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THE SCIENTIFIC MONTALY

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SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

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EDITED BY

J. MCKEEN CATTELL

VOLUME II

JANUARY TO JUNE, 1916

NEW YORK
-LHE SCreNn CE PRESS
1916

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JANUARY, 1916

THE MEN OF THE MID-PACIFIC

By ALFRED GOLDSBOROUGIL MAYER

ORE than 2,000 years ago, there lived upon the Islands from
Sumatra to the Philippines an ancient sea-faring race, the
brown-skinned Sawaiori. Of their origin we know nothing, but that
they had long been separated from the Indian Peninsula is evident, for
there are no Sanscrit words in the language of their descendants.

Much as the Polynesians are to-day, their ancestors, the half-mythical
Sawaiori, probably were in those ages long past, for even to-day no
Polynesian population has developed a national solidarity. Their polit-
ical and social unit is and always has been the village, fortified, self-cen-
tered, with no communal interest and no civic virtue extending beyond
the limits of its ramparts of rattan.

Weak as a house divided against itself were the Sawaiori when before
the dawn of our Christian era, hordes of Malay pirates began to swarm
out from southeastern Asia and to overrun the off-lying islands.*

We may picture village after village obliterated in an orgie of mas-
sacre and outrage. From the roar of burning thatch the weak ones slunk
away, while to the cat-like Malay the heroes fell a prey. One desperate
resource remained to the persecuted race—flight over the wide and un-
known waters of the Pacific.

Eastward went the fugitives in two great streams, one along the
northern and the other skirting the southern coast of New Guinea.

But, although forced by hunger to conquer a landing place, there to
grow the broad-leaved taro for the onward voyage, no home for the Sawai-
ori could be found upon New Guinea, for ever in his rear there lurked
the Malayan prahu, while the forests around him secreted cannibals hun-
gering for his flesh. Before the dawn of history they sailed, these
mariners of a weak and exiled race, who heavy with many a fear the
world has long outlived, yet braved the unknown perils of this loneliest
of seas—the ocean of the long low heave, the never stilled breathing of
the monster in his sleep; for calm over the Pacific has but the semblance

1 For a résumé of his own and previous researches upon this subject one

should consult William Churchill’s ‘‘ Polynesian Wanderings,’’ published by the
Carnegie Institution of Washington in 1911.

THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

of peace and over its hours of stillness there broods the threat of storm—
to them but the inaction of a demon nursing his rage.

Thus onward sped the disheartened bands until New Guinea and the
Bismarck Archipelago faded beneath the western sea, and the high
mountains of the Salomons rose majestically above the eastern horizon.
Then along the coast of these Islands, so fair to look upon, our wander-
ers still sailed searching always for the land of peace and finding only
the abode of the Melanesian savage, but still beyond, luring them on-
ward toward the rising sun, lay the untried ocean.

Forced at last to leave all land behind, they did as wise sailors
would have done, steered close into the southeast trades that blow so con-
stantly over this vast expanse of ocean. Thus when starvation hovered
near, when the last of the meagre store of fermented bread fruit had
been consumed, and slaves began to fall to sustain the master voyagers,
there still remained as a last resource the fair wind to bear them back
to the known but dreaded shores of the Salomons.

Such a course from the southeasternmost Salomons close hauled on

NATIVES OF TRUK ATOLL, CAROLINE ISLANDS,

MEN OF THE MID-PACIFIC

~

KING AND HicH CHIEFS OF FIJI, AT BAU, IN 1899.

the tropical wind, would carry our navigators to the Santa Cruz group
where once again they had to encounter their old foe the negroid Mela-
nesian. Thus after conquering only enough of the coveted shore to
suffice for a temporary resting place, they sped onward and away to dis-
cover Rotumah where at last peace from all but their own ambitions
awaited them.

Then as years passed and little Rotumah became overpopulated, and
jealousies engendered savage wars, some long-forgotten Columbus of the
Pacific made a last and final voyage of 600 miles over the open ocean to
beautiful Samoa, the E] Dorado of the Polynesian race.

With faces toward the rising sun they had gone their fearsome way,
and as beaten fugitives taking awful chances a remnant of their race
had found the seclusion of a land untrodden by any but their own feet.
Yet, as men treasuring the memory of their past, they turned their home-
sick faces toward the setting sun, whence the spirits of their dead re-
turned over the ocean to the mythical fatherland the old songs still de-

THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

THREE MAIDENS OF FUNAFUTI ATOLL, ELLICEH ISLANDS. Types of the Polynesian race.

scribe. For somewhere, far to the westward lay the half-forgotten
home, and the something that stands for Europe to us in America, is
the fabled Hawaiki to the Polynesians of to-day.

Generations came and passed, but Samoa remained to them by right
of eminent domain. ‘Yet history constantly repeats itself, and wars
and persecutions again operated as of old, so that within historic times,
from five hundred to three hundred years ago, so the old songs tell,
great voyages were made from Samoa to Hawaii, to the Cook Islands
and thence to New Zealand; to Tahiti, Fiji, Tonga, the Ellice and
Gilbert Islands, and to the remotely isolated Easter Island. In
Samoa the story is of the departing fugitives and in Hawaii or New
Zealand the song tells of their arrival, and the dates of these achieve-
ments are fixed by the generations of the chiefs that have been and
passed away, and are now but names known but to the chanting priests.
For two thousand miles around Samoa the men of Polynesian race were
masters of the island-world, and thus from Rotumah to Easter Island
four thousand miles from west to east, and from New Zealand to Hawaii

MEN OF THE MID-PACIFIC 9

four thousand miles from south to
north, one general language is
spoken even to our day.
Throughout this vast area, isl-
ands uninhabited to-day show crude
carvings on the rocks, as at Pitcairn,
evidencing the presence of voyagers
long dead. There is reason to be-
heve that for centuries before the
white man came, the arts of canoe-
making and sailing had been declin-
ing in Polynesia. Yet centuries

Man or TRUK GROUP, CAROLINE ISLANDS.
Ear-rings made of turtle and snail
shells. Malay admixture is
apparent.

before our ancestors dared venture
from the sight of land, the Polyne-
sians were lords of the vastest ocean
empire of the earth.

Thus far, we have considered
only the northern current of adven-
turers, those who sailed along the
northern shore of New Guinea; but
as Churchill shows, there were others,
Maaru Maatu, 4 High Cuter or Tonga, who, forced out from the region of

rephew of Maafu, who conquered the q a
Lau Group of the Fiji Islands. Sumatra, wandered eastward along

Io THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

A WARRIOR OF TARI TARI ISLAND, GILBERT ISLANDS, dressed in cocoanut fiber armor -
and shark’s skin belt, and holding weapons edged with shark’s teeth.

the southern shore of New Guinea until they reached the region of Torres
Straits, where traces of their language still remain. Then, as they, too,
sailed outward over the Pacific, certain of their canoes found a final rest-
ing place upon the New Hebrides, as at Efaté, Aniwa and Fotuna, where
the negroid Melanesians still retain many Polynesian words and phrases ;
then, finally, these southern wanderers found Fiji, there to amalgamate
with the more primitive Melanesians and to give rise to one of the finest
races now inhabiting the Pacific.

As for the remnant of Sawaiori words now found in the speech of the
Malays, it is such as one would expect the sons of conquerers to acquire
from their mothers of the conquered race.

The purest examples of the Polynesian stock to be seen to-day are in
Samoa, the Society, and Ellice Islands. The once superb men of New
Zealand, and the giant race of Tahiti have degenerated, the population

MEN OF THE MID-PACIFIC 11

of the Marquesas is upon the verge of extinction and the Hawaiians are
declining and amalgamating with the Chinese.

In color the Polynesian is a rich bronze-brown, and when not sun-
burned he may be said to be about twice as dark as a Spaniard or
Southern Italian. The black hair, slightly waving, falls in heavy masses
over the fine broad shoulders. The somewhat flattened never prominent
nose and chin are very characteristic. The lips are full but not protru-
sive, and the eyes are almond-shaped, giving so close a general resem-
blance to the Japanese peasant that one has difficulty in distinguishing
one from the other when both are mingled in a crowd. The Polynesian
is, however, far larger and more muscular in appearance than the Japan-
ese and as he stands superbly erect, his shoulders never bent under the
weight of servile burdens or stooped to the student’s yolk of mental
labor, one is forced to liken him to a bronze statue turned to life, so
charming is the symmetry of his superb body. In contrast with the
athletes of our own race, his chest-museles are far finer, and instead of

MOTHER AND DAUGHTER, TARAWA ISLAND, GILBERT ISLANDS.

r2 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

being good only in arms or legs his
uniformity of development is re-
markable. None of his muscles
stands out in distorted swollen form,
but all in all he is the epitome of
graceful manly strength, not thin
and cat-like as is the treacherous
Malay.

In contrast with the Polynesian
stands the Papuan of Eastern New
Guinea for, despite his Polynesian

WOMAN SHOWING PIERCED FEARS, AND
MODE OF WEARING Mats. RONGELAB
ATOLL, MARSHALL ISLANDS.

admixture, im essential character-
istics he remains negroid, with a
huge mop-like mass of coarse crin-
kled hair. His skin is dark choc-
olate, his arms long, his poorly devel-
oped legs short and bent at the knees,
and his body weakly made, his small
eyes bloodshot and_ sinister, nose
large but only moderately flattened,
and the weak chin and thick pro-
trusive lips revealing descent from
Africa.

Mm a skaumman,Arow, Minsuii Tn Fiji, and to a lesser degree in

ing the mat. Micrones‘an type. Tonga we find a mixed race with

MEN OF THE MID-PACIFIC 13

the mop-like hair and small cruel eye of the Papuan, but with a splen-
didly developed body, the proud heritage from Polynesian ancestors.
In Tonga and Fiji the average height is probably quite six feet, and the
symmetry of form and perfection of development of every muscle in these
huge but shapely men seem more statuesque than human to us, accus-
tomed as we are to shoulders bent by the physical and mental tasks of
civilization. “A Shrimp” the huge Fijian laughingly designates the
white man, in allusion to his puny strength and stooping figure. Itisa
new thing to us, this sight of superb bronze-brown men and women, all
unconscious of their scantiness of clothes, the most beautiful of all
nature’s children in their naturalness. Nor is it to be assumed that being
unclothed is conducive to immorality, for the morals of a Fijian village
would put those of our own towns to the blush.

In striking contrast to the finer races of the Pacific is the Australian
who is among the lowest of existing men, apparently comparable in
culture with the savage who lived in Europe before the Glacial epoch,
and whose remains have occasionally been found in caverns as at Nean-
derthal and Spee. The lowest of the Australians are those of the vast
spinifex deserts of the interior, while the highest in physique and culture
are found in the tropical forests of Queensland or along the shores of the
Northern Territory, where an admixture of Papuan blood has improved
the race. But nowhere does the Australian rise to the intellectual level
of the natives of the Pacific Islands. His little eyes glitter suspiciously
from deeply sunken orbits nearly hidden under-unkempt locks of matted
hair that conceal the low retreating brow, furrowed and frowning.
The dark chocolate color of his face with its huge flat nose, broad-lipped
slit-like mouth, projecting teeth, and weak retreating chin form a
demon-like picture as he skulks silent and snake-like through the
thickets where he seeks the kangaroo. He wears no clothing, but for
decoration he may carry a crude necklace of shells or seeds, and his
body is seamed by the scars of deep cuts attesting to his clan-brand
and manhood in the tribe, and to his duty done in mourning for lost
relatives. As one listens to the chattered sounds of these creatures of
the wilds and observes them feasting gluttonously upon half-cooked
snakes, insects, or lily pads the thought that man is but the descendant
of ape-like forms overwhelms one with a horror of conviction as we
realize that our own ancestors may once have been such as these.

Only where Papuan influence is apparent does he exhibit any consid-
erable skill in arts, and even here nearly all his implements are designed
either for war or the chase. He never cultivates the soil. and lives
crouching under the shelter of miserable domelike huts of bark or leaves.
The boomerang is his most characteristic weapon, although the spear
is actually in more universal use in Australia, and it is doubtful whether
even the boomerang was invented in Australia for it is known to the

TH NI SaUsSooyy AV IVI

MEN OF THE MID-PACIFIC 15

natives of Ceylon and Timor through which the Australians are supposed
to have passed on their way from India.

There are rarely more than fifty persons in a tribe, and they live
segregated from and suspicious of all others of their race. So restricted
is intercourse that in Queensland alone there are more than one
hundred distinct languages. Indeed everything about them points to the
extreme antiquity of this primitive race whose apparent Indo-Aryan
affinities appear to ally them more closely to ourselves than to the Pap-
uans of New Guinea. There is indeed some reason for the conjecture
that these hideous people of Australia came originally from Hindustan
where their modern cousins are represented in the tribes of the Dravidian
coast.

Women occupy a hopelessly degraded position among the Australians,
being little more than slaves of their savage captors, who may wound and
maltreat them in a shocking manner. Yet in all things the Australian
is better where his contact with civilization has been least, for all that is
corrupt among us gathers to his ruin and, after a few generations of
lingering agony, he vanishes a prey to hideous disease. Far from the
coast, hidden in the dense forests of tropical Queensland or in the vast
wilds of the Northern Territory there are still superb specimens of this
fated race, and even in higher qualities the Australian may not be
wanting. One must indeed admire the courage of the lone native of the
desert who with a single spear withstood the coming of the explorer
Giles and his caravan of camels which must have appeared to him as
demons from a supernatural realm.

Courage, an attribute of all mankind, they have yet in common
with ourselves, and as with all simple people, their deepest fears are
but the figments of their own imaginations, thus in Papua and else-
where where the chiefs have but little power, the sorcerer becomes the
dreaded tyrant of the tribe. Here as elsewhere over the Pacific, the
whites found the natives shuddering under the espionage of a host of
evil spirits of their myths, and even to-day when Christianity has in
great measure supplanted old beliefs, it is the sermon narrating the
horrors of hell that commands their entranced attention. A deity of
love is still to them but an unnatural abstraction and a vengeful,
jealous demon, delighting in his opportunity to punish, is still the
favorite god of the natives of the Pacific.

Yet primitive though the Australians are in most respects and unre-
sponsive to the influences of higher cultures as they have always re-
mained, the researches of Baldwin-Spencer in the Northern Territory
show that the natives have been systematically under-rated by previ-
ous observers, for in their complex and picturesque ceremonial of propi-
tiation to gods, ghosts and ancestral spirits, as well as in their rigorous
etiquette and respect for fundamental rights within the tribe, they chal-

16 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

lenge high admiration. A ceremonial deep-rooted in tradition and fixed
by unchangeable custom controls nearly every act, and tinctures every
thought of their lives. Even in the minds of the young men this cere-
monial occupies an important place, but as years go on a greater and
greater proportion of time is devoted to its observance, so that religious
rites and dances become practically the sole occupation of the aged.

The skill of the Australians in tracing barely discernible trails
through the forest is extraordinary, for they follow at a run the track
of a horse which passed over the ground five days previously. Their
young children learn to read with greater rapidity than do those of the
whites but advancement soon ceases, and arithmetic is a stumbling block
which they rarely or never overcome. Indeed, in the wilds they are
commonly unable to count beyond three or four without objective aid.

So small are the tribes, and so transient their settlements, that there
is little communal organization for defense, and thus it is that in Aus-
tralia the chiefs are held in but little respect, whereas among the Poly-

MAN OF TARI TARI ISLAND, GILBERT ISLANDS. A type of the Micronesian.

MEN OF THE MID-PACIFIC 17

4
»
°
Wy
™

a7 dUy.

NATIVES OF KURANDA, QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA, Standing in front of their house. The
self-inflicted scars denote mourning for dead friends and relatives.

nesians where the village is a store-house of valued property whose own-
ers must be both defended and aggressive, the chief gains so high an im-
portance among conditions incident to a state of feudalism, that he be-
comes a semi god-like personage across whose shadow none dare pass,
and who must be addressed in language more primitive and ceremonious
than that used in conversing with ordinary men. A great body of tra-
dition transmitted verbally from generation to generation has grown up
in Polynesia, and the ancestry of the chiefs of the Malietoa family of
Samoa is traced thus for twenty-five generations, and stories of voyages
from Samoa, the Cook Islands, and Tahiti appear in the songs and myths

VOL. I.—2.

18 THE SCIENTIFIC. MONTHLY

THE PRECIPICE NEAR KATOOMBA IN THE BLUE MoUNTAINS Or New SourH WALBS.

of New Zealand and Hawaii. The question “ What canoe did your an-
cestor come over in” is an important one in Polynesia as well as in
Massachusetts. Yet in Polynesia, as with ourselves, the treasured tra-
ditions are those telling of the achievements of ancestors and the great
deeds of aliens are soon forgotten. Thus, when Cook reached New
Zealand in 1769 he was surprised to find that the natives retained no
traditions respecting Tasman’s visit to their shores in 1642.

As La Farge says it is remarkable that the development of art among

MEN OF THE MID-PACIFIC 19

the peoples of the Pacific is by no means commensurate with the standard
of their general culture. It is true that the Australians, who are prob-
ably the lowest, display no considerable skill in their arts, but the
Papuans excel the more cultured peoples of Samoa and Tahiti. In
the Pacific, as with all savages, art constantly manifests a symbolic and
religious tendency. In Eastern New Guinea and the Trobriand Islands,
the theme of the decoration is the representation of the head of the wor-
shipped frigate bird, while in the Cook Islands the elaborately carved
paddles were covered with the conventionalized figures of tribal heroes.
Almost if not every design, could we discover its history, would be found
to be a picture-prayer to a demon, ghost, or ancestral spirit of the tribe.
Art’s chief concern is to placate spirits powerful for good or evil. Yet
human nature in far Polynesia is not different from its co-type in Paris,
and in every savage tribe those who love form and color, love it for its
own sake and, like Whistler, feel that art 7s and needs no mission to
justify its being.

It is always the spirit of the man who has been murdered that the
South Sea Islander dreads, and should a tree fall, all within hearing flee
to avoid the sight of the disemboweled ghost of the victim of some half
forgotten feast. The very breeze among the palm trees whispers tales of
a horrible past.

Everywhere over the Pacific Islands, be the inhabitants of what race
they may, there are certain fundamental things in which they are alike.
The house is but a single room, and among the ecruder tribes it serves
not only as a shelter for the family, but also for the housing of pigs and
chickens. Property in Polynesia is possessed by the family or the com-
munity rather than by the individual, and under certain conditions if a
member of the tribe steals from his neighbor and succeeds in secreting his
possession for several days he acquires a personal right to that which he
covets, and may then appear acknowledged by all as its owner by right
of strategy. The system of barter is usually direct without the inter-
vention of any sort of currency, and presents in our sense are unknown
in the Pacific. Your intended gift will be received as proffered barter,
and returned at once if it be undesired. Thus it is that white-handled
knives could not be disposed of even as “ gifts” in Fiji, while black were
readily accepted, and conspicuously patterned red and white waist-clothes
must be presented in Tahiti, but dark blue ones are in vogue in Fiji.

Everywhere one finds traces of the customs of cannibal days revealed
at times in acts the significance of which is now unthought of. Thus
in Samoa the village reprobate is wrapped in leaves and carried through
the town, and then placed upon the cold stones of an oven, the fire in
these days remaining unlighted. In Fiji, the deepest insult is to refer
to a man as the “son of a roasted father.”

Among uncultured peoples the rulers aided by the priests soon invent

20 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

EUCALYPTIS TREES AND SANDSTONE PRECIPICES NEAR WENTWORTH FALLS IN THE BLUE
MouNTAINS OF NEW SoutTH WALES.

means to relegate to themselves privileges which once were shared among
the many, and matters thus restricted to the few final!y become shielded
from the masses by religious screens which take the form of tabus. ‘Thus
over the Pacific, cannibalism which once simply satisfied the appetite,
of the starving, became religious in its significance and restricted to the
aristocracy, among whom it was supposed to transmit to the victor the
virtues of the vanquished; to this end being practised by the North
American Indian as well as by the Pacific Islander.

MEN OF THE MID-PACIFIC 21

Man must measure all things in terms of his own experience, and to
the Pacific Islander we ourselves are imagined to live in small com-
munities upon distant islands. We are supposed to know personally all
other white men and many an unfortunate mariner has been held re-
sponsible for the evil acts of those of other ships—his friends and
tribesmen from the native’s point of view. Thus it was that, in 1839,
Williams the great missionary was murdered in the New Hebrides in
revenge for outrages committed upon the natives by previous visitors,
and the philanthropic Commodore Goodenough met death at Santa Cruz
from a similar cause in 1875.

All sorts of miracles are expected from the white man, and it is only
rarely that a native evinces any surprise at our acts. The working of
great steam engines, the phonograph, photography and the electric ight
are taken as matters of course even though seen for the first time. I
have, however, seen a Polynesian chief too greatly alarmed to wait for his
beverage when upon pressing a button an electric bell jingled in the
adjacent room; another leaped overboard in a paroxysm of fear when
given a cake of ice, while in another instance the uncanny event of
the visit was the glowing of an electric light immersed beneath the sea.
Wilkes found that the Fijians were far more afraid of his rockets
(“fiery spirits”) than of his guns or cannon. Miracles to be received
as such must fall within the field of our partial comprehension, the
wholly inexplicable is neither miraculous nor interesting. A Fijian

LOOKING DOWN THE VALLEY FROM GOVETT’S LEAP IN THE BLUE MouUNTAINS or New
SouTH WALES.

22 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

A TREE FERN IN THE PRIMEVAL WOODS OF QUEENSLAND.

taken to Sydney gazed stolidly upon the great buildings with no ex-
pression of surprise, but was deeply stirred upon seeing a two-wheeled
push-cart laden heavily with bananas.

A custom which is probably of Polynesian origin, but has spread
universally over the Pacific, is that of the tabu which was a consequence
of the communistic ownership of property. The ceremony of the tabu
is pronounced by the high chief, and thereafter none may molest the
protected place or thing. Thus the cocoa-nut palms are made tabu
while the fruit is maturing. There are, however, many forms of per-
sonal tabu which merge into witch-charms and threats of evil, for
belief in witches is universal over the Pacific.

In the South Sea Islands women are considered to be the property
of men and the ceremony of marriage where it exists shows its kinship
with that of the tabu. Struggles for the possession of women are almost
the sole cause, of, native warfare, and everywhere woman is the servant
rather than the companion of man, although in some places her domestic

MEN OF THE MID-PACIFIC

N

w

duties may be the reverse of our conception, as in Truk in the Carolines
where the woman goes out upon the sea to fish, while the husband re-
mains at home to care for house and children. The “house” is how-
ever only a combination of chicken-roost and pig pen. It is due to the
looseness of the marriage tie and not to respect for women that name
and rank descend through the maternal side, the mother alone being
ascertainable with certainty.

A pleasing element in the life of the Polynesians is their system of
entertaining strangers. The largest edifice in the village is set aside for
this purpose and is called the “ strangers’ house,” and upon the coming
of guests it resounds far into the night with the sound of song and dance.
When the copra is to be gathered, or the taro matures in the swamps,
or the yams have grown big upon the mountain sides then one hears the
songs of many a canoe bearing youthful visitors gaily decked in garlands,
and singing to the rhythmic splash of paddles as they glide along the

NATIVES OF PONAPI, CAROLINE ISLANDS.

24 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

House av Eva ISLAND, TONGA.

shore. The entertaining village is then full of merriment until the labor
of the harvest is over when the chief apportions all among the families
of his village and their guests. For socialism is the dominant spirit of
life in Polynesia.

The chief holds property only in the name of his tribe, the individual
hardly exists as a personal owner of earthly things, and intelligent natives
have declaimed to me against “the money of the white man” saying that
“it was the cause of all our selfishness.” When I spoke of our paupers
to a head chief of Fiji he asked in surprise how could this be for “surely
their friends would feed them were they hungry.” In Fiji years ago, so
the story goes, an ambitious young native became a clerk to a grocer in
Suva, and so good a salesman was he that his English master sent him
back to his native village with a goodly supply of grocer’s stores.
Whereat old friends and neighbors came to partake of these things
but were told that all were to be sold as did “the white man in Suva.”
In a storm of rage the contents of the budding grocer’s shop were divided
among all in the village, and the “meanest man in Fiji” returned to
“the white man’s town.”

In Polynesia an era of dark portent dates from the white man’s com-
ing, for long ago they were content in the thought that the village
had always been there since the sea-god Hiro had piloted their ancestral
canoe to the Island from that other Island of Hawaiki far to the west-
ward in the region of Pulotu where the dead go home in the evening.
Through all the ages since those long gone days the thatched houses

MEN OF THE MID-PACIFIC 25

had clustered under the shadows of the cocoa palms, and rustling leaves
and murmuring surf had lulled the village in its sleep. As it always had
been so it was, and so men felt it would endure as did the long blue line
whereon the ocean met the sky. Unchanged it always would be so the old
dreamer Maui sang until a canoe would come that would float upright
without an outrigger; an impossibility as all men knew.

But one day it came, that God’s canoe without an outrigger. Cloud-
like it shaped itself and grew ever more ominous and vast until its huge
sails towered above the palm trees, and it came to rest. It was the
canoe of the Papalangi, they “ who came from beyond the sky.” Then
pale-faced ghosts—“ the sailing gods ”—came upon the island, and the
new era commenced for the little village.

A long sad era that endures to-day, darkened by the horrors of strange
disease and death, humiliated by the domination of avaricious and un-
sympathetic masters who peonized the bodies and despised the traditions
of the people of the little village so that to-day it lingers silent and with-
ering, where once its songs of merriment were heard.

May we from our cultural heights descend to cheer with kindly sym-
pathy these children of the Island World? Is there aught in our civiliza-
tion that can serve to instil into their minds new hope, to reestablish
industry, and renew ambition? The task is difficult indeed, for the
weak have always been the victims of the strong, be they civilized or
savage.

The very possession of skill in arts and trades has penalized the

CANOE AT VAVAU, TONGA.

26 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

natives and subjected them to the persecution of the bigoted and the
avaricious.

Fair play is sadly needed—indeed the thing most needed—in the
Pacific of to-day. Only through governmental action can adequate
craft-schools be maintained and markets found and developed for the
products of native manufacture.

It is a sad reflection upon our civilization that, through wanton
neglect, the world has lost the art of the famous wood carvers of New
Zealand, the mat and fan makers of the Marshall Islands, and the tapa
decorators of Hawaii, Samoa, and Fiji. Yet under sympathetic guid-
ance these crafts might have been modified to conform to the demands
of world wide markets and the carved furniture of New Zealand, the
artistic floor matting of the Marshall Islanders, and the attractive wall
papers of the Hawaiians might have been the prized possession of many
an American and European home.

Grant them but a just profit for their labor and the races that now are
dying of apathy would suddenly awaken into ambitious, self-respecting
men and women.

GOVERNMENTAL OBSTACLES TO INSURANCE 27

GOVERNMENTAL OBSTACLES TO INSURANCE?

By CHANCELLOR DAVID STARR JORDAN

STANFORD UNIVERSITY

HAVE been asked to speak on the topic of governmental obstacles
to insurance, not that I have any special knowledge of the topic,
but because these “obstacles” form part of a system of discipline with
which I have had some experience and in which we may find something
of interest. The obstacles in question are those of compulsory state in-
surance, a paternal arrangement which safeguards the worker without
any will or initiative of his own or even against his purposes. The in-
surance premiums are not a gift, but a forced withdrawal of some por-
tion of the workman’s earnings, and the need to preserve his claim to
these savings serves as a safeguard to prevent him from wantonly leaving
his job. Naturally this system, with the accompanying system of old-
age pensions, tends to cut the nerve of personal care for the future by
throwing the responsibility on the state. Naturally, also, it interferes
with the normal working of insurance arrangements, for these appeal to
individual initiative and forethought. These thrive best in an atmos-
phere of freedom, while the systems of state insurance and old-age pen-
sions deal with men and women mainly as cogs in the wheels of a great
industrial machine.

We all recognize in theory, at least, the value of some sort of disci-
pline. This involves an orderly use of one’s powers and a willingness to
subordinate our whims or our interests to some general system related
to the common welfare. Discipline implies obedience, and the different
types of obedience indicate the nature of this discipline. We may recog-
nize three classes of discipline of grown men. ‘These we may differen-
tiate as democratic, social and paternal. Under the democratic disci-
pline each man is responsible to himself for his own guidance. The
period of preliminary education past, he chooses his profession, his own
ideals, his own place in the world. Democracy means opportunity, noth-
ing more. It opens the whole world before each man, and so much of
it is his as he has the wisdom, the strength and the patience to take.
This life is not successful unless he has the wit, the soberness, the virtue
to make it so. If he has the chance to rise, he has also the chance to
fall. He is not held in his place by dull averages. If he is able to
develop no ideal, if he wastes his strength in dissipation or vice, if he
is one of the unfit in the struggle for life, he must in some degree take

1 Substance of an address before the World Insurance Congress, Panama-
Pacific Exposition, San Francisco, October 8, 1915.

28 THEH SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

the consequences. Under a democracy, the governnient is simply the
cooperation of the people for mutual aid, to achieve those needful results
which are beyond the reach of private effort. Its main duty is summed
up under the head of justice. And under this head come sanitation,
education, the conservation of resources, the making of roads and public
buildings and the maintenance in national and international relations
of law and order, those conditions which permit of progress, of normal
effort and happiness, which we call by the general name of peace.

What I call social discipline arises through obedience to ideals formed
in cooperation. One’s inspiration arises not primarily from within, but
from the thoughts and needs of his neighbors. At its best, the social
discipline is an outgrowth of the democratic discipline. It is through
its agency that the great cooperative efforts of our race are achieved. To
work for the nation is not the same thing as “to hold down a govern-
ment job.” The vulgar attitude towards public affairs is found in all
nations—the most pronounced in those least advanced and least demo-
cratic. But a sense of social service is one of the best incentives to
personal efficiency. It is this sense which has vivified the fight against
yellow fever, the bubonic plague and the multitude of minute organic
pests which we know by their effects as infectious disease. It is the
impulse of social service which has built the Panama Canal, which is
restraining the floods of China, which is healing Serbia and feeding
Belgium, which in every nation in its degree is fighting against the War
System, its theory and its results.

The social discipline must rest on some system of voluntary coopera-
tion. It can not be enforced from without. Its purpose can not be
accepted as a substitute for achievement. In any form of enforced co-
operation, the fine spirit of social service is lost somehow in the govern-
mental machinery. Thus far the communistic state has been successful
only as a theocracy or a tyranny. And a state ruled over by a detached
few is not cooperative: nor can it be democratic or just.

The paternal discipline is that applied to the people of a nation from
the outside. The people are chattels of the state, having no control over
its actions, the state having a glory and a prosperity wholly independent
of the prosperity and happiness of its people. And by the same token,
its rulers must govern by divine right, else they could have no sanction
at all. There are but two sanctions for government, the one the will
of the people, the other the divine right, by which the reigns of power
were snatched from the people before they were born.

Under paternal discipline, the citizen has no rights save those ac-
corded to him by his overlords of the state. The forms of democracy
under paternalism are forms only useful to keep him amused while his
neighbor peoples work out their experiments in liberty.

Most men in every nation are laboring-men. In democratic discipline
in his degree, each man chooses his place of labor, and rises or falls

GOVERNMENTAL OBSTACLES TO INSURANCE 29

according to his own ability, fitness or training. A low estate at birth
is no bar to his future exaltation. It is the essential feature of the
paternal discipline that most men stay where they are put. Freedom is
defined as that of cheerfulness which results from satisfaction at havy-
ing any place at all in a world which is said to be overpopulated.

The son of a working man finds himself in face of a multitude of
trades. He is sent perforce to a trade school, and is relieved from the
menace which threatens unskilled labor. The fees are low, as is also his
capacity for paying them. ‘The differences among men are reduced to
their lowest terms. He finds himself in some definite niche in the in-
dustrial machine. Government intelligence offices find his place for him.
Government insurance keeps him there. He can not well fall below his
class. He can not easily rise above it. For his modest future he must
depend on his savings, not on promotion. The university, the profes-
sional school, are out of his reach, except in the rare event of being a
born prize-winner, or the equally rare possibility of marrying rich. It
is blue blood, not red, that mostly attracts heiresses, the world over.
Universal compulsory education, technical as well as academic, forms
part of the paternal system and this saves even the weak-minded from
absolute incompetence. ‘Three years of military service, under gradu-
ates of the barracks, break the individual will and leave a docile subject
in all further discipline. In its “unescapable stimulus to patriotism,”
it fits its subject to obey the orders of higher authority without asking
for reason why. The industrial value of such discipline is plain. The
employer can count on skilled Jabor and labor that is well drilled and
mostly free from the noxious spirit of individualism. To escape from
his industrial position usually brings only discomfort and failure if noth-
ing worse. The feeling of injustice works itself out in vague grouches
and vaguer unrest, not in those positive efforts for change which threaten
industrial serenity in nations which encourage private initiative.

In Prussia, it is said, a citizen has three duties, “ Soldat sein; Steuer
zahlen: Mund halten” (be a soldier; pay taxes; keep your mouth shut).
These are simple, and they do not encourage initiative. Nothing is said
about eternal vigilance which, as we know, is the price of liberty. Under
this system, liberty gives place to security, and being a soldier, this
security is precarious, for the business of the soldier is war.

Under universal conscription the individual loses his rights without
acquiring duties. The task of the soldier is not his own nor that of
society. He is held in subjection to a central power. In this discipline
the people exist for the welfare of the state, the highest purpose of the
nation being that of collective efficiency.

The workman has therefore the choice between the docile acceptance
of a fate not wholly intolerable and revolt with certain misery. State
insurance against poverty, unemployment or old age guards him against

30 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

total failure and at the same time cuts the nerve of any effort to gain
such security for himself. :
Price Collier observes:

Real orderliness is born only of individual self-control. To deprive the
worker of his choice of expenditure, by taking all but a pittance of it for tax-
ation, is a dangerous deprivation of moral exercise. To be able to choose for
oneself is a vitally necessary appliance in the moral gymnasium even if here
and there one chooses wrong. It is a curious trend of thought of the day which
proposes to cure social ills by weakening rather than by strengthening the in-
dividual. If the state is to take care of me when I am sick or old or unem-
ployed, it must necessarily deprive me of my liberty when I am well and young
and busy, and thus make my very health a kind of sickness. If you will have
freedom, you will have those who are ruined by it, just as if you will have social
and political servitude, you will have a stodgy unindependent populace.

The various forms of Labor Insurance alone in Germany cost the state over
$250,000 a day... . No wonder that between the care of a grandmotherly state
and the attentions of a subservient womankind the male population increases.

. Nowhere has socialistic legislation been so cunningly and skilfully used
for the enslavement of the people. No small part of every man’s wages is paid
to him in insurance; insurance for unemployment, for accident, sickness and old
age. There is but faint hope of saving enough to buy one’s freedom and if the
slave runs away he leaves, of course, all the premiums he has paid in the hands
of his master.

The difficulties which beset the common man in trying to rise from
his class—to enter one of the learned professions or the sublimated caste
of the army—deter all but the most gifted from ambition for advance-
ment. Only real genius for scholarship or for money-getting can break
the bonds of caste. This system minimizes the miseries of poverty while
at the same time it checks initiative and independent thought in the
mass of the people. To say that “it solves the problem of poverty ” is to
mistake veneer for reality. The body of the people under paternal dis-
cipline in any country are miserably poor, and the lot of those outside
ranks of skilled labor is pitiable in the extreme. There is no solution of
the problem of poverty which takes away the need of each man to try to
solve it for himself.

There can be no true greatness of a state except through the great-
ness of the human units for whose welfare the state should exist. The
whole world suffers to-day from the domination of a great state over a
people which has lost the power of self-direction and which has abdicated
the duty of government, abandoning them to the will of a military aris-
tecracy, whose chief concern is anything save the welfare of the people.

The subordination of individual freedom to a prearranged efficiency
naturally culminates in the organization of fluid force as military
power, the extreme opposite to democracy. The individual under
martial law has no opinions, no rights, no existence save as a fragment of
humanity to be used by the state at its will. The soldier exists for war

GOVERNMENTAL OBSTACLES TO INSURANCE ay

and war is the failure of government in its highest functions. In the
words of Havelock Ellis,

To glorify the state is to glorify war, for there is no collective operation
which can be so effectively achieved as war, and none which more conspicuously
illustrates the sacrifice of the individual to the nation.

It is for this reason that militarism has been through the ages the
right arm of privilege as the state church, the form of religion which
ignores the individual man, has always been its left arm.

Writers of the day frequently contrast “ Germany’s success in solv-
ing the problem of poverty ” with “the wretched condition of England’s
poor.” It is said that “ England has the most ungrateful and laziest
poor to be found in any land,” and these poor are said to be as unpatri-
otic as they are lazy. They are blind, too, for the pauper vote of Eng-
land is almost solidly opposed to the efforts of those who would use
public action in betterment of their condition.

From this it is argued that as England is a land of freedom while
Germany is a land of efficiency, the ideals of freedom need reconsidera-
tion in the direction of paternal discipline.

Miss Prestonia Mann Martin observes:

The two forms of government are to-day on trial. The watchword of demoe-
racy is freedom. The watchword of paternalism is duty. Followed to their con-
clusions, one leads to anarchy, the other to its opposite, socialism. One tends to
decentralize government, the other to centralize it. One aims at individual inde-
pendence, the other at national efficiency. One places the highest value upon
freedom, the other sacrifices freedom for the sake of order, system, power, se-
curity.

This analysis is true, so far as it goes, but the end of democracy is not
freedom, nor yet opportunity, the two meaning much the same thing.
The ideal is also duty, but duty self-imposed, or arising from a feeling
of the needs of society, not duty imposed from without.

The need of Great Britain as I see it is not more governmental sys-
tem. The “sodden misery of the London slums, the horrors of the black
country,” the exhaustion of the countryside, the failure of the yeomanry,
these call for more freedom, not for paternalism. “The inevitable toll
of corruption and incompetence” is not a result of freedom. Its his-
toric roots lie in the struggle for imperialism. They can never be ab-
sent under any form of government, so long as men are greedy or in-
competent. The predatory rich and the desultory poor occur under
all forms of government, and in some fashion or other the one will feed
on the other and both are parasitic on the common weal.

The men who stand for more freedom in England are the men most
eager to do away with needless misery and sorrow. The evils in British
society are not results of democracy, but legacies of the era of aristocracy,

32 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

paternalism and imperialism. British polity still rests on inequality
before the law. The statute of primogeniture thrusts the hated prin-
ciple of precedence into every family. The state church discriminates
against personal religion. The governmental effort not long ago to
strengthen the landed aristocracy gave to England and Scotland their
insoluble land problems. Only in very recent years has the free school
found place in Great Britain. The holding of India at the public cost
for private exploitation has enriched a very few at the expense of the
very many. The wars in India and Africa exhausted in large degree the
British yeomanry, while those whom war could not use slid down the
line of least resistance into the slums of the great cities. There they
have bred generations of like incompetents in an atmosphere of drink
and vice. The young men of parts have been used and used up by
the thousand in the colonial service. The weaker elements have multi-
plied while fine strains have been destroyed.

The liquor interests have filled Great Britain and Ireland with race
poisons, and these in aristocratic times waxed so powerful that the dem-
ocracy has as yet failed to dislodge them. In brief, the ills, political
and social, of Great Britain have nowhere their origin in democracy, but
in governmental abuses and inequalities against which British democ-
racy, one of the strongest and most devoted of all world forces, is man- ~
fully struggling. And the most disastrous of all elements of evil, the
war system, is wholly undemocratic. It has been brought on, not be-
cause democracies are “loosely organized, careless and disorderly,” but
because “compact brotherhoods which have been welded into a family-
nation by the fostering care and the strict discipline of a paternalistic
government” have become politically so incompetent that they are
driven like sheep into a war which they did not want, which could bring
them nothing but ruin and which in its inception and consummation
constitutes in itself the most heinous crime ever perpetrated in the
history of Christendom. And all this at the dictation of a very few
men whom even yet the nation has failed to identify. When the whole
story is told, the lesson we must read is that the remedy for the short-
comings of freedom is more freedom, that personal initiative counts
more, even in national enterprise, than any form of enforced efficiency,
that the need of free states is not less freedom, but more justice, for
justice sets men free, and that the worst possible test of a nation’s
ereatness is found in the mischief she can do to her neighbors in blind
leading of the blind to the field of battle. That battlefields still exist
is due to the failure of justice and therefore of individual freedom.

It is true, as has been stated, that

State socialism as Germany is demonstrating demands the price and then de-
livers the goods.

But what terrible goods this system stands ready to deliver!

GOVERNMENTAL OBSTACLES TO INSURANCE 33

The democratic discipline, self-imposed by men who think and act
for themselves, is effective in making men, and it is the initiative of in-
dividual men which makes and marks history.

The social discipline which springs from individualism is effective in
building up human society, and the inspiration which rises from the
thought of cooperative help is the best antidote for the greed of un-
checked and perverted individualism.

The paternal discipline provides in its degree for material comfort
and security. It takes away the necessary incentive to every man to
solve his own problems. In a free state, the sober and honest working
man should be free to abolish his own poverty, to enhance his own
security or that of his family through insurance—or at his own discre-
tion to let it alone.

VOL. 11.—3.

34 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

DEFENDING AMERICA

By WM. J. ROE

NEWBURGH, N. Y.

{Daa problem of discovering or inventing a method of preparation
against aggression which shall be acceptable to the entire Amer-
ican people is now presenting itself for solution with an insistence never
before so strong or determined. Until in August a year ago the war-
cloud broke over Europe, with the solitary exceptions of those versed
in the swiftly increasing powers for defence and offence of the conti-
nental nations, or aware of the continually strained racial relations,
the average well-meaning citizen of the United States seemed fairly
confident that something very like a millennial dawn had come. Good
people, respectable, well educated, church members, in their way patri-
otic, but a little over a year ago were saying to each other and some-
times in print to other citizens, that the world had progressed too far
along the broad highway of progress for anything like a great war
again to disturb the repose of the nations. The recent records of South
Africa and our own war with Spain these excellent people dismissed
as mere incidents of a universal slowing down of humanity’s depraved
instincts, or rather perhaps as “ growing pains” of the angel of peace.

With all their education (for almost invariably these excellent
theorists and impractical interpreters of principles which passed with
them as “religious,” were “educated”) the philosophy of history and
the rudimentary elements of psychology had taught nothing concern-
ing the realities of the past or the prospects of immediate present or re-
mote future. One would think that with the great European war a
full year upon its course, with no end as yet in view upon the most
optimistic horizon, these genial optimists would somehow or in some
degree have revised their estimates of probability, or at least have de-
voted some serious attention to those dilemmas of our past which when
understood so completely refute the arguments of “peace at any price”
idealists. |

Unfortunately the hideous spectacle of the European conflict, in-
stead of having turned the attention of the ultra-pacifists to the un-
tenability of their amiable sophistries, seems to have greatly increased
their ardor in the cause of pacification, and immeasurably to have in-
tensified the clamor of ignorant opinion as to the method of insuring
peace,

Believing (with the astronomer) that it is only by determining
points upon the orbit of the past that man is able to forecast at all the

DEFENDING AMERICA 35

trajectory of the future, the sane peace lover calls attention to the inci-
dents of our war for independence. “ Why!” the peace-at-any-price
person responds, and sometimes with no little display of spirit, “ Why,
my dear sir, that was a righteous struggle; the people rose like one man,
and drove the tyrant from these shores.” It is in vain that you point
to the fallacy of this harangue. It would of course be the rankest of
heresies to claim—in spite of the lengthy list of iniquities in the pre-
amble to our declaration—that George III. was not so much of a
tyrant, after all, and that the war of liberation from British sovereignty
was fought “on a preamble.” But this is true, nevertheless; the thir-
teen colonies sought freedom because they were tired of being “ bossed.”
They found pretexts for revolution in Patrick Henry’s “Give me lib-
erty or give me death,” and in that excellent and serviceable aphorism ;
“Taxation without representation is tyranny.” The people of the col-
onies won their freedom, and used it to their hearts’ content to estab-
lish states, which ever since have taxed unrepresented—or inadequately
represented—sections, with hardly a murmur, certainly without a hint
of revolution.

But this is not the only—nor the worse—fallacy. The people rose
like one man, did they? Most assuredly this was not all that hap-
pened. They rose indeed, everywhere along the seaboard from the
province of Maine to the far South; but it was like a mob they rose,
untrained, insubordinate, in general fair marksmen, but for squirrels
rather than men, splendid material for armies, but so ill disciplined—
at least till Washington took them in hand at Cambridge—that their
assemblages were more like training-day musters than the van of war.
Great man as he was even Washington could hardly have succeeded in
molding mobs into soldiers if his efforts had not been finely aided by
those gallant Germans, Steuben, Pulaski and Du Kalb. Indeed the
philosophical analysis of conditions resulting in final success of Amer-
ican arms at Yorktown discloses most certainly that independence was
due to three prominent factors: the gallantry and “ war-sense” of
Benedict Arnold at Saratoga, bringing about Burgoyne’s surrender,
and thereby the French alliance. Without that and the cordial aid
of La Fayette, De Fleury, Rochambeau and others of that military na-
tion, Cornwallis would doubtless have dealt with our forces on the
York as easily and cleverly as he outflanked and outmanoeuvred Wash-
ington at the Brandywine.

And the war—so called—of 1812, what a wretched account of them-
selves our hastily gathered land forces gave; with the single “saving
grace” of New Orleans, fought after the war had ended, the records
include merely a discreditable series of defeats, routs, retreats and sur-
renders. Only the audacity and skill of an ill-prepared, manned and
munitioned navy saved the country from total and irremediable dis-

36 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

aster. But fortunately the navy was audacious and skillful; it fought
everywhere “to a finish,” gave us a very real standing upon the high
seas, and as a priceless heritage the illustrious names of Decatur and
Lawrence and Porter and Perry and MacDonough, and their many
hardly less worthy subordinates.

In Mexico, for the first time in our history (apart from the servy-
ices of the few graduates of West Point, mainly utilized in the con-
struction of fortifications in 1812-14) the country had the benefit of a
large number of officers trained at the Military Academy in the science
and art of warfare. Under the able leadership of Scott, Wool, Worth,
and Harney these young “ graduated cadets’’ so efficiently led the few
thousands, mostly volunteers, against a nation in arms, that peace was —
achieved in a few months, which otherwise might have required many
years.

To recount the incidents of the opening of our great Civil War, or
even to touch upon them with a too truthful pencil, would, it may not
be doubted, in any other country in the world, be to awaken memories
that had better be left to slumber and oblivion. But to Americans of
to-day the horror and the gloom of half a century ago have passed
forever; to us—South and North—the years when the land was
“ drenched in fraternal blood” are no more than the wars of Marius and
Sylla, or the roses—white and red—of the rival lines of Plantagenet.

The peril of “ states dissevered, discordant, belligerent,’ was averted
by force of arms. Arguments failed, or intensified the rancor; diplo-
macy was unheeded, compromise scornfully rejected; there remained
only force, the first appeal of passion met by the last resort of patriot-
ism. Force succeeded, but at what a frightful cost! hundreds of thou-
sands of lives, billions of money. It can not be said that surely all
these expenditures might have been saved if in the year 1861 we had
had a force of fifty thousand men in arms. But though such a force,
guided by one calm cool head at Washington, might not have averted
the conflict, the strong probabilities are that at least they would have
served to give time for passions to subside, and for reason to resume
her rightful sway.

The almost total unpreparedness of our scant land forces at the
outbreak of the Spanish war had the effect—temporarily at least—to
call the attention of the nation to our deficiencies. For a time the
glaring maladministration of military affairs of the department at
Washington was a public scandal; that we won, and so quickly, was due
largely of course to the very great efficiency of the small navy, but far
more that the Spaniard, though passionate as he was valorous, was yet
no fool; he recognized and accepted the inevitable, even though his
forces in Cuba overmatched our own in numbers nearly sixfold.

Since the peace of Paris our military affairs have been placed upon

DEFENDING AMERICA 37

a basis far exceeding anything previously known to ensure efficiency,
especially by the establishment of the General Staff, replacing former
lax administration by a supervising authority, coordinating all branches
of the service under a single responsible direction. Unhappily for the
strength of our armament for defense on land, while there has been no
increase of forces authorized by Congress, the necessity for an increase
has come from the very considerable territorial expansion consequent
upon the acquisition of the Philippines, Porto Rico, the Canal Zone,
and the islands of the Pacific. Adequately to police these new posses-
sions—saying nothing of their defense against possible foreign aggres-
sion—would require an army very much larger than that now estab-
lished by law.

The American people as a whole are very easily scared (that is,
startled), but very difficult to frighten (that is, to disturb by fear).
To say this is in a way complimentary more to the value of our emo-
tions than to our reason, for certainly the courage of the naturally
timid and “nervous” is more commendable than the stolid bravery that
merely lacks imagination. But it is unfortunate, for, as all of our emo-
tions are designed for utility and not brutality, fright has its use in
way of warning, distinctly notifying the frightened to take steps to
avert the threatened danger. But Japan signified unmistakably her
vexation, and Mexico her contempt, without arousing the American
people to a consciousness of either possible peril or certain responsibility.
We disregarded Japan’s grievance as of no real importance, and as
for the Mexicans, knowing that from them was no danger of invasion,
we have given absolutely no thought to what the future may disclose
concerning our obligations as trustee according to the Monroe Doctrine
to foreign powers.

From this condition—a mingling of bravado, apathy and indiffer-
ence—the great war in Europe has thoroughly aroused the American
nation. All over the United States, from politicians, editors, essayists,
“militarists,” and “peace-at-any-price” people, come addresses, pam-
phlets, articles, serials professing to forecast perils from foreign inva-
sion, while societies are being organized, some to stimulate interest in
military affairs, and some to discourage such interest, even to the ex-
tent of endeavoring to affix a stigma upon the soldier by ostracism
and unpatriotic ditties denouncing him as a murderer.

And this discordance is further complicated by varying opinions
concerning the respective merits of the causes now rending the conti-
nent of Europe, opinions for the most part expressed guardedly and
with at least some consideration for others, but fixed in racial sympa-
thies.

At best the position of a neutral nation in any war of considerable
magnitude is liable to become perilous, especially to a nation having an

38 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

extensive foreign commerce. We know what occurred over a century
ago when Europe was overrun by the armies of Napoleon—that inter-
national compacts were disregarded, the rights of neutrals ignored, and
our own merchant marine threatened with annihilation by paper edicts.
A similar process has already been begun across the Atlantic; already
we have had thrust upon us a “Berlin decree” from Germany, and
“Orders in council” from Great Britain. Doubtless the offense of
Germany against the law of nations has been by far the most flagrant;
but Great Britain—by interfering with the trade of one neutral nation
with another—has exhibited a disregard of that law in relation
to our trade with countries bordering upon Germany, which (notwith-
standing our own precedents) has caused strenuous remonstrance.
That both nations—with great civility and with deference to our colos-
sal growth since 1800—set up as a plea in bar of action a necessity jus-
tifying—or condoning—action, merely adds to the difficulties which
already confront America, and which are certain to continue and in-
crease as trouble-making incidents.

As never before in our history we are surrounded by conditions and
latent grievances liable at almost any moment to take on the shape of
antagonisms. In venturing to point out—one by one—the chances of
the future, it is not to invite unfriendly feeling towards our neighbor-
ing nations, but solely that with calm dispassion we may view the
facts, having always in mind that great certainty, that adequate prep-
aration to repel an invader is better than enormous armaments to expel
him.

With Japan we need not, I think, concern ourselves unduly. This
is not to minimize the danger of a disruption of friendly relations
owing to further inimical legislation by states of the Pacific coast or to
a possible attempt at colonization of lands theoretically under our pro-
tection; but mainly that the Japanese are too poor and at the same
time too clever seriously to incite our hostility. Poverty alone will
never deter a high-spirited nation from seeking reprisals for real or
fancied wrongs, and cleverness alone is apt to lead (as in the case of
the German Kaiser) to over confidence in cleverness; but the two com-
bined are fairly good safeguards against aggression.

But it is not against the probable so much as the possible that Amer-
ica ought to be prepared. In the present state of our defenses on both
land and sea, war with Japan would mean the immediate loss of our
Asiatic, and probably of our Pacific, possessions; the Philippines, with
Samoa, Guam, and almost certainly the Hawaiian islands, would—
temporarily at least—he lost to us. That they would not stay lost may
be reckoned upon, and this is known to the keen intellect of the Jap-
anese, perhaps even more thoroughly than to ourselves.

But why should America depend upon the forbearance of an alien—

DEFENDING AMERICA 39

however induced—for our first line of defense? specially is this un-
desirable when already we possess outlying salients susceptible of being
so fortified as virtually to insure us against invasion of our continental
territory. Already we are fortifying Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, and it
needs only similar fortifications of one of the Aleutian islands, with
Guam and Samoa in the far southeast, with perhaps by treaty another
base at the Galapagos, to establish bases for swift offense against the sup-
plies of an Asiatic enemy and for protection of the Panama Canal. So
protected by outlying fortresses having defensive relations, we should
be virtually invulnerable from an Asiatic assault. As compared with
the probable loot of an invader on the western coast the expense of con-
structing and maintaining such defenses would be inconsiderable.

Curious as it may seem, while invasion by a Mexican army is some-
thing to be contemplated with complacence, the danger which may
arise from that quarter is far more menacing. At the present moment
of course the powers of western Europe have enough to do without
seeking trouble in America. But suppose there had been no war to
engage the attention of either Great Britain or Germany; is it likely
that either country would have permitted the spoliation and murder of
its citizens to go on as it has for several years, life and property at
the mercy of one or the other of a number of irresponsible bandits ?
Certainly that could not have been expected. With courteous diplo-
macy no doubt, due deference being accorded to our Monroe doctrine,
a demand in no uncertain terms would have come long before this; we
should have been required either to “fish or cut bait”; either to act the
part our doctrine clearly calls for of collecting agent, or to let the
creditor do his own collecting unvexed.

At the present time of writing signs are not lacking that the extra-
ordinary patience heretofore held to by the administration at Washing-
ton is on the verge of exhaustion. An endeavor has been made to
secure the moral support of the stable South American countries in an
appeal to the contending factions. Even yet it seems doubtful whether
the only sort of action that can possibly be effective is contemplated ;
more likely the policy of pottering procrastination will continue. The
ultra peace lovers and optimists will tell you that there is no need of
haste, assuring you that the close of the European war will find the
nations so battered, so weary of strife, and so exhausted financially as
to be unwilling or unable to turn their attention to the redress of
wrongs suffered by their citizens in Mexico. Such imaginings are
wholly erroneous; as never before will the armies of the victors in that
great struggle be in shape for further conquests, while the very. fact
of poverty will be merely an incentive to the replenishment of an ex-
hausted treasury. When that day comes America will surely have to
choose between war and humiliation.

40 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

These being the inevitable prospects of the future for the American
people, certainly it becomes the duty of every thinking citizen to do
his part, however insignificant, towards calling attention to the perils,
not needlessly to alarm, but soberly, calmly, judiciously, not only to
seek a permanent peace, but by far-sighted preparation for a war of
strictest defense, to ensure it.

Situated as America is, having an isolated continent virtually to
itself, the problem of defense assumes a shape vastly different from
that of one of the continental European nations, surrounded by coun-
tries whose endemic jealousy is liable at any moment to become viru-
lently epidemic. To a very large number of Americans, probably the
great majority, the sudden and violent action of Germany last year
seems cruelly and needlessly aggressive. This paper is not written to
assail or to defend those actions, but it may be well, while criticizing,
if you please, the violation of international law involved in the inva-
sion of Belgium, to put yourself in Germany’s place, realizing, if that be
possible, her dilemma, believing (as was certainly the case) that hostile
Europe lay crouching ready to spring upon her. We know what hap-
pened; Germany endeavored to forestall the attack by attacking first
and fiercely.

Assuming (though the assumption may be very far from correctly
taken) the necessity imposed by an unavoidable antagonism, Germany’s
action was not only logical, but was called for by the genius of the art
of war. The method of that genius has been stated—having been
quite erroneously credited to a distinguished Confederate—as “ getting
there fustest with the mostest men.”

A century ago the Atlantic ocean served as a very efficient rampart
for resistance against an offensive movement; to-day, when an army
could easily be transported to our coast within a month its merit as a first
line of defense depends almost solely upon the floating force at our com-
mand. In no event probably could any naval armament at our service
wholly eliminate all danger of invasion; but to reduce this peril to a
minimum, and to some extent to direct the course and point of attack, a
very considerable addition to our present navy is not only desirable, but
imperative. We need more battleships of the first class, we need swift
cruisers, and lesser craft, for offence and for supply, and perhaps more
than all, many—little and big—submarines. With an adequate force of
all these, and (for both sea and land service) a host of all classes of air-
craft, it may safely be said that the best has been done to avert the calam-
ity of an assault from the high seas of an invader.

In one respect America is singularly exposed; the vast preponder-
ance of wealth lies directly upon our Atlantic frontier; Boston, New
York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington are all either directly on
the seaboard, or within easy striking distance of some point of disem-
barkation of an enemy. It is not difficult to forecast an invader’s inten-

DEFENDING AMERICA 41

tion—to concentrate his force, for purposes of loot or ransom, against
these rich nuclei of treasure.

As on a preceding page I have pointed out the propriety of fortifying
various islands of the Pacific ocean as the simplest and least expensive
method of defense against an armed attack from the far Hast, so—for
the best defense of our seaboard metropolitan cities—I wish most em-
phatically to call renewed attention to the project (so long and so ably
urged by the “ Atlantic Deeper Waterways Association”) of constructing
ship canals capable of passing the heaviest battleships, between existing
navigable channels “from Boston to Beaufort” and beyond. Especially
should there be deep waterways from Boston—inland—to Narragansett
Bay; thence back of Point Judith to connect with Long Island Sound
(defended by a powerful work to be constructed on Block Island) ;
again via the Kill-van-Kull and across the state of New Jersey, to the
Delaware, and, more important still, across the Maryland-Delaware
peninsula to deep water in the Chesapeake bay.

The great fortification planned and now in process of construction
opposite Cape Henry at the entrance to the Chesapeake will eventually
tend to safeguard that extensive inland sea and the cities of Baltimore
and Washington. With an artificial channel adequately defended from
the upper Chesapeake to the Delaware, the extreme danger of an enemy’s
establishing a base somewhere on the Chesapeake (most available of all
locations) could probably be prevented.

The general purpose and necessary brevity of this paper precludes
anything like a detailed statement of the present inadequacies in way
of land defenses of our cities and harbors. On the supposition that our
seagoing defenders have been baffled in their endeavor to prevent an
enemy from landing upon our coast, and establishing there his base,
from which he proposes to advance, it may be well in as few words as
possible to outline the composition of our land force upon which—and
now upon which alone—we must rely, either to drive the enemy back
whence he came or at least to prevent the destruction or spoliation of our
great cities.

The personnel of the land defense divides naturally into these gen-
eral classes: the stationary defenders (consisting at present of 170 com-
panies of an authorized strength of 104 men each) who man the seacoast
batteries, the “mobile army,” the “supply,” and the “transportation.”

The bulk of a “mobile army” consists of infantry, that is of bodies
of men, divided into companies, battalions, regiments, brigades, divisions,
and army corps, who rely—as final resort—upon their own legs to carry
them into action; of field artillery, armed with large-caliber, long-range
guns, smaller “ mountain guns,” with “ machine guns” the latter usually
attached to the infantry, but which may be drawn as the others are by
horses or mules, together with their attendant “ limbers” and “ caissons ”
carrying the immediate supplies of ammunition. Besides these arms is

ae THE SOLENTIFIC MONTHLY

the cavalry, differing but slightly in training and arms except that they
are mounted, Whose purposé¢ is ordinarily scouting in small detached
bodies, or—should such action become desirable—for raids on a large
scale, or even, in some contingency quite remote in modern warfare, for
a charge en masse.

In addition to these three branches of the service of an active army—
infantry, cavalry and field artillery, a number of auxiliary troops are
required to make up a complete and efficient fighting force. The engi-
neers make and repair roads and bridges, construct earthworks and lay
pontoon bridges when required; the signal corps, the aviators, the med-
ical department, and the quartermaster corps, having in charge all
matters pertaining to the feeding, tenting, paying, transporting, and
clothing of the troops. There are’also other staff departments, con-
sisting of officers only, who are charged with details of administration.

While the questions of supply and transportation of a mobile army
fall naturally and mainly upon the quartermaster and his assistant offi-
cers and the men of their command, many other considerations enter
into the carrying out of the various problems as they arise. Not the
least of the perils which might arise from invasion is that almost all
the sources of arms and munitions in this country are located not very
far from the Atlantic coast, and so within striking distance of an invader.
Upon our Ordnance Department rests the responsibility of making and
supplying guns, cannon, machine-guns, and small-arms, as well as
ammunition—explosives and projectiles of all kinds. The arsenals and
armories under the control of the War Department are even now, and
would be of course to a greater extent in time of actual war, supplemented
by the output of private concerns.

Thus theoretically may be described the essential elements of Amer-
ica’s defense against a possible future assault by an enemy having a
measurable command of the high seas sufficient to convoy in safety ade-
quate armed forces in strength and numbers really threatening. For
the purpose of repelling such an invasion, not only should all of our
seacoast forts be manned and officered by a largely increased number of
technically trained artillerists, but the fortifications—especially those
guarding the approaches to the great cities—should be vastly strength-
ened—single forts and batteries united in a continuous line of defensive
relations, in effect converting scattered groups of isolated works into
one scientifically planned fortress. Doubtless at the first sign of rect
threatening word from Washington, flashing over the wires, would send
local commanders to the task of further fortifying in earnest. But the
conviction can not be escaped that such hasty preparation would come
too late.

As for that “mobile army” which has been briefly described, in gen-
eral terms this should be distributed perhaps into say three or four grand
divisions ; one somewhere in the far-south, located so as best to defend

DEFENDING AMERICA 43

the Texan frontier and the Gulf ports; one somewhere not far from
Washington; another probably near Trenton, N. J., and still another
at some point in New England about equidistant between Boston and
New York. Each section of the active army should be composed of
every element, should have at easy command both material and per-
sonnel for replenishment of inevitable losses, and each should be so
located that by railway and highway and perhaps waterway lines prompt
and decisive access to the enemy’s landing place might be effected; be
ready in short not to await the initiative, but to take it.

To write in this lofty way of fortresses and armies, and of taking
initiatives with a view to driving an enemy promptly from our territory,
must, I am well aware, appear quite ludicrous to military men. With a
force of coast artillery wholly inadequate already, and a “ mobile” force
so tiny as to be utterly meaningless, to speak of defense, much less of
victory, seems like very real mockery. ‘To-day (I have no hesitation in
saying) if any one single European power of the first class sought war
with the United States, and was left unimpeded by any other great
power, this country, in spite of its wealth, its numbers, its patriotism,
would be hopelessly helpless.

The saying has been credited, I know not how truly, to a very honest,
very religious, but very misguided politician, that in the event of a for-
eign power seeking to subjugate us, a million armed men would spring
up over night to defend our beloved country, and to drive the foe from
our shores. Such “spread-eagle” declamation may sound well in a
Fourth-of-July speech, but practically it signifies worse than nothing.
You may remember that when Julius Cesar had crossed the Rubicon,
and was advancing upon Rome his rival Pompey said to the populace:
“Give yourselves no concern, Quirites, Rome is quite safe; all I have to
do is to stamp my foot and many legions will arise to meet and vanquish
Cesar.”

Most of the Roman citizens were well enough satisfied with this;
they said to one another that Pompey was a great man, at least that he
was a lover of peace, and had a fine gift for phrase-making. But before
long news came that Cesar had taken Corfinium and captured the army
of Domitius. So the citizens came again—this time in a hurry—to
Pompey’s house, to say: “ You promised to provide legions to defend us
from Cesar by stamping your foot; we merely wish to say that the time
has come to stamp.” Pompey was very polite to his callers, and re-
plied that he would see that something was done; but nothing was, and
when next we hear of Pompey it was as a fugitive from Pharsalia.

The analogy of the above anecdote is defective in several particulars ;
our people are by no means as ignorant or as apathetic as the Romans
were, and certainly few of them have any sort of confidence that a de-
fending army can be raised over night. In fact it is not the lack of
stamping that is the trouble (for everybody seems busily engaged at

44 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

that), but that no one appears to have stamped for exactly the right
thing, or at least not in exactly the right way. Some—the so-called
ultra “militarists””—are demanding an immediate and huge standing
army; some—the extreme “ pacifists”—claim that a policy of complete
non-resistance is the one most likely to be effectual. These good people
quote the saying of the Master moralist of all time, as to his duty who
is smitten upon the one cheek to turn the other also, forgetting that it
was said as strenuously and by the same authority: “ How can one enter
into a strong man’s house and spoil his goods except he first bind the
strong man!”

And between the extremes of “militarism” and “ peace-at-any-
price” how many varieties of urgent opinion are voicing their views!
Some advocate compulsory teaching of tactics in the schools, some have.
great hopes from “boy scouts,’ some, scandalized at the idea of any
increase in the regular army—as likely to “imperil our liberties ”—
would be glad to see the militia of the several states amplified to almost
any extent, and some, good citizens, having the welfare of the country at
heart, establish drill organizations, learning something while having an
enjoyable outing. Not one of all these notions and experiments but has
in it elements of value, and no one would seek to disparage them; but
in fact, in the event of a real war suddenly thrust upon us, all of these
put together, including even those “continentals” now recommended
to Congress, would hardly prove a feather’s weight towards that dynamic
force which alone could suffice for defense. Probably the method and
purpose of the organizations known as “'The American Legion” and
the “ National Security League” whose headquarters are in New York
City, are more likely to prove efficient as an auxiliary toa national army
rightly recruited, organized, and officered, than all other adjuncts or
volunteer aids combined.

The question of establishing an armed land force sufficiently numer-
ous to repel any invasion at all likely to threaten the country must be
considered from two different standpoints; first, as to what may be done
by Congress under the constitution and the laws, and, second, what is
feasible in view of the traditions of the American people and their evident
distrust of any considerable “standing army.”

The constitution gives to congress the right to raise and support,
govern and regulate an army, of which the president shall be commander-
in-chief. Inasmuch as no limitation is placed upon the size of the
army, manifestly it is within the legal powers of Congress to call every
able-bodied citizen to serve as a soldier—to adopt if it sees fit the abso-
lute militaristic system common to the countries of continental Europe,
a system which finds perhaps its best illustration of combined efficiency
and expediency in the military administration of the Swiss republic.

Included also among the powers expressly delegated to Congress is
that which gives the right of “organizing, arming, and disciplining the

DEFENDING AMERICA 45

militia” and for employing these state forces in the service of the nation.
The sole restriction upon federal authority over state troops when called
into active service is that to the states is reserved the right to designate
the officers and to do their own training subject to congressionally pre-
scribed methods of discipline.*

Manifestly it would be quite impracticable to introduce the Swiss
system in its entirety into this country. The people would not submit
to so radical an alternative, and again such a huge force, even if it could
be officered, supplied or transported, would be too cumbersome and
unwieldy for anything like efficiency. Our total present force consists
of about 90,000 regular troops, and something over 100,000 militia all
told, in all subject to the call of Congress and the President to-day, almost
exactly 200,000 men under arms. Between this force and a “levy en
masse” the golden mean of availability must therefore be found. That
“volunteering” can be seriously relied upon to furnish a competent army
of defense must be dismissed as untenable, if only because of the time
required to convert an “armed mob” however patriotic, into veteran
troops.

Having in view all the circumstances, conditions, resources and
prospects—most of which have been at least touched upon, however
lightly in this paper, it will be for the president to recommend and for
Congress to enact such measures as shall most surely guarantee to
America that assurance of safety from aggression which just dealing
and diplomacy may go far towards effecting, but which an armed force
of suitable strength, well armed and munitioned, and ably led alone can
insure.

The virtually unanimous opinion of military men, founded upon the
known results of practical experience of foreign countries and with our
own army, and modified by an intelligent understanding of democratic
needs and prejudices, is convincing that Congress should provide forth-
with somewhat as follows:

- I. For a very considerable increase of the coast artillery, the total,
officers and men, to aggregate nearly if not quite 50,000.

II. Providing for an increase of the present mobile force—infantry
and cavalry—the total to be not less than 150,000 and perhaps need not
be more than 200,000. The grand total of the regular army to be from
200,000 to 250,000, preferably the larger aggregate.

III. Providing for an enlistment period which may be approximately
eight years, of which two or three shall be with the colors—that is in
active service, the balance of the enlistment period to be with the reserve,
subject however always to rejoining the colors. These reserves to be
adequately paid, but unrestricted as to occupation.

IV. Providing for prompt expansion of the active army in case of

1See Constitution, Article No. I., §§ 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16, and Article
No. II., Section 2, § 1; also Amendment No. IT.

46 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

necessity, not by creating new organizations (of reserves or volunteer
recruits), but by incorporating the reserves immediately, and the vol-
unteers when sufficiently trained, with existing units of service.

V. Providing for an increase in number of officers; this to be by
adding to the number of cadets at the Military Academy, and by com-
missioning such graduates of colleges and universities with the higher
class of private schools, as may be proficient in an established military
course directly under authority of the War Department.

VI. Providing for the accumulation of stores of war-material of
every kind at depots to be established at inland points, easily accessible
by ourselves for distribution, and easily defensible from an enemy.

VII. Providing for strict regulations by which the militia of the
several states may more readily and ‘efficiently become incorporated with
the regular forces in time of emergency. It is also suggested and urged
that state constabularies relieve the militia from ordinary police duties.

The details of method for the carrying out of these and other only
less essential provisions should be left largely to a board to consist of
chairmen of committees of the House and Senate most directly interested,
the secretaries of war and the navy, and those officers of high rank in
both services whose position and experience qualify them to suggest or de-
cide between expedients.

While undoubtedly the considerable increase of the army as above
outlined would add largely to the expense, several methods of economy
may be suggested. That provision concerning length of service as ap-’
plied to the land forces in general might be materially modified by the
establishment of more permanent garrisons “beyond seas”; and a large
saving in the item of transportation could be effected by local recruiting.
Heretofore, owing to the demands of political expediency numerous small
posts, which have long outlived their usefulness, have continued to be
garrisoned, entailing in the aggregate a large drain upon funds and men,
for both of which better use could be found at stations more suitable,
especially for the practise of regimental and brigade evolutions.

Within recent years the quality of men accepted by recruiting officers
has very greatly improved; it is suggested that the localizing method of
enlistment and the feature of the reserve might still further assist to
increase the character, stability and permanency of the men-in-the-ranks.
It would be a wise measure to afford to young enlisted men very greatly
increased opportunities to attain commissioned rank, and if inclination
led and natural ability permitted, that many such should find the way
open to making their country’s defending a life career. For the so-called
“ scientific corps ”—the engineers, the ordnance, and the artillery—long
and arduous training is required ; but for the line—foot and horse troops
two years or so of due diligence is sufficient. Here the extremely high
standard of education at West Point could well be modified. Moral
character, physical stamina, a fair general education, with natural capac-

DEFENDING AMERICA 47

ity for command and willingness to obey; these furnish an ample foun-
dation for the sort of training qualifying for commissioned rank in the
line. For advancement to higher grades in the service the experience of
the war-between-the-states testifies that time may be trusted to provide
its sure tests of merit quite irrespective of that detriment to efficieney—
the handicap of seniority as determining promotion.

To make provision for establishing “peace on earth and good will”
between nation and nation is no more vital to-day than it has been since
first the interests and passions of men began to call for enlightened self-
control. And to provide for defense against a world mad with murder,
abandoning its own mutual guarantees of civilization is now hardly more
essential than it has been for many decades. But the recent shameless
spectacle of reversion to barbarism exhibited to-day in Europe and on the
high seas has aroused attention to our weakness as never before. It is
no fit reply to those who announce the necessity of adequate preparation
to ery that war is barbaric. It is barbaric; but so long as barbarians
remain upon the earth, it will be the duty of enlightenment to provide
safeguards against them.

48 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY |

THE YOUNGER GENERATION OF AMERICAN GENIUS

By Proressor SCOTT NEARING

TOLEDO UNIVERSITY

1. THe Group UNDER FORTY-FIVE

STUDY? of the first ten thousand American-born persons whose
names appeared in “ Who’s Who in America” for 1912-13 showed
beyond any reasonable question that up to that time New England had
made a contribution of eminent Americans far out of proportion to her
population. This fact held true for New England as a whole. Fur-
thermore, the number of distinguished persons per one hundred thou-
sand of population was larger in every New England state than in any
other state in the union. So decisive was the advantage of New Hng-
land that Rhode Island, the New England state with the lowest propor-
tion of distinguished persons per one hundred thousand of population,
was 30 per cent. above New York, the state which, outside of New
England, had the highest proportion of distinguished persons per one
hundred thousand of population.

The ten thousand persons considered in this first study were for the
most part well along in life. Only one in a hundred was born since
1880; only fourteen in a hundred were born since 1870. More than a
quarter of the eminent persons were born before 1850, making them at
least sixty-two years old.

The tables showed, clearly enough, that the advantage of New Eng-
land over other sections of the country decreased in later decades.
Among the eminent persons born before 1850, 30 per cent. were born in
New England, which in 1850 reported but 11.8 per cent. of the total
population of the United States; whereas for the decade 1880-89 the
proportion of eminent persons born in New England was 12 per cent.,
as compared with 7.5 per cent. of the population reported from that
section.

Certain critics insisted:

That proves the point, the position of New England as the mother of Ameri-

can genius is on the wane. Make a study of the group born since 1870, the
people who are under forty-five, and you will see the difference.

This is the study.
During the first three quarters of the nineteenth century, a number
of distinguished men out of all proportion to her population was born

1‘*The Geographical Distribution of American Genius,’’ Scott Nearing,
The Popular Science Monthly, August, 1914.

AMERICAN GENIUS 49

in New England. Next to New England, the Middle Atlantic and the
East North Central states had a considerable lead over the remainder
of the country. Was this lead of the northeast section of the United
States due to some special advantage that inhered in the race-stock, the
climate, the educational facilities, or some like features; or to the mere
momentum of tradition and established prestige? Such a question can
not be answered categorically, but an analysis of the younger group of
distinguished Americans will show whether the tendencies noted in the
previous study are so evidently casting laurel wreaths at the feet of New
England.
2. THE PLACE OF BIRTH

New England can not claim the same overshadowing position in
the production of genius in the younger generation that so clearly be-
longed to her in the earlier decades. While her position is still good,
it is far from commanding.

The figures? have been compiled first according to geographical area.
The 2,000 distinguished persons are distributed over nine groups of
states. The largest number come from the Middle Atlantic states;
the smallest from the Mountain states.

TABLE I
NUMBER AND PER CENT. OF EMINENT PERSONS BORN IN THE VARIOUS GEOGRAPHIC
DIvISIONS OF THE UNITED STATES, WITH THE PER CENT. OF THE TOTAL
POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES IN HACH DIVISION IN 1880

Distinguished Persons Per Cent. of the

~, r Total Population
Siete shag Number Per Cent. in 1880
VG Woe RIS Pears Clagett c) ate oS ere, cxe\ledo/eleue diane ovale ol aya-ae 331 16.6 8.1
Mid levA tate States, o/s cinieero<, atocary cows ene 503 25.1 20.9
Hast Northv@entraliStates: 4... <tc. sess ee vc 480 24.0 22
West’ North Central States. ......0.51...0608 235 11.8 12.2
MoaehA tlamtiensuacvess ys. c)- gsio0 alos caves went. 226 Lis ie pal
Hast South, Central States. . 6... ccs cimic ee eyes 108 5.4 va ial
West South Central States.................. 40 2.0 6.7
Mountains SUAGeS erases ocie onal: «ete cel cis: 6 ave eese 26 les 1.3
PaCinG StALeS 4 hese mre te ore, os sack isswiete 51 2:5 2:3
TROGAL &. seuiio Het cee Mertens OR Rare roeia als ane 2,000 100.0 100.0

2 The figures for the study were secured by taking the first 2,000 persons in
‘“Who’s Who for 1914-15,’’ born in the United States since 1869. This was
somewhat more than half of the total number of such names appearing in the
volume.

‘*Who’s Who’’ is published in Chicago. The editor, Albert Nelson Mar-
quis, was born in Ohio. ‘‘The standards of admission to ‘Who’s Who in Amer-
ica’ divide the eligibles into two classes: (1) Those who are selected on account
of special prominence in creditable lines of effort, making them the subjects of
extensive interest, inquiry or discussion in this country; and (2) those who are
arbitrarily included on account of official position—civil, military, naval, religious
or educational—or their connection with the most exclusive learned or other so-
cieties.’’ From a statement following the preface, 1914-15 edition.

VoL 1—4

50 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

The real interest in Table I. centers in the relation between the
number of people living in a given geographic area and the group of
distinguished men produced by this geographic area. Thus New Eng-
land, with 8 per cent. of the total population of the United States in
1880, produced 16 per cent. of the group of distinguished persons under
consideration. The Middle Atlantic states, with 21 per cent. of the
population, produced 25 per cent. of the distinguished persons. The
East North Central states, with 24 per cent. of the distinguished per-
sons, report only 22 per cent. of the population. The Pacific states,
with 2.5 per cent. of distinguished persons, contain 2.3 per cent. of the
population. These four sections produced a percentage of distinguished
persons greater than the percentage of the total population living within
their boundaries. The Mountain states show the same percentage of
population and of distinguished persons. The West North Central
states, and all of the group of Southern states show a proportion of
distinguished persons considerably less than the proportion of the
population.

A map of the United States drawn to represent the relation between
population and the production of distinguished persons would show
New England considerably in the lead, with a proportion of distin-
guished persons twice as great as her proportion of the population. The
Middle Atlantic and East North Central states, while producing a far
lower proportion of distinguished persons than New England, produced
a far higher number. These three groups of states combined are re-
sponsible for two thirds of all the distinguished persons included in
this study.

The variation in individual states is considerable. The dominance
of the New England states is still evident, though not so marked as it
was in the study of 10,000 distinguished native-born persons from the
volume of “ Who’s Who” for 1912-13. From that study it appeared
that each one of the New England states individually reported a higher
proportion of distinguished persons than any other state in the United
States. This situation no longer exists with regard to the younger
persons of distinction. Thus, while the number of distinguished per-
sons per 100,000 population in 1880 was 3.9 for the United States, for
Maine it was 4.8; New Hampshire, 8.9; Vermont, 5.4; Massachusetts,
10.4; Rhode Island, 8.3; Connecticut, 6.6. Thus each one of the New
England states was ahead of the number for the entire country. At
the same time, 3 states reported a higher number of distinguished per-
sons per 100,000 population than the lowest New England state (Maine).
These states were New York, 5.8; California, 5.1; Maryland, 5.0.
New Jersey reported the same number as Maine, namely, 4.8. The fact
remains that each of the New England states except Maine reports a
higher number of distinguished persons than any other state in the

AMERICAN GENIUS 51

United States, while Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island
show a number of distinguished persons nearly twice as great as any
other state in the United States.

Another issue is raised when the problem of city environment is con-
sidered. The recent developments of city life incident to the growth
of the modern industrial world have thrown increasing emphasis upon
the necessity for shaping city requirements to meet human needs.

There is a general supposition that the country boy has an advantage
over the city boy. That this was not true in the earlier decades was
shown very clearly in the study of 10,000 distinguished Americans.
The 27 cities which reported a population of more than 20,000 in 1850
contained approximately one eighth of the population, but reported a
quarter of the total eminent persons. The same thing is true of the
distinguished persons born since 1869.

TABLE IT

NUMBER AND PER CENT. OF EMINENT PERSONS BORN IN CITIES HAVING A POPU-
LATION OF 25,000 oR OVER IN 1870, TOGETHER WITH THE PER CENT. OF
THE POPULATION LIVING IN THOSE CITIES 1870

Number Per Cent.
PD OGAL ICING Jon cit sit easier darainaalda 2,000 100.0
ES IAI ATM CLGIES) 4 oiclolcvardiciatesctel at s(aletacsieleialct< 640 32.0
Total population of the United States
living in those’ cities, 1870 ......... 5,723,496 14.8

Among the 2,000 distinguished persons under consideration, 640, or
32 per cent., were born in the 50 cities reporting a population of 25,000
and over in 1870. These cities in 1870 contained 5,723,496 persons,
or 14.8 per cent. of the total population of the United States in 1870.
In other words, the proportion of distinguished persons born in the later
decades is higher for city environment than appeared in the earlier
decades.

The records for individual cities compared with the records for the
country at large are indeed remarkable. The number of distinguished
persons per 100,000 population in certain of these cities was as follows:

The fecundity of certain cities in distinguished persons is indeed
surprising. Cambridge, with 47.5 per 100,000, is far in the lead.
Nashville, the second city, with 34.9, again has a considerable advantage
over Columbus, Ohio (25.6), and Lynn, Mass. (24.8). Washington
falls in as city number five, with a record of 20.2. After this point
the cities range themselves with some degree of equality.

The cities which show the highest proportion of distinguished per-
sons per population are not the large cities. Indeed, the large cities
occupy a place of distinct inferiority in this respect. Throughout this
table of individual cities it is evident that no particular section occupies

52 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

TABLE IIT
NUMBER AND PROPORTION OF DISTINGUISHED PERSONS BORN IN CERTAIN CITIES
Total Per 100,000

Geographical Area Distinguished Persons Population 1880
[Gfarhvayel (Sees Gino o ain o. vor O ond oO oO. 2,000 3.9
PMA GOMNIG Y oi.5 i aks 2 sss see a hme alee oie oie 61 US
Shiny DENK OT, te 65 agape dco uobr ood uGons sic 18 {hats
BN Gey IY GENK NGEY there ciate! sere te oie s\el alee ae nyele atell= 151 7.8
IB ALEIMOTO toe tleie es eleveuere s G.sunieds Scieleis eles ckoselniess 26 7.9
MEST LEI OM eer eic tate ie te eiielov thas ess /spohl.e ex RE Say ee 10 8.0
RICH ITOM Gass ere eee ie slate tetiove fests stants fai-era evens whey 6 9.1
PPR EATER hele eich exes oes) s[s@ as! ein iw eis & nein =n 13 9.3
Mul wake ae setts. Vive cotcrets aieneister sich stsie <6 tole 7 9.8
IBGE PUUIEy) ty s5 Hd Oe ble Boca sinl SOO One 10 9.9
Cincinnati ssc occ) aoe peat ees SSA oremioe 22 10.2
WWIGTGOSHOL Mer teia levers aiciel os sionetoileisievsie hs ohele =) «:syeil> 6 10.3
SSA VAM be teeere araitaiel srstn seeker cust eiehe.'s ove isiayn © aie 3 10.8
IDNR eS Ae OOOO AOR OTE aie aeroe 9 11.3
IPTOVIGCUCOME IG Cire ic Sicko oleic rata cle ieee eis Yel 12 11.4
IN GV RI ey Peta Tayet oo acisrs ei-venesladcne, erento sais cecs\yexger sole 14 13.4
HVE RE Bie Bese -ie cts swe je se So oom Bie) S15 Hs 45 15.1
itary GIy) dig sag be ado doGEDO a Gono dou 5 15.4
ING W PETA VOTE eT eeetoiss sects) ces shauslnyelesexe crevsliovelstevepaneliets 8 15.7
PS OSLOTI Pedro voy cts lat alos one ecole e Telelio lation torsion ate te 41 16.3
Partner h jb Lacon la os ekernwet See 6 BW PY 6
AT GEORG Gc eryekeh ete Sink ayauev 9 fosenclsts ayelay siele ete ete tf 18.9
MNES MNO: > otic Boom Ses agonQAp en agUDedas 36 20.2
Myris OP ecadeleetetsieke 15. ions, cievele are oie eye) Silesia isisiole if 24.8
Columbus cae iersies iets oie ss ivieterewsl spate wine iste 8 25.6
IN ashivillledereccoptntsiers s: #1 sycietele. o ciate tleye ticle ersheus ions 9 34.7
Gan TAM Gurnee yes ce cid che a0 tiple mieislecee poart do 47.5

a position of importance. Thus the leading city is in Massachusetts;
the second most prominent city is in Tennessee. Most of the cities are,
of course, taken from the northern tier of the country, because most of
the cities of the country are in this tier; but the southern section in
proportion to the number of its cities is well represented.

The proportion of eminent persons born in cities seems to be higher
in the later than in the earlier decade. Thus in the decade from 1870
to 1879, 31.3 per cent. of the total distinguished persons were born in
the cities; and in the next decade, 1880 to 1889, 36.5 per cent. were
born in cities; while the only two persons born between 1890 and 1899
whose names appear in “ Who’s Who in America” were of city origin.

The supremacy of the cities over the rural districts is well illus-
trated by a consideration of the relation existing between place of birth
and occupation. It should be borne in mind that the 50 cities which
reported a population of 25,000 or over in 1870 contained about one
seventh of the total population of the country in that year. The per
cent. of city-born persons in certain occupations appears in the follow-
ing table:

AMERICAN GENIUS 53

TABLE IV

NuMBER AND PER CENT. OF EMINENT PERSONS, CLASSIFIED BY OCCUPATIONS,
WHO WERE BORN IN CITIES

Occupations Total Persons Born in Cities dag Soa
FAIMOCCUDAUIODSI. *..0-0.s san cic, bie sre 2,000 640 32.0
PPELUOELONS ig. acceso 0\ er ala'ssiepatee hate 467 117 25.0
PUI GIOLE Ss heciods ova 'euea:o cra ainionacsee werite 232 91 39.2
Public Office Holders........... 216 58 26.9
PUMGRUTIS OS ets, ure) a. o: sere ora llgeetere arenes: 241 60 24.9
IBusmess! MON. <6. <ia sc Sere cwlaloicten 156 65 41.6
HSA URVONS eh 0.4) ole ie: dinlalete tciete SiePoaitee 138 50 35.9
RUGSTIVTIALISUS cy... lerelalas Stoners ae exstolaeiene 125 41 32.8
PP OOGORS sooo ss cvascrovereteterstaraierars tale 102 34 BBR:
GlereyMeN ss ,604 5:2 o.cistevecstersenarororere 68 13 19.1
INTO SEER ORG ICEG © ots Choe CCC 41 18 43.9
Miscellaneous... cciacsdke caeree ss 214 93 43.4

The clergymen report the smallest percentage of city origin, falling
to one fifth. The highest proportion, for actors and authors, show more
than two fifths of city origin. Business men appear in almost the
same class. A third of the lawyers, journalists and doctors are born in
the city, while a quarter of the educators, public office holders, and scien-
tists are of city origin. In every occupation, with the exception of
clergymen, the proportion of persons of city origin is far greater than
the relation between city and rural population would seem to warrant.

The younger generation of distinguished Americans were born in
the north and east sections of the United States. Although the lead of
New England is not so pronounced as it was in the earlier decades, it is
still considerable. These persons were born in cities. The large cities
of the United States, containing a seventh of the population, produced a
third of the younger generation of distinguished Americans. The lead-
ers of American life are still coming from a small area in the north-
eastern part of the United States, and particularly from the cities there.

38. THE TIME oF BirTH

Little can be said about the period of birth of the distinguished
persons under consideration, because almost nine tenths of them were
born within the decade between 1870 and 1879. Since the group under
consideration must necessarily be less than forty-five years of age, the
earlier decade would naturally contain most of them.

TABLE V
NUMBER AND PER CENT. OF EMINENT PERSONS WHO WERE BORN AT CERTAIN
PERIODS
Number Per Cent.
ASTOR79) cetre at erstinele ticle Mistna setts einssare By ag 88.5
TSSOASO eis. s. patie cabinis an eneae Moye oie «aI 227 11.4
TROOSI GA SE PS c'o wa ciecetaue slohele Avni fa reser rete iat 2 1

ofall 3232). Osea Rey locas 2,000 100.0

54 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

4. EDUCATION

The chief advantage ascribed to New England by many of the critics
of the previous study lay in her educational system. Although it was
impossible to secure from the biographical records in “ Who’s Who” any
satisfactory statement of the common-school education, there was a very
general record of college attendance. The figures showing college affili-
ation are significant.

TABLE VI
COLLEGE AFFILIATION OF EMINENT PERSONS
Number Per Cent.
No college affiliation .............+..-4-- 263 Teh
Attended, but did not graduate .......... 190 9.5
Holders of degrees ...........e-eeeeeeees 1,547 77.4
PERLE aid essa hints tai 2,000 100.0

More than three quarters of the younger generation of eminent per-
sons are college graduates. The caption, “No college affiliation,” may
include certain persons who graduated from college but failed to state
the fact when they made out their biographies. Almost nine tenths
report some college affiliation. Among the younger group of distin-
guished Americans a college education seems to be a recognized necessity.

For a century the New England and Middle Atlantic states were
the home of colleges. Does the fact have any marked effect on the
extent of college affiliation? The following table seems to answer the
question in the negative:

TABLE VII

CoLLEGE AFFILIATION OF DISTINGUISHED PERSONS CLASSIFIED BY
GEOGRAPHICAL AREA

No College Per Cent. Having No

Geographical Area Total Persons Affiliation College Affiliation

Ly Repeat ovetal bia ts Ppt Sale Aare: Sr OR 331 38 ile 59
Middle Atlantic States.......... 503 78 15.5
East North Central States....... 480 60 12:5
West North Central............ 235 31 13.2
South Atlantic States........... 226 25 bilgi
AML there s.: elas Eee eb ieie ere 225 31 13.8

Total vat eiciceeiste oda Eteiaio 2,000 263 aks Rib

The per cent. of distinguished persons having no college affiliation
does not vary greatly from one geographic area to the other. It is
highest in the Middle Atlantic states, and lowest in the South Central
states.

The figures for individual colleges are, however, significant, suggest-
ing again that there is a certain carrying power in vested culture which

AMERICAN GENIUS 55

is a large asset in the success of the individual who comes into contact
with it. Although the figures for individual colleges were in a sense
unsatisfactory because they were so scattering, in another sense they
were profoundly significant.

TABLE VIII

NUMBERS OF DISTINGUISHED PERSONS GRADUATING FROM CERTAIN
SPECIFIED COLLEGES

EIGER VET CN.) .cierscale se dia a civle aialepararniate 155 ete WERCONSING a) cicveleieyaisteiereyn o's) 29
BYR iiay ., ccc laiats. iat eccreia ainete alalotet otal tat 83 PSSA CUTUEERD (an eeaver ove eretiatata: el slehel et dias a?a"s, sh 28
Molt DIG” Aci occelaiealciateteleterstaherst ta 52 Massachusetts Institute of Tech-

BET CHU OAT ie ssc! «)avnsete sieisicneiopatcie ctste 44 TOLD, v2'e ews ee sye\e'o) welele ale elelele « 28
RIOEMENL :«. ois). sn sine Sev ones 4.5 wine aaate 36 Jong HOPKINS’ 450; <0s bis eee ees s 26
University of Pennsylvania ..... 36 es OR MELCHER s cduai stele s ie shee eee 26
PPIN COLOM: Uercctcictelel ole lorete i eie arayetelst 34 Wi col \Californiae yaiec scale clasts stele 25

The persons under consideration were born since 1869. They were
therefore graduated for the most part since 1890. If the figures had
reference to the middle of the nineteenth century, it might readily be
taken for granted that they would pile up in certain of the older col-
leges; but these graduations have all occurred since 1890, in the age of
many colleges. Nevertheless, the piling-up process is evident.

Harvard leads the race and, save for Yale, she has not even a re-
spectable competitor. Among the 2,000 distinguished persons of the
younger generation, Harvard has graduated almost as many as Colum-
bia, Cornell, Pennsylvania and Michigan combined; almost as many
as Columbia, Cornell, Pennsylvania and Princeton combined; almost
as many as Wisconsin, Stanford, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Johns Hopkins, Chicago and California combined. Harvard and Yale
together have graduated 24 more of these distinguished persons than
Columbia, Cornell, Pennsylvania and Princeton combined. The su-
premacy of these two institutions, and of Harvard in particular, is little
short of astounding.®

The effectiveness of these two institutions becomes even more re-
markable when account is taken of the geographical distribution of their
graduates. Most of the colleges listed show a great majority of localized
graduations. Thus among 52 distinguished graduates at Columbia, 34
were born in the Middle Atlantic states; among 34 at Princeton, 20
were born in the Middle Atlantic states; among 25 at California, 19
were born in the Pacific states; among 44 at Michigan, 33 were born in
the East North Central states. The contrast between these institutions
and Harvard and Yale is strongly brought out in the following table:

8 The writer is not a graduate of Harvard or Yale, and has never had any
official relations with either institution.

56 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

‘TABLE IX

LACE OF BIRTH AND COLLEGE AFFILIATION OF DISTINGUISHED PERSONS, FOR
CERTAIN COLLEGES

Graduated from

Born in —_——
Harvard Yale Columbia | Michigan Cornell
New England States........... 78 27 5 2 —
Middle Atlantic States......... 33 Be 34 3 22
East North Central States...... 27 15 7 33 a
West North Central States..... 6 8 1 2 4
PAT ater see eae etic ry ia 10 5 4 3
eLOtAL Soy. Cetera Ne co aioe 155 83 52 44 36

Yale, even more than Harvard, seems to have drawn her distin-
guished alumni from all parts of the country, and both of these colleges
have done this in a unique way that is without parallel among the other
colleges for which returns were tabulated, with the single exception of
Stanford.

The dissenter will argue that the very fact of the wide geographical
distribution of the distinguished persons from Harvard and Yale is a
proof that the pick of prospective college students, from all sections,
choose Harvard and Yale. At the same time, something must be said
for the power which an ideal of culture may exert. If it is true, as
many historians assert, that the spirit of Athens and Rome kindled the
fires of genius in their sons, then it may be equally true that the spirit
at Harvard and at Yale kindles the fires of genius in their sons. Cul-
ture is a power. Somewhere it must be centered. Both the studies of
distinguished Americans which are under consideration seem to show
a high pressure area of culture over New England, and centering in
her great institutions of learning.

5. OCCUPATIONS

The persons whose names appear in “ Who’s Who in America” are
almost wholly professional people. Among the 38,167,336 gainfully
occupied persons in the United States in 1910, 4 in each hundred were
in professions; yet among the 2,000 distinguished persons under con-
sideration, 80 in each hundred were in the professions. Hither it is
true that professional people make up the bulk of distinguished persons
in the community, or else the people who are named from “ Who’s Who”
are picked from the professional classes. Experience would lead to the
belief that the leaders are picked from the professional classes.

Educators are far in the lead among the occupational groups. In-
deed, they contribute nearly a quarter of the total, and almost twice as
large a group as the scientists, who rank next. Authors and public
office holders rank close together. The rear is brought up by the learned

AMERICAN GENIUS 57

TABLE X
NUMBER AND PER CENT. OF EMINENT PERSONS BORN SINCE 1869 IN CERTAIN
OccuUPATIONS
Number Per Cent.
ATICABOLS) «3 ss 2 aeyoraislale se crd saiedeen erepatertvebera 467 23.4
SGIONUISUAS «<i 5c) ave catuie Warerctefort aweterereaieetn or 241 12.1
ER UGHOTR) Jc oiS's- shale orchgsle soit slercuatevene teria ath vos 232 11.6
Publier Office: Holdersia.. sere seracyse sierra © 215 10.8
BUSINESS: Men's) civerete rave ors letetstereie aye ov eiteer otal 156 7.8
EIR WOES ire ci chavonsie acer cre ereter cies eratael sia are 139 6.9
SOUTTALISES:: ('ofa.s) sic /evepcrere tale ccleimtatevel stolereieteteters 125 6.2
DOGtors > Sica Fe ciciareeta Sie teteters eet eevee clonal are 102 5.1
AIR oy ON 42 ssc tt cer eree tea otk aisle lee aie ater 68 3.4
Miscellaneous) saccasc tees ces © eales 255 12.7
otal wos heer oaater eee oe: 2,000 100.0

professions—lawyers, doctors and clergymen. These three groups,
with the journalists, make up a less percentage than the educators alone.

The real surprise in the occupation figures arises out of a comparison
between the occupations of the persons of all ages, studied in the “ Who’s
Who” for 1912-13, and the persons born since 1869, included in the
present study. Some of the differences existing between the two groups
are striking.

TABLE XI
Perr CENT. OF PERSONS IN VARIOUS OCCUPATIONS AS APPEARING IN ‘‘WHO’S
WHO’’ For Two PERIODS OF TIME

First 10,000 Native- First 2,000 Persons
born Persons in Native-born Since

**Who’s Who” 1869, ** Who’s Who”’
1912-13 1914-15

ENTATICA LOLA sors sieicie ccs olar crete a oes a ctaveresietd wale 19.3 23.4
NEEL WV GLEN eet tretoce arch ai slabs feveiet site Susie"'el Sey scaveia ate 13.6 6.9
Eaplicn@tice: Holders) 2.)s cc oe teri ne ee ae isis 10.8
IBUSINGHAE MOTE ete sero ois Aare eek eee 9.9 7.8
SANT EN OES MEER tere cite: cFeiniele olor ole Tbe 9.1 11.6
Clare yalieie gor ah sve cl olainis ess nev ataerad o'ia sie 7.3 3.4
WD OCECES MI epee iets. ain re inte rae tos 6.2 yal
SCLENSESM a Teter toes oe eoles ace le ctieetier 6.1 12.1
J OUTUANATS esate ys ree ora ieee Re ees 6.0 6.2
Mascellaneousa ae sentir ee eee 9.0 12.7

Relat sa tees Soya aay | e's: 100.0 100.0

The gains are made by educators, authors and scientists. Scien-
tists, in particular, have doubled their percentage. The greatest decline
is shown by clergymen and by lawyers. It seems a little surprising
that there should have been a decrease in the proportion of business men,

There is always a possibility that the method of selecting names for
the “ Who’s Who” volume may have changed of late years in a way to
place greater emphasis on some occupations, and less on others. At

58 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY —

the same time, daily experience verifies most of the showings made by
these figures.

Apparently, community leadership expresses itself through the pro-
fessions, preeminently. At the same time, during recent years there
is a rapidly changing significance in professions. Educators, scientists,
authors, public officials and business men now make up the body of
leadership. The old-time learned professions comprise a comparatively
small element in the whole group of distinguished Americans.

6. Tue Sex oF DISTINGUISHED AMERICANS

The most impressive fact which the study of sex distribution among
distinguished Americans brings to light is the phenomenally small
proportion of women whose names are included. Among the first 2,000
names of American-born persons appearing in “ Who’s Who in Amer-
ica,” only 169 are the names of women.

There is no section of the country in which the number of women
approaches that of men. There is considerable variation. The number
of women per hundred men is higher in the west than in the east, and
higher in the north than in the south. At the same time the ratio is
at best extremely low.

TABLE XII

Sex DISTRIBUTION AMONG THE YOUNGER GENERATION OF DISTINGUISHED AMER-
ICANS By GEOGRAPHIC AREAS

fot
Total Men Women bs a ae _

a Pep, fa dhaved bot UCI) ot pros Oh enc ALC 331 292 39 13
Middle Atlantic States............ 503 453 50 11
East North Central States......... 480 448 32 ¥
West North Central States......... 235 222 13 6
Saji antes) nly as a Pee ene 226 214 12 6
East South Central States......... 108 100 8 8
West South Central States......... 40 34 6 17
DM onsitain bated inate ie terete osc o/e'e's 26 24 2 8
Parmho States: Manca e ace vin stele (e ks 51 44 of 16

OLAS Coe Gc ti iia Rate vice 2,000 1,831 169 9

The names of women appear very unequally in the various occu-
pations.

The women listed among the first 2,000 names in “ Who’s Who”
constitute 8.4 per cent. of the whole. There are four occupations as
classified in Table XIII. for which the distinguished women are prac-
tically non-existent, and two others in which they make but a sorry
showing. Lawyers, business men, public office holders and clergymen
include 57% men, or 32 per cent. of the total number of distinguished
men. ‘The same four occupations report 1 woman, or 0.5 per cent. of

AMERICAN GENIUS 59

the distinguished women. Add to these four occupations doctors and
scientists, and the aggregate of the six occupations is 915 (50 per cent.
of all distinguished men). The same six occupations report only 6
(3.5 per cent.) of the distinguished women. The six occupations—
lawyers, business men, public office holders, clergy, doctors, and scien-
tists—report 915 distinguished men and 6 distinguished women—a ratio
of 0.6 women to 100 men.

TABLE XIII

Sex DistrIBuTION oF First 2,000 AMERICAN-BORN PERSONS APPEARING IN
‘*WHo’s WHO’’ For 1914-15 WHO HAVE BEEN BORN SINCE
1869—By OccuPATION

Occupation Total Men Women

RW VOLS Lio soos) oa wc cteha tte ore 139 138 1
AUCH LOLS i a.n.tho hace mors ote ettreintehe 467 450 alZ
RTISITIORS cfs src eia cee ta Wee te atate 156 156 —
RCHENLINGDS oats ors da arate o's epee 241 238 3
SETOTNIOH:, ti5 be seine sins a Oyeere ars 68 68 —
TATE GES Pe aon syaichs. 2 ale elec acio ela t 232 1b yvA 75
Public Office Holders........... 215 215 —
RRGEINIISEHISUSe © Sey. Rey ahae steps siete 125 117 8
PIONEER Pore oicie lo are sisictntelaehelsiniere 102 100 2
PUHLASERS ESE Seth My gete See oR an 42 16 26
NAGROEM ENCOUN toilet fait eicte eo eyee tee 213 176 37

“G17 lS a Pa A DARE Ra) coe 2,000 1,831 169

The great bulk of the distinguished women listed among the first
2,000 native-born persons in “ Who’s Who” are educators, authors or
actresses. These three occupations, with 623 distinguished men (34
per cent. of the total number), have 118 distinguished women (70 per
cent. of the total number). In these three occupations, therefore, the
ratio of women to men is 1 to 5.

The one occupation of considerable magnitude in which women ap-
proach men is that of author. Of the 232 authors listed among
the first 2,000 American-born persons in “ Who’s Who,” 75 (32 per
cent.) are women. At the same time, the 75 women authors comprise
almost one half of all of the distinguished women whose names appear
in “ Who’s Who.”

This showing takes on peculiar significance in view of the fact that
until within the last thirty or forty years women were practically
excluded from law, public office, the ministry, medicine and higher edu-
cation, while they were admitted with some degree of freedom to the
fields of education and journalism, and could not, in the very nature of
the case, be excluded from authorship. It may be true, as some stu-
dents urge, that women are peculiarly adapted to emotional activities,
of which certain lines of literary achievement are typical. At the same
time, the searcher after truth may point with equal justification to the

60 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

fact that women occupy a position commensurate with that occupied
by men in the one profession where they have been given an opportunity.

The figures dealing with the decade of birth lend emphasis to the
idea that the failure of women to attain positions of distinction has
been due, in the past, to the restriction in opportunity.

Women have been free to enter upon careers that led to public dis-
tinction only within the past thirty or forty years. Extensive higher
education for women does not date back more than twenty or twenty-
five years.

TABLE XIV

Sex DISTRIBUTION OF First 2,000 Prrsons IN ‘‘WHO’s WHO IN AMERICA’’
(1914-15) WHO HAVE BEEN BORN SINCE 1869

Decade | Total Men | Women bbe 2
1870-79 | 1,771 1,638 133 8
1880-89 297 192 35 18

Born since 1890 | 2 1 1 100
Total: 4 eee ee Att) 1,831 169 9

Among the distinguished persons born between 1870 and 1879 there
are only 8 women per hundred men. In the next decade this number
increases to 18, more than double; and in the last decade, where of
course the figures are so few as to be wholly undependable, the ratio
is even. The later figures will undoubtedly show an increase in the
ratio of women to men.

7. CONCLUSIONS

The facts regarding the place and time of birth, education, occupa-
tion and sex of the younger generation of distinguished Americans lead
to some rather significant conclusions. New England, though no longer
supreme, is still distinctly in the ascendant as a producer of American
leadership. The leadership comes out of the cities to a far greater
degree than it does from rural districts. In certain cities, like Cam-
bridge and Nashville, the fecundity in distinguished persons is excep-
tional. Among the persons listed in “Who’s Who” who were born
after 1869, the great majority were born in the decade 1870-79. The
younger generation of distinguished Americans consists almost wholly
of college graduates. In the list of colleges which have educated these
distinguished persons, certain institutions, notably Harvard and Yale,
stand out preeminently as trainers of leadership. The old learned pro-
fessions—law, medicine and the ministry—are losing very rapidly in
favor of science and education. There has been a revolution in the
source from which community leadership is secured. The younger
generation of distinguished Americans is overwhelmingly male; only a

AMERICAN GENIUS 61

few women have pushed into the ranks, and they are found in only
three professions.

The tendencies which were noted in the earlier study of distin-
guished Americans appear in this later study—some less, and some more
marked. Leadership arises even in this last generation from one half
of the population, the men; from one small group of the population,
the college-bred ; from one small geographic area, the northeastern sec-
tion of the United States; from one small group of occupations, the
professions.

62 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

MUSEUM FATIGUE

By BENJAMIN IVES GILMAN

BOSTON MUSEUM OF FIND ARTS, BOSTON, MASS.

fh HE museum in which the photographs here reproduced were taken

no longer exists; but the conditions depicted are still well-nigh
universal. 'The museum was the first Museum of Fine Arts in Boston,
of which the present great structure on the Fenway became in 1909 the
successor. The conditions are those resulting from the type of museum
case and of museum installation widely accepted as standards among us.

The photographs were taken with the object of determining by
actual observation just what kinds and amount of muscular effort are
demanded of the visitor who endeavors to see exhibits as museum au-
tharities plan to have them seen. “Museum fatigue” is an admitted
evil, hitherto tacitly accepted as admitting only relief. May not a study
of how it comes about suggest some means of prevention?

The method adopted in the inquiry was the following. A series of
simple questions was devised relating to certain objects mostly installed
at higher or lower levels and in cases ; and an observer was photographed in
the act of answering them. The observer, an intelligent man with good
eye-sight, and well accustomed to museums and their contents, was
instructed to answer the questions with the least possible exertion and
to hold the positions he needed to assume for the purpose until he
could be photographed.

The pictures obtained indicate that an Paced amount of physical
effort is demanded of the ideal visitor by the present methods in which
we offer most objects to his inspection. It is at once evident that these
methods form an effective bar to the adequate fulfilment by museums
of the public function they aim to perform. Not even the hardiest
sight-seer will long go through with the contortions which the pictures
indicate are needed for any comprehension of much of what we display
to him. After a brief initial exertion he will resign himself to seeing
practically everything imperfectly and by a passing glance. If the
public is to gain more than a minute fraction of the good from museum
exhibits which is theirs to give and which now can be gained by the
private student, radical changes in our methods of exhibition are im-
perative. As at present installed, the contents of our museums are
in large part only preserved, not shown.

Indeed, we may even go further and claim that in some proportion
of the objects put on public view in every museum the qualities for
which they are shown are rendered wholly invisible by the way they are
shown. They are so placed and in such lighting that it is a physical

MUSEUM FATIGUE 63

impossibility by any exertion of limb or eye to descry the particular
characteristics to which they owe their selection for show. This is
literally an absurd state of things; yet there would be little risk in of-
fering to point out to any museum curator objects so concealed by their
installation in his own museum.

On the other hand, a proportion of the objects in every museum may
be adequately seen without any marked exertion. ‘These are the in-
stances in which objects are installed approximately on a level with and
near to the eye of the visitor as he stands upright before them. They
constitute a minor fraction of museum installations, and are not repre-
sented in the accompanying illustrations. Our present purpose is to
inquire into the larger proportion of instances in which adequate seeing
demands exertion.

The questions and answers here follow, grouped according to the
types of attitude represented in the illustrations. The cases called
floor cases are from six to seven feet high, two and one half to three
feet broad, five feet long, with a main floor at about thirty inches from
the ground, and supported either on legs or on a closed lower com-
partment.

These pictures indicate that the principal sources of that part of
museum fatigue which comes from muscular effort to see objects well
are two: (1) low installations in upright cases; (2) broad installations
in flat or desk cases. High installation may put objects out of sight,
but is a minor source of fatigue; while to bring the eye within seeing
distance of low shelves is apt to demand bending the knees; and the
effort to see objects at the back of wide desk or flat cases requires bend-
ing at the hips. The pictures indicate further two ways in which ob-
jects may be exhibited in museum cases so as to make invisible some or
all of the features which warrant their exhibition. They may, first, be
concealed in part by others. They may, second, be placed too far back
from the glass to be seen in the necessary detail. The effort of the eye
muscles can not be directly shown in pictures, but is evidently consid-
erable and may be hopeless.

The inferences are that museum fatigue would be greatly helped
were upright cases to stand higher, flat and desk cases to be made nar-
rower, and all cases shallower from front to back. This shallowing
would put an end to the concealment of one object by another by putting
an end to the exhibition of multiple rows of objects on the same shelf.
All cases would be single row cases. The shallowing would further
bring all the contents of a case within the limits of close scrutiny.
These inferences from the present experiment may be made more pre-
cise by others based on measurements of the human body and of the
contents of museum shelves. Estimating the height of the average
visitor at sixty-three inches, his eye will be about sixty inches above

64 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

I. Bent.

Fic. 1. Object—An Egyptian panel
about six inches square set upright be-
tween two jars on a pedestal in the cen-
ter of a floor case. Question.—What is
the material of this panel? Answer.—
Wood.

Fic. 3. Object—A print displayed
in a desk case. @Q.—What are these chil-
dren running away from? A.—A dog.

(a) Hands behind back.

Fic. 2. Object.~ -Chinese bronze mir-
rors exhibited in a wall case. @.—De-
scribe the pattern of one of the mirrors
in the lowest row. A.—A central knob in
a square, with knobs about and other
patterns.

(b) Hands on

knee or otherwise sup-

ported.
Fic. 4. Object.—An Egyptian statu-
ette of gold, about three inches high, on a

stand on the center pedestal of a floor
case, behind an upright lens. The ob-
server was asked to inspect this object
and to read its label.

MUSEUM FATIGUE 65

lz
rig
i?
e

Fic.. 5... Object:—Electrotype: repro- E1a:." 6: Object.—A painting’ by
ductions of Greek coins in a frame hung Meissonier representing a horseman. The
against the wall. The observer was ..painting was hung on the line. Q.—
asked to read the label of a coin in one of What is represented on the horse’s crup-
the lower rows. per? A.—A blanket rolled up.

Fic. 7. Object.—A'’ Greek coin ex- Fic. 8. Object.—Plaster impressions
hibited toward the front of a flat case. from engraved Greek gems, exhibited in a
@.— Describe the device on this coin. A.— flat case. @—The observer was asked to
A cow licking her hind foot. describe the device on one of the gems'‘in

the center of the case. A.—Two goats.

VOL. I1.—5.

66 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

II. Much bent.

Fic. 9. Object—Greek dagger handle
with carved top, lying in the center of a
desk case. @Q.—Describe the carving. A.
—It represents an animal devouring a
ram’s head.

Fig. 10. Object—A Renaissance
crucifix lying on the bottom of a floor
case, and bearing an incised design. The
observer was asked to describe the de-
sign. A.—The figure of Christ.

WrG. 11, Object.—A fragment of
lying on the bottom of a floor
What does the pattern on this
represent? A.—A group of five

ornament
case. Q.
fragment
persons dancing.

Fig. 12.
Venus of Melos.

Object.—A cast of the
The observer was asked
to read the label on the pedestal.

MUSEUM FATIGUE 67

III. Half-crouching.

Fic. 13. Object.—A fragment of a Fic. 14. -Object.—A crystal ball on
relief on wood lying flat on the bottom of a carved metal pedestal in a floor case.
a floor case. @Q.—What is represented on Q.—What does the pedestal represent?
this relief? A.—A bird. A.—Cliffs, with houses and trees.

IV. Crouching.

Fig. 15. Object.—Engraving after Fic. 16. Object.—Terra-cotta statu-
Canaletto in the lower row of a wall-case. ette on lower shelf of case. Q.—What is
Q.—lIs the space in the center land or this goddess resting her elbow on? A,—
water? A.—Water. A smaller statuette bearing a drum-

shaped object on its head.

68 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

OR ee te Rabie

Fic. 17. Object.—English posset cup Fig: 18.
in the base of a floor case. The observer
was asked to read the label.

Object.—A Greek vase on
lower shelf of case. @.—Describe the de-
sign on this vase. A.—A rough vine pat-
tern. 3

Fic. 19. Object.—Cast of the Lao- Fig. 20.

coon. The observer was asked to read the Propylea on an easel. The observer was
label.

asked to read the label.

Object.

Drawing of the

MUSEUM FATIGUE 69

Fic. 21. Object——Drawing of the
sculptures on the western pediment of the
Parthenon, installed on the pedestal of
the casts reproducing their remains. Q.—
Describe the figure farthest to the right.
A.—A youth lying down.

V. Twisted.

Fig. 22: Object—A fragment of
Arretine pottery lying near the end of a
desk case. Q.—How many musical in-
struments can be seen in this group? A,
—two: harp and pipes.

VI. Looking up.

Fic, 23. Object—A landscape hung
high. @.—Is the sky clear or cloudy? A.
—Overecast.

Fic. 24. Object.—A textile hanging
over a wall case. @Q.—Has the upper
border the same pattern as the lower? A,
—Yes; but reversed.

70 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

VII. Stretching forward. VIII. Stretching up.
Fic. 25. Object.—Statuette on a Fic. 26. Object.—A vase on upper
bracket back of a desk case. The ob- shelf of case. The observer was asked to
server was asked to read the label. read the label and notice the pattern,

Fic. 27. Object.—Chinese bronze Fic. 28. Object.—A vase on the back
mirrors in a wall case. @.—Describe the row of the upper shelf of a case. Q.—Is
pattern of one of the mirrors on the top’ there a pattern on the neck? A,—Yes;
row. A.—A central knob in a square’ bands of horizontal lines.
with knobs about and other patterns.

MUSEUM FATIGUE 71

Fig. 29. Object—A small ivory IX. Climbing up.
carving (netsuke) on the upper shelf of a Fic. 30. Object.—A cast of a head

me Saag eae ait. ah ad of Hera hung high on the wall. The ob-
rT ; i server was asked to read the label. A.—

ih I can read the large letters, but not the
small.

the floor and his hip joint about thirty-eight or thirty-nine inches. For
the minutest inspection of a work of art, as for reading fine print, the
eye should not be more than about twelve inches from it. The distance
forward of a perpendicular from the feet, to which the eye may easily
be carried by bending the body from the hips, is not over about fifteen
inches. Of the objects commonly preserved in cases in our museums,
but a small fraction, perhaps hardly more than a twentieth, are over
twelve inches in diameter. Of objects of the nature of ornamented
surfaces in frames or settings, or otherwise needing to be seen only on
one side, but a smaller proportion are more than two or three inches
from front to back.

From these figures approximate dimensions for cases which shall
reduce the muscular effort of good seeing to a minimum may be deduced
as follows: the lowest exhibition level for case objects should not be
more than eighteen inches below the average eye, or forty-two inches
from the ground instead of thirty inches or less, as often at present.
This would be the indicated height for the bottom of upright cases and
the front level of desk or flat cases. The use of the base compartment
of cases for exhibition should be given up. The breadth of flat cases
should not be greater than about eighteen inches, instead of twenty-eight
inches or more as at present. Desk (inclined) cases may be somewhat
wider. Beyond these limits the eye can not easily be brought within
close seeing distance of the back of the case. The depth of flat or desk

72 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

cases from the glass to the bottom should not be greater than from two.
to four inches, instead of from six to twelve inches as at present. A
depth from front to back of four inches would often also suffice for
wall cases, instead of from sixteen to twenty-four inches as at present.
Six inches might be regarded as their maximum supposing them used to,
receive only objects seen to full advantage from one side. The depth
of upright floor cases from front to back should not exceed twelve inches.
A smaller standard depth of eight inches would probably also be found
useful. Upright floor cases or wall cases might be eighty-four inches
high instead of one hundred or more as at present. It is. true the
bottom of an object twelve inches high installed at the top of such a
case with three inches above to. spare would be six inches above the
average eye, and the top eighteen inches. But since, on the twelve-inch
shelf assumed, all parts of the object would be within six inches of the
glass, it would all be within practicable. seeing distance, although only
the lower part could be closely examined.

The stability of floor cases a foot or less in breadth and seven feet
high would require to be secured by special means. If-the legs were
perpendicular, they would need to be fastened to the floor, otherwise
they would need a wider bearing by extended feet; or a removable bar
at the top of the case connecting it with another might be given a
design in harmony with their framing and join the two into a stable
pair.

One result of the use of shallower cases would be that there would
be less waste space within them. At present the space within a floor
case of the usual broad dimensions is only very partially used. The
exhibit is generally arranged in a pyramidal form of which the lower
levels are seen against the successive steps of an interior pedestal and
only the top row is shown above it and can be seen on all sides. All
the space above the lower rows of objects is empty. In the narrow case
proposed there would be in general no pedestal, but shelves alone. There
would be no empty space above any row of objects and every object
would be visible from all sides. Since a larger number of cases could
be placed in a given area, another result would be that a greater pro-
portion of museum objects would be exposed to view on all sides. An
economy of case-space would be coupled with a completer showing of
case-contents.

Such changes would make a radical difference in the appearance of
museum galleries. They would be fitted with a number of small cases,
very shallow and standing but not reaching high, instead of a few large
ones, broad, set low and rising higher. Wall cases would shrink to
one quarter their present depth, upright floor cases to one third their
present depth and to a less average height, and desk and flat cases to
three quarters their width and one third their vertical depth. Delicate,

MUSEUM FATIGUE +6

instead of heavy, construction would be the rule. The exhibits would
be shown spaced and unobstructed instead of grouped into decorative
pyramids or serried ranks. The small fraction of objects which are
over twelve inches in diameter would be installed either in the open
or each in its separate case.

Nevertheless, there would remain opportunity within the cases for
the more or less advantageous showing of more or less meritorious ob-
jects. The upright cases on the floor and the wall would still have a
piano nobile, or main level, in the space directly opposite the eye. Be-
tween a bottom at forty-two inches above the floor and a top at eighty-
four inches, there would be forty-two inches of space which, if divided
by two shelves giving three spaces about fourteen inches each, would
offer three gradations of prominence: first, the middle at fifty-six to
seventy inches, because seen without effort by the average eye at sixty
inches; second, the lowest, because perfectly seen at forty-two to fifty-
six inches by inclining the body a few inches; and third, the uppermost,
from seventy to eighty-four inches, because seen simply by raising the
glance, although inaccessible to the closest inspection. If divided by
a central shelf at sixty-three inches, the upper space of twenty-one
inches would be the piano nobile, because the lower and generally more
important part of the object would be open to close inspection without
fatigue. On the under shelf, only the upper and generally less im-
portant part of an object could be studied without bending.

In cases such as these museums would, for the first time, possess
veritable show cases. Hitherto these indispensable protective devices
have in reality been glazed storage chests valuable primarily for their
capacity. Their wide shelving with double or triple or multiple rows
of objects is a survival from the days when museums were thought of
as magazines where things were kept in safety ready for inspection when
needed. Such shelving has no real place in these days of serious at-
tempts to deal with the problems of public show.

The present argument is not the first that has been offered in sup-
port of narrow cases; nor are they unknown in newer museum installa-
tions. Mr. Lewis Foreman Day wrote a few years ago:

Museum cases are nearly always too big—and especially they are much too
wide.

One argument against deep cases is:

that the things at the back of them (and in the center of square cases) are
reduced to background. Another is, you can not get close enough to see things
properly. . . . Think what a big vase you can put on a mantel-piece from nine
to twelve inches wide, and you will realize how seldom it is necessary to have
cases much wider than that. ... Some of the cases at Munich are not more
than nine inches deep, and it is astonishing the size of the objects they hold.1

1Lewis Foreman Day, F.S.A., ‘‘How to Make the Most of a Museum,’’
Journal of the Society of Arts, January 10, 1908, p. 153 f.

74 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

The smaller shelf-widths which Mr. Day notes at Munich have come
into occasional use also in other museums, American and foreign. In
Boston the show-space tends also to be set higher.

The reduction in the cubic contents of museum cases here advocated,
in harmony with Mr. Day’s suggestion and newer practice, is the second
radical improvement in these fixtures since public museums were insti-
tuted. The first is an improvement from the point of view of the
museum ; the second from the point of view of the visitor. The device
known in Europe as the Reichenberger case (due to Dr. Gustav EH.
Pazaurek, Director at the time of the North Bohemian Museum of In-
dustrial Art), and in America as the Boston case (independently in-
vented with a different mechanism by Mr. W. W. MacLean of the Boston
Museum), consists in opening a case by lifting its top with a windlass
instead of unlocking its doors with a key. This was a proposal in the
interest of the security of the contents from dust, damp and theft. The
reduction of the size and particularly of the depth of cases is a proposal
in the interest of the easy visibility of their contents. By making also
this second advance in the construction of these necessary fixtures, the
museum would be in a position to fulfill more perfectly both of its essen-
tial functions, first as guardian and then as expositor of the treasures
committed to its charge.

The use of smaller cases has for a corollary a reduction in the num-
ber of objects shown simultaneously. It would be another step in the
pathway which modern museums have already entered upon in dividing
their contents into show and study series and in alternating objects
between the two. The era of smaller and changing exhibits is also an
era of better exhibition.

THE FUNCTION OF MILK eer i

THE FUNCTION OF MILK IN THE SCHEME OF EVOLUTION

By HENRY DWIGHT CHAPIN, M.D.

NEW YORK

OETHE once remarked that blood is a very peculiar juice. We

can say the same of milk. Modern physiological researches have

shown that certain glands and secretions of the body have much larger

functions than have hitherto been assigned to them. We need only

refer to the so-called “internal secretions” of various glands, formerly

unrecognized, that are now known to exert a marvellous influence not
only on physical life, but on mental development as well.

These facts have led us to give a closer scrutiny to the more familiar
fluids of the body, of which milk is one of the best known, as it consti-
tutes the universal food for the young of all mammalia. In serving
this most important function it is recognized as a complete food, con-
taining in itself all the elements required to support life. These in-
clude protein for growth and tissue repair, with mineral salts to aid in
this function ; carbohydrates and fats that produce heat and energy, and
an abundance of water so necessary to carry on all the processes of life.
From a nutritional standpoint, it is thus a perfect food, and all milks
are alike in this respect. While each species of mammalian young is
perfectly nourished by the milk of its own mother, the food elements
are present in varying proportions in different species, this depending
largely on the rapidity of growth of the offspring.

Another peculiarity common to all milks is that when collected from
the mother they are always in fluid form, but as soon as taken into the
stomach of the young they become more or less solid. This is due to
a process of coagulation that takes place only in one of the ingredients—
the protein—but which thus always alters the form of the ingested milk.
While the carbohydrates and fats in their composition and reaction to
the digestive secretions are a good deal alike in different milks, the
proteins are essentially different. It is further to be noted that coagu-
lation of the proteins of milk takes place in different degrees in the
different species.

We are now led to two queries: (1) What is nature’s object in pre-
senting a fluid that always coagulates in the stomach that receives it,
and (2) Why do the milks of different species coagulate in different
ways? An answer will be found in studying the relation between the
milk and the particular digestive tract that is destined to receive it.
While a certain portion of the protein of all milks coagulates on coming
in contact with rennin or rennin and acid, the manner and extent of

76 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

the coagulation will stand in a direct relation to the proper evolution
of the digestive tract of the animal.

While there are many grades of coagulability in the milks of dif-
ferent animals, we may for practical purposes distinguish three of
these grades and consider their significance. The protein may coagu-
late in a solid, gelatinous or flocculent manner. In the ruminant
herbivorous animals, such as the cow, sheep or goat, the protein coagu-
lates in solid, tough masses that can not readily escape from the stomach.
In these animals, digestion is always largely gastric and the stomach
forms seventy per cent. of the digestive tract. Later on, this stomach
will be called upon largely to digest tough, stringy masses of hay and
straw and the previous exercise on the tough curds of the milk de-
velops it for this future work.

In the non-ruminant herbivora, such as the mare and ass, the pro-
tein coagulates in gelatinous masses that can easily leave the stomach.
There is an object in thus passing the curds quickly along, as in this
class of animals digestion is largely intestinal, and the intestines form
about ninety per cent. of the digestive tract. Later on, grasses and
grain must be largely digested in the intestinal portion of the tube, and
hence the curd is here also especially adapted to develop a certain part
of the intestinal tract for its future work.

In human milk the curd is thrown down in flocculent masses—a
form intermediate between the solid and gelatinous types of curd pre-
viously noted. While digestion begins in the stomach, it is largely
carried on and completed in the intestine, and the stomach forms only
about twenty per cent. of the digestive tract. The curd is thus adapted
to start the development and motility of the stomach, and finishes by
instituting these functions in the bowel which is destined to play a
predominant part in digestion. Here again the curd, as far as form
is concerned, furnishes, to a certain extent, an analogue and precursor
of the future food of the infant. The curd forms small, flocculent
masses, and the future food must be separated later into small particles
by chewing before digestion can take place to the best advantage.

We have thus seen that the milk of herbivorous animals, whose
digestion is principally gastric, forms solid curds that can not easily
leave the stomach; that the milk of herbivorous animals whose digestion
is principally intestinal, forms gelatinous curds which easily leave the
stomach and pass into the intestine; and that woman’s milk, which is
intended for a digestive system in which gastric digestion is more than
that of the horse or ass, but not so great as the cow or goat, curds in
flakes that stand between the other two types of curds. Hence it is a
law that coagulation of the proteins of milk always takes place in such
a way as to most readily adapt the digestive tract for its future work,
as this function needs special preparation. It is thus seen that while a

THE FUNCTION OF MILK 77

certain amount of protein is present in the milk of all animals and is
necessary for tissue building and growth, this protein must not only
be coagulable, but must curd in a certain specific way in each species
of animal for the proper evolution of their digestive tracts.

In studying the life history of animals it is observed that all com-
mence life in an exceedingly simple form, and for a time their develop-
ment proceeds along lines so nearly parallel that it is impossible to de-
termine to what species the embryos belong. As development proceeds,
a divergence of form and structure is noticeable. At birth this di-
vergence is so great that there is no difficulty in distinguishing species,
but the variation in the functions in nutrition at this time is not very
great, especially in mammals.

The milks of different mammals at birth can be made interchange-
able for many individuals of the young of various species, and, as far
as nutritive value is concerned, they are often fairly satisfactory sub-
stitutes for each other. But at the end of the natural suckling period
of many mammals, no such interchange of food would be possible.
To realize what a divergence in the digestive functions has been taking
place during the suckling period, imagine an infant, a kitten and a calf
all being fed successfully on cow’s milk. Here it is evident that at
the very beginning of life the difference in their digestive processes is
not very great; but wait a year until all three have passed the suckling
period. The infant will be just beginning to eat soft food, the kitten
will have developed so that it can eat flesh and bones, and the calf will be
thriving on grass and hay. In one short year the divergence of their
digestive tracts has been so great that the natural food of the calf is
then wholly unsuited to the kitten or the infant, yet the chemist will
find that the food of all three at this time contains the same basic nutri-
tive elements as it did at birth. An important matter that seems to
have been generally overlooked as far as milk is concerned is that this
natural fluid is a food for a digestive tract that is rapidly changing its
form and function, and the differences in the digestive properties of the
milks of various species are for real and specific purposes.

As nutrition is the basis of all physical life, we see how important a
function milk performs at the very beginning of existence in developing
and preparing the digestive tract of each species so that it can digest
and assimilate food that must nourish it in later life. We must thus
emphasize the fact that milk through its protein has a developmental
as well as a nutritive function to perform.

A directly practical point that can be deduced from this study is the
importance of the mothers of every species suckling their own offspring,
as they always do except in the highest species—man. The milks of
different species are not readily interchangeable because the proteins
have functions in helping to develop such radically different digestive

78 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY |

apparatuses. From a nutritional standpoint milks do not differ very
markedly, but in developmental quality they are far apart. This forms
a very good additional reason why every human mother should, if pos-
sible, nurse her own infant. The higher mortality following artificial
feeding is thus not the only reason in favor of maternal nursing. In
the former case by using the milk of another species—the cow—we
put a hard curding milk into a stomach intended and adapted for a
soft, flocculent curd. This is not only the cause of much indigestion,
but such substitution fails to adequately carry out one of the functions
that milk was intended to perform in the scheme of evolution,—namely,
in each species to specially develop certain parts of the gastro-intestinal
tract that must later perform most of the work of digestion.

PROFESSIONAL INVALIDISM 79

PROFESSIONAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO INVALIDISM

By Dr. ROBERT 8. CARROLL

HIGHLAND HOSPITAL, ASHEVILLE, N. C.

‘<The world’s no blot for us,
Nor blank; it means intensely and means good.
To find its meaning is my meat and drink.’’

NVALIDISM: The habit of discussing our ills is apparently in-
veterate. The topic is as perennial as the weather and one which
inspires eloquence even in the tongue-tied, and it is part of the shame
of our intelligent (?) civilization that the frequency of invalidism js
such that no babe waxes into short clothes without learning the chant
of the invalid. There is no neighborhood, and indeed few homes, but
count among their number sufferers from disease. To the eyes of ad-
vanced science much of this must be classed among the useless miser-
ies of existence. Our own ignorant neglect of the laws of nature is
largely responsible for the swelling chorus of suffering, misery and
enashing of teeth; and far too many of these unfortunates resent any
imputation of personal responsibility, but spend much argumentative
energy in settling to their satisfaction the entire blame upon their
ancestors. It is not improbable that our descendants likewise will have
many Nice things to say of us.

The accuracies of modern medicine are filching from the quiver of
disease dart after dart of potent damage and rapidly indeed are the
causes of the grosser forms of invalidism being relegated to homes of
crass ignorance or lives of senseless indulgence. Each decade, how-
ever, the standards of civilization are placed higher and the efforts
requisite to keep in the van become increasingly strenuous. Mean-
while, the numbers able to join in the advancing ranks are increased.
As man slips the bridle into the mouth of one after another of the
forces of nature and by a finger’s touch is able to turn midnight into
noon, to set ten thousand wheels in motion, to contract the miles into
inches and rend continents asunder; the mental strain increases in
ratio to the decrease of physical work, and disuse of the body all too
frequently permits misuse of the mind.

We will not question that a goodly proportion of the world’s in-
validism is an unavoidable by-product of the world’s work, and that
frail minds and bodies will ever strew the wayside of progress. Pitiful
indeed is the necessity, yet a price each heroic soul will gladly give for
the advancement of his race. In this discussion, however, we are par-
ticularly interested in the equally large class whose invalidism is use-

80 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

less and is but economic and spiritual waste. Our wider knowledge
proves with pitiless conclusiveness that much of the suffering of the
present time is the result of man’s meddling with nature. The vic-
tories of science have made it clear that matter is but the plaything of
thought, and the expert assures us that much of man’s endless tale of
woes, so eloquently described by thoughtless tongues is but a jangling
discord of weakness and pain, produced by the careless or ignorant
performer. In all too many homes the spirit of invalidism is a house-
hold goddess at whose shrine each member of the family does devotion.
Even as in the days of our Lord, many a poor soul is held in bondage
by this spirit of infirmity eighteen years, yea, twice eighteen years,
waiting to be loosed by some Lord of the Miracle. Meanwhile, the
daily routine, the household activities, the best time and strength of
one or more helpers, the interest and devotion and earnings of the
strong members of the family, must rise in incense from the altar of
sacrifice. In our fair land alone, the productiveness of tens of thousands
of homes is being dissipated through the tyranny of what by half knowl-
edge is considered one of life’s inevitables. When the touch of larger
knowledge turns on the full light of truth, the irreligion of this self-
torture of ignorance will be apparent, and all of the vanity of this form
of invalidism fade away. I recognize how vast a field of romanticism
and sentimentality will be devastated when we all understand and
rightly value the various forms of invalidism and refuse to humor, aye
to tolerate that parasitic mass of the self-pitying, self-centered, sym-
pathy-craving, wilful, indulged, satisfied and unnecessary invalids. A
glad day indeed will it be for the noble burden-bearers when dissemi-
nated knowledge rids home and community of the vitality-reducing
oppression of what many to-day look upon with awe as sanctified and
solemn suffering. For those inevitable invalids whom we shall always
have with us, sympathy and charity and love and service will ever be
their spontaneous mead. But for that invalidism which does not be-
long to this hopeless class; the invalidism of convenience, selfishness
and ignorance, that passive, inert and vulgar mass which is to-day
robbing pity, defrauding love and paralyzing charity; every word of
knowledge, every ray of the white light of truth, every effort to repress,
are God-sent messengers of redemption.

Who can count the cost of the world’s invalidism? Some try to
cheapen it by expressing it in so many millions per annum. This rep-
resents but the smallest expenditure. This weird by-path of life is
strewn with some of the richest of man’s gifts. Energy lies fainting,
ambition is crippled, weak and dying, the purse of generosity is
emptied, sympathy has wept her eyes blind, the heart of love has burst,
even truth babbles and unselfishness has long since been crowded from
the by-way by the glutton of self, who has robbed all his ministers of

PROFESSIONAL INVALIDISM 81

their virtues, himself remaining virtueless. Close following with
shambling foot-steps, eager to complete the toll of suffering, follows
idleness, the poison-breeder, contaminating the very air of heaven, and
how may the moral life survive in his baneful presence? The cost of
useless suffering can never be told by the scales of the money-changer,
but it is to be known by the wrecked lives, the deadened hearts and the
defective characters it has produced.

The Professions.—To one man in a hundred is given the desire, the
will or the ability to lay hold on the higher truths of life and to raise
himself through special preparation and contemplation above the stand-
ard of general averages in special lines of knowledge. These men
usually belong to one of the so-called professions. A profession is an
occupation which properly involves a liberal education. Before enter-
ing into the more restricted walk of his specialized learning, he devotes
years to the development of all his mental faculties in a comprehensive
study of mathematics, science, language and the arts. No professional
man is worthy the name who has not received such preparation. Rich
endowments and great centers of learning are at his service, and for a
pittance the door of the accumulated knowledge of the ages is opened
to him. He is above all other students expected to master the underly-
ing principles of all the branches of learning he assays. Reason and
judgment, comparative ability, the critical sense and recognition of the
truth under all guises should be inherent in the developed professional
man. Whether lawyer, minister, physician or artist, his determining
ambition should be to seek and find and proclaim the truth. Though
this ideal is rarely attained in the individual, the influence of the pro-
fessions in matters of opinion is more often justified than mistaken.
The very livelihood of the majority of professional men grows out of
the confidence of the public in their knowledge and wisdom, a confi-
dence which must largely be justified by results if one is to be accounted
successful. Based upon his preparation, his ability and the confidence
of his fellowmen, he maintains an enviable leadership and sways a
potent influence over the opinions of his neighbor, who trusts his lands
and his fortune, his health and physical comfort, his happiness here and
hereafter, yea, his very soul’s life, in the hands of his professional ad-
viser. Upon a class accepting such sacred trusts rests a relentless re-
sponsibility and every word and act is fraught with peculiar influence,
while the customs and habits of the professional man are often models
which his less learned brother blindly follows to his weal or woe. Does
it not behoove these leaders of thought, action, habit and opinion to
attain wisdom with their learning and not be content with minds clut-
tered with mere knowledge?

As our knowledge increases in accuracy, we find that few laws are
more simple than those of keeping well, we realize that the maintenance

VOL. 11.—6.

82 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

of health can be condensed into a few simple precepts which the child
or the ignorant may understand. But the living of these simple laws
demands daily exercise of will and sacrifice of personal ease, a turning
away from tempting indulgences and an active expenditure of effort
and consistent denial of desire. The average man rebels at the rigid
exaction of these plain laws of health and all too often endeavors to out-
argue nature, to reverse her decrees. With the strength and subtilty of
his intellect he endeavors to create for human flesh different laws than
apply to all other animal kind. The practical ignorance of the edu-
cated of the simple laws governing physical well-being is appalling,
while very few indeed are found who, with any sort of consistency, ac-
cept and live those mental and moral laws which stand for perfection
of health. Thus it results that robustness is rather the exception than
the rule in the lives and homes of professional men and women. Phys-
ical frailty has indeed been so common in the past in the families of
those of the higher walks of life that the ignorant were prone to con-
sider delicacy or physical inefficiency as indicating a certain mark of
aristocracy, and many a poor man’s girl, finding her model in the min-
ister’s flat-chested, lily-skinned daughter, has abandoned household
duties to her slaving, admiring mother to ape her sickly model. The
table of the successful professional man too often groans with the
burden of rich palate-stimulating, toxin-producing foods, and he and
his family over-fed and under-exercised, over-clothed and under-sweated,
are the first to fall victims to the common infections, tuberculosis, early
Bright’s disease and paralysis, while from such homes are recruited
large numbers of the useless nervous invalid. How often, in the pres-
ence of doctors of divinity and legal lights of a more than local reputa-
tion, do I wish to turn away from a polluted breath, the shameful evi-
dence of self-indulgence or ignorance in high places. Daily the physi-
cian is called to those homes of supposed refinement and learning to
allay suffering, to quiet tortured nerves, to stay disease’s ravages, to
witness the last breath, where untimely death has ended useful careers
because in these homes of so-called wisdom and leadership the crudest
ignorance of the simple, rational formule of physical life has been the
blight and the devastator.

The failure of the classical education to practically prepare men to
live wisely has all too often been demonstrated. Classical education
knows nothing of simple sanitation, of food values, of the equation be-
tween food and waste, of the nerves and their enemies. It has failed
to recognize the inalterable relation between the eaten bread and the
sweating brow; it has failed to instruct its students in the use of their
hands, and in many of life’s most productive work-shops the classical
student is but a drone, so awkward and helpless and useless are his
muscles. Even in youth he has grown old, because he has not learned
the art of playing.

PROFESSIONAL INVALIDISM 83

But long as is the list of physical debility and suffering, it is fully
equalled by the miserable list of the mind’s tormentors, chief of which
are fear, that child of half-knowledge, and its half-sister, worry. I have
found in many a professional man’s home, the curse of fear gripping
and damaging the lives of its members, and soul suffering being in-
stilled into its children. Fear is a great producer of useless nervous
torture, and yet is daily used as an influence in thousands of our best
homes. Fear of the dark fills the night with terrors to the fear-taught
child; fear of minor injuries and the incidental damage of knocks,
bruises and falls, makes tense unnumbered mothers’ lives during their
children’s play hours. Fear erects a barrier between youth and whole-
some physical pain and makes weaklings of children and potential in-
valids of adults. Fear of its parents robs many a child of that whole-
some admonition and counsel which he would otherwise seek, and per-
chance be saved from habits which sap strength of body and soul. An
unwholesome fear of God and the unseen has produced untold psychic
damage in unnumbered homes where such a heathenish conception of
religion has robbed their children of the peace and courage which come
from a religion of faith and health.

Emanating from these self-same homes come many of the fulsome
testimonies of the efficiency of the products of ignorance and quackery,
and many religious weeklies have been dishonored by the mass of pat-
ent-medicine testimonials appearing therein, often over the signatures
of cured members of the family. Letters without number from well-
known ministers, lawyers, authors and actors have made possible the
irreparable mass of damage to mind and body, growing out of a depend-
ence upon proprietary remedies, carrying large percentages of alcohol,
opium, coca, chloral, bromides and the heart-paralyzing coal-tar prod«
ucts, usually masquerading under fictitious and misleading names.
Cancer, tuberculosis and diabetic cure companies have been able to con-
duct their nefarious traffic in human life through the faith and trust
inspired by the noted professional names and beaming intelligent faces
used as testimonials. Grave responsibilities have certainly been as-
sumed with a carelessness or ignorance of the awful consequences, to
the shame of many thousands of professional men. So much of the
sickness in the homes of the educated is of a psychic or nervous type,
influencing individuals in whom the central nervous system has been
long over-stimulated and in whom the reaction of mind upon body and
body upon mind have become increasingly sensitive, individuals in
whom, as in the delicate chronometer, misadjustments are easy and
whose ever-sensitiveness acts as a magnifying glass, exaggerating the
apparent seriousness of all their suffering; individuals in whom atten-
tion and memory pains may be produced almost at will, pains which
the family practitioner fails to analyze or understand, and which finally

84 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY .

increase to the sufferer’s apparent undoing, yet capable of disappearing
at any time as if by magic, under the potent influence of an absorbing
miracle of health production. And here again we find many of our
professional leaders turning away from the definite accuracies of the
natural sciences and allying themselves with the cults and isms of
mystic fame. I would not for a moment question the wisdom of being
tricked into health if it can be obtained no other way. I am arraigning
that gross ignorance in the educated, which makes possible this class of
illness and allows leaders to multiply the growing harm which comes
from unscientific, non-treatment of disease of mechanical and chemical
origin, through the force of their harmful, misleading example. The
above characteristics may be recounted more convincingly if we will
consider some concrete examples of professional contributions to in-
validism.

The standard novel of our boyhood reading painted a most pitiful
picture of its average heroine from the standpoint of health—slender
in waist, slight in figure, fair to faintness, languid, dainty and delicate,
all too good for this world. Out of this conception of aristocratic
feminity how many thousands of our women have half-starved them-
selves, living on pickles and vinegar and lacing their protesting waists
until their internal organs must have been addled, have systematically
protected themselves from God’s out-of-doors and health giving sun-
shine and made themselves anemic, flat-chested, flabby-muscled, toxic,
disease inviting, parasitic playthings! Even the more wholesome ath-
letic heroine of the modern novel has not yet succeeded in driving from
our midst these inane products of professional making. In far too
many of the homes of influence to-day weakness is coddled and per-
petuated because it still wears the halo of romantic beauty.

We look to the artist as the source of our ideals in adornment. I
doubt not that the true artist would resent any association with the
production of much that is styled beautiful in the decoration of our
persons, and yet the artist is exceptional to-day who does not add the
influence of his drawings to many of the health damaging and comfort
destroying arrayments of the passing style. The physical damage to
health as manifested in the annual thousands of unnecessary pneu-
monias in the fur-coated, silk-stockinged, bepumped apers of style, is not
to be compared with the moral damage growing out of the insistent
emphasis on the exaggeration of some of the female sexual characteris-
tics, which are never lacking in the popular French creations. One
season the bust is emphasized, another the hips, again the skirt is fairly
stretched to reveal the thighs or so hobbled that silk stockings must be
worn in self-defence. Unfortunately, even some of our prominent
artists have repeatedly prostituted their art in propagating and popu-
larizing styles in which our wives and daughters innocently bedeck

PROFESSIONAL INVALIDISM 85

themselves in most suggestive attire, little realizing that the débu-
tante’s slouch of to-day is but a reproduction of the baudy house negli-
gée of yesterday.

The contributions of the legal fraternity to the useless waste of
suffering too often illustrate the lack of the judicial mind or the domi-
nation of the mercenary spirit. The competent, painstaking, conscien-
tious physician is rarely called by the attorneys of the prosecution in
personal injury suits. His opinion might be too near the truth for
practical use; for medico-legal records are crowded with examples of
invalidism based entirely upon the suggestive influence of a certain
type of lawyer, a hypnotic invalidism which is genuine from the pa-
tient’s standpoint. Through the representations of poor hysterics cre-
ated by the influence of interested attorneys, corporations are filched
many thousands annually by the combination of ignorance and cupidity.
Accurate psycho-analysis reveals unerringly the ideational basis of
many of the paralyses, spinal injuries and nervous prostrations follow-
ing accidents, and producing uncompensated waste of time, loss of will
and unconscious deception, yet all the outgrowth of the suggested idea.
We know a type of lawyer too intelligent and honest to be particeps
criminis in such fraud. JI realize that the testimony of one or more
physicians is usually necessary to the attorney in making his case in
these trials, but I firmly believe that in the majority of instances the
physicians engaged are unprepared to make those fine distinctions
which are necessary in discriminating the functional from the organic
disturbances of the central nervous system. The large number of spon-
taneous recoveries following the termination of these suits, favorable
or otherwise, is opening the eyes of thoughtful physicians to this shrewd
exploiting of medical ignorance by a sister profession.

It is with hesitation and a large degree of respect and awe that I
invade the sanctity of the pastor’s study. The art of the physician has
long been devoted to healing the body. The minister has been the
physician of the soul. With the great modern increase of psychic dis-
orders, doctor and minister have each been appealed to for help. The
intellect has been called the bridge spanning the chasm between the
spiritual and the material worlds, and it is but natural that we should
find the doctor of the soul at one approach eager to assist and support
the weakened travelers of life. Meanwhile, the problem of attendance
has emphasized the church’s relations to man’s physical life, while the
providential idea of disease still holds a large proportion of church
people in its fatalistic grip. Thus the minister ever finds himself inti-
mately associated with human illness and suffering. Owing to the
Bible’s comprehensiveness, the devotee can extract from Holy Writ a
most pessimistic religion of fear, and many a minister thus infected
plants the disease of terror in the hearts of his hearers, and curdles

86 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY,

their faith with his fore-ordained damnations. With equal facility,
another sees in the Good Book only faith, hope and love and but touches
the mountain tops in his soaring optimism. So extreme may he be
that he might easily obstruct the careful and painstaking work of our
scientific health boards by his insistence on Divine protection, even in
the midst of filth, flies and infection. And such contributions to in-
validism are not overdrawn. Ofttimes the insistence of the religious
teacher on the minutie of over-conscientious scrupulosity turns the eyes
of the susceptible individual inward and produces that miserable dis-
ease of self-contemplation and paralyzes unselfish, productive effort by
the obsession to be always right. One of the most difficult of the min-
ister’s problems is placing the proper emphasis upon the essentials and
non-essentials in human conduct. The great art of harmonizing with
one’s environment is often unknown to the minister himself, and his
efforts to inculcate help in this essential of leadership are therefore
hopeless. The righteousness of deliberate damage to the body through
the self-punishment of extreme asceticism has largely disappeared as
an influence emanating from our modern church teachers. Yet the
student of humanity still sees in the limitation of proper emphasis in
church teaching of wholesome physical and mental living and the over-
emphasis by so many religious leaders of the thought that nothing
matters but the soul, an emphasis which fails to recognize man’s com-
posite nature, an emphasis which if carried to a logical conclusion would
result in a rapid reduction in human life, therefore in the production
of souls. In this unwise emphasis may still be found remnants of old
ascetic ideas. Religious susceptibility ofttimes results in the develop-
ment of mere religiosity with no basis of character strength. The moral
will is most naturally trained through the development of physical
stability and mental determination. Ssome morbid teachers find in
suffering and sorrow and misery the only possible road for the develop-
ment of high moral character. While not for a moment discount-
ing the importance of suffering and misfortune in the development of
religious character, when properly received, it still remains true that
the majority of unfortunates have failed to extract blessing from
misery, while the healthy body and well-poised mind will ever remain
the most fertile soil for soul growth. Many a poor mortal has lost his
chance to lay hold on his foundation for soul health through very re-
ligious but ungodly advice that he work out his salvation in prayer and
fasting, when his whole nature was dying for want of a religion pro-
ductive of utilitarian activity. Sentiment is a delicate dessert, but in
the feast of life the courses that sustain and make the brawn and sinew
of mind, body and soul are found in life’s rough and tumble, in which
alone the preacher, teacher and doctor may find moral wills for relig-
ious invalids. To all leaders of the weak come frequent heart-moving

PROFESSIONAL INVALIDISM 87

appeals from the slaves of sense. Often it is the cry of a soul which
seems to be staggering under the hand of fate, one of that increasingly
large number, a child all too often of one of our old families, who has
felt the hot breath and burning desire for artificial drug comfort or
stimulation. At the risk of my appeal being dismissed by many as that
of a fault-finding abstainer, I feel impelled to express my peculiar
burden of responsibility in regard to this pitiable class of weak and
often defenceless fellow-men. At every corner the world flaunts her
lurid temptations; at all too many social gatherings the mocker is be-
decked in dazzling cut glass and iced into seductive coolness, one draft
of which means defeat, for a taste opens the flood gates of hell in these
sensitively organized weaker brothers. No tempted men and women
fight more earnestly than many victims of drugs and alcohol. Little
help can they receive through the wisest medical care, still doctor and
friends and teacher unite in giving the trite advice to “cut it out.”
“Touch not, taste not, handle not” has been the sum of human wisdom
in their behalf for multiplied centuries. The religious adviser shakes
his head and assures the defective that the grace of God is the only
power which can save him. He is pressed to attend prayer-meeting and
church services, and there thoughtlessly kicked hellward with fermented
communion wine. Many a poor soul has lost his fight at the “ Lord’s
table.” Usually of attractive social qualities, society welcomes him to
her feasts when he is straight, then looks at him with obvious disdain
when he tremblingly turns down his wine glass. At the annual medical
or legal banquet, surely no power but the grace of God can save him in
the midst of spiked punch, cock-tails, the cool, freely quaffed amber
beer, the laughing dancing golden champagne, the personally conducted
high-balls of the cloak room and the formal course wines of the supper,
vying with each other as his soul’s seducers. We are cataloguing pro-
fessional contributions to one of the most soul-damning forms of in-
validism known to unstable man. Faith in forms, customs, ceremonials,
rights, alone is but husks. Faith, the reason of the heart, must be based
on the truth of accurate knowledge, which is the reason of the mind.

I have reserved my own profession until the last in considering the
damaging influences growing out of the defective example and teaching
of mankind’s logical leaders. Last, because from the very fact that they
are by profession healers, their shortcomings are more reprehensible and
far-reaching and damaging in their effects. It is a great misfortune that
the difficult curriculum of modern medical colleges is so burdened with
the complexities of disease, its causes, symptoms and treatment, that
little or no room has been left to teach normal living. The doctor’s
medical rearing takes place in an atmosphere saturated with disease and
the complexities of its treatment, and it is only in the latest years that
any attention has been given to teaching him how disease can be pre-

88 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

vented, and little or no instruction is yet given along the lines of the
simple, rational physical and thought life which counts so emphatically
for health. A second and graver defect in the physician’s education lies
in the fact that many complete medical courses are planned and carried
out with no reference made or even suggestion offered to the student of
man’s mental, physical and spiritual interdependence. The young physi-
cian must grope about through several foggy years before he accidentally
learns the newer psychology or has this fundamental relationship
knocked into his understanding by the plain logic of experience, and
realizes that many invalid-producing misadjustments are due to other
than physical causes. This defect in the average physician’s education
accounts for the long list of invalids suffering as a result of psychic or
moral trauma, which he drugs in vain. The common medical insistence
on materialism must give place to a broader conception of man’s being. »
The story of medical mal-leadership of the past is a shameful one;
based as it is, however, largely on ignorance and often upon honest
ignorance, it must in a measure be excused. To-day many souls are giv-
ing their all, in rare nobility that the problems underlying human ills
may be solved. Still medical leadership shows numbers of common and
very damaging defects of influence. The average physician’s slavery to
drug medication is difficult for intelligent minds to understand. It is
too closely associated with the methods of dishonest quackery to be
comfortable under scrutiny. The majority of medical prescriptions call
for compounds absolutely lacking in specific or even general influence
upon disease processes, and yet how rare is the physician who after
examining the patient, and realizing that drugs can be but a false help,
frankly gives his patient truly helpful advice, advice properly influ-
encing his personal habits, which will, if followed, produce real cure.
Many physicians satisfy their patients’ almost superstitious desire for
medicine and their own knowledge that there is no drug to cure, by
administering what is technically termed a placebo, a harmless inert
substance which contents the sufferer until nature accomplishes that
which the physician is unable to helpfully modify by pill or potion.
How seldom the physician takes his patient into his confidence and ex-
plains the modus operandi of such treatment. So the fetish of drug
dependence, strong in the physician, lays an even heavier hold on the
laity. This would prove of but comparative damage if all medicine were
innocent placebos, but in his armamentarium, the physician has medica-
ments of a potency irresistible for good, but likewise fatal for damage,
drugs which for the time will stay the trembling hand and whip the
faltering nerves into activity, which will still the small voice of dis-
comfort, rob weariness of its weakness and lull pain and anguish into
drowse and dreams. Weak and ignorant human nature clutches at these
artificial comforts, little realizing or caring that too often the fire of

PROFESSIONAL INVALIDISM 89

disorder has but temporarily been chocked with new fuel, to soon break
out the fiercer. How few physicians frankly and firmly show their
patients the common relation between drug taking and character weak-
ness? How often do they make clear to impatient sufferers that the help
given by drugs is but fleeting and that too often dodging the corners of
discomfort is the first step toward the death of will? How rarely is the
physician’s influence strong and wholesome in inspiring the patient with
his superiority to circumstances! How seldom does he quietly and hope-
fully explain the nature of the disorder and its rational, logical handling
without habit-producing or will-wilting poison, and show him how he
may by passing through a few hours of temporary discomfort learn that
profound lesson of will and health which will be his future protection!
The contributions of medical weaklings to the great aggregate of damage
caused by unwise drugging, are mentioned with shame. As a profes-
sion, doctors, in addition to harmful drug use, fail in their higher use-
fulness through a willingness to nurse and coddle unnecessary suffering,
and through many popular, though questionable arts of superficial sym-
pathy, not only maintain but produce invalidism. So much of the waste
of sickness of to-day grows out of self-indulgence that it is humiliating
to see our men of medicine pampering the weaknesses underlying these
human derelicts. It is truly a serious charge to make against one’s
own profession, that in the practise of its art, it is aiding and abetting
the very invalidism which looks to it alone for cure. Could every doctor
fill his patients with some measure of manly contempt for comfort,
safety and ease, and inspire each of his ill ones with a larger and nobler
conception of the blessing of transient suffering manfully faced, as
compared with the misery of self-pity which comes when a human
being surrenders all that stands for personal victory and self-mastery to
a craven hour of ease, then would the days of much useless invalidism be
numbered. Meanwhile, the stronger, wiser and truer of the medical pro-
fession will be found working shoulder to shoulder with all teachers of
wisdom in that noble and stimulating task of supplying wills for the
will-less.

I wish my subject permitted even a few paragraphs on the brighter
and more inspiring aspect of sickness, that I might give a physician’s
testimony to some of the wholesome lessons of illness, of the growth of
character in the midst of pain and infirmity and disability, how deform-
ity is often associated with an inspiring sweetness of spirit and how joy
- and strength and happiness dwell in the shadows of death, so I might
tell of the power of the hand fairly transparent in its weakness to clutch
the heart of friends and helpers with a grip that steels the strong to
greater strength and stays weakness in its wastefulness. It would in-
deed be joy to write thus. But I may drop but this hint of the silver
lining of the cloud which has occupied our attention for the hour.

ele) THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

My final appeal is for the development of a class of guides, call them
doctors, ministers or teachers, or what you will, so trained in the under-
standing of a man’s physical, mental and moral needs as to know the
individual in all his phases, so equipped with the ability which follows
a complete mastery of his profession and so filled with that irresistible
power which comes when one has joined understanding with truth, so
imbued with sympathies alive to human nature and its changing needs
and so supported by all true helpers of mankind that his word will stand
as authority and his wisdom prevail in levelling the heaped up monu-
ments of invalidism, which to-day are being built through the igno-
rance of professional leadership.

