  dust 
by  passing  through  cotton  -  wool,  with  a 
boiler.  When  steam  was  admitted  into  the 
first  receiver,  a  fog  formed  within  it ;  but 
when  allowed  to  enter  the  one  containing 
filtered  air,  not  the  slightest  cloudiness  was 
produced.  Particles  of  water-vapor  do  not 
combine  with  each  other  to  form  a  cloud- 
particle,  but  must  have  a  free  surface  on 
which  to  condense.  The  particles  of  dust 
serve  as  nuclei  on  which  the  vapor  condenses, 


862 


THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


and  hence  the  more  abundant  the  dust  the 
more  dense  the  cloud.  When  the  vapor  in 
the  second  receiver  was  brought  by  circula- 
tion against  the  sides  of  the  receiver,  it 
gradually  condensed  on  these  surfaces.  The 
density  of  the  fog  formed  in  common  air 
shows  what  a  large  amount  of  dust  is  pres- 
ent every  day  in  the  air  around  us.  But  the 
particles  of  fog  do  not  represent  all  the  dust- 
particles  in  the  air.  If  enough  steam  is 
blown  into  a  receiver  full  of  common  air  to 
produce  a  dense  fog,  and  after  the  fog  has 
settled  more  steam  is  blown  in,  another  fog 
will  form  on  the  dust  which  still  floats  in 
the  air.  If  this  is  repeated  a  number  of 
times,  a  less  dense  and  coarser-grained  fog 
forms  each  time,  till  at  last  no  fog  is  seen, 
but  the  condensed  vapor  falls  as  rain.  These 
dust-particles  are  not  the  motes  that  we  see 
in  the  path  of  a  sunbeam  ;  for,  when  com- 
mon air  is  passed  through  a  flame,  these 
motes  disappear,  but  the  air  still  remains  a 
good  medium  for  fogs.  It  is  a  finer  kind  of 
dust  which  furnishes  the  fog  and  cloud  nu- 
clei. The  products  of  combustion  are  fog- 
producers,  and  especially  the  vapor  from  the 
burning  of  sulphur. 

Gem  Minerals  of  Canada. — Although,  ac- 
cording  to  Mr.  George  F.  Kunz's  paper  on 
"  Precious  Stones,  Gems,  and  Decorative 
Stones  in  Canada  and  British  North  Ameri- 
ca," Canada  can  hardly  be  called  a  gem-pro- 
ducing country,  it  furnishes  a  number  of 
stones  that  are  of  more  than  passing  interest 
to  the  mineralogist,  and  of  some  value  in  jew- 
elry and  the  arts.  A  number  of  gem  minerals, 
not  of  gem  quality,  are  found  in  examples 
of  such  size  and  perfection  that  they  have 
been  given  prominent  places  in  cabinets,  and 
are  even  more  prized  as  specimens  than  cut 
stones  from  other  localities.  Their  mineral- 
ogical  value  gives  them  no  small  commercial 
importance.  Of  such  are  magnificent  zircon 
crystals,  occurring  as  individuals  up  to  fif- 
teen pounds  in  weight,  and  many  finer  ones 
weighing  a  pound,  as  well  as  beautiful  twin 
crystals  of  the  same  mineral ;  black  titanite 
in  simple  and  trimmed  crystals  up  to  seventy 
pounds  each  ;  "  vast  quantities  of  amethyst " 
from  Lake  Superior ;  ouvorsovite  or  green 
chrome  garnet  from  Orford,  and  white  gar- 
net crystals  from  near  Wakefield ;  and  apa- 
tite crystals,  one  weighing  over  five  hundred 


pounds,  of  great  beauty,  of  which  the  rich 
green  variety,  especially,  would  do  to  work 
into  ornaments  similar  to  those  made  from 
fluorite.  Only  a  small  part  of  the  territory 
of  the  Dominion  has  been  examined  with 
reference  to  these  stones  ;  and  with  the  dis- 
covery of  new  localities  important  additions 
to  the  list  may  be  anticipated. 

The  Sliding  Railway.— The  Chemin  de 

Fer  GUssanl,  or  sliding  railway,  at  the  Paris 
Exhibition,  according  to  a  description  by  Sir 
Douglas  Galton  in  the  British  Association, 
is  based  on  the  two  principles  of  causing  the 
carriage  to  slide  on  a  thin  film  of  water  in- 
troduced between  the  sledge-plates  on  which 
it  rests ;  and  the  propulsion  of  the  sliding 
train  by  horizontal  columns  of  water  acting 
through  hydrants  placed  at  intervals  on  the 
line.  The  system  was  originally  designed 
by  Girard  in  1861,  who  made  a  line  at  his 
own  private  house,  where  he  had  an  inclina- 
tion of  one  foot  in  twenty.  The  results  he 
obtained  seemed  to  justify  the  application  of 
the  system  in  special  cases  on  a  paying  basis. 
He  acquired  a  concession  in  1869  for  a  rail- 
way from  Calais  to  Marseilles,  to  which  a 
subvention  was  afterward  attached.  But 
the  War  of  1870  resulted  in  the  destruction 
of  the  railway  by  the  German  army,  and  in 
the  death  of  M.  Girard  in  1871.  In  1885 
M.  Barre  purchased  the  drawings  left  by 
M.  Girard,  and  introduced  an  improvement 
which  he  considered  would  make  the  system 
more  workable.  A  line  on  this  improved 
system  was  established  in  the  Paris  Exhibi- 
tion, about  two  hundred  yards  long,  and 
trains  were  run  upon  it. 

Properties  of  the  Kola-Nut. — Kola-nuts, 
or  the  seeds  of  Sterculia  acuminata,  are  allied 
in  composition  to  cocoa,  coffee,  and  tea,  but 
contain  a  relatively  large  amount  of  caffeine. 
They  are  credited  with  strong  tonic  and 
nervous  stimulant  properties  ;  with  counter- 
acting and  removing  the  sense  of  exhaustion 
after  fasting  and  fatigue  ;  with  having  an- 
tagonistic reaction  to  alcohol ;  and  with  a 
purifying  influence  on  water.  Their  value 
as  a  therapeutic  and  dietetic  agent  has  been 
tested  by  Surgeon  R.  H.  Firth,  who  concludes 
that  kola  is  not  a  food  ;  that  it  increases  total 
urinary  water,  has  a  stimulant  action  on  the 
nervous  system,  temporarily  strengthens  the 


NOTES. 


863 


heart-beat,  and  increases  the  arterial  tension. 
In  times  of  exertion  and  fasting  it  wards  off 
the  sense  of  mental  and  physical  depression 
and  exhaustion.  The  author  has  not  gained 
positive  results  respecting  its  therapeutic 
qualities.  Its  action  in  purifying  water  is 
mechanical,  and  not  more  effective  than  that 
of  other  mucilaginous  seeds. 

