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EDITED BY

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MDCCCLXXVIII,

•

i ■

.

THE QUARTERLY

JOURNAL OF SCIENCE,

JANUARY, 1878,

I. CONTINUOUS RAILWAY BREAKS,

By Fred, Chas. Danvers,

fHE Report recently issued by the Royal Commission
on Railway Accidents brings very prominently to
notice the fadt that the break-power at present ordi-
narily applied to passenger-trains is inefficient, and that to
this fadt is due the occurrence of many accidents which, by
the application of better mechanical contrivances, might
have been avoided. Former Committees and Commissions
appointed by the Legislature to enquire into the subject of
railway accidents have generally in their reports assumed
that the principle of self-interest, in its influence on Railway
Companies, should be relied on as the best safeguard against
accidents ; that the liability of the Companies to pay a
serious amount in compensation in individual cases was a
strong inducement to railway directors to work the line
carefully, the Companies having thus a diredt pecuniary
interest in keeping their lines safe. These assumptions
have not been borne out by subsequent experience. One of
the members of the late Royal Commission, in a separate
report, has shown to what extent the self-interest of Railway
Companies has any practical bearing on the subjedt, and, in
order to make the matter more clear, he has deduced from
the expenditure returns made by Companies to the Board
of Trade the following figures, which represent an average
VOL, VIII, (N.s.) B

2 Continuous Railway Breaks , [January,

on the several classes of expenditure for a series of
years

Per cent.

1. Locomotive power... ... ... ... ... ... 30

2. Traffic expenses ... ... ... 28

3. Maintenance of way and works, &c 18

4. Miscellaneous charges, general, legal, and

Parliamentary; rates and taxes, &c. ... 14

5. Repairs and renewals of carriages and wag-

gons, &c 9

6. Compensation for personal injuries, &c. ... 1

100

From these statistics it will easily be gathered how far
the Companies have a direCt pecuniary interest in keeping
their lines safe. The amount paid in compensation for
accidents exceeds but very little a half per cent on their
gross receipts : to this, of course, must be added something
for injury to the lines and rolling stock caused by accidents,
but no data are available for the calculation of the amount.

It thus appears that the pecuniary loss to Companies
caused by accidents is almost infinitesimal, but the cost that
must be incurred by them in order to provide many of the
necessary means of safety represents by no means an incon-
siderable outlay. But if the Companies refuse to face the
matter boldly on public grounds, and in the interests of the
travelling public, such alterations as may be necessary in
the present control over the Companies must be given to
the Board of Trade, or other Government department, by
special legislative enactment. The Companies have been
repeatedly warned, and they have as often neglected the
admonitions addressed to them. The question now, there-
fore, rests with the public, and they will assuredly now
speak out, in their own interests, in a manner that cannot
fail to command respeCt from the most unimpressible Boards
of Directors. The subject has been taken up by the scien-
tific press, whence it will, in due course, be introduced to
the public by the daily press ; and the ball, having been
once started, will certainly not cease to roll until the
public have secured for themselves such immunity from
accident on railways as can be afforded by the forced adop-
tion of any known means of precaution or mechanical
application.

From the Reports by former Commissions, and by the

Continuous Railway Breaks ,

3

1 878.]

Board of Trade Inspectors, it is manifest that a deficiency
of break-power is one not of the least important causes at
present responsible for accidents to passenger-trains. It is
true that the speed of railway travelling has not increased
sensibly within the last thirty years, but the conditions of
train-service have materially altered within that period, and
they are, by the effeCt of natural causes, continually changing
in a manner which demands constant attention and the
application of such means for facilitating traffic as may
from time to time be devised for that purpose ; for instance,
the trains are more frequent and following each other more
closely than before, block signal-stations are necessarily
brought nearer together, whilst at the same time the weight
of trains, consequent upon improved and more capacious
carriages, and the increased number of passengers, neces-
sarily attain a greater amount of vis viva, demanding the
exercise of greater force in order to bring them to a stop
even within the same distance as was formerly the case.
The old-fashioned hand-screw breaks — which ought to have
been abolished some years ago on all passenger-traffic lines
of railway-— are, viewed with the light of improvements
which modern science has introduced, at best both clumsy
and make-shift appliances for the purposes to which they
are applied ; and it was stated in evidence taken by the
Royal Commission that the break-power at present generally
applied is insufficient to stop a train within the distance
generally existing between the distant signal and the home
signal of a station. In the case of heavy trains, running at
a speed of from 35 to 40 miles an hour, the ordinary screw
breaks are insufficient to bring them to a stand under half a
mile, and when travelling at a higher speed under 1100 or
1200 yards, whilst heavy bast express trains cannot — with
the ordinary break-power— -be pulled up in many cases under
a mile and a quarter.

Besides the inefficiency of the power of ordinary screw
breaks, another important objection to their use is the time
required to bring them into aCtion. The necessity for
promptness of aCtion in pulling up a train will be at once
realised when it is remembered that in one second a train
travelling at 60 miles an hour passes over 88 feet ; at 45 miles
an hour, over 66 feet ; and at 30 miles an hour, over 44 feet.
A train travels, that is to say, 100 yards — at 60 miles an
hour, in 3*4 seconds ; at 45 miles an hour, in 4*6 seconds ;
and at 30 miles an hour, in 6*8 seconds.

It has been stated, by one of the Board of Trade
Inspectors, that if the continuous break system could be

4

Continuous Railway Breaks.

[January,

adopted it would be one of the most fruitful sources of
saving collisions ; and he further remarked that out of
eighty-one accidents into which he enquired in one year,
had continuous breaks been able to have been worked by the
engine-drivers, at least in thirty-five cases the accident
would have been mitigated, if not prevented altogether.
The Royal Commission, in their recent Report, remark—
“Accidents of the nature of collisions are generally the
result of several contributory causes, but the amount of
available break-power is obviously a matter of the greatest
importance as a means of preventing them and of modifying
their consequences. Our own enquiries confirmed the im-
pressions which the Inspecting Officers’ investigations of
accidents led us to form, that not only was there generally
an insufficiency of controlling power in trains, but also that
the distance within which a train running at high speed
could be stopped by the break-power ordinarily in use was
not ascertained with any approach to accuracy.” Conse-
quently the Commissioners applied to the Railway Companies
to institute a definite series of experiments, to test the
amount of control given by the break-power ordinarily
applied to their trains, and the effeCt of various systems of
improved or continuous breaks. From the experiments
carried out for this purpose it appeared that the amount of
hand break-power usually supplied with the trains of the
respective Companies failed to bring up the London and
North-Western train within 2374 feet, that of the Caledonian
Company within 3190 feet, that of the Midland within
3250 feet, that of the Great Northern within 3576 feet, and
that of the Brighton within 3690 feet, the speed of the trains
varying from 454 to 48J miles per hour. It must, however,
be borne in mind that the trains with which these experi-
ments were made were in the most complete order, and the
guards and drivers had notice of the exact; spot at which
the signal to stop would be given. A large addition must
therefore be made to those distances in practice, and unless
much greater control is obtained over trains by additional
break-power the Commissioners consider that to ensure
safety the distant signals must be, for a level line, carried
back to the distance of a mile. From the experiments
made with continuous breaks, however, it is evident that
there are ample means of controlling trains within
much less distance by some of the various systems already
in use.

Besides an improvement in break-power, it is also neces-
sary that— whatever improvement upon the present system

1878.]

Continuous Railway Breaks.

5

be adopted — a large proportion of the available break-power
should be under the control of the driver, who is generally
the first to become aware of apprehended danger. No
matter how small the interval of time required for the
driver to attract the attention of the guard, it may be of
vital moment.

On this subjedt Capt. Tyler observed, in a paper recently
read by him before the Society of Arts, — “ When an accident
occurs in which a carriage leaves the rails from failure in
any portion of a train, it may be of great, and even vital,
importance immediately to reduce the momentum of every
part of it ; and every extra second expended before this
ahtion is commenced may be a question of life and death.”
It will readily be understood how the safety of a train is
increased by having the break-power under the control of
the engine-driver as well as of the guard. In the case of a
signal failing to work and to show . sign of danger, the
engine-driver will naturally, if an obstruction exists on the
line, be the first to discover it ; and, supposing the break
not to be under his control, he must intimate danger to the
guard by whistle, in the ordinary manner; but all this takes
time, and between the interval of the driver’s signal and the
application of the break by the guard two or three seconds
must inevitably elapse, during which interval the train has
probably approached not less than 100 yards nearer to the
impending danger, or nearer to fatal results. An instance
in point has been given by Capt. Tyler, who, in the paper
above referred to, cited an accident which occurred last
November, near Wincanton, on the Somerset and Dorset
Railway. In that case an up-passenger train for Bath was
travelling at a speed of 35 miles an hour, when the leading
wheels of the engine left the rails, from a defedb in the per-
manent way. The engine ran thus for 200 yards before the
driving wheels left the rails, but it then turned over on its
side, 240 yards from the point of first disturbance. The
engine-driver was killed, and the fireman and guard, who
narrowly escaped with their lives, were severely injured.
If, says Capt. Tyler, the engine-driver had been able at once
to apply a continuous break throughout this train, on finding
his leading wheels off the rails, it might have been pulled
up with scarcely any damage to the rolling stock, and no
injury to himself or any one else.

The same officer remarked, in his Report for 1872, refer-
ring to the great Railway Companies,— It is mainly because
sufficient attention has not been paid in past years to the
various means of safety that the greatest Railway Companies

6 Continuous Railway Breaks. [January,

of England appear so unfavourably at the head of the acci-
dent list.” “ The 238 train-accidents which occurred this
year were all more or less of a preventable character. The
means of prevention are well known, and have sufficiently
often been urged, as well in individual as in general reports.”
Why these means of prevention have not hitherto been en-
forced upon the Companies is, that although it has been the
practice of the Railway Department of the Board of Trade
to urge upon Companies, by way of advice, the adoption of
measures from time to time, as tending tc diminish the risk
of danger, they have no power of compelling the Companies
to adopt them against the advice of their own officers.

In recent years no doubt many improvements have been
introduced in the working of railways, in view to insuring
increased security for passengers, all of which have neces-
sarily been attended by increase of expenditure on the part
of the Companies. So far as can at present be ascertained
the prevailing weakness in our railway system just now is a
want of efficient break-power ; not that efficient breaks do
not exist, but that the Railway Companies have hesitated
too long to adopt them. The Royal Commission recom-
mends that Railway Companies “ should be required by Law
to provide every train with sufficient break-power to stop it
absolutely within 500 yards, at the highest speed upon which
it travels, and upon any gradient on the line.” This break-
power, they further explain, should be sufficient to stop
trains within 500 yards <£ under all circumstances,” and
Mr. Galt-— one of the Commissioners— further explained, in
a separate Report, that “the break-power that brings to a
stand both portions of a train in case of its being divided
by an accident is certainly the only kind thoroughly
effective.”

It is clear that nothing but a continuous break will satisfy
the necessities of safety for railway travelling, as is shown
by the evidences above referred to. There are many kinds
of continuous breaks, however, and they have not all the
same powers or properties, and in considering which is
really the most efficient several considerations must be taken
into account. On this subject Capt. Tyler has laid it down
that a break should possess the following properties in order
to render it thoroughly efficient, and safe under all but the
most exceptional circumstances, against which, of course,
no human ingenuity could devise adequate safeguards. A
break, then, should be—

1. Simple and easy of control, especially by engine*
drivers, but also by guards of trains*

1878.] Continuous Railway Breaks .! 7

2. Automatic in action in the case of an accident, or of a

division of a train, without any interference from
engine-driver or guards, so that the break-blocks may
— on the separation of the couplings between any
two carriages — be self-applied on every wheel.

3. Adapted to fly on, and not off, so that the blocks may

be applied to and not released from the wheels, on
failure of any of the parts, which would prevent the
train from being started unless the couplings were
complete and the whole apparatus in working order.

4. Instantaneous in its application— say to full force

within one second of time — when operated by engine-
driver or guard, or when self-applied.

5. Safe and simple in working — which does not necessarily

imply simplicity in construction, as distinguished
from risk and confusion in working.

6. Moderate in cost, as compared with efficient durability

of parts and easy maintenance.

7. Capable of constant employment in the conduct of

traffic, and not merely for employment in tests and
in cases of emergency.

8. Provided with indicators for engine-drivers and guards,

showing at a glance the condition of the break-power
and the continuity of the connections.

The above conditions, coupled with those laid down by
the Commissioners, that the break should be capable of
bringing a train to a stand under any circumstances within a
distance of 500 yards, seem sufficient for all practical pur-
poses, and, if capable of being realised, not less than should
be demanded in the interests of the safety of the travelling
public. These conditions necessarily imply the use of a
continuous break ; but before considering which of the nu-
merous inventions at present in use mostly fulfils them, it
may be interesting to describe briefly the principles attached
to each of the best of them respectively.

The several classes of continuous breaks at present in use
may be divided according to the kind of power employed to
actuate them. They may be classified as follows :■ — 1. The
chain break. 2. The hydraulic break. 3. The vacuum
break. And 4. The air break. It is not pretended here to
give descriptions of every kind of break that might be in-
cluded under the above headings severally, but only of those
which are unquestionably the representatives of each class,
in consequence of their undoubted superiority, so far as has
been hitherto ascertained by aCtual experience gained in
the constant use of them in general work on lines of railway.

8

Continuous Railway Breaks. [January,

The following particulars relative to these breaks are taken
from the Appendix to the Report of the Royal Commission,
and may therefore be considered as describing those forms
of each which are most perfect of their class : — -

i. The Chain Break. — The latest improvement in this form
of break is that known as Clark and Webb’s continuous
break. A chain — or, in the newest form, a steel rope — runs
the entire length of the train, underneath the carriages,
terminating in the guard’s van, by means of which the
breaks are applied to the wheels of every carriage. In the
experiments made for the Royal Commissioners with this
break, the train was divided into sections of four or five
carriages, which were placed in the following order with
reference to the break-vans : — First, there were four car-
riages together, then a break-van. From this van the
breaks of the first four carriages were worked, and also
those of the four carriages following the van. The re-
maining five carriages were under the control of the van at
the tail of the train. Each carriage was provided with its
own length of chain and couplings. The chain passed over
seven pulleys fixed under the framings of the carriage, and
under one pulley carried by levers which were in connection
with tension-rods attached to the break-blocks. When the
chain throughout a section was coupled up, one end of it
was made fast to the end of the extreme carriage of the
seCtion, and the other was led to a chain barrel hung under
the framing of the guard’s van at the other end of the
section, close to the centre axle of the van. On the chain
barrel, and also on the van axle, there were friCtion-wheels,
and by releasing a weighted lever in the van the friCtion-
wheels were brought into contact, and, if the van was in
motion, the chain barrel was made to rotate. By this
means the chain throughout the section to which the barrel
belonged was tightened, the pulley carried by levers under
each carriage already mentioned was raised by the chain,
and the breaks were applied to the wheels. The van from
which the breaks of a section, both in front of it and behind
it, were actuated, had two chain barrels set in motion by
the release of one weighted lever. To release the breaks
the guard in each van had to put back the lever into its
normal position, and secure it with a catch, at the same
time surrounding and releasing the breaks by a weighted
lever arranged for the purpose. In order to place the con-
tinuous breaks of the whole train at the command of the
driver, a cord was passed over the roof of the carriages to
the engine. This enabled the driver to release the catch

1878.]

Continuous Railway Breaks.

9

holding the weighted lever in each guard’s van, but the
guards could only apply the breaks to their own section.
There was, however, separate cord communication through-
out the train. The breaks on the wheels of the vans them-
selves were applied by hand only. The guard could also,
by pulling a signal cord attached to a whistle handle, call
attention of the driver in case of danger.

However well this break may work under ordinary cir-
cumstances, it must be clear to anyone that it labours under
several inconveniences, and could scarcely be relied upon in
extremely exceptional circumstances. In the first place a
chain is no stronger than its weakest link, and an imperfedt
weld or subsequent injury may remain undetected until the
occurrence of an emergency, when the whole break-power
of a train might be rendered useless by the breakage of a
single link or the failure of a strand of wire-rope. Again,
the means of placing the break-power within the control of
the driver are complicated, and supplemental to the break-
apparatus itself; besides which there is the difficulty of
getting this break to adt quickly, from the length of the
buffer-strokes between the carriages, owing to which it was
found, on the North London Railway, that more than 2 feet
of chain had to be wound up for every carriage ; and it was
explained to the Commissioners that, where long buffers are
used, in a train of eight carriages there would probably be
sixteen revolutions of the carriage-wheels necessary before
the slack chain was wound up sufficiently to put the breaks
on to the wheels. This, with wheels 3 feet 6 inches in
diameter, implies 168 feet run by the train, after setting the
break-power in motion, before it begins to make itself felt
in bringing up the train. In experiments on the Midland
Railway accidents occurred through the break being applied
too powerfully and too strongly, which caused the couplings
to break and the train to part in two. The Carriage Super-
intendent of the Midland Railway further explained that, in
working Clark’s break it loses power every carriage away
from the van, as the power gets less the further it is applied
by the chain. Consequently the break bites tighter on some
of the wheels than on others, which causes a slack or re-
bound. While some of the carriages are being very much
retarded by the break, others are not so much retarded.

In pointing out the defeats in this and other breaks which
were brought to the notice of the Royal Commission, it
must be understood that the objedt in view is not in any way
to deprecate some and puff up other breaks, but to "show
in what respedts each break requires improvements, so

io Continuous Railway Breaks. [January,

far as the evidence concerning them respectively given
before the Royal Commission seems to indicate their weak
points.

2. The Hydraulic Break.— Barker’s hydraulic break, which
is the representative of this class of break, was applied to
the engine and the whole of the passenger carriages of an
experimental train ; but the tender and two vans were fitted
with breaks worked by hand-power. The hydraulic appa-
ratus, as used at the trials, consisted of the following
parts On the engine there was a double-aCting steam-
accumulator, consisting of a large-sized cylinder with a
piston in it connected with a plunger working in a second
cylinder, which was kept filled with water from the tender-
tank. The piston in the former was actuated by pressure
direCt from the boiler, without the use of any pump, and in
making its stroke the plunger in the smaller cylinder was
made to force water, with any degree of pressure, into pipes
leading to small hydraulic rams attached to the engine and
carriage breaks. These pipes led the whole length of the
train, the connections between the carriages being made
with india-rubber hose furnished with ordinary unions.
Each carriage was fitted with two of the hydraulic
cylinders and rams just mentioned, and these were con-
nected direCtly to the break-blocks in such a manner that
on the ram of each cylinder being moved by the pressure of
water from the accumulator, the break-blocks on one side
of the pair of wheels to which the ram belonged were forced
against the wheels, while the pressure of water against the
bottom of the same cylinder caused it to recoil, as it were,
and draw the tension-rods of the break-blocks on the other
side of the pair of wheels, thus clipping each wheel between
its two blocks. In this arrangement, of course, the cylin-
ders attached to the break-blocks have to be loosely sus-
pended, and free to move horizontally for a distance nearly
equal to the length of the arms. This description answers
also for the aCtion of the engine-breaks. By reverse aCtion
in the accumulator the pressure in the break cylinders can
be relieved, and the blocks taken off from the wheels. The
amount of pressure in the pipes can be regulated by a
reducing valve ; also, in order to keep the power always
ready for immediate use, it is an essential part of this
system that the pipes and cylinders throughout the train
should be always full of water. The breaks were not
arranged so that they would be self-adting in case of a train
parting asunder.

The testimony given in favour of this break by those who

1878.] Continuous Railway Breaks. it

had experience of its working was generally favourable ; but
it appears in the evidence that it is in no sense automatic,
and it is entirely under the control of the guard, and not of
the engine-driver. One necessity of its successful working
is that the pipes should always be full of water, and in the
event of a leak occurring in any part of the train its effi-
ciency might be seriously interfered with, but when in
proper working order it is no doubt a very powerful break.

3. The Vacuum Break. — Smith’s vacuum break, which
formed one of those experimented with by the Royal Com-
mission, may be thus described -On the side of the
smoke-box of the locomotive there were two steam ejedtors
for exhausting air, operating conjointly, but adting inde-
pendently in case one should part. Under each carriage
and van throughout the train there was an india-rubber
cylinder, of 15 inches diameter and 16 inches extreme
stroke, stiffened with internal metal rings, and capable of
collapsing and extending lengthwise. Under the tender
there were two such cylinders. These cylinders were in
communication with the ejedtors on the engine by means of
a double line of pipes, connected at the tail of the train
and forming a complete circuit through it, with hose
couplings between the carriages. On steam being admitted
to the ejedtors by the driver, the air is exhausted from the
collapsing cylinders, and the movable end of each being
connedted with the ordinary break gear of each carriage,
the breaks are at once applied. By opening an air-valve
the cylinders refill, and the breaks are released. In addition
to the above there was in the front and rear guards’ van
another arrangement for applying the breaks in case of
emergency. This consisted of an air-exhauster in each van,
nearly over one of the axles. On this axle a grooved
fridtion-wheel was bolted and keyed, and in line with this
another grooved fridtion-wheel of the same dimensions was
suspended from the carriage in such a way that it could be
thrown into gear with the first wheel or kept clear at
pleasure. By means of a belt which passed up through the
floor of the van, the second wheel, when set in motion, drove
the wheel of a rotary pump-exhauster which was fixed in
the van. The exhauster was made to run either way.
Near the pump in the van there was a lever held up by a
notch in a standard, and when the pump was required to
work the lever was pushed out of the notch by a cam lever.
By this operation the second fridtion-wheel under the car-
riage was thrown into gear with the axle-wheel, and, if the
train was in motion, the pump was set to work and the air

12 Continuous Railway Breaks. [January,

exhausted from the collapsing cylinders under the carriages
throughout the train. By means of a cord attached to the
cam lever in the van, and running the whole length of the
train and on to the engine, the driver, or any guard or pas-
senger in the train, had the power of starting the exhauster.
In addition to this there was a cord connected with the
collapsing cylinders under the carriage, by which any move-
ment in them was made to sound gong-bells in the guards’
vans, and close to the driver on the engine. Also by the adt
of the driver exhausting the air from the collapsing cylin-
ders, by means of the ejedtors, the pump-exhausters in the
vans are started.

The reports on the working of this break, where it has
been practically tried, are generally very satisfactory, and
there can be no doubt that it is a far more effective machine
than either the chain or the hydraulic break. It however
undoubtedly possesses two weak points ; the one being the
necessity for employing a cord communication to enable the
driver to set in motion the break-apparatus in the guards’
vans ; and the other the employment of rubber sacks and
rubber reservoirs, which, though somewhat cheaper in first
cost than more durable materials, cannot be maintained as
cheaply as iron cylinders and iron reservoirs, and, besides,
they must be less reliable, and must at times be more apt
to fail as they get old, when they are urgently wanted to act.
The slightest cut or pundture would of course detract from
their power, if it would not entirely neutralise their use ;
and this might easily be occasioned, in the event of a part
of the train leaving the rails, by sharp stones thrown up
from the ballast by the wheels, just when the efficient adtion
of the break was of the greatest importance.

4. The Air Break . — The Westinghouse automatic air
break is the best type of continuous air breaks brought be-
fore the Royal Commission. The mechanism of this break
and the mode of operating with it may be thus described : — *
A small engine fixed on the locomotive, and deriving its
steam direct from the boiler, worked a diredi-acting pump,
which forced air at pressure into a main reservoir, of nearly
9 cubic feet capacity, placed underneath the foot-plate. A
line of tubing extended from the main reservoir longitudi-
nally throughout the whole length of the train, with a cock
at each end of each carriage. The connections between the
carriages were formed of india-rubber hose and metal
couplings. Under each vehicle a branch from the main
pipe led through a triple valve— of special and complex
construction— to a small supplementary air reservoir, and

1878.]

Continuous Railway Breaks .

13

also to two vertical cylinders provided with pistons fixed
under the carriage and on either side of it, midway between
the wheels. To the bottom of each cylinder was hung, by
a pair of links, two cast-iron cams or quadrants. Each
cylinder had a piston, the rod of which passed out through
its upper end, and to the top end of this two links were
attached. These links were of such form that they passed
down the outside of the cylinder. Near their lower ends
they were connected with the cams or quadrants just men-
tioned, and at their extreme lower ends they were connected
with the thrust-rods of the cast-iron break-blocks. Thus,
when the cylinder piston rises, it draws upwards with it the
two links last mentioned, and in doing this the eccentric
quadrants roll against each other, forcing the links apart,
and, adting on the break-rods, thrust the break-blocks
against the wheels. By the reverse of this adtion the breaks
are made to leave the wheels. The breaks on the engine
are similar in principle to the carriage-breaks, but the blocks
were applied lower down on the wheels, and the arrangement
of cylinders and links was somewhat different. There was
one cylinder and set of break gear between the two coupled
wheels on each side of the engine.

Upon a train being made up, compressed air may be
allowed, by opening a three-way cock on the engine, to flow
from the main reservoir and charge the whole of the main
pipe and all the carriage reservoirs at a uniform pressure.
When it is desired to apply the breaks, the compressed air
is allowed to escape from the main pipe into the atmosphere
through the three-way cock lately mentioned. The reduc-
tion of pressure to a small extent by this means operates
upon a diaphragm 'in the triple valve under each carriage,
instantly closing a port between the carriage reservoirs and
the main reservoir, but permitting, at the same time, the air
under pressure to pass from the reservoir to the break
cylinders in proportion as the pressure in the main is
reduced, thereby applying the breaks. By restoring pressure
from the main reservoir to the main pipes the triple valves
are shifted so as to charge again the carriage reservoirs, at
the same time opening a discharge port in each triple valve
by which the air can escape from the break cylinders, and
thus release the breaks. The adt of breaking asunder the
train at any part would have the same effedt as allowing the
air to escape from the main pipe through the three-way cock
on the engine, or through openings provided for the same
purpose in the guards’ vans or elsewhere.

It is impossible to read through the evidence given

14 Continuous Rmlway Breaks . [January,

regarding this break before the Royal Commission without
at once coming to the conclusion that in operation, both in
this country and in America, its working has been all that
could be desired. Besides possessing all the advantages of
other continuous breaks, it can claim others which are not
common to the latter. By no means an unimportant pro-
perty of the Westinghouse automatic break is that its
normal position is such as to apply the break-blocks to all
the wheels of a train, so that the breaks have to be taken
off by the driver before starting, and any defeCt in the
mechanism would make itself at once known by the breaks
refusing to be taken off in the ordinary manner. Thus
infallible evidence is always given on the first starting of a
train that the break gear is throughout in working order, —
matter of no small importance so far as security in travel-
ling is concerned. Another consequence of the automatic
action of this break is, that if a train were broken into as
many pieces as carriages, each carriage would be stopped by
the self-aCting application of the break upon its wheels.
Also, the break can be applied by the guards as well as by
the engine-driver, without the necessity of ropes or other
extraneous appliances foreign to the mechanism of the break
itself.

A description of the experiments conducted, with the
several kinds of break in operation on different railways, by
the Royal Commission, is given in Appendix F to their
Report. From this some further very important particulars
may be obtained relative to the comparative efficiency of the
various continuous breaks at present in operation. Besides
the general principles of their construction and application,
their relative values must depend upon the results obtained
from them in aCtual practice, and in calculating these several
considerations must be kept in view ; for instance, the speed
with which the full force of the break can be applied ; the
mean retarding forces operating in each case ; the distance
within which a stop is effected ; and the time necessary for
taking off the break again — are all subjects of importance
which must be taken into account in determining the relative
values of different kinds of breaks.

In examining these several points it will not be necessary
to review the results of experiments made with ordinary
hand-breaks, as they are clearly so insufficient for the re-
quirements of traffic at the present day that they may fairly
be left out of consideration altogether. As regards the time
occupied in the transmission of break-power through the
trains, and in releasing breaks, the conditions under which

t

1878.] Continuous Railway Breaks, 15

the experiments were made did not admit of their being
applied to Clarke and Webb's chain break. The observa-
tions made of several experiments with each of the other
kinds of break gave the following average results

1. Westinghouse Air Break. — The time occupied in applying

the break from the engine to the rear vehicle was
from ij to if seconds, whilst the time occupied in
taking it off was from 3 to 6 seconds.

2. Smith's Vacuum Break.— The time occupied in applying

this break from the engine to the rear vehicle was
from 4J to 5 seconds, whilst to take it off required
about 24-f seconds.

3. Barker's Hydraulic Break.— With this break, if a

coupling breaks, the rear portion of the train is
placed beyond control of the continuous break, and
therefore the report on its operations cannot be given
as an average, but must be quoted in detail

“ First trial, from engine to fourteenth carriage, seconds
to put on, 8J seconds to take off.

“ Second trial, from engine to sixth carriage, 3 seconds to
put on.

“ Third trial, from engine to fifteenth carriage, not noted,
18J seconds to take off.

“ We subsequently severed the train between the eighth
and ninth carriages after releasing the flexible pipe, leaving
the valves open. When the engine moved on, a cord shut
the valves, and the break could easily be applied by driver
to the front portion of the train."

After giving particulars of the Westinghouse vacuum and
Steele’s air breaks, the Report proceeds “ In these trials
the most rapid adtion, both in putting on and taking off the
breaks, was obtained from the Westinghouse air break."

The mean retarding force exercised by the several breaks
was tried in a variety of ways, but it will not be necessary
to note more than two methods which represented most
nearly what would be the case in adtual working. In both
of these stoppage was ordered by flag signal, upon which
all available break or other power was applied by driver
and guards to the stopping of the complete train. In the
first series of experiments sand was employed, whilst in the
latter it was not used.

The following table shows the results obtained with the
use of sand

x6

Continuous Railway Breaks

[January,

Mean Retarding

Train. Break. Force, Percentage of

Gross Load.

Midland.. .. .. .. .. Westinghouse Air .. 10*64 per cent.

London and North-Western Clarke and Webb’s .. 779 „

Midland.. .. .. .. . . Barker’s Hydraulic .. 7*64 5S

Great Northern .. . . . . Smith’s Vacuum . . 7*47 ,,

In the last three cases the total retarding forces were very
nearly alike, ranging from 779 per cent to 7*47 per cent of
the weights of the trains, or within o‘i6 per cent either
way of the mean result. On the other hand, the force
adting on the Midland train with the Westinghouse air break
ranged as high as io‘64 per cent, being 3-01 per cent above
the mean result obtained by the other breaks. Without the
use of sand the results were as follows ~

Mean Retarding

Train. Break. Force, Percentage of

Gross Load.

Midland.. .. Westinghouse .. .. 10*04 per cent.

„ . . . . Barker’s Hydraulic . . 6*47 „ ,,

London and North Western Clarke and Webb’s .. 6*21 ,,

Great Northern . . . . . . Smith’s Vacuum .. 5*72 ,,

It is only necessary to remark here that the Westinghouse
air break showed a percentage of retarding force 3*95 per
cent above the mean of the results given by the other three
breaks.

We have next to consider within what distance a train
can be brought to a stand with the several kinds of break
above referred to, and it will not unreasonably be concluded
that the break which can be applied most expeditiously, and
at the same time exercises the highest retarding force, will
be found at the head of the list in this case also. The fol-
lowing table gives the distances (approximately) in which
the stops would have been effedled in each case under the
influence of the same retarding forces referred to above,
upon the application of break-power to trains running at
the speeds of 30, 45, and 60 miles per hour : — ■

With Sand.

Without Sand.

Miles per

Hour.

Miles per Hour.

Train.

Break.

f

_

**

f

\

30

45

60

30

45

60

Feet.

Feet.

Feet.

Feet.

Feet.

Feet.

Midland

Westinghouse

282

634

1128

300

675

1200

London and N,W.

Clarke and Webb’s

335

866

1540

0

00

W

O

CO

0

1920

Midland

Barker’s Hydraulic

393

884

1572

465

1046

i860

Great Northern . .

Smith’s Vacuum . .

4°3

907

l6l2

525

1181

2100

1878.]

Continuous Railway Breaks.

i7

Besides the above, a most important series of experiments
was undertaken for the Royal Commission, in order to as-
certain the effective power of the several breaks in the event
of an accidental severance of a train. This was done by
slipping a portion of the train where the break couplings
led past ; the point of severance being, in each case, fixed
by the Commissioners at the time of making the experi-
ment, so that it might not be known beforehand to the train
attendants or patentees. In this way the severance could
be taken to represent that which might occur through the
accidental breaking of a coupling. The carriages were
slipped from the train at full speed, and with full steam on
the engine, on signal being given to the guard entrusted
with the slip. The speed of the train at the time of the
slip, the distance run in performing the stop by the severed
portion, and the time occupied in the stop were carefully
noted. Four trials were thus made ; but the accidental
breaking away of a portion of the London and North-
Western train in one of the earlier trials afforded a fifth
example, of more value, perhaps, than the rest, inasmuch
as the breaking away was entirely unpremeditated. The
hydraulic break, not being specially adapted to meet the
contingency of breaking away, it was not tried in this series.
The series produced the following results in reference to the
slipped portions of the trains : —

Number

Speed

Distance

Mean Retard-

Train.

Break

of Train

Bun

ing Force,

creak. Vehicles

when

in

Percentage of

Slipped.

Slipped.

Stopping.

Gross Load.

Miles per hr.

Feet.

Per cent.

Midland

Westinghouse . . 12

5 if

869

10*13

London and N.W.

Clarke and Webb’s 6

5o|

928

9*2?

Great Northern . .

. Smith’s Vacuum . . 12

4°i

2509

2-i8

In the case of the Midland train the breaks were put on
automatically over both sections of the entire train, with
the exception of the engine and tender breaks, which were
disconnected. The time of coupling up after the severed
portions were brought together was noted : it took five
seconds to couple the chains, and two and a half seconds to
couple the hose-pipe of the breaks. In the case of the
London ^and North-Western train a rather violent jar was
produced when the coupling snapped. The severed portion
consisted of five carriages and the rear van. The breaks of
the said five carriages being actuated from the van, no col-
lision took place between the two portions of the train, but,
on the contrary, a space of 169 feet intervened between them
VOL. viii. (n.s.) c

iS Continuous Railway Breaks. [January,

after both had been brought to a stop. A special slip
coupling with conneCting-pipes and valyes had been fur-
nished in the case of the Great Northern train (Smith’s
vacuum break), but the Commissioners elected to effect the
slip at another point, where no special provision for the
contingency of breaking away existed, and where there was
no valve in the hose-pipe. The aCtion of the continuous
break on the severed portion would doubtless have been
more powerful had the influx of air into the severed pipe
been prevented by a valve ; but, as it was, the aCtion was
feeble compared with the others, as it amounted to less than
one-fourth of that produced by either the Westinghouse air
or by the Clarke and Webb’s breaks.

These experiments having been conducted by wholly dis-
interested persons, and with the view of ascertaining really
the most efficient break in existence, possess an especial
value, and should unquestionably be relied on by Railway
Companies as furnishing some guide to them as to which of
the many breaks at present in existence should be adopted
by them. No words that we might add could give additional
force to the report on the experiments with the several
breaks from which the foregoing particulars have been taken.
From these it is clear that the Westinghouse air break is
about 25 per cent superior to any of its competitors, and,
from whatever point it is viewed, it is so pre-eminently more
effective than the others that there should, we should think,
be no hesitation on the part of the Railway Companies in
adopting it. That it will be generally adopted by some of
the leading companies there can scarcely be a doubt. Mr.
Allport, of the Midland Railway Company, when under
examination before the Royal Commission, expressed a very
general approval of the Westinghouse break, and intimated
that the Company was only waiting for the Commissioners’
Report before adopting that break generally on their line ;
and it can scarcely be doubted that — except, perhaps, in
cases where personal interest may bias the judgment of
Directors, should such influence anywhere exist — the course
adopted by the Midland Railway Company in this instance
will be followed by other Railway Companies throughout
the kingdom. It is most important that this should follow,
for there is now so much interchange of traffic betwen rail-
ways, and the carriages of companies run through over
several railway systems besides their own so generally, that
some uniformity of system in the application of break-power
should unquestionably be adopted. This, truly, is hardly
a point for Government interference or for legislative

1 878.]

Continuous Railway Breaks.

19

enactment, but must be left to the good judgment and self-
interest of the several Railway Companies, which ought to
he sufficient to ensure the “ survival of the fittest ” amongst
railway breaks. In conclusion, it may he remarked that if
the conditions laid down by the Royal Commission he
accepted as those which should be required to he fulfilled,
there is only one at present in existence, viz, the Westing-
house automatic air break, which can be said to come up
to the standard of efficiency laid down in those conditions.

Since the above was written a series of experiments were
held at Cassel, from the 1st to the 4th of August last, the
Report on which has just been published. Without entering
into detail with regard to these experiments, it may suffice
here to state that in each case the Westinghouse automatic
break proved superior to the Heherlein, Steel, and Smith’s
breaks, with which it was in competition, to the extent
varying in different cases from 16 to 60 per cent, thus com-
pletely corroborating the results obtained by the Royal
Commission referred to above. With regard to the first
cost of the breaks, the Westinghouse is slightly more
expensive than either the Heberlein or Smith’s, but it is
far cheaper than the Steel break, whilst of the four the
Westinghouse break is lighter in weight than any of the
others by some hundredweights. It appears, however, from
an official report on the subject to the Austrian Government,
and from the report of the recent Belgian Commission, that
the durability and small maintenance cost of the Westing-
house break compensate for its being somewhat dearer than
others in the first instance.

In view of all these corroborating evidences it can be no
source of surprise that the Westinghouse break has been
adopted for the Belgian State Railways. It has, however,
not yet been publicly notified, so far as we are aware, that
the several Railway Companies in England have so far
recognised their responsibilities towards the public as to fit
up their several systems with the most efficacious break-
power which has hitherto been introduced.

20

On Residual Phenomena .

January,

II. ON RESIDUAL PHENOMENA.

C*

T is a well-known — indeed almost a trite — faCt that the
residues of manufacturing operations have proved a
most fruitful source of novel and interesting bodies. If
we wish to deteCt an element hitherto unknown we search
for it among the refuse of metallurgical or chemical pro-
cesses, in flue-dust, in furnace-soots, in slags, in burnt
pyrites, in the mud of vitriol chambers, or in mother-liquors
which have deposited their crop of crystals. If we are in
quest of some new or valuable organic compound we operate
upon the residue of the gas-works, in which Liebig prophet-
ically declared that we might find whatever we wished if we
would only seek intelligently ; upon wood-tar, or upon natural
products which have most probably undergone a process of
destructive distillation in the recesses of the earth. In this
manner we have obtained, on the one hand, bromine, iodine,
selenium, caesium, thallium, &c. ; and on the other, phenol,
rosanilin, artificial alizarin, and other the like marvels of
modern chemistry. Nay, we sometimes elicit important
products even from the residues of a residue. The “tailings”
left from the manufacture of magenta are themselves a source
of other colouring matters.

But we are not about to enlarge on the utilisation of waste
products. That fecundity in novelties which seems to cha-
racterise refuse and residues is an apt type or illustration of
the importance of “ residual phenomena ” as a source of un-
suspected truths; and it is to such, as a sphere for discovery,
that we wish to draw the attention of our readers.

What are “ residual phenomena ?” We will suppose a
man of science setting to work to “verify” some theory —
that is, to examine whether and in how far it accords with
the faCts it is intended to harmonise and to explain. There
are here three cases possible : — In the first place, the theory
in question may agree exactly and completely with the faCts,
leaving merely such minute errors as are plainly due to the
shortcomings of experiment and observation. We may take,
as an instance in point, the law of chemical combination in
definite proportions. If we examine whether this is a cor-
rect statement of faCts, we find it confirmed the more com-
pletely the more precise and accurate are our experiments.
Secondly, the theory may distinctly fail to account for the
phenomena before us, and may prove utterly contradictory

1878.]

On Residual Phenomena.

21

to faffts. Thus it was at one time maintained that the dis-
tinction between animals and vegetables lay in the presence
of nitrogen in the former and its absence in the latter. But
as soon as improved methods of analysis showed the presence
of nitrogen in vegetable tissues the theory was recognised as
at variance with faffts, and was therefore abandoned. We
may here briefly glance at certain phrases very common in
the mouths of unscientific persons, of whatever stage of
culture. They are apt, when encountered by an inconvenient
fa£t, to tell us, in an off-hand manner, that there is “ no rule
without an exception,” or sometimes even that “ the excep-
tion proves the rule,” — a dictum quite on a par with Sir
Thomas Browne’s celebrated “ credo quia impossibile est .”
Now we should like any speaker or writer of this class to
find us an exception to the law of universal gravitation, or
to the dodtrine of definite combination just mentioned. Let
him produce, e.g,, an element which will combine with oxygen,
or with sulphur, or with chlorine in every conceivable pro-
portion, and yet form not mere mixtures, but a true compound
or true compounds. Having found such an element, let him
further show how by its existence the “ rule ” of combination
in definite proportion is “ proved,” or, indeed, other than
completely refuted. Still there is a sense in which this
saying carries with it a certain amount of truth, and which
perhaps explains its origin. An apparent exception, if it does
not prove, may at least confirm a rule, so soon as its nature
is understood. Thus we know that every kind of wood, if
dry, is combustible. If some person asserted the existence
of an exception to this rule, and brought forward in proof,
e.g., a piece of the fossil wood of Antigua, — i.e., silica depo-
sited in the exaCI texture of fragments of wood which have
been long ago decomposed, it could of course be shown that
this substance was wood in appearance only, and that its
incombustibility was therefore no real exception to the rule.
Or, to take another somewhat more complicated instance : —
Everyone who has any acquaintance with chemical and
physical science knows what is meant by the law of iso-
morphism ; yet to this law, when first promulgated, there
appeared a signal exception. Arsenic and phosphoric acids
were at once recognised as compounds mutually analogous,
and coming within the scope of the law ; yet their soda-
salts, as then known, did not exhibit that identity of crystal-
line form which the law of isomorphism requires. On closer
investigation, however, it appeared that the ordinary phos-
phate of soda of commerce differs decidedly in its composition
from the arseniate of soda, and, further, that there exists

22

On Residual Phenomena.

[ J anuary

another phosphate of soda agreeing with the arseniate both
in composition and in crystalline form. Such explanations
of apparent exceptions may, perhaps, to some minds seem to
“ prove” or at least confirm the “ rule,” on the same prin-
ciple that lawyers consider the title to an estate strengthened
if it has been unsuccessfully called in question. Yet what
truly confirms the rule is not the exception, real or apparent,
but the detection of the fadt that it is no exception at all.
Before anyone can venture to pronounce the imagined “law”
that all hybrids are necessarily barren to be “ proved ” by
instances to the contrary, he should have prepared himself
to show that such instances are contrary in seeming only,
and not in reality.

We are thus brought to the threshold of the third possible
case : — The theory or the law may agree with or account for
the fadts to a certain extent, leaving, however, a margin un-
explained. Such margins are the “ residual phenomena ”
which we are about to consider : their value as a clue to fur-
ther discovery will best appear from example. We may
begin with one of the simplest cases, which, nevertheless,
led to the discovery of the alkaline metal lithium. One of
the foremost consequences of the chemical law of combination
in definite proportions is that all samples of any compound,
supposing them pure, must contain the same ingredients in
the same relative quantities. A specimen of sulphate of
magnesia, whether natural or artificial, whether prepared
recently or a century ago, contains exadtly the same propor-
tions of magnesia and of sulphuric acid. On a certain
occasion the Swedish chemist Arfwedson, having been en-
gaged with the analysis of a mineral petalite, obtained what
he at first took to be sulphate of magnesia ; but on closer
examination he was led to doubt this conclusion, not by any
striking discrepancy in colour, solubility, or taste, but by an
excess of weight. His suspicions being thus aroused, he
soon found that he had in his hands an element as yet
unknown.

Turning from chemistry to physics, we find other examples
equally striking and simple. Thus the speed with which
sound travels through the air had been deduced with great
precision, from its known cause and mode of propagation.
But when the conclusions thus reached were brought to the
test of adtual experiment, the agreement, though approxi-
mate, was not complete. The result was sufficiently close
to show that the calculation had been, in the main, based
upon corredt principles, but there was still a margin, a
“ residuum ” of velocity unaccounted for. Whilst examining.

1878.]

On Residual Phenomena .

23

into the discrepancy, Laplace suggested that the heat libe-
rated by the compression of the air resulting from sound-
vibrations might be the missing faCtor. Its influence was
accordingly calculated, and was found to supply the complete
solution of the difficulty. Nor was this all ; the law of the
evolution of heat on the compression of bodies received at
the same time a most signal verification.

These few instances will suggest certain reflections.
Residual phenomena, though possibly of very frequent oc-
currence, will be overlooked save by the patient and accurate
investigator who is content with nothing less than certainty.
Had Arfwedson quietly assumed that the saline body formed
during his operations was sulphate of magnesia, without
subjecting it to any quantitative examination, lithia would
probably have remained undiscovered for some time, and the
honour would doubtless have fallen to the share of some
other chemist. Had the comparison between the experi-
mental and the theoretical velocity of sound been made in a
careless manner, the discrepancy would have escaped atten-
tion, and the question ultimately solved by Laplace might
never have been raised. But there is another danger to
which Liebig has drawn attention, and which he has happily
illustrated by an incident in his own early career. The
experimentalist may perceive a difference between theory and
practice, between results or properties actually observed and
those which in his opinion were to have been expeCted, but
may content himself with framing some hypothesis to
account for the difficulty without resorting to any aCtual
investigation. Such a line of conduCt prevented Liebig from
anticipating Balard in the discovery of bromine. He had
actually obtained the new element in a state of approximate
purity, but had assumed it to be chloride of iodine, had
imagined an hypothesis to explain its peculiarities, and had
set it aside unexamined. This event, as he tells us, served
him as a caution for the rest of his career. How many
residual phenomena, which have been really noticed, escape
investigation in virtue of some superficial and baseless expla-
nation we can scarcely even conjecture.

But another question arises here : — How is a residual phe-
nomenon to be distinguished, on the one hand, from those
errors of observation and experiment which cannot be abso-
lutely avoided, even by the most careful operators, and, on
the other, from those discrepancies which prove that a law
or a theory is essentially erroneous, and must be rejected.
It is scarcely possible, we fear, to lay down any absolute rule
which shall in all cases direCt the enquirer how to overcome

24

On Residual Phenomena .

[January,

this difficulty. Certain suggestions, may, however, be given.
In case of a theory or a law which is correct, and which
fully embraces and accounts for all the faCts, the discrepan-
cies will be very minute ; they will be smaller in proportion
as the experimentalist is more skilful, and they will further
decrease as suitable precautions are taken and sources of
error are eliminated. In the case of a false theory, on the
other hand, the errors will be much larger, will vary in
different instances, and, instead of being reduced by improved
methods and more finished manipulation, are more likely to
become greater. Residuals differ from both these cases : the
correspondence between the faCt and the theory cannot to a
certain extent be denied, but there is a margin which, though
generally small, is constant, and cannot be lessened by any
niceties and refinements of procedure. Where the law or
the theory under investigation is merely qualitative, more
must be left to the taCt and judgment of the observer.

In carefully searching for the source of an anomaly
we may discover someting other and much greater than we
originally intended or hoped. The old apologue of the
farmer’s sons — who by digging for an unknown treasure
increased the fertility of their land, and reaped a harvest of
unimagined luxuriance — finds its frequent realisation in the
history of scientific research.

We shall, perhaps, find it instructive to turn from the
consideration of residual phenomena which have been recog-
nised as such, and which have been fully traced to their
causes, and examine certain laws which admittedly do not
fully agree with the phenomena, and whose shortcomings
demand explanation. Such laws may, of course, belong to
our second class, and in that case require total rejection ; but
they may possibly be not so much erroneous as incomplete,
embracing a part only of the phenomena, and leaving the
rest still unaccounted for.

Considerable attention is now drawn to the relations
existing between the atomic weights of our received ele-
mentary or simple bodies. If these bodies have been evolved
from a common source, as a variety of considerations con-
spire to suggest, it is highly probable that such relations
should exist. If, on the other hand, they are primordially
distindt, and, as far as we can perceive, accidental in their
number, in their distribution, their relative amounts, and
their properties, — suppositions highly repugnant to our intel-
lect,— then no laws of numerical relation between their atomic
weights may be traceable.

The earliest attempt in this direction was made by Prout.

1878.]

On Residual Phenomena .

25

Perceiving that the atomic weight of hydrogen was lower
than that of any other element, he put forward the law that
bears his name, — i.e., that if we take the atomic weight of
hydrogen = 1, the atomic weights of all the other elements
will be multiples of 1 by some whole number. The sug-
gestion agreed tolerably well with the state of chemical
knowledge in his day. Not a few atomic weights, calculated
on the hydrogen standard, had been found to be whole num-
bers, and there was at least room to anticipate that, on
further and more accurate research, the fractions with which
the atomic numbers of the remainder were encumbered
might prove to be the result of error. There was, moreover,
about the proposed law an appearance of “ simplicity ” which
could not fail to recommend it to general notice. Let us
hasten to declare that we put little faith in such simplicity.
It is a conception totally ex parte hominis. Wheresoever we
have attempted to interrogate Nature somewhat closely, we
have utterly failed to perceive that simplicity, as it appears
to man, is any part of her plan. When, therefore, a law or
a theory is recommended on the ground of its simplicity our
suspicions are aroused, and we fear lest the fadts have been
garbled and manipulated.

On the other hand, a certain amount of confirmation is
lent to Dr. Prout’s view by the observations of astro-
spedtroscopists, that hydrogen predominates in the stars
whose temperature seems highest, and where the dissociation-
process must be most adlive. Hence it is contended hydro-
gen may be a more primitive stage of development of the
primordial element, or elements, than any other substance
with which we are acquainted. Still, admitting such to be the
nature of hydrogen, the truth of Prout’s law is by no means
a necessary consequence. The more accurate determination
of the atomic weights of the elements, again, has by no
means, as was anticipated, tended to free them from frac-
tions. Hence the value generally attached to Prout’s law
has not latterly been increasing. Dumas, who is one of its
most distinguished upholders, proposes the modification that
all atomic weights are multiples by a whole number, if not
of 1, yet of o’25 or 0*50, maintaining that out of fifty-eight
atomic weights not more than half-a-dozen differ appreciably
from multiples by whole numbers of half the atomic weight
of hydrogen, whilst some of the exceptional elementary
weights are multiples of one-fourth the atomic weight of
hydrogen. Here, however, we enter upon dangerous ground.
If, multiplying ro by a series of whole numbers, we obtain
products coinciding with the atomic weights of the elements,

26

On Residual Phenomena.

[January,

the coincidence is of considerable value, and may be fairly
interpreted as indicating a profound relation between hydro-
gen and the other elements. But if we multiply 0*5 or 0*25
by the same numbers, and especially if we reserve to our-
selves the right of using either of these factors if the other
do not suit our purpose, the coincidences will naturally
become more frequent and less significant. By taking a
sufficiently minute fraction of the atomic weight of hydrogen
(say o'ooi), and multiplying it by a series of arbitrarily-
seleCted whole numbers, we cannot fail to obtain the atomic
weights of the elements, whether any natural connection
exists between them or not.

In opposition to Dumas, Prof. Stas infers — from his own
justly-famed researches on the atomic weights of nitrogen,
chlorine, sulphur, potassium, sodium, lead, and silver — ‘‘that
there exists no common divisor between the weights of
simple bodies which unite with each other to form definite
compounds.” He considers, therefore, the hypothesis of
Prout as altogether illusory, and regards the reputed ele-
mentary bodies “as distinct entities, having no simple
relation of weight one to another.” This conclusion he
founds upon his own recent determinations of the weights of
certain elements, — a train of research executed with such
precaution, skill, and patience that it may serve as a model
for all similar investigations.

Thus if we take hydrogen = 1, we shall have —

Oxygen

15*960

Silver ...

107*600

Nitrogen

14*009

Bromine

• 79750

Chlorine

35'3<58

Iodine ...

126-533

Lithium

... 7*004

Potassium

••• 39‘°4°

Sodium

22*980

These numbers

are, of course, utterly hostile to the

tensions of Prout’s hypothesis to completeness. Not a
single exaCt multiple of 1 by a whole number do we find.
Nor are the deviations from whole numbers so small as to
be negleCted. Least of all can it be assumed that the
fractions which occur are the result of any inaccuracy, and
may consequently be obliterated by further and more
minutely-accurate research. Those who read the detailed
account of the experiments of Professor Stas, and note the

1878.]

On Residual Phenomena.

27

precautions he has taken to eliminate all sources of error,
will be unable to conceive of any further improvements
adequate to convert the fractions here given into whole
numbers.

But let us re-consider the atomic weights of the nine
elements above quoted. In three cases only do we find the
fraction extending to the first decimal place ; in four others
it commences with the second decimal, being always less
than o'Oj ; whilst in the remaining two elements the dif-
ference between the atomic weight experimentally determined
and the calculated figure is confined to the third decimal.
If we suppose, with Dumas, that the common divisor may
be 0'5, we have the following differences between the experi-
mental and the hypothetical nnmbers : —

Oxygen

0*040

Silver

0*100

Nitrogen

0*009

Bromine

0*250

Chlorine

0*132

Iodine

0*033

Lithium

0*004

Potassium

0*040

Sodium

0*020

Or, as Prof. Stas himself expresses the matter, “ The
greater part of carefully-determined weights come so near
to calculated ciphers that it has been necessary to have
recourse to all the arts and refinements of analysis to prove
that they are not absolutely exadt.” But if we take the
weights as given by earlier authorities, and, it may be ad-
mitted, determined, if not with less skill, yet without the
aid of the most recent appliances, we find the difference
between the experimental result and the calculated number
in many cases even greater than those shown by the re-
searches of Prof. Stas.

Thus the older numbers are — -

Oxygen

16*0

Silver

108*1

Nitrogen

14*0

Bromine

78'4

Chlorine

35‘4

Iodine

126*0

Lithium

6*4

Potassium

39*2

Sodium

23*2

28 On Residual Phenomena. [January,

The difference between these figures and a whole number,
or the fraction 0*5, is therefore —

Oxygen

0*0

Silver

0*1

Nitrogen

0*0

Bromine

0*1

Chlorine

0*1

Iodine

0*0

Lithium

0*1

Potassium ...

0*2

Sodium

0*2

Or an average of 0*0888, whilst according to the atomic
weights as determined by Stas, the margin is only 0*0688.
The divergence, according to the older atomic weights,
reached the first decimal place in six out of the nine in-
stances, whilst in the numbers of Stas we find this occur in
three cases only. Thus far, therefore, the labours of the
illustrious Belgian chemist are more favourable to Prout’s
hypothesis than might appear at first glance. An eminent
authority also calls attention to the fadf that “ the smallest
atomic weights, which, as a general rule, are those of the
best known and most easily estimated elements, accord the
most precisely with Prout’s law.” Thus in addition to the
instances of oxygen, nitrogen, lithium, and sodium, we have
carbon, whose atomic weight has been re-determined by
Dumas and Stas as 6*o and by Liebig as 6*oo8, and sulphur,
which Stas has investigated along with the above-mentioned
nine elements, and which — taking oxygen as 15*960 — he
finds to be 31*976, showing a divergence from the calculated
cipher of 0*024. According to the old notation, oxygen
being —

W9!° = 7-98o,

2

sulphur would be—

SW76 = 15-983,

2

the difference from the whole number being then merely
0*017.

If, then, we take these eleven elements, — viz., oxygen,
silver, nitrogen, bromine, chlorine, iodine, lithium, potassium,
sodium, carbon, and sulphur, and fix our attention on the
first decimal place, we shall find it scarcely what might have
been expected if we had to deal with a set of distinct entities

1878.]

On Residual Phenonena.

29

between whose atomic weights there was no definite relation.
According to the dodtrine of probabilities, there would be no
reason why we should expedt any of the ten digits to prepon-
derate over another ; yet in this instance the decimal place
in question is occupied nine times out of the eleven by figures
which are more in favour of the hypothesis than against it,
whilst in two only — the cases of bromine and chlorine — do
we find figures which hold an unequivocally half-way position
between the whole number and the fradtion 0*5. This coin-
cidence we can scarcely attribute to accident. Some reason
there must be why the fradtions should be either a little in
excess of the whole number, a little below it, or else bear a
similar relation to 0*5.

If, then, this state of fadts is utterly adverse to our recep-
tion of Prout’s hypothesis as a complete and accurate law,
it is, we submit no less incompatible with the antagonistic
view of its being utterly baseless and imaginary. The case
is apparently one of a “ residual.” Prout’s hypothesis is
interfered with and modified by an x, which prevents the
resulting atomic weights from being either exadlly whole
numbers or merely fradtions midway between two such
whole numbers. What is this unknown law no one has yet,
we believe, made any systematic attempt to discover ?

The error, if we may so call it, is as we perceive by no
means constant ; sometimes it is in excess, and sometimes
in deficiency. It appears also to vary with the class of the
elementary bodies. It is considerable in the Halogens,
chlorine showing a deficiency of 0*132, bromine a deficiency
of 0*250, and iodine an excess of 0*33. These numerical
peculiarities are not easy to account for, especially in the
case of bromine. We might have expedted that it would
have shown a smaller deficiency, as compared with the
calculated cipher, than does chlorine, forming thus a tran-
sition to the excess perceived in the atomic weight of iodine.
It is remarkable that bromine shows in another manner this
tendency to deficiency. Its atomic weight, as determined
by M. Stas, is 79*750 ; but as calculated from the weights
of its congeners, chlorine and iodine, it is—

35-368+ 126-533 = 80-950,

thus showing in the adtual weight a deficiency of 1*200 to
be accounted for.

The group of the alkaline metals, lithium, sodium, and
potassium, is less markedly exceptional. Here, as the

30

On Residual Phenomena.

[January,

atomic weights rise, we have in lithium an excess of 0*004,
in sodium a deficiency of 0*020, and in potassium again an
excess of 0*040. The atomic wreight of sodium, calculated
from those of lithium and potassium, — -

39-040+7-004 =.022.

2

is in excess of its experimental weight only by 0*042.

The atomic weights of the alkaline earthy metals are un-
favourable to the hypothesis of Prout, or at least point to
the more decided interference of some unknown cause.

According to Marignac the atomic weight of calcium is
40*21, and that of strontium 87*25, — numbers of a very in-
tractable character, and which, lying in an intermediate
position between a whole number and the fraction would
seem as favourable to the total rejection of Prout’s law as
to the prospeCt of its exceptions being explained as residual
phenomena.

Lead, as determined by Professor Stas, has for its atomic
weight 103*136(0 = 15*960), or an excess of 0*136. Thallium,
according to the careful determination of Mr. Crookes,
= 203*642. Here, then, the excess is also 0*142, very
closely approximating to the unexplained margin in the case
of lead.

Until, however, the atomic weights of all the elements
shall have been verified with the precautions and refinements
employed by M. Stas in the case of silver, nitrogen, the
halogens, and the alkaline metals, and by Mr. Crookes in
the case of thallium, — a task which no single chemist can
possibly complete in the longest life-time, — all speculations
concerning the relations of their combining weights must
be regarded as premature. It ma}^ be that when all the re-
quired numbers are before us the deviations in excess or
deficiency from what Prout’s hypothesis would in stridtness
require will be found to display a “ periodic ” character.
All that can be said at present amounts to very little more
than the recommendation to suspend judgment till the fadts
of the case are fully before us — a consummation, we fear,
scarcely to be hoped for in the life-time of the present gene-
ration. Seventeen years ago the late Sir John Herschel, in
an inaugural address as Chairman of the Chemical Sedtion
of the British Association, remarked — “ Not until these
numbers are determined with a precision approaching that
of the elements of the planetary orbits — a precision which
can leave no possible question of a tenth or a hundredth

1878.]

On Residual Phenomena.

3i

per cent, and in the presence of which such errors as are at
present regarded as tolerable in the atomic numbers of even
the best determined elements shall be considered utterly in-
admissible— I think can this question be settled ; and when
such gigantic consequences — so entire a system of Nature —
are to be based on a principle, nothing short of such evidence
ought, I think, to be held conclusive, however sedudtive the
theory may appear.”

The so-called atomic heats of the elementary bodies bring
us in contact with another instance of residual phenomena.
It has been observed that within certain limits the atomic
weights of the simple bodies vary inversely as their specific
heats, and that consequently the products of these two
numbers, or the so-called atomic heats, are approximately a
constant quantity. In very many cases the numbers thus
found range from between 5*9, as in aluminium and rhodium,
to 6*9, as in iodine. This is certainly a rather- wide devia-
tion from the requirements of the law. But there are
several sources of uncertainty which may be supposed to
affedt the results of the calculation. The atomic weights
themselves, as we have just had occasion to remember, are
not yet ascertained with absolute certainty. The purity of
the various specimens of the elementary bodies operated
upon is in some cases open to doubt. The determinations
of the specific heats themselves may not have been entirely
free from experimental error, and the circumstances under
which these determinations were made cannot be pronounced
stridtly comparable. The experiments were performed
within temperatures nearly the same in an absolute point of
view, but not relatively identical — i.e.9 not equidistant from
the fusion-points of the bodies concerned. The difficulty of
obtaining the elements in comparable conditions is no little
increased by the fadt that not the temperature of a substance
alone, but its physical strudture and its state of aggregation,
have a modifying adtion upon its specific heat.

But there are three elements, mutually analogous in many
respedts, which show a much wider discrepancy from the
law than can be explained by such considerations. The
atomic heat for boron in the graphitic state is 2^59, in the
crystalline condition 2*7 5. Carbon, as wood charcoal, gives
the number 2‘go, as graphite 2*41, and as diamond 1*76.
These figures, moreover, widely as they differ from what the
law might require, are obtained by taking the atomic weight
of carbon — 12. Silicon when crystallised shows the atomic
heat 4*97, and when fused 4*90. It is obvious that these
three elements cannot be made to harmonise with the pre-

32 On Residual Phenomena . [January,

sumed law by any known expedient. Even if we were to
fix the atomic weight of carbon at 24, the results, 4*82 for
graphite and 3*92 for diamond, would still remain distinctly
anomalous. The only method of saving the law is the
assumption that we have here before us a residual pheno-
menon, some other law exercising a modifying result, either
on these three elements alone or at least to a greater extent
than upon other simple bodies. It must be remembered
that the atomic weights of the three elementary bodies con-
cerned are low, and that of carbon, at least, maybe regarded
as most satisfactorily ascertained, so that the solution of the
difficultv cannot lie in that direction.

•

It is a somewhat curious circumstance that though the
law of Dulong and Petit, as it is called, has been now for a
long time before the scientific world, and though the ano-
malies to which we have drawn attention have been recog-
nised for more than a quarter of a century, the explanation
is still wanting. Ivopp, as the result of his investigations,
concludes that the law does not hold good for all the com-
monly reputed elements in their solid state ; but if so we
naturally inquire into the reason of its limited scope, and
without some reply we feel inclined to doubt whether its
approximate applicability in other cases may be anything
more than a casual coincidence. In the meantime the law
of Dulong and Petit should be regarded as on its trial, and
the weight allowed it should be limited indeed. It would,
for instance, be scarcely justifiable to rejeCt any new hypo-
thesis because it should happen to lead to results incom-
patible with the law in question.

In the instances we have been considering, and in all
others of an analogous nature, there can be no doubt
whether, or in how far, the law is in harmony with the
phenomena which it embraces. But where the results are
incapable of being stated numerically a serious difficulty
arises. Issue may be joined on the fundamental question
whether the theory agrees with the faCts or not, and a
thoroughly indisputable decision is not easily arrived at.
Hence the recognition of residual phenomena — not to speak
of their explanation — is far less easy in biology or geology
than in astronomy, physics, or chemistry. One and the
same theory may be by different authorities accepted as
satisfactory and complete, rejected as altogether illusory,
and again admitted as a partial view of the truth, which,
however, leaves many points still in the dark. To us it
seems that the origin of species supplies an admirable

1878.]

On Residual Phenomena.

33

instance of residual phenomena. The laws of “ natural
selection ” and “ sexual selection,” collectively known as
Darwinism, do, as far as we can judge, account satisfactorily
for a large portion of the phenomena concerned ; but as,
undoubtedly, there is another portion which they cannot by
any amount of ingenuity be made to explain. For instance,
it has been well said that before natural selection — or indeed
selection of any kind — can be brought into play, variation
must have already set in. This will be at once apparent on
the following consideration : — Suppose a pair of animals,
or, still further to simplify the matter, a single hermaphro-
dite, being of low type, existing in the primaeval world, had
produced a hundred fertile ova. Two cases then are only
possible : the young animals springing from these ova must
be either all absolutely alike, or they must exhibit certain
variations, however slight. In the former alternative there
is no basis for natural selection to work upon, the very idea
of selection implying differences among the objects among
which a choice is to be made. In the latter case, the
varieties, being ex hypothesi antecedent to the aCtion of
natural selection, cannot be its effects. Here, then, we have
a residual phenomenon, a marginal faCt for which the
Darwinian hypothesis is unable to account, and which will
yet have to be explained before we can understand the
origin of species. Nor in the instance we have supposed
can the explanation be furnished by Lamarck’s hypothesis.
The influence of all external circumstances aCting upon the
parent animal must affeCt the ova, if at all, equally ; but, as
regards the first beginning of variation among a number of
creatures absolutely alike at birth, the Lamarckian view
has the advantage over the doCtrine of natural selection.
If the young animals wander away from the place of their
birth they may become exposed to different influences, from
climate or from the quantity and quality of their food, and
among their progeny slight variations may thus possibly
appear, and thus enable the principle of natural selection to
come into play. Successive broods produced by one and
the same parent may also be supposed to differ from each
other to a small extent if any change has occurred in the
circumstances to which the parent is exposed. But it is
difficult to avoid the conclusion that the “ residual ” here is
an internal tendency to vary, faint instances of whose aCtion
we see in the faCts that no two children of the same parent,
no two symmetrical organs of the same animal, no two
leaves even of the same tree, are absolutely alike.

VCI* VIII. (N.s.)

D

34 T/ztf Action of Light upon the [January,

If we carefully trace the instances in which both faCts are
imperfectly ascertained, and laws accepted or rejected with-
out full verification, we shall feel that a new SPepsis Scientifca
is urgently demanded in the present day.

III. THE ACTION OF LIGHT

UPON THE

COLOURATION OF THE ORGANIC WORLD.

NTIL the earlier portion of the present century light,
by the vast majority of civilised persons, was re-
garded as a medium for the sense of sight, and as
very little more. With the discovery of its chemical func-
tions, brought home to the popular mind by the invention
of photography, a revolution in opinion took place, and the
danger now is, not that its real powers should be overlooked,
but that it should be credited with effects in which its part
is very doubtful. It has been especially proclaimed to be at
once the creator and the destroyer of colouration in the
organic world. The superior intensity of the light to which
they are exposed has been pronounced the chief cause why
diurnal species are more gaily coloured than their nearest
nocturnal allies, and why the flora and the fauna — especially
the inserts and the birds — of tropical regions are so rich in
hues of a gorgeous character. It may therefore be not un-
interesting to inquire into this supposed double function of
light, and ascertain, if possible, its limits in either direction.
In so doing it will be impossible for us to overlook the views
put forward by Mr. A. R. Wallace in a recent issue of
“ Macmillan’s Magazine.”

The bleaching power of the sun’s rays, and to a less
extent of ordinary diffused daylight, has been fully recognised
in the affairs of daily life. It has been observed that this
same agency, utilised formerly in preparing vegetable fibre
for the reception of colours, gradually destroys, in almost
every instance, the work of the dyer and the printer, and
exerts a corresponding influence upon the hues of plants.
There is, however, a distinction by which its effects upon
the integuments of animals are limited.

IS7S.J

Colouration of the Organic World.

35

It is well known that what we designate as colour may
be produced either by the interference or by the absorption
of rays of light, and hence the colours of animals may be
divided into two well-marked classes. On the one hand,
especially in birds and inserts, we find hues which are iri-
descent changeable according to the relative positions of the
observer and of the light, and are possessed of an intense,
so-called, metallic lustre. Such colours — to take familiar
examples — may be seen in the plumage of the peacock, of
the starling, on the wings of the “ purple emperor” butter-
fly ( Apatura Iris), on the entire coating of the rose-beetle
(Cetonia aurata), of the fire-wasp ( Chryseis ignita), and of
many other common native inserts. In the vegetable king-
dom they may be pronounced unknown. Such colours are
due to the interference of certain rays of light, whether re-
flected from superimposed transparent films or reflected from
or refraCted through minute striae. These colours are per-
manent, even on the most prolonged exposure to air, to
atmospheric moisture, or to full sunlight. Unless the very
texture of the feather, the wing-scale, the elytron, &c., be
destroyed by putrefaction or combustion, the colour remains
unhurt. Nor can we by any means extract from such
coloured surfaces a dye or pigment capable of being applied
to other objects.

On the other hand, there are colours which do not change
their shade from whatever position they are regarded, and
which possess little of that intense lustre which marks the
former class. To this kind belong the colours of all flowers,
of caterpillars, of the great majority of our native butterflies
and moths, and, in short, of the vast bulk of organic beings.
These colours are due to the absorption of certain of the
rays of light, such absorption being effected by substances
known as pigments, and capable, when present in sufficient
quantity, of being extracted by solvents, and used to dye or
stain other bodies. Such colours have not the permanence
of the first-mentioned class. Every entomologist knows
that if a case of butterflies be kept constantly exposed to
the sun, or even to diffused daylight, then — no matter how
completely air, damp, and mites may be excluded — the spe-
cimens fade, even though the minute scales which clothe
the wings may still be found in their places. Yet the golden
spots on the wings of the Plusice and the pearl-mother
markings of the “ fritillaries ” remain unchanged. The
colours of most other inseCts behave in a very similar
manner. Beetles are generally supposed to wear a more
permanent livery; but every Coleopterist must have observed

D 2

36

[January,

The Action of Light upon the

how the reds of ladybirds, of Aphodius fimetarius, of Elater
sanguineus , &c., lose their purity and brightness on exposure,
and to some extent even on preservation in darkness. Even
darker and more intense colours are gradually affeCted.
Thus in the collection of native beetles in the British
Museum, which have doubtless been exposed to the light for
some years, the jet-black Typhceus vulgaris — absurdly known
as the “bull-comber ” — has taken a decided chestnut-brown,
whilst a similar change has come over the blue-black elytra
of the common dung-beetle.

To test the speed of the bleaching power of light upon
deep-coloured Coleoptera we placed in a glass case, outside
a south-western window, specimens of the following spe-
cies : — Cetonia aurata, Eupcecilia Australasia, Typhceus vul-
garis, Geotrupes stercorarius, Ahax striola, and Sternocera
orientalis, — and exposed them to the sun during the months
of June, July, and August, 1876. The Cetonia and the
Sternocera , whose colours are of the interference-class, were
unaffected ; but the black of the Typhceus, the Geotrupes, and
the Ahax was changed to a brown, and the brown of the
Eupcecilia to a very dirty yellow. Thus we see that even
the darkest and most intense pigment- or absorption-colours
are affeCted by light. This faCt accounts for one class of the
variations in colour met with in different specimens of one
and the same species. An inseCt that has lived long and
has been much exposed to the sun may have more degraded
colours than such as are captured soon after reaching full
perfection.

If we examine the nature of the changes produced by the
aCtion of light we shall notice the following faCts : — Pigment
greens, blues, lilacs, pinks, and roses — shades not very
abundant in the animal kingdom — are the first to fade.
Full reds, purples, and blacks resist longer. Oranges, yel-
lows, fawns, drabs, browns, and olives have still greater
permanence, merely taking a duller or dirtier tone. The
changes ensue in a definite direction. Blues and pale greens
turn to a grey or a yellowish drab ; darker greens to an olive ;
lilacs, pinks, and roses to various shades of grey ; reds be-
come a reddish or yellowish brown ; purples a very dirty
brown ; yellows and oranges verge more to a pale brown,
and may rank as buffs or fawns. The alteration is therefore
from the primary or secondary towards the tertiary colours,
accompanied with a decrease in depth. But we have never
seen a primary colour, when fading under the influence of
light, pass into another primary colour ; nor does any
secondary or tertiary colour ever pass into a primary. The

1S78.] Colouration of the Organic World. 37

change which blacks undergo will not seem surprising if we
reflet that in Nature, as well as in Art, they generally con-
sist of an intense olive or brown to which a deep blue or
purple is superadded. The latter hues, being the more fugi-
tive, fade first on exposure to light, and thus a dirty olive or
a rusty brown must remain.

These changes are in partial harmony with what we
observe in the vegetable kingdom. A dull, dirty brown is
the ultimate goal towards which leaves, flowers, and fruits,
as well as inserts, tend while fading; but those splendid
intermediate changes which we find in autumnal foliage
have nothing analogous in the decaying colours of inserts.

It is curious that in the manufacture of those artificial
colours which now play so important a part in tinctorial
operations a corresponding rule holds good. If these dyes,
during their elaboration, are submitted to a heat too high or
too prolonged, the product becomes dusky, and a dirty
brownish grey is the final result.

We must further note how, in the animal and vegetable
kingdoms, pure and bright colours are connected with the
highest vitality only. We plant the dusky seed in the earth
amidst the dark remains of decomposing organic matter,
and as it grows up we see it put on higher and higher
colours, till, in the culminating moment of its life, in the
aCt of inflorescence, prismatic hues are all but universal.
Then begins the process of decay, attended by a degradation
of colour. Similar changes may be traced in animals.
Externally we need merely compare the dull-coloured larva
with the brilliant imago, or the sombre-coated nestling
with the brighter plumage of the mature bird. Internally
we may contrast the intensely-vitalised scarlet arterial blood
with the darker-coloured and more contaminated venous
blood, and still further with excrementitious matters. The
great truth to which we are here calling attention has not
altogether escaped the notice of Mr. Wallace, who writes —
“ The very frequent superiority of the male bird or inseCt in
brightness or intensity of colour, even when the general
tints and colouration are the same, now seems to me to he
due to the greater vigour and activity and the higher vitality
of the male. The colours of an animal usually fade during
disease or weakness, while robust health and vigour add to
their intensity.* This intensity of colouration is most
manifest in the male during the breeding season, when the

* Those who are brought practically in contadt with animals have long been
familiar with the fadt that a “ dull coat ” is indicative of disease, or at least of
weakness.

33

The Action of Light upon the [January,

vitality is at a maximum.” But we are not aware that either
Mr. Wallace or any one else has fully grasped the principle
laid down above, or traced its numerous applications, aesthetic
as well as biological.

But among the “ pigment-colours ” there is a very great
diversity in permanence due to the nature of the colours
themselves, or to that of the tissues in which they inhere.
Dr. Hagen divides such colours into epidermal, placed in
hair, in feathers, and in the chitinic exo-skeleton of inserts,
and hypodermal, situate in the softer internal layers of the
skin. That the latter are the more easily affedted by any
external influence is natural.

Alterations and degradations of colour similar to those
above-mentioned may indeed, under certain circumstances,
be produced even in the absence of light. But we have
direct experimental evidence to show that, other things
being equal, animal matters retain their colours most com-
pletely in the absence of light, and fade the more rapidly in
proportion to the intensity of the illumination to which they
are exposed. Hence we are compelled to recognise light as
a destroyer of animal colouration.

But light is generally regarded not merely as a colour-
destroyer, but as a colour-producer, and it is with this its
supposed fundfion that we have now to deal. Those who
take here the affirmative view rely mainly on two fadts, or
supposed fadts, to which we have already briefly referred, — the
higher colouration and the superior brilliance of the tropical
fauna, and the sombre hues of nodturnal and subterranean
beings. At these fadts we must look, and seek to ascertain
their meaning. We must of course admit that Europe pro-
duces no humming-birds or trogons, no Belionotce or Pachy-
vhynchi ; but we must also remember that the total number
of species of birds, of reptiles, and of insedts found, say in
South America, is far greater than the sum total existing in
Britain or on the European continent. Hence, even if the
tendency to produce a gay colouration were equal in either
case, the probability is that South America would be the
richer in gorgeous species. Again, travellers who visit
tropical countries not unnaturally seledt the most showy
forms, and their collections are therefore not a fair average.
Naturalists, such as Mr. Wallace, who have taken the
trouble to examine closely, find that even in New Guinea,
Borneo, or Brazil dull-looking species exist in numbers.
Had we catalogues of the insedts of such countries as com-
plete as those we possess for Britain, France, or Germany,
our views as to the general character of a tropical fauna

1878J Colouration of the Organic World. 39

would be doubtless modified. As the inserts of warm
climates, also, are upon the whole larger than those of our
hyperborean latitudes, they necessarily attract attention,
and their beauty does not pass unseen ; yet every entomolo-
gist knows that even in Britain we possess “ tiny miracles
of Nature ” which, if viewed with a lens of low power, dis-
play a splendour little — if at all — inferior to the most richly
attired tropical species. We will merely mention, as in-
stances, Chryseis ignita , Chrysomela cerealis , Donacia proteus ,
Polydrusus micans and flavipes , Rhynchites betulcz and populi ,
Lampm rutilans , and Anthraxia salicis . Calosoma sycophanta,
also, if very rare in Britain, is very common in certain parts
of Central Europe, and may be fairly considered one of the
most gorgeous species of the entire family of Carabidse to
be met with in any part of the world.

The case, then, seems to stand thus : — We have in Britain
certain species, small, and it may be rare, which display the
very same shades of colour and the same brilliance as we
find in the most admired forms of tropical life. This faCt
seems to us scarcely consistent with the theory that the
more intense light of low latitudes is a prominent faCtor in
the production of splendid colours. Were such the case
gaily-coloured species in our climate would not merely
be fewer and smaller ; they would rather be altogether
wanting.

Again, different portions of the torrid zone differ very
widely as regards the number, and even the beauty, of the
richly-attired birds and inseCts they produce. Thus, as
Mr. Wallace has pointed out, in New Guinea 50 per cent of
the birds are brilliantly coloured, whilst in the Malay Islands
and in the Valley of the Amazon the proportion does not
exceed 33 per cent. Can this distinction be rationally
ascribed to any excess of light enjoyed by New Guinea over
and above the amount received by the Valley of the
Amazon ? Both these respective districts lie under the
Equator; both are fruitful, plentifully supplied with moisture,
well-wooded, and exposed — as far as we can perceive — to
very similar meteorological conditions. But if excess of light
cannot be the cause of the superiority of New Guinea over
equinoctial Brazil, why should it be put forward to explain
the superiority of Brazil as compared with Britain ? Why
should the fauna of the Philippine Islands, as is remarked
by Mr. Wallace in his invaluable “ Glasgow Address,” be so
rich in species of exceptionally splendid colours ? Can
there be in those islands either any excess in the quantity
or any peculiarity in the quality of the sunlight ? That

40

The Action of Light upon the

January,

there is, no one has yet even attempted to show, and were
such the case it would doubtless be traceable in a variety of
phenomena not limited to the organic world.

Another important point has been raised by Mr. Bates.
He shows that whilst in many tropical butterflies the males
are most splendidly coloured, the females — in numbers of
cases at least — are sombre and insignificant in appearance,
so much so that in former times they were often regarded
as specifically distinct from their mates. If excess of light,
therefore, be the producing cause of the splendour of the
tropical Lepidoptera, why should not the effeCt appear alike
in both sexes ? To this argument, however, the reply has
been made that in these very species the females are exceed-
ingly sedentary in their habits, remaining generally concealed
in shady thickets, whilst the males flutter about in the sun-
shine, and, being thus more exposed to light, experience
modifications which — transmitted with constant accumula-
tion from one generation to another — have produced the
splendour now characteristic of their sex. To this question
of the relative amount of exposure to light in different
stages of existence we shall have to return.

But the amount — or at least the intensity and clearness—
of the sun does not necessarily vary with latitude alone.
The air of some countries is more transparent, less obscured
by fogs and clouds than that of others. More light evi-
dently reaches the earth’s surface on open plains or on
table-lands and in deserts than in dense forests and in narrow
valleys Do we find any corresponding variation in the
prevalent hues of the animal population of these respective
localities ? Mr. Wallace points out that the most brilliantly-
clad birds and inseCts are dwellers in the forests where the
amount of light received is comparatively scanty. On the
other hand, in the deserts, where — as we have already men-
tioned— light must attain its terrestrial maximum, the
prevalent colouration, if not dark, is certainly neither light
nor brilliant. As the Rev. H. Tristram remarks, in such
regions the smaller Mammalia, the birds, the snakes, and
lizards are alike sand-coloured, their hues having evidently
more reference to concealment than to the influence of an
intense illumination. There is indeed, if we wish to come
to details, a curious want of harmony in the effects which
light is expected to produce. We know that it bleaches in
certain cases and darkens in others ; but it is no easy task
for us to predict when either of these opposite effects will
be manifested. Still it is perfectly possible that light might
have a bleaching power upon some living organisms, and a

1S78.] Colouration of the Organic World. 41

darkening effect upon others, according to their different
molecular structure. There is, for instance, little doubt but
that the air of Persia is, as a rule, exceedingly transparent ;
the climate is dry, mists and clouds comparatively rare,
woodlands scanty, and the country generally open. We
have even heard it stated that there the satellites of Jupiter
are occasionally visible with the naked eye. Here, there-
fore, we have doubtless a case of light in its greatest inten-
sity ; but, according to Mr. Blanford, Persian specimens are
generally paler than their nearest European representatives.
Here, if light be directly concerned, its aCtion must be of a
bleaching character ; yet we generally find in mammals, in
birds and reptiles, as well as in inseCts, the upper surface,
or portion most exposed to the sun, is darker than the under
side, or than parts generally kept in the shade. An animal
in whom the contrary arrangement prevails — -such as the
common badger — has much of the appearance of a caricature.
This darkening of the superior surface of animals is again
adduced as an instance of the chromogenic power of light,
a view to which we shall afterwards take occasion to revert.

As regards the comparison between the tropical and the
extra-tropical faunae the case may, perhaps, be fairly summed
up thus : — There are certain cosmopolitan groups whose
members, wherever found, are alike devoid of rich or bril-
liant colouration ; there are other groups — -such as the
Ornithoptera, the Papiliones, the Buprestidae, the Cetoni-
adae, the trogons, humming-birds, birds of paradise, &c. — -
which have a remarkable and hitherto-unexplained tendency
to the development of splendid hues, and which, if not ex-
clusively tropical, have their head-quarters and produce
their largest representatives within the torrid zone. Other
groups, again, attain their greatest splendour beyond the
tropics, as, e.g., the ducks, the pheasants, and among inserts
the ground-beetles or Carabidae. It has, indeed, been sug-
gested that if the colder regions of the earth are now
inferior to the tropical districts in the beauty of their fauna,
the cause may be sought in the ravages of the Glacial
epoch. If the most magnificent species were forest-dwellers,
as we now find it to be the case in warm climates, their
destruction would be almost inevitably involved in the deso-
lation of their haunts and the annihilation of their food.
Perhaps, too, the very splendour of such supposed forms
would render them more conspicuous to their enemies, and
thus accelerate their extirpation. All such speculations,
however, are little more than conjectural. We conclude
indeed, judging from the fossil remains of inseCts discovered

42 The Action of Light upon the [January,

at (Eningen and elsewhere (See “ Quarterly Journal of
Science,” vii., 255), that certain groups, now mainly tropical
or subtropical, were very extensively developed in Central
Europe ; but at the same time we find indications that the
climate, at least as far as warmth is concerned, was almost
tropical in its character.

We may next inquire whether the relative brilliance of
colour in various animal groups is at all connected with
their diurnal or nocturnal habits, or with their greater or
less exposure to light at different stages of their develop-
ment. It is a truism that the diurnal Lepidoptera are upon
the average much more highly coloured than the nocturnal
species, the moths. Some weight has been laid on the
circumstance that in butterflies both sides of the wings are
freely exposed to light, and that both are also adorned with
a variety of hues, whilst in moths, where the under surface
of the wings is not turned to the light, it generally exhibits
a dull and uniform colouration ; but these fadts admit of
much qualification. Even among the small number of
beetles indigenous in Britain there are some — such as
Erehia Cassiope, Ccenonymphci Davus, and Thanaos Tages
certainly less brightly coloured than many moths. Many
species of butterflies, also, if richly coloured on the upper
surface of the wings, can boast no gay or varied tints be-
neath. We need only mention the common peacock
(Vanessa Io ). Again, in certain genera of moths we find
colours as vivid as can be met with in butterflies — e.g.,
Callimovpha, Euchelia, Chelonia , and Catocala. The most
remarkable feature in these genera is that the chief display
of colour appears on the upper surface of the hind wings —
a part as little exposed to light as the lower surface, since
when the insedt is at rest, in the daytime, it is completely
screened by the anterior pair of wings.

In the larva state it cannot be said that Lepidopterous
insedts are much exposed to light. As a rule the caterpillars
of the diurnal as well as of the nodturnal species prefer
shade to sunshine. It is perhaps somewhat curious that
the habits of the larva stand in no regular connedtion with
the diurnal or nodturnal charadter of the mature insedt.

Turning to the Coleoptera, we find further facts unfa-
vourable to the supposed predominant influence of light
upon the development of colour. Such Coleopterous larvae
— and they are the majority — as live in total darkness are,
indeed, generally of a dull dirty grey, contrasting strongly
with caterpillars which are more or less exposed to light,
and many of which exhibit a bright and pleasing colouration.

1 878.]

Colouration of the Organic World.

43

This circumstance, like the etiolation of plants reared up in
darkness, is certainly in favour of the view that light is not
without influence upon organic colouration ; but, on the
other hand, let us consider the after-life of some of these
dull-looking beetle-grubs. The most gorgeous, perhaps, of
all Coleoptera are the Buprestidae. These creatures spend
the whole of their larval and pupal life within the trunks of
trees, and consequently in total darkness. When mature,
indeed, they sport for a time in the chequered sunlight of
the woodlands. But why, if light be the main cause of
animal colouration, should they be so far superior in bril-
liance to the Longicornes, or wood-beetles, which from birth
to death are exposed to precisely the same circumstances ?
Taking the opposite extreme, the Staphylinidae — of which
the common ‘‘devil’s coach-horse” is a familiar example,
rank in appearance among the dullest and least decorated
of all the insedt tribes, whether they inhabit cold or warm
climates ; yet these creatures, instead of leading the earlier
part of their life in complete and constant darkness, are
adtive when larvae, and may be seen running about in the
daylight, seeking for prey. Surely, therefore, being so much
more exposed to light than the Buprestidae or the Cetoniadae,
they ought, on the theory we are examining, to be at least
correspondingly beautiful. Let us turn to the Melolonthidae,
of which the common and destructive insedt known as the
cockchafer may serve as the type. Their early life is spent
in darkness, since when larvae they live underground, de-
vouring the roots of plants. When mature their colours
must be pronounced far less brilliant than those of their
near allies, the rose-beetles (Cetoniadae), which are equally
nursed in darkness. It will be of course objected that the
adult cockchafer is a nocturnal — or at least a twilight-
loving — insect, while the rose-beetle feeds and flies by day.
We will therefore take another instance — that of the
Elateridae, or click-beetles. As larvae they, like the imma-
ture cockchafer, live underground, but when mature they
are diurnal in their habits ; yet the general colouration of
the family is what some people call “ sober,” scarcely more
gay than that of the Melolonthidae, and forming a most
striking contrast to that of the Buprestidae, whom they so
closely approach at once in their structure and in the degree
of light which they encounter, both in their earlier stages
and in mature life. Again, we may consider the weevils
(Curculionidse), all of them when larvae burrowing from
daylight in the interior of fruits and in the buds and stems
of plants; yet when mature some of them — c.g.} the

44 77hj Action of Light upon the [January,

diamond-beetle — are as remarkably brilliant as others are
conspicuously sombre.

On the other hand, attention is drawn to the Chrysome-
lidse, to which the redoubtable Colorado beetle — vilely called
the potato-bug — belongs, a family very richly and brightly
coloured. Their larvae are aCtive, and they are thus through-
out their lives exposed to the sunshine.

Among the animal population of the seas and rivers, also,
we meet with faCts, not a few, difficult to reconcile with the
hypothesis under examination. It must be admitted that
in all waters, save the very shallowest, the amount of light
enjoyed must be very decidedly less than that which falls
upon the surface of the land in similar climates ; yet we do
not find that the denizens of the waters are, as a general
rule, less vividly coloured than those of the dry land. On
the contrary, fishes, crustaceans, molluscs, besides aquatic
forms lower in the scale of existence, such as the sea-
anemones, display all the colours of the rainbow in a purity
and in a profusion rivalling what we observe in the most
gorgeous birds and inserts. We admit that splendid oceanic
forms are more abundant in tropical waters than in higher
latitudes, and also that in a majority of cases the inmates
of shallow waters are more vividly colcured than the
dwellers in deeper, and consequently darker seas. But what
must be inferred from the following observations, extracted
from a paper by H. N. Mosely, late Naturalist to the
Challenger Expedition, read before the Linnean Society on
February 15th, 1877 ? — “ A species of Edwardsia from
600 fathoms has undergone but little modification from the
littoral form. The Cerianthus from 2750 fathoms is like its
shore-brethren. Thus one species is found in shallow water
at the Philippines, under the full glare of the tropical sun,
while another species exists at 3 miles depth, where solar
rays never penetrate, and where the water is at freezing-
point. The deep sea-anemones retain vivid colours in the
dark.”

This faCt is very suggestive. It agrees ill with the often-
expressed view of teleologically-disposed naturalists, that
all the brilliant hues of animal and vegetable life have been
called into existence for man’s delectation : but no less does
it clash with the conclusions drawn from the paleness and
obscurity of certain nocturnal, subterranean, or cave-haunting
animals, such as the Coleopterous larvae to which we have
referred, wood-lice, crickets, &c. Light, it would seem, is
not the sole condition for the production of positive colour;
nor are the dwellers in darkness necessarily restricted to a

45

1878.] Colouration of the Organic World .

garb of whites, blacks, and greys. It can, further, scarcely
be contended that the land-shells of any country are more
vividly and intense coloured than the marine shells of its
coasts, many of which are as highly decorated within as
without ; yet a land-shell will doubtless receive a larger
share of the solar radiations than a sea-shell.

Again, whilst there is thus abundant proof that an aquatic
or even a deep-sea existence is not necessarily incompatible
with a rich colouration, we find certain groups — the aquatic
insedts — ordinarily plain in their hues. The water-beetles,
chiefly frequenting shallow pools and rivers, present ordi-
narily a dark olive, black, or brown colouration, relieved at
most with rusty yellow, and those of tropical climates show
little, if any, pre-eminence in this respedt over their allies
from colder regions. But these beetles, be it noted, if devoid
of splendour, are not etiolated. The water-scorpion, water-
boatman, and other aquatic Hemiptera, though living rather
on than in the water, and fully exposed to light, are also
remarkably plain in their colouration.

We have repeatedly referred to nodturnal animals ; but it
will be observed that in the higher forms of life the common
views concerning their dominant colours scarcely hold good.
Thus the owls, though not decked out with any metallic
hues, differ little in the general charadter of their colouration
from their diurnal kindred, the hawks, presenting bold, well-
defined patterns, and a variety of black, fawn, brown, buff,
and white shades. Few mammals display more vivid hues
than the Felidae, most of which are unquestionably noc-
turnal. Many nightly or subterranean insedts, also, such
as Sphodms lencopthalmus and Pristonychus terricola, show no
signs of etiolation. Even the common cockroach makes no
approach to that pallid, ghastly hue which is commonly
supposed charadteristic of animals inhabiting sunless local-
ities. Amongst nodturnal species we believe few, if any,
instances can be found where the male surpasses the female
in brightness or depth of colouring.

Mr. Wallace, however, whilst going perhaps even farther
than we should be prepared to accompany him in the re-
jedtion of the theory which regards animal colouration as
diredtly proportionate to the intensity of solar radiation,
gives some curious instances of phenomena proving that in
certain cases light has a diredt adtion upon the colours of
organic beings. Thus Mr. T. W. Wood, some time ago,
pointed out that the chrysalids of the small “ cabbage
white ” ( Pontia raped) varied in colour when the larvae had
been fed up in boxes lined with different coloured materials.

The Action of Light upon the

[■January,

46

Those which were kept in black boxes were nearly black,
whilst such as had lived in white boxes were almost white.
He observed corresponding changes in the same species in
a state of Nature : chrysalids fixed against a whitewashed
wall being whitish ; those secured to a red brick wall being
reddish ; whilst those fixed against a pitched paling were
nearly black. The cocoon of the emperor moth is also ob-
served to be either white or brown, in accordance with the
colours of surrounding objects. A still more decisive in-
stance of such changes has been observed in the chrysalis
of Papilio Nivens, a South-African butterfly which has been
studied by Mrs. Barber. It acquires, more or less exactly,
the colour of any contiguous objedt. “A number of the
caterpillars were placed in a case with a glass cover, one
side of the case being formed by a red brick wall, the other
sides being of yellowish wood. They were fed on orange-
leaves, and a branch of the bottle-brush tree (Banhsia) was
also placed in the case. When fully fed some attached
themselves to the orange twigs, others to the bottle-brush
branch — and these all changed to green pupae ; but each
corresponded exactly in tint to the leaves around it, the one
being a dark and the other a pale faded green. Another
attached itself to the wood, and the pupa became of the
same yellowish colour ; while one fixed itself just where the
wood and brick joined, and became one side red, the other
side yellow.”

This Mr. Wallace pronounces “ a kind of natural photo-
graphy, the particular coloured rays to which the fresh pupa
is exposed in its soft semi-transparent condition effecting
such a chemical change in the organic juices as to produce
the same tint in the hardened skin.” This power of the
pupa to assume the colour of closely adjacent objects, how-
ever, is limited, since when Mrs. Barber surrounded one of
her caterpillars with a piece of scarlet cloth the pupa dis-
played its ordinary green tint, though the small red spots
with which it is marked were rendered abnormally bright.
It must be recorded, however, that these very interesting
changes are confined to the chrysalis, and do not appear to
have extended in any way to the mature butterfly. We
have never been able to trace any modification in the colours
of butterflies reared, for one generation, in abnormally”
coloured light, nor, as far as we are aware, has any other
observer been more successful.

A correspondence has also been in some instances traced
between the colours of animals and those of the localities
which they inhabit and the food which they eat. Spiders

1878.]

Colouration of the Organic World.

47

have been found of exactly the same tint as the flowers in
which they lurk. Mr. Wallace, on the authority of Sir
Charles Dilke, mentions a pink-coloured Mantis which, when
at rest, closely resembles the pink flower of an orchis, and
is thus enabled to seize unsuspecting butterflies. But we
should be wrong in ascribing such similarity of colouration
to the effects of reflected light, or, indeed, of any merely
physical influence. They are almost certainly due to physi-
ological causes, and are instances of what is called
“ protective colouration.”

There is another class of phenomena which at first sight
seems due to the aCtion of light. Many inseCts when they
first emerge from the pupa are abnormally pale, and do not
take their full mature colouration until after a longer or
shorter interval of time. It was in virtue of this property
that an entomologist, commissioned by the German Govern-
ment to inspect a field where the dreaded Colorado beetle
had made its appearance, was enabled to decide that these
inseCt enemies had only just appeared in the mature form,
and that on turning up the ground a further stock would be
found in a rudimentary state, as on aCtual trial was found
to be the case. But this gradual development of colour has
not been proved to be the result of light. We have reared
up caterpillars in perfect darkness, and have found their
colours on reaching maturity no less brilliant than those of
their fellows which had been exposed to light in the ordinary
course of nature. In the case of interference-colours a
change in the physical condition of the integuments, conse-
quent of their drying and hardening on exposure to the air,
is doubtless necessary for their development. The evolution
of the pigment-colours we are at present investigating, and
believe that it is simply due to a process of oxidation.

Some other of the phenomena advanced in support of the
“ light theory ” of organic colouration may also be, with
great probability, referred to other causes. Thus some
ascribe to light the faCt that the upper surface of most
animals is more intensely coloured than their under side.
Many fishes have a dark back, and a pale greyish blue or
greenish belly ; but, as Mr. Wallace points out, this ar-
rangement seems more protective than due to the aCtion of
light. An enemy — say a sea-bird — looking down from above
will have difficulty in distinguishing the dark back of the
fish amidst the water. On the other hand, an enemy looking
from below will see the pale belly of the fish against the dull
bluish colour of the sky as seen on looking up through the
water, and will scarcely deteCt its presence. Now, were

48 The Action of Light upon the [January,

this arrangement of colours reversed the fish would be much
more readily seen, either from above or from below, and the
chances of its escaping from its enemies would be much
reduced. At the same time it must be confessed that this
explanation is not admissible in all cases of a similar ar-
rangement of colour. Thus in many Crustaceans unable
to swim, and therefore not liable to be seen by any enemy
from below, the under surface is much paler than the back.
Similarly slugs — whether creeping upon the ground, upon
the stems or leaves of vegetables — are liable to be espied
from the back or the sides, but never from beneath ; yet in
most cases their under surface is decidedly paler than their
back. These instances, and others which might he adduced,
certainly seem to agree better with the supposition of a
darkening influence due to the freer action of light upon the
upper side than with that of a protective distribution of
colour.

But from the whole of the evidence before us, especial
attention being paid to the case of the deep-sea anemones,
we are forced to conclude that the colouration of an animal
species is not, in the mathematical use of the word, a
function of the amount of solar radiations to which it is
exposed. That this conclusion does not compel us to deny
the influence of sunlight upon the hues of all animals,
under all conceivable circumstances, scarcely needs to be
stated.

The faCt that Lepidopterous larvae are in a majority of
cases, partially at least, of a green colour is not inexplicable.
They retain in their bodies, in an undecomposed state, the
chlorophyll of the leaves upon which they have fed. Larvae,
on the other hand, whether Lepidopterous or Coleopterous,
which feed not upon leaves, but upon wood, roots, seeds,
&c., not containing chlorophyll, may naturally be found de-
ficient in this green colour, without our taking the presence
or absence of light into account. Hence we need not
wonder that the caterpillars of the goat-moth and the
wood-leopard, the larvae of the Longicornes, Buprestidae,
Dynastidae, &c., are not green : they have not been consuming
a green pigment. But why have we comparatively so few
green butterflies and moths, and so many green birds and
green beetles ? The green colours found in birds and in
beetles — with the exception of such forms as Cassida, a leaf-
feeder, are due not to a pigment, but to the interference of
light, so that their formation must be explained on different
principles. The paucity of green butterflies may, perhaps,
be traced to the faCt that chlorophyll is a mixture of two

1878.] Colouration of the Organic World. 49

colouring principles,* — cyanophyll, which is blue, and xan-
thophyll, which is yellow, — the latter of these colours being
much more permanent than the other. Hence if, as appears
exceedingly probable, chlorophyll is assimilated by leaf-
eating inserts, a number of phenomena connected with their
colouration become at once intelligible. We have mentioned
in an earlier part of this paper that among animal tints
pigment-greens are generally the first to fade, and that they
become a dull yellow or a yellowish drab, as maybe observed
in a specimen, say, of Cassida equestris, which, however care-
fully preserved, soon loses its pale green hue, and turns
yellowish. The reason of this change, we contend, is that
the cyanophyll or blue colouring-matter first undergoes
decomposition, while the yellow xanthophyll alone remains.
A similar change, taking place in the living animal in its
pupa condition, is the cause why pigment-greens are so rare
alike among Lepidoptera and Coleoptera, whilst yellows and
browns of different shades are so exceedingly common, and
relatively so permanent. We find also that certain cater-
pillars, green in the earlier part of their life generally, though
not invariably, take a brown colour as they approach the
time of their assuming the pupa state.

But even supposing that chlorophyll is demonstrably assi-
milated or deposited in the tissues of certain insedts, the
hypothesis we have been suggesting takes us but a very
little way. We have still to ask why the green colour in
certain species remains undecomposed to the mature condi-
tion, whilst in others it disappears in the pupal or even in
the larval state, and how, after disappearance or absence in
the larva, as in Chcerocampa Elpenor , it appears in the perfedt
insedt ? We have to enquire why certain diurnal caterpil-
lars, consuming as much chlorophyll as do any others, — e.g.9
Vanessa lo, V. xanthomelas, V. urticce, &c., — are free from a
green colouration ? At the same time we must admit that
in caterpillars of this class a yellow pattern is very rarely
absent, as if the xanthophyll had already been separated
from the cyanophyll. We have to explain the pigment-
blues, of which there seem to be two, if not three, the iden-
tity of which with cyanophyll must not he too rashly
assumed, though in many cases we see both blue and yellow
spots appearing in a butterfly, as if the two colours, which
in its earlier state had been blended together, were now

* Some authorities consider that chlorophyll is a mixture not of two, but
of three colouring principles (Fremy and Cloez), or of four (Stokes). As
these, however, are in all cases found to be respectively blue and yellow, the
view we have taken will not be affeCted by these discordant results.

VOL. VIII. (N.S.) E

50

The Action of Light upon the

[January,

separated, as in Papilio Machaon. We have, further, to
throw a light upon the origin of the pigment-reds, to two of
which Mr. Wallace refers as being different in their chemical
constitution and behaviour.

But chlorophyll is not the only substance which has been
called into requisition in order to explain the mysteries of
animal colouration. It has not escaped the attention of
biologists that all those creatures which develope, more or
less frequently, beautiful hues are precisely the same in
which uric acid is abundantly secreted, — i.e., birds, reptiles,
inserts, — whilst in the Mammalia, in which the secretion of
uric acid is trifling, the prevailing colours are dull. It was
asserted that whilst uric acid is abundantly found in the
excretions of parrots, humming-birds, &c., at other times of
the year, during and immediately before the moulting season
it was absent. Hence the inference that this compound
might play a part in the elaboration of the new plumage
was not unwarrantable. In addition came the fadt that a
beautiful violet colour, known as murexide, and capable of
producing a variety of shades, was artificially obtained from
uric acid.* Unfortunately when these investigations were
carried on the distinction between interference-colours and
absorption-colours had not been fully apprehended, and the
iridescent hues of humming-birds, trogons, Belionotce , were
supposed to be due to some peculiar pigments of unknown
composition. Nor has it, as far as we are aware, ever been
shown that the excreta of splendidly-coloured birds are
richer in uric acid than those of sea-fowl. For the present,
therefore, the uric acid theory must be considered as useless.

A consideration of the food of different species might at
first sight appear likely to throw some light upon the nature
of their colouration. But we find intense splendour and
varied tints alike among carnivorous species (Cicindelidse
and certain Carabidae), wood-eaters (Buprestidae), and leaf-
eaters (Chrysomelidae). We find dull and sordid colours
among many carrion- and dung-feeders (Silphidae, Aphodiidae,
Staphylinidae), whilst others addicted to a similar diet —
such as most species of the genus Phanceus — display the
most splendid hues. Nor is an examination of the diet of
birds more satisfactory. t

* Murexide, known in the commercial world as “Roman purple” and
“ Tyrian purple,” was some time ago prepared from guano, — i.e., the excreta
of sea-fowl, — and was in considerable demand among dyers and calico-printers.
Being costlier than the coal-tar colours, it is now superseded.

f In addition to the case cf chlorophyll above mentioned there seem to be
individual instances where the colouring matter of a plant, if eaten by insects,
may be traced in their secretions. We do not know whether the deep reddish

1878.] Colouration of the Organic World. 51

It may perhaps be thought that in an inquiry into the
influence of light upon the colouration of animals a consi-
deration of their diet, or of their peculiar secretions and
excretions, is out of place. But whether solar radiations,
or local atmospheric influences, or the need of protection
take a greater or smaller share in the development of colour,
there must be essential differences in the material upon
which these causes adt. Mammals are exposed to the same
climatic influences as birds and insedts, and are likewise
exposed to dangers which they might escape by a coloura-
tion favourable to concealment. Their hair is, chemically
considered, a material no less suitable for the display of gay
and brilliant colours than are the feathers of birds, the
scales of serpents, or the chitinous coating of inseCts ; yet
neither in lustre, in varying play of colour, nor in delicacy
and elaborateness of design, do they make even the faintest
approach to a rivalry with these groups of animals. There
must therefore be an internal source of colouration, not
everywhere present, upon which external influences may
readt.

Mr. Wallace, whilst rejecting the light-theory, brings
forward certain principles which he considers throw a light
upon the phenomena of colour in organic nature. Whilst
demurring to the common conclusion that tropical light
and heat are the cause of colour, he fully recognises the
general fadt that “ all the more intense and gorgeous tints
are manifested by the animal life of the tropics, whilst in
some groups, such as butterflies and birds, there is a marked
preponderance of highly-coloured species.” This pheno-
menon he ascribes to a variety of causes, some of which yet
remain to be discovered. The foremost place is given to
the following consideration : — “ The luxuriant vegetation of
the tropics throughout the entire year affords so much con-
cealment that colour may there be safely developed to a
much greater extent than in climates where the trees are
bare in winter, during which season the struggle for existence
is most severe, and even the slightest disadvantage may
prove fatal.” Fully admitting the force of this consideration
in the case of birds, we must yet, with all the deference due
to so eminent an authority as Mr. Wallace, point out that
it can have very little moment as regards insedts which
during the winter are in a dormant condition, as larvae or

violet liquid which exudes from Timavcha lezvigata, an insedt feeding upon
bedstraw, a plant of the madder tribe, has ever been examined for alizarin or
purpurin.

52 The Action of Light upon the [January,

pupae, either in the earth, in the trunks of trees, or other
localities where neither beauty can betray them nor its lack
screen them from the pursuit of any enemy.

As the first among the causes of colouration he places the
need of protection. He points out that browns and other
tertiary colours, being most readily produced by “ an irre-
gular mixture of many kinds of solar rays, are most likely
to occur when the need of protection is slight, or even when
it does not exist at all, always supposing that bright colours
are not in any way useful to the species.” Hence browns,
olives, and other dirty colours may naturally be expected to
predominate.

Brilliant colours, again, often serve as a sign that their
wearer possesses some unpleasant or dangerous property,
and hence warn possible enemies to pass on and seek some
less nauseous prey. The number of apparently feeble and
defenceless species which are clad in the most conspicuous
colours, and which are avoided and refused by birds,
monkeys, spiders, &c., is astonishing. The present writer,
in a paper read before the Entomological Society (Trans.
Ent. Soc., 1877, ^art HI., p. 205) has shown that, in a
great number of cases at least, the most showy and
conspicuous caterpillars feed upon plants either absolutely
poisonous or possessing offensive flavours and odours,
whence the rejection of such larvae by insectivorous animals.
Their brilliant colouration is therefore simply a danger-
signal.

The theory of “ Sexual Selection,” upon which Mr. Darwin
lays great weight, Mr. Wallace finds himself unable to
accept as in any way an explanation of the distribution of
colour in animals. He remarks that “ whilst male butter-
flies rival, or even excel, the most gorgeous male birds in
bright colours and elegant patterns, there is literally not
one particle of evidence that the female is influenced by
colour, or even that she has any power of choice, whilst
there is much direCt evidence to the contrary.” In the case
of the silk-moth Mr. Darwin admits that “ the females
appear not to evince the least choice in regard to their
partners.” On the principle of natural selection among a
number of rival male butterflies, “ the most vigorous and
energetic ” will probably be successful, and, as these pro-
perties are very generally correlated with intensity of colour,
natural selection “ becomes a preserver and intensifier of
colour.” Very similar is the case among birds. We know
that in many species the male displays his colours and
ornaments, but, as Mr. Wallace contends, there is a tota

1878.]

Colouration of the Organic World.

53

absence of any evidence that the females admire, or even
notice, this display. “ The hen, the turkey, and the pea-fowl
go on feeding while the male is displaying his finery) and
there is reason to believe that it is his persistency and
energy, rather than his beauty, which wins the day.” Here,
again, vigour and intense vitality seem to he the chief
recommendations of the male in the eyes of the female, and
these — as is very strikingly manifest in the game cock —
appear correlated with intense colouration. Mr. Wallace
resumes : — “ Evidence collected by Mr. Darwin himself
proves that each bird finds a mate under any circumstances.
He gives a number of cases of one of a pair of birds being
shot, and of the survivor being always found paired again
almost immediately. This is sufficiently explained on the
assumption that the destruction of birds by various causes
is continually leaving widows and widowers in nearly equal
proportions, and thus each one finds a fresh mate ; and it
leads to the conclusion that permanently unpaired birds are
very scarce, so that, speaking broadly, every bird finds a
mate and breeds. But this would almost or quite neutralise
any effeCt of sexual selection, of colour, or ornament, since
the less highly-coloured birds would be at no disadvantage
as regards leaving healthy offspring.” Whilst accepting
this conclusion, we may ask whether the same argument is
not capable of further application ? It is generally stated
that the “ fittest ” male — i.e., the one most in harmony with
the circumstances in which he is placed — will have the
best chance of securing a mate and of leaving offspring,
whilst the feebler, the slower, the less energetic, and those
least in harmony with the situation, wall be left in a state of
single blessedness, and will not transmit their attributes to
posterity. But on the principles laid down in the passage
we have just quoted the effects of natural selection will be
greatly neutralised. It must, however, be remembered that
the destruction of birds, especially in a state of Nature, will
not fall exclusively or mainly upon those which have secured
mates, but will likewise extend to the unwedded.

Whilst combatting Mr. Darwin’s view, that the brilliant
colours of butterflies have been acquired for the sake of
protection, Mr. Wallace remarks : — “ It is in faCt somewhat
remarkable how very generally the black spots, ocelli, or
bright patches of colour are on the tips, margins, or disks
of the wings ; and as the inseCts are necessarily visible
while flying, and this is the time when they are most subject
to attacks of insectivorous birds, the position of the more
conspicuous parts at some distance from the body may be a

54

Action of Light upon Colouration. [January,

real protection to them.” This rule, however, is by no
means universal. The fire-wasp ( Chryseis ) and not a few
other Hymenoptera have brilliantly-coloured bodies, but
colourless and transparent wings, which when expanded and
in aCtion are scarcely visible. In numbers of Lepidoptera
the more intense colours, especially reds, are found entirely
or mainly on the posterior wings, which extend to a less
distance from the body than do the anterior pair. In many
cases again Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, and Hymenoptera
display conspicuous colours at the extremity of the abdomen,
where a blow from the beak of a bird would doubtless per-
manently disable.

A question may here arise concerning the use of the
colouration of the posterior or true wings in certain beetles,
a circumstance not sufficiently examined. Whilst these
wings in the vast majority of Coleopterous species are
colourless, or at most of a very faint yellowish hue, in the
Colorado beetle they are pink, and purple in several Chryso-
chroas , Pachnodas , and Lomapteras. Why should these species
thus differ from other closely-allied forms, with whom
they appear to agree most closely in their habits ?

We have no doubt that Mr. Wallace’s formal declaration
against the dodtrine of Sexual Selection will attract the
attention of disbelievers in Evolution, and we venture to
hope that all the comments which will be elicited may not
be beside the question.

1878.]

Stone Implements in Glacial Drift.

55

IV. ON THE DISCOVERY OF
STONE IMPLEMENTS IN GLACIAL DRIFT
IN NORTH AMERICA.

By Thomas Belt, F.G.S.

SFIE discovery of great numbers of stone implements
in New Jersey, by Dr. C. C. Abbott, in deposits which
are probably of Glacial age, is of such great im-
portance that a detailed account of the beds in which they
have been found and a discussion of their antiquity will he
interesting to many. I had, during the past autumn, an
opportunity of studying these beds under the kind guidance
of the discoverer of the implements ; and I am also indebted
to Prof. Cook and Prof. Smock, of the Geological Survey of
New Jersey, for much information respecting the glaciation
of the State. I shall, in the first place, give a brief state-
ment of what was before known of the earliest traces of
man in North America.

Before these discoveries there had been many intimations
of the great antiquity of man in the western hemisphere.
Probably one of the earliest of these was the discovery of
the fragment of a human bone which was said to have been
found at the base of 60 feet of loess, near Natchez, on the
Mississippi, along with the remains of the megalonyx and
other extinCt quadrupeds. A full description of the deposits
in which these remains were discovered has been
given by Sir Charles Lyell, in his “ Second Visit to the
States.”* We learn there that Dr. Dickeson, of Natchez,
felt persuaded that the fragment of human bone had been
taken out of the clay underlying the loam ; but Sir Charles
L}^ell could not ascertain that it had been actually dug out
in the presence of a geologist, or any practised observer,
and he speculated on the possibility of it having fallen from
above, into the bed of the ravine, from some old Indian
grave. This was in 1846 : long afterwards, when the disco-
veries in Europe had established the contemporaneity of
man and the great extinCt pachyderms, he recalled the faCt

Op. cit., vol. ii., p. 196.

56 Discovery of Stone Implements in [January,

that the human bone was in the same state of preservation
and of the same black colour as the bones of the mastodon
and megalonyx, said to have been found with it ; and he was
disposed to think that he had discussed its probable age
with a stronger bias, as to the antecedent improbability of
the contemporaneous entombment of man and the mas-
todon, than any geologist would now be justified in enter-
taining. * * * §

The fragment of a human skull from Calaveras, in Cali-
fornia, which was said to have been found in gravel beneath
five successive overflows of lava, would, if authenticated, be
probably the oldest record of man in North America. The
same doubts, however, have been expressed about it as about
the Natchez remains, no geologist being present when it
was exhumed. In the newer gold-drifts of California, along
with the remains of the mastodon, elephant, tapir, bison,
and horse, the implements of man have been frequently
found. t

In the auriferous gravels of Kansas and Georgia stone
and flint implements have also been discovered.!

Dr. Samuel Aughey, in his account of the superficial
deposits of Nebraska, states that the remains of elephants
and mastodons are often found in the loess that overspreads
nearly the whole of the State. In this deposit, in a railway-
cutting near Omaha, 20 feet from the surface, he dug out
himself a large coarse arrow- or spear-head which lay
13 inches below the lumbar vertebra of Elephas ameri-
canus. ||

Near Alton, in Illinois, stone axes and flint spear-heads
along with the bones of the mastodon are reported from
drift below loess. §

All the above discoveries are in regions that drain either
into the Pacific or the Gulf of Mexico.

Mr. Ch as. M. Wallace has described the discovery by him
of flint implements in stratified drift near Richmond, Vir-
ginia.IT These deposits seem to be similar to those in which
Dr. Abbott has made his discoveries in New Jersey. The
valley of the James River is mantled by thick deposits of
coarse gravel covered with brick-clays. The implements
have been found occasionally in the clay, and more frequently

* Antiquity of Man, first edition, p. 200.

f J. D. Whitney, Geol. Surv. California, vol. i., p. 252.

X Dr. D. Wilson, Canadian Journal of Science, October, 1877, pp. 559,
560.

|| Geol. Surv. of the Territories, 1876, p. 254.

§ Geol. Surv. Illinois, 1866, vol. i., p. 38.

H Amer. Journ. Science, March, 1876, vol. xi., p. 195.

1878.] Glacial Drift in North America . 57

in the underlying gravel. One of the sections given by Mr.
Wallace shows the following succession of beds : —

Feet.

Brick earth underlying greyish clay ... 9

Rounded gravel, reddish hue 4

Fine bluish sand 12

Gravel and bluish pebbles 4

Compacted sand (probably Tertiary).

Several implements were found on the surface of the lower
bed of gravel. This lower gravel contains large numbers
of the pebbles from which the implements, for the most
part, appear to have been fashioned. In some parts large
boulders (one 8 ft. by 12 ft.) rest upon the gravel, and
appear as if they had been brought by floating ice and
deposited in gentle waters. Mr. Wallace notes the similarity
of many of the implements to those of palaeolithic age in
Europe. I believe this is the first notice of the discovery
of palaeolithic implements on the eastern sea-board of
North America,

The report by Dr. C. C. Abbott of his discoveries of stone
implements in the drift-gravels near Trenton, New Jersey,
appeared in the “Tenth Annual Report of the Peabody
Museum,” issued during the present year.* My attention
was drawn to it, soon after its publication, by Dr. D. Wilson,
of Toronto, — who has since reviewed Dr. Abbott’s paper, t — ■
and in consequence I visited the locality. Dr. Abbott
showed to me a great number of the implements he had
found, and afterwards accompanied me to the principal
places near Trenton from which they had been obtained.

Whilst a few of the implements resemble some of the
palaeolithic chipped flints of England and France, the gene-
ral form and type is of a ruder and more imperfect character.
Some are simply made from rounded flat pebbles by chipping
a cutting edge at one end. Amongst them are many of what
Dr. Abbott has named the “ turtle-back ” type. It appears
to have been formed by using a pebble with one side natu-
rally flat, or by producing a flat surface by artificial fradlure
and bevelling down the other side by chipping, so as to
produce a cutting edge.

Whilst the general character of the implements is ruder
than the European, a few appear more like a spear-head
than I have seen amongst the latter. I have shown a few,

* Op. cit ., p. 30.

f Canadian Journal of Science, Odtober, 1877, p. 557.

[January,

^8 Discovery of Stone Implements in

that Dr. Abbott liberally presented to me, to our greatest
authority on stone implements, Dr. John Evans, and he
considers they are different from the palaeolithic type in
Europe, and more resemble some of the ruder neolithic im-
plements from Ireland. It is surprising that palaeolithic
implements from distant parts of the Old World resemble
each other so closely, and it would have been more wonderful
if those from America had been fashioned to the same type.

Most of these implements are from the high bluff facing
the Delaware, near Trenton ; some from other localities in
the same valley. Amongst them is one which Dr. Abbott
picked out himself from the face of a railway-cutting through
a boulder deposit at Butzville, 50 miles north of Trenton.
It is made from a flattened pebble, by one end being chipped
to a cutting edge, the other being left in its natural rounded
condition. Both on the rounded portion of this specimen
and on the chipped part are what appear to be glacial
scratches. Dr. Abbott informed me that nearly every stone
in this deposit was covered with glacial striae, and Professor
Smock afterwards told me that the formation had been
recognised by the Geological Survey as part of the terminal
moraine of the great ice-sheet. I felt no doubt when I
examined this specimen that it had been fashioned by man,
but Dr. Abbott has since informed me that others to whom
he has shown it think that it is barely possible that it may
be of natural formation. I fully expefffc that it will be
authenticated by further discoveries, but in the meantime it
may be well not to base any theories upon it. I noticed
small scratches upon some of Dr. Abbott’s other specimens,
and he kindly presented one to me showing these on
one side. As I shall have to explain further on, the glacial
age of at least some of these implements can be proved
without reference to the one from Butzville, or whether the
scratches on others are glacial or not ; and I am disposed
to place less value on the striae on the Trenton specimens,
because it is obviously possible that they may be artificial.

Opposite Dr. Abbott’s house, about 2 miles below Trenton,
the high bank bounding the river has been worn back into
a deep bend, and a wide alluvial plain now lies between it
and the Delaware. I sketched the section of the beds
forming the bluff (Fig. 1) at this point. The top bed is
here an unstratified sandy clay, with a few scattered pebbles,
and occasionally very large boulders, none of which were,
however, seen at this locality ; beneath this lie alternations
of fine sandy gravel, sand, coarse gravel, and boulder-beds.
Dr. Abbott pointed out to me the upper layer of pebbles as

1878.] Glacial Drift in North America . 59

the horizon from which he had obtained some of the imple-
ments in undisturbed ground.

Towards Trenton the bluff approaches the river, and just
below the town forms its bank. The face of the bluff is

Fig. 1.

1. Sandy clay, 3 to 6 feet, with large boulders on surface in some places.

2. Alternations of gravel and sand, occasionally false bedded, 6 to 10 feet. Stone

implements.

3. Unstratified pebble and boulder bed. Thickness very variable.

C. Cretaceous marls and clays.

mostly a talus ; there are few good sections, and none that
I saw were perfectly satisfactory. The best section was
near the cemetery, where I made the sketch shown in

2

3

2. Irregularly stratified sand and gravel, with occasionally larger stones inter-

mixed, about 12 feet. Stone implements.

3. Thick unstratified bed of pebbles and boulders, mostly rounded, with many

stones up to 15 inches diameter ; larger ones rare. Base of deposit not seen.

Fig. 2. The lower bed (No. 3) is quite unstratified ; only
the upper 12 feet of it is seen where the section was taken,
the lower part being covered with talus, but in other places

Fig. 2.

6o

Discovery of Stone Implements in [January,

it was seen going down to and below the river, the surface
of which is about 40 feet below the top of the bluff.

The irregularly stratified beds, No. 2, contain generally
much smaller stones than No. 3. These beds, as in the
former case, were pointed out to me by Dr. Abbott as the ones
from which he had obtained the implements, and whilst I
was present he discovered a rude one in the talus which ap-
peared to have come from them, as we were too high up the
slope for it to have come from the lower bed.

The bed of sandy clay (No. 1 in Fig. 1) has been denuded
from the top of the bluff, but a little way back from the
edge it appears, and contains great boulders scattered over
its -surface.

From all the sections that I saw, and from the information
given to me by Dr. Abbott, I have constructed the general
section (Fig. 3) showing the succession of the beds. Up to

Fig. 3.— Diagram Section below Trenton.

River

Delaware

1. Sandy clay, unstratified, with a few pebbles, and with very large ar-transporte

boulders on or immediately below the surface.

2. Irregularly stratified sands and gravels. Stone implements.

3. Pebble and boulder bed. Stones up to 15 inches across plentiful ; larger ones

rare. Stones mostly rounded, with a few subangular ones; no scratched
ones seen,

A. Alluvium.

C. Cretaceous marls and clays.

the time of my visit (October, 1877) no implements had
been found in the lower quaternary bed (No. 3), though it
seems to me extremely likely that they will yet be discovered.
This bed, of mostly rounded boulders and large pebbles, is
quite unstratified. Amongst the pebbles are many flattened
ones, similar to those from which some, if not all, the im-
plements found in the higher beds have been made. This
rounded boulder-bed is of great extent, and has been
described by Prof. W. B. Rogers* as extending from the
Delaware into Virginia. At Washington the deposit covers
the whole plain on which the city is built, rising to a height
of about 200 feet above the sea over the low hills around it.
Prof. Rogers has found in it stones containing Scolithus
linearis, a well-known fossil of the Potsdam formation,
having its nearest outcrop on the western side of the Blue

* “ On the Gravel and Cobble-stone Deposits of Virginia and the Middle
States.” Pioc. Bos. Soc. Nat. Hist., 1875, vol. xviii., p. ioi.

1878.I Glacial Drift in North America. 61

Ridge. Some of the stones found near Richmond must
have been brought 80 miles if they travelled in a direCt line
from the parent rock. At Richmond this deposit is said to
present itself at various heights from the river-bank to the
tops of the hills, mantling the irregularly denuded surface
of the underlying formations, resting at one place on the
Upper Miocene, at others on the Eocene, or yet older
deposits.*

At Trenton this deposit is principally composed of crys-
talline rocks, many of distant origin, but none I believe
have been noticed that may not have been derived from
formations existing within the drainage area of the Dela-
ware and its territories. Trenton is often mentioned as
being about the southern limit to which the northern ice
reached in the valley of the Delaware in glacial times, but
I could find no traces of glaciation in the neighbourhood ;
and Prof. Cook informed me that it has not been noticed
farther south in the valley than near Belvidere, about
50 miles in a direCt line N.N.W. from Trenton. Prof. Cook
and Prof. Smock have now traced the southern boundary of
the land ice pretty clearly across the State of New Jersey,
from the neighbouroood of Amboy, on the Atlantic coast, to
Belvidere, on the Delaware. From thence it runs across to
near Harrisburg, in the valley of the Susquehanna, where
Prof. J. P. Lesley informed me were the most southern
glaciated rock surfaces in that valley. North of an undu-
lating line passing through these points the surfaces of the
bed-rocks are rounded and polished, and scored with glacial
striae. By means of these markings, and by the direction
from which transported rocks have been brought from their
parent beds, the course of the ice has been mapped out
from the Canadian boundary, where it was so thick as to be
able to over-ride and move independently of the valleys, up
to its southern termination, where it is found conforming
with the direction of the main drainage channels. South of
the line to which the northern ice extended the rock surfaces
are often decomposed to a great depth. This is especially
evident where the bed-rock is gneiss or granite. In such
cases, for more than 50 feet from the surface, the rocks have
often been changed to a clay that may be dug with a spade ;
whilst that it has not been otherwise reconstructed is evi-
denced by the faCt that veins of quartz running through it
remain in their original position.! Over the glaciated

* Ibid., p. 106.

f See T. Sterry Hunt, “ Decomposition of Crystalline Rocks.' Amer.
Journ. Sci., 1874, vol. vii., p. 60.

62 Discovery of Stone Implements in [January,

district, on the contrary, the decomposed crust has been
removed, and the hard unaltered rock laid bare.

It has been shown that the decomposition of the rocks
has been caused by the slow percolation of rain-water con-
taining a little carbonic acid. It follows that the surface
rocks had been exposed for long ages to this influence, and
that the time that those of the glaciated districts have been
subjected to the same aCtion, since the Glacial period, is
exceedingly short in comparison.

Another mark by which the glaciated may be distinguished
from the non-glaciated country is by the occurrence of a
deposit long known in Scotland under the name of “ till,”
and on the Continent as “ grund morane ” and “ moraine
profonde.” It is generally a stiff clay, full of small angular
fragments of the rocks over which the ice has passed, and
sometimes with large angular and subangular stones. It
always more or less reflects the characteristics of the strata
immediately in the neighbourhood and in the direction from
which the ice has come. Thus in the vicinity of Toronto I
noticed, as Mr. G. J. Hinde had before remarked,* that the
till is packed with small fragments of black Utica shale and
blue Trenton limestone — strata that the ice had passed over
in its passage from the eastward. Along with these were
larger fragments and slabs of the underlying Hudson River
group, and a few rounded boulders of gneiss that were far
travelled. Around New York many patches of till are left
on the glaciated rocks. I visited Marion, near the city of
New Jersey, by the advice of Prof. Cook, and found very
fine sections of the glacial beds. The till is there not a
stiff clay, but a rather sandy deposit, of a dark reddish
brown colour, packed with the angular debris of the red tri-
assic sandstones that form a large portion of the bed-rocks
of eastern New Jersey. A few of the contained stones may
have been brought from a distance, but the great bulk of
them, as well as the sandy matrix, are of local origin.

The deposition of the till probably took place during the
melting back of the ice-sheet. Dr. Dana has shown that
the ice was very thick over New England, and that the
pressure at its base would be so great as to force the plastic
mass into the crevices of the rocks below, so as to tear off
fragments from them, which, with any loose material it met
with in its progress, would be gathered up and borne along
in the lower portion of the ice-sheet, t Prof. Joseph Le Conte,

* Canadian Journal, April, 1877, p. 8.

f “ On the Glacial and Champlain Eras in New England.” Amer. Journ.
Sci., March, 1873.

1878.]

Glacial Drift in North America .

63

in his study cf the deposits left hy the ancient glaciers of
the Sierra Nevada,* has arrived at a similar conclusion.
Prof. Hall, in his “Geology of New York,” has given a
large picture of a natural section on the shore of Lake Erie,
in Chautauque county, where we may see as it were the till
in course of formation. In some parts the top strata are
only a little separated, with clay forced in between them ; in
others they stand on edge, or are broken up and the frag-
ments scattered throughout the till.t I have seen similar
instances on the shores of Lake Ontario. In our own
country there are also many examples of the same action ;
one of the finest, that I have seen, being in the beautiful
section of the glacial beds exhibited in the cliffs at the
mouth of the Tyne, in Northumberland. In this way the
lower portion of the ice appears to have become charged
with stones and finer materials which were left on the sur-
face when the great glacier melted back. The till is there-
fore restridted to the area that the land-ice covered, and is
as much a memorial of its former presence as the scratched
and rounded rocks on which it generally lies.

By the glaciated rock-surfaces up to the line I have
already mentioned and their absence beyond, by the out-
spread of the till limited by the same boundary, and by the
disappearance of the decomposed surface-rocks up to but
not beyond that margin, we know that the land-ice did not
reach, in the valley of the Delaware, farther than the
neighbourhood of Belvidere, which is 50 miles to the north
of Trenton. What relations, then, do the beds of drift that
I have described at Trenton bear to the ice-sheet ? To
answer this question we must take into consideration what
we know is taking place at the terminations of existing
glaciers. Great streams of water run from underneath
them, bearing along fragments of rocks that have been
melted out of the glacier or fallen through crevices to the
subglacial rivers. These are rounded by attrition, and
spread out in sheets of pebbles often extending for miles
below the terminations of the glaciers. From the enormous
glacier that once filled the Delaware valley as far as Belvi-
dere, and which was itself only a southern prolongation of
the still greater northern ice-sheet, there must have been
shed a vast amount of similar material. The large rounded
drift that lies at the base of the quaternary beds at Trenton
(No. 3 in Figs. 1, 2, 3) is almost undoubtedly a similar

* Amer. Journ. Sci., 1875, p. 126.
f Op. cit., Plate VIII.

64 Discovery of Stone Implements in [January,

deposit. It contains a mixture of all the various rocks over
which the glacier of the Delaware would pass ; those from
the Hardest formations being most abundant, as they would
best survive the severe abrasions to which they had been
subjected.

No implements are yet reported from this bed, so that,
putting aside the disputed implement from the morainic
accumulation at Butzville, we have no evidence at present
that man frequented the valley of the Delaware before or
during the greatest extension of the glacier of that valley.
The deposits from which Dr. Abbott has obtained the imple-
ments lie above this great unstratified bed of rounded drift,
and we should have great difficulty in fixing the approxi-
mate age of the implement-bearing strata if it were not for
the fortunate occurrence of the sandy clay with large
boulders (No. 1 in Figs. 1 and 3) clearly superimposed on
the latter. We may now turn our attention to the consi-
deration of this surface-bed and the relation it bore to the
Glacial period.

In my discussion of the glacial and post-glacial pheno-
mena bearing on the date of the excavation of the gorge at
Niagara, published in this Journal,* I have described the
occurrence of large boulders of crystalline rocks lying above
all the other glacial beds. In the till which lies next the
glaciated bed-rocks the stones are all of local origin ; in the
surface deposit they are all from the distant north.

Prof. James Hall, so long ago as in 1843, had fully recog-
nised the importance of the occurrence of these far-trans-
ported blocks that lie scattered over the surface, and had
noted the difference in the mode of their occurrence and in
their composition from the rocks included in the lower
glacial beds.f He shows that the glacial beds belong to
two periods : one, the lower, which contains mostly local
rocks ; the other, the upper, containing far-transported crys-
talline rocks. He says that on the broad northern slope
towards Lake Ontario, where hills are distant, there are
numerous and extensive fields of boulders resting upon the
surface, or but partially imbedded in the soil, and holding
such a position that it is evident that they are of subsequent
origin to the great body of detritus ; and again, on the
western prairies, long lines of boulders are to be observed
stretching away for miles beyond the reach of vision, as if
once forming a line of coast or deposited along some channel

* Op. cii.y April, 1875.

f Geology of New York, Part IV., pp. 319 to 321.

1878.]

Glacial Drift in North America.

65

or coarse of a current, though the general surface indicates
no influence upon this portion beyond what is common to
the whole. Prof. Hall considered that there was no ex-
planation of the transport of these great blocks, excepting
on the supposition that the whole surface was covered with
water, over which they were floated on icebergs, “ Had
they been transported,” he says, “ by a powerful current
over the bottom (which cannot be supposed from the ine-
qualities of the surface) all the older drift would have been
removed at the same time, and instead of finding them as
we do now, mostly upon the surface, they would have been
imbedded indiscriminately in the superficial detritus, and
there would have been no means of recognising the products
of different periods.”*

Dr. Newberry, in his “ Surface Geology of Ohio,” has
fully described the distribution of large boulders over the
surface of that State. Even in Southern Ohio they are in
some parts very numerous. Pie says that the large un-
scratched boulders are generally found on the surface, and
that in the great series of excavations, which have been
made in the construction of the railways and canals, they
have been rarely met with below it. They are often seen
resting on the fine stratified clays which form the upper part
of the drift. And he observes that “ it seems impossible
that they should have been brought to such positions by
glaciers or currents of water, as either of these agents
would have torn up the underlying clays. We also learn,
from their relative position, that these boulders were depo-
sited at a later period than the most recent stratified beds
of the drift series, and that they were floated to their present
resting-places. In short, no argument is required to con-
vince anyone who will glance at the fadts that these
boulders, and probably the gravel and sand with which they
are sometimes accompanied, were floated on icebergs from
the north shore of the great fresh-water lake which once
filled the lake basin, and that as these icebergs melted, or
when they stranded, their loads were discharged on the top
of all the drift deposits which had been laid down in the
preceding epochs of the Quaternary age.”fi

On the eastern side of the Appalachians, Prof. Hall has
noticed the occurrence of these boulders in the valley of
the Hudson, and says that he has searched in vain, near
Albany and Troy, for a boulder or pebble of granite, or of

* Ibid., p. 336.

f Surface Geology of Ohio, 1874, p. 40.
VOL. VIII. (N.S.)

F

66 Discovery of Stone Implements in [January,

any rock older than the Potsdam sandstone in the deposits
below the clay ; while in a period subsequent to the depo-
sition of the clays and sands, boulders of granite are by no
means rare.*

In the southern part of the State of New York and in
New jersey they are not uncommon. At Marion, at the
section of the till to which I have already referred, the top
bed is a light-coloured sandy clay, similar to that at Trenton.
Lying on and sometimes imbedded in this are large
boulders, scattered over the surface. The sandy clay rests
diredtly on the till, and is about 3 feet thick. Both here and
at Trenton these great boulders were much larger than any
I saw in the underlying till or drift. At Trenton they are
often seen in the formation of new streets on the outskirts
of the town. Some of them are 7 or 8 feet across, and most
require blasting before they can be removed. I learnt from
Prof. Smock that these blocks are distributed over much of
the State, and he spoke of particular boulders occurring at
a considerable altitude. I do not know, however, how high
they occur, but probably this interesting question will be
worked out by the Geological Survey of New Jersey, as well
as the distances which they must have travelled from their
parent rocks.

Nor does the Delaware form the southern limit of the
far-transported boulders. They appear to bear the same
relation to the drift-beds in Virginia, for Mr. Wallace, in
his account of the discovery of stone-implements near
Richmond, speaks of boulders in the surface-soil, and of
large blocks (8 feet by 12) resting on the gravel.

It is obvious, as Prof. Hall and Dr. Newberry have
pointed out, that these great blocks of stone must have
been carried to their present position by floating ice. Any
flood of water sufficient to move them would certainly wash
away the sandy loam in and on which they rest, and such a
mode of transport would not account for their position scat-
tered here and there over the great undulating plain that
extends from Trenton to the sea ; nor could they have been
left by the great ice-sheet, as they are found far beyond the
limits to which it reached. Sometimes we hear the distri-
bution of the upper glacial beds ascribed to a second Glacial
period, when the ice again covered the land. But ice could
not have moved thus for hundreds of miles over beds of
gravel and sand without disarranging them, and nowhere in
America has any sign been noticed of a second advance of

* Geology of New York, Part IV., p. 319.

1878.]

Glacial Drifts in North America .

67

the northern ice. We have thus two distindl phases of the
glacial era clearly marked in North-eastern America, — a
Glacier period and an Iceberg period, just as we have in
Europe. They are distinct in their range and distindt in
their effedts. In the first — the Glacier period — the ice,
moving gradually southward, scored and polished the rocks
over which it passed, and left behind it the unstratified till
containing principally scratched fragments of local rocks.
In the other — the Iceberg period — rocks were carried many
miles beyond the limit that the glacier ice reached to, and were
dropped on the top of loose unconsolidated clays and sands,
which show no trace of any abrading or disturbing force.
In Europe the ice from the Scandinavian mountains reached
to the southern side of the Baltic, and for the whole distance
the bed-rocks are glaciated ; but beyond this the iceberg
drift is scattered for hundreds of miles, and extends to the
flanks of the mountain-chains that bound the German plain
to the south ; and that icebergs do not, as a rule, glaciate
the beds over which they pass may be gathered from this, —
that as soon as the boundary is left behind to which the
land-ice undoubtedly reached no more glaciated rock-
surfaces are seen ; not even on the hills on which the ice-
bergs must have grounded, as they have left there the
greater part of the rocky burden they carried.

The agency of floating ice in the distribution of boulders
was early recognised by geologists ; but when, later on,
Agassiz proved that land-ice had also played a most im-
portant part, if was not clearly perceived that both agencies
were required to interpret the phenomena, and to this day
the till — the product of the land-ice — is often confounded
with the boulder clay, the product of the floating ice. In
no other department of geology is far-travelled experience
more necessary than in the study of the glacial beds. The
knowledge to be acquired in a single province, or even in a
single country, is not sufficient, for it will be well nigh im-
possible from that alone to separate what is particular and
local from what is widespread and general. To limited
experience I cannot help believing is due the obscurity to
be observed in many of the memoirs dealing with glacial
problems. One authority, who has perhaps lived amongst
northern mountains, ascribes everything to the ahtion of
glaciers ; another, whose home, maybe, has been on
southern plains, sees nothing but the agency of water and
floating ice.

In studying the glacial beds of North-eastern America
we must seek to give their proper importance both to

68

Discovery of Stone Implements in [January,

glaciers and icebergs, and to separate the phenomena into
the two classes to which they belong. When we do this we
find, as I have endeavoured to show, that the land-ice came
down from the north to a certain well-defined line in New
Jersey and Pennsylvania, and that after it melted hack the
country was submerged beneath a great expanse of water
that covered the whole of the lower ground and reached far
up the flanks of the hills, and that over this icebergs floated
from the north, and dropped, as they melted, large stones
brought from far distant ranges. This expanse of water
was not limited to the area that the land-ice had covered,
but extended far to the south of it into Virginia. After the
land-ice retired, or whilst it was retiring, and before the
country was submerged to such a depth as to permit the
flotation of icebergs from the north, the upper pebble beds
containing the stone implements were formed. Dr. Abbott
has not only obtained his implements from beds that are
clearly seen to have been spread out before the large blocks
were scattered over the surface, but in one instance took
one from the gravel below one of the large stones. From
Mr. Wallace’s description his discoveries appear to have
been made in gravels of the same age.

West of the Appalachians the evidence all points to the
same conclusion. We have in the Northern States, first,
glaciated rock-surfaces and patches of till that witness the
reign of land-ice ; then we have on its retirement a land-
surface, with remains of vegetation (peat and forest beds)
and of extindt mammals. Along with the latter at some
places, at the same horizon in others, have been found the
bones and implements of man, as I have described at the
commencement of this paper. The next stage is marked by
widespread beds of gravel or rolled drift, that indicate the
rising of the water. The gravel is covered with brown clay
containing great far-transported boulders, witnessing the
submergence of nearly the whole country beneath the flood.
This brown clay covers the land everywhere in the States
of Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska, and I have traced
it myself up to the flanks of the Rocky Mountains. It
marks as surely the culmination of the great flood as the
beds that follow it, the loess, mark its subsidence ; when the
waters that had before covered the hills began to be confined
to the valleys of the great rivers. From this time the
mammoth, the megalonyx, the megatherium, the mylodon,
the horse (until it was re-introduced from Europe), the
gigantic beaver, and the lion were no more seen alive
in North America, for their remains are not found in

1878.]

Glacial Drift in North America .

69

beds of later age. To the same horizon belong all the
instances I have given of the earliest appearance of man in
North America, and to it almost certainly must be ascribed
the discoveries of Dr. Abbott and Mr. Wallace on the
eastern sea-board. The extinCt 'mammals and the earliest
appearance of man in North America are therefore pre-
diluvial, as I have urged is the case in Europe : indeed a
most striking parallel may be drawn between the series of
events that happened in the Glacial period in the eastern
and the western continent.

We have first in Europe a great extension of land ice,
that from Scandinavia reaching to the south of the Baltic,
and that of the Alps to the Jura and down the valley of the
Rhone as far as Lyons. We have then the retreat of the
ice ; and palaeolithic man, the mammoth, and the rhinoceros
occupying part at least of the area the ice had covered.
Then we have a great outspread of gravels and clays,
the latter in Northern Europe, with far-transported boul-
ders, reaching up to 1700 feet above the present level of
the sea.

I have endeavoured to explain this series of events by the
theory that whilst the ice was accumulating on the moun-
tains of Scandinavia and Central Europe, it was also being
piled up at the northern end of the Atlantic, and in greater
abundance there because of greater precipitation. When
it there reached a sufficient height to intercept the
moisture in the air-currents travelling northward it would
advance down the bed of the Atlantic, partly by flowing as
a glacier, but principally because the precipitation was on
the southern slope and increased as the ice-ridge progressed
southward. Whilst this ridge of ice was moving down the
bed of the Atlantic, that from Scandinavia and the Central
Alps had culminated, and began to shrink back, for the area
of greatest precipitation was now on the Maritime Alps,
the Pyrenees, the Cantabrian Range, and the mountains of
Asturias, and the accumulation of ice there intercepted the
moisture that had before supplied the glaciers of Northern
and Central Europe. This I consider was the time of the
principal distribution of the mammoth and the woolly rhi-
noceros, an earlier stage being marked by the presence of
Elephas antiquus and Rhinoceros etruscus. The great accu-
mulations of ice in the northern and southern hemisphere
had before this abstracted so much water from the ocean
that the level of the latter had been greatly lowered, the
rivers cut deeper channels than they now occupy, the bed of
the German Ocean was left dry, and many another traCt

70

Discovery of Stone Implements in

[January,

that is now covered with a shallow sea then formed wide
pasture-grounds for the great pachyderms and their asso-
ciates. Palaeolithic man likely lived on higher and drier
land, and found a plentiful subsistence amongst the deer and
the wild horses and oxen that appear to have abounded.

Probably this state of things was of long duration, but
at last there came a catastrophe; possibly the greatest that
has befallen the human race, yet of immense benefit in its
ultimate results. The ridge of ica in the Atlantic had been
slowly advancing, and through time it coalesced with that
from the Cantabrian Range, whilst at the same time the
gap between the Pyrenees and the Maritime Alps was also
closed with ice. I suppose that the communication of the
Black Sea with the Mediterranean had not then been
effected, and that the ice of the Pacific blocked up the out-
let of the waters to Behring’s Straits. An immense basin
was thus formed, the drainage of which to the sea was in-
tercepted. The consequence would he that the low lands
would be soon submerged. The pent-up waters ultimately
reached a height of about 1700 feet above the sea, as evi-
denced by the great outspread of gravels at Munich, Bern,
and Geneva ; but whether this extreme height belonged to
the first or second rise I do not yet know. To this great
flood I ascribe the formation of the lower boulder clays and
diluvium, and the destruction of the great mammals that
were caught on the low plains and have left there their
bones in great abundance. The first great European lake
was apparently not of long duration, but was suddenly and
tumultuously lowered by the breaking away of the ice-dam ;
probably, I now think, between the Pyrenees and the Mari-
time Alps. The rushing flood or debacle swept off from the
flanks of the hills much of the detritus that covered them,
and mingled all together in the great sheets of gravel that
are now spread over much of the low country. Thus were
formed, I think, the middle sands and gravels (including
the Thames and other valley gravels), in which have been
caught up or which cover the bones of the pre-diluvial
mammals or the stone implements of pre-diluvial man. As
no land surface has yet been detected between the middle
sands and gravels and the upper boulder clay, it is probable
that the break in the rim of the lake basin was soon filled
with ice again, and the great lake re-formed. Over it
floated icebergs from the north, carrying great boulders from
the mountains of Scandinavia and scattering them over the
German plain and as far as the flanks of the Carpathians.
At this time was formed the upper boulder clay and diluvium

1878.] Glacial Drift in North America. 71

of Europe. The second lake was gradually lowered by
the cutting through of the Bosphorus or the Dardanelles,
and the various stages of its subsidence are marked in all
the great valleys of Northern and Central Europe. In
England the upper boulder clay and the upper brick clays
of the Thames and other river valleys were at this time
deposited. Flint implements appear to have been found in
clays of this age, but they do not indicate, I think, that
palseolithic man existed, but that pre-diluvial man had left
his nearly indestructible stone-work on the hill-sides, higher
than the violence of the debacle reached to, and that shore-
ice in the second-lake period sometimes carried these away
and dropped them in the clay that was then forming. I no-
ticed, in Dr. John Evans’ noble collection of stone imple-
ments, with surprise, a faCt with which he had been long
familiar — the sharp, unworn edges of the implements from
the brick clays, and also of a few that have been found on
the surface at heights of over 300 feet above the sea. These
implements have also a whitened bleached appearance, which
may be due to long exposure on the surface before being
imbedded in the brick clays.

It is now more than two years since I laid this theory
before the Geological Society of London,* and no flaw has
yet been pointed out in it, whilst in a series of papers pub-
lished in this Journal I have shown that many other difficult
problems in glacial geology besides those to the solution of
which I first applied it find in it a simple explanation. I
believe it is the only theory that explains the transport of
northern boulders across the plains of Germany and Russia ;
and at the same time accounts for the absence of marine
remains testifying that the sea had not occupied the area
during the flotation of the blocks ; and the absence of glaci-
ated rock-surfaces showing that the Scandinavian land-ice
had not extended so far. It is also the only theory of our
day that deals with the difficult question of the origin of a
great debacle of which De la Beche, Murchison, Sedgewick,
and Prestwieh have shown us there is so much evidence.
The principal feature in the theory is that the advance of
the ice of the Glacial period was mostly down the ocean
depressions, partly because ice will gravitate towards the
lowest levels, and especially because the precipitation of
moisture is in our hemisphere much greater at the northern
ends of the seas than in similar latitudes inland on the
continents.

* “ Drift of Devon and Cornwall.” Read November 3rd, 1875. Published
in abstract only, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., February, 1876.

72

Discovery of Stone Implements in

[January,

If the northern end of the Atlantic was so occupied with
ice as this theory requires, the effects ought to be similar
on the west coast of Europe and the east coast of America,
which on this view form the left and right banks of the same
great valley. I restrict my argument for the present, on the
American side, to the country lying east of the Appalachians,
but I hope at some future time to show that a similar ex-
planation of the glacial phenomena west of that range is
not improbable ; this I cannot do now, as the preliminary
steps of the discussion would occupy a greater length than
the whole of this paper.

Owing to the influence of the Gulf Stream the ice occu-
pying the bed of the Atlantic would probably extend much
farther on the American side than on the European.
Flowing down there — much influenced by the shape of the
ocean bed, still more by the areas of greatest precipitation
as affedted by the advance of the ice itself, and not necessarily,
nor even probably, thickest next the coast line and south of
Cape Cod mostly distant from it — the ice, I think, reached
so far at least as the 37th parallel of latitude. I suppose
that the mass of ice had been increasing as it advanced
southward, in consequence of the enormously greater preci-
pitation not having yet been counterbalanced by the also
increased waste from liquefaction, and that it flowed in upon
the American coast somewhere south of Chesapeake Bay,
and blocked up the eastern drainage as far as that point.
Thus I think was produced the submergence of all the lower
parts of the country. To what height the flood reached I
have not information to guide me, but the water must have
been deep to permit the tranquil deposition of the brown
clays that cover much of the country, and the flotation of
icebergs from the north, bearing the great rocks that were
thus distributed over the land. I have found no evidence
in North America of any great debacle, and the waters do
not appear ever to have been suddenly and tumultuously
discharged. In consequence, there has not been there the
same mixing together of remains of different ages as occurred
with us when the middle sands and gravels were spread out,
and the relation of the beds containing the relics of pre-
diluvial man and the pre-diluvial mammals to the other
glacial deposits is more clearly defined. The more gradual
and interrupted subsidence of the water is, however, marked
by a series of terraces in the valleys. Excepting for this, the
parallel between the series of events that occurred in the
Glacial period, in Western Europe and North-eastern Ame-
rica, is complete. There is the same evidence of the advance

i878J

Glacial Drift in North America.

73

of the land-ice, of the rivers running in deeper channels, of
the formation of forest and peat beds in tradts now below
the level of the sea, of the recession of the land-ice, of the
interruption of the drainage of the country, and the forma-
tion of a continental ice-dammed lake over which floated
icebergs. The same evidence, too, that palaeolithic man
and the extindb mammals were pre-diluvial, and were
destroyed or driven out of the country by the rising of the
great flood.

That American geologists will follow up the evidences of
pre-dilvuial man in the western hemisphere we may be sure,
and we may confidently expect that as great advances will
be made by them in our knowledge of the relation he bore
to the Glacial period as they are making in every other
department of geology, and in fadt in every branch of
science.

It is a matter for congratulation that this question should
be in the hands of such a skilled and enthusiastic archaeolo-
gist as Dr. Abbott, and of such able and cautious geologists
as Prof. Cook and Prof. Smock. I feel confident that we
shall not have to wait long for confirmation of the position
of the implements below the iceberg drift, and for more
definite information than we now possess of the height
above the sea to which the erratic blocks extend, and the
distances they have travelled from the north or north-west.
Nor need we despair of evidence soon being found that man
was present in the country at the time of the greatest ex-
tension of the land-ice ; the witness of which, so far, is the
solitary scratched chipped pebble from the moraine at
Butzville, the fabrication of which by man is doubted by
some that have seen it.

I cannot conclude this brief view of the broad features of
the glaciation of North-eastern America and the relation of
palaeolithic man to it, as seen from my standpoint, without
again making an appeal for a more thorough examination
of the records in our own country. It is susceptible of
proof in East Anglia whether or not palaeolithic man lived
there in the Glacial period. Within a stone’s throw at
Ploxne lie all the glacial beds — the till, the lower boulder
clay, the middle sands and gravels, and the upper boulder
clay. There also are the gravels and clays in which Mr.
Frere, nearly eighty years ago, found flint implements and
hones of extindt mammals ; and yet to this day we have
not settled the relation that these bear to the glacial beds.
Eighteen months ago, in the pages of this Journal, I gave
my reasons for believing that the post-glacial age of these

74

Stone Implements in Glacial Drift. [January,

deposits, as assumed by most of our geologists up to that
time, had not been proved ; and I urged that we ought not
to allow the matter to remain doubtful when it could be
cleared up by sinking a few shafts in different parts of the
ground. No aCtion has been taken by our learned societies
to whom I appealed, but now discoveries in other places
have caused many to doubt the post-glacial age of some of
the deposits containing implements, and they may be more
inclined to listen to my appeal.

At Hoxne the expenditure of £ 200 would probably, and
of £500 certainly, I think, show the relations of the depo-
sits there to each other, and clear up the question of the
glacial or post-glacial age of the beds containing the relics
of palaeolithic man and the great pachyderms. Large
sums, and with results exceeding our anticipations, have
been spent on the exploration of the cavern deposits, and
we have ascertained definitely from them that man and the
great extinCt mammals lived at the same time. We should
now take another step, and determine the exadt position
that the same fauna holds in the geological series ; and this
can be done at Hoxne. We send out scientific expeditions
to the ends of the world, and rightly so I think, and yet
here is one of the grandest problems that can interest man-
kind lying at our doors, and lying negledted. Granted that
I may be mistaken, and that Prof. Prestwich — whose geolo-
gical opinion is properly of much greater weight than mine
— may be right ; is it not worth while to set the question at
rest, and not consume our time in fruitless discussions and
barren congresses ? My glacial theory is the outcome of
many years of study of the phenomena with which it deals,
and I know that it has been fashioned with sincerity ; but it
is not so dear to me that I should hesitate to put my own
shoulder to topple over the edifice I have reared if I could
find reason to believe that it was not founded on truth. If
the explorations that I urge, ought to be undertaken at
Hoxne, be carrried out, and prove that the implement-bearing
beds are post-glacial, I shall at least have the satisfaction
of thinking that not only has my own geological vision been
cleared, but that Mr. Prestwich- — whose writings for more
than twenty years have been my study and delight — has
been proved to be right. But trivial and paltry are these
personal considerations compared with the issues that are
undetermined, and which it is our duty and privilege to
clear up, when we have at Hoxne such an opportunity of
doing so as is not known to exist anywhere else in Europe.

1878.]

A New Theory of Trance .

75

V. A NEW THEORY OF TRANCE.

^HE subject of Trance has for centuries excited great
Lth wonder and curiosity, and although the essays and
works on its nature and causes may be numbered by
hundreds there are very few writers who have treated the
subject fully and scientifically. It was therefore with great
satisfaction that we received from Dr. G. M. Beard a paper
on the subject, which he recently read before the New York
Medico-Legal Society.* Our readers have already had an
opportunity of judging of the care and originality with which
Dr. Beard works out his ideas, from his article on “The
Longevity of Brain Workers,” which appeared in the
“ Quarterly Journal of Science ” for October, 1875 ; and in
this paper on Trance there is the same evidence of deep
thought and mature consideration.

With regard to the value of human testimony our own
views do not, in some points, coincide with those expressed
by Dr. Beard ; but from the exhaustive way in which the
whole subject is treated we believe we are consulting the
interests of our readers in placing before them an explana-
tion of his new theory, and of giving in a somewhat abbre-
viated form the principal arguments which he adduces in
its favour.