‘¢The world’s no blot for us,
Nor blank; it means intensely and means good.
To find its meaning is my meat and drink.’’

SELECTION OR MUTATION gI

IS SELECTION OR MUTATION THE MORE IMPORTANT
AGENCY IN EVOLUTION?

By Prorpssor WILLIAM BD, CASTLD
BUSSRY INSTITUTION

peated years ago the opinion prevailed among biologists that bio-
logical evolution, like geological, is a very gradual process in
which agencies acting with uniformity over long periods of time gradu-
ally produce changes in existing species through natural selection.
About the year 1900 a change of opinion set in, which may be described
as a tendency to return to the older idea of the sudden and special
creation of species. Not that the idea of evolution was to be aban-
doned, but the province of natural selection was now thought to be less
extensive, its action being limited to deciding what species shall sur-
vive. As to the origin of species, this was supposed to occur suddenly
as a result of undetermined agencies, but not to be either attended by
natural selection or caused by it. This theory of the sudden and spon-
taneous origin of species unattended by natural selection is known as
the mutation theory. Philosophically it has much in common with
those geological theories which regard geological epochs as inaugurated
by terrestrial catastrophes, and those astronomical theories which in-
volve cosmic collisions and explosions in the origin of new heavenly
bodies. Historically the mutation theory owes its present popularity
chiefly to the work of the Dutch botanist, DeVries, and the Danish
botanist, Johannsen, though many others have given it ardent and
valuable support.

In clearing the ground for a theory that species are not produced
by natural selection, DeVries and Johannsen have attempted first
to show the inability of selection of any sort to produce specific
changes. Selection, they maintain, can produce nothing new. It
can only sort over and rearrange variations already present. The
strongest existing evidence in favor of this view consists of the selection
experiments of Johannsen with size variations in beans and the similar
experiments of Jennings with paramecium. As a result of this and
other similar work a useful classification of variations has been estab-
lished, which are said to be either phenotypic or genotypic. The former
are variations due to purely environmental causes, such as soil, tem-
perature, humidity, food, etc. These are not inherited. They are ap-
parent rather than real racial changes so far as evolution is con-
cerned. In contrast to these phenotypic variations are those called
genotypic, the causes of which lie in changes within the germinal sub-
stance. They are hereditary.

Environmental agencies, those which produce phenotypic variation,
are very complex and oftentimes one agency counteracts another. ' The

92 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY —

resultant or combined action of several independent agencies is in
biology as elsewhere, to produce variation of the frequency-of-error
sort. This kind of variation which mathematicians express in the so-
called “normal” curve or “curve-of-error” biologists call “ continu-
ous” because it consists of graded quantitative variations which shade
insensibly into each other.

The best known cases of genotypic or heritable variations are those
which are of considerable magnitude and in which a single genetic
factor is involved, because it is easier to follow the history of these
from generation to generation. It was therefore a natural but none
the less unfortunate conclusion on the part of the mutationists that all
continuous or graded variations are phenotypic (not inherited), while all
genetic (heriditary) variations are discontinuous. Manifestly this is a
pure assumption, for logically it is to be expected that several independent
genetic agencies acting simultaneously will produce continuous variation,
whereas a single and isolated environmental change may produce discon-
tinuous variation. In fact, Mendelian studies have already shown that
several independent genetic factors may frequently produce a series of
graded or continuous variations. But if these supposed factors are them-
selves constant, it is theoretically possible to alter the racial type by selec-
tion only to a limited extent. For the action of selection will be restricted
to the production of the possible combinations or permutations of the
genetic factors present. But if, on the other hand, genetic factors are
themselves variable in‘a quantitative way, continuous or graded varia-
tion of the organism might result from the action of one genetic factor
alone, and all the more from the joint action of several such varying
factors. In that case selection would be capable of producing uninter-
rupted change in racial characters, because it could not only isolate
particular combinations of genetic factors, but it could also isolate
higher or lower quantitative stages of each factor. Its action would
therefore be limited only by the limits of variability of each genetic
factor.

Mendelians have generally assumed that the genetic factors with
which they are concerned are quantitatively invariable. This assump-
tion was made, probably at first, for logical simplicity and then from
habit, so that now it has come to be one of the fundamental tenets of
many Mendelians. But so far as evidence is concerned, either obser-
vational or experimental, it has small basis. At first Mendelians as-
sumed that all characters which Mendelize are invariable, that crossing
does not affect a Mendelian character, that the recessive character when
it is recovered again following a cross is the same as ever and so Bate-
son proposed in 1902 to discard old ideas of racial purity and institute
a new test of racial purity which should consist simply in determining
the presence or absence of particular Mendelian characters. But more
careful study of Mendelian characters soon showed that they were not

SELECTION OR MUTATION 93

invariable. Extracted recessives were frequently observed to be dif-
ferent from the recessives which entered into a cross two generations
previously. So the idea of character constancy had to be abandoned,
but in its place has come the idea of factor constancy. It is now held
by many that the changes observed in Mendelian characters as a result
of crossing are due to other independent genetic factors introduced by
the cross, the main factors themselves being unaffected. If this is so,
then by eliminating these other or modifying factors it should be pos-
sible to secure an invariable or pure race. Such pure races it was be-
lieved by Johannsen that he had secured in the case of self-fertilized
beans studied by him, and Jennings at one time entertained similar
views concerning asexually produced races of paramecium. But it
should be pointed out that in neither case was a Mendelian character
under observation, so that these investigations have no direct bearing on
the question whether Mendelian factors are or are not quantitatively
variable.

In my studies of Mendelian heredity I early encountered charac-
ters obviously variable and I have been engaged for several years in
trying to discover the causes of this variability. Crossing was evidently
such a cause, contrary to the earlier idea of character constancy and
gametic purity. This having been settled, attention was next directed
to the theory of factor constancy. To test this, crossing must ob-
viously be avoided, since by this means the experimenter might unwit-
tingly introduce modifying factors. Modifying factors must either be
eliminated or rendered constant before one could hope to test the
variability or invariability of a single factor. The surest means to this
end would be inbreeding attended by selection. Under this pro-
cedure modifying factors should be gradually eliminated or rendered
constant (homozygous) and a condition of racial stability secured
equal to the stability of the single genetic factor concerned in produc-
ing the character under observation.

If the genetic factor in question were entirely stable and invariable,
racial change under selection should gradually slow up and finally stop
altogether, as one modifying factor after another was eliminated or
rendered constant (homozygous), and this is what DeVries and Johann-
sen have assumed actually occurs.

The best material which I have been able to discover on which to
test this matter consisted of piebald black-and-white or gray-and-white
hooded rats. This color pattern of white and pigmented areas behaves
in heredity as a simple Mendelian recessive character. (See Fig. 1). | It
is the alternative (or allelomorph) of the entirely pigmented or “self”
condition of wild rats. In crosses with such wild rats the hooded charac-
ter is recovered as an extracted recessive character in one fourth of the
second generation offspring. In a total of 1,483 such offspring, 493, or
24.9 per cent., have been hooded. Individuals possessing the recovered

94 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

character frequently have either more or less extensively pigmented
bodies than their hooded grandparent and are not entirely uniform
among themselves. In fact a family of hooded rats is never entirely
uniform, no matter how closely selected and inbred. They produce
only hooded young when mated with each other, but some possess rela-

Fic. 1. SKINS oF A LITTER OF NINE RATS AND OF THEIR PARENTS. The in-
heritance is alternative (Mendelian) but each alternative condition shows slight
quantitative variations.

tively more white than others. In order to learn whether these quan-
titative differences in the hooded character are hereditary, selection
experiments were begun in 1907 upon a small colony of hooded rats
derived originally from less than a dozen individuals. The blackest
rats (7. e., those with most extensive black areas) were chosen to start
a plus selection series, and the whitest rats (1. e., those with least ex-
tensive black areas) were chosen to start a minus selection series.
From the offspring of the plus selected parents the blackest were again
chosen, and from the offspring of the minus selected parents the whitest
were chosen, and this process was repeated in each generation. Six-
teen successive selections have thus far been made in the plus series,

SELECTION OR MUTATION 95

Fic. 2. A SCALE OF ARBITRARY GRADES USED IN CLASSIFYING THD FLUCTUATING
VARIATIONS OF HOODED RATs.

and seventeen in the minus series. The plus series has become steadily
darker, the minus series lighter, until two very distinct races have re-
sulted. In order to classify the young more accurately and to express
in more definite terms the quantitative changes which have taken place
in the hooded character, each rat has been graded in terms of an ar-
bitrary scale of increased (plus) or decreased (minus) pigmentation
as compared with the original modal condition of the race (zero cun-
dition). See Fig. 2.
TABLE I

RESULTS OF THE PLUS SELECTION OF HoopED Rats CONTINUED THROUGH
SIXTEEN SUCCESSIVE GENERATIONS

Genera- | Mean Grade | Mean Grade | Lowest Grade | Highest Grade | cs Number of
tion of Parents of Offspring of Offspring of Offspring Offspring Offspring
| ee a Se ee a ees
1 2.51 2.05 +1.00 | +3.00 54 150
2 2.52 1.92 —1.00 +3.75 | .73 471
3 2.73 2.51 + .75 +4.00 53 | 341
+ 3.09 2.73 + .75 +3.75 | AT 444
5 3.33 2.90 + .75 +4.25 | -50 610
6 3.52 3.11 +1.50 +4.50 | 49 861
7 3.56 3.20 +1.50 +4.75 | 00 1,077
8 3.75 3.48 +1.75 +4.50 44 1,408
9 3.78 3.54 +1.75 +4.50 Bs 3) 1,322
10 3.88 3.73 qr | SAU .36 776
L 3.98 3.78 +2.75 +5.00 | -29 697
12 4.10 3.92 +2.25 +5.25 31 682
13 4.13 3.94 +2.75 +5.25 .34 529
14 4.14 4.01 +2.75 +5.50 | .34 1,359
15 4.38 4.07 +2.50 +5.50 -29 3,690
16 4.45 4.13 +3.25 +5.87 .29 1,690
| | 16,107

The first plus selected parents were of mean grade + 2.51. They
produced 150 young of somewhat lower average grade than their par-
ents, viz., + 2.05 (see Table I.). A second selection gave a similar
result, but with young of slightly lower mean grade, viz., + 1.92. With
each subsequent selection it was possible to raise the standard of the
selected parents, and in each case the grade of the offspring has in-

96 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

creased correspondingly: As a result of the sixteenth selection, 1,690
young have been obtained every one of which is darker than any hooded
rat born in the series previous to the second selection. Accordingly
the character of the entire race has changed under selection. ‘This
change has come about gradually. Generation by generation, as the
mean grade of the parents has advanced, that of the offspring has ad-
vanced in like measure, but always lagging behind the grade of the
parents. With advance in the mean grade of the offspring has gone
advance in both the upper and the lower limits of their variation. The
amount of variability of each generation of offspring as measured by
its standard deviation has decreased to about three fifths of its original
extent, but has not changed materially in the last eight or ten genera-
tions, and there is no prospect of its declining further. The rate of
racial change has also not become less. Reversed selection returns the
race toward its previous condition at about the same rate as the de-
parture has taken place.

It seems clear from these observations that the hooded character,
though itself a simple Mendelian unit in heredity, is subject con-
stantly to slight quantitative variations which are themselves to some
extent hereditary. These quantitative variations are grouped like con-
tinuous variations round a mean the position of which may be altered
gradually but permanently by repeated selection.

A series of seventeen minus selections yielded results similar to
those obtained in the plus selection series, but with a movement of the
mean and of the upper and lower limits of variation in the opposite
direction (see Table II.). In this case a race has been secured whiter
in nearly every individual than any rats contained within the original
race. The whitest rats have only a few pigmented spots left on the
body, chiefly located on either side of the head close about the eyes,
ears and nose. In the plus selected series the blackest rat obtained
(grade + 5.87) was black all over except for the presence of a few
white hairs on the chest between the front legs. No fancier would
have thought of including it among “hooded” rats, or even among
“Trish” (white-bellied) rats; fanciers would undoubtedly have classed
it among “self” rats. There is apparently no limit to the quantita-
tive change which can be produced in the hooded pattern by selection,
short of its complete extinction in the all white or all black condition
toward which our minus and plus selections respectively are steadily
tending. Yet there can be no doubt that only a single genetic factor
is here involved. A tentatively adopted hypothesis that modifying
factors were concerned in it has been definitely disproved. Any finite
number of such modifiers would have been greatly reduced or elimi-
nated altogether by seventeen successive selections, yet no slowing up
is observable in the rate of change of the racial character under selec-
tion either plus or minus. The changes effected by selection show per-

SELECTION OR MUTATION 97

manency under crosses with wild rats. They change no more nor less
than an unselected hooded race does. A first cross of the selected
races seemed to show a partial undoing of the changes produced by
selection, but a second cross made on a still larger scale, involving over
1,000 second generation individuals, showed no further change of this
sort, but instead a return to about what the selected race would have
been had no crossing at all occurred.

TABLE II

RESULTS OF THE MINUS SELECTION OF HoopED Rats CONTINUED THROUGH
SEVENTEEN SUCCESSIVE GENERATIONS

| }
'|Genera- | Mean Grade | Mean Grade | Lowest Grade | Highest Grade | Sl cae arte | Number of
tion of Parents of Offspring | of Offspring : of Offspring | Offspring | Offspring
1 —1.46 — 1.00% =" 220 — 2.00 Ol 55
2 — SAS | Pere i =r OO OY A9 132
3 —156 | —1.18 0 Lo SESAHOO* of 48 195
4 Ghee | ees =-=:00) |) 2.25 46 329
5 —1.73 | —141 | 0 2.00 50 701
6 —1.86 On| 0 —Z00 44 1,252
7 —2.01 == aa Oy 0 die 35 1,680
8 —2.05 Sa ilti) 0 —2.75 | 28 1,726
9 — Aa —1.92 = 3310) —2.75 28 1,591
10 —2.18 | -—2.01 | —1.00 31743) | 24 1,451
11 —2.30 | —2.15 | —1.00 —3.50 | 984
12 —2.44 aoe lOO — 3.50 37 1,037
13 —248 | —2.39 | —1.75 — 3.50 04 | 1,006
14 —2.64 | —2.48 | —1.00 —3.50 80 | 717
15 — 2.65 eet A lr — 3.50 -29 1,438
Le | eater Zr A) — 2.63 —100) i —4:00) | 27 1,980
17 — 2.86 — Ue | al rie) —4.25 28 868
17,142

The conclusion seems unavoidable that the single genetic factor
involved in this case has undergone quantitative change under the in-
fluence of selection. If so, two foundation postulates of the mutation
theory are false, viz., (1) that continuous or graded variations are not
concerned in evolution and (2) that selection of such variations, no
matter how long continued, can effect no permanent or progressive racial
changes. Selection, as an agency in evolution, must then be restored
to the important place which it held in Darwin’s estimation, an agency
capable of producing continuous and progressive racial changes. Evo-
lution biological as well as geological may still legitimately be regarded
as a gradual and continuous process free from sudden catastrophes.

The idea of fixity among living things seems to be one which the
human mind is loath to give up and which has to be constantly com-
bated in the advancement of biology. For centuries it was the fixity of
species which dominated biological thought. Darwin had to dispel
this idea before he could get a hearing for evolution. When the Men-
delian theory of unit-characters came in, the idea of fixity, unchange-
ableness, attached itself to the unit-characters. Driven from this hold,

VOL. 11.—7.

98 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY |

it now seizes on the single factors on which Mendelian characters de-
pend. Simultaneously it attaches itself to the conjectural mechanism
which underlies Mendelian heredity, the chromosomes. We hear much
now about their fixity and constancy of structure down to the minutest
visible granules, and the argument is even offered that inherited charac-
ters must be constant because the chromosomes are. It is probable
that, if chromosomes could be seen as readily as inherited characters,
their structure would be found to be no more constant than that of
the inherited characters supposed to depend upon them. As a matter
of fact students of the chromosomes do observe great variability in the
size, shape, density and even in the number of the chromosomes, but those
who wish to believe in the fixity of such structures find convenient
explanations for these observed variations in the action of killing
reagents, stains, etc., just as we genetists invoke supplementary and
modifying factors when we desire to defend the idea of fixity in our
hypothetical genetic factors. The biologist may well take warning
from the history of his science against assuming fixity of either struc-
ture or function in living things. The search for fixity will doubtless
continue to shift, as it has done heretofore, from higher to lower stages,
and will not find what it is looking for until it reaches the inorganic
materials which, though they are the building stones of life, are not
life itself.

Certain questions will occur to the critical reader. Is the evidence for
the foregoing conclusions adequate? Are the conclusions based on a suffi-
cient number of observations, and have these observations been carefully
and accurately made? I believe that all these questions may be answered
in the affirmative. Seventeen generations of offspring in the minus selec-
tion series and sixteen generations in the plus selection series have been
studied. The generations of plus or minus selected offspring respect-
ively average over a thousand individuals each, the total for the entire
series being 33,249 rats, all descended from less than a dozen original -
recessive animals whose progeny have been continuously selected in a
particular direction without intercrossing between the two series since
the experiment began. Of course control crosses of various sorts have
been made, as with wild rats, and between the two series, but the deriva-
tives of such crosses have been wholly excluded from the selection series
here described. Certainly no such mass of material dealing with the
variation in a single Mendelian character has previously been available
for study. The grading has been done with the same standard set of
grades constantly at hand for comparison, and it has been done mostly
by one person. The series of observations has been made possible through
financial assistance received from the Carnegie Institution of Washing-
ton. Dr. John C. Phillips has rendered valuable assistance in the
arduous work of raising and studying the large numbers of animals
involved in these experiments.

THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE

99

THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE

THE CONVOCATION-WEEK MEET-
INGS OF SCIENTIFIC
SOCIETIES

THE scientific men of the country
will hold their annual meetings this
year at widely separated places and
with some conflict. The American As-
sociation for the Advancement of Sci-
ence is responsible for the arrange-
ment of the convocation-week meetings,
having fourteen years ago transferred
its own meeting from mid-summer 10
the Christmas holidays. At the same
time it obtained from many universi-
ties and colleges an extension of the
Christmas holidays or grants for leave
of absence, so that the week in which
New Year’s day falls should be free
for these meetings. The American As-
sociation arranges also for the meet-
ings of affiliated scientific societies
which may wish to meet in conjunction
with it. It is not expected that all
these societies will meet every year with
the Association, for there are obvious
advantages in the isolation of a single
society or a small group concerned with
related subjects, as well as in a large
congress covering all the sciences and
numbering its attendance by the thou-
sands.

In order to meet the complicated
conditions as well as may be, the Amer-
ican Association has planned a pro-
gram, according to which once in four
years there shall be a great convoca-
tion-week meeting representing all the
natural and exact sciences, and per-
haps, ultimately, also engineering, edu-
cation, economics, history, philology,
literature and art. Such a demonstra-
tion of the intellectual forces of the
country should be a stimulus to those
who join in it and an exhibition that
would impress the whole country. It
is proposed to hold these meetings
once in four years and in succession

|in New York, Chicago and Washing-
|ton. The first will take place in New
York at the end of the year 1916, and
thereafter they will be held in the four-
year periods at which the national
presidential elections occur. In the
intervening two-year periods the meet-
ings will also be in large scientific cen-
ters, and it is expected that most of
the national scientific societies will take
part. The first of these meetings was
held in Philadelphia, and the next will
probably be held in Boston at the end
of the year 1918. In the intervening
years the American Association will
meet at places more remote from the
large centers of scientific population,
or in cities or at universities where the
accommodations are more limited. Tne
first of these meetings was in Atlanta
at the end of the year 1913, and the
meeting this year is at the Ohio State
University, Columbus. In 1917, it will
probably be in Toronto, Nashville or
Pittsburgh.

At these meetings the attendance of
scientific men is in the neighborhood of
a thousand; at the larger meetings ‘t
may be two or three thousand, and at
the four-year periods, from five to ten
thousand. The vast extent of the coun-
try makes it difficult for the scientific
men of the west to visit the east, and
conversely, during the Christmas holi-
days, and summer meetings may ke
held in the west once in four years, the
first having been held this summer ‘n
connection with the Panama-Pacifie
exhibition, and on the occasion of the
organization of a Pacific Division of
the Association.

Although the meeting of the Ameri-
ean Association opening at Columbus,
on December 27, is not one of the
larger convocation-week meetings, it
promises to be of more than usual in-
terest to those who are able to be pres-

‘ONICIING IVINOWAY AANGGIMA SNIMIQ. AUNVET WH,

ee:
sbi Pie uN

u

THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE

ent, as was the case with the meeting
held at the Ohio State University some |
fifteen years ago. The address of the
retiring president, Dr. Charles W.
Eliot, who, called from a chair of
chemistry to the presidency of Harvard
University, has become by common |
consent our leader in education, is en
‘*The Fruits, Prospects and Lessons 1
Recent Biological Science.’?’ An in-
troductory address will be made by the
incoming president, Dr. W. W. Camp-
bell, the distinguished director of the
Lick Observatory. Among the vice-
presidential addresses before the eleven
sections of the association may be
noted important subjects, treated by
Professor White, of Vassar College, in
mathematics; Professor Zeleny, of Yaie
University, in physics; Professor Lillie,
of the University of Chicago, in zool-
ogy; Professor Pearce, of the Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania, in pathology,
Professor Hanus, of Harvard Univer-
sity, in education, and Dr. Bailey,
‘formerly director of the Cornell Agri-
cultural College, in agriculture.

Eighteen national societies, including
the American Society of Naturalists,
and the societies devoted to mathemat-
ics, physics, zoology, entomology and
botany meet at Columbus in affiliation
with the American Association. The
chemists do not hold a winter meeting
this year. The physiologists and
pharmacologists meet in Boston; the
anatomists in New Haven; the psychol-
ogists in Chicago; the philosophers in
Philadelphia; the geologists, paleontol- |
ogists, geographers, anthropologists,
sociologists and economists in Wash-
ington.

The serious conflict of the year ?s
with the Second Pan-American Scien- |
tific Congress meeting in Washington
‘from December 27 to January &.
It was originally planned that this
congress should meet in the autumn,
but the date was changed and the pre-

‘liminary arrangements were made with-
out consultation with American scien-
-tifie men. The officers of the congress,

‘selected presumably by the department

Io!

of state, are Mr. Phillips, the third
assistant secretary of state, chairman
of the executive committee; Mr. Scott,
secretary of the Carnegie Endowmeat
for International Peace, vice-chairman;
Mr. John Barrett, secretary-general;
and Mr. Glen L. Swiggett, assistant
secretary-general. The department of
state is probably as ignorant of the
scientific condition of the country as
the navy department, whose secretary
when asked why he had ignored the
National Academy, by law the scientific
adviser of the government, and the
American Association, the great demo-
eratic body of scientific men, in select-
ing the societies to elect members of
the Naval Advisory Board, appeared
never to have heard of either associa-
tion. A program in nine sections has
been arranged for a ‘‘scientific’’ con-
gress, which ignores mathematics, phys-
ics, pure chemistry, geology, zoology,
botany and psychology.

However, attempts have been majie
to rectify the earlier errors. Dr.
Welch, president of the National Acad-
emy of Sciences, has been made hono-
rary vice-chairman, and Surgeon Geu-
eral Gorgas, Dr. Holmes and Dr. Wood-
ward have been added to the executive
committee. The conflict in time does
not extend to the second week of the
Pan-American Congress, and it is prob-
able that after the adjournment of the
Columbus meeting a special meeting of
the American Association will be held
at Washington. Under existing condi-
tions, it is extremely desirable that
friendly relations and cooperation in
science should be maintained among
the American Republics.

THE WIDENER MEMORIAL LI-
BRARY OF HARVARD
UNIVERSITY

THE corner-stone of the Harry Elkias
Widener Memorial Library was laid on
June 16, 1913, and two years later, on
Commencement Day, June 24, 1915, the
dedication of the then completed build-
ing took place. The architect was Mr.
Horace Trumbauer, of Philadelphia,

102

THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

and the general contractors were George ; marble. To the right a corridor leads

F,. Payne and Company, also of Phila-
delphia.
limestone, is in the Georgian style of

The building, of brick and |

to the director’s office and to the room
for the library council. Back of this :s

| the treasure room, devoted to the safe

architecture, and is practically of fire- | keeping of the library’s rarest books

proof construction throughout.
the form of a hollow square, measuring

It is in| and specially fitted with locked metal

bookcases. In front and immediately

ENTRANCB HALL.

about 200 x 250 feet on the outside. The
building faces the north; a broad flight
of steps, surmounted by a colonnade of
twelve massive columns, leads to the
main entrance. The entrance hall, fifty
feet long and thirty-six wide, is lined
with Botticino marble, with a double
of of veined statuary

row columns

to the right of the entrance is another
large room that is eventually to be used
for a select library of standard books
that shall be accessible to all comers
without formality. A corridor to the
left leads to the librarian’s office and
to the rooms of the order and cata-
logue departments. In the latter is

THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 103

WIDENER MEMORIAL ROOM.

104

contained the official catalogue of the
library.

From the entrance hall stairs lead di- |

rectly to the Widener memorial rooms;
one is a reception hall finished in white
Alabama marble, the other, finished
in carved English oak, contains Harry

Widener’s library. At the landing m |
front of the Widener rooms the main |

stairway divides and leads on each
side to the second floor. Here, occupy-
ing the whole front of the building, is
the main reading room. This room,
together with the periodical room ad-
joining it at the west end, has seats
for 292 readers. At the east end,
opening both from the hall and from
the reading room, is the delivery room
where the public card catalogue 1s
placed.

On the third floor, which rests on top
of the stacks, are thirty-four rooms
used for some of the special libraries,

for seminary rooms, and for studies. |

There is also a large room for the |.-
brary’s collection of maps. Among the
special libraries accommodated here are
the Child memorial, the Lowell me-
morial, the French, German and Sans-
krit, the mathematical, and those of the
Business School and the Bureau of
Municipal Research. The collection of
theatrical material recently presented
to the library by Robert Gould Shaw,
of Boston, is placed in two rooms on
this floor.

On the ground floor, on the west
side, is a special reading room for ele-
mentary work in connection with the
courses in history and economics. This
has a separate entrance and provides
seats for 166 readers. The rest of this
floor is used for various working pur-
poses. Below this is a basement, which
at present serves mainly to accommo-
date the machinery necessary to run
the building, but will eventually pro-
vide storage space for many thousand
volumes.

The book-stacks, which run round
three sides of the building, comprise
ten floors, but for the present the two

THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

| lower floors are not to be used and
are therefore not equipped with shely-
ing. The capacity of the stacks as at
present shelved is about 1,433,000 vol-
umes; with closer shelving and the ad-
dition of the two lower floors the total
_capacity should be about 2,200,000 vol-
umes. Besides this, there is room for
several hundred thousand volumes in
other parts of the building. A distin-
guishing characteristic of the stacks is
the series of reading-stalls along the
sides of the principal floors. There are
three hundred of these stalls. In addi-
dition to this provision for the com-
fort of students, there are over sixty
small rooms that can be used as pri-
vate studies for professors or visitinZ
scholars.

These facts are taken from a bro-
chure, prepared by Mr. A. C. Potter,
assistant librarian, which gives an in-
teresting history of the library and an
account of its collections. In 1638,
Harvard College received three hun-
dred and seventy books—mostly theo-
logical—bequeathed to it by John
Harvard. In the course of a hundred
and fifty years the library increased to
13,000 volumes. Since then it has
grown in a geometrical ratio, doubling
about each twenty years, until now the
number of yolumes is 675,000.

SCIENTIFIC ITEMS

WE record with regret the deaths of
| Orville Adelbert Derby, chief of the
geological survey of Brazil; of Carl
Axel Robert Lundin, maker of many
of the largest telescopes in the world;
'of Raphael Meldola, professor of or-
| ganie chemistry in the University of
|London, and of Dr. Henry Charlton
Bastian, the distinguished London neu-
_rologist, the author also of books on the
origin of life.

Sir J. J. THomson, Cavendish pro-
| fessor of physics at Cambridge, has
| been elected president of the Royal So-
ciety, in succession to Sir William
| Crookes.

ER ee Odea PR EO
MON Pin EY

FEBRUARY, 1916

THE AVOIDABLE LOSS OF LIFE

By J, HOWARD BHARD, M.D.

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

3% a nation, we are moved to immediate action by the loss of a few

hundred lives in a spectacular way, but the deaths of thousands of
our fellow citizens from avoidable, but insidious causes do not interest
us in proportion to the loss involved or stimulate us to the necessary
efforts of prevention.

The burning of a theater with the loss of several hundred lives is
reported as a disaster and is followed by legislation making public
buildings safe, but whooping cough, which destroys annually 10,000
persons and renders 190,000 ill, is frequently not listed as a notifiable
infectious disease. We are horrified at the European conflict, but the
combined loss of all the navies engaged is less than the number slain
each year in this country by the typhoid bacillus. In a modern battle,
100,000 men may be killed and wounded, but the tubercle bacillus
slaughters 147,600 of our citizens yearly, and a million and a half re-
main infected, the greater number of which will die of tuberculosis.

Were we to consider, in addition to communicable disease, the un-
necessary loss of life and health associated with industries involving
the handling of poisonous metals; the breathing of dangerous gases;
the inhaling of injurious dust; the accidents of mining, transportation,
construction and negligence—in fine, the preventable deaths and sick-
ness due to occupation and carelessness—we would have a list of dead
and injured unequaled by any of the warring nations of Europe.

As it is our purpose to consider, briefly, the mortality and illness
due to the more common diseases and their prevention, we shall not
discuss the industrial and accidental causes of loss of life and health
farther than to note that Andrews estimates, on the basis of the careful
results of German experience, that we have in our midst each year, at
least, 13,500,000 cases of industrial sickness. Hoffman states that
there are approximately 82,530 deaths, annually, in the United States
due to accidents, and that in connection with the carrying on of dan-
gerous industries, there are 25,000 deaths and 700,000 injuries involv-
ing a disability of longer than four weeks.

VOL. 11.—8.

106 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

It is impossible to determine accurately from the last available
statistics (1913) the exact number of deaths in continental United
States due to a given disease, for 65.1 per cent. of the population only
is included within the registration area. We may, however, obtain the
approximate number of deaths for the country by using the rates of mor-
tality per 100,000 population in the registration area and then comput-
ing the number of deaths on a basis of 100,000,000 inhabitants, the
Census Bureau estimate for April 2, 1915. Such a computation is very
conservative, for it does not include failures to report deaths and it
places the Registration Area and Non-Registration Area on an equality,
a classification, which, if appreciation of vital statistics may be taken
as a standard of the attitude of a state towards public health, certainly
does not underestimate the sanitary excellence of the non-registration
area. The registration area contains but few of the states having large
negro populations.

COMMUNICABLE DISEASE

Over 500,000 people die of communicable disease each year in the
United States and over five millions are sick as a result of infection.
Had such a loss of life and health been localized, a city the size of
Cleveland would have been depopulated and every individual in two
cities the size of Chicago would have been in need of medical attention.

The immediate death rate and illness of infectious disease are
scarcely more important than those of their complications and sequele.
Measles and whooping cough prepare the soil for tuberculosis; scarlet
fever for renal disease; rheumatic fever, tonsillitis, pneumonia, and
syphilis for cardiac failure; and, infectious disease, in general, and
syphilis in particular for vascular degeneration. The effect of sequele
are well illustrated in the recent studies of Dublin in connection with
typhoid fever. He noted that the death rate among typhoid survivors
for the three years following the attack was twice the expected mortality
for an equal number of individuals of the same age, sex, and color. Of
those dying within three years following recovery, tuberculosis caused
39 per cent. of the deaths and heart disease 14.8 per cent. Dublin
estimates that 8,000 deaths occur in the United States each year among
persons who have had their vitality so impaired by typhoid fever that
they succumb within the first or second year after recovery.

On account of long association with measles and whooping cough,
the public has come to regard their presence as to be expected and of
slight consequence to either the individual or to the community. In
view of the fact that they are often more severe in adults than children,
many parents make little effort to prevent the exposure of their chil-
dren or to protect others.

Such an attitude is unsupported by the facts, for both measles and
whooping cough, when considered in connection with their complica-

THE AVOIDABLE LOSS OF LIFE 107

tions and sequelw, are serious diseases, especially in very young chil-
dren. ‘Twelve thousand persons die of measles in the United States
annually, and ten thousand of whooping cough. 81 per cent. of the
deaths due to measles and 95 per cent. of those caused by whooping
cough occur in children under five years of age. Obviously, the more
cases the greater the number of deaths of young children, the more
numerous the instances of deafness due to measles, and the more the
number of individuals left a well-prepared soil for other infections. The
failure of the mortality rates of measles and whooping cough to show a
reduction during the last fifteen years is due to the fact that they are
highly communicable in their early stage when diagnosis is most diffi-
cult and to the attitude of the public.

While it may be difficult to influence the morbidity of these diseases,
the problem of the reduction of the mortality is 95 per cent. one of
preventing children from acquiring the disease until they are ten years
old. If parents were so informed as to realize the seriousness of
measles and whooping cough and their sequel, the methods for control
and isolation, and the grave responsibility that rests upon the individual
who causes a child to be exposed, there would be such an effort to pro-
tect young children that there would soon be a decline in the mortality
rates.

Scarlet fever causes the loss of nearly nine thousand lives, 82 per
cent. occurring before the tenth year of life. Scarlatina is difficult to
control, as its cause is unknown and mild cases may occur which are
almost impossible of detection, but which serve as a focus for further
spread of the disease. It is certain, however, that many unnecessary
cases of scarlet fever are due to lack of care of the attendants upon
patients; the non-pasteurization of milk; the failure to give thorough
disinfection; the absence of adequate medical inspection of schools;
and to imperfect isolation and too short quarantine. The deaths due
to the: failure to use effectively the well-recognized methods of preven-
tion could and should be avoided.

Diphtheria and croup are responsible for the death of 18,000 people
annually; 88 per cent. within the first decade of life. The fatal cases
of croup are usually the work of the diphtheria bacillus. The number
of deaths due to diphtheria have almost uninterruptedly decreased dur-
ing the last fifteen years and, at present, are less than one-half that
of 1900. As striking as this decrease may be, the mortality is much
too high for a disease of known etiology, of well-recognized epidemi-
ology, and one for which we possess a specific preventive and curative
therapy.

The spread of diphtheria may be by carriers, improper isolation,
incomplete disinfection, contaminated articles, direct contact with
patients, and the failure to require repeated cultures from the nose,
as well as from the throat, before the raising of quarantine.

108 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

The mortality of diphtheria is almost entirely dependent upon the
time of the administration of antitoxin. If it is given in sufficient
dose within the first twenty-four hours, practically all patients will
recover ; if withheld beyond the first day, the death rate increases with
each hour. The delay in receiving antitoxin is usually due to the
slowness of the patient to obtain medical attention and the waiting on
the part of the physician to determine the nature of a suspicious sore-
throat clinically, rather than bacteriologically.

We may expect much greater reduction in the number of deaths
from diphtheria by isolation and bacteriological examination of all sus-
picious sore-throats, by rigid enforcement of quarantine, by greater
effort to discover and eliminate carriers, by education of the public as
to the need of early obtaining medical advice and to the necessity of
the quick administration of antitoxin.

In 1913, there were about 18,000 deaths from typhoid fever and
approximately 180,000 cases. Happily, this is a reduction of 50 per
cent. in 12 years, but the rate is still inexcusably high. Typhoid fever
so impairs the vitality of the individual that his mortality is twice the
expected death rate during the three years succeeding the attack and
in this way, according to Dublin, is responsible indirectly for the loss
of 8,000 lives annually.

Typhoid fever should be eliminated. Improvements in water sup-
plies, scientific sewage disposal, the protection of milk, meat and vege-
tables from contamination, the anti-fly campaigns, and, perhaps, the
adoption of typhoid inoculation have been largely instrumental in low-
ering the death rate from 35.9 per 100,000 population in 1900 to 17.9
in 1913.

The contact of a large number of individuals aids in the dissemina-
tion of typhoid fever, yet the death rates of our largest cities, which take
precautions against the typhoid bacillus, are about one third the rate for
the entire Registration Area. While certain large cities have shown
great progress in the reduction of typhoid fever, the sanitation of the
rural section of the country is in its infancy and in many of the smaller
towns and villages, the insanitary privy and polluted well are menaces
to the health of the community.

Typhoid and cholera have much in common; both are of well-
known etiology, are of similar epidemiology, and both owe their preva-
lence to the transference of the excreta of one individual to the ali-
mentary tract of another. They differ in that cholera is explosive in its
onset, has a higher mortality, and is widely disseminated at certain
times and places, while typhoid fever is almost ubiquitous, and, on
account of the length of its incubation and the insidiousness of its in-
ception, its origin may be difficult to trace.

Cholera has been rather widely spread in the United States, but

THE AVOIDABLE LOSS OF LIFE 109

scientific methods intelligently and vigorously applied have driven it
from the country and prevented it from gaining a foothold in any of
our sea-coast cities by importation from abroad. Cholera with its
sudden onset, its rapid spread, and high mortality is impressive, and
has so stamped itself in the public mind, that the possibility of its in-
troduction into the country is a cause for a popular demand for the
exercise of every precaution against it.

Were we to adopt the same attitude towards typhoid fever, unneces-
sary contact with it would be avoided, no convalescent would take his
place in society until a competent bacteriologist had assured him it
was safe to do so, carriers would be placed under supervision, insani-
tary privies would be abolished, sewer connection would take the place
of the cess-pool, milk would be pasteurized, food would be insured
against contamination, water supplies would cease to be questionable,
sewage would receive proper disposal, the fly would be exterminated,
inoculation would be exceedingly popular, and typhoid fever, like chol-
era and yellow fever, would become a matter of history.

It is impossible to determine the extent of syphilis, a disease protean
in its manifestations, variable in its intensity, chronic in its tendency,
and hereditary in its scope. It may be conservatively estimated that
there are at least a million and a half syphilitics in the United States.
In 1913, syphilis was directly responsible for 7,200 deaths, for 6,900
due to paresis, and 2,600 caused by locomotor ataxia. It attacks the vas-
cular system with special severity and is a great factor in the mortality
due to insufficiency of the aortic valves, aneurism, arterio-sclerosis,
certain groups of cases of angina pectoris, and cerebral hemorrhage.
Syphilis produces over 26 per cent. of all stillbirths and holds an im-
portant place as a cause of death within the first year of life. Nearly
20 per cent. of the first entrances to the institutions for the insane are
due to this disease. There is an increased mortality rate among syphi-
litics of 70 per cent., which means a reduction of the average expectancy
of life by five and a half years. |

In the presence of the ravages of this scourge of the human race,
the one thing that stands out most conspicuously is the ability to pre-
vent it. The moralist would attack the problem of syphilis by clean
living, the abolition of prostitution, by instruction of the youth in
regard to the danger of venereal disease and would discourage the post-
ponement of marriage. These measures would be the happiest, the
most efficient and certainly the most desirable means of prevention,
but, on account of the frailty of human nature and the strength of the
sexual instinct, are most difficult of general application. The sani-
tarian would utilize the full force of ethics, but, in addition, would urge
the establishment of hospitals for the early diagnosis and prompt treat-
ment of syphilis, would educate the public in the means of prophylaxis,

IIo THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

and would make it a criminal offense for one individual to knowingly
transmit the disease to another.

Syphilis would be as infrequent as malaria if the public understood
thoroughly the danger of venereal disease, knew the importance of
early treatment both for the syphilitic and for the protection of his
associates, appreciated the need of instruction in prophylaxis, and
realized the necessity of the state establishing institutions for free
treatment as a sanitary measure for the protection of its uninfected
citizens.

The facilities for the treatment of syphilis on an extensive scale
are as inadequate as necessary. Pusey has admirably described the
attitude of the hospitals towards this disease.

Most public hospitals . . . assume the unconscious attitude that the syphi-
litic is responsible for his own misfortune, and of all the sick, except those with
other venereal diseases, is least worthy of charity; ignoring the fact that, worthy

or unworthy, he is a public danger, and the greater danger the more unworthy
and vicious.

Our civilization must approach the stage when all lovers of man-
kind will drag forth this ghastly form which for centuries has con-
cealed itself in the shadow of prudery and let it shrivel and die in the
full light of public knowledge and in the presence of a triumphant
Preventive Medicine.

Pneumonia destroys annually 132,400 lives, is the most prevalent
and most fatal of all the acute communicable diseases. Its occurrence
has shown considerable reduction during the last thirteen years, falling
from 180.5 deaths per 100,000 population in 1900 to 132.4 in 1913. °

It occurs as a primary disease; as secondary to measles, scarlet
fever, whooping cough, diphtheria, influenza and typhoid; at both ex-
tremes of life—causing the death of young children and enabling
elderly sufferers to easily exchange a life of invalidism for a peaceful
grave.

Pneumonia is caused most frequently by the pneumococcus, but it
also may be due to other organisms. It was commonly believed that
pneumonia was an autogenic infection, for a pneumococcus was to be
found in the oral and respiratory passages of a large proportion of
healthy individuals, and that the lowering of the vitality by exposure
to cold, by inhalation of dust or fumes, alcoholism, injury to lung
tissue, or senility so disturbed the balance between the virulence of the
organism and the susceptibility of the individual as to present a favor-
able opportunity for development of the disease. This conception does
not agree with recent observations, which seem to indicate that the
disease is due to contact with patients or with healthy carriers.

The prevention of pneumonia requires isolation of the patient, dis-
infection of his expectoration, and the avoidance of all things which

THE AVOIDABLE LOSS OF LIFE III

tend to lower the vitality of the individual or to favor the spread of
the disease by carriers. The increased opportunity for infection in
cities owing to crowding demands the allaying of dust, and adequate
ventilation of theaters, schools, cars and public buildings. Occupa-
tions requiring excessive fatigue, exposure to unsuitable temperatures,
and to dust or fumes should be under the supervision of a sanitarian
and so modified as not only to add to the efficiency of the worker, but
to afford him an opportunity to increase his resistance to disease. The
occurrence of pneumonia may be reduced, individual susceptibility de-
creased, and the devitalizing influence of modern life successfully over-
come by proper exercise, the abundance of fresh air at night, as well as
during the day, sunlight, sensible clothing, sufficient and suitable food,
cold baths, enough sleep, attention to oral hygiene, and by the avoid-
ance of exposure, excessive fatigue and alcohol.

Tuberculosis caused 147,600 deaths in 1913. The mortality rate of
tuberculosis has markedly declined, falling from 326.2 per 100,000
population in 1880 to 147.6 in 1913. The decrease has been uninter-
rupted since 1904. There are approximately a million and a half indi-
viduals suffering from tuberculosis in the United States.

The medical profession and the public have more consistently en-
deavored to prevent tuberculosis than probably any other communi-
cable disease, but, in spite of their efforts, it is of the first importance
among the causes of death and is still “The Great White Plague,”
“the captain of the hosts of death.”

Tuberculosis is the unfortunate result of the combination of the
tubercle bacillus and a lowered vitality. The necropsy findings and
the Von Pirquet cutaneous reaction show that few persons pass through
life without being infected. The failure of more individuals to have
symptoms of the disease is due to their resistance and the number of
bacilli taken into the body at one time.

The prevention of tuberculosis begins at birth and is a two-fold
problem—avoiding infection and increasing the resistance of the indi-
vidual.

Infection may be avoided by providing sanatoria for segregation
and treatment of the tuberculous, the protection of the milk supply by
testing of the cattle or by pasteurization, anti-spitting regulations,
proper disposal of the sputum, and education of the public. Early
diagnosis is of the utmost importance, for the sooner the disease is dis-
covered, the greater the chance for successful treatment and the earlier
the opportunity for the protection of others. With proper education of
the public, it will be practical to make a diagnosis of “A fertile soil
for tuberculosis” before unmistakable symptoms are present and with-
out causing the individual or his friends unnecessary distress. In a
person underweight, “a little run down,” a poor eater, “rather nery-

112 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

ous” and easily fatigued, the stage is set for tuberculosis. In such an
individual, the time for rest, better food, fresh air, and change of en-
vironment has arrived. The moment for rescue is before the rapids are
reached, not when the passage of the precipice is inevitable.

The increase of resistance to tuberculosis is economic and sociologic.
Good food, fresh air, sanitary houses and places of occupation, suffi-
cient sleep and the avoidance of overwork and overworry, the essen-
tials of a normal existence, are obtainable for the well-to-do, but not for
the poor. Tuberculosis is an ally of want and squalor, and is becoming
more and more the disease of the overcrowded, the underfed and the
overworked. Until social and economic conditions make it possible
for each individual to have enough sleep, abundance of clean fresh
air, sanitary housing, sufficient rest and proper food for growth and
energy, society may expect to reap a harvest of tuberculosis.

INFANTILE DIARRHEA

There are 75,200 deaths, annually, due to diarrhea in children
under two years of age, a mortality exceeding the sum. of the deaths
caused by measles, scarlet fever, whooping cough, diphtheria and typhoid
fever by 6,000.

This loss of life is mainly preventable. It is due to summer heat,
want of care, ignorant feeding, improper food and bad hygiene. Many
of these deaths would be avoided if maternal feeding was more common.
Holt has shown that the death rate of the artificially fed infant to the
breast nourished is in the ratio of 32 to 1. Maternal feeding requires
little effort or care; artificial feeding demands intelligence, judgment
and the means for the purchase of the proper food. Artificial feeding
per se is not to blame, but ignorant feeding, the giving of contaminated
or improper food or the failure to modify the quality and quantity of
clean wholesome food to meet the needs of each child.

Heat seems to bear a direct relation to the occurrence of “summer
diarrhea.” It affords a better opportunity for the growth of bacteria
in the child’s food, and for an increase of the normal flora of the intes-
tine. It may so influence normal digestion and metabolism as to lead
to the formation of toxic substances which may cause diarrhea.

Enteritis may be largely prevented by maternal feeding. The dis-
tribution of clean milk and the instruction of the mother in its modifi-
cation to meet the special needs of her child, will do much to reduce
the incidence of diarrhea. Strict attention should be given to the clean-
liness of the nursing bottles, nipples, and to the hygiene of the baby.
The clothing of the child should be determined by the temperature
rather than by tradition. Congested living quarters should be avoided
and the infant should be kept out of doors as much as possible.
The months of July and August should be spent in the country; if this
is not feasible, the child should have the full benefit of the parks.

wma Ts

THE AVOIDABLE LOSS OF LIFE 113

Tue DEGENERATIVE DISEASES

Deaths due to lesions of the heart, kidneys and blood vessels, the
diseases of old age, are on the increase. They are becoming more fre-
quent before fifty and many individuals are dying prematurely, at an
age when, as a result of training and experience, they should be most
productive and of the greatest value to society.

In 1913, there were over three hundred thousand deaths due to dis-
eases of the kidneys, heart and blood vessels. 24.2 per cent. of all the
deaths due to Bright’s disease and 21 per cent. of those caused by or-
ganic heart trouble occurred in individuals under fifty years of age.
Cerebral hemorrhage and arteriosclerosis have increased during the
last ten years.

The strenuousness of modern life, the intemperance of food and
drink, exposure and the intoxications of occupation play a part in the
production of renal, cardiac and vascular degeneration. In many
cases, however, we see the hand of syphilis, the sequel of rheumatic
fever, tonsillitis, chorea, and of pneumonia, or the probable latent in-
juries of scarlet fever, diphtheria, typhoid, or malaria.

In the acute cases of kidney, heart, or vascular disease, the virulence
of the invading organism, the reduction of the resistance of the indi-
vidual, or both, so favor the spread of the infection that signs of disease
are early apparent. In the chronic cases, the injuries may be com-
paratively latent, the symptoms slight or absent, yet the organs may be
so damaged that under the stress of modern life their period of ac-
tivity may fall short ten or twenty years.

It matters little whether the premature deaths of the individuals,
at a time when they are most useful, is due to infectious disease, the
poisoning of occupation, the wear and tear of existence, overwork, or
to the excess of food or drink, the power of prevention rests largely
with the individual and the state.

On the basis of the last statistics, there are 78,900 deaths due to
cancer annually in the United States. The mortality rate has steadily
increased from 63 per 100,000 population in 1900 to 78.9 in 1913.
Do these figures represent an actual increase? Statisticians and not-
ably Hoffman believe that the mortality rates, “unconditionally confirm
the conclusion that cancer is relatively on the increase throughout the
civilized world and the increase is affecting practically all important
organs and parts of the body.” Physicians and surgeons are somewhat
skeptical and are inclined to attribute the increase largely to better
methods of diagnosis of internal cancer and to the lengthening of the
average life which increases the number of individuals reaching the
cancerous age.

The etiology of cancer is unknown. It is a “disease of theories ” and

114 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

each theory has some evidence to support it, but which is inadequate to
establish it to the exclusion of others.

The two great predisposing causes of cancer are age and irritation.
Cancer usually occurs after forty, but it may not uncommonly appear
earlier in life. Any source of irritation, be it mechanical, as the effect of
a jagged tooth on the cheek or tongue; actinic, as the action of the
Roéntgen or ultra-violet rays upon the skin; thermic, as the effect of a
hot pipe stem upon the tongue or lip; or chemic, as the action of arsenic
and anilin dyes upon the skin, predisposes to cancer.

The prevention of cancer depends upon the education of the public
as to the dangers of chronic irritation, as to the importance of the
early symptoms and the necessity of an early operation. It should be
universally known that any lump in the breast or unusual bleeding from
the uterus in a woman above thirty-five requires investigation to ex-
clude cancer. Sores, warts, and swellings of the lips or tongue in an
individual over forty should be brought immediately to the surgeon for
diagnosis. Bleeding from the bowels of a person of similar age demands
the exclusion of cancer. Warts or moles that begin to show signs of
growth or soreness should be removed at once. Suspicious growths
should be given expert microscopical examination. All the precautions
used against external precancerous lesions should be taken to avoid and
discover beginning internal cancer. The best way to make a curable
cancer hopeless, is to delay operation or to use plasters and salves.

Economic IMPORTANCE OF PREVENTABLE DISEASE

Society is demanding each year greater skill and increased efficiency
of its members, a requirement that calls for a larger investment in the
training of the individual and a condition that makes the economic loss
due to preventable disease most appalling. So many factors contribute
to this waste that it is practically impossible to state it in figures.

Nine tenths of all children dying of measles, whooping cough, scar-
let fever and diphtheria, and all those dying of diarrhea or any diseases
before the tenth year represent a total loss, for economic values have
been created and destroyed without giving return.

The toll of syphilis, typhoid fever and tuberculosis is heaviest during
the period of greatest usefulness. The ravages of syphilis are large
between thirty and forty-five, but greatest between forty-five and sixty.
It shortens the expectancy of life by 5.5 years; it renders the individual
inefficient during the most productive period of life; it fastens itself
upon the posterity of its victim, increasing degeneracy, encouraging
poverty and promoting public charges; it erects about 20 per cent. of
our insane asylums and taxes the nation for their maintenance. Ty-
phoid fever causes 94 per cent. of its mortality before the sixtieth year,
over 48 per cent. before the twenty-fifth year, and about 29 per cent.

THE AVOIDABLE LOSS OF LIFE 115

between the fifteenth and twenty-fifth year. Tuberculosis destroys 90
per cent. of its victims before sixty, 30 per cent. before twenty-five, and
19 per cent. between the fifteenth and twenty-fifth year. Tuberculosis and
typhoid fever not only strike down over 90 per cent. of those attacked
before sixty, but they cause tens of thousands to seek public charity or
to spend large sums to recover their health, when they should be pro-
ducing. Nearly one third of the deaths due to typhoid and one fifth of
those caused by tuberculosis occur in the high-school-university period
of life, the time representing the maximum investment of society in the
preparation of the individual for usefulness.

Diseases of the heart, kidney and blood vessels are becoming more
frequent, thus individuals are prematurely lost to society who by train-
ing and experience should be of the greatest value.

The great economic loss due to the deaths of individuals before they
have become an earning power and of persons dying during the most
productive period of life is relatively small as compared with the enorm-
ous loss caused by illness with its consequent loss of time of the wage
earner, the inefficiency of the worker, the expenditures for medicine and
attention and the absence or decrease of productiveness on the part of
other individuals who must spend a part or their entire time in caring
for the sick.

It is obvious that this large loss of life and health constitutes a
serious curtailment of the productive efficiency of the nation and that
a heavy economic burden results from the support of invalids, defec-
tives and those deprived of their bread winners. As long as preventable
diseases are present, we are paying large premiums to keep them, for it
would be much cheaper to prevent, than to have them.

PROPHYLAXIS

Preventable disease is associated inseparably with poverty and igno-
rance, and any successful attempt at prevention must be an attack upon
these twin brothers of human misery.

Poverty may be the great predisposing cause of disease or the result
of it. Poverty by underfeeding, overworking and poorly housing
renders the individual more susceptible to disease; by overcrowding
presents a favorable opportunity for the spread of infection. The Eng-
lish Royal Commission on Poverty states that 55-60 per cent. of the
poverty of Great Britain is due to sickness. The report of the Charity
Organization of New York City seems to confirm the figures of the
Commission.

The poverty-stricken individual is a fourfold menace to the nation—
a poor progenitor, an inefficient producer, a potential source of disease,
and frequently a malcontent. Society should realize that every indi-
vidual who makes his best efforts and every child born to the nation must

116 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

be guaranteed as their inalienable rights sufficient food for growth and
energy, the necessary amount of sleep and rest, abundance of fresh air,
sanitary quarters, and an opportunity for an education. A different
attitude fails to promote the general welfare, procreates weaklings, in-
vites disease and undermines the stability of the nation.

Ignorance can be removed only by education, and if the intelligent
individuals of every community who realize the serious importance of
disease to the nation, are to be interested and increased in numbers
until they will demand preventive machinery commensurate with scien-
tific knowledge and the enactment of laws founded upon the present
development of preventive medicine, public education must be pushed
with greater vigor. ;

Much has been accomplished by popular literature, lectures and
demonstrations, more will be done by them in the future, but the im-
portance of preventable disease upon the social and economic conditions
of the nation demands more than an occasional public lecture, pam-
phlets at infrequent intervals or casual demonstrations. Instruction in
the methods of preventing disease should be an essential part of our sys-
tem of education and no individual should have completed his education
without the knowledge of how communicable diseases are spread and
prevented ; the dangers of and the methods of avoiding industrial dis-
ease ; how to care for an infant; and a practical understanding of sanita-
tion and hygiene. A system of education that requires large sums of
money to teach individuals English and science and does not instruct
them how to protect themselves from preventable death and illness, fails
to insure its investment and may be criticized as incomplete.

Each county should have a full-time health officer and community
nurses to meet the needs of the population. Their duties should be
threefold: the control of disease, the education of the public, and as
expert consultants for the citizens of the county upon matters of
hygiene and sanitation.

With such a force it would be possible to make a sanitary survey
of each industrial plant, place of amusement, summer resort and resi-
dence. Such a survey would reach a large number of persons who are
not likely to hear public lectures or to read popular literature. A visit
and a tactful conference of the health officer and property owner have
not only a sanitary and educational value, but they create a sympa-
thetic understanding between the citizen and the sanitarian, a condition
essential to the practical progress of sanitary science.

Every large industrial plant should carefully supervise the physical
condition of its employees, for the health of the workman determines his
daily efficiency and the period of his productivity. Periodic physical
examination of all employees would detect disease in its incipiency ;

THE AVOIDABLE LOSS OF LIFE 117

would contribute largely to community health; and would make it pos-
sible to adapt the work to the physical condition of the worker. There
would be an economic gain to the employer by the reduction of the
number of accidents to workmen, material and machinery; in protec-
tion against unjust claims for compensation ; in the increased efficiency
of the worker; and in the decreased loss of time from preventable
sickness.

The prevention of disease is the function of science and society.
Science must provide the way; society must use the means and bear the
cost. ‘The acceptance by society of Jenner’s demonstration of the advan-
tage of vaccination ended the devastation of smallpox ; with the practical
application of the discoveries of Laveran and Ross, malaria ceased to be
the scourge of mankind; the use of the knowledge of Reed, Carroll and
Lazear made the Panama Canal a possibility and closed our ports to
yellow fever; our understanding of the life history of the Koch vibrio
has kept Asiatic cholera beyond our shores; and a scientific attack upon
plague has prevented its spread and practically driven it from the
country.

The knowledge of tuberculosis is as complete as that of plague; the
epidemiology of typhoid fever and cholera are practically identical ; the
understanding of syphilis is as clear as that of malaria; and the infor-
mation concerning diphtheria as definite as that of yellow fever. The
way for the great reduction or elimination of preventable disease is
known ; the need is for society to educate its members, use the methods,
and bear the cost.

118 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

THE CAUSES OF WAR

By Proressor I. W. HOWERTH

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

SUPERFICIAL consideration of the many wars of the past might

lead one to think that the causes of war are as numerous as the

wars themselves. There are interesting accounts of wars having been

occasioned by trivial causes. A dispute over a pig is said to have threat-

ened war at one time between the United States and Great Britain;

at another time, between France and the then republic of Texas.t The

war of 1738 between England and Spain, which later became a part of

the great war of the Austrian Succession, is known in history as “ Jenk-

in’s Ear War,” the actual occasion being the maltreatment by the Span-
iards of an old English sea captain, resulting in the loss of an ear.?

If we distinguish, however, between cause and occasion, we find that,
while the occasions of war are many and varied, the causes are few. This
fact has been pointed out by Lecky with respect to the wars of Europe.
He says:

If, indeed, we examine only the proximate causes of European wars, they
present the aspect of a perfect chaos, and the immense majority might be as-
eribed to isolated causes or to passing ebullitions of national jealousy. But if
we examine more closely, we find that a deep-seated aversion produced by gen-
eral causes had preceded and prepared the explosion. The great majority of
wars during the last 1,000 years may be classified under three heads—wars pro-
duced by opposition of religious belief, wars resulting from erroneous economical
notions, either concerning the balance of trade or the material advantages of
conquest, and wars resulting from the collision of the two hostile doctrines of
the divine right of kings and the rights of nations.’’3

Thus, according to Lecky, the causes of the wars of Europe may be
reduced to three categories, namely: religious, economic and political.
If, as the exponents of the doctrine of the economic interpretation of
history maintain, both religious and political beliefs have an economic
basis, these three sets of causes may be reduced to one, the economic.
But whether history is to be thus explained or not, it is safe to say that
the principal cause of the wars of Europe has been economic.

In the wars of primitive times the economic cause stands out con-
spicuously. Men lived in tribal groups; they were unacquainted with
efficient modes of production; they were averse to labor. Savage tribes,

1See Macy, A. W., ‘‘Curious Bits of History,’’ p. 160, and Wooten, Dudley
G., ‘‘A Comprehensive History of Texas,’’ Vol. 1, page 370.

2 Cheyney, Edward T., ‘‘Short History of England,’’ page 557.
3 Rationalism in Europe, Vol. II., pp. 219-20.

THE CAUSES OF WAR 119

rapidly expanding, naturally experienced increasing difficulty in obtain-
ing a food supply. This led to nomadic habits or to migration. Roving
bands, pastoral or hunting, in search of food, came into collision. The
result was war, followed in primitive times by cannibalism, later by
general exploitation and slavery. Says Robinson:

Among tribes subsisting on the products furnished spontaneously by nature
war is the normal condition. The reason is, in the main, economic. The scar-
city and precariousness of the food supply render much land necessary to sup-
port each family. Unless climatic conditions absolutely prevent an increase of
population, the hunting grounds of the several tribes are of necessity extended
until they overlap; and so arises a war of extermination, whose issue is the de-
struction of the least efficient social organization and the restoration of the
equilibrium between population and the food supply.

The tribal wars of the American Indians may be taken as an illustra-
tion. The Algonquin and Iroquois tribes met and fought in the fine
hunting grounds of the Mohawk valley; the Shawnees, Delawares, and
Miamis, in Kentucky, “the dark and bloody ground.”

So also the economic cause is plainly visible in the early wars of
history, whether they took place in Europe or in Asia. In the earlier
civilizations there was periodically a swarming of the hive, as one might
say, great migrations, Voélkerwanderungen, which necessarily meant con-
tact with other civilizations and the resulting contest for food, wealth
and the other material things that men most desire. The very nature of
these early wars is indicative of the fact that they were due primarily
to an economic cause.

The same thing is true, although less conspicuously so, of the later
wars of history. It was so of the early wars of Greece and Rome, of
the wars of feudal times, of the series of contests between the various
maritime powers, of the wars of the Palatinate, of the war of the Spanish
Succession, and of the American Revolution. Even the so-called religi-
ous wars are reduceable to an economic basis—the crusades, for example.
Says Molinari:

Lorsque 1’expérience eut démontré que les croisades ne payaient pas on y

renonca et les guerres d’expansion des peuples de 1’Europe ne recommencérent
qu’aprés la découverte de 1’Amerique.5

The wars of Napoleon, and many of those since his overthrow, as,
for instance, the Crimean war, the Chinese wars, the Mexican war and
our own great Rebellion, have been largely if not chiefly due to economic
questions, either with respect to the acquisition of trade or of trade
routes. The same may be said of the present war in Europe. If we
penetrate beneath the superficial phenomena—the assassination of a
crown prince, mobilization of armies, royal ambitions, national jealousies

4 Political Science Quarterly, Vol. XV., No. 4 (Dee., 1900), p. 582.

5 ‘*Grandeur et decadence de la guerre,’’ p. 49. Quoted by Robertson in the
article cited.

120 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

and race prejudices—we find commercial rivalries, desires for an outlet
to the sea, or “a place in the sun.”

Wars in general, then, arise chiefly from economic conditions. In
early times the principal motive was either conquest and the advantages
arising therefrom or the securing or maintenance of some special eco-
nomic advantage. Since the development of a money economy, and the
consequent national interdependence, the possibilities of economic ex-
ploitation through conquest have gradually diminished, so that the idea
that war is economically profitable to any of the countries concerned may
well be regarded to-day as “ The Great Illusion.” Still, economic fric-
tion between the trading nations of the world is a patent fact, and it is
to-day, as it has been in the past, the principal cause of international
strife.

Other causes, of course, have occasionally risen into prominence, par-
ticularly the ambition of rulers; the desire of governing classes to
aggrandize or protect themselves; national bumptiousness and aggres-
siveness, due chiefly to an ignorant and blind patriotism; and, as a
minor cause, differences in philosophic tenets with respect to govern-
ment. And so also the sentiment of nationality, considerations of
national honor, the preservation of the wellsprings of national morality,
which most people seem to think gush forth only in their own country;
the attainment or the preservation of “the peace of righteousness ”—
which means, I suppose, the peace resulting from the victory of “our
side” in a contest—all these, even if they have not occasioned war, have
been paraded among the reasons that are marshalled by those who would
justify war or even glorify it. But, after all is said, the fact remains
that the causes of war have been and are to-day chiefly economic.

This being the case, it will be interesting now, and necessary to the
general purpose of this discussion, to turn our attention to the nature of
an economic cause.

The idea of cause is inseparable from the idea of force. Some kind of
force is indeed the only efficient cause, whether it be in the physical, vital
or social world. Now the forces which produce social results are the feel-
ings. Feeling is the dynamic element in human society. Social con-
flicts, of which war is an example, can arise only from a conflict of
feeling between the groups involved. If this conflict is due to a clash
of economic interests we have, in the initiation of such conflict, the
operation and manifestation of an economic cause. An economic cause,
then, is mutual hostility of feeling arising from the competition of in-
dustrial groups of different classes or nations. To say, then, that the
chief cause of war is economic is but to say that wars are due in general
to industrial competition as carried on between the nations of the
world.

But the industrial régime of the world has always been, and is now,

2 -

oo

THE CAUSES OF WAR 121

competitive. Nations are in constant competition for markets, for trade
routes, for opportunities for expansion, or, more accurately, the trading
classes of nations are in such competition. Some gain, others lose.
Naturally, hostile feelings are evoked, government is appealed to, inter-
national disputes arise, and, becoming acute, wars are declared and are
waged to promote the economic interests of the dominant industrial
classes. The chief conditions that incite war, then, are inherent in our
present system of industry. Indeed, the business of the world as carried
on to-day is war, only it is veiled by certain conventions, too often by
pretense and hypocrisy, and is transacted in general under the sanction
of law. When the pressure becomes too strong upon the feelings, that is,
when the conventional and peaceful means are insufficient to obtain the
end sought, there is resort to arms. Armed warfare is only a phase of
the general industrial warfare that prevails the world over.

Some deny this fact. They persuade themselves, or are persuaded
by the biased arguments of those interested in maintaining things as
they are, that the interests of the various industrial and commercial
classes and nations are the same. But this is not the case. As Robin-
son well says, in the article already quoted,

The dogma of the natural and necessary harmony of the interests of all
nations is just as false as that of their natural and necessary antagonism. This
dogma is true only so long as each nation has a natural monopoly in some one
line of industry,—as the free traders erroneously assumed that England had in
manufacturing. While competition is absent, commerce is, indeed, a bond of
peace and good will between those who buy and those who sell in return. But
the moment that two nations embark extensively in the same line of industry,
that moment commerce becomes a sword, dividing and setting at enmity those
who are rivals for the same markets. For of them it is true, as Montaigne
declared, that no profit can be made except to the damage of another. The
increase of one is the decrease of the other; the prosperity of one is the other’s
destruction. Such nations stand to each other as two Indian tribes when there
is but game enough for one.6

Now the bearing of all this upon the immediate or early cessation of
war is obvious. Wars are not likely to cease so long as the fundamental
cause is operative, that is to say, so long as economic conditions and
relationships remain as they are now. ‘These conditions and relation-
ships will continue to evoke strife, and, under the stress of passion,
swords will be drawn no matter how unprofitable from a business stand-
point war may be. This is not to assert that human weakness is the cause
of war. It is the weight pressing upon the beam, not the weakness of
the material, that causes the fracture. So war is due, not primarily to
human weakness, but to the economic conditions in which this weakness
is unable to bear the strain. There is no hope of permanent peace with-
out a change in the conditions which make strife inevitable.

6 Article cited.

<< vou. u.—9.

122 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

The fact that commerce and business in general do in some respects
make for peace has led many to suppose that the spread of commerce is
fatal to the existence of war. Professor Shaler, writing in 1896, said:

So long as the control of governments was in the uneconomic classes of men
who had nothing to lose and much to gain by war, the influences were over-
whelming for its continuance; now that the business people are gaining control
of the world’s affairs there is reason to hope that the cure is about to come to
this ancient and enduring ill.7

But this hope is vain, as recent events have shown. So long as the
economic interests of classes and nations are antagonistic there will be
war. No demonstrations of its waste, no sentimental appeals for peace, —
will prevent it. Not the spread of commerce but the harmonization of
economic interests is the most effective remedy.

The application of this remedy is conceivable, however impossible
such application may be at the present time. A cause of war arising
from economic conditions is not ineradicable. War is not due to any-
thing inherent in nature or in man—not to hunger and the law of de-
creasing returns, as Robinson concludes. He says:

The cause of war is as permanent as hunger itself; since both spring from
the same source, the law of decreasing returns. So long as that persists, war
must remain, in the last analysis, a national business undertaking, designed to
procure or preserve foreign markets, that is, the means of continued growth
and prosperity. Chacun doit grandir ow mourir.8

But hunger and the law of decreasing returns might conceivably
lead, and ought to lead, to cooperative effort to produce food, rather than
to war, which is an organized and systematic effort to secure it by
robbery, and in which much of it is unprofitably consumed and destroyed.
Might it not have been said in the earlier swashbuckler days, and with
equal truth, or error, that “the cause of piracy and robbery is as per-
manent as hunger itself”; and yet “lifting” the goods of another, as a
means of “ growth and prosperity,” has in general given way to other and
more approved methods of gaining a livelihood. May it not be also that
in time an improved industrial economy will provide a sufficient amount
of material goods to maintain an intelligently restricted population?
With the enormous possibilities of industry, intelligently organized and
intelligently directed, the expectation that the maintenance of a nation’s
civilization by work rather than by war may at last be realized, and thus
the economic cause of war be removed at all events, this expectation
should not be regarded as an altogether empty and iridescent dream.

But granting the present impossibility of eliminating the economic
cause of war by a revolutionary change in economic conditions, there
remains the hope that through the dissemination of knowledge respect-
ing the waste and futility of war as a mode of social action, and as a
means of achieving social results, at least the frequency of war may be

7 Shaler, N. S., North American Review, Vol. 162, page 340.
8 Article cited.

THE CAUSES OF WAR 123

lessened. Popular education, however, it must be admitted, has not
fulfilled the early expectations with respect to its promotion of peace.
It has indeed lamentably failed; for the results of increased popular
intelligence and the advancement of science are manifested in the
greater destructiveness of war, and apparently in its more savage brutality.
The failure, however, ought not to be charged to education itself, but to
the kind of education that has prevailed and to the dissemination of
erroneous ideas concerning the nature and results of war—the ideas of
Treitschke and Bernhardi, false conceptions of national honor and
patriotism, and the pernicious idea that the best way to prevent war is
constantly to think about it and prepare for it, an idea contradicted by
all we know of human psychology with respect to the relation of thought
to action. Education properly conceived as the distribution of scientific
knowledge and the development of the social spirit would in time elimi-
nate war and all the other remediable evils that afflict mankind. It is
the sole panacea. But as a means of preventing war it needs to be
reformed. And to begin with there should be scientific instruction with
respect to the nature of war, rather than the inculcation of false ideas
which tend to promote it.

The true nature of war, unlike its causes, is not obscure. It is
plainly revealed by a knowledge of biological and social evolution. Such
knowledge ought to lead to recognition of the distinction between the
blind social evolution of nature, effected partly by war, and a possible
ordered social evolution achieved by human foresight. But the study of
evolution, the one study capable of rendering this great service, has
been discouraged, sometimes forbidden, in our schools and colleges, on
the ground of its being unorthodox or atheistic; hence the superstition
of nature worship which prevails to-day. There is indeed a natural evo-
lution of nations and societies. As Spencer says:

It is true that much social evolution is achieved without any intention on
the part of citizens to achieve it, and even without the consciousness that they
are achieving it.®

But such evolution is uncertain, slow, wasteful and to no end save the
adjustment of the social organism to its environment. It does not result
in the survival of the best, but the fittest, and sometimes the fittest is
ethically the worst. Its chief method is competition or war, both being
essentially the same. This method, like all the methods of nature, is
direct; it is the method of the brute. Says Professor Ward:

War, however much the indirect method may be incidentally employed in its
detailed management, is in its ensemble essentially a measure of direct coercion.
The effects are no greater than the effort required to secure them. The action

is exactly balanced by the reaction. The algebraic sum of the results of all wars
is nil.10

®Spencer Herbert, ‘‘ Various Fragments,’’ page 132.
10 Ward, L. F., ‘‘Glimpses of the Cosmos,’’ ITT., 41.

124 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

It is the function of intelligence to supplant the direct method of
evolution as manifested by, war by the indirect method of foresight and
control. Man is man only in proportion as he controls natural phe-
nomena and supplants the method of nature by the method of mind.

The world ought not to await the complete work of education, how-
ever, before putting an end to war. Only a preponderance of intelligent
opinion with respect to war is necessary, and the effective expression of
this opinion through an organization that will restrain the rashly bel-
ligerent nation from running amuck. In other words, the world must
organize to prevent war, by soft words if possible, but by the use of the
“big stick” if necessary. Intelligent and law-abiding men did not wait
for the conversion of all duelists to abolish dueling. When they felt the
power to abolish it they did so. Said St. Louis, King of France:

We forbid, to all persons throughout our dominions, the trial by battle...
and instead of battles we establish proofs by witnesses . . . and these battles we
abolish in our dominions forever.11

So the peace movement should be directed toward the formation of a
league strong enough to forbid war and that would establish, instead of
war, “proofs by witnesses.” War is not only an evil, it is a nuisance,
and the nation inclined to belligerency should be confronted by the
notice, posted by the intelligent and law-abiding people of the world,

“Commit no nuisance, under penalty of the law!”

11 Guizot, ‘‘ Histoire de la Civilization en France,’’ LeCon 14, Vol. IV., pp.
162-4.

THE ISLANDS OF THE MID-PACIFIC 125

THE ISLANDS OF THE MID-PACIFIC
By Dr. ALFRED GOLDSBOROUGH MAYER

HE map of the mid-Pacific shows about eight hundred small islands
dotting the expanse of the tropical sea. So prominent do these
appear upon the chart with their names stretching over hundreds of
miles that the voyager is surprised to find that they are in reality all
but lost upon the vast area of the waters. Thus it was that in 1521
Magellan sailed 8,000 miles across the ocean and saw only four small un-
inhabited islets until he came upon the Ladrones in the far eastern
Pacific.

During the century that elapsed after Magellan’s voyage, only two
important mid-Pacific groups, the Marquesas and the Paumotos, were
discovered, for the explorers made the best speed they could with the
southeast trade wind from the coast of South America, and such a course
even from Cape Horn carries one to the northward of the great archipela-
goes which lie in the tropical regions of the southern hemisphere.

Yet in the Pacific even in these days of steam, there stretches for
days and weeks around one only the monotony of sea and sky, and it is
with the delight of surprise that the far mountain peak is seen looming
cloud-like through the haze, or, if the island be an atoll, a ragged Tow
of cocoanut palms thrusts suddenly above the long line of the horizon.

Apart from such large land masses as New Caledonia and New
Zealand, which contain continental rocks, the islands of the mid-tropical
Pacific are either volcanoes, or elevated limestone reefs, or low-lying
atolls which are believed to rest upon the submerged peaks of extinct
volcanoes.

Sir John Murray tells us that the area of the Pacific is about 69,000,-
000 square miles, 65 per cent. of which is between 12,000 and 18,000 feet
in depth. Indeed, the floor of the ocean between the Galapagos and the
Paumotos is a plain in comparison with which the wide levels of Russia
and of our Middle States are diversity itself. This vast flat bottom
of the eastern Pacific is the widest area of deep water upon earth. Asia,
Africa, and North and South America might all be sunken beneath it
and not overlap. Indeed, one might sail nearly 8,000 miles south-
eastward from Behring Strait to the Antarctic, and for 7,000 miles of
the course the least depth would be 12,000 feet, and at no place would
the bottom be within a mile of the surface. The continental shores rise
abruptly from this deep, floor, and in a few places we find trough-
like or pit-like depressions sunken far below the bed of the sea, or an
isolated volcanic cone rises dome-like from the plain, but the diversified

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landscape of hill and valley has no counterpart in the hidden world be-
neath the sea.

The deepest regions of the oceans are commonly close to the shore
and are believed to have been caused by the crumpling inward of the
earth’s crust due to the pressure of the near land. Such is the “ 'Tusca-
rora Deep,” a long narrow trough which extends northward from Japan
along the coast of Asia; its bottom being more than 27,600 feet below
the surface of the sea and 12,600 feet below the general level of the
ocean’s floor. An even more profound abyss is the Aldrich Deep close
to the Tongan and Kermadec Islands which sinks to a depth of 30,930
feet. The greatest yet found, however, is the Swire Deep off Mindanao
of the Philippines, this being 32,089 feet or 3,089 feet deeper than
Mount Everest of the Himalayas is high.

However, one gains an idea of the rarity of such abyssal regions
from the fact that of the 9,750 soundings that have been made and
reported in water over 1,000 fathoms in depth, only 17 were greater
than 4,000 and only 3 exceeded 5,000 fathoms in depth. The greatest
recorded depth of the ocean is only 409 feet more than six miles.

By contrast with these troughs and pits, submerged plateaus rise
gently above the general level of the ocean floor, and here and there and
at rare intervals a mountain obtrudes above the submarine plain. All
these isolated mountains are volcanoes and thus every truly oceanic
island is but the summit of a pyramid thrown upward until its corrod-
ing peak may rise 13,800 feet above the sea as does Mauna Kea in Hawaii,
or if now submerged, it may be capped by a thickness of several hundred
feet of limestone and coral as in Bermuda.

The fairest islands in all the tropic world are those of Marquesas
and Tahiti, where jagged sheets of basalt tower in grotesquely sculp-
tured precipices thousands of feet above the soft lavas and tufas that
the rains have washed away. Long ago these islands were volcanoes of
an explosive type such as Aitna of to-day, and molten basalt welled
upward from the depths and filled the gaping rents in the pyramids of
softer ash and lava. Then, after the fires had died, the tropical rains
began their slow persistent work so that to-day deep valleys wind sinu-
ously downward from the summits to the sea, and the sound of rushing
brooks is forever upon the ear. Green as corroding malachite set in the
azure of the sea, the splendid peaks and shaded gorges lie mantled in the
soft mist-loving verdure of the tropics, where the banana, orange, bread-
fruit, mango, kavika, alligator pear, and Tahitian chestnut grow in wild
profusion.

The surf in these tropical regions is far less destructive than along
our own frost-ravaged shores, for this is the domain of coral reefs, and
many a crumbling volcanic cone lies protected within an encircling break
water upon which the wave is smothered into foam, leaving only ripples
to reach the palm-fringed shore.

128 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

TAE-0O-HAE VALLEY, NUKUHIVA ISLAND, MARQUESAS.

Sheltered thus from the wear of the sea, lies the slumbering volcano
whose fires have been dead for many a thousand years. At night, the
cool air of its mountain heights wafts downward to the sea, fragrant with
jessmine and spice, and all the subtle perfume of a tropic wild. By
day the sea-breeze assumes the mastery, and awakens the snowy flash of
breakers where the rollers die into wavelets a mile or more from shore.
This silvery line of surf marks the position of the barrier reef which
encircles the island, leaving a calm and shallow channel between the
reef-rim and the shore. Here protected the native plies his frail
canoe, knowing as he does all the haunts of the fish among the coral
clusters which here and there rise abruptly from the depths to the
surface; and on calm days we may wade along the outer edge over many
a place where a single seaward step would plunge one into water a
hundred feet in depth.

Rich coral reefs usually occur in inaccessible places and are so studi-
ously shunned by commercial vessels that the ordinary traveler has but
little opportunity of seeing them at close range. The living corals rise
in clusters above the volcanic rock or limestone upon which they have
acquired an anchorage. ‘They are, as is well known, animals closely
related to sea-anemones, and their young when as small as a pin’s head,
are cast out into the water as little pear-shaped larve covered with vibra-
ting cilia. After being drifted by currents and swimming feebly for a few
days, the little creature settles down upon the bottom and soon grows

THE ISLANDS OF THE MID-PACIFIC 129

into a minute sea-anemone-like animal whose skin secretes lime and thus
forms a skeleton, and it is this stony support, after the animal itself has
died, that we commonly call “coral.” After it has become attached to
the bottom, the little polyp acquires tentacles which surround the
mouth and then it begins to grow either into a simple form, or by bud-
ding to assume a shape in accordance with the habit of its species. At
first but a single polyp it buds or divides so that there may be thousands
of such with their stomachs more or less connected. Thus the animal
is a colonial one, and when one polyp captures a minute crustacean, the
other polyps in its neighborhood share in the benefit. Doctor 'T. Way-
land Vaughan, who has studied them most carefully, tells us that corals
are voracious creatures and feed upon almost any small floating animal
they can capture, but plants they will have none of for they are strictly
carnivorous.

Olive and yellow-greens, mauve and purple-browns are the colors of
the living corals. Glinting they he in the limpid water with the glis-
tening white of limestone sands around them. Here and there accentu-
ating the color of the scene is a deep blue starfish (Linckia), or a flower-
like sea-anemone a foot or more in width beautifying a crevice with
tracery rivaling old Venetian glass, while closely wedged within its
special cavern lies the giant clam (Tridacna), the sinuous cleft between
its valves, a zigzag of malachite and blue, green or mottled brown.
Among the corals, one finds delicate forests of fused branches rich purple-
brown with pink and snowy tips (Acropora), or green-olive and yellow-
green nodular forms such as Porites, Orbicella, or Goniastrea. Some of

CANOES AND WARRIOR OF UOLA ISLAND, TRUK GROUP, CAROLINE ISLANDS.

MONTHLY

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THE ISLANDS OF THE MID-PACIFIC 131

the species of Porites upon the Great Barrier Reef of Australia are
twenty or more feet in diameter and must surely have been a century in
growing, for it is known that in Torres Straits under favorable conditions
they may enlarge in diameter at the rate of nearly two inches per annum.

Silt and drifted mud are fatal to corals, for they stifle the feeding
polyps and the dead surface is soon honeycombed by a host of worms and
weeds and mollusks, so that the base of each old coral-head is cavernated
with intricate retreats which form the home of the reef fish—those living
jewels of the tropical sea, rivaling the butterflies in color.

Opposite the mouth of every mountain stream, we find an opening
in the wall of the encircling reef; for the outflow of brackish water and
silt prevent the growth of corals in such places and thus a harbor is
formed. Here nestled under the shadows of palm trees close to the pro-
tected shore lie the thatched houses of the natives, resembling haystacks
as one sees them from afar.

Drawn up inan irregular line, for all is hap-hazard in the South Seas,
lie the canoes of the village, carved in strange symbolism to propitiate
gods and tribal heroes. Each has its slender outrigger ingeniously
constructed, a marvel of flexibility and strength, and its sail woven of
pandanus leaves is carefully covered under a matting to protect it from
the molding due to damp. Im sailing, the outrigger is always on the
windward side, and the sail itself is never reefed, but instead one, two
or three men place themselves upon the outrigger. Breezes are known
therefore as “one,” “two,” or “three-man winds.” A high degree of
skill is required in sailing these canoes, for the outrigger must skim
lightly through the water. Should it rise into the air, the canoe over-

MoprE or TACKING AN OUTRIGGER CANOE.

turns, and if it sinks, a sudden luff capsizes the navigators; not, how-
ever, a serious accident where all are swimmers from earliest childhood.
As the outrigger must always remain upon the weather side the method
of tacking is curious, for instead of luffing up into the wind, they put the
helm up and hold the canoe off until the wind is abaft. Then the
“tack” or lower point of the lateen sail is carried aft and tied down;
and the canoe starts backward, that which was the stern now becoming
the bow.

132 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

House Ar EuA ISLAND, TonGaA, showing a wooden drum and drumstick in the fore-
ground.

Such is the life of man upon the “high islands” of the tropical
Pacific, and as for the islands themselves, the fascination of their isola-
tion is the keynote of their charm, set as they are in the amethystine blue
of the coral sea that flashes into emerald over shallows near the shore.

3 ‘ aS ~
WIN,

Tup CounciL Housn, FuNArutrt ATOLL, ELLicm ISLANDS.

THE ISLANDS OF THE MID-PACIFIC 133

Forests rich with fruit, and many a stream and coral reef afford sus-
tenance in abundance to the natives of these favoured regions of the
tropical Pacific.

But there is another, much commoner, and wholly different type of
island—the atoll. The popular idea that atolls are circular or regularly
elliptical in outline is false, for they commonly consist of a straggling
line of long, low islets enclosing with many breaks an irregularly-shaped
basin, or lagoon, the bottom of which is quite level and about one hun-

A HOUSE OF FUNAFUTI, ELLICE ISLANDS.

dred feet in depth, although often many miles in width. Another er-
roneous impression is that the islets are composed mainly of coral.
Broken fragments of corals are cast upon their shores, it is true, and
may form an irregular wall twelve or more feet in height along the
seaward beach, but usually the bulk of the material forming the islets
is composed of fragments of shells, calcareous plants, and other organic
limestones which after being churned and pounded in the surf are finally
tossed up by wave and wind, above the reach of the sea.

Darwin thought that atolls owed their formation to subsidence.
He imagined a coral reef encircling a volcanic cone. Then should the
voleano slowly sink beneath the sea, the ring of coral would as con-
stantly grow upward until finally the central mountain would disappear
leaving only the ring of the coral reef. Simple as this hypothesis
appears upon paper, it does not accord with the observed facts, for it

134 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

THE FISH-TAILED CANOE OF FUNAFUTI ATOLL, ELLICE ISLANDS.
fails to explain the remarkable flatness of the bottom of the lagoon
with its prevalant uniform depth of 20 fathoms.

The general seaward slope of the atoll is nearly 45°, so that one
commonly finds a depth of three quarters of a mile within a mile from
shore. Only the upper part of this slope is, however, covered with liv-
ing reef-corals and these form a mere veneer between depths of 120
feet and the surface. Indeed, the upper rim of the reef is apt to project
as a low ridge several inches above high tide. This ridge is dull red
in color, and consists in a dense growth of stony sea-weed, Lithotham-
mion, and nullipore.

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DIAGRAMMATIC SECTION OF A TyPICAL PAciFiIc ATOLL.

Between the nullipore ridge and the shore there is a submerged
platform over which the breakers drive so fiercely during storms that
few corals can cling within its scanty crevices. This platform is usually
from one hundred to six hundred feet wide and its floor is commonly not
more than three feet in depth at low tide. The seaward beach of the
island is a chaotic mass of dead and broken coral-heads which have

THE ISLANDS OF THE MID-PACTIFIC 135

been torn from the outer reef and driven inward over the platform to
be cast high above the wash of ordinary waves. On the lagoon side,
also, we sometimes find the same conditions repeated upon a miniature
scale; the slope, the platform, and the wave-raised coral-heads being
similar to the corresponding formations of the seaward side of the islet,
but the nullipore rim is commonly absent from the lagoon side for these
limestone-making plants thrive only in heavy breakers.

‘In the center between the seaward and lagoon-ward ridges, one finds
the lowest part of the islet, this region often being below sea level, and
forming a brackish swamp, whose noxious waters constitute the only
drinking supply of the atoll.

Brain corals and other huge, massive forms grow close to the
seaward edge of the reef, where the surges dash over and among
them, but the forests of fragile stag-horns (Acropora) thrive best
in more protected places. Others called the Fungiude are attached,
only in early life, by a slender stalk which soon breaks, and they then
lie loosely upon the reef like petrified mushrooms pushed about at the
caprice of the waves. Others (Siderastrea), called “rolling stone
corals,’ may break loose and be rolled about, the upper side always re-
generating and growing so that the mass becomes egg-shaped or spher-
ical. In general, however, as has been shown by Vaughan and others,
the small branching and slender forms must grow either at considerable
depths or in protected places to withstand the rough treatment of the
sea, thus the deep parts of the seaward precipices of the coral reef are

A CANOE UPON THE LAGOON BEACH OF FUNAFUTI ATOLL, ELLICE ISLANDS.

136 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

A BELLE OF FUNAFUTI, ELLICE ISLANDS.

covered with fragile corals, Oculina, and Husmilia, and the leaf-like
Lurbinaria and Agaricea secure in their quiet depths beneath the agi-
tation of the storm.

reef corals do not commonly grow, however, at depths greater than
100 feet, and indeed the most flourishing are in water less than six feet
deep, and some are even laid bare at the lowest tides. In times of hurri-
canes vast masses of broken coral are caught in the rush of the waters
and tossed far up upon the outer edges of the reef flats, and rocks
weighing tons may thus be lifted fully fifteen feet above the level of

THE ISLANDS OF THE MID-PACIFIC 137

the sea. In this manner the originally submerged rim of the reef has in
some places gradually been raised, new corals growing upon the shat-
tered fragments of the old, but we must always remember that the slow
persistent effects of everyday conditions have far more to do with shap-
ing atolls than have hurricanes.

In coral reef regions, the bottom of the sea is often found to be coy-
ered with fine white limestone mud. This becomes converted into rock
and may form plateaus thousands of square miles in area and hundreds
of feet thick as in the Bahamas and in Florida. This chalky deposit
was formerly called “coral mud,” but recently, Drew and Kellerman
have shown that it has no relation to corals, for according to these
authors the warm surface waters of the tropical ocean are infested with
bacilli which set up a complicated chemical reaction that enables the
calcium to combine with the dissolved carbon dioxide and to form a
chalky precipitate, the myriad little granules of which may possibly
cause the wonderful blue color of the tropical sea. In any event, in the
Atlantic this precipitate sinks to the bottom and there forms into oolite
in the manner described by Linck and by Vaughan.

It may be of interest to observe that the relative paucity of nitrogen
in the waters of the tropics may account for the few seaweeds found
in warm regions, for nowhere in the tropics are there anything like
the kelps and fucus that cover the rocks of the north Atlantic shores
of Europe and America. Also the scarcity of plant life in the trop-
ical ocean is correlated with the comparative absence of the swarms
of floating marine animals such as are so characteristic of Arctic seas,
for in cold seas individuals are abundant, but species are few, whereas
in the tropics there are many species, but most of them are rare.

In the tropics, where frost is unknown, the moist shell-sand of the
beaches is dissolved by rain water and then precipitated, the fragments
becoming cemented into a solid rock-mass, this action being especially
noticeable between tidal levels, but by no means confined to such places,
for in the Bahamas hills several hundred feet high have been formed
in this manner out of wind-blown shell-dust and limestone particles.
Indeed, rain water charged with carbonic acid derived from the de-

“composition of vegetation dissolves limestone and thus each little grain
of shell-sand is partially dissolved, and then, if the water evaporates or
the limestone be precipitated, the grains become cemented one to an-
other by little bridges of calcium carbonate, and thus a Coquina is
formed, such as one may see at St. Augustine in Florida, and on most
of the atoll islands of the world.

Currents, waves, and winds have much to do with the building up
of the islets of the atolls. The waves press constantly over the rim,
and the basin of the lagoon is filled to overflowing, so that most of the
water thus driven into it must escape on the leeward side. Accord-

vou. 1—10.

138 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY |.

CANOE DRAWN UP UPON THE BEACH AT RONGELAB ATOLL, MARSHALL ISLANDS.
The sail is covered with a thatch of pandanus leaves to protect it from rain. The
little deck-house on the outrigger is for storing food when voyaging.

ingly, the deepest openings are always so placed that we must beat up
into the wind in attempting to enter the lagoon. Practically every
deep entrance into a Pacific lagoon is partially blocked on the inner
side by an islet which has formed in the vortex from materials drawn
together by the outrushing water.

Even when the tide is high, there is apt to be an outflow of water
through all openings on the leeward side of the atoll, but at low tide
the whirlpools and breakers in such places are often fearful to behold.

In opposition to Darwin’s theory, an hypothesis, prominently pre-
sented by Professor Reginald A. Daly, is gaining ground. This states
that the great polar ice-caps of the glacial period must have been
formed from water taken up from the ocean by evaporation to con-
stitute the snows of the polar regions. Thus the level of the trop-

THE ISLANDS OF THE MID-PACIFIC 139

ical oceans of those days may have become about 120 feet lower
than at present. Now, if this were the case, the sea would wash away
the shores, forming platforms at sea level for the corals being mainly
killed by the low temperature could not protect the Island from the
waves. Then, when the ice-caps melted and the ocean rose and again
grew warm the corals growing upon the outer edges of these platforms
formed the present atolls and barrier reefs. If this be true, all the
modern coral reefs are upon platforms which the corals themselves did
not build up, but upon which they merely grew after the glacial epoch.
In confirmation of this, Andrews has shown that the platform upon the
seaward edge of which the barrier reefs of Australia have grown, ex-
tends southward beyond the latitude of coral growth. We may observe
that it also extends northward to New Guinea, beyond the region where
the corals are killed by the silt from the Fly River. Dr. Vaughan has
also demonstrated that the platform upon which the Florida reef has
grown extends northward from Fowey Rocks into a region too cold for
corals, and he shows that this relation appears to be general among coral
reefs.

As one approaches the atoll presents a charming picture. At first
only a line of cocoanut palms seemingly arising out of the ocean itseif.
Then the white glint. of sandy beach and, finally, we sail through a
narrow opening and find ourselves securely anchored in the limpid

SEA-GOING WAR-CANOE OF UOLA ISLAND, TRUK Group, CAROLINE ISLANDS. Canoe 25
feet long.

140 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY |

PRIMEVAL FOREST OF QUEENSLAND, NEAR KURANDA,

waters of the calm lagoon surrounded by a narrow broken ring of islets.

Glistening and brilliant it hes with the sunlit sea around it, a
shimmer of turquoise and emerald set in the everlasting blue of the
Pacific where the flash of flying spray gives action to the scene. With
its palm groves bending to the breeze, its alabaster beach, and by con-
trast the soft colors of withered thatch where palm-leaf houses nestle
beneath the shade along the lagoon’s shore. All splendid and spark-
ling, none can resist the invitation of its charm,

sut once on land, one is doomed to disappointment. The natives

THE ISLANDS OF THE MID-PACIFIC 141

BARRON FALLS, QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA, IN THE Dry SEASON. These falls are about

700 feet high.

are starved and sickly in comparison with their more favored cousins
of the high islands. The scintillating heat of the blistering sands,
the sparse and thorny plants of less than fifty kinds, redeemed only by

y °

the cocoanut and the pandanus, without which man must starve or die

of thirst—all illusions vanish in the stifle of the barren, glaring, thorny
place and we long for the ship’s cool deck and the awning’s gracious

shade. Life is poor and dull upon these atolls, rarely more than an

142 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY”

COCOANUTS AND OLD VOLCANOES OF RARATONGA, COOK ISLANDS.

eighth of a mile wide, with neither hills nor valleys, without streams
or springs, and with the heavy murmur of breakers forever in one’s ears.

Pure drinking water is the most prized luxury of the atoll. To
obtain it, the natives cut furrows extending diagonally down the stems
of cocoanut palms and leading into a cavity cut in the trunk of the tree,
within which a few ounces may collect. Failing of this meagre supply,
they resort in time of drotight to the mosquito haunted swamps which
occur here and there in the center of the islet.

Thus it is that the natives of the atolls are less cultured, less inter-
esting and poorer both in material and intellectual things than are
their relatives upon the high voleanic islands.

An intermediate geological condition is seen in another type of
island which the non-geological traveler is apt to confuse with the vol-
canic, but which is actually only an elevated atoll or coral reef. In vol-

THE ISLANDS OF THE MID-PACIFIC 143

canie regions, considerable local oscillations of level are common and
it is known that between the fifth and the twelfth centuries long
stretches of the shore of the Bay of Naples sank forty feet beneath the
sea and then rose 20 feet above its lowest level. In the Pacific greater
oscillations have occurred, for some of the coral reefs of the Fijis are
now more than eight hundred feet above the ocean, and other examples
of elevated atolls or coral reefs are found in Niue, Eua and Vavau in
Tonga, and in Makatea of the Paumotos islands.

In these elevated coral islands, bold precipices of dull gray lime-
stone frown gloomily upon the sea, their hostile walls stained here and
there a rusty red where coral heads have decomposed, leaving the ruddy
stain of iron. Caverns with stalactytes drooping like curtains from
their roofs are found along the steep face of the cliff, and within them
the chiefs of other days he buried. In places the sea gains access to
these caverns, and in the darkened pools live some of the creatures
whose true home is upon the dimly-lighted bottom of the sea, 1,000
feet below the surface. Yet here in the everlasting shade flower-like
erinoids crawl slowly over the rocks, and long, lythe sea-whips (Alcy-
onaria) coil and uncoil in the dying surge that wanders to their far
retreats.

The torrential rains of the tropics have for ages been beating down
upon these elevated coral islands so that the whole surface is a riot of
jagged projections. If flames were by a magician’s wand suddenly
turned to rock, they would not be more grotesque or flaring than these
knife-edged masses which everywhere project over the surface of an
elevated coral island. Here and there and everywhere the mouths of
treacherous caverns yawn to entrap the traveler. So clinker-like is this
barren rock which rings with a metallic sound when struck, that the
non-geologist at once concludes that the island is volcanic, and only
the sight of corals heads imbedded here and there in the scoriaceous-
looking mass will convince him that he is treading upon an elevated
reef. One’s boots are torn to shreds, yet the bare-footed natives leap
from crag to crag uninjured; a marvellous example of the superiority
of natural shoe-leather.

The soil of these islands collects in the numerous crevices, and here
the banana grows in the dark-red ferruginous earth that gathers in
the bottom of many a pit. Thus the older these islands, the deeper
does their soil become, so that at Namuka, Vavau, or Eua in Tonga, or
in Niue, we find the surface covered with a rich rusty soil which sup-
ports a vegetation almost as varied as that of the volcanic islands.

Only half conscious of the present, wantonly forgetful of the past
and heedless of the future, life in the south seas passes as a day-dream,
a reverie aimless as the airs that trifle among the palm leaves only to
lapse into the nothingness of things that were. Yet nature in the

144 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY |

tropics is a trixy jade, and at times drops her seductive, soothing ways
and rushes headlong into tragedy. All other memories may lapse into
forgetfulness, but the day and year of the hurricane is recalled, and
the story of it passes into myth and is handed down from generation

to generation.

Tur BASALTIC PRaAk or Bora Bora, Socirry ISLANDS, showing the trade wind in the
palm trees.

Hurricanes come in the autumn; in that season when the long, hot
calms of the tropical summer are about to break into the steady
trade winds of the winter months. Thus in September and October
in the West Indies, and in February and March in the South Pacific,
the heated air rising above the sea is believed to set up an inrush from
all sides and a great whirlwind gathers, aided probably by the close
proximity of the developing trade winds, and by the rotation of the
earth, for the swirl is always contra-clockwise in the northern and
clockwise in the southern hemisphere, while the storm as a whole

THE ISLANDS OF THE MID-PACIFIC 145

NATIVE HuTS aT JALUIT, MARSHALL ISLANDS.

drifts with the currents of the upper air in a curving course to west-
ward and then away from the equator.

The hurricane of fiction is always preceded by an ominous brooding
calm with a sky of sickly green against which palm leaves stand out

CANOE LADEN WITH MATERIALS FOR CONSTRUCTING A House, FIJI ISLANDS.

146 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

SacreD BAtTs OF HIHIFA VILLAGE, TONGATABU.

like spikes of copper, but in reality the great storm is usually ushered
in by gales which increase in violence until they break into a riotous
tumult.

COCcOANUT PALMS. LAGOON BBPACH OF FAKARAVA ATOLL, PAUMOTOS. Robert Louis
Stevenson lived within this grove.

THE ISLANDS OF THE MID-PACIFIC 147

The very air becomes an entity, a thing real as the rush of water,
overwhelming all in its path. A roar, unearthly in its might, rises
at intervals into wild shrieks that overwhelm one’s voice. The solid
rain drives horizontally and buildings leak more through their sides
than through their roofs. The crests of waves are blown far and
away, and the sea flattens under the crushing pressure of the storm,
the dark waters hidden beneath a white sheet, gray swirls scudding
ghost-like over all. The wind comes, not straight, but in fearful twist-
ing swirls and bits of seaweed strike against lighthouse windows one
hundred and sixty feet above the sea. One stifles. The air, no longer
a pellucid nothingness, has become an enemy against which one can

HOUSE AT PAPARA, TAHITI.

not stand; above which one can not shout, and, in the mighty presence
of which, man is an ant-like thing, his smug assumption of mastery
over nature a ridiculous pretence. There is no protection anywhere,
even the strongest, highest wall serves but to create a maelstrom be-
hind it.

The trunks of stately palms bend humbly to the onrush until they
thrash upon the ground, or tearing loose fly upward into the vapor of
the storm. Great trees fall, but one hears no crash; houses change in
shape and crumble and there is no noise from them, for all sounds of
earth are as silence in the presence of the vast voice of the air.

Then, after hours that seem as years, as if all nature had fallen

148 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY —

into war and peace could never come again, the wind unexpectedly
ceases and the demon of the storm smiles down upon a blighted world.
A candle flame may live in the sullen air, yet all around the horizon
lies the black wall of the hurricane glistening in silver where it presses
on the sea, and a confusion of huge waves come toppling in from all
directions, crashing one against the other, and the barometer sinks to
its lowest level. Afar off, one hears again the dull roar, then onward
it comes with sudden fury, but reversed in direction, to finish the work
of destruction it had but half accomplished.

After all is over the sun—the long-forgotten sun—shines out upon
a land, hideous in its ruin. The forest lies in shattered skeletons and
dangling here and there are blackened rag-like things that once were
leaves. The houses of the village lie shapeless, strewn among the com-
mon wreckage of the palms where the great waves let them lie, and
strange rocks weighing tons have risen from the sea as monuments to
the reality of nature’s awakening in a region where once she seemed but
to dream and soothe with gentle airs and flirt with all things real.t

Yet tropical nature knows no mourning and laughs at death and
ruin. New life seizes covetously the lost places of the old and in a few
years only the trained eye of the native can detect traces of the work
of the great hurricane.

Once or twice in every generation each island is devastated by such
a storm. Yet so wanton is tropic life, so heedless, listless and resigned
to things that are, that nowhere in the South Seas have the natives
taken the trouble to construct hurricane-proof refuge houses into
which the village might retreat in time of need.

1Such a rock is to be seen upon the reef-flat of Lottin Harbor, Kusaie
Island in the Carolines. It is 15 feet long, 8 feet wide and 8 feet high.

THE RACES OF BRITAIN 149

THE RACES OF BRITAIN

Bry WM. H. BABCOCK

WASHINGTON, D. C,

jae that several great world powers are engaged—among other
things—in violently rearranging the map of Europe, perhaps
more nearly on ethnological lines, we may profitably consider the racial
composition of those powers themselves. Not the least of them is the
wide-flung British Empire, having its center of life in the ancient
island of Great Britain. We must also touch upon her companion
Ireland, for they have acted and reacted on each other by partial con-
quest and peaceful immigration since before the dawn of history.
British ethnology has an especial appeal to Americans, since what
was true of the one country in such matters was very nearly true of
the other at the time of the revolution and separation. Of course, all
the elements of the British islands were more perfectly fused here than
there, since, even in rural England, Dr. Beddoe points out many streaks
and patches of population of different and even contrasted appearance ;
also the Indians had added something; and we all know that there were
many Dutch in New York, many French creoles in the southwest and
divers other accessions of less bulk from various quarters; but even long
afterward De Tocqueville—a keen and philosophical observer—could
still define Americans as that branch of the English people to whom a
special work had been assigned, evidently with no thought of any essen-
tial divergency. Since then we have had a great flood of unequally dis-
tributed immigration, which has repeatedly changed its source and
quality; but it has left extensive areas comparatively unaffected, and,
in part, it has been assimilated in other areas, often with little obvious
change in the assimilating body. Of that great assimilating and de-
termining body of American people we may still say that in language,
blood, customs, laws and aspirations it is more akin to Great Britain
than often happens in the case of two great independent nations. In-
deed, I do not recall any instance of equal similarity on a large scale.
Language is of course an uncertain guide as to race, but it is often a
clue and always significant, always a surviving record of history, lost or
remembered. Now, Great Britain is conspicuously an island of three
languages, not mere dialects, but completely organized, historic, dis-
tinct developments of human speech. All are of the Aryan family
of languages, two belonging to the Celtic group of that family, the
third to the Teutonic group and its Low-German subdivision, which
includes also Dutch and Flemish. These three languages of Great

150 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY |

Britain are English, occupying exclusively by far the greater part
of the island; Welsh, a modern remnant of old British, spoken still
in the western mountains; and- Gaelic, spoken in the northern moun-
tains of Scotland, also, far west of the Welsh, in parts of Ireland
and in some intervening islands. As might be guessed, these three
languages are relics and records of three great waves of invasion and
conquest, with intervals of several centuries between them.

Another interesting fact is the permanency of the situation above
outlined, which is not substantially different to-day from what it was in
the sixth century when Gildas wrote. The Saxons were then in posses-
sion of all the eastern part of England, excepting some isolated fast-
nesses ; the Britons were west of them in the mountain country and the
tracts Just above and below it; the Gael were beyond in Ireland, probably
also on the seaward side of the British territory; also far north in the
Highlands. It will be seen that the greatest difference is in the spread
of the intrusive Anglo Saxon (now English) speech, accompanied by a
like displacement of race, on a great scale, though much less in degree:
but these do not affect radically the general map arrangement of tongues
and peoples—then newly, but perhaps finally, accomplished. ‘There
have been other great invasions and long-continued occupations of Great
Britain since then—the Danish, the Norman—as there had been one
before in historic times, the Roman; but none of these changed the
speech of any part of Britain, except by supplying a few words for our
present English vocabulary. Their changes of population, though real,
are either matters of debate and uncertainty, or have dwindled, as in
the case of the Danes, with the lapse of time, and in no instance present
a solid mass of men so sharply marked off from their neighbors as the
Welsh or the northern Gael. It is well, therefore, to bear in mind this
division into three parts, English, Welsh and Gaelic, as the most con-
spicuous fact of Great Britain’s racial and linguistic history for the last
1,400 years.

The Angles, the Saxons and cooperating tribes came chiefly, as we
know, in the fifth and sixth centuries of the Christian era; the Britons
and the Gael much earlier, though the exact periods are sufficiently un-
certain. Whatever the dates, these were three successive waves of
blond people, no doubt including some darker elements and differing
from each other more or less in kind and degree of blondness, but such
as we might expect to leave a predominantly light-tinted and light-
haired population in Great Britain as the total result of their successive
blond overflowings—if there were no counterbalancing influence that
was even more important.

There certainly seems to be such an influence; for there are more
dark or medium-tinted people in Britain than the positive blonds of
all kinds taken together; and almost everywhere, perhaps everywhere,

THE RACES OF BRITAIN 151

the darker people are gaining in numbers on their lighter kinfolk.
These facts can not be adequately accounted for by later dark immigra-
tion. Such undoubtedly occurred and-indeed has not ceased even yet,
but would be offset in great measure by blond immigrants other than
those above mentioned. The most natural and now generally accepted
explanation is that the Gael (or the first Celtic-speaking invaders)
found before them a darker population, which was more numerous and
also better fitted to survive and perpetuate its characteristics by reason
of long occupancy and acclimatization. There can be little doubt as to
the first item and surely none at all as to the second, at least so far as
concerns some of the elements of those pre-Celtic people; for it is quite
obvious that they would comprise the residua of all previous conquests
and immigrations, except of course such temporary visitors as may have
gone away again, leaving none behind, and such feeble folk as may have
been utterly exterminated. Only the latter process could remove those
who had penetrated far beyond the shore, and it is hardly credible in
any instance in so extensive a region abundantly provided with places
of refuge. In truth, the complete extirpation or removal of a race is
an unknown, or excessively rare, thing in human history.

It would be important and interesting to consider the composition
of this pre-Celtic population, if we had sufficient reliable materials to go
upon, but, as matters stand, it will be better to content ourselves with a
very brief superficial glance at the successive human waves which had
reached Britain. Perhaps the earliest comers walked there, while as
yet the waters had not come through the English channel nor spread
out to form the North Sea. It is said that some of the earliest relics
of quite certainly human anatomy and human handiwork in all the
world have been found in very recent years in the low southeastern
counties of Britain, which were the regions naturally first entered, and
most abundantly peopled, by nearly all later comers so far as we know.
To reach the period, we must count our years back by many scores of
thousands, some have guessed a quarter of a million more or less.
Naturally, these people were rudimentary in every way and we are
always at some risk of mistaking the random stone-splinter work of na-
ture for such poor beginnings of human tools as they have left. They
must have existed among dangerous creatures and alarming natural
forces by a combination of good luck and negligent sufferance, helped
out by a barely human craft and embryonic industry. From that time
on, through the enormous stretch of the paleolithic horizons, we may
picture mankind in Britain as a grotesque procession, trampling up out
of its grotesquerie, improving in bodies and in tools from age to age,
though disturbed by sudden irruptions from distant regions. Some
have thought that certain types of man, long conspicuous in early
Britain, came from the far east, others from the hot south now known

152 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY.

as Africa. It can not be said that there is a regular succession of im-
provement in race in Europe anywhere; for some of the early types
were quite respectable in their development of brain and body, while
others have an abnormal and portentous look. In some instances divers
anthropologists have ranked them as of different species from our own,
though still quite human. What is true of Europe generally must in
the main be true of Britain, although the evidence from its less ample
and more remote area is naturally less abundant and complete. It
seems more than likely that two or more of these very different kinds of
men, of quite diverse attainments, though in no case of a very high
order, would often be found in Great Britain at the same time. Per-
haps few of them would correspond at all closely to any variety of man
that we know until the latter part of the paleolithic age, an enormous
reach of time having many stages.

There is a little evidence, perhaps not quite convincing, of strange
survivals even until now. Thus Dr. Beddoe writes in his Races of
Britain:

I think some reason can be shown for suspecting the existence of traces of
some Mongoloid race in the modern population of Wales and the west of Eng-
land. I have notes of 34 persons with oblique eyes, the iris is usually hazel or
brown and their hair straight, dark brown, black or reddish. This type seems to
be common in Wales in West Somerset and especially in Cornwall.

He has found no such instance from the east of England and “very
few from Ireland,” but adds:

I believe that specimens of it might easily be found in the mountainous parts
of Connaught, especially on the borders of Sligo and Roscommon.

Again he says:

There is an Irish type which I am disposed to derive from the race of Cro
Magnon. In the west of Ireland I have frequently seen it. It is said to be
common in the Hebrides.

He cites an article of Hector McLean on this and adds:

Though the head is large the intelligence is low and there is a great deal of
cunning and suspicion.

He refers also to prognathous specimens, a type often overlapping
with the Mongoloid, but different, as being common in Dorset and Devon,
especially toward Exmoor. He says its characteristics can not have
been caused by oppression and misery, the conditions being otherwise
and the average height of thirty-four of these people being five feet
seven inches. He mentions also finding this type in the rougher parts
of Ireland and says:

While Ireland is apparently its present center, most of its lineaments are

such as lead us to think of Africa as its birth place. I believe this Africanoid
type to be of high antiquity.

THE RACES OF BRITAIN 153

The paleolithic people, like nearly all later occupants, seem to have
left their underground relics most plentifully in the extreme south and
southeast of Great Britain. Like most others too, all varieties of them
would be successively driven to the forests and mountains or even
across the water to Ireland (if they could get there), and in the last
resort to the wildest nooks of that island also. It will be noted that
those are the very parts of both islands where Dr. Beddoe thinks he
still discovers some traces of them in living men and women. But the
paleolithic population at all periods and of every kind must have been
scanty, for hunting and fishing will not support many people and
there is no reason to suppose that they had other resources. In the
rugged regions where they found refuge they would never greatly in-
crease. Consequently their practical influence on the inhabitants of the
richer parts of both islands must have been very near zero for thousands
of years. So there need be no particular concern as to the finding of
some supposed Negroid, Mongolian or other characteristics, alien to the
white race, in individuals of sequestered mountain and moorland com-
munities.

There is another sort of evidence, which Dr. Mac Ritchie has col-
lected rather abundantly from tradition in a very interesting work on
Ancient Britain, going to show that there were quite wild and dangerous
savages, apparently remnants of some early race, running at large in
the highlands of Scotland in periods very much later than that with
which we deal. It will be remembered that there were similar legends,
in even more exaggerated form, of prodigious folk, in the southwestern
British moors and along the rougher part of the sea border. These
giant-tales may preserve nothing real, but again they may record a
racial memory on the part of later and more civilized occupants of those
who never become inured to quiet ways, but long continued to exist in
forest and mountain recesses. They seem to have nothing in common
with the next occupants of the land.

So far as we can judge, the paleolithic people of whatever kind were
overwhelmed by a relatively great influx of neolithic people, who were
pastoral, agricultural, better organized and more advanced in every way
—possibly ten, fifteen or twenty thousand years ago: it is not a matter
as to which we can set dates. Sometimes they are called Picts, a name
which lives both in legend and history and no doubt has sometimes been
applied rather loosely to their various allies also, or to people confused
with them. In Ireland the name fir-bollig was also applied to a great
body of people who long continued to resist the conquering Milesian
Gael. Doubtless they too included heterogeneous elements; but the
dominant pre-Gaelic and pre-British type seems to have been on the
whole the same; and to be abundantly commemorated by the long heads
and dark hair of the majority of the people in both islands, characteris-

vot 1—l1.

154 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

tics which belong also to what is sometimes known as the Mediterranean
or Iberian race of southern Europe.

Compared with some earlier and later occupants of England, they
present a gracious and winning, if not powerful, aspect. As shown by
their long barrows or grave mounds, which were often provided with a
stone chamber, accessible by a stone-walled passage, they were fairly tall
(about five feet five or five feet six), rather slender, though not always,
mild of feature, having fine small jaws, long-headed with good brain
capacity and undoubtedly dark, resembling the long-headed inhabitants
of Gaul. They knew nothing of any metal except gold, unless in their
later stages. Yet they were able to produce so impressive a monument
of industry as Stonehenge, with its great monoliths brought from a
distance and neatly worked in the below-ground parts as well as those
that are above ground—a feat quite impossible to any but a large settled
and organized population, feeling the need of religious and political
centers. Notable defensive works have also been ascribed to them;
and some have supposed that the druidic system originated with them
and passed on later to their successors, the Gael and Brython.

There seems no conclusive evidence of intermarriage with their
predecessors; perhaps the difference in methods of living would prevent
this, except in rare instances, also the sparseness of the earlier hunting
population, already alluded to. There is some slight evidence of hetero-
geneity in their anatomy, and the burial customs differed in various
regions; thus the long barrows of southwestern England contain cre-
mated bodies; those of Yorkshire, bodies buried intact after our fashion ;
whereas in northwestern Scotland they are about equally divided be-
tween the two methods. But, with slight qualifications, the evidence
throughout Britain seems to indicate one fairly homogeneous race, at
least in the more open parts, where the barrows are generally found;
and there is no great reason to doubt its general prevalency.

Much discussion has always occurred, since men interested them-
selves in such matters, over the Pictish language as spoken in Scotland,
some fragments of which have come down to us, mainly in lists of names
and inscriptions, sometimes variously interpreted or beyond interpreta-
tion. Dr. Skene and others have considered it an archaic form of Cel-
tic; but Sir John Rhys believes it to have been originally non-Celtic
and even non-Aryan, though so deeply overlaid with Celtic accretions
that it has often been mistaken for a variety of Gaelic or a variety of
British—as he would say of Gaulish, meaning the same thing. Else-
where he has pointed to other slight survivals of pre-Celtic speech,
notably in the first syllable of Islay, often recurring in other combina-
tions, and divers place names all over the island which are not to be ex-
plained by any known Celtic or post-Celtic language.

After the Picts or Fir-bollig or whatever we should call them, came

THE RACES OF BRITAIN 155

at a long interval a tall race of people provided with bronze swords and
spears and no doubt instructed in arts of war, perhaps also of peace,
beyond their predecessors and victims. Evidently the slighter forms
and especially the primitive stone weapons opposed to them, were
doomed to the complete subjugation that certainly followed; although
there are indications that in some regions this was delayed—remote
natural fastnesses where the beaten race was packed in great numbers
and held together after sufficient time had elapsed for it to acquire and
become familiar with the appliances of the aggressors. But the almost
complete vanishing of every intelligible remnant of the speech of the
conquered people is sufficient proof that this conquest was exceptionally
sweeping, thorough and unyielding.

Probably the Gael were the chief builders of the round barrows
which succeeded the long barrows, as the Celtic tongue succeeded what-
ever was spoken before; but now we find, as we did not find in the
former instance, two types of skull, the long and broad, sometimes
intermixed, which is taken to show a very early partial blending; this
being more likely to occur where a numerous and sedentary popula-
tion was overcome and partially enslaved. Those round barrow inter-
ments were usually, it seems, of the ashes and larger bones only, cre-
mation having taken place at some other point: but the skulls have
generally remained intact, and Dr. Rolleston, who examined many of
them, collected by Mr. Greenwell, declares that these bronze-age mounds
have the two types of skull in about equal proportion, whereas the
skulls of the pre-bronze age mounds are all long. So it seems that in
the bronze period the skulls of Britain, after a great intrusion of broad
headedness, were already conspicuously on the way to become, as now,
chiefly long headed again. This was in spite of an additional, but
relatively small, independent intrusion of dark broad heads, perhaps
from across the North Sea, a type which Dr. Beddoe finds here and
there in Scotland, for example, in Fife and East Lothian. But there
seems no reason to doubt that the round barrows of Britain were
principally the work of bronze-using Celts, and especially of the Gael;
and that these were blond, large-limbed people of strong, formidable,
aggressive features and some proficiency in decorative arts, metal-work-
ing and whatever pertains to success in war. It may be that their
really best work was done after they had settled down in the British
islands. In their later period at least, their women could spin and
weave well and their soldiers went armed with steel.

Apparently they had been great wanderers, like many early people.
It has been thought that their original seat was in the general neigh-
borhood of the foothills of the Alps on both sides of that mountain
barrier, notably in the upper valley of the Danube and in northern
Italy. Their route may have been partly through southern France to

156 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY |

Galicia in northwestern Spain, thence by sea to Ireland, then to Wales,
Devon and England generally; also partly across northern France to the
English Channel, then across into Britain. Curiously there are less
positive indications of the latter journey: but, on the other hand, the
plainest relics of eastward Gaelic movement in Britain may well belong
to a much later time. These are among other things, inscriptions in the
Ogam alphabet, peculiar to the Gael, which are fairly plentiful in South
Wales, Cornwall and Devonshire, but decrease in number to the east-
ward, until but one is reported from Hampshire, among the ruins of
Calleva. We know of Gaelic inroads and settlements well on in historic
times which took this general direction, starting from Ireland.

However they came and wherever they landed, it seems very prob-
able that the Gael gradually won possession of nearly all Britain and
Treland, though Fir-bollig Galway at least long maintained a precarious
local independence. Probably the metal weapons had even more to do
with this success than their great physique and aggressive temperament.
Of course the result does not imply that the earlier people all became
Gaelic. It means that they had Gaelic speech and some Gaelic institu-
tions forced upon them, or found an advantage in substituting those for
their own. This Gaelic conquest occurred somewhere in the latter part
of the bronze age.

The British or Brythonic invasion belonged to the age of steel weap-
ons and may have been facilitated by a better supply of these, as the
Gael in their time had defeated their darker predecessors by the supe-
riority of bronze weapons over stone. Rhys thinks that the British
Celts probably came at some time between the visit of Pytheas, who
seems to have cireumnavigated the island about 330 B.c. and landed
on it at many points, and the incursion of Julius Cesar about 55 B.c.
Cesar certainly found them there, but no one is quite sure whom
Pytheas found. On the whole it seems most likely that the transfer of
population began considerably before his time, but continued later.
The last was no doubt true of the final British northward wave, the
Belge, who were perhaps more or less modified by earlier contact with
the Teutons and may have had some Teutonic strain in their blood.

It is likely that the original seat of these Belge and perhaps of all
the British Celts was in or near Belgium; but they undoubtedly came
to Britain for the most part across the Channel from the region where
the great armies are now battling. Czesar found the loosely affiliated
tribes of the Belge in all northern Gaul or France, but no less in
southern Britain from Kent to Hampshire inclusive, and observes that
there was little difference between the speech of Britain and that of
Gaul. Arras was the Gaulic capital of the tribe of the Atrebates, the
elder name having been gradually worn down into the modern one;
but they had also a British capital in Hampshire, which later became

THE RACES OF BRITAIN 157

the distinguished Roman-British city of Calleva Atrebatum: its ruims
have been exhumed on the site of the modern English village of Sil-
chester. Cesar found the king of the Suessiones ruling over territory in
Britain as well as territory in Gaul, and his seat of government bears
still the name Soissons, hardly changed at all in spite of many vicissi-
tudes and storms and bombardments. The name Britain itself has
sometimes been derived from the Brittanni, who dwelt in the valley of
the Somme but removed in numbers to Kent, where they would be more
often visited by traders than the inhabitants of distant regions, and
their tribal name might possibly come to be used for the island as a
whole. Indeed at every turn familiar names crop up from this old
time, though most often on the southern side of the channel, where the
later hostile inroads were less sweeping and ruthless.

There were however some differences between the populations on
opposite sides of the Channel, if we may believe the Latin writers of
that period ; as indeed there will often be in different parts of the same
nation. Thus we are told that the Britons were larger than the people
of Gaul, some of them being half a foot taller than most other men;
that their hair was less yellow than that of the Gauls and their bodies
were not so well set or handsome; that they displayed more vehemence
and fierceness in combat; that they were notable for their loud clamor
and for going into battle nearly unclad with swords hanging beside their
naked bodies; that their wealth was in their cattle; their method of
living notably simple and frugal and that they harvested their grain
without threshing by cutting off the heads bodily, presumably by the
use of a sickle. This method has been revived recently in the case of
freshet-flooded grain.

Sometimes these writers may have chiefly had in mind the remoter
non-British, or but slightly British, aborigines, as the Britons called
them: Other distinctions may be local for single provinces or districts.
Of course there would be much confusion between these, but, allowing
for a real residuum of average British difference in physique and ways,
we may still say that the Britons were transplanted Gauls—in southern
Britain Gauls of the Belgic subdivision—and Cesar says that their
speech differed little from that of the neighboring mainland. Rhys has
preferred to call them Gauls; but the name is geographically misleading
and besides liable to confusion with Gael, which probably had the same
root. More frequently the name Brython has been applied to them, but
it is unfamiliar to most ears and may seem to savor of affectation. I
have preferred the well-known term Briton in this paper, especially as
both Romans and Saxons best knew them thereby; although in modern
use it often includes all people now dwelling on the island. Perhaps we
stand in need of a perfectly satisfactory distinctive term for the

158 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

British people who were not yet Romanized nor Saxonized nor Danicized
nor Normanized ; but we must do as we can.

Neither the Gaelic nor the British language was homogeneous, nor
is so now. Each consists of at least three sub-languages, those of the
Gaelic being the Erse or Irish, the Scotch Highland Gaelic and the
nearly extinct Manx, spoken on the little Isle of Man; the British or
Brythonic comprises the Welsh, the Breton and the hardly extinct
Cornish, which has left some literature and many habitual words. The
latter three differ more from each other than do the former three. Erse,
Highland Gaelic, Welsh and Breton, are spoken over considerable re-
gions and each of them breaks up into distinct local dialects. There is
no reason to doubt that dissimilarity in details of population and lan-
guage was the rule both in Gaul and Britain, as we know it to be still in
Brittany, though there would be a fair degree of uniformity in the more
advanced agricultural and trading regions. Ireland remained Gaelic
in culture; so did the upper part of Scotland and some parts of the sea-
coast of Wales, where the original or recently invading Gael had estab-
lished a great reputation for supernatural power, perhaps implying: a
certain superiority in some quite human arts over the neighboring
mountain Britons or Welsh. This would not, however, imply superior-
ity over the more cultured parts of the British people in the same period.

It is difficult to make a comparison between the Gael and the
Britons collectively. The former must have been more influenced and
modified by the preceding neolithic people of the island; the latter by
the Germanic tribes then crowding westward over the continent and
mingling with all races before them. As later comers it is fair to sup-
pose that the Britons would be the better supplied with steel weapons
and other appliances: and their successful occupancy of the best parts
of Britain is a corroboration. But perhaps the Gael had once been
directly in contact with Mediterranean civilization and brought thence
a greater aptitude and proficiency in matters of art. Of course, in both
cases, it is easy to underrate or overrate the old conditions, especially as
the relics in the soil of Great Britain may belong to very different pe-
riods of the developing British people.

But we have reason to believe that in the more prosperous regions
there had been a considerable amount of human attainment. Cesar
refers to the number of houses and density of the population, though he
also describes their towns as mere collections of wattled huts defensively
walled round in the forest and mainly intended as places of refuge.
However, we hear also of wooden houses; and better habitations were
coming into vogue. Perhaps in the main they preferred a more isolated
farming life. They built strong hill forts. They had many chariots,
some of which gave Cesar his first hostile greeting in the shallow water
of the sea-coast; also he presents a vivid account of the dashing and

THE RACES OF BRITAIN 159

skilful tactics of the Britons in managing these engines of war so as to
throw the Roman ranks into confusion, while the fighting men would
spring off and on at will, sometimes running out along the pole of the
neck-yoke and back again—the chariot being in motion. They fought,
he says, in detachments, with reserves, and obtained by these vehicles in
one kind of force most of the advantages of cavalry and infantry;
though we know that they had both of these arms as well. In all the
southern regions market centers had grown up, using copper and iron
coinage, as well as gold coins in their later period, which were perhaps
at their best in Essex. The Druidic system, common to them and to
Gaul, was understood to have its origin and chief holy places in Britain
and constituted a complex religious organization with elaborate training.

During the long period of Celtic ascendancy in Britain foreign in-
fluences were brought to bear upon the coastal country at least. Traders
from Pheenicia and the Pheenician colonies of the Mediterranean and
Atlantic are believed to have crept up to the ocean side; Greek civiliza-
tion from Massilia and neighboring towns traveled overland across
western Gaul and thence to Britain on similar errands. But perhaps
neither of these nor any others stirred the islands greatly or pene-
trated far inland, unless in the faintest way.

The adventurous incursion of Julius Cesar pierced more deeply.
Though it did not maintain its foothold, it opened the gates, intro-
ducing Rome to the islanders and the islanders to Rome. Presently
the imperial culture prompted imitation, as will happen everywhere in
the human shallows a little beyond the flood of advancing civilized life,
so that Cunebelline (Shakespeare’s Cymbeline), a potentate of Essex,
took heart to set up as the friend of Augustus and to prove his sincerity
by aping imperial Rome as best he might. Probably some adherents
came to him from regions under the Roman sway.

But before such infiltration had reached the inner parts of the
island, the new domination which it foreshadowed came with a rush of
arms and men, and all resistance was beaten back to the mountain
lands. This Roman conquest threatened Ireland from the western
shore, but the storming of Anglesea or Mona was its farthest achieve-
ment in that direction. It kept on northward to the Highlands and
later pushed nearly or quite through them very briefly; but in the end
it was content to stand mainly on the defensive behind a strongly occu-
pied line of fortification still known as the Roman Wall; and to bridle
western turbulence by great fortresses or legion cities distributed at
points of vantage along the line of probable disturbance—Carlisle and
Chester to the northward, Exeter in the southwest among the men of
Devon, Caerleon near the estuary of the Severn in what we now call
South Wales, and other garrisoned towns of note in the intervening
spaces. The southern and southeastern seaboards had their strong

160 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY ©

fortresses too; and later, if not at first, the exposed eastern front was
systematically guarded by the forces of a count of the Saxon shore.

The Roman occupancy of Britain falls naturally into three periods:
the first brutality of conquest; the long peaceful domination when there
was neither war nor rumor of war except in a small way with mountain
tribes on the remote border ; and the era of decay when incursions became
frequent and disastrous, usurpers abounded, wrangling, and year by
year there grew a dread upon all of being cut off alive from the living
mass of men. We remember the first period by the extravagance of
cruelty which it employed and provoked—the wrongs of Boadicea and
her kindred, the massacre of London; but in the fact that there were
already seventy thousand immigrants from the Roman empire to be
overwhelmed in that blind retribution, we may more profitably study
the great change of population that was already working on British soil.

But this was no adequate measure of the incoming flood. Beside
the garrisons of the wall and the legionary cities and fortresses, great
colonies of veterans were planted in the open country; merchants and
mariners gathered at the landing places and in the narrow streets of
the growing river towns, and moneyed men from the Mediterranean,
the Rhone or the Garonne took up their abode on lands newly bought
or granted, building low colonnaded dwellings of open interior and
mighty expansion, of elaborate baths and hot-water-heating systems, of
tessalate mosaic pavements and profuse frescoing, such as have never
been exactly repeated in England since their day. Of course the
wealthier colonists would bring or draw dependents from the continent,
with cumulative effect on the population.

Moreover, there was a steady double transforming action by the
depletion of native young men, persistently shipped away elsewhere to
fight Rome’s battles, and the continued importation of foreign blood to
fight or curb the more intractable people of Britain. There can seldom
have been less than twenty thousand legionaries and auxiliaries on the
island between the year 50 and the year 400, men drawn from every
corner of the empire—Spaniards, Dalmatians, Burgundians, East
Indians, Scythians, Syrians, Gauls and Moors. Most of them brought
their families or married there; and hardly any people of the world,
however unrelated or uncouth, but was summoned to aid in defending or
holding Britain—and incidentally to aid in providing her future sons
and daughters. At times, of course, the inflow of soldiery exceeded
very greatly the figures above given; as when Agricola overcame for a
time the independence of North Britain; or when Severus trampled it
down again with armies out of which he lost fifty thousand men.

Of course, the effect was not equal nor nearly equal everywhere. In
the towns known significantly as “of the legions”; in London which
took the legionary name Augusta; in York, long the military and civil

Se

THE RACES OF BRITAIN 161

headquarters of the island, it was necessarily great; also greater than
elsewhere along the line of the Great Wall, where a continuous more than
half-foreign belt of village population may well have grown up. But
there were many fertile valleys and uplands which Roman troops rarely
visited ; many British towns which rarely saw them except as a mere
incident of transit; and in all the numerous forests and marshy regions
and the rougher country generally the British blood, British ways and
British language most likely continued to prevail; although the people
outside of the mountain land had very well learned the futility of
rebellion.

The Roman rule in Britain lasted for about four hundred years.
During the greater part of that time Rome kept order and maintained a
fairly homogeneous civilization in all parts of the island best adapted to
civilization and commerce. From end to end of the lower country and
from side to side it pushed excellent roads, making transit easy; it
built great sea-side and river-side embankments; it very greatly multi-
plied the population; it fostered a relatively great commerce; it devel-
oped cities which would be pygmies certainly to those of our century,
but were well built and thriving and beautiful; it distributed widely
those kinds of advancement which belong more naturally to the shores
of the warm southern sea. It must have taught the native people many
things—beside a more or less enervating sense of security under pro-
tection ; but it has been generally credited with undermining their self-
reliance, enterprise and efficiency. Perhaps the distinction between the
dominant man-at-arms and the docile native citizen was insisted on
too overwhelmingly and persistently. Originality in art did not thrive
and the country had no literature with vigor enough to leave any trace.
Moreover when the Roman legions withdrew there was difficulty in ade-
quately filling their places, and the makeshifts were battered down at
last. It is also a significant and rather wonderful fact that the long
and elaborate establishment of the Roman system took so little hold
upon the hearts of the subject people that a bare handful of Latin words
remain from that period in the popular speech, “ way,” “ villa,” “camp”
and “castrum”—turning at last to Chester and castle—being the in-
stances that come most readily to mind. Perhaps the enfeebled and
transformed Britons who had learned to speak a corrupted Latin either
followed their masters away from the island or were killed or de-
Latinized by later invaders, or took refuge in wild regions, where their
language died away in the speech of those about them. Evidently the
great previous development of population came to an end long before
the final catastrophe and had taken to dwindling again. Possibly if the
Roman soldiery had been heavily reinforced and kept at the Great
Wall there might have been a northern Roumania, speaking some sort of
langauge derived from the Latin and, like the Roumania of the south-

162 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

east, claiming descent from Roman soldiers’ families. But nothing
remotely resembling this came to pass.

The storming of the northern wall must have made a great stir in its
time. Gildas, who is said to have been born near one end of it, and who
probably wrote about 560, makes it a notable feature of his altogether
too brief combination of diatribe and historic treatise. But, in point of
fact, it seems to have happened repeatedly, with intervening repairs
and remanning, total or partial. The same is true of fortified places
behind it. Recent investigation has shown at least three demolitions
and restorations of one of these, and we can fix approximately their
dates by the coins lost, left and built over, but now again exhumed.
The first destruction was not far from 368 4.D., the last later than the
year 400. One such little hoard, dating perhaps from about 385, was
found where it had been wrapped up in lead with a gold ring and hur-
riedly stowed away so long ago, evidently before a sudden onslaught. A
coin of Honorius on the line of the wall itself indicates that this part of
the work at least, was yet in Roman hands about the end of the fourth
century. Perhaps the wall ceased before 407 to be an effective barrier
as a whole; though its strong terminal fortresses and possibly some inter-
vening fragments may have held out much longer. The Picts and Scots
—that is, North British Highland people and. the Irish—are reputed
the destroyers—the latter perhaps flanking the wall with their ships at
its western end, while their allies made the frontal attack which Gildas
describes ; but the later successful assaults at the eastern end may have
come from the Teutonic assailants who soon grew more formidable.
Aneurin’s very old Welsh poem “The Gododin,” attributed uncertainly
in part to the sixth century, is interpreted by Dr. Skene to relate in its
earliest section the downfall of one of the eastern fortresses of the more
northern Roman wall from the Forth to the Clyde.

There is no detailed and nearly contemporary account of the Anglo-
Saxon conquest. Several centuries later the West Saxons put together
from their traditions a terse chronicle of the events as they understood
them. Fragmentary British legends were embodied about the same
time or a little later in the brief history which bears the name of
Nennius. Later writers gathered other items and romanced about them.
We have little else beside the indications of place names; the physical
characteristics of living people in different neighborhoods; and the
evidence yielded to archeology by the British soil. Of course the pic-
ture of events thus gathered is very incomplete and uncertain.

We can clearly see that both Roman departure and Teutonic inflow
were very gradual. Maximus in 383 had carried a great part of the
British strength southward, to compete successfully in his behalf for the
imperial purple. Apparently it never returned. From that time, with

THE RACES OF BRITAIN 163

increasing menace, there must have been a gradual depletion of those
who could leave.

In 402 Stilicho withdrew altogether from Britain the sixth legion,
which had long been stationed at York; also the second legion, to the
forts of the eastern coast near London, from Caerleon upon Usk in
South Wales, which had been its settled abiding place for two or three
centuries. The latter movement marks the increasing Saxon danger,
since the Saxon shore became the only region guarded by regular troops
in all the island. This is corroborated and emphasized by certain re-
pairs in the fortifications then made at points along that front.

Necessarily all the north and west of England were left unguarded,
or to be guarded by native volunteers and levies. No doubt the latter
alternative was taken, for there is evidence that irregulars or native
troops had been used for some years before to defend the wall, and the
native legends and incidental references in old Welsh poetry make it
nearly certain that the provincials adopted the Roman methods and
organization in necessarily taking the places of the withdrawn Roman
troops. The Roman generals would doubtless help them to make some
provision before withdrawing. Probably as long as possible the British
commanders would maintain the same headquarters. Thus more than
a century later we find Arthur still making Caerleon his stronghold and
capital according to Welsh tradition. It may well have come to him
through a succession of commanders. Also, considerably before Arthur’s
time, but no doubt after the downfall of York or Eboracum, we seem to
recognize Cunedda as the Duke of Britain holding command at the
north.

The defense of southeastern England was soon committed altogether
to the British, too. After various disorders and revolutions the sole re-
maining legion elected an “emperor” Constantine 3d, who, following
precedent for the last time, carried it to the Continent about 407 in pur-
suit of his dream of empire. There must have been some provision
hastily made to provide a substitute garrison. Naturally the municipal
authorities of the various cities would be called upon for that duty in
the first instance and their Romanized town levies would be supported
by the still imperfectly Romanized or merely Celtic country people and
the tribesmen of the wilder regions, these latter, however, being naturally
often out of harmony with their urban comrades.

It is generally recognized that there was such a division, with result-
ing weakness to the defense. The wilder country people held out long-
est, but only in a kind of qualified barbarism. Civilization is largely
an affair of cities and Roman-British civilization was trampled under
the Anglo-Saxon heel.

The British cities were unequally equipped to withstand an assault or
seige. London had grown up around a fortress, had been walled very

164 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY —

early and was walled again more amply and efficiently when danger
threatened. Calleva probably was not walled at all until after the
Romans departed. The circumvallation of Deva (Chester), Anderida
(Pevensey) and Camulodunum (Colchester) was complete and strong
from first to last. Verulam (St. Alban’s), with her admirable amphi-
theater and many temptations to pillage, remained always open.

Their fate was equally diverse. After long beleaguerment, Anderida
was so utterly devastated that we are assured by the victors “there was
not one Brit left.” Verulam, with unknown resistance, if any, dis-
appeared from the living world. London may have lingered on, having
withstood the tide until about 585, as a mere paralyzed remnant of its
former self, and the effect of its long resistance is shown in a curious
prevalence of dark hair and complexion in the wedge of people behind it
toward the midlands. Exeter, remote and conquered long after the
conversion of the Saxons, was divided between the two races, who
dwelt quite neighborly side by side.

For the conquest, though speedily effective over a large area, was, ag
a whole, the task of several centuries: and as we go westward the sub-
stitution of the invaders for the natives became less and less nearly
complete. Indeed, it may be doubted whether it was really complete
anywhere or at any time except in some very isolated, helpless and deeply
hated neighborhoods.

A great rally of the Romano-Britons seems to have occurred in the
first half of the sixth century, checking the conquest here, turning it
back there and giving time on both sides for cooler thought, a better
acquaintance with alien customs, a juster appreciation of enemies. The
greatest names of this reaction are Aurelius Ambrosius and Arthur, the
former very shadowy to us now, if remembered at all, but the favorite
hero of Gildas and apparently of those Romano-British who were most
proudly Roman; the latter, the human and efficient champion of the
native or distinctively British party, but for many later centuries a
monarch of myth and allegory and all emblazonings of poetic fancy.
There is no need to go into the details of the various schemes which have
been put forward as to his dozen campaigns and victories recorded by
Nennius. They seem to have been widely spread, beginning in Lincoln-
shire near the east coast, including the far north and the far south and
ending near Bath in a battle fought probably against Saxons who had
passed in their small craft around Cornwall and come up the estuary of
the Severn. As already stated, tradition gives him for capital Caerleon
upon Usk, the great Roman legionary city for the Severn Valley and
the west; but also another capital and stronghold normally nearer the
West Saxon frontier, in Camelot, perhaps Queen Camel of Somerset.

It is apparent that the greatest slaughter generally fell upon the
city folk and the dwellers in the richer and denser agricultural districts ;

THE RACES OF BRITAIN 165

and that the most efficient and prolonged defense was made by those who
were still hardy and little Romanized, the dwellers about the western
foothills, the southwestern moors, the forest-folk, the fen-folk, the peo-
ple in short who preserved most of the old Celtic and pre-Celtic blood.

It must not be supposed that the immigrants of the Roman-British
centuries failed to leave any impress on the final constitution of the
population; but it is apparent that the Saxon winnowing ensured in
many places something like a reversion to Celtic or pre-Celtic types and
ways.

During the welter of that age there was a very considerable rein-
forcement of Gaelic blood from Ireland, especially in North Wales and
in Britain north of the wall, to most of which latter region it gave the
name Scotland, strictly meaning the land of the Irish. The Gael of
North Wales, both ancient and recent, were overwhelmed very shortly,
however, by an eddy of Britons under Cunedda and his successors, who
had found the Saxons too strong for them in the region about the Great
Wall and fell on the Gael in retreating southwestward. Something like
this must have taken place also in the long lower southwestern peninsula
of Cornwall and Devon, where the traces of Gaelic occupancy are so
plentiful and where the westward crowding of the Saxons on the steadily
resisting and slowly retreating Britons was renewed at intervals until
the ninth century.

We have, therefore, as a net result of the Saxon invasion and con-
quest, not only the total destruction of civilization in most parts of
Britain and its gradual dwindling in others—but also the production in
the eastern, southern and middle districts of a population rather largely,
but not wholly, Saxon in the open country; farther west and in rugged
places only a little Saxon on the surface, though often Saxon in speech ;
still farther west unreservedly British; and along the western shore
partly Gaelic, though speaking British, now known as Welsh in its
modern form. Ireland spoke Gaelic still—and seems to have remained
as Celtic as before the Romans crossed the English channel, though there
had been more or less trade between Ireland and Roman Britain.

In due time the Saxons, having been Christianized and mollified,
began to work out in Britain a new civilization. It was very primitive
and rudimentary compared with its Roman predecessor, but possessed
elements of strength and hopefulness and aspired to a literature of
its own.

Then the draught of barbarism which they had administered to the
Roman-Britains in earlier times was held to their lips by those of kin-
dred stock who had remained untaught in truly human things. The
Danes and Northmen, during several centuries, ravaged the English
coasts in the most pitiless manner (treating the Gael of Scotland and
Ireland no better), marched their armies destructively through the

166 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

heart of the country, established themselves in great numbers at divers
points and even seized the kingdom of England for a time and ruled
the land. Sometimes they were beaten back with great losses, as by
Alfred; sometimes they were slaughtered by the hatred of their Saxon
neighbors, who rose against them. But they were not fundamentally
very unlike some of these neighbors; so that the laws and customs of
Saxon England may even be studied approximately in the more abun-
dantly preserved Old Norse records, especially the Icelandic sagas. In-
deed the Icelandic language, even to one who can not read it, displays
a surprising number of words such as wharf, house, land, strand, which
are still current among us. All told, the Scandinavian invasion chiefly
affected the addition of a few words to provincial English speech and
a reinforcement of the blond element in the people of northeastern
England, with perhaps a slight increase there in stature and vigor.

Also the sea king inroads had driven the civilization of the island
well toward the southwest, where it made a stand under Alfred, and
eventually moved forward again.

Ireland, which neither Briton, Roman nor Saxon had reached, now
experienced a real cataclysm from the Northmen, who broke up her very
promising culture, laying waste the repositories of art and learning and
making sad havoc of everything kindly and humane in life. The loss
was felt very dreadfully for centuries and some features of it have never
been repaired.

When at last the Danes were dislodged, England was no doubt more
united and more advanced than at any earlier period since the Romans
departed, and a steady gain continued under Anglo-Saxon rule, partly
owing to abundant influences and immigration from the neighboring
France and Normandy. But the dislodged Danes were persistent in
trying to regain their seats, their very last effort—a strenuous and dis-
astrous one—being directed against King Harold only a little before
the arrival of William the Conquerer on the southern coast; so that the
unhappy island hero had to hurry from his decisive victory at Stamford
Bridge to his death in the ring of shields and battle axes on the crest of
Senlac.

After that, the great Norman held the land too vigilantly and un-
flinchingly for any new invasion to be hopeful, so that the Danish epi-
sode in the life of Great Britain came to an end. It left the mountain
people very nearly as the Saxons had left them, and in race at least
practically little changed from even pre-Roman times: and the same was
true, as in previous conquests, of many fen-lands, moorlands, forests
and the like.

The Norman invasion was that of a tyrannical civilized people rather
than of destroying barbarism. It came to Britain as to another Chris-
tian country under color of right, though a fraudulent color, and not in

THE RACES OF BRITAIN 167

open enmity of race or faith. Indeed, peaceful methods had already
carried the conquest forward in some degree before it took on a military
guise: consequently the people on both sides of the channel were again
more or less alike in stock and culture. Their religious ideals and
forms differed little and their political ideals were nearly allied, though
perhaps the Saxon had a keener feeling for freedom—for his own free-
dom at any rate. :

The Normans had begun as Norse vikings; but their long settled life
among the French and habitual intermarrying had made them largely
French in language and many things. On the other side the English
had. already borrowed many French words and some French ways, but
still differed sufficiently to make a plain contrast between the two na-
tions. The Norman despised and hated the Saxon as crudely boorish;
the Saxon hated the Norman as aggressive, unrighteous, greedy and
cruel, also despised him as vain, pretentious and given to making much
of trivial things. Such inhumanity as was shown came from this clash
of opinions, or the incidentally excited evil perversity of human nature,
not from any settled purpose to destroy. Greed and policy, rather than
wanton cruelty, were evidenced by the extensive confiscations of land or
shifting of title and the many inflictions designed to keep down the van-
quished. As we all know, the bitterness engendered by differences of
custom, language and temperament, and much more by the oppression
of the conquerers, died slowly away.

This Norman conquest, like most of its predecessors, proceeded
from the southeast to the remoter quarters of Great Britain, but was
very much more rapid than any other of like permanency. After the
collapse of the main Saxon power below London, William still had to
fight in the north before the gates of York and in the far west about
the walls of Exeter; also, longer and harder than almost anywhere else,
amid the marshes of Cambridgeshire, where Hereward, the persistent
partizan leader, had established on the Isle of Ely his city of refuge.
But there was no immediate conquest of the Welsh mountains or Ire-
land, though both were penetrated later, with great suffering to the na-
tives and every kind of wastefulness. The highlands of Scotland
remained Gaelic in tongue; Wales and Cornwall with some bordering
territory retained their British speech and the changes of their popula-
tion were very slight at first and probably only moderate afterward.

In the main body of England there were developments of language
rather than linguistic revolution, a great extension of the English vocab-
ulary by French and Latin words, chiefly introduced to answer new
needs, and certain innovations in forms of speech, some of which (such
as double negatives) have been only temporary in good usage; but the
general character and type of the language remains unchanged.

As to racial modifications we can be even less certain than in some

168 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

earlier instances of invasion, for the conquerers themselves were very
complex. They contained Germanic and Celtic elements and drew re-
cruits from the unlatinized or delatinized Bretons no less than from
the at least superficially Latinized French and peoples farther afield. It
is becoming also increasingly probable that, under all these, a substra-
tum of still older submerged races supplied and still supplies the greater
and more enduring mass of the French people. Allowing for the con-
siderable amount of Scandinavian blood among King William’s Nor-
mans, it seems altogether likely that this conquest did not greatly vary
the racial composition of the island people, setting minor distinctions
aside. That on the whole it tended rather toward darkening the Eng-
lish race than lightening it in complexion may be plausibly argued from
the great number of adherents which Brittany, next neighbor of Nor-
mandy, had supplied the Conquerer both before and after the invasion;
also perhaps from the special favor which was soon extended to the
British-speaking natives of the island, so long as they refrained from
revolt. There was at least a precarious basis of good will in a common
enmity forthe Saxon. The Norman court and aristocracy readily seized
on the historic legend of King Arthur, the Champion of Britain against
Saxon invasion, and wove the most remarkable tissue of romance about
it which the world has ever seen. This made unquestionably for Celtic
prosperity, multiplication and immigration. But the Celt at that time
as now, wherever found, was less often blond than dark, less Celtic in
aspect than pre-Celtic. So that type was at least not appreciably dimin-
ished by the Norman invasion.

In later years there have been no more waves of conquest rolling over
the lowlands of Britain though there have been wars and reformations
and revolutions, changing many things. As a net result, ethnologically
speaking, the Gael have been pushed farther back into the northern
mountains and have lost some ground in Ireland in favor of more or
less Saxon and Norman invaders. On the other hand, they have peace-
fully invaded the English and Scotch cities and many country districts,
more than compensating for any partial extirpation of their stock in
seats formerly held along the western coast of Britain. There have been
other immigrations and shiftings of population from time to time, but
nothing that should appreciably change the racial map of that island,
though the linguistic map as stated would show a progressive shrinking
of the Welsh and Gaelic areas; at least until quite recent years, when
special influences of expansion began to work in both cases, with doubt-
ful final outcome.

My general conclusions are, therefore, that the racial composition of
the people of Great Britain has been but moderately affected by con-
quests and other events occurring since the sixth century; that from
a period antedating all history one of its most permanently important

THE RACES OF BRITAIN 169

racial elements has been a dark-haired neolithic race, of which we know
very litle indeed ; that in the far north and in most parts of Ireland the
Gaelic Celtic race is next important and measurably supplies language;
that in the west of Britain the Welsh, or British Celtic, race takes its
place, though accompanied by notable Gaelic and Saxon and some Nor-
man elements; that the originally Teutonic races, Anglo-Saxons, Danes,
Northmen and Normans, now pretty well blended everywhere and only
locally and doubtfully distinguishable, are conspicuous in the lowlands
of Scotland, the northeast of Ireland and most of the eastern and south-
ern lowlands of England, being in the majority in a few districts and
supplying the exclusive language of both islands, except in the restricted
Welsh and Gaelic areas. In Great Britain at least they have attained
and held a general political supremacy, though with important excep-
tions, and have contributed perhaps rather more than their full share
to the various activities of the island. But as their language is blended
of materials from many sources woven on a low German framework, so
their race is blended of constituents from many immigrations and con-
quests filled into a framework that is neither Saxon nor Celtic, but per-
haps mainly pre-Celtic, whatever that may be.

VOL. 11.—12.

170 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

BATTLES AND RAINFALL

By ALEXANDER McCADIE

A. LAWRENCE ROTCH PROFESSOR OF METEOROLOGY, HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ee battles cause heavy rains?” This question is being frequently

asked by many who ordinarily are not disposed to readily
accept the view that such a relation exists. Their skepticism has been
somewhat shaken by the fact that battles probably the noisiest and
bloodiest in history are in progress and coincidently heavy rainfalls
have occurred near the battle territory and elsewhere.

The explanation which first suggests itself is that concussion due
to cannonading has shaken down the raindrops. But there is no phys-
ical process known that directly connects rainfall and concussion as effect
and cause and physicists unanimously agree that such a relation seems
improbable. The first definite objection is that the air and water-
vapor are not themselves transported by an explosion or any violent
agitation like that due to gunfire. There is no transference of the
medium itself any more than in the case of a sound wave. Waves of
compression and rarefaction are in the nature of a progressive pushing
and pulling, each molecule pushing its neighbor a short distance for-
ward and then pulling it back. To make it still more plain, the air
disturbance would be like those compressional waves in the earth’s crust
which every earthquake starts and which are recorded on seismographs.

The most violent explosion in air, therefore, would not remove any
appreciable volume of air and vapor from one locality to another, while
it would cause a pressure wave, and as in the case of great volcanic
eruptions like Krakatoa, Mount Pelée and Katmai, a wave of sufficient
intensity to be noted at observatories around the world. Such a wave
encircles the globe in a few hours, and so far as we know has no effect
in causing rain. But, on the other hand, it is true that in all great
volcanic eruptions large quantities of dust particles (dust is the gen-
eral name for all nuclei in the air) are injected into the higher air
currents and carried from place to place. These do play a part in
facilitating condensation and consequent precipitation. Krakatoa dust
encircled the world in fifteen days and eventually probably caused excess
rain in some localities. In this indirect way, rather than through con-
cussion, it is conceivable that rain and explosions may be connected. But
a volcanic eruption far exceeds in violence gunfire, even that of the
greatest battles in modern warfare, and there is a vast difference be-
tween the gases generated and other output. The eruptions at Katmai,

BATTLES AND RAINFALL 171

Taal, Asama Yama, Bandai San, Tarawera, Mount Pelée, the Soufriére
of St. Vincent, Krakatoa, and even little Lassen, emitted enormous
volumes of gas, fine ash and coarser matter. At Katmai, for example,
the output was so great that the deposit at Kadiak 121 kilometers
distant (75 miles) amounted to 35 centimeters (14 inches) of fine
granules of sand, orange and yellow dust and pumice. Again, the in-
tensities of the air shock, if we may so express it, are very different in
eruptions and battles. Tornadic inrushes occur near the volcano and
for some distance; while the wind rush of the largest gun when fired
is hardly different from that of a passing train. A crude comparison
of these relative intensities may be gleaned from a note made by Omori,
the foremost seismologist of Japan, to the effect that during the Asama
Yama eruption (December 7%, 1909), there were marked pressure
changes on nearly all the barographs in Japan and to a distance of
160 kilometers (100 miles), while in the city of Tokio, the daily noon
gun fired close to the Central Meteorological Office never affects the
instruments there. At Blue Hill Observatory, we have never been
able to detect changes due to the firing of the big coast guns, or those
of the fleet when manceuvring.

It, therefore, seems but fair to conclude that to cause rain, gunfire
would have to be on a vastly greater scale than is at present the case.
And, as for the attempts which have been made to produce rain by
bombarding the clouds, it is enough to say that the claims and state-
ments made by the experimenters, or shall we call them exploiters, are
not supported by the facts.

Some years ago at Santa Barbara, during a prolonged dry spell, a
meeting of the citizens was called to consider an offer from a tem-
porary resident, a Michigan millionaire, to furnish all explosives
needed to produce rain. This gentleman claimed to have successfully
caused rain by these means on his ranch in Texas, during cloudy,
threatening weather. While the meeting was in progress, rain began
to fall and there was no further interest in explosives. This incident
is referred to here because if the meeting had been held a day or two
earlier, and the proposal accepted and the firing begun, it would have
been extremely difficult to convince the people of that section that the
rain was not directly connected with the firing. Men’s ideas of the
nature of the atmosphere are still very vague, and with this indefinite-
ness goes a corresponding readiness to draw conclusions from insuffi-
cient data. Sir William Ramsay has pointed out somewhere that the
discovery of the true nature of air was held back for years because of
erroneous ideas regarding combustion.

We may then dismiss the attempts of the American rain-makers and
also the hail-shooters in Europe as inconclusive. There is no reliable
evidence that such efforts have caused rain or any increase in the rain-

172 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY —

fall. Nor is it established that rain follows heavy battles and excessive
firing. Records properly assembled disprove the existence of any posi-
tive relation between concussion and rainfall.

Still, it would be unwise to assert that our knowledge of the forma-
tion of rain and particularly the structure of a raindrop is such as to
enable one to say that rain production is beyond the power of man.
Furthermore, much that appeared to be fundamental and basic in
physics, a few years ago, has now gone by the board or been so modi-
fied that the physicist is, to speak frankly, at sea regarding the struc-
ture of the atom and the nature of action at a distance. We know very
little about the behavior of the large ions in air, also the small and
intermediate ones, and their respective mobilities. In fact, we can only
surmise as to the réles played by these molecular clusters in actively
assisting condensation and precipitation. We know that if the nuclei
are filtered from air, condensation even with saturation is very slow.
We also know that some of the nuclei are electrified but the great
majority are not. There appears to be. an intermediate state between
gas and liquid. Through the investigations of Aitken, Wilson, Thom-
son, Barus, Langevin, Pollock and others, we picture the large ion as a
nucleus on which water molecules are adsorbed (not absorbed), the
extent depending upon the vapor pressure, and the whole being electri-
fied by the small ion. We have been taught to believe that cloud for-
mation is a physical process in which the effective factor is cooling.
The cooling may be brought about by elevation, radiation, contact or
conduction and mixture or convection, yet we may not shut our eyes
to the possibility of electrical action in controlling the combination or
agglomeration of minute particles. Just how this would take place or
just how the raindrop and snowflake are built up is not yet known, nor
how the process can be accelerated or retarded. Indeed if this were
known, man would be nigh unto control of the rain, or at least have in
his hands rudimentary means for compelling or preventing precipita-
tion. Job’s query which has remained so long unanswerable

Who shall number the clouds, who shall stay the bottles of Heaven?

would be less of a poser. Stranger things have happened than that
man should find a way to master the water vapor in the free air; and,
for example, to dissipate the clouds and fogs. To make a commercial
success of the process, however, would be another story.