Raining  Spiders'  Wefts. — Falls  or  show- 
ers of  gossamer  spiders'  webs  have  been  re- 
corded in  different  parts  of  the  world.  White 
describes  several  in  his  "Natural  History 
of  Selborne."  Darwin  mentions  a  shower 
which  he  observed  from  the  deck  of  the 
Beagle  off  the  mouth  of  the  Rio  Plata,  when 
the  vessel  was  sixty  miles  from  land.  A 
general  fall  of  spiders'  webs  is  said  to  have 
been  noticed  a  few  years  ago  in  some  of  the 
towns  of  Wisconsin,  which  seemed  to  come 
from  over  the  lake.  The  webs  were  strong 
in  texture,  very  white,  varied  from  sixty 
feet  in  length  to  mere  specks,  and  were  seen 
as  far  up  in  the  air  as  the  power  of  the  eye 
could  reach.  The  shower  may  have  been 
due  to  an  unusual  excursion  of  the  familiar 
geometric  spider,  a  species  which  has  the 
same  power  as  the  gossamer  of  shooting 
webs  that  float  upon  the  air,  and  sometimes 
serve  aa  an  air-raft  for  the  producer. 


NOTES. 

Thk  scientific  courses  at  Indiana  Univer- 
sity, of  which  our  contributor,  David  Starr 
Jordan,  is  president,  include  departments  of 
physics,  with  classes  in  physics  proper,  phys- 
ical measurements,  and  meteorology ;  chem- 
istry, with  qualitative  and  quantitative  anal- 
ysis, special  work,  and  water  analysis ;  geol- 
ogy, with  mineralogy,  topographical  geology, 
and  field-work;  zoology,  with  many  classes, 
including  theories  of  evolution,  the  critical 
study  of  Darwin's  "  Origin  of  Species,"  and 
original  research;  and  botany,  with  six  class- 
es and  advanced  and  original  work  in  the 
senior  year  on  a  special  subject.  Since  it  was 
opened  3,816  students  have  been  taught  in 
the  college  departments  of  the  university. 

"Cocoanut  day"  is  celebrated  in  most 
parts  of  India  during  the  full  moon  in  Au- 
gust. On  that  day  numbers  of  nuts  are 
thrown  into  the  sea  as  an  offering  to  the 
Hindoo  god.  Occasionally  one  meets  with 
deformed  nuts,  consisting  of  the  husks  with 
small  nuts  having  no  kernel  inside.  The  na- 
tives attribute  this  blighting  to  the  tree-frog, 
which,  by  smelling  the  flower,  can  prevent 
the  fruit  from  coming  to  maturity. 


A  curious  survival  of  customs  was  illus- 
trated in  Lisbon  some  days  after  the  funeral 
of  the  late  King  Luis  of  Portugal.  A  funer- 
al procession,  composed  of  officers,  military, 
and  citizens,  marched  through  the  streets  to 
places  where  platforms  covered  with  black 
cloth  had  been  erected.  Four  shields,  on 
which  were  painted  the  royal  arms,  were 
borne  aloft  on  long  staves.  On  arriving  at 
the  platforms,  the  principal  persons  took 
their  places  upon  them ;  one  of  the  shield- 
bearers,  advancing  to  the  front  and  chant- 
ing, "  Weep,  0  Portuguese,  for  your  king, 
Dom  Luis  I,  is  dead,"  dashed  his  shield  to 
the  ground  with  such  violence  that  it  was 
shattered.  This  was  repeated  at  each  plat- 
form, while  the  bells  were  tolled  during  the 
whole  ceremony.  The  proceedings  were 
closed  with  a  requiem  service. 

At  the  recent  annual  meeting  of  the  Ra- 
tional Dress  Society,  Viscountess  Harberton, 
the  president,  said  that  during  the  past  year 
she  had  hardly  met  with  any  expressions  of 
approval  from  women  with  regard  to  their 
present  system  of  dress.  Most  of  the  re- 
marks she  had  heard  had  been  denunciatory 
of  the  weight,  discomfort,  or  dragging,  or — 
particularly  from  young  women — the  cold 
when  evening  dress  was  worn.  This  was 
cheering,  because  it  marked  a  growing  real- 
ization of  the  uncomfortableness  of  present 
costumes.  In  the  speaker's  opinion,  the  only 
hope  of  reform  lay  in  a  radical  change  to 
some  kind  of  dress  having  the  clothing  for 
the  legs  dual ;  it  should  clearly  follow  the 
shape  of  the  form  it  was  meant  to  cover. 

According  to  Mr.  R.  Andree,  our  Indians 
use  rising  smoke  as  a  means  of  giving  sig- 
nals, and  have  a  system  of  alternately  smoth- 
ering the  column  and  letting  it  rise  freely 
for  transmitting  different  messages.  A  sim- 
ilar method  is  used  in  New  Guinea  and  Aus- 
tralia. The  great  variety  of  the  messages 
communicated  by  drums  in  the  Cameroons 
and  other  parts  of  Africa  have  been  described 
in  the  "  Monthly."  The  Gallas,  south  of 
Abyssinia,  have  drums  stationed  at  certain 
points  of  the  roads  leading  to  the  neighbor- 
ing states,  at  which  watchmen  are  appointed 
to  sound  the  alarm  in  case  of  threatened  in- 
vasion. In  New  Guinea  the  natives  learn 
from  the  rapidity  and  rhythm  of  the  blows 
on  drums  what  is  happening — whether  an 
attack,  death,  or  a  festival. 

The  opinion  is  expressed  by  Mr.  Elliot, 
in  his  last  Meteorological  Report  for  India, 
that  the  period  of  minimum  sun-spots  is  as- 
sociated in  that  country  with  the  largest  and 
most  abnormal  variations  of  meteorological 
conditions  and  actions.  Thus  the  snow  was 
exceptionally  heavy  in  the  northwest  Hima- 
layas in  the  winters  of  1866,  18*76,  and 
1 8*7*7.  The  most  striking  and  disastrous 
famines  have  also  occurred  near  the  mini- 
mum sun-spots,  as  those  of  Orissa  in  1866, 
Behar  in  1874,  and  Madras  in  18*76-'V7.    So, 


864 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


too,  with  cyclone?,  as  at  Calcutta  in  1864, 
when  sixty  thousand  people  were  drowned 
in  the  storm-wave,  and  Backerganj  in  1876, 
when  one  hundred  thousand  were  drowned. 

The  experiment  has  been  tried  in  Mos- 
cow, Russia,  with  success,  of  using  carrier- 
pigeons  to  convey  negatives  of  photographs 
taken  in  a  balloon.  The  plates  were  packed 
in  light-proof  papers  and  tied  to  the  feet  of 
pigeons,  who  speedily  took  them  in  good  or- 
der to  the  station  on  the  ground. 

Medical  geology  and  climatology  are 
mentioned  by  the  "  Lancet "  as  departments 
of  the  science  to  which  more  attention  might 
be  paid  than  is.  Their  usefulness  is  illus- 
trated by  tbe  recently  published  studies  of 
Mr.  Alfred  Haviland  on  the  distribution  of 
cancer  in  the  British  Islands. 

The  undue  increase  in  all  the  learned 
professions  in  Germany  is  the  subject  of  a 
pamphlet  by  Prof.  W.  Lexis,  of  Berlin.  All 
the  theological  faculties,  except  the  Roman 
Catholic,  are  increasing  "to  an  alarming 
extent."  The  average  number  of  medical 
students  for  the  whole  empire — 2,675 — was 
increased  in  1888-1889  by  2,344.  If  a  pro- 
portionate increase  takes  place  in  the  num- 
ber of  licenses,  the  year's  new  doctors  will 
rise  from  the  average  of  456  to  more  than 
800.  A  prize  offered  by  one  of  the  Teach- 
ers' Associations  for  the  best  essay  on  the 
overcrowding  of  the  learned  professions  and 
the  means  of  remedying  it,  was  given  to  two 
papers  out  of  seventy-six  sent  in,  which  are 
to  be  published  in  a  book. 