Under the word “Trance” Dr. Beard includes the real
phenomena represented or suggested by terms which are
more or less meaningless and incorreCt — such as somnam-
bulism, artificial and spontaneous mesmerism, animal mag-
netism, hypnotism, Braidism, catalepsy, ecstacy, biology,
&c. He very rightly insists on the absolute necessity of
having recourse to deduCtive as well as induCtive reasoning
when grappling with such subjects as trance, reasoning from
generals to particulars, and drawing conclusions from prin-
ciples already established, as well as from particulars to
generals ; and in opposition to the oft-repeated assertion
that it is the wiser course for scientific men to let these
subjects alone, and not to attempt their solution, he re-
marks— what indeed we have ourselves often urged — that
such sciences as Astronomy, Physics, Physiology, and
Chemistry were in their infancy opposed on substantially
the same ground. These things, it was claimed, could not

* “A New Theory of Trance, and its Bearings on Human Testimony.”
By George M. Beard, A.M., M.D.

A New Theory of Trance .

[January,

76

be understood by the human mind ; therefore we were coun-
selled to join ourselves to the idols of our ignorance, and
let them alone. But how far, we would ask, should we
have advanced in civilisation had such advice been fol-
lowed ? We believe that by adopting true scientific method
in such investigations as the one now under consideration
the mysteries of Trance and the phenomena ascribed to
Spiritualism will ultimately be unravelled. Let us see how
far Dr. Beard’s new theory contributes to this much-to-be-
desired end.

The nature of trance is, he contends, a functional disease
of the nervous system, in which the cerebral activity is
concentrated in some limited region of the brain, with sus-
pension of the activity of the rest of the brain, and conse-
quent loss of volition. It is the prime requisite of a
scientific hypothesis that it should account for all the
phenomena embraced under the department to which it
applies. The hypothesis that trance is a morbid state,
consisting in a concentration of the cerebral force in some
limited region of the brain, the activity of other portions
being meanwhile suspended, seems to account for all the
real phenomena of this state, all its different forms and
stages.

Trance, like other functional nervous diseases, may be
induced either physically or psychically.

Among the physical causes are injuries of the brain, the
exhaustion of protracted disease or of starvation, or of over
exertion, anaesthetics, alcohol and many drugs, and certain
cerebral diseases. Ordinary sleep may act as an exciting
cause, as is illustrated in the somnambulistic form of trance.
Under the psychical causes are included all conceivable
influences whatsoever, that may powerfully excite any
emotion or group of emotions.

For the sake of convenience of description Dr. Beard
divides trance into four varieties — the spontaneous, the self-
induced, the emotional, and the intellectual trance. In strict-
ness these varieties may to a certain extent include each
other, and in using these terms this fact should be borne in
mind. Thus, the intellectual trance is spontaneous, al-
though the majority of the cases of spontaneous trance are
not also intellectual. The self-induced trance may be partly
emotional, but it is not entirely so.

A typical form of spontaneous trance is natural somnam-
bulism, or sleep-walking — a term which is vaguely used by
many writers to include all phases of trance, excepting
those which are produced by performances of mesmerisers,

1878.]

A New Theory of Trance.

77

which are called cases of artificial somnambulism. In
sleep-walking the cerebral activity, which during ordinary
sleep is more or less lowered throughout the brain, is sud-
denly concentrated in some limited region ; the cerebral
equilibrium being spontaneously disturbed through the sub-
jective adtion of dreams, the subject, under the dominion of
this restricted region of the brain (the activity of the rest of
the brain being suspended), runs or walks about like an
automaton, with exaltation of the sense of touch often, and
of the co-ordinating power, as is shown in their capacity
for balancing in difficult and dangerous positions, and
climbing on heights where in the normal state he would not
venture. Other senses may be sealed entirely, as in other
forms of trance.

Under self-induced trance are comprised those cases
where the subjeCt can bring himself into this state at will,
either suddenly or gradually. Of such subjeds it may be
said that they will to lose their wills ; or it would be nearer
the truth to say that they voluntarily put themselves under
influences where the involuntary life becomes supreme.

All genuine trance preachers and speakers — and many of
them are genuine — represent the self-induced variety. Dr.
Beard states that he has studied the case of a famous trance
preacher, who told him that when he began to go into this
state the first symptom was only a thrill, or eleCtric shock
through his arm ; then with more pradice the whole arm
became convulsed, then the whole body, until in time
exaltation of the faculties of imagination and of language
were developed, and he became a most successful performer
before audiences.

In speaking of the terms often applied in spiritualistic
circles to mediums as being “ fully developed,” or “partially
developed,” or as “ developing,” Dr. Beard concedes that
there is a basis of truth in such expressions, inasmuch as
it oftentimes needs practice to acquire the habit of readily,
and at will, entering the trance. Further, that some have
a habit of falling into trance spontaneously at regular inter-
vals, the same periodicity oftentimes occurring in this disease
that has long been observed in neuralgia.

Under emotional trance are included cases that are caused
by the so-called mesmeric performances, or through the
feelings of fear, wonder, reverence, and expectation, how-
ever excited. The majority of the cases of trance come
under this head ; for every one is endowed with these emo-
tions, and in the greater part of the human race they are
the controlling elements in character, and in the strongest

7S

A New Theory of Trance.

[January,

and most intellectual minds they are apt to be in constant
and usually successful rebellion against the authority of
reason : any influences, therefore, that excite any or all of
these emotions may be regarded as exciting causes of
trance.

The almost universally held belief that the mesmeric
form of emotional trance is caused by some force or fluid
(animal magnetism) passing from the body of the operator
into the body of the subject, is, according to Dr. Beard, as
far from the truth as any view on any subject possibly can
be ; it makes no difference what is done to produce mesmeric
trance ; it makes no difference who does it ; it is a subjective
matter entirely, and all depends upon the emotions of the
subject — what he fears, expeCts, or wonders at.

To intellectual trance belong the extreme cases of what
are commonly characterised as absent-mindedness — a state
which is quite distinct from simple mental attention. The
popular term absent-minded, as applied to those who become
so absorbed in thought that they are unconscious of what is
going on around them, and perhaps respond automatically
to external suggestions or influences, is, in view of the theory
of trance advocated by Dr. Beard, a happy one, since it ex-
presses with partial correctness the real state of the brain
during an attack of that kind. A large portion of the brain
is aCtive, and, until aroused, is insensible to surroundings,
and thus responds mechanically. The biographies of illus-
trious thinkers are filled with instances, some of which are
probably correct, of this form of trance. Thus Walter
Bagehot says of Adam Smith, the great political economist,
that his absence of mind was amazing. On one occasion,
having to sign his name to an official document, he produced
not his own signature, but an elaborate imitation of the
signature of the person who signed before him : on another
occasion, a sentinel on duty having saluted him in military
fashion, he astounded and offended the man by acknow-
ledging it with a copy of the same gestures.

In these intellectual trances, great thoughts have been,
without doubt, evolved, that would have been impossible to
the brain in its normal state.

Dr. Beard then proceeds to show how by his hypothesis
all the. faCts of all forms and phases of trance are explained,
unified, and made harmonious ; it is only by this hypothesis,
he affirms, that it is possible to give any unity or solidarity to
the phenomena of this state.

M He argues, First, — That this hypothesis accounts for the
loss of the control of the will and the automatism of trance,

1878.]

A New Theory of Trance .

79

which is the first observed and most distinguishing feature.
That, in his normal state, man is, to say the least,
nine-tenths a machine. The involuntary life — that which
aCts without the will, or in spite of the will — is the chief
faCt in human life and in human history. Comparing life
to a wheel, as Dr. S. S. Laws has also done, the voluntary
functions may represent the narrow hub, while the involun-
tary functions are represented by all the area between the
hub and the periphery. In this little inner circle lies all
human responsibility and all the vast influence of punish-
ment or reward ; in all the rest of his functions man is as
much an automaton as a tree or a flower. Now, in the
trance, this little inner circle of what is called volition is
encroached upon by the involuntary life, and in the deeper
stages is entirely displaced by it. The fully entranced person
has no will ; what he wishes to do he cannot do ; what he
wishes not to do he does ; he is at the mercy of any external
or internal suggestions.

This hypothesis of the concentration of the cerebral activity
in a limited region accounts for the displacement of the will
in this way : — The will may be defined as the co-ordinated
activity of all the faculties of the mind, including, in general
terms, the perception, the emotions, and the intellect.
Cerebro-physiologistswill agree — all questions of phrenology,
or cranioscopy, or minute specialisations of functions aside
— that the brain does not aCt as a unit, but that different
parts are the organs of different faculties. When the cere-
bral activity is harmoniously diffused, as in the normal state,
through all the different regions, the man is said to be under
the control of the will. When the cerebral activity is con-
centrated in some limited region of the brain — say that
devoted to the emotions, or that devoted to the intellect, the
activity of the rest of the brain being suspended for the
time — the man would have no will ; he would be under the
control of that group of faculties ; he would be a conscious
living automaton, as a fully-entranced person always is.

Secondly, — That his hypothesis proves why trance is
an abnormal state. It shows that it must be a morbid
pathological condition, and also shows in what this
morbidness consists. The man whose mental faculties
are mostly suspended, who has no will, but is under the
control of some single faculty, is surely in an abnormal
state, and in this respeCt the popular idea is correct. It is
a functional disturbance relating only to circulation and in-
nervation, and not causing structural changes, although it
may be caused by structural cerebral diseases, and not

8o

A New Theory of Trance:

[January,

ordinarily permanently affedling the health in other respedls.
The liability to trance, like the liability to various other
fundtional disturbances of the nervous system, does not
conflidl with general good health and longevity.

Thirdly, — That this hypothesis explains the difference be-
tween trance and ordinary sleep, which in some respedts it
so much resembles. Sleep is a normal state, a partial
cessation of the adlivity of all the faculties, a lowering of
the adlivity in all the regions, but not a suspension of the
adtivity of any except the will, which, as we have seen, is
simply a co-ordinated adtion of the faculties. When a per-
son who is sleeping gets up and walks in his sleep — in other
words, passes into the somnambulistic form of trance — the
change that takes place in the brain is this ; while sleeping
the adlivity of all the faculties was lowered ; on going into
trance the adlivity of all the faculties becomes suspended,
and the entire cerebral adlivity is concentrated in some one
faculty or limited group of faculties.

Fourthly, — That this hypothesis explains the phenomenon of
dual life and double consciousness, which has been regarded as
one of the greatest and most inexplicable mysteries of trance.

In trance — even in the most profound instances ever ob-
served— there is probably always consciousness at the time,
hut it is not always or usually remembered consciousness.
On awaking, as on awaking from ordinary sleep, the dreams,
that may have been adlive and numberless, fade as a cloud ;
possibly not even a glimpse of them may be caught and
held before the mind long enough to become a permanent
and recolledtible impression during the normal state. But
on resuming the trance state the exalted fundtional adlivity
of the region of the brain in which the cerebral force is
concentrated is able to bring these impressions of the pre-
vious attack of trance, forgotten during the intervening
normal state, to consciousness, and thus the subjedt carries
on an independent trance life, just as though there had been
no intervening normal state. On returning to the normal
state, the cerebral force being again diffused through the
whole brain, is insufficient to enable the subjedt to recal the
experience of the trance, but quite sufficient to enable him
to recal the experiences of his previous normal state. Thus
he leads two lives, the normal life and the trance life, and
they are independent of each other.

In cases of dual life the trance life is the more brilliant
and adlive in certain features, as by this hypothesis it natu-
rally would be. In a case under the observation of the late
Dr. J. R. Mitchell, a young girl in trance life was quick,

1878. i

A New Theory of Trance.

81

energetic, and witty, and vivacious ; in her normal life she
was slow, indolent, and querulous.

Fifthly, — That the hypothesis explains the difference be-
tween the deeper stages of trance, and death, with which
trance is sometimes confounded.

With this hypothesis of the pathology of trance before
my mind, I have, continues Dr. Beard, been accustomed to
illustrate the difference between ordinary sleep trance and
death, by pointing to a chandelier of gas-burners. When
all the burners of the chandelier are fully lighted, that is
the normal waking state ; when all the burners are turned
down low, but not turned out entirely, as usually is the case
in public halls before the opening of entertainments, that is
ordinary sleep ; if I turn out entirely all the burners except
one, and that one, as often happens, flames all the more
brightly from increased pressure, that is trance ; if all the
burners are turned out entirely and permanently, that is
death. The only hold on life which the deeply entranced
person has is through the activity of a limited region of the
brain, through which feeble movements of the heart are
sustained, the body being in other respedts motionless.
The popular belief that deeply entranced persons are liable
to be buried alive is corredt, but fortunately mistakes of this
kind occur but rarely.

Sixthly, — That this hypothesis explains the exaltation of
some of the physical and mental faculties in trance, and
depression of others.

The exaltation of the physical and psychical faculties in
trance cannot be questioned, but is readily demonstrated,
and by this hypothesis receives an explanation that is both
lucid and complete.

Representing, for the sake of comparison, the quantity of
cerebral force in all parts of the brain by one hundred — if
the adtivity of three-fourths of the brain is suspended, then
the remaining one-fourth may be fourfold more adtive than
when in the normal state. That there should be such a
concentration of cerebral force in a limited range of faculties
is in harmony with every day observed fadts. Thus the in-
telledt increases in vigour in any diredtion under exercise
up to a certain point, and through over exercise becomes
fatigued. In the brain are the centres of thought, of mus-
cular motion, and of general and special sense. It would
follow, therefore, that some one or several of the senses, or
some one or several of the mental faculties, or some one or
several groups of muscles, might be exalted in adtivity,
with entire suspension of the adtivity of other senses,

VOL. VIII. (N.S.) G

82

A New Theory of Trance .

[January,

faculties, and muscles, according to the region of the brain
in which the concentration of activity takes place. There
is therefore no mystery in the frequently observed, though
sometimes disputed, fadt that entranced subjects can raise
with ease weights which in their normal state they are
unable to move. Mesmerised subjects sometimes exhibit
this power. Persons entranced through fear, as by an alarm
of fire, have been known to take up a stove and carry it out
of the house ; the next day they cannot, to save their lives,
carry back that stove. The co-ordinating or balancing
power may be so much exalted in somnambulists that they
can climb without harm in most dangerous places. The
exaltation of the time-telling power — which sometimes
passes for second sight — has the same explanation as the
exaltation of other faculties. Likewise the nerves of general
and special sense are all liable to be greatly exalted in this
state ; the feeblest whisper in a distant room may be readily
heard, and one can read by a dimmer light than is usually
needed. The sense of touch may be so delicate that, when
the sense of sight is sealed, the subjedt can find his way
from room to room without injury; and it is claimed may,
in some cases, recognise the presence of another person
near at hand, by the temperature alone, even where there is
no physical contadt.

We are told these exaltations of the normal senses are the
bases of many of the popular and professional delusions relating
to ‘£ second sight, 55 “ clairvoyance,” “ thought reading,” and
the like. By this hypothesis, also, any of the mental facul-
ties should be liable to be exalted. Observation shows that
not only the imagination, but the reasoning faculty and
command of language are oftentimes greatly enlivened in
their adtivity in this state, as the performances of trance
preachers illustrate. Weak-minded men and women, who
in the normal state think little and say less, are sometimes
able, when entranced, to speak continuously, and almost if
not quite eloquently, and with slight apparent effort. While
there has been much exaggeration of the originality and
value of these trance speeches, yet it cannot be denied that
they are — with all their wildness of fancy and repetition,
and frequent senselessness — far beyond the capacity of the
same persons when not entranced. On returning to the
normal state they may be utterly stupid or commonplace ;
their cerebral force, when diffused through the whole brain,
is unequal to even rapid and sustained small talk.

The converse of exaltation, depression of some of the
senses and faculties of the mind, diredtly follows from this

1878.]

A New Theory of Trance .

S3

hypothesis of concentration of cerebral activity ; those
senses and faculties that belong to the entirely inactive
regions of the brain must be for the time practically dead,
as is found to be the case in some forms of trance. Thus
the sealing of some of the special senses, and general
anaesthesia, making it possible to perform without causing
pain certain surgical operations, are accounted for.

Seventhly, — That this hypothesis explains all the familiar
physical symptoms of trance, such as flushing of the face,
fixity of position, sighing respiration, accelerated pulse,
involuntary convulsive movements, and marvellous and
numberless hysteroid sensations.

The effedfs of trance on the pulse and respiration, and on
the circulation in general, are, according to Dr. Beard, what
would be expeCted from the known inter-dependence of mind
and body. The quite recently established faCt of the existence
of definite centres of muscular motion in the brain, how-
ever the faCt may be interpreted, is of great significance in
its bearings on this subject, since it shows clearly why con-
vulsions so frequently accompany trance. The aphorism
that when we think we move was based on our knowledge
of the existence of these centres of muscular motion in
that portion of the surface of the brain that is regarded as
the seat of some of the mental faculties, and was first sug-
gested to him while repeating the experiments of Hitzig
and Ferrier in the electrical irritation of the brains of
animals.

Eighthly, — That this hypothesis accounts for the illusions
and hallucinations of trance.

Illusions, delusions, and hallucinations are, as is esta-
blished, the products of cerebral activity, and are frequently
the symptoms of some abnormal state of the brain. There
is no proof that any other part of the body than the brain,
as the spinal cord or nerves, can originate hallucinations,
any more than there is proof that any other part of the body
can originate the higher modes of conscious thought — all
the faCts and arguments that serve to establish that the
brain is the organ of the mind in health, also establish that
it is the organ of the mind in disease. For while automatic
aCts, as nursing and so forth, maybe manifested by brainless
infants, and while the spinal cord clearly contains centres
of reflex aCtion, yet there is no proof that any conscious
thought, of the higher kind at least, attends the activity of
these reflex centres, any more than in the familiar automatic
movements of plants. The hallucinations of trance — the
visions of heaven and other innumerable fancies — must

84

A New Theory of Trance ,

[January,

then, like dreams and all mental operations, whether coherent
or incoherent, have their seat in some part of the brain ;
and, according to this hypothesis, their existence, their
coherency, and their extreme activity, are all explained.

Ninthly, — That this hypothesis accounts for the relation of
trance to its admitted predisposing and exciting causes.

By this hypothesis any influence that tends to overthrow
the cerebral equilibrium, to disturb the balance of innerva-
tion, would be likely to be a cause of trance : experience
shows that this is actually the case.

The predisposing, like the exciting, causes of trance are
both physical and psychical.

One is physically predisposed to trance, says our author, who
inherits or has acquired a nervous system generally sensitive
and impressible. One is psychically predisposed to trance
who is mentally unbalanced through excessive and dispro-
portionate endowment of imagination and emotion. One
who is powerfully developed in reasoning and thinking
qualities, and is badly deficient in observing, practical facul-
ties is so far forth predisposed to the intellectual form of
trance. The best subjects are those who are predisposed
both physically and psychically, who have sensitive organi-
sations, and unbalanced, ill-trained minds.

Trance is not, however, as many suppose, the peculiar
gift of certain temperaments. It is the property of the
human race. All persons are liable to become entranced,
just as they are liable to become paralysed or epileptic, al-
though all do not suffer in this way. All persons are not
predisposed to the same form of this disorder ; one can
only be entranced through the intellect, another through
the emotions ; one person can only be frightened into this
state ; one needs the presence of a medium, another of a
mind reader, another of a clairvoyant, and another of a
mesmeriser ; another of a magnetised letter, and another
still of one who performs miracles of healing by the laying
on of hands. Mr. Grimes, who has had much experience
with the mesmeric trance, and who is accustomed to direCt
his subjects to stand still with closed eyes and folded hands,
as a means of exciting the emotion of reverence, says that
he failed with every one out of forty military officers at
West Point, while just across the river, among the opera-
tives, the same process was very successful.* This is easy

* Mr. Grimes has recently published a work entitled “ Mysteries of the
Head and Heart,” the latter portion of which especially is commended to the
attention of those who are interested in these themes. Mr. Grimes is, says Dr.
Beard, almost the only writer on trance who has had sufficient originality and

is 78.]

A New Theory of Trance.

35

to understand from what has already been stated in regard
to the predisposing causes, but it would be an error to infer
that those officers were not capable of being entranced. If
they should all sit in a circle around a table for half an hour
or more, with the expectation that some strange things
would develop, very likely some of them would become
carried away, and, by unconscious muscular motion, would
move the table; or perhaps they would feel sensations like
eleCtrical shocks through their bodies, or they might go into
convulsions, or might experience wonderful visions, hearing
the voices and seeing the faces of loved ones.

Tenthly, — That this hypothesis accounts for the period-
icity of trance in certain cases.

It is the nature of all functional nervous diseases — neu-
ralgia, sick headache, hay fever, inebriety, and some forms
of insanity — to appear more or less periodically. It may be
said that the majority of cases of spontaneous trance are
periodic.

It may be opposed to all this process of reasoning that no
one has ever seen with his eyes the brain thus concentrating
its force during an attack of trance; but it must be remem-
bered that only exceptionally can scientific hypotheses be
verified by aCtual sight. Even in the material world the
seen is but a fraction of the unseen. No man ever saw the
waves of light ; no man has ever seen gravity : these uni-
versal forces are studied only through their phenomena, by
means of which we frame hypotheses of the law of gravita-
tion and the existence of a luminiferous ether. In the
realm of physiology and pathology the chances of verification
by aCtual sense perception are more rare than in astronomy
or physics.

We have now laid before our readers what we hope is a
clear and concise account of Dr. Beard’s theory of trance,
and of the principal arguments which he adduces in its
favour. In his paper he enters at very considerable length
into the necessity, in such investigations as of spiritualism, of
reasoning by the deduCtive method, &c. He moreover insists
that it is only those who have made themselves masters of,
and authorities in, cerebro-physiology and pathology, and
who have thereby learned that the subjeCt lies within the

mental force to see more than one side of it. But, like Dr. Carpenter and most
other writers on these subjects, he fails to see all sides, and he makes the mistake
which is fatal to the scientific study of trance, of conceding the possibility of
thought reading. This serious mistake results from the studying the subject
inductively instead of deductively ; it is indeed, as I shall show farther on, an
inevitable mistake from that false method of reasoning.

86

A New Theory of Trance. January,

grasp of the properly trained and properly furnished intellect,
who are competent to unsolve such problems and to explain
the mysteries in full detail.

Up to a certain point, we agree with Dr. Beard, but we main-
tain that the phenomena he discusses embrace two distinct
branches of science, viz., Physiology and Physics, and that
it is strictly within the province of the trained physicist, and
outside the province of the physiologist, to apply such tests
as the electrical and other tests which we ourselves have
used when investigating the physical branch of the subject.
There is abundant proof that the fact of being a specially
trained physiologist may actually disqualify a man for investi-
gating spiritualism. For instance, Dr. Carpenter is a physiolo-
gist, and it is chiefly to his researches in physiology and path-
ology that he owes his present position. He ought, therefore,
to be an expert, and to be able to get at the truth by exactness.
He certainly considers himself fully competent, to conduct
such an investigation, for here is his own estimate of his
qualifications. He says* — “ The training I originally received,
and the theoretical and experimental studies of forty years,
have given me what I honestly believe (whether rightly or
wrongly) to be a rather unusual power of dealing with this
subject. Since the appearance of my LeCtures I have
received a large number of public assurances that they
are doing good service in preventing the spread of a
noxious mental epidemic in this country ; and 1 have been
privately informed of several instances in which persons who
had been ‘ bitten ’ by this malady have owed their recovery
to my treatment.”

Now, Dr. Carpenter has been investigating the subject of
mesmerism, spiritualism, &c., for more than thirty years,
and what has he done towards solving the problem ?
Absolutely nothing ! The reason is, we believe, that
his mind lacks that acute philosophic quality which
would fit him to unravel the intricate problems which lie
hid in the structure of the human brain. He has, moreover,
shown himself unable to grapple with the reasons or to
deal with the faCts of opponents ; he views their work
through a special “ focus of his own,” and is incapable of
projecting himself into the mind of another person.
We wish to do justice to Dr. Carpenter’s ability and use-
fulness. It is, indeed, whispered that he has rather talked
than worked himself into position and reputation, and like
the clever man in the market place, whose cries of “ I’m a

* Nature, vol. xvii., p. 26.

1878.]

A New Theory of Trance.

87

genius ! I’m a genius ! ” drew a crowd round him, so Dr.
Carpenter, by reiterated assurance that he alone as a physi-
ologist possesses, in a supreme degree, a “ trained and organ-
ised common sense,” has led the public to yield to his views
a certain degree of assent. But we would not for one moment
underrate Dr. Carpenter’s abilities : he has undoubtedly done
a considerable amount of meritorious work ; and if he does
not hold any high rank as an original investigator, he dis-
tinctly occupies a noteworthy scientific position as an expo-
sitor and popular lecturer. He is, in faCt, the indispensable
middle-man between the original investigator and the public.
He has compiled some useful books on physiology and on the
microscope, and were he not in the habit of viewing unwel-
comeifaCts pseudoscopically, and describing them catachres-
tically, he might be said to hold, with regard to this
generation, the same position that Dr. Lardner held in the
last, though Dr. Carpenter lacks the bright, clear, un-
fatiguing style of his prototype.

But in his investigation of the phenomena ascribed to
spiritualism, Dr. Carpenter has stepped out of his proper
sphere. Physiologists are not authorities on the physical
side of the question, and it is a pity that when dealing with
the subject from a physiological point of view they invariably
either ignore the physical tests altogether or they mis-
represent them, for the purpose, apparently, of securing a
little cheap applause by showing that the experimentalist is
a dishonest or untrustworthy observer.

88

[January,

NOTICES OF BOOKS.

The Border Lands of Geology and History : an In augural
Address. By T. W. Kingsmill. Delivered at Shanghai
on the 20th of February, 1877. Shanghai : Kelly and
Walsh. London : Trtibner and Co.

Whilst the facfts generally summed up under the name of
“ glaciation ” are admitted by every one fairly competent to form
an opinion, there is no such happy accord concerning the cause
assigned to these phenomena — the so-called “ Glacial epoch.”
What were its causes ? Did it occur once only, or repeatedly ?
Was the whole globe simultaneously attacked, or were the
northern and southern hemispheres glaciated alternately ?
Was there an “ ice-cap ” extending regularly and uninterrupt-
edly down from the poles to comparatively low latitudes, and
obliterating every natural feature ? Or did the glaciers, as in
our day, though on an intensified scale, take an independent
origin in the mountain chains, and move sometimes not from,
but towards, the poles ? On all these main questions, and on
many collateral points, geologists of the highest merit disagree,
and a controversy has been for some years going on. This dis-
cussion may be pronounced most fruitful, since it necessitates a
more minute and searching appeal to facts than would otherwise
have been undertaken. Some of the results of this appeal are
very remarkable. The conclusion that in Europe and North
America glaciation has prevailed is not in the least shaken, but
rather confirmed. The evidence on which the late Agassiz in-
ferred that even equatorial Brazil once suffered from this inva-
sion of ice stands, indeed, in need of corroboration. But the
proofs of glaciation found by Mr. Belt in Central America, and
even at comparatively low altitudes above the sea-level, leave
exceedingly little room for doubt. The question, however, natu-
rally suggests itself— What about Asia ? If the northern hemi-
sphere has at any time been glaciated as a whole — whether
simultaneously with the southern hemisphere or independently
is a matter of no importance — North China, Mongolia, and
Mantchuria ought to show the usual traces of the visitation.
“ Yet in no part of Eastern Asia do we hear of phenomena
indicating a Glacial period.” Mr. Belt, than whom no more
competent observer could be named, has examined the regions
between Ekaterinburg and the head-waters of the Irtish, lat.
5 1° to 550 N. and long. 6o° to 76" E., “ a situation which, according
to usually-received glacial theories, should have been extensively
glaciated.” But from his description the author sees no proof

Notices of Books.

1878.]

89

that such was ever the case. “ The sands and loams of the
steppes, though covering extensive areas, in no place seem to
exhibit the ordinary marks of glacial aCtion. In the north they
are composed of fine sediment, without a trace of pebbles ;
going south the pebbles increase in size and numbers ; and
along the southern boundary of the deposit abutting on the
mountain chains they contain angular blocks of stone, growing
larger as the foot of the ranges is approached. The rocks lying
immediately south of these beds, according to Mr. Bates, show
also no signs of glacial aCtion.

To account for this absence of glaciation in North-Eastern
Asia the author suggests a secular shifting of the axis of the
earth’s rotation, by which, of course, different regions would in
turn become circumpolar, and experience the conditions now
prevailing in Spitzbergen, New Siberia, North Greenland, &c.

“ It has, however,” he declares, “ in my judgment not been
proved that these glacial phenomena are contemporaneous, and
herein lies what I conceive to be the fallacy of the reasoning of
the glacialists. Perceiving in many portions of the earth’s sur-
face traces of a state of things only to be attributed to an access
of intense cold, they have fallen into the error of classing them
together, and thereby evoking the so-called Glacial epoch.
Glacial epochs, I believe, have been numerous : nay, I will go
further, and say that since the beginning of geologic time some
portion of the earth’s surface has ever been undergoing its own
glacial stage. Sometimes a greater access of cold occurred
than at others, and this period of greatest cold had doubtless a
tendency to oscillate from one hemisphere to another, but I
think that the evidence afforded by the geology of Northern Asia
is too strong to permit of the belief in any universal Glacial
epoch being acceptable.

“ Traces of a Glacial epoch have been clearly proved to exist
so far back as the time of the deposit of the Permian rocks.
The valley of the Godavery, in India, seems then to have been
within the glaciated area. Nearly, if not quite, contemporaneous
with this are glacial deposits in Natal. But is this a proof of a
general Glacial epoch ? I trow not. The observed faCts are
very similar to what I have pointed out as occurring in Europe
and Northern Asia in late tertiary times. The former was gla-
ciated ; the latter enjoyed a milder climate than at present. So
while India and Southern Africa were having their Glacial epoch
a diligent search amongst contemporaneous rocks in Australia
fails to lend any countenance to the vi ew that it extended to
those regions.”

This hypothesis, whether it be ultimately found to accord with
faCts or not, may seem at first sight to have little connection
with the title which the author has selected. But if various
portions of the earth’s surface are being successively glaciated
owing to a secular displacement of the poles, we may expeCt to

go Notices of Books . [January,

find in some regions — those, to wit, from which the pole is re-
ceding— a gradual improvement of climate, whilst in others, to
which the pole is approaching, there will be a correspondingly
progressive deterioration. Upon such changes not merely
geology, but myth, tradition, and finally authentic history, may
contribute to throw important lights. From these various
sources the author concludes that the climate of Northern and
Eastern Asia is becoming colder, a view in which Mr. Geikie
seems to concur. The proofs of this increasing refrigeration
are to be found “ in the comparison between its present and its
recently-extinCt fauna, as well as in the geographical distribution
of the animals that remain.” But ethnology contributes evi-
dence of a similar tendency, which will be perhaps more widely
understood. Central, Northern, and North-Eastern Asia are
now but thinly peopled, and are unanimously pronounced by
travellers as very ill adapted for the support of a dense popula-
tion ; yet history and tradition represent these now lone and
silent deserts as being the officina gentium , a very magazine of
nations, from which horde after horde issued to ravage the fertile
lands of Southern and Western Asia and of Europe. Historians
have recorded these successive migrations, which, commencing
with the attack of the Hiung-nu upon China, some six or seven
centuries before our era, culminated in the overthrow of the
Roman Empire, and lasted down to comparatively modern times.
But the cause which set these tribes in motion from their original
seats has been overlooked. According to our author it was the
commencement of that process of refrigeration and desiccation
which has evidently prevailed for a long time in Central Asia.
He contends that at a still earlier period a vast mediterranean
stretched from the Black Sea eastwards towards the Pacific,
cutting off the southern parts of Asia from the North. Of this
sea the Caspian and Lakes Aral and Baikal are now the principal
remains. By a gradual upheaval this sea was drained, except
the portions just mentioned. Its former bottom is characterised
by the “ loess ” formation, more largely developed in East Asia
than in any other part of the world, and which strongly resembles
the ooze dredged up by the Staff of the Challenger Expedition
from depths of about 2000 fathoms. To counterbalance this
great upheaval of so extensive a portion of the earth’s crust, the
author considers that the continent of “ Lemuria,” formerly ex-
tending across the Indian Ocean, was simultaneously depressed.
A remarkable argument for the former existence of a Central
Asian Sea is founded on the presence of seals in the Caspian, in
Lake Aral (till very recently), and in Lake Baikal. The latter
case is the most important, since in no other part of the world
do seals inhabit fresh water. Now if we suppose that these
lakes were formerly parts of an inland sea, it is very conceivable
that seals might be prevented by the upheaval of the land from
making their escape to the ocean, and might in successive

Notices of Books.

1878.]

91

generations become habituated to a gradually freshening
water.

It is obvious that Mr. KingsmilPs views can only be thoroughly
criticised in the deserts and the mountains of Eastern and
Central Asia, hammer in hand, and there are many points which
must be more closely examined before his hypothesis can be
either accepted or rejected. From the point of view of the
physicist there is, we believe, no preliminary objection to the
idea of a secular shifting of the earth’s axis of rotation. Sir W.
Thomson considers it as possible that the poles may have, at one
or other time, have occupied positions differing from their present
locality by as much as 40°. Such a variation might place London
alternately on the Pole and within about io° of the Equator — a
climatic range fully sufficient to account for the different faunas
and floras of bye-gone geological epochs. But is there at pre-
sent any indication that the axis of the earth is shifting its
position ? If the North Pole is receding from us and approaching
the eastern parts of Siberia, our longest day ought to be growing
gradually shorter and our shortest day longer, and the maximum
apparent altitude of the sun in the heavens ought to be increasing.
But we are not aware that even any suspicion of such changes
has been aroused. If, therefore, a secular displacement of the
earth’s axis of revolution is in progress, it must be exceedingly
slow — too slow, we think, to have effected any important climatic
changes in Central and Eastern Asia within the limits of histo-
rical time.

Again, for the deterioration which those regions have admit-
tedly undergone, the author proposes two causes apparently not
standing in any necessary connection — viz., the displacement of
the earth’s axis and the elevation of the land in the centre of
Asia. Is it not possible that the latter cause may alone suffice
to account for the effedts produced ? A gradual drying up of
rivers and a paucity of rainfall have also been traced in many
parts of Central and Southern Europe and of Northern Africa,
but there has been no distind amelioration of climate beyond
what is due to improved drainage and other local causes. Yet
on Mr. Kingsmill’s hypothesis Western Europe and Eastern
North America ought to be enjoying a progressive elevation of
their average temperature.

If the earth’s axis is undergoing secular displacement this
change will doubtless follow some law, and the poles would
infallibly describe a regular curve. This curve it will be im-
portant to trace out as nearly as possible by observing in what
order of time different parts of the world have undergone glaci-
ation. Now it is quite possible, supposing Mr. KingsmilPs
hypothesis to be correct, that Eastern Asia should exhibit no
marks of a glaciation synchronous with that of Europe and
North America. But the theory seems to us to require impera-
tively that Asia should exhibit marks of an earlier glaciation

Notices of Books.

92

[January,

and to detecft these is an essential step towards the verification
of Mr. KingsmiH’s supposition. Another important test will be
a r ^-examination of the leading fadts of animal and vegetable
geography in the light of this new hypothesis. If it harmonises
with the distribution of organic species its probability will be
greatly augmented.

It would be unpardonable to conclude this hasty survey of a
brief but most important treatise without putting on record our
appreciation of its character. The author dissents, indeed, from
certain geological theories widely — if not universally — received ;
but he thinks and writes as a man of Science, and he may there-
fore justly demand for his views a full and a candid examination.
The advice which he gives, in concluding, to the members of the
“ North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society,” is most
excellent. “ In the investigation of the loess,” he says, “ a wide
field is open for research, and one in which many members of
this Society can render a service. We are entirely ignorant of
its microscopic composition, yet without a knowledge of this we
can do no more than speculate as to the conditions under which
it was deposited. What Dr. O. von Mollendorff has done for
Chihli (Petcheler) is wanted for all the other provinces of China
— a reliable catalogue of the animals resident within their limits.
Of the botany of North China we are supremely ignorant, and
we have still a very imperfetft knowledge of its fishes. The
interesting fossil flora of the Kinsin coal-field is still untouched,
yet it is of special importance in its connection with the Ardtic
flora of similar age.”

Proceedings of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool
during the Sixty-fifth Session, 1875-76. No. 30. London :
Longmans and Co. Liverpool: D. Marples and Co., Lim.

This volume possesses the character common to the Proceedings
of most of our provincial learned societies : its contents are
literary rather than scientific, and the papers of the latter class
are devoted rather to popular exposition than to the results of
research. This, of course, is to be expected : we reap just what
we sow. As long as our education is based upon literature, as
long as the art of expression is prized more highly than the
power of origination, so long we shall abound in novels, sermons,
speeches delivered in Parliament and elsewhere, historical, anti-
quarian, and critical dissertations, and be scanty in scientific
work, in discoveries, and inventions. Whether we are adding
wisely or foolishly it is now not the time to inquire.

The first paper in the volume before us is the Presidential
Address on “ The Tendencies and the Future of Modern

1878.]

Notices of Books.

93

Civilisation.” That it contains many interesting and suggestive
passages cannot be denied ; but it enters too largely into political
and theological considerations to admit of analysis in these
pages. We regret to find the author quoting Guizot, a writer
whose “ Histoire de la Civilisation always reminds us of the
old “ conchological ” systems — founded on an exclusive consi-
deration of the shell, with complete neglecft or ignorance of the
vitals.

Dr. J. Campbell Brown’s paper, on “ EleMricity compared
with Heat as a Source of Mechanical Power,” will, we hope, go
far to dispel certain semi-scientific delusions current as to the
probability of our finding some substitute for coal. The con-
clusion of the memoir deserves quotation : — “ There neither is
nor will be any substitute for coal if in that term we include
petroleum, oils, peat, and wood, — in short, carbon and hydro-
carbons. Force cannot be created ; it must be obtained from
previously existing stores of force, and when it has been equally
distributed there is no collecting it again. We must economise
our carbon, and when it becomes exhausted we may utilise the
force of the sun, growing wood by its light, producing evapora-
tion or obtaining mechanical power in the shape of wind from
its heat, and obtaining mechanical motion from its attraction and
that of the moon by means of the tides; but in the earth itself,
apart from other worlds, we can expect to find no store of force,
either in the form of chemical force, heat, light, or electricity,
which will take the place of our carbon deposits. We may learn
to do without coal, but we can hope to find no substitute.” In
all this, however, we see no justification for any increase of the
enormous profits of the mine-owner and the coal-merchant, nor
yet for any augmentation of the working colliers’ allowance of
champagne and boiled pine-apples.

Mr. T. Ward communicates an interesting statistical paper
on “ Salt and its Export from the Ports of the Mersey.” The
method of preparing the various commercial qualities of salt, as
carried on in the Cheshire district, and the quantity exported to
various parts of the world, are here given in detail. That it
should be carried to India — where, in addition to the facilities
for preparing salt from sea-water by solar heat, there are in the
north-western deposits beds of rock-salt far surpassing in extent
those of Cheshire — seems almost mysterious. But ships going
out to India take a cargo of salt at mere nominal freight in pre-
ference to going out empty. The duty of £5 per ton, maintained
purely as a source of revenue, is economically indefensible, and
must ultimately be abandoned.

Mr. E. Nicholson’s paper on “ Indian Snakes ” is intended to
combat certain vulgar errors concerning the serpent tribe. He
states that out of the 260 species of snakes found in India only
five are dangerous to human life. Of these “ Ophiophagus elaps
is very rare ” (it has, however, been killed in Calcutta) ; and

94 Notices of Books, [January,

“ another replaces a congener, the two being rarely found to-
gether.” Thus the formidable snakes would be reduced to three
— the cobra, the bungarus, and the daboia. Nineteen out of
every twenty accidents are due to the cobra. Some other
species are mentioned which, although venomous, “ are not
dangerous to man.” Under “ Error XVI. — There is some gene-
ral antidote against snake-poison ,” the author remarks, truly
enough, that “ all experiments in this direction have met with
utter failure.” But he adds — u If successful they would be of
little or no practical use, and they keep up an unhealthy excite-
ment, detrimental to the interest of Science.” These assertions
are to us utterly unintelligible. The discovery of an antidote
seems to us certain to be useful ; nor do we see how the interests
of Science can suffer from any properly conducted experimental
research. As to “ Error XVII. — Some animals are either proof
against snake-poison or know of vegetable antidotes against it,”
it is well known that the ichneumon and the secretary-hawk, in
their combats with the “ thanatophidia,” depend for success not
on any immunity from the effects of snake-poison, but on their
dexterity in evading the deadly bite. But what of the hedge-
hog ? We do not know that it has ever been inoculated with
the venom of the cobra ; but, independently of the authority of
Dr. Lenz, we can from our own observation testify that it is ab-
solutely unaffeCted by the poison of the viper, which in Central
and Southern Europe proves fatal to about 20 per cent of the
human beings bitten. The annual loss of life due to venomous
serpents, Mr. Nicholson thinks, “ when reduced to sober death-
rates is really of trifling amount ; it is on the average about one
death in 15,000 inhabitants.” Now one death per 15,000 inha-
bitants would amount in London to 200 fatalities yearly, and in
the United Kingdom to 2000! Suppose so many persons came
yearly in our midst to a violent and untimely death from one
cause, should we call the amount “ trifling ” ? Should we not
demand that every conceivable means should be used for the
diminution of the evil ? Mr. Nicholson has certainly done
good service in exposing certain grave errors in the natural
history of serpents, but his practical conclusions are, in our
opinion, no less to be deprecated than the superstitions he is
denouncing.

Mr. A. E. Nevins contributes a paper on the “ Method of
Correcting the Rate of a Marine Chronometer for Changes of
Temperature.” Not being one of those omniscient sages who
are equally versed in horology, in physics, and in biology, we are
unfortunately not able to form any opinion as to the value of
Mr. Nevins’s method.

The Rev. T. P. Kirkman, known as the author of “ Philosophy
without Assumptions,” writes on “ The Janal 14-acral 14-edra.”
We imagine that all except mathematicians will be fully satisfied
with his title, without enquiring further.

1878.] Notices of Books. 95

“ Vegetation and Climate,” by Mr. Richmond Leigh, is a
sketch of botanical geography.

Mr. W. T. Black’s “ Natural History of the Grey-wing and
Red-wing Partridges of South Africa ” is a small but useful con-
tribution to ornithological knowledge; The author recommends
the “ red-wing” for domestication.

Proceedings of the Bristol N aturalists’ Society . New Series.

Vol. i., Part 3. 1875-6. London : Williams and Norgate.

Bristol : Kerslave and Co.

That the activity of the provincial scientific societies has
increased of late years in its amount and has improved in its
quality is very generally admitted, and must be received as a
hopeful sign of the times. The Bristol Naturalists’ Society has
four sections — the botanical, entomological, geological, and
zoological, the latter of which is at present in abeyance. Of
the members eleven have contributed papers printed in the
Society’s Proceedings, a proportion which we should like to see
increased. Concerning the state of the Museum there is no
information, and the augmentations to the Library appear to
consist to a great extent of the Reports and Transactions of
various Societies, English and foreign. The papers which
appear in the “ Proceedings ” are — “ Geology of the Bristol
District,” by W. W. Stoddart, F.G.S. ; “ On Prof. Renvier’s
Geological Nomenclature,” by E. B. Tawney, F.G.S. ; “ Birds
of the Bristol District,” by E. Wheeler; “ Age of the Canning-
ton Park Limestone,” by E. B. Tawney; “ Insedt Anatomy,”
by E. H. Fripp, M.D., who likewise communicates three papers
on Microscopy; “Notes on Carboniferous Encrinites from
Clifton and Lancashire,” by J. G. Grenfell, F.G.S. ; and u An
Account of the Rainfall at Clifton for 1875,” by G. F. Burder, M.D.

History of the American Bison (Bison Americanus). By J. A.
Allen. Washington : Government Printing-Office.

This valuable monograph derives additional importance from
the fadt that the American bison — or buffalo, as it is generally
called in the United States — is doomed to early extinction.
Perhaps, indeed, the American Government may protedt a rem-
nant upon some specially reserved plot of land as an interesting
reminiscence of the past, just as has been done by the Emperor
of Russia in the case of the kindred species, the European bison,
or aurochs ( Bison bonasus s. Europeans). Mr. Allen gives a full

Notices of Books.

[January,

96

description of the American animal, with tables of measurement
of the principal parts of the skeleton, and points out the charac-
teristics which distinguish it from the bison of Europe. Entering
next upon its geological history, he shows that its appearance in
North America is of comparatively recent date, whilst its fossil
remains have hitherto been found in no country outside its known
geographical range. He concludes that it is “ the descendant of
B. latifrons , modified by existence in the new conditions of soil
and climate to which it was driven by the great changes closing
the last ice-age.”

The geographical distribution of the American bison at the
time of the first arrival of European settlers in the Western
Hemisphere is next carefully investigated. According to common
tradition it inhabited not merely the eastern half of the great
valley of the Mississippi and the basin of the Ohio, but extended
its range up to the Atlantic coast. But on carefully sifting the
evidence there appears good reason for assuming that the buffalo
was not found in New England, nor along the coast of the
Middle States, during a long period antedating the exploration
of the continent by Europeans, or during the period of the
formation of the Indian shell-mounds of the Atlantic coast,
which contain no traces of the remains of the buffalo.” In the
upper parts of the Carolinas the former occurrence of the bison
is an established historical facl ; but here, also, the evidence of
their having been found on the coast is very imperfect. Nor do
they appear to have been known within the present limits of
Florida. Between 1540 and 1720, however, these animals seem
to have temporarily extended their range south-eastwards, and
to have penetrated into the country immediately bordering on
the Gulf of Mexico, known at that time as West Florida.

A great part of the work is devoted to an account of the
gradual extirpation of the bison over the vast tradl of country
which it once occupied, and its restriction within its present
narrow limits. It is now found merely in two distinct areas.
The more “ southern of these is chiefly limited to Western
Kansas, a part of the Indian territory, and North-Western
Texas. The northern district extends from the sources of the
principal southern tributaries of the Yellowstone northward into
the British possessions, embracing an area not much greater
than the present territory of Montana.” Even within these two
districts the author estimates that, at their present rate of de-
crease, they can scarcely outlive the present century.

To the scientific naturalist the most valuable part of this work
is the chapter on the domestication and hybridisation of the
bison. Certain theorists of the Swainsonian school maintained,
on a priori grounds, that it must be irreclaimable. But the fol-
lowing fadts are fully attested : — 1. That the bison is readily sus-
ceptible of domestication. 2. That it interbreeds freely with the
domestic cow. 3. That the half -breeds are fertile. And 4. That

1 878.]

Notices of Books.

97

they readily amalgamate with the domestic cattle.” For the
detailed evidence upon which these inferences are founded we
must refer to the work itself. This case, joined to that of the
Leporides , — a confirmatory account of which has lately appeared
in so hostile a quarter as “ Les Mondes,” — ought, we think, to
make a clean and final sweep of the so-called physiological test
of species. It can no longer be safely argued that animals
which interbreed and produce fertile offspring must be of neces-
sity specifically identical, nor that those which are morphologic-
ally distindt must be incapable of producing fruitful descendants.
By bringing before the world the fadts just referred to Mr. Allen
has rendered one of the main positions of the old natural history
simply untenable.

The extirpation of the bison — or at least its very great reduc-
tion— is a result which must in the long run have inevitably
followed upon the cultivation and enclosure of the country.
But it has unfortunately been carried out in the most wasteful
and reckless manner, and millions of tons of what might have
been utilised as human food have been left to rot, or to become
the prey of wolves and vultures.

Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian
Institution, for the Year 1875. Washington : Government
Printing-Office.

Amongst the varied and valuable matter contained in this
volume we notice first a series of publications commenced under
the title “ Bulletin of the National Museum,” intended to illus-
trate the colledtions in Natural History and Ethnology belonging
to the United States. The total number of vertebrate animal
species found in the Neardtic realm as given, is, we think,
certainly below the truth, as many fishes must still be un-
described. The number of insedt species is estimated at 50,000,
of which 8000 are Coleopterous. In enumerating the main
zoo-geographical provinces of the world, the “ palgeotropical ” is
by a curious typographical error transformed into “ palasological.”
As regards the subdivisions of the Neardtic or North- American
realm, the author proposes to make in the Eastern region four
provinces dependent mainly on the isothermal lines — viz., the
Carolinian, the Alleghanian, the Canadian, and the Hudsonian.
The Central region is divided merely into two provinces, parted
by the 100th parallel of longitude.

Amongst the memoirs forming the bulk of this volume atten-
tion may be drawn to one by Alphonse de Candolle, translated
for the Smithsonian Institution, on “The Probable Future of
the Human Race.” The author’s views may thus be summa?

VQL, VIII. (N,S.) H

g8

Notices of Books.

[January,

rised : — The coming thousand of years will be marked by a
great increase of population, a mingling of races, and a prosperity
more or less marked. Then will follow a long period of decrease
of population and of general decadence. In this decline the
increasing rarity of coal and of the useful metals will play a
prominent part. These will by man’s operations have become
comminuted and equally mingled with the superficial strata of
the earth, nor does it apppear that there is at work any natural
process which will re-aggregate them in masses capable of new
exploitation. The Darwinian theory lends very little countenance
to the dreams of indefinite improvement cherished by the French
philosophers of the last century. Should the struggle for exist-
ence become intensified, as there seems every reason to expeCt,
the intellectual progress of the species must perforce slacken,
because the pursuits of the inventor and the discoverer, however
beneficial to the race at large, are very scantily remunerative to
himself. Hence he will fare as would the vine, the wheat-plant,
and others of the most precious and beautiful vegetal species, if
left without human aid to compete with the brambles and
thistles.

A higher development of the nervous system, holds Mr.
Spencer, diminishes the increase of population. A time will
therefore come when the chief additions to the population will
be made by the less intelligent and less provident families.
Hence, says M. de Candolle, “ their numbers constantly renewed
will greatly affect the supposed progression of intelligence.”

It was contended by Malthus, by John Stuart Mill, and others,
that almost all social evils spring from the faCt that population
tends to increase more rapidly than the means of sustenance,
and that, whether by moral or physical means, the supply of
human beings should always be kept below the demand. Now
we grant that the Malthusian individual or the Malthusian family
has a certain advantage over non-Malthusians ; but unless the
principle could be carried into effect all over the world the
Malthusian nation must be overwhelmed by its neighbours,
whether in war or by the silent — yet equally sure — method of
immigration. A nation can only hold its place by unlimited in-
crease, at whatever cost to some of its own members. The
future has, for man, no “ good time coming.”

In a short biographical notice of the late Prof. Agassiz, also
taken from the “ Transactions of the Genevese Society of
Physics and Natural History,” we find the following very judi-
cious remarks : — “ He excelled in the examination of details
and in the comparison of forms. I cannot say that he wTas
equally superior in the principles of natural classification and in
theoretic deductions. It may be considered at the least singular
that the author of the immense discovery of a parallelism be-
tween the successive forms of the embryo of a fish and the
successive forms of the class of fishes in general, in geological

Notices of Books.

1878.J

99

times, should persistently deny all evolution in the two
kingdoms.”

In a valuable paper on “ Certain Characteristics pertaining to
Ancient Man in Michigan,” by Mr. Henry Gillman, we meet
with the record of a very singular fad : — “ About 50 per cent of
the humeri are perforated.” This is a Simian characteristic
which, singularly enough, is found to pertain in the largest
degree to the lower races of man, while it is rare or almost
absent in the Caucasian (Aryan). “ The predominance of the
perforation (along with other degraded traits) in the chimpanzee
and gorilla, as well as in the lower races of mankind, would
suggest, if not a common ancestry in the remote past, at least
some predisposing cause common to both the ape and the savage,
and this connected with the use of the arm.”

Of the long and elaborate paper on the “ Stone Age in New
Jersey,” by Dr. C. C. Abbott, we can notice merely some of the
author’s conclusions as to the primaeval tribes who made and
used such instruments : — “ What though the Mongol does re-
semble the American, does this in itself prove relationship ? ”
And, also, it may be asked, which of the American aborigines, as
they now are, does the Asiatic Mongol most resemble ; or has
each American tribe a representative in the other continent ?
Dr. Wilson asserts that “ the theory of an aboriginal unity per-
vading our indigenous American race from the ArCtic circle to
Tierra del Fuego has been shown to be baseless ;” but how can
it be proved that the Indians apparently most nearly allied to
Asiatic races are the oldest or original aborigines ? We doubt
that all American races are related, and if so different as Dr.
Wilson assumes, who can demonstrate which type or pattern
was the central, from which came the others that climate, food,
and surroundings generally finally produced ? “ The Indian was
once a palaeolithic man, and, from whatever source he came, here
advanced, without supernatural revelation or the missionary
efforts of a superior people, to a condition which is best known
as Neolithic.” The memoir is profusely illustrated with figures
of the stone weapons and tools described, and affords admirable
evidence of the rapid progress lately made by American men of
Science in investigating the condition of the pre-historic occu-
piers of the western continent.

Annual Record of Science and Industry, for 1S76. Edited by
Spencer F. Baird. New York ; Harper Bros. London :
Triibner and Co.

This Annual Record appears to maintain its superiority over all
publications of a similar nature. Alike in the selection and the
arrangement of its materials, it has the advantage.

100

Notices of Books.

[January,

Among the recorded fadts to which we may here briefly call
attention is the hypsometric distribution of the Mollusca. It
has long been known that on the slopes of mountains each spe-
cies of plant has its peculiar zone, below or above which it does
not prosper. A similar rule holds good with the terrestrial and
fluviatile Mollusca. In the Central Pyrenees and the Alps
M. P. Fischer has recognised five zones, each characterised by
a species of Helix.

The subject of “ seasonal dimorphism ” receives notice.
Certain insect forms, lately regarded as distinct species, are now
found to be merely varieties, dependent upon temperature or
upon the time of the year at which they appear. Chrysalids
of P. marcellus, if exposed to severe cold in an ice-house, be-
came P. Telamonides. Certain Australian moths, unlike ordinary
Lepidoptera, do not suck the honey from flowers, but perforate
fruits to feed upon the juices. For this purpose their proboscis
is strong and sharply pointed.

According to Dr. Otto Hahn the much-disputed Eozoon Cana-
dense is a “ myth founded on a mistaken conclusion as to the
micro-geological character of certain serpentines.” If this state-
ment is true it will be a heavy blow and great discouragement
to Principal Dawson and other surviving members of the
Cuvierian school. At the same time the Bathybius is becoming
extremely questionable. It appears to be little more than a floc-
culent deposit of sulphate of lime.

An extracft from the “ Transactions of the Norfolk and
Norwich Naturalists’ Society” gives the “ dimensions of some
of the famous and larger oak-trees in England.” With all defer-
ence to the Society we believe it would not be difficult to seleCt
oaks larger than many which they have described. We m&y in-
stance the “ Major” and the “ Shambles” oaks, in Sherwood;
the “ Shire ” oak, at the junction of the counties of York, Not-
tingham, and Derby; and the “ King” and “ Queen ” oaks, in
Dunham Massey Park, in Cheshire.

A paragraph, the origin of which has been accidentally omit-
ted, states that “A comparison of the observations of naturalists
with the weather-charts published in Europe and America makes
it now seem certain that the weather immediately prevailing,
and not that which is about to come in the near future, is the
element which decides the movement of the greater number of
migratory birds.” This observation strips the migration of
birds of no small part of the mystery in which it has been
wrapped by unscientific writers.

The decrease of the birds of Massachusetts, both as regards
numbers and species, has been examined by Mr. J. A. Allen.
The mischief, for such it is, is ascribed in part to wanton
shooting.

The well-known water-weed, Elodea Canadensis, is described
by MM. Stein and Hanstein as having the power of evolving

1878.1

Notices of Books.

101

oxygen, or perhaps rather ozone, in considerable abundance. It
may thus play an important part in burning up organic pollutions
introduced into streams and water-courses, and in preventing —
as Dr. Geisler has shown — the development of the lower forms
of animal and vegetable life.

In an account of the controversy on Archebiosis, taken from
the “ British Medical Journal,” we notice that the name of Dr.
Bastian has been twice misprinted as Dr. Bartian.

Prof. Cope’s theory of Evolution is noticed, but scarcely ex-
plained with the needful clearness. He considers that Darwin’s
doCtrine of Natural Selection “ has a secondary position in rela-
tion to the origin of variation which Lamarck saw but did not
account for, and which Darwin has to assume in order to have
materiais from which a ‘ natural selection ’ can be made.” The
author takes a very just view of the influence of Cuvier, which
retarded the progress of philosophical zoology for at least half a
century. Prof. Cope, in his “ Origin of Genera” and “ Method
of Creation,” points out that the most nearly related animal forms
present a relation of repression and advance, or a permanent
embryonic and adult type, leaving no doubt that the one is
descended from the other. This relation was termed exact
parallelism. It was also shown that if the embryonic form were
the parent, the advanced descendant was produced by an
increased rate of growth, which phenomenon was called accele-
ration ; but that if the embryonic were the offspring, then its
failure to attain to the condition of its parent is due to the
supervention of a slower rate of growth : to this phenomenon
the term retardation is applied. Inexact parallelism is the result
of unequal acceleration or retardation. Additions appear either
as exact repetitions of pre-existent parts or as modified repeti-
tions, the former resulting in simple, the latter in more complex,
organisations.

We can, however, no further multiply extracts from this inte-
resting volume, which everyone connected with scientific pursuits
ought to read for himself.

Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South
Wales , for the Year 1875. Edited by A, Liversidge.
Sydney : Richards.

To the scientific societies of the Colonies we look naturally and
mainly for a very important class of investigations which they
alone can furnish. We expedt full accounts of the local fauna
and flora, as well as of the palaeontology, geology, and mineral-
ogy of their respective regions. Nor are we altogether disap-
pointed. The present volume contains a most interesting paper

102 Notices of Books . [January,

by S. H. Wintle, on the “ Stanniferous Deposits of Tasmania.”
In this island tin appears to be abundant. In Mount Bischoff,
Mount Ramsay, Wombat Hill, Mount Housetop, and in a variety
of other localities, it occurs chiefly as ruby tin-ore. Bismuth is
also found in Mount Ramsay, in a lode from 30 to 40 feet in width,
which has been traced to a considerable distance. Wolfram,
chrome-iron, titaniferous iron-sand, carbonate and sulphide of
copper, appear also to abound. The climate and the face of the
country offer considerable obstacles to the exploitation of these
mineral treasures. At Mount Bischoff it is said to rain nine
months in the year, and the forests are dense, dark, and compact
to a degree almost unexampled. “ The moisture is sufficient to
render the country a fit habitation for a species of land lobster,
whose circular mud-built walls and burrows are found every-
where.”

Prof. Liversidge communicates a most valuable memoir on the
“ Minerals of New South Wales,” which will be highly prized
both by scientific mineralogists and by technologists.

The remaining pages in the volume are of less general inte-
rest. It is to be hoped that the Society will persevere in labouring
upon the rich harvest-field of faCts spread out before it. It has
only to make use of its opportunities to win a high standing for
“ Transactions,” and earn the gratitude of scientific men
throughout the globe.

Journal of the Royal Society of New South Wales. 1876.

Vol. x. Edited by A. Liversidge. Sydney : C. Potter.

The Anniversary Address, delivered by the Rev. W. B. Clarke,
Vice-President, contains some useful remarks on the necessity
of Specialism in Science, and especially in what he rightly con-
siders the chief function of the Society — the study of the Physical
History of Australia.

In a paper on the “ Origin and Migrations of the Polynesian
Nation,” by the Rev. Dr. Lang, the author maintains that the
Polynesian nation is of Asiatic origin and of Malayan race, and
was separated from the rest of mankind at a period of the ear-
liest antiquity ; that spreading gradually over the Pacific Islands
they reached Easter Island, and from thence the western coast
of South America, whence they gradually became scattered over
all the western continent.

An essay on “Meteorological Periodicity,” by the Government
Astronomer, Mr. H. C. Russell, is exceedingly interesting. The
author examines the various periods or cycles which have been
put forward by meteorologists. He mentions that in Tasmania
a biennial cycle, consisting of a wet and a dry year alternately,
was traced and found to recur regularly for about twenty-five

1878.]

Notices of Books.

103

years. Then, however, two wet years occurred together (1848
and 1849), followed by two dry ones, since which Tasmania has
had an uncertain rainfall.

A triennial period was suggested by a Mr. Tebbutt, from ob-
servations taken at Windsor, in New South Wales, and it has
been also traced to the climate of Ceylon. The author does not
consider the evidence in favour of an eleven years’ cycle — corre-
sponding with the supposed period of the solar spots — to be at
all conclusive. There is, at least as far as Australia is con-
cerned, much to be said in favour of a nineteen years’ period.
The author further draws attention to the influence of cosmical
causes in modifying the climatic conditions of our earth. Thus
the earth may, and probably does, pass through regions of un-
equal meteoric density, the heating power of the sun being thus
temporarily diminished or increased. The fall of temperature
in February and May, and its increase in August and November,
producing in the latter month the phenomenon known as the
“ Indian summer” in America, and as “ St. Martin’s summer”
in Europe, are instances in point.

The Rev. W. B. Clarke contributes a valuable paper on the
“Effedts of Forest Vegetation on Climate, ’’and shows clearly, from
a mass of evidence collected with great patience and judgment,
that to denude a country is to destroy its fertility, to expose it to
the destructive alternation of flood and drought, and to injure
severely its sanitary condition.

We regret to find that the Zoological and Botanical Sedtion
of the Society held no meetings during the year. Surely
there is an almost unlimited amount of work awaiting its
attention.

Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria .

Vol. xii. Melbourne : Stilwell and Knight.

This volume contains no small amount of interesting matter.
The important question “ Is the Eucalyptus a fever-destroying
tree?” is discussed at some length by Mr. J. Bosisto, and the
conclusion drawn is affirmative. The immunity of the Australian
continent from fever, as compared with other countries of similar
climate, is remarkable, and that in spite of grievous sanitary
negledt in many towns. “ The various fever-types as found
existing among us at times appear malignant, arising either
from importation or from the existence of bad sanitary regula-
tions ; but medical testimony is that their virulence is meteor-
like, and dies at its opening day. No credit can be taken for
any improved sanitary condition of our surroundings by ourselves
in our towns and cities ; the influences operating there entice
the fever-germ to frudtify and abound.”

104 Notices of Books . [January,

Mr. F. J. Pirani contributes a memoir on “ Some Processes of
Scientific Reasoning.” The following passage may interest
some of our readers : — “ Chemistry is almost entirely based on
ideal construction. We popularly employ the term ‘ gold ’ to
denote various objects which possess certain properties of weight,
colour, &c. ; but the gold of the chemist is an ideal conception,
bearing the same relation to real gold as a geometrical sphere
does to a real sphere.”

“ Notes on the Discovery of some Keys in the Shore Forma-
tion of Corio Bay, near Geelong,” by Mr. T. Rawlinson, conveys
the impression that in 1845 or 1846 a bunch of keys, of modern
make, had been found in situ in a shelly bed on the shore, at the
depth of about 15 feet below the surface. A note by Mr. R. C.
Gunn, F.R.S., however, renders it probatle that the keys, though
found at the bottom of the shaft, must have been accidentally
dropped in from above. The lime-burner who found them
admits that he did not pick them out of the stratum of shells.

Mr. R. Etheridge, jun., contributes a paper on the Upper
Palaeozoic Polyzoa of Queensland.

Mr. A. M. Smith’s “ Notes concerning the Phenomena of the
Approach and Recession of Bodies under the Influence of
Radiant Energy ” summarise the history of the Radiometer
down to June, 1875.

The papers on “ Surcharge of the Bullion Assay,” by Mr. R.
Barton, and on a “ Proposed New Method of Weighing appli-
cable to the Gold Bullion Assay,” by Mr. G. Foord, though
interesting, cannot be rendered intelligible without the accom-
panying diagrams.

Papers and Proceedings and Report of the Royal Society of
Tasmania , for 1875. Hobart Town : Mercury Office.

The papers here presented to the learned world relate principally
to botany, malacology, and geology. In a discussion which took
place after reading the Rev. J. E. T. Wood’s paper, on the
“ Fresh-water Shells of Tasmania,” some interesting statements
were made concerning the date of extinction of the moa
( Dinornis ) of New Zealand. The Governor, Sir Aloysius Weld,
announced that he had been the first European who had visited
the Kaikora country, in the southern island, and that he had
been warned by the natives to beware of approaching the moa
from behind, as it would kick, and might probably break his leg.
They thus showed their acquaintance with the habits of birds of
the ostrich family. With reference to the gigantic extinffi eagle
(Harpagou Moorei) he was told by an old chief that on the tops
of the mountains an enormous bird, of a rufous colour, built its

I878.J

Notices of Books .

105

nest, and that in their forefathers’ time it sometimes descended
suddenly, and was large enough to carry off a good-sized boy or
girl. Mention was made of Scalavia Australis, a sea-shell which
yields a beautiful purple dye. It will be interesting to ascertain
whether this colour is identical with- that formerly obtained from
certain molluscs inhabiting the Mediterranean, and which was
known as Tyrian purple.

Dr. G. Bennett describes the “ Frilled Lizard ” (Chlamy dosau-
rus Kingii) of Queensland. This creature has the curious habit
of sometimes standing on its hind legs, and in that position
walking, or rather hopping, like a bird. The lace lizard ( Hydro -
scmrus varius) has a similar habit. The reader will be at once
reminded of certain extindl saurian or sauroid beings which
seem to have held an intermediate position between true reptiles
and birds, and to have occasionally at least resorted to bipedal
motion.

Dr. J. Milligan has presented to the Royal Society his valuable
local ^herbarium, which we devoutly hope will be extended and
carefully preserved. It is perfectly humiliating to hear of the
fate of the Colonial Herbarium at Cape Town, which is being
allowed to perish from damp and the ravages of insedts.

We learn that a number of Australian trees introduced into
the Isle of Arran are found capable of bearing the winter in the
open air. The Australian palm ( Corypha Australis), the silvered
tree-fern of New Zealand, and the great Australian bush-fern
were quite untouched by the frost.

A specimen of argentiferous galena, of Tasmanian origin, has
been found to yield over 60 per cent of metal, rather more than
half of which is silver.

The Royal Society of Tasmania evidently displays a very cre-
ditable amount of activity, though we regret to perceive, from
the financial department of the Report, that “ some members
have not yet paid their subscriptions for the past year, and seve-
ral are even in arrear for former years.” It is sad that a Society
which has such fine opportunities for research, and which num-
bers some most zealous members, should be hampered in its
career by the want of funds.

Catalogue Polyglottus Historic Naturalise By Prof. C. J.
Wheeler. Chicago : S. J. Wheeler.

This singular work gives the names of certain animals, plants,
and minerals in Latin, Spanish, French, English, and German,
all arranged in parallel columns. Singularly enough many of
the English names are incorrect, literal translations from the
German being given. Thus no English writer would use “ bear-
pavian ” as a synonym for Cynocephalus porcarius, or would call

io6

Notices of Books.

[January,

the common badger a “ badger-dog.” Porcupine and hedgehog
are not synonymes for one and the same animal. The wren
and the hedgesparrow, again, are two distinCt birds. There is
also a difference between the misteltoe, or missel thrush, and
the fieldfare : the former is the Turdus viscivorus, and the latter
the T. pilaris (Linn.). The common European viper is never
known in England as ‘‘crossed adder” or “copper snake.”
Lampyris noctiluca , the glow-worm, is not called “John’s
beetle,” nor did we ever hear it spoken of in Germany as
“ Johanniskafer,” a name we always knew to be applied to
Rhisotrogus solstitialis . “ Purple emperor ” is the English name
not of Argynnis Paphia , but of Apatura Iris. Many more mis-
takes of a similar kind might be enumerated if it were neces-
sary. Accuracy is of course the one thing needful in a work of
this class, and if found wanting it will only serve to promote
misunderstanding and confusion.

Statistics, Medical and Anthropological, af the Provost-Marshal-
General's Bureau, derived from Records of the Examination
for Military Service in the Armies of the United States,
during the late War of the Rebellion, of over a Million
Recruits, Drafted Men, Substitutes, and Enrolled Men. By
J. H. Baxter, M.D. In two volumes. Washington :
Government Printing-Office.

The work before us consists of two goodly quartos, of about
600 pages each, profusely illustrated with diagrams. The Intro-
duction gives an account of the working of the conscription
system during the American civil war, and of the difficulties en-
countered by the medical officers in judging of the physical fitness
of a recruit. The methods adopted for examining the soundness
of the men are next described. Then follows a comparative
view of the instructions issued by the United States Government
and by the principal Governments of Europe for the guidance of
the medical officer in the examination of recruits, every parti-
cular being given in detail. A great part of the work is devoted
to a comparison among the men of different nationalities who
enlisted in the United States Army, as regards height, weight,
girth of chest, and liability to various diseases. The value of
the results thus obtained entirely depends on the question
whether the recruits examined can be considered as fair average
representatives of their respective nationalities — a point on
which, in some cases, very grave doubts may be entertained.
The work, however, will be of very great value to the medical
authorities of every army.

1 878.:

Notices of Books.

107

The Influence of English Quakerdom upon German Culture , and
upon the Anglo -Russian Project of a Universal Church A
By Bruno Bauer. Berlin : Grosser.

We have here a work published, it would seem, in the year 1878,
and certainly deserving profound attention. To discuss a poli-
tico-ecclesiastic treatise in the peaceful pages of the “ Quarterly
Journal of Science ” is of course out of the question ; but we
recommend Herr Bauer’s views to the careful consideration of
our political, religious, and social contemporaries. We were
about to say that some of them might possibly have their eyes
opened, but we remember that the infatuated are always able to
interpret both faffis and arguments in favour of their own pre-
possessions. To the author we would merely say that he has
seen much, but not all, and that England has before now reco-
vered from hallucinations not less threatening.

United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries. Part III.
Report of the Commissioner for 1873-4 and 1874-5. Wash-
ington : Government Printing-Office.

This Report comprises an inquiry into the decrease of the food-
fishes, and an account of experiments on the propagation of
food-fishes in the waters of the United States. Among the in-
teresting appendices we find a treatise on the condition of the
fisheries among the ancient Greeks and Romans, and on their
mode of salting and pickling fish. The share which the seas
and rivers may be made to take in contributing to human sub-
sistence was thoroughly understood in the days of classic anti-
quity. No fewer than four hundred kinds of fishes are mentioned
by Greek authors — a proof of the great attention paid to the
population of the waters. Artificial pisciculture, an art which is
now only beginning to revive, was extensively practised.

Further sections give the statistics and other fadls connected
with the most important fisheries of the North Atlantic and of
the Ardtic Ocean, such as those of Norway, Sweden, Denmark,
Britain, and Russia. The amount of valuable products thus
obtained and the magnitude of the interests involved will be
surprising to the general public. Thus in the year 1872

1.210.000. 000 lbs. of herrings were taken in the Bay of Malan-
ger, on the Norwegian coast. At Sondmore the yield of the
spring cod-fisheries was nineteen and a half millions of fish, —

110.000. 000 lbs. of liver, or at least 55,000,000 lbs. of oil, and
39, 600, 000 lbs. of roe. An especial notice is given to M. Sar’s

* Einfluss des englischen Qulikerthums auf die deutsche Cultur, und auf das
englisch-russische Projedt einen Welt-kirc.

Notices of Books .

108

[January,

new theory of the migrations of the herring. He denies that it
at any time of the year inhabits the deep-sea bottoms, where its
favourite food, small oily crustaceans, cannot be found. During
the summer it lives scattered, in the open seas, between Iceland,
Scotland, and Norway, and approaches the Norwegian coast in
a south-easterly direction at the beginning of the spawning-
season. The Nordland great herring lives, in Sar’s opinion, to
the north-west of Nordland and Finmarken, but somewhat
nearer the coast. The periodicity in the herring fisheries, the
occurrence at certain intervals of years unusually productive, is
a question still in dispute. It would be very rash to deny the
possibility of such a phenomenon.

The artificial cultivation of carp in ponds, as carried on in
Holstein and East Prussia, is described at some length. We
have heard it maintained that land laid out in well-arranged
carp-ponds will yield a larger return than the same superficies
devoted to grazing oxen or sheep. The profits in Silesia are
given as about £y ios. per acre.

All persons who take an interest in fish, whether zoological,
economical, or gastronomical, will find this volume most in-
structive reading. Great credit is due to Prof. Spencer F. Baird
for the zeal with which he pursues the important investigations
with which he has been entrusted.

The Lazy Lays and Prose Imaginings. Written, printed, pub-
lished, and reviewed by W. H. Harrison. A.D. 1877
(Popular Chronology). A.M. 5877 (Torquemada). A.M.
50,800,077 (Huxley). London : 38, Great Russell Street.

We have here a somewhat singular book, partly in prose and
partly in rhyme, sometimes comic and sometimes sentimental.
On its cover it bears emblazoned a griffin who is to keep watch
on the Arimaspians of the nineteenth century — i.e., American
publishers. The author gives, among other things, instructions
how to “ double the utility of the printing-press.” The simplest
way to effeCt so desirable an end would be, in our opinion, to
print less rubbish, in the prevalent shapes of novels, stump-
orations, biographies, quack advertisements, and the like, so that
books and papers worth reading might stand out more distinctly
before the world. Mr. Harrison unfortunately takes a very dif-
ferent plan : he aims simply at economising paper by introduction
of characters which would none of them take up more room than
does the letter “ i.” We can see not the least good in his pro-
posals. The introduction of a new character, which would
certainly not be adopted all the world over, would retard instead
of promoting civilisation, and would be particularly unfortunate

1878.] Notices of Books. 109

at a time when there is some hope that the Germans may aban-
don their peculiar type, and thus place themselves in easier
mental communication with the rest of cultivated nations. Our
present characters, however irrational their origin, which is a
totally irrelevant consideration, have the incalculable advantage
that they are distinguishable from each other with little strain to
the eye, and that very difference in size to which Mr. Harrison
objects is therefore a valuable attribute. Letters formed on the
author’s plan would require much closer examination to distin-
guish one from another, and would, from their very trifling
difference in size and shape, cause the eyes to “ swim,” occa-
sioning serious injury to sight in people of studious habits.

“ Why should any word,” asks Mr. Harrison, “ be more than
one or two syllables in length ? ” And yet he is a poet! We
have always protested against the length of the technical terms
introduced into the sciences under pretext of “ significance.”
But a language framed on our author’s principles would rival in
“ mad monotony ” the “ Mission-room ” bell which is at this
very moment throbbing and tingling through our brain.

Mr. Harrison’s stridbures on some of the materialists of the
day who yet cannot agree what matter is are much more valuable
than his proposed printing-reform. His poems sometimes recall
those of Hood,

Does Vaccination afford any Protection against Small-Pox P
By T. B. Sprague, M.A., a Vice-President of the Institute
of Actuaries.

Most persons are aware that compulsory Vaccination is one of
the “ burning questions ” of the day, and that, instead of being
calmly discussed in medical and sanitary circles, it is taken up by
political agitators as a point of their creed. On the one hand we
have the orthodox medical practitioners, who as a body put a
somewhat exaggerated faith in the prophylactic virtues of cow-
pox. On the other hand is arrayed a league who consider vacci-
nation as not merely futile and dangerous, but when enforced by
law as an outrage on their civil and religious liberties. But there
is still a third party, who, whilst utterly scouting the vested rights
of disease and considering the State fully justified in enforcing
precautions for the promotion of public health, do not feel alto-
gether satisfied with the evidence adduced in favour of the efficacy
of vaccination. They ask how is it that we have still small-pox
epidemics, assuming almost pestilential proportions, if vaccination
is indeed a safeguard ? There are very few persons who do not
undergo the operation once in life, and multitudes are re-vaccinated
whenever the disease breaks out afresh in the neighbourhood
which they inhabit. It is also declared that in the years 1815 to

no

Notices of Books. [January,

1 835 , when vaccination was comparatively rare, small-pox epi-
demics were commonly spoken of as a thing of the past, and a
pitted face among young people was almost unknown. These
facts have not been satisfactorily explained, and any additional
light is therefore welcome. Mr. Sprague, however, after a careful
examination of the statistics of the case, draws no very decided
conclusion.. He thinks the inferences condemnatory of vaccination
founded by Dr. Keller on the vital statistics of the employes of
the Austrian State Railway scarcely warranted by the figures, but
admits that the Doctor has established that “ the rate of mortality
among the vaccinated persons who were attacked was quite as
heavy as that among the unvaccinated.” In English statistics,
and in the comments made upon them, he can “ see nothing that
at all explains why, notwithstanding the introduction of com-
pulsory vaccination, the deaths from small-pox should have risen
in the year 1872 so far beyond their number in any of the previous
seventeen years.”

Mr. Sprague is a spelling reformer, and a friend of Mr. H.
Pitman ; consequently the orthography of his pamphlet reminds
us of our old acquaintance the “ Fonetic Nuz.”

Dynamics , or Theoretical Mechanics. In accordance with the
Syllabus of the Science and Art Department. By J. T.
Bottomley, Lecturer and Demonstrator in Natural Philo-
sophy in the University of Glasgow. London and Glasgow :
W. Collins, Sons, and Co.

This book belongs to “ Collins’s Elementary Science Series,” and
is specially prepared to meet the requirements of Science Classes
under the “ Science and Art Department.” In the Introduction
the author refers to a late change in nomenclature. “ The name
Mechanics ,” he remarks, “ which properly denotes the science of
machines, and was used by Newton in that sense, came for a
time into use, instead of the appropriate word Dynamics , for the
science which treats of force, and under that name — i.e., Me-
chanics— there was a peculiar cross-division of the subject into
Statics and Dynamics, in which the proper signification of the
latter name was altogether departed from.” We fear there is, in
the present day, too strong a tendency to abolish names, inap-
propriate, indeed, if we look to their derivation, but which are
thoroughly understood in favour of such as are more “ significant”
and etymologically more correct. It is a singular fact that the
terms “ mechanical ” and “ dynamical,” now regarded as syno-
nymous, were at one time treated as decidedly antithetical.

The work before us is divided into eight chapters, treating of
the measurement of time, space, mass, velocity, acceleration, and

Ill

1878.] Notices of Books.

momentum ; of force, and the composition and resolution of
forces ; of the properties of matter ; of gravitation ; of the equi-
librium of simple mechanical arrangements ; of falling bodies ;
of curvilinear motion ; of work and energy. The author, laud-
ably enough, advises his readers to make themselves familiar with
the metric system of weights and measures, but we fear that he
is too sanguine in holding that these must shortly become uni-
versally employed.

In the “ Exercises ” at the end of the book we find the very
remarkable statement that “ a gallon of water weighs 18 lbs.”
This is doubtless a typographical error, but it calls for prompt
correction* The work is well arranged, and the explanations
lucid.

A Treatise on Chemistry. By H. E. Roscoe, F.R.S., and C.
Schorlemmer, F.R.S., Professors in the Owens College,
Manchester. Vol. I. The Non-metallic Elements. London :
Macmillan and Co. 1877.

It is now some years since a treatise on chemistry of any mag-
nitude has been published in this country, and all students of
chemistry will welcome the volume of Profs. Roscoe and Schor-
lemmer as a real addition to their science. Embracing the newest
discoveries and the newest methods, it aims to give a clear and
detail account of Modern Chemistry, taken in its broadest signi-
ficance. When we call to mind the large experience and untiring
industry of the authors, both as regards original research and
professorial teaching in ledture-room and laboratory, we have a
right to expedt a very able treatment of the subjedf at their hands.
This expectation is fully realised.

Out of the 750 pages of which this first volume consists, 40 are
given to an historical introduction, 54 to the general principles of
the science, 610 to the non-metallic elements, and 46 to crystal-
lography. The Introduction gives a brief but very lucid account
of the rise and progress of the science, traced from the earliest
times to discoveries of Priestley, Scheele, and Lavoisier, and
the development of the atomic theory by Dr. Alton. The more
prominent faCts in the history of organic chemistry are also
detailed. In the second seCtion the laws of chemical combination
are clearly explained, and the manner in which the combining
weights of bodies are obtained from the analysis of compounds.
The kinetic theory of gases and diffusion and effusion are dis-
cussed, and a brief but all-sufficient account of chemical nomen-
clature concludes this sedtion.

The non-metals are divided into the four usual groups, according
to their atomicities, and they are described in the order in which
they there occur. The account of ozone contains all that we

112

Notices of Books .

[January,

know on the subject, and is fuller than is usually found in our
manuals. It is called “ Affiive Oxygen,” and is represented as
03 =4'7,88, having a density = 23*94. That is, three volumes of
oxygen form two volumes of ozone, and, when adted upon by
potassium iodide, one-third of the ozone is used up in liberating
the iodine, and the remaining two-thirds go to form ordinary
oxygen —

03+2KI+H20=02+I+2K0H.

Group 5. — Besanez has recently shown that ozone is invariably
formed when water evaporates, and it is mainly to this source
that its presence in the air has to be traced. Ozone has been
recently used for bleaching engravings which have been discoloured
by age. They are rolled up and placed in a glass globe containing
water and moist phosphorus. Ozone has also been used for the
purpose of oxidising alcohol, C2H60, to aldehyde, C2H40, a sub-
stance employed in the manufacture of aniline-green. In the
next section the proofs of the composition of water are elaborately
discussed, and an excellent engraving shows the completest form
of apparatus for the oxide of copper synthesis. A best method
of exploding a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen is shown in
Fig. 68 ; and of the energy developed we are told that 1 grm. of
hydrogen, in burning to form water, produces an amount of energy
sufficient to raise 24,577 kilogrms. through the space of 1 metre.
An ingenious apparatus for showing that sulphur dioxide contains
half its volume of sulphur vapour is figured on page 307. An
exhaustive account of the manufacture of sulphuric acid, with
diagrams of the newest forms of apparatus for its distillation,
forms a prominent feature of the article on Sulphur. This Is
followed by a description of the “ Chlorides and Bromides of
Sulphuric Acid ” — names, we think, which have not been very
happily chosen. A detail account of carbon, and its compounds
with hydrogen, chlorine, oxygen, sulphur, and nitrogen, conclude
the volume.

Throughout the book the style is very lucid. The engravings,
which are quite equal to those we meet with in French and
German scientific works, are diredfly taken from photographs of
apparatus in adtual use, and the entire get up of the book is ex-
cellent. We trust that the second volume will soon make its
appearance.

An Elementary Treatise on Physics , Experimental and Applied.
Translated from Ganot's “ Elements de Physique,” by E.
Atkinson, Ph.D. Eighth Edition, Revised and Enlarged.
Longmans. 1877.

This well-known work, which has long since established its repu-
tation, has reached an eighth edition. Since its first appearance

1878.]

Notices of Books.

113

it has, in each succeeding edition, been enlarged and rendered
more complete. The present additions include sixty-two new
illustrations, and about sixty pages of new matter. It presents
in all respects remarkable completeness ; there are numerous
tables, and four coloured plates, including two which represent
respectively the isogonic and isoclinic lines for the year i860.
Few changes have been made in the earlier parts of the book. In
“ Sound,” however, we find several additions notably relating to
the synthesis of sounds, Kundt’s determination of the velocity of
sounds, and Koenig's manometric flames. In Heat, the subject of
Radiant Heat is treated more fully, an account of Crookes's
Radiometer and the theory of its action, Bunsen's Ice-Calorimeter,
and the sources of cold. An interesting description of Horn’s
method of determining the mechanical equivalent of heat will be
found on p. 410.

In Light, the construction and use of Hedley’s Reflecting Sex-
tant is given, and the measurement of small angles by reflection
from a mirror. The Spectroscope is treated much more fully
than before, also the whole subject of the eye. The chapters on
Magnetism are enlarged and much improved since the earlier
editions, and the plates showing isogonic and isoclinic lines are
beautifully clear and intelligible. In Electricity, the applications
of the discharge to the firing of mines has been introduced ; also
a woodcut, and brief account of Leclanche’s battery (unaccom-
panied, however, by the equation which expresses the change
within the battery). A graphic representation of the heating
effects in a circuit is given on p. 710, and the mechanical effects
of the battery on p. 718. The science of Electro-dynamics is
treated at greater length than before, and several new woodcuts
have been introduced to illustrate this portion of the subject.
The sounder telegraph receives no more than a passing notice ; a
woodcut in the next edition would be acceptable in this connection.
Becquerel’s electric thermometer is described in detail and figured,
and the subject of animal electricity receives greater attention
than hitherto. In the Meteorology and Climatology a description,
accompanied by a good engraving of Secchi’s Meteorograph, will
be found ; also Tyndall’s researches on the influence of aqueous
vapour on the radiation of heat, and on the blue colour of the
sky. The volume is concluded by 221 well-selected problems and
examples in various branches of Physics, the answers to which
are given.

We congratulate Prof. Atkinson on the completeness and tho-
roughness of his work in connection with the new edition of
Prof. Ganot’s “ Physics.”

VOL, VIII. (N.S.)

I

Notices of Books.

[January,

1 14

Stability of Motion . By E. J. Routh. (Adams’s Prize.)

This is an essay of somewhat uneven interest. The able and
elegant discussion of the conditions that an equation may have
no positive roots and no imaginary roots with the real part positive
is very interesting, both in method and result ; but the remainder
of the work takes (perhaps necessarily) too much the form of
enquiry into special and limited cases. We are inclined to think
that the line of investigation as slightly sketched in Chapter VIII.
would have yielded results of more general theoretical interest.
But the subordination of theoretical developments to practical
application seems to us the defect of this laborious and original
essay.

Spherical Harmonics. By the Rev. M. M. Ferrey.

An exceedingly clear and well-arranged account of the leading
properties of these functions, with continual reference to their
application to the theory of the potential. Possibly too great care
has been devoted to giving algebraically simple proofs of the pre-
liminary propositions, which might have been exhibited in closer
connection by a free use of Green’s theorem. One is surprised,
too, to find no mention of Prof. Maxwell’s representation of solid

harmonics as derived from — by axis-differentiation. But if these

are faults they are alone. The concluding chapter on Ellipsoidal
Harmonics, as the author happily terms Lame’s functions, is
an especially good introduction to this elegant extension of the
spherical analysis.

Inductive Metrology ; or the Recovery of Ancient Measures from
the Monuments. By W. M. Flinders Petrie. London :
Hargrove Saunders. 1877.

This work gives a very elaborate comparison of the measures ot
all the great nations of antiquity with those of modern times.
Measurements from more than 600 buildings have been considered,
and as many as 10,000 measurements have been examined.
Among the results obtained may be mentioned the proof of “ the
exact identity of the American mound-builders’ unit with the
Hebraio- Persian cubit, which had a wide and ancient diffusion in
the old world. The close similarity of the Mexican unit with the
widespread 21-4 unit of the old world ; and the similarity also of
the pre-historic British, and Christian Irish unit to this. The
close similarity of the Phoenician unit to a principal unit of pre-

1 878.!

Notices of Books.

115

historic British remains, and also to the Polynesian unit. The
identity of the Pelasgic with the Etrurio-Roman foot. The con-
tinuance of the Romano-British units into mediaeval times, the
resemblances being generally inexadt, and far within the probable
errors. Also the similar continuance of the classical units into
the Mohammedan times in Turkey and Persia.”

Incidents in the Biography of Dust. By H. P. Malet. London :
Triibner. 1877,

This work reminds 11s in its style of some of Vidtor Hugo’s rhap-
sodies concerning matter and force. A few quotations from the
work will be more effedtive in showing its general charadter than
any more formal notice, for which we have neither the inclination
to write nor the space to give : —

“ Air is composed chiefly of oxygen, hydrogen, and carbonic
acid gases.”

“ Air and water are adtive, dust is the passive element.”

“ Pressure condenses dust; dust condenses heat.”

“ Heat adts on the dust.”

Southern Stellar Objects for Small Telescopes , between the Equator
and 550 South Declination. By J. E. Gore, Asst. Engineer,
India. Lodianet. 1877.

This carefully compiled work embodies the results of observations
made in the Punjaub with an achromatic of 3 inches aperture
and four feet focal length. All the best catalogues of southern
stars have been consulted. The work will be of much use to
observers in India.

Physiography and Physical Geography . By the Rev. Alex.

Mackay, LL.D., F.R.G.S. London: William Blackwood.

1877.

In September, 1876, the Committee ot Council on Education
decided that Physical Geography, as defined in the Science Direc-
tory, was not a subjedt in which the special aid of the Science
and Art Department should be continued. But the Committee
substituted for it Physiography , a subjedt designed to embrace
“those external relations and conditions of the earth which form
the common basis of the sciences of nautical astronomy, geology,

[January,

1 1 6 Notices of Books.

and biology, as treated in the Science Directory.” Dr. Mackay's
work was written in order “ to meet the wants of such an exam-
ination. It is a good book, but too overcrowded with faCts. It is
a condensation of what might fill a dozen volumes. In the short
space of 143 pages it treats of Mathematical Geography ; the
Relation of the Solar System to the Universe ; the Earth Viewed
Individually ; Configuration of the Surface ; the Atmosphere ;
Climate ; Electricity and Magnetism ; Biology ; Geology ; Optical
Instruments ; How to Find the Distance of the Heavenly Bodies ;
Map Projections and Geodetical Surveys. Such extraordinarily
condensed matter can never be properly digested, and it tends to
foster that system of “ cram ” which is the curse of our modern
education.

The London Science-Class Books. Elementary Series. Edited
by Prof. G. C. Foster and Philip Magnus. Thermody-
namics, by RichardWormell. D.Sc., M.A. Astronomy , by
R. S. Ball, LL.D., F.R.S., Royal Astronomer of Ireland.
London : Longmans and Co. 1877.

The works of this series have special reference to science
teaching in schools, but surely not to science as now taught in
the generality of schools. If the time comes when there are regu-
lar science “sides” in schools, as we now have “modern side” and
“ classical side,” these works will be invaluable, but they are far
above the capacity of boys who are only able to devote two hours
a weekto science. Mr. Wormell’s “Thermodynamics” is a very
dry book, only suitable for the most advanced boys in large
schools, who would use it in lieu of some mathematical work.
It is absurd to put into the hands of boys, who do not under-
stand the construction and use of a thermometer, a work which
embodies in a condensed form some of the mathematical deduc-
tions of Clausius, Thomson, and Clerk Maxwell.

Professor Ball’s “ Astronomy ” is written in a clearer and
more interesting style, and will be decidedly useful for those
who, having some knowledge of mathematics, desire to make
themselves acquainted with the first principles of astronomy.

The Voyage of the “ Challenger ”: The Atlantic. A Prelimi-
nary Account of the General Results of the Exploring
Voyage of H.M.S. “ Challenger” during the Year 1873 and
the early part of the Year 1876. By Sir C. Wyville Thom-
son, LL.D., F.R.SS. L. and E., F.L.S., &c. In Two
Volumes. Published by Authority of the Lords Commis-
sioners of the Admiralty. London : Macmillan and Co.

In forming an opinion of these two volumes regard must be had
to the limitations which appear upon the title-page. The account
of the exploring expedition here given is only “ preliminary.”

1878.]

Notices of Books.

11 7

As we are reminded in the preface, some years must elapse
before the facts ascertained c in be all thoroughly digested. “ The
observations are still unreduced, the chemical analyses are only
commenced, and there has not been time even to unpack the
natural history specimens.” Hence to give anything like a de-
tailed account of the additional data which have been acquired
by the “Challenger” expedition, or of their bearings upon the
various problems of physical geography, must be quite impos-
sible. To pronounce, therefore, upon the value of the expedition
from a mere perusal of the present volumes, and to declare it a
failure, either relatively or positively — as some persons are doing
— appears to us in the highest degree rash and presumptuous.

Another point to be remembered is, the work before us em-
braces only the less interesting portion of the expedition, the
exploration of the Atlantic. The transactions of the second and
third years, in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, cannot as yet be
placed before the public in their entirety.

To form some idea of the amount of work actually performed
we must bear in mind that the explorers took up 362 special
observing stations, as nearly as possible at equal distances, and
at each made the following observations : — -

“ The exaCt depth was determined. A sample of the bottom,
averaging from 1 oz. to 1 lb. in weight, was recovered by means
of the sounding instrument, which was provided with a tube and
disengaging weights. A sample of the bottom water was pro-
cured for physical and chemical examination. The bottom tem-
perature was determined by a registering thermometer. At most
stations a fair sample of the bottom fauna was procured by means
of the dredge or trawl. At most stations the fauna of the sur-
face .and of intermediate depths was examined by the use of the
tow-net variously adjusted. At most stations a series of tem-
perature observations were made at different depths from the
surface to the bottom, and samples of sea-water were obtained
from different depths. Atmospheric and other meteorological
conditions were carefully observed and noted ; the direction and
rate of the surface current was determined, and at a few stations
an attempt was made to ascertain the direction and rate of
movement of water at different depths.”

But it must not be thought that the duties of the expedition
were limited to the observations just detailed. The islands and
the coasts of continents visited were also to be explored from
several points of view. It was especially enjoined upon the
voyagers to “ obtain information about the vegetation of oceanic
islands.” These, as is very justly remarked in the code of offi-
cial instructions drawn up by a committee of the Royal Society,
“ are in many cases the last positions held by floras of great
antiquity, and, as in the case of St. Helena, they are liable
speedily to become exterminated, and therefore to pass into
irremediable oblivion when the islands become occupied.” We

ii 8

Notices of Books.

[January,

may even ask whether it would not be possible to secure an
agreement among civilised nations against turning loose pigs,
goats, or rabbits on any island not inhabited by carnivorous
animals. Had it not been for goats much of the original flora
of St. Helena would be in existence at the present day. The
terrestrial faunae of the islands and coasts visited were doubtless
examined in the same manner as the flora.

Thus, in addition to details of what may be called sea-work,
we find a very complete account of the Bermudas, the Falkland
group, Tristan d’Acunha, Ascension, the Ac^ores, besides notices
of Madeira, the Cape Verde islands, the Rocks of St. Paul, and
Fernando Noronha. In this latter island, a Brazilian convidt
station, distant about 180 miles from the mainland, and hence
likely to present interesting correspondences or differences, the
expedition met with a strange reception. The governor would
allow them to land, offered them horses and guides and every
possible accommodation, but on condition that no scientific work
was to be done. “ Captain Nares asked, if we saw a butterfly
might we not catch it, but he said he would prefer that we
should not !” This was a great disappointment, as some of the
party had intended to prepare a monograph of the natural
history of the island. On approaching Bahia they encountered
one of those strange hosts of butterflies which are occasionally
met with on the coasts of Brazil, soaring out seawards. They
belonged to the slight and delicate genus Heliconia, and fluttered
all day over the ship and over the sea as far as the eye could
reach, like the flakes in a heavy snow-storm. This curious
phenomenon is not by any means perfectly understood.

At Sto. Amaro the party met with an ornithological incident
which may be worth mentioning. “ As the truck ran quickly
down the incline the swarthy young barbarians, attracted by the
novelty, crowded round it, and suddenly the agonised cries of a
child, followed by low moanings,rang out from under the wheels,
and a jerk of the drag pulled the car up and nearly jerked us out
of our seats. We jumped out and looked nervously under the
wheels to see what had happened, but there was no child there.
The young barbarians looked at us vaguely and curiously, but
not as if anything tragical had occurred, and we were just get-
ting into the car again, feeling a little bewildered, when a great
green parrot in a cage close beside us went through another of his
best performances in the shape of a loud mocking laugh. A
wave of relief passed over the party, and the drivers expressed
to the parrot their sense of his conduct, I fear strongly. For a
fortnight dredging was carried on with great success in the
shallow waters of the bay, almost every haul bringing up large
numbers of fine tropical shore forms, when one of the men on
leave was suddenly and fatally attacked with yellow fever, and
it was deemed prudent to weigh anchor at once.

I878.J

Notices of Books.

119

Dredging and trawling in the deep sea is an operation not
exempt from difficulty and even danger, and often disappoints
the eager naturalist. Between St. Thomas and the Bermudas
“ the large iron dredge which we were using in preference to
the trawl caught upon a rock, or a mass of coral, and brought a
sudden strain upon the dredge-rope ; and before the rope could
be veered or any other steps taken to relieve the strain, the hook
of the foremost span carried away, and the leading block which
was hooked to it flew back and struck William Stokes, one of the
sailor lads, with such violence that he was driven against the
ship’s side. His thigh was broken in two places, and he was
so seriously injured otherwise that he never recovered conscious-
ness, and died a few hours afterwards.” An accident, unattended
with any tragical features, occurred on the run between Bahia
and the Cape. “ The trawl was lowered, and on heaving in it
came up apparently with a heavy weight, the accumulators being
stretched to the utmost. It was a long and weary wind-in on
account of the continued strain; at length it came close to the
surface and we could see the distended net through the water,
when just as it was leaving the water and so greatly increasing
its weight the swivel between the dredge-rope and the chain
gave way, and the trawl with its unknown burden quietly sank
out of sight. It was a cruel disappointment, — every one was
on the bridge, and curiosity was wound up to the highest pitch :
some vowed that they saw resting on the beam of the vanishing
trawl the white hand of the mermaiden for whom we had
watched so long in vain ; but I think it is more likely that the
trawl had got bagged with the large sea-slugs which occur in
some of these deep dredgings in large quantity, and have more
than once burst the trawl-net.”

We find no mention of portions of the skeletons of the higher
animals having been brought up by the dredge, save some sharks’
teeth and the ear bones of whales fished up in one case from the
depth of 2275 fathoms. No saurian or ophidian remains are
mentioned as having been met with.

The floating islands of sea-weed, the Sargasso sea of the old
Spanish navigators, offer in their fauna some curious examples
of protective resemblance. “ Animals drifting about on the sur-
face of the sea with such scanty cover as the single broken
layer of the sea-weed must be exposed to exceptional dangers
from the sharp-eyed sea-birds hovering above them and from
the hungry fishes searching for prey beneath ; but one and all
of these creatures imitate in such an extraordinary way both
in form and colouring their floating habitat, that we can well
imagine their deceiving both the birds and the fishes.”

A curious observation, recorded in a former work of the
author’s and confirmed during the cruise of the “ Challenger,”
is the absence of eyes in certain deep-sea animals, whilst

120

Notices of Books.

[January,

in others they are fully developed. In Ethusa granulata,
a stalk-eyed crustacean, well - developed eyes are found in
specimens taken in shallow water. In deeper water, from
no to 370 fathoms, the eye-stalks are still present, but the ani-
mal is apparently blind, the stalks ending not in eyes, but in
mere round calcareous knobs, whilst at still greater depths, from
500 to 700 fathoms, the eve-stalks themselves lose their specific
character and become fixed. Here, then, as the author remarks,
we “ have a gradual modification, depending apparently upon a
gradual diminution and final disappearance of solar light.” But
in Munida , a form from equal depths, the eyes are “ unusually
developed, and apparently of great delicacy.”

It is certainly conceivable that as the light gradually decreases
in amount one of the changes may take place ; the power of
vision may fade away pari passu as no longer needed, and its
organs themselves may ultimately become abortive, or, on the
other hand, it may become more and more acute as the solar
light declines, and, as Sir Wyville Thomson suggests, may
“ become susceptible of the stimulus of the fainter light of phos-
phorescence.” But on what does it depend in any given case
which of these two kinds of progressive modification shall take
place ? Why do we find the influence of identical circumstances
so different, if not diametrically opposite ? This is a question
which the biologist has often to put to himself in vain.

A most interesting phenomenon met with in the Falkland
Islands may require a somewhat lengthened notice on account
of its connection with the “ glacial question.” We refer to the
so-called “ stone-rivers,” a natural feature not occurring else-
where on such a scale. Many of the valleys in the East Island
are occupied by pale grey masses, varying in width from a few
hundred yards to a mile or upwards, and which, from a distance,
simulate glaciers descending from the ridges and stretching down
from the sea. They consist, however, not of ice, but of blocks
of quartzite, from two, twenty feet in length by about half as much in
width, resting irregularly upon each other, and supported by the
edges and angles of those below. They are not weathered to any
extent, though the edges and points are in most cases slightly
rounded, and the surface also perceptibly worn, but only by the
aCtion of the atmosphere, is smooth and polished, and a very thin,
extremely hard white lichen, which spreads over nearly the
whole of them gives the effeCt of their being covered with a thin
layer of ice.” Water is heard murmuring down below, and occa-
sionally becomes visible where the interval between the blocks
is exceptionally large. At the mouth of the valley the seCtion
of the “ stone-river ” is like that of a large stone drain. The
only difficulty in accounting for this phenomenon is, according to
the author, the slightness of the slope ; that from the ridge to
the valley not exceeding six degrees, whilst the inclination of the
valley itself is only two or three, so that blocks of such a form

1878.:

Notices of Books.

121

are obviously unable to roll or slide down. How, then, is the
effect produced ? The beds of quartzite vary greatly in hard-
ness ; some crumbling readily away, whilst others scarcely yield
at all to ordinary weathering. The softer portions being thus
worn away, the harder beds are left as long projecting ridges
along the crests and flanks of the hill ranges, and ultimately, being
deprived of their supports, give way, and the fragments fall over
upon the sloping hill-sides when they become imbedded in vege-
tation, a slight inequality in the surface of the turf merely indi-
cating the blocks buried beneath it. From a variety of causes,
the whole soil-cap, blocks included, gradually creeps down even
very gentle slopes. Thus the alternate expansion and contraction
of the vegetable mass, according as it is soaked with water or
comparatively dry, gradually pushes the blocks downwards.
The rain-water as it runs down clears away the movable matter
before them, and the vegetable mould on which they rest “ is
undergoing a perpetual process of interstitial decay and removal.”
In this manner the blocks are gradually swept down the slope
and collected in the valley.

The author gives analogous cases, though on a less striking
scale, which he has observed in the West Highlands of Scotland
and elsewhere. He adds : — “ It seems to me almost self-evi-
dent that wherever there is a slope, be it ever so gentle, the soil-
cap must be in motion, be it ever so slow ; and that it is drag-
ging over the surface of the rock beneath the blocks and boulders
which may be imbedded in it ; and frequently piling these in
moraine-like masses where the progress of the earth-glacier is
particularly arrested, as at the contracted mouth of a valley
where the water percolating through among them in time re-
moves the intervening soil. As the avalanche is the catastrophe
of ice-movement, so the land-slip is the catastrophe of the
movement of the soil-cap. As I have already said, I should be
the last to undervalue the action of ice, or to doubt the abun-
dant evidences of glacial adtion ; but of this I feel convinced,
that too little attention has been hitherto given to this parallel
series of phenomena, which in many cases it will be found very
difficult to discriminate ; and that these phenomena must be
carefully distinguished and discriminated before we can fully
accept the grooving of rocks and the accumulation of moraines
as complete evidence of a former existence of glacial conditions.”

The theory thus suggested evidently demands very careful ex-
amination. Every geologist must have observed blocks embedded
in vegetable mould at considerable distances from the rocks whence
they were obviously derived upon slopes too gentle to admit of
rolling or sliding and in situations where the accumulation of a
head of water sufficient to bear them down seems utterly impro-
bable. If they have travelled since these slopes can have been
glaciated, if they are still travelling, Sir W. Thomson’s theory
must be accepted. But the movement is exceedingly slow, so as

122

Notices of Boohs. [January?

to render direct evidence of its existence difficult to procure.
By putting forward this view, valuable as it is to all true geolo-
gists, the author will certainly offend that class of dogmatists
who are now presuming to call themselves sceptics in geology.

But we must now turn to the author’s general results as laid
down provisionally. Till lately the most eminent naturalists,
iudging from such limited evidence as was at their disposal, were
of opinion that life at the bottom of the sea was confined to a
narrow border around the land, and that at the depth of about
ioo fathoms plants disappeared almost totally and animal life
became scarcer and scarcer, representing only such groups as
are among the simplest in their organisation, whilst at greater
depths — 300 fathoms and upwards — organic life was absent, the
physical conditions precluding the possible existence of living
beings. Gradually, however, fadts came to light which could
not be reconciled with this view of the distribution of organic
life. Samples of the sea-bottom brought up from the depths of
the Atlantic by Brookes’s sounding machine were found, on
microscopic examination, to consist largely of the shells, entire
or broken, of certain Foraminifera, which appeared to have lived
where found rather than to have floated on the surface of the
sea. Star-fishes with their stomachs full of deep-sea Foramini-
fera were brought up from depths of 1200 fathoms. Still this
important evidence was scarcely received as sufficient. Men of
science hesitated to admit the possibility of animals flourishing,
not merely in the total absence of day-light, but under a pressure
amounting at 1000 fathoms to 1 ton on every square inch of surface.
The results obtained by the author and Dr. Carpenter during
their voyages in the “ Lightning” (1868) and the “ Porcupine”
(1869 and 1870) followed up on a far wider scale by the great ex-
pedition of the “ Challenger,” may be said to have fully decided
this important question.

The views formerly entertained concerning the limitations of
oceanic vegetable life are indeed unchanged, the author finding
that vegetation is “ practically limited to depths under 100
fathoms.” Very few of the higher Algae inhabit the surface of
the sea, the chief exception being the gulf-weed, Sargassum
bacciferum. Thus marine plant life may still be regarded as
substantially littoral. But with animals the case is totally differ-
ent. It is present at the bottom of the sea at all depths, though
much less abundant in the deepest parts. Still, as well-developed
members of all the marine invertebrate classes are found at all
depths, theirdistribution does not appear primarily connected with
any of the conditions immediately depending upon depth. It
appears, however, that the oceanic fauna is chiefly confined to
two strata ; the one on and near the surface, and the other on or
near the bottom. In the intermediate stratum the larger animal
forms, whether vertebrate or invertebrate, are almost, if not
entirely, wanting. The chief invertebrate marine groups, though

1

123

1878.J Notices of Books.

all represented in the fauna of the abyss, occur in peculiar pro-
portions. Mollusca (shell-fish), brachyurous Crustaceans, and
Annelida are scarce, whilst Echinodermata and Porifera were
largely preponderate. Below 500 fathoms the fauna presents
the same general features in all parts of the world. Deep-sea
genera are either cosmopolitan in their distribution, or if differ-
ing in distant localities are to a marked degree mutually repre-
sentative. It was anticipated that the deep-sea fauna would be
more closely related than the littoral fauna to the faunae of the
secondary and tertiary periods. This expectation has been real-
ised to a certain extent, though the number of types discovered
which had been supposed extindt is not large. The most cha-
racteristic deep-sea forms, including those most closely related
to extinCt types were found in the greatest abundance and in the
largest size in the Southern ocean, and the “ general character
of the faunae of the Atlantic and of the Pacific gives the impres-
sion that the migration of species has taken place in a northerly
direction.” This capital observation, we must remark, confirms
the converse conclusion formed as to the distribution of land-
animals, which are supposed to have spread from the northern
hemisphere southwards. In other words, terrestrial forms have
originated in and have been distributed from the greatest mass
of land, just as marine forms have originated in and have spread
out from the greatest mass of water. The deep-sea fauna gene-
rally, as might be expedited, resembles the littoral fauna of high
latitudes, the physical conditions to which it is exposed being
nearly identical. A new order of animals approaching to but
still distinCl from the Radiolarians has been discovered and has
received the name “ Challengerida.”

No less important are the physical and hydrographical results.
We find indeed, in the present volumes, no observations throwing
•any light on former westward extensions of the eastern continent
or eastward prolongations of America. The question whether
Atlantis was a large island south-westward of the Canaries, or a
large and level trad reaching to the east of the Lesser Antilles,
according to Mr. Belt’s suggestion, remains precisely where it
was. It is indeed remarked that the Agores form the culmina-
ting points of a plateau of considerable extent, and that the
Bermudas present the appearance of an “ atol.” But it may
now be considered as definitely established that the bed of the
Atlantic is divided by an axial ridge, and its branches into three
basins — the eastern, extending from the West of Ireland south-
wards nearly to the Cape of Good Hope, with an average median
depth of 2500 fathoms ; the north-western, occupying the great
eastern bight of the American continent, and having the average
depth of 3000 fathoms ; and a third opening southwards and
running along the coast of South America to Cape Orange, and
having also an average depth of 3000 fathoms. The Atlantic,
and even the North Pacific, may be, in fadt, regarded as mere
gulfs or prolongations of the great preponderating water-mass of

Notices of Books .

124

[January,

the southern hemisphere, from which a coicl under-current is
steadily flowing northwards. This arrangement depends on the
circumstance that the rainfall in the Southern sea is in excess of
evaporation, whilst in the North Atlantic and Pacific the reverse
rule holds good. The temperature of the Atlantic does not
ippear sensibly affected by any influx of cold water from the
ArcStic Sea. The greatest depth found in the Atlantic — 3875 fa-
thoms, an abyss in which Chimborazo would be “ taken over-
head ” — was observed a little to the north of the Virgin Islands.

At all depths between 400 and 2000 fathoms the bottom of the
Atlantic — save where the debris brought down by rivers or due
to the disintegration of rocks interferes — is covered with
“ Globigerina-ooze,” a calcareous deposit mainly produced by
the shells of Foraminifera, but mixed with fragments of pumice,
felspar, sanidine, angite, hornblende, quartz, leucite, and mag-
netite, generally in very small particles. As the globigerina-ooze
is decomposed, it gradually passes into so-called “ red clay,”
more or less homogeneous, which covers the floor of the deep
depressions below the 2000-fathom level. In this substance
recognisable mineral fragments were found in greater abundance.
The pieces of pumice were most numerous in the neighbourhood
of well-known volcanic centres, such as the Acores and Philip-
pines, and they are supposed to be all due to sub-aerial volcanic
action. It does not appear easy to identify any of the beds now
in course of formation at the bottom of the ocean with the rocks
belonging to any of the past geological periods. The rocks of
the Mesozoic and Kainozoic series seem to have been formed in
shallow water. The author believes, however, that the globi-
gerina-ooze, if elevated and slightly metamorphosed, would
yield a limestone very closely resembling a bed of grey chalk,
whilst the “ red clay,” under similar circumstances, might ap-
proximate closely to one of the palaeozoic schists. He does not
wish, however, to offer a definite opinion until the comparative
chemical and microscopic examination of the specimens dredged
up is completed.

The volumes before us must produce a favourable impression
upon every candid reader. Though necessarily “ dry ” in parts,
they are perfectly free from any gratuitous parade of technical-
ities, as well as from “ fine writing,” and, above all, from any
obtrusion of the author’s personality. Sir Wyville Thomson
sees, and tells us what he sees, without “ posing ” for our ad-
miration. The work is also not like too many records of voyage
and travel, ballasted with irrelevancies. If we further bear in
mind that we have here merely an instalment, and that probably
the less interesting part of the work done by the “ Challenger,” we
must pronounce the results of the highest service to Science,
and creditable to the Government which sent out the Expedition,
to the illustrious Society by which it was planned, and to the
eminent men by whom so arduous a task was successfully
executed.

1873.]

Notices of Books .

125

The Different Forms of Flowers or Plants of the Same Species.

By Charles Darwin, F.R.S. London : Murray.

Though modestly proclaiming himself no botanist, Mr. Darwin
continues to produce botanical researches whose sterling value
must be admitted even by the most determined adherents of the
old school of Natural History. The work before us treats of
some very interesting points connected with the reproduction of
plants. A certain number of vegetable species were grouped
together by Linnaeus as hermaphrodites, and amongst these are
a class which Mr. Darwin studied and described some years ago
as “ dimorphic” and “ trimorphic,” and which have since been
named “ hetero-styled ” by Hildebrand. In plants of this class
there are individual flowers of two, or in other cases of three,
forms, differing principally in the relative length of the pistils
and stamens. A familiar instance may be found in thq common
cowslip, polyanthus, and auricula. In some of these flowers
the globular stigma appears at the mouth of the corolla, whilst
in others the stigma does not protrude, and in its stead appear
the anthers as an annular tuft. These different forms of the
flower are named by florists respectively “ pin-eyed ” and
“ thrum-eyed.” The former type is named by our author the
long-styled, and the latter the short-styled. These two kinds of
flowers are never found upon one and the same plant. Mr.
D arwin has investigated the meaning of this diversity, and finds
that it is by no means accidental or unimportant. If the long-
styled form is fecundated by the pollen of the short-styled form,
or vice versa, we have complete fertility ; the seed is abundant
and good, and the author accordingly speaks of this as a
“ legitimate union.” If, on the other hand, a long-styled flower
is fertilised by the pollen of a long-styled flower, or if a short-
styled flower is fecundated by the pollen of a short-styled flower,
we have two cases of “ illegitimate union,” in which the seed
produced is not merely much less in quantity, but inferior in
quality.

There are other plants, again, in which we find not two, but
three different forms, as in certain species of Ly thrum , Nescea ,
Oxalis , and Pontederia. Here, again, we mark the same dif-
ference between the effeCls of legitimate and of illegitimate
union. The author remarks that there is a wonderfully close
parallellism between the effeCls of illegitimate and of hybrid
fertilisation. “It is hardly an exaggeration to assert that seed-
lings from an illegitimately fertilised hetero-styled plant are
hybrids formed within the limits of one and the same species.
This conclusion is important, for we thus learn that the difficulty
in sexually uniting two organic forms, and the sterility of their
offspring, afford no sure criterion of so-called specific distinCl-
ness. If anyone were to cross two varieties of the same forms

126 Notices of Boohs. [January,

of Ly thrum or Primula for the sake of ascertaining whether they
were specifically distinct, and he found that they could be united
only with some difficulty, that their offspring were extremely
sterile, and that the parents and their offspring resembled in a
whole series of relations crossed species and their hybrid off-
spring, he might maintain that his varieties had been proved to
be good and true species, but he would be completely deceived.
In the second place, as the forms of the same trimorphic or dimor-
phic hetero-styled species are obviously identical in general
structure with the exception of the reproductive organs, and as
they are identical in general constitution (for they live under
precisely the same conditions), the sterility of their illegitimate
unions, and that of their illegitimate offspring, must depend ex-
clusively on the nature of the sexual elements, and on their in-
compatibility for uniting in a particular manner. And as we
have just seen that distindt species when crossed resemble in a
whole series of relations the forms of one and the same species
when illegitimately united, we are led to conclude that the steri-
lity of the former must likewise depend exclusively on the in-
compatible nature of their sexual elements, and not on any
general difference in constitution or structure. We are, indeed,
led to this same conclusion by the impossibility of detecting any
differences sufficient to account for certain species crossing with
the greatest ease, whilst other closely allied species cannot be
crossed, or can be crossed only with extreme difficulty. We are
led to this conclusion still more forcibly by considering the great
difference which often exists in the facility of crossing recipro-
cally the same species, for it is manifest in this case that the re-
sult must depend on the nature of the sexual elements, the male
element of the one species adding freely on the female element
of the other, but not so in a reversed direction. And now we see
that this same conclusion is independently and strongly forti-
fied by the consideration of the illegitimate unions of trimorphic
and dimorphic hetero-styled plants.

It can scarcely be denied that these latest researches of Mr.
Darwin have dealt a most serious, if not an absolutely fatal, blow
at the so-called physiological test of species, and consequently
at the line of absolute demarcation by which some naturalists
still consider species — as distindt from varieties — to be bounded.

The Methods of Physical Science. A Ledture delivered at Uni-
versity College, Bristol, as Introductory to the Course of
1S77-78. By Sylvanus Thompson, B.Sc., &c. Bristol:
T. Kerslake and Co. London : Longmans and Co.

We have here a ledture which brings forward not one novel fadt,
and probably no conclusion which has not been arrived at and

1878.]

Notices of Books.

127

pointed out before, but which is yet of exceeding value as clearly
and authoritatively summing up the methods by which alone
scientific truth may be attained. These methods are too apt to
be sneered at by mere paper philosophers, the professors of the
so-called “ Wissenschaft in der phrase;” they are practically
overlooked by the young, the inexperienced, and the superficial,
who have yet to learn the great lesson of thoroughness. Hence it is
most appropriate that they should be fully explained and enforced
at such a time as the opening of a course of study in a new in-
stitution for higher — and we hope for scientific — education.

Mr. Thompson naturally addresses himself to the student of
physics or of chemistry, but he says little, if anything, which has
not an equal claim of the biologist or the geologist, in short, of
all who in any department are engaged in questioning nature.

The leCturer takes for his text, if we may use the expression,
the “Rules of Philosophising” laid down by Newton in his
“ Principia.”

I. “We are to admit no more causes ot natural things than
such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances.”

II. “ To the same natural effects, therefore, we must, as far as
possible, assign the same causes.”

A striking example of the breach of these two rules is given by
certain biologists in their attempts to deny intelligence to the
lower animals. If a man acts in a certain manner to attain a
given end, they declare he has been guided by intelligence, but if
a fox or an ape proceeds in a manner totally analogous they then
ascribe his conduct to quasi- intelligence, and thus assign different
causes to the same natural effeCts.

The author refers to a “ certain note of dissatisfaction at the
methods of modern science, and that in quarters where it cannot
be passed by ; a dissatisfaction amounting almost to disgust.
This “ revolt from the experimental method ” is manifested in the
writings of Hegel, and finds an echo in a passage quoted by the
author from Buckle’s “ History ot Civilisation ” (vol. iii., p. 379).
We may even doubt whether Comte can be altogether acquitted
of having given utterance to similar views. This same tendency
to undervalue experiment and observation and to return to the
vicious methods pursued in the dark ages may be traced in an
advice given in a certain quarter to naturalists that they ought by
all means to study metaphysics. But it is not from open attacks
upon the induClive method that we have the most to fear. It is
manifestly not merely the right but the duty of science to subjeCt
every phenomenon to the test of experimental study. No matter
how difficult the question, or how much it may have been com-
plicated by imposture, folly, and superstition, this obligation still
remains. Yet we have men of science, so-called, who rest satis-
fied with superficial perfunCtory researches, mere apologies for a
foregone conclusion, and who, on the faith of their own “ edu-
cated common sense,” adjudicate not merely theories or hypo-

128

Notices of Books.

[January,

theses, but facts. What is still worse, these men make it their
business to ridicule and disparage the earnest enquirer who is
searching for the pearls which they trample under foot.*

Mr. Thompson gives a survey of “ some of the more special
methods of physical science which have been of service in the
acquisition of facfls.” He enumerates — Casual Observation ,
Methods of Comparison, Methods of Precision, Methods of Anal-
ogy, Methods of Hypothesis, and Residual Methods, each of these
being explained by reference to cases of its successful application.
With the last-mentioned method he connects the names of Boyle,
Wollaston, Faraday, and Brewster in the past, and that of Mr.
Crookes in the present.

“ As a mental and moral training,” the author observes,” “ the
pursuit of the scientific method is priceless.” “ He who will be
warped by prejudice, by passion, or by fear cannot investigate
nature rightly.”

The students of the Bristol University College may well be
congratulated on a teacher whose conceptions of the methods and
the duties of science are so clear, so wide, and so lofty.

The Canadian Journal of Science, Literature, and History.

Vol. XV., No. VI., July, 1877. Toronto: Copp, Clark, and
Co.

This issue opens with an interesting paper on “ Left-handedness,”
by Dr. D. Wilson, in which the important question is raised
whether any phenomenon corresponding to the preferential use of
the right hand in man can be traced in the inferior animals and
especially in apes. ft is curious that the handle of a bronze
sickle found at the lake-dwellings of Moringen, on the Lake of
Brienne, in Switzerland, is adapted for use with the right hand.
But the deer-horn picks recovered from the “ Grime’s Graves ”
flint pits are not invariably right-handed. “ Left-handedness,”
the author considers, “ is inherited and transmitted, though in an
irregular manner and with varying intensity ; that the range of
the influence, to whatever source we may trace it, affedfls other
organs of the same side only partially and uncertainly.” He de-
clares that with the majority of mankind the left hand is syste-
matically reduced to the condition of a comparatively useless mem-
ber. He does not, however, give sufficient prominence to the
fa eft that this uselessness among right-handed persons varies very
considerably in degree. We have met with persons who, without
any previous training, could on the very first attempt write
legibly with the left hand, whilst others failed completely even
after many trials.

* This treatment of truth is not, it appears, confined to the pacliy- dermata.

Notices of Boohs.

1878.]

129

There is a valuable synopsis of the Flora of the Valley of the
St. Lawrence and of the Great Lakes, by Dr. J. Macoun, the
Botanist to the Canadian Geological Survey, giving the localities
of each species and descriptions of the rarer plants.

Proteus , or Unity in Nature. By C. B. Radcliffe, M.D.

Second Edition. London : Macmillan and Co.

We do not wish to be irreverent, but this work irresistibly reminds
us of an old wooden frigate hastily converted into an iron-clad in
some real or fancied emergency. “ Substantially,” as the author
tells us in his mythological and mystic introduction, “ a second
and much enlarged edition of a very immature work published
under the same title more than twenty-five years ago,” it is now
refitted, and sent out to cruise against the dodtrine of Evolution.
He considers that much of what he has to say is likely to find
“ little favour in a materialistic age like the present.” Has he
yet to learn that between Evolutionism and Materialism there is
no necessary connection ? He gives us “traces of unity” in
plants, in the limbs of vertebrate animals, in the appendicular
organs of invertebrate animals, in the skull and vertebral column,
in the animal as a whole, in plants and animals, in organic and
inorganic forms. Passing from form to force, he lays before us
traces of unity also in the various modes of physical force, in
vital and physical motion, in the “ vivifying power of light and
heat,” in the phenomena of “ instindf,” of memory, of ima-
gination, volition, and intelligence, as well as in the personal,
social, and religious life of man. All this is worked out with
abundance of learning, with references to and quotations from
numerous authors of all ages, though also with an obvious
leaning to far-fetched analogies which almost reminds us of
G. H. v. Schubert, or of Heinrich Steffens. But accepting in
substance what Dr. Radcliffe has to urge, and without at all
seeking to impair its value by fadts of an opposite tendency, we
have to inform him that this very unity is confirmation strong
of the dodtrine of Evolution ! It is precisely what we should
expedt if the whole organic world had been developed from some
common primitive form. It is precisely what we should not
expedl if each plant and each animal were of independent
origin. Let us take a parallel case : the chemical unity of the
heavenly bodies, as shown almost demonstrably by spedtroscopic
research and by the analysis of meteorites, is justly considered
as a valuable piece of evidence in favour of the “ nebular hypo-
thesis,” i.e., the evolution of suns and planets out of one common
material. It is strange to find an author, after elaborately col-
ledting instances of unity in creation, breakind down the barriers

VOL. VHP (N.S.) &

130 Notices of Books . [January,

between the plant and the animal, — a task already accomplished,
— and even attacking that “ which has been ereCted between the
domains of organic and inorganic nature it is strange, we say,
to find such an author suddenly arrested by the dim and eva-
nescent boundary line which alone lies between those respective
groups which we call species, and which he considers as primor-
dially distinCt. He declares, indeed, that “ the doCtrine of unity
in diversity, and diversity in unity, has little or no bearing, direCt
or indirect, upon the doCtrine of Evolution.” If so, why does
he append his attack upon Evolution to a work devoted to
pointing out “ traces of unity ?” His only argument against
Organic Evolution, beyond his declared ignorance of “ any evi-
dence which ought to lead to a different conclusion ” seems to
lie in the following passage : — “ And what other conclusion can
be drawn from the infertility of mules than this — that there is a
barrier between different species, even between those which are
most closely akin to each other, by which they are kept apart
most effectually.” That such lines can still be written by a man
of learning is to us a mystery. Shall we never be delivered from
the errors deduced from that unfortunate faCt that the best-known
hybrid, the mule, happens to be barren ? The fertility of the
leporide — the hybrid between the hare and the rabbit — has been
recently most fully confirmed in a paper in “ Les Mondes,” an
organ bitterly hostile to Evolutionism. In a recent and valuable
monograph on the American bison we have satisfactory evidence
that this animal can produce permanently fertile hybrids v/ith
the domestic cow ; yet the two belong not merely to distinCt
species, but to distinCt genera ! But to any candid enquirer we
think the recent researches of Mr. Darwin on the reproduction
of plants must supply full proof that the difficulty of producing
hybrids, and their infertility where it exists, is due to causes very
different from a supposed barrier between species, and supplies
no valid argument against Evolution. Dr. Radcliffe concludes
that “ each creature was created as a necessary part of a great
whole, perfect in itself, and perfeCt in its relations to other crea-
tures and to the universe to which it belongs ! ” But he gives
us no proof of this alleged perfection, no standard by which it
can be judged or recognised. If each animal was necessary,
why do we see so many blanks in the animal series which have
not been filled up ? Why do strange plants and animals, artifi-
cially introduced into any country, often displace its original
flora and fauna ? In faCt, there is scarcely a phenomenon con-
nected with animal geography, or with the powers and functions
of animals, which can be fairly reconciled with the creed of the
old Natural History as here summarised by our author.

We have no sympathy with materialists, but we cannot forget
that every important step in the development of science has
been met with charges of materialism and atheism. From all we
can gather from this work, its author, both by disposition and

1 878.]

Notices of Books .

131

by the character of his studies, is better fitted to deal with words
or with dreams than with things, and would shine much more in
fanciful interpretations of myths than in the sober domains of
Natural Science.

The Geological Record for 1875. An Account of Works on
Geology, Mineralogy, and Palceontology , published during
the Year. Edited by W. Whitaker, F.G.S. (of the
Geological Survey of England). London : Taylor and
Francis.

In few sciences is an annual record or general summary of
work done so needful as in geology. So wide and so manifold
is the subjedt, so closely blended with physics and chemistry
upon one side and with biology upon the other, and so numerous
are the organs in which matter of geological interest may first
see the light, that without some journal like the one before us
it is scarcely possible for the student to keep himself abreast of
the current of discovery. We hope, therefore, that there may be
no question as to the success of so necessary an undertaking.

The information given is arranged under the following
heads: — Stratigraphical and Descriptive Geology, Physical
Geology, Applied and Economic Geology, Petrology, Mine-
ralogy, Palaeontology, Maps and Sections, Miscellaneous and
General. Most of these classes are again subdivided, and each
such division is placed in the hands of a responsible sub-editor,
To extradt even a tithe of the interesting matter contained in
the work would be of course impossible, but we may, as speci-
mens, lay a few fragments before our readers. G. Krefft, in his
“ Remarks on Prof. Owen’s Arrangement of the Fossil Kanga-
roos,” considers that the whole of the Australian marsupials,
extindl and living, are descendants of an extindt animal com-
prising the dental structure both of the carnivorous and herb-
ivorous sections of the sub-order, and of which Thylacoleo was
the last representative.

O. C. Marsh, in a paper on a “ New Order of Eocene Mam-
mals ” contained in the “ American Journal” (vol. ix., p. 221),
gives an account of the Tillotherium, which combines the cha-
racters of Carnivora, Ungulata, and Rodentia. This is another
of those discoveries which so powerfully support the dodtrine of
Evolution, presenting, as they do, characters in combination
which have been since separated out and distributed among
different animal groups.

Riitimeyer’s work, “ Traces of Man in Swiss Interglacial De-
posits ” (“ Verhand. Nat. Ges. Basel,” vi., 333 to 342), describes
wooden rods, artificially sharpened, and remains of coarse wicker-

K 2

132 Notices of Books. [January,

work, found in the interglacial lignite along with known extindt
animal species (elephant, rhinoceros, cave-bear, Bos primi-
genius, &c.

Brief notice is taken of Principal Dawson’s “ Address on the
Origin and History of Life on our Planet.” The author con-
cludes that “ the introduction of new species of animals and
plants has been a continuous process, not necessarily in the
sense of the derivation of one species from another, but in the
higher (?) sense of the continued operation of the cause or
causes which introduced life at the first.” This seems very like
the demand for a continuous miracle. Against this view the ob-
jection urged against Darwin weighs with tenfold force. For if
no one has witnessed an ape becoming a man, still less has any-
one witnessed a new animal condensing out of the atmosphere,
crystallising out of the waters, or emanating from the ground.
Principal Dawson holds also that “ Palaeontology furnishes no
direCt evidence, perhaps never can furnish any, as to the aCtual
transformation of one species into another, or as to the aCtual
circumstances of the creation of a new species ; but the drift of
its evidence is to show that species come in per saltum, rather
than by any slow and gradual process.”

S. H. Scudder’s important paper on “ Fossil Lepidoptera ” is
somewhat severely abridged. We are told that the author
“ discusses the comparative age of fossil butterflies, the pro-
bable food-plants of Tertiary caterpillars, the present distribution
of butterflies most nearly allied to the fossil forms, and the affini-
ties of certain fossil insedts which have been referred to butter-
flies,” but there is given no summary of the conclusions
arrived at.

The evidence of glaciation in India is becoming stronger, but
the details bearing on this question, as well as interesting
accounts of the coal-fields and the other mineral wealth of the
Empire, are to be met with in the Reports of the Geological
Survey of India.

The geology of Africa is still in a very imperfect state. The
British provinces in the South ought at any rate to be thoroughly
explored.

Mr. J. C. Brown has written an important memoir on the
hydrology of South Africa, discussing the causes of its present
aridity, and suggesting appropriate remedial measures.

The geology of Australia is engaging the attention of a
greater number of explorers. Mr. J. Bonwick estimates the
carboniferous area of New South Wales at 15,419 square miles,
and expedts that part of the comparatively unknown western
interior of the colony may prove to be carboniferous. The coal-
field of New South Wales and Queensland he considers to be
the western edge of a larger area now under the Pacific.

A paper contributed by Mr. J. Goodhall to the “ Transactions
of the New Zealand Institute” is of great importance as regards

1 878.]

Notices of Books.

*33

the early existence of mankind — or at least of some tool-using
animal — on our earth. During excavations in the city of
Auckland a tree-stump was discovered in its natural position,
upright, with roots penetrating the surrounding clay, and covered
by about 25 feet of volcanic debris , consisting of stratified beds
of ooze and volcanic ash adjacent to a volcanic centre. The
clay in which the roots occur rests upon Tertiary rocks, and is
10 to 15 feet thick. The stump is said to be a “ tea-tree ”
(Manuka), and to have been cut with a tool. The author holds
that it proves the existence of man long before the period indi-
cated by the traditions of the Maories of their advent in this
island, and at a period before what is probably the oldest volcano
in Auckland became extindl.

At Mercedes, near Buenos Ayres, human bones have been
discovered at a depth of 4 metres in undisturbed Quaternary
beds, mixed with burnt wood, earth, and flint-implements ; also
bones of about fifteen species of mammals, mostly extindl.

This interesting volume finishes with “ Addenda,” a “ Sup-
plement,” and a “ Postscript,” which reminds us of the headings
“ Finally,” “ Lastly,” and “To conclude, ” in a Puritan sermon.

Is Scientific Materialism Compatible with Dogmatic Theology ?
The Inaugural Address delivered before the Literary and
Philosophical Society of Liverpool on the Opening of the
Sixty-Seventh Session, Odlober 1, 1877. ByJoHN Drysdale,
M.D., President of the Society, and author of “ The Proto-
plastic Theory of Life.” Liverpool : Adam Holden.

The Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool, as we were
on a former occasion compelled to remark, seems to have a strong
propensity for the discussion of subjects which can scarcely be
held to fall under its legitimate cognisance. Dr. Drysdale’s able
and interesting address may doubtless rank as “ philosophical ”
in the more recent and etymologically more corredl acceptation ;
but when the literary and philosophical societies of England were
founded, and when their aims and fundlions were defined, the
word “ philosophical ” was, we submit, used in a sense which
now survives mainly in the phrase “ philosophical instruments.”
In the first quarter of the present century, and even down to, say,
the year 1840, the word “ philosopher ” was the exadt equivalent
of the German “ Naturforscher,” and of the recent American
word “ scientist.” Hence were it not that the Society bears also
the very vague name of “ Literary,” Dr. Drysdale’s address
could only be regarded as a breach of order. As it is the dis-
cussion of his views, in a stridlly scientific organ, is scarcely
within the limits of possibility.

134

Notices of Books.

[January,

The author answers his own question — the momentous
character of which we do not seek to under estimate — in the
affirmative. An evolutionist, a believer in the mere phenomenal
character of life and mind, and a disbeliever — if we understand
him aright — in teleology, at least as it has been hitherto taught ;
he accepts, “ on supernatural authority, the knowledge of the
existence of personal conscious-thinking beings other than man,
and whose substance is non-material, and that man in a personal,
conscious, and responsible state shall live again for ever.” He
shows that man’s utmost power and skill applied to the inter-
pretation of the Universe only leave him the choice between
materialistic Pantheism, as expounded, e.g ., by Haeckel, Deism,
and “ negative Atheism.*” After pointing out the utterly un-
satisfactory character of the two former hypotheses he declares
his conviction that the third “is not incompatible with dogmatic
theology, and not even unfavourable for the reception of it.
Our attitude in this category may be compared to that of the
humble publican who prostrates himself on the floor of the
Temple, and cries aloud in agony, overwhelmed by the cruel and
crushing power of natural laws, and the blank emptiness of all
visible signs of the presence of God in nature. Is the cry to
go up to Pleaven for ever and no answer to be vouchsafed ?
No ! a thousand times No ! For from the depths of the unseen
world the voice of the Almighty Himself has been heard, de-
claring His will and Flis nature and purpose, so far as seemed
to Him good, and as we are fitted to comprehend. . . It is

only in the external bearing of revelation, in contrast to science,
that we are at present concerned, and therefore we must speak of
it explicitly, as the special revelation bound up with the history
of Moses and of Christ. Whatever may be the defects of historic
evidence in comparison with the proofs, repeatable at will, of
physical science, it is obviously all we have to depend on, and
by it the whole of dogmatic religion as something apart from all
other knowledge and truth must stand or fall. For the — to us
— supernatural revelation is inseparably bound up with the
historic truth of the persons and miracles of Moses and of Christ ;
the so-called internal evidence of the truth of the teachings of
Christ, valuable as they may be, are wholly insufficient of them-
selves ; and no rational thinker can accept the Gospels without
accepting the miracles, which form an essential part the narra-
tive, or rather, they are the essence of Christianity itself. This
is conclusively shown by the destructive criticism of the German
school represented by Strauss and Baur. That the moral
elements of Christianity could survive the destruction of the
historic personality of Christ and the whole supernatural element

* Ey this term we presume the author means net the dcpmatic denial of a
god, but merely a confession of inability to infer from tl e Universe the exis^
tence of a First Cause, personal, just, and benevolent.

1 878.]

Notices of Books.

135

is a mere chimera; the notion never had any rational foundation,
and if any belief in it ever existed it must have been dispelled by
Strauss’s last book. It is only, therefore, as a supernatural
element of actual knowledge that . Christian dogmatics can take a
place in our knowledge, and prevail over, or rather, supplement
the conclusions of scientific materialism. Without the super-
natural element there is, as far as I can see, no choice except
between Pantheism and negative Atheism ; for the flimsy barrier
of Deism is swept away at once whenever the hold on the super-
natural is abandoned.”

Now, we are certainly not prepared to say that Dr. Drysdale’s
views in this respedt are not here and there open to criticism,
but they involve, at least, no fundamental absurdity, and it will be
worth carefully considering whether they do not open out the
only possible way of escape from the difficulties which we en-
counter whenever — as none of us can help at times attempting
— we would rise from the details of research to first principles.
It must be confessed that the Universe, as we now behold it with
the eye of unaided reason, is a ghastly spedtacle. Time was
when we fancied we saw in the woods and the fields realms of
peace and joy. We knew, of course, that the hawk and the
weasel were preying upon the small birds, that the spider was
sucking the life-juices of the fly, and that the ichneumon larva
was feasting among the vitals of the caterpillar. But all this
seemed merely an exceptional disturbance of the general bliss.
Now all this is changed ; whether Natural Selection be a true
cause of the formation of species or not ; nay, whether species
have been evolved at all, or primordially created, we cannot get
rid of the Struggle for Existence, which, like Lytton-Bulwer’s
“ Dweller on the Threshold,” haunts every man whose eyes have
been opened. Well might Winwood Reade, quailing before this
phantom, and finding no solution to the mysteries of the Uni-
verse, exclaim “ Creation is murder.”

We need scarcely say that Dr. Drysdale, in accepting the
Christian revelation as fully compatible with the results of the
latest advances in science, makes the necessary reservation, old
as the days of Galileo, that the Scriptures are not a code of
geology, physics, biology, or psychology. This simple principle
that where matters of observation and experience are touched
upon Revelation speaks a merely popular language — with the
same right as the most precise of us all still speaks of the sun’s
rising and setting — does away with the necessity of all attempts
to reconcile “ geology and Genesis,” and at the same time cuts
away the ground from beneath those who contend for the rejec-
tion of revelation on the ground of its technical inaccuracies.

We have no doubt Dr. Drysdale will encounter some rough
usage. Those who presume to say that the object of Evolu-
tionism is to undermine religion will doubtless brand him as an
infidel. On the other hand, he will be denounced as an abject

136

Notices of Books.

[January,

slave of superstition by such men as Posner, who, in a passage
here quoted, declares that we “ must deny God, and trample the
Cross under foot, before we can become even scholars, far less
masters in Natural Science.” With this vicious and unphilo-
sophical outbreak Dr. Drysdale deals with just severity. He
admits that thoughts of First Causes and teleological ideas
“ tend to check the progress of investigation at numerous
points.” The fa Ct that the majority of scientific men are not
religious in the conventional and restricted sense of the term
cannot, he thinks, be denied. But this adds very little strength
to the fanatically intolerant position of Posner, since “ the field
of science is now so enormous that a man must not only give
himself up wholly to it, but even to a very small part of it, in
order to make any new conquest for the domain of knowledge.
Hence even an incapacity to judge of religious truths.” That
there is no essential antagonism between religion and science
the author considers is proved “ by a long roll of illustrious
names, from Newton to Faraday.” To all the numeroust empta-
tions to premature hypothesis and baseless speculation the
infidel is at least as open as the believer. “ For it is possible
for the latter to free his mind from all bias, and push back crea-
tive interference as far as the search for phenomenal causes can
possibly demand, and then he is in a better position for calm
judgment than the fanatical infidel-evolutionist, for example,
who is compelled to find a natural origin of life, and thus is
tempted to fantastic speculation on the spontaneous generation
of completely organised living beings with a life-history in a few
hours from fermenting chemical compounds. Even on the
descent of man the believer can rise to a calm and more un-
prejudiced standpoint than the Hackelian.” Our author also
thinks that the moral causes of mental disturbance must be
taken into account. He remarks that “ envy, jealousy, hatred,
and prejudice are as rife among men of science as among other
men, and these dim the pure love of truth, which is the essen-
tial condition of all discovery in science. Where are the quali-
ties to counteract these most likely to be found ? Surely among
those desiring honesty, honour, truth, love, esteem, veneration,
and beauty, to which the highest ideal is presented in Christian
dogmatics !” Inverting Posner’s position our author asks :
“ May we not, therefore, say, No one can truly become a master
in science unless he first takes up the Cross and blends indis-
solubly the perfeCt love of truth, as a moral duty, with the love
of truth in nature, which is the foundation of all scientific
method ?”

1878.]

Notices of Books ,

i37

United States Geological Survey. Miscellaneous Publications.

No. 8. Fur-bearing Animals : A Monograph of North

American Mustelidce. By Elliot Coues. Washington :

Government Printing Office. ■

We have here a most valuable monograph of a group of animals
not merely important on account of the furs they yield, but
interesting to the naturalist from many strange points in their
character and habits. Our notice is first claimed by that most
unsavoury beast the skunk, Mephitis mepliitica. The genus
Mephitis , and the American species in particular, their outward
and inward structure, geographical distribution, and habits are
described with elaborate care. The offensive secretion whose
horrible properties have not been exaggerated by popular tradi-
tion, and the excretory organs or “ atomisers ” for its ejection
and distribution in the atmosphere, have been examined by Dr.

J. M. Warren, who, undeterred alike by the dreadful odour, and
by the possibility of anti-vivisedlionist denunciations, examined
the glands in a living specimen which had been placed under
the influence of chloric ether. The fluid does not appear to
have been hitherto submitted to chemical examination, but we
trust that before long some enterprising student will ascertain
its properties and its “ constitution.” It is described as being
phosphorescent, of an altogether indescribable odour, at once
pungent, penetrating, and intensely nauseating. Both men and
dogs have been permanently blinded in consequence of a drop
having come in contact with the eye-ball. According to Sir John
Richardson a dead skunk, thrown over the stockades of a trading
post, produced instant nausea in several women in a house with
closed doors upwards of a hundred yards distant. The vulgar
notion that the offensive liquid is the urine of the animal is
utterly unfounded. As regards the distance to which this fluid
can be propelled the author remarks that “ the squirt reaches
several (authors say from four to fourteen) feet, while the aura
is readily perceptible at distances to be best expressed in fractions
of a mile.

The authority and the reasoning of Waterton, notwithstanding,
there is no doubt but that this creature is fully aware of the
offensiveness of its secretion to other species and uses it as a
defensive weapon. “ Its heedless familiarity, its temerity in
pushing into places which other animals instinctively shun as
dangerous, and its indisposition to seek safety by hasty retreat,
are evident results of its confidence in the extraordinary means
of defence with which it is provided.” In the woods of Nicaragua
Mr. Belt repeatedly observed the calm assurance of the skunk,
who goes leisurely along holding up his white tail as a danger-
flag for none to come within the range of his nauseous artillery.” *

But this animal, it is now known, possesses a far more

138 Notices of Books. [January,

dangerous attribute than that of the emission of an execrable
odour, but which certainly contributes nothing to his defence.
His bite is usually fatal, inducing a disease very similar to if not
identical with canine rabies. One remarkable point is that the
skunk possesses this power, not .when himself attacked with a
fatal disease, as is the case with the dog, but when appa-
rently in a normal state of health. Some unsolved questions
here present themselves. Rabies is said to be not uncommon
among wolves on the European Continent, and very general
among jackals in India. Do these animals invariably, or even
commonly, die of the disease, or are they, like the skunk,
capable of inflicting a poisoned bite when in good health ?
Again, is there any authenticated case of idiopathic hydrophobia
in a cat or in any other feline animal ? The skunk displays
what may be called gratuitous malignity. Its bite is inflicted
not in defence of itself or its young, but without any provocation
and without any prospeCt of advantage. A trapper or a
traveller may be asleep on the ground of his camp-fire when a
prowling skunk will stealthily approach the sleeper and bite the
lobe of his ear or his little finger. Under such circumstances
as this the majority of the cases of skunk-bite occur, and
there is only one recorded instance which has not terminated
fatally. Mephitis gorilla , the Californian species, is equally to
be dreaded. There almost seems to exist among the Mustelidae
a “ superfluity of naughtiness ” such as no other of the lower
animals display, but which are shown by the ermine, the stoat,
and the pekan in their wholesale slaughter of birds, &c., far
more than they require for food, and in the useless mischief
committed by the wolverine or glutton. Of the extraordinary
intelligence and thievish propensities of this strange animal we
find here many most surprising but apparently authentic in-
stances. We are of opinion that no one can read the work of
Dr. Coues without finding a new light dawn upon him both as
o the intellectual and the moral faculties of “ brutes.”

Bulletin of the United States Entomological Commission. On the
Natural History of the Rocky Mountain Locust and on the
Habits of the young or unfledged Insects as they occur in
the more fertile country in which they will hatch the present
year. No. 2. Washington : Government Printing Office.

This report, drawn up by the Commissioners, Messrs. C. V.
Riley, A. S. Packard, Jr., and Cyrus Thomas, gives a full account
of the habits of the Caloptenus spretus , the Rocky Mountain
Locust, so as to facilitate arrangements for their destruction.
The deposition of the eggs, their curious arrangement in the soil,

1878.]

Notices of Books.

139

and the method in which the young locust ruptures the shell are
clearly described and figured. An appended map shows the
country east of the Rocky Mountains which has been already
overrun, and from which they will too probably spread still
further to the eastward. The best remedy, in our opinion,
would be the introduction of live hedges and hedgerow trees
capable of affording abundant cover to insectivorous birds in
place of the rail and wire fences so common in the Western
States, and which find their thoughtless advocates in England,

A Guide to the Determination of Rocks ; being an Introduction
to Lithology . By Edward Jannettaz. Translated from the
French by G. W. Plympton, C.E., A.M. New York : D.
van Nostrand.

This work, in its original French form, came under our notice
some time ago (“ Quarterly Journal of Science,” v., p. 109), on
which occasion we ventured to pronounce it a not unsuccessful
attempt at supplying an important deficiency in geological litera-
ture. Until the student is able to identify with moderate accu-
racy the rocks which he meets with he has not yet learnt the
alphabet of the science, and is unable either to make original
observations or to verify the researches of others. Any work
which may enable him to recognise the different rocks he sees
when out on a geological ramble contributes something towards
transforming him from a mere reader into a worker in the science.
It is very true that the determination of geological species is not
always easy, — instance the discrimination of granite and gneiss.
Still, if the student fixes in his mind the chemical and physical
characters of the rocks, or rather of their chief mineral constitu-
ents as here laid down, and continually applies this knowledge in
practice, he will find the difficulty not insurmountable.

The first part of the book gives the properties of the principal
minerals which compose rocks. The second is devoted to a de-
scription of the rocks themselves ; whilst the third lays down
systematic procedures for the practical determination of any rock
which falls into the hands of the student. Part fourth, the
appendix, translated from M. Stanislas Meunier’s “ Cours Ele-
mentaire de Geologie Appliquee,” consists of a dichotomic system
for the determination of rocks. Having no respedt for dichotomy
as a key to classification, we must yet admit its extreme value for
the diagnosis of species.

it may not be out of place to notice the exceedingly elegant
binding of this little volume.

( I4° )

January,

\

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE HALO IN THE ZENITH, AND THE HALO OF go3.

By the Rev. S.

Sir, — Both of these rare phenomena
having occurred during the present
month (September, 1877) a brief no-
tice is now given by an observer in
the neighbourhood of Eythorne, near
Sandwich, Kent.

The halo in the zenith was seen on
September 8th, from about 4.30 to 5.30
p.m. The weather was fine, and the
sky marked by a number of bands
and patches of cirrhus cloud. A
single parhelion appeared, in an open-
ing of the clouds, where the sky was
clear. This was disti ncftly chromatic,
and globular in form. It lay to the
north of the sun.

The peculiarity in this appearance
was in the bright colouring of the

Barber, F.M.S.

that, even in an apparently clear sky,
there may be above us vast quanti-
ties of snow crystals and vapour par-
ticles.

In regard to the weather succeeding
this appearance, we may note that
within forty-eight hours there were
, heavy showers, and one very violent
squall.

The halo of go5, which was seen
from the same neighbourhood as the
preceding, occurred at about 12.30 on
the morning of Tuesday, September
25th. This was also attended by a
single mock-sun, through which the
arc of the halo passed (see figure).
This line also passed through the sun

halo (which was, indeed, almost as
distinct as that of a rainbow) and in
the character of the originating me-
dium. It is well known that the
cirrhus cloud — consisting, as it does,
of snow-crystals floating at a consi-
derable elevation — often gives rise to
halos and prismatic bands of light.
On this occasion the line of the halo
was intersected by well-defined bands
of cirrhus, lying almost parallel to
one another. There was no break in
the arc of the halo, which was as
visible upon the blue sky as on the
cloud. From this observation we
may make the inference that the
actual limits of the cloud constituents
are not always confined to the visible
limits of the cloud itself. This per-
haps may be thought to be only
another way of asserting the fad

itself, — or, rather, seemed to branch
out from the sun, on either side, and
made a circuit of the heavens. It
was not prismatic, but of a grayish
tint, and was broken in its outline, in
the part of the sky opposite the sun,
by patches of cirro cumulus.

It is remarkable that the weather
following, in this case, was finer than
had been experienced for some time
previous to the manifestation.

Until October 8th, when there was
a gale, the air was clear and fresh,
and sunny during the day, with the
usual autumn mists in the morning
and evening (wind easterly for the
most part). It may be remarked,
however, as I have noted on previous
occasions in this Journal and else-
where (“ Quart. Journ. of Science,”
Nos. 26 and 41, and “ Nature,” March

1878.]

Correspondence.

23, 1871), that optical phenomena of
the kind here referred to indicate a
transition state of the weather ; and
this inference has recently been again
substantiated (Odtober, 1877) by the
occurrence, on two successive days,
of imperfedt parhelia at the end of a
period of fine weather, and before the
advent of storms and rain. That
this is the true prognostic value of
these appearances will scarcely be
disputed now by meteorologists. How
to account for the fadl that ice-crystals
become chiefly visible at these times
of transition does not appear easy.
It is well known that in the finest
weather abundance of crystals may
be found at high elevations, even with
a clear sky ; but it seems perfectly
clear that optical phenomena do not
always attend them.

I venture, therefore, to propose the
following explanation of the fadl that
halos generally attend a “ transition ”
state of the atmospheric vapour, viz.,
that they result from the transmission

141

of the solar rays through their sub-
stance while in a partially melted
state, or, rather, while slightly melted
on the surface.

It must be observed that in dry
frosty weather the longer ice remains
exposed to atmospheric influences
the more uneven its surface becomes,
by the accretion of vapour upon its
prominences, and consequently the
less capable it becomes of giving a
clear refradtion and exhibiting chro-
matic effedts. Now if we allow that,
previous to the appearance of a halo
or parhelion, the floating ice may have
been present in this condition, a rise
of temperature would produce the
optical phenomena referred to, by
making the refradtion more perfedt ;
and, on the other hand, a fall of tem-
perature sufficient to freeze would
have the same effedt, by origination
of new ice-prisms from existent
watery vapour. — I am, &c.,

S. Barber.

Tilmanstone, Sandwich.

( 142 )

[January,

SC XENTIFIC NOTES.

The most important scientific achievement we have to record in the present
number of the “ Quarterly Journal of Science ” is that of the liquefaction of
oxygen, which was accomplished on the 22nd of December by M. Raoul
PiCtet. When a gas is compressed to 500 or 600 atmospheres and kept at a
temperature of — ioo° or — 140°, and it is allowed to expand to the atmo-
spheric pressure, one of two things takes place — Either the gas, obeying the
force of cohesion, liquefies and yields its heat of condensation to the portion
of gas which expands and loses itself in the gaseous form ; or, on the hypo-
thesis that cohesion is not a general law, the gas must pass to the absolute
zero and become inert, — that is to say, an impalpable powder. For some
time past M. PiCtet’s objeCt has been to demonstrate experimentally that
molecular cohesion is a general property of bodies, to which there is no excep-
tion. The apparatus he employed in his experiments may be briefly described
as follows : Two pumps, such as are used in M. PiCtet’s ice-making appa-
ratus, are coupled in such a way that the exhaustion of one corresponds to
the compression of the other. The exhaustion of the first commences with
a tube i’i metre long and 12-5 centimetres in diameter, and filled with liquid
sulphurous acid. Under the influence cf a good vacuum the temperature of
this liquid rapidly sinks to —65°, and even to — 730. the extreme limit allowed.
Through this tube of sulphurous acid passes a second smaller tube, of 6 centi-
metres diameter and the same length as the envelope. These two tubes are
terminated by a common base. In the central tube M. PiClet compressed
carbonic acid produced by the reactions of hydrochloric acid on Carrara
marble. This gas, being dried, is stored in an oil gasometer of 1 cubic metre
capacity. At a pressure of from 4 to 6 atmospheres the carbonic acid easily
liquefies under these circumstances. The resulting liquid is led into a long
copper tube, 4 metres in length and 4 centimetres in diameter. Two pumps,
coupled together like the first, exhaust carbonic acid either from the gaso-
meter or from the long tube full of liquid carbonic acid. The ingress to these
tubes is governed by a three-way tap. A screw valve cuts off at will the
ingress of liquid carbonic acid in the long tube : it is situated between the
condenser of carbonic acid and the long tube. When this screw valve is closed,
and the two pumps draw the vapour from the liquid carbonic acid contained
in the tube 4 metres long, the greatest possible lowering of temperature is
produced, the carbonic acid solidifies, and descends to about — 140°. The
subtraction of heat is maintained by the working of the pumps, the cylinders
of which take out 3 litres per stroke, and the speed is 100 revolutions a
minute. In the interior of the carbonic acid tube passes a fourth tube,
5 metres long, intended for the compression of oxygen. Being immersed in
solid carbonic acid, the whole surface is brought to the lowest obtainable
temperature. These two long tubes are connected by the ends of the carbonic
acid tube, consequently the small tube extends about 1 metre beyond the
other. The small central tube screws into the neck of a large wrought-iron
shell. This shell contains 700 grms. of chlorate of potash and 256 grms. of
chloride of potassium mixed together, fused, then broken up, and introduced into
the shell perfectly dry. When the double circulation of the sulphurous and
carbonic acids has lowered the temperature to the required degree, the shell is
heated over a series of gas-burners : the decomposition of the chlorate of potash
takes place at first gradually, then rather suddenly towards the end of the opera-
tion. When the reaction is terminated the pressure exceeds 500 atmospheres ;
but it almost immediately sinks a little and stops at 320 atmospheres. If at this
moment the screw tap which terminates the tube is opened, a jet of liquid is dis-
tinctly seen to escape with extreme violence. If the tap is closed a second jet can

Scientific Notes.

*43

1878.]

be obtained in the course of a few moments. If pieces of charcoal, slightly
incandescent, are put in this jet they inflame spontaneously with great violence.
M. Pidtet has already announced his intention of attempting the condensation
of hydrogen and nitrogen by means of a similar apparatus to that we have
described We shall hope to give the results of his further experiments
in a future number of this Journal. Meanwhile we would refer our readers
to the “Chemical News” of January 4 for a detailed description and
diagrams of the complicated apparatus, by means of which M. Pidtet has
succeeded in liquefying oxygen.