Finally, it may well be asked if battles do not cause these abnormal
rainfals, what does cause them; and why are some seasons so entirely
unlike others? The best answer available at present, though by no
means an assured explanation, is that the circulation of the lower air
varies in different seasons; and this circulation is controlled by certain
“low” and “high” pressure areas. The probability of this relation

—-

BATTLES AND RAINFALL 173

was first pointed out by a Frenchman of Scotch descent, M. Leon
Teisserenc de Bort, the investigator who with his colleague, the late
Professor Lawrence Rotch, did so much to add to our knowledge of the
upper air; and in fact discovered the stratosphere. He was seeking
for the explanation of certain cold spring months in the very region
in which the war is now raging. Other meteorologists have carried the
work further and we now think we know the cause of late springs and
early springs on the Atlantic coast. There appears to be firm ground
for asserting that when a marked hyperbar or excess of pressure overlies
the northwest Atlantic, persisting for a week, a fortnight or even a
month, the surface flow of air or winds will be mostly northeast and of
moderate intensity. Such winds carry large volumes of water vapor and
unless the land temperatures are high, the result is foggy, cloudy
weather along the shore from Maine to New Jersey. This makes for
a relatively late spring and cool summer, on the one hand, and a rela-
tively warm winter, on the other. Similarly on the Pacific coast, it
has been shown by the writer in his “ Rainfall of California” that dry
periods in the winter, which is normally a wet season, and wet periods
in the early summer, which is normally a dry time, are directly asso-
ciated with the location of certain hyperbars and infrabars. Just what
are the determining causes in building up these centers of action the
meteorologist can not yet say; and hence no accurate seasonal forecasts
are possible. Weekly forecasts are indeed attempted by the Weather
Bureaus of this and other countries; but, it may be frankly admitted,
with only partial success. Still a beginning has been made and there
is no doubt in the mind of the writer but that discoveries will be made
and improvement follow.

174 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY —

SOME PHENOMENA OF FLUID MOTION AND THE CURVED
FLIGHT OF A BASE BALL

By Proressor W. 8S. FRANKLIN

T is widely believed that a descriptive science like botany is funda-
mentally and essentially different from a mathematical science like
physics. The one certainly does contain all that is vital in art in its
sympathy with observed life and its interest in natural form as of leaf
and flower; whereas the other is usually thought of as tne negation of
art in its interest in dead material and its dependence upon the highly
conventional and abstract forms of algebra. This point of view was
generally held even among scientific men half a century ago, but it is
now relegated to that overflowing museum of caricatures, which it
seems to be the chief function of the old-fashioned classifying philos-
ophy to fill.

All science is descriptive. The object of this paper is to illustrate a
descriptive phase of physical science, and the paper is put into the form
of picture-and-legend to emphasize its descriptive character. The
paper is incomplete, however, in one respect, namely, in respect to How
much? How far? How long? Indeed it is in connection with this
quantitative aspect of pnysical science that algebra is mostly used, and
it is here that the essentially descriptive character of the science is
nearly lost sight of. There is, however, something essentially descriptive
in the use of algebra honestly according to what may be called the
Maxwellian method, where algebraic forms spring full-fledged and rich
from highly elaborated physical ideas, and there is little besides hum-
bug in the method so elegantly employed by Ampére and so often em-
ployed by others where the natural path to a discovery is obliterated and
replaced by elaborate algebraic synthesis after the discovery has been
made.

tank under
high pressure

tank under
high pressure

Fie. 1. Fig. 2.

In the tank the water has a high pressure and low velocity, and in the jet the
water has low pressure and high velocity. Fig. 2 represents a fancy method for
pumping water into a steam boiler; namely, by squirting a jet of water at a hole
in the side of the boiler.

PHENOMENA OF FLUID MOTION 175

The steady curvature of path of a rapidly spinning baseball is ex-
plained on the basis of a principle which was first enunciated by Daniel
Bernoulli in 1726. Bernoulli’s principle is illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2.
In a stream of water or air the pressure is high where the velocity ig
low, and the pressure is low where the velocity is high. There are cer-
tain limitations to this principle which need not be discussed here.

Air flows through a tube OD.
Where the section of the tube is
small, at a, the velocity of the air
is large; and where the section of
the tube is large, at b, the veloc-
ity of the air is small, as indi-
eated by the two letters V and v.
Furthermore where the velocity is
large the pressure is small and
where the velocity is small the
pressure is large, as indicated by
the two letters p and P. The low
pressure of the air at @ draws
the liquid up in the tube 7, and
the large pressure of the air at b
pushes the liquid down in Tube 7’.

This represents a hydraulic analogue of Fig. 4. The
rapidly moving water on the disk is at a low level, and it
lifts itself to the higher level of the still water in the
basin as it flows off the edge of the disk dd. Therefore
the still water underneath the disk has a higher pressure
than the moving water on top of the disk so that the
disk is held up. The pin p serves to prevent the disk

from moving sidewise.

A brass tube 7 is soldered to a brass disk
DD, and air is blown through the tube T
and against the loose disk dd. The air between
the two disks has a large velocity, but this ve-
locity decreases greatly towards the edges of
the disks because of the great increase of the
sectional area of the air stream, and it de-
creases still more as the air (by virtue of its
momentum) pushes itself out between the edges
of the disks into the surrounding air. Now the
pressure of the surrounding air (where the ve-
locity is low) is high, and the pressure of the
air between the disks (where the velocity is
high) is low. Therefore the surrounding air
exerts greater force in pushing the disks to-
gether than the force exerted by the air stream
in pushing the disks apart. That is, the disk
dd sticks tighter and tighter to DD the harder
one blows through 7’.

176 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

This shows a light ball floating in an air jet. The air in the
jet pushes up on the ball and keeps it from falling, and when the
ball starts to fall out of the jet the surrounding air pushes it back
into the jet because the pressure of the surrounding air is high
(where the velocity of the air is low) and the pressure of the air
in the jet is low (where the velocity is high).

Fic. 7.

This represents two boats moving along side by side in still water, or what
amounts to the same thing, two boats standing side by side with water flowing past
them. The stream is greatly compressed in the region between the boats, and the
velocity in that region is high, higher indeed than it is on the outside of either boat.
Therefore the water level (which corresponds to pressure) is lower between the boats
than it is on the outside of either boat, and the higher water on the outside of the
boats pushes the boats together. It is a well known fact among navy men that two
boats which are steaming along side by side are powerfully drawn towards each other.

F
boat A

F

Fig. 8.

The most serious condition which can arise when one boat is steaming past
another is shown in this figure. The two forces FF with which the boats are pushed
towards each other tend to turn the boats, thus the boat B is powerfully turned
towards boat A, and a collision is almost sure to take place before the rudder can
be properly set to keep the boat from turning.

PHENOMENA OF FLUID MOTION 177

The effect which is described in connection with Figs.
7 and 8 may be shown by blowing between two light
rubber balls which are suspended as here shown. When
one blows between the balls the balls come together with
a bump.

Fig. 9.

The following four figures lead up to an understanding of the curved
flight of a spinning baseball, and Figs. 10, 11 and 12 must be thought
of together.

Fic. 10.

This figure shows the whirling motion of the air
in the neighborhood of a spinnirg ball.

oe
b’ .

This figure shows the motion of an air stream flowing past a ball which is not
spinning. The stream splits and flows equally around the two sides of the ball.

178 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

spinning
ball

Fic. 12.

This figure shows the motion of an‘air stream as it flows past a spinning ball.
The velocity of the air at the point a is partly due to the spinning motion of the ball
as shown in Fig. 10, and partly due to the stream as shown in Fig. 11. That is, the
two causes which are shown in Figs. 10 and 11 act together to produce a large
velocity at a, and the two causes which are shown in Figs. 10 and 11 oppose each
other and produce a small velocity at 6. Therefore the velocity is large at @ and
small at b, and consequently the pressure is large at b and small at a@. The air ata
therefore pushes down on the ball with a small force f, and the air at 6 pushes up
on the ball with a large force F as shown in Fig. 13.

The action in Fig. 12, where a
stream of air flows past a spinning ball,
is exactly the same as the action which

f takes place when a spinning ball travels
| 7 forwards through still air, as shown in-
Pa this figure. A large force F pushes up
es on the spinning ball, and a small force f
We pushes down on the egpinning ball.
TTT 06Therefore the ball curves upwards as
direction of travel shown by the dotted arrow. Of course
the upward force F must be much greater
than the downward force f to produce an
upward curvature, because the downward
pull of gravity on the ball must be over-
F come.

The point N on the ball may be
ealled the nose of the ball. This nose is
Fig, 13. traveling sidewise because of the spin
of the ball; and the ball curves towards
the side towards which the nose of the

ball is traveling.

ae <—
- 2
ai

ine

spinning
ball

ig ee

bat

Fic, 14.

The curve OO shows the path of a high foul. The ball strikes the bat and is set
spinning in the direction shown by the small curved arrows. If the ball were not
spinning it would follow the dotted line, but the spinning of the ball causes it to be
deflected continually to one side, as explained in connection with Fig. 13, so that the
ball actually follows the path OC.

PHENOMENA OF FLUID MOTION 179

A ping pong ball is thrown upwards by shooting it with the
thumb, marble-fashion, so that the ball is set spinning in the
direction of the curved arrows. The dotted line shows the path
which would be followed by the ball if it were not spinning, and
the full line shows the actual path of the ball.

ee ee ee re eee ee

Fie. 15.

THE Spit BALL

Imagine a perfectly smooth ball traveling through still air. There
is certainly no reason why the ball should be pushed to one side rather
than the other; therefore one may conclude that the ball will not be
pushed to either side! In the same way there is no reason why a sharp-
pointed stick standing exactly vertical on a hard floor in a quiet room
should fall one way rather than another; therefore we may conclude
that the stick will not fall either way! This is good logic in both cases,
but it is bad physics. The ball is pushed to one side or the other, and the
stick always does fall.. The vertical stick is in what is called an unstable
state, and an infinitesimal disturbance is enough to start the fall in some
direction, and then away she goes! Also the motion of a smooth ball
through still air involves a condition of instability, and an infinitesimal
disturbance is enough to start an action which rapidly develops and
pushes the ball decidedly to one side or the other.

This shows the irregular zig-zag path of a smooth
ball (not spinning) as it sinks in water. The ball travels
nearly straight until it attains a certain velocity, and
then it follows a zig-zag path until it reaches the bottom
of the vessel. A smooth ball (not spinning) also de-
scribes an irregular zig-zag path as it travels through
the air, but the irregularities are much less than in the
ease of a ball moving through water because the den-
sity of the air is so small as compared with the density
of water. The cause of this irregular zig-zag motion is
analyzed in the following figures.

H
H
i
:
:

180 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

Every one is familiar with the peculiar curling motion of a ris-
ing streak of cigar smoke in still air. The first part of the stream is
smooth, but as the velocity of the rising smoke increases, the stream
becomes unstable and develops into a complicated set of eddies and
whirls. The boundary between a rapidly moving stream of air or
liquid and a stationary body of air or liquid is unstable, especially if
the velocity of the stream is great; and this instability always shows
itself by the development of a complicated set of eddies and whirls.

Fic. 17.

When a gas jet is not turned up too high, the velocity of
the gas in the jet is low and the stream of gas is smooth as
shown by the sketch a. If the jet is turned up too high, how-
ever, it becomes very turbulent (full of eddies and whirls) as
shown by sketch b, and in this case the flame produces a roar-
ing sound. The loud hissing sound of a steam jet is due to
the extremely fine-grained eddies and whirls which are formed
along the boundary between the rapidly moving steam and the
adjoining still air.

ball not
spinning

Fic. 19.

This figure shows a stream of air moving past a ball which is not spinning, the
velocity of the stream being rapid so that the stream breaks away from the ball as
shown, giving two boundaries a@a@ and bb between rapidly moving air and stationary
air. Such boundaries are unstable as exemplified by the behavior of the smoke jet
in Fig. 17 and the gas jet in Fig. 18. Therefore eddies and whirls develop along aa
and bb, and as a result the stream at aa will be at one instant deflected downwards
(in the figure) and at another instant upwards. The same thing may be said of the
boundary bb. Whenever the stream at aa (or bb) is deflected downwards (in the
figure) a force of reaction is brought to bear upon the ball pushing it upwards (in
the figure), and whenever the stream at aa (or bb) is deflected upwards a reacting
force is exerted on the ball, pushing it downwards. Therefore the ball is pushed
irregularly to one side and the other repeatedly. The action here described refers to
a stationary ball with air flowing past it, and exactly the same effects are produced
when a ball moves swiftly through stationary air or water, and the irregular side
forces which are exerted on the ball cause it to describe a zig-zag path.

HUNGER AND FOOD 181

HUNGER AND FOOD

By Prorgssor GHORGH J. PEIRCE

STANFORD UNIVERSITY

| Raga most important chemical change taking place in all nature, at

least as far as living beings are concerned, is the combination of
carbon-dioxide gas and water into food. Going on under our very
eyes, in every green leaf in the sunlight, this chemical process converts
a useless constituent of the atmosphere into sugar by combining its com-
ponent atoms with those of water. From the sugar are built up ail the
other foods of all plants and all animals. The details of this chemical
change are only partly known, the intermediate stages have so far
escaped the most acute research; but we know the raw materials and the
products; the energy used in effecting the change; the means of absorb-
ing this energy; and the place where it is applied. The energy is light
rays of certain wave-length; the absorbing screen is leaf-green, chloro-
phyll; the place of application is the green cells of plants. The raw
materials are the most universally distributed substances in nature—
carbon-dioxide, occurring in the atmosphere to approximately .02 per
cent., and water, occurring in the amounts which we, living in this semi-
arid region, realize much more accurately than our fellows in those parts
of the “temperate” zone where life is maintained only with difficulty,
through summer as well as winter, because of climatic violence.

The daily transformation of enormous multiples of six molecules
of CO, and six molecules of water into single molecules of sugar, ac-
complished in weed and grain and tree, results, in the course of a single
growing season, in harvests of astonishing values. The values of the
crops of the United States in recent years, so far as available reports
show, are as follows: cereals (711) $4,280,205,000 ; cotton (711) $8,125,-
140,000; forest products $195,306,283; fruits $76,709,195; hay (711)
$784,926,000; honey $5,992,083; orchard products $140,867,347;
peaches and nectarines $28,781,078; peanuts $18,271,929; plums and
prunes $10,299,495 ; potatoes $233,778,000; tobacco $85,210,387 ; vege-
tables $209,548,021; wool $75,879,251—a total of $14,269,854,069 for
the farm products of the United States alone in a single year.

To this huge sum must be added the value of all the various forms of
live-stock raised during the same year, $5,296,421,619; for the sub-
sistence of these flocks and herds and bands is the product of the same
chemical changes, the combination of CO, and H,O into food. Every
article of human consumption and use which is not mineral owes its
existence to the same source of food. Is it any wonder, therefore, that

182 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

I have called this the most important chemical change in all nature?
But is it any great wonder that a botanist, entirely ignorant of economic
theory, should be led, by his reflections on this important phenomenon,
to enquire into some of the relations of man to food production. I make
no claim of novelty in point of view, of freshness of material, of the
discovery of new facts, but nevertheless I should like to share my
reflections on hunger and the means of meeting it?

Looking over this list of commodities of plant and animal origin,
we find some which must be called absolutely indispensable, whilst many
others, commonly spoken of as necessaries of life, would not be proved
by experience to be more than comforts. Clothing, shelter and all the
numerous articles of pleasure, from violins to tooth brushes, man could
do without, but food and drink he must have. Of what man eats much
is unnecessary, either in kind or amount. To the bare subsistence of
humanity a minimum ration of protein and carbohydrate is absolutely
indispensable. What this minimum ration is does not matter: but
what does matter is that so few individuals, so few communities, so few
nations even, produce it. This is the peril that many have seen—a
succession of seers not without honor, and ridicule, through the ages—
it is a peril which varies in gravity according as the balance varies be-
tween production and consumption.

The war has exposed to all the world that certain of its great nations
are not self-supporting. To those of us who live in parasitic comfort,
the idea of self-support is of theoretical interest only, a moral ideal which
may have been taught us but the enforcement of which was left to cir-
cumstances. Until division of labor began to be generally practised,
self-support was not merely an ideal, it was a necessity. Self-support is
still necessary among pioneers; but in established communities division
of labor has made a decreasing fraction of the population self-sustaining.
Division of labor and specialization, resulting in the more rapid and more
perfect performance of certain actions or functions, benefit the com-
munity and the state by the increased quantity and improved quality of
the product. But this benefit has its disadvantages also, for the benefit
is accompanied by risk. On the frontiers of civilization the individual
must be self-supporting or die. A later development is the self-support-
ing community. Such the New England farming community used to be.
With the completion of the New England adage, “God made the
country, and man made the town, and the Devil made the small coun-
try town” came also the beginning, in this country, of those larger com-
munities which were less and less able to support themselves as they
grew larger, more influential and more prosperous. What sort of pros-
perity is it, however, that can not feed itself, clothe and shelter itself,
that has to be served with every necessity as well as every luxury?
And what a topsy-turvy world we live in, when the acme of prosperity

HUNGER AND FOOD 183

is the maximum of dependence, and complete parasitism is the admired
ideal of civilization! The development of civilization, with its con-
tinued adherence to the moral ideal of self-support, has seen larger and
larger social units excused from attaining it. Have we gone far enough,
or for the time being at least perhaps too far, in this direction? ‘This
question will be answered variously according to age, occupation and
imagination. But each can realize that his answer will be a resultant, a
compromise, of contradictions. Individualist and socialist, competitor
and cooperator, idealist and reactionary, are side by side within each
one of us. Each of us adjusts his life as he may, circumstances and
will determining what we do and are, with conscience calmed by the
ethics of our particular occupation.

It sometimes happens, in the life of a college officer, that he is in-
vited to speak to another audience than the one which seeks him regularly
for leading in the special path which is his life-interest. Sometimes he
is talked to as an elder brother by those with whom he has become friends.
Such opportunities are rare. They are correspondingly precious. They
must be met by clear sight and honest thinking, to be realized at all. In
such instances, what do we say or do?

With an increasing population, guaranteed in times of peace a longer
span of life through the development of medicine, surgery and preventive
medicine, with increasing urban populations, increasing disproportion
between parasitic and self-supporting human beings, decreasing areas
still untilled, and decreasing production on too large a proportion of the
cultivated areas, is it not wise to question whether the world’s condition
is altogether safe? The economist may say that the law of supply and
demand will control. Doubtless it will and does, in the long run;
but if the supply lag behind the demand, who will suffer? There is no
question of the demand for food; but hecause its production is possible
so far only in the course of a season’s growth, by means of that chemical
process which combines CO, and H,O, not by manufacture, the supply
may lag months behind the demand. If the season be bad or the labor-
ers, the producers, too few, the supply will lag still longer. What can
trade, or the practise of the professions, do to supply food, actual food,
to even the minimum ration of protein and carbohydrate required by
every human being to sustain life? The most intelligent, if not always
the most energetic, young people of the civilized world seek to attend the
colleges. There they are led along the ways of parasitism and away
from self-support, trained for trade, for the professions, and, in the case
of young women, for attaining an ad interim livelihood by teaching the
children of others in the elements of knowledge.

I am not implying the desirability of converting our colleges into
“cow-colleges,” but I am advocating the serious reflection of old and
young upon the question of continuing and increasing the world’s supply

184 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

of food. Some of our students, perhaps most obviously in the biological
courses, are wondering how they can put their training to best use.
When I told a young man, some years ago, who was paying his way
through Stanford by producing and selling milk, that he would be a more
useful citizen if he gave up his idea of becoming a teacher and devoted
himself to the calling for which he showed evident aptitude, I was pleased
that he followed my suggestion and went into the dairy business. But
he didn’t fit himself for it; he developed an inflated business, and pres-
ently went on the road to sell stoves! The fate of his milk business you
can guess.

Some of my friends have sons interested in agriculture. One of them
says he has told his son that it is not open to him, for he has no capital
to start on. Is the practise of agriculture open only to the capitalistic
class? Our immigrants do not think so, nor do the real-estate operators
so assert; and the increasing comfort year by year of the farmers of the
country, starting on leased or on government land, working at first or
always with their bodies as well as their brains, attest both the ability of
the man without capital to win for himself a livelihood and the satisfac-
tion of serving his country well.

Because of the remarkable qualities of their sunshine, temperatures,
and soil, California and the Pacific coast have seen the development of
specialized farming on an unprecedented scale. The result is full of
danger. The war has closed the European apple market, and we all
were able to buy apples for about half the cost of last year. The citrus
market is one peculiarly sensitive to unfavorable financial conditions.
Fruit is abundant here, but only the fanatical would think of living
exclusively on fruits and nuts. The price of bread has risen in many
other places than Berlin, despite the bumper crops of California, Utah,
and other grain-growing states. Potatoes are an uncertain commodity
to buy. There has been no corner, no artificial rise in potato prices
here this year; but good potatoes are not as abundant as good oranges,
though on the whole more nourishing and more necessary. The price of
meat is said to be no higher than a year ago, but a part at least of the
European market has gone for the time, perhaps for a long time, because
the money to buy meat has been spent on ammunition.

I can not feel that scanning the market columns in the trade and
daily papers serves any other purpose than to inform us of what is. The
country, intelligent people, must look as far ahead as they can. What
the world needs and will always need is food, producers of food, and
distributors of food. The man who, though not a farmer, can help the
farmer in any way, will always be useful. And that man, that com-
munity, that state, which is best able to feed itself, will be the safest.
Of the nations now at war, one is safe, Russia. Hungary is safer than
Austria, France is safer by far than England, Germany’s plight may be

HUNGER AND FOOD 185

made light of by its partisans to-day, but the prosperity of empires
founded mainly on manufacture and trade is at best insecure. To my
mind, one of the greatest lessons of the times is the wisdom of self-sup-
port. It is more than a moral ideal: it is common sense, the expression
of stern necessity.

The development of manufacture is commonly desired by the com-
munity and the state. Manufacture implies raw material. Raw ma-
terial comes either from the accumulation of ages in mine and forest,
or from the yearly product of plant chemistry. In so far as manu-
facture consists in the rapid treatment of the accumulations of ages,
it may arouse the opposition of the conservationists, who meanwhile
are enjoying the results. But in so far as it consists in the treat-
ment of the year’s harvest, it must be supported by more than the
granting of mill-sites, tax exemption, and boom “literature.” It too
needs the producer, for it is not self-supporting. It is a trite saying
that agriculture is the basis of prosperity. Without agriculture, the
artificial stimulation of natural production, the top-heavy animal king-
dom would be doomed. Consider what has been accomplished since the
pilgrims first landed at Plymouth, the first settlers at Jamestown, the
Padres in San Diego! The established balance of nature on the con-
tinent of North America has been completely destroyed. In place of
the large population of forest and prairie plants, of game and other
wild animals in large numbers, and a comparatively small number of
human beings, there have come millions of people, the extinction of cer-
tain animals, the destruction of forests and of the plant cover which held
the soil and kept the streams clear. There has been great increase in
the production of food, both plant and animal, but that the proportional
increase in the production of food has been maintained, or is being
maintained, is doubtful. Who is to continue production so that it
shall be proportional to consumption? The law of supply and de-
mand? If so, then some must be hungry before it will be so plainly
profitable that even the dull will see that we must produce more per acre,
more wheat, corn, alfalfa, oats, barley, rye, more meat. The securest
livelihood may be obtained by meeting the largest and most constant
demand. That demand is for food. The supply is for us to furnish, to
advocate, to aid, and to consume.

The thesis which I have thus advocated is so reasonable—and so
obvious—that there must be weighty objections else the American would
not have been converted from sturdy farmer into nervous business man
in so short a space of time. A friend once defined “good times” as those
in which “a large stream of money flows through one’s pocket.” Here
is at once a difference between farm and city. The farmer is not paid
off Saturday night. There is no stream of money flowing through his
pocket. He may have a large sum in his pocket at one time, but he is

VOL. 11.—13.

186 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

quite as likely to have as little as a professor at another. But it is not
necessary for me to discuss the matter of payments to and by the farmer;
nor those matters, inside and outside the farmhouse which have occupied
the Country Life Commission, with results which have so far escaped
my knowledge. On the other hand, there are certain changes in the
hazards of crop production which fall more properly within the field of
the biologist. Farming is actually not as easy as it used to be, though
perhaps it is less laborious. ‘There are more enemies to the crop than
there used to be. ‘These enemies are of two main sorts, living and life-
less: some are aerial, some terrestrial; some are seasonal and temporary,
some are constant and cumulative. Yet these enemies are conquerable.

Complaint is made, in various parts of the country, that there is a
decline in the fertility of the soil, that the soil is becoming “ exhausted ”
by continued cropping. When the blame can be properly fixed on the
soil itself, and not on faulty or no selection of seed, neglect in the sterili-
zation of seed, neglect or ill-luck in the destruction of seed or seedlings
by birds, gophers and other habitual vegetarians, it is generally found
that neglect of some other sort explains the situation. The disc harrow
instead of the deep plow, the filthy barn yard instead of well-manured
fields, a change or no change of crops instead of crop rotation, and
summer fallow instead of alternating grain and leguminous crops, these
are some of the forms of neglect which I think I recognize.

If we speak of soil exhaustion now-a-days, we do not mean the actual
depletion of the potassium and other salts, the sulphates, phosphates,
nitrates; for no soil is so impoverished or so sterile as to lack these
constituents completely, or even in such degree that they do not exceed
the concentrations in the nutrient solutions commonly used in the
laboratory with entire success. Ordinarily an exhausted soil is one in
which plant excreta, by reason of faulty cultivation, have been allowed
to accumulate. Sunning, airing, washing are the effective ways of
cleaning soil as well as other things; but just as we may get the smell of
tobacco smoke out of our clothes by walking them home, or otherwise
using them in the open air, as well as by hanging them on the line, so
soils can be cleansed at the same time that they are being used, if only
the use be appropriate. This is crop rotation, an obviously more eco-
nomical method than that of summer fallow, against which all nature
rebels, but which is strangely popular in the west.

Important as the soil is—for no living organism can live without a
minimum of mineral matter—I can not help feeling that the differences
in the productiveness of great areas may be due to some other and more
general cause than soil or season. The experiments of Klebs, Véchting
and others in the comparatively opaque atmosphere of Germany, the
observations of Delpino in the clearer air of Italy, the records of John
Muir and the impressions of all of us in California, and the work now

HUNGER AND FOOD 187

being done in the Carnegie Desert Laboratory at Tucson, Arizona, show
that what we call fertility, attributing this to the soil, may after all be
fecundity, a result to which light contributes at least as much as the soil.
We may have luxuriant vegetative growth and no seed in rich but shaded
soil; we do have scantier vegetative growth but abundant seeding in poor
but brightly lighted spots. The development of the reproductive organs,
the opening of the flowers, is one of the effects of light. Just as the light
causes the orange yellow poppy blooms or the majenta corollas of Red
Maids to open, so it is the light which stimulates the plants to form
the blooms at all. And as we have more light in California than in
many other parts of the world, so also we have richer and hence more
stimulating light. The part played by richer light in the greater pro-
ductiveness of certain large areas as compared with others will be more
fully recognized presently than now. We should speak of fertile light
and fertile air, if we are to recognize its importance as truthfully as we
do that of the soil. And in selecting places for producing food, the
world and its citizens will do well to take light as well as soil into
account. The further study of light in relation to reproduction, to the
setting of seed and fruit, and to the production of crop, will enable the
world to increase its food supply without necessarily increasing its
acreage.

Anything which disturbs the balance of nature releases forces, living
and lifeless, which hitherto had been held in check. The complete change
on the American Continent from a state of balance in the then wild
nature to the present condition of cultivation, extending further and
further into the wilderness, has resulted in so changing the conditions of
existence that man and his parasites have enormously increased in num-
bers and the plants which he cultivates have been greatly multiplied and
extended along with their insect, fungous and bacterial enemies. To
meet this latter condition a profession is coming into existence similar
to that which has thriven in consequence of the former. The plant
pathologist, however, as his name implies, claims rather to be a student
than a healer of disease. As fruit of his labors what is called preventive
medicine in one profession has been developed in two very remarkable
ways. The practise of sterilizing seed before sowing it has now become
universal among intelligent and industrious farmers. By this simple
means, great shrinkage in crop is measurably prevented. If sterilized
seed is used, only subsequent infection can make trouble of microbic
origin. Without yet understanding the basis of immunity, the United
States Department of Agriculture and the State Agricultural Experi-
ment Stations have succeeded in developing disease-resistant varieties of
plants some of which are remarkably successful. We have, in these
plants, instances of actually improved races, not merely “fancy” stock;
stock capable of resisting specific forms of disease. Here is eugenics of

188 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

a sort worth while, a high ideal which is attainable, and an ideal which
has been attained in certain instances.

By the labors, therefore, of plant pathologists, insect enemies are
attacked and at least held in check, fungous and bacterial diseases are
combated ; indeed, to use a current expression of painful association,
they are taxed “at the source ” and often, like others, taxed out of exist-
ence. By these means crop production is increased and insured without
increased acreage.

The relations of the plant pathologist and the public should be sim-
ilar to those of physicians and the public. The plant pathologist owes it
to the public to secure the best possible training before beginning prac-
tise, training which shall include a knowledge of disease of animal as
well as vegetable origin, a knowledge of normal as well as morbid physiol-
ogy. By combining entomology and botany the young man may assure
himself both of more certain and better employment as plant pathologist,
with corresponding increase in income, and also of greater usefulness,
than if he devote himself from the beginning of his training exclu-
sively to the study of insects or of plants.

The attitude of the public to the plant pathologist, on the other hand,
is curiously different from its attitude toward the physician or surgeon
whose care is human or other animal ills. The physician of good train-
ing and ability, with capital enough to escape starvation for a year or
two, who settles where there are enough people may count on building
up a private practise sufficient for comfortable support. The plant
pathologist settling in a farming community and hanging out his shingle
like doctor, dentist or veterinarian, would scarcely have a call. In re-
lation to him the public is entirely socialistic. It expects him, if he is
worth while, to be employed by the state; it is satisfied to have him so
paid that only the missionary spirit or limited ambition and ability will
take him into the profession ; it is content with cheap advice even where
so important a thing as crop, income, food even, is concerned. If it were
not for interest in science, interest in out-of-doors, and for the missionary
spirit, the public would not have received better advice in its struggles
with plant disease than it paid for. The only part of the public which
pays properly in times of trouble, when a plant doctor is needed, is the
corporations causing the trouble!

We see, then, that the farmer must contend with enemies of many
sorts, that he and his are subject to certain inconveniences incidental to
delayed returns; but we see too that his career is not only useful, with
the satisfactions of usefulness, it is self-supporting. If we wish to con-
tinue our parasitic existence in the present degree of comfort, we must
encourage self support in others.

THE REINCARNATION OF JAMES EIGHTS 189

THE REINCARNATION OF JAMES EIGHTS, ANTARCTIC
EXPLORER

By Dr. JOHN M. CLARKE

STATH MUSEUM, ALBANY, N, Y.

; fae the early days of the last century, when geography was yet young

and there still remained some undiscovered nooks of the earth, the
inquisitive merchant marine of our still younger and very saucy Yankee
republic was finding its way into the farthest ports of the Seven Seas.
The sails of the Ship of State had bellied with pride in the achievements
of our canvas navy of 1812-1814, and the confident commercial enter-
prise which followed gave birth to a generation of agile shipmasters who
recked as little of the terrors of the sea as does to-day the commander
of the mightiest of our steel ocean machines. In these days before
steam, the skippers of Stonington, New Bedford, New London—
whalers in fact, but explorers in essence—became the pathfinders of the
waters; searching their quarry in the Atlantic and Pacific, from the
Arctic to the Antarctic. They never held back from cruising unknown
waters in the hope of finding some new thing, and in some of these New
England shipmasters grew up a fine sense of devotion to their country’s
eredit. They sought out knowledge of foreign parts that their country
might have the name and fame of discovery, and many a little brig
with its stars and stripes roamed among the islands of the South
Sea and into ports of the Orient, where to-day and long since the Ameri-
can colors are as rare as leviathans.

Edmund Fanning was one of these early Yankee venturers and one
of the few who has left an account of his “seventy voyages” about the
world in the years of his active life from 1792 to 1832. Fanning early
became a shipmaster of the first class and, successful at that, as time
passed he was a patron and promoter of voyages. America was the
country of his adoption, and having adopted her he had pride in her
progress and confidence in her future. If the young nation were to
play her part with dignity she must do her share in the exploration of
the unknown world, and, possessed of this theme, he had sufficient in-
fluence on the Congress to convince it of its duty to send out an exploring
expedition over the southern seas, for down in those Antarctic latitudes
where the American sealers were already finding rich fields were the
mysterious Auroras, the mythical isles east of the Horn, of which re-
turning vessels had brought enamouring tales.

So the Congress of 1812 decided upon a first official voyage of dis-
covery into waters out of our control, and Fanning was commissioned

190 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

by President Madison commander of the two brigs Volunteer and Hope.
The banner of hope was at the peak for a little while, but the same
Congress soon pulled it down with a proclamation of war against Great
Britain. Sixteen more years Fanning plied Congress with his project
before it would again give heed to his plans for such a voyage of dis-
covery, and in 1829 the shipmaster had grown too old to go to sea again;
but early that year the United States Senate reported in favor of a
South Sea expedition, and, though providing no money, it gave a
moral support to the proposition and Captain Fanning was informally
designated as “agent” of this first semi- or quasi-official “ Voyage of
Discovery.” Fanning, filled with patriotic zeal, at once put two brigs
into commission, the whalers and sealers, Annawan, Nathaniel B. Pal-
mer, captain, and the Seraph, Benjamin Pendleton, captain and com-
mander. These vessels sailed from Connecticut ports for the South
Seas in October, 1829. On their return a report of the expedition made
by Commander Pendleton to the “agent,” Fanning, was transmitted to
Congress and was published by its order. It is needless to add that
such sentimental support “buttered no parsnips,” so that the guaran-
tors of the expedition had to seek their returns in seal oil and skins.
More and worse than that, the commander in his report poured forth a
tale of lamentations over what he thought was the failure of the ex-
pedition, excused its seeming shortcomings by stories of disease, dis-
sension and almost mutiny among his crews, and it is hard to believe
that Congress could find anything in such a calamitous tale to be worth
printing at the public expense.

This is my introduction to the forgotten story of the brief scientific
career of James Hights, of Albany.

It is an odd name, that of Hights, and it seems to be entirely ex-
tinct to-day in the region that knew it best. There is a tradition (per-
haps nothing more) that the name was originally Van der Achten,
which translated means of more than one eight, in other words, Hights.
This seems rather far fetched and the name as it appears in the records
of the Dutch families of Manhattan is Eght or Echt. It was not at all
the practise of the Hudson valley Dutch to translate their surnames,
after the manner of the French Canadians in America; but, at all
events, the family stock was from Holland several generations before
the birth of the scion whose name we desire to rescue from oblivion.

James Hights was the son of Dr. Jonathan Hights, in his day a well-
known physician in Albany, and Jonathan was the son of Abraham,
whose obvious piety won for him among his town folk the sobriquet of
“Father” Kights. The specified qualities of sire and grandsire seem
not to have descended far. James was born in Albany in 1798 in his
father’s fine Dutch house, which stood at the corner of North Pearl
and Columbia streets, just opposite what is now the Kenmore Hotel, in
the heart of the city’s business district. A century ago this was the

THE REINCARNATION OF JAMES EIGHTS gl

center of old Dutch residence. Thereabouts were the Douws, the Ter-
willigers, the Huns, the Van Schaicks and Van Vechtens, the Ten
Broecks and Ten Eycks, the Zerbrugges and the widow Visscher, and
it was among the streets of the old town, still lined with its picturesque
high-peaked houses, that young Eights got strong impressions of his
environment. I say this because, if there is any memory of Hights in
the town of his birth, it is of him as the artist who drew a series of color
sketches of the streets of old “ Albany in 1805”—pictures which have
been copied so often that some of them are quite likely to be found in
the homes of most of the old families. This skill with pencil and
brush Eights developed very early and I am assured by one of his con-
temporaries, Mr. Albert Lawtenslager, now a man ninety-four years
old, that these pictures were made while Eights was still a lad, though
the very early date “1805” implies a memory or a tradition of houses
and streets.+

I must say here that the records of the whole long life of James
Eights are so particularly fragmentary that a diligent search has re-
sulted in a mere matter of shreds and patches. Obviously the young
man was possessed by a strong love of nature. How he indulged and
promoted it we do not know, but may believe that, with the books he
could get and the help he could draw from others, he was his own guide

1 As a literary curiosity evincing a treacherous poetic license in dealing with
prosaic facts of history, the inquisitive reader may be interested in a prettily
written account of ‘‘Albany Fifty Years Ago’’ which appeared anonymously
in Harper’s Magazine for 1857 (Vol, XIV.), abundantly illustrated with wood-
cuts of the streets of Old Albany and with word pictures of its residents. These
woodcuts were all copies of the sketches made long before by Eights, though no
reference is made to the fact. It is not a very honest story for the anonymous
writer begins it: ‘‘I am an Albany Knickerbocker—a Dutchman of the purest
Belgie stock’’—and he was nothing of the sort—and then he describes himself
as a silver-haired man of eighty not many years away from his queue and cocked
hat; while he was actually in his sunny forties and had little if any knowledge
of the scenes he represented. Looking under the woodcuts one sees the imprint
‘¢Lossing and Barritt’’ and looking again into the list of authors of such un-
signed articles published some years later, finds this author’s name—Benson J.
Lossing. The distinguished historian and engraver was not a citizen of Albany,
not a Knickerbocker, but a Quaker with a little Holland blood, and he should at
least have given credit to Eights for his attractive pictures. But Eights was
pillaged all his life and that is one reason why he got ‘‘lost.’? So Lossing’s
stories of the old residents and their homes in 1805 must have been, in large
measure, hearsay, and he seems to have got rather mixed about the Eights family
for he assigns a high gabled house up North Pearl street a few doors beyond
*‘Webster’s Corner’’ (State and Pearl) to William Eights who is said by him
to have been driven from New York in 1776, after the British occupation, be-
cause of his Whig sentiments. There never was but one Eights family in Al-
bany and the head of it then was Abraham Eights. He doubtless came from
New York and he may perhaps have lived in this house, but if he did his son,
Dr. Jonathan, built the house we have referred to far up the street near the Fox
Kill.

ae THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

and master in his study of the rocks, the plants and the animals about
his home, in all of which we know he was deeply interested. What he
had of the schools seems to have been only from those of his own town,
but when he came to the time of fixing his career in life, he naturally
turned to medicine; it was his father’s, it should be his, and it afforded
a better chance of close touch with natural history than any other. And
so perhaps for this reason James Hights became a physician.

He was to be now known through hfe as Doctor Hights, but he
seems never to have practised medicine. It is here, along through the
years of his young manhood, that there is neither record nor story, and
it is not till the event of the Fanning voyage that this unwilling escu-
palian cut the first and almost only notch in the tally stick of his real
eareer. Through influences we do not know but which were a testimony
of his recognized ability in natural history, he was appointed naturalist
to the “ Exploring Expedition of 1830,” that first United States voyage
of discovery. There is not a word in any record left by him or his
shipmates that indicates whether he sailed on the Seraph or the An-
nawan, but the two brigs seem to have kept together and shared their
troubles. Indeed, so far as I can find, his name was never mentioned
in any record as a member of this scientific company by any one except
Captain Fanning and Lights himself.

As I write now of Doctor Eights’s admission to quasi-official scientific
service on this cruise of discovery, I call to mind the characterization of
the man by my chief and Hights’s contemporary, Professor James Hall,
the distinguished geologist of New York. from 1836 to 1898, who fre-
quently spoke to me of his high regard for Hights’s extraordinary scien-
tific talents. He must have had a very close touch with all the natural
science of his day, however he got it, for this is evident in the technical
reports of his explorations and his subsequent writings.

Congress had “approved” this expedition in June, 1829, and the
two brigs left New London in October, headed straight for the Antarc-
tic, but with orders to meet at Staaten Island in case they got separated
on the way. Directly they left the home port they did lose each other,
and neither saw its consort till the distant island was reached. Staaten
Island lies at 55° just off the east point of Fuego. It is an island that
has figured often in the experiences of the explorers, for, barren spot as
it is, it lay on the Cape Horn course and was a point of departure for
the short and sharp attack on the seals of the Antarctic ice front.
Thence one of the boats, probably the Annawan, but perhaps both, put
out for the South Shetland Islands—those remote spots of whose
enormous supply of seals abundant evidence had come by the American
whaling fleet and had beyond doubt helped to substantiate this expedi-
tion. Now in this year 1829 what was known of these South Shetland
Islands is the following:

Students of southern explorations seem to have little doubt that the

THE REINCARNATION OF JAMES EIGHTS 193

first to see them was Dirck Gerritse, whose good ship De Blyde Boodschap
in 1599 was driven by a gale far to the south of Magellan when her
captain sighted in the distance the tops of some snow-clad mountains.
In itself this record was of much the same worth as the discovery of
“Crocker-land.” It is as equally certain that the first trustworthy
knowledge of them came from the American sealers and whalers who
had found them out as early as 1812. For years these American ships
resorted thither, but no record of the new lands was laid down till the
English skipper, Captain William Smith, observed them in 1819, made
them out to be a chain of islands and called them the New South Shet-
lands. Fanning whimsically says:

We Yankees might with more propriety after our rediscovery, claim them
and name them South Martha’s Vineyard, or something else.

Smith returned to Valparaiso, told his story to Captain Sheriff of
the British frigate Andromache, and Sheriff detailed Lieutenant Brans-
field to accompany Smith back to the islands, and they two are said to
have determined the extent of the group. Gerritse, Smith and Brans-
field all have their names perpetuated in the geography of the region—
Dirck Gerritse Archipelago, Smith Island and Bransfield Strait. Fif-
teen months later came the Yankee brig Hersilia, Captain J. B. Shef-
field, Nathaniel B. Palmer, mate, and they gave names to the individual
islands from west eastward, but these have been ignored for the names
of to-day.

Thus when the Yankee brig of 1829 with its scientific supercargo,
Eights, aboard, picked up the islands only so little as has been indicated
was known of them, and all that has been written since will barely en-
large our knowledge of them beyond that given by Dr. Eights in his
Remarks on the New South Shetland Islands, communicated to the Al-
bany Institute in 1833.? There is in this descriptive account a pleasing
diction, and an effective phrasing, tinged by a kind of Wordsworthian

2 Transactions of the Albany Institute, Vol. 2, p. 58. The full title is:
‘“Description of a new Crustaceous Animal found on the Shores of the South
Shetland Islands, with Remarks on their Natural History. By James Eights,

Naturalist to the Exploring Expedition of 1830, and Corresponding Member of
the Albany Institute.’’

_ The ‘‘Antarctic Manual,’’ prepared for the use of the National Antarctic
Expedition in 1901, by George Murray, with preface by Sir Clements Markham,
contains a supposedly complete bibliography of the Antarctic, but there is, in a
list of 878 titles, no single reference to Eights’s papers nor to the expedition to
which he was attached; neither to the Annawan or Seraph, the Hersilia or Shef-
field, Captain N. B. Palmer, discoverer of Palmer’s land in 1820, is confused with
J. C. Palmer, whose title to fame seems to lie in a mariner’s song written by him
in 1868; Titian Peale, of the Wilkes Expedition, is called Titus Peale, and so on.
Contemporary reviewers in American scientific and literary magazines ignored
Eights entirely though steeping their pages with the work of other explorers
(vide, e. g., Silliman’s Journal, Knickerbocker Magazine, North American Re-
view).

194. THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

color, which clothes the rawness of the subject, quite too obviously ex-
posed in the accounts of later writers. His sentences are worth reading,
and in the light of new knowledge it is to be remembered that his de-
scriptigns, ignored by time, were written eighty-six years ago. To es-
tablish Eights in his true estate it is well to extract freely from his
accounts of these islands.

Speaking generally of their physiography, he says:

They are formed by an extensive cluster of rocks rising abruptly from the
ocean, to a considerable height above its surface. Their true elevation can not
easily be determined, in consequence of the heavy masses of snow which lie over
them, concealing them almost entirely from the sight. Some of them, however,
rear their glistening summits to an altitude of about three thousand feet, and
when the heavens are free from clouds, imprint a sharp and well-defined outline
upon the intense blueness of the sky: they are divided everywhere by straits and
indented by deep bays, or coves, many of which afford to vessels a comfortable
shelter from the rude gales to which these high latitudes are so subject. When
the winds have ceased to blow and the ocean is at rest, nothing can exceed the
beautiful clearness of the atmosphere in these elevated regions. The numerous
furrows and ravines which everywhere impress the snowy acclivity of the hills
are distinctly visible for fifty or sixty miles, and the various sea-fowl, resting
upon the slight eminences and brought in strong relief against the sky, ofttimes
deceive the experienced eye of the mariner by having their puny dimensions mag-
nified in size to those of the human form.

The sun, even at midsummer, attains but a moderate altitude in these dreary
regions, and when its horizontal beams illumine these masses of ice, their nu-
merous angles and indentions catching the light as they move along, exhibit all
the beautiful gradations of color from an emerald green to that of the finest
blue. Some of them whose sloping sides will admit of their ascent, are tenanted
by large assemblages of penguins, whose chattering noise may be heard on a still
day at an incredible distance over the clear smooth surface of the sea. When
the storms rage and the ocean rolls its mountain wave against their slippery
sides, the scene is truly sublime. Tall columns of spray shooting up far above
their tops, soon become dissipated in clouds of misty white; gradually descend-
ing, they envelope the whole mass for a short space of time, giving to it much
the appearance of being covered with a veil of silvery gauze. When thus agi-
tated they not unfrequently explode with the noise of thunder, scattering their
fragments far and wide over the surrounding surface of the deep.

The sky too in these latitudes presents a very singular aspect; being most
generally filled with innumerable clouds, torn into ragged and irregular patches
by the wild gales which everywhere race over the Antarctic seas; the sun as it
rises or sets, slowly and obliquely in the southern horizon, sends its rays through
the many openings between, tingeing them here and there with every variety of
hue and color, from whence they are thrown in mild and and beautiful reflec-
tions upon the extensive fields of snow which lie piled on the surrounding hills,
giving to the whole scene for a greater part of the long summer day, the ever
varying effect of a most gorgeous sunset.

This is certainly a toothsome and pictorial dressing for the bare
bones of the Antarctic, which challenges only an artist’s palette.

It is worth while taking note of Hights’s geological observations.
The reader should bear in mind that they were the first ever made in

THE REINCARNATION OF JAMES EIGHTS 195

the Antarctic and were put down by a man who was in his time reckoned
a geologist.

The geological features that these islands present in those highly favored
situations, where the continuous power of the winds has swept bare the rocks,
correspond in a great measure with their desolate and dreary aspect. They are
composed principally of vertical columns of basalt, resting upon strata of argil-
laceous conglomerate; the pillars are united in detached groups, having at their
bases sloping banks constructed of materials which are constantly accumulating
by fragments from above. These groups rise abruptly from the irregularly ele-
vated plains, over whose surface they are scattered here and there, presenting an
appearance to the eye not unlike some old castle crumbling into ruin, and when
situated upon the sandstone promontories that occasionally jut out into the sea,
they tower aloft in solitary grandeur over its foaming waves; sometimes they
may be seen piercing the superincumbent snow, powerfully contrasting their deep
murky hues with its spotless purity. Ponds of fresh water are now and then
found on the plains, but they do not owe their origin to springs, being formed
by the melting of the snow...

A few rounded pieces of granite are occasionally to be seen lying about,
brought unquestionably by the icebergs from their parent hills on some far more
southern land, as we saw no rocks of this nature in situ on these islands. In one
instance, I obtained a boulder nearly a foot in diameter from one of these float-
ing hills. The action of the waves has produced little or no effect upon the
basalt along this coast, as its angles retain all the acuteness of a recent fracture,
but when the conglomerate predominates, the mass is generally rounded.

The color of the basalt is generally of a greenish black. The prisms are
from four to nine sided, most commonly however of but six, and from three to
four feet in diameter; their greatest length in an upright position above the sub-
jacent conglomerate is about eighty feet. Their external surfaces are closely
applied to each other, though but slightly united, consequently they are continu-
ally falling out by the extensive power of the congealing water among its
fissures.

Clusters of these columns are occasionally seen reposing on their side in such
a manner as to exhibit the surfaces of their base distinctly, which is rough and
vesicular. When this is the case they are generally bent, forming quite an arch
with the horizon. When they approach the conglomerate for ten or twelve feet,
they lose their columnar structure and assume the appearance of a dark-colored
flinty slate, breaking readily into irregular rhombic fragments; this fine variety
in descending, gradually changes to a greenish color and a much coarser struc-
ture, until it passes into a most perfect amygdaloid, the cavities being chiefly
filled with quartz, amethyst and chalcedony. .. . The effect produced upon it by
the action of the file is very slight; the steel elicits no sparks; the fragments are
angular with an imperfect conchoidal fracture; its structure is coarsely granular
and uneven, and is composed essentially of hornblende, feldspar and a greenish
substance in grains much resembling epidote; crystals of leucite of a yellow and
reddish tinge are disseminated throughout the mass whose fractured surfaces
strongly reflect the rays of light to the eye; in some places it sensibly affects the
needle, owing no doubt to its iron. Veins of quartz frequently traverse the fine
variety, some of them containing beautiful amethysts.

The basis rock of these islands, as far as I could discover, is the conglomer-
ate which underlies the basalt. It is composed most generally of two or three lay-
ers, about five feet in thickness each, resting one on the other and dipping to the
southeast at an angle of from twelve to twenty degrees. These layers are di-

196 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

vided by regular fissures into large rhombic tables, many of which appear to
have recently fallen out, and now lie scattered all over the sloping sides of the
hills, so that the strata when seen cropping out from beneath the basalt pre-
sent a slightly arched row of angular projections of some considerable magni-
tude and extent.

The upper portion of this conglomerate for a few feet is of a dirty green
color, and appears to be constructed by the passage of the amygdaloid into this
rock, the greenish fragments predominating, and they are united to each other
principally by zeolite of a beautiful light red, or orange color, together with
some quartz and chalcedony.

The minerals embraced in this rock are generally confined to its upper part,
where it unites and passes into the incumbent amygdaloid; many of them are
also in common with that rock. They consist chiefly of quartz, crystalline and
amorphous, amethyst, chalcedony, cachalong, agate, red jasper, felspar, zeolite,
calcareous spar in rhombic crystals, sulphate of barytes, a minute crystal resemb-
ling black spinelle, sulphuret of iron and green carbonate of copper.

The only appearance of an organized remain that I anywhere saw was a
fragment of carbonized wood imbedded in this conglomerate. It was in a vertical
position, about two and a half feet in length and four inches in diameter: its
color is black, exhibiting a fine ligneous structure, the concentric circles are dis-
tinctly visible on its superior end, it occasionally gives sparks with steel, and
effervesces slightly in nitric acid.

In this very detailed account of the columnar basalts with the sand-
stone conglomerate into which they are intruded, and the metamorphism
of the contact zone, Hights first laid hold of structures which have been
recorded again by later observers. The sandstones seem to be the same
as that called by Ferrar of the Discovery the “ Beacon sandstone” which
with its volcanic sills covers great areas of South Victoria Land.
Debenham of the Scott Expedition has written of them. In 1892 Larsen
at Seymour Island just east of Graham Land, found fossils, the first,
says Nordenskiold and after him Amundsen, winner of the South Pole,
ever taken in the Antarctic. But here was Eights more than 60 years
before, knocking out fossil wood from the sandstones of the South
Shetlands—wood which, in more than remote probability, pointed
toward that mysterious Gondwana Land which has been thought to have
bound Antarctic America to the Orient during the most of its geological
history. Shackelton found seams of coal and fossil wood in this Beacon
sandstone, of which Schetelig says, “this belongs to the Upper Devonian
or Lower Carboniferous.” Now with the richness of fossil life recently
brought home by Andersson and Nordenskiold, Amundsen, Shackelton
and the men of Scott, let us acknowledge the keen-eyed record and the
intelligent interpretations of the Albany naturalist.

Hights was among the first observers to make record of the active
volcanoes in the vicinity of these islands, and what was then called
Palmer’s Land—the land, which passing down the years with various
designations, has slipped first its American hawser and then its French
(Louis Philippe Land), to tie up at last with an Englishman, Graham.

THE REINCARNATION OF JAMES FIGHTS 197

He saw and took note of that remarkable half-submerged crater, Decep-
tion Island, soon to be much more fully described by the Englishman,
Foster, a year or two later.

To the botanical species listed by Eights as composing the flora of
these islands, later years may have brought some additions. Of this I
can not be sure, but he says:

The Usnea fasciata Torrey is most common. A species of Polytrichum re-
sembling the alpinum of Lin., one or two lichens and a fucus found in the sea
along the shores—when you add to these an occasional plant of a small species of
avena, you complete the botanical catalogue of the islands.

Then, in his picturesque way, Eights takes up for description the
water mammals, the sea-elephant (Phoca leonina; I am using his
designations), the sea-leopard, the fur seal (P. vitulina).

There is also a fourth species, which I have no recollection of ever seeing the
slightest notice of. It is probably not common, as I saw but one; it was stand-
ing on the extremities of its fore-feet (flippers), the head and chest perfectly
erect, abdomen curved and resting on the ground, the tail was also in an up-
right position; the animal in this attitude bore a striking resemblance to the
representations we frequently meet with of the ‘‘mermaid,’’ and I think it was
undoubtedly one of the animals of this genus that first gave origin to the fable
of the maid of the sea. I regret that I could not obtain a nearer view of this
interesting animal. When I approached within one hundred feet, it threw itself
flat and made rapidly for the sea: it appeared about twelve or fifteen feet in
length, and distinctly more slender in proportion than any of the other species,
so much so that the motion of the body when moving seemed perfectly undulat-
ing. Some of the seamen had seen them frequently on a former voyage, and
mentioned that they were known among sealers by the name of sea-serpent, from
this circumstance. Some of the teeth were brought to me which had been picked
up on the beach. The crown of the grinders is deeply and singularly five lobed.

When these [other] animals resort to the shores for the purpose of breeding
or shedding their hair, they are in fine condition. During this time they require no
food, existing by the absorption of their fatty matter: if killed at this period,
you generally find a quantity of small stones in the stomach, swallowed most
probably for the purpose of keeping that organ distended and preventing its in-
ternal surfaces from adhering to each other. When the season for returning to
the sea arrives, these stones are ejected on the beach, and they proceed in search
of their ordinary food, which is chiefly penguins. A singular character in the
habit of these animals is the faculty they possess of shedding tears when in any
way molested. The eyes becoming suffused and the large tear-drops chasing each
other in quick succession over their wrinkled faces, creates quite a sympathy in
the breast of the beholder.

He also describes the fin whale (Balena physalis), right whale (B.
mysticus), the grampus, dolphin and porpoise—perhaps a fairly com-
plete statement of this fauna as now known, though they are now travel-
ing under somewhat different names.

In present days great interest has attached to the birds of these
latitudes, and pretty tales of the whimsical Antarctic penguins have
been the delight of several recent writers. Let us see what Eights had
to say of them in 1830:

198 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

The Aptenodytes patagonica, Gm. (king penguin) is the largest and by far
the most beautiful of the species, and may be seen in great numbers covering the
shores for some considerable extent. They are remarkably clean in their appear-
ance, not a speck of any kind is suffered for a moment to sully the pure white-
ness of the principal part of their plumage: their upright position, uniform
cleanliness, and beautiful golden yellow cravat, contrasts finely with the dark
background by which they are relieved, so that the similitude is no unapt one,
which compares them to a regiment of soldiers immediately after parade. The
females lay but one egg on the bare ground, which is rather larger than that of a
goose, and of about equal value as an article of food, but differs a little in shape,
being more tapering at its smaller end. The egg lies between the feet, the tail
being sufficiently long to conceal it effectually from the sight. When approached
they move from you with a waddling gait, rolling it along over the smooth sur-
face of the ground, so that a person not acquainted with the fact might pass
through hundreds of them without discovering it. The Spheniscus antarcticus
Shaw (rookery penguin), is more numerous than any of the other species, as-
sembling together in vast congregations, occupying the smooth strips of plain
for a mile or more in extent; passing through them, they barely give you suffi-
cient space, picking at your legs, and keeping up a continual chatter. Their
whole appearance as you walk along brings powerfully to your recollection the
story of Gulliver, striding among the Lilliputians.

Sixteen other species of birds are mentioned by him in their Latin
dress. And then, first again in this field, he mentions the Mollusca—
three species, a Pholas, a Nucula and a Patella, all new to science, he
thought.

This account of the South Shetlands was perhaps Dr. Eights’s most
notable contribution to science, but it was rather general and did not
represent the total outcome of his investigations. In connection with
it, in the Transactions of the Albany Institute, he described® under the
name Brongniartia trilobitoides a crustacean of which he says:

I was convinced that [it] came nearer to the long lost family of Trilobites
than anything hitherto discovered.

Amos Eaton, the distinguished teacher and Eights’s friend, had the
same conviction, for he says of this creature* when describing the trilo-
bite genus Brongniartia (a name of his own contrivance) :

It is my opinion that Dr. Eights has specimens of two distinct species of
this genus which he collected in the southern ocean.

Eights thought that the species of Eaton’s genus belonged to genera
already employed by Jacob Green and DeKay, and so in the mutual
scramble to honor Alexander Brongniart, he appropriated the word
Brongniartia for his “ living trilobite.” Eights’s drawings of his crusta-
cean are beautifully effective and detailed and to aid in its illumination
he adds a picture of the Silurian trilobite Lichas Boltoni. The living
trilobite waited seventy years for rediscovery. Mr. Hodgson, reporting

8 As cited above.
4‘ Geological Textbook,’’ 2d ed., 1832.

THE REINCARNATION OF JAMES EIGHTS 199

for the “Discovery” Expedition, describes and figures it under the
name of Serolis trilobitoides.

In another paper, a year or two later, but printed in the same
volume of the Albany Institute’s Transactions, Hights describes another
strange crustacean,® illuminated by two exquisite plates. This is his
Glyptonotus antarctica, an isopod-looking creature, of which its finder,
still impressed by his acquaintance with New York State fossils, remarks:

This beautiful crustacean furnishes to us another close approximation to the
long-lost family of the Trilobite.

Doctor Chilton of Christchurch, New Zealand, informs me that this
crustacean was found by the German Transit of Venus Expedition to
South Georgia in 1882-3 and was redescribed by Pfeffer in 1887. “It
does not,” he says, “seem to have been collected by the more recent
English, French and German Antarctic expeditions.” Doctor Chilton
thinks that the species is among the specimens brought home by the
Scottish Antarctic Expedition.

Still a third paper with other fine drawings was published by him
in 1837 in the first volume of the Journal of the Boston Society of Natural
History,® and gave an account of Decolopoda australis, an unbelievable
ten-legged pycnogonid, the first thing of its kind. Dr. Leon J. Cole,
writing to me from Cambridge some years ago, says of this:

A ten-legged pyenogonid such as Decolopoda was an unheard of thing until
Hights described this one, and for some reason his discovery appears never to
have come to the attention of students of the group, for nowhere, so far as I
have been able to find in the writings since his paper was published, has men-
tion been made of the remarkable fact. When I looked up Hights’s paper a year
or two ago I thought at first that a mistake had been made in the drawing and
one too many pairs of legs put on the animal. ... I was not so much surprised
as I should otherwise have been when a paper appeared this winter (1905) by
Mr. J. V. Hodgson, naturalist on the Discovery, describing a ten-legged pycnogo-
nid taken by the National Antarctic Expedition in MeMurdo Bay, the ship’s
winter quarters. Mr. Hodgson named his form Pentanymphon and says that
the presence of a fifth pair of legs is a ‘‘character which separates it from all
the Pyenogonids hitherto known.’’ . . . I then wrote to Mr. Hodgson calling
his attention to Hights’s paper, which it appears had been brought to his notice
in the meantime, and in reply he informs me that among the Pyenogonida col-
lected by the Scottish Antarctic Expedition he has found specimens which agree
in all essentials with those described so long ago by Lights.

A more recent letter from Dr. Cole from Madison (1915) says that
the Scottish Expedition found fifteen specimens of Hights’s species in
Scotia Bay, South Orkneys, and the French Expedition another species
of this genus.

5“*Of a New Animal Belonging to the Crustacea Discovered in the Ant-
arctic Sea.’’

6 “* Description of a New Animal Belonging to the Arachnides of Latreille;
Discovered in the Sea along the Shores of the New South Shetland Islands,’’
p. 203.

200 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

The “ Voyage of Discovery” and its results were after all a matter
of no slender record, and Hights’s hours seem now to have become of
rather idle and impecunious ease. In the years from 1835 to 1840 he
wrote anonymously for the Zodiac, an Albany magazine of distinctly
cultural pretension, articles on the flowers, clouds, weather, insects,
birds, mollusca, geology, the lowering of the Hudson River, elevated
beaches, turtles, sun-spots, fossils, minerals, constellations, all local
observations of a well-stocked mind belonging to an out-of-doors man
and naturalist. Somewhere about this time or earlier he must have in-
vented the name “ Cocktail” or “ Cauda-galli grit” for one of the New
York geological formations. It was a name that came into general use
and was ascribed to Eights by the official geologists of the state who
adopted and continued to use it till it was displaced by the present
substitute, “ Esopus grit.”

But during these years other things were brewing in the line of ex-
ploring expeditions. On the Fanning expedition with Hights, as
a member of the scientific corps, had been John N. Reynolds. Reynolds
was not a man of science, but a landsman from the Middle West to
whom the ancient call of the sea was invincible. Of him and his asso-
ciates Captain Fanning says, in writing to the Secretary of the Navy,
Mahlon Dickerson (1836) :

Mr. Reynolds having been one of the individuals in the little American Ex-
ploring Expedition (the first patronized by government) of the brigs Seraph and
Annawan, ete., ... two of the gentlemen companions of the voyage, Messrs.

John Frampton Watson, of Philadelphia, and James Eights, of Albany. These
are profound scientific men.

To Reynolds has been given the credit of initiating the sentiment
and leading the campaign which resulted in the organization of the
Wilkes Exploring Expedition. “The father of this project was John
N. Reynolds,” said President Gilman in his “ Life of James Dwight
Dana,” and at some length he refers to Reynolds’s vigorous propaganda on
its behalf, both before and outside of Congress. But, says Secretary
Dickerson to Captain Thomas Ap Catesby Jones (who had been first
selected to command the proposed expedition) in a letter of 1836:

Captain Fanning long since proposed a South Sea exploring expedition and
has been urging it ever since. Ever since the administration of Mr. Madison, so
far as there is merit in originating and urging, this measure is due to Captain
Fanning.

On this new expedition Eights wanted to go, and his experience was
beyond doubt reasonable guaranty of his fitness. And as the plans
grew, he filed with the Secretary of the Navy his application for ap-
pointment as geologist. Besides his experience afloat and ashore, he had
the endorsement of Professor John Torrey, the eminent botanist, and
doubtless of Captain Fanning, and he was duly appointed by Secretary

THE REINCARNATION OF JAMES FIGHTS 201

Dickerson, of which appointment he makes acknowledgment in June,
1837. Then, two months after, the appointees of the scientific corps
got together in Philadelphia and fixed up their assignments. Reynolds,
who was most active in organizing the supercargo, did not want Eights
at all; Torrey had written to Dickerson that he never intended to
recommend Hights as geologist; he and all the rest wanted Dana for
mineralogist and geologist and Eights for zoologist, and when the men
themselves met to determine their assignments (this was left by the
Secretary to their own discretion) Eights withdrew his choice and con-
tented himself with the field of “organic remains.” LHights’s appoint-
ment was notified to Congress by the Secretary, he was permitted to buy
his equipment including $300 worth of books, and he received pay in
advance of sailing until the appropriation was exhausted. But never-
theless, for reasons which appear on no records that I have been able to
find or that have ever been referred to, Eights was omitted in the final
make-up of the corps of scientific men. He was not alone in this mishap
and others who suffered with him joined later in an appeal to Congress
for remuneration for wasted time and service.

What brought about this elimination of Hights from the Wilkes
Expedition there is none left to tell. To have had his functions re-
stricted by his colleagues to that of paleontologist of a marine expedi-
tion seems a reduction to the lowest terms, dangerously close to an
elimination, which lay beyond their power. And yet Dana, for whom
Kights allowed himself to be effaced, went as “mineralogist” and came
back as a zoologist of high distinction. Perhaps Hights, with his experi-
ence and versatility, might have done as well, but the American Philo-
sophical Society, in responding to a request of the Secretary of the Navy
for a plan of organization of the scientific corps, did not include a
paleontologist, and we have just observed that Mr. Reynolds, who was
clothed with no small authority in this matter of composing the per-
sonnel of the corps, did not approach or recommend Eights. Wherever
the cause lay, in disaffection acquired by Reynolds for Eights while on
their trip to the Antarctic, in the thinly veiled jealousies common to
scientific men of the time,’ or perhaps in Hights’s personal habits, this
crushing of his hopes was the downfall of his career. Whatever justifi-
cation the Secretary of the Navy may have found for his final action in
the case, Eights from this time on ceased to live; though he remained
on earth for nearly a half century longer.

The rest of the story is short. There are no records of Albany that

7 As a notable example of the bumptious democracy of the time, the series
of anonymous letters publicly addressed by J. N. Reynolds to Secretary Dicker-
son on the subject of the expedition, are hardly to be surpassed for personal

indelicacy, disrespect for high place and rudeness of address, and they were as-
sembled and printed by their author over his own name.

VOL. 11.—14.

202 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

tell of Hights’s activities during the years that followed. Only the
directories show his occasional presence up to 1853. In his contribu-
tions to the Zodiac there are passages which show a rather intimate
acquaintance with Indian customs and life, and Mr. Lawtenslager has
intimated that after the sailing of Captain Wilkes, Eights did go out
among the western tribes, but if under government auspices I have found
no record of it. In 1853 his name appears for the last time in the Albany
directory, where he is entered as “draughtsman and geologist.”” There
is no evidence among the very full documents in my possession relating
to the Geological Survey that Hights had any official connection with it,
and I fancy this title means that he was doing drawing and geology for
Dr. Ebenezer Emmons for his geological reports on the agriculture of
New York. These were days when the Taconic controversy was hot
and Emmons’s “Taconic system” was struggling for life. Emmons
was writing his full exposition of it for his “ Agriculture of New York,”
and his colleagues during the days of the first State Geological Survey
(1836-42) had vigorously antagonized the entire proposition. Eben-
ezer Emmons, Jr., who knew Eights as his father’s friend, has told me
that Eights had sympathized with and stood by the elder Emmons in
these contentions and no such man could have gained employment from
the New York State Geologist of 1853. In 1852 Hights published a
paper in the Transactions of the Albany Institute on the surficial geol-
ogy of Albany.® It contains much that is interesting even to-day re-
garding the composition and hydrology of the sands and clays of old
Lake Albany and gives one of the earliest illustrations of the disrapiee
clay strata broken into by dragging icebergs.

This is Dr. Hights’s last appearance, and of what remained of his
life little is to be said further, or little known, and even that is hardly
worth the telling. Mr. Lawtenslager, who came to Albany in 1848 and
started in business on State Street just below Green, tells me that in the
50’s he and Eights had rooms together there. Eights was unmarried
and alone, and he was poor—so poor, indeed, that it is clear to me from
the very guarded statements of his old companion, that the friendship
of the two meant subsistence for one. I have heard, too, of another
great disappointment in his life—one that turned his heart sour and
kept him a bachelor. So his sands ran on—he had lost his grip—
through the sixties and into the seventies; he was an old man now and
in his growing feebleness he sought the home of a sister living in Balls-
ton, and there died in 1882, eighty-four years old.

James Hights left his mark—and now let us judge of the size of
Hercules from his foot.

9 ‘*Observations on the Geological Features of the Post Tertiary Formation
of the City of Albany and Its Vicinity’’ (Vol. 2).

THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE

203

THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE

THE COLUMBUS MEETING OF
THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT
OF SCIENCE

ALTHOUGH there was this year a wide
dispersal of scientific societies with
some conflict in their meetings, the
scientific men of the country have be-
come so numerous that it is possible to
conduct a number of simultaneous
meetings, each of which has a larger
attendance and a more important pro-
gram than would have been possible
for all the scientific interests of the

|years ago. Thus the attendance at
| Columbus was in the neighborhood of
one thousand. At the Pan-American
Scientific Congress in Washington the
,attendance was about the same, al-
though there the natural and exact
sciences did not dominate the program
or the situation. In Boston, however,
there was an excellent meeting of
physiologists and men working in re-
|lated lines with a program of some
three hundred papers. The anatomists
at New Haven and the psychologists
at Chicago also had well-attended meet-

country to arrange twenty-five or thirty ! ings.

ON THE GROUNDS OF THE OHIO STATD UNIVERSITY.

The spring with the Library in

the distance,

Dr. CHARLES R. VAN HISD,

President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE

At the Ohio State University the
American Association met in its twelve
sections and in affiliation with some
fifteen special national societies, in-
cluding those devoted to mathematics,
physics, zoology, entomology and bot-
any. The opening meeting completely
filled the college chapel, seating abo it
twelve hundred persons. The address
of welcome, by President W. O. Thomp-
son, of the university, and Dr. T. C.
Mendenhall, past-president of the as-
sociation, were extremely happy. Dr.
Thompson welcomed the association on
the part of the university, city and the
commonwealth, and Dr. Mendenhall,
finding that his predecessor had in-
eluded practically all of Ohio in his
address, welcomed the association on
the part of the shades of deceased Ohio
men of science, sketching briefly the
career of a number of Ohio’s great
men of science of the past century.
President Eliot’s address entitled
‘“The Fruits, Prospects and Lessons of
Recent Biological Science’? was pub-
lished in the issue of Science for Jan-
uary 7.

It points out that up to a hundred
years ago the principal applications of
science were of physics and chemistry,

Mme nn

- }

205

and that, while these had vast economic
value, the good was mixed with evil, as
in the development of the factory sys-
tem and the congestion of population in
cities. It was claimed that during the
past hundred years, biological science

‘has contributed most to the well-being

of humanity, and that its service had
been direct and entirely beneficent.
Those who heard Dr. Eliot’s admirable
address will be inclined to agree with
a remark recently made by a leading
professor at Harvard that the only
serious error Dr. Eliot had made in his
life was retiring from the presidency
of the university at the age of seventy-
five.

There were three public lectures
complimentary to the citizens of Co-
Iumbus given by Professor Douglas W.
Johnson, of Columbia University, on
‘*Surface Features of Europe as a
Factor in the War’’; Dr. Raymond F.
Bacon, director of the Mellon Institute
of Pittsburgh, on ‘‘ The Industrial Fei-
lowships of the Mellon Institute: Five
Years’ Progress in a System of Indus-
trial Service,’’? and Dr. Frank K. Cam-
eron, of the Bureau of Soils, Washing-
ton, on ‘‘The Fertilizer Resources of
the United States.’’ Then there were

, annie

UNIVERSITY HALL.

206

THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

Tur LIBRARY.

the addresses before the sections and
the special societies and a large num-
ber of discussions and programs of
general interest, as well as the long
series of special papers in the different
sections covering the research work ac-
complished during the year.

Dr. W. W. Campbell, director of the
Lick Observatory, who presided at Co-
lumbus, gave an evening address on
‘¢The Evolution of the Stars’’ at a
special meeting of the association called
in Washington the following week as
a compliment to the Pan-American
Scientific Congress. As his successor
in the presidency of the association,
the highest honor annually conferred on

an American man of science, Dr,
Charles R. Van Hise, was elected. Dr.
Van Hise, who as professor of geology
has attained scientific eminence by his
contributions to structural geology and
ore-deposits, has recently been active in
the plans for the conservation of nat-
ural resources, and as president of the
University of Wisconsin for the past
thirteen years has been the leader in
the movement to make the university a
dominant factor in the state.

THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

THE Ohio State University is at the
gateway between the Atlantic states and

THE ARCHEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL MUSEUM.

THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE

CHEMISTRY HALL.

the north central states. Ononeside the | Ohio there are two other state-sup-
private universities and colleges predom- | ported universities, Ohio University

inate, on the other, state supported in-—

stitutions. Two years ago, there were
129,000 students in the private in-
stitutions for higher education in the
United States, while there were 88,000
in our public institutions. In the
North Atlantic division there were
about 60,000 students in tha private
institutions and 8,000 in the public
institutions, whereas in the North Cen-
tral division there were 41,000 in the
one and 44,000 in the other. The Ohio

and Miami University, while the Uni-
versity of Cincinnati is the leading
city-supported institution of the coun-
try.

The Ohio Agricultural and Mechan-

ical College was one of the land grant

State University, owing to its situa- |
tion and to the private universities of |

the state, was one of the last to take
its plate among the great state uni-
versities. It is also the case that in

institutions established under an act
approved by President Lincoln in 1862.
It was not, however, chartered by the
legislature until 1870, and was opened
for the reception of students only in
1873. In 1878 the name was changed
to the Ohio State University. When
the American Association met in Co-
lumbus in 1899 the institution was well
established, but the growth that has
taken place in the intervening years is

BoTAaNy AND ZOOLOGY BUILDING.

208 THE

SCIENTIFIC

MONTHLY

OHIO UNION, THE STUDENT BUILDING.

remarkable. The old university hall,
typical of the college architecture of
the last generation, is now surrounded
by a group of fine modern buildings
and laboratories, including the library
built in 1912 at a cost of $300,000 and
the archeological and historical mn-
seum, opened a year later. The Ohio
Union has been erected at a cost of
about $100,000, as a social center for
student activities, and there is a series
of buildings for the different sciences,
including physics, chemistry, botany
and zoology, horticulture and forestry
and other agricultural departments.

All the colleges and departments of
a modern university are included in the
organization. There are, indeed, some
schools not always found, such as col-
leges of education, pharmacy and dent-
istry, and there has recently been or-
ganized a college of commerce. Apart
from the summer session, attended by
about 1,000 students, and the shorter
courses in agriculture, there are this
year 4,900 students in the university,
giving it a rank in size just above the

University of Wisconsin and the Uni- |

versity of Minnesota. There are 481
professors and other officers who ac-
complish, apart from the teaching of
the students, a large amount of research
work and public service of benefit to
the state and to the country.

SCIENTIFIC ITEMS

| WE record with regret the death of
Dr. Eugene Woldemar Hilgard, pro-
fessor emeritus of agriculture in the
| University of California; of Dr. Arthur
Williams Wright, professor emeritus of
experimental physics at Yale Univer-
sity; of Daniel Giraud Elliot, known
for his contributions to mammalogy
and ornithology, and of Sir Henry En-
field Roscoe, the distinguished chemist,
emeritus professor in the University
of Manchester.

At the Columbus meeting of the
American Association vice-presidents
were elected as follows: Mathematics,
L. P. Eisenhart, Princeton University;
physics, H. A. Bumstead, Yale Univer-
sity; engineering, E. L. Cortheil,
Brown University; geology and geog-
raphy, R. D. Salisbury, University of
Chicago; zoology, G. H. Parker, Har-
vard University; botany, T. J. Burrill,
University of Illinois; anthropology
and psychology, F. W. Hodge, Bureau
of Ethnology; social and economic s¢ci-
ence, Louis I. Dublin, New York; edu-
cation, L. P. Ayres, the Russell Sage
Foundation; agriculture, W. H. Jor-
dan, the New York State Experimeat.
| Station.

Ei Cr Ben! de ©
MEO ND BE aaCY

MARCH, 1916

PLANT DISTRIBUTION IN CALIFORNIA

By Proressor DOUGLAS HOUGHTON CAMPBELL

STANFORD UNIVERSITY

ALIFORNTA is easily first among the states of the Union in the

variety and interest of its flora. Indeed there are few regions in

the world which surpass it in these respects, and the problems dealing
with the origin and distribution of this rich flora are full of interest.

In a paper such as the present one, it is clear that only the more obyi-
ous factors controlling plant distribution can be considered. There are
many important but often very obscure problems which must be passed
over here. Indeed the writer feels himself quite incompetent to deal
at all with many of these.

Probably the most important factor determining the character of its
flora is the geographical position of California. Covering almost ten
degrees of latitude, 32° 40’ to 42°, it lies well within the warm tem-
perate zone with conditions of temperature conducive to a luxuriant
vegetation. The state is peculiarly isolated, as the high mountains and
deserts to the east offer an impassable barrier to plants from the Atlantic
side of the continent, while to the south are the deserts of Mexico and
lower California, and on the west le the shores of the Pacific. The
state thus has many of the characteristics of an oceanic island. This
isolation, no doubt, accounts for the extraordinary proportion of endemic
plants found in California.

Aside from latitude the great factors controlling the climate of Cali-
fornia are four in number, viz., (1) the great oceanic and continental
barometric areas; (2) the prevailing west-to-east drift of the atmosphere
characteristic of temperate latitudes; (3) the proximity of the Pacific
ocean; and (4) the extraordinarily varied topography of the state."

The Pacific ocean, whose immense volume of water varies but little
in temperature during the year, acts as a huge thermostat and gives the
whole Pacific coast an extraordinarily equable climate. Along the
middle California coast the water is cold, having an average tem-

1 For details, see the very interesting account of the climate of California,

‘‘The Climatology of California,’’ Alexander G. McAdie, Washington, Govern-
ment Printing Office, 1903.

VOL. 11.—15.

210 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

perature of 55°, so that the summer climate of the immediate coast is
relatively very low. The coast region of California feels the full benefit
of the proximity of the ocean during the summer, as the prevailing winds
are from the ocean, and only occasionally do land winds occur. The
hottest month in San Francisco has a mean temperature of only about 60
degrees, although it lies in about the same latitude as Washington, whe e
the mean of the hottest month is nearly 20 degrees higher. On the other
hand, the coldest month of the year in San Francisco is only 10 degrees
less than the hottest, while in Washington the difference is more than
four times as great. In very exposed places the difference may be even
less marked, and practically the same temperature prevails throughout
the year. The equalizing effects of the ocean are also shown in the
slight differences in temperature due to the latitude. Thus between
Eureka, on the northwest coast, and San Diego, at the extreme southern
end of the state, equivalent to the difference between New York and
Savannah, the mean annual temperature difference is only about ten
degrees.

Temperature variations in California are far more a question of
topography than of latitude. During the summer it is not unusual to
find a difference of 30 to 40 degrees in the maximum temperatures on
the same day between a coast station and a station 100 miles inland.
Thus when at San Francisco the maximum temperature may be under
60 degrees it might reach 100 degrees in Sacramento or Fresno; while
at San Diego, 500 miles south, it would probably be not more than 10
degrees warmer than in San Francisco... Much greater differences mig it
be noted for some of the stations in the southeastern desert, where
temperatures of 150 degrees have been recorded, with a monthly average
temperature of 100 degrees. The lowest temperature in the state is in
the High Sierra, where temperatures of about minus 30 degrees have
been recorded.

Even a few miles are sufficient to make a great difference. Thus at
Stanford University, about 30 miles south of San Francisco, the mid-
day temperatures during the summer are usually from 10 degrees to 20
degrees higher than in San Francisco. This is due solely to the fact
that the former is protected from the sea by a range of mountains
shutting off the fog and much of the ocean wind to which San Francisco
is fully exposed.

To a visitor from the eastern states the climatic conditions so totally
different from those to which he is accustomed, are rather perplexing.
Throughout the Pacific coast the year is divided practically into two
seasons, the wet or winter season and the dry summer. To quote Bret
Harte:

Warm and wet, and drear and dry,
Half a year of clouds and flowers,
Half a year of dust and sky.

PLANT DISTRIBUTION IN CALIFORNIA 211

These differences are much more pronounced in California than in
the regions further north, and the annual precipitation falls off very
rapidly as we proceed southward. Eureka, on the northwest coast of
California, has more than four times as much rainfall as San Diego, on
the extreme southern coast (the annual means: Eureka 46.04 inches,
San Diego 9.52 inches).

In a sense the seasons are reversed when compared with those of the
Atlantic states, as the summer, except in the northern areas and in the
mountains, is almost completely a dormant period for vegetation. Of
course, in the regions of heavy snowfall and severe cold, vegetation comes
to a standstill in the winter, but in the lower elevations there is never a
complete cessation of plant growth. Even in regions where there is an
abundant summer vegetation, as in the Sierras, this mainly depends for
its maintenance upon water in the soil derived from melting snow, as
summer rains are of rare occurrence anywhere in the state. This long
dry period, lasting sometimes in Central California for upwards of six
months, no doubt accounts for the predominance of xerophytic plants
in California. A large proportion of the trees and shrubs are evergreen,
and conifers are the dominant forest trees. Among the herbaceous
plants there is an extensive development of annuals, which germinate
with the first rains and complete their growth before the dry months.
Another type of herbaceous plants is seen in the very numerous bulbous
and tuberous species, especially members of the lily family. The awaken-
ing of vegetation begins not in the spring, but in the fall with the advent
of the first winter rains. With the cessation of rain in April or May
vegetation goes to rest for the summer.

The conditions governing the rainfall in California are similar to
those controlling the temperature, and are large'y topographical. As in
the temperatures there is an extraordinary difference in the rainfall at
different points in the state. Some northern stations may have more
than 100 inches in a year, while in the desert in the southeast, a year
may pass with practically no rain at all. The highest mean annual pre-
cipitation given by McAdie is 81 inches at Upper Mattole, in Humboldt
County, on the northwest coast, but in some years the rainfall exceeds
100 inches, and he notes one annual rainfall of 120 inches, at Laporte
in 1896. At one station in the southern desert, Mammouth Tank, the
mean annual rainfall is only 1.81 inches, while in some years practically
no rain at all has fallen.

While in general, as we have seen, the rainfall diminishes southward,
there may be a great variation between stations only a short distance
apart, due to the topography. Thus at Boulder Creek in the Santa
Cruz Mountains, about 25 miles distant from Palo Alto, there is over
three times as much rain as falls at the latter place.

These differences in humidity are plainly reflected in the vegetation

212 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

Fie. 1. DENSE FOREST IN THE UPPER CANYON OF THE SACRAMENTO, NEAR Mt. SHASTA,

in different parts of the state. In the cool humid coast region of the
north are found the tallest trees in the world, the redwoods, while the
density of these redwood forests is hardly equalled anywhere in the
world. On the other hand, certain regions of the intensely hot and arid
deserts of the southeast corner of the state can support no vegetation at
all, and others not quite so arid have only the scantiest flora, composed
of such extreme xerophytes as the cacti, creosote bush and palo verde.
The peculiar topography of California is therefore largely responsible
for the distribution of its flora. In the middle region are the three
parallel ranges of mountains, the outer and inner coast ranges and the

PLANT DISTRIBUTION IN CALIFORNIA 213

great range of the Sierra Nevada. At the north these ranges come to-
gether in a transverse range, the Siskiyous, between California and
Oregon; and towards the south is a similar transverse range, the 'Teha-
chapi. Between these mountain ranges are numerous valleys, of which
by far the most important is the great Central Valley, drained by the
Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, and extending for half the entire
length of the state.

The outer coast range receives the full benefit of the mo‘sture-laden
winds from the ocean, while the valleys lying inside of the range are
very much drier, and this is still more marked in the great Central
Valley and in the regions south of the Tehachapi, most of which are
really deserts.

The outer ranges are only of moderate elevation, but in the Sierras
are the highest peaks in the United States proper, while in Death Valley
and the Colorado Desert are areas lying 300 feet below sea level. This
gives a range of elevation in California of nearly 15,000 feet.

Combined with these extraordinary differences in elevation is an
equally marked variation of soil conditions, suitable practically for
every sort of plant.

Corresponding to the extraordinarily diversified conditions prevail-
ing in California, it is not to be wondered at that the flora of the state
presents a variety quite astounding to the botanist accustomed to the
comparatively uniform vegetation of the Atlantic half of the country.
Whereas in the regions east of the Rockies there are no important bar-
riers to the free migrations of plants, aside from questions of tempera-
ture and moisture, in California there are many barriers against such
migration, and one finds within the limits of the state distinct floras

Fic. 2. DESERT NEAR TUCSON, ARIZONA. (Photo. Dr. W. S. Cooper.)

THNTIFIC MONTHLY

oc

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4

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214

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(Photo. Robinson

NIVERSITY.

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PLANT DISTRIBUTION IN CALIFORNIA 215

which differ much more widely from each other than any that could be
found in the Atlantic half of the country. In the well-watered areas
of Atlantic America, lying east of the great plains, there are many
species that range practically over the whole area. Such trees as the
white elm, oaks of several species, maples and hickories extend over
pretty much of this whole area, and the same is true of many other
plants, so that the flora is very similar throughout the range, the main
differences being the addition of new species to the northern flora in the
moister and warmer regions of the southern states, and the disappear-
ance of certain boreal types.

In California, however, the difference between certain floras is
absolute. Thus the contrast between the dense redwood forests of the
north, where the vegetation is fairly tropical in its luxuriance, and the
flora of the Colorado and Mojave Deserts, parts of which are absolutely
destitute of vegetation, is about as complete as it could well be; and
except for a few species of aquatics, such as the cat-tails of the marshes
and ditches, it is doubtful if the two regions have a single species in
common. Even within quite short distances one finds a remarkable
difference in the type of vegetation, due to rapid changes in elevation, as
in ascending the slopes of the Sierra Nevada, or to differences in soil
and moisture, as in the transition from the redwood forests of the outer
coast ranges to the flora of the open valleys lying east of the mountains.

In the mountains to the west of Stanford University, a distance of
less than 10 miles, there is a very heavy growth of redwood, with the
accompanying mesophytic flora, largely made up of northern types,
e. g., brambles, ferns of several species, lilies, violets, wood-sorrel,
clintonia, lady slippers, trillium and other types quite familiar to the
eastern botanist. These northern plants sometimes follow the beds of
streams flowing into the valley, but the floor of the valley is for its most
part only sparsely wooded, mainly with oaks—quite different from the
eastern species, especially the characteristic live oak (Quercus agrtfolia),
which is so prominent a feature in the valley landscape of the coast
region of California.

In places the open ground is covered with a growth of chaparral
(dense scrub) made up of a variety of species. Among these are the
poison-oak (Rhus dwersiloba), the California buckeye, a woody com-
posite (Baccharis), the toyon (Heteromeles), and other unfamiliar-
looking shrubs. The open ground not occupied by the chaparral sup-
ports a growth of annual grasses, among which in the spring are masses
of wild flowers, mostly annuals, but comprising a number of perennial
species, especially bulbous Liliacew. These are mostly genera poorly
represented in the eastern states (e. g., Lupinus, Trifolium) or else
entirely different genera, e. g., Gilia, Godetia, Orthocarpus, and many
others. These latter are most of Mexican affinities, but a good many

216 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

genera are peculiar to California. Later in the season and persisting
until the autumn, are a small number of flowering annuals, mostly
Composite. Among these perhaps the most characteristic are the tar-
weeds of the genus Hemizonia.

As an example of change due to elevation, with, of course, accom-
panying increase in precipitation, the ascent of the Sierra Nevada from
the great central valley is very instructive. This great valley has a
seanty rainfall which is often insufficient for any tree growth away from
the streams, and the level floor of the valley reminds one of the prairies
of the middle west. The foothills develop a scattered growth of oaks,
and a little higher up one finds the peculiar digger pine (Pinus
Sabiniana). Somewhat higher up the yellow pine (P. ponderosa) ap-
pears, and at elevations of about 4,000 feet, that of the Yosemite, the
open forest of the Sierras is well developed; but one must ascend still
higher, about 6,000 feet, to see the fullest development of this wonder-
ful forest as one finds it in the belt where the giant Sequoias grow.
Here among the huge conifers is a rich growth of deciduous trees, oaks,
maples, dogwoods and others, and many beautiful flowering shrubs and
herbs. Along the streams and in the low ground are sub-Alpine mead-
ows, in which grow a great variety of beautiful flowers—lilies, asters,
orchids, painted-cups, the great hellebore (Veratrum), columbine, lupins,
gentians, lark-spurs, monk’s hoods, and many other showy species.

The forest is well developed up to about 8,000 to 9,000 feet, above

Fic. 4. FoorHiLus or SANTA CLARA VALLEY NEAR STANFORD UNIversItTy. (Photo.
Robinson & Crandall, Palo Alto.)

PLANT DISTRIBUTION IN CALIFORNIA 2

cael
~~

FIG. 5. CONIFEROUS FOREST NEAR Mr. SHASTA. Douglas fir predominant.

which only such Alpine trees as Pinus albicaulis and P. flexilis, and the
western juniper occur, hugging the ground and braving the tempests of
the exposed summits.

Many species in California are extremely limited in their range, such
as the fan palms (Washingtonia) found in a few canons opening into
the Colorado Desert; the great bush poppy (Romneya) of Southern
California; and perhaps best known of all the several local coniferous
trees, of which the Monterey cypress and Monterey pine, confined to a
few miles of coast near Monterey, are the best known.

218 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

ORIGINS OF THE CALIFORNIA FLORAS

The southern part of California is geographically part of the Mexican
plateau, and the plants are largely the same as those of the adjacent
regions of Mexico, Lower California and Arizona. This is a more or less
pronounced desert area, and the characteristic plants are most of them
well adapted to resist long periods of drought. Shrubs with small tongh
leaves or almost leafless, like the “ palo verde” (Parkinsonia), are char-
acteristic of this region, and in many parts of it the cacti reach a great
development. Mesquit (Prosopis) and yuccas of various species are also
features of this region, as well as a good many annuals, which are partic-
ularly abundant in years of good rainfall.

Fic. 6. .DESerrT NEAR TUCSON, witH GIANT Cactus, Cereus giganteus. (Photo. Dr.
W. S. Cooper.)

In the mountains, with the increasing moisture in the higher eleva-
tions, a forest develops but much less luxuriant than that of the northern
part of the state. One of the most striking types found in the southeast
part of California is the palm, Washingtonia, already referred to. This
is the only palm growing native within the limits of the state.

Many of these Mexican types, of both woody and herbaceous plants,
extend northward through the drier valleys and along the mountain
slopes to the extreme north part of the state.

Going northward, however, especially in the cool, moist regions of
the coast ranges and the high Sierras, plants of a very different character
begin to be abundant, and it is evident that these are plants of northern
origin, and one encounters many genera familiar to the eastern botanist.
Roses and brambles; huckleberries, rhododendron and azaleas; maples

PLANT DISTRIBUTION IN CALIFORNIA 219

and dogwoods; lilies, violets, trilliums, buttercups and other northern
genera are common. Owing to the coolness and moisture of these outer
coast ranges, many of these northern types, following the mountains
south, reach well beyond middle California.

In this region there is a mingling of the northern and southern
floras, which is particularly well illustrated in the regions about San
Francisco Bay, where the northern types as a rule occur in the redwood
belt, and in the shady canons where there is an abundance of moisture,
and lower temperatures than prevail in the open valleys and on the ex-
posed slopes of the mountains. In the latter areas there is a predomi-
nance of southern species.

A characteristic form of this southern xerophytic vegetation is seen
in the “chaparral,” the dense scrub which covers the exposed hillsides
and, also, to some extent, the floor of the valleys. This is well developed
in the neighborhood of Stanford University, where the chaparral in-
cludes dwarf oaks, wild lilac (Ceanothus), manzanita (Arctostaphylos),
species of wild currant, roses, a large shrubby composite (Baccharis).
“verba santa” (Hryodictyon), buckeye, poison oak (Rhus diversiloba),
Garrya, Adenostoma, and others. This “ chaparral” very much resem-
bles the similar formation “ macchie,” “maquis” of the shores of the
Mediterranean.

The redwood formation, which is largely controlled by the amount
of precipitation—including the copious summer fogs—comprises a num-
ber of characterisic species mostly of northern affinities. Thus with
alders, maples, willows and dogwoods along the streams, there are ever-
green oaks of a very different type from the eastern species, and other
evergreen trees and shrubs, the most notable of which are the madrofo
(Arbutus menziesu) and the California bay tree (Umbellularia), forms
which are quite unrepresented in eastern America. The most character-
istic trees of the open valley are scattered oaks, of which two species
predominate, the live oak (Quercus agrifolia) avd the valley white oak
(Q. lobata). These usually grow scattered about the valley and foothills,
but sometimes on northern exposures they form associations that ave
sufficiently dense to be called forests. The open ground is largely occu-
pied by a growth of annual grasses, among which grow a great variety
of beautiful flowers like Nemophila, Platystemon, the California poppy,
lupins and other annuals, but also including a number of perennial
forms, especially the bulbous Liliacez such as Brodiva and the beautiful
mariposa lily (Calochortus). Growing with these native plants, espe-
cially where the ground has been cultivated, there are certain introduced
weeds which occur in great numbers and contest the ground with the
native plants. Among these introduced weeds may be mentioned the
wild mustard, the “ filaree” (Hrodiwm) and the wild oats.

Along the shores of the bay are extensive salt marshes with a char-
acteristic and interesting flora.

220 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

Fie. 7. Azalea occidentalis. A characteristic shrub of the moister forests.

A notable element in the Californian flora is one apparently of o'd
world origin. In the northern coast region occur species like the Sitka
spruce and western skunk cabbage (Lysichiton), which are also found
in Kamtchatka; another old world genus is F'ritillaria, of which species
occur all the way from Alaska to San Diego, and one extends eastward
as far as the Yellowstone Park. Of broad-leaved trees, the tan-bark oak

Fic. 8. CHAPARRAL FORMATION, LAkn Tanor. The predominant shrubs, manzanita
and species of Ceanothus.

PLANT DISTRIBUTION IN: CALIFORNIA 2

N
=

(Pasania densiflora) is the only American representative of a genus
largely developed in tropical and subtropical Asia, and the madrono
(Arbutus) is also an old world genus which is not found in Atlantic
America. Of herbaceous plants an interesting example is seen in the
genus Trientalis, of which there is in eastern America a well-marked
species, but the Pacific coast form is a variety of the old world
T. Europea. Whether these Eurasian types are comparatively recent
immigrants, or whether they are relics of the old tertiary floras which
have persisted on the Pacific coast, is not quite clear.

There are also examples among the lower plants, which apparently
have had a similar origin. Among these may be cited the giant horse-
tail (Hquisetum maximum), the fine fern Woodwadia radicans and a
liverwort, Targonia hypophylla.

Fic. 9. Ceanothus sp. <A characteristic chaparral shrub.

The seashore of California has a varied and extremely interesting
flora. There are extensive sand dunes and beaches, as well as bluffs and
rocky headlands. Among the striking plants of the dunes may be men-
tioned the tree lupins, species of Mesembryanthemum, the sand Verbena
(Abronia), many showy Composite and others. Probably to the botan-
ist the most striking features of this coast region are isolated groves or
“islands” of conifers, of which there are several species of extremely
limited range. The Monterey pine (Pinus radiata) and the Monterey
cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa) are the best known.

Inside the shore zone lies, in middle and northern California, the
outer coast range which sometimes comes close to the sea. Where the
exposures to the strong ocean winds are not too great there is developed

222 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

in these coast mountains one of the most remarkable forests in America,
and probably in the size and density of the tree growth one that is un-
equaled in the world. The predominant tree of this region is the coast
redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), even surpassing in height its great
cousin of the Sierra forests. In its northern ranges there are pure stands
of these giant trees of extraordinary density, but southward the forests
are usually more open and there is an intermixture of species, including
the Douglas fir, Torreya, tan-bark oak, madrono and some other species.
The limits of the redwood belt are practically determined by the sea fcgs
which prevail along the coast during the summer season. This fog takes
the place of summer rains, and the vegetation of the redwood belt is
largely mesophytic in character, with a predominance of northern
genera. On the inner slopes of the ranges the moisture is usually insuffi-
cient to support a heavy growth of redwoods, and where they disappear
they are replaced by shrubs and trees of a more xerophytic type, and
these also largely disappear on the dry floor of the valleys.

In Central California there is a second range, the inner coast range, —
parallel to the outer one, and between these are numerous sheltered
valleys, often of great fertility ; while between the inner coast range and
the Sierras hes the great central valley drained by the Sacramento and
San Joaquin Rivers, which break through the inner coast range and dis-
charge their waters together into San Francisco Bay.

These valleys have only a moderate rainfall, especially the great
central valley, and those further south, and there is only occasionally
developed in these associations of trees that can properly be called a
forest. The floor of the valley and the lower foothills are usually covered
with a growth of annual grasses, and where the uncultivated areas have
been left we find in spring a profusion of the showy annuals and bulbors
plants already referred to.

To the botanical student, probably the most interesting elements of
the Californian flora are the conifers, which in size and variety surpass
those of any other region in the world. These conifers reach their great-
est development on the west slopes of the Sierras of Middle California
at an elevation of some 4,000 to 6,000 feet. In this belt grow the giant
Sequoias, accompanied by several other species, of which the most promi-
nent are the yellow pine (P. ponderosa), the sugar pine (P. lamber-
tiana), the white fir (Abies concolor), the incense cedar (Libocedrus
decurrens), and the Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga tavifolia), all trees of
gigantic size. At higher elevations other species supplant these to some
extent, and altogether there are about 60 species of coniferous trees in
the state, a larger number than occurs over all the rest of the United
States.

True Alpine floras occur in the higher elevations, above 9,000 feet,
but are less developed than in the moister regions further northward, as

PLANT DISTRIBUTION IN CALIFORNIA 22

in the Cascade ranges of Washing-
ton and the Canadian Rockies; but
there are, nevertheless, many very
beautiful true Alpine forms, such as
the species of Bryanthus, gentians,
phlox, primroses and various others.

The sub-Alpine flora is well
developed wherever there is suffi-
client moisture, and the wet mea-
dows full of brilliant flowers are
very beautiful.

Fig. 11. SuGar PINE (LEFT), Rep Fir
(Abies magnifica) (rigHT). Near Lake
Tahoe, about 6,500 ft. elevation.

While most of California north
of the Tehachapi range has an ade-
quate rainfall, the southern part of
the state, except near the coast, is
largely a desert, and in some parts
deserts of the most pronounced
character, as in Death Valley and
parts of the Colorado Desert.

The flora of this region, as we
have already indicated, is mainly

Fic. 10. CoNIFpROUS FOREST, LAKE
Tanor. The tall tree is white fir (Abies Mexican and has very little in com-
concolor), the predominant species in this
region. Note the man standing near the
base of the tree. part of the state.

mon with much of the northern

224 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

evergreen, e. g., wild lilac, the man-
zanita, chinquapins, dwarf oaks and
others. ;

Owing to the isolated position
and numerous barriers within the
state, California presents an ex-
traordinarily large number of “ en-
demic ” or peculiar species, some of
which are of very limited range,
such as the peculiar conifers of the
coast region. I have not been able
to find any tabulation of the propor-
tion of the endemic species, but it

A SE RRNA yy

Ai *

Fic. 12. YELLOW PINE (Pinus ponde-
rosa). Near Mt. Shasta, elevation about
3,000 ft.

A marked feature of most of
Californian plants is their ‘ xero-
phytic ” character, 7. e., their adap-
tation to long periods of drought.
This is conspicuous in the trees,
which are largely conifers or else
broad-leaved evergreens, like the
live oak, madrono and laurel. It
is also marked in very many of the
shrubs, which have small evergreen

leaves. The shrubby plants making

oe cs ic. 18. INcENSp CEDAR (Libocedrus de-
up the “chaparral” are largely currens), LAKH TAHOR.

PLANT DISTRIBUTION IN CALIFORNIA 225

certainly must be very much greater than that of any other part of the
United States. The marked development of endemism is seen in very
many large genera, such as Calochortus, Lupinus, Trifolium, Gilia and
various others. The majority of these species is exclusively Californian.
Thus in the genus Lupinus about half of the known species are found in
California, and a large majority of these is peculiar to the state.

Many species are extremely variable and the limits of species difficult
to determine. California should be an exceptionally favorable region
for studying variations under natural conditions. Perhaps some light
might thus be thrown upon the vexed question of “mutations,” and
other factors concerned in the origin of species.

VOL. 1—.16.

256 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH IN AMERICA*

By RAYMOND F. BACON

DIRECTOR OF THE MELLON INSTITUTE OF INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH OF THE UNIVERSITY OF
PITTSBURGH

Eb aay before the United States became a republic, some interest in

industrial research was manifested.?, This is evidenced in the
preface to the initial volume of the Transactions of the American Philo-
sophical Society, published in 1789, in which the aims of the society
were presented. Among these were “making useful discoveries that
would . . . promote the interest of the country.” The earliest contri-
bution to chemistry from this country, bearing the date September 10,
1768, appears in the T’ransactions of this society under the title “An
Analysis of the Chalybeate Waters of Bristol in Pennsylvania,” by John
de Normandie.

The principal object of the Chemical Society of Philadelphia, which
was founded in 1792 and was thus the first chemical society in the world,
was to secure information relating to the minerals of the United States.
A standing committee of five chemists was charged with the duty of
analyzing any mineral which might be submitted to it, provided it was
forwarded free of expense, with an account of the locality and situation
in which it was found. The analyses were made without charge. In
1799, this society also gathered information relating to the manufacture
of niter, acquainted the public with the uses of various minerals, and
encouraged the manufacture of pottery. Evidence of the interest which
was evinced at this time in ceramics may be found in an oration de-
livered by Felix Pascalis before the Chemical Society of Philadelphia
in 1801. This savant said:

Encourage and repeat mineralogical experiments on all kinds of alumine.
The first who will successfully procure manufactured works of the kind and tol-

erably good earthen wares will deserve well of his country and be rewarded by
the gifts of fortune.

EARLY INDUSTRIAL RESEARCHERS

Among the earliest American scientists who became interested in the
chemistry of manufacturing processes was James Woodhouse, professor

1 Excerpts from a public address delivered at the Columbus, Ohio, meeting
of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, December 29, 1915.

2 It may be noted here that the first manufactures in colonial America—glass
in 1610 and leather in 1630, both of which were established in Virginia—were
chemical in nature.

INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH IN AMERICA 227

of chemistry in the medical department of the University of Pennsyl-
yania from 1795 to 1809. Woodhouse was the first to demonstrate the
superiority of anthracite over bituminous coal “for intensity and regu-
larity of heating power.” Contemporaneous with this chemist were the
following: Robert Hare, the inventor of the oxyhydrogen blowpipe
(1802), who obtained calcium carbide, phosphorus, graphite and cal-
cium by the aid of electricity, and is to be regarded as the earliest Amer-
ican experimenter in electrochemistry; Joseph Cloud, assay master at
the Philadelphia Mint, who, in 1807, made an interesting research—
the first in metallurgy in this country—on a native alloy of palladium
and gold from Brazil; John Harrison, the first manufacturer of sul-
phurie acid in this country (1793), who was an ingenious industrialist
and made a number of technical innovations in practise; and Gerard
Troost, professor of chemistry at the University of Nashville, who
established works for the production of alum at Cape Sable, Maryland,
in 1814.

Considerable industrial research was carried on in the United States
from 1820 to 1860. James Cutbush, professor of chemistry at West
Point, made a number of valuable contributions to scientific pyrotech-
nics, but is chiefly remembered for his description, published in 1822,
ef the production of cyanogen by the action of nitric acid upon char-
coal. Our first prominent industrial chemist, Samuel Guthrie, of
Sackett’s Harbor, N. Y., discovered chloroform, engaged in the manu-
facture of fulminating compounds, and devised a commercial process
for the rapid conversion of potato starch into sugar (1832). Our first
real metallurgical chemist, W. W. Mather, of Columbus, Ohio, made an
elaborate research on the principles involved in the reduction of Mexican
silver ores, in 1833. Lewis Feuchtwanger, who was well-known to the
chemists of this period by his commercial establishment for the manu-
facture and sale of “rare” chemicals, devised, in 1837, an expeditious
method for the manufacture of vinegar and later, in 1872, studied the
process of glass-making. Then there was 8. L. Dana, of Lowell, Mass.,
who was, for fifty years, the acknowledged authority in the United States
on technical chemistry. After the completion of his medical studies in
1818, Dana soon devoted himself to manufacturing chemistry, holding
the position of chemist to the Merrimac Print Works from 1833 to 1868;
he invented the “ American system ” of bleaching in 1838, and was also
an authority on manures and lead poisoning.

Among the other chemists of this period who busied themselves in
the domain of industry were: J. C. Booth, of Philadelphia, Pa., noted for
his work on beet sugar (1842), the production of gelatin (1842), the
nickel ores of Pennsylvania (1856), and illuminating oils (1862), as
well as for being the founder of an active firm of chemical consultants;
John Dean of Boston, Mass., who investigated the value of different

228 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

kinds of vegetable foods in 1844; David Alter, of Freeport, Pa., the
discoverer of spectroscopy, who began the manufacture of bromine in
1846 and later became a coal-oil technologist; Charles Lennig, an in-
dustrialist of Philadelphia, who was the first to manufacture bleaching
powder in the United States (1847) and afterwards (1869) introduced
the manufacture of hydrochloric acid by modern methods; L. C. Beck,
professor of chemistry in Rutgers College, who made valuable observa-
tions respecting bleaching and disinfecting compounds and was an
authority on bread-stuffs (1848) ; A. C. Twining, a chemical engineer
of the fifties, who invented an ice machine; A. A. Hayes, of Brookline,
Mass., a productive student of the Bessemer process (1852); C. M.
Wetherill, who conducted researches on illuminating gas in 1854 and on
the manufacture of vinegar in 1860; Benjamin Silliman, Jr., the author
of technochemical classics on Pennsylvania petroleum (1855), California
petroleum (1865 and 1867), and on the combustion of fuel (1860) ;
EK. N. Horsford, a researcher of great ability who worked out processes
for preparing phosphoric acid (1856) and was active in establishing
markets for this product; Henry Wurtz, of New York, who played an
important part in the development of the manufacture of glycerol in
1858; and J. M. Ordway, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
who investigated the manufacture of sodium hydroxide in 1858 and the
manufacture of water-glass from 1861 to 1865.

INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH FROM 1860 To 1880

The late Joseph Wharton, of Philadelphia, deserves especial mention
in the history of technology in America. After some preliminary ex-
periments, Wharton erected at Bethlehem, Pa., in the year 1860, a
spelter works of 16 Belgian furnaces, which produced over 3,700,000
pounds of zinc in 1862. The product was of excellent quality, and was
made so cheaply as to afford a reliable profit and to plant the zine in-
dustry firmly in the United States. Wharton first reduced silicate of
zine to metal on a large scale, successfully applied anthracite to the
manufacture of spelter, and used American clays for making zinc
retorts.

Many chemists rendered service to the advancement of industry
during these two decades, and it is indeed difficult to designate the
most prominent researchers. B. F. Craig, of the laboratory of the Army
Medical Museum at Washington, D. C., worked in the field of explosives
and, during the period 1861-1864, made a number of contributions to
our knowledge of gunpowder. Frederick Hoffmann, of New York, was
an authority on organic colors and medicinal chemicals. C. A. Goess-
mann, of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, contributed to the
manufacture of salt (1863), the refining of sugar (1864), and the pro-

INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH IN AMERICA 229

duction of beet sugar (1872). F. H. Storer, of Harvard University,
made researches on the alloys of copper and zinc in 1864 and on petro-
leum in 1865.

While charged with responsible duties of administration, Charles F.
Chandler, at present the honored dean of American chemists, was always
productive in research. His early researches of technical importance
were those on water for locomotives (1865), the water supply of New
York (1868 and 1870), the purification of illuminating gas (1870),
kerosene (1871), and the manufacture of condensed milk (1871).
Another chemist who was called upon by the gas industry was Henry
Wurtz, who made improvements in the methods of purifying water-gas
(1867) and, jointly with Silliman (1869), elucidated the processes of
manufacture.

The noteworthy researches of 8. F. Peckham on asphalt and petro-
leum were carried on from 1867 to 1874. W. H. Chandler, who, with
C. F. Chandler, edited the American Chemist, contributed to the purifi- '
cation of zinc containing iron (1869) and to the refining of iron
(1870). J. B. Britton, chemist to the “Iron Masters’ Laboratory,”
performed a great amount of technical work in ferrous metallurgy. S.
Dana Hayes, state assayer of Massachusetts, studied the destructive dis-
tillation of naphtha in 1871 and was recognized as an expert in petro-
leum technology. Isidor Walz, of New York, was a textile expert. C.
U. Shepard, Jr., of Charleston, N. C., an authority on fertilizers, in-
vestigated the effects of sulphur dioxide on vegetation in 1872. Henry
Morton, of Stevens Institute, had occasion to conduct an extensive series
of researches on petroleum from 1872 to 1874, J. P. Kimball, of Lehigh
University, engaged in work in the manufacture of iron and steel, and
found uses for emery in the iron industry (1873). The Nestor of the
mining engineering profession, R. W. Raymond, investigated the calorific
value of lignites in 1873. J. F. Babcock, of Boston, Mass., carried out
researches which established him as an expert on wood preservation. T.
M. Drown, professor of chemistry at Lafayette College, was the author
of important papers on the blast furnace, the puddling and Bessemer
processes, and the conditions of carbon in gray and white pig iron. H.
M. Pierce was most active in the promotion of the interests of the wood
distillation industry. C. E. Avery, of Boston, Mass., laid the founda-
tion for the manufacture of lactic acid. Charles and Nelson Goodyear
and A. G. Day, known for their inventions in connection with india
rubber, may also be included among the industrial researchers of this
period.

INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH DURING THE LAst THREE DECADES

Sufficient has been presented to show that American scientists have,
from the inception of the republic, been constantly engaged to a greater

230 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

or less degree in original investigations of the problems of manufactur-
ing. Time will not permit the recounting of the many valuable con-
tributions which have been made by the chemical profession during the
most modern period of our industrial history, from 1880 to the present
time. With your permission, I shall, however, refer to some of: the
most noteworthy researches.

The first electrochemical enterprise to be established at Niagara
Falls was that of the present Aluminum Company of America for the
n:anufacture of aluminum according to the process of Charles M. Hall.
It was indeed remarkable that, after all the attention which had been
civen to aluminum, it remained for this young Oberlin graduate to
devise the process by which 50,000 metric tons are now being produced
annually in the United States and Canada. Hall possessed all the char-
acteristics of an inventive genius.

Another distinguished electrochemist, H. Y. Castner, invented proc-
esses for the production of sodium and sodium hydroxide; while E. G.
Acheson has discovered carborundum, artificial graphite, deflocculated
eraphite, and siloxicon. Both of these pioneers in modern electrochem-
ical research succeeded in founding great manufacturing establishments,
monuments to their rare investigative ability. Other chemists who have
engaged with success in this field are the following: C. E. Acker, who
devised a process for the manufacture of sodium hydroxide and bleach-
ing powder which differs from the Castner process; W. T. Gibbs and 8.
P. Franchot, who invented a commercial process for the electrolytic pro-
duction of potassium chlorate; T. L. Willson, who was the pioneer in
the manufacture of calcium carbide and acetylene; Isaac Adams, the
inventor of nickel-plating; and E. R. Taylor, who worked out a re-
sourceful method for the commercial production of carbon disulphide.

Other brilliant inventors in the domain of chemical industry have
been Herman Frasch, whose most valuable processes relate to the re-
fining of petroleum and to the extraction of Louisiana sulphur; Waldron
Shapleigh, who worked up methods for the extraction of the rare-earths
from monazite; Thomas A. Edison, who, among many other things, first
evolved a successful system of incandescent electric lighting; Charles
Steffen, the deviser of the process for working over the mother liquors
in beet-sugar manufacture; the Hyatts, who founded the great nitro-
cellulose industry; Arno Behr, who had such an active part in the de-
velopment of the great corn-products industry; and J. B. F. Herreshoff,
the eminent copper metallurgist and chemical engineer. These are a
few of the researchers who have played a prominent part in the establish-
ment of our industrial prosperity.

INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH IN AMERICA 231

THE PRESENT INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITY OF THE CHEMIST

If it is conceded that chemistry is the intelligence department of
industry,* one may therefore conclude that the measure of the influence
of the profession of the chemist upon the industrial development of our
country constitutes per se an index of the value of research to manu-
facturing. I have pointed out in another place* that the measure of a
country’s appreciation of the value of chemistry in its material develop-
ment and the extent to which it utilizes this science in its industries,
generally measure quite accurately the industrial progress and pros-
perity of that country.

FARLY AMERICAN CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES

Manufacture First Manufacturer | Year| First Important Im- By Whom Year
provement
Sulphuric acid. ...|John Harrison, 1793)|Platinum still for|John Harrison. |1814
Philadelphia, Pa. concentrating.
Gunpowder ...... E. I. du Pont de Ne-/1802)Manufacture of po-|Du Pont Com-|1868
mours, Wilming- tassium nitrate} pany.
ton, Del. from sodium ni-
trate.
White leadi...5... S. Wetherill & Son,|1804/The use of cheaper —_——— 1850
Philadelphia, Pa. material from Mo.
and Ill.
Pharmaceutical
chemicals...... Rosengarten & Sons,|1823|Production of ether|Rosengarten &| —
Philadelphia, Pa. and quinine, 1823;| Sons.
morphine, 1832;
strychnine, 1834.
WVSLETIBE Sts o'c2- 2.12 P. B. Smith, New)1828|Improvement of P. B. Smith. {1836
York, Nov quality to create
a foreign market.
Wood distillation .|James Ward, North 1830) Manufacture of ace-|J. A. Emmons|1867
Adams, Mass. tate of lime and} and A. S§S.
wood alcohol. Saxon.
Nitric acid....... Carter and Scatter-|1834|Distillation appa-/ Edward Hart. |1898
good, Phila., Pa. ratus.
Hydrochloric acid .|Carter and Scatter- 1834) Manufacture by Charles Lennig.|1869
good, Phila., Pa. modern methods.
(HIOTINGs sho nec as, « Charles Lennig, 1847|\Commercial process|E. A. LeSueur. |1893
Bridesburg, Pa. for the electrolytic
(bleaching pow- decomposition of
der). _ : sodium chloride.

3 This statement should not give rise to an impression that the contention 's
that the industrialist relies absolutely upon the chemist. The technical demands
made by modern manufacturers are extensive and exacting, and sole reliance
upon the chemist would be oftentimes fatal to the realization of success. The aid
of other industrial specialists must always be called in during the course of de-
velopment,

4 Science, 40 (1914), 871-81.

232 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

The public has been left to its own resources to determine the func-
tion of that industrial scout, the chemist. This condition has been
briefly explained by one chemist:

Our publie work is obscured by impenetrable technical detail and our indus-
trial achievements are cut off from public view by high factory walls.

A large percentage of the 10,000 chemists of the United States do
labor under cover, yet these 10,000 men—about 25 per cent. of whom
are engaged in industrial research, the others in control work—are
actively occupied in manufactures which affect over 1,000,000 wage
earners and produce over $5,000,000,000 worth of products. As Hesse®
has quite convincingly demonstrated, in the case of thirty-one American
industries, the chemists employed therein directly affect 24.6 per cent. of
our manufacture values and 20.2 per cent. of our values added by manu-
facture. They are constantly engaged in the development of processes
and in refining methods of control or of manufacture.

THE EVALUATION OF INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH

However, many industrialists are even now certain that research will
not pay. Some regard their technology as a hereditary art. Some
have favorable raw material conditions or a large demand for their prod-
ucts, and are therefore disinclined to invest a very small portion of their
earnings in a reserve of knowledge. Others have prospered because of
high tariff, notwithstanding short-sighted management. But most of
our industries are built upon stronger foundations. It is plain that the
use of natural laws offers a more stable basis upon which to erect a
manufacture and a more uniform source of profit than any structure
built upon artificial conditions created by legislation. Moreover, the
quality and value of a product are based upon the application of correct
principles in its conception, preparation and use, and the correct prin-
ciples can only result from scientific research. Ample support to this
contention is to be found in the manufacturing operations of to-day.®

THE FUTURE OF INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH IN AMERICA

Prophecy is a double-edged tool with a peculiar facility for injuring
the user, but the activity of the present leads one to predict that each suc-
ceeding year will bring us nearer to the state in which the research work
of the country will be national in both scope and effort. The federal
government and the states have done and are conducting research of
immense value to agriculture, the foundation of industry ; but the future
will witness a more general application of this principle—an active
national interest in industrial research, and this will serve as a healthy

5J. Ind. Eng. Chem., 7 (1915), 294.

6On the contributions of the chemist to American industry, see Hamor,

Scr. Mon., 1 (1915), 86; but especially Bacon, Sci. Am. Suppl., 80 (1915), No.
2081, 334; and Chem. News, 112 (1915), 300.

INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH IN AMERICA 233

subsidy for American manufactures. Research has enabled our in-
dustries to make rapid strides. The recognition of this fact has oc-
casioned a recent awakening to an increased sense of appreciation of the
need of greater facilities for insuring the scientific development and
extension of industry and commerce and of promoting industrial re-
search. Let us therefore proceed towards the adoption of this plan with
unhalting step.

Our universities should make active preparation to assume their share
of responsibility in this movement of national preparedness. There is
too great a tendency in this country to regard intellectual men as a
class apart from business men and especially from industrialists. It is
a well-known fact that the German university has been one of the most
anarchic of institutions, both the professorate and the students having
had greater freedom than in the American universities; and at the
present time Germany owes more to its universities as they have been
conducted in the past than to its army as it is now organized.” In Ger-
reany there are captains of the intellectual group as well as of industry
and of the military.

We must make ourselves self-sufficient. Some steps have been taken
by the government, as, for example, in the formation of the Naval Ad-
visory Board; but this is only a beginning. From the standpoint of
real preparedness, the government should know exactly what her scien-
tifie and technical experts could best do for American industrial welfare
and for their country in the event of war, and full particulars should be
available regarding the research laboratories in the United States and
the facilities thereof. American scientists are eager to render service to
their country and to her industries.

A large industrial firm finds it advantageous to spend about 4 per
cent. of its gross annual income on research, in providing for its future
welfare and for keeping ahead of its competitors. On the same basis, if
the United States expends $400,000,000 annually on its army and navy,
it could, with profit, spend $16,000,000 a year on research. An equal
sum, spent in the construction of a superdreadnaught, may be either an
advantage or a loss; the research of carefully selected scientific men
could be only an asset.

All this suggests the formation not only of a great national research
laboratory, but also of a central bureau, in, say, the Federal Department
of Labor, which would apply trained men to learn what American scien-
tists are doing, their specific fields of investigation, and the equipment
and research facilities of their laboratories, as well as to ascertain the
problems of the various industries. This bureau could then put indus-
trialists in touch with active university researchers, with the result that
there would be an extension of both useful scientific investigation and
manufacturing efficiency.

7 See Cattell, Pop. Sci. Mo., 87 (1915), 311.

234 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

THE PRESENT STATUS OF THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN
NORTH AMERICA

By Dr. CLARK WISSLER

AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

fees passing of that veteran anthropologist, Professor Frederic Ward

Putnam, the culmination of Professor Henry Fairfield Osborn’s
researches in his “Men of the Old Stone Age,’ and Professor J. C.
Merriam’s recent exhaustive review in Science of the evidences for the
early presence of man in California, all combine to make the serious
reconsideration of man’s antiquity in America a scientific necessity.
Without in any way disparaging the valuable contributions of others,
the progress so far made may be said to stand as a historical memorial
to Professor Putnam, who, in spite of long years of almost barren
search, still held firmly on to such faint glimpses of man’s antiquity as
chance threw in his way. ‘This is not the place to record the history of
these researches or to extensively review the formative work of Holmes,
Abbott, Volk and others, but some characterization of the problem as it
was left by these investigators is possible at this time. The extraordi-
nary triumphs of anthropological research in western Europe naturally
lead to measuring American data by these standards. When we take a
comparative attitude toward the two, one striking contrast appears, for,
while in Europe one finds definitely stratified superimposed beds rich in
animal, human and cultural remains, in America we have little more
than isolated finds, a stone implement here or a bone there. Some of
these finds have called forth a surprisingly large controversial literature
and still find places in our standard reference books because no satis-
factory conclusion can be reached in the absence of associated faunistic
or other chronological indices. Of skeletons, the celebrated Lansing
man is typical. The difficulty with it is that no satisfactory faunistic
or cultural associates were found and no precise way for dating the river
terrace in which the bones were found has appeared. Further, the
anatomical characters of the Lansing man are not distinctly different
from the known American types; if they had so differed we should have
had at least one argument for their antiquity.

Some writers have given undue weight to the fact that all the skele-
tons so far presenting claims to antiquity are of the American Indian type
and so can not be ancient. ‘This is really a fallacy, for while the pres-
ence of a distinct morphological difference would be one good argument

THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN 235

for a respectable antiquity, the absence of such differences would not be
equally good evidence against it. Thus in Europe we find an early type
known as the Cré-Magnon, which has its close parallels in the present
population. Then the indisputable unity of the whole American race from
north to south leaves us no choice but to conclude that its ancestral
stock came from one source, and that from the start its fundamental
somatic characters were delimited. There are good faunistic reasons
for believing that America received its population from Asia at a period
comparing to the Paleolithic of western Europe, and that since the late
Neolithic has remained in almost complete isolation. According to these
interpretations, there is no reason to expect that any of our skeleton finds,
however ancient, will show decided differences from the surviving types.
These conditions rob us of one method by which a definite conclusion
could be formed as to the antiquity of random skeletal finds. About the
only anatomical check we can expect is in case such finds can be identi-
fied as belonging to local historical tribes, but even here we must proceed
with caution, for the great persistence of local types in Europe indicates
the possibility of the long continuance of initial types in the same habitat.

European investigators have achieved their greatest triumphs from
discoveries of the débris of human cultures, but similar deposits have
not yet come to light in America. The claims of Abbott, Volk and
others have been based almost entirely upon random finds of stone or
bone worked by man. The American literature of some twenty years
ago is curiously characterized by affidavits and sworn statements, as
to the exact place, position, identity, ete., of the single objects found.
This itself effectively demonstrates the insufficiency of the data. While
theoretically the finding of a single stone implement in an interglacial
deposit would prove the contemporaneous existence of man, its very
unverifiable nature would make it of little scientific worth, and the neces-
sity of depending entirely upon the mere assertions of an individual
would leave us no recourse but extreme skepticism. In contrast to the
interglacial deposits of culture débris in western Europe, these random
American finds too strongly suggest errors in observation and natural
accidents of deposition to afford a basis for any kind of scientific or mere
speculative structure.

It is true, of course, that the mere accumulation of these observa-
tions, isolated though they be, adds greatly to their weight and will, if
long continued, give a sufficient basis for some kind of an interpretation.
The only part of the country from which such an accumulation begins to
appear is the Pacific coast of the United States, where Professor Merriam
cites at least eleven different finds in Pleistocene and earlier formatidns.
But notwithstanding the obvious fact that, given enough time, a very
respectable series of artifacts may come to hand from the gravels of the
Pacific slope, the difficulty of correlating them and of interpreting the

236 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

culture of the period is still very great. The experience with European
deposits is decidedly against the successful use of such isolated finds.
It seems a safe prediction that unless the original culture deposits can
be found in the Pacific coast area, faunistically or otherwise dated, we
shall always find it necessary to maintain a more or less skeptical atti-
tude toward the antiquity of these isolated finds, even though they be
of great number.

One difficulty we have not yet stated is analogous to that encountered
in skeleton finds: viz., the lack of distinct differences between these
supposed antiquities and objects found on the surface of recent village
sites. As in case of skeleton material, the fact that certain differences
can not be observed is no good reason for doubting their antiquity; it
simply leaves us with an even chance that their presence in all geolog-
ical strata is intrusive. The crucial point is that, notwithstanding the
vast amount of searching by archeologists, amateur and otherwise, no-
where within these United States and Canada have we record of a cul-
ture deposit that clearly precedes or accompanies the last period of gla-
ciation. As to what the future may bring forth no prediction is safe.
It is probable that if the auriferous gravels of California do have human
relics, stratified deposits will ultimately appear. This part of the
country is still but newly occupied and may in the near future reveal
rock-shelter deposits of undoubtable antiquity. On the Atlantic sea-
board and in the limestone cavern area of the Mississippi Basin, there is
much less reason to expect new discoveries, for the ground has been
worked over with considerable care. The only site about which even a
strong presumption of antiquity can be raised is at Trenton, New Jersey,
where Dr. Abbott, and later Putnam and Volk, made certain observa-
tions, upon the basis of which a theory of stratification has been ad-
vanced. The Trenton site presents first a black sandy soil of some two
feet in depth, below which is a layer of yellowish sand from one to three
feet and resting upon gravels. In the black soil were remains clearly
identified with those of the Delaware Indians, formerly occupying the
vicinity. In the sand disconnected with the soil were random stone
implements. By dint of long and patient search Mr. Volk discovered in
the gravels beneath two fragments of human bones and one or two prob-
lematic pebbles, suggesting human workmanship, but not positively. On
this basis Putnam assumed three culture periods for the Delaware Valley,
the oldest preceding the last advance of the ice, the second during the
final retreat of the ice, and lastly the historic period.

It will be noted that the data for the first period consist of little
more than a single find and, as may be expected, have been looked upon
with extreme skepticism. No faunistic associates were found in the
gravels except a fragment of a scapula, which may be musk ox, though it
can not be positively distinguished from bison or even domestic ox.

THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN 237

Altogether these are not adequate data for establishing a culture period.
Fifteen years of subsequent observation by Mr. Volk have failed to
bring anything more to light, and also, since it is not clear that the
gravels in which these bones were found were undisturbed by post-glacial
floods, we must consider the case as far from proved.

This brings us to the middle sand layer, which enjoys the distinc-
tion of being the only archeological find so far reported that has a fair
claim to antiquity. Mr. Volk ran a series of trenches in one part of the
site, discovering some fragmentary human bones and a number of stone
implements. The variety of artifacts indicated a cultural difference
from those found in the black soil above and as they appeared to be
made from argillite, the assumed culture was designated as Argillite
culture. After this definite result Mr. Volk did not trench further, but
rested his case.

Mr. Volk’s claim for the antiquity of this layer was generally rejected
cn assumed geological grounds. In brief, it was regarded as a wind
deposit of comparatively recent formation, most of the artifacts havy-
ing merely “settled” down from the black soil above. Failure to meet
either of these objections would waive all just claim to antiquity. As
no further trenching was reported, the case necessarily stood as not
proven and interest in the site was lost.

After an interim of about ten years, Dr. C. C. Abbott, owner of the
site and its original discoverer, invited the American Museum of Nat-
ural History to reexamine the deposit. This resulted in a more sys-
tematic investigation which gives us data of a more positive kind. The
trial trenching was carried on by Mr. Alanson Skinner and the strati-
graphic work by Mr. Leslie Spier. The report of Mr. Spier fully agrees
with Mr. Volk’s observations, but presents some new problems. Mr.
Spier discovered that the vertical distribution of the artifacts in this
yellow sand took the form of a normal frequency curve. It was then
possible to compare with precision the series from the various trenches
and also with the former data of Mr. Volk. By this triumph of method
it was shown that through the deposit extends one plane of maximum
frequency around which the artifacts fall in a normal frequency curve.
Pebbles of appreciable size were found in the sand and two series for
these showed that they also had the same frequency curve with approxi-
mately the same average. In other words, the series for artifacts is
the same as the pebble series, the former being but worked pebbles.
Hence, the same agency that deposited the pebbles also deposited the
stone implements. While man could have carried the artifacts and
dropped them on a wind-growing sand dune, it is inconceivable that he
should have carried the pebbles, for they are many times more numerous
than the worked stones. Further, a recent study of known wind and
water deposits by a geologist shows that the normal frequency curve for

238 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY °

coarse grains of sand is characteristic of water deposits, but not of wind-
carried material.

Therefore, the archeological brief for this case may be said to be in.
It shows artifacts of stones deposited in a definite way agreeing with our
present knowledge of water deposits. These artifacts are distinct from
and below the cultural débris of the Indians living here at the discovery
of America, and are therefore older. The age of the deposit is a geolog-
ical problem which awaits further investigation, but as a water deposit
it must be not later than the last recession of the ice from Northern
New Jersey.

While this case has thus come to a definite pass and stands so far as
the best evidence for an ancient culture in America, it still presents
some of the characteristics noted at the outset. It also is in a sense a
random deposit of isolated specimens, selected and carried by a natural
agency. Under such conditions the cultural association of the objects
can not readily be determined, and until a camp site of this culture is
uncovered and identified there will be a general hesitancy to accept the
result noted above. The case of the Delaware Valley is thus about the
same as that for the Pacific coast, and in contrast to the condition in
western Europe, where we have definite camp deposits, is rather discon-
certing. At least it presents a serious problem that calls for new methods
and far less slipshod field-work than some of our professed anthropolo-
gists have perpetrated in the past. On the other hand, local collectors in
every part of the country should be encouraged to put their discoveries
on record, even their isolated finds, and to examine all cuts and excaya-
tions in the old river terraces of their respective communities, because
the accumulation of even isolated finds may ultimately pilot us to the
long sought original deposits. As in Europe, the solution of the prob-
lem will depend upon the joint efforts of individuals residing in many
localities and not upon the work of a single individual.

CHANGSHA AND THE CHINESE 239

CHANGSHA AND THE CHINESE

By Dr. ALFRED C. REED

SAN FRANCISCO

ERHAPS to western eyes no feature of the seething life of the orient
presents so strange and unexpected a contrast, so weird and start-
ling an experience, as a first entrance into a Chinese walled city. China
is to-day a land of contrasts, where the west and its civilization is sharply
juxtaposed to the most ancient and conservative east. Like a wasp’s nest
a walled city from outside betrays no part of the swarming host within.
A plain gray stone or brick wall alone is visible, so near the earth color
that it is hardly to be separated from the other features of a monotonous
brown landscape, were it not for the notched summit, an occasional gilded
roof within, and the better view afforded where a chance hill may lift the
wall into full perspective. In this latter case it stands out grim and sug-
gestive of the age-long resistance of inertia, the colorless passive indif-
ference of the race that fashioned it.

But this old Chinese wall has other qualities. Its fifteen to thirty
feet of height and its solid ten to fifty foot width may represent the
inertia and egotistic passivity of its makers, but they represent with equal
truth those factors which have preserved the racial integrity of the Chi-
nese and made them conquer their conquerors time and again through
history, by extending apparent defeat into a slow process of absorption
and assimilation. If the first view of the walled city reveals only the
wall, and that in its somberest, most uninviting colors, so does the first
contact with the race show only the instinctive racial opposition and
contempt, the masking stolidity, indifference and hostility which sur-
round like a grim gray wall the qualities of humanity, altruism and
receptivity which are found in the Chinese at their best.

But now to leave the rich countryside, the broad winding river, the
clumps of bamboos and camphor trees, the grave-covered brown hills,
and the valleys and low places with their crowding paddy fields and
vegetable patches—and to enter the tunnel-like runway with its massive
iron gates which leads through the wall into the city. Once inside, a new
world, strangely different from any other world, swallows up the spec-
tator. The street is narrow, perhaps not over ten or twelve feet in width,
and filled with a confused swarm of Chinese. No sidewalks, no horses,
no carts, wagons, automobiles or street cars have any place here. In-
stead, coolies with baskets hanging from poles across their shoulders,
wooden-wheeled barrows innocent of grease, rattling iron-tired rickshaws,
an occasional sedan chair, multitudes of pedestrians, and underfoot dogs,

240 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY |

many pigs and children in all stages of dress and dirt—this fills the
scene. Little sunlight penetrates the narrow crooked street, because from
the one- and two-story buildings on either side, matting, thatch and bam-
boo awnings almost completely cover in the tunnel-like cation. Then too
the perpendicular hanging scrolls and cloths which replace the western
advertising signs, help shut out the light.

In such a scene does one find himself on entering Changsha through
almost any one of its eight gates. Before going on to describe more
minutely the strange drama of life within this great and wealthy old
city, it may be well to orientate Changsha in place, time and interest.
The geography of China has been recarved within the past few years. A
glance at the accompanying sketch map will show that the eighteen
provinces of China proper form a rough circle surrounded on the one side
by the sea and on the other by the wild, desert-like, largely unexplored
subsidiary territories of Manchuria, Mongolia, Sinkiang and Tibet.
Looking again at the eighteen provinces, it is seen that the province of
Hunan is but slightly south and east of the real center of China. The
district of the eighteen provinces is divided into three parts by mountains
extending in a general east and west direction, separating the valley of
the Yang-tze river in the middle from the valley of the Hwangho to the
north, and from the southern tier of provinces, Yunnan, Kwangsi,
Kwangtung and Fukien, on the south. Hunan is thus not only near
the geographical center of the provinces, but it lies in the central one of
the three great physical divisions of China, and about midway in the
course of the great Yang-tze through China.

The only approach to Hunan is through the valley of the great river,
although the Peking-Canton railway, now under construction, will open
a route directly south through the mountains to Canton. Hunan prov-
ince, comprising a territory of 84,000 square miles, an area about equal
to Kansas, has some 22 million people. Half of the province is occu-
pied by the valley of the Siang river which flows into the Tung Ting
lake in the north of Hunan, the largest lake in China. This river valley
has extreme fertility and is densely populated. The upper half of it is
tributary in trade to Siangtan, a city of 400,000 about thirty miles
above Changsha. The head of navigation for the larger river steamers
on the Siang is Changsha, 200 miles above Hankow. Except for the
term of low water in January and February, large vessels can reach
this point with ease the year around, and a regular daily passenger
service is in operation between the two ports.

Hunan is a mining and agricultural province, but the mineral re-
sources have been so far scarcely more than scratched. The mountains of
the southern half contain enormous deposits of coal, chiefly bituminous,
but with some anthracite, as well as abundant limestone, iron, copper, tin
and antimony, and to a smaller extent lead, manganese and silver. The

CHANGSHA AND THE CHINESE 241

Hunan antimony deposits are among the richest in the world. The
Huachang Smelting Company in Changsha has a capacity of ten tons
per day of this metal. The original plant of this company was im-
ported from France and yielded but two tons a day, but the machinery
was copied and enlarged in Changsha by native workmen to its present
capacity. The establishment of two new antimony plants in Hunan is
now under consideration.

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Neither in mining nor in agricultural products, however, do the ex-
ports show a fair deveiopment, either in raw material, by-products or
specialized products. Wood-oil, tea and groundnut oil, hemp, tobacco
and rice, with a great variety of beans, are the chief crops for export.
The province is a valuable source of timber, a commodity all too rare in

VOL. 117.

THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

242

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THE CITy OF CHAN

CHANGSHA AND THE CHINESE 243

China where the short-sighted policy of indiscriminate deforestation
causes the most disastrous floods the world knows. Even here no syste-
matic reforesting is encouraged or practiced. Large rafts are made up
at certain points on the Siang river where the pine, fir, laurel, camphor
and other logs are collected from the various tributaries. These rafts,
which are really floating villages, go down the river with the current,
and the timber is distributed throughout the Yang-tze valley. The
bamboo grows wild over the mountains of Hunan and is sent out of the
province like other timber. Its smoky, feathery foliage, interspersed
with an occasional camphor or palm tree, is ‘one of the most beautiful
sights observed. The bamboo shoots attain their maximum height in the
first season and later years merely add to the thickness of the stalk.
The bamboo in its first year rivals the banana in rapidity of growth.

Hunan produces a large cotton crop, especially in the northwestern
section. The original seed came from America, but the stock has
depreciated and the cotton is of very inferior quality. It can be bought
in the street market for about ten cents gold per pound. Tobacco too
is raised in large quantity, but its quality is poor. The Chinese is a
prodigious smoker, at least in so far as pertains to the time spent on the
habit. In Changsha the large, cumbersome water pipe is universal and
indispensable for every class of society. A small wisp of tobacco shay-
ings is placed in the bowl of the pipe, ignited with a fuse which is
blown into a flame, and the smoke is inhaled at one or two puffs. The
process is repeated ad infinitum. The pipe is passed around in every
group of men, and women too, and each takes a whiff. For those excep-
tional ones who are too busy to manipulate their own pipes, a special
pubhce pipe with a long stem is available. This is carried about by a
street vender, loaded with a wisp of tobacco, lighted, and the stem put
into the mouth of the customer who takes his whiff without taking his
eves or attention from the matter in hand. A slender straight pipe is
also used and cigarettes are increasingly frequent. The women and girls
enjoy the pastime as much as the men, and in a land where everything
is upside down or backwards, the custom seems neither strange nor
unseemly.

The poor quality of cotton produced illustrates the entire ineptitude
of the Chinese on his native heath or rather paddy field in introducing
new or improved methods or agricultural products. Changsha is
adapted in soil and climate for all sorts of citrus fruits, but the oranges
are of the poorest, the best obtainable being imported, and foreign
lemons are unknown. ‘The native lemon is a 'arge, coarse, slightly
bitter fruit. Grape fruit are not found, but pomeloes are abundant and
occasionally quite good. Kyen where good orange and lemon stock has
been introduced, the farmers will not give proper care or learn better
methods of production. The result is a rapid deterioration of imported
stock and an extremely poor grade of native stock.

244 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY |

KULING MouNTAIN, Summer Resort of Foreigners.

Of the rich and central province of Hunan, Changsha is the capital,
lying in north latitude 28 degrees and 30 minutes, about even with
Tampa, Florida, and 800 miles inland from Shanghai by river. It is
the largest city of the province, having a population somewhere between
three and five hundred thousand, and ranks among the oldest, wealth-
iest and best built cities of China. The Siang river gives it free com-
munication by water with Hankow and thence by rail and water with
Peking and Shanghai. The water life of China is among its most pictu-
resque features, and the Changsha bund furnishes a kaleidoscopic re-
view of the incoming and outgoing traffic. This city is fortunate above
most Chinese cities in having near at hand very extensive quarries of
excellent granite, which, cut in huge blocks, sixteen inches wide, six
inches thick and from three to six feet long, supphes paving for the
streets, building material for many of the more modern edifices and a
lasting fabric for the sea-wall which protects the city and its bund
from incursions of the river. This wall extends for three miles, averag-
ing between twenty and forty feet in height and at frequent intervals
having broad granite steps leading down to low-water level, so that, as
the river rises, the boats merely come alongside a higher step. The
large river steamers from Hankow and way-ports are docked alongside
floating hulks which are anchored and chained in the deep water off the
bund. From the hulk which acts as a landing stage, ticket office,
freight depot and waiting room combined, a pontoon foot bridge leads
ashore. These hulk-docks are characteristic features of the Yang tze
steamer system.

Chinese river life is a world in itself, and the Changsha bund pre-
sents a never-ending and constantly changing panorama of water craft
and river population. The great lumber rafts pass here, many a hun-

CHANGSHA AND THE CHINESE 245

dred and two hundred yards‘in length, with their thousands of logs
bound together with split bamboo withes, and surmounted by the
thatched huts of the numerous crew and their more numerous families.
The whole unwieldy mass of logs or bamboo is propelled in a variety of
ways and at an infinitesimal speed. For time, like human life and
labor, is of no account in China. Sometimes a long woven bamboo or
hempen cable is stretched ashore ahead, and from twenty to fifty men
pull. If the wind favors, a multitude of sails, large and small and of
all colors, springs up in a variegated crop. Sometimes a huge sand
anchor is fixed in the mud several hundred yards ahead and by means of
a creaking wooden windlass, the raft is drawn up to it. Thus the rafts
are taken up stream as well as down. There are also men and boys
punting with bamboo poles, and innumerable sculls, working sampan-
fashion, with often a half-dozen coolies swinging on one oar. The
sampan oar is a curious affair and the Oriental method of rowing, the
oarsman facing forward and standing erect, with short quick choppy
strokes, is totally different from ours.

The Chinese houseboat is a commodious flat-bottomed structure
with blunt ends, a high galleon-like stern, a tremendous sail-spread for
a draught of but two or three feet, and it general style of architecture
might well be descended from the time of Noah. Like all Chinese boats,
the houseboat is provided with a pair of brightly painted eyes, else how
could it see to make its leisurely way through the thronging fleet of
river craft? In the junk and houseboat the steersman sits under an
arching roof which covers in the stern and permits no vision to the
sides or forward. He steers by land-marks astern and has an uninter-
rupted view of everything he has passed. This system works very well
in the day time when other members of his crew or family are watching
ahead, but at night it is not so successful and the situation is aggra-

TRAVELING IN THE COUNTRY MOUNTAIN CHAIRS, passing a paddy field.

246 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

vated by the entire absence of lights. Unlighted junks with only the
steersman awake and no look-out ahead are the bane of the river steamers
above Hankow and collisions are frequent.

Another feature of the water life is the cormorant fisher. This indi-
vidual owns a sampan with a long fore and aft roost, on which are
perched from five to twenty cormorants. Each bird has an iron ring
around its throat which is just tight enough to keep it from swallowing
a fish. The birds dive overboard, catch the fish and are hauled back with
the prey in their mouths. Of other river industries, mention must be

TOMB AND SHRINE NEAR CHANGSHA

made of the duck farmers. It is no uncommon thing to see a solid mass of
ducks, like a great raft, go quacking by, the column being held in shape
and steered by a couple of sampans whose owners beat the water with
long slender bamboo rods, and frighten the ducks into the straight and
narrow path to market. Some of these flocks number from five to ten
thousand birds, and so tightly are they wedged together that when an
occasional duck is squeezed upon top of the main layer it must scramble
to the edge of the flock to get its feet into the water again.

The Changsha city wall is about five miles in circuit and its broad
summit provides barracks for many troops. The outer edge is raised

into a granite and brick escarpment or parapet, from four to ten feet

CHANGSHA AND THE CHINESE 247

higher than the level summit, through which numerous embrasures
allowed the defenders to manipulate their artillery under protection from
an enemy’s fire. These old guns are dismantled now, but hundreds of
them cast in various parts of Europe as well as China, are lying about,
eaten with rust, and disregarded. Like most city walls, this one has an
outer and an inner wall of brick or granite, and the intervening space
of ten to eighty feet is filled with dirt. One old cannon is still mounted
on the wooden trucks from which it helped defend the city against the
Taipings. This is the gun which killed the Taiping general and a shed
has been placed over it, together with an inscription telling why the
people still worship it.

History states that Changsha was founded during the Han dynasty,
one of the most glorious in Chinese annals, which flourished from 200
B.c. to about A.p. 200. The original wall has long since succumbed to

GRAVE-COVERED HILL AND A FARM HOUSE.

siege and assault, and there is little about the city except its graves to
bear evident witness to its antiquity. It is almost unique in never hav-
ing been pillaged or looted. As the capital and largest city of Hunan
it attracts many of the wealthy class and the gentry, who select it as a
desirable place of residence. Since being made a treaty port, the
foreign community has steadily grown, until now there are over 200
Americans, British, Germans and other Europeans resident in the city
or on the long sandy island lying in the river opposite. It is from the
three-mile length of this island that the city takes its name, Changsha,
or “long sand.” On the island are the British Consulate and the
residence of the commissioner of customs and other foreigners.

Great Britain, Germany and the United States maintain consulates
in Changsha. The foreigners in the city are divided between the thir-
teen missions, seven German firms, five British, two Japanese, and one

248 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

AN EMBRASURE ON THE CITY WALL,

each American, Belgian and French. The American hong or business
house is the Standard Oil Company branch, which is easily holding its
own against its powerful oriental rivals. In 1913 a half of the total im-
portation of kerosene was American, Changsha has a Chinese and a
Japanese post-office.

Across the river from the city rises the beautiful wooded hill of
Yolosan. With an altitude of but 800 feet above sea level at Shanghai,
this mountain still gives a magnificent view over the hilly country on
every side, and the river and city at its foot. On it is a large stone
tablet, the Yu Pei, which recites the tale of the mastery of the vast
floods which once inundated enormous sections of central China. This
tablet was erected by the great Yu, founder of the Hsia dynasty, 2205
B. c. On the southern slope of Yolosan is a large high school, in which
are Confucian and Buddhist temples. The mountain is heavily timbered
from here to the Taoist temple on the summit.

Changsha is an educational center of importance. It boasts about
thirty prominent schools, most of which are public and are maintained
at least to a considerable degree by the government. It is to these
schools that the people of the entire province look for an opportunity to
study western civilization and methods. The Changsha educational
system has an influence on 22 millions of people and is a controlling
factor in their leadership and views. In this connection it is of course
to be remembered that even in these so-called modern schools the old
Chinese idea prevails, that the students and not the faculty are in con-
trol, and that a superficial smattering knowledge is too apt to replace
genuine, thoroughgoing scholarship. These Chinese cares more for ap-
pearance, for a smooth and glittering surface, for an apparent acquaint-

CHANGSHA AND THE CHINESE 249

ance with western learning, than he does for the genuine substrata that
alone make possible the real western civilization. These traits appear
just as prominently in the educational system as they do in the indus-
tries, the government and the ordinary every-day life of the people.

In Changsha are five normal schools, one called a high normal
school and the others simply numbered from one to four. The latter
prepare teachers for the primary schools, while the high normal fits them
to teach in the middle schools. Board and tuition are provided free and
the enrollment in each is about 400. In the high normal the average
student age is twenty-two years; in the other four it is about nineteen.

The largest, and in popular estimation one of the best, of the middle
schools is the Chang Tsuen, with an attendance of 1,200 students. Here
too the tuition is free to Hunanese. Next in size are the Hunan Pro-
vincial Middle School and the Ming Teh School with 400 students each.
The average age in these is sixteen years. The Higher Technical
School of Hunan has an enrollment of 900, averaging twenty-one years
of age. With lower requirements, are the middle and primary technical
schools. In these are offered such courses as railroad and civil engineer-
ing, mining, architecture, chemistry and physics, and their laboratory
equipment is fair. There are two commercial schools with 200 students
each where business correspondence and book-keeping receive major
emphasis.

The University of Hunan, with 400 students, makes a specialty of
Chinese and foreign literature, politics and law. A railroad school,
supported by the provincial government, has 600 students. There is
too a school of communications, attended by a hundred boys, whose
time is spent chiefly on the Tibetan and Mongolian languages. <A
police school, enrolling 500, prepares for positions on the police force.

Roor ScENE, showing flat tiles and ‘“ Saitai”’ or roof platforms for drying clothes.

250 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

CHANGSHA BUND.

There are a dozen institutions giving instruction in polities and law,
and they are well attended, for the Chinese ever has an impelling
desire to become a public official and fatten off the land. <A school of
agriculture has 400 students, and in the future ought to be influential
in improving this industry. Eight free primary public schools are
maintained for both boys and girls. The average age in these is nine
years and each school has about 250 pupils. Changsha has in addition
about a dozen girls’ schools with free tuition and each divided into
three sections, normal, preparatory and primary. Chief emphasis is put
on the study of Chinese and a counterpart in name at least of our own
“domestic science” courses, the girls learning the various household
arts and crafts.

Practical education is not an end in itself with the Chinese, but is .
merely auxiliary and always subsidiary to moral development. At least
this is the attitude assumed in regard to it. But the educational system,
like many other things Chinese, makes an imposing array on paper and
in reports, while, judged by its efficiency and its output, it is a weak and
inefficient institution. The old Chinese classical system has gone out,
but so far the new learning has left only a surface mark and has in no
sense filled the abyss left by the destruction of the old. The formule
and the symbols are found, but the spirit and the scholarship have not
yet taken root.

Life in the midst of a Chinese city offers many distractions to a mind
bowed down with the weight of domestic woes and misunderstanding servants,
the unbelievable difficulties of the currency or lack of currency, the unlearnable

language, and all the multitude of vexations and torments which like a cloud of
greedy mosquitoes, seek the fresh blood of the newcomer.!

1A. C, Reed, ‘‘ New York to Changsha,’’ Pomona College Alumni Quarterly,
June, 1914.

CHANGSHA AND THE CHINESE 251

Not contented with one coinage, the industrious Chinese has several
kinds, in fact many kinds, and practically none are current beyond
a more or less restricted district. Usually the Mexican silver dollar is
good anywhere, unless it is filled with lead, or counterfeit, or “* chopped,”
one of which conditions usually prevails. Hach province issues dollars
and they are variously discounted by other provinces. Another unit is
ealled the tael, which is supposed to be a definite weight of silver, no
coin being minted of this value, but even this standard varies from time
to time and from place to place. The daily business of the people is
conducted entirely in “cash.” Paper cash exchange fluctuates widely,
a dollar being worth from 1,300 to 1,800 paper cash. The paper cash
and cash notes have been abolished in Changsha in favor of the copper
eash. Each copper is worth ten cash, but the exchange rate again varies
from 1,300 to 1,600 cash per dollar. A great obstacle to monetary re-
form in China is the banking and money exchange class, which makes a
fat living off the exchange and is loath to see its profits disappear with
a stable currency.

The Chinese language too is a topsy-turvy thing, differing radically
in its construction and expression from anything western. Many years
of hard study are necessary for a foreigner to gain a working knowl-
edge of it. Chinese from neighboring localities are frequently entirely
unintelligible to each other. The language is devoid of grammar, rule
and reason: innocent of syntax and logic. It has a varying number of
tones or inflections which are as essential in pronunciation as the word
itself. The Hunanese are blessed with but five tones, but in Kwantung
and Szechuen there are eleven. In Hunan there is a level high tone, a
level low tone, a falling tone, a high and a low-pitched rising tone. 'T’o
ignore tone is never to learn Chinese. The same word in a different
tone has a totally different meaning. It is a language which children

Py Rite sre EF

A TEMPLE COURT.

252 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

learn to speak easily, but which
adults must study with the help
of a musical scale.

When tone and syllable are cor-
rect there is the further matter
of aspiration to be remembered.
Whether to aspirate or not to
aspirate is a question of equal im-
portance with that of proper tone.
Having learned several thousand
words, all of which are monosyl-
labic and in Hunan ending with a
vowel, there is the difficult subject
of idiom to be mastered. On the
proper arrangement of words in
the sentence depends its intelligi-
bility and often its meaning.
Chinese idiom is a bug-bear few
foreigners successfully overcome.
For instance, having found the
right words, and given them cor-
rect tone and aspiration, imagine
an idiom which in order to say,
“T am afraid the young gentlemen
’ says
literally, “ Apprehend fear young
sir see not up I this piece man.”
Again for our generic word

AN AIRING IN THE CIty. * thing,’ the Chinese says, “one
piece east-west.” If in desperation
one falls into the horrors of “ pigeon-English,” still is to be remem-

will not be pleased with me,’

?

bered the remark of an applicant for the position of cook in a certain
foreign family in which were seven ladies and one gentleman. The
would-be cook on learning this astonishing fact, said in good pigeon-
English, “One piecee he, seven piecee she, too muchee she, no can do.”

Of the thirteen missions in Changsha, there is one which represents
a unique and typically American movement, whose spirit and idea is
engaging the interest and active support of a rapidly widening group of
people. This is the Yale Mission, a movement founded and supported
by an incorporated society of Yale alumni and faculty, and established
on certain fundamental principles whose recognition in university
circles is distinctly modern. ‘These principles take account, on the one
hand, of the critical need in China to-day of certain qualities and a type
of men which Christian western civilization can produce, and, on the

CHANGSHA AND THE CHINESE 253

other hand, there is due recogni-
tion of the unique opportunity of
a great American university to
supply this need in a most prac-
tical and statesmanlike manner.
The movement gathers enthusiastic
support from a widening circle of
men and women of large philan-
thropy and missionary zeal in the
broadest sense of the word.
Yale-in-China has no evangel-
istic activities. It is not entering
on the field of the established mis-
sionary organizations. It is not
in rivalry with the church move-
ments. It is not isolated from the
spirit of modern missions. It is,
contrariwise, in most cordial agree-
ment and sympathy with every
activity seeking the moral, phys-
ical and spiritual betterment of
the Chinese, and it has the co-
operation and support of the
established societies. It is not
duplicating the work of others,
nor crowding an old field of ac-
tivity. It is entering a field
previously untouched and giving tO Summer CostumME, TeMPERATURE 110°.
the Chinese of Hunan the best
spirit, methods and Christian culture of the best type of American uni-
versity, and giving to a growing number of American university men

and women an opportunity for practical benevolence with no restric-
tion of creed, dogma or self-intere t. So attractive is the idea of this
movement that it has already been copied in other universities and is
forming a recognized form of modern social service and benevolence.
The work of Yale-in-China is two-fold, educational and medical. Or
better, its work is purely educational, in two lines, academic and medi-
cal. In the ten years of its history to date, a carefully graded and fully
staffed college preparatory department has been established, from which
four classes have been graduated. The first freshman class in the col-
lege department entered in the fall of 1914. There are now 200 stu-
dents and a faculty of eight Americans with a large staff of Chinese
instructors. Practically all the instruction is given in English, except
the first two years. An increasing interest is shown by the Yale boys in

N

54 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY |

MEDICAL STAFF AND GRADUATE NURSES OF YALE HOSPITAL.

things athletic, and under competent coaching they usually sweep the
field in the interscholastic and provincial field-meets held in Changsha.
A modern gymnasium is badly needed to supplement and facilitate the
present courses in physical culture. The Chinese student is typically
of defective physique, poor muscular development and with a strong
predisposition to circulatory and pulmonary diseases. When given the
opportunity, however, he takes as eagerly to athletic sports as his west-
ern brother of the American universities, and there is an immediate and
corresponding improvement in his scholarship and his physique.

The Yale medical work comprises an extensive plant. Two hos-
pitals are maintained, the Yale Hospital of 75 beds for women, and the
Red Cross Hospital of 100 beds for men. Each hospital has. a good
clinical laboratory and operating equipment. At the Yale Hospital are
the offices of the medical staff, the library, printing press and research
laboratories. Each hospital has a modern pharmacy. The medical
staff numbers six physicians and will be increased to ten within the near
future. Two nurses’ training schools are in operation under the super-
vision of two American graduate nurses. Regular instruction is given
in both schools, for men and women, respectively, in pract:cal and theo-
retical subjects.

At the initiative of the Chinese, arrangements have now been made
for a definite contractual agreement between a Chinese corporation and
Yale for the support of a modern medieal college. The Chinese are
furnishing land, school buildings, and money for operation, while Yale
is to furnish the staff. Finally the China medical board of the Rocke-

CHANGSHA AND THE CHINESE

N

on
on

feller Foundation has given the salaries of six new teachers in the
medical college. This opens limitless possibilities and is the first co-
operative movement of the sort to be instituted in China. The plan,
moreover, has the hearty endorsement and support of the Peking
government.

The Yale medical and educational work is temporarily housed in
Chinese buildings in the center of Changsha. But within a year or two
the entire plant will be moved to the fine new campus just outside the
north gate of the city. The new buildings are now being erected there
under the direction of an American architectural engineer. A new
modern hospital of 120 beds, to be one of the best equipped in Asia, will
adjoin the new Yale campus. The hospital will cost about $200,000
and will be especially fitted for the practice of modern medicine and
surgery, for research and for teaching.

Changsha is coming to be a commercial center for Hunan. The
development of export and import trade in central China is of very
recent origin. Ieretofore each province has imitated China as a whole
in attempting to restrict buying and selling to purely domestic trans-
actions. So there are still found inter-provincial customs barriers, and
all too often, embargoes on the exportation of rice or other staples from
one province to another. ‘These feudal traits are rapidly disappearing as
the country enters on its era of railroad building and as western men
and methods become more influential.

Changsha manufactures in large quantity furniture, gold and silver
articles, and coarse paper. Much pewter of varying grades of hard-
ness is made from locally mined tin and lead. The ordinary grades
have equal parts of tin and lead or two parts tin to one of lead. A

A GROUP OF CHILDREN, patients in the Changsha Yale Hospital.