An  apparatus  for  providing  a  steady  plat- 
form at  sea  for  guns,  search-lights,  telescopes, 
etc.,  was  described  by  Mr.  Beauchamp  Tower 
in  the  British  Association. 


OBITUARY   NOTES. 

Ex-President  Martin  B.  Anderson,  who 
died  at  Lake  Helen,  Fla.,  February  26th,  was 
a  scholar  who  had  made  himself  eminent 
in  many  fields  of  thought  and  activity.  He 
was  born  in  Brunswick,  Maine,  in  1815  ;  was 
graduated  from  Waterville  College,  now 
Colby  University,  in  1840;  studied  theology; 
preached,  taught,  and  served  as  editor  of 
the  "New  York  Recorder,"  a  Baptist  pa- 
per, till  1853,  when  he  was  chosen  Presi- 
dent of  the  University  of  Rochester,  where 
his  after-life  was  spent.  He  instituted  a 
course  of  lectures  in  intellectual  philosophy, 
which  were  continued  till  he  retired,  in  con- 
sequence of  ill  health,  a  year  or  two  ago  ;  also 
a  course  of  historical  lectures  ;  and  under  the 
head  of  political  economy  he  treated  various 
questions  affecting  money,  taxation,  etc., 
and  free  trade  and  protection.  His  studies 
extended  to  questions  of  constitutional  law, 
and  covered  the  arts.  He  was  prominent  in 
all  Baptist  denominational  enterprises,  and 
served  the  State  on  several  civil  commissions. 
In  fact,  as  the  "  Evening  Post "  well  says,  "  he 


was  one  of  those  men  who  take  all  knowl- 
edge for  their  province,  and  never  wearied 
of  enriching  his  mind  with  stores  of  all  de- 
scriptions, which  he  distributed  with  lavish 
impartiality  among  the  students  under  his 
charge." 

Among  the  recent  deaths  of  scientific 
men  abroad  are  those  of  M.  L.  Taczanowski, 
of  Warsaw,  a  distinguished  ornithologist, 
author  of  a  book  on  the  birds  of  Peru ;  M. 
Neumayr,  of  Vienna,  geologist,  who  was 
not  yet  forty  years  of  age;  and  M.  Otto 
Rosenberger,  astronomer,  who  had  been  con- 
nected with  the  observatory  at  Halle  since 
1831. 

"La  Nature,"  of  February  15th,  men- 
tions the  death  of  M.  Buys  Ballot,  of  Utrecht, 
one  of  the  most  eminent  meteorologists  of 
the  time,  at  the  age  of  seventy-three  years. 
He  gave  much  attention  to  the  study  of  data 
for  facilitating  weather  predictions  —  the 
movement  of  cyclones,  the  direct  observa- 
tion of  clouds,  and  all  the  "  natural  symp- 
toms of  the  weather."  He  propounded  sev- 
eral meteorological  laws  or  maxims  which 
bear  his  name,  and  probably  had  an  equal 
part  with  any  other  student  in  giving  shape 
to  the  present  system  of  observation  and 
investigation  in  that  science. 

Major  Peter  Egerton  Warburton, 
whose  name  is  associated  with  the  hazardous 
but  successful  expedition  which  he  made 
across  Australia  in  1873,  died  recently  in 
Adelaide,  in  his  seventy  -  sixth  year.  His 
exploring  party  Buffered  terrible  privations 
during  their  march,  and  were  not  heard  of  for 
twelve  months.  Major  Warburton  received 
the  gold  medal  of  the  Royal  Geographical 
Society  and  various  honors  in  recognition 
of  his  contributions  to  our  knowledge  of 
Australia. 

Sir  Henry  Yule,  an  Englishman,  emi- 
nent in  geographical  research,  died  Decem- 
ber 31st,  in  his  seventieth  year.  In  his  an- 
notated edition  of  Marco  Polo's  travels  he 
made  contributions  of  the  most  valuable 
character  to  geographical  and  antiquarian 
lore. 

M.  Eugene  Deslongchamps,  a  French 
paleontologist,  who  died  last  December,  was 
the  son  of  another  paleontologist,  Prof.  Eli- 
des Deslongchamps,  was  Professor  of  Zool- 
ogy and  Paleontology  at  Caen,  and  was  the 
author  of  several  memoirs  on  the  paleonto- 
logical  fauna  of  Normandy. 

Dr.  Karl  Eduard  Venus,  an  eminent 
German  entomologist,  died  at  Dresden,  De- 
cember 13th.  He  was  the  founder  of  the 
Entomological  Society  "Iris"  at  Dresden. 

M.  Gustave  Hirn,  an  eminent  French 
physicist,  mathematician,  and  astronomer, 
died  January  14th,  in  the  seventy-fifth  year 
of  his  age.  He  was  the  author  of  a  work  of 
considerable  repute  on  the  "  Constitution  of 
Celestial  Space." 


IK.) 


INDEX   TO  VOLUME  XXXVI. 


VOL.  XXXVI. — 55 


INDEX. 


ARTICLES    MARKED    WITH    AN    ASTERISK    ARE    ILLUSTRATED. 

PAGE 

Abbott,  Charles  0.     The  Descendants  of  Palaeolithic  Man  in  America 145 

African  Tribe  of  Promise,  An.     (Misc.) 861 

Agriculture  and  the  Single  Tax.     H.  White 481 

Alchemist's  Gold.    A.  De  Rochas 814 

Alcoholism  and  Consumption.     (Misc.) 859 

Allen,  Grant.     Plain  Words  on  the  Woman  Question 170 

Andrews,  Miss  E.  F.     Grant  Allen  on  the  Woman  Question.     (Corr.) 552 

Animal  Language.     (Misc.) 427 

Ants  and  the  Plants  that  harbor  Them.     (Misc.) 859 

Arid  Regions,  Our,  and  the  Rainfall.     (Misc.)     572 

Armstrong,  Mrs.  M.  F.     The  Mission  of  Educated  Women 601 

Arngrimsson,  Frimann  B.     Sloyd  :  its  Aim,  Method,  and  Results* 784 

Asbestus,  Canadian,  its  Occurrence  and  Uses.     J.  T.  Donald 526 

Assassination,  The  History  of  the  Doctrine  of.     (Misc.) 285 

Atkinson,  Edward.     The  Art  of  Cooking  * 1 

"  The  Future   Situs  of  the  Cotton   Manufacture  of  the 

United  States* 289 

Australians,  Outdoor  Tastes  of  the.     (Misc.) 139 

Beauty,  The,  of  Childhood.     (Misc.) 572 

Bellite.     (Misc.) 280 

Benton,  Joel.     The  Decadence  of  Farming 27 

Benton,  Warren  G.     The  Taouist  Religion 329 

Birds  with  Teeth*     Otto  Meyer 382 

Books  noticed : 

Adams,  Muyron.     The  Continuous  Creation 849 

Agriculture,  Commissioner  of.     Report  for  1888 129 

American  Journal  of  Psychology 712 

Andrews,  Charles  M.     The  River  Towns  of  Connecticut 274 

Andrews,  E.  B.     Institutes  of  Economics 708 

Anthropological  Society.     The  Aborigines  of  the  District  of  Columbia 

and  the  Lower  Potomac 566 

Arena,  The 855 

Arkansas,  Report  of  the  Geological  Survey  for  1888.    Vols.  II  and  III.  . .   129 