Mr. Charles Stodder, in the “ American Journal of Microscopy ” (vol. ii.,
page 142), recommends the use of chloroform as a preparation for
mounting dried Algae in balsam. The immersion in chloroform has the
effedt of restoring the Algae to their natural shape : the portions seledted are
then placed on a slide, and just before the chloroform evaporates the balsam
is dropped on, and the objedt covered in the usual manner. The balsam
should be allowed to harden slowly, as if heat is applied the specimen is liable
to be shrivelled. The process is of especial value in mounting diatoms
in situ.

The “American Journal of Microscopy” (vol. ii., p. 129) contains some
remarks on the examination of objectives, by Ernest Gundlach, which may
prove interesting to microscopists. The way in which various forms of
spherical and chromatic aberration render themselves apparent are familiarly
described. The subjects of angular aperture and working distance are dis-
cussed, and it is shown that considerable resolving power is only obtainable
at the sacrifice of some portion of the latter quality of the objective. The
immersion system is shown to be a substitute for the extreme thickness of the
front lens needed in correction, formed by a corresponding stratum of water,
to gain with the highest performance a tolerable working distance.

Our readers have probably noticed a recent addition to our fictile manufac-
tures of a number of ornamental vases, cups, bowls, &c., of clear white glass,
covered with beautiful iridescent films of different colours. At first it was
thought that the process consisted in submitting the glass to the action of a
deoxidating flame, and that the colours were caused by the reduction of the
lead ; from the specification of the patent, however, we find that the inventor
of the process is M. L. Clemandot, a French civil engineer, who has patented
it in France, England, and America, and that the principle of the process
consists in submitting the glass vessels to the action of dilute hydrochloric,
sulphuric, or other acid, under a pressure of from two to six atmospheres. M.
Clemandot claims to be able to imitate the beautiful nacreous films on
ancient glass which has been submitted to the combined action of air and
water for tw® or three thousand years ; but the ornamental vessels already
exhibited, although very pretty, are a long way off the poorest specimens of
Assyrian or Egyptian glass in any ordinary collection. Time is evidently an
important factor in bringing about this singular change.

The injurious influence of the products of combustion of coal-gas upon the
leather bindings of books is only too well known. Vellum seems unaffected ;
morocco suffers least ; calf is much injured, and Russia still more so. The
disintegration is most rapid with books on the upper shelves of a library,
whither the heated products of combustion ascend, and where they are
absorbed and condensed. By comparing specimens of old leather with
specimens of new it is quite clear that the destructive influence of gas is due
mainly to its sulphur. True there are traces of sulphates in the dye and size
of new leather bindings, but the quantity is insignificant, and there is prac-
tically no free sulphuric acid. That leather may be destroyed by the oil of
vitriol produced by the burning of gas in a library is proved by the following
observations and analyses of Prof. A. H. Church, of the Royal Agricultural
College, Cirencester. The librarian of one of our public libraries forwarded
to him the backs of several volumes which had been “ shed ” by the books
on the upper shelves in an apartment lighted by gas. The leather of one of
these backs (a volume of the “ Archasologia”) was carefully scraped off so as

H4

Scientific Notes. [January,

to avoid removing any paper or size from beneath. This task of scraping
was easy enough, for the leather was reduced to the consistency of Scotch
snuff. On analysis of the watery extradl of this leather the following figures
were obtained : —

Free sulphuric acid in decayed leather.. .. 6*21 p.c.

Combined ,, ,, ,, .... 2*21 ,,

Total ,, ,, ,, .. >• 8*42 ,,

Writing of rare minerals found in Colorado, Mr. T. F. Van Wagenen, in the
“Engineering and Mining Journal,” says that thallium, indium, and cadmium
have lately been detected in ores from that state. Of the rarer metals
there have been found in Colorado, besides the three mentioned above, nickel,
cobalt, selenium, tellurium, uranium, bismuth, molybdenum, and platinum,
and there is scarcely a doubt that columbium, thorium, titanium, and
vanadium will be recognised as soon as proper search is made. A belt of
telluretted veins is believed to traverse the entire state from north to south.
Two yeais ago sylvanite and alaite were found in San Juan county. The
principal locality for bismuth ores is in Geneva, where two mines are being
worked that carry a considerable quantity of schirmerite. Sulphide and car-
bonate of bismuth occur on Sugar-loaf Mountain, Boulder county. Nuggets
of native bismuth are common in the upper gulches of the Blue Valley; the
same metal has been found also in the Arkansas Valley. Nickel ore, ranging
from 2 to 5 per cent, has been found in three localities. Among the minera-
logical curiosities of the tellurium belt may be mentioned a telluride of
mercury found in the Mountain Lion Mine. Native mercury and amalgams
of both gold and silver have also been found at several points along this belt.

We are likely soon to hear of columbium-plating, a metal which is very
much like nickel, but whiter, like tin. It was first found, more than fifty
years ago, in the United States, near Middletown, Conn., and named in
honour of America. It was thus far very scarce, but has now been found at
Marion, N.C., and also in the Amazon stone of Colorado. If it becomes
abundant enough to be used in the arts we may soon have a valuable addition
to the useful metals, and also to their compounds or salts. The metal forms
an acid like tin, called columbic acid ; tin forms stannic acid, and the com-
pounds of this acid with bases are stannates, very useful in the arts ; the
compounds of columbic acid with bases must be called columbates. They
have not yet been investigated, but will likely be found extremely useful for
some purposes.

As a means of preventing the explosion of fire-damp in coal mines M. Basin
recommends ventilation with compressed air, watering the galleries (in dry
mines), and the use of Bastie’s toughened glass instead of wire-gauze for the
cylinders of safety lamps. The tube which gives vent to the products of com-
bustion will contain several superimposed layers of gauze.

From the “Mineral Statistics of Victoria for the Year 1876” we learn that
the total yield of gold for that year in this colony has been 357,901 ozs. from
alluvial sources, and 605,859 ozs. from quartz rock. The total yield of silver
was 26,356 ozs., the greater portion of which was parted from gold smelted
at the Mint. The exports of tin were 34 tons 9 cwts. During the year
2529 tons of antimony ore were raised, and 606 tons of ore, 474 tons of
regulus, and 254 tons of crude antimony were exported.

THE QUARTERLY

JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

APRIL, 1878.

I. ECONOMY OF NITROGEN.

Wtl E have repeatedly heard the observation that che-
V' ' mists in complaining of “ waste ” are guilty of
inconsistency. If matter, it was argued, is in-
destructible, and if no element can be converted — whether
designedly or accidentally — into another, waste is simply an
impossibility. Such censures are the natural result of an
education based rather upon Literature than upon Science,
and are In themselves of no moment. Still, as in England
■ — unlike Germany — a man of general “ culture ” is consi-
dered entitled to lay down the law upon any subject what-
soever, and is often listened to with more attention than the
specialist or the man of original research, it may be useful
to point out the fallacy involved.

Waste, from a chemico-technical point of view, depends
not on the fancied destruction of some element, nor on its
transmutation into some other simple body, but on useful
matter being thrown into a state where it is no longer im-
mediately available for our purposes. It is thus, so to
speak, locked up ; withdrawn, for a longer or shorter time,
from circulation, just like specie buried by a miser of the
old school. Such transmutations may take place in various
manners. A useful substance, whether simple or compound,
may be brought into the state of a highly dilute solution,
or may be mixed with solid matter in so minute a proportion
as to be practically irrecoverable. Nature presents us with
many instances of bodies, valuable, indeed, in themselves,
but rendered useless by admixture with a vast excess of
alien substances. We need only mention, as cases in point,
the silver and iodine, whose presence has been demonstrated

VOL. viii. (n.s.) l

146

Economy of Nitrogen .

[April,

in sea-water, the gold in many varieties of quartz and
pyrites, and the sulphur in coal. To obtain a shilling’s
worth of silver from sea-water costs more than a shilling,
and the amount of precious metal thus dissolved in the
ocean — immense as it doubtless is — may be, in our present
state of knowledge, pronounced practically non-existent.

Now Art is constantly engaged in reducing useful sub-
stances into a similar condition. Every time a sovereign is
handled in the course of business, or shaken against other
coins in the purse or the cash-box, some small trace of gold
is abraded. The quantity lost may be too trifling to be
visible, and might even elude spectroscopic detection ; but
that loss does constantly take place we know, since by the
mere continuance of such ordinary wear and tear the current
coin of the realm ultimately becomes “ light.” The silver
fork or spoon, the brass-work of the microscope and the
balance, the leaden gutter or spout, the iron key, spade, or
wheel-tire, are all in like manner gradually wearing away,
losing their substance in particles so minute as to elude
observation, and becoming thus distributed no one can say
where. Nothing is indeed destroyed, but everything is
becoming mixed. There may be natural processes by which
all these microscopic films and fragments of metals, and
other useful substances, are being sorted out and collected
together, like to like, and are being formed into veins and
beds of ore, &c., for future generations to extract and again
bring into use ; but such processes, if they exist at all, are
assuredly very slow. We scatter more rapidly than Nature
gathers. We are living beyond our income, and, except as
far as some few of the commoner elements are concerned,
we must ultimately, in the words of the old adage, “ find
the bottom of the bag.”

Another form of waste consists in taking an elementary
substance, useful in its free state or in some particular com-
bination, and transmuting it into compounds no longer
capable of the same applications. Of this class of waste
the consumption of coal may serve as the type. Carbon
and certain compounds of carbon and hydrogen combine
with oxygen, the main resulting product being carbonic
acid, accompanied, in the case of the hydrocarbons, with
watery vapour. Now carbonic acid is certainly not useless
in the economy of Nature, being one of the most important
ingredients in the food of plants, but in our hands it is what
the old alchemists called a caput mortuum — a residue which,
economically speaking, must be pronounced intractable.
There is no need to insist here upon the vast supply of this

1878.]

Economy of Nitrogen.

147

gas poured daily into the atmosphere from the combustion
of coal and other fuel, from the respiration of animals, and
from the fermentation and putrefaction of organic matter, —
nor do show how during all these processes carbon, either
free or existing in some organic combination, is being trans-
formed into carbonic acid at an astonishing rate. That at
the same time the carbonic acid of the atmosphere is being
decomposed by growing vegetation, its oxygen set free, and
its carbon assimilated, — re-converted into organic com-
pounds,— is not capable of question. But is fuel being
generated as rapidly as it is consumed ? Evidently not ;
otherwise there would have been slight ground indeed for
the outcry which was so injudiciously raised about the
prospective exhaustion of our coal-fields. We say “ injudi-
ciously raised ” because the warnings were at once seized
hold of by the coal interest, and employed as a weapon for
striking an almost fatal blow at our manufactures, our com-
merce, our national wealth, and our domestic comfort. The
waste of carbon can be checked only by the sacrifice of that
profligate source of warmth the “ cheerful fire,” — by the
substitution, wherever possible, of water-power and tidal-
power, and in brighter climates of direCt solar-power, for
steam-power obtained by the use of fuel, — and, where no
such substitution is possible, by penalties upon a consump-
tion of coal greater per horse-power than what can be
proved practically necessary.

Phosphorus is an element which we are wasting in a
different manner ; not by oxidation, for it is most useful in
combination with oxygen, but like the metals, by extreme
comminution and promiscuous distribution. Here the total
supply existing in Nature is small compared with that of
carbon. Though phosphorus plays, most fortunately, a
comparatively insignificant part in our industrial operations,
yet in the chemistry of life it is second in importance to
none of the elements. Without phosphorus none, at any
rate, of the higher organisms, animal or vegetable, can pos-
sibly exist. All our crops require a due supply of it, and
being the constituent of plant-food of which most soils are
soonest exhausted it becomes, upon the principle laid down
by Liebig, the measure of their fertility. Amongst the
methods in which this important element is wasted, a pro-
minent place belongs to the manufacture of lucifer matches.
Three hundred thousand lbs. of phosphorus are made yearly
in England and France alone, nearly the whole of which is
absorbed in the match-manufaCture. More than ten years
ago Wagner calculated the total annual production for the

148

Economy of Nitrogen.

[April,

whole of Europe at about 540,000 lbs,, requiring the con-
sumption of about 6^- millions lbs. of bones, which would
otherwise be available as manure. If we assume that the
skeleton of an average man, when dry, weighs 20 lbs., this
weight would furnish the bony framework for the bodies of
325,000 human beings. As each match is struck, its pro-
portion of phosphorus is converted into phosphoric acid.
Such conversion does not necessarily imply waste, since this
is precisely the form in which phosphorus enters into the
food of plants. But the phosphoric acid is scattered abroad
in such minute portions that we may well question whether
much of it will, in any reasonable time, find its way to its
legitimate place, our fields and gardens. If we duly weigh
how much nutritive matter is thus in effeCt destroyed, and
how much potential life is prevented, we may well question
whether the invention of “ lucifers ” has been quite as great
a boon to mankind as is sometimes represented by platform-
orators, and whether the power of instantaneously obtaining
a light at all times and in all places is not being, to say the
least, somewhat dearly purchased. It is perfectly possible
to make matches without the consumption of any phosphorus
at all — a faCt too much lost sight of and too little aCted
upon, but which will ultimately force itself upon the public
attention.

Bone-black or animal charcoal is largely used for water-
filters, in sugar-refining, in the manufacture of blacking,
and as a pigment, and contains about 70 per cent of phos-
phate of lime. That portion applied for filtering and for
sugar-refining finds its way in course of time to the manure
manufacturer, and ultimately to the soil. The amount used
for blacking and for pigments is evidently squandered about
in traces far too minute to be again collected by any human
agency. To protest against so long-established and general
a custom as giving a black surface to coverings for the feet
is of course a hopeless task ; yet if we consider that any
material coloured black radiates heat more strongly than the
same material coated with any other colour, we must admit
the folly both of blacking, as applied to boots and shoes,
and of the original blackening of shoe-leather before it
leaves the hands of the currier. Our universal practice can
only be considered rational if we wish to have our feet as
hot as possible in summer and as cold as possible in winter.

Bone-ashes consist, of course, chiefly of the phosphate of
lime, and are mainly utilised in agriculture. But a small
portion is used in making cupells for the assayer, and in the
manufacture of opal glass. The phosphorus that enters

I878.J

Economy of Nitrogen.

149

into these compositions is doubtless lost, — certainly in
the latter case, — but its quantity is not sufficiently large to
render it worthy of especial attention. Of far more moment
is the bone-ash wasted in refining argentiferous lead, no less
than 1 7 lbs. being consumed for every ton of the metal
operated upon. This is, if we refer to our former standard,
a quantity nearly sufficient to build up the skeleton of a
man. We are not aware that the bone-ash thus employed
in refinery hearths is afterwards collected and purified from
adherent traces of lead, so as to be fit for agricultural uses.

Many iron-ores contain phosphorus. Thus in vivianite,
phosphoric acid maybe present to the extent of 30 percent.
In a few instances this constituent is separated in an avail-
able form, but in the majority of cases it remains partly in
the iron, to the great dissatisfaction of the manufacturer,
who finds his product much impaired, and partly in the
slags. Under both these circumstances it is generally
wasted.

Phosphoric acid, combined with soda or potash, enters
into the composition of certain “ dung-substitutes ” used by
the calico-printer. Here, again, it must be regarded as
ultimately wasted, since, when its purpose is served, it is
washed into the sewers along with a variety of substances,
many of them hostile to vegetable life, and therefore ill-
fitted for application to the soil.

But even the phosphoric acid that is supplied to the fields
in the forms of superphosphate, of bone-dust, Peruvian
guano, farm-yard manure, night-soil, &c., and is there assi-
milated by the crops, is still afterwards in great danger of
being turned aside from its normal channel of circulation,
and thus of being substantially lost. Everyone in these
days has learnt that animals, in their excreta,— -solid, liquid,
and aeriform, — give back all the matter which they have
assimilated, and which has for a time formed part and
parcel of their bodies. If the solid and liquid excreta,
therefore, of all the animals fed upon the produce of a plot
of land, of say 10 acres in size, together with all the waste
or residual portions of the crops, are returned to that plot,
its fertility — i.e., its power of producing grain or vegetables,
or of feeding cattle — will remain substantially unimpaired.
But if this is negledted, or done only in part, a gradual
decline of fertility must take place. We may, indeed, by
importing bone-ash, Peruvian guano, and the like, keep up
the needful supply of phosphoric acid in a 10-acre plot, or
possibly in the whole of England; but this is, in familiar
phrase, simply “ robbing Peter to pay Paul.” The whole

15®

Economy of Nitrogen.

[April,

accessible store of phosphoric acid on the face of the globe,
and consequently the total quantity of wheat and of beef
that can be produced and the number of human beings that
can be maintained, is lessened by every gallon of sewage we
pour into a tidal river or into the sea. To put the fa eft in
another light : every stroke of the costly and ornate
pumping-engines at Barking Creek and at Crossness is
destroying potential life, or rendering existence more diffi-
cult throughout the world ! Surely this is an outcome of
engineering skill on which the nineteenth century has small
cause for self-congratulation.

It is indeed true that the phosphoric acid thus so bounti-
fully poured into the sea may be, in the lapse of years,
recovered in the shape of fish, serviceable for food or for
manure ; but this is a long, a tedious, and a doubtful circu-
lation. If the excreta of men and animals are placed upon
arable soil, their valuable constituents are rapidly made
available and assimilated by plants, and may re-appear
witbin a twelvemonth in the shape of food ; but if poured
into the sea their phosphoric acid, &c., will probably be first
absorbed by low organisms, animal or vegetable. These
will sooner or later become the food of fishes, and the
matter in question may thus ultimately become available
for human support.

In one case indeed we may, on the present system, receive
back sewage matters much sooner than we wish. The par-
ticles of solids cast into the sea “ hug the shore,” just as
corks floating in a basin of water keep to the side, and there
are swallowed by those “ scavengers of ocean,” shrimps.
Thus they may happen to be re-eaten by man even before
assimilation. A chemist of the present day, who occasion-
ally writes on sanitary topics from an original and indepen-
dent point of view, remarks that thus —

“ Even-handed justice

Commends the poisoned chalice to our lips.”

A still more glaring example of waste occurs in the case
of nitrogen, an element having important analogies with
phosphorus, rivalling the latter in its relations to organic
— and especially to animal — life, and playing a far more im-
portant and more varied part in the arts and manufactures.
Manifold in appearance as are the methods in which this
king of the elements is wasted, they may, with few excep-
tions, be reduced to one. To understand this great mode of
waste we must glance at the two almost contradictory
aspeCts which nitrogen is capable of assuming. On the one

1 878.]

Economy of Nitrogen.

15^

hand, in its free gaseous state, as present in the atmosphere
it is the very type of indifference and negation. We can
merely say what it will not do. But on the other hand,
when existing in its solidified combined condition, and espe-
cially in its organic compounds, it has more striking positive
attributes than perhaps any other of the elements. No
longer azote, as our French neighbours persist in calling it,
it might rather be termed “ z ote,” — if such a word may be
framed, — the very essence of life. It is an indispensable
constituent of every vegetable seed and of every animal
ovum. Without it blood, muscle, nervous tissue are impos-
sibilities. But in addition to its functions in the processes
of life, and therefore to its necessity in our diet, nitrogen —
combined nitrogen, we must remember — has other properties
which render it useful, or rather necessary, in numerous
arts and manufactures. As a rule we shall find that if any
organic compound, whether existing naturally or only pro-
duced by human intervention, possesses very striking attri-
butes, such compound is nitrogenous. The most valuable
fibres available for our clothing, the richest dyes procurable
for their embellishment, the most precious medicines, the
deadliest poisons, and last, though not least, those explosives
so largely prescribed by modern humanitarianism in treating
the diseases of bodies politic, — all these various bodies con-
tain nitrogen as an essential constituent. Such manifold
utilisation, in the present imperfedt state of our knowledge,
and in our still more imperfedt disposition to make a rational
application of what knowledge we possess, leads to a waste
equally manifold. We say manifold in appearance, but still
resolvable into one common principle — the conversion of
solidified combined nitrogen into the free, inert, gaseous
nitrogen which exists in the atmosphere. How vast are
some of these forms of waste we will endeavour to show in
some detail.

Let us, first and foremost, look at the very defedtive
economy of nitrogen in the maintenance of human life,
under existing conditions. In speaking of phosphorus we
have already adverted to the truth so perseveringly and
authoritatively enforced by Liebig, — that in growing crops
upon land we take away from the soil certain constituents,
and that its crop-producing power can only be prevented
from diminishing by a systematic return of such constituents
in the shape of the excretions of all living beings fed on the
produce of the soil. Our negledt in fulfilling this condition
is, perhaps, even more conspicuous in the case of nitrogen
than of phosphorus itself. On an average the daily

52

Economy of Nitrogen.

[April,

excretions of every human being contain half an ounce of
combined nitrogen. If we assume the population of the
British islands at 32 millions, this amounts to a yearly
quantity of 365 million lbs. This weight of combined ni-
trogen, if applied without loss to the soil and absorbed by
food-plants, would, if calculated in the form of bread, be
equivalent to 4380 million 4-lb. loaves ! But how much of
this fertilising matter is really returned to the land ? The
whole of the sewage of London — in other words, the whole
of the excretions of its four million inhabitants — is substan-
tially wasted by conveyance into the sea. Here alone we
have a national loss of about 91 million lbs. of combined
nitrogen. The same disastrous game, differing merely
in unimportant matters, is played wherever sewage is
being allowed to flow either diredtly into the sea or into
a river or a canal, without any attempt to separate and
retain its valuable constituents. Unfortunately the mis-
chief is not confined to places where water-carriage
has been adopted for the removal of excrementitious
matter. If we look at the case of small country towns, of
villages and of detached houses, where, theoretically
speaking, the excreta are returned to the soil, we shall find
that there is in practice a most sad deficiency. The dung-
heaps and cesspools, in which the night-soil and urine are
supposed to be stored up along with all other domestic
refuse, betray their trust. On the one hand, the soluble
matters, dissolved out by atmospheric waters, to which
they are as a rule freely exposed, find their way into wells,
ditches, ponds, and thus gradually into the next stream.
We have often observed the completeness with which this
form of waste is carried on in many villages in the Eastern
counties. On one side of the road — or perhaps on both
sides — is a ditch which receives from every cottage, every
farmyard, as well as from manured fields, a tiny drain, rich
in soluble organic matters. That these ditches are on
amicable terms of “give and take ” with the wells and pools
which supply the village with its supposed potable water,
is a by-evil with which we have at present no concern. On
the other hand, the cesspools and manure-heaps are giving
off their combined nitrogen to the atmosphere no less
liberally than to the streams. Fermentation is going on
unchecked ; there is nothing which may serve to arrest and
condense the volatile nitrogenous products, and when ulti-
mately the contents of the heap or the pool are dug into
the garden or the allotment-field, instead of containing, as

Economy of Nitrogen.

153

1878.]

they should, the entire fertilising ingredients excreted by
the inmates of the cottage, they consist chiefly of an impo-
tent residuum. To call this a restoration to the soil of
what has been taken from it is mere mockery. Not one-
haif the compounds withdrawn from our fields and gardens
for the food of man, whether in town or country, are ever
returned to where they belong.

So far, however, we have dealt merely with the waste of
the fertilising matter in human excreta ; but there is also
the case of our domestic animals. When cattle and sheep
are pasturing, and when horses are working in the fields,
not only their dung, but their urine is deposited upon the
soil. Under most other circumstances, however, the latter,
which is the more valuable of the two, goes to swell the
waste we have already mentioned. In the towns it is con-
veyed into the sewers, and in the country it escapes into
ditches, adding thus no inconsiderable item to our yearly
loss of combined nitrogen.

The remarks which we made on the waste of nitrogenous
matters by the processes of putrefadfion or fermentation
going on in cesspools admit of a more extended application.
Let us take the case of ordinary town-sewage. We can
calculate with tolerable exactness how much nitrogen it
ought to contain per gallon, if we know the gross number
of the population and the total volume of the sewage. The
figure thus obtained will, however, fall below the exadt
truth, since the proportion of nitrogen entering the sewers
will be increased by the excretions of domestic animals and
by the washings of slaughter-houses, &c. Yet if we take a
gallon of the sewage, and submit it to adtual analysis with
the utmost care, we shall obtain a result very much short
of the calculated percentage ; some 20 to 50 per cent of the
combined nitrogen, more or less according to circumstances,
has escaped. In what form this loss takes place can
scarcely be doubted. Were it given off as ammonia it
could easily be detedted ; but ammonia does not readily
evaporate from such dilute solutions, and at such low tem-
peratures. We conclude, therefore, in accord with two
chemists who have made the analysis of waters their spe-
ciality, and who on most points differ very widely in opinion,
that the loss takes place in the form of free nitrogen. This
we shall find to be the case whenever vegetable or animal
matter containing nitrogen passes into a state of fermenta-
tion. A part of such nitrogen reappears as ammonia, and
may be arrested by the aid of absorbents and of certain

154

Economy of Nitrogen .

[April,

acids and mineral salts ; but a further portion is evolved as
free nitrogen. As far as we are aware this loss becomes the
greater the larger the quantity of organic matter which is
allowed to collect.

Here, then, in the very outset of our enquiries, we have
already met with a fearful waste of nitrogen committed in
the normal course of daily life, and without taking indus-
trial operations into account.

Let us next examine the manufacture of gunpowder, and
its allies, gun-cotton and nitro-glycerin. The first of these
substances contains on an average 75 per cent of saltpetre
(nitrate of potash), equivalent to 10*2 percent of combined
or available nitrogen. Of this io’2 per cent, 9*98 per cent
— we might consequently say, practically speaking, the
whole — escapes in the form of free nitrogen, and is conse-
quently rendered useless. This waste will appear the more
serious if we consider the enormous scale upon which gun-
powder is now manufactured. It was calculated some years
ago that our annual exports of this article alone amounted
to 19 million lbs. weight. We cannot estimate the total
quantity of gunpowder produced in the whole world at less
than 100 million lbs. This represents 10 million lbs. of
combined nitrogen withdrawn yearly from the world’s avail-
able resources. Translating this into the shape of human
food, the annual consumption of gunpowder means the
destruction in advance of no less than 500 million lbs. of
bread. We must remember, too, what this destruction
means. If we were to take the ripe crops of wheat in some
country to an extent capable of yielding 500 million lbs. of
bread, and if — instead of allowing the grain to be gathered
and put through the various processes which fit it for use —
we were to have it ploughed into the soil, this conduCt
would be pronounced a criminal waste of the means of
human subsistence ; yet we should in reality have commit-
ted, comparatively speaking, little destruction. The buried
nitrogenous matter would be still available for the growth of
crops in succeeding seasons, and our supposed course of
aCtion, foolish and reprehensible as it would undoubtedly be,
would delay rather than destroy the appearance of such
combined nitrogen as food. But if we work up the com-
bined nitrogen into gunpowder, and explode it, there is not
merely delay, but what amounts to destruction — a de-
struction going on from year to year, and continually
diminishing the amount of food which the earth is capable
of yielding.

1 878.]

Economy of Nitrogen.

155

These considerations seem to us to supply a new argu-
ment against war, to which we would call the attention of
such Peace Societies — if any there be — whose hatred of
war is logically consistent, and is not merely assumed at
times to suit the purposes of faction. Hitherto political
economists and social reformers, especially of the Mal-
thusian school, have looked upon war as one of the “ positive
checks ” upon the increase of population. Whilst deploring
the other evils brought on by international conflicts, they
have regarded it as a set-off that every battle must decrease
the proportion of eaters to the total amount of food. Had
they, before advancing such opinions, taken counsel of the
chemist, he would have told them that although their view
might have been correct in the olden time, when men shot
each other with the grey-goose shaft or cleft each other’s
skulls with the battle-axe, yet since

“ That villainous saltpetre hath been digged
Out of the bowels of the harmless earth ”

the case is totally altered. Our modern battles, how san-
guinary soever, reduce the supply of food along with the
demand. Every rifle and every cannon discharged may
destroy adtual life, but certainly must destroy the means of
life. Each ounce of powder burnt means so much more
nutriment withdrawn from our crops, so much less bread or
beef producible, and so much less human life rendered pos-
sible in the future. Speculators on the population question
must henceforth cease to regard war as one of their “ posi-
tive checks.” Indeed these same “ positive checks ” are
becoming somewhat abridged. War, as we have seen,
though waged upon a larger scale than ever, has been con-
verted into an agency of an opposite nature. Pestilence is
to be abolished by “ sanitary reforms.” What remains,
then, but famine ; and, unless we cease our systematic
waste of the elements of food, that we shall certainly
experience.

We shall, perhaps, understand more clearly the essential
antagonism between food-raising and gunpowder-making if
we consider the process by which saltpetre was formerly
obtained in most countries of Europe. If we, in England,
saw less of this operation than did most of our neighbours,
it was because we imported the nitre from other parts of
the Empire, where it was produced substantially on the
same principle, even though without the conscious and in-
tentional intervention of man. So-called nitre-beds were

156

Economy of Nitrogen.

[April,

formed and worked. To make these, earth was collected
together from the sides and bottoms of cesspools, drains,
urinals, and dunghills. It was mixed with plaster from old
walls, and stratified with decaying animal and vegetable
refuse. These beds or heaps were sheltered as far as pos-
sible from cold and rain, and were sometimes watered with
urine. In course of time a whitish efflorescence began to
appear in different parts of the heap. The earth was then
dug up, lixiviated with hot water, and the solution thus ob-
tained on concentration yielded crystals of saltpetre. Now
it is evident that all the substances of which these nitre-
beds were formed were in themselves nitrogenous, and
capable of being used as manures. What was sold as salt-
petre was simply so much robbed from the farm and the
garden. As to the composition of the soil taken from the
foundations of cesspools, stables, cow-houses, dunghills, &c.,
there can be now no doubt. Even the ground all about
ordinary dwelling-houses was in former days saturated with
excrementitious matter. We have adopted another form of
waste ; what our forefathers allowed to soak into the earth
beneath and around their houses we run into the streams
and seas. Our method may be a little more favourable to
health, but it is waste all the same. The great fadh that the
saltpetre thus obtained from the nitre-beds was merely a
transformation of the combined nitrogen put in them in
various organic compounds was formerly not perceived.
The nitre-bed was supposed, in some unexplained manner,
to have the power of fascinating that chainless wanderer
the free nitrogen of the atmosphere, and chaining him down
as a slave to do man’s work. Had, however, the constituents
of the heap been accurately analysed, — a requirement ut-
terly impossible when nitre-beds first came into use, — it
would have been found that the nitrogen in the saltpetre
obtained, instead of being more than equivalent to the
nitrogen originally present, invariably fell short of it, and
that a portion consequently of this element made its escape
in the uncombined gaseous state. To this subjedh we shall
be compelled to revert more fully below.

The Indian saltpetre, which till lately formed the bulk of
our supply in England, was also obtained by the lixiviation
of soils, which contained it as saline crusts. It was not,
however, any and every soil which could be made use of,
but such only as had become saturated with nitrogenous
matter capable of yielding nitric acid by oxidation. The
importation of saltpetre from India, therefore, was a robbery

Economy of Nitrogen.

*57

1878.]

of the soil of India, and lessened the crop-producing power
of the world in general just as much as did the nitre-beds
of Europe.

It is true that at the present day the great bulk of the
saltpetre used, whether in the manufacture of gunpowder or
in other arts, is obtained from a different source, — the depo-
sits of nitrate of soda found on certain parts of the western
coast of South America. From these vast deposits more
than 4,000,000 cwts. are yearly exported to different parts of
the world ; yet even these beds are supposed to have been
originally formed by the decomposition of nitrogenous or-
ganic matter, and though large they are by no means
incapable of exhaustion. So long as we take combined
nitrogen and set it at liberty then, no matter whence our
supply is obtained, the ultimate result must be complete
sterility.

The manufacture of gunpowder involves another kind of
waste, which is more conspicuous in the present state of
the trade than it was formerly. The nitrate of soda im-
ported from South America, unlike the nitrate of potash,
has the property of absorbing moisture from the air, and is
hence utterly unfit for the preparation of gunpowder.
Before it can be used for any such purpose it must be con-
verted into common saltpetre by appropriate treatment with
some salt of potash. Now, most unfortunately, potash —
just like phosphorus and like combined nitrogen — is an
important constituent of the food of plants, and we can
only procure it by the old sin of robbing our crops. For-
merly the salts of potash were obtained by burning timber
to ashes and lixiviating the residue. Next, the salts left in
the preparation of beet-root sugar were employed. In either
case the substantial result was the same : unless we can
show that pine-trees or beet-plants have the power of cre-
ating potash out of nothing, or out of some other elementary
body, we must confess that they obtain it from the soil, and
that the soil must ultimately become exhausted. But pot-
ash compounds are now obtained by mining, at Stassfurt
and elsewhere ? Granted, yet the supply — like that of
nitrate of soda in Atacama — is not infinite.

The gunpowder manufacturers, or those who prepare
their materials, compete with the farmer for the one and
the other of these products, raising the price and hastening
the day of exhaustion. As regards potash, however, the
waste is of a less fatal character than the expenditure of
combined nitrogen. Gunpowder, indeed, contains the

158

Economy of Nitrogen .

[April,

equivalent of 34 per cent of potash, and, according to our
estimate of 100 million lbs. as the world’s total annual
production, about 34 million lbs. of this valuable body are
thus withdrawn from the immediate service of agriculture.
But the potash is not, like the nitrogen, withdrawn from
utility. When a battle takes place all the potash contained
in the gunpowder exploded gradually settles down upon the
earth in the form of a fine dust, and, being washed into the
soil by the next shower, becomes again available for the
food of crops, and shares with the “ red rain ” the honour
of making the harvest grow !

The other explosives in practical use — such as gun-cotton,
nitro-glycerin in its manifold disguises and modifications,
fulminate of mercury, &c. — all share with gunpowder the
cardinal fault of unlocking combined nitrogen and returning
it as an inert gas to the atmosphere. Wheresoever, there-
fore, man works by dint of explosions he is warring against
life itself. The glorious victories of the warrior, the triumphs
— often little less costly — of the civil engineer, the very “set
pieces ” of the pyrotechnist, the red fire in which the villain
of the stage meets his retributive fate, and the squibs and
crackers which have now for some two centuries been an-
nually blazed away in honour of Guy Fawkes, are all
bought at the cost of potential life, and all tend to make life
more difficult.

We have now seen two of the great forms of the waste of
combined nitrogen : wasted, as far as the excreta of man
and animals are concerned, partly by conveyance into rivers
and seas, partly by destructive fermentation, and in case of
the explosives by a reduction differing from destructive fer-
mentation merely in its more rapid character. But for both
these kinds of waste there is at any rate the apology to be
advanced that the nitrogen brought into play was essential.
In other words, combined nitrogen is absolutely indispensable
in the food of man and animals, and if their excreta are
subsequently misapplied, and not returned to the soil, that
does not condemn the original use of the nitrogenous matter.
In the explosives, again, the nitrogen is not an inert con-
stituent, but in the cases we have taken is essential. We
cannot make either gunpowder, gun-cotton, nitro-glycerin,
or picric acid without oxidised nitrogen, though we may and
should most earnestly seek to produce explosives available
for praCbical use which shall not require this expenditure of
one of the main elements of life.

But there is another form of the waste of nitrogen more
unjustifiable still. In pointing out some instances of this

Economy of Nitrogen .

159

1878.]

kind of loss we must protest against the possible imputation
of seeking to play into the hands of any sedt of world-
betterers and social reformers. We are merely judging
certain practices which mankind adopted in days of greater
ignorance than the present, according to the light of modern
chemical science, and pronouncing our verdidt without fear
or favour, and utterly indifferent to the possible tendencies
or applications of such decision.

It is a threadbare story to tell our readers that Nature
does not present us with her treasures in a state ready for
our immediate use. Sometimes they are mixed or combined
with things useless, or even pernicious, as pyrites with
arsenic, or coal with sulphur. More frequently the admix-
ture may consist of an ingredient inferior indeed in value,
but still capable of use. But if we, in endeavouring to turn
to account some such plentiful and inferior article, waste a
far more valuable product with which it is blended, we may
confess ourselves guilty of egregious folly. Let us suppose
an ore containing gold and copper in the relative proportions
of a shilling’s worth of the former to a pennyworth of the
latter. Suppose, then, some metallurgist using this ore for
the extraction of copper, and operating in such a manner
as to render the gold utterly incapable of separation. He
would be regarded as foolish and his process as wasteful,
whether it was in itself remunerative or not. To waste a
shilling’s worth of gold for the sake of extracting a penny-
worth of copper would be considered as a culpable abuse of
natural resources. Now in the cereals we find a mixture of
substances somewhat analogous to the case which we have,
for illustration’s sake, assumed. There is in them a very
precious substance, — combined nitrogen in the form of
gluten, — relatively small in quantity, but predominating in
value ; and there is a substance of a very much lower value,
— a compound of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, in the form
of starch. We are by no means denying that starch has its
important uses, but it is a substance which Nature produces
in almost indefinite amount, and its constituents are far
more plentiful in the earth than is combined nitrogen.
Hence we contend that if mankind, when in quest of starch
or of some product of starch, take a substance containing
starch in admixture with gluten, and waste the latter and
more valuable product, they are adting just like the metal-
lurgist whom we have been supposing, and are either igno-
rantly or knowingly squandering the resources of the world.

As the first instance of this economic sin we may mention
the use of wheat-flour for purposes other than food. A very

160 Economy of Nitrogen . [April,

serious quantity is consumed, without having undergone any
previous chemical conversion, in the textile manufactures.
It serves the sizer for communicating an artificial body to
flimsy cotton goods, and is employed by the calico-printer in
thickening his colours to the desired consistence. To give
some idea of the extent of this waste we quote the following
recipe from a recent work* : —

For medium sizing, take—

Flour, 3J sacks

980 lbs.

Tallow

180 ,,

Brown paraffin wax ...

5 »

White soap

105 „

Soft soap

15 »

China clay

•

•

•

•

4^

GO

V*

V®

We have heard of 6J sacks of flour mentioned as the
daily consumption in a single manufacturing establishment.

From this we turn to the manufacture of starch. The
demand for this substance in its ordinary commercial state
is both varied and wide-spread. Its domestic use in
stiffening linen, though most generally known, is probably
not the most extensive application which it undergoes.
Like flour, it serves for stiffening calico and for thickening
colours, and is the raw material for the manufacture of so-
called British gum. Of its functions in the sophistication
of various articles of diet this is not the place to treat.
Indeed none of the uses to which starch is put would in the
least concern us were it obtainable, or at least were it ordi-
narily obtained, without the misappropriation of gluten, and
the consequent waste of combined nitrogen. Unfortunately
the chief materials selected, for the sake of convenience or
on account of the quality of the product, by the starch
manufacturer rank among the most important articles of
human food, such as wheat, rice, maize, the potato, &c.
If the whole of the nitrogenous matters could be separated
out undamaged and in a state fit for human food, or even
for the support of cattle, there would be little reason to
complain ; but no inconsiderable share of the gluten in the
cereals undergoes fermentation, and much of its nitrogen is
consequently wasted. Among the tasks which the indus-
trial chemistry of the future will have to master are, there-
fore, some of the following

Thomson’s Sizing of Cotton Goods.

1878-]

Economy of Nitrogen.

161

The obtaining a sufficient supply of starch from materials
either non-nitrogenous or at least not adapted for human
food, such as, e.g., the horse-chestnut.

Or, if food-materials are still used in the starch manu-
facture, the complete utilisation of the nitrogenous
compounds present.

Or, the complete replacement of starch, flour, &c., in
textile manufactures, and in calico-printing by some
inorganic substance.

Or, the supercession of “ thickeners ” by some improved
method of applying colours — a step which some prac-
tical men consider as by no means out of the question.

From starch we pass to vinegar. This useful and exten-
sively employed acid contains not a particle of nitrogenous
matter, save in the form of impurities, not merely unessen-
tial, but damaging to its quality. All that is required for
its manufacture is simply sugar, which is in the first place
split up into carbonic acid and alcohol, which latter then
undergoes a process of oxidation. If vegetable acids — such
as the tartaric, citric, &c. — are present in the raw material,
these not only effeCt an agreeable modification of the flavour,
but contribute to the formation of traces of ethereal com-
pounds, of most refreshing odour. This explains the excel-
lence of the wine-vinegars of France, the apple-vinegars of
America (which preserve the delightful aroma of ripe apples),
and the vinegars occasionally met with in rural districts in
England — made from cane-sugar, flavoured with the juices
of fruits, or even flowers, such as the primrose or the
cowslip. But the vinegar made for sale in England is un-
fortunately prepared from a nitrogenous matter, i.e., malt,
and we have thus combined nitrogen wasted in obtaining a
product which can be procured in far superior quality from
non-nitrogenous, or at least very sparingly nitrogenous,
matter. True economy demands that bodies rich in com-
bined nitrogen should be used for no purpose save where
such nitrogen is essential, and should be restricted as far as
possible to the production, direCtly or indirectly, of articles
of food and medicine. The enunciation of this law brings
us into open collision with widespread customs. We do not
belong to those who pronounce alcohol altogether objection-
able as an article of diet, and neither by moral suasion nor
by legislative interference do we seek to abrogate its use ;
but as combined nitrogen is not required for the production
of alcohol, we are compelled to include the use of nitro-
genous products in the manufacture of alcoholic beverages
among instances of that waste which we are explaining and

VOL. viii. (n.s.) m

162

Economy of Nitrogen.

[April (

deprecating. The. annual amount of malt made in this
country is somewhere about 47 million bushels, or, in round
numbers, 2000 million pounds, A very large part of the
nitrogen originally present in the grain is wasted. A small
quantity is indeed to be found in malt liquors as supplied to
the consumer, but too little generally to be of appreciable
dietetic value. The bulk is lost in the various stages of the
process. Hence, from a chemico-economical point of view,
the repeal of the malt tax, or any fiscal measure which shall
encourage the application of grain or other highly nitro-
genous matter to the manufacture of fermented or distilled
liquors, would be a mistake. Well would it have been if
the art of malting had never been invented, and if mankind
had been content to procure their alcoholic beverages from
fruits and from saccharine juices of comparatively low
dietetic value, and have kept grain of all kinds for exclusive
use as food.

But there is a use of nitrogenous matter even more pal-
pably and lamentably wasteful than the manufactures of
starch, of gum-substitutes, of vinegar, alcohol, &c., from
grain. Indian corn is actually to some extent used as fuel,
—a misappropriation rendered more feasible by the propor-
tion of oily matter which it contains. That under such
circumstances the bulk of its nitrogen will be wasted, by
escaping in the free state, admits of no doubt.

Nitrogenous matter of animal origin is perhaps less sys-
tematically wasted than is the gluten of grain. Albumen
obtained Irom eggs is indeed somewhat extensively applied
by calico-printers as a mordant for inducing cotton to take
up colours, especially the coal-tar dyes, in the same manner
as do silk and wool. Unfortunately the albumen of blood,
which is highly improper as food, has not yet been made
available in all cases as a substitute for egg-albumen, inas-
much as it has not been practically procurable in a colourless
state. Hence there is here room for a mordant capable of
“ animalising ” vegetable tissues, and yet involving no waste
of human food.

The use of wool in clothing does not involve the loss of
combined nitrogen which might be at first suspeCted. The
ultimate destination of the dust from the shoddy mill, and
of the fibre itself when no longer capable of being re-spun,
is to the manure manufactory and to the fields. With
leather the case is less favourable. The raw hides of ani-
mals, though probably worthless as the food of man, are of
great value as a nitrogenous manure ; but after the tanning
process they are scarcely, if at all, available as plant-food.

1878.] Economy of Nitrogen. 163

Leather-waste will lie for years in the soil undecomposed,
and appears to exert no appreciable fertilising influence.
Hence a non-nitrogenous substitute for leather would be a
boon of no small magnitude to the world.

We have thus given a catalogue, by no means exhaustive,
of the operations and processes, industrial and domestic, by
which nitrogen is wasted. This waste, as we have seen,
turns mainly on its transformation from the combined or
solidified state to the free or gaseous condition as it is found
in the atmosphere. But in this state, we shall be asked, is
it not plentiful, almost to infinity, and does there not exist
here one of those beautiful processes of circulation, of
which we often read, by which it is restored to the combined
or solidified state, and made again available ? Yes, the
store of atmospheric nitrogen is all but infinite, and we dare
not assert that there is absolutely no natural process by
which it can be re-combined with other elements ; but these
processes are slow in their operation, and, as far as we can
judge, they cannot keep pace with our waste. They do not
build up as quickly as we can destroy. We know that the
atmosphere contains traces of ammonia, and that nitric acid
in small quantity may be detected in rain, especially that
• which accompanies a thunderstorm; but we are still doubt-
ful how much of this combined nitrogen has been really
formed at the expense of the inert atmospheric nitrogen,
and how much, on the other hand, is merely the decomposi-
tion of organic matter upon the earth’s surface. It is
ascertained that the elebtric spark, i.e., lightning, on passing
through a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen, — in other words,
through common air, — effects the combination of these two
elements so as to form nitric acid. Water holding in solu-
tion atmospheric air, as do all normal waters on the earth’s
surface, is found to yield nitric acid at the positive pole of
the battery and ammonia at the negative. Hydrogen and
nitrogen are also, according to the researches of Donkin,
induced to combine by the adlion of the effluve, or silent
eledtric discharge. But all such processes, however varied,
have been found to be exceedingly slow in their abtion, and
hence incapable of practical application in the arts. Ozone
was once appealed to in every difficulty, but it has been
proved incapable of oxidising free nitrogen to nitric acid in
presence of water, as was suggested. Other reactions have
been proposed, but none of them has proved distinctly and
unequivocally successful as a means of combining the free
nitrogen of the air into ammonia, or nitric acid, or cyano-
gen, or any other available compound. To solve this, the

164

Economy of Nitrogen.

[April,

king-problem of practical chemistry, is a duty still unful-
filled and a triumph still unearned. It may again be urged
that processes which do not “pay” in our hands may yet
prove successful in those of Nature, with whom time is no
objeCt. If ammonia is but sparingly manufactured in the
upper regions of the atmosphere, it may perhaps be evolved
by the aid of non-nitrogenous organic matter in some of the
phases of fermentation or of eremacausis. Or the vital
power of vegetables may solve the difficulty : the growing
plant may arrest atmospheric nitrogen, and employ it in the
formation of albumenoids. Method after method, thus
pointed out as possible, has been carefully scrutinised. In
most cases the experimental reply has been decidedly nega-
tive, in a few equivocal, in none distinctly affirmative. It
is undoubted that the atmosphere superincumbent upon an
acre of ground must supply combined nitrogen enough for
all the vegetation naturally growing upon this acre, and
must be able to keep up the supply from century to century.
Were this not the case old Mother Earth would long ago
have lost her green, flower-embroidered mantle. But to
grow the crops needful for the support of our human popu-
lation we are obliged to make, upon every single acre of
arable land, demands a hundredfold greater than Nature
ever makes upon an acre of forest, or prairie, or swamp, or
moorland.

As we have thus increased our requisitions, and as we
have still in another point deviated from Nature’s plan by
not restoring to the soil what we take from it, we meet the
universally admitted faCt that without a supply of nitro-
genous manures the fertility of our fields declines. What
proof other than this one faCt is required to show that there
is in the economy of the world no recuperative power equal
to our present power of waste, and that we are thus ren-
dering nitrogen unavailable more rapidly than it is being
combined or made available ? Our stock of solidified nitro-
gen, like our supply of solidified carbon, is decreasing, and
must ultimately come to an end. The case of nitrogen is,
of the two, by far the worse, because Nature is manu-
facturing fuel for us far more rapidly than she is producing
albumenoids.

What then remains ? The world may not, perhaps, be
upon the whole more populous than it has ever been before ;
but thanks to some of the inventions upon which we so
much pride ourselves, thanks to the industrial development
which has characterised the last three centuries, and to
which history records nothing similar, waste — destruction

1878.]

Economy of Nitrogen.

165

of the matter most essential to life — has reached a height
truly ominous and alarming to contemplate. It is sad to
think that our civilisation, with all its glories, may be most
aptly described in those lines from the “ The Devil’s Walk
on Earth

6S The pig swam well, but everv stroke
Was cutting his own throat.'’

We know now, approximately at least, the extent of the
earth’s resources. We have no more vast and scarcely
trodden continents for us to discover. We can no longer
calculate on finding coal, or phosphates, or other useful pro-
ducts, at any point where we may choose to dig. No more
can we comfort ourselves with vague hopes that emptied
mines and exhausted soils will spontaneously grow rich
again, or that plants can create their own nourishment.
Nor can we lay the flattering unCtion to our souls that for
every utility no longer procurable a substitute will be found.
The dreams indulged in by enthusiasts in the earlier portion
of the present century — of a future measured perhaps by
millions of years, in which mankind will be constantly im-
proving in power, in knowledge, and in happiness — are
being somewhat rudely broken. Science tells us, in unmis-
takable tones, that this earth cannot for ever afford a home
to a race like ours. What, for instance, would be the con-
dition of mankind were all the habitable parts of the globe
as populous, as industrial, and as luxurious as are Western
and Central Europe and the eastern part of North America?
Whence would they all be able to import their needed sup-
plies of food, of manures, and of raw materials for manu-
facturing purposes ? Time was when England produced a
sufficiency of food for her own inhabitants. Then came a
time when she began to import, and that in ever-increasing
proportions, both food and manures. Next we mark that
the countries which formerly exported food and manurial
matters — i.e., ground bones, &c. — ceased to do so, became
importers instead of exporters of both, and competed with
us in the market. The Atlantic States of the American
Union import manures, and can scarcely supply food for
their home population. By-and-bye must come a time when
Chili, California, South Russia, Hungary, will require all
the wheat they can produce for their own consumption.
The eyes of our political economists will perforce be opened
to the truth that every country unable to feed its own popu-
lation is in a dangerous predicament. The civilised world
is now in the position of a spendthrift who is gradually

i66

Economy of Nitrogen .

I April,

awaking to a faint consciousness that his resources are
limited, and that “ something must be done.” Before us —
and by “ us ” we mean not merely the British nation, but
the entire civilised world — there lie open two courses. We
may go on as we are now doing, increasing in wastefulness
even more rapidly than in numbers, and presenting our
drafts upon Nature till the reply at last comes “ No effedfs.”
Or we may take the advice which Science has given us by
the mouth of Liebig, and amend our ways. Pending the
great discovery of the industrial utilisation of atmospheric
nitrogen, we must look with a jealous eye upon every appli-
cation of nitrogen, and also of phosphorus and of potash,
other than for food or medicine. We must proscribe the
use of nitrogenous bodies for all purposes to which such
nitrogen is not essential. We must restore to the land all
that we take from the land, in forms capable of assimilation.
We must either seek to restridt the use of explosives, or we
must find bodies of this class whose manufacture shall not
rob our fields and gardens. We must obtain our sizings,
our thickeners, our mordants, our vinegar, our alcohol,
from bodies free from or at least poor in nitrogen. How
much of the programme may lie within the bounds of pos-
sibility the future only can show. Shall we ever succeed in
obtaining food diredt from its inorganic elements without
the tedious and circuitous interposition of plants and ani-
mals ? If so, the future of the human race may be both
longer and brighter than we can at present dare to hope.
Meantime, to economise nitrogen, phosphorus, and potash,
to recover these bodies from waste, and to find substitutes
for their present “ profligate ” applications, is the most
sacred task which the chemist can take in hand. The
reforms which may shield us from occasional pestilence
sink into insignificance compared with those required to
guard posterity, in a not very remote future, from chronic
scarcity, from recurrent famine, and from a wolfish struggle
for food, in which man must relapse into a worse savagery
than that from which he has emerged.

1878.] Microscopic Particles Suspended in Liquids.

167

II. ON THE MOVEMENT OF MICROSCOPIC
PARTICLES SUSPENDED IN LIQUIDS.

By Professor W. Stanley Jevons, LL.D., M.A., F.R.S.

F we see a thing moving of its own accord, this sponta-
neous motion is thought to be a sure sign that the
objedt is an animal. Such an inference may be true
of large bodies, but when we treat of microscopic objects
the case is very different. Not only are minute vegetables,
on the whole, as aCtive as animals, but even mineral parti-
cles are found to be capable of moving as if endowed with
life. This is a faCt which has been familiar to microscopists
for half a century at least. The phenomenon was made
widely known by the celebrated botanist, Robert Brown, of
the British Museum, who, in the course of some observa-
tions on the pollen of plants, discovered what he called
active molecules , both in organic and inorganic bodies. He
published his observations in two brief papers, which will
be found in his “ Miscellaneous Works,” reprinted by the
Ray Society (vol. i., p. 463). Considerable attention was
drawn to the subject at the time, and the animated behaviour
of particles became known as the Brownian movement %
Brown, however, as he himself points out, was not
the first discoverer of the phenomenon. A few years pre-
viously John Bywater, a Liverpool man of some scientific
merit, had published a traCt (in 1819), re-issued in 1824
with additions, under the title “ Physiological Fragments ;
to which are added Supplementary Observations to show
that Vital and Chemical Energies are of the same Nature,
and both derived from Solar Light.” The greater part of
this book is occupied with vague and worthless speculations,
but his observations are better. He found that “ small
adtive linear bodies ” can be obtained from matter in general.
That they could not be really animated he inferred from the
fadt that they were yielded by coal just drawn from the pit,
by the white ashes of coal, or by sandstone which had just
been heated red-hot. Moreover, boiling kills animalcules,
whereas he found that these lively particles could be boiled
without suffering any loss of adtivity. Bywater came to the
conclusion (p. 59) that these adtive bodies derive their vital

i68

Movement of Microscopic Particles

[April,

power from the water, and he acutely remarked that rocks
generally undergo change when exposed to air and moisture.

Bywater, indeed, was far from being the first who
examined the motion of minute particles ; he was only the
first who distinguished between the motions of living and
dead particles. A series of physiologists — such as Buffon,
Needham, Gleichen, Wrisberg, Muller, and Spallanzani —
had been misled by these dancing particles into the belief
that all bodies are formed of certain ultimate organic
globules, which Spallanzani described as “ animaletti
d’ultimo ordine.” Needham had, in 1749, published a
quarto tra Ct called “ Observations upon the Generation of
Animal Substances,” in which he described the motions of
little eels and other small bodies. Buffon, who was ac-
quainted with Needham, seems to have been thus led to
start his celebrated theory of organical parts. He says* —
“ God . . . has not only given form to the dust of the earth,
but he has rendered it living and animated by enclosing in
each individual a greater or less quantity of aCtive princi-
ples, of organic living molecules, indestructible and common
to all organised beings.”

We may go back still further ; for in the “ Philosophical
Transactions ” for 1696 (vol. xix., p. 280) is to be found a
remarkable account of some microscopical observations
by Stephen Gray, made by microscopes, or rather lenses, of
very primitive construction ; yet Gray seems to have suc-
ceeded in viewing these animated particles, and, considered
by the light of later observations, the following passage is
well worth quoting : — “ I have examined many transparent
fluids, as water, wine, brandy, vinegar, beer, spittle, urine,
&c., and do not remember to have found any of these with-
out more or less of the bodies of these inseCts ; but I have
not seen any in motion except in common water, that has
stood for sometimes a longer, at others a shorter time, as
has been observed by M. Leeuwenhoek ; though I do not
remember he has observed that they are existent in the
water before they revive. In the river, after the water has
been thickened by rain, there are such infinite numbers of
them that the water seems in great part to owe its opacity
and whiteness to these globules. Rain-water, so soon as it
falls, has many, and snow-water has more, of these globules.”
It is probable that these moving globules were not really
inseCts, but inorganic particles moving in the way we have

* Histoire Naturelle, redige par Sonnini, tome xxiii., p. 2. See also
tome xvii., ch. 6, p. 231.

1878.]

Suspended in Liquids.

169

to investigate. Leeuwenhoek was the most celebrated of
the early microscopists, and appears to have frequently
observed the motions of small bodies.

One astonishing fadt about this subjedt is the small atten-
tion paid to it in recent years. Microscopists have continu-
ally had the phenomenon under their eyes, and it has often
been mentioned as a mysterious one which might lead to
great discoveries. Faraday’s attention was drawn to the
matter by Brown’s tradts, and he gave a Friday evening
discourse on the “ adtive molecules.” Part of the notes of
this ledture have been published by Dr. Bence Jones, in his
“Life of Faraday” (vol. i., p. 403) and are very interesting ;
they end thus “ Lastly, the relation of these appearances to
known or unknown causes. Analogy to other moving particles.
Camphor. Supposed facility of explanation, not camphor
motion. Takes place within pollen. Under water, inclosed
by mica or oil — not crystalline particles — not attradtion or
repulsion. Does not consist in receding and approaching —
not evaporation answered as before — not currrents, too minute
— oscillation — consider current in a drop — when currents,
motion very different — not eledtricity of ordinary kind — •
because do not come to rest, seen after hours — -so that the
cause is at present undetermined.

“ Mr. Brown supposed to be careless and bold, is used to
microscopical investigations — has not yet been corrected—
assisted by Dr. Wollaston — so that carelessness can hardly
be charged. Then, what does Mr. Brown say ? Simply
that he cannot account for the motions.

“ Many think Mr. Brown has said things which he has
not — but that is because subjedt connedts itself so readily
with general molecular philosophy that all think he must
have meant this or that — as to molecules, by no means un-
derstand ultimate atoms — as to size, says that solid matter
has a tendency to divide into particles about that size — •
pulverisation and precipitation — if smaller, which may be,
are very difficult to see — does not say that all particles are
alike in their nature, but simply that organic and inorganic
particles having motion — motion cannot be considered as
distinctive of vitality — -connection with atomic or molecular
philosophy.”

It is plain that Faraday, although he correCtly puts aside
many erroneous suggestions, could not explain the pheno-
menon ; but it is strange that in his long life of indefatigable
research he never recurred to the subjedt, nor did any other
eminent physicist undertake the task. A few incidental
remarks upon the subjedt are to be found in books on the

170

Movement of Microscopic Particles

[April,

microscope, as in that of Dr. Carpenter (4th edition, p. 169),
or in Griffith’s “ Micrographic Dictionary,” article “ Mole-
cular Motion ” (3rd edition, vol. i., p. 498).

The French naturalist and microscopist, Dujardin, appears
to have paid special attention to this Brownian movement,
which he describes with more minuteness and accuracy than
any previous observer.*

Griffith, the editor of: the “ Micrographic Dictionary,”
seems to be almost the only other observer who has specially
investigated this curious subject. His results are mostly
correCt as far as they go.f He finds that all kinds of pon-
derable matter, whether organic or inorganic, exhibit these
movements when reduced to a fine state of division, and
suspended in a liquid not too viscid or tenacious. He satis-
fied himself that a single particle moves independently of
surrounding particles. He rejects the explanations pre-
viously suggested, such as the influence of evaporation, and,
after unsuccessfully trying some experiments with electricity,
leaves off with the candid conclusion that he knows no
cause for the phenomenon.

For a number of years past % I have occasionally occupied
leisure time with experiments on this subject. For the mi-
croscopic observations a good compound instrument is
desirable, if not indispensable. I have used an excellent
instrument by Dancer, of Manchester, the quarter-inch ob-
jective of which, with the lowest eye-piece, usually suffices ;
but, to observe the movements in all their perfection, I have
found a good one-eighth inch objective, with a C or D eye-
piece, to be useful.

One difficulty is to find a convenient name for the pheno-
menon. Brown called it molecular movement , and it is often
so called in microscopic books ; but this is a very bad name,
as the particles moving are of course not molecules. Some
writers have called it the Brownian movement ; but this two-
worded expression is very inconvenient, is not in any way
descriptive, and gives perhaps undeserved honour to Brown,
who was not its first discoverer, and did little more than
make it generally known. Dujardin described the motion
as one of titubation , from the Latin titubatio, which means
staggering or wavering ; but this word is not elegant, and

* Nouveau Manuel complet de l’Observateur au Microscope. Manuels
Roret, Paris, 1843, pp. 58 to 60.

f London Medical Gazette, 1843, vol. ii., pp. 502 to 506.

t A brief preliminary account of my experiments was given in the Proceed-
ings of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society for January 23th,
1870 (vol. ix., p. 78).

i8 78.]

Suspended in Liquids.

1 71

has not since been used. I have therefore ventured to coin,
or rather adopt, a new word, and call the motion pedesis,
from the Greek leaping or bounding, this being the

correct description of the phenomenon when seen in perfec-
tion. We also have the advantage of the perfectly classical
adjedtive pedetic, from the Greek -tt^tlkoq.

The pedetic movement cannot be better seen than by
taking a drop of old common ink which has been exposed
to the air for some weeks, and examining it under thin glass
with a magnifying power of 500 or 1000 diameters. An
infinite multitude of minute black particles will be seen, all
in such rapid motion as to cause a boiling or swarming
appearance. This is, in fadt, a wonderful sight. In new
clear ink the particles are fewer and very minute, but all in
motion, -as far as can be seen. Almost any kind of fine clay
mixed with pure water shows pedesis, and muddy rain water
from a macadamised road, if properly examined, will soon
convince the observer what a common phenomenon it must
be. Perhaps the best possible exhibition of the motion is to
be got by grinding up a particle of pumice-stone in an agate
mortar, and mixing it with distilled water. The minute
angular particles will be seen under the microscope to leap
and swarm about with an incessant quivering movement, so
rapid that it is impossible to follow the course of a particle,
which probably changes its direction of motion fifteen or
twenty times in a second.

It is very difficult to measure or describe the motions
with accuracy, and they vary much according to circum-
stances. The distance through which a particle moves at
any one bound is usually less than i-5oooth part of an inch.
The motions much depend upon the sizes of the particles.
Those of a greater diameter than i-5000th of an inch are
seldom seen to move, and the motion is more marked as the
particles are smaller. Exceedingly minute particles may
sometimes be seen literally to skip and dance about, as in
the case of some minute particles of metallic antimony
which Mr. Dancer,* the microscopist, of Manchester,
showed me with an excellent i-8th inch objective.

There is no apparent lower limit to the size of moving
particles, and down to the 1-50, oooth or 1-70, oooth part of
an inch the movement certainly becomes more and more
remarkable.

* Mr. Dancer, F.K.A.S., studied this subject at intervals for thirty years,
but I do not know that he has published any results except those given in the
Proceedings of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society for January
25th, 1870 (vol. ix., p„ 82). Mr. Dancer found that diamond-dust and graphite
could be made to show the motion.

172

Movement of Microscopic Particles

'[April,

The substance which I have found to be most convenient
for experiments on pedesis is fine pure china clay, or kaolin.
This clay is used in photography, and is to be purchased
very carefully washed and prepared for the purpose. A
small quantity of the clay shaken up witli pure water makes
a milky liquid, a drop of which being placed under a piece
of thin glass will show the motion in great perfection ; but
finely-powdered glass, earthenware, and in faCt almost any
very finely-powdered substance, will do nearly as well.
Among vegetable substances gamboge may be mentioned as
readily giving minute particles, which quiver and dance
about in a wonderful way.

In endeavouring to discover the cause of this phenomenon
I made a certain number of experiments to test the validity
of various explanations which had been offered. It has
often been suggested that the motion is excited by rays of
light or heat falling upon the liquid, and Crookes’s radio-
meter now shows that in some cases it is possible to convert
radiant energy direCtly into the energy of visible motion.
But this idea was easily and completely disproved. Taking
several aCtive substances, such as kaolin, road-dust, red
oxide of iron, and mixing them with distilled water, I
examined them in the microscope, causing the direCf rays of
the sun, somewhat concentrated by a lens, to pass straight
through the glass slide into the microscope. I then inter-
posed a dark glass alternately between the sun and the
specimen, and between the eyepiece and the eye. While
tne amount of light reaching the eye remained nearly the
same, the intensity of the rays falling on the moving parti-
cles was probably several hundred times as great in one
case as the other ; yet the vibrations of the particles pro-
ceeded in exactly the same manner in comparative darkness
and in intense light. Different coloured glass screens —
purple, yellow, rose-coloured, &c. — were also tried, but no
difference in the motions was apparent. The same conclu-
sion was indirectly obtained, after the connection of pedesis
with the supension of particles in water had been ascer-
tained, by taking two tubes of china clay and pure water,
putting one in a dark place, and exposing the other to the
direCt rays of the sun for three hours. No difference in the
rapidity of subsidence was apparent.

It is asserted in Dr. Carpenter’s work on the microscope
(§ 130) that this so-called molecular movement is greatly
accelerated and rendered more energetic by heat. “ This,”
he says, “ seems to show that it is due either direCtly to
some calorical changes continually taking place in the fluid,

Suspended in Liquids.

T73

1878.]

or to some obscure chemical action between the solid parti-
cles and the fluid, which is indirectly promoted by heat.”
Although I believe there is obscure chemical aCtion, my ex-
periments lead me to think that the effeCt of heat is rather
the other way, and that increase of temperature decreases
the motion. I was not able, indeed, to perceive any differ-
ence produced by warming the microscope plate ; but as
this is a difficult and uncertain experiment, I tried the
matter indireCtly. A mixture of charcoal-powder and boiled
water was surrounded with ice, and a similar mixture was
placed in boiling water and maintained at ioo° C. At the
end of one hour the heated mixture had deposited nearly all
the charcoal, whereas the ice-cold water still had as much
in suspension after eight hours. A similar experiment with
china clay gave like results. This is the more surprising
and conclusive inasmuch as the heated mixture would be the
most likely to he disturbed by convention currents. It is
well known that heat causes the aggregation of many preci-
pitates, and I suspefft that this will in most cases be due to
the diminution of pedesis, and I shall point out that this is
probably explained by the increase of eleCtrical conductivity
of liquids produced by rise of temperature.

It may still be urged that a liquid while receiving or
parting with heat might show increased pedesis. To test
this I took a tube containing china clay and water, and
during two days frequently suspended it before the fire,
allowing it to cool in the intervals. An exactly similar tube
was sunk in sawdust which had been lying for several years
undisturbed in a wine-cellar. After remaining fifty-two
hours in nearly perfect darkness and equilibrium of temper-
ature (about 9° C.), the latter tube was found to contain
more clay in suspension than the one which had been moved
about and warmed many times. Even after seven days the
buried tube still showed a slight cloudiness. This was a
very striking experiment, and quite convinced me that no
extrinsic causes are concerned in the matter.

As it might be thought that the movement is connected
in some way with the shape of the particles, I compared in
the microscope the fine needle-shaped particles of asbestos
dust with the spherical globules of milk, the minute spheres
of gamboge, the flat particles of talc, the small cubes of
galena, and the wholly irregular fragments of glass. As
particles of all these various forms show pedesis, no parti-
cular form can be essential to its production ; but it seems
likely that, cceteris paribus, sharp-pointed and irregular par-
ticles oscillate most intensely and rapidly. Spherical

174 Movement of Microscopic Particles [April,

particles exhibit rather a gentle swaying backwards and
forwards in no determinate direction ; this motion can be
well studied in common milk, or in a mixture of oil and
water thoroughly rubbed together.

It is natural to enquire how long the pedetic movement
will go on. Does it exhaust itself rapidly^ ? The experi-
ments which I have made lead to the opposite conclusion in
a wonderful degree. Ink which is many months — and pos-
sibly years — old, and which has been long exposed to the
air, exhibits the motion in perfection, as already stated.
Again, by means of a pipette, I took a little of the lees from
a bottle of port wine which had been lying undisturbed in a
wine-cellar for several years, and placed a drop under the
thin glass cover of the microscope plate, with the least
possible exposure to air. A slow distindt motion of the par-
ticles was apparent, and it was not increased when some of
the dregs had been shaken up in a bottle with air. This
experiment leaves no doubt in my mind that the sediment of
port wine is in a state of perpetual motion, until it finally
settles down and attaches itself to the glass. But the most
surprising fadt elicited in the whole enquiry was furnished
by two glass tubes containing china clay and distilled water,
which I corked up in November, 1869, and laid in a drawer
usually opened several times in the day, so that they would
be shaken up every now and then ; frequently, too, they
were shaken up by hand. At long intervals the tubes were
opened, and drops of the milky liquid examined. Comparing
the motion of the particles with that of newly-mixed china
clay and water, no diminution of motion was apparent ; on
the contrary, the motion seemed to he even more remarkable than
in a fresh mixture. This observation was confirmed by the
suspensory power of the liquid. On several occasions, in
1876 and 1877, I have shaken up the tubes and placed them
upright in a spot shielded from light. After a lapse of
eleven days I have found a slight cloud of clay still in
suspension in the lower part of the water. Thus, after
a trial of eight or nine years’ duration, we meet with
the astonishing fadt that the suspensory power and the
pedetic motion apparently increase with time. In fadt
this pedetic motion seems to be the best approach yet disco-
vered to a perpetual motion. The above observations are
quite in agreement with the statement of Dr. Carpenter
(“ Microscope,” § 130, p. 169), that the movement has been
known to continue for many years in a small quantity of
fluid enclosed between two glasses in an air-tight case.
Faraday, as we have seen, discarded ordinary eledtricity as

I75

1878.] Suspended in Liquids.

the cause of motion, because the particles do not come to
rest after hours. Nevertheless I believe that motions lasting
for several years are not inconsistent with an electrical
explanation.

Prof. Tyndall has quite recently expressed his opinion
that this motion of particles is due to “ surface-tension,”
but he cannot be aware of the length of time during which
the motion will continue. It is obvious that from surface-
tension we cannot derive a long-continued supply of energy,
as is required to explain the phenomena.

One of the most important questions to decide is natu-
rally what substances exhibit these movements, or do all
substances exhibit them ? I have tried many experiments
with a view of answering these questions, and though at
times there seemed to be particles of the proper size which
did not move in pure water, subsequent trials often threw a
doubt upon the conclusion. I hesitate, therefore, to affirm
that there is any substance which may not be reduced to
such small particles, and so suspended in water as to show
pedesis ; but there are certainly great differences in activity.
Silica, in all its insoluble forms and compounds, is especially
remarkable for the activity of movement. Clay of several
kinds, earthenware, fire-brick, common brick, clay slate,
silicified wood, glass of several kinds, talc, mica, pumice-
stone, asbestos, basalt, granite, slag from iron and other
furnaces, — also many silicious minerals, such as topaz,
tripoli powder, glacier sand, — all exhibit the movement in
a high degree of intensity ; and these instances are probably
sufficient to show that all silicious compounds, and accord-
ingly the greater part of known minerals and rocks, yield
very adtive particles. But the state of composition is not
requisite to the effect ; for the purest quartz crystal, agate,
cornelian, chalcedony, or the finest white sand, when reduced
to dust, show almost equally adtive motion. On the whole
the silicates and silica exhibit pedesis in the highest per-
fection.

The substances, on the other hand, which seem to be
least remarkable for pedesis, are oxides and other compounds
devoid of silica. I may mention especially chalk, fluor spar,
hematite iron ore, galena, oxide of tin, barium sulphate,
calcium sulphate, titaniferous sand, bone-dust. Various
other substances — such as charcoal of several kinds, coal,
coke, emery powder, amorphous phosphorus — show the
motion readily. The metals iron, steel, gold, and platinum
were tried at first without success, probably because it was
not easy to reduce them to sufficiently minute particles ;

176 Movement of Microscopic Particles [April,

but the brittle metals, antimony, arsenic, and bismuth, were
readily ground into fine powder, and showed aCtive motion.
Afterwards I obtained much motion with steel, lead, bronze,
and standard silver and gold coin, the particles being pro-
duced by rubbing the metals on a smooth hone. Sulphur
could not he ground up fine enough ; but some sulphuretted
hydrogen water having become decomposed, the precipitate
of sulphur was found to consist of very minute particles,
probably about i-30,oooth of an inch in diameter, in a state
of extraordinarily active motion. It is certain that sub-
stances of the most widely different chemical characters will
exhibit the phenomenon, and it is difficult to establish any
clear differences in the activity of the motion as connected
with the chemical nature.

As the form and chemical nature of the particles and the
physical circumstances of the liquid seemed to throw no
light on the cause of pedesis, it remained to consider the
chemical character of the liquid. Striking differences in
this respeCt were soon detected. If, instead of mixing china
clay with pure water, we mix it with a very dilute solution
of sulphuric acid, say one part in a thousand, an extraordi-
nary difference results. Under the microscope the particles
of clay are seen to aggregate together, and rapidly sink
down upon the glass slide. Thepedetic movement is almost
entirely destroyed, or, if any particles move at all, it is only
exceedingly minute ones. The same effeCt is produced by
almost any mineral acid, and, as a general rule, by all salts
and other soluble substances, with certain significant excep-
tions afterwards to be described. Before describing the
experiments in this direction, however, it is necessary to
point out the intimate connection which exists between
pedesis and the suspension of particles in liquid.

It seems surprising that the conspicuous phenomena
arising from the suspension or precipitation of solid particles
in liquids have not been more carefully studied. Besides
being full of scientific interest, they have great practical
importance in questions of water supply and sewage treat-
ment. A few experimenters have touched upon the subject.
The microscopist Dujardin, already quoted, hits the right
nail on the head when he says (p. 60) — “ Ce mouvement
Brownien joue un role important dans certains phenomenes
physiques ; e’est lui qui empeche les eaux troubles de se
clarifier promptement par le repos.”

A few other casual remarks to the same effeCt may be
quoted from several sources, but I am not yet aware of any
connected series of experiments upon the suspension of

1878.]

Suspended in Liquids.

1 77

powders prior to those which I made in 1869, the results of
which were briefly published in the “ Proceedings of the
Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society” for January
25th, 1870 (vol. ix., p. 78). Since then several experimenters
have treated the subject. Mr. Wm. Durham, F.R.S.E.,*
has correctly apprehended that the suspension depends upon
the non-condudting nature of the fluid ; but he is evidently
wrong in supposing that the electricity is generated by the
falling of the particles through the fluid, inasmuch as the
pedetic movement, which favours suspension, is greatest
when the falling of the particles is slowest. Mr. David
Robertson has tested the precipitating power of salt, or even
slightly brackish water, t and Mr. Wm. Ramsay, principal
assistant in the Glasgow University Laboratory, has at-
tempted an explanation of the fad with which I cannot
agree.J He attributes the varying rapidity of the settling of
clay suspended in saline solutions to the varying absorption
of heat by the solutions, whatever this may mean.

In the “ Chemical News ” for August 31, 1874 (vol. xxx.,
p. 97) it was pointed out that Dr. Sterry Hunt read a paper
before the Boston Society of Natural History, on February
18th, 1874, in which he alluded to the rate of settlement of
clay in the water of the Mississippi River. The suspended
matter, chiefly clay, amounts to about 1 part in 2000 parts of
the water, and takes from ten to fourteen days to subside.
But he observed that additions of sea-water, salt of mag-
nesium sulphate, alum, or sulphuric acid, rendered the
turbid water clear in twelve or eighteen hours. Fie thus
explained the ready precipitation of the suspended clay
when the river-water comes into contact with the salt water
of the Gulf of Mexico, causing great deposits of fine mud,
and helping 11s to understand the origin of the accumulation
of clay slates in various geological formations. My experi-
ments in 1869, and since, entirely confirm these observations
of Dr. Hunt, and lead me to think that the pedetic move-
ment must have played a most important part in geological
processes.

The power of salts to precipitate suspended particles has
long been known practically. In some parts of the world

* Abstract of a Paper read before the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh,
January 28th, 1874 (Chemical News, August 7th, 1874, vol. xxx., p. 57).

t “ Note on the Precipitation of Clay in Fresh and Salt Water.” — Trans-
actions of the Geological Society of Glasgow, vol. iv., p. 257. See Whitaker’s
excellent Geological Record for 1874, p. 182. I have not been able to refer to
the original paper.

+ Abstract of the Proceedings of the Geological Society of London, No. 21s,
March 8th, 1876, p. 1.

VOL. VIII. (N.S.)

N

178

Movement of Microscopic Particles

[April,

alum has been dissolved in river-water to clear it. I presume
that we may in the same way explain the use of the Strych-
nos potatorum, or clearing nut, the seeds of which are used
in the East Indies for the purpose of clearing muddy water.
One of the seeds is well rubbed for a minute or two round
the inside of the vessel containing the water, which is then
left to settle ; in a short time the impurities fall to the
bottom. Bitter almonds are employed for the same purpose
in Egypt, and those of the Kola or Sterculia in Sierra
Leone. These methods are probably due to the destruction
of pedesis.

The connection between pedesis and suspension is simply
this ; — In the absence of pedesis suspended particles attract
each other and become aggregated together into little groups,
which then acquire sufficient weight to force their way down
through the resisting liquid. This effeCt I have observed
some hundreds of times, both in and out of the microscope.
If a little china clay be mixed up with water containing
i-ioooth or 1-10, oooth part of sulphuric acid, the milky
liquid will presently assume a flocky curdled appearance,
and after a time the little flocks will subside, streams of
clear water making their way up between the interstices.
The rate of subsidence is doubtless affeCted by other circum-
stances, such as the specific gravity of the liquid, the
smallness of the separate particles, and their shape ; but it
is the aggregation of particles into groups which mainly
determines precipitation or suspension. As a rain-drop is
to a cloud particle, so is a group of clay particles to the
minute suspended particles. Prof. Stokes has shown that
the resistance experienced by the minute particle in falling
through a fluid is comparatively enormous, so that there is
really no further mystery in the falling of curdled precipi-
tates. But pedetic motion prevents the formation of groups;
it keeps each minute particle — say i-ioooth of an inch —
from each other particle, so that each encounters the sepa-
rate resistance of the fluid.

Dujardin, indeed, thought that the pedetic motion caused
particles to diffuse themselves through water. “ (Test lui
aussi qui repand dans toute une masse d’eau, et y tient en
suspension les particules desagreges d’un corps animal ou
vegetal qui se decompose.” In this he is probably wrong,
for if a layer of clear distilled water be placed above a mix-
ture of china clay and distilled water no diffusion of the
clay upwards will be detected. It is difficult to make the
experiment in an accurate manner ; but if we consider that
the pedetic motion, as seen in the microscope, is alternating

1878.]

179

Suspended in Liquids.

and vibratory, and quite indeterminate in direction, and that
any one jump of a particle probably never exceeds i-ioooth
part of an inch at the most, it becomes exceedingly un-
likely that any particular particle should make ten such
steps in the same direction. According to the theory of
probability the proportion of particles which would succeed
in moving any perceptible distance would be imperceptibly
small.

Proceeding with experiments upon many solutions and
liquids, this faCt came out by degrees more and more
clearly — that it is pure water which exhibits pedesis in the
highest perfection. So remarkably is this the case that ike
suspension of china clay may he used as a test of the purity
of water. Even the air and carbonic acid, which is usually
dissolved in water, produces a perceptible difference. If a
milky mixture of china clay and distilled water be divided
into two portions — and while one is well-boiled in a glass
tube and then corked up, the other is shaken in a large
bottle with air, and then left to stand in a similar glass tube
— the clay will be found to remain longer in suspension in
the boiled water. In a similar way, if china clay be mixed
with various specimens of water, — such as spring water,
river-water, rain-water, boiled rain-water, — it is possible to
deteCt differences in the rate of precipitation. In experi-
menting upon such mixtures it will be noticed that the top-
most layer of water, to the depth of one-eighth or one-
quarter of an inch, becomes very clear before the rest of the
liquid : this may probably be attributed to the air dissolved
by the water with which it is in contaCt. The quantity of
air absorbed by water is probably quite competent to pro-
duce this effeCt, as it often amounts to several hundred-
thousandths by weight of the water.

It has been stated that, as a general rule, all substances
dissolved in water tend to prevent pedesis ; but it is easy to
deteCt differences in this effeCt. The mineral acids — sul-
phuric, nitric, or hydrochloric — have an extraordinary effeCt,
and it is possible to deteCt one part of sulphuric acid in a
million parts of water by the precipitation of china clay.
Caustic alkalies and metallic salts have a less, but still a
great, influence. I have tried the nitrates of copper, mer-
cury, and silver, the sulphates of copper and zinc, chloride
of gold, acetate of lead, bichromate of potash. Various
other acids — such as oxalic, fluoric, hydro-fluosilicic, citric,
arsenic acids, — also have considerable precipitating power.
Somewhat lower in the scale may be placed such salts as
carbonate of potash and soda, chlorate of potash. Among

i8o Movement of Microscopic Particles [April,

solutions of still less power may be mentioned common salt,
sulphate of potash, iodide of potassium, nitrate of potash,
cyanide of potassium, ferrocyanide of potassium, lime-
water, &c. My recorded observations amount to nearly
eight hundred, and the solutions named were tried not only
in different strengths, varying according to circumstances,
from one part in ten to one part in a million, but they were
tried with various suspended powders, such as charcoal, red
oxide of iron, amorphous phosphorus, precipitated carbonate
of lime, red oxide of lead, black oxide of manganese, and
occasionally with other substances. I do not think, then,
that I can he much mistaken in my chief conclusions.

While salts and substances dissolved in water prevent
pedesis, as a general rule, there are certain remarkable ex-
ceptions of great significance. One of these is pure caustic
ammonia, the liquor ammonise of the apothecaries. One
per cent of ammonia will be found to have little or no effeCt
in precipitating powders from water. The compounds of
ammonia are quite different from ammonia itself, and, so far
as I have observed, all have precipitating power, though
apparently less than that of most other salts. Other very
notable exceptions are boracic acid and silicate of soda.
Upon these, especially the latter, I have tried many experi-
ments. With i per cent solutions of these substances clay
was observed to remain in suspension for twenty-four hours,
and in some experiments a slight cloud of clay remained
after five days. Indeed I believe that silicate of soda has a
positive retarding power, and prolongs the suspension of fine
particles. This salt will also neutralise the precipitating
power of the acids : when clay is mixed, for instance, with
water containing one per cent of silicate of soda and one-
tenth per cent of nitric acid, the acid combines with the
soda, liberating silicic acid. Now soluble silicic acid has
no perceptible power in preventing pedesis, as proved by
experiments upon two samples of very pure silicic acid,
carefully prepared for me by Prof. Schorlemmer, of Owens
College, for which I am much indebted to him. Clay, mixed
even with a concentrated solution oi pure silicic acid, will show
pedetic motion of minute particles in the microscope.

One of the most extraordinary faCts connected with this
subject is the power which gum arabic possesses of increasing
the pedetic motion. The more inactive substances, such as
powdered galena, oxide of iron, or carbonate of lime, when
examined with a weak pure solution of gum arabic (say
5 per cent), exhibit much motion, and there is the corre-
sponding absence of precipitating power, or rather a power

1878.] Suspended in Liquids. 18 1

of maintaining substances in suspension. It is obviously on
this account that gum arabic is an invariable component of
common ink, though the quantity specified in various recipes
ranges from about 1 to 5 percent. The extraordinary pedesis
seen in old ink is due to the gum arabic, and perhaps also
that seen in gamboge.

It will not be difficult now to arrive at an explanation of
the pedetic motion. When we compare the substances
which do not prevent the motion with those which do, it be-
comes apparent that, with some doubtful exceptions, they
differ widely in the power of making water a conductor of
electricity. The following is a quotation from one of Fara-
day’s earlier researches :* — ££ Some acids, as the sulphuric,
phosphoric, oxalic, and nitric, increase the (conducting)
power of water enormously, whilst others, as the tartaric
and citric acids, give but little power ; and others, again, as
the acetic and boracic acids, do not produce a change sen-
sible to the voltameter. Ammonia produces no effect, but
its carbonate does. Sulphate of soda, nitric, and many
soluble salts produce much effect. Percyanide of mercury
and corrosive sublimate produce no effect ; nor does iodine,
gum, or sugar ; the test being a voltameter.”

The argument in the case of pedesis is exactly analogous
to that which Faraday employed in his inquiry into the pro-
duction of electricity by Sir W. Armstrong’s electrical boiler.
Faraday found that the machine must be supplied with pure
distilled water in order to yield much electricity. The
smallest drop of sulphuric acid, or a little crystal of sulphate
of soda, dissolved in the water, prevented the evolution of
electricity. ££ So also did the addition of any of these saline
or other substances which give conducting power to water.”
Then Faraday argued in this way : — ££ As ammonia increases
the conducting power of water only in a small degree, I
concluded that it would not take away the power of excite-
ment. Accordingly, on introducing some to the pure water
in the globe, electricity was still evolved. But the addition
of a very small portion of dilute sulphuric acid, by forming
sulphate of ammonia, took away all power. ”t Even com-
mon town’s water was found by Faraday to be unsuitable to
the production of electricity. The analogy of these circum-
stances to those of pedesis is so remarkable that little doubt
can be entertained that the same explanation applies. It is
perfectly pure water which produces electricity and pedesis.

* Experimental Researches in Electricity, vol. i., p. 432, § 1355 ; see also
p. 161, § 554.

f Ibid., vol. ii. , pp. no, in, § 2090 to 2094.

182

Movement of Microscopic Particles

[April,

Almost all soluble substances prevent both one and the other
phenomenon ; but ammonia is one of a few exceptions — it
allows both of eleCtric excitation and pedesis. Boracic acid
is another exception, and gum a third one. There are diffi-
culties, no doubt. Silicate of soda and silicic acid were not
tested by Faraday. Tartaric, citric, and acetic acids are
mentioned by him as giving little conducting power to water,
but they arrest pedesis in a considerable degree. But it is
to be remembered that the conducting power of liquids and
the connected effeCt of electrolysis are very imperfectly un-
derstood, and few researches on the subject have been under-
taken since these old ones of Faraday.

The proper way of settling the question, no doubt, is to
make diredt experiments upon silicic acid and the other sub-
stances which allow or promote pedesis. This I attempted
to do, immersing two platinum points, about i-6oth of an
inch apart, in various solutions, and connecting them with
two of Grove’s cells and an ordinary galvanometer. The
results did not altogether agree with the theory, but there
are many doubtful points about the matter. It does not
follow that the conducting power of a liquid through i-6oth
of an inch, with the power of two of Bunsen’s cells, will
correspond to the conducting power through i -5000th of an
inch at a very low tension ; and there are other difficulties
in the matter. In spite of some discrepancies and failures,
I still think the analogy between pedesis and Armstrong’s
electrical machine so strong as to leave little doubt that
pedesis is an electrical phenomenon. Various reasons may
be given for regarding this conclusion as probable.

There is no doubt that pure water may produce eleCtric
tension. If pure water be put into an ordinary eleCtric
battery, the tension produced is supposed to be the same as
with dilute sulphuric acid. In faCt the acid is only added
to make the water a conductor, without which the current
is imperceptible. Then, again, there is no doubt that, when
water is in contaCt with silicates, some chemical aCtion goes
on, for silicic acid is invariably found in all water which
has been in contaCt with the earth. It is perfectly well
known that all clays, and also all rocks exposed to air and
water, decompose slowly, as Bywater acutely remarked.
The aCtion is very slow, so that there is nothing absurd in
supposing that chemical aCtion may go on for eight years,
or more, as in the case of my tubes of china clay and water.
The silicic acid dissolved out of the clay promotes rather
than prevents pedesis.

In attempting to explain the exadt modus operandi, we

1878.]

Suspended in Liquids.

I

I83

cannot rest, as hitherto, upon experiments. We can only
speculate that the action upon a minute irregular fragment
will never be exactly equal all round. Differences of poten-
tial will exist, owing, in the first place, to the non-homo-
geneous nature of the particle. In accordance with all
known laws of electro-dynamics, motion of the particle will
result, which, by exposing new points of the particle to the
action of fresh liquid, will alter the potentials, and lead to
motion in a new direddion. In order that a particle shall
rest motionless in a non-condudding fluid, it must be in
exaddly equal chemical and eleddric relation to the fluid on
all sides. That this should happen is almost infinitely im-
probable. A condition of unstable equilibrium within limits
is the result — a condition partially analogous to that of a
ball suspended on a jet of water, which is always
falling off one way or another, but is always brought back
again.

Having once begun to speculate it is easy to go a little
farther, and to point out that there is probably a close con-
nection between pedesis and the phenomena of osmose so
carefully investigated by Graham. The conneddion is pro-
bably that of action and reaction ; for if a liquid is capable
of impelling a particle in a given direddion, the particle, if
fixed, is capable of impelling the liquid in the opposite di-
rection by an equal force, just as a steamboat, if not allowed
to move forwards, will throw the water backwards. The
earthenware jars used by Graham in many of his experi-
ments consisted of silicious minerals, which would give
pedesis in great perfection ; and Graham came to the con-
clusion that whether the septum consisted of earthenware,
animal membrane, or other substance, the motive force arose
from chemical action upon the matter of the septum. The
membrane was always corroded to some extent — a fact which
quite accords with my explanation of pedesis. The solutions
employed by Graham were also such as would admit of this
view, containing usually about 1 per cent of the salt. It is
obvious that if a pedetic particle be in contact with precisely
the same kind of liquid all round, there would be no deter-
minate direction of motion either of particle or of liquid ; but
if one end of the particle be immersed in different liquid
from that which surrounds the other end, a tendency to
motion in a determinate direction will result, and this would
be the condition of things in the porous earthenware jars of
Graham. I do not pretend, however, to explain the exact
modus operandi, which must be left to some one well versed
in electrical science, but it is probable that the ultimate

184 Movement of Microscopic Particles f April,

explanation must take into account the remarkable pheno-
mena of ele(5tric osmose investigated by Wiedemann.

It was first observed by Porret that when the poles
of a battery are placed in two portions of water separated
by a porous division, not only is some of the water decom-
posed, but another and far larger portion is impelled towards
the negative pole. Wiedemann found that for 1 part of
water decomposed, 5000 parts were transported through the
porous septum. This impulsion is greater as the eleCbric
resistance of the liquid is greater, and ceases altogether
when sufficient acid or salt is added to render the liquid a
good conductor. There is an obvious analogy to the cir-
cumstances of pedesis, except that the energy is derived not
from the septum, but from a cell. If these surmises should
prove corredt the phenomenon of pedesis will acquire great
importance, because it was believed by Graham and others
that osmose plays a large part in the functions of life, pro-
bably causing the motion of sap in plants and of juices
through the walls of animal cells and vessels generally. It
is certain that the solutions of gum, albumen, &c., which
permeate the vessels both of animals and plants, are gene-
rally well fitted for the production of pedesis. From this
point of view it is much to be desired that the inquiry
should be extended, so as to include the relations of organic
particles to solutions both of salts and of organic substances.
I hare hardly been able to enter upon this part of the sub-
ject. The motion of particles of gamboge has already been
mentioned, and other organic paints, such as sepia and
indigo, give like results. The yolk of an egg rubbed up in
water showed intense pedesis. These motions are far from
being prevented when the medium is a solution of albumen,
gum, glycerin, gelatin. Some experiments seemed to show
that, in the presence of these organic substances, small
quantities of acid or alkali would not prevent pedesis.
Observations of this kind duly extended might have a most
important bearing upon many motions, such as that of
cyclosis observed in vegetable cells, or even upon the
whole subject of the motion of fluids in vegetable and
animal organisms. I tried a few experiments with the sap
of a tree, and found that gamboge rubbed up with it gave
a perfectly boiling appearance. Other organic mediums —
such as alcohol, ether, amylic alcohol, chloroform, spirits of
turpentine, wood spirit, &c. — seemed to arrest pedesis ; but
they ought to be much more carefully tried with different
suspended particles, and in mixtures of different proportions
with water.

1878.]

Suspended in Liquids.

185

It is very interesting to follow out the effects of this
pedetic motion from the geological, physiographical, and
economic points of view. Its importance is immensely
great, and it is not too much to say that the surface of the
globe would be very differently shaped were the phenomena
otherwise than they are. The disintegrating and carrying
power of pure water mainly depends upon the pedetic
motion, which, as we have seen, prevents rapid aggregation
and subsidence. Now, the rain-water which falls upon the
surface of the earth is sufficiently pure to produce pedesis
in considerable perfection. Every little stream and pool of
muddy water bears evidence to this effeCt, and fresh water
as it flows down the rivers, and even into the sea, continues
to hold great quantities of silicious particles in suspension.
But no sooner has the fresh water become mixed with salt
than the pedesis is destroyed, as I have ascertained by
direCt trial with sea-water, and the particles subside rapidly.
Thus we account for the wonderful clearness of ocean-
water, and the faCt that the ooze from the ocean bottom
consists almost entirely of organisms produced out of the
substances contained in solution in the salt water. In the
same way we may account for the peculiar clearness of
alkaline solutions, with which I have often been struck. A
pan of brine at a salt-works, for instance, if allowed to
stand undisturbed for a little time, becomes as clear as
crystal. This is due k) the perfect subsidence of all foreign
particles, in spite of the greater specific gravity of the
solution which would tend to buoy them up. In the same
way we may explain the dark blue colour of the Dead Sea,
which is due to the clearness of the dense solution.

It now becomes easy to understand the peculiar turbidity
of glacier streams, for the water proceeding from melting ice
is in the most perfect condition for producing pedesis. I
have examined water derived from melting snow, and find
that the contained air is not sufficient to diminish the sus-
taining power much, and I have shown that the suspension
of clay is continued longer in ice-cold water than in warmer
water. That the particles derived from glacier erosion ex-
hibit pedesis in a high degree is evident from the silicious
nature of the rocks eroded, but I have confirmed this infer-
ence by diredt trial upon the sediment of glacier streams
both in Switzerland and Norway. As the water from a
glacier becomes gradually warmed and aerated, the particles
subside and the water becomes clear ; but there is some
difficulty in understanding how this process is carried out
with sufficient rapidity to produce the clear blue water of

i86

Energy and Feeling .

[April,

the Lake of Geneva. It is well known that for domestic
purposes water ought to be well aerated, so that the water
from a pure rivulet is better than that taken direct from a
mountain bog. This is at least partly due to the decrease
of the suspensive power by the dissolved air; and the bril-
liant crystal clearness of well-water is probably to be
explained by the mineral salts held in solution, which favour
the throwing down of all sediment.

III. ENERGY AND FEELING:

ALTERNATE AND MUTUALLY CONVERTIBLE
AFFECTIONS OF MATTER.

By W. S. Duncan.

»N the philosophy which is the offspring of modern
science there is believed to be but one substance with
twofold properties or affections. That substance is
matter, and its twin properties are energy and feeling.

The present position of physico-psychology, however, is
logically imperfeCt, inasmuch as it places an impassable
gulf between the two manifestations of matter — energy and
feeling. These two affections, it is said, lie side by side,
and in parallel lines. Energy never once begets feeling, nor
does feeling ever beget energy ; they never even affeCt each
other in the slightest degree. Language of this import has
been used, even quite recently, by some of our highest sci-
entific authorities and by clear thinkers, though admitted
by these authorities to be not unattended by difficulties.

But a philosophy such as that is not only attended by
difficulties, but is so illogical, so discordant with human
language and experience, that I feel sure it must ultimately
give place to one much more consonant alike with sound logic,
scientific truth, and human experience. First, what does
experience say ? Do we not say, when we wish to explain
our actions, ‘‘ Such an idea, or such a feeling, was my
motive for so doing,” — meaning that the subjective motive
preceded, and was the cause of the physical aCtion ? Do
we not know that most of our actions are aimed at subjective
results, as so much pleasure or so much pain, rather than at

Energy and Feeling .

187

1878O

mere physical or material well-being ? Has not the ethical
basis of the “ happiness of mankind ” been approved of by
the highest scientific authorities as the best principle of
moral aCtion ? Why, then, should mere physical energy
aim at subjective results unless it can cause them ?

But Science replies, “ The dodtrine of conservation of
energy and the fundamental difference between energy and
feeling exclude the intermixture or alternation of these two
affedtions of matter.” If any theory involved the rejedtion
of the dodtrine of conservation of energy, it would of course
condemn itself, for nothing in Science is more satisfactorily
established than that dodtrine. But this objection could
not apply to a theory which described energy and feeling as
alternate and mutually convertible affections of matter ; for
if energy merged in feeling, and feeling in energy, no energy
would be lost, and no new force imported into the realm of
Nature. Spontaneous origination of energy or feeling would
be both alike unknown. The objection that energy and
feeling are fundamentally different is at first an apparent
obstacle to the acceptance of a theory of alternation. But
this objection is only valid if both aspects of matter are
viewed from different standpoints, the one objectively, the
other subjectively. View both from the same standpoint,
and the difficulty vanishes.

I, a part of matter, experience that alternation of feeling
and action as if my actions proceeded from my feelings and
my feelings from my being acted upon ; why may it not be so
with every other part of matter, as well as that I call “me” ?
To feel and to energise seem both to be very much akin, if
we regard matter as a living substance, and exclude from it
the old notion that it requires something immaterial to
move it and something immaterial to feel its motion. But
it is also objected that the moment a part of matter is
moved by a neighbouring part, the former moves and feels
simultaneously; that No. 2 movement is the true conse-
quent of No. 1 movement ; and that feeling is merely
concomitant in time, and never intervenes between move-
ments 1 and 2. Now, is this objection sound ? Does not
the swiftest known force take time for its passage ? If so,
we have but to divide the whole time by the number of
parts taking share in a vibration, when we have the mathe-
matical equivalent in time which elapses between the re-
ceiving and the discharging of an impulse by an elementary
part, and we may still farther divide this time into the parts
required for the duration of feeling and adting respectively
by the elementary part. Now receiving energy takes

i8S

Energy and Feeling.

[April,

precedence of discharging energy, as is very obvious, since no
force originates spontaneously. That the affedtion of matter
in the receiving stage is somewhat different from that in the
discharging stage is implied by the very term “ receiving,”
being suggestive of passivity in contrast with the discharging
stage, which latter stage alone answers to our notion of
activity or energy.

Thus the fadt of precedence in time between receiving and
discharging energy removes the objedtion of apparent con-
comitance of feeling with energising states of matter, leaving
time for the fadf of alternation to transpire. Then the dif-
ference in nature between receiving and giving helps us to
recognise affedtions of matter differing as much as do our
ideas of the nature of feeling and adting respectively ; while
the possession by ourselves of powers to feel and adt alter-
nately as characteristic living powers helps us to understand
how Nature, in part and in whole, may be endowed through-
out, and perpetually manifest these twofold affections of
feeling and energising in continuous alternation.

Let us consider what are the advantages of this theory of
alternation of feeling and energising affections of matter.

First. — It agrees with human experience and language.

Secondly. — It seems logically more consistent than the
theory of concomitance.

Thirdly. — It preserves the doctrine of conservation of
energy, and agrees with the great laws of continuity and
causation in all their manifestations.

Fourthly. — It requires no exclusive confinement of con-
sciousness to ganglionic matter, to a central nervous
sensorium, or even to organised matter at all, but places
feeling in all matter at the stage of receiving energy.

Fifthly. — It does not involve intelligence while predicating
sensibility of all matter, for the terms feeling and intelligence
are far from synonymous, the former being simple and
elementary, while the latter is compound or complex. But
it teaches us to search for intelligence elsewhere than in
man and animals : for wherever groups of force channels
are organised, there groups of feelings are to be inferred, —
therefore intelligence ; for intelligence is the product of
groups of feelings in one organised whole.

Sixthly. — In the event of discovering intelligence higher
than man’s the old polytheistic notions may not revive, inas-
much as those superior intelligences, equally with ourselves,
must be subject to the great law of causation.

Seventhly. — Much of the mystery of adaptation in things,
many of them removed distantly in time and space, seems

1878.] The Gold and Placer Mines of Wicklow. 189

removed ; for if feeling alternate with energy, what wonder
that they should result in adaptations favourable to sub-
jective as well as physical harmony or well-being.

Eighthly. — Nature is regarded in the light of the theory
of alternation of energy and feeling, as a living whole, con-
scious as well as aCtive ; conscious because aCtive, and
aCtive because conscious. How infinitely superior is it to
the theory that regards Nature as the home of a sort of
Siamese twins, — energy and feeling, — accompanying and
complimenting one another, yet quite unnecessary the one
to the other, — the theory of concomitance !

IV. THE GOLD AND PLACER MINES
OF WICKLOW.

By G. H. Kinahan, M.R.I.A., &c.

iT^ENIGAN and other English writers represent the
Ancient Irish as perfectly ignorant and barbarous.
Nevertheless, from the Annals, and the “finds” of
gold ornaments and weapons in numerous localities, it would
appear that at a very early age the use and manufacture of
the precious metals were known to the natives of the country.
That gold was much more abundant in Ireland than in
England is shown by the faCt mentioned in De Larne’s
“ History of Caen,” when, after the Norman Conquest of
the British Islands, treasures were exacted from both to the
exchequer of Normandy ; the tribute exacted from England
was 23,730 marcs of silver, but from Ireland 400 marcs oi
silver and 400 ounces of gold.

According to Dr. Joyce (“ Origin and History of Irish
Names of Places”) the earliest known record of the manu-
facture of gold in Ireland was about 1000 years before Christ,
when the monarch Tighernmas caused goblets and brooches
to be manufactured by an artificer named Uchadan, who
resided in Fercualan, or that portion of Wicklow which is
now the Barony of Powerscourt. Besides, other monarchs
are also mentioned who had gold manufactured, or who in-
troduced the use of golden ornaments. On account of the
abundance of gold in Dublin and Wicklow in ancient times

190 The Gold and Placer Mines of Wicklow . [April,

the inhabitants of this portion of Leinster were called
Laighnigh-an-oir, or the “ Lagenians of the Gold A as men-
tioned by O’Curry in his lectures (LeCture i, p. 5.)

From the records in the Annals it would also appear that the
ancient placer mines were principally situated in the Dublin and
adjoining mountains. In these hills in recent times very little
gold has been found. Now and then pieces of gold are
picked up in Glenismole, or the upper portion of the Valley
of the Dodder; and recently in Stephen’s Green, Dublin, a
small nugget was found in a load of gravel brought from
the Dodder Valley. In some of the valleys eastward of
Blessington, on the Liffey, are broken patches of ground
that have an appearance like the sites of ancient placer
mines ; and farther south, workings of the ancient Irish

were discovered about thirty-five years ago, in the placer
mines at the Hill of Lyra ( anglice , junction or fork of
two glens), townland of Knockmiller, nearly a mile S.W. of
Wooden Bridge. In connection with these ancient works,
under a depth of about 5 feet of meteoric drift, a black
oak frame was found. It was 14 feet long by 10 or
12 feet wide, the shorter beams being morticed into the
others about a foot from the ends, and on the outside of all
the beams were carving of animals, some having men
mounted on them. These consisted of “ animals like mules
with long bob-tails, others like goats or deer, and some of a
nondescript character.” The beams were cut up to make
ground joists for the east wing of Wooden-Bridge Hotel.

The Lusceans, or the inhabitants of the Lusca or Earth-
caves, must have been rather a primitive race, if we are to

1878.I The Gold and Placer Mines of Wicklow. 191

judge from their habitations, that were rarely high enough
for them to stand up in, and into most of which they had to
creep through passages scarcely 3 feet high ; yet in these
caves most highly-wrought gold ornaments and weapons are
not uncommon ; while under some of the deep bog they also
occur. Of the “ finds” in bogs, those in the Bog of Cullen,
at the junction of the counties of Tipperary and Limerick,
are the most remarkable, as here were found not only innu-
merable golden articles, but also the various implements
used by the goldsmith, such as crucibles, ladles, and the like,
among the “ corkers ” or roots of the trees of an ancient
forest.

As pointed out by O’Curry, this locality seems to have
been the habitat for years of a race of goldsmiths, who
carried on the manufacture from one generation to another
in the wood there situated, long before the bog began to grow.
O’Curry has tried to identify these goldsmiths with a race of
artificers whose genealogy is given in the book of Lismore,
who were direCt descendants from Olioll Olum, king of
Munster, and followed the trade from about A.D. 300 to
A.D. 500 ; but the thickness of the bog over the ancient
forest, among the remains of which the articles are found,
would seem to suggest a far greater age.

The numerous and rich “finds” in the Bog of Cullen
during the last two hundred years has made it proverbial in
Munster and celebrated in song.

It would seem that after the conquest of Ireland by the
English the existence of gold in the country was unknown or
forgotten ; but in recent years it was remarked that from
time to time the natives of Wicklow brought up small quan-
tities of gold to sell in Dublin. This did not create much
inquiry till 1795, when a large nugget was offered for sale.
The exaCt weight of this is uncertain, some say 2i|- ounces,
others only 18 ; while some authorities mention two large
nuggets. Whatever its weight, on enquiry it was found that
it had been picked up by a girl driving cattle over the ford of
Ballinasilloge, in the stream now called the Gold-Mines
River. This runs eastward from Croghan Kinshella to
join the Aughrim River, and eventually the Ovoca, at
Wooden Bridge.

The find of this large nugget caused a rush to the place,
and for over six weeks from 600 to 700 people were working
in the valley and neighbouring streams, till the Government,
fortified by a special A6t of Parliament, took possession, and
established more systematic placer mining, under Messrs.
Weaver, King, and Mills. The Government mining seems

192

The Gold and Placer Mines of Wicklow. [April,

to have been mostly carried on in the Gold Mine Valley,
while at the same time adventurers were working in the
neighbouring streams of Ballintemple, Clonwilliam, Knock-
miller, Coolballintaggart, a stream on the other side of the
hills running north from Croghan Kinshella, and, farther
northward, at Mucklagh, Ballinagappoge, and Sheanmore,
the last four being on tributaries of the Aughrim River.

The Government Works continued till May, 1798, when
they were interrupted by the Rebellion, and were not resumed
till 1801, after which time, for reasons fully stated by Weaver
in the “ Transactions of the London Geological Society,” a
level was driven into the east side of Croghan, while miles
of trenches or “ open cast ” were made round its summit, in
search of the “ mother rock ” of the gold : all these works
resulted in failure, for, although numerous veins of quartz
were discovered, not a particle of gold was found in situ.
After the failure of the trials the Government were advised
to abandon the works. Since then placer mining has been
carried on by companies and private individuals, but not
successfully ; Prof. W. W. Smyth, in his Report states
“partly it may be presumed from the rarity of the precious
metal, and partly from the difficulty experienced in all gold-
streaming or gold-digging regions of obtaining from the
workmen the full produce of their labours.”

The Government placer mining, both before and after the
Rebellion, is said to have been remunerative, and the quan-
tity of gold returned was 944 ounces, of a total value at the
time of £3675 ; the assay of 24 grains, by Weaver, gave
pure gold 22*58, and silver 1*43 ; while a second, by the
Assay Master of the London Mint, Mr. Alchorn, gave, for
the same weight, 21*375 fine gold, 1*875 of silver, and. 0*375
of an alloy of copper and iron. The streamings carried on
prior to those conducted by the Government are said to have
been even more remunerative, and Sir R. Kane states that
it has been calculated that over £10,000 were paid for the
o-old sold by private individuals.

& The minerals found with the gold, as recorded by Weaver,
are magnetic iron ore (sometimes in masses over half a
hundredweight), titaniferous iron, specular red and brown
iron-ores, pyrites, tin-ore and wolfram, manganese ore, garnet
quartz, and lepidolite ; to which Mr. Mallet has added pla-
tinum, galenite, chalcopyrite, molybdenite, sapphire, topaz,
zircon, and spinella (“ Journ. Geol. Soc. Dublin,” vol. iv.,
p. 271). This observer seems to have come on an extraordinary
prolific “run,” as he records 3*5 lbs. of tin ore from 150 lbs. of
sand ; while all other observers have found this valuable ore

I93

1878.] The Gold and Placer Mines of Wicklow.

only in small quantities. It may be mentioned that in the
old working, in the wood, tin ore was more frequently found
than higher up, or to the south-west, where it is rarer. Tin
ore is also recorded for the working at Ballinagappoge, one
of the tributaries of the Aughrim River.

Most of the gold is in “ eye-sills,” or small particles ; in
some places, however, “ large gold ” or grains occur, while
here and there are nuggets, ranging from 21*5, the larger,
to half an ounce ; in one placer, a little N.E. of Balli-
nasilloge ford, many nuggets averaging from 3 to 5 ounces,
one being 11 ounces, are said to have been lifted. In Bal-
lintemple there was a great deal of gold, but it was nearly
all in “ eye-sills.” The placer of Knockmiller is said to have
been very productive, “ large gold ” and “ eye-sills” occurring
together, while in Coolballintaggart “ large gold ” was prin-
cipally found.

In the “ Elements of Geology,” recently published by
Prof. Le Conte, of the University of California, we learn that
the California placers are below slopes on which there is
always an outcup of an auriferous quartz vein. In Wicklow
no auriferous quartz vein has been discovered, but in all cases
the placers are below the slopes on which certain iron ore
lodes crop out. On this account all the different observers
seem to believe that there must be relations between these
lodes and the gold in the placers ; furthermore, fragments of
these ores always occur in the sand associated with the
gold. However, in none of the lodes above the placers has
gold been found, although farther north-east, west and east
of the Ovoca, it occurs in the gaussen at Ballymurtagh and
Cronebane, and in the remarkable mineral Kilmacoite, or
“ silver-blende,” at Connarry.

The major portion of the gold is abraded, and apparently
has been drifted to its present site ; but some nuggets and.
many of the eye-sills are frosted, as if they had grown in the
drift, similar to some of the gold found in the “deep placers”'
of California ; other pieces are attached to quartz, especially
in the vicinity of the “ Red Holes,” a swampy patch at the
mearing of Ballyvally and Ballinasilloge, as if somewhere
in the latter townland there is a still undiscovered auriferous
quartz vein. It must, however, be allowed that the chances
in favour of the latter are small, as hundreds of tons of the
quartz erratics were brought to Ballintemple, and crushed,
without even a particle of gold being got to repay the trouble
and expense.

In the Red Hole Mines, at present being worked by
Mr. F. Acheson, we learn that the surface-accumulations in

VOL. viii. (n.s.) o

194 The Gold and Placer Mines of Wicklow. [April,

the ravine consists of — above meteoric drift, under which is
water-formed drift, and at the base of the latter in places is
the auriferous or “ black sand.” The black sand is found in
“runs ” or lines, and these occur in channels or slight hollows
that have been denuded or worn out along nearly parallel
lines of dislocation, or master-joints, in the underlying
Cambro- Silurian rocks. The miners know when they are
coming to a “ run,” as the lamination of the “ bottom rock”
is “crumpled,” as the twisting and breaking-up of the rock
adjoining the fault or dislocation lines is locally called. In
each sedtion of the valley these breaks have general bearings,
so that when the direction of one run is known all others are
nearly parallel. One set of parallel breaks may, however, be
crossed by another, and at the junction of the two systems
the channels are deeper, and consequently in such spot more
gold collects than elsewhere ; so that on a map of a placer
the rich spots occur somewhat like the corners of the squares
on a chess-board, only more oblique to one another.

In the Red Holes Mine the surface of the “ bottom rock”
in general is ground smooth, as if a rapid torrent had ran
over it for years. In the overlying water-drift all the rock
fragments are abraded, and rarely — even on the Gabbro,
quartz, and other hard rocks — was a trace of ice-work
detected ; but a few ice-dressed fragments do occur in the
higher meteoric drift. It would appear that when the ice
was melting off the Wicklow hills great torrents were flowing
down the different ravines, and when the ice had all melted
and the water-supply was gone the torrents dried up, while
subsequently the marginal cliffs of the ravines weathered
into slopes, their detritus forming the meteoric drift now
found above the water-drift.

All the modern mines in the neighbourhood of Croghan
Kinshella are “ shallow placers,” the deepest being less than
30 feet, while no deep trials have been made. In nearly all
other gold regions the precious metal has been worked not
only in shallow but also in “ deep placers,” and, if we may
reason from analogy, it appears probable that there are vast
supplies of unknown auriferous sands under the deep river
and estuary accumulations in the flats at Wooden Bridge, and
other places in the valleys of the Ovoca and its tributaries.

1878.]

Moisture in Air.

*95

V. ON THE RELATION OF MOISTURE IN AIR
TO HEALTH AND COMFORT *

By Robt. Briggs, C.E.,

Cor. Mem. Am. Inst, of Architects, &c.

T may be accepted that the most pleasant condition of
the air, in our portion of the globe, will be found to
exist on a fair day in early summer, when the temper-
ature ranges from 62° to 68° F., and the moisture present in
the air is from 85 to 80 per cent of saturation. On a day
like this no thought of the weather is taken, and the passage
of the conversational compliment of a “ fine day ” becomes
a needless reminder, to be accepted without discussion or
thought. Admitting this proposition as a faCt, it is the pur-
pose of this paper to show that in our climate this summer
condition of relative heat and moisture is not desirable, or
even attainable, at other seasons, in the ventilating or heating
of occupied places. And in presenting this view to the
American Society of Architects I do so with a full knowledge
that it does not accord with the opinion of most American
writers on the subject of ventilation, who have derived their
information and their arguments mainly from the study of
English and French books, and have only endeavoured to
reconcile the data found in these to American wants and
practice. Even Wyman, who is by far the most original as
an observer, as well as the most thorough as the collator of
information from all sources, hardly makes the distinctive
effeCt of our low temperature, combined with a comparatively
lower dew-point, sufficiently evident.

Except one investigates the relation of moisture to tem-
perature of air in the two countries, it is impossible to
reconcile our faCts with the statement of good foreign
authorities, t that 56° is comfortable, and 62° is warm, in

* Paper read before the Am. Institute of Architects, at Boston, Oct. 18th,
1877. From the Journal of the Franklin Institute.

f The comfortable warmth of air indoors is given by various authorities, as
follows : — Peclet, Traite de la la Chaleur, gives 150 C., 59° F. Morin,
Etudes sur la Ventilation, — for nurseries, schools, &c., 59°; hospitals, 6i° to
64°; theatres, assembly halls, &c., 66° to 68° ! Tredgold, Principles of
Warming and Ventilating, &c., 56° to 62°. Reed, Illustrations of the Theory
and Practice of Ventilation, 65°. Hood, Treatise on Warming Buildings, &c.,
inferentially 550 to 58°. Parkes, Manual of Military Hygiene, 48s to 70° (this
author has encountered the difficulty of naming a fixed temperature, and
avoids the issue). Box, Practical Treatise on Heat, 62°. Others might be
quoted, but these are amongst the best authorities on Heating and Ventilation.

O 2

ig6 Relation of Moisture in Air [April,

living rooms in mid-winter ; while the American shivers with
cold at 70°, and is not over-warmed at 7 6°, in the apartments
of his own dwelling, although clad in the thickest of under-
clothing. Investigation, however, shows that the deprivation
of heat from the person is more due to evaporation from the
lungs or throat, and from the skin, than from heat otherwise
dispersed, whether carried off by the breath, imparted to the
air, or radiated to surrounding objetfts. And further investi-
gation will show that the hygrometric state of the air has so
much effedt in inducing or retarding evaporation as to make
56° F. in the West and South of England, in Ireland, and in
Normandy, sensibly as warm as 8o° in Canada or Minnesota
at the same season. A brief statement of the difference of
climatic condition of England and of America may show
why we cannot import English theories of ventilation and
heating, and apply them at once, without modification, to
American residences. The English climate affords nearly
eight months in every year when the thermometer ranges
between 40° and 6o° in the shade, with a dew-point so high
that it is a pleasure to exercise in the invigorating air ; one
month of 6o° to 8o° ; and three months from 25°to 50° ; there
being no term, except a part of the one month of heat reaching
to 8o°, when any person cannot, with suitable clothing, enjoy
the open air. While in America there is scarcely one month
(or thirty days) out of the year having an average temperature
of 50° to 750 (which temperatures, from the difference of dew-
point, correspond sensibly with 40° to 6o° in England) ; and
there are three months of 7 50 to go° ; three months of 30° to
50° ; and five months of excessive variation of temperature
of from o° to 50°. During the three hot months, and also
during most of the five cold, open-air exercise to those whose
avocations are within doors is, if not impossible, at least
very uncomfortable, however clad or covered. Anyone who
is called upon to endure the fervid summer heat, or who can
habituate himself to the inclemencies of our ardtic winter,
will not suffer great discomfort, nor experience much injury
to his health -therefrom ; but the weak and tender — the mer-
chant from his counting-house, the student from his closet,
the workman from the shop, the women and children of the
house — cannot acquire the endurance or the habit, and must
shelter and protedf themselves.

This preamble to the subjedf has been intended to impress
the fadt that its consideration must be on its own merits, and
not through the light thrown upon it by general writers, that
its investigation shall be original from physiological consider-
ations, and not based upon authorities.

1878.]

to Health and Comfort.

197

§. Comfort, if not existence, depends upon a constant loss
of heat from the person. The internal natural warmth of
the body is very nearly ioo° F., regardless of the heat of the
external air ; and the personal comfort which proceeds from
the temperature and humid condition of the air, proceeds
from the cooling effeCt which must then occur with constancy
and regularity, and yet not so fast as to produce the sensation
of cold. The origin of the natural heat is well established.
There is inhaled by each adult in comparatively still life,
each three to four seconds, from 30 to 40 cubic inches of air,
at such temperature as may exist at the place, with extreme
differences of temperature ranging from — 40° to +140° F.,
and with extremely variable proportions of humidity, from
the point of saturation on the one hand to that of nearly an
anhydrous air on the other. The practical extremes in our
country are from little below zero to about ioo°, accompanied
also with great variation of humid condition. A portion of
the oxygen of the inhaled air is consumed in the system, and
the exhalation, which follows each inhalation, emits about
4 per cent of carbonic acid and iT per cent of vapour of
water. Two or three grains of carbon are consumed in the
system each minute, giving out 3! to 5J units of heat, the
unit of heat being the equivalent to a pound of water heated
i° F. It is the dispersion of this heat which establishes the
sensation of comfort. Modern theory has established the
convertibility of heat to work or power, and some portion of
the heat evolved by the air of respiration will have been con-
verted into labour or effort, but far the greatest portion will
have been utilised in preserving the temperature of the body
from the losses by evaporation of moisture, by conduction,
and by radiation. One portion of the loss is readily esti-
mated. The breath is inhaled at whatever temperature and
humidity may subsist at the place, but is exhaled at all
times at 90° (when the temperature of the air is not above
that degree), and it is saturated with moisture at that tem-
perature. If it is supposed that the temperature of the
external air is 6z°, and the dew-point 54° (== 65 per cent
humidity), from 0*35 to 0*56 unit of heat will have been ex-
pended in evaporation of moisture in the lungs and throat,
and o*io to 0*17 unit of heat in imparting heat to the exhaled
air each minute. About three and a half times as much heat
will have been expended in supplying the moisture as in
heating the air. The loss of other portions of heat cannot
be as definitely estimated. It is evident that it must mainly
be dispersed from the skin, and it is pretty certain that a
large, if not much the larger, portion must pass off in

1 98

Relation of Moisture in Air

[April,

insensible perspiration, which will be greatly affeCted by the
condition of humidity of the surrounding air. Here clothing
becomes an important element. We protect ourselves
against the inclemency of winter, or the heat of summer,
by coverings more or less non-conducting or non-radiating,
leaving but a small portion of the person unprotected by
direbt exposure. An almost instinctive preference is given
by all people, of all times, and at all places, for porous
clothing; even the skins which clothe the inhabitants of the
coldest regions, although quite impervious to moisture and
to currents of air, are very open for the passage of vapour of
water, or of diffused gases. Evaporation, and consequent
cooling of the skin, takes place in great measure, or is in-
fluenced by the relative vacuum which the quantity of
vapour present in the air establishes. The transfer of vapour
is then one of diffusion, and follows the law of diffusion of
gaseous bodies. A partially anhydrous air, external to the
clothing, is a partial vacuum to the vapour of go°, existing
in duCts of perspiration, and this vapour rushes towards the
vacuity without encountering the resistance of any circula-
tion, and meet no considerable obstacle in the porous coats
and overcoats. It is in this way possible to explain why,
in mid-winter, with the room from 65° to 7 o°, heavy under-
clothing is not only endurable, but necessary. The overcoat
may be removed on entering the well-warmed house, but no
discomfort follows from the retention of warm garments
that, with a summer condition of air of the same tempera-
ture would be oppressive. We sleep in rooms which, if
not warmed to the full heat of our living rooms, have yet
the “ temperate ” point of indication by the thermometer,
and in this case enjoy a pile of bed-clothing, which would
be suffocating in weather of the same natural temperature.
The A.merican requirement of comfortable drawing-room
clothing is strikingly different from that of England. The
ladies’ English drawing-room dress is an impossibility in
America. Even the rigorous laws of fashion fail to conform
themselves in this case, and yet our American drawing-
rooms are hotter than the English ones.

What proportion of the heat generated by formation of
carbonic acid to be dispersed from the body after taking out
what is abstracted by exhalation and by labour of work or
animal life is expended in vaporisation of water is of
course doubtful. Some authorities give 2 to 2J lbs. of
water to be evaporated each day by insensible perspiration.
These quantities would give (nearly) 2000 to 2500 units,
or i-J to if units of heat per minute, and, together with the

1878.]

to Health and Comfort.

199

quantity of heat dispersed in breathing (on the previous
supposition), account for one-half of the heat produced ;
leaving one-half the heat to be dispersed in work, life, or
conduction to air, or radiation to other bodies. These
authorities quoted are, however, English, and it is uncertain
what quantity of moisture is evaporated from the skin in
heated rooms in mid-winter in our climate.

It is probable that in still air, with the person in repose,
the transfer of heat, either from the person or the clothing,
whether from radiation or from conduction, is nearly equal ;
but in any current of air or movement of the individual
the effeCt of conduction will much exceed that from radia-
tion. It should be remembered, however, that a current of
air always exists about any person. The comfortable tem-
perature of the air being lower than that of the person,
there is established, by the heat imparted to the air by the
person, an ascensional current surrounding and enveloping
him, sufficiently defined to be measurable by a delicate ane-
mometer, which is effective in augmenting considerably the
conveCtion of heat over what would occur in entirely still
air. Assuming any comfortable temperature for air between
6o° to 8o°, the exhalations of breath, by virtue of extra tem-
perature and the presence of vapour to saturation, notwith-
standing the addition of some carbonic acid gas of greater
density than that of the air, are still so much lighter than
the air as to ascend at once after the directional impulse
from the mouth or nostrils will have expended itself, which,
when the aCt of breathing has its normal force, and is not
made violent by running or exertion, occurs within two
feet.

In all cases the sensibility to loss of heat, whether from
the breath as exhaled moisture or heated air, or from the
person as evaporation from the skin, or as conduction to
air, or by radiation to cooler objeCts, this sensibility, I say,
varies in the several regards with different persons, with
different races or nations, and, above all, with the habits
from business pursuits or occupations, or the customs or
fashions of the place of living ; any of which causes may
and will have established a regime in each individual, and
their comfort will depend upon conformity thereto. The
occupation, business, or habits of individuals as regards
their labour or exercise, both when at labour or exercise, or
when at rest, cause much discrepancy in demands for heat.
In the coldest and driest day, few young persons can fail to
warm themselves to the point of comfort in skating ; many
of the trades demand special temperatures for the workmen,

200

Relation of Moisture in Air

[April,

some requiring special temperature and moisture condition
of the air for the work, to which temperature and condition
the workmen must conform.

There are three means provided for the healthful disper-
sion of animal heat into the atmosphere ; the first is
radiation to surrounding colder objects; the second, con-
duction to the atmosphere, which, for comfort, must be
sensibly cooler than the body ; and the third is evaporation
from the moist surfaces of the lungs, throat, and the roots
of the pores of the skin. The first of these means, to the
clothed person at least, is comparatively ineffective, while
the relative quantities of heat which may be eliminated in
any given time or locality, by the two last, will probably be
found nearly equal in an atmosphere of about 70° tempera-
ture and 65 to 70 per cent, of humidity. In all cases of
excess of animal heat, the animal, and mankind as an
animal, find relief in evaporation of water secreted in the
system, showing that vaporisation is the ultimate means of
dispersion of heat.

Even the races of animals exhibit diversity of natural
methods of dispersing the surplus animal heat. Thus the
dog obtains relief through the breathing functions, and ex-
tends the surface of evaporation by exposure of the tongue,
while the horse breaks out into profuse perspiration of the
skin.

The relation of what is indicated by the sense of cold or
warm to definite temperature with varied proportions of
humidity may be examined at this stage of the argument.
Considering a nearly saturated atmosphere, it will be found
that its effects differ with the temperature altogether. Such
an atmosphere at from 35° to 50° is found to be intolerably
chilly, and although evaporation may be checked, and this
source of loss of heat be removed, yet the conductive and
radiating value of the vapour in the air is now elevated
enormously. The cooled surface of the cuticle absorbs the
natural heat of the skin, and represses the evaporation of
secretions almost entirely. An aCtual transfer of heat from
the skin to the vapour in contaCt with the surface occurs,
the superheated vapour no longer rushes away from the
skin in search of that vacuum, which is the accompaniment
of a usually low dew-point, but merely transfers its heat to
the next particle of cold vapour, which is packed in conve-
nient juxtaposition to receive it ; or else an aCtual move-
ment of the heated vapour effects a circulation or current
which brings a new cold particle to receive a new increment
of heat. In an atmosphere of this nature the exhaled

i87S.j

to Health and Comfort.

2ol

breath and the exhaust steam from the workshops evolve a
cloud of apparent vapour, which must condense in cooling
as the air absorbs its heat, for the saturation of the air for-
bids its absorption as an invisible gas. A Scotch mist of
36° (which is only a supersaturated air with vapour in excess
at a slightly higher temperature than the air) penetrates
clothing, and reaches every part of the person with distress-
ing frigidity.

Passing upwards in the scale of temperatures from 50° to
65°, the point of equilibrium of cooling aCtion by conduction
or radiation of vapour in the air, with supply of heat from
checked evaporation of the skin or lungs for attainment of
comfort, seems to be reached. Perhaps the most healthful,
or at least most stimulating, atmosphere for human breath-
ing is found within these limits, when of natural and con-
tinued existence, so that within and without the doors the
same condition exists, and the regime of the bodily system
is not disturbed from hour to hour. This, if not the ruling
climatic condition of English life, at least is the presumed
theoretic standard of English writers. Mental or physical
exercise alike, either separately or in conjunction, are sup-
ported by this condition of the atmosphere to an extent
which no inhabitant of the frigid north or enervating south
can imagine.

Some curious physiological phenomena accompany this
atmospheric condition, one of which is the possibility of use
of stimulants of the milder nature (wine and malt liquors),
in quantities which would be immoderate in our climate.
With the comparative cessation of cutaneous evaporation,
it seems as if aCfion of the alcoholic ingredient of the
liquors were much changed and rendered more stimulating
and less intoxicating.

From 63° to 8o° a saturated atmosphere is sultry and
oppressive. The surplusage of heat cannot be removed by
conduction, and the natural effort of the system is to induce
evaporation. The least physical effort produces, in the
healthy person, abundant sensible perspiration, and the
cooling effeCt of evaporation of a heated surface of water
into a cooler air is the natural remedy. The lassitude and
enervation of this step in the scale is eminently unfavourable
to mental as well as to physical labour.

Above 8o° a saturated air becomes burdensome ; it is even
questionable if life could be prolonged in a saturated air of
90° to ioo°, and it is certain that at some point, not much
above ioo°, suffocation would ensue when any exertion
should raise the animal heat above its normal degree. The

202

Relation of Moisture in Air

[April,

deaths in the Black Hole of Calcutta were the result of
excess of moisture, rather than of heat or want of air
per se. There are travellers’ tales of regions on the Red
Sea, and near the mouth of the Persian Gulf, where men
cannot breathe in summer for the heat combined with
moisture.

In the same way that the effedt of a nearly saturated
atmosphere has been examined, that of a very dry one may
be investigated. To the sense of feeling all air may be said
to be dry below 35°. The small amount of vapour present,
and possible to exist as vapour below this point, reduces the
conductivity so that the chilliness, to a great degree, disap-
pears, even in a saturated air. Yet even here the cold-
producing effedt of a high dew-point is felt in a wind, so
that from 150 to 350 the N.B. wind of our Eastern States is
a very raw one. But, on the other hand, with a dry air
from 40° below zero to the freezing-point, the immediate
sensation of cold by the aCtive man, well clad with porous
clothing, is yet endurable, and with habit becomes almost
pleasant. Still these temperatures are not those suited to
civilised life, either physical or mental. As has been before
noticed, we have in the Northern States about live months
of the year when the temperature ranges from o° to 50°, and
consequently when our civilised avocations demand artificial
heating. The winter climate of the Eastern, Northern, and
Middle States is one of great vicissitudes, with extremes,
both of temperature and of hygrometric conditions, following
each other rapidly. In the North-Western States it seems
that a somewhat greater uniformity of temperature and a
much more uniform hygrometry exist during the winter
months, but in the Middle Western States the irregularities
appear to be as frequent as in the Eastern States. Except
that the length of the winter season is a little cut short, and
the excessive cold is a little alleviated in the southern por-
tion of the belt of country I have designated, much the
same phenomena of climate exist all through the States
north of the 40th parallel of latitude. Throughout this
territory it has become recognised that the minimum tem-
perature of comfort for heated and ventilated rooms can be
stated at 70°, with an admitted — and generally supposed in-
explicable, if not unreasonable — demand for 750 to 78° in
some localities and at some times.

§. Ventilation means a supply of fresh air to the occu-
pants of a house, workshop, or meeting-room of any kind ;
and, as a final result, the quantity of such supply needed

1878.]

to Health and Comfort.

203

to attain the desired purity is from 40 to 60 cubic feet of air
for each person each minute, where the contents of the
rooms can be considered as furnishing a portion of the
supply when occupancy is only for a part of the time.
Much of the air may not be supplied through the heating
apparatus. In cold weather, when the levity of the heated
air within a building, compared with the colder air on the
outside, produces a great pressure of outer air near the
ground, the leakage of air at cracks of the door and
window-frames, at the top of the building, and its replace-
ment by colder air through similar apertures at the bottom,
furnish a much larger volume of air than is generally sup-
posed. The strong winds also seek such leaks. Some
permeability of walls, even of boards well painted, is avail-
able for the diffusion of vapour and of gases in a measure.
So that the proper quantity of air to be supplied by an
apparatus becomes a question to be considered, in each in-
stance, on its own merits. But the fadt still remains, that
for each adult or child in health, 40 to 60 cubic feet of fresh
air must be estimated as provided, either by arrangement or
surreptitiously, for each minute they may occupy a room or
place, although not necessarily during each minute of the
day and night. This fresh air must be derived from out of
doors.

Accept, for the sake of argument, the average temperature
and dew-point of Philadelphia, in January, February, and
March, of 1844, as reported in Prof. Bache’s meteorological
and magnetic observations. The mean temperature of
those three months was 340, with an average dew-point of
250 ; barometer 30 inches, from hourly observations, giving
68*8 per cent of saturation. Using Guyot’s Psychrometrical
Tables, Regnault’s data, 1*57 grains of aqueous vapour
exist in a cubic foot of such air. These, in Philadelphia, at
this season, are the unquestioned properties of the air from
which is to be furnished the fresh air of ventilation. If
heated to 70° without increment of moisture, the dew-point
remains unchanged, and the same 1*57 grains of moisture
appertain to the enlarged volume of air, now increased
8*2 per cent by expansion. The hygrometric condition of
this air is but 1*44 grains per cubic foot, or but 18 per cent
of saturation. The summer hygrometric condition of air
can be derived from the same source. The three months of
July, August, and September give 710 average temperature,
with 6o° dew-point, or 68*3 per cent of saturation. Suppose
we take the 68*3 per cent, and consider it the proper condi-
tion for the air of ventilation at 70° ; it then follows that

204

Relation of M oisture in A ir

[April,

5*46 grains of moisture should accompany each cubic foot
of air in winter. One more step in calculation, and I have
done. A cubic foot of air at 70° weighs 0*074 lb., and if it
has been elevated in temperature from 340 or 36°, then
0*635 unit of heat will have been expended in warming the
air. Again, if the amount of moisture present in this
cubic foot of air has been increased from 1*44 grains to
5*46 grains = 4*02 grains, then 0*612 unit of heat will have
been expended in evaporation of water to supply the moisture
to vaporise the air. The quantity of heat for warming
very nearly corresponds with the quantity of heat for
vaporisation ! The tension of vapour of the external air
at 340, with 250 dew-point, is 0*155 inch of mercury ; that
at 70°, with 590 dew-point, is 0*515 inch of mercury. It
follows that the pressure tending to diffuse the aqueous
vapour from the “ hydrated ” room to the external air
would be 0*365 inch of mercury. The vapour itself, within
the room at the same time, possesses but i-qSth the tension
of that of the air present, and hence, as it is endeavouring
to escape under the pressure of about 25 lbs. per square
foot (which corresponds to the 0*365 inch of mercury
column), it becomes evident that it would diffuse through
cracks, outlets, and even through the passages for supply of
fresh air, with great rapidity, and that this ratio of satura-
tion is practically impossible to maintain in any ventilated
room, or even in any room whatever, as ordinarily enclosed
and built.

These estimates and considerations show fairly what
would result from the attempt to produce an artificial sum-
mer climate in the houses of our Northern States in winter ;
but while the futility of the effort in its complete accom-
plishment is made evident by them, it by no means follows
that some degree of hydration of warmed air is not the
requisite of health or of comfort, and the question recurs — •
What proportionate hydration is needed for these ends ?

§. It is with some reluctance that I refer to the “ Theory
of Ventilation.” The past eighty years have witnessed the
growth of chemical science, which, after passing through
numerous stages of development, as witnessed by the dif-
ferent nomenclatures, has finally reached the point that only
the chemists of continual study can comprehend it, and at
which point he who knows most about it is the least satis-
fied with its present condition.

But thirty or forty years since chemistry was supposed to
have unlocked the mysteries of matter, and, by the extension

1878.]

to Health and Comfort.

205

of the simple rules applicable to the gaseous and metallic
elements, it was thought that the cause of disease or health
was to be discovered. Careful observers then examined,
from the chemical standpoint, the constitution of the air,
both fresh and vitiated ; and writers, with good logical con-
clusions, enunciated a theory , b}' which it was made evident
that chemistry had uncovered the root of disease, and car-
bonic acid gas was the fatal cause.

The real fads are these : — An adult in still life inhales
each minute about 480 cubic inches of fresh air, and exhales
488 cubic inches of vitiated air, of which vitiated air about
4 per cent is carbonic acid, and from which about 19 per
cent of the oxygen originally supplied by the fresh air has
been abstraded ; the original quantity of vapour in the
fresh air at mean temperature and hygrometric condition
(62° and 65 per cent) will have been increased from ri to
3* 08 grains.

Carbonic acid gas was made the scapegoat. It killed
dogs at the Grotto del Cane, as was happily exhibited to
numerous travellers in Italy at that time — and both before
and since, the same unfortunate dog serving to be killed, to
the satisfadion of admirers, that had been resuscitated the
day before, after the visitors’ backs were turned. It was
heavier than air, and in some conditions of temperature
would not so readily diffuse, but form a layer of distind gas,
like water beneath oil. Altogether it answered the condi-
tions of hypotheses, and it was decided to be vile, delete-
rious, poisonous. To be sure we devoured it in bread, and
drank it in beer or aerated waters, but then the poison was
to the lungs, not to the stomach ! This theory found pro-
mulgators in the ledure-rooms and advocates in the house-
hold thirty years ago, and has become to-day the traditional
belief of the middle-aged and elderly. If a room is hot or
close from excess of temperature, or from a crowd of occu-
pants, carbonic acid gas is the difficulty ; if malaria is deve-
loped in a jail or hospital, or typhus or scarlet fever exist in
the dwelling, carbonic acid gas in excess is the poison.
“ The gas is heavier than air, and must necessarily sink to
the floor, where all the air of vitiation will be found.”
These notions continue to have advocates and supporters to
the present time, and the popular ledurer or writer gives a
half assent to them to secure the favourable opinion of
audiences or readers. But step by step, during the past
thirty years, it has come to be perceived that the causes of
disease are not to be found with organic matter, and car-
bonic acid has been removed from its elevated place in

206

Relation of Moisture in Air

[April,

ventilation, with the fullest admissions that in the quantities
ever present in the living rooms, except by accident, it is
quite harmless ; and, finally, its presence has been accepted
as merely a measure of other more dangerous vitiations, in
that as it is a definite product of respiration, and as the
proportion present in any room, at a given moment, can be
ascertained with tolerable exactness, an indication can be
derived thereby of the extent of organic vitiation with some
degree of certainty.

The unquestioned theory of malaria, the meaning of
which word can be extended to embrace diseases arising
from deficient or defective ventilation, to-day, is organic
vitiation, and the probability of this theory holding its place
in future is, I think, a very fair one. The exhaled and
exuded vapour from the human body is known to be laden
with organic matter : much of this organic matter is within
the range of the microscope, by means of which the local
derivation of many particles can be determined ; but some
of it is in the form of effluvia and odours, which pass the
limits of visual observation in the smallness of the atoms,
notwithstanding such effluvia or odours are decidedly per-
ceptible to the sense of smell. With a dry external atmo-
sphere and a reasonably free ventilation the exuded vapour
and the organic matter pass away, or are diffused as rapidly
as supplied. It should he remarked that the organic matter
appears mainly to he in connection with the vapour in the air, and
not to exist as a separate gas, diffused in the dry air when the
vapour is removed hy natural causes. With an imperfedf or
insufficient ventilation the upper parts of rooms become
filled with air, which will be found to contain a much larger
proportion of moisture than the lower portions, and wall be
shortly found to be exceedingly offensive from the rapid de-
composition which the exuded organic matter undergoes in
a moist air. This will happen more frequently when the
internal and external temperatures are about the same, and
when it is so cold, raw, or windy as to require closed doors
and windows, with only a small addition of heat, and when
with these conditions the natural dew-point is high. These
circumstances are in concurrence frequently in England,
wEere probably 120 days out of 365 call for but small addi-
tion of heat in rooms, while they rarely exist with us, the
climate of our northern United State not giving 30 days in
any year of similar kind. The objedfion of effluvia, which
forms the distindfive one in audience-rooms in England, and
is so noticeable to the American visitor of such rooms, is
replaced in our halls by a simple sense of oppression — a

i878.i

to Health and Comfort.

207

mere feeling of discomfort — which, on the other hand, is
particularly noticeable to the English visitor of our halls,
who is apt to associate it with a supposed excess of heat.

But this organic matter of exhalation is still one step re-
moved from malaria ; it is only the ground of malaria — the
soil on which a malarial growth .will propagate ; its decom-
position is held to supply the means of fecundity to the germs
of disease. In the warm air confined in the upper parts of
rooms, with excess of moisture, it may undergo a rapid and
somewhat foetid decomposition ; under such circumstances
it is found to become offensive in six to ten minutes. With
a smaller proportion of moisture, or when it is rapidly ab-
sorbed with the moisture by diffusion into air of American
dryness, it does not decompose so rapidly, but is likely to be
absorbed by any hygroscopic substance the air containing it
may come in contact with. The walls of rooms — especially
the porous plastering, stone, o*r bricks, and possibly the
papered and painted walls — will take up the excess of
moisture with its organisms, and give up at another time,
wholly or in part, the moisture without them. There is a
characteristic smell of walls of kitchens, cabinets, hospitals,
jails, court-rooms, and similar permanently occupied places,
which can be developed in intensity by simply holding the
half-closed warm hand against the face of the wall, and
testing the result by the sense of smell of the hand. In
such instances of retention of the results of imperfect
ventilation, the eventual propagation of disease is a certain
one.

To the vegetable and lower animal growth the presence
of moisture in the air seems a positive necessity ; where it
is absent the}' perish, or at least no longer grow or propa-
gate. The drinking animal apparently suffers the least of
injury and but little discomfort in the dryness of the air, of
whatever temperature. The immunity from disease to the
human race which accompanies the drier regions of the
earth has been frequently remarked, and the fadt meets
general assent. The discomfort of the colder countries,
even to the limits of the arCtic regions, is one of cold, not
of absence of moisture. The assertion of relative insensi-
bility to cold air devoid of moisture is the common report of
all travellers in such regions, while the dreaded malarial
diseases of more genial lands do not exist in them at all.
In the temperate zone, in countries or localities which
possess the driest of atmospheres, with the least variation
of hygrometric condition, mankind is most free from disease
of all descriptions. The elevated dry and barren lands of

208

Relation of Moisture in Air

[April,

our midland country, from Minnesota southwardly, are the
healthiest regions of the United States ; and where, together
with the dry atmosphere, some uniformity of temperature
exists, as in Mexico, — where the height above the level of
the sea reduces the sensible heat of the air which is usually
found in that latitude to a comfortable one, — there we have
the acknowledged climate of utmost healthfulness. Going
into more torrid lands, the dryness of the air alleviates the
heat of the deserts of Arabia, and of Africa, of Peru, and
Bolivia, where the temperature rises at times to iio° or even
120° in the shade. I have the assertion of a friend that on
a hot day, with the thermometer nearly ioo°, he has known
the wind on the Arabian Desert to be searchingly cold, when
everything was shrivelling up for want of moisture. My
attention was called by Dr. j. S. Billings to the following
extract of his Report on the Hygiene of the U.S. Army in
3:875 : — “ Description of military posts, Fort Yuma, Cali-
fornia. Reports of Asst. -Surgeons Lauderdale and Ross,
U.S. A. After describing the locality of the post, near the
junction of the Giler and Colorado Rivers, they say : —
‘ The heat increases rapidly from the latter part of May,
and in June, July, August, and September may be said to
be intense. . . . During the months of April, May, and
June no rain falls ; then, with the thermometer at 105°, the
perspiration is scarcely seen upon the skin, and it becomes
dry and hard, and the hair crispy, and furniture falls to
pieces, . . . ink dries so rapidly upon the pen that it re-
quires washing off every few minutes. ... A No, 2. Faber’s
pencil leaves no more trace on paper than a piece of anthra-
cite, and it is necessary to keep one immersed in water
while using one that has been standing in water some time.
Newspapers require to be handled with care ; if rudely
handled they break. Twelve pound boxes of soap, when
re-weighed, gave but ten pounds. Hams had lost 12 per
cent and rice 2 per cent of original weight. Eggs that have
been on hand for a few weeks lose their watery contents
by evaporation ; the remainder is tough and hard ; this
has probably led to the story that our hens lay hard boiled
eggs.

“ 4 The mercury gained its highest point last summer on
the 2nd day of July, when for two hours it stood at 1130 in
the shade. All metallic bodies were hot to the touch ; my
watch felt like a hot boiled egg in my pocket. . . .

“ ‘ This post, although not the most southerly, is the
hottest military post in the United States: the highest
temperature recorded on our books since 1850, when the

209

1878.] t° Health and Comfort .

post was established, is ng°, observed at 2.25 p.m.,
June 16th, 1859. A temperature of ioo° may exist at Fort
Yuma for weeks in succession, and there will be no addi-
tional cases of sickness in consequence. . . . We have none
of the malarial diseases. . . . No ice is formed at anytime;
29° has been indicated by a registering thermometer, in
January, 1872. The mean temperature, day and night, of
January, however, is 57°; that of July is 950. The average
rainfall during four years was a litttle over 2 inches each
year.’ ”

Any who wish to corroborate or question these views as
to the healthiness or unhealthiness of dry air, hot or cold,
can examine authorities, or investigate or observe for them-
selves ; the conclusions they will reach can be confidently
anticipated. But the proof or argument cannot be further
extended in this paper, and it must be claimed that there
exist good grounds to believe that dry air, per se, of what-
ever temperature it may be found on the surface of the
earth, is not unhealthy ; that, as regards disease, such air
possesses both preventive and curative qualities of great
value ; and that on the other hand, moist air, such as pro-
motes vegetable growth, is not desirable for breathing, on
sanitary grounds. Asserting these views, the question nar-
rows down to — Given a habitat or place of residence, where
some degree of moisture and vegetation does thrive for a
portion of the year at least, what effect on the system do
the variations of moisture produce, from season to season,
from day to day, and during such of the seasons as the
comfort of inhabitants may call for artificial warmth, from
one place to another on the same day ?

§. Clothing, houses, and fires are the means by which
mankind is enabled to inhabit the face of the earth. It is
an artificial existence for an animal whose natural life would
otherwise be limited to a small belt of the torrid zone, where
the temperature never falls below about 8o° nor rises above
ioo°. As residents of the northern United States we cannot
expeCt to avoid, and do not expeCt to ameliorate, the vicissi-
tudes of climate out of doors. Hot or cold, rainy or dry,
with air relatively humid or otherwise, life in all countries
means endurance under artificial guards or protections from
natural inclemencies. We clothe ourselves by the umbrella
on the one hand, or the great coat on the other ; open or
close our doors ; induce cool breezes, or gather around fires,
in search of the comfortable uniform loss of heat by the
system. The efforts to accomplish this end, by means of

VOL. vm. (n.s.) * p

210

Relation of Moisture in Air

[April,

change of temperature or relative moisture of the air, are of
necessity confined to the cold, or at least cool, season, with
infrequent attempts to obtain an artificial degree of cold in
extreme hot weather. In moderate weather the vicissitudes
of temperature, and of humid condition of the air, are en-
dured with the expression of discomfort and the tacit
admission, on all hands, that our great day-by-day varia-
tions of the mild season are harmful to the feeble or sickly.
But these daily changes of temperature and of hygrometric
condition are of small account with those which in the
Northern States accompany the season of cold. The change
of climate from that which accompanies, during any of the
winter months, our warm south winds, to that which accom-
panies a great north-western wind-wave, which may follow
the southerly breeze within twelve hours, — a change from
50° to 6o°, with 80 per cent saturation, to even below zero,
with an unascertainable dew-point, — such a change is trying
in the extreme. The prevalent disease of the land is con-
sumption of the lungs, and these changes are disastrous to
those who are suffering from this complaint, and to the
healthy these changes are held to be fraught with danger.

§. A very simple and commonplace observation will make
the general condition of air in rooms in winter, as regards
humidity, the subject of positive demonstration. During
the season of winter in our climate, after a continued spell
of cold weather, the exhibition of condensed moisture or of
frost on the window-panes is very infrequent. The usual
provision of glass in windows throughout the northern
United States is in single thickness, not double plates ; the
latter arrangement being decidedly exceptional as a means
of preventing transfer and loss of heat at the windows.
The temperature of a pane of glass which is interposed
between two temperatures of still air — that is, of air devoid
of currents, except those generated by the differences of
temperatures of the air on either side and the glass — is ob-
viously that of a mean between the said two temperatures
of air. With so good a conductor as glass, and with plates
as thin as ordinary window-glass, the conductivity of the
glass may be assumed to be perfect, and both sides of a
pane can be deemed to have the same mean temperature.
But the temperature of the air on each side of a pane
differs from either that of the external air on the one side,
or of the room on the other. On the outside, the layer of
cold air in contaCt with the pane ascends slowly as it is
heated, and the vacuity which is formed at the bottom of a

to Health and Comfort .

2IX

1878.]

pane is supplied by fresh cold air, so that the layer at this
point approximates to the temperature of the outer air
closely. On the inside, the layer of warm air in contadt
with the pane descends as it is cooled, having, perhaps, an
approximation to the inside temperature at the top of the
pane, hut by the time the layer has flown downwards to the
bottom of the pane its temperature will have become mate-
rially lower than that of air of the room generally. So
that while the law of mean temperature of the pane at the
bottom of the pane is yet good, the real temperature may
he much lower than a simple mean between thermometers
hung in the room and out of doors. Beside the supposition
of still air, much allowance must he made for the effedt of
winter winds in accelerating the flow of cold air on the out-
side of the pane until the outer layer is very nearly of
uniform coldness, which favours the greater abstraction of
heat from the internal descending current, and cools down
the lower part of the pane still further. Curtains, shades,
or internal blinds, while they aid in protecting the room
from loss of heat, also protect the glass from acquiring the
temperature due to the heat of the room. Until with the
supposed case of external air at io° above zero, and a mode-
rate wind out of doors, and of a room warmed to 750 inside,
the temperature of the panes near the bottom, or even well
up their height, will he much below 42J0 as the mean ; and
270 to 28° may fairly he taken as giving the real temperature
near the bottom. This pane of glass becomes, then, a dew-
point thermometer at all times in the winter, ready for
indicating the humidity in the air. Except, however, a
crowd of people, or some artificial “ hydration ” carried
possibly to momentary excess under the stimulus of the last
theoriser, or a very new house, or a damp cellar in an old
one, we but rarely see any indication of presence of moisture
in our dwellings in cold weather. This simple test will
show that our dwellings, although the water-troughs of the
hot-air furnaces do supply limited quantities of vapour with
admitted comfort, do not, as a rule, have over 30 to 40 per
cent of humidity in the air within them.

The entire range of our Atlantic coast is only removed
from a region of perpetual spring from 200 to 500 miles ;
and a south-east wind, from December to April, may bring
a vapour-laden air, which, in a few hours, will have changed
our frigid winter to a genial spring. The succeeding wave
of north-west winds — a great current which the Signal
Service has traced up to the Ardtic regions — may, with
great violence, restore the winter with all its rigour, within

P 2

213 Relation of Moisture in Air [April,

another few hours. Under this change heavily-frosted win-
dows become the rule, and they indicate a dew-point above
the temperature of the panes of glass, at once. So dry and
arid are these winds, however, that with the continuance of
a north-west wind for a single day all traces of window-
frosting will have disappeared.

This test of the dew-point by the window is very accurate.
As an instance I will quote that on one day in this present
month, in Philadelphia, with the thermometer in-doors at
64°, without fire, a fall of temperature to 540 outside, pro-
duced immediate condensation on windows, showing 750 to
8o° of humidity. Now if a difference of only io° produces
this indication for humid air, the want of such an indication
with difference of up to 65° must manifestly be a very dry
air. By aCtual trial in well-warmed and ventilated rooms,
the writer has found the dew-point far below the freezing-
point of water, in rooms where the sensation of dryness,
which is held to accompany the heat of the furnace when
not supplied with water for evaporation, certainly did not
exist.

It is proper, when alluding to the dampness of houses, to
advert to one of the most striking differences between
England and Western Europe and the northern United
States, in the necessities which climate imposes in the rela-
tion of humidity in air to the health, in this particular
regard. We find all foreign authors speaking in unequivocal
language of the great danger of inhabiting a newly-built
and consequently imperfectly dried house. One English
writer, whose name I cannot recall, but I remember to have
been of much eminence, asserted that no house ought to be
occupied until a year after completion. Many writers on
ventilation join in estimating by figures the quantity of
moisture in the new walls, and demonstrate the dangers of a
residence where the excess of moisture in the air, the want
of permeability of the walls, and the increase of conductivity
of heat through the damp walls, will have produced such a
tomb-like house. While in America we are fully alive to
the danger in the house, from air overladen with moisture,
as from a damp cellar or location in a damp place or vicinity,
and appreciate that rheumatism and consumption, with
scarlet fever for the children in winter, when the house is
thoroughly warmed, and typhus for adults in mild weather,
are the possible, if not probable, penalties for living in such
a house ; yet the new house, from its inherent dampness,
only is considered at least as but objectionable in a small
degree. Except that dampness exists from other sources

to Health and Comfort.

213

1878.]

than that which comes from the walls, our new houses are
quite as healthy during the first year, or the first season's
occupation, as afterwards. No preliminary drying out is
needed as a rule. Our summers or winters are dry enough
to take up all the moisture which wails may give, without
overlading the air with humidity ; although it is noticeable
that new houses require more fuel to warm them the first
winter than afterwards, as the supply of heat must be suffi-
cient to evaporate an excess of moisture, and the conductivity
of the walls is somewhat greater before they are thoroughly
dried out. Few dwellings are completed for occupancy at
the end of winter or of summer — residence generally begins
with the beginning of summer or of winter, and the seasons
when the dampness of walls would be dangerous from the
existence of a humid air are not those when new houses are
generally first occupied.

§. Although not direCtly related to the subject, I will
mention here one curious demonstration of the effeCt of
atmospheric humidity and impurity which is peculiar and
common in England. All American readers or observers
become aware of the great importance attached by the
English public, as a people, as writers, and as a govern-
ment, to the relative purity of illuminating gas ; but it is
not generally known, or even asserted, that the cause in
England which makes the impurities of gas obvious, and
renders them seriously objectionable, is to be found in the
air of the room, and not alone or even mainly in the gas
itself. The sense of oppression from the burning of gas in
dwellings in England is one that can be appreciated only by
being felt ; any description fails to convey to the mind of
the untravelled American the burden on the breathing func-
tions which results from gas burning in a humid and impure
air. It is enough to say that throughout England gas-
lighting is regarded as only suitable for shops, work-rooms,
warehouses, public rooms, and such other places, within or
without of doors, as demand light for passengers, rather
than for occupants. When halls are lighted by gas, the
chandeliers (“ gasoliers ” is the English word) and bracket
lights are not considered to be well arranged unless “venti-
lated in other words, provided with especial means — air-
passages or outlets — for removal of the gases of combus-
tion, with the accompaniment of a volume of heated air.
The dwellings — dining and drawing rooms, passages, and
chambers — of the more wealthy are lighted nearly uni-
versally by candles of wax, sperm, or some prepared fatty

214

Relation of Moisture in Air

[April,

substance, either animal, vegetable or mineral, with the
occasional or frequent use of the carcel-lamp as a table
light. From any English gas-light there arises a current of
impurities, which in a brief space of time discolours and
coats with black the interior of the ventilating tubes, or, in
absence of such protestors, the canopies of glass or metal
which are usually supplied for unventilated burners ; or
when this last protection is wanting, the ceiling, even when
several feet above the burner, is quickly marked by a halo of
greasy soot, which adheres to it where the ascending current
impinges.