256 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY |

harder pewter is made by the addition of copper and antimony. Tin
is extensively used for all manner of cooking utensils, water and oil
cans, stove pipes and similar articles. Large quantities are also used
for lining packing boxes and storage chests for summer, when it is neces-
sary to protect against the dampness and heat, when mould covers shoes
and gloves over night, and only the essentials are left out of the sealed
tin-lined cases.

The first year of the republic was one of exceptional prosperity in
Hunan and the general trade of Changsha improved correspondingly.
For the year 1913, the Chinese customs report showed merchandise
movements totalling taels 22,038,368, or about $306,088 United States
gold. The increasing popularity of foreign-style houses was shown by
a 50 per cent. increase in the importation of window glass. The copper
supply is chiefly Hunanese in origin and comes to Changsha in the form
of copper ingots to be worked up in the local mint into ten-cash pieces.
Changsha exports may be divided into various groups. First among
these come articles bought by foreign merchants for export abroad, such
as ores and metals; white, yellow, green and broad beans; pig bristles ;
fresh eggs; feathers, hemp, hides, nut-galls; tea and wood oils; vege-
table tallow and varnish. Second are articles exported by Chinese firms
for domestic use, such as arsenic, bamboo shoots, black beans, coke-pre-
served eggs, fire crackers, grass-cloth, lard (to the Chinese in Straits
Settlements), lotus nuts, medicines, nankeens, inferior paper, steel bars,
tobacco and paper umbrellas. The third class includes articles bought
by Chinese merchants for sale to foreign merchants in other lines, such
as fire crackers, human hair, hemp, tea and tea stalks. A large pro-
portion of the enormous production of fire crackers in Changsha finds
its way through Canton to America for the Fourth of July.

Changsha has always been a hot-bed of rebellion and political unrest,
but the purely local disturbances of the last five years probably owe
much to Japanese instigation. The Japanese are throughout China and
their influence is a constantly growing peril of the future. In June of
1913, Hunan declared its independence, but vigorous and effective meas-
ures taken by Governor Tang, a new appointee of President Yuan Shih-
kai, and his 3,000 northern soldiers, very completely destroyed all illu-
sions in the minds of the Hunanese as to their integral share, not only
in the benefits, but also in the burdens of national and racial China.
Governor Tang has had several years’ residence and study in France
and his acquaintance with western civilization makes him a strong
factor in restraining the powerful reactionary element and in moderat-
ing the excessive zeal of the progressives of the half-assimilated west-
ern learning cult. In this as in most of China’s political disorders, the
common people have had little part and less interest. So near does the
coolie or farmer live to actual starvation, and so tenuous is his margin

CHANGSHA AND THE CHINESE 257

of safety, that he has neither thought nor interest for any affairs not
connected with his daily toil for actual food. He cares not who rules,
nor how well or wisely, unless his own little sphere of daily activity is
jarred. When it is, there are disturbances of a widespread and icono-
clastic nature.

Illustrative of this fact were the last riots which occurred in Chang-
sha in the spring of 1910. The cause was not primarily an anti-foreign
sentiment, but the lack of rice and the high prices to which the avail-
able supply was forced. The people blamed the governor for having
permitted exportation of rice to other provinces, with good Chinese
logic ignoring the inherent fallacy in the supposition that exportation
of a staple article begets an unsatisfiable demand for it. As so easily
happens with the conservative ignorance of this race, such an economic
necessity immediately took the form of anti-foreign hostility. A demon-
stration against the governor’s yamen thus turned almost naturally into
genuine rioting at the mission compounds and the custom house. The
Norwegian, Wesleyan and Catholic missions and the custom house were
burned. The governor having fled, the lower provincial officers did not
stop the rioting for two days. Foreigners were not attacked, but much
property was destroyed, for which indemnity was later paid, the rioters
never being punished.

To understand the Chinese character and to arrive at some reliable
method for forecasting China’s future, it is essential that several com-
ponent factors be recognized. First and chief among these is the
record and influence of the past. Nowhere do custom and precedent
have such complete mastery as in China. The central element in
Chinese life is reverence and obligation to ancestors. Indeed Maeter-
linck’s spirits of the dead would be constantly vivified in China, for
the Chinese have them ever in mind. This sentiment is extended also
to the ancestors’ words and deeds. The critical weight of history and
precedent in determining the reaction of the Chinese mind to a certain
stimulus can not be exaggerated. The second factor is the condition of
China in respect of religious beliefs. As Bland puts it,?

There is the courage of an endurance almost superhuman in the lives of
China’s toiling millions, but the pathos and the poetry of a religion which re-
deems other Asiatic races from the heaviest penalties of materialism, have been
sacrificed in Confucianism to the worship of genius, to an ethical system which
contents itself with defining man’s relation to man, and leaves him without en-
thusiasms, almost without curiosity, for the inner life and mysteries of worlds
unseen, ... The unity of the family and the state, the worship of ancestors,
the three relations, and the paramount duty of labor,—these are the unshaken
tenets of the Chinaman’s creed, the sum and substance of his philosophy and
religion.

The third factor embodies the present economic and sociological

2 Bland, J. O. P., ‘‘Recent Events and Present Policies in China,’’ p. 19.

VOL. 11.—18.

258 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

condition of China. The overcrowding of population in cities is tre-
mendous and everywhere the daily struggle for enough rice to last till
the next day consumes all the energy and interest of the average man.
The burden of Confucianism puts a premium on male children who will
keep alive the parents’ memory in their ancestor worship. Early mar-
riages and an unbelievably high birth-rate play an unmeasured part in
the physical inferiority so common. In this connection, it remains to
be seen if improved sanitation, and measures for health conservation
and for decreasing infant mortality, will in China be attended by a sub-
stantial reduction in the birth-rate.

The fourth factor is the kind of leaders China can produce in a crisis
such as the present. The specific form of government which may be
established is of minor importance. The great thing is the character
of the men who control it. As always, character is everything and the
particularized form of expression of ideas and ideals on paper is inci-
dental. This latter failing for redundant verbiage and the recording of
noble and altruistic sentiments of government and private living which
have no connection with the actual practice of such excellent precepts,
is a characteristic weakness of the Chinese. This is illustrated by an
extract from a decree of the late Empress Dowager, Tz’ Ann, given at
Sianfu on January 28, 1901, after the sacking of Peking and the court’s
flight to Shensi, following the collapse of the Boxer movement.

The chief defect of our administration is undoubtedly too close an adher-
ence to obsolete methods. The result is a surfeit of commonplace and inefficient
officials, and a deplorable lack of men of real talent. Men of real ability are
prevented from coming to the front by the mass of inefficiency which blocks the
way. Our whole system of government has come to grief through corruption,
and the first steps of progress in our empire are clogged by the fatal word ‘‘pre-
cedent.’’ Up to the present the study of European methods has gone no further
than a superficial knowledge of the language, literature and mechanical arts of
the west, but it must be evident that these things are nct the essentials upon
which European civilization has been founded. China has hitherto been con-
tent to acquire the rudiments of European language or technicalities, while
changing nothing of her ancient habits of inefficiency and deep-rooted corrup-

tion. Ignoring our real needs, we have so far taken from Europe nothing but
externals.3

These words apply to China with equal force to-day. Whether there
are in the present time of change and unrest the seeds of permanent
change and a genuine desire for thorough domestic housecleaning, time
only can tell. China lacks leaders, men with “purposeful will-power,”
not self-appointed, but produced by the national emergency, and pre-
pared by a life conforming to the very principles of honor and patriot-
ism which Chinese writers so delight to extol on paper.

The fifth factor is the present relation of China to foreign powers,
considering not only China’s real attitude and desire toward them, but

8 Bland and Backhouse, ‘‘ China under the Empress Dowager,’’ pp. 422.

CHANGSHA AND THE CHINESE 259

also her obligations to them and the demands they may require of her.
Space forbids discussion of this factor at present. ‘To quote once more
from Bland, whose words have prophetic truth,

The Manchus have joined the great company of kings in exile and the
Chinese people are left once again to work out their political salvation. The
difficulties which confront them are intensified by the fact that no longer, as
in the periodical anti-dynastic rebellions of the past, can they hope to reestablish
the normal order by the light of their own devices and instinctive traditions.
The world is too much with them. For good or evil China can no longer be a
law unto herself. She has given hostages to fortune in the shape of European
loans. Now and henceforth her crises and her civil wars are become matters
of concern to the world-family of nations, her disorganization and unrest a
source of danger beyond her borders.

China is indeed but now becoming aware that her age-long isola-
tion is ended, that, irrespective of her inclination, she must assume an
active part in the social fabric of nations, and that the sure penalty of
failure is disintegration.

To-day China needs leaders and can not find them. She needs
money, men and brains, but the greatest need is for men of character.
The opinion is too common that China can do in a decade what required
centuries in Europe. But history presents few real novelties, and
China will not be regenerated or rejuvenated in a single generation.

260 ' THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

THE MALTHUSIAN DOCTRINE AND WAR

By EDWIN W. JAMES

WASHINGTON, D. C.

‘ame habitual pessimist is deservedly without honor even in his own

country. The occasional, though deliberate, pessimist, however,
may be forgiven his unhappy temper of mind because in the times we
live in he provides a pleasing contrast to the garish hues of thought that
prevail. Our thoughts, ike our garments and our conduct, are all
tinted with the gay lights of an irresponsible optimism that can well
endure an occasional dash of somberness if not too violently applied.
Certainly the attainder of pessimism attaches to any one who reverts to
the Malthusian theory in these days of sociological light-heartedness.
It was Carlyle who, impressed by the theory of population advanced by
Malthus, characterized political economy as “ that dismal science.” Thus
did Malthusianism appear pessimistic even to the arch-pessimist.

Malthus produced the second edition of his essay in 1803, five years
after its original appearance; and this second edition is considered the
most complete statement of his theory. ‘Though the essay ran to at
least five editions, no essentials were either altered or elaborated that
had to do with his theory of population.

For many years English economists very generally gave the doctrine
much place in their discussions, though its principles were not pleasant
in their application and led many writers to attack not only the theory,
but even Malthus himself. These attacks became very bitter in some
instances, but were principally supported by sentimentalism and left the
essential basis of the doctrine unscathed. The worst that can be said
of it is that, as applied by Malthus and more especially by such writers
as Say, it produced for the proletariat a gloomy outlook that appeared
at the time incapable of being dispelled.

That the theory of Malthus has in later years come quite generally
to be disregarded is true. But it had its day, when for upwards of a
generation it constituted a theme of persistent discussion. It reached
very general acceptance and finally declined in the notice of economists.
Yet its decline was rather a gentle sinking into desuetude, because of the
very general and remote effects of its operation, than an abandonment
because disproof was furnished of its truth or power. We find Say,
Bowen, Mill, Walker, Marshall, Laughlin, Fisher and more especially
other English economists, accepting the doctrine as originally stated, but
some make no mention of it, considering it perhaps as unimportant now.

THE MALTHUSIAN DOCTRINE AND WAR 261

The Malthusian doctrine shorn of its appurtenances declares the in-
harmonious relation between the increase of population and the increase
of subsistence, and attempts to establish a compatible relation by dem-
onstrating a system of positive and preventive checks ever active and
effective in creating a balance between population and the ordinary
means of subsistence. Malthus reasoned that population tends to in-
crease in a geometrical ratio. The greatest probable value of the terms
of the progression were assumed to be a first term of two, a rate of two
and an interval of twenty-five years between terms. This assumes that
each pair will produce two offspring in twenty-five years. Opposite
this possibility is set that of the greatest reasonable increase in agricul-
tural produce. The law of diminishing returns and observations of
agricultural conditions led to the conclusion that the limit of increase
of food stuffs is an arithmetical ratio. As land can not possibly be
increased, the inharmonious condition potential in these two laws can
only be adjusted by checking the increase of population. Two classes
of checks were enumerated and called, respectively, positive and pre-
ventive checks. Among positive checks were death from malnutrition
or actual starvation, death from the unsanitary conditions of poverty,
and, in general terms, famine, pestilence and war. Preventive checks
were of a uniform sort, appropriately grouped under the single term
moral restraint. Since the post-Napoleonic period, the force of moral
restraint has grown amazingly, until its effect in occidental countries
has been practically to annul all action of the positive checks. It is
doubtless this general fact that has relegated the Malthusian doctrine
to the economic shelf. A hundred years ago the preventive checks were
undoubtedly assigned a much smaller value than what they have since
developed. Under these circumstances, Malthus’s contention that, un-
less preventive checks were made effective, the positive checks would act,
led to the reproaches that were hurled at the dismal Malthusian who
predicted hopeless death from starvation, and made political economy
the object of the scornful description of Carlyle.

Now, the present state of Europe offers a field for interesting re-
fiection in the light of the Malthusian theory. There is no purpose in
this paper to defend any one nation or to justify the conduct of any.
Certainly, on this side of the ocean, the first feeling toward the present
conflict among sensible men was one of deep disgust that civilized
nations could not find a method of settling international questions with-
out resort to arms. But obviously if a single nation insists on such a
mode of settlement, it precipitates the cataclysm of war. Nevertheless,
however sensible men may have felt, that some nation should have re-
sorted to the arbitrament of arms is not without explanation in view of
the potential tendencies involved in the doctrine of Malthus. This
paper concerns itself with pointing out an interesting relation between

262 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY |

the theory of population as demonstrated by Malthus and war as prac-
tised in our times.

Now, it has been stated by an eminent American economist that
economic laws should be considered rather as tendencies, but as tenden-
cies that will certainly become realities unless some other economic
tendencies are set up or artificial conditions created to resist them. Even
then the original tendency is potential, and becomes active the instant
the restraint is removed. If, therefore, mankind has found the effect
of the Malthusian theory apparently negligible, it is because something
has happened to prevent the action of the positive checks. For under
this definition of an economic law we may include the positive checks
of the Malthusian theory. If, therefore, they have remained practically
inoperative since shortly after the time of Malthus, it is because the pre-
ventive checks have been strong enough to restrain them. On examina-
tion, we find such to be the case. The forces that are inclusively desig-
nated moral restraint have in France, among the upper classes in England,
among the native born in New England and, indeed, among the great
upper-middle class of Americans, been so active that the increase in the
number of births relative to the number of deaths has been reduced to a
very small figure.

This fact indicates a force of moral restraint appearing in late mar-
riages and small families, that surpasses any conception held by Malthus
or his immediate followers. Indeed, moral restraint has developed and
become so essential a part of the modus vivendi of mankind that among
the various checks submitted by Malthus it overshadows all others.
Moreover, the reduction of increase of population has been not merely
against a death rate continuing uniform, but against a constantly de-
creasing death rate. While moral restraint has been holding back the
births from an undue excess over deaths, many forces have been acting
to reduce the deaths per thousand of population. With the advance of
the last century, western civilization has become strongly characterized
by a spirit of consideration for the rights of all men to an equality of
opportunity. ‘This spirit has operated in many lines. It has practically
destroyed human slavery; it furnishes penny meals to underfed school
children. Along with moral restraint have gone these other ameliorat-
ing influences. But while that has tended to lessen the increase of
population, these have tended to augment the increase. These influ-
ences are now considered vital elements in our civilization. They are
chiefly embraced in medical and sanitary science and in eleemosynary
institutions. For sixty years the western civilized world has struggled
against nature to reduce the death rate, and the efforts have been at-
tended with a marked degree of success. The discoveries of Lister and
Pasteur have revolutionized medicine, the germ theory of disease gave
a tremendous power of control over contagion and infection, thereby over

THE MALTHUSIAN DOCTRINE AND WAR 263

epidemics and pestilence. Preventive medicine has done much ‘to
eliminate some of the worst plagues that were visited upon mankind for
generations. The great heart of the century we have left was opened to
the crying needs of the poor. Fiske and Kidd have shown how altruism
came to combat the mercilessness of the survival of the fittest, so that the
strong help the weak. Eleemosynary bodies of various kinds assist the
lower strata of the population, help them to meet the pressure of daily
needs, and literally keep many alive.

Now, it is to be noticed that all these ameliorating influences con-
stitute modifications of the positive checks of the Malthusian theory.
Famine is being driven from the door of poverty by individual and
legislative assistance, as well as by advances in agricultural science.
Infant mortality is being reduced by public agencies acting through a
large sanitary organization. Pestilence among western nations is almost
a thing of the past. Doubtless these modifications of the positive checks
have been possible only because of the tremendous force of moral re-
straint. Had this been so slight as to have permitted occasional action
of the positive checks, it is probable that human life would have been on
so low and difficult a plane that little would have been done toward
modifying them. But the general opinions of man among the western
nations are turned now toward better conditions of living, toward better
sanitation. The public mind is open to the precepts of preventive
medicine and various alleviating restraints are accepted as matters of
common good. The state, as well as individual charities, is devoting
much attention to the improvement of the condition of the economic
poor—those who have little or no capital, or who have but a narrow
margin between them and mere subsistence. By all these conditions
and measures the Malthusian positive checks have been and are being
modified, with one rather startling exception.

While the western nations have been alleviating famine and remov-
ing pestilence, they have at the same time by every conceivable device of
science been increasing the destructiveness of war. Since the develop-
ment of the ironclad and the invention of the breech-loading rifle, both
products of the civil war in America, the progress of military and naval
science has been greater than at any other time in the history of the
world. In at least two of the great western nations compulsory military
service has existed for many years; in several others large standing
armies and powerful navies have been maintained in times of peace.
While the public mind has been turned toward ameliorating the harsh-
ness of famine and pestilence, it has been accustomed to consider war as
a possible contingency, not to be combated as undesirable, but to be pre-
pared for. The peace propaganda is very, very modern. This attitude
constitutes an important difference. The preparations against famine
do not serve to make the famine worse, should it come. Nor do the pre-

264 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

yentive measures taken to combat disease lead to increased malignity in
pestilence. But the preparations for war, whether considered in the
light of preventives or causes of it, do serve to increase its intensity and
destructiveness of life when it comes. Further, this difference has its
subtle reflection in men’s minds. Should any one advocate the cessa-
tion of all the modern sanitary, medical and eleemosynary measures for
the alleviation of the condition of mankind, the individual attitude
would be unhesitatingly against it. Men are now accustomed to the
restraints placed upon their conduct by sanitary laws and regulations,
to the uses of preventive medicine, to maintaining some advisable forms
of poor relief, to public hospitals and to the multitude of altruistic
elements that not only enter into our western civilization, but are uow
an integral part of it, essential to its continued existence. On the other
hand, their minds are filled by custom and familiarity with a tacit ac-
ceptance of war. They have paid taxes for armaments all their tax-
paying lives. They see the army units and the fleet. At the seaside
resorts and along coast and inland waters they know where fortifications
are located and their children play on the ramps and slopes. In many
countries they have served in the regular army during two or three of
the best years of their young manhood. Some have attended military
schools, some have been in the yeomanry or the militia. The individual
mind finds no shock in considering a resort to war.

Assuming, now, that an economic pressure develops, what is the
obvious result? The assumption disposes of the preventive checks,
moral restraint and agricultural progress. Both have at last been found
wanting. The positive checks being potential, being economic tend-
encies, and, therefore, certain to become realities unless counteracted,
begin to operate. But they have been so modified that only one—war—
remains in force. Man’s mind, all western civilization, is used to a
system of altruistic alterations of some checks, also used to the idea of
war. Obviously, the human mind will not revert to pestilence and
famine. It will rather tolerate the alternative of which the idea has
already been accepted.

Resort to arms, then, is the only positive check left to meet and
adjust economic pressure according to the Malthusian theory.

Let us briefly summarize our contention to this point. The Mal-
thusian positive checks are economic tendencies. Of these, all but war
have been modified for the alleviation of human misery, and these modi-
fications have become an essential part of our civilization. In case of
economic pressure developing, mankind will not yield these essentials of
his civilization, but will resort to a method of relief for which his mind
is prepared. War offers such relief, as the only positive check left, and
war, then, is not merely a possibility in case of economic pressure, but is
of the nature of an economic certainty.

THE MALTHUSIAN DOCTRINE AND WAR 265

Exactly what would be considered sufficient economic pressure to
induce resort to belligerent measures is not a determinable matter. In-
stances are obviously not numerous enough for any one or any one general
group to be fixed upon as distinctively causative. It is possible that
pressure might be imagined that did not really exist. It is quite pos-
sible that, led by influential persons or governmental agencies, the public
might assume economic pressure imminent, though not actually exist-
ing, and might consider this assumption of impending pressure as a
sufficient reason for a resort to arms.

It must not be understood that the weighing of these matters is
deliberate and conscious. It is no more so than those notions that,
reproduced in a multitude of human minds, make effective the law of
supply and demand. Where, as in the case of war, action is taken
through national agencies instead of being merely cumulative, leaders
propose, take irretraceable steps, and the populace generally acquiesces.
This is particularly the case if there has been a general prevalence of
opinion favorable to such action. It must be constantly borne in mind
that no economic law acts like a chemical or physical law. Human
agents are the medium through which economic tendencies act. With-
out the human intermediary economic cause produces no economic effect.
Inasmuch as the human element is composed of a great number of
units, the strength of opinion in any one need not be great in order to
make the effect marked. Indeed, the attitude of any one individual
need be no more pronounced than that of the casual housewife, who
when marketing decides in the most colorless and matter-of-fact way
whether or not she will buy the attractive vegetables displayed at a
certain price. And yet, it is the accumulation of such casual decisions
that make operative the law of supply and demand with respect to a
great mass of commodities. The necessary conditions are similar for a
belligerent national attitude. Where, in addition to the cumulative
effect of public opinion, there exist leaders capable of augmenting the
apparent force of such opinion, who indeed may actually make it appear
other than it really is, the chances of a very slight mental inclination
on the part of the individual may, by its cumulative force, produce
tremendous results. The effect of leadership on such slight individual
opinion, when it contains any elements by virtue of which it can be
organized or led, is seen in a small way in the effect of consumers’
leagues and associations of women who have forced dealers in some of
our larger cities to lower prices within a few hours on certain perishable
commodities which were offered at unwarranted prices. So great is
this cumulative effect, that the very slightest guidance of the most
casual public opinion into a single economic channel produces a flood.

Obviously, there exists the greatest possible danger that this force
of opinion will be misled, will be directed by demagogues into wrong

266 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

channels. This danger has always been recognized and is doubtless
very real. It is certainly no less true that opinion properly led and
directed will produce just as effective results as when diverted from its
natural course or distorted from its natural form. Indeed, it might be
reasonably supposed that such opinion would produce more effective and
lasting results if properly guided, because it is then free from the im-
peding force that change of direction would involve.

It is not, therefore, necessary that some specific type or extent of
economic pressure be discovered to establish the general truth of the
connection between the Malthusian doctrine and modern war. That
such pressure exists at any given time will be shown by the state of the
individual mind in a degree no more pronounced than that state of mind
which enables demand to act upon supply. It is only necessary that
that state of the individual mind be sufficiently general to have a bel-
ligerent effect. The result will be war at the first opportunity ; and the
opportunity will probably be made.

That there should occur sufficient economic pressure to produce bel-
ligerent action is in no way out of harmony with the past effective opera-
tion of preventive checks. It is a fact that Malthus and his contem-
poraries for many years did not assign to moral restraint the great effect
it developed in the last half of the nineteenth century. Nor did they
allow for such advance in the agricultural arts as modern scientific
farming has produced. These advances may well be associated with
moral restraint in bringing about an adjustment between subsistence
and increased population. One has caused the increase to be slower,
the other has provided for subsistence for the increase beyond the point
where the pressure of want would otherwise have been felt. The com-
bined action of these forces has served to raise the numerical level of
population and maintain it free from actual want. The effect has been
to postpone action of the positive checks; but it can not properly be said
to have destroyed them. As previously pointed out, the positive checks
are to be accounted economic forces and as such are potentially active
at all times. If restraining forces have raised the zone of economic
pressure or altered its type, it has only been like raising the levees as the
floods rise. The distance between gauge height and the top of the levee
has remained constant, and the action necessary to produce pressure of
a dangerous sort may be no greater to-day than it was a century ago.
The powerful and sustained action of preventive checks over a long
period has created an economic structure and maintained it in equi-
librium at a much higher level than would otherwise have been possible.
Should such preventive forces cease to act, for this very reason the col-
lapse would be more violent. Population would at once be subject to
accumulated pressure temporarily held in check. One can hardly
imagine the effects should all moral restraint, all the improvements in

THE MALTHUSIAN DOCTRINE AND WAR 267

agricultural science during the last sixty years, be suddenly eliminated.
Those earning but a living wage to-day, those having no, or only a
slight, margin above mere subsistence, would face actual starvation
within a single agricultural season. Within that time the cost of staple
foods would rise to a point far beyond the reach of a great mass of the
population of many countries.

It must be borne in mind, then, that preventive checks serve only to
postpone the time of effective economic pressure. They do not elimi-
nate it or even postpone it indefinitely. Like the levees referred to,
raised against an encroaching stream, in time the ever increasing floods
will rise above them unless they too are raised up higher. Any given set
of preventive checks serves only for a period. Their effectiveness must
increase pari passu with the increase of population permitted by them.
If they fail to increase, they fail to continue preventive. The length of
the period of restraint does not alter the principle, although it may
obviously alter the method by which the principle will act if it is per-
mitted to by the removal of restraints.

Although the degree of economic pressure is indeterminable that will
produce a resort to arms, there appears no reason why the necessary
pressure should not occur. Moreover, the economic field in which such
pressure may arise is much more extended than in the days of Malthus.
He supposed the pressure of subsistence to be the only one, or at least
the most active one. But to-day we have several other directions in
which pressure may more likely be developed.

For it is to be noted that modifications of the positive checks, tending
to increase population, and the action of moral restraint, tending to
decrease it, along with the advance of agricultural science, permitting
some increase without additional pressure, have all operated together
to raise the standard of living. This means nothing, unless it means
that those things which were once luxuries have generally, in different
measure among different groups of mankind, but throughout all con-
tiguous groups existing at any given time, altered their classification
and become necessaries of life. Once we pass from the merest elements
of food and clothing, and from such a modicum of shelter as mankind
can survive with, the line between what is a necessary for life and what
a luxury becomes a matter of custom and habitude. The result of this
elevation of the standard of living is to establish large groups of the
population with an ample margin above mere subsistence, and to pro-
vide some margin for all groups existing at any given time, except that
new group, provided for by the numerical increase of population, which
is alike the newest and the lowest. This group may be assumed to exist
only slightly above the margin of subsistence for at least a short time.
A concomitant result of the change in the standard of living is to pro-
vide, in addition to the pressure of mere subsistence, a multitude of

268 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY |

points of contact between ‘groups, or between nations, capable of re-
sponding to economic pressure. Communication is the necessary and
sufficient element which at once unites nations and furnishes the nu-
merous avenues along which this pressure may act.

These numerous points of contact may be assembled under a few
simple heads; such as commercial, political, and the unequal distribu-
tion of world wealth. This latter may be called economic advantage or
natural advantage.

If we assume any nation to be existing in such a status as to be free
from all pressure, it follows that the industries of the nation as a whole
enjoy unrestrained development and prosperity. For in such an as-
sumption, no foreign competition could exist. Similarly, we may assume
that pressure is such as to permit the unrestrained and unusual develop-
ment of a few or even of a single industry or even of an exclusive phase
of some large and important industry. Under these conditions, habits of
living are acquired by the nation as a whole or the group within the
nation, depending on the successful industries, which fixes more or less
certainly its economic position with relation to other nations. Sup-
pose now, that another group, as another nation, invades the particular
commercial field so far as to produce pressure on the first group hitherto
enjoying freedom from pressure. It is felt through the usual channels
of competition. The depression of the industry affected does not bring
the corresponding group face to face with famine. But it does tend to
lower for them the standard of living. It brings pressure on their
standard of comfort. This is just as truly economic pressure as that of
want produced by lack of subsistence. If unresisted, its effects will not
be so fatal; but man’s disposition to remain passive under it is no
greater than his willingness to accept hunger in even a slight degree.
Indeed, man’s disposition and powers are such that his actual resistance
to such pressure will be greater than it would be were his strength only
that predicated by mere existence on the verge of starvation. Being
stronger, he resists more vigorously. The group concerned, then, having
enjoyed certain privileges flowing from the elevated standard of living,
are able to make their cry heard. Were this group on the edge of mere
subsistence, though economic pressure would then be absolutely a more
serious matter, they would probably have neither the ambition, the
means nor the time, in their struggle for mere existence, to make them-
selves heard.

Thus it is that those newly exposed points of contact, classified as
commercial, may produce much greater results with much less pressure
than would at first thought be expected. When the groups are nations,
as suggested above, then the commercial pressure is a matter of con-
siderable moment to some more or less small class of leaders. ‘These,
by association of interests, can use their influence to exaggerate the

THE MALTHUSIAN DOCTRINE AND WAR 269

actual pressure until it is made to appear as an impending national
calamity. How great such influence can really become within any
nation may be seen in the tariff history of the United States. If this
pressure becomes sufficient, or can be made to appear sufficient, the
leaders can act, take irretraceable steps, and the public is very likely to
acquiesce. This sets into operation the only remaining positive check
in hopes that the pressure will be removed.

Then, there may arise conditions in which the points of contact be-
tween nations, capable of responding to pressure, may be classified as
political. Such pressure was felt and strongly developed during the
French Revolution and during the decade centered about 1848. Europe
arose against the French Revolutionists because Monarchy feared the
pressure of Republicanism. The disturbances all over Europe during
1848 can be traced directly to the pressure produced on Absolutism by
Republicanism. This form of pressure, as it obviously lends itself to
exaggeration and distortion more completely than any other, is the most
difficult to isolate and free from accessory and complicating conditions;
but it appears most probable that such pressure or seeming pressure
was made use of to provide cause for the existing conflict in Europe.

The decline of the absolute power of western monarchs has not
served to remove possibility of pressure on the political points of contact
among nations, so long as the monarchical institution is maintained
with stratifications among the population. The “king’s friends,” the
monarchical party or class, will always remain most sensitive to such
politico-economic pressure, both actual and mediate. Being, too, of
great influence, these individuals are strongly inclined to exaggerate the
pressure for their own ends. The position, the influence, the advantages
of certain privileges accorded to artificial rank, the emoluments and
sometimes the estates of such persons are held subject largely to the con-
tinued existence of monarchy. The positive check of war, expected to
remove the pressure, is brought into operation quite easily so far as this
class is concerned, for individually their opinions are more generally and
more strongly inclined toward war than those of any other class. With
them it is largely a matter of tradition, a survival of feudalism, a tat-
tered remnant of chivalry. It remains only to impress the fact and the
degree of such pressure upon the other classes of the nation. The
monarchical tradition has always been strong among the nations of the
world until actual collapse of the kingly power has come, so such neces-
sary impression is more easily conveyed than might be supposed. This
arises also from the fact that the control of the governmental machinery,
of the entire national regime, is almost wholly in the hands of the
monarchical element wherever it exists.

Finally, there is a third series of points on which nations come into
contact capable of transmitting economic pressure. These points are

270 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY |

established by natural advantages, or other causes producing an unequal
distribution of world wealth. The fortunate geographical position of
one nation gives it advantages, such as reside in sea-ports, in fertile
plains, in navigable rivers, that another nation may not possess. Again
great mineral wealth and other natural resources of tremendous value
may accrue to one nation by the merest chance of locality. Obviously
such natural vantages give the possessor a stronger economic position
than that of another nation less fortunately supplied. This unequal
distribution of the wealth of the world may develop an economic pres-
sure. The less fortunate nations have to strive harder to create com-
pensating advantages by industry, thrift and self-denial. As these
virtues remain ever necessary, and serve only temporarily to decrease the
gap created by unequal distribution in a large way of worldly advan-
tages, the impelling force, acting on the nation, to produce bodily com-
forts, ease and wealth assumes at last the aspect of economic pressure.
The nation labors under a natural disadvantage. If other nations labor
equally, the natural disadvantage is never overcome and the gap, though
perhaps never widening, remains and perpetually represents an enormous
quantity of wealth, and its accompanying ease and enjoyment, that is
denied to the nation by mere chance. This, at least, is how it appears
to the minds of the group so affected. We hear it said, for instance, that
they want “a place in the sun.” War then plays the role indicated for
it, and resort is had to war in the hope that the pressure of disadvan-
tages will be removed by the fortunes of war.

It is of course possible that a combination of these various forms of
economic pressure, together with that of subsistence, may arise. The
last two forms are particularly likely to occur in juxtaposition, and it
would seem, for reasons already cited, that a monarchical party could
be particularly successful in augmenting the sense of pressure which
flows from the unequal distribution of worldly advantages. Such ap-
pears to have been the case in the present war.

Summarizing again, we find that the degree of economic pressure to
produce a resort to war is not determinable. This fact does not alter
the status of war as the only effective positive check remaining. The
germ of economic pressure resides in the public state of mind and need
not be strong in any individual. That such pressure exists is not in-
harmonious with the past action of preventive checks. There are forms
of economic pressure other than that of subsistence, possible and prob-
able under the conditions of modern civilization. Pressure may have a
commercial or a political basis or may rest on an unequal distribution
of natural advantages. In any case of economic pressure the public
mind is prepared by custom, teaching and general familiarity, to accept
war as the only possible check. War, then, tends to follow not only the
pressure of population on subsistence, but also pressure on the standard

THE MALTHUSIAN DOCTRINE AND WAR 271

of living flowing from commercial causes, pressure on the type and
stability of government flowing from foreign political conditions, and
pressure on the general mode and circumstances of the national regimen
flowing from an unequal distribution of the natural advantages of the
world.

The contention thus developed leaves us in much the position that
might be expected to result from any reversion to the Malthusian doc-
trine. Pessimism is of the essence of the conclusion. And, yet, as in
the case of the earlier Malthusian developments, the conditions may not
be so hopeless as they at first appear. Just as an unexpected opposition
to the free activities of the original Malthusian positive checks was
found in moral restraint, so a relief from an inevitable belligerency
among the nations of the world may be found in an enlightened attitude
toward international relations. A mere propaganda in favor of peace
will not suffice. This would doubtless serve to alter the opinions of
some, perhaps of many, but it must make its way constantly against the
established opinion of mankind and in direct opposition to definite eco-
nomic tendencies. To secure itself, therefore, in a position of strength
and influence, such a propaganda must not confine itself to the advocacy
of peace for the sake of peace, because as matters stand now war may
be made for the sake of better things than peace in the mind of the
world. It must aim directly and intelligently at removing the causes
of possible pressure. Government must make lawful the dissemination
of knowledge of contraceptives to assist moral restraint, agricultural
science and rural development must be advanced and improved. Rural
life must be made attractive. Free trade among all nations must be
furthered. Every possible hindrance to trade must be removed, tariff
and trade wars must be entirely abandoned and nations must be taught
to develop their own peculiar advantages if any exist, and exchange the
products through the customary channels of international trade for the
products of unusual advantages possessed by other nations. Republican
government must be made more efficient and absolutism in all its rami-
fications discredited and finally abolished all over the world.

Unless such results flow from a peace propaganda, it is effort wasted.
Only in the degree that these conditions obtain will the possibilities of
war be removed, and until the causes of economic pressure are eliminated
or equivalently controlled, belligerency remains a potential economic
force, for which men’s minds are prepared; one without existing alter-
native, ever impending, ready to become active as the result of indeter-
minable, but probably slight economic pressure.

272 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY:

ON THE REPRESENTATION OF LARGE NUMBERS AND
INFINITE PROCESSES

By Prorgssor ARNOLD BMCH

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

A ia a popular sense large numbers often cause amazement, or com-
mand respect and arouse curiosity. Sometimes, when occurring
in problems of chance, they assure practical certainty, or reveal the law
according to which an event may be repeated. From extremely large
numbers we may pass to infinite numbers by defining these as numbers
that are larger than any finite numbers. Although infinite numbers
are no proper numbers at all and can not be explicitly represented or
conceived, it is in many cases possible to state or establish the law of
their formation, and to use them in the deduction of important results.
In fact, they are of the greatest importance from a mathematical stand-
point. The same is true of infinitely small numbers, the reciprocals of
the infinitely large. Very small causes may have tremendous effects.
But it is nevertheless true that, while theoretically the infinitely small
is just as important as the infinitely large, it is the colossal, the enor-
mity of a number, of a quantity, of a magnitude that appeals to the
popular imagination. The distance of a thousand light years which
light travels in a thousand years is, for example, of such a character.
All astronomical distances, no matter how large, as long as they are
defined by a finite number of light years, are finite and can be ex-
pressed by a finite number of miles. The infinitely small and large, on
the other hand, are antinomies which can be approached through in-
definitely increasing and decreasing finite numbers only; they are con-
cepts which are imposed upon the human mind (Zwangsvorstellung) in
the form of postulates. Throughout the history of human thought
attempts have been made to explain the mystery of the infinite. In
ancient times, sophistic and mystic methods, partly connected with the
supernatural, were ordinarily followed to explain the secret. The well-
known problem of Zeno is a typical example of the reasoning that was
applied in case of an infinite process. The Eleat Zeno (born about
500 B.c.) contended that such things as multiplicity and motion were
impossible. To prove that there can be no motion, Zeno devises the
problem of Achilleus. In a race between the fast runner Achilleus and
the slow moving tortoise, the latter can never be reached by Achilleus,
because the pursuer must always first reach the point where the pur-
sued was. During this time-interval, the tortoise gains headway and

LARGE NUMBERS AND INFINITE PROCESSES 273

reaches a point ahead of the pursuer. Thus, during each successive
time-interval the tortoise moves some distance ahead of Achilleus, and
as the number of intervals increases indefinitely, the race can never
end. This, according to Zeno, proves the non-reality of motion. The
sophistry of this reasoning is, of course, apparent, although there are
some modern logicians who are inclined to side with Zeno.

Even much later as great a philosopher and mathematician as Leib-
niz (1646-1716) mixed up metaphysical speculations with the discus-
sion of mathematical infinity. Leibniz discovered the diadic system,
according to which every number may be represented by a definite suc-
cession of the two ciphers 0 and 1 only. He identified 1—vunity with
God and 0 with nothing. God created all things out of nothing, just as
all integral numbers may be formed by the ciphers 0 and 1 in the diadic
system. Leibniz was so enthusiastic over this seemingly remarkable
discovery that he asked the Jesuite Grimaldi, at that time president of
the mathematical tribunal of China, to communicate the discovery to
the Emperor of China, who had the reputation of being a friend and
patron of science. Leibniz hoped that in this manner the Chinese
Emperor might be won over to Christianity.*

In a letter? to Christian Wolff, Leibniz discusses the infinite series

1+a2+a2-+ 43+4...,
which is obtained by dividing unity by 1—z. When z is less than 1,
there is no trouble, the value of the series is equal to that of the quotient
1/1—za. For x=—1 the value of the quotient is $, while the series
assumes the form
1—1+1—1+1—1+-+-...ad infinitum.

In this case, the infinite process in forming the series is devoid of any
meaning; the whole argument breaks down. This is not what Leibniz
and other contemporaries thought. He reasoned as follows: The series
is infinite; when we take an even number of terms their sum is zero;
for an odd number the sum is unity. Now, as we can not distinguish
between an even and an odd infinite number of terms, the total number
can be neither even nor odd, and the sum of all terms can therefore be
obtained in the most natural manner by taking the average of the two
values 0 and 1. This, according to Leibniz, gives the sum of 4 for the
infinite series. Leibniz refers to another Italian Jesuite, Grandi, who
saw in this example the proof of creation as revealed in the Scriptures.
Adding the terms of the series in groups of two, (1—1) + (1—1) +
(1—1) +---, we get
0+0+0+...ad infinitum =,

1La Place, ‘‘Théorie analytique des probabilités,’? Oeuvres, Vol. VII., pp.
exvilli—exix (1812).

2‘*Leibnizens mathematische Schriften,’’ Erste Abteilung, Band IV., pp.
382-387 (Halle, 1850).

VOL. 11.—19.

274 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

which, according to Grandi; proves the divine power to create something
out of nothing. Laplace, commenting upon the fallacy of Leibniz’
arguments, shows that there is nothing particular in the foregoing
series, since the expansion of the quotient (1+-2)/(1+ 2-2”) gives
the same series, while its value for c—1 is two thirds.

The controversies on the infinite have lasted to the present day.
It must be admitted, however, that they have assumed in most cases
a very refined and exquisitely subtile form. In certain respects the diffi-
culties have increased, and arguments in the style of Leibniz and his
contemporaries appear as infantile efforts of a vanished period. The
logicians have come to discuss the possibility of such concepts as “the
class of all classes” and other’ artificial difficulties. Sometimes it
would seem that the modern logicians are again occupying the stage
vacated by the Greek school of Sophists centuries ago. It can not be
said that they have come nearer the solution of the riddles of the
universe.

Probably the greatest advance in the concept of infinity has been
made by the definition that an aggregate of elements is infinite when
the number of elements of a part of the aggregate is the same as the
number of all elements of the ag-
gregate. A popular expression for
this definition may be put in the
form: Infinity has the property
that a part is equal to the whole.
Consider, for example, the series of
all positive integers and multiply
each by two, then we obtain a sec-
ond series of integers that contains
exactly as many integers as the
first series:

1 2 3 4+ 5

2 ao 6 8-5 10
The second series, however, is evi-
dently contained in the first. The
same definition applies to contin-
uous sets of points which after the
method of Dedekind may be put
into one-to-one correspondence with a continuous set of real numbers.
Let AB, Fig. 1, be a segment of a straight line and consider the infinite
number of all points of this segment, including A and B. From a
point S project the points of AB upon the segment CD, so that in this
correspondence there are as many points on CD as there are on AB.
From another point 7’, we can project the points of CD upon the seg-

LARGE NUMBERS AND INFINITE PROCESSES 275

ment HF which lies on the same straight line as AB, such that AB con-
tains HF asa part. Now there are as many points on HF as on CD in
the projective correspondence, and consequently as many as on AB. In
other words, the number of points on AB is the same as the number of
a part of AB.

Pure logic, detached entirely from intuition, is impotent in the
treatment of such problems. It is not only sterile, but engenders new
antinomies.®

As has been stated before, there is no difficulty in the investigation
of large numbers as long as they remain finite. Although the answers
to problems which involve very large finite numbers may be amazing,
they are definite and, at least theoretically, may be made intelligible
through proper representation. It is evident that in concrete form a
large number does not necessarily have to be connected with large
spatial dimensions. Thus, in the relatively small space of one cubic
centimeter of air under standard conditions, there are thirty million
million millions of molecules. On the other hand, the distance of the
nearest star (a centauri) is four and three tenths light years, or about
twenty-five million million miles. There are telescopic stars whose
distances are measured by thousands of light years. Light travels
186,330 miles a second and it would take the light of those stars thou-
sands of years to reach the earth. To the scientific mind the revelations
of astronomy are not more wonderful than those of the ultramicroscopic
world. As an example we mention the remarkable molecular structure
of crystals, as shown by Professor von Laue, who recently received the
Nobel prize in physics for his discoveries. The wonderful geometric
lattice-work formed by millions of molecules per cubic millimeter is
revealed on the photographic plate by the diffraction of Réntgen rays
on the molecules. Here we have the counterpart of the extremely large.
The wave-length of Réntgen rays is so extremely small that they are
diffracted by the extremely small molecules of the crystal. These may
be considered as extremely small models of solar systems in which the
electrons take the place of planets and other heavenly bodies.

Just as it is convenient to make use of auxiliary units like the astro-
nomical unit (distance of sun from earth = 93 million miles) and the
stellar unit (light year), great numbers in entirely different domains
may be made more intelligible by concrete representation. Take, for
example, the arithmetical expression 9°” which means nine raised to a
power whose exponent is nine raised to the ninth power. The number
thus obtained is certainly finite, although its explicit representation
would be well-nigh an impossible task. For practical purposes, and in

3 Poincaré, ‘‘Science et Méthode,’’ pp. 210-214 (1908). See also ‘‘Les
étapes de la philosophie mathématique,’’ by Léon Brunschweig, pp. 370-393
(1912), where an excellent discussion of the logistic philosophy of mathematics
is given.

276 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY |

the language of the layman, we might call this number infinite. It has
269 millions 690,000 places. To write it down, reserving one fourth of
an inch for each cipher, it would take a strip of paper that would reach
from Phoenix, Arizona, to New York City. Compared with this, the
number of atoms in the Atlantic ocean would be negligibly small, and
the Hindu fabulist with his story of a battle of a sextillion (unity with
36 ciphers annexed) monkeys would not strain our imagination as to
largeness.

Large numbers, relatively small in comparison with those given
above, are of great practical value in the theory of probabilities and
statistics. By mathematical probability of an event we understand the
ratio between the number of cases of actual occurrences and the total
number of possible cases of the event. The greater the number of
actual occurrences out of the total number, the larger the probability of
such an event. When the two numbers are equal then the probability
is equal to unity, in other words, the probable event becomes certain. A
larger number of repetitions of a certain type of events contributes to
our judgment of certainty. This fact has been stated by Poisson as
“the law of large numbers,” and may be expressed more definitely as
follows: If p (a proper fraction) is the constant probability of an event
and if the conditions for this event are repeated s times, whereby it
occurs actually m times, then, by repeating the conditions a sufficiently
large number of times, the difference between p and s/m can be made as
small as we please. Thus, the probability that in the game of throwing
a coin, head will appear is one haif. Buffon, who once had the patience
to do this 4,040 times, obtained 2,048 times head, so that the difference
p—s/m is in this case —0.007. If Buffon had repeated the experi-
ment a million times the difference would be very much smaller. The
fact that during the last 6,000 years, days and nights have followed each
other without a break over two million times makes it certain that the
sun will rise in a clear sky or behind a cloud to-morrow. From the
standpoint of mathematical probability and large numbers there is
nothing extraordinary in two million confirmations of an event. And
yet, in every-day life, such numbers in the realm of chance mean cer-
tainty to us. Mathematically speaking, we are satisfied with very crude
approximations in this world. We never use anything else in practical
life than comparatively very simple rational numbers. For r=
3.1415926 ..., with an infinite number of ciphers, we never can use any-
thing else than a rational approximation. Although the ten thousandth
place of this transcendental number is an absolutely definite cipher
between 0 and 9 (inclusive) we do not know what it is and it is a physi-
cally impossible task to determine it. We live in a domain of rela-
tively small rational numbers and are satisfied with crude approxima-
tions where absolute accuracy can not be obtained.

LARGE NUMBERS AND INFINITE PROCESSES 277

Pure mathematical reasoning has nothing to do with the world of
approximations. The number z has an absolutely definite meaning and
exists. Likewise the incredibly large number defined as nine raised to
the power (nine to the ninth power) is absolutely definite and finite in
spite of the explosive character of its increase. The infinite series

%44+14%4+%4%+4+%4-+...ad infinitum

for which the sum of an increasing finite number of terms creeps along
with unbelievable slowness, is divergent, 7. ¢., it has an infinite value.
Indeed, when we add its terms successively in groups of one, two, four,
eight, etc., we obtain an infinite number of such groups whose values are
all larger than %, so that the value of the series itself is infinite. The
problem shows an entirely different face when we attempt to actually
add up the fractions in order to see how they contribute to the infinite
value of the series. From the standpoint of the computer the legitimate
mathematical claim for divergency of the series appears as a ridiculous
pretense. Let us, for curiosity, figure out how many consecutive frac-
tions of the series one must add to each other in order that their sum
will amount to 100. Suppose that it is possible to write these fractions
upon a strip of paper one half inch wide so that a cipher is reckoned
for every half inch of length. With this strip the whole universe for
which we assume a diameter of about 20,000 light years could be com-
pletely wrapped up and covered to a thickness of hundreds of miles.
Millions of tons of ordinary writing paper would be necessary to manu-
facture such a strip of paper. This much is necessary to make a con-
tribution of about one hundred units to the infinite account claimed by
impeccable mathematical logic. In spite of practical impossibilities of
this kind, there is of course no sound reason to dispute or criticize the
rigorous conclusions of science as has been done in a very clever essay
by Alexander Moszkowsky in “ Zukunft.’

-In conclusion, I shall briefly discuss a geometrical example involv-
ing an infinite process with a perfectly definite result. A complete geo-
metrical representation of the process is impossible. But this is not
more remarkable than the impossibility of making a visible representa-
tion of an actual mathematical point, or of a circle. In ancient times
the possibility of a tangent was always connected with the idea of a
continuous curve. Since the classic discovery of Weierstrass of con-
tinuous functions without derivatives, that idea had to be completely
abandoned. As Peano and others have done, it is easy to state perfectly
definite laws for the construction of continuous curves that admit of no
definite tangents. To construct such a curve consider, for example, an
equilateral triangle whose sides are equal to the unit of length, Fig.
2. Divide each side into three equal parts, remove the middle parts and

4‘‘Das Geheimniss der grossen Zahl,’’ Vol. 78, pp. 85-94 (1912).

278 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY -

bridge the gap over by two adjacent pieces, each of one third the length
of the original side. In this manner a new Fig. 3 is obtained whose
circumference is evidently four thirds of the original length of three
units. We now repeat the same operation on each of the twelve seg-
ments of the new figure and thus obtain Fig. 4, whose circumference is
four thirds of that of Fig. 3, i. e., (%)?:3. We repeat this process a
third (Fig. 5), fourth time, and

oe so forth, ad infinitum. The cir-

cumference of each new figure is

always four thirds of that of the

previous figure. Repeating the

process n times, we obtain a crinkly

curve with the length (%)*:3.

When we let approach infinity,

the figure approaches a perfectly

definite continuous curve of finite

dimensions, but of infinite length,

since the nth power of 44 increases

indefinitely as m increases indef-

initely. This curve defined by a
Fie, 3

ric. 4 Very simple geometric law is a so-

. called Jordan-curve and has H. v.
Koch and Cesaro as its origina-
tors. A complete geometric con-
struction of this curve, involving
the configuration of the limit, is
impossible.

Fic. 5 As is shown by this and other

examples, we can conceive in a

perfectly definite mathematical sense infinite processes which do not

admit of complete explicit representation. This, however, is not more

remarkable than the impossibility of representing explicitly all elements
of certain extremely large finite and transcendental numbers.

Insurmountable difficulties only appear when we try to grasp prob-

lems involving the infinite by introducing peculiar logistic postulates.

Then paradoxes and antinomies become supreme.

5E. Study, ‘‘Konforme Abbildungen,’’ pp. 42-43 (1913).

THE ENERGY CONTENT OF THE DIET 279

THE ENERGY CONTENT OF THE DIET!

PROTEINS IN GROWTH

By RUTH WHEELER

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS, URBANA, ILL.

A eminent biochemist said recently to a friend of mine: “ The time
is coming when you will give a grocery order in this fashion:
‘Send to 3405 South Street 1,500 calories of eatables, + protein and the
rest half carbohydrate and half fat, the whole to cost fifty cents.” It
seems to put considerable responsibility on the grocer. One wonders if
the time may not come when a doctor will say to a dietitian, “ Plan a two
weeks’ dietary for that sick boy in room 101 in which the protein shall
contain 2 per cent. trytophan, 5 per cent. tyrosin, 15 per cent. glyco-
coll,” ete. The réle of proteins in growth is fast becoming the rile of
amino acids and a difficult time is ahead of the dietitian. The accumu-
lation of facts fills full the lives of one group of people; gathering and
correlating the facts as they accumulate is enough to fill the lives of an-
other group; and the practical application is far more than enough for
another group. The groups are not in sufficiently close contact.

The body uses amino acids, but it must be fed proteins, and the amino
acids it receives depend in amount at least not only upon the chemical
composition of the protein, but upon its physical character and upon the
other substances combined or mixed with it in the food. There has long
been evidence that the proportion of ingested protein that is digested and
absorbed from bread varies with the amount of grain cortex present, less
being absorbed from the coarser varieties; that it varies in other foods
with the amount of cellulose present. The much-discussed inadequacy
of corn to serve as an exclusive ration, long thought to be due to the
character of its proteins, has been shown by Hart and McCollum? to lie
in its mineral content. When this is corrected, normal growth is pos-
sible on acorn ration. This, of course, is rather a misinterpretation than
an actual modification of the utilization of the protein. Similarly, the
apparent inability of some babies to utilize milk proteins is not unfre-
quently due to an excess of fat or of carbohydrate in the food. When
this is remedied, the symptoms of protein indigestion disappear. We
have found recently that the digestion of milk proteins is distinctly and

1 Papers presented at the symposium before the Section of Physiology and
Experimental Medicine of the American Association for the Advancement of Sci-
ence, Columbus, December, 1915.

2‘‘The Influence on Growth of Rations Restricted to the Corn or Wheat
Grain,’’ J. Biol. Chem., 19, 373-97, 1914.

280 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY '

differently modified by the various carbohydrates commonly used in milk
modification for babies.

In order, then, to consider the réle of proteins in growth from the
standpoint of the sources of our food supply, it is necessary to consider
(1) the utilization of proteins, dependent on those characteristics of the
proteins themselves or of the foods containing them, which make them
resistant or not to the digestive enzymes or which influence the rate of
their passage through the alimentary tract; (2) their assimilation; to
what extent they can supply the essential amino acids in the proportion
in which the body can use them for tissue building; and (3) the physio-
logical effect of individual amino acids, especially, perhaps, those fur-
nished by the proteins in question in excess of the body’s needs.

The experiments of Mendel and Fine,? and more recently a shorter ~
series by Howe and Hawk,* show that when fed in a more or less isolated
form, the proteins of cereals are as completely digested and absorbed as
are the proteins of meat—91-97 per cent.; but for the proteins fed in
the natural foods these values do not hold. Only 80-85 per cent. of the
nitrogen of wheat bread is absorbed, 70 per cent. of rye, 58 per cent.
pumpernickel, 40.76 per cent. barley and 61-82 per cent. of corn nitro-
gen. These values for the whole grains were determined a good while
ago by methods less accurate than those now in use, but they are at least
comparable among themselves and they show, undoubtedly, lower protein
utilization in grains than in isolated grain proteins.

This loss must be considered in planning the dietaries of young chil-
dren, especially of those who can not take much milk. The proteins of
cereals are as well utilized as milk proteins if they are fed in isolated
form, but as long as dietaries contain not gliadin and glutenin and maize
glutelin, but cream of wheat and hominy, we must count on a loss of
20-40 per cent. of the protein, if the data at present available represent
facts. The proportion of the protein intake that comes from cereals is
far from negligible in many children’s dietaries, and it is unwise to get
too close to the minimum protein requirements, especially as we do not
know exactly what this minimum is. Hindhede’s* surprisingly success-
ful maintenance of body weight and good nutritive condition on an ex-
clusive diet of potatoes and fat would indicate a high utilization of
potato proteins.

With equal digestion and absorption, proteins may still differ greatly
in their suitability for tissue construction and otherwise in their physio-~
logical effect. It has been found that 20 per cent. of the nitrogen ab-
sorbed from ingested zein is promptly excreted in the urine; over 40 per

2‘‘Utilization of the Proteins of Wheat,’’ J. Biol. Chem., 10, 303, 1912;
‘‘of Barley,’’ ibid., p. 339; ‘‘of Corn,’’ ibid., p. 345.

3 ‘* Utilization of Individual Proteins as Influenced by Repeated Fasting,’?

Eighth International Congress of Applied Chemistry, 19, 145.
4 ‘Studies on the Protein Minimum,’’ Skand. Arch. Physiol., 30, 97-182.

THE ENERGY CONTENT OF THE DIET 281

cent. of gelatin nitrogen. Howe and Hawk found that the proteins of
meat and of the commercial wheat preparation gliadin are equally well
digested and absorbed, but when fed five days in equal quantity and in
similar rations, gliadin gave a negative nitrogen balance of 1.3 g., while
meat gave a positive balance of 11.3 g. A large number of proteins have
been shown by Osborne and Mendel and others to contain all the amino
acids necessary for growth: ovo-albumin, ovo-vitellin glutenin, maize
glutelin, edestin, casein, lactalbumin.

Several natural mixtures of proteins such as those occurring in
wheat, corn, oats, milk, respectively, have been studied, largely by Hart,
McCollum’ and their co-workers, and have been found to furnish the
amino acids necessary for tissue construction. McCollum® has com-
pared the protein mixtures in these grains with one another and with the
protein mixture of milk as to their availability for growth. Of the nitro-
gen of cereals 23-24 per cent. is available, 45 per cent. casein nitrogen
and 63 per cent. of milk protein nitrogen fed as milk. Evidently, the
amino acids resulting from the digestion of milk proteins not only con-
tain all the units necessary for tissue building, but contain them more
nearly in the proportion in which they can be used than is the case with
the other foods considered. If there is a shortage of one amino acid
essential to the building of a body protein, the amount of that acid pres-
ent determines not only the amount of tissue construction, the rate of
growth, but determines also the proportion of the food protein that can
be used for growth. The body can store very little reserve amino acid—
nearly all that can not be built into protein is promptly deaminized and
the nitrogen excreted.

These facts are also shown in a different way in recent experiments
of Osborne and Mendel.’ The growth of rats on 18 per cent. casein food
was normal, on 12 per cent. casein food subnormal, but the addition of a
small amount of cystin to the latter ration made it equal to the 18-per-
cent. casein food in growth production. The utilization of the whole
protein for growth was increased by an increase in the amount of the
needed unit. Similar results were obtained by adding lysin to edestin.

These and similar investigations have thrown light on the nutritive
value of individual amino acids: the aromatic amino acids are essential
to maintenance; cystin, lysin, probably arginin and histidine, are essen-
tial to growth. Evvard suggests that cystin may be responsible for the
darker and thicker hair of pigs whose mothers received rations rich in
cystin during pregnancy; Lusk* in his study of the specific dynamic

5 ‘¢Tnfluence on Growth of Rations Restricted to the Corn or Wheat Grain,’’
J. Biol. Chem., 19, 373-97, 1914.

6‘** Value of the Cereal Grains and of Milk for Growth,’’ ibid., p. 323-35.

7**Comparative Nutritive Value of Certain Proteins in Growth,’’ J. Biol.
Chem., 20, 351-78, 1915.

8 ““Tnvestigation into the Specific Dynamic Action of the Foodstuffs,’’ J.
Biol. Chem., 20, 555-618, 1915.

282 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

action of food stuffs, finds that glycocoll has a specific dynamic action of
100, alanin of 50.

Many of these results of nutrition studies can not be used with con-
fidence in problems of human nutrition until more is known about the
differences in the amino acid content of the flesh of different species.
The pig can use 23 per cent. of wheat proteins for growth, but we can
not yet be sure that this is true of the child; and so of many of the other
very interesting and valuable contributions cited. They suggest wonder-
ful possibilities—future possibilities—for the dietitian: a child who is
undersized and frail can sometime be fed just the right combination of
milk, eggs and cereals to furnish the amino acids he needs in the right
proportion with no large excess of any one to overtax the excretory sys-
tem or to overstimulate metabolism; a worn-out neurasthenic can be
given just the right amino acids to replace worn-out tissue and enough
glycocoll to stimulate metabolism—in gelatin perhaps. We have some
slight clinical evidence that this last works out.

THE MINERAL NUTRIENTS IN PRACTICAL HUMAN
DIETETICS

By E. B. FORBES

OHIO AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION, WOOSTER, OHIO

che consenting to present this paper I did so with the feeling that per-

haps I have as good right as any one else to confess for all of us
that we know very little about the subject. The suggestions I have to
make then are offered in entire humility and with satisfaction only that
we are on the road to more complete understanding.

My task is to point out the bearings of results of experiments in the
field of mineral metabolism upon our irrational, uncontrolled and largely
uncontrollable human dietetic affairs. Only in the case of infants, in-
valids, lunatics and convicts does it seem practicable to regulate the diet
of human beings with the same rationality and particularity with which
the successful live-stock farmer habitually feeds his animals. In spite of
the difficulties of the task, however, and the indifference of most of us
to the economic and rational aspects of our own eating, there are those
dependent upon us who should have the benefit of our wisest counsel,
even though we put ourselves in the position of saying, “you are to do
not as I do but as I say.”

In order to bring clearly to mind the basic principles of nutrition
involved in this consideration I must enumerate the functions of the
mineral elements in animal metabolism:

As bearers of electricity the mineral elements dominate the whole
course of metabolism.

THE ENERGY CONTENT OF THE DIET 283

They conduct nerve stimuli, and play a leading réle in the general
process of cell stimulation.

They govern the contraction of the muscles, including those of the
heart.

They compose the central agency for the maintenance of neutrality
in the blood.

They enter into the composition of every living cell.

They compose supporting structures.

They assist in the coordination of the digestive processes.

They activate enzymes, and through their control of the chemical
reaction of the blood and tissues they govern enzyme action.

They unite with injurious products of metabolism, and render them
harmless or useful.

As catalyzers they alter the speed of reactions, and the rate of metab-
olism generally, as measured by oxygen consumption.

Through their effects on osmotic pressure they govern the movement
of liquids, and maintain the proper liquid contents of the tissues.

Through their effects on surface tension they participate in the
mechanism of cell movement.

Through their control of the imbibition of water by the cots they
govern absorption and secretion.

Through their control of the affinity of the blood for gases they
govern respiration.

Finally, they control the state of solution, precipitation, mechanical
aggregation, chemical association and ionization of the colloids which
compose living tissue.

These then are some of the functions of the mineral elements. Con-
sidering their nature and importance, it is at once obvious that life
could not endure if its complex mineral requirements were not automat-
ically and constantly maintained in almost perfect adjustment. What
then are the facts which warrant the practical consideration of this sub-
ject? They are that in pathological states these functions are somewhat
deranged, and that life as we live it is in many respects highly abnormal,
in the sense of differing from that to which human metabolism is at-
tuned; and with our ever-increasing social differentiation life puts in-
creasing stress upon the integrity of the body and its normal processes.
In relation to food materials there are also important facts bearing on
this matter of the mineral nutrients, for while highly developed proc-
esses of food manufacture and efficient world-wide transportation give
us the greatest opportunities for correct dietetics that there has ever
been, these same agencies open the way to greater unwisdom and abuse
in dietetics than have been possible in our more primitive days. The
net result is an obligation on our part to prepare a defense of knowledge
against the misfortunes of prosperity.

284 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

It is my belief that anything lke exact quantitative control of human
mineral metabolism, as a practical measure, is as impossible as it is
unnecessary; impossible first, because any kind of control of human
dietetics is very difficult; second, because our knowledge of the optimum
mineral requirements of human beings is especially slight and frag-
mentary ; third, because the interactions of the mineral elements among
themselves affect mineral metabolism in such prominent ways that fixed
and definite statements of mineral requirements are quite apt to be mis-
leading. And exact control in these matters is unnecessary because of
the existence of safety provisions, for bridging over temporary defi-
ciencies, of a perfection in harmony with the surpassing importance of
mineral metabolism.

It is my belief, therefore, that in our present state of knowledge
close statements of the mineral requirements of human beings involve
a large element of “ceremonious delusion” (borrowing the expression
from Thudichum), and that practical advice regarding the mineral
metabolism of healthy human beings may most properly be general in
character, and in the nature of recommendations of types of food prod-
ucts which should predominate in the diet under the various conditions
cf life, growth and activity.

We shall discuss certain of the mineral nutrients in detail, citing
facts as to their occurrence in foods and metabolism in the body.

The one mineral salt which we use as such—sodium chloride—occu-
pies a unique position among the mineral nutrients. Within wide
limits it seems to make little difference how much sodium chloride we
consume, and the kidneys excrete this salt without marked energy ex-
penditure. Under certain conditions excessive intake of this salt causes
slight increase in nitrogenous outgo, but such abnormal consumption
would result in indigestion before the increased protein katabolism
would become important in extent.

A special method and capacity of the kidneys for the elimination of
sodium chloride is shown by observations of Schloss' and of Borchardt.?
It appears that this salt alone fails to cause a loss of water from the
body corresponding to the amount of salt eliminated.

Bunge relates our unusual appetite for salt to the potassium content
of the diet, and the antagonistic relation between sodium and potassium
which exists in metabolism. It takes such a quantity of potassium salt
to cause an appreciable increase in the elimination of sodium, however,
that I prefer to explain our peculiar relations to sodium chloride as due
to the marine origin of vertebrates and the consequent adaptation of
these forms to life in a somewhat concentrated solution of this salt.

Other physiological antagonisms which are often mentioned are

1 Schloss, Biochem. Z., 22, 283-89.
2 Borchardt, Deut. med. Wochenschr., 38, 1723-27.

THE ENERGY CONTENT OF THE DIET 285

those between calcium and magnesium and between calcium and sodium ;
other less important ones have been shown to exist between chlorine and
iodine, and between chlorine and bromine.

The retention of the minerals is also prominently affected by their
relative abundance in comparison with the requirement, that is, by the
so-called “law of minimum,” the least abundant constituent, as com-
pared with the demand, serving largely to determine the usefulness of
others with which it is associated in metabolism. The various salts of
the diet also affect the solubility of others of this same group of nutrients
in important ways.

The net result of these interrelationships among the mineral nu-
trients is likely to be manifest as a prominent lack of correspondence
between the retention and the intake of these substances. The man to
whom quantitative relations in mineral metabolism appear to be simple
and direct is not embarrassed by an acquaintance with much of the
evidence.

Calcium, phosphorus and iron are more likely than other mineral
nutrients to be lacking in human dietaries. On this account especial
interest attaches to their occurrence in food. Calcium is especially
abundant in milk, and is also contained in considerable quantities in
eggs, vegetables and fruits. Phosphorus is abundant in milk, eggs, nuts,
peas, beans and such cereal products as contain the outer seed coats.
Iron is found in largest quantities in beef, eggs, beans, peas, green vege-
tables (especially spinach) and in the outer seed coats of the cereals.
The foods which are poorest in minerals are polished rice, pearl hominy,
white flour, bolted cornmeal and other cereal foods which lack the outer
seed coats. These foods, because of their highly digestible character and
lack of salts, are apt to be constipating. Magnesium is abundant in
the cereals and is not apt to be deficient in normal rations. The mag-
nesium salts of the outer seed coats of cereals contribute a laxative char-
acter to foods containing them. Enough sulphur is contained in the
proteins of any ration which supplies the nitrogen requirement. Potas-
sium is found in considerable quantities in most normal foods and is also
present in sufficient amount in almost all diets.

Manganese, boron, silicon and iodine are among the less abundant
minerals in the body, the presence of which in the necessary quantities
in the diet we take for granted. We are just now finishing up in my
laboratory iodine estimations on about 950 samples of food products in
a study which will show in what foods iodine is found, and which may
perhaps show a relationship of the iodine of foods to the prevalence of
goiter.

Considering the proportion of minerals to other nutrients needed
during the several stages of life, there is, from birth to maturity, in gen-
eral a decreasing requirement, but with periods of increased demand due

286 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

to unusual functional activity, especially during puberty, pregnancy and’
milk secretion. The usual mineral requirements of mature human
beings are comparatively slight, and are probably satisfied by all normal
diets (provided we specify with some particularity as to what consti-
tutes a normal diet). It is, therefore, during rapid growth and during
the reproductive life of women that the mineral nutrients are especially
in demand, and it is at these times that lack of mineral nutriment and
irrational hygiene cause or aggravate a number of well-known patholog-
ical conditions which are characteristic of these states of being. We shall
mention in detail the mineral requirements at some of these times of
greater need.

The normal food of the human infant naturally furnishes its full
mineral requirement. This subject becomes of interest in this connec-
tion, therefore, in cases of artificial feeding and in certain metabolic
derangements. For an artificial food we naturally turn first to cow’s
milk, which because of high fat and casein contents must be liberally
diluted. If water is used, the necessary dilution reduces the minerals,
the albumin, the lecithin and the so-called accessory nutrients to an
undesirable extent. The best diluent is whey, which any one can pre-
pare with the aid of a thermometer and a commercial rennet preparation
inafew minutes. (The whey must be heated to 68°C. or 154° Fahren-
heit to kill the enzyme, before it is mixed with milk.) With combina-
tions of whey, skim milk, cream and milk sugar you can play any die-
tetic tune you please on the infant organism, and with these foods the
intelligent parent can rear any infant which can live at all. The espe-
cial usefulness of whey is due to its abundant mineral content in natural
physiological solution. It serves as a stabilizer—a corrective. You can
do no harm with whey unless you use the evaporated preparation, whey
powder. It is possible by an abuse of this food to cause edema (in weak
infants) through excessive ingestion of minerals, though this would
never occur in its proper use.

The commonest metabolic disturbance in infants is gastrointestinal
indigestion. Its commonest cause is a weak digestive apparatus and
too much fat in the food. Alkali soaps, formed in the intestine, in-
stead of being digested and absorbed are passed off in the feces. Alkalis
are lost to the organism; mineral acids are left to predominate; in-
fantile acidosis ensues. What shall wedo? Reduce the fat in the food
and add sodium citrate to furnish an oxidizable alkali salt.

Because of its low oxidative capacity the infant organism is espe-
cially subject to acid intoxication from relatively slight causes, the acid
excess being due to the normal acid products of metabolism and to
imperfectly oxidized organic compounds, especially betaoxybutyric acid.
We have mentioned the weak digestive apparatus and deficient capacity
to handle fat. Inanition also causes acidosis in infants. Fever is a

THE ENERGY CONTENT OF THE DIET 287

very common cause. In all these cases whey is especially valuable.
Many a child has been taken through long sieges of fever on whey.
Children do not lose weight rapidly on whey alone. Egg white and fruit
juice, especially that of the orange, may be used with whey to advantage ;
they furnish some nutriment and appreciable amounts of alkali.

The infant is born with a store of iron within its body. During the
nursing period this store is gradually depleted, since the milk contains
little iron. At weaning time the infant stands in need of iron. This
is usually supplied in egg yolk, beef press juice, scraped beef, prunes,
whole wheat foods and oatmeal, and some physicians of unquestioned
standing recommend spinach. I happen never to have seen spinach

used, however, for an infant. Egg yolk is of especial value as a source
of iron, calcium, phosphorus and lecithin. But it is an exceedingly rich
food. It must be fed with great care on two accounts, first, to avoid
making the baby sick, because while it is usually well taken it acts like
poison to some infants, and second, because the value of egg is so great
that it is especially unfortunate if you upset the infant by an over-
allowance, since it may be a long time before it will regain its tolerance
for this food.

In connection with the mineral metabolism of infants mention must
also be made of rachitis. The cause of this disease is unknown. It is
not due primarily to lack of minerals in the diet and does not respond
readily to simple increase of minerals in the food, though calcium salts
administered with phosphorized cod-liver oil are usually beneficial.

The existence in infants and older children of simple malnutrition
of the bones, a common malady in young farm animals, is not well estab-
lished; and the prevalent imperfections of children’s teeth are not cer-
tainly related to deficiencies in the diet, but seem rather to be caused by
lack of exercise (due to the fine milling of our cereals and the chewing
cf our meat with a sausage mill), the increasing use of sugar (a readily
fermentable, acid-producing food) and increasing use of fruits, the or-
ganic acids of which soften the tooth enamel.

In considering the mineral requirements of human beings we may
bear in mind the facts that more than three fourths of the ash of the
body is in the skeleton, which includes about 88 per cent. of the phos-
phorus and more than 99 per cent. of the calcium of the entire body.
Thus in discussing mineral requirements of the organism as a whole we
have to do very largely indeed with the skeleton, but we must not over-
emphasize these facts, for the quantities involved are no gauge of func-
tional importance, as is illustrated by the fact that iodine, which is found
in the body in infinitesimal amounts, is just as essential as the pounds
of calcium.

Beyond the period of infancy the mineral nutrient which is most
commonly lacking in the diet is calcium, though phosphorus also may be

288 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY |

deficient, and the iron content of the diet is sometimes inadequate, as
evidenced by the existence of anemia in children.

For purposes of growth our best single sources of mineral nutriment
are milk and eggs. Of these, milk lacks only iron, and eggs only cal-
cium. The incubating bird supplements the moderate calcium content
of the egg by absorbing an appreciable amount of lime from the shell.

During the reproductive life of women liberal use should be made of
the iron-containing foods, such as beef, eggs, fruits and green vegetables,
especially spinach, green beans and cabbage. Lactation makes a heavier
demand upon the mother for mineral nutriment than any other incident
in her life, and the most efficient method of providing the mineral re-
quirement is, naturally, through ‘the use of milk, or foods made from
milk.

In old age there seems to be an absorption and loss from the body
of much bone substance coincident with the general atrophy of the tis-
sues. This is most apparent in the receding of the processes of the
maxille and the absorption of the spongy structure of the interior of
the long bones. This appears to be a physiologic process, and we have
no evidence that it is affected one way or the other by the minerals of
the diet, though it is conceivable that there might be some such influence.

Generally speaking, a high ash content of the food is desirable, since
the organism is much better able to handle an excess of ash constituents
than to meet a deficiency. It is good practise, therefore, to utilize the
water in which foods are cooked, in so far as this can be done without
detracting from the acceptability of the food, since the cooking-water
dissolves out much mineral matter. An abundance of mineral salts in
the diet is also desirable, aside from nutritive considerations, because
they contribute a laxative character to the food. Foods which are defi-
cient in minerals are apt to be constipating.

A general character of the mineral nutrients of foods is the predom-
inance of acid or basic elements. If the nutrients are present in the
proportions in which they are needed the bases will predominate, and
it is probably best that the bases should exceed the acid elements in the
diet. It is true, however, that the organism has the capacity to neutral-
ize a considerable excess of acids. Meats, eggs and cereals have acid
ash; vegetables, milk and most fruits have alkaline ash. The latter
group should be liberally represented in the diet.

The diets which are most likely to supply enough of each of the
minerals are those characterized by liberality and diversity. Extreme
simplicity of diet is not advantageous. The usual diets of prosperous
Americans do not lack mineral nutrients. But we are not all prosperous,
and some of us choose unusual dietetic combinations. The central
features of improperly chosen diets are usually an undue dependence
upon meats and foods made from finely milled cereals or other cereal

THE ENERGY CONTENT OF THE DIET 289

foods lacking the outer seed coats, and too little use of milk and
vegetables.

Those circumstances most likely to lead us into error in this matter
are ignorance, poverty, parsimony, dietetic fads, peculiarities of appetite
and disordered digestive functions.

Now in conclusion, it is certainly true that we muddle along fairly
well without much attention to this subject, but one never knows when
he may need additional insurance in the way of understanding. Through
my slight knowledge of this subject I was able to save my own son,,
and that of course seems to me to have been worth while. Then too,
when there be no lives in danger, there is a certain satisfaction which
we all take in efforts to direct our affairs with intelligence even though
“the worst laid plans of mice and men gang oft aright.”

THE CHEMICAL NATURE AND PHYSIOLOGICAL
SIGNIFICANCE OF SO-CALLED VITAMINES

By CARL VOEGTLIN

PROFESSOR OF PHARMACOLOGY, U. S. PUBLIC HHALTH SERVICE

T has been known for some time that scurvy is a disease which occurs
in man and certain higher animals when the diet does not contain
fresh vegetable or animal foods. Once the disease has made its appear-
ance it can be cured in most cases in a remarkably short time by the
introduction into the diet of the patients of a sufficient amount of fresh
vegetables, fresh milk and especially fresh lemon juice. Hence it is obvi-
ous that these last-mentioned foods contain in their fresh state sub-
stances which are essential for the prevention of scurvy. Asa diet which
otherwise is fully adequate from the point of view of its content in pro-
teins, carbohydrates, fats and calories may lead to scurvy, the logical
conclusion is that there exist in fresh vegetables and certain animal foods
substances of an unknown chemical composition which are essential
accessory foods.

The deficiency of the diet in similar substances may give rise to a
disease of the peripheral nervous system, known as beri-beri, which is
especially prevalent in eastern countries, as Japan and the Philippines.
People living on a diet which consists almost entirely of highly milled
rice or wheat are very apt to develop beri-beri after having lived on this
diet for a period of ninety days. On the other hand, beri-beri does not
develop in persons living on whole rice or wheat flour. In other words
the outer portions of these cereals, namely the aleuron layer, contain the
substances which have to be added to the diet in order to prevent this
disease. As in the case of scurvy, a considerable number of observations
have established the fact that beri-beri is not due to a deficiency of the

vou. 11.—20.

290 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY —

diet in proteins, carbohydrates or fats, but that certain accessory food
substances are lacking in the diet. For this reason we speak of scurvy
and beri-beri as deficiency diseases, meaning by this term that the diet
which is responsible for the production of these diseases is deficient in
certain accessory foods having no direct relation to the protein, carbo-
hydrate and fat content of the diet. Funk has designated these acces-
sory foodstuffs as vitamines, meaning that they are essential for life.

It is fortunate that most people on account of their dietary habits live
on a mixed diet containing enough of these accessory foods to prevent
an outbreak of scurvy or beri-beri. Little can be said, however, at the
present time as to the influence of a deficient diet on health, the defi-
ciency of which is not pronounced enough to produce scurvy, beri-beri
and other, as yet unrecognized, deficiency diseases. It is only reason-
able to assume that such an incomplete deficiency might lead to milder
symptoms which are only fully pronounced when the disease has made
its appearance. From the foregoing it is evident that the scientific and
practical importance of these accessory foodstuffs or vitamines can not be
overestimated and their bearing on nutrition and the maintenance of
health represents a most interesting scientific chapter. I shall therefore
attempt to review the most important discoveries which have been made
in the last few years in this field.

The first fact which seems fairly well established is that the sub-
stances preventing beri-beri or the anti-neuritic substances are present
in the natural foods largely in a combined form which is soluble in 90
per cent. alcohol or water, and when present in sufficient amounts in the
diet will prevent the occurrence of beri-beri. This mother substance
can be split by means of acid hydrolysis or autolysis by means of enzymes,
yielding after fractionation a substance with very powerful curative
properties if tested on patients with symptoms of beri-beri; especially
the so-called wet beri-beri is cured by this preparation in a few days.
Very little is known at present as to the chemical nature of the mother
substance of this beri-beri vitamine. The observations that foods rich in
lipoids are also rich in vitamines and the solubility of the mother sub-
stance of the anti-neuritic substance in alcohol might lead to the belief
that vitamines enter into the molecule of certain lipoids, an assumption
which recent experiments by Dr. Sullivan and myself have made highly
improbable. The anti-neuritic vitamine is probably not in combination
with carbohydrates, as the starchy part of cereals seems to be extremely
poor in this substance. The possibility that certain parts of the protein
molecule, especially the nucleic acids, may hold in combination the active
substances is still open and the fact that foods rich in nucleated cells are
also rich in anti-neuritic substance might perhaps be considered as evi-
dence of the truth of this assumption.

1 Proceedings Amer. Soc. Biol. Chemists, 1915.

THE ENERGY CONTENT OF THE DIET 291

From these considerations we may conclude that the anti-neuritic
vitamine is present in foods in a combined form, which is much more
resistant than the free curative substance. This is of great practical
importance, as in the process of cooking we subject food for a consider-
able length of time to a temperature of about 100° C. As will be seen
later, the more or less isolated beri-beri vitamine loses its physiological
activity under these conditions.

It is obvious that the chemical isolation of vitamine from foods is
of great importance in order to enable us to study their chemical nature
and physiological action. A considerable amount of work along this line
has finally led to some degree of success. We are especially indebted to
Funk? for a method which makes it possible to obtain the anti-neuritic
substance in a more or less pure form of very powerful physiological
activity. This investigator succeeded in preparing a crystalline sub-
stance, a few milligrams of which when administered to pigeons suffer-
ing from experimental beri-beri led to a complete recovery of the para-
lytic symptoms within a few hours. This substance contains carbon,
nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen. It seems to possess the properties of an
organic base. Unfortunately the yield in active substance is very poor,
even when prepared from hundreds of pounds of natural foods rich in
this substance. This is due to several defects in the method. First, it
is at present impossible to extract the total activity from natural foods
by means of alcohol, the common solvent used for this purpose. Second,
the use of alkalies and oxidizing agents employed in Funk’s method
destroys the anti-neuritic vitamine very easily. Work is in progress in
my laboratory to overcome these difficulties and I may state that several
new modifications of the method have been discovered which seem to
improve the yield considerably. It is interesting to note that adsorbing
agents, such as charcoal, etc., will completely remove the anti-neuritic
substance from its solutions. Such solutions also lose their physiological
activity by boiling for a few minutes after sufficient alkali has been added
to render such solutions alkaline.

As far as the anti-scorbutic vitamine is concerned it has been impos-
sible to isolate it up to the present time. All we know about this sub-
stance is that it is fairly stable in acid media. This is probably the rea-
son why lemon juice, with its high acidity, is the classical preparation
used in the prevention and treatment of scurvy.

For the same reason milk, having an amphoteric reaction, on being
heated for a considerable length of time to a temperature exceeding
100° C. loses its anti-scorbutic properties and in forming the exclusive
diet of children may give rise to the appearance of infantile scurvy.

The physiological and pharmacological properties of these vitamines
have not been studied extensively. The main facts which have: been

20, Funk, ‘‘Die Vitamine,’’ 1914.

292 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY '

established are that these preparations, obtained in the proper way, do
not possess toxic properties, and that in remarkably small amounts they
relieve the symptoms in animals and men suffering from deficiency dis-
eases. The mechanism of this pharmacological action is still obscure.
Observations made on the vitamine content of the spinal cord have
shown that nerve fibers do contain the anti-neuritic substance, mainly
in a combined form, which is liberated after autolysis of the tissue.
From this it would appear that the anti-neuritic substance under normal
conditions formed an essential part of the nerve fiber, and its presence in
nerve tissue in sufficient amounts is essential for the proper function of
this organ.®

An interesting relation between carbohydrates and anti-neuritic sub-
stance was discovered by Funk,* Braddon and Cooper.® It was found
that in order to prevent the occurrence of experimental beri-beri in
pigeons it is necessary that for each gram of carbohydrate in the diet
there must also be present a certain minimal quantity of anti-neuritic
substance. If the carbohydrate component of the diet is increased the
vitamine content must be increased accordingly. This explains the
earlier observations that a diet rich in carbohydrates is more apt to give
rise to the appearance of beri-beri.

In conclusion a few considerations concerning the practical bearing
of these accessory foods or vitamines on nutrition in health and disease
may not be out of place. The following table illustrates the relative
vitamine content of foods, beginning with those richest in vitamines.
I do not pretend that this table is a very accurate compilation, but in
our present state of knowledge it will probably be found of some use in
deciding questions as to what constitutes a satisfactory diet from this
point of view.

TABLE
Anti-neuritic Properties Anti-scorbutic Properties
Relatively Rich | Relatively Poor Relatively Rich Relatively Poor
Brewer’s yeast Sterilized milk Fresh vegetables Dried vegetables
Egg yolk Sterilized meat Fresh fruits Dried fruits
Ox heart Cabbage Raw milk Sterilized milk
Milk Turnips Raw meat Canned meat
Beef and other fresh! Carrots and other vege- Dried cereals
meat | tables of thistype | Pork fat
Fish Highly milled cereals |
Beans Starch |
Peas Pork
Oats
Barley
Wheat
Corn

3 Voegtlin and Towles, Jour. Pharmacol. and Exp. Ther., 1913, Vol. 67.
4 Funk, Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 1914, IX. C., 378.
5 Braddon and Cooper, Jour. Hyg., 1914, XIV., 351.

THE ENERGY CONTENT OF THE DIET 293

It is obvious from this table that a mixed diet including sufficient
animal foods, as fresh milk, eggs, meat and fresh vegetables is by far the
most satisfactory diet, as it contains sufficient anti-neuritic and anti-
scorbutic substances. The dietary habits of the greater part of the popu-
lation in this country are such as to prevent the continuous consumption
of a diet deficient in vitamines. In recent years, however, certain factors
have had a tendency to reduce the vitamine content of the diet of the
population at large. Changes in our economic conditions, food produc-
tion and method of cooking seem to reduce the vitamine content of the
diet of a large number of persons to the danger-point. Observations
which I have made in connection with studies on the cause of pellagra
bear out this assertion. The population of a large portion of the south-
ern states, in which this disease is prevalent to such a serious degree,
lives on a diet which is, to say the least, not rich in vitamines. Highly
milled cereals, pork fat, in addition to cabbage and turnips and similar
vegetables, form the staple article of the diet. The customary use of
baking-soda in the preparation of food furthermore lowers the vitamine
content of the diet. I have been able to demonstrate on animals that
corn bread made from cornmeal and milk with the addition of soda loses
its high initial content of anti-neuritic substance in the process of baking
as a result of the destructive action of the alkali. The use of baking
soda for this purpose should, therefore, be discouraged.

Another factor which undoubtedly enters into this question is the
consumption of highly milled cereals. The staple articles of diet of a
great percentage of the people in the southern states are highly milled
wheat, corn and rice. The change in the milling process, leading to the
making of these products deficient in vitamines, took place in more or
less recent years.

The increase in the cost of living naturally tends to reduce the
amount of the more expensive milk, meat and eggs in the diet and leads
to a corresponding increase in vegetable foods, the latter being deficient
in certain accessory foods. While it is not yet firmly established that
pellagra is a deficiency disease, many facts speak in favor of such an
idea. Without exaggeration it should be stated that the importance of
the accessory foods is a vital problem for the maintenance of the health
of the human race.

204 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY ©

FOOD SELECTION FOR RATIONAL AND ECONOMICAL
LIVING

By C. F. LANGWORTHY

CHIEF, OFFICE OF HOME ECONOMICS, STATE RELATIONS SERVICE, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF
AGRICULTURE

HERE are a number of factors which should be taken into account
when one discusses diet with reference to its adequacy and economy
and to the satisfaction which it gives. Among these are a knowledge of
local markets and standards of food quality ; wise selection of food; prep-
aration and cookery; and the planning of meals, or, as it is so commonly
called, “menu-making.” The last of these is by far the most important,
and will therefore be discussed at the greatest length, though the others
logically precede it.

By a knowledge of markets is meant not only knowledge of the loca-
tion of butchers, grocers and other dealers in food in one’s neighborhood
or town, but also a good idea of the reliability of the different dealers, the
quality of the goods which they offer, the relation of the cash or credit
systems of selling to their prices, and other such things. 'T’o be complete
it should also include some understanding of the production and distri-
bution of food materials; such information, for instance, as would lead
the housekeeper to purchase local-grown goods when possible, not only
because they may be fresher, but also because of the difference in their
favor of transportation charges and hence of price. With respect to the
quality of foods, the housekeeper should know, for instance, how to dis-
tinguish old and young poultry, and tough, overfat or overripe meats ;
she should know the relative merits of wilted and fresh vegetables, being
able to tell when the former can be freshened or when they include too
much inevitable waste to be economical. Other illustrations might be
cited, but these are sufficient to show what is meant. A knowledge of
markets and of quality of food products as related to final value calls for
a wide range of information, much of which can be taught and some of
which must be gained by experience.

Wise choice of foods involves possession of other lines of information
and experience which enables the housekeeper to purchase to good advan-
tage. She must realize that out-of-season foods, like strawberries or
green peas in January, will be more expensive, and no more nutritious,
than the same foods in early summer, while foods which are uncommon
at all times, like fresh mushrooms, will be more expensive than cabbage
or carrots, which they closely resemble in nutritive value. She may
select according to her circumstances, but she should do so “ with her
eyes open,” and not in the belief that the superior virtues belong neces-

THE ENERGY CONTENT OF THE DIET 295

sarily to the rare or the unusual. Then, too, one must take into account
the quantities which can be handled advantageously in the home. It is
the part of wisdom to purchase in quantity those supplies which can be
easily stored and kept without deterioration, while such purchase would
be decidedly unwise in the case of perishable foods, or if there are no
proper storage facilities. One must take into account further the ability
of the person who cooks to make acceptable dishes from the foods sup-
plied. If she does not know how to make a palatable pot roast or similar
dish from a tough cut of beef and does know how to broil a steak well,
there may be some economy in choosing the steak. The suitability, with
respect to the needs of the individual family, of the food purchased, is
another important consideration. Thus, a good deal of waste comes from
the purchase of meats which give too large cuts for the family tastes.
For instance, if the chops purchased are so large that the individual
portion which would be served (usually one large or two small chops)
is larger than the eater’s average appetite, part of the meat may be left
on the plate and thrown away. ‘The housekeeper, therefore, should take
pains to provide materials which can be served in portions to “ fit” the
family tastes.

he relative amount of time, labor and fuel which is required in
preparing foods for the table has a decided influence upon actual as
compared with apparent cost. The busy housekeeper who wishes to
prepare breakfast quickly may recognize this when she pays a higher
price per pound for some ready-to-eat cereal, which at most only requires
to be warmed before serving, instead of buying a breakfast cereal costing
less per pound but which must be cooked for several hours. If she
prefers a cereal which needs longer cooking, she should know that she
can begin to cook it when the evening meal is prepared, and finish it
either in the fireless cooker or while she is preparing breakfast the next
morning. The more she appreciates and acts upon such considerations,
the more likely she is to provide a satisfactory diet which is also an
economical one.

Cookery and other matters pertaining to the preparation of food for
the table are particularly important from the standpoint of economy and
satisfaction. Here, as elsewhere, knowledge of the “art of dressing
food,” to use an old phrase, is very important. It may be learned by
experience (usually at much cost), or from the mother or other members
of one’s family, as has been the rule in the past, or, like other arts, it
may be learned in school, as is increasingly the case under the changed
conditions of the present day. The housekeeper needs such knowledge,
whether she applies it herself, or whether she directs some one else. If,
in addition to the art of cookery, she understands relative food values
and other technical matters pertaining to food and its uses, her task of
providing a rational diet will be the easier.

296 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

She should not be parsimonious in her household management,
neither should she be extravagant, and to this end she should under-
stand and practise rational economy. She must realize, for instance,
that a large amount of garbage means needless waste, due to carelessness,
to excessive purchase, to overgenerous service, to poor cooking, or to
menus which do not please the members of the family.

She should be familiar with economical practises and usages and with
practical ways of saving materials, having wisdom to make use of those
which are really worth while and to avoid those which merely seem eco-
nomical. As an illustration, it is possible to be economical in the use of
fat and yet keep up a good standard of living. This implies careful use
of the fats purchased for the table and for cooking, and also the use of
fats commonly thrown away. The proper “salvage” and use of chicken
fat, rendered suet, bacon fat, and other fats commonly wasted, which
are, so to speak, by-products of raw materials or of cookery, will enable
her to economize in the amount of butter and other fats purchased as
such. She may take a hint from the commercial baker, who realizes that
stale bread and cake, dried and ground, can replace about one fourth of
the flour used in making many kinds of cookies, cakes, and other foods.
She must appreciate the importance of careful preparation of food mate-
rials and recognize that thin paring of fruits and vegetables is less waste-
ful than careless paring, and that soaking dried foods like navy beans,
dried peaches, etc., before cooking them economizes fuel by lessening the
time of cooking required. She must know that it is possible to make
palatable yet economical dishes by extending the flavor of some more
expensive food through a fairly large proportion of a cheaper food of
blander flavor, as is done when a small amount of meat is combined with
a large proportion of potatoes, carrots, and other vegetables in making
a meat stew. On the other hand, she should see that it is poor economy
to use a pint of cream and several eggs to save a cupful of cold boiled
rice or farina which might better go into the soup kettle.

The last factor, namely, the planning of meals, is very important and
places a great responsibility upon the housekeeper, since it determines
whether or not the diet provides the body with all the materials it re-
quires. It is a problem which is often well solved by the housekeeper on
the basis of empirical or other knowledge, but which is almost certain to
be wrongly solved if such knowledge is lacking. Certainly, it is one
regarding which there is much ignorance and many misconceptions. At
one extreme are those, and they probably represent the great majority,
who consider their meals only in reference to palatability—a selection
which may be rational if they have learned good food habits, and fortu-
nately, there is much empirical teaching on food habits which is sound.
At the other extreme are those who heed all the fantastic statements they
come across regarding specific medicinal or even semi-magic virtues as-

THE ENERGY CONTENT OF THE DIET 297

cribed to certain foods, who place their hopes in some particular type of
food materials, or who fear lest they may suffer by “eating incom-
patibles,” and so on through the long list of dietetic fads and fancies.
Many, however, are not long deceived, their common sense warning them
that, if such doctrines were true and important, the race could hardly
have survived its alleged dietary indiscretions. Between these ex-
tremes stand a rapidly increasing number who seriously desire to under-
stand and apply the principles of dietetics as they are now expounded
by the more generally accepted authorities.

A fundamental principle is that the diet, considered for any reason-
able length of time, must supply a great variety of chemical substances
combined in different ways for the “structural” needs of the body, and
also must supply it with energy-yielding substances with which it may
perform internal and external work. It seems apparent that a varied
diet, reasonably generous in amount, is more likely to meet the body
needs than one restricted or unvarying in its make up or scant in quan-
tity. The more knowledge and judgment used in its selection, the better
the diet is likely to be.

In discussing diet, the expression “ balanced ration ” is often used, no
doubt because it occurs so often, and to such good purpose, in discussions
of animal feeding. Those who employ the term should remember that
the feeder of live stock not only selects the kind of food which the horse
or the steer is to eat but measures the quantity. The housekeeper, the
physician, and the nurse do this for the infant and sometimes for the
person who is ill or otherwise compelled to live under circumstances in
which the diet is definitely controlled. The housekeeper does not do this
when under normal conditions she provides a meal for her family to
select from and eat of at will. Such freedom of choice is compatible with
rational living and should for the best ends be accompanied by rational
food habits which can be early taught in childhood, or, if need be, ac-
quired later in life. Therefore, the term “balanced ” is, and is likely to
remain, inaccurate for general discussions of dietetics, and the term
“ well-selected ” should be given the preference.

The character of the meals which the housekeeper will provide is de-
termined largely by racial and regional influences and also by fashion.
In the United States the general character of the diet is like that in the
British Isles, with many minor modifications contributed by the other
races which go to make up our population. Thus, we have meat with
potatoes and one or more other vegetables and a dessert for the simple
dinner, with the addition of soup and salad for a more elaborate one.
As an example of foreign influence may be cited the serving of macaroni
and cheese as one of the vegetables at dinner, or the use of sauerkraut
with pork.

The influence of fashion or custom is shown in such a matter as the

298 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY '

preference for a meal of a given type; for instance, the continental
breakfast of rolls and coffee in comparison with the English breakfast
of jam, toast, eggs or meat, and tea, or the American breakfast of which
fresh fruit and breakfast cereal so commonly form a part, usually ac-
companied by more hearty foods. We may prefer one type or another,
because we have always known it or because we have learned to like it,
but the whole matter is chiefly one of custom; and it is the same way
with other meals. Fashion also governs quite largely the choice and the
combinations of foods for a given meal; for instance, there is no in-
herent reason why peas instead of string beans should be served with
lamb, or why we should serve apple sauce with pork and currant jelly
with mutton rather than the other way around. We instinctively fol-
low conyentions, but we must not overlook the importance of so follow-
ing our preference that we get distinct variety from meal to meal and
from day to day. The housekeeper who thinks about such matters will
realize that serving sweet potatoes, white potatoes, Hubbard squash, and
boiled rice at the same meal shows “ poverty of invention,” since she will
realize that they are somehow alike, even if she does not know that all
are characterized by the presence in relatively large proportion of carbo-
hydrates. Nor would she be happier in her choice if she served such a
combination of green vegetables as spinach, asparagus, cabbage, and cauli-
flower, since all are similar members of the green vegetable group. Most
palates would be better pleased if she had scattered her dishes through
several days, having white potatoes and spinach, for instance, on one day ;
asparagus and sweet potatoes on another day; and so on through the al-
most endless number of combinations of which the food list permits; and
had included in the menu such other types as seed and fruit vegetables
(green beans and peas, tomatoes, cucumbers, green corn, melons, and so
on). Not only would this be more pleasing to the person with discrim-
inating taste, but it would also be more desirable from the standpoint of
the rational selection of foods, since a person would be more likely to
secure all of the food constituents which he needed from a mixed meal
than from one of such sameness,

Furthermore, a survey of the available data on the subject of meals
leads us to believe that it is possible to classify them into two distinct
types (though admittedly this is only a very rough division)—namely,
those which, for want of a better term, may be called the “hotel” or
“restaurant” type and those which may be called the “family” type.
In the former the principal dish chosen is likely to be a meat order,
which may carry with it a moderate serving of potato and which is sup-
plemented chiefly by bread and butter and possibly dessert, and less
often a green salad, but which usually does not include a generous order
of vegetables. In the second, or “family,” type of meals the amount of
meat served is likely to be smaller and the proportion of vegetables

THE ENERGY CONTENT OF THE DIET 299

served very much larger, with dessert and bread and butter as well. If
we follow the rapidly gaining theory that foods like meat, which yield an
acid residue when assimilated, should be accompanied by a generous
amount of foods like vegetables and fruits, which yield a distinctly alka-
line residue when assimilated, the wisdom of the so-called household type
of meal is apparent. We shall find also, if we consider its chemical com-
position and energy value, that it is more likely than the other type to
supply in reasonable proportion the necessary building and repair ma-
terial and the energy-yielding substances required.

The number of meals taken in a day is significant chiefly as a con-
vention or fashion. With the reasonably generous breakfast of the
American family the lunch or supper is likely to be moderate and the
dinner generous. On the other hand, it is natural enough that with the
light breakfast of Continental Europe there should go either the second
breakfast and supper or the hearty lunch as well as the dinner. Ap-
parently the number of meals taken does not greatly influence the
amount eaten per day, for the man who goes without his breakfast is
very likely to make up for it at dinner or supper, while the man who eats
an early breakfast and then a second breakfast will be likely to take a
moderate lunch or a light dinner. Good food habits do not permit of
gluttony.

The housekeeper who tries to provide a varied menu should realize
that in general variety can be secured in two ways, either by using a
considerable number of dissimilar food materials or by using varied
methods of cookery with a smaller number of food materials. While
both methods have their uses and both should be taken advantage of, it
is well to remember that the first is the one more likely to provide variety
from a chemical standpoint.

As regards the amount of food required, satisfaction and rational
living demand that the amounts provided should be adequate, while
economy demands that the amount should not be so great as to lead to
over-eating or to needless waste. It may seem generous to serve a person
more than he can eat, but it is not wise, since it means material left on
the plate, only to be thrown away. It is better to give a smaller serving
and offer a second helping. Proper care in such matters as well as in the
selection and preparation of food should mean a considerable saving.
The possibility of saving is made clear by the fact that the waste observed
in studies of several hundred American families ranged from practically
nothing to 20 per cent. of the food purchased.

It is also apparent that good dietary habits are important. These
can be taught and are best learned in childhood. We should not allow
children to grow up with whims, fancies and aversions respecting their
food. They can be taught to like all the ordinary foods, and this should
be done unless it becomes apparent (and this rarely happens) that some
article of diet is distinctly harmful because of an idiosyncrasy toward it.

300 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY '

For the guidance of the food expert (dietitian or other specially
trained worker), dietary standards have been proposed which show the
proportion of protein and energy which the daily diet should supply.
Such dietary standards are designed as guides for home and institution
management, and should not be confused with expressions of physiolog-
ical requirement. In quantitative discussions and in comparisons, one
should always distinguish clearly between “food purchased,’ “food
eaten” and “food digested,” and should take the further precaution not
only to compare like things, but to compare them on a uniform basis.
The basis most often selected for comparing dietaries is the food or diet
of “aman in the period of full vigor weighing 150 pounds and engaged
in moderate to active muscular work,” and factors for computing the
requirement of men, women and children in other circumstances in
terms of this standard have been worked out. These precautions should
always be taken in comparing the results of dietary observations, experi-
ments and studies; otherwise, avoidable confusion results. If they are
so taken into account many of the seeming differences of opinion which
sometimes lead to divergent conclusions will be found non-existent.
When all precautions are taken for accuracy in comparisons and discus-
sions, differences in the amounts of protein and energy found in the diet
of different persons and different races are still apparent, as well as dif-
ferences of opinion as to the amount of nutrients and energy required
or desirable. Such differences of opinion, however, are not so great as
one might expect, and one may well conclude, from a survey of the
dietary studies of different races available, that persons of like age, sex
and work, given an opportunity to select, instinctively choose diets show-
ing, when reduced to uniform terms, a decided similarity with respect
to the protein and energy they supply. ‘This is not surprising when one
recalls that all reasonably normal men possess bodies and possibilities of
using them which do not vary within such very wide limits. A steam-
engine of a given size and type will require the same amount of fuel of a
certain kind in Asia as would a duplicate engine in America, for the
production of a like amount of power, and why should this not be true
of the human engine as well?

A large number of dietary studies made in the United States con-
sidered in comparison with the other large number made elsewhere have
led to the conclusion that not far from 100 grams of protein per day,
along with 3,000 to 3,500 calories of energy, represents, for the typical
man (in the period of full vigor, engaged in moderate to active muscular
work), the quantities which the food purchased should supply. We
have not as yet been able to test with any degree of certainty the protein
optimum though data on the subject are abundant enough to indi-
cate that the suggested value represents common race habits. With
energy the case is different, for it is possible with the respiration calo-

THE ENERGY CONTENT OF THE DIET 301

rimeter to test the accuracy of the value suggested in any given dietary
standard. Such tests show that the values given above are in accord
with actual measurements of the energy expenditure of individuals
under the specified circumstances of work and rest.

A consideration of the results of American experiments and other
data has led us to conclude that with our ordinary food habits, involving,
as they do, the use of a considerable variety of foods in reasonably liberal
quantities, one is justified for many purposes in discussing dietetics on
the basis of energy only, since a diet which supplies 3,000 to 3,500
calories of energy per man per day, as ours so very commonly does,
almost inevitably supplies the needed protein, ash, and other constitu-
ents also. Particularly is this the case when one takes pains to include
in the diet a reasonable amount of milk, green vegetables and fruit. If
we accept this conclusion as rational, it enables us to go ahead without
controversy until the time comes when we have more abundant knowl-
edge of the kinds and quantities of protein we need, of the functions of
mineral elements and the best ways to meet our body needs for them,
and of the nature of vitamines or other regulatory substances.

It is no new thing to realize that, although empirical knowledge and
experience may lead to really good results, it is easier to achieve them if
there is also special knowledge and training. Thinkers and writers in
the past have given their time and attention to the problems of dietetics
and have left us much which is interesting and useful. That we can
discuss the problems more fully and more adequately at the present time
is due to the great progress made in biology, physics, chemistry, medi-
cine and other sciences. The question comes, how can we best trans-
late the results of scientific investigation for the housekeeper’s benefit.
It was natural enough that at first we should try to do this in laboratory
terms and expect the housekeeper to learn them. As a result, books,
pamphlets, charts, etc., have been provided for her which in many cases
can not be understood without special training, and for this time and
opportunity are only too often lacking. Later has come the realization
that, while the specialist who follows home economics as a profession
needs wide and varied technical knowledge, the woman who practises the
art of housekeeping chiefly needs, aside from the skill which she gains
by experience, simple statements of facts and definite methods by which
she may obtain desired results. With this realization has come the at-
tempt to formulate more simple and pedagogically correct methods of
instruction, and to provide illustrative material in pictorial or graphic
rather than tabular and diagrammatic form. It starts with materials
and facts familiar to the housekeeper and, as far as possible, applies
standards which have been tested in practical as well as experimental use.
Its advocates believe that by thus bringing practise and theory into
direct and vital connection, their teaching is more likely than either the

302 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

scientific or the empirical method of instruction not only to result in
more rational housekeeping, but also to supply the element of culture
which raises any labor to an occupation. ;

In its studies of methods for imparting information through its
extension and other activities, the Department of Agriculture has en-
deavored to classify common foods in a way corresponding to their
distinctive functions in nutrition. The division must be more or less
arbitrary, for some foods could go almost equally well in two or more
groups. Thus milk, which is a general food, is included with the pro-
tein foods because it is a valuable source of this nutrient. Bread is a
carbohydrate food, a protein food, and an ash-yielding food, but it is
classed as a carbohydrate food because its most obvious constituent is
starch, and because we use it in the same general way as we do starchy
foods like potatoes. The classification as now arranged consists of
five groups, and it is the understanding that each of these groups should
be represented, if not at every meal, at least once a day, and that if an
excessive number of food materials from any one group are used in the
course of a day the result is likely to be unsatisfactory from the stand-
point of rational dietetics or of taste.

The groups may be described in terms of the dietitian as follows:
(1) Foods in which protein bears a higher proportion to fuel value than
it does in the well-chosen diet as a whole; (2) those in which fuel value
is high in proportion to protein, owing chiefly to the presence of much
starch; (3) those in which fuel value is high, owing to the large per-
centage of fat; (4) those whose chief value is mineral constituents and
vegetable acids (the latter important from the standpoint of flavor as
well as of body needs) ; and (5) those which (like the foods in Groups
2 and 3) have a high fuel value, but in this case due to the presence of
sugar. From the standpoint of fuel value only, it is obvious that Groups
2 and 5 could be combined. From the standpoint of the well-chosen
and palatable meal, on the other hand, they should be kept distinct,
since sugar is frequently as important as a flavor as it is as a food.

In housekeepers’ terms the groups may be described as: (1) Flesh
foods (except the very fattest), milk, cheese, eggs and such meat substi-
tutes as dried beans, peas, and other legumes, and some of the nuts;
(2) starchy foods; (3) fat foods; (4) watery fruits and vegetables (ex-
cluding dried legumes and fruits which have been dried or combined
with much sugar); and (5) sweets.

The grouping is easy to remember and provides a guide for the house-
keeper in the selection of food materials for a meal or for a day’s ration
and also a means of checking up and criticizing the meals which have
been served.

It is obvious that while some foods belong clearly to one group, sugar
and honey to Group 5, for example, and liver and veal (which contain

THE ENERGY CONTENT OF THE DIET

393

Somr CoMMON Foops GROUPED ACCORDING TO THEIR CHARACTERISTICS

(All five groups

should be represented in the diet every day)

Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4 Group 5
Foods Characterized
Foods Character- chaspen finan aaa Foods Characterized| by Mineral Sub- |Foods Characterized
ized by Protein lar Carbohydrates by Fat stances per aerne by Sugars
Lean meats Bread Butter Spinach Sirup
Poultry Crackers Cream Peas Honey
Fish Macaroni Lard and other Lettuce Jellies
Oysters, etc. Rice culinary fats | Potatoes Dried fruits
Milk Cereal breakfast) Salt pork Turnips Candy
Cheese foods, meals} Bacon Apples
Eggs and flours Chocolate Oranges
Dried legumes Berries
Nuts
And other pro-| And other cereal) And other fatty) And other vege-| And other sweets
tein-rich foods| foods foods tables and
fruits, raw or
cooked

very little fat) clearly to Group 1, other foods are difficult to classify.
Mutton, for example, is a protein food which might also be classed as a
fat food, and dried navy beans might be classed as a protein and also as
a starchy food. To cite another example, potatoes, which are an im-
portant source of mineral substance, with some organic acid, are in-
cluded in Group 4 rather than in Group 2, which at first thought might
seem the more logical place for them when we recall that they are so
generally used as a source of carbohydrate (starch). In general, how-
ever, the system of groupings will be found helpful.

The following sets of menus contain none but wholesome and desir-
able food materials. These food materials, however, have been poorly
combined so far as the protein, fat, and carbohydrate which they provide
are concerned. The first set is characterized by much protein, the
second set by much fat, and the third set by much carbohydrate.

MENUS WITH PROTEIN PREDOMINATING

Breakfast: Cereal cooked in milk, chicken hash with egg, popovers, butter and
milk as a beverage.

Dinner: Dried-bean purée, halibut steak, potatoes scalloped in milk, tomatoes
stuffed with chopped beef, bread and butter, and frozen custard with nut
cookies,

Lunch or supper: Baked beans, nut bread and butter, old-fashioned rice pudding,
and a glass of milk.

The following shows a day’s menus (not at all unusual or peculiar) in which
fat foods predominate.

MENUS WITH Fat PREDOMINATING
Breakfast: Oatmeal with cream, sausage, and corn bread and butter.
Dinner : Cream of tomato soup, mutton chop with creamed potatoes, greens cooked
with bacon or pork, bread, and suet pudding with hard sauce.

304 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

Lunch or supper: Creamed salmon, lettuce with oil dressing, tea biscuits and
butter, pumpkin pie, and a cup of chocolate.

The following is an example of three meals of combinations common enough
but in which carbohydrate (starch and sugar) predominates.

MENUS WITH CARBOHYDRATE PREDOMINATING
Breakfast: An orange followed by corn cakes with maple syrup, and bread or
toast and butter.
Dinner: Meat pie and baked potato, green peas, bread and butter, and cottage
pudding with chocolate sauce.
Lunch or supper: Rice eroquettes with jelly, rye bread and butter, baked apples,
and sugar cookies.

The food and fuel values of the menus served are given below, the
portions served being of the average and usual size for an adult.

THE COMPOSITION OF THE NUTRIENTS AND THE ENERGY SUPPLIED BY THE MENUS
USED FOR JLLUSTRATION

Weight of Carbo-
Edible Food pouccrs Biss A hydrates, ee
Served, Grams Grams
Protein meals:
Bresitasteee ere, = .s s- 471 36 50 54 810
Odile boro one 772 58 64 120 1,288
Lunch or supper......... 639 33 cuss 105 894
ERA bits elk * Se 1,882 127 152 279 2,992
Fatty meals:
Breaktasy serie. 6 sts c 353 24 69 58 949
ADIN NETS Cee a Ss ee 617 33 88 108 1,356
Lunch or supper......... 621 29 83 98 1,259
FO 1a Otitis in 1,591 86 240 264 3,564
Carbohydrate meals:
IBTesKtasteer eens. a. <5 - 509 15 32 168 1,020
IDitoveGig) ga te, ob Se 529 40 33 133 989
Lunch ODISUDDET Ae es. . 376 14 27 127. 807
gkopih ss Wah, 1,414 69 92 428 2,816

Described in technical terms, for the benefit of the dietitian, the
first day’s menu supplies 4.2 grams of protein per 100 calories of energy,
or 2,356 calories of energy per 100 grams of protein; the meals of the
fatty menu, 2.4 grams of protein per 100 calories of energy, or 4,120
calories of energy per 100 grams of protein; and the meals of the starchy
(carbohydrate) menu, 2.5 grams of protein per 100 calories of energy,
or 4,081 calories of energy per 100 grams of protein.

Speaking in terms of the housekeeper ; Into the first day’s menu there
went sixteen food materials other than fresh fruits and vegetables, of
which nine were from Group 1. Milk entered into or made up ten
dishes; eggs, four; nuts, two; and beef, fish, chicken, dried beans, and
dried peas, each, one. Into the second day’s menu went nineteen food

THE ENERGY CONTENT OF THE DIET 305

materials other than fresh fruits and vegetables, of which nine were dis-
tinctly fatty foods (lard, oil, butter, cream, salt pork, and others), while
the meat, fish, and even the cereal chosen were those which contained
comparatively high percentages of fat. Into the third day’s ration went
eleven food materials, of which six were starchy or sugary (rye, wheat,
corn, rice, maple syrup, cane sugar).

Thus, by unwise choice one characteristic of the well-chosen diet—a
right proportion between protein and fuel—was omitted.

It is hardly necessary to say that different combinations of vegetables
and fruits may be made in which the proportion of mild vegetable acids
and ash to the other nutrients in the total diet may vary widely—a fact
which could be shown by similar groupings of food materials into menus.

To benefit by well-selected menus, each member of the family shou!d
eat all of the kinds of food provided, for, if a person habitually eliminates
some particular sort of food as fruits and green vegetables, he has failed
to take advantage of the housekeeper’s selection, no matter how good it
may be. One must, speaking broadly, relish all kinds of food, which is
a matter of good habits and good manners as well as of physiological
importance.

The housekeeper who will learn the simple classification of foods
mentioned above can easily see the relation of the different groups of
foods to the character of the meals she provides. She need only go a step
further to realize that it is wiser to provide dishes varied in character
for a given meal, and also meals varying from those of the same day and
varying from day to day. She can do this easily by taking care to see
that the different food groups are represented in at least two of the
three meals she serves each day. The more extended her information as
to market facilities, the wider her knowledge of standards of quality, the
wiser her selection of foods, and the greater her skill in preparing and
cooking them, the easier it will be for her to plan meals by this or any
other method, which will be reasonable, economical and satisfactory, as
well as adequate.

She can understand also that it is more important to apply the prin-
ciple outlined to a considerable period of time than to a single day. A
departure from the ideal for a day or so means little, for it can be made
up the next day or the next week, while an irrational diet, if followed for
a long period, may lead to marked disturbance or even serious illness.

The housekeeper need not go into the reasons for all these things
which she has to attend to, but she will be quick to see in a general way
the point of it all in so far as it concerns her problem of preparing
suitable meals for her family. She need not know the theories of elec-
tricity to use and appreciate an electric light, nor need she be burdened
with the theories of dietetics, if she is willing to trust the conclusions
others have reached and apply them to her particular problems.

VOL .11.—21.

306 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

She naturally wishes for some tangible proof that her efforts to pro-

vide a rational diet as part of her good housekeeping are meeting with
success. The general condition of her family should offer her fairly good
evidence. Thus, it seems fair to say that the child who continues to
approximate the average for his years with respect to weight and height,
who is apparently normal in respect to work and play, and who exhibits
none of the obvious symptoms of ill health can not be very faultily fed,
any more than can be the adult who remains in fairly constant weight
for long periods of time, making due allowance for the seasonal varia-
tions (such as the small loss in weight in summer and the small gain
in winter), and has other attributes of good health. As one reaches
middle life it is wise to be more abstemious in matters of diet, as in other
things, for the body is “slowing down” and becoming less active and so
needs less food. If, in any case, things do not seem to be as they should
be, advice should be sought from a physician or other expert, as he alone
can judge whether there is an actual departure from normal and whether
it is due to diet or to some other cause.
__ Experience shows clearly that the experimental and the professional
worker can be more helpful to the housekeeper than heretofore. The
Department of Agriculture is doing what it can to accomplish this im-
portant end. The method for translating technical matters of diet into
housekeepers’ terms, which is outlined above, is an attempt to do this.
The method can be modified as experience indicates is desirable, and the
subject-matter can be amended to keep pace with the results of investi-
gation and experiment.

What we can now do to help the housekeeper solve her problems falls
short of the ideal, but, at any rate, what has been accomplished would
seem sufficient to show her that her problems are recognized as worthy of
study, and that an extended and consistent effort is being made to give
them the attention they merit. In this movement the United States
Department of Agriculture is taking part to the full extent of its
opportunities.

THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 307

THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE

THE RESOURCES AND THE IN-| Places of beauty as an asset; Young
VENTIONS OF THE UNITED | America; The tesi of a democracy; Ad-
STATES /ministrative effort. Mr. Lane, indeed,

THE annual report of the Secretary Pesins by defending his own method,

of the Interior reads less like an official | tc us that those foreigners who
government document than like a ser- WTite of our country often engage in
mon or a panegyric, This is obvious” facetious if not scornful comment upon
from the headings of the sections, which | Ur bombastic manner of telling the
are: National pride in development; Story of our growth and of the things
The foundations of power; The era of | achieved or possessed. But he says they
splendid giving; To use, not to hold or fail to see far enough into the secret of

waste; Taming the rivers for use; our pride. ‘‘We have a passion for

THE UNITED STATES

Invention Inventor Date
DUDE C eR eed oo ra Os NOOe See acne meoaer Sell ere taysierefeieicies evs sleles: 1876
PISO WITLOR ec iereie srcie er nicics cle sic ac oe. wise sores IMSITO LES Brperatr tid «615. ors s)eireneiee 1878
DEMME WEMEINCHE S05). eile vs sible sia aicd ce ssw ewes bDRULEEREEIVE Sooo: cence aes 1885
HNeaNdescent lamps 3c cei ie cia's:e reciela.g egies (SOM aterster sats ale se oo c0e o's 1880
Talking MIVA CIUTIG 3 orafeteeys vera oie e-oca°s aes eles iets Peo mmreetecieie sche «oo axe e'e elec 1878
Electric furnace reduction,................ P@Owlesicarrrstictis cers aici: 016 vile 1885
Electrolytic alkali production.............. (UR SCHED MTT iteicl> 6: dinieieis. ccs) « 1890
Transparent photograph film............. (DASE creccre, oferene cole ase 1888
Motion-picture machine................--. TD[S eter Es 5S Oy REESE cee 1893
Buttonhole sewing machine...............) ENCE CR eee tertic re thers ie. c!ai ai sletersy-« 1881
CULE ore hats ERR 5 6 ae rs PA GHOR OV Se Ste cle. os,c'2 s oisve,e 0.5 1891
WO slorrime CALI Gsiele cisies os ss sc ake co seme WWalTBO Reais. cs flocs eos 8 1888
PPM CIAl OAT NULG ec cis v e'e sc oe oe eae INGHENOD ate oicts + < cs ciele, orsle 0 1896
Split-phase induction motor............:.. Rel etter feretahe meets «, digs evaleis o's 1887
IMM IDE SUIC@ revit pepe a) See sacs! 2 yc bie eo. ac ave Satna Westinghouse............. | 1869
PHC LEIG MOBILIT yer) atch 2) 2 cde) 5s oo: 0 cee es a IO ITS OMe irc ote cl eisie ones e 4 cil 1889
BEC DHE CASLIO LS. iclsie sinless s.< os ls os win eheaemee | Mergenthaler............. | 1885
Chain-stitch shoesewing machine........... French & Myers.......... 1881
Single-type composing machine............ WGSNYSTO Mere Gy dee) eile) 6, «9 Sele’ ae | 1887
Continuous-process match machine........ (ISB OC Het rttererdicty.cis 0 s.c 9) e's, 0/6 1888
RO NTOMMG GALI ay gBts sees also: v's. « we aiareve tettege INCH pit stoic. c.s cve.cieee « 1884
Disk plows (modern type) ........06..0006 lan ie | 1896
Veiclinaent (0 ria Ve oer Ae 7 rae oe wae A GOODY GAT ee aie cis isiprevee see | 1871
LCi race mien. 2 Se aA eS PS UUS sere ie lc cis aco sie «.s 1879
Recording adding machine................ UPTO US Heya ssers1c 8 26 «00 1888
OFM Cel to Peres ene. A ae RC Pere? (EM Elo o rat OC ee eRe (42870
Automatic knot-tying harvester machine....| Appleby..................) 1880
WSCON RAS Ss oid cesrace hea ole 050 oisue s\n ove a Reet EOC ONE IEEE Gio sca eid os so -ere | 1875
Machine for making barbed wire........... (Os OT. = 6 paar nS 1875
Rotary: CONVErterss sss clege Hea aero SVHONGUMAPERL tre os save see's | 1887
PANILOMAUIC CAT COUDLEI sec .cin a ciattic oa lketh icteIELLITIC Yn USED ocils © ave sed eee 1873
igh-specd Steel's et; amicts. cela ec alee slostentneeee Taylor & White.......... 1901
Dry-air process for blast furnace........... OO | 1894
Block signals for railways..............0.. EITM OLS ioc, cs «ace ps ule 1872
PL TOMOY; OATS ..s ocd. care creaisiate, ccste rer en he es Van Depoele & Sprague... | 1884-1887

Harveyized armor plate..........eseccece. ilcainvesysremtandcisrs fa 's a0 ne iece | 1891

308 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY
FOREIGN

Invention Date | Inventor Nationality
MileEriG sHheel erty] atthe « evere scale Seite s T9008 sHeroulte 2a emer ere French.
EB) VATAIVITLE scr eee 6s, s.% vicia to ola ote < fote SOT MeNObele. ac eee ene Swedish.
Artificial alizarene (dye)..........---+- 1869 | Graebe & Lieberman...| German.
Siphon recorder...................--.--| 1874 | Thompson............. English.
Gas engine, Otto cycle!............... TSAR Ottoes cs aa setae German.
Wireless telegraphy...:..........-..-- 1900) Marconi... sce ee Italian.
Smiakelessipo weenie oc. fe 6 faces whsenete 1886: Wiellless 5%). aereesc toe eee French.
IDs sierAllyoy Wastes) Ope 2 aud onan Oey ene Beicicr ne £900>:\, Wiesel csc ieee te te tenors German.
Centrifurslicreamer.. sic: sass 4s os os 1880) ieDe' Laval. wh. sk oe Swedish.
IMancanese Steele. cist. ccs sic ae fase es 8 TS84) lobadifieldes: 32): 0 stekeeke 2 English.
Electric transformer ..........0.2+-88% 1883 | Gaulard & Gibbs....... Do.
Cyanide process for extracting metal....| 1888 Arthur & De Forrest.... Do.
Mantle*bumer . oo60: oes ics ct enc se oh elS90) aWelsbache. oceans Austrian.
By-product coke ovens. .... 6.6 .s0 ee 2 o's ‘| 1893. Hlofimanws.4. -.s ea aces Do.

going into the unknown, for answering
the puzzles that are put to us. Our
imagination is challenged by difficulty.
And the result has been a century of

growth, which in its magic and in its |

largeness casts a spell upon the mind. *’
The story that Mr. Lane tells is in-
deed marvelous. We produce 66 per

cent. of the world’s petroleum, 60 per |
cent. of its copper, 40 per cent. of its |

coal and iron. Within fifty years we

gave in subsidies to railroads public |
lands that exceeded in size a territory |
seven times as large as the state of |

Pennsylvania. We have given to the
states, for the sustaining of their
schools and other public institutions, an

amount that our records do not aceu- |

rately state, but thirteen western states
were given over 67,000,000 acres. We
have water power that can be made to
generate perhaps as much as 60,000,000
horsepower. The waters that flow idly
to the sea could be made to support not
less than 50,000,000 people if turned
upon the land.

Perhaps in some cases Mr. Lane over-
exalts our achievements. Jor example,
he tells us that the public-school system
is the most successful social enterprise
yet undertaken by any people, that on
it we spend three-quarters of a billion
‘¢Wducation is indeed
our foremost industry, from whatever
point of view it may be regarded.’’
But we should need to double the

dollars a year.

5

|amount spent in education to make ‘t
' financially comparable with the adver-
_tising business, to quadruple it to rival
the liquor trade.

Mr. Lane writes: ‘‘During the past
fifty years the people of the United
States have uttered two thirds of all the
revolutionary epoch-making inventions
of the world, ranging from the tele-
phone and the incandescent lamp to
Wright’s aeroplane and high speed
steel.’’? In this case the evidence :s
supplied by the forty-three examining
divisions of the patent office. It will
/not be convincing to foreign critics or
to all Americans but is of sufficient in-
| terest to be reproduced.

|RUINS OF THE MESA VERDE NA-
TIONAL PARK

THE large tract of land in south-
western Colorado, now known as the
Mesa Verde National Park, was set
aside from the Ute Reservation by an
Act of Congress in 1906 on account of
the numerous ruins of cliff dwellings
which occur in its canyons. This en-
lightened legislation was in response 10
the universal recognition that these re-
mains had an educational importance.
It was largely brought about by the ef-
forts of women of Colorado, members
of a local state organization known as
the Colorado Cliff Dwellers Association,
At about this time or a few years be-
fore there was a general awakening of

THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE

399

VIEW OF SUN TEMPLE FROM INSPECTION POINT, ACROSS THE CANYON.

Also the Cliff

Palace in the cave to the right.

interest in prehistoric monuments
throughout the country, when it ws
recognized that for the

protection of the ruins of the South-

unless laws

west were made, in a few years these

survivals of the past would practically
be destroyed by collectors whose efforts
were mainly stimulated by the commer-
cial value of pottery and other small

objects they contained. The sequestra-

tion of the Mesa Verde National Park |

was accompanied by an appropriation
of money for its development:
ment of salary of a
building roads and current expenses.

pay-

superintendent,

The administration of the park was nat-
urally placed in the hands of the cus-
todian of public lands, the Secretary
of This
set aside a part of the appropriation for
clearing the
rooms, and making such repairs as were
needed for preservation of the walls.
As this kind of work is of a scientific

the Interior. official wisely

the fallen débris from

| designate

character, the Secretary of the Smith-
sonian Institution was called upon to
an archeological expert {o
take immediate charge of the work.
The policy adopted by the Secretary
of the Interior has been continued from
year to year with satisfactory results.
Three of the largest and most typical
cliff dwellings of the park have been
excavated and roads have
been constructed to them, so that now

the student or tourist can visit, by auto-

repaired ;

mobile from Mancos, on the Denver and
Rio Grande Railroad, without discom-
fort, cliff
called Spruce-tree House, Cliff Palace

the well-known dwellings
and Balcony House.
Up to last summer the Mesa Verde
National Park was widely known from
cliff but
were cognizant of mounds indicating
villages situated on the mesa top. Al-
though the walls of buildings were not

its dwellings, archeologists

visible projecting above the surface ‘t

THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

Io

3

‘]]@M 4SsBve oq} JO doz oy}

mo Suyjmemes ue ‘SNINY FHL 40 ISVA TTLL V §0 dO], GHL WOUd TTAWAT, NAG FO MATA

, mS ’ Bt weal &.

St Gs

THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE

SKETCH OF THE PREHISTORIC SUN TEMPLE.

was believed that there were buildings
of a different type of architecture
hidden below these mounds, and it was
recognized that it would be well to
open up one of these mounds and ex-
amine its contents, in order to enlarge
our knowledge of the culture of the
prehistoric inhabitants of this region.

One of these mounds is situated on a
commanding promontory across Cliff

Canyon, opposite Cliff Palace, or be- |

tween the former and a side branch fol-
lowing the same general direction. The
stones artificially worked that covered
the surface of this mound gave indica-
tions of important results, but the ex-
tent of the mound was hidden from
view by a growth of cedar and other
trees. A shallow excavation had been
made at one point by ‘‘pot hunters,’’
which revealed a section of wall and con-
firmed the belief that rooms were buried
below the mound, but the fragment thus
brought to light gave no indication of
the extent, shape or purpose of the
building to which they belonged.

The scientific field work on the park,
in 1915, was entrusted to Dr. J. Walter
Fewkes, ethnologist in the Bureau of
American Ethnology, of the Smith-
sonian Institution, who had in previous
years excavated and repaired Spruce-
tree House and Cliff Palace. The plan
of work was a complete excavation of
the mound, repair and study of the
building, if any within it, and an in-
vestigation of its character and pur-
poses.
been made to the Secretary of the In-
terior in which a popular exposition of
the discoveries is treated. . The state-
ments made in this report indicate that
this building belongs to an architectural

A report of this work has just |

type hitherto unknown in the Mesa
Verde National Park, and differs from
any formerly described. Its ground
plan is well compared to a letter D, the
straight side or south wall overlooking
the point of a promontory measuring
121.7 feet from east to west; the
curved portion being approximately 340
feet, while the breadth is about 64 feet.
A marked feature in form which strikes
one at first sight is the remarkable
unity in its construction, the fine ma-
sonry of the walls and their massive
character. Although apparently con-
structed in two sections at different
times, it is evident that this huge,
mysterious structure is a unit and fol-
lowed a plan that was thought out be-
fore the foundations were laid, the
massive walls being completed without
essential modification. The building
was not made up of rooms patched one
on the other, from time to time, as is
generally the case with cliff dwelling
architecture,

A PREHISTORIC SUN TEMPLE

In his official report the author
after considering various details takes
up three of the many questions ordi-
narily asked by visitors, viz.: What is
the age of the building, the kinship of
the builders and the purpose of its con-
struction. There is no doubt that it was
prehistoric, for a large cedar tree with
360 annual rings was found growing on
the highest point of the mound, on top
of the walls before excavation began.
This tree sprouted as far back as 1540,
or the time the discoverer of the South-
west, Coronado, first enterec what is
/now southern New Mexico. The num-

_ber of stones filling the rooms covered

312

by the débris indicates that the walls
were formerly considerably higher and
had fallen before the tree began to grow.
If restored to their former place they
would raise the wall six feet.
struction of this wall implies a time still
further back. While the exact age can
not be determined, the mound of débris
would imply at least two centuries be-
tween laying the foundations and the
sprouting of the cedar tree.

The purpose of the building is, and |

will remain, a mystery, but by elimina-
tion of theories which can not be ac-
cepted, the author believes it was a

building devoted to ceremonials, or a)

temple. Unfortunately for all theories
of use, the indications are that the walls
were never finished. The rooms are not
suitable for living rooms and the build-

ing shows no signs that it was in- |

tended for habitation. There are no

indications of piles of débris, nor were |

utilitarian objects, like pottery, found
in the rooms; no marks of smoke or
plastering appear on the wall. It was
never roofed. The theory that it was
used solely for a fortification is equally

unsatisfactory: there are no portholes, |

or places where its defenders might
stand; no reservoir to supply water to
warriors. Like the theory of defense,
the suggestion that it’ was used for
storage of food is likewise indefensible.
Although protection and storage may
have been secondary purposes, the shape
of the rooms and their character im-
plies that it was not primarily con-
structed for these ends. Not being abie
to accept any other theory, there re-

mains but one other which strongly ap- |

peals to the author, which is that this
large building was constructed for cere-
monial uses. In support of this theory
are mentioned certain large rooms,
identified as kivas, which we know the
cliff dwellers devoted to ceremonial
rites. Similar rooms used for the same
purpose survive in pueblos of the pres-
ent day. Other reasons are advanced
supporting the belief that this building
was intended for a temple. The key io

The con- |

THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

'the whole structure, following this in-
terpretation, is a shrine built on the
corner-stone, under the southwest cor-
ner of the ruin. The symbolic figure
on the floor of this shrine is a fossil
palm leaf, identified as a representa-
tion of the sun, and suggesting the
name, Sun Temple.

The question, Who built Sun Temple?
is not less difficult to answer satis-
factorily than those of its age and
purpose. It has significant resem-
-blance in architectural form to one of
the great pueblo ruins in the Chazo
Canyon, and the circular room of the
annex with its surrounding chambers
suggests the double walled ‘‘towers’’
found in the McElmo Canyon, and
along the lower course of the Mancos
River. There are deep-seated resem-
blances in the architectural and ceramic
characters of these regions referred to
which indicate that they belong to the
same culture area, and it is possible
that the center of diffusion of this cul-
ture was the Mesa Verde region. Al-
though Sun Temple belongs to a tyne
different from any of the well-known
cliff dwellings of the Mesa Verde Na-
tional Park, it shows evidences that it
was not built by people from a distance
but by inhabitants of the cliff houses of
the Mesa Verde.

SCIENTIFIC ITEMS

WE record with regret the death of
Dr. C. Willard Hayes, formerly chief
geologist of the U. S. Geological Sur-
vey; of Dr. John Orren Reed, professor
of physics at the University of Michi-
gan; of Dr. Oswald Kiilpe, professor of
philosophy and psychology at Munich;
of Dr. Richard Dedekind, professor of
mathematies at Brunswick, and of Mr.
A. D. Darbishire, lecturer on genetics
in the University of Edinburgh.

THE Bruce gold medal of the Astro-
-nomical Society of the Pacific has been
| awarded to Dr. George Ellery Hale, di-

rector of the Mount Wilson Solar Ob-
servatory.

papi COLE eee EY IO
MON Paaey

APRIL, 1916

PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH THE STUDY OF CORAL
REEFS?

By Prorressor W. M. DAVIS
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

The Visible Features of Coral Reefs——One of the most striking
features of coral reefs is their incapacity to reveal the conditions of their
origin. True, the observer on a reef, whether he is a zoologist or not,
may see the extraordinary luxuriance of coral growth, and may discover
that the heavier forms grow under the surf on the outer slope, while the
more delicately branching forms frequent the quieter waters of the
lagoon. The variety of pattern and the delicacy of coloring, as seen in
the clear and quiet lagoon waters, are endlessly entertaining; but it is

Fic. 1. FRINGING Repr, SOUTHEAST END OF New CALEDONIA; Low Tipre. This
is the inner part of the reef flat shown in Fig. 2. The slender trees on the headland
are the New Caledonian araucaria, or pine.

exceptional for them to be laid bare at low tide over broad surfaces, as
they are in the Great Barrier reef of Australia, so wonderfully pictured
in Saville Kent’s notable volume. Hence unless the traveller is fore-
1 Presented at the Washington meeting of the National Academy of Sciences,
April 20, 1915.
VOL. 11.—22.

314 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

warned he will be disappointed in the dull gray coral rock that prevails
over the greater part of the reef flat, Figs. 1 and 2, strewn with scraps of
dead coral, and holding living forms only in its little pools—occasional
small corals, large dark-blue starfish, sea urchins with a small number
of heavy brown spines or with a larger number of long hat-pin-like black
spines, giant clams with many colored mantles lining their slightly open
valves, and various kinds of calcareous alge. He will often see large
masses of coral, sometimes ten or fifteen feet in diameter, that have been
torn by waves, Fig 2, from the outer face of the reef, now scattered
over the reef flat, suffering slow disintegration as they are battered by
later storms and shifted across the flat toward the lagoon; and in the

Fig. 2. REEF FLAT, SOUTHEAST END oF NEw CALEDONIA; Low Turpp.

lagoon he will find patches of growing corals surrounded by white coral
sand or gray silt that is swept from the reef flat.

If he be a zoologist, he will revel in the opportunity of study in so
superb a natural aquarium; he can there find the coral larve to be free-
floating forms of pin-head size that are carried far and wide by ocean
currents—some of them to add to the population of existing reefs, most
of them to die in deep water, and a few to arrive by lucky chance on a
reef-free coast, where they may establish themselves, if the temperature
be high enough, and in time form a new reef close along the shore,
known as a fringing reef. With wider experience, supplemented by
sounding and dredging, the observer will learn that reef-building corals
do not grow in turbid water, or at greater depths than 20 or 30 fathoms,
or in latitudes where the winter temperature of the water is lower than
20° C. He may by wandering on many reefs gain acquaintance with

THE STUDY OF CORAL REEFS 315

their various forms—fringing reefs, close along shore, as already men-
tioned ; barrier or encircling reefs, Figs. 3 and 4, separated from their

Fic. 8. BARrrRIpbR REEF, NARROW LAGOON, AND EMBAYMENT, NoRTH SIDE OF NGAU,
Fisi. In the mid-foreground a branch valley descends to a small delta on the side of
the main-valley embayment.

mountainous central island by a shallow lagoon half a mile or several
miles in width; or atolls, precisely like barrier reefs, except that their
lagoon has no central island; and he may, by imagination, gain appre-

Fic. 4. Surr ON THE BARRIER REEF OF RAIATHA, Socipty ISLANDS; HALF TIDE.

316 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

ciation of the secondary. and larger meaning of the term, coral reef;
for, as employed by Darwin, Jukes, and others, it means not only the
visible structure at sea level, but also the whole calcareous undermass
that has been added in bench-like form around its foundation; of small
volume in narrow fringing reefs, probably of enormous volume in large
atolls.

During these entertaining wanderings and reflections the observer
may consciously, yes, insistently, review the various theories by which
the origin of coral reefs has been explained. But so long as he confines
his attention to the sea-level reefs, he will not be able to make sure which
one of the eight or nine competing theories is the right one: for sea-
level coral reefs reveal only their existence in the present, not their
origin in the past. Apart from indications as to limiting depths and
temperatures, as just stated, the visible reefs give no conclusive testimony
as to the conditions and processes of their past formation. It is probably
for this reason that so many contradictory, mutually irreconcilable hypoth-
eses concerning the mode of reef formation have been invented. ‘There
was, to be sure, a period from 1840 to 1870 when Darwin’s theory
of upgrowth during intermittent subsidence, gained universal accept-
ance; for it completely superseded a few earlier theories and for a
long time had no competitors. But after undisputed success for a gen-
eration, several rival hypotheses were brought forward, and then for
some thirty years the universal agreement previously prevailing was
succeeded by many and wide differences of opinion. The truth of the
matter is that, during this period, the coral-reef problem has been en-
cumbered by the rivalry of several immature, imperfectly argued, and
really incompetent hypotheses, whereby progress has been embarrassed
if not hindered. But during the past thirteen years several Australasian
students of coral reefs in the Pacific, and for a shorter period a few stu-
dents in the Atlantic, have been finding evidence that has led them to set
aside the newer unsatisfactory views and return to or towards Darwin’s
theory. Such was the condition of things, when, aided by a liberal grant
from the Shaler Memorial Fund of Harvard University and by a gen-
erous subsidy from the British Association for the Advancement of
Science, which carried with it an invitation to attend the colonial meet-
ing in Australia, I was enabled to spend the greater part of the year
1914 in visiting a number of reef-encircled islands in the Pacific ocean,
for the purpose of examining on the ground as carefully as possible the
merits of the various theories that have been brought forward in explana-
tion of these extraordinary structures.

Theories of Coral Reefs —Before starting on this journey, I made a
preparatory review of the rival hypotheses,” in which I was aided by
several references supplied by Dr. T. W. Vaughan, of Washington, whose

2The Home Study of Coral Reefs, Bull. Amer. Geogr. Scc., XLVI1., 1914,
561-577, 641-654, 721-739.

THE STUDY OF CORAL REEFS 317

studies of Atlantic reefs began some years before mine were undertaken
on the Pacific. In this review especial attention was given to the critical
tests by which the success of the several theories could be measured, and
the review confirmed me in the belief that Darwin’s original theory, in-
vented, as he tells us, before he had ever seen a true coral reef, is by far
the most successful of all. I say “confirmed in the belief,” because
earlier still, I had prepared a diagram to set forth the special merits of
Darwin’s theory, as they were then understood: indeed twelve years ago
my opinion favoring Darwin’s views was briefly stated in a small text-
book; but, it is regrettable to add, such was the weight of authoritative
counter statements that my belief in Darwin’s theory was for a time
weakened ; yet it was soon strengthened again when making the prepara-
tory review over a year ago. This must be made plain, so that any one
may estimate for himself whether, in what is now to follow, my presenta-
tion of the case is prejudiced, and particularly whether I am guilty of
that grievous error known as “special pleading ”—arguing in favor of
some favorite theory—instead of giving impartial consideration to all.
My preference would be to make an impersonal, objective presentation of
the problem ; but inasmuch as a number of different theories must be ex-
amined, some attention must be given to the experience, the qualifications
and the methods of their inventors ; thus the discussion inevitably becomes
somewhat personal. One of the most interesting results of the prelimi-
nary inquiry of a year ago was that an investigation of the coral-reef
problem inevitably leads far away from the direct study of corals and
coral reefs, and enters upon the discussion of many other problems
which at first might seem to have no relation to it: it is for that reason
I have entitled this address: “ Problems associated with the Study of
Coral Reefs.”

Methods of Investigation.—N ow if coral reefs themselves are so un-
communicative as to their past history, the search for their origin—
whether they are fringing reefs, close alongside of an island or a conti-
nental shoreline, or barrier reefs, separated from the shore by a shallow
lagoon, or atolls standing alone in the ocean—can not be successfully
prosecuted until the fundamental problem of how to conduct a scientific
investigation of this kind has been duly considered. Let me therefore
state briefly that the method of investigation which is here selected—it is
more fully set forth in the preparatory review above referred to—de-
mands, first, the observation of pertinent facts and the review of pub-
lished observations by others: then, spurred on by the spirit of wondering
inquiry and aided by related knowledge, it appeals to speculation,
imagination and invention, or borrows from the speculation, imagina-
tion and invention of others, in the hope of thus coming upon the
mental concepts or “ hypotheses” of all the possible ways in which reefs
could ever have been formed; and when this has been done the investi-
gator arrives at the ponderous question: Which one of all these hypoth-

318 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

eses is right? He might at first answer this question by saying: Visit
the reefs themselves with the various theories in mind, and see which one
best accounts for the facts there observable; but if this advice is
literally followed, no satisfactory result is obtained from it, for the reefs
are so complacently indifferent that they make no objection to any one
of the eight or nine theories that have been proposed to account for
them. Of course they make no objection, for no theory would get so far
as being announced if it did not at least explain the visible facts of the

Fic. 5. Across FAAROoA ‘Bay, EAST SIDE OF RAIATEA, SOCINTY ISLANDS.

reefs that it was invented to explain! A really successful theory must
do much more than that: it must, in Chamberlin’s phrase, explain
various things that it was not invented to explain; for example, facts
that were not thought to be connected with reefs, or facts that were not
known when it was invented.

In order to see if a theory can stand this added test, its consequences
must be logically deduced from the postulated premises and impartially
confronted with the the appropriate facts. Confrontation as well as
deduction demand concentration of attention on the problem in hand,
and the exclusion as far as possible of all distractions, such as the re-
mote and picturesque reef-encircled islands afford in abundance. If
the confrontation is successful, the theory is good; if unsuccessful, the
theory is erroneous. But why should a truism like this be stated in these
modern years! Because, surprisingly enough, a review of the published
studies of the coral-reef problem leads to the conclusion that, with a few
distinguished exceptions and those chiefly in the works of Darwin and
Dana or their followers, the methods employed have been incomplete,
illogical and untrustworthy, and the results reached are therefore
unconvincing.

THE STUDY OF CORAL REEFS 319

Outgrowing Reefs on Still-standing Islands.—For example, several
observers thirty-five or forty years ago came to believe that reefs are
formed by outgrowth on their advancing talus around still-standing
foundations. One of these observers was a zoologist of limited experience
with coral reefs in the Atlantic; another, also a zoologist, had a more
extended experience with coral reefs in the Pacific, but seems to have
been little informed in physical geology; a third was a distinguished
explorer of the oceans, who early in his scientific career came inde-
pendently on this still-stand theory, as it may be called, which has
become known chiefly through his vigorous advocacy of it. In an article
which gave more attention to another scheme, here considered on a later
page under the name of the “up- and outgrowth theory,” he briefly
stated his simpler theory substantially as follows:

The still-stand theory supposes that coral reefs, once established by
colonizing larve as fringing reefs on a suitable foundation such as the
shore of a young volcanic island, have been enlarged by outward growth
on the advancing talus of their own detritus, the still-standing island
suffering no change in attitude with respect to sea level while it is
slowly worn down lower and lower as the reef grows outward; at the
same time the inner part of the reef is dissolved away and converted into
a shallow lagoon, so that the initial fringing reef is in time developed
into a barrier reef. Finally the central island may be completely worn
away, leaving an uninterrupted central lagoon, so that the barrier reef
becomes an atoll. The “distinguishing feature” of this theory, as
described by its inventor, is that, in conjunction with the associated
theory of up- and outgrowth, by which atolls may be built up on sub-
marine volcanoes crowned with an “ organic rain” of caleareous deposits
here to be discussed later, it does away with “the great and general
subsidences” involved in Darwin’s theory. He concluded:

If it has been shown that atoll and barrier reefs can be formed without
subsidence, then it is most unlikely that their presence in any way indicates
regions of the earth’s surface where there have been wide, general and slow
depressions.

But why should one .possibility exclude another! It is apparently
true, as an abstract proposition, that coral reefs may be formed by out-
growth around still-standing islands, as this oceanographer had sug-
gested; but a geologist asks not merely by what processes coral reefs
may have been formed, but how they really have been formed. Yet
because coral reefs may have been formed in a certain way, the scientific
world was urged to believe that they have been formed in that way;
indeed, the third inventor of this still-stand theory later rejected the
possibility of reefs being formed by upgrowth during subsidence, and
regarded his possible scheme of outgrowth on a still-standing foundation
as the equivalent of actual processes, for he eventually said :

320 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

It seems impossible path our present knowledge to admit that atolls or bar-
rier reefs have ever been developed after the manner indicated by Mr. Darwin’s
simple and beautiful theory of coral reefs. j

Consequences of the Still-stand Theory.—What procedure should
be followed with respect to the still-stand hypothesis by an unprejudiced
inquirer? Evidently he should ask: What are all the deducible conse-
quences of the hypothesis; which ones of these consequences can be
confronted with the observable facts of to-day; and particularly which
ones of the confrontable consequences are unlike the corresponding
confrontable consequences of competing hypotheses. ‘These steps are
indispensable in any well ordered investigation into the past origin of
existing features; and they are particularly desirable here, because they
were almost wholly neglected in the statement of the theory by its lead-
ing advocate. For example, so important an element of the theory as
the wearing away of the central island was very briefly treated, chiefly
in a single sentence:

In the case of the atoll the cone may have been reduced below the level of
the sea by the waves and atmospheric influences.

So summary a disposition of the matter is insufficient. The suc-
cessive stages of this long process must be reasoned out; otherwise
the theory can not be thoroughly tested. The successive stages of change
must, indeed, be reasoned out with equal care and fairness for every
alternative scheme, for only thereby can the investigator guard himself
against becoming unwarrantably fond of some special hypothesis. He
must make an effort consciously to deduce all the consequences of each
hypothesis, lest an important consequence remain overlooked. He must
then select those consequences which may correspond to existing facts;
the others can not be used in testing the hypothesis from which they
follow. And he must give special attention to those consequences of
each hypothesis which contradict corresponding consequences of the rival
hypotheses, because it is only in this way that crucial tests can be found
which select a certain hypothesis as the successful one, and point out
the others as incompetent. There is nothing whatever new about all
this; the only surprising thing is that the method has not been con-
sistently applied instead of, as a rule, unconsciously neglected in coral-
reef studies.

It has been noted above that, in following the procedure thus indi-
cated, we must often turn from coral reefs and consider various associ-
ated problems. In the case before us, we must consider the changes
that a still-standing oceanic island will, while the reef is growing out-
ward around it, suffer under the attack of subaerial erosional forces which
wear its initial form down lower and lower as the reef grows larger and
larger and the lagoon becomes wider and wider, till after the island
reaches the form of a penultimate lowland, it is consumed by the waves

THE STUDY OF CORAL REEFS 321

—not however by the heavy waves of the deep and open ocean, but by
the moderate waves of the shallow and enclosed lagoon. ‘To illustrate
this we may assume that a young volcanic island of simple conical form
and roughly circular rim is built up by eruption from the ocean bottom,
and that a narrow fringing reef is established on its shore, as in sector
G on the left side of Fig. 6. As the reef grows outward, sector H, on its
advancing talus and a lagoon is more or less completely dissolved out
behind it, the bottom of the lagoon should consist of ragged, dissolving
limestone, or of insoluble residue. At the same time the central island
suffers erosion; radiating valleys are excavated in its slopes and deltas
are formed in the shallow lagoon, or on the inner part of the reef if it
be not already dissolved away. Reefs thus formed should tend to become
broad and continuous, with marks of outward growth in the form of

*~

Fic. 6. DIAGRAM oF SuccESSIvE STacEs OF REEF FORMATION, as deduced from
the theory of outgrowing reefs on still-standing islands: sector O, type of actual
barrier reef and its embayed central island.

prograded beach ridges; islands of coral sands should be built by the
waves on the reef flats and soon become covered with vegetation. The
process continues, as in sector J, where the voleano is much reduced in
altitude while the deltas have been built forward to greater size and have
become laterally confluent; and later in sector K, where the island is
reduced to a lowland surrounded by a broad alluvial plain just above sea
level; the structure of the reef is here shown in a vertical section M, on
the side of sector K ; the submarine talus layers must slant into deeper
and deeper water at a steeper angle than the slope of the volcanic cone,
the buried surface of which is not eroded, for by the conditions of the
hypothesis that part of the cone has never been above sea level to suffer
the attack of eroding agencies. At last in sector L, the lagoon waters
are supposed, in a manner not clearly stated in the original account of
this hypothesis, to have removed not only the alluvial delta plain but
the central volcanic lowland also, except perhaps for some low residual
hills; when they vanish the reef must be called an atoll; not that the

“322 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

reef itself has in any way changed its nature, but that the lagoon is then
uninterrupted with a depth of 10, 20 or 30 fathoms.

Confrontation of Still-Stand Consequences with Facts.—Now this
is all, with the possible exception of the excavation of the atoll lagoon
20 or more fathoms deep across the volcanic lowland, easily conceiv-
able; it may have happened, but how can we tell if it really has hap-
pened; how can we know that the hypothetical scheme, here repre-
sented graphically, truly corresponds to the history of any actual coral
reefs? Only by confronting the deduced consequences of the hypoth-
esis with the appropriate facts of observation. There is absolutely no
other logical method of procedure in the coral-reef problem or in any ©
similar problem. Where then shall we look for the appropriate facts with
which the deduced consequences are to be confronted? First, in young,
little dissected volcanic islands around which discontinuous fringing
reefs form a narrow and incomplete girdle. Such islands are occa-
sionally found, and thus give observational warrant for the initial
conditions postulated in the still-stand hypothesis: but, as the same
initial conditions are postulated in certain other hypotheses, no critical
test for the correctness of the stili-stand hypothesis is thus secured. We
must look next at sea-level reefs of the barrier or atoll class: they con-
firm the possible correctness of the hypothesis, because the deduced
features of barrier and atoll reefs are essentially the same as the visible
features of the actual reefs—of course they are, for these sea-level reefs
are the very facts which the still-stand hypothesis was invented to ex-
plain; and, if it had not explained them, it would never have been
published. But the difficulty here is, that all the other hypotheses do
exactly as well: they also explain the barrier and atoll reefs that they
were made to explain; hence no crucial test is yet provided by means of _
which a choice among the competing hypotheses may be made.

What do the observable features of a lagoon within a barrier reef or
atoll say, when the expected features of a lagoon as deduced from the
still-stand hypothesis are confronted with them? As far as actual
lagoons have been studied they contradict the idea of excavation by
solution or otherwise, for they seem to be the seat of sedimentation; the
sediments being supplied either by calcareous overwash from the reef,
by organic deposits formed within the lagoon itself, or by outwash from
the island streams. But it is to the form of the central island within
a barrier reef, or to the internal structure of an elevated reef that we
must give special attention, for there the consequences deduced from the
hypothesis include several details that had not been observed or thought
of when the hypothesis was invented; and it is the unforeseen conse-
quences of a theory that are of special importance in testing its value.
Of these two witnesses, the central island gives the most outspoken and
unimpeachable testimony. Hence to the central islands of barrier reefs
we will for the moment attend.

THE STUDY OF CORAL REEFS 323

The Central Islands of Barrier Reefs——The question now before us
is: Are the features of an imagined central island, as deduced from the
hypothesis here under consideration, successful counterparts of actual cen-
tral islands? No, they are decidedly unsuccessful. The central islands
of various barrier reefs, such as Ka-ndaé-vu, Fig. 23, in the Fiji group
—one of the thirty or more reef-encircled islands that I saw in 1914 in
the Pacific—and various other central islands that were then seen or that
have been studied before and since on large-scale charts, contradict the
deduced features of the hypothetical still-standing islands in certain
essential particulars. A common type of actual island is shown in
sector O, of Fig. 6; its base line is not simple, as in sectors G to K, but
elaborately embayed; and the large confluent deltas that should advance
cutside the simple margin of a well-dissected island, as in sector J, are
represented only by small, separate deltas at the heads of bays and coves.
Darwin long ago recognized that, in the embayed island of Vanikoro,
which sector O represents sufficiently well, “the unusual depth of the
channel [lagoon] between the shore and the reef . . . and the small
quantity of low alluvial land at the foot of the mountains, all seem to
show that this island has not remained long at its present level.” Fur-
thermore, inasmuch as the Pacific contains many barrier-reef islands
and many more atolls, we ought, if the hypothesis under consideration
be correct, to find also a good number of worn-down islands in the inter-
mediate stage of sector K ; but not a single example of such an island
has been discovered. Again, the almost-atoll stage of sector LZ shows
the small residual volcanic hills to be of low and subdued form; yet the
actual form of residual volcanic hills which occupy only a small fraction
of their lagoon, resembles the summits of the dissected volcano shown in
sector O. Finally, not a single example of many elevated reefs and
atolls has been described as consisting wholly of the slanting talus
structure demanded by this hypothesis, as shown in section at M, Fig. 6.
Hence, although the hypothesis explains the facts regarding the sea-level
reefs that it was made to explain, it fails to explain certain other equally
essential facts, and it must therefore be rejected.

What commended the Still-Stand Theory?—Thus we are led back
to the conclusion that Darwin reached long ago, for in his book on
“Coral Reefs,” published in 1842, he considered the possibility of out-
growing reefs around still-standing islands, and, as the quotation given
above shows, wisely rejected it, because the consequences to which it led
were not supported by the facts. Yet in the recent history of the coral-
reef problem this crude hypothesis, instead of being rejected by every
one, has been cordially received by a number of eminent geologists.
What can have commended it? Did its chief advocate carefully discuss
various alternative hypotheses and show them to be insufficient? He
may have done so privately, but he published no such discussion. Did
he discuss his own theory by analyzing the associated problems and de-

324 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

ducing their consequences in systematic fashion, in order to confront the
consequences with the facts and thus reach an impartial judgment? It
is of course possible that he may have done so, but his published articles
do not suggest that he did. Is the-fundamental postulate of a still-
standing island a sound one? No, for practically every oceanic island
of which the history has been worked out in detail is found to have
suffered some sort of change of attitude with respect to sea-level: hence
the postulate of a still-standing island is probably incorrect. Can it be,
perhaps, that the advocate of the still-standing hypothesis was so fully
experienced in the study of coral reefs and of volcanic islands that his
opinions were thereby well recommended? If we judge by the favor-
able consideration that has beer so widely given to his hypothesis, this
would appear to be the case; but alas, it was not. The advocate had
been, before announcing the hypothesis, a member of an exploring ex-
pedition, which had truly enough visited several volcanic and coral
islands in the Pacific and the Atlantic, but the official narrative of the
expedition states that the study of coral reefs was not within its scope;
hence we must suppose that the coral-reef problem was not closely at-
tended to during the voyage. ,
Neglect of Essential Factors——Nor could the literature of the
coral-reef problem have been closely examined by the advocate of the
still-stand theory either before or after the voyage, although the scien-
tific world has a right to expect that it should be so examined by any-
. one who, discarding a generally accepted theory, proposes to replace
it by a new hypothesis. Had such an examination been made, an im-
portant factor of the problem—Dana’s principle of shore-line develop-
ment—would have been found, clearly announced by a competent in-
vestigator and published thirty years earlier; and this factor would
have prevented the acceptance of the new theory and reestablished confi-
dence in the older theory. Indeed, if this factor had not been overlooked,
the embayments of certain Pacific islands would probably have been
correctly instead of incorrectly interpreted by the advocate of the still-
stand theory; and he would thereby have been saved from presenting,
in the report of the expedition to which he was attached, an erroneous
‘account of the maturely dissected, reef-encircled volcanic island of
Matuku, in the Fiji group, where a drowned-valley embayment on its
western side is described as a crater. Had the neighboring ring-shaped
volcanic island of Totoya been visited, instead of Matuku, a crater, or
rather a huge caldera, of volcanic origin would truly have been found,
and such a caldera does not of itself testify against still-stand, for it
may have been formed by explosion or by engulfment either below or
above sea-level; but to mistake the embayment of Matuku for a crater is
very much as if a traveller unacquainted with the effects of tornadoes on
village architecture should, on following a storm track to a ruined
dwelling house, mistake its dilapidated cellar, half-filled with rain
water, for its vanished attic. The chief embayment of Matuku is, like

THE STUDY OF CORAL REEFS 325

the many smaller ones, really a valley of erosion, deeply carved below
any crater that may once have existed aloft, now half drowned by sub-
sidence and therefore occupied by sea water. Three summits rise over
1,200 feet above the bay, about two miles distant on the northeast, east,
and southeast; a sounding, about as far to the west of the bay as the
three summits stand on the other side, shows a depth of 400 fathoms;
two miles farther west the depth is 975 fathoms.