Aryan  Sun-Myths  the  Origin  of  Religions 564 

Atkinson,  Edward.     The  Industrial  Progress  of  the  Nation 709 

Attfield,  John.     Chemistry:  General,  Medical,  and  Pharmaceutical .. .    .  418 


866  INDEX. 

Books  noticed :  page 

Bagehot,    Walter.      Plan  for   assimilating  the  English   and   American 

Money 420 

Baker,  C.  W.     Monopolies  and  the  People 563 

Baldwin,  James  M.     Handbook  of  Psychology  :  Senses  and  Intellect. .  . .  270 

Barnard,  Charles.     Graphic  Methods  in  Teaching 568 

Becker,  G.  F.     Geology  of  the  Quicksilver  Deposits  of  the  Pacific  Slope, 

with  an  Atlas " 561 

Bell,  A.  M.     Popular  Manual  of  Vocal  Physiology  and  Visible  Speech. .  856 

Bell,  Clark.     The  Kecent  Judicial  Departure  in  Insanity  Cases 272 

Bilgram,  Hugo.     Involuntary  Idleness ' 421 

Boston  Society  of  Natural  History.    Proceedings,  Vol.  XXIV 565 

Bowditch,  H.  P.     Hints  for  Teachers  of  Physiology 272 

Brinton,  D.  G.,  and  A.  S.  Anthony.     A  Lenape-English  Dictionary 709 

Brown,  W.  L.    Manual  of  assaying  Gold,  Silver,  Copper,  and  Lead  Ores.   420 

Buckham,  T.  R.     The  "  Eight  and  Wrong  "  Test  in  Insanity 273 

Collins,  F.  Howard.     Epitome  of  the  Synthetic  Philosophy 850 

Commonwealth,  The 273 

Cope,  E.  D.     The  Batrachia  of  North  America 274 

Cosmic  Law  of  Thermal  Repulsion,  The 712 

Crooker,  J.  H.     Problems  in  American  Society 852 

Crothers,  T.  D.     Should  Inebriates  be  punished  by  Death  for  Crime  ?.  . .   273 

Crusader  Programs 855 

Darwin,  Charles.     The  Structure  and  Distribution  of  Coral  Reefs 124 

Daudet,  Alphonse.     La  Belle  Nivernaise 273 

Davies,  N.  E.     Foods  for  the  Fat 854 

Davis,  Gualterio  G.     Ligeros  Apuntes  sobre  el  Clima  de  la  Republica 

Argentina '. 563 

Doctor  of  Medicine,  A.     Home-Rule  and  Federation 855 

Donisthorpe,  Wordsworth.     Individualism,  a  System  of  Politics 705 

Douglas,  S.  A.    An  American  Continental  Commercial  Union  or  Alliance.   569 
Dunton,  Larkin,  Editor.     The  World  and  its  People.     Book  I,  First  Les- 
sons.    Book  II,  Glimpses  of  the  World 856 

Dumas,  A.     Les  Trois  Mousquetaires 856 

Eggleston,  Edward.     A  First  Book  in  American  History 417 

Ethnology,  Bureau  of.     Sixth  Annual  Report,  1884-'85 268 

Evolution 712 

Ferrel,  William.     A  Popular  Treatise  on  the  Winds 415 

Fish  and  Fisheries,  Commissioner  of.     Report  for  188G 419 

Flagg,  Isaac.     Iphigenia  among  the  Taurians 127 

Foster,  W.  E.     References  to  the  United  States  Constitution 857 

Fothergill,  J.  M.     The  Town-Dweller 852 

Fullerton,  Anna  M.     A  Handbook  of  Obstetrical  Nursing 562 

Globe,  The 568 

Gobin,  A.     La  Pisciculture  en  Eaux  Donees 853 

Gordon,  Anna  A.     Songs  of  the  Young  Women's  Christian  Temperance 

Union 855 

Gore,  J.  H.     A  Bibliography  of  Geodesy 567 

Gould,  G.  M.     Eye-strain 854 

Gouvy,  M.  A.,  Jr.     The  Construction  of  Cupolas  for  the  Melting  of  Pig- 
iron 854 


INDEX.  867 

Books  noticed :                                                           •  PAGE 

Gray,  Asa.     Scientific  Papers  of,  selected  by  0.  S.  Sargent 266 

Great  Words  from  Great  Americans 128 

Greene,  Homer.     Coal  and  the  Coal  Mines 561 

Grove,  George.     A  Dictionary  of  Music  and  Musicians.     Appendix 271 

Haferkorn,  H.  E.,  and  Paul  Heise.     Handy  Lists  of  Technical  Literature. 

Part  1 271 

Hague,  Addison,     Irregular  Verbs  of  Attic  Prose 128 

Harris,  W.  T.     Introduction  to  tbe  Study  of  Philosophy 707 

Harrison,  J.  T.     On  the  Creation  and  Physical  Structure  of  the  Earth.  853 

Haworth,  E.     The  Chemistry  of  Narcotics 712 

Harvard  College,  Observatory  of.   Meteorological  Observations,  1840-'88.  567 
"               Observations  made  at  the  Blue  Hill  Meteorological  Ob- 
servatory in  1888 568 

Henry,  Mrs.  S.  M.  I.     Frances  Raymond's  Investment 855 

"                    The  Unanswered  Prayer 855 

Hensoldt,  H.     Meteorites  and  what  they  teach  us 565 

Hill,  Eobert  T.     Check-List  of  the  Invertebrate  Fossils  from  the  Creta- 
ceous Formations  of  Texas.     Part  1 712 

"                 Neozoic  Geology  of  Southwestern  Arkansas 129 

"  Paleontology  of  the  Cretaceous  Formations  of  Texas. 

Part  1 712 

Himnan,  Russell.     Eclectic  Physical  Geography 709 

Hiorns,  A.  II.     Iron  and  Steel  Manufacture 420 

Hough,  W.     On  the  Preservation  of  Museum  Specimens 711 

Hubert,  P,  G.,  Jr.     The  Nursery  Lesson- Book 421 

Journal  of  Morphology.     Vol.  Ill,  No.  1 567 

Journal  of  Physiology,  The.     Vol.  X 416 

Inventor's  Manual 854 

Kansas  State  Agricultural  College   Experiment  Station.     Report  of  the 

Botanical  Department 272 

Kapp,  Gisbert.     Alternate-Current  Machinery 420 

Kent,  Charles  W.     Elene 127 

Klemm,  L.  R.     European  Schools 416 

Krafft-Ebing,  R.  von.     An  Experimental  Study  in  the  Domain  of  Hyp- 
notism    420 

Kunz,  G.  F.     Meteoric  Iron 713 

Lagrange,  F.     Physiology  of  Bodily  Exercise 848 

Laing,  S.    Problems  of  the  Future,  and  Essays 707 

Lauridsen,  Peter.     Vitus  Bering,  the  Discoverer  of  Bering  Strait 421 

Lloyd,  J.  Hendric.     The  Insanity  of  Oscar  Hugo  Webber 272 

McGee,  W  J.      An  Obsidian  Implement  from  Pleistocene  Deposits  in 

Nevada 566 

The  World's  Supply  of  Fuel 565 

M'Kendrick,  John  Gray.     Special  Physiology 851 

Macoun,  Johu.     Catalogue  of  Canadian  Plants.     Parts  I  to  IV 269 

Mahaffy,  John  P.,  and  John  H.  Bernard.    Kant's  Critical  Philosophy  for 