The heat emanating from a gas-burner, as compared to
that from a number of candles giving the same amount of
light, is very nearly the same, about 7 per cent more heat
being given out by the candles ; but the fourteen to sixteen
candles, which represent the single gas-burner, will have
been dispersed about a room, or even when grouped in threes
or sevens — as usual in sconces, candelabra, or chandeliers —
will be spread widely asunder, so that the current proceeding
upwards from each separate candle will have become diffused
before reaching the ceiling; and, if the candles give out the
same impurities (which they do not) as the gas-burners, the
obvious impurities which make a mark will not be precipi-
tated to show themselves as spots. Besides this, a room
lighted by candles will be considered brilliantly illuminated
by three or four candles, where one gas-burner would have
been used ; so that one-fourth the quantity of light will be
made to suffice with candle illumination, to what is requisite
for gas lighting. The numerous candles come in proximity
to the objects to be lighted, while the gas-burner, with its
volume of light and of heat, must be further removed to be
tolerable, and there is an adtual requirement for more light
from the latter than the former source to give the same
effedt in the room. The other substitute for the gas-burner,
the carcel-lamp, is frequently used in England as the centre-
piece, singly or in numbers, of the tables in the dining-room,
drawing-room, or library. Its illuminating power is about
two-thirds that of a gas-burner, and the quantity of heat
given out bears very nearly the same relation, — that is, the
heat from a carcel-lamp is about two-thirds that from a
single gas-burner of fourteen to sixteen candle-power. As
the carcel-lamp is movable in a room, and is usually placed
low down, the chance of the current of air proceeding from
it defacing the ceiling is much less than from a fixed gas-
burner, in its usual position of height from the floor.

What may be the exadt physical or chemical conditions

1 878.]

to Health and Comfort.

215

accompanying the manifestation of bad gas in England
might call for a long discussion in reply. It can be said at
once that the indications on the ceilings are almost entirely
those of atmospheric impurities and condensation of water.
Soot, dust, and organic matter in suspension in a saturated
humid air— wherein the humidity is the vehicle which car-
ries these substances, and is not free to disperse them from
the general saturation — will be and are deposited on the
first objeCt of cooling and contact. This view of the case
is not a mere guess. The faCt that there is a general dis-
coloration of ceilings from gas-burners in England, as con-
trasted with those of the Continent, where the air is uni-
formly a little more dry, and where the use of bituminous
coal is unknown, so that its particles of carbon dust do not
form a part of the common impurities of the air; and also
as contrasted with the ceilings in this country; this fadt is
certain, and from it the connection of pure air with the
cleanliness of gas burning is made evident. While English
gas is much more carefully purified and treated than any in
the world, the standard of its excellence is not only the
highest, but it is made strictly up to this standard. Yet
any sulphurous or sulphuric acids which emanate from gas
lights are at once absorbed by the vapour present, and if
the atmospheric condition does not facilitate the diffusion of
this vapour, these acids are retained in the ascending
column to exert their energies on the objects of first con-
tact, and afterwards retained in the room to act generally
on any sulphur absorbent, colours or materials, as they do
in England and do not in this country. It is probable in
our climate, and in that of the Continent, much of the
humidity of combustion, and of the deleterious gases,
either evolved by or inherent to the illuminating gas, as
well as the organic impurities, dust or soot, in the air burnt
or heated by the aCt of burning, is diffused at once into the
tenuous vapour of the surrounding air. Not only before
passing four or five feet from the burner, so that no conden-
sation takes place on the ceiling, but also so thoroughly
diffused as to prevent, in great degree, those chemical
actions which prove so objectionable from the burning of
the best purified coal gas in England.

§ It has been shown how nearly impracticable it is to
procure in winter, with the average temperature of winter,
which is 340, a summer temperature and humidity in our
houses. The difficulties of effecting this with 340 for the
temperature of the external air are enhanced greatly as the

2l6

Relation of Moisture in Air

[April,

minimums of cold are reached, and at zero the production
of a summer air in a house or place of residence may be
claimed to be impossible. If the effect of the changes of
out-of-door temperatures and humidities, which can happen
with, at the worst, eight to twelve hours of change, and
which on the average gives twenty-four to seventy-two
hours of interval, is as objectionable, what words can ex-
press the effeCt of the mere passing from a room at summer
humid warmth to the open anhydrous air at zero ? There
are few readers of this paper who have not tried the expe-
riment of leaving some crowded hall, where the closed doors
and windows and many breaths had made an approach to
the summer condition, and felt the cold air of winter at the
bottom of the lungs, as the inactive membrane parted with
its unexpected supply of moisture to the anhydrous air. At
whatever temperature or moisture condition air be inhaled,
it will be exhaled at 90°, and laden with moisture nearly to
the point of saturation. Of the heat given out by the
lungs, that which proceeds from evaporation is generally
largely in excess of what is required to impart heat to the
air. Even in the extreme case of breathing air at — 40° (or
the temperature when mercury freezes, which the writer
once observed at Vassalborough, Maine), the heat of evapo-
ration of moisture from the lungs is but a little greater
than that for heating the air, being 2*22 units in one case
to 2*18 units in the other, per cubic foot of exhaled air.
The skin gives out its heat through insensible perspiration,
or through heat imparted to air in similar, if not the same,
proportion.

The establishment of a regime of evaporation from the lungs
or skin— of a constancy of secretions- — appears to be more essential
than the establishment of a uniform temperature , either of the air of
respiration or of contact with the person. The stability of the
moisture condition, whether in the external air from time to
time, or between inside and outside of the room, is what is
desirable for health ; and this stability, from inside to out-
side of room, is what we must maintain if we are to live in
aCtive, healthful life in our climate. The transfer of heat
through the skin or membranes is merely conductive, not
involving organic aCtion ; while the supply of moisture
incident to the maintaining of evaporation brings into
service vessels, duCts, or pores, whose healthful aCtion de-
pends in great measure on the regularity and continuity of
the said service. This hypothesis will explain at once the
healthfulness of the climate of Florida or that of Minnesota
in cases of pulmonary disease, and in other parts of the

217

1878.] to Health and Comjort.

country will account for the prevalence of colds and coughs
or the occurrence of rheumatic affections. The diseases of
the changeable climate and water-laden winds of our colder
Eastern States are bronchial and pulmonary ; and, without
desiring to entrench on the province of the medical profes-
sion, whose known duty at all times it has been to find the
cause of disease) it may be safe to attribute them, to a
great extent, to the effedt of alternate dry and damp air on
the evaporating surface of the lungs when the skin has the
protection of clothing to keep it warm. The disease of
the warmer mountain-sides of our Middle States are rheu-
matic, and may be attributed to the same cause operating,
by warm currents of air, on the less unprotected skin.

Beside this view, it can be averred that, for the resident
or native of any country, there will have established as a
habit a connection of moisture of air relative to its tempe-
rature which is national, so to speak, in which the variations
of humidity and heat are accepted as a general average.
Thus, the American in England is chilled to great discom-
fort by the low temperature endured by Englishmen, whose
systematic evaporation provides for small loss of heat ;
while the Englishman in America finds a suffocating heat
in the dwelling of the American, from the faCt that his
lungs and skin do not afford the moisture requisite for
evaporation and consequent dispersion of heat. A long
residence, often two or more years, is needed before the
system of either is adapted to the novel condition.

§. Although somewhat late in the course of this argument,
and perhaps somewhat elementary as information, it may
be well to state the physical laws of the relation of moisture
to air. The property of water is to possess in contaCt with
itself, at any and all temperatures, from the boiling-point
downwards, an atmosphere of vapour, which vapour has an
elastic force, or exerts a pressure bearing some definite
relation to the sensible temperature of the water and of
itself. The English measures of this elastic force are gene-
rally expressed in inches of height of a mercury column, in
the same way as shown by an English barometer, which of
course applies to any unit of surface, and may be
transformed to pressure in pounds per square inch or
square foot, by a similar process to what we use for
atmospheric pressures. According to Regnault (as quoted
in Guyot’s tables), some of the elastic forces are as
follows

218

Relation of Moisture in Air

[April,

Degrees Fahrenheit.

' ' — N

— 30 — 20 — 10 0 10 20 32 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 212

o*oog2 0 0163 0*0270 0*0434 0*0684 0*1078 o*i8ii 0*2476 0*3608 0*5179 0*7329 1*0232 1*4097 1*9179 2*9922

' 1 •

Inches of Mercury Column.

From which it will be seen that the elastic force falls off
rapidly with the temperature. At any given temperature
vapour, possessing the above value of elastic force, exists
in the atmosphere as a part of its volume, whenever there is
water present to supply it, and such an atmosphere is said to
be saturated. When there is not sufficient water at hand
to supply the vapour due to the temperature, what there is
of vapour in the air is slightly superheated, as it accepts
the temperature of the air and not that of its tension, but
this effedt is so small that it may be negledted. The air is
then said to be dry ; the usual way of estimating such dry-
ness is by naming the percentage of vapour present to that
which would fully saturate the air at a given temperature.
Dry air seeks moisture from any source, and the difference of
elastic forces, between that of the vapour in the air at anytime,
and that of saturation of the same air, represents the avidity
for moisture of such dry air as a species of partial vacuum.

Now, the quantity of moisture as vapour accompanying
a given quantity of air is neither increased nor diminished in
the same air by heating or cooling it (of course, in the
latter case to the temperature when the air is saturated,
below which point the moisture condenses). Hence it does
not matter, so far as moisture is concerned, at what degree
of heat we introduce the air for warming a room ; if only
the final temperature of the room be 70° or 8o°, then the
drying effedt of the air of that room upon the persons
occupying it, or its furniture, or its materials of construc-
tion, is that due to air of 70° or 8o°, which air shall contain
only the normal moisture of supply. In other words, our
hot air furnaces which supply air at 150° to 200° do not
(except, perhaps, close to the mouths of supply, before the
heat is distributed) dry up wood-work or absorb any more
moisture from the persons occupying a room any more
than do currents at 8o° or go°, provided the general tempe-
rature of the room is the same in both cases. But a yet
more important truism can be stated, which is that the
drying effedt of air of a ventilated room at 70° or 8o° which
has received no increase of humidity in the hot air of ven-
tilation from out of doors — air that has been warmed arti-
ficially from zero, let us say— the drying effedt of this
heated air upon a person occupying it is very nearly the

to Health and Comfort .

219

1878.]

same as if he or she were to maintain the same temperature
through active exercise and warm clothing out of doors.
The exception expressed by “ very nearly ” relates to the
clad portion of the body — the obstacle presented by the
clothing to the free diffusion of aqueous vapour is more
effective between the cold air which is but little warmed to
demand moisture, and the skin which will give it out if the
vacuum demands it, than between the arid air of the room,
which takes up every particle of moisture as it transpires
through the clothing. As regards loss of moisture from
the throat or lungs, however, there is absolutely no differ-
ence in breathing the air of the supposed room and that
which is then found out of doors, although the one be at
70° to 8o° and the other at zero ; reiterating the former
statement : — “ In either case the exhaled breath is at 90° as
it passes out from the nostrils or lips, and is saturated or
nearly saturated with moisture.” No one ventures to assert
that it is unhealthy, as an aCt of breathing, for the human
race to breathe freely the coldest dry air of winter, because
of the supplying of moisture to the anhydrous air. There
is an evident fallacy in the assumption that it can be
healthy to check instantly that copious secretion which has
been supplying moisture to the fresh cold air of zero, by
going into a room of summer hygrometric condition, or to
demand such an effort of the tissue of the lungs suddenly
by leaving such a room for the outer air. Fortunately,
Nature is more lenient than the theorists, and we do not
get 70° to 8o° with 70 per cent, of saturation in the most
unventilated or uncomfortably heated houses, and with all
efforts to the contrary, even 40 per cent, is of unusual
attainment when the external air has a temperature of zero.

It must be admitted, however, that some small degree of
hydration is a necessity for comfort, and, with comfort for a
demand, some reason may be found to establish the health-
fulness of the small supply. It is certain from all experience
that from 5 to 10 per cent, of moisture can be added to air
after it is heated, certainly with much relief, especially to
the eyes, with apparently little harm, although such addition
may make the occupant of a heated room a little delicate
as to out-door exposure. Moisture may to some small
extent be abstracted by the means of heating, especially
when the heating is by stoves or hot-air furnaces ; at all
events, the presence of a sheet or surface of water over
which the heated air is allowed to pass is now a recognised
means of supplying a small quantity of aqueous vapour to
air of ventilation. But the quantity supplied in this way is

220

Relation of Moisture in Air

[April,

very small in comparison with what is needed for complete
“ hydration,” or even for what can be denominated “ hydra-
tion ” at all in the sense of a summer condition. From an
estimate based on several winters’ experience, a vaporisa-
tion of water which supplied a half grain of vapour per
cubic foot of air introduced, when an increment of four to
six grains for the same volume of air would be requisite to
get the summer condition of humidity corresponding to the
internal temperature, has proved sufficient to give a sensibly
pleasant air, while the absence of this supply was at once per-
ceptible in the house. A low pressure hot-water apparatus,
whose temperature never reached the boiling-point, and
rarely exceeded i8o°, giving heat to a large volume of fresh
air, which, at the mouths of supply to the rooms, was not
much above go° at any time, was the source of heat.

§. It is very difficult to find any hypothesis which will
account for this requirement of a small supply of vapour
with heated air when we admit, or can demonstrate, that
the sufficient quantity to the senses is so far below what is
needed for hydration, and so independent from the moisture
condition of the air; for nearly the same small quantity of
vaporisation seems desirable in air heated from any tempe-
rature. The explanation of the offensiveness of heated air
currents has been sought with much diligence, and, at
times, causes have been assigned with much positiveness.
One of the earliest of these explanations (but one which
yet finds supporters) was found in the substitution of trans-
ferred or converted heats by currents of air for the radiant
heat of fire. Open fires were to be restored as the means of
securing pleasant air . The healthfulness and comfort of our
ancestors were to come back to their degenerate children.
Gathered around a blazing fire, roasted on one side and
frozen on the other ; restricted to one fire in the house, as
all the others would smoke ; the chamber-heating apparatus
reduced to the warming-pan ; victims of rheumatism,
sciatica, tic-doloreux, and ague — the diseases of fifty years
ago — the good old times were to come back. Alas ! there
were obstinate innovators, and the world would not be con-
vinced of the advantages of radiant heat as the sole means
of warming.

This point being established, at a later time, surfaces at
high temperatures for imparting heat to the air of a room,
either by ventilating currents or direCt heating, including
all fire-heated surfaces, together with steam-heated ones,
above the boiling-point, or 2120, were utterly condemned.

221

1878.] to Health and Comfort .

Somebody discovered burnt atoms of dust in heated air,
and its destructive, pernicious effect on the health was at
once apparent ! But the comfort of the community some
way overruled the theory, and hot-air furnaces, with ad-
mitted deficiencies in quality of air, met greater favour than
ever. It is allowed generally that the expensive steam-
heating apparatus is at once the more pleasant, controllable,
and durable ; and that the yet more expensive hot-water
apparatus, with its great volumes of low temperature cur-
rents of air, is the best of all means of heating. The cost
in fuel by these several apparatuses becomes nearly the
same, for equal effects, in warming of houses.

The next demonstration was the chemical one. An
occult effeCt is most conclusively, if not convincingly, ex-
plained by an occult cause. Ozone is a favourable objeCt
to carry a theory, and it really is possible, if we knew any-
thing definite and certain about the origin or the effeCt of
ozone ; some relation of this phenomenon of the requiring
the evaporation of a small quantity of water, when heating
air, might be traced. But no blinder pathway in science
was ever opened than the ozone one. After this came De-
ville and Troost’s discovery of the permeability of some
metals, when heated at, or nearly at, red heat, to some of
the gases. In the language of one of the most prominent
writers on ventilation, this “ explains the very injurious and
even poisonous effects produced by the use of stoves in the
rooms of a dwelling ! ”

The last resort of the unreasoning theoriser in physics is
always to electricity, and efforts have not been wanting to
show that either the presence or the absence of electricity,
in some form or condition, ought to have something to do
with the discomfort arising from heated air. The only
answer to this hypothesis is, that heated air is equally
oppressive in entire absence of water supply, whether highly
eleCtrical or otherwise ; our vicissitudes of climate and of
humidity enabling a test of eleCtric condition in extreme
cases. There are times in any winter, in the Northern
States, when it is possible to gather enough electricity, by
walking over a carpet, to make the spark from the finger
which will light a gas-light. The quantity of water de-
manded at such times by a heating apparatus is no greater
than at other times. There is not the least positive proof
of relation of electricity to the healthfulness of air. Alto-
gether, the whole resolves itself to the reiteration of the
bare faCt that it is comfortable to evaporate a small quantity
of water in heated rooms, and that it can be done without

222

Relation of Moisture in Air

[April,

marked injury to the occupants or to visitors. The quantity
itself seems to be almost constant for all temperatures or
hygromations of the air, and to be a slight addition only to
the moisture in the normal air out of doors at any time.

§. The effedft of draughts or currents of air upon any person
exposed to them is materially modified by the hygrometric
condition. In still air in winter the comfortable tempera-
ture of a room in general hygrometric condition has been
stated at 70°, but a current of air upon the person at this
temperature is uncomfortably cold from the rapid abstrac-
tion of heat, while in summer the same temperature, accom-
panied by the summer dew-point, will be warm enough to
demand light clothing, and a current of the same velocity
will not be objectionable; in other words, draughts which
cannot be tolerated in our houses in winter become pleasant
breezes in summer. Not only the speed or rate of velocity
of the current of air is to be taken into account, but its
avidity to take up moisture from the skin as indicated by
its dew-point. So long as the hygrometric condition of the
air is such that will absorb moisture below 98°, a blast of it
at some rate of current will be a cool one.

One fans himself in our climate, when the thermometer
stands at ioo°, with a sensation of relief. This feeling of
cold, from air of high temperature, when in motion, pro-
ceeds from the rapid removal of the stratum of warm and
nearly saturated air in contact with the person, and its re-
placement by fresh air, which is not only cooler, but
which has not yet become saturated or charged with mois-
ture by contact with a moist surface like that of the skin.
In no one of the changes in the three forms of matter —
solid, liquid, and gaseous — is there so much heat taken up
as in the change from a liquid to a gaseous (or vaporous)
form, and in no other body or substance is so much heat
absorbed or become latent as in the formation of steam from
water, or, in other words, in the process of evaporation ;
and the quantity of heat taken up by the moisture which a
dry air abstracts from the skin is so great that the mere dif-
ferences of temperature of the air from that of the skin may
almost be neglected in the statement ; and it is very nearly
correct to assert that the cool sensation from a breeze in
summer proceeds entirely from the evaporation of moisture
thereby induced.

Upon this basis it may be noticed that a current of satu-
rated air at ioo° would neither remove heat by its contact
nor by induced evaporation, and consequently would be

i8yS'] to Health and Comfort . 223

incapable of producing a cooling effedt, while as the tem-
perature or the dew-point should fall the current would
become a pleasant one. With a high temperature and dry
air the cooling effedt of a current of air (even at ioo°) may
be very pleasant in the sensation, but will be attended with
sun-burning (even without exposure to the sun), and blisters
will be produced by the excessive deprivation of moisture
from the cuticle or surface of the skin. With 8o° of tem-
perature and a high dew-point a strong breeze is not
unpleasant, nor likely to be injurious after the person shall
have acquired some accustomed habit of body to endure it ;
but at 70° and a low dew-point, which is the only possible
condition of heated air in mid-winter, the annoyance of a
current of even 5 feet per second and its unhealthiness are
positive fadts.

§. There remain to be considered two more relations of
moisture in air to health and comfort. First, the effedt of
evaporation of water by the air itself in summer, in reducing
the temperature to one of comfort ; and secondly, the effedt
on the moisture condition of the air of summer, when it is
attempted to cool air by artificial means.

The cooling of air, by spontaneous evaporation from ex-
tended surfaces, is of frequent pradtice in hot countries
by the wealthy inhabitants near the banks of rivers where
the water-supply is abundant. The condition of the air
which makes it practicable is one of great heat, and of a
relatively low dew-point ; and the summers of Egypt and
of parts of India, especially of Bengal, give opportunity to
employ this method of cooling air. If it is accepted that
the temperature of the air in the shade, in the localities
referred to, will sometimes run from 85° to 105° for many
consecutive hours, accompanied with, say, 50 per cent of
moisture for the 85° of temperature, or, say, 30 per cent for
the 105°, then the evaporation of moisture from wet surface
can be relied upon to produce a comparatively comfortable
atmosphere. Air at 85°, with 50 per cent of moisture, has
quite exadtly the same quantity of moisture, per given
volume of air, as that at 7 o° and 70 per cent of moisture.
So that if it could be cooled without adding moisture at all
it would then reach the point of comfort for the clothed
inhabitant of the temperate zone. If the dew-point of 85°
is brought up to 80 per cent, or above, the air becomes
intolerably sultry, and at go per cent quite suffocating ; so
that the greatest addition of moisture practicable to the
supposed air of 85° and 50 per cent dew-point may be taken

224

Relation of Moisture in Air

l April,

as io per cent, or ij grains to the cubic foot. The resulting
figures which the latent heat demanded for the evaporation
of Lhese ij grains of moisture into the air supposed is 74^-°,
and 82 per cent of humidity. How far this condition of the
air may be more comfortable than the original one of 85°
and 50 per cent of humidity is questionable ; but it is
apparent that the limit of possible cooling of air of 85°, by
evaporation of moisture, is found when its humidity is not
to exceed 50 per cent of saturation. A similar computation
applied to air of 105° (in which air there is a little more
moisture than in that supposed at 85°) gives, for the addition
of 15- grains of moisture to the cubic foot, air of 94I-0 tem-
perature and 48 per cent of humidity — -an atmosphere which
may be, in some degree, more comfortable to a person at
rest than the normal one. It is evident that, for efficiency
in cooling air of 105° by evaporation from moistened sur-
faces, the humidity of the air to be cooled should be less
than 30 per cent. As to ultimate healthfulness of the
moistened air, it seems to be unquestionable that the supply
of moisture ought to promote disease.

We have, however, in each year in our country, a few
days or parts of days (perhaps, in the Southern Middle
States, ten to twenty days in different years) when the range
of thermometer and the dew-point make it feasible to adopt
this means of reducing the apparent heat of the air. The
attempt has been frequently made, with provoking failure
to the projectors. Its success depends upon not only the
exaCt condition of relative humidity and temperature, but
also on the proportion of surface of evaporation to the
quantity of air to be supplied. The Indian ratio is one or
two persons to 6 to 8 square yards of wet surface. But the
most provoking cause of failure has been, that while there
are ten to twenty hot dry days in any year, there are also
twenty to thirty hot damp ones, and the application of the
cooling apparel to the hot air on these days has produced
such an effeCt of sultriness that the whole has met with
instant condemnation.

The last relation of moisture to air to be considered at
this time is that which proceeds from the effort to cool air
artificially. The fallacies of the attempts to effeCt this
purpose can be made very apparent. Even the smallest
decrement of heat is obtained only at great cost. The
quantity of cooling of air in summer is, to be sure, only
about one-fourth that of heating in winter. Taking the
ideal temperature of 70°, there may be 150 to come off in
summer as generally as 6o° to be added in winter ; and sup-

to Health and Comfort .

225

1878.]

posing iced water to be the cooling medium, and steam of
low pressure to be the heating one, the relation of difference
of temperature of the air to be cooled or heated to that of
the iced water or steam is such that about the same extent
of surface would be required in either case to transfer the
heat. But a pound of coal produces, in ordinary steam-
boilers, quite 9000 units of heat on the average, while a
pound of ice (in cooling to 6o°, let us say) will produce only
170°, so that about 54 lbs. of ice would be demanded to
effect the transfer of an equal quantity of heat, to what
would be effedted by 1 lb. of coal ; or, accepting the one-
fourth cooling effedt, then 13^ lbs. of ice would be demanded
for the cooling of air in summer against each pound of coal
required for warming in winter. Unfortunately for the pro-
position for cooling air in summer, even this statement is
too favourable, for the requirement will be found that the
air must not only be cooled, but must be divested of a por-
tion of its moisture, unless the cooled air is deemed satis-
factory in the form of a cloud of vapour. Air at 85° and
70 per cent of humidity must be taken to be cooled to 70°
and 70 per cent of humidity, and one and one-fourth times
as much cold will be demanded to condense the vapour
2*3 grains per cubic foot as that which is requisite to cool
the air the 150 supposed. This leaves the ratio of ice
needed to obtain a spring condition for the air on a hot day
in summer to be that of 30 to 1 of coal usually demanded
to heat air on a cold day in winter, or assuming that the air
on such a day is so dry that no moisture should be removed,
about 15 to 1. Our ideas of the necessity of civilised wants,
as compared with civilised luxuries, scarcely yet reach high
enough to warrant the expenditure of money to cool air
under the circumstances stated.

In view of the great cost of cooling air by ice, it has been
proposed to cool it by mechanical means on a large scale.
Air, if compressed, becomes sensibly hotter. In fadt the
compression can be carried to the extent that the heat will
ignite tinder, as the cigar-lighters of twenty or thirty years
since bear witness. And it has been proposed to use large
air-pumps which shall compress the air until its temperature
is elevated sufficiently for it to give off heat to surfaces
cooled by currents of water, at such temperature as water
is to be had from streams or aquedudts in summer. This
compressed air, when deprived of a portion of its heat, is
then allowed to expand, and the result is a cooler air. This
process has, in reality, much merit, and it is probable that
the cost of producing cold in this way compares favourably

VOL. viii. (n.s.) q

226

Moisture in Air .

[April,

with the use of ice ; in faCt it has been shown that ice itself
may be manufactured with profit by this process in some
localities, where transportation enhances the price of ice
largely ; but it is preposterously expensive in apparatus and
in cost of working as a means of cooling air in the great
quantities demanded for ventilation, and the humidity of the
cooled air would still be objectionable. The comparatively
high temperature of the surface for cooling the air would
fail to be very efficient in condensing the vapour thoroughly.
In both the methods of cooling air, whether by ice or by
water (of which great quantities would be needed), the
cooling surface must be copper, brass, or tin, as the rusting
of iron, when exposed to condensing vapour, is extremely
rapid.

The most probable result of cooled air would be a thunder-
cloud in miniature. The atmosphere on one of our hottest
and most sultry days of summer is on the verge of a tem-
pest. Cooling of air of 85° to go0, to the extent of 20° or
30°, produces a dense mist of super-saturated cooled air.
The equilibrium of the atmosphere on a still, clear summer
day, when every growing thing on the surface of the ground
is supplying moisture, and the radiation of the ground itself
is supplying heat to increase the relative levity of the strata
of air next the ground — the equilibrium of such an atmo-
sphere is very unstable. Let an upward flow be established
anywhere, and the air will rush in all directions along the
surface to supply the partial vacuum. The ascending
column, as it reaches the region of lower barometrical
pressure, will expand, become sensibly cooler, and in a short
5 to 8 miles of height the region of frost and ice will be
reached, and hailstones will be returned from the condensa-
tion of the transparent vapour which had existed in the air
when it left the surface of the ground. The writer once saw
in a little ball-room, on a Christmas Eve, a miniature snow-
storm deposit a little bank of snow, from the opening of
windows to air the room when the dancers had retired, the
night being a clear moonlight one, with the thermometer a
little above zero.

The difficulty of absence of moisture in air that is heated
in winter is a matter to be disposed of with some happiness,
by asserting it is not wanted, but the objection of presence
of moisture in cooled air can be only overcome by not cooling
the air. It does not seem that the successful cooling of our
summer air, so as to produce a comfortable or healthful
condition at spring temperatures, has any probability of
accomplishment.

1 878.]

On Space of Four Dimensions .

227

Quoting, as an appropriate final remark, the words with
which I concluded another paper having an especial applica-
tion to a system of ventilation: — “ I will not follow further
the proposition to change the seasons into a perpetual spring-
time— practical ventilation is the supply in dwellings of an
abundance of fresh air at the several seasons, warmed to
the temperature of comfort in winter, and supplied in quan-
tity to the volume of comfort (as near as possible of the
quality and condition of out of doors in the shade) in
summer. The truth is, all our heating and ventilating
appliances are the compromise of condition— a truth ex-
tending beyond all mechanical operations to the phenomena
of Nature itself.”

VI. ON SPACE OF FOUR DIMENSIONS.*

By J. C. Friedrich Zollner,

Professor of Physical Astronomy in the University of

Leipzig.

%N the first treatise the author shows that both Newton
W and Faraday were advocates of the theory of diredt
^ adtion at a distance through a vacuum, in opposition to
the views of many modem scientific men. In the last

* Wissenschaftliche Abhandlungen von Joh. Carl Friedrich Zollner,
Professor der Astrophysik an der Universitat zu Leipzig. Erster Band. Leipzig :
L. Staackmann, 1878. (With portraits and facsimiles of Newton, Kant, and
Faraday. 8vo., 732 pages.)

CONTENTS.

1. On Adtion at a Distance.

2. Emil du Bois Reymond and the Limits of Natural Knowledge.

3. Newton’s Law of Gravitation and its Derivation from the Static Effedts

of Eledtricity.

4. The Laws of Fridtion, and their Dedudtion from the Dynamic Effedts of

Eledtricity.

5. As to the Existence of Moving Eledtric Particles in All Bodies.

6. Adhesion and Cohesion as dedudted from the Dynamic Forces of Elec-

tricity.

7. 8, g. The Mechanical, the Magnetical, and the Eledtrical Effedts of

Light and of Radiant Heat.

10. Radiometrical Researches.

11, 12. On the Theory of Eledtric Emission and its Cosmical Application.
13. Thomson’s Demons and the Phantoms of Plato.

n

Q

228 On Space of Four Dimensions . [April ,

treatise, which is of the highest interest, the author describes
experiments which he made in Leipzig, in December, 1877,
with Mr. Henry Slade, the American. These experi-
ments were only the practical application of Gauss’s and
Kant’s theory of space, which these two eminent men
imagined might contain more than three dimensions. The
author will try to give to the readers of the “ Quarterly
Journal of Science ” an idea of this theory, though he must
of course refer to the work itself for a more ample explana-
tion of it.

In accordance with Kant, Schopenhauer, and Helmholtz,
the author regards the application of the law of causality as
a function of the human intellect given to man a priori
— i.e.f before all experience. The totality of all empirical
experience is communicated to the intellect by the senses —
i.e., by organs which communicate to the mind all the
sensual impressions which are received at the surface of our
bodies. These impressions are a reality to us, and their
sphere is two-dimensional, acting not in our body, but only
on its surface .

We have only attained the conception of a world of
objects with three dimensions by an intellectual process.
What circumstances, we may ask, have compelled our intellect
to come to this result ? If a child contemplates its hand, it
is conscious of its existence in a double manner — in the first
place by its tangibility, in the second by its image on the
retina of the eye. By repeated groping about and touching,
the child knows by experience that his hand retains the
same form and extension through all the variations of dis-
tance and positions under which it is observed ; notwith-
standing that theform andextension of the image on the retina
constantly change with the different position and distance of
the hand in respeCt to the eye. The problem is thus set to
the child’s understanding, Howto reconcile to its comprehen-
sion the apparently contradictory faCts of the invariableness of
the objeCt, together with the variableness of its appearance.
This is only possible within space of three dimensions, in
which, owing to perspective distortions and changes, these
variations of projection can be reconciled with the constancy
of the form of a body.

So, likewise, in the stereoscope, the representation of the
corporeality — i.e., of the third dimension — springs up in
our mind when the task is presented to our intellect to refer
at once two different plain pictures, without contradiction, to
one single objeCt.

Consequently our contemplation of a three-dimensioned

1 878.] On Space of Four Dimensions. 229

space has been developed by means of the law of causality,
which has been implanted in us a priori , and we have come
to the idea of the third dimension in order to overcome the
apparent inconsistency of faCts, the existence of which
experience daily convinces us.

The moment we observe in three-dimensioned space con-
tradictory fadts, — i.e., faCts which would force us to ascribe
to a body two attributes or qualities which hitherto we
thought could not exist together, — the moment, I say, in
which we should observe such contradictory faCts in a three-
dimensioned body, our reason would at once be forced to
reconcile these contradictions.

There would be such a contradiction, for example, if we were
to ascribe to one and the same objeCt at once mutability and
immutability, the most universal attribute of a body being
the quantity of its ponderable matter. In conformity with
our present experience we consider this attribute as unalter-
able. As soon, however, as phenomena occur which prove
it to be alterable, we shall be obliged to generalise our
representation of the ideality of a body so as to bring the
observed change in the quantity of its matter in accordance
with its hitherto-imagined unchangeableness.

On page 235 of his book the author quotes the celebrated
mathematician Riemann, who says in his work “ Concerning
the Hypotheses upon which Geometry is Founded:” —

“ The explanation of these faCts can only be found by
starting from the aCtual theories of the appearance
of all phenomena which are confirmed by experience,
and of which, as they now are, Newton has laid the
foundation. Urged forward by faCts, which we can-
not explain through our hitherto-conceived theories,
we slowly remodel our conceptions. If phenomena
occur which, according to our conception, were to be
expeCted with probability, our theories are confirmed,
and our confidence in them is founded upon this
confirmation by experience. If, however, something
occurs which we do not expeCt, which according to
our theory was improbable or impossible, the task is
imposed on us to remodel our theory, in order to
make the observed faCts cease to be in contradiction
with our improved theory. The completion of our
system of ideas forms the explanation of the unex-
pected observation. Our conception of nature by
this process grows slowly to be more complete and
more just, at the same time it retreats more and
more beneath the surface of appearances.”

230 On Space of Four Dimensions. [April,

I now proceed to apply the higher conception of space to
the theory of twisting a perfectly flexible cord. Let us con-
sider such a cord to be represented by a b, showing us, when
stretched, a development of space in one dimension, —

( a - — b).

If the cord is bent so that during this action its parts always
remain in the same plane, a development of space in two
dimensions will be required for this operation. The follow-
ing figure may be given to the cord, —

and all its parts, if conceived of infinite thinness, may be
considered as lying in the same plane, i.e., in a development
of space in two dimensions. If the flexible cord, without
being broken, has to be brought back into the former figure
of a straight line, in such a manner that during this opera-
tion all its parts remain in the same plane, this can only be
effected by describing with one end of the cord a circle
of 360°.

For beings with only fr^o-dimensional perceptions these
operations with the cord would correspond to what we, with
our ^r^-dimensional perception, call a knot in the cord.
Now if a being, limited on account of its bodily organisation
to the conception of only two dimensions of space, possessed,
nevertheless, the ability of executing by his will operations
with this cord which are only possible in the space of three
dimensions, such a being would be able to undo this two-
dimensional knot in a much simpler way. Merely the
turning over of part of the cord would be required, so that
after the operation, when all parts again lie in the same
plane, the cord would have passed through the following
positions : —

_______ <n _ST“ . ~ .

By the same operations, but in an inverted sense, such a
being would be able again to form the knot without needing
that circumstantial process, during which all parts of the
thread have to remain in the /m>-dimensional space of per-
ception.

If this consideration, by way of analogy, is transferred to
a knot in space of three dimensions, it will easily be seen
that the tying as well as the untying of such a knot can
only be effected by operations, during which the parts of the

1878.]

On Space of Four Dimensions .

231

cord describe a line of double curvature, as shown by this
figure : —

We three-dimensional beings can only tie or untie such a
knot by moving one end of the cord through 360° in a plane
which is inclined towards that other plane containing the
two-dimensional part of the knot. But if there were beings
among us who were able to produce by their will four-
dimensional movements of material substances, they could
tie and untie such knots in a much simpler manner by an
operation analogous to that described in relation to a two-
dimensional knot.

It is by no means necessary — nay, not even probable —
that such beings should have a contemplative consciousness
of these actions of their will. For all our conceptions in
relation to the movements of our limbs, and to those pro-
duced by their means in other bodies, have been acquired by
us solely by way of experience. Having observed from child-
hood that a voluntary movement of our limbs is always
connected with a corresponding change in our visional im-
pressions, accompanying the adtion of our will, it is only in
this way that we are now able to connect the movements of
our body or of other objects with a corresponding conception
of such motion.

Berkeley demonstrated this truth in the year 1709 in his
“ Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision ” and in his
“ Principles of Human Knowledge.” In the last-mentioned
treatise he remarks, on the relation of our visional percep-
tions to the sensations of touch : — -

“ So that in strict truth the ideas of sight, when we
apprehend by them distance, and things placed at a
distance, do not suggest or mark out to us things
actually existing at a distance, but only admonish us
what ideas of touch will be imprinted in our minds at
such and such distance of time, and in consequence
of such or such actions.” — Berkeley, Principles of
Human Knowledge, (Fraser’s Edition, vol. i., p. 177.)

Lichtenberg, in 1799, expresses himself in like manner
when he says : —

“To perceive something outside ourselves is a contradic-
tion ; we perceive only within us ; that which we
perceive is merely a modification of ourselves, there-
fore, within us. Because these modifications are inde-
pendent of ourselves, we seek their cause mother things
that are outside, and say, there are things beyond us .

232 On Space of Four Dimensions. [April,

We ought to say, 4 prater nos but for 4 prceter,’ we
substitute the preposition 4 extra f which is something
quite different, i.e,, we imagine these things in the
space outside ourselves. This evidently is not per-
ception, but it seems to be something firmly inter-
woven with the nature of our sensual perceptive
powers ; it is the form under which that conception
of the 4 prceter nos 9 is given to us — the form of the
sensual.”

The want of these conceptions would necessarily be felt
by us, if in some individuals, and these only occasionally :
the will should be capable of producing physical movements,
for whose geometro-mathematical definition a four-dimen-
sional system of co-ordinates is necessary.

To my knowledge Gauss was the first to direct from the
point of view of the 44 Geometria Situs,” his attention to
the theory of the twistings of flexible cords. In his manu-
scripts left behind (Gauss’s Werke, vol. v., p. 605), we find
the following remarks : —

44 Of the 4 Geometria Situs which Leibnitz foresaw, and on
which to throw a feeble glance was allowed only to
a few mathematicians (Euler and Vandermonde), we,
after a lapse of 150 years, know and possess hardly
more than nothing. One of the principal problems
on the boundary of the Geometria Situs and the Geo -
metria Magnitudinis will be to calculate the number
of the twistings of two closed and endless cords.”

In my first treatise, 44 On Action at a Distance,” I have
discussed in detail the truth, first discovered by Kant, later
by Gauss and the representatives of the anti-Euclidian
geometry, viz., that our present conception of space, fami-
liar to us by habit, has been derived from experience, i.e.f
from empirical faCts by means of the causal principle exist-
ing a priori in our intellect. This in particular is to be said
of the three dimensions of our present conception of space.
If from our childhood phenomena had been of daily occur-
rence, requiring a space of four or more dimensions for an
explanation which should be free from contradiction, i.e.f
conformable to reason, we should be able to form a concep-
tion of space of four or more dimensions. It follows that
the real existence of a four-dimensional space can only be
decided by experience , i.e., by observation of facts.

A great step has been made by acknowledging that
the possibility of a four-dimensional development of space
can be understood by our intellect, although, on account
of reasons previously given, no corresponding image of
it can be conceived by the mind. (Dass die moeglichkeit

233

1878.] On Space of Four Dimensions .

eines vierdirnensionalen Raumgebietes begrifflich ohne Wi-
derspruch denkbar, wenn auch nicht anschaulich vorstellbar
ist.)

But Kant advances one step further. From the logically
recognised possibility of the existence of space having more
than three dimensions, he infers their “very probably real
existence when he verbally remarks : —

“ If it is possible that there be developments of other
dimensions in space, it is also very probable that God
has somewhere produced them. For His works have
all the grandeur and variety that can possibly be
comprised.”

“ In the foregoing I have shown that several worlds, taken
in a metaphysical sense, might exist together, but, at
the same time, here is the condition , which, according
to my belief, is the only one which makes it probable
that several such worlds really exist.” — (Kant’s Works,
vol. v., p. 25.)

I may further cite the following observations of Kant

“ I confess I am much inclined to assert the existence of
immaterial beings in this world, and to class my soul
itself in the category of these beings.”

“ We can imagine the possibility of the existence of im-
material beings without the fear of being refuted,
though, at the same time, without the hope of being
able to demonstrate their existence by reason. Such
spiritual beings would exist in space, and the latter
notwithstanding would remain penetrable for material
beings, because their presence would imply an adting
power in space, but not a filling of it, i.e ., a resistance
causing solidity.”

“ It is, therefore, as good as demonstrated, or it could
easily be proved, if we were to enter into it at some
length ; or, better still, it will be proved in the future — I
do not know where and when — that also in this life the
human sold stands in an indissoluble communion with all
the immaterial beings of the spiritual world; that it
produces effects in them , and in exchange receives impres-
sions from them , without, however , becoming humanly
conscious of them, so long as all stands well.”

“ It would be a blessing if such a systematic constitution
of the spiritual world, as conceived by us, had not
merely to be inferred from the — too hypothetical-
conception of the spiritual nature generally, but
would be inferred, or at least conjectured, as probable
from some real and generally acknowledged observa-
tion.”—-(Kant's Works, vol. vii., p. 32.)

[April,

234 On Space of Four Dimensions.

I have already in the above-cited treatise discussed some
physical phenomena, which must be possible for such four-
dimensional beings, provided that under certain circum-
stances they are enabled to produce effects in the real
material world that would be visible, i.e ., conceivable to us
three-dimensional beings. As one of these effects, I discussed
at some length the knotting of a single endless cord. If a
single cord has its ends tied together and sealed, an intelli-
gent being, having the power voluntarily to produce on this
cord four-dimensional bendings and movements, must be
able, without loosening the seal, to tie one or more knots in
this endless cord.

Now, this experiment has been successfully made within the
space of a few minutes in Leipzig, on the 17th of December,
1877, at 11 o’clock a.m., in the presence of Mr. Henry Slade,
the American. The accompanying plate shows the strong
cord with the four knots* in it, as well as the position of my
hands, to which Mr. Slade’s left hand and that of another
gentleman were joined. While the seal always remained in
our sight on the table, the unknotted cord was firmly pressed
by my two thumbs against the table’s surface, and the remain-
der of the cord hung down in my lap. I had desired the tying
of only one knot, yet the four knots — minutely represented
on the drawing — were formed, after a few minutes, in the
cord.

The hempen cord had a thickness of about 1 millim. ; it
was strong and new, having been bought by myself. Its
single length, before the tying of the knots, was about
148 centimetres ; the length therefore of the doubled string,
the ends having been joined, about 74 centims. The ends
were tied together in an ordinary knot, and then — protruding
from the knot by about 1*5 centims. — were laid on a piece of
paper and sealed to the same with ordinary sealing-wax, so
that the knot just remained visible at the border of the seal.
The paper round the seal was then cut off, as shown in the
illustration.

The above-described sealing of two such strings, with my
own seal, was effected by myself in my apartments, on the
evening of December 16th, 1877, at 9 o’clock, under the
eyes of several of my friends and colleagues, and not in the
presence of Mr. Slade. Two other strings of the same
quality and dimensions were sealed by Wilhelm Weber with
his seal, and in his own rooms, on the morning of the 17th

* In the enlarged drawings the knots have been represented by mistake
symmetrical ; they were tied on one side, in accordance with the small figure
of the cord*

She. Quarterly Sfoumal of Science.

97 o. 58. edpril, 7878.

LitkAnsty.E .A.F unke , leip zig .

/

1878.] On Space of Four Dimensions. 235

of December, at 10.30 a.m. With these four cords I went to
the neighbouring dwelling of one of my friends, who had
offered to Mr. Henry Slade the hospitalities of his house, so
as to place him exclusively at my own and my friend’s dis-
position, and for the time withdrawing him from the public.
The seance in question took place in my friends’ sitting-room
immediately after my arrival. I myself selected one of the
four sealed cords, and, in order never to lose sight of it before
we sat down at the table, I hung it around my neck—the
seal in front always within my sight. During the seance , as
previously stated, I constantly kept the seal— remaining un-
altered— -before me on the table. Mr. Slade’s hands remained
all the time in sight ; with the left he often touched his fore-
head, complaining of painful sensations. The portion of the
string hanging down rested on my lap, — out of my sight, it
is true,— but Mr. Slade’s hands always remained visible to
me. I particularly noticed that Mr. Slade’s hands were not
withdrawn or changed in position. He himself appeared to
be perfectly passive, so that we cannot advance the assertion
of his having tied those knots by his conscious will, but only
that they, under these detailed circumstances, were formed
in his presence without visible contadt, and in a room illu-
minated by bright daylight.

According to the reports so far published the above experi-
ment seems also to have succeeded in Vienna in presence of
Mr. Slade, although under less stringent conditions.* Those
of my readers who wish for further information on other
physical phenomena which have taken place in Mr. Slade’s
presence, I refer to these two books. I reserve to later
publication in my own treatises the description of further ex-
periments obtained by me in twelve seances with Mr. Slade,
and, as I am expressly authorised to mention, in the presence
of my friends and colleagues, Prof. Fechner, Prof. Wilhelm
Weber, the celebrated electrician from Gottingen, and Herr
Scheibner, Professor of Mathematics in the University of
Leipzig, who are perfectly convinced of the reality of the
observed fadts, altogether excluding imposture or prestidigi-
tation.

At the end of my first treatise, already finished in manu-
script in the course of August, 1877, I called attention to
the circumstance that a certain number of physical pheno-
mena, which, by “ synthetical conclusions a priori,” might

* “ Mr. Slade’s Aufenshalt in Wien : Ein offener Brief an meine freunde.”
Wien : I. C. Fischer, and Co., 1878. “ Der Individualismus im Lichte der

Biologie und Philosophic der Gegenwart von Lazar B. Hellenbach.” Wien ;
Braumuller, 1878.

[April,

236 On Space of Four Dimensions.

be explained through the generalised conception of space
and the platonic hypothesis of projection, coincided with
so-called spiritualistic phenomena. Cautiously, however, I
said

“ To those of my readers who are inclined to see in
spiritualistic phenomena an empirical confirmation of
those phenomena above deduced in regard to their
theoretical possibility, I beg to observe that from the
point of view of idealism there must first be given
a precise definition and criticism of objective reality.
Indeed, if everything perceivable is a conception pro-
duced in us by unknown causes, the distinguishing
characteristic of the objective reality from the subjective
reality (phantasma) cannot be sought in nature, but
only in accidental attributes of that process producing
conceptions. If causes unknown to us produce
simultaneously in several individuals the same con-
ception, only subject to those distinctions which
depend upon differences in the position of the ob-
servers, we refer such conception to a real objeCt
outside of us ; this conception not taking place, we
refer that conception to causes within us, and call it
hallucination.

“ Now, whether the spiritualistic phenomena belong
to the first or to the second category of these concep-
tions, I do not venture to decide, so far never having
witnessed such phenomena. On the other hand, I
do not possess, with regard to men like Crookes,
Wallace, and others, such an exalted opinion of my
own intellect:, as to believe that I myself, under
similar conditions, should not be subject to the same
impressions.” (Written in August, 1877.)

This supposition received, four months after my writing it
down, a full confirmation by the above-mentioned experi-
ments with the American, Mr. Henry Slade. In making
them I was intent upon giving full consideration to the
above-cited distinction between a subjective phantasma and
an objective faCt. The four knots in the above-mentioned
cord, with the seal unbroken, this day still lie before me ;
I can send this cord to any man for examination ; I might
send it by turn to all the learned societies of the world, so
as to convince them that not a subjective phantasma is here
in question but an objective and lasting effect produced in the
material world, which no human intelligence with the con-
ceptions of space so far current is able to explain.

If, nevertheless, the foundation of this faCt, deduced by

1878. J

Liquefaction of Oxygen.

237

me on the ground of an enlarged conception of space, should
be denied, only one other kind of explanation would remain,
arising from a moral mode of consideration that at present,
it is true, is quite customary. This explanation would con-
sist in the presumption that I myself and the honourable
men and citizens of Leipzig, in whose presence several of
these cords were sealed, were either common impostors or
were not in possession of our sound senses sufficient to per-
ceive if Mr. Slade himself, before the cords were sealed,
had tied them in knots. The discussion, however, of such
a hypothesis would no longer belong to the dominion of
science, but would fall under the category of social decency.

Some other still more surprising experiments — prepared by
me with a view to further testing this theory of space — have
succeeded, though Mr. Slade thought their success impos-
sible. The sympathising and intelligent reader will be able
to understand my delight caused thereby. Mr. Slade pro-
duced on me and on my friends the impression of his being
a gentleman : the sentence for imposture pronounced against
him in London necessarily excited our moral sympathy, for
the physical fadls observed by us in so astonishing a variety,
in his presence, negatived on every reasonable ground the
supposition that he in one solitary case had taken refuge
in wilful imposture. Mr. Slade, in our eyes, therefore,
was innocently condemned — a vidfim of his accuser’s and
his judge’s limited knowledge.

VII. LIQUEFACTION OF OXYGEN.*

By M. Raoul Pictet.

CjPjHE objedt which I have had in view for more than
'LL three years is to demonstrate experimentally that mo-
lecular cohesion is a general property of bodies, to
which there is no exception.

If the permanent gases are not capable of liquefying, we
must conclude that their constituent particles do not attradl
each other, and thus do not conform to this law.

Thus, to cause experimentally the molecules of a gas to

* The liquefaction of oxygen is so important a scientific achievement that
we have much pleasure in laying before our readers the following detailed
account of the means employed and diagrams of the apparatus used, which
were communicated to us by M. Pidtet himself. — Ed. Q. J. S .

238

Liquefaction of Oxygen.

[April,

Description of the Drawings.

a. A tube, 5 metres long, 14 millimetres external diameter, and 4 millimetres

internal diameter, in which the oxygen condenses. It is furnished with
a screw-tap, r, from which the liquid oxygen jets out. A pressure-
gauge, M, measures the pressure up to 800 atmospheres.

b. A tube, 4 metres long, in which is solid carbonic acid. The stock of car-

bonic acid is contained in a gasometer, g, of 1 cubic metre capacity.
A three-way tap, h, puts it when desired into communication with the
apparatus.

c. A howitzer shell, containing 700 grms. of chlorate of potash mixed with

chloride of potassium. It is heated with gas.

Pi, P2. Double-a&ion exhaustion and force pumps, drawing carbonic acid from
the tube b or the gasometer g, according to the position of the tap h.
s. A tube, 60 millimetres diameter and i*i metres long, in which is condensed
the liquid carbonic acid compressed by the pumps. This liquefied gas
returns by the small tube t to the tube b.

1878.]

Liquefaction of Oxygen,

239

R. A tube, 125 millimetres in diameter and i*i metres long, containing liquid
sulphurous acid.

P3, p4. Double-a&ion exhaustion and force pumps, exhausting sulphurous acid
gas from the tube R.

Q. A tubular condenser of sulphurous acid compressed by the pumps. This
body, when liquefied, returns by the small tube f to the tube R. The
cold water for condensing the sulphurous acid passes through the aper-
tures E E.

ci. Entry for liquid carbonic acid.

. Exit for the vapourised carbonic acid caused by the suttion of the pumps.

240

Liquefaction of Oxygen.

[April,

approach each other as much as possible, certain indis-
pensable conditions are necessary, which may be expressed
thus ■

1. To have the gas absolutely pure, with no trace of

foreign gas.

2. To be able to obtain extremely energetic pressures.

3. To obtain intense cold, and to subtract heat at these

low temperatures.

4. To utilise a large surface for condensation at these low

temperatures.

5. To be able to utilise the rapid expansion of the gas from

extreme condensation to the atmospheric pressure —
an expansion which, added to the preceding means,
will compel liquefaction.

Having fulfilled these five conditions, we may formulate
the following alternative : —

When a gas is compressed to 500 or 600 atmospheres, and
kept at a temperature of — ioo° or — 140°, and it is allowed
to expand to the atmospheric pressure, one of two things
takes place : —

Either the gas, obeying the force of cohesion, liquefies,
and yields its heat of condensation to the portion of
gas which expands and loses itself in the gaseous form ;
or, on the hypothesis that cohesion is not a general law,
the gas must pass to the absolute zero and become
inert, — that is to say, an impalpable powder.

The work done by expansion will not be possible, and the
loss of heat will be absolute.

Struck with the truth of this alternative, which is rendered
certain by thermo-dynamic equations based on accurate data,
I have sought to produce a mechanical arrangement which
should entirely satisfy these different conditions, and I have
chosen the complicated apparatus of which the following is
a brief description : —

I take two pumps, P3 and p4, for exhaustion and com-
pression, such as are used industrially in my ice-making
apparatus. I couple these pumps in such a way that the
exhaustion of one corresponds to the compression of the
other. The exhaustion of the first communicates with a
tube (r) of i* 1 metres long and 12*5 centimetres in diameter,
and filled with liquid sulphurous acid. Under the influence
of a good vacuum the temperature of the liquid rapidly sinks
to —65°, and even to — 730, the extreme limit attained.

Through this tube of sulphurous acid passes a second
smaller tube (s), of 6 centimetres diameter, and the same

VOL. VIII. (N.S.)

R

1878.] Liquefaction of Oxygen . 243

length as the envelope. These two tubes are closed by a
common base.

In the central tube is retained compressed carbonic acid
produced by the reaction of hydrochloric acid on Carrara
marble. This gas, being dried, is stored in an oil gasometer
(g) of 1 cubic metre capacity.

At a pressure of from 4 to 6 atmospheres the carbonic acid
easily liquefies under these circumstances. The resulting
liquid is led into a long copper tube (b), 4 metres in length
and 4 centimetres in diameter.

Two pumps, px and p2, coupled together like the first, ex-
haust carbonic acid either from the gasometer (g) or from
the long tube (b) full of liquid carbonic acid.

The ingress to these pumps is governed by a three-way
tap, H. A screw valve cuts off at will the ingress of liquid
carbonic acid in the long tube ; it is situated between the
condenser of carbonic acid and this long tube. When this
screw valve is closed, and the two pumps draw the vapour
from the liquid carbonic acid contained in the tube 4 metres
long, the greatest possible lowering of temperature is pro-
duced ; the carbonic acid solidifies and descends to about
— 140°. The subtraction of heat is maintained by the
working of the pumps, the cylinders -of which take out
3 litres per stroke, and the speed is 100 revolutions a
minute.

Both the sulphurous acid tube and the carbonic acid tube
are covered with a casing of wood and non-conducting stuff
to intercept radiation.

In the interior of the carbonic acid tube, B, passes a fourth
tube, A, intended for the compression of oxygen ; it is 5 metres
long and 14 millimetres in external diameter. Its internal
diameter is 4 millimetres. This long tube is consequently
immersed in solid carbonic acid, and its whole surface is
brought to the lowest obtainable temperature. These two
long tubes are connected by the ends of the carbonic acid
tube, consequently the small tube extends about 1 metre
beyond the other. I have curved this portion downwards,
and given the two long tubes a slightly inclined position, but
still very near the horizontal, as I have shown in the accom-
panying drawing.

The small central tube is curved at A, and screws into the
neck of a large howitzer shell, c, the sides of which are
35 millimetres thick ; the height is 28 centimetres, and the
diameter 17 centimetres.

This shell contains 700 grins, of chlorate of potash and
256 grms. of chloride of potassium mixed together, fused,

R2

244

Liquefaction of Oxygen.

[April,

then broken up, and introduced into the shell perfectly dry.
When the double circulation of the sulphurous and carbonic
acids has lowered the temperature to the required degree, I
heat the shell over a series of gas-burners. The decompo-
sition of the chlorate of potash takes place at first gradually,
then rather suddenly towards the end of the operation. A
pressure-gauge, M, at the extremity of the long tube, lets me
constantly observe the pressure and the progress of the re-
action. This gauge is graduated to 800 atmospheres, and
was made for me expressly by Bourdon, of Paris.

When the reaction is terminated the pressure exceeds
500 atmospheres ; but it almost immediately sinks a little,
and stops at 320 atmospheres. If at this moment I open
the screw-tap, r, which terminates the tube, a jet of liquid is
distinctly seen to spirt out with extreme violence. I close
the tap, and in the course of a few moments a second jet — -
less abundant, however, can be obtained.

Pieces of charcoal, slightly incandescent, put in this jet
inflame spontaneously with inconceivable violence. I have
not yet succeeded in collecting the liquid, on account of the
considerable projectile force with which it escapes, but I am
trying to arrange a pipette, previously cooled, which possibly
may be able to retain a little of this liquid.

Yesterday I repeated this experiment before the majority
of the members of our Physical Society, and we had three
successive jets, well characterised. I cannot yet determine
the minimum pressure necessary, for it is evident that I have
a surplus pressure produced by the excess of gas accumulated
in the shell, and which could not condense in the small space
represented by the interior tube.

I hope to utilise a similar arrangement in atempting the
condensation of hydrogen and nitrogen, and I am especially
occupied with the possibility of maintaining low temperatures
very easily, thanks to four large industrial pumps which I
have at my disposal, worked by a steam-engine.

The following experiment was performed for the fourth
time on Thursday, December 27th, in the presence of ten
scientific men — among others, Prof. Hagenbach, of Bale,
who came expressly to assist at this important experiment,
the success of which called forth the applause of all
present : —

At 10 o’clock in the evening the manometer, which had
risen to 560 atmospheres, sank in a few minutes to 505,
and remained stationary at this figure for more than half-an-
hour, showing by this diminution in the pressure that part

1878.]

The Phonograph. 245

of the gas had assumed the liquid form under the influence
of the 140 degrees of cold to which it was exposed. The
tap closing the orifice of the tube was then opened, and a jet
of oxygen spirted out with extraordinary violence.

A ray of electric light being thrown on the escaping jet
showed that it was chiefly composed of two parts ; — one
central, and some centimetres long, the whiteness of which
showed that the element was liquid, or even solid ; the other
exterior, the blue tint of which indicated the presence of
oxygen compressed and frozen in the gaseous state.

VIII. THE PHONOGRAPH.

O sooner had the wonderful simplicity and marvellous
capabilities of Mr. Graham Bell’s articulating tele-
phone been practically demonstrated in England
than we were startled by an announcement in the American
journals that another instrument had been invented, by Mr.
T. A. Edison, which would not only receive and register, but
also reproduce at any distant period, whatever sounds were
uttered into it by the human voice. The first accounts
of the wonders of the instrument were evidently some-
what coloured : that it does, however, actually re-produce
vocal sounds was demonstrated by Mr. W. H. Preece, at his
LeCture on the Telephone, at one of the Friday evening
meetings at the Royal Institution, when he exhibited the
Phonograph for the first time in England. By the courtesy
of the Editor of “ Engineering ” we are enabled to place
before our readers drawings and descriptions of different
forms of this instrument.

Fig. 1 is a general view of Mr. Edison’s instrument, which
has recently been brought to this country by Mr. Puscus,
his representative. It consists of a brass cylinder, which,
by a winch handle, can be rotated on a horizontal axis, upon
which is fixed a heavy fly wheel for the purpose of control-
ling, to some extent, its speed of rotation. One end of this
horizontal axis is screwed, and turns in a screwed bearing,
so that the cylinder is not only rotated on its axis, but has
imparted to it a lateral movement from end to end when the
winch is rotated. Around the circumference of the cylinder

246

[April,

The Phonograph.

is turned a spiral groove, the pitch of which is the same as
that of the screw on the horizontal shaft, so that if a fixed
pointer were to be set in the groove at any portion of its

length it would remain in it as the cylinder was rotated until
it worked out at either end.

In front of the cylinder and directed to its axis is fixed a
thin metallic diaphragm, carried by an arm attached to the

247

1878.] The Phonograph.

stand of the instrument, and provided with adjustments by
which a steel pin projecting from its centre may be accu-
rately set in the middle of the groove and at a proper depth ;
and in front of the diaphragm a mouthpiece is fixed, very
similar in form to that employed in Professor Bell’s tele-
phone.

From the above description it will be evident that if the
diaphragm be set into vibration by sounds being uttered into
the mouthpiece, the steel pin attached to it, partaking of
that vibratory motion, will enter into greater or less depths
into the groove on the cylinder, according as the amplitude
of vibration of the diaphragm by which its motion is con-
trolled be large or small. If, while this vibration is going
on, the cylinder be rotated in its screwed bearing, the point
of the pin will trace out a spiral undulating path of motion
within the groove, the amplitude of whose waves will be
equal to that of the vibrations of the diaphragm, their length
and form being dependent upon the rapidity and character
of the undulations of the metallic membrane combined with
the surface speed of the cylinder.

In order to obtain a permanent record of this wave-like
path a sheet of ordinary tin-foil is fastened round the cylin-
der, being secured in its place by brass caps, shown on the
drawing; and, as the centre of the diaphragm is adjusted
so as always to be opposite to the middle of the groove,
which is bridged over by the tin-foil, it follows that the pin
in vibrating with the diaphragm must indent the tin-foil,
which, at any spot below it, is unsupported by the resisting
surface of the cylinder, having nothing but a groove behind
it, and as the cylinder is rotated a chain of indentations is
produced, which is in every particular a record of the sounds
which originated them.

So far the apparatus is complete as an instrument for re-
cording sounds, and as such is not superior to many of its
predecessors, — such as the very beautiful logograph of Mr.
W. H. Barlow, F.R.S., the phonautograph of M. Leon-
Scott, or the instruments of Prof. Marey and the late Sir
Charles Wheatstone,— but the most wonderful feature of
Mr. Edison’s phonograph is that it not only interprets its
own record, but does so by re-converting it into sonorous
vibrations, repeating the sounds, whether articulate or other-
wise, in the adtual voice in which they were originally com-
municated to the mouthpiece.

In Mr. Edison’s first apparatus this was accomplished by
employing a second diaphragm of paper, fixed on the oppo-
site side of the cylinder to the first diaphragm, and thrown

348

[April,

The Phonograph.

into vibration by being attached by a silken thread to a light
steel spring, which carried at its extremity a blunt metallic
point, which was held by the elasticity of the spring against
the tin-foil covering the cylinder, but with sufficient light-
ness to allow it to be thrown into vibration as the indenta-
tions on the tin-foil passed beneath it.

Mr. Edison has, however, in his more recent instrument,
of which Fig. 1 is an illustration, dispensed with this second
membrane, making the one metallic diaphragm do double
duty, first by receiving vibrations from the voice and im-
pressing them upon the tin-foil, and afterwards by being
thrown into vibration by the passing below its projecting
pin of the indentations so produced, and thus giving out a
repetition of the original sound.

The diagram Fig. 2 will serve to illustrate the principle
upon which the tin-foil is impressed by the aCtion of the
vibration of the diaphragm, and how the latter is again
thrown into precisely similar vibration by the movement of

Fig. 2.

the embossed foil below it. It represents a magnified sec-
tion of the tin-foil taken along the line of the indentations,
showing the position of the pin as it rides over its surface
while the foil is travelling below it from right to left. The
indentations, of which three only are shown on the diagram,
having been produced on the foil by the sonorous vibrations
ot the diaphragm, it follows, from the construction of the
instrument, that if the foil be drawn under the pin at pre-
cisely the same speed as it was travelling when the
impressions were made upon it in the first instance, it will
cause the diaphragm to vibrate in an exactly similar man-
ner to that in which it vibrated under the influence of the
voice, and, from what was pointed out at the beginning of
this article, it would therefore emit a similar sound. This
diagram is, of course, greatly exaggerated, and must be
taken only as . an illustration of a possible explanation of
what goes on in the aCtion of the instrument, but which is
by no means certain. It presupposes that each indentation
is made up of a minute structural surface, the details of
which are so small as to be quite indistinguishable under

1878.]

249

The Phonograph .

comparatively high powers of the microscope, and yet must
be sufficiently pronounced to impart to the diaphragm
through its projecting pin those minute variations of vibra-
tion by which the proper form is given to the sound-bearing
waves of the air, and the exaCt quality of the sound is con-
veyed to the ear. It is almost impossible to conceive that
microscopical striae (for they can be nothing more) upon
such a substance as tin-foil can impart, by mechanical
means, to a diaphragm as rigid as that employed in the
phonograph, such niceties of motion ; but the phenomena
connected with the telephone have shown that metallic
diaphragms are capable of imparting to the air, and the
human ear is capable of detecting, sonorous vibrations whose
amplitude is so minute as to have been altogether unsus-

Fig. 3.

>■

peCted before. Some idea of the minuteness of the inden-
tations may be formed from Fig. 3, which is printed from
an electrotype cast of a piece of the foil, and is therefore a
facsimile on a plane surface of the marks recorded by the
instrument.

It will readily be understood that, in order to obtain a
perfect reproduction of the original sounds, the tin-foil must
travel below the diaphragm at precisely the same speed as
it was turning when it was receiving the impressions, and
therefore in Mr. Edison’s second instrument, which we have
been describing, the heavy flywheel was added to render the
speed of rotation as uniform as possible ; but in turning the
instrument by hand it is impossible, notwithstanding this
addition, to insure the surface speed of the cylinder being
always the same. In order to meet this requirement Mr.
Edison has since applied clockwork mechanism for driving

Fig.

250

The Phonograph.

[April,

the apparatus, with such marked success that, twelve clerks
were lately able to take down correCtly portions of . news-
paper articles from dictation spoken to them by the instru-

ment. At a recent exhibition of the phonograph in New
York its articulation was distinctly heard and understood at
a distance of 425 feet from the instrument. Still more

zSyS.] The Phonograph. 251

recently Mr. Edison has made records on copper-foil that
could be read at a distance of 275 feet in the open air.

Fig. 4 is a view of a very beautifully arranged instrument,
designed and constructed for his own use and instruction,
by Mr. Augustus Stroh.

The cylinder is driven round at a surface speed of about
1 foot in a second, by means of exceedingly simple controlled
clockwork mechanism actuated by a descending weight, at-
tached, upon Huyghen’s maintaining principle, to an endless
chain passing over a pulley fixed upon the principal
axis of the instrument, so that it is possible to wind up
the weight while the cylinder is rotating without affecting
' its speed.

The controlling fan, or governor, which is beautifully
simple and efficient, consists of two circular disks of brass
mounted at the upper ends of two light levers, which are
geared together at their lower ends, so as to cause them to
fly out symmetrically on each side of the axis of rotation of
the vertical fly-shaft to which they are pivoted. When the
machine is started (by taking off the pressure of a small
cork-lined brake-block, shown in small detail sketch, which
presses against the cylindrical head of the fly-spindle) the
disks fly out under the influence of centrifugal force, and the
resistance of the air to the motion of the spindle is increased
by the increase in the diameter of their path of rotation if
the speed become too great. Should, however, the speed of
rotation tend to fall off, a spiral spring, which can be
attached to the fan levers at any position in their length,
draws them together, and, by reducing the circle of their
path, offers to the mechanism a diminished resistance to
rotation.

At a recent meeting of the Society of Telegraph Engineers
both the instruments which we here describe were exhibited
in illustration of a very interesting paper, by Mr. W. H.
Preece, C.E., upon this last and perhaps greatest marvel of
the application of Science which this or any other age has
seen.

Mr. Edison’s first form of phonograph was represented by
a very successful instrument made by an amateur, Mr. Pigeon,
from descriptions received from America, and in which the
two diaphragms, the one of paper and the other of metal,
were employed.

The second form of apparatus was represented by Mr.
Edison’s own instrument (Fig. 1), and the more perfect form
driven by controlled mechanism was represented by Mr.

The Phonograph. [April,

Stroh’s instrument, which has been described, and which is
illustrated in Fig. 4.

The first words were spoken into the mouthpiece by
Mr. Puscus. The mouthpiece was then withdrawn, the cy-
linder turned back until the pin was at the beginning of the
groove, a cone of paper or speaking trumpet was put on in
front of the mouthpiece, and the handle once more rotated,
when the instrument shouted out, in a perfectly clear voice,
“ The Phonograph presents its compliments to the audience.”
This was heard in every portion of the hall of the Institu-
tion of Civil Engineers, and brought forth rounds of applause,
to which were added roars of laughter, when it again called
out in a voice still clearer than before, “ How do you do ?
How do you like the Phonograph ?” and then began to laugh
in veritable hearty human laughter, “ Ha ! ha! ha! ha!
ha ! hurray ! ”

Mr. Pigeon’s instrument was next tried, and the sublime
words of the national war song —

“ We don’t want to fight, but by Jingo if we do,”

followed by the recital of the equally ennobling creation of
the poet—

“ Twinkle, twinkle, little star,

How I wonder what you are.”

were given by the instrument with an emphasis entirely its
own, which caused great merriment.

A song was next sung into the mouthpiece, and was re-
produced amazingly out of tune, in consequence of the
impossibility of obtaining a perfectly uniform speed of
rotation.

When, however, Mr. Stroh’s instrument was brought into
use, the value to the phonograph of controlling the speed
of the cylinder by mechanical means was at once apparent,
for not only was the articulation of spoken words more
perfe(5t, but songs sung into it by Mr. Spagnoletti, Mr.
Edmunds, and Mr. Preece, were reproduced with very res-
pectable correctness; and even the breakdown of one of the
singers at a high note, accompanied by a little impatient
remark, was faithfully recorded, and given out again with
exasperating fidelity.

At the Physical Society, on March 2nd, the instrument
was again described by Mr. Preece, followed by a similar
series of experiments, with the addition of causing the in-
strument to perform the wonderful feat of reproducing a duet

1878.]

The Phonograph.

253

sung into it through a double mouthpiece by Mr. Spagnoletti
and Mr. Sedley Taylor. The result would certainly not
make the musical reputation of either gentleman, did it
stand upon no intrinsic merits of its own, but it was a re-
markable experiment as showing the marvellous powers of
which the phonograph of the future may be capable. At
this meeting it was further shown that when an indented
sheet of tin-foil has been employed to emit sounds it retains
its form with such perfeCtness that the sounds can be re-
produced by means of it a second, and even a third, time,
with nearly equal distinctness.

1

( 254 )

[April,

NOTICES OF BOOKS.

Some Chemical Difficulties of Evolution . By J. J. Maclaren,
M.A. London : Bumpus.

Perhaps our readers may remember that about two years ago
there appeared a book entitled “ A Critical Examination of some
of the Principal Arguments for and against Darwinism.” Whilst
cheerfully acknowledging the candour shown by the author, we
had but too much reason to declare that his work was more cal-
culated to retard than to promote the definite solution of the
question which he had attempted to discuss. We urged that for
men to deal with the most complicated problems in any science
before having made themselves familiar with its rudiments was
an absurdity at once painful and ludicrous. We have met with
no instance where a working naturalist — a man who had really
studied organic life in the fields, the woods, the museum, and the
biological laboratory — formed a more favourable opinion of Mr.
Maclaren’s book than did we. But, unfortunately, special know-
ledge of the subject in question is not considered more necessary
for reviewers than for authors. Certain writers in the political
and social papers of the day — on the principle, doubtless, that
u a fellow-feeling makes us wondrous kind ” — pronounced the
book “ useful and acceptable,” and thus encouraged the author to
further efforts in the same direction. In our notice of Mr. Mac-
laren’s former work we pointed out that he failed to “ distinguish
with sufficient clearness between Evolutionism — the dodlrine of a
progressive mutation of species — and Darwinism — the explana-
tion of such changes by the hypothesis of Natural and Sexual
Selection.” In the present volume the confusion is worse con-
founded, in a manner which we think indicates, to say the least,
very culpable carelessness. He tells us that there have been put
forward two views — the “ Creationists’ view,” the view of the
“ Evolutionist properly so-called, besides Mr. Darwin’s view.”
We are not sure whether the author is not here taking leave of
that fairness which characterised his first work. To give to the
opponents of Evolution the name of “ Creationists ” seems very
like the suggestio falsi that Evolutionists as such deny creation.
The “ Creationists,” according to Mr. Maclaren, hold —

(i.) “ That life was originally called into existence by a mighty
power whose commands matter and force are obliged
to obey.

(2.) “ That the same mighty power, after having originally
called the first living beings into existence, has conti-
nued to take a diredt part in calling into existence the
various new forms which have from time to time ap-
peared on the earth.”

Notices of Books.

255

1878.]

It would possibly surprise Mr. Maclaren were he told that there
are multitudes of Evolutionists who fully accept the first of these
propositions, and, perhaps with the sole exception of the word
“ diredt,” which might require some qualification, even the
second ! On the other hand, there are, or at least have been, men
who, whilst disbelieving in the transmutation of species, repudiate
equally the necessity of a Creator, asserting that each form of
life sprang into existence—

“ When fatal chance

Had circled its full orb.”

The old school of Natural History has therefore no exclusive
right to the title of “ Creationist,” its sole fundamental principles
being that species are non-transmutable, and that each form of
life originated from inorganic matter.

In opposition to the “ Creationist ” we have next the “ Evolu-
tionist,” of whose opinions the author gives a singularly travestied
summary : —

(1.) “ That the first combination of atoms which possessed
the distinctive properties of life was called into exist-
ence by the adtion of the physical forces which still
surround us, on a portion of the matter of which our
earth consists.

(2.) “That the first form of living being when once called into
existence, and afterwards its more or less modified
descendants, have been made to vary gradually by
changes in the external forces incident ; that the adtual
variations produced were due in part to gradual changes
in the external incident forces, and in part to internal
variations, the more or less remote consequences of
previous changes in the external forces surrounding
living beings ; that any variation arising in this way
which gave the living being in which it occurred an
advantage in the struggle for life under the conditions
which then prevailed was picked out by the survival of
the fittest to compete in this struggle, or, as it is gene-
rally called, by Natural Selection ; that all the known
forms of life, both existing and extindt, have in this
manner been developed from the first simple form of
living being under the influence of repeated slow
changes ; and that all change of form among living
beings has been very gradual.”

Further, we find Darwinianism not placed as it ought as one
of the forms of Evolutionism, but classified as a distindt and in-
dependent dodtrine. If Mr. Maclaren had taken the trouble to
master even the outlines of the subjedt upon which he is, for the
second time, coming forward as a teacher, he would have found
that the “ view of the Evolutionist properly so called ” merely
amounts to this — viz., that organic species are capable of trans-

256

Notices of Books .

[April,

mutation, and that new species, like new individuals, take their
rise not from inorganic lifeless matter, but from antecedent living
beings. Within this common doCtrine shades of opinion exist in
vast variety, that of Mr. Darwin being one and that which Mr.
Maclaren coolly ascribes to “ the Evolutionist ” another. An
Evolutionist may, certainly, in common alike with Mr. Wallace
and Mr. Darwin on the one hand, and with Professors Haeckel
and Oscar Schmidt on the other, consider that the origin of spe-
cies is due wholly or in great part to the agency of Natural
Selection ; or he may, with Mr. Mivart, ascribe it rather to an
internal force which occasions modification of structure in certain
divinely pre-ordained directions. He may regard Evolution as a
slow, gradual process, moving on at one uniform rate; or he may,
with Dr. Leconte, ascribe to it a more paroxysmal character,
having its periods of permanence followed by shorter intervals of
rapid change. Our author, overlooking all these important dis-
tinctions, and imputing to all Evolutionists, as a body, notions
which many of them would most earnestly repudiate, has, at
best, set up a straw puppet to show his skill in demolishing it,
and has given most abundant proof of his own inability to handle
the subjeCt. The chemical difficulties which he points out, and
which might have been summed up in much fewer words, are not
devoid of a certain weight as against Haeckel. As against
Darwin and Wallace, the author himself is not very confident of
their validity, whilst there are other schools of Evolutionists
whom they do not touch at aH.

We notice the following passkge : — “ Consider such a compound
as the frightful poison aconitine, which is met with only in the
roots and other parts of the genus Aconite. This is a distinCt
and specific chemical compound, and is one of the most powerful
and active poisons known, and it will at once be said the pos-
session of such a poison must be of great advantage to the plant
as a protection from enemies which would otherwise devour it.
No doubt ; but the point is whether anything was gained by the
elaboration of so very intense and aCtive a poison. Would not
the same end have been practically attained by the development
of an acrid poison of far less intensity ? And, if so, how came
it that this special compound was wrought up to so unnecessary
a point of perfection, when the energy of the plant would have
been more usefully directed into other operations ?” But how does
Mr. Maclaren know that the production of an intense poison is a
greater strain upon the energies of a plant than the secretion of
a colouring principle, of an odour, or of a non-poisonous organic
base ? Further, much of his question can with great effeCl be
turned upon the teleologists of the Old School. Why, for in-
stance, is the bite of the cobra so much more venomous than is
required for the destruction of the animals upon which it preys ?
Against larger animals it is no real defence, for though mortally
wounded they have ample time to take summary vengeance.

That chemistry has evidence to give upon the question of

Notices of Books.

257

1878.1

Organic Evolution we do not dispute, and Mr. Maclaren may
have rendered some service by calling the attention of enquirers
in that direction. But to find out such evidence and to ascertain
its value will require the labour of many years — perhaps of more
than one life-time.

Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian

Institution. Washington : Government Printing Office.

i877-

In the official reports with which this volume commences we
find an announcement that the National Museum, which has
hitherto been merged in the Smithsonian Institution, is about to
be placed on a distindl basis, it being considered that the two
establishments have now reached such a state of development
that they can scarcely be continued under one common organi-
zation. The appropriation for the maintenance of the Museum
now amounts to 20,000 dollars annually.

Among the memoirs included in the volume are the eloge on
Gay-Lussac, delivered by Arago ; a biographical sketch of the
present Emperor of Brazil; a paper by Mr. W. B. Taylor, of
Washington, on “ Kinetic Theories of Gravitation.” After re-
viewing all the speculations which more or less direCtly bear
upon the subjedl from the days of Dr. R. Hooke down to the
present time, the author, in summing up, remarks that every
kinetic system suffers from the “ culminating vice” of an
“ utterly reckless violation of any rational conception of the
conservation of energy.” He continues : “ And yet, remarkably
enough, the ostensible impulse and occasion of such creeds
have usually been a strong veneration for this much-abused
principle and the consciousness of a special mission to restore
and to vindicate its neglecffed authority ! Not unfrequently the
vibrations communicated to the telegraphic aether by a trembling
atom have been supposed to be transmitted unimpaired to that
or to other atoms and back again in endless and magnificent
cycles of perpetual motion. And as there is no limit to the
vis viva which such a medium may conserve within its bound-
less bosom, such projectors have the Bank of the Infinite on
which to draw in every dynamic emergency, without the fear of
a depleted treasury, and without any necessity being felt for inquir-
ing too nicely into the balance of the depositor’s account. And
thus, as Leray has intimated, suns and stars are maintained
blazing for ever on a borrowed capital of motion.”

In opposition to such views the author maintains that we
have, from experience, no reason for believing the aether to be in
any case a source of energy.

There is also a long and not unimportant paper by Prof. G.
Pilar, on the “ Revolutions of the Crust of the Earth.” The

VOL. VIII. (N.S.)

S

258

Notices of Books.

[April,

author starts with the hypothesis of M. Faye, who, in opposition
to Wilson, Herschel, and Arago, maintains that the mass of the
sun is entirely gaseous, and that by the contraction of this mass
is furnished the enormous amount of heat radiated into space.
Reviewing the gradual cooling and condensation alike of stars
and of planets, he brings us to the dawn of the geological life
of our earth, which he describes in accordance with views
generally accepted. The elevatory action of the central heat he
considers as “ slow and constant.” In his views of areas of
elevation he mentions Australia, as not merely now rising, but
as having been covered by the sea at no very distant time. Yet
it seems perfectly clear that at dates geologically not very
remote Australia must have passed through a stage of subsi-
dence, and that it extended eastwards as far as the great
“ Barrier Reef,” and to have been almost, if not quite, connected
with New Guinea to the northward, as has been shown by Mr.
A. R. Wallace.

In the next chapter, treating of the “ Fluid Envelope of the
Earth,” he calculates that at the present rate of denudation the
entire American continent must be levelled and buried in the
sea in four million years, supposing no upheavals to intervene.
The denudation of India proceeds at a rate at least three times
more rapid.

The author does not consider the atmosphere as permanent
either in its mass or its composition. “ According to Ebel-
mann (?), if the stratified rocks had contained 1 per cent, of
protoxide of iron, this would have been sufficient to absorb all
the oxygen of the air.” He maintains that the (free) nitrogen
of the atmosphere is also diminishing in quantity. He thinks
that nitrogen is “ taken out of the air by guano and other
analogous deposits and, on the authority of D’Archiac, asserts
that the nitrogen withdrawn from the atmosphere cannot un-
assisted return to its source, and that we know of no natural
agent for its restoration ! By “Swiss Saxony” (p. 310) Prof.
Pilar probably means the district usually known as the Saxon
Switzerland, or better as the Highlands of the Elbe, extending
from the southern side of the Dresden district to the frontiers of
Bohemia. Speaking of the fadt, recorded already by Pliny, that
mineral spring water is unsuited for culinary purposes, the
author tells us that “ Chemistry teaches us that selenitic waters
hold in solution carbonate of lime, which combining with the
legumin render these fruit unfit for alimentation.” We should
rather suppose that selenitic waters must contain selenite, i.e .,
sulphate of lime.

The author’s remarks upon the fossil fauna and flora of the
world and upon the origin of species cannot be considered
remarkably happy. Speaking of coal, he says : — “ England,
Belgium, France, Prussia, Silesia, Bohemia, Hungary, possess
mines of more or less importance. Scandinavia, Russia, Greece,

Notices of Books.

259

1878.J

Italy have, we may say, no coal-deposits.” Here is a serious
error; the coal-beds of Russia are large and important. He
proceeds : — “ Of other parts of the world America is the most
richly gifted ; while Australia possesses the least.” Here we
must again convid him of error ; there are undoubtedly regions
totally without coal, whilst Australia contains very considerable
deposits.

The view that the desert of Sahara was once a sea, com-
municating through the gulf of Gabes with the ocean, is by no
means universally accepted.

The author’s fifth chapter, on “ Ice,” deals with the interesting
and complicated question of glaciation. We have first the old
dispute as to whether the climate of Europe is improving or
deteriorating. M. Pilar evidently takes the latter view. He
writes : — “ We may, on the contrary, attribute to a slow cooling
the increased extent of the Swiss glaciers which from the twelfth
century have more and more obstructed the ancient passes of
the mountains, destroying forests and habitations, and reducing
the temperature of the surrounding country. In France and
Belgium the culture of the vine has ceased in many regions
where formerly its products were of great importance. The
disappearance of pines in Ireland indicates that Britain also
experiences this decrease of temperature. But the most striking
proof of a considerable cooling is furnished us by the dwindling
and decay of the birch forests of Iceland. This island, eminently
volcanic, was in the middle ages the seat of an advanced civili-
sation. The magnificent woods were peopled with numerous
animals, and the nightingale made music in the groves of this
island now ravaged by cold and fire.” This passage he sub-
stantially repeats elsewhere, maintaining that the temperature of
the northern hemisphere has been decreasing since A.D. 124.8,
whilst that of the southern has been improving. Upon these
supposed changes is based to a great extent his adhesion to the
famous theory of Adhemar. We must therefore examine the
alleged fads a little more closely. The Swiss glaciers, so far
from having been gradually extending since the twelfth century,
are now well known to be shrinking, and have in many striking
cases a much less extent than when Switzerland was first
recognised as the “ play-ground of Europe.” As regards Ire-
land, where fuschias and myrtles — and, according to the author,
even palm trees — flourish in the open air, it is very certain that
the disappearance of pines, if a historical fad, cannot be due to
a fall of temperature. The position and circumstances of Ice-
land are so peculiar that the decay of the birch forests there
is not a sufficient proof of the deterioration of the climate. The
demands of the inhabitants for fuel, the addon of the tremendous
volcanic outbursts which desolated the island, and the ravages
of goats, may amply account for the decline of these forests,
and when trees are once swept away from any country, by what

260 Notices of Books. [April,

cause soever, their re-introdudlion is a difficult task. The Ice-
land nightingales are probably due to the imagination of the
poets to whom Professor Pilar appeals. We can scarcely sup-
pose a bird of such limited powers of flight able to cross the
wide and stormy seas which intervene between Iceland and
either Norway or Scotland. In his hypothesis of a deluge every
10,500 years, proceeding alternately from the north and from
the south, M. Adhemar not only assumes the existence of
polar ice-caps larger than observation justifies, but takes for
granted that they rest upon the bottom of the ocean. Nor is the
supposition of one unbroken ice-cap covering the whole of
Northern Europe scarcely tenable in the face of the observations
of Mr. Mattieu Williams.* Whilst fully admitting also that
submergence and emergence have alternated over many, if not
all, parts of the surface of our globe, can we recognise the pro-
bability of a universal deluge, previous to which the preponder-
ance of water was in the northern hemisphere, having occurred
less than 10,000 years ago. All that we know of the distribution
of organic life, as well marine as terrestrial, seems to point to
the conclusion that for a very prolonged period land has predo-
minated in the northern hemisphere and water in the southern.

A Treatise on the Cycloid and all Forms of Cycloidal Curves.

By Richard A. Proctor. London : Longmans and Co.

1878.

This is a work or two hundred and fifty pages, devoted to the
investigation of a family of curves which have lost most of the
interest which formerly attached to them, and which, so far as
they are worth knowing, are studied with far greater ease and
perspicuity by the analytical method. The mass of details of
which the book is composed is hardly relieved by any real
generality in treatment in spite of the parallel sequence of the
propositions relating to the different curves. An effort is made
at the close of the work to exhibit a problem in whose solution
a knowledge of the properties of the cycloid is capable of appli-
cation ; but even the approximate solution of Kepler’s problem
there given fails to account for the fadt that “ students at the
Universities ” are expedted to find the work of “ use.”

The plates, which are due to Mr. Perigal and Mr. Boord, are
excellent. The beauties and variety of these curves, together
with the ease of their mechanical description, will always make
them favourites with the amateur turner ; but the interest of the
mathematician is soon satisfied with noting the effedt of changes
in the mode of their generation on their form, without enquiring

* Quarterly Journal of Sciencedvol. vii., p. 537.

Notices of Books.

261

1878.:

into such recondite properties as those referring to the centre of
gravity. More plates and less letter-press would have made this
book more useful to the designer and certainly not less useful to
the student.

Photographed Spectra . Printed by the Autotype Process. By

G. Rand Capron, F.R.A.S. London : E. and F. N. Spon.

1877.

This work contains no less than one hundred and thirty-six
photographs of metallic and gaseous spectra, accompanied by a
full description both of the conditions of each experiment and of
the spectra themselves. The spectra range from about the line b
to beyond H2 in the violet, and the method of reproduction
enables much more of the spedtrum in the direction of the violet
to be delineated than is ordinarily found in representations of
spectra. Each spectrum in its photographed form was found to
present a readily recognised individuality, and the author was
thus induced to imagine that the permanent reproduction of them
might furnish a handy bookVof reference to spectroscopists.

The spectroscope employed was by Browning, and was spe-
cially constructed for auroral observations. The prism was an
inch aperture compound, easily dividing the D lines, and the
collimator carried a 14-inch lens of 6 inches focus. The camera
was in immediate connection with the spectroscope, and the
images were taken upon collodion wet plates, 44 by 34 inches.
The metallic spectra were produced by the spark, and also by
the electric arc. The former was obtained from a large Ruhm-
korff coil giving a 2-inch spark, and the latter by forty pint
Grove cells. The width of the slit averaged 0*003 inch. Seve-
ral attempts were made to obtain photographs of the red end of
the spectrum. A full explanation of the various photographs is
given. All the elements, metallic and non-metallic, with a few
exceptions which could not be photographed, are given.

The work will be found of great service to the spectroscopist,
and of interest even to those who do not work practically.

Miscellaneous Papers connected with Physical Science. By
Humphry Lloyd, D.D., D.C.L., Provost of Trinity College,
Dublin. London : Longmans. 1877.

This work contains a reprint of twenty-three papers, reprinted
from the “ Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy,” the
“ Reports of the British Association for the Advancement of
Science,” and elsewhere. Four of these relate to Optics, and

262

Notices of Boohs.

[April,

include the important paper on Conical Refraction ; twelve relate to
Magnetism; two to Meteorology ; and five are Addresses delivered
on various occasions, on various subjects. The papers extend over
many years : we have a Report on the Progress and Present State
of Physical Optics, which was read before the British Associa-
tion in 1834; and the Introductory Address delivered before the
same Association twenty-three years later. The Report on
Physical Optics extends over 128 pages, and is of much value
for reference. The magnetic observations go back as far as
1834., and they were made in conjunction with Capt. Sabine and
Capt. James Ross. The observations are accompanied by some
useful charts. The chapters on the Meteorology of Ireland will
always be valuable, and will no doubt form the basis of a com-
plete system of meteorological observation, which may hereafter
be established in the island. The Introductory LeCture, on the
rise and progress of mechanical philosophy, contains an inte-
resting historical account of the earlier researches in this branch
of natural philosophy. Altogether the work will be found of
great interest to the man of Science.

Physiography : an Introduction to the Study of Nature. By

J. H. Huxley, F.R.S. London : Macmillan. 1877. 8vo.,

377 PP-

This work embodies the subjeCt-matter of a course of educa-
tional leCtures delivered nine years ago at the London Institution.
It is a Physical Geography containing the newest and most
accurate details, and divested of the formal treatment which
usually characterises works on that subjeCt. The opening chap-
ter treats of “ The Thames,” and this river was chosen because
the leCtures were addressed to Londoners by a Londoner; but
the author points out that any intelligent reader or teacher will
have no difficulty in transferring the ideas herein expressed from
the Thames to the river and river-basin of his own district. The
general formation of rivers is traced, and the nature of water-
shed and water-parting, land-drainage and springs, is discussed.
A map shows the principal river-basins and water-partings of
Great Britain.

The second chapter is on “ Springs,” the formation of which
is illustrated by some excellent woodcuts. It is shown that all
such sources of water owe their origin to the rain which sinks
into the earth, and descends until it finds an impermeable
stratum. This naturally leads (Chap. III.) to an account of
rain and dew. The formation of clouds is discussed, and illus-
trated by some good chromo-lithographs ; a coloured hyeto-
graphical map shows the annual rainfall in different parts of

Notices of Books .

263

1878.J

England, and the formation of dew is described. The account
of liquid water is followed by that of solid water (Chap. IV.),
and the principal physical properties of ice and snow receive full
attention. A chapter on evaporation shows the connection be-
tween it and the rainfall.

The sixth chapter is devoted to the atmosphere, the chemical
nature of which is fully discussed. This is followed by an ac-
count of its physical properties, and of the perturbations which
arise owing to alterations in the pressure. “ The Times ”
weather-chart is reproduced and described ; also the barometer-
charts of the “ Standard ” and “ Daily Telegraph.” The
chemical and physical history of the air is followed by a chapter
in which the composition of pure water is demonstrated. The
constituents of mineral waters and of sea-water are discussed,
and analyses given.

The ninth chapter is of a more geological character: it treats
of the work of rain and rivers, the power of running water, and
processes of denudation. The Thames is said, on the authority
of Prof. Geikie, to discharge annually 1,865,903 cubic feet of
sediment, to which must, of course, be added the mineral matter
carried away in solution, which brings up the amount to
14,000,000 cubic feet of solid matter. “ Imagine a huge die-
shaped mass of stone 100 feet in length, 100 feet in width, and
100 feet in height : this would contain one million cubic feet.
No fewer, then, than fourteen of these gigantic cubes appear to
be quietly stolen from the surface of the Thames basin by means
of running water, and transported to the sea, in the course of a
single year. But the Thames basin covers a very large area,
and it will be found on calculation that, admitting the abstraction
of this vast mass, the entire surface of the basin would be re-
duced in level by only i-8ooth part of an inch every year. At
the present rate of wear and tear, therefore, denudation can have
lowered the surface of the Thames basin by hardly more than an
inch since the Norman Conquest; and nearly a million years
must elapse before the whole basin of the Thames will be worn
down to the sea-level.” Prof. Geikie has calculated that, at the
present rate of denudation, it would require 5^- million years to
reduce the British Islands to a level with the surface of the sea.

The tenth chapter is devoted to “ Ice and its Work:” — the
mechanical expanding work of water in the aCt of freezing, the
motions of glaciers, and so on. A capital engraving of the gla-
cier of Zermatt is given on page 156. It is shown that the
passage of a glacier across a country produces peculiarities which
are not caused by any other process of denudation, and it is thus
possible to infer with certainty that ice has been at work in a
district in which ice is now never seen. The flat-domed hillocks
known as roches montonnees are thus produced, and they may be
detedfed in Ireland, Cumberland, Scotland, and North Wales,
together with bloce perches , and vestiges of old moraines.

Notices of Books .

[April,

264

The chapter on the “ Sea and its Work ” is illustrated by a
capital sedlion of the Atlantic between Sandy Hook and Ber-
muda, in which the soundings are given at short intervals, the
temperatures, and the position and dimensions of the Gulf
Stream. Here, also (p. 182), we find a chart of the estuary of
the Thames between the Nore and Margate. The account of
volcanoes and earthquakes includes geysers, and is illustrated by
a representation of the Beehim Geyser of Yellowstone Park,
Colorado, which throws jets of hot water to a height of 200 feet.
It is said that there are no less than 10,000 hot springs, geysers,
and hot lakes within the area of Yellowstone Park.

The slow movements of the land (Chapter XIII.) are shown to
be altogether more important than the sudden paroxysmal
changes produced by earthquakes. The best-known example of
such changes within the memory of man is perhaps to be found
at Puzzuoli, where the land near the Temple of Serapis appears
to be sinking at the rate of one inch in every four years. This
occurs in the midst of a volcanic district ; but in Scandinavia,
a country peculiarly free from earthquakes, we have positive
proof of similar slow changes. The northern part of the penin-
sula is rising, while the southern part appears to be undergoing
depression. Evidences of similar changes are not wanting in
some parts of Great Britain.

A long chapter (XIV.) is devoted to “ Living Matter, and the
Effedts of its Activity on the Distribution of Terrestrial Solids,
Fluids, and Gases. Deposits formed by the Remains of Plants.”
Herein it is shown that the gaseous and liquid constituents of
the earth are being constantly reduced to the solid form, either
temporarily or permanently, by living matter. Prof. Huxley ob-
jects to the term organic matter, “ because all forms of living
matter cannot be stridtly said to be organised.” Vegetable life
is traced up from its most primitive beginnings, by a gradual
process of evolution, until it attains full perfection, and then
passes to decay. The same is done with animal life, com-
mencing with the egg ; and the analogy between the growth of
the plant and of the animal is shown. Then the principal fossil
vegetable forms are described, and the formation of the coal-
measures. The whole of this chapter is treated in an original
and highly suggestive style. A natural continuation leads, in
Chapter XV., to the formation of land by animai agencies, such
as “ Coral Land,” and (Chapter XVI.) “ Foraminiferal Land.”
The latter embraces an account of some of the deep-sea sound-
ings of the Challenger, the bed of the Atlantic, and globigerina-
ooze.

Since at the commencement of the volume we find an account
of the surface configuration of the Valley of the Thames — that
river being chosen for the reason stated above — it is appropriate
that now the geological structure of the Thames basin should
be discussed (Chapter XVII.) : this is accompanied by a geolo-

1878.]

Notices of Books.

265

gical map and seCtion of the district. The history of one single
river-basin leads to a more general account of the distribution of
land and water over the surface of the globe (Chapter XVIII.)

The penultimate chapter treats of the figure of the earth and
the construction of maps, and the final chapter of the sun.

It will be seen from the above that no formal sequence of
subjeCt-matter has been attempted by the author. A book which
commences with “ The Thames ” and ends with “ The Sun,”
and discusses midway geology, palaeontology, and physical
geography, interlaced with chemistry and physics, cannot be re-
garded as an example of great continuity of structure and
design. Only a most comprehensive and original mind, such as
that of Prof. Huxley, could make such a work at once intensely
interesting and highly instructive. The book will be welcomed
alike by the general reader, the teacher, and the student. For
the upper forms in our modern school divisions it is admirably
suited. Its great value to every class of reader depends not only
on the matter which it contains, but upon its suggestiveness
and upon its excellent literary style.

An Elementary Treatise on Physics , Experimental and Applied .
Translated from Ganot’s “ Elements de Physique,” by E.
Atkinson, Ph.D., F.C.S. Eighth Edition, Revised and
Enlarged. London : Longmans. 1877.

This is a new edition of a very well-known work which has been
reviewed at length in our columns. It is not often that a scien-
tific book of this magnitude reaches an eighth edition in this
country, and the faCt speaks for itself without any further com-
ment. The present edition contains sixty pages of new matter
and sixty-two illustrations. All the most recent discoveries in
Science have been introduced, and the work is a complete
exponent of the present state of general elementary physics.

A Star Atlas for Students and Observers. Showing 6000 Stars
and 1500 Double Stars, Nebulas, &c., in Twelve Maps on
the Equidistant Projection ; with Index Maps on the Stereo-
graphic Projection. By Richard A. Proctor. Fourth
Edition. London : Longmans. 1877.

Three editions of this work having been sold rather rapidly, the
author determined to bring out a cheaper edition, and this is the
result. The maps are constructed in reference to the year 1880,
and they will continue to be more and more correct than in the

266

Notices of Books,

[April,

year when first published, until 1890 ; moreover, it will not be
as far from correctness, on account of precession, as existing
Star Atlases, until the year 1927 ! The stars which are mapped
include all down to the sixth magnitude inclusive, and are taken
from the B. A. Catalogue and all other most available sources.
The maps are drawn by Mr. Proctor himself. We predict a long-
continued career of usefulness to this laborious work.

Transits of Venus. A Popular Account of Past and Coming
Transits. Third Edition.

The Universe of Stars , Presenting Researches into, and New
Views respecting, the Constitution of the Heavens. Second
Edition.

Other Worlds than Ours. The Plurality of Worlds Studied
under the Light of Recent Scientific Researches. Fourth
Edition.

By Richard A. Proctor. London : Longmans. 1878.

These works are second, third, and fourth editions of well-known
treatises on popular astronomy, by that most indefatigable and
industrious writer Mr. R. A. Proctor. In each instance the
former editions have been revised, and in some respects modified.
New discoveries have also been introduced, and these have in-
creased as much in astronomy as in any other science. Of
recent matters we have Dr. H. Draper’s discovery of oxygen in
the sun by means of its bright lines ; also the discovery of the
two small moons of Mars, which revolve around him in respect-
ively 3°i and 7f hours, at distances of 14,000 and 5600 miles
from his centre. A new star, which appeared in Cygnus, has
faded into a planetary nebula, and it emits the monochromatic
light of certain gaseous nebulae whose spectrum is a single
nitrogen line. The calculations regarding the distance of the
sun from the earth, founded on the recent observations of the
Transit of Venus, appear to be drawing to a close, and they give
an approximate distance of 93,000,000 miles. Mr. Proctor
unites much learning with an easy popular style : he thoroughly
understands his subjects, and has carried out much observational
research ; moreover, he is an excellent draughtsman, and fre-
quently gives us his own designs. Thus his books are at the
same time popular and scientifically accurate, and they must
always commend themselves to every class of reader.

Notices of Books .

267

1878.:

Pocket Altitude Tables. Short and Simple Rules for Accurately

Determining Altitudes Barometrically. By G. J. Symons.

London : Stanford.

We once heard of an amateur who fell to work to measure the
height of one of the loftiest peaks of the Carpathian range. He
made his observations with great precision, calculated out the
results, and found — a height, or rather depth, considerably below
the sea-level ! Mr. Symons’s little book will, we think, effectu-
ally prevent such an undesirable consummation. By following
the author’s instructions fairly accurate results may be obtained
with a minimum of time and trouble, and without the necessity
of employing two observers and two sets of instruments, which
on an exploring expedition is not always practicable.

How to Work with the Spectroscope. A Manual of Practical
Manipulation with Spectroscopes of all Kinds, &c. By
John Browning, F.R.A.S., &c. London : John Browning.
1878.

This little work, from the pen of our leading spectroscope maker,
will be found useful to the student who is commencing the study
of speCtroscopy. It gives practical directions for working with
spectroscopes of all descriptions, from the simple pocket form to
the large compound prism apparatus. The various kinds of in-
struments at present in use are also figured and described, so
that the beginner may gain an insight into the cost of an outfit
before taking up this branch of scientific study. The para-
graphs giving directions for mapping speCtra might have been
extended with advantage. The whole is illustrated with thirty
woodcuts and diagrams of apparatus and speCtra.

As an introduction to the more expensive works of Schellen,
Roscoe, and others, Mr. Browning’s little book may be safely
recommended, especially if used in conjunction with Mr. ProCtor’s
shilling manual of the Spectroscope.

Mineralogy . ByJ. H. Collins, F.G.S. Vol. L, The General

Principles of Mineralogy. London and Glasgow : W. Col-
lins, Sons, and Co. 1878.

This book, which forms part of Collins’s Advanced Science
Series, has been specially written to enable those practical
working miners, quarrymen, field geologists, and students of the

268

[April,

[ Notices of Books .

Science Classes of the Department of Science and Art, who
wish to submit to the Government examinations, to pass with
credit. The present volume treats more especially of the phy-
sicr.l characters of minerals generally, eighteen of the twenty-
seven chapters being devoted to a description of Miller’s system
of crystallography, all mathematical formulae being avoided.
The other physical properties of minerals — such as cleavage,
structure, magnetism, optical properties, &c. — are also well
described ; the analysis of minerals by the blowpipe is, however,
dismissed in ten pages. There are but few elementary manuals
of chemistry in which any space is given to blowpipe analysis.
It seems a pity, therefore, that the opportunity was lost of giving
a more detailed account of a subject of such vital importance to
the working mineralogist. The use of the spectroscope in the
qualitative analysis of minerals is hurried through a dozen lines.
We fear that the system of publishing books in series of volumes,
each containing an exact number of sheets, is a mischievous
one, for in too many instances it compels authors to restridt cer-
tain portions of their work within inconvenient limits. The
work is illustrated by nearly six hundred diagrams. The second
volume, which will shortly be published, will treat of descriptive
mineralogy.

Building Construction , showing the Employment of Timber ,
Lead , and Iron Work , &*c. By R. Scott Burn. Vol. I.,
Text; Vol. II., Plates. London and Glasgow: W. Collins,
Sons, and Co. 1878.

The fame which Mr. R. Scott Burn has gained for his numerous
works on the constructive arts renders it almost unnecessary to
say very much about the latest production of his pen and pencil.
We need only open it at any page to see that it is written by a
thoroughly practical man, possessed of the power of explaining
his meaning in clear homely language. The text is illustrated
by nearly five hundred woodcuts, besides which there is a quarto
volume of plates, containing thirty pages of plans, working
drawings, and diagrams, illustrative of the text. Amongst them
are also a number of plates containing examples explanatory
of the excellent instructions for mechanical and free-hand
drawing.

We cordially recommend these volumes to all who are con-
nected with the constructive arts. The work forms part
of Collins’s Advanced Science Series.

1878.]

Notices of Books.

269

Botany: Outlines of Morphology and Physiology. By W. R.
McNab, M.D., F.L.S., Professor of Botany, Royal College
of Science, Ireland. London : Longmans and Co. 1878.

This little work forms part of the series of London Science
Class-Books, edited by Prof. G. Carey Foster and Mr. P. Magnus,
and is stated to be intended for pupils who have already acquired
\ a rudimentary knowledge of botany. The growth of cells of
different kinds, their aggregation to form tissues, and the general
external conformation of plants are treated of in the first three
chapters. The next five are devoted to the nutrition of plants,
their general conditions of life and growth, their movements and
modes of reproduction. The book ends with a chapter on classi-
fication. So far the general arrangement, which is excellent ;
but we regret to see a constant tendency on the part of the author
to use terms derived from the Greek and Latin, most of them
neologisms, when English ones would serve just as well. What
possible end can it serve to call the stem of a plant a caulome ,
the leaf a pliyllome , and its hairs trichomes , and that, too, with-
out giving the pupil the least clue to the derivation of these and
a hundred other similar words ? We must really warn teachers
against using a book for any class of school-boys whose chief
end seems to be to cram their minds with such faCts as these — -
that “ imperfeCt self-fertilising flowers are kleistogamous that
“ flowers fertilised by the agency of birds are called ornithophi-
lous or that “ in sympodial dichotomies the sympodium con-
sists either of the fork-branches of the same side, right or left,
the bostrychoid (helicoid) dichotomy, as seen in the leaf of
Adiantum pedatum ; or the branches are alternately right and
left, the cicinnal (scorpioid) dichotomy of many of the Selagi-
nellas .” We thought that pedantic cramming was being speedily
eradicated from our educational system, but the noxious plant
seems to be still flourishing.

A Treatise on Photography. By W. de Wiveslie Abney,
F.R.S., &c. Text-Books of Science. London : Longmans
and Co. 1878.

Captain Abney has already earned the gratitude of both pro-
fessional and amateur photographers by his little work “ Instruc-
tion in Photography,” published some twelve months since.
His first book, however, was almost entirely practical in its
nature, the theory of photography being only treated of inci-
dentally. The present work fully supplements the first, and
enters into full details with regard to the theory of the subjeCt.
It must not be thought that the author confines himself entirely

270

Notices of Books . [April,

to theory, for there are sufficient technical instructions for all
the best known wet and dry processes to enable anyone pos-
sessing the book to become an accomplished landscape photo-
grapher. The history of photography — from the days when
Scheele first saw lima cornua blackening in the sun, to the
latest improvements in photo-engraving processes — is succinctly
given in the first chapter; after which the author gives a series
of experiments on light, which form an admirable introduction
to his third chapter, which treats of the theory of sensitive
compounds. This chapter is undoubtedly a tough one, but it
will fully repay any amateur or professional for the time and
trouble which he may take in mastering it. The next two chap-
ters— on “ The Action of Light on Various Compounds,” and
on “ The Support and Substratum ” — may be looked upon as a
continuation of the third. We are now introduced to the more
practical part of the subject, the daguerreotype being the first
process treated of. Some practical photographers may smile at
this exhumation, but they are perhaps not aware that it was
employed by the French astronomical expeditions which were
sent out to observe the transit of Venus in 1874. Where minute
measurements of the photographic image have to be made, as
in astronomical or spectroscopic work, the advantage of having
a rigid immovable surface to work on, instead of an unequally
contractile film, will be readily understood ; in fact, we are sur-
prised that so many photo-spectroscopists should still adhere to
the wet or dry collodion process. This being the case, the
chapter in question might have been longer. The various collo-
dion processes are next described, the practical instructions
being very copious. As might have been expected, they take up
a large portion of the book. The gelatino-bromide process
and the old-fashioned catotype, which Capt. Abney informs us is
still practised in remote districts in India, next claim our atten-
tion. We next come to the various printing and toning pro-
cesses, both on glass and paper ; printing with ferric, uranic,
and chromic salts, the various autotype processes being as fully
described as the secrets of trade will allow. The Woodbury-
type process is also well described. The next chapters are de-
voted to the photo-lithographic processes of Col. de C. Scott and
Sir Henry James, — much used by the Ordnance Department for
the reproduction of enlarged or reduced copies of charts and
maps. It may interest our readers to know that large numbers
of maps reduced by a modification of this process, introduced by
Captain Ali Bey, the chief of the Photographic Department of
the Seraskierate, were largely and profitably used by the officers
of the Ottoman army engaged in the late disastrous campaign.
Photo-engraving and relief processes are next described, but of
course practical details are wanting, so many of the operations
connected with them being kept secret. A print from a photo-
relief plate, by Warnerke, produced by a secret process, is given,

Notices of Books.

271

1878.]

and is one of the best specimens of the kind that we have seen.
The two chapters on Lenses and Apparatus will be of great
assistance to the amateur purchaser, who frequently wastes an
immense deal of time and money through being ignorant of his
real requirements. The chapter “ On the Picture ” is a most
valuable one from an artistic point of view. Not only are
minute instructions given for obtaining artistic pictures instead
of mere photographic transcripts, but the photographer is shown
what is right and wrong by means of nearly a dozen beautifully
executed woodcuts of scenery of all descriptions, taken from
photographs by Manners Gordon, Woodbury, H. P. Robinson,
and other masters of the craft. A chapter on aCtinometers and
aCtinometry follows, and the remainder of the book is devoted to
photo-speCtroscopy, celestial photography, micro-photography,
and the miscellaneous applications of photography.

We most cordially recommend Capt. Abney’s book to our
readers. We regret to say that the Index to this important work
is so meagre as to be almost useless.

A Critical Examination of the Flints from Brixham Cavern.

By A. Whitley. London : Hardwicke and Bogue.

This pamphlet, which is a reprint from the “ Transactions of
the Victoria Institute,” has for its objeCt to disprove that the
flints found in the Brixham Cavern were knives, or otherwise
show traces of human labour. The author brings to his task no
small ingenuity, and a too obvious desire to make the most of
every circumstance upon which the faintest doubt may be
founded. This is the weak side of his argument ; we cannot
trust a critic who speaks not as a judge, but as a most passionate
advocate. That he has established a charge of carelessness
against some of the discoverers and custodians of the relic in
question is undeniable.

Zoology of the Vertebrate Animals. By Alex. Macalister,
M.D. London : Longmans and Co.

This treatise is one of a series entitled the “ London Science
Class Books,” edited by Messrs. G. C. Foster and P. Magnus.
According to their Preface, these gentlemen consider that there
is “ still a want of books adapted for school purposes upon seve-
ral important branches of Science.” Their objedt being to
supply this want, they have sought to obtain the co-operation of
men who “ combine special knowledge of the subjects on which
they write with practical experience in teaching.”

272

Notices of Books.

[April,

Within the very brief space allotted — some 120 small pages —
the author has given a fair, but of course very sketchy, account
of his subject. We are somewhat surprised to find it stated
that the common viper is “ easily recognised by its dark green
colour.” Among the hundreds we have captured, from England
to Dalmatia, we never met with a specimen that could be called
green ; the males were various shades of grey, and the females
copper-colour. We fear the author’s estimate that over 10,000
deaths take place annually from snake-bites is far too low. As
an oversight, we may also notice that the swift is ranked among
the birds which leave us “ about the first week in October.”

Report of the Board of Health of the City of Nashville for the
Year ending July 4 th , 1877. Nashville : Tavel, Eastman,
and Howell.

In addition to a Report on Sanitary Reform in Nashville, this
volume comprises papers on the topography, the geology, the
water-supply, and the climate of the city. Nashville is a place
whose sanitary history, as here given, is exceedingly instructive.
It was once a summer health resort. By negleCt of proper pre-
caution and regulation during its increase from a village to a
city — as has happened in too many places on both sides of the
Atlantic — its death-rate increased ; but now intelligent attention
has been awakened, the tide is turning. Mention is made of
one J. M. Bass, who, “ as Receiver, replaced the entire City
Government,” and who “ made the fatal mistake of economising
at the expense of the public health.” It would be well, indeed,
if so-called economists, who are always counting the cost of any
projected measure, would be fair enough to add the reverse of
the medal, and count the cost of letting things alone ; it would
often prove much the heavier. We find here a high compliment
paid to our country of which we are scarcely worthy. The
Report speaks of “ Great Britain, the acknowledged leader in all
sanitary reform.” When we read these words we remembered
the multitudes of inhabited cellars in our English towns — an
abomination entirely absent in Paris.

The following faCts, if no mistake prevails, must rank among
the unsolved mysteries of medical science: — “that cholera is
never seen in Iceland, Siberia, Greenland, or Australia ; that
phthisis is never seen in Iceland, and only rarely in Norway,
Madras, or the elevated plains of Mexico.”

We are glad that the sanitary value of trees is fully recognised
in this Report, and that planting is urged as a public duty.

1878.]

Notices of Books,

2 73

A List of Writings relating to the Method of Least Squares ,
with Historical and Critical Notes. By Mansfield Mer-
riman, Ph.D.

A bibliographical treatise of great value to mathematicians*
physicists, and engineers.

Sketch of the Origin and Progress of the United States Geolo-
gical and Geographical Survey of the Territories. By F. V.
Hayden, U.S. Geologist in Charge. Washington : Darby
and Duvall. 1877.

This pamphlet contains an interesting and useful sketch of the
rise and extension of that continuous scientific exploring condi-
tion for which the Federal Government is deservedly reaping
golden opinions. The Survey it appears took its origin in 1867,
when Nebraska was admitted as a State of the Union, the unex-
pended balance of the sum appropriated for its legislative
expenses as a territory being set apart by Congress for a Geolo-
gical Survey of the new State. The utility of such an under-
taking, executed in a spirit of thoroughness, having become
evident to the Legislature (whose wisdom in this respeCt might
be advantageously imitated in other countries), further sums of
money were voted, and the Survey was gradually extended, not
alone as to the country to be explored, but also as to the subjects
included. Not alone the geology- — using the term in its widest
sense — but the ethnology, the natural history, the meteorology,
and the agricultural resources of the territories are carefully
studied and reported on. Men of proved eminence are appointed
to the various departments, and they are allowed both time and
appliances to carry out their task in a manner creditable to
themselves and their country, and highly useful to men of
Science throughout the civilised world.

Among the most valuable results of the Survey may be men-
tioned the observations glanced at in the following passage : —
“ Accumulated experience has shown that the various evolutional
tides of organic life have not advanced at the same rate in all
parts of the world. Thus while we find that a certain grade of
vertebrates, invertebrates, and plants are associated together in
the strata of, and collectively characterise a certain geological
period in, Europe, in America we find that the same grade of
plant life was evidently reached much earlier, and the same
grade of vertebrate life was continued much later.”

One of the features of this Survey has been the employment
of a skilful photographer, Mr. W. H. Jackson, whose success in

VOL. VIII. (N.S.)

T

274

Notices of Books . [April,

conveying the characteristics of rocks and mountains we have
on a former occasion had the pleasure of pointing out. The
value, or rather the necessity, of photography in scientific
exploration is scarcely even yet fully understood by the public at
large. We are justly told that “ twenty years ago hardly more
than caricatures existed, as a general rule, of the leading features
of overland exploration. Mountains were represented with
angles of 60 degrees inclination, covered with great glaciers, and
modelled upon the type of any other than the Rocky Mountains ;
the angular lines of a sandstone mesa represented with all the
peculiarities of volcanic upheaval or of massive granite.”

The total number of negatives in the possession of the Survey
amounts to nearly four thousand.

Bulletin of the United States Geological and Geographical

Survey of the Territories. Vol. iii., No. 4; Vol. iv., No. 1.

Washington : Government Printing-Office.

This number is devoted to zoology, recent and fossil. The first
paper, by Mr. S. H. Scudder, contains a description of certain
fossil insedts discovered in the Tertiary beds of White River, on
the borders of Colorado and Utah. With the possible exception
of four specimens from the Miocene of North Greenland, they
are the first insedts found in the Tertiary strata of America.
There are in the collection no Lepidoptera, nor has the author
yet met with any fossil species of this order of American origin,
and no Orthoptera. More than one-half the species are Diptera,
thus showing that these creatures — whose absence would be one
of the essential requisites of a “ golden age ” — must have existed
from a very early date in the Western Hemisphere. There are
three Hymenoptera, four Hemiptera, one Neuropterous insect,
and nine Coleoptera. The relative proportion of insedts of
different orders found in various deposits is of course a document
of the highest value as regards their origin. If we consider
that the Diptera, from their fragility, are about the least likely
insedts to be preserved, it will, we think, be allowed that in the
Tertiary times they must have been relatively more abundant
than in the present day. Among the Coleoptera the absence of
Buprestidae is remarkable.

There is a description of two fossil Carabs found in the Inter-
glacial deposits of Scarboro’ Heights, Toronto; a catalogue of
the insedts colledted by Dr. Uhler during the explorations of
1875, with notices of their localities, times of appearance, &c.
There are also papers on Camharus Couesi, a new crawfish from
Dakota ; on a carnivorous Dinosaurian from the Dakota beds of
Colorado ; a notice on the ichthyological fauna of the Green
River Shales ; and an account of the genus Erisichthe .

1878.]

Notices of Books.

275

The first numberin Vol. iv. gives the records of much good work.
The first paper, “ Notes on the Ornithology of the Lower Rio
Grande of Texas,” by G. B. Sennett, may give the general public
an idea of the difficulties which naturalists have to encounter on
theirexplorations. “While we were constantly on the alertforhuge
rattlesnakes, tarantulas, and centipedes, still more troublesome
enemies were with us continually in the shape of wood-ticks and
red bugs, to say nothing of the fleas. The wood-ticks we could
pick off or dig out, but the abominable red bugs, too small to be
seen, work themselves through the clothes and into the skin,
making one almost wild with incessant itching. We only ob-
tained partial relief by giving ourselves from head to foot, before
going to bed, a bath of ammonia, and a daily bath of kerosene
oil before going into the brush.”

The author secured five hundred birds, one altogether new to
Science ; about a thousand eggs, many of them new or rare ; a
few mammals, all of which proved interesting ; and quite a col-
lection of inserts.

Drs. Coues and Yarrow’s “ Notes on the Herpetology of
Dakota and Montana ” include a most valuable account of the
rattlesnake, of which five species, belonging to the two closely-
allied genera Crotalus and Caudisoma , infest the region in ques-
tion. The authors do not believe in the alleged power of
fascination possessed by this reptile, and consider that the use
of the rattle is a problem still unsolved. “ One thoroughly esta-
blished faCt concerning the rattle is that its practical operation
is injurious to its possessor, by provoking attack from those who
can cope with it successfully.” There is no known specific for
the poison of the rattlesnake, but its bite, unlike that of the
cobra, is by no means invariably fatal.

Geological Survey of Victoria. No. 4. Report of Progress by
the Secretary for Mines, with Reports on the Geology,
Mineralogy, and Physical Structure of Various Parts of the
Colony. By Messrs. Murray, Krause, Taylor, Howitt,
Nicholas, McCoy, and Newberry. Melbourne: Ferres.
London : Triibner and Co.

It is satisfactory to know that the exploration of Australia —
geological, palaeontological, and mineralogical — is not standing
still. Attention is mainly directed, not unnaturally, to the occur-
rence of gold-fields and auriferous quartz veins. Still the ex-
istence of other useful minerals and the occurrence of animal
and vegetable remains are not overlooked. Prof. McCoy makes

276

Notices of Books.

[April,

the following interesting remark : — “ As in South America the
Geological period, just before the creation of man, had the
gigantic Megatherium to pre-figure the little sloths of the present
day amongst the characteristic edentate group of mammals of
the fauna of the same country, so the little native “ bears ”
( Phascolarctos ) of Victoria in our day were preceded, at the
same late Tertiary period, by equally huge animals of their same
general marsupial type, as characteristic of the existing Aus-
tralian fauna as the edentate is of that of South America. The
Diprotodon of Australia, curiously enough, like the Megatherium
of South American deposits, was obviously a feeder on the twigs
and foliage of trees, like their diminutive representatives of
modern times.”

Among the fossils figured is Asterolepis ornata , which occurs,
though rarely, in the Middle Devonian Limestones of the Buchan
River, and is almost identical with specimens found in the
Russian Old Red Sandstone. Upon the occurrence of this
species Prof. McCoy remarks : — “ The great ganoid armour-
plated fishes of the genus Asterolepis are amongst the most
abundant and striking characteristics of the Devonian rocks of
Russia, and it is certainly a most extraordinary circumstance to
find them here in Australia in limestones of the same age, and
accompanied by the corals and shells of the Plymouth and Eifel
limestones of similar age, with which they are not known to
occur in England or Germany, and which do not occur with
them in the Russian beds.”

As additional instances of the permanence of local type in
Australia, both among plants and animals, may be cited the oc-
currence, in the Pliocene Tertiary argillaceous strata at Dayles-
ford, of Eucalyptus Pluti , the foliage of which is in size and
shape almost identical with that of the living Eucalyptus globulus .
Relics of gigantic extindf kangaroos, Macropus Titan and M.
Atlas, are found in the newer Pliocene Tertiary, 25 feet below
the surface, at a place called Duck Ponds.

Several of the iron ores of Victoria have been analysed, and
are considered valuable. Certain samples, from Lake Tyers and
from Bonang, have been pronounced by an experienced English
iron-master worth carriage from Melbourne into Shropshire.
The reporter, however, thinks it doubtful whether even the best
of the Vidforian iron ores would, in their crude state, pay for
export to England, owing to the expense of land-carriage to the
sea-board.

The volume is illustrated with maps, diagrams, and plates,
showing microscopical rock-sedtions, sedtions of strata, and views
illustrative of the general charadter of the scenery.

1878.]

Notices of Books .

277

Records of the Geological Survey of India, Vol. x., Parts 1, 2, 3.

i877-

The Annual Report of the Survey for the year 1876 contains
some judicious strictures upon men of science who wish to force
upon faCts an interpretation favourable to their pet theories.
The foreign relations of the Gondwana system are becoming, it
seems, a burning question. “ Palaeontologists come from cabi-
nets in Europe with the fixed idea that the * laws ’ they have
seen to work so well as between Bohemia and Bavaria, or from
Durham to Dorsetshire, will apply equally between India and
and Australia, or Europe, and the eager aim of their labours
seems to be to tally off our Indian rock-groups as the repre-
sentatives or equivalents of certain fossiliferous series in Europe,
or elsewhere. From the beginning this palaeontological fallacy
has been the chief obstruction to our knowledge. When first
the Gondwana fossils were taken, pure geology being in the
ascendant, the faCt that certain plant forms of the lower Gond-
wana rocks were somehow associated with beds having a carbon-
iferous marine fauna in Australia was made the basis of a special
pleading to show that the Damudas, their flora and their coal,
were palaeozoic. The materials have now come into the hands
of a pure palaeontologist. He has shown, I believe, conclusively
that the Gondwana flora is wholly mesozoic, nailing its several
phases to certain representative zones in Europe. But it so
happens that on the confines of India, east and west, the upper
Gondwana groups are associated with beds having a marine
fauna, according to which these said groups have already been
attached by palaeontological experts to other standard groups
in Europe. It is true that the study of this fauna was only
partial, but the experts were very accomplished in their line, and
their judgment was quite unprejudiced, so that it must carry
great weight. Here then, again, is an opening for the pro-
crustean method of research ; and there are symptoms that it is
to be duly applied, this time, to make the fauna conform to the
flora. The expression ‘ palaeontological contradiction,’ which
has been applied to this faCt of association, exhibits the predica-
ment in a very naive manner. The contradiction is certainly
there, but only as a rebuke for those who can look upon it in that
light. No theologian could be more impious in reducing the
mysteries of existence to the compass of his narrow thoughts
than are often scientific specialists in imposing crude concep-
tions upon the proceedings of Nature. Yet these ought to know
better that truth is discovered, not invented.”

Mr. W. T. Blanford reports on the Great Indian Desert, be-
tween Sind and Rajpootana, part of which at no remote date
appears to have been an arm of the sea.

Dr. Feistmantel describes the occurrence of the cretaceous

Notices of Books.

[April,

278

genus Omphalia near Namcho Lake, in Tibet, and gives also a
note on Estheria as occurring in the Gondwana formation.

Mr. Lydekker describes certain new and other vertebrates
from Indian tertiary and secondary rocks, such as Bos acutifrons
and planiprons , Bubalus platyceros, Stegodon ganesa (which
elephantoid, like the allied S. insignis , lived down to the Ner-
budda period, and must have been contemporary with the early
human inhabitants of India), Sivalhippus Theobaldi (an aberrant
horse from the Siwaliks), Ictitherium Sivalense, Hycenarctos
Sivalensis, and certain Saurians, including the new genus
Titanosaurus.

Part 2 comprises an account of the rocks of the Lower
Godavari ; notes on the Atgarh Sandstones near Cuttack ; a
paper on the Fossil Floras of India ; a notice of some new or
rare Mammals from the Siwaliks ; a note on the Arvali Series in
North-eastern Rajputana ; and an account of some borings for
coal, which describes the cost of the operation and the time con-
sumed in perforating different rocks, but omits to state whether
coal-beds were reached, and, if so, what were their thickness and
quality.

There is subjoined a paper on the geology of India, which the
late Dr. Waagen, formerly palaeontologist to the Survey, had
contributed to the “ Zeitschrift der Deutschen Geolog. Gesell-
schaft. The author pronounces his opinion that the peninsula
of India belonged to a great continent, which probably included
China, the (Malayan) Archipelago, and Australia, perhaps even a
part of Oceania.

Part 3 comprises “ Notes on the Tertiary Zone and Under-
lying Rocks in the North-west Punjab,” by A. B. Wynne, illus-
trated with a geological map of the district. In this region
occur the celebrated salt deposits of the western frontier and
certain petroleum springs of no great importance.

Dr. Feistmantel gives an account of a tree-fern stem from the
cretaceous rocks near Trichinopoly.

Mr. W. Theobald treats on the occurrence of erratics, and
concludes that at one time “ glaciers were ploughing their way
down the great Himalayan rivers and valleys, to within 2000 feet
or so of the sea,” whilst the Potwar was one great lake, with an
exit probably near Kalabagh as now, and into which lake glaciers
descended, freighted with the debris of the hills of Hazara and
Kashmir.

Mr. F. R. Mallet gives an account of recent coal explorations
in the Darjiling district. The coal found is extremely friable,
and could not be worked without great expense, especially as the
Assam coal could easily be brought to the foot of the Darjiling
hills.

The same author likewise describes the limestones found at
Barakar, and some blowing machines used by the smiths of
Upper Assam.

1878.]

Notices of Books.

279

The analyses of Raniganj coal, by Mr. A, Tween, show that
the Indian samples are less contaminated with sulphur than the
average of English specimens, but contain more ash and more
oxygen. The Dumakunda and Benodakotta coals, however,
have a good heating power, since, if the combustion of pure
carbon yield 8080° C., they afford respectively 7040° and 7023°.
The best gas-coal is that of Sanktoria, which furnishes about
9000 cubic feet per ton.

Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India. Vol. xii., Part 2.

Mallet : Coal-fields of the Naga Hills bordering the

Lakhimpur. Calcutta : Geological Survey Office.

The deposits of coal on the Brahmaputra and its affluents in
Upper Assam are exceedingly valuable. The coal is of good
quality, and nothing seems requisite save the improvement of
the navigation of the river to bring it into use in Bengal, and
supersede the necessity of importation from England. Petroleum
is also found in quantity, but until the means of communication
are improved it cannot compete in the market with that brought
from Rangoon and from America. Some of the coal-beds are of
very considerable thickness. Thus in a total seCtion of 47 feet
10 inches the coal-beds alone amount to 37 feet, the thickest bed
being 25 feet. It is an unfortunate circumstance, however, that
the measures have a high general dip towards the hills, and the
seams must rapidly sink to a depth below which the coal could
not be profitably worked. Still the author estimates that as a
minimum 9,000,000 tons of marketable coal would be easily
procurable from the seams already known to exist. Between
Tipam and Bornarchali there is a further minimum of say
10 millions of tons in a marketable state, whilst the Nazira field
will add a further supply of 7 millions. In the unsettled state
of the political horizon the existence of a supply of coal for
naval purposes independent of importations from Britain is of
the highest importance. Pyritous shales seem abundant, and
the manufacture of copperas and alum could probably be con-
ducted with success. The iron ore in the sub-Himalayan beds
is inexhaustible, but the quality is very poor, and the rarity of
limestone in the Naga hills must always be a difficulty in the
way of smelting operations on a large scale.

28o

Notices of Books.

[April,

The Origin of the World , according to Revelation and Science.
By J. W. Dawson, LL.D., F.R.S., &c. London : Hodder
and Stoughton.

This work may be characterised as one of the many attempts to
reconcile the doCtrines of revealed religion with the results of
modern science, or, as the author himself puts it, to “ aid
thoughtful men perplexed v/ith the apparent antagonisms of
science and religion, and to indicate how they may best har-
monise our great and growing knowledge of Nature with our old
and cherished beliefs as to the origin and destiny of man.”

To those who hold fast the luminous principle laid down by
Galileo, that on what may be called scientific subjects the Hebrew
and Greek Scriptures speak merely the ideas of the times when
they were written, and, though a moral, have no claim to be re-
garded as a physical revelation, such books as that before us
present a curious and not altogether pleasing phenomenon. We
may well ask whether Dr. Dawson and those who agree with him
are not to a great extent responsible for the perplexity which they
seek to remove ? We deprecate as much as any one the gratu-
itous, and in our opinion unscientific, attacks upon religion to
which such writers as Buchner have given way. But it is still
very probable that much of this spirit springs from disgust at the
attempts made to extraCt from Hebrew roots, under high-pressure
philology, doCtrines conformable with or anticipatory of the
teachings of modern science.

To go through Dr. Dawson’s treatise paragraph by paragraph
would be a tedious and not very remunerative task, and could
only be fairly undertaken by a writer well versed in theology,
mythology, and philology.

It is very significant that we find the cosmogony of Laplace —
the so-called nebular hypothesis — accepted, and proclaimed in
harmony with the teachings of the Scriptures ! But the other
day, so to speak, this doCtrine was denounced by Sir D. Brewster
and others as an atheistical speculation, and an attempt to con-
struct the universe without God. Just as Brewster opposed the
nebular hypothesis, Dr. Dawson struggles against the doCtrine of
Evolution, each in turn insinuating that to throw a novel light on
God’s modus operandi is to deny His existence. The moral of
this coincidence is too plain to be missed.

The author is, perhaps, in this work less magniloquent thanpn
some of his former productions, but towards those who do not
see what he sees — or rather who see what he cannot, or will not
— he is scantily courteous. “ Shallowness,” “ mere folly and
presumption, ”|are the attributes which he finds in all dissentients.

1878.]

Notices of Books.

281

Pollen. By M. P. Edgeworth, F.L.S., F.A.S. Illustrated with
438 Figures. London: Hardwicke and Bogue.

This interesting monograph was originally laid before the Lin-
nasan Society ; circumstances, however, determined the author to
withdraw the paper, and it now appears in the present altered
form. The introduction explains the varied forms which pollen
takes in different plants, and gives the bibliography of the sub-
ject. This is followed by a list of plants the pollen of which has
been examined, with references to authors who have made the
observations ; the species examined by the author are marked with
an asterisk, and form a considerable part of the catalogue. This
valuable portion of the work occupies sixty pages. The most
important part of the book, however, consists of the twenty-four
plates, containing four hundred and thirty-eight figures, and in
this, with the explanation, is contained the result of the author’s
own microscopical observations. Many of the pollens are figured
as they appear when viewed under different conditions, e.g., dry
or opaque cbjeCIs or in various fluid media, as water, oil, vine-
gar, &c. The author has not put his own drawings on the stone,
but they appear to have been rendered with tolerable fidelity by
the lithographer. It is to be regretted that so few observers will
take the small amount of trouble needed to acquire the various
lithographic processes, and prevent the risk of misinterpretation
so liable to occur when drawings are copied by those who, how-
ever skilled they may be in the technicalities of their art, can
hardly be expeCIed to understand the nature of unfamiliar objeCts.

The drawings are all to scale (i-5ooth of life size), a matter too
often negleCIed, and when this is the case detracting from the
value of otherwise good figures ; for rigid adherence to this prin-
ciple the author is highly to be commended, as the comparative
dimensions of any pollen can be readily estimated.

Mr. Edgeworth’s monograph will prove of great value to the
student of this department of minute vegetable structure.

( 282 )

[April,

CORRESPONDENCE.

RESIDUAL PHENOMENA.

To the Editor of the Quarterly Journal of Science.

Sir, — In the article on “ Residual
Phenomena” published in the last
issue of your Journal it is stated that
the adtual atomic heats of carbon,
boron, and silicon are much lower
than those required by the law of
Dulong and Petit, and it is assumed
that there is some residual phenome-
non modifying the result in these
three instances. It is also stated that
“ though the anomalies to which we
have drawn attention have been re-
cognised for more than a quarter of
a century, the explanation is still
wanting.”

I would draw the author’s atten-
tion to the researches of F. Weber
respecting the specific heats of the
three above-mentioned elements (Ann.
Chim. Phys. [5], viii. ; abst. Journ.
Chem. Soc., June, 1876). Weber
found that the specific heats of these

bodies increase rapidly with the tem-
perature, and at high temperatures
tend to become constant. If we
multiply the specific heats at these
high temperatures into the atomic
weights, we obtain the atomic heats.
Carbon — (1) diamond, 5’5 ; (2) gra-
phite, 5*6 ; silicon, 5-75 ; boron, 5-5.
Thus it appears that the true atomic
heats of these three elements do not
vary from the mean number 6’y to a
greater extent than those of other
elements of low combining weight,
such as aluminium.

Here, then, we have the residual
phenomenon alluded to ; and it is
interesting to note that its explana-
tion affords a further confirmation of
Dulong and Petit’s law. — I am, &c.,
C. H. Bothamley.

The Yorkshire College,

February 20, 1878.

(

1878.]

( 283 )

SCIENTIFIC NOTES.

Continuing his researches on the repulsive force resulting from radiation
transmitted through rarefied gases, Mr. Crookes constructed a torsion balance
in which the beam for carrying the experimental disks was a straw suspended
by a very fine glass fibre. His experiments extended over one hundred dif-
ferent substances, and he measured the effect produced by them, not only
under the influence of simple radiation from a luminous source, but also by
removing the invisible heat rays by the interposition of a water screen. In
this manner he found that each substance exercises a more or less distinct
action on the absorption of rays. Thus most white powders powerfully absorb
the invisible heat rays, while they are almost without action on the luminous
rays. On the contrary, black powders powerfully absorb the luminous rays,
and only slightly absorb the obscure heat rays, whatever their intensity may
be. The different metals present great differences in their action. Iron, for
instance, chiefly absorbs the invisible heat rays, while gold is principally acted
on by the luminous rays. The substances experimented with may be divided
into two classes : 1st. Those whose action is increased by the interposition of
water screens with regard to the effect produced on the standard disk;
2nd. Those in which the contrary is the case. Amongst the former may be
mentioned copper tungstate, saffranin, precipitated selenium, and copper
oxalate ; these are more affected by light than by invisible heat. Amonst
class 2 may be mentioned chromic oxide, persulphocyanogen, zinc oxide,
barium sulphate, and calcium carbonate ; these are acted upon more by the
ultra-red rays than by the luminous rays. Remarkable effects were also ob-
tained by combining the substances in these two categories on the disk of the
radiometer. Mr. Crookes has previously shown that when the exhaustion of
a radiometer is carried beyond a certain limit its sensibility gradually dimi-
nishes until it becomes absolutely null. He has now come to the conclusion
— 1st. That there is a gradual increase in the sensitiveness of the radiometer
until the pressure has attained 50 millionths of an atmosphere (0-038 millim.) ;
2nd. That beyond this limit to 30 millionths of an atmosphere (0-013 millim.)
it remains stationary ; 3rd. Further still, it sinks rapidly until at 1 millionth
(0-00076 millim.) ; 4th. That at 0*2 millionth of an atmosphere (0*00015
millim.) the radiometer refuses to turn even when five candles are put near it.
He has also examined the effedts of molecular pressure produced diredly by
heat upon a radiometer with the following results: — (1.) When the apparatus
is full of air at the normal pressure of 760 m.m., and a platinum ring was
rendered incandescent by an eledric current, the direction of the rotation of
the vanes and disk was positive , — that is to say, that which would be produced
by a current of air coming from the platinum ring ; this effedt must be attri-
buted to the ascending current of hot air. (2.) At a pressure of 80 millims.
the disk did not turn. The vanes turned slowly in the positive direction.
(3.) At 19 millims no movement was produced either by the disk or by the
vanes. (4.) At 14 millims. the disk remained stationary, but the vanes began
to turn gently in the negative direction, — that is to say, in a way inverse to
their first direction. (5.) At 1 millim. the disk turned in a continuous manner
in the positive direction, whilst the vanes turned rather fast in a negative
direction. (6.) At 0*224 millim* the speed of the disk or the vanes was the
same, and their rotative movement was the same. Below that pressure the
speed of the rotation of the vanes diminished gradually, whilst the speed of
the disk increased, and at a pressure of 0*107 millim. the disk turned rapidly
in the positive direction, whilst the vanes were motionless. (7.) With a more
perfed exhaustion still, at 0*098 millim. a sudden change was seen. The

Scientific Notes.

[April,

284

vanes which had been stationary then began to turn in the positive direction
at a speed of 100 revolutions per minute, whilst the disks turned as before,
positively, but with less speed. (8.) When the exhaustion was carried beyond
0-098 millim. the speed of the two disks and of the vanes increased till it ex-
ceeded 600 revolutions per minute, and it did not seem to diminish with the
highest rarefadtion, which was at o-oooi millim. According to the most
recent determinations the number of molecules contained in a cubic centi-
metre of air at the ordinary pressure is probably something like —

1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (one thousand trillions) ;
consequently, at an exhaustion of o-oooi millim., 100,000,000,000,000 are
still left. This number is sufficiently large to justify the hypothesis — That
when the molecules are set in vibration by a white-hot platinum wire they are
still capable of exercising an enormous mechanical effedt.

Mr. J. W. Groves, of the South London Microscopical Club, after cleaning
glass slides for mounting microscopical objedts, by one of the usual processes,
fastens them together by their edges, after the manner of the well-known
artists’ sketching-blocks. This is easily done with a pile of slips, by fixing
round their edges a piece of ready-gummed tissue-paper, 10 inches long, and
of a width suitable to the number of slides, so that, although they are firmly
bound together, their surfaces are left uncovered. The block is left to dry,
when each slip may be detached by running the thumb-nail round its edges.
The surface next the adjoining slip should be used for the preparation to be
mounted on, as it is, of course, quite clean, although the exposed one may
have become dirty : the fragments of tissue-paper are removed after the
mount is completed.

Mr. H. C. Sorby, F.R.S., has described to the Royal Microscopical Society
a new arrangement for distinguishing the direction of the axes of doubly-
refrabting substances. The usual method is to employ plates of selenite of
various thickness : this, however, involves great difficulty in selecting one of
nearly the same tint as that of the crystal examined under the polarising mi-
croscope; and unless this can be done it is impossible to obtain so decided a
result that the direction of the positive and negative axes can be seen at once
and no consideration be required. Mr. Sorby employs a wedge-shaped plate
of quartz, cut parallel to the principal axis, ij inches long and \ an inch wide.
At its thickest end it is i-20th of an inch thick, and thins off to the sharpest
possible edge : this is fixed on a glass plate so as to leave a space of glass
4-ioths of an inch long by i an inch broad beyond this thin end of the quartz.
The combined plates are fixed in a brass frame, like that for a micrometer,
which slides into the eye-piece. On using polarised light with a crossed
analyser over the eye-piece, and arranging the plate so that the part with only
glass is in front, we see the objedt in its normal state, and the rest of the field
black, and on pushing forward the quartz wedge we see the field of the mi-
croscope crossed with coloured bands, gradually rising from the bluish white
of the first order, through all the brighter orders of colours, to the faint reds
and greens, and upwards to what cannot be distinguished by the unaided eye
from white light. If some crystal, giving any tint, be on the stage of the
microscope, we can usually see at once whether the tints are raised or de-
pressed, by the manner in which it alters the colour of the bands ; and by
pushing the quartz wedge backwards and forwards, there may be no difficulty
in finding the exa<5t place where the plate of quartz so exadtly neutralises the
action of the crystal that it appears black. If this does not occur in any
place, and, on the contrary, the tints appear to be raised, the eye-piece and
the plate must be rotated through an angle of go degrees, and the requisite
place can then be easily found. The plate of quartz being so cut that its
longer axis is parallel to the principal axis of the crystal, we know that this
longer axis is positive, and thus also at once know which is the positive and
which the negative axis of the crystal under examination. We can also at
once see what is the true order of colour which it gives, since we can readily
count it up from the bands due to the quartz alone seen crossing the field of

1878.]

Scientific Notes . 285

the microscope. We are also by no means limited to visible tints. The
crystal may have such a powerful double refraction, or be so thick as to give
apparently white light, and yet, by using the thicker end of the quartz wedge,
the tints may be reduced down to those easily distinguished. This simple
arrangement secures all the advantages of an unmanageably large number of
selenite plates, and all necessary observations can be made v/ith ease and
expedition.

A valuable paper on the “Application of the Micro-SpeCtroscope to the
Study of Evergreens ” was read before the Royal Microscopical Society
(November 7th, 1877), by Thomas Palmer, B.Sc. As it would be impossible
to give an abstract that would be of any use to the student, and, moreover, the
reproduction of Mr. Palmer’s speCtrum charts would be required, reference is
made to the original paper.

Owing to the death of Dr. Henry Lawson, F.R.M.S., and Assistant- Physi-
cian and LeCturer on Physiology at St. Mary’s Hospital, and formerly editor
of the “ Monthly Microscopical Journal,” that publication will be discon-
tinued. The “ Transactions of the Royal Microscopical Society ” will for
the future be issued by themselves, after the manner of the larger societies.

A mode of examining water microscopically has been contrived by W. L.
Scott, Public Analyst to the County of Glamorgan and Borough of Hanley.
The chief point in the process consists in the manner of filtering the water,
by which the organisms contained in a large quantity of material are retained
on a very small portion of the filter-paper. The centre of the filter is ren-
dered impervious by means of a fatty composition, and the texture of the
paper rendered more obstructive to the passage of minute organisms by being
dipped in a very thin structureless collodion. The process is described in
detail in the “ Monthly Microscopical Journal ” (vol. xviii., p. 239).

In the obituary notices of the Royal Microscopical Society we remark the
death of Mr. J. L. Denman. Although not distinguished for any published
work in the department of minute structure, he has done that which will
endear his memory to every analyst. An honest tradesman, disgusted with
the adulteration practised — and unfortunately approved of by the public — in
the article in which he dealt, he devoted much time and expended considerable
capital in obtaining pure wine. Failing to obtain it from the usual sources,
he sought it in other countries, and, in spite of popular prejudice, imported
the unadulterated wines of Greece and Hungary. Just before his death he
had the satisfaction of introducing pure wine from Spain — a country which,
like Portugal, had always prepared its exports to the vitiated taste of the
British consumer. His definition of wine was simpty “fermented grape-
juice,” in old times coupled with bread as a necessary of life.

The Telephone continues to engage the attention of physicists. A very
complete and concise description of the construction and aCtion of the instru-
ments of Reiss, Yeates, Gray, Edison, and Bell is contained in the report of a
LeCture by Prof. Barrett, of the Royal College of Science, Dublin, and pub-
lished by Mr. Yeates, of King Street, Covent Garden.

In a paper “ On some Physical Points connected with the Telephone,” read
before the Physical Society, Mr. W. H. Preece has pointed out that this in-
strument may be employed both as a source of a new kind of current and as
the deteCtor of currents which are incapable of influencing the galvanometer.
It shows that the form and duration of Faraday’s magneto-eleCtric currents
are dependent on the rate and duration of motion of the lines of force pro-
ducing them, and that the currents produced by the alteration of a magnetic
field vary in strength with the rate of alteration of that field ; and further,
that the infinitely small and possibly only molecular movement of the iron
plate is sufficient to occasion the requisite motion of the lines of force. He
also pointed out that the telephone 'explodes the notion that iron takes time
to be magnetised and de-magnetised. The instrument forms an excellent
deteCtor in a Wheatstone bridge for testing short lengths of wire, and con-
densers can be adjusted by its means with great accuracy. M. Niaudet has
shown, by employing a doubly wound coil, that it can be used to detect cur-

286

Scientific Notes.

[April,

rents from doubtful sources of eledtricity, and it is excellent as a means of
testing leaky insulators. Among the fadts already proved by the telephone
may be mentioned the existence of currents due to induction in wires conti-
guous to wires carrying currents, even when these are near each other for
only a short distance. Mr. Preece finds that if the telephone wire be enclosed
in a conducting sheath which is in connection with the earth, all effects of
eleCtric induction are avoided ; and, further, if the sheath be of iron, mag-
netic induction also is avoided, and the telephone aCts perfectly. It appears
that conversation can be carried on through ioo miles of submarine cable, or
200 miles of a single wire, without difficulty, with the instrument as now
constructed ; but the leakage occurring on pole-lines is fatal to its use in wet
weather for distances beyond 5 miles.

M. Demoget, of Nantes, has experimented with two Bell telephones in an
open field. He held one of these to his ear, while his son at a distance kept
repeating the same syllable with the same intensity of voice into the second
instrument. He compared in this way the sound heard from the telephone
with that heard from the speaker, and calculated their relative intensities
from the relative distances of their sources. From the results M. Demoget
concludes that the telephone as a machine leaves much to be desired, since it
can only transmit i-i8ooth of the original work.

Dr. R. M. Ferguson has contributed some valuable “ Notes on the Tele-
phone ” to the Royal Scottish Society of Arts. He takes exception to the
vibration theory of Bell, viz., that it is the vibrations of the disk to and from
the pole of the magnet, in excursions proportionate to the intensity, pitch,
and quality of the vocal sounds, that electrically affeCt the instrument. He
submits that at the receiving station it can be proved well nigh to demonstra-
tion that it is a molecular tremor or vibration, and not a vibration mechanic-
ally produced, that emits the sound ; and that this molecular vibration
becomes louder the easier the sounding body vibrates. Seeing that there is
the most perfect correspondence between the sending and receiving instru-
ments, there is, he says, every reason to believe that the sending instrument
exhibits the converse aCtion to the receiving instrument, and that there again
sound aCts on iron so as to produce molecular changes, the eleCtric power of
which is much enhanced by the vibration of the sounding body.

The Molecular Theory of the Telephone has also been the subject of a
paper at the King’s College Engineering Society, by Mr. C. W. Cunnington,
who considers that the vibration of the iron disk of the sending instrument
under the influence of sound is amply sufficient to induce currents of electri-
city strong enough to cause the plate of the receiving instrument to vibrate,
and thus to reproduce sound : he also referred some of the sound produced in
the receiving instrument to the effeCt of the undulatory currents on the mag-
net itself, thus explaining results obtained without the use of a vibrating disk.
In comparing the vibrating disk of the telephone with the membrana tympani
of the ear, Mr. Cunnington pointed out the faCt that the predominance of the
fundamental note of a flat plate would drown a large number of the over-
tones of the voice, thus causing many of the observed peculiarities of the
sound transmitted in ordinary telephones ; the membrana tympani being
funnel-shaped, whilst peculiarly susceptible to the influence of sound, had no
fundamental note of its own, and therefore transmitted all of the sound vibra-
tions impinging upon it (within certain limits) without giving undue prepon-
derance to any particular note.

The Count du Moncel finds that the vibratory plate of the recipient cannot
merely be replaced by a very thick and massive armature without affecting the
transmission of speech, but these vibratory plates may be formed of non-
magnetic substances. The vibratory plate may even be totally suppressed
without hindering the telephonic transmission provided the polar extremity of
the magnet is placed close to the ear. Hence the vibrations which reproduce
speech in the receiving telephone are principally produced by the metallic
nucleus infolded by the coil. The vibratory plate serves merely to readt for
the production of induced currents, when set in vibration by the voice, and
by its readtion upon the polar extremity of the magnetic rod to reinforce the
magnetic effedts produced by the latter.

1 878.]

Scientific Notes.

287

At a meeting of the Physical Society, in February last, Mr. F. J. M. Page
exhibited the action of the telephone on a capillary electrometer. He first
explained the construction of Lippmann’s electrometer, as modified by Marey,
and threw the meniscus of the mercury in the capillary tube on the screen by
the electric light. The delicacy of the instrument was shown by passing a
current of i-ioooth of a Daniell, which caused a distinct movement of the
mercury. Resistances of 500 ohms and i-5oth ohm gave approximately the
same deflection, so that, in practice, the instrument may be considered to be
independent of resistance, in addition to which it possesses the great advan-
tage of portability, and its indications are almost instantaneous, To illus-
trate the use of the electrometer for physiological investigations, a frog’s heart
was connected by non-polarisable electrodes with the instrument : each beat
of the heart caused a considerable movement of the mercury column. A
telephone was now connected. On pressing in the iron plate the mercury
moved, and on reversing the wires the movement was seen to be in the oppo-
site direction. On singing to the telephone each note produced a movement ;
but the fundamental note of the plate, as well as its octaves and fifths, had
the greatest effect. On speaking, the mercury oscillated continually : some
letters of the alphabet had scarcely any effect, and the w was especially
curious, producing a double movement. Reversing the wires did not alter
the character or direction of these movements. The same effect was observed
when the telephone was in the primary and the electrometer in the secondary
coil of a Du Bois Reymond’s induction coil. In conclusion, Mr. Page showed
the contractions produced in a frog’s leg. On inserting under the sciatic nerve
two platinum wires coupled with the binding-screws of a telephone, and
talking to this instrument, violent contractions ensued. In the course of the
discussion which followed, Prof. Graham Bell said he had made very many
attempts to ascertain the strength of the current produced by the human
voice in vain; he considered, however, that the present method will in all
probability give some most valuable results.

On Thursday evening, January 10th, M. Raoul Pictet succeeded in lique-
fying hydrogen gas in the laboratories of the Society for the Construction of
Physical Instruments, at Plainpalais, The experiment, which was performed
in the presence of several people, succeeded perfectly. The process consists
in decomposing formiate of potash by caustic potash, a reaction which, as
proved by M. Berthelot, gives hydrogen absolutely pure. The pressure com-
menced to rise at half-past eight ; gradually and without any stoppage it
attained, at seven minutes past nine, 650 atmospheres, at which point it re-
mained steady for a few instants. At this moment the tap was opened, and
a steel-blue jet escaped from the orifice, producing a hissing sound like a bar
of red-hot iron plunged into water. The jet suddenly became intermittent,
and there could be observed a hail of solid particles projected violently to the
ground, on which their fall produced a crackling noise. The tap was closed,
and the pressure, which was then at 370 atmospheres, gradually descended to
320, where it remained for some minutes. It then rose to 325. At this mo-
ment the tap, on being opened a second time, only allowed a jet to escape
intermittently, rendering it evident that a crystallisation had taken place in
the interior of the tube. The proof of this can be established by the escape
of hydrogen in the liquid state when the temperature begins to rise on
stopping the pumps. Thus has been experimentally demonstrated the lique-
faction, and especially the solidification, of this gas, which from its properties
has always been considered probably to belong to the class of metals.

M. Cailletet sent a paper on the “ Liquefaction of Nitrogen, Hydrogen, and
Atmospheric Air ” to the Academie des Sciences, which was read at the
meeting on the 31st of December, 1877. M. Cailletet showed that pure and
dry nitrogen compressed to about 200 atmospheres, at a temperature of +130,
then allowed to expand suddenly, condenses in the most perfect manner : it
first produces an appearance like that of a pulverised liquid in small drops of
appreciable volume ; this liquid then gradually disappears from the sides to
the centre of the tube, at last forming a sort of vertical column following the
axis of the tube. The duration of these phenomena is about 3 seconds. On

288

Scientific Notes.

[April,

experimenting with hydrogen — in the presence of MM. Berthelot, H. Sainte-
Claire Deville, and Mascart — M. Cailletet succeeded in observing indications
of its liquefadtion under conditions of proof which left no doubt in the minds
of the scientific men who witnessed the experiment. It was repeated a great
numoer of times. Operating with pure hydrogen compressed to about
280 atmospheres, and then suddenly allowed to expand, they saw form an
extremely attenuated and subtle mist suspended in the gas and disappearing
suddenly. Having liquefied nitrogen and oxygen, the liquefadtion of air is
thereby demonstrated. It appeared, however, of interest to make this the
subjedt of an adtual experiment, and, as might be expedted, it succeeded per-
fectly. I need not say that the air was previously dried and freed from
carbonic acid. The accuracy of the views expressed by the founder of
modern chemistry, Lavoisier, is thus confirmed as to the possibility of causing
air to assume the liquid state, and of producing matter gifted with new and
unknown properties.

At a recent meeting of the Academie des Sciences M. Lecoq de Bois-
baudran exhibited a bar, a sheet, and several crystals of the new metal,
Gallium , which is harder than iron, yet melts at under the heat of the finger,
its freezing-point being at about 30°. It is proposed to use it for a thermo-
meter going up to red-heat. 5000 kilogrms. of ore had to be worked down to
get 60 grms. of metal. It will now be possible to investigate its physical
properties. It adheres to glass, and is very brittle ; the colour is nearly that
of steel ; and the crystals are odahedra. M. Lecoq de Boisbaudran has
since determined the atomic weight of gallium ; it is ficpg.