A few pages farther on the report of the same exploring expedition
announces a recent and slight elevation of a few feet in the wonder-
fully embayed Fiji island of Ka-ndaé-vu, but says not a word of the evi-
dence of vastly greater previous subsidence that an island of such
pattern loudly proclaims. Evidently then, the problem of the sculp-
ture of volcanic islands and the origin of their shorelines, closely asso-
ciated as it is with the problem of coral reefs, had not been solved,
nay, had not even been seriously studied by the advocate of the hypothesis
that barrier reefs and atolls may be formed by outgrowing corals, ad-
vancing on their own talus around still-standing islands, while the
lagoon is etched out by solution and the island is worn down by erosion
behind them. No wonder, therefore, that his incompetent hypothesis
satisfied him.

An Exceptional Island.—Is there then nothing to be said for the
still-standing scheme? Yes, the island of Tahiti in the Society group
has been instanced as supporting this hypothesis, for it has salient and
imperfectly confluent deltas inside of its barrier reef, as the hypothesis
of a still-standing island demands; but Darwin long ago recognized
that such salient deltas are exceptions on barrier-reef islands, and cor-
rectly explained them as marking, not a perpetual still-stand, but a
pause in subsidence. He said: “At the Society archipelago...
the shoalness of the lagoon channels round some of the islands, the
number of islets formed on the reefs of other, and the broad belt of low-
land at the foot of the mountains, indicate that, although there must
have been great subsidence to have produced the barrier-reefs, there
has since elapsed a long stationary period”; and he adds: “ This prob-
ably is the ordinary course of events, subsidence supervening after long
intervals of rest.” He was right, for the heads of the projecting deltas
at Tahiti, Fig. 12, commonly enter a mile or more into the radial valleys
back of the spur ends, precisely as they should if the island had been
somewhat depressed after it was dissected, and had stood still for a time
after it was depressed.

Why Was the Still-Stand Theory Accepted?—Why, then, if the
hypothesis of outgrowing reefs around still-standing islands really has
so little recommendation, did it ever gain so much attention? Partly,
I think, because, although very briefly announced, it was stated with
confident emphasis instead of with critical analysis; for confidence
and emphasis go, even in science, a great way; partly also because no
mention was made of certain critical facts, namely, the embayed shore-

326 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

lines of the central islands with small deltas at the bay heads, which

contradict certain essential consequences of the theory, namely, non-
embayed shorelines with large outstanding deltas. The readers of the
article which contained this “totally new departure in coral-reef litera-
ture,” as an able critic wrote, seem to have accepted it as a complete
statement of the case, from which no essential facts were omitted.
Indeed one of the most competent of them, everywhere recognized as a
leader in geological science, championed it by saying: “ We are driven to
admit that barrier reefs may be formed without subsidence of the sea
floor.” Thus the hypothesis of outgrowing reefs around still-standing.
islands—a hypothesis that involves the extremely improbable funda-
mental postulate that oceanic islands usually stand still, a hypothesis that
was constructed on an inadequate basis of incomplete observation, a
hypothesis that was framed without careful study of the literature of
coral reefs, a hypothesis from which all consideration of an important
associated problem was omitted and from which certain essential conse-
quences could not, therefore, be critically dedueed—was announced with
confident emphasis and championed with authoritative recommendation ;
and, as a result this incompetent hypothesis has been, especially with
regard to barrier-reefs, a bar to progress for thirty years; not because
it was invented, but because it was announced and accepted without
sufficient study of associated problems, by means of which alone its
competence could be determined.

Let me here explain briefly why so much time has been given to
the consideration of an incompetent hypothesis. First, because it has
been accepted by many home-students of the coral-reef problem; on
that ground rather than on its merits it deserves attentive considera-
tion. Second, because it is the duty of any investigator of a problem
such as we are now discussing to examine on his own responsibility
every hypothesis that has been put forward to explain it; and because
it is particularly his duty to search out all the points where he has to
differ from others who, just as earnestly as himself, have been striving
for the truth. Finally, because it is part of his task to learn if pos-
sible the grounds which led to the acceptance by others of what is to
him unacceptable. Under the actual conditions of the case thirty years
ago, it was perhaps not unnatural that many home-students of coral
reefs should have accepted the still-stand hypothesis; for its advocate
was a man of great experience in oceanographic work, of inspiring
enthusiasm, and of delightful personality; and its leading champion
was a man of exceptional competence in all branches of geological
science and of unusual skill in the presentation of geological problems.
More important still, both of these investigators frankly avowed that
they had adopted the new still-stand hypothesis because it seemed more
successful in explaining coral reefs than Darwin’s hypothesis of subsi-
dence which they had previously regarded as correct, but which they
had come to regard as unsuccessful. Both of them were genuinely and

7

THE STUDY OF CORAL REEFS 327

sincerely devoted to scientific research; hence how could any one, who
had not the time to investigate for himself the question at issue, hesi-
tate to accept the conclusion of these two eminent experts!

It was therefore, as above said, not unnatural, under the conditions
of the case thirty years ago, that the hypothesis thus proposed and
guaranteed should go far toward replacing an earlier hypothesis that
had till then enjoyed universal acceptance; but unhappily there is one
condition of the case that, as already indicated, weakens it most seriously.
Both the advocate and the champion of this hypothesis had omitted
from their discussion a certain essential factor of the problem, namely
the pattern of the central-island shoreline within barrier reefs; worse
yet, they had, as above noted, completely overlooked a clear and con-
clusive statement regarding the pattern of the central islands of barrier
reefs that had been published some thirty years before in easily acces-
sible works by an earlier and highly regarded investigator of the coral-
reef problem, who surely must have been known by name to both the
advocate and the champion of the new hypothesis. Hence, natural as
it was that the apparently complete statement of the still-stand hypoth-
esis should have found wide acceptance, it must be given up when the
previously omitted elements of the problem are found to speak uncom-
promisingly against it.

Veneering Reef on. Wave-cut Platforms.—Let us now turn to an-
other hypothesis: one which, without the intervention of a fringing
reef, explains a barrier reef by supposing that it is a relatively thin
' yeneer of coral limestone built on the outer edge of a platform that has
been cut by sea waves around a still-standing volcanic island; and
which explains atolls without the intervention of barrier reefs by sup-
posing them to be veneers on completely truncated, still-standing vol-
canic islands. This hypothesis, like the one already considered, postu-
lates still-standing volcanic islands; in view of the small thickness of
its reefs it may be called the veneering hypothesis. Here the asso-
ciated problem that we must consider is somewhat more complicated
than before, because it includes the attack of the sea around the unde-
fended island margin as well as that of subaerial erosion over its sur-
face. A special sequence of forms must be produced as an island is
worn away by the double attack, and the chief members of the sequence
must be deduced, in order that they may be confronted with the facts.
It is curious to note that here, as in the case of the previous theory,
this duty has been altogether neglected. Under the double attack, a
voleanic island, originally conical and undefended by any reef, will soon
be cut away by the waves around its shore, like Nightingale island in
the South Atlantic, well figured in the narrative volume of the Chal-
lenger Report, while rain and streams are furrowing its slopes: the
wave-cut platform will be backed by a steep cliff, notched at the top by
hanging valleys, as in sectors 7 or J, Fig. 7. If a veneering reef is now
established on the platform edge, as at H’ or J’, the retreat of the cliff,

328 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

as a cliff, will soon cease, and the hanging valleys will be cut down
to sea-level ; deltas will grow in front of the valleys, and a talus will gather
in the quiet water at the cliff base, which was clean swept by breaking
waves before. If the veneering reef is not so soon established, the plat-
form will be cut back to a greater width and the cliff to a greater height;
this stage is verified by Tristan d’Acunha, another solitary volcanic
island in the South Atlantic, also figured in the Challenger narrative ;
on such becliffed islands, cascades from hanging valleys have been de-
scribed, which give warrant for the hanging valley as a deduced feature
of sector J, Fig. 9. An undefended island may be almost consumed,
as in sector K, when only small stacks will remain; or it may be com-

fi

f.

oft
ee

A

ae cy Beis iy il !

Fic. 7. DIAGRAM oF SuccCESSIvVE STAGES OF REEF FORMATION, as deduced from
the theory of veneering reefs on wave-cut platforms: sector O, type of actual barrier
reef and its embayed central island.

pletely truncated before a reef is established, and then the reef wil
form an atoll. :

Unsuccessful Consequences of the Veneering Theory.—Are the con-
sequences of this theory, here graphically presented, confirmed when
they are confronted with the facts of actual coral reefs and their asso-
ciated islands? No, decidedly not. As before, the central islands of
barrier reefs are again the most important independent witnesses put
forth by the facts. Such islands are not cliffed around a non-embayed
shoreline; they are, with hardly an exception, embayed between non-
cliffed spurs, as in sector O, Fig. 7, or in Fig. 3. Furthermore, as
there are many atolls in the ocean there should be also, if the veneer-
ing hypothesis were true, many almost finished atoll platforms; that
is, many wave-swept platforms not yet enclosed by veneering reefs, with
a becliffed island remnant rising from the center; but no such becliffed
island remnants in the center of a wave-swept rock platform are known ex-
cept on the borders or outside of the coral-reef zone. Again, there
are no known examples of elevated reefs possessing the structure here
demanded; elevated reefs are often hundreds of feet in thickness, and

THE STUDY OF CORAL REEFS 329

in no case are they reported to lie on broad wave-cut platforms. Fi-
nally, this hypothesis is defective in that it furnishes no reason for the
postponement of reef establishment while the platform is suffering
preliminary abrasion, or for the early establishment of a veneering reef
on a narrow wave-cut platform, or for the long delay before the estab-
lishment of a reef on a broad one. Asa matter of observation, fringing
reefs are occasionally found on young volcanic islands around which
no cliff-bordered platform has been abraded, and after such reefs are
formed, the waves can no longer attack the island back of the reef and
cut platforms on it.

Is the hypothesis of veneering reefs perhaps recommended by any
special expertness of its advocates? No. The first observers to advo-
cate it were two missionaries, about eighty years ago. Did they deduce
the essential consequences of the hypothesis, somewhat as above, and
confront them impartially with the facts? No: they left that for Dar-
win to do a few years later; and when he showed that the central
islands of barrier reefs have no such cliffs as the hypothesis demands,
it was properly enough set aside in favor of his hypothesis of inter-
mittent subsidence. But it was revived about fifty years later, this
time by a surgeon of the British navy who had spent some years on
certain islands of the coral zone but who was unfortunately untrained
in physical geology; and again by a hydrographer, expert in marine
surveying but apparently not practised in making critical choice among
competing hypotheses; and by a zoologist and oceanographer of great
experience, but in his case also without careful deduction of the becliffed
consequences, and without any mention of the good and sufficient rea-
sons that led Darwin to reject the hypothesis sixty years earlier. Did
these later advocates of the veneering hypothesis give reasons for re-
jecting other hypotheses and preferring their own? It must be supposed
that they thought they did, but their reasons are not convincing.

Insufficient Consideration of Possible Alternatives——For example,
one of them said: “I will pass over the theory of subsidence, supported
though it was by Dana, Couthouy and Beete Jukes, because the recent
facts concerning the ocean depths and the regions of living and up-
raised reefs compel us to regard it as no longer necessary”; that is, of
two alternatives, he rejected one because its postulated subsidence was
made no longer “necessary” by the possible correctness of the other;
but he did not apply any impartial and crucial test as a means of mak-
ing a logical choice between the two. Again the same investigator
said:

The more gradual the land-slope, the broader will be the submarine ledge
[platform] cut out in the course of ages by the action of the sea, and the more
distant will be the barrier-reef, that has grown up along its margin [as in Fig, 8].
This I believe to be the true explanation of the position of barrier reefs.

Yet is it not immediately manifest that the same relation will obtain

VOL. 11.—23.

330 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

in upgrowing reefs during subsidence, as Fig. 9 shows; and is it not
further manifest that if this relation is produced by subsidence, it must
be associated with an embayed central island, like the unsymmetrical

Fic. 8. DIAGRAM OF AN UNSYMMETRICAL ISLAND, G, on both sides of which, H, shallow
platforms are cut by waves, and reefs, J, K, are formed.

fault-block island of Wakaya in central Fiji, as in the foreground of
Fig. 10; while if it is produced by wave-cutting it must be associated
with a cliff-rimmed, but not embayed central island, Fig 8, the like
of which does not exist in the coral seas! Furthermore, there are
well-known examples of central islands that have symmetrical slopes,
but that stand to one side—sometimes to windward—of the lagoon
center ; witness, as in the background of Fig. 10, the island of Makongai,
not far from Wakaya, both enclosed in a figure-8 barrier reef; or the

Up see e
i
q un =

7

4

Fig. 9. DIAGRAM OF AN UNSYMMBPETRICAL ISLAND, G, which subsides, H, as reefs, J,
K, grow upward alongside of it.

island of Mbengha, farther southwest in the Fiji group; these eccen-
trically placed residual islands are the natural result of the submergence
of an unsymmetrical initial island, such as might have been composed
of several unequal volcanoes welded into a single mass; and as they
both have embayed but not becliffed shore lines, they must have been
diminished by submergence; not by abrasion.
In view of such examples as these, all of which have long been
charted, why should the author above quoted reject the possibility of
submergence and accept the possibility of abrasion as a matter of

ie

THE STUDY OF CORAL REEFS 331

opinion or preference, instead of submitting both possibilities to some
impartial and adequate tests, such as the presence of cliffs or of em-
bayments so readily provides? The only answer is that he saw no neces-
sity of looking for an impartial test; in other words, that his method

MAKONGAL

Zoe
TN

oT

ie 2

Fic. 10. Biock DiacramM or Wak4yA, a tilted and slightly dissected fault block,
and MAKONGAI, a maturely dissected volcanic mass, in the Fiji group; the two islands
are enclosed in a double-looped barrier reef. Vertical sections, A and B, are drawn
through the islands to show the inferred submarine relations of island to reef.

of scientific investigation was not the same as the one here adopted.
He seems to have been satisfied because his theory explained the things
that it was invented to explain; he asked nothing more of it! Not
only so, some of his readers also were satisfied, and spoke of his essay
with high praise: hence we must suppose that they too were ready to
accept a theory that merely explained the things that it was invented
to explain, instead of suspending their judgment until the theory should
be shown competent to explain also certain other things that it had
not been imvented to explain. It is cases of this kind, which give
warrant to the statement made on an earlier page, that in many pub-

Fic. 11. SketcH or CLirrep Spur ENDs, northeast coast of the submaturely dissected
yoleanic cone of Tahiti, Society islands.

lished studies of the coral-reef problem, “the methods employed have
been incomplete, illogical and untrustworthy, and the results reached
are therefore unconvincing.”

Exceptional Examples.—But has the veneering hypothesis really no
independent support? Yes, in two exceptional examples the central
islands of barrier reefs are cliffed around part of their margin: one is

332 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

Tahiti, Fig. 11, but there, as above intimated, it may be shown that
the spur-end cliffs as well as the inter-spur valleys were cut when the
island stood higher than now, and that since then the island has been
submerged, for its valleys between the truncated spur ends are occu-
pied either by arms of the sea or, more generally, by the heads of delta
plains, as in Fig. 12. The other example is New Caledonia, which is
strongly cliffed at its southeastern end and along part of the north-
eastern side; but as at Tahiti, these cliffs, as well as the numerous val-
leys of this long island, were cut when the island stood higher, and the

co

ae a

Fic. 12. BIRD’S-EYE DIAGRAM OF NORTHERN COAST, TAHITI, showing cliffed spur
ends, separated by delta-filled embayments and prograded by a half-mile alluvial plain.
The plain is for the most part covered with palm trees. Papeete, the capitol, lies
on the plain to the left of the diagram. e

same submergence that has embayed the valleys has half-drowned the
cliffs. Hence, the two best examples of becliffed islands, though pecu-
liar in possessing cliffs, are not peculiar also in having stood still, for _
both have suffered submergence. These islands are truly of great in-
terest and merit special study; but they are as truly exceptions in the
long list of reef-encircled islands, in which the spurs that separate the
embayments as a rule taper down gradually, and dip below the sea
with nothing more than little nips or low bluffs cut by the lagoon waves
close to present sea-level. The great majority of volcanic islands are
not cliffed at all in the way the hypothesis of veneering barrier reefs
and atolls demands, and for them the hypothesis must be rejected com-
pletely. Yet this hypothesis was presented with so convinced an em-
phasis by its above-quoted advocate, that an eminent geologist thereupon
wrote:

I have read Dr, —--——-————’s paper with great interest, and am of
opinion that he has made out a very strong case indeed against the theory of

THE STUDY OF CORAL REEFS 333

coral island formation advanced by Mr. Darwin. ... The famous Darwinian
theory of coral reefs can no longer be said to hold the field.

Another critic said that, if the facts and arguments here adduced had
been known to Darwin,
the great naturalist would have accepted the explanation of the phenomena now

formulated, and would have given up his ingenious theory of gradual elevations
and subsidences of the sea bottom.

A third critic wrote, in view of the still-stand and the veneering
theories :

It is somewhat surprising that, in the discussion which has lately [1883-1888 |
been carried on in the English reviews . . . regarding the new theory of coral
reefs, no one should have dwelt upon the fact, that, with the exception of Dana,
Jukes, and others who published their results on coral reefs soon after Darwin’s
theory took the scientific world by storm, not a single recent investigator of coral
reefs has been able to accept this explanation as applicable to the special dis-
trict which he has examined.

A fourth said:

A singular feature of these papers [at the British Association meeting,
1888] is the almost complete unanimity with which those authors, who have them-
selves practical experience of coral reefs, reject the subsidence theory as in-
adequate, or unnecessary.

Thus it would appear that Darwin’s theory was well nigh abandoned.
But none of these critics asked: Are the central islands of barrier reefs
cliffed or delta-fronted, as they should be according to other hypotheses ?
All of which goes to show that the method of scientific investigation ap-
plicable to coral reefs is far from having been standardized; for as
soon as the consequences of the hypothesis of veneering reefs are ex-
plicitly deduced and frankly confronted with the appropriate facts,
the hypothesis must necessarily be given up by any independent in-
vestigator who demands that such confrontation shall be successful
before he gives faith to the hypothesis that brings it forth. Yet this
theory was set forth for the Great Barrier reef of Australia with such
vigor by a zoological expert that another zoological expert declared the
theory of subsidence to be “absolutely excluded” as an explanation for
that greatest of all reefs; although the not cliffed but deeply embayed
coast of Queensland presents abundant and convincing evidence that
strong subsidence has taken place, as was pointed out by Penck in 1896,
as has later been shown by Andrews and other Australian observers in
1902, and following years, and as I had occasion of seeing for myself
along a stretch of several hundred miles in 1914.
(To be continued)

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THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

THE EXUDATION OF ICE FROM STEMS OF PLANTS

By Dr. W. W. COBLENTZ

U. S. BUREAU OF STANDARDS

I. INTRODUCTION

OCTURNAL radiation is generally a passing of radiant energy

from terrestrial substances into space. On a clear night the

rate at which radiation passes outward from a lamp-black surface is very

great, amounting to about one tenth of the solar constant. Of course,

not all substances lose heat at this rate. This loss of heat by radiation

produces peculiar formations of ice, some of which will now be men-
tioned.

Ground Ice or Columnar Ice—The most familiar freak of ice
formation occurs on bare, clayey soils which contain a certain minimum
amount of moisture. If the moisture content of the soil falls below
the minimum value (which no doubt varies for different soils) then
evaporation occurs as rapidly as the moisture is brought to the surface
(by capillary action) and no ice is formed. According to the writer’s
observations the ice is formed in contact with a nucleus which may be
a grain of sand, a small pebble, etc. The earthy material has a higher
emissivity than the water, it cools the more rapidly, and the water is
frozen to the under side of the nucleus. As heat is lost, more ice is
formed and, as it accumulates, rises in columns, as it is to be observed
everywhere on cold mornings. The water is supplied by capillary
movement in the soil, from the surface of which the ground ice may be
readily lifted, since in freezing weather the ice is not frozen into the
soil.1 The general experience is to find the ground ice supporting a
nucleus (say a grain of sand, or even large stones, 3 X 14 X 1 inches
in size). The nuclei may be thinly distributed. The writer has ob-
served several large areas, 3 < 14 feet which did not contain nuclei,
from which it appears that this type of ice formation can occur without
having a nucleus (gravel, etc.) to start the refrigeration.

Anchor Ice.—Barnes* has made a prolonged study of the forma-
tion of anchor ice at the bottom of the St. Lawrence river. This kind
of ice consists of fine spicules which adhere to the bottom of the river.
It is a friable mass which may vary from six to eight feet in thickness.
According to Barnes this ice is formed as a result of the greater emis-

1 Abbe, Amer. Meteorological Jour., 9, p. 523, 1893.

2‘‘Tee Formation with Special Reference to Anchor Ice and Frazil,’’ H. T.
Barnes, Monthly Weather Review, May, 1907, p. 225.

ICE AND THE STEMS OF PLANTS 335

sivity, and hence the greater cooling of the material composing the river
bottom.

Hoar Frost.—This is another example of ice formation as the re-
sult of cooling by radiation. Here, however, the accepted explanation
is that the ice spicules are formed by accretion, as the result of the
deposition of moisture from the surrounding air.

The foregoing are familiar and interesting illustrations of ice
formations on substances as the result primarily of the loss of heat by
radiation. We have now to consider a rarer phenomenon, which is the
subject of the present paper.

Ice Formations on Plants.——According to the writer’s observations
the amount of ice formed upon a plant stem is a function of (1) the
rate at which water can rise by capillary action in the sap tubes within
the stem, (2) the ease with which the moisture can pass out to the
surface, (3) the rate of evaporation from the surface (convection, wind-
velocity) and (4) the emissivity of the surface of the stem. Instead
of the title “ Exudation of Ice,” a more pretentious title would have
been “The Capillary Movement of Water—An Experimental Demon-
stration by Means of the Formation of Ice Fringes on Plants.” This
might appear more scientific and one could discuss the capillary move-
ment of water as a function of the temperature of the stem; the size
of bore and number of (sap) tubes; the thickness and permeability of
the walls of these tubes, etc. However, the present communication
makes no pretense at such completeness of the investigation. In fact,
the subject of ice formation forced itself upon the writer at a time when
other duties were pressing, and hence it could not be given the atten-
tion it deserved. As a result, the experimental tests were usually
carried out only to the extent of refuting the various notions held by
various persons as to the cause of this ice formation. It was shown that
the formation of fringes of ice on plant stems is not the result of accre-
tion, hydrostatic pressure, rifts in the stem, moisture in the bark, the
presence of sap, etc., but that it is the result primarily of the capillary
movement of water in the numerous sap tubes which are to be found in
those plant stems, upon which the ice formations are the most con-
spicuous.

II. HistortcaL Data

One of the earliest descriptions of the exudation of ice fringes from
plants was published by Herschel,? about eighty years ago. His ob-
servations relate to the icy fringes which were formed around thistle
stalks, and stumps of heliotropes many specimens of which were still
green. Stephen Elliot* had previously described a remarkable pro-
trusion of fibers of ice from the stems of flea bane (Conyza bifrons).

3 Sir John Herschel, Phil. Mag. (3), 2, p. 110, 1833.

4Stephen Elliot, ‘‘Sketch of the Botany of South Carolina and Georgia,’’
published in 1824; Vol. 2, p. 322. Quoted by Le Conte.

336 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

The fullest account, with an attempted explanation of this phe-
nomenon, was given by John Le Conte’ about sixty-three years ago.
His observations are on two species of flea bane, Pluchea bifrons, and
Pluchea camphorata, which he found growing in wet soils, around
ponds and along roadside ditches in the lowlands of South Carolina
and Georgia. In these plants the root is perennial, but the stem is
annual and herbaceous.

Le Conte’s descriptions differ materially from my own. His ob-
servations appeared to establish the following facts in relation to the
phenomenon.

1. The depositions of ice are entirely confined to the immediate neighbor-
hood of the roots of the plants, the upper parts of the tall unbroken stalks
being quite free from them. They frequently commence two or three inches
from the ground, and extend from three to four inches along the axis of the
stem. The stalks are dead, and quite dry to within about six inches of the
earth, below which they are generally green and succulent. The plant has a
large and porous pith, which is always saturated with moisture, as high as
six or seven inches from the base of the stem. From this it would appear that
the ice was formed on the green stems, as was true of many of the specimens of
heliotrope described by Herschel.

2..The ice emanates in a kind of riband, or frill-shaped, wavy, friable,
semipellucid. excrescence,
the structure of which (quoting Herschel) “is fibrous lke that of the
fibrous variety of gypsum, presenting a glassy silky wavy surface; the
direction of the fibers being at right angles to the stem or horizontal.”
Le Conte found that the number of ribands varied from one to five,
which issued from the stems in vertical or longitudinal lines, often un-
symmetrically displaced around the axis. He frequently observed the
icy excrescences to exceed five inches in length; often curled back so
that the remote extremity of the frill came close to the line of attach-
ment to the stalk.

From this it may be noticed that the amount of ice formed is very
considerable. Evidently the moisture must come from within the
plant. The amount of water congealed during a single night is vastly
too great to come from the aqueous vapor in the atmosphere, hence the
phenomenon can not be a modification of hoar-frost. In fact, in the
illustrations to be cited presently, which were observed by the writer, the
excrescences of ice on one particular species of plant were formed every
night which was sufficiently cool for ice formation, although there was
little or no formation of hoar frost anywhere in the vicinity.

3. Although the ice sheets appeared to protrude from the interior of
the stem, both Herschel and Le Conte found that usually the stems were
solid and that the ice terminated at the surface.

The point of attachment of the ice was always the wood, beneath the outer
bark or epidermis, which the frozen sheets had in every instance stripped off,
and forced out to a distance.

5 John Le Conte, Proc. Amer. Assoc. Adv. Sci., Vol. 3, p. 20, 1850.

ICE AND THE STEMS OF PLANTS 337

When the frost was severe, Le Conte found that the ice riband was
continuous with the frozen pith, through a longitudinal rift in the
woody stem.

4. Le Conte found that
the phenomenon took place in the same plant during several consecutive nights;
and when the wood was not rifted, frequently from the same portion of the
stalk, When the wood was split, however, the deposition of ice occurred lower
down the stem, at a part which was unaffected by the frost of the previous
night. The stalks thus became completely rifted by a succession of severe
nights, from the height of six or seven inches down to the ground. This is
unquestionably one of the reasons why these exudations of ice are seldom
observed after the middle of the winter, for the stalks are usually destroyed
before this period. :

Ward® has given a rather popular description of the occurrence of
ice fringes. He describes the fringes as projecting out horizontally,
“not straight and stiff, but gently and gracefully curving or coiling into
a beautiful conch-like roll at the distal end.” His observations were
probably of short duration, otherwise he would have found but few
instances in which the “ fringes are attached at regular intervals around
the stem, like paddles of a turbine wheel.” He found that the bark
was split into strips at the zone occupied by the ice-sheets. He con-
cluded that the ice had passed through these rifts in the bark. He
thought that the water might have been pressed or drawn up through
the cambium layer. He wisely dismisses the explanation because it
“explained too much, since no reason can be assigned why the phe-
nomenon should not be universal and not confined to one species.”? In
the present paper the micro-photographs of the cross-sections of various
plants will assign this reason, viz., the difference in the porosity of the
stems.

Le Conte considered the ice formation on plants to be a physical
phenomenon, having no connection with the vitality of the stem. His
explanation of the formation was that the moisture from the pith passes
out along the wedge-shaped medullary rays, which are to be found in
abundance in this plant, and is frozen on the outside of the stem.
He considered that the wedge-shaped medullary rays exerted a “ pro-
jectile force” which brings the moisture to the surface. The exudation
of ice columns from the earth he referred to the same cause, viz., a
rapid and forcible expansion along capillary tubes.

To the writer it does not appear necessary to postulate a complex
“projectile force” to explain the ice fringes on plants. In fact, the
plants upon which ice is formed in the great abundance have a pre-
ponderance of sap tubes, only an insignificant part of the stem being
occupied by medullary rays.

6 Ward, Botanical Gazette, 18, p. 183, 1893, ‘‘ Frost Freaks of the Dittany.’’

7 Ward quotes Gray’s Manual, 1848, in which Helianthemum canadense is
deseribed as behaving in a similar way.

CO

THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

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III. Recent Data

The present observations are on Cunila mariana, or Dittany, the
stem of which is a herbaceous annual with perennial roots. This
plant seems to thrive on dry ground, even on bare hillsides exposed to
the blazing sun, where there is nothing but gravel and a few “asters.”
Other samples were found under trees where either the shade or the
gravelly character of the soil prevented a luxuriant growth of other
plants. The finest samples were found on a hillside which contained
plenty of moisture, which was free from trees, but contained shrubbery.

The first observations were made on a frosty morning in November,
1913. The first example, because of its white ribbony character, was
passed by, thinking it was something thrown from a passing carriage.
The conspicuous fibrous white loops and ribbons drew my attention, and
it was at once observed that they occurred upon only one species of
herbaceous plant.

Owing to the pressure of other problems requiring close attention,
the tendency at the very first was to dismiss the subject by accepting
Le Conte’s explanation that the moisture comes from the pith. This
explanation was at once disproved, however, by the observations on the
splinters of the Cunila stem, which formed ice always on the outside
of the stem, but never on the pith. This, of course, should be expected,
for pith is composed of small hexahedral cells along which water can not
pass by capillary attraction, and it would be very unlikely that it
would be transferred by soaking through the cell walls.

It was concluded that the moisture for producing the ice fringe came
from the sap tubes and experiments were devised to prove this assump-
tion. Photographs were taken of thin sections across the stems of
heliotrope, thistle and also of an aster which was found near a Cunila
stalk. The object in giving these photo-micrographs (which were very
kindly prepared by Mr. E. D. Tillyer) is to show typical examples which
have but few sap tubes and which form but little or no ice; also
typical examples of plants which have numerous sap tubes and which
form an abundance of ice fringes.

The aster is typical of plants having but few sap tubes. As shown
in Fig. 1, the woody structure is very compact, with but few sap tubes.
All these photo-microsections are magnified fifty times, from which one
can obtain some idea of the great difference in porosity of the different
plants.

On only one occasion was ice observed upon the stem of the aster.
The ice was a small “tooth” formed close to the ground. From the
section shown in Fig. 1 it is evident that the structure of the wood fiber
is so close that the moisture which is drawn up within the stem by
capillary attraction can reach the surface of the stem at only a very
slow rate. Hence the moisture disappears by evaporation as rapidly
as it comes to the surface. The thistle (Fig. 2) and the heliotrope

ICE AND THE STEMS OF PLANTS 339

(Fig. 3) stems have numerous large sap tubes. In the thistle stem
there is a row of large tubes situated near the bark. The presence of

Fic. 1. PHOTOMICROGRAPH OF A CROSS SECTION OF THE STEM OF AN ASTER. It is
typical of plants having but few sap tubes, and forming no ice fringes.
these large tubes filled with sap may explain the formation of ice fringes,

as observed by Herschel.

A photo-micrograph of a thin section of Cunila is shown in Fig. 4.
The numerous holes in the wood are the “sap tubes,” which form an
easy path for the moisture to rise within the stem, by capillary attrac-

Fic. 2. PHOTOMICROGRAPH OF A SECTION OF THE STHM OF A THISTLE, showing
numerous sap tubes.

340 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY —

tion. It would be interesting to determine to what extent this capillary
movement of water is affected by the temperature of the surroundings,

The explanation of the formation of ice fringes, which are found
to occur so abundantly upon the stems of the Cuntla, and which are
not found upon other plants, is based upon the presence of a great

Fic. 3. PHOTOMICROGRAPH OF A CROSS SECTION OF THE STEM OF HELIOTROPH,
showing numerous but widely separated sap tubes.

number of closely adjoining sap tubes within the stem of the Cunzla.
But even-the very woody portion of the base of the Cuntla stem was
found to be inactive in the formation of ice fringes.

Fic. 4. PHOTOMICROGRAPH OF A Cross SECTION OF THE STEM OF Cunila mariana,
It is typical of plants having an abundance of sap tubes which transfer moisture to
the surface by capillary attraction of the water in the soil.

It was found that the ice fringes rarely start from the side of the
stem where the pith is closest to the bark. This eliminates to some
extent the question whether the pith is instrumental in forming the ice

ICH AND THE STEMS OF PLANTS 341

fringes. In the splinters (and in the rifted stems) of Cwnila at no
time was ice found to have formed along the line of separation of the
stem. This seemed puzzling at first, for it appeared to contradict the
idea that the moisture comes from the sap tubes within the stem; in
which case one would expect to find the formation of ice fringes facili-
tated upon the surface laid bare by splitting. The microsections of
the Cunila stems show in a very unexpected manner why no ice-fringes
are formed upon the rifted surface of the stem. As already stated, the
rift always occurs at the “corners” of the pith where the woody part
of the stem is the thinnest. In Fig. 4 it may be noticed that at these
four points, where the wood is the thinnest, there are but few, if any,
sap tubes. Hence one need not expect, as a rule, to find ice formations
upon the surfaces formed by splitting.

IV. OBSERVATIONS SHOWING HOW THE ICE FRINGE GROWS

One of the most interesting observations was on the formation of
the ice fringe from its very beginning. This was witnessed by several
of my colleagues who were called in to verify the observations. On a
cold morning, February 16, 1913, several stems, placed in water, were
exposed outside the laboratory window, and in about 20 minutes the
ice fringe was observed to be forming. It consisted of a row of fine
hairs extending up and down over a length of about 4 mm. of the
stem, and projecting out horizontally 0.2 to 0.3 mm., as shown in
Fig 5, a. These filaments were visible only when viewed against sky
light, and they melted immediately on lifting the glass cover. The
fringe did not appear to form at the line where the pith is closest to the
surface of the stem. The experiment was repeated again during the
evening. Within half an hour after placing the samples in the cold air
one stem showed several fringes in the form of thin transparent “ teeth,”
each one being about 12 mm. in length and about 1 mm. in height.
Another stem showed a fine hairy fringe which was visible when viewed
against a gaslight. Within half an hour this hairy fringe appeared to
be solid with some of the fine hairs extending horizontally outward
through the solid “ tooth” of ice, as shown in Fig. 5, b. This, of course,
is the general structure of the fringes. By the next morning numer-
ous wide fringes had formed on these stems. In another sample, the
tooth of ice pushed out a narrow strip of bark. In these tests the
receptacle containing the water was small, and hence the whole cooled
very rapidly and the water froze, which prevented the growth of the
ice fringes. It is to be noticed that the ice fringe forms some distance
up the stem at a point where it cools the quickest and where the
moisture has risen to about its maximum height. The experiment
was repeated (“Test C,” which was started February 17, contained half
a dozen samples of Cunila and a stem of an “aster”) using a large
test tube. The test tube was imbedded in wool to retard cooling and

342 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

freezing. Within 15 minutes after placing this test outside of the
laboratory window two small fringes, 1.5 mm. long and about 0.3 mm.
high, were noticed when viewed against sky light. This test was pro-

ICE ICE

Fig. 5. ILLUSTRATING SUCCESSIVE
STAGES IN THE GROWTH OF THE ICB
FRINGE on the stem of Cunila mariana
when placed in water and exposed to a
freezing atmosphere.

longed for some days and nights and
a photograph was taken (February
18, 1913) (Fig. 6) showing that the
stems in water form ice just as they
do when attached to the roots. In
this photograph, which is magnified
slightly (1.2) about one third of the
upper part of the largest fringe is

. broken off. These fringes appear to

be a little more transparent than
those found in the field, owing to
the fact that they had begun to melt
while taking the photograph. No
ice or moisture was formed upon the

aster stem, which is in agreement
with the field observations.

As may be seen from Fig. 4, the
Cunila stem on drying (shrinking)
splits easily into four parts, owing
to the small amount of wood fiber at
the four “sides” of the stem. One
of the samples used in “Test C”
was a splinter, consisting of one
quarter of the stem, about 6 cm. in

é

length, with a line of pith adhering
to the inner side. On the follow-
ing morning, and on subsequent
days, this splinter showed a fringe
of ice on the woody surface, but at no
time was there ice formed on the
pith. An interesting feature (which
to the writer became a common
observation) was that the ice fringe
did not always start at the “cor-
ner” of the stem where the wood
is thinnest, but at a mid-point (see
Fig. 4). From the photo-micrograph
of a thin section of the stem (Fig.
4) it appears that the largest part

f the ice fringe may form at tl shin!
or the 1ce g h c 1€ ppon SrpMs or Ounila mariana which were

point where the sap tubes lie nearest in a test tube containing water.
the surface, hence where the moisture can be supplied the most easily.

SHOWING Ich FRINGES

FROZHN

ICH AND THE STEMS OF PLANTS 343

The ease with which these stems became saturated with water after
having been drying for weeks is another item worth noticing. All the
stems used in “Tests C and D” (Fig. 6 is Test C) had been in the
laboratory for some time. Some of them had been gathered in No-
vember, 1913, and had been freed of bark by previous ice formations.

It is generally supposed that the ice is formed more easily in the
fall (when the plants are fresh) than in the late winter. This seems
to be true to some extent according to my field observations and to
my laboratory tests. In the latter the ice did not seem to form so
abundantly after the stems had soaked for some weeks. It seemed as
though the sap tubes became clogged or the plant had begun to decay.

V. DESCRIPTION OF PHOTOGRAPHS OF ICE FRINGES

The attempts at photographing the ice fringes as they occurred in
the woods were far from satisfactory. This was owing to the fact
that at 8 A.M. the illumination was low. A wide stop was used in the
camera and consequently the objects are in focus only in the center of
the photograph. They serve the purpose, however, to illustrate their
general appearance as found in the woods. The ice fringes are gen-
erally viewed at an angle at about 45° with the ground.

The photographs in Fig. 7 were obtained in January, 1915. They
are typical of what one finds as regards size and general appearance of
the ice fringes. The fringe in the lower right-hand corner is com-
posed of three whorls. The open space in the fringe is shown by the
round dark spot in the center. The photographs shown in Fig. 8 were
obtained in the middle of January, 1915. The ice formation on the
stalk in the lower left-hand corner of the photograph contains two
beautifully folded fringes, the markings of which are unfortunately
lost in the print.

The finest photographs were obtained by collecting a number of ice
fringes one cold frosty morning (January 6, 1914) and having them
photographed at the Bureau of Standards. Grateful acknowledgment
is due Mr. E. D. Tillyer for his painstaking care in making these
photographs, which no doubt are the finest records yet obtained of these
beautiful ice formations.

In Fig. 9 the four most conspicuous ice fringes are lettered a, B, c,
d, which makes identification easy in Figs. 10 and 11. In these illustra-
tions the ice fringes were photographed from different sides. In Fig.
9, a, it may be noticed that the stem is free from bark. In Figs. 9 and
10 an extremely thin delicate fringe may be noticed protruding from
what appears to be a rift in the stem, but what in reality is a piece of
bark. It is an excellent illustration of the second stage in the forma-
tion of the ice fringe, as described on a preceding page and illustrated

344 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

in Fig. 5, b. In Fig. 10 the oft-mentioned, thin, wedge-shaped fringe
(see Fig. 9) is shown to advantage, protruding (upwards in the photo-
graph) from above the large fringes. The Cunila stalk (Figs. 10 and
11) shown in these plates is typical
of what one finds after several ice
formations, when the stem is well
stripped of bark. The stem is 2.2
mm. in diameter and it is not rifted.
As shown in Fig. 10, the “width”
of the fringe adhering to the stem
is 83cm. It extends out horizontally
3 cm. from the stem. The distance
from the stem to the extreme distal
end of the loop is 4em. The weight
of the ice formation is over 5 grams.
Fig. 9, b, consists of three splin-
ters, united at the base of the stem.
They are, of course, the remnants
of the stalk which had long since
Fic. 7. A Connection or 6 Puoro- disappeared. The dark line in the
ma ee FORMATIONS “wood 1s: the pial, which is shown to
better advantage in Fig. 11. In
Figs. 9, d, and 11, b, the pith-side of the
splinters is shown to advantage. We thus
have a photographic record of the ice for-
mation, not only upon the unrifted stalk,
Fig. 9, a, but also of the formation on the
rifted stalk, Fig. 9, c, and of the forma-
tion upon the bare splinters, Fig. 9, b and
d. The fringe in Fig. 9, 6, is an unusu-
ally interesting ice formation. The pecul-
iar whorl in the center is the meeting
point of two fringes (see Fig. 12) both of
which began curving clockwise. The ex-
treme thinness and the great transparency
is to be noticed by the light and the dark
streaks through the fringes in Fig. 9, d.
The small ice fringes on the stalk shown
in Figs. 9, c, and 11, c, are of interest be-
cause they occur upon a thin stem which
is split into two parts, the rift being easily
distinguished in the photographs. In fact,
most of the rift is above the ice fringes.
This ice formation is also conspicuous in
having pushed out some of the bark as :

or Four PuorocrapHs or Icp

illustrated in Fig. 5, c. This is an excel- rnixars on Cunila.

Fic, 8. SHOWING A COLLECTION

ICH AND THE STEMS OF PLANTS

~
I

+
Jt

lent photographic record showing that the ice is not formed upon the
pith (Fig. 9, 0) or in the rift of the Cunila stem.

Figs. 9, d and 11, d, give a further illustration of the formation of
ice fringes upon fragments of stems of the Cunila. ‘The sample is a

very small one. The stump of the stalk had to be cut out of the ground

Fic. 9 PHOTOGRAPHS OF Ick FRINGES ON Cunila mariana.

in order to obtain the fringes. Some of the ground is still adhering
to the stem. One of the fringes is broken off. The extremely thin

translucent fringe (it appears to be dark, owing to the dark background)
on the right-hand side of Fig. 9, d, is an excellent photographic record

of the manner of growth of the ice fringe—as described on a previous

Fic. 10. ENLARGED VIEW OF Ice FRINGES ON COunila.

346 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

page.

The growth of the: fringe is along a straight edge which appears
almost horizontal in the photograph.

to the peculiar curvature of the fringe.

This, however, is partly owing
The distal edge is straight and

Fig. 11. ENLARGED VIEW OF ICE FRINGES ON Cunila.

smooth, just as it started when near the stem. ‘The photographic
record is therefore an excellent contradiction of the hoar-frost theory
of accumulation in which the ice is formed in spicules. The dark streak

PITH

PITH

Fic. 12. ILLUSTRATING THD

PHCcuLIAR GROWTH OF THE Ick FRINGE SHOWN IN FIGs.
9 AND 110.

along the fragment of stem is pith.

side of the stem. In Fig. 12

A

The ice fringe is upon the woody
is given a diagrammatic illustration of
the whorled fringe shown in Figs. 9 and 11, b. All the plates show

ICH AND THE STEMS OF PLANTS 347

fragments of ice fringes, the bright and dark streaks of which are owing
to the difference in thickness and transparency of the ice. Fig. 6 men-
tioned elsewhere is a photographic record of the laboratory. It was

Fic. 18. ILLUSTRATING THE BEGINNING OF THE ICE-FORMATION AS OBSERVED IN THB
FIELD AND IN THE LABORATORY.

taken by the writer Feb. 18, 1914. The test-tube was about 20 mm. in
diameter, which gives one some idea of the dimensions. The test is de-
scribed on a preceding page. This record is of interest mainly in
showing that the Cunila stems after having been in the laboratory for
some months form ice fringes just as they do when attached to the roots.
In Figs. 13 and 14 are given illustrations of the growth of ice fringes

g ICE

Fic. 14. ILLUSTRATING LATER STAGES IN THE FORMATION OF ICE FRINGES AS OB-
SERVED IN THE FIELD.

as observed in the field and in the laboratory. They are self-explana-
tory, and while it is true that they are diagrammatic, they nevertheless
illustrate the complex and diversified manner in which the fringes
occur. It seems needless to say that they are reproduced from sketches
made at the time of observation.

348 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

VI. SUMMARY.

This paper deals with the formation of ice fringes upon the Dittany,
Cunila mariana. he data presented are based upon experiments and
observations, in the field and in the laboratory.

It was observed that the ice fringes are formed when the tempera-
ture falls to freezing (0° C., 32° F.); but they are not a function of
the hoar-frost which may be present upon the ground.

The ice fringes do not form upon the side of a splinter which con-
tains the pith or upon the line of fracture, but upon the outer woody
surface. The formation of the ice fringe, however, is not a function
of the surface condition of the stem. The stem is frequently found to
be cracked, but usually no ice protrudes from the rifts.

The growth of the ice fringe ceases when the ground is frozen to a
depth of 2 to 5 cm., and when the moisture in the stem is frozen.

The size of the ice fringes and the height to which they extend
above the ground depend upon the rate of evaporation from the stem,
and upon the amount of moisture in the ground. Over 5 grams of ise
may be formed upon a single plant during a single night.

Photographs are given of ice fringes formed upon stems which had
been kept in the laboratory several months. They show that the ice
may be formed upon stems without the roots. Hence the ice is not
formed as a result of hydrostatic pressure exerted by the roots which
are perennial.

All the observations are in agreement in showing that the moisture
rises in the stem as the result of capillary attraction. The height (1
to 5 em.) to which the moisture can rise within the stem is governed
partly by the rate of evaporation from the surface. Photomicrographs
of thin sections of plants are given, which show the structure of stems
of plants which do not form ice fringes; also photomicrographs of sec-
tions of stems of plants which form ice fringes. It is shown that those
plants which form ice fringes the most readily and in the greatest
abundance have the most sap tubes.

The ice fringe is a composite of a number of very thin ribbons. In
the laboratory the formation of the ice fringe was observed from its
very beginning. The first stage in the production of the ice fringe con-
sists of a single row of fine hair-like filaments of ice. This row of ice
filaments lengthens up and down the stem. ‘The filaments increase in
number, thus forming a solid wedge-shaped tooth of ice, which consti-
tutes the second stage of development. In the third stage of develop-
ment the wedge-shaped tooth of ice widens and increases in length as
the result of freezing of the water which continues to soak out of the
stem. There appears to be no difference between the formation of

ICH AND THE STEMS OF PLANTS 340

these ice fringes and the columnar ice formed on wet soils; other than
that, in the latter, a particle of gravel usually forms the nucleus to
start the congelation. In both cases the moisture is brought to the
surface by capillary action. When the rate of supply to the surface is
more rapid than the loss of evaporation, and the air is at a sufficiently
low temperature, ice is formed.

350 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

JAVA, THE EXPLOITED ISLAND

By Dr. ALFRED GOLDSBOROUGH MAYER

SURVIVOR from an age of richer color than our own is the
templed hill of Borobodoer in the middle of Java.

Here, more than a thousand years ago, the Hindu conquerors
wrought honor to their “ Mount of Buddha” by surrounding the dome-
like reliquary at its summit with ten ornamented terraces of stone, en-
easing the sides of the hill in an ordered symmetry of angled walls,
and portals, and of lattice-covered statues of the Buddha, all wonder-
ful in the vast labor of the sculptured story of their creed.

Then, in after centuries, the sword and the Koran came from beyond
the seas and the day of the Hindu passed, to be forgotten as only the
East can forget a glory that has gone. Then it was that those who loved
the old temple were forced to bury the doomed shrines beneath the
kindly sod, and thus in oblivion they survived until the European came
to cherish and restore.

Secluded in the deep country far from the haunts of trade, within
but apart from the modern world, the temple les as if dreaming in the
spirit of its worshipper’s Nirvana; peaceful in the sunset of its days.
while green around it lies a valley rich in rice and palms, and, high
above, one sees the smoking summits of volcanoes hushed in slumber.

The horde of Mahomet came and the Buddhist died in tragedy, yet
after a thousand years the stones of Borobodoer remain as an Alhambra-
like reminder of his culture and his pride; but Java with its thirty mil-
lions toils on unmoved by any inspiration from its past. Nourished in
body, yet starved in spirit, it plods through its thousand rice fields
within sight of the temple walls.

The garden par excellence of the tropic world is Java, yet intellec-
tually it is but a cemetery of withered hopes and ambitions wrecked in
mockery, for over all there broods the dull fatalism of despair—the
“sufficient unto the day ” of the conquered follower of Mahomet.

Ambition, if it exists in the Java of to-day, seems powerless to raise
its people above the condition of the Asiatic peasant. There is no well-
to-do class of native artisans, and one may travel throughout the land
and find hardly a native shop upon whose wares the European may be-
stow a glance of admiration, save only for the vanishing art of batick
cloth, and the still more moribund manufacture of the Krees.

Ant-like over the whole land, in every view, there swarms the dull-
faced, docile coolie of the soil. Measured by standards of morality,

JAVA, THE EXPLOITED ISLAND 351

culture and ambition, the Javanese of to-day are negative. Their
Mohammedanism is of an insipid type that tolerates the drinking of
wine, permits women to go unveiled, is lax respecting the observance of
prayer, and sanctions the representation of the human form in art pro-
vided the figures conform to the spider-like grotesqueness of the batick
decorations. Even a pig fattens comfortably in the back yard, destined,
however, to be sold to the “ heathen” Chinese, <A cloud of abnegation,
the despair of a beaten race, broods over the whole land, and bright
though the sun may be and green the fertile fields, the spirit of man is
colorless and gray, and it is difficult to realize that these crouching,
silent forms and averted faces, expressionless as drawn parchment, are
those of the descendants of the warriors of Mataram.

How long will the inscrutable face of the East hold back the expres-
sion of its hate? One travels from one end of the land to the other and
never a hearty laugh is heard, and the air seems heavy with bitter
thoughts unmuttered. There are latent things in Java more to be
dreaded than the slopes of Krakatoa, where, under a fair covering of
flowers, titanic fires lie hidden.

Granted that the only civilization is that which a race achieves for
itself, never that which is thrust upon it, yet there is still something
wrong here, for the present Javanese outlook upon life is narrower than
it was in the past, and a primary cause of the continuance of the evil
is not far to seek, for the Dutch, with all their admirable administra-
tion of affairs, have, as yet, done little or nothing for the general edu-
cation of the masses of Java. In the villages, one commonly looks in
vain for the temple of any creed, and the school-house, even when pres-
ent, leaves much to be desired.

A few good schools for the sons of chiefs there are, and upon ele-
mentary native education the government spent in 1913 the paltry sum
of $1,321,000; and the much larger sum of $3,000,000 upon the improve-
ment and development of agriculture; an investment upon which Java
returns a yearly interest, to mention only three commodities, of 3,100,-
000,000 pounds of sugar, 35,650,000 pounds of coffee, and 92,000,000
pounds of tobacco, the total of her exports amounting to fully $75,000,-
000 per annum. There are 9,515,000 acres cultivated by the natives and
the population of the island is 594 to the square mile; yet of its 30,000,-
000, the total native population of the five largest cities, Batavia,
Samarang, Soerabaya, Djokjakarta, and Solo, is hardly more than
400,000. The vast mass of the people are agriculturalists living in
thatched huts in myriads of little villages that cluster among the
cocoanut groves of every valley in the land; and practically the only
occupations open to natives of Java are those connected with the culti-
vation of the soil.

This narrowness of industrial outlook has, on several occasions, been

352 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY |,

a source of commercial weakness, and Java has not always “paid,”
despite her conquerors’ efforts to secure as much profit from her as their
conscience and the public spirit of their times would permit.

The water supply of her countless mountain streams might turn the
wheels of many a mill, but Java still sends her products abroad in the
form of raw materials, and the cultivation of cotton is not even at-
tempted.

It is a hopeful sign that the natives themselves are beginning to plead
for education of a broader sort that will enable the more progressive
and intelligent peasants to escape the fate of slaves of the soil, and it 1s
probable that within a few years the Dutch government will respond
and the prosperity and happiness of Java will be enhanced, for
the Dutch have moved slowly, but surely, in the direction of al-
truism during their long occupation of the East Indies. They first’
appeared in 1595 under the lead of Cornelius Houtman who, after
adventures and imprisonment, had ferreted out the secret of the route
around the Cape of Good Hope to the Indies which the Portuguese had
discovered under Vasco da Gama in 1497. Thus it was that the trade
which had made the port of Lisbon the richest in Europe, now fell into
the grasp of the Dutch East India Company, a corporation which be-
came so powerful that it regarded itself as independent of even Hol-
land’s laws, and passed statutes adverse to the interests of its mother
country, practically excluding Dutchmen not in the employ of the com-
pany from occupying land in the East Indies.

The methods employed in exploiting the natives, while more humane
than those of the Portuguese, were still little above those of medieval
Venice, and thus it was that, having thoroughly over-reached itself, the
company failed in 1796 for $50,000,000.

The natives, goaded to desperation by generations of injustice, broke
out into insurrection, which Holland, having been overrun by the French,
was powerless to quell.

Then came the picturesque Bonapartist, Marshall Herman Daendels,
who governed the island from 1808 to 1811. By force of arms he re-
duced the power of the native chiefs to a shadow, the substance being
maintained in European hands. The great road which he built through-
out the entire length of Java from east to west, in the course of two
years, is the result of his iron will, the head men of the villages being
threatened with death unless they completed their task in time. More-
over, it was Daendels who caused old Batavia, “the white man’s grave-
yard,” to be practically abandoned as a residence by Europeans, and
moved the capitol farther inland to a healthful site.

Daendels sought, also, to systematize the custom of “ forced crops ”
which had been the rule of the old Dutch Company, at least in places
and under various forms. About two fifths of the land suitable for

JAVA, THE EXPLOITED ISLAND

vs)
un
we

coffee was set apart and the natives were forced to farm it, the entire
crop raised thereon going to the government. On the other three fifths
of the coffee area the natives might raise their own crop, but they were
forced to sell all to the government at a fixed price much below its
actual value.

This autocratic career of Daendels was, however, cut short by the
English conquest of Java, which resulted in the able administration of
Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles between 1811 and 1815, wherein important
and lasting reforms were instituted in the direction of “ fair play” for
the natives. Suffice it to say that with Raffles a spirit of effective altru-
ism was manifested for the first time during European occupation of
Java. In 1816, Java, together with many other East Indian islands
she had lost, was returned to Holland; the Dutch profiting greatly by the
results of the reforms brought about by the French and English.

Backshidings into old schemes of exploitation there have been, how-
ever, as when the government under Van den Bosch, which was in con-
trol from 1830 to 1839, took from each native a fifth part of his land
upon which he was forced to raise for the government crops of coffee,
indigo, sugar, pepper, tea or tobacco. In addition, the natives were
forced to pay so heavy a land tax upon their remaining property that
many of them defaulted and the government thus acquired the immense
tracts which it still holds. In twelve years $830,000,000 in taxes was
wrung out of the down-trodden natives who, in order to escape starva-
tion, were forced continually to clear and cultivate virgin soil; despite
which the extortionate nature of Van den Bosch’s plan was such that
famine broke out in 1849 and nearly 500,000 victims perished.

The conscience of Holland was at last aroused, and the system of
forced culture has been gradually abandoned, especially since 1870, so
that to-day it is no longer a burden upon the natives in so far as their
agricultural produce is concerned, although the system still dominates
the conduct of the mining industry.

This system, cruelly unjust as it was, had certain good effects. It
forced upon the natives habits of industry which they retain to-day, and
also by greatly increasing the area of cultivated land it permitted an
enormous population to be supported in health and comfort, if not in
luxury. In 1816, there were only about 4,500,000 natives, while to-day
there are nearly 30,000,000 in Java.

Steady progress in liberal reforms has been manifested by the Dutch
since 1870. The island is governed through the direct agency of seven-
teen native regents who, however, are in each case subject to the
“advice” of a Dutch Resident and owe their appointment to Holland.
In most respects, however, the natives appear to be self-governing in so
far as their immediate affairs are concerned and, indeed, the Regents are
permitted considerable “ play” if they conform to the spirit of civiliza-
tion and to the customs of their race.

354 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

One thing the Dutch have done which we ourselves might well emu-
late in our government of the Philippines, and that has been the appoint-
ment of commissions composed of the best-trained scholars to study and
report upon native languages, folk-lore, customs, arts, religion and his-
tory. Many authoritative volumes, unfortunately all in Dutch, have as
a result been published upon these subjects and thus the officials sent out
from Holland are already prepared to grasp the true inwardness of every
native thought and act.

Intending officials in the civil service of the Dutch administra-
tion in the East Indies must pass an examination in many subjects re-
lating to the East Indies, and must speak Malay, the official language,
and one other native tongue before being permitted to qualify for any
position of executive importance. The Dutch, in short, are trying to
become the “ big brothers” of the natives and a happier and more hope-
ful relationship is year by vear developing in the East Indies between
the white master and his brown ward.

This large-minded standpoint has been achieved slowly for, with
many setbacks, it is the result of 300 years of association. Yet from
this fact alone one may the more safely regard it as a final triumph of
the right, and not as a mere transient, semi-sentimental, dip into altru-
ism. It savors of fair play rather than of charity, and of mutual respect
based not so much upon fear as upon understanding.

Narrowly self-centered, unaltruistic, and even predatory, the spirit
of the Dutch government may have been in the past, but throughout it
has been consistent in attempting to develop among the natives the habit
of industry.

Under many a kindlier rule native races have lost ambition and have
withered to extinction in the vile repose of apathy. Thus in all the world
Java is the best example illustrating the fact that given habits of indus-
try, a race can survive the ruin of its independence, its hope, and its
pride, and multiply despite a conqueror’s exploitation of its resources.

NATIONAL DEFENSE AND DEVELOPMENT 355
NATIONAL DEFENSE AND DEVELOPMENT?

NATIONAL DEFENSE AND EFFICIENCY

By 8. STANWOOD MENKEN

NEW YORK CITY

oe national defense considered merely in terms of men and ma-

chinery is directly affected by efficiency is too obvious to require
any discussion. When, however, we consider defense of a country in
the light of modern developments the extent of the influence of methods
of efficiency is readily overlooked.

It is essential in treating the solution of the issue of a nation’s de-
fense that the nation should first determine its world position, its rela-
tion to other countries, and its attitude toward foreign ambitions; with
this knowledge it can then measure its needs. Diplomacy is often re-
ferred to as the first line of defense. This is true, and it also must be
understood that any defense not measured by the diplomat’s recommen-
dations is apt to be unfitted to national needs.

Once the need of national defense is determined, the country must
look to the direct application of its assets for its protection; these
assets constitute power which is derived from the human, physical and
industrial resources of the state. The law of cause and effect determine
the extent of the power and bear directly upon the state’s influence.

In the past we have found happiness and growth with liberty in
strict adherence to democratic principles. We have been greatly aided
through our natural riches and the fact that conditions affecting our
government were comparatively simple. To-day we have drawn to a
large extent on the top soil of our natural resources. We have a more
or less concentrated population of a hundred million of people of varied
race origin, and find great difficulty in continuing a policy of freedom
from entangling alliances. We have wedded ourselves to certain doc-
trines and thereby assumed certain national obligations without fully
providing the means of enforcing them. The transition has decidedly
complicated the position of our country and made the working out of
its destiny a grave matter, requiring attention and prayerful thought
of the best available minds.

When we stop and think of world conditions and measure the re-

1A series of papers presented before the Section for Social and Economie
Science of the American Association for the Advancement of Science at the
meeting in Columbus on December 30, 1915, arranged by the Secretary of the
Section, Seymour C. Loomis.

356 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

morseless results of cause.and effect in the light of knowledge of the
economics and efficiency as practised abroad, as compared with our situa-
tion here, we can well doubt whether, unless a new spirit grips our land
with grim determination, we shall enjoy a continuation of the blessings
of the past. To America asleep, to an extent which makes it almost
appear that the average man were blind and deaf to occurrences, the
efficiency of the German army in the early days of the war was a start-
ling apparition, and yet we know that it was merely one form of ex-
pression of the results of a system. The foreign governments that
progress have mainly done so in a restricted area under great difficul-
ties, to meet which they use the methods of the laboratory. They
apply every human, physical and industrial element to the upbuilding
of the state. They know that the success of their system is determined
by the individual, personal unit. It is simple, if all cooperate with
understanding and with a deep sense of personal obligation, and this
sense is the base of natural power.

It is to the philosophy of Kant and the teachings of Fichte that the
German spirit of duty to the state finds the impulse which has made
German efficiency possible, whether it be evidenced in the army, in-
dustry, trade extension or town government. It would be well if Amer-
ica could understand the details of their progress in certain forms of
science and of industry, or their success in treating municipal problems,
an example of which latter proof of their skill we are able to note that
in some cities there are not only no local taxes, but each freeman of cer-
tain cities receives a bonus, or dividend, through his citizenship. In one
instance this is as much as $100 per annum.

While I believe in individualism, and deny the necessity of the ex-
treme control incident to state socialism, we must fully realize what
other nations are doing, and gather what is good and useful in their
methods, if we are to have the maximum national growth. If we
would proceed with efficiency toward preparedness, we must have the
benefit of all possible knowledge of what is being done abroad.

A new era has dawned upon the world. Internationalism, as a
practical possibility, is dead for our generation, and our best service to
mankind is to insure the maintenance of the growth of this republic.
To do so means the preservation of liberty and all that prior generations
of thinking Americans have advocated, either in times of war or of
peace.

[t is because I fear the aggressor, and am too conservative to gamble
on the chance that we may not be victims as China and Belgium have
been, that I urge with all my power that our country arm to the full
extent essential for its defense against attack. America has a great
destiny, not alone for service to its own people, but to all mankind, a
trust not only for the present, but for future generations, and we can

NATIONAL DEFENSE AND DEVELOPMENT 357

not stand quiet and assume that chance or national aspirations for peace
will furnish immunity; the risk is too grave. We are guarantors of
world civilization, which may continue without us, but we must recog-
nize the burden of the hour and meet it, arming and preparing on
efficient basis to fulfill the greater purposes of world citizenship.

Preparedness means far more than mere ranks of men, stores of
arms, forts and ships. It means the upbuilding of national character,
the creation of a mental state of preparedness to do and work for the
country on the part of the individual. It means industrial prepared-
ness—it means all these things plus efficiency. In a word, we must, as
men and women, give our best thought and apply our strength, char-
acter and industry to national upbuilding.

The basic element of any nationality is a people of like origin,
speaking a common tongue, having a common understanding and am-
bitions. Our best defense is a united people. A country divided within
itself must fall, and the first duty of our federal and state government
is to take steps to unify our citizens of all origins. We must work first
through the schools. Next, we should work through the centers of
foreign populations. The melting pot has not done its work as yet,
and it is possible to accomplish more if the fires of patriotism are
heightened and the benefits of good government brought directly to the
homes of all classes. This is a matter of serious moment, and it is
here I should like to see methods of efficiency first applied.

Next, it is essential that we acquire a spirit of individual prepared-
ness. Because we adhere to high ethical principles in our dealings
with our fellow-men, we seem as a general rule to ignore civic duty.
Each school should teach American history as it really is, telling the full
history of congressional incompetence in regard to legislation, the
failure to meet the abolition question for sixty years, the cost of this
neglect in men and millions. They should also portray the moral
effect of the toleration and continuance of slavery. The historian to
serve us with truth should also review the handling of the tariff issue—
sixteen bills in a century, with hundreds of disastrous amendments.
Let them detail the incompetence of our treatment of trust and finance
questions. Let them explain the several causes of the pork barrel legis-
lation and the neglect of conservation of life and of natural resources,
criminal beyond expression. I would have them also make clear the
methods of the ring politician, the character of the parasites who allow
him to be a possibility by lack of public morals and democracy; and,
above all, I would like to see this—the history of unpreparedness and
the penalty paid by this country in every war it has fought. I should
like to see this taught with absolute candor, and so brought home to
the ayerage youth that he will fully understand the shortcomings of
the past; recognize that Americans while personally fair are not super-

358 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

men, and feel that if he is to meet the full burdens of his citizenship in
future, he has to do his part by personal service toward assuring good
government, which will efficiently devote itself, through executive and
legislative, to city, state and national affairs. In a word, we must have
direct efficiency in government, we must eliminate fraud, penalize those
who neglect to serve, and emphasize the fact that each and every citi-
zen has to earn his right to life, liberty and happiness, and that every
one is conscripted in that sense for public work.

If we can accomplish a reasonable degree of individual prepared-
ness, all other matters will naturally follow. We shall then have in-
dustrial preparedness, which will be so arranged that in the event of
our being attacked by any foreign power our manufactures and our
commerce will coordinate to serve our army and navy.

To detail the mobilization of industry is not my problem. I wish
merely to indicate the necessity therefor as a part of the preparedness
which we have neglected. The application of like methods of efficiency
to army and navy means the elimination of waste. Useless or improp-
erly located barracks and navy yards are inconceivable in any scheme
of national defense that is efficient. In view of our expenditures the
conditions, disclosed by Congressman Gardner and accentuated by later
developments, constitute a condition of evil for which each preceding
national administration is responsible, each in turn. That Mr. Meyer
for the navy, Mr. Stimson for the army, pleaded for freedom and funds
io do better things does not excuse, but accentuates, the absolute need
of new methods of efficiency in the service and strict accountability to
the people.

We may adyocate national defense and Congress may listen to our
plea, but neither laws nor expenditure can give us real protection or
preparedness unless we practise efficiency as individuals and as a nation.

THE WISDOM AND ETHICS OF PREPAREDNESS

By HENRY A. WISE WOOD

NEW YORK CITY

Gy examination of history, from the middle of the fifteenth century
until the present time, discloses the fact that, if the principal
European nations be lumped, 52 per cent. of their time has been spent
at peace, and 48 per cent. in warfare. England, in 800 years, has spent
419 years at war, or over 52 per cent. of her time, while France, in
the same period, has spent 373 years at war. In the twelfth century,
England fought over 54 per cent. of her time, while in the nineteenth
century she fought 534 per cent. Not much of a reduction. France, in
the twelfth century, fought 363 per cent. of her time, and in the nine-

NATIONAL DEFENSE AND DEVELOPMENT 359

teenth century 35 per cent. These figures disprove the erroneous con-
tention that warfare is decreasing.

If we turn to Prussia, the most efficiently warlike of all nations, we
discover a very significant fact. Where, in the seventeenth century,
Prussia fought 584 per cent. of her time, by the nineteenth century—
during the latter half of which she may be said to have made and ab-
sorbed the German Empire—she reduced her years at war to 13 per
cent. By the development of military prowess and her thorough prep-
aration she had learned to strike so swiftly and well that her wars were
over almost before they were begun. If the war chart of Prussia be
compared with those of other nations, all of whom were less well trained
and prepared, it will be found that where Prussia quickly finished her
fights and got back to work, the wars of the other nations were long
drawn out, due as we know to the necessity of their learning and pre-
paring to fight after their wars had begun.

From the foregoing it is clear that the world at large is now, as
formerly, fighting about one half of its time, but that the nation which
has made a scientific study of warfare, training and equipping its citi-
zens thoroughly therefor, has succeeded during the last century in re-
ducing its periods of warfare to little more than one eighth of its time.
That military efficiency and readiness have a humanitarian as well as
an industrial value none can longer doubt. That to be prepared to
defend ourselves will be as necessary in the future as in the past, the
scarcely diminished proportion of its time which the world uses in
warfare indicates. But let us be able to defend ourselves so well that
our reply to aggression shall be instant success in terminating hostilities.

At the close of the revolution our army was reduced to eighty men,
to guard ammunition. By 1812 it had arisen to little more than 6,000,
I believe, who were widely scattered along our frontiers. At the be-
ginning of the war of 1812, there were less than 5,000 British troops in
Canada, while we, having no army capable of dealing with these, were
compelled to raise and train troops before beginning operations. If
we could have sent a force of 10,000 regulars promptly into Canada,
we should have brought the war of 1812 to an immediate and victorious
conclusion, and have added Canada to our territory. Instead, we began
to “prepare” after operations had begun, with the result that the war
dragged on for two and a half years, during which we were compelled
to raise 527,000 troops, and to lose our capital, which, following the
Battle of Bladensburg, was taken and burned by the British. In this
battle 5,400 American troops fled, with a loss of but 8 killed and 11
wounded, although they were attacked by less than 1.500 British
regulars.

The war of 1812 cost, including pensions, $243,000,000. At no
time during the war had the British more than 16,500 troops in Amer-

360 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

ica during a single year. .Had the United States, from the close of the
revolution to the beginning of this war, taken the precaution to sup-
port say an army of 15,000 men, money would have been saved, there
would have been little loss of life, no loss of industry, and Canada
would now be part of our territory.

Upton, our great military historian, has shown us that at the be-
ginning of the rebellion had the United States had a trained army of
less than 30,000 men the rebellion could have been suppressed at the
first Battle of Bull Run. If such a body of men, of even many times
this number, had been maintained before the war of secession how little
their cost would now seem when set against the five billions of dollars
spent by the north and the south.on the war, the four billions of dollars
since paid out in pensions, the hundreds of thousands of lives lost, the
ruin of the south, and the interruption of four years of social progress
and constructive industry. In view of these facts can any one question
the value of such insurance against war?

The general staff of our army has just shown us that the most war-
like nation of Europe, in times of peace, can deliver upon our shores a
trained force of 827,000 men in 46 days, and that the most warlike
nation of Asia can deliver 238,000 men in 63 days. The general staff
thereupon advises that in order to make us secure the regular army be
increased at once roughly to 280,000 men, and thereafter be gradually
added to until it has reached 500,000. And this, which the general
staff considers a minimum, it says, must largely be supplemented by
the militia as well as other civilian troops. During Roosevelt’s admin-
istration we were the world’s second naval power; now we are substan-
tially its fourth, while Germany in sea strength is vastly our superior.

If the recommendations of the civilian secretary of war be com-
pared with those of the general staff of the army it will be seen how mis-
erably insufficient is the plan of the secretary to afford us security in
the event of attempted invasion. And if the naval increase proposed
by the civilian secretary of the navy be compared with the naval list of
Germany, it will instantly appear that when the small and slow plan
which has been prepared by Mr. Daniels is carried into effect, we shall
still be vastly inferior to Germany.

Where the fundamental policies of two nations conflict there is
hound to be friction, and where there is friction eventually there may
be war. It is a fact that our Monroe doctrine, which has forbidden
European nations to colonize in this hemisphere, is in conflict with the
colonial policy of the German Empire, as may easily be verified by a
perusal of the words of German economists. As neither nation prob-
ably will surrender its policy, we find here a point of contact at which
danger may arise. Wisdom therefore dictates that, if we intend to
enforce the Monroe doctrine, we provide ourselves with a navy sufficient
for quick and effective use, if the doctrine be attacked.

NATIONAL DEFENSE AND DEVELOPMENT 361

Our Asiatic exclusion policy, as practised on the Pacific coast, con-
flicts with the national policy of Japan, which nation insists that its
citizens everywhere shall be received upon a footing of equality with
those of the other first powers. Thus, if we intend to maintain our ex-
clusion policy, it will be necessary for us to have a navy sufficiently
large to enforce it if challenged. If it so happen that the Monroe
doctrine and our exclusion policy be challenged simultaneously by
the nations affected, it will be necessary for us to have a navy large
enough to defeat the world’s second naval power in the Atlantic, and
the world’s fifth naval power in the Pacific. At the present moment
we could defeat neither the two together, nor the first alone, having long
since lost to Germany our position of superiority.

Were Germany, with her superior fleet, to make a feint towards
South America, and thus draw our fleet in that direction, the remainder
of her fleet could safely convoy to our shores the 827,000 troops which
our general staff has stated can be landed here in 46 days, when we
should suffer the outrage of invasion. If, on the other hand, our fleet
were retained in northern waters to protect us, then Germany could
easily establish herself in South or Central America, from which it
would be next to impossible to drive her. This possibility illustrates
the imperative need of our having at all times a fleet large enough to
cover the Atlantic, and the Pacific as well, for, if Japan were to co-
operate with Germany, we should there have to deal with the fleets
of that nation, or suffer invasion of our western coast.

Were Germany to succeed in establishing itself in South or Central
America, and there create a standing army and a military base, we
should have the military dangers long threatening Europe reproduced
within our own hemisphere, and they would soon require us to adopt com-
pulsory military service and maintain an enormous standing army. If,
on the other hand, we should shield South or Central America, and
permit our own shores to lie open, then, as has been stated, we could
easily be seriously hurt, for an army could be landed upon Long Island,
sufficiently near to New York to reduce that city with the mortars
which have been used with such effect in Belgium. With New York
City and its surrounding territory in the hands of the enemy, an enor-
mous indemnity could be levied, in which the whole country would
have to participate, while humiliating terms of peace could easily be
dictated.

In view of the foregoing, it is obvious that it is necessary for us to
equip ourselves at the earliest moment with (a) a navy sufficiently
strong to defend ourselves both in the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans,
and (0b) to establish upon both coasts a mobile army of sufficient di-
mensions to repel the expeditions of two nations if made simultane-
ously.

VOL. I1.—25.

362 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

In view of the mistakes of the past and of the dangers which
threaten us, it is plain that it would be arrant folly to refuse to carry
out in full the suggestions of the general staff of the army, and the
recommendations of the general board of the navy, of which Dewey is
the head, which have just been made public. For, however much these
will cost, that cost can be but as nothing to the huge price that we
shall have to pay in life, devastation and money for our negligence,
should our invasion occur.

That preparedness has its ethical side, John Fiske has shown. He
has said that the closest approach to a condition of perpetual and uni-
versal peace that it is possible to attain among nations can be achieved
only when the preponderance of military power has been gathered into
the hands of the pacific peoples. It is obvious that our own form of
civilization as well as the forms of civilization enjoyed by the other pacific
nations are in jeopardy, so long as the machinery of compulsion remains
wholly in the hands of those bent upon conquest. So it is apparent that
humanity and the preservation of righteousness throughout the world,
no less than our own security, require that we shall do our part to re-
dress the balance of power which too long has been permitted to lie
with the war-like nations.*

THE LOGIC OF PHYSICAL AND MENTAL PREPAREDNESS

By NEWELL B. WOODWORTH, A.M.

PRESIDENT-GENERAL, SONS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

fi Fiseat first chapter of American democracy commenced with the Con-
tinental Congress and the shots of the “ Minute Men” at Lexing-
ton and Concord, and ended at Yorktown. Now, after more than a
century and a quarter has passed, the deeper meaning of October 19,
1781, can be seen more clearly. Then it was only the eager rejoicing
over a great victory that had been achieved after many depressing
months, during which the cause of liberty seemed destined to defeat.
Now it is seen as a momentous event upon which was to be predicated
the Treaty of Paris, which was to give the opportunity for the develop-
ment of the greatest representative government the world has ever
known—a government standing for the highest ideals of individual
liberty and equality and of national and international rights of hu-
manity. Thus, through the intervening years since Cornwallis capitu-
lated, a greater responsibility has been developing, as the nation has
1 Authorities consulted: Researches of Woods and Baltzley; Upton’s ‘‘ Mili-
tary Policy of the United States’’; The German economists, Schmoller, Hotzsch,
Vintzer, Unold, etc.; Report, 1915, War College division, General Staff U. S.
Army.

NATIONAL DEFENSE AND DEVELOPMENT 363

extended, upon those intrusted with the trusteeship duties of American
citizenship; duties depending primarily upon the maintenance of the
entity of this nation and of its principles. Upon this point of main-
tenance there is no difference of opinion, but as to the method there is
a wide divergence. ‘There are those who would have us continue in our
present almost physical defenseless condition; there are those who be-
lieve in physical preparedness for national self-defense. Thus a present
vital issue is clearly joined between these two methods, and the court of
arbitrament is the public opinion of our citizenship.

Let us return to the days of Yorktown and ascertain what was
believed by our forefathers. The revolution determined the American
people could fight. The immediately succeeding years were to deter-
mine if what had been created could be maintained. It required six
wretched years under the Confederation after Yorktown to bring them
to the second crisis. In the adoption of the Constitution of 1789, the
American people finally demonstrated their belief in the principles for
which they had contested and accepted an instrument of power under
which in succeeding years, nationality was to develop. In the preamble
of this marvelous document of our forefathers, six reasons for their
action are set forth, namely, union, justice, tranquillity, common defense,
general welfare and liberty. While five of the six are dependent on
force for effectiveness, let us briefly consider only the “ common defense.”

I believe it is both an opportune time and an advisable time for the
subject to be considered in the forum of any assembled body of Amer-
ican citizens, for there are at the present time some sixty “ peace-at-any-
price,” anti-armament and anti-enlistment societies arrayed in an active
anti-preparedness campaign against this provision of physical “‘ common
defense.” ‘This is a subject of patriotism, not partisanship.

Our forefathers engaged in preparing the Constitution were very
practical men, nearly all of them having been active participants in the
revolution. Their leader was Washington, who, previously to his elec-
tion as a delegate to the convention, and to his being elected its presi-
dent, had given expression to a thought that can be considered as
reflecting the sentiment of his associates on the subject:

It is a maxim founded on universal experience of mankind, that no nation

is to be trusted further than it is bound by its interests, and no prudent states-
man or politician will venture to depart from it.

Later, as president under the Constitution, he again expressed this
same thought in the words:

There is a rank due to the United States among nations which will be with-
held, if not hopelessly lost by the reputation of weakness. If we desire to
avoid insult, we must be able to repel it. If we desire to secure peace, one of
the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known that
we are at all times ready for war.

364 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY |

In view of the expressions of so commanding a figure in contempo-
rary thought and from one too who earnestly detested war, it is submit-
ted as a reasonable inference that the makers of the Constitution realized
their acts and with due deliberation referred, as one of the reasons for
the adoption of the Constitution, to the necessity of a material self-
defense for the nation. If this measure of “common defense” resting
upon force was deemed necessary in the infancy of this then isolated
republic, how much more so is it essential to-day, when modern inven-
tions have eliminated time and distance; when we have as a nation,
reached the position of a world power; when our possessions extend into
both hemispheres, and when we have publicly announced certain inter-
national policies.

Against this assertion of unpreparedness, the radical pacifist, and I
am referring alone to the “radical,” as all thinking men are at heart
pacifists as recognizing the horrors of war and deploring its existence—
I repeat these radical pacifists vociferate that no nation is going to impair
and disregard our national rights and honor, as this would be illogical ;
therefore no actual sufficient military or naval force is required for the
protection of national entity or obligations, as reasoning is per se suffi-
cient for self-defense.

Let us briefly analyze. The weakness of the argument is that the
premises upon which it is based are conjectures. Who can assert with
finality that no nation will attack us or seek to violate our national
obligations? Has any radical pacifist the ability to absolutely ensure
or guarantee the nation against such a result, as they venture to so
positively assert is impossible? No, it is simply their personal opinion,
to which they are entitled, even as those who deduct a different conclu-
sion from events are entitled to their views.

Again, who is to determine whether war in the reasoning capacity
of a nation appears as logical or illogical? ‘These logicians of pacifism
give us no practical guarantee that will comfortably ensure the ac-
ceptance of our reasoning as correct by other nations. Belgium invaded
did not consider the action of Germany either reasonable or logical;
but Germany did, and Belgium was devastated. Our logic has thus far
failed to be unanimously accepted as correct by the warring factions in
Mexico. While this theory is quite idealistic and desirable, both from
a humanitarian and an economic standpoint, the vital question yet re-
mains a simple one of reasoning, dependent on man as he is mentally
and physically constituted in this twentieth century A.D., and not as he
perhaps may become later through many centuries of evolution. I place
emphasis upon man, as he is yet a creature influenced by self-interests
and by human passions. It is man, who yet develops and guides the
destinies and policies of nations; the personal equation still controls
governments. Selfishness is yet a predominant human characteristic.

NATIONAL DEFENSE AND DEVELOPMENT 365

To return again to our ancestors, they thought they had reached
after the close of the revolution, an idealistic state of man uncontrolled
by enforceable law sustained by force, and it required the lawless and
turbulent years between 1783 and 1789 to harshly demonstrate to the
worthy descendants of Pilgrim, Puritan and Cavalier their error and
release them from their thralldom of misery. As General Knox at this
time wrote, “Men, actual men, possessing all the turbulent passions
belonging to that animal, must have a government proper and adequate
for him,” and experience then was so fast demonstrating to our fore-
fathers that an “adequate” government was one backed by physical
power to enforce its mandates, that they adopted the Constitution of
the United States as a “government of laws and not of men.” What
was then true as regards our domestic government remains true to-day
as regards foreign relations, as we have yet no brotherhood of nations to
correspond to our brotherhood of states controlled by a strong federal
system resting upon a force sufficient to compel observance of its man-
dates. Our federation ends at our boundaries. Beyond lie different
races with different interests and methods of thinking; different cus-
toms and forms of government. THach inspired and controlled by its
interests, and by the passions of the men who are its active component
parts. Who can prophetically foretell or foresee the latent motives that
may at any time suddenly bring their principles impelled by so con-
sidered self-interests into direct conflict with those of this nation, with
only war remaining as the court possessing jurisdiction over the issues
raised. Treaties of arbitration are only enforceable like statute and
constitutional laws when sustained by an enforcing power, otherwise
they become “a scrap of paper.”

I do not question the desirability of the pacifist plan; only its pres-
ent availability. It will doubtlessly develop some time in later cen-
turies. It has required over seven hundred years since Magna Charta
for individual liberty and constitutional government in a few of the
individual nations of the world to develop to its present imperfect state,
for the system is still in a process of realization. Doubtlessly, when this
form of government further spreads over the world, as it probably will,
as democracy is elementally and historically progressive, the time will
be approached when an international constitution of power may be
evolved and a permanent union of nations under it rendered as possible
and as practicable as is this Union of States under our Constitution.
This is, though, of the far future, for despite the assertions of the ration-
alist philosophers of the pacifist school, men, apparently from recent
events, are not yet governed much more by reason and logic and less by
human passions than they were in past centuries. These philosophers,
who so believe, I fear, are seated upon lofty heights and look over the
heads of common human nature below.

366 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

We have founded here: in this western world a republic, with its
doors opened to all races and creeds, rich and poor, literate and illiterate,
who have desired to seek personal liberty and opportunities beneath our
flag. The duty of those of the present is to preserve these institutions
of liberty and to transmit them to their successors in all purity. In so
doing we will enlarge our influence in the world and hasten the advance
of the ultimate establishment of a permanent international peace. God
forbid that we Americans have reached that apathy of mind where it is
folly to risk a hair for the mere idea of what some “ fanatics” call one’s
country. Rather, let our youth continue to feel that an adequate de-
fense is a noble duty. If not it is time to return to our Virgil,—“ Arma
verumque cano”’— I sing of arms and the man. Rather this than “I
didn’t raise my boy to be a soldier.” No, if war is always wicked and
peace beautiful, we must inexorably place George Washington and
Abraham Lincoln in a class of murderous leaders and not as the creator
and savior of the Union. Is this startling? It should not be. Ac-
cording to the logic of radical pacifism, the men who died on the
battlefields of the Revolution and of the Civil War, irrespective of North
or South, were not patriots, but rather men who went forth with
murderous intent and as the deluded victims of unscrupulous leaders.
I, for one, am not ready to accept any premises that lead to such an
unholy conclusion. I can not see any valid reasons against an adequate,
material self-defensive force for this nation. I can see many forcible
reasons drawn from history and life of the imperative need for the
security provided by such a proper force. I believe the great majority
of American citizens are in favor of “common defense” as inheritors
of the principles of the founders of this republic. If they had been
“* peace-at-any-price ” men, they would have, after King George denied
their petitions for redress, continued to peacefully lick the British
stamps for affixation to their documents. This action would have
avoided the revolution of 776 and probably involved our pacifist of the
present in the current war as a colonist of Great Britain.

From the record of past events and from the observation of the pres-
ent character of man, I can only logically deduce from these premises
the necessity of physical self-defense. The methods of this prepared-
ness I do not even assume to suggest. This is a question that we should
wisely leave with those possessing the highest technical knowledge that
the study of a lifetime can alone provide. There is only one question
to be deliberately determined, without thought of partnership, only as
Americans, by the citizens of this country, and that 1 is physical prepared-
ness, or unpreparedness.

Quite as essential as physical preparedness is the mental prepared-
ness of the nation. This question arises more prominently at the present
time because of the heterogeneous mingling of many races in our nation

NATIONAL DEFENSE AND DEVELOPMENT 367

and of the resulting concentration in recent years in our populous
cities of these aliens in racial communities. Hitherto, the great amal-
gam which has fused into our body politic the many nationalities that
have come to share our birthright, has been our common language. In
racial districts where the inhabitants are using their native tongue, this
language amalgam can not operate, and the alien, continuing to think
and speak in native ways, is unassimilated. Obviously, such conditions
constitute a menace to that complete unity of our people upon which
must ultimately depend a mental preparedness from which must of
necessity develop any effective physical preparedness.

Citizenship, whether by oath or by birth, demands loyalty to country.
What is required in all is that spirit of loyalty that led Paul of Tarsus
to exclaim, as bound and sentenced for scourging and an object of con-
tempt, he brought consternation to the scarlet-clad Roman centurions
in his acclamation, Cwis Romanus sum—I am a Roman citizen—or
of Patrick Henry in the halls of the Continental Congress, “I am not a
Virginian, but an American.” It is a long step, through many cen-
turies filled with the incessant struggles of mankind towards a higher
degree of Christianity and civilization, from Paul in the acra to Patrick
Henry in the Continental Congress, but the words of both, far beyond
a mere oratorical expression, represent the very living spirit of political
liberty that should thrill with vibrating impulses every citizen of this
nation. This active consciousness of loyalty to principle, so essential to
the homogeneity of any nation, can only be aroused by teaching our alien
citizens through school, precept and example, our language, our methods
of thinking and our standards of living; and to all, whether Americans
by heritage or by oath, a reverence and love for our flag and a pulsating
pride in the protection it affords and in the principles it symbolizes.
In seeking this desired result, the thought must be kept distinctly in
mind that the essence of a democracy is service to all the people within
its precincts, and we must use our influence that such service will be
rendered from which impulsively will spring loyalty to country. True
patriotism is never an emotional sentiment produced by temporary
exhortation; it is the result of a slow growth inspired by the thought
that each possesses an interest in a government that serves and protects.
It is this deep possessive feeling as to country that leads men to defend
their heritage even at a sacrifice of life. It is the depth of this spirit
that rallies a nation to unity of action in times of stress, sustained
in the hours of adversity and leads it on to victory.

This subtle moral mobilization of the people is quite as essential to
the security and permanency of a nation as is the outward physical
preparedness of military training and supplies. It was this spirit of
disciplined loyalty that gave Rome all its magnificent glory; gave its
citizens their pride in the protection of their eagles; gave Pau] the poor

368 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

tent-maker of Tarsus his exultation of spirit, and, when it failed, the
Gothic hordes poured through the Salerian gate and Rome fell. It was
this spirit that rallied the “ Minute Men” at Lexington, Concord and
Bunker Hill, and brought the yeomanry of the colonies forward in every
crisis of the revolution. It is a spirit closely akin to the spiritual feel-
ing that distinguishes us from animals. It is the spirit upon which
rests all that is worth while in this world of which we are a part in
service to our democracy as representing our fellow-men. It is this
national spirit that we must teach by word and by example with quick-
ened conscience of the responsibility resting upon us. It presents an
opportunity, both collectively and individually, to render national service
to our country that we may, through living our own lives, justify our
pride in the acts of the founders of this republic, at a time when alone
service secured success.

The question we must each ask ourselves is:—Are we giving to our
country the actual service for its advancement that we are capable of
giving? Citizenship is a trusteeship. The pacifists who proclaim they
are quite willing to take a chance on any nation attacking us are placing
the future of the republic upon the forbearance of others, not upon the
power to assert such a perpetuity. A plan hardly in accord with Amer-
ican traditions or the obligated duties of trusteeship. Again, these
chance-taking pacifists overlook the salient fact that they can not sepa-
rate themselves as individuals from citizens. To them has come, whether
by heritage or by oath is immaterial, a life interest only in our government
which protects them by its laws and institutions; and, like any life ten-
ant, they have no right to so use this temporary individual interest as to
imperil the principal in trust being transmitted intact to their successors.
The fallacy of the endeavor to separate individuals and citizen interests
is obvious. Rather may we turn to the heroic adherence of the citizens of
Belgium to their obligations, even at the cost of war and devastation,
as an inspiring example to the people of the United States. Citizenship
carries duties of to-day, duties for the to-morrow. God grant that we
may realize our opportunities and avail ourselves of the opportunity of
service, zealously defending and continuing this republic, not only as a
radiant promise, but as a full realization to all races of the world of a
government of unity “of the people, by the people and for the people”
under the principles represented by our glorious Stars and Stripes. God
grant that we may continue to be inspired by the example of our fore-
fathers in placing principle before all things, that we may not be led
astray from our present opportunity of practical service to our country.
Give us this mental preparedness backed by a proper defensive physical
preparedness and this republic, sustained by the integrity, intelligence
and conscience of the American people, will lead the way among all
nations of the world to an ultimate federation of nations that through

NATIONAL DEFENSE AND DEVELOPMENT 369

democracy and the wisdom of a Divine Providence, will yet be created to
bless all nations with an everlasting peace.

When the war-drum throbs no longer, and the battle-flags are furl’d
In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world.

NATIONAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATION

By HENRY H. WARD

VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE NAVY LEAGUE OF THE UNITED STATES

HE “educators” of our country seem to have been among the last
of the more intelligent body of the public to awaken to the neces-
sity—even to the barest idea of the meaning—of national defense. I say
“among the last,” for among the more intelligent they are far from
being alone in their apparent obliviousness to this vital public question.
However, in this attitude, the educator does stand as a most striking
figure, in view of the particular relation which he holds to the public, as
one whose profession is to impart pure knowledge on whatever subject.
Apparently he has been little, if any, better informed than the average
intelligent man of other professions. In fact, outside of the naval and
military professions themselves, including, of course, the National Guard
and Naval Militia, and outside of one or two heretofore struggling
patriotic organizations, there is practically no scientific or consistent
interest shown in this subject. Even our best informed men in civilian
life, unless they have been brought into actual contact with naval and
military administration, fail to recognize that here are two actual pro-
fessions. Many of us so often pass them by with the idea that the army
begins and ends in the few thousand men wearing uniforms and trained
to a certain disregard of life, be it their own or that of others; the
navy we look upon as little different from the army, except as it may be
thought to differ in the matter of romance, or in the supposedly free and
easy life of the sea and careless travel.

Now that the educator, along with other intelligent men, is awaking
to the meaning of national defense, and to our country’s need for it, his
interest is becoming vivid and his activity dynamic. He stands forth
potential for great national service, but not without some possibility for
harm. There is, then, the greater need that he intelligently direct his
efforts. ‘The proselyte to the cause, be he educator or whoever he may
be, starts out relatively ignorant of a vast subject. He learns a little,
fails to realize the nature or extent of the subject before him, and,
enthusiastic for this or that method or measure, not infrequently gives
his energies along some misdirected line, or fails to realize full value
from the energy that he expends.

There seems, too, to be a certain confusion, or lack of understanding,
as to the alignment of public opinion, intelligent or otherwise, on the

370 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

matter of national defense'and preparedness. It is too often assumed
that the work of the so-called defense societies, and of the peace organ-
izations, are necessarily entirely antagonistic. ‘That such is not the case,
provided we exclude the possibly mythical “Peace at any price” sec-
tion, a moment’s reflection should convince you.

What, then, is the function of the educator in respect to these ques-
tions, and where lies the relation between education and national defense ?

For years back, various organizations have been endeavoring to con-
duct a work of public education as to the proper means of national
defense. Conspicuous among these bodies, and oldest of those now active
before the public, is the Navy League of the United States, which, since
its organization in 1903, has been single in its purpose to inform the
people of the country as to the needs of the navy and the country’s need
for a navy. Officers and workers of the league know only too well the
country’s past apathy toward this subject. Where there is apathy there
can be nothing but ignorance; and upon this subject the country has been
and is to-day woefully ignorant. We have been awakened by the Euro-
pean war. It is true that our interest is aroused, we are more willing
to believe what has been told to us, but, so far, it is largely a matter of
faith, and if we are to give wisely of ourselves, we must be taught.

Two years ago there were few who would have known whether our
battleships were faster than those of England, of Germany, and of Japan;
and, except for the boyishness of the American heart, few perhaps would
have cared. Our dailies, and our periodical press, gave us recurring
accounts of the launching of this vessel or of that. And were we not
always told that each was the best in the world? To-day we have a little
education on the subject. We know that those same ships, powerful
though they are in many respects, are relatively slow; and, the while we
are ceasing to be boys, we are beginning to care a great deal. We are no
longer satisfied with the easy and boastful assurance of a few months
ago. We want to know. And we want to know that we have the best
in the world, or, if we haven’t, how we can get it. We want to know
this, not only in regard to battleships and battle cruisers, scouts, de-
stroyers, submarines, fuel ships, hospital ships, supply ships, repair
ships, air craft, mines, mine layers, mine sweepers, guns and armor,
torpedoes, dry docks, navy yards, and shops and shipbuilding slips, and
in regard to naval organization and administration, but we want to
know how we can get that best in whatever else is needed in that other
great branch of our defensive service—the army. Shall we know if we
listen to the ignorant? Have we learned enough to form any adequate
conception of these two complex establishments that must be welded into
a harmonious whole for national defense, each one presenting in its
manifold ramifications two great sides—each based upon and guided by
a profession rivaling in complexity, specialization, and variety any in the

NATIONAL DEFENSE AND DEVELOPMENT 371

world, and yet each in its physical embodiment challenging our great
industrial establishments, and together destined, should the hour come,
to mean for us life, and perhaps honor, for self and family, and for the
nation? If we have learned so much, we shall not be satisfied to take
our further lesson from any tyro. The “two-man submarine,” that
patent David, child of an ignorant brain, will fail to charm us. “ What
do the doctors of the profession say?” we shall ask. We shall require
to have their answer given freely, and without tincture of politics or of
politicians, and without thought of money cost. And when we have
heard that answer, we shall say if we can pay the price. But, as re-
sponsible beings, we shall have informed ourselves of the dangers of
unpreparedness and as to our ability to pay. With the catastrophes of
Europe and of the Near East before us, with history with equal lessons
of horror, and with its other lessons to guide us, can we doubt what our
decision must be, even if the chance of attack be slight, and the cost of
safety great?

Even to-day we are walking in the dark. We have been cheered by
the announcement that the Secretary of the Navy has approved a five-
hundred-million-dollar construction program. It is true that it is to extend
over a period of five years, but that is the rate of one hundred million a
year for new construction, and heretofore we have spent a bare one hun-
dred and forty millions or so annually on the building and maintenance
of the whole navy. We picture to ourselves this money already buying
us the protection that we are beginning to think we need, but how few
of us know, or have ever informed ourselves, of the laborious, halting
course of routine appropriation and expenditure of government funds
for construction. Five hundred millions of dollars—the words ring big.
The truth of the matter is, as shown by the Secretary in his own report,
that not over fifty-seven millions of this is required for work to be done
before July 1, 1917—one year and a half from now. Added truths are
that probably not one dollar of this whole sum will be spent on new con-
struction for another nine months unless extraordinary measures are
brought into Congress to accomplish it. For years past, it has been
the rule that from eleven to twelve months have elapsed after the sec-
retary’s report has been issued before the first dollar actually goes into a
battleship, and it is only when it gets into the battleship that the dollar
does any good; or, I might better say, that it is even then two years to
the time before a ship is finished, and the dollar will really pay us back
in the shape of tangible protection.

The events of the past year show an even more discouraging state of
affairs. It was considered, for reasons that can not fully appeal to the
mind sincerely believing in the necessity for national defense, that we
should not accept the bids of private shipbuilders for the construction
of certain recently authorized battleships. Instead, their building has

372 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY.

been entrusted to navy yards, and pending the fitting out of the yard
with the proper facilities, and the getting of the necessary appropria-
tions from Congress for that purpose, nothing will be done, and ships
authorized nearly a year ago will not be laid down for months yet. I
do not intend to suggest that there is inherent objection to the building
of ships in navy yards, but only that they should be built where they
can be most quickly built. A similar mental attitude has resulted in a
failure to recognize that the only dry dock that is worth anything for
national defense is a dry dock built and completed, and not merely a
dry dock authorized, or half erected. This attitude has delayed for one
year authorization to resume work on the dock at that important naval
outpost—Pearl Harbor—in the Hawaiian Islands. A state of mind,
similar to the one just mentioned but similar in only one respect, that
of its blindness to public interest, has left the naval station at Guanta-
namo uncompleted, because it was so much easier to get appropriations
for Boston, or Charleston, or Portsmouth, New Hampshire, or New
Orleans, or Brooklyn, or Pensacola, than for Guantanamo, where there
is nothing else but the country’s ends to be served. The fault does not
lie with any one party, or with any one group. It lies with us who have
failed to inform ourselves, and with those of us who, being informed,
have not had the strength or public spirit to inform others.

Let us not be turned from the truth by the ignorant, the weak, or the
insincere. Let us not believe when we are told that “ Protection does
not protect,” or that we can not “afford ” the cost, or, more specifically,
that we have not the shops or building slips to build what the experts
say we need. Protection has protected England for centuries, is protect-
ing English homes and honor to-day, and, though at the further cost of
tens of thousands of gallant lives, is giving new life to hundreds of
thousands equally gallant, who have been willing to risk their all for
honor and their country. The cost? A paltry billion or so spent as
soon and as wisely as we can spend it, not spread out over years to come,
spent while England and France and Germany are each spending their
billion in every three months, will more than do it all. The shops and
shipbuilding slips? The General Board of the Navy—our doctors—have
said that we can have for the first year a program double that put for-
ward by the secretary of the navy. And if our doctors are wrong, get
from the broad profession of the navy better and more competent ad-
visers for the future, and in the meantime, to correct our mistakes, put
our hands in our pockets, spend the money, and build the slips and shops,
and do it right away, not a year from now.

Now, the way to decision free from doubt, and the way to action in
this matter, lies in knowledge and understanding, and, as always, the
way to knowledge and understanding lies in study—in education. We
must study; we must educate ourselves, and then take our part in edu-

NATIONAL DEFENSE AND DEVELOPMENT 373

cating others. When we have learned what our condition is, when we
have learned, for instance, that the ocean is the surest, quickest, and
safest highway for a foe, unless we can outmatch him upon that ocean,
when we have learned the truth of our past military history, its failures
and extravagance, we shall see clearly where lies our only hope for the
future, and doubt will leave us. Here is legitimate work for the uni-
versities, the colleges, the schools, and the teachers and students of this
country. It is not their part, commendable as is the spirit, to put for-
ward schemes for military instruction and training within academic
walls. If this be part of the military scheme recommended to them,
let them take it up; but for their own initial work, let them rather teach
the broad unbiased truths of military and naval history, let them create
an understanding of the national and international problems of the day,
let them face the issue squarely, so that an educated public, educated to
the truths that bear upon national life and honor, shall intelligently and
bravely, without complaint or fear, knowing full well what it does, but
forgetting self, offer sacrifice, if need be, for what in truth for us is and
shall ever be the greatest country in the world.

THE ECONOMIC AND STRATEGIC VALUE OF THE LINCOLN
HIGHWAY AS CONSIDERED FROM THE STANDPOINT
OF NATIONAL DEFENSE

By AUSTIN F. BEMENT

SECRETARY OF THE LINCOLN HIGHWAY ASSOCIATION

Ne AL preparedness for defense is the question of the hour.

Public attention has been diverted to this topic by the press and
every other agency for the securing of the nation’s attention for many
months. Undoubtedly it will be the greatest point at issue in the
national presidential campaign of 1916. Yet it is not essentially a
question of politics, and for this reason has secured the greater interest
which is being given it. We are hearing more to-day about the condi-
tion of our national defense or lack of defense, and about our army,
our navy, and their needs, than at any time since the Spanish-American
war. Every point at issue has been argued and re-argued from every
standpoint, with the result that the average man’s interest in and
knowledge of the subject is perhaps greater at this time than at any
other time in the history of the country.

Certainly national defense has never secured so thorough and wide
an attention as since the outbreak of the European war, and yet in all
the discussion of the matter, and it is almost impossible to pick up a
daily paper or magazine without finding one or more articles on the

374 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

subject, the question of roads from the standpoint of national defense
is conspicuous by its absence. Yet the good road has played a most im-
portant part in the present European conflict, and its necessity in any
plan of national defense is apparent to any student of the conditions
which underlie modern mobilization, concentration and military strategy
in general.

Brought face to face with the question of national preparedness, we
have no more important factor to consider from an economic and
strategic standpoint than the development of our road system. In the
abstract, this subject is too broad for brief consideration, but no better
concrete example can be considered than that of the Lincoln Highway
extending from New York to San Francisco, and in considering this
road from the standpoint of national defense, it may be considered that
we are presenting facts and figures which may be applied to any through,
connecting road in this country, or to the country’s system of roads as
a whole, if we assume that such a thing exists.

The attention of the nation is being called to our facilities and lack
of facilities for defense by some of the most learned students of the
question in the country, both civilian and military. It is only natural
that public interest in this vital question has grown daily as events in
Europe have forced upon our attention the costly lessons of modern
warfare and the penalty a modern nation pays for unpreparedness.
Not the least forceful of these lessons is the necessity for proper means
of transportation of men, supplies and artillery by other and more
flexible means than by rail.

The rapidity of events which has characterized the present Euro-
pean conflict has been bewildering, due to the extensive use which has
been made of the motor-propelled vehicle. So extensive, in fact, has
been this use that the present war has been called the motor war, and
will doubtless go down in history as such. The cinematographic rapid- .
ity of mobilization and concentration by the belligerent powers, reveals
the years of scientific preparation which made it possible—preparation
of means as well as men.

The rapid movement of troops from frontier to frontier, the swift
concentration of forces at needed points, the speed with which maneu-
vers have been executed, have forced a new system of military tactics,
and bring out in a way which has impressed the most thoughtful of
our economic students this lesson which we in America need above all
others—the importance of roads, good, through, connecting highways, in
any plan of national preparedness for defense. They are a necessity at
any time, and for a hundred reasons, but we will consider them from
the phase to which we have limited ourselves—that of preparedness—~
and we will consider them in a comparative way with those of the bel-
ligerent nations across the sea.

NATIONAL DEFENSE AND DEVELOPMENT 375

It is certain that England could never have mobilized nearly 100,000
men in 24 hours, as she did in the fall of 1914, over the roads we call
“good.” To do it she had at her command 150,908 miles of improved
public thoroughfares upon which she spends the sum of $40,000,000
each year in upkeep. And these are roads in a country the area of
which is less than the state of Florida. Germany could never have
massed and hurled her troops at the Belgian frontier over the highways
to which we are accustomed. But Germany has 36,000 miles of state
road in the best of condition, and in Prussia alone, it may be noted,
$36,000,000 a year is spent in keeping these highways in the best of
condition.

In Europe the strategic value of the good road has been too often
impressed upon the people by the terrors and bloodshed of actual war-
fare. If for no other reason than their necessity in the movement of
troops, the roads of France, England and Germany would be kept up to
the high standard which has characterized them for half a century.
It is unfortunately true that their peaceful uses seem to be considered
incidental.

The development of events in Europe, however, has given us cause
to stop and consider our own facilities for transportation. It is to our
interest and profit in this connection to compare our possibilities of
rapid concentration and movement with the records for efficiency and
speed which the past eighteen months have established. The precedents
for comparison at our command are relatively few. The entire range
of the activities of the Revolutionary war covered a territory less in
area than that of the state of Pennsylvania. Yet we know of the hard-
ships suffered by the colonial troops. As we turn the pages of any
authentic history of those stirring times, we read again and again of
the exhaustive struggles of the men on the long marches. It is diffi-
cult for us to conceive at this day the extent of their struggles, but it is
'a certain fact that these troops suffered untold tortures and endured
the greatest of hardships in merely crossing New Jersey, or in marching
a few hundred miles in Pennsylvania—a trip which we can make to-
day in a few hours’ riding. We can drive by motor to the beautiful
chapel which marks the spot where Washington and his men endured
the hardships of the winter of 1778, and in so doing, it is doubly hard
to believe that we cover in a few moments of comfortable riding the
very stretches which meant hours of painful marching to the exhausted
continental army. Wherein lies the difference? Not in the motor
which would have been useless on the highways of Washington’s time.
The difference lies entirely in the roads. Had Washington had our
present eastern roads over which to maneuver his men, the historic
result might have been even more quickly accomplished.

A more modern instance is brought to our consideration by the

376 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

events of the civil war. ‘The great rebellion in actual scope covered less
territory than is comprised within the boundaries of the state of Ne-
braska, and yet the terrors of its marches, with men dropping by the
roadside with exhaustion or struggling ankle deep in mud with their
shoulders to the wheels of heavy artillery which the spent horses could
no longer moye, are still vividly remembered by the men who survive.
There is, indeed, room for comparison here in the ways and means of
economic preparedness, but they are insignificant when held up to
view beside the events and possibilities of to-day.

The Spanish war furnished an example of confusion in the lack of
preparedness and proper facilities, for the movement of our men and
supplies with which it is certain our country would be confronted even
yet in time of need. This conflict is our only real basis for comparison
with conditions such as those with which Germany and the Allies have
been confronted, and it pales to insignificance in comparison with the
greater conflict now in progress. Much as we regret to acknowledge it,
it must be admitted as a fact that our transportation facilities were
so inadequate that thousands of freight cars filled with drugs, food,
clothing and supplies laid in the railroad yards for weeks and months
in such confusion and congestion that the only way of determining the
contents of a car was to break it open, and, at that time, the movement
of American forces was for the purposes of invasion; there was no
menace to our shores, no men were required along our borders, speed of
movement was not so essential. Despite the fact that our coast lines
were unprotected, they were in small danger.

The latest instance afforded us for the purpose of comparison was
the mobilization of regular troops on the Mexican frontier during the
administration of President Taft. This was done in an orderly way,
but it was a leisurely movement of a comparatively small body of men.
The railroads were sufficient.

A misdirected patriotic conception is responsible for the generally
accepted thought that millions of men would respond to the call to
arms in case of necessity. Accept this as a fact, and we have yet to
consider the most serious phase of national defense. Ours is a country
of vast area. Its seaboard coasts are thousands of miles apart. It
takes no stretch of the imagination to picture the confusion of traffic
of any great number of men, whether in Chicago, Detroit, New York,
Buffalo, Philadelphia or other central points, in their endeavor to get
to the point where they were needed. No authority of statement has
ever been voiced that our railroads would be sufficient. It would be a
physical impossibility to put even 100,000 men on our western coast
inside of a month even without considering the supplies necessary for
such a large body. Six railroad lines that can really be called trans-
continental, none of them doubletracked through to the coast, would

NATIONAL DEFENSE AND DEVELOPMENT 377

constitute our only connection with the Pacific coast, should foreign
attack be concentrated there. It would take a month to take even a
relatively small number there by way of the Panama Canal, and we
have none of the marine facilities to be used in such an emergency in
transporting men by sea.

The next thought is roads. A system of good roads, even one good
road between New York and San Francisco—the strategic value of a
completed hard-surfaced, broad, smooth and straight Lincoln Highway
from coast to coast—can not be overestimated. Over it without delay
we should be able to transport by motor all the men with their accoutre-
ments necessary for the defense of either coast against the inroads of
an invading army. ‘There are two million automobiles in the United
States to-day, an ample number of which could be placed at the instant
disposal of the government at such a time. In one city of the United
States last week there were manufactured over 10,000 automobiles.
In one month the number manufactured in that city would provide
sufficient cars to place an army of 100,000 men on our Pacific coast in
from 12 to 15 days. One hundred thousand men, with all their equip-
ment, crossing 3,400 miles in less than three weeks to the defense of
their country—it would be the greatest military exploit in the history
of the world. It could be done. The United States produces every
day more automobiles than the combined factories of all of Europe and
the rest of the world can turn out in a month. Given two weeks no-
tice, and more than 50,000 motor cars could be placed at the disposal
of the United States War Department. Put only two men to the car,
fill the tonneau with food and ammunition, and with 75 feet between
the headlights of one car and the tail light of the next, the first would
be pulling into Chicago when the last was leaving New York City.

Such a plan is not the mere impractical visioning of theoretical
dreamers. It is the result of technical knowledge and far-sighted abil-
ity of some of the best military and civilian authorities of the nation,
who can not and have not disregarded the lesson which the events of
the past eighteen months in Europe have impressed upon the world.

World conditions and war conditions have changed mightily. In
no previous conflict of the world’s history have we read of a battle line
500 miles in length, or of armies of millions. The facilities for rapid
movement and flexible maneuvering of large bodies of men have made
wonderful progress in the last few years. We gasp at the rapidity and
precision with which great armies of from one to four million men
have been mobilized and moved—at the ease with which heavy artillery,
guns of a caliber never before movable have been rushed from one battle
front to another—but we can not disregard the fact that at the bottom
of all this efficiency, of this rapidity and precision of movement, lie
the hundreds of miles of good roads which cover Europe like a network.

VOL. 11.—26.

378 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

It is hard to secure for publication or public quotation the real
opinions of any of the officers of the United States army on a question
of this kind, for obvious reasons. The officers of our national guard
are not so hampered or restricted, and the following excerpt from a
letter I recently received from Major John F. O’Ryan, division com-
mander of the New York National Guard, will express, I believe, the
opinions of the majority of the military officers of the United States
forces:

The value of a coast-to-coast highway, such as the Lincoln Highway, is self-
evident from the military point of view. Motor transportation has been devel-
oped so rapidly during the past few years and there are now in use in all the
states in the union so large a number of commercial trucks, that they constitute
an important factor in any problem involving the transportation of men and
supplies within the continental limits of the United States in time of war. It
may be safely assumed that this wonderful development in mechanical transport
of motor transportation will each year have an increased value.

The efficiency, however, of motor transportation is largely dependent upon
the character of the route over which the vehicles operate. It is the experience
of every motorist touring in this country that the good roads over which rapid
progress may be made with safety are unfortunately separated from other roads
of like character by miles of wretched country road, and that the good time
made in traveling on the former is frequently neutralized by accident and delay
superinduced by the latter. It is this ‘‘crazy-quilt’’ pattern of road-making
which lessens the value of good road work in the United States so far as military
uses are concerned.

The Lincoln Highway project, when completed, will avoid this objection
throughout the entire length of the immense travel zone which it will traverse.
Few civilians realize how inadequate the great railroad systems of this country
would prove for immediate concentration of large military forces with all their
horses, mules, wagons, camp equipages, impedimenta and supplies.

The availability of a highway such as The Lincoln Highway would permit
its use by fleets of motor trucks carrying supplies, the effect of which would be
to relieve to that material extent the pressure on the railroads, and permit
the transportation of a greater number of troops in a given time.

Certainly the project would appeal to military officers whose studies force
upon their attention the value of time in a defensive operation.

The European war should teach this country more lessons than one.
It has brought home emphatically our need for a more adequate na-
tional defense. This is a federal consideration. It should bring home
one of the most obvious and one of the most needed of the lessons—
that of good roads—which at present is in this country a state question,
a county question and a local question, and one in which every voter
should take the most intense and personal interest. We do not have
to wait for Congress to provide us with this great aid in an adequate
scheme of national defense. We know that roads are an investment and
pleasure in time of peace, and a tremendous aid in the transportation
of manufactured products and farm produce. We know that they
lower the cost of transportation, and thereby lower the cost of living,

NATIONAL DEFENSE AND DEVELOPMENT 379

and we have had proved to us that they are a necessity and a wonderful
aid and defense in time of war.

Let the nation concentrate upon the rapid movement and comple-
tion of our main, through, connecting thoroughfares. The Lincoln
Highway is the backbone of any national road system in this country.
The efforts of the people as a whole should be concentrated upon its
permanent completion in hard-surfaced material. The people imme-
diately along the route of the Lincoln Highway realize the tremendous
advantages of this road, and their appreciation of these advantages has
been shown by the expenditure of over three million dollars in road
construction and improvement on that route since its announcement
and dedication in 1913. ;

But the meaning of this road as a connecting link between our two
coasts, as a national defense, as a first great object lesson to the people
of the country as a whole, should be realized in Maine and Florida,
Texas and Oregon, as well as in the states through which the route ac-
tually passes. The Lincoln Highway is a national road. It should
secure national support. Already the force of its example has resulted
in hundreds of paralleling and bisecting routes of through travel which,
with their branches and countless sub-branches, will eventually cover
this country with such a system of roads as has enabled Germany,
France, England and the other European belligerents not only to rapidly
mobilize their troops for defense or effective offense, but to transport
in times of peace the food produce of their farms, and the manufactured
products of their countless industries at a cost per ton from one fifth
to one twenty-fifth of the American cost. The gigantic sums wasted
every year in transportation in this country alone would provide us
with a dozen transcontinental, hard-surfaced highways as the founda-
tion for national defense, and a national prosperity hitherto unequalled.

We have no immense standing army, and many question the ad-
visability of one. We have few forts. Our coast defenses are limited,
and would be practically impotent against a general and concerted at-
tack. This is admitted by no less an authority than the secretary of
war, and has been brought to the attention of the nation by the reports
of the general staff. Our navy can be at but one place at a time, and
we have the longest coast line of any nation in the world. But give us
the means of putting men in great numbers upon either coast with facil-
ity and dispatch, give us the means of organizing, mobilizing and trans-
porting our vast citizen soldiery, give us the Lincoln Highway com-
pleted, hard-surfaced, connecting the metropolis of our east coast with
that of our western shores, give us a system of roads in the United
States such as Europe can boast, and our boundaries are as safe as
though they were bristling with forts and 18-inch guns.

380 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

Abraham Lincoln has said:

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as
God gives us to see the right, let us strive . . . to do all which may achieve
and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

The great war president longed for peace, and it is appropriate that
the greatest peaceful work of our people as a whole—a tremendous
highway uniting a nation in the bond of brotherhood—should also be
a great national defense against war, giving us the means of preserv-
ing the peace of our people and the tranquility of our homes against all

nations, as well as being a most stupendous memorial conception to
the honor of Lincoln.

It has remained for the ee war and its bloody lesson of un-
preparedness to bring out in an emphatic way another and hitherto dis-
regarded reason why we should unite as a nation in pushing through to
completion the Lincoln Highway and its connecting roads.

AGRICULTURAL EFFICIENCY A FOUNDATION FOR
NATIONAL DEFENSE

By HOWARD H. GROSS

PRESIDENT OF THD TARIFF COMMISSION LEAGUE, CHICAGO

GRICULTURE was not only the first, but it is the greatest of
the world’s industries. One of the sons of our first parents
tended the flocks, while the other one tilled the soil. From that day to
this, agriculture has led in the advance of civilization, and its status is
practically an index of it. The principal needs of mankind and most
of the wealth of the world come from the upper two feet of ground.
No nation of large area ever became great and remained so that did
not feed its people from its own soil. It is a matter of history that
the neglect of agriculture marked the beginning of the end of the
Roman Empire. One of the highest duties and principal safeguards
of any country is a provision for a sure and inexhaustible food supply,
and this, if possible, should be produced within its own borders. In
our opportunity to do this, we are fortunately situated. God’s best
physical gift to man is a fertile land that is spread unevenly over a
portion of the earth’s surface, and of which we have a generous allot-
ment. It is our duty to use and not abuse this great heritage.

In the early days of the republic, when there seemed almost as much
fertile land as sky, we were prodigal in the use of the soil, we abused
our birthright, and for a hundred years, spreading from a fringe on
the Atlantic coat to the golden sands of the Pacific, we have been de-
pleting our soil by one of the most prodigal, wasteful methods of agri-

NATIONAL DEFENSE AND DEVELOPMENT 381

culture ever known. Fortunately, our people awakened to the danger,
and they did it none too soon. Far-seeing men, more than a genera-
tion ago, became alarmed at the trend of agriculture. It became ap-
parent that something must be done. Growing out of this, the first
notable step was taken in the passage of the Morrill Act in 1861, es-
tablishing agricultural colleges by land grant. This was succeeded by
other acts of Congress, such as the Hatch act, the Adams act and the
Nelson amendment, which have amplified and strengthened the colleges,
created experiment stations, and, through these, a vast body of knowl-
edge has been created relating to the subject of agriculture, the intelli-
gent application of which makes it literally possible to make two blades
of grass grow where one had grown before, and to make grass grow in
localities where it never had grown before; and at the same time to
build up the soil to even greater fertility. No greater work for our
country could possibly be done.

The latest and probably the most notable enactment ever made by
any government for the advance of agriculture and civilization was
the late Smith-Lever agricultural extension act that came into opera-
tion July 1,1914. In referring to this act, the distinguished Secretary
of Agriculture, in his report for 1914, says:

This measure is of vast significance. It is one of the most striking edu-
cational measures ever adopted by any government. It recognizes a new class
of students, a class composed cf men and women working at their daily tasks on
the farm. The federal and the state governments take the adult farmer and
the farm woman, as well as the farm boy and the farm girl, as their pupils.
The measure provides for cooperation between states and the federal govern-
ment, it guarantees a coordination of the forces of the two jurisdictions, it places
the plans of the two great agencies in conjunction, eliminates waste and friction
and insures efficiency.

Good judges are in agreement that the logical sequence of this great
enactment, supplemental to those going before it, is that the great in-
dustry of agriculture will become more profitable to the man upon the soil
and more interesting to his children. It means a redirection of agricul-
ture upon scientific lines. It means efficiency, it means a higher and a
better civilization. It will help build up our rural communities and,
without doubt, will serve to check the enormous drift from the country
to the city. This was the result of the application of a plan less perfect
in Western Europe. It will do much to stabilize our industries and
enable us to weave a strong industrial fabric without which we could
not hope to reach a high degree of national efficiency.

Should we ever be called upon to defend our national honor or
existence by force of arms, our strength and our ability to do so suc-
cessfully must rest upon our ability to respond to the nation’s need in
food and wealth as truly as with cannon and battleships. Even with a
low average acre yield, the total value of the output of our soil from all

382 NATIONAL DEFENSE AND DEVELOPMENT

sources is approximately ten billion dollars per year, a sum so vast that
the mind can not grasp it. The Dutch Commissioner of Agriculture
told me, while driving over Holland and discussing the progress that
had been made in his interesting country, that, in his opinion, the
Smith-Lever enactment was the greatest piece of constructive legisla-
tion in all history. He remarked: “‘ You have now approximately one
hundred millions of people and in fifty years, if you go on with your
wonderful progress, you will have two hundred millions.” Our yield
of cereals per acre is less than that of Western Europe, so we have a
wonderful opportunity to increase our production, and those in a posi-
tion to judge best agree that it is conservative to assume that within
ten or fifteen years at most the value of our soil output will have in-
creased at least fifty per cent., or an annual increase of wealth of five
billions of dollars. This colossal sum is five times greater than the
combined capital-stock of all the national banks in the United States,
and is twice as great as the combined earnings of all the railroads in
the land. Thus we see that the future holds for us a great opportunity.
Shall we measure up to it?

The destruction of life and property in modern warfare is appalling.
It is no longer a battle of men, but a conflict of machines and chem-
icals. God grant that we soon reach a point in the world’s civilization
where differences between nations will be adjudicated on the basis of
moral right instead of physical might. But until that time shall come,
it is essential that every nation should be prepared to defend itself
against any aggressor. While we are comparatively isolated from the
world’s troubled centers, I believe we are facing a situation of grave
peril. This awful conflict in Europe in eighteen months has caused a
money waste, aside from the destruction of public and private property,
that approximates the startling sum of forty billions of dollars. This
colossal figure represents an amount practically equal to the cash value
of all farm property in the United States.

This conflict must end when human endurance has reached its limit
or cash and credit have been exhausted. In the aftermath, democracy
will be put to the supreme test. Our own country will remain as the
world’s money center and will be the chief creditor nation of the world.
Our wealth will excite the envy of all the nations, and with a storehouse
so overloaded with the good things of life, it may be a temptation to
those nations that have suffered so severely, but that are yet strong
in army and navy, to insist upon some readjustment of the world’s
wealth. Are they not in a position to enforce such a demand upon us
as matters now stand? I am not an alarmist, but our situation is such
that it demands immediate and patriotic consideration by every thought-
ful citizen.

The world is amazed at the wonderful resourcefulness, strength and

NATIONAL DEFENSE AND DEVELOPMENT 383

efficiency Germany has shown in the last eighteen months. For the
solution we have not far to go. It lies in the fact that thirty years ago
the Empire began a systematic and scientific development of all its
industries, including agriculture. The government assumed as its duty
the correlation and direction of the industries and the development of
its resources, and it has done so until they have reached the highest
standard of efficiency that has so far been attained. Their handling
of the tariff is a lesson to the world. In dealing with this subject,
the purpose from the first was not to build up individual and favored
industries, but to strengthen the Fatherland. The tariff was handled
along scientific lines and every industry was given due consideration.
On the other hand, this subject with us has been a question of pull,
politics and favoritism. If the unnecessary economic waste that our
method of dealing with the tariff has brought upon us for the last
thirty years could be totaled, the amount would be appalling. Ger-
many’s science, Germany’s forethought and industry has enabled her
to weave the most wonderful industrial fabric the world has so far
known; and this is the foundation that is now supporting the mighty
military burden she has been and is now subjected to. One of the
notable phases of preparedness of Germany was the success in handling
her agricultural resources, providing food and supplies within her own
borders.

Covering the general question of efficiency and preparedness, there
are two phases of the subject—the preparedness for war and the pre-
paredness for peace. In the one, we make provision to defend our
land from physical invasion by enemies, while in the other, the neces-
sity is the protection of our industries and our commerce. Thus pre-
paredness for us has a double meaning, but in both of these agriculture
plays a leading part. If I were asked to state in a word a summary
of the whole situation, it would be that scientific accuracy must dis-
place guess-work; that the administration of the government must be
for all the people and that the common good must be the paramount
consideration; that the politician must go and the statesman must
appear.

The bane of democracy and its greatest menace is subverting every
issue to consideration from the angle of party politics instead of that of
statesmanship and general welfare. The concept is that, like love and
war, all is fair in politics, and that politics must dominate public busi-
ness. It is not an exaggeration to say that at least one half of every
dollar raised by taxation is wasted by the grossly inefficient way in
which public business is done. Many well-informed persons know,
and I think most of us believe, that if the hundreds of millions of
money appropriated for defense could have been wisely expended under
the direction of expert advice that we have had from our army and

384. THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

navy boards, we should at this time have been in a position where a
strong defense could be made against any attack upon our coast line
and give us a sense of security that in these troubled times we can not
now feel. We are approaching a world’s crisis, which will come as an
aftermath of the awful war. It is exceedingly important that no time
be lost in preparing to meet it, both from the angle of a possible war
and (no less) from the angle of a certain peace and the readjustment
that must follow it.

In view of the seriousness of the future that confronts us, it is noth-
ing less than a crime to permit pull and politics to have any influence
whatever in bringing our country to the best possible position to meet
any crisis that awaits us; and any man who insists upon continuing
to play politics should be denounced as a public enemy. There is no
subject that it is more important to take completely out of the domain
of politics than the adjustment of our tariff. It is the one effective
means of raising revenues and protecting our market from becoming a
dumping-ground for the rest of the world. As matters stand to-day,
the United States is the one great cash market. It is the world’s
largest consumer and its means are ample. A suggestion has been
made that the government should, through the Department of State,
have the consuls deal with the matter of importations and if they found
that the goods offered would demoralize our markets, they might with-
hold their consent and prevent shipments. This would be an unusual
and extraordinary measure. Would these government agents be in a
position to accurately determine the issues? Would not foreign coun-
tries resent such drastic action? Would it not be regarded as gratu-
itous and unwarranted? It would create no end of friction and would
probably result in long and vexatious delay and, possibly, international
complications. We have reached the time when we should. endeavor
to make friends abroad, instead of enemies. The best plan is to follow
the custom and deal with these questions through the usual channels
of tariff legislation. Before we go far, we shall undoubtedly find it
expedient for Congress to fix maximum and minimum rates, with a
wide margin between them, and authorize the president, on the recom-
mendation of a real, bona fide, non-partisan tariff commission, to put
such rates of duty in force as the exigencies of the case may demand
from time to time, subject, of course, to review by Congress. To any
thoughtful man it must be apparent that membership upon such a
commission is a man’s job, and the body charged with this duty should
have nothing else before it. Dealing with the tariff in this manner
will ultimately remove it from political controversy, will stabilize busi-
ness and give us tranquility where now we have turmoil.

NATIONAL DEFENSE AND DEVELOPMENT 385

PEACE THROUGH NATIONAL DEFENSE

By ANND ROGERS MINOR

WATERFORD, CONN,

a war in Europe, terrible and hateful as it all is, is awakening a

new patriotism in the United States. We see clearly the weak-
ness of our position when forced to make demands of other nations.
We see our almost defenseless coasts, our slow-growing navy and our
very inadequate army. The grim realization of these facts is forced
upon us, and we now know it would be criminal for us to persist longer
in our traditional policy of unpreparedness and ignorance—a policy
which has continued from the beginnings of the republic and which
cost us more in blood, treasure and needless war than anything else
in our history.

The people of the United States want peace, and we look for some
method of assuring ourselves not only of the continuance of the peace
which we now enjoy, but more than that, for the acquisition of power
to help promote peace in other nations. We want national defense not
for war, but to promote more perfect peace. It was a soldier, William
Tecumseh Sherman, who said: “ The legitimate object of war is more
perfect peace.”

How are we to maintain that peace which we have long enjoyed, that
peace which is the highest ideal of our national life and without which
we can not preserve the free institutions which our forefathers fought
to establish? How are we to help to promote peace in other nations
without the strength to make our protests effective. The answer is na-
tional defense, or power to enforce peace. In other words, that power
which inspires such respect for us in other nations as will forbid their
attacking us. No truer words were ever spoken than these of Bayard
Taylor’s “ Peace the offspring is of Power.”

Up to a little more than a year ago we did not believe that such a
war as is being waged in Europe to-day was possible. We had hoped
that war between civilized nations was a thing of the past, but our hopes
were suddenly blasted when the most enlightened nations of the earth
were caught in the same passions of war as the veriest savages, less in-
discriminately cruel perhaps, but just as blind in their frenzy of patri-
otic love and hate. These events have proved only too clearly that, no
matter how highly civilized nations may appear to be, when their na-
tional safety seems at stake, or their national interests menaced, civili-
zation and restraint are thrown to the winds, treaties and compacts are
forgotten, whole races spurred by sudden savage hatred plunge headlong
into war to the death with other races whom they hailed a short time
before as friends and brothers. In the light of these facts, it is folly
to say that war and aggression are things of the past, and that na-

386 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

tional humility and confidence in our own good intent, and in the high
moral civilization of our neighboring nations, are sufficient guards
against attack and disaster. We must profit by the lessons from the
battlefields of Europe and not allow the futile and emotional cries of
theorists and reformers for “ peace, peace when there is no peace” blind
us to the stern facts and realities which confront us and threaten not
only our peace but our national existence.

A no doubt well-intentioned, but misguided, movement is being
agitated among us which threatens to sap the strength of the nation
and if not arrested bids fair to rob us of many of the sturdy qualities
which are the mainstay of the republic. I refer to pacificism or the
theory of “peace at any price’’—a doctrine of absolute non-resistance.
We must remember that we should not exist as a nation to-day if the
men of 776 had believed in this theory. If carried to extremes it would
amount to no less than treason in hours of national peril. When or-
dinarily sensible and high-minded people say to me that, even if an
invader should approach our shores, we should let him enter and take
possession, that we should offer no resistance, but allow him to violate
our sacred liberties, I am lost in bewilderment at the kind of mind or
soul which seems so lost to the fundamental instincts of self-defense
implanted in the whole animate creation. Are we to put our faith in
peace ships while the doctrine of brute force, the self-acknowledged
creed of one great nation that “ Might is Right” still stalks abroad in
the world, leaving its trail of blood and death on the fair fields of
Europe? Shall we put our faith in peace ships when the ships of
militarism cross the ocean and train their engines of death on our de-
fenseless shores? God forbid that any such sentimental folly should
ever replace the spirit of America, the spirit that made us a nation,
the spirit that actuated the men of Concord and Lexington and Valley
Forge. To imagine such a possibility is an insult to the memory of
those patriots who sprang to the defense of their home-land against
tyranny and outrage; an insult to their brave wives and daughters and
sweethearts who bade them go in God’s name, and then did men’s
work at home that the nation might live. We see this spirit to-day in
the women of France, yet there are those who dare to summon them
to talk of peace in conventions, while their homes are burning and their
land is devastated and their husbands and sons are slain by the ruth-
less god of “Might is Right.” What they want now is not “peace
at any price.” They want the kind of peace that can never be broken
again. Is pacificism likely to bring this about? Can pacificism stay
the onward course of a triumphant militarism armed to the teeth?
Could pacificism have helped Belgium in her hour of horror and need?
Is it a man’s part, or a woman’s either, for that matter, to stand by idly
theorizing, while the strong attack the weak, and treaties are proclaimed

NATIONAL DEFENSE AND DEVELOPMENT 387

to be naught but scraps of paper? What constitutes the binding force
of a treaty in the mind of a nation that can so regard a treaty? Ob-
viously nothing but a gun, since agreements and promises mean noth-
ing. Insidious and secret war is already being waged upon us, a neutral
nation, within our own borders by conspirators and spies to whom
treaties and honor mean nothing. Our peace is threatened, our right
to pursue our industrial interests undisturbed has been violated; our
right to travel the high seas is denied ; and American lives are sacrificed ;
internal disorders and lawlessness are instigated by the same power
that trampled defenseless Belgium under foot. What are we going to
do about it? After nine months of silence we uttered a protest against
the slaughter of our citizens at sea and the violation of every sentiment of
humanity and civilization. “ What are you going to do about it?” was the
reply, as plainly said as though uttered in words, and then the Arabic
was sunk. We were told to keep off the high seas, where we have a right
to go in pursuit of lawful business; we were told to keep from taking
passage on ships of belligerents, even though they were innocent mer-
chantmen, so that violations of international law and humanity might
go on undisturbed. And pacificists would have us keep off, and con-
tinue the policy of polite letter-writing, while more innocent lives are
sacrificed to the god of Might-is-Right. If we had had something be-
sides ink to feed the power of Mr. Wilson’s pen the results might have
been different. But we had not and Germany knew it. “The pen is
mightier than the sword” in all cases except—that of a scrap of paper.
If human liberty, civilization and self-government go down to final
death in the trenches of Europe under the assaults of militarism, will
a defenseless pacificism save us from a like fate?

Pacificists tells us they do not mean disarmament, but they do
mean that we should not increase our present total inadequate defenses.

Disarmament would be a splendid thing under certain conditions ;
it is what we all want; but to be effective it must be universal and simul-
taneous. We believe that through national defense this dream of dis-
armament will eventually come true. It is not true now, and until
mankind reaches a stage of development that will admit of complete
disarmament, our only safety lies in increasing our defenses.

There is no equality between one man armed and another man
disarmed, and so it is with nations. Stable and equal conditions of
peace can exist only between equally armed nations or equally disarmed
nations, such as the United States and Canada. But between armed
Europe and an unarmed America there is no equality and therefore
there can be no security of continued peace. In the midst of the raging
“sea of war” in Europe to-day there is what has been well named a
little “island of peace.” ‘This is the wonderful little nation of Switzer-
land, respected, untouched, inviolate. And why? Because she is a

388 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

nation armed to the teeth—every citizen a trained soldier. She is
equal to her armed neighbors, yet without standing army or militaristic
methods. Opposed to militarism, on the one hand, as strongly as she
is opposed to “ peace at any price” doctrines, on the other, she never-
theless maintains herself in a condition of continued peace even in the
midst of surrounding war. While we in America stand around theoriz-
ing, and talking of universal peace in conventions and sending out peace
ships to ask the dogs of war in Europe please to let go of each other’s
throats, this little country has turned itself into a nation of soldiers
through a system of voluntary compulsory military service—voluntary
because the nation voluntarily chose to submit itself to this means of
national defense. More thoroughly democratic than we are ourselves,
they have nevertheless realized that compulsory universal service is
their only guarantee of national independence, and they have had since
1874 a veritable citizen army, in which every able-bodied citizen is a
trained soldier and not one, except the general and his staff, a profes-
sional military man. To an article in The National Geographic Maga-
zine for November, 1915, I am indebted for these facts and for the fol-
lowing figures. With a smaller population than that of Massachu-
setts and an area twice the latter’s size, Switzerland can mobilize
240,000 trained soldiers in twenty-four hours. At the same rate we
could mobilize 8,000,000. Besides these men, the Swiss have as many
more in reserve, so that under this system we could have in the field
a trained army of 16,000,000 men within twenty-four hours. The
founders of our country laid down the same idea of a citizen soldiery ;
the only difference is, the Swiss have put it into serious practise, while
we theorize and make laws which we never enforce. In principle, every
citizen is supposed to join the militia. Does he? And how many
Americans know how to shoot to hit the mark, or have ever handled a
gun? Asa sharp contrast, the Swiss boy begins at ten years of age to
take the gymnastics that fit him for military training, and he learns
how to shoot like William Tell—substituting bullets for arrows. Every
man cheerfully sacrifices a definite amount of his time toward the main-
tenance of the one thing dear to every Swiss—as to every American—
his independence as a citizen of a free country, and the amount of time
is exceedingly little. During the first year of liability to military
service at the age of seventeen, he gives up seventy-five days, but only
eleven days in each successive year.

His training is in the field, not in drill rooms, and he spends less
on military taxes than any other nation. The burdens of prepared-
ness are thus spread over the whole nation, and lie heavy upon no one
individual. There are no “crack” regiments; no picking and choosing
in the service. Each man goes where he is sent and can serve best.
There is no caste system. Brains and ability win the high places;

NATIONAL DEFENSE AND DEVELOPMENT 389

all start from the ranks. Our militia system has much to learn
before it can be compared with the Swiss citizen army of defenders—
for defenders they are. Not one foot of territory do they wish to
acquire. Not a blow would they strike in aggression, but let him who
strikes at them beware what he does! This is the ideal of national
defense, which is the inalienable right of every man, of every woman,
of every nation to defend itself against attack. Herein lie self-respect
and a national dignity impervious to insult, because it is above insult.
“Though surrounded on all sides by belligerent millions” (to quote
from the aforesaid article) whose interests might be served by asking
her to step out of their path, Switzerland to-day stands an island of
peace in a sea of war, because she has prepared to maintain her neutral-
ity and her freedom, or at least to exact such a price for them that
none of the nations at war can afford to pay for their violation.” What
an object lesson for us. While in a country so large as ours it would
be the height of folly to give up our regular standing army—say rather,
it should be increased—it ought to be practicable to so remodel our
militia as to approach nearer to the wonderful efficiency of the citizen
army of Switzerland. If to such an army we would but add an ade-
quate navy and sea-coast defense, we should be invincible. This would
not militarize us as a nation; it would train us simply in efficient self-
defense, whereby alone we can inspire, respect and maintain peace and
liberty.

Therefore to secure peace for our own country in years to come
a policy of strong national defense is necessary until such time as the
probability of war is reduced to much below the present ratio.

We believe that it would be just as unwise for the United States to
allow its army and navy to deteriorate, as it would be for a householder
to allow the fire-insurance policy on his house to lapse because he dis-
approved of fires and hoped there would be no more of them! One of
the fundamental laws of our government—of any: government—is the
protection of persons and property and it should be our national resolve
to be strong enough to protect the weak from the aggressions of the
powerful who are also unscrupulous, and the innocent from the violence
of criminals, whether individuals or nations.

It is not sufficient that this country should merely defend its own
citizens ; it must, as it did in those first years of the nineteenth century,
take its share in the burdens of maintaining law throughout the world.
“Man lives not to himself alone” is as true of nations as of individuals.
Government is organized defense of others. The nation that will not
protect its citizens at home and abroad has no right to the name of na-
tion for it lacks the essentials of government.

One reason why Americans have a right to be proud of their nation’s
history is that in the earliest days of its life, when its population was

390 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

small and its resources limited, the United States showed itself willing
to sacrifice blood and treasure for the protection of the rights of its citi-
zens. Against England in 1812 it set itself for the sake of defending
the freedom of the sea.

Still earlier in its history, when it had many domestic difficulties
to contend with, it undertook to rid the Mediterranean of the Barbary
pirates who infested it. You know the results. Should we not now,
when we are large and rich and strong, protect our own citizens on the
high seas and be able to take our share in the burdens of maintaining
law throughout the world? It is a plain duty that we should; and if
we are to take our full part, we must have the means by which to take
it. The disorderly and lawless are not quelled by words or diplomatic
notes. We must have some method of establishing justice and some
means of defending justice with arms. The American people must not
be content until this nation is fit to take part in the world’s work, and
all patriotic Americans should unite in insisting that we have adequate
national defense. As descendants of the patriots of the American reyo-
lution, we owe a distinctive duty to our country to uphold our institu-
tions and our national dignity and to stand ready at all times with the
spirit of highest patriotism to guard and protect our rights and privi-
leges and that liberty for which our ancestors fought. National defense
was the keynote sounded by Washington when he said “'T’o be prepared
for war is the most effective means of promoting peace,” and he further
said:

There is a rank due the United States among nations which will be withheld,
if not absolutely lost, by the reputation of weakness. If we desire to avoid
insult we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most

powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known that we are at
all times ready for war.

Another patriot, Charles Pinckney, voiced the same spirit of defense
when he said:

Millions for defense but not one cent for tribute.

President Wilson expressed his views on national preparedness a
few weeks ago, when he said:

I would not feel that I was discharging the solemn obligations I owe to the
country were I not to speak in terms of the deepest solemnity of the urgency
and necessity of preparing ourselves to guard and protect the rights and priv-
ileges of our people, our sacred heritage of the fathers who struggled to make
us an independent nation. Come, let us renew our allegiance to America, con-
serve her strength in its purity, make her chief among those who serve mankind,
self-reverenced, self-commended, mistress of all forces of quiet council, strong
above all others in good will and the might of invincible justice and right.

The war in Europe to-day has awakened in us a new realization of
the profound truth of these words I have quoted from Washington, our

NATIONAL DEFENSE AND DEVELOPMENT 391

first, and from Wilson our latest president. To defend the heritage
of our fathers is a sacred duty. The spirit of our fathers calls us like
the minute men of old to our country’s defense. Not in weakness,
but in power lie the foundations of that continued peace which is the
highest ideal of a true, loyal and enlightened patriotism.

IMMUNITY OF MONUMENTS, MUSEUMS, LIBRARIES,
ARCHITECTURAL AND HISTORICAL STRUC-
TURES IN WAR AND PEACE
By GEORGE FREDERICK KUNZ, Ph.D., Sc.D.

CHAIRMAN OF THE SECTION OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL SCIENCE OF THE AMERICAN
ASSOCIATION FOR THD ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PRESIDENT OF THD
AMERICAN SCENIC AND HISTORIC PRESERVATION SOCIDTY

NCOURAGING advances have been made in the United States and
in foreign countries in the preservation of natural and archi-
tectural landmarks in time of peace, but the events of the European war
which began the summer before last have emphasized in a painful way the
need for some international agreement which will secure the immunity
of historical monuments, museums, libraries and works of art generally in
time of war. If the civilized nations of the world have not yet so far
outgrown their primitive passions as to be able to settle international
differences by means other than slaughter and destruction, it would seem
practicable to mitigate at least the losses of war by preserving historical
monuments, cathedrals, civic buildings, libraries and works of art. The
existence of these in no way affects the fortunes of war, but their de-
struction robs civilization of the evidences of its progress, obliterates
forever the products of the genius of former generations, and causes the
animosities engendered by the war to rankle in the hearts of men for
generations to come.

In any war, the greatest destruction in these respects is naturally
inflicted in the country invaded and by the invaders. People do not
destroy their own treasures if they can help it. It therefore happens
that in the present European war, Belgium and France have been the
chief sufferers, and in a lesser degree the Polish provinces and even
England. But it is not intended by this statement to imply that the
invaders in the present case are more ruthless than other nationalities
have been in the past. In the conflict between Italy and Austria, the
destruction of Gértz or Goritza, and the damage done by bombs in Venice
offer a sad reciprocity in the infliction of useless injury.

The history of the famous Alexandrian library is sufficiently poly-
glot in this respect. Part of the library—the largest in the ancient
world, embracing the collected literature of Rome, Greece, India and
Egypt—was destroyed by fire during the siege by Julius Cesar. Another

392 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

part, kept in the temple of Jupiter Serapis, was largely destroyed when
Theodosius the Great permitted the Serapium to be demolished with all
other heathen temples in the Roman Empire, 4.p. 391. What the Chris-
tians left, the Arabs, under Calif Omar, obliterated in 641. Of the
books in the Alexandrian Library Omar is alleged to have said:

If these works agree with the Koran they are unnecessary, if they disagree
they are heretical; therefore let them be burned.

Diocletian’s destructive inquisition in the east left few Christian
books for Constantine to collect at Byzantium; and after the inroads of
the barbarians into the Roman empire, the ravages of fire and war had
destroyed practically everything that could be called a library.

The burning of the Arabic manuscripts in Granada by Ximines, and
the holocaust of the colored picture writings of the Aztecs in Mexico by
Zumarraga, obliterated irretrievably valuable records connecting modern
and ancient history.

The almost total destruction of Heidelberg by the French troops in
1639 and 1693, with the loss of many literary and art treasures, and the
destruction of the valuable public library of Strassburg during the Ger-
man bombardment in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, are more modern
illustrations of the fact that the ravages of war in this direction have
not been confined to any one nationality.

The present is not an appropriate time to review the destruction
caused by the European war now raging. When the war has ceased
and the field has been surveyed, so that the facts can be accurately ascer-
tained and dispassionately judged, we shall know the true measure of
what Liége, Louvain, Rheims, Whitby, and other places have suffered
and what art, letters and history have lost in the making of a new epoch
in the history of human events.*

It is sufficient now to call attention to the public sentiment in favor
of restricting this destruction and to express the hope that measures
may be taken to prevent it in the future.

At a meeting held at the National Arts Club in New York City
on December 4, 1911, the president of the American Scenic and Historic
Preservation Society said:

The destruction caused by siege operations when not controlled by the stipu-
lations of an international agreement to protect those treasures of art and liter-
ature which should be regarded as international property, since the enjoyment

and use of them is freely accorded to all, natives or foreigners, who may wish to
avail themselves of the privilege, has been only too often demonstrated.

1 At a meeting of the German Metallurgists at Diisseldorf, held in February,
1915, Dr. Schuster, speaking of the lack of copper, zinc, and other metals needed
in the manufacture of war materials, suggested that the authorities should com-
mandeer, not only in Germany but also in Belgium and France, all available
metals from the brass water tap to the copper roofs on the churches, including
in the perquisition all bronze monuments.

NATIONAL DEFENSE AND DEVELOPMENT 393

If, at the next meeting of the Hague Tribunal, an agreement is reached by
which libraries and museums will always be exempted from destruction during a
war, one great source of danger to the records of history will be removed. It
would be most desirable that some such international agreement should be made
in regard to the preservation of libraries or museums from wanton destruction
in the case of the bombardment of a city. Would that an international under-
standing of the kind had existed when the Alexandrian library was in jeopardy!
Indeed, even as recently as the Anglo-Egyptian war of 1882, the existence and
enforcement of regulations for the protection of valuable records might have
saved untold trouble regarding land titles, caused by the loss or destruction of
legally recorded documents,

During the past year the American Society for Historic and Scenic
Preservation has brought this subject to the attention of the Secretary
of State of the United States, in the hope that steps might be taken to
lessen further losses in the present war, and to pave the way for more
effective measures in the future.

In furtherance of this idea, the president of the society has designed
a flag to be displayed over churches, libraries, museums and historical
monuments, for the purpose of securing for them immunity similar to
that which hospitals enjoy under the Red Cross flag. This flag, having
a width equal to two thirds of the length, consists of a white field, with
a diagonal colored stripe running from the upper corner at the hoist to
the lower outer corner, the stripe being in width equal to about one third
of the width of the flag. By the color of the diagonal stripe the nature
of the protected building may be indicated—red, for instance, signifying
a museum, blue a library, etc. Specimens of this flag were displayed at
a public meeting of this society held in the American Museum of Nat-
ural History in New York City on January 13, 1915.

Action along similar lines has also been taken by the American
Institute of Architects and by the Architectural League of New York,
as well as by the National Sculpture Society, which has addressed a
direct and eloquent appeal to the European belligerents.

A despatch to the London Daily News from Brussels, in August,
1914, reported information received from M. Paul Otlet, president of the
Union des Associations Internationales, that a movement was on foot to
induce the United States to obtain the cooperation of the neutral powers
of the world in approaching the belligerents to beg them to respect
museums of art and scientific collections in the threatened capitals. He
mentioned, for instance, that in Brussels were the plates of the photo-
graphic map of the heavens. It has taken twenty years to complete the
work, and the destruction of the plates would be an almost irreparable
loss to the world.

In September, 1914, the diplomatic representatives of neutral coun-
tries asked the Hon. Myron T. Herrick, United States ambassador to
France, to sound the American government on the question of making

VOL. 11.—27.

394 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY,

joint representations to Germany to protect certain buildings and works
of art in the event of an attack on Paris.

And from a cablegram to the New York Times from Rome, dated
January 23, 1915, we learn that, before Italy’s declaration of war, a
group of well-known Italians addressed a letter to Secretary Bryan con-
veying an appeal that the United States take some action to the end that
the monuments of art in the belligerent countries be preserved from
ruin. It was the expectation of those who were launching this move-
ment that it would find support in other neutral states, particularly in
Switzerland and Spain. The letter was signed by Bestolfi, the well-
known sculptor; by Aristide Sartorio, the painter, and by Giacomo
Boni, the archeologist, and said in part:

The art treasures in these countries must be considered as part of the patri-
mony of the civilized world, and not as the particular property of any country.
If all great artists and influential people throughout the world join in this
movement much may be done to preserve these art treasures which otherwise will
suffer irreparable loss. We look toward the United States as the nation which
today, better than any other, can undertake this task and see it through to a
successful accomplishment.

In conclusion the writers asked Mr. Bryan to call the attention of
the president to the matter.

It is much to be regretted that the regulations adopted by the dele-
gates to the last Hague convention, were not officially ratified by all the
governments represented there, as in that case we should have a few hard
and fast rules to appeal to, rules which the several nations would feel
bound to respect as matters of international law, and not merely of inter-
national comity. For the latter, although often operative in time of
peace, is but a weak reed to lean upon in time of war.

However, no agreement entered into by the nations to refrain from
the destruction of historic monuments and art treasures can ever be of
avail unless it be at the same time clearly and definitely understood that
such monuments must be equally respected by both belligerents. When
this is not the case, when the defenders have yielded to the temptation
of utilizing an edifice for military purposes, for signalling or observa-
tion, or for masking their artillery, the responsibility for any injury
must rest on their own shoulders.

How essential this is has been illustrated by the havoe wrought in
the Parthenon through the explosion of powder stored therein by the
Turks, during the siege of Athens by the Venetians in 1687. The
knowledge that this unique monument of art was being made use of as a
powder magazine caused the Venetian fleet to fire upon it, an act that
would almost certainly have been avoided otherwise, but one that was
quite justifiable under the circumstances, although eternally regrettable.
Until that time, this great edifice, erected by the architects Ictinus and

NATIONAL DEFENSE AND DEVELOPMENT 395

Callicrates in the Age of Pericles, two thousand years before, was still
essentially intact.

The thunderbolts of war are not the only perils to tall buildings or
lofty columns, for those of nature are chargeable with a number of
disasters. At Santamaria di Capua Vetere, in the province of Caserta,
Italy, a high column of travertine marble set on a firm pedestal of the
same material and bearing a bronze statue of Victory about ten feet high,
weighing 1,500 pounds and affixed to the column by an iron rod, had
been erected as a memorial of the battle fought near Volturno in 1860.
This monument, about 95 feet high, stood in the quadrangle of the
communal building and no trees were anywhere near it; nevertheless,
on an October day in 1914, during a severe thunderstorm, a bolt of
lightning struck the massive statue, hurling it to the ground and break-
ing away the upper half of the supporting column.’ It is believed that
had a metallic conductor been passed down from the bottom of the iron
rod to a damp sub-soil, the electric discharge would have been carried
into the ground, instead of spending its fury on statue and column.
The insulating mass of marble afforded no protection, but rather con-
stituted a danger.

In the Constantinople of the Eastern Empire, two columns were
wrecked in a like manner, one in A.D. 548, and another, commemorating
Constantine the Great, in 1101. A similar fate threatened the column
of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus in Rome, when it was struck by lightning
in the fourteenth century, but escaped with severe damage to the top;
while in the same century the statue of Trajan at the top of the Trajan
Column in Rome was destroyed by an electric discharge. In ancient
Rome the Baths of Nero, erected in A.D. 60, were destroyed by lightning
in the following year. Coming down to the Rome of the Renaissance,
the bronze statue of the Archangel Michael on the Castle of St. Angelo,
to which it gave the name, and the flagstaff there, were wrecked by
lightning in 1572, and from 1606 to 1809 St. Peter’s was struck no less
than twenty-two times, but no great material damage was ever done.
After the last accident Pope Pius VII. had lightning rods installed and
for the past century they have proved efficient protectors for this greatest
of Roman Catholic churches.

Of other Italian edifices destroyed by lightning, the following towers
may be noted: in 1521, that of the Castello of Milan; in 1676, that of
Ivren; in 1769, that of San Nazaro at Brescia, and in 1808, the tower
of the fortress on the Lido opposite Venice.

The protection afforded against the thunderbolt by the lightning rod
may be assimilated to that given by a binding international agreement

2 This and the following instances of monuments and buildings struck by

lightning are reported in a memoir by Professor Ignazio Galli published in the
Atti della Ponteficia Accademia Romana dei Nuovi Lincei, Dee. 20, 1914.

396 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

against the devastating projectiles hurled from the huge guns, the
products of human ingenuity and industry. It is to be hoped that
when the storm of war has passed away and the nations of the world are
again able to take up their interrupted march toward the goals of social,
scientific, artistic and industrial progress and aspiration, the terrible
lessons taught by the war will not have been learned in vain, but will
serve as incentives to provide adequate safeguards for the future. If, as
we scarcely dare to believe, an era of peace and good will follows the
close of the bitter conflict, the action in common for the preservation of
the historic and art treasures of the world will help on the good work.

PREPAREDNESS—SOME SUGGESTIONS

By ARTHUR WILLIAMS

NEW YORK CITY

ae HOSE interested in the preservation of that which connects us with

the past in art, literature and architecture, look upon the un-
necessary destruction of the museums, churches, monuments and his-
torical structures, that is being wrought in Europe, with a degree of
regret and horror which can not be easily expressed. Loss of such build-
ings as the Hotel de Ville at Louvain, the Cloth Hall at Ypres, the
Hotel de Ville at Arras, such a marvel of architecture as the Rheims
Cathedral, or the destruction of such valuable manuscripts and volumes
as those housed by the University at Louvain, are calamities to be
lamented in the conservation of art and learning. In New York City
alone, who could measure the damage resulting from the destruction of
such buildings as those of the American Museum of Natural History,
the American Museum of Art, the American Museum of Safety, the
New York Public Library and many others? Every one must view
with apprehension any condition through which our educational and
historical structures would be the subject of possible destruction through
the attack of an enemy. ‘This would be particularly so if that calamity
should be the result of evident unpreparedness, after all the warnings
we have received through the conditions existing in the countries now
at war.

A program which is distinctly confined to the defensive side of war-
fare is not necessarily one which would be immediately capable of an
effectively offensive campaign. That is to say, the essential elements
in a defensive program, where the clearly defined objectives are de-
fensive, do not necessarily equip one for effective offensive action.
Preparation for defense could be utilized for an offensive, and places
material at our disposal for an offensive movement much more quickly

NATIONAL DEFENSE AND DEVELOPMENT 397

than were we without our defensive preparation. But the two ob-
jectives are opposed to each other and simply because our country places
itself in a position for an effective defense is not a reason to fear that
we would more readily be apt to give offense to others or become here,
as was the case in Europe, an “armed camp” and a nation of “ military
men.”

Our entire attitude should be one of effective defense, on both land
and sea, of each of the states, of our foreign possessions, so long as they
remain under our control, and in addition should afford adequate pro-
tection to our citizens abroad. The present conditions in Hurope show
that any failure on our part to provide adequate defense would be most
short-sighted and wholly inconsistent with the demands of the country.
This is probably the feeling of the great majority of the American people.
The conviction can be little short of unanimous that in the last analysis
behind any treaty or agreement we must have a military and naval
organization of a defensive character that could adequately meet the
offensive from any probable or possible enemy or combination of enemies.

Adequate military preparation takes years. This is true not only
of ships, guns and other machines, but of human beings, upon whom to
the last degree the result must depend. Preparation must include ships
of varying degrees, arms and munitions, clothing, housing, equipment
and the fullest needs of the commissary and the medical departments.
Some of the preparation may consist of a latent ability to produce
quickly and well; some must consist of an existing equipment in all of
these departments ready for practically instantaneous use.

The seventeen years that have elapsed since the Spanish war have
at least partly eliminated some of the lessons of that war. Very few
understand the extent to which we were unprepared, even for a power
so relatively weak as Spain. Our lack of material then went even so
far that the authorities were without cables to mine our harbors, or mines
to protect them, or explosives with which to charge the mines. We
were without a need so fundamental as search lamps; the government
had none, the manufacturers were out of supplies and it was necessary
to secure the promise of a loan of such lamps from those who had them.
We were without equipment in our commissary departments and the
ultimate provisions even were a blot upon the administration of the
country ; and as for sanitation, even of the most elementary character,
no such thing was known in any practical sense.

We were without men for our forts, without men to instruct others
how to operate our coast defenses. The available trained men of the
army were but a handful, and hundreds or thousands were needed where
but one was available. Had our war been with one of the first-class
powers, many of our coast cities would have been destroyed and land-
ings could have been effected. That our nation would be conquered by

398 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY |

any country, however great, is not to be supposed for a moment; but
that vast properties would be destroyed and hundreds of thousands, if
not millions, of men “ killed, injured or missing” included in our daily
lists before a satisfactory result could be reached, would have been then
part of the price of foolish unpreparedness, just as it would be part of
the price to-day.