English  Readers 127 

Mahrenholtz-Buelow,  Baroness.     The  Child  and  Child-Nature 420 

Mason,  O.  T.     Cradles  of  the  American  Aborigines 711 

"             The  Human  Beast  of  Burden 711 


868  INDEX. 

Books  noticed :  page 

Mills,  Wesley.     A  Text-Book  of  Animal  Physiology 853 

Modern  Science  Essayist 273 

Morgan,  T.  J.     Studies  in  Pedagogy 560 

Moses,  Bernard.     The  Federal  Government  of  Switzerland 126 

Muller,  F.  Max.     Natural  Eeligion 125 

Neal,  J.  C.     The  Root-knot  Disease 567 

Newberry,  J.  S.     Fossil  Fishes  and  Fossil  Plants  of  the  Triassic  Eocks  of 

New  Jersey  and  the  Connecticut  Valley 562 

Newcomb,  G.  B.     Teaching  School  Children  to  Think 564 

New  Review,  The 270 

New  York  State  Board  of  Charities.    Report  of  the  Standing  Committee 

on  the  Insane 272 

Nichols,  W.  F.     Topics  in  Geography 421 

Observatorio  Nacional  Argentino,  Resultados  del 272 

Parkes,  Louis  C.     Hygiene  and  Public  Health 417 

Parrish,  Juseph.     The  Legal  Responsibility  of  Inebriates 273 

Patten,  S.  N.     The  Rational  Principles  of  Taxation 857 

Peabody  Museum  of  Amerioan  Archaeology  and  Ethnology.    Palaeolithic 

Man  in  Eastern  and  Central  America 566 

Peacocke,  J.  M.     The  Disposal  of  the  Dead 569 

Peck,  John  Lord.     The  Kingdom  of  the  Unselfish 128 

Phyfe,  W.  H.  P.     Seven  Thousand  Words  often  mispronounced 710 

Pilling,  J.  C.     Bibliography  of  the  Eskimo  Language 855 

"  Bibliography  of  the  Siouan  Languages 855 

"  Bibliography  of  the  Iroquoian  Languages 855 

"  Bibliography  of  the  Muskhogean  Languages 855 

Pope,  F.  L.     Evolution  of  the  Electric  Incandescent  Lamp 420 

Porter,  J.  H.     Artificial  Deformation  of  Children 711 

Proctor,  Richard  A.     Strength  :  How  to  get  Strong  and  keep  Strong. . .  419 

Prudden,  T.  Mitchell.     The  Story  of  the  Bacteria 419 

Purinton,  D.  B.     Christian  Theism 559 

Redway,  J.  W.     The  Teacher's  Manual  of  Geography 421 

Renton,  A.  Wood.     Testamentary  Capacity  in  Mental  Disease 273 

Richards,  Mrs.  Ellen  H.     Domestic  Economy  in  Public  Education 568 

Richards,  John.     A  Manual  of  Machine  Construction 126 

Rothschild,  M.  D.     Handbook  of  Precious  Stones 713 

Russell,  I.  C.     Subaerial  Decay  of  Rocks,  and  Origin  of  the  Red  Color 

of  Certain  Formations 567 

Scott,  R.  P.     Cycling  Art,  Energy,  and  Locomotion 422 

Shaler,  N.  S.     The  Geology  of  Nantucket 567 

Shufeldt,  R.  W.     Osteology  of  Arctic  and  Sub-Arctic  Water-Birds 712 

"  Osteology  of  Tubinares  and  Steganopodes 711 

Studies  of  the  Ardeinse 712 

"  Studies  of  the  Macrochires 565 

Smithsonian  Institution.  Accounts  of  Progress  in  Anthropology,  Chem- 
istry, Geography  and  Exploration,  North 
American    Geology,    Mineralogy,    Physics, 

Vulcanology  and  Seismology,  Zoology 710 

"                 "                Bibliography  of  North  American  Paleontology .   710 
"  "  Report  on  Exchanges 710 


INDEX.  869 

Books  noticed  :  PAQB 

Society  for  Political  Education.     Questions  for  Debate 569 

Sonrel,  A.,  and  J.  W.  Fewkes.     The  Anatomy  of  Astrangia  Danaa 565 

Stearns,  R.  E.  0.     Ethno-Conchology  :  A  Study  of  Primitive  Money. . .   711 

Steinitz,  W.     The  Modern  Chess  Instructor.     Part  1 127 

Stillman,  J.  W.     God  and  the  Universe 569 

Sun  and  Shade 130 

Symonds,  Brandreth.     Manual  of  Chemistry 128 

Taylor,  Thomas.     Twelve  Edible  Mushrooms 272 

Thackeray,  S.  W.     The  Land  and  the  Community 559 

Thomas,  Cyrus.     Aids  to  the  Study  of  the  Maya  Codices 269,  272 

Tillman,  S.  E.     Elementary  Lessons  on  Heat 128 

Torrey,  Bradford.     A  Rambler's  Lease 565 

True,  Frederick  W.     A  Review  of  the  Family  Delphinidaa 271 

Upham,  W.     Glaciation  of  Mountains  in  New  England  and  New  York. .   712 

"  Marine  Shells  in  the  Till  near  Boston 712 

"  The  Structure  of  Drumlins 712 

Wachsmuth,  C,  and  F.  Springer.     Discovery  of  the  Ventral  Structure 

of  Taxocrinus  and  Haplocrinus 713 

Ward,  H.  M.     Timber  and  some  of  its  Diseases 708 

Ward,  L.  F.     Some  Social  and  Economic  Paradoxes 855 

Wells,  David  A.     Recent  Economic  Changes 413 

White,  C.  A.     Invertebrate  Fossils  from  the  Pacific  Coast 566 

"  The  North  American  Mesozoic 565 

Willard,  Miss  F.  E.     The  Year's  Bright  Chain 855 

Winchell,  N.  H.     Natural  Gas  in  Minnesota 712 

*    Winslow,  Arthur.     Geology  of  the  Coal  Regions  of  Arkansas 129 

Woodward,  R.  S.     Formulas  and  Tables  to  facilitate  the  Construction  of 

Maps ...    ...   566 

"                  Latitudes  and  Longitudes  of  Certain  Points  in  Mis- 
souri, Kansas,  and  New  Mexico 566 