A photo-lithographic plat of the primary triangulation carried on during tho
summer of 1877, by Mr. A. D. Wilson, Chief Topographer, has just been
published by the U.S. Geological Survey, under the charge of Dr. F. V.
Hayden. The area covered by these triangles extends from Fort Steele, in
Wyoming, Zy., westward to Ogden, in Utah, Zy., a distance of about
260 miles, and north as far as the Grand Teton, near the Yellowstone National
Park, including Fremont’s Peak, of the Wind River Range of the Rocky
Mountains. The area embraces about 28,000 square miles, and within it
twenty-six primary stations were occupied and their positions accurately
computed. Besides these occupied stations a large number of mountain peaks
were located, which in the future will be occupied as points for the extension
of the topographical work of the Survey. A base line was carefully measured
near Rawlins’ Springs, on the line of the Union Pacific R.R., and from this
initial base the work was extended north and west to the valley of Bear River,
in Idaho, Zy. Here a check base was measured, and the system expanded to
the neighbouring mountain peaks, to connect with the triangulation, as brought
forward from the first-mentioned base. Along the line of the Union Pacific
R.R. the work was connected at six points with the Triangulation System of
Clarence King’s 40th Parallel Survey. In addition to the importance of this
sheet as the base of the season’s topographical work, it presents a most
striking feature in the number of remarkably long sights which were taken
from some of the most lofty mountains in the area explored. Many of these
sights were over 100 miles in length, while some reach a distance of 135 miles.
From Wind River Peak all the prominent points in the Big Horn Mountain
were sighted ; also the loftier peaks of the Uinta Mountains: the former are
located 165 miles to the north-east, while the Uinta Mountains are situated
about the same distance to the south-west. As these ranges were not in the
scope of the season’s work they are not given on the chart.

THE QUARTERLY

JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

JULY, 1878.

I. THE SENSES OF THE LOWER ANIMALS.

XPANDING the aspiration of the Scottish poet, most
fJSj of us at times crave to see, not merely ourselves, but
the whole world as it appears to the senses of
others. We cannot help questioning what portion of our
perceptions is purely objective, depending solely on the
nature of the things seen, heard, or tasted, and what
portion, if any, is due to our own subjectivity, and is conse-
quently liable to vary in different individuals ? For instance,
we see the flower of a field poppy. It impresses our retina
with a certain sensation which we have- been taught to call
“ redness.” We can find in the solar speCtrum, or in
Chevreul’s chromatic circles, regions which make upon us
the like impression. Our neighbour, unless affeCted with
colour-blindness, gives the same name to the effeCt pro-
duced by the flower upon his sight.* But who guarantees,
after all, that the impressions made respectively upon him
and upon us are identical ? Neither of us can make use of
the optic nerves of the other. Much more strongely does
this doubt crop up as regards the senses of smell or taste.
One of the most familiar faCts in daily life is to find one
man praising an odour or a flavour which is to another
person simply loathsome. Where lies the difference ? In
the very impressions made upon the nerves of smell and
taste, or in the judgment formed by some inward faculty on
reviewing such impressions ? But if we have already
grounds for question as to whether our sensuous perceptions
are identical with those of our fellow-men, the difficulty

* It has been pointed out that persons suffering from colour-blindness have
often great facility in accommodating their language to that of their colour-
discerning neighbours, and thus, unless systematically tested, often escape
detection. Many persons who are red colour-blind do not merely fail to dis-
tinguish red from its complementary green, but red light, as light seems to
make no impression on their retina— a fadt of some importance.

VOL. VIII. (N.S.)

U

2Q0

The Senses of the Lower Animals.

[July,

becomes vastly greater when we cross the “ Rubicon ” of a
certain learned, but unbiological, professor, and strive to
form some notion of the world as it appears to the lower
animals. Have they the same senses as ourselves ? At
the first glance the educated public will be disposed to
assume that all living beings must as a matter of course be
able to see, hear, smell, taste, and feel just as we do, and
equally of course must possess no inlet of knowledge to
which we are strangers. Closer examination, however, will
throw doubts on both members of this proposition. Many
animals are blind, not incidentally from disease or accident,
but normally, the eyes being sometimes covered over with
opaque membranes, sometimes merely rudimentary, and
sometimes even totally wanting, the very optic nerve itself
being obliterated. Such arrests of development occur in
almost every department of the animal kingdom, even
among the mammalia. Two species of mole are not figu-
ratively but absolutely blind, Talpa cceca , found in Southern
Europe, and the golden mole of the Cape of Good Hope
( Chrysochloris inaurata). A rodent found in the eastern parts
of Europe ( Spalax typhlus) has eyes so small, so deeply
buried in its head, and furnished with so narrow an aper-
ture, that it may be regarded as blind, functionally if not
structurally. In the caverns of Kentucky two sightless
rats and two bats equally deficient are said to occur, though
whether they are totally^ blind is somewhat doubtful. No
blind bird has hitherto been discovered, but amongst
amphibians the renowned Proteus anguinus, found in subter-
ranean pools in the caverns of Carinthia, is a signal instance
in point. Two blind fishes have also been detected, one of
which, Amhlyopus ccecus , is peculiar to the Mammoth Cave
of Kentucky.

The other senses proper to man seem to be shared at
least by all the Vertebrata. They possess organs which are
the homologues of our own, and which in most cases evi-
dently discharge the same function. One exception on the
large scale must not be overlooked. If we consider that
smell bears upon substances either themselves aeriform or
suspended in air, whilst taste relates to bodies either liquid
or capable of solution in liquids, we can scarcely see how
smell as differentiated from taste can exist in animals which
are always immersed in water, and which respire through
gills. With the exceptions thus pointed out, that of blind-
ness in certain species and of scentlessness* in fishes, the

* We want a word here. The one we use on compulsion might mean not
only the inability to perceive odours, but the non-emission of any smell.

187S.J The Senses of the Lower Animals . 291

vertebrates may be considered to see, hear, smell, taste, and
feel. Along the so-called lateral line in fishes there appear
to be arranged organs of sense, whose nature is not per-
fectly understood, but which are possibly capable of being
aCted upon by different kinds of undulations. Still, it
would be an adt of most unscientific rashness to infer that
they must see the world around them as we see it. Let us
take the most highly-specialised of our senses, the one
most precise and definite in its indications— our light-sense.
We all know how widely it varies among individual men.
Almost telescopic in the Red Indian on his prairies, the
Arab on the deserts, or the sailor on the ocean,* accustomed
perhaps, through many successive generations to scan the
horizon for indications of game, for an enemy, or of an
approaching tempest, it becomes nearly microscopic in cer-
tain men of science and certain artizans constantly in the
habit of scrutinising the most minute objects. It is said
that Wollaston could write upon glass with a diamond
characters which none of his friends could distinguish with
the naked eye, but which, when examined with a good lens,
were found to be beautifully distinct and regular. Nor does
human eyesight differ merely in its range. Some men can
discern objects clearly under a degree of illumination much
more feeble than is requisite for others. Some again can
deteCt the most minute variation in the shades of any
colour, whilst to others, as Dalton and an eminent chemist
and physicist now living, scarlet, green, and gray are all
one.f If, then, such diversity prevails in the sense of sight

* This last instance has latterly been called in question.

f According to the Times of India , a phase of colour-blindness, or, at any
rate, of incapacity to distinguish colours, is very common among the lower
caste natives. “ Our natives cannot distinguish between blue and green.
They apply the word lal to a variety of objedts we should describe as yellow
and brown, and apply the generic epithet ‘ tambada,’ corresponding to
Homer’s Chalkos, to all the bright red tints. Like Homer, they speak of the
blue sea as black [Kola pani). They apply the word nila, dark blue, to a
grey horse, and their notion of the colour of the sky, or Asmani rung , is a
light grey. The subjedt can be readily tested by anyone by telling his
‘ boy ’ or some less civilised native to choose a blue, red, or green book from
a pile on the table. I have just tried a puttawallah with different coloured
books. Between green and blue he cannot properly distinguish ; tambada
he applies to vermillion, and the rainbow he protests is simply red or green.
This is just what Mr. Gladstone says about the colour sense in Homer’s
Greeks.”

If, then, the colour-sense in man is of recent origin, and has made notable
progress since the days of Homer, the question further arises as to the date
of its development among the lower animals ? If the perception of colour
was feeble among primeval animals their colouration must have been dull
and sombre, on the hypothesis of sexual connedtion. Are the least splendidly
coloured groups survivals of earlier days ? On this subjedt the “ stone-book ”

U 2

292 The Senses of the Lower Animals. [July,

within the range of our own species, if we compare the
visual powers of man with those of other animals, much
wider differences must be expe&ed. Nor is this mere
matter of conjecture. Diredt observation proves that
numerous species are able to seek their food or their prey,
meet with their mates, distinguish friends from enemies,
and find the way to and from their dens or nests in what to
man appears complete darkness, and where he can scarcely
move without running into danger. With what skill does
the owl, hovering over the harvest-field, discern the grey
mouse upon a soil from which it differs little in colour even
by day ? Other birds, on the contrary, such as the Gallinacese,
if disturbed in the night, seem perfectly stupefied, and are
utterly unable to find a way of escape from danger.

As regards the range of vision, from what a height and
to what a distance do eagles, hawks, and other diurnal birds
of prey espy a suitable vidtim ! On the other hand, if the
sight of small animals is to be of much use to them, it
must enable them to distinguish objedts which to our
unaided vision are simply imperceptible. Concerning dis-
crimination between different colours, the evidence that it
is possessed by the lower animals though indirect is con-
clusive. Were it otherwise the dodtrine of “ sexual selec-
tion,” instead of being as it is, a hypothesis, not indeed
demonstrated, but still conceivable, would be a simple
absurdity. It is still, however, doubtful why sexual selec-
tion, if it has been a vera causa in the production of colour,
should have led to brilliant hues in one group of birds or
insedts, whilst it has permitted the existence of sombre
shades in another class closely allied and similar in habits.
Have we here to do with a difference in the perceptive
organ similar to colour-blindness, or with a difference in
some inward faculty ? The well-known case recorded by
John Hunter where a female zebra rejected the advances of
a male ass till he was painted so as to resemble a zebra is
in itself quite conclusive. According to Sir S. Baker, the
African elephant and rhinoceros show an especial enmity to
white and grey horses, and attack them with remarkable
fury. Here also belongs the antipathy of the bull and the
turkey-cock to red-coloured objects. The recognition of

throws no light, since fossils, as a rule, betray not the slightest indication of
the hues they may have worn when living. We know that a preponderant
proportion of the fossil insedts found at Schambelen belong to the gorgeous
family of the Buprestidce, but even that family includes so many plainly
coloured groups that no certain conclusion can hence be drawn. A parallel
question of course arises as regards the frudtification of flowers by the agency
of insedts in the primeval world.

1878.] The Senses of the Lower Animals. 293

colour by small birds generally is indisputable. Everyone
must have observed with varied feelings the discrimination
with which they select the “ sunny side ” of a pear, a plum,
or a peach. It is also an established fadt that they will
attack the red currant in preference to the white variety,
though the latter is much the sweeter of the two. Many
observers during the last few years have pointed out
how the yellow crocus is torn to pieces by sparrows and
other birds, while the white and other varieties are unmo-
lested. We are reminded of a curious fadt which we do not
know whether to ascribe to imperfedt perception or to
animal stupidity. A bullfinch which we kept in our cham-
bers long ago was seized every evening with the desire to
go to roost upon a line painted upon the wall about twenty
inches from the ground. Time after time the poor fellow
flew up only to be disappointed before he would consent to
perch upon something tangible, and the next day he resumed
his vain attempts.

The phenomena of mimetism or of protedtive resem*
blances, of which so many signal instances have been
pointed out by Messrs. Wallace, Bates, and Belt, neces-
sarily involve a tolerably nice discrimination of colour.
Brilliantly-coloured serpents are often especially dangerous,
and are hence mimicked protectively by innocent species.
But unless such colouration were distinguished by mammals
and birds, they would neither avoid the former nor be de-
terred from attacking the latter.

Caterpillars displaying gay and striking hues are generally
offensive in smell and taste, or even poisonous, and are
hence avoided by birds. But if the latter were incapable of
recognising colours, such a conspicuous dress would not
deter them from seizing the unsavoury or unwholesome
morsel.

But the sight of some at least of the lower animals may
very possibly differ from our own in a manner not indicated
above. The human retina is sensitive only to a portion of
the sun’s rays. Thus, if we allow a pencil of sunlight to
fall into a darkened room through a slit in the shutter and
to pass through a prism, we have the well-known spedtrum,
all the seven primary colours of which are visible to the
eye. But above and below this spedtrum, where our sight
finds nothing but darkness, there are solar rays whose pre-
sence may be demonstrated by appropriate chemical and
physical means. Now, if the retina of any creature is
sensitive to the whole or a portion of these, to us, dark rays
it will be able to see where we should find total obscurity.

2g4 The Senses of the Lower Animals . [July,

Again, we see all objects by means of the so-called lumi-
nous rays which they reflect. Whether they at any time
reflect; any of the “ dark rays” is to us immaterial, because
of such rays our vision is unable to take cognisance. But
an animal whose retina were endowed with a wider range
of sensibility would perceive the appearance of bodies
modified accordingly as they reflected or absorbed such
“ dark rays,” and would hence detedl differences between
substances which to our sight appear absolutely alike.

There is another point of some moment which here forces
itself upon our attention. It is well known that animal
organs deprived for successive generations of the oppor-
tunity of exercising their function become abortive. Of
this truth several of the blind animal species enumerated
above have long served as striking instances. Why should
the Proteus possess an eye — a light-organ — living as he
does where no ray of light ever penetrates ? But as it has
been pointed out by Sir Wyville Thomson in his account of
the results of the Challenger expedition, whilst in certain
animal groups permanent and total darkness leads to the
total uselessness of the eyes ; in others, under precisely
similar circumstances, the very contrary result ensues, and
the visual organs, as in the Monida, an animal living at the
depth of 700 fathoms below the surface of the ocean, where
no gleam of sunlight can reach, are “ unusually developed,
and apparently of great delicacy.” We shall have difficulty
in conceiving in a series of successive generations the con-
tinued development of an organ which is of no use in the
economy of the animal. The greater weight, therefore,
attaches to Sir W. Thomson’s suggestion that the eyes of
deep-sea creatures under such conditions may “ become
susceptible of the fainter light of phosphorescence.” That
many of the inhabitants of the ocean, both when living
and when passing into decomposition, are phosphorescent
to an extent visible even to eyes adapted to the stronger
stimulus of direft sunlight is indisputable. The light which
at certain times and places follows in the wake of a ship
and marks every stroke of a boat’s oars has often been
described, and is due both to living animals, Salpse,
Medusse, Pyrosomae, Nereids, &c., and to decomposing
animal matter. So powerful is this light at times that by
its aid fishes have been discerned at the depth of several
feet below the surface. There can hence be no doubt that
an eye sensitive even to the faintest phosphorescence would
be of great service to marine animals, enabling them either
to discover their prey or to shun an approaching enemy.

1878.] The Senses of the Lower Animals. 295

But we have not yet done with phosphorescence. The
question has often been asked why certain nocturnal animals
seem greatly afraid of fires, torches, &c., whilst others, on
the very contrary, are attracted by a light, and seek eagerly
to plunge into it to their own destruction ? One explanation
proposed is that the candle or torch seems to the soaring
moth an opening, or way of “escape,” to which it accord-
ingly rushes. “ Escape ?” we ask ; wherefore, or from
what ? Why should the nocturnal inseCt which carefully
shuns the daylight feel less at home in the fields or gardens
by night than does the bee or the butterfly by day ? An
anonymous writer in “Hardwick’s Science Gossip”* suggests
what seems to be the true explanation. Many flowers are,
even to our eyes, phosphorescent ; to the vision of moths,
&c., many more, if not all, possess this property, which
serves to entice night-flying inseCts. Such creatures, at-
tracted by what to them is the usual announcement of
honey, make towards the flame, and then on nearer
approach become dazzled and bewildered by its superior
and unaccustomed intensity and perish in their confusion.
Has this any connection with the fascination which a white
cloth spread upon the ground or hung upon a tree seems to
have for noCturnal inseCts ?

It has been urged in objection that inseCts of carnivorous
habits— -amphibians, fishes, and even certain birds— are
attracted by a light. Owls and nightjars have been known
to flutter against the window of a lighted room in the
“ small hours.” When sickness has been the cause of the
unwonted lamp or candle, such visits have been regarded
with superstitious dread. Fishes are allured to a light
allowed to float along the stream or placed on the bank, a
circumstance which has been taken advantage of for spear-
ing salmon, both by poachers in the Scottish rivers and by
the Red Indians in the streams of Oregon and British
Columbia. A light held near to the side of a fresh-water
aquarium by night brought newts, water-scorpions, and
water-boatmen to the glass.

But all these faCts, so far from refuting the hypothesis
that moths are guided to flowers by a phosphorescent light
seem to us merely to indicate the necessity for its further
extension. What if phosphorescence is a very general
attribute of organisms, living or dead, and if those animals
which are specially attracted by a light possess eyes suffi-
ciently sensitive for its recognition ?

* Vol. v. p. 138.

296 The Senses of the Lower Animals. [July,

However this may be, enough has been advanced to show
that the sense of sight even in animals whose eyes are per-
fectly homologous with our own may supply them with
information which to us is inaccessible.

Very similar is the case with the sense of hearing. The
human auditory nerves are sensitive to a certain range of
sounds, and no further. Vibrations either more or less
rapid do not to us break silence. But we have no right to
infer that they may not be distinctly heard by other animals.
That they actually are perceived has in many cases been
shown by direCt experiment with the instrument known as
“ Gabon’s whistle.” Upon this a line is marked indicating
the usual upper limit of the sense of sound in the human
species, and corresponding to from 41,000 to 42,000 vibra-
tions per second. But when this limit is passed, and when
the whistle no longer produces a sound appreciable to man,
several animals still indicate by their movements that they
hear. Cats, birds, and some inseCts seem decidedly more
affeCted by high than low tones. In Sphinx Ligustri and
Metopsilis Elpenor the reverse is said to hold good. In
short, we may conclude that many living creatures recog-
nise sounds which utterly escape our ears, and thus receive
through the medium of the sense of hearing impressions
perhaps more varied and numerous than, or at least different
from, our own. A wonderful instance of combined delicacy
and discrimination in the recognition of sounds is shown by
deer in America. It has been repeatedly observed that if
one of these animals is browsing in a forest in windy
weather, when the trees are groaning and creaking to the
blast, and branches are occasionally snapping, yet, if amidst
all this uproar a rotten twig happens to crack beneath the
foot of an approaching hunter, the animal at once stops
feeding, gazes carefully around in every direction, and re-
mains unusually suspicious often for hours. The ears
which discriminate so nicely must be uncommonly sen-
sitive.

We come now to scent, which is to civilised man probably
the vaguest of all the senses in its indications. It may
yield us a certain amount of pleasure and a very palpable
amount of annoyance. It may warn us against eating,
touching, or approaching certain noisome or putrescent sub-
stances ; but in this respeCt its warnings are not trustworthy.
It is far from being proved, and indeed is highly doubtful,
that the stage of animal or vegetable decomposition most
offensive to our nostrils is the one which presents the greatest
amount of danger. The most deadly atmosphere of the

1878.] The Senses of the Lower Animals. 297

Terai, of the Gold-coast, or of the Tierras Calientes smells
to us exactly like pure, ordinary, wholesome air. On the
other hand, a wholesome and even delicious fruit, like the
durrian, may have a most disgustingly repulsive odour.
Nor can we by this sense discover what track a missing
friend has taken, or pursue the footsteps of an enemy. In
the lower Mammalia this is almost reversed. Concerning
the delicacy of scent in dogs many interesting faCts have
been brought forward, and not a little “ tall talk ” has been
perpetrated. But their scent differs from our own not
merely in its power of detecting odours which escape us
altogether ; they are evidently gratified by the smell of
carrion, of ordure, of animal excretions and secretions,
which to us are utterly offensive. But if the scent of dogs
has attracted more prominent attention from the circum-
stance that it is at the disposal of man in hunting, that of
other Mammalia is little, if at all, inferior. Animals of the
weasel tribe pursue their prey by scent, and even hunt in
packs. Swine can follow their companions by the same
clue, and, as it is well known, have been trained to discover
truffles under ground. Elephants, deer, bears, and in faCt
many other wild animals, can only be approached with
safety from the lee-side, as they otherwise soon become
aware that an enemy is at hand. Rats have a delicate
scent, and in setting traps or poison for them it is necessary
to avoid touching the bait with the hand ; otherwise their
suspicions are at once aroused. Almost all animals seem
to know — at least as far as the productions of their own
locality are concerned — by the odour whether any substance
is suitable for food, and this faCt has accordingly been
enlarged upon as a marvellous case of “ instinCt.” Very
many species are also decidedly attracted by odours which
have no connection with their food, and which are to them,
therefore, a mere luxury. The fondness for valerian,
lemon-thyme, chamomile, lavender, and many plants rich
in essential oils, is common to the whole feline family. On
the other hand, they have their dislikes. We have often
observed the domestic cat smell at a fig-tree, and turn away
with the air of a disgusted connoisseur. Carbolic acid and
the coal-tar products generally seem to be an abomination
to everything that comes under the head of “ vermin.5’ Oil
of rhodium, on the contrary, has a wonderful fascination for
rats and mice, and is said to be a prominent ingredient in
the mixture which enables the modern housebreaker to lull
even the most vigilant watch-dog into a temporary negleCt
of duty.

.298 The Senses of the Lower Animals . [July,

The question of the scent of the vulture, so hotly dis-
cussed by Waterton, Audubon, and others, can scarcely be
regarded as definitely settled.

Serpents have a more powerful sense of smell than is
generally imagined. They do not, indeed, pursue their prey
by scent, — or, rather, they do not pursue them at all, — -but
lie in wait, and seize any suitable victim that presents
itself. But we have been repeatedly struck with the com-
motion excited in a reptile vivarium on the introduction of
a mouse, shrew, or other small warm-blooded animal ;
whilst the arrival of a frog, toad, newt, or lizard passed
quite unnoticed. Our observations lead us to believe that
among vipers the male, who is of wandering habits, seeks
the more sedentary female by scent. Some country people
hold that serpents are remarkably fond of milk, and will
follow by scent a farm-labourer who is carrying a full pail
from the fields, or even a woman who is suckling her child.
But we never met with any authenticated fads in support
of this tradition.

Fishes are, as is well known, attracted by various sub-
stances thrown into the water ; but it can scarcely be said
that, in their case, the two senses of smell and of taste
are thoroughly differentiated.

Of the sense of taste in animals we know but little, save
that many species are exceedingly nice in the selection of
their food, and rejeCt with considerable obstinacy an article
which does not meet their requirements. Thus an owl can
rarely be induced to eat meat in the slightest degree tainted.
This'should argue no small delicacy of taste. On the other
hand, those creatures which swallow their food whole — such
as serpents, lizards, frogs, toads, and many birds — can
scarcely be supposed to recognise its taste. We have heard
of a python, in a fit of hunger, swallowing a blanket.

Touch, the least localised of our senses, is too often con-
founded, in popular apprehension, with feeling. But surely
the mere recognition of resistance, in certain directions and
to various degrees, has no necessary connection with the
idea of pleasure or pain possibly excited in the system.
This is a fortunate circumstance, as it saves us from dis-
cussing the vexed question as to how far and to what extent
feeling extends down the animal, or even the vegetable,
kingdom. But that touch exists in all animals will scarcely
be disputed. Its seat, however, varies greatly in different
groups. The hands or fore feet in the Primates and Carni-
vora, aided in many of the latter by the whiskers; the snout
in the lower mammals, the beak apparently in birds, the

2Q9

1878.] The Senses of the Lower Animals.

tongue in many reptiles, the feet (sometimes aided by the
antennae) in articulate animals — all exercise this function.
With the exception of a doubtful case in bats, to which we
shall have to refer below, we doubt if any of the Vertebrates
possess the sense of touch in as high a degree of perfection
as does man.

Reviewing the faCts already adduced, we are surely war-
ranted in concluding that, even as regards those animals
which possess organs of sense clearly homologous with our
own, and exercising demonstrably the same function, the
sense-perceptions are not necessarily the same as our own,
the probability being that— so far at least as sight, smell,
and hearing are concerned — we are surpassed by not a few
of our humbler fellow-tenants of the globe. They may, or
rather they actually do, see where to us there is mere dark-
ness or a void, hear where we find utter silence, smell what
to us is inodorous, and distinguish grades and modifications
where our senses pronounce there to be no difference. In
faCt, just as our bodily nakedness, slowness, feebleness, and
lack of weapons require to be supplemented by clothing,
vehicles, arms, and machinery, so our dull senses demand
the aid of the telescope, the microscope, the spectroscope,
and other the like aids.

But we have still to consider those beings whose organs
of sensation are not homologous with our own, and exercise
function as yet imperfectly ascertained. Above all, we have
to keep in view the possibility that certain animals may
enjoy senses whose nature is to us altogether unknown. To
deny, a priori, the existence of such senses is as if we were
to assert that because we possess no poison-fangs, therefore
the bite of the cobra is harmless, — or that because we do
not secrete silk, the spider and the caterpillar are unable to
spin. It is, in short, that ever-besetting error “ Man the
measure of all things.”

Taking up first the latter question, we will call attention
to the wonderful dexterity with which a bat will flit about
in a locality full of prominent or pendent objects, without
coming in collision with any. It is sight, you say ? But
an experiment has been tried which will, we fear, be pro-
nounced a case of “ violationism.” A bat has been deprived
of sight, and turned loose in a room where a number of
rods, strings, and other objects were suspended from the
ceiling ; but it avoided these obstacles just as well as if still
possessed of its eyes. Feeling or touch ? We know that
men perfectly blind, when moving slowly along, can judge
whether they are approaching an objeCt, such as a walk

300 The Senses of the Lower Animals. [July,

But here is a creature darting rapidly about, and yet able
to turn and wind between a number of small obstacles. If
this is touch, seated in the wings, in the lobes of the ears,
or in the leaf-like appendages which in some species adorn
the end of the nose, it is so highly subtilised as almost to
deserve the rank of a distinct and independent sense, fulfil-
ling, as it does, functions for which the ordinary feeling or
touch of man and other animals is as impotent as it would
be for recognising a colour or a sound.

The possibility of other senses than the five with which
we are endowed will at once appear if we reflect that of all
the so-called “ physical forces ” light is the only one of
which we have a direCt perception. We only recognise heat
and electricity when they give rise to some phenomenon
which appeals to our sight and our feeling. Now, it is plain
that senses may exist which take direCt cognizance of the
eleCtric or thermic state of bodies. Had we such senses
they would evidently enable us at a glance to distinguish
bodies which, without formal scientific examination, appear
to us identical, and to recognise changes of condition which
now escape us. An animal possessed of a magnetic sense
would, for instance, be able, without any mental effort, to
direCt its course northwards or southwards, and in crossing
an unknown region would enjoy all the advantages which
we derive from the use of the compass.

The possibility of new, undiscovered senses is of course
greatest in the Invertebrates, and chiefly in the Articulates.
We find these creatures executing actions which from our
point of view demand reason of a higher grade than we are
willing to concede to beings so widely different from our-
selves, and — what is much more to the purpose — in which
we fail to trace in other points such effects as we might
naturally expeCt to flow from the possession of a highly-
developed intelligence. There appears in their economy a
mixture of wisdom and folly more incongruous than we at
least can imagine may be detected by higher beings in our
own. When, further, we examine their structure, we find
organs of sensation upon whose functions we are far from
being able to pronounce with full certainty.

Concerning the organs of sight in inseCts there can for-
tunately be no dispute, but their eyes differ so widely in
structure from those of the vertebrate animals as to offer
not a few unsolved problems.

Many groups possess two distinct kinds of eyes — the
larger or compound, and the smaller, simple, or so-called
ocelli. The former — found in all mature inseCts, save cer-

1878.'

The Senses of the Lower Animals.

301

tain blind species — occupy a position similar to that of the
eyes in the Vertebrates, but, instead of consisting each of a
simple lens, they are formed of an aggregation of lenses,
varying greatly in number, and in some groups amounting
to many thousands. From each of these lenses or facets a
crystalline rod radiates downward to the nervous ganglia.
The ocelli, or small eyes, placed on the top of the head are
simple in structure, absent entirely in many species, and in
others covered over with hair.

We can scarcely doubt that a structure so widely differing
from that which prevails among the higher animals must be
accompanied with corresponding differences in function to
some of which we have already referred. We know that
the sight of many inserts must require a wide range. If
they are to find their way back to their nests, hives, or other
haunts, they must be able to recognise objedts at a very
considerable distance, whilst in other cases their vision to
be useful must be almost microscopic in its character. In
accordance with this twofold need it has been observed that
in many groups the upper lenses of the facetted eyes are
considerably larger than the lower. Hence the former may
possibly serve for the recognition of distant objedts, and the
latter for the examination of such as are near at hand.

Graber, however, maintains that the compound eyes are
telescopic in their fundtion, whilst the ocelli are adapted
solely for the perception of proximate objedts, whence their
strong convexity. He remarks that these simple eyes occur
especially in insedts whose locomotive powers are feeble, and
whose entire sphere of adtion is restridted. To this view
exception must be taken : the Neuroptera, such as the
dragonflies, — perhaps the most locomotive of all insedts, — ■
the great majority of the Hymenoptera and Diptera, all of
them swift, strong, and agile on the wing, possess these
organs ; whilst in the Coleoptera, comparatively clumsy and
imperfedt flyers, they are generally absent.

The ocelli, in the Hymenoptera at least, are, according to
F. Muller, adapted to a very feeble illumination, their size
increasing as the habits of the species are more nodturnal.

But even insedts in which no eyes can be traced — such as
the blind grubs of Lucilia C cesar, L. evistalis, and other flies
— have, according to Pouchet, a perception of the intensity
and the diredtion of incident rays of light, diffused appa-
rently over the whole surface of the body.

The eyes of spiders are not facetted like those of insedts,
and occupy a position more corresponding to the ocelli than
to the compound eyes of insedts. This position, awkward

302

The Senses of the Lower Animals .

[July,

as it may seem at first glance, is a great convenience to the

spider, whose enemies — such as birds and certain wasps

are sure to attack from above, and whose cell or hiding-place
is generally underneath the web. From our own observa-
tions we do not think that the sight of spiders has a verv
long range.

Insects are sometimes led astray by their unaided sight.
The “ humming-bird hawk-moth” has been seen examining
artificial flowers on a lady’s bonnet, and even the coloured
designs on walls, —a fact which confirms the attractive
influence of colour upon insects, and corroborates Mr. Dar-
win’s views on the fecundation of flowers.

The light-organs of snails offer most interesting peculiar-
ities. In the genus Oncidium , found in the Philippine
Islands, and recently studied by Dr. Semper, there are upon
the back small specks, which are in reality eyes, essentially
similar in structure to those of vertebrate animals, and
quite distinct from the well-known tentacular eyes. What
may be the difference of function in the two organs has not
yet been ascertained.

Passing to the sense of smell, we may be met at the very
outset by the inquiry whether insects have any perception
of odours at all ? This question is of great moment in the
general economy of organic Nature. According to several
modern investigators, among whom we may especially men-
tion Darwin, the fecundation of flowers, and consequently
the propagation of vegetable species, depends in a large
number of cases upon the intervention of moths, butterflies,
bees, and other insects, which convey the pollen from the
male organs of one flower to the female organs of another.
These creatures are attracted to blossoms, in some cases of
brilliant colour and in others of odour, this being in fact the
final cause of such beauty and fragrance. If, therefore,
insects are not endowed with the sense of smell, one part,
at any rate, of this theory must be given up, and the per-
fume of flowers must — as far as the welfare of the plant
itself is concerned — be pronounced purposeless. It will
therefore be useful to review the evidence which proves the
existence of an acute and delicate odour-sense in insects,
the more as a recent experiment has been by some writers
supposed to demonstrate its absence.

We will first glance at some of “ Nature’s scavengers,”
such as the sexton-beetle and the dung-beetles. One of the
most familiar facts in the economy of these creatures is the
ease and certainty with which they discover their quarry.
On a calm spring evening nothing is more common than to

iSyS.]

The Senses of the Lower Animals .

303

see a Geotrupes come flying along in a straight line, not
hawking or searching about, and drop at once upon some
recently deposited ordure. Where burying beetles are com-
mon they may be seen, in like manner, flying one after
another to some dead mole, or shrew, lying amidst high
grass, and certainly incapable of being seen from a distance.
Every housewife must have noticed with what importunate
assiduity the common blow-fly will hover about a cupboard
or safe enclosing meat, even when the contents are totally
hidden from view. It is especially interesting to note that
certain plants which to our senses emit the odour of carrion
prove attractive to carrion-flies. It is less generally known
that some of the most beautiful butterflies are attracted by
excrementitious and putrescent matters, and may even be
lured within reach of the entomologist’s net by such baits.
This scarcely agrees with the poetical notions of butterfly-
life ; but alas ! Psyche will sip the foetid moisture from
carrion as eagerly as the neCtar from the purest flower. A
dead weasel or rat nailed against a tree-trunk will often
induce the “ purple emperor ” to descend from the tree-tops
over which he is wont to flutter. The Papilios and giant
Ornithopteras of warmer climates may also be captured by
similar stratagems. According to Mr. W. M. Gabb,* the
brilliant Morphos of Nicaragua may be caught “ by baiting
with a piece of over-ripe or even rotting banana,” whilst at
other times they were almost unapproachable. The same
author adds that his native servants “ always carried with
them a fermented paste of maize-flour, which they mixed
with water to the consistency of gruel, as a beverage. On
our arriving at the side of a stream in a narrow gorge, in-
variably, within a few minutes after they opened a package
of this paste, although there might not have been a butterfly
in sight before, these most brilliant of their kind would come
sailing up, always from the leeward.” Our common
Vanessa Atalanta is, in like manner, attracted by the smell
of over-ripe or rotting fruit, especially plums.

One of the commonest and most successful methods of
capturing noCturnal Lepidoptera, i.e.} sugaring, depends on
an appeal to their sense of smell. A thick syrup of coarse
brown sugar is mixed by some experts with rum, by others
with porter, and by others again with a little vinegar, — all
strong odorous fluids,* — and the composition is smeared upon
the trunks of trees. The moths come to sip the syrup, and
are caught.

* Nature, February 7, 1878.

304 The Senses of the Lower Animals . [July,

But there is another method of catching Lepidoptera
which is even yet more convincingly demonstrative of the
wonderfully acute scent possessed by these creatures. We
refer to the practice of “ sembling.” If a virgin female moth
of certain species is shut up in a box, males of the same
species will make their appearance, even from a very consi-
derable distance. Thus Mr. Wonfor, in a paper read before
the Brighton and Sussex Natural History Society, mentioned
that he had by this method captured, in two days, fifty males
of Saturnia Carpini . He declares that the attraction “ can-
not be by sight, for the females were in a box on the side of
a slope, and the males flew across the valley and close to
the ground. When trying similar experiments with other
species we purposely selected a field with a wood at the end,
and saw the males flying over the tops of the trees.” They
always, further, approach against the wind. Two additional
circumstances have to be taken into consideration : as soon
as the female is impregnated the attraction ceases, and,
further, the moths in question are by no means common.
In the same district where Mr. Wonfor made his experi-
ments any person, not having with him a female S'. Carpini,
could scarcely count upon meeting with a single male of the
species in the course of a day’s ramble.

The following instance, recorded by Mr. J. H. Davis,
Curator of the Portsmouth Philosophical Society,* is con-
clusive against the supposition that the males are attracted
to the female in consequence of discerning her afar off : — •
“ Another female of the same species ( Sphinx Convolvuli)
had been produced ; three males found their way into my
study down the chimney.” Many more instances of male
moths coming and hovering round, or settling upon perfectly
opaque boxes in which females of their own species were
imprisoned, might be adduced did any necessity exist. It
is, however, contended by some that the attraction, though
not sight, may be a sound. The virgin female, they argue,
produces a sound inaudible to human ears, but distinctly
heard and understood by the males of her species, and be-
comes silent as soon as her love-call has been answered.
There is not in this supposition anything necessarily absurd ;
but the following faCt proves it to be utterly inadmissible.
Mr. J. H. Davis, in the Journal above cited, tells us : — “On
going into my study, in the evening, I found a female Sphinx
Convolvuli fluttering on the floor. On lifting it up it ran up

* Zoological Journal, vol. v., p. 142.

i S7S.] The Senses of the Lower Animals. 305

my coat and several times round the collar before I could
place it in safety. I went from thence into my garden, to
shut some hot-bed lights, where I was occupied about ten
minutes ; from thence again to my study, where I found two
fine males of Sphinx Convolvuli had, whilst in the garden,
attached themselves to the collar of my coat, where the
female had previously been.” This instance, we think, is
absolutely decisive. A scent might be easily left adhering
to the collar of the coat, whilst no one can conceive of a
sound remaining. Male moths have further been known to
flock to the empty cocoon from which a female had recently
escaped, though she had in the meantime been removed.
Sight and hearing being evidently thus out of the question,
there remains only one sense known to us capable of adting
at a distance. Judging from our own powers, indeed, scent
of such delicacy and subtlety is simply incomprehensible.
We wonder at the accuracy with which the harrier can track
a hare, or the bloodhound a fugitive criminal or slave, over
meadows, marshes, ploughed lands, and trodden roads ; and
if common observation were not against us we should
doubtless proclaim this also inconceivable or impossible.
But the task of the hound is vastly easier than that of the
moth. He is guided by scented surfaces to which the spe-
cific odour of the animal pursued adheres in a concentrated
form. The emanations from the female moth, on the other
hand, are diffused through space and diluted with an ex-
cessive quantity of air, whether scentless or saturated with
other odours. Yet this infinitesimal trace is sufficient to
guide the male towards her with unfailing accuracy, and
from distances of at least 200 yards, or about 3600 times
the length of the insedt’s body. This is as if a human being
were able to detedt the presence and the condition of an
individual of his own species at the distance of more than
four miles ! Inconceivable, however, as such a power may
seem to us, there stand the fadts before us, and we have
merely the option of admitting this wonderful delicacy of
scent or assuming the existence of some sense totally foreign
to us, and possessed of equal delicacy in its indications.

According to the observations of Mr. Belt,* confirmed by
those of others, the Ecitons and other ants follow each other
by scent. Each exploring party marks out thus the road it
has travelled. He says : — “ I one day saw a column of
Eciton hamata running along the foot of a nearly perpendi-
cular tramway-cutting, the side of which was about 6 feet

* Naturalist in Nicaragua, p. 23.

yok? yin, (n.s.)

x

The Senses of the Lower Animals.

306

[July,

high. At one point I noticed a sort of assembly, of about
a dozen individuals, that appeared in consultation. Sud-
denly one ant left the conclave, and ran with great speed up
the perpendicular face of the cutting without stopping. It
was followed by others, which, however, did not keep
straight on like the first, but ran a short way, then returned,
then again followed a little farther than the first time.
They were evidently scenting the trail of the pioneer, and
making it permanently recognisable. These ants followed
the exa 6i line taken by the first one, though it was far out
of sight. Wherever it had made a slight detour, they did
so likewise. I scraped with my knife a small portion of the
clay on the trail, and the ants were completely at fault for a
time which way to go. Those ascending and those descend-
ing stopped at the scraped portion, and made short circuits
until they hit the scented trail again, when all their hesita-
tion vanished, and they ran up and down it with the greatest
confidence.” Mr. Belt further thinks that ants “ can com-
municate the presence of danger, of booty, or other intelli-
gence, to a distance, by the different intensity of the odours
given off.” In this hypothesis of a scent-language addressed
to the organs of smell, taking the place of a sound-language
addressed to the organs of hearing, strange as it may seem
at first glance, there is nothing impossible or even impro-
bable. The language of man and of many other Vertebrates
demands the power of producing at will sounds, joined to
the faculty of recognising them ; in other words, the joint
possession of vocal and auditory organs, In like manner,
the language which Mr. Belt thus attributes to ants requires
merely the power of producing odours, and of distinguishing
them when produced. Now, one of the most striking pecu-
liarities of inserts, as compared with vertebrate animals, is
the variety and intensity of the odours which they emit,
even as appreciable to our olfactory nerves. There are
genera, and even species, which an experienced entomologist
can recognise, even blindfold, by the smell alone. How
distindt these scents must be to such sensitive organs as are
evidently possessed by inserts will be understood from the
fadts stated above. It appears also that in certain cases
these odours can be emitted, suppressed, or varied at will.
Here, therefore, are all the facilities needed for a scent-
language. Our want of some standard for remembering
and recording odours renders the study of this subjedt
peculiarly difficult.

Curiously enough, the notion has been lately taken up
that insedts, after all, do not possess the sense of smell.

1878.] The Senses of the Lower Animals. 307

An experimentalist placed some caustic ammonia close to
the head of a moth which was either asleep or “ shamming ”
death, and was surprised to find that it took little or no
notice of the pungent vapour. On the other hand, he ob-
served that a loud and sudden sound seemed to startle the
moth. To do the writer in question justice, he does not
appear to have drawn from this single experiment the rash
and sweeping conclusion that inserts are incapable of
smelling. Others, however, were less cautious, and not a
few paragraphs have appeared in consequence, in political
and literary journals, to the effect that the supposed pos-
session by inserts of a sense of smell must now be regarded
as an exploded error. We have found, however, not indeed
an insect, but a spider perfectly sensitive to the odour of
ammonia. Being once annoyed out of all patience by a
Tegenaria , which would persist in attaching her web to a
burette-stand in the window of our laboratory, we unstop-
pered a 20-oz. phial of the strongest ammonia, and presented
it at her, in the hope of putting her to final rout. With the
usual courage of her race she charged the strange object
with so much eagerness as nearly to fall into the open bottle.
Catching the fume, however, she at once turned tail, and
fled precipitately. Perhaps if we fully understood the
strudture of the olfadtory organs in moths we should see a
reason why they are little affedted by a dose of ammonia
from which we should shrink back half-stifled. Their nerves
of smell do not appear to terminate in a mucous membrane
liable to be irritated by ammonia. Furthermore, we have
observed cases where odours repulsive to man appear indif-
ferent, or even attractive, to insedts. That gnats possess
the power of smell is demonstrated beyond all reach of
doubt ; yet we have seen a crowd of these little beings
dancing merrily over the ventilators of a shed from which
the orange fumes of hyponitric acid were escaping in tor-
rents. It would have been easy for them to have found an
equally eligible place free from the pungent vapour, but
they showed no disposition to withdraw. In summer
mornings, also, we have frequently observed moths of
various kinds drowned in bowls of solution of tin in aqua
regia, whilst none of these nightly visitors had thought
proper to commit suicide in a cistern of water close at hand.
We were hence led to conclude that the odour of the tin
solution was to them positively attractive. Such solutions
indeed have, under certain circumstances, a faintly aromatic
smell which might be likened to that of decaying fruit.

But if insects thus — as we are warranted in concluding—

x 2

308

The Senses of the Lower Animals .

i July.

possess the sense of smell in a degree of perfection quite
unknown to vertebrate animals, the question follows, What
is its organ ? Here there is a want of accord among author-
ities who have made this subject their study. Still we hold
that a preponderating body of evidence points to the antennae
as the seat of this sense. These organs occupy a situation
exceedingly appropriate for the purpose ; they are exposed
to currents of air, and can be readily applied to or held over
any substance which the insect may wish to examine more
closely, and they are most abundantly supplied with nerve-
fibre. In flies the third or terminal joint receives thousands
of such filaments, each apparently terminating in a small
open cell. In some of the Buprestidae the antennae display
multitudes of pores or open cells, scattered uniformly over
the entire surface, whilst in others they are concentrated
in a small depression upon each joint. The development of
the antennae, which varies greatly in different groups, pre-
sents, in the main, the features which we should expedt in
an organ of scent. We know that in insedts — as indeed in
all animals — the male seeks out the female, who in most
cases is more sedentary in her habits, and is in some in-
stances even devoid of wings. Hence we may fairly con-
clude that the male will require to possess the sense of
smell in a higher degree than the female. This is accord-
ingly the invariable rule : if the antennae of the two sexes
are not absolutely alike, those of the male are more highly
developed. This is especially the case in such moths as are
usually entrapped by the process of “ sembling,” as above
mentioned. In these, as for instance in Saturnia Carp ini,
the antennae of the female have the form of a bristle, while
those of the male have a series of minute plates, like the
barbs of a feather, projedting out on both sides, and exposing
a great amount of surface to the air.

We should also expedt the organs of smell to be more
complicated in species which feed on a very narrow range of
substances, and have consequently more difficulty in finding
support than in omnivorous species whose food is every-
where. We should also suppose that a less delicate sense
of smell, and consequently a less highly developed organ,
would be necessary in insedts possessing great locomotive
powers than in such as travel slowly and awkwardly. Fur-
ther, if the antennae are the organs of smell, their develop-
ment should be to some extent inversely as that of the eye,
and should be relatively higher in nodturnal than in diurnal
species. All these suppositions may, generally speaking, be
pronounced to agree with observed fadts. The dragonfly,

The Senses of the Lower Animals.

309

1878.]

with his wonderful speed and command of wing, and with
his scarcely less marvellous development of the visual
organs, has comparatively little need for the sense of smell,
and his antennae are small and simple. The locust, strong
on the wing, able as a leaper. and prepared to eat almost
every green thing upon the face of the earth, has small
occasion for minute discrimination of odours : his antennae,
accordingly, are mere bristles. The tiger-beetle — able to
run, bound, and fly with extreme velocity, and preying upon
every animal he is able to overcome — needs little delicacy of
scent, and his antennae therefore are of the same simple
type. The ground-beetles, though in many cases wingless,
and in others noCturnal, are willing to feed both on living
prey or dead animal matter, and in case of need upon cer-
tain vegetable substances. We need therefore feel little
surprise that their antennae, too, should be plain in structure.
The common house-fly is swift and powerful on the wing
and unlimited in its diet ; it therefore has less need for a nicely
appreciative scent, and in consequence for highly developed
antennae.

On the other hand, the male moth who has to seek both
his food and his partner, often in the night, has in a majority
of instances highly developed plumose antennae. The but-
terfly— who, though feeding on the honey of flowers, does
not appear to be promiscuously attracted by all plants — has
antennae furnished at the end with buttons or knobs. The
common dung-beetle, who crawls slowly and flies heavily,
and who depends upon one class of substances alone for his
own food and for the nidus of his offspring, has at the end
of his antennae a club that opens out in plates, like the
leaves of a book, and thus exposes a very large amount of
surface to the action of the atmosphere.

We may further remark that the antennae in larvae are in
a rudimentary state, and merely become developed when
the inseCt has reached the reproductive stage of its
existence.

This also is in favour of our view that they are the organs
of scent — a sense which throughout the animal kingdom
seems to stand in a close and particular relation to the
sexual functions. It has been observed that in our own
species the olfactory nerves are comparatively inactive prior
to the age of puberty.

The question has often been raised— -By what means does
the ichneumon-wasp, or other parasitical inseCt, discover
the presence of the larvae or pupae destined to become its
victims, hidden, as the latter frequently are, among closely

310 The Senses of the Lower Animals. [July?

folded leaves, or in fruits, in the stems of vegetables, or in
masses of earth ? The sense of smell seems by far the
most likely guide ; and if we watch a female ichneumon on
the search for larvae in which to deposit her eggs, and note
the rapid and systematic play of her long flexible antennae
over the surface of the objects she is examining, we cannot
help comparing her movements to those of a hound searching
for the trail of a fox or a deer. If we admit that the antennae
are the olfactory organs all becomes intelligible.

Adtual observation, as far as it has been carried, testifies
in the same diredtion. We have often offered fruit or flowers
to captive rose-beetles, and have always found that their
first adtion was to stretch out the antennae and expand the
leaflets of their terminal clubs. Dung-beetles adt precisely
in the same manner if suddenly presented with a piece of
excrement. Indeed all insedts whose antennae are large
and conspicuous enough to be conveniently observed adt as
if these organs played a most prominent part in the recog-
nition of food placed in their way. That they may be, at
the same time, organs of touch is perfedtly possible. The
proboscis of the elephant, the snout of the swine, &c., fulfil
this double fundlion.

Provisionally, then, we think it may be admitted that the
antennae are the organs of smell. But till we are able to
show some correlation between the form of these organs in
each group and its peculiar habits and requirements, or its
general strudture, our knowledge must be confessed to be
exceedingly imperfedt. We are perfedtly aware of Dr. Wolf’s
supposed discovery of an organ of scent in insedts, which is
merely a “ specially differentiated portion of the membrane”
which extends from the labrum inwards. We admit that
the part examined by this naturalist is an organ of sensation.
But we do not see that even the attempt has been made to
trace any connedtion between its development and the
varying degrees of olfadtory power.

Though second in moment among the senses in man, the
faculty of hearing must, among invertebrate animals, receive
a lower position in accordance with the part which it plays
in their economy. On this subjedt, however, we are almost
daily receiving new and often startling revelations. Natu-
ralists have long known that some insedts possessed the
power of producing sounds at pleasure, and have very justi-
fiably inferred that such species cannot be devoid of the
sense of hearing. The responsive chirp of the cricket, the
cicada, and the grasshopper ; the peculiar note uttered by
the queen bee, and which produces such an effedt upon her

187s.] The Senses of the Lower Animals . 311

subjects; the importunate or querulous hum of many
Hymenoptera when angry ; and the wailing buzz of the
common house-fly when captured in the web of a spider, on
hearing which all other flies beat a retreat from the spot —
all these instances of insedt-voiees and insedt-hearing are
well known. But till very lately the vast majority of
insedts and of other articulate animals were considered lite-
rally dumb. Now, however, vocal powers are being disco-
vered in spiders, scorpions, butterflies (hair-streaks), moths,
beetles (Cychrus, Prionus, &c.), as well as in the groups
formerly known to be noisy. Several V anessce — members of
the group to which our common “ peacock butterfly ” and
“red admiral ” belong — are known to stridulate, as also the
Brazilian butterfly ( Ageronia feronia), and the moths Che-
Ionia pudica and Euprepia rnatronula. The “ death’s-head ”
(Sphinx Atropos) was formerly supposed to be the only Lepi-
dopterous insedt capable of emitting any sound. The organs
of sound are often very curiously constructed, and are pro-
vided in some cases with a resonant cavity for the purpose
of intensifying the effedt. If we further take into consider-
ation the circumstance that the sounds produced by such
minute animals may easily be too acute to be recognised by
human ears, we shall not be far wrong in supposing that
the majority of the Articulata can emit sounds at will, and
that they therefore are probably endowed with the sense of
hearing.

It is to be remarked, however, that the recent discoveries
of the produdtion of sound by insedts refer more to the soli-
tary species than to such as live in organised societies.
Ants have not hitherto been observed to utter any sound,
save a kind of hissing when on the march. Their antennal
language — whether or not we regard it, with Mr. Belt, as
depending upon the produdtion and recognition of odours,
or view it merely as a system of movements and touches,
somewhat resembling our “ deaf and dumb alphabet ” — can
scarcely be referred to sounds. The stridulation of solitary
insedts is often, doubtless, a love-call ; often again, as in the
scorpion, a note of defiance. Predatory insedts are doubt-
less, like larger animals, often guided to their prey by the
sense of hearing, and the feebler species may in some cases
be made aware of the approach of danger. Gilbert White*'
curiously enough accuses bees of deafness : — “ It does no
appear from experiment that bees are in any way capable o
being affedted by sounds ; for I have often tried my own

* Selborne, Letter XXXVIII.

312 The Senses of ihe Lower Animals. .rJuly>

O'.

with a large speaking-trumpet held elose to their hives, and
with such an exertion of voice as would have hailed a ship
at the distance of a mile, and still these inserts pursued
their various employments undisturbed, and without showing
the least sensibility or resentment. *’ The rustics who, when
pursuing a stray swarm ol bees, kept up a horrible dis-
sonance with rattles, cows' horns, trying-pans clashed
together, and the like, seem to have taken a different view
of the hearing of bees.

The question as to the ears of inseCts is not satisfactorily
settled. It would almost seem that these organs, or what
stands in their stead, are placed differently in different
groups. In the two-winged flies (Diptera) the so-called
poisers or halteres — the small knobs which take the place
of the posterior wings of other inseCt-orders — have been
supposed to be the organs of hearing. The Orthoptera are
said to have ears on their fore-legs, and other inseCts seem
to possess similar organs in the subcostal vein of the wing.
It may be asked, how can these points be ascertained ?
There is certainly, in observing and experimenting on such
subjects, wide scope for error. We once saw it gravely
maintained that the antennae of inseCts served as auditory
organs because when an inseCt is startled by a loud and
sudden sound a convulsive movement is sometimes observed
in these members. This, however, proves nothing : a man
under similar circumstances will often give a sudden jerk
with his arms ; yet no one will maintain, on that account,
that we hear with our hands. To recognise the organs of
sensation in the vertebrate animals is generally easy, because
they occupy positions answering to those which they hold
in our own system. But among Invertebrates the case is
different : organs which in mammals, birds, &c., are con-
centrated in the head or on the trunk, may there appear on
the limbs. If then we find, e.g.} on the wing or the leg of
an inseCt some apparatus specially supplied with nerves,
and yet obviously adapted neither for locomotive, prehensile,
vocal, secretive, or reproductive functions, &c., we arrive,
by a process of exhaustion, at the inference that it is most
probably an organ of sensation. Concerning the eyes there
can be fortunately no doubt. The senses of smell and taste
we may reasonably expeCt to be in close proximity to the
mouth. So that a highly specialised organisation found on
the wing or leg, as above mentioned, may with great proba-
bility be pronounced either to be an ear or the seat of some
sense totally unknown. If, on experiment, the removal of
such organ is found to bring with it the incapacity to

1878.] The Senses of the Lower Animals , 313

recognise sounds, the evidence may be considered as
complete.

Concerning taste in the Invertebrates we know very little
beyond the bare faCt that many of them are extremely
scrupulous in the selection of their food, and will in many
instances accept death by hunger as a preferable alternative
to a change of diet. Here, however, the functions of smell
and of taste are so interwoven that we are not yet compe-
tent to draw the boundary line. What are the organs of
taste in inserts is still a matter of doubt ; the palpi, the so-
called tongue, and the inner surface of the alimentary
aperture have all been suggested.

Touch plays a very important part in the economy of the
Articulates, and attains in some of them a delicacy at least
as great as in man. Pope’s assertion that the spider’s touch
“ lives along the line ” is the expression of a literal truth.
If an Epeira is sitting in the centre of her geometrical web,
and a gnat becomes entangled towards the circumference,
she may be seen applying her feet in succession to the
different radii, and then bounding off in the right direction.
That she is guided by touch rather than by sight appears
from the circumstance that she may be induced to rush out
in the same manner if the web is gently tickled with a
straw, or if a fine jet of water is cautiously directed against
it from a syringe or washing-bottle. We once saw a Harry
Long-legs— as they are familiarly called — fall into a web,
but manage to escape, leaving one of his ungainly limbs
behind him. The spider, hurrying up and finding the foot,
ran along, naturally expecting, doubtless, to find a body at
the other end. Being disappointed she returned to the foot,
and, when finally convinced that she had merely a trunkless
leg to deal with, she fled with precipitation, as if utterly
staggered at such a violation of the fitness of things.

The antennal language of ants — if it does not, according
to Mr. Belt’s interesting conjecture, turn upon the emission
and recognition of odours — must depend upon touch. But
if we look through the whole extent of what has been called
“ insedt architecture ” we meet with one unbroken series of
instances, proving the utmost delicacy of touch in articulate
animals.

If we try to discover the seat of the sense of touch in
inseCts, we find several organs to which it has been assigned
— the antennae, the palpi, the paraglossae, and even the feet
may take a share in the process. It is, of course, probable
that where so many organs exist there must be some variety
in the nature of their functions. We may here be on the

314

The Senses of the Lower Animals .

[July,

track of modifications of the faculty of touch or feeling
which may be substantially to us unknown senses. Our
power of touch refers mainly to solid bodies ; we can decide
whether they are moist or dry, hot or cold, rough or smooth,
&c., and we can discriminate between solids and liquids.
But we have no organ that informs us of the state of the
atmosphere, except in as far as we perceive its temperature
by the whole surface of our bodies. It is far from impro-
bable that some of the organs of inserts may give them
information of the condition of the atmosphere — baroscopic,
hygroscopic, or eledtroscopic. This is the more likely since
some of the parts which have been suggested as the seats of
touch are, in multitudes of cases, exceedingly ill-adapted
for being applied to the examination of solid bodies. The
antennae are often too short and too sparingly mobile.

It is plain that the more numerous and complete the data
laid before us, the easier does the solution of any problem
become. If, then, certain of the lower animals possess
more delicate, and possibly more numerous senses, than do
we, they are in a position to acquire, by direct perception,
knowledge which we can only gain by trains of indudlive
reasoning and by the use of instruments of precision. Even
yet Natural History is haunted by a phantom known as
“ Instindl,” which is invoked in every case of difficulty, just
as was phlogiston by the chemists of the last century, and
which is invested, pro re natd, with attributes not always the
most conceivable or the most mutually consistent.* But
very probably those instances of supposed instinct which
are not resolvable into hereditary habit may be traced to
the simple following of the guidance of senses more acute
than our own. Thus we are told that certain birds, beasts,
and insedls have an instinctive foreknowledge of coming
storms and of other meteorological changes ; that migratory
birds leave us when the weather is still warm and sunny,
and the inserts upon which they feed are still plentiful ;
that wild geese, fieldfares, stormcocks, &c., arrive earlier
than usual on our shores, not because unusual cold has
already set in at their ordinary resorts, but because it is
going to do ; that the bees contract the inlet into their hive
in proportion to the degree of cold which is about to prevail,
&c. These observations, in so far as they are really founded

* Our great objection to “ instindt ” is that it is too often a word hiding
ignorance under the veil of pretended knowledge. There are in Biology un-
solved questions in abundance, some of which are possibly beyond the scope
of the human intellect. But in such cases, instead of talking about “ instind,”
let us frankly confess that we do not know.

1878.] The Senses of the Lower Animals. 315

in faCt, are merely instances of warnings furnished by
sensuous perceptions more acute than our own. We pro-
nounce it a mystery that the swift should leave us by mid-
August, when, according to our feelings, we are in the height
of summer. But could we see and feel with the swift we
might perceive a change amply sufficient to prompt mi-
gration.

Even the attraction of a virgin female moth for the males
of her species, as already described, has been referred to
the convenient class of “ instincts.” It must be a curious
instinCt, indeed, which will aCt to the windward and not to
the leeward. We never think of saying that the hound
pursues the fox by instinCt. If unwilling to concede to him
the possession of reason, we may say that it is by instinCt
he knows that the odour he detects upon the grass or the
soil has been left there by an animal which he may over-
take if he follows up the trail. But the aCt of recognising
this odour we ascribe simply to one of his senses. Why
take another course as concerns the Satnrnici Carpini ? If
an animal detects the presence of any objeCt at a distance,
it can only be effected by one of two methods ; either mate-
rial molecules, solid or gaseous, are given off by the objeCt,
and brought by atmospheric (or aqueous) currents into con-
tact with the sense organs of the observer, or else certain
vibrations or undulations, sonorous, luminouSj &c., reach
him through the medium of the atmosphere 'or the ether.
Surely neither of these processes can be described as
“ instinCt,” and he who by implication admits the possibility
of a third way should at least give us some hint concerning
its nature and mode of action.

Here, therefore, is a point of departure for animal psy-
chology which has not received a due share of attention.
We must study the senses of the lower animals both struc-
turally and functionally, more especially in the Articulata,
where the departure from the human type of organisation
is so complete, and where the manifestations of intelligence
are so complex and so nearly rival our own.

Superficial Gravels and Clays.

316

[July,

II. THE SUPERFICIAL GRAVELS AND CLAYS

AROUND

FINCHLEY, EALING, AND BRENTFORD.

By Thomas Belt, F.G.S.

I. Introduction.

PURPOSE in the present paper to show the relation
of the Glacial-beds at Finchley to the implement-
bearing gravels at Ealing, and the mammaliferous
gravels and sands at Brentford.

Possibly the objects I have in view — to demonstrate that
the formation of the valley-deposits took place in the Glacial
period, and that palaeolithic man was pre-diluvial — might
have been more clearly attained by a thorough study of one
of the more northern valleys ; but I have had much greater
facilities for making myself acquainted with the district I
have chosen. It has also this great advantage, that it is
close to London, so that my descriptions and conclusions
may be readily checked by an inspection of the numerous
gravel- and clay-pits from which I have obtained the facts
described in these pages.

II. Description of the Deposits.

1. Finchley and Neighbourhood. — The Glacial beds in the
neighbourhood of Finchley were described in 1835 by Mr.
Edward Spencer,* who traced the boulder-clay and under-
lying gravels from Muswell Hill to Finchley Common.
Mr. Whitaker has mentioned them in his “ Memoir on the
Geology of Parts of Middlesex, &c.,”t and Mr. Henry Walker
has described the beds exposed in the cuttings of the Great
Northern Railway and the clay-pits in the vicinity.];

My own observations date from July, 1875, when I first
visited the clay-pits near Finchley under the guidance of
Mr. J. J. B. Ives. Since that time I have negledted no op-
portunity of examining the numerous seeftions that have
been exposed in excavations for the foundations of new

* Proc. Geol. Soc., vol. ii., p. 181.

f Mem. Geol. Survey, 1864.

% Proc. Geol. Assoc., vol. ii., p. 289, 1871.

FIG. 2.— Section from Argyle Road, Castlehill to Southall.

Scale as above. a. Brick clays. b. Sands and gravels.

I878.]

Superficial Gravels and Clays

317

ixlon/ Ckz&xfrs

3i8

Superficial Gravels and Clays.

[July,

houses, as well as the more permanent ones in the gravel-
and clay-pits. In this way I have been able to trace the
beds right across from the drainage area of the River Lea
into and across that of the Brent.

The general distribution of the deposits is shown in Fig. I,
which is a section extending from a little east of the “Green
Man ” public-house, on the St. Alban’s Road, to the top of
the hill at Hendon. The following are the details from
which this sedtion has been constructed : — -

At an old brick-pit at the eastern extremity of my sedtion
the Upper Boulder-clay has been worked, but the surface is
now grassed over. Lower down the slope I found a gravel-
pit open about 250 yards diredtly west of the “ Green Man ”
public-house, on the south bank of a small stream
running to the Lea, and obtained the sedtion shown in

Fig- 3-

Ti£. 3.

Gravel-pit near Eastern End of General Section.

s. Surface soil. A. Brown boulder-clay, unstratified, with bluish vertical partings.
Stones mostly flints, with a few pieces of quartzite, sandstone, chalk, &c., the
chalk mostly decomposed. c. Sands and gravel. Mostly sand at top, with lines
of small gravel. Sandy coarse gravel below. Pebbles mostly subangular. Base
not seen.

In this sedtion the chalk has been mostly dissolved out of
the clay, but pieces, generally quite soft, are still to be found
in places, and in others the calcareous matter has entirely
disappeared, leaving behind, nests of siliceous grains ori-
ginally contained in the chalk. Ascending the hill westward,
a good sedtion of the boulder-clay is exposed in Mr. Plow-
man’s brick-field. The clay here contains much chalk
detritus and many other travelled stones, including pieces of
granite, lias, and red chalk. Just beyond this is the cutting
of the Great Northern Railway. The slopes are now mostly
grassed over, but the beds were examined and described by
Mr. Henry Walker when the sedtion was well exposed. He
found a chalky boulder-clay overlying a blue boulder-clay,
with occasional patches of sandy gravel between them.
At Finchley Station, about 550 yards to the north-west of

1878.]

Superficial Gravels and Clays.

319

the line of section, the chalky boulder-clay is exposed in
patches overlying coarse gravel, and that again a sandy
gravel. Further up the line this sandy gravel is super-
imposed upon a dark blue clay with much liassic detritus.
When the cutting was being made Mr. Walker traced this
blue clay for a distance of a mile and a half towards East
End, considerably past my line of section. A little south-
west of the railway the line of section crosses the top of the
watershed between the Lea and the Brent. Descending the
slope I was so fortunate as to find a large excavation for
obtaining gravel and sand in the grounds of the Avenue, and
the following section exposed : —

Section at the point marked d in Fig. i

s. Surface soil. A, 1. Chalky boulder-clay. A, 2. Coarse gravel. Pebbles mostly
rounded. c. Very sandy gravel. Mostly sand at top; coarser towards bottom
of sedtion. Base of gravel not seen.

The upper part of the clay, both here and at Mr. Plow-
man's clay-pit, is brown and without chalk.

The line of sedtion crosses a small valley running into
the Brent, and, after passing the Finchley Road, reaches
Mr. Lawford’s brick-field at Church End. The beds exposed
in this pit are shown in Fig. 5.

In this sedtion the Upper Boulder-clay is much thinner
than higher up the hill, and contains very few stones ex-
cepting in nests next the surface. These surface patches of
pebbles mark the extent to which the clay has been subjedted
to subaerial denudation, the finer materials having been
carried away and the coarser left behind. This denudation
has been greater on the slopes than on the plateaux, so that
it is on the latter that we find the clay now thickest.

120

Superficial Gravels and Clays.

[July,

The patches of gravel marked 2 in Fig. 5 are very ir-
regular. Some of them look like lumps of the Middle Sands
and Gravel that had been picked up and deposited in a

Fi|. 5.

5 0

14 o

6 O

Section at Mr. Lawford’s Clay-pit, Church End.

s. Surface soil. a,i. Brown boulder-clay with few stones, excepting in nests near
the surface. a, 2. Irregular patches of sandy gravel. A, 3. Alternations of
laminated clay, sandy clay, and sand, with some lines of fine gravel. c. Sandy
subangular gravel, with rounded quartz pebbles.

frozen state, the originally horizontal stratification having
in their new position been turned on end.

The line of section now crosses to Hendon Lane, where
many gravel-pits have been opened, but most of them are

Fi.6. 6.

Z6

8-0

Gravel-pit in Hendon Lane.

Brown boulder-clay, with few stones. a, 2. Irregular patches of gravel.

3. Laminated dark sandy clay. c. False bedded sands and small gravel.
London Clay

now filled and houses built over them. In July, last year, I
visited the spot, in the company of Mr. Henry Hicks, and
obtained the section shown in Fig. 6, a little to the north of
the line of the general section.

1878.]

Superficial Gravels and Clays

321

The Middle Glacial Gravels here and throughout the
Finchley district: contain a considerable proportion of rounded
pebbles from the Eocene beds.

Farther down the slope, in the field on the north side of
Oldershill Lodge, the gravel has been largely worked. The
following important section (Fig. 7) was exposed when I visited
the pits in J anuary last. The gravels extend to within about
40 feet of the level of the Brent, or Dollis Brook, as the
stream is here named.

The upper clay A, 1, is here nearly without stones, excepting
patches near the surface. It very closely resembles the
Upper Brick-clay of the Thames Valley, and, as it is un-
doubtedly a continuation of the Upper Boulder-clay, and
overlies the Middle Glacial Sands and Gravels, this change

Fi£. 7.

Gravel-pit in Field near Oldershill Lodge.

s. Surface soil. A, I. Brown unstratified clay, with vertical joints. A few nests of
pebbles at surface. Angular patch of gravel at x . a, 2. Coarse gravel in
sandy clay. A, 3. Dark, sandy, laminated clay. c. Sand and small sandy
subangular gravel.

to the usual form of the brick-clay, as it descends into the
valley, is very significant. In this sedition there was an
angular piece of reddish sandy gravel, lying completely sur-
rounded by the clay, at the point marked x in Fig. 7.

Descending Hendon Lane there are more old gravel- and
sand-pits, in which exadtly the same succession of beds is
shown as in Fig. 7. These extend down to the line of
200 feet above the ordnance datum. Below this the ground
slopes more rapidly towards the brook, and the middle sands
and gravels thin out, but the Upper Clay, with its gravel
patches at base, overlaps the Middle Sands and Gravels, and
continues down to the bank of the brook, where it is seen
as shown in Fig. 8.

Crossing now to the Hendon side of the stream, the sur-
face deposits are shown in a large brick-field on the south

VOL. viii. (n.s.) y

322

Superficial Gravels and Clays .

[July.

side of Finchley Lane. The Upper Clay, with its accom-
panying patches of gravel, is thin, but it is seen to be conti-
nuous nearly to the brook. On the north side of the lane,

Fiji. 8.

Section in Bank oe Brook below the Hendon Lane Bridge.

a, i. Brown unstratified clay. A, 2. Coarse pebble gravel. L. London Clay.

along the line of section, it has been dug in several places ;
in others the clay has been denuded by natural agencies, and
the coarse pebble gravel that lies at its base comes to the
surface. The Middle Sands and Gravels come in below the
clay at about the same height as on the Finchley side of
the brook — that is, at about 200 feet above the Ordnance
datum-line.* A little above that level, at the point marked i
in general section (Fig. 1). I saw some sandy subangular
gravel that had been thrown out in digging the foundation
for a house. I have not seen anywhere on the Hendon slope
these beds so strongly developed as they are on the opposite
side of the brook, but Mr. Henry Hicks has informed me
that near Heriot House they were 30 feet in thickness.

Ascending the hill towards St. Mary’s Church, the Upper
Glacial Clay is seen in every road cutting and in excava-
tions for new houses ; but I did not see any deep enough to
expose the sands or gravels until near the summit of the
hill, where sand below the clay has been dug in several
places, but the sections were not good enough for me to
determine whether it belonged to the Middle Glacial beds
or not.

On the west side of Hendon, down as far as the Midland
Railway, the Upper Clay is everywhere present. To the
south it is also seen wherever there are cuttings, but the
Middle Sands and Gravels are not exposed, and I think they
are mostly absent. To the northward the Chalky Boulder-
clay is continuous from Finchley along the ridge past
Whetstone. By the side of Church Lane, in Whetstone,
the Middle Sands and Gravel are worked. I obtained here
the section shown in Fig. 9. The surface of the ground is
at this place about 290 feet above the Ordnance datum-line.

Mr. Caleb Evans has noticed the occurrence of the

* The Ordnance datum-line is the mean level of the sea at Liverpool.

323

1878.I Superficial Gravels and Clays .

Glacial beds at Fortune Hill,* and on the slope to the north
I saw both the Upper Clay and the Middle Sands and
Gravels. To the east the beds extend as far as Muswell
Hill.

Over the whole of this district the Upper Boulder-clay is
spread, and conforms to the slopes of the hills, lying over
them like a mantle. It contains most chalk fragments and
other travelled materials on the flat-topped ridge on which
Finchley is built, at a height of about 300 feet above the
sea. On descending the slopes on either side the number

*4-

Gravel-pit, Church Lane, Whetstone.

s. Surface soil. A, i. Bluish chalky boulder-clay, with rather few scattered stones.
Red and white hard chalk, not uncommon. Slightly stratified towards base.
A, 3. Sandy loam, with patches of chalk detritus. c. Sand and sandy subangular
gravel, with many rounded tertiary pebbles.

of included stones and of chalky materials rapidly dimi-
nishes until it becomes a brown clay, containing only a few
scattered pebbles. Mr. Whitaker records a great thickness
of brown clay near Finchley Church, which, although it
contains no boulders, he recognises as boulder-clay. f In
the various sections I have examined, all the steps are to
be seen in the gradation from a clay packed with travelled
stones up to that in which only a pebble is to be found here
and there. It is the non-recognition of the latter form of
the deposit as a glacial clay that has led to the supposition
that the Upper Boulder-clay is confined to the tops of the
hills, and does not extend down their slopes.

* Proc. Geol. Assoc., 1873, vol. iii., p. 30.
t Guide to the Geology of London, 1875, p. 55.

Y 2

324

Superficial Gravels and Clays.

[July.

2. Ealing and Neighbourhood. — The superficial deposits
around Ealing have been noticed by many observers. In
the works of Prof. Prestwich and Mr. Whitaker are to be
found many references to them. Colonel Lane Fox,* in
1872, gave an excellent detailed account of the gravels and
clays around ACton, and showed in several sections the po-
sition of the flint implements and of the mammalian
remains found in them. This memoir has been of great
assistance to me in the study of the same deposits in the
adjoining parish of Ealing. My own opportunities have
been numerous for gaining a knowledge of their distribution,
and of the nature and relation of their different component
parts. In addition to the large gravel-pits which are always
open, the small pits which are sunk at the building of every
new house, for the purpose of obtaining sand and gravel,
have supplied sections all over the district. In the cuttings
made for widening the Great Western Railway unusually
fine and continuous sections were exposed between ACton
and Hanwell, or right across the parish of Ealing from east
to west.

Westward from Ealing there are large gravel-pits on each
side of the Brent, at Hanwell, and in making the founda-
tions for widening the railway-bridge, sections of the lower
part of the valley of the Brent at this point were exposed.
Deep cuttings for sewers have given nearly continuous sec-
tions in a north and south line across Ealing ; and, lastly,
the construction of the new branch railway from Turnham
Green to Ealing, now in progress, has given me opportuni-
ties for checking the results obtained in the other sections.

I made careful notes of all the sections at the time they
were exposed, and soon found that there were certain domi-
nant features that ran through the whole with remarkable
persistency. Further study showed that these features ran
parallel with those observed in the glacial beds at Finchley.

In the large gravel-pit at Castlehill Station the gravel
comes to the surface at the western end, but at the eastern
side it is covered with about 2 feet of unstratified brown
clay, and presents the section shown in Fig. 10.

Both westward and southward the clay, a, 1, thins out,
and the subsoil consists of the gravel, a, 3, and the flints
that had been scattered through the clay before it was de-
nuded. In the railway-cutting opposite the gravel-pit the
gravel, a , 3, came to the surface. Going eastward it was

* Quart. Journ, Geol, Soc., vol, xxviii., p. 449.

1 878.1

Superficial Gravels and Clays. 325

seen to be gradually covered by the brown clay, and at about
100 yards east of Castlehill Station the sedtion exhibited
was as shown in Fig. 11.

Fig. 10.

East End of Castlehill Gravel-pit.

Surface soil. a, x. Unstratified brown clay, with a few scattered pebbles.
a, 3. Whitish gravel in clayey matrix, succeeded by alternations of ferruginous
gravel and seams of sandy clay. c. Sand and very sandy gravel, sometimes
false-bedded and with lenticular patches of sand in upper part. Base not seen.

Railway-cutting ioo yards East of Castlehill Station.

s. Surface soil. a,t. Unstratified brown clay, with a few scattered pebbles.
a, 3. Gravel in brown clay. c. Very sandy subangular gravel, with lenticular
seams of yellow sand. Base not seen.

At Ealing Station a fine sedlion was for a long time ex-
posed, and I had the pleasure of showing it to Professors
Morris and Bonney. It is represented in Fig. 12.

In it, the irregular patches of gravel a, 2 are more fully
represented than is generally the case. Usually this divi-
sion in the valley beds is only marked by a waved line of
pebbles. At Ealing Station it consists of lenticular patches
of mostly rounded pebbles lying on an extremely irregular
surface of the clay below. They look as if they had been
dropped whilst the beds below were so soft that the masses
of gravel sank into them where they fell.

I might multiply instances and heap example on example
to show the persistency and regularity of the beds, as I have
great numbers of sections figured in my note-book, but no
good purpose would be gained thereby, as everyone in the

326 Superficial Gravels and Clays. fjuly,

neighbourhood of London interested in the matter can
observe them for himself.

The sections I have given, however, are all along an east
and west line, with the surface of the ground a little over
the 100-feet contour-line, and it will be well to describe the
deposits at lower levels.

At Ealing to the south of the line of railway, the nume-
rous sections shown in the small gravel-pits, dug when
houses were building, all showed the same divisions. At
about 90 feet above the Ordnance datum-line the brick clay
is very thin, and sometimes absent through denudation ; but
below this line it again thickens. That it was originally
present over the whole district is shown by the fadt that

Railway-cutting, Ealing Station.

s. Surface soil. _ a, 1. Unstratified brown clay. a, 2. Irregular patches of small
pebbly gravel in clay. a, 3. Yellowish brown, rather sandy clay, a little strati-

fied towards base. b. Sand passing downwards into sandy subangular gravel.

patches of it are preserved all over the denuded areas in
hollows or irregularities of the beds below. Thus in a long
excavation that was made for a main sewer at Beaconsfield
Villas, the trench ran north and south, and crossed two
channels cut into the gravels. These channels were filled
with the clay a, i. I have represented one of these filled-up
channels in Fig. 13. The other was about 80 yards to the
north, and was deeper than that figured. The filled-up
channels ran east and west.

South of this the gravels continue down the slope, and at
about 70 feet above the Ordnance datum-line are covered
continuously with the clay down to near the 50-feet contour-
line. At Ealing Cemetery, which is just above the 50-feet
line, the gravel occurs in patches only, in hollows in the
surface of the London Clay, and the brick-clay is thin,
though still present. Below the 50-feet line the surface
dips more rapidly, and on the steeper part of the slope the

1878.] Superficial Gravels and Clays . 327

gravel is absent, but the clay, with its accompanying pebble-
bed, though thin, is continuous.

Going westward from Ealing, towards the Brent at Han-
well, the beds down to the 50-feet line have been well

Fig. 13.

Section at Beaconsfield Villas.

Surface soil. a, I. Brown clay, with some pebbles. a , 2. Pebbly gravel in clay.

a, 3. Irregular ferruginous sandy clay and gravel, with whitish stiff clay at base.
c. Sandy gravel, with? lenticular bands of yellow sand. Upper part of gravel ir-
regularly stratified. Large flints and stones of quartz and quartzite at base.

L. London Clay.

exposed along the Uxbridge Road, in gravel-pits and other
excavations. On the western side of the Brent the large
gravel-pits opposite the Lunatic Asylum, and the Southall
clay- and gravel-pits, afford good sections of the beds. The

Fig. 14.

4

1

3

West Side of Brent, near Hanwell Railway Bridge.

a, 1. Unstratified brown clay, with a few scattered pebbles. a, 3. Gravel in clay,
with many rounded pebbles. c. Yellow sandy subangular gravel, with a few
large stones (12 inches diameter) at base. h. London Clay.

gravels descend both slopes of the valley, as shown in Fig. 2
(page 317). The lower gravel thins out at about the 50-feet
contour-line, the upper beds overlapping it, and continuing
nearly to the brook. Both conform to the slopes of the
valley.

328

Superficial Gravels and Clays.

Ljuly,

On the western side of the stream, a deep drain on the
north side of the railway-embankment gives a continuous
section down the lower slope of the valley-bank. Fig. 14
shows the section exposed, at about 20 feet above the Brent
and about 50 feet above the Ordnance datum-line. Higher up
the slope, at the large gravel-pit, the upper beds show more
variety than is usual, the beds a, 3 being composed of a
succession of clays and pebble-beds. Farther westward the

Gravel-pit opposite Hanwell Lunatic Asylum.

a, 1. Sandy clay, with pebbles scattered through it. ci, 2. Pebbly gravel in clay,
a, 3. An irregular seam of dark loamy clay at base ; then a thick bed of pebble
gravel in clay matrix ; then dark loamy clay overlaid by pebble gravel, and that
by sandy clay. c. Yellow sand passing downwards into sandy subangular gravel,
with large stones at base.

clay a, 1 thickens, and is extensively worked for brick-making
at Southall, where the sections correspond exactly with those
at Ealing.

The characteristics of the lower gravel are persistent
throughout the whole district. It consists principally of
angular and subangular pebbles of flint, with some rounded
ones from the Eocene beds, and also pebbles and stones,
generally rounded, of quartz, quartzite, Lydian stone,
granite, and porphyry. It is extremely sandy, and the sand
is distributed throughout it, and occurs also in lenticular
patches. At its base it contains many large pebbles of
quartzite, some a foot in length, and large unworn or slightly
worn flints from the chalk. Large Sarsen-stones, 3 to 4 feet
in diameter, are also found scattered over the district, at the
base of the gravel.

The peculiar subangular character of the pebbles forming
the bulk of the gravel, and the loose yellow sandy matrix,

329

1878.] Superficial Gravels and Clays.

are the most characteristic features of the deposit. I had
the pebbles in some samples of the gravel counted, and
found that from 80 to go per cent were broken, or more or
less angular. Thin chips of flint are abundant. Nearly all
have the edges of the fraCtures a little rounded, as if, after
they had been broken, they had been shaken together.
About one-quarter of the rounded pebbles are of quartz.

There are slight and irregular signs of stratification in the
lower part of the gravel in some instances ; in others it is
quite unstratified. Towards the top the stratification is
more decided, but not continuous. Oblique lamination is
frequent. It has the appearance of having been suddenly
accumulated, and at one time. The irregular and fitful
stratification, the short lenticular patches of sand, the mix-
ture of sand throughout the gravel, the large stones at the
base, the great proportion of broken flints with slightly worn
angles, and the occasional oblique lamination, are all op-
posed to the theory that the deposit is the result of successive
layers of materials brought down by a river at different
times.

All over the district flint implements of the palaeolithic
type have been found in the lower gravel. According to the
unanimous testimony of the workmen they occur nearly
always amongst the larger pebbles at the base of the deposit,
and close to the surface of the London Clay. Col. Lane Fox
has described the position at which were found several flint
implements at ACton, where the surface of the ground was
from 75 to 83 feet above the Ordnance datum-line. Most of
these were obtained from the base of the gravel, and the
angles were worn and rounded. At one place, flakes were
found in a thin seam of sand lying below the gravel, and in
this instance the edges were “ as sharp as when they were
first flaked off the cores. ”* At Ealing Dean, Col. Lane Fox
obtained two implements from gravel taken out in the con-
struction of a sewer which was carried down below the
general run of the excavations for the foundations of houses.
According to this excellent authority they occur always at
the base of the gravel. He says— Here (in the lowest
stratum of the gravel) the largest flint stones lie, and with
them the implements, mostly of the dimensions of the larger
stones, so that it was common lor the more experienced
workmen to say that they should find no implements till
they got down into the coarse gravel ; the smaller flakes,
however, were not so invariably at the bottom.”

* Quart* Journ. Geo!. Soc., vol. xxviii., p. 457.

330 Superficial Gravels and Clays . [July?

Mr. Peter Crooke, of Turnham Green, has been very suc-
cessful in finding implements in the Lower Gravel all over
the Ealing district. One of these was obtained from the
foundation of a house in Argyle Road, at the highest point
the gravel reaches to, where the surface of the ground is
about 120 feet above the Ordnance datum-line. Several
were obtained from Grove Road, in Ealing, at about 80 feet
above the same line, and many others in Gunnersbury Park
a little above the 50-feet contour-line.

One fine specimen was found in Beaconsfield Villas, at
the bottom of the gravel, a few yards south of the part
represented in Fig. 13. The man that discovered it assured
me that it lay direCtly on the surface of the London Clay.
Mr. Crooke bears the same evidence to the position of the
implements as Col. Lane Fox. He says that all the large
ones come from the very base of the gravel. He has given
me an interesting instance. He had for years watched the
gravel-pit on the east side of the Brent, at Hanwell, but
never could find an implement. Lately, however, the work-
men dug down a little deeper than usual, and got down to
the big pebbles at the base. Amongst the stones throw n
out was a fine pointed implement, which is now in Mr.
Crooke’s collection. At Bollow Brook, near ACton, the gravel
contained many fragments of wood in the same stratum
in which some flint flakes were found. The only mam-
malian remains that have been found in the Ealing gravels
are some rolled teeth of the mammoth ; they occur at the
base of the gravel, and are seldom met with.

The upper division of the superficial deposits that I have
grouped together under the symbol a is made up of a series
of beds differing greatly in composition. The lowest bed is
often a seam of dark sandy loam, or of layers of ferruginous
gravel, or of alternations of gravel witn the dark loam.
Very frequently it consists of gravel in a matrix of brown
clay, and often there is a thin layer of sandy silt at the
base.

Since the description of the sections has been written out
I have found a buried forest bed in the cutting for the new
railway from Turnham Green to Ealing, about 300 yards
south of the east end of Ealing Common. The stumps of
the trees are all small, the largest being 3 inches in diameter.
They are rooted in the surface of the subangular gravel, and
are all upright as they grew. The stumps are about a foot
long, and buried in silt. They terminate upwards at the
top of the silt, having apparently rotted off there. Above

1878.] Superficial Gravels and Clays. 331

the silt there is from 2 to 4 feet of the brown clay, with
patches of pebbles at its base.

The patches of gravel a , 2 are peculiar. They nearly
always lie on an irregular surface of the beds below them,
and look as if they had been dropped into the places they
now occupy. Their place is often taken by an irregular line
of pebbles.

The bed of clay marked a, 1 in the sections is the wide-
spread deposit so extensively dug for brick-making. It is
entirely unstratified. Pebbles are scattered here and there
throughout it ; in some parts they are scarce, in others
numerous. These pebbles, by the partial denudation of the
clay, are often collected into nests next the surface. The
clay appears to have been originally distributed over the
whole district, and to have been since partly removed by
the action of the elements, the fine material of which it is
composed and its position next the surface rendering it very
liable to be washed away, especially on the slopes. When
thin, it, with the irregular pebble bed at its base, forms the
deposit named “ trail” by Mr. Fisher. No organic remains
nor implements have been found in the brick-clay in the
Ealing district.

3. Brentford and Neighbourhood. — -The gravels and clays
at Brentford were brought before the notice of geologists in
1813, by Mr. W. K. Trimmer,* who described the occurrence
of mammalian remains in the lowest division of the deposits.
He stated that the uppermost beds were unfossiliferous, and
that the bones occurred most plentifully at the base of the
gravel, in hollows in the surface of the London Clay. In
1849 Prof. Morrist described a section exposed in the con-
struction of a branch of the South Western Railway, at
Brentford, near Kew Bridge. This locality was not far from
one of the pits described by Mr. Trimmer, and Prof. Morris
again notices the absence of bones and shells from the upper-
most beds, and the great abundance of the bones at the base
of the lower gravel. Col. Lane Fox, in the paper I have
already mentioned, has described and given figures of the
sections exposed between Acton Green and the Brentford
Road, and has shown very clearly the position of the mam-
malian remains at and below the base of the gravel.

My own observations have been made in various gravel- and
sand-pits in the neighbourhood of Brentford, Chiswick, and

* Phil. Trans., 1813, p. 131.

f Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. vi., p. 201.

332 Superficial Gravels and Clays . [July,

Turnham Green. Near the Kew Bridge Station of the South
Western Railway the line has been widened, and a long
section is exposed, showing a brown unstratified clay, with

Sand-pits near Kew Bridge Railway Station.

c; Surface soil. a, I. Unstratified brown clay. a, 3. Gravel in brown clay.
c 1. Reddish, rather coarse, sand, with oblique stratification overlying a thin seam
of dark loamy clay. c, 2, Yellow sand overlying very sandy subangular gravel.

patches of pebbles at itsbase, overlying sand and sandy gravel.
From the latter I obtained a small portion of a deer’s horn.
These beds were exposed in some sand-pits about 50 yards
east of the station, as shown in Fig. 16.

I watched these pits for months, but could never find a
fragment of a shell in them. A pit was sunk through the

Gravel-pit near Style Hall.

s. Surface soil. a, I. Brown unstratified clay. a, 2. Scattered pebbles along an
undulating line. a, 3. Sandy clay. c. Ferruginous gravel at top, with lenti-
cular patches of sand passing downwards into sandy subangular gravel, with a few
stones of quartzite at base 7 inches diameter. /. Sharp sand, with bones.

L. London Clay.

gravel to the London Clay below, for the foundation of a crane,
and a seam of sand was met with at the base of the gravel
from which several mammalian bones were obtained, now in
the possession of Mr. T. Layton, of Kew Bridge.

1878.] Superficial Gravels and Clays . 333

Nearer the river, close to Style Hall, I observed the section
shown in Fig. 17.

Near to the place where this section was taken Mr. Crooke

Ti£. 18

Section N.W. Corner of Mr. Trimmer’s Old Brick-field.

a, 1. Brick-clay, removed by Mr. Trimmer. a , 3. Gravel in sandy clay, with some

dark brown sand at base. c, 1. Curled yellow sand, with fragments of fresh-
water shells. c, 2. Sand and sandy loam, with thin layers of clay, and some
small angular gravel and minute fragments of shells. c, 3. Sandy subangular
gravel.

found a flint implement which had been thrown out from a
depth of about 17 feet from the surface.

Towards the western end of Brentford a very interesting
series of pits have been opened to obtain sand and gravel.
They are all on or near to the site of Mr. Trimmer’s old
western brick-field. Fig. 18 shows the beds exposed in a pit
near the north-west corner of the old brick-field.

Section East End of Mr. Trimmer’s Old Brick-field.

a, 1. Brick-clay, removed by Mr. Trimmer. a, 3. Gravel in clay. c. Layer of
sand at top ; then 6 inches of grave lin which was a broken valve of Unio picto-
nrn; then sand and gravel. e. Yellow sand. Unio pictornm and Cvcla's
rivicola, common. J

334 Superficial Gravels and Clays . [July,

At the eastern end of the field the se<Tion shown in Fig. 19
was exposed.

About 100 yards north-east of the last section some pits
have been sunk at various times, opposite Flora Villas, to
obtain a peculiar sharp dark-yellow sand that is confined to
a small area. The section exposed at one of these sand-pits
is shown in Fig. 20.

There was water at the bottom of this pit. One of the
workmen, at my request, pushed his spade down about
18 inches into the soft wet sand, and brought up from that
depth a great number of shells, amongst which were speci-
mens of Unio littoralis and U . pictorum with the two valves
united. Many of the small cyclades also were perfe<5t.

Section opposite Flora Villas.

$. Surface soil. n, i. Brown clay. a, 3. Gravel in clay. c. Coarse yellow sand,
with a band of subangular gravel ; a few broken shells in lower part. /. Sharp
yellow sand, with mammalian remains and fresh-water shells, common. Base not
reached.

This sand is full of shells, amongst which the little Hydrobia
marginata is abundant. Neither Unto littoralis nor Hydro-
bia marginata now live in England. Their shells have been
found in the Lower Thames brick-earths, but were not before
this discovery known to occur so high up the valley as
Brentford.

The superposition of the subangular gravels to the shell-
bearing sand was clear and decided. The workmen informed
me that a stiff dark clay came in below the sand, and this is
doubtless the London Clay. I obtained several mammalian
bones from the same sand-bed, but they were soft and de-
composed. The shells also were soft, and those of the Unios
split up as they dried. Dr. Gwyn Jeffreys has kindly ex-
amined the shells from this pit, and has given me the
following list of their names

1878.]

335

Superficial Gravels and Clays .

Pisidium fontinale , var. Henslowana.

,, amnicum.

Unio pictorum and U . littoralis.

Bythinia tentaculata and 5. Leachii.

Hydrobia marginata,

Valvata piscinalis and V. spirorbis.

Planorbis complanatus and P. nautilens .

Limnea peregra and L. truncatida.

Succinea oblonga.

Helix pulchella .

Pupa marginata .

Of the above shells the little Hydrobia marginata was the
most abundant, though, from its small size, easily over-
looked.

Tio. 21.

Section 30 yards South op Section shown in Fig. 20.

s. Surface soil. a, i. Unstratified brown clay. a, 3; Gravel in clay. fl, 4. La-
minated sandy clay or silt, with shells of Helix pulchella , H. capetata, and Zua
lubrica.

In some other pits sunk near this the subangular gravel
(c in section) was much more developed, and the underlying
shell-bearing sand confined to a thin drifted seam. One of
the sections (Fig. 21) exposed was noticeable as the only one at
which I obtained any shells in the Brentford district from beds
belonging to the upper division. They occurred in a thin
seam of sandy silt, occupying the same position in the series
as the silt enveloping the buried forest near Ealing, already
described. The most abundant shell in the silt was the little
Helix pulchella , and no aquatic species were found.

The gravels pass down below the Thames, and the bed of
the river at Brentford is principally composed of reconstructed
subangular gravel, with many shells of Unio , Anodon,
Nerita , Pahidina, &c.

I have the details of numerous other sections in my notes,
all showing the same succession of beds, with the exception
that I nowhere — excepting opposite Flora Villas-— saw the
bed of dark yellow sand with Hydrobia marginata and Unio
littoralis . The bed of sand with mammalian remains,

336 Superficial Gravels and Clays, [July,

described by Col. Lane Fox as occurring at the base of the
gravels in Brown’s Orchard, may be the same, but he does
not mention any fresh-water shells. As at that locality it
also contained some rounded and angular pebbles, it was
probably a slightly drifted bed mixed with the lower part of
the sandy gravel. At Flora Villas the perfect shells of the
species of Unio and Pisidium , with the two valves united,
and the absence of all foreign materials, leads me to think
that it was in place, and quite undisturbed since its original
deposition.

I believe there are two distinct faunas represented in the
lower beds, though the remains are often now found mixed
together. The oldest of these two faunas is characterised
by containing the remains of Elephas antiquus , Rhinoceros
hemitcechus , Hippopotamus major, and Cervus dama var.
Clactoniensis. It also contains the following species that
occur in the succeeding formation : — Equus caballus, Bos
primigenius, Elephas primigenius, Cervus elephas, Ursus ferox
prisons, and Felis leo. This is the fauna that Col. Lane Fox
found in the low-lying ground between ACton and Brentford.
A single piece of the antler of a reindeer was found at the
same place, but I think its presence may be explained by a
slight mixture of the two faunas, as there are other signs of
the partial reconstruction of the deposit.

The characteristic mammals of the second fauna are the
woolly rhinoceros and the reindeer. Both faunas were ori-
ginally contained in loose incoherent sands or in peat beds,
and at the time of the violent outspread of the subangular
gravels were more or less mixed together, and even
caught up and distributed through the gravel. As they lived
at the same time, one occupying a northern and the other a
southern zone of country, they may sometimes have over-
lapped each other’s range in their summer and winter mi-
grations, as has been urged by Sir Charles Lyell and Prof.
Boyd Dawkins.

The mammoth appears to have had a very wide range, and
occurs in all the deposits from the Cromer forest-bed up to
the diluvium, and is found associated, on the one hand, with
such a southern form as Rhinoceros etruscus, and, on the
other, with such northern forms as the reindeer and woolly
rhinoceros.

The molluscan remains found in the Brentford beds favour
the supposition of two faunas. In the lower beds occur
Unio littoralis and Hydrobia marginata, both of which are
southern mollusks not now found in England, and which
lower down the Thames are found associated with the still

1878.]

337

Superficial Gravels and Clays.

more southern species, Cyrena fluminalis . In higher beds at
Brentford, and mixed through the lower part of the gravel,
I found a more robust form of Unio pictorum than occurs in
the lower sands, along with a peculiarly thick form of Cyclas
rivicola, but without any of the two southern shells. Prof.
Morris, in the description of the beds near Kew Bridge, in
which he found numerous remains of the reindeer, states
that he could not find a fragment of Cyrena fluminalis, Unio
littoralis, or Hydrobia marginata, although the northern spe-
cies of mollusks were abundant.

The sandy subangular gravel lying above the mammal-
iferous sands is simply a continuation of that found at higher
levels at Ealing. It only differs in containing more sand at
the lower levels, and occasionally drifted shells and bones.
The largest stones lie at the bottom of the gravel, as in the
Ealing district: : they consist of slightly worn flints, and
more or less rounded stones of quartz, quartzite, and sand-
stone. At low levels — that is, below the 30-feet contour-line—
bones of mammals are often found in this gravel, especially
when, through the denudation of the older sands, it lies
direCtly on the London Clay. These bones have been derived
from the older beds. Mr. Trimmer states that the remains
he found were most abundant at the base of the gravel, in
hollows in the London Clay, where the deposit consisted of
a heterogeneous mass of clay, sand, and gravel. In no in-
stance, he states, have two bones been found together which
were joined in the living animal. That the gravel is largely
mixed with the pre-deposited sands is evident from the
patches of the latter that occur in it full of the comminuted
shells that are found uninjured in the undisturbed beds.
Excepting these derived shells I have never seen any in the
subangular gravel.

Passing on to the beds lying above the subangular gravel,
we have again a most remarkable resemblance in the colour,
composition, and succession of the deposits to those I have
grouped under the same symbol in the Ealing district. In
both cases the beds consist of unstratified brown clay, con-
taining a few pebbles scattered throughout it and overlying
patches of pebbles. Below the latter there are, occasionally
preserved, remnants of a silty clay, in which I have found
land shells near Brentford, and remains of a buried forest
bed near Ealing, as already described. The brick-clay appears
originally to have covered the whole district, but has been
removed over much of the area from ancient brick-fields,
the limits of which may still be traced by the abrupt slopes
left at their boundaries.

VOL, VIII. (n.s.)

z

33§

Superficial Gravels and Clays,

[July,

III. Mode of Formation of the Superficial Beds.

From the time that the deposits at Finchley were described
by Mr. Spencer, in 1835, they have been recognised as of
Glacial age. On my first visit to Mr. Plowman’s brick-field
with Mr. Ives, we found pebbles of hard red and white chalk
and granite, and specimens of Gryphea incurva in the Upper
Boulder-clay. Various Liassic fossils, and fragments of
granite, porphyry, micaceous sandstone, mountain limestone,
coal, and oolite have been recorded from it. Mr. Searles
Wood, jun., has recognised its identity with the Upper
Boulder-clay of the eastern counties. He states that, even
in South and Central Lincolnshire, and to the north of
Gainsborough, “ the material of the deposit is so identical
with that on the brow of the Thames Valley that a basket
of clay taken from either extremity of this area could not be
distinguished, although these extremities are 140 miles
apart.” *

With regard to the origin of the Upper Boulder-clay there
have been various theories propounded, but the majority of
geologists seem to have come to the conclusion that it was
spread out when the country was submerged and floating ice
brought the stones contained in it from the north. Mr. James
Geikie has indeed advanced the theory that the boulder-clay
is the product of land-ice, and he would dispense with the
action of floating ice altogether.! Even if some general
arguments that have been urged against the theory of a
mantle of clay having been spread over a country by the
aCtion of land-ice could be met, there are special objections
to its application to the Finchley district. There, the boulder-
clay caps the ridges between the valleys, and descends their
slopes, lying like a cloak over loose beds of sand and gravel.
Not a trace of the passage of Glacial ice is to be seen in
these deposits, although the slopes are sufficiently great to
have caused considerable movement of the ice down them
if it had existed in the form of a glacier. The clay is
thickest on the crests of the ridges, and contains there the
most stones. Many of these stones have been transported
from Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, and the ice that brought
them, if it was land-ice, must have been sufficiently thick to
cover all the low lands of Suffolk, Norfolk, and Essex, and
pour over into the valley of the Thames through passes in

* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xxiii., p. 395.

t See Geol. Mag., 1878, page 73, for Mr. Geikie’s latest views on this
question.

1878.] Superficial Gravels and Clays. 339

the northern watershed, more than 300 feet above the sea.
Yet from the neighbourhood of Ely, southward, not a trace of
the passage of this immense mass of ice has been recorded
in the eastern counties, although the boulder-clay generally
overlies loose beds of sand and clay. That in some parts
glacier ice might have passed over small areas under peculiar
circumstances, and melted off again, without leaving any
mark on the beds below, seems probable enough ; but the
distance from Ely to Finchley is about 60 miles in a direct
line, and that a glacier of that length, and of sufficient
thickness to over-ride the watershed of the Thames Valley,
should have left behind it no trace of its passage, nor any
of the moraines that mark the line of retreat of other
glaciers, is a theory that cannot at present be accepted,
notwithstanding the faith of its talented author in its
efficiency.

With the theory of floating ice— by which is meant both
that of coast ice forming during the winter, breaking up in
the spring, and carrying away from the shores and distri-
buting materials frozen to it, and that of icebergs breaking
off from the ends of glaciers terminating in water — the phe-
nomena seem to be in entire accordance. Local rocks are
scarce ; indeed nothing is more remarkable in the Upper
Boulder-clay at Finchley than the absence of fragments from
the underlying London Clay. The far-travelled stones are
most abundant near the top of the ridge, where floating ice
was likely to ground and deposit its freight. The stones are
also scattered here and there through the deposit, as if
dropped at different times during its formation. There are
faint traces of lines of deposition in some of the exposures,
and the general absence of stratification is not more marked
than it is in the Upper Thames brick-clays, the formation of
which is universally ascribed to deposition from water.

The much greater abundance of transported stones on and
near the ridge of the hill, and the gradual diminution in
their numbers and size on the lower slopes until the clay at
the bottom of the valley contains only a very few scattered
pebbles, is the very opposite to what we should have ex-
pected from the action of a glacier, and just what we should
expert as the result of floating ice ; for the former gravitates
to the bottom of the valley, and deposits there a great pro-
portion of the stones it carries along, but the latter generally
m confined waters leaves its burdens on the shores. Around
the lakes, and at the heads of the fjords of Nova Scotia,
there are lines of great stones left by the ice when it breaks
up in the spring. Sir Roderick Murchison, in his description

340

Superficial Gravels and Clays.

IJuiy,

of the distribution of the northern drift in Russia, shows
that hills and slopes 200 or 300 feet high are often covered
with large blocks, whilst the valleys between them, often
wide, are free from them ; and again, that the northern rocks
are scattered plentifully over the plateaux, and rare on the
low plains, though not entirely absent.* Prof. James Hall
has described similar faCts with regard to the distribution of
the northern drift in America. t

As the transported stones are most abundant at Finchley
at a height of about 300 feet above the sea, we must suppose
— if they were brought by floating ice — that the water at the
time stood sufficiently above that level to permit of the
flotation of the ice, and at the same time not too high to
prevent it stranding on the ridge. The most of the stones
have been brought from the north, from districts where we
know there were glaciers, from the marks they have left
behind them ; and it is probable, therefore, that the carriers
of the transported stones were icebergs. If it had been
shore ice that brought them we might have expected to find
a preponderance of local stones from the hills in the vicinity,
instead of which there is a great abundance of far-transported
materials.

For icebergs, a depth of from 50 to 100 feet at least would
be required for flotation, giving about 400 feet above the sea
as a probable depth of water at the time they stranded on
the hills at Finchley. That this really was about the height
of the water at that time is probable, for if we colour a map
of the drainage area of the Thames, so as to show the ground
that would be then submerged, we shall find that we have
opened avenues from the north-east connecting the Finchley
deposits with wide areas in that direction that are covered
with the same boulder-clay.

The Upper Boulder-clay overlies at Finchley, as it does
farther north, sands and gravels with much oblique stratifi-
cation, generally known amongst geologists as the Middle
Glacial Sands and Gravels. The gravels contain many
stones not found in place in the present drainage area.
Patches of a boulder-clay, known as the Lower Boulder-clay,
are found beneath them, from which these foreign materials
seem to have been derived. We are thus led to conclude
that there was an earlier submergence, during which the
Lower Boulder-clay was spread out, and that afterwards it
was subjected to some aCtion by which it was greatly denuded

* The Geology of Russia in Europe, pp. 510, 513, and 519.

t Natural History of New York, Part 4, p. 321.

1878.] Superficial Gravels and Clays. 341

and the materials derived from it re-arranged, the clay being
washed away, and the sand and gravel now constituting the
Middle Sands and Gravels left behind.

The explanation I have to give of this series of events is
the same that I have offered with regard to the formation ot
the superficial deposits of Cornwall and Devon, of the loess
of the Danube and the Rhine, and of the diluvium of the
South of Russia : it is — that during the Glacial period a
ridge of ice, starting from Greenland, gradually advanced
down the bed of the Atlantic, and ultimately blocked up the
drainage of Europe as far as it extended. A continental lake
was thus formed, over which floated icebergs carrying the
northern drift. The first lake thus formed was suddenly
discharged by the breaking away of part of the ice-barrier.
During the tumultuous outpouring of the pent-up water the
materials deposited during the submergence, and others de-
rived from the pre-glacial denudation of the surface rocks,
were caught up and spread out in great sheets over the lower
ground, thus forming the Middle Sands and Gravels. After
a time the ice-barrier was re-formed, the country again sub-
merged, and the Upper Boulder-clay spread out.

Passing on now to the consideration of the origin of the
clays and gravels at Ealing and Brentford, the first note-
worthy feature is the similarity in the succession of the beds
to that of the glacial deposits at Finchley. This is brought
out prominently in the figures by the nearly similar symbols
under which I have grouped the divisions, but not more pro-
minently than an inspection of the beds themselves will fully
justify. The boulder-clay on the top of the ridge at Finch-
ley, full of chalk fragments, is sufficiently distinct from the
brick-clay at Ealing ; but when we descend the slopes at
Finchley the chalky boulder-clay gradually changes to a clay
without chalk, until, in the lower parts of the valleys, it be-
comes a brown clay, with a pebble here and there, exactly
similar to the brick-clays. The Middle Sands and Gravels
at Finchley only differ from the subangular gravels of Ealing
and Brentford in that the former contain a larger proportion
of unbroken pebbles from the Eocene beds. This is only
what we might expeCt on the theory of origin I have offered,
for Finchley is nearer to the patches of Eocene gravels left
on the hill-tops, and must have been largely made up from
them. The greater distance the lower gravels had been
carried, their exposure to the whole sweep of the torrents
rushing down the Thames Valley, and their greater admix-
ture with broken flints derived from the west, fully account

342 Superficial Gravels and Clays . [July,

for what small amount of difference exists between the con-
tents of the two deposits.

I should, I believe, have little difficulty in establishing the
position I have taken up, — that the gravels and clays of
Ealing are simply the valley representatives of the glacial
beds at Finchley, and that they were deposited at the same
time, — if I had only the faCts of the case themselves to deal
with. I have, however, a much harder task before me ; I
have to contend against the general acceptance by geologists
of Prof. Prestwich’s theory, — that the valley clays and
gravels are quite distinct from and newer than the drifts on
the slopes and tops of the hills. I shall, in consequence,
have to examine this theory in detail.

Briefly, Prof. Prestwich’s celebrated theory is, — that after
the distribution of the glacial drift, the valley of the Thames
was gradually excavated, and the gravels and clays deposited
during the process. It implies, therefore, that the whole of
the Thames Valley, from the level up to which the gravels
in question extend, has been cut out since the Glacial
period.

The objections that may be urged against this view are
many and serious. The gravels at Ealing reach to a height
of 120 feet above the river, and the width of the Thames
Valley at that level is more than 9 miles. If filled to that
height there would be an expanse of water stretching from
the northern side of Haven Green, at Ealing, to Morden, in
Surrey, with some small islands consisting of the tops of the
hills near Kingston, Richmond, Wimbledon, and Putney.
A few miles farther west the valley is still wider, and without
hills rising above the 120-feet line. All the valley below this
line is supposed to have been excavated since the distribution
of the glacial drift. Col. Lane Fox has shown us that there
has been no appreciable change in the course or level of the
river during the last two thousand years.* The theory there-
fore requires that we should put back the occurrence of the
Glacial period many tens — and possibly many hundreds —
of thousands of years, to allow time for the excavation of
the valley from the 120-feet contour-line.

When, however, we go northward, to the region of un-
doubted ice-aCtion, we find everywhere traces of the recent
adtion of the glaciating agent, and that very little change
has taken place in the configuration of the country since it
was covered with ice. Thus Mr. Goodchild, in his descrip-
tion of the glacial phenomena of the North-west of England,

* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xxviii., p. 463.

1878.]

Superficial Gravels and Clays.

343

states that “ So little indeed has the aspedt of the country
changed in post-glacial times, that in many places the larger
rivers are even now above the bases of the adjoining drift-
mounds, whose present form can hardly be referred to any
other than glacial adtion ; and post-glacial denudation gene-
rally has effedted so little that by far the greater part of the
present surface-configuration has, in one way or another,
resulted from the former presence of the great ice-sheet.”*

Mr. D. Mackintosh, and I can quote no higher authority
on the glacial beds of the West and North-west of England,
in a recent ledture, at Chester, brought forward a great
number of fadts tending to show that the time which has
elapsed since the close of the Glacial period need not have
been so much as ten thousand years. Mr. Geikie and other
geologists often refer to the recent appearance of the ice-
markings in glaciated distridts, and to the very small modi-
fication of the surface that has taken place since the
outspread of the drift ; but I need not refer more particularly
to these opinions, as the neighbourhood of London itself
affords sufficient evidence to the same effedt.

At Finchley we see the Upper Boulder-clay mantling the
hills and descending the slopes into the valleys, proving con-
clusively that the surface-features of that distridt, when it
was spread out, were the same as they are now. The upper
part of the valley of the Brent was then in existence, and at
the most has not since been lowered more than 10 or 12 feet.
The unconsolidated clay lies as it was deposited, and runs
down to about 150 feet above the sea-level. It covers the
hill continuously, and even on the steeper slopes has not
been entirely denuded. Can it be for a moment considered
possible that the great valley, several miles in width, has
been worn out by denuding agencies below the level to which
the boulder-clay reaches, and that above that line the adtion
of the elements has been stayed, no appreciable change
effedted, and not even the uppermost bed of the glacial
series denuded ? How often must the river have changed
its course, and travelled across from one side of the wide
valley to the other, to remove the enormous mass that has
been swept away in its excavation ! Yet we are asked to
believe that during all this time the denuding agencies did
not operate on the uplands, but were stayed in their course,
like the sun on Gibeon and the moon in the valley of
Ajalon.

If we look at the country below the level of 150 feet above

* Quart. Journ, Geol. Soc;, vol. xxxi., p. gg.

344

Superficial Gravels and Clays. [J uly,

the sea, and compare it with that above it, we discover no
alteration in the slopes, which blend the one into the other
and are continuous, so that it is impossible to distinguish
that horizon amongst the contours of the country. We
might have expected that there would be some distinctly
marked line, when, after the boulder-clay had been spread
out, the river recommenced the excavation of the valley ;
but there is none. None, I mean, in Nature, though in the
fanciful diagrams shown in most of our geological manuals
the boulder-clay is represented capping the hills and pre-
senting an escarpment to the valleys. If these sections
were true ones, or even if there were one such in Nature,
my opposition to Prof. Prestwich’s theory would be greatly
weakened, but I can find none, excepting in our books. In
every valley I have examined, including that of the Oase,
at Bedford, — often appealed to in support of Prof. Prest-
wich’s views, — the boulder-clay is not confined to the tops
of the hills, but descends the slopes as it does at Finchley.

Prof. Ramsay and others have taught us that rivers exca-
vate their channels from the sea backwards, somewhat in
the same manner as the recession of the Falls of Niagara
is effected. This is proved to be the case when, in new
countries, the forest is cut down and valleys begin to be
formed : they commence next the rivers and progress back-
wards, as Sir Charles Lyell witnessed in Georgia.* I have
seen similar instances in Nicaragua and Southern Missouri.
But on Prof. Prestwich’s theory the upper parts of the
valleys must have been excavated first and the lower after-
wards— the tributaries of the river before the river itself ;
for it is evident that the valley of the Brent, at Finchley,
was formed at the time the Upper Boulder-clay and the
Middle Sands and Gravels were spread out.

From the bottom of the valley near Finchley, where the
road to Hendon crosses the brook, to the line of my sedtion
shown in Fig. 2 (page 317), where it crosses the same stream
at Hanwell, the distance down the valley — without following
the minor sinuosities of the brook — is 9 miles. The boulder-
clay comes down between Finchley and Hendon to 150 feet
above the Ordnance datum-line ; the valley gravels and clay
at Hanwell rise to about 120 feet above the same line. The
stream itself falls more than 100 feet in the 9 miles, or about
11 feet per mile. At the end of the distribution of the Upper
Boulder-clay, if the lower part of the valley was not exca-
vated, the stream would only fall 30 feet between the same

* Principles of Geology, ninth edition, p. 205.

i8yS.)

Superficial Gravels and Clays.

345

points, or a little over 3 feet per mile, and yet, according to
the theory of the post-glacial origin of the valley, have had
power to spread out a continuous sheet of gravel, without
at the same time being able to wash away the loose Middle
Sands and Gravels with their thin covering of clay on the
slopes at Finchley.

These seem to me formidable preliminary and general ob-
jections to the theory ; but let us suppose that they have
been overcome or explained, and try to follow in our mind
what would happen if the valley below the 150-feet contour-
line had been left, at the end of the Glacial period, an un-
dulating plain, covered more or less with boulder-clay and
underlying sands and gravels, through which the streams
began to cut their channels. We have no great body of
water to do this in the valley of the Brent below Finchley,
if between Finchley and Hendon the stream was not pow-
erful enough to wash away the glacial beds. The drainage
area of the Brent is also too small a one to have supported
a large stream. To excavate the wide valley from below
the “ Welsh Harp ” to the Thames, it must therefore have
often changed its course and wandered from side to side,
so as to operate at different points. It would first have to
clear away the glacial beds, and then cut down into the
London Clay. We find, however, no bluffs in the latter
such as we might expert, but a long gentle slope, from
Ealing down to the stream at Hanwell, covered continuously
with a mantle of gravel and clay. The superficial beds
could not be deposited without break or overlap during
the excavation of the valley, but only after the escarpments,
formed whilst it was being cut out by the stream, had
been sloped down by subaerial denudation. Every stream
that is lowering its bed leaves precipitous banks, but the
sides of the valleys of the Thames and its tributaries had
been bevelled off into gentle slopes before the deposition of
the gravels.

We may next inquire if the gravels and clays in question
resemble those that are now being deposited by streams.
When travelling in Russia I examined the sands and gravels
of the beds of the large rivers. These rivers are frozen over
for several months every year, and it seemed likely that the
conditions would be somewhat similar to those that are
supposed to have existed in the valley of the Thames at
the close of the Glacial period. Much of the sand and
gravel from the rivers of Southern Russia was used for bal-
lasting the railways, so that I had many opportunities of
examining it. I found it in every case full of river-shells,

346

Superficial Gravels and Clays.

[July,

and sometimes one-half of the whole mass seemed to be
shells. There were three species of Unio and the little
Neritina fluviatilis especially abundant. When gravel from
the bed of the Thames is now dredged up, it also contains
many shells. In the sections exposed in 1875, during the
extension of the embankment west of the Houses of Par-
liament, the bed of the river was seen to be crowded with
shells, principally Unio pictorum and Bithynia tentaculata.
Now, it is another objection to Prof. Prestwich’s theory that
the gravels that he supposes were deposited in the old river
do not contain river-shells. I never saw even the fragment
of a recent species of river mollusk in all the sections I
have examined around Ealing, and none have been recorded
by others. At Brentford, when we get down nearly to the
level of the present river, drifted shells are often met with
in the gravel, hut they have evidently been obtained from
the older sands of the pre-diluvial river, and do not belong
to the time of the deposition of the gravels.

The brick-clay that overlies the gravel is considered by
Prof. Prestwich to be inundation mud. We have silty de-
posits now forming or lately formed on the low flats adjoining
the Thames : they consist of dark blue clay, with remains
of vegetation and land and fresh-water shells. Sometimes
peat beds occur. The brick-clay, on the other hand, is a
homogeneous unstratified brown clay, without any organic
remains. We have thus the formation of two deposits, the
valley gravels and the brick-clays, ascribed to river aCtion,
and yet, in all the sections exposed, differing in most im-
portant particulars from the sediments now being deposited
by rivers.

The absence of these remains from some of the beds
might be explained, but it seems impossible to believe that
the excavation of the valley could have progressed during
several thousands of years, and the river everywhere have
left behind it thick deposits of gravel and clay, without any
river shells. The preservation of the fragmentary shells at
Brentford, derived from the older sands, proves that their
absence is not due to their destruction since the outspread
of the gravels.

The structure of the deposits is opposed to the origin
claimed for them. A continuous sheet of gravel covered by
another of clay, spread over the slopes of a valley, is not
what we should have expected. The river, in wandering
from side to side of the wide valley it was wearing down,
should often have cut into and truncated the deposits it had
left at a higher level, and could not have exactly joined on

1878.] Superficial Gravels and Clays . 347

its later sediments to its earlier ones. Nor does river adtion
explain the angular and subangular character of the gravel,
nor the presence of the largest stones at the base of the
deposit.

If, then, the physical evidence is so opposed to the theory,
why should it be upheld ? Only, so far as I can understand,
because the conclusion is started with that palaeolithic man
is post-glacial, and only by the theory of the post-glacial
excavation of the southern valleys can the post-glacial age
of palaeolithic man be defended. But why should we
commence with an assumption like this ? At Bedford the
evidence is a repetition of that which we have in the
Thames Valley, and I have shown in a former paper that
at Hoxne* there is no proof of the post-glacial age of
palaeolithic man. The palaeontological evidence is also
hostile to Prof. Prestwich’s theory. At low levels in the
Lower Thames Brick-earths the remains of Rhinoceros mega-
rhinus , R. hemitcmhus, and Elephas aniiquus occur, all of
which belong to the oldest pleistocene fauna of Europe. At
much higher levels the stone-implements of palaeolithic man
are found, along with the remains of the mammoth and the
woolly rhinoceros. On the supposition that the remains
have been entombed during the gradual excavation of the
valley, the latter would be the oldest of the two faunas.
The great mammals, the bones of which are found so plen-
tifully at Brentford, would have lived long after the men
who left their chipped flints at the much higher levels at
Ealing. The affinities of the fauna found in the Lower
Thames Brick-earths with that of the Cromer forest-bed
are much closer than that found in the gravels. And in the
valley of the Rhine the deposits, with the woolly rhinoceros
and the mammoth, overlie those containing Elephas antiquus,
whilst they ought, if Prof. Prestwich’s theory was correct,
to underlie them.

Mr. Alfred Tylor has propounded the theory that the
gravels were spread out after the excavation of the valleys
to their present depth. He supposes that the Glacial period
was succeeded by a Pluvial period marked by an enormous
rainfall, so that the river-floods reached far above their pre-
sent limits, and deposited gravels and clays high up the
slopes of the valleys. The highest beds may, he thinks,
have been formed by rain-wash. He has also suggested
that the gorging by ice of the mouths of the Somme, the

* Quart. Journ. of Science, July, 1876.

348 Super fetal Gravels and Clays. [July?

Seine, and the Thames, may have assisted in the production
of some of the gravel-beds.*

I am so much indebted to the suggestive papers on the
superficial deposits, by Mr. Tylor, that I regret that I can-
not accept his theory as satisfactory. The gravels and clays
of the lower slopes do not differ from those of the higher
ones, and it is not probable that rain-wash would produce
the same effects as a flooded river. The faCt that the glacial
deposits at Finchley remain intaCt nearly to the level of the
present brooks shows that they have not been exposed to
the aCtion of any extraordinary denuding agents, and floods
and rain-wash that did not remove them could not spread
out great sheets of gravel lower down the valley. The
gorging of rivers by ice is doubtless a true cause of great
floods, but water so dammed back could not reach to the
levels we require, and would only deposit silt, and not
spread out gravels. The theory also offers no explanation
of the close similarity in the succession of the glacial and
the valley deposits, nor of the resemblance of the Middle
Glacial Sands and Gravels to the subangular gravels of the
valleys.

The theory that I offer in the place of these is in complete
harmony with both the physical and the palaeontological
evidence. It asks for no other agency than that concerned
in the outspread of the glacial beds, and explains the simi-
larity of those to the valley deposits by recognising in the
latter the representatives of the glacial clays and gravels of
the hills. It offers no opposition to the evidence of the
comparatively short time that has elapsed since the Glacial
period, as it admits the pre-glacial age of the southern
valleys as well as that of the northern ones. It does not
require us to believe that in the one case the configuration
of the country has been completely changed, whilst in the
other it has remained unaltered. It affords an explanation
of the disappearance of many large animals that formerly
abounded in Northern and Central Europe, and accounts
for the multitude of their remains at a particular horizon.
A new light is thrown by it on the cause of the present dis-
tribution of animals and plants. The strongly-marked
break that exists between the times of palaeolithic and neo-
lithic man finds in it a solution, and the traditions of a great
deluge a foundation.

* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xxv., p. 10, and Geol. Mag., 1875, p. 437.

1 878.1

Superficial Gravels and Clays.

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Superficial Gravels and Clays. [July,

I have described the main features of my theory in several
papers published in this Journal and in the “Journal of the
Geological Society, and I shall now seek to apply it more
particularly to the deposits described in this paper. To
render the subje(5t as clear as possible I have drawn up the
preceding tabular statement, showing the relation that the
deposits of the Thames Valley bear to the Glacial period.

F. Lower Brick-Earths. Older Mammalian Fauna. — The
Lower Brick-Earths are only represented in the Brentford
district by the small undisturbed patch that I found opposite
Flora Villas, and by more or less drifted remains of the
older mammalian fauna. They are more fully developed in
the lower part of the Thames Valley at Erith, Crayford,
Ilford, and Grays Thurrock. The depositions of these
brick-earths in the south-eastern counties was preceded by
a land surface represented in the rootlet beds of Kessing-
land, Hasborough, and Runton.

The fauna found in the deposits is closely related to the
still older Cromer Forest-bed, by the occurrence of Elephas
priscus , E. antiquus, Rhinoceros megarhinus, R. hemitcechus, and
Cervis dama, var. Clactoniensis , amongst the mammals, and
C.fluminalis and Hydrobia marginata amongst the mollusks.
R. etruscus, another Cromer Forest .species, has been found in
beds, apparently of the same age as our Lower-Brick earths,
in the valley of the Rhine, along with Elephas antiquus.

In the Thames Valley there are few deposits of this age
that were not more or less affebted by the cataclysm that
spread out the middle sands and gravels. The small patch
found opposite Flora Villas at Brentford, some of the lowest
beds in the Lea Valley at Clapton, and the Grays Thur-
rock brick-earths are the only instances I know of where
the sands appear to be quite undisturbed. The mammalian
beds at Ilford, Crayford, and Erith are, I think, all slightly
drifted, and contain some admixture of remains belonging
to a later date.

Before the Atlantic ice reached the north-west coast of
Scotland, the Straits of Dover do not appear to have been
cut through, and the German Ocean only communicated
with the Atlantic northward. By the arrival of the ice
from the north-westward on the coast of Scotland, the water
of the German Ocean area was dammed back, and rose
until it flowed across the neck of land joining England to
the Continent. A lake was thus formed draining to the
southward, which was gradually lowered by the cutting
through of the Straits of Dover.

351

1878.] Superficial Gravels and Clays.

This was probably the time of the greatest range of the
Hippopotamus which ascended the great river to the Ger-
manic lake. Possibly the river, by the lowering of the sea
level, flowed as far southward as the Bay of Biscay, and if,
as Dr. Gwyn Jeffreys supposes, theJMediterranean then com-
municated with the Atlantic to the north of the Pyrenees,
the hippopotamus would not have to travel far from the
Mediterranean area, where we know it abounded, to the
mouth of the great river.

Palaeolithic man appears to have penetrated into Britain
at this stage, as his implements are found associated with
the older mammalian fauna in the caves of the west.

E. Newer Mammalian Fauna . — The last stage gradually
merged into the present one by the climate — affeCted by the
continued advance of the northern ice — becoming too cold
for the southern fauna, which retired further south ; its
place being taken by the mammoth, the woolly rhinoceros,
and the reindeer. The great ox, the wild horse, the bison,
the red deer, the Irish deer, the lion, the bears, and the
hyaenas appear to have lasted on from the former period,
and the three first to have abounded. The hippopotamus
still occasionally came up the great river in the early part
of the period. The mammoth, which during the time of
the deposition of the brick-earths had reached as far south
as the Thames in its winter migrations, now became a more
permanent resident. The most characteristic mammals are
the woolly rhinoceros and the reindeer, though even they,
in the early part of the period, must have overlapped in
their winter migrations the range of the more southern
animals in their summer wanderings. The reindeer is
absent from the Lower Brick-earths, and from the beds
containing the older fauna at Brentford, excepting a
small portion of an antler found by Colonel Lane Lox,
which may have been drifted at the time of the debacle,
when the remains of the two faunas were partially mixed
together. In the section at Brentford, described by Prof.
Morris, the reindeer was abundant, and was associated with
the mammoth and woolly rhinoceros. Not a fragment of
the southern shells, Hydrobia marginata, Unio littoralis,
and Cyrena] fluminalis, occurred at this’ spot, whilst in the
older sands in the same district the two first-named are
abundant.

Mr. Godwin Austen has described peat and sedimentary
beds of this age underlying the gravels at Pease Marsh,

352 Superficial Gravels and Clays. [July,

near Guildford.* In these the nearly perfect skeleton of a
mammoth was found. Remains of trees occurred, rooted
in the underlying Neocomian clay, the whole being overlaid
by the subangular valley gravels.

To this period belongs most of the flint implements of
the Thames Valley gravels. When found in the gravels
they are mostly worn by rolling, but at Adton in the deposit,
described by Colonel Lane Fox, below the gravel they were
quite unrolled just as Mr. Godwin Austen found the unin-
jured bones of the mammoth in a similar situation at Pease
Marsh.

The localities where the flint-implements occur in most
abundance are just such as might have been chosen by
palaeolithic man if the configuration of the country was
then the same as it is now. Perhaps the most conspicuous
instance of this is the Milford Hill Station near Salisbury.
Milford Hill is described by Dr. Blackmore as forming a
buttress between the two valleys of the Bourne and
the Avon above their junction. It is separated from
the main tradt of high land behind by a transverse
valley, thirty feet in depth, so that it forms an isolated hill. f
Such a position was an admirable one for a rude tribe de-
pendent for their living on hunting and fishing; giving them
the command of two valleys, and being easily defended
from attack. In our own distridt it is noticeable that the
implements are found in greatest abundance in situations
presenting somewhat similar features. Thus at and near
Mill Hill at Adton numerous flint-implements have been
discovered in the lower part of the gravel. Mill Hill lies
between Adton Brook and Bollow Brook, and to the south,
slopes rapidly down towards the low flat bordering the
Thames. The locality in Gunnersbury Park, where Mr.
Crooke obtained many implements, is on the crest of a
similar slope, and immediately to the east of another small
brook. In such situations palaeolithic man might easily
secure himself from the great wild beasts that frequented
the lower ground near the river ; he held a position of
defence with regard to other tribes, and the brooks in the
vicinity would probably be frequented by many of the
smaller animals the objedts of his chase. Mr. Crooke found
numerous semi-fpssilised pieces of wood along with flint
implements in the gravel on the east side of Bollow Brook,
and it seems not unlikely that these were the remains of a
stockade that had surrounded the old palaeolithic station.

* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xi., p. 112.

f Ibid., vol. xxi., p. 250.

1878.] Superficial Gravels and Clays. 353

The significance of these facets is entirely lost if we have to
suppose that the configuration of the prediluvial land was
not the same as it is now.

D. Lower Diluvium. — During the last stage I suppose
that the Atlantic ice had slowly progressed southward, the
climate of the temperate zone becoming every year more
vigorous in consequence. In those last days of palaeolithic
man the reindeer lived the whole year through in Southern
France, and the musk sheep reached in its migrations the
same low latitude.

The readers of this journal who have followed me in my
former papers will recoiled! that I have already given some
explanation of the cause of the accumulation and of the
mode of advance of the Atlantic ice. I feel, however,
that I have not dealt with this important phase of the
question with the fulness it deserves as lying at the very
foundation of the theory. I must ask my readers to bear
with me whilst I speak of this advance of the Atlantic ice
as a fad!, fully recognising my obligation in so doing to
address myself at the first opportunity to the solution of the
physical difficulties of the problem. They evidently weigh
heavily with many scientific authorities without being
ad!ually defined. They are indeed more fanciful than real,
more a failure of the imagination to conceive a state of
things so different from that now existing than any clearly
perceived objedtion ; but reason has a stronger pinion and a
more piercing eye than imagination, and leads the way to
regions that would remain unknown to her sister excepting
for her guidance.

I suppose that the Atlantic ice at last reached the
Pyrenees, or coalesced with the ice flowing from that moun-
tain-chain, closing the outlet of the northern drainage of
the Continent to the Atlantic. The gap between the
western Alps and the eastern Pyrenees was also filled
with ice, and Behring’s Straits similarly closed. The com-
munication between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean
not having yet been cut through, the waters began to rise
over all the northern parts of Asia and Europe. The bulky
mammoths and rhinoceroses frequenting the low plains
would probably be the first to be overwhelmed. Some might
find a temporary refuge on low isolated hills only to be
overtaken by the rising water. The higher ranges of hills
would form the chief places of refuge, but many of these,
especially in western Europe, were covered with ice. The
Altai mountains in Central Asia, the Urals, the Caucasus,

VOL. VIII. (n.s.) 2 A

354

Superficial Gravels and Clays .

lJ uly,

the Carpathians, and the mountains of Armenia were likely
the ranges on which many animals and plants found
security, and which formed centres of dispersion in post-
diluvial times. The ethnologist now finds on some of these
mountains remnants of diverse peoples, and the naturalist
animals and plants preserved there and absent from inter-
mediate tradts of country.

The non-occurrence of human bones along with the flint-
implements and the remains of the great mammals in the
British Isles suggests that the palaeolithic people of these
parts escaped, at least for a time, from the rising waters.
Their numbers may have been few, and they may have
lingered for a time, and more gradually have died out on
the hill tops to which they fled, or they may have taken to
canoes and rafts and tried to reach more southern shores
across the great waste of water that surrounded them.

Some of the palaeolithic people of Central Europe may
have escaped into Italy, but that country was probably in-
habited by a different and a hostile race, the ancestors of
neolithic man who spread over central Europe when the
great floods abated ; finding the land covered with a fertile
soil, freed from the great carnivores and without inhabi-
tants to contest their occupation of the country. Possibly
the ancestors of the Basques lived to the south of the
Pyrenees in the Glacial epoch, and spread in like manner
into Southern France in early post-diluvial times.

C. Middle Sands and Gravels. — The Middle Sands and
Gravels were spread out, according to this theory, by the
sudden and torrential discharge of the pent-up waters,
caused by the breaking away of the ice dam between the
Pyrenees and the Alps. The course of the flood across the
south of England was from the north until the water was
lowered, and the rushing torrents confined to the valleys,
the direction of which they then followed. In the Thames
Valley, as soon as the height of the water fell to the level
of the water-shed to the north, the rush would be down the
valley or from the west ; though until it was lowered to
below 200 feet above the sea, some of the flood would escape
southward through the low pass between the Wey and the
Arun.

The materials that the flood would find on the surface, in
a loose and unconsolidated state, would be varied and nu-
merous. Over all the chalk area there would be the flints
left during the long subaerial denudation to which the chalk

1878. J

355

Superficial Gravels and Clays .

had been subjected in pre-glacial times. There would be
the patches of Bagshot sands, only small remnants of which
are now left on some of the hills, and other tertiary sands
and gravels where they came to the surface. To these local
materials would be added all those brought by floating ice
before the first lake was discharged, and constituting the
Lower Boulder-clay.

These materials would be caught up by the mighty flood,
swept away, mingled together, and ultimately spread out
over the lower lands, when the violence of the debacle
abated. If it had not been checked it would have probably
carried all its spoil into the sea. The lessening of the fury
of the flood, when it reached a level of about 200 feet — and
still more below 100 feet — above the sea, must have been
due to the outlet of the water being contracted or obstructed.
The channel across Languedoc to the Mediterranean may
not have been broad enough for the rapid discharge of the
great lake below 200 feet above the sea. Whatever was the
cause, the evidence shows that the violence of the flood was
checked, though not entirely stopped, and the materials that
had been swept off from the upper slopes were spread out
over the lower ground.

At Finchley we find the Middle Sands and Gravels, and
even patches of the Lower Boulder-clay, at heights from
which they are entirely absent on the flanks of the hills
bordering the Thames Valley, as, for instance, the southern
slopes of Harrow and Hampstead Hills. The preservation
of these deposits at Finchley is due to the faCt that to the
north and north-west there is a ridge of high land rising to
over 400 feet above the sea, which would protect them from
the violence of the flood when it was moving from the
northward ; and when the water was lowered to below
400 feet the current would be from the westward, and
Finchley would be completely sheltered from it by the high
chalk ridge running south-westward from Tring. The
southern slopes of Harrow and Hampstead would, on the
other hand, be exposed to the full violence of the torrent
rushing down the Thames Valley, and if, as is likely, gravels
had been deposited on them whilst the current was from the
north, they must have been utterly washed away later on
when it was from the west.

Below 200 feet above the sea, when the violence of the
flood was somewhat checked, the outspread of the materials
it was hurrying along began ; at first in sheltered places ;
then, as the water was still further lowered and its velocity
still more lessened, more generally and continuously.

2 A 2

356 Superficial Gravels and Clays. [July*

The level at which these deposits began to be the
rule, instead of the exception, was at about 120 feet above
the Ordnance datum-line. Below this level they were spread
out over all the flat or gently sloping ground, and only on
the steeper gradients did not find a lodgment. As the water
still further fell it drained into the old pre-diluvial smaller
valleys, and in some cases the gravels have been swept out
of these for some distance above the levels of the present
brooks. The gravel and sand being all in motion together,
there was a rough sorting of the materials, according to their
weight ; the largest and heaviest stones found their way to
the bottom, whilst the sand was more generally distributed
near and at the top of the gravel.

Pre-diluvial man had left his stone-implements around
his old settlements, and many of these were mixed up with
the materials brought down from the west by the flood and
deposited with them, the larger flint-implements sinking to
the bottom along with stones of the same size. At still
lower levels many of the implements were not moved far
from where they had been left on the surface, and in some
instances were not moved at all. Above the 40-feet contour-
line the bones of the large mammals that may have been
lying on the surface deposits before the debacle, have been
mostly swept away, excepting where preserved in hollows
from the violence of the flood. A few of the large heavy
teeth of the mammoth have been found in the gravels of the
Ealing district, but the lighter bones are absent. In 1875,
in digging gravel at the site of the New Museum of Natural
History, at Kensington, the tooth of a mammoth was found
at the base of the gravel, within 6 inches of the surface of
the London Clay. No other bones occurred with it. A little
farther west, in diggingthe foundations for houses in Crom-
well Road, many fragments of bones belonging to the great
ox, the red deer, and the mammoth were found near the top
of the gravel, but none of the heavier teeth. It would
appear from this that the remains were, like the stones of
the gravel, deposited according to their specific gravity.

Below the 40-feet contour-line, in the Brentford district,
mammalian remains are most abundant. The reason why
they should have been preserved there, is apparent when we
look at a map showing the contour-lines of the district. To
the west of Brentford, a spur of high land, all above 70 feet
above the sea-level, comes down from Southall, as far as
Hounslow. To the east of this the 50-feet contour-line
runs to the north from Brentford, up past East Adton, to-
wards Wormwood Scrubs, forming an inlet protedled from

i8yS.}

Superficial Gravels and Clays.

357

the violence of the western flood. It is in this sheltered
bay that the mammalian remains, so abundant between East
Adton and Brentford, have been preserved. Mr. Alfred Tylor,
some years ago, drew attention to the fa<5t that all the
mammaliferous deposits of the Thames Valley occur in
situations similarly protected by escarpments to the west-
ward ; and my experience has been to the same effedt.

We have thus, on the one hand, deposits completely
broken up by the violence of the flood, and, on the other,
completely preserved from it. All the gradations between
these two extremes should and do exist. In some the re-
mains have been broken and mixed through the gravel, and
even sorted according to their specific gravity. In others
they have been drifted for a short distance, and the two
mammalian faunas are mixed together without the bones
being broken or much rolled. In others they have been only
a little drifted from their original position ; and in others,
again, remain as they were first deposited, the bones of the
same animal lying together.

Much confusion must thus arise, and much difficulty in
determining the succession of the beds. The difficulty is
often increased when the remains lie at the junction of
tributaries with the main stream. In such cases it has
sometimes happened that the water filling the second-
ary valleys has been pounded back by the greater flood
coming down the main one, so that, after the gravels
have been spread out by the latter, the contents of the
former have been washed over them. And thus, pre-diluvial
mammaliferous sands lying in the tributary valleys, and
protected from the violence of the flood coming down the
principal channel, have, by the change in the direction of
the currents during the falling of the water-level, become
interstratffied with — or even shifted unto the top of — much
newer deposits. The only way to guard against being de-
ceived by instances of this kind is not to accept any evidence
of superposition as conclusive where the bones of the same
animals do not lie near together, where the lamellibranchiate
shells have not their two valves united, or where there are
other signs of the deposit being a drifted one.

In Norfolk and Suffolk the Middle Sands and Gravels
often contain fragments of marine shells derived from the
Weybourne Sands and other beds. In Yorkshire they are
known as the Hessle Sands and Gravels.

0

B. Land Surface. — How long the gap in the ice-barrier
remained open after the discharge of the water of the first

358

Superficial Gravels and Clays.

[July,

lake it is impossible to say. We have evidence, however,
that it was long enough for some of the land-shells to
occupy the surface again, and also, as the buried forest-bed
at Ealing witnesses, for small trees to grow up. Until very
recently I had not obtained this evidence, and was under
the impression that the lake had been quickly re-formed.
The forest-bed at Ealing shows clearly, however, that some
years at least must have elapsed before this took place. I
have found land-shells at Brentford, and near Bletchley, in
Buckinghamshire, at this horizon.

The Rev. H. M. De la Condamine described, in 1853, a
deposit containing land and fresh-water shells on the top of
the Middle Sands and Gravels, in the valley of the Ouse,
between St. Ives and Huntingdon.* At Crayford there is a
grey sandy clay containing shells of the fresh-water mol-
lusks, Planorbis, Bythinia , Lymnea, and Anodon. The Anodon
has the two valves united. The clay with these shells over-
lies the mammaliferous gravels and underlies the deposits
that appear to be the representatives of the Upper Boulder-
clay, so that I think it must belong to this stage. It was
probably at this time that the land shells contained in the
Upper Loess and Diluvium multiplied greatly, and occupied
the land, many of their natural enemies and competitors
having been destroyed by the flood.

It seems not impossible that remnants of palaeolithic
tribes or some of the great extinCt mammals might have
escaped destruction at the time of the rising of the waters
of the first lake, and have spread over the area again before
it was again submerged. I have, however, so far found no
evidence whatever that they did so. The scarcity, if not
absolute non-existence, of the bones of the species of deer,
horse, and ox, that we know were not exterminated, makes
it probable that the gap in the ice-barrier did not remain
many years open.

A. Upper Diluvium. — The Upper Diluvium, under which
name I include the Upper Boulder-clay, the Upper Loess,
the Hessle Clay, and the Upper Brick-clays, is the most
widespread and the best preserved of all the glacial deposits.
The gap in the ice-barrier had been closed and the lake
re-formed, but this time the water was not suddenly dis-
charged, and gradually cut out a channel between the Black
Sea and the Mediterranean. There are several faCts
pointing to the probability that it was the channel of the

* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. ix., p. 271,

359

18789 Superficial Gravels and Clays.

Bosphorus that was thus formed, and not the Dardanelles.
The deposits that were spread out during the continuance
of the second lake were not subjected to the action of any
sudden and tumultuous outpouring of the water, but only
to its gradual subsidence. They have been but little de-
nuded, and are still to be found, nearly everywhere over the
area that was submerged.

During the rise, greatest extension, and subsidence of the
water, sediments, varying greatly in character, were formed.
The earliest of all in the Ealing district — the first sign of
the second rise of the flood — is the bed of silt enveloping
the stumps of the small trees of the buried forest. The
similar silty clays at Brentford and elsewhere, with land
shells, mark the same event. There are, in the alternations
of gravel and sandy clay in some of the sections at Ealing,
signs of small oscillations of the level of the water, during
which the subangular gravels were partly denuded, and fur-
nished some of the materials for the new deposits. Above
this we have a bed of clay, showing a greater depth of
water, and stones scattered through it, indicating the agency
of floating ice.

In addition to the single pebbles, and sometimes larger
stones, there are patches of gravel and sand that appear
to have been dropped in a frozen state into the bed of clay
as it was forming. They are often angular, and show the
lines of their original stratification, now lying at all angles
or turned completely on end. They occur still more fre-
quently in the Upper Boulder-clay of Norfolk and Suffolk
than in the clay of the Thames Valley, and form one of the
many evidences of the identity of the two deposits. The
most probable explanation of their presence in the clay is,
that the rising of the second lake took place wholly or
partly in the winter season, and during an extreme frost ;
that ice was continually forming along the ever-widening
shore, and, being broken up and floated off by the rising
water, bearing masses of frozen gravel and sand with it ;
that thus a wide area of the lake was covered with gravel-
and sand-laden ice, and that, on the melting of the latter,
the frozen masses fell to the bottom and were imbedded in
the clay.

Very little detritus that can be traced to a northern source
has been found south of the Thames, and this has led some
geologists to hold the opinion that the country south of the
river was not submerged when the Upper Boulder-clay was
spread out. It is difficult to believe that this can have
been the case, when we find the drift covering the northern

3 6o

Past Changes in the Universe. [July,

brow of the valley. Prof. Prestwich has also observed
transported rocks on the top of Well Hill, in Kent, at
600 feet above the sea. Along with large rolled flints were
found a few fragments of chert and ragstone, which he refers
to the Lower Greensand of the Sevenoaks range, some six
miles further south, separated by the broad and deep valley
of Holmsdale.* Mr. Whitaker has also seen lumps of hand-
chalk, in Kent, at a high level, on Crocken Hill, eastward
of St. Mary’s Cray ;t and Prof. Morris has informed me
that there are patches of the loess, with its characteristic
shells, preserved in fissures of the chalk at Bensted’s Quarry,
near Maidstone.

We have an obvious explanation of the nearly total ab-
sence of northern drift south of the Thames in the theory
that the Upper Diluvium was distributed by ice, floating
over a great lake draining to the Mediterranean by way of
the Black Sea ; for the currents from the South of England
would flow to the north of east, to get round the Hartz
Mountains, and might be deflected still more to the north
by those from the valley of the Rhine, and from the area of
the English Channel.

III. ON THE POSSIBILITY OF EXPLAINING
PAST CHANGES IN THE UNIVERSE
BY CAUSES AT PRESENT IN OPERATION.

By S. Tolver Preston.

&NY attempt to explain the phenomena of Nature by
the recognised working of physical causation has
been invariably welcomed. Thus the explanation
of geological changes through the influence of time, by the
recognised working of natural causes, is now generally
accepted with satisfaction, and the idea of cataclysms or
catastrophes has been abandoned. Might not the same
thing apply to cosmical changes (or to changes in the Uni-
verse), or would not an attempt to explain them by the

* Geological Magazine, O&ober, 1874.
f Geology of London, p. 52.

1878.] Past Changes in the Universe. 361

recognised atflion of physical causation be as desirable as in
the case of geological changes ?

One insuperable barrier in the way of explaining past
changes in the Universe, by causes at present in operation,
has been the supposition — in the absence of any explanation
of the mechanism of gravity — that the range of gravity ex-
tends to indefinite distances, and consequently that every
portion of the Universe tends to agglomerate or collet
together into one mass, whereby all conditions of stability
or permanence are excluded. Another difficulty has been to
conceive how the energy (in the form of heat) dissipated by
matter in the ether of space could ever again be made
available or re-transferred to matter. Now, in the first
place, it has never been proved that the range of gravity
extends to indefinite distances, and, on examination, con-
clusions so incongruous are involved in this assumption
that they themselves render the assumption unlikely. Thus
imagine the incongruity of the idea of an unstable Universe
tending to agglomerate into one (perhaps infinite) mass,
gravity itself becoming (in the limit) infinite, so that the
conditions of life would be rendered utterly impossible.
Can it appear reasonable to conclude that physical causa-
tion should be so adapted as inevitably (in time) to produce
such a state of things as this, or to involve instability and
confusion ?

According to the only physical theory of gravitation which
has yet withstood the test of criticism (viz., that of
Le Sage*), and which has been received with some favour
by some of the most eminent physicists, it is certain that
the range of gravity cannot extend to indefinite distances.
It is therefore quite possible that the range of gravity may
not extend to the stellar distances so that the stars do not
gravitate towards each other.f This would evidently be the
condition required to satisfy the very important point of
stability in the Universe. The range through which gravity
has been actually observed to prevail is known to be
infinitesimal compared with the stellar distances, so that
the range of gravity may perfectly well lie within these
limits. Thus the condition for stability is the first important

* In three papers published in the Philosophical Magazine (September and
November, 1877, and February, 1878) it has been my objedl to show how
Le Sage’s original theory may be modified, and certain difficulties in the way
of its acceptance (in its original form) removed by the light of the modern
investigations conne&ed with the kinetic theory of gases. A fourth paper
(after the MS. of the present paper was written) has also been published in
the Philosophical Magazine for April last.

f Of course we do not allude to double stars, in close range.

362 Past Changes in the Universe. [July,

conclusion following on the recognition of the limited range
to gravity required by the physical theory.

Since an explanation of the mechanism of gravity is
attracting attention at the present time, Le Sage’s theory
(or a modified form of it) being apparently the only con-
ceivable one that can satisfy the various conditions of the
problem, it therefore behoves us to inquire — as a point of
great interest, and for the furtherance of scientific truth —
what modification the acceptance of this explanation of the
mechanism of gravitation (and the important connected
inference that its range is limited) would make in the views
as to the operation of physical causation in the Universe ;
and this inquiry would appear to be all the more desirable
in view of the accepted faCt that gravitation is really the
most important physical agency in the Universe, and there-
fore any modified views regarding its nature and range of
aCtion would naturally entail important deductions and
modified views in regard to the working of natural phe-
nomena.

The second fundamental conclusion that follows by the
recognition that the range of gravity is limited , and is
within the stellar distances, is that the stars must be moving
in straight lines , and not in orbits, as supposed on the
assumption of an indefinite range to gravity. It follows
therefore, by the ordinary laws of probabilities, that if a
star continue to move in a straight line for a sufficient time
it must inevitably come into collision with another star situ-
ated somewhere in the line of the star’s proper motion ; or
that, in general, collisions among the stars (in a state of
proper motion among each other in straight lines) must be
inevitable. This, therefore, may be regarded as the third
fundamental conclusion that follows by the recognition of a
limited range to gravity. In the “ Quarterly Journal of
Science ” for July, 1877,* is a paper by Mr. James Croll, in
which he calls attention to the fa Cl that some explanation
is required in order to bring the age of the sun’s heat up to
the length of time required by the teaching of the faCts of
geology, and has suggested the collision of matter (in a
state of proper motion) for that purpose. The mere ap-
proach of the matter forming the sun under the aCtion of
gravity without a collision (due to a previously existing
proper motion) appears to be demonstrably insufficient to
account for the age of the sun’s heat. It is therefore so far
satisfactory to observe that the inference of the collision of

1878.J Past Changes in the Universe. 363

masses (in a state of proper motion) arrived at on indepen-
dent grounds by Mr. Croll is precisely the same conclusion
that necessarily follows from the deduction that the range
of gravity is limited , and therefore that the stars necessarily
move among each other in straight lines, whereby, in the
natural course of things, collisions are rendered inevitable.
The eventuality of collisions among the stars is also treated
of in a paper by Mr. Johnstone Stoney, “ On the Physical
Constitution of the Sun and Stars ” (Proc. Roy. Soc.,
1868-69).

The question of difficulty that remains would be to ex-
plain how the colliding matter of the Universe is separated
and prevented from aggregating together to an indefinite
extent. The limit to the range of gravity and the limit to
the intensity of gravity required by the physical theory
would appear to have a bearing here. It may be observed
that there are two opposing agencies, the expansive action
of heat and the contractive action of gravity. By the con-
tinued aggregation of matter the expansive action of heat
increases, while the intensity of the contractive action of
gravity attains a final limit. It would therefore appear
reasonable to conclude that a balance would naturally set
in, at which the expansive action of heat would compensate
the contractive action of gravity, and thus a natural limit
to the aggregation of matter would be reached. Thus the
general result led up to by these conclusions would appear
to be that the parts cf the Universe are in motion among
themselves in straight lines (much in analogy to the mole-
cules of a gas, as far as regards character of motion) ; that,
under the collisions that occur, a general balance is main-
tained in the quantity of heat, and general distribution and
state of aggregation of the matter ; that some stellar suns
are in the act of cooling down, while others are renovated
by fresh collisions, changes continually occurring in parts
of the Universe, but the whole remaining unchanged in
character. That sudden developments of heat among the
stars and (as it were) the flashing out of suns do occur at
times, is a notorious fact in astronomy. It should be noted
that the above fundamental deduction, that the parts of the
Universe are moving in straight lines (which entails colli-
sions), cannot be regarded as a mere speculation, but is a
necessary inference following on the recognition that the
range of gravity is limited , and on the fact that the stars
are actually observed to possess proper motions in various
directions. The deduction that the range of gravity is
limited is itself a necessary consequence of the one

364 Past Changes in the Universe. [J uly,

explanation of the mechanism of gravity that has received
support by competent judges.

From the deduction that the stars are moving in straight
lines in various directions, the analogy (as regards character
of motion) with a gas becomes natural and inevitable ; for
dynamical principles are independent of size or relative
scale, or it is the same as if we were dealing with molecules
observed to have a proper motion among each other in
various directions. The analogy of a gas presents itself,
therefore, rather as a necessary consequence, not as a spe-
culation.* The degree of aggregation of the separate parts
of the Universe moving among each other in straight lines
would therefore appear to be necessarily dependent on the
mean velocity of proper motion, just as the degree of aggre-
gation of the components of the molecules of a compound
gas depends on the mean velocity of their proper motion.
If the velocity of the compound molecules of the gas be
increased (which is synonymous with what is called “ raising
the temperature ”) they begin to separate into their compo-
nents (or to become “ dissociated ”), and if the molecules
have a very high complexity the extent to which this sepa-
ration occurs (i.e., the final degree of aggregation) depends
on the temperature, or on the velocity of the molecules. If
the velocity be very high (by a high “temperature”) the
molecules split up — “dissociate ” — into their ultimate com-
ponents. By gradually lowering the temperature (velocity)
the converse process may take place, or the components
may gradually aggregate together to form massive mole-
cules. This analogy is applicable also to the larger scale
parts of the Universe moving in straight lines among each
other, since dynamical principles are independent of scale.
Such an excessive velocity of the component parts of the
Universe (the stars) among each other is quite conceivable,
at which the whole would break up into single molecules.
By a lower velocity these molecules collect together under

* The relative velocity of the stellar masses (meaning by this the relative
time taken by them to traverse a distance equal to their own diameters) is
almost indefinitely slow compared with the case of the molecules of gases,
which traverse a distance equal to many millions of times their own diameters
in a single second. The absolute velocity of the stellar masses, however (as
far as observed), is very great compared with that of the molecules of gases,
and consequently the heat developed at their encounters would be very great.
On account of the large multiple the distance of the stellar masses is of their
diameters, they would, no doubt, traverse vast distances before an encounter,
or their “ mean length of path ” would be very great ; and (considering the
relative length of time a stellar mass takes to traverse a distance equal to its
own diameter) an enormous epoch of time would in general elapse between
the encounters.

Past Changes in the Universe .

365

1878.]

the adtion of gravity into states of aggregation, or groups,
on the same principle (and perhaps even much on the same
process) as the constituents of the molecules of a compound
gas group together under “ chemical ” adtion. The range
of “ chemical ” adtion, like the range of “ gravific ” adtion,
is limited; the constituents of the stellar masses, which
group together under the limited range of “gravity,” being
in this respedt comparable to the constituents of the mole-
cules of a compound gas which group together under the
limited range of “chemical” adtion. Just as in the case
of a compound gas (on account of some molecules possessing
much higher velocities than others) the components of two
molecules frequently become dissociated by a collision, and
group together again in a different part of the gas; so in
the Universe, where some stars (no doubt for analogous dy-
namical reasons) possess a higher proper motion than
others, we have complete disintegration by collision in some
parts, aggregation in others, continual change, but the mean
aggregation remaining unchanged.

It may be observed that in principle, in order to explain
the continued working of physical phenomena, or the con-
tinuance of change in the Universe, the existence of some
process of recurrence is absolutely essential. The particular
material that is utilised for the development of fresh suns
or centres of heat must be the cooled down or dead material
of former suns. For if this were not the fadt there would
be a continual accumulation of the matter of extindt or
useless suns in the Universe, and processes of renewal and
maintenance of the energy of the Universe would come to
a deadlock in the absence of matter to operate upon. It
therefore becomes absolutely necessary to show, in any
attempt to explain the continued working of physical phe-
nomena under present causes, how the material of extindt
suns can — in accordance with recognised dynamical prin-
ciples— be made available for the development of fresh suns
(or centres of heat). This conclusion would seem to evolve
itself naturally on the basis of the dedudtions following
from the physical theory of gravitation — in regard to the
j motion of the stars taking place in straight lines, which
involves collisions and an alternating renewal and loss of
j heat. This appears on broad principle the only conceivable
j way in which there should be recurrence, under the condition
, that the same matter should be used again. On account of
the relatively enormous area of free space, compared with
the relatively very minute portion of space occupied by each
star, a stellar sun would, in the course of its proper motion

366

Past Changes in the Universe.

[July,

in a straight line, probably as a rule traverse an immense
distance before an encounter, and thus have time to cool
down before the renovation of its beat by a collision ; the
dead or used-up material of former suns being thus avail-
able for fresh suns.