Many plans have been proposed and probably upon no plan do all
minds meet. About an adequate navy there seems to be no difference of
opinion, except possibly in the definition of the term “adequate.” Un-
less we have a navy equal to that of any other country with which we
may be at war, naval equality will be an impossibility, and, dealing with
a superior force, certainly, in the absence of miracles, we must concede
defeat at sea. Nothing is gained by assuming a strength we do not
possess. If our navy is inferior to that of England, the English in the
event of war could obtain the supremacy of the seas and our sea com-
merce would cease. This would be a serious matter only from the stand-
point of retaining our foreign possessions and of protecting our com-
merce. The determining factor here would seem to be whether the
country wants to go to the expense of being at all times reasonably sure
of holding its possessions and of protecting its sea commerce. Apart
from the question of patriotism and national pride, does the one equal
the other? In the absence of such adequate provision, we could retain
our foreign possessions and our sea commerce only so long as another
nation with its own navy, or a combination of nations with their navies,
permitted us to do so. :

Apart from this question of size, all will agree that the country
should possess an adequate navy, whatever may be accepted finally as
the definition of this term. Such a navy should include dreadnaughts
and super-dreadnaughts, at one end of the line, and submarines and
transports, at the other end. One of the lessons of the Spanish war
was the necessity for transports and one of the serious difficulties for a
time was that of transporting equipment, munitions and men. ‘Trans-
ports—a term which here is used as being inclusive of colliers for coaling
our vessels at sea or at distant points—may be obtained either through
a fleet maintained solely for that purpose by the government, lying idle
and depreciating rapidly in times of peace, or by the upbuilding of a
large merchant marine through private resources, as in England, which
would be immediately available for the needs of the government in the
event of war. Those who were in England when the war first broke out
will appreciate far more than can those who remained at home, the
enormous value of having a large merchant marine immediately avail-
able for transport and other service. Of course, the regular service of
passengers and their baggage was interrupted, but this counted little, in
comparison with the disadvantages of carrying for years a great unused

NATIONAL DEFENSE AND DEVELOPMENT 399

fleet of equal size, and the consequent commercial interruption was one
which in any event would have occurred very largely as one of the
results of the war.

The defense of our homes and our country is essentially different,
however, from the defense of our foreign possessions or the protection
of our commerce. Here our very liberties would be at stake and our
entire population, instead of a small percentage, would be endangered.
And if this larger percentage were sacrificed the smaller would follow,
whereas if the smaller were lost for the time being the preservation of
the larger would eventually care for the smaller. Adequate defense
begins probably with the mining of our harbors and our shore defenses.
These would prevent destructive attacks and landing. Behind these
should be available for immediate use an armed force of moderate size
and behind this a force capable of being quickly mustered and armed,
of practically unlimited size in reference to our population. It is con-
ceivable that the time may come when every one capable of bearing arms
will be called upon for defensive action.

The operation of large and small guns in the fortifications and the
planting and control of mines calls for a minimum force technically
trained and capable of instructing others who in the event of emergency
would be enrolled for their assistance. An organization should be main-
tained at all times sufficient to man our fortifications at a minimum and
sufficient to instruct any numbers added for the adequate operation of
the defenses, however long an offensive attack might continue.

While the effectiveness of the submarine has been more fully demon-
strated than ever before, some question remains concerning its relative
value. About mines, however, as an element of defense, no question
can exist. We have yet to hear of the failure of any mined defense.

Another technically trained force maintained at a minimum and in
constant service should be that necessary to operate a fleet of aerial
craft of all the types which have been shown to be effective during the
present hostilities. Some doubt may remain at the moment as to the
effectiveness of aerial attacks upon fortified places, but no question
would seem to exist concerning their indispensability as a means of
reconnaissance and for guarding against an enemy’s attacks from the air.
It is perhaps no exaggeration to say that without aerial defense such a
city as Paris could be wrecked by the bombs of an enemy dropped from
flying machines. A permanent corps capable of immediate and effective
action and of instructing others on a greatly broadened scale, should be
in the constant service of the country.

Automobiles, for transportation and for carrying warfare directly
into the lines of the enemy, are increasingly important as military
factors. This is another field in which the country should have ade-
quate reserves available for immediate use and producing capacities

400 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY |

which would insure a supply, full and adequate, on very short notice.
The standing force devoted to this purpose need not be so large relatively
as that for defense, but the technique should be understood and the
means of quick development should be always at the disposal of those
in charge of our government.

The manufacture of guns and explosives perhaps falls into two
classes. For the normal needs of commerce and the government it
might well be that to a large extent, if not entirely, these supplies could
be obtained from private manufacturers. Their capacity for manufac-
ture and delivery would be a factor in preparedness. Behind this
capacity and supplementing it, the government should be at all times
prepared to manufacture equipment and explosives. This capacity for
manufacture could probably consist of instructors and machinery, with
a minimum of those technically informed in the work—one of those
national resources or reserves of no value in times of peace, but of
paramount importance in the event of war.

It is essential that we have a commissary plant capable of providing
full service to a minimum of from half a million to a million men.
That is to say, the mobilization of that number of men should be accom-
plished with an equally rapid mobilization of equipment and supplies
necessary for their shelter and food. Behind this we should know that we
have plant-capacity for turning out added equipment as rapidly as men
could be mobilized, so that at no time should even a single company of
soldiers go into camp or into the field without adequate commissary
always within reaching distance.

Equal precautions should be taken with regard to the sanitary side
of camp and trench life. Materials required should be immediately
available for a minimum force and all the essentials should be so well
understood that adequate sanitary provision would be made for every
group of men the moment they are mobilized and put into active service.
Never again should we have the blot of Tampa or Montauk Point on
our military activities.

Chemistry is playing a part in this war which was heretofore unsus-
pected. For years, even before the Spanish war, it has been understood
that the machine and the engineer would be great factors in modern
warfare. But the chemist was given a place altogether too unimportant.
All that is known in the use of and protection against poisonous gases
or any other similar means of offensive action should be at the disposal
of our authorities and all that the future may reveal should be placed
immediately at their disposal. We should never go into action handi-
capped by a lack of knowledge concerning the offensive or defensive
possibilities of explosives or chemicals or gases. Ignorance is no excuse
for wounded, blinded or dead men, or for a defeat.

Individual equipment of each man for active service is another ele-

NATIONAL DEFENSE AND DEVELOPMENT 401

ment for which careful provision should be made. If we have a stand-
ing army of a quarter of a million men, its equipment would naturally
be always at hand. And so for the additional army or armies which
might be required to meet an enemy, equal equipment, individually
complete, should now be provided. If we think a million men should
be ready on short call for adequate defense, we should have a million
complete equipments ready for instantaneous use for man and horse.
In being thus prepared, we would be saved such pathetic sights as young
men in civilian clothes marching up and down the streets of London or
drilling in squads in the public places and parks, in their civilian clothes,
carrying wooden sticks, to imitate guns, and other articles bound together
to represent about the average load of a marching soldier. A minimum
equipment should be immediately available and the means for providing
enough additional equipment as men are assembled should be always at
the service of the government.

Behind all this lies the preparation of the human machine, which to
any needed extent should be capable of immediate assembly. The prob-
lem is how this is to be attained without turning our country into an
armed camp or leading us to a distinctly military existence. The only
way to secure this result would seem to be through the education of our
older boys and our young men, say, between the ages of fourteen and
twenty, in the elementary features of military life. These should in-
clude shooting and a knowledge of handling small arms; of marching
and of living in camps and in trenches; of so approaching and retreat-
ing from an enemy as to make the most of either artificial objects—
such as “ digging in”—or natural objects for self-defense; of camp and
trench life, including cooking and the elementary features of camp
sanitation. The objective of this training would be to have the vast and
growing body of men, who, with little more training than that necessary
to fit them for the open, would be immediately available for any pro-
tective effort against the attacks of an enemy. _

It would seem that this training must be conducted in such a way
that it will reach every growing boy and will place at his disposal every
means of acquiring this kind of information now at the disposal of our
state and national governments. The present method of training state
militia, whereby men can enter the regiments only by some form of
social selection, and there remain year after year long after their periods
of usefulness have expired, is obsolete and calls for early discardment.
As a substitute, our armories should be open to all, exactly as our
schools are open to all, and their use to any one individual should be
limited to a certain period of time, say, one, two or three years, within
which the necessary military training could be obtained. If it were two
years, the second term men would be available for military service; or if

402 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

for three years, the third term men, supplemented by the second or first
year men, in the event of emergency, as the circumstances might justify.

Probably the men who have seen even the smallest part of camp life
or military service are the best safeguards we have against war. Those
who merely observed the results of the early days of the war in Europe
would do all that lies in their power to prevent a repetition of the
European conditions in our own country. If this be true, this form of
training, added to the hardships of camp life and military service, would
seem to act as a deterrent and not an incentive towards war.

Military training leads to better physique and better physical con-
dition; it adds a degree of discipline, which many observers think
would improve our American standards; it is a desirable kind of edu-
cation; it improves personal hygiene; it undoubtedly leads to higher
standards of health and of living.

The subject is one which should be approached calmly and without
. hysteria. The lessons of the Spanish war and the conditions prevailing
in Europe, however, warn us that adequate defense preparation is essen-
tial and that no time should be lost. Those who represent our govern-
ment should take the country into its confidence, they should proceed
broadly and, in this, eliminating all politics, may expect the unanimous
backing and support of the country.

We must have a plan which will include a knowledge of what we
have got, of what we can get, to what extent and in what time. I+ must
include technical organizations, each complete with a minimum of
equipment and trained men. It should include the best possible com-
bination of government and privately owned resources for all purposes,
from an adequate fleet of both a primary and a secondary nature to the
provision of munitions, and equipment in any required extent. Dis-
tinction is made between an active and a latent producing capacity; the
two should be separately considered, the plan of each effectively accom-
plishing its intended objective. And, finally, whatever may be the
method adopted, we must have an unlimited citizen-reserve capable of
getting quickly on the firing line, and behind this a reserve backing up
those on the firing line without delay with every detail perfected of
efficient and modern supplies.

Perfection of such a plan and organization would prevent rather
than encourage us in seeking differences with other nations and would
give us that degree of preparedness which is called for in the defense of
our country, our institutions and our homes and the lives of our women,
our children and our non-combatants.

NATIONAL DEFENSE AND DEVELOPMENT 403

PREPAREDNESS

By THp HonorasLte JOHN Q. TILSON

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

N view of the fact that I am a member of the Committee on Mili-
tary Affairs of the House of Representatives, which is charged with
the duty of investigating the subject and formulating a plan for the
proper organization of the land forces of the United States, it will not
be wise or discreet for me to attempt to state just what the plan should
be. It has been announced that the question is to be considered on non-
partisan lines, as such subjects ought always to be considered, and this
is an additional reason why I should not attempt to prejudge the case.
There are, however, a few broad, general propositions which must be
at the basis of any effective and permanent preparation.

In the first place, there must be a sufficient number of trained men
to fill up our first line of defense. Their training need not be of long
duration, but should be intensive enough to teach discipline, the use
of firearms and the care of self in camp or campaign. It is better
that these men be trained citizenry, rather than trained soldiers only.
There is no more reason to fear militarism because of this than there is
to fear that a boy will become a prize fighter because he keeps a sound
body and is taught the manly art of self-defense. Some such system as
that so successfully used in Switzerland and Australia would be effective
here if it could be adopted and maintained long enough to get results.
We must not be blinded, however, to the inherent difficulties in the way
of the adoption or carrying out of such a system. Something, however,
should be done and if the people of the United States are not ready to
adopt universal citizen service, then in addition to our regular army
and National Guard both of which should be somewhat enlarged, we
should have a voluntary, but paid, reserve.

I have said that our regular army should be somewhat enlarged.
This is absolutely necessary and seems to be generally accepted as one
of the changes sure to be made in the near future. Even as a school
for military training, the army at present is not large enough, and,
while I do not believe that a large standing army is necessary, and
should be opposed to the enlargement of the army comparable to those
of European countries, still I think a very considerable enlargement
is wise and necessary.

The navy should, undoubtedly, be gradually increased and the les-
sons of the present war in Europe should be carefully studied and applied
in the addition of submarine and other auxiliary craft. Aerial navi-
gation has greatly changed modern warfare and must receive immediate
attention in both the army and navy.

Better industrial organization is also one of the necessities of an

404 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

adequate national defense. In the development of our resources, every
man has gone too much his own way, so that there has been no effective
coordination of our industries with a view to national defense. Every
manufacturing establishment, great or small, that can manufacture
arms, war munitions or any kind of war equipment, or that can be
readily adapted to such use, should be catalogued and organized. In
fact tentative contracts might be prepared and entered into between
the United States government and manufacturing establishments to be
effective only in case of invasion, war or imminent danger thereof.

Transportation should be organized in the same way in all its
branches, including our railroad companies, steamship lines, our motor
industries, especially trucks, and even down to business wagons.

There is one other general matter that I hesitate to speak of be-
cause it is generally considered a partisan question, but, as an avowed
protectionist, I do not believe that it should be a partisan question.
This is adequate protection for American industries, especially those
concerned with the production of materials necessary in time of war.
The aniline dye situation at the present time is a case in point. Our
country has deliberately adopted a policy disregarding this industry
and has encouraged the dependence of this country upon foreign pro-
ducers of these goods. We now find ourselves hampered in our textile
industries and in some instances a complete demoralization of business
for lack of dye stuffs has occurred. Worse than all is the fact that the
most effective explosives are those made from the same maiterials, so
that we are to-day in a state of complete dependence upon a foreign
country for materials essential in case of war. True, we have an
abundance of raw material, but it would require valuable time and
large expense to develop the industry under war conditions.

These are but examples mentioned by way of suggestion, but they
seem to point the way toward the most effective kind of preparation,
either for or against war, as the case may be.

While the present struggle in Europe has brought the question
to the attention of many who before had been indifferent, to my mind
it has not changed the problem so far as the United States is concerned,
except in the details.

During the sixty-second Congress, while serving my second term
there, I gave considerable thought to the question of preparedness,
although it was not known by that name at that time. I introduced
a bill providing for the beginnings of a trained national reserve for our
land forces and presented to the House of Representatives facts and
data in support of it. At that time, however, such a proposition fell
on deaf ears, and the only change that was made, and that over my
strenuous opposition, was the adoption of the absurd seven-year en-
listment period, which has proved an utter failure; so far as providing
an adequate reserve is concerned.

NATIONAL DEFENSE AND DEVELOPMENT 405

I do not believe that the danger of war is any greater for the United
States now than it was three years ago. Neither do I believe that
our need for an adequate national defense is greater than then. We
needed it then, we need it now, and shall continue to need it until we
face the problem squarely and solve it. We can not afford to go on
taking long chances, as in the past. I hope something worth while
will be done while the people are interested.

There is, however, a great danger of plunging headlong into an
extreme course. It would be easy for us to roll up an enormous na-
tional debt for a kind of preparedness that would prepare us for the
moment only and leave behind a heritage of debt and dissatisfaction
that would soon neutralize the effect of all our preparation. A well-
laid plan, covering a period of years, capable of enlargement or possible
curtailment, if changed circumstances should make it wise, is far more
to be desired than huge expenditures, rashly made, for preparedness
that would soon cease to be effective.

AMERICAN EXTRAVAGANCE A NATIONAL PROBLEM

By EDWARD A. WOODS

PITTSBURGH, PA,

Great Nations and great Empires only live so long as they are thrifty; the
moment they begin to waste or disperse their resources, the day of their end is
at hand.

—Lord Rosebery.

1 Eaters great wealth is tempting. If recently and sud-

denly amassed, made from those tempted to appropriate it, through
the loss of their own trade, it tempts more; but it is greatest of all if
those possessing this wealth are known not to possess the sturdy strength
to defend it.

Nor must this strength be measured exclusively by an army and
navy. Back of these lies the moral, physical and financial strength of
the people. Effeminate, extravagant, prodigal nations, even if civilized,
large and rich, have ever been the prey of strong, sturdy, frugal ones.
So the rich east was a prey to the semi-savage Mohammed hordes. So
was wealthy, effeminate Byzantium to the rough northern crusaders.
So was wealthy, luxurious Rome—the mistress of the world—to bar-
barian Goths and Vandals.

Britons were angry at Kipling’s message from South Africa, trying
to shame the people of Britain because:

Ye set your leisure before their toil, your lust above their need.

When your strong men cheered in their millions, while your strip-
lings went to the war.

406 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

and at his famous reproach to sporting England:

The flanneled fools at the wicket or the muddied oafs at the goals.

But Americans and Britons alike may read “The Islanders” with
a different feeling to-day, when he speaks of:

Life so long untroubled, ye who inherit forget
It was not made with the mountains, it is not one with the deep.
Men, not gods, devised it. Men, not gods, must keep.

Parkman, in closing his wonderful history of the French and Eng-
lish conquest of America, says:

Those who in the weakness of their dissensions needed help from England
against the savage on their borders have become a nation that may defy every
foe but that most dangerous of all foes, herself, destined to a majestic future if
she will shun the excess and perversion of the principles that made her great;
prate less about the enemies of the past and strive more against the enemies of
the present, resist the mob and the demagogue as she resisted Parliament and
King; rally her powers from the race for gold and the delirium of prosperity to
make firm the foundations on which that prosperity rests; and turn some fair
proportion of her vast mental forces to other objects than material progress and
the game of party politics. She has tamed the savage continent, peopled the
solitude, gathered wealth untold, waxed potent, imposing, redoubtable; and now
it remains for her to prove, if she can, that the rule of the masses is consistent
with the highest growth of the individual; that democracy can give the world a
civilization as mature and pregnant, ideas as energetic and vitalizing, and types
of manhood as lofty and strong as any of the systems which it boasts to supplant.

Wastefulness, extravagance and prodigality undermine the entire
mental, physical, financial and moral fiber of the nation. Do they tend
to make America such a nation as those New England farmers who
resisted strong and wealthy Great Britain nearly a century and a half
ago? With nations, as with individuals, the period of wealth is gen-
erally a period of decay, of sloth, and of the weakening of moral fiber.
Can America, possessing one fourth of the wealth of the world, feel
that the mere possession of wealth brings security, instead of an oppor-
tunity to others? Is it not the frugality of sturdy little Switzerland
that enables her to keep out of the maelstrom of war that envelops her
on all sides? Would France not long ago have succumbed, had her
people, instead of being thrifty and provident, practised the luxury and
extravagance of the United States? Will it not be the thrifty, frugal
people of Germany, France and England who in the long run stand
back of and support their governments in the great conquest over-sea?

It surely needs no argument to any careful observer to show that
great wealth, particularly if quickly acquired, does not make for character
in the individual. With it come luxury, waste and extravagance, and
these are not character-building but character-undermining qualities,
making the one who acquires wealth, and still more his descendants,
luxurious, effeminate and neither frugal nor industrious. The same

NATIONAL DEFENSE AND DEVELOPMENT 407

thing is true of nations, for nations are but aggregations of men. In
a comparatively short time America, young as nations go, has acquired
over $188,000,000,000 of wealth, equal, if a few European countries
are excepted, to the wealth of the rest of the world, and an income that
in three years or less would equal the total wealth of any single Euro-
pean nation—indeed, our income alone probably exceeds the entire
wealth of every nation in the world except five; a wealth equal to that
of the whole British Empire and France combined. Can there be
any question that with us as a nation, as with an individual under simi-
lar conditions, this wealth, if not properly used, is a national menace?
Are we an exception to the history of nations, ancient or modern, where,
as recently brought out by the great Italian historian Ferrero, the
period of a nation’s suddenly acquired wealth is the beginning of its
deterioration and decay? The decline of the great Roman Empire
began at a period when wealth poured in upon her from all sides.
Professor Davis says of Rome at the beginning of the Empire:

The Romans were suddenly put to the severest test a nation can meet—the
trial of prosperity. The twentieth century opens with America enduring the

same ordeal and it remains to be seen whether we shall bear it better than did
Rome.

Is it possible that we are an exception to the often-quoted statement
that the accumulation of wealth and the decay of men go together and
to undermine that bold peasantry that is the backbone of a nation?

Every well-managed corporation and every well-run government
lays out a budget planning in advance for its expenditures for the
year ahead. How would a budget made of expenditures of the Amer-
ican people look? We are a great Christian nation, and yet we spend
a little over two weeks’ candy bill in our total contributions to mis-
sions! We are a generous and charitable nation, taking care of our
dependent classes—sick and otherwise—as no other nation does. Yet
the $140,000,000 we spend annually for charity of all kinds is a little
over three-weeks’ liquor bill! Indeed, if the report of Vice Commis-
sions that New York, Chicago and Pittsburgh spend for commercialized
vice $100,000,000 is correct, it is likely that the entire amount spent
for charity of all kinds in the United States is a very much less figure
than we spend for prostitution. It is not very much more than the
amount we spend for one of our games—golf. Education has reached
a higher position in America than in any other country; and yet the
total amount we spend for education is less than we spend for jewelry;
not much more than twice what we are spending for moving picture
shows, and not as much as we spend for amusements! Out of an in-
come of some $35,000,000,000, how do such national expenditures as
the following appear, with regard to the comparative importance of
different items:

408 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

BE TATORE Ue as pers ns «0+ 3 dig, 6 wide aa Bla WRI SRI eevee tiie $3,000,000,000
GD eerie etcs 4. o's s 3s igo orate staieanrete sao sc iets ule 2,300,000,000
ROVE ramets eases <= 6 as vine hose Cammarata ss fe eae ete 2,000,000,000
EEIELCID isles es « = 5:52 8, ye. one-one a Met YeTE «le 6.0 6) peemmteme 1,200,000,000
ATTEN EAR ea yc. 713.6 Ge aeeeraian eis he 1,000,000,000
J ADUOTTNG) OLE) 8 Sa aeeinieng Hoo pep cab Sotaamman Goble.a 1,000,000,000
Pyubicvipss ANG ! MEGICINGS 9%. 2s Fic eel sleye ice « o'er 1,000,000,000
MOSSES MY ICTOGIG: [2525000 spate eeoreuepetyecsic ele) =\c te saboten erences 900,000,000
PURSUE IN Ss (oc: « che ele's; sive id a say gaeieee regis 5x SRE 800,000,000
RET AAEIOMUE Cok oo «ante Richins Rid RieMenee ets Ss Sis inl ue ees 600,000,000
VEU ATIC GDETISIONS | /.,-0s.cpeks soherctelsieeetono cals») <icteiorenel otters 450,000,000
enngy and. €ONTECLIONCrY 2207.2 selene kek ee ois creer 365,000,000
Pire losses (mostly preventable) ...............--- 250,000,000.
CUNT Sen tS. SON MAGI tE aise. o' et VeheateReyate 140,000,000
Jos LtSS0 Cc ORES ICONS cca hs'o tices tev eRCPe Maio ce ot 8 16,000,000

Note what we spend for interest. The downfall of the government
of Egypt came when she found that she could borrow money. The
downfall of many a wealthy individual has been from misuse of credit,
which, as John D. Rockefeller said, “ Rightly used, is one of the best
business assets, but, abused, has caused the downfall of individuals and
nations.”

With wealth and credit comes the borrowing habit that permeates
our entire nation. Instead of meeting expenses from income, as the
frugal, thrifty man should, Americans borrow. The government, state,
county, city, township, individual—eyverybody borrows from the future
to spend in the present. It is so much easier to spend future expecta-
tions than to wait until we can supply our wants from income or past
savings. We are paying probably as much for interest in this country
as the total savings of Great Britain and France.

Why is it that this country ranks fifteenth in percentage of savings
accounts to population ?

PME PRMEEEEL o\:o 9's o'se's 10:0 wins lo,0 0! » color eto eR REC IE 595 per 1,000
PTR ATERAME o's a's + oo d's the alate ates See PEED Sine 468) Cee
MD OTE 5 5s 'a sae le'sl tye. SOIR isro Sees OE ee 456 (a eee
RANG TERRI y's 0 3-2 ls &/s-0 ine nya) 0's, 8 218 Bite alee RRS ee ee !
RS WEUS UMMM RIS, os, +: /<,5! onsezs lolcye raid oleneve opetoteve te tere ete ne nee 409 68) VES
SI AMIBOMNE I 6+ 0 2 5.0 s/c o's a bible © 00's. e's ole sae ee eee 400 **e
Ea UY CEE ts +355) 0's s,/alc, sls jor-boc' c coe obtagane louciotcte le Potedettes oleae ieee B68 106, ee
ING WAC ERDIC | yo iare vie) pvo.8 0.0 a Se ane RE ERICH EE Se eTCETE 360) §S-aee
CROLINGMIN EEE an v's ‘ssp: 16 p\v's 0 3.0 sie 8 wn a hots On ee Nis eke 356° * ae
EF OMANI MME eo iio. peloi sie blo: is edule dire rece REE Ce 340 50 ee
LOR ICTD || 2 MGM Sa eePiereer ari seven arity rear el 820): ** ee
SATISET AIMEE fs, ences wis) s.s\ 0, 0's elcie,ahtewi erkes ete Ree 300 784s
ETS ANIBNAD, token 'e' aie saiate s/c.0, 14:0 2, 8idte Sb0.n a aeRtem ete 280.66 nes
DBAG EEE 015s a alestds 50's ows bg rs en ce ROE IRReE 232 ee

URE EWES ELE o 6 ouch io c'u'nve idle d%= cond ectatine een Tee tonal: 109° 4") (ees

NATIONAL DEFENSE AND DEVELOPMENT 409

Why is it, with three times the income, we are saving but $2,000,-
000,000 yearly, no more than Great Britain, and only twice as much
as France, with one sixth of our income; not even saving every year as
much as we spend for liquor? Note the countries which head the list
in number of savings bank accounts—Switzerland, Norway, Denmark,
Sweden, Japan, Tasmania—countries not of great national wealth;
yet the average savings bank deposits per depositor of Switzerland, Den-
mark and Norway exceed that of this country.

Why is it that a country of our wealth has nearly 1,000,000 de-
pendent persons it is constantly caring for; that it has between 10,-
000,000 and 15,000,000 persons on the poverty line? Why is it that
out of a hundred young men who start in life at age twenty-five, at the
the age of seventy-five, of the sixty-three who die sixty have left no
estate and that only three persons of the living are not dependent upon
their children, relatives or charity; and that 95 per cent. of the re-
mainder who die will not leave sufficient means to defray funeral ex-
penses, unless insured ?

Why is it, with the huge income of this country, 90 per cent. of its
population finish their lives insolvent; and that even one tenth of the
population in our great cities are buried at the expense of charity?
Should we be satisfied with our social conditions in moderately asking
that when every one comes into the world solvent, 90 per cent. should
go out even more penniless than they came in?

It takes no character to spend money. It has been said that any
fool can make money, but it takes a wise man to keep it. James J.
Hill has said: )

If you want to know whether you are destined to be a success or not, you can
easily find out. The test is simple and is infallible. Are you able to save money?
If not, drop out. You will lose. You may think not, but you will lose as sure
as fate, for the seed of success is not in you.

The late Booker T. Washington, a negro, shows his conception of
thrift as character-building. It is, he said, “the ability to sacrifice
to-day for to-morrow.” And yet there are millions of persons in this
country who do not even imitate the dog who buries his bone of to-day
for to-morrow; the bee, the ant, or the squirrel, who lays by for the
future. The most civilized nation in the world contains millions of
persons who live as does the savage—merely from day to day. And
further, there are millions—and those the ones who can least afford it
—who do not even see the need of frugality and thrift; who make fun
of a man like Rockefeller, because he is moderate and careful in his
daily expenditures; who think it is creditable to be lavish in their
expenditures beyond their means; $60 a month clerks, who regard it
manly to order a meal and take the best seats at the theater for their
girls, that both know are beyond their means.

VOL. I1.— 28.

410 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

It is the thrifty and frugal who are the backbone of the nation. It
is they who supply its funds. It is they upon whom rests its credit. It
is they who are not dependent upon society. It is they who support all
its institutions, particularly its charitable ones. It is they who are not
haunted by the grim specter of want throughout their lives. It is
they who are forming habits of self-sacrifice and providence.

And further, it is they who, as a rule, are the happy persons.
Micawber can hardly be taken as a type of happiness. Thrift is not
miserliness; it is not niggardliness; it is not unhappiness; it is not
avarice. These adjectives do not fit men like Carnegie and Rocke-
feller. It is the thrifty who have enjoyment because they can af-
ford it, and enjoyment unhaunted by the fear of want to-morrow.
It is the thrifty who are happier in the present because not fear-
ful of the future—the saving, frugal, insured classes of the coun-
try. It is the thrifty who can afford to give their time to public
matters, because not tied down to the actual needs of the day. And
further, it is the thrifty who, by habits of self-sacrifice and foresight
and frugality, are building the character that made the nation great
when it was young, and that alone can keep the nation great. A man,
or a nation, is worth what he saves, not what he spends.

Nor must we be deluded by the examples of the beneficence of the
owners of great wealth. This also was characteristic of Rome in her
wealthiest and also her decadent days. The days of Cesar and the
emperors immediately following were days of prodigality, of extravagant
living and of lavish public gifts, but also of political corruption, of
demagogism and of the decline and decay of the real people of Rome,
who constituted its strength. It was then that millionaires controlled
the Roman senate; that slaves could be bought for about fifty cents,
while $40 a pound was paid for fish; and that banquets costing the
equivalent of hundreds of thousands of dollars were common and when
the wealthy bought public favor by munificent gifts with money easily
acquired. What is the solution?

That Americans may realize the importance of frugality and thrift;
realize that wealth, not rightly used, does not bring happiness, health
or prosperity, personal or national; that we should more liberally
patronize our great institutions for the systematic saving of money—
the life insurance companies, the savings banks; the building and loan
associations, our safe securities; that we should use money spent for
less good purposes for the building of homes, so that it can not be said
that 96 per cent. of the population of Manhattan Island are renters.
We all should make budgets, even in one’ s mind, in which the propor-
tion of the probable income for the following year is laid out in some
proper proportion; we must realize that it is not the money spent for
necessities, but what we save—plus what is spent for education, for

NATIONAL DEFENSE AND DEVELOPMENT 4II

charity, for wholesome recreation—that measures our advancement.
The income altogether spent for food, clothing, housing and operating
expenses leaves one at the end of the year just where one started. It
is only by the amount saved and used for such self-improvement as
may be gained from education, wholesome books and magazines, healthy
recreation, travel, amusement, charity and, more particularly, laid by
for the future in savings banks, in safe investments, in life insurance,
that one can advance.

No business institution can be well run without keeping an account
of expenses. Yet how many Americans keep no personal record of
how their money during the year is spent! How can one find the weak
spots in one’s disbursements unless a record be kept? How easy to
remember the money given one’s wife or even given away and forget the
money that is gone in cigars, in dinners, and perhaps in some ways
that one is glad to forget! How helpful it is to voluntarily bind one-
self to some definite method of saving, such as life insurance, probably
the greatest institution for systematic thrift, where one makes one defi-
nite financial plan, extending far into the future, putting one under
voluntary compulsion to lay aside so much money at a stated time each
year; to put so much of one’s weekly or monthly income regularly
into a safe savings bank; the purchase of a home on the amortized mort-
gage plan, under which the mortgage will be made not for an indefinite
time, but he reduced monthly ; to buy good securities, by a definite plan
of payment.

It is a wholesome sign that the thrift movement, starting in Europe
with the war, has extended to this country; that there is a general
realization of the necessity of frugality throughout the entire land; that
the American Bankers Association, educators, journals, the Y. M. C.
A., as well as, of course, the life insurance companies, are awakening
to the opportunity and duty of arousing the richest nation in the world,
with the greatest income, to so fortify herself that she may be secure
not only against the foreign foe, but the most insidious and the most
dangerous of all foes—herself. Only by the exercise and the continued
exercise of qualities that make a people great, can greatness be main-
tained:

No doubt but ye are the people—absolute, strong and wise;

Whatever your heart has desired ye have not withheld from your
eyes.

On your own heads, in your own hands, the sin and the saving lies!

4I

THE PROGRES
MILITARY PREPAREDNESS

THERE is published in the present |
issue of the MONTHLY
papers on national defense and deyvel-
opment presented before the Section
of Social and Economic Science of the
Asscciation for the Ad-
vancement of Science. It is not clear |
why one aspect of the subject was em- |
phasized at the but it
doubtless desirable that the arguments
for should he
represented in this journal, as well as
the opposite point of view. An
difference between

a series of

American

meeting, is |

military preparedness

ob-

vious exists the

eleven sections of the American Agso- |

ciation devoted to the natural and ex-
act sciences and the one devoted to the
social and economic sciences.
the discovery of truth, the latter in the
main with. the. expression of opinion,
and the same holds “or the articles pub-
lished in this journal. It would not
indeed be desirable to inelude such di-
verse subjects in the same association
and in the same journal, except for
the fact that it is one of the most im-
portant of all objects to establish the
scientific method in belief and in con-
duct.

It is, however, particularly difficult
to make any progress in this direction
at a time when the emotions are deeply
stirred. The people of each of the
European nations now at war believe
sincerely that they are defending their
country and their homes against cruel |
enemies that have long laid in wait
wantonly to attack them.
sibility for the war and the methods
by which it is conducted are judged
absolutely differently by Americans of
English descent living in Boston and
by Americans of German descent liv-

ing in Milwaukee. It is believed by

The respon-

The |
former are in the main concerned with |

THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

S OF SCIENCE

many that rivalry in armaments and
in military and naval preparations in-
tended for defense were the immediate

| cause of the present waz and are likely
| to be the cause of future wars, yet

nearly all the writers of the papers
presented before the American Asso-
ciation and printed here argue that this
country should increase its armaments
and its military establishment in order
to maintain peace.

The attempt of Germany to rival the
| British navy and the increased mili-
_tary preparations of Russia and of
| France may be regarded as at least
among the causes leading to the pres-
ent war. Nor is it evident that the
efficiency for war of the different na-
tions was proportional to their arma-
ments. Their budgets in millions of
dollars for the year just preceding the
war were as follows:

Army Navy
Great Britain .....224,300 224,140
PAN COG tei store 191,432 119,571
Russia) oa ss3 eee 317,800 122,500
Titallys se rrsit-(.c.0 coy 82,928 51,000
Germaniyge serie 183,090 111,300
Austria-Hungary .. 82,300 42,000

Austria-Hungary and Italy about
balance, as do also Turkey and Bul-
garia, on the one side, and Servia, Bel-
gium and the partial participation of
Japan and Portugal, on the other.
The expenditure of Great Britain,
France and Russia on their armies was
about four times that of Germany, but
this does not measure their relative
efficiency at the outbreak of the war.
The militaristic spirit of Germany is in
part due to the armaments of the na-
tions surrounding it. A nation may
pay for armaments which not only
make war more likely but which may
help the enemy when war comes. The
strength of Germany was its educa-

THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 413

EUGENE WOLDEMAR HILGARD,

Professor of agriculture in the University of California from 1875 until his retire-
ment as professor emeritus in 1904, who has died at the age of eighty-three years.

THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

414

‘rvak YIXIS-4] GSO SITY Ul peTp sey OM ‘AJaTD0g [vorydeasosyH [vAOY oq} JO Jueprsaad Suoy
‘WVHMUVIN DALY SENAWATID wg

THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE

tional, social and industrial organiza-
tion; its disaster is its military pre-
paredness, which gave power to the
military caste and led them to make
war when and as they thought it could
_ be waged victoriously. The strength of
Great Britain on the seas is in its com-
merce, of which dreadnaughts are
merely a dangerous symbol. The
strength of a nation, even when at war,
is not in armaments that can be pur-
chased, but in its people and their in-
stitutions.

SCIENCE AND NATIONAL
STRENGTH

Ir might have been supposed that a
discussion on national defense and de-
velopment before th: American Asso-
ciation for the Advancement of Sci-
ence would have been concerned chiefly
with emphasizing the importance of
scientific education, scientific research
and scientific organization as leading
factors in the maintenance of peace |
and of national efficiency in case of
war. If the battle of Waterloo was |
won on the playgrounds of the English
publie schools, it may be that other
battles have been lost in the colleges of
Oxford. At all events the complaint
is made in England tnat its relative
lack of success is due to its neglect of
science. The classically trained dilet-
tante, the political doctrinaire, the
lawyer politician, the military marti-
net, are not fit leaders of a nation. |
The strength of this nation is in its
engineers and physicians, in its scien-
tifie men, few though they are, in the
great mass of the people engaged in |
productive agriculture and industry. |
We have shown what we can do in our |
railways, our automobiles, our tele-
phones, what we can not do in our
municipal and state governments, an
admixture of success and failure in our
schools and in our industrial organiza-
tion.

A billion dollars spent, as is pro-
posed, on the army and navy, as now
organized, would be an incitement to

415

war and would only be of moderate use
in a strictly defensive war. The arma-
ments would soon become obsolete and
other billions would be called for. A
billion dollars spent on scientific educa-
tion, on scientific research, on public
health, or on public works, would be
money invested in the way yielding the
largest returns, and would accomplish
more than armaments to make the na-
tion strong in defense.

As the writer of this note urged be-
fore the war, we should have the best
army for defense and improved police
forces if all local police were soldiers,
one twelfth of their wages being paid

by the nation and one month annually

being spent in camps and drills. Idling
in barracks is a method for the promo-
tion of war, drunkenness and disease.
The engineering corps, the health serv-
ice and the commissariat are the most

important factors in modern warfare.

Engineers, health officers, inspectors of
food and others employed by the na-
tion, the states and the municipalities
should be at the same time officers in
the army and those under them enlisted
men. A well-organized and efficient
army for defense would thus be main-
tained at comparatively small expense
and be an institution for education in-
stead of for demoralization.

The navy should be converted into a
merchant marine, carrying a postal, ex-
press, freight and passenger service to
every port in the world. At the cost of
an idle navy five to ten times as many
ships and men could be maintained and
employed in useful work. In ease of
war swift ships and experienced men
would win over dreadnaughts. Ship-
yards and factories for armaments and
ammunition should be owned by the
nation and manned by officers and en-
listed men. The army and the navy
can be made self-supporting nearly as
easily es the postoffice.

If we had for the past three years
employed a large force of men on the
Mexican border to build railways and
roads, irrigation dams and other public

416

works, it would probably have been a
good investment. The net cost would
certainly have been less than maintain-
ing there an idle army, and our neigh-
bors would have learned from us the

ways of industry and peace instead of

being irritated by an apparent threat.
There would probably have been no
raid; if it had been necessary for us to
punish raiders it could have been done
more effectively and with less friction
than by the army as at present organ-
ized.

It might well be wished that instead
of listening to Mr. Wise Wood and
other frightened gentlemen, it were
possible for the American Association
for the Advancement of Science to use
its influence to teach the president, the
congress and the people that education,
scientific research and the applications
of science in agriculture and in indus-
try, in the promotion of health and the
prevention of waste and vice, are the
ways to develop the greatness of a na-
tion, to make it potent in maintaining
peace, unconquerable in a war of de-
fense.

SCIENTIFIC ITEMS

WE record with regret the death of
Ivan Pavlov, the eminent Russian physi-
ologist; of Sir William Turner, prin-

THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

cipal of Edinburgh University, distin-
guished as an anatomist, and of Dr. J.
Wilhelm Richard Dedekind, the German
mathematician. 3

THE Hébert Prize of the Paris Acad-
emy of Sciences has been awarded to
Professor M. I. Pupin, of Columbia
University, for his theoretical and ex-
perimental researches in electricity.—
The William H. Nichols medal has been
presented to Dr. Claud S. Hudson by
the New York section of the American
Chemical Society—The Albert medal
of the Royal Society of Arts has been
presented to Sir J. J. Thomson, ‘‘ for
his researches in chemistry and physics
and their application to the advance-
ment of arts, manufactures and com-
merce. ’’

THE forty-fifth anniversary of its es-
tablishment was celebrated on February
9 by the United States Bureau of Fish-
eries, with the unveiling of a tablet in
memory of its founder, Spencer Fuller-
ton Baird, presented by his associates
and followers. The bronze tablet bears
a basrelief of Professor Baird with the
inscription: He devoted his life to the
public service and through the appli-
cation of science to fish culture and the
fisheries gave his country world-wide
distinction.

(Pee doe Gt Bee LO
BOON TEE

MAY, 1916

THE EVOLUTION OF THE EARTH?

I. EaAartH-GENESIS

By Proressor THOMAS CHROWDER CHAMBERLIN

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

‘THE evolution of the earth is but the domestic chapter of the evolu-

tion of the heavens. In the great volume that records the history
of the stellar galaxy no doubt there are a multitude of little chapters of
planetary evolution. It is our task merely to tell the story of our own
planet. The evolution of other planetary systems may not always have
followed the same lines. No doubt many agencies are concerned in the
evolution of the bodies that attend the stars. Quite different methods
may have given rise to these attendants. It is our task to detail, if we
may, the particular way in which our planet and its kindred planets
came into being.

The qualities inherited by the earth from the mode of its birth very
likely carried into all its subsequent history influences of high potency.
Unless we detect the essential nature of these at the start, we will quite
surely go astray in the interpretation of the events that followed. It ts
scarcely less than imperative that we dwell with some care on the initial
stages.

Our method must be that of the naturalist—the geo-naturalist, the
cosmo-naturalist ; it must be an endeavor to find in the features of the
earth and of the planetary system the autobiographic story of the plan-
et’s experiences recorded automatically in planetary language.

There was a time when mankind very generally was wont to treat
with levity the endeavors of geologic pioneers to read the ancient history
of the earth from its automatic record. But those days have passed ;
the intelligent world to-day accepts with confidence the story of the
earth’s history as it is read in strata, in life relics, in water-marks, in
the necks of ancient volcanoes, and in the stumps of vanished moun-
tains. The world recognizes and respects the lithographic story that

1 Third series of lectures on the William Ellery Hale foundation, National

Academy of Sciences, delivered at the meeting of the academy at Washington,
on April 19-21, 1915.

VOL. 11.—29.

418 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

tells—with incompleteness, to be sure, but with great fidelity—the his-
tory of the earth reaching back for perhaps a hundred million years.

Back of that, even the scientific world is still wont to regard the
story of our planet as falling into obscurity, for the lithographic scrip-
tures cease to be fully legible with the Paleozoic terranes, and with the
lowest Archean, the whole lithographic record becomes inaccessible.
We are wont to assume that because this lithographic record has failed
us, there is no other record to which we may have recourse. But there
are dynamic vestiges of creation as well as lithographic vestiges, and
some of these dynamic vestiges bear witness to the much earlier stages
of terrestrial history, reaching back even to the earth’s nativity. We
may say with confidence that these dynamic vestiges tell the story of its
birth; we may not say with equal confidence that we have read the story
aright, or that it can as yet be read aright; we may merely say with
confidence that the story is thus recorded. The reading of dynamie
records presents inherent difficulties; we are but scantily familiar with
such literature; but the record is none the less sure; certain dynamic
records are even more instructive than lithographic inscriptions.

Our planetary system records itself as a group of bodies circling
about their controlling star, the sun, in ways that are full of meaning.
There are singular relationships one to another; there are remarkable
symmetries and departures from symmetries ; these relationships tell the
story of the kinship of the planets to one another, and their kinship to
the sun. In some large measure—whether we can yet read it aright or
not—they tell the story of the planetary births. They even tell vital
facts of planetary history. The harmony in the planetary family is such
as to make it quite sure that throughout its whole history it has never
been seriously perturbed by external influences. Such are the peculiari-
ties and the symmetries of the planetary organization that it is fairly
safe to say that during its existence, be it a hundred million years—or
ten hundred million years, if you please—the system has never been so
near to another body of stellar massiveness as to suffer serious dis-
turbance of its internal relationships. If the solar system had ever been
within a billion miles of another body of the mass of our sun, the record
of that approach would appear in the dynamic vestiges of the system
as it is seen to-day.

In this record of internal harmony, this record of an undisturbed
career, there lies a guiding suggestiveness that may not appear on first
statement. The center of the system is moving through space at the
present time at about nineteen kilometers per second ; around this center,
as it speeds through space the members of the planetary family circle in
close attendance on their governing star. As a harmonious group they
have thus swept a broad path throughout all the history of the system.
The immensity of this sweep at once challenges the power of the imagi-

THE EVOLUTION OF THE EARTH 419

nation to picture such a vastness of space and such an openness of dis-
tribution of stars within it as to make possible an undisturbed journey
of so broad a system.

So wide deployment of the stellar system implies energies and move-
ments of a stupendous type. These constituted the dynamic environ-
ment of the earth’s nativity. The nature of these stupendous energies
and the laws of these vast activities may serve as our guide in a search
for the conditions of planetary birth.

We may at once catch a hint of no little value. The massive center
of the solar system is moving among the stars at the notable rate of
nineteen kilometers per second; the earth is circling about it at the
higher rate of thirty kilometers per second and yet is attending it in its
journey through space. The earth pursues a spiral path of notably
greater length than the path of the sun. We ourselves on its surface
sweep around the earth with its rotation and describe a more tortuous,
a longer and a swifter path than the center of the earth itself. The mole-
cules of the atmosphere fly to and fro with prodigious rapidity while
they accompany us in our tortuous course; in their still more devious
paths they are moving much faster than we. If you will recall the initial
lecture of this series by Sir Ernest Rutherford, it will bring to mind
particles whose velocities are prodigious, even when compared with the
swiftest of the swift celestial movements. Out of this comparative
series we may catch a glimpse of the law that the smaller bodies of celes-
tial space move more swiftly than the larger bodies, as a general rule; a
law inherent in the nature of the case, a law founded on the natural
workings of the principle of the partition of energy.

The suggestions of this law are adverse to those inherited ideas
which associate inertness with scattered matter; which assign it the lazy
habit of “floating in space,” which assume that it may slowly assemble.
These seem to be inheritances from the picture of primeval chaos.
Quite the contrary, it would seem that the little bodies and the scattered
matter are the most active of the active in the celestial world. No ves-
tige of chaotic inertness seems to be found either in observation or in
good theory.

The vast deployment of the stars implied by the long swift journey
of our system among them teaches us at the same time of the immensity
of the celestial energy that actuates the yast moving assemblage. We are
accustomed to look to the stars themselves as the great sources of energy
—and their radiant output is indeed prodigious—but the motion of the
stars themselves is an expression of greater energy than is their radiance,
while the deployment of the stars involves potential energies which are
a high multiple of both these other great sources combined. And thea
there are the unmeasured resources of radioactivity.

These general observations are but a means of catching some glimpse

420 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

of the environment which encompassed the nativity of the earth and
contributed to its endowment. These prodigious sources of energy, the
radiant activities, the inertia of stellar movement, the potential energies
of deployment, and the occult energies of atomic dissociation combined
to endow the earth with those energies that have actuated it during its
prolonged history. In the vast openness of heaven, amid its intense
activities, and partaking of its prodigious energies, the earth appears to
have had its birth.

There are two contrasted types of hypotheses of the origin of the
earth and of its kindred planets. The one class have taken for their
start the assumption that the parent matter was already widely dispersed
in space. They have contented themselves with simply endeavoring to
interpret the segregation that followed. They have been content with
one half the story. The other class have felt the obligation first to find
adequate agencies by which the requisite matter might have been de-
ployed, and then, from that deployment, and in full consistency with it,
have endeavored to interpret the mode of its reaggregation into a new
system. These hypotheses endeavor to recognize the forerunning de-
structive factor as well as the sequent constructive factor. They thus
try to decipher the whole story; starting from a beginning in conditions
such as exist in the heavens to-day, they try to trace the evolution on to
an end like that presented by the earth and its kindred as we now find
them.

To the first type belongs the most ancient genetic concept that has
come down to us, an evolution from primeval chaos. If I have been so
fortunate as to impress what seem to me the most essential conditions
that dominated the celestial environment at the time of the earth’s birth,
there will be little need to dwell upon any idea inherited from the ances-
tral picture of primeval chaos. The ancient idea of chaotic inertness, of
mere passive susceptibility of segregation, awaiting endowment with
exotic force, seems to have no warrant in anything now observable in the
stellar universe. If the picture of primeval chaos were ever true, it
would seem that its day must have lain far back of the birthday of
the earth.

The hypotheses that have commanded the largest assent during the
past century have usually started with assumptions somewhat akin to
the ancient concept of chaos, but yet distinctly removed from it by
postulating conditions and endowments akin to those supposed to reside
in the dispersed states of matter now seen in the heavens. The task that
these hypotheses set themselves was the delineation of the course of
transformation from a postulated nebulous state into an organized
planetary state, a process at once of nebulous partition and of nebulous
concentration. The segregative work was assigned chiefly to gravita-
tion; the partitive work, the separation of matter to form the individual

THE EVOLUTION OF THE EARTH 421

planets, was chiefly assigned to centrifugal action. In the brevity en-
forced by the limits of the hour, it will be convenient to group all such
hypotheses into a centrifugal genus. The essential feature of this genus
lay in the assigned tendency of the nebulous matter to concentrate itself
until its velocity of rotation set off certain parts which later condensed
into planets, planetoids and satellites. To be consistent, every hypothe-
sis belonging to this genus, whatever its special terms, must stand the
test of a fair accord with the criteria that inevitably attend the results
of centrifugal action. The parts set off by such action should lie some-
what accurately in the plane of the equator of the body that set them off,
the sun. The sun itself must retain a rotatory velocity in keeping with
its assumed competency to shed matter in this way. How does the
centrifugal hypothesis stand these critical tests? The earth is now re-
volving around the sun at thirty kilometers per second. If it were set
off by centrifugal action at this distance from the center of the system,
the rim of the rotating mass should have then moved at this notable
velocity of eighteen miles per second. When the parent mass shrank to
the orbit of the innermost planet, Mercury, it should have had an equa-
torial velocity of nearly fifty kilometers per second. The rotation should
have further increased with further contraction. If the rotation of the
sun were competent to cast off masses from its equator with its present
dimensions, it should have a velocity of 435 kilometers per second.
As a matter of fact, it has a velocity of about two kilometers per second.
Here is a grave discrepancy. The sun’s equatorial velocity is scarcely
a two-hundredth part of what is required to discharge matter centrif-
ugally from its present surface.

The equatorial plane of the sun is inclined to the orbit of the earth;
by the hypothesis, the matter of the earth should have been shed quite
accurately in the sun’s equatorial plane. This plane is also inclined to
the orbital planes of each one of the planets. More significant still, it is
inclined to the invariable plane of the planetary system which repre-
sents the dynamic summation of the planes of all the planets. The in-
clinations, to be sure, are not great, the earth’s orbital plane being in-
clined 7° 15’ to the equatorial plane of the sun; but when the prodigious
inertia of the planetary movements is taken into account, even this
variation is a notable discrepancy; perhaps it is not a fatal discrepancy
in itself, but it adds to the gravity of the great rotational discrepancy.
If, as one of the incidents of the generation of the new planetary sys-
tem, the sun’s rotation was reversed, as seems not improbable from the
remarkable slowness of the sun’s present rotation and the inclination of
its axis, its original inclination would be as large as an exacting appli-
cation of the law of probabilities would demand.

The rotational discrepancies are not confined to the simple facts of
slowness and inclination. If the rotational value of the sun were in-

422 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

creased by the accession of all the planetary bodies carrying into it all
their momentum yalues, with the consequent acceleration of its veloc-
ity, it would still be incompetent to discharge from its surface centrif-
ugally the several planets in their places. The elaborate investigations
of Dr. Moulton have placed this upon a specific and invulnerable basis.
The discrepancies disclosed at the several stages of the postulated evo-
lution range from disparities of 140: 1 up to 1,800:1.

So also, there are discrepancies between the masses of the several
planets and the momenta they should carry under a systematic process
of centrifugal separation. If the postulated nebula at the time it was,
by hypothesis, preparing to shed the great planet Jupiter, be restored,
every layman more or less familiar with mechanical laws may estimate
for himself,in some rough way, at least, the relative value of the rotatory
momentum carried by the whole body and by an equatorial rim of one-
thousandth part of the body, respectively, making all due allowance for
the fact that the momentum of the outer part has a higher value than
that of any similar part within, not only because it moves faster, but also
because it moves on a longer arm. The mass of Jupiter and his moons
taken together is somewhat less than a thousandth part of the mass of
the postulated nebula at the time the separation of the supposed Jovian
ring took place. Now if one has formed such a rough estimate one will
be ready to appreciate the meaning of the fact that Jupiter actually
carries more than 96 per cent. of the total value of the rotatory momen-
tum of the nebula at the time of its assigned partition, while the 999
parts left behind by hypothesis carry only the remaining four per cent.
The sun itself, massive as it is, now carries only about two per cent. of
the momentum values of the whole planetary system, while 98 per
cent. is carried in the attendant bodies, and yet the total mass of
these attendant bodies is only about 1/745 of the solar mass. That
such are not the proportions that would arise from a systematic separa-
tion of the planets from a parent nebula by centrifugal action is quite
clear even on simple inspection; it may be confirmed by computation,
which shows that there are even more remarkable discrepancies in the
cases of some other planets.

A very slight portion of these discrepancies may be referred to tidal
action, but the computations of Sir George Darwin show that this
amelioration is extremely trivial.

There are other striking discrepancies. If the centrifugal mode of
planetary separation obtained in the solar system, the planets should
take less time to rotate upon their axes than the satellites to swing
around them at some distance, and yet Phobos, the little inner satellite
of Mars, sweeps around the planet about three times while the planet
rolls around once. Moulton has pointed out, also, that the little bodies
that make up the inner side of the inner ring of Saturn circle around

THE EVOLUTION OF THE EARTH 423

that planet about twice while the planet rotates once. If tidal friction
is appealed to as a means of bringing these into consistency, it is found
available, as Dr. Moulton has shown, only if one of these cases is three
thousand times as old as the other. .

It is a necessary inference that satellites, shed centrifugally, should
rotate in the same direction as the planet from which they were cast off;
and yet it has recently been discovered that one of the satellites of
Saturn rotates in a direction contrary to the planet and its eight other
satellites. Still more recently it has been discovered that two of the
satellites of Jupiter disregard the family habit in a similar fashion.
This behavior seems fatally inconsistent with a centrifugal origin.

If we turn to the heavens for their testimony, none of the many
thousands of nebulz show a concentric system of symmetrical circular
rings, fulfilling the postulates of the hypothesis. Figs. 1, 2, 3 and 4 are
introduced to show such imperfect degrees of approach to conformity
with this hypothesis as are presented.

The foregoing formidable series of grave discrepancies, conjoined
with this lack of convincing illustrations of centrifugal evolution in
progress among the many thousands of nebulae now known, seem to re-
quire us to set aside the whole centrifugal genus of genetic hypotheses,
including as its foremost exponent the venerable hypothesis of Laplace—
so far, at least,as the genesis of our planetary system isconcerned. We
may not do this without a recognition of the profound stimulus that
these hypotheses have given to inquiry into the origin of the solar system
during the past century.

The hypotheses that have commonly been called meteoritic have
usually been built up on a structural or textural basis rather than a
dynamic one. They have been rather theories of the constitution of
nebulz than theories of the origin of the earth. They have not been
worked out into the specific details of separation and followed out
through all concentrative processes down to the stages of the existing
planets. They do not, therefore, lend themselves readily to brief discus-
sion. As theories of the constitution of nebule they have not been sus-
tained by progressive inquiry. |

In so far as supposed meteoritic assemblages constitute swarms and
are actuated by collision and rebound in quasi-gaseous fashion, as devel-
oped by Sir George Darwin, they are subject to the grave difficulties we
have just cited against the more familiar gaseous forms of the centrif-
ugal genus.

In so far as the postulated meteorites are supposed to pursue indi-
vidual orbits, a series of difficulties of a different type are encountered.
The precise form of these difficulties varies according to the specific form
given the hypothesis. If the planes of revolution of the individual
meteorites lie in various directions, as is natural in a heterogeneous

424 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

Fic. 1. NeEBuia N. G. C. 6543, Draco, PLANETARY. Spectrum, bright lines on a
continuous background. Photo from Mt. Wilson Solar Observatory. Note apparent
absence of gradation and hydrostatic support.

Pic, 2. NEBULA N. G. C. 7662 (H IV 18). The Andromeda planetary. Photo from
Mt. Wilson Solar Observatory.

assemblage, the concentration tends toward globularity, whereas our
planetary system is pronouncedly discoidal. The difficulties of asssign-
ing a globular cluster of revolving meteorites such a system of dynamics
as shall cause them to evolve naturally into a highly discoidal system of
revolutions, with 98 per cent. of the moment of momentum concentrated

THE EVOLUTION OF THE EARTH 425

Fic. 38. NepuLa N. G. C. 7009. “ Saturnian” planetary. Note the faint “anse”’ in
the extrusion of the major axis. Photo from Mt. Wilson Solar Observatory.

Fic, 4. NEBULA N. G. C. 7217 (H II 207). Note the knotted structure and the faint
oblique spiraloid tracts. Photo from Mt. Wilson Solar Observatory.

in 1/745 of the outlying material, are very grave. The difficulties of
aggregating sparsely scattered revolutionary meteorites, highly endowed

426 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

with momentum, into a few large planets, without special collecting
centers, are also grave.

There is an inherent difficulty in assigning any competent aggrega-
tive tendency to meteorites as such, if we may judge from the dynamics
of those within reach of observation. With their observed velocities their
momentum is extremely high relative to their attractive power. The
individual attractive power of an average meteorite is almost immeas-
urably feeble. The sum total of attraction of a great swarm of meteor-
ites, if such exist, might indeed be high, but it is an attraction toward
the common center, not toward outlying points where the planets must
grow up. In and of themselves, meteorites are controlled by a dispersive
rather than a concentrative tendency. It is only by starting with the
assumption of an enormous assemblage whose initial gravity is sufficient
to hold the individual meteorites under control, that it is possible to pro-
ceed rationally at all, and then the concentration is presumably toward
the common center of gravity and not toward outlying planetary centers.

If the difficulties of a definite segregation into a few large planets
revolving in a sharply appressed disk have been met at all under the
meteoric hypothesis, it has been rather by a tacit assumption of the ap-
propriate concentrations than by the assignment of specific reasons for
such an aggregation. But concentration must already have gone far
before it comes to have much aggregating force. Even the full-grown
earth has relatively little power to swerve the meteorites from their
paths. It collects them, to a trivial extent, chiefly because it lies in their
path, not because it is a controlling center for their aggregation; their
velocities are too great for effective concentration. The earth can not
control a velocity so great as seven miles per second, while the average
velocity of meteorites relative to the earth seems to be three or four
times that. In the absence of effective collecting centers the mutual
collisions of meteorites moving at observed rates would result in frag-
mentation and still more minute dispersion. This is, with little doubt,
the reason why most meteorites are so small, and why their habits are
so pronouncedly dispersive. ‘They are food for the scant feeding of
massive bodies already formed, but they are deficient in formative power
themselves.

The foregoing are at best but half-hypotheses. They start with as-
sumptions of certain kinds of nebule already formed and merely try to
trace the evolution of these into a planetary system. The more complete
classes of genetic hypotheses endeayor to go back to the beginning of the
dispersion that prepared the way for reaggregation into a new system.
They thus try to tell the whole story. This broader endeavor early found
a representative in a theory quite as venerable as the hypotheses of Kant
or Laplace, but unfortunately it is not worthy of serious consideration
as a specific explanation of the origin of our planetary system. It is

THE EVOLUTION OF THE EARTH $27

merely representative. More than a century ago the naturalist Buffon
suggested that a comet might have collided with the edge of the sun and
have driven off sufficient matter to form the planets. While this is obvi-
ously an untenable view, the dynamic concept of a glancing collision of
one form or another between two bodies has been the basis of a series
of hypotheses which may be grouped together as a collisional genus.
This genus avoids some of the fundamental difficulties that lie so gravely
against the preceding hypotheses. A collisional impact might leave the
rotation of the sun as slow as it actually is. The collisional effect might
obviously be accelerative or retardative according to the mode of stroke.
By hypothesis the sun might have any possible velocity of rotation. The
sun’s axis might lie in any direction. So also, the matter driven from
the edge of the sun might, by hypothesis, have all the momentum that
any of the members of the planetary system possesses in perfect con-
sistency with the cun’s slow rotation and its oblique axis. It is no small
merit in this genus of hypotheses to escape the fundamental difficulties
of rotation and momentum that have proved to be so grave in the
centrifugal genus.

But the collisional genus encounters, in its turn, certain formidable
difficulties. In the first place, the mass of the sun, just before the colli-
sion, could not well have been less than it is now, and hence an approxi-
mate velocity may be assigned the collision. A body coming from with-
out the sun’s sphere of control would, neglecting any pre-existent velocity
of its own, strike the edge of the sun at a velocity of the order of 600
kilometers per second, due to the sun’s powerful attraction. If the body
fell merely from some outer part of the sun’s sphere of control, it still
would have a velocity of a very high order of magnitude. If the sun’s
volume were larger at the time and the stroke took place farther from
the sun’s center of gravity, the velocity would indeed be lower; but still
it would be high under any reasonable hypothesis of this type. To fol-
low logically the consequences of such a glancing collision, it is necessary
to give due weight to the violence of the encounter which these high
velocities imply. The normal effect of such collisions would be a radial
dispersion of both the striking and struck matter diverging from the
point of encounter in various forward directions, except perhaps in such
as were protected by the undispersed portions of the sun and of the
colliding body; in other words, there should be a more or less fan-like
radiation, with perhaps a truncated side representing the protecting
effects. The two great nebule of Orion (Fig. 5) seem, in some measure.
at least, to fulfil these specifications. Normally the dispersion, under
conditions so violent, would be extremely high. Nuclei for gathering
together the dispersed matter into a few great planets would seem to be
counterindicated by this, and the conditions for aggregation in any
planetary form would apparently have been unpropitious,

428 THH SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

Fic. 5. THE GREAT NEBULA OF ORION AND ITS COMPANION NEBULA. Bright line
spectrum. Note evidences of special structure, absence of graded continuity and of
hydrostatic support, in both nebule. Photo from Yerkes Observatory.

But there is a more radical difficulty. Under the laws of mechanics,
the dispersed matter driven off by the collision, if it were kept under
control by the sun at all, must return to the point of collision and there
be subject to a second collision, with a similar necessity of return and
so on. Even if by some perturbation in the course of their outward or
returning path, some of the dispersed matter were driven into new paths
so that they escaped recollision, they must probably have assumed very
eccentric and diverse orbits. The orbits of the planets do not present
the characteristics that seem derivable from such sources. The orbits of
all the planetary bodies are sub-circular, and they are distributed about

THE HVOLUTION OF THE EARTH 429

one another with a certain measure of symmetry that does not seem to
be a normal product of such a marked asymmetry as would necessarily
arise under the collisional hypothesis.

Thus this genus of hypotheses—whatever specific forms may be given
the individual hypotheses under it—seems to have but a scant basis of
acceptability. Without much question collisions occur in the heavens and
evolutions must arise from the products of such encounters, and so the
theory has its place in a general study of the evolution cf the heavens.
But grave difficulties he in the way of supposing that a solar collision
gave birth to our planetary system.

These four types of hypotheses, the chaotic, the centrifugal, the
meteoritic, and the collisional, embrace essentially all that commanded
much attention during the past century. Of these it is perhaps safe to
say that the centrifugal genus, especially as represented by the Laplacian
hypothesis, commanded more adherence than all the others combined.

There remains, however, another possibility, less obtrusive in its
nature than any of these. For this reason perhaps it was more tardy in
receiving consideration. It centers on dynamic encounter, that is, the
dynamic effect which arises from the close approach of massive bodies
without bodily collision. Its effects have certain of the qualities that
arise from bodily collision but they are free from certain other qualities
that give rise to grave difficulties in their application to our planetary
system. While thus related to collision, dynamic encounter is radically
distinguished from it. The approach is close only in an astronomical
sense. It may range from the mere escape from collision up to a few
millions, a few hundred millions, or a few billions of kilometers. The
encounter is purely a dynamic one; it is an interpenetration of spheres
of gravitative influence involving a contest for gravitative control.

If a star were alone in space it would be surrounded by an illimitable
sphere of gravitative influence, strong near the star but declining rapidly
as distance increased, yet never entirely disappearing, theoretically
at least, within the bounds of space. If a second star were introduced
at any point in space, the new gravitative influence would interpenetrate
the previous sphere of influence; there would be both conflict and co-
ordination of influence; the two stars would divide the previous sphere
of control of the single star, each having its own sphere of dominance.
If a multitude of stars occupy space—the actual case—their gravitative
influences interpenetrate in a most intricate way, and yet about each
star there remains a space within which its gravitative influence is
greater than that of its rivals. Each star has its sphere of control; as
does also each planet, planetoid and satellite.

Now it is to this conflict and coordination of stellar attractions that
the genesis of the dominant class of nebule, the spiral, is assigned. It

430 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

is to the evolution of a spiral nebula that the genesis of our planetary
system is assigned.

Many years ago Roche showed by mathematical analysis that if a
satellite be made to approach its primary on an in-running spiral, it will
not retain its integrity until it reaches the surface of the primary but
will be torn into fragments at a point 2.44 times the radius of the pri-
mary, provided the two bodies are homogeneous in density and all inter-
nal forces except gravity are neglected. If the density increases toward
the center, the limit is larger. The Roche limit for the earth is about
18,000 kilometers ; if the moon were to circle down toward the earth, it
would be torn into fragments at about 11,000 miles from the earth’s
center. In being thus disrupted it would probably take on a form anal-
ogous to the fragmental clusters that are thought to form the heads of
comets. The Roche principle with proper modifications is applicable to
any celestial body approaching another on a curved path. If such ap-
proaching body has been greatly compressed previously by its own
gravity, its internal elastic stress may greatly exceed its cohesion. In
gaseous bodies, indeed, cohesion may be said not only to be absent, but
to be replaced by repellancy which is only kept under control by the
bodies’ gravity. If the approaching bodies are great globes of gas, such
as are the stars, and if they are subject also to powerful eruptive action,
as is our sun, extraordinary effects may arise when a close swift ap-
proach is made on a more or less sharp curve, as such approaches always
are.

Now imagine a star passing close to another star or massive body,
pursuing necessarily a rather sharp curve at its point of closest approach
and moving inevitably at very high speed; picture the enormous concen-
tration of energy within such star arising from its molecular activity
under its high gravitative compression; add to the picture the inherent
eruptive tendencies that arise from this, if it belongs to the type of our
sun, and it will furnish the working conditions of the case. Now
imagine the interpenetration of the gravitative influences as the two
bodies approach one another. Particularly note the way in which the
gravity of the massive body penetrates, modifies and even neutralizes the
gravitative control of the lesser body over its own substance, the force
that had concentrated it into a globular form and strongly compressed it,
and the picture will give the working elements for a concept of the pro-
digious eruptive and dispersive effects that will attend so simple an
incident as a close approach. It is easiest to follow a case in which one
body is much more massive than the other and is assumed to be so solid
and non-explosive as to be little affected, so that the main response is
limited to the minor explosive body. The action will be of the tidal type
and follow tidal principles; indeed, it will be an extraordinary modifica-
tion of a tidal process. Under such tidal action the star first becomes

THE EVOLUTION OF THE EARTH 431

elongated toward the passing body. The eruptions are then concentrated
in the tidal cones. The ejections are shot toward and from the control-
ling body. ‘The dispersive action constantly lies in the line of readjusted
attractions between the centers of the two bodies. This line is con-
stantly shifting its position; at the critical stage it is shifting rapidly ;
but this shift must always be in the plane of movement of the controlling
body. It may be helpful to picture the elongated erupting star as a
Janus-faced ordnance firing gaseous bolts fore and aft as it swings
swiftly about its massive neighbor. The chains of missiles thus shot in
opposite directions during the whirl naturally take on the form of two
spiral curves as illustrated in Fig. 6. The two-armed feature of the

Fic. 6. DIAGRAM ILLUSTRATING A HYPOTHETICAL MoOpDE OF FORMATION OF A SPIRAL
NEBULA,

spiral which results is amply exemplified in the spiral nebule. A star
with an inherent explosive habit passing near a massive body thus, by
interpretation, is converted into a spiral nebula.

How large a portion of a given star will be shot forth into spiral arms
depends on the closeness of approach, the elastic compression of the
star, the massiveness of the passing body, and other factors. If the star
passes within the Roche limit of the more massive body it may, theo-
retically at least, be entirely deployed into spiral arms, leaving little or
no nucleus behind. If the approach be less near, the residual nucleus
will be correspondingly larger. A series may thus be formed which
grades from the most dispersed forms in which spiral arms preponder-
ate with almost no nucleus, up through spirals with greater and greater

Can. Ven. =N.

3 Trianguli 1. G. C. 352. . H I 58 Pegasi and her nebula.

TLATE I. SPrrRAL NEBUL2.

THE EVOLUTION OF THE EARTH 433

nuclei and less and less dispersed matter, ending in those in which only
a minute fraction of star substance was drawn out into spiral arms. As
already noted, these arms or clusters of arms start at opposite sides of the
nucleus and swing out in opposite directions with curvatures in the
same sense. This singular feature is seen to be very persistent in the
many thousands of spiral nebule in the heavens and may well be re-
garded as highly significant of the process that gave rise to them.

It is worth while to note that though the degree of dispersion of a
star into a spiral nebula may reach even to the essential deployment of
the whole star, in certain cases, it is not violently catastrophic in any
such degree as follows actual collision. It is partitive rather than
extremely dispersive and dissociative. The disruption takes place by a

=

Fic. 7.- A SPIRAL NEBULA WITH NEARLY CIRCULAR OUTLINE AND RELATIVELY FEW

LARGE Knots. N. G. C. 278. Photo from Mt. Wilson Solar Observatory.

series of gas-bolts shot out in succession. The larger of these gas-bolts
are supposed to retain mass enough, and hence self-gravity enough, to
hold themselves together and so to constitute the nuclei to which the
more scattered matter gathers to form the planets, planetoids and satel-
lites into which the nebula later evolves. These bolts shot out by the
successive pulsations of the eruptive action form into the knots that so
distinctively characterize the spiral nebule.

With extreme cases of approach within the Roche limit, and with
very close approaches generally which give rise to highly deployed neb-
ule, we have nothing to do, except by way of illustration, in our search
for the genesis of our planetary family. To fit this case, our sun is sup-

VoL. 11.—30.

434 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

posed to have shot forth bolts to the amount of only 1/745 of its mass
to form the members of the planetary family. No doubt some addi-
tional matter was involved, but even when large allowance is made for
such matter as may have been projected outward and yet returned to the
sun, and for such other matter as was possibly shot so far out as to be
drawn away by the passing star, and for some that may have been thrown
beyond the control of either body, the fraction of the solar mass required
to meet the demands of the case still remains very small. There is no
reason to suppose that the sun’s career as a star was radically affected.
The approach was probably a rather distant one, in this particular case.

When the multitude of the heavenly host is considered, and the
various directions and speeds of their motions are noted, the event to
which the origin of the parent nebula of our planetary system is as-
signed must be regarded as one of the simplest and most inevitable that
could well be named. There is little ground for doubt that actual col-
lisions occasionally occur. There are six or eight chances that a star
will pass through even the Roche limit of another star to one that it will
collide with it. The chances that a star or massive dark body will pass
near enough to an eruptive star to give rise to effective projections from
its tidal cones, rise to very much higher order. Here again, the tenor
of observed facts tallies with the nature of the theory offered, for the
spiral nebulee are many times more numerous than any other class.

Let us follow a little more closely the assigned method of evolution
of the little spiral nebula that is supposed to have grown into our
planetary system.

When the passing star that incited the nebular deployment made its
approach, its differential pull drew forth tidal “ bulges ” on the opposite
sides of the sun. These were really cones rather than the broad bulges
usually pictured, but superposed as they were upon a spheroidal surface
they appeared as merely bulges, as commonly represented. The term
cone, however, better represents their dynamic function. At the same
time that the cones were drawn out on the line joining the sun and the
star, a belt of inward pressure was brought into play at right angles
to them. The joint effect of the protrusion of the cones and the com-
pression at right angles to them was a concentration of the sun’s erup-
tive tendencies into the cones. At the same time, the eruptive fune-
tion was powerfully stimulated. As a result, the sun shot out gas-bolts
from the quasi-voleanic cones whose mass was much greater and whose
velocity was much higher than that of the eruptive prominences which
are now shot forth at short intervals in a more sporadic way even in the
absence of any such special outside stimulus or internal concentration.
In the absence of a passing star these eruptions of course fall back to
the sun. But if a bolt were shot far out toward the passing star, it

THE EVOLUTION OF THE EARTH 435

would be drawn forward by it. If only slightly drawn forward, it would
return to the sun, but would carry back with it such transverse mo-
mentum as it had acquired. This would affect the rotation of the sun.
The ejection on the opposite side of the sun would act in a similar way
in accordance with well-known tidal principles. If the bolt were pulled
forward sufficiently far it would fail to strike the sun on its return and
would fall into an orbit about it. If the pull were effective enough, the
projectile would not return at all to the sun but swing into an orbit
about the passing star. If the respective pulls of the star and the sun
against one another happened to be properly balanced, they would throw
the projectile out of the control of both and it would go off into space
and probably pass under the control of some other star.

Dr. Moulton traced out mathematically the courses of such pro-
jectiles in nearly half a hundred selected cases and found the process
competent to give a wide range of results. In the first ten cases tried
all of the contingencies just named were realized. The eccentricities of
the orbits were often large, but the range of variation was such that
when the many small bodies of the nebula were gathered into a planet
the combined orbit would approach a subcircular form. The potency of
the mechanism was found unexpectedly high; its efficiency as a pa ti-
tive and distributive agency proved to be quite beyond anticipation.

It need not be urged that the solar eruptions under these conditions
would be pulsatory, or that the gas-bolts would be subject to sub-frac-
turing and to the wide scattering of a part of their material. From
such actions would arise “knots” of different orders and highly scat-
tered “haze,” the constituents which make up practically all spiral
nebule.

This, then, is the mechanism to which is referred the origin of our
planetary system. It is of vital moment to note just how those critical
features in our planetary system that seemed to offer so serious objec-
tions to the older hypotheses, are met under this interpretation. The
gas-bolts shot out from the sun were, under the assigned mechanism,
given transverse momentum by the attraction of the passing star. Thus
the planets into which they were collected received their high endow-
ments of moment of momentum, endowments that were proportionately
of a much higher order than that of the sun. Some endowment was
indeed received by the sun from the same source through the projectiles
that fell back to it. The ancestral rotation of the sun is supposed to
have been nearly opposite to its present rotation. The contribution of
momentum from projectiles falling back first neutralized the sun’s ro-
tatory force and then reversed it, finally leaving it with the very slow
rotation and slight obliquity it now has. As all the projected matter
was shot either toward or from the passing star and was drawn forward
in the direction of its movement, all the nebular orbits were in nearly

436 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

the same plane, and the nearly perfect disk of the final system was in-
evitable. Thus are explained the most radical features. The many
other peculiarities of the system grew up as mechanical necessities in
the subsequent processes of organization. Given a series of primary
knots, the heads of the main gas-bolts of the more effective eruptions,
attended by many sub-knots, fragments torn from these in the eruption,
attended also by innumerable scattered particles ranging from molecules
upwards, all thrown into elliptical orbits of varying eccentricities and
slight deviations of plane, and the laws of mechanical aggregation did
the rest. The primary knots were the predetermined nuclei of the
planets. A multitude of lesser knots formed the nuclei of the planetoids.
The secondary knots formed the nuclei of the satellites, while the
highly scattered material of the haze was collected into the various
nuclei and constituted the food for their growth.

Time forbids us to try to follow out the details. Though the scattered
matter was originally molecular, it was neither gaseous nor meteoritic in
any strict sense of these terms. It consisted of particles thrown into
individual orbits of a common type moving in the same direction about
the sun. The integers were thus from the outset of the dynamic nature
of minute planets. To emphasize this radical feature they have been
called planetesimals. The term embodies the soul of the hypothesis and
suggests the dynamics that actuated the later evolution.

This evolution consisted of the natural and inevitable gathering of
these planetesimals into the nebular knots serving as nuclei of growth
forming ultimately planets, planetoids and satellites. The crossing of
the initial orbits and the precessions and perturbations that inevitably
arose from the interaction of various parts of the nebula, were the chief
agencies in facilitating a gradual organization of the intertangled plane-
tesimal system of elliptical orbits into the simpler and more harmonious
sub-circular orbits of the present planets.

In the absence of time to delineate more fully this evolution, we may
perhaps be pardoned an expression of the conviction that in the natural
course of such evolution the many special features of the planetary sys-
tem, not excepting its seemingly strange anomalies of rotation and reve-
lution, find satisfactory explanation.?

Our special picture of the genesis of our planet, then, is that of an
earth growing up about a nebulous “knot” through the rather slow
accession of planetesimals, and taking on its mature form by gradual
stages under general influences not radically different from those that
presided over its later history, save in the gradual diminution of its rate
of growth. Some of the salient features of this growth, some of the
configurations that were acquired, and some of the dominant processes

2A fuller exposition of the hypothesis will appear in ‘‘The Origin of the
Earth,’’ a book about to issue from The University of Chicago Press.

THE EVOLUTION OF THE EARTH 437

upon which the planet entered, at maturity, will be the subject of our
second lecture,

In a closing word, may I invite attention again to the essential sim-
plicity of the assigned process of rejuvenation by which the sun gave
birth to its present planetary family. It involves no postulate of general
destruction and re-creation. There is no appeal indeed to any event that
may properly be regarded as other than in the natural course of astro-
nomic events. It is merely postulated that one of the simplest and most
inevitable of astronomic events stimulated a partial deployment of the
sun and gave birth to our modest little planet. The genesis of a plane-
tary family was perhaps quite as much in the natural order of things in
the heavens as was the initiation of a biological family in the course of
terrestrial history.

438 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

IMMIGRATION AND THE WAR

By PROFESSOR ROBERT DE C. WARD

HARVARD UNIVERSITY

CRISIS has been reached in our immigration policy. The war

has, for the moment, very largely reduced the flow of aliens to

our shores. For the first time in many decades we have breathing space.

On the other hand, the effects of the war upon the peoples from which

cur future immigration will come are likely to be far-reaching. This

fact will, after the war is over, bring us face to face with many new and

difficult problems which need careful consideration at the present time.

We must think clearly, decide wisely and act quickly. We need new
immigration legislation. We need it at once.

Our present consideration naturally comes under three heads. First,
the present status of immigration. Second, the probable future volume
and character of immigration. Third, the necessary changes in our
existing immigration laws.

The Present Status of Immigration.—From a total annual immigra-
tion of nearly a million and a half during the fiscal years 1913 and 1914,
and-an annual net increase in alien population (7. e., deducting the num-
bers of those who returned to their own countries) of 800,000, the num-
ber of immigrant aliens fell to a little over 325,000 during the year
ending June 30,1915. Further, owing to the unusually large numbers
who left this country, the actual increase in our population through
immigration was only 50,000."

During the months July to December, inclusive, the number of
arrivals was 169,291; of departures, 166,899, leaving a net increase of
population of 2,392. The war has thus brought us, suddenly and un-
expectedly, face to face with a great experiment in restriction—restric-
tion of a far more drastic sort than has ever been suggested by any but
a few of our most radical exclusionists. Furthermore, the war has
brought, temporarily, an interesting change in the racial character of’
our alien arrivals. The majority of those coming in recent months has
been from northern and western Europe, whereas, under ordinary con-
ditions, nearly three-quarters of our immigrants are southern and eastern
Europeans. The British Isles, Holland, Denmark, the Scandinavian
countries, from all of which there has been a fairly regular steam-
ship service, have kept on sending us about their usual quota. Of
those aliens who have returned home for military duty, the large ma-

1 For the sake of simplicity, these statistics are given in round numbers.

IMMIGRATION AND THE WAR 439

jority came originally from southern and eastern Europe. Immigra-
tion restrictionists have observed with satisfaction that there has been
less unemployment than usual during this winter, even in our large
eastern cities, and realize, what they have always maintained, that re-
ducing the inflow of unskilled labor must inevitably simplify and lighten
all our burdens of public and private charity. They observe, also, that
there has been no widespread, serious or disturbing lack of labor in our
great industries or public undertakings. The predictions of those who
have persistently maintained that even a very moderate restriction of
immigration would immediately lead to a labor shortage and greatly
curtail our industries have been shown to be in error. It is true that
there has been somewhat of a deficiency in the supply of domestic
servants, especially in New York City. This is partly due to the demand
of the factories for more operatives. And in any case, the situation is
not without its advantages, if it results, as it undoubtedly must, in more
efficient and less wasteful housekeeping.

An important eastern newspaper, which has always strongly opposed
the further restriction of immigration, recently lamented the fact that
the present small alien inflow would result in somewhat higher wages
for our laboring classes. ‘This puts the case very squarely before us.
Unrestricted immigration; lower wages; cheap labor; un-American
standards of living, on the one hand. A reasonable selection and re-
striction of immigration; better wages; more intelligent labor; Amer-
ican standards of living, on the other.

The Probable Future Volume of Our Immigration.—Is immigration
likely to be greater after the war than before it? Or are we to witness a
general and more or less permanent decrease? Our economists are
already considering this question, and Commissioner of Immigration
IF. C. Howe, of New York, has discussed it in several magazine articles.
With most of Commissioner Howe’s conclusions we find ourselves in
general agreement. ‘The demoralization of industry; the breaking-up
of homes; the roving restlessness of millions of men who will never be
able to “settle down” again at home; the greatly increased burdens of
taxation; the desire to fly from the horrors of future wars; the political,
religious and social readjustments with the almost inevitable oppression
and dissatisfaction of multitudes of people; the widespread destitution,
misery and hopelessness; the return to the United States of aliens who
went home to fight and who will bring back with them many of their
countrymen who have never been here; the desire of the foreign-born
already in the United States to bring to America relatives and friends who
are still left abroad—these and other causes will operate to bring us an
increase in immigration which seems likely to surpass anything that
we have ever known. It is easy to see what use the steamship agents

440 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

will make of the conditions following the war, in order to stimulate
emigration from abroad. “Fly from the horrors of war; escape your
taxes; go to a country where there are no wars; where there is no
standing army; where wages are high and work is plenty; go to Amer-
ica.” <A considerable proportion of our immigration even in normal
times is thus artificially stimulated. What will happen after the war
it is easy to guess. Already, plans are being made by foreign companies
for the establishment of new steamship lines, to bring emigrants from
Europe and Asia to the United States.

All this is not mere idle speculation. Our statistics show that recent
wars have in no case been followed by any permanent decrease in emi-
gration from the countries involved. On the contrary, as Professor J.
W. Jenks has pointed out, these wars have usually resulted in a large
and almost immediate increase. After the Franco-Prussian war, immi-
gration to this country from Germany and France increased, and at-
tained its maximum not many years after the war. Greek immigration
increased steadily after the last Turco-Grecian war. The more recent
Balkan war was followed by increased immigration from the Balkan
states. The numbers from Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Greece in
the year after that war were nearly double those of the year preceding
the war. Those who may maintain that immigration will decrease per-
manently after the present war is over have no statistics on which to
base their claim.

On the other hand, of course, there will be tendencies which may
operate to cut down emigration from certain European countries. An
enormous amount of constructive work will have to be done, in the re-
building of roads, railways, bridges, factories and dwellings, and in the
general rehabilitation of what the war will have damaged or destroyed.
Immense numbers of skilled and also of unskilled workmen will be
needed for these enterprises. Owing to the thinning of the ranks of the
most efficient laborers, by death or by injury, during the war, wages may
perhaps rise, but whether the impoverished nations of Europe will be
able to compete with our American wages, and thus keep their people
at home, yet remains to be seen. Again, it is not unlikely that some of
the European governments will take steps to discourage, to check, per-
haps even for a time to prohibit emigration. The work of reconstruction
after the war will go on most actively and most effectively in the coun-
tries of northern and western Europe, where the state and industry are
well organized, and where the plans for reorganization will be carefully
prepared. It is in these countries that there will inevitably be the most
immediate and best paid opportunities for the largest number of labor-
ers. And it is, therefore, from these same countries, from which we
have in the past received our all-around “best” immigrants, that we

IMMIGRATION AND THE WAR 441

are likely to see the greatest falling off in immigration. On the other
hand, in the countries of southern and eastern Europe and of western
Asia, immigration from which has been on the whole more of a problem,
because of the differences in race, political institutions, education and
social habits, there will not be the same organized reconstructive work.
Irom these countries, therefore, so largely in the more primitive con-
dition of agriculture, the forces tending to promote emigration will be
operative to a much greater degree than ever before. Thus the great
preponderance of southern and eastern Europeans, already the most
striking feature in our recent immigration, is likely to be still further
increased after the war is over. ‘To put it briefly, the centripetal tend-
ency, to keep people in Europe, will be greater among the nations of
northern and western Europe; the centrifugal tendency, to drive people
out, will be greater in southern and eastern Europe, and in western Asia.
Balancing the reasons for a possible decrease in our immigration after
the war against those which will bring about an increase, the weight of
probability is strongly on the side of a marked increase. This increase
will doubtless for some years be largely one of women and children,
whose care will throw a very heavy burden upon all our charitable
agencies.

The Probable Future Mental and Physical Character of Our Immi-
gration.—No one who has at heart the future of the American race can
fail to view with concern the probable effects of the war upon the phys-
ical, mental and moral condition of our immigrants. The introduction
of pestilential war diseases, such as cholera, typhus, typhoid fever and
the like, is not greatly to be feared, although some of our medical men
are already viewing this problem with much concern. On the other
hand, the more subtle and much less easily detected venereal diseases,
which are always rampant in great armies in war time, and the mental
breakdowns, of which there are so many thousands of cases among the
soldiers at the front, present another aspect of the health problem which
is far more serious.*. Great numbers of soldiers, although not actually
afflicted with any specific disease, will eventually come to the United
States, maimed, crippled, wounded, enfeebled by illness or exposure,
or mentally unstable. The fittest, mentally and physically ; those who in
the past have had the initiative and the courage to emigrate, will be
dead, at the prime of life, or will be needed at home to carry on the work
of rebuilding and reorganization. These are the men whom Europe will
do its utmost to keep at home. The least fit are likely to emigrate. Many
of those who, because of mental or physical disability, will find them-
selves least able to earn a living abroad, will be the very ones most

*It is very significant that the final report (March, 1916) of Lord Sydea-

ham’s Royal Commission on Social Diseases dwells particularly upon the inevi-
table effect of the war in greatly increasing the seriousness of the situation.

442 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

likely to be “assisted” by relatives and friends in this country to “ come
to America.” Against the emigration of such persons the European
governments will not set up any barriers. There are good- grounds,
therefore, for expecting, with reasonable certainty, that our immigration
in the next few decades after the war will be of a lower physical and
mental standard than it has been in the past.

The moral effects of the war are by no means to be disregarded.
As Commissioner Howe has clearly pointed out, a widespread demorali-
zation will prevail among the peoples now at war, resulting from life in
the army; the breaking off of family ties and responsibilities; the rest-
lessness and difficulty of settling down again after the fighting is over;
the craving for freedom and liberty as soon as the military discipline
is relaxed. Our future immigration is sure to contain a large propor-
tion of these disturbed, restless, irresponsible men; less amenable to
law and order; less disposed to conform to our conditions of life; less
easily assimilable, than has been the case in the past. The interruption
of the education of multitudes of young men who have been called on for
military service, and who will never take up again their scholastic or vo-
cational training, is a serious phase of our general problem. This group
will go forth into the world insufficiently and unsatisfactorily prepared
for the business of life. For years to come, our immigration will include
large numbers of youths and of men whose standards of education will
be lower than would have been the case had there been no war.

And what of the more distant future? What of the effects upon the
unborn generations? ‘This question is obviously a difficult one. Opin-
ions vary greatly in regard to it. As a rather extreme representative of
one side, we may turn to Dr. David Starr Jordan’s latest book, whose
title clearly indicates the message which its author seeks to bring, “ War
and the Breed: the Relation of War to the Downfall of Nations”
(1915). War, as Dr. Jordan strikingly puts it, “impoverishes the
breed.” The strongest and best men are the ones who are killed or
injured, and who leave few or no children. The weaklings live, marry
and continue the race. The result is an inevitable impoverishment of
the stock. Dr. Jordan notes the reduction in the required height of
French soldiers as the result of the Napoleonic wars and the killing off
and wounding of the taller men. The French and German babies of
1870-71 who came to be mustered as soldiers twenty years later, were
found to be an inferior lot of men. And, more recently, as noted by
Dr. Jordan in Science (New York), a similar condition has occurred in
Japan. The Japanese children born at the time of the war between
China and Japan, twenty years ago, became conscripts in 1915. Ac-
cording to the Asahi of Tokyo, as translated in the Japan Chronicle, the
number of conscripts in Tokyo decreased over 16 per cent. For Japan

IMMIGRATION AND THE WAR 443

as a whole there was an increase of conscripts in 1915, but the rate of
increase was only 30 to 50 per cent. of the normal. Furthermore, a
lowering in the quality of the new soldiers is distinctly observable. The
Asahi says that “most of those who underwent conscript examinations
this year were born during the war and therefore are sons of those too
old or too weak to go to the front, and so it is no surprising thing if the
conscripts of 1915 are of exceptionally delicate constitution.” This
“impoverishment of the breed,” in Dr. Jordan’s opinion, is an inevi-
table result of war. The longer the conflict continues, the more serious
will be the effects upon future generations. The weakling fathers—too
young, too old, or too feeble to fight—and the improperly nourished,
overworked and harassed mothersof Europe, are handing on to their chil-
dren who are now being born an inheritance of physical and mental un-
fitness which will mark not only this generation but future generations,
through the long vista of the time to come. An increase in the number
of defective children, now and hereafter, is a condition which Europe
must face, and which, because it will affect the character of our immi-
grants, vitally concerns the United States. Dr. Ales Hrdlicka, of the
Smithsonian Institution, one of our leading anthropologists, contributes
to Dr. Jordan’s book an opinion as to the probable effects of heavy artil-
lery firing on the nervous systems of soldiers in the war. He believes
that subjection to the constant roar of the firing will “result in a more
or less defective mental or nervous state in the progeny of such in-
dividuals.”

Dr. Jordan’s view may be thought rather extreme. The problem is
a highly complex one. There are not lacking those who take a differ-
ent position. It is pointed out that wars have been so constant, not
only in Europe, but over most of the world, that if wars do result in
racial deterioration, national degeneracy should have followed them.
Again, it is urged that by no means all of the physically and mentally
fit who go to war are killed, or are so impaired in body or mind as to
be undesirable fathers for future generations of offspring. The num-
ber and the quality of the men who will survive the war is at present an
unknown and indeterminable element in the problem. Professor Ros-
well H. Johnson, of the University of Pittsburgh, has recently warned
ust against sweeping and unqualified statements that war is either good
or bad in its effects on the human race. Some wars are mainly good;
cthers mainly bad. <A conscripted army is likely to be physically, and
probably also in other respects, superior to the bulk of the population.
The conditions of poverty, improper sanitation and inadequate medical
treatment in the homes tend toward a deterioration of the race. Many
factors must thus be taken into account. In summing up his argument,
Professor Johnson says:

3 Journal of Heredity, December, 1915.

444 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

In the present war it would seem that the high quality of both sides com-
pared with the rest of the world is so predominant a dysgenic factor that,
together with the other dysgenic features, the eugenic results are overbalanced.
The human species therefore, on account of this, is at present declining in in-
herent quality faster than in any previous length of time.

In connection with this particular subject, it is highly significant
that Germany, which is universally recognized as preeminently the mili-
tary power of the world, and whose scientific study of military problems
is so thoroughly organized, should already be giving serious attention to
the racial effects of the war. On October 26-28, 1915, there was held in
Berlin, a Tagung fur die Erhaltung und Mehrung der deutschen Volks-
kraft—surely a highly significant designation. Over one thousand dele-
gates attended, and the proceedings were marked by an extraordinary
unanimity of sentiment. It was recognized that “war kills the best, the
bravest, the healthiest, eradicating once for all the finest strains of the
race.” There was serious discussion with a view to bringing about an
increased multiplication of the fit by various means, chiefly the assist-
ance of large families of healthy stock.

From the foregoing considerations it appears that the effect of the
Great War upon the United States, will, unless all signs fail, be profound
and far-reaching. For it will affect the mental, physical and even moral
characteristics of millions of our future immigrants and of their de-
scendants.

The Idealist and Immigration Restriction —There is still in our
midst a group of idealists who shudder at the mere thought of a further
regulation of immigration. They hold fast to the vision of the universal
brotherhood of man. They call “narrow,” “ ungenerous,” “ selfish,”
“un-American,” any one who suggests further immigration legislation.
They point out what an enormous debt our country owes to its foreign-
born citizens. They never tire of reminding us of the remarkable achieve-
ments of foreign-born children in our public schools. They have ab-
solute confidence in the strength of our institutions to assimilate all
people, of every land, who may choose to come here. They believe that
this is the world’s great “melting pot,” where race hatred and race
differences are to be forever done away with. They produce such end-
less and impressive statistics to prove that our recent immigrants are
far ahead of the native-born in all that pertains to good citizenship that
we sometimes cannot help wondering how our ancestors, of Anglo-Saxon
_ stock, who originally settled the United States, ever had the genius and
the wisdom and the courage to fight the Revolutionary War, or to
develop our American democratic government. ‘They believe in keep-
ing the United States forever the “asylum and the refuge for the
cown-trodden and oppressed of all nations.” Wonderful ideals these
are, and tremendously inspiring, when eloquently presented, is the

IMMIGRATION AND THE WAR 445

thought of the “haven of refuge.” Yet those who hold these views,
sincere though they are, are nevertheless inconsistent. Not one of them
really believes in a “haven” open, unrestrictedly, to all comers. Not
one really believes that we ought to admit, unreservedly, the insane, the
idiot, the criminal, the prostitute, those who have “loathsome or
dangerous contagious disease.” There are probably none of them who
want our doors wide open for all time for the incoming of millions upon
millions of Chinese, Japanese and Hindus. They may think themselves
perfectly sincere when they use the haven argument, but they are obvi-
ously not so. They really do not want their “asylum,” of which they
say so much, to become an insane asylum, nor their “refuge” to become
an almshouse or a penitentiary.

Standing close behind these idealists—whom the late Gen. Francis
A. Walker well termed “optimists beyond all bounds of reason ”—and
using the same eloquent and catchy appeals, come the manufacturer, the
land owner, the contractor, the railroad and the steamship man—all
profiting directly through the influx of unlimited “cheap labor”; all
demanding more “ hands,” and most of them indifferent as to the con-
ditions of the bodies and of the minds which of necessity go with these
“hands.” Our large employers of labor naturally enough use the
“brotherhood of man” and the “haven of refuge” appeal. It blinds
people to their real motive. Thus many of our idealists have been
misled into cooperating with these “‘ big money ” interests, not realizing
that the true motive which controls these is purely selfish. Another
group which is strongly opposed to immigration restriction is made up
of the leaders of our foreign-born colonies, mostly contractors, steamship
agents, small bankers, newspaper men, and the like, all of whom feed
on our recent immigrants and want the supply to continue as large as
possible. And politicians whose positions depend upon the votes of
foreign-born citizens constitute another small but very noisy group, also
ranged behind the banners inscribed “‘ Haven of Refuge” and “ Asylum
for the Oppressed.” Professor E. A. Ross, of the University of Wis-
consin, has clearly brought out one fact in regard to the idealists which
is not generally appreciated and yet has great significance.

The investor, landowner, and contractor can well afford to preach world-
wide brotherhood. The professional man sitting serene above the arena of
struggle can nobly rebuke narrowness and race hatred. Throughout our com-
fortable classes one finds high-sounding humanitarianism and facile lips of sym-
pathy for immigrants coexistent with heartless indifference to what depressive
immigration is doing and will do to American wage earners and their children.
If the stream of immigration included capitalists with funds, merchants ready
to invade all lines of business, lawyers, doctors, engineers, and professors quali-
fied to compete immediately with our professional men, even judges and officials

able to lure votes away from their own candidates for office, the pressure would
be felt all along the line and there might be something heroic in these groups

446 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

standing for the equal right,of all races to American opportunities. But since
actually the brunt is borne by labor, it is easy for the shielded to indulge in
generous views on the subject of immigration.

Necessary Changes in Our Immigration Laws.—There is one thing
about our immigration legislation which it is essential to keep in
mind. The whole subject is a very difficult one. To understand
it one must know the history of immigration and of our immigra-
tion laws from the beginning; the regulations which at different
times have governed the enforcement of these laws; the interpreta-
tions which have been put upon them by the courts; and the actual
workings of the laws as compared with the way in which they were in-
tended to work. For the layman to have knowledge of these facts is
clearly rarely possible. And laymen who, without sufficient knowledge
of the subject, write or speak on immigration legislation, simply add to
the confusion, bring themselves into ridicule, and delay the enactment
of proper laws. In this matter, as in so many others, the only way is to
accept the conclusions of the experts. Our present immigration laws
aim to exclude some twenty-one classes of mentally, physically, morally
and economically undesirable aliens. On paper, the list of the excluded
classes is long and formidable, and seems amply sufficient. But careful
and unprejudiced students of immigration, both within the immigra-
tion service and outside of it, agree that we have not been keeping out
the unfit sufficiently even to preserve the mental and physical status quo
of our population, to say nothing of promoting any improvement. These
laws grew up slowly, as the result of experience extending over many
years. They have served as the basis for the immigration legislation of
Great Britain and of Canada. They were not the result of any “ know-
nothing” agitation, of the sudden demand of a political party, or of the
whim of a moment. As recently as 1875 we excluded only criminals
and prostitutes. Slowly, deliberately, carefully, this legislation was
planned and enacted. Nevertheless, the experience of years has brought
the defects to light. Competent government immigration officials have
pointed them out. Disinterested citizens, and economists, and medical
men and social workers, have studied these laws, and have shown us
where they fail to accomplish their purpose. The last few years have
witnessed a very remarkable spirit of cooperation among our experts on
immigration matters in the effort to frame new legislation which shall
really be adequate to meet the conditions which experience has shown to
exist. There is a bill now before the House of Representatives (H. R.
10384, Union Calendar No. 36, Report No. 95) which, all things con-
sidered, is the most comprehensive immigration bill ever introduced into
Congress. It is the result of years of careful study of our present law
and of its workings. Its provisions, as the commissioner-general of
immigration says in his last annual report (June 30, 1915), “contain

IMMIGRATION AND THE WAR 447

the result of experience and investigation—of the experience of ad-
ministrative officers, extending over nearly a quarter of a century, in
the enforcement of various statutes regulating immigration, and of the
investigations conducted variously but in particular by the Immigration
Commission, created under the act of 1907, the report of which, com-
prising 42 volumes, was submitted to Congress in December, 1910.”
The provisions of this bill “have been drawn with great care and
thoughtfulness, . . . by them the law is made certain in its definitions
and clear in its term throughout—improvements badly needed in the
existing statute.” The bill aims to protect the United States against
the incoming of mentally and physically, and of otherwise unfit and
undesirable aliens. It also embodies several provisions which would
ensure more humane treatment to the aliens themselves, and would,
to a large extent, do away with the hardships involved in the deportation
of aliens who are excluded at our ports, by preventing their original
embarkation. And in response to the ever increasing demand—greatly
strengthened by the probable effects of the war—for the further restric-
tion of economically undesirable immigration, the bill also proposes
certain amendments designed to keep out some of this group.

The bill is largely a codification of our existing immigration laws,
but embodies several important new provisions. It is clearly out of the
question to discuss this bill, which covers 62 pages of print, in detail in
the present article. It is our purpose merely to call attention to a few
of the more important changes which its enactment would make in our
present laws, but with special reference to the exclusion of the mentally
and physically unfit. In regard to the better detection, exclusion and
deportation of this group there is no essential difference of opinion
among those who have the future of our race at heart. The unanimity
of feeling in this matter is encouraging, but, in view of our past ex-
perience with mentally and physically defective aliens who have been
admitted to this country, it is not surprising.

To the excluded classes the bill adds persons of constitutional psy-
chopathic inferiority and persons with chronic alcoholism, both of
which designations have a definite meaning to alienists, and to the
surgeons of the United States Public Health Service. That many per-
sons not properly to be certified as insane but who would, in many cases,
become insane soon after arrival, could be kept out under the former
provision, has long been the opinion of the physicians, the alienists and
the immigration officials who have made a special study of this subject,
and who have for years strongly urged the inclusion of this new pro-
vision in our immigration law. Chronic alcoholics, who are surely un-
desirable members of our community, are often discovered by our
examining surgeons, but as the law does not now state specifically that

448 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

they shall be excluded they must in most cases be allowed to land. The
new bill excludes vagrants, and persons afflicted with tuberculosis in any
form. It also aims to prevent the embarkation of aliens afflicted with
idiocy, insanity, imbecility, feeblemindedness, epilepsy, constitutional
psychopathic inferiority, chronic alcoholism, tuberculosis in any form, or
a loathsome or dangerous contagious disease, by imposing upon steam-
ship companies who bring such aliens a fine of $200 plus the amount
paid by the excluded alien from his initial point of departure provided
the secretary of labor is satisfied that the defects could have been detected
by a competent medical examination before embarkation. This is an
excellent and humane provision, and would go far toward making these
companies more careful in the sale of passage tickets, and would save
many unfortunate aliens the disappointment and hardship of being
deported after arrival at our ports. The present fine is $100, has been
shown to be too small to be really effective, and does not cover as many
cases as are above enumerated. A new fine of $25, plus the alen’s
transportation expenses, is established in cases of certain other less
serious mental defects, and of physical defects which may affect an
alien’s ability to earn his living.

The new bill provides for a very much more thorough medical ex-
amination of arriving aliens, especially with reference to the detection
of mental diseases; gives the medical inspectors the exclusive services
of interpreters, and suitable facilities for the detention and examination
of the aliens. This amendment has been strongly urged by the united
action of the most important scientific bodies in the United States which
deal with the prevention and treatment of mental disease, by state
medical associations and by individual physicians all over the country.
That our medical inspection has been hopelessly inadequate has long
deen known to the experts. We have not had enough medical in-
spectors, and those on duty have not had adequate facilities for their
work. Thus it has come about that, in spite of our law prohibiting the
udmission of insane and mentally defective aliens, our institutions have
been filling up with just these people. As Dr. T. W. Salmon, of the
National Committee for Mental Hygiene, has well said:

There is no reason for the acceptance of a single insane or mentally undesir-
able alien except inability to determine his condition.

It is a very significant fact that, with the decrease in immigration
since the war, particularly at New York, a more rigid medical inspec-
tion has become possible. This “intensive examination” has resulted
in a marked increase in the numbers of aliens certified as having physical
or mental defects. “ Certainly,” says the commissioner-general, “ there
could be no better or more convincing argument... for increasing the
medical force sufficiently to insure that no alien shall be admitted to the

IMMIGRATION AND THE WAR 449

country until he has been subjected to a medical inspection really cal-
culated to disclose his mental or physical deficiencies.” With this state-
ment all public-spirited citizens will surely agree.

The new bill extends from 3 to 5 years the period during which
aliens may be deported who at the time of entry belonged to one or more
of the excluded classes; who have become public charges from causes
existing prior to landing; and of some other groups. ‘This extension
of the deportation period has been urged, year in and year out, by heads
of institutions who have had to do with dependent, defective and de-
linquent aliens, by organized charitable societies, and, perhaps most
strongly, by the former commissioner of immigration at the port of New
York, Hon. Wm, Williams, whose thorough, sane and illuminating
study of the whole immigration problem has contributed greatly to our
understanding of the subject. It is the conviction of all the unpreju-
diced experts who have studied this problem that a five-year deportation
period would relieve our penal and charitable institutions of an enor-
mous financial burden, reaching into the millions of dollars, and would
rid our communities of large numbers of defectives who otherwise
would remain here, many of them a burden upon state or city, and many
of them starting long lines of defective and delinquent children.

The new bill strengthens the provisions of existing law regarding
the “White Slave” traffic; makes the inspection of steerage quarters
more thorough; compels steamship companies, when deporting aliens,
to give such aliens as good quarters as those for which they paid on the
voyage to this country; makes possible the expulsion from the country
of alien anarchists and criminals, even when they have become such
after entry; and in many other ways provides for the welfare of the
alien as well as for the welfare of the United States.

All these new provisions regarding the more effective exclusion and
the deportation of mentally and physically unfit aliens have been care-
fully drawn, as above stated, after consultation with experts who have
seriously studied these particular aspects of our immigration problem.
They were all suggested and strongly urged upon Congress years before
the war broke out. Their enactment into law should have been effected
long ago, under the usual conditions of normal immigration. But
every argument in favor of this legislation has gained weight, incal-
culably, in view of the probable effects of the war upon the character of
our future immigrants. As the commissioner-general says in his last
annual report, the adoption of these amendments now “becomes an
imperative necessity.” It is for the best interests of our future race;
it is for the best interests, in the long run, of humanity at large, to
prevent, as far as may be possible, the coming to this country of the
mental and physical derelicts of the war. It is unfair and ungenerous

VOL. u.—31.

450 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

to future generations of Americans to saddle upon them the tremendous
burden of supporting not only the present generation of these people,
but the long lines of their descendants. It is not doing our share in the
promotion of race betterment if we, who have the matter in our own
hands to-day, do not act at once, before it is too late.

The demand from the country at large for a further restriction of
immigration which is “economically undesirable” has resulted in the
inclusion, in the pending bill, of certain provisions which aim more or
less directly at restriction, whereas the amendments above considered,
relating to mentally and physically unfit aliens, are rather matters of the
public health and safety than of a large regulation of immigration. It
is clearly the temper of Congress as shown during the past few years,
to combine all immigration legislation into one general bill. Hence we
must consider briefly the provisions which have an economic, as well as
those which have medical bearing.

The new bill excludes Hindus, whose immigration has only recently
begun, but whose coming in inevitably larger and larger numbers will,
if unchecked, lead us into many serious racial and economic difficulties.
Tt increases the head tax from $4 to $8, but exempts children under 16
who accompany their father or mother. Under the present law, every
alien, even an infant in arms, is required to pay a tax of $4. In prac-
tise, however, the tax is paid by the steamship company, and is not a
provision oppressive to the arriving alien.

The new bill provides for a reading test, in a very mild form, by
excluding “all aliens over 16 years of age, physically capable of reading,
who can not read the English language, or some other language or dia-
lect, including Hebrew or Yiddish.” Sweeping exceptions are made in
the case of fathers and grandfathers over 55; wives, mothers, grand-
mothers, unmarried and widowed daughters; and of all aliens who are
fleeing from religious persecution abroad. This is not the place to
present any argument in favor of the reading test. It was recom-
mended by 8 out of 9 members of the U. S. Immigration Commission
“as the most feasible single method of restricting undesirable immigra-
tion.” It has been endorsed, over and over again, by state legislatures ;
boards of charity ; philanthropic organizations of all kinds; labor bodies;
chambers of commerce; by our leading authorities on immigration and
by citizens in all walks of life. In the past twenty years a reading test,
often in a more severe form than the one at present proposed, has passed
one House of Congress or the other more than twenty times. It has
been truly said:

If ever the citizenship of the United States has given endorsement to any

measure of legislation, it certainly has done so to the principles embodied in this
bill.

IMMIGRATION AND THE WAR 451

Of course, to object to the reading test on the ground that it “ will
not exclude the educated rascal” is a sign either of gross ignorance or
of a wilful attempt to mislead. The reading test is not to replace any
existing provision of the present law. It is to be added to our pres-
ent provisions. Criminals are already mentioned among the excluded
classes, and we keep them out when we can, and as well as we can,
although everybody familiar with the law, and with the difficulties of
its enforcement, knows perfectly well that we really have no effective
means of keeping out this group. No one maintains that the reading
test is an ideal, or a perfect “solution” of our problem. As the editor
of the Review of Reviews recently wrote:

The application of new tests could be made now with less practical incon-
venience than at a later time. That of ability to read is far from being a log-
ically perfect one; but it was recomménded by the Immigration Commission,
several years ago, after a vast and impartial study of the whole problem. It is
not likely that this test would operate to shut out very many desirable immi-
grants. It would, however, affect appreciably that great tide of labor that
moves back and forth in the steerage, retaining its citizenship in the countries
of eastern and southern Europe. The literacy test could be so modified and
applied in a reasonable spirit as not to exclude many families whose addition
to our citizenship is to be encouraged.

And Dr. Edward T. Devine, than whom we have no higher authority
on all matters of public and private philanthropy, has, in endorsing the
reading test, expressed similar views.

A bill containing a similar provision was vetoed by President Cleve-
land March 2, 189%, partly because of an objectionable clause which
would have led to friction with Canada; was promptly passed over his
veto by the House, and would have been passed over the veto by the
Senate if it had not been crowded out by a tremendous pressure of busi-
ness just in the very last hours of that Congress. The pending reading
test is much more liberal than that of twenty years ago. There was not
the same reason for it then asthereisnow. And President Cleveland said,
after the expiration of his term, that his veto of that immigration bill
was one of the great regrets of his public life. In February, 1913, a
general immigration bill embodying a reading test passed both Houses
of Congress by an overwhelming vote, and was vetoed by President Taft.
Instead of writing his veto message himself, President Taft sent to Con-
gress a memorandum written by his Secretary of Commerce and Labor,
Hon, Charles Nagel, of St. Louis, who had always been strongly opposed
to any really effective regulation of immigration. This bill passed the
Senate over the veto by a vote of 4 to 1, and was lost in the House by
only a few votes less than the necessary two thirds.

During the last Congress (sixty-third) a very similar bill passed the
House by a vote of 2 to 1; the Senate by a vote of 7 or 8 to 1; and only

452 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

failed by a few votes of: passage over President Wilson’s veto. The
latter was based partly upon a clause in the bill which seemed to the
President to take away the right of asylum in this country for political
refugees. This matter has been remedied in the present bill.

Thus the pending bill comes up before Congress once more, embody-
ing provisions for the preservation of our public health by more effective
exclusion of mentally and physically undesirable aliens; providing for
more humane and fairer treatment of the aliens themselves; and exclud-
ing certain additional groups which, in the opinion of our immigration
experts, are economically or racially unfit. It is natural that so complex
a bill, codifying all our existing immigration laws, and making changes
in them, should meet with opposition. Some of this opposition is
honest and sincere. Much of it is based on misconceptions of what the
present law is and of the ways in which the new bill would modify it.
Much of it is the result of agitation by “ interested” persons who do not
hesitate to mislead the foreign-born members of our communities by
wilful misstatements of facts, and deliberate falsehoods regarding the
actual wording and purpose of the bill. When no less eminent a citizen
than Cardinal Gibbons was misled into thinking that the immigration
bill which passed the last Congress required ability to read English, it is
not surprising that the great masses of our recent immigrants are even
more mistaken. Much of the opposition, now as always, comes from the
railroad and steamship companies, and from the large employers of
labor. Some of it is coming from the Japanese and the Chinese.

In the midst of all this tangle, it is the business of those of us who
know the facts, and who understand the purpose and meaning of the
new bill, to keep our minds clear and sane; to urge, insistently, that
more attention ought to be paid to the needs of the people of the country
as a whole and much less to the meetings, and speeches, and noisy
“resolutions” of this or that group; to point out that the mental and
physical welfare of the future American race should first of all be safe-
guarded, and that the demands of any local, or temporary, or selfish, or
narrow interest are not for an instant to be put ahead of this, the most
important of all our national responsibilities.

BUILDING AND LOAN ASSOCIATIONS 453

BUILDING AND LOAN ASSOCIATIONS THE SOLUTION OF
THE RURAL CREDIT PROBLEM

By Prorpssor WILBUR O. HEDRICK

MICHIGAN AGRICULTURAL COLLEGR

ee enjoyment of his personal credit has become a matter of larger

concern to the thrifty bread winner during recent years than was
formerly true. The limiting of liability for collective indebtedness and
the abolishment of prison sentences for debt, which took place simul-
taneously in civilized countries a half century ago, did much to re-
lieve the odium and danger which prior to this time had attended using
one’s credit and made borrowing—especially for productive purposes—
not only permissible, but actually commendable.

The opening of this newly approved field of opportunity was at once
taken advantage of by many new credit-handling organizations. Banks
increased in numbers wonderfully and, in addition to banks, trust com-
panies, savings banks, building and loan associations, investment com-
panies and many other credit agencies of lesser note came into existence
for the handling of certain special supplies of or demands for this great
resource. Credit is, indeed, in all its aspects essentially of the same
nature—the transfer of something of a valuable character to another
without an immediate equivalent in return—and it has as many vari-
eties as there are credit agencies, or, literally, as there are uses or sup-
plies. Thus there is bank credit, building and loan credit, merchants’
credit, and, more technically, short or long credit, secured and unsecured
credit and many others reflecting the effects of multitudes of practical
influences.

The farmer’s need for credit is of a highly specialized sort. The
canvass of the credit needs of the farmer made by the Department of
Agriculture in 1912-13 shows that it is customarily a period of from
four months to four years which measures the length of the loan which
farmers desire to make. The credit loans made by farmers for the
shorter period is in the nature of advances upon crops for the growing
of which the farmer is naturally short of means at seed time, but is
opulent at time of marketing, for carrying cattle through feeding time
and, in short, for defraying current expenses. The longer period of
credit loans is for buying land, building silos or for making other per-
manent improvements. It will be seen at once that the farmer’s use of
credit is for investment purposes and that his patronage of customary
banking agencies helps but little the store of liquid assets which are
indispensable to the successfulness of the ordinary commercial banks.

454 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

The ordinary commercial banks are indeed limited by many handi-
caps in their dealings with farmers. In addition to purveying a variety
of credit, which at its best is absolutely useless to farmers, commercial
banks have an expensiveness of management which increases’ materially
the cost of borrowing to the farmer. The up-to-date consumer and
producer of commodities everywhere believes firmly that a cause of the
current high prices of commodities may be found in the existence of too
much interference, too much friction, too many hindrances (as a result of
our middleman system) in the passage of products from their place of
origin to their place of consumption. May not a similar explanation ac-
count for the high charges which bankers make for the transfer of credit
from the hands of depositors to the hand of borrowers? Expensive legal
regulations, for example, restrict the banker in all directions. He is
legislated upon with regard to inspection, to his reserves, to his owner-
ship liabilities, his interest charges, his mortgage foreclosures, limita-
tions of loans to borrowers, creditability of farm lands to one half value,
form of bank issues, character of securities, ete. An examination of
these typical regulations will show that most of them are framed in the
interests of the depositors and have for their purpose the worthy object
of insuring a bank’s business safety. But are such safeguards necessary
for credit agencies which deal only with farmers, and should the country-
man pay the increased price for his loans caused by the regulations which
are intended as safeguards against the more speculative business of the
city?

So small a point even as that of variation in business habits on the
part of farmers and bankers tends constantly toward the estrangement
of these two classes each from the other. The farmer is proverbially
Jax in keeping appointments with a bank, but the bank proverbially is
adjusted to methods of punctuality. Most farmers also wish the cash
itself when borrowings are made from banks, instead of merely credit;
on the other hand, bankers wish to loan credit and are loath indeed to
allow cash to be taken from their possession. Little frictions of this
sort, however, are not, in fact, irremediable, but the serious one of ap-
plying an agency adjusted to the demands of one occupation to perform-
ing a service for another and very different occupation does not seem
easily capable of reconciliation.

The penitential self-searching which our nation gave itself a few
years ago in carrying out the far-famed conservation movement resulted
in a few things which promise to be more lasting than the discovery of
agricultural credit. It is true that farm credit had not been unknown
among our many economic resources prior to this time, but it required
the stress of a national hunt seeking our most remote and minutest
assets for conservation purposes to bring out this great utility and
reveal its actual proportions and real importance. It is with the con-

BUILDING AND LOAN ASSOCIATIONS 455

servation movement then—conservation of our human as well as our
natural resources—with its problems of reforestation, of slum recovery,
of desert reclamation and white slavery that the question of rural credit
comes up.

A contributory reason for the appearance of this question among us,
furthermore, is found in the enormous growth in value attained by
farm property in recent years. The census of 1910 shows that during
the preceding decade farm land had increased in value more than 100
per cent., and that the annual agricultural output had grown from about
four billions in 1899 to nine billions in 1910. It has now grown to
many more billions than this, with corresponding increases in the value
of land. The existence of so much negotiable wealth in any occupation
must necessarily add immensely to the credit possibilities within that
eccupation over what had previously prevailed.

The handling of the credit which arises from this stupendous amount
of wealth has rested mainly in the past with the ordinary commercial
banks of the country. The growth in numbers and profitableness of
these institutions—national, state and private—within the last decade
and a half is looked upon everywhere as phenomenal and little doubt
can be felt by any one that much of the prosperity which this banking
pursuit has enjoyed is derived from the increasing prosperity of farmers.
The commercial banks indeed have been wide awake to the possibilities
of this new field of credit resouree—especially from the standpoint of its
furnishing a new source of credit supply or deposits. In addition to the
usual advertising, for example, which banks of all sorts put out to
secure customers, bankers’ organizations, both state and national, have
in recent years appointed active committees upon agriculture to look
after this interest in connection with their occupation, one or two agri-
cultural banking periodicals have come into existence, local bankers have
been among the chief promoters of the county farm agent undertaking
in our various counties and banks everywhere vie with the railroads in
the promotion of agriculture in the different neighborhoods through
financing dairy-yield rivalries or alfalfa- and corn-growing contests.

The outcome of greatest note from the abnormal credit conditions
described above has been the enlistment of the national government in
the cause of improved rural credit. The Washington authorities have
actively sympathized with the improvement of farm credit facilities for
at least two reasons. First, because it was thought that better credit to
the farmers would better agricultural production and lower the cost of
living ; and, second, because an improved supply of long-time farm credit
might stop the spread of tenancy which is now so menacing, through
allowing more farmers capital wherewith to buy farms. A gather-
ing of the House of Governors considered the proper steps to be taken
upon this matter in 1912, and two great commissions were sent abroad

456 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

by the combined state and national governments a year later to study the
problem in Europe. The report to Congress of one of these commissions
embodied a bill which provided for land-mortgage banks chartered by
the federal government which should be similar in character to those of
European countries. This bill was actively considered by congressional
committees during the entire year following a promise from the admin-
istration in connection with the enactment of the federal reserve law,
that rural credit legislation should be immediately taken up for adop-
tion under a separate bill. The president’s annual message also strongly
urged the adoption of rural credit relief. In spite of this promise and
this message, the rural credit bill was finally shelved so far as the first
Wilson congress was concerned, by a congressional caucus late in the ses-
sion. The Congress which ended last March appointed finally a com-
mission, which should hold recess “ hearings” and bring in a satisfactory
rural credit bill at the commencement of the present session.

The improved rural-credit plan toward which the government is tend-
ing with its approval is the land-mortgage bank scheme, so conspicuously
successful in European countries during recent years, and taking form in
Congress through the provisions of the Bulkly-Hollis bill. These banks
are at present with us invariably the product of state legislation. They
are subject to ownership by private corporations and, in some instances,
use state facilities in carrying on their work. Although varying slightly
in details in different localities, their methods of operation are uni-
versally similar and may be quickly described as endeavors to transform
a farm’s creditableness into a shape available for purchase by the in-
vesting public. This is accomplished uniformly in the same fashion,
namely, by taking mortgages upon farms (the loans secured by these
mortgages being in the interests of the borrower of the installment
payment type) and upon the aggregate security of these mortgages
selling bonds in such denominations as best suits the investing customer.
The bonds run for a limited number of years and bear such a rate of
interest as will enable the bank to make a profit between the interest
receipts received upon its mortgages and the interest rate paid upon its
bonds. These banks market their own bonds without the aid of a central
institution and make mortgage loans over a limited territory.

Let us now turn to an examination of the fitness of these land mort-
gage banks in comparison with their rivals, the building and loan asso-
ciations, to undertake successfully the handling of the rural credit
situation. Building and loan associations were first organized in Phila-
delphia in 1831 by working men, and, as their name implies, they are
credit-furnishing societies rather than credit accumulators like the sav-
ings banks. ‘They are cooperative in form of organization, and their
funds are obtained from loaners who are seeking long-time investments.
They have already become so thoroughly established among our credit

BUILDING AND LOAN ASSOCIATIONS 457

handling agencies that most states have provided special laws for the
incorporations of these societies and special methods for their super-
vision. Their growth has been phenomenal, the hand-book for the
national gathering of these associations for 1913 showing an aggregate
of more than six thousand societies with a sum exceeding a billion of
dollars equalling their assets.

Both kinds of institutions we notice at the first glance are similar to
each other in the important fact that their loans are repayable upon the
installment plan—the land-mortgage banks using as an amortization
scheme of arranging its installments while the building and loan com-
panies employ the scheme of the sinking fund. The land mortgage
banks, indeed, have a decided superiority over the loan companies in this
matter of installments through the greater simplicity of the contracts
which they offer to the borrowers. The extreme simplicity of the amor-
tized installment arrangement which the land banks use may be quickly
grasped by any one accustomed to paying debts, but the building and
loan method of using stock as a means to offset a loan is novel, and its
merits are only seen after much explanation. Indeed, it is authori-
tatively claimed that a governmental subsidy to building and loan asso-
ciations could not be used to better purpose than in conducting an
educational campaign by which people generally would come to under-
stand these institutions.

The loan societies and the land banks have both at bottom identical
purposes, since both are largely agencies for the collection of money for
certain definite uses, but the loan associations do this by selling stocks,
the land banks by the sale of bonds. Unquestionably, the well-known
characteristics of each of these two kinds of securities act in a similar
fashion when applied to loan companies and land banks as when applied
to any other type of corporation. The purchaser of a bond looks pri-
marily to the security of his investment. He wants an assured interest
income together with certainty of redemption of his bond at maturity.
The buyer of a stock, however, is willing to assume a risk in the hope of
possible gain. He takes things on a contingent basis. He wishes to
participate in the business itself and the building and loan societies may
properly benefit from this fact that its members, being stockholders, may
be expected to give their common institution its much needed asset of
publicity, while this end is attained by the land banks only through the
use of the customary advertising.

It is sometimes assumed that mortgage banks have an advantage
over building and loan companies because bonds have a more universal
market than have stocks—the bond buyer, it is claimed, being only
slightly interested in the management of his company, may live any-
where, while the stockholder seeking the highest contingent returns
must live in the neighborhood of his property where he may have over-

458 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

sight of the administration. Substantial devices exist, however, whereby
the loan society may reach out for a wider market than would naturally
seem possible—such, for instance, as the sale of paid-up stock or the
change from a local into a national society. The marketing successes
of the two sorts of companies may be further characterized by the ob-
servation that building and loan companies have already made their rep-
utation with the public in this country and the governmental adminis-
trative machinery for their control has become well established. On the
other hand, the land banks, to a large extent, are still novelties un-
known upon the markets and must yet commend themselves to the
public in order to sell their bonds.

In the vital matter of expensiveness of loans, building and loan
charges for a long-time debt are doubtless lower than are those of the
land bank companies because, while the interest charges upon loans will
be the same in both cases, the building and loan system of using a sink-
ing fund with which to cancel a principal gives the borrower the earn-
ings of this fund and may therefore reduce his total indebtedness.

Some problems there are in which both sorts of institutions are con-
cerned, and in the interests of a full presentation of our problem
these common grounds also must be described. Both, for example, are
similarly interested in the question of freedom from taxation. It seems
a slight subsidy indeed to request at the hands of government that insti-
tutions having such laudable purposes as the furnishing of homes or
farms to people should be exempted from the usual public burdens.
This consideration indeed receives added force when we remember that
homes and farms are the very kinds of property which governments
enjoy taxing to the uttermost, so that the eventual issue from the work
of credit companies is to increase the field of revenue receipts for
governments.

The problem of standardization of type for both the loan companies
and the land banks is one which presents many perplexities. No other
merit is more frequently assigned to the federal bill for chartering land
banks than the one that it gives a federal charter whereby all of these
banks will be uniform throughout the land. This uniformity will of
itself, it is claimed, give standing and reputation to the concerns in-
volved, since application merely of the same name, not to mention other
opportunities, to the same institution everywhere will develop public
familiarity which will be invaluable for security marketing purposes.
On the other hand, the proposition which is frequently made to have
the bond selling for these banks performed by a single institution within
each state is very vigorously condemned, since it is asserted this will
allow no flexibility between different parts of the state having different
degrees of economic development as to interest rates, time terms, com-
missions, etc. Evidently this problem of flexibility or uniformity is

BUILDING AND LOAN ASSOCIATIONS 459

cne of much delicacy. The loan societies have tended always toward
flexibility, and they have doubtless benefited from this adaptiveness.
We find no uniformity of name, for example, among these societies so
that the same type may be designated by a different title in every dif-
ferent locality. In New England, as a case in hand, they are Mutual
Savings banks, here in the Middle West we name them Savings and
Loan societies or Building and Loan societies indifferently ; their business
processes vary incalculably, seventy methods of premium determinations
are in vogue and almost half as many for distributing profits. It is
quite within the range of doubt that so much variety is necessary and it
would seem clear that some of the benefits claimed from uniformity by
the banks would apply to loan societies also should they conform more
closely to a single type.

The suitability of building and loan societies for furnishing rural
credit is indeed no longer a mere academic question. They have already
entered this field, particularly in the state of Ohio, where a recent report
from the secretary of state for the commonwealth shows that more than
fifteen millions of dollars are loaned by these societies for the purchas-
ing of farms. It has been the business of these associations everywhere
from the start to find creditability in the laboring man and to allow the
laboring man the enjoyment of his creditability. They will be equally
successful in discovering the credit resources of the farmer. Credit is
proverbially shy and credit relations which are to endure for a half gen-
eration or more will not be entered into as readily with some new crea-
ation of law as with some association which has already solved the
practical problems involved in legal, political and business adjustment.
Furthermore, since loan associations are invariably cooperative in char-
acter they will form still another opportunity for this species of associ-
ative activity which is now regarded everywhere as indispensable to the
farmer’s development.

Apparently it is regarded as imperative that Congress shall provide
some source of credit to the agriculturist during its present session.
Ought not our lawmakers to throw such support as they are prepared to
give for the improvement of rural credits in the direction of building and
loan associations rather than toward mortgage banks? As we have tried
to show, loan societies are strictly American in their origin, are special-
ized to long-time easy payment loans, have become thoroughly adjusted
to our legal system and business methods, are reputable and have shown
practically their successfulness in performing the work at hand.

460 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

THE MENACE OF ACADEMIC DISTINCTIONS

By C. G. AND C. B. MAcARTHUR

URBANA

Ts has been eleven years now since the late William James wrote in
his incisive essay on “ The Ph.D. Octopus”:

America is thus as a nation rapidly drifting towards a state of things in
which no man of science or letters will be accounted respectable unless some kind
of badge or diploma is stamped upon him, and in which bare personality will be
a mark of outcast estate. It seems to me high time to rouse ourselves to con-
sciousness, and to cast a critical eye upon this decidedly grotesque tendency.

High time eleven years ago! No less urgent, certainly, has become
the present necessity for such criticism. James continues:

As it actually prevails and grows in vogue among us, it is due to childish
motives exclusively. In reality it is but a sham, a bauble, a dodge, whereby to
decorate the catalogues of schools and colleges. . . . In the minds of presidents
and trustees the Ph.D. degree is in point of fact already looked upon as a mere
advertising resource, a manner of throwing dust in the public’s eyes.

James probably meant to include with the Ph.D. degree not only
other cherished differentiations between the learned and the “rank and
file of the common people,” but also those slighter differentiations within
faculty groups which cause the teaching force of our universities and
colleges to “ play politics” as basely as any ward politician, though more
subtly as befits their greater culture, and make men prostitute their
talents to gain recognition from their superiors in rank.

We in America have made perceptible progress toward democracy,
but at times it seems as though the fewer and less striking became the
acknowledged distinctions in society, the more doggedly did man insist
on being differentiated from his fellows. It is a very common charac-
teristic, by no means confined to academic circles; nor does it, as we in
academic circles should like to believe, pass us by. Even those of us
who harangue about the absurdity of degrees and titles feel snobbishly
superior to those who bow before them.

Any one now may enter the class of the so-called intellectuals; but
once there, he must, on pain of ostracism or expulsion, don the garb of
the new class he has entered at least once a year. Slowly and solemnly
he must walk, clad in a sombre black having red, yellow, purple, green,
and salmon pink decorations, a being set apart, by the grace of God and
the aid of a mortar board, from his less intelligent fellows.

There has been of late a healthful breaking down of some class

ACADEMIC DISTINCTIONS 461

defenses. The scientists and dramatists have routed the doctor a little
way out of his mysterious sanctum. The minister, tired of being classed
a member of the third sex, has shed his “ Reverend” and his coat tails.
To be sure many people still have a confidence in their family doctor
that would flatter the Almighty, and there is still many a woman whose
awe for the minister can find no expression save in bounteous chicken
dinners.

Among the academic class there are, to be sure, men of simple
purpose, who have no desire to stand apart from their fellows, who ask
only the stimulus and satisfaction of applying their accumulations of
knowledge and adroitness with problems to the new and vital situations
of our day. On the other hand, there are among this class those whose
snobbishness tends greatly to limit their usefulness. Every class, of
course, has its snobs; but when exclusiveness crystallizes into institu-
tions—external symbols which the entire group accepts and the new-
comers into the group are compelled to adopt, there is grave danger.

One wonders why the academics should be so jealous of their titles
and honors and position. Business men manage without titles; likewise
engineers and many others in professions calling for much training and
keen intelligence. Yet here is a group who presume to set themselves
apart and insist on being addressed in terms equivalent to “ Your more
or less Intellectual Highness.” The mild insistence on the use of such
terms by students, of course, might have its foundation in a desire so
to overawe the student that he dare not do a disrespectful amount of
independent thinking, nor call into uncomfortable question the authori-
tative statements of his lecturer; but why exact this deference from
fellow townsmen or academic brethren?

This jealous guarding of titles and honors by the academics is, in
part at least, due to an ideal which is developing in this democracy of
ours—the ideal of an intellectual aristocracy. We have foresworn
aristocracy of blood; we are outgrowing aristocracy of wealth; but there
have been few to cry out against this new aristocracy that is being
foisted upon us.

“Tet those of us who know most,” say the followers of this ideal,
“determine what is best for all the rest of you. We know what the
world has already attempted, what has failed, what has succeeded. Let
us direct your efforts.” One professor’s wife complained, “It’s a great
pity the townspeople take the attitude they do; they not only refuse to
take our advice about how the schools should be managed and the garbage
collected, but they seem actually to resent our thinking we know best.”

The academics are fostering the ideal of an intellectual aristocracy
for exactly the same reasons that make a king favor aristocracy of birth,
or that throw Wall street into a panic at the thought of federal control
of our currency system. Members of each class are fully persuaded that
it is best for society as a whole that their influence and power should

462 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

be dominant. It is amusing to notice that though the lines of demar-
cation drawn by any ambitious group between themselves and other
groups vary, those lines have this in common—they never exclude those
who draw them from the higher classes.

Such an attitude—that of the intellectual aristocrat—makes for
inefficiency in a teacher, of course; for it implies lack of respect for the
mental power of most of one’s students, with resultant dogmatism.

We have gone mad these days, in university circles no less than in
business, over specialization and efficiency. In so far as we are true
democrats we must believe that the highest efficiency of any people is
to be measured by the efficiency of each individual of that people. And
that on no account means an efficiency which falls short of individual
initiative and independence of thought. Dogmatism is intolerable in
any institution, particularly intolerable in an institution on which the
future of our democracy rests as it does on our universities. They need
to make sure both that they are not dogmatically instructing students
as to what they shall believe, and that they are not encouraging the
idea of the divine right of one class to dominate another because of special
training or technical information. We are struggling too severely these
days to bridge the gap in sympathy between the capitalist and laboring
classes to allow opportunity for other breaches in mutual understanding
and sympathy to develop. It is because the childish academic dis-
tinctions that run riot in our universities to-day tend to widen the gap
between the so-called intellectual classes and their fellows that they
“ give us pause.”

In his “Great American Universities,” Slosson unburdens his soul
after this fashion:

So it is with self-distrust and pure despair that I dismiss the subject after
recording my personal opinion that a dozen mortar boards on the campus are
more of a menace to democracy than a million-dollar endowment from a trust
magnate. For no man can tell what use is going to be made of his money after
he has let it slip out of his own hand, but a widespread spirit of exclusiveness
and arrogance, such as find expression in ceremonies and costumes, can not be
eradicated.

Aside from titles and “ceremonies and costumes” by which the
academics proclaim their separation from the rest of the world, a tech-
nical vocabulary is in some measure responsible for this separation. A
man may have a democratic, cooperative attitude in his secondary inter-
ests, but let another man speak a new truth in his chosen field, and he
fails utterly to understand or credit him, if the other is unable to use
the technical terminology of his science. We seldom realize how far
from untrained minds the customary logical arrangement and terminol-
ogy of a subject removes the academic. He frequently does not need
tassels, or stripes, or a succession of capital letters after his name to
make him immune to the ideas of the man of the street. This failure

ACADEMIC DISTINCTIONS 463

to understand the other’s vocabulary makes more difficult not only the
acquisition of new ideas in their crude state by the academic, but also
his dissemination of knowledge.

The profession of teaching is nearly always underpaid, and men
have perhaps felt some compensation in the way of honor was due them.
Society seems to say: “ Gentle sir, we recognize your noble, self-forgetful
spirit which is content only to teach and inspire our youth with no hope
of reward other than a bare living wage. We are not ready to pay you
more, but we will cheer you on by giving you high-sounding titles.”
The consequences of this policy have, however, been disastrous. By and
by the self-forgetful man begins to listen for those titles; then to take
to himself honor for his missionary spirit.

The truth of the matter is, much of the spirit of self-sacrifice has
vanished from our university faculties to-day. Why, then, this addi-
tional compensation? It is absurd to call a man self-sacrificing because
he prefers freedom for productive work, for self-expression, to the re-
wards of the business world. One should as appropriately honor a fan
for his sustained devotion to baseball!

Eager as the academic is to keep at respectful distance the man of
the street, this eagerness is frequently less fierce than his zeal for dis-
crimination between himself and other academics. The contagion
wards in a hospital are isolated with scarcely more care from one another
than are the various ranks of academics, in catalogue (we make grateful
exception of the University of California) and processions. ‘Titles are
jealously guarded and punctiliously used.

This zeal for maintaining gradations in rank extends even to the
circles of the in-laws. One professor’s wife who found she must curtail
her visiting list did it by cutting off every woman attached to a man
whose rank was less than that of a full professor, thus sparing her
judgment the effort of evaluating the women, since the university had
already carefully graded the men whose family interests they shared.
And in two of our middle-western universities we are assured it is con-
sidered bad form for the wife of a man of lesser rank to pay the first
call on the wife of a man of higher rank! We are not yet informed as
to whether the distinctions are so carefully maintained by the children,
servants, cats and dogs of the various families or not.

The distinctions one class cherishes seem merely absurd to people in
other professions. We venture to say that no blacksmith, for instance,
could fully appreciate these subtle discriminations in vogue in academic
circles; and we academics, in turn, would probably rate blacksmiths
rather much on a par. We might prefer one blacksmith to another,
might think one had a stronger right arm than another, or even a
stronger mentality ; but if some of us were getting up a June procession
of blacksmiths we probably should not trouble to put differing numbers
of stripes on their sleeves, nor bother about adjusting the tassels on their

464 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

caps—if they could be prevailed upon to wear a thing so feminine—
to make sure those of a certain grade of efficiency wore them hanging
down into their right eyes, those of inferior grade into their left eyes.

Yet there lurks in the soul of at least one blacksmith this same
craving for discrimination from his fellows that is so demoralizing a
factor in academic circles. On Cottage Grove avenue in Chicago one
may see his sign, “ Fitzgerald ””—the initials are gone from memory—
“ Fitzgerald, Professor of Horseshoeing.” His shop is out toward the
university ; perhaps the infecting bacillus escaped from the confines of
the gray stone walls. It is possible his motive for insisting on the dis- _
tinction between himself and ordinary blacksmiths is merely a com-
mercial one. But the bacillus for that disease might also have come
from within the gray stone walls.

Two institutions for the perpetuation of this attitude of intellectual
snobbery among even the elect are the honorary societies of Phi Beta
Kappa and Sigma Xi. The former depends for its membership in most
universities and colleges on the students who outstrip their fellows in
grade getting. Any one who has been through one of our higher insti-
tutions of learning appreciates the ability this connotes—ability to
memorize the lesson daily assigned, sensitiveness to idiosyncrasies in the
instructor, so that in examinations one may return exactly the sort of
replies the instructor expects, with warm appreciation of what has evi-
dently been the teacher’s hobby.

Sigma Xi, the honorary scientific society, prides itself on admitting
to membership only those who have shown ability in some field of orig-
inal research. Supposing for the instant that no Sigma Xi group
estimates candidates by any lesser standard, one is still left wondering
how long we are to consider this childish prize-offering necessary to
faithful truth-seeking. It is appalling to note the pages of honors and
prizes listed in many university catalogues. President Jordan makes
this interesting comment: “ Prizes, honors, badges and degrees,—all
these have no necessary place in the machinery of higher education.
If our universities had grown up in response to the needs of the people,
not in imitation of the colleges of England, we should never have been
vexed by these things, and never felt any need of them.”

The newly rich blatantly announces his superiority over his fellows
by his flaming necktie, flowery vest, heavy: motor; with the academic
these signs give way to the less blatant but no less effective Phi Beta
Kappa or Sigma Xi key dangling on fob or necklace.

As has been repeatedly pointed out by other writers, our universities
are based on autocratic rather than democratic organization, with the
executive forces, of course, dominant. Now the executive mind inclines
much more toward order than toward flexibility; it wants things defi-
nitely discriminated from each other, so must have definite rankings for
students and faculty. It goes on with its efforts to tabulate mental

ACADEMIC DISTINCTIONS 465

ability, preferring in all too many cases to sacrifice the unusual to the
usual, the individual variation to the norm, rather than to let its careful
gradations of rank be disturbed. The effort is to reduce to mechanical
terms what is organic.

And because our universities must have tangible standards in tabulat-
ing members of the faculty, they have come to judge a man’s worth by the
number of pages of printed matter per year issuing from his pen rather
than by the number of ideas issuing from his brain; by his reputation
and consequent value in swelling university enrolment totals; by the
number of his degrees—as though it were not difficult enough to get at
the genuine worth of a man without having to excavate beneath title
upon title and degree upon degree in the university catalogue, or without
being distracted by his ability to display a new style hood for every Com-
mencement procession.

The effects of this furor for tabulation are no less unfortunate on
students than on faculty; the marking system with its emphasis on
memory work and on appearing well in the eyes of another man, the
rigidity of requirements for entrance and for graduation, and all those
attendant evils best described as a tendency toward uniformity rather
than individualization in our whole educational system,—these may all
be traced to this zeal for standardization.

As a half-way house between students and faculty stands the Ph.D.
degree. ‘T'o the student it marks the culmination of his effort, and in
some universities its attainment is a prerequisite to eligibility to mem-
bership on the faculty. Only men of unmistakably intellectual tastes—
whatever that may mean—of originality, actuated by a love of truth and
its pursuit, and believing such pursuit in itself a sufficient reward,—
only such, presumably, are permitted the ordeal of the third degree.

Yet in its influence on students and faculty alike, much that this
degree stands for is pernicious, and its acquirement is beset with evils.
In these days a student soon sees the commercial value of a degree and
is likely to come to his future work with hope of winning honor for
himself rather than with the desire to do well some piece of work and
to contribute to the world’s knowledge. When he sees how difficult it is
for a man to obtain opportunity to work in a university unless he can
write those three magic letters after his name; when he sees, as some-
times happens, a man admittedly successful as a teacher and scholar
dropped by a university because he lacks those three letters, the student
is quite likely to submit to the system and take the degree, though he
may be keenly conscious that half the time spent in so doing he could
have used to better advantage. His work is interrupted ; his ideal shifts
from work for the joy of finding new truth to the temporary memoriz-
ing of useless facts, always with an eye to the questions each of his ex-
aminers is likely to ask. Instead of reviewing to get a large grasp of

VOL. 11.—32.

466 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

a subject, he usually has in mind, “Such and such a thing is M.’s
hobby; I’ll cram on that”; or, “S. has been reading up on this subject
the past few weeks; he will ask something about that.”

Individual investigation is supposed to be a prerequisite to the ob-
taining of the Ph.D. degree; but the pressure for productive results
from the faculty has become so strong on the part of the executive depart-
ment, and competition for recognition so keen among instructors, that in,
we venture to say, a majority of cases this individual and original prob-
lem required of the candidate for the Ph.D degree is one laid on him
by his instructor, and is often merely a portion of a large piece of inves-
tigation the instructor parcels out year after year to his various students.
In many cases the instructor is the only one who has a grasp on the
larger problem, who understands it in entirety. The result of this prac-
tise is that the student is drilled as a technician rather than as an orig-
inal investigator. He fails to see new problems for himself, and fre-
quently leaves the laboratory in which he has worked as a student with-
out the lure of problems ahead to be worked out. In the midst of all
our agitation for conservation, we may be forgetting to conserve our
greatest resource—power to do creative work of great originality, and ©
this in the making of young Ph.D.’s, where we flatter ourselves we have
best preserved it.

Instead of keeping such an ideal alive, too many of our so-called in-
tellectual leaders have been caught by such childish and tawdry symbols
as tassels, stripes, capital letters and the sight of their names in print.
They have come to prefer honor from their fellows to self-approval.

This has led them not only to strive for reputation themselves, but
to give credence only to the man who speaks authoritatively and from
the heights of renown. Their acceptance of a new idea too often depends
on the prestige of the man who has uttered it.

Prostitution of talent and character, the development of an intellec-
tual aristocracy in a democratic land, an absurd clamoring for petty
honors, increasing gaps and misunderstandings between classes and pro-
fessions, dogmatism, commercialism, the inculcation of false ideals in
young students, dependence on reputation rather than on genuine worth,
emphasis on standardization rather than individualization in education,
the effort to serve two masters—truth and the man immediately above
one in rank, be he teacher, department head or president—all these are
evils attendant upon our present system of academic honors and badges.

In contrast to these conditions, hear the ideal of William James:

Our universities at least should never cease to regard themselves as the
jealous custodians of personal and spiritual spontaneity.... They ought to guard
against contributing to the increase of officialism and snobbery and insincerity as
against a pestilence; they ought to keep truth and disinterested labor always in
the foreground, treat degrees as secondary incidents, and in season and out of

season make it plain that what they live for is to help men’s souls, not to decorate
their persons with diplomas.

THE FREQUENCY OF DREAMS 467

THE FREQUENCY OF DREAMS

By Prorgessor CARL BE. SHEASHORD

UNIVERSITY OF IOWA

S there any dreamless sleep? I venture the assertion that probably
all persons dream all the time when they are asleep (and some-
times when they are awake). There is perhaps no dreamless sleep.

Since authorities are about equally divided on this mooted question,
it is necessary that a brief summary should be made of the grounds upon
which our assertion rests. Such grounds may be seen in four directions:
the observation that inability to recall a dream is no proof of the non-
existence of the dream, certain.theoretical considerations, experimental
proof, and spontaneous expression of dreams. Many other lines of evi-
dence might also be brought to bear. The proof must necessarily be
inductive, and therefore can be only cumulative; the most that we can
prove is a high degree of probability of the truth of the proposition.

The notion that dream-consciousness is not continuous in sleep rests
essentially upon the memory test, the feeling that, since we recall dreams
only occasionally, we have had only occasional dreams. We must there-
fore first examine that proof.

Replies to questions as to the frequency of dreams run somewhat like
this: “Very much every night”; “ Nearly every night”; “A dozen
times a month”; “ Hardly ever”; “Never.” But such reports tell us
nothing about the frequency of dreaming, for they refer only to the fre-
quency with which dreams are remembered; and we know now that
normally dreams are not remembered. Only the exceptional dream is
remembered. If one has had a hundred dreams during the night, he
may or may not remember one or more of them. Whether or not a
dream shall be remembered depends upon its coherence, the strength of
associational ties, the depth of sleep, the habit of recalling dreams, and
many other similar conditions. As a rule, dreams are not remembered ;
mental development and efficiency in waking life are conditioned upon
our freedom from the burden of consciousness of the massive apparent
chaos of dream life.

We remember only those experiences which are coherent, clear, and
rational—experiences that are more or less individualized and have
meaning with reference to waking life. The vast mass of dreams are
too fragmentary, too fleeting, too much thrust upon us as an undiffer-
entiated jumble—in short, too meaningless to be remembered. Of the
dreams which have meaning, we remember only those which are recent,

468 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

primary and strong, and stand in striking congruity or incongruity
with our dominant feelings. Most of the coherent dreams are wanting
in these respects and are only distantly relevant to waking consciousness.
Of the relevant and coherent dreams, we recall only those for which
situations in waking life chance to occur in such a way as to establish
bonds of association that shall extricate them from the mass of unrecog-
nized dream traces. You wake up in the morning after a sound sleep
and may not be able to recall any dream; but the moment you stoop to
lace your shoe a vivid dream image flashes up and you recall that you
dreamed in the night of walking barefooted in the snow. Had there
been no awareness of the shoe, this dream of the want of a shoe might
not have been remembered. On the whole, there is a slight chance that
situations in waking life shall so occur as to elicit the image of a dream
which is sufficiently recent.

Even with all other considerations favorable, the ability to remember
a dream is conditioned upon the presence of a habit of recalling dreams.
The development of such a habit is on the whole undesirable; should a
person remember all his dreams, he would lose his mind and be helpless ;
therefore the principle of natural selection tends .to suppress dreams.
The writer, ike many other students of dreams, has found it advisable
to abandon the intensive study of dreams because habits of observing and
recalling dreams interfered with normal sleep.

The dreams which we remember come from light or disturbed sleep.
The failure to remember dreams is roughly proportional to the depth
of sleep. Sleep-walking, e. g., occurs only in deep sleep.

Many apparently fabulous stories of feats in sleep-walking are found
true. A college student formed the habit of getting up in sleep, dress-
ing, walking down to the Mississippi River, three quarters of a mile
distant, undressing, taking a deliberate and enjoyable swim, dressing,
walking back to his room, undressing, and retiring, only to wake up in
the morning without the slightest inkling of remembrance from the
escapade of the night. But when his friends constituted themselves
detectives and awakened him suddenly in the act, the whole performance
stood out clear to him in his memory. Sleep-walking is dream-action.
If a sleep-walker is allowed to return to bed without being awakened,
he will have no memory of the dream action in the morning.

In deep sleep we may do anything we could do in waking life, and
even more, for the dreamer may become a distinct second personality,
free from some of the limitations of the waking personality. Thus we
have in dream action evidences of the most amazing complexity in the
deepest undercurrents of mental life, under the very conditions which
preclude the possibility of memory of the dream.

In view of such considerations, it is clear that from the negative
point of view, arguments for dreamless sleep on the basis of the memory
test can have no valid foundation.

THE FREQUENCY OF DREAMS 469

Turning then to our theoretical proof, we find a strong argument
in the generally recognized correlation of mental activity with certain
neural activities. There are many theories of this relationship, but for
the present purpose we need not assume that this correlation is complete,
nor need we inquire into the nature of the causal relations; the fact
that there is an observable correspondence is enough. We know from
physiology that no part of the nervous system is ever wholly at rest.
With the exception of the eye, all the senses are open in sleep; taste,
temperature, and tactual stimuli are often conspicuously present in sleep.
It is difficult to conceive of any condition in which this flux of sense
impressions, should be absent. All these sense impressions in sleep
cause dreams, and the central association mechanism is constantly at
work weaving an intricate network of relationships among these im-
pressions thereby giving them meaning, however far-fetched. Indeed,
the very closing of the eye as in sleep is conducive to an increased play
of visual impressions, for the internal stimulation gives rise to the so-
ealled retinal light, which may be very brilliant, and is always seen in a
more or less gorgeous kaleidoscopic motion. It has been well called the
stuff that dreams are made of.

Stimuli through ear, nose, skin, muscle, and even the closed eye,
affect the mental organism on the same principle as in waking life.
Internal stimuli act not only upon the sense organs, but also directly
upon the brain and other nerve centers. Pressure caused by the rush
of blood, metabolism, and other mechanical stimuli arouse nerve im-
pulses. Probably chemical, thermal and electrical action within the
body tissue may stimulate nerve elements directly. Theoretically such
centrally aroused nerve impulses have their mental correlates. On the
theory of concomitance, we must therefore assume that there is a con-
tinuous stream of mental processes which correspond more or less to the
continuous activity of the nervous system. In sleep such mental proc-
esses are, of course, subliminal: they are dreams.

In short, on the theory of correspondence between certain mental
and neutral processes, the continuous impressionability of the senses and
the constant stimulation within the central system itself point to an
uninterrupted dream activity in sleep.

Experimental procedure has brought direct proof which is cumula-
tive and has revealed no exceptions. Proceeding on the assumption
that a given sense stimulation will cause a particular dream, Alfred
Maury many years ago made experiments of which the following are
typical :

First Experiment.—He caused himself to be tickled with a feather on the
lips and inside of. the nostrils. He dreamed that he was subjected to a horrible

punishment. A mask of pitch was applied to his face, and then roughly torn
off, taking with it the skin of his lips, nose and face.

470 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

Second Experiment.—A pair of tweezers was held at a little distance from
his ear, and struck with a pair of scissors. He dreamed that he heard the ring-
ing of bells; this was soon converted into the tocsin and this suggested the days
of June, 1848. :

Third Experiment.—A bottle of eau de Cologne was held to his nose. He
dreamed that he was in a perfumer’s shop. This excited visions of the East,
and he dreamed that he was in Cairo in the shop of Jean Marie Farina. Many
surprising adventures occurred to him there, the details of which were forgotten.

Fourth Experiment.—A burning lucifer match was held close to his nostrils.
He dreamed that he was at sea (the wind was blowing in through the window),
and that the magazine of the vessel blew up.

Fifth Experiment.—He was slightly pinched on the nape of the neck. He
dreamed that a blister was applied, and this recalled the memory of a physician
who had treated him in infancy. |

Siath Experiment.—A piece of red-hot iron was held close enough to him
to communicate a slight sensation of heat. He dreamed that robbers had got
into the house, and were forcing the inmates, by putting their feet to the fire,
to reveal where their money was.

Seventh Experiment.—The word Leonore was spoken. On awaking, he
recollected this word, and found that he had attributed it to one of the persons
who had conversed with him in his dream. -

Eighth Experiment.—A drop of water was allowed to fall on his forehead.
He dreamed that he was in Italy, that he was very warm, and that he was
drinking the wine of Orvieto.

Ninth Experiment.—A light, surrounded with a piece of red paper, was
repeatedly placed before his eyes. He dreamed of a tempest and lightning,
which suggested the remembrance of a storm he had encountered in the English
Channel in going from Merlaix to Havre.

In each of these experiments the dream could be reproduced because
the dreamer was awakened in the very act. Had he been allowed to
sleep until morning, there would have been but little likelihood of the
recalling of the dream. The significant fact is that, allowing for the
realism and the dramatic form of the dreams, experimental procedure
confirms the theory that every sense impression tends to produce a
corresponding dream. And, as we have noted above, the senses are all
responsive in sleep, there is no silence, no darkness, no freedom from
the impressions of odor, taste, touch, strain or temperature. This
continuous stimulation of the senses results in a continuous flux of
dream flashes, many of which lead to extended dreams.

The probability of dreams from a given set of stimuli is increased
beyond that of analogous situations in waking life by the fact that the
dream is not a true representation of the stimulus, as the waking im-
pression is supposed to be. When awake, you may merely note a slight
taste of bitter in the mouth; whereas, in the dream, the same condition
on the tongue might make you dream of going through some awfully
bitter experience, of being poisoned, or of eating some disagreeable sub-
stance with distressing consequences.

It is possible to enter into conversation with a sleeping person; and,

THE FREQUENCY OF DREAMS 471

if the sleeper is not awakened at the time, he is not likely to remember
anything about it. The replies are proof that the apparently dreamless
sleeper hears the conversation, understands it, and fits his words to the
ideas in mind. It is claimed that talking to a sleeping person is an
effective way of instilling ideas which it is desired should work them-
selves out in the waking state. The method has been employed in the
breaking up of bad habits and in the effort to create desirable habits.

Hypnosis may be employed to bring out evidence of dreams from
apparently dreamless sleep. If a person wakes up after an apparently
dreamless sleep, he may be hypnotized and given the suggestion to recall
dreams from that sleep. There is such a kinship between the dream
state and the hypnotic state that it is quite possible to conjure up in
the latter the experiences of the former. The report of such dreams
may be checked and verified, in part at least, by controlling conditions
for production of dreams experimentally in the sleep, and then checking
up the hypnotic report by these known causes of dreams.

Waking suggestion may be employed, some think, even more effec-
tively. By Freud’s method of psychoanalysis the dreamer is put through
a sort of sweat-box process, not necessarily unpleasant, in which the
inquisitor, by following clues progressively revealed, discovers stimuli
which step by step lead to the effective associations that may recall to
memory dreams not otherwise recallable.

A most interesting extension of the field of dream interpretation
has developed in recent practice of psychoanalysis. If the patient is
unable to recall any dream, the physician asks him to invent one, and
it is found that such an imaginary dream partakes of the nature of a
real dream; 7. e., cause and effect may be traced and it may be “in-
terpreted” as if it had been a real dream.

The experimental evidence, then, tends to prove that dreams are
caused by natural stimuli as sensations are caused in waking life: given
a sense stimulus, we may expect a dream to follow. The fact that a
dreamer may carry on a dream conversation, or influence the formation
of habits by suggestion in sleep, is proof of highly complex and ration-
alized activity in sleep, of which the dream carries no trace into waking
consciousness. The experiments with hypnotic suggestion and waking
suggestion add convincing evidence to the belief that, whenever we have
adequate means for the testing of a given moment of sleep, we find it
occupied with dreams.

The theoretical conviction thus strengthened by experimental tests
is further fortified by close observation of spontaneous expressions of
dreams. It is a law of psychology that what is in the mind tends to
express itself in appropriate action, even though only inceptive and
normally only faint. A skilled observer watching a sleeping person
may be able to observe uninterrupted evidence not only of a continuous

472 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

stream of dreams, but also of rich complexes of dream conflicts. If
this observation be done with the expert skill of a so-called mind
reader, most marvelous reports may be drawn from dream-life through
the unconscious reactions, especially the rich play of facial expression,
which is eloquent language. The observer also “reads” the environ-
ment with the same skill and, by associating the continuous flow of sense
stimuli with the psychophysical expression, his observations are re-
duced almost to experimental control.

It may be said that these contentions prove too much in that they
prove the presence of dream consciousness in the waking state. That is
granted, and it is an important fact. We dream a great deal on the
ordinary rounds of duty. One who is trained in psychological obser-
vation of dreams will catch himself frequently in moments of dream-
consciousness, sometimes infinitesimally short and in the midst of
mental application. On opening a Christmas package, e. g., skilful
retrospect would probably reveal to him glimpses of himself in child-
hood scenes and he might notice that in spite of the self-conscious and
joyous activity of the moment, a sort of other self, split off from the
waking self, joined these momentarily merging flashes from dream-life
into continuity. The writer has observed dream flashes in his own
mind, even while lecturing before a large audience. More significant,
however, is the presence of that broad stream of subconscious impressions
which underlies waking consciousness but passes unobserved. These
subconscious impressions in waking hours have much in common with
dreams.