"  On  the  Form  and  Position  of  the  Sea-Level 566 

Botany  as  a  Disciplinary  Study.     (Misc.) 716 

Bottle,  a  Glass,  The  Evolution  of.*     C.  Hanford  Henderson 154 

Bridge,  the  Modern  Railway,  The  Evolution  of.*     0.  D.  Jameson 461 

Brooks,  W.  K.     The  Lucayan  Indians* 88 

Browne,  James  Crichton.     Responsibility  in  Mental  Disease 81 

Cahall,  William  C.     The  Royal  Society  of  England 226 

Cambodia,  A  Glance  at.     (Misc.) 428 

Cat-Goddess,  The  City  of  the.     (Misc.) 281 

Cave  Life,  The  Effect  of,  on  Animals.     A.  S.  Packard 389 

Chemical  Prologue,  A.     C.  H.  Henderson 668 

Chemist's,  A,  Services  to  Mankind.     (Misc.) 574 

Chidsey,  Charles  E.     The  Mysterious  Music  of  Pascagoula 791 

Children,  Mental  and  Physical  Training  of.     Jessie  O.  Waller 213 

"        The  Law's  Neglect  of.     (Misc.) 131 

Chinese  Problem,  New  Phases  of  the.     W.  B.  Farwell 181 

Chinese  Silk-Lore.*    Tcheng-Ki-Tong 500 

Chinese  Theory  of  Evolution,  The.*     A.  M.  Fielde 397 

Chrysanthemums.*     J.  Dybowski 531 


870  INDEX. 

PAGE 

Olark  University.     (Misc.) 717 

Clarke,  Miss  Helen  A.     The  Mental  Bias  of  Witnesses.     (Corr.) 120 

Cobra's  Bite,  Effect  of  a.     (Misc.) 861 

Colorado  River  of  Texas,  The.     (Misc.) 718 

Comparative  Mythology.     A.  D.  White 433,  577 

Consumption,  Open-Air  Travel  for.     (Misc.) 715 

Cooking,  The  Art  of.*     Edward  Atkinson 1 

Co-operation,  A  Lesson  in.     C.  N.  Ousley 821 

Correction,  A.     J.  Jastrow.     (Corr.) 409 

Cotton  Fiber,  The.     (Misc.) 574 

Cotton  Manufacture  of  the  United  States,  The  Future  Situs  of  the.*    Edward 

Atkinson 289 

Country  Life,  Past  and  Present.     (Misc.) 134 

Creatures,  Wild,  of  the  Alps.     (Misc.) 133 

Cretaceous  Inland  Sea,  The.     (Misc.) 424 

Crofter's  Question,  The.     (Misc.) 138 

Cyclopaedias,  Old.     (Misc.) 277 

Dana,  James  D.     The  Name  Silurian  in  Geology.     (Misc.) 276 

Darwin,  An  Orthodox  Compliment  to.     (Misc.) 425 

Darwin  on  the  Fuegians  and  Patagonians  * 744 

Davis,  Charles  S.     Public  Schools  and  Crime.     (Corr.) 700 

Deep-Sea  Life,  The  Condition  of.     (Misc.) 285 

Doctor  and  Patient  in  Ancient  Hispaniola.     (Misc.) 134 

Domestic  Economy,  Science  in.     (Editor's  Table) 123 

Donald,  J.  T.     Canadian  Asbestus  :  Its  Occurrence  and  Uses 526 

Dragons,  Fabled  and  Real.*     M.  Maindron. 808 

Dust  essential  to  Fogs.     (Misc.) 861 

Duthiers,  H.  de  Lacaze.     Old  and  New  Methods  in  Zoology 19 

Dybowski,  Jean.     Chrysanthemums  * 531 

"                The  Rare  Forms  of  Orchids* 359 

Education,  Is,  opposed  to  Motherhood?     Miss  A.  B.  Tweedy 751 

Ellis,  A.  B.     The  Indwelling  Spirits  of  Men 794 

"             The  Lucayan  Indians.     (Corr.) 701 

Ether,  Structure  of  the.     (Misc.) 132 

Ethics,  Absolute  Political.     Herbert  Spencer 608 

Ethics  and  Religion.     C.  H.  Toy 727 

Every-day  Science.     (Editor's  Table) 264 

Evolution  and  Disease.     (Misc.) 285 

Example  in  Moral  Teaching.     (Editor's  Table) 847 

Exercise  for  Chest  Development.     F.  Lagrange 522 

Experimental  Fields  at  Rothamstead.  ■  (Misc.) 429 

Farming  and  the  Tariff.     J.  R.  Thurston.     (Corr.) 408 

Farming,  Decadence  of,  in  England.     M.  B.  C.  True.     (Corr.) 553 

Farming,  The  Decadence  of.     Joel  Benton 27 

Farwell,  Willard  B.     New  Phases  of  the  Chinese  Problem 181 

Fastings,  Long,  and  Starvation.     C.  Richet 538 

Fernald,  Frederik  A.     Concerning  Shrews* 663 

Politics  and  Farm-Mortgages.     (Corr.) 843 


INDEX.  871 

PAGE 

Fielde,  Miss  Adele  M.     The  Chinese  Theory  of  Evolution  * 397 

Films,  The  Laws  of.*    Mrs.  S.  B.  Herrick 620 

Fishes,  Deep-Sea.     (Misc.) 135 

Flames,  Sensitive,  and  Souod-Shadows.*     W.  Le  Conte  Stevens 36 

Flour-making  in  the  Northwest.     (Misc.) 570 

Fogs,  London,  Composition  of.     (Misc.) 282 

Forestry  Association,  The  American.     (Misc.) 423 

Fossils,  Interesting,  of  British  North  America.     (Misc.) 424 

Friction,  If  there  were  no.     (Misc.) 135 

Fuegians  and  Patagonians,  Darwin  on  the  * 744 

Gem  Minerals  of  Canada.     (Misc.) 862 

Germination,  Experiments  in.     (Misc.) 283 

Giffen,  Robert.     The  Gross  and  Net  Gain  of  Rising  Wages 649 

Glaisher,  James,  Sketch  of.     (With  Portrait) 546 

Glass-Making.     III.  The  Evolution  of  a  Glass  Bottle.*    C.  H.  Henderson 154 

Governmental  Aid  to  Injustice.     G.  M.  Wallace 191 

Greenland,  The  Ice-Cap  of.     (Misc.) 277 

Greenwood,  Frederick.     Letters  on  the  Land  Question 334,  507 

Gulf  Stream,  The  Fate  of  the.     (Misc.) . . .  133 

Harvest,  A,  from  the  Ocean.     C.  M.  Strahan 377 

Health  Resorts,  British,  Climates  of.     (Misc.) 141 

Henderson,  C.  Hanford.     A  Chemical  Prologue 668 

"  Glass-Making.      III.     The  Evolution   of    a  Glass 

Bottle* 154 

Henry,  Stuart  O.     Rainfall  on  "The  Plains" 535 

Herbert,  Auberon.     Letters  on  the  Land  Question 507 

Herrick,  Mrs.  Sophie  Bledsoe.     Sketch  of  A.  J.  F.  Plateau.    (With  Portrait).   693 

The  Laws  of  Films* 620 

Hilber,  Vinzenz.     The  Struggle  of  Sea  and  Land 222 

Himalayan  Vegetation,  Stages  of.     (Misc.) 428 

History  in  High  and  Preparatory  Schools.     (Misc.) 276 

Horse-flesh,  Distinctive  Characteristics  of.     (Misc.) 141 

Houzeau,  J.  C.     The  Meaning  of  Pictured  Spheres 688 

Human  Body,  Is  the,  a  Storage- Battery  ?     Hyland  C.  Kirk 76 

Human  Body,  Why  not  "  Cobble  up  "  the  ?    John  McElroy.     (Corr.) 120 

Huron  and  Iroquois  Burials.     (Misc.) 717 

Huxley,  Thomas  Henry.     Letters  on  the  Land  Question 334,  507 

"  On  the  Natural  Inequality  of  Men 761 

lies,  George.     Two  and  a  Half  per  Cent 349 

Incendiaries,  A  Classification  of.     (Misc.) 284 

Individualism.     (Editor's  Table) 557 

Inequality,  On  the  Natural,  of  Men.     T.  H.  Huxley 761 

Inheritance  of  Acquired  Habit.     (Misc.) 142 

Insanity,  The  Test  of.     L.  A.  Tourtellot.     (Corr.) 554 

Intelligence  of  Squirrels.     T.  W.  Mills 829 

Irish  Holiday  Customs.     (Misc.) 858 

Iron,  The  Office  of,  in  the  Blood.     (Misc.) 286 


8  72  INDEX. 