There is one point in connection with this subject that
may be worth noticing : — The sun, as is known, is giving
off an enormous amount of energy in the form of heat into
the ether of space, no less than about 1720 foot-tons of
energy being thrown off from every square foot of the sun
per second. Can it be imagined that this enormous total of
energy can be given off in a particular direction — i.e., from
the sun — without any reaction in the opposite direction ; or
would it be thought that if the sun were emitting all this
energy from one side only there would be no reaction in the
opposite direction ? To us it seems incredible, whatever
the constitution of the ether may be imagined to be, that
there should be no reaction at all by this enormous total of
energy thrown off.* Admitting that there is a slight re-
action, then it is probable that it would not be absolutely
equal all round the sun, owing to accidental irregularities
in the temperature and radiating power of the materials of
the sun’s surface. If this reaction were only a few grains
per square foot (due to 1720 foot-tons of energy thrown off
per square foot, per second), the resultant or unbalanced
reaction, owing to irregularities in the distribution of the
sun’s heat and radiating power, might amount to a consi-
derable total quantity, owing to the enormous area of the
sun. This reaction, even if relatively small, might, in aCting
for ages (millions of years), in the end sensibly affeCt the
proper motion of the sun ; or this might be a cause having

* We do not mean to infer that the reaction due to radiation is the cause of
the motion of the radiometer, as we think there are grounds for believing that
(in the case of the relatively extremely feeble heating of the radiometer) it
would not be a sufficient cause to produce the motion, or probably any mea-
surable effe<5t. There can be little doubt that the effective cause of the motion
of the radiometer has been quite successfully traced to the action of the mole-
cules of the residual gas, as shown by Mr. Johnstone Stoney. This, how-
ever, by no means proves that there is no reaction by radiation. In considering
the reaction in the case of the sun, the relatively enormous value of the energy
continually thrown off from its surface (amounting to thousands of horse-
power per square foot ) must be duly realised. It may be estimated that a
portion of the sun’s surface equal in size to the disk of an ordinary radio-
meter (say a quarter of a square inch in area) is throwing off a wave energy
equal to twelve horse-power. A vertical column of ether of this sectional
area, situated on the sun, is therefore transmitting the same energy as the
belt of a twelve-horse steam-engine. Can it be imagined that it can do so
without any reaction at all ? Consider, also, the millions of square miles of
the sun’s surface, each minute portion of which is throwing off this same
energy.

367

1878.] Past Changes in the Universe.

some influence on the proper motion of the stellar suns, in
addition to the repulsive action of the heat generated by the
mutual collisions.

In the absence of any explanation of the mechanism of
gravity, or idea of the nature of gravific energy, it naturally
becomes impossible to see how heat once dissipated in the
ether could ever be recovered again, or how heat-energy de-
rived from gravific energy could ever be re-converted into
gravific energy. But when it comes to be recognised (as it
logically and inevitably must) that gravific energy resides
in a medium pervading space, and that therefore this
medium is necessarily immersed in the ether or heat-con-
veying medium, then we have data for new conclusions. It
appears clear, or almost a necessary deduction, that the
waves of heat cannot be conveyed through the gravific
medium (in which the ether is immersed) without becoming
to some extent dissipated in the gravific medium : for it
seems incredible how two media should be immersed in each
other without interfering with each other’s motions at all.
If we admit that the waves of heat, though no perceptible
diminution occurs in planetary distances, are at last in the
course of ages frittered away or dissipated in the gravific
medium in which the ether is immersed, then, since energy
cannot be annihilated, the full equivalent of heat-energy
(represented by the waves) is finally converted into gravific
energy (by dissipation in the gravific medium). The energy,
therefore, which came from the gravific medium, and was
converted into heat-energy in the adtion of gravity at the
approach of the masses, is finally restored to the gravific
medium again, in the frittering away of the waves of heat
in that medium. Thus the total amounts of gravific energy
and of heat-energy may remain constant in the Universe,
the one being convertible into the other, and back again. It
may be observed that, besides the above apparently unavoid-
able conversion of heat-energy into gravific energy by dissi-
pation of the heat-waves in the gravific medium (and the
consequent equalisation of the energy in the two media), it
would seem a reasonable conclusion that two media (the
gravific medium and the heat-conveying medium), immersed
in each other, must naturally maintain an equilibrium of
motion or energy between themselves, as, for example, is
known to be the fadt in the case of two gases immersed in
each other or mixed, however diverse their qualities may
be. It should be observed that the gravific medium must
be constituted as a gas (according to the kinetic theory) in
order to accord with the observed effects of gravity.

368 Past Changes in the Universe . [July?

These considerations would point to the general con-
clusion that recurring changes take place in the Universe
whereby the continuance of useful activity and life is
insured, and the deadlock of useless inadbion and uniform
repose prevented. In other words, they would lead to the
inference that physical causation is not so constituted as to
defeat itself and bring the operations of the Universe to a
standstill.

It should be noted that, as a matter of theoretic principle,
the problem of recurring changes in the Universe undoubt-
edly admits of solution, since it is an admitted dynamical
principle that masses immersed in media whose particles
are in a state of translatory motion must themselves inevi-
tably acquire some translatory motion, and the stellar
masses moving freely in straight lines in the gravific medium
represent (as it were) a larger scale gas immersed in a
smaller scale gas (viz., the gravific medium). It is a mere
question of scale, and dynamical principles are (admittedly)
independent of scale. The difficulty, if any, would there-
fore be one of degree, not of principle. There might be a
difficulty in accounting for the high value of the translatory
motion of the stellar masses that observation appears to
point to. But it should be noted that it does not follow
that the value of the translatory motion we observe is the
true mean value ; for it might be exceptionally above it.
For it is known that the translatory motion of the molecules
of gases (or of any bodies moving freely among each other
according to kinetic theory) varies from zero towards infinity.
It might therefore well be that the translatory motion we
observe in our immediate neighbourhood might be exception-
ally above the mean value, and we happen to observe this
particular value because it is suited to the conditions of life
(or the low translatory motion, on account of the feeble
heat developed, would not be so suited).*

* Possibly there may be some supplementary cause tending to produce trans-
latory motion in the stars. The spectroscope shows the molecules of matter
to possess a considerable complexity, or their parts have a considerable capa-
city for taking up motion. It would appear reasonable to conclude that the
molecules of matter of the Universe, immersed in a medium constituted
according to the kinetic theory, must acquire also in their parts a certain
degree of motion, owing to the dynamic aCtion of the impinging particles of
the medium in which they are immersed. The intensity of motion thus
acquired would (as is known) be greater in proportion as the parts of the
molecule which are capable of motion are smaller; and this motion of the
parts of the molecules would apparently tend to produce translatory motion
in the molecules as wholes — much as the development of motion in the parts
of the molecules of a gas (as occurs when they are exposed to the pulsations
of waves of heat) is known to produce translatory motion in the molecules as
wholes, thereby producing expansion in the volume of gas. Indeed a balance

i878.]

Past Changes in the Universe.

369

It may be remarked that the conditions above arrived at,
as a basis for recurring changes in the Universe, were not
deduced solely with this object in view ; but these very con-
ditions follow independently as necessary consequences of
the explanation of gravitation afforded by the kinetic theory,
so that it becomes a remarkable fadl that the very conditions
that follow on the explanation of gravitation are precisely
of that character required to account for recurring changes
in the Universe. The more the subject is reflected on, the
more apparent will it become that in broad principle other
conditions for producing recurring changes are not conceiv-
able— keeping in view the necessity (in order to effedl recur-
rence) that the cooled down material of the Universe should
be that material which is utilised for the development of
fresh centres of heat ; and there would appear to be a
simple grandeur (not out of harmony with the recognised
characteristics of Nature) in this great result being brought
about by the mere movement of the stars according to the
kinetic theory. Also there would be a sort of harmony or

(as is known) tends to establish itself between the energy of the translatory
motion of the molecules as wholes, and the energy of the motion of their
parts (internal motions). Thus the throwing of the parts of molecules into
motion (from any cause) would tend to produce motion in the molecules as
wholes. In principle, therefore, the development of motion in the smaller
parts of matter tends to produce translatory motion in the larger parts (and
that whatever the relative scale may be). This might possibly have its appli-
cation as an auxiliary cause for the development of translatory motion in the
larger scale parts of matter (represented by the stellar masses), through the
intermediary oi the smaller parts (molecules), and the minute moving particles
of the medium in which these smaller parts are immersed.

Another point may perhaps be worth noticing here. When the molecules
of a compound gas (immersed in another gas) break up from any cause into
their components, each of these smaller components tends to acquire from
the rest of the gas the same absolute kinetic energy of translatory motion as
the entire compound molecule possessed (before it was broken up) ; so that
therefore the total energy of a given portion of gas may be suddenly greatly
augmented by the mere breaking up of its (compound) molecules into parts.
If we imagine any limited portion of a gas to be immersed in another gas of
unlimited extent (or if the portion of gas be supposed enclosed in some way
so as to permit expansion, and at the same time to allow a free exchange of
energy between it and the other gas), then a change in the state of aggre-
gation— by the breaking up into parts of the compound molecules of the en-
closed gas — will be followed by a considerable transference of energy from
the outer gas to the enclosed gas; for when equilibrium is again attained,
each of the small parts into which the compound molecules of the enclosed
gas are split up will have acquired from the outer gas the same absolute kinetic
energy of translatory motion as the entire molecule possessed before it was
broken up. Thus the mere adt of breaking up (disintegration) of matter,
immersed in a medium enclosing a stove of motion , may cause considerable
transference of energy from this medium to the immersed matter, tending to
produce expansion and rebound. Possibly this principle might also have
some bearing on the disintegrating changes continually taking place in the
Universe.

VOL. VIII. (N.S.) 2 B

37°

Past Changes in the Universe. [July,

analogy in the stellar masses and the media in which they
are immersed moving under the same dynamical principles.
Moreover, the kinetic theory has been mathematically proved
(when a large number of masses are concerned) to produce
a system of order and symmetry (or mean similarity of the
conditions in all parts of the system) which is rigidly and
automatically maintained by a process of self-correCtion
under dynamical principles — a self-aCting adjustment of the
motions continually taking place, whereby a system of har-
mony and order is maintained everywhere, a perfect state
of mobile equilibrium existing in all parts.

Those who regard the physical causation of the past in
the light of the physical causation of the present, or who
look upon the principle of the conservation of energy as a
truth as necessary in the past as in the present (or who look
upon physical truths as independent of time), are bound to
believe that some process of recurrence must exist, whereby
useful change and activity are continued in the Universe,
and the purposeless end of a changeless chaos prevented ;
and that we should seek for the explanation of this, not so
much with the view to prove the faCd thereby, but rather as
a satisfaction or confirmation of a faCt we already had
logical grounds for believing to exist. As we happen to
have given considerable time and thought to the problem of
gravitation on the basis of Le Sage’s fundamental idea, we
have considered ourselves justified in calling attention to
the important consequences and modified views regarding
natural phenomena that the acceptance of the physical
theory of gravitation entails.

The phenomena of Nature would thus consist in cyclical
processes involving transferences of motion from physical
media in space to matter, and back again to these media
(in a circle), the collective sum total of energy in matter and
in these media remaining at every instant constant, in ac-
cordance with the principle of the conservation of energy.
The cyclical processes thus taking place on a great scale in
the Universe are imitated on a smaller scale in the ordinary
interchanges of energy on the earth’s surface, or all the
ordinary processes of “ work,” or the derivation of power,
show themselves to be cyclical processes on the recognition
of the stores of motion in space rendered necessary by the
physical theory of gravitation. For suppose, for example,
we derive power from the fall of water, and use it through
machinery for lifting weights or elevating materials, — then
the motion derived at the descent of the water comes from
the store of motion in the gravific medium, and passes to

1878.] Past Changes in the Universe. 371

the gravific medium again in a cyclical process, in the ope-
ration of elevating the materials in opposition to the dynamic
aCtion of the gravific medium which tends to urge them
towards the earth. If, instead of elevating materials, the
work be done in friction, as in dragging masses (vehicles,
&c.) along the earth’s surface, then the waves of heat due
to the fridtion are radiated into the media of space, and,
becoming naturally dissipated in the gravific medium through
which they have to pass, the energy thus finally returns to
this medium, to be available for utilisation again. Winds
or currents of air are due diredtly (as is known) to variations
of pressure in the earth’s atmosphere, which re-adjust
themselves through the aCtion of gravit}^. The gravific
medium is therefore the agent direddly concerned in pro-
ducing the current of air or wind, and therefore is the
motive agent concerned in developing motion in the ma-
chinery driven through the intervention of the wind. In
the case of the ship propelled by the wind, the power is
converted into heat in the passage of the ship through the
water. The heat then passes in waves to the media in
space, or is dissipated in the souree whence it was derived
in a cyclical process. It should be observed that all these
deductions are necessarily true on the acceptance of the
explanation of the mechanism of gravity afforded by the
physical theory.

There can be little doubt that the explanation of gravity
(the fundamental agency in Nature) will naturally and
inevitably entail with it, in principle, analogous explanations
of the other molecular motions (“chemical” reactions, &c.).
Thus the operation of the steam-engine will show itself as
a cyclical process, the motion passing from the media in
space to the coal, and thence (in a circle) to the media in
space in the various operations of the engine.* Thus con-
siderations of great practical interest present themselves on
the recognition of the existence of the stores of concealed
motion in space revealed by the kinetic theory of gravita-
tion, and problems of the highest practical importance may
suggest themselves as to possible methods of utilising this
store of motion to greater advantage than at present.
There might be a tendency to regard considerations of this
nature (independently of their truth or error) as in some
degree occult. This could only arise from the kind of pre-
judice that tends to beset every new path, or possibly in the

* See also a paper in Philosophical Magazine for April last (“ The Bearing
of the Kinetic Theory of Gravitation on the Phenomena of ‘ Cohesion ’ and
Chemical A&ion ’ ”).

2 B 2

372 Past Changes in the Universe . July,

absence of realisation of the mechanical fitness of the scheme
due to attention not having been given to the subjedt. What
may be justly regarded as occult are the effedts themselves
(or the developments of motion in matter, occurring on
every hand) without any explanation at all. Since the store
of energy simply consists of finely subdivided matter in a
state of rapid motion, and since it is obviously just as easy
to reason of matter of one dimension as of another, there
can be nothing whatever occult about the subjedt at all.
The conclusion deducible with certainty beforehand that
this store of motion — if it did exist in space — would be con-
cealed, ought to go far to remove all preliminary doubts as
to its existence ; and unless we are ready to surrender the
right of using our reason, the developments of motion oc-
curring on all sides (as combustion, the detonation of
explosives, and the varied movements developed in masses
and molecules of matter, &c.) are utterly inexplicable with-
out the existence of this store of motion in space. Minuteness
of size of the particles is evidently adapted to rapidity of mo-
tion, and this rapidity of motion is itself essential to an intense
store of energy, and this rapidity of motion, combined with
minuteness of size, obviously and necessarily renders the
motion of the particles concealed ; indeed the more perfect
the concealment, the higher should we be warranted in esti-
mating the intensity of the store of energy to be (from the
known fa<5t that the higher the velocity of the component
particles, the more impalpable does the medium become).
It is very important, therefore, to keep in view that — inde-
pendently of all question of the existence of this store of
energy in space — it is so far an indisputable fadt that if it
did exist it would be perfectly concealed. There can there-
fore be no logical a priori reason for doubting its existence,
and the admirable manner in which (on analysis) the me-
chanical conditions show themselves to be adapted to allow
the existence of an available store of energy in space, to
any intensity consistent with concealment, and in harmony
with the conditions of life, ought to render the contempla-
tion of the problem one of great mechanical interest.
Surely, for example, to realise how the motion is transferred
from the concealed store of motion in space to a mass of
gunpowder (as a shell for instance) in the adt of explosion,
is a problem of the highest mechanical interest, and no one
surely would mistake theories which may serve as a conve-
nient temporary refuge in the absence of any conception of
the process involved, as explanations of the process involved.
Clearness of conception is the test of truth, and constitutes

1878.]

Past Changes in the Universe.

373

the real dignity of Science, and theories, however elaborated,
if vague, have no real dignity; and the aim ought surely to
be to endeavour to think out the simplest method of arriving
at a result, keeping in view the facft that simplicity is neces-
sary to the orderly working of mechanical processes, and
that the real point to admire is a simple method of attaining
a mechanical result, because it is unique , not a complicated
method (whishi may be conceived to be indefinitely varied).
The beautiful kinetic theory of gases affords the simplest
method to the solution of the problem of the constitution
of the physical media in space, and in the case of the gra-
vific medium it may be proved to be the only solution which
can harmonise with observed fadls.*

When we realise the practically unlimited intensity of the
concealed energy that may thus exist in space (in the simple
form of finely subdivided matter possessing a high velocity)
one may cease to wonder at the sudden energy transferred
to a mass of gunpowder (or a shell) in the adt of explosion,
and realise how this otherwise incomprehensible and extra-
ordinary effedt can take place. It would be illogical to
consider a fadt less extraordinary, or that a rational expla-
nation for it is less urgent, because it is commonplace, and
precisely because there is this tendency it ought to be spe-
cially guarded against. In the case of the explosion we
have in principle simply the transference of motion from
minute particles of matter (where the motion is therefore
invisible) to grosser matter, in the form of clouds of vapour
and palpable fragments of matter (when the motion is
visible) ; and therefore to the superficial bodily eye there
naturally appears to be an actual creation of motion. If the
motion (before transference) were not invisible, it would not
be mechanically efficient for the objedh to be attained ; for
unless the moving particles of matter constituting the me-
dium were small, it would be impossible to concentrate a
considerable intensity of energy within a small volume of
space. In the case of any powerful or intense motive
source, velocity of the particles must evidently be relied on
rather than mass (since mass occupies space, and prevents
concentration of the energy. ' There could be no logical
ground why problems of this nature should be regarded in

* It may be observed that in the case of any medium constituted according
to the kinetic theory, the velocity of the particles of the medium is equal to
the velocity of propagation of a wave in the medium—

X-4.

V5

See result appended by Prof, Maxwell to paper “ On the Mode of Propagation
of Sound” (Philosophical Magazine, June, 1877).

374 T/z£ Evolution of Beauty. [July,

any other light than as ordinary engineering or mechanical
problems, to be explained by the light of reason and com-
mon sense. There would appear to be a kind of prejudice
in regard to thinking on these subjects which requires to be
surmounted or dissipated by logic. It may seem bold to
say it, but scientific reform is called for in this respedt.
Ability is by itself of no avail without attention. Reform,
in the sense of a more general attention being directed to
subjects whose real interest would disclose itself on exam-
ination, is what is required.

In regard to the subject of recurring changes in the
Universe, this opinion appears to have been held by Sir W.
Grove (“ Correlation of Physical Forces,” p. 67), though he
does not go into any explanation as to the particular condi-
tions required to bring about the result. He remarks
relative to this subjedt (p. 67) : — “ Enlarged observation
may prove that phenomena seeming to tend in one diredtion
will turn out to be recurrent, though never absolutely iden-
tical in their recurrence ; that there is throughout the
Universe gradual change, but no finality ; . . . that no star
or planet could at any time be said to be created or
destroyed, or to be in a state of absolute stability, but that
some may be increasing, others dwindling away, and so
throughout the Universe, in the past as in the future.”

Humboldt also says, as regards this point (Preface to
“ Cosmos ”) — “ I would therefore venture to hope that an
attempt to delineate Nature in all its vivid animation and
exalted grandeur, and to trace the stable amid the vacillating
ever-recurring alternation of physical metamorphoses, will
not be wholly disregarded at a future age.”

IV. THE EVOLUTION OF BEAUTY.

By Fc T. Mott, F.R.G.S.

SO estimate the comparative value of Constitution and
Education in producing the net result of character is
one of the most difficult problems of physiology.

The influence of Education being the more easily recog-
nised of the two, it is probable that this fadlor has rarely
been undervalued, and the Darwinian philosophy has turned

The Evolution of Beauty .

375

1878.]

upon it a special share of attention. Inherited “ tenden-
cies ” are indeed admitted by modern evolutionists, but with
a very vague conception of what it is which “ tends;” and
generally the evolving organism is treated rather as a tabula
rasa, on which surrounding conditions paint themselves in a
cumulative manner, than as a centre of force to whose in-
herent activity is largely due the character of the complex
product.

The existence of a “ vital force,” under some name or
other, is not perhaps denied, but it is comparatively ignored ;
the main arguments being expended in attempting to show
that the variations of form, colour, ornament, and disposi-
tion may be accounted for by the mere action of surrounding
conditions ; that Education is everything, original Consti-
tution of quite secondary importance. Yet the fact is surely
evident that every organism has within itself a force which
will expend its activity in a definite direction, and that its
environment has only power to modify that line of activity
within very narrow limits.

An acorn cannot be made to grow into anything but an
oak, with perhaps some small variation of form or colour ;
and though it be granted that variations in the same direc-
tion, impressed upon many successive generations, may
effect large changes in the end, this is the result of guiding
rather than of creating. It is the turning of the stream
into a new channel, not the making of the river ; and the
most important factor in the product is, after all, the current
with its perpetual activity, rather than the physical condi-
tions to which it partially submits.

A recent article in the “ Quarterly Journal of Science,”
on “ The Adtion of Light upon the Colouration of the
Organic World,” presents a fair example of the manner in
which this question is commonly treated. Impartiality and
sound logic are not wanting, but the argument is invali-
dated because it ignores one of the primary factors of the
problem.

To discuss the manner in which the surface-colouring of
plants and animals is produced by insects or by light, with-
out reference to the internal forces upon which these
influences act, is like calculating the velocity of the hands
of a watch upon the basis of the decreased temperature
by which it is slightly accelerated, without taking account
of the spring, or of the fact that the velocity will remain
nearly the same whether the temperature be lowered or
elevated.

Is it not possible to get a more satisfactory view of

376 The Evolution of Beauty . [July?

organic phenomena by going a step lower in the chain of
causation ? By turning our attention to the internal sources
of activity, as well as to external influences, and by endea-
vouring to estimate each faCtor at its true value ?

We have no knowledge of Matter, except as accompanied
by Force. The ultimate atoms we imagine to be related to
each other by attractions and repulsions. The compound
molecule is the seat of equally compound Forces. The
possibility of such a perfect balance of Forces as to produce
absolute rest may be argued, but can scarcely be proved,
and a probability remains that no such thing as absolute
rest is known throughout the Universe. Everywhere the
concomitant of Force is motion or activity, either atomic,
molecular, or molar ; and the universal character of such
activity is alternate acceleration and retardation.

We need not discuss the problem whether the Force or
the Matter is the aCtual substans. The same general laws
of activity hold good both for Matter and Mind, and one of
the most fundamental of these laws is that of alternate
acceleration and retardation, of expansion and compression,
of increase and decrease, whether in relation to time, to
space, or to intensity. In modern terminology this type of
activity is known as wave-motion, and the total activity of
the Universe, as far as we can penetrate it, is made up
of such waves, in what may be called — without extravagant
metaphor — an “ infinite ” variety.

The wave form originates in the compound aCtion of
initial impulse with surrounding resistances. Both factors
are essential, and if space is everywhere occupied by matter,
or is everywhere under the influence of attractions and
repulsions, there can be no initial impulse which is not
instantly met by resistance, no motion therefore which does
not partake of the wave character.

An initial impulse, if unresisted, would, it is supposed,
continue with unvarying velocity and direction through
space and time for ever. But by the aCtion of surrounding
resistances, which are themselves perhaps but modifications
of other initial impulses, its equilibrium is upset, its velo-
cities made inconstant, its direction and intensity altered,
divided, scattered, or concentrated, in a thousand different
ways. How the initial impulses originated we need not
inquire. We have to deal with a Universe in which they
have been operating practically for infinite time, and to
estimate as accurately as we can their present condition.

It seems correct to speak of these impulses as separate
and individual phenomena, because, although the whole

The Evolution of Beauty .

377

1878.J

Force of the Universe is probably a unity, it presents itself
to our senses and understandings as divided everywhere into
distinct units. In their simplest form we conceive of these
units of Force as associated with material “ atoms.”

Wherever heat exists the material atoms are supposed to
be in a state of perpetual agitation, and every minute atomic
movement originates a “ wave ” of force in its simplest
character, the differences between such an atomic wave and
the great secular waves with which astronomy and geology
mainly deal being probably differences due to increased
intensity and complexity alone.

The normal life of a wave dates from the starting-point of
its initial impulse to its maximum of compression or retard-
ation, and thence through the period of reaction till it
returns to its original condition. But in vast numbers of
cases this normal life is not completely fulfilled. The sur-
rounding conditions being continually varied, in a succession
of similar impulses no two will meet precisely the same
fate. Many of them will be checked at different periods of
their career, absorbed, divided, repelled, turned aside, or
compounded with others ; and out of this complex adfion
new impulses will arise to pass through similar changes,
and so keep up the perpetual agitation and life of the
material Universe.

The forms of wave-motion may be indefinitely varied, but
the three leading types are— (a) the wave of oscillation ;
(b) the wave of undulation ; (c) the centripetal wave ; the
wave of oscillation being represented by the simplest atomic
movement, while all compound movements tend towards
the undulatory or the centripetal forms.

A simple atomic vibration in a molecule of unstable com-
position may be followed by molecular change and re-
composition, the effects of which are passed on through
surrounding matter in a succession of compound waves.
These compound waves, meeting everywhere with other
compound waves of varied form and intensity, may either
be dissipated early in their career, or may pass through
their normal life, or may be taken up without dissipation
into the life of another compound wave of greater intensity
or wider scope. By this latter process of absorption, com-
bined with the reverse process of subdivision, a wave of
great initial intensity may become complex to a degree
scarcely conceivable by the human understanding.

From atomic vibration to a solar system is a long leap,
but it is no more than the result of such composition of
wave-motion carried on through indefinite time.

37$ The Evolution of Beauty. [July,

From a solar system to an acorn is a long leap also, yet
it is probable that this, too, is only a result of the same
law, only a still further development of the complexity of
wave-motion. An organic unit seems to be the latest out-
come of compounded force — the most complex form of wave
yet attained to, in at least this corner of the Universe.

If we examine the structure of a complex wave we find
that it consists of an organised body of waves, arranged
after the manner of a disciplined army. There is first a
single inclusive impulse, of the highest intensity and widest
scope, holding in its grasp the total body of subsidiary
waves, and representing the General in command. Then
there are a few large, well-marked, secondary impulses, like
separate brigades, working towards special goals, but with
a common end in view. Each of these secondary waves is
made up of a number of tertiary waves, which may stand
for regiments, and within each regiment are again compa-
nies, squads, and finally individuals, the number of compo-
nent waves increasing with each step downwards. But this
organised arrangement of a crowd of units is not the only
kind of complexity to be considered. Besides having its
definite place in the system, each subsidiary wave has also
its own normal period of life, and its own velocity, which
varies not only in its totality, but in its two phases, viz., the
ascending phase, in which it approaches towards its climax,
and the descending phase, in which it recedes from it.
These phases may either be equal or only equivalent, one
being long and slow, while the other is short and rapid, the
varieties of proportion in the latter case being unlimited.

Note what takes place in the growth of an acorn. While
it lies brown and dry upon the earth, apparently lifeless and
motionless, atomic and molecular motions are unceasingly
at work among its tissues. This is proved by the fadl that
if left dry too long the living forces will be dissipated, the
germ will perish and decay. But the presence of moisture
and the communicated energy of external heat give rise to
a re-composition of forces without dissipation. A wave of
high intensity and rapidly increasing complexity is origin-
ated. Surrounding waves of force are absorbed into its
vortex, and material molecules are built up in the track of
the advancing wave, and of each unit in all its army of
subsidiary waves. The normal form of the great inclusive
impulse is such as to build up that material structure which
we call an oak tree, and nothing else. The wave origin-
ated from a germinating acorn is always of that form, and
no other. Its subsidiary waves, although unable to escape

IS7S.]

The Evolution of Beauty.

379

from the general law impressed upon them by the primary
impulse, assert their individuality within that limit, and are
slightly modified at the same time, as is also the primary
itself, by surrounding resistances and attractions. Hence
the result that no two oak trees are precisely similar in
details, though identical in general plan.

Of the three leading wave-types, by far the most complex
is the centripetal. This type is especially associated with
organic life. The primary impulse in every entire organism
is of this form ; so also are all the great subsidiary waves.
An organic being is a living and aCtive centre, around which
force and matter are alternately concentrated and dispersed.
The normal life-period of each organism depends upon the
character of its primary centripetal force-wave ; and the
apex or grand climacteric of its life is the point of greatest
concentration, from which point dispersion sets in, ending
in partial or in total dissolution.

The subsidiary waves being also of the centripetal type,
but of varied periods and intensities, their climacterics are
not synchronous, but successive, so that nearly always some
portions of the organism are at their climax, while some are
tending towards decay, and others still developing.

Among the characteristics of the organic centripetal wave
there is one of peculiar significance. It is this — that the
necessary result of centripetal aCtion is concentration, and
concentration implies the bringing into closer relations with
each other of elements which had previously been more
scattered. There is an important correlation between this
pr ocess and our human senses.

Organic development takes place by the process of assi-
milation, by continually adding to the original impulse the
energy of surrounding materials, by complicating the pri-
mary wave with an ever-increasing army of subsidiary waves.
The intense attractive power of the organic life-wave has
this especial capacity of accumulation and concentration,
which is continued until the whole kinetic energy of the
primary wave is changed into the potential form. At this
point reaction sets in, and the descending phase of the
wave commences, accompanied by decay of the organism
and re-dispersion of its constituents.

During the career of the primary wave many subsidiary
waves of all ranks will have run their course. In the life
of a deciduous tree the annual wave, accompanied by evolu-
tion of foliage and blossom, and leaving part of its energy
stored up in the seed, has almost a primary character,
though it is in faCt a subsidiary of the larger wave which

The Evolution of Beauty.

380

[July,

carries the tree through many seasons to its normal limit
of growth. But it furnishes also an analogy suggesting
that even the primary life-wave of the individual organism
is in truth subsidiary to a still larger and more inclusive
wave controlling the development of the species ; that each
specific wave may be part only of a generic wave, which in
its turn may be included in some wave of longer period and
wider sweep ; and that so all finite waves may, in their
ultimate relationships, be but ripples of the one universal
impulse.

Organic growth is, then, always a process of concentra-
tion, an accumulation of minute waves of force, each
accompanied by some particle of matter. Of these minute
waves many probably run together, and form the subsidiary
waves of various ranks, while others remain distindd as
superficial undulations. The constant tendency is to bring
into relationship a vast number of force-waves which were
previously scattered. These constituents are arranged, as
they arrive, first in a rough outline indicating the tendencies
of the primary wave ; and this outline is gradually filled up
as force and matter are accumulated, and drawn closer to
the point of ultimate concentration of the primary wave.

In all developing organisms the order of growth is from
the general to the particular, from the less to the more
differentiated, from the scattered to the concentrated, from
the outline or framework to the clothed and completed form ;
and although organic growth may appear to be an expansion
rather than a concentration, it is not so in reality. When
the bugle-call of a regiment in the field summons the
skirmishers to retire upon their supports, the result is a
concentration of force, although accompanied by an enlarge-
ment of the central mass.

In the process of organic development there appear to be
at least four well-marked stages, which seem to indicate the
existence of four large secondary waves immediately subsi-
diary to each organic primary. In the animal kingdom
these mark the development of the four great systems of
organic tissue — the cellular, the osseous, the fibrous, and
the nervous. In the vegetable kingdom they are represented
by the cellular tissue, the trunk and branch system, the
foliage, and the blossom.

The visible beauty of the organic world depends upon the
correlation between the sense-organs of the human race
and these concentrating organic waves of force. That an
objedd should appear to be beautiful is not the result of
accidental surroundings, nor of any superficial garment

The Evolution of Beauty ,

381

1878.]

spread over an ugly and repulsive interior. The elements
of the beautiful are inherent in all things ; that we cannot
always recognise them is due to the limitation of our
senses.

Beauty is an abstract idea, of the same nature as Good-
ness, Truth, Power, Charity, &c., and that which causes
this idea to present itself in the human consciousness is
the perception of relationship among a number of diverse sensa-
tions, of unity coexistent with variety. The mental sense
of ordered activity is always accompanied by the idea of
Beauty more or less vividly impressed. When the attention
of the mind is focussed upon a variety of points in rapid
succession, and the intellect is able to recognise relationship
among all those points as members of one group, then
arises the idea of Beauty. It can only present itself under
the conditions of mental activity coexistent with the per-
ception of relationship, proportion, unity.

Variety is necessary in order to secure the condition of
mental activity, which is effected by the perpetual change
implied in the successive contemplation of many points.
Each a 61 of attention is a force-wave which is very rapidly
dissipated. No natural phenomenon can ever be exaddly
repeated ; but if there is repetition, with too little variation,
temporary paralysis follows, the well-known result of mono-
tonous sensation. To keep up a vigorous mental activity
the force-waves of attention must be sufficiently varied.
Hence it follows that the primary condition under which
any objedd can appear beautiful to the human mind is that
it be compounded of a variety of parts, and that these parts
be so much varied that the mind which contemplates them
is not paralysed by monotony. Every objedd in Nature is
so compounded of various parts, but human minds are not
equally sensitive to small shades of difference. Obtuse
minds are paralysed by a succession of adds of attention
whose difference is sufficient to keep wide awake and addive
other minds of more delicate perceptivity. If any mind
were absolutely sensitive to all shades of difference the
paralysis due to monotony would be impossible to it.

Addivity alone, however, is not sufficient to arouse the
idea of Beauty ; it must be recognised as ordered addivity.
The mind requires not only the perception of change, but
also of relationship in passing from one add of attention to
another, the perception that there is similarity as well as
difference in those adds of attention. Similarity implies
identity in at least one direddion, with difference in other
direddions ; and the point of identity which must be

382

The Evolution of Beauty.

[July,

perceived in order that the group may appear beautiful is,
that all those phenomena belong to that group, all take a
necessary part in its formation, are bound together by a
common bond, and form one unity. There may be many
aspedts of unity in a single group of concrete phenomena, —
as unity of form, unity of colour, unity of motion, unity of
purpose, &c., — and the vividness with which the idea of
Beauty is presented will be intensified as both variety and
unity are perceived in a larger number of such aspects.

As different minds vary in their sensitiveness to differences
between the adts of attention, so they vary also in their
sensitiveness to relationship among those adts. A group of
phenomena may appear to one mind to be closely related,
while to another no element of identity among the varied
parts can be perceived, so that the group appears a chaos,
and the idea of Beauty is not evolved. Every objedt in
Nature is a group of parts related to each other in ways
more or less complex and subtle. If any mind were abso-
lutely sensitive to all degrees of relationship, in all its
aspedts, nothing would appear chaotic. A mind absolutely
sensitive to all shades of difference, and to all degrees of
relationship at the same time, would see everywhere
throughout creation variety bound up in unity, would find
neither monotony nor chaos, discord nor ugliness, but only
a universal Beauty.

The human mind, however, as it adtually exists, has no
such absolute sensitiveness. It is, in fadt, sensitive either
to variety or to unity only within narrow limits. Whatever
groups of phenomena present variations or similarities
within the range of those limits may be recognised as beau-
tiful, but no others. To the naked eye no differences can
be recognised among the minute grains which constitute
the seed of the common musk-plant ; and to the ordinary
mind there appears at first to be no relationship between
four such numbers as 264, 330, 396, 462 ; while the simplest
of us can see that the stones on a gravel-walk are not all
alike, and that the numbers 2, 4, 6, 8 are related to each
other by a common law.

There is no doubt that culture increases the sensitiveness
of the mind both to difference and to similarity, and it is
certain that the cultured mind perceives more beauty in the
Universe than the savage or the untaught. But the uni-
versal Beauty which exists throughout every corner of
creation may be brought within the sphere of man’s
recognition by changes in the grouping of material forms, as
well as by education of the mind.

The Evolution of Beauty.

383

1878.]

Reduce to their simplest form the four numbers 264, 330,
396, 462, by dividing them by their greatest common mea-
sure, viz., 66, and you have the series 4, 5, 6, 7, the relations
of which are perceptible at once to the most ordinary mind.
Place before a person ignorant of plants the little yellow
celandine and a red pasony, and he would not recognise any
family resemblance ; but fill up the gap between them with
a buttercup, a globe-flower, and a Christmas rose, and he
would perceive the gradation from one to the other and
admit the relationship.

The closer the relationship, the more easily is it recog-
nised ; therefore the objects which appear beautiful to
human minds must be those in which the parts are closely
related, the proportions simple, the design obvious. Among
mathematical figures the pentagon is one of the most ele-
gant, because there is in its outline a sufficient variety with
such simple proportions that the unity is easily grasped.
The circle also is beautiful, so is the hexagon, the square,
and the equilateral triangle ; but in each of these the variety
is less than in the pentagon. The dodecahedron, of twelve
pentagons, is scarcely beautiful, except to a mathematician,
because the variety is so confusing that part of the unity is
lost, and the figure appears almost chaotic.

Divide a hexagon into six equilateral triangles, and let
these be aCted upon by an accelerated repulsive force so
that they are driven radially from the centre to distances
represented by the numbers 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, 21. They will
then stand in a spiral of such form that the majority of
persons would not recognise any law of relationship binding
them into one group. Let, now, the repulsive force be
changed into an attractive one whose formula is precisely
reversed, and, as the triangles are drawn gradually towards
the centre, their relationship will become more and more
easily discerned, till, as they close up into the original hex-
agon, every human mind will perceive the unity of the
group, and a sense of beauty will inevitably follow.

It is the character of the centripetal organic wave to be
continually simplifying the relationship of its component
waves with each other, both by concentration and the filling
up of gaps ; and it results from this that the nearer any
organic wave approaches towards its climax, the closer are
the relations of the component weaves, and the more readily
will its beauty be perceived by the human mind.

Beauty is thus shown to be an index of organic maturity,
and not to depend upon any accidental or external influence,
but to be inherent in every objeCt, and only unseen during
its embryonic stages.

384 The Evolution of Beauty. [July,

The blossoming of plants indicates that the climacteric
of their highest secondary life-wave has been attained.
From that point reaction and sleep or decay set in. In pe-
rennials the great primary life-wave keeps its course through
many flowering seasons ; but there comes one season in
which its power to blossom is at its height : this is the ulti-
mate climacteric, and from that point there is gradual decay
of the whole organism.

The specific wave, however, does not terminate with the
individual. It is carried through the seed from generation
to generation, and its climacteric is not reached until the
highest blossoming power of the species has been attained.
When this happens the species itself must gradually pass
away.

The four great secondary organic waves, the cellular, the
osseous, the fibrous, and the nervous, may exist in unequal
proportions in a specific wave. The cellular is always first
developed, afterwards the others in succession. But the
grand climacteric of organic development is not attained
until all four have reached the highest stage of concentration
possible to them ; and it is probable that such conditions
have never yet existed on this earth.

Geologic history shows us, in vegetable life, first, a won-
derful development of the cellular wave in the cryptogamic
type, everywhere predominant ; and then a similar epoch in
which the osseous wave overtopped the cellular, clothing the
world with mighty Conifers — huge masses of trunk and
branches, with little foliage or blossom.

This was succeeded by an epoch of fibrous development,
represented in the vegetable world by foliage. Forests of
the broad-leaved Amentiferse, the oak, the birch, the poplar,
and the alder, — with elm, and maple, and plane, and other
trees conspicuous for foliage, but not for blossom, — became
the striking feature of the landscape.

Finally, as the nervous wave advanced towards its climax,
blossom began to be developed in varied and conspicuous
forms. Magnolias, roses, mallows, lilies, orchids, and many
other “ flowering ” plants, appear in the latest tertiary de-
posits ; and plants of this type still adorn the world, and
probably become more numerous and more beautiful century
by century.

It has been shown that plants with inconspicuous blossom
have the widest geographic range, that those with white
flowers have a range more limited, while species with bril-
liantly coloured blossoms have a still smaller range q!
distribution. Taking the area of distribution to indicate

Feeling and Energy.

385

1878.]

roughly the length of time during which a species has been
in existence, these fadts go to prove that the nervous wave
of vegetable life, represented by the blossom, — the most
sensitive, the most delicate, the most complex, and the most
vitalised of vegetable organs, is still approaching its climax,
and has not yet attained to it. They show, also, that visible
beauty is to 11s the index of approaching climax, and not a
quality which can be added at any epoch at which a tempo-
rary utility might seem to demand it.

In the light of this reasoning, the dodlrine that “ except
for inserts we should have had no flowers ” cannot be main-
tained. Inserts have doubtless aided the development of
the life-wave among the complex resistances through which
it has to make its way, but the beauty of the world, of which
flowers form so interesting a part, depends upon laws far
more profound, more deep-rooted and far-reaching, and which
would surely have attained in due time their ultimate goal,
even though the race of inserts had never formed part of
the same marvellous and admirable Cosmos,

V. FEELING AND ENERGY;
ALTERNATE AFFECTIONS OF MATTER,

By Wo So Duncan.

SN a former paper I boldly controverted the hypothesis of
concomitance between the mental and physical states
attendant on nervous adtion. That hypothesis I en-
deavoured to show was inimical to a perfedt psychological
philosophy on a scientific basis, inasmuch as it placed an
impassable gulf between consciousness and adtion, between
feeling and energy. It was opposed to universal experience
and language. It even jarred with the best system of ethics,
based on the happiness of mankind.

With equal boldness I ventured to advance a rival hypo-
thesis, namely, that Feeling and Energy could be regarded
as stridtly alternate and convertible affedtions of matter — a
hypothesis which not only agreed with the language of
mankind, scientific and untaught alike, but bridged the
VOL. viii. (n.s.) 2 c

386 Feeling and Energy. [J uly,

logical gull, and accorded with the laws ol continuity and
causation in all their manifestations.

Anticipating some objections that might be urged against
the view I had taken, I briefly stated and endeavoured to
refute them. The importance of the subject, however, de-
mands a closer examination of its bearings ; and the objeCt
of this paper is to deal with some of the more salient objec-
tions liable to be urged by a careful critic.

At the outset I would desire to be distinctly understood as
making no claim to prove the existence of feeling in any
objeCt, organised or not organised. We infer feeling to exist
in our fellow-creatures, by observing actions performed by
them which in ourselves seem to he the outcome of feeling.
The inference may be a correct one, but it rests on analogical
reasoning which is liable to error. Neither the denial of
feeling, on the one hand, nor its affirmation, on the other,
are valid in establishing a faCt which from its very nature is
incapable of absolute proof.

But while admitting this much, I am not precluded from
submitting the question to a philosophical examination in
view of discovering truth, which, though not self-evident
nor perfectly demonstrable, may yet be supported by fair
deduction.

Starting, then, with the assumption that matter in an
organised form and possessed of life has the quality, or
affeCtion, or property of Feeling, I think it is only the first
step towards consistency to admit that feeling being found
in that form of matter must have previously existed as a
fundamental property in matter before it became organised,
and must remain in matter after disorganisation has occurred.
For it is utterly out of keeping with all scientific teaching to
believe that an entirely new thing like feeling, a state believed
by many to be unique, or without parallel in any other
aspeCf of Nature, should be the mere product of organisa-
tion. What is organisation ? Unless we change the
meaning of the term it implies hut the combination, in an
orderly connection, of elements which — with all their indi-
vidual properties — existed before organisation. It is there-
fore as illogical to regard matter not organised as devoid of
feeling, as it is illogical to attempt theoretically to evolve it,
after a creational fashion, as a “ something out of nothing, ”
— a something created by organisation, — called into being
out of nothing, by a mere process of orderly arrangement !
Feeling, being; found in organised matter, must exist funda-
mentally as an affeCtion of matter in ail its forms.

A superficial objection to this conclusion, not likely to be

iSyS.]

Feeling and Energy.

3S7

seriously urged by thorough-going philosophers of the type
of Herbert Spencer, is the absence of “ purposive ” adt ion
in all inorganic forms of matter. The absence of purposive
adtion in the operations of chemical combination, the propa-
gation of heat, light, and eledtricity, the play of gravitation,
and the distribution of forces by machinery, seem all to the
common mind utterly inconsistent with the presence of
feeling in the unorganised forms of matter in which these
physical manifestations are displayed. The philosopher
would reply to this objection that absence of purposive
adtion did not necessarily imply the absence of feeling, any
more than that the adtions of a madman destitute of purpose
proved the madman to be without feeling, it is the charac-
teristic of the speech and adtion accompanying insanity in
its most acute forms to be purposeless. Indeed the adtions
of a lunatic seem to be far more erratic and unexpedted than
the ordinary physical adfivities going on in the inorganic
world. Yet the absence of purpose in the lunatic is not
taken to imply absence of feeling. No more would the
inference be warranted in reference to ordinary physical
forces.

But some may think that actions even of the erratic kind are
far more indicative of the presence of feeling than those that
can be predidted and calculated with mathematical precision.
The latter are so evidently subjedt to lawthat'it seems to
reduce feeling to the position of a “ slave to blind forces ” if
we regard ordinary physical forces to; be accompanied by
feeling. This kind of reasoning I imagine would not have
much weight with those philosophers who have come to the
conclusion that all animal adtion is automatic ; the adtion of
mankind not excepted. And the objedtion is clearly not a
logical one, for the presence of law and order in the connec-
tions of feeling with adtion cannot be shown to be either
Ir~onceivable or inconsistent with psychological fadts. On
the contrary, the regularity with which like feelings are ob-
served to be followed by like adtions is so constant that the
adtions not only of men, but of all animals, are generally
calculated and predidted therefrom. If, then, the connedtion
of all “ feeling-prompted adtions” with law is recognised,
both by philosophers and by people in daily life who have no
interest in psychological theories, what argument can be
drawn therefrom against the connedtion of feeling with the
orderly operation of physical processes ? Clearly none. If
order and law be observed in the one case, why not in the
other ?

But this orderly operation of physiological adtivity has

2 c 2

388

Feeling and Energy.

[July,

been supposed to go on sometimes in the absence of feeling.
The incessant action of the heart and its vessels, that of the
organs of digestion, and many if not most of our “ involun-
tary ” actions, are alleged to be unattended by feeling. In
answer to this I should say that it is a question whether the
thing which is alleged to occupy no share of our attention
should not be described as simply occupying our attention
least. The fadt, as has been pointed out by some writers,
that, when the heart and digestive organs are in any diseased
or abnormal condition, sensations arise forcibly detaining the
attention, proves that what may thus command at occasions
much attention may continually be a fadtor in our feelings,
though intellectually we take no note of it. What I mean
by this will be best illustrated by dealing with a class of
alleged fadts of the same kind comprehended under the
heads of “feelingless automatic action” or “unconscious
cerebration. ”

Nothing is more common as a fadt of experience than our
forgetting that we used certain words in conversation or
debate. We cannot believe now that we said so-and-so ; or,
admitting that we may, we explain it as a lapsis lingua, as if
due to the mere machinery of vocal utterance unattended by
consciousness. Then, again, we sometimes lay past an
objedt, as the banker cited by Dr. Carpenter laid by his safe-
key, and forget where we have laid it. Or we may often do
something very different from what we originally intended,
like the gentleman, again mentioned by Carpenter, who went
up-stairs to dress for dinner and “ unconsciously ” undressed
and went to bed.

The statement that we do anything unconsciously, in the
sense of not associating with it all the circumstances that an
ordinarily rational being will usually include, is quite a
truism ; but the absence of the usual compounding of the
separate cognitions of surrounding circumstances with our
cognitions of the adt we are performing is one thing to
admit, and the entire absence of consciousness or feeling in
connection with any adt is quite another. The former is
what we might expedt from the complex character of the
nervous system as a compound of feeling organs, which
complexity renders it liable to operate in parts more or less
in isolation from each other. Recollection means a feeble
revival of the excitement originally made in the nerves by
that object or set of circumstances which we are said to re-
member. When we fail to remember it the revival does not
take place, because the original excitement was not made in
nerves directly connected with those nerves which are the

Feeling and Energy .

389

1878.]

seat of our mental state when we are trying or wishing to
remember. This is proved by our recollecting unexpectedly
(after giving it up in despair) in a different mental connection
— that is, in connection with nerves having a different
physical connection. Then are we convinced that it is pos-
sible that what we supposed was not attended by feeling or
consciousness was really so attended after all.

The mere faCt that feeling organs may not operate in con-
nection with one another is no proof that they do not feel
individually. In any case the statement as to the absence
of feeling in any organ is on a par with the statement that
a given organ does feel : neither statement can claim to be
supported by absolute proof. The question, therefore, is
resolved into one of consistency with known faCts, and I
have endeavoured to show that the faCts cited under the
terms “ unconscious cerebration ” and “ feelingless reflex
aCtion ” are explainable quite consistently with the supposi-
tion that all aCtion is prompted by antecedent feeling,
whether or not the feelings concerned have connection with
other feelings in neighbouring organs.

At this point of the discussion I am reminded that it is
incumbent on me to explain consistently with my hypothesis,
the conditions falling under the terms sleep, swoon, coma,
death, and the inorganic state. In this connection I need
hardly remark that it is equally necessary to both hypotheses
— that of concomitance and alternation alike — to admit that
dynamical equilibrium in an organ presupposes the absence
of what we ordinarily call feeling ; for it is the disturbance of
this equilibrium that creates molecular vibration or nervous
aCtion — what is ordinarily deemed a mere train of physical
i sequences. The hypothesis of alternation is quite consistent
with unconsciousness where dynamical equilibrium exists,
for where no energy is being received no feeling can, by the
hypothesis, exist. It is impossible to say with absolute
certainty that in sleep, coma, or swoon there is total un-
consciousness; but even if there is an entire absence of
feeling, it is doubtless due to the supervention of a state of
equilibrium in the grouped organs of feeling — the nerves.
This state of equilibrium may be considered as arising from
the withdrawal of the blood-supply which seems necessary
to preserve the semi-fluid condition of the “ axis-cylinders ”
or true nerves — a condition in which doubtless vibration
can alone arise from the ordinary exciting causes, and
therefore a condition indispensable to the presence of
feeling. The withdrawal of the blood from the nervous system
seems to be the true cause, for it has been observed that

390

Feeling and Energy.

[July,

sensibility appears to diminish as the circulation is lowered,
especially when it is withdrawn from the higher organs of
feeling, namely, the co-ordinating and generalising organs
that make lip the brain.

Death would seem to bring about the perfedt condition of
equilibrium of the complex system of feeling and adting
organs and the supervention of the inorganic state.

Inorganic matter, stridtly defined, is a condition of matter
in which feeling and adting organs are not arranged to
operate in connedted series or groups. Now, although
all elements that receive energy must by the hypothesis
feel and adt somewhat like nerves individually , yet, inas-
much as these feelings have no grouping organ to connedt
them, in the case of inorganic matter they must feel as
individuals. And since individual feelings are not feelings
of feelings, so to speak, from the want of a grouping
organ, they are therefore destitute of intelligence (sense of
difference), which can alone arise in a grouping organ — an
organ connedted with several organs so as to feel their dif-
ferent states, or to have their different states communi-
cated to it or combined with its own. But the condition of
the inorganic world, commonly so-called, may be the seat of
organisation of the kind necessary to intelligence in a degree
of which we have never yet dreamt, just as the tissues of
some Medusae, destitute of nerves in the ordinary sense of
the term, have been discovered by Mr. Romanes to be the
seat of virtual nerves or lines of organised molecular
adtivity. This, however, is for future investigation.
Possibly, by the aid of the microphone and extensive research,
much truth may yet be gained to connedt the so-called
inorganic world with what is appresent called organic. Life
will then be regarded as pervading all Nature, and a Cosmic
Philosophy will become possible.

The most formidable objections, however, which the
hypothesis of alternation has to answer are objections
arising from the custom of regarding the mental condition
of the thinking and feeling substance, matter, as something
quite unique, and opposed to every other condition of that
substance.

Mind has been defined by one representative of this mode
of thought, namely, Professor Bain, as “ opposed to the
external world.” Pie says — “ The External or Objedt World
is distinguished by the property called Extension. The In-
ternal or the Subjedt World is our experience of everything
not extended . A tree which possesses extension is a part of
the objedt world ; a pleasure, a volition, a thought, arefadts

1 8;8.]

Feeling and Energy.

391

of the subjedt world.” The same writer again says — “ We
may have a simple name for the whole phenomena of mind,
as ‘ The Subject,’ ‘ The Unextended.’ ”

Now, since Feeling is the general term for all phases of con-
sciousness, for all mental states, Feeling is therefore regarded
as Unextended. Mr. Bain does not, in defining mind, say in
so many words that the objedt world includes not only
matter and space, but energy. Yet he speaks of “ resisting
matter ” and “unresisting empty space,” which implies that
energy is included under the term “ Objedt.” Besides,
although he speaks of feelings prompting adtions all through
his elaborate works on Mind, he speaks of the physical
sequences as running side by side with the mental sequences,
and of the feelings or mental states as being concomitant
with the physical processes in nervous adtion. It is clear,
therefore, that he does not mean to exclude energy from his
definition of the objedt world.

The late Mr. Spalding, also a representative of the same
school, evidently included energy along with matter under the
term “ physical ’ as opposed to the mental, “ the unextended.”
“ The physical and mental,” he said, “ stand over against
each other, a fundamental duality of being which no effort
of thought has been able to transcend.”

Now, if Feeling be unextended in the exadtly opposite
sense that energy has extension (namely, of extension in
time), feeling will certainly never merge into or alternate
with energy, for energy has extension in time. But if it be
true that energy has time-extension it is equally true that
feeling has time-extension. By energy having extension in
time, we mean that it endures in its adtion for a longer or
shorter period. We must apply the same quality to feeling
it is evident, for feeling endures also in the same sense as
energy. If by applying the term “ extension ” to energy is
meant merely the mental association with our idea of energy
of an idea of time-extension, and not that energy adtually
endures, the same subtle distindtion must be applied to
feeling, namely, that feeling as extended in time should not
be spoken of as a reality, but merely our mental association
with the conception in our minds of feeling of an idea of
extension is all that we mean when we describe a feeling as
extended in time. In this very subtle but hazy language
there will be found after all no real contrast between Feeling
and Energy, for both must be regarded as having extension
in time in exadtly the. same sense. If we admit, as we must,
that Feeling has extension in time, there appears to be no
necessity for any longer regarding it as something totally
unlike anything else in Nature.

392

Feeling and Energy. [July?

Further, if we institute a comparison between feeling and
energy, I think we shall find that they are wonderfully alike.
We cannot speak of the length, breadth, or volume of
energy or of feeling, and therefore neither can be said to be
possessed of space-extension. But we say of energy or
feeling equally “ it is here, it is there ” in an extended body,
and therefore, though these affections of matter have no
space-extension in themselves they are both related to that
which has space-extension (as well as time-extension), viz.,
matter. But their likeness is still more confirmed when we
remark that they possess in common other characteristics
which we do not observe in the mere substance-matter. We
speak of energy or feeling as being “ intense or violent, weak
or dull,” both being qualified as manifesting degrees or
quantity.

Can these strong features of resemblance between feeling
and energy justify the ascription of uniqueness to feeling or
its opposability to all that is termed physical ? So long as
the term physical includes energy it is evident that no such
contrast can be legitimately drawn. If the term “ physical ”
merely comprehended the substance-matter it would be
legitimate to contrast feeling with matter in the same way
that a property is distinguished from that in which the pro-
perty inheres. But energy, being an affeCtion of matter also,
could in the same way be distinguished from the substance
wherein it was manifested. There is, indeed, no sense I am
aware of in which Feeling can be contrasted with Matter
that is not equally applicable to energy.

But if feeling and energy are, after all, so very similar
that we apply almost invariably the same language to each,
I am at a loss to see wherein they should be considered so
dissimilar as that the hypothesis of alternation I have ad-
vanced should be deemed untenable. The language of ex-
perience describes these two affections as differing only in
the sense of receiving and giving. We say “ I feel, I aCt ;
I receive an influence, I give forth an influence ; I am pas-
sive, I am aCtive.” When we use such language we are
describing two states of the same being ; subjecting these
states to the only contrasts of which they are capable. My
experience tells me of no other difference between feeling
and energy than that the former is the aroused, awakened,
affeCted ; the latter the arousing, awakening, affecting —
phase of my being.

Having met the objection of the alleged total dissimilarity
between the mental state, feeling, and the physical state,
energy, and endeavoured, as far as my language and logic

1878.]

Feeling and Energy.

393

can, to repel the allegation, I must now deal with the next
objection likely to be urged against the hypothesis of alter-
nation.

It is objected that, even admitting the similarity between
feeling and energy to be sufficient to satisfy a theory of
alternation, there is yet wanted a locus in time wherein the
supposed alternation may transpire. The £< physical pro-
cesses concerned in nervous addion,” say the objectors, ££are
complete in themselves without the intervention of mental
states. The dynamical activity of an excited nerve is
believed to be perfectly unbroken from first to last. No in-
terval of time, however brief, is regarded as possible during
which the dynamical state is suspended. Now it appears
to me there are innumerable intervals during the addion of a
nerve when the dynamical state, stridtly so-called, must be
suspended, though this may to physicists sound new, strange,
and absurd.

Nervous action has been described as molecular vibration,
or the to-and-fro movement of the minute constituents of
the axis-cylinder or nerve-proper. The rapidity of transit
of a nervous impulse is claimed to have been measured, and
a very humble speed it is. But even if it were as swift as
the swiftest known force, it would still be a period of time.
And just as the time-period of the motion of the first mole-
cule of the nerve is distinddly separated from the time-period
of the last molecule’s motion by the times of motion of each
of the intervening molecules, so there is a period during
which each molecule is in the attitude of receiving energy
from its preceding neighbour distinct from the period during
which it is in the add of imparting its energy to the suc-
ceeding molecule. Receiving and imparting are not simul-
taneous in occurrence, else time would be blotted out, the
last molecule would move simultaneously with the first.
The very fadd that time is an element at all involves the
admission that the whole time of vibration is divisible into
the individual times of the vibrating elements, and the times
of each of these into times of receiving and giving energy.
And since the imparting stage is the only one of the two
conditions of a vibrating molecule which can be striddly
called dynamical, addive, energising, it follows that the dy-
namical periods of the entire nerve are interrupted by periods
that cannot be striddly called dynamical, since they are
periods of passivity ; periods of being affedded, aroused,
avakened; periods during which a condition exists which
exadtly corresponds with the condition we call feeling, or the
mental state. These periods furnish, then, the desired locus

394 Peeling and Energy, [July,

in time, in which feeling may transpire and alternate with
energising affections.

I am aware that a physicist might reply that the reason
why nervous vibration — like all other vibration — involves
the element of time is that space has to be travelled over,
and that all the period between the receiving of energy by
the first molecule and imparting it to the second molecule
is occupied by traversing the distance between them, and
that if such distance did not exist the motion of the first
and last molecules would be simultaneous, and the condition
of all the molecules would be a dynamical one. Therefore,
that the condition of a molecule separated by distance from
a second molecule is simply a dynamical one from the instant
of its first receiving energy. Doubtless, I reply, if we obli-
terate space we obliterate time, and if we in theory blot
these out there will surely not be much power left in us to
imagine either feeling or energy ! But we cannot conceive of
energy without supposing something upon which energy is
to be exerted. This implies plurality of objedts or parts of
matter, and this again implies parts of space and time.
That the time of receiving energy by a molecule is not iden-
tical with that of its imparting the received energy is proved
even by the law of inertia, which will admit of no beginning
of movement till the requisite energy is all received. Now
there must be a period, in the case of every molecule about
to take part in vibration, during which it is in the condition
of receiving its quota of energy necessary to overcome its
inertia prior to its beginning to move , or impart the energy
being communicated to it. This is the necessary locus in
time where feeling may come in as incipient energy, or an
affection of matter resembling energy, yet differing from it
by its characteristic feature, passivity.

Thus far the hypothesis of alternation between mental
and physical, or feeling and energising, affedtions of matter
has its difficulties explained away.

In conclusion, it may be remarked that while the hypo-
thesis links feeling with energy in a causal relation, yet no
harm will accrue to physical science by its acceptance ; for
the dynamical links, though deemed alternating with links
of feeling, need not to be reckoned in any problems of physics
as affedted by the mental states intervening, for the mental
are the results of the physical, and the physical of the
mental, in such a manner that no energy is lost, and all is
exactly as if the dynamical sequences were uninterrupted.
Again, no discrepancy need arise in psychological science by
the intervention of dynamical with mental affedtions, for the

1878. J

Feeling and Energy.

395

actions alternating with feeling are those only which arise in
the nerves, — or organs of feeling and adtion, — and not in the
muscles, whose adtion, though doubtless preceded by feeling
in themselves, are no more to be considered as exponents of
the nervous adtion than the explosion of a powder-magazine
is an exponent of the energy present in the ignited match.
Even the hypothesis of concomitance is by the new hypo-
thesis accounted for, by reason of the brevity of the period
of transformation of feeling into energy, which practically
makes the two series of affedtions have the appearance of
concomitance.

The new hypothesis sheds a new light upon Feeling and
Energy alike ; for if it be corredt, then there is no “ enduring”
feeling stridtly so-called. What is called an “ enduring ”
feeling is really a succession of inconceivably brief mental
states interrupted by dynamical states, as a musical note is
the repetition of sound-impulses interrupted by periods of
silence.

( 396 )

I July,

NOTICES OF BOOKS.

The Lake Dwellings of Switzerland and other parts of Europe.

By Dr. Ferdinand Keller. Translated and Arranged by

John Edward Lee, F.S.A., F.G.S. In Two Volumes.

London : Longmans and Co.

Nature sometimes seems impatient at man’s slow progress, and
as if she desired to assist him in his researches. A great storm
sweeps away the sand and shingle from the coast, and bares to
the eye of the geologist buried forests and fossiliferous strata
containing some of the missing links in the great chain of life.
At another time the waves cast up on the shore some curious
inhabitant of the deep, before unknown to Science. And so, in
Switzerland, the pile dwellings might long have remained unex-
plored if it had not been for the great drought and extended
frost of the winter of 1853-4, which caused the rivers to shrink
to their smallest compass, and the level of the lakes to fall lower
than is ever recorded in history, before this time.

Then were exposed, in a way that could not but arouse atten-
tion, the remains of habitations some of which are probably as
old as the mysterious dolmens, and were used by the earliest of
the neolithic immigrants. Notwithstanding their vast antiquity,
the sediment at the bottoms of the quiet lakes had preserved not
only the piles themselves, and articles of wood, stone, and pot-
tery, but the provisions that had been stored for winter use,
linen cloth, and fishermen’s lines and nets. The great oppor-
tunity thus afforded for examining these remains was not neg-
lected, and under the enthusiastic yet cautious leadership of
Dr. Ferdinand Keller the explorations have been zealously carried
on from that time to the present day.

A translation of Dr. Keller’s earlier reports was published by
Mr. Lee in 1866, and has been the principal work of reference
for English students. Since then a great many additional dis-
coveries have been made, not only in the lakes, but in many of
the peat-bogs which have been proved to be filled-up lake-basins.
The area over which the lake dwellers lived is shown to have
extended far beyond Switzerland, into Italy, Austria, and Hun-
gary. Now, more than ten years after the first edition, Mr. Lee
lays us under a fresh obligation by a second, in which it is
scarcely too much to say that the additional information is nearly
equal to the whole contained in the first, Modestly terming it a
translation of Dr. Keller’s memoirs, Mr. Lee gives us what is
in reality the work rather of a student who, wishing to ascribe

187s.]

Notices of Books.

397

all the honour to the master under whom he had studied, lays
his own labours at his feet. A mere translation it is not. The
antiquities themselves have been carefully studied by Mr. Lee,
who brings, from a variety of sources, information to bear upon
them, and appears to have neglecfted nothing that he thought
might afford help in their elucidation. He has done for the
Lake Dwellers of Switzerland and Italy what Prof. Rupert Jones
. — in his edition of Messrs. Lartet and Christy’s “ Reliquiae
Aquitanicae ” — has done for the Cave Dwellers of France ; and
it is instructive and suggestive to study the two works together,
and to note the few points of resemblance and the many of con-
trast in the two peoples who occupied Central Europe at far
removed periods, and in that area appear never to have come in
contact. That the lacustrine people did not differ in race from
those who lived on the dry land is proved by the fact that the
implements of stone and bronze found in graves and tumuli, and
on the surface in parts where there are no lakes, are the same in
material, form, and ornamentation as those obtained from the
pile-dwellings. Articles of bronze, stone, horn, bone, and
earthenware, exactly similar to those used by the lake dwellers,
were found in a settlement on the mainland at Ebersberg.

The people living on the land chose, for their settlements, po-
sitions on the sides and crests of hills that offered facilities for
defence. These were hill-forts, and so the settlements in the
lakes may be considered water-forts ; the objecfl in both cases
being safety against the attacks of neighbouring tribes. In the
early history of mankind, as well as amongst the lowest of
existing races, every small community was or is at enmity with
neighbouring ones ; and so amongst these earliest neolithic
settlers of Switzerland, some entrenched themselves on the hills,
others in the lakes as far from the shore as they could drive
their piles, and were the same people adapting themselves to
the necessities of their surroundings.

The lake settlements were formed by first driving piles into
the sand or clay in shallow parts ; sometimes the piles were
strengthened by cross timbers mortised into them, or by stones
being brought from the land and heaped up around them. The
tops of the piles were brought to the same level, and on them
was formed a platform of small stems of trees, covered with
mud, loam, and gravel. On this platform the huts of the settlers
were reared. The walls consisted of upright posts, between
which a wattle-work of small branches was interwoven, and the
whole filled up and covered with clay. The roof was thatched
with straw or reeds.

A narrow bridge or platform, built on piles, connected the set-
tlement with the shore. It might have been safer to have done
without this, and to have kept up the communication by means
of canoes only ; but the settlers stalled their cattle in the lake
dwellings, and it would be necessary to have a more permanent

Notices of Books.

398

[July,

connection with the land to get them to and from their
pastures.

Many of the settlements were destroyed by fire, to which, from
the combustible character of their materials, they must have
been particularly liable. It is to the occurrence of these fires
that we owe the preservation of many of the articles that have
been obtained from the bottoms of the lakes. The whole of the
provisions stored up for winter use have in some cases been
precipitated into the water by the giving way of the burning
piles. Rare implements of jade and personal ornaments have
at these times been lost and covered up amongst the debris.
Even loaves of bread and fruits have been preserved through
having been charred before falling into the water.

The oldest of the lake dwellings appear to date back as far as
the earliest traces we have of neolithic man in Central Europe.
In these the implements are of stone, bone, and horn, and the
pottery is rude and entirely hand-made. At this time the lake
dwellers subsisted largely upon wild animals and fruits, though
domestic animals and cultivated plants v/ere not unknown.
Weaving linen cloth was practised in the oldest settlements, and
hanks of unspun flax and thread, cord, nets, and cloth of the
same material have been found.

Up from the rudest stage of the stone age there is a regular
progression to be observed. The bronze age comes in gradually;
at first a bronze celt being found amongst the stone ones ; then
stone-implements become scarce, and those of bronze common
and of improved form and ornamentation. Throughout, the
evidence points to the gradual progression in civilisation of the
same people, influenced, doubtless, by others in a more advanced
stage living to the south and east, but without any sign of the
sudden intrusion of a new race bringing with them new weapons
and customs. Prof. Desor has also shown that the form of skull
prevalent in the stone age continued through the bronze and
iron ages, continually increasing in size, and showing a broader
and higher forehead. It is the same type of skull that prevails
in the Swiss valleys at the present day, showing that the direCt
descendants of the builders of the pile dwellings still live around
the shores of the lakes.

Some of the breeds of domestic cattle they kept and of the
varieties of grain they cultivated have also survived to our time,
though greatly improved. The “ marsh cow ” of the lake
dwellings is represented by the common Swiss “ brown cow,”
and some of our varieties of wheat are, according to Dr. Heer,
the descendants of those grown by the lake dwellers. None of
the animals known in' these ancient times have become extincft,
though the domestic breeds have been improved and the wild
species have in some cases deteriorated, — probably, in the
latter case, through the curtailment of their feeding-grounds
by man.

Notices of Books.

399

1878.]

The remains of the common fowl have not been met with in
the lake dwellings, and this gives us an approximate date for the
latest of those belonging to the bronze age, as it is not men-
tioned by Homer, and is first referred to by Greek authors about
400 B.C. In the time of Pericles it was known as the Persian
bird, from which we may gather it was brought from that country
to Europe. It was unknown to the ancient Egyptians, and is
not mentioned in the Old Testament. It had, however, spread
into Western Europe before the Christian era, as it appears on
the earliest of the Gallic coins, and was found by Julius Caesar
in Britain. Probably, therefore, we may place the date of the
latest of the settlements of the bronze age at from 2400 to
3000 years ago.

It is often stated that Europe was peopled diredtly from Asia,
but the relics found in the earliest of the lake dwellings do not
favour this conclusion, but rather show an intimate relation with
Egypt and the shores of the Mediterranean. Rye, which was
cultivated in the east in the bronze age, is not found in the lake
dwellings, and it was equally unknown to the ancient Egyptians.
The cereals cultivated by the lacustrine people were all Egyptian
or Italian. The eastern hemp was not used by either the lake
dwellers or the ancient Egyptians ; flax was largely grown, spun,
and woven by both. Even the weeds introduced with the seed
flax and corn point to the southern origin of the people. Dr.
Heer finds the seeds of the Cretan catchfly in the remains from
the lake dwellings. This plant does not now grow in Switzer-
land or Germany, but is found everywhere in the flax fields of
the countries bordering the Mediterranean. The corn blue-
bottle, a native of Sicily, also grew in the fields of the lake
dwellers ; and the water chestnut had probably been introduced
from Italy.

The influence of Egypt is shown in another way. A number
of large crescent-shaped objecfts, made of pottery and wood, have
been found amongst the remains of the lake dwellings. At first
some thought these were indications of the worship of the moon,
others that they were rude representations of the heads of bulls.
Similar crescents have, however, been discovered in abundance
amongst the Egyptian antiquities, and there is no doubt but that
they were used as pillows by a people who wore their hair in the
form of thick plaited head-dresses. The sleeper rested his neck
in the hollow of the crescent, so as to prevent his carefully pre-
pared head-dress from being disarranged. That the lake dwellers
really wore their hair in thick plaited masses is proved by the
discovery of very many long hair-pins. Even at the present day
similar pillows are used by different tribes in Africa and Poly-
nesia, who fasten up their hair in thick masses with pins 9 inches
long.

The only facft pointing to a communication with the east is the
presence of celts made of jade. This stone must have been

400

Notices of Books.

rjuly,

brought from the east, and the advocates of the Oriental origin
of the first settlers in Europe have supposed that they brought
the implements made of it with them. But in that case, either
the first settlers must have come laden with these implements
to supply both themselves and their descendants, or the latter
must have obtained them by barter from the east. In one of the
latest settlements of the stone age — at Gerlafingen, in the Lake
of Bienne — some of the finest jade-implements have been found.
Two chisels of pure copper and some bronze celts of primitive
type indicate that the people of this settlement lived at the close
of the stone age. As they have been shown to be the descend-
ants of the earlier lake dwellers, they could only have obtained
these articles through traders, and, if they did so, their fore-
fathers might have done the same. It is known that in ancient
America copper articles found their wav from the northern lakes,
passing from tribe to tribe far to the south, whilst, on the other
hand, the obsidian implements of Mexico were carried north-
ward. The system of barter exists now amongst tribes more
rude and savage than the Swiss lake dwellers. In those parts
of Asia where jade occurs amongst the rocks, the ancient inha-
bitants would soon discover that they possessed an article of
export for which they could obtain whatever they might wish in
exchange from the nations of the West. And the latter, in the
linen cloth they fabricated, had one article at least that they
might barter for the coveted jade implements.

About the origin of the still earlier people that lived in Swit-
zerland and other parts of Europe long before the lake dwellers
— the people of the reindeer period — we know absolutely
nothing. We know that they lived in Europe along with ex-
tindl species of elephant and rhinoceros, and many other animals
not now found in Europe, and that in the latter part of their
time the reindeer abounded throughout Central Europe and as
far south as the Pyrenees. We know, too, that the climate was
much colder, and that the musk sheep and other ardfic animals
lived in the South of France. But where palaeolithic man came
from there is as yet no evidence to show.

His outgoing is almost as much shrouded in mystery as his
incoming. He simply disappears, and with him vanish the
great beasts amongst which he lived. There is not a single
point of connexion between the latest of the palaeolithic and
the earliest of the neolithic tribes. Both, it is true, used stone-
implements, but they are so essentially distindl in type that they
can be recognised at a glance, and there are no intermediate
forms showing the development of the one from the other. We
have seen that there has been a regular, quiet, and gradual pro-
gression of the people of the stone age of the lake dwellings,
through the bronze and iron periods, up to the present time.
The people themselves are still represented, their arts remain,
and every species of animal and plant they knew still exists.

Notices of Books.

401

1878.]

But when we go back beyond the age of polished stone-imple-
ments there is a complete break, — a period unrepresented, ex-
cepting by physical changes in the appearance of the country,
and by the deposition of clays and gravels, beneath which the
relics of the earlier people and the remains of the extindt ani-
mals lie buried.

The evidence of the completeness of the break, and of the
importance of the interval that separate palaeolithic and neolithic
man, is to be found in these volumes, and in Prof. Rupert Jones’s
edition of the “ Reliquiae Aquitanicae.” The reindeer is absent
from the lake dwellings. The dog and the sheep are found in
the earliest settlements, and both were unknown to the cave
dwellers. The latter knew nothing of agriculture, of stock-
keeping, or of weaving, and yet in the figures of the animals
that they have left behind them — engraved on horn and ivory —
they show a phase of art culture to which the lake dwellers never
attained.

Had these different races ever come in contadt as enemies,
we ought to have found amongst the remains of the pile settle-
ments some trophies taken from the people they displaced.
Tusks of the brown bear and of the wild boar, perforated so that
they might be worn as ornaments, are not uncommon, and show
that they would have carefully preserved the proofs of their
victories over nobler foes if they had ever encountered them.
But there are none, and this — considered in connection with the
other faCts mentioned, and with the physical evidence that a
long time intervened between the two peoples and faunas —
indicates that they never met in Central Europe. As the evidence
now stands it seems to warrant the conclusion that palaeolithic
man and the extindl animals were destroyed in Northern and
Central Europe by some physical catastrophe, and that, after a
long interval, neolithic man migrated northward from the shores
of the Mediterranean and from the Iberian peninsula, and found
the land unoccupied excepting by species of wild animals that
had escaped extirpation, and which, notwithstanding the perse-
cution to which they have been subjected since, still exist
amongst us.

The questions touched upon in this review are only a few of
those suggested in reading through Mr. Lee’s most valuable
work. It should be in the hands of every student of anthrop-
ology. The letterpress extends to 725 pages, and there are no
less than 206 plates, with admirable figures of the lake dwellings
and of the multitudinous objects found in them.

2 D

VOL. VIII. (N.S.

402

Notices of Books,

[July.

Acadian Geology. The Geological Structure, Organic Remains,
and Mineral Resources of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick,
and Prince Edward’s Island. By J. W. Dawson, F.R.S.
London : Macmillan and Co.

We have here the pleasure of meeting with Principal Dawson
not as the scarcely-candid anti-Evolutionist zealot, prone to
“ high-falutin ” language, and to bringing against opponents
charges of intellectual and even moral obliquity, but as the
earnest and successful worker in geological research. In this
field he has made his mark, and, even though the evidence in
favour of the organic nature of his Eozoon is not increasing,
he has an indisputable claim to the gratitude of the scientific
world.

The work before us is full of important observations, and
brings us face to face with some most interesting questions, at
which we regret that want of space allows us to take merely a
passing glance.

Is Nova Scotia, with the adjacent parts of the Dominion,
subsiding ? We have heard it maintained that the harbour of
Halifax was being gradually upheaved, and must at no very
distant date become useless. But Prof. Cook, in a paper here
referred to, gives a summary of indications of modern subsi-
dence observed on the coasts of New England and New York,
and estimates the average rate of sinking, as now in progress,
at 2 feet per century. In some parts of Nova Scotia the tides
are found to rise higher than formerly, and the reclaimed
marshes — an exceedingly fruitful trad! — are exposed to some
peril.

A question of wider interest is the existence of a former Gla-
cial epoch as the cause of certain geological phenomena observed
both in Europe and America. The existence of such a period
“ when the whole of the northern parts of Europe and North
America are imagined to have been covered "'th glaciers, or
rather with an universal glacier like that of Greenland, but on
an enormously larger scale,” the author considers improbable,
whether considered “ in a mechanical, meteorological, or geolo-
gical point of view.” He contends that floating ice and the
ArCtic currents have been the grand agents in the distribution
of erratic blocks, and in the production of scratched and polished
rock-surfaces. He suggests that, as the country was gradually
subsiding, blocks imbedded in ice were driven against the base
of the hills. As the land continued to sink, the ice-fields of
successive years gradually pushed them higher, until the sum-
mits of the hills were submerged so deeply that the ice could no
longer take up the blocks. Concerning Prof. Frankland’s hypo-
thesis of a higher temperature of the sea conjointly with a lower
temperature of the land, Dr. Dawson remarks that such an
“ inversion of the usual state of things is unwarranted by the

Notices of Books.

403

1878.]

docftrine of the secular cooling of the earth ; it is contradicted
by the fossils of the period, which show that the seas were
colder than at present, and if it existed it could not produce the
effects required, unless a preternatural arrest were at the same
time laid on the winds which spread the temperature of the sea
over the land.”

The author has “ failed to find, even in our higher mountains,
any distinCt signs of glacier aCtion, though the aCtion of the
ocean-breakers is visible almost to their summits ; and though
I have observed in Canada and Nova Scotia many old sea-
beaches, gravel-ridges, and lake-margins, I have seen nothing
that could fairly be regarded as the work of glaciers.” He holds
that while a great and marked climatic revolution has occurred
in Europe, the evidences of such a change are very much
slighter in America, where the causes of the coldness of the
post-pliocene seas to some extent still remain. The author, in
the following passage, admits substantially the existence of a
former epoch of intense cold : — “ In the Tertiary era there was
much dry land in the northern hemisphere, and multitudes of
large animals now extinCt inhabited it, apparently under a
climate milder than at present. Great changes, however, took
place in the relative positions of land and water, inducing very
important changes of climate, which finally became of an almost
arctic character over all the present temperate regions . The
greater part of Northern Europe and Asia appear to have sub-
sided beneath the waters of the boulder-bearing semi -arctic
ocean.” It would almost seem that Dr. Dawson attributes the
climatic deterioration to a decrease of land in the higher lati-
tudes, taking thus a view opposite to that of Lyell. We fear
that the very foundations for a thorough settlement of the gla-
cial question stand in need of careful revision.

In closing this interesting and instructive volume we can only
pronounce it indispensable to every geologist.

A Manual of Zoology for the Use of Students. By H. Alleyne
Nicholson, M.D., D.Sc., &c. Fifth Edition, Revised and
Enlarged. Edinburgh and London : W. Blackwood and
Sons.

When a scientific work has, like the volume before us, reached
its fifth edition, and has met with the general approval of the
highest authorities, the task of the critic is greatly simplified.
There are indeed points on which issue might be joined, and
there also topics on which somewhat fuller information might be
desirable. Thus, we cannot pronounce the common British
centipede harmless, having received from one a bite decidedly
more severe than the sting of the wasp. The bite of the viper,

2 D 2

404

Notices of Books.

[July»

as far as we are aware, proves mortal, not merely to children and
debilitated persons, but to about 20 per cent of the sufferers.
Nor, in presence of the fadts recorded by Dr. Coues, can we
pronounce the skunk, “ when unmolested, perfectly harmless.”
Passing from facffs to matters of opinion, we must protest
against the exaggerated view taken by the author of the interval
between man and the anthropoid apes. Not satisfied with giving
to the former, as did Cuvier, the rank of a separate order, Dr.
Nicholson even questions whether the human species “ should
not have the value of a distincff sub-kingdom, whilst there can
be little hesitation in giving Man, at any rate, a class to himself.”
As a deficiency, we may point out that the information given
concerning the sense-organs of the vertebrate animals is some-
what meagre.

But passing over what to us, at least, appear as shortcomings,
we hold that it would be difficult indeed to find a work which
gives, in so brief a compass, so luminous and philosophical a
view of the whole animal kingdom. To any earnest student
entering upon the science of Biology the “ General Introduction ’ ’
alone must be a boon of the highest order.

A Key to Organic Materia Medica, &c. By Dr. John Muter,
M.A., F.C.S., Director of the South London School of
Pharmacy. Second Edition. London : Simpkin and Mar-
shall. 1878.

The book before us is another proof that the training of phar-
macists is becoming daily more thoroughly scientific. The first
edition of this work appeared about four years ago, and was in-
tended principally as a guide for the students frequenting Dr.
Muter’s School of Pharmacy, at Kennington Cross. The
present issue, however, has been so enlarged and improved that
it has become available for study to all classes of pharmaceutical
students, whether under Dr. Muter’s tuition or not. The pro-
duces described are given in their botanical and zoological order,
beginning with Aconite and ending with Castoreum ; the source,
method of gathering, description, uses, chemistry, and phar-
macology of each being described in succincff but sufficiently
detailed terms. Dr. Muter is evidently alive to the fact that
most pharmaceutical students of necessity consume large quan-
tities of midnight oil, for his book is printed in large clear type.
In the Appendix is given an account of Dr. Muter’s method of
mounting, observing, measuring, and classifying the starches,
which will be found equally useful to the vegetable physiologist
and the pharmacist. The Index is a model of its kind, and is
due to the pen of Mr. Joseph Ince, who deserves for it a vote of
thanks from the Index Society.

I S7S.J

Notices of Books.

405

Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India. Palaeontologia
Indica, being Figures and Descriptions of the Organic
Remains procured during the progress of the Geological
Survey of India. Indian Tertiary and Post Tertiary Verte-
brata. Vol. i., 2. Ser. x., 2.- — Molar Teeth and other
remains of Mammalia, by R. Lydekker, B.A. Calcutta :
Geological Survey Office. London : Triibner and Co.

The remains here described and figured belong to Rhinoceros
palceindicns, R. sivalefisis, R. platyrhinus, R. iravadicus (a new
species), R. planidens , and Acerotherium Perimense. If we
include both extinct and living forms the total number of species
of Rhinocerotes found in South-Eastern Asia is fifteen, whilst
there is evidence of three further species from Burma, Attock,
and Sind respectively. Of ruminants we find a description of
Vishnutherium iravadicum , or at least of its teeth and a frag-
ment of its jaw. Till the entire skull is obtained it will be diffi-
cult to say whether this extinCt form was most nearly allied to
Sivatherium or to Camelopardalis. Of this latter genus there is
a figure and description of the remains of C. sivalensis. Next
follow Bramatherium Perimense, Camelus sivalensis (a specific
name which we fear occurs too often), and Dorcatherium majus
and minus (two new species). Cervus latidens was the largest
of the Cervidre of Siwalik, its teeth equalling in size those of
the Irish elk. The other Cervidae are C. triplidens and C. sim-
plicidens. The teeth of Listriodon pentapotamice might be mis-
taken for the lower molars of Tapirus were it not for their square
form. Dinotherium pentapotamice is distinguished from the
European species by its much smaller size. The teeth of Sani-
therium Schlagintweitii are distinguished from those of Sus by
the greater simplicity and distinctness of the main tubercles ; by
the hinder lobe being relatively larger and taller ; and by the
plane of wear being more oblique. Tetraconodon magnum , a
hippopotamoid animal, is characterised by the abnormal develop-
ment of its pre-molar teeth, which are considerably larger than
the two molars.

The edentate animal, Manis Sindiensis, had the same general
organisation as the living species. Amphycyon palceindicus , a
carnivorous animal approximating to the ursine group, was nearly
as large as the polar bear.

Ser. ii., 2, contains descriptions and illustrations of a number
of fossil plants discovered in the Jurassic (Lias) formation of the
Rajmahal Hills. This flora has a mesozoic character; it is much
more numerous than that from Kach, both in species and speci-
mens. Its chief types of the Rajmahal flora are in the class of
Cycadeacere and some genera of ferns.

406

Notices of Boohs.

tjuly,

Descriptive Catalogue of Photographs of N orth- American Indians.

By W. H. J ackson. Washington : Government Printing-

Office.

The collection of photographs of members of different North-
American tribes, formed under the auspices of the United States
Geological Survey of the Territories, is an ethnological monu-
ment of peculiar value. It embraces over one thousand nega-
tives, representing no fewer than twenty-five distinct tribes. Of
these not a few are in process of extinction, whilst the rest are
undergoing a process of intermixture with each other, and with
the different nationalities of European or African origin who
have overspread the western hemisphere. Hence a collection
like the one in question is necessarily unique, and if it should
be allowed to perish could never be reproduced. The catalogue
is arranged ethnologically, and includes a short history of each
tribe.

The Scientific Basis of Music. By W. H. Stone, M.A., M.B.
Oxon, F.R.C.P., Lecturer on Physics at St. Thomas’s
Hospital, Vice-President of the Physical Society. 71 pp.
London : Novello, Ewer, and Co.

This little book is one of a series of “ Music Primers ” issued
by the above enterprising publishers. Although intended as
manuals of instruction for beginners, they are so carefully
written, and so much above the ordinary run of books — good,
bad, and indifferent — which we meet with as tutors and instructors
in various branches of music, that they can be read with interest
even by advanced students, and, as far as they go, are worthy to
take rank with some of the admirable works published under the
auspices of the Paris Conservatoire. Dr. Stone’s work treats on
a department hitherto much neglected by the musical student :
the author — himself a good practical musician, as well as a
physicist — is admirably qualified for the task he has undertaken.

In the first chapter the sources of sound are fully and clearly
explained. At page 21 the author mentions the class of Mem-
branous Reeds , such as the larynx and the human lip acting on
the cupped mouthpiece of a brass instrument : the author defers
the consideration of the subject to a future chapter, but careful
reading fails to find any further mention of this interesting class
of sound-producers ; it is to be hoped that this defect may be
remedied in a future edition.

The following chapters explain the subjects of Velocity,
Reflection, Refraction, Interference, Tonometry; Musical Tone,

1878.] Notices of Books. 40 7

Harmonics, Consonance, Quality; Concord and Discord, and
Resultant Tones.

The last chapter, on Scale and Temperament, gives an account
of several contrivances, all more or less elaborate, having for
their object the perfeCt tuning of keyed instruments. It is to be
feared that these complex key-boards offer such obstacles to
freedom of execution as to be useless for all practical purposes.
Dr. Stone’s remarks on tuning an orchestra are admirable, and
will be read to advantage by every instrumentalist, many of
whom, as conductors know too well, are extremely loose in their
ideas of accuracy.

A page at the end of the little book is devoted to the biblio-
graphy of the subjedt, and will greatly aid the student in
extending his researches.

Studies in Spectrum Analysis. By J. Norman Lockyer, F.R.S.

Second Edition. London : C. Kegan Paul and Co.,

1, Paternoster Row. 1878.

Mr. Norman Lockyer’s present volume forms part of Messrs.
Paul’s excellent International Scientific Series, and is written
for the perusal of the more serious portion of the reading public,
as well as for the more purely scientific student. Beginning
with the vibrations of a jerked rope, the author explains, in a
singularly clear and homely manner, the phenomena connected
with wave-motion, the illustrations employed by him being of a
nature which will be understood by every observant person. He
shows that the principles upon which all undulations are produced
— whether they are caused by muscular force, sound, heat, light
or electricity — are similar, if not identical, a point which is only
too frequently lost sight of by writers and lecturers on popular
science. If, by setting forth the relationship between a note in
music and a bright line in the speCtrum, a thoughtful reader or
leCturer can by analogy be made to see how the effeCts of a
change in the rate of the wave-motion of the luminiferous ether
as affeCting colours are brought about, a great point is gained.
We believe Prof. Barrett, in his leCtures on the Connection be-
tween Light and Sound, was one of the first to break ground in
this direction : and the faCt that light is nothing more than an
excessively fine kind of sound, the effeCts of which were per-
ceived by the eye instead of the ear, was a revelation to the
majority of his hearers. Mr. Lockyer treats of sound, light,
heat, and electricity concurrently as being parts of one grand
system of wave-motion, and we should be pleased to see his
example followed by writers on elementary science who only are
too fond of separating these subjects by hard-and-fast line s
instead of treating them correlatively.

408

Notices of Books „

rjuly,

The present work may be said to be in some sort the comple-
ment of Mr. Lockyer’s former work on “ The Spectroscope and
its Variations,” seeing that it goes much more deeply into the
theoretical part of this subject. The subject of wave-motion
having been explained, the author next describes the principal
methods of demonstrating spectral phenomena, and the value
and use of the photographic camera in their registration.

The fourth chapter, in which atoms and molecules are treated
of in relation to the specftroscope, contains a large amount of
theoretical speculation of a very interesting character; and the
same may be said of the chapter on Dissociation, in which Mr.
Lockyer boldly attacks the integrity of certain of the elements,
such as calcium and hydrogen. Mr. Lockyer’s speculations in
this direction are of a most suggestive kind, and ought to form
the starting-points for a large amount of investigation. If our
present elements are ever to be split up, either theoretically or
practically, the specftroscope will have undoubtedly commenced
the work.

The account given of Messrs. Lockyer and Roberts’s experi-
ments on the quantitative analysis of gold and other alloys show
that one of these days the specftroscope will play an important
part in the assay of the precious metals. The results given by
these experiments are of a very promising nature, and it is only
the close attention which Mr. Lockyer has to give to the more
important branches of Specftroscopy that prevents him and his
colleague from bringing their researches to a thoroughly practical
termination. By the present method an assay takes at least two
hours, whereas by the use of the specftroscope it might be per-
formed in a few minutes.

The book is well illustrated by eight photo-lithographic plates
of specftra and fifty well-executed woodcuts.

Industrial Chemistry . A Manual for Use in Technical Colleges
and Schools, and for Manufacturers, &c. Based upon a
Translation, partly by Dr. T. D. Barry, of Stohmann and
Engler’s German Edition of Payen’s “ Precis de Chimie
Xndustrielle.” Edited throughout, and supplemented with
Chapters on the Chemistry of the Metals, &c., by B. H.
Paul, Ph.D. Illustrated with 668 Engravings on Wood.
London : Longmans and Co. 1878.

After a very attentive examination of this, the most recent
contribution to the literature of Industrial Chemistry, we must
confess that we are utterly puzzled to discover for whose benefit
this book has been compiled. Judging from the title-page and
preface, it is not only intended for manufacturers and technolo-

187?.]

Notices of Books.

409

gical students, but for schoolboys and the general public as well.
Now, if it is intended for the first-mentioned category of readers,
it is at once too copious and too meagre, teaching those things
it ought not to teach, and leaving untaught those things it ought
to teach ; if for the latter, it is again far too detailed in some
parts and too superficial in others. The great mistake committed
by the whole of the five writers connected with the work has
been in endeavouring to teach too many things at once, the con-
sequence being that the book is overloaded with instructions in
the rudiments of chemical science, and descriptions of elements
and compounds that have nothing to do with Industrial Che-
mistry. The natural result of this waste of space is that hosts
of important compounds, whose names have long been house-
hold words even amongst the general public, are either passed
over in silence or dismissed in a few lines. Will it be credited
that — in a work published in the last quarter of the nineteenth
century, and written “ for manufacturers, &c.” — while page after
page is devoted to lengthy descriptions of such rarely seen ele-
ments as tellurium, gallium, yttrium, and a dozen others, half a
page is given to platinum as an industrial metal, and such every-
day products as dynamite and carbolic acid are barely mentioned.
Had the space occupied by so much useless and extraneous
matter, all of which may be found in any half-crown Manual of
Chemistry, been devoted to the real object of the work, we might
possibly have had a few pages given to such minor matters as
calico-printing, aniline, anthracen and naphthalin dyes, collo-
dion, Esparto grass, pebble powder, oxalic acid and its salts,
tannic and pyrogallic acid, picric acid, and other chemical pro-
ducts which are constantly mentioned in the columns of every
newspaper.

The way in which the translation is executed and edited leaves
much to be desired ; but the portions added to Messrs. Stohmann
and Engler’s adaptation of Payen’s “Precis,” which are evidently
from the practised pen of Dr. Paul, form a strong contrast, in
the ease and completeness with which they are written, to the
disjointed style of the remainder of the work. The additions,
in fact, are the best part of the book, which is more than half
again as large as Stohmann and Engler’s translation.

The work is ostensibly intended for English use, but in many
parts too much favour has been shown to foreign processes to
the entire exclusion of the methods of working usually adopted
in this country. For instance, although Weldon’s chlorine
process is fairly described, Spence’s improvements in the manu-
facture of alum and MaCtear’s method of sulphur recovery are
entirely ignored. These are only two out of the many English
processes which have been passed over in silence.

Another singular defecft, which ought not to exist in a book of
this sort, is the almost entire absence of references to fuller
accounts of processes than the space at the editors’ disposal

410 Notices of Books. [July,

would allow them to give — a fault that is also to be found in the
German and French editions.

It is with great regret that we feel called upon to be so severe
upon a work which has appeared with so many well and favour-
ably known names attached to it. Such a book — we mean a
manual of technological chemistry in the fullest sense of the
term — is much wanted, but it must consist of many volumes,
and be written and edited by more than one man. A book on
industrial chemistry in a single volume is of but little use to the
manufacturer or the technological student. A popular account
of the more striking improvements which have lately taken place
in chemical manufactures, treated in a lively style, and a plainly
written manual of chemistry applied to the arts, for the use of
schoolboys who have already gained some knowledge of the
science, are both loudly called for, but Drs. Paul and Barry’s
compilation satisfies none of these requirements. It is also to
be regretted that the beautiful copper plate engravings of the
French and German editions have been replaced by small wood-
cuts.

Metals and their Chief Industrial Applications . By Charles
R. Alder Wright, D.Sc., &c. London : Macmillan and
Co. 1878.

This book contains the substance, with several valuable additions,
of the course of leCtures on this subject delivered by Dr. Wright,
last year, at the Royal Institution. The author has the gift of
conveying a large amount of practical information in a few words,
without, however, falling into the sin of dryness. The leCtures
are avowedly popular ; theory, therefore, receives comparatively
little attention. The principles, however, upon which different
ores are made to yield up their metals are clearly and succinctly
explained. Dr. Wright has brought his information down to the
very latest date, and the processes of Siemens, Bessemer, and
other modern workers in the field of metallurgy are fully described.
As an instance of the author’s conscientiousness in this respeCt
it may be mentioned that Allen’s nickel process, described in the
“Journal of the Society of Arts” of so late a date as last
February, is to be found in its proper place.

For a young student desirous of gaining a general insight into
metallurgical processes there could hardly be a better manual.
The book is well illustrated ; and although it seems ungracious
to find fault where there is so much to praise, we must remind
Dr. Wright that an Index is an essential part of such a work.

1 878..!

Notices of Books.

411

T ransactions of the Edinburgh Geological Society. Vol. iii.,
Part 1. Edinburgh. Printed for the Society. 1877.

This issue contains a large amount of interesting and valuable
matter. There is an Inaugural Address on the “ Palaeontolo-
gical Signification of the Migrations of Animals,” delivered by
Prof. H. A. Nicholson. The speaker treats almost exclusively
of Marine Invertebrata, and the following are some of his
general conclusions: — Oceanic currents have a great in-
fluence on the distribution of marine animals, adting not only
upon pelagic species, but also upon the locomotive young of
littoral species. Under any circumstances there is a probability
that pelagic species will have a wider range than those of littoral
habits. Littoral species are generally limited in their distribution
by the depth of water near land, by the trend of the land itself,
and by the extension of the shore. A species requiring a defi-
nite high or low temperature for its existence will spread much
farther along a shore running east and west than it can along
one having a north and south direction. The conditions which
limit the range of littoral species are not stable and permanent,
but vary much at different periods in consequence of subsidence
or elevation of the land. The distribution of pelagic species is
mainly influenced by the surface temperature of the water, but
it may be temporarily or permanently affedted by winds or cur-
rents. Deep-sea forms are usually widely diffused, their range
depending chiefly on temperature, and being especially influenced
by oceanic currents. Fresh-water Invertebrates are, in the main,
governed in their migrations by the same laws as those which
influence marine forms. Some marine Invertebrates are probably
capable of adapting themselves to a gradual change of the sea
in which they live to fresh water.

In a paper by Mr. R. Richardson, on “ Phenomena of Weather-
Adtion and Glaciation,” we find some interesting observations
on that process of erosion which certain so-called sceptics in
geology are endeavouring to deny. But the man who can shut
his eyes to the phenomena which on a larger or smaller scale
are to be witnessed in every mountain-chain will certainly not
be convinced by any human testimony. That the glaciation of
Switzerland has decreased, and is still decreasing, the author
finds abundant proof.

Dr. D. Flahn, in a humorous paper, advocates the introduction
of a dual nomenclature in mineralogy, similar to that established
in zoology and botany. We regret to notice that certain German
names of minerals mentioned are greatly obscured by typo-
graphical errors. Dr. Hahn also communicates a paper on the
“ Phosphorescence of Minerals.”

Mr. A. Somervail’s communication, “ On the Glacial Pheno-
mena of Scotland, with especial reference to the recent works of

412

Notices of Books.

[July,

Dr. Croll and Mr. James Geikie,” agrees in many points with
the views put forward by Mr. Mattieu Williams in his “ Through
Norway with Ladies” (see “ Quarteily Journal of Science,”
vol. vii., p. 537). Mr. Somervail, though by no means ques-
tioning the fa cl of glaciation or of a glacial epoch, entertains
doubts concerning the so-called “ Interglacial periods,” and holds
that “ the conditions under which the lower drift deposits have
been formed were not of that severe and rigorous kind that has
of late been so vigorously advocated.” He does not find evi-
dence for a vast ice-sheet coming from Scandinavia, and
coalescing, upon what is now the bed of the North Sea, with
another sheet descending from the Highlands. He remarks that
many of the supposed interglacial beds, which, according to
Dr. Croll and Mr. Geikie, should have been formed under a sub-
tropical temperature, “ have yielded abundance of marine shells
which show a much colder set of conditions than those actually
inhabiting our present seas.” The climatic conditions of the
Glacial period may, he thinks, when more fully understood, be
explained on geographical grounds without having recourse to
the astronomical theory as elaborated by Dr. Croll.

Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Lidia. Vol. xiii., Parts 1
and 2. Calcutta : Government Survey Office. London :
Trubner and Co.

This volume consists of an account of the Wardha Valley Coal-
field. The first notice of the existence of coal in the locality
dates as far back as 1831. Twenty-three years later, Mr. Hislup,
one of the pioneers of Indian geology, examined the valley.
The coal-field, “ as limited by an arbitrary line to the south, and
by its natural geological boundaries to the east, west, and north,
covers an area of about 1600 square miles, and is included be-
tween latitudes 190 28' and 20" 27' N. and longitudes 78° 50' and
790 45' E. The distridl, as suspedfed by Mr. Blanford and sub-
sequently fully proved by Mr. Fedden, bears evident marks of
glaciation. “A boulder-bed, containing some beautifully polished
and scored boulders, rests upon a floor of compadt Vindhyan
limestone, which, when freshly exposed, is found to be striated
and grooved in long parallel lines, in the manner so familiar to
glacialists.” This observation was made “ near the little village
of Irai, on the right bank of the Pern River, not quite a mile
above its confluence with the Wardha, and 10 miles W.S.W. of
Chanda.” In the Wardha Valley numerous beds of coal occur,
one of them 60 feet in thickness. Some of the best, however,
are very limited in area. Still the amount of coal is vastly in
excess not merely of the present, but even of the probable future

1878.: Notices of Books. 413

wants of the country, both for manufactures and domestic and
naval purposes.

Part 2 gives the geology of the Rajmehal Hills, a country
bounded on the north and partially on the east by the Ganges,
on the south by the Dwarka River and the district of Birbhum,
and on the west by the hilly country and the plains of Birbhum
and Bhagulpur. One of the most singular geological features of
the district is the radiating columnar trap figured in Plate IV.,
which presents the appearance of pillars radiating out in all di-
rections from a common centre. The region, calmly considered,
is pronounced “ one of many in India where properly organised
commercial enterprise may fairly expeCt to achieve a reasonable
amount of success. There is a total area of about 1200 square
miles of coal-field, containing on the lowest estimate 210 million
tons of available coal, not of the best quality, but easily access-
ible. The basaltic trap yields agates, chalcedony, common opal,
and various kinds of rock crystal in abundance, but no attempts
have yet been made to colled; them for commercial purposes.

The Physical System of the Universe , an Outline of Physiography .

By Sydney B. J. Skertchly, F.G.S., H.M. Geological

Survey. London : Dalby, Isbister, and Co. 1878.

This is one of the most comprehensive works upon Physiography
that has yet appeared. The excellent treatises of Mrs. Somer-
ville and Prof. Huxley are “ too much of the earth, earthy,” and
treat our tiny globe with an excessive amount of consideration.
Mr. Skertchly, on the other hand, takes a much broader view of
the subjed, and refuses to look upon our earth as being the cen-
tral point of the Universe, regarding it as nothing more than an
infinitesimal portion of one vast whole. As might be expeded,
therefore, the larger half of the book deals with fads and prin-
ciples which affed the whole of creation, the rest being devoted
to the description of the earth, which is looked upon more in the
light of a unit in the solar system than as a habitation for man.
Mr. Skertchly travels far and wide, taking his reader with him
from atoms and molecules to suns and systems.

The author is evidently possessed of the broadest of views in
scientific matters, and seems ever ready to seize hold of the
newest fads and theories, and lay them before his readers in a
digestible form. The latest discoveries relative to the otheoscope
and radiometer, for instance, are described at length, and the
important light thrown by them upon the modern theory that
light, heat, and chemical adion are different effeds of the same
kind of wave-motion, is well brought out. In connedion with
this theory Mr. Skertchly proposes that we should get rid of all

4i4

Notices of Books.

[July.

such terms as undulations, vibrations, and waves, and use the
neutral term undce for waves of all periods, no matter whether
they manifest their existence by giving rise to luminous, heating,
or chemical effects. The adoption of some such term would
clear away many of the paradoxical expressions which are now
used by authors and lecturers, such as radiant heat, — which is
not heat until it falls on some particular kind of matter, — dark
heat, adtinic rays, and so on.

The sun, as may be imagined, receives a large amount of con- •
sideration. The latest researches into the constitution of comets
are well described ; and the way in which recent experiments
with the radiometer and otheoscope, and Tyndall on “Amyl
Nitrite Clouds,” bear on this interesting but mysterious subject
is lucidly explained.

Mr. Skertchly writes in a plain lucid style, and never disdains
to use a commonplace word or illustration when it will serve to
make his explanation plainer. He is an admirable expositor,
and irresistibly carries his reader along with him by the charm
of his style and the interest which he excites. The book may
be read by all classes, from the philosopher and student to the
intelligent man of culture who desires to gain some insight into
the latest fadts and theories relating to the physical constitution
of the Universe.

Ur As Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures , and Mining. Vol. iv.
Supplement, by Robert Hunt, F.R.S. London: Longmans
and Co. 1878.

The editor of a technological work like Ure’s well-known
Dictionary must have a thankless task, and may be compared to
an unsuccessful Hercules trying to stay a perennial hydra. In
the present instance Mr. Hunt and his able assistants may be
congratulated on the large amount of success with which they
have been able to lay before their readers a succindt description
of the progress made by modern manufacturers up to the end
of last year, and even beyond it. The anxiety shown by the
editor to give the latest possible information on every subjedt is
evinced by the fadt of his having deemed it necessary to publish
an Addendum to his Supplement, for the sake of giving us the
discoveries of MM. Picftet and Cailletet, and the newest forms
of telephone. It must have been with a slight feeling of morti-
fication that Mr. Hunt must have welcomed the discovery of the
microphone, just too late to be included in the new volume.

The system of publishing periodical supplements to such
works is an excellent one, and has already been adopted with
great success in the case of the sister book, “ Watts’s Dictionary
of Chemistry.”

Notices of Books.

415

1878.]

The merits of “ Ure’s Dictionary ” are so well known that we
need do no more in the way of praise than to say that the present
volume is not only on a par with the preceding ones, but is even
superior to them, on account of the very numerous bibliographical
references scattered through the book.

Principles of Machine Construction, &>c. By the late Edward

Tomkins. Edited by Henry Evers, LL.D. Vol. i,, text.

Vol. ii. , plates. London : W. Collins, Sons, and Co. 1878.

This work, which forms part of Collins’s Advanced Science
Series, was left partly unfinished by the author, who died before
its completion. His original design has, however, been fully
carried out by Dr. Evers, who found he could not improve upon
it. The first four chapters are devoted to a course of instruction
in geometrical and mechanical drawing as applied to machinery,
and are fully illustrated by nearly a hundred cuts and six quarto
lithographic plates. The different kinds of motion and its trans-
mission, the various forces, the materials of construction and
their treatment, occupy the student’s attention during the next
two chapters, the remainder being devoted to machines in gene-
ral and their parts ; this portion of the book being illustrated by
over two hundred and fifty woodcuts and more than forty plates.
The plates in the accompanying Atlas, drawn by the late Mr.
Tomkins, are well and clearly executed, and are sufficiently large
and detailed to be used as drawing copies for advanced students
in Science and Art Classes, to whose attention we cordially
recommend these volumes.

Free Evening Lectures, delivered in connection with the Special
Loan Collection of Scientific Apparatus, 1876. Published
for the Lords of the Committee of Council on Education,
by Chapman and Hall, 193, Piccadilly.

The leCtures here published were of necessity somewhat popular
in their character. As now presented to the reader they labour
under the disadvantage of being unaccompanied by the experi-
ments and objedts by which they were illustrated when originally
delivered. Still they may be read by the general public with
profit, and we trust not without pleasure. We must particu-
larly call attention to the note appended to Mr. G. Carey Foster’s
ledture on “ Electricity as a Motive Power,” in which the learned

416

Notices of Books.

[July,

author clearly and conclusively demolishes the vague hopes
entertained by many that when our coal-fields are exhausted
electricity will, in some way or other yet to be discovered, come
to our rescue.

Mr. W. J. Harrison’s lecture on “ Local Geology, with special
reference to that of Leicestershire,” is interesting from the lucid
manner in which the author describes the gradual changes from
Castanea atavia to C. vesca, as traced by Baron von Ettings-
hausen, in proceeding from more ancient to more modern
formations. Mr. Harrison adds — “ If we grant that even one
species can change in this way, we shall do all that Mr. Darwin
desires.”

We regret that the w^ork has not appeared earlier, and that it is
unaccompanied by an index.

Proceedings of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liver-
pool, during the Sixty-sixth Session, 1876-77. London :
Longmans and Co. Liverpool: D. Marples and Co., Limited.

This volume contains an account of the papers read and the
discussions held at the meetings of the Society. From these we
are happy to learn that good work is being done. The Rev. H.
H. Higgins, a zealous and able naturalist, has taken a cruise in
the West Indian Seas on board the Argo, and has brought back
and described a large and interesting assortment of sponges,
Mollusca, fishes, and cryptogamic plants, which are now lodged
in the Liverpool Museum. Several Associates of the Society — -
among whom we may mention Capt. Perry, Capt. Cawne Warren,
Capt. Slack, and Mr. E. Dukinfield Jones — have also contributed
observations and collections in various departments of Natural
History. A letter from Mr. J. Adams, of Pitcairn Island, read
by Mr. J. L. Palmer, R.N., gives an account of the appearance
of a sea-serpent on October 15th, 1870. It is represented as
from 30 to 40 feet in length, and about a foot or 18 inches in
diameter. No improbable or sensational features are ascribed to
the animal.

Among the papers read before the Society, and here inserted
in full, very few indeed can call for our notice. The Rev. T. P.
Kirkman laments to see “ crowds of good heads busy with mere
observations obtained by rifling sea and land and sky, by dissec-
tion of the dead, and vivisection of the tortured living,” and
wishes that, like himself, they would devote themselves to the
discussion of questions which Milton happily represents as en-
gaging the attention of a Literary and Philosophical Society in
Pandemonium.

Mr, E, Davies, F.C.S., contributes an interesting paper entitled

Notices of Books.

4r7

1878.]

“ Popular Errors about Poisons.” It may, however, be ques-
tioned whether he does not go too far in denying the existence of
slow poisons whose effects are not perceived until a considerable
time after their administration. That death does not necessarily
follow immediately after the introduction of a lethal substance
into the system is often shown in cases of hydrophobia. Whilst,
therefore, we fully join Mr. Davies in repudiating the notion that
a poisoner can so regulate the dose given as to ensure the death
of his victim at some specific and remote time, we do not think
it impossible that a man after having taken a poison may remain
perhaps for months in apparent health. Of this we have heard
of three painful cases, on what seems to be unimpeachable
authority.

Mr. A. J. Mott points out some of the shortcomings of Haeckel’s
“ History of Creation,” and contends — erroneously in our opinion
— that the disciples of Haeckel are the only logically-consistent
Evolutionists. The paper shows extensive reading and acute
thought, but to our mind it conveys the impression that Mr, Mott
is not a working biologist.

Conferences held in Connection with the Special Loan Collection
of Scientific Apparatus , 1876. Chemistry, Biology, Physical
Geography, Geology, Mineralogy, and Meteorology. Pub-
lished for the Lords of the Committee of Council on Educa-
tion. London : Chapman and Hall, 193, Piccadilly.

This work has been tardy in making its appearance. So much
has happened to call public attention in other directions that the
Exhibition of Scientific Apparatus of 1876 is now almost forgotten.
This book consists of a series of papers or addresses read or deli-
vered by certain eminent men, and followed by some slight
discussion, the whole being supposed to be connected with or
inspired by the articles then and there exhibited. Though sadly
in need of a good index, it contains, as might be expeCted, no
small store of interesting faCts and of weighty opinions. Thus
Prof. Frankland points out, as an important deficiency in our
national appliances for the furtherance of scientific culture, the
absence of a museum of chemical products. Every chemist
must admit that a collection of this nature, kept well up to the
level of the day, would be “ of the highest interest both to the
student and the investigator.” The expense of forming and
enlarging such a collection would be smaller than might at first
sight be imagined, since there are few discoverers of new com-
pounds who would not think it a privilege rather than a tax to
deposit a specimen of their products in a great national collection.
Why, then, is Prof. Frankland’s suggestion still not aCted upon ?

VOL. VIII. (N.S.) 2 E

418 Notices of Books. [July,

That other capitals are also deficient in collections of this kind
is a poor apology for London.

Still more important is the paper, read by Prof. Frankland on
behalf of Prof. Fremy, on the Endowment of Scientific Research.
Our own opinions on this subjeCt have been repeatedly declared ;
but it is with great satisfaction that we find them essentially
shared by a man of science of the standing, authority, and expe-
rience of M. Fremy, who has for years been earnestly striving to
resuscitate original research in France, and who has even insti-
tuted a laboratory in which students who have completed their
chemical education are received and allowed to work gratis. We
are very happy to find Prof. Fremy’s paper thus laid before the
British public under the authority of the Educational Committee
of the Privy Council.

An interesting faCt, “ not generally known,” occurs in Dr.
Gilbert’s able paper on “ Some Points in the Nutrition of Ani-
mals.” We learn that on comparing the ox, the sheep, the pig,
and man, the proportion of stomach by weight is approximately
in oxen 3*2 per cent, in sheep 2*44, in pigs 0’88, and in man only
0*38. The author draws hence the very natural inference that
the pig requires a more concentrated and digestible food than
sheep and oxen, whilst man, on the other hand, requires a still
more concentrated food than the pig, the practical conclusion —
unwelcome to vegetarians — being that “ man was not made to
consume potatoes and cabbages by the bushel.”

Some remarks made by Prof. Duncan must be very interesting
to all inquirers into the distribution of organic life upon the sur-
face of the globe. He declares that “ there is a remarkable
isolation, so to speak, of the flora of South-Western Australia.
It is isolated from that of South-Eastern Australia, but it is most
remarkable in its African affinities, necessitating a belief in the
former existence of some land connection between Africa and
Western Australia. Again, we find the flora of New Zealand
connected with South America and with Eastern Australia.”
These conclusions, and indeed the facts upon which they repose,
seem scarcely to harmonise with the views of Mr. A. R. Wallace
and other authorities, based upon a consideration of the distribu-
tion of animal life.

There is much other matter in this useful and instructive
volume which we should be glad to particularise did space permit.
We merely mention the interesting paper by Dr. Cornelius B.
Fox, on the Use of Aspirators in Atmospheric Ozonometry ;
Prof. Donder’s memoir on the Velocity of Thought, which when
brought to the test is found to be incalculably smaller than was
supposed by poets and moralists ; and Dr. Royston Pigott’s
notice of the Microscopic Researches of Dr. Drysdale and the
Rev. E. Dallinger. The author remarks that “ all conclusions
founded upon the non-appearance of animalcules in a given fluid,
as seen by microscopes of very great cost and power, fall to the

1878.]

Notices of Books .

419

ground unless these peculiar methods are adopted which have
now been invented.” The bearing of this discovery upon the
question of spontaneous generation will at once be recognised.

Bulletin of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey
of the Territories. Vol. iv., No. 2. Washington: Govern-
ment Printing-Office.

This issue includes an Essay which in point of importance, if
not of extent, is well worthy to figure as an independent work.
Under the tirle “ The Geographical Distribution of the Mammalia
considered in relation to the Principal Ontological Regions of the
Earth, and the Laws that Govern the Distribution of Animal
Life,” Mr. J. A. Allen criticises the views of Dr. Sclater and Mr.
A. R. Wallace,* and expounds in detail a system of his own, of
which he published a preliminary notice in 1871, and to which
Mr. Wallace refers in his great work. His fundamental principle
is that “ life is distributed in circumpolar zones under the control-
ling influence of climate, and mainly of temperature.” Quoting
from Mr. Wallace the declaration that “ the continents, resem-
bling a huge creeping plant with roots at the North Pole, and the
matted stems and branches of which cover a large part of the
northern hemisphere and send three great offshoots toward the
South Pole,” he likens the distribution of animal life to that of
the land. Near the North Pole the land is comparatively little
interrupted, the Eastern and Western Worlds being sundered
merely by Behring’s Straits. In harmony with this geographical
faCt we have an Ardfic or North Circumpolar realm of animal
life whose essential forms are common to the two continents.
The further we proceed from the Pole the more we find differenti-
ation increase. Thus Mr. Allen obtains eight primary divisions
or “ realms ” — the Ardfic, the North Temperate, the American
Tropical, the Indo-African, the South American Temperate, The
Australian, the Lemurian, and the Antarctic. Most of these
realms are subdivided into “ regions,” and again into “ provinces.”
The resulting arrangement differs, however, from that of Mr.
Wallace less perhaps than might have been at first sight ex-
pected, and the same boundary lines are observed in both. Thus,
setting the Circumpolar realm aside, Mr. Allen’s North Temperate
— with its two secondary divisions — coincides with Mr. Wallace’s
NearCtic and PalasarCtic regions. The American Tropical of the
one author and the Neotropical of the other differ merely in the
circumstance that Mr. Allen has raised its extreme southern por-
tion to the rank of a distinCt primary division. The Ethiopian

* See Geographical Distribution of Animals, by A. R. Wallace.

420 Notices of Books . (July*

and the Oriental regions of Mr. Wallace, thrown together, form
the Indo-African realm of Mr. Allen ; or rather, we may say,
that he takes the two primary divisions of Mr. Wallace, and
reduces them to a secondary rank. Madagascar and the Masca-
renes, instead of viewing as a zoological province of Africa, he
elevates to the rank of a primary realm — a view with which we
feel disposed to agree. Concerning the Australian region the
two authorities agree almost entirely as far as boundaries are
concerned, though Mr. Allen decidedly refers to his Indo-African
realm the Philippine group, which Mr. Wallace leaves doubtful,
and also Celebes. As regards the subdivisions of the Australian
realm, Mr. Allen includes in his Papuan province not merely New
Guinea, with the smaller islands to the west and the south-east,
but Australia proper north of 20° S. lat., which he considers here
as approximately representing the isotherm of 70° F.

Into the evidence which the author adduces in support of his
classification, and the objections which may be urged against it,
space does not at present allow us to enter. He appears to have
abandoned his formerly proposed separation of Temperate South
Africa as a primary realm because it lies “ wholly within the
warm-temperate belt, and widens rapidly northward to abut very
broadly against the torrid zone.” Yet this latter feature belongs
no less decidedly to Temperate South America, for which the
author still claims the rank of a primary realm. A corollary
which can scarcely have escaped the reader is formally stated
towards the close of this most interesting treatise : — “ The
northern circumpolar lands may be looked upon as the base or
centre from which have spread all the more recently developed
forms of mammalian life, as it is still the bond which unites the
whole. Of the few cosmopolitan types that in a manner bind
together and conned! the whole mammalian fauna of the globe
(the I.emurian and Australian Realms in part excepted) nearly
all have either their true home or belong to groups that are
mainly developed in the northern lands. But if this be true of
the mammalia must it not hold good of all the great animal
groups, and indeed of plants also ? If not, the value of the
mammalia as a guide to the determination of zoological regions
becomes exceedingly doubtful. But if so, we are led to the
conclusion that the dawn of life must have been not in the
equatorial, but the ardlic regions, and that not merely the first
animal forms altogether, but the first of each, at least of the
grand divisions of the animal kingdom, must have been there
developed.

It is obviousiy impossible in a brief notice like the present to
do justice to a work which will doubtless receive from biologists
wide-spread and serious attention. If Mr. Allen’s time and
duties permit it, he could scarcely confer a more valuable boon
upon science than the working out of his hypothesis for the
animal world at large.

i878J

Notices of Books .

421

Records of the Geological Survey of India.

Vol. x., Part 4, contains an account of the Geology of the
Mahanadi Basin and its vicinity, by Mr. V. Ball, with a notice
of the diamonds, gold, and lead-ores of the Sambalpur district,
by the same author. The diamonds appear to be decidedly a
thing of the past. About 1856 the right of seeking for diamonds
in this district was leased by the Government at the low rate of
200 rupees per annum, but the lessee abandoned the undertaking
as unremunerative. The author, however, thinks that the
southern channel of the Mahanadi might prove more produdtive
than the northern, which has been the scene of all recorded and
traditional explorations. The matrix of the diamonds is proba-
bly situate in the sandstones and shales of the Barapahar Hills.
Beryl, topaz, carbuncle, amethyst, cornelian, and clear quartz
were formerly collected in the Mahanadi, probably derived from
the metamorphic rocks.

Gold-washing is chiefly confined to the small jungle streams,
but the quantity cohered does not appear considerable.

Galena, containing about 12 ozs. of silver to the ton of lead,
has been found near Sambalpur, but the investigations made
were not on a sufficient scale to decide whether it occurs in
remunerative quantities.

The principal papers in vol. xi., part 1, are Mr. Lydekker’s
Notices of the Fossil Mammals of the Siwalik, and Mr. Bland-
ford’s Reply to Dr. Feistmantel on the Palaeontological Relations
of the Gondwana System.

Report of the United States Geological Survey of the Territories .
By F. V. Hayden. Vol. vii. Washington : Government
Printing Office.

This volume contains a description of the tertiary flora of the
western territories. The descriptions are full, and the illustra-
tions numerous and well executed.

Reports of the United States Geological Survey of the Territories.
Vol. xi. Monograph of North-American Rodentia. By
Elliott Coues and J. A, Allen. Washington: Govern-
ment Printing Office.

We have again good cause to congratulate the Staff of the
United States Geological Survey on the work they are accom-
plishing, We have here a most elaborate account of the

422

Notices of Books,

[July.

rodents of North America, arranged in their eleven families.
Under each species we find a full account of its specific charac-
ters and of its geographical distribution. Tables of measure-
ments, generally made upon a great number of specimens, are
appended ; the synonymy is given in full ; and the characteris-
tics of varieties, if such exist, are pointed out. In addition, the
generic and sub-generic peculiarities are explained in detail.
The only deficiency which we find is in the habits of the various
species, concerning which the information supplied is meagre.
The carnivorous nature of some of the Spermophile squirrels is,
however, clearly shown — a faCt of great importance, and one
which proves the necessity of great caution in arguing from the
structure of an animal to its habits, and especially its diet.

There is also a synoptical list of the extindt Rodentia of
North America, and a most elaborate and valuable bibliography of
North-American Mammalia.

Each seCtion of the work is accompanied with engravings
showing the skulls of the principal species described. The index
is scarcely as full as might reasonably be expeCted from a work
of this character.

Heaven and Hell, or the Divine Justice Vindicated in the Plurality
of Existences. Containing a Comparative Examination of
the Various DoCtrines concerning the Passage from the
Earthly Life to Spirit Life ; Future Rewards and Punish-
ments ; Angels, Devils, &c. : followed by numerous
examples of the State of the Soul, during and after Death ;
being the practical confirmation of the Spirits’ Book.
By Allan Kardec. Translated from the Sixtieth Thousand
by Anna Blackwell. 1878. London : Triibner and Co.,
Ludgate Hill.

The volume before us is one of a series explaining and
defending the doctrines held by Spiritualists. The first prin-
ciples of Spiritualism are dealt with in previous works ; the one
under consideration treating, as its title denotes, of the state of
the Spirit after its release from corporeal bondage. Basing his
arguments upon the plurality of existences or successive ter-
restrial incarnations, the author proceeds to consider Heaven and
Hell from Christian, Pagan, and Spiritualist standpoints, and
endeavours to prove the triumph of Spiritualistic doCtrine over
those preceding its revelation. The subject is most exhaustively
considered, embracing the aCtual situation of Heaven and Hell,
the duration of happiness and misery, the existence of Angels and
Demons, Purgatory, &c. Throughout the work is remarkable for
its sound argument and practical common sense, and those who

1878.:

Notices of Books .

423

are most disposed to disagree with the principles enunciated cannot
fail to admire the research and force of reasoning that is displayed.
The second portion of the work is devoted to examples of state-
ments made in the earlier chapters, being the revelations of re-
leased Spirits, and is chiefly of interest as relating to the future
of the suicide and to terrestrial expiations. Suicide, under any
circumstances, is denounced as crime, and the fate of the un-
happy beings who yield to the temptation is vividly depicted.
The translator’s commentaries form a valuable addition to the
work, which will be appreciated as a scholarly adjundt to
Spiritualistic literature.

( 424 )

[July,

SCIENTIFIC NOTES.

By far the most prominent event of the quarter has been the discovery
of the Microphone. The scientific world had scarcely recovered from
the surprise excited by the wonders of the Telephone and Phonograph,
when Prof. Hughes, the well-known electrician, announced that the eleCtrical
resistance of certain bodies was influenced by sonorous vibrations propagated
in their vicinity, just as selenium is influenced by light, and that in so supreme
a degree as to magnify sounds of the most delicate nature to such a pitch
that the tramp of a fly on a wooden box could be distinctly heard. The way
in which Prof. Hughes discovered this important faCt was the following : — He
was trying some experiments on the changes which take place in the electrical
resistance of a strained wire, using for the purpose a closed circuit, including
a small battery and a Bell Telephone. He noticed that, although no change
was apparent when the stretched wire. was spoken to, when it broke a rush of
sound was heard in the receiving Telephone, the noise being repeated when
the wires were re-united. By simply crossing the broken wires, and placing a
small weight on the top of them, it was found that sounds uttered close to
them were repeated in the Telephone. Other conducting materials were tried
with similar effeCt, some of them — such as gas carbon and pine charcoal —
being more sensitive than others. The problem solved by Prof. Hughes’s
discovery is to introduce into an eleCtrical circuit an eleCtrical resistance
which shall vary in exaCt accord with sonorous vibrations, which are thus
transformed into eleCtrical vibrations, to appear once more as sound in the
ear-piece of the Telephone ; in other words, the molecules of conducting
bodies in molar contact and under pressure are so regulated in their motions
by the waves of sound in their neighbourhood that they decrease and increase
the resistance of a circuit to a remarkable degree. A great variety of Micro-
phones were constructed by Prof. Hughes, of all kinds of materials, each
having a special range of variation of resistance. Thus a simple stick of
charcoal resting on another is so sensitive that a fly’s tramp may be distinctly
heard ; but it would be too delicate for the human voice, the vibrations caused
by this being too powerful. In transmitting articulate sounds the area and
the number of the points of contaCt must be increased so as to reduce the
extreme sensibility of the instrument. For magnifying the human voice
Prof. Plughes uses a Microphone consisting of a glass tube containing several
cylinders of pine or willow charcoal in close contaCt, the two end pieces being
in circuit. Mr. Blyth, F.R.S.E., has succeeded in making a most efficient
articulating Microphone out of a jam-pot, or a wooden box containing gas-
cinders : eleCtrical continuity is insured by the ends of the circuit being con-
nected with two tin plates thrust between the cinders and the side of the
vessel. In another experiment he found that by wetting the cinders he could
do away with the battery, while, on the other hand, by using a stronger battery
he found that the cinder boxes would aCt both as receivers and transmitters,
thus doing away with the necessity for using a magnetic Telephone. The
sounds in the latter case were very faint, and not easily distinguished ; but
the faCt remains that they were transmitted, nothing being in circuit but a
couple of cinder boxes and two Grove’s cells. Hughes’s Microphone has
already been applied most successfully as a test for the presence of stone in
the bladder and foreign solid bodies in the animal tissues. Experiments of a
very promising nature have also been made with the Microphone as a substi-
tute for the Stethoscope in lung and heart disease. Mr. W. J. Lancaster,
F. C.S., has rendered the Microphone still less complicated, by doing away
with the subsidiary battery, and using the negative, plate of a simple carbon

425

1878.] Scientific Notes .

and zinc pair as the resonator. Mr. Lancaster’s Pile Microphone, as he calls
it, consists of a thin wooden box, 6 ins. x 4 ins. x 1 in., upon the top of
which is screwed a plate of zinc, 4 ins. x 2 ins., and about one-tenth of an
inch thick, somewhat smaller than the top of the box. On this is placed a
layer of blotting-paper soaked in dilute sulphuric acid, and on this again a
gas carbon-plate, l an inch thick ; a second, but smaller and thinner, plate of
carbon is suspended over the first, at about 2 inches distance, by being screwed
to an upright which passes through the plates of the pile into the box below.
Against the suspended plate rests a thin upright rod or plate of carbon, the
lower end of which is pointed, and rests in a depression scooped out of the
lower plate and filled with mercury. Mr. Edison, the inventor of the Phono-
graph, lays claim to the priority of discovery, on account of his having
discovered that the compression of a piece of black-lead interposed in a
circuit proportionately altered its ele&rical resistance, but any discussion as
to the merits of the rival discoverers would at present be premature and out
of place.

At the March meeting of the Physical Society a new battery of extraordi-
nary capabilities was exhibited and described by Mr. W. H. Preece. It was
specially devised by Dr. Byrne to be used by medical men in certain cau-
terising operations. It consists of a simple cell of platinum and zinc, excited
by a mixture of potassium bichromate, sulphuric acid, and water. The
negative plate Is compound, being backed with lead to which is soldered a
sheet of copper, which is again covered with lead. The lead back is covered
with a non-condudting varnish, the platinum surface being of course left free.
While in use a stream of air is forced through the liquid by a small air-pump,
stirring it up a&ively, the heating power being thereby largely increased. The
a&ion of the air is pioved to be entirely mechanical, and seems to work by
exposing the zinc plate to successive layers of fresh acid. With an 18-inch
indudtoiium sparks of over 17 inches could be obtained from a large 10-ceil
battery, but immediately the current of air was stopped the spark fell to
8 inches. With a battery of four cells, measuring 4 inches by 2 inches, a
length of 6 inches of platinum wire, No. 18 (0 05 in.), was heated to bright
redness. With the larger 10-celled battery no less than 30 inches of No. 14
were heated.

At another meeting of the same Society Prof. S. P. Thompson exhibited
and described a cheap and efficient form of optical bench. Two straight oak
bars, about 2 metres in length, and clamped together as in a lathe-bed, and a
number of slides carrying various appliances slide easily without shake, and
can be fixed in any position by wedges. The several frames carrying the
diffra&ion grating or edges, the eye-piece (with an engraved glass micrometer),
&c., are so made, in wood, as to be capable of adjustment in any plane, and
the instrument can also be employed for making photometric and other
similar measurements. The mean of two determinations for the wave-length
of certain red light gave 0*000629 as compared with Fresnel’s figure, 0*000640,
while the total cost did not exceed £5.

The following method of precipitating the gold contained in old toning-
baths is proposed by F. Haugh. The baths when no longer fit for use are
filtered into a white glass flask, rendered alkaline with a little bicarbonate of
soda, and a concentrated alcoholic solution of magenta is added drop by drop
until the liquid has taken the deep red hue of syrup of raspberries. The flask
is then exposed for six to eight hours to the light of a bright window. At the
end of this time the gold is found to be deposited as a violet powder, whilst
the supernatant liquid has become colourless. It is carefully decanted, so as
to preserve merely the deposit. When a sufficient quantity of protoxide of
gold has thus been collected, it is carefully washed upon a filter, dried, and
the filter is burnt. The dry residue and the ash of the filter are then dissolved
at a gentle heat in an excess of aqua regia , and the solution — diluted with
distdled water — is separated from the insoluble substance by filtration.

For the restoration of writing effaced by time M. E. von Bibra proposes to

Scientific Notes .

426

(July.

moisten the writing with a moderately concentrated solution of tannin, the
excess of which is then removed by the application of the washing-bottle, and
the paper dried at 65°.

The same gentleman has also given, in the Bulletin de la Societe Chimique
de Paris , a process for seasoning new casks. He proposes to eliminate all
soluble matter from the interior of the staves by the use of crystals of soda, of
which 1 kilo, is used per hedolitre of the contents. The cask is first filled two-
thirds full of clean water, the proper quantity of solution of soda is added, and
after the liquid is mixed the cask is filled to the bung. After standing for ten
or twelve days the alkaline liquid is run out, and the cask repeatedly rinsed
with clean water.

Dr. J. H. Gladstone has examined some candles which are stated to have
been recovered from the wreck of a Dutch vessel sunk in Vigo Bay during the
war in the year 1702. As the vessel was supposed to be a treasure ship many
attempts have been made to recover its contents, and this was successfully
accomplished in 1875, when these candles among other things were obtained.
They have therefore been submerged for 173 years. The wick has rotted
away, leaving scarcely any trace of its existence, while the fatty portion has
become a friable heavy substance, of a dull white colour. The candles bore
evidence of having been made by dipping, for the concentric layers were easily
separated from one another, and this facilitated the examination of the outer
and inner portions of the same piece. Both the outer and inner portions still
contain some of the fat apparently unchanged; they are undtuous to the
touch, and have a fatty odour, and when heated to a little below no0 C. they
began to change colour ; at 140° they softened, and at 200° small portions were
melted out. The most interesting point is, that whereas the fats have been
in contact with a pradtically unlimited amount of sea-water for 173 years, and
a chemical change between them has been possible, the double decomposi-
tion has proceeded so extremely slowly that the readtion is only about half
completed at the present time.

Mr. T. A. Readwin records a curious instance of spontaneous metal-growth.
About twelve years ago he put about an ounce of rolled metallic cadmium (coiled
six times) into a clear flint-glass phial, corked it tightly, cut the cork level
with the mouth of the phial, and sealed it very carefully. At the time the
metal did not quite reach up to the neck of the phial. Since that time it has
elongated more than a quarter of an inch, and, during the present year, the
sealing wax has been broken all round and the cork forced outward more
than one-eighth of an inch. The cork is even now fairly tight, but the
metal follows after it to touching forcibly, and probably the cork will be pre-
sently completely forced out. The cadmium is fast oxidising and endeavour-
ing to uncoil itself, and the cut edges at the bottom of the phial are becoming
foliated.

We have received a number of biscuits and other preparations containing
preserved solid and liquid food, both animal and vegetable, which are the
practical results of a new process lately patented by Dr. Campbell Morfit.
They include substances 'of the most diverse nature, such as milk, cream,
cheese, beef, garden rhubarb, cabbage, tomato, pork sausage, and a variety
of other alimentary products, all of which are perfectly savoury and tooth-
some, in spite of their being more than a year old It is, however, more with
Dr. Morfit’s process than with its present results that we have now to deal,
for we must look upon his discovery as being yet in its infancy. Dr. Mor-
fit’s experiments, which he has prosecuted uninterruptedly for the last two
years, seem to prove that ordinary gelatin, when it is once thoroughly diffused
through a vegetable or animal substance, and dried in and with it, will protect
it from decomposition or other alteration for a prolonged period, in spite of
atmospheric or climatic changes. This is clearly proved by the samples sub-
mitted to us, which — although they have been exposed to the constant
changes of temperature and moisture consequent on their having been kept
for more than a year in the store-room of an ordinary dwelling-house — are

Scientific Notes.

427

1878.]

still perfectly good and sweet, their natural characteristic flavours being well
preserved. Some lime-fruit juice biscuits, for instance, which are more than
a year old, have preserved, in a very perfect manner, the peculiar flavour by
which the juice of the lime can always be distinguished from that of the
lemon. The primary principle of Dr. Morfit’s process is the getting rid of
nearly the whole of the natural water contained in the substance to be pre-
served, by submitting it to a certain degree of heat, the place of the water
being supplied by gelatin. The compound is then dried, and in this state may
be kept for any length of time, or else it may be made up into biscuits by in-
corporating it with biscuit-powder. Let us take Dr. Morfit’s method of
preserving beef as an example. The beef must be as free from fat and bone
as possible, and should be first stewed in its own liquor, or with the least
possible quantity of water, and seasoned or not according to taste. The whole
is then reduced, by any available mechanical means, to a state of smooth and
fine pulp, and triturated with a solution of gelatin in water. One pound of
gelatin is enough for 15 pounds of meat, fowl, or fish, the gelatin being dise
solved either in a sufficiency of water or in the natural juice of the substanc-
itself. In the case of fruit— such as gooseberries, currants, or plums — they
are stoned or skinned when necessary, and cooked or not, as the case may be.
They are then made into a pulp and mixed with gelatin dissolved in water or
their own juice, heated so as to insure a thorough mixture of the ingredients,
and then poured into coolers. In certain cases the gelatin may be replaced by
mucilage of Irish moss, but the result, although cheaper, is not so good. Dr.
Morfit’s method of condensing milk without the use of sugar is of great in-
terest, seeing that the Swiss and other descriptions of condensed milk, which
are now so largely sold, cannot be taken by delicate infants or by persons of
weak digestion, owing to the large amount of sugar in them. One pound of
gelatin is dissolved in one gallon of fresh milk at a temperature of from 130°
to 140° F., the whole being allowed to set into a jelly, which is dried. The
dried jelly is then dissolved in another gallon of fresh milk, and allowed to set
and dry as before, the operation being repeated with fresh milk until the
original pound of gelatin has taken up eight gallons of milk or more. Con-
somme of meat may in like manner be condensed until one pound solid shall
represent thirty times its weight of fresh beef. As may be readily guessed, the
process may be carried on without any of the expensive plant and trouble-
some manipulation involved in the usual modes of condensing milk and
making Liebig’s extract, besides which, in the latter case, the whole of the
nitrogenous parts of the meat are preserved intadl. From a hygienic point of
view, the lime-fruit juice biscuits ought to be admirably suited for use in the
Navy. Without entering into the question as to whether it is the citric acid,
or the phosphatic salts, or the potash, contained in the lime-juice that is the
real anti-scorbutic agent, it is sufficient to say that the 40 per cent, of Mont-
serrat lime-fruitjuice preserved by Dr. Morfit’s process, and incorporated with
the biscuits, has preserved all its properties without any change for more than
a year, and, a priori, there is no reason to suppose that it would not keep good
for ten or twenty times that period. It may be mentioned, in conclusion, that
the different jellies may be dried into hard tablets or flakes at a uniform tem-
perature of from 38° to 40° C., and sent into the market in this convenient form ,
as well asunder the more bulky guise of biscuits. A few cases of lime-fruit
juice tablets, prepared according to Dr. Morfit’s method, would probably have
saved the lives of several brave men during the late expedition to the Polar
regions. Speaking from a purely scientific point of view, and judging by the re-
sults we have already described, the principle of Dr. M orfit’s invention seems to
be theoretically a sound one. These results we must regard at present as ten-
tative, and it only remains to the inventor of the process to confer a large
benefit on the community by extending its application, thereby notably in-
creasing our not too abundant stock of hygienic and alimentary products.

The Ross microscope, as remodelled by Mr. F. H. Wenham, and described
in the “ Quarterly Journal of Science” for 1873 (p. 422), has again been
greatly improved by the same ingenious gentleman. The general form of the
stand resembles the former one, but the weight has been diminished without

Scientific Notes.

428

[July,

in any way interfering with its stability. The stage is also somewhat lower,
rendering manipulation more convenient. The fine adjustment no longer ads
upon an adapter in the nozzle, but bears diredly upon a slide carrying the
whole body of the instrument. This contrivance gives great accuracy and
steadiness of movement, and prevents the alteration of magnifying power in-
separable from the older contrivance, and which gives great trouble when
micrometers are in use. The stage has been simplified and rendered extremely
thin, without sacrificing any useful movement. Below the stage the American
swinging bar has been adopted, allowing the mirror, with the whole of the very
simple yet effedive sub-stage apparatus, to be moved out of centre, even to
the extent of being placed above the stage, while its accurate placing in the
axes of the microscope when required is secured by means of a clamping-
screw. The scope offered for the employment of great variety of oblique
illumination by simple contrivances, such as spare objedives and eye-pieces
used as condensers, will suggest itself, while the microscope will still carry
every other kind of illuminator. Notwithstanding these advantages, the sim-
plification in construdion has enabled the stand to be made at 25 per cent
less cost than its predecessor.

The adjustment collar, a source of much trouble to the less expert observers
with high powers of large angular aperture, has been dispensed with in an
objedive construded by Herr Zeiss, of Jena, at the suggestion of Mr. J. W.
Stephenson, F.R.A.S., from the formula of Prof. Abbe. The objedive is on
the immersion principle, and depends for its properties upon a fluid being em-
ployed having the same refradion and dispersion as crown glass. After many
trials it was found that oil of cedar-wood gave perfed definition with oblique
light, but for central illumination was greatly improved by the addition of
one-fourth or one-fifth of oil of fennel seed (01. Fceniculi). The objedive
has a balsam angle of 1130 = D25 numerical aperture.* It has a large working
distance. The space between the front lens and the objed is o‘02, which
gives a working distance 0 012 for o'ooS cover-glass, o’oi6 for o’oo/j., and so
on. Its power is rather more than one-ninth, and, having component lenses
throughout the combination larger than in other objedives of the same power,
it transmits more light.

Two numbers of the “ Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society ” have
been issued. Although the amount of printed matter is less than under the
former arrangement, and the issue is only bi-monthly instead of monthly, the
Fellows of the Society are decidedly gainers by the change, as— the Council
now having entire control over the publication of their Transadions— a quan-
tity of controversial matter, which detraded greatly from the status of the
former journal, is rigidly excluded. Besides papers read before the Society,
the Journal contains a well-compiled abstrad of Microscopy from foreign and
other sources. It also contains a list of articles on microscopical subjeds,
published in various British and foreign periodicals.

The Atlas of Colorado, issued by the United States Geological Survey of
the Territories under Prof. F. V. Flayden, embodies the results of the geo-
logical and geographical work of the Survey during the years from 1873 to
1876 inclusive. This atlas will contain the following maps : — 1st. A general
drainage map of Colorado on a scale of twelve miles to the inch. 2nd. An
economic map of the same region, having as its basis the above-mentioned
drainage map. This map will indicate the areas of arable, pasture, timber,
coal, mineral, and desert land in as great detail as possible on the scale. 3rd.
A general geological map on which the areas covered by the principal for-
mations will be shown. The drainage map will form the basis for this also.
4th. A map showing the scheme of the primary triangulation in the State.
Scale twelve miles to the inch. 5th. Six topographical sheets, showing the
same area as that covered by the general drainage map, but in much more

* Numerical aperture is product of the sine of the semi-aperture with the refradtive index
of the medium in which the observation is made ( vide “ Description of Professor Abbe’s
Apertometer,” Trans. Roy. Micr, Soc., Dec. 5, 1877, vol. i., p. 19).

1 878.]

Scientific Notes .

429

detail. The scale of these sheets is four miles to an inch. The relief of the
country is indicated by contour lines, at vertical intervals of 200 feet. The
area covered by each of these sheets is 11,500 square miles. 6th. Six geolo-
gical sheets, of which the basis are the six topographical sheets just
mentioned. On these the detailed geology is expressed by colours.

The “ Mineralogical Magazine,” which contains the proceedings of the
Mineralogical Society, in addition toother interesting items about minerals,
has now attained its second year, and, judging by its contents, seems likely to
have many years of prosperity before it. Chemists, geologists, and minera-
logists alike will find valuable matter in its pages. Judging by the balance-
sheet, the Mineralogical Society appears to be growing in numbers and
worldly possessions.

Captain Burton’s expedition to the Land of Midian seems to have done a
large amount of good work in a shoit time. After four months’ absence, they
brought back an immense number of entomological and other specimens with
them, 25 tons of which were illustrative of the geology and mineralogy of the
districts through which they passed. The country seems a rich one. Several
gold deposits of an easily workable nature have been discovered in the south of
Midian, while in the north there are silver and copper deposits of great value.
Three turquoise mines were found, of which one is being roughly worked, be-
sides sulphur beds, rock salt, two salt lakes, gypsum mines, and alabaster
quarries. Part of the ores will be retained in Cairo for analysis, and the rest
sent to London and Paris. Colonel Gordon’s expedition through the Khedive’s
newly acquired territory in Southern Egypt- has also come across several
auriferous and argentiferous deposits, specimens of which have been sent to
M. Daubree, the diredor of the Paris School of Mines, for analysis.

The Hygienic Society of Paris has arranged with Captain M. Giffard for the
performance of a number of scientific experiments on the effeds of diminished
barometric pressure on respiration and other vital processes by the aid of his
giant captive balloon. We are glad to hear that this magnificent machine is
to be put to a scientific use.

The French Chamber of Deputies has voted a sum of 690,000 francs for the
construction of a new astronomical observatory at Meudon, near Paris, on the
site of the old chateau which was destroyed by the Germans in 1871. Of this
munificent sum, 390,000 francs is to be spent on a refrador, 250,000 francs
on the building, and the rest in extra salaries and incidental expenses. The
whole is expeded to be completed within two years. The separation of the
staff of the astronomical and meteorological departments has been decided
upon, and, taking advantage of the good example set them, the .Swedish Diet
has granted the sum necessary for building a separate meteorological obser-
vatory at Upsala, where so much good work has been done.

We regret to have to announce the death of the secretary and diredor of
the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., Joseph Henry, LL.D., which
occurred on Monday, May 13th. Professor Henry was born in Albany, in the
State of New York, December 17th, 1799. He became Professor of Mathe-
matics in the Albany Academy in 1826 ; Professor of Natural Philosophy in
the College of New Jersey, at Princeton, in 1832; and was eleded the first
Secretary and Diredor of the Smithsonian Institution in 1846. He received
the honorary degree of Dodor of Laws, from Union College, in 1829 ; and
from Harvard University in 1851. He was President of the American Asso-
ciation for the Advancement of Science in 1849 ; was chosen President of the
United States National Academy of Sciences in 1868; President of the Philo-
sophical Society of Washington in 1871; and Chairman of the Light-House
Board of the United States in the same year ; the last three positions he con-
tinued to fill until his death. Professor Henry made contributions to science
in eledricity, eledro-magnetism, meteorology, capillarity, acoustics, and in
other branches of physics ; he published valuable memoirs in the transadions
of various learned societies of which he was a member; andfdevoted thirty-

430

Scientific Notes . [July?

two years of his life to making the Smithsonian Institution what its founder
intended it to be, an efficient instrument for the “ increase and diffusion of
knowledge among men.”

At a Special Meeting of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institu-
tion, held on May 17, 1878, Professor Spencer Fullerton Baird, for many
years the assistant secretary of the Institution, was duly elected as the Sec-
retary of the Smithsonian Institution, to succeed the late Professor Joseph
Henry.

We are indebted to Prof. F. V. Hayden for an account of the field-work of
the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories,
under his direction, for the season of 1877. From it we learn that in 1874 the
photographic division of the United States Geological Survey was instructed,
in connection with its regular work, to visit and report upon ruins of an ex-
tensive and interesting character, which were known to exist throughout New
Mexico and Arizona, and in pursuance of this objeCt made a hasty tour of the
region about the Mesa Virde and the Sierra el Late, in South-western
Colorado, the results of which trip, as expressed by Bancroft, in the “ Native
Racesof the Pacific Coast,” “ although made known to the world only through
a three or four days’ exploration by a party of three men, are of the greatest
importance.” The following year the same region was visited by Mr. W. H.
Holmes, one of the geologists of the Survey, and a careful investigation made
of all the ruins. Mr. Jackson, who had made the report the previous year, also
revisited this locality, but extended his explorations down the San Juan to
the mouth of the De Chelly, and thence to the Moqui villages in North-
eastern Arizona. Returning, the country between the Sierra Abajo and La
Sal and La Plata was transversed, and an immense number of very interesting
ruins were first brought to the attention of the outside world by the report
which was published the following winter by Messrs. Holmes and Jackson, in
the survey, vol. ii., No. 1. The occasion of the Centennial Exhibition at
Philadelphia led to the idea of preparing models of these ruins for the clearer
illustration of their peculiarities, four of which were completed in season for
the opening of the Exhibition. A study of the models give a very excellent
idea of the ruined dwellings themselves. The first of these models, executed
by Mr. Holmes, with whom the idea originated, represents the cliff house of
the Mancos Canon, the exterior dimensions of which are 28 inches in breadth
by 46 inches in height, and on a scale of 1*24, or 2 feet to the inch. This is
a two-story building, constructed of stone, occupying a narrow ledge in the
vertical face of the bluff 700 feet above the valley, and 200 feet from the top.
It is 24 feet in length and 14 feet in depth, and divided into four rooms on the
ground-floor. The beams supporting the second floor are all destroyed. The
doorways, serving also as windows, were quite small, only one small aperture
in the outer wall facing the valley. The exposed walls were lightly plastered
over with clay, and so closely resembled the general surface of the bluff that it
becomes exceedingly difficult to distinguish them at a little distance from their
surroundings. The second model of this series was constructed by Mr. Jack-
son, and represents the large “ cave town,” in the valley of Rio de Chelly,
near its junction with the San Juan. This town is located upon a narrow
bench, occurring about 80 feet above the base of a perpendicular bluff some
300 feet in height. It is 545 feet in length, about 40 feet at its greatest depth,
and shows about 75 apartments on its ground-plan. The left-hand third of
the town, as we face it, is overhung some distance by the bluff, protecting the
buildings beneath much more perfectly than the others. This is the portion
represented by the model. A three-story tower forms the central feature ;
upon either side are rows of lesser buildings, built one above another upon the
sloping floor of rock. Nearly all these buildings are in a fair state of preser-
vation. This model is 37 by 47 inches, outside measurements, and the scale
i'j2, or 6 feet to the inch. A “ restoration ” of the above forms the third in
the series, of the same size and scale, and is intended, as its name applies, to
represent as nearly as possible the original condition of the ruin. In this the
approaches were made by ladders and steps hewn in the rock, and the
roofs of one tier of rooms served as a terrace for those back of them, showing

1878.]

Scientific Notes.

43i

a similarity, at least, in their construction to the works of the Pueblos in New
Mexico and Arizona. Scattered about over the buildings are miniature re-
presentations of the people at their various occupations, with pottery and
other domestic utensils. The “ triple-walled tower,” at the head of the
McElmo, is the subject of the fourth model. It was constructed by Mr.
Holmes, and represents, as indicated by its title, a triple-walled tower, situ-
ated in the midst of a considerable extent of lesser ruins, probably of dwell-
ings, occupying a low bench bordering the dry wash of the McElmo. The
tower is 42 feet in diameter, the wall 2 feet thick, and now standing some
12 feet high. The two outer walls inclose a space of about 6 feet in width,
which is divided into 14 equally-sized rooms, communicating with one another
by small window-like doorways. The next is a “ cliff-house ” in the valley of
the Rio de Chelly. It is about 20 miles above the cave town already spoken
of. This is a two-storey house, about 20 feet square, occupying a ledge some
75 feet above the valley, and overhung by the bluff. The approach from the
valley is by a series of steps hewn in the steep face of the rock; and this
method was the one most used by the occupants, although there is a way out
to the top cf the bluff. This model is 42 inches in height by 24 broad, and is
built upon a scale of i’36. Tewa, one of the seven Moqui towns in North-
eastern Arizona, is a very interesting and instructive model, representing, as
it does, one of the most ancient and best authenticated of the dwellings of a
people who are supposed to be the descendants of the cliff-dwellers. Tewa is
the first of the seven villages forming the province as we approach them from
the east, and occupies the summit of a narrow mesa some 600 feet in height
and 1200 yards in length, upon which are also two other somewhat similar
villages. The approach is by a circuitous road-way hewn in the perpendicular
face of the bluff which surrounds the mesa upon all sides. It is the only
approach accessible for animals to the three villages. Other ladder-like stair-
ways are cut in the rock, which are used principally by the water-carriers, for
all their springs and reservoirs are at the bottom of the mesa. This village is
represented upon a scale of 1 inch to 8 feet, or rg6. The dimensions of the
model are 36 inches in length, 29 inches in width, and 14 inches in height.
In the spring of 1877 Mr. Jackson made a tour over much of the northern part
of New Mexico, and westward to the Moqui towns in Arizona, and secured
materials for a number of very interesting models, illustrating the methods of
the Pueblos or town-builders in the construction ol their dwellings. Two
villages have been selected for immediate construction, as showing the most
ancient and best known examples of their peculiar architecture, viz : Taos
and Acoma; the one of many-storied, terraced houses, and the other built
high up on an impregnable rock. The model of Taos is now completed, the
dimensions of which are 42 by 39 inches, and the scale one inch to twenty
feet, 1 : 240. Of this town Mr. Davis says: It is the best sample of the
ancient mode of building. Here are two large houses three or four hundred
feet in length, and about one hundred and fifty feet wide at the base. They
are situated upon opposite sides of a small creek, and in ancient times are
said to have been connected with a bridge. They are five and six storeys
high, each story receding from the one below it, and thus forming a structure
terraced from the top to bottom. Each storey is divided into numerous little
compartments, the outer tier of rooms being lighted by small windows in the
sides, while those in the interior of the building are dark, and are principally
used as store-rooms. * * * The only means of entrance is through a trap-

door in the roof, and you ascend from storey to storey by means of ladders on
the outside, which are drawn up at night. Their contact with Europeans has
modified somewhat their ancient style of buildings, principally in substituting
doorways in the walls of their houses for those in the roof. Their modern
buildings are rarely over two storeys in height, and are not distinguishable
from those of their Mexican neighbours. The village is surrounded by an
abode wall, which is first included within the limits of the model, and in-
closes an area of eleven or twelve acres in the extent. Within this limit
are four of their estufas or secret council-houses. These are circular under-
ground apartments, with a narrow opening in the roof, surrounded by a

432

Scientific Notes.

palisade, ladders being used to go in and out. These models are first carefully
built up in clay, in which material all the detail is readily secured, and are
then cast in plaster, a mould being secured by which they are readily multi-
plied to any extent. They are then put in the hands of the artists and caiefully
coloured in solid oil paints to accurately resemble their appearance in nature,
and in case of restorations or modern buildings, all the little additions are
made which will give them the appearance of occupation. The Survey is in
possession of the data for the construction of many more models, and they
will be brought out as opportunity is given. They have also, in connection
with the views, multiplied many of the curious pieces of pottery which have
been brought back from that region by the various parties connected with the
survey.

Mr. J. J. Maclaren writes to ask us to correct an error which occurred in the
review of his work on the “Chemical Difficulties of Evolution,” which
appeared in the April number of this journal. He says: — “I am not the
author of the work on Darwin by James Maclaren (published in 1876), to
which your reviewer refers in his article, and, in so far as he has censured the
author of that work, he has been under a mistake, and has done that gentle-
man an injustice. If your reviewer will look at the title-pages and the prefaces
of the two books, he will at once see the mistake which he has made. As it
is, the similarity of name, and the accident that the excellent printing and
paper of the book to which your reviewer refers led me to employ the same
publisher, have led him into an error of which I am bound to take notice, and
which I am confident you will wish to correct at once.”

THE QUARTERLY

JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

OCTOBER, 1878.

I. FAMINES IN INDIA.
By Fred. Chas. Danvers.

EW, if any, countries of the world have escaped the
VE scourge of famine at one time or another of the
period of their national existence. The earliest ca-
lamities of this kind, of which any records exist, occurred
in Palestine and the surrounding countries, in the days of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ; but little is known of the
numbers and extent of the famines that occurred in the
world before the commencement of the Christian era, those
historians who have recorded such events being few and
far between, and the information they have furnished con-
cerning them is but scanty. It is not intended, on the
present occasion, to attempt to trace the famines of the
world, so far as the materials for that purpose might be
available, but to confine our observations and remarks to
those that have, in times past, desolated our Empire in the
East. Famines in Europe are not now of such frequent
occurrence as in bygone centuries, — indeed they may be
said to have altogether ceased ; but in India they appear to
occur more frequently than of old, and in greater severity
than formerly. In making this remark, however, it
must be observed that there is no sure evidence that
such is the case absolutely, but there certainly is tolerably
reliable proof that — in the East Indies, at least — they have
increased in severity within the last hundred years ; but
previously to 1770 the records of Indian famines are scanty,
and probably not wholly reliable as to details. A more im-
portant question for consideration than the mere frequency
of famines is, however, the cause of famines, and, conse-
quent upon that, the best means to be employed for meeting
VOL. viii. (n.s.) 2 F

434

Famines in India .