The theory of dreamless sleep came into vogue at a time when man
held a crude and all too simple view of the mind. Experimental psy-
chology has deepened insight and broadened our view of mental life,
ever revealing more and more aspects before unobserved. Only a few
years ago, it was thought that to have an illusion or an hallucination
was of necessity to show mental weakness. Hallucinations and illusions
were therefore supposed to be rare objects of curiosity. Now we know
that hallucinations and illusions are normal and ever present in all well-
regulated mental life. It has been shown that the conditions which
cause illusions and hallucinations are as a rule fundamental and essen-
tial conditions of normal mental power. The very principle which
enables us to see true perspective in one situation leads of necessity
to illusion in many other situations. Now, the man who asserts that
his friend has been subject to an illusion, as if he himself were exempt,
is the man who asserts that he dreams only occasionally. It may be
safely maintained that the authorities who defend the theory of dream-
less sleep espoused this theory before the recent notable advances in
our scientific knowledge in psychology of cognition were made. The
more we study dream life in the light of scientific method in psy-

THE FREQUENCY OF DREAMS 473

chology, the more the idea of the ever presence of the dream in sleep
grows upon us, not as a result of more and more observed cases only,
but rather as a logical inference from growing knowledge of the opera-
tion of mental law.

The arguments advanced in support of the continuity of dream
life imply and lead to certain interpretations of the nature of the
dream, which give it a true setting in an evolutionary and naturalistic
conception of the mind and give us a deeper insight into the actual
richness and significance of dream life.

Conscious memory follows only a very small part of our waking
experience. No one can recall more than an infinitesimal part of the
images and ideas which flit through his mind in a day. Watch the
flow of free association in your own mind for ten seconds. The dis-
play of ideas and images in their rough-and-tumble struggle for
recognition is so rich and rapid that no one can speak fast enough
to name them as they pass upon the arena of consciousness. Such a
display goes on in a subliminal way, while consciousness is directed
elsewhere. There is in all our conscious life a rich encircling fringe
of this free association, but we have acquired some power in keeping
this “ fleeting show” subliminal because that is conducive to sanity and
mental efficiency. A student asked to observe it for the first time tends
to perceive but little following, this habit of suppression; but soon he
finds himself in the position of one who, at a glance, notices but a few
stars and attempts to count them; the more he tries to count, the
more the field of vision tends to fill up with the countless.

The more absent-minded we are, the more coherent and prolonged
these free associations become. The step from absent-mindedness to
light sleep is in the same direction and is no larger than the step from
active attention to absent-mindedness. These free associations consti-
tute our dreams. Free from the limitations which operate in waking
life, free even from the bounds of waking imagination, free associa-
tion holds full sway and winged fantasy is at her best. Dream fantasy
has moving pictures outdone, for the prevailing dream type is that of
the flash-picture or snap-shot, and sleep affords the best condition for
richness of setting and rapid change of scene. How little of this rich
dream life we actually remember may be realized if we consider that a
dream which in the recall may be represented as lasting an hour may be
but the conscious elaboration of what in the actual dream was merely
an instantaneous flash image.

The theoretical considerations discussed above are also replete with
implications in regard to the nature and meaning of dreams. The
dreamer is en rapport with the environment, for dream consciousness
is responsive to the play of the senses, and dream apperception, repre-
senting all past experiences, takes in, modifies, interprets and responds

474 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

to impressions, weaving them into the web of dream personality. If
then it is true that dream life is a part of the same substratum of
mental activity that underlies waking consciousness, it follows that the
dream impressions and the dream elaboration continually modify
mental content just as the subliminal impressions of waking life do, but,
except for the operation of the principle of recency, with vastly greater
variety of impressions and effectiveness of result.

Experimental procedure in the production and observation of dreams
also enriches our concept of dream nature in that it enables us to set
crucial tests and observe details which may serve as a basis of generaliza-
tion. It not only helps to convince us of the continuity, but reveals
and confirms the operation of natural law, so that we realize that,
although the dream operates in flagrant violation of the principles of
time, space, reality, and cause and effect according to the standards of
waking consciousness, it nevertheless flows in accordance with natural
law in every respect and at every stage. Every dream fantasy—even
every dream fragment or flitting image—occurs in accordance with the
principle of cause and effect and is a phenomenon in mental nature just
as truly as a blade of grass is a phenomenon of organic physical nature.
From this point of view the dream is a chaos only in the same sense that
the masses of stars are a chaos. Both are organized, the stars a macro-
cosm, the dream a microcosm.

With the point of view developed, after exclusion of irrelevant evi-
dence and the acceptance of theoretical and experimental evidence im
support of the continuity of dream-life, we are prepared to read mean-
ing into the expression of dreams. The fact that our twitchings, incep-
tive speech movements, and even sleep walking occur as an expression
of the dream is insignificant in comparison with the related fact
that the dream expresses itself in our waking life. It not only modifies
dispositions which result in feelings, attitudes, moods and impulses
that characterize our waking consciousness, but often a specific dream
determines our opinion, emotion, memory or decision in the same way
as if the dream experience had been an actual waking experience. This
is quite as true for the dream that is never remembered as for the
dream that is recalled, and, as a rule, we are not aware of the source of
such influence.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF VENOMS 475

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF VENOMS

By W. M. WINTON
THXAS CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY

Pe WEED,” said Webster, “is a plant for which we have found no

use.” ‘T’o be exact he should have added: “ except in medicine” ;
for the oldest, and, until recently, the most empirical of the sciences has
been the dumping ground for all products both plant and animal which
had no other possible use.

In no case has this process been more persistent than with those
products which have a marked physiological effect. It is to this per-
sistent experimentation that we owe nearly all of the drugs of modern
medicine. The venom of poisonous snakes has not been exempt, de-
spite its great virulency. The facts that it retains its power when dried
and powdered and that it is wonderfully uniform, and thus lends itself
to a sort of standardization, have made it subject to no little exploita-
tion. Had this exploitation been started twenty years earlier in the
history of medicine, doubtless we should now have many records of
“cures” resulting from its use. It came, however, at a time when the
medical man had learned to be wary of new drugs, except those whose
physiologic usefulness could be demonstrated.

Snake venoms from the other side of the therapeutic shield, that is,
as agents to be combated rather than as medical ammunition, still hold
interest to the point of fascination. In America this interest is dis-
proportionate to the importance of its subject. In many regions all
snakes, beneficial ones as well as venomous ones, have been exterminated,
practically at least. It is true that along the southern Atlantic and
Gulf coastal plains, the danger to man from the ever-present and vicious
moccasin (Ancistrodom piscivorus) is a factor of some importance;
and, in the southern part of the Rocky Mountain region, the western
diamond-back rattler (Crotalus atrox) probably will not be exterminated
for several decades. Hlsewhere danger from snake bite is almost neg-
ligible.

Lest the statement in the last paragraph bring on my head a storm of
protest, I shall mention a fact known to all naturalists; and that is that
most snake bites are from non-venomous snakes. The colubers of the
middle west are very belligerent serpents, and attack with satanic fury.
Because of the hazel brown markings any member of this group is pop-
ularly branded as a “copperhead,” a name which properly belongs to
Ancistrodon contortix, a truly venomous reptile, but a small snake and

476 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY.

seldom or never found in: plowed fields where the colubers go in their
search for rodents. The region inhabited by the deadly moccasin is also
frequented by enormous numbers of the red-bellied water snake (T'ropt-
donotus taxtspilotus) which is almost always called a “moccasin.” The
bite of this snake is harmless, aside from the actual mechanical injury,
which may be considerable. Ditmars says of it: “It is in disposition
one of the most ugly of American snakes.” This is a mild statement.
It is the experience of the writer that this water snake is the most de-
pravedly vicious of all wild animals.

Do not these and other cases of errors in classification account for
the success of some of the bizarre treatments which have been reported,
some of them, to be frank, by even high-class medical men ?

Venomous snakes have long been grouped according to the action of
their venom. One extreme is represented by the rattlesnakes, whose
venom is powerfully hemolytic, and acts on and through the circulatory
system. The other extreme is represented by the cobras, asps, etc.,
whose venom acts much more rapidly and affects the nervous system
directly. Noguchi refers to the two types of venom as “ hemotoxic”
and “ neurotoxic.”

Of more than passing interest is the fact that the tiny coral snake
(Elaps fulvius) which is found in decaying logs and similar places in
this country, carries a venom which is, as several workers have shown,
qualitatively closely similar to that of the deadly cobra. But its slug-
gish and retiring disposition together with its small size make it in-
consequential.

The moccasin and the copperhead, both members of the genus An-
ctstrodon, have a venom which seems to contain a little of the neurotoxic
element, but its principal effect is much like that of the rattlesnakes.

There are, furthermore, a few small mildly poisonous snakes in
America known to naturalists as Opisthoglyphs, because their fangs are
grooved instead of tubular.

Despite the fact that the rattlesnakes contain two genera and a large
number of species and vary greatly in color and general appearance,
the natural history of American poisonous snakes is quite simple. -The
moccasin and the copperhead have exactly the same markings; but the
former is very much darker in color, the pattern sometimes almost
obscured.

Our dangerous snakes, then, may be said to be: First, those bearing
a rattle; second, those having a series of dark brown hour-glass-shaped
markings on a lighter brown background.

A further consideration to be borne in mind is that the venom of all
of these is of the deoxidizing hemolytic type; and the standard potas-
sium permanganate treatment has never been improved upon. The

i as i

—————o

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF VENOMS 477

Calmette anti-venomous serum widely advertised and sold by sporting-
goods houses, while extremely useful against the effects of Oriental
snakes, is useless in America. A limited quantity of anti-crotalus serum
is put out by the Rockefeller Institution, but under experimental con-
ditions this is said to be of rather doubtful value because of the large
amount which must be used.

For some years the writer has carried on, intermittently, some in-
vestigations in connection with popular beliefs regarding the slightly
venomous properties of certain snakes not generally considered poison-
ous by zoologists. The persistence of some of the rumors, and their
confirmation in a few cases by medical men, gave him the idea that the
presence or absence of the poison mechanism, grooved or tubular fangs
and well-developed poison sac, may not always serve as a criterion of
the reptile’s potential venomousness. Unknown to the writer others,
Alcock and Rogers, were carrying on similar investigations. No final
results have yet been published; but the writer, at least, has been able
in some cases not only to demonstrate the presence of a real toxic ele-
ment, but actually to formulate quantitative terms.

Of course a snake which has not developed the proper poison mech-
anism for injecting its venom is not very dangerous, even if its saliva is
quite toxic.

Weir Mitchell established many years ago a fact that had long been
suspected: that the poison gland of a venomous snake is identical with
the parotid salivary gland of mammals. Noguchi in his monumental
work on snake venoms’ has pointed out that this structure goes through
quite an evolutionary series. To be brief: in the amphibia and certain
reptiles, this gland is a pure mucous gland; and in the higher mammals
it is a pure serous gland. In the poisonous snakes it is almost half
mucous and half serous. The relatively high development as to size is
undoubtedly a secondary adaptation to take advantage of the poisonous
nature of the secretion.

The writer believes that in time it will be demonstrated that the
transition, beginning with a simple recurved tooth, followed by the
immobile grooved fang, and ending with the highly developed tubular
and erectile fang, is also secondary and follows the development of the
poison gland.

Furthermore, it would seem that the development of the neurotoxic
element is also secondarily developed. Noguchi has shown that the
division of snake venoms into hemotoxic and neurotoxic is a convenient,
but arbitrary, arrangement. It seems that the fundamental substance
is something of a hemolytic nature, always present, whose relatively slow
action may be covered up by the neurotoxic element when the latter is
present.

1 Pub. 111, Carnegie Institution.

478 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY,

The old macroscopic distinction between serous glands and mucous
glands is that serous glands are those whose membranous surfaces are
closed to the outer air (the lining of the blood vessels, the pleura, and
the peritoneum) ; mucous glands are those whose membranous surfaces
are exposed at some point to the outer air (the lining of the alimentary
canal, the lining of the genito-urinary machinery, etc.). Of course,
there are important histological differences also. With this distinction
in mind, the comparative anatomy of the parotid gland is more than
suggestive of the mode of origin of the venom of snakes. The writer
believes that the toxic quality is due to a surplus quantity of deoxidiz-
ing or correcting element.

Transitions occur in the venomousness of salivary secretions. Be-
sides the cases referred to, Alcock and Rogers showed that the parotid
secretion of Zamenis mucosus, one of the blacksnake tribe and usually
considered a harmless snake, is distinctly toxic and a moderate dose is
enough to kill small mammals. The writer has confirmed this in other
species of Zamenis and certain other snakes. It is a rather striking fact,
however, that the saliva of coluber and tropidonotus appears to be not
in the least poisonous.

As to transition forms above the snakes, certain small mammals are
at present under suspicion; particularly the small black skunk (Mephitis
mesomelas), the alleged “hydrophobia skunk,” often incorrectly called
the civet cat.

It is more than likely that certain small mammals which, in various
parts of the United States, are popularly thought to be “reservoirs” of
hydrophobia, owe their reputation to a hemolytic element in their sali-
vary secretions. The symptoms resulting from the bite of such an
animal are exactly what an uninitiated person expects in hydrophobia.
In fact the symptoms are much more in accord with the popular con-
ception of hydrophobia than is genuine rabies itself. This is aside from
the long period of incubation which rabies requires, and which is often
overlooked.

STUDY OF CORAL REEFS 479

PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH THE STUDY OF CORAL
REEFS. II

By PrRoFessoR W. M. DAVIS

HARVARD UNIVERSITY

The Theory of Submerged Platforms.—A modification of the theory
that explains barrier reefs as veneers upon wave-cut platforms has
been lately and briefly proposed. It regards the lagoon floors as plat-
forms that were produced, while the central island stood higher than
now, by some planation process or processes other than those concerned
in the production of coral reefs, and then explains the reefs as veneers
formed on or near the edge of the platform as it is submerged to its
present depth. This theory has the merit of accounting for the em-
bayed shorelines of the central island, inasmuch as the valleys which
must have been eroded in it during the planation of the platform while
the island stood higher, must have been partly drowned when the plat-
form was submerged; but the theory has the demerits of tacitly postu-
lating the absence of reef-building corals while the platform was being
produced, and of leaving the processes by which the platform was pro-
duced unspecified. It would be easy to account for the platforms by
subaerial planation, if the area that they occupy had consisted of weak
rocks in comparison to those of the still mountainous central island,
but there is not the least evidence that such was the case. Again, it
would be easy to account for the platforms by marine abrasion, if corals
were absent; but in that case the central island ought to be rimmed
around by cliffs, as in the preceding theory. It is unreasonable to
assume that corals were absent; for they have long been present in the
coral seas, as is shown by the existence of uplifted and dissected reefs,
having embayed shorelines and enclosed by barrier reefs such as the
present theory seeks to explain. Moreover the form of the embayments
on a good number of islands indicates that the depth of their submer-
gence is decidedly greater than the depth of the lagoon upon which they
open, as will be further shown when the glacial-control theory is dis-
cussed on a later page. The fact that certain barrier reefs are dis-
continuous and not always on the outer edge of the platform repre-
sented by the lagoon floor has been taken in support of this theory and
as indicating that the platform has been produced by other agencies
than those which produce reefs; but discontinuity of reefs and their
displacement from the platform edge can be well explained by other
theories alsc, such as the theory of subsidence, if it be assumed that subsi-

480 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

dence proceeds at different rates, now faster, now slower. If the fuller
statement of the submerged platform theory, yet to be published, gives
good ground for the absence of corals while the platforms were in the
making, and reasonable explanation of the manner in which the plat-
forms were made, it would have a better prospect of acceptance.
Darwin's Theory of Subsidence——Let us now consider the theory
formerly so popular, the theory of coral reefs which most of us learned
at school or college, but which later came to be regarded by many able
geologists as “no longer generally applicable.” This theory supposes
that the oceanic island or continental border on which a fringing reef
is established intermittently subsides while the reef slowly grows upward :
thus the fringing reef is transformed into a barrier reef around the
diminishing central island, while the coral waste washed over the reef
and the land waste washed down from the adjoining land surface, to-
gether with organic deposits formed in the lagoon itself, nearly fill the
lagoon with horizontal strata; and later, when subsidence has gone so
far that the central island ie disappeared, the upgrowing barrier reef
encloses an uninterrupted lagoon and is called an atoll. Here the as-
sociated problem takes on a new form. It is now necessary to work out
the changes suffered by an island that is slowly submerged while its sur-

ol fi
N Zar

a>
we

Fig. 18. DIAGRAM oF Succusstvp SucTorS OF REEF FORMATION, as deduced from Dar-
win’s theory of upgrowing reefs on subsiding islands.

face is eroded and a reef grows up around it. As before we begin in
sector H, Fig. 13, with a large volcanic island, built up by frequent
eruptions from the ocean bottom to some thousands of feet above the
ocean surface. In due time a narrow fringing reef is established
around its shores, interrupted at stream mouths where much detritus
is washed down from the sharp-cut young valleys. Subsidence may
have been going on slowly while eruptive upbuilding was going on
more rapidly; now eruption has ceased, but subsidence is assumed to
continue. What will be its effects? The effects of elaborate dissection

mae

STUDY OF CORAL REEFS 481

and moderate subsidence are shown in sector J; the effects of continued
dissection and greater subsidence in sector K: and of complete sub-
mergence in sector L. This may be illustrated in another manner:
During the progressive changes caused by erosion and subsidence, the
simple initial shoreline of the central island consequent on eruption,
shown in the background block of Fig. 14, must be changed to an in-
dented or embayed shoreline consequent on the partial submergence of
a dissected cone, as shown in the middle section of the figure. Even-
tually the island sinks out of sight and the atoll reef grows up, enclos-
ing the uninterrupted lagoon, as in the foreground of Fig. 14.

Sen

T
a
aS
SS

Fie. 14. BLock DIAGRAM or A SUBSIDING VOLCANIC ISLAND IN AN OCHAN OF
Constant LbyEL. Background block, a high-standing island with a simple shore line
bordered by a fringing reef; middle block, a partly submerged island with an embayed
shore line and a barrier reef enclosing a lagoon; foreground block, an atoll reef
around an uninterrupted lagoon over a vanished island.

The proportion of the several ingredients in the lagoon deposits
will vary according to the size of the reef, the strength of the waves,
the size of the island, and so on. The horizontal lagoon layers must
rest unconformably on the eroded flanks of the subsiding volcano, as
is shown in section M on the side of sector L, Fig. 13. Outside of the
reef there should be a long, sloping talus, largely composed of coral
fragments, except that opposite each pass or break in the reef, where
the great volume of sea water that surges in over the reef-flat must
find its escape, there should be a significant outwash of fine volcanic
waste so long as the lagoon is of moderate width; for the lost volume
of the initial volcano can not be represented only by the near-shore
intermixture of volcanic detritus with the calcareous lagoon beds. The
lower ends of the slanting layers of exterior talus thus formed must
lie on the submarine constructional slope of the volcanic cone.

VOL. I1.—33

482 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

Two of these consequences deserve more emphasis. First, it must
be understood that production of an indented shoreline, as in Fig. 15,
by the subsidence of a dissected island is not a vague speculation; it is a
geometrical necessity of the same order as that which defines the pat-
tern of the conic sections; for the intersection of a fluted cone by the
level surface of the sea must be an indented line. Second, if the sub-
sidence is accelerated, the reefs may be incompletely built up to the

Fic. 15. THE EMBAYrED SHorRE LINE AT THE NORTHWEST END OF THE PARTLY
SUBMERGED ISLAND OF NEw CALEDONIA; the water is part of the large lagoon enclosed
by an extensive barrier reef. The farther shore line should be level.

surface, and appear only in narrow and discontinuous patches; or, if
subsidence be over-rapid, the reef-building corals may be drowned by
being submerged to too great a depth; if the subsidence is then retarded,
a new fringing reef will be established on the submerged flanks of the
island and will in time develop into a new barrier reef of smaller radius
than before; in the early stage of the second reef the amount of subsi-
dence indicated by the breadth of its lagoon will be much less than that
indicated by the size of the embayments. But if it is an atoll that is
thus drowned, it can not grow up until it is again uplifted nearer the
surface or until it is built up to less depth by organisms other than
reef-building corals. On the other hand, if subsidence ceases for a
sufficient time, a barrier reef will widen by outward growth and inward
over-wash, the deltas will be built forward and the lagoon will fill up;
thus a broad, mature reef plain will, if the still-stand pause lasts long
enough, more or less completely replace the narrow young reef and the
lagoon. A brief and small elevation may occur at any stage, uplifting
the reef a few feet out of water, when it will be attacked and dissected

a, >)

STUDY OF CORAL REEFS 483

by weather and waves, or submerged if subsidence sets in again. The
reason that these consequences are so varied is evidently that subsi-
dence is a much more variable process than standing still.

Success of Darwin’s Theory.—Now how did this old theory fare? It
gained immediate and universal acceptance. Was this because its
author’s experience was such as greatly to commend it? By no means;
for Darwin was then a young naturalist, just returned from his first
and only voyage of exploration. Did he consider other theories also?
Yes, he did that most fairly and candidly; the theory of outgrowing
reefs around still-standing islands, the theory of veneering reefs on
wave-cut platforms, and several other theories were carefully examined,
and critical reasons were stated for their rejection. Did the young
naturalist deduce all the consequences of his theory, somewhat as above
stated? No, not all; he stated several of them clearly enough, but he
unfortunately made the serious error of overlooking one of the most
essential consequences, namely the occurrence of embayed shorelines
around the subsided central islands of barrier reefs; and thus failed to
secure for this theory the confirmation that might have come from its suc-
cess in explaining certain things that it was not invented to explain, as
well as all the things that it was invented to explain. Why, then, was his
theory received with so great favor? Evidently because those who ac-
cepted it were not in the habit of demanding that a successful theory
should do something more than explain the things that it was invented
to explain, and because they were satisfied on finding that it provided
a simple, easily conceived scheme for correlating and explaining the
numerous and varied facts that it was made to explain. Was that not
enough to establish it? It seems to have been enough, as long as the
theory had no serious competitors; for it was not only universally ac-
cepted, but as late as 1882 was referred to by an eminent critic as “a
theory which for simplicity and grandeur strikes every reader with as-
tonishment. . . . No more admirable example of scientific method was
ever given to the world.” Darwin’s exposition of his theory was cer-
tainly admirable, but it is going too far to say that a theory, from which
the essential element of independent confirmation was lacking, is as
admirable an example of scientific method as the world has seen.

Unwarranted Loss of Faith in Darwin’s Theory.—Naturally enough,
when another possible theory was put forward, a critic, who had no in-
dependent and crucial test in mind by which his belief in an earlier
theory was compelled, lost his confidence in it, even though the later
one had only the same insufficient recommendation of explaining what
it was made to explain; for it was the same critic who, only a year after
commending Darwin’s theory of subsidence in the glowing terms just
quoted, abandoned it and became the avowed champion of the theory of
outgrowing reefs on still-standing islands. He may even then have

484 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

felt the keen regret expressed twenty years later “ that this brilliant gen-
eralization of the great naturalist [Darwin] has been deprived of the
wide application which for many years we attributed to it,” for he
wrote:

In face of the evidence which has now been accumulated, I can no longer

regard the ... theory [of subsidence] as generally applicable. . . . No satis-
factory proofs of a general subsidence have been obtained from the region of
coral reefs, except from the structure of the reefs themselves, and this is an
inference only, which is now disputed. From the nature of the case, indeed,
traces of subsidence can hardly be expected.
True, the fact that the depth of certain barrier-reef lagoons had
been found greater than 20 or 25 fathoms, the limiting depth for the
growth of reef-building corals, was taken to indicate subsidence for
those particular reefs, but not for other barrier reefs within which the
lagoons were shallower.

Yet it is precisely a general proof of subsidence, at once simple and
convincing, that had been independently discovered and published by
an earlier and responsible investigator thirty years before, and that was
completely overlooked by those who accepted the newer theories ; namely,
the occurrence of embayments in the central islands of barrier reefs, by
which Dana had not merely given new support to, but had provided
much-needed confirmation for Darwin’s theory; and the most curious
thing about the matter is that the eminent geologist, who, after he had
abandoned Darwin’s theory, championed the still-stand theory in the
sentences just quoted, had himself, in an admirable book written nearly
twenty years earlier, explicitly recognized the origin of embayments by
submergence; for he then said:

The sea lochs of the west coast [of Scotland] are thus not cut out by the
waves, but old glens that have been submerged beneath the sea.

This is just as true for the numerous bays of the antipodal island of
New Caledonia with its great barrier reefs as for the sea-lochs of Old
Caledonia. In view of all this one must wish that the above-quoted
champion of good work in all branches of geology would apply the ele-
mentary physiographic principle of shoreline development, not only to
the drowned glens of Scotland, but also to the embayments of the reef-
encircled Pacific islands where it is so clearly pertinent, and thereupon
modify his conclusion that the theory of subsidence is no longer gen-
erally applicable in the explanation of coral reefs; for we may surely
say of him what he said of an earlier student: The example of Darwin’s
own candor and overmastering love of truth remains to assure us that no
one would have welcomed fresh discoveries [or, as we may interpolate,
the resurrection of old discoveries] more heartily than he, even should
they lead to the setting aside of his own work.

STUDY OF CORAL REEFS 485

When the history of natural science is written, it will, I believe,
come to be regarded as a curious commentary on the scientific methods
of the nineteenth century, that choice among the various hypotheses
invented for the explanation of coral reefs was guided so largely by
personal habits of thought rather than by logical demonstration; for
clearly enough the really successful one among all the proposed hypoth-
eses can be detected only by its ability to survive a crucial test; that is,
by its capacity to explain certain essential facts not in mind when it
was invented and not explicable by any other hypothesis. A still more
curious comment will be pronounced on the coral-reef chapter of scien-
tific history, when it is learned that, as has been shown, a crucial test
of the most admirably simple and convincing kind had been, as far as
barrier reefs are concerned, discovered and announced a very few years
after the publication of Darwin’s theory of subsidence, but that it re-
mained unnoticed for years thereafter. It never came to the atten-
tion of the author of the subsidence theory himself, perhaps because, as
he wrote, “ geologists do not read each other’s bcoks”; and it seems to
have been altogether unknown to the inventors of the later alternative
theories, who, had they been better informed, would have at once per-
ceived that their inventions were incompetent.

Dana’s Confirmation of Darwin's Theory.—From what has now
been said, the nature of Dana’s confirmation of Darwin’s theory must
be clear. The only obscure matter is: why was the clear confirmation
so generally overlooked? Dana wrote in his report on the Geology of
the United States Exploring Expedition, published in 1849:

The very features of the land [of barrier-reef islands], the deep indenta-
tions, are sufficient evidence of subsidence to one who has studied the character
of the Pacific islands.

Farther on in the same volume, under the general heading, “ Evi-
dence of Subsidence,” and the special heading, “Deep Bay-indenta-
tions in Coasts as the Terminations of Valleys,” he stated the case more
fully as follows:

In the remarks upon the valleys of the Pacific islands, it has been shown that
they were in general formed by the waters of the land, unaided by the sea; that
the sea tends only to level off the coast, or give it an even outline. When there-
fore we find the several valleys continued on beneath the sea, and their enclosing
ridges standing out in long narrow points, there is reason to expect that the
island has subsided after the formation of the valleys. For such an island as
Tahiti could not subside even a few scores of feet without changing the even
outline into one of deep coves or bays, the ridges projecting out to sea on every
side. ... The absence of such coves, on the contrary, is evidence that any sub-
sidence which has taken place has been comparatively small in amount.

This explanation has been abundantly confirmed by later investiga-
tions ; the principles that it involves are to-day everywhere accepted as

486 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

fundamental in the study of shorelines. The submergence of a moun-
tainous coast must necessarily produce an embayed shoreline, with many
out-stretching points of the land separating as many in-reaching arms
of the sea. Bays thus produced are often called drowned valleys, in
view of their origin. They are beautifully exemplified in many parts
of the world far outside of the coral zone, as in the accompanying view
of the Bay of Islands in northern New Zealand, Fig. 16. Simple as

Fic. 16. Part oF THE BAy oF ISLANDS, a half-submerged district in northern
New Zealand.

the explanation of embayed shorelines by submergence is, it was first
recognized by Dana in 1839 when he was on a mountain peak in Tahiti;
he was indeed the first man in the whole world to perceive that valleys,
half drowned by submergence, must form bays; and conversely that
bays, which are continued downward from the non-drowned upper part
of valleys, demonstrate submergence. But it was not alone that Dana
gave this simple explanation of embayed coasts; he demonstrated fur-
ther that embayments can not be the work of the sea, as seems to have
been Darwin’s idea, for Dana saw that the sea, unhindered by coral reefs
in its attack upon a land margin, tends to simplify an indented coast
line by cutting back its promontories, so that the complexity of outline
seen in an alternation of lobate promontories and branching bays, inter-
locking with one another in intricate fashion when initiated by sub-

STUDY OF CORAL REEFS 487

sidence, would be changed to a less irregularity of outline as the land
heads were cut back in retreating cliffs, and the bay heads were filled
up with advancing deltas; and that there would eventually be developed
a marked simplicity of outline when the cliffs were cut farther back
than the initial heads of the bays. Dana had good ground for his ex-

Sh

SS
AKIN DR ee

M

Fig. 17. DIAGRAM OF EMBAYMENTS AS IMAGINED ON A NON-SUBSIDED VOLCANIC
ISLAND; K, between two advancing lava flows; L, in a transverse down-faulted
trough; M, in a landslide cavity.

planation, for he was convinced that the valleys of the land, be they
the short radial valleys such as he saw on the island of Tahiti, or the
great complex of valleys such as he observed in the Blue Mountain
plateau of Australia, are the product of subaerial erosion which works
only above sea-level; it was for this good reason he concluded that a
valley which is prolonged in a bay necessarily indicates submergence.
This point is evidently important; for if a bay occupy a reentrant be-
tween two salient lava flows, as at K, Fig. 17, such as occur on the Fiji
island of Taviuni, where recent volcanic action has taken place; or if a
bay occupy part of a down-faulted trough or bight in a volcanic cone,
as at L or M, such as perhaps occurs in the Fiji island of Moala; or if
a bay occupy a large caldera, like that of Totoya, already mentioned,

ss
: Cn yS Si
ye aX Cd AS i

Fic. 18. DIAGRAM OF PART OF THE SAMB ISLAND AFTER SLIGHT DISSECTION AND
PARTIAL SUBMERGENCE, showing reentrant embayments at valley mouths, N, P; and
around the ravine sides of a down-faulted trough, O, and of a landslide cavity Q.

no subsidence would be thereby proved, inasmuch as these peculiar and
easily recognizable forms can be produced by volcanic action either at or
below or above sea-level: yet if the sides of an embayed bight Q, or
trough O, are ravined, as in Fig. 18, and each ravine descends to a cove

488 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

in the shoreline of embayment, the side coves prove submergence after the
down-faulting and erosion, even if the embayment of the down-faulted
space does not; and such is the case in Moala: likewise, small embay-
ments in a dissected caldera wall prove submergence, and such is the
case in the ring-island of Totoya.

The Embayments of Barrier-Reef Islands.—But to return to our
coral reefs. If it be true on general principles that the embayments of
a dissected central island demonstrate that submergence took place while
the encircling barrier reef grew upward, is it also true that the central

de
Gogo O Gras aos

1 2.00CA

wo

(ee plani,
143)

Fic. 19. BritTISH ADMIRALTY CHART OF TAHAA, Society ISLANDS. The outer-
most belt, with curved lines of fine print, is the barrier-reef flat; the lagoon is dotted
with soundings in fathoms; a narrow fringing reef follows most of the present
shore line; delta plains are blank, between the present shore line and the more sinu-
ous original shore line (added in a heavy line) caused by submergence of the maturely
dissected volcanic cone.

islands within barrier reefs are so generally embayed as thereby to
establish, for barrier reefs at least, the truth of the subsidence theory?
Yes, abundantly so; and not only are they elaborately embayed, but
their embayment has long been represented on charts and stated in
descriptions. Ninety years ago the same two missionaries who first sug-
gested that coral reefs might be formed on wave-cut platforms, described
the island of Tahaa, Fig. 19, in the Society group as distinguished “ by
the number, breadth and commodiousness of its harbors, with which the

STUDY OF CORAL REEFS 489

whole coast is indented, some running quite into the heart of the
country”; thus its outline is made so irregular that the natives compare
it to a cuttle-fish, “the projecting headlands and intrusive creeks re-
sembling the many tails or tentacule” of that animal. I went around
the lagoon of Tahaa in a small motor boat, passing all its spur-end
points and entering some of its larger bays, taking time to note the
form of the spur-ends where they are cut off in low cliffs, and to sketch
the inner border of the bay-head delta plains, in order to reconstruct the
intricate salients and embayments that its shores would possess if the
spurs had not been a little cut back, and if the deltas had not been built
forward. ‘The result is shown by the innermost and strongest black line
of Fig. 19—the outermost line is the barrier reef—and it appears to
me to be a result of a very striking nature. The small arrows on the
spurs represent the dip of lava flows and ash-beds: their radial arrange-
ments shows that the island represents a single volcanic cone, elaborately
dissected and partly submerged. Evidently enough the bays would be
much longer and more branching than now, if the deltas were removed ;
and as evidently the spur-ends would not be much longer than now if
their original points were restored; but most evident of all, the outline
thus reconstructed can be explained in no other way than by the sub-
mergence of an elaborately dissected voleano.

Fic. 20. SKETCH OF PART OF THN DEEPLY DISSECTED VOLCANIC MASS oF RAIATBA,
Socirty ISLANDS. The embayment of the shore line, diminished by deltas, is not
clearly shown because of foreshortening. Fig. 5 is a bay in the same island.

Let it not be supposed that Tahaa is of exceptional pattern. The
neighboring islands of Raiatea, Fig. 20, was instanced by Darwin seventy
years ago as possessing “ those deep arms of the sea . . . which penetrate
nearly to the heart of some encircled islands.” I gave two days to the
leisurely circuit of its lagoon. How wonderfully its original shape is
transformed! How deep are the valleys between the sharp-crested

490 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

ridges! How gently the spurs slope down, hardly nipped at their ends,
into the enclosed lagoon! ‘Again, the Fiji islands make one of the groups
in which Dana found many embayed islands to support Darwin’s theory,
yet that group has been said by some observers to occupy an area not
of subsidence but of elevation, because elevated reefs occur on some of
the islands. Such a statement is geologically altogether inconclusive ;
for the absence of elevated reefs on many members of the Fiji group
shows that they have not suffered elevation. I saw eighteen of the Fiji
islands on my voyage, and sixteen of these had embayed shorelines; the
other two showed elevated reefs, as yet little dissected and hence lately
elevated. A willing witness to subsidence in Fiji is the little island of
Ono, Fig. 21, of mountainous form and irregular outline. A more

Fic. 21. BRITISH ADMIRALTY CHART OF THE EMBAYED ISLAND OF ONO IN THE
GREAT ASTROLABE REEF, Fisi. The shore line of submergence is added in a heavy
line. The larger island of Kandayu, Fig. 23, lies next southwest.

striking example is the larger island of Ka-nda-vu, Fig. 22, next south-
west of Ono; there the mountains are higher and the embayments are
more pronounced; they indicate a recent subsidence of at least 600 or
or 800 feet. When this is taken in connection with the elevated reefs
of Fiji, some of which have been recently uplifted from 600 to 1,000
feet, a gentle warping of the ocean bottom is indicated; but that is not
a surprising matter.

The Surprising Case of Ka-nda-vu.—tindeed, the only surprising
thing in association with the beautiful island of Ka-nda-vu is, not the
embayments of its shoreline, not the strong subsidence to which the
embayments testify, but the statement regarding the island made by the
chief advocate of the still-stand theory of outgrowing reefs: he wrote,
several years after his visit to this island:

STUDY OF CORAL REEFS 491

> SS ii =

KANDAVU

Fic, 22. SKETCHES oF KANDAvU, ONO, AND NGAvu ISLANDS, Fis1, showing ma-
turely dissected volcanic masses, with embayed shore lines due to submergence; the
bay heads are occupied by deltas; some of the land heads are cliffed more than usual.

It was here that, not being able to apply Mr. Darwin’s theory in explana-
tion of the phenomena of the Kandavu reefs, I commenced to doubt it altogether.
... The more observations accumulate the more does it seem to me probable that
there never was a barrier reef or atoll formed after the manner required by Mr.
Darwin’s theory.

That is truly astonishing, indeed astounding! On reading it in
presence of a detailed map of Ka-nda-vu, Fig. 23, or still better in
presence of the island itself, it will be understood more fully than before
why the still-stand theory of coral reefs must, in so far as barrier reefs

‘4Sv9q}I0U }xou sary ‘ ‘St ‘ou
‘000'L8 : T Jhoge ‘ajvog ‘aps U10}sSaMq}I0U Oy} UO SururA 10 SNONU}}UOOSIP PUR ‘OPIS PAVAPUM IO. T19}svoey}NOS aq} UO SnNonuI}U0D pue ebigs ea a

SOUT] ALOYS OY} SMOT[OJ Joor Suysuyay y “syaewmAuquio ojra0quyie s}t SUIMOYS ‘Ie1y ‘AAVAGNVY JO WIV], NuGGsve, GHD wo WVH) ALIVUINGY HSILiug

‘6G “OT

Lan)
(pres speak Oot)
ssug ozosure N

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f

STUDY OF CORAL REEFS 493

are concerned, be regarded as a scientific blunder and its publication a
bar to progress; for if one island had to be selected from all the islands
of the Pacific as decisively favoring Darwin’s theory, that island might
well be Ka-nda-vu. Yet hardly less unwarranted than the above quo-
tation is the assertion by the same author that the still-stand hypothesis
is in harmony with Dana’s views of “the great antiquity. and per-
manence of the great ocean basins”; for if there was any one man who
believed that the bed of the ocean basins has not always stood still, but
has sometimes subsided, that man was Dana.

In view of all this, it is inevitable that any hypothesis which postu-
lates a fixed relation between the island foundations of coral reefs and
the level of the surrounding ocean must be rejected. It may seem over-
bold thus on the ground of physiographic evidence summarily to set
aside certain hypotheses that have been accepted by able investigators ;
and so indeed it would be had those investigators recognized the occur-
rence of embayed central islands, and had thereupon said: “Truly these
embayments appear at first sight to be drowned valleys, but further
study shows them to be of quite different origin, independent of subsi-
dence”; but, unfortunately they said nothing of the kind; they took no
account of embayments at all. It is therefore well warranted to say,
in view of the widespread occurrence of embayed central islands, that
the postulate of a fixed relation of island mass to ocean surface is in-
admissible. Theories of coral reefs and theories of ocean basins must
include the possibility of a mobile ocean floor that carries oceanic islands
up or down as it rises or subsides, or of a variable ocean surface that, as
it subsides or rises, allows the emergence or submergence of still-stand-
ing islands.

The Evidence of Elevated Reefs—We have thus far considered
chiefly barrier reefs at sea-level. Let us now ask what testimony elevated
reefs offer, for elevated reefs were specified on an earlier page as com-
petent and communicative witnesses, whose testimony must be heard.
But in order to appreciate the value of this testimony, let it be clearly
understood that the still-stand theory requires elevated reefs to rest
conformably on non-eroded volcanic slopes, because according to this
theory, reefs must lie on a slope that has never subsided from a higher
stand in which it might have suffered erosion; while the subsidence
theory as definitely requires elevated reefs to rest unconformably on a
slope that was eroded before it subsided.

An elevated reef, standing 20 or 25 feet above sea-level, has long
been known to form a plain of variable width on the border of the
Hawaiian island of Oahu, especially along its southern and western
sides. The conditions of its origin have been much discussed. That it
was formed during or after a time of submergence is clearly proved by

494 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY,

the following considerations: Oahu consists of the remains of two great
voleanoes, an older and more dissected cone forming the smaller, west-
ern part of the island, and a younger and less dissected cone forming the
the larger eastern part. Some of the valleys in the older western mass,

Fic. 24. A LAVA-BED SPUR BETWEEN Two BROAD VALLEYS OF THE WEST COAST
oF OAHU, Hawaii. The valley floors are entered by the limestones of the elevated
reef which forms the coast plain.

Fig. 24, are one or two miles in width at the shoreline, and are enclosed
by high, narrow, steep-sided spurs, on the flanks of which gently in-
clined lava beds outcrop in great number. The original floor of the
valleys is not now visible, because each valley is occupied, in its shore-
ward part at least, by the lagoon-limestone plain of the elevated reef:
the floor of volcanic rock must be, as well as one can judge by the slope
of the valley-side spurs, hundreds of feet below the limestone plain;
and this inference is confirmed by the depth of several artesian wells in
limestone or non-volcanic beds. Hence the island must have stood hun-
dreds of feet higher than now when the valleys were eroded, and must
afterwards have subsided hundreds of feet in order to allow the lagoon
limestones associated with the elevated reef to be deposited in the valleys.
Since then, a moderate elevation with resulting erosion has taken place;
and afterwards a still more moderate depression, for on the south side
of the island the branching bays of Pearl harbor are nothing more or
less than valleys eroded in the elevated reef plain and then drowned.
The present sea-level reef of Oahu was formed in association with the
depression that formed Pearl harbor.

Elevated reefs are found on many islands in the larger archipel-
lagoes of the western Pacific. In the Philippines the island of Cebt is

7

STUDY OF CORAL REEFS 495

terraced with reef limestones which rest unconformably on an eroded
foundation of older rocks; and in‘such a case, as well as in Hawaii, the
foundation mass must formerly have stood at least as high as now in
order to suffer erosion; it must then have been submerged to the level
of the highest limestone terrace at least; and it must finally have been
uplifted to its present altitude. It is of course possible that the terra-
cing reefs may have been formed during pauses in a slow emergence fol-
lowing a rapid submergence; but it is also possible that they were
formed during pauses in a slow submergence followed by a rapid
emergence; and it is again possible that some terraces were formed
during pauses in submergence, and others during pauses in emergence.
Nothing less than close study of the terracing structures will suffice to
determine which of these possibilities corresponds to the actual occur-
rences of past time; but while we are waiting for such study, it is fair
to quote this case as demanding submergence as a factor in the forma-
tion of the reefs in question, and as thereby warranting the postulate
of submergence in other cases. Many other examples of unconformable
elevated reefs might be cited: they all testify as unequivocally to the sub-
mergence of the eroded reef foundation before the reefs were formed or
while they were forming, as to the emergence of the compound mass
after the reefs were formed.

Which Theory is Best ?—In view of the various sea-level and elevated
reefs in situations so significant as those now mentoned, can any one who
carefully deduces the consequences of the three hypotheses thus far pre-
sented, hesitate for a moment in making his choice among them? In the
ease of sea-level barrier reefs, where are the confluent deltas, projecting
outside of a non-embayed initial shoreline, as demanded by the hypoth-
esis of outgrowing sea-level reefs on still-standing islands? Where are
the cliffs around a non-embayed shoreline, as demanded by the theory of
veneering reefs on wave-cut platforms? And where are not the re-
entrant embayments, with small deltas at their heads, as demanded by
the hypothesis of upgrowing barrier reefs on subsiding foundations!
In the case of elevated reefs, where are the unworn volcanic slopes
beneath the steeply inclined talus of coral waste, as required by the
theory of outgrowing reefs; or the truncated platforms beneath a coral
growth of small thickness, as required by the theory of veneering reefs?
And where are not the unconformable contacts of reef limestones upon
an eroded foundation slope, as required by the subsidence theory!

The Origin of Atolls—The confirmation provided for Darwin’s
theory by Dana’s principle of shoreline development is as admirable and
abundant for sea-level barrier reefs as is that provided by the uncon-
formable contact of reef-mass and foundation for elevated reefs: but let
it be explicitly noted that neither of these confirmations applies directly
to sea-level atolls. Those inscrutable islands stand alone in the sea,

496 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

without witnesses to reveal their origin. They have been described as
monuments over drowned volcanoes; they are monuments truly enough,
and it has lately been shown that the Bermuda reefs have a volcanic
mass beneath them; but no direct proof has been found that any sea-
level atoll in the Pacific is built upon a volcanic foundation, much less
that the foundation has subsided. The deep boring on the atoll of
Funafuti in the Ellice group has led different students to different con-
clusions, though it seems to me that the evidence for subsidence is
strong: unhappily the boring reached no voleanic rock. Nevertheless, it
is probable that the atolls of the Pacific have subsiding voleanic founda-
tions for the following reasons. Atolls sometimes occur in association with
barrier reefs, as in the Fiji, New Hebrides and Society groups; and in
such cases the subsidence of the volcanic islands proved for the barrier
reefs may be very reasonably extended to the neighboring atolls. Sea-level
atolls are in all cases exactly like barrier reefs, but for the absence of a
central island; the process which has produced a barrier reef on a sub-
siding voleano must, if continued, change it into an atoll; and it would
truly be singular if this process, so far advanced in some barrier reefs
that their central islands occupy a very small fraction of their lagoon,

7,

Fig. 25. CROSS SECTION OF THE ELEVATED ATOLL OF MARE, LoyALtTy ISLANDS,
showing the small knob of volcanic rock that rises in its lagoon plain to a less
height than its reef rim.

had never continued a little farther; Maré, Fig. 25, the southeastern-
most of the Loyalty islands, is a recently uplifted atoll, about twenty
miles in diameter, and over 200 feet above sea-level; it has a low knob
of eroded volcanic rock near the center of the limestone plain that rep-
resents the former lagoon, but the summit of the knob is lower than
the reef-rim that encloses the plain, and hence the volcanic summit was
below sea-level before uplift occurred. No uplifted atolls have been
found to possess the particular structures characteristic of atoll for-
mation by other processes than upgrowth during subsidence. On the
other hand, the extensive oceanic subsidence demanded by the occurr-
ence of atoll groups has been objected to as inconsistent with what
is known of the origin of ocean basins; but so little is known of their
origin that this objection has little force; the theory of ocean basins must
accommodate itself to the subsidence that is demonstrated for: barrier
reefs and made highly probable for atolls.

Atolls Formed by Up- and Out-growth.—Let us now turn aside from
the theory of subsidence and consider briefly another theory for the
formation of atolls, proposed by the oceanographer who advocated the

STUDY OF CORAL REEFS 497

still-stand theory of barrier reefs. Let VVV, Fig. 26, be a submarine
mountain, presumably a volcano, the summit of which lies below the
limiting depth of 20 or 25 fathoms, at which reef-building corals can
grow. The frail calcareous shells of innumerable small pelagic animals,
floating in the shallower waters, fall to the ocean bottom when the
animals die, like “an organic rain”; and, in so far as they fall on the
mountain, they aid the organisms living there to build it up, QQ; and
thus eventually a submarine bank is formed near enough to the surface

"7 GPE N = ree Soe ree EIS
y CPT it 5: fee 3 Bree yates TN
L73 vip, \ Wy

Fic. 26. Cross SECTION TO ILLUSTRATH THH THEORY OF UP- AND OUT-GROWING
RHFS: a submarine volcanic summit V, is built up with pelagic deposits, Q, and
crowned with a reef, N, which has been enlarged by out-growth, R.

for corals, NN, to be established upon it. Then the corals grow outward
on their own talus and form an enlarged atoll reef, RR, while the older
part of the reef is dissolved out to form the lagoon. Such is the hy-
pothesis for the production of atolls by up- and out-growth without
subsidence. It is easily conceivable, but no one has yet shown that it
represents any actual occurrence. Soundings have truly enough dis-
covered organic deposits on submarine summits, but it does not seem
probable that the fine calcareous deposits of the “organic rain” could
remain on a summit when it reached depths less than 40 or 30 fathoms;
the heavy waves of the ocean would sweep the deposits off into
deeper water, and upbuilding would have to be continued by heavier
forms of local growth. But it is not known that submarine summits
stand still and suffer a capping of organic deposits to grow upwards
nearly to the sea surface. So far as islands which rise above sea-level
are concerned, their heads are as uneasy as if they wore a crown;
emerged summits repeatedly suffer uplift or depression as well as still-
stand pauses: it is therefore probable that submarine summits are simi-
larly uplifted or depressed, for uplift and depression of super- or sub-
marine volcanic masses do not result from changes within the masses
themselves, but from movements in the suboceanic earth crust on which
they stand. If the submarine summits are depressed, they could hardly
be at the same time built up to the surface by the slow process of
“organic rain”; if elevated, it is certainly singular that they all stop
rising in the regions of true atolls before they emerge. Hence this
theory is encompassed with improbabilities.
VOL. 11.—d4.

498 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

Furthermore, no elevated atoll has been described as showing the
structures demanded by this theory; hence the theory stands merely as
a possibility without direct support. But an island in the Solomon
group has been figured as possessing a volcanic core, V, Fig. 27, partly

Fic. 27. REPRODUCTION OF A CROSS SECTION OF ONE OF THE SOLOMON ISLANDS, much
exaggerated vertically.

covered by pelagic deposits, LZ, other than coral, and these in turn are
surrounded by an uplifted coral-reef terrace, RR, not so high as the
pelagic deposits: and this composite structure has been taken as con-
firming the up- and out-growth hypothesis just stated. The confirma-
tion is not convincing for several reasons. First, the volcanic summit,
V, has a greater altitude than the pelagic deposits, Z, and this would
seem to show that the summit had been built up above sea-level before
the “organic rain” fell on its flanks. Second, the pelagic deposits, L,
have a greater altitude than the coral reef, R, and this shows that uplift
of the cloaked voleano preceded as well as followed reef formation.
Third, the threefold structure is vertically exaggerated in Fig. 27; it
might be better represented by VLR, Fig. 28. Fourth, the contacts of
the pelagic deposits with the volcanic cone, and of the reef limestones

Fic. 28. THE SAME, REDRAWN WITH LESS VERTICAL EXAGGHRATION, Showing on
the left a volcanic slope, V, conformably overlaid with pelagic deposits, L, and these
conformably built upon by a reef, R; the threefold mass having been twice elevated.
On the right, the three structures, U, J, S, are drawn with unconformable contacts,
indicating two depressions and two uplifts.

with the pelagic deposits remain undescribed: perhaps, instead of rep-
resenting an unbroken succession of submarine deposits, they may be
separated by surfaces of erosion, and thus represent discontinuous de-
posits, as UJ; that is, the voleano may have stood above sea-level and
suffered erosion for a time, before rapid subsidence drowned it for the
receipt of the uncomformable pelagic cover; uplift and erosion of the
composite mass may then have taken place before renewed subsidence
permitted the formation of the reef; not till then may have come the
present uplift of the threefold mass. Changes of this kind may seem
cumbrous. If so, let me commend the attentive study of the following
example from the new Hebrides.

Uplifted Reefs in the New Hebrides——On the northwest side of the

STUDY OF CORAL REEFS 499

island of Efate in the New Hebrides a series of well-bedded, nearly
horizontal tuffs, VN, Fig. 29, described as containing Globigerina and
other pelagic foraminifera, is deeply eroded in valley-side slopes of over
800 feet, which descend to the drowned-valley embayment of Havannah
harbor; and the slopes are terraced by a number of elevated fringing
reefs, TTT, which contain abundant and well-preserved fossil corals,
and which lie unconformably on the eroded slope of the tuff beds. If

—— — — AY — — ‘7?

=.

e —=

lll
i

SS alll Wii ith

Se ee

Fig. 29. Cross SEcTION TO ILLUSTRATH THE UNCONFORMABLE CONTACT OF THE
ELEVATED FRINGING REEFS OF EFATH, in the New Hebrides group, on an eroded mass
of horizontal marine strata, NN; the nature of the contact of the marine strata on
their volcanic foundation, WW, is not known.

this is interpreted in accordance with well-established geological prin-
ciples, we must conclude that the island stood several hundred feet
lower than now when the foraminiferal tuffs were deposited: that it was
then raised higher than now for the erosion of the drowned valley of
Havannah harbor; that it then subsided low enough for corals to form
fringing reefs up to the very top of the eroded slope; and that it was
finally raised at least to its present altitude, leaving the valley bottom
drowned. Whether the fringing-reef terraces were formed during the
last uplift or during the preceding subsidence is not easy to determine ;
their formation during uplift has been announced by a young Australian
observer, but he did not recognize that the truncation of the tuffs de-
manded previous elevation, erosion and depression. In company with
Mr. E. C. Andrews of Sydney, New South Wales, I reviewed the section
with the earlier observer’s report in hand; and the formation of the reefs
during intermittent subsidence followed by rapid uplift, rather than
during intermittent uplift preceded by rapid subsidence, seemed an
explanation well worth considering. Whether the tuffs of Efate lie on
an eroded or a non-eroded volcanic foundation, WW, I can not say; but
in Viti Levu, the largest island of the Fiji group, similar marine tuffs
seemed to lie, at the only point of near-contact that I reached, uncon-
formably on an eroded volcanic slope; if the same relation occurred
on Efate, a strong submergence must have taken place after the
initial voleano was built up and eroded, and before the tuffs were laid
down on its eroded flanks. The absence of details of this kind from the

500 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

description of the island in the Solomon group (Fig. 27) makes it for
the present an incompetent witness. The upshot of all this is, that the
up- and out-growth hypothesis, which explains atolls as the crowns of
pelagic deposits built up on submarine foundations, is as yet without
support by well-observed facts; and hence that Darwin’s theory of sub-
sidence provides a simpler and better supported explanation of atolls
than any theory yet invented.

Objections to the Theory of Subsidence-—Are we then to under-
stand that no objections can be raised against the theory of subsidence?
Hardly that, for many objections deserving consideration have been
urged. First is the objection that an extravagantly large volume of
limestone is needed to build atolls on the subsidence plan. This is per-
fectly true, but it is also true that the outgrowth plan is hardly less
extravagant. Extravagance seems sometimes to be the order of nature,
as in building up voluminous volcanic cones by eruption through the
earth’s crust beneath the ocean; some of the cones, if measured from
the ocean bottom, are of staggeringly large dimensions. But the best
answer to this objection is found in two of the Loyalty islands, next
northeast of New Caledonia; they are uplifted atolls 20 or 30 miles in
diameter and now standing 200 or 300 feet above sea-level, without a
sign of any rock but limestone around their rim, though one of them
(Maré) has, as above mentioned, a small knob of volcanic rock in the
center of its uplifted lagoon-plain; if the volcanic mass of which the
knob is the summit be given a slope such as is commonly observed in
volcanic islands of the Fiji group, the thickness of the lmestones at the
margin of the island must be at least 5,000 or 6,000 feet. As far as
this goes, it indicates that heavy limestone masses really do occur
beneath the crown of an atoll reef.

A second objection to the theory of subsidence is based on the ab-
sence of heavy coral-reef limestones from ancient geological formations.
To this it may be answered that, while parts of continents have in the past
presumably been transformed by depression into deep ocean floors, deep
ocean floors do not seem to have been transformed by elevation into con-
tinents; or if they have been, the lofty overtopping atolls then uplifted
must, as a rule, have been worn away, just as all lofty mountains and
volcanoes of Paleozoic and Mesozoic times have been worn away. The
roots of ancient mountains and volcanoes are found beneath less ancient
geological formations, but not the summits. Similarly, it is only the
base of ancient atolls that would commonly be preserved under less
ancient geological formations, and not the tops. Another answer to
this objection is that the heavy dolomites of the Tyrol do, by way of
exception, represent ancient coral reefs, and thus show that ancient reefs
are occasionally preserved.

STUDY OF CORAL REEFS 501

A third objection to the theory of subsidence is, as above noted, the
necessity of a great depression of the Pacific ocean floor in recent geolog-
ical time over the immense area occupied by groups of barrier reefs and
atolls. So great a depression is held by some to stand in contradiction
to what is known of the dynamics of ocean basins; but in answer it may
be urged that the evidence of strong ocean-bottom subsidence over large
areas, as given by atolls, must be added to the little else that is known
about the ocean floors before safe inferences can be drawn as to the
amount of deformation which their basins have suffered. It may be
briefly noted that the inferred contemporaneous lowering of ocean water
and the consequent laying bare of all continental coasts, as a result of a
great deepening of the Pacific atoll areas, is not necessary; for it may
be assumed with much probability that adjacent parts of the Pacific

‘floor suffered a roughly compensating elevation, as Darwin suggested,
when the atoll areas subsided, and hence that contemporaneous changes
of ocean level were relatively small.

A fourth objection to the theory of subsidence, urged by an eminent
geologist, must be regarded as the most singular of all objections. It is
as follows: “ Upheaval has taken place in areas where barrier reefs and
atolls are in vigourous growth. Such an association of upheaval with an
assumed general subsidence requires, on the subsidence theory, a cum-
brous and entirely hypothetical series of upward and downward move-
ments,” and hence is improbable and unacceptable. This pronounce-
ment is, in view of its source, one of the most extraordinary that I have
encountered in coral-reef literature. It tempts me to follow for geol-
ogists the example of the late William James, who divided philosophers
into two categories, the tender-minded and the tough-minded. Let us
divide geologists into the same two classes, and among the tender-
minded place those who hesitate to accept a theory of coral reefs that
involves repeated uplifts and depressions of the earth’s crust because
such terrestrial uneasiness is mentally distressing ; and among the tough-
minded, those who are perfectly ready to follow good evidence wherever
it leads, even to the cumbrous series of upward and downward move-
ments shown by elevated reefs in Fiji and by Efate in the New Hebrides.
It is consoling to remember that James avowed himself to be one of the
tough-minded pragmatical lot.

(To be continued)

502 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

ANNEXATION AND CONQUEST

By CHANCELLOR DAVID STARR JORDAN

STANFORD UNIVERSITY

i fe the minimum program of the Central Organization for the Study
of a Durable Peace, the first article reads as follows:

No annexation or transfer of territory shall be made contrary to the inter-
ests and wishes of the population concerned. When possible, their consent shall
be obtained by plébiscite or otherwise.

On this article I am asked by the executive committee of the Central
Organization to present my comments.

Its essential features may be summed up in these words: “ No right
of conquest; no annexation by force.” Its thesis is vigorously urged
by Immanuel! Kant in the second paragraph of the first section of “ Per-
petual Peace.” Says Kant:

A state is not a possession or a patrimony like the soil on which it has its
seat. It is a human society subject to the authority and disposition of none
but itself. Since, like a stem, it has its own roots, to incorporate it as a graft
into another state is to take away its existence as a moral purpose and to make
of it a thing. This contradicts the idea of the original compact, without which
no authority over a people can be conceived. Everybody knows into what
danger, even in the most recent times, the supposed right of thus acquiring
states has brought Europe. ... This has been looked upon in part as a new
kind of industry, a way of making oneself powerful through family connections
without putting forth personal effort, in part also as a way of extending one’s

landed possessions, . . . Thus the subjects of the state are used and abused to
be handled at will.

It can not be denied that the views above quoted conflict seriously
with tradition, theory and practise in past European history. The
curse of modern Europe is its burden of history. Every generation is
filled with remembrance of the futile glory of past wars, with futile
hatreds of the people against whom the wars were fought. The teach-
ings of the schools furnish many of the standing incentives to war.
Through these agencies the war-system has perverted and poisoned all
lessons in history, in patriotism and even in religion. The way out is
to start afresh. That this may be possible is one of the cheering lessons
to be drawn from European history. For example, my friend and
teacher, Andrew Dickson White,’ reminds me that “the religious wars
which had been going on for well over a thousand years were forever
ended by the Treaty of Miinster in a universal feeling of shame and dis-

1In a letter dated Cornell University, January 27, 1916.

ANNEXATION AND CONQUEST 503

gust.” So we may hope that the present inexpressibly tragic confusion
may end in the stable development and rational development of inter-
national law.

The article under discussion represents in spirit a great advance in
international law. It stands for the right of small civilized nations to
autonomy and integrity. It opposes the dismemberment of any nation,
large or small. It removes certain standing incentives to war by elimi-
nating supposed advantages of victory. To put this rule into operation
at the end of the present war would add enormously to the stability of
civilization.

In the following pages I shall briefly treat various details under five
heads: (1) The Assumed Right of Conquest, (2) the Use of the Plébis-
cite, (3) Secession and Nationality, (4) Colonial Adjustments and
finally (5) Conclusion.

I. THE AssuMED RIGHT OF CONQUEST

The great argument against the right of conquest lies in its funda-
mental injustice. It furthermore interferes with the stability of so-
ciety. The conquest of the whole or part of one civilized state by
another involves an assault on the well-being of all. The conquered
state at once encounters serious interference with its own manners and
customs. It naturally tends to resent this interference, and soon its
resentment becomes an intrusion into the established discipline of the
victor. Both these conditions followed the annexation of Alsace-Lor-
raine, making this region, on the one hand, “ the nightmare of Europe”
(le cauchemar de ’ Europe), and, on the other, the “ wound in the side”
(la plate dans les flancs) of the great empire to which it was forcibly
united. Whatever the motive of such annexation, it necessarily leads to
dissatisfaction in the smaller group and disunion in the larger. More-
over, the precept that “ Might makes Right” or its sophistical equiv-
alents that “ Might creates Need” and “ Need creates Right,” whether
applied to men or to nations, is offensive to the moral sense of civilized
humanity. For example, the nationality of Belgium must be absolutely
maintained. Anything less than this would leave Europe wholly un-
stable. Serbia and Montenegro should also be restored.

An argument for annexation by force frequently advanced is this;
that to guarantee future peace and prevent attack from outside a fringe
of alien territory must also be secured. Dr. John Mez writes:

The creation of so-called buffer states may indeed from a military and
strategic viewpoint serve those ends of securing the national boundary, but the
experiment of securing peace by such conquest has been tried several times in
history and proved a failure every time. Bismarck had intended merely to seize
Alsace and the German-speaking parts of Lorraine, but military experts in-
sisted that a portion of the French-speaking district should equally be taken for

504 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

strategic reasons and ‘‘in order to secure the peace.’”? It was said: ‘‘The
fortress of Metz is worth 100,000 soldiers in case of another war.’’ Thus Bis-
marck was induced, almost against his will, to consent to the annexation of
Metz and the region about it. Peace insurance by conquest is one of the greatest
fallacies of history. It is distinctly and naturally disadvantageous to both
victor and vanquished, and, instead of preserving the peace, it necessarily defeats
that end, since out of it grows the inevitable desire for ‘‘wars of revenge’’
in the nations despoiled. Apart from this it is a gross injustice to the inhabi-
tants of the conquered province itself. It is also immoral, creates a dangerous
precedent which in some future day may be equally applied by other parties.
Here is the main reason for protesting against the idea of conquest of territory,
even if alleged to be made not for gain, but to make a country secure from
attack or to ensure peace—a shallow phrase—used over and over again as an
excuse for the crime of a large-scale robbery.

The system of “scientific frontiers” leaves a boundary marked by
dissatisfaction and surrounded by suspicion and hate. A wise Alsatian
once said to me: “The best boundary fortress is a contented people.”
(“Dte beste Grenzefestung ist ein zufriedenes Grenzevolk.”’)

II. THe USE OF THE PLEBISCITE

Rejecting then the principle of the use of force as a means of ex-
tending jurisdiction, we may consider some of the details involved.

First, as to the “interests and wishes” of the population concerned.
These may not altogether coincide if by interest one means financial
advantage. In general, the more cultured a body of people, the more
will interest and wishes approach agreement. For with advanced people
wishes rise to have an intellectual value and interests a moral value
unknown to barbarous races. With barbarous races, the desire to be let
alone outweighs most forms of economic interest, as these necessarily
involve a degree of personal restraint or collective discipline.

How then shall we ascertain “ interests and wishes” in a given case?
Manifestly we cannot trust a victorious nation. Two methods remain,
the one an international tribunal, the other a vote of the people them-
selves in the conquered district. As to the first, the results of inter-
national commissions or “concert of powers” have not been thus far
encouraging, but the sources of failure lay in their partisan composition.
In the Balkan crisis, most members of the concert, conventional diplo-
mats, represented interests which hoped to gain by confusion, and the
present war has its excuse if not its cause in the disorder resultant from
the incongruous adjustments of Balkan affairs in the Treaties of Lon-
don and of Bucharest.

On the other hand, a wise, impartial and non-partisan commission
is possible if the several states will together set up a righteous standard.
In a well-ordered continent just action may be expected from nations
as well as from individuals or corporations. “ Peace is the duration of
law,” that is, of justice.

ANNEXATION AND CONQUEST 505

The plébiscite or ballot is a device for ascertaining the will of the
people. It is not clear that this can ever be safe and effective in de-
termining the fate of any disputed district of Europe. The process
can have no value unless voting rests on intelligence and the ballot is
fully guarded, with a secret vote and the absence of all duress, intimida-
tion or bribery. And as some form of duress is a regular accompani-
ment of the suffrage in many parts of Europe, we can hardly expect the
stream to rise above its source. Even in the best-ordered districts a
plébiscite as to national allegiance would be fraught with embarrass-
ments. In case of any change in this regard public feeling would run
high in both the states concerned, as well as in the strip of territory to
which the plébiscite is applied. This condition would encourage in-
trigue, with manipulation of public opinion. The struggle for ascend-
ancy would interest the rest of the world, and sympathies racial, polit-
ical religious, would form a disturbing element far beyond the limits
of the regions concerned. “IJ can imagine,” says Professor Walter
Rauschenbusch,’ “a plébiscite turning into an active volcano. .. . This
provision would operate as an almost insuperable check against any
change. It would give the population no initiative, only a veto.”

At once, in any plan for plébiscite, three problems arise: (1) How
large shall be the voting units? (2) What rights shall the people have
within the nation to which they may assume allegiance? (3) To what
extent are the principles of toleration set forth in Article 2, democratic
equality before the law, religious liberty and tolerance of language, to
be guaranteed in the chosen relations? Allow me to discuss these prob-
lems at some length and by venturing on certain illustrations.

Before the war between Prussia and Denmark, Schleswig as a whole,
being very largely occupied by German people, had the choice been
offered, would doubtless have voted for transfer to Germany. But had
smaller voting units been adopted, northern Schleswig or its city of
Flensburg would certainly have elected to remain in Denmark, while the
body of the province would have attached itself to Germany. Such a
decision would not have necessarily been because northern Schleswig is
Danish, a fact in itself of secondary importance. The determining
factor might have been that, speaking Danish rather than German, the
people were subject to minor persecutions on that account. Being
assured of such tolerance as our Article 2 contemplates, they might
have elected to remain in Germany, for presumably their financial
interests would be better served within the German Zollverein. With
fair play, old hatreds soon die out. It is not necessarily language or
race which determines choice of allegiance. Partly it may be tradition,
partly the feeling of equality before the law, and for the rest, mainly
continuity of manners and customs.

2In a letter dated Rochester, February 9, 1916.

506 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

In Alsace-Lorraine, however, for example, the results of a plébiscite,
if conducted before the present war, would have been determined by
other questions than that of simple preference for France or Germany.
The region inhabited by people of French blood would assuredly not
have wished to detach itself from that where German blood predominates
and where a German dialect is spoken by the peasant classes. A com-
mon experience had inspired in “ Alsace-Lorrainers” a feeling of like
nationality. Their first allegiance was to Alsace-Lorraine. Undoubt-
edly Alsace and Lorraine, of differing speech and origin, had been welded
into one common experience. This fact is expressed in the doggerel
verse,

Francais ne peux,
Prussien ne veux,
Alsacien suis.

So the first choice of these people would have been to stand together,
their next, local home rule in details of custom and language. This
they had had under France, but not under Germany. Politically, the
first preference of most would no doubt have been independence, an
unfortified neutrality alongside of Switzerland, Luxembourg and Bel-
gium. They would thus have formed a republic of free men, a bridge
connecting the culture of France with that of Germany. As their busi-
ness interests allied them to the rest of the Rhine valley, they might
have been glad to remain in the German Zollverein if freed from lin-
guistic and other restrictions. Failing in this, they might have chosen
to be incorporated into the republic of Switzerland of which Miilhausen
once formed an integral canton. ;

The former bond of Alsace-Lorraine to Germany rested on business
relations and on the large influx of German manufacturing interests in
Strassburg and Metz. Its persistent opposition was due largely to
Germany’s failure to grant full citizenship, leaving the people as
“ Deutsche zweiter Classe” inhabiting “ Reichsland” or Territory of
the Empire. Resentment against this condition was stronger in Ger-
man Alsace than in French Lorraine, partly, no doubt, because more
French than Germans had emigrated from the land to escape Panger-
manist influences. Matters of language became really important only
through attempts to suppress the use of French.

It is not important to the unity of a great nation that all its people
should speak the same language. Stability is assured by equality before
the law and the recognition by all that under a common government their
individual personal rights are assured. In the words of Albert Oeri of
Basle,

A compatriot who thinks our thoughts is nearer to us than one who merely
speaks our tongue.’

3‘ Pour un Suisse un compatriote de langue diffirente est plus cher qu’un
étranger de la méme langue.”

ANNEXATION AND CONQUEST 507

Most attempts to define nationalities by race lines are bound to fail.
Language and race cross every border, sometimes producing inextri-
cable mixtures of blood and tongues. Kinship in spirit is more vitally
essential. The ideal of a unified nation with one race, one speech and
one religion is a reactionary one regarded as necessary to an oriental
despotism, but out of place in modern international Europe. To illus-
trate further, the complexities of the political problems sure to arise at
the conclusion of the present war, I again make use of Alsace-Lorraine
in illustration. If at the end of the war a plébiscite were to be offered
to this district, the problem would be by no means simple. Several
possible alternatives would present themselves, each having formerly
had its special advocates. The provinces could (1) remain as at
present, the people being still “ Deutsche zweiter Klasse,” living on
“ Reichsland,” or territory of the empire; or (2) become part of the
Grand Duchy of Baden; or (3) remain in Germany, but as one of the
autonomous or self-governing states of the empire; or (4) become a
free state or republic within the empire, comparable to the free cities of
Hamburg, Bremen and Liibeck; or (5) become an independent nation
like Switzerland, thus forming one of a series of buffer states between
France and Germany, either (a) unfortified like Luxembourg, perhaps
retaining the commercial advantages of the Imperial Zollverein, or (0)
armed like Belgium and Switzerland, or (6) return to France in spite
of the fact that in the centralized republic the district would as before
be reduced to three departments or local jurisdictions (Haut-Rhin,
Bas-Rhin, Moselle) instead of forming one united province of “ Elsass-
Lothringen,” as at present. Or, as further alternatives, neither of them
I believe acceptable to the inhabitants, the area might (7) be divided
crosswise, separating Lorraine which is largely French, from Alsace,
where the original stock was Germanic, or (8) divided lengthwise,
returning the French-speaking communes on the Moselle or along the
summits and west flank of the Vosges to France, retaining and leaving
the rest of Alsace and of Lorraine in Germany. Either of these propo-
sitions would be regarded as mutilation for reasons I try later to make
clear.

Finally in any discussion of this particular problem must be weighed
the claim of France that a plébiscite at the present epoch would be
unwise and unfair, as the will of the provinces for all time was indicated
in the protest of the retiring Alsatian members of the French National
Assembly in Bordeaux in 1871. The partial colonization of Strass-
burg and Metz with Germans should not affect, it is claimed, the status
of the districts which, as aliens, they have entered.

I have chosen Alsace-Lorraine as an example of the difficulties of a
plébiscite even in a highly civilized region. Before one could be under-

508 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

taken, the different alternatives should be clearly announced, as also the
proper provision for the safeguarding of the rights of minorities. Re-
spect for minority rights is one of the best tests of the enlightenment
of a nation. While in political questions majorities rule within ac-
cepted or constitutional limits, the personal or social rights of the
minority should not be abridged or taken away. ‘The size of the voting
unit hinges in some degree on this question. It must rest on wise
political judgment. It would be possible to divide Schleswig satis-
factorily, as the Danish or discontented portion is geographically a part
of Jutland in Denmark. It would be unsatisfactory to dismember
Alsace-Lorraine, Finland or Bohemia. A similar question has been
bitterly argued in Ireland, first as to the autonomy of Ireland as a
whole, and second, in case of division, as to the integrity of northern
Treland, the ancient Province of Ulster. But the exclusion of Ulster
from Irish Home Rule would leave the same question of the rights of
minorities. For of the nine counties of Ulster all but three, Down
(Belfast), Antrim and perhaps Derry (Londonderry), would choose to
be linked with the rest of Ireland. Throughout the island there are
“Unionists” and “ Nationalists,” just as in Alsace-Lorraine there are
“ French-minded” and “German-minded ” people (“franzdsisch-ge-
sinnt” und “ deutsch-gesinnt”) in every commune. Any decision of
the majority should leave the rights of the minority intact.

III. SEcEssIon AND NATIONALISM

It is clear that no denial of the right of conquest could be made
retroactive. To attempt this would throw Europe into confusion. With
time, vested rights become entangled with vested wrongs, and any effort
to correct the latter, suddenly and as a whole, would involve a general
overturn of government. For this reason, the “right of secession” of
any province or group of people can not be unconditionally admitted.
It exists only in connection with the larger right of tolerance of race,
religion and language. The world is concerned in all these problems,
as an imperfect solution endangers the world’s right to peace. But
they can not be settled by a reversal through secession or a conquest
of revanche. 'They can be finally adjusted only by a generous tolerance
with the recognition of the rights of minorities on the part of the gen-
eral government. Without such tolerance any conquered province “ will
remain a wound in the side” of a great nation, finally impairing its
integrity.

To concede the right of secession by plébiscite would involve con-
sideration of the variant claims of a dozen districts more or less dis-
contented with their present lot. It will therefore be necessary to pro-
ceed “on the pragmatic principle of letting sleeping dogs lie,” not raising
more complications than are strictly necessary. Recent attempts to

ANNEXATION AND CONQUEST 5°09

reconstruct the map of Europe on the basis of nationalism have shown
their own futility. Race and language, as I have already remarked,
interlock in every quarter. In the Balkans, for example, every race has
overflowed into all its neighbors, its migrated members having mean-
while acquired new languages and new customs.

In general, the grant of autonomy with home rule in intimate mat-
ters is a far more practicable solution than independence. But inde-
pendence once secured is preferable to unwilling or undesired autonomy
within a larger nation. In all these great affairs the burden of proof
should lie against change in actual status unless conditions have become
wholly intolerable. A compromise empire or coalition such as Austria-_
Hungary, for example, is preferable as an agent in civilization to the
frank discord which would follow dismemberment. The disorder now
existing among the independent states of the Balkans well illustrates
this. Whether autonomy be a solution in any particular case or not
must depend on the actual conditions. To grant independence to all
more or less suppressed races, would involve Europe in the anarchy of
the Middle Ages.

Nationality for example, has been more or less insistently demanded,
by Ireland, Finland, Poland, Bohemia, Alsace-Lorraine, Ukraine,
Slavonia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Armenia, Albania, Korea, India and the
Philippines. The claims of these districts are of varying plausibility,
and in some cases autonomy in a degree has been already granted.
Others are in a more or less anarchistic state in anticipation of home
tule. To grant autonomy with equality before the law, and especially
equality of language, would solve many of these difficulties. And not
many of the others could be adjusted by shifting the boundaries in the
interest of nationality.

The districts severed from Bulgaria, or at least refused to her at the
treaty of Bucharest, should have their relations reconsidered by some
competent tribunal, any form of plébiscite being, in this connection,
impossible. The wholesale suppression or ejection of a large percentage
of the inhabitants of Macedonia, Thrace, Dobruja and Novibazar, has
made final justice an impossibility. Upwards of a million peasants in
the various Balkan countries were homeless refugees in the early part of
1914. The number of these has since been reduced, but only by death.
For this region there is no way out, except through tolerance of lan-
guage, race and religion, all this being comprehended in the phrase,
“Equality before the Law.” Beyond this their economic needs demand
a common customs-union which shall abate the heavy tariff burdens
laid on each other and on themselves.

Even within the boundaries of would-be nationalities there may
exist great injustice. In Galicia the Poles, annexed against their will
but still as landlords retaining a considerable degree of freedom, treat

510 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

with great harshness the agricultural population largely composed of
Ruthenians or Little Russians. In Russia both Poles and Ruthenians
(Ukrainians) find themselves more or less oppressed, while all parties
join in the persecution of the Jews, and the Jews in turn find means
for a certain degree of revenge.

In certain recognized states, for example the Ottoman Empire, which
is merely an army of occupation holding a population of five times its
own number, any considerable degree of self government or even ordi-
nary tolerance would mean dissolution.* If the Turks did not rule, the
people would and they would insist on the “ bearable life” not attained
by any race under Turkish rule. It is claimed on good authority that
recurrent massacres were absolutely necessary if Ottoman rule were to
be maintained. Except through extremes of violence® the “ grim, raw
races” of the Near East could not be held in check. A sovereignty
maintained by such means is not a nation in any proper sense, and has
no claim to recognition in a sisterhood of states.

IV. CoLoNIAL ADJUSTMENTS

Thus far in this discussion, I have considered only the problems of
annexation in Europe. These concern relatively homogeneous popula-
tions, accustomed to a degree of self-government and to some process of
voting. The colonial systems of the various nations offer an entirely
different set of problems. In dealing with people wholly barbarous,
there may at times arise a necessity requiring domination or even con-
quest on the part of a civilized state. President William Howard Taft
has suggested that “ while the rule of Article I. might be generally true,
there might be exceptions in which the progress of the world would
require a departure from the principle where the people are ignorant or
depraved, or where they otherwise show their unfitness for self govern-
ment by continued anarchy.”®

That such exceptions may occur we must admit, although the “ right
of conquest” as applied to them is fraught with serious dangers. Such
as may be allowed should be not a “right” but a “duty.” The greed
of exploitation is often a ruling motive in bringing law and order to
feeble and discordant peoples. Decisions on questions of this sort ought
ultimately to be more or less international. The purpose of occupation
should be the general welfare, not merely the protection of exploiting
interests.

4‘“To concede absolute equality would be to commit suicide.’’

5‘“Tn our reconstitution of the Ottoman empire administrative conformity
must be absolute. Autonomy is treason. It means separation. Our Christian
compatriots shall be Ottomanized citizens. We shall no longer be conquerors
and slaves but a new nation of freemen.’’ (Riza Bey, quoted by John Mac-

donald, ‘‘ Turkey and the Eastern Question,’’ 1913.)
6 In a letter dated New Haven, January, 1916.

ANNEXATION AND CONQUEST 511

The relations of the United States to the conditions in Mexico may
be considered in this connection. They afford an illustration of the
difficulties which beset a nation which is desirous of seeing order main-
tained in a disorderly neighbor, but wishes at the same time to avoid
armed intervention, costly and dangerous, as likely to entail occupation
and ultimately a most undesired annexation. Mexico was for three
years in the hands of rival groups of bandits, with no certain prospect
of any orderly adjustment of its affairs. The United States has thus
far (February, 1916) refrained from intervention in the face of vari-
ous provocations, such restraint seeming to be, in the opinion of most,
the lesser of the two evils. Should military occupation ever be found
necessary, it is understood that it should be undertaken only with the
cooperative sanction of the leading states of South America, and with no
intention of annexation of any part of the territory occupied.

An over-seas district controlled or affiliated for any purpose by a
civilized nation has received the general name of “colony.” In this
sense a colony may range from a coaling-station to a continental do-
minion or commonwealth.

The civilized colonies which have risen to be independent nations,
affiliated with but not controlled by the mother country, are all in the
temperate zones, and nearly all are outgrowths from Great Britain.
These are Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, and no
present question of annexation or conquest concerns any of them.

The holdings which are chiefly serviceable as coaling-stations or as
fortresses guarding channels of trade are also mainly British, and ap-
parently none of them is directly concerned in the outcome of the pres-
ent war, unless indeed, civilized nations should come to the agreement
that all lanes of traffic be left unfortified. Such an arrangement is
much to be desired in due time. It would involve dismantling the
fortresses which now guard the Dardanelles, the Bosporus, the straits of
Gibraltar, Aden and Dover, as well as the defenses of the Suez, Panama
and Kiel Canals. The more completely force can be separated from
commerce, the better for civilization.

In general, most colonial dependencies are held as speculative prop-
erties, prospective sources of revenue, or else for the purpose of imperial
glorification, which Norman Angell calls “The Mirage of the Map.”
Most of the great holdings in Asia and Africa come under this last head,
yielding no national revenue comparable to the expense of maintenance,
and serving to enrich individual traders or exploiters while the burden
of empire is borne by the people at home.

In the British Empire the name of “ Crown Colonies” is given to those
districts administered directly in thename of theking. Colonies of this
type exhibit great differences among themselves, but they agree, however,
in certain details. Each consists primarily of a great body of native

512 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

people, to which sometimes is added a staff of working peons from some
other region—in plain language, imported serfs or slaves. The upper
stratum consists of a relatively small group of traders, exploiters, miners,
missionaries and officials, civil and military, engaged, for well or ill,
in developing the resources of the country. Such colonies have been
obtained in all sorts of ways, by purchase, by friendly negotiation, by
reprisal, by wanton invasion and incidental conquest. An invasion of
any kind produces disorder, disorder demands the presence of troops,
occupation must be permanent to keep order, and the final result in
annexation under the general plea of “ manifest destiny,” or the needs
of empire.’

At present, the last frontier is reached and every part of the world
is under the actual or nominal supervision of some one of the great
nations or world-powers. It is evident that no further changes can be
made except by force of arms, by friendly negotiations or by efforts for
freedom, peaceful or otherwise, from within. It is also evident that
most of these colonies contribute to the expense as well as to the glory
of the nation in occupation. They may be sources of revenue to indi-
viduals, but very rarely to the state. And the actual welfare of these
regions is dependent on the acceptance of Article 3, which provides for
the “Open Door,” that is, absolute freedom of commerce or at least
equal liberty of trade to all nations. A pernicious feature of foreign
occupancy is the establishment of “spheres of interest,” to the detri-
ment of the nation in which they are delimited, and too often conflict-
ing with one another.

So far as the present war is concerned, only the colonies of Germany
are brought into question. Practically all of these have been seized by
Great Britain during the war, a natural result of her control of the sea.

It will be quite impracticable to hold a plébiscite in these captured
colonies to determine their future allegiance. For example, in German
Samoa (Upolu) there exists a large body of natives numbering some
thousands, a few dozen white people comprising German officials and

7 Referring to the occupation of Chitral in northern India by the British in
1895, Lord Morley thus describes the five stages of the road of ‘‘high Empire’:

‘‘First you push into territories where you have no business to be, and
where you had promised not to go; secondly, your intrusion provokes resent-
ment, and, in these wild countries, resentment means resistance; thirdly, you
instantly cry out that the people are rebellious and that their act is rebellion
(this in spite of your own assurance that you have no intention of setting up a
permanent sovereignty over them); fourthly, you send a force to stamp out the
rebellion; and fifthly, having spread bloodshed, confusion and anarchy, you
declare with uplifted hands to the heavens that moral reasons force you to stay,
for if you were to leave, this territory would be left in a condition which no
civilized power could contemplate with equanimity or composure. These are the
five stages in the Forward Rake’s Progress.’’

ern re

ANNEXATION AND CONQUEST 513

traders, an American hotel-keeper and trader, an American private
banker or money-lender, two or three British lawyers, and finally a
group of planters owning the cocoanut groves, most of these latter being
naturalized German-Australians resident at Sydney. For the rest a
few hundred serfs, negroids, brought from the Solomon islands.

A similar problem existed in Hawaii at the time of its annexation
to the United States in 1900. The population of American or of North
European descent, numbering about 12,000, owned and ruled the
island, having overturned the native queen some years before and es-
tablished a nominal republic. The native Hawaiians numbered about
35,000. There were also about 20,000 Portuguese. Largely in a state
of semi-servitude as laborers on the sugar plantations were about 60,000
Japanese and 25,000 Chinese, besides Coreans and Polynesians. Under
a plébiscite the Hawaiians would mostly have opposed annexation. The
Europeans generally favored it, but the final decision could hardly have
been left to the illiterate majority on the plantations.

We must therefore fall back on the simple denial of the right of con-
quest even of colonial dependencies. ‘The German colonies seized during
the war should revert, unless, as a result of negotiation, some friendly
exchanges can be made. Some such readjustments might seem to be
possible and desirable.

It is certainly not wise to deprive a nation which has its heart set
on colonial control of all opportunity to experiment with it. Colonial
experience on a large scale tends to reduce the pressure of militarism at
home, though at the same time expanding the demands of the military
group. In time also it teaches the art of administration, which is ap-
parently to be learned mainly through failure. The ultimate lesson
seems to be that the only cement which really binds an empire together
is the bond of freedom. Government which rests on force alone becomes
ultimately brutal. This saying is credited to Cavour:

We can do anything with bayonets except to sit on them.

Provision might be made in international law for some form of con-
demnation of territory needed for purposes of civilization and held by
recalcitrant tribes. But such right of condemnation should not be
assumed by a powerful nation as against a weaker one. If necessity
exists at all, it is a sort of community interest, in which any action
taken should be a joint enterprise of the nations concerned. The posi-
tion of the United States in regard to the Canal Zone in Panama
would have been stronger if the approval of the great states of South
America had been secured before action was taken.

In some of the more difficult of the problems involved in the adjust-
ment to follow the war (those concerning Constantinople, Macedonia,
Armenia, Mesopotamia, Syria, Persia, the Congo) it may be found

VOL. 11.—35.

514 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

profitable or necessary to form international commissions of control.
These would have their difficulties, but the purpose being fair play, the
embarrassments would be relatively unimportant. The main thing is
that modern methods of open conference should supersede traditional
diplomacy.

V. CoNcLUSION

We may now amplify Article I.

No right of conquest shall be recognized and no military necessity to
the prejudice of neutral people or of neutral nations. No annexation
or transfer of territory shall be made by force as a result of war or
conquest. In case a problem of transfer of allegiance should concern a
homogeneous civilized district accustomed to self-government by plébis-
cite, no transfer shall be made except in accordance with the will of the
people, expressed in the secret ballot and without duress, the basis of
suffrage being that already recognized in such region, preferably “ one
man, one vote.” Whether any given district or province shall vote as a
whole or by smaller units must depend on the actual conditions in the
region concerned.

To the above we may add certain allied propositions. All extortions
of indemnities by force of arms must be condemned as of the moral
status of highway robbery.

Democratic control of foreign policy, involving the right of every
people to keep out of war, would be a powerful influence towards inter-
national stability. Its logical outcome would be the abolition of a system
of military conscription which has made an armed camp of the continent
of Europe. All use of military intimidation as a political argument
is fundamentally wrong because opposed to security and progress. Sci-
ence is human experience tested and set in order. Science decries every
influence which works adversely to human welfare, impairing abundance
of life.

In so far as the propositions here set forth are sound, they represent
“positive law” as defined by Grotius, that sequence of cause and effect
which is inherent in the nature of human relations and which forms
the solid basis of International Law. “ Voluntary Law,” whether the
result of democratic agreement of the people or diplomatic deals of
autocratic rulers, can never attain equal solidity or have equal binding
force.

Finally, the success of any plan for durable peace must rest on the
acceptance in good faith of Article 9 of the “Minimum Program.”
This provides for the abolition of secret treaties, with the permanent
elimination of tortuous wrangling diplomacy and methods of medi-
evalism.

THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE

545

THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE

THE NEGLECT OF SCIENCE IN
GREAT BRITAIN

A NUMBER of leading Brit'sh men of
science have united in signing a me-
morial protesting against the national
neglect of science. T’.y include Lord
Rayleigh, Sir William Crookes, Sir Wil-
liam Ramsay, Sir William Osler and
thirty-two others whose names earry
great weight.

the war began, due directly as well as
indirectly to lack of knowledge on the
part of legislators and administrative
officials of the ascertained facts and
principles of science. Not only the
highest ministers of state are ignorant
of science, but the same defect runs

through almost all the departments of |

the civil service; it is nearly universal
in the House of Commons and is shared
by the general public, including a large
proportion of those engaged in indus-
trial and commercial enterprises. The

only exceptions are the navy and the
| legislator or administrator than a law-

medical service of the army, in which
results have been achieved by men who
have had a scientific training.

It is said that success now and in the

difficult time of reorganizing after the |
war depends largely on the possession |

by leaders and administrators of scien-

tific method and the scientific habit:

of mind. They must have knowl-
edge and the habit of promptly ap-
plying known means to known needs.

This can only be effected by a great |

change in the education of the class
from which officials are drawn. The
education of the democracy would fol-
low a change in the education of the
wealthy classes. It is pointed out that

at present the methods of the old vested |
interests have retained their dominance

at least as far as the ancient universi-
ties and the great schools are con-

cerned. At Cambridge, but four col-
leges are presided over by men of sci-
entific training, at Oxford, not one. Of
the thirty-five largest and best-known
public schools, thirty-four have class-
ical men as masters, none has a scien-
tific man. The examinations for en-
trance into Oxford and Cambridge and
for appointments in the civil service

‘ | and in the army are s -
The memorial urges that | d in the army are such as to encour

Great Britain has suffered checks since | 28° the neglect of the study of the nat-

ural sciences and to some extent to en-
courage an indifferent not to say a con-
temptuous attitude towards them. The

|/memorial urges the electors -to insist

that candidates for their suffrages

Should pledge themselves to aid by leg-
islation in bringing about a drastic re-

form in the scheme for examinations in
all the public services, a reform which
it is claimed is vital to the continued

_ existence of Great Britain as a great
| power.

A scientific man used to dealing with
things as they are is probably a better

yer used to dealing in words and tra-
dition. But expertness in science does
not make a man omniscient or always
w:se in other directions. To take a
trivial example, these thirty-six distin-
guished men of science blame a member
of the government for not knowing that
glycerine can be obtained from lard,
but in the preceding paragraph they say
that Lord Playfair is the only trained
man of science who has been a cabinet
minister, whereas he never was a cabinet
minister. Sir William Crookes’s opin-
ion as to ghosts is not valuable. Sir
William Ramsay doubtless regards Pro-
fessor Ostwald’s views on the conduct
of the war as extremely fool’sh, and
Professor Ostwald in turn doubtless
looks on Sir William Ramsay’s publi-
cations regarding the permanent sub-

PROFESSOR JOSIAH ROYCE, THE LATE PROFESSOR WILLIAM JAMES AND PROFESSOR
Grorcr Herperr PALMER. This painting of the three distinguished professors of
philosophy of Harvard University by Mrs. Winifred Ruber will probably be purchased

by a group of alumni for presentation to the university. Professor Royce is seated
on the left; Professor James is seated on the right; Professor Palmer is standing.

518

jection of Germany is beyond measure
absurd.

There is no reason to suppose that
the study of the classical languages is
carried to excess in the United States,
though a great deal of time is doubt-
less wasted in our schools on the ele-
ments of languages which are never
learned or used. The classical curricu-
lum dominates the German gymnasium
more completely than it does the Eng-
lish public school. The number of
people who can read Latin in Germany
is far greater than the number in Eng-
land, but in equal measure the number
trained for research work in science is
greater. According to Professor Vig-
non, of Lyons, there are for each 1,000
chemists in Germany 28 in France and

24 in England. What both Great Brit- |

ain and the United States can learn from
Germany is not so much substituting
one kind of memory work for another
in the schools and in civil service ex-

aminations, as the appreciation of the

Supreme value of research and the im-
portance of depending on the expert in
the field in which he is competent.

RECENT EXPERIMENTS IN
AERODYNAMICS

THE Smithsonian Institution has just

issued and sends us an abstract of an.

illustrated pamphlet containing a series
of technical reports on experiments re-

cently conducted in the wind tunnel

for aerodynamics at the Massachusetts

Institute of Technology, at Boston,

Mass.

In writing on this wind tunnel itself,
J. C. Hunsaker, assistant naval con-
structor, U. S. N., and instructor of
aeronautics at the Institute, says that
since it is difficult to carry on full
scale experiments to investigate the
aerodynamical characteristics of a pro-
posed air-craft design, tests are made
on small models, as in naval archi-
tecture. The experiments are further
simplified by holding the models sta-
tionary in an artificial current of air
with a maximum wind speed from 34
to 40 miles an hour, instead of towing

THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

| them at high speeds through still air
to simulate actual flying conditions.

After a study of the principal aero-
dynamical laboratories of - Europe, it
was decided to reproduce at Boston
the four-foot diameter wind tunnel of
the National Physical Laboratory of
Teddington, England, together with
the aerodynamical balance and instru-
ments used there for measuring veloc-
ity. In this connection the director
of the English laboratory generously
presented the detailed plans of the
complete installation to the Masachu-
setts Institute of Technology. Mr.
Hunsaker describes the wind tunnel,
the aerodynamical balance, and ex-
plains some of the experiments and
principles involved

The second article of the series com-
prises notes on the dimensional theory
of wind tunnel experiments, by Edgar
Buckingham, of the U. S. Bureau of
Standards, who defines the theories and
principles involved, and suggests stand-
ardization of the methods employed.

In another report Mr. Hunsaker dis-
cusses the most common and conve-
nient form of pressure anemometer,
known as the Pitot tube, an instru-
ment used in calculating the wind ve-
locity from the pressure differences.
He also describes the construction of
an inclined manometer, a form of pres-
sure gauge, used in the experiments.

Messrs. H. E. Rossell and D. W.
| Douglas report on their experiments
concerning the adjustment of the ve-
locity gradient across a section of the
tunnel. Since in wind tunnel experi-
ments it is essential that the velocity
of the air striking different parts of
the model under test, shall be the same,
it was -necessary after developing pre-
cise methods for measuring the veloc-
ity, to explore the cross-section of the
tunnel to detect variations in velocity
from point to point. The results of
their experiments and the effects se-
cured by the adjustment of a honey-
comb grating, which straightened out
the flow of air, are recorded.

Tests of the characteristic curves for

nas en Landaa

THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE

wing sections are discussed by Messrs.
H. E. Rossell, C. L. Brand, and D. W.
Douglas. They experimented with and
tested the aerodynamical constants
published by the British Advisory Com-
mittee for Aeronautics for wing pro-
file R.A.F, 6, and found the results to

aeroplane design.

J. C. Hunsaker discusses stability of
steering of a dirigible, citing some of
his experimental tests with a wooden
model of a dirigible hull fitted with
rudders and fins in accordance with
regular practice. It is now possible
to base the design of fin and rudder
area upon his data instead of ‘‘rule
of thumb.’’ His experiments proved
that with the size rudder and fin fitted
(7.79 and 3.47 sq. inches), the ship
could be held on its course by the use
of not more than 164 degrees of rud-
der. The importance of a vertical rud-
der was proved, but it was found im-
possible in practice to give sufficient
vertical fin area to hold the ship on
its course without the use of the helm.

The pitching and yawing moments
on a model of a Curtiss aeroplane
chassis and fuselage, complete with
tail and rudder, but without wings,
struts or propeller are set forth in an
article by Messrs. Hunsaker and Doug-
las. Swept back wings are discussed
by Messrs. Rossell and Brand, who
maintain that with a sweep back of
ten degrees an appreciable righting
moment may be expected without
change in any of the other aerody-
namical properties of the straight
wing.

In order to ascertain whether the
righting moment secured by swept back
wings as investigated by Messrs. Ros-
sell and Brand, could be better ob-
tained by another method, Messrs.
Hunsaker and Douglas experimented
with dihedral angle wings.
tain that the didehral angle wings af-
ford better results than the swept back
wings, and since the former are built

the dihedral is of more value for pur-

They main-

| grees.
be sufficiently precise for purposes of |

579

poses of lateral stability. Attention
is called to the fact that the ‘‘Lang-
ley aerodromes’’ built by the late See-
retary of the Smithsonian Institution,
were equipped with dihedral angle
wings inclined upwards about six de-
The last article is by J. C.
Hunsaker and deals with critical speeds
for flat discs in normal wind.

LONG-RANGE WEATHER
FORECASTS

THE chief of the U. S. Weather Bu-

_Teau has sent us a statement to the ef-

fect that in the opinion of the bureau a
new system of long-range weather fore-
casting, which has been widely discussed
recently, is quite fallacious. The new
system is said to be based on the spot-
tedness of the sun and rifts and shafts
of solar radiation. In the opinion of

| the Weather Bureau it belongs in the

same class with other methods of long-
range weather forecasting based on
lunar, planetary, magnetic and astrolog-
ical considerations. None of these sys-
tems has any scientific value.

During the past few years the
Weather Bureau has received full
specifications concerning all the essen-
tial details of this particular system.
The alleged discovery is, therefore,
fully known to the Weather Bureau and
has been carefully studied and exam-
ined by its scientific staff. Moreover,
other scientific men of international
reputation now connected with the
strongest institutions of the world en-
gaged in astronomical research, and
conducting investigations into solar
and terrestrial physics, have also passed
upon these new theories. These au-
thorities are in accord that the deduc-
tions and conclusions drawn from the
solar conditions on which the new sys-
tem is based are unwarranted.

When the disk of the sun is minutely
examined with powerful telescopes, or
when it is photographed with the aid of
the modern spectroheliograph, the sur-

face presents a characteristic spotted
much more easily, it is believed that.

appearance which undergoes slight

_changes from day to day, and greater

520

changes with longer intervals of time,
depending upon the well-known rotation
of the sun upon its axis and the peri-
odic recurrence of the sunspot maxima
and minima. These and certain well-
known related phenomena are now put

forward as the basis of a new science |

which will make possible forecasts of
the weather far in advance. That these
features of solar activity, however,

actually should control and determine |

the daily changes and
weather conditions in any definite
direct and consequential manner,
quite impossible. Solar phenomena
the kind described do not have any di-
rect influence upon the weather at any

particular time and place, and can not |

be made the basis of any forecasts
whatsoever.

The alleged discovery is only one of |

a number of similar schemes which are
continually being put forward. In
Some cases the advocates assert that
they can forecast the weather for weeks

or months in advance, and in others)

they state that they have found means
of producing rain artificially, of pre-
venting hail, and in other ways of inter-
fering with and controlling atmospheric
phenomena. These pretensions meet
with a certain credence because there
are a number of people who still cling
to the ancient belief in the influence of
the moon on the growth and develop-
ment of crops, and to the idea that the
weather conditions depend upon plane-
tary and astrological combinations. In
consequence the Weather Bureau has
been called upon from time to time to
caution the general public against put-
ting faith in these so-called discoveries.

The U. S. Weather Bureau is the au-
thorized agency of the government to

collect meteorological observations and |

make and issue weather forecasts and
warnings.
the world has a similar organization and
all use essentially the same methods.
All these organizations condemn and
disprove the methods and theories of
those who assert that they are able to
predict the weather for any considerable
period in advance.

sequence of |
or |
is |
of |

Every important nation of |

THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

SCIENTIFIC ITEMS

WE record with regret the death of
Dr. Harry Clary Jones, professor of
physical chemistry in the Johns Hop-
kins University; of Theodore Pergande,
of the Bureau of Entomology; of Wells
Woodbridge Cooke, of the Biological
Survey; of John Wesley Judd, formerly
professor of geology and dean of the
Royal College of Science, London, and
|of Ernst Mach, emeritus professor of
the history and theory of inductive sci-
ence at Vienna.

Dr. HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN, presi-
| dent of the American Museum of Nat-
/ural History, gave the William Ellery
Hale Lectures at the meeting of the
National Academy of Sciences in April.
The subject was ‘‘The Origin and Evo-
lution of Life on the Earth.’’—Dr.
George Sarton, who is now lecturing in
the United States on the history of sci-
ence, the former editor of Isis, an in-
| ternational review devoted to the phi-
losophy and history of science, pub-
lished in Belgium, but discontinued
during the war, has been awarded the
Prix Binoux by the Paris Academy of
Sciences.

APPROPRIATIONS amounting to $1,200,-
000 have recently been made by the
Rockefeller Foundation. To the Rocke-
feller Institute for Medical Research is
given $1,000,000 for additional endow-
ment needed in connection with the De-
partment of Animal Pathology, recently
established near Princeton, N. J. To
the Rockefeller Institute for Medical
Research, $25,000 goes for the cost of
medical work at the seat of war in
Europe. Most of this appropriation
will be used for the support of the re-
search and hospital work being con-
ducted by Dr. Alexis Carizel in France.
The China Medical Board receives
$125,000 for the purchase of additional
property adjoining the Union Medical
College in Pekin. The international
committee of the Young Men’s Chris-
tian Association receives $50,000 in sup-
port of the work in the military prison
| camps of Europe.

PE OC ae ee
MONE ERE

JUNE, 1916

THE OLDEST PLACE OF WORSHIP IN THE WORLD*

By WALTER K. FISHER

STANFORD UNIVERSITY, CALIFORNIA

4 ae Shan in central Shantung is the most noteworthy of the five

sacred mountains of China and is the oldest place of uninterrupted
worship in the world. In the remotest mythical period kings made reg-
ular sacrifices on the mountain top, the nearest approach to heaven
known to them, and this practice continued into the eleventh century of
the Christian Era. To-day a temple marks this primeval altar, and the
infrequent foreigner may carelessly stand on the rocks where Yao and
Shun, heroes of China’s “ Golden Age,” made their offering to the Spirit
of Heaven. In the earliest mention of the mountain, about 2,000 B.c.,
and probably long after it had become an object of religious regard, we
find the worship described as being, not of the mountain, nor of a
spirit abiding there, but of one God, a dweller in heaven. Yet from
time immemorial the people have personified the mountain or imagined
that it has a soul, or is inhabited by a spirit, which is alluded to as the
genius of the mountain. This has been given names, which have
changed in different epochs. In 1369 the Buddhist founder of the
Ming Dynasty decreed that worship should be offered to Tung Yo T*ai
Shan. When Taoist influence becomes predominant, Tai Shan has a
birthday, and is the abode of a multitude of spirits, and has to do
with the birth, death, adversity and prosperity of mortals, while the
little hill of Kao Li at its foot is closely associated with the judgment of
human souls after death. In the sixth, seventh, tenth and twelfth cen-
turies the Buddhists were in control, but now their presence is scarcely
noticeable. The temples have fallen into the hands of illiterate Taoist
priests who seem to foster the worship of the “ Lady of Tai Shan” rather
than of the mountain itself. The legends of the “Jade Lady,” as she
was at first called, are very indefinite. She has been seen twice, first in
2600 B.c., and again about A.D. 65, as one of seven women, dressed
in feathers and crowned with clouds. A more popular tale identifies
her with a girl named Yu Yeh, born near Tai Shan in the year 143 B.c.,
who at a tender age went to live in a cave on the mountain, hoping to

1 Photographs by the author.
VOL, 11.—36.

TAI SHAN (GREAT MOUNTAIN) FROM NEAR THE BEGINNING OF THE PILGRIMS’ WAY,
which is shown on the left. The ‘‘ Highteen Flights” leading to the Heaven Gate
can be seen below the notch some distance to the left of the peak. Note the gardens
in the ravine.

become a fairy. After three years she is said to have attained her
‘object. About 1008 a marble statue of the Lady was found in the Pool
of the Jade Lady on the mountain-top, and this discovery seems to be
responsible for her present popularity. ‘The chapel in which this statue
was placed preceded the present Lady Temple, the chief shrine at the
summit. Aside from its local features, the religious fortunes of the
mountain have followed those of China as a whole.

The annual pilgrimage is the most characteristic feature of the
worship. The shrines are thronged with pilgrims during the first three
or four months of the year. In former times they attended in hun-
dreds of thousands, even millions, from all over the empire, but now the
numbers have greatly fallen off and few come from beyond the province.
The pilgrimage is the occasion of a fair in the walled town of Tai An
at the south base of the mountain. Here the large Lady Temple is
filled with shops of all sorts, and in the open spaces outside are refresh-
ment venders, quacks, peep-shows, minstrels, and story-tellers. The
pilgrims travel very frequently in clubs. Each member contributes a
monthly subscription to the promoters until a sufficient sum has been
collected. Then in the first moon (February) they set out, usually
afoot, the leader carrying a flag with the name of their town and other
items written upon it, while the other members often wear a red or
yellow girdle. Their money is spent first on religious duties, secondly
on food, fairs, gambling, and lastly in some cases on erecting a stone
tablet to commemorate the names and subscriptions of the participants.

Prior to the completion of the Tienstsin-Pukow railroad it was diffi-

OLDEST PLACE OF WORSHIP IN THkh WORLD 523

TAI SHAN FROM BEYOND THE HALF-WAY STATION; Heaven Gate and the steps
leading to it on the left. The two conspicuous squares on the face of the cliff are
inscriptions left by former pilgrims. Compare with neighboring pine tree. In the
foreground the Pilgrims’ Way is on the right.

cult for a foreigner to reach Tai Shan. Now the journey is a long day
by train from Tientsin to a small station called Taianfu, two miles west
of the walled town of Tai An, which crouches at the south base of the
mountain, and from which the remarkable Pilgrims’ Way sets out.
Be it remembered the railroad has not brought the English language,
nor the foreign hotel. Except for the trains, this part of the ancient
kingdom of Lu has changed little since the days of Confucius.?

We quitted Taianfu in the chill of an October dawn, borne in
mountain chairs by sturdy Shantung men. There were four of these
chairs,* each carried by two men, while four extra bearers followed the
caravan to relieve the others. We made a brave showing as the coolies
pattered over the rough plain toward approaching day. ‘Tai Shan
looked all of its 5,000 feet. Its gaunt head and shoulders were chang-

2 Without the aid of Mr. P. H. Henry Sze of the Tientsin-Pukow railroad,
who generously acted as cicerone and supplied a comfortable private car, two
American wanderers would never have beheld the cliffs of gray Tai Shan. The
language alone is a sufficient barrier to a foreigner, while it requires a con-
siderable outfit to utilize a Chinese native inn. To the Honorable Alfred Sze
I am equally indebted for having suggested the pilgrimage, and for having
aided in its accomplishment.

3 These chairs consist of a square frame with a few cords stretched over
it for seat, and fitted with a foot board and a low back. Two curved carrying
poles are fixed to the frame with iron clamps, and are slung by long leather
straps and cords over the shoulders of the bearers, who often hold the ends of
the poles in their hands. In going up or down the steep mountain path, or
sometimes also on level ground, the bearers walk abreast, with the occupant
facing sideways between them. A third man may aid the others.

524 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

THE Urrer Part OF THE PILGRIMS’ Way, showing the Eighteen Flights and the
South Gate of Heaven. The road here follows the margin of a dry torrent bed.

Note the people on the road.

ing to a rosy image of the erstwhile uncompromising crags, while broad
masses of shadow still clung to its uncertain boulder-strewn flanks and
ravines. Greeted by dogs, we flitted past Tai An, up the broad Pil-
grims’ Way where so many of the lowly and great of China had pre-
ceded us. This road, ten feet in width, paved with rock and often
bordered by substantial walls, clambers up ravines, over ornate bridges,
meanders through venerable cypress groves, jumps over ledges in

4 Although called cypresses these trees are really large Thuya orientalis.

OLDEST PLACE OF WORSHIP IN THE WORLD §25

THE TAI SHAN CHAIR.

flights of steps and with a trajectory like that of a sky-rocket scales the
last steep gorge and disappears through the South Gate of Heaven,
nearly five miles from Tai An.

With the coming of the sun a multitude of beggars crept from
near-by hamlets and demanded coppers in whining tones. Above a
zone of small temples, overshadowed by ash-like huai trees, we came
upon huge boulders underneath which had been constructed little cells

“THE BEARERS STOPPED FOR BREAKFAST AT A SorT OF LITTLE HALF-WAY STATION,
where over acrid fires of cow-dung they brewed tea and devoured huge cakes resem-
bling hardtacks, twenty inches in diameter.”

526 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

THE SourH GATE OF HEAVEN (NAN T‘IEN MEN). This great gate marks the
entrance to the sacred precincts of the summit and is at the top of the Shih Pa Pan
er Eighteen Flights. 3eyond it are all the temples of the mountain-top, and a small
village of thatched stone huts which line a continuation of the Way, leading to the
Lady Temple. Note the chain on the left placed there to aid weary pilgrims.

in which beggars or perhaps holy folk live when the way is thronged
with devotees. On the stony sides of the ravine were little garden
patches, with here and there a mud-and-stone walled house. Magpies
called from the cypress-clad slopes, and an occasional Chinese blue-pie
stopped on a wall to inspect us. Among the numerous honorary gate-
ways or pailows, we passed under one characteristically Chinese, for
growing out of the front were two. fairly large cypresses. Weeds,

OLDEST PLACE OF WORSHIP IN THE WORLD

ul
tN
~

THE PILGRIMS’ Way, FROM THE GATE OF HEAVEN. Looking down the Eighteen
Flights, over spurs of Tai Shan. This is the steepest part of the ‘‘ road,’ which for
many hundreds of feet is a huge flight of stone steps. If one holds the picture
horizontally directly below the eyes, the effect of steepness is partly gained.

bushes, and even trees adorn nearly every edifice of sanctity, as well as
others of no pretensions.

The bearers stopped for breakfast at a sort of little half-way station,
where over acrid fires of dry, peaty, cow-dung they brewed tea in pewter-
bound, globular pots of unglazed earthenware, once white but now a
meerschaum brown from long use. Fortified with this, they devoured
huge cakes resembling hardtacks, twenty inches in diameter. Then

528 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

THE TEMPLE OF THE MOUNTAIN LabDy. “ At the end of a meandering street
skirting the verge of some cliffs is the principal Lady Temple. built of stone covered
with reddish plaster and roofed with yellow and gray tiles (sometimes of brass or
iron).”’ The steps lead to the west gate (1661). The second roof to the left, that of
the Gate Hall, is covered with iron tiles. The main temple is the last large building
of this group, to the left. It is roofed with brass or copper tiles. Of the three
temples in the upper left corner, the lowest is dedicated to Confucius. Note the
thatch held down by sticks and stones.

each drew from a tube at his belt a little pipe which he deftly lit with
flint and steel. The flint and tinder (soft Chinese paper rolled into a
cylinder and charred at the end) were kept in a small ornamented
wallet, the lower side of which had a piece of steel the whole length
like the runner of a skate.

On either side of the Pilgrims’ Way, deeply chiseled in the rock,
are numerous inscriptions, some gigantic in size. They record the
visits and thoughts of pilgrims of note. Some are poems, and of many
the ideographs are archaic, perhaps antedating the present road itself.

It is pretty certain that the Way follows the course of an extremely
ancient trail, yet who built it, or when, is not definitely known. It has
been called the P‘an Tao or P‘an Lu and a book of the Han Dynasty
(202 B.c.—A.D. 220) says: “The P‘an Tao goes winding upward
with over fifty stages (p‘an) and the distance from the foot to the
ancient altar is 40 li.” At that time the great final ascent to the Tien
Men, or Heaven Gate, evidently existed. It was called Huan Tao and
pilgrims were aided in their climb by ropes. Now, cascading down a
wild ravine for many hundreds of feet from the mouth of the Tien Men
is the noble Shih Pa Pan (or Eighteen Flights) flanked for the last
hundred feet by heavy iron chains. Those who are content to forego
the exhilaration of a walk up Tai Shan are at least willing to forsake
the mountain chairs on the Shih Pa Pan. Yet the coolies are said
never to miss their footing.

OLDEST PLACE OF WORSHIP IN THE WORLD 529

Scattered over the bleak mountain-top at several different levels
are over half a dozen groups of temples of rather conventional Chinese
vattern. The site of the ancient altar on the topmost peak is occupied
by a small temple to Yu Huang, a Taoist God, dating from the middle
ages. The roof is protected by heavy iron tiles resembling those of clay.
The ground is classic, for here in China’s Golden Age were offered
sacrifices to Heaven, and here many of the great scholars and statesmen
of each succeeding dynasty were drawn by reverent curiosity. Con-
fucius climbed Tai Shan and thought the empire small. Beside the
steps leading to this altar is the Wu-tsu-pei, or Uninscribed Monument,
a granite obelisk fifteen feet high, set up according to tradition by
Ch‘in Shih H‘uang in the third century before Christ. On this part of
the mountain are numerous inscriptions and monuments left by pil-
grims. A rock called T‘an Hai Shih, upon which people stand to watch
the sun rise “from the sea,” is not far from a cliff, whence numerous
fanatics have plunged, hoping to save by their own death the life of a
dying relative. A quiet, deserted-looking temple contains the sleeping
image of the Mountain Lady, a figure which is dressed and undressed,
put to bed and got up like a doll. Another temple partly hides a colos-
sal monument in the form of an inscribed tablet cut in the face of a
cliff. It is thirty feet high and sixteen feet wide. The characters were
chiseled in 726 A.D. but are still clear after twelve centuries’ exposure
to the elements.

Below these temples and at the end of a meandering street skirting the
verge of some cliffs is the Pi Hsia Ts‘u or principal Lady Temple, built

THE TEMPLES SURROUNDING THE ANCIENT ALTAR ON THE SUMMIT OF TAI SHAN,
dedicated to Yu Huang and dating from the middle ages. The altar is a knob of
bare rock surrounded by a stone fence in a central courtyard. The ‘‘ Uninscribed
Monument” is seen beside the steps. It was erected in the third century before
Christ.

530 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

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#5,

THE LADY TEMPLE. A portion of the front, and the main court. In the huge
incense-burner in the foreground we sacrificed a few bushels of paper temple money.
Within the temple is an image of the Lady of the Mountain, along with other Taoist
deities. The tiles are of copper.

of stone covered with reddish plaster and roofed with yellow and gray
tiles. It is reached by flights of steps, which lead to a terrace, thence
to the great Gate Hall, opening upon the main court, the north side of
which is occupied by the main Hall of the temple. Within, the chief
images are those of the Lady and of the deities presiding over child-
birth and eyes. In this court are some old bronze incense burners, in
one of which we sacrificed a quantity of temple money, purchased from
a priest. ‘This offering consisted of large disks of red and gilt paper,

OLDEST PLACE OF WORSHIP IN THE WORLD 531

somewhat resembling a Chinese kite. Properly burnt with incense it is
much appreciated by the Lady of the Mountain, who has no use for the
coin of the realm. In a side chapel is a very ancient stone, with traces
of archaic inscriptions. It is much cracked and is propped together by
stones. But in these temples, as elsewhere in China, the visitor without
the language of the country is practically lost. Information from the
priests is vague and unrelated. The traveler must piece together the
disconnected bits by a vast amount of surmise, and restrain his curi-
osity until he can “read up,” perhaps a year Jater when he reaches home.

This Pi Hsia Tz‘u is the most wealthy of the shrines on Tai Shan
and owes its origin to the discovery of the Lady’s image in the Pool of
the Jade Lady. The first temple was built in 1008. It was rebuilt on
an elaborate scale in 1585, but was destroyed by fire in 1740 and recon-
structed with considerable change in 1770.

. Bordering the road which winds around the south face of the
mountain from the Heaven Gate to the Lady Temple are picturesque
stone huts, the roof thatch bound tight against the winter winds by
strips of cane or bamboo. On the opposite side of the way, next to the
wall above the bluffs, are massive stone tables between stone trenches, the
tables marked into squares for some game like chess. Within, the cot-
tages are smoked to a shiny blackness by the dung fires and streamers of
soot are pendant from the dusky region of the thatch. They are occu-
pied mostly by old people, two of whom hospitably gave me hot tea and
took a childish delight in my interest in their simple belongings. The
fire is made in a raised stone hearth, in the top of which are several
apertures for the accommodation of iron saucepans and pewter kettles.
The water flasks, lamps, dippers, and tea-pots are all of excellent design.
The tea-pots are of earthenware, with pewter handle and spout, and
stained a rich brown by long use. Silver would not tempt the old man
shown holding temple money to part with his, for he told Mr. Sze it
had been in the family for five generations and was very precious to him.
The interiors are all very simple. Besides the raised hearth, there is a
large earthenware water jar near the door, sometimes a rude table, and
at one or both ends of the room a broad raised platform of coarse mat-
ting or basket-work which serves as a bed and a settee. When the door
is closed there is little light. These dwellers within Heaven’s Gate
lead a life primitive in the extreme, and the rigors of winter must be
severe on the old folks, unless perchance they all migrate to the plains.

Finally, what is Taoism? It is commonly supposed to be the phi-
losophy of Lao-tsze who, between 500 and 600 B.c., wrote the Tao Teh
King. In practice it is no such thing. Lao-tsze taught the Tao, or the
“Way,” concerning himself, as did Confucius, his contemporary, with
ethical principles, the conduct of the individual and of society, and not
at all with religion. The Tao was “the simplicity of spontaneity,

532 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY.

ONE OF THE NUMEROUS INSCRIBED ROCKS ON THE Tor oF TAI SHAN.

action without motive, free from all selfish purpose resting in nothing
but its own accomplishment.” This is found in the phenomena of the
material world.

All things spring up without a word spoken, and grow without a claim for
their production. They go through their processes without any display of
pride in them; and the results are realized without any assumption of owner-
ship. It is to the absence of such assumption that the results and their processes
do not disappear (Chap. II.).

He applied this principle to the government of society and the indi-
vidual. His teaching reaches its highest levels in the following:

OLDEST PLACE OF WORSHIP IN THE WORLD 533

DWELLINGS WITHIN THE GATE OF HEAVEN. ‘“ Bordering the road which winds
around the south face of the mountain from the Heaven Gate to the Lady Temple
are picturesque stone huts, the roof thatch bound tight against the winter winds by
strips of cane or bamboo.” ‘This village is called the T‘ien Chieh, and the picture is
from the foot of the steps leading to the Lady Temple.

It is the way of Tao not to act from any personal motive, to conduct
affairs without feeling the trouble of them, to taste without being aware of the
flavor, to account the great as the small and the small as the great, to recom-
pense injury with kindness.

There is scarcely a word of Lao-tsze which savors of superstition or
religion. Taoism to-day is a system of abject superstition. It did not
take shape for more than 500 years after the death of Lao-tsze.

INTERIOR OF A TAI SHAN Het. To the left is the stone stove with cooking
utensils and, beyond, a table. On the right is a large water jar in front of a table
set “for tea.”’ The old men are sitting on one of the bed platforms; the photograph
was taken from the other. There is a broom leaning against the stove.

534 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

OLD MAN wirH TEMPLE Money. ‘This old man sells temple money to be burned
at the altar of the Lady of the Mountain. It is made of red and gilt paper. Note
the quilted coat and trousers and the fur cap with ear flaps.

In the first century A.D. a magician Chang Tao-ling is the chief professor
and controller of this Taoism, preparing in retirement the pill which renewed
his youth, supreme over all spirits, and destroying millions of demons by a stroke

of his pencil.

It was not until about a.p. 70 that the system borrowed temples,
monasteries, liturgies and forms of public worship from the Buddhists
and set up business as a religion. After assuming the form of a religion
it continued to degenerate until now it is “in reality a conglomeration
of base and dangerous superstitions” fused with a system of the wildest

OLDEST PLACE OF WORSHIP IN THE WORLD 535

polytheism. Alchemy, geomancy, spiritualism and black art generally
flourish under its shadow. Each of its three Holy Ones (of whom Lao-
tsze is one) has the title of Tien Tsun, “The Heavenly or Honored,”
taken from Buddhism, and also of Shang Ti, or God, taken from the
ancient religion of the country. To the myriad of other demigods and
spirits are added many of merely local import, as the Lady of Tai Shan.

As one looks from Heaven’s Gate, down the long Pilgrims’ Way
and into the golden haze that lingers over the Cradle of China, he seems
to conjure up that solemn procession of people and kings of old Cathay,
stretching in an unending line to the dim legendary realm of a heroic
age. Dynasties have risen and died, yet the innumerable multitude
with each recurring spring has been drawn hither as by a titanic lode-
stone. Each has had his own quest, and, doubtless, in spite of the
trumpery of childish superstition, many now find solace on the mountain
top. Yet while blindly following the Pilgrims’ Road has not the great
host wandered far from the “ Way” which was blazed for them in the
braver, saner days of old?

536 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

THE EVOLUTION OF THE EARTH!
IJ. EartH—GRowTH

By Proressor THOMAS CHROWDER CHAMBERLIN

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

N the view that was dominant during the last century—perhaps
- dominant still—the earth, when it had emerged from its natal con-
ditions and had become a mature planet, was pictured as a molten globe
surrounded by an atmosphere embracing all such earth-substance as
would be volatile at the temperature of white-hot lava. The earth must
then have been a perfect sphere, except as rotation imposed a symmet-
rical deformation upon it, and even the details of its surface configura-
tion scarcely departed from the contours of a perfect spheroid. Its
internal structure must have been symmetrical, the denser material at
the center, the less dense in concentric layers about this, the least dense
at the surface. Each layer should have been essentially homogeneous
in itself. The stresses within the earth, at first, must have been purely
hydrostatic, increasing necessarily from the surface to the center.

The evolution of the earth under this concept was actuated by
changes of energy within the hot young planet itself, chiefly loss of
energy by radiation. At an early stage-of this loss, a crust formed over
the uniform surface of the symmetrical spheroid, dividing the fluids
below from the fluids above. On this crust, the vapors descended, and
2 universal ocean followed; and then—if we pursue the picture so im-
pressively painted by the old masters in geology—there was a prolonged
battle between fire and water, the ocean penetrating to the hot material
beneath it and arousing explosive action of a spectacular sort. Lateral
thrusts arose from the shrinkage of the cooling globe, followed by bow-
ings, foldings and fractures. Here and there, the crust emerged from
the universal ocean and the great contest between the sea and the land
was initiated. Thus the postulated evolution was made to arise in sim-
plicity and to go forward in a symmetrical, logical way. It was pic-
tured with great impressiveness—not infrequently with a touch of elo-
quence, often with a touch of poetry—by the masters of geology in the
middle of the last century.

We owe these old masters a tribute of gratitude for the clear views

1 Third series of lectures on the William Ellery Hale foundation, National

Academy of Sciences, delivered at the meeting of the Academy at Washington,
on April 19-21, 1915.

THE EVOLUTION OF THE EARTH 537

they set forth, and for the logical fidelity with which they followed the
premises they adopted, a fidelity largely lost in these later years, by the
adherents of the same cosmogonic tenets. This lapse is not without
reason, for the later students of the earth have been compelled to ac-
commodate their views to new disclosures of stubborn realities that do
not fall into obvious accord with the cosmogonic antecedents so sharply
postulated in the earlier years. It is perhaps not far from the truth to
say that, in recent years, few geologists have tried to follow rigorously
the cosmogonic tenets handed down to them. Usually they have con-
tented themselves with shaping their views to fit the more specific as-
pects of the phenomena they have had immediately under consideration.
A multitude of divergencies from the simple tenets of our forefathers
have thus arisen and have come to penetrate modern geologic literature
in a most intricate way. The stubbornness of the realities revealed by
progressive inquiry has amply justified a swerving from inherited tenets.
It has equally invited a loosening of the hold of doctrines that depend
on these tenets. In recent years the insubordination of new determina-
tions to old interpretations has risen to declared refractoriness. The
old problem of the origin of the continental embossments and the abys-
mal basins, the problem that lies at the very threshold of earth science—
always a troublesome problem, because of the great range of the in-
equalities—has lately assumed a new form and become a burning ques-
tion of the hour. Under the stress of time-limits, let us take this as a
type of a large class of new issues. I refer to the fundamental question
that lies beneath the growing doctrine of isostasy, the origin of the dif-
ferentiation of specific gravities deep in the crust of the earth necessary
to actuate isostatic movement, the very basis of isostasy. In this lies a
grave challenge of the molten concept of the primitive earth. Very
cogent reasons have been adduced from geodetic data, particularly by
Hayford and Bowen, for the belief that the protrusions of the continents
are in isostatic balance with the depressed segments beneath the oceans.
It is hence inferred that the material beneath the continents is as much
lighter than that beneath the oceans, as the former are protrusive and
the latter depressive; in other words, the difference in the specific grav-
ity of the rock columns beneath the continents and beneath the oceans,
respectively, must extend far enough down to compensate for their dif-
ferences of height. A great mass of refined observations support the
isostatic view, at least in its major features.

But from the earliest days of geologic record, the atmosphere and
the hydrosphere have been persistently cutting away material from the
continents and depositing it in the basins, while the continents have
been pushed up, at repeated intervals, and the denudation renewed, else
the sea would long since have crept over the whole land. Many thou-
sands of feet have been cut away from the oldest known lands. Now

VOL. 11.—37.

538 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

this implies that the low specific gravity beneath the continents has been
deep enough and great enough to actuate isostatic movement, again and
again, as the unloading of the land and the loading of the great water-
basins has required. Differences of specific gravity adequate to this
must have had a competent source; the differentiation must have been
deep enough and great enough to have retained its efficiency through all
the ages in spite of the persistent efforts of denudation and transporta-
tion to effect an equilibrium, not only, but it must have been great
enough to leave the present undetermined resources available for future
isostatic movements.

Now in a molten earth there should have been, at the start, a per-
fect isostatic balance, in the fullest sense of the term. An adequate
cause for any non-isostatic differentiation in such a liquid mass seems
wholly unassignable ; certainly it has not been assigned ; on the contrary,
there are the most obvious reasons why the state of gravitative balance
should have been initially perfect under the molten theory and should
be preserved, for the dominant tendency of surficial action is perpetually
toward equilibrium. The agencies within, like the agencies without,
should have worked hand in hand to maintain the isostatic stability
inherited from the original state. The present state does not, therefore,
seem to flow logically from the assigned initial state.

But the case does not rest alone on logic, however cogent. If, in
some unexplained way, there arose a deep differentiation of specific grav-
ity of one type beneath the continents and of the opposite type beneath
the oceans, and if the continents were thus forced to rise as their sur-
faces were cut away, the original embossments would, by this late day,
have been cut down many thousands of feet, and we should now have |
free access to this much of the original molten interior of the earth.
Our geologic forefathers, with their logical fidelity, so interpreted the
deeper terranes so exposed in the heart of the old embossments, and
some of us were indoctrinated with this concept in our youth. But as
soon as petrologic science had come into possession of its modern effi-
cient tools, it was discovered, almost simultaneously in the several crit-
ical regions then under competent investigation, that the oldest known
rocks are surface rocks and that the supposed original igneous rocks of
the sub-crust are merely local intrusions.

Taken together, these determinations constitute a formidable ob-
stacle to the further acceptance of the inherited view. ‘There is an
absence of such observational testimony in support of the hypothesis of
a once molten interior as we have a right to expect, such indeed as our
geologic forbears did expect, not only, but supposed they had found.
There is now added to this deficiency the adverse implications of such a
deep differentiation of specific gravity as to force deformative readjust-
ments, even at this late day, in spite of all previous partial adjustments.

THE EVOLUTION OF THE EARTH 539

This seems quite incompatible with a primitive molten state of the earth.
To some of us its adverse import is wholly decisive. If there is a line
of escape, consistent with logical fidelity to observed facts and physical
principles, I must leave it to others to find it.

But we are less concerned with doctrines that fail than with doc-
trines that seem to hold out working promise of a true interpretation.
The renewed protrusion of the continents and the continued receptivity
of the oceanic basins, constitute the working prerequisites of geology,
the very sine qua non of our science. The verity of their initiation and
their maintenance throughout all recorded geologic history must be justi-
fied by any system of doctrine that has any claims to serious consider-
ation. We feel, therefore, the call to dwell, in proportion to their im-
portance, upon these fundamentals, in respect to which faith has been
so much disturbed by recent disclosures.

The cosmogonic postulates set forth in the last lecture gave a spe-
cific working basis for an alternative picture of the early states and of
the basal constitution of the earth. Briefly, these were a nebulous knot,
as a center of growth, and much scattered nebulous matter as food for
growth. The central portion of the knot was probably in a dominantly
inter-collisional state, while the outer portion was almost inevitably in a
dominantly orbital state, the latter circling about the former and limited
outwardly by the sphere of control of the knot. The intercollisional
portion should have rapidly collapsed into a dense spheroid so far as
composed of rock-substance. The portion that revolved about this,
after the manner of minute satellites, 7. e., satellitesimals, was collected
only as the occasional collision of one satellitesimal with another drove
them from their orbits into the earth nucleus or into the moon nucleus,
or else they were driven in by infalling bodies from without, i. ¢., plan-
etesimals. The aggregation of the knot was not then a simple matter
of gaseous collapse by cooling. What portion of the knot belonged to
the intercollisional and to the orbital categories, respectively, is at pres-
ent indeterminate, but progressive study tends to increase the probabil-
ities that favor the orbital state and to diminish those that favor the
intercollisional state. The nucleus of the knot that condensed in gaseous
fashion to form the primitive core of the earth may have been no more
than a minor fraction of the adult earth.

The scattered matter of the nebula, outside the knot, could appar-
ently have been in no other than a state of movement about the sun.
The scattered integers, whether moleclues or small aggregates, must ap-
parently have pursued orbital paths of planetary type about the sun,
that is, they must have been minute planets, or planetesimals. These
were liable to fall into the earth knot in the course of their revolutions
about the sun. The process must have been slow, as was also the in-
gathering of the satellitesimals of the knot, but each aided the other.

540 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

INTERNAL REORGANIZATION

An important deduction from such a genesis is the extreme hetero-
geneity it must have given the substance of the earth and the internal
reorganization that such heterogeneity must have induced. There
should have been, to be sure, some selective action, because the more
inelastic material would concentrate faster than the more elastic mat-
ter, and the magnetic material would doubtless be gathered into the
core, if it were magnetic, as is probable, faster than the non-magnetic
material, but nevertheless much heterogeneity must have prevailed.

The atmosphere should also have served a distributive, as well as a
slightly selective, function. As the planetesimals plunged into the outer
atmosphere of the juvenile earth, they must have been largely dissipated
into dust, if we may judge from the effect suffered by meteorites. These
are largely consumed in the very thin upper air; only a very small
fraction reach the earth’s surface, and these are perhaps more massive
than were the planetesimals. The planetesimal dust so generated no
doubt floated long before it found final resting place on the earth’s sur-
face. Whatever heat was generated in the plunge into the atmosphere
must have been largely radiated away from the upper regions, and the
temperature of the accretional portion of the early earth could scarcely
have been high.

The distribution of the accessions to the earth was thus incidentally
conditioned by the atmospheric circulation. Descending currents nat-
urally took precedence in bringing the dust down, but their dryness and
turbulence near the earth’s surface tended to hold the lighter material
longer in suspension than the heavier; the action was hence slightly
selective. Precipitation, largely associated with the rising currents,
brought down all classes of dust within its reach. The first lodgment
was further modified by the waters of the juvenile earth with some
further selective action. On the other hand, the internal agencies that
shaped the earth-body, potentially shaped also the work of the waters,
for these followed the slopes of the land and gathered in the basins of
the growing surface. Both the irregularities of the surface and the
water, in turn, modified the circulation of the atmosphere that swept
over them. And so the shaping of the earth-body by planetesimal
growth was the composite*product of the three great geologic factors,
the atmosphere, the hydrosphere and the lithosphere, and should have
been appreciably differentiated in specific gravity.

THE INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF THE HARTH

The material of the accessions should have taken on a more or less
stratiform arrangement under the action of the atmosphere and hydro-
sphere. Such molten matter as was poured forth from within likewise

THE EVOLUTION OF THE EARTH 541

should have assumed a rude stratiform arrangement. The combined
effect of these processes was to give the earth a concentric structure,
built up of very heterogeneous matter.

At the same time there were processes that tended to develop a radial
structure traversing these stratiform layers much as the medullary plates
of a tree trunk traverse its concentric layers of growth. Such lavas as
rose from the depths doubtless either insinuated their way through
seams, crevices, schist planes, and other lines of weakness, or fluxed
pathways for themselves along ducts of their own making. In addition
to these, the compressions that arose from growth, from transfers of
molten matter from the depths to the surface, from changes of temper-
ature, from molecular rearrangements under pressure, to secure greater
density, all contributed to readjustments, recombinations and recrystal-
lizations accommodated to the stress-differences whose least axis usually
pointed in the direction of the surface. Lateral compression is a famil-
iar phenomenon, vertical schistosity is its normal result. Diastrophie
agencies came into action at a very early stage, and hence at a low
horizon within the earth and their effects upon the structure of the earth
were extended upward to the successive layers that were added at the
surface. The earth is thus supposed to have acquired a vertical schis-
tosity which had its initiation at great depths.

PARTIAL LIQUEFACTION AND THE PRESERVATION OF SOLIDITY

The system of internal liquefaction and extrusion, assigned under
the accretional hypothesis, departs rather radically from inherited views
based on a supposed molten globe. It therefore invites critical con-
sideration. Neglecting the very heart of the earth that is supposed to
have grown from the gaseous nucleus of the knot of the nebula—the
conditions of which are least certain and whose proper treatment is in-
hibited by time—let it be noted that the matter gathered to the earth-
nucleus as aggregates, or as accretional dust, was highly heterogeneous.
Assuming that it was cold when deposited, heat arose from compression
as layer was-added to layer. Such radioactive matter as the accessions
contained also generated heat at multitudes of minute points. The in-
creasing pressure, so far as uniform on all axes, antagonized liquefaction.
With such a slowly rising temperature, so distributed and so antagonized,
it may be assumed safely that liquefaction would start, so far as it
started at all, with those points where particles mutually most soluble
or most fusible were in contact with one another, or where most heat
was generated by radioactive action, or where the two cooperated. If
the mobile matter so generated slowly were removed about as fast as it
gained workable volume, the main surrounding mass would remain solid.
We have just named a list of stresses that may well be held competent
to force at least all the lighter liquids toward the surface. We shall
presently discuss these further.

542 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

It is now known from concurrent evidence—the most conclusive of
which springs from the recent work of Michelson, Gale and Moulton on
the body tides—that the earth is highly rigid and elastic. Aside from
cosmogonic considerations, the grounds of which we have already chal-
lenged, we know of no reasons for assigning the earth any other than the
rigid state, at any time during the geologic ages. The planetesimal
hypothesis assumes that the elastic rigid condition prevailed, at least in
the outer half of the earth, throughout the history of its growth. It
holds that the accessions were added in the solid state, and that such
liquefaction as later arose in this solid matter must always have been
merely partial and selective, and that the liquefied material was forced,
by prevailing stresses, to the surface as fast as it reached working vol-
ume. This is a radical departure from the inherited concept of a molten
interior. The stresses that are believed to affect the interior of the
earth are serious obstacles to the supposed existence of great reservoirs
of liquid matter, lying quiescent for long ages, and undergoing mag-
matic differentiation under assumed static conditions. The great dis-
tortions that have certainly affected the earth to the greatest accessible
depths and that are most intense in the deeper rocks, seem to be spe-
cific evidence at variance with the assumption of such protracted quies-
cent conditions. The newer view postulates effective stress conditions
permeating the globe at all times during its adolescent, as well as adult,
history, and that these effective stresses tended to force to the surface all
mobile materials, except possibly some whose specific gravities were suffi-
ciently high to resist the ascensive pressure.

The new view makes its first and most fundamental appeal to the
differential stresses imposed by changes of rotation. The primary stres-
ses of rotation give evidence of having been the greatest that have been
imposed upon the body of the earth, except those of gravitation, which
are hydrostatic. According to Sir George Darwin, the rotational stress-
differences are eight times as great at the center as at the surface. The
potential stress-difference that would become actual at the center of the
earth by the arrest of the existing rotation amounts to 33 tons per
square inch. ‘The tidal stress-differences have a similar distribution, but
they are relatively feeble, though persistent and pulsatory. The more
general class of stresses that arise from loading and unloading through
erosion and transportation perhaps have a somewhat similar distribu-
tion. ‘The static stresses due directly to gravity, range from one atmos-
phere at the surface to about three million at the center. From these
cooperating stresses, a persistent urgency to escape to the surface is be-
lieved to have been brought perpetually to bear on the mobile and, in the
main, lighter liquid material as fast as it was generated. The less sol-
uble, more refractory, and, in general, denser material remained behind,
but probably approached mobile conditions sufficiently to permit rather

THE EVOLUTION OF THE EARTH 543

free molecular rearrangements, especially such as would give higher
density. Under the general principles of endothermic action, heat-ab-
sorbing combinations may be assumed to have taken place with corre-
sponding limitations of liquefaction. Crystalline rearrangement in the
interest of density, and at the same time consistent with high elastic
rigidity, is thought to have been favored and to have taken such forms
and mutual relations as to give schistosity favorable to deformative
movements.

Such liquefaction as took place would consume heat, in addition to
that of the endothermic recrystallization, while the escape of the liquid
material to the surface carried out this latent heat, as well as a due
portion of sensible heat. Incidentally, the escaping lavas carried out
also radioactive substances and gradually reduced the heating process.
The compressibility also declined with the progress of compression, and
this source of heat also declined. With compression and with the in-
crease of static pressure, the rigidity should have increased. So the
complex process inherently tended to an end of its own making.

The process of vulcanism is thus made a means of removing to the
surface the excess of internal temperature, as it arises, together with the
source of that temperature, performing in this way a service closely
analogous to the process of perspiration in the animal body. This view
is eminently consistent with the tidal and the other astronomic indica-
tions of the elastic rigidity of the earth that have recently become so
declared, and also with seismic data whose evidence is less complete,
though strongly tending in the same direction. It is also in harmony
with the conclusion, reached by special students of the subject, ihat
radioactive substances are chiefly concentrated at the surface. Still
further, it is in harmony with the acidic composition and the low specific
gravity of the outer part of the earth. The view seems also to be in
fair consonance with what is known of the eutectic nature of rocks, the
selective production of magmas, and the progressive differentiation of
magmas, both in their ascensive and in their descensive careers.

Such effusive matter as reached the surface in the earlier stages was
buried later by the infalling planetesimals and planetesimal dust, and
so it was again subjected to selective processes, with further differentia-
tion, and this might be repeated again and again, so that, in the end,
there was a progressive concentration of the more refractory and the
denser material toward the central parts, and of the lighter and more
solvent, toward the outer parts. This selective action was of course
superposed upon the selective ingathering of planetesimals, dependent
upon magnetic and inelastic properties, and upon the selective action of
the atmosphere and the hydrosphere. Thus, under this concept, the
earth came to its maturity slowly under selective agencies that tended at
all stages to differentiate its material.

544 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

So also, under this concept, deformative agencies came into action
early and persisted through all stages of growth, though at all times
more or less periodic in their specific manner of action. These deform-
ative agencies now claim our attention.

ORIGIN OF THE GREAT PHYSIOGRAPHIC FEATURES

The most notable of past attempts to account for the continental
embossments and the oceanic basins, in accordance with the theory of
a molten earth, was undoubtedly that of Lothian Green, who appealed
for his first premise to the fact that a spherical surface embraces the
maximum of matter within the minimum of surface, and that this should
have obtained in the primitive state of the earth. For his second
premise, he urged that the globe, when forced to shrink from cooling,
would tend in the direction of that symmetrical form which had the
minimum of content with the maximum of surface, the tetrahedron.
The cogency of this logic I must leave to your own judgment. On this
concept, arose the doctrine of the tetrahedral earth. Assuming that the
duodecahedral form of the tetrahedral type was early attained, Lothian
Green located the continental protuberances at certain of the angles and
the oceanic basins at alternate angles. The logic was frankly based on
the doctrine of a molten earth and does not seem to be transferable to an
accretional earth.

Under the planetesimal view, it seems scarcely less than necessary to
assume that the great differentiations of the earth’s surface arose from
specific deformative stresses that came into action early in the process
of growth and were more or less recurrent throughout the whole adoles-
cent luistory of the earth. The controlling influence that gave shape to
the juvenile earth seems to have arisen from changes of rotation. Ro-
tation is far and away the greatest of all the deformative agencies to
which the earth has been subjected. Its residual effect—not its total
effect—is now seen in a radial difference of thirteen miles between the
polar and the equatorial radii, but this is only the net result of a long
series of earlier effectsof opposite phases. The rotational stresses permeate
the entire mass of the earth and, as already remarked, are greater at the
center than at the surface. Such pervasive and penetrating stresses are
preeminently suited to produce broad, deep, and pervasive deformative
effects. The breadth and symmetry of the direct rotational effects are
seen in the great graduated equatorial bulge and in the broad graduated
polar depressions. This symmetrical distortion of the sphere satisfies
the primary demands of rotation but not the incidental demands of
changes of rotation.

The bulging and the depression of these broad tracts involved ten-
sion and compression in the segments so affected, and lines of accom-
modation to these stresses were requisite. It is assumed that these

THE EVOLUTION OF THE EARTH 545

lines of accommodation would define as few broad divisions of appro-
priate form and magnitude as would serve to satisfy their main require-
ments, leaving minor requirements to be satisfied by minor accommoda-
tions. It is assumed further that these major divisions would be so
related to one another as to act reciprocally, one set rising in the equa-
torial regions, the other set sinking in the polar regions, and the reverse,
according as the rotation was accelerated or was retarded. Since the
earth is held to have been a rigid body, it is held—and this will bear
emphasis—that the units of action would be as few as could fairly satisfy
the main demands of the case, and that these parts would be as simple
and symmetrical in their forms and in their working relations to one
another as practicable.

The probabilities of successive oscillations between acceleration and
retardation of rotation are dependent on the specific history of the for-
mation of the globe. Under the planetesimal hypothesis, a part of the
earth’s rotation was inherited from the knot that formed its center of
growth, but an important portion also arose from the momentum of
infalling planetesimals. In the nature of the case, some of the infalls
tended to accelerate rotation, while others tended to retard it, and so
changes in the ratios of these two classes, arising from irregularities in
the distribution of the planetesimals, tended to change the rate of rota-
tion. Time does not permit me to give reasons for the conclusion that
there was an equilibrium rate of rotation about which oscillation should
have been an inherent tendency.?

Now with every increase of acceleration there was depression and
crowding at the poles, while there was bulging and tension at the
equator, and between these rising and falling areas there was a neutral
or fulcrum zone which neither rose nor fell, but under which a shift of
matter took place from the depressed to the lifted side. With every
retardation of rotation, there was the opposite effect. No portion of
the earth was free from these influences. Just how the earth accommo-
dated itself to these profound stresses is our problem. So far at least
as the tensional alternative is concerned, there are many phenomena in
nature that teach us how the easement is accomplished, and where the
yield tracts lie. There are some which show us less simply and less
unequivocally how relief from compression is effected. The most in-
structive example is found in the cooling of lava into basaltic columns.
From a study of these, it is seen that the required accommodation is
effected by three parting planes diverging from the points of greatest
tensional stress, at angles of about 120°. There is, of course, much vari-
ation from this precise angle when the material is even moderately
heterogeneous, for the action is but a mechanical accommodation of the

2 These are given in ‘‘The Origin of the Earth,’’ now in the hands of The
University of Chicago Press.

546 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

- stresses, and has none of the precision observed in the formation of
crystals.

On the basis of this principle of action, it is assumed that a three-
fold partition would obtain at each of the poles when under tensional
stress, and that the yield tracts would extend to the fulcrum zones.
The position of the two fulcrum zones would shift with the degree of
oblateness, but they may be conveniently spoken of as lying not far from
30° latitude north and south. The segment so defined surficially would
form only one half of the reciprocating unit. This, as seen on the sur-
face, would have the form of a spherical triangle. The other half-unit
that must cooperate with this one in reciprocal action, could be formed
in the simplest and easiest way by similar yield lines crossing the equa-
torial belt and converging to a point in the fulcrum zone of the opposite
hemisphere. The reciprocating pairs would thus consist of similar tri-
angles—at the surface—back to back, the one wholly in the rising area,
the other wholly in the sinking area. Three such reciprocating pairs
would then surround each pole. If one set took precedence, as would be
natural, the other would be forced to alternate with it. The two sets
would thus interlock across the equatorial belt. Each working pair of
triangles would form a quadrilateral at the surface, and would extend to
the center, where the six apexes would come together. The earth would
thus be divided into six pyramidal sectors, symmetrically related to the
axis of rotation, symmetrically related also to the stresses to which they
must yield, and embodying a very simple mode of meeting the requisite
changes of form. This concept of a hexafid earth has some resemblance
in form to the factors of the tetrahedral earth of Green, but it starts
from entirely different premises and is based on radically different con-
siderations. The hexafid division is in no sense a crystalline process,
but merely a mechanical adaptation to variations of stress imposed by
the pervasive effects of changes of rotation.

But no very close approach to perfect hexafid partition could prob-
ably arise from stresses working on the complex texture of an accretional
earth. Besides, certain definite tendencies to inequality of development
appear to have arisen as the segmentation went on. There was the law
of progressive dominance. Whenever in the course of growth, any di-
vision came to preponderate in mass or density, this very preponderance
gave advantage in the acquisitions that followed. Dominance not only
tended to its own perpetuation but to the increase of its own preponder-
ance. It naturally resulted that some of the sectors grew more than the
others. The basins of the southern hemisphere seem to have taken pre-
cedence of those of the northern, and the basins of the Pacific took pre-
cedence over those antipodal to them. These two preponderances united
to give a preponderant water hemisphere, with its center near New Zea-
land, and a preponderant land hemisphere, with its center in south-
western Europe.

THE EVOLUTION OF THE EARTH 547

There was also the law of alternation. When any pyramidal sector
sank from superior weight, it crowded aside the adjacent sectors, and
the belts of easement between them were squeezed in proportion as ad-
jacent basins sank. And so depressions ‘and elevations alternate around
the globe.

There was also the law of opposites. Whenever any pyramidal
sector sank by reason of superior weight, it favored reciprocal rise on
the opposite side. So, as a matter of fact, depressions stand opposite
to embossments about the globe.

There was also probably an adjustment of the sectors relative to one
another. Ideally, the sectors might stand point to point, but this is an
unstable adjustment, and amid the inequalities and distortions that
arose, the sectors would naturally be shifted in the direction of least
resistance, so that the sinking heavy sector, on one side, would come to
stand opposed to a yield tract on the antipodal side. And so basins
should have come to be antipodal to protrusions, if not already so at the
outset. In harmony with this, it may be observed that the North
American embossment stands opposite the basin of the Indian Ocean,
the Australasian embossment opposite the basin of the North Atlantic,
the great east central basin of the Pacific opposite the great protuberance
of Africa, the South Pacific opposite Asia in part, the Antarctic conti-
nent opposite the Arctic basin, while the great oceanic sag around the
Antarctic continent stands over against the great land belt in the high
latitudes of the northern hemisphere.

There are a multitude of interesting details and qualifications, and
some incongruities, upon which it would be delightful to dwell were
there time. In the very tentative and imperfect presentation of this
doctrine which alone is possible here, let us content ourselves with the
merest glance at certain salient illustrations of the suggested segmenta-
tion of the earth.

Starting with the hemisphere of heaviest segments and largest pres-
ent increments—which therefore probably took precedence in action—
the three oft-noticed poleward-pointing extremities of Africa, Australia
and South America illustrate the three-fold division of the polar region,
in fair harmony with the terms of our interpretation. Following the
South American-axis northward to the vicinity of the fulcrum zone, the
ideal scheme demands bifurcation and angulation. In harmony with
this, marked structural features diverge to the northwest and northeast.
The former strikes through the Isthmus of Panama, the states of Central
America—with the Antilles as a duplicate line—and onward to the
vicinity of the fulcrum zone of the northern hemisphere, where the dom-
inant structural lines should turn in a second angulation, toward the
north pole. This is partially realized, but is much obscured by super-
imposed features that cannot here be discussed.

548 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

Turning back to the point of bifurcation in South America, “ the
Backbone of Brazil” strikes northeasterly, and, save for the interruption
of the constricted connection between the two Atlantics, is -continued
in the structural lines of northwestern Africa to the critical zone of
angulation on the borders of Africa and Europe.

Turning back again to the south African axis, it is to be noted that,
near the proper latitude for bifurcation, two ancient crystalline terranes
diverge in lines nearly parallel to the borders of the continent, and ex-
tend across the equatorial belt to about the assigned zone of angulation
in the northern hemisphere, where converging deflections toward the
north pole are encountered, noeeyy the west border of Europe and the
Ural mountains.

Both Australia and New Zealand have southern prolongations that
seem to represent, in a duplicate way, the third meridional easement
tract of the south polar regions. At about the assigned latitude, a
broad strand of northwesterly trending structural lines run through the
East Indies and connect Australasia with southeast Asia. The trend
of this remarkable strand is continued to the latitude of the northern
zone of angulation where a complex series of divergencies is encountered
with a northerly and northeasterly trend.

In perfect symmetry and completeness obtained, there should be
three main yield tracts from the poles to the fulcrum zones not far
from 30° Lat. N. and S., while between these there should be oblique
trends. At the same time, the great continental embossments and the
great abysmal basins of the two hemispheres should stand in alternate
or offset positions relative to one another. These basal requirements
of the interpretation should be rather distinctly discernible, though much
obscured by outgrowths and distortions. The North Atlantic should be
offset to the west relative to the South Atlantic, North America relative
to South America, the North Pacific relative to the South Pacific, Asia
relative to Australasia. These radical requirements are strikingly re-
alized. North Africa and Europe are less strikingly offset relative to
South Africa, but the tendency is marked. The obliquity of the trends
in the equatorial belt is strikingly displayed in the East Indies, and in
the West Indies and isthmian connections between the Americas. It
is betrayed also in the trends of the singular physiographic features
that affect the junction area of Africa, Asia and Europe.

Time will not permit us to lapse into explanatory details. The
scheme of interpretation only calls for the detection of a deeply buried
embryonic framework on which other agencies have built the adult con-
figurations of the globe, and on which they have imposed their own
characteristics.

THE EVOLUTION OF THE EARTH 549

DYNAMIC ORGANIZATION OF THE ATMOSPHERE

The working relations of the primary segmentation of the earth-
body to the dynamic organization of the atmosphere, were close, both in
causation and in effect. There were striking analogies between them.
The broadest features of the atmospheric circulation are now, and prob-
ably were in the earth’s juvenile stage, as simple as the broad features
of rotational deformation. So too, the seccndary adjustments of the
atmospheric circulation in the two hemispheres are now, and probably
were from the outset, very similar to the secondary adjustments of the
earth-body. All the significant features of this analogy can not even
be mentioned. We can simply note that, over the great oceanic basins
in the latitudes of the fulcrum zones, there are oval systems of circula-
tion centering about the areas of high atmospheric pressure, which
match, in a general way, the centers of high specific gravity in the basin
sectors below. On the borders of these ovals, there are tracts of conflict
and of high precipitation, corresponding to the disrupted adjustment
tracts of the earth-body below. These gyratory systems and these
tracts of precipitation influenced fundamentally the deposit of planet-
esimal dust, and thus gave direction to the growth of the earth, while,
at the same time, they themselves were profoundly influenced by the
configuration of the earth-body, and by the waters gathered into its
great basins. And so the three great factors, atmospheres, hydrosphere,
and lithosphere, cooperated in building up and giving shape to the great
features of the earth.

It is obvious that whatever planetesimal material found lodgment
on the lands was subjected to greater leaching than the portions that fell
into the waters. It appears that the average specific gravity of the
elements leached away must have been slightly higher than that of the
portions left behind—in the form they would finally take after burial
and metamorphism—so that the protuberances came to be formed of
slightly lighter material than the basins, and hence, in deformative ac-
tions, the basins took precedence in sinking and the continents were
accommodated to this. This contributed to the permanency of the great
features of the earth which, in turn, influenced the atmospheric cir-
culation.

We find then, in this mechanism, reasons for the observed lower
specific gravity of the continents and the higher specific gravity of the
sub-oceanic material. In this, also, lie reasons for the continuous main-
tenance of the continents, and hence the perpetuation of continental life,
as well as the reciprocal maintenance of shallow-water oceanic life.
Some of the greatest generalizations of geology thus find inherent sup-
port and adequate elucidation in the very origin and constitution of the
continents and of the ocean basins, while in this inherited constitution

550 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

are found cogent reasons why these great features are, and should ever
remain, protrusive and depressive, respectively.

We are thus brought to conditions that are fundamental to the evo-
lution of life on the earth. This fascinating theme I must leave to my
successor. It is to be noted, however, that the physical evolution of the
earth predetermined, in large measure, the lines along which the life
evolution of the globe was compelled to proceed.

When the great embossments and the deep basins had become deter-
minate, and when the earth’s growth had been completed, there followed
a long history of denudation of the land, of filling of land-girt basins,
and of building of terraces about the borders of the lands. There were
base-levelings and great transgressions of the seas, covering sometimes
half the continents, but never, in the known history of the earth, wholly
submerging them. Before complete submergence was reached, rejuven-
ation intervened; the continents were re-elevated and the seas with-
drawn by further sinking of their basins, and a new period of life evolu-
tion ensued. The whole sea-history seems to have been a succession of
encroachments followed by retreats, with correspondent expansions and
restrictions of sea life, while the land areas were reciprocally reduced
and expanded with corresponding restrictive and expansive evolutions
of land life. Thus the familiar evolutions of the well-known history of
the globe went forward controlled, in a profound way, by the hidden
powers of renewal inbred in the early organization of the earth-body.
The whole evolution was, at the same time, profoundly influenced by the
constitution of the atmosphere and by climatic conditions.

THE EVOLUTION OF THE ATMOSPHERE

The evolution of the atmosphere under the older cosmogonic views
took the form of a great decline from a vast primitive envelope through a
long series of depletions, to the relatively emaciated conditions that
obtain to-day, under this interpretation. All this is too familiar to need
more than simple reference. The alternate view here entertained pic-
tures the atmosphere as growing up from small beginnings and main-
taining itself throughout the ages by alternate enrichment and depletion
from within and without. A bare sketch of some of the least familiar
of these tenets is all that can be given.

The lower atmosphere is eminently collisional, each molecule collid-
ing with other molecules with prodigious rapidity. This condition pre-
vails upwards until the tenuity of the air becomes so great that mole-
cules, bounding upward from encounters, find no other molecules in
their path until gravity has had time to arrest them and draw them
back toward the earth center. There are thus substituted vaulting
leaps for to-and-fro motions. A fountain-like zone supervenes upon the
the collisional atmosphere. ‘This krenal atmosphere is necessarily very

re

THE EVOLUTION OF THE EARTH 551

attenuated, but the vaulting molecules do not entirely escape collision
with one another. From these mid-vault collisions rebounds, more or
less tangential to the earth, arise in a certain proportion of cases.
Under the law of probabilities, a certain percentage of molecules thus
rebounding have sufficient velocities to take orbital courses about the
earth. When they have once entered upon these orbital courses, mole-
cules may remain indefinitely in them, if not driven from them by some
intervening agency. This introduces a distinctly new factor, for this
permits accumulation to go on until this very accumulation checks it-
self.. The logical series consists, therefore, in a vaulting ultra-atmos-
phere, springing necessarily from the summit of the collisional atmos-
phere, and, in turn, giving rise to an orbital atmosphere which must
tend to accumulate until an equilibrium is reached, in which the orbital
atmosphere gives back, or throws outward, as many molecules, in the
long run, as it receives.

Now a limit to the outward extent of the vaulting molecules and of
the orbital molecules is found in the limits of the sphere of the earth’s
control. The minimum radius of this, according to Moulton, is a mil-
lion kilometers (620,000 miles), the maximum radius, a million and a
half kilometers (930,000 miles). Under kinetic laws there seems no
logical escape from the conclusion that a certain proportion of molecules
vault to the limit of this sphere of control and beyond it, and that or-
bital molecules occupy, in their extremely attenuated way, the whole of
this sphere also. Those molecules that pass beyond this sphere enter
the sphere of the control of the sun and are lost to the atmosphere of
the earth. .

Similar logic applies to the ultra-atmospheres of the sun whose
sphere of control envelopes the earth. The sphere of control of the
earth has been sweeping through the sphere of control of the sun
throughout the entire history of the earth. As a result of these rela-
tions, it is logically inferred that there has been a feeding in of molecules
from the sun’s ultra-atmosphere, during the whole evolution of the
earth, and that these exchanges have tended toward an equilibrium by
which the scanter atmosphere, whichever it may happen to be at any
stage, has been fattened by the richer atmosphere. Logically this rela-
tion obtains to-day.