PAGE 

Irrigation  of  Arid  Lands.     H.  J.  Philpott 364 

Israelite  and  Indian.     Garriek  Mallery 52,  193 

Jameson,  Charles  D.     The  Evolution  of  the  Modern  Railway  Bridge* 461 

Jastrow,  Joseph.     A  Correction.     (Corr.) 409 

Jordan,  David  Starr.     Science  in  the  High  School 721 

Kansas,  The  Salt  Product  of.     (Corr.)    J.  G.  Wood 845 

Kirk,  Hyland  C.     Is  the  Human  Body  a  Storage- Battery  ? 76 

Knowledge,  How  to  make,  Real.     (Editor's  Table) 701 

Koch,  Robert,  Sketch  of.     (With  Portrait) 259 

Kola-nut,  Properties  of  the.     (Misc.) 862 

Lagrange,  Fernand.     Exercise  for  Chest  Development 522 

Laidler,  John.     Letters  on  the  Land  Question 334 

Lake  Ridges  of  Ohio.     (Misc.) 423 

Land-Ownership,  Origin  of.    D.  E.  Wing   644 

Land  Question,  Letters  on  the.     Herbert  Spencer,  F.  Greenwood,  T.  H.  Hux- 
ley, Louis  Mallet,  and  John  Laidler 334 

"  "  T.  H.  Huxley,  Herbert  Spencer,  A.  Herbert, 

F.  Greenwood,  and  D.  Wilson 507 

Land  Question,  The.     (Editor's  Table) 411 

Land  Tenures  in  China.     (Misc.) 860 

Laporte,  Victor.     Suspension  of  Vitality  in  Animals 257 

Le  Conte,  John,  Sketch  of.    (With  Portrait).     W.  Le  Conte  Stevens 112 

Leprosy,  A  Discussion  about.     (Misc.) 137 

Light,  Standards  of.     (Misc.) 136 

Lindenthal,  Gustav.     Rigidity  of  the  Suspension  Bridge.     (Corr.) 844 

Localization  of  Industries,  The.     J.  J.  Menzies 454 

Lucayan  Indians,  The.*     W.  K.  Brooks 88 

A.  B.  Ellis.     (Corr.) 701 


u 


M.,  A.  A.     A  Defense  of  "  Advanced  "  Women.     (Corr.) 699 

McElroy,  John.     Why  not  "  Cobble  up  "  the  Human  Body  ?    (Corr.) 120 

Mackenzie,  Morell.     Speech  and  Song.     I.   Speech 99 

"                                "               II.   Song 242 

Maindron,  Maurice.     Dragons,  Fabled  and  Real.* 808 

Mallery,  Garriek.     Israelite  and  Indian 52,  193 

Mallet,  Louis.     Letters  on  the  Land  Question 334 

Mammoth  Cave,  The  Great  Hall  of  the.     (Misc.) 575 

Maori  Axe,  The  Sacred.     (Misc.) 426 

Marriage,  Disparity  in.     (Misc.) 140 

Measures,  Ancient  Chaldean  and  Modern.     (Misc.) 279 

Mechanical  Work,  Experience  and  Training  in.     (Misc.) 280 

Men,  Classes  of.     (Misc.) 139 

Mental  Bias  of  Witnesses,  The.     Helen  A.  Clarke.     (Corr.) 120 

Mental  Torpor  Remedy,  The.     (Misc.) 427 

Menzies,  J.  J.     The  Localization  of  Industries 454 

Mercer,  John,  F.  R.  S.     (Misc.) 136 

Meredith,  E.  P.     Moral  Instruction  in  our  Public  Schools.     (Corr.) 843 


INDEX.  873 

PAGE 

Meteorite  Swarms,  The  Moving  Forces  of.     (Misc.) 425 

Meyer,  Otto.     Birds  with  Teeth.* 382 

Mills,  T.  Wesley.     Intelligence  of  Squirrels 829 

Mining,  Ancient  Aboriginal.     (Misc.) 131 

Minnesota,  An  Unsettled  Part  of.     (Misc.) 276 

Minority,  A,  but  not  a  Sect.     (Editor's  Table) 122 

Moral  Instruction  in  our  Public  Schools.     (Corr.)     E.  P.  Meredith 843 

Mound-Builders  and  Indians.     (Misc.) 283 

Mounds,  Aboriginal,  in  Manitoba.     (Misc.) 571 

Mount  Roraima.     (Misc.) 279 

Music,  What  it  takes  to  play  a  Piece  of.     (Misc.) 278 

Northern  Lights.     W.  Stosz 801 

Notes 143,  286,  429,  575,  718,  863 

Obituary  Notes 288,  432,  720,  864 

Orchids,  The  Pare  Forms  of.*    J.  Dybowski 359 

Ousley,  Clarence  N.     A  Lesson  in  Co-operation 821 

Packard,  A.  S.     The  Effect  of  Cave  Life  on  Animals 389 

Paleolithic  Man  in  America,  The  Descendants  of.     Charles  0.  Abbott 145 

Palm-Oil.    (Misc.) 429 

Palm-Trees  and  their  Uses.*     J.  Poisson 371 

Panama  Canal  Projects,  Old.     (Misc.) 859 

Paros,  The  Island  of,  and  its  Marbles.     (Misc  ) 284 

Pascagoula,  The  Mysterious  Music  of.     C.  E.  Chidsey 791 

Patriarchal  Estate,  A.     (Misc. ) 142 

Patrick,  G.  T.  W.     The  Psychology  of  Prejudice 633 

Peple,  Charles  A.     Environment  and  the  Reproductive  Power  of  Animals. 

(Corr.) 409 

Perfumes,  Flowers  and.     (Misc.) 430 

Philpott,  Henry  J.     A  Novel  Water-Cooler.     (Corr.) 700 

"                   Irrigation  of  Arid  Lands 364 

Phthisis,  Climate  and.     (Misc.) 138 

Physiognomy,  The,  of  the  Mouth.*    Th.  Piderit 678 

Piderit,  Th.     The  Physiognomy  of  the  Mouth.* 678 

Plain  Words  on  the  Woman  Question.     Grant  Allen 170 

Plateau,  A.  F.  J.,  Sketch  of.     (With  Portrait.)     Mrs.  S.  B.  Herrick 693 

Poisson,  J.     Palm-Trees  and  their  Uses* 371 

Political  Economy.     (Editor's  Table) 845 

Politics  and  Farm  Mortgages.     (Corr.)     F.  A.  Fernald 843 

Precious  Stones  in  the  United  States.     (Misc.) 715 

Prejudice,  the  Psychology  of.     G.  T.  W.  Patrick 633 

Property,  The  Right  to.     John  H.  Wigmore.     (Corr.) 121 

Prunes.     (Misc.) 137 

Public  Schools  and  Crime.     C.  S.  Davis.     (Corr.) 700 

Public  Schools  as  affecting  Crime  and  Vice.     B.  Reece 319 

Publications  received 130,  275,  422,  569,  713,  857 

"  Rabbit  Pest,"  The,  in  Australia.     (Misc.) 132 

Racial  Developments,  A  Comparison  in.     (Editor's  Table) 265 


874  INDEX. 

PAGE 

Rainfall  on  "  The  Plains."     S.  O.  Henry 535 

Reece,  Benjamin.     Public  Schools  as  affecting  Crime  and  Vice 319 

Refrigeration  by  Ammonia.     (Misc.) 860 

Remonstrance,  A.     H.  W.     (Corr.) 408 

Reproductive  Power  in  Animals,  Conditions  affecting  the.    James  H.  Stoller. .  48 