[October,

them, or for counteracting, to a greater or lesser degree,
their effects. Whatever may be the primary cause, or
causes, of the meteorological disturbances which interfere
with fhe usual amount of rain falling in any year, it seems
very questionable whether human ingenuity will be able to
devise means for regulating atmospheric phenomena ; never-
theless it is certain that the advancement of civilisation,
with its attendant circumstances, does, in some way or
another, not only render a land less liable to the scourge of
famine, but it also provides the means for mitigating its
effects on the occurrence of a visitation of this nature. The
events of recent years lead, however, to the painful conclu-
sion that — so far as India is concerned — practical civili-
sation has gone a very little way, when we find that hardly
more than a first step has yet been taken in the successful
application of our knowledge and material resources to
warding off calamities such as these. In India the amount
of annual rainfall varies considerably in different localities ;
for whilst Sind and parts of Rajputana and the Punjab are
comprised within an arid zone, and have an average rainfall
of less than io inches, the central table land of the Penin-
sula, known as the Deccan, and the greater part of Mysore,
have a fall of less than 30 inches, in the extreme east the
amount of rain reaches from 80 to upwards of 100 inches.
The absolute insufficiency of the rainfall, within the arid
zone, to support cultivation, has led the inhabitants of those
parts,, from the very earliest date, to make up for the defi-
ciency by turning the waters of the Indus and its feeder
rivers over the land during the season of agriculture. These
parts may therefore be fairly said to be placed beyond
serious risk of famine through drought, the rivers whence
their means of irrigation are obtained being fed by the per-
petual snows of the Himalayas ; and even though their
waters may occasionally partially fail, it appears that, when
this is the case, the inconvenience caused is very limited
and local, and of no serious moment. In Southern India
the enormous numbers of tanks, which owe their existence
to former dynasties, testify to the necessity that has, for
ages past, existed for the careful husbanding of water for
the purposes of irrigation.

The precautions taken in those parts where the rainfall is
but limited, to provide water for the soil, being, as they
were, unquestionably undertaken to provide against loss of
crops, and therefore against famine, it is not unreasonable
to suppose that the necessity of these works of artificial
irrigation was impressed upon the rulers, by whom they

1878.]

Famines in India .

435

were constructed, by the hard lesson of experience through
drought and famine. Although it is certain that India has
been subjected to famines from the very earliest ages, very
little information now exists regarding those that occurred
more than 108 years ago, but from that date there are to be
found tolerably accurate particulars of all that have since
taken place. Ferishta, the Persian historian, mentions a
famine in India during the reign of one Jei-chund, who was
Emperor of India between the years 503 and 443 B.C.
This is probably the earliest of which any record exists, and
after it there occurs a lapse of nearly 1500 years before the
next famine mentioned, which, it is stated, took place in
1022 A.D., a year remarkable for a great drought and famine
in Hindustan, as well as in many other parts of the world.
This was followed, after an interval of about thirty years,
by a seven years’ drought in “ Ghor,” which was accom-
panied by a considerable loss of life, both amongst men and
animals. The next famine mentioned occurred in 1291, in
the neighbourhood of Delhi, where no rain fell for a whole
year, and the same part appears to have been again visited
with a similar calamity in the year 1342. Two years later
there was a famine in the Deccan. In 1413 Delhi was once
more subjected to scarcity through drought, which appears
to have been principally felt in the country between the
Ganges and Jumna Rivers. The next famine recorded is
said to have occurred in Hindustan about the year 1495, but
neither its extent nor the particular localities affeCted are
more specially described. After this a considerable in-
terval occurs, no subsequent dearth being mentioned until
the year 1661. This famine is said to have prevailed in
different parts of India, and the Emperor Aurungzebe took
such measures as were within his power to alleviate the
distress of his subjects. He remitted the taxes that were
due ; he employed those already collected in the purchase
of corn, which was distributed among the poorer classes ;
and he expended immense sums out of the treasury in con-
veying grain by land, as well as by water, into the interior
provinces, from Bengal, and from the countries which lie
on the five branches of the Indus, which suffered less on
account of the great rivers by which they are watered.
The grain so conveyed was purchased, at any price, with
the public money, and it was re-sold at a very moderate
rate, whilst the poorer people were supplied, at fixed places,
with a certain quantity without any consideration whatever.
By these measures, it is stated, whole provinces were

2 F2

436 Famines in India . [October,

delivered from impending destruction, and many millions of
lives were saved.

This brings us to the end of the famines regarding which
information is obtainable from Mahommedan sources. The
Hindoos, with their well-known contempt for history, have
recorded nothing of a similar nature on the subject of
famines in the peninsula of India, and no light can there-
fore now be thrown upon the question as to how far that
part of the Indian Empire was, in early times, subject to
such visitations.

With the great famine of 1769-70 we enter upon the
commencement of a period from which the principal famines
of India have been chronicled by European historians ; but
it cannot be said with certainty that a full account of these
calamities, for the whole of India, began to be recorded
previously to 1860-61, in which year parts of the North-
western Provinces and the Punjab suffered severely from
drought, owing to the failure of the usual rains. For this
reason there can be little doubt that famines of greater or
less severity have occurred, within the past hundred years,
especially in the more remote parts of the Empire, of which
no particulars now are to he found ; and there are strong
reasons for believing that this has been the case, as legends
exist, amongst some of the older native inhabitants, of great
scarcity in certain years, and of its attendant calamities to
the people, of which, however, no more reliable information
can now be obtained. Without attempting to enter into
detail regarding the famines of the past century — which
would occupy far more space than could fairly be claimed
for that purpose — a brief account of some of the most noted
of these visitations will form an appropriate introduction to
a consideration of their causes, so far as this has as yet been
ascertained by scientific research, and of the best means to
be adopted with a view to relieve the districts affected from
their attendant consequences.

Subsequently to that in Northern India, of 1769-70, the
next severe famine visited the Carnatic, and the Settlement
of Madras in the years 1781 to 1783, which was, to a great
extent, brought about by the devastations caused by Hyder
Ali’s armies. The Settlement of Madras was reduced to
such straits for food that Government found it necessary to
take steps for regulating the supplies of grain, and in
January, 1782, a public subscription was raised for the relief
of the poor, from which originated the institution for the
relief of the Native poor, known as the Monegar Choultry.
In 1783-84 certain parts of Upper India are said to have

1878.]

Famines in India.

437

been seriously affeCted by drought, but, as the countries
which suffered most were not then subject to British rule,
very little information is obtainable relative to that famine.
In the years 1790 to 1792 there was a very serious drought
in the Madras Presidency, and at an early period Govern-
ment suspended the import and transit duties on all kinds
of grain and provisions, and themselves imported grain from
Bengal. Rice was distributed gratuitously by Government,
and relief was afforded by employing the poor on public
works. In 1824-25 Madras was again visited with famine,
which was caused by failure of rain in most of the provinces
of that Presidency, and more particularly in the Carnatic
and Western Districts; numbers of starving poor flocked
into Madras, and relief establishments were formed for them
partly by private charity and partly at the expense of
Government. The year 1837-38 was long afterwards re-
membered in consequence of the failure of rain, which
brought scarcity and famine to the North-western Provinces
and to Rajputana. No sooner had the serious pressure of
famine begun to be felt than the ordinary bonds of society
seemed to be broken by it. Beginning at Rohilkhund, the
population gathered into bands for plunder, and attacked
the grain stores in the larger villages and towns. This
calamity was of such intensity and magnitude as to have
been almost unmanageable, and the deaths from starvation
alone are believed to have exceeded 800,000. Relief Com-
mittees were formed for the distribution of private charity,
and Government expended very large sums in the employ-
ment of the population on relief works, in addition to which,
before February, 1838, no less a sum than £600,000, on
account of revenue, had been remitted.

The next serious famine seems to have occurred in
1860-61, the effects of which extended over the Punjab and
parts of the North-western Provinces, affecting districts
having a population of about 13 millions, and a cultivated
area, in ordinary Seasons, of 12,293,000 acres, of which
4,457,000 acres were thrown out of cultivation during the
famine period. Up to the 30th April, 1861, as many as
26 central and 75 district relief-houses had been established
in the famine districts, at which, on the average, 80,000 people
were relieved daily, and, besides this, a series of special
relief works was organised for the relief of the able-bodied
poor, upon which 143,500 people were, on the average, daily
employed. Owing to the better means of communication,
greater promptness in anticipating the effects of the drought,
and improved organisation for dealing with the distress, the

438 Famines in India. [October,

famine of 1860-61 was a much less awful calamity than that
of 1837-38. Four years later — viz., in I865-66 — Orissa,
Bengal, and Behar were visited hy famine, owing to the
premature cessation of the rains throughout the Lower Pro-
vinces of Bengal, in the middle of September, 1865. In
Behar this had been preceded by two years of bad crops.
The general distress amongst the lower classes was mani-
fested by a large increase in crime ; village granaries were
burnt and plundered, and extensive grain robberies — com-
mitted solely for the purpose of obtaining food — were of
constant occurrence. In June committees were formed,
funds raised for the relief of those incapable of work, and
employment was provided for the able-bodied on public
works.

Historical records show that Orissa has at various times
suffered from terrible famines. Great famines are said to
have occurred in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth
centuries of our era. The great famine of Bengal of 1770
was felt grievously in Orissa, and a few years later, in
3:774-75, another great scarcity is said to have occurred.
The last great famine, of the traditions of which the old
men speak, was in 1792-93, in the time of the Mahrattas ;
but none of a general character happened in the present
century before the year 1865-66. For the two preceding
years the crops had been below the average, and the failure
of rain in this year was immediately followed by serious
famine. It was very soon apparent that the consequent
distress could not be effectually met by local private charity ;
public works on a large scale were shortly put in hand to
give employment to the starving population, who were paid
the ordinary rate of money wages. Notwithstanding re-
peated applications for permission to import rice, on the
part of Government, owing to the failure of private enter-
prise to supply the necessary food to the affeCted districts,
they were persistently negatived, and the consequence was
that the works undertaken to relieve the distressed people
were to a very great degree inoperative, for want of rice to
feed the labourers. As the famine increased in intensity
Relief Committees were formed, by whom subscriptions
were raised and food distributed. At length public works
and relief works were stopped for want of food, and Govern-
ment then sanctioned the importation of rice for the relief
of the sufferers, and in July centres were established for the
distribution of cooked food.

In 1866 the Madras Presidency was also visited by
drought. The two years preceding had been generally

1878.]

Famines in India.

439

unfavourable to agriculture, but it was not till October, 1865,
that symptoms of distress began to show themselves, and
in the following month Government sanctioned the employ-
ment of the poorer classes on public works. By March,
1866, the distress had increased, and many relief depots
were opened by private subscription at several places in the
Ganjam district. In June the Bengal Government sanc-
tioned a grant of Rs. 20,000 from the balance of the North-
west Provinces Famine Relief Fund, which was chiefly
expended in grain, on the public account, and despatched to
Ganjam. Considerable funds were also raised locally, and
in Madras, for the relief of the distress of that district, and
the Madras Government sanctioned an expenditure of
Rs. 3000 per mensem, from the State Funds, for the same
purpose. In July a General Famine Relief Committee was
formed to collect subscriptions to alleviate the distress, and
Government promised to make contributions to the Relief
Fund equivalent in amount to the private subscriptions
which might be raised for the purpose, and sanction was, at
the same time, given for the employment of the able-bodied
among the sufferers on public works. The years 1S68 to
1870 were noted for an extensive famine which ranged from
Behar, over great parts of the North-west Provinces, the
Punjab, and Rajputana, and was caused by the failure of
the harvest of 1868 following upon an unfavourable season
in the preceding year. An untimely fall of rain in the
autumn of 1869 caused great anxiety, and the crops proved
very short. Generally speaking the famine had disappeared
in the North-west Provinces by October, 1869; but in Ajmir
and Mhairwarra a plague of locusts succeeded the drought,
and prolonged the sufferings in those parts until the close of
March, 1870, or even later.

The next famine visited Bengal and Behar, in the years
n:873-74. x^72 the rain was somewhat deficient, and the

following year was also a dry one, almost beyond precedent,
and what rain did fall was unfortunately distributed ; south
of the Ganges it was excessive, but in North Behar, and
almost the whole of Bengal, the rain was far below the
average. Coupled with deficient rainfall, the monsoon of
1873 was abnormally hot. The famine reached its culmi-
nating point in April and May, 1874, and it was completely
over by about October, 1874. The experience gained in
dealing with previous famines was of great value on this
occasion, and enabled Government successfully to meet the
calamity and organise systems of relief. Tolls were re-
moved from ferries and roads along the- chief routes for

44°

Famines in India .

[October,

grain transport ; assistance was given to bond fide importers
of grain, with loans of money without interest ; a number
of relief works were commenced, on which wages to labourers
were authorised to be paid in grain whenever the local price
reached famine rates ; storehouses for Government grain
were constructed on all the chief works ; and other facilities
were provided for the transport and distribution of food
through the ordinary channels of trade, or through the
agency of Relief Committees.

Little need be said here of the recent great famine in
Madras and Bombay. In 1875 the season was in many
places unpropitious, and in the following year the south-
west monsoon was deficient throughout the greater part of
the Madras Presidency and in portions of Bombay. In
Madras, famine first threatened in July, 1876, whilst in
October the whole of the nine districts of the Bombay
Deccan were seriously threatened, nearly all the monsoon
crops having perished, and there having been no later rains
to admit of sowing the rabi. The spring and summer rains
again failed in 18 77, and the distress became still greater gene-
rally throughout the affeCted districts. The relief measures
adopted by Government, and through private agency, have
so recently formed the subject of report and discussion in
the daily papers that any repetition on that point seems
unnecessary here.

We now turn from the foregoing brief historical summary
to a consideration of the scientific side of the question.
This divides itself into two heads, viz. (1), the causes of
famines; and (2), the means to be adopted for averting
them, on the one hand, or of mitigating their effects, on the
other.

A close examination into all the circumstances of past
famines shows that they have not been caused by the failure
of rains in one season only. The stocks of grain ordinarily
reserved in the country would appear to be sufficient, gene-
rally, to carry the people over a single season of drought,
and consequently of deficient harvest ; but when a famine
occurs it'has been the result of one or two consecutive bad
seasons, followed by one of unusual drought; and experience
thus teaches that the probable advent of a famine may be
anticipated, with at any rate sufficient exactness to enable
precautionary measures to be adopted in anticipation, with
a view to meeting the emergency should it arise. For-
tunately, India is capable of supplying far more food than
is required for the maintenance of her populations, even in
ordinary seasons, and as droughts occur only locally, and

Famines in India .

441

1878.]

have never hitherto been known to affedt the entire Empire
at one and the same time, the surplus produce of one dis-
trict is always available to supply the wants of others when
famine occurs in them. It is a point worthy of remark
that severe droughts in Northern India have, on several
occasions, followed closely upon distress similarly caused in
the Peninsula of India : thus, the Madras famine of 1781
to 1783 was followed by one which affedted Bengal, the
North-west Provinces, and the Punjab, in 1783-84 ; the
failure of rains which resulted in scarcity in many of the
provinces of the Madras Presidency, in 1824-25, was fol-
lowed by a similar calamity in the North-west Provinces in
the succeeding year. The “ Guntoor ” famine of 1833 pre-
ceded, only by a few years, one which affedted the North-
west and Lower Provinces of Bengal in 1837-38, and the
Madras famine of 1866 was very closely followed by one in
the North-west Provinces and the Punjab in 1868 to 1870.

Although no absolute famine has as yet threatened in
Northern India, following upon the recent disastrous and
long-continued calamity in the Peninsula, there are not
wanting signs which are causing no small amount of
anxiety with regard to crop prospers in other parts of the
Empire.

An attempt has been made to connect the occurrence of
severe famines in India with the periods of maximum sun
spots, the reason for which has, however, never been very
clearly enunciated ; neither has it been shown why such
solar phenomena should affedt one part of the world and
not others, or why the influences — whatever they may be —
should fall sometimes upon one part of India and sometimes
upon another ; indeed, the more this theory is investigated
the more untenable it appears to be ; but, even if it could
be established, it is to be feared that, with our present
limited knowledge of meteorological phenomena, but little
benefit could be derived from a knowledge of the fadt that
certain solar disturbances did influence terrestrial meteor-
ology.

Famines in India, excepting those of purely local origin
and extent, may be said to be caused by failure of the usual
rains ; failure, that is, not always in regard to quantity only,
but often also to distribution, for sometimes the rain will
fall so heavily at the commencement of the monsoon season
as to render agricultural operations impossible, and fail
altogether when the seed is at last sown and moisture is
required to bring the plant to maturity. Also, when there
has been a light fall only at the sowing season* excessive

442

Famines in India.

[Odtober,

storms will sometimes destroy the ripening crops before they
can be gathered in. These are, however, rather exceptional
cases, and, as a rule, failure in the quantity of rainfall,
rather than its unequal distribution, is the primary cause of
famine in India. Local famines have been caused by ex-
cessive floods in rivers, and by blight. The former, as we
shall presently see, is in a great measure capable of being
remedied, but for the latter we are unable at present to
suggest any practical cure.

The question as to how famines may be absolutely averted
is one upon which speculation may be allowed to indulge
itself, but absolute proof is wanting. England, Ireland, and
most parts of Europe were, in centuries past, visited by
many and severe famines, of much greater frequency than
at the present day ; but, with the advancement of civilisa-
tion, their tendency to occur has most sensibly diminished.
In dwelling upon this point it is of importance to distinguish
between the less frequency of failures of crops and the
altered conditions of European countries, in consequence
of which failure of crops in any one country would not ne-
cessarily mean famine, in the same sense as it once would
have done ; but it may be observed that, with the improve-
ment of Western countries in this respedt, the Eastern
hemisphere appears to have become more subjedt to severe
droughts than heretofore, and not only is this the case abso-
lutely, but these visitations — so far as the East Indies are
concerned— have of late years shown an evident tendency
to increase in severity and frequency, the causes of which
are at present unappreciated, but they are certainly deserving
of the most serious consideration and investigation by scien-
tific men, no less than by Government. A theory has of
late gained ground amongst certain enquirers into this
subjedt that the amount of rainfall is influenced by forests,
and that, in countries subjedt to drought, all that is neces-
sary is to plant trees in order to restore the proper seasons
of rainfall. How far this is supported by fadts is, however,
at present uncertain. We have instances of barren wastes
in Africa, Sind, and elsewhere, upon which rain hardly ever
falls ; whilst, on the other hand, there are the forest-clad
mountains of Northern and Western India, upon which the
amount of precipitation is excessively heavy. These may
be taken as two extremes ; but although illustrating the
fadts that in certain places where there is no foliage rain is
almost unknown, and that an abundance of rain and dense
forests occur together, they do not help to solve the problem
to what extent denudation of forest tradts may be permitted

1878.]

Famines in India.

443

without interfering with the average annual rainfall. From
meteorological observations taken in the Madras Presidency
it does not appear that this point has yet been reached, but
it is nevertheless contended by some that the destruction of
trees in the forests of Southern India has already been
carried to an extent absolutely injurious to the interests of
cultivation. If this be the case it follows that, although
the quantity of rainfall may not have been absolutely affeCted,
its periodic distribution may nevertheless be rendered less
certain and constant, the consequences of which would be
only in a small degree less disastrous to agriculture than
absolute drought ; but on this point, also, careful observa-
tions over extensive areas, and for a succession of years, are
necessary before any positive decision can be pronounced on
the subject. In one respeCt the influence of trees upon
rain, after it has fallen, has been well ascertained, and their
importance to the country in that respeCt most fully esta-
blished. In the absence of trees upon slopes and hill-sides
the rainfall rapidly rushes over the surface of the land to
the nearest drainage lines, in the steeper places carrying
with it the soil from the surface, destroying at one and the
same time the fertility of the land, and choking up the
drainage channels of the country ; also, in the absence of
the check to this rapid surface drainage, the rain-water over
large areas is rapidly precipitated into the nearest rivers,
filling them beyond the capacities of their channels, and so
causing floods in their lower reaches, especially where,
emerging from the hills, they enter upon the alluvial plains.
By the presence of trees these effects are prevented ; the
rainfall is arrested in its flow over the soil, and being re-
tained by lower growth, and the roots of trees, finds its way
into the soil, and thence by degrees, through underground
channels, into the rivers, whilst a considerable portion is
retained in the substrata, replenishing springs and filling
wells.

So far as experience at present teaches there do not
appear to exist any known methods by the adoption of
which famines can be actually averted, but they appear to
die out before the advance of civilisation, the effects of
which seemingly reaCt in numberless ways upon the physical
conditions of a country, which, in turn, exercise no inconsi-
derable change in the meteorological state of the atmo-
sphere. Many of these effects of civilisation are sufficiently
known to enable them to be defined, and although they may
doubtless be put into operation, upon a small scale, and in
detached localities throughout India, by the agency of

444

Famines in India.

[October,

Government, it would be hopeless to expert the full benefits
of the necessary changes to be felt, as they have been in
Europe, in practically rendering famines impossible, until
the populations themselves are sufficiently advanced in
moral and intellectual civilisation to appreciate the truths
involved in these measures, and endowed with sufficient
energy to carry them thoroughly into effeCt. It is only
when all the known means for mitigating the effects of
famines have been well established throughout the country
- — or, in other words, when civilisation, as it exists in the
Western Hemisphere, is finally and fully established in the
East — that there can he any serious hope entertained that
the calamitous visitations of famine, now so common in
India, will cease to occur.

The three principal measures to be adopted with a view
to mitigate the effects of famines are — (i.) The provision of
a complete system of communications throughout the
country. (2.) Improvements in the system of agriculture
generally. (3.) The construction of artificial irrigation
works wherever they may be practicable. With regard to
the first, viz., communications, there exist two rival plans,
each of which has its advocates ; the one plan comprising
railways as the chief arterial system of the country ; and
the other, lines of water communication. It can hardly be
necessary to say much upon this question. It is a faCt that
the whole of India has never yet, within historic periods,
been subjected to drought and famine throughout its length
and breadth at one and the same time ; it already grows
more food grain than is required for the supply of its popu-
lations under ordinary circumstances, and it exports wheat
largely to this country, as well as rice. At no time, it is
believed, has there been an aCtual scarcity of food in the
country, and it necessarily follows that suitable means of
communication alone are necessary to enable the surplus
produce of one district to be transported to another, where,
by reason of drought or other causes, the supply may be
deficient. In certain places, and under favourable condi-
tions, no doubt grain — in common with all other bulky
articles — may be more cheaply conveyed by water carriage
than by railways ; and, wherever a never-failing supply of
water can be relied upon, every encouragement should un-
doubtedly be given to improve what may be styled the
natural highways of the country, viz., its rivers, and in
certain circumstances it may even be desirable to render
irrigation canals suitable for navigation. Experience on
this latter point, in India, does not support the supposition

1878.]

Famines in India .

445

that expenditure incurred for the purpose will be directly
remunerative ; but then, also, neither are roads ; and the
arguments that are used in favour of spending money on
the latter class of works apply also to the former. Means
of communication in a country is the first necessity for the
introduction of civilisation, which almost naturally follows
upon the free communication and interchange of goods and
ideas between people. As civilisation becomes more ad-
vanced, improved means of communication are demanded,
and have to be supplied. In India, Western civilisation and
Indian semi-barbarism meet, and the requirements of the
latter are being supplied upon a scale calculated by the
experiences of the former ; and an advanced form of civili-
sation, in the shape of communications, is thus being forced
upon a people not yet educated up to the extent of their
country’s requirements. Nevertheless, railways may be
said to have proved not only a decided success in India, but
an absolute necessity in times of famine. No other means
of transport could have possibly met the recent requirements
of Southern India; and the experience gained during the
past two years, as to the value of the iron road, may be
expected to lead, in the immediate future, to a large exten-
sion of the railway systems in that country. What neither
navigable channels nor country roads could have accom-
plished has been done by railways, and the immense amount
of food which they have been instrumental in conveying
into the famine-stricken districts has proved the means of
saving, probably, some millions of people from starvation.
It is, therefore, by the judicious extension of railways, pri-
marily, that the principal movements of food will for the
future be conduced, and by maintaining an even balance—
as might be done — between supply and demand, the onerous
pressure of famine prices, as they have heretofore been ex-
perienced in seasons of drought, should be greatly mitigated,
and the occurrence of aCtual local famine be rendered im-
possible.

But although a perfect system of communications would
thus render absolute famine — such as has been hitherto
common in India — impossible, it would contribute nothing
towards the avoidance of drought, and the consequent
failure of crops. There can, however, be no doubt that, by
an improvement in the present system of cultivation, much
might be done towards rendering the crops less liable to
total destruction in seasons of deficient rainfall, and enabling
them better to withstand the effects of drought. Under
existing circumstances the contrary appears at present to be

446

Famines in India .

[October,

the case ; and instead of improvements in this direction, an
opinion is prevalent that the land generally is becoming
exhausted, and consequently less productive than it formerly
was. One reason for this may probably be that, with an
increase of population, fresh lands are broken up for culti-
vation which are generally of only inferior quality, and,
with the existing rude state of agriculture, often yield barely
sufficient to do more than cover the cost incurred ; whilst,
with regard to the better soils, the exhausting nature of the
tillage is gradually lessening their productive powers. The
use of manure is practised in India to a very limited extent,
dry crops being generally left entirely without it, and it
necessarily follows that the plant food in the soil must be
gradually becoming less and less, where everything is taken
from it and nothing returned. When a field becomes
barren it is thrown out of cultivation and left fallow for two
or three years, when the previous system of exhaustive cul-
tivation is again repeated as long as the land will produce
sufficient to pay for seed and labour. The general scarcity
of manure in India is, in a great measure, attributable to
the want of fire-wood, in consequence of which the dung of
cattle is used as fuel, instead of being ploughed into the
land as manure. The use of manure, especially in a hot
and dry country, is not limited to its value as a means of
plant food, when it contains organic matter. Mineral
manures are, no doubt, limited in their value to this pur-
pose ; but it has been ascertained, by careful experiment,
that the addition of organic matter to the soil not only
increases its power of absorbing moisture from the atmo-
sphere, but -makes it more retentive of moisture when once
absorbed, and therefore less liable to be desiccated by dry
winds and solar heat.

Next after manure, improved ploughing presents a means
of greatly benefitting the crops and the fertile properties of
the soil. By breaking up the land to a greater depth than
is now done, an unexhausted soil will often be disturbed,
possessing greater elements of fertility than the worn-out
upper stratum on which crops have been grown, perhaps
continuously, for hundreds of years past. Besides this, by
deepening the loosened surface, the land is rendered more
capable of absorbing rainfall, and permitting it to penetrate
to the lower strata, to which also the roots of plants are
enabled to reach, owing to the breaking up of the hard
“ pan ” which usually underlies the top three or four inches
of soil, which now, under the native system of cultivation,
alone are disturbed in the so-called process of ploughing.

1878.]

Famines in India .

447

Subsoil drainage, also, has been proved in India, as in
England, to be greatly conducive to good cultivation, and
its benefits have been fofind to be particularly marked in
seasons of drought. Dry soil, according to Prof. Liebig,
derives its moisture partly from the vapours of water in the
air, and partly by absorption from the deeper-lying moist
strata, from which a constant distillation of water is taking
place towards the surface. By drainage, the water, which
rises by capillary attraction, being placed at a greater depth,
the dry soil now derives from the lower strata a quantity of
moisture in the form of vapour which supplies the wants of
plants, and hence it appears that subsoil drainage renders
the land less liable to be seriously affeCted by drought ; and
so far it is calculated, under certain conditions, to mitigate
the effects which, in India, now invariably follow upon a
failure of the usual rains, or even their unequal distribution
during the monsoon season.

Another benefit to agriculture would also arise from the
more general presence of trees over cultivated areas. In
the first place their leaves would furnish material for
manure, whilst the dead wood and branches, by supplying
means for fuel, would enable the dung of the cattle to be
appropriated to its more legitimate use as manure. The
influence of trees over climate is also very important. By
the process of distillation which is ever taking place in the
surface of their leaves the temperature of the surrounding
atmosphere is lowered, whilst they also communicate
moisture to it owing to the process of evaporation which is
constantly taking place through their means. By thus ren-
dering the climate in their immediate vicinity. both cooler
and moister they contribute greatly to the interests of agri-
culture, and in only a somewhat lesser degree by the protec-
tion which they afford to the crops against wind and storms,
and to the soil from evaporation and drought against dry
winds and heat.

From whatever point it is viewed, improved agriculture
appears well calculated to contribute, in no small degree,
towards protection against famines in India, and it will un-
doubtedly do much to save crops from destruction in seasons
of drought, where artificial irrigation is not available.
When — from the vicinity of tanks, rivers, or canals — water
can be obtained to supply the deficiency of rain, every
advantage should undoubtedly be taken of its proximity to
protect crops during drought, and to increase the yield in
ordinary seasons ; but, under any circumstances, the area of
land which can be so watered must be but small compared

448

Famines in India .

[October,

with the total extent of cultivation throughout the country.
Some classes of irrigation works, too, are liable to fail from
want of water, at the very time when it is most in demand ;
and it is only those irrigation works which derive their water
from perennial rivers, whose supplies are not wholly de-
pendent upon fluctuating rainfall, which can be relied upon
as unfailing sources in times of greatest emergency. In
ordinary seasons irrigation works must always prove of
great advantage, for by enabling larger crops to be grown
than could otherwise be the case they must largely contri-
bute towards the well-being of the cultivators, and, by
rendering it possible for them to accumulate wealth, either
in the shape of grain or money, they will thereby be enabled
the better to endure the strain to which they are subjected
in years of famine.

The improvement and extension of communications,
whether they be roads, railways, or water navigation chan-
nels, and the multiplication of irrigation works wherever
they can be constructed, are means within the power of
Government to adopt for the protection of the people from
the effects of famine, and for the advancement of the gene-
ral well-being of the country. The multiplication of these,
or other great public works, is a matter with which the ad-
vancement of the people in intelligence has at present no
immediate connection, but as regards improved agricul-
ture the case is far different, and this will, and can, never
be introduced generally into the country until the people
themselves shall have been raised by education, both moral
and intellectual, from their present state to one of more
advanced civilisation. Towards this there can be little
doubt that railways will contribute more than any other
means at present available. The conclusion to be drawn
from a careful consideration of all the circumstances of the
case is, that there is no immediate remedy against famines
possible in India ; their effects may be mitigated by judicious
treatment locally, but their real cause, being like poison in
the human blood, must be dealt with in a patient and scien-
tific manner, and time allowed for the full and free aCtion of
western civilisation throughout the entire system, before it
can be expected that the medicine will effeCt a perfect cure,
and the East, like the West, be delivered from fear of those
visitations which now destroy her children, cripple her re-
sources, and check that advancement in material prosperity
which it might be hoped she would otherwise enjoy.

i878.]

Doctrine of Development .

449

II. THE PROGRESS OF THE DOCTRINE
OF DEVELOPMENT.*

SMONG the general public, and even to some extent
among men of Science who are not biological spe-
cialists, it is too commonly supposed that Evolu-
tionism sprang at once into full maturity from the brain of
Mr. Darwin ; that Darwinism and Evolutionism are con-
vertible terms ; and that the dodtrine is accepted with but
little scrutiny by the majority of modern naturalists more
as an article of faith than a scientific truth. Nothing could
be farther from the real state of the case. The theories of
Mr. Darwin are regarded as a mere tentative sketch, to be
revised, emended, filled in, or even cancelled, as future
observation and experiment may didtate. To this process
they are being constantly submitted, and the general result
may be stated to be that while the belief, or rather the con-
vidtion, of the truth of Evolution as “ God’s mode of
Creation ” is gaining ground, the precise agencies by which
Mr. Darwin supposed such Evolution to be mainly effedted
are looked upon by many with doubt, or are at least relegated
to a more subordinate position.

It is well known that Mr. Darwin, along with many of
his more immediate followers, ascribes the development of
species as we actually find them to two causes — both slow,
gradual, and uniform in their adtion. These are Natural
Seledtion and Sexual Seledtion, the former an utterly un-
conscious, but the latter a conscious, agency. To Sexual
— or, as it has been not unhappily styled, Female — Selec-
tion he attributes not indeed the origin of any new form of
life, but the ornamentation, and especially the colours, of
the higher animals, such as the vertebrates and insedts, and
especially the generally brighter hues and the decorative ap-
pendages which characterise the male sex. He argues that
the females having for ages past given the preference to the
most beautiful males of their respedtive species, these have
had a better chance of leaving a numerous offspring than
their less brilliant rivals, and have transmitted their

* Tropical Nature and other Essays. By Alfred R. Wallace. (London:
Macmillan and Co.)

All the Articles of the Darwin Faith. By the Rev. F. 0. Morris, B.A,
(London : Moffatt, Page, and Co.)

Zur Entwickelungs-Geschichte der Menscheit. By L. Geiger. (Stuttgart.)
VOL. VIII. (N.S.) 2 G

45o

The Progress of the

[October,

attractions to their male posterity. Thus, by the secular
action of this principle, he contends that the gorgeous hues
and exquisite designs of the wings of butterflies, the train
of the peacock, the secondary wing-feathers of the Argus
pheasant, the gorgets and crests of humming-birds, have
been elaborated. This hypothesis certainly harmonised
with a considerable number of striking facts previously un-
explained, and seemed at first glance to agree with many
more. Mr. Wallace, however, has long held this portion of
Mr. Darwin’s views to be erroneous, and brings forward
against it certain exceedingly weighty arguments. In an
earlier work, with which every naturalist ought to be
familiar/ he has shown that in female birds the need of
protection, especially during the season of incubation, has
repressed those bright colours which would otherwise be
produced by general laws in both sexes alike. He now
further argues that high colouration, if not directly due to,
is yet correlated with, vital intensity. “The very frequent
superiority of the male bird or insect in brightness or
intensity of colour, even when the general colouration is
the same in both sexes, seems to me to be primarily due to
the greater vigour and activity and the higher vitality of the
male. The colours of an animal usually fade during
disease or weakness, while robust health and vigour add to
their intensity. This is a most important and suggestive
fact, and one that appears to hold universally. In all
quadrupeds a dull coat is indicative of ill health or low
condition, while a glossy coat and sparkling eye are the
invariable accompaniments of health and energy. The
same rule applies to the feathers of birds, whose colours
are only seen in their purity during perfect health ; and a
similar phenomenon occurs even among insects, for the
bright hues of caterpillars begin to fade as soon as they be-
come inactive preparatory to undergoing their transforma-
tion.” Whenever there is a difference of colour between
the sexes the male is the darker or more strongly marked,
and the difference of intensity is most visible during the
breeding season, when vitality is at its maximum. It is
undoubtedly true that female birds do exercise a choice, but
the bulk of the evidence on this point, as collected by Mr.
Darwin himself, far from proving that such choice is deter-
mined by colour, points in a directly opposite direction.
The “ most vigorous, defiant, and mettlesome male ” seems
to be preferred. These attributes may be, and in a majority

Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection.

1878.] Doctrine of Development . 451

of cases doubtless are, correlated with intensity of colour.
But, if so, it is persistency and energy, rather than mere
beauty, to which success is due. Three eminent breeders
of poultry — Messrs. Hewitt, Tegetmeier, and Brent — in-
formed Mr. Darwin that they “ did not believe that the
females prefer certain males on account of the beauty of
their plumage.” Mr. Tegetmeier is convinced that “ a
game cock, though disfigured by being dubbed and with his
hackles trimmed, would be accepted as readily as a male
retaining all his natural ornaments.” Old hens, and those
of a pugnacious disposition, as Mr. Darwin states, quoting
Mr. Brent, “ dislike strange males, and will not yield until
well beaten into compliance ” — certainly a curious kind of
“ Female Selection.” Mr. Darwin himself admits that,
“ as a general rule, colour appears to have little influence
upon the pairing of pigeons.” The case of the hen canary
“ who chose for her mate a greenfinch, in preference to
either chaffinch or goldfinch,” also tells against Mr. Darwin’s
hypothesis. Nor is the instance of Sir R. Heron’s peahens
more fortunate. If these birds preferred a pied cock to one
normally coloured their conduct was a strange anomaly,
because, as Mr. Wallace remarks, “ pied birds are just
those that are not favoured in a state of Nature, or the
breeds of wild animals would become as varied and mottled
as our domestic varieties.” But if there is no sufficient evi-
dence that female birds in the choice of mates are influenced
by the beauty of the opposite sex, the case is still more
decided as regards butterflies. Here the males surpass the
most splendid male birds at once in brilliance of colouration
and in elegance of pattern, whilst the females in a multitude
of cases are comparatively plain and obscure. Yet there is
no evidence to prove that the female is at all influenced by
this beauty, “ or even that she has any power of choice.”
Mr. Darwin himself can find no more satisfactory argument
than the following : — “ Unless the female prefer one male
to another the pairing must be left to mere chance, and this
does not appear probable.” Yet we observe the males fight
and jostle each other in pursuit of a female, who submits
herself with indifference to the victor. Mr. Darwin admits
that in the case of the silk-moths “ the females appear not
to evince the least choice in regard to their partners.”
Would not the same rule be found to hold good with any
other Lepidopterous inseCt, if only observed as extensively ?
Here, as among birds, “ the most vigorous and energetic,
the strongest winged, or the most persevering, wins the
objeCt of his pursuit.” Mr. Wallace adds that “ Natural

2 G 2

452

The Progress of the

[October,

Selection would here aCt, as in birds, in perpetuating the
strongest and most vigorous males, and, as these would
usually be the most highly coloured of their race, the same
results would be produced as regards the intensification and
variation of colour in the one case as in the other.”

But now comes the question, why, if the females are not
attracted by the beauty of their mates, do the males make
such a striking display of the brilliance of their plumage ?
Of the faCt of such display there can be no doubt whatever.
But the main point — the question whether the choice of the
females is at all influenced by shades of colour or slight
differences in design—is totally unproven. There is no
evidence that the females admire, or even notice, the dis-
play. “ The hen, the turkey, and the pea-fowl go on
feeding while the male is displaying his finery.” The flut-
terings and dancings, the erection of tails and crests, are
probably a mere result of the exuberant energy with which
the male at this season is overcharged.

Mr. Wallace, however, founds his strongest argument on
the interference and opposition of Natural and Sexual
Selection. He says — “Natural Selection, or the survival
of the fittest, aCts perpetually, and on an enormous scale.
Taking the offspring of each pair of birds as on the average
only six annually, one-third of these at most will be pre-
served, whilst the two-thirds which are least fitted will die.
At intervals of a few years, whenever unfavourable condi-
tions occur, five-sixths, nine-tenths, or even a greater pro-
portion of the whole yearly production, are weeded out,
leaving only the most perfect and best adapted to survive.
Now, unless these survivors are on the whole the most
ornamental, this rigid Natural Selection must neutralise
and destroy any influence that may be exerted by Female
Selection. The utmost that can be claimed for the latter is
that a small fraction of the least ornamented do not obtain
mates, while a few of the most ornamented may leave more
than the average number of offspring. Unless, therefore,
there is the strictest correlation between ornament and
general perfection, the more brightly coloured or ornamented
varieties can obtain no permanent advantage ; and if there
is (as I maintain) such a correlation, then the sexual selec-
tion of colour or ornament, for which there is little or no
evidence, becomes needless, because Natural Selection —
which is an admitted vera causa— will itself produce all the
results. In the case of butterflies the argument becomes
even stronger, because the fertility is so much greater than
in birds, and the weeding out of the unfit takes place, to a great

453

1878.] Doctrine of Development.

extent, in the egg and larva state. Unless the eggs and larvae
which escaped to produce the next generation were those
which would produce the more highly-coloured butterflies,
it is difficult to perceive how the slight preponderance of
colour sometimes selected by, the females should not be
wholly neutralised by the extremely rigid selection for
other qualities to which the offspring in every stage are
exposed.”

The above considerations, we submit, fully warrant natu-
ralists, if not in the utter rejection of conscious Sexual
Selection, at any rate in placing it in a kind of suspended
position, to be condemned except some unexpected piece of
evidence should be brought to light in its favour.

But we may venture farther, calling especial attention to
the words we have italicised. No one who has made ob-
servations with even moderate care, upon any department
of the animal kingdom, can doubt the sharpness of the
struggle for existence, or can deny that of the eggs depo-
sited by a female butterfly but a very small fraction ever
come to maturity. Many no doubt, as Mr. Wallace states,
perish as such without ever seeing the light at all. But
how is this effected ? Every egg of the whole brood is
equally and similarly helpless in case of the approach of a
devourer or a parasite. None of them can escape by dint
of any strength, swiftness, or cunning which it may possess
in excess of the rest. Without absolutely saying that no
variation can ever be traced among the eggs laid by one
mother, we are warranted in declaring that any difference,
either in colour, shape, odour, or other properties, which
may cause egg a to be less easily perceived, or when per-
ceived by an enemy to be more readily rejected, than eggs
b, c, and d must be exceedingly trifling, and that the immu-
nity thus gained must be regarded as a mere vanishing
quantity. For one that escapes in virtue of such properties
ten will owe their survival to what — humanly speaking — -
must be pronounced mere chance. One egg, without pos-
sessing any attribute of superiority or greater fitness, may
have been deposited by its mother in a less conspicuous
place than the rest. One egg may have perished, not from
any comparative imperfection or want of fitness on its part,
but because some ovivorous or parasitical insect chanced to
pass over the particular leaf to which it was attached.
Numbers of other causes might be mentioned — as far as we
can judge perfectly accidental— upon which the quickening
or the death of an egg may depend. Here, therefore, is no
selection, no weeding out, but a destruction of one portion

454

The Progress of the

[October,

and a preservation of the rest with as little reference to any
properties they possess as if the momentous question had
been decided by lot.

From the egg we pass to the larva. Here there are un-
doubtedly greater individual differences. We can well
admit that one caterpillar may have keener senses to per-
ceive the approach of danger, greater agility in escaping,
more cunning in concealment, an odour less attractive to
enemies than have others, and may thus derive an advan-
tage over them in the struggle for existence, and may thus
fairly be pronounced more fitted for the conditions under
which it must exist, and better adapted to survive. But
here also a vast number of cases must occur in which
chance alone can decide. The totally accidental matter of
position at some momentous time may be of far greater
consequence for the life of a larva than a slight variation
in any of the points just enumerated. Thus an ichneumon
may oviposit in the bodies of caterpillars a , b, c, &c., whilst
caterpillar a; may escape from the simple fadt that the
enemy’s stock of eggs ready to be deposited was exhausted
before she reached it. Or two larvae upon two different
plants may each be threatened by the approach of an
ichneumon. But the one invader may become entangled in
the web of a spider or be snapped up by a bird, whilst the
other meets with no hindrance and effedts her purpose.
In the pupa state, again, no small portion of the deaths
take place ; and here we have a reversion almost to the
conditions of the egg. Without any reference to attributes
of their own; some pupse may have been discovered by
birds, by field-mice, by hedgehogs, and by other of the
numerous birds, beasts, or insedts who consume such prey
with readiness, whilst others by pure accident may have
escaped. Whatever effedt the first small steps of variation
may have had in determining the survival of any given
individual, it seems insignificant compared with the effedts
of chance. The condition of a Lepidopterous insedt, from
the egg to its emergence as imago, seems very much like
that of the inmates of a town under the inflidtion of a
heavy bombardment. It may perish or it may survive,
neither alternative being so much determined by its own
peculiar attributes as by the position which it occupies at
some given moment. With the mature butterfty the case is
different. We can well conceive that variations in point of
speed, not relatively greater than such as are well known
to occur between individuals of one species, may turn the
scale for life or for death, and can thus imagine the gradual

1878.] Doctrine of Development. 455

elimination of the slower and the preservation of the swifter
forms.

From butterflies we pass to birds. In a work containing
much with which we are unable to agree,* the author, con-
tending that over-preserving and the extirpation of hawks
have not led to the multiplication of weak and sickly grouse,
which formerly would have been improved away, and have
left more scope for their stronger and healthier fellows,
argues that it is not the weaker and slower birds which fall
victims to the falcon. The celerity of this destroyer is so
tremendously in excess of that of the fleetest grouse that
all differences in speed among the latter birds utterly vanish.
The strongest-winged and most vigorous moorcock, if once
espied in the air by the enemy, has practically no greater
chance of escape than a feeble and sickly bird. On the
contrary, the boldest and most energetic grouse, who may
fairly be assumed to be, as a rule, the healthiest, will fall
victims more frequently than their weaker brethren, from
the mere fact that they are more active and venturesome,
and hence more likely to be on the wing. The effects ot
the co-existence of falcons and grouse in any country will
be, therefore, not the development of a form of the latter
better adapted for rapid flight, and ultimately, in the course
of many generations, endowed with longer and more pointed
wings, but merely a thinning of numbers, which will tell
equally upon the strong and the weak, and which in some
cases may even give an advantage to the latter.

This argument of Mr. Morant’s concerning the influence
of the falcon upon the development of the grouse appears
to us applicable not merely to this individual instance, but
to every case where a bird or a beast has to struggle for
existence against enemies greatly its superiors in speed, in
strength, or in general resources. Slight increments of
swiftness or force, trifling improvements in offensive or de-
fensive arms, would be absolutely thrown away under such
circumstances, however valuable they might be as against
an enemy but slightly superior to the original form. Hence
there are numbers of cases where it must become question-
able how, on the principle of Natural Selection, advances
in these important directions are to be effected. If variation
proceeds not at one uniform rate and by gradations almost
imperceptible, but occasionally by more rapid movements,
the matter is entirely different. Nor are considerations of

* “ Game-Preservers and Bird-Preservers.” See Quarterly Journal of
Science, vii., 145.

The Progress of the

[October,

456

speed and strength isolated in this respeCt. Something very
similar will prevail concerning the advantage which animals
gain by their so-called “ protective ” resemblances, either to
other species or to their inanimate surroundings. Let us
suppose a creature ill-adapted to escape from its enemies
by speed or strength ; conspicuous in its form and colour-
ation, and therefore unable to conceal itself ; and, lastly,
attractive to the smell and taste of rapacious animals, and
consequently eagerly sought for by them as food. If, now,
one individual of the species varies in colour from the
normal standard in a direction slightly verging towards a
protective hue, the advantage that it will hence derive in
the struggle for existence will be equally trifling, even al-
though a multiplicity of steps such as it has just taken
might finally render the modified form scarcely perceptible
to its enemies. Or we may suppose that one individual of
the persecuted species takes the first step towards the deve-
lopment of a repulsive odour. Here, also, its chances of exist-
ence will not be perceptibly increased, though its devourer, if
able to reflect so far, may perhaps think that the morsel was
not quite so good as usual.

We submit, therefore, that under a multitude of circum-
stances, if variations of colour or odour, or augmentations
of speed, are to give the individual thus modified a greater
chance of survival, they must either occur simultaneously
in a considerable number of specimens, or they must be
advances in the required direction, not slight and scarcely
perceptible, but well-marked.

There is another and a different consideration which in
our opinion must not be overlooked, as powerfully tending
to modify the influence of Natural Selection. It has been
argued that individuals favourably modified in any way, but
especially as regards strength or swiftness, will stand a much
better chance, not merely of escaping their enemies or se-
curing their prey, but also of obtaining mates and leaving
offspring. Yet, so far as birds are concerned, this advan-
tage, be it great or small, appears to be neutralised. In
Mr. Wallace’s work we find the following passage: —
“ Again, the evidence collected by Mr. Darwin himself
proves that each bird finds a mate under any circumstances.
He gives a number of cases of one of a pair of birds being
shot, and the survivor being always found paired again
almost immediately. This is sufficiently explained on the
assumption that the destruction of birds by various causes
is continually leaving widows and widowers in nearly equal
proportions, and thus each one finds a fresh mate, and it

1878.] Doctrine of Development . 457

leads to the conclusion that permanently unpaired birds are
very scarce ; so that, speaking broadly, every bird finds a
mate and breeds.”

Mr. Morant also remarks that there must exist somewhere
“ an establishment for unmarried female falcons.”

Mr. Wallace very justly argues that this fad must coun-
teract the effects, if any, of Sexual Selection. But it is
scarcely less hostile to the action of Natural Selection.
Granting that the pairs, as first formed, are composed of the
strongest and most vigorous males and of the finest and
healthiest females. But after a short time of the non-
seleCtive slaughter carried on, if not by man, yet by hawks,
ravens, wild cats, weasels, snakes, and other bird-destroyers,
the rejected of either sex find themselves mated, and of
course become parents, substantially to as great a degree as
their more favoured rivals. It may of course be contended
that this indiscriminate slaughter falls equally upon the
mated and the unmated. We doubt the correctness of this
supposition : birds in the various operations connected with
nest-building, hatching, and feeding their young, have to
expose themselves necessarily more to danger than their
bachelor and spinster neighbours. Among the lower ani-
mals, as well as among mankind, the pleasures and advan-
tages of married life have, it seems, to be paid for.

Hence, without at all seeking to deny the existence and
working of Natural Selection as a force effecting modifica-
tions in organic life, which may often extend to the forma-
tion of what we call species, we feel bound to admit that
its influence is checked and modified in a variety of
manners.

In Mr. Wallace’s work another interesting question is
discussed with results which further strengthen us in the
belief that Evolution must have other — and probably more
powerful — causes, and has at all events not always been
effected by uniform and imperceptible gradations.

We are here reminded that the progressive development
of the senses — a point scarcely as yet sufficiently investi-
gated— is one of the most efficient ways in which animals
may become modified in harmony with varying circum-
stances. An individual bird or beast, if possessing sharper
sight, more delicate hearing or scent, than the bulk of its
fellows, must plainly have a great advantage in the struggle
for existence. It will be sooner warned of the approach of
an enemy ; it will more readily deted the presence of its
prey, and will escape a number of subtle dangers to which
it might otherwise succumb. Thus most of our readers

45§

The Progress of the

[October,

will be familiar with the curious case of the pigs in Virginia
mentioned by Mr. Darwin. All white pigs, it appears, were
destroyed by feeding upon a certain root which took no
effeCt upon black pigs. This remarkable phenomenon is
ascribed by Mr. Darwin to a constitutional peculiarity con-
nected with the dark colour, the black animals enjoying a
perfect immunity from the effects of a poison which was
fatal to all of the white variety. Dr. Ogle, however, gives
a different and more probable explanation. He remarks
that we have no evidence that the black pigs partook of the
root at all. He considers that it possessed an odour or a
flavour offensive to their senses, while the white pigs — en-
dowed with less acute and discriminating smell and taste —
ate it and perished. This faCt is an admirable instance of
the importance of acute senses to the preservation and
multiplication of a species. Yet at the same time an
advance in this respeCt can rarely be assumed to modify
the structure of an animal or cause it to develope into a
new species, even though acuteness or dulness of the senses
may be respectively correlated with certain colours.

With the acuteness of the senses and its progressive
development is naturally connected the history of colour,
odour, and flavour in the world. Have the faculties and
their objects been evolved in mutual harmony ? Especially
was colour existent before the colour-sense of animals had
become able to recognise it — a process which, as we learn
from the existence of colour-blindness, is even yet not
complete. Are we to expeCt further advances as in the
faculty, so in what it perceives ?

Mr. Wallace considers that “ when the sense of sight was
first developed in the animal kingdom, we can hardly doubt
that what was perceived was light only, and its more or less
complete withdrawal. As the sense became perfected, more
delicate gradations of light and shade would be perceived.
At what grade in animal development the new and more
complex sense — which takes cognizance not merely of the
quantity of light, but also of its quality — -first began to
appear we have no means of determining.” It was a some-
what prominent tenet of the old Natural History that the
phenomena of colour, and indeed of ornamentation, in
Nature, existed mainly in reference to man and with a view
to his delectation. Mr. Wallace by no means agrees with
many leading modern naturalists in the complete rejection
of this assumption. He asks — “And even now, with all
our recently acquired knowledge of this subject, who shall
say that these Old-World views were not intrinsically and

1 878.]

Doctrine of Development.

459

fundamentally sound ; and that, although we now know
that colour has uses in Nature that they little dreamt of,
yet the relation of those colours— -or rather of the various
rays of light — to our senses and emotions may not be
another, and perhaps more important, use which they sub-
serve in the great system of the Universe.” Elsewhere he
remarks that “ the extreme diversities and exquisite beauties
of colour seem out of proportion to the causes that are
supposed to have produced them, or to the physical needs
to which they minister.” And again : — “ It is hardly con-
ceivable that the material uses of colour to animals and to
ourselves required such very distinct and powerfully con-
trasted sensations ; and it is still less conceivable that a
sense of delight in colur, per se, should have been necessary
for our utilisation of it. The emotions excited by colour
and by music alike seem to rise above the level of a world
constructed on purely utilitarian principles.” Yet at the
same time he declares, and truly, that he has shown reasons
for believing that the presence of colour in some of its
infinitely-varied modifications is more probable than its
absence, and that variation of colour is an almost necessary
concomitant of variation in structure, development, and
growth. On the colour-sense in animals he remarks “ that
the higher vertebrates, and even some inseCts, distinguish
what are to us diversities of colour, hut this by no means
proves that their sensations of colour bear any resemblance
to our own. An insect’s capacity to distinguish red from
blue or yellow may be (and probably is) due to perceptions
of a totally distinct nature, and quite unaccompanied by
any of that sense of enjoyment, or even of radical distinct-
ness, which pure colours excite in us. Mammalia and
birds, whose structure and emotions are so similar to our
own, do probably receive somewhat similar impressions of
colour, but we have no evidence to show that they experience
pleasurable emotions from colour itself when not associated
with the satisfaction of their wants or the gratification of
their passions.”

There is here, it appears to us, some little assumption.
We have certainly no evidence that birds and beasts expe-
rience pleasurable emotions from colour alone. But what
evidence have we to the contrary ? The capacity of an
inseCt to distinguish colours may be accompanied by any of
that sense of enjoyment which pure colours excite in us.
But why should we pronounce this probable ? Still more,
why should its power to distinguish colours be unaccompanied
by a sense of radical distinctness ? Quite admitting that the

460

The Progress of the

[October,

sight-organs of inserts may differ from our own no less in
mode of action than they do in structure, we should he pre-
pared to expert that their perceptions may in nicety and
accuracy surpass our own. Mr. Wallace himself, in his
“ Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection,” says
“ their [inseCt’s] sight may far exceed ours both in delicacy
and in range.” In the present work, also, Mr. Wallace treats
of colour as affording a means of mutual recognition, of
especial value to insects, though he adds that “ in birds
such marked differences of colour are not required, owing
to their higher organisation and more perfect senses.” Now
we have certainly no faCts to prove that the sense of smell
in birds ever attains anything like the delicacy and accuracy
which are evinced in the case of certain inserts — those, for
instance, who are caught by the stratagem of “ sembling.”*

The brilliant and striking colouration of many berries
Mr. Wallace considers may subserve the dissemination of
the species. Birds attracted by the colour swallow the
berry, and void the seeds in localities where they may take
root. The same brilliant hues occur also, however, in
larger fruits, where the seeds are never swallowed. Both
birds and inseCts show that they are perfectly able to dis-
tinguish a ripe cherry, plum, or peach from one that is still
green, and generally confine their attentions to the more
highly coloured sunny side ; but the stone is left hanging on
its stalk. Consequently the possession of striking colours
by the fruit, and the recognition of such colours by birds,
wasps, butterflies, &c., does not aid in the multiplication of
the tree.

Mr. Darwin and Mr. Wallace both seem to agree that the
highly-coloured spots on the wings of butterflies, being
generally placed remote from any vital organ, may have a
protective effeCt, causing birds to strike at these parts rather
than at the head or body. If, however, we carefully con-
sider the flight of a butterfly, we shall be inclined to doubt
whether a blow aimed at the tips of the wings might not be
quite as likely to fall upon the body.

Public attention has lately been drawn to a point in the
history of colour-perception in our own species, which at
first sight seems to have an important bearing upon the
antiquity of man and the rate of his intellectual develop-
ment, as well as to throw a useful side-light upon sexual
selection, upon mimetism, and other phenomena among the
lower animals. It is well known that a large proportion of

* Quarterly Journal of Science, vol. viii., p. 304 (July, 1878).

1878.] Doctrine of Development . 461

living men and women in modern civilised nations (according
to some authorities about 5 or 6 per cent), whilst perfectly
able to distinguish by the eye the outline and texture of any
objeCt placed before them, its apparent distance, and its
degree of illumination, fail more or less completely to
recognise colours. To such persons scarlet and green are
respectively undistinguishable, and are both liable to be
confounded with grey. In other cases the eye perceives no
difference between blue and yellow, and in some extreme
instances the solar speCtrum appears merely as a band
lighter in some portions and darker in others, and all objects
are viewed as if by a monochromatic light.

But imperfeCt as is the human colour-sense at the present
day, there is, in the opinion of some, evidence that it has
distinctly advanced within the brief span known as “ histo-
rical time.” Philologists have been struck with the faCt
that in the most ancient writings extant, such as the Bible,
the Vedas, the Zendavesta, and the poems of Homer, no
definite nomenclature for colours can be traced.

The phenomena of colour seem to have attracted less
attention at the times when the above writings were pro-
duced than at the present day. One and the same term is
applied to blue, to green, and to black objects. Iron is
called by Homer “ violet-coloured.” In the autumn of
1877 an article by Mr. Gladstone on the colour-sense, as
exhibited in the poems of Homer, appeared in the “ Nine-
teenth Century,” and has since been reproduced in the
“ Revue Internationale des Sciences.” The writer there
formally undertakes to show that the few colour-terms used
by Homer are applied to objects so different among them-
selves “ that they cannot denote colours as we perceive and
differentiate them, but seem more applicable to different
intensities of light and shade. Thus, to give one example,
the word porphureos (ordinarily rendered purple) is applied
to clothing, to the rainbow, to blood, to a cloud, to the sea,
and to death, and no one meaning will suit all these appli-
cations except comparative darkness.” In other cases the
same objeCt has varying colour-terms applied to it, the
meaning of these being indicated merely by a reference to
other objects fluctuating in themselves, so that the difficulty
of determining what hue the writer meant in any particular
case is insuperable. “ Mr. Gladstone concludes that archaic
man had a positive perception only of degrees of light and
darkness, and that in Homer’s time he had advanced to the
discrimination of red and yellow, but no further, the green
of grass and foliage and the blue of the sky being never
once referred to,”

462

The Progress of the

[October,

But the very same want of reference to definite colours
and the same poverty of colour-terms may he traced in lite-
rature very much later than the epoch of Homer. Thus
Latin authors who flourished as late as the first century of
the Christian era apply the word ccemleus to sky-blue, to
steel-blue, to the colour of the human eyes, to the olive tree,
and to dark grey and black objects ; viridis , commonly ren-
dered green, is used by Virgil for the colour of the human
face when turning pale, and by Pliny for the hue of the
clear heavens ; purpureus is applied to the poppy, to the
rainbow, to the violet, the rose, the willow, the human hair,
the sea, and to the face when blushing. The colour of the
sky is never mentioned in the Koran, and, according to
Geiger, is first clearly alluded to in an Arabic work of the
ninth century.

Now, that the vision of man, and indeed of all animals,
was at one time monochromatic, and has gradually reached
its present stage of development by a passage through some
of the phases of what we now call colour-blindness, — which
must he regarded as a reversion to an earlier condition, —
we feel no difficulty in admitting. But that the human
colour-sense should remain in a condition so rudimentary
down to the days of Homer, and even of Aristotle, Pliny,
and Vitruvius, and should then advance by “ leaps and
hounds ” to its present condition, is an assumption difficult
to realise, and scarcely compatible with our modern evidence
concerning the antiquity of our race.

Mr. Wallace, with his usual acute insight, detedts an
error in the conclusion to which Mr. Gladstone has been
led. He remarks : — “ These curious fadts, however, cannot
he held to prove so recent an origin for colour-sensations as
they would at first sight appear to do, because we have seen
that both flowers and fruit have become diversely coloured
in adaptation to the visual powers of insedts, birds, and
mammals. Red being a very common colour of ripe fruits
which attract birds to devour them, and thus distribute
their seeds, we may be sure that the contrast of red and
green is to them very well marked. It is indeed just pos-
sible that birds may have a more advanced development of
the colour-sense than mammals, because the teeth of the
latter commonly grind up and destroy the seeds of the larger
fruits and nuts which they devour, and which are not usually
coloured ; but the irritating effedt of bright colours on some
of them does not support this view. It seems most pro-
bable, therefore, that man’s perception of colour in the time
of Homer was little, if any, inferior to what it is now, but

1878.]

Doctrine of Development .

463

that, owing to a variety of causes, no precise nomenclature
of colours had become established. One of these causes
probably was that the colours of the objects of most im-
portance, and those which were most frequently mentioned
in songs and poems, were uncertain and subject to variation.
Blood was light or dark red, or when dry blackish ; iron was
grey or dark, or rusty ; bronze was shining or dull ; foliage
was of all shades of yellow, green, or brown ; and horses or
cattle had no one distinctive colour. Other objects — as the
sea, the sky, and wine — changed in tint according to the
light, the time of day, and the mode of viewing them ; and
thus colour, indicated at first by reference to certain coloured
objects, had no fixity. Things which had more definite and
purer colours — as certain species of flowers, birds, and
inseCts — were probably too insignificant or too much des-
pised to serve as colour-terms ; and even these often vary,
either in the same or in allied species, in a manner which
would render their use unsuitable.”

Mr. Wallace might here have added that the attention of
the Oriental and Mediterranean nations was always turned
towards man rather than to external nature. Hence their
comparative indifference to beautiful scenery, their negleCt
of landscape painting, their failure in physical science, and
their contempt for the industrial arts — so remarkable if we
consider their degree of civilisation and the high intellectual
development to which some of them had attained. That
such nations should have no very precise nomenclature for
colours — a nomenclature chiefly required in the pursuit of
Natural Science and in certain manufactures— -affords no
proof that their colour-sense was not as perfect as our own.
Hence it cannot be contended that the faCts signalised by
L. Geiger and by Mr. Gladstone enable us to draw any
trustworthy inference as to the antiquity of the human
race.

This brings us in contaCt with the subject which we are
only just learning to discuss with scientific calmness and
candour. The day is scarcely over since the dreams of
Archbishop Usher and his coadjutors were supposed to be
founded upon the direCt testimony of Revelation. The
notion that the world was “ created in autumn 4008 years
before the vulgar Christian era,” and that our species had
consequently not existed for quite 6000 years, was accepted
as a main point of faith. FaCts and arguments which
pointed to a longer date raised gratuitous alarm among
Christians, and exultation no less gratuitous among atheists.
These mists and clouds are now clearing away, and thinkers

464

The Progress of the

[October,

of unimpeachable orthodoxy now admit that there are no
theological grounds for a denial either of the antiquity of
man or of the doctrine of Evolution, and that the Church
may watch the contest between the Old and the New Schools
of Biology as calmly as she did that between the Phlogistian
and the Lavoisierian Schools of Chemistry. But Mr. Wal-
lace puts in a word of caution which cannot be deemed
useless. He reminds us that the hypothesis now dominant
in scientific circles, that man has been gradually developed
from some lower animal form, and that he has existed upon
the earth from the Miocene epoch, possibly even from the
Eocene, is not unbeset with difficulties. In the interests of
Science these should receive full and fair consideration, and
not be ignored, as were till recently the faCts incompatible
with the chronology of Usher. It is recognised as a curious
circumstance that, notwithstanding the care with which
pre-historical human remains have been sought for in all
civilised countries, — notwithstanding the incidental facilities
for research afforded by railway excavations, mines, and
other engineering operations, — little if any light has recently
been thrown upon the time or the mode of man’s origin.
“ Amid the countless relics of a former world that have
been brought to light, no evidence of any one of the links
that must have connected man with the lower animals has
yet appeared.” Professor Mivart, in his well-known work
“ Man and Apes,” has shown, by a most careful structural
analysis, that man is related not exclusively and specially
to any one of the anthropoid apes now existing, but almost
equally to the orang, the chimpanzee, the gorilla, and the
gibbon. Hence, on the evolutionist hypothesis, he is
descended not from any one of these, but from an extinCt
and as yet unknown form which must have branched off at
an exceedingly early date from the common stock. “ As
far back as the Miocene deposits of Europe we find the
remains of apes allied to these various forms, so that in all
probability the special line of variation which led up to man
branched off at a still earlier period. And these early forms,
being the initiation of a far higher type, and having to
develope by natural selection into so specialised and alto-
gether distinCt a creature as man, must have risen at a very
early period into the position of a dominant race, and spread
in dense waves of population over all suitable portions of
the great continent — for this, on Mr. Darwin’s hypothesis,
is essential to developmental progress through the agency
of natural selection.”

Such being the case, it is asked why we find no relics of

1 878.]

Doctrine of Development . 465

earlier forms of man in company with those of other animals
which were, ex hypothesis less abundant ? We reply that not
one-hundredth part of what is now dry land has hitherto
been satisfactorily explored. Possibly the extinCt anthro-
poids may have mainly inhabited some of the regions which
existed where now there roll wide, though shallow, seas.
Living, as we might expeCt, among low-land tropical foreets,
their bodies, when dead, would be fully exposed to all the
destructive agencies of Nature. Perhaps their habits were
specially unfavourable to the preservation and fossilisation
of their remains. Perhaps cannibalism was widely preva-
lent in those days. The order Primates is hitherto but
sparingly represented among the fossil Mammalia. Nay,
leaving the geological ages out of the question, and coming
down the stream of time to within historical days, let us
take some country which we know to have been densely
peopled from four thousand to three thousand years ago,
and ask how many human remains of such dates could be
there discovered? We naturally except Egypt, and any
other country where it was customary to embalm the dead.
Is there some cause why the skeletons of the anthropoids
and of man are more perishable than those of the lower
forms of vertebrate life ? Some writers have suggested that
as the Quadrumana are now almost exclusively tropical, and
the anthropoid species even equatorial, we should look for
the earliest ancestors of man in such regions as the Malay
Islands or Western Africa. To this Mr. Wallace replies
that existing anthropoid apes are confined to equatorial
regions because there only can a perennial supply of fruits
suitable for their nourishment be found. But as in the
Miocene epoch Southern Europe possessed an almost tro-
pical climate, this restriction as to locality might then not
have existed. Still experience shows us that a species is
not necessarily found wherever conditions suitable for its
existence are present.

We must, however, admit that if further geological ex-
ploration fails to place in our hands a greater number of
human remains from the pre-historic ages, and especially
anthropoid forms lower than the existing races of man,
though higher than any existing apes, the views now domi-
nant in scientific circles concerning the origin and early
history of our race will stand in need of a careful revision.
We shall apparently have to admit that man, however
ancient, can scarcely have been formed by that slow and
uniform process of development which must result from the
operation of Natural Selection. It will be, as Mr. Wallace

VOL. VIII. (n.s.) 2 H

The Progress of the

[Odtober,

466

declares, “ at least a presumption that he came into exist-
ence at a much later date and by a much more rapid process
of development. In that case it will be a fair argument
that just as he is in his mental and moral nature, his capa-
cities and aspirations, so infinitely raised above the brutes,
so his origin is due in part to distinct and higher agencies
than such as have affedted their development.”

But is it necessary that the process of Evolution, by
whatsoever agencies effected, must always have maintained
a uniform degree of speed ? We have no desire to recur to
“ catastrophism,” geological or biological, or to represent
unknown and immeasurable forces as being arbitrarily in-
troduced into adtion and again as arbitrarily withdrawn.
But we find in phenomena governed by forces stridtly
natural, and even measurable, changes occurring more
rapidly at certain stages than at others. To take a simple
and familiar instance, the progressive increase of the length
of the day in spring and its corresponding decrease in
autumn is much more rapid at the equinox than at any other
time. Or, turning to a region much more closely connedted
with the subjedt in hand, if we observe the development of
an individual man — or indeed of any other animal — from
birth to maturity, we do not find equal amounts of progress
effedted in equal successive portions of time. We know
that in the life of a youth there is a period when, in stature
and in the development of his mental and bodily powers, he
appears almost at a standstill for two or three years, this
lull being followed by a period of intensified growth, in
which he shoots up at once into manhood. Is it not at least
possible that a similar want of uniformity may be traceable
in the evolution of species ? Prof. Leconte argues that
every organism will oppose a certain amount of resistance
to agencies calculated to effedt a change. This resistance
being once overcome, change will be for a time rapid, until
a state of approximate equilibrium is again reached. Hence
we may expedt that at certain points where a great change
has taken place certain “ links ” — the intermediate forms — ■
will be missing. Their career is likely to be exceedingly
short, not running to many generations, and for the same
reason the number of individuals must be limited. Hence
the probability of the fossil remains of such “ links ” being
preserved for our inspedtion is infinitesimal indeed. When,
on the other hand, the equilibrium is re-established, species
exist with little change for centuries, possibly for thousands
of years ; they spread over every accessible land suitable to
their requirements, and increase in numbers as far as the

1878.]

Doctrine of Development ,

467

supply of food and the other conditions of existence will
allow. The probability is, then, that of the multitudes of
individuals who successively flourish some will die under
circumstances favourable to the fossilisation of their remains.

The differences of opinion we have been considering on
the mode in which Evolution is effected, its main causes,
and the laws of its adtion, are not surprising in view of the
extent, the complexity, and the difficulty of the subject.
Mr. Darwin has not so much solved the great problem of
organic life as shown the way in which its successful study
and its ultimate solution are possible. But whilst the
greatest naturalists of the day are eagerly and patiently de-
voting themselves to this task, there are others who still
feel free to introduce into the question extraneous difficulties,
and to appeal to the passions and prejudices of an unscien-
tific public.

Whilst waiting for an unpundlual train, at Dartford
Station, our eye was caught by Mr. Morris’s pamphlet. We
read it through with equal feelings of surprise and regret.
It is a work which might have been pardoned if it had ap-
peared ten years before its adfual date (1875), and if it had
been from the pen of some journalist, novelist, barrister,
&c., who could scarcely distinguish a humming-bird from a
Sphinx-moth ; but the Rev. F. O. Morris is himself a natu-
ralist of merit, and, had he been so minded, might surely
have criticised Mr. Darwin’s theories, if unfavorably, still
in a manner more useful to Science and more creditable to
himself. As it is he sins equally against good taste, logic,
and fadts. Here is a specimen taken at random : — “ I believe
that such persons, in former times, as Sir Isaac Newton,
Herschell, Lord Bacon, Dr. Johnson, Milton, Locke, Sir
Matthew Hale, &c., who were believers in the Bible, were
far behind me in intellect and knowledge. I believe, in like
manner, that others in the present time, who are believers
also as they were, such as Sir Roundell Palmer, Lord
Hatherley, Lord Shaftesbury, Faraday, Sir David Brewster,
&c., and others who like them have taken the highest
honours in the Universities, and distinguished themselves
in the highest departments of art, science, and politics, are
quite beneath me in mind and attainments, for if I am right
— as I must be, and therefore am — they of course must be
wrong.” *

* It might be asked in what University Faraday graduated, till the day
when he conferred rather than received honour by accepting degrees ? We
might also inquire in what “ highest departments of art” Sir Roundell Palmer
Lord Hatherley, or Lord Shaftesbury has distinguished himself?

2 H 2

468 Doctrine of Development. [October,

What is all this but the old stale sneer which for ages has
been levelled against every inventor and discoverer, who is
taunted with setting himself up to be wiser than all the
eminent men of the past ! But Mr. Morris “ double-banks”
the fallacy. None of the distinguished men he mentions
are biologists at all, and therefore, as far as the subject is
concerned, they are all immeasurably inferior in knowledge
and attainments to Mr. Darwin. Further, there is the
gratuitous assumption that Mr. Darwin, as an Evolu-
tionist, must necessarily rejeCt the Bible. We know many
Evolutionists who unhesitatingly accept the Bible as a
moral and spiritual revelation, though they do not manipu-
late it into a geological text-book, or believe in the human
traditions — chronological especially — which have sprung up
around it. But Mr. Morris not merely accuses Mr. Darwin
of Infidelity, but, if we do not misunderstand him, of a
formal and conscious Infidel propagandism. “ I have done
all I could to make others as wretched as I am myself.”
“ I do my little best or worst to shake their faith,” &c.
Need we put on record our solemn conviction that the aims
of Mr. Darwin, Mr. Wallace, and of the majority of the
naturalists of the new school, have been purely biological,
and that to furnish arguments to the Infidel was no part of
their plans ? Need we remind Mr. Morris that charges
closely analogous to those which he insinuates against Mr.
Darwin were brought against Sir Isaac Newton, and with
quite as much plausibility ? Need we repeat that he who
thinks to decide a scientific controversy by such foul play
forfeits, ipso facto, all claim to the treatment of a gentleman
and a scholar, and should at once be handed over to a very
different court than that of the reviewer ?

As a “ supplement ” to his curious collection of imputa-
tions and travesties, Mr. Morris gives certain extracts from
the daily papers ! We should have hoped that every man
of science in England, or rather in Europe, must be fully
aware of the gross blunders made by political and literary
journals whenever they condescend to discuss a scientific
question. One daily paper not long ago informed the world
that “all gases explode far below redness, leaving nothing
but a few particles of dust.” A journal that displayed such
ignorance on a question of history, of law, or of theology,
would be well-nigh laughed out of existence. But an error
in physics, or chemistry, or biology is detected by few, and
therefore the proprietors of political papers do not think it
worth their trouble to refer the criticism of a scientific
treatise or a presidential address before the British Associa-

1878.]

469

The “ W oman s- Rights' ” Question.

tion to an expert. If Mr. Morris finds it necessary to call
in the aid of “ Punch,” the “John Bull,” or the “ Globe,”
he only betrays his own “ plentiful lack ” of sound argu-
ment. But there is yet a final court of appeal : the
authority is invoked of one who, we suppose, is no less
distinguished by his candour, his courtesy, and his stridt
regard for truth, than by his vaunted “ thinness of skin,”
his freedom from egotism, and the typographical eccentrici-
ties of his works, where italics and small capitals cover a
multitude of sins. The pamphlet is, it seems, dedicated to
“ The Right Honourable the Common Sense of the People
of England.” We have more than once been compelled to
point out that “ common sense ” is the name under which
many worship their own ignorance. We were partly in the
wrong ; it is the name they invoke when they seek to
utilise the ignorance of others.

III. THE “ WOMAN’S-RIGHTS5 ” QUESTION
CONSIDERED FROM A BIOLOGICAL POINT OF

VIEW.

INCE Natural History was remodelled by Mr. Darwin
it has been found capable of throwing valuable lights,
previously little anticipated, upon topics quite uncon-
nected with the origin and attributes of zoological or
botanical species. Of this solidarity of the sciences — -one
supplying another with methods of inquiry — a striking-
instance is afforded by a recent work,* in which the doctrine
of Natural Selection is successfully utilised in the study of
certain political subjects. That futher applications more or
less analogous are still possible will scarcely be doubted.
There is in particular one question now agitating human
society which seems particularly to require such treatment.
Everyone knows that of late years a movement has sprung
up to secure for women, as contra-distinguished from men,
certain rights, liberties, and powers of which it is contended
they have been arbitrarily and wrongfully deprived. To

* Physics and Politics, by Walter Baoekot,

47°

The “ Woman's Rights' ” Question [October,

define this movement, and to formulate distinctly the de-
mands of its supporters, is a scarcely possible task. Inno-
vators and agitators of all kinds enjoy the advantage that
they cannot be tied down to any fixed set of propositions by
which and by whose logical consequences they are prepared
to stand or fall. On the contrary, if one ground is found
untenable another is instantly taken up ; what satisfies one
champion of the cause is rejected by another, and what to-
day is accepted as final — as in the case of the anti-viviseCtion
movement — is to-morrow proclaimed a mere instalment, and
made the basis of fresh demands.

Perhaps we may best describe the movement as an attempt
to obliterate all — save the purely structural — distinctions
between man and woman, and to establish between them a
complete identity of duties and functions in place of that
separation which has more or less hitherto always existed.
That certain speakers and writers, not content with mere
identification, go on to inversion, and would assign to men
the particular tasks now allotted to women, though a signi-
ficant faCt, need not detain our attention.

It is of no use laughing at this agitation as the outcome
of a mere “ crotchet.” In certain states of the moral
atmosphere crotchets spread just as do epidemics — which
they closely resemble — in certain conditions of the physical
atmosphere and other surroundings of man. Who would
attempt to deal with the cholera or the small-pox by ridicule,
how pungent and incisive soever ?

We purpose therefore to examine this movement in the
light of the principles of Natural Selection, of Differentia-
tion, and Specialisation, and to enquire whether the relations
of the sexes in the human species and the distribution of
their respective functions are or are not in general harmony
with what is observed in that portion of the Animal Kingdom
which lies nearest to man — to wit, in the Mammalia. With
the origin and history of the agitation, with the hopes and
motives of its supporters, and with the ethical, sentimental,
economical, and political arguments used on either side we
have no direCt concern.

Even a very superficial and popular survey of the class
Mammalia will satisfy us that the structural differences
between the males and the females of each species are by
no means confined to the reproductive organs. The male
ruminant, whale, bat, elephant, rodent, carnivore, or ape,
is on the average a larger and heavier animal than his mate.
The tiger, for instance, exceeds the tigress in size by a pro-
portion of from 10 to zo per cent. In few, if any, species

1878.] Considered from a Biological Point of View. 471 "

is the superior stature of the male more striking than in the
one which approaches man most nearly in its physical deve-
lopment— the gorilla.

But the mere difference of size is not all ; the female is
scarcely in any normal case a mere miniature copy of the
male. Her proportions differ ; the head and the thorax are
relatively smaller, the pelvis broader, the bones slighter,
and the muscles less powerful. The male in many cases
possesses offensive weapons which in the female are wanting.
In illustration we need only refer to the tusks of the ele-
phant and the boar, and the horns of many species of deer.
On the contrary, there is no instance of a female mammal
possessing any weapon which is not also found, to at least
an equal degree, in the male.

Further, the superior size of the head in the male, is not
merely due to the more massive osseous growth needful for
the support of tusks, horns, &c., but to a proportionately
larger development of brain. Thus, according to the recent
investigations of M. le Bon* “ taking the mean weight of
seventeen brains of human males, of 154 to 164 centimetres
in height, and comparing them with the brains of seventeen
women of the same stature, we find between the two a
difference of 1 72 grms. (nearly 6 ounces) in favour of the
male.”

Summing up these faFts, commonplace but not the less
important, we see that in the whole mammalian class, man
included, the males are distinguished from the females, not
merely by larger size, but by superior cerebral and thoracic
development, and by the more general possession of offensive
weapons. On the other hand, trite as the remark may seem,
the organs for the nutrition of the young are exclusively
confined to the female. Are we to suppose that these sexual
differences are devoid of meaning, merely accidental, or
artificial in their origin ?

We must next inquire to what functional distinctions these
structural differences correspond, and what is their signifi-
cation ? It is generally admitted that among animals of
one and the same species the larger will be found to be the
stronger, and generally speaking physically the superior.
Exceptions doubtless occur, but if we were to take one
hundred men in normal health whose “ fighting weight ”
ranged from 11 to 12 stone each, and compare them with
another hundred averaging a stone less, we should find the
former set able to lift greater weights, strike harder blows,

* Comptes Rendus, lxxxvii., No. 2, p, 80.

472 The u Woman’s Rights' ” Question [October,

and in every way excel the second lot in athletic perform-
ances.

Again, it is found that the size of the chest, and conse-
quent volume of the lungs, affords a very good standard by
which the general vigour, the vital energy of either man or
beast may be gauged. The more a man, free from corpu-
lence, measures round the chest, the better are his stamina,
and the greater his power to support fatigue and hardships.
Of this faCt the military and the sporting world are perfectly
aware, and never fail to take it into account in estimating
the eligibility of a recruit or the probable performances of
an athlete.

Having seen, then, that male animals are not merely
adually larger than their respective females, but surpass
them proportionally in the size of the thorax, we naturally
expeCt the former to be decidedly the stronger, gifted with
a more intense and exuberant vitality. Nor are our ex-
pectations disappointed. The bodily strength of a cow is
trifling indeed compared with that of a bull of the same
breed. In races a filly is very frequently — merely as such — -
allowed to carry less weight than a horse. A lady gorilla
would be in evil case indeed if her husband did not treat
her with a gentleness and kindness which many of our own
species would do well to imitate. And as to mankind — Is
not, perhaps, the most legitimate source of the very movement
we are criticising an attempt to secure women against the
superior strength of men ? Yet at a meeting at Manchester
a male agitator actually sought to deny the superior physical
power of man, because it would be easy to find a fish-wife
stronger than a cotton-weaver. The argument being in-
tensely illogical was frantically applauded.

Persons are not, however, wanting, who— whilst admitting
the general inferiority of women to men in physical strength
• — contend that this weakness is the result of continued and
systematic repression. Woman, they say, has been forcibly
debarred from invigorating pursuits, and comparative feeble-
ness is the natural result. We would ask such advocates
whether this systematic repression has been also carried out
among the lower mammals, and, if not, what is the origin
of the weakness of the female sex in their case, which is at
least as well marked as among mankind ? Has the “ subju-
gation ” of woman had its parallel in the “ subjugation ” of
the cow, the mare, the ewe, the lioness ?

That the women of the middle class in all civilised coun-
tries, and of the higher in some, would be much healthier
and stronger if they took more exercise in the open air and

473

1878.] Considered from a Biological Point of View.

swallowed less tea, we admit. But in that case we contend
that their increased vigour would descend not to their
daughters exclusively or specially, but to all their children.

Further, in some countries and among certain classes, a
great amount of physical labour falls to the lot of the women,
without their being thereby rendered equal in strength to
the men. Among the North-American aborigines the squaw
has the monopoly of hard work, whilst her husband — save
when on the chase or on the war-path — indulges in idleness.
Yet he runs no risk on that account of being surpassed in
strength by his wife, and ultimately finding himself in con-
sequence “ subjugated.”

No less is the superior cerebral development of the male
sex in the human species, to which we have already referred
as an indisputable fadt, devoid of functional importance. It
has, indeed, been contended that the difference in weight
between the brain of the two sexes is a mere “ survival ”
from some lower state of civilisation, or of existence which
we may expedt to see ultimately disappear. Such hopes, if
they anywhere exist, must be abandoned in view of the
results of M. le Bon, already quoted. This biologist finds
that “ the difference between the respective weight of the
brain in man and woman constantly goes on increasing as
we rise in the scale of civilisation, so that as regards the
mass of the brain, and consequently in intelligence, woman
becomes more and more differentiated from man. The
difference which exists between the mean of the crania of
contemporary Parisian men and that of contemporary
Parisian women is almost double of the difference which
existed in Ancient Egypt.”

Taking hold of this simple fadt, that the brain in the male
is not merely larger, but increasingly larger, than in the
female, we need not long search for its meaning. As the
same writer to whom we have referred declares, “ On ex-
amining series of crania sufficiently numerous we find that in
the human species the largest brains belong to the races
highest endowed intellectually, and in each race to its most
intelligent members. Just, therefore, as higher civilisation
is heralded, or at least evidenced, by increasing bulk of
brain ; just as the most intelligent and the dominant races
surpass their rivals in cranial capacity; and just as in those
races the leaders, whether in the sphere of thought or of
adtion, are eminently large-brained, — so we must naturally
expedt that man, surpassing woman in volume of brain,
must surpass her in at least a proportionate degree in intel-
lectual power. We are sorry to be compelled here to own

474

The “ Woman's Rights' " Question [October,

that while we know that in most, if not all, mammalian
species the brain of the male exceeds in size that of the
female, we have no observations as to any corresponding
difference in mental power. That such difference, on care-
ful examination, will be found to exist is highly probable ;
but we must likewise expert that it will be found less dis-
tinctly marked the lower the rank of the species.

To return : the intellectual superiority thus claimed for
the male sex, in virtue of a higher cerebral development, is
fully manifested in the history of the various arts and
sciences. In every department the first, the leading, minds
have belonged to the male sex. Homer, Shakspeare, Phidias,
Beethoven, no less than Newton, Liebig, and Darwin, are
men.

In reply to this historical confirmation of what biology
foretells, the advocates of the movement adduce three argu-
ments, all, in our opinion, singularly inconclusive.

Admitting the superiority of the male brain in bulk and
weight to that of the female, they maintain the existence of
a qualitative difference which renders the two incommen-
surable. This hypothesis, however, is a pure assumption.
We should have an equal right to maintain that the brains
of different races of men, especially as existing in ages
widely remote from each other, were incapable of mutual
comparison. Or, in the same spirit, it might even be urged
that the smaller size of the muscles in woman was no proof
of any inferiority in physical strength.

Secondly, it is contended by those who seek to identify
the duties, functions, and spheres of aCtion of the two sexes,
that many women have distinguished themselves in the arts
and sciences. Admitting to the full this faCt, we can only
place it on a level with the kindred phenomenon that not a
few women have, in disguise, entered the army or navy, and
have acquitted themselves as creditably as their male com-
rades ; or that others have worked long and undetected as
excavators, in the construction of railways, &c. The
savante , — the woman of science, — like the female athlete, is
simply an anomaly, an exceptional being, holding a position
more or less intermediate between the two sexes. In the
one case the brain, as in the other the muscular system, has
undergone an abnormal development. That such cases
should occur need no more surprise us than does the con-
verse phenomenon, the existence of womanish man. We
meet with subjects, otherwise of the male sex, in whom the
beard is scanty or wanting, the limbs slight and rounded,
the voice high, the chest narrow, and the pelvis broad, or

1878.] Considered from a Biological Point of View . 475

who, if they do not structurally approximate to the female
sex, betray a preference for feminine occupations, which wins
for them such epithets as “ molly-cots,” “ cot-queans,” &c.
At the risk of somewhat anticipating ourselves we cannot
suppress the remark that no one demands especial laws and
institutions for the benefit of such womanish men, or pro-
poses their exemption from the customary duties of the
male sex, how burdensome soever these may be felt.

The third and last plea put forward to explain, if possible,
the cerebral inferiority of woman and her concomitant in-
tellectual inferiority, is an adaptation of the one already
proposed to account for her smaller physical strength. It is
gravely asserted that mental activity in art or science has
been systematically repressed among women, and that in
consequence their cerebral development has been injuriously
interfered with. To this contention it would be a sufficient
reply were we to simply point to the faCt already mentioned,
that the relative inferiority in the size of the brain of women,
instead of diminishing as their social status has improved,
has, on the contrary, been increasing. We may hence fairly
argue that it exists not in virtue of any artificial interference,
but of a law of Nature. We can, however, adduce other
considerations. In the pursuit of the fine arts, woman, in-
stead of being checked and hindered, whether by law or by
social conventions, has been encouraged. An acquaintance
with music has been literally forced upon every girl of the
upper and middle classes. Yet, leaving composers out of the
question, how many of the million female performers on the
pianoforte, now to be be found in Europe and America, can
take rank with Liszt and Thalberg ? In the highest deve-
lopment of literature, poetry, sex has been no obstacle to
the recognition of merit. Yet neither Sappho in the past
nor Mrs. Hemans and Mrs. Browning in our own day can
be placed even in the same class with the leading poets of
Greece, England, and Germany.

Women have certainly till of late met with few diredt
facilities for the pursuit of science. But, in England at
least, neither have men. Our great scientific discoverers,
until quite recent days, have been substantially self-taught,
and even if in their youth they enjoyed a university education
their subsequent researches, though post hoc , have assuredly
not been propter hoc . Scientific books and apparatus have
been as accessible to one sex as to the other ; and these have
generally been the only opportunities that our discoverers
have had at their command. How to use such appliances
they had to discover for themselves. We deny, therefore,

476 The <J Woman's Rights’ ” Question [October,

that the exclusion of young' women from universities, in
which modern sciences were not taught, can have hindered them
from entering upon a scientific career. Equally do we deny
that public opinion forbade for them study and research.
Had Miss Herschell been a man her astronomical disco-
veries could not have been more highly or more deservedly
appreciated. Not a dog barked at her for preferring deter-
mining the orbits of comets to ordinary feminine avocations.
In like manner, if any woman had possessed the necessary
faculties and turn of mind, there was nothing in the way of
public prejudices or established customs to prevent her from
having anticipated Dalton in discovering the laws of definite
chemical combination. Nor if thus discovered would the
“ atomic theory” have met with a less favourable reception.
We then entirely deny the existence of any supposed con-
spiracy to repress scientific talent in the female sex, and we
hold that the three arguments adduced to explain its com-
parative rarity among women to be utterly inconclusive.

A further distinction between the sexes, common to man-
kind and to all the mammalian class, must be sought in the
moral faculties. Take what species we like we find the
males bolder, more pugnacious and quarrelsome, more ad-
venturous and restless, and less tractable and docile. The
females, on the other hand, save in protection of their young
from real or supposed danger, are mild, gentle, and in-
offensive. Of this no more indisputable instance could be
found than the case of domestic cattle, the cow — with the
exception of certain “ strong-minded ” individuals- — being
perfectly harmless, whilst the bull, when above four years
old, is one of the most dangerous animals known, attacking
and killing human beings, not for food, like the lion or the
tiger, but out of pure “ superfluity of naughtiness.” Very
similar is the distinction between the character of the sexes
among the Quadrumana. No animal is more wantonly and
gratuitously mischievous than an adult male baboon, and
we are unable to find an instance of one having been tamed
so far that he could be allowed his liberty. The females, on
the other hand, are capable of domestication. Were there
any necessity to multiply instances a fair-sized volume might
be filled with accounts of the intractability of male Mam-
malia of different species, as contrasted with the mildness
and docility of their females, whilst in no animal is the case
reversed.

That the sexual distinction of character in our own species
is precisely analogous in its nature will, we trust, be admitted
without argument.

187B.] Considered from a Biological Point of View. 477

We find, therefore, summing up the foregoing faCts, that
throughout the mammalian community the males are larger
and heavier than the females, whom they moreover espe-
cially exceed in thoracic and cerebral development ; that
they are consequently stronger, more intensely animated,
and in disposition bolder and fiercer. The very same dif-
ferences are found in average men as compared with average
women, with the additional peculiarity that here the superior
size of brain expresses itself in higher intellectual power.

It would be ridiculous to suppose that all these diversities,
structural and functional, are objectless, and do not imply a
corresponding diversity of duties. This accordingly we find
to be the case : — The male, at least in all species which
form unions of any degree of permanence, — whether mono-
gamous or polygamous, — defends and protects the female
and her young ones. Thus if a herd of elephants is menaced
the most powerful tuskers take their station on the side
where danger appears, whilst the females and the young are
placed as far as possible out of harm’s way. If bisons are
attacked by wolves the bulls form a circle enclosing the
cows and calves. A similar order is adopted by wild horses.
A gorilla will encounter any danger in defence of his mate,
and even among baboons the old males will face an ap-
proaching enemy while the weaker members of the troop
make good their escape. A lion has been seen in the same
manner covering the retreat of his lioness and her cubs.

Other examples might be given were it at all needful, but
those already stated are surely sufficient to establish the
principle. Among herbivorous and omnivorous species,
where food is plentiful, there is no occasion for the male
to take upon him the duties of provider, but among the
Carnivora he frequently supports as well as defends his
family. The lion is in this respeCt a well-known instance.

We find, therefore, that throughout the class Mammalia
the respective tasks of the two sexes are precisely such as
we find in our own species ; the male is the defender and
provider, wherever such defence and provision are necessary;
the female is the nurse. The man who brings home to his
wife his weekly earnings, his professional fees, or his share
of the profits of a business, merely repeats on a higher scale
the aCtion of the lion who carries a deer or an antelope to
his den. Each sex fulfils the tasks for which it is specially
adapted by Nature, and anything like “subjugation” is
utterly out of the question. Were the duties of the two
sexes confounded together, or, still more, were they inverted,
—the female, for instance, going forth to face danger or to

478

The u Woman's Rights' ” Question [OClober,

hunt for prey, while the male was left to nurse the young, —
the position of the species in the great and constant struggle
for existence would be very decidedly altered for the worse.
We must conclude, therefore, that the attempt to alter the
present relations of the sexes is not a rebellion against some
arbitrary law instituted by a despot or a majority, — not an
attempt to break the yoke of a mere convention ; it is a
struggle against Nature ; a war undertaken to reverse the
very conditions under which not man alone, but all mam-
malian species have reached their present development.
Sentimental speakers and writers have commented on the
well-known faCt that even a very young boy will, to his
utmost ability, defend his sister or female playmate, and
have expressed a hope that this habit — the result of early
training — would wear out, the female no longer needing and
the male no longer offering protection. Alas ! is the very
same habit in the ape, the lion, or the bison the result of a
mistaken training, or of an Old-World convention, to he
laid aside in these enlightened days ? What would be the
position of a family of young lions if both their parents
went forth to hunt ? Yet very similar v/ill be that of children
if their mother, as well as their father, goes out to the daily
toils of a profession, leaving them perhaps to themselves,—
perhaps to the care of ignorant and unprincipled hirelings.
The results of mothers withdrawn from domestic duties, and
spending their days in industrial pursuits, have been suffi-
ciently exemplified in our manufacturing towns. Here, in the
very highest interests of the race, it has been found neces-
sary to check and limit female labour, which ought never to
have been introduced. Had this precaution been taken a
man would have been able to earn as much as he and his
wife jointly have been able to realise under the factory
system. But what reason have we to expeCt that the intro-
duction of female labour into professional spheres will prove
a greater boon either to the aspirants themselves or to the
nation than it has been in the factory and the workshop ?
A friend, of original habits of thought, points out* that upon
man alone was laid the penalty of labour as upon woman
the sorrow of child-bearing. This is in faCt the very same
lesson, clothed in theological language, which we learn from
biology. Among the lower animals, who, as compared with
man, may be called the proletariatef of creation, both sexes
indeed seem merely or mainly to exist in order to perpetuate

* Genesis iii., 16, 17.

f As applied to the human species we consider this term eminently foolish.
The man who benefits his race in no other way will probably injure it by
leaving posterity like himself.

.1878. J Considered from a Biological Point of View. 479

their species. Still, even here, the female is more exclusively
constructed for and more totally absorbed in the task of
reproduction than the male. The share of the latter in this
function is, strictly speaking, momentary, whilst during the
stage of maturity the energies of the normal female are more
or less completely devoted to the nurture, intra- and extra-
uterine, of her offspring. Even when she never becomes a
mother the generative system exercises a modifying influence
upon her whole career. This consideration throws a strong
light upon the ground taken by certain of the more
“ advanced ” female advocates of the movement. The
femme libre of the new social order may, indeed, escape the
charge of neglecting her family and her household by con-
tending that it is “ not her vocation to become a wife and a
mother.” Why then, we ask, is she constituted a woman
at all ? Merely that she should become a sort of second-
rate man ? We have already declared, and we repeat, that
we wish a free career for every talent. If an abnormal
woman possesses a man’s muscular strength and adaptation
for toil, we would not, either by law or by social influences,
seek to debar her from working at the oar, or the forge, or
even from wielding the policeman’s truncheon or the soldier’s
rifle. But we would not calculate on such anomalies ; we
would not legislate for their special protection, or seek to
increase their number. In a manner perfectly analogous, if
a woman possesses the taste and the power for scientific
research usually confined to men, — and far from common
even among them, — we would not wish to restrain her from
the cultivation of her peculiar faculties ; but we would not
foster the growth of such a class of females. We would not
seek to entice women into the observatory, the laboratory, or,
above all, into the disseCting-room, nor ereCt colleges for the
training of savantes, any more than we would organise female
regiments and open institutions where muscular young ladies
might perfect themselves in the management of heavy
artillery.

It is generally — too generally — assumed that every no-
velty, every change from what has hitherto been customary
and recognised, commends itself, on the mere ground of its
novelty, to men of science, as indeed to all unfettered
inquirers, and will be resisted merely by those whose guiding
principle is an unreasoning attachment to what is established.
Never, perhaps, was it shown more clearly than with refer-
ence to the present question that innovation may be retro-
grade,— that a proposed change, if carried out, may involve
a return to a lower stage of development. What is the very

480 The “ Woman’s Rights’ ” Question [October,

essence of all advance to a higher stage of being, save
differentiation ? We see what was at first homogeneous,
uniform in structure, become resolved into distinct tissues
and members. We see functions, which in some rudimentary
state were jointly exercised by the whole body of an animal,
gradually allotted out to special organs, and during and in
consequence of this very specialisation acquiring a far higher
degree of perfection than they heretofore possessed. Look
at the first rudimentary state — germ, seed, or ovum — of the
plant or animal, and compare it with the mature organism
to which it ultimately gives rise. What was one has become
manifold ; what was simple is now highly complex. The
globule of albuminoid matter has developed into distinct
members — sense-apparatus, organs respiratory, digestive,
circulatory, locomotive, &c. — each of which has a separate
task to fulfil, and is distinctly organised for that very pur-
pose. It is no departure from our subjedt to remark that
though in the organic body one organ may, under certain
circumstances, undertake the duties of another, such vi-
carious adtion involves grave peril to the organ concerned
and to the entire animal. Perhaps the world may yet find
that the analogy between the individual and mankind holds
good in this respedt, and that a social congestion may follow
from the movement we are examining.

To return : the increase of size which distinguishes the
butterfly from the egg, or the oak from the acorn, is a trifling
feature compared with the accompanying differentiation-
chemical, morphological, and functional — which has taken
place.

If we pass from a consideration of the individual plant or
animal to a survey of the entire organic realms we find, as
we advance from the humblest and meanest beings to the
highest, merely a repetition of the same great fadt. At the
one extremity of the scale — if this expression may still be
used — we find beings whose senses, such as they are, must
be exercised by the whole external surface of the body, those
more special functions which we know as sight, hearing, &c.,
being still identical with feeling. No distindt nervous sys-
tem, still less definite nerve-centres, can be traced. Nor are
there any organs specially devoted to the processes of
respiration, circulation, digestion, &c. A common internal
cavity takes the place, and in a crude way fulfils the duties
of all these parts. Externally the same uniformity prevails ,*
there are no limbs, no members exclusively constructed for
locomotion in any of its modes, or for prehension. The
animal moves by elongating and contracting its whole body,

1878.] Considered from a Biological Point of View. 481

or by rolling over. In many of the lower forms of animal
life the sexes are not separated, the functions of the male
and the female being exercised by one and the same indivi-
dual. It is a fadt long familiar to the world that the polype
may be cut into without injury, each part soon becoming a
complete animal.

To such simplicity of structure the completest contrast is
afforded by the higher animals. Throughout their bodies we
find a “ division of labour,” each function having its organ
and each organ its distinct function. To trace how this
differentiation is carried out would be wearisome, and, being
admitted, is fortunately needless.

It may be useful, however, to call to mind the facft that
animals which when mature are broadly and easily distin-
guished from each other, are more and more alike the earlier
the stage of growth at which we institute a comparison.
The differences between a baby chimpanzee and a human
infant are much slighter than those between the adults of
the respective species. If we extend our researches to the
embryonic state we find that the rudimentary man can
scarcely be distinguished from many of the other vertebrates.
It is only, as Prof. Huxley points out, in the later stages of
pre-natal growth that the human foetus differs from that of
an ape. In the former the convolutions of the brain, ac-
cording to Prof. Bischoff, reach about the same stage of
development as in an adult baboon. The great toe, in man,
is considered by Prof. Owen the most characteristic feature
of the human skeleton ; but in an embryo about an inch in
length Prof. Wyman found this member not lying parallel
with the other toes, but projecting out from the side of the
foot as it does permanently in the so-called Quadrumana in
their mature condition. Thus plainly does it appear that
differentiation is the way to perfection, each animal as it
approaches maturity diverging more and more from other
forms, from which in its earlier stages it was scarcely dis-
tinguishable.

Yet again, we may turn from a survey of the growth of
the individual, and from a comparison of the highest and
lowest forms of contemporary organic life, to the considera-
tion of the successive phases of being that have peopled our
earth. Here, too, we find the same great law prevail. In
the remote past we find what are called “ generalised forms,”
— animals which seem to have combined in themselves the
rough outlines of what we now find developed into perfectly
distinct beings.

Suppose it were now proposed as an improvement in the

VOL, VIII. (n.s.) 2 1

482 The u Woman's Rights' ” Question [Odlober.

structure of man, or of any other mammalian species, that
the functions now exercised by two distinct organs — such as,
e.g., the eye and the ear, or the nerves of motion and of
sensation — should he “ lumped ” together, committed to one
only set of organs ; would such a change, if we for the
moment suppose it practicable, be an advance or a retreat ?
Would it raise or lower the species in the scale of existence ?
It might seem a convenience if, instead of seeing with our
eyes alone, we could also see and hear with our ears ; but
would either the seeing or the hearing be done as well as
now, when each is the sole function of an express organ ?
On the principles of the old Natural History, as well as of
the New, we may safely reply in the negative. The change
we have supposed is fortunately incapable of being effected,
otherwise the attempt would doubtless be made in the name
of “progress.”

But we may follow the principle of Differentiation, and
trace its workings over the boundaries of Biology into those
of Sociology, if such a science can be said to exist. Where
differences of structure can no longer be traced we still find
differences of function. In man we find no variation in the
number and position of bodily organs ; yet identical organs
in different individuals are trained to special tasks which to
other men would be impossible, and which might seem to
necessitate a structural difference. We come, that is to say,
upon the division of labour, which is one of the most cha-
racteristic and essential features of civilisation. We have
seen that in the lowest forms of animal life the entire body
seemed to subserve every vital process ; just so in the lowest
stages of human society, every individual is at once warrior,
hunter, builder, maker of arms and other utensils, and — in as
far as agriculture is practised at all — tiller of the soil.
Every man is perforce, in the words of the adage, “Jack of
all trades,” with the inevitable consequence that he is
“ master of none.” In a civilised nation, just as in the
higher animals, all this is reversed. Every function has its
special organ, or, in other words, every task is committed to
a separate man or body of men. In all this we can trace
out nothing that speaks of arbitrary interference or com-
pulsion. In the animal or human body each function is
committed to organs fitted for that function. The stomach
does not protest because it is not the seat of respiration, nor
does the heart crave to undertake the task of digestion,
either instead of or along with its own duties. In human
society — complain as we may about “ square pegs ” being
placed in “ round holes ” — the different tasks are in the main

1878.] Considered from a Biological Point of View . 483

assigned to the men most competent for their performance.
In a savage tribe the strongest and bravest naturally leads
in war; the man keenest of eye and ear becomes the scout,
either as regards hostile tribes or beasts of the chase. The
wisest and most eloquent — attributes which if necessarily
connected in primitive times are now so no longer— took the
foremost place in council. The man of greatest manual
dexterity would be chief bow-maker to the tribe. The
process in operation was, in faCt, Natural Selection. The
man who undertook a task for which he was unfitted, or less
fitted than others, was gradually eliminated, as far as that
particular task was concerned. In proportion as new wants
sprung up and new means of gratifying them were devised,
social functions were multiplied, and the division of labour
became more minute. Yet even in the very rudest state, as
far at least as anthropologists have been able to trace, there
never was a time when the duties of all persons were abso-
lutely identical. To men and to women different duties
were assigned on the same principle of Natural Selection.
Changes have, indeed, taken place in the distribution of the
tasks respectively allotted to the two sexes. But these
changes, it is important to note, till the “ woman’s-rights’
movement sprung up, have all been in one direction — the
direction of increasing differentiation. The distinction be-
tween men’s work and women’s work has been increased,
not diminished. The barbarian and the semi-civilised nation
allowed women to carry heavy burdens, to tug at the oar, to
wield the spade, the hoe, the mattock in the fields, and even
to labour in mines. In our higher civilisation such tasks are
limited to man, and, as we have already remarked, to ab-
normal “ mannish ” women. The movement we are consi-
dering, in so far as it aims at breaking down the natural
barriers between the duties of the two sexes, is palpably
retrograde. If advancement towards perfection is reached
by differentiation, anti -differentiation, — if we may use the
expression, — whether structural or functional, must be a
return to a lower condition. If the first and plainest step in
the division of labour is to be abandoned, how can others be
maintained ?

It has been already pointed out in the “ Quarterly Journal
of Science ” that among vertebrate animals the social unit
of which nations are put together is the family, whether that
be monogamous or polygamous. A community of rooks is
made up of an assemblage of married couples. A tribe of
baboons consists of a number of males, each one having his
wives and offspring. Now the “ woman’s-rights’ movement”

2 1 2

What is a Flower 1

[October,

484

not merely runs counter to Nature in the respects we have
already shown, but it is open to the charge of seeking to
destroy family life and to constitute society of individuals —
of atoms instead of molecules. In so doing it tends towards
the condition of things prevalent in certain inseFt-commu-
nities. But there the mass of the nation, and especially its
working and fighting members, is composed of what are
commonly called neuters. Of such an arrangement no trace
prevails among vertebrate animals, and we do not therefore
see how their example can afford us any practical precedent.

We have therefore, in fine, full ground for maintaining
that the “ woman’s-rights’ movement ” is an attempt to rear,
by a process of “ unnatural selection,” a race of monstrosi-
ties— hostile alike to men, to normal women, to human
society, and to the future development of our race. We
know that the modern “ honorary secretary ” is always ready
to exclaim “ Let heaven and earth perish, so my crotchet
may be realised.” But we would bid him ask himself
whether the end is worth the means ?

IV. WHAT IS A FLOWER?

By F. T. Mott, F.R.G.S.

CVi

tT is admitted that a complete flower consists of four
parts or whorls, viz., the pistil, the stamens, the corolla,
and the calyx ; but it is maintained that the essential
parts are the pistil and stamens only. The Monochlamydeae,
in which the corolla is absent, and even the Achlamydese,
which have neither corolla nor calyx, are still included among
Flowering Plants.

The technical rules by which this conclusion is arrived at
are, first, that in classification organs which are universal
have more value than those which are sometimes wanting ;
and, secondly, that fertilisation by pollen is more complex,
and therefore of higher value than fertilisation by anther-
czoids.

For the mere purpose of classification these rules are
probably sound, but at the same time they hide from us one
view of Nature which is a truer and more interesting view

What is a Flower ?

4§5

1878.]

than that which they present to us. They help to make us
familiar with the results at present attained, but they blind
us to the processes , to the laws of perpetually changing life
which have given to the vegetation of the world a different
aspeCt from age to age.

In order to classify results we give the highest value to
characters which are most fixed and permanent, and these
are to be found in the organs which are earliest developed
and most universal. But in order to see what Nature is
doing, and what she promises to do, — what point she has
reached, and what is likely to be her next step forward, — we
must look not to the old and permanent, but to the new and
the changing.

There is scarcely anything more permanent in a plant than
its organs of reproduction : the forms which these assume
are therefore of high value in the distinction of genera and
species. It is true, also, that when these organs take the
form of pistil and stamens they are more complex than, and
show a decided advance in development over, the lower and
simpler form of archegonium and antheridium. On these
grounds it is correct to distinguish pollen-bearing from
antherozoid-bearing plants, and convenient to use the varia-
tions in pistils and stamens as permanent marks of genera
and species.

But is it correct: to make “ pollen-bearing ” synonymous
with “ flowering,” and to regard pistil and stamens as the
essentials of a flower, calyx and corolla as only accessories ?

There is an immense difference in appearance between a
rose and a catkin, between the “ flower ” of an iris and the
“ flower ” of a grass. A large part of the beauty of the
world and the poetry of life would be blotted out if plants
had no corolla. Can it be true that this last and loveliest
outcome of vegetative force is a mere superfluity ? a bit of
meretricious tinsel just put on by a few clever plants to
catch bees and butterflies, as a girl uses a bright ribbon to
catch wandering eyes ? But the girl’s best and most at-
tractive ornament, after all, is her face, which was made by
no art of hers. Like the flower, it is the inevitable product
of internal forces, ordained from the hour of birth — the love-
liest thing in all the world. And is the beauty of womanhood
only a lure for men ?

Let the following arguments be fairly weighed

1. Reproductive organs are common to all plants of every
grade, and the process of fertilisation is essentially the same
whether it be by antherozoids or by pollen. Reproductive
organs do not, therefore, in themselves constitute a flower

What is a Flower ?

! October

486

unless all plants have flowers. But if the archegonium of a
moss and the catkin of the hazel are flowers, we surely want
another name for the rose and the lily. Yet it is these
which have the prescriptive right to that name. T he rose
is a flower to all people and in all tongues. The name has
been appropriated by botanists to the reproductive organs of
other plants on the assumption that these were the essential
objects which it represented, but the popular voice has never
confirmed the aCt. The child who gathers buttercups and
daisies with delight repudiates docks and sedges as “ weeds,”
not “ flowers.” This popular nomenclature is not necessa-
rily right, but it shows that there is a marked distinction
which botanists have perhaps not sufficiently regarded.

2. Plants do not exist for the purpose of reproduction. It
seems to be very generally assumed that when a plant has
perfected seed it has accomplished the objeCt of its life : this
is surely a mistake. Reproduction is a means, not an end ;
the means by which the continuation of the race is secured
through generations of perishing individuals. The life of
the individual is maintained by food, the life of the species
by reproduction, which means the carrying forward of po-
tential energy, from generation to generation, with gradual
accumulation during the development of a species and
gradual loss during the period of dying out. But as the
individual does not live for the mere purpose of feeding, so
the species does not live for the purpose of being reproduced.
It may be said, rather, that both the individual and the
species exist because the condition of the ever-moving and
ever-changing Force — whose movements and changes are
precisely recorded and represented by the movements and
changes of Matter — produces, at this epoch, effects of that
particular kind. Whether that Force be- voluntary or invo-
luntary, this is the “ final cause ” of all things as far as
human reason can discover.

The motions of Force being wave-motions, the life of both
individual and species is of the nature of a wave, and has
its gradual accumulation, concentration, and climax, and
then its gradual decline, dissipation, and extinction.

Assimilation of food and reproduction are necessary inci-
dents in this process, but the cause is the existence of the
Force-wave, and the ultimate end of that wave is the attain-
ment of its climax, its maximum of concentration and
unification.

The climacteric of individuals is attained at various stages,
according to the position of the individual wave in the great
specific or ordinal wave. There are Fungi and Algae which

1878.]

What is a Flower t

never attain to any development beyond the embryonic
cellular tissue ; ferns which develop early forms of vascular
tissue ; Conifers reaching the higher stage of wood-forma-
tion ; oaks and alders, poplars and willows attaining to the
leaf stage; — and beyond these, what? The true dower-
bearers, the dichlamydeous phanerogams, whose life-wave —
passing through all the earlier stages of cell, wood, and
leaf — attains to the development of corolla, and floods the
world with a glory of colour previously unknown.

3. The corolla of nearly all flowers, when first formed in
the bud, is of a pale greenish tint. The cells are filled with
protoplasm, partly fluid, and partly granular in the form of
chlorophyll. As the bud swells, the cells of the corolla are
rapidly enlarged, at the expense of their contained proto-
plasm. If the protoplasm is entirely exhausted in this
process, the cells, when the flower opens, are empty or
filled with a thin transparent fluid, and the corolla is white,
from the total reflection and transmission of all the light
which falls upon it, the intensity of the whiteness depending
upon the smallness of the cells. If there is still protoplasm
to spare when the corolla cells are developed, this surplus
is differentiated into substances either fluid or granular,
which give colour to the cells they occupy. In proportion
to the quantity of this surplus will be the quantity and
intensity of the colour.

Colour is of course produced by the absorption of certain
constituent rays in the white sunlight, and the reflection of
the remainder. The colours of flowers are nearly all
secondary colours, combinations of two out of the three
primaries, red, green, and violet. It is evident, therefore,
that the colouring-matter in the cells is monochromatic — -
that it absorbs only one of the three primary colours, or at
least that it absorbs one in much greater proportion than
any other ; and since the colours of flowers are mostly very
bright, the quantity of any other colour absorbed must be
small. The brightness of colour is in proportion to the
absolute amount of light reflected to the eye. White light,
which is a ternary compound, will always be brighter than
any combination of portions of its constituents.

The secondary colours are brighter than the primaries,
because they are composed of the combined light of two
constituents instead of the single light of one.

Grey is a feeble white— a mixture of the three pri-
maries, but not in quantities sufficient to give the effeCt of
white.

Brown is a feeble yellow— a mixture of red and green in

What is a Flower ?

[October,

488

small quantities. The green of summer foliage is the pri-
mary green of the speCtrum with small additions of red and
violet, producing yellow or blue greens.

The colours of the stems and branches of trees and
shrubs are generally browns and greys ; the foliage is green ,
and the flowers are yellows , pinks , and blues. In terms of
the absorption of light these faCts mean that in the stem
and branches all the rays are absorbed, very little being
reflected, violet least of any; that in the leaves two of the
primaries are absorbed, while one is reflected ; and that in
the flowers one primary only is absorbed and two are
reflected.

This change of condition in the colouring-matter at the
three stages of development is in each case in the direction
of greater concentration and unification. The polychro-
matic colouring-matter of the stem becomes dichromatic in
the foliage and monochromatic in the flower.

The phenomena of light absorption are supposed to de-
pend upon the molecular condition of the absorbing sub-
stance. Molecules appropriate the energy of those light-rays
whose wave-lengths coincide with their own normal vibra-
tions. In the stems of trees vibrations of all lengths are
mixed together, and all the light-waves are absorbed. In
the foliage the vital energy is concentrated in two forms of
vibration only. In the flower concentration has been carried
to its extreme limit. White flowers, which in the present
era are as numerous as all the coloured flowers put together,
are nevertheless, as flowers, in an embryonic stage. The
protoplasm, the vital substance, has been exhausted in pro-
ducing the petalous structure. There is not energy enough
to fill the cells with living matter. These white-flowered
species are in arrear of their coloured congeners, but some
of them will probably in a future epoch attain the higher
grade.

It is the special character of the centripetal wave of
Vital Force to simplify relationships at each successive
stage of development. This is seen in the external elements
of a flower as well as in its internal structure. The ar-
rangement of vascular bundles in the stem is not distinctly
symmetrical. In the arrangement of leaves, however, there
is a symmetry more or less evident, while in the flower
there is a still greater concentration of parts and simplifi-
cation of arrangement, so that symmetrical relationship is
a striking feature and one of the main elements of floral
beauty.

4. Flowers may exist, and do frequently exist, without

1878.]

What is a Flower ?

489

the reproductive capacity. Some species of violets produce
their coloured and fragrant flowers in the spring, but these
are barren, while the seed is produced in late summer from
blossoms which contain the perfect stamens and pistils,
but have no corolla. The Hydrangea and the cultivated
Guelder-rose, with the majority of double-blossomed plants,
carnations, roses, hawthorns, cherries, gorse, &c., must be
excluded from the category of flowers if the reproductive
function is taken as the distinguishing character. These
plants, though luxuriant in growth and supremely beautiful,
bear no seed when in their finest condition ; they do not
reproduce the species ; the vital wave has reached in them
its ultimate climax ; the destiny of the species is fulfilled ;
there is no longer any necessity to carry forward the wave
of Force from generation to generation. They have attained
the beauty which marks maturity ; reaction is about to set
in ; the wave would enter upon its descending phase, and
the species would rapidly die out and disappear if it were
not that man stays the dissipation of the wave by lateral
propagation — a process analogous, perhaps, to that of pre-
venting the dissipation of any given sound by inclosing it
in a tube.

It is no answer to this argument to assert that the
doubling of the flower, or the enlargement of the corolla at
the expense of the stamens and pistil, or the conversion of
the calyx into a coloured corolla, is an abnormal condition.
Variation is universal. Abnormal variation is only such as
exceeds the average limit. Alter the surroundings, or in-
crease the energy of the wave, and the average changes ;
what was before abnormal is now normal. Abnormal vari-
ations, when they are due to accumulating energy, are
prophecies of future development. A wild stock will just
exist and perpetuate its species in poor soil crowded with
competitors. Give it more air and food, and its growth will
be more luxuriant, and its flowers larger and brighter.
Remove it to the garden, supply it with the most favourable
conditions for accumulating energy, and some of its flowers
will produce a fifth petal. Seledt the seed which these
flowers leave behind them, and you will at last get the
beautiful but barren double stocks. Each change has been
due to the same cause, augmented energy, and no one is
more abnormal than the others.

The double flower is not the result of disease, but of
accumulated energy. Diminish the energy, and you get
palpable degradation in size or colour, or both. When
Aphides attack the heads of wild honeysuckle the flowers

490 What is a Flower ? [October,

are small and green. The change .of the protoplasm from a
dichromatic to a monochromatic condition has not been
effected., for want of vital energy. The phenomenon of
increased blossom arising from checked growth is merely
the result of a transfer of energy from one of the great
secondary waves to another. The splendid flowers of many
monocotyledons have probably been hastened towards ma-
turity by the almost total suppression of the osseous
secondary wave. The energy not used in the formation of
stem and branches has been concentrated upon the blossom.
Dr. Masters records that when Kerria Japonica was first
introduced into Europe it bore single flowers, but in a few
years every existing plant had become double-blossomed.
Doubtless the change of climate hastened its development,
brought the wave rapidly to its climax, and, of course, the
species would have died out in Europe but for artificial
propagation.

The average energy in those wild plants which bear
coloured flowers is, at this epoch, sufficient to produce
monochromatic protoplasm in one whorl only. An increase
of energy brings the other whorls into the same condition,
and the flower is doubled.

5. Flowers, then, are the ultimate term in that wonderful
series of biological phenomena exhibited in the Vegetable
Kingdom. Their essential characters are — concentration
of external parts producing visible symmetry, and of inter-
nal energy producing monochromatic protoplasm, or, as in
white flowers, the absence of protoplasm, from defeCt of
energy at the moment of consummation. The reproductive
organs associated with them are imperfectly developed
petals, whose office is to carry on the specific wave until it
reaches that point of concentration at which these organs
also assume their ultimate character, when the doubled
flower marks the faCt that — in at least that place and time
- — the last of the four great secondary waves has reached
its climax. When the species everywhere attains the same
condition, that specific wave is about to enter upon its
descending phase, and the species will shortly disappear.

It is probable that we can as yet form no conception of
the splendour which flowers are destined to bestow upon
this world in some far-off future age. We are yet in the
epoch of foliage rather than of blossom ; and beautiful as
this is in its varied forms and tints, from tender spring to
gorgeous autumn, when the flowers open and the brilliant
secondary colours flash out amidst the primary green, we
own that a new glory has been conferred upon the beautiful
earth.

Genesis of Matter .

49 1

We collect in our gardens and conservatories the richest
flowers that are spattered here and there through northern
plains and tropic forests, but the “ coming race ” — whether
of man or of some higher type of being — shall behold the
earth one magnificent conservatory, one universal garden,
and the music of colour shall become a familiar art.

V. GENESIS OF MATTER.

STRONOMERS have played with world-making, and

mechanicians and mathematicians have laboured to

do and to undo the movements of heavenly bodies,
and in some departments probably the conclusions are final,
but there is much left undone, and to chemists belongs a
great portion both of work and imagination. To make a
world chemically we must begin with chaos. I shall not
attempt to go farther back to-day, but who knows where the
imagination will venture ? We must begin with disorderly
masses. There must be no gravitation ; that introduces
order at once, and commands the attention of all that part
of creation which exists in the form of that which we call
Matter. It gives the commands “ Stand still ” or “ Move
on,” to the greatest and smallest of the bodies which we
know, with a calmness and inflexibility that no one attempts
to resist. There must be no cohesion, or a large amount of
order would exist ; but, in small and numerous communi-
ties, a collection of villages like a region inhabited by
savages ; and this may have been a stage — -who can tell ?
There must be none of our elements, because they all gravi-
tate ; and this wild condition of things we can only imagine
by analysing the present.

Of course we begin with hydrogen, as apparently least
composite. The belief is that this as a gaseous body is at
least a compound of its own particles; in other words, that
the ultimate parts of hydrogen do not keep isolated, but
show their love of combination by forming molecules. After-
wards there is very little inclination visible to unite under
ordinary temperatures. Let us suppose a molecule— or, if
it pleases better, an atom— of hydrogen put into ajar con-
taining nothing beyond that which fills a vacuum. No

492

Genesis of Matter.

[October,

“ wild bull with fireworks on its horns and eagle gnawing
at its back ” will ever rage so violently ; it will strike the
side thousands of times in a second, and according to some
it will continue to do this for ever and ever. Nay, is it not
true that Force is immortal, and this motion must go on for
ever. An eminent thinker has put this forward as a funda-
mental characteristic of atoms, that each, although formed
out of the original material, has impressed upon it a pecu-
liar motion, which is its personality, and constitutes its
individuality and peculiarity as an element. That may be
so in a sense, but it is not the gaseous motion which is the
original creation, for that we know ceases, unless we can
prove the same quality of motion to be existing even when
the gaseous state ceases. And, after all, what is an atom
separate from its motion ? Is it not true that Force and
Matter are one — that Matter moves by its own intrinsic and
eternal quality of motion ? The exaCt motion of gases is
not eternal ; the same frantic atom of hydrogen will stop
its violent movements, give them up with one mighty gasp,
— and so far as we know will never resume them, — and ap-
parently on slight provocation, by a touch of chlorine, of
oxygen, or of cold. Hydrogen, then, rages only under cer-
tain circumstances, dances only when motion is put into it ;
its motion is not eternal and unchangeable ; it may be frozen
into a liquid ; it may be made into a solid, for ever inactive,
and, like any poor piece of stolid matter, it may lie for ever
dead. True you may give it life again, and it will dance on
as merry as before ; but the life must come to it.

Some people think that this gaseous motion is a perpetual
one, and that they have at last discovered it in gases ; but
no — the fire seems to be required to keep up the motion of
the hydrogen, as it keeps up the motion of the steam-engine,
and when that goes out both cease. Matter is very dead ;
it may, however, be eternal : this hydrogen may move about
as long as it is supplied with heat, and there may be no
change in it for ever. We cannot suppose it to wear on, to
weary in its course, unless we find an analogy in the loss of
heat, when it calms down, and by loss of heat finds rest.
It is clear, then, that it is not a primitive quality of hydro-
gen to move for ever as a gas, only if it is set in motion it
will move in a certain way. But when the motion ceases
as gaseous motion, does it still go on in a liquid or solid ?
It may be so, but we have no real proof ; and at any rate
the motion, although of a fundamentally similar kind,
cannot be identically the same. Nobody can imagine an
atom doing anything but move, and so to keep up its

i8;8.]

Genesis of Matter.

493

characteristics we are obliged to suppose some aCtion. Let
us imagine the contrary ; must it not at least have a ten-
dency to aCtion such as we find in attraction ? We may
imagine this, but I fear it cannot have this inclination
without some remaining heat ; and if we take all the life —
that is, the motion — we know of, and leave nothing to give
a tendency till heat comes again, we imagine the motion to
exist in the atom itself in one case, and only in the atom
when heated up — that is, set in motion — in the other case.
There must be a latent capacity in the atom, and that must
be represented in some way. Is it in a form or in another
motion ?

Here we come to a very curious point. When the heat
comes to the hydrogen, and motion begins, the heat may be
inclined to say, “ I only am the power; the hydrogen is
nothing ; matter is a dead thing, with which I play as I
choose.” But we may answer the heat thus : — “ Cause
oxygen to move in exactly the same way, and I will believe
you ; or cause any other element to do the same.” The
heat cannot, because each has its own peculiar movement ;
and so we learn that hydrogen, after all, did play its part in
the dance, and played it too with a power that seemed to
be eternal. Although it cannot aCt alone, it can wait for
endless ages for a companion with whom to rejoice — that is,
take the heat away, freeze it to the utmost, and the parti-
cles will cease. At least I assume this ; if indeed the
existence of solid hydrogen, even for an instant, is not a
sufficient proof. If any one says that heat is held too much
as a material here, the reply is, “ No, it is treated as an
external agent.” The hydrogen deprived of heat will be
quite still so far as we know, and it is interesting to know
in what condition it rests. It is not dead, but sleeps ; its
particles are closely associated, and the colder it is the more
firmly do the particles unite — up to a certain point, at least,
I for one do not know how far. After all, this is not death ;
in death there are no bonds of brotherly love. Can any one
measure the strength of union of such particles, and find if
there is more force expended by this hydrogen when it is
active than when it is passive or void of heat ? This to
some extent we can do, although we cannot do it perfectly
till we know the cohesive force, and a few more points, more
clearly. But if, by the want of heat, there is this enormous
power of compression — or, in other words, of attraction for
itself — developed, then it would appear as if the original
power of the hydrogen were enormous, and the heat did not
increase it, but merely altered its direction. We must,

494

Genesis of Matter .

[October,

however, remember that there is a difference in the forces ;
the one is energetic — the gas will move of itself ; the solid
will not. Yet here we come to a stand — we have abundant
force in the dead hydrogen. Can nothing else bring it out
but heat ? Can nothing cause it to burst forth of itself,
and convert its terrible grip into activity ? Who knows but
the cold may overdo its work, and break up the hydrogen
itself, when the earlier elements may spring out and convert
that deadly grip into the gay dance of life and a new crea-
tion? If any one says that this is only a mode of manufac-
turing heat out of cold, I will say I know the objection, and
I will stop this direction for the present and go elsewhere,
assisted by a little imagination.

If we desire to rob hydrogen of more of its qualities we
must break it up. Do we not see that the more it unites
the more varied is its activity, and the more many-sided is
its life ? Let us break it into more simplicity, and remove
its powers ; let us say “ Hydrogen become simple, whatever
that be,”- — either the one matter, the vcra substantia of all
things, or at least something even more ready to escape
than hydrogen is in a state of gas. For this we need a new
power ; we must pass the bounds of the known ; we must
find a force and split the hydrogen, tearing it asunder by
aphairesis, and leaving a something or two somethings
which have lost at least one of their powers, that of re-
maining together until some equal force unites them again.
That which they have lost is, let us say first, affinity. If
affinity is lost, why not gravitation also, of which it is but
a branch ? But by what right have you gone beyond the
bounds of our matter ? It is only a leap, and I shall return ;
but in my leap I saw that there was a something different
from this earth, and the matter there did not gravitate.
Indeed ! and how can it be matter if it did not gravitate ?
I am not aware that gravitation is any necessary quality of
matter. We can suppose matter without. Indeed there
are various kinds of gravitation of one body to another, and
much more powerful than that which we designate especially
by the name of Gravity. But this I said in a previous
essay, in part. A magnet has another gravitation in it,
which may go out of it ; why may not our common gravi-
tation be put out also ? It is a mere fancy that it is neces-
sary. But how did hydrogen obtain its gravitation ? How
does any body obtain a new property ? It is by intrusion
of other things, arts, and conditions, as new races are
formed ; and hydrogen most probably obtained its gravita-
tion either by the combination which first made it hydrogen

1878.]

Genesis of Matter.

495

or in some of the stages. Probably there were more than
one stage ; by going back we may suppose the one above
spoken of, whereby it lost its cohesion in the greatest cold,
its tendency to itself ; and by another, its tendency to any
other matter or its gravity ; and thus we have its free parts
in the wide Universe — and what are these parts of hydrogen
like ?

Now, do not wonder that hydrogen should have parts.
Do you suppose that such a complex substance — yes, com-
plex, it has many properties — was made at once ? Nature
makes the complex out of the simple. Hydrogen must be
supposed capable of being broken up. The parts are not to
be explained by experiment ; we have no experience of the
chemistry of the lower stage of matter. In the present
known hydrogen we have atom striking against atom, and
interrupted in its motion ; we have also atom combining
with atom, and more interrupted ; and we have atom gravi-
tating towards atom, seeking a fresh stage of interruption,
and a complex social system that cannot be kept up by the
simple savage atoms of the early stages of existence.
These earlier atoms may have no community of feeling.
We suppose the great gravitation of the Universe as nothing
to them, and that they live unconscious by their afits of any
existence outside of them. Of course some people will say
that in any case they cannot pass through our matter: that
is quite an assumption. Glass allows something to pass,
and why not our more simple bodies ? We are not quite
sure whether the same does not in some way take place
with all matter which is transparent to several agencies.

And now that you have your free and independent matter,
what will you do with it ? I cannot catch it and curb it ;
it will not yield to my entreaties, or be kept down by my
chains. Hydrogen would blow against me ; this will not.
Hydrogen would burn, and even sing in doing so ; but this
will not. And yet I cannot consider it without qualities as
to hydrogen itself. The world sought it thousands of years,
but could not catch it. By itself it will do nothing but
escape from us. After a long time it was found that by
combining with oxygen it burnt, and greater firmness was
given to both. By analogous means may one element
receive new qualities, such as weight and resistance. But
we do not suppose that the removal of gravitating power
removes all resistance. That is not necessary, as cohesion
is much more powerful than gravitation ; but we have
removed cohesion also from our new elements : they
are free.

Genesis of Matter.

[October,

496

The difficulty now is to know in what relation this new,
or rather primitive substance really stands to matter at all.
We might say, in one aspedf, as an iron magnet stands to a
piece of iron. As a magnet it is powerful, and if nothing
but iron were about it we should see greater influence ; it
lifts iron in spite of gravitation, and a few touches make it
dead iron again. The space round the magnet is to iron as
if it were solid and resisting. Is it irrational to suppose
matter which fills space, and by a reversed relation turns all
the space into a solid. It is no more wonderful ; in wan-
dering into past or distant nature the eye is unable to see
clearly.

But, after all, is this not a mere repetition of Helmholz’s
idea. It may be like it in some respedts, but not in all, and
in this it is very different — he seems to understand the con-
dition to which he reduces matter. I do not understand
the state in which mine is ; strange new conditions arise,
and I need not say that I cannot see how his will work. I
look only to certain analogies very safe for easy reasoning
and pioneering.

Another objection seems to be that if you have brought
matter to nothing your reasoning is of no use. I have
brought it to nothing, or at least to a something which at
first view seems next to it, that it may be seen how little it
is without the breath of life put into it. Even the life
called resistance is almost gone, — certainly all the life that
we call usually material, — but give it combination and it
may fall to the sun as hydrogen, and it may rave amongst
oxygen to keep up our constant fires. Certainly it is a
limited view that gives to our elements only primitive life,
and that conceives them to be simple. Of course I use
life analogical^. Neptune never went to Greenland, so far
as we know. Imagine him riding in his car, splashing
through the ocean, and finding suddenly that he had got
into a prison ; the very water is held above him, his horse’s
hoofs are getting too cold to move, and to his astonishment
the whole team become statues, and even he, the king, can-
not control this new element, ice. Imagine him coming to
Olympus and telling this wonderful tale, whilst Mercury
said “ You are confined in your movements; indeed I never
heard before of your going outside the Pillars of Hercules.
I am accustomed to go far, and in my movements among
the stars I have come among similar stiffening of far finer
matter than water, namely, that which flows in universal
space. The messengers of the spheres have moved in the
space as unconscious of the existence of anything present

1 878.]

Genesis of Mattel \

497

as men of the ignorant class are of air, or as fish are of
water, and they have been astonished when — as if at a
signal — great darts of white have shot through the empy-
rean, each sending out other darts, until the whole became
as solid as the seas of the Hyperboreans.” “ And why
not ?” said Vulcan ; “ most things melt by heat, but some
things become lighter by becoming solid, and water, I think,
is one of these, as I sometimes have occasion to observe
when I seek the cooling snows of Olympus, or its solid ice,
warming it to wash the soot off me before I come to supper.
I have seen such things without going so far : have I not
seen some men rejoicing in the soft winds of heaven, or the
hills warmed and moistened by the sun and sea breezes,
when suddenly Jove’s thunders rolled, and the moisture fell
down in heavy hail that struck the frightened people and
their flocks, and endangered, if not destroyed, their lives ?
Why may not a touch of Jove’s fire harden the unfathomed
space itself as readily as a tender soul, by a change of
thought, turns to rage and cruelty ? or why may it not
become so cold that even that may stiffen as the air itself,
or something in it, which makes white the forests below us
in a few hours ?”

These Olympians were not sound chemists, and forgot
that the total vapour was as heavy as the hail to which it
turned ; but your free matter, by your own account, must be
very light, or rather bearing no weight it must be very thin
at best. Its weight and thinness are not dependent on each
other; its very power of dispersion shows that there is
some force in it, and it is not yet reduced to nothing, and
you will at least allow that there is plenty to draw from.
And yet have I not sat, at a little distance, at a large louvre
window, and looked on in the dim evening ; the light seemed
abundant, and nothing was observed to interrupt my view:
the edges of the glass louvre strips were towards me, and
after a while I began to see that there were thin lines ; sud-
denly the space was obscured : there were no window-
shutters, no gradual clouding. Had my eyes lost their
power of seeing ? A veil comes gradually : could it be a
veil ? No, it was a sudden reversal of the louvre. How
much may be done by this, and how many analogies it
leads to !

I suppose we all allow anything as a temporary fancy,
and this I think may be considered, that the weight of a
body is not a necessary quality, but entirely external to it.
2. That if so a time may have been when weight came into
creation. 3. A condition may still exist of substance having

VOL. viii. (n.s,) 2 K

498

Genesis of Matter .

[October,

no weight. 4. We may imagine a place to exist where
matter has no weight, but this is less easily conceived of
common matter. 5. We may imagine weight to be
taken out and in ; we have an analogy in a magnet lying
on the ground, attracting, and in a sense making heavier,
the iron over it. 6. That something which gives weight
may exist without our matter, although we cannot
prove it. 7. If it is outside of our matter it may be an ex-
istence of a kind to be passing through our matter.

8. Possibly an existence polarising the vibrations, or rather
movements, of molecules, and giving them a direction.

9. If so, it probably has a motion of its own. 10. If so,
the parts of which it is composed are necessarily smaller
than the atoms of our chemistry : it is as difficult to con-
ceive it non-atomic as to conceive our matter to be so, and
we do not render it more intelligible by calling it non-atomic.

11. The state of Physics and Chemistry demands a finer
atom than ours, and we can get it best by breaking ours up.

12. If our atoms were as small as these supposed ones they
would go through glass, and perhaps through all our com-
mon matter, as these finer are supposed to do. 13. If our
so-called atoms are complex, they are probably compressible
to a certain extent, and changeable in shape. 14. Atoms
of more primitive form will be less so, and probably infi-
nitely hard, as we have supposed ours to be, and as ours
would be if they were primordial. 15. If there are any
which by pressing forward cause common matter to gravi-
tate, they themselves must, if they do not gravitate, have a
power of direction. It is very hard to imagine this, although
it has been supposed to have been explained. 16. If so,
they cannot aCt merely on the surface, as the weight of a
body does not depend on its surface ; they may aCt on
every atom, and when they penetrate our matter they can
so aCt, and by this means we obtain a force immeasurably
multiplied, i.e., multiplied according to the number of atoms
in a body. 17. These ideas connect the finer substance with
our coarser matter ; it is not fair quite to sever them ; they
do not, however, convert the finer matter into forces, because
even that we can separate from force, and are compelled
to do so by our reason.

We must some day think more of this.

1878.]

The British Association

499

VI. THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE
ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE.

|EHE British Association held its 1878 meeting at Dublin,

in August last. This, the forty-eighth meeting of the

Association, and the third visit it has paid to Dublin,
was one of the most successful meetings ever held, the
number of Members and Associates present being 2756.
Mr. Spottiswoode, President, in his Address first made
some remarks upon the purposes, operations, and prospers
of the Association, of which he has been for many years
the Treasurer. He then passed to the consideration of the
external aspects and tendencies of Mathematical Science.

Viewed from a mathematician’s own point of view, ma-
thematics offer so few points of contact with the ordinary
experiences of life or modes of thought, that any account
of its actual progress must, he said, fail in the first requisite
of an Address — namely, that of being intelligible. But
although in its technical character mathematical science
suffered the inconveniences, while it enjoyed the dignity, of
its Olympian position, still in a less formal garb, or in dis-
guise, it is found present at many an unexpected turn ; and
although some may never have learnt its special language,
not a few have, all through their scientific life, and even in
almost every accurate utterance, like Moliere’s well-known
character, been talking mathematics without knowing it.
It is, moreover, a faCt not to be overlooked that the appear-
ance of isolation, so conspicuous in mathematics, appertains
in a greater or less degree to all other sciences, and perhaps
also to all pursuits in life. In its highest flight each soars
to a distance from its fellows. Each is pursued alone for
its own sake, and without reference to its connection with,
or its application to, any other subject. The pioneer and
the advanced guard are of necessity separated from the
main body, and in this respeCt mathematics does not mate-
rially differ from its neighbours. In his preface to the
“ Principia,” Newton gives expression to some general ideas
which may well serve as the key-note for all future utter-
ances on the relation of mathematics to natural, including
also therein what are commonly called artificial, pheno-
mena : — “The ancients divided mechanics into two parts,

2, K2

500

The British Association .

[October,

rational and practical ; and since artizans often work inac-
curately, it came to pass that mechanics and geometry were
distinguished in this way, that everything accurate was re-
ferred to geometry, and everything inaccurate to mechanics.
But the inaccuracies appertain to the artizan and not to
the art, and geometry itself has its foundation in mechanical
practice, and is in fa<5t nothing else than that part of uni-
versal mechanics which accurately lays down and demon-
strates the art of measuring.” He next explains that
rational mechanics is the science of motion resulting from
forces, and adds, — “ The whole difficulty of philosophy
seems to me to lie in investigating the forces of nature from
the phenomena of motion, and in demonstrating that from
these forces other phenomena will ensue.” Then, after
stating the problems of which he has treated in the work
itself, he says — “ I would that all other natural phenomena
might similarly be deduced from mechanical principles.
For many things move me to suspeCt that everything de-
pends upon certain forces in virtue of which the particles of
bodies, through forces not yet understood, are either impelled
together so as to cohere in regular figures, or are repelled
and recede from one another.”

Every subject, whether in its usual acceptation scientific
or otherwise, may have a mathematical aspect ; as soon, in
fa6t, as it becomes a matter of strict measurement, or of
numerical statement, so soon does it enter upon a mathe-
matical phase. It is not so much elaborate calculations or
abstruse processes which characterise this phase as the
principles of precision, of exactness, and of proportion.
These are principles with which no true knowledge can en-
tirely dispense. If it be the general scientific spirit which
at the outset moves upon the face of the waters, and out of
the unknown depth brings forth light and living forms, it is
no less the mathematical spirit which breathes the breath
of life into what would otherwise have ever remained mere
dry bones of faCt, which reunites the scattered limbs and
re-creates from them a new and organic whole.

Taking precision and exactness as the characteristics which
distinguish the mathematical phase of a subject, we are
naturally led to expeCt that the approach to such a phase
will be indicated by increasing application of the principle
of measurement, and by the importance which is attached
to numerical results. And this very necessary condition
for progress may be fairly described as one of the main
features of scientific advance in the present day.

If* continued the President, it were my purpose, by

1878.]

The British Association.

501

descending into the arena of special science, to show how
the most various investigations alike tend to issue in mea-
surement, and to that extent to assume a mathematical
phase, I should be embarrassed by the abundance of in-
stances which might be adduced. I will therefore confine
myself to a passing notice of a very few, selecting those
which exemplify not only the general tendency, but also the
special character of the measurements now particularly re-
quired— viz., that of minuteness, and the indirect method
by which alone we can at present hope to approach them.
An object having a diameter of an 8o,oocth of an inch is
perhaps the smallest of which the microscope could give
any well-defined representation ; and it is improbable that
one of 120,000th of an inch could be singly discerned with
the highest powers at our command. But the solar beams
and the electric light reveal to us the presence of bodies far
smaller than these. And, in the absence of any means of
observing them singly, Professor Tyndall has suggested a
scale of these minute objects in terms of the lengths of
luminiferous waves. To this he was led, not by any attempt
at individual measurement, but by taking account of them
in the aggregate, and observing the tints which they scatter
laterally when clustered in the form of a(5tinic clouds. The
small bodies with which experimental science has recently
come into contact are not confined to gaseous molecules,
but comprise also complete organisms ; and the same philo-
sopher has made a profound study of the momentous
influence exerted by these minute organisms in the economy
of life. And if, in view of their specific effects, whether
deleterious or other, on human life, any qualitative classifi-
cation, or quantitative estimate, be ever possible, it seems
that it must be effected by some such method as that indi-
cated above. Again, to enumerate a few more instances of
the measurement of minute quantities, there are the average
distances of molecules from one another in various gases
and at various pressures ; the length of their free path, or
range open for their motion without coming into collision ;
there are movements causing the pressures and differences
of pressure under which Mr. Crookes’s radiometers execute
their wonderful revolutions. There are the excursions of
the air while transmitting notes of high pitch, which
through the researches of Lord Rayleigh appear to be of a
diminutiveness altogether unexpected. There are the mo-
lecular actions brought into play in the remarkable experi-
ments of Dr. Kerr, who has succeeded, where even Faraday
failed, in effecting a visible rotation of the plane of polar-

502

The British Association.

[October,

isation of light in its passage through electrified dielectrics,
and on its reflection at the surface of a magnet. To take
one more instance, there are the infinitesimal ripples of the
vibrating plate in Mr. Graham Bell’s most marvellous in-
vention. Of the nodes and ventral segments in the plate
of the telephone which actually converts sound into electri-
city and electricity into sound, we can at present form no
conception. All that can now be said is that the most per-
fect specimens of Chladni’s sand figures on a vibrating
plate, or of Kundt’s lycopodium heaps in a musical tube, or
even Mr. Sedley Taylor’s more delicate vortices in the films
of the phoneidoscope, are rough and sketchy compared with
these. For notwithstanding the faCt that in the movements
of the telephone-plate we have actually in our hand the
solution of that Old World problem, the construction of a
speaking-machine, yet the characters in which that solution
is expressed are too small for our powers of decipherment.
In movements such as these we seem to lose sight of the
distinction, or perhaps we have unconsciously passed the
boundary between massive and molecular motion. Through
the phonograph we have not only a transformation, but a
permanent and tangible record of the mechanism of speech.
But the differences upon which articulation (apart from
loudness, pitch, and quality) depends appear from the expe-
riments of Fleeming Jenkin, and of others, to be of micro-
scopic size. The microphone affords another instance of
the unexpected value of minute variations — in this case of
eleCtric currents ; and it is remarkable that the gist of the
instrument seems to lie in obtaining and perfecting that
which electricians have hitherto most scrupulously avoided,
viz., loose contaCt. Once more, Mr. De la Rue has brought
forward, as one of the results derived from his stupendous
battery of 10,000 cells, strong evidence for supposing that
a voltaic discharge, even when apparently continuous, may
still be an intermittent phenomenon ; but all that is known
of the period of such intermittence is, that it must recur at
exceedingly short intervals. And in connection with this
subject it may be added that, whatever may be the ultimate
explanation of the strange stratification which the voltaic
discharge undergoes in rarefied gases, it is clear that the
alternate disposition of light and darkness must be dependent
on some periodic distribution in space or sequence in time
which can at present be dealt with only in a very general
way. In the exhausted column we have a vehicle for elec-
tricity not constant like an ordinary conductor, but itself
modified by the passage of the discharge, and perhaps sub-

The British Association .

5°3

1878.]

je<51 to laws differing materially from those which it obeys
at atmospheric pressure. It may also be that some of the
features accompanying stratification form a magnified image
of phenomena belonging to disruptive discharges in general ;
and that consequently, so far from expending among the
known fadfs of the latter any clue to an explanation of the
former, we must hope ultimately to find in the former an
elucidation of what is at present obscure in the latter. A
prudent philosopher usually avoids hazarding any forecast
of the practical application of a purely scientific research.
But it would seem that the configuration of these striae
might some day prove a very delicate means of estimating
low pressures, and perhaps also for effedfing some eledfrical
measurements. Now, it is a curious fadf that almost the
only small quantities of which we have as yet any adtual
measurements are the wave-lengths of light ; and that all
others, excepting so far as they can be deduced from these,
await further determination. In the meantime, when un-
able to approach those small quantities individually, the
method to which we are obliged to have recourse is, as indi-
cated above, that of averages, whereby, disregarding the
circumstances of each particular case, we calculate the
average size, the average velocity, the average direction, &c.,
of a large number of instances. But although this method
is based upon experience, and leads to results which may
be accepted as substantially true ; although it may be ap-
plicable to any finite interval of time, or even any finite
area of space (that is, for all practical purposes of life),
there is no evidence to show that it is so when the dimen-
sions of interval or of area are indefinitely diminished.
The truth is that the simplicity of Nature which we at
present grasp is really the result of infinite complexity ; and
that below the uniformity there underlies a diversity whose
depths we have not yet probed and whose secret places are
still beyond our reach.

The President then proceeded to make special remark on
some processes peculiar to modern mathematics : he seletfted
for examination three methods, in respefit of which mathe-
maticians are often thought to have exceeded all reasonable
limits of speculation, and to have adopted for unknown
purposes an unknown tongue, with the view of showing
that not only in these very cases mathematical science has
not outstepped its own legitimate range, but that even art
and literature have unconsciously employed methods similar
in principle. The three methods in question are— -first, that
of Imaginary Quantities; secondly, that of Manifold Space ;

504 The British Association. [October,

and thirdly, that of Geometry not according to Euclid. He
explained Imaginary Quantities as follows ; —

To fix our ideas, consider the measurement of a line, or
the reckoning of time, or the performance of any mathe-
matical operation. A line maybe measured in one direction
or in the opposite ; time may be reckoned forward or back-
ward ; an operation may be performed or be reversed, it
may be done or it may be undone ; and if having once re-
versed any of these processes we reverse it a second time,
we shall find that we have come back to the original direc-
tion of measurement or of reckoning, or to the original kind
of operation. Suppose, however, that at some stage of a
calculation our formulae indicate an alteration in the mode
of measurement such that, if the alteration be repeated, a
condition of things not the same as, but the reverse of, the
original will be produced. Or suppose that, at a certain
stage, our transformations indicate that time is to be
reckoned in some manner different from future or past, but
still in a way having definite algebraical connection with
time which is gone and time which is to come. It is clear
that in adtual experience there is no process to which such
measurements correspond. Time has no meaning except as
future or past ; and the present is but the meeting point of
the two. Or, once more, suppose that we are gravely told
that all circles pass through the same two imaginary points
at an infinite distance, and that every line drawn through
one of these points is perpendicular to itself. On hearing
this statement we shall probably whisper, with a smile or a
sigh, that we hope it is not true ; but that in any case it is
a long way off, and perhaps, after all, it does not very much
signify. If, however, as mathematicians we are not satis-
fied to dismiss the question on these terms, we ourselves
must admit that we have here reached a definite point of
issue. Our science must either give a rational account of
the dilemma or yield the position as no longer tenable.
Special modes of explaining this anomalous state of things
have occurred to mathematicians. But, omitting details as
unsuited to the present occasion, it will, I think, be sufficient
to point out in general terms that a solution of the difficulty
is to be found in the fadt that the formulae which give rise
to these results are more comprehensive than the significa-
tion assigned to them ; and when we pass out of the
condition of things first contemplated they cannot (as it is
obvious they ought not) give us any results intelligible on
that basis. But it does not therefore by any means follow
that upon a more enlarged basis the formulae are incapable

1 878.]

The British Association.

505

of interpretation ; on the contrary, the difficulty at which
we have arrived indicates that there must be some more
comprehensive statement of the problem which will include
cases impossible in the more limited, but possible in the
wider, view of the subjedh.

If, both in geometry and in algebra, we occasionally make
use of points or of quantities which from our present out-
look have no real existence, which can neither be delineated
in space of which we have experience, nor measured by
scale as we count measurement ; if these imaginaries, as
they are termed, are called up by legitimate processes of our
science ; if they serve the purpose not merely of suggesting
ideas, but of adlually conducting us to practical conclu-
sions ; if all this be true in abstract science, I may, perhaps,
be allowed to point out, in illustration of my argument,
that in art unreal forms are frequently used for suggesting
ideas, for conveying a meaning for which no others seem to
be suitable or adequate. Are not forms unknown to biology,
situations incompatible with gravitation, positions which
challenge not merely the stability but even the possibility of
equilibrium — are not these the very means to which the
artist often has recourse in order to convey his meaning and
to fulfil his mission ? Again, if we turn from art to letters,
truth to nature and to faCt is undoubtedly a characteristic
of sterling literature ; and yet in the delineation of outward
nature itself, still more in that of feelings and affections, of
the secret parts of character and motives of conduct, it fre-
quently happens that the writer is driven to imagery, to an
analogy, or even to a paradox, in order to give utterance to
that of which there is no direCt counterpart in recognised
speech.

Passing to the second of the three methods— -viz., that of
manifold space — Mr. Spottiswoode remarked that our whole
experience of space is in three dimensions, viz., of that which
has length, breadth, and thickness : there is, however, another
aspeCb under which even ordinary space presents to us a four-
fold, or indeed a manifold, charaCfer. In modern physics space
is regarded not as a vacuum in which bodies are placed and
forces have play, but rather as a plenum with which matter
is co-extensive. And from a physical point of view the pro-
perties of space are the properties of matter, or of the
medium which fills it. Similarly, from a mathematical
point of view, space may be regarded as a locus in quo, as a
plenum, filled with those elements of geometrical magnitude
which we take as fundamental. These elements need not
always be the same. For different purposes different ele-

506 The British Association . [October.

ments may be chosen ; and upon the degree of complexity
of the subject of our choice will depend the internal struc-
ture or manifoldness of space. Thus, beginning with the
simplest case, a point may have any singly infinite multitude
of positions in aline, which gives a onefold system of points
in a line. The line may revolve in a plane about any one
of its points, giving a twofold system of points in a plane ;
and the plane may revolve about any one of the lines, giving
a threefold system of points in space. Suppose, however,
that we take a straight line as our element, and conceive
space as filled with such lines. This will be the case if we
take two planes, — e.g., two parallel planes, — and join every
point in one with every point in the other. Now the points
in a plane form a twofold system, and it therefore follows
that the system of lines is fourfold ; in other words, space
regarded as a plenum of lines is fourfold. The same result
follows from the consideration that the lines in a plane, and
the planes through a point, are each twofold. Again, if we
take a sphere as our element we can through any point as
a centre draw a singly infinite number of spheres, but the
number of such centres is triply infinite ; hence space as a
plenum of spheres is fourfold. And, generally, space as a
plenum of surfaces has a manifoldness equal to the number
of constants required to determine the surface. Although
it would be beyond our present purpose to attempt to pursue
the subject further, it should not pass unnoticed that the
identity in the fourfold character of space, as derived on the
one hand from a system of straight lines, and on the other
from a system of spheres, is intimately connected with the
principles established by Sophus Lie in his researches on
the correlation of these figures. If we take a circle as our
element we can around any point in a plane as a centre
draw a singly infinite number of circles ; but the number of
such centres in a plane is doubly infinite ; hence the circles
in a plane form a threefold system, and as the planes in
space form a threefold system it follows that space as a
plenum of circles is sixfold. Again, if we take a circle as
our element, we may regard it as a section either of a sphere
or of a right cone (given except in position) by a plane per-
pendicular to the axis. In the former case the position of
the centre is threefold ; the directions of the plane, like that
of a pencil of lines perpendicular thereto, twofold : and the
radius of the sphere onefold ; sixfold in all. In the latter
case the position of the vertex is threefold ; the direction of
the axis twofold ; and the distance of the plane of section
onefold ; sixfold in all, as before. Hence space as a plenum

1878.] The British Association, 507

of circles is sixfold. Similarly, if we take a conic as our
element, we may regard it as a section of a right cone (given
except in position) by a plane. If the nature of the conic
be defined, the plane of section will be inclined at a fixed
angle to the axis ; otherwise it will be free to take any
inclination whatever. This being so, the position of the
vertex will be threefold ; the direction of the axis twofold ;
the distance of the plane of section from the vertex one-
fold ; and the direction of that plane onefold if the conic be
defined, twofold if it be not defined. Hence, space as a
plenum of definite conics will be sevenfold, as a plenum of
conics in general eightfold. And so on for curves of higher
degrees. This is, in fact, the whole story and mystery of
manifold space. It is not seriously regarded as a reality in
the same sense as ordinary space ; it is a mode of repre-
sentation, or a method which, having served its purpose,
vanishes from the scene. Like a rainbow, if we try to grasp
it, it eludes our very touch ; but, like a rainbow, it arises
out of real conditions of known and tangible quantities, and
if rightly apprehended it is a true and valuable expression
of natural laws, and serves a definite purpose in the science
of which it forms part. Again, if we seek a counterpart of
this in common life, I might remind you that perspective in
drawing is itself a method not altogether dissimilar to that
of which I have been speaking ; and that the third dimen-
sion of space, as represented in a pidture, has its origin in
the painter’s mind, and is due to his skill, but has no real
existence upon the canvas which is the groundwork of his
art. Or, again, turning to literature, when in legendary
tales, or in works of fidtion, things past and future are pic-
tured as present, has not the poetic fancy correlated time
with the three dimensions of space, and brought all alike
to a common focus ? Or, once more, when space already
filled with material substances is mentally peopled with im-
material beings, may not the imagination be regarded as
having added a new element to the capacity of space, a
fourth dimension of which there is no evidence in experi-
mental fadt ?

The third method proposed for special remark is that
which has been termed Non-Euclidean Geometry; and the
train of reasoning which has led to it may be described in
general terms as follows Some of the properties of space
which on account of their simplicity, theoretical as well as
practical, have, in constructing the ordinary system of
geometry, been considered as fundamental, are now seen to
be particular cases of more general properties. Thus a

5°S

The British Association .