If this interchange were solely dependent on mechanical action be-
tween the molecules, its quantitative sufficiency might possibly be open
to question, but this interchange is the basis for cooperative action by
electric and magnetic agencies. The competency of these, while as yet
undetermined, is very probably important. Electric and magnetic
actions not only abet the mechanical distribution, but offer possible, if
not probable, solutions of the grave problems that arise respecting a
constitution of the early atmosphere snitable for the generation and

552 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

maintenance of terrestrial life. It is a notable fact that the actively
combining molecules of the earth’s atmosphere belong to a special class
which have a general tendency to bear a negative charge of electricity,
among which the vitally essential element oxygen is chief. —

FUNCTIONS OF OCEANIC CIRCULATION

The superficial circulation of the oceans is a result of the winds, but
the deep circulation appears to be the product, in part, of the differences
in density of the sea water. At present, two great influences seem to be
contesting for the mastery of the deep sea circulation, and, through
such dominance, for the mastery of our coming climate. The dominant
circulation is now controlled by the polar regions, especially by the Ant-
arctic. The density of the sea water is there increased by low temper-
ature and by some concentration of salts through freezing. With this
higher specific gravity, the polar waters outweigh the warmer waters of
the lower latitudes and descending flow along the ocean bottoms into
the depths of the abysmal basins, rising ultimately in the equatorial
tracts to depress the temperature there and to force the heated waters
poleward. This deep-sea circulation is, without doubt, one of the ele-
ments that perpetuate the semi-glacial conditions of our times. Over
against this, is the work of evaporation in the arid tracts, notably the
30° belts. By such evaporation, the waters of the Mediterranean are dis-
tinctly higher in specific gravity than those of the Atlantic and, as a
result, the dense, though warm, saline water flows out through the
Straits of Gibraltar into the Atlantic, spreading out in spatular form
nearly across the North Atlantic, and descending to great depths. Sim-
ilar dense waters flow out from the Red Sea, while under the great
evaporating belts analogous condensations are taking place, the effects
of which are felt to very notable depths. It is not known whether this
increase of density in the warm tropical regions is gaining upon the
density-effect of the polar regions or not. We must wait for future
observations to decide how the battle is going. But it is clear that if
the intensities of polar cold were mitigated, as in time they no doubt
will be mitigated by the wearing down of the heights of the land and
by the encroachments of the sea, there is reason to believe that the
density which springs from evaporation in the low latitudes will gain
the mastery over the polar water, and will sink to the bottom of the sea,
filling the basins with warm water. This heated water creeping to the
polar regions would carry warmth where now there is frigidity, a nat-
ural water-heating system of a stupendous sort. This seems the most
probable explanation of the extraordinary fact that throughout the
larger portion of earth history, so far as we are able to decipher it, mild
climates, even sub-tropical climates, have prevailed in high latitudes,
notwithstanding the adversities of their long winter nights, so notably

THE EVOLUTION OF THE EARTH 553

devoid of heat from without. It seems probable that the conditions
which favor the dominance of polar cold, at intervals, and the dominance
of tropical warmth, in the longer periods between, is determined by the
elevation and the configuration of the land, especially that in the polar
regions. The present cold oceanic circulation is known to be dominated
by the Antarctic Continent and perhaps sprang initially from the ge-
ologically recent elevation of that continent. As it shall be cut away
by the wear of the surface and the gnawing of the sea, its dominance
will no doubt disappear and the dominance of tropical circulation take
its place.

Correlated with these temperature changes of the oceanic waters are
atmospheric absorptions and interchanges of gaseous content of a vital
nature upon which time forbids us to enter.

Projecting these interpretations of the present oceanic junctions
back through the geologic ages, they seem to imply successive alterna-
tions of remarkable warmth in high latitudes and glacial cold in rela-
tively low latitudes, and corresponding climatic stress effects on life
evolution and life distribution.

This system of interpretation assumes that the atmosphere has been
maintained from the beginning of the earth’s mature history in a state of
approximate equilibrium with the atmosphere of the sun; hence an es-
sential uniformity in volume and in constitution have been preserved
unbroken from the dawn of life to the present. At the same time, it is
held that, subordinate to this essential uniformity and this equilibrium,
there have been notable fluctuations in volume and in constitution, due
to variations in feeding from the interior of the earth, variations of de-
pletion by chemical interaction with the rocks, and variations in the
degree of absorption into the hydrosphere. The atmosphere has been
subject also to variations in the retention of solar heat—the essential
factor in climate—due not only to variations in constitution, but to
variations in the intensity of vertical circulation promoted by surface
features. Out of combinations between this automatic regulation of the
fundamental constitution of the atmosphere and the oscillations of ter-
restrial conditions that arise in succession, spring, we think, the es-
sential features of the evolution of the earth’s climate, so far as they are
terrestrial at all.

Thus far I have tried to emphasize the more fundamental of the
dynamic agencies that seem to me to lie back of the physical evolution
of the earth. Until the whole history of the earth, early and late, shall
be worked out into an accepted interpretation, the reasons for the inter-
pretations we entertain are quite as vital as the interpretations them-
selves. The breadth of the theme has made imperative a most cruel
and partial selection. I think I may assure myself that no one else will
fully justify the partiality of the selections I have made. It has

VOL. 11.—38.

554 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

seemed to me, however, ‘more vital to dwell upon the genetic and the
fundamental, than upon the more declared features of the record. These
are better deployed, relatively, in the literature of the earth-sciences,
and are accessible in our ampler texts. They are the common ground
on which we all unite, with more or less complete unanimity.

In a closing sketch of the accepted eras of the earth’s adult history,
it will be possible to touch only on a few high points. Our scant selec-
tion can be justified only by frankly affirming that there are other high
points quite as worthy of emphasis.

GREAT ERAS oF HartH HISTORY

The lowest accessible record is found in a great complex of crystal-
line rocks whose metamorphism has somewhat obscured their original
state. An essential portion of the complex terrane is the work of its
own time; the rest was intruded at later dates. The primitive portion
carries clear evidences that it was formed at the surface by sedimentary
processes, eolian, aqueous, igneous, or pyroclastic. But this portion has
been so much intruded, or traversed, by lavas escaping the pressures of
the interior, that this immigrant factor obscures and, in some degree,
masks the prior sedimentary element. It is to be noted, however, that
all subsequent effusions of lava traversed this basal series, and so added
to its complexity, and that it was affected also by all the later deform-
ative actions. None the less, eruptive action seems to have been more
prevalent in these Archean ages than in those that followed. In its
earliest adult stage, the fires of youth seem yet to have been specially
active, and the master events seem to have centered about igneous and
metamorphic action—but it would be a serious error to overlook the
vital contribution that the atmosphere and the hydrosphere cast into this,
the earliest of the accessible lithographic records. There are signs of
life, but they reveal little of its nature.

There followed this basement complex, a series of great terranes in
which the dominant elements were more declaredly the products of aerial
decomposition and of aqueous erosion, assortment, transportation, and
deposition, though here the igneous factor cast in a very notable con-
tribution also. There are left few identifiable relics of life, but there is
abundant evidence of organic action. Between this Proterozoic group
and the underlying Archean, lies a great unconformity, and within the
group itself there lie scarcely less great unconformities, all of which
imply that great movements intervened between times of relative quies-
cence, a feature that ran through all subsequent history. Even in this
early age, there are signs of glaciation in mid-latitudes and apparently
at moderate elevations (Coleman), a feature of vital significance in the
interpretation of the climatic history of the earth.

Following another great interval, marked by unconformity, the

THE EVOLUTION OF THE EARTH 555

Paleozoic Era was ushered in, and with it the first good record of the
specific forms of life. The feature of supreme interest, the first good
record of life, falls to the lot of my successor, who will give its inter-
pretation and sketch the subsequent life evolution. During the Paleo-
zoic Era there was a series of relatively quiescent periods during which
the joint forces of the atmosphere and the hydrosphere made great prog-
ress in cutting away the protuberances of the continents and depositing
the débris in great sub-sea terraces about the continental borders and in
the infra-continental basins, thus partially base-leveling the land, and
partially filling the basins, so that the ocean waters crept forth on the
borders of the land and seemed to threaten complete submergence. But
rarely was more than half the continent conquered before internal stres-
ses had accumulated in sufficient force to bring on another epoch of
deformation and continental protrusion, pushing up the land and push-
ing back the sea, restoring in a measure the old status and preparing the ~
way for a new sea-transgression. After some half dozen periods of such
oscillation, a more marked series of deformative movements ensued, with
a more pronounced rejuvenation of the land. With this came also the
most remarkable of all known glaciations. Mantles of ice gathered on
lands near the circles of Cancer and Capricorn and left distinctive rec-
ords which, however seemingly incredible, are incontestible. To add to
the seeming strangeness, the evidence clearly points to low altitudes of
the land and to the descent of the land-ice into the waters of the sea
which bore icebergs to long distances and formed extensive glacio-natent
deposits. That the great deformative action had some genetic relation
to this remarkable climatic episode, seems eminently probable, but it does
not seem to have accomplished this directly by the elevation of the sites
of glaciation.

These remarkable events ushered in the Middle Ages of geology—
as much a misnomer as the Middle Ages of human history—the early
stages of which seem to have witnessed the greatest extension of land,
and apparently the greatest general aridity of climate, known to geolog-
ical history. But, in time, the persistent gnawings of the atmosphere
and the hydrosphere—geologic twins in never-ceasing activity—cut
down the great embossments and permitted the sea to transgress the
land repeatedly before the Mesozoic Era closed. But, as ever before,
the land persisted and was periodically renewed. After fewer oscilla-
tions than in the Paleozoic Era, another notable epoch of diastrophism
intervened, and the Cenozoic Era was inaugurated. Glaciation seems to
have recurred in mid-latitudes (Atwood), but the evidence is as yet less
ample than in the preceding transition.

After a shorter succession of base-levelings and sea advances, sep-
arated by minor rejuvenations of the land, there came the recent great
series of deformations which gave rise to the present great folded moun-

556 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

tains, the present great plateaus, and the special configurations which
the continents and oceans now bear, save in relatively trivial details.
Close on the heels of this great diastrophic epoch came on the last great
glaciation in mid-latitudes. At that time, ice-sheets crept down on the
American plains to the Ohio and Missouri rivers, and over the northern
plains of Europe, while in the southern hemisphere and on mountain
heights, even in the tropics, there were signs of a general depression of
temperature. There were repeated advances of the ice-sheets, separated
by milder intervals during which retreats took place, showing, even in
such episodes, the tenacity of the principle of oscillation in terrestrial
ongoings. It is only recently, geologically speaking, that the ice-sheets
have retreated from the lands where half the civilized world now lives.
Glaciers linger in the polar fields and on the mountain heights. The
deep sea is still icy cold. The contrasts of climate are sharp. We
seem to be yet in the cold segment of the climatic cycle. Whether we
are about to emerge into a period of typical mildness, or are yet to suffer
a recurrence of the ice invasions, is a geologic detail beyond safe proph-
ecy, but that such emergence is to follow, sooner or later, seems assured
by the long history of oscillations of the past and the persistence of re-
covery that seems to be firmly based on the automatic regulation of the
atmosphere and of climate inbred in the very constitution of the earth.

THE STUDY OF CORAL REEFS 557

PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH THE STUDY OF CORAL
REEFS. III

By Proressor W. M. DAVIS,

HARVARD UNIVERSITY

Upgrowing Reefs in a Rising Ocean.—Are we then to regard Dar-
win’s theory of subsidence as completely established? Not yet, for there
are two alternative theories that have not been mentioned. It has al-
ready been pointed out that all the visible features of sea-level reefs
themselves, apart from the neighboring volcanic islands, can be equally
well explained by any one of some eight or nine hypotheses, provided that
the postulates of the hypotheses are accepted; and that appeal must
therefore be made to some associated problem in order to find a
crucial test by which the true theory can be selected. Let it now be
recognized that all the features of barrier reefs and of their embayed
central islands also, which according to Darwin’s theory are explained by
the subsidence of the reef foundation beneath a stationary ocean surface,
can be equally well explained by supposing the ocean surface to rise over
a stationary reef foundation, as in Fig. 30. It is only by appeal to cer-
tain rather recondite associated problems regarding the rest of the world
that this second possibility can be excluded, and the first fully justified.

In discussing this aspect of the problem we must recall at the outset
that an adequate theory of coral reefs has to account, not only for the
last touches given to existing sea-level reefs, but also for their relatively
remote beginning; that it has to explain not only sea-level reefs, but
also elevated reefs, formed in an earlier epoch and now standing hun
dreds of feet above sea-level; that it has to provide reasonable conditions
for the great submergence indicated by the deep embayments of Ka-
nda-vu, Tahaa, and many other islands; that it has to account for the
occurrence of small remnants of large volcanic islands within large
reefs; and that it has to explain the heavy limestones in such uplifted
atolls as are found in the Loyalty islands and elsewhere, as well as the
thin terracing reefs that are uplifted in the New Hebrides. In short,
an adequate theory of coral reefs involves great and small terrestrial
changes such as will cause great and small submergences and emer-
gences at different dates in the later ages of the earth’s history. If we
account for all such changes, not by local subsidence of the reef founda-
tions, but by changes of the sea surface caused by deformation of some

558 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

other parts of the sea floor, we must postulate repeated crustal move-
ments of so enormous a measure that they become improbable to the
point of incredibility ; for it must be remembered that whenever the sea
surface is to be raised 1,000 feet by upheaval of a part, such as a tenth,
of the sea floor, that part must be upheaved at least 10,000 feet; and
more than 10,000 if, as is very probable, its upheaval is accompanied by
a contemporaneous depression of some neighboring part. It is therefore
consistent with terrestrial economics to account for the great submer-
gence which coral reefs demand by subsidence of the needed amount in
the area where and at the time when the reefs are formed.

Furthermore, if the submergence indicated by coral reefs and their
associated islands be explained. by a rise of sea level, let it be remem-
bered that this requires the submergence to be everywhere—on all con-
tinents and all islands—the same in rate, date, and amount, except
where local crustal movements introduce variety into its measure. In
view of the apparent variety in the date and amount of submergence
by which existing embayments of insular and continental shorelines
have been formed, the appeal to local movements as a cause of the
variety may be so frequent that such movements will become the domi-
nant control of submergence, each in its own region. Indeed the ex-
planation of all coral reefs by a rise of sea level recalls the explanation
given by Suess, about thirty years ago, for all high-standing atolls by
a general depression of sea level; as soon as the diversity in the alti-
tude of such atolls is recognized, their position must of course be ex-
plained by diversity of crustal movement rather than by a uniform
change of sea level: so, I believe, when the submerged embayments of
the world’s coast lines in coral-reef regions and elsewhere are attentively
examined, and when the emerged coastal plains of certain continental
borders are closely studied, many diversities in the rate, date, and
amount of their submergence or emergence will be discovered. Such
diversity will then be best explained by local crustal movements, and
world-wide changes of sea level will be given relatively small values.

But let me state explicitly that it would be highly illogical to exclude
so manifestly possible a factor as a universal change of sea level from
all share in submerging shoreline embayments or in laying bare strips
of coastal plains; it is because any change in sea level must be smaller
than the uplift or depression of the sea floor which causes the change in
the same proportion that the uplifted or depressed area is smaller than
the total ocean area, and because the sea integrates all the positive and
negative changes which various local movements tend to produce in its
surface level, that it seems most reasonable to explain regional sub-
mergence, long continued in time and great in amount, such as that
involved in the origin of many coral reefs, chiefly by subsidence in the
region and at the time concerned.

THE STUDY OF CORAL REEFS 559

The Glacial-Control Theory of Coral Reefs.—There is one phase of
the theory of a rising ocean, pointed out by several writers in the last
thirty or forty years and lately discussed more fully by another, that
demands further examination. This is the idea that the drowned-val-
ley embayments, which we have been taking as signs of subsidence, have
been submerged by the rise of the ocean surface as the water, which
was abstracted to form the continental ice sheets of the Glacial
period, was returned to the ocean when the ice sheets were melted in the
milder climate of Postglacial time. This in its fully developed form
has been called the Glacial-control theory, and its discussion evidently
involves many associated problems besides those already mentioned.
Its essential postulates and processes are as follows: Coral-reef flats are
supposed to have been formed around or upon still-standing founda-
tions in Preglacial time, hence presumably for the most part by out-
growth; the ancestors of atolls, now the commonest kind of reefs, were
formed around volcanic islands that:had stood still long enough to be worn
down by subaerial erosion nearly to sea level or by marine abrasion a
little lower; the ancestors of barrier reefs were similarly formed around
islands that are not old enough to have been worn down; lagoons were
shallow or wanting, because solution is not an adequate cause for them.
As the Glacial period came on, the surface of the ocean was lowered by
the imprisonment of a large volume of water as ice on the lands; it has
been calculated that the lowering of the entire ocean thus caused was
between 200 and 300 feet. The ocean was then chilled as well as low-
ered, and thereby the corals of most reefs were killed. The waves of
the lowered sea attacked the undefended flanks of the dead reefs and
cut them back in flat platforms. Next when the climate became milder
and the ocean surface rose again, reefs were reestablished and grew up-
wards on the platform edges of the earlier reef flats, and thus the barrier
and atoll reefs of to-day have been built up around the lagoons that
they enclose. It thus appears that the Glacial-control theory accounts
only for the reef rims and the lagoons of atolls and barriers, and that
the great undermass of the reefs is explained according to the theory of
outgrowing reefs on still-standing foundations, but without the action
of solution in the excavation of the lagoon.

All the causes here mentioned appear to be true in quality, but their
quantitative value is uncertain. The oceans must have been lowered
and cooled during the Glacial period, but no one knows how much.
The corals of reefs that had grown in Preglacial time on the northern
and southern borders of the coral zone, as around the Hawaiian islands,
were presumably killed; but it is impossible to say, a priori, whether
the corals were killed through the middle of the torrid coral zone as
well. Dead reefs must have been attacked by the sea below their crown,
but who can say how far they were cut away? Live reefs would not

560 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

have been cut away. Additional factors are introduced by the complex-
ity of the Glacial period, for it includes several Glacial epochs of differ-
ent intensities separated by Interglacial epochs of different durations ;
and no one yet knows how to date the history of coral-reef islands in
terms of Glacial chronology. The quantities involved in the Glacial-
control theory are therefore of uncertain value.

Uncertainties of the Glacial-Control Theory.—There are two other
groups of uncertainties in the Glacial-control theory, as it has thus far
been set forth. The first arises from the improbable nature of one of
its fundamental postulates; the second, from the over-long series of de-
ductive steps——not always sharply defined—for which no sufficient veri-
fication has been provided by confronting them with observable facts.
The improbable fundamental postulate is that the ocean bottom did not
subside in the coral-reef region for a long period of Preglacial and
Glacial time. No reasons are offered in support of this singular assump-
tion; yet it is held to be so true that ancient volcanic islands, possibly
formed as long ago as in Paleozoic time, are believed to have suffered
flat truncation by erosion and abrasion, down to or a little below sea
level, and that the flat surface of truncation remained close to sea level,
without subsidence, until the Glacial period! Is it not venturesome to
give subsidence the special value of zero for so long a time in the coral-
reef region of an ocean, the bottom of which has suffered repeated eleva-
tions, as shown by uplifted coral reefs, and has suffered, in its Australa-
sian area, demonstrable deformation, with many ups and downs, as
shown by the isolated remains of former continental lands? And is it
really necessary to make subsidence zero for a long time and over a large
area in a theory in which the occurrence of subsidence now and again at
a slow rate or by starts and stops is not at all incompatible with the
various processes of Glacial control, even though it would affect the value
of their results? Yet as stated by the latest expositor of the Glacial-
control theory, this unnecessary and venturesome postulate is practically
insisted upon, and the theory is therein made to resemble the several
other theories that arbitrarily postulate still-standing islands, and thus
place themselves in opposition to Darwin’s more general theory of sub-
sidence: “more general,” because subsidence can have all grades of
value from its maximum down to zero, and because prevailing subsidence
may be interrupted by still-stand pauses or even temporarily reversed
into uplift, as Darwin clearly stated; but still-stand theories are based
on a rigidly fixed postulate of immobility, as far as subsidence is con-
cerned.

Among the unverified deductive steps in the Glacial-control theory,
we may note in particular the Preglacial truncation of numerous still-
standing volcanic islands at sea level or a little lower; the Preglacial
formation of numerous marginal reefs by outward growth on an ad-

THE STUDY OF CORAL REEFS 561

vancing talus of coral débris around still-standing truncated flats or
shoals; the reduction of ocean-surface temperature in the coral zone
during the Glacial period sufficiently to kill the corals of nearly all reefs ;
the complete abrasion of even the broadest atolls during the lowered sea-
stands of the Glacial period; the uncomformable upgrowth of new atoll
reefs on the abraded platform of low Preglacial islands as the sea rises;
and again, the Preglacial formation of outgrowing encircling reefs
around younger, mountainous, still-standing, non-embayed volcanic
islands; the reduction of these reefs to platforms by abrasion during
the lowered sea-stands, but without significant encroachment upon their
central islands; the erosion of the deeper parts of the central-island
valleys, now drowned in embayments, during the lower sea-stands
of the Glacial period, but to no greater depth than the level of the
lowered sea; the sufficient widening of the deepened valleys by the slow
process of valley-side weathering during the lowered sea-stands, so that,
when drowned, the valleys shall contain the well-opened embayments
now visible; and the unconformable upgrowth of new barrier reefs on
the abraded platforms with the rise of the sea.

No sufficient verification is provided for this elaborate series of de-
ductions. Not a single example of a truncated volcano is known in
the coral seas. Not a single example of a recently uplifted atoll is
known to have an abraded volcanic area in the center of its lagoon-plain.
Not a single example of an uplifted atoll is known to consist in its
underpart of the steeply inclined talus layers composed chiefly of coral
débris, such as must here be supposed for the great undermass. Not a
single example of a recently uplifted atoll or barrier reef is known in
which the reef wall stands unconformably on a flat platform abraded
across a series of slanting talus layers largely formed of coral débris, as
must be the case under the Glacial-control theory. True, an attempted
verification of the abrasion of Preglacial atolls during the lowered sea-
stands: of the Glacial period has been offered in a table of the depths of
atoll lagoons ; but the measures of depth show no such accordance as the
theory demands. The maximum depths of the lagoons vary through a
large fraction of the supposed depth of the abraded platform; the mean
depth of the deeper parts shows a similar variation. Such inconstancy
of lagoon depth can be explained only by supposing that the atoll plat-
forms were abraded at various levels, for which no good reason is as-
signed; or by supposing that the platforms, after being abraded at a
uniform depth, have been irregularly covered by Postglacial lagoon de-
posits. The latter supposition isextremely probable, as far as the occur-
rence of lagoon deposits is concerned; but if accepted it leaves the plat-
forms without verification. It may be truly said, in reply to this and
the preceding paragraph, that all theories of coral reefs, the subsidence
theory as well as the rest, involve unverified deductions; but as far as I

562 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

can see, the subsidence theory is less deficient in this respect than any
other.

In view of the insufficient attention that, as thus appears, has been
addressed to the matter of confrontation and verification in the Glacial
control theory, in the form in which it has thus far been set forth, it
seems desirable to give closer examination to that phase of the problem;
not with the intention of making up the deficiencies in the statements
of its expositors, for that is their own affair; but with the wish of find-
ing for oneself definite grounds which shall warrant a decision in favor
of the theory or against it; for it is the duty of every investigator to
make himself personally responsible for the critical discussion of every
theory that has been offered in solution of his problem; he must not

Fic. 30. BLock DraGRAM or A STILL-STANDING VOLCANIC ISLAND IN A RISING
OcrAN. In the narrow foreground block, the island has a simple shore line with a
discontinuous fringing reef; in the middle block, the rising ocean has half-submerged
the island, giving it an elaborately embayed shore line, and the fringing reef has
developed into a barrier reef by up-growth; in the background block, the rising ocean
has almost submerged the central island, and the barrier reef has almost become an
atoll. The first up-growth of the fringing reef, as shown on the front face of the
middle block, is drawn nearly vertical, because the amount of waste taken from it to
form its short external talus was then small: the effect of a pause in the rise of the
ocean is shown in the horizontal out-growth at mid-height in this section. The later
up-growth of the barrier reef, as shown on the front face of the background block, is
drawn inclining inward, because a large amount of reef waste is needed to form the
greatly prolonged talus, which now begins at a greater height and must extend down
nearer the base of the volcanic cone. Compare this figure with Fig. 16.

throw off that responsibility, or leave it wholly to the inventors of other
theories than the one to which his judgment inclines. The first step to
be taken in meeting this responsibility with regard to the Glacial-control
theory is to define more sharply certain consequences to which it leads;
and in doing so it might be well, as above intimated, to give special
attention to reefs near the border of the coral-reef zone; but as the

THE STUDY OF CORAL REEFS 563

only reefs so located that I visited were on Oahu in Hawaii and along
the coast of Queensland in Australia, this method of testing the theory
will not be pursued for the present. The reefs of the torrid zone, of
which I saw more abundant examples, will be examined instead; and
for this purpose several tentative assumptions will be made, from each
of which certain essential consequences will be deduced, in order to con-
front them with the facts.

Special Consequences of the Glacial-Control Theory.—For example,
sector HZ, Fig. 31, represents a rather narrow Preglacial reef plain,

> fw

Mike

Fic. 31, DIAGRAM OF SUCCESSIVE STAGES OF REEF FORMATION, as deduced from
the Glacial-control theory, on the supposition of a relatively short period of lowered
ocean level.

with no lagoon, bordering a dissected, still-standing volcanic island of
non-embayed shoreline and salient deltas. In sector Ff’, we see the
abraded platform cut by the waves of a lowered and chilled ocean, which
did not, however, work long enough to becliff the volcanic island; and
also a young valley incised with reference to the lowered sea level in the
floor of a Preglacial valley. In sector G, the sea has risen and warmed,
a barrier reef has been built up enclosing a lagoon, and the young val-
ley is embayed. A detailed consequence of these changes is an “ edge”
where the steep walls of the young valley cut the gentler side-slopes of
the Preglacial valley; this edge ought to begin close to sea level on
either side of the new embayment near the former margin of the island,
and gradually ascend inland beyond the embayment to the head of the
young valley. No such edges, no such “ valley-in-valley” forms were
found in any one of the hundreds of partly drowned valleys that I saw
in the Pacific ; hence a second assumption must be tried. Sector £, Fig.
32, shows the Preglacial condition again; sector #’ represents the work
accomplished during a longer time of lowered sea level than before, a
time long enough to allow the widening of the new-cut valleys so that

564 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

all trace of the Preglacial valleys should vanish, even to their heads;
but in so long a time as that, the sea would surely cut away not only
all the Preglacial reef-plain, but part of the volcanic island as well;
then, after the sea rises as in sector G, the spur ends between the wide
embayments should be truncated, and the steep faces of their cliffs would
plunge below sea-level. Cliffs of this kind ought to be specially well
developed around the younger volcanic islands, which in Preglacial
times had only narrow fringing reefs or no reefs.

But spur-end cliffs do not occur on such islands: hence the corals
of their reefs cannot have been killed. Perhaps the drowned spur-end
cliffs of Tahiti, figured above, are the work of abrasion during the low-
ered sea-stands of the Glacial period; but if they are, Tahiti is of so ex-

. ma
Se ces: es =
Sunes ~. ON --
——-. < RST H
= SS Rol ~ ~~ bre xm

- SSS WSS

G a

Fic. 32. DIAGRAM OF SUCCESSIVE STAGES OF REEF FORMATION, as deduced from
the glacial-control theory, on the supposition of a relatively long period of lowered
ocean level.

See

ceptional a form in this respect that its cliffs prove too much for other
islands. The spur ends in the other members of the Society group and
elsewhere are as a rule not cut off in cliffs; or if a little becliffed, a
shallow platform extends forward from the cliff base, showing that the
cliff has been recently cut at present sea level. Hence in order to ex-
plain the prevalently tapering forms of non-cliffed or little cliffed
spurs, it must be supposed that the corals of their enclosing reefs were
not killed while the sea was lowered, and thus an essential half of the
Glacial-control theory, as it has been recently propounded, is excluded.

However, even if the corals were not killed and the reefs were not
cut away, the valleys of the central islands must have been deepened
while their streams ran down to a lowered sea level. But is it reason-
able to suppose that the lowered sea level of the Glacial period en-

THE STUDY OF CORAL REEFS 565

dured long enough to allow not alone the incision of narrow valleys by
small streams, but also the widening of the valleys by slow weathering
to the observed width of the actual embayments, some of which are one
or two miles across? The simplest test I have found for this question
lies in a comparison of the drowned-valley embayments of the volcanic
islands in the Pacific with the valleys of certain dissected volcanoes in
central France. According to French observers, those volcanoes are
of Preglacial origin, and they have suffered glaciation more than once;
but their valleys, even where enlarged by glacial erosion, have not con-
sumed so much of their initial form as has been consumed in the em-
bayments of Tahaa or of Borabora in the Society group, or of Ka-nda-vu
in the Fiji group, or of Rarotonga in the Cook group, or of Oahu in
Hawaii; nor so much as has been consumed in the embayments of New
Caledonia or of Queensland, which consist of continental, not of vol-
canic rocks. The valleys of the embayments in these islands are too
wide to have been cut during so relatively short a time as the Glacial
period; hence I am driven to think that the processes of the Glacial-con-
trol theory, acting alone, are incompetent to produce the observed re-
sults. Nevertheless the level of the sea must have been lowered during
each epoch of the Glacial period, and must have risen in each Inter-
glacial epoch as well as in the present Postglacial epoch. How can these
undeniable changes be best included in a general theory of coral reefs ?
Combination of Subsidence and Glacial Control—The element of
the Glacial-control theory which seems to me least reasonable is the
postulate of still-standing reef foundations. Fortunately that pos-
tulate is unessential. Let us therefore see whether the Glacial-con-
trol processes and the subsidence processes cannot work harmoniously

Fic. 33. DIAGRAM oF SuccESSIvE STAGES OF REpF FORMATION, as deduced from
a combination of the glacial-control theory with Darwin’s theory of up-growth during
subsidence.

together. Sector H, Fig. 33, represents a barrier reef developed during
Preglacial subsidence in a region where Glacial cooling, when it comes,

566 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

shall not be sufficient to kill the corals. Sector J shows the effect of
continued subsidence without upgrowth in an unchanging ocean. Sec-
tor K shows the effect of neutralizing subsidence by the contemporane-
ous lowering of the ocean surface as the ocean water is withdrawn to
form continental ice sheets; that is, if the island sinks at about the rate
that the ocean is lowered, a relative still-stand is the result for the time
being; and during a long enough still-stand a broad and mature reef
plain will be developed by the outgrowth of the reef itself, by the in-
wash of its waste, and by the forward growth of deltas which will fill
the former embayments and advance into the lagoon, as in Sector K.
Now if subsidence continue during a maximum of glaciation, a critical °
condition will be reached when the ice sheets begin to melt and the ocean
begins to rise, as in sector L, for the joint effect of ocean rise and
subsidence will be a doubly rapid submergence, sector M, as a result
of which the upgrowth of the reef may not keep pace with the rise of
sea level, and the reef may become discontinuous; its renewed growth
may even be stopped if it is “drowned” by too rapid submergence.
Perhaps the discontinuity of certain reefs that rise, as has recently been
pointed out, from submerged platforms, but not necessarily on their
outer edge, may be explained in this way. In any case, I believe that
some combination of regional subsidence with Glacial changes of sea
level—or with changes of sea level caused by movements of the sea
bottom—is worthy of careful consideration as being probably nearer
the truth than either process taken alone: but of the several processes,
subsidence in the coral-reef areas seems to me to have acted through a
longer time and to have played by far the greater part in the develop-
ment of coral reefs.

Other Hypotheses Regarding Coral Reefs——Various other hypoth-
eses have been proposed to account for coral reefs. Some of the early
explorers explained reefs as determined by the instinct of the “coral
insects”; others regarded them as built upon the rims of submarine
craters; one long-practised student of the problem in more recent years
suggested that an extensive system of barrier reefs near one of the
larger Fiji islands may have grown up, independently of subsidence,
from submarine lava flows; an observer in Samoa suggested that certain
reefs in that island group have been determined by submarine hot
springs; a widely experienced traveller in the Pacific suggested that
many atoll-reefs are of small thickness, formed around uplifted and
worn-down limestone masses of unexplained origin; a less experienced
observer accounts for the outline of atolls largely by the action of wind-
driven waves. These suggestions all represent conceivable possibilities ;
but they are not supported by sufficient evidence to show that they cor-
respond to geological realities. The first of the six hypotheses is only
a relic of an earlier philosophy; the second was generally accepted

THE STUDY OF CORAL RDEFS 567

till Darwin showed its impossibility; the third entirely overlooks the
shore-line evidence of strong submergence following submature dissec-
tion; the fourth hypothesis makes the gratuitous assumption that sub-
marine hot springs exist in requisite number and position; the fifth
hypothesis includes no adequate explanation of the assumed limestone
masses, although, where little dissected remnants of such masses are
found, they have every appearance of being atolls of an earlier date;
the sixth hypothesis exaggerates the action of a true cause, for it over-
looks the usually concentric arrangement of central islands within their
barrier reefs, as shown in Fig. 19; this arrangement demonstrates the
action of winds and waves to be of secondary importance in determining
reef outlines. Need these hypotheses be further considered ?

Conclusion.—To what conclusion is an inquirer led by this study of
coral reefs? At least to the certain conclusion that the origin of coral
reefs, like the origin of many other geological features, is not susceptible
of absolute demonstration. All that can be hoped for in problems re-
lating to the past origin of present features, such as synclinal ridges
in mountains of folded structure, hanging lateral valleys in formerly
glaciated mountains, “faulted” strata, “metamorphosed” rocks, and
coral reefs, is a highly probable explanation. It is true that geologists
are accustomed to regard various highly probable explanations as hav-
ing the same order of verity as directly observed facts: for who doubts
that faulted strata, for example, have been displaced from their original
continuity, or that fossils are of organic origin? Nevertheless, these
universally accepted conclusions are nothing more than highly probable
inferences. Why, then, are they universally accepted? Because the
experience of many geologists through many years in many places gives
every reason to accept them as correct, and as yet no reason to reject
them.

No theory of coral reefs at present reaches so high a degree of
probable correctness as to be universally accepted. It is true that most
geologists of fifty or sixty years ago thought the coral-reef problem was
fully explained by Darwin’s theory of upgrowth during subsidence; but
geological thought at that time was not so critical as it is now regard-
ing the acceptance of hypotheses; and moreover the problem of coral
reefs had not then been enriched by the invention of several alternative
hypotheses. There was at that time practically only one theory of coral
reefs before geologists worthy of consideration ; it explained the things
that it had been invented to explain, and that was deemed sufficient to en-
sure its correctness and to warrant its acceptance. In the last thirty-five
years certain additional theories of coral reefs have been brought forward,
all the theories have been subjected to closer scrutiny than before, and
one or another of them has been accepted with more or less confidence
by a less or greater number of geologists; but the majority of geologists,

568 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

disconcerted from the confident belief in Darwin’s theory of subsidence
that formerly prevailed, and demanding strong evidence before they
accept any one of the several current theories, now have no definite
views in the matter: they learn that the problem is “ unsettled”; they
have no opportunity of studying coral reefs themselves, and as a rule not
time or inclination enough to make a close study of the work of those
who have studied coral reefs. Such is the uncertain condition of the
problem to-day. In view of this and as a summary of the fuller dis-
cussion on the preceding pages, the present writer offers the following
statement of his own opinion regarding the several current theories as
the result of much reading, observation, discussion and reflection during
the past two years.

The origin of barrier reefs and atolls on still-standing islands more
or less completely truncated by marine abrasion is contradicted by the
features of the islands within barrier reefs and by the structure of up-
lifted reefs. The resurrection of this theory in recent years, after it
had been shown by Darwin over 70 years ago to be incompetent as an
explanation of barrier reefs, has not advanced the solution of the coral-
reef problem.

The origin of atolls by upward and outward growth on still-standing
submarine foundations capped with pelagic deposits is a manifest possi-
bility, but it is not confirmed by any independent evidence. The theory
is unfortunately limited by the unnecessary postulate of still-standing
foundations. If this limitation be relaxed, and if, in view of the common
occurrence of uplifted reefs in various parts of the Pacific, uplift is sup-
posed to take place at a rate a little faster than the downward erosion
of the uplifted mass and a little slower than the outward growth of
the fringing reef, a conical coral island would result; the cone would
be terraced if the uplift were intermittent; as erosion progressed, a vol-
canic nucleus would be disclosed. No such conical coral islands are
known; hence uplift at the rate here suggested cannot have been com-
monly associated with the formation of atolls. But uplifted and little
dissected atolls occur not infrequently as tabular islands; they show
that rapid uplift sometimes occurs after the construction of an atoll is
well advanced. Uplift therefore seems, when it acts, to be a more
effective process than upbuilding.

If, on the other hand, in view of abundant evidence of subsidence
that is found especially in the western part of the Pacific coral-
reef area, intermittent subsidence is considered in association with the
up- and out-growth theory of atolls, then this theory merges into
Darwin’s theory. If both uplift and subsidence are considered, it is
evident that uplift is most favorable in the early stages and subsidence
in the later stages of the process; for subsidence in the early stages
would as a rule prevent the effective upbuilding of a submarine summit

THE STUDY OF CORAL REEFS 569

by a pelagic capping, and uplift in the later stages would prevent the
formation of normal atolls. Since normal atolls are to be counted by
scores or hundreds, it seems, when all reasonable factors in their for-
mation are considered, extremely improbable that many of them have
been formed on submarine volcanoes that grew by eruption near enough
the surface to be further built up to the coral limit by a pelagic capping,
but did not grow by eruption above the ocean surface sufficiently to
form enduring islands, and that, after their eruptive building had
ceased, always stood still and never subsided. Indeed it would require
extraordinary unanimity among pelagic volcanoes, in an ocean in which
recent and subrecent eruptions are so numerous and in which signs of
recent uplift and subsidence are so widespread and abundant, to build
up a series of lofty cones from the deep ocean bottom, scores of which
should approach close to the surface in regions now occupied by atolls,
but none of which should form islands originally large enough to be
still visible although much worn down, and none of which should suffer
elevation or depression !

If more facts were known about atoll structures, some of the sup-
posed possibilities above noted might be excluded ; but as long as obser-
vation is limited to the surface reefs of atoll rings, their origin must
remain a matter of speculation. Yet in view of what is known of other
coral islands, the most reasonable result of speculation today must in-
clude subsidence as a factor in the making of many or most atolls.

The outgrowth of barrier reefs around still-standing islands, the
excavation of their lagoons by solution, and the conversion of the bar-
riers into atolls by the erosion and abrasion of their central islands is
easily conceivable; but observation shows that lagoons are the seat of
deposition, not of solution; no example of the almost-atoll stage, in
which the central island of a barrier reef is reduced to a lowland with
an alluvial rim, is known. The rigid fundamental postulate of still-
standing reef foundations is contradicted by abundant evidence of
changes of level, by the structure of certain uplifted reefs, and by the
eroded surface of the volcanic or other rocks on which uplifted reefs
rest. If the rigidity of this postulate is relaxed, and subsidence is al-
lowed as demanded by various lines of evidence, a lagoon will be
formed without the aid of solution, and the still-stand theory will be
transformed into Darwin’s theory.

The modification of the theory of outgrowth on still-standing foun-
dations by the processes of the Glacial-control theory appears to be based
on true factors, but unfortunately the quantitative value of these fac-
tors is unknown. The theory is ingeniously developed through a long
series of deduced consequences, but it is arbitrarily limited by the un-
essential postulate of still-standing reef-foundations in the coral-reef
region during a long period of time, and many of its consequences are,

VOL. II1.—39.

570 THH SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

as above noted, not confirmed by observation. The moderate abrasion
of narrow-lagoon barrier reefs is, I believe, incompatible with the broad
abrasion of large atolls; hence the corals of most reefs were not killed
in the Glacial period. Many now-embayed valleys in barrier-reef islands
are, as well as I can estimate, too wide to have been eroded during the
Glacial period; hence their erosion must have been well begun at an
earlier date when the islands stood at a greater altitude, from which they
have since subsided. Thus the Glacial-control theory appears inade-
quate. If the unessential postulate of still-standing islands is omitted
from the theory and the processes of Glacial-control are combined with
those of Darwin’s theory, as they well may be, the combination is a
helpful one, especially along the margins of the coral zone.

It has been pointed out that-all the consequences of Darwin’s theory
of upgrowth during subsidence may be accounted for by a contrasted
theory, in which subsiding islands in an unchanging ocean are replaced
by fixed islands in a rising ocean. It is entirely possible, nay, highly
probable, that such replacement may have sometimes occurred ; but it is
extremely improbable that the replacement should be complete, for the
following reasons. A moderate rise of ocean level over fixed coral-reef
islands demands a great rise of a small part of the ocean bottom, or a
moderate rise of a great part of the ocean bottom, always excepting the
part where the fixed coral-reef islands stand; it demands also various
movements of such other islands and continental borders as do not suffer
submergence equally with the still-standing coral-reef islands: hence if
the rising-ocean theory is to explain all coral reefs, it must demand that
much or most of the earth’s crust shall long be mobile, while the crust
beneath the coral-reef islands must as long remain fixed. Such a de-
mand is too absurd to be accepted. Moreover, if the rest of the
earth’s crust is so mobile, part of the ocean bottom outside of the fixed
coral-reef region may sometimes sink, and the consequent lowering of
the ocean’s surface would be universally unfavorable to reef formation.
Hence the rising-ocean theory can not be accepted as accounting for all
coral reefs, and the part that it has played in accounting for any part of
them must long remain uncertain. The uncertainty attending this
theory is, indeed, so great that the theory is in danger of being dis-
credited thereby: yet by nothing less than a world-wide observational
study of coast lines can the uncertainty be resolved.

Darwin’s theory of upgrowth during subsidence is not based on the
rigid postulate of fixed reef foundations, but on the elastic postulate of
a mobile earth’s crust. It regards areas of subsidence as the most
favorable for the growth of barrier reefs and atolls; it explicitly takes
account of a possible variation in the amount of subsidence from place
to place, and it as explicitly includes possible still-stand pauses and
occasional moderate uplifts as interruptions in a prevailing subsidence.

THE STUDY OF CORAL REEFS 571

Its processes are in no way inconsistent with those of the Glacial-control
theory, for the two may be combined; its inferences as to extensive
areas of ocean-bottom subsidence may be modified as new facts demand,
without in the least invalidating its general value. True, the subsidence
that it demands in certain areas is apparently to be measured in thou-
sands of feet, and this seems formidable; yet objections to this demand
are based much more on our ignorance than on our knowledge regarding
the dynamics of the ocean floor. Hence Darwin’s theory provides more
general and more probable fundamental conditions for its following
processes than are provided by any other theory. Furthermore, as far
as present observation in the Pacific goes, nearly all the deduced conse-
quences of the theory of upgrowth during subsidence are confirmed:
unconformable contact of limestones in uplifted reefs on an eroded in-
sular or continental foundation, instead of on a non-eroded foundation
as is required by all the still-stand theories; observed or reasonably
inferred large thickness of certain elevated reefs, instead of small thick-
ness as required by the veneer theory; horizontal structure and rarity
of fossil corals in the inner part of uplifted reef masses, instead of
inclined structure and abundant fossil corals as the still-stand theories
demand; embayed central islands within barrier reefs, the embayments
being of such width and depth as no other but the very improbable
rising-ocean theory can account for; steep but not becliffed islands of
small size in the large lagoons of such barrier reefs as have almost
reached the atoll stage; and lagoons of various depths, floored with ac-
cumulating deposits. So successful a confrontation of deduced con-
sequences with observed facts is certainly very appealing.

Such is the array of evidence that has led me to regard Darwin’s
theory of upgrowing reefs on subsiding foundations as not only the most
acceptable theory of coral reefs yet invented, but as with high prob-
ability the dominantly true theory of coral reefs. Itis probably destined
to be modified in subordinate measure as new facts come to light, and
many new facts are without question still to be discovered; but it seems
also destined to stand as the leading theory, even when thus modified.
I therefore believe that Darwin’s theory of subsidence will regain in this
century the general acceptance it enjoyed through the middle of the
last; and that the several alternative theories, which have found more
or less favor in the last thirty or forty years, will be given minor rank
or discarded altogether.

Retrospect——The work of four men was often in mind during my
Pacific voyage: Darwin and Dana of an earlier generation, Agassiz and
Shaler of our own times. Nathaniel Southgate Shaler, my first teacher
in geology, always my best friend at Harvard, the man who opened
opportunity to me, who gave me encouragement and support when both
were much needed, a man of ever-widening relations with his fellows,

572 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

in whose memory my journey across the Pacific is only one of many
journeys that will be undertaken as the years pass. Alexander Agassiz,
a man of varied and vast achievement, who saw and studied a greater
number of coral reefs than any other scientific observer, and who gave
all of us the great example of working untiringly to the end; but a man
of so reserved a disposition that few of his associates knew him inti-
mately. It is always a regret that my aquaintance with him was slight,
and still more that I can not accept the conclusions to which he was
led by his many journeys in coral seas.

Darwin and Dana, explorers of the Pacific nearly a century ago.
How deep is the impress of these two men on the coral-reef problem!
How inevitable is the mention of their names whenever coral reefs are
discussed! But we must not picture the Darwin of coral-reef fame as
a venerable old man, whose face, although wearied by work through
long years of ill health, was always so patient and benign; nor yet as a
man of middle age, who, steadfast against a flood of prejudiced criti-
cism, opened new fields for thought and changed the philosophy of an
unwilling world; but as a diffident youth, who, when some one was
wanted to do scientific work on a long sea voyage eighty years ago,
offered his inexperienced services for what they were worth, and yet
carried with him such a fund of original thought that, while still in
South America, he invented the best of all coral-reef theories before he
had ever seen a true coral reef. And the Dana, who, younger than
Darwin by four years to a day, followed him across the oceans, was not
the grand figure who was still with us, so bravely alert in well-conserved
erectitude, hardly more than a score of years ago; nor yet the man in
middle life who, setting us all a measure of industrious versatility that
none can now attain, standardized three branches of science in Amer-
ica; but a young man, little taught, yet studious and observant, who
standing thoughtful on a mountain peak not in Darien but Tahiti, first
learned a deep secret of the Pacific, and added to Darwin’s theory of
coral reefs the confirmation that even Darwin himself overlooked !

The Pacific still has many prizes for the observant explorer. Let the
student who would discover some of them note the good example set by
Darwin and Dana, and cross the great ocean early in his life, while he
is yet young enough to have, after his return from its inspiration, many
years for work; but if he finds it impossible to go early, better late than
never !

SHAKESPEARE, THE OBSERVER OF NATURE 573

SHAKESPEARE, THE OBSERVER OF NATURE

By O. D. von ENGELN, PH.D.

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY, CORNELL UNIVERSITY

F Shakespeare’s life, his personal habits, his ways of playing and
working; with whom he was intimate and of his journeyings,
we know little or nothing. But a host of editors, commentators, and
essayists have examined all the minutie of his environment, the plots,
characters, and language of his works; much of it repeatedly. One is
reminded by this diligence of the methods employed by the prefect’s
agents in Poe’s tale of “The Purloined Letter.” “Shakesperiana,” as a
result of all this research, far outstrips, in quantity at least, the litera-
ture which has thus far in the world’s history ever accumulated about
any other man and his work. Poor Will, should he awake to-day, and
should he undertake the heroic task of editing all these writings, what a
blue pencilling of pretty volumes there would be!

Yet this tangle of speculation and criticism, though full of weak
and knotted strands, is in the main a literature we prize. While, there-
fore, it is difficult to find a Shakesperian theme that has not been inter-
estingly and exhaustively discussed it does seem that the great writer’s
nature observations are worthy of a fuller treatment than has hitherto
been accorded them. In the following paragraphs some attempt is made
to show the range of subjects these cover, and their surprising accuracy
in view of the crude state of scientific knowledge in Shakespeare’s time.

Manners and customs change, and with them human points of view.
By the inventions of three hundred years our social environment has
been greatly altered. Yet the rich legacy bequeathed us by that grandest
age of English literature, the sixteenth century, has enabled us to image
Elizabeth’s court and country with a degree of accuracy that is impos-
sible with other remote periods in the history of modern civilization.
But as some of the details in the picture, some of the essentials even,
lack confirmation, our inferences may often be in error. Man varies
his standards of conduct from year to year, but nature is a more staid
dame—although she too changes her garb with the seasons, the cut and
the cloth of the dress she assumes in each remains the same through the
centuries. Thus the climate of Great Britain, the contour of her hills
and vales are now as they were in Shakespeare’s time. The same trees
grow in the forests, among their branches flutter the same birds, on the
forest-floor bloom the identical wild flowers that the poet’s eye loved to
dwell upon. If then we study the poet’s nature lines and draw con-

574 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

clusions from them, we may be sure at least that the outdoor world has
much the same aspect as it had in his day.

Editors in general express their amazement at Shakespeare’s wonder-
ful and accurate knowledge in natural science. Yet it is doubtful
whether they collectively appreciate how wonderful this really was.
They compare Shakespeare’s observations with those of modern scien-
tists and note that these agree. They judge Shakespeare’s natural his-
tory in the same manner that they would that of a modern novelist and
find it more than simply trustworthy. What this means can only be
made apparent by an inquiry into the degree of progress in natural
science that had been made up to his time.

Extremely curious fallacies were entertained and accepted by Shake-
peare’s scientific contemporaries, to say naught of the popular beliefs.
Comparison of Shakespeare’s observations with those which obtained in
the published natural histories of his day enables us to realize how far
he was in advance of the authors of such books. One such volume is
Bartholomew’s “ De Proprietatibus Rerum,” of which Mr. H. W. Seager,
an English writer, says:

There can be no doubt that Friar Bartholomew’s book was the standard
authority on natural history in Shakespeare’s time.

From Batman’s translation of Bartholomew is quoted the following de-
scription of bees and their habits:

Many have assayed and found that often bees are gendered and come of
earrions of cattle. . . . And bees choose to their king him that is most worthy
and noble in kindness and firmness, and most clear in mildness, for that is chief
virtue in a king. . . . And kindly the more huge bees are the more lighter they
be for the greater bees be lighter than the less bees. . . . Also bees sit upon the
hives and suck the superfluity that is in honeyecombs. And it is said that if
they did not do so thereof should spiders be gendered of that superfluity and
the bees should die.

Next consider Shakespeare’s version:

For so work the honey bees,

Creatures that by a rule in nature teach

The act of order to a peopled kingdom.

They have a king and officers of sorts;
Where some, like magistrates correct at home,
Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad,
Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings,
Make boot upon the summer’s velvet buds;
Which pillage they with merry march bring home
To the tent-royal of their emperor;

Who, busied in his majesty, surveys

The singing masons building roofs of gold
The civil citizens kneading up the honey,

The poor mechanic porters crowding in

SHAKESPEARE, THE OBSERVER OF NATURE 575

Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate,
The sad-ey’d justice, with his surly hum,
Delivering o’er to executors pale
The lazy yawning drone.
—‘Henry V.,’’ Act I., s. 2, 1. 187 et seq.

While this poetical account may not be wholly in accord with the ob-
servations of a Fabre, yet the whole description is sane, it is in no sense
outré. If Shakespeare gives us so faithful an account in verse, where
he is entitled to a poet’s license in dealing with the facts, how accurate
an interpreter he must have been; since he had to rely necessarily on
his own observations for all such descriptions; contemporary natural
science abounding in the grotesque vagaries cited above.

The country about Stratford-on-Avon was Shakespeare’s haunt until
his twenty-first year. Warwickshire, in which Stratford-on-Avon is lo-
cated, is in the English Midlands. Of these the Avon district is notable
for its soft, reposeful beauty. Every aspect has the appearance of being
well rounded off, of being well fed. The land is a series of lowlying
plains, separated by rolling hills, its surface suggesting that of a summer
sea undulating in gentle swells. Through the lowest vale creeps the
Avon water, whose slow advance along shore is all but stopped by the
soft friction of the earth margin. In such quiet reaches extensive
tracts of bulrushes grow luxuriantly. A fringe of yellow water-lillies
generally marks the outer edge of this growth while on the shore side
the green meadow grass bends down to meet the water. Where the
banks are a bit higher the rich alluvial soil sustains a wealth of beauti-
ful wild flowers. Shakespeare himself has described the stream for us:

The current that with gentle murmur glides,
Thou know’st, being stopped, impatiently doth rage;
But when his fair course is not hindered,
He makes sweet music with th’ enamell’d stones,
Giving a gentle kiss to every sedge
He overtaketh in his pilgrimage.
And by so many winding nooks he strays
With willing sport to the wild ocean.
—**T. Giof V.,°? Act II., s. 7,1. 25 et seq.

To any one who has looked through the clear waters of some slow-
flowing stream to its pebbled bottom, at a point where it tinkles with
swifter motion over some slight descent, the application of the adjective
“enamelled” must be fascinating. With a single word, Shakespeare
images a page of description.

From the shores of Avon the land rises on both sides in gentle
sweeps to the uplands, of which both the slopes and summits are dotted
with stately clumps of oak and ash, the remnants of a once great forest.
In Shakespeare’s time, contemporary authors tell us, quite extensive
tracts yet remained standing. The uplands from which the timber has

576 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

been cut are just high enough to be breezy, and from their ridges one
commands quite a view of the surrounding country.

Amid such pleasant scenes Shakespeare’s boyhood and youth was
spent. Undoubtedly he had all a boy’s love of sport, and with his
school companions enjoyed many an outing in the woods and fields.
On these outings he applied to natural phenomena the same intelligent
observation, linked with imagination, that he was to apply so effectively
in later life to men and events. Asa boy and youth Shakespeare gained
his nature lore, and acquired also the scientist’s painstaking method of
investigation. It must not be inferred from this that Shakespeare
parted from nature for all time, when, at twenty-one, he rode away to
London. But many of his observations are so essentially boyish, they
exhibit so plainly the boy’s point of view, that we can not mistake the
time when these brain impressions were made. Experiences creep ever
and anon into his writings that are curiously part of the career of a
healthy-minded youngster rambling on half holidays through Warwick-
shire woodlands, and beside the Avon water. He tells us:

Men like butterflies
Show not their mealy wings but to the summer.
—‘‘ Troilus and Cressida,’’ A. III., s. 3, 1. 78-9.

We all know of this mealiness, but we feel that it was never the ob-
servation of a grown man. Only the boy, whose thumb and forefinger
have closed on the struggling captive, can duly appreciate the poet’s
conception. It is a boy too, who invites you:

I prythee, let me bring thee where crabs grow;

And I with my long nails will dig thee pignuts;

Show thee a jay’s nest and instruct thee how

To snare the nimble marmozet; I’ll bring thee

To clust’ring filberts and sometimes I’ll get thee

Young scamels from the rock. Wilt thou go with me?
—‘Tempest,’’ A. IT., s. 2, 1. 171 et seq.

No one could resist such an invitation. Again it is possible that the
deer-stealer of later fame is foreshadowed in the youthful poacher who
knew

The trout that must be caught with tickling.
— ‘Twelfth Night,’’ Act II., s. 5, 1. 25-6.

Other passages charmingly present the boy. We can not do better
than suppose ourselves permitted to accompany the poet and a party of
his schoolboy friends, out for an all-day ramble. According to agree-
ment, we meet early.

The lark at break of day arising

From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate.
—Sonnet XXIX.

SHAKESPEARE, THE OBSERVER OF NATURE 577

and
The busy day
Wak’d by the lark, hath rous’d the ribald crows.
—‘T, and C.,’’ A. IV., s. 2, 1. 8 et seq.
for these the

Merry larks are ploughmen’s clocks.
—'t, i. L.,’’ A. V., 8. 2, 1. 912.

and to their music we wend our way through

The quaint mazes in the wanton green

past the

Nine-men’s morris.
= OM 7? A. 11; 8. 1, L995 98.

to the edge of the village common. We avoid the highway, choosing,
instead, to follow one of those byways for which England is famous;
byways that respect no man’s vested right, but cross the midst of fields
and turn not aside at the hedge of a private park, for they assert em-
phatically, as one writer has put it:

That although the land is yours when you buy it, the outlook from every
point belongs to the people, and can not be bought!

In the dewy grass beside the path we chance upon a snail and find
by experiment that he, his

Tender horns being hit,
Shrinks backwards in his shelly cave with pain,
And there all smother’d up, in shade doth sit,
Long after fearing to come forth again.
—‘‘Venus and Adonis,’’ 1, 1033 et seq.

Shakespeare’s vivid memory of this incident enables him to intro-
duce, without any incongruity, so homely a creature when his theme is
love, moreover to use it in a comparison. In “ Love’s Labour Lost,”
Berowne declaims

Love’s feeling is more soft and sensible

Than are the tender horns of cockled snails.
—A. IV., s. 3, 1. 337-8.

When at noon we find that

The sun shines hot.
at Vine Pt oe A. TV... 6. 8,1 60:

we turn into the woods where

The green leaves quiver with the cooling wind
And make a chequer’d shadow on the ground.
Under their sweet shade.
—‘T. Andron.,’’ A. IT., s. 3, 1. 14 et seq.

578 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

we loll, while Shakespeare weaves for us a thousand fancies. All too
soon

The sun begins to gild the western sky. :
— OP Got V7 AL Wake ie

and we must turn on our homeward way. English twilights are long,
and the yellow slanting beams from the low-hung orb of day twinkle
and gleam among the path-bordering-trees for hours. In this golden
light dance the gnats so fast, so furiously, disappearing so mysteriously,
that Shakespeare propounds

And whither fly the gnats but to the sun?
—" HH VL,’? Pt. 3, A, DL, 8, Gao

a query no one of us can answer. In silence we trudge the last few
miles while:

The crickets sing, and man’s o’er labour’d sense
Repairs itself by rest.
—‘Cymbeline,’’ A. IT., s. 2, 1. 11.

It were easy to multiply such pages from Shakespeare’s life and the
task is a delightful one. One can not fail to be impressed again and
again by the acuteness and accuracy of his observations. When one
essays to group these references under their different heads, one first
realizes how extensive was his acquaintance with nature, animate. and
inanimate. The animal kingdom he brings oftenest to our attention.
All the reptiles which were native to Warwickshire he knew; modern
investigators have not been able to add to the number which Shakespeare
notes in his poems and plays. In other phases of natural history he was
equally well versed; to appreciate this we have only to examine his work
systematically.

Alexander Pope declared of Shakespeare that:

Whatever object of nature . . . he speaks of or describes it is always with
competent if not with extensive knowledge; his descriptions are still exact, all
his metaphors appropriated and remarkably drawn from the true nature and
inherent quality of each subject.

This appreciation applies in its fullest force to Shakespeare’s knowledge
of birds. In this branch of nature lore he displays, indeed, the most
exact and extensive learning. There are several reasons for this. The
vale of Avon furnished exceptional incentives for the development of an
ornithologist, because of the number of species that could be observed
there. Other than the varieties of land-birds which regularly resorted
to the meadows and woods of the Warwickshire country, seabirds, driven
inland from the coast by heavy southwest gales, followed the course of
the Avon as far as Stratford, and remained in that vicinity several days
before again winging their way back to the shore. In spring and fall

SHAKESPEARE, THE OBSERVER OF NATURE 579

migratory birds of many kinds halted there during their north and south
flights.

Yet the variety of bird life found in Warwickshire only in part ac-
counts for Shakespeare’s great birdcraft. A very important factor in
its acquisition was the great vogue of falconry in those days.

It is hard for us to conceive how widely popular this sport, now
almost obsolete, was at that time. Mr. J. E. Harting, a British orni-
thologist, writes :

In Shakespeare’s time every one who could afford it kept a hawk, and the
rank of the owner was indicated by the species of bird he carried. To a king
belonged the gerfalcon; to a prince the falcon gentle, to an earl the peregrine,

to a lady, the merlin; to a young squire, the hobby; while a yeoman carried a
goshawk; a priest, a sparrowhawk; and knave or servant a kestrel.

A well-trained hawk was as much a source of pride to the falconer
as a skillful hunting dog is to the modern sportsman. That Shakespeare
was well versed in this pastime is evident from the numerous references
to it which occur in his work, and from the number of its technical terms
which he employs. Many of these direct allusions to falconry are inter-
esting in themselves.

As confident as is the falcon’s flight
Against a bird!
se Raich diy. ? AY Ts, 3; 1.61,

he exclaims, and in “King Henry VI.” we have the old sportsman’s
chronic failing, his fondness for patronizing comments—expressed. by
Cardinal Beaufort:

Believe me, cousin Gloucester,
Had not your man put up the fowl so suddenly,
We had had more sport.
— TH Vibe ets 2, AL EL., gs: 1, 1 45 eb seq.

Similar passages are numerous in fact, the first part of this scene
is altogether devoted to falconry talk, and abounds in the jargon of that
craft.

As may be inferred, not all birds, to use the parlance of the day,
were “flown at,” moreover, certain birds were the prerogatives of the
great. Among these may be mentioned the heron. This came about
partly because such birds afforded better sport; also because the meaner
species of hawk, that people of lower rank carried, could not cope to
advantage with such large quarry. These restrictions only tended to
make the devotee, whate’er his class, more observant of all the birds
that came within his view. Such riveting of the attention must have
keyed Shakespeare’s powers of observation to the highest pitch. Where
other falconers may have dismissed the unavailable bird with a glance,
he no doubt beguiled his waiting for desired quarry by noting the habits

580 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

of those species that had nothing to fear from his hawk. Hunters to-day
find game that is out of season most plentiful, and in all likelihood the
rule held good in the sixteenth century. Yet it is wonderful how many
kinds of birds Shakespeare knew.

He mentions all the species having popular names. We may well
infer that he was acquainted with many more, for it must be remem-
bered that Shakespeare was in some degree, no doubt, obliged to confine
his allusions to species that were familiar to his audience. Yet he finds
occasion to mention the eagle, buzzard, osprey, the different kinds of
owls, the pelican, crow, raven and woodpecker, the magpie, jay, thrush,
blackbird and bunting, the cuckoo, robin, sparrow and wren, the dove
and the partridge. Besides these there are birds distinctively men-
tioned as flown at, the lapwing, the woodcock and snipe, also wild geese
and duck. Of distinctly sea birds the guillemot and the cormorant are
cited. The aptness and truth of the references he makes to these deni-
zens of the air shows how conversant he was with their ways. What
modern playwright or poet knows half this number of species well
enough to use them in his diction?

The lark seems to have been a favorite with Shakespeare. It is
mentioned again and again, and almost always associated with the
morning.

Lo! here the gentle lark, weary of rest,
From his moist cabinet mounts up on high
And wakes the morning, from whose silver breast

The sun ariseth in his majesty.
—‘‘Venus and Adonis,’’ 1. 853 et seq.

The blackbird he describes as

- so black of hue
With orange tawny bill.
— ‘M. N. D.,’’ A. TIL, s. 1, 1. 131-132.

The young of the lapwing “run almost as soon as they are hatched” we
are informed by ornithologists, and Shakespeare has noted this pecu-
liarity.
This lapwing runs away with the shell on his head.
—‘‘Hamlet,’’ A. V., s. 2, 1. 193.

Perhaps the best way to show how intimately Shakespeare knew the
facts will be to examine his so-called errors and especially one that has
attracted some attention in the past, and apparently taxed the resources
of commentators to explain. In several plays Shakespeare ascribes a
certain habit to the cuckoo. These quotations are given below in their
chronological order.

Why should the worm intrude the maiden bud?

Or hateful cuckoos hatch in sparrows’ nests?
—‘‘Lucrece,’’ 1. 848-9.

SHAKESPEARE, THE OBSERVER OF NATURE 581

And being fed by us you us’d us so
As that ungentle gull, the cuckoo’s bird,
Useth the sparrow; did oppress our nest;
Grew by our feeding to so great a bulk... .
—‘‘Henry IV.,’’ Pt. 1, A. V., s. 1, 1. 58 et seq.

But since the cuckoo builds not for himself.
—‘‘Ant. and Cleo.,’’ Act. II., s. 6, 1. 28.

For you know, nuncle
The hedge-sparrow fed the cuckoo so long,
That it had it head bit off by it young.
—‘‘Lear,’’ Act IL, s. 4, 1. 237 et seq.

An investigation of these passages proved extremely diverting be-
cause of the varied ways in which the different critics and Shakespearian
editors tried to explain, dodge or ignore the question—Was Shakespeare
at fault in accrediting such habits to the cuckoo?

In the lines from “Lear,” moreover, two disputed textual passages
occur. The Globe edition has the last line:

That it had it head bit off by it young

which is awkward and meaningless. This line some other editions
boldly change to just the opposite and have two “ its,” reading:

That it had its head bit off by its young.

Furness in the Variorum edition inclines to the reading
That it’s had it head bit off by it young

explaining his “it’s” as a contraction for it has, which would seem to
give sense to the passage, 1. e., that it (the sparrow) has had it (the
sparrow’s) head bit off by it (the cuckoo) when still young.

Again in the case of the phrase “ For you know nuncle” the Globe
reading and the Variorum edition agree on the above; (nor is there any-
thing said about a different reading in the Variorum). Yet Schmidt
in his Shakespeare Lexicon defines “ trow = believe” for this passage ;
and so it is printed in Knight’s edition of Shakespeare’s works. Now
let us see what the commentators have to say regarding the natural
history of the lines.

Mr. J. E. Harting, the ornithologist, after quoting all three passages,
dodges the issue:

The solution of this question is the more puzzling from the fact that this
parasitical habit is not common to all species of the genus cuckoo. An American

species builds a nest for itself and hatches its own eggs. The habits of our
English bird must always be as much a marvel to us as its remarkable voice, ete.

Mr. Chas. Knight, the Shakespearian editor, pins his faith to “ trow,”

582 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

adopting this reading without question and triumphantly champions the
poet as follows:

There is a remarkable instance in his (Shakespeare’s) discrimination be-
tween the popular belief and the scientific truth in his notice of the habits of the
euckoo. The Fool in ‘‘Lear’’ expresses the popular belief in a proverbial
sentence:

For you trow nuncle

The hedge sparrow fed the cuckoo so long
That its had its head bit off by it young.

Worcester, in his address to ‘‘ Henry IV.,’’ expresses the scientific fact with-
out the vulgar exaggeration, . . . a fact unnoticed until the time of Dr. Jenner
by any writer but the naturalist William Shakespeare:

And being fed by us you us’d us so

As that ungentle gull, the cuckoo’s bird,
Useth the sparrow; did oppress our nest,
Grew by our feeding to so great a bulk....

Mr. J. E. Harting, some half dozen pages after his first dismissal
of the subject, recurs to it again:

The opinion that the cuckoo made no nest of its own but laid its eggs in
that of another bird, which brought up the young cuckoo to the detriment of its
own offspring, was well known to the ancients and is mentioned by Aristotle
and Pliny.

The more recent scientific discussions of this bit of natural history
are interesting reading, in view of the decided differences of opinion
among the commentators. The Victoria History of Warwickshire, be-
cause of the thorough manner in which the various subjects are treated,
is a valuable reference book on Shakespeare’s native county. The sec-
tion on the Ornithology of Warwickshire was written by Mr. R. T.
Tomes, F.G.S. and corresponding mem. Z. 8., who under the head of
“the cuckoo” (although he makes no reference to Shakespeare) has the
following sentence:

I have long been of the opinion that the female cuckoo lays her eggs on the
bare ground, from which she takes them in her beak and places them in the nests
of other birds.

He cites instances when he has observed this transference of the egg.
Other British ornithologists, in general, believe that the cuckoo not
only deposits its egg in some smaller bird’s nest, but also that the
cuckoo fledgeling, by an upward jerk of its rump, hurls the true off-
spring of its foster parents from the nest; and itself grows so large
before leaving this that the foster parents are compelled to perch on the
fledgeling’s shoulders, in order to convey food to its gluttonous maw.
Under the circumstances is it not a plausible enough theory, that Shake-
speare did witness some such tragedy as is indicated in the Fool’s lines;

;
q

SHAKESPEARE, THE OBSERVER OF NATURE _ 583

and that he therefore needs no learned etymological or ornithological
defense ?

The other so-called natural history errors of Shakespeare are prob-
ably enough, as Mr. Knight contends, due to his reliance on books; as
Knight puts it:

Shakespeare derived his nature truths from observation, his untruths from
books.

Such errors are:

The toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.
—‘As Y. L. It,’’ A. IT., s, 1, 1. 13-4.

Now I will believe . .
That ...in Arabia
There . . . is one phoenix.
—‘‘Tempest,’’ A. III., s. 3, 1. 22 et seq.

Knight, curiously enough, in view of his elucidation of the cuckoo epi-
sode, fails to note in this connection the rather obvious fact, that such
errors are given as beliefs of the characters who express them, or, indeed,
as expressions of their own skepticism, as in the case of the phoenix, and
are, not therefore, to be construed as accepted by Shakespeare himself.

The limitations of this paper preclude considering in detail all the
divisions of natura] history that Shakespeare knew at first hand. It
must suffice that we pick out several of the more noteworthy for exami-
nation. As in the case of the birds, Shakespeare’s insects attract at-
tention because of the remarkable number of species mentioned.

When we think of the very small number of insects that the average
person, to-day, can call by name, how many less he knows, or remembers
the habits of, and that even now only a very small proportion of the
classified species have popular names; we can better appreciate the
range and quality of that man’s observations, who in the city, far from
their haunts, wrote about, from memory, almost all the species possessing
popular names, that were native to his youthful home. Mr. Robert
Patterson, an entomologist (Treasurer of the Natural History Society
of Belfast), found that the passages in Shakespeare containing notices
of insects occupied “nine closely written pages of letter paper.” He
has not printed this list, but we may surmise from his language that he
considered it extensive, in fact he says elsewhere that he was “ surprised
at the amount of natural history contained in the plays.”

It needs only a short search to come upon a passage revealing more
than a merely superficial knowledge of this topic. If a modern ento-
mologist were made a dramatist, he could not better voice scientific fact
than Shakespeare has in the lines:

584 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

There is differency between a grub and a butterfly; yet your butterfly was
a grub.
—‘‘Coriolanus,’’ A. V., s. 4, 1. 12-13.

It can not be too often reiterated that nature knowledge, such as
displayed in this sentence, was nothing less than extraordinary in a
sixteenth-century poet. Because the phases of the butterfly’s life his-
tory are commonly known to-day, we are apt to pass over the expression
without thinking of its real import—that at a time when natural history
abounded in absurdities and superstitious beliefs, this man stated the
facts. Again his uses of these facts and keen observations are at times
imaginative to a fascinating degree. When Mamillius in “'The Winter’s
Tale” whispers:

I will tell it softly;

Yond crickets shall not hear it.
—Act II., s. 1, 1. 29-30.

his conception of the crickets as listeners, because they cease their
clamorous chirpings, remaining absolutely silent as long as you converse
in their vicinity, is a very pleasing fancy.

When the sun shines let foolish gnats make sport,

But creep in crannies when he hides his beams.
—‘‘Com. of Errors,’’ Act II., s. 2, 1. 30-31.

And often, to our comfort, shall we find
The sharded beetle in a safer hold
Than is the full wing’d eagle.
—‘‘Cymbeline,’’ Act III., s. 3, 1. 19 et seq.

are on the other hand passages embodying bits of philosophy which
might well have found place in Bacon’s essays.

There are, in other of these insect passages, unrivalled quaintness
and suggestiveness. No other poet has surpassed in imagery the conceits
Shakespeare has made familiar in the description of Queen Mab’s chariot
and its fittings.

Her chariot is an empty hazelnut
Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub,
Time out o’mind the fairies’ coach-makers.
(Its) .. . wagon-spokes made of long spinner’s legs
The cover, of the wings of grasshoppers
The traces, of the smallest spider’s web.
Her whip, of cricket’s bone; the lash of film;
Her waggoner, a small grey-coated gnat.
—‘R. and J.,’’? A. IL, s. 4, 1. 60, ete.

Here must be inserted too that queer stanza:

The fox, the ape and the humble-bee
Were still at odds, being but three,

SHAKESPEARE, THE OBSERVER OF NATURE 585

Until the goose came out of door
And stay’d the odds by adding four.
—‘L, L. L.,’’ A. III, s. 1, 1. 90 et seq.

This is sheer nonsense and would adorn Lewis Carroll’s “ Alice’s Ad-
ventures in Wonderland.”

Passing from animate to inanimate nature, we think first of flowers,
the beautiful things of creation. Perdita’s speech in “The Winter’s
Tale,” so often quoted, claims first attention:

O Proserpina!
For the flowers now that frighted thou let’st fall
From Dis’s waggon! daffodils,
That come before the swallow dares, and take
The winds of March with beauty; violets dim,
But sweeter than the lids of Juno’s eyes
Or Cytherea’s breath; pale primroses,
That die unmarried, ere they can behold
Bright Phoebus in his strength, a malady
Most incident to maids; bold oxlips and
The crown imperial; lilies of all kinds
The flower-de-luce being one.

—Act IV., s. 3, 1. 116 et seq.

As has so often been pointed out, she keeps precisely to the order of
the season, while Milton, in a like passage, flagrantly violates the cal-
endar of nature.

Mr. Hamilton Wright Mabie has made the interesting discovery,
that there is only one place near Stratford:

Whereon the wild thyme blows.
— OMe iN. 577A. T., 8. 1, 1, 249.

and that it is a bank along the path to Shottery. If we may judge by
the context of this passage, the associations coupled in Shakespeare’s
mind with this path, and bank, were not nearly so unpleasant as some
commentators would have us believe.

The subtleties of trees’ growth and habits, their characteristics and
individualities, have not been lost on Shakespeare. He notes the re-
flection where

There is a willow grows aslant a brook

That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream.
—/*Hamlet,’’? Act IV., s. 7, 1. 167-8.

Only the under side of the willow’s leaves are hoar; again Shakespeare’s
statement is perfectly exact. In the “ Rape of Lucrece” we have
The cedar stoops not to the base shrub’s foot

But low shrubs wither at the cedar’s root.
—‘‘Luerece,’’ 1. 664-5.

which observation must always please the geographical botanist.
VOL. 11.—40.

586 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

Shakespeare, while so widely conversant with the minutiae of nature,
was not blind or indifferent to her broader aspects. For these, also, he
had an appreciative eye. He noted the pageants of the clouds; the
manifold shapes they assume:

Sometimes we see a cloud that’s dragonish;
A vapour sometimes like a bear or lion,
A tower’d citadel, a pendant rock
A forked mountain, or blue promontory
With trees upon’t, that nod unto the world
And mock our eyes with air.
—‘‘Ant. and Cleo.,’’ Act IV., s. 12, 1. 3 et seq.

The colorful picture he presents in the lines

When daisies pied and violets blue
And lady-smocks all silver-white
And cuckoo buds of yellow hue
Do paint the meadows with delight.
—‘L. L. L.,’’ Act V., s. 2, 1. 902 et seq.

is surely a laughing, happy one of spring; while again, what could be
more realistic than the autumn he depicts in Sonnet 73:

That time of year... behold

When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold
Bare ruin’d choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.

These very many nature notes, sprinkled almost uniformly through-
out his work, show how intimately the nature lover was associated with
the poet in Shakespeare’s art. Their quality indicates the patient seek-
ing for the inner reason of things, that is the characteristic of the man
of science. Individually the passages please us as does a tinkling chime
of silver bells. The striking applications that the dramatist makes of
these lines show him, however, a master of his art. Critics assert that
certain of these nature passages were independent compositions that
were later fitted into the plays and poems where they occur (by their
author) in order that they might not be lost. The story of the hunt, in
Lucrece, is commonly mentioned as an example of such interpolation.
Granted that this be true, has any one ever ventured to say that these
passages serve no purpose, or that they are inapt? Quite the contrary!
It is remarkable enough that, although critics disagree about almost all
else, on this one point they stand united: Shakespeare’s similes and
metaphors are always appropriate and clear. The German Shakespeare
scholar, Dr. C. C. Hense, has even found himself called upon to defend
Shakespeare’s unrestrained and literal use of nature truths with such
correctness.

If fault can really be found with the poet’s usage; Hense’s defense
of it is bold and convincing. He says:

SHAKESPEARE, THE OBSERVER OF NATURE _ 587

Man hat wohl von Shakespeare gesagt, das er die Schénheit der Warheit und
Wirklichkeit unterordne. In seiner Verwendung der Naturverhiltnisse tritt eine
Wahrheit hervor, fiir welche der delikatere Sinn der spiateren Zeit die Emphang-
lichkeit zum Teil verlor. Die Dichter des Altertums, der Natur niher stehend,
vergleichen mit unbefangener Naturfrische Menschen mit Tieren; der tadelnde
Beigeschmack, welchen der Vergleich mit gewissen Tieren einschlieszt, war in dem
unbefangenen Natursinn der Alten nicht vorherrschend.1

He then cites passages from Homer, Horace, and other classical authors
illustrating the decidedly “unconventional” comparisons they com-
monly employed. Nor was this appropriateness of Shakespeare’s nature
_ references confined to the minutiae of his work. To quote another Ger-
man author, H. Heine, every drama has

Sein besonderes Clima, seine bestimmte Jahreszeit, und seine lokalen Eigen-

tiimlichkeiten. Wie die Personen in jedem dieser Dramen, so hat auch der
Boden und der Himmel, der darin sichtbar wird, eine besondere Physiognomie.?

Thus we have the action of Romeo and Juliet taking place in sunny
Verona, while Hamlet and Macbeth live their tragic lives under the
gloom and fog of northern skies.

Turn now from the poet’s written interpretation of his feeling and
observations to a contemplation of the man himself, as revealed by those
lines. Shakespeare, the nature lover—this phrase in itself expresses one
of the most delightful conceptions we have in the history of literature.
The conception is all the more pleasing if we accept the conclusions
drawn by Mr. C. Creighton in his curious book entitled “ Shakespeare’s
Story of His Life,” wherein he attempts to unravel the biography from
allusions in the poet’s work. According to it Shakespeare’s life in large
part must have been very unhappy, for it is a tale of naught but quarrels,
disappointed ambition and heartburnings arising from misplaced friend-
ships. In any case, although he did not avoid society as did Thoreau,
Shakespeare’s joy in a secluded footpath must have been great, partic-
ularly if he was so unhappy in his social life.

Imagine how his heart must have surged and expanded away from
public haunt, finding

Tongues in trees, books in the running brooks
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.
=f Ag ¥, I. 1t,’? Act 11., a;.1, 1. 16-17.

1It is true that Shakespeare has been accused of subordinating beauty to
truth and realism. This is only so because in his nature references a verity is
apparent that a later generation has in part lost its ability to appreciate owing
to the development of a greater fastidiousness. The classical poets, in closer
touch with nature, compared man with the beasts in a very unconstrained and
naive fashion. Because of their unconventional attitude toward nature these
early writers were not dominated by a number of modern taboos, including that
of comparisons with certain animals,

2Its suited climate, appropriate season, and local peculiarities. As the char-
acters in every one of these plays, so also the earth and sky depicted therein,
have each their distinctive and characteristic aspects.

588 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

“Good in everything.” .What an amount of satisfaction may be ex-
pressed by the word good. We feel its real force, now, better, when we
hear “ goodly”: “a goodly sight it was... .”

One thing which must always make us happy is that we may feel
reasonably sure that the poet spent the last few years of his life at his
boyhood home, and that he could in those years satisfy the longing so
feelingly expressed in the lines:

O God! methinks it were a happy life,

To be no better than a homely swain;

To sit upon a hill, as I do now,

To carve out dials quaintly, point by point,

Ah! what a life were this! how sweet! how lovely!
Would bring white hairs unto a quiet grave.
—‘‘Henry VI.,’’ Pt. 3, Act IL, s. 5, L 21 ete:

Si ee

SHAKESPEARE AS HEALTH TEACHER 589

SHAKESPEARE AS HEALTH TEACHER

By JAMES FREDERICK ROGERS, M.D.

NEW HAVEN, CONN.

CCORDING to the notions of the age in which he lived, Shake-

speare would hardly have been recognized as a“ doctor of physic,”

but from the twentieth century point of view he was, and is, a great

physician. A curer of disease he certainly was not, but as teacher of
mental and bodily sanity he has had a clientele that is numberless.

So superior a mind must have had an aversion to the company of the
average doctor of medicine of the time. Their “science,” which he evi-
dently sifted to the bottom, was largely nonsense, and their practise con-
sisted chiefly in the indiscriminate letting of blood and the administra-
tion of sundry traditionary, and not always safe, concoctions. Had he
joined their ranks, however, and become a “curer of the body,” Shake-
speare would have allowed little to escape his keen senses in his study
of the sick, and his weighing of signs and symptoms would have been
made with nice judgment. Above all, he would have “understood ” his
patient—he would have had a rare insight into the condition of mind
underlying or resulting from the bodily derangement and felt the im-
portance of ministering unto “the immortal” as well as unto the cor-
poreal part of his nature. At least he would have been honest and
would have admitted as much, if the sick man needed more “ the divine
than the physician.”

Medical science in and about the year sixteen hundred was so limited
and so steeped in astrology and metaphysics that its professional study
could hardly have appealed to many, save those who delighted in one or
the other of these vagaries. Indeed, metaphysics and astrology were
necessary to fill up the great hiatus of ignorance of the body itself in
health and disease. Neither of these speculative pursuits offered a very
firm basis on which to establish the art of healing. Though much prog-
ress had been made in gross anatomy, the compound microscope had yet
to be invented and the science of physiology was, as yet, practically a
blank book. The processes of digestion were vaguely understood, but
there was complete ignorance of respiration and of circulation, and the
brain was only coming to be recognized as the seat of consciousness.
There was as yet but a hazy guess at the nature of infectious disease.

Practitioners of physic still leaned heavily, for support of their
otherwise usually supportless practises, upon the ancients. “Thus saith
Galen” or “so rules Hippocrates” was prefixed to most medical for-

590 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

mule. The ascendancy of Galen was especially complete in England.
True, the name of Avicenna was not unknown, and the learning of the
Arabians was not wholly neglected. A lively leaven of independence of
authority had also been set working in the middle of the sixteenth cen-
tury by the audacious Paracelsus (mentioned by Shakespeare in “ All’s
Well that Ends Well”) who dared to proclaim that his shoe buckle
knew as much as all the ancients, and, what was more modest and vastly
more important, declared that he, as well as they, could study nature
first hand. It is evident that some of the English men of medicine
were equally free from the trammels of tradition, for William Harvey
was but fourteen years younger than Shakespeare. But, among all but
a few, Galen was the medical god; the normal condition or “temper-
ament” of the body was believed to depend upon the right mixture of
the four elusive elements of the Greek thinkers—hot, cold, moist and
dry—while from faulty proportioning of these there arose “ distempers,”
and from distempers, under certain external conditions of food, of air,
or more subtle phenomena, there developed disease.

Ailments—their cause and cure—were then, as now, matters of com-
mon conversation. Each man diagnosed his neighbor’s complaint and
suggested his own favorite remedy. ‘There were even popular health
books—and not bad ones. The “ Castell of Helth,” probably the first of
these, was compiled (chiefly from Galen) in 1554 by no less a person
than Thos. Elyot, Knight, privy councillor to Wolsey, intimate of Crom-
well, ete. Its publication aroused the ire of the profession because of
the sacrilege of the translation into the vernacular, because the trans-
lator was a layman, and for less worthy reasons. Fifty years later,
when Shakespeare’s earlier plays were leaving the press, Thomas Cogan,
a humble physician and teacher, published the “ Haven of Health, made
for the comfort of Students.” Shakespeare may have glanced through
this work, which displayed some little wit and good sense, but for the
material of which the author acknowledged himself much indebted to
Master Elyot, “his Castell of Helth.”

Then, as now, however, it was not so much the invention of cures
for its ailments that was most needed for humanity, but an insight into
the cause, and, therefore, into the prevention of disease. In London
and in the village of Stratford (were rural conditions worse than urban
then, as they usually are now?) men lived in the most filthy fashion,
and they unwittingly reaped the consequences of their uncleanliness.
Even John Shakespeare, father of the dramatist, well-to-do chief magis-
trate though he became, was fined for having a dunghill in his front
yard. The condition of the rest of his premises is not pleasant to con-
template, and yet it is said that his illustrious son, in his first year,
escaped the plague which carried off one sixth of the population of Strat-
ford, only because his home was the most comfortable and sanitary in

f
q
}
b

SHAKESPEARE AS HEALTH TEACHER 591

the place. ‘To the older scourges of unsanitary Kurope, there had been
recently added by the voyagers to new worlds some new plagues. Not-
able among these acquisitions was syphilis, which wrought havoc among
all classes, and which, despite its own tendency to self-destruction and
the brilliant work of modern medicine, still reaps a plenteous and
hideous harvest of death and deterioration.

Whether Shakespeare’s home surroundings saved him as an infant
from his first experience with the plague, it allowed him opportunity for
the fullest unfolding of his bodily powers, and gave him the apprecia-
tion of the feeling of health. He lived in a village of less than fifteen
hundred inhabitants; there was a river in which to fish and swim, and
there were inviting fields over which to rove and hunt with horse and
hawk and hound. He could draw a “good long bow” and was well
practiced in self-defense with quarterstaff and sword. That he made
use of his opportunities for physical education is evidenced by the lines
of autobiography scattered through his plays.

His stay in the public school was brief, and his health was unaffected
by study. Cogan found that students then “be commonly valetudinary,
that is sickly.” Shakespeare did not belong to this class. His was a
“lusty” youth, which led, by suitable living (despite some probable
excesses and escapades), to a lusty age, for it is not believable that one
who looked with so rare and philosophic vision at the strutters upon
life’s stage, could himself have been guilty of much of their weakness.
Besides, the very great man is seldom given to dissipation. There is
too much else for him in life.

In Shakespeare’s earlier plays there is (saving the introduction of
Pinch the “hungry, lean-faced villain” and quack into “The Comedy
of Errors”) little mention of physic and less of physicians, and he
seems to have, in or out of his plays, no use for the services of a doctor
of physic. He was approaching the age of sedentariness, however, had
already learned that “unquiet meals make ill digestion,’ and perhaps
other experiences of minor bodily ills followed and aroused his especial
interest in such matters. At any rate, after 1597 the words “physic”
and “physical,” used often in the general sense of something salutary,
appear frequently.

In “Henry the Fourth” (159%-1598) Shakespeare exhibits con-
siderable knowledge of medical matters, Falstaff furnishing the material
of his public clinic. He pictures accurately the bodily changes of senil-
ity; he mentions apoplexy, the gout, the pox (syphilis), and epilepsy ;
and in speaking of grief as leading to apoplexy he makes Falstaff say,
“T have read the cause of its effects in Galen.” The remark of Prince
Henry

siavatien ah ata If he be sick
With joy, he will recover without physic,

592 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

shows his observation of the effects of mental states on bodily, and vice
versa.

Shakespeare’s interest in “physic” and his intimacy with physicians
may have been simultaneous; perhaps the latter preceded the former.
His opinion of the average doctor of the day is presented in probably
a not much exaggerated way in his Doctor Caius, in “'The Merry Wives
of Windsor” about the year 1600. This and the plays of the next four
years are full of fun and sarcasm at the expense of the profession, with
little hint that there might be in it any but charlatans and ignoramuses.

Will you cast away your child on a fool and a physician?

He hath abandoned his physicians, madam; under whose practices he hath
persecuted time with hope.

Throw physic to the dogs. I'll none of it.
Sir Toby.

Sot, did’st see Dick Surgeon, sot?
Clown,
O, he’s drunk, Sir Toby, an hour agone; his eyn were set at eight i’ the
morning.

These were not expressions wholly respectful to the learned practitioners
of medicine and surgery.

In “Troilus and Cressida” he again shows much familiarity with
the bodily ailments of the age. By the time he wrote “Lear” and
“ Macbeth” (1605) he had evidently come upon more worthy material
in the medical profession. The doctors of these plays are large-minded,
sympathetic, and unhampered by tradition, above all exhibiting keen
appreciation of the phenomena of mental aberration and a readiness to
admit the fact that

... this disease is beyond my practice.

It was not the habit of the majority of the doctors of physic to admit
that they could not cure insanity, or anything else, by some material
means. Shakespeare recommends for such patients rest, sleep, and a
removal of “ the means of all annoyance”; his decision concerning Lady
Macbeth,

More needs she the divine than the physician,

foreshadows, by three centuries, the general popular and professional
agitation concerning the value of mental treatment of nervous disorders.

Shakespeare had full opportunity at hand for the study of insanity
in many of its forms—the great majority of those afflicted were abroad
in the land, though the more violent were chained in loathsome prisons
or confined in little better “asylums.” Far down into the seventeenth
century the cause of insanity. was laid at the door of demonology and
witchcraft, and it is to be remembered that hospitals for the insane and

SHAKESPEARE AS HEALTH TEACHER 593

their humane treatment date back little more than a half century. Like
a true scientist, Shakespeare shows chief interest in the border-line
cases; and, to this day, the critics, after close examination of his most
famous study, “ Hamlet,” have been unable to say whether the subject
was or was not insane. The dramatist would probably have said that he
was both. Shakespeare must have had a deep fellow feeling for the in-
sane, especially for those so near to mental health. There must have
been, beneath his careful delineations, more than mere art for art’s sake,
and there was painstaking truthfulness not in exhibiting some spectac-
ular cures but in lauding the effects of the commonplace influences of

Our foster-nurse of nature

and of
Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleeve of care.

Not only did he warn against the conditions which push men across
that narrow and invisible line which forms the boundary between sanity
and insanity of the mind, but, as Mr. Rolfe said, Shakespeare “ went
out of his way” as a playwright to preach, even to the warning against
the danger from a common cold, the gospel of bodily health.

In Coriolanus (1606) he gives a considerable number of lines to the
subject of the interdependence and need of harmony among the organs
of the body. The other structures rebelled against the stomach and

3) Suing one Stes Ie accused it:

That only like a gulf it did remain

I’ the midst o’ the body, idle and unactive,
Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing
Like labor with the rest.

‘*True it is,’’? quoth the belly,

‘*“That I receive the general food at first,
Which you do live upon; and fit it is,
Because I am the storehouse and the shop

Of the whole body: but if you do remember,
I send it through the rivers of your blood,
Even to the court, the heart—to the seat o’ the brain;
And, through the cranks and offices of man,
The strongest nerves and small inferior veins
From me receive that natural competency
Whereby they live.’’

We are strongly reminded of Shakespeare’s greatest contemporary, Cer-
vantes, who makes his hero say to Sancho “ The health of the whole body
is tempered in the laboratory of the stomach.” Was Shakespeare fa-
miliar, at the time, with Don Quixote?

The dramatist more than once called attention to the result of tak-
ing too much food into the stomach, for

594 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

Fat stomachs have lean pates, and dainty bits
Make rich the ribs, but bankrupt quite the wits.

Falstaff is, in himself, an eloquent sermon on temperance.
Drunkenness received no gentle rebuke from Shakespeare’s pen.

What’s a drunken man like, fool?

asks Olivia of Feste in “ Twelfth Night” (1601).

Like a drowned man, a fool and a madman. One draught above heat
makes him a fool; the second mads him; and a third drowns him.

and in “ Othello,” Cassio bewails-at length the folly of his intemperance.

Oh God, that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their
brains! that we should, with joy, pleasance, revel and applause, transform our-
selves into beasts! . . . To be now a sensible man, by and by a fool, and pres-
ently a beast! O strange! Every inordinate cup is unblest, and the ingredient
is a devil.

Shakespeare paints the picture of the victim of venereal disease with
no sparing of pigment and with no uncertain sweep of the brush. He
even goes to the pains (not for the sake of creating a sensation) of
exhibiting the foulness and baseness of the “sty” where

Diseases have been sold dearer than physic.

It is in this same play, “ Pericles”—nearly his last—that Shake-
speare describes his ideal physician, or some real doctor of physic whom
he admires. Possibly he had in mind his son-in-law John Hall; but
Shakespeare himself was most worthy of the lines:

4 Sea ING tose DLS ’Tis known, I ever

Have studied physic. Through which secret art,
By turning o’er authorities, I have

(Together with my practice) made familiar
To me and to my aid, the blessed infusions
That dwell in vegetatives, in metals, stones;
And I can speak of the disturbances

That Nature works, and of her cures; which doth give me
A more content in course of true delight

Than to be thirsty after tottering honour,

Or tie my treasure up in silken bags

To please the fool and death.

Shakespeare was not a student of sanitation, for the sources of infec-
tion, other than in a most hazy way, were as yet unknown. Had he
lived to-day he might have pointed a telling finger at our public and
private uncleanliness. It is probable that he was the victim of filthy

SHAKESPEARE AS HEALTH TEACHER 595

conditions at Stratford, for he died of a fever of not long duration.
Doubtless he was, in this illness, ministered to by his son-in-law who
had gained an enviable reputation as a physician and was much sought
after by “those of more than ordinary understanding” and even by
“such as hated him for his religion.”

Though he died at fifty-two, Shakespeare had, according to the
reckoning of Montaigne, a quarter century earlier reached, for that
time, a good old age. Probably had it not been for some unavoidable
cause, his superior physique, his appreciation of health, and his tem-
perance would have preserved him many years more. He had, however,
completed his work, for he had ceased to write, so far as we know, two
years before his end.

He would not have considered himself a physician, but in the most
important sense of being a teacher of health he stands among the first
of that goodly company of non-professionals: Plato, Cervantes, Moliére,
Montaigne, Bacon, Locke, Addison, Wesley, Franklin, Carlyle, Beecher,
Spencer, and others who, by both precept and practise, have been our
greatest preachers of the gospel of health. As a minister to the mind,
and, through it, to the fragile machinery through which it works, he has
no peer.

596 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

AN ANALYTICAL STUDY OF ATHLETIC RECORDS

By GEORGH P. MEADE

CARDENAS, CUBA

ie June, 1915, Norman Taber, formerly of Brown University and

Oxford, ran a mile in 4 minutes 234 seconds, about two seconds
faster than any amateur had ever been credited with running that dis-
tance. The question may have occurred to some of us at that time,
“How far can the breaking of records continue?”’ Improvement in tech-
nique or in method may affect such records as the high jump and the
pole vault; changes in apparatus may affect others such as the hammer-
throw, but running is an act so natural and free from “knack” that it
would seem probable that there is some rule governing the rate at which
man can run—some limit which the records approach and beyond which
they are not likely to go. Before looking into the matter further let
us consider the class of figures with which we have to deal.

Athletic records have every right to consideration as scientific data.
Races are timed by at least three skilled timers; distances are accurately
surveyed and are remeasured in case a claim for a record is to be made;
strict rules are observed to prevent mistake or fraud at the start and
finish, and unusual circumstances, such as favoring winds, are noted by
judges or referee. Finally the performance is investigated by a com-
mittee of the national athletic board of the country in which the race
was run, and every circumstance which might affect the validity of the
record is discussed before the record is sanctioned. (These precautions
apply only to amateur athletics. Professional races are run under hap-
hazard conditions, and timing is unreliable, so professional records will
not be dealt with here at all.)

Athletic events may be divided into two classes—those which are
run in all championship meets, and for which athletes practise regularly,
and those which are run more rarely and for which practise is incidental.
Of the first class, which we might term “standard” events, are the
100-yd., 220-yd. and 440-yd. dashes, the half-mile, mile, two-mile and
five-mile runs. It is in these standard events that world-wide competi-
tion has been going on for many years. So many thousands of men
have striven to break these records that they may be taken as closely
approximating the best which man can do, rather than as representing
the best which men have been able to do so far.

ATHLETIC RECORDS 597

In order to compare the speeds at various distances it is necessary to
compute the rate for some unit distance. or distances below five miles
the seconds per 100 yds. is used as the unit. (For example, the record
for the half mile is 1 min. 52% secs., or 112.5 secs. The rate per 100

yds. is ue or 12.79 seconds.) For distances greater than five miles

8.8
the rate is computed to seconds per mile.

Let us consider the world’s best running records for the standard
distances as given in Spalding’s Athletic Almanac for 1915. The last
column gives the rate per hundred yards, computed as shown above.

Distance Time Holder Rate per 100 Yds.
UNG RR eee ee ae 93 secs. Kelly 9.60 secs.
BON Pe a cdi var acesess estas 214“ Wefers 9.69."
BEINN MUIR ere saccaswoicea. doe 474 “6 Long 10.86 ‘
2S IN 6 ES ee 1:523 ‘° Meredith Le
Mis PMG? 3 .2c<0 ons senses, 4:122 “ Taber 14.35 ‘
WO MUS. 2.20.56 000-2 0<00 9:093 ‘ Shrubb 15.60 ‘
Three miles......... yamine: 14:172 ‘° Shrubb 16.22 ‘*
OUP Mes,:.....0:50..06 19:232 ° Shrubb 16.52 ‘‘
Rave MG, 005-6. cee. 0x. 24:332 ‘¢ Shrubb 16.735 ™

A study of these rates shows that for the 100-yd. dash and the 220-
yd. dash the rate is practically identical. Here the fatigue in running
the longer distance is offset by the greater effect of the delay at the start
on the rate of the shorter dash. Beginning with the 220-yd. dash rate,

les

Frate per 100 44s. 119 Seconds.

—

lo THE EHTS

2 4

REO Yas Distence Fiun tn miles.

Fig. 1. CURVE REPRESENTING THD RELATIONSHIP, FOR THH STANDARD DISTANCES,
BETWEEN THE RATE OF SPEED AND THE DISTANCD COVERED.

598 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

however, we note that the rates increase for each succeeding distance,
but with a constantly decreasing increment.

Representing the rates as vertical distances and the miles as hori-
zontal distances, we can show graphically the relationship between the
rates, as in Fig. 1.

The smoothness of the curve connecting all the points plotted is
striking—so striking, indeed, as to indicate strongly that there is an
approach to a definite relationship between the various records which
have been reduced by extended competition. No claim is made that the
limit has been reached in the breaking of these records. Such a claim
might be refuted by actual performance in the next athletic meet. But
the probability of any marked change in the records represented by the
curve is very remote. ;

To show the effect of competition on the rates, let us plot some of the
second class of events (that is, those which are run more rarely). As
instances we will choose the following:

Distance Time Holder Rate per 100 Yds.
1,000 vyards. ..i.0:0...!c.00. 2:122 Sheppard 13.40
STA eee phen teas esc davaes 3:02¢ Conneff 13.84
Oe cel (eae ener eee 6:462 Conneff 15.39

These points are plotted in Fig. 2, together with the curve already
shown in Fig. 1. The points, as might have been expected, fall outside

U

100 yds 17 Seconds

Frere per

RL0 Ye

Distance Tans in mules

Fic. 2. THE SAMDP CURVE AS IN Fic. 1, TOGETHPR WITH POINTS PLOTTED FOR
RATH AND DISTANCE For 1,000 Yps., 3% MiLp AND 1% Mites. Showing that for dis-
tances in which competition has been less keen the points fall outside the curve.

i te a el

Th Se

ATHLETIC RECORDS 599

the curve. The rate for these less usual events is, therefore, greater
than in the standard events. ‘There is little doubt that if these distances
were included in the regular schedule of championship events the
records would fall until the points were included in our curve.

For convenience in studying the records for distances beyond five
miles the rates are calculated to seconds per mile, instead of seconds per
100 yards. Following are the records and calculated rates:

Distance | Time Holder Rate per mile
SONYA craabax cu weeeaaneyas 474 secs. Long 191.2 secs,
PELE i cncanes eee veceateen Aaa Meredith 225.0 ‘*
BHO: WINE 52 62e0 5 sce c0s ces os 4:128 <¢ Taber 252.6 ‘
oi GOO CA Se 9:092 ‘ Shrubb 274.8 ‘
Munroe miles, .....- 5-5-4. LAB7S. 58 Shrubb 285.8 ‘
Pour MUGA, |.....0...20s000 T9:238,. “<f Shrubb 290.8 °**
REV SALON. 00.0256 cance ones 24:332 ‘¢ Shrubb 294.7 *‘*
Premier 6.5 cos. sccn.ns- 50:402 ‘ Shrubb 304.0 ‘
MIS ATL GR « cnasnase seuss One Hour Bouin 304.4 ‘
Fifteen miles.............. 1:20:048 ‘* Appleby 320.3 ‘
Twenty miles.............. 1:61:64. 35° Grossland 335.7 ‘
Twenty-five miles........ 2:29:292 <é Green 358.7 ‘*

These rates and distances are shown in Fig. 3. The one-hour record
seems to be a continuation of the smooth curve obtained for the shorter

per mile,

Frat in Seconds

‘ a 3 Tt . 1's ao zs
‘YOR “Om :) P25 ocpexs oppow ap onucuet ‘opovmyios 92084

Distance Fun in tHsles.

Fic. 3. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RATE OF SPEED AND DISTANCE RuN Con-
TINUED FOR RECORDS UP TO 25 MILES. (The rate here is in seconds per mile, instead
of seconds per 100 yds., as in Figs. 1 and 2.)

distances, with the ten-mile record slightly out of line. It is of interest
to note that this ten-mile record was made by Shrubb while he was

600 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

making the one-hour record formerly held by him. It is evident that if
either Shrubb or Bouin had been running only ten miles, instead of for
one hour on the day their records were made, the ten-mile record would
be better and the point would fall within the curve.

Beyond the one-hour mark the curve breaks badly. Correct figures
on professional races for the greater distances might tell a different story.
In these longer races a money incentive might do more toward bringing
out the full extent of man’s abilities. Or it may be that whatever rule
governs the records in the shorter distances does not apply in the longer
ones. This does not seem as probable, however, as that the full possi-
bilities have not been realized.

We have seen, then, that for those distances up to ten miles in which
competition has been most intense there is apparently a rule governing
the relationship between the distance covered and the rate. It may be
that some mathematician who still has an interest in the sporting page
will develop the formula on which this relationship is based.

AUCELERATION OF MORAL PROGRESS 601

THE ACCELERATION OF MORAL PROGRESS

By Dr. DURANT DRAKE

PROFESSOR OF ETHICS AND EDUCATION, VASSAR COLLEGH

ae Americans, and those among the warring nations of Europe
who have leisure for reflection, stand aghast at the revelations
of human hatred, cruelty, and barbarism which this past year of our
Lord has thrust under our eyes. Where is all our boasted moral prog-
ress, our Christianity, our dream of the brotherhood of man? What
was it all but a thin veneer over the black depths of brute selfishness and
savagery’ No wonder if many despair of the capacity of man to pro-
gress morally, and others look impatiently about for some new force to do
for him what all the churches and societies have hitherto failed to do. It
was, therefore, a timely as well as an interesting article which appeared
in a recent number of The Popular Science Monthly* with the conten-
tion that the hope for moral progress lies along the line of eugenics.

Hitherto, the thesis of this paper ran, morality has been almost
wholly a matter of social inheritance, a set of traditions imposed from
without upon each succeeding generation, adopted by imitation and
suggestion, perpetuated largely through fear of the penalties or social
ostracism which follow upon deviation, but always more or less external
to human nature itself, crossing its desires, demanding repression and
conformity. Such a situation is pregnant with danger. Red-blooded
youth will always be rebelling against its constraints; and any great
wave of passion, like this present war, will fling its shackles to the
four winds. Evidently there can be no secure morality until men
are born with altered natures, with impulses and desires organically
adjusted to the needs of their human situation, so that they instinctively
and spontaneously choose the right. In short, our problem is that of
“securing the preservation and perpetuation of a human stock that may
be depended upon to lead moral lives without the necessity of much
social compulsion.” “ Abiding human progress can come only through
the improvement of the stock of the people.’

Now we may all agree that such an undertaking, if feasible, is de-
sirable, and indeed of the utmost importance. Who does not long, at
least in his saner moments, to be delivered from “the body of this
death,” from all the harassing temptations, the lusts and longings and
passions, that lead him off on this tangent or that, deflecting him from

1 By Professor F, Stuart Chapin, in the May, 1915, number.
2 Article referred to, pp. 469-70.

VOL. 11.—41.

602 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

the wise and virtuous life that might otherwise be his? If we could
only have been born with an overpowering inclination towards virtue,
how much trouble we might have been saved! And if by regulation of
marriages, by sterilization or segregation of the immoral, or any other
eugenic proposal, we can secure for future generations freedom from
the tyranny of passion and a life of spontaneous virtue, we should be
willing to make the necessary effort and sacrifice.

But is the undertaking in any degree feasible? Let us consider it
more closely. Has any one any idea how to go to work to secure “a
human stock that may be depended upon to live moral lives”? Whom
shall we marry to whom? ‘That we can breed a healthier race seems
undeniable; and in so far as immorality is due to low vitality, patho-
logical derangement, organic -depression of spirits, we may hope for
some relief. We may perhaps succeed in breeding a more intelligent
race; and in so far as immorality is due to underwittedness and stupidity
we may hope to diminish it. That this is the limit of expectation seems
imphed in the phraseology of the paper referred to; for the author
sums up his contention by saying that “we ought to get into our mores
the idea that the children of the present generation must be born of
physically healthy and mentally capable parents.’*

Certainly we should aim to breed a healthier and more intelligent
race. But will that ensure us a more moral race? We do not need this
present war to enforce this lesson. Think of the Alexanders and Attilas
and Napoleons throughout history; think of the Macchiavellis, the Tal-
leyrands, the Bismarcks. Are health and mental ability in any wise a
guaranty of morality? On the contrary, unless they are early and suc-
cessfully enlisted in the cause of right, they are the greatest source of
danger to the community. The stupid and silly may oftener do wrong;
but they are not clever or strong enough to invent wrongdoing on any
great scale, or to escape detection in their petty crimes. It is the
criminals of great vitality and mental alertness who baffle our detec-
tives, or, still worse, get into positions of power where they can mislead
the people and further their selfish ends without incurring lability to
punishment. ‘Thus the eugenic proposals, though admirable for other
ends, are not adapted to the end here sought. The task of making a
man healthy and intelligent can be, to some extent, performed . before
he is born, by the proper selection of parents. The task of making him
moral must, perforce, wait till he is born and begins to grow up.

3ut why can not we breed directly for morality, by preventing the
parenthood of the criminal and vicious? Some men seem to have a
more fortunate moral endowment than others. One child has a con-
genital explosiveness of temper, one youth an imperious lustfulness.
Another is naturally more sympathetic, gentler, or more fearless. We

8 Ibid., p. 471.

ACCELERATION OF MORAL PROGRESS 603

do not start side by side in our moral pilgrimage. Then why not pre-
vent the birth of those who would be most seriously handicapped ?

The reasons why this is impracticable are numerous and obvious.
In the first place, it is questionable if any instincts are in themselves
bad; man’s potentialities of evil are also potentialities of good. An
imaginative boy sees at the “ movies” the tale of a successful crime; he
imitates it, is sent to jail, and becomes a hardened criminal. But that
same imagination, restlessness, inventiveness and daring, if properly
utilized, might have made him a great inventor, or explorer, or aero-
naut. A man shows cowardice in danger. But perhaps that is the
result of an extreme sensitiveness to pain, a high-strung state of
nerves, which would be a very valuable endowment for an artist or an
actor. Your bad-tempered friend may be one who sees more clearly
than you the faults of people and cares more passionately for his ideals;
train him to patience and he may be worth ten of his apathetic neigh-
bors. The apparently selfish man may be cherishing some purpose for
the sake of which he is steeling his heart against the calls upon it; his
determination, concentration of energy, single-mindedness, are rare vir-
tues, and need only to be balanced by a clearer recognition of the rights
of others. The lustful man is the man of passion, who under favorable
circumstances might have become a great poet or patriot. Shall we
dare to weed out of our human heritage any single instinct, and say
that future generations will be better off without the potentialities
which it offers ?

But even if we could be sure which traits ought to be exterminated,
we should still find it impossible to determine which individuals ought
not to become parents. For to breed for any single trait would imply
disregarding all the others that would inevitably be fostered or weak-
ened by our interference. While we were carefully breeding out selfish-
ness we might incidentally be breeding out energy, mental keenness,
invention; or breeding in, say, an over-susceptibility to alcohol or to
sex incitement. He that is abounding in sympathy may be lazy, shift-
less, untruthful; he that is poor in that virtue may be rich in other
potentialities. We are lke the children in the “ Birds’ Christmas
Carol”; he that had a necktie had no collar, and she that had shoes had
no stockings. Who is competent to judge which of the concrete blendings
of impulse is on the whole deserving of extinction? The problem
would be as impossible of solution as that of the God who, according to
the traditional conception, has to divide human beings into sheep and
goats, the saved and the damned. The fact is that one person is worth
saving in one respect, another in another.

The situation is further complicated by the fact that it is impossible
to be sure which qualities of a man’s character are inherited, and there ‘ore
transmissible to his children, and which are acquired. An irritable, ill-

604 THE SCLENTIFIC MONTHLY

tempered individual, for example, whom we might doom to sterility for
that fault, might be merely suffering from some organic irritation whose
removal would leave him as patient and sweet-tempered as another;
even if it were never removed, his children would have no unusual
natural irritability. On the other hand, traits which are deep-rooted,
and will be passed on from generation to generation, may be lying dor-
mant, for lack of the right influences to bring them out, and go unsus-
pected. We inherit, after all, only potentialities; and they are but dimly
to be guessed through performance. The reproductive value of a man is
to be measured not in terms of what he has done, but in terms of what
he might have done under widely varying circumstances; it would only
be by trying him out in every type of situation and under every sort of
influence that we could know what is in him. All sorts of heroisms and
lusts slumber in us, unknown even to ourselves; and to judge of the
value of the potentialities which any given man is going to pass on to
his descendants is quite beyond our powers.

Moreover, heredity is not so simple a matter as the enthusiastic
eugenist is apt to assume. A child inherits the forgotten traits of a
host of ancestors, and often fails to inherit the most striking of his
father’s or mother’s traits. ‘There are the facts of variation, and the
complexities of the Mendelian law, to be borne in mind. When two
people, each with a complex ancestry, marry, who can predict what the
result in inherited instinct and capacity will be? A parent with a
streak of insanity may bear a child who will be a genius; a parent who
is a great philosopher or poet or statesman may have a son who is an
idiot. We can hardly guess what strain, itself abnormal, may be of
greatest value when blent with a different strain in parenthood. The
mechanism of heredity is so intricate that with our present knowledge
we are hardly competent to meddle with it, when it is a question of
producing such a complex result as moral endowment.

Finally, the attempt to interfere with parenthood to the extent neces-
sary to produce any appreciable changes in the instinctive endowment
of future generations would not for a moment be tolerated in our times.
Would you acquiesce in enforced sterility because you have, say, a con-
genitally explosive temper? or because you have shown a callous self-
ishness in pushing under your business rivals? When we think of state
interference with marriages in the interests of morality, we imagine,
of course, that we personally should be selected for parenthood, while
the poor unfortunates in prisons and poorhouses would be prevented
from marrying. But it may well be that many of the prisoners in Sing
Sing have better blood in them than you. Are you sure that if they had
had your opportunities they would not have done better with them than
you? or that you, under their temptations, and with their lack of good
influences and training, would not have landed in Sing Sing? It is

ACCELERATION OF MORAL PROGRESS 605

true that a large proportion of prisoners and paupers and prostitutes
are feeble-minded; we may agree to their segregation for life or steril-
ization. But to a large extent crime and vice are the result, under
fostering influences, of tendencies which exist in us all. And if we
have had reasonably happy lives in spite of moral defects, we prefer to
risk parenthood and trust to our children to get along as well or better.

What then? Is there no hope for the acceleration of moral prog-
ress? Yes, there is much hope. But it lies in the improvement of the
old methods of moral teaching and training. Morality is something
acquired by each generation, and not something transmitted by parents
to offspring; we can greatly facilitate its acquisition. Morality is
functional, not organic; it results from the way we use our powers and
direct our instincts, not from their inherent nature. But we are not
trying on any large and systematic scale to provide competent training
in the art of life for our youth. We employ experts to teach them
Latin and mathematics; we see to it that they know how to build
bridges properly if they are to be engineers, or fill teeth properly if they
are to be dentists. But we leave the most important training of all, the
training that shall show them how to guide their desires and instincts,
how to avoid the snares and pitfalls of life, how to be steadily and
honorably happy, to the haphazard attention of parents, who are for the
most part themselves ill-trained and ignorant of how to live. We need
not despair of the efficacy of moral training, for we have hardly begun
to try it.

The churches and Sunday-schools do a good deal, but theirs is little
more than a one-day-a-week influence, on a minority of the population ;
and that more or less distracted or obstructed by theological interests,
and offered in terms often unassimilable. Moreover, the homilies of the
preacher are usually more or less discounted; it is his “job” to exhort.
The actual perplexing problems of living are seldom taken up in the
churches and discussed in a free and unbiased manner. It is clear that
in our present chaotic religious situation, with numberless sects offer-
ing divergent doctrines, and the work of teaching done mostly by volun-
teers, young men and women of no special training or fitness for the
work, we can not expect the crystallization and maintenance of clear and
generally accepted codes through the work of the churches alone. The
great task of moral education must be undertaken by the schools.

Our educational system is fairly good on its informative side, and
in the mental drill it provides. But in its moral training it is inex-
cusably deficient. What if our school-superintendents and college pres-
idents were to recognize that the prime function of education is to alter
habits of conduct? What if our school system were to seek from the
beginning to impart an interest in right living, were to discuss concrete
problems of conduct, and to quicken conscience, by the many methods

606 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

known to skilful educators? It could then turn out multitudes of boys
and girls trained to a code, as knights were trained in former days to
courage and chastity and the service of the weak. What if loyalty to
school and college were to come to mean primarily loyalty to that code;
so that for a Harvard man anywhere to be detected in lying would be a
shame to the college, or for a Yale man to use unfair methods in busi-
ness would be to make his classmates blush and brand him as untrue to
his alma mater?

Sinners there will continue to be, no doubt. Our human heritage
includes instincts that are rebellious against any restraint; and the best
of moral training may, now and then, result in failure. But the diffi-
culties in the way of a task are no excuse for not undertaking it. We
must give our youth insight into the possibilities of right living; we
must arouse their interest in learning better ways, their enthusiasm for
ideals. In this moral education, rather than in eugenics, lies our real
hope for the raising of the general standards of moral conduct.

THE PUNCHBOWL ; 607

THE PUNCHBOWL: HONOUULU’S METROPOLITAN
VOLCANO

By VAUGHAN MaAcCAUGHEY

THE COLLEGE OF HAWAII

E ONOLULIU, capital of Hawaii and strategic center of the north
- Pacific Ocean, is widely known as a tropical tourist resort, and
as a great American naval station. The city has spasmodically ex-
panded from an aboriginal cluster of grass huts to a cosmopolitan me-
tropolis of sixty thousand people. It now stretches loosely along eight
miles of the narrow coastal plain which lies between the mountains and
the sea. The plain is of coral origin and rests upon the submarine
flanks of the deeply carved voleanic mass that forms the bulk of the
island. Scattered here and there over the plain are numerous craters
that were thrown up by the final convulsions of the plutonic island-
builders. These igneous disturbances ceased long ago and apparently
are extinct. The silent craters remain as grim testimony of Oahu’s
prehistoric epoch of fire. Among the best preserved of these crater-
hills is old “ Punchbowl,” a remarkable volcano lying in the very heart
of Honolulu and commanding a magnificent view of the city and its
lovely environs.

The Hawaiian name for this venerable crater is Pu-o-waina and it
has a tragic significance. The original form, from which the modern
spelling is abbreviated, was Puw o waiho ana, literally the hill of offer-
ing or sacrifice. The people of primitive Hawaii were dominated by
the dreadful tabu system that once ruled all Polynesia. The penalty
for any violation of its intricate regulations was death. Pu-o-waina
was one of the places near Honolulu where the bodies of the offenders
were ceremoniously burned. Near the highest point on the seaward
rim is a flat, altar-like ledge. Below this ledge is a crack or orifice,
once a voleanic vent. This gave a good draft of air and added to the
suitability of the place for a sacrificial altar. Like place-names in all
parts of the world, Pu-o-waina lingers for generations after the extinc-
tions of the practises that once made it so effective.

In shape and structure Punchbowl is a fine example of a truncated
voleanic hill produced by explosion. By truncated is meant, not that
its top was ever blown off, but that it never possessed a sharply conical
point or peak. From the time of its formation its top has been a bow]l-
shaped depression. The crater walls are composed of brown volcanic
mud or tufa, which was violently ejected in a single titanic explosion.

7

MENTIFIC MONTHLY

C

S

THE

608

‘HAODY SNIVINOOW GH WOU AAMAIA SV

©

ATIOIONOW ANy

GALVYD TMOAHO

Nod

THE PUNCHBOWL 609

The huge column of superheated steam-charged mud and rock-stuff tore
through the soft coral plain, shot to dizzy aerial heights, and dropped
back around its vent. Thus was produced the symmetrical rim and bowl,
and hence the name Punchbowl. There are numerous extinct yol-
canoes on Oahu and other Hawaiian islands that were formed in this
same manner, and that with equal appropriateness might claim the
fanciful title of Punchbowl.

The elevated coral plain up through which Punchbowl exploded
is here about fifty feet above sea-level. The highest point of the crater
is about five hundred feet (498) above the sea. The total diameter of
the hill, including the basal slopes, is a full mile. The “bowl” has a
rim-to-rim diameter of 2,200 feet from north to south, and 1,800 feet
from east to west. The marked difference in the two diameters is shared
with the other Hawaiian volcanoes of this type and is due to the wind

r v
S/Sa/t Lake’
Van

| | SS AN ge! th
Map OF HONOLULU, SHOWING THE LOCATION OF PUNCHBOWL.

conditions that existed at the time of the eruption. The usual winds
of this part of the North Pacific in which the Hawaiian Archipelago is
situated are the well-known trade-winds. These blow steadily from the
northeast practically throughout the year. The trade-winds are so con-
stant that the majority of the explosive cones are conspicuously one-
sided. The strong wind deflected the eruptive column of volcanic mud.
Consequently the bulk of the ejected material was dropped on the lee-
ward, or southeast. side of the vent. .

Punchbowl, however, is a striking exception to this prevalent elonga-
tion of crater axis in the direction of the trade-wind. It so happened

610 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

VIEW FROM PUNCHBOWL ON THE LOWLANDS. Diamond Head in the distance.

that just at the time of the Punchbowl explosion the dominant wind was
not the trade, but the southeast, or “ Kona,’ wind. This Kona wind
blows erratically at infrequent intervals, mainly during the rainy season.
The configuration of Punchbow] clearly shows that a strong Kona wind
warped the erupted column to the northwest, and caused the deposits to
fall chiefly on that side.

Several excellent automobile roads cut spirally around the furrowed
sides of Punchbowl, through low gaps in the crumbling rim, and finally
circle the basin floor. The basin has a depth of about one hundred and
fifty feet. Its monotonous interior is covered with a sparse and stunted
growth of such thorny plants as prickly-pear cactus, lantana, algarona,
and klu. ‘The lower part of the basin, that benefits most from the scant
interior drainage, supports a thin grove of the algaroba, or kiawe, trees.
Cattle and goats roam freely through the crater. On several occasions
the bowl has been surveyed as a reservoir site, but other more favorable
localities have been chosen. Since the military occupation of Oahu by
federal troops, the commanding position of Punchbowl has recom-
mended it as a location for batteries. In the days of the Hawaiian
monarchy several small brass cannon were mounted on the brow of the
hill, but these were removed many years ago. The basin is now being
used as a rifle-range by the local militia. The slopes may some day
mask the formidable artillery of Oahu’s coast defense.

The outer slopes of Punchbowl are broadly scored by regular flutings
or corrugations, the tooth-marks of long-continued erosion. These flut-
ings and the numerous stone quarries make graphic sections and clearly
reveal the structure of the walls. The tufa was deposited in well-defined
layers of varying thickness, and permeated with coral lime. The layers
strikingly show the double quaquaversal dip characteristic of volcanoes

THE PUNCHBOWL 611

of this class; their average angle is about twenty-five degrees. The
quarries occur here and there along the lower skirts of the hill. The
soft, easily-worked tufa has proved to be an excellent road material.
Most of the streets and roadways in the vicinity are made wholly of tufa.

On the Punchbowl] slopes one finds great quantities of a cinder-like

ss
.

voleanic ash. This is locally called “black sand.” It occurs in ex-
tensive sheets over the Honolulu plain. The interior of Punchbowl
crater is lined with this ash. A short distance eastward is a hill two
hundred feet high, composed wholly of black sand. These evidences
all point to a long series of stupendous black sand eruptions that dev-
-astated this region just as Vesuvius entombed Pompeii and Hercula-
neum. Some of the ash was ejected by Punchbowl, the remainder was
discharged from other volcanoes in the neighborhood.

A yery interesting glimpse into the geological history of Punch-
bowl has been afforded by an artesian well-boring near its flanks. The
shaft first penetrated ten feet of black sand; then thirteen feet of
coral, and finally about fifty feet of tufa. This succession shows that
the crater was thrown up in relatively shallow water, coral reef grew over
its flanks, and the reef in turn was covered by the volcanic ashes. The
crater obviously was formed before the recent elevation of the Honolulu
plain above the sea-level. According to Dr. Sereno E. Bishop the great
symmetry and uniformity of Punchbowl’s rim indicates that the crater
was ejected in a single rapid out-throw, probably lasting a very few
hours! He gives as the conjectural time of this explosion a period
about 45,000 years ago.

Honolulu has steadily encroached upon the once-barren slopes of the
voleano. In the early days Punchbowl was a remote outskirt, isolated

VIEW FROM PUNCHBOWL ALONG THE LOWLANDS AT THE Foot OF THE MOUNTAINS,

612 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

A Strrer TRAIL UP THE TUFA SLOPES OF PUNCHBOWL. The summit is 200 ft. above
the observer.

by dry plains from the tiny grass-thatched settlement on the beach.
To-day its base underlies an important residence section in the center
of the city. The Territorial Normal School is located on its seaward
slope. The thrifty Portuguese, skilled in the gardening of Madeira’s
steep farmsteads, settled as easily and comfortably upon the arid walls
of Punchbowl as did the amphibious Chinese upon the marshy rice-
lands. The small, well-pruned gardens of “ Portuguese Town” are
crowded with luxuriant trees and shrubbery—figs, pomegranates, citrus
and mango trees, grape-vines, avocadoes, papaias, bananas, and many
other useful and ornamental plants.

THE PUNCHBOWL 613

A superb panorama of the surrounding country is visible from the
rim of this city-girt hill. The distant purple Waiane Range, the
Wahiawa pineapple lands, glimpses of Pearl Harbor and the Kalihi
channel, bowery Honolulu reposing beneath its rich canopy of tropical
foliage, the valley floors bright with rice and taro, the long ridges rising
into the cloud-capped mountains, the friendly palms of Waikiki beach,
old Diamond Head bleached and gray against the brilliant blue of the
seaward sky, the rusty red Kaimuki region, and, mountainward, the
forested slopes of Tantalus: these compose a variegated picture of
unique and lasting charm.

Equally rich and memorable is a tranquil moonlit evening on Punch-
bowl’s rim. The gaunt, moon-bathed crater walls fade into the twink-
ling scattered lights of the city; the hushed air throbs with the roll of
distant surf; the odorous trade-wind pours down from the shadowy
mountains; tropic fragrances rise from the white-fenced gardens; these
quiet beauties, subtly blended by the moonlight, bring a new appreci-
ation of this ancient hill of fire and sacrifice.

614

THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE

THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SO-
CIETY AND THE CHEMICAL
LABORATORY OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF
ILLINOIS

THE fifty-second of the
American Chemical Society was held at
the University of Illinois,
Champaign, April 17-21, 1916.
meeting stands as the largest in the
history of the society, the registration

meeting

Urbana-

showing an attendance of 572 mem-
299

oe

The
two special features of the gathering
were the dedication of the new chem-
ical laboratory and an exhibit of Amer-
ican-made chemical products and appa-

bers and 157 guests, representing
states and 4 foreign countries.

Excursions were made to the
various departments of the university
and to the
plants at Danville.
included a

ratus.
chemical manufacturing
The entertainment
review of the University
Brigade of 2,100 men; a band concert

First BUILDING OF

1875.

THE
taken about

the rear wing. one window showing, just at the left of the shed.

The.

THE UNIVERSITY
The Department of Chemistry was located in the basement of

by the First Regiment Band of 75
pieces; a smoker, and a banquet at
which 402 covers were laid. Special
entertainment for the ladies included re-
ceptions, concerts, luncheons and auto-
mobile drives.

At the council meeting the most im-
portant items of business were authori-
zation of the publication of the ten-
year index to Chemical Abstracts, and
the appointment of a committee to
consider the establishing of a publicity
bureau whose duty it shall be to sup-
ply correct information of a chemical
nature to newspapers and popular
periodicals.

The first general session was held in
the university auditorium, with Pro-
fessor W. A. Noyes, chairman of the
President

Edmund J. James, of the university,

Illinois Section, presiding.

gave a cordial welcome to the visiting
Professor Charles H. Herty,
president of the society, responded in

chemists.

— —~ -
et EET RES Te

@ ab

or ILirois. From a_ photograph

The only source of

heat was a kitchen stove and water was supplied from a nearby pump.

>

CHEMISTRY BUILDING, 1905

THE

616

THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

HOME OF

changed in appearance, is

an address in which was emphasized the
need of trained chemists in the develop-
ment of our national industries.
Sectional meetings were held
which a total of 283 papers were of-

in

THE DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY FROM 1878 TO 1902.

fered. These were distributed as fol-
lows:

Agriculture and Food .........--- 22
BOO PLCAW on se wink oo ora os wow) hei ato 76
Wiertalizerpre ns yo ccs loot hcherenitn, srete"s" <P il
Industrial and Engineering ....... 26
Oye (CU ee ee On Sei OID OOO Ont 53
Pharmaceutical ..........05-.-++- 15
Physical and Inorganic ........... 62 |
Water, Sewage and Sanitation .... 28

This building, much
the present Law Building.

day afternoon, with W. L. Abbott,
president of the university board of
trustees, presiding. In the opening ad-
dress President James called attention
to the fact that a university is no
longer considered complete when it con-
sists of a log with a teacher at one end
and a student at the other; but a large
factor in the success of a university in
these days is the appearance of its
campus and the equipment of its de-
partments. The size and beauty of the
new- chemistry building at Illinois is

_an inspiring witness of the importance

Two illustrated public lectures were |

delivered upon the subject of radium:
Dr. Charles L. Parsons spoke on ‘‘ The

Production of Radium’’ and Dr. Curtis |
F. Burnam on ‘‘ The Use of Radium in |

Treatment of Cancer.’’
The exhibit of chemical industries,
arranged in the basement of the new

building, proved to be one of the most
interesting and valuable features of the |

gathering. Exhibitors to the number

of 57 displayed a great variety

of |

. . ° |
products of American manufacture, il-

lustrating both the wide range of prod-
ucts of American ingenuity and the
necessity for the development of cer-
tain other lines of chemical industry.
The dedicatory exercises were held in |
the university auditorium on Wednes- |

of chemistry.

““The Training of Chemists’’ was
the subject of a very thoughtful and
helpful address by Professor Alexander
Smith, of Columbia University. All ad-
vancement in the science depends upon
research and suecessful research re-
quires thorough training. The entire
chemical course should have all its in-
struction as well as the arrangement
and equipment of the laboratories point
toward greater efficiency of the chem-
ists.

Dr. W. R. Whitney, member of the
United States Naval Board, in a stir-
ring address on ‘‘Research as a Na-
tional Duty,’’ told his hearers that he
was tired of seeing the United States
play the part of a trailer among na-

THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE

617

1916.

CHEMISTRY BUILDING,
looking southeast.
wall separating the new part is shown on both the north and the south portions of
the roof.

THE

tions; that leadership must come
through systematic and thoughtful sci-
entific research. Progress has been
slow because we are just beginning to
appreciate the value of _ research.
Many of our institutions of learning
are better known for their footwork
than for their headwork. Colleges and
universities must take the lead in re-
search, for there is no better type of
preparedness than research which is ef-
fective and persistent.

Upon the opening of the new labora-
tory, the department of chemistry occu-
pies its fourth home since its organiza-
tion in 1868. The first quarters were
in the basement of the rear wing of the
first university building, where heat
was supplied from a kitchen stove and
water was obtained from a near-by
well. In 1878 the department was+pro-
vided with a separate laboratory, a
three-story brick building which is used
now as the home of the College of Law.
A much larger building was erected in
1902 and this building which is shaped

VOL. 17.—42

View from the tower of University Hall,
In the foreground is the old portion of the building; the fire

like the letter ‘‘E’’ forms a part of
the present completed structure. The
present building forms a hollow square,
230 feet by 116 feet, the main lecture
room and the machinery for ventilation:
being in the court. The working space:
comprises 3.77 acres. Each laboratory
is distinctive in that its arrangement
and equipment are planned for its own
peculiar type of work. Abundant pro-
vision is made for research in various
lines of work. The present valuation of
the entire plant, including equipment
and supplies is about $540,000.

THE HYPOTHESIS OF AVOGADRO

THE molecular hypothesis of Avo-
gadro was proposed in 1811. Eight
years before, John Dalton had put for-
ward the atomic hypothesis, which bears
his name, to account for the laws of
definite and multiple proportions and
Ac-
cording to this hypothesis, an atom is
element

the law of combining numbers.

the smallest particle of an

618

which can enter into or be expelled |
from chemical combination. If the at-|
tempt is made, however, to determine |
the ‘‘smallest combining: weight’’ of

THE. SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

The determination of the relative
molecular weight of a gas is thus re-
duced to a laboratory measurement—
the determination of the relative den-

an atom, the theory shows itself to be | sity of the gas.

defective in that it lacks a standard for
fixing the atomic weights of the differ-|
ent elements. In 1808 J. F. Gay-Lussac
had observed that when two gases react
chemically, the volumes which react
bear a simple ratio to one another and
to the volume of the gaseous product of
the reaction. It follows at once if ele-
ments in a gaseous state unite in simple
proportions by volume, and if the ele-
ments also unite in simple proportions
by atoms, then the number of atoms in
equal volumes of the reacting gases (at
the same temperature and pressure)
must be simply related. But even so,
we still have no means of determining
the numerical value of this relation,
and therefore can not use the discov-
ery of Gay-Lussac as such to determine
relative atomic weights.

Avogadro (1811) went one step
further in suggesting that this volume
relation pointed out by Gay Lussae is
the simplest possible, viz., equal vol-
umes of all gases, at the same tempera-
ture and pressure, contain the same
number of ultimate parts, i. e., mole-
cules. A distinction is made between
the elementary atoms and the small
particles of a gas. Assuming that the
small particles of a gas are aggregates
of a definite number of atoms, Avogadro
called these aggregates molecules, to
distinguish them from the ultimate
atoms. Avogadro thus modified the
atomic hypothesis and adapted it par-
ticularly to gases. The hypothesis of
Avogadro has been confirmed by such
an abundance of subsequent work that
it is now placed among the well-estab-
lished laws of chemistry and physics.
The same hypothesis was announced
independently by the French physicist
Ampere in 1814. By Avogadro’s hy-
pothesis equal volumes of gases con-
tain the same number of molecules, con-
sequently, the relative density of a gas
is proportional to its molecular weight.

After the proposal of Avogadro’s
hypothesis efforts were made to work

out a reliable system of atomic
weights; but chemists persisted in using
and abusing the terms, ‘‘atomic

weight,’’. ‘‘combining weight’’ and
‘‘moleeular weight’’ in every conceiv-
able way, with the result that rank
confusion prevailed in chemical litera-
ture. The confusion was increased by
the attempt of Avogadro to apply the
hypothesis to substances which could
not be vaporized. This state of affairs

/led ultimately (1840) to the abandon-

ment of the hypothesis by most chem-
ists. Only Avogadro and Gaudin ac-
cepted it but without furnishing
further evidence. ;
In the forties, however, a new epoch
was begun in the history of Avogadro’s
theory, when Gerhardt recognized its
value for the determination of for-
mulas, Among the first to adopt the
views of Gerhardt was Laurent, and
these two men worked together ear-
nestly for a period of about ten years,
with the result that more and more at-
tention was given to their views. At
the death of these men in the early
fifties, the work devolved upon the
younger chemists—Cannizzaro and
Kekulé, It was Cannizzaro who finally
(1860) cleared up the confusion by
showing just how the molecular hy-
pothesis could be used to solve the
problem of the relative weights of the
atoms. Cannizzaro pointed out very
distinetly the difference between atoms
and molecules—‘‘equal volumes of
gases, whether they be simple or com-
plex, contain an equal number of mole-
ecules, but not an equal number of
atoms’’—and proved that the molecular
hypothesis was in harmony with all
known facts. In addition, Cannizzaro
called attention to the fact that Avo-
gadro was the first to suggest this
hypothesis. At the Congress of Chem-

THE PROGRESS OF

ists at Carlsruhe in 1860, due largely to |
the initiative of Kekulé, Cannizzaro—
played a leading role. Lothar Meyer
said (1860) after reading Cannizzaro g |
pamphlet, ‘‘the scales fell from my
eyes, my doubts disappeared, and a
feeling of tranquil security took their
place.’’? And while the hypothesis of
Avogadro still remained a subject of
controversy for some years, the day was
won.

THE AVOGADRO MEDAL AND THE
WORK OF PROFESSOR MORSE

In 1911 an international congress of
scientists met in Turin, where Avoga-_
dro was formerly a professor in the
university, for the purpose of cele-
brating the hundredth anniversary of
the famous ‘‘Hypothesis’’ and of
henoring the memory of its author.
Out of the funds contributed for the
oceasion 1,500 Lire were set aside for.
an ‘‘Avogadro Medal’’ to be awarded,
during the year 1915 or soon there-
after, by the Academy of Sciences of
Turin, to the one who in its judgment
should have published during the three-
year period, 1912—1913-1914, the most.
notable contribution (experimental or |
theoretical) in the domain of molecular
physics. It was this medal which was)
awarded at a meeting of all the sec- |
tions of the Accademia Delle Scienze |
Di Torino on February 6, 1916, to Pro- |

fessor H. N. Morse, of the Johns Hop-
kins University, for his work upon
‘«The Osmotic Pressure of Aqueous So-
lutions. ’’

This investigation was hbe-.
gun, after considerable tentative study
of the problems to be solved, about
1899, and it has since been carried out
under the auspices of the Carnegie In-
stitution of Washington. A report on
the progress of the first fourteen years
of the work is given in Publication 198
of the Institution.

It is impossible to give in the space
available any adequate outline of the
investigation of Professor Morse and
his co-workers, Drs. Frazer and Hol-
land; but a few brief statements may

centages.
‘cerned himself about the

SCIENCE 619
be useful by way of orientation. In
1877, W. Pfeffer, then professor of
botany at Basel, published under the
title ‘‘Osmotische Untersuchungen’’ an
account of his endeavors to measure 0s-
motie pressure by means of porous cells
lined with a ‘‘semi-permeable’’ mem-
brane consisting of potassium ferro-
cyanide. The phenomena described by
Pfeffer were impressive, and his quan-
titative results were accepted as at
least approximately correct. He at-

tempted the measurement of very mod-
erate pressures only, and the concentra-

tion of his solutions was given in per-
No one seems to have con-
molecular
concentration of Pfeffer’s solutions
until 1887 when Van’t Hoff published
his epoch-making conclusions regarding
the analogy between gas pressure and
the osmotie pressure of solutions.
Van’t Hoff’s conclusion that the latter
would be found to obey the laws of
Boyle and Gay-Lussac for gases was

based, in part, on the recalculated re-
sults
chemists the way now seemed clear to a

of Pfeffer’s experiments. To
satisfactory experimental study of the
molecular condition of substances in so-
lution; for it was only necessary to
measure their osmotic pressure, and,
apparently, Pfeffer had shown how this
could be done. Probably in nearly
every working laboratory in the world

attempts were soon made to repeat the
experiments of Pfeffer as a prelimi-
nary to the investigation of solutions
through their osmotic pressure;

but
every such attempt failed.

All serious attempts to measure os-
motie pressure directly were soon
abandoned, except by Professor Morse
and his co-workers. The reason why
all previous investigators (himself in-
cluded) had failed to attain even to the
partial success of Pfeffer, and why
Pfeffer himself had not obtained better
results, is shown in his chapter on
‘¢Membranes.’’ A fundamental condi-
tion of success in the direct measure-
ment of osmotic pressure is found to be
that the semi-permeable membrane shall

620

consist exclusively of ‘‘plugs driven |
with great force into the mouths of the
pores of the cell wall where they open
upon the surface of the space occupied
by the solution.’’ But how were these_
‘<plugs’’ to be driven into place with
such force that no pressure can dis-
place them? The solution of this prob- |
lem was the electrolytic method of de-
positing semi-permeable membranes |
which was devised by Professor Morse, |
and which is now the only method in
use for the building up of osmotic
membranes.

It was necessary, however, in order
that deposition oceur in exactly. the
right positions, namely, just within the
inner mouths of the pores, to secure a
texture of porous cell wall of a hitherto
unknown degree of fineness. The requi-
site degree of uniformity and fineness
of texture of porous cell wall was finally
obtained, after four years of experi-
mental work with clays from ay
sources. After developing to a high de-
gree of precision all phases of the
method, the formal measurement of os- |
motie pressure was begun. The most:
striking conclusions to be drawn from |
the results to date are: (1) that the
magnitude of osmotic pressure in aque- |
ous solutions depends on the numerical |
ratio of the solute to the solvent mole- |
cules; (2) that the laws of Boyle and
Gay-Lussae for gases hold good for the
osmotic pressure of solutions, but in a
different sense from that supposed by
Van’t Hoff. According to Van’t Hoff,
and most others, a gram-molecular
weight of a substance dissolved in water
and diluted to a liter volume should, at |
zero degrees, exert an osmotic pressure
of 22.26 atmospheres, the same pressure
which an equal quantity of gas exerts
at the same temperature when its vol-
ume is reduced to one liter. This is not
true. It is true that if a gram-molecu-
lar weight of a substance is dissolved
in 1,000 grams of water at zero de-
grees, and no hydration occurs to
change the numerical ratio of solute
to solvent molecules, the osmotic pres- |

sure of the solution will be found to be,

| Dr.

| versity ;

THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

22.26 atmospheres and at any higher
temperature it will be what the law of
Gay-Lussae would require.

SCIENTIFIC ITEMS

WE record with regret the death of
Lucien Ira Blake, formerly pro-
fessor of physics and electrical engi-
neering at the University of Kansas; of
Dr. James William White, emeritus pro-
fessor of surgery in the University of
Pennsylvania, and a trustee of the uni-
of Dr. William Frederick
King, chief astronomer of the Canadian

_government; of Professor F. Schenck,
_the director of the physiological insti-

tute at Marburg, and of M. Octave
Lignier, professor of botany at the
University of Caen.

MEMBERS of the National Academy
of Sciences have been elected, as fol-
lows: Gregory Paul Baxter, professor
of chemistry, Harvard University; Gil-
bert Ames Bliss, professor of mathe-
matics, University of Chicago; Marston
Taylor Bogert, professor of organic
chemistry, Columbia University; Otto
Folin, professor of biological chemistry,
Harvard Medical School; Leland Ossian
Howard, chief of the Bureau of Ento-
mology, U. S. Department of Agricul-
ture; Phoebus Aaron Theodore Levene,
member in biological chemistry, Rocke-
feller Institute; Alfred Goldsborough
Mayer, director of the department of
marine biology, Carnegie Institution;

Raymond Pearl, head of the depart-

ment of biology, Maine Agricultural
Experiment Station; Frank Schles-
inger, director of the Allegheny Obsery-
atory, University of Pittsburgh.

Tue Royal Society has elected as
foreign members: Prince Boris Galit-
zin, head of the Russian Meteorolog-
ical Service; Dr. C. L. A. Laveran, of
Paris, discoverer-of the malarial para-
site; Dr. Johan Hjort, director of Nor-
wegian Fisheries; Professor Jules Bor-
det, the bacteriologist of the University
of Brussels, and Professor H. Kamer-
lingh-Onnes, professor of physics at
Leyden.

INDEX

621

INDEX

NAMES OF CONTRIBUTORS ARE PRINTED IN SMALL CAPITALS

Academie Distinctions, The Menace of,
Cc. G. and C. B. MacArtHour, 460
Acceleration of Moral Progress, Dvu-
RANT DRAKE, 601

Aerodynamics, Recent Experiments in,
518

Agricultural Efficiency a Foundation
for National Defense, Howarp H.
Gross, 380

America, Defending, Wm. J. Ror, 34;
Industrial Research in, RayMonpD F.
Bacon, 226; North, The Present
Status of the Antiquity of Man in,
CLARK WISSLER, 234

American, Genius, The Younger Gen-
eration of, Scort NEARING, 48; As-
sociation for the Advancement of
Science, Convocation Week Meetings
of Scientific Societies, 99, Columbus
Meeting, 203; Extravagance, a Na-
tional Problem, Epwarp A. Woops,
405; Chemical Society and the Chem-
ical Laboratory of the University of
Illinois, 614

Analytical Study of Athletic Records, |

GrorGe P. Mrave, 596

Annexation and Conquest, Davip STARR
JORDAN, 502

Antarctic Explorer, James _ LHights,
Reincarnation of, JoHN M. CiLarKs,
189

Antiquity of Man in North America,
The Present Status of, CLARK WISs-
LER, 234

Architectural

and Historical Strue-

tures, Immunity in War and Peace,
Davis, W. M., Problems associated with

GEORGE FREDERICK Kunz, 391
Athletic Records, An Analytical Study
of, GrorGE P. MraApzE, 596
Avogadro, The Hypothesis of) G17;
Medal and the Work of Professor
Morse, 619
Avoidable Loss of Life, J. Howarp
Beard, 105

Bascocx, WM. H., The Races of Brit-
ain, 149

Bacon, Raymond F.,
search in America, 226

Baseball, Flight of a, and some Phe-
nomena of Fluid Motion, W. S.
FRANKLIN, 174

Battles and Rainfall, ALEXANDER Mc-
ADIE, 170

BEARD, J. Howard, The Avoidable Loss
of Life, 105

BEMENT, AUSTIN

Industrial Re-

F., The Economic.

and Strategic Value of the Lincoln
Highway as considered from the
Standpoint of National Defense, 373
Britain, Races of, WM. H. Bascocg, 149
Building and Loan Associations the So-
lution of the Rural Credit Problem,
Wiupur O. HEpRIcK, 453

CAMPBELL, DouGLAS HovuGHToN,
Distribution in California, 209

CARROLL, Ropert §., Professional Con-
tributions to Invalidism, 79

CASTLE, WILLIAM E., Is Selection or
Mutation the more Important Agency
in Evolution?, 91

Causes of War, I. W. HowertH, 118

CHAMBERLIN, THOMAS CHROWDER, The
Evolution of the Earth, 417, 536

Changsha and the Chinese, ALFRED
REED, 239

CHAPIN, Henry Dwicut, The Fune-
tion of Milk in the Scheme of Evo-
lution, 75

Chemical Nature and Physiological Sig-
nificance of so-called Vitamines,
CARL VOEGTLIN, 289

Chinese, and Changsha, ALFRED REED,
239

CLARKE, JOHN M., The Reincarnation of
James Hights, Antarctic Explorer,
189

CoBLENTZ, W. W., The Exudation of
Ice from Stems of Plants, 334

Conquest and Annexation, Davin STARR
JORDAN, 502

Plant

the Study of Coral Reefs, 313, 479,
557

| Defending America, Wm. J. Roz, 34

Defense, National, and Development,
355; and Efficiency, S. STanwoop
MENKEN, 355; and Education, HENRY
H. Warp, 369; Economic and Strate-
gie Value of the Lincoln Highway, as
considered from the Standpoint of,
AusTIN F. BrMENT, 373; Agricul-
tural Efficiency a Foundation for,
Howard H. Gross, 380; Peace
through, ANNE Rocers MInor, 385

Diet, Energy Content of, 279

Dietetics, Practical Human, The Min-
eral Nutrients in, E. B. ForBes, 282

Drake, Durant, The Acceleration of
Moral Progress, 601

_ Dreams, Frequency of, Cart E. S&a-

SHORE, 467

622

Earth, Evolution of the, THOMAS
CHROWDER CHAMBERLIN, 417, 536
Economic and Rational Living, Food
Selection for, C. F. LANGworTHy, 294

Edueation, and National Defense,
Henry H. Ward, 369

Efficiency, and National Defense, S.
STaNnwooD MENKEN, 355; Agricul-
tural, a Foundation for National De-
fense, Howarp H. Gross, 380

Eights, James, Antarctic Explorer, Re-
incarnation of, JOHN M. CLARKE, 189

Emcu, ARNOLD, On the Representation
of Large Numbers and Infinite Proc-
esses, 272

Energy Content of the Diet, 279

Evolution, The Fitnection of Milk in the
Scheme of, HeENry Dwicut CHAPIN,
75; Is Selection or Mutation the
more Important Agency in?, WiL-

LIAM E. CastTLE, 91; of the Earth, |

THOMAS CHROWDER CHAMBERLIN,
417, 536
Extravagance, American, a National

Problem, Epwarp A. Woops, 405
Exudation of Ice from Stems
Plants, W. W. CoBLentz, 334

Fatigue, Museum, BENJAMIN IvEs GIL-
MAN, 62

FisHER, WALTER K., The Oldest Place |

of Worship in the World, 521
Fluid Motion, Some Phenomena of, and

the Curved Flight of a Baseball, W. |

S. FRANKLIN, 174

Food, and Hunger, Grorce J. PEIRCE,

181; Selection for Rational and Eco-
nomic Living, C. F. LaNewortuy,
294

Forbes, E. B., The Mineral Nutrients
in Practical Human Dietetics, 282

FRANKLIN, W. 8., Some Phenomena of
Fluid Motion and the Curved Flight
of a Baseball, 174

Frequency of Dreams, Cart E. Ska-
SHORE, 467

Genius, American, The Younger Genera-
tion of, Scorr Nrarine, 48

GILMAN, BENJAMIN Ives, Museum Fa-
tigue, 62

Governmental Obstacles to Insurance,
Davip STARR JORDAN, 27

Gross, Howarp H., Agricultural Effi-
ciency a Foundation for National
Defense, 380

Growth, Proteins in, RuTH WHEELER,
279

Health Teacher, Shakespeare as, O. D.
VON ENGELN, 573

Heprick, WiLpur O., Building and
Loan Associations the Solution of the
Rural Credit Problem, 453

Honolulu’s Metropolitan Voleano: The
Punch Bowl, VAUGHAN MACCAUGHEY,
607

of |

THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

HowertH, I. W., The Causes of War,
118

Hunger and Food, Grorce J. PEIRCE,
181

Ice, Exudation of, from Stems of
Plants, W. W. CoBLENTZ, 334

Immigration and the War, Rosert
DEC. WARD, 438
Immunity of Monuments, Museums,

Libraries, Architectural and Histor-
ical Structures in War and Peace,
GEORGE FREDERICK Kunz, 391

_ Industrial Research in America, Ray-

MOND F. Bacon, 226

Insurance, Governmental Obstacles to,
| Davip STarr JoRDAN, 27
_Invalidism, Professional Contributions
to, RoBpert §. CARROLL, 79

_Inventions, and Resources of the
United States, 307
‘Islands of the Mid-Pacific, ALFRED

GOLDSBOROUGH MaAyeEr, 125

JAMES, EDWIN «W., The Malthusian
Doctrine and War, 260

Java, The Exploited Island, ALFRED

| GoLDSBoROUGH Maver, 350

JORDAN, Davin Starr, Governmental
Obstacles to Insurance, 27; Annexa-
tion and Conquest, 502

Kunz, Grorcr FREDERICK, Immunity
of Monuments, Museums, Libraries,
Architectural and Historical Struc-
tures in War and Peace, 391

LANGWorTHY, C. F., Food Selection for

| Rational and Economic Living, 294

Libraries, Immunity in War and Peace,

| GEORGE FREDERICK Kunz, 391

Life, The Avoidable Loss of, J. How-
ARD BEARD, 105

Lincoln Highway, Economie and Strate-

gic Value of, as considered from the

Standpoint of National Defense,

AUSTIN F. BEMENT, 373

_Logie of Physical and Mental Pre-

| paredness, NEWELL B. Woopworts,

| 3862

_Loss of Life, Avoidable, J. Howarp

| Bwrarp, 105

McApir, ALEXANDER, Battles and Rain-
fall, 170

MacArruvur, C. G. and C. B., The Men-
ace of Academic Distinctions, 460

MacCauGHEy, VAUGHAN, The Punch
Bowl, Honolulu’s Metropolitan Vol-
cano, 607

Malthusian Doctrine and War, EpwIN
W. JAMES, 260

Mayer, ALFRED. GOLDSBOROUGH, The
Men of the Mid-Pacific, 5; The Is-
lands of the Mid-Pacifie, 125; Java,
the Exploited Island, 350

| MraDE, GrEorGE P., An Analytical

INDEX

Study of Athletic Records, 596

Menace of Academic Distinctions, C. G.
and C. B. MacArtuur, 460

MENKEN, 8S. Sranwoop, National De-|
fense and Efficiency, 355 )

Mesa Verde National Park, Ruins of
the, 308

Mid-Pacific, Men of the, ALFRED GOLDs-
BorouGH Mayer, 5; Islands of the,
ALFRED GOLDSBOROUGH MAYER, 125

Military Preparedness, 412

Milk, Function of, in the Scheme of
Evolution, Henry DwicHt CHAPIN,
75

Mineral Nutrients in Practical Human
Dietetics, E. B. Forsrs, 282

Minor, ANNE Rogers, Peace through
National Defense, 385

Monuments, Museums, Libraries, Archi-
tectural and Historical Structures,
Immunity in War and Peace, GEORGE
FREDERICK KUNZ, 391

Moral Progress, The Acceleration of,
Durant Drake, 601

Motion, Fluid, Some Phenomena of, and
the Curved Flight of a Baseball, W.
S. FRANKLIN, 174

Museum Fatigue, BENJAMIN IvEs GIL-
MAN, 62

Museums, Immunity in War, and
Peace, GEORGE FREDERICK KUNZ, 391

Mutation or Selection, the more Im-
portant Agency in Evolution, WIL-
LIAM EH. CASTLE, 91

National, Defense and Development,
355; Strength and Science, 415

Nature, Shakespeare, the Observer of,
O. D. VON ENGELN, 573

NEARING, Scorr, The Younger Genera-
tion of American Genius, 48

Numbers, Large, and Infinite Proc-
esses, On the Representation of, AR-
NOLD EmMcH, 272

Nutrients, Mineral, in Practical Hu-
man Dietetics, E. B. Forses, 282

Ohio State University, 206
Oldest Place of Worship in the World,
WALTER K. FIsHEr, 521

Peace, through National Defense, ANNE
Rogers Minor, 385; and War, Im-
munity of Monuments, Museums,
Libraries, Architectural and Histor-
ical Structures in, GEORGE FREDERICK
Kunz, 391

PEIRCE, GEORGE J., Hunger and Food,
181

Plant Distribution in California, DouG-
LAS HouGHTON CAMPBELL, 209

Plants, Exudation of Ice from Stems
of, W. W. CoBLENTZ, 334

Preparedness, The Wisdom and Ethics
of, Henry A. WISE Woop, 358; The
Logie of, NeEwELL B. Woopwortu,
362; Some Suggestions, ARTHUR WIL-

623

LIAMS, 396; JOHN Q. TILTON, 403;
Military, 412

Professional Contributions to Invalid-
ism, Ropert 8. CARROLL, 79

Proteins in Growth, Ruth WHEELER,
279

Punch Bowl: Honolulu’s Metropolitan
Voleano, VAUGHAN MAcCAuGHEY, 607

Races of Britain, WM. H. Bascock, 149

| Rainfall, and Battles, ALEXANDER Mc-

AvIE, 170

Rreep, ALFRED, Changsha and the Chi-
nese, 239

Reefs, Coral, Problems associated with
the Study of, W. M. Davis, 313, 479,
557

Reincarnation of James Hights, Ant-
arctic Explorer, JOHN M. CLARKE,
189

Representation of Large Numbers and
Infinite Processes, ARNOLD Emcu, 272

Research, Industrial, in America, Ray-
MOND F.. Bacon, 226

Resources and Inventions of the United
States, 307

Ror, Wm. J., Defending America, 34

RoGERS, JAMES FREDERICK, Skakes-
peare as Health Teacher, 589

Rural Credit Problem, Building and
Loan Associations, the Solution of,
Wiusur O. HeEprick, 453

Science, The Progress of, 99, 203, 307,
412, 515, 614; and National Strength,
415; The Neglect of, in Great Brit-
ain, 515

yr Items, 104, 208, 312, 416, 520,

20

SEASHORE, Cart E., The Frequency of
Dreams, 467

Selection or Mutation, which is the more
Important Ageney in Evolution?
WiuuiAM E. Caste, 91

Shakespeare, the Observer of Nature, O.

VON ENGELN, 573; as Health

eas JAMES FREDERICK ROGERS,

pe ea of Venoms, W. M. WINTON,
475

Sun Temple, A Prehistoric, 311
TILTON, JOHN Q., Preparedness, 403

United States, Resources and Inven-
tions of, 307

Venoms, The Significance of, W. M.
WINTON, 475

VOEGTLIN, CARL, The Chemical Nature
and Physiological Significance of so-
ealled Vitamines, 289

Voleano, Honolulu’s Metropolitan: The
Punch Bowl, VAUGHAN MacCAuUGHEY,
607

War, Causes of, I. W. HowertsH, 118;

624

and the Malthusian Doctrine, EDwINn
W. JAMES, 260; and Peace, Immu-
nity of Monuments, Museums, Li-
braries, Architectural and Historical
Structures in, GEORGE . FREDERICK
Kunz, 391; and Immigration, Ros-
ERT DEC. WARD, 438

Ward, Henry H., Education and Na-
tional Defense, 369

Warp, Rosert DEC., Immigration and
the War, 438

Weather Forecasts, Long-Range, 519

WHEELER, RutTH, Proteins in Growth,

279

Widener, Memorial Library of Harvard
University, 101

WILLIAMS, ARTHUR, Preparedness—
Some Suggestions, 396

THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

WINTON, W. M., The Significance of
Venoms, 475

WISSLER, CLARK, The Present Status of
the Antiquity of Man in North
America, 234

| Woop, Henry A. WISE, The Wisdom

and Ethies of Preparedness, 358

| Woops, Epwarp A., American Extray-

agance—a National Problem, 405

| WoopwortH, NEWELL B., The Logie of
Physical and Mental Preparedness,

| ee

| Worship, The Oldest Place of, in the

World, WALTER K. FIsHER, 521

Younger Generation of American Ge-
nius, Scott NEARING, 48

ae

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