Reproductive  Power  of  Animals,  Environment  and  the.   C.  A.  Peple.   (Corr.).  409 

Responsibility  in  Mental  Disease.     James  Crichton-Browne 81 

Richet,  Charles.     Long  Fastings  and  Starvation 538 

Rittenhouse,  David,  Sketch  of.     (With  Portrait) 835 

Rochas,  A.  De.     Alchemist's  Gold 814 

Rotifera,  Distribution  of.     (Misc.) 281 

Royal  Society,  The,  of  England.     W.  C.  Cahall 226 

Science  in  Domestic  Economy.     (Editor's  Table) 123 

Science  in  the  High  School.     D.  S.  Jordan 721 

Sea  and  Land,  The  Struggle  of.     V.  Hilber 222 

Shrews,  Concerning.*     F.  A.  Fernald 663 

Silurian,  The  Name,  in  Geology.     J.  D.  Dana.     (Misc.) 276 

Sleeplessness,  Remedies  for.     (Misc.) 426 

Sliding  Railway,  The.     (Misc.) ...    862 

Sloyd  :  its  Aim,  Method,  and  Results.*     F.  B.  Arngrimsson 784 

Slums,  The  Human  Factor  in.     (Misc.) 142 

Snow-Blindness.     (Misc.) , 575 

Socialists,  A  Fallacy  of  the.     J.  L.  Taylor.     (Corr.) 699 

Sound-Shadows,  Sensitive  Flames  and.*    W.  Le  Conte  Stevens 36 

Speech  and  Song.     Morell  Mackenzie.     I.   Speech 99 

"  II.   Song 242 

Spencer,  Herbert.     Absolute  Political  Ethics , 608 

"  Letters  on  the  Land  Question 334,  507 

Spheres,  Pictured,  The  Meaning  of.     J.  C.  Honzeau 688 

Spiders,  Mental  Powers  of.     (Misc.) 141 

Spiders'  Webs,  Raining.     (Misc.) * 863 

Spirits,  Evil,  A  Chase  of.     (Misc.) 137 

Spirits,  The  Indwelling,  of  Men.     A.  B.  Ellis 794 

Stevens,  W.  Le  Conte.     Sensitive  Flames  and  Sound-Shadows* 36 

"  Sketch  of  John  Le  Conte.    (With  Portrait) 112 

Stoker's  Life,  A.     (Misc.) 140 

Stoller,  James  H.     Conditions  affecting  the  Reproductive  Power  in  Animals.     48 

Stone  Implements,  How,  were  made.     (Misc.) 280 

Storage-Battery,  Is  the  Human  Body  a  ?     Hyland  C.  Kirk 76 

Stosz,  Wilhelm.     Northern  Lights 801 

Strahan,  C.  Morton.     A  Harvest  from  the  Ocean 377 

Suspension  Bridge,  Rigidity  of  the.     (Corr.)     G.  Lindenthnl 844 

Suspension  of  Vitality  in  Animals.     V.  Laporte 257 

Tahl-tan  Indians,  The,  of  British  Columbia.     (Misc.) 860 

Taouist  Religion,  The.     W.  G.  Benton 329 

Tapestries.     (Misc.) 571 

Tapioca.     (Misc.) ; 284 

Taylor,  James  L.     A  Fallacy  of  the  Socialists.     (Corr.  J 699 


INDEX.  87  5 

PAGE 

Tcheng-Ki-Toug.     Chinese  Silk-Lore* 500 

Telescope,  The  Bruce  Photographic.     (Misc.) 278 

Thurston,  John  R.     Farming  and  the  Tariff.     (Corr.) 408 

Ties,  Iron  Railway.     (Misc.) ...  286 

Tolstoi's  Confession.     (Editor's  Table) 410 

Toronto,  The  Disaster  at.     (Misc.) 858 

Tourtellot,  L.  A.     The  Test  of  Insanity.     (Corr.) 554 

Toy,  Crawford  Howell.     Ethics  and  Religion 727 

Triassic  History,  A  Bit  of.     (Misc.) 573 

Trinity  House,  Favoritism  at.     (Misc.) 424 

True,  M.  B.  C.     Decadence  of  Farming  in  England.     (Corr.) 553 

Truth,  The  Recognition  of.    (Editor's  Table) 703 

Tweedy,  Miss  Alice  B.     Is  Education  opposed  to  Motherhood? 751 

Two  and  a  Half  per  Cent.     G.  lies 349 

Unfounded  Statement,  An.     (Editor's  Table) 847 

Unheal thiness,  Causes  of,  in  Large  Cities.     (Misc.) 716 

Uranium.     (Misc.) 573 

Useful  Ignorance.     (Editor's  Table) 555 

W.,  H.     A  Remonstrance.     (Corr.) 408 

"Wages,  Rising,  The  Gross  and  Net  Gain  of.     R.  Giffen 649 

Wallace,  George  M.     Governmental  Aid  to  Injustice 191 

Waller,  Mrs.  Jessie  O.     Mental  and  Physical  Training  of  Children 213 

"Warfare  of  Science,  New  Chapters  in  the.     VII.    Comparative  Mythology. 

A.  D.  White 433,  577 

Water-Cooler,  A  Novel.     H.  J.  Philpott.     (Corr.) 700 

Water,  Iron  as  a  Purifier  of.     (Misc.) 573 

Weather  Service,  The  Future  of  our.     (Misc.) 714 

Whales,  British.     (Misc.) 136 

White,  Andrew  Dickson.     New  Chapters  in  the  Warfare  of  Science.     VII. 

Comparative  Mythology 433,  577 

White,  Horace.     Agriculture  and  the  Single  Tax 481 

Wigmore,  John  H.     The  Right  to  Property.     (Corr.) 121 

Wilson,  Alexander,  Sketch  of.     (With  Portrait) 400 

Wilson,  Darcy,     Letters  on  the  Land  Question 507 

Wing,  Daniel  E.     Origin  of  Land-Ownership 644 

Witch-Stories,  Italian.     (Misc.) 139 

Woman  Question,  Grant  Allen  on  the.     Miss  E.  F.  Andrews.     (Corr.) 552 

Woman  Question,  Plain  Words  on  the.     Grant  Allen 170 

Women,  "  Advanced,"  A  Defense  of.     A.  A.  M.     (Corr.) 699 

Women,  Educated,  The  Mission  of.     Mrs.  M.  F.  Armstrong 601 

Wood,  J.  G.     The  Salt  Product  of  Kansas 845 

Woodcock,  How  the,  feeds.     (Misc.), 717 

Yellowstone  Park,  Geological  History  of.     (Misc.) 282 

Zoology,  Old  and  New  Methods  in.     H.  de  Lacaze  Duthiers 19 

END   OF   VOL.   XXXVI. 


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