[October,

plane surface and a straight line may be regarded as special
instances of surfaces and lines whose curvature is every-
where uniform or constant. And it is perhaps not difficult
to sec that, when the special notions of flatness and straight-
ness are abandoned, many properties of geometrical figures
which we are in the habit of regarding as fundamental will
undergo profound modification. Thus a plane may be con-
sidered as a special case of the sphere, — viz., the limit to
which a sphere approaches when its radius is increased
without limit. But even this consideration trenches upon
an elementary proposition relating to one of the simplest of
geometrical figures. In plane triangles the interior angles
are together equal to two right angles ; but in triangles
traced on the surface of a sphere this proposition does not
hold good. To this other instances might be added. The
principle of representing space of one kind by that of
another, and figures belonging to one by their analogues in
the other, is not only recognised as legitimate in pure
mathematics, but has long ago found its application in
cartography. In maps or charts, geographical positions,
the contour of coasts, and other features, belonging in
reality to the earth’s surface, are represented on the flat ;
and to each mode of representation, or projection as it is
called, there corresponds a special correlation between the
spheroid and the plane. To this might perhaps be added
the method of descriptive geometry, and all similar pro-
cesses in use by engineers, both military and civil.

With regard to pure and applied mechanics, it has often,
said Mr. Spottiswoode, been asked whether modern research
in the field of pure mathematics has not so completely out-
stripped its physical applications as to be practically useless ;
whether the analyst and the geometer might not now, and
for a long time to come, fairly say, “ Hie artem remumque
repono,” and turn his attention to mechanics and physics.
That the Pure has outstripped the Applied is largely true ;
but that the former is on that account useless is far from
true. Its utility often crops up at unexpected points ; wit-
ness the aids to classification of physical quantities, furnished
by the ideas (of Scalar and Vector) involved in the Calculus
of Quaternions ; or the advantages which have accrued to
physical astronomy from Lagrange’s Equations, and from
Hamilton’s Principle of Varying Action ; on the value of
Complex Quantities, and the properties of general Integrals,
and of general theorems on integration for the Theories of
Electricity and Magnetism.

These extensions of mathematical ideas would, however,

1878.]

The British Association.

509

be overwhelming if they were not compensated by some
simplifications in the processes actually employed. Of these
aids to calculation I will mention only two, viz., symmetry
of form and mechanical appliances ; or, say, Mathematics
as a Fine Art, and Mathematics as a Handicraft. And
first, as to symmetry of form. There are many passages of
algebra in which long processes of calculation at the outset
seem unavoidable. Results are often obtained in the first
instance through a tangled mass of formulae. But almost
within our own generation a new method has been de-
vised to clear this entanglement. By Lagrange, and to
some extent also by Gauss, among the older writers, the
method of which I am speaking was recognised as a prin-
ciple; but beside these perhaps no others can be named
until a period within our own recollection. The method
consists in symmetry of expression. In algebraical formulae
combinations of the quantities entering therein occur and
recur; and by a suitable choice of these quantities the
various combinations may be rendered symmetrical and re-
duced to a few well-known types. This having been done,
and one such combination having been calculated, the re-
mainder, together with many of their results, can often be
written down at once, without further calculations, by simple
permutations of the letters. Symmetrical expressions,
moreover, save as much time and trouble in reading as in
writing.

With regard to mechanical appliances, Mr. Babbage,
when speaking of the difficulty of ensuring accuracy in the
long numerical calculations of theoretical astronomy, re-
marked that the science which in itself is the most accurate
and certain of all, had, through these difficulties, become
inaccurate and uncertain in some of its results. And it was
doubtless some such consideration as this, coupled with his
dislike of employing skilled labour where unskilled would
suffice, which led him to the invention of his calculating
machines. Prof. James Thomson has recently constructed
a machine which, by means of the mere friction of a disk,
a cylinder, and a ball, is capable of effecting a variety of
complicated calculations, which occur in the highest appli-
cation of mathematics to physical problems. By its aid it
seems that an unskilled labourer may, in a given time, per-
form the work of ten skilled arithmeticians. The machine
is applicable alike to the calculation of tidal, of magnetic,
of meteorological, and perhaps also of all other periodic
phenomena. It will solve differential equations of the
second, and perhaps of even higher orders^ And through

The British Association .

[October,

5io

the same invention the problem of finding the free motion
of any number of mutually attracting particles, unrestricted
by any of the approximate suppositions required in the
treatment of the lunar and planetary theories, is reduced to
the simple process of turning a handle. When Faraday
had completed the experimental part of a physical problem,
and desired that it should thenceforward be treated mathe-
matically, he used irreverently to say — “ Hand it over to
the calculators.” But truth is ever stranger than fiction ;
and if he had lived until our day he might, with perfect
propriety, have said — “ Hand it over to the machine.”

After referring to the origin of mathematical ideas and
their expression, the President passed to the attitude of
Literature and Art towards Science ; and here he remarked
that, considering the severance which still subsists in edu-
cation and during our early years between Literature and
Science, we can hardly wonder if when thrown together in
the afterwork of life they should meet as strangers, or if the
severe garb, the curious implements, and the strange wares
of the latter should seem little attractive when contrasted
with the light companionship of the former. The day is
yet young, and in the early dawn many things look weird
and fantastic which in fuller light prove to be familiar and
useful. The outcomings of Science, which at one time have
been deemed to be but stumbling-blocks scattered in the
way, may ultimately prove stepping-stones which have been
carefully laid to form a pathway over difficult places for the
children of “ sweetness and of light.” The instances on
which we have dwelt are only a few out of many in which
mathematics may be found ruling and governing a variety
of subjects. It is as the supreme result of all experience,
the framework in which all the varied manifestations of
Nature have been set, that our Science has laid claim to be
the arbiter of all knowledge. She does not indeed contribute
elements of faCt, which must be sought elsewhere ; but she
sifts and regulates them ; she proclaims the laws to which
they must conform if those elements are to issue in precise
results. From the data of a problem she can infallibly
extraCt all possible consequences, whether they be those first
sought or others not anticipated ; but she can introduce
nothing which was not latent in the original statement.
Mathematics cannot tell us whether there be or be not limits
to time or space; but to her they are both of indefinite
extent, and this in a sense which neither affirms nor denies
that they are either infinite or finite. Mathematics cannot
tell us whether matter be continuous or discrete in its struc-

1878-]

The British Association .

5ii

ture ; but to her it is indifferent whether it be one or the
other, and her conclusions are independent of either parti-
cular hypothesis. Mathematics can tell us nothing of the
origin of matter, of its creation or its annihilation ; she
deals only with it in a state of existence ; but within that
state its modes of existence may vary from our most ele-
mentary conception to our most complex experience.
Mathematics can tell us nothing beyond the problems which
she specifically undertakes ; she will carry them to their
limit, but there she stops, and upon the great region beyond
she is imperturbably silent.

Conterminous with space and coeval with time is the
kingdom of mathematics ; within this range her dominion
is supreme ; otherwise than according to her order nothing
can exist ; in contradiction to her laws nothing takes place.
On her mysterious scroll is to be found, written for those
who can read it, that which has been, that which is, and
that which is to come. Everything material which is the
subject of knowledge has number, order, or position ; and
these are her first outlines for a sketch of the Universe.
If our more feeble hands cannot follow out the details, still
her part has been drawn with an unerring pen, and her
work cannot be gainsaid. So wide is the range of mathe-
matical science, so indefinitely may it extend beyond our
aCtual powers of manipulation, that at some moments we
are inclined to fall down with even more than reverence
before her majestic presence. But so strictly limited are
her promises and powers, about so much that we might
wish to know does she offer no information whatever, that
at other moments we are fain to call her results but a vain
thing, and to rejeCt them as a stone when we had asked for
bread. If one aspeCt of the subject encourages our hopes,
so does the other tend to chasten our desires ; and he is
perhaps the wisest, and in the long run the happiest among
his fellows, who has learnt not only this science, but also
the larger lesson which it indirectly teaches — namely, to
temper our aspirations to that which is possible, to mode-
rate our desires to that which is attainable, to restrict; our
hopes to that of which accomplishment, if not immediately
practicable, is at least distinctly within the range of con-
ception. That which is at present beyond our ken may, at
some period and in some manner as yet unknown to us, fall
within our grasp ; but our Science teaches us, while ever
yearning with Goethe for “ Light, more light,” to concen-
trate our attention upon that of which our powers are
capable, and contentedly to leave for future experience the

512

The British Association .

[Odtober,

solution of problems to which we can at present say neither
yea nor nay. It is within the region thus indicated that
knowledge in the true sense of the word is to be sought.
Other modes of influence there are in society and in indivi-
dual life, other forms of energy beside that of intelledt. There
is the potential energy of sympathy, the adtual energy of
work ; there are the vicissitudes of life, the diversity of cir-
cumstance, health, and disease, and all the perplexing issues,
whether for good or for evil, of impulse and of passion.
But although the book of life cannot at present be read by
the light of Science alone, nor the wayfarers be satisfied by
the few loaves of knowledge now in our hands, yet it would
be difficult to overstate the almost miraculous increase
which may be produced by a liberal distribution of what
we already have, and by a restriction of our cravings within
the limits of possibility. In proportion as method is better
than impulse, deliberate purpose than erratic action, the
clear glow of sunshine than irregular reflection, and definite
utterances than an uncertain sound, — in proportion as
knowledge is better than surmise, proof than opinion, — in
that proportion will the mathematician value a discrimina-
tion between the certain and the uncertain, and a just esti-
mate of the issues which depend upon one motive power or
the other. While on the one hand he accords to his neigh-
bours full liberty to regard the unknown in whatever way
they are led by the noblest powers that they possess, so on
the other he claims an equal right to draw a clear line of
demarcation between that which is a matter of knowledge
and that which is at all events something else, and to treat
the one category as fairly claiming our assent, the other as
open to further evidence. And yet, when he sees around
him those whose aspirations are so fair, whose impulses so
strong, whose receptive faculties so sensitive, as to give
objective reality to what is often but a reflex from themselves,
or a projected image of their own experience, he will be
willing to admit that there are influences which he cannot
as yet either fathom or measure, but whose operation he
must recognise among the facets of our existence.

Mathematical and Physical Science. (Section A.)

In the absence of the President (the Rev. Professor
Salmon) the Rev. Professor Haughton opened the business
of this Section.

The British Association.

513

18 78.]

Prof. J. D. Everett read the “ Report of the Committee
on Underground Temperatures.” The principal novelty
was the proposal to make observations in filled-up bores by
a thermo- electric method. Two wires, one of iron and the
other of copper, each covered with gutta-percha, were to be
joined at both ends, where a portion would be left uncovered.
One junction would be buried in the bore, while the other
would remain above ground, available for observation. A
current would flow through the circuit composed of these
two wires whenever the two junctions were at unequal tem-
peratures, and the observer would immerse the accessible
junction in a basin of water containing a thermometer, and
would regulate the temperature of the water until he found
by a galvanometer that no current passed. He would then
know that the temperature of the water, as indicated by
the thermometer, was the same as that of the buried
junction.

The “ Report of the Committee for the Determination of
the Mechanical Equivalent of Heat ” was then read. The
Committee are now making a more accurate investigation
of the true position of the freezing- and boiling-points of
the thermometer when cleared from the effects of the
imperfedt elasticity of the glass of which they are con-
strutted.

Papers were read by Mr. J. E. H. Gordon, “ On some
Experiments on Specific Inductive Capacity,” and “ On the
Effedt of Variations of Pressure on the Length of Disruptive
Discharge in Air.”

Mr. G. Johnstone Stoney communicated the results of
long investigation, by himself and Prof. J. Emerson Rey-
nolds, “ On the Spedtrum of Chloro-chromic Anhydride.”
He ^described the kinetic theory of gas molecules darting
about and continually striking against each other ; but, be-
sides these, he said there were internal motions within the
molecules, which in many cases were either periodic or
quasi-periodic. The evidence of this was obtained from
the spedtra of gases. For many years he had been engaged
in searching for cases of harmonic motion in gas, and, with
the assistance of Prof. Reynolds, he had obtained the posi-
tions of 105 lines in the spedtrum of chloro-chromic anhy-
dride, which proved to be harmonics of one particular
motion. The time of one of the oscillations had been mea-
sured to the 810,000,000,000th part of a second.

Prof. James Thomson next read a paper “ On the Flow
of Water in Uniform Regime in Rivers and in Open Chan-

VQL, VIII, (n.s.) 2 L

5I4

The British Association .

[October,

nels generally.” He described the various theories which
had previously been put forward to account for the well-
known fa (51 that the flow of water is not always greatest at
the surface, and advanced a new theory, which he illustrated
by various diagrams.

This was followed by a paper “ On the Pedetic Action of
Soap,” by Prof. W. Stanley Jevons, which we give in ex -
tenso

Since the publication, in the “ Quarterly Journal of
Science ” for April, 1878, of my paper on Peaesis, or the
so-called Brownian movement of microscopic particles, it
has been suggested to me that soap would form a good
critical substance for experiment in relation to this pheno-
menon. It is the opinion of Prof. Barrett, and some other
physicists, that the movement is due to surface tension,
whereas I believe that chemical and electromotive adtions
can alone explain the long-continued and extraordinary mo-
tions exhibited by minute particles of almost all substances
under proper conditions. Soap considerably reduces the
tension of water in which it is dissolved, without much
affedting (as is said) its electric condudtibility. If, then,
pedesis be due to surface-tension, we should expedt the
motion to be killed or much lessened when soap is added to
water.

Having tried the experiment, I find that the result is of
the opposite charadter to what Prof. Barrett anticipated.
With a solution of common soap the pedetic motion be-
comes considerably more marked than before. I have
observed this result not only with china clay and some
other silicates, but also with such comparatively inert sub-
stances as the red oxide of iron, chalk, and even the heavy
powder of barium carbonate. The last-named substance —
one of those we should least expedt to dance about of its
own accord — gave a beautiful exhibition of the movement
when mixed with a solution of about 1 per cent of soap,
and viewed with a magnifying power of 500 or 1000 dia-
meters.

The correctness of this result was also tested by observing
the suspending power of solutions of soap-solution compared
with water. If a little china clay be diffused through com-
mon impure water — that, for instance, of the London Water
Companies — the greater part of the clay will soon be seen
to collect together in small flocks, and fall to the bottom in
two or three hours, the water being almost clear. However,
if a little soap be dissolved in the water, the behaviour

1878.]

The British Association .

515

of the clay is quite different. The larger particles soon
subside, but the smaller ones remain diffused through the
liquid for a long time, giving it a milky appearance, quite
different from the flocky and grainy appearance of the com-
mon water : if 1 per cent of sodium carbonate be dissolved
in common water, and china clay be mixed therewith, the
subsidence of the clay is still more rapid, owing, as I have
explained, to the increase in the eleCtric conductivity of the
fluid, and the consequent decrease of pedesis. But I now
find that if soap be added at the same time pedesis is not
destroyed, but considerably increased, and the clay remains
a long time in suspension, two or three days at least.

These fa<5ts give a complete explanation of the detergent
power of soap. It has long seemed to me unaccountable
that for cleansing purposes the comparatively neutral soap
should be better than the alkaline carbonate by itself. We
are told that the alkali is but feebly combined with the
stearic or other fatty acids. But why combine it at all if we
need only the alkaline power of the base ? The faCt is that
the detergent aCtion of soap is due to pedesis, by which
minute particles are loosened and diffused through the water,
so as to be readily carried off. Pure rain or distilled water
has a high cleansing power, because it produces pedesis in
a high degree. The hardness of impure water arises from
the vast decrease of pedesis due to the salts in solution.
Hence the inferior cleansing power of such water. If alka-
line salts be dissolved in the water, it becomes capable
of acting upon oleaginous matter, but the pedetic power is
lessened, not increased. But if soap be added also, we have
the advantage both of the alkaline dissolving power and of the
pedetic cleansing power. At the same time we have a clear
explanation why silicate of soda is now largely used in
making soap ; for I have shown, in the paper referred to,
that silicated soda is one of the few mineral substances
which increase the pedetic and suspensive power of water.

I believe that the detergent power of soap and water is
one of the many important phenomena which may be ex-
plained by the study of pedesis, and I propose to follow up
the investigation of this movement in regard to the several
substances which tend to increase it.

Mr. Robert Sabine read a paper “ On Motions produced
by Dilute Acids on some Amalgam Surfaces.” These mo-
tions result from an alternate play of deoxidation of the
mercury underneath the acid by electrolysis, due to the
currents of small floating particles of the positive metal

2 L 2

516 The British Association. [October,

causing the drop to contract, and of oxidation of the surface
outside the acid drop causing it to re-expand.

Mr. J. R. Wigham read a paper on “ New Applications
of Gas for Lighthouses.” The first part of his paper referred
to the Quadriform Gaslight. Galley Head is a promontory on
the coast of Cork, in the neighbourhood of which there had
been several shipwrecks. The Commissioners of Irish
Lights therefore determined to place upon it the most dis-
tinctive and powerful light which they could obtain. With
this view, and acting upon the advice of Dr. Tyndall, they
adopted the Quadriform Group Flashing Gas Light. The
power of the burner was obtained by a peculiar arrangement
of numerous fishtail jets, and by suspending over the flame
an oxidiser of talc, or some other material, by means of
which the current of air was brought in contact with the
most smoky part of the flame, rendering it not only smoke-
less, but exceedingly white. The oxygen of the air was
twice availed of ; first through the bottom of the flame,
and secondly at the top, where its action raised to a white-
heat a large quantity of solid carbon found there. The
burner requires no chimney-glass. It was so constructed
that the lightkeeper could increase the power of the light
by five steps, accordingly as the state of the weather might
seem to require. In clear weather 28 jets were used, and
the number might be enlarged to 48, 68, 88, or 108. The
changes from one to another could be very quickly effected
by the use of mercurial joints. [The burner which was
exhibited on the table was then lighted, and the five different
degrees of illuminating power were illustrated, the effect of
such an immense volume of flame being most startling in
such a confined space.] It was well known that some
“ fogs” are so dense that even the rays of the sun could
but feebly penetrate through them ; but when the weather
was merely what was called “ thick,” then it was that the
mariner derived great benefit from such differentiating lights.
The power of the burner would, of course, be very much
increased by the use of lenticular apparatus, a specimen of
which was before the meeting. [It may be here parenthetic-
ally remarked that early in the day some amusement was
caused by the facft that the rays of the sun shining through
the lens, which faced the window, set the green baize table-
cover smoking, and it had to be placed under cover.] If
instead of using this ordinary lighthouse lens, which was
designed and calculated to transmit the light of an oil-lamp
4 inches in diameter and 3J- inches high, a lens made to suit
his large gas-flame, which was 12 inches in diameter and

1878.] The British Association. 517

8J- inches high, was used, of course the illuminating power
would be enormously increased. He trusted that before long
lighthouse authorities would sanction the construction of
such lenses, and so gain the full benefit of the large flames
which gas only could produce. Being fully convinced of the
importance of using large lights in illuminating fogs, he deter-
mined to use lenses to the utmost limit which was now per-
mitted, and he designed a means by which he was able to
quadruple the power of the largest gas-light. This plan
consisted in placing two and three and four burners verti-
cally over one another, and making an arrangement by
which the produces of the combustion of the lower burners
were turned outwards, so as not to interfere with the upper
burners, while the supply of fresh air was given through
cylindrical openings, having no contact with the flues. The
illuminating power was thus materially increased. The
quadriform apparatus eredted at Galley Head contains
32 lenses. As the lenses touch each other the rays of light
blend at a short distance, and throw out one bright light.
It is calculated that its illuminating power coupled with
this large gas-burner was about equal to one million sperm
candles. The light at Galley Head is not only quadriform,
but is also a group-flashing light — that is, the flashes from the
lenses, instead of being simple flashes, were each of them,
by the continual extinction and re-ignition of the gas, broken
up into four or five beams, which constituted a group of
flashes, recurring at regular intervals. This is accomplished
by the same clockwork machinery as that by which the
lenses were caused to revolve. The interval between the
groups and flashes is one minute, and the interval between
the flashes two seconds, during which the gas is shut off,
and thus there is a great economy of gas.

The second portion of the paper described the combined
gas and eleCtric light for lighthouses. For use during fogs
Mr. Wigham added an intense light to his large gas-burner,
which consists of what he terms a core for his burners. He
preferred the eleCtric light because of its greater intensity
and the facility with which it could be applied.

The third portion of the paper dealt with a mode of
lighting sea beacons from a position on shore. When it is
desired to maintain lights on beacons to which access by
boats is difficult or expensive, Mr. Wigham advises the ap°
plication of gas properly dried by chloride of calcium as the
means of illumination. The gas station on shore may com-
mand any number of beacons, which may be simultaneously
lighted. During the daytime the gas was supplied at a

518 The British Association. [October,

pressure equal to a column of water 6 inches high, to
maintain a small jet in the lantern on each beacon. The
high pressure prevented the jet from being blown out by the
wind, and the arrangement which he had devised enabled
the operator to turn on the flame or diminish it to a small
jet as easily as the same result could be accomplished in
the case of an ordinary light in a dwelling-house, but by
using exactly opposite means, i.e., the gas was turned off
to be lighted and turned on to be extinguished.

Mr. Wigham also read a short paper on “ Fog Signals.”
He proposes to use the gas available in lighthouses for gas
guns. The report is caused by the explosion of the mixture
of oxygen and coal-gas. The gun may be fixed on a rock
in the sea at a considerable distance from a lighthouse or a
fog-signal station, and will be lighted and fired as often as re-
quiredfrom the station, withoutthe keepers leavingtheirpost.

A third paper was read by Mr. Wigham “ On a New
Atmospheric Gas Machine,” which the inventor claimed
was admirably adapted for places where coal-gas is difficult
of application, as in country houses at a considerable distance
from towns. When two burners of the same size were
lighted, the one with ordinary gas and the other with atmo-
spheric gas, it was difficult to tell which was the brighter or
clearer. Mr. Wigham said it required neither fire nor retorts
nor gas-holders ; no special knowledge was necessary on the
part of the person who attended to it, and the products of
its combustion were as harmless as those evolved from the
purest wax. It would not tarnish silver or injure the deco-
rations of any furniture.

Mr. G. J. Stoney read a “ Report on the Oscillation-
Frequencies of the Rays of the Solar SpeCtrum.” The
report shows that so long as light is propagated through a
vacuum the undulator, however complex, maintains its form
unaltered at all distances from the source of light ; for in
vacuous spaces waves of different periods advance at the
same rate and direCtly forward, and therefore the simple
component undulations which are represented by the several
terms of a sinusoid series accurately accompany each other
throughout their whole journey. But the event is different
if the light encountered an optical agent which aCted
differently on waves of different periods. Of this kind were
the prisms and diffraCtion-gratings of our spectroscopes.
Waves of different periods are compelled to travel in different
directions, and thus the several terms of the sinusoid series
appear under the form of lines in the speCtrum. The wave-

1878.]

The British Association .

519

lengths corresponding to each position in the spectrum had
been determined with great care, and these, when corrected
for the dispersion of the air, were proportional to the cor-
responding periodic times, which thus become known. By
a discussion of the observations it might be expedted that
much will be learned with regard to the original dis-
turbance caused by the source of light. In the present
state of science it is of importance to facilitate this inquiry
as much as possible, and it is hoped that aid will be given
to the student of Nature by the table published in connec-
tion with the Report, in which the oscillation-frequencies of
the principal rays of the visible part of the solar spedtrum
have been computed from Angstrom’s determinations of
their wave-lengths in air, combined with Ketteler’s observa-
tions on the despersion of air.

Mr. Stoney also read three other papers “ On a Spectro-
scope of Unusually Large Aperture,” “ On the Support of
Spheroidal Drops and Allied Phenomena,” and “ On the
Cause of the Travelling of Spheroidal Drops.”

Captain Douglas Galton then read a paper “ On some
Recent Experiments upon the Coefficient of Fridtion be-
tween Surfaces Moving at High Velocities.” The author
has recently been engaged in making some experiments in
connection with the adtion of brakes in use on railways. A
number of diagrams and tables illustrated the means by
which the results were obtained, and the principal results
shown by them maybe summed up as follows: — (1.) The
application of brakes to the wheels, when skidding is not
produced, does not appear to retard the rapidity of rotation
of the wheels. (2.) When the rotation of the wheels falls
below that due to the speed at which the train is moving,
skidding appears to follow immediately. (3.) The resistance
which results from the application of brakes without
skidding is greater than that caused by skidded wheels.
(4.) During the movement of skidding the retarding force
increases to an amount beyond that which prevailed before
the skidding took place ; but immediately after the aCt of
skidding is complete, this pressure falls down again to much
below what it was before the skidding. (5.) The pressure
required to skid the wheels is much higher than that re-
quired to hold them skidded, and appears to bear a relation
to the weight on the wheels themselves, as well as to their
adhesion and velocity. The general conclusion which
would appear to follow from the results of the preliminary
experiments is that none of the hand brakes, and only some
of the continuous brakes now in use, have been designed

520 The British Association. [October,

with a clear knowledge of the most essential conditions
required in a perfect brake.

The Rev. Robert Harley, F.R.S., read a paper “ On the
Stanhope ‘ Demonstrator,’ or Logical Machine.” The au-
thor stated that towards the close of the last century a
logical instrument was constructed by Charles, third Earl
Stanhope. The present Earl found the instrument and some
fragmentary papers on Logic among the relics of his scien-
tific ancestors, and, at the suggestion of Mr. Spottiswoode,
placed them in the hands of Mr. Harley, who has made a
careful study of them. Earl Stanhope (born 1753, died
1815) is known to Science chiefly by his printing-press, mi-
croscopic lens, arithmetical machine, monochord, and steam-
boat ; but of his logical speculations, which occupied his
thoughts for thirty years, and of his curious contrivance for
working logical problems, called by him the “ Demonstrator,”
nothing has been known. Mr. Harley noticed that Stan-
hope anticipated George Bentham, Sir William Hamilton,
George Boole, and others, in his quantification of the predi-
cate, and notably De Morgan’s rule for the numerically
definite syllogism. Stanhope stated the rule as applicable
to all syllogistic reasoning, and he constructed his “ Demon-
strator” for the mechanical working of the rule. It does
not seem equal to very difficult and complicated questions,
nor nearly so powerful as Prof. Jevons’s logical machine,
which before the discovery of the “Demonstrator” was
supposed to be the first invention in this direction.

Dr. Janssen described his method of Solar Photography,
and read a paper “ On Total Eclipses.”

Mr. E. J, Hardman read a paper “ On Lead and Platinised
Lead as a Substitute for Carbon and Platinised Silver in
Leclanche, Bichromate, and Smee’s Batteries.”

Mr. W. J. Millar described a new Receiver for Microphone.

Mr. Mattieu Williams read a paper “ On an Experimental
Verification of the Velocity of Transmission of Radiant
Heat.”

The “ Report of the Committee on Atmospheric Electri-
city ” was read by Prof. Forbes. Three electrometers have
been given: one to Surgeon-Major Johnson, in India; the
second to Mr, Michie Smith, in India ; and the third to Dr.
Grabham, in Madeira. Surgeon-Major Johnson was engaged
in the frontier war in India ; and Dr. Grabham has hitherto
been too much occupied to make observations ; while
Mr. Michie Smith has not yet had time to furnish any ;

1878.1

The British Association.

521

so that up to the present time no observations have been
received.

Mr. W. Ladd read a paper “ On Edmunds’s Phonoscope.”
This instrument is for producing figures of light from
vibrations of sound. It consists essentially of three parts —
an induction coil, an interrupter, and a rotary vacuum tube.
The aCtion of the instrument is as follows : — Sounds from
the voice or other sources produce vibrations on the diaphragm
of the interrupter, which, being in the primary circuit of the
induction coil, induce at each interruption a current in the
secondary coil, similar to the aCtion of a contaCt-breaker or
rheotome ; therefore each vibration is made visible as a flash
in the vacuum tube. The tube revolving all the time at a
constant speed, the flashes produce a symmetrical figure
like the spokes of a wheel, as in the Gassiot star. The
number of spokes or radii is according to the number of
vibrations in the interrupter during a revolution of the
tube, and the number of vibrations being varied to any
extent according to the sounds produced, the figures in the
revolving tube will be varied accordingly. The same sounds
always produce the same figures, provided the revolutions
be constant. In case of rhythmical interruption being pro-
duced in a given sound, as in a trill, most beautiful effects
are noticeable, owing to the omission of certain radii in
regular positions in the figure. The uses of this instrument
are the rendering visible of sounds, and showing the vibra-
tions required in their production, and it forms a mode of
confirming by sight an appeal to the ear.

The next paper was by the same author, “ On Byrne’s
Compound Plate Battery,” described in the last number of
the “ Quarterly Journal of Science.”

Prof. G. Forbes described “ A Clock with a Detached
Train.” In the course of some experiments still progressing
he used a clock to give eleCtric signals every second. It has
a train of only one wheel working in a pinion. It is driven
by a weight which falls through 5 feet in an hour. This
clock only goes one hour, but serves the purpose for which
it was made. He wished lately, however, to make it go for
a longer time, so he drove it by a weight hung by a pulley
on an endless chain in the usual way, and he attached a
common five shilling Swiss alarm clock to the chain to wind
it up continuously. This answers so well that he would
suggest a similar construction as not only the cheapest, but
also the best form of a clock with escapement. It consists
of a pendulum and escapement with no train whatever, with

522

The British Association .

[October,

an endless chain or thread passing over a pulley on the axles
of the scape-wheel, and over the minute wheel of a secondary
clock, hanging between them in a festoon which supports
the weight by a pulley. The secondary clock gives the hours
and minutes, and the clock without train shows the seconds.
We thus have a clock without the errors introduced by a
train. It is a gravity escapement without the locking
friction.

Prof. G. Forbes also described u An Instrument for Deter-
mining the Quantity of Fire-Damp in Mines,” which consists
of a resonator of various dimensions, and a tuning-fork of
^definite pitch. The resonator is a metal tube I inch in
diameter and 15 inches long, in which a piston slides so as
to regulate the length of the tube. This tube is fixed in a
block of wood, to which is attached a tuning-fork, whose
points are just above the open end of the tube. The tuning-
fork is sounded in every convenient way, and the piston is
moved out and in until the proper length is found, which is
indicated by the resonator intensifying the sound of the
tuning-fork. With practice the length can thus be deter-
mined with an accuracy of at least 1 in 250. But the length
depends on the density of the gas, a light gas requiring a
longer resonator, and, by reading off on a scale the position
of the piston, a person can judge of its density. In this
manner 1 or 2 per cent of fire-damp, mixed with common
air, can be detected. Barometric pressure produces no dif-
ference on the instrument. The temperature correction is
made by reading off a thermometer of the proper dimen-
sions, instead of reading off a fixed mark on the piston.

Prof. Silvanus P. Thompson narrated several instances of
rainbows, chiefly seen in Switzerland, when radial streaks
of light, devoid of colour, were observed within the primary
bow, and without the secondary bow,

Mr. C. Meldrum read a paper “ On Sun-Spots and Rain-
fall.” The conclusion at which the author arrived, from a
great number of observations in all parts of the world, was
that the maximum and minimum rainfall apparently coin-
cided with the maximum and minimum sun-spots respectively.

Mr. W. Morris read a paper “ On the Temperature of the
Earth Within.” He held that the present method of deter-
mining underground temperatures with the thermometer as
used in air or water was quite unsatisfactory. He suggested
the employment of pairs of chronometers, one of each pair
to be placed at the bottom of a bore, and the other at the
surface.

1878. J

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523

Mr. James Glaisher read the “ Report of the Committee on
Luminous Meteors.” It contained an account of meteors
doubly observed, with a table showing their real paths, velo-
cities, and radiant points ; a detailed account of large me-
teors ; general directions to observers for recording meteors
and aerolites ; the discussion of a meteor of short period, and
an analysis of the constituents of masses of meteoric iron
and stone-falls.

Lord Rosse gave a short explanation of the peculiarities
of an equatorial mounting recently erected at Parsonstown,
showing the points in which it differed from the ordinary
type of mounting. The optical arrangements were exactly
the same as in ordinary cases. The old mounting at Parsons-
town, being made of wood, fell into decay, and he resolved
to replace it by metal, and mount the instrument equatorially.
The leading peculiarities of the mounting were, that the
points of reversal were situated at the east and west, instead
of at the north and south. The bearings on which the in-
strument turned in right ascension were smaller than in the
ordinary mountings. The motions in declination and in
right ascension were effected by means of screws, so that on
a windy night the instrument could not run away with the
observer. The tube was square. The clock was connected
by means of a stretched strap of brass, and the gallery was
quite unique. The counterpoise was less than usual. The
only reflector of a similar size mounted equatorially was
that constructed by Mr. Grubb for the Melbourne Govern-
ment; but its drawback was that just as the observer had
moved it to the very best position for observation— namely,
the south— it had to be reversed and every connection altered.
The gallery was also worked by means of screws, so that
there was no danger of the observer coming down quicker
than he wished. The tube was square in section. The cage
was independent of the mounting, moving on a circular rail,
and with a second motion like that of a derrick crane. The
mounting was only suitable for a reflecting telescope.

Prof. R. S. Ball read a paper “ On the Annual Researches
made at Dunsink on Parallax of Stars.” Before com-
mencing the observations described and tabulated in the
paper a working list was formed, containing red stars,
variable stars, stars with large proper motions, and several
other stars which were chosen on different grounds. The
observations had the special objeCt of seeing whether any
of them had a large parallax. Forty-two different objects
had been selected from this working list, but in almost every

The British Association.

[October,

524

case the observations convinced him that the parallax was
constantly less than one second, and most probably did not
exceed half a second. It would therefore be understood
that Lhe results were purely negative so far as the immediate
objeCt in view was concerned, as they did not suggest the
existence of any parallax worth following up. The principle
upon which the reconnoitring observations were conducted
was this— -the effeCt of annual parallax upon a star was to
make the apparent place of the star describe a minute ellipse,
of which the mean place of the star occupied the centre.
The star was observed twice. At the first observation the
star was at or near one of the extremities of the major axis
of the ellipse ; at the second observation it was at the other
extremity-— so that the observations were so arranged that
in each case parallax would have the greatest effedt it was
capable of producing.

Prof. H. Hennessy read a paper “ On the Climate of the
British Islands.” When he first made his investigations on
this subject he was led to the conclusion that the distribution
would be represented by isothermal lines having a certain
parallelism to the coast line of these islands. These iso-
thermal lines had been laid down from aCtual observation,
because he had found that the law of increase and decrease
of temperature, in going inland over a table land or flat
country, was so extremely slow that it was perfectly absurd
to use the co-efficient of one degree to 300 feet, which had
been obtained by balloons. The aCtual results confirmed in
the minutest particulars the theory of isothermal lines which
he propounded years ago, and he believed that the more
observations were multiplied not only in these islands, but
in New Zealand, Tasmania, and similar places, the more
would it be found that his theory was correct. The islands,
however, must have their coasts bathed by oceanic currents
of a high temperature. The isothermal lines for Ireland
showed that the distribution of temperature was more influ-
enced by the sea than by latitude.

Other papers read were “ On a Diagonal Eyepiece, re=
quired in certain Optical Experiments,” by Prof. G. Forbes;
“ On New Magnetic Figures,” by Dr. S. P. Thompson ;
“ On Dimensional Equations,” by Prof. James Thomson;
“ On a New Form of EleCtro-Registering Apparatus,” and
“ On an Isochronous Pendulum,” by Mr. Denny Lane ; “ On
the Variability of Standard of Height,” by Mr. J. E. Hil-
gard ; and “ On Lightning Conductors,” by Mr. R. An-
derson.

1878.]

The British Association .

525

The Committee’s “ Report on Babbage’s Analytical
Engine ” was read in the department of Mathematics.
After referring to the general principles of calculating en-
gines, and the special characteristics and capabilities of
Mr. Babbage’s, the Report dealt with the advisability of
constructing an analytical machine. On the question of
cost the Committee said— “ It has not been possible for us
to form any exaCt conclusion as to the cost. Nevertheless
there are some data in existence which appear to fix a lower
limit to the cost. Mr. Babbage, in his published papers,
talks of having 1000 columns of wheels, each containing
fifty distinCt wheels : this apparently refers to his store.
Besides the many thousand moulded pewter wheels for these,
and the axes on which they are mounted, there is the mill,
also consisting of a series of columns of wheels and of a
vast machinery of cams, clutches, and cranks, for their con-
trol and connection, so as to bring them within the directing
power of the Jacquard systems of variable cards and opera-
tion cards. Without attempting any exaCt estimate, we
may say that it would surprise us very much if it were found
possible to obtain tenders for less than £10,000, while it
would pretty certainly cost a considerable sum to put the
design in a fit state for obtaining tenders. On the other
hand, it would not surprise us if the cost were to reach three
or four times the amount above suggested. It is understood
that towards the close of his life Mr. Babbage had contem-
plated carrying out the manufacture of the engine on a
smaller scale, confining himself to twenty-five figures instead
of fifty, and to two hundred columns instead of a thousand
or more. This would, of course, reduce the expense
of the metal work proportionately, but we do not think
that it would materially reduce the charge which we
anticipate for bringing the design into working order.”
The conclusion at which the Committee arrived was that
they could not advise the British Association to take any
steps to procure the construction of Mr. Babbage’s analytical
engine.

In the department of Physical Science Mr. J. T. Bottom-
ley read the “ Report of the Committee for commencing
Secular Experiments on the Elasticity of Wires.” The ar-
rangements for suspending the wires are complete, and two
wires, one of palladium and the other of platinum, have
been suspended in their places.

Prof. Adams exhibited and described a new form of po-
lariscope which enabled measurements to be made of crystals

526 The British Association . [October,

to the diameter of rings, and also the angles between the
optic axes.

A telegram and letter from Prof. W. C. Ayrton, of Japan,
to Sir Wm. Thomson, “ On a New Determination of the
Number of EleCtro-static Units in the EleCtro-magnetic
Unit,” were read. The letter gave an account of very inte-
resting and delicate experiments, which resulted in an answer
of 298,000,000 metres per second, corresponding with the
velocity of light as given by Foucault.

Mr. R. J. Moss gave a description of an instrument of
research for the investigation of Crookes’s stress and experi-
ments on spheroidal drops.

Prof. Barrett described a new form of trap-door electro-
meter.

Mr. J. E. Gordon described some experiments on specific
inductive capacity. His observations were illustrated by
formulae and coloured diagrams, without which they cannot
be well understood.

At the request of the Chairman, Prof. W. E. Ayrton, who
had just arrived from Japan, said — The value of Mr. Gordon’s
experiments arises from his belief that the specific inductive
capacity of a dialectric rapidly increases with time. As
Mr. Gordon has remarked, Prof. Perry and myself were
theoretically led to this idea several years ago, as we described
in our paper on the “ Viscosity of Dielectrics” some time
back, and which appears in a recent number of the “ Pro-
ceedings of the Royal Society of London.” The idea that
all dialectrics behave more or less like strained viscous sub-
stances has been the leading principle that has guided
Prof. Perry and myself in our electrical observations — an
idea to which our attention has been especially directed in
the following way : — When Mr. Perry was examining certain
curves obtained for the time increase of strain in a substance
subjected to a constant stress simultaneously with some that
we had obtained for the soaking out of the charge in an
excellently well-insulated Leyden jar, the coatings of which
had been maintained for days at a constant difference of
potentials, then suddenly discharged, and finally insulated
the one from the other, he observed a remarkable analogy
between the two classes of curves, and careful examination of
all our results up to the present time bears so close an analogy
with the stress and strain phenomena in various substances,
that we feel that this analogy means a physical connection.
Reasoning by analogy, we may conclude that as the rate of
production of eleCtric strain grows less and less as the in-

1878.]

The British Association.

527

terval elapsing since charging increases, therefore the rate
of conversion of electric energy into heat, that is, conduction,
also grows less and less, and therefore it is correct to say
that the resistance of a dielectric does really increase by
electrification. Besides this there is, of course, some of the
absorbed energy which is recoverable, and which, therefore,
must not be confounded with conduction ; just as the energy
recoverable from a deflected beam must be distinguished from
that lost through conversion into heat, on account of internal
friction. From the curves we have obtained of the charging
of condensers, and assuming that there is no discontinuity,
we must assume that even the first charging is itself a very
rapid absorption, and since there is viscosity, even the very
first charging must be accompanied with a generation of
heat— that is, true conduction. Also, since it is known that
gases, like all other substances, are to a certain extent
viscous, we cannot believe that air and other gaseous con-
densers show absolutely no absorptive phenomena; in faCt,
sufficiently accurate experiments have not yet been made on
the subject. We conclude, therefore, that the less the spe-
cific resistance the greater is its molecular plasticity, and
the more plastic the substance is the greater will be the first
charge ; therefore from the stress and strain analogy it fol-
lows that the less the specific resistance of a substance the
greater will generally be the specific induCtive capacity. In-
fluenced by these ideas we examined experimentally the
specific resistance ofseveral dielectrics, and were eventually
able to compare the specific induCtive capacities and specific
resistances of dilute sulphuric acid, mica, gutta-percha,
shellac, Hooper’s material, ebonite, paraffin-wax, glass, air,
and we found that if the above substances were arranged in
descending order of specific induCtive capacity they were
found arranged in ascending order of specific resistance.
Again, since the resistance of air to eleCtric discharge is less
than that of a Sprengel vacuum, we were theoretically led
to expert (in contradiction to the results of Faraday, who
concluded that the specific induCtive capacities of all gases
at all temperatures and pressures were identical) that very
accurate experiments would show that different gases had
different specific induCtive capacities. This result we were
experimentally able to verify after months of investigation,
and we found that the denser the gas the higher the specific
inductive capacity, a vacuum having the least capacity of
the substances we experimented on. It was our intention
at that time to determine accurately the eleCtric capacity of
a Crookes’s vacuum, an investigation I hope to complete

528 The British Association. [October,

this winter, and I anticipate finding this capacity extremely
small ; for although we found that the specific inductive
capacity of a moderately good vacuum made in a space ori-
ginally containing air was as much as nine-tenths of that of
air at ordinary pressure, still Mr. Crookes’s recent experi-
ments connected with his radiometer on the logarithmic
decrement of a torsion pendulum vibrating in gaseous or
vacuous spaces show that the viscosity of the gas does not
much diminish until the vacuum has become very perfect.
Consequently, it may be anticipated that it will be at the
completion of the exhaustion (with a most perfect Sprengel
pump) of a gas condenser that the great diminution in the
specific inductive capacity of the vacuous dielectric will be
experienced. If this result be really arrived at, then it will
follow that if it were possible to insulate a conducting wire
in a vacuum tube under the sea, the speed of telegraph
messages through a long submarine cable, such as crosses
the Atlantic or Indian Oceans, could be raised from the pre-
sent low speed of seventeen words a minute to that of one
thousand, which has already been obtained on land lines with
Bain’s automatic instruments. I may also mention
that the mathematical reduction of the curves of vis-
cores yielding, soaking out of charge in dielectrics, &c.,
will form the subject of a paper Mr. Perry and I propose
publishing very shortly.

Chemical Science. (Section B.)

The President, Professor Maxwell Simpson, F.R.S., in
delivering the opening address, brought before the section
the claims of chemical science to a place in general educa-
tion, and the claims of original research to a place in the
curriculum for higher degrees in our universities.

Without chemistry, he said, we can know nothing of the
air we breathe, the water we drink, or the food we eat ; we
cannot understand the process of combustion, respiration,
fermentation, putrefaction, or the endless chemical changes
which are continually in operation around us, and which
affeCt our lives for good or for evil. The whole of the
phenomena of nature must for ever remain to us, more or
less, an inscrutable mystery. Was it not also desirable that
we should have some acquaintance with the chemical arts
from which we derive so many of our comforts and luxuries;
Should we not know something of the arts of photography,
dyeing, metallurgy — something of the manufacture of glass
and china, and of the thousand beautiful things that are

1 878.]

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529

constantly in our hands ? Chemistry, too, furnishes us with
a key which enables us to unlock vast stores of knowledge
contained in physics, geology, mineralogy, physiology, and
astronomy.

With regard to the mental discipline, the mind of the
student is, continued Professor Simpson, exercised in both
the indiuftive and deduftive methods of reasoning. His
original faculties are stimulated by the consciousness that
he can in many cases readily test the worth of his ideas
by experiment. With inexpensive apparatus and a good
balance, the intelligent student can make out for himself some
of the laws and many of the fadts of science, and, it may be,
also add to them. He glides insensibly from the known to the
unknown. The student of chemistry can reach the field of
original work sooner than the student of most other sciences;
Once he commences original research the development of
his intellectual faculties rapidly progresses. His imagina-
tion is daily exercised in propounding new theories, and
devising experiments in order to ascertain their truth or
falsehood. Laboratory work teaches us to use our senses
aright, sharpens our powers of observation, and prevents us
from reasoning rashly from appearances. It also promotes
manual dexterity, and trains the hands to work in subor-
dination to the head. With regard to the efifecft of original
work on the character, many virtues were necessary to the
chemist — courage, resolution, truthfulness, and patience.
He is often obliged to perform experiments which are
attended with great danger. But the chemist must not be
discouraged by fear of accident, neither must he be dis-
heartened by the temporary failure of his experiments, nor
at the slowness of his processes. Bunsen was obliged to
evaporate 44 tons of the waters of the Durcheim springs in
order to obtain 200 grains of his new metal caesium. It
took Berthelot several months to form, by a series of synthe-
tical operations, an appreciable quantity of alcohol from
water and carbon, derived from carbonate of baryta. Many
years ago, in the laboratory of Wurtz, a poor student was
carrying from one room to another a glass globe which con-
tained the product of a month’s continuous labour, when
the bottom of the globe fell out, and the contents were lost.
Nothing daunted, he recommenced his month’s work, and
brought his research to a successful issue. Above all things
the chemist must be true. He must not allow his wishes to
bias his judgment or prevent him from seeing his researches
in their true light.

He was glad that the importance of original research, as

VOL? VIII. (N.S.) % M

530 - The British Association . [October,

a part of higher education, is at last beginning to be recog-
nised in this country. The Royal University Commission
at Oxford has recently recommended that candidates for the
higher degrees in science shall, in that University, be re-
quired in future to work out an original investigation. In
Germany, where education has been so long and so well
understood, original work has been, for at least the last half
century, a sine qua non for a degree. Another admirable rule
exists in that country, the adoption of which in Great Britain
might go far to wash out the stain from our islands, of not
having contributed our fair quota to the advancement of
human knowledge. It is this — the Germans make a point
of securing invariably that their scientific chairs shall be
filled by men who have already distinguished themselves by
their discoveries. The professor, on his appointment,
naturally desires to continue his investigations, and en-
deavours to secure, and usually succeeds in securing, the
assistance of his pupils. This is a mutual advantage. The
professor is able to do more work for science, and the
student, on his part, learns to conduct for himself an
original investigation. Hence there is always a rising
generation of original workers in Germany who turn out
papers more or less meritorious with the rapidity of a
Walter’s press. They are stimulated by the hope of one
day arriving themselves at a professor’s chair, the path to
which they are well assured is only through the toilsome
field of original investigation. The labour is also one of
love, and the student’s ambition, for the time at least, is
bounded by the desire to do something for science. And
from a multitude of such enthusiasts the great professors
come.

Speaking of the encouragement of research in this country
the President said, that to promote original work in this
country, he believed it was indispensable that our professors
should be well paid. It would save them from the necessity
of supplementing their incomes by commercial analyses, and
thus enable them to devote their spare time to original
work. And to secure that they shall have spare time, he
would like to see in every laboratory a competent assistant,
who would be able occasionally to take up the professor’s
lectures, should he be engaged in important work. He was
glad to see that the Oxford Commission also recommends
the appointment of well-paid assistants. Well-paid pro-
fessorships and well-paid assistantships would be attractive
prizes for our students to work up to ; and if it were clearly
understood that the only way to these prizes was through

1 878.]

The British Association.

53i

original investigation, we should very soon have an army of
zealous and competent workers. The plan of appointing a
staff of original workers unconnected with teaching had
been proposed; but he did not approve of it. The original
worker is, as a rule, the best teacher, and the rising genera-
tion of students should not be deprived of the advantage of
this instruction. No doubt the Government Grant Fund
did a good deal for science, but the field of its operations is,
under present conditions, limited. Professors, as a rule, are
so occupied with teaching that they cannot avail themselves
of the fund ; and of those students who might be competent
and willing, very few can afford to do so. Instead of trust-
ing to the precarious and insufficient support of the fund,
they must endeavour to settle themselves permanently in
life. It was much to be regretted that the Universities of
Oxford and Cambridge, with such splendid revenues at their
disposal, should contribute so little to the advancement
of physical science. He hoped the day was not far distant
when the fellowships — or at least a few of them — which
now go to reward young men for merely passing a good
examination, shall be given without examination to men who
shall have advanced human knowledge in any department.
At present a fellowship of £250 or £300 a-year, lasting ten
or twelve years, and in some cases for life, may be obtained
on showing proof of a good memory — or, at most, a capacity
for assimilating other men’s ideas. To make discoveries — -
to follow out a new train of thought, and establish it by
experiments specially devised to that end, has been left not
only without reward, but almost without recognition in our
two principal seats of learning. The world at large, ignorant
as it is. has a sounder instindf on this subject, and the man
who makes the humblest addition to the stock of knowledge
in the world rarely fails to receive the world’s respedt and
honour. Professor Simpson concluded by saying that these
suggestions could not be well carried out unless the Govern-
ment takes into its own hands the appointment to all scientific
chairs. Of this he thought he saw indications. He be-
lieved that sooner or later the Government will assume the
supreme direction of education in this country. It has
already taken primary education under its control, and
quite recently, in Ireland, intermediate education to a
great extent. And did the appointment of so many Univer-
sity Commissions not show a disposition on the part of the
Government to assume the direction of higher education
also ?

2 M2

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The British Association .

[October,

Geology. (Section C.)

In opening the proceedings of this section the President
(Dr. Evans) called attention to thefaCt that the present was
the third occasion on which the British Association had met
in this city ; its first meeting was held in Dublin in the
year 1835. The President of the Geological Section being
a man of whom Irish science might well be proud, and who,
he was thankful to say, was still living to enjoy his well-
deserved honours — the veteran geologist, Sir Richard John
Griffith, the author of the first Geological Map of Ireland.
It seemed hardly credible that the construction of this map
was commenced in the summer of 1812, or sixty-six years
ago; but the records of the Geological Society of London
testify to the still more remarkable faCt that Sir Richard
Griffith was elected a Fellow of that society in 1808 — seventy
years ago. Indeed, in 1854, when the Wollaston medal was
awarded to the then Dr. Griffith, the president, the late
Professor Edward Forbes, spoke, as he said, reverentially
to one of the earliest members of the society, and to a
geologist who appeared in print before he, the president,
was born. It was well said on that occasion that the map
lately mentioned was one of the most remarkable geological
maps ever produced by a single geologist.

(Our readers will have heard with regret of the death of
Sir Richard Griffith only about a month after the delivery of
Dr. Evans’s address. He died on the 22nd of September at
the advanced age of 94.) Dr. Evans also paid a tribute of
respeCt to the memory of one who was originally a student
in Trinity College, and who subsequently occupied posts of
the highest importance in connection with the Geological
Society of Dublin and the Geological Survey of Ireland,
besides filling the professorial chair of geology in the Dublin
University, to Dr. Thomas Oldham, the late director of the
Geological Survey of India.

The president then referred to the geology of Ireland, and
passed on to the consideration of the date which is to be
assigned to the implement-bearing beds of Palaeolithic age
in England. Dr. James Geikie has, he said, held that,
for the most part, they belong to an interglacial episode
towards the close of the glacial period, and regards it as
certain that no palaeolithic bed can be shown to belong to a
more recent date than the mild era that preceded the last
great submergence.

His follower, Mr. Skertchley, records the finding of palaeo-
lithic implements in no less than three interglacial beds,

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533

each underlying boulder clays of different ages and some-
what different characters, the Hessle, the purple, and chalky
boulder clay. This raises two main questions ; first, as to
how far Dr. Croll’s theory of the great alternations of climate
during the glacial period can be safely maintained ; and
secondly, how far the observations as to the discovery of
implements in the so-called Brandon beds underlying the
chalky boulder clay can be substantiated. Another question
is how far the palaeolithic deposits can be divided into those
of modern and ancient valleys, separated from each other
by the purple boulder clay, and the later of the two older
than the Hessle beds. He would only observe, that in a
considerable number of cases the gravels containing the
implements can be distinctly shown to be of much later
date than the chalky boulder clay, and that if the imple-
ments occur in successive beds in the same district, each
separated from the other by an enormous lapse of time,
during which the whole country was buried beneath in-
credibly large masses of invading ice, and the whole mam-
malian fauna was driven away, it was a very remarkable
circumstance. It was not the less refnarkable because this
succession of different palaeolithic ages seemed to be observ-
able in one small district only, and there was as close a
resemblance between the instruments of the presumedly
different ages as there was between those of admittedly the
same date. He had always maintained the probability of
evidence being found of the existence of man at an earlier
period than that of the post-glacial or quaternary river
gravels, but, as in all other cases, it appeared to him desir-
able that the evidence brought forward should be thoroughly
sifted and all probability of misapprehension removed before
it was finally accepted. In the present state of our know-
ledge, he did not feel confident that the evidence as to these
three successive palaeolithic deposits had arrived at this
satisfactory stage. At the same time it must be borne in
mind that if we make the palaeolithic period to embrace npt
only the river gravels but the cave deposits of which the
south of France furnishes such typical examples, its dura-
tion must have been of vast extent.

In connection with the question of glacial and inter-glacial pe-
riods, Dr.Evansmentionedthatof climatal changes ingeneral.
The return of the ArCtic Expedition, and the reports of the
geological observations made during its progress, which have
been published by Captain Fielden, one of the naturalists
to the expedition, in conjunction with Mr. De Ranee and
Professor Heer, have conferred additional interest on the

534

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[Odtober,

question of possible changes in the position of the poles of
the earth, and on other kindred speculations. Near Dis-
covery Harbour, about latitude 8i° 40', Miocene beds were
found containing a flora somewhat differing from that which
was already known to exist within the Arctic regions.
“The Grinnell Land lignite,” say the authors of the report,
“ indicates a thick peat moss, with probably a small lake,
with water lilies on the surface of the water and reeds on
the edges, with birches, poplars, and taxodiums on the
banks, and with pines, firs, spruce, elms, and hazel-bushes
on the neighbouring hills.” When we consider, continued
Dr. Evans, that all of the genera here represented have
their present limits at least from twelve to fifteen degrees
farther south, while the taxodium is now confined to
Mexico and the south of the United States, such a sylvan
landscape as that described seems entirely out of place in a
district within six hundred miles of the pole, to which
indeed, if land then extended so far, these Arcffic forests
must have also extended in Miocene times. Making all
allowance for the possibility of the habits of such plants
being so changed that they could subsist without sunlight
during six months of a winter of even longer duration, he
could not see how so high a temperature as that which
appears necessary, especially for the evergreen varieties,
could have been maintained, assuming that Grinnell Land
was then as close to the North Pole as it is at the present
day. Nor is this difficulty decreased when we look back to
formations earlier than the Miocene, for the flora of the
secondary and palaeozoic rocks of the Ardtic regions is iden-
tical in character with that of the same rocks when occurring
twenty or thirty degrees farther south, while the corals,
encrinites, and cephalopods of the carboniferous limestone
are such as, from all analogy, might be supposed to indicate
a warm climate.

The general opinion of physicists as to the possibility of
a change in the position of the earth’s axis has, continued
the president, recently undergone modifications somewhat
analogous in character to those which, in the opinion of some
geologists, the position of the axis has itself undergone. In-
stead of a fixed dogma as to the impossibility^ change, we find
a divergence of mathematical opinion and variations of the
pole differing in extent, allowed by different mathematicians
who have of late gone into the question. All agree in the
theoretical possibility of a change in the geographical posi-
tian of the earth’s axis of rotation being affedted by a
redistribution of matter on the surface, but they do not

1878.]

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535

appear to be all in accord as to the extent of such changes.
Mr. Twisden, for instance, arrives at the conclusion that the
elevation of a belt twenty degrees in width, such as that
which he (the president) suggested in his presidential ad-
dress to the Geological Society in 1876, would displace the
axis by about ten miles only, while Professor Haughton
maintains that the elevation of two such continents as
Europe and Asia would displace it by about sixty-nine miles,
and Sir W. Thomson has not only admitted, but asserted as
highly probable, that the poles may have been in ancient
times “ very far from their present geographical position,
and may have gradually shifted through ten, twenty, thirty,
forty, or more degrees without at any time any perceptible
sudden disturbance of either land or water.”

The President was glad to think that this question, to which
he had to some extent assisted to diredt attention, had been so
fully discussed, but he could hardly regard its discussion as
being now finally closed. It appeared to him doubtful whether
eventually it would be found possible to concede to this
globe that amount of solidity and rigidity which at present
it is held to possess, and which to his mind at all events
seemed to be in entire disaccordance with many geological
phenomena. Yet this, as the Rev. O. Fisher has remarked,
is presupposed in all the numerical calculations which have
been made. He was also doubtful whether in the calcula-
tions which have been made, sufficient regard has been shown
to the fadf that a great part of the exterior of our spheroidal
globe consists of fluid which, though of course connected
with the more solid part of the globe by gravity, is readily
capable of readjusting itself upon its surface, and may, to a
great extent, be left out of the account in considering what
changes might arise from the disturbance of the equilibrium
of the irregular spherical or spheroidal body which it par-
tially covers. It appeared to him also possible that some
disturbances of equilibrium may take place in a mysterious
manner by the redistribution of matter or otherwise in the
interior of the globe. Captain F. j. Evans, arguing from
the changes now going on in terrestrial magnetism, has
suggested the possibility of some secular changes being due
to internal, and not to external causes ; and if it be really
true that there is a difference between the longest and
shortest equatorial radii of the earth, amounting to six thou-
sand three hundred and seventy-eight feet, such afaft would
appear to point to a great want of homogeneity in the
interior of our planet, and might suggest a possible cause
for some disturbance of equilibrium.

53&

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[October,

Professor Haughton had been mentioned among those
who, from mathematical considerations, have arrived at the
conclusion that a geographical change in the position of
the axis of rotation of the earth is not only possible but
probable. In a recent paper, however, he has maintained
that, notwithstanding this possibility or probability, we can
demonstrate that the pole has not sensibly changed its
position during geological periods. He arrives at this con-
clusion by pointing out that in the Parry Islands, Alaska
and Spitzbergen, there are triassic and jurassic deposits of
much the same tropical character, and then by a geometrical
method fixing the North Pole somewhere near Pekin, and
the South Pole in Patagonia, within seven hundred miles of
a spot where jurassic ammonites occur, shows that such a
theory is untenable. In the same way he fixes the pole in
Miocene times near Yakutsk, within eight hundred miles of
certain Miocene coal beds of the Japanese islands. These
objections were at first sight startling, but he (Dr. Evans)
thought it would be found that if, instead of drawing great
circles through certain points, we regard those points as
merely isolated localities in a belt of considerable width,
there is no need of fixing the pole of either the jurassic or
the miocene period with that amount of nicety with which
Professor Haughton has ascertained its position. The belt
may indeed be made to contain the very places on which
the objection is founded. One other consideration to be
urged was as to the safety of regarding all deposits of one
geological period as contemporaneous in time. Although
an almost identical flora may be discovered in two widely-
separated beds, it appeared to him that chronologically they
are more probably of different ages than absolutely contem-
poraneous ; and, inasmuch as the duration of the miocene
period must have been enormous, there would be time — if
once we assume a wandering of the poles — for such wander-
ing to have been considerable between the beginning and
end of the period.

The president then adverted to the discovery of palaeozoic
rocks under London. So long ago as 1856 the Kentish
Town boring had shown that immediately below the Gault
red and variegated sandstones and clays occurred, which
Professor Prestwich regarded as probably of old red or
Devonian age. The boring of Messrs. Meux and Co. has now
shown that under Tottenham Court Road, at a depth of
little more than nine hundred feet from the surface, there
are true Devonian beds, with characteristic fossils, and that
Mr. Godwin Austen's prophecy of the existence of palaeozoic

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537

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rocks at an accessible depth under London has proved true.
Professor Prestwich, from a consideration of the French and
Belgian coal fields, inclines to the belief that in the district
north of London carboniferous strata may be found.

In the department of theoretical geology, the president
called attention to some experiments by M. Daubree, in
which he has attempted to reproduce on a small scale
various geological phenomena, such as faulting, cleavage,
jointing, and the elevation of mountain chains.

With regard to recent progress in palaeontology, he re-
ferred to the magnificent discoveries in North America,
which are principally due to the researches of Professors
Marsh, Leidy, and Cope. The dicer athevium, a rhinoceros
with two horns placed transversely, and the dinoceras, some-
what allied to the elephant, but with six horns, arranged in
pairs, were, he said, as marvellous as some of the beasts
seen by Sir John Maundeville on his travels, or heard of by
Pliny. But perhaps the most remarkable series of remains
ever discovered were those which so completely link the
existing horse with the eohippus and orohippus, and still
farther extend the pedigree of the genus equus , which had
already been some years ago so ably traced by Professor
Huxley.

Of these American discoveries, as well as those made in
the tertiary beds of Europe, M. Albert Gaudry has largely
availed himself in his recent beautiful volume on the links
in the animal world in geological times, a work which
will long be a text-book on the inter-relation of different
orders, genera, and species.

The president concluded by remarking that Professor
Marsh has largely added to our knowledge of early forms of
birds with teeth. The tertiary Odontoptevyx toliapicus from
'Sheppey, described by Professor Owen, seems rather to be
endowed with bony tooth-like processes in the jaw, than
adtual teeth, and the head of the argillornis from the same
locality is at present unknown. But the hesperornis and
ichthyovnis from the cretaceous beds of America possess
veritable teeth, in the one case set in a long groove in the
jaw, and in the other in adtual sockets. Such intermediate,
or, as Professor Huxley would term them, intercalary forms,
tend materially to bridge over the gap which at first sight
appears to exist between reptiles and birds, but which to
many palaeontologists was far from being impassable, long
before the discoveries just mentioned. The amphicoelous
character of the vertebrae of ichthyovnis presents another
most remarkable peculiarity, which is also of high signific-

538

The British Association.

[October,

ance. There were rumours of the discovery of another
archaeopteryx in the Solenhofen Slates, which is said to
present the head in a much more complete condition than
that in which it occurs on the magnificent slab now in the
British Museum. As yet, the jaws have not had the matrix
removed from them ; but should they prove to be armed
with teeth, it would to him be a cause of satisfaction rather
than surprise, as an opinion he expressed some fifteen years
ago, would be confirmed, viz.: that this remarkable creature
may have been endowed with teeth, either in lieu of or com-
bined with the beak.

Professor Hull, F.R.S., then proceeded to give a sketch
of the geology of the environs of Dublin.

Mr. J. Nolan, M.R.I.A., read a paper “ On the Ancient
Volcanic Districts of Slieve Gullion, between Dundalk and
Carlingford Bays.”

Mr. Mattieu Williams, F.R.A.S., F.C.S., read some valu-
able notes “ On the Glaciation of Ireland and the Tradition
of Lough Lurgan.” The first part of this paper discussed
the origin of the ridges of drift which cover so large an area
of Ireland, and the faCt that this, like all the other varieties
of till or boulder clay, are unrepresented by the moraines of
existing Alpine glaciers, which have no such clayey matrix ;
while, on the other hand, true moraines, such as we now
see in the course of formation, are the rarest of all the
vestiges of ancient glaciation. The author’s explanation of
this is that the ancient glaciers of Ireland, Scotland, Nor-
way, &c., for the most part terminated in the sea, and
deposited the whole of their contents in still water as their
terminal portions thinned and floated upwards; these deposits
thus including the stony material of modern alpine moraines
plus the fine particles that are washed out by the glacier
torrent and now deposited lower down as alluvium. The
heaping into ridges he explained by the fluctuations of ad-
vance and recession of the glaciers at a later period. (These
views are also described in the “Quarterly Journal of
Science,” April, 1877.)

The second part of the paper refers to an ancient legend,
which describes a great fresh water lake occupying the site
of Galway Bay, and the formation of the present bay by
irruption of the sea through the ancient barriers of the lake.
The author met with this legend very recently, and his
recollections of the great drift ridges running towards the
bay suggested the probability of their former extension
across. To verify this he revisited the bay, re-examined

iSyS.]

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539

these ridges of drift, and found that several now stand in the
Bay, forming long islands and promontories projecting from
various parts of its shores, and that some have been cut off
by the sea forming cliffs of light coloured boulder clay richly
studded with finely striated boulders (specimens and heel-
ball rubbings of which were shown). The details of the
position of these ridges, and relations of the cliffs (some of
which are 50 feet high) to those on the opposite shores are
explained.

The soundings between these are also referred to, as they
show the existence of great bars connecting some of the
most remarkable of these cliff sections of drift.

The author concludes that there is evidence of the
former existence of several ridges of drift extending obliquely
into the bay, and that some of these may have so nearly
crossed it as to leave only a sufficient channel for the outlet
of the river water ; but that the magnitude of the lake thus
formed would not be so great as the tradition indicates, un-
less the waters were backed considerably over the plains
around Galway, which would have been the case had its
level been only slightly raised.

He found a popular opinion prevailing that the Aian Islands
are the remains of a great barrier, but there is no present
evidence supporting this.

Mr. W. H. Baily, M.R.I.A., F.G.S., read a paper on
some Additional Remains of Labyrinthodont Amphibia and
Fish found in the Jarrow Colliery, near Castlecomer, County
Kilkenny. He illustrated his remarks with well drawn dia-
grams, and exhibited some of the specimens clearly defined
in the coal, showing the vertebrae, head, fins, &c. Some of
the reptiles were 3 feet 7 inches in length, and the fish
specimens were beautifully marked in the matrix.

Mr. W. Pengelly, F.R.S. read the fourteenth report on the
Exploration of Kent’s Cave. He mentioned that the cave
was situated a distance of one mile eastward of Torquay,
and half a mile distant from the bay. It was beneath a hill
250 feet high. The deposits from time to time were black
mould, in which were found sheep remains ; under that
stalagmite, and then cave earth, in which the bones of
hysenine were discovered ; then crystalline stalagmite and
breccia, as yet the most ancient deposit found in the cavern.
In the two latter the bones of bears only were found. The
hysenine bones were the most numerous. Only one example
of cave lion and one of fox were found here. Mr. Pengelly
exhibited a number of specimens of jaw-bones and teeth of

540 The British Association. [October,

the hyena, of the bear, some flint instruments, and a re-
markable quartzite discovered in the cave during last year.
The report contained an account of the explorations carried
during the year. At the end of July, 1878, the two
reaches only had been explored. Its floor was found to be
a complete pavement of blocks of limestone, some of con-
siderable size. The chamber measured about 30 feet from
north to south ; from 7 to 13 feet from east to west, and
from 8 to 13 feet from the roof to the bottom of the cavern.
The only objects of interest found in the chamber were four
pieces of bone, which occurred at depths exceeding a foot,
and a lump of oxide of manganese. The recess near the
junction of the two reaches was, in proportion to its capacity,
much more productive.

Mr. Isaac Roberts, F.G.S., read a very instructive paper
“ On Experiments on Filtration of Sea Water through Tri-
assic Sandstone.”

Mr. W. Pengelly, F.R.S., read a paper “ On the Relative
Ages of the Raised Beaches and Submerged Forests of
Torbay.”

Mr. V. Ball, M.A., gave a description of a new Geological
Map of India which is soon to be published, with a manual
of the geology of that country. Mr. Ball stated that his
investigations in India had converted him to the glacial
theory as exemplified in the boulders he had seen.

Professor Williamson, Owens College, Manchester, read
a paper with regard to coal measures.

The President gave a short account of some fossils from
the Northampton Sands, which, he said, formed an important
part of the oolites, which had been described in papers pub-
lished by the Geographical Society of London.

Mr. J. Nolan, M.R.I.A., read a paper “ On the Meta-
morphic and Intrusive Rocks of Tyrone.”

Mr. Sterry Hunt, LL.D., F.R.S., read a paper “ On the
Origin and Succession of Crystalline Rocks.” The author’s
researches into the composition and structure of the crystal-
line rocks, conjoined with his studies of the chemistry of
natural waters, led him, in i860, to rejeCt the hitherto re-
ceived view of the epigenic or metasomatic origin of serpen-
tine, steatite, chlorite, and similar rocks, and to maintain
their derivation from silicates formed by chemical processes
and deposited in the water of lakes or seas. This view he
soon after extended to the various other exceptional rocks

1878.]

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54i

found in crystalline formations which it was, in 1864, as-
serted had been “ formed by a crystalline molecular re-
arrangement of silicates generated by chemical process in
waters at the earth’s surface.”

In continuation of the same subject, a paper was read by
Dr. Hicks on some new pre-Cambrian areas in Wales.

Mr. E. T. Hardman, F.C.S., read a paper on “ Hullite,”
a hitherto undescribed mineral. He said this mineral occurs
in abundance at Carnmoney Hill, near Belfast, in the basalt
forming the neck of a miocene volcano. It has never been
described as analysed, and has been referred to in the Survey
maps and labelled on the Survey collections as obsidian,
doubtless from its black colour and waxy lustre. In physical
character it somewhat agrees with the chlorophaite of
Maculloch, but is entirely different in composition, which
more resembles that of delessite : from this, however, it differs
essentially in colour, hardness, streak, and specific gravity,
but it appears on the whole to belong to the ferruginous
chlorite group. Physical characters — Colour, velvet black ;
hardness, 2 : brittle ; lustre, waxy to dull ; very slightly
affeCted by acids : occurs at Carnmoney and Shane’s Castle,
near Lough Neagh. Its most remarkable characteristics are
its low specific gravity, and its resistance to the blowpipe —
both curious points, considering the large quantity of iron it
contains. The author proposed to call the mineral Hullite,
after Professor Hull, in commemoration of the valuable
work he has done in elucidating the microscopic mineralogy
of the basalts of Ireland. Professor Hull has examined the
microscopic struClure of the mineral, and of the rock in
which it occurs. Under the microscope it is of an amber
brown colour, nearly opaque. It permeates the whole rock,
filling the interstices, and enclosing the other minerals. It
appears very much to assume the character of chlorite, and
is undoubtedly a distinct mineral, and not a produ<T of
alteration.

Prof. E. Hull, M.A., F.R.S., Diredlor of the Geological
Survey in this country, gave a short account of the progress
of the Geological Survey of Ireland from its commencement
in 1832, under the late General Portlock, RtE,, down to the
present day, stating that the whole country south of a line
drawn roughly from Larne on the coast of Antrim to Sligo
had been surveyed, while 160 sheets of the geological map,
on a scale of 1 inch to the statute mile, had been published.
Along with these had also been issued 78 separate explana-
tory memoirs describing the structure and palaeontology of

542

The British Association .

[October,

126 sheets. It had been found necessary to revise the
geology of the Leinster and Tipperary coal-fields, the car-
boniferous trap-rock of the County Limerick, and the south-
east portion of the country, including parts of Wicklow and
Wexford. The coal-fields of the North of Ireland had also
been surveyed and published in maps both on the 6-inch and
i-inch scales; and it was also intended that the districts of
the County Antrim containing pyrolitic iron ores should be
illustrated by maps on both scales. The district still re-
maining to be examined included the greater portions of
Donegal, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Sligo, and Antrim.

The President said the object of these Surveys was to
make the public at large thoroughly acquainted with the
geology of the country in which they resided. Maps were
carefully drawn, and memoirs published from time to time
in illustration of the maps ; but unfortunately, so far as the
diffusion of knowledge was concerned at the present time, —
not owing to any prohibition of the Geological Survey, but
owing to some mistaken view on the part of the Treasury,
— prohibitive prices were placed upon the geological me-
moirs. He had seen small pamphlets priced at 16s. or 17s.,
though these pamphlets were printed and published at the
public expense for the benefit of the public. He held in his
hand a very small pamphlet, which wras published at 9s.
He did not think a false economy of this kind ought to be
suffered to go on without a protest on behalf of those who
were interested in geological progress. He therefore felt it
right to make these remarks, in the hope that steps might
be taken to bring this matter under the consideration of the
Treasury, and point out how with the one hand they were
lavishly spending money for the advancement of geological
knowledge, and with the other withholding it from the
public.

Dr. Sterry Hunt read a paper “ On the Geological Rela-
tions of the Atmosphere.” The author began by noticing
the inquiries of Ebelmen into the decomposition of rocks
through the influence of the atmosphere, resulting in the
fixation of carbonic acid and oxygen, and discussed the
question at length with arithmetical data. He inquired
farther into the fixing of carbon from the air by vegetation,
with liberation at the same time of oxygen, both from car-
bonic acid and from the decomposed water, the hydrogen of
which, with carbon, forms the bituminous coals and petro-
leums. It was shown that the carbonic acid absorbed in the
process of rock decay during the long geologic ages, and now
represented in the form of carbonates in the earth’s crust,

The British Association .

543

1878.3

must have equalled probably two hundred times the entire
volume of the present atmosphere of our earth. This
amount could not, of course, exist at any one time in the
air ; it would at ordinary temperatures be liquefied at the
earth’s surface. Whence came this vast quantity of car-
bonic acid which must have been supplied through the ages ?
The hypothesis of Elie de Beaumont, who supposed a reser-
voir of carbonic acid stored up in the liquid interior of the
planet, was discussed and dismissed. The gas now evolved
from the earth’s crust from volcanic and other vents was
probably of secondary origin, and due to carbonates previ-
ously formed at the surface. The solution of the problem
offered by the author is based upon the conception that our
atmosphere is not terrestrial, but cosmical, being a universal
medium diffused throughout all space, but condensed around
the various centres of attraction in amounts proportioned to
their mass and temperature, the waters of ocean themselves
belonging to this universal atmosphere. Such being the
case, any change in the atmospheric envelope of any globe,
whether by the absorption or the disengagement of any gas
or vapour, would by the laws of diffusion and static equili-
brium be felt everywhere throughout the universe, and the
fixation of carbon at the surface of our planet would not
only bring in a supply of this gas from the worlds beyond,
but, by reducing the total amount of it in the universal at-
mosphere, diminish the barometric pressure at the surface of
our own and of all other worlds.

Prof. W. King, D.S.L., contributed a paper 11 On the Age
of the Crystalline Rocks of the County Donegal.” He had
succeeded in obtaining some true fossils in portions of the
Innes Lower Limestone that have scarcely undergone any
change. This was the first example, as far as he could as-
certain, of an undoubted fossil having been detected in these
limestones. The faCt may be taken as evidence that their
deposits and their associated argillaceous and siliceous
masses are of the Lower Silurian Age, and it seemed highly
probable that the more intensely metamorphosed rocks in
the north-west division of Donegal belonged to the same
geological period.

Biology. (Section D.)

The President of this SeCtion was Prof. Flower, F.R.S.;
Dr. Robert M'Donnell, F.R.S., presiding over the Depart-
ment of Anatomy and Physiology, and Prof. Huxley over
that of Anthropology. Our space will not permit us to give
abstracts of the excellent addresses of these gentlemen, or
of the papers brought before the SeCtion,

544

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fOdlober,

Prof. Sir Wyville Thomson presided over Section E
(Geography) : his address was listened to by a crowded
audience. Prof. Ingram, LL.D., presided over Section F
(Economic Science and Statistics) ; and Mr. E. Easton, C.E.,
over Sedtion G (Mechanical Science).

At one of the meetings of the Geographical Section Sir
Wyville Thomson read a paper “ On the Progress in the
Official Report of the Challenger Expedition.” While the
ship was at sea their time was entirely devoted to the
registering of observations, and cataloguing, labelling, and
storing specimens. With regard to the destination of the
collection he proposed that in the first place each specialist
should be required to set aside all unique specimens, and the
most complete series possible of all species of which there were
duplicates, which should be sent to the British Museum, and
that afterwards duplicates should be arranged in sets and
distributed to museums at home and abroad. From what
he saw at present this difficult Report of the Voyage of
H.M.S. Challenger would extend to from fourteen to sixteen
quarto volumes of 500 or 600 pages. The whole would be
illustrated by about 1200 plates and many woodcuts and
photographs. The map of the first volume was nearly com-
pleted, and the charts or ship’s course and the sections
showing the natural distribution of ocean temperature. The
second volume will consist chiefly of tables, and will include
a report on the magnetic observations met during the voyage,
drawn up under the superintendence of the hydrographer of
the Navy, and a detailed report on the meteorology prepared
by Capt. Tizard. Another volume would contain the dis-
cussion of the nature of the bottom, the composition and
specific gravity of sea-water and the composition of its
gases, and a number of other general matters ; and the re-
mainder of the book will be occupied by a series of memoirs
by different authors on the various groups of animals which
constitute the deep-sea fauna.

1878.]

( 545 )

NOTICES OF BOOKS.

Conferences held in Connection with the Special Loan Collection
of Scientific Apparatus at South Kensington in 1876.
London : Chapman and Hall.

These Conferences originated in a letter addressed by Lord
Sandon to the Presidents of the various Learned Societies, in
which it was suggested that the value of the Loan Collection of
Scientific Apparatus then gathered together at South Kensington
would be greatly enhanced by demonstrations of the mode of
working various instruments, and by papers on different subjects
connected therewith. The Conferences commenced on May 16th
and were continued until the 2nd of June. Five Sections were
formed, each possessing a President and several Vice-Presidents.
The Sections were respectively devoted to — 1. Physics. 2. Me-
chanics. 3. Chemistry. 4. Biology. 5. Physical Geography,
Geology, Mining, and Meteorology. The volume now before us
relates to the two first in the list.

The Physical Section was presided over by Mr. W. Spottis-
woode, and it numbered among its Vice-Presidents eminent
Professors from Germany, Italy, France, and Holland. In the
opening address the President enumerated some of the greater
curiosities of the Collection : — A quadrant of Tycho Brahe,
telescopes of Galileo, lenses constructed by Huyghens, a telescope
of Newton, Sir W. Herschel’s grinding-machines for specula,
and a telescope which he constructed in his earlier days ; also
the original siderostat of Foucault, a compound speculum by the
late Lord Rosse, the Kew photoheliograph, and the “ compound
microscope ” of Zacharias Gaussen constructed in 1590. The
original air-pump and Magdeburgh hemispheres of Otto von
Guericke were shown ; also an air-pump of Boyle, the com-
pressor of Papin, Regnault’s apparatus for determining the
specific heat of gases, Fizeau’s and Foucault’s original revolving
mirrors, Daguerre’s first photograph on glass, and original elec-
trical apparatus of Faraday, and Ampere.

The first address was delivered by Mr. William Huggins,
“ On Spectroscopy applied to the Heavenly Bodies other than
the Sun.” The spectrum of the nebula in Orion was compared
with those of hydrogen and nitrogen ; the spectrum of Sirius
with that of hydrogen in a vacuum tube ; and the spectrum of
Arcturus with those of hydrogen, magnesium, and sodium.

Mr. Lockyer afterwards gave an account of the present state
of spectroscopic research, specially in reference to the mapping

VOL. VIII. (N.S.) 2 N

Notices of Books .

fOCtober,

546

of speCtra. Maps are now drawn to twelve times the scale of
Angstrom’s map, and of course the mapping has become much

more minute. Thus in Angstrom’s map only three lines are
shown between H and H2, while in the new maps no less than
ninety-nine are inserted.

Mr. H. C. Sorby followed with an account of “ SpeCtrum
Microscopes and the Measuring Apparatus used with them.”

Other papers were read — by M. Picket, on “ Ice-making Ma-
chines on “ Compass Correction in Iron Ships,” by Sir Wm.
Thomson; “The Radiometer,” by Prof. Wartmann, of Geneva;
and “ The Anemometer,” by Mr. Fletcher.

At the second meeting of the Conference Dr. Tyndall described
some of his remarkable experiments on the reflection of sound
by layers of air of different densities, and on sensitive flames.
Dr. Stone read a paper on “Just Intonation ” in music, and on
the limits of audible sound ; and Mr. Bosanquet gave an account
of his instruments for the attainment of just intonation. Prof.
W. G. Adams then read a paper on Sir Charles Wheatstone's
acoustical discoveries.

In a very able and detail article on the “ Instruments contri-
buted by Italy,” Prof. Eccher discussed the various inventions
and discoveries of Galileo, and the instruments of the Accademia
del Cimento, so liberally contributed to the Loan Collection by
the city of Florence. The position of Galileo in the history of
the Sciences is too well known to need more than passing notice,
but the work of men like Redi, Viviani, Marsili, Dati, and Borelli
is often overlooked or forgotten. Let us glance at the labours of
the last-mentioned of these men — the Neapolitan Borelli. “A
mathematician, a physician, an astronomer, he occupied himself
with all subjeds, and thus supplied himself with ample materials
for future discoveries. He studied the reciprocal actions of
floating bodies ( galleggianti ), and discovered its theory ; he was
the first to observe the variations of the barometer with the
changes in the atmosphere ; he considered the question of the
freezing of water ; he planned the experiments which were
decisive against the idea of the positive lightness ( leggerezza
positiva) ; he measured the greatest expansion of air freed from
surrounding pressure ; he determined the weight of air compared
with water ; he suggested the famous experiment with the silver
ball, to test the compressibility of water; and another experi-
ment on the propagation of sound {in vacuo) ; he studied the
contraction of various liquids in cooling ; and in the researches
on the velocity of propagation of light he was the first to con-
struct the heliostat ( eliostata ) ;” . . . he also made various as-
tronomical discoveries ; he was the first to observe the vena
contracta , and he devised new experiments to illustrate Galileo’s
idea of the fall of bodies in a vacuum.

On the occasion of the next Conference Mr. Dewar described
his Charcoal Vacuum , which he produces by placing charcoal in

1878.]

Notices of Boohs .

547

a tube, and exhausting by means of a mercurial air-pump at a
red-heat. When this has been completed the tube is sealed up,
and the last trace of mercury vapour, gas, sulphuric acid, and
other impurities are absorbed by the charcoal, and in a few
minutes the eleCtric spark refuses to pass through the vacuum.
A very good vacuum may also be made by filling a tube with
bromine vapour, and absorbing it by means of charcoal. Prof.
Rijke gave a very interesting account of the historical instru-
ments from Leyden, which included the first compound micro-
scope made at Middleburg, by Hans and Zacharias Gaussen,
before 1610 ; various mechanical contrivances of S’Gravesande
for illustrating the velocities of falling bodies ; and lenses con-
structed by Huyghens.

The Mechanical SeCtion of the Conference was presided over
by Mr. C. W. Siemens, and among the Vice-Presidents were
General Morin, Director of the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers,
and M. Tresca, the Sub-DireCtor. The President’s Address and
several of the earlier papers relate to the subject of measure-
ments— linear, superficial, solid, eleCtrical — and of time. M.
Tresca communicated a very important paper “ On the Flow of
Solid Bodies,” embodying the results of many years of study
and research ; Mr. Barnaby, Chief Constructor of the Navy, a
lengthy and valuable paper “ On Naval Architecture and Mr.
Thomas Stevenson described the more important improvements
which have lately been made in lighthouses.

The subjeCt-matter of this volume is most admirable, and
the works cannot fail to be frequently consulted by men of
Science.

A Handbook of Practical Telegraphy. By R. S. Culley.

Seventh Edition. London : Longmans and Co. 1878.

This well-known work, which has been revised and considerably
enlarged in this edition, contains an account of eleCtric telegraphy
in all its forms. Commencing with the sources of electricity,
the author passes on to a consideration of the laws of the current,
static and dynamic induction, atmospheric electricity, and earth-
currents. The construction of telegraph lines, the management
of circuits, and the apparatus used for signalling are then dis-
cussed ; a long section is given to submarine telegraphy; and
recent inventions, including the telephone, are finally discussed.

This work will undoubtedly continue to maintain the high
position which it has so long enjoyed.

2 N 2

54§

Notices of Books.

[October,

Natural Philosophy fov General Readers and Young Persons.
Translated from the French of Ganot, by E. Atkinson.
Third Edition. London : Longmans and Co.

This work has not been much enlarged, but it has received the
very useful additional feature of a series of questions system-
atically arranged in reference to the corresponding parts of the
book, which must greatly enhance its value, both to teachers of
Science and to self-taught students.

Electric Lighting. A Practical Treatise, by Hippolyte Fon-
taine. Translated from the French, by Paget Higgs,
LL.D., Assoc. Inst. C.E. London : E. and F. N. Spon.
1878.

This work is divided into twelve chapters, which treat of the
Voltaic arc, eledlric lamps, magneto eledlric machines, the
motive power they absorb ; the industrial applications of the
light to manufactories, lighthouses, ships, and forts ; the cost
of eledlric lighting; lighting by incandescent tubes ; and, finally,
of the divisibility of the eledlric light, The light was first
applied to lighthouses in 1863, at the lighthouse of Le Hene,
near Havre, and the light (produced by an “ alliance ” electro-
magnetic machine) was found to penetrate 8 kilometres further
than an oil-light, while in foggy weather the range of the light
was twice as great. There now exist eledlric lighthouses in
France, England, Russia, Austria, Sweden, and Egypt, and the
French Government are about to try the effedt of a Gramme
machine, giving a light equal to that of 2000 Carcel burners.
Formerly the light of 100 Carcel burners required the expenditure
of 3horse-power, but M. Gramme has succeeded in producing a
light of 450 burners with an engine of 2 horse-power. As to
the cost, the lighting of the Rue Imperiale, in Lyons, with
60 Bunsen elements, was found to cost 3-55 francs per hour.
An interesting table will be found (p. 164) giving the cost of
various sources of light, from which we learn that the cost for
4000 burners per hour is estimated as follows : —

Wax candles ...

132-00 francs.

Stearine

98-40

??

Tallow

56-4°

5 >

Colza oil

• • • • • • ... ... , . .

28*00

5 >

Voltaic battery

24*00

? 5

Petroleum oil ...

• . . . . . ... ... ...

21*60

j 5

Shale oil

. . . ... .

18-72

} ?

Oil gas

10-00

y y

Gramme machine with steam motor ...

1-78

,, hydraulic power

0-44

yy

549

iS73J

Notices of Books.

Thus under the most favourable conditions the Gramme ma-
chine light is 300 times less expensive than the light of wax
candles. It must be borne in mind, however, that interest and
wear and tear ought to be charged upon the machinery.

An exact comparison of the relative cost of gas and electric
lighting is given in the following tables for a spinning-mill of
800 looms.

First, in the case of the gas-lighting

Number of burners 415

Number of hours of night-work per year 500

Cost of introducing gas 12,000 francs.

Price of cubic metre of gas 0*25 franc.

Cost of gas per year 5486-85 francs.

Interest 12,000 francs, at 10 per cent... 1200*00 ,,

Maintenance of apparatus and contin-
gencies 263*00 ,,

Total cost of gas-lighting per year 6950*10 ,,

The corresponding electric lighting requires : —

Six Gramme machines, at 1500 francs ... 9000 francs.

Six regulators of 300 burners, at 450 frs. 2700 ,,

Wires and mounting 1300 ,,

Twelve horse-power steam motor 8000 ,,

Total cost of apparatus ... ... ... 21,000 ,,

Working expenses : —

Consumption of eledtric carbons,

240 metres, at 2*5 francs

Consumption of coal, 10 tonnes, at 30 frs.
Interest on 21,000 francs, at 10 per cent
Annual maintenance and contingencies...

600 francs.

300

) >

2100

>>

1600

> 1

Total cost of eledtric lighting per year 4600 ,,

“ The eledtric light in this case costs annually 33 per cent less
than that by gas, gives six times more light, and suppresses all
danger of fire.”

The light emitted by Geissler’s tubes has been found to be of
such slight intensity that they are pradtically useless even for
powder-mills and gunpowder-works. The divisibility of the
eledtric light, as employed by Jablochkoff in 1877, will appa-
rently lead to a greater introdudtiion of the use of this kind of
light. “ By the term ‘ divisibility of the eledtric light ’ we do
not mean the production of several intense lights by means of
one machine or battery, but simply the maintaining of a few
small luminous centres, each equal to 1 to 15 Carcel burners.”

550

Notices of Books.

[October,

M. Fontaine’s work will be read with interest by all who are
concerned in the application of electricity to lighting purposes.
The book is well illustrated, and the translation has been care-
fully made.

The Human Eye ; its Optical Construction Popularly Explained.

By R. E. Dudgeon, M.D. London : Hardwicke and Bogue.

1878.

This work commences with an account of various instruments
which help to illustrate the mechanism of the eye ; lenses are
discussed, and the refradtion of light by lenses of different form
and curvature. The eye is compared to a photographic camera,
and various sedtional diagrams are given to illustrate the views
expressed. It is asserted that Kulme has found that the image
of an objedt thrown upon the retina during life remains visibly
impressed on that membrane after death. The minute structure
of the crystalline lens receives illustration ; also the conditions
of long- and short-sightedness. Clossat long ago pointed out
the fadt that the curvature of the crystalline lens is not that of a
sphere, but of an oblate spheroid. Dr. Dudgeon proposes the
use of air lenses for the use of divers under water. Of course
an air-lens ceases to be a lens as soon as it is out of water. An
interesting account is given of subaqueous optics and effedts — ■
among them the effedts observed by a diver furnished with air-
lens spedtacles, who is resting on the bottom of a bath, full of
clear water, with a perfedtly unruffled surface. The eyes of
fishes are discussed, and diagrams are given of the lenses of the
skate and turtle. Dr. Dudgeon believes that the lens possesses
a “ rotation movement ” in accommodation for near vision. “ If
the transition from near to distant accommodation takes place in
the dark, there occurs, as Czernak has remarked, a sudden flash
of light in the eye, which he calls a phosphine . This phenome-
non is, I believe, caused by the sudden springing back of the
lens to its normal unaccommodated position, communicating a
shock to the retina whereby the sensation of light is evoked, —
just as a slight blow on the eye will produce the sensation of a
flash of ordinary light. At the same time the sudden relaxation
of the ciliary muscle, or tensor chloroidese, permitting the stri-
ated chloroid membrane to resume its position, will intensify the
shock that produces the flash.”

The work is clearly written throughout, and embodies the
results of the most recent German researches on the subjedt,
and it will be welcomed alike by the old and the young physi-
ologist.

1878.]

Notices of Books.

55i

Light. A Series of Simple, Entertaining, and Inexpensive
Experiments in the Phenomena of Light, for the Use of
Students of every Age. By Alfred M. Mayer and Charles
Barnard. “ Nature ” Series. London : Macmillan and
Co. 1878.

This work describes, in simple language, a number of experi-
ments illustrating the principal properties of light, by means of
a beam of sunlight admitted into a dark room, and various con-
trivances. The experiments are highly ingenious, and, although
in many cases insufficiently explained, the young student cannot
fail to learn a good deal from the book. As an example of the
effective experimental method employed, we may specially men-
tion the device for illustrating the refradtion of light, figured and
described on page 46.

The book is specially designed “ to give to every teacher and
scholar the knowledge of the art of experimenting.”

The Devil Demonstrated. By A Physiologist. London"
Printed for the Author, by G. J. Ogden and Co.

We have here a curious and highly original work, written ten
years ago, and now published anonymously for fear of the tea-
tables. The author, it should be premised, is not a materialist •
he distinctly admits the existence of the Deity, and of an imma-
terial, supra-vital, responsible principle in man, not perishing
with what is commonly called death. He recognises, moreover,
the authority of the Christian Revelation, and in seeking to es-
tablish his doctrine he appeals to St. Paul against the authority
of Milton, a writer whose glosses on the Scriptures have — in
England at least — been popularly identified with the Sacred text,
and are, we believe, to no small extent responsible for the anta-
gonism which in some quarters still prevails between Religion
and Science.

The author contends, in brief, that the Devil is neither a person
nor a spirit, but an evil principle connected with the flesh, which
lives and dies with that flesh, not found in man alone, but in
every animal or vegetable form of matter. “ Where there is
force acfting upon matter, there is the Devil ” — a formula which
would of course comprehend inorganic substances as well as
plants and animals. “ Wherever there is any evil principle,
anything which works injury, the Devil, or evil, is there present,
as much as in man.”

This view is expounded in the form of a dialogue between a
DocStor, a Friend, and a Patient, introduced by the latter, and
who here is supposed to represent the unscientific British public.

[October,

552 Notices of Books.

This typical hearer receives the novel doCtrine very complacently,
considering that he has just declared that he “ knows nothing of
modern science, and looks upon it with horror,” that he “cannot
bear to meet a man of science,” and that he has “ read some of
the pestilent and heretical works lately issued.”

In the argument which the author brings forward we find, as
one step, an account of atoms in which it is asserted “ we know
that they are formed of two distinct parts ; that they are spher-
oids, having a dense axis and a less dense equator. For instance,
the axis of the atom of oxygen is formed of ozone and the
equator of antozone ; the atom of water has oxygen for its axis
and hydrogen for its equator.” How an atom, which is ex hypo -
thesi indivisible, can yet be formed of two distinCt parts, more
or less dense, it is difficult to conceive. Allowing, however, the
author to substitute the term “ molecule ” for “ atom,” we are
still not satisfied. The very existence of antozone is too pro-
blematical for us to accept this theory of the constitution of the
molecule of oxygen. But even if we accept the whole of the
author’s interesting demonstration, we utterly fail to see that it
leads necessarily to the point at issue. Supposing that there are
sources of evil existing “ within man, and concomitants of his
flesh,” this by no means disproves the existence of an external
author of evil, a parastatic spirit.

Further, the author’s views are deficient in clearness : from
some passages we should judge that he pronounces all Nature —
everything consisting of matter aCted on by force Devilish —
evil. But from others we should gather that he would consider
these attributes as restricted to matter and force when exerting
abnormal, morbid, and injurious influences. Accepting this as
the more rational view, we have still to ask where is the boundary
between good and evil — especially in a physical view — to be
drawn, and who is to decide ? A storm that ravages our crops
and sinks our shipping may at the same time purify the air and
remove an epidemic. Is it, then, diabolical or non-diabolical, or
a happy mixture of both ? The author seems to us not to dis-
tinguish clearly enough between physical and moral evil, which
may be perfectly independent of each other. For granting to
the fullest extent Dr. Johnson’s diCtum that “ every sick man is
a villain,” — granting that a diseased liver, indigestion in any
form, and no less the mediaeval religious exercise of fasting, are
the teeming sources of envy, “ hatred, malice, and all uncharita-
bleness,” we must never forget that there is at any rate one
shortcoming to which man is prone, almost in the exaCt ratio of
his health and vigour. It is curious how completely modern
moralists forget the distinction between “ appetites ” and
“ passions.”

Should the author’s views meet with acceptance they would
not, we believe, prove necessarily antagonistic to a belief in
man’s responsibility, but they might favour the recrudescence of

1878.:

Notices of Books.

553

mediaeval asceticism, and of that contempt for matter and “ the
flesh ” which has been so formidable a hindrance to man’s intel-
lectual and physical progress.

Elements of Chemistry , Theoretical and Practical. By W. A.
Miller, M.D., &c. Revised by Charles E. Groves, Sec.
F.I.C., F.C.S., &c. Part II. — Inorganic Chemistry. Sixth
Edition, with Additions, London : Longmans and Co.
1878.

Students and teachers, young and old, will welcome the sixth
edition of Part II. of Dr. Miller’s well-known Manual, which
this time is entirely revised by Mr. Groves, who assisted Prof.
McLeod in the preparation of the fifth edition, published in 1874.
During the last four years inorganic chemistry has made but
little progress, both professors and students preferring to employ
their talents and occupy their time with trying to cram an addi-
tional atom of oxygen or hydrogen into some unhappy organic
radical that no one but themselves has ever seen, and that
strongly objeCts to give hospitality to the intruder, rather than
with one or other of the endless problems with regard to the
commonest reactions that are hourly staring us in the face.

Although there are but few new faCts to chronicle during the
period mentioned, one of them at least is of very great im-
portance. We of course allude to the discovery of gallium by
M. Lecoq de Boisbaudran, and its very unexpected confirmation
of Newland’s and Mendelejeff’s periodic law. The influence of
this discovery on the theory of the relationship between the ele-
ments, first glimpsed by Prout, is a very important one, and it
might, we think, have been more enlarged upon in the fifty pages
which Mr. Groves has added to the sixth edition. An account
of Davyum, too, is found in its proper place. Short accounts
are given of Deacon’s and Weldon’s chlorine processes, but we
have searched in vain for any notice of MaCtear’s sulphur rege-
neration process. The ammonia process for making sodic
carbonate is briefly described, but we are not informed whether
it is successful or not. If, as has been stated, the Island of
Cyprus contains innumerable salt-springs, this process may play
an important part in the regeneration of our latest possession.

Under Iron, the description of Danks’s method of puddling by
machinery ; and short accounts are given of Crampton’s and
Henderson’s processes. The account of Siemens’s process is
also enlarged— a remark that equally applies to the Bessemer
process.

As in the fifth edition, Dr. Frankland’s constitutional formulas
are introduced between brackets, to show that they are interpo-

554

Notices of Books.

[October,

lations into the original work. We are at a loss to see the
necessity for this. Dr. Frankland’s formulae are far from being
universally used by teachers, who find them cumbersome in use,
and more apt to lead to blunders on the part of stupid students
than the ordinary empirical formulae. At present we really know
little or nothing about the constitution of bodies, and in our
opinion it would be better humbly to acknowledge our ignorance
by giving up the use of more or less improbable constitutional
formulae in our text-books.

Flowers ; their Origin , Shapes , Perfumes , and Colours. ByJ. E.
Taylor, Ph.D., F.L.S., F.G.S., &c. London : Hardwicke
and Bogue.

We have here not indeed a record of original research, or a
formal treatise on phytology intended for the professed student
of vegetable life, but an attempt to “ place before that portion of
the intelligent public who have the desire, but neither the time
nor opportunity to make themselves acquainted with natural
science, the charming and suggestive results of modern botanical
investigation.” To such a task the author brings unusual quali-
fications. An able and enthusiastic botanist, and fully acquainted
with all the recent discoveries in natural history, we might well
expeCt from his pen a work at once readable, thoughtful, and
suggestive. Nor shall we be disappointed. The volume before
us teems with interesting faCts, described for the most part in
clear language, and made more telling by the aid of numerous
and well-seleCted illustrations. The reader who may feel dis-
inclined to wade through original memoirs will find here, for
instance, an account of the newly-discovered carnivorous plants,
the wondrous story of the mutual relations between insecfis and
flowers, and of the uses of colour and perfume to the latter.
He will learn here something of the wonderful contrivance to
prevent exclusive in-breeding, and secure occasional, if not fre-
quent, crosses. He will find for what purpose and in what
manner plants climb. Passing from individual phenomena to
general truths, he will learn to take a broader and healthier view
of the vegetable— as indeed of the whole organic — world than to
consider it existing with exclusive reference to man.

Still we must own to a certain amount of disappointment in
the perusal of Dr. Taylor’s book. There is, in the first place, a
considerable amount of needless and wearisome repetition.
Thus the distinctive attributes of the two great groups of flowers,
the anemophilous and entomophilous, are explained twice over,

555

1878.] Notices of Books .

on pages 15 and 149. The relations between flowers and inseCts
are touched upon in almost the same words on pages 29 and
148. On page 15 we read — “ Every cottager who has hung the
gaudy-coloured paper fly-cages in his room, to prevent his clean
white-washed roofs and walls from being dirtied by the common
house-fly, has practically availed himself of the attraction which
bright colours have for even these non-flower-loving inseCts.”
On page 174 the same idea recurs in almost the same words : —
“ In the brilliantly coloured paper fly-cages which he has been
in the habit of hanging from the roof of his cottage, to save its
clean white-wash from soiling, the cottager has practically taken
advantage of the attractions which colour has even for the
Diptera.”

There are also certain peculiarities of expression which a little
care in the revision of the press might have prevented. Thus
in one passage we are told that “ speCtroscopic analysis has
made it (the nebular hypothesis) more probably truthful than
ever.” Elsewhere there is reference to “ a paragraph which
Brongniart made in 1849 and on page 184 we read — “ Both
them and the jonquils are remarkable for having a corona or tube
within the flower.”

As regards the subjeCt-matter of the work before us, there are
also certain points on which issue might be joined. Thus the
author (p. 299). ranks humming-birds “ among the latest products
of Evolution.” Mr. Wallace, on the other hand,* holds that
“ their extreme isolation from other forms, no less than the
abundance and variety of their generic and specific forms, clearly
point to a very high antiquity.”

On page 19 we read that the Sphinxes (Sphinges) or hawk-
moths “ have not only long probosces, but slender bodies and
hawk-like wings.” To us the bodies of the hawk-moths appear
thick in comparison with those of the generality of Lepi-
doptera.

The author, with many naturalists, considers that the bright
colours of certain berries, &c., are designed to induce birds to
partake of them. “ It may be found that the colours of our
wild berries are in this way as serviceable to the plants in ob-
taining for them distribution of bird-agency as those of their
flowers have been in attracting those inseCts by whose aid these
very seeds have been produced. ... It may be that the very
reason why the coloured succulent berries of some plants are
uneatable by or poisonous to other animals than birds is a gain
to them, in preventing their being swallowed by creatures in
whose stomachs the seeds would be digested and assimilated.
Singularly enough, with the increased size of our garden fruits
produced through cultivation, there has often been developed a

* Tropical Nature, p. 148.

55^

Notices of Books.

[October,

different habit on the part of our wild birds. They no longer
swallow the cherries and plums whole, and so they content
themselves by eating away all the juicy pericarp, leaving the
stones hanging by the footstalks.” This we may, indeed, see on
every cherry-tree, but we may see it also on the wild cherry. It
is not swallowed whole, but its small layer of pulp is carefully
picked away from the stone. We must also remember that many
Mammalia void the seeds of fruits undigested.

It is a curious facff that brilliant colouration in caterpillars and
other insedts should so often be a warning to birds that the
species is not edible, whilst in fruits it is an invitation to a
banquet. There is only one further passage to which we have
space to advert. “ The Romish Church,” says our author,
“authoritatively denounced the Copernical theory of the Uni-
verse, just as she has recently denounced Darwinism.” Now
that many clergymen of the Catholic Church have expressed
themselves hostile to the doctrine of Evolution is indisputable.
In this respedt they have not been singular. Clergymen of the
Church of England, ministers of the Scottish Church and of
dissenting communities, have done the same. But that any
formal and authoritative condemnation of “ Darwinism ” has
been pronounced by the Holy See we have yet to learn.

Dr. Taylor’s work is provided with an elaborate table of com
tents and an excellent index.

Annual Record of Science and Industry for 1877. Edited by
Spencer F. Baird. New York : Harper Brothers. Lon-
don : Triibner and Co.

This useful work has undergone a change of plan. The abstracts
from scientific journals and from the Transactions of Societies,
which formerly constituted its main feature, has been omitted,
in consequence of the rapidly increasing quantity of scientific
work done in the world, and in its place the summaries of pro-
gress of each science have been extended.

In biology no very striking advance during the past year is
here recorded. Mr. Scudder, though from a different point of
view, joins Mr. A. R. Wallace in objecting to the doctrine of
Sexual Selection.” Whilst admitting with Mr. Darwin that
where the sexes differ in colouration the male is most beautiful,
he contends that it is the female who “ first departs from the
normal type of colouring of the group to which the species
belongs.” He recalls no case where such a departure can be
traced in the male alone. He points out that the males of cer-
tain butterflies possess peculiar cells, to which he gives the name
of androconia. These are of great beauty and delicacy, but are

1 878.]

Notices of Boohs .

557

hidden among the others. Here, the compiler remarks, “ the
theory of Sexual Selection proposed by Darwin appears to fail
just where it should aid us most.” We certainly cannot contend
that Sexual Selection can account for ornamentation in an invi-
sible part. But as little will the doCtrine of the old school of
natural history — that beauty in plants and animals exists merely
for the delectation of man — serve our purpose here.

Mr. Packard deprived a number of inseCts of all orders of
their antennae. He found that the hive-bee was more affeCted
than any of the others operated upon. “ The removal of the
antennae of this inseCt seemed to show that the sense of hearing
may reside in the antennae, while that of smell has its seat in
the palpi (and perhaps the tongue) alone. It would also seem
as if the antennal nerves were so continuous with the brain
(supra-oesophagical ganglia) that they form as it were a part of
it, their removal at a little distance from their origin producing
such a shock to the ganglionic nervous system that the inseCt
aCts somewhat like a bird when deprived of its central hemi-
spheres. In an ichneumon the sense of taste appears to be
situated in the ends of the palpi. In the butterflies the sense of
taste, as well as touch, is situated in the spiral tongue. Spiders,
on losing their maxillary palpi, seemed to be affeCted much as
inserts on the loss of their antennae.”

In view of the great shock to the nervous system here admitted
we should feel somewhat sceptical as to the value of the indica-
tions afforded by such a method of experimentation. Our own
observations — made on presenting to inseCts a great variety of
bodies, attractive and repulsive — lead us to the conclusion that
the antennae are the organs of smell. The following experi-
ments, performed by Pere Montrousier, of New Caledonia,
supports the same view : — He coated a weevil, Octhorinus cmci-
atus, over with wax, save the tips of the antennae. On presenting
to it oil of turpentine it was much agitated, and endeavoured to
escape. Another specimen, on the contrary, had merely the tips
of its antennae coated with wax, and it remained perfectly indif-
ferent to all strong-smelling substances.

Dr. Hartlaub’s researches on the birds of Madagascar
strengthen the case of those who consider that island too dis-
tinct in its fauna from the adjoining mainland to be regarded
merely as a sub-region of the Ethiopian region. In Madagascar
there occurs not one of the forms most characteristic of Africa.

Sir John Lubbock, in his latest experiments, finds that ants
recognise old companions, and receive them amicabiy, even
after a year’s separation, while strangers are almost invariably
attacked.

Prof. A. Gray thus states “ Nature’s golden rule for flowers :
get fertilised ; cross-fertilised if you can ; self-fertilised if you
must.”

55^

Notices of Books.

[October*

A Science Primer, On the Nature of Things. ByJ. G. Mac=
vicar, A.M., LL.D., D.D. Edinburgh and London ; W,
Blackwood and Sons.

Dr. Macvicar uses the word “ Primer ” in a somewhat peculiar
sense. It is generally taken to signify a plain, simple, elementary
treatise which a mere tyro may comprehend, and which, passing
over controversial matters, deals merely with what is fully esta-
blished and generally recognised. From all this the Primer”
before us differs widely. It contains much which we, after a life
devoted to science, find ourselves unable to understand clearly;
much that is, to say the least, doubtful, and much that sadly
lacks demonstration. The very methods of science are, in our
opinion, completely ignored, and the results seem to us indefi-
nite and intangible. The author tells us that his work is
u grounded on the belief of [in ?] an Almighty Being possessing
unity, omnipresence, and ever-blessedness, and awarding exist-
ence to a creation for the sake of manifesting Himself and
extending blessedness beyond Himself, and, in a word, to be a
mirror of Himself so far as the finite can bear a likeness to the
Infinite. After setting out with this cosmical law of assimila-
tion, by its aid alone bearing on only one kind of created sub-
stance or energy (‘ mind-stuff’), he deduces the creation of the
world of Spirits, and as their home the Universal Ether or
medium of light. Then, as a beautiful cloud-work in the azure
of the Spirit World, he gives the genesis of Matter and the
molecular system, culminating in this planet in the construction
of the myo-cerebral organism, whose characteristic function is
to construct a powerfnl tissue of organised ether or the matter
of light, which being unified in its focus of vital action into an
element of energy so powerful as to have recovered the primal
attribute of energy — namely, mental power — is a spirit.” In
consideration for scientific men he advises them to turn
first to the latter part of the work, where he thinks that he
has verified his theory “ by a detailed appeal to natural
phenomena, and experiments in physics and chemistry.”
Thither accordingly we proceed, in the hope of finding a key to
what has gone before. But on arriving at our destination we
find experimental evidence is wanting. There are assertions,
but they lack demonstration. We read, p. 65, “ Thus with
regard to silica itself, its molecular structure, as obtained by our
method, shows that it is not destined to remain for ever dead,
giving to nature nothing but barren rock and sand. Every atom
of it is capable of development into coupled atoms of oxygen
and carbon, and a tetratom of hydrogen. This the acffual che-
mistry must assent to, thus far at least as to admit that their
atomic weights are the same.

u

Silica, at weight 6o:

'2O =32'
2C =24
4H= 4

= 60.”

I878.J

559

Notices of Books .

We will not here objedl that the atomic weight of oxygen is
considered to be not 16, but 15*96, and that of carbon not 12,
but 11*97. But we must certainly enquire whether Dr. Mac-
vicar assumes it as a general truth that if the atomic weight of
an element equals the sum of the atomic weights of certain
other elements, it is to be considered as capable of resolution
into the latter ? We shall be ready to accept the author’s view
of the composition of silica so soon as he shall have succeeded
in resolving it into oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen, or in forming
it synthetically by the union of these elements.

Concerning ammonia the author entertains also peculiar
views. He writes :■> — “ The experimental chemist experiences
no greater difficulty in his pursuit of exacft analysis than to
obtain possession of a considerable .quantity of mere or pure
water. Let him distil water over and over again, if only the
distillate have stood for a time he finds ammonia in it. This
phenomenon the popular chemistry which maintains the solidity,
simplicity, and non-developable character of the sixty-three
chemical atoms, is obliged to ascribe to the previous existence
of organic matter in the water.” This state of things, which he
thinks “ cannot but be provoking to the chemist,” he accounts
for by pronouncing ammonia <£ a produdt of pure water itself,
and immediately after common vapour itself a primeval sub-
stance.” Before Dr. Macvicar exults over the “ popular che-
mistry ” let him remember that ammonia is not difficult to detecT
in the atmosphere, and cannot well escape being absorbed by
water on prolonged standing, even if preserved in bottles with
the best-fitting stoppers. Can he bring forward a case where a
competent experimentalist has obtained water free from ammo-
nia and from organic matter, has then sealed it up before the
lamp, and has then on opening it — after the lapse, say, of a
year — found it ammoniacal ? If the author can make ammonia
out of water, not merely honour will be his, but wealth such as
the world has not yet dreamt of. Will he neither tell us how it
is to be done, nor, if that is impossible, point out where Nature
is doing it in “ a considerable quantity ” ?

It will have been perceived that Dr. Macvicar does not recog-
nise the ordinary elements. He says — “ There are between
sixty and seventy (kinds of) particles of matter which chemists
down to the present day have not succeeded in decomposing,
and which, strange to say, on this negative evidence they have
concluded to differ from all the thousands of other (kinds of)
particles which in the progress of analytical chemistry they have
succeeded in decomposing, and hold to be simple and solid
unities or true natural atoms of matter.”

The author must surely be aware that the definition of an
element, in chemical language, is merely a body which we have
neither been able to compose nor to decompose. “ Strange to
say ” he goes on to show why these elements should “ differ

Notices of Books .

[October,

560

from all the thousands of other particles ” which have been de-
composed. “ Surely,” he exclaims, “ it is most improbable that
human creatures in this small planet should be able to accom-
plish in their chambers the destruction of particles on which the
economy of Nature out in the Universe has mainly been de-
volved.” Here, then, is a formal admission that these elements
are after all naturally distinguished from their compounds.

Our chemical readers, however, will not thank us for further
pursuing the examination of a book which is rarely tangible,
and which formally discourages the appeal to experiment, holding
up the early physicists of Greece as examples, and recom-
mending us to examine faCts with the mental eye rather than
with that of the body. Such works appear from time to time,
written generally by men who have little practical acquaintance
with their subject, and pass away without having contributed
anything to the stock of human knowledge or to our means of
research.

A Practical Treatise on the Steam-Engine . By Arthur Rigg.

London : E. and F. N. Spon. 1878.

This work is exaCtly what is described by its title. Written in
an easy style, and with an avoidance of too much technicality,
its contents may be readily understood by the young student or
the mechanic, to whom it appears to be addressed rather than
to the more scientific investigator of theories, and yet its pages
may with advantage be consulted by the latter, for it is the
result of careful and conscientious practice based upon scientific
reasoning and knowledge. In the commencement the different
measurements required in the constructive dimensions of the
steam-engine are considered, and it is shown how, for this pur-
pose, the English units of the foot and inch are better adapted
than the French metre. Following this, the laws which govern
matter in its various forms and motions are investigated under
the different headings of Velocity, Momentum, Work, Power,
and Centrifugal Force, each of which is carefully but clearly
explained.

Having thus disposed of the definitions connected with the
main subject, we are next introduced to the horizontal steam-
engine, with which, Mr. Rigg truly says, for compactness and
easy accessibility to all parts no other type of steam-engine can
compare. There are, however, different classes of these engines
made, some for sale, others for work, and it is to the latter only
— in which the objeCt of the designer has been to apply the dis-
coveries of Science, and practice of experience, to means for
the most economical production of power — that the attention of

i8j8.\

Notices of Books.

561

the reader is directed. In this chapter the details of all the
principal parts are explained, and freely illustrated by numerous
plates. Then follow particulars of the construction of the more
important parts, including pattern-making, moulding, and casting,
for the cylinder and cylinder-cover, in which the proper allow-
ance for contraction on cooling is considered. The piston and
piston-rod, and the proper method of their construction, are also
explained, and the slide valve with its connected parts receive a
share of attention commensurate with their importance. Then
follow explanations regarding the other parts of the engine,
which need not be detailed here ; and indicators and indicator-
diagrams are next discussed and explained, and after this the
influence of the velocity of reciprocating parts of steam-engines.

The concluding chapter consists of a brief resume of the prin-
cipal theoretical considerations in the modern science of thermo-
dynamics which have a direCt bearing on the many points,
referred to in early chapters, in the construction of steam-
engines. Here the mechanical equivalent of heat is considered
but briefly, and we cannot avoid an expression of opinion that
this subjeCt might with advantage have been more fully dwelt
upon ; it is, however, dismissed in two pages, and, in faCt, the
most important questions connected with it are not even touched
upon. It is true that of this chapter it is said, in the Preface,
that it may almost be considered as an Appendix, for that it is
merely intended as an outline of the views generally received
among Engineers at the present time on the relationship which
exists between heat and work ; but we should have preferred
this portion of the Appendix being more fully explained. A
greater amount of space is given to the explanation of Isothermal
and Adiabatic Lines ; and a few brief remarks on the amount
of expansion that can be made practically useful bring the book
to an end.

That important addition to all works likely to be of use for
purposes of reference, viz., a good index, contributes in no small
degree to the value of the present work. The illustrations, of
which there are ninety-six plates, besides numerous woodcuts
interspersed with the text, are well drawn and carefully printed.
Indeed the whole volume, from beginning to end, is got up in a
style quite in keeping with the character of the work itself, which
leaves little to be desired ; and on the whole it may be safely
stated that it embodies a fair and carefully drawn record of the
best practice as it exists at the present day, so far as fixed
engines are concerned. The subjeCt of locomotives and marine
engines has, however, been purposely omitted, for the reason, as
is explained, that they have already been pretty fully discussed
in other works.

VOL, VIII. (N.S.)

? 0

562

Notices of Books.

[October,

Sanitary Engineering . A Guide to the Construction of Works
of Sewerage and House Drainage, with Tables for facili-
tating the Calculations of the Engineer, By Baldwin
Latham, C.E., F.G.S., F.M.S., &c. Second Edition.
London and New York: E. and F. N. Spon.

Perhaps the greatest difficulty in the way of the sanitary rege-
neration of a city, a district, or an entire country, lies in the faCt
that it requires the co-operation of a number of distinCt pro-
fessions, none of which can be safely dispensed with. The
chemist has to investigate the composition of polluted waters,
to point out in what respeCt and in how far they differ from a
natural standard, and to adjudicate on the efficiency of the means
or processes proposed for their purification. The medical prac-
titioner is required to trace out the effeCts upon public health of
impure air and water, whether the latter be used in diet or merely
allowed to exist beneath and near human habitations. The
practical agriculturist must pronounce on value of the schemes
put forward for the utilisation of sewage. Passing over the
functions of the jurist and the statistician, we come to the duties
of the engineer, which though last are assuredly not least. He
has to devise and carry out methods both for introducing pure
water into our cities and villages in the most efficient manner,
and without becoming contaminated on the way, and, on the
other hand, to remove from the vicinity of our dwellings all
polluted liquids, so that they may have the least opportunity of
diffusing contamination. This involves the construction of
water-works, the laying down sewers and drains, with all their
accessories, such as ventilators, traps, &c. There is, curiously
enough, one engineering problem in connection with this subjeCt
the solution of which we do not remember to have seen even
attempted. This is — Suppose a given flow of sewage is treated
by any precipitation process, to find the shape and size of tanks
in which the precipitated matter shall be most quickly and com-
pletely separated from the effluent water.

Mr. Baldwin Latham’s work contains some very curious in-
formation on sanitary laws and customs in antiquity. It is
salutary, though perhaps humiliating, to learn that in this boast-
ful nineteenth century we are scarcely more advanced in prac-
tical hygiene than were our predecessors some three thousand
years ago. Rome was probably better supplied with water than
any city of the present day, and its citizens would scarcely have
ereCted statues in honour of the inventor of monopolist water-
companies. The author ascribes the worship paid by the
Ancient Egyptians to the Scarabaeus, or £< Sacred dung-beetle ”
(Ateuchns sacer), to their acquaintance with its sanitary ser-
vices.* On the same principle it might perhaps be argued that

* See Quarterly Journal of Science, vol. vi., p. 163.

1873.:

Notices of Books,

563

the Ancient Hebrews, in dedicating flies to the Evil One, were
influenced by a knowledge of their function as disseminators of
disease and death. We learn that sewage-irrigation was prac-
tised in Jerusalem. The blood of the sacrifices offered in the
Temple, and doubtless the other nuisances of the city, were
flushed down with abundant water into the Valley of the Kedron,
and were there received in subsidence-tanks. The solid matter
was collected and sold for manure, and the effluent used for
irrigation. It must be remembered that in a climate like that of
Judaea, where the rainfall is scanty and the evaporation excessive,
a supply of water is often the one thing needed to convert a
desert into a garden. The water-closet, which is often considered
as a modern and an English invention, and is often spoken of in
France as “ cabinet Anglais,” is traced back to Asia. “ They
were introduced into Rome during the Republic, and are noticed
by several ancient writers. Those constructed in the palace of
the Caesars were adorned with marbles, arabesques, and mosaics.
At the back of one still extant there is a cistern the water of
which is distributed by cocks to different seats.” In Ogilby’s
“ Africa,” a work published in 1670, these are described as being
numerous in the city of Fez. Sir John Harrington introduced
them into this country in the reign of Elizabeth, but, according
to M. Roubo, they had been long used in France before becoming
known in England. As a contrast we find that in our own days,
in the sixteen years ending in 1862, fifty-one cesspools in
Windsor Castle were abolished. These foci of disease and
nuisance within the ancient palace of our monarchs varied in
size from 12 feet by 8, and 9 feet in depth, to 3 feet in diameter
by 6 feet in depth.

But indeed we are only beginning to throw off the heritage of
filth handed down to us from the Dark Ages. Mr. Latham may
perhaps exaggerate when he tells us that ‘ 4 for a thousand years
there was not a man or a woman in Europe that ever took a
bath.” But it is certain that for a long time cleanliness and
heresy were deemed to be closely connected. Even in our own
days, in the south-eastern and south-western peninsulas of
Europe, dirt is regarded as the characteristic privilege of the
Christian as compared with the Turk or the Moor.

Among other subjects Mr. Latham discusses the vexed ques-
tion of a single or a double system of drainage. He points out
that the surface-water of our cities is almost, if not quite, as
impure as sewage properly so-called. He shows that if the
rainfall is entirely excluded from the sewers, the latter will
require flushing. But, as the best arrangement, he seems to
recommend “ a system of sewerage combining the admission of
small amounts of rainfall into the intercepting sewers of a town,
while in time of heavy rainfall the comparatively pure surface-
water should flow on to its natural outlet.” The great argu-
ments in favour of this plan are that it restores to the streams

2 0 2

564

Notices of Books.

[Odtober,

water that is much needed, and greatly facilitates every process
for the treatment of the sewage. One of the most telling argu-
ments against irrigation, as ordinarily practised, is that in
seasons of heavy rain, when the soil is least able to bear any
additional quantity of water, the most is forced upon it by the
swollen sewers. Where Mr. Latham’s plan, or any similar
scheme, is adopted, this objection falls away. Sewage-precipi-
tation works are also much embarrassed by floods when the
deposit is in danger of being swept out of the tanks and carried
into the rivers.

The chapter on the sanitary appliances of a district, as
affedting the quality and quantity of the sewage, contains some
statements with which we cannot agree. That “ in the sewage
of a midden-stead town there is a larger proportion of urine
present in a given volume of sewage than is found in a water-
closet town ” is simply impossible, and the “ excess of chlorine,”
upon which so hazardous an assertion is built, is therefore no
sure guide.

A large proportion of the matter in this book, though of little
interest to the general reader, is certain to be most valuable to
the engineering profession and to municipal authorities, who
will find it a priceless manual of reference.

The Steam-Engine considered as a Heat-Engine. By James H.

Cotterill, M.A., Professor of Applied Mechanics in the

Royal Naval College. London : E. and F. N. Spon. 1878.

This work is represented, in the Preface, as a second edition of
some Notes on the Theory of the Steam-Engine, published in
1871. It has, however, been so supplemented and added to as
most considerably to enhance its value. The objedt of the
present book is stated to be to study the process of the conver-
sion of heat into work in steam-engines ; and the experiments
of Regnault, Raukme, and others, are not only repeatedly veri-
fied, but also worked out to their natural conclusions, aided by
the further experience which has, since their days, been obtained
on the subjedl.

In a chapter on the physical properties of steam it is explained
that the “total heat of evaporation of water is the quantity of
heat requisite to raise a pound of water from 320 to a particular
temperature, and evaporate it at that temperature, while the
latent heat of evaporation of water is the quantity of heat
requisite to evaporate a pound of water at a given temperature.”
This latent heat diminishes as the temperature increases, ap-
proximately by rather more than seven-tenths of a thermal unit
for each degree of Fahrenheit ; this rate of diminution is, how-

Notices of Boohs.

565

1878.]

ever, not exactly constant, but increases with the temperature.
The density of steam is not at present exadtly ascertained, but
the general results of experiments show that the weight of a
cubic foot increases nearly in proportion to the pressure, but at
a somewhat slower rate.

In the next chapter, on the convertibility of heat and work,
it is asserted that “ energy when exerted is not destroyed, but
simply transferred from one body to another.” It is shown,
however, what a very small proportion of the heat expended
in the process of evaporation produces an equivalent of work, —
hardly one-twelfth, — the greater part of the heat having been
employed in producing changes within the water itself, in over-
coming the molecular cohesion of its particles, which resists its
conversion into steam. The heat expended is thus converted
into two classes of work, viz., external work, or that which is
appreciable to the senses, and internal work. In applying the
foregoing reasonings to the steam-engine it is demonstrated
that, in a non-expansive engine, only from 5k to 7I- per cent of
the heat expended is converted into useful work, but that the
efficiency may be more than doubled by expanding the steam
five times in the cylinder, and still further increased, though
only to a small extent, by a further increase in the expansion.

Chapter IV. deals with physical properties of the permanent
gases, in which the theory of a heat-engine worked with a
perfect gas, under conditions of maximum efficiency, is consi-
dered, and it is explained that under certain conditions 56 per
cent of the heat expended may be transformed into mechanical
energy. We have next a consideration of the circumstances of
“ a perfedt heat-engine,” and here we find that “ in the best pos-
sible steam-engine, unless the steam be superheated considerably,
at least two-thirds of the whole heat expended is wasted, the
waste arising from no fault in the construction or nature of the
engine, but solely from the narrow limits of temperature within
which we are restricted to work. Again, the consumption of
steam in a perfedt steam-engine is much less than that of an
adtual engine under the same circumstances, showing that
faults in the construdtion of the engine or the treatment of the
steam must exist, which, at least theoretically, are remediable.”

The expansion of steam, the effedt on engines receiving heat
at varying temperature, the consequences of “ clearance ” and
“ wire-drawing,” and the adtion of the sides of the cylinder and
of water remaining after exhaust, are dealt with at some length
in the succeeding chapters, whilst the last one is devoted to the
application of the theory of the steam-engine, already discussed,
in further detail to the working of steam-engines in pradtice.
Here we learn that “ Experience appears to show that 18 lbs. of
steam per I.H.P. per hour is about the minimum consumption
of steam commonly reached in adtual engines ; and the preceding
calculations indicate that, in condensing engines, this is equiva-

566

Notices of Boohs.

[October,

lent to saying that about 13 per cent of the whole heat expended
may be turned into mechanical work, or about 50 per cent of the
heat which would be turned into work in a theoretically perfect
engine working between the same limits of temperature.” The
average result, however, even in economically worked engines,
is much less,

We have now, it is hoped, given sufficient particulars of the
contents of this book to show its great value as a work calculated
to lead the thinking mind to a study of the more important
theories and principles connected with the steam-engine. Much
more might have been said here, but the space available for a
review is necessarily limited, and we can only now conclude this
brief notice by strongly recommending the work before us to all
more advanced students of steam and of the steam-engine.

Improvements in certain Iron-work. By Messrs. Hoopes and
Townsend.

This little work not being provided with a title, we have been
obliged to provide it with one of our own invention. It is a
notice of the trade specialities of the firm from whom it pro-
ceeds— such as “ key-stone ” boiler-rivets, cold punched nuts,
&c. It contains a Report, by Prof. R. H. Thurston, on the
results of experiments performed at the Stevens Institute of
Technology, in order to decide the comparative resisting power
of “ cold-punched ” and “ hot-pressed ” nuts. The former, ac-
cording to the figures quoted, showed a marked superiority.

The Speaking Telephone and Talking Phonograph , and other

Novelties. By George B. Prescott. Fully illustrated.

New York : D. Appleton and Co. 1878.

Mr. Prescott is already favourably known, both in this country
and America, as the author of an excellent Manual of Electricity
and Telegraphy : but we are sorry to say that the present work,
although valuable in its way as a record of faCts, is not calcu-
lated to add to his reputation as a scientific writer. It consists,
for the most part, of verbatim reprints of most of the papers on
telephony and kindred subjects which have been read before the
different scientific societies of England and America during the
last two or three years, loosely strung together, and interspersed
with a few remarks from the author. These papers are all printed
in the same type as the original matter, and as inverted commas

1878.] Notices of Books . 567

are placed only at the beginning and end of each of them, it is
often difficult to know whether it is Mr. Prescott or some one
else that is speaking in the first person without referring back
several pages. The very Introduction itself is confused by the
reprint of a speech delivered by one of the counsel at a recent
telegraphic trial in New York. It is a very meagre account of
the history of electrical discovery, which we cannot agree with
Mr. Prescott in thinking either “ interesting ” or “ valuable,”
seeing that exactly fourteen words are devoted to Faraday’s dis-
coveries in magnetic induction.

The first chapter is original, and gives us a clear and succinct
account of the principles of sound ; Reiss’s musical telephone,
and Gray’s improvements on it ; Gray’s, Bell’s, and Dolbear’s
articulating telephones ; and Phelps’s duplex telephone — the
latter a very beautiful piece of apparatus, as far beyond Bell’s
trumpet-shaped instrument as a modern Westley Richard’s cen-
tral fire breech-loader is beyond a Joe Manton. Edison’s carbon
disk telephone is also described, but the book appears to have
been published too early in the year to have included any account
of the microphone.

Chapter II. consists of the paper read by Prof. Bell, in Ocftober
last, before the Society of Telegraphic Engineers, with a few
notes by Mr. Prescott. Chapter III. is made up of articles from
the “ Westminster Review,” “ Engineering,” and “ Chambers’s
Journal. Chapter IV. is a hotch-potch from various sources — •
such as “ Silliman’s Journal,” “ Poggendorf’s Annalen,” De la
Rive’s “ Eleffiricite,” &c. — on the production of sounds by elec-
tricity. Chapter V. consists of Mr. Elisha Gray’s papers on
Telephonic Researches, read before the American Electrical
Society or contributed to their Transactions, At the end we
find both Mr. Gray’s and Prof. Bell’s original specifications, as
filed by them at the New York Patent Office on the same day,
i.e., February 16, 1876.

Chapter VI. contains an account of Mr. T. A, Edison’s tele-
phonic researches, from his own pen, giving a most interesting
account of his various discoveries and inventions, apparently
written expressly for Mr. Prescott’s work. Chapter VII. is a
history of eledtro-harmonic telegraphy, read by Mr. F. L. Pope
before the American ElecTrical Society in December last.
Chapter VIII. consists of an abstract from a paper by Professor
Dolbear, entitled “ Researches in Telephony,” in which he defi-
nitely claims to have been the first person to use a permanent
magnet for vibrating the disk of a telephone.

In Chapter IX. Mr. Prescott once more resumes his task, and
lucidly describes the improvements made in telephonic instru-
ments by Messrs. Blake, Peirce, Channing, and others, in which
he claims for the latter physicist the invention of the first portable
telephone. Chapter X. is on the Talking Phonograph, and is
almost entirely written by Mr. Prescott, The prophecies as to

5^8

Notices of Books.

[October,

what Mr. Edison’s invention will accomplish in the future, and
the extract from a particularly popular article in “ Scribner’s
Monthly,” are hardly worthy of a place in a serious scientific book.

As a piece of scientific exposition Chapter XI., on Quadruplex
Telegraphy, is undoubtedly the best in the book, and is a tan-
talising proof of Mr. Prescott’s ability to treat of such subjects.
It is certainly the most thorough description of the wonderful
improvements which have lately been made in multiplex tele-
graphy which we have yet met with.

Electric call-bells and the eleCtric light receive attention in the
two last chapters of the book. The last subjeCt might, however,
have been treated of at greater length, seeing the attention it is
attracting in London and Paris. We should have been glad,
for instance, to have heard more of Mr. Farmer’s method of ob-
taining a number of lights from a single source, by using thin
strips of platinum or indium, and raising their temperatures to
a point slightly below that of melting.

The Index is far too small for a work containing so much
matter.

In the chapters which are due to Mr. Prescott’s pen alone, he
proves to us with what lucidity he can treat a scientific subject.

The work contains over two hundred woodcuts, most of them
of great beauty, and many of them far beyond anything that has
yet been accomplished by our English wood-engravers in the
way of scientific illustrations. Mr. Prescott also adopts the ex-
cellent plan of repeating a cut whenever it is necessary, instead
of worrying the reader by frequent cross references. The gene-
ral “ get up ” of the book is fully worthy the reputation of the
firm by which it is issued.

1873.]

( 569 )

INDEX.

ACADIAN Geology ” (review),
402

Air, atmospheric, liquefadion of, 2S7
— relation of moisture in, to health
and comfort, ig5

Algse in balsam, chloroform as a pre-
paration for mounting dried,
143

Allen, J. A., and E. Coues, “ Repoit
of the United States Geological
Survey of the Territories” (re-
view), 421

— “ History of the American Bison ”
(review), 95

“ Altitude Tables, Pocket ” (review),
267

“ Analysis, Spedrum, Studies in ” (re-
view), 407

Animals, senses of the lower, 289
“ Anthropological and Medical Sta-
tistics ” (review), 106
“ Arts, Manufactures, and Mining,
Dictionary of” (review) 414
Astronomical observatory at Meudon,
new, 429

Atkinson, E., “ Elementary Treatise
on Physics ” (review), 265
— Natural Philosophy for General
Readers and Young Persons ”
(review), 548

— “ Treatise on Physics ” (review),
112

Atmospheric air, liquefaction of, 287
Axes of doubly refracting substances,
new arrangement for distinguish-
ing the direction of, 284

BAIRD, S. F., “ Annual Record of
Science and Industry for 1876 ”
(review), 99, 556

— appointment as secretary of the
Smithsonian Institution, 430
Balloon, captive, scientific experi-
ments with, 429

Barber, S., the halo in the Zenith,
and the halo of go3, 140
Barnard, C., and A. M. Mayer,
“ Light ” (review), 551

Barrett, W. F., telephone, 2S5
Basin, M., prevention of explosions
by fire-damp in coal mines, 144
Battery, new powerful, 425
Bauer, B., “ Influence of English
Quakerdom cn German Culture,
&c.” (review), 107

Baxter, J. H., “ Medical and Anthro-
pological Statistics ” (review),
106

Beauty, evolution of, 374
Belt, T., stone implements in glacial
drift in North America, 55
— superficial gravels and clays, 317
Biological point of view, “ Woman’s
Rights ” question considered
from, 469

Biscuits, &c., containing solid and
liquid food, 426

“ Bison, History of the American ”
(review), 95

Book-bindings, destrudion of by coal-
gas, 143

“ Border Lands of Geology and
History ” (review), 88
Botany ” (review), 269
Bothamley, C. H., residual pheno-
mena, 282

Bottomley, J. T., “ Dynamics” (re-
view), no

Briggs, R., relation of moisture in
air to health and comfort, 195
“ Bristol Naturalists’ Society Pro-
ceedings ” (review), 95
British Association for the Advance-
ment of Science, 499
“ Brixham Cavern, Flints from ” (re-
view), 271

Browning, J., “ How to Work with
the Spedroscope ” (review), 267
“Building Construction” (review),
268

“ Bulletin of the United States Geo-
logical and Geographical Survey
of the Territories” (review), 274
Burn, R. S., “ Building Construc-
tion ” (review), 268
Burton, R. A., visit to the Land of
Midian, 429

570

INDEX,

[Odlober,

CAILLETET, M., liquefaction of
nitrogen, hydrogen, and atmo-
spheric air, 287

“ Canadian Journal of Science,
Literature, and History ” (re-
view), 128

Candles, examination of Dutch, found
in Vigo Bay, 426

Capillary electrometer, action of tele-
phone on, 287

Capron, G, R., “ Photographed

SpeCtra” (review), 261
Casks, seasoning new, 426
“ ‘ Challenger,’ Voyage of the ” (re-
view), 1 16

“ Chemical Difficulties of Evolution ”
(review), 254, 432

“ Chemistry, Elements of” (review),
553

“ Chemistry, Industrial” (review), 408
“ Chemistry, Treatise on”(review),m
Chloroform, use of as a preparation
for mounting dried Algae in
balsam, 143

Clay and gravels, superficial, 317
Clemandot, M. L., imitation of
ancient glass by chemical means,
143

Coal-mines, preventing the explos:on
of fire-damp in, 144
Coal-gas, destruction of book-bindings
by, 143

Collins, J. H., “ Mineralogy” (re-
view), 267

Colorado, atlas of, 428
- — rare minerals in, 144
Columbium plating, 144
Coues, E., and J. A. Allen, “ Reports
of the United States Geological
Survey of the Territories” (re-
view), 421

— “ United States Geological Sur-
vey ” (review), 137
Cotterill, J. H., “ Steam-Engine
Considered as a Heat-Engine ”
(review), 564

Crookes, W., repulsive force resulting
from radiation, 283
Culley, R. S., “ Handbook of Prac-
tical Telegraphy” (review), 547
Cunnington, C. W., molecular
theory of the telephone, 286
“ Cycloid and Cycloidal Curves ” (re-
view), 260

DANVERS, F. C., continuous rail-
way breaks, 1
• — famines in India, 433
Darwin, C., “ Different Forms of
Flowers and Plants of the same
Species ” (review), 125

Dawson, J. W., “ Acadian Geology ”
(review), 402

— “ Origin of the World ” (review),
280

De Abney, W. W., “ Treatise on Pho-
tography ” (review), 269
De Boisbaudran, L., description of
new metal gallium, 288
Demoget, M., experiments with the
telephone, 286

Denman, J. L., death of, 2S5
Development, progress of the doc-
trine of, 449

“ Devil Demonstrated ” (review),

551

Dimensions, four, space of, 227
DoCtrine of development, progress of,
449

Drysdale, J,, “Is Scientific Mate-
rialism compatible with Dogmatic
Theology ?” (review), 133
Dudgeon, R. E., “ The Human Eye ”
review), 550

Du Moncel, M., experiments with
the telephone, 286

Duncan, W. S., energy and feeling,
186, 385

“ Dust, Biography of” (review), 115
Dutch candles found in Vigo Bay,
examination of, 426
“ Dynamics ” (review), 110

Edgeworth, m. p., “ Pollen ”

(review), 281

“ Edinburgh Geological Society ” (re-
view), 411

“ EleCtric Lighting” (review), 548
Electrometer, capillary, aCtion of tele-
phone on a, 287

“Elements of Chemistry” (review),
555

Energy and feeling, 186, 385
“ Engine, Steam, considered as a
Heat-Engine ” (review), 564
“ Engineering, Sanitary ” (review),
562

“ Entomological Commission, United
States ” (review), 138
“ Evolution, Chemical Difficulties of”
(review), 254

“ Eye, the Human ” (review), 550

AMINES in India, 433

Feeling and energy, 186, 385
Ferrey, M. M., “ Spherical Harmo-
nics ” (review), 114
Ferguson, R. M., notes on the tele-
phone, 286

1 8780]

INDEX,

57*

Fire-damp in coal-mines, preventing
explosions of, 144

“ Fish and Fisheries, United States
Commission on,” (review), 107
“ Flints from Brixham Cavern ” (re-
view), 271

Flower ? what is a, 484
“ Flowers” (review), 554
“ Flowers and Plants of the same
Species, Different Forms of” (re-
view). 125

Fontaine, H., “ EleCtric Lighting ”
(review), 548

Food, biscuits containing preserved
solid and liquid, 426

GALLIUM, description of the new
metal, 288

Genesis of matter, 491
“ Geographical and Geological Survey
of the Territories ” (review), 137,
273. 4X9» 421, 430

“ Geological Record for 1875 ” (re-
view), 131

“ Geological Society of Edinburgh,
Transactions of” (review), 41 1
“ Geological Survey of India ” (re-
view), 277, 405, 412, 421
*' Geological Survey of Victoria ”
(review), 275

“ Geology, Acadian ” (review), 402
“ Geology and History, Border Lands
of ” (review), 88

Giffard, M., scientific experiments
with the captive balloon, 429
Glacial drift in North America, stone
implements in, 55

Gladstone, J. H., examination of
Dutch candles from Vigo Bay,
426

Gold and placer mines of Wicklow,
189

- — in old toning-baths, precipitating,

425

Gore, J. E., “ Southern Stellar Ob-
jects for Small Telescopes” (re-
view), 1 15

Gravels and clays, superficial, 317
Groves, J. W., method for keeping
glass slides for the microscopical
objects clean, 284

Gundlach, E., examination of ob-
jectives, 143

HAUGH, F., precipitating gold in
old toning-baths, 425
Halo in the Zenith, and the halo of
90°, 140

“ Harmonics, Spherical ” (review), 114

Harrison, W. H., “ Lazy Lays and
Prose Imaginings ” (review), 108
Hayden, F. V., “ Atlas of Colorado,
428

— “ Origin and Progress of the

United States Geological and
Geographical Survey of the Ter-
- ritories ” (review), 273

— “ Report of United States Geolo-

gical Survey of the Territories ”
(review), 137, 273, 419, 421, 430
Health and comfort, relation of
moisture in air to, 195
“ Health, Board of, Report for City of
Nashville ” (review), 272
“ Heat-Engine, Steam-Engine consi-
dered as a ” (review), 564
“ Heaven and Hell ” (review), 422
Henry, Professor, death of, 429
“ Historic Naturalis Catalogus Poly-
glottis ” (review), 105
“ History and Geology, Border Lands
of” (review), 88

Hoopes and Townsend, Messrs.,
“ Improvements in certain Iron-
work ” (review), 564
Howitt, Mr., “ Survey of Victoria,”
(review), 275

Hughes, Prof., microphone, 424
Hunt, R., “ Ure’s Dictionary of Arts,
Manufactures, and Mining” (re-
view), 414

Huxley, I. IT, “ Physiography ”
(review), 262

Hydrogen, liquefaction of, 287

J^NDIA, famines in, 433

“ India, Geological Survey of” (re-
view), 277, 405, 412, 421
“ Indians, North-American, Descrip-
tive Catalogue of Photographs
of” (review), 406

“ Industrial Applications, Metals and
their Chief” (review), 410
“Industrial Chemistry” (review),
408

“ Industry and Science, Annual Re-
cord of” (review), 99, 556
“ Institution, Smithsonian, Report of”
(review), 97, 257
Iridescent glass, 143
“ Iron-work, Improvements in cer-
tain ” (review), 566

JACKSON, W. H., “ Descriptive
Catalogue of Photographs of
North-American Indians ” (re-
view), 406

'October,

572 INDEX.

Jannettaz, E., “ Guide to the Deter-
mination of Rocks ” (review), 139
Jevons, W. S., movement of micro-
scopic particles suspended in
liouids, 1G7

“ Journal of the Royal Microscopical
Society,” 428

KARDEC, A., “ Heaven and Hell ”
(review), 422

Keller, F., “ Lake-Dwellings of

Switzerland and other parts of
Europe ” (review), 396
Kinahan, G. H., the gold and placer
mines of Wicklow, 189
Kingsmill, T. W., “ Border Lands
of Geology and History ” (re-
view), 88

Krause, M., “ Survey of Vidoria”
(review), 275

Lake-dwellings of Swit-
zerland and other parts of
Europe ” (review), 396
Latham, B., “ Sanitary Engineering”
(review), 562

Lawson, Dr. H., death of, 285
“ Lazy Lays and Prose Imaginings ”
(review), 108

“ Ledures in connedion with the
Special Loan Colledion ” (re-
view), 415

Light, adion of on the colouration of
the organic world, 34
“ Light ” (review), 551
Liquids, movement of microscopic
particles suspended in, 167
“ Literary and Philosophical Society
of Liverpool, Proceedings of”
(review), 92, 416

Lithographic photo-plat of the pri-
mary triangulation carried on
during the Summer of 1877, 288
“ Liverpool, Proceedings of the Lite-
rary and Philosophical Society
of ” (review), 92, 416
Liversidge, A., “ Journal of the
Royal Society of New South
Wales” (review), 101
Lloyd, H., “ Miscellaneous Papers
conneded with Physical Science”
(review), 261

“ Loan Colledion at South Kensing-
ton, Special Conferences held in
connedion with ” (review), 545
Lockyer, J. N., “ Studies in Spedrum
Analysis ” (review), 407
Lydekker, R., “ Memoirs of the Ge-
ological Survey of India” (re-
view), 405

MACALISTER, A., “Zoology”
(review), 271

‘ Machine Construdion, Principles
of ” (review), 415

Mackay, A., “ Physiography and Phy-
sical Geography ” (review), 115
Maclaren, J. J., “ Some Chemical
Difficulties of Evolution ” (re-
view), 254, 432

Macvicar, J. G., “Science Primer”
(review), 558

Malet, H. P., “ Incidents in the Bi-
ography of Dust ” (review), ir5
Mallet, F. R., “ Memoirs of the Ge-
ological Survey of India ” (re-
view), 279

“ Manufadures, Arts, and Mining,
Didionaryof” (review), 414
“ Materia Medica, Organic, Key to \
(review), 404
Matter, genesis of, 491
Mayer, A. M., and C. Barnard,
“ Light ” (review), 551
McCoy, Mr., “Survey of Vidoria ”
(review), 275

McNab, W. R., “ Botany ” (review),
269

“ Medical and Anthropological Sta-
tistics ” (review), 106
Meudon, new Astronomical Observa-
tory at, 429

Metal, spontaneous growth of, 426
“ Metals and their Chief Industrial
Applications” (review), 410
“ Metrology, Indudive ” (ieview), 114
Microphone, 424

Micro-spedroscope in the study of
evergreens, 285

Microscope, Ross, another improve-
ment to the, 427

Microscopic particles suspended in
liquids, movement of, 167
Microscopical examination of water,
285

— objeds, method for keeping glass
slides clean, 284
— Society, 285

Journal of, 428

Midian, visit to the land of, 429
Miller, W. A., “ Elements of Che-
mistry” (review), 553
Mineral statistics of Vidoria for 1876,
144

Minerals, rare, in Colorado, 144
“ Mineralogical Magazine,” 429
“ Mineralogy” (review), 267
Moisture in air, relation of to health
and comfort, 195

Molecular theory of the telephone,
286

“ Motion, Stability of” (review), 114

1876.]

INDEX. 573

Mott, F. T., evolution of beauty, 374
— what is a flower ? 484
“ Music, Scientific Basis of” (review),
406

Muter, J., “ Key to Organic Materia
Medica, &c.” (review), 404

“AT ASHVILLE, Report of the
Boaid of Health for the City
of” (review), 272

“Natural Philosophy for General
Readers, &c.” (review), 548
“ Naturalists’ Society, Bristol ” (re-
view), 95

“ Nature, Unity in ” (review), 129
Newberry, M., “ Survey of Victoria”
(review), 275

“Nicholas Survey of Victoria ” (re-
view), 275

Nicholson, H. A., “ Manual of
Zoolog}' for Students ” (review),

403

Nitrogen, economy of, 145
— liquefaction of, 287
North America, stone implements in
glacial drift in, 55

OBJECTIVE, instead of adjust-
ment collar, 428
Objectives, examination of, 143
Optical bench, cheap and efficient
form of, 425

“ Organic Materia Medica, Key to ”
(review), 404

Organic world, aCtion of light on the
colouration of the, 34
“Origin of the World” (review),
280

Oxygen, liquefaction of, 142, 237

PAGE, F. J. M., aCtion of the tele-
phone on a capillary electro-
meter, 287

Palmer, T., application of the micro-
speCtroscope to the study of
evergreens, 285

Past changes in the Universe, 360
Paul, B. H., “ Industrial Chemistry ”
(review), 408

Petrie, W. M. F., “InduCtive Metro-
logy” (review), 114
Phenomena, residual, 20, 282
“ Philosophical and Literary Society
of Liverpool, Proceedings of”
(review), 92, 416
Phonograph, 245

“Photographed SpeCtra” (review),
261

“ Photographs of North American
Indians ” (review) 406
“ Photography ” (review), 269
Photo-lithographic plate of the pri-
mary triangulation carried on
during the summer of 1877, 288
“ Physical Geography and Physio-
graphy ” (review), 115
Physical points connected with the
telephone, 285

“ Physical Science, Methods of” (re-
view), 126

“ Physical Science, papers connected
with ” (review), 261
“ Physical System of the Universe ”
(review), 413

“ Physics, Elementary Treatise on”
(review), 265

“Physics, Treatise on” (review),
112

“ Physiography” (review), 262
“ Physiography and Physical Geo-
graphy ” (review), 115
Pictet, R., liquefaction of hydrogen
287

of oxygen, 142, 237

Placer and gold mines of Wicklow,
189

“ Plants and Flowers of the same
Species, different forms of” (re-
view), 125

“ Pollen ” (review), 281
“ Polyglottus Historiae Naturalis
Catalogus ” (review), 105
“Practical Telegraphy, Handbook
of” (review) 547

Preece, W. H., new battery, 425

— physical points connected with the

telephone, 285

Prescott, G. B., “ The Speaking
Telephone and Talking Phono-
graph and other Novelties ” (re-
view), 566

Preston, S. T., past changes in the
Universe, 360

Proctor, R. A., “Transits of Venus ;
Universe of Stars ; Other Worlds
than Ours ” (review), 266

— “ Treatise of Cycloid and all

Forms of Cycloidal Curves” (re-
view), 260

— “ Star Atlas ” (review), 265

“ Proteus, or Unity in Nature ” (re-
view), 129

QUAKERDOM, English, Influ-
ence of upon German culture”
107

RADCLIFFE, C. B., “ Proteus, or
Unity in Nature ” (review 129

574

INDEX.

“ Radiation, Repulsive Force Result-
ing from ” (review), 283
Railway breaks, continuous, 1
Readwin, T. A., spontaneous metal
growth. 426

Repulsive force resulting from radia-
tion, 283

Residual phenomena, 20, 2S2
Rigg, A., “ Practical Treatise on the
Steam-engine” (review), 560
“ Rocks, Guide to the Determination
of ” (review) 139

Roscoe, H. E.,and C. Schorlemmer,
“Treatise on Chemistry” (re-
view), hi

Ross microscope, another improve-
ment in, 427

Routh, E. J., “ Stability of Motion ”
(review), 114

SAN IT ARY Engineering (review),
562

Schorlemmer, E., and H. E. Roscoe,
“ Treatise on Chemistry ” (re-
view), hi

“ Science and Industry, Annual Re-
cord of” (review), gg, 556
“ Science Class Books” (review), 116
“ Science, Methods of Physical ” (re-
view), 126

“ Science Primer” (review), 558
“ Scientific Apparatus, Conferences
held in connection with the
Special Loan Collection ” (re-
view), 417, 545

“Scientific Basis of Music” (review),
406

“ Scientific Materialism, is it com-
patible with Dogmatic Theology”
(review), 133

Scott, W. L., microscopical examina-
tion of water, 285

Skertchly, S. B. J., “ Physical Sys-
tem of the Universe ” (review), 413
“ Small Pox, does Vaccination afford
any Protection against ” (review),
109

“ Smithsonian Institute, Report of
the Board of Regents” (review),
97. 257

Sorby, H. C., new arrangement for
distinguishing the direction of
the axes of doubly refracting sub-
stances, 284

Space of four dimensions, 227
“ Spectroscope, how to work with ”
(review), 267

“ SpeCtrum Analysis, Studies in ” (re-
view), 407

“ Spherical Harmonics ” (review), 114

[Odtober,

Sprague, T. B., “ Does Vaccination
afford any Protection against
Small Pox ?” (review), iog
“ Star Atlas ” (review), 265
“ Stars, Universe of” (review), 266
“ Steam-Engine considered as a Heat-
Engine ” (review), 564
“ Steam-Engine, Practical Treatise
on ” (review), 560

“ Stellar Southern Objects for Small
Telescopes” (review), 115
Stodder, C., use of chloroform as a
preparation for mounting dried
algae in balsam, 143
Stone, W. H., “ Scientific Basis of
Music ” (review), 406
“ Switzerland and other parts of
Europe, Lake Dwellings of” (re-
view), 396

Symons, G. J., “ Pocket Altitude
Tables ” (review), 267
“ System, Physical, of the Universe ”
(review), 413

TASMANIA, Papers and Pro-
ceedings of the Royal Society
of ” (review), 104

Taylor, J. E., “ Flowers ” (review),
554

— Mr., “ Survey of Victoria ” (re-
view), 275

“ Telegraphy, Handbook of Practical ”
(review), 547
Telephone, 285

— aCtion of on a capillary electro-
meter, 287

— experiments with, 286
— molecular theory of, 286
— notes on the, 286
— physical points connected with the,
285

— the speaking, and talking phono-
graph and other novelties, 566
“ Telescopes, Southern Stellar Ob-
jects for small ” (review), 115
“ Theology, Dogmatic, is Scientific
Materialism compatible v/ith ?”
(review), 133

Thompson, S. P., cheap and efficient
form of optic al bench, 425
— “Methods of Physical Science”
(review), 126

Thomson, C. W., voyage of the
“ Challenger” (review), 116
Time, restoration of writing effaced

by, 425

Tomkins, E., “ Principles of Machine
Construction ” (review), 415
Trance, new theory of, 75

INDEX.

575

1878]

UNITED States Entomological
Commission ” (review), 138
“United States Geological Survey”
(review), 137, 419,421, 430
Universe, past changes in the, 360
“ Universe, Physical System of the ”
(review), 413

“ Ure’s Dictionary of Arts, Manu-
factures, and Mining ” (review),
414

VACCINATION, does it afford any
Protection against Small Pox ?”
(review), 109

Van Wagenen.T. F., rare minerals in
Colorado, 144

“Venus, Transits of” (review), 266
“Vertebrate Animals, Zoology of”
(review), 271

“ Victoria, Geological Survey of ” (re-
view), 275

Victoria, mineral- statistics for 1876,
144

“ Victoria, Royal Society of” (review),
103

Von Bibra, M. E., process for sea-
soning new casks, 426
--- restoration of writing effaced by
time, 425

WATER, microscopical examina-
tion of, 285

Wenham, F. H., another improve-
ment to the Ross microscope,
427

Wheeler, C. J., “ Catalogus Poly-
glottus Historic Naturalis” (re-
view), 105

Whitaker, W., “ Geological Record”
(review), 13 1

Whitley, A., “ Critical Examination
of Flints from Brigham Cavern”
(review), 271

Wicklow, gold and placer mines of, 189

Wilson, A. D., photo-lithographic
plat of the primary triangulation
carried on during the summer of
1877, 288

“ Woman’s-rights’ ” question consi-
dered from a biological point of
view, 469

World, organic aCtion of light on the
colouration of the, 34

“ World, Origin of the ” (review), 280

“ Worlds other than Ours ” (review),
266

Wright, C. R. A., “ Metals and their
Chief Industrial Applications ”
(review), 410

Writing effaced by time, restoration
of, 425

ZEISS, Herr, objective construction
instead of adjustment collar, 428
Zenith, halo in the, and the halo of
go°, 140

Zollner, J. C. F., space of four di-
mensions, 227
“ Zoology ” (review), 271
“Zoology for Students, Manual of”
(review), 403

London : Printed by E. J. Davey, Boy Court, Ludgate Hill, E.C,

*